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Speaking The Truth in Love

“Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” | James 3: 5-6

I wonder if when we preach or teach or witness to others, does the love of Christ and love for sinners come through in our words and in our countenance?

I am interested to know if our hearers detect from our presentation of the Gospel of sovereign grace (whether in sermon or articles) the love, compassion, and pity we should feel; or do we come across as harsh, bitter, and with a critical spirit?

Do we tend to take our disappointments in some and our conflicts with others into the pulpit, or classroom, or personal discussions, and tear into everybody?

This is not the way of Christ.

James said, “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” It was His love that chose us, gave us repentance, and led us to faith; and if any other sinner is brought from darkness, death, and error to light, life, and truth, it will be by and through the love and grace of Christ.

We are quick to say that the whip of the law will not make a man righteous, but neither will the whip of doctrine make a man a believer.

~ Pastor Henry Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “Today Is The Day”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 4 October, 2020 | Previous post date: 31 January, 2021

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“There They Shall See Me”

““Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.” | Matthew 28: 10

Here the Lord Jesus Christ calls His people “my brethren”, gives instruction for them to meet Him, appoints a well-known place for them to meet and promises to be there!

Who in their right mind would be absent from such a conference with the crucified and risen Master?

And yet Christ does this same thing every week, and sinners are neglectful to attend. If our services are mere social gatherings with folks from the community to catch up on current events, then let’s consider our time better spent elsewhere.

If, however, they are worship services unto the Lord in which He Himself communes with and instructs us, then let us not only show up; but let us do so with joy, anticipation and great thanksgiving unto Him. Yea, let us fellowship heartily around the gospel and be edified, encouraged and comforted in Him.

What condescension on His part to gather with us, and yet it is His delight to do so. He “seeketh such” sinners to worship Him, who do so with prepared and anxious hearts. Marvelous grace for Him to say, “there shall they see me.”

How important is it to you to see the Master?

You answer that question each week by your attendance as well as your attitude.

It was so important to one woman that, weak and ill though she was, she broke through the pressing throng in order to touch His garment. Zaccheus climbed up a tree determined to catch a glimpse of this Great One. The two Mary’s in our text came “as it began to dawn” (Matthew 1: 1) to His tomb. When they learned He was risen and met Him, they “held Him by the feet and worshipped.”

Would to God we were all this desirous to see Him and this pleased when we do.

~ Pastor Chris Cunningham

Click here to listen to the message “For the Gospel’s Sake”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Central Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 16 August, 2015 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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WHAT IS YOUR GROUND OF ASSURANCE?

“If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.” | Job 14: 14-17

To those who struggle with assurance, saying, “There are so many times that I do not feel saved,” I would remind you that, before you came to Christ, there were many times you did not feel lost!

Did your lack of ‘lost feeling’ at that time mean that you were not lost? Of course not! For feelings have nothing to do with whether or not we are lost. Do you not see that it is the same with respect to whether or not we are saved? Martin Luther said it well when he wrote: “For feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the Word of God naught else is worth believing.”

There it is!

God’s Word!

There is our foundation.

The Scriptures never instruct us to feel, but to believe. If you do not feel, believe anyway! It does not say, “For by grace are you saved through feelings.” Feelings are a look inward, at ourselves. Faith is a look outward at Christ. Feelings change because they look at a changing object – ourselves. Faith never changes, for it looks at an unchanging object – Christ!

May God grant you grace to look to Him.

~ Pastor Joe Terrell

Click here to listen to the message “If a Man Dies, Shall He Live?”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 12 September, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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WHEN WE SEE THE LORD

“And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.” | Deuteronomy 31: 1-2

A sight of Christ by faith brings peace to the conscience.

There is ever a war within, between the flesh and the Spirit, grace and nature, the old man and the new: the motions of sin in our members are ever warring against the law of holiness in our minds: wicked nature is like the troubled sea, which cannot rest; it is continually casting up mire and dirt: but the winds and seas of corrupt nature obey Christ.

He says, Peace, be still, and there is a great calm in the soul; for Christ is our Peace, he hath made our peace with God by his blood; he makes and keeps peace in our souls by his presence; our stubborn lusts will fight and reign if Christ be absent from our hearts; therefore, we cannot but be glad when we see the Lord.

~ Pastor David Pledger

Click here to listen to the message “Moses’ Approaching Death“

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 28 March, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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THE BODY OF CHRIST

“Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. | 1 Corinthians 12: 27

All of God’s elect make up the body of Christ, His church. (Matthew 16: 18; Ephesians 1: 3-6)

All who Christ Jesus redeemed with His precious blood, make up the body of Christ. (Acts 20: 28; 1 Peter 1: 18; Revelation 5: 9-12) All who are regenerated by God the Holy Spirit, make up the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12: 13; Ephesians 2: 1-4; 1 Peter 1: 23) All who are made to believe the true gospel, make up the body of Christ. (John 5: 24; Galatians 3: 26)

Therefore, any earthly organization or religious cult that sets itself as the “body of christ” proclaiming they have authority to put sinners into Christ or remove them at their own discretion and power to wash away sin, is truly an abomination to Almighty God, a discredit to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and totally contrary to the whole testimony of God.

Salvation, as it is taught from Genesis to Revelation is of the Lord; from election, to justification, to sanctification, to reconciliation, to regeneration and to glorification. (Romans 8: 28-30; 1 Corinthians 1: 30-31; 2 Timothy 1: 9: Titus 3: 5-7)

~ Pastor Tom Harding

Click here to listen to the message “What God Does Is Forever”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Zebulon Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 31 August, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Pikeville, Kentucky

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The Guilt Of Past Sin

“Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.” | 1 Peter 2: 17

Do you remember when God was pleased to awaken you from your long sleep, when you looked within and saw that you were all defiled, and full of pollution, and all manner of evil?

Do you recollect how the thoughts pierced you like poisoned arrows… “God requireth that which is pure”; “For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof at the day of judgment”? Do you recollect how it seemed as though hell flared up right before you where you stood, and it seemed as though there were a step only betwixt you and death! The terrors of the Lord got hold upon you, and the very marrow of your bones seemed to freeze as you thought upon an angry God, and of how you, in your sins, without any preparation, could meet him! Oh! it is not so long ago with some of us but what we recollect being startled in our sleep under a sense of sin; and all day long the common joys of men were no joys to us, and though before we had been sprightly and cheerful like others, yet our mirth was now turned into mourning, and all our laughter into lamentation!

Perhaps some of you are passing through this state of mind now. You are conscious now of your old sins: the sins of your youth are coming up before your remembrance. Now, if so, listen to what David says, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Beloved! if you would ever get rid of the fear of your past sins, remember that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to suffer for the sins of all who trust Him. All the sins of all His people were reckoned as upon Him, and all that they should have suffered on account of those sins Jesus Christ suffered in their stead. The mighty debt, too huge for us to calculate, was all laid upon Him, and he paid it to the last farthing. He was sued and summoned at the court of the eternal justice, for the sins of His people were reckoned as upon Him, and all that they should have rendered with hands and feet, and brow and side, He discharged: the whole tremendous debt that was due to God, the debt caused by the sins of all His people were paid by Him.

Now, it is a blessed thing when sin burdens us to fly away to Christ, and stand in spirit beneath the cross, and feel that under that crimson canopy no flash of divine penalty shall ever fall upon us. “Smite me! Great God! Thou canst not, for hast thou not smitten the redeeming Christ on my account! Is it not recorded that for those who trust Him, thy Son is both surety and substitute! How, then, canst thou first sue the Substitute, and then afterwards sue the person, for whom the Substitute stood?” Faith thus clings to the cross, and feels, nay! knows, that all is safe. I would God that some of you who are lamenting over the burden of your sins, and are pressed down by it, would look to the Son of God, pouring out His life, and would trust Him, for then your sins would be gone in a moment. Only look on Jesus, and though you had committed all the sins that are committable by mortal man, yet Jesus Christ can and shall put them all away. If every form of iniquity. were heaped upon you, till you were dyed through and through with it, like the scarlet that has been lying long a-soak in the dye, yet if the crimson blood of Jesus come into contact with your crimson sins, and they: — “Shall vanish all away, Though foul as hell before; Shall be dissolved beneath the sea, And shall be found no more.” Now, I know it is very easy when we do not feel our sins to trust in Christ, but the business of faith is to trust in Christ when you do feel your sins. Brethren, it would be cheap faith to take Christ as the saints’ Savior, but it is the faith of God’s elect to take Him as the sinner’s Savior.

When I can see marks of grace in myself, to trust Christ is easy; but when I see no marks of anything good, but every mark of everything that is evil, and then come and cast myself upon Him, and believe that He can save me, even me, and rest myself upon Him—this is the faith which honors Christ and which will save us. May you have it, and such time as you are afraid of sin, may you trust in Christ.

~ Charles Spurgeon

Click here to listen to the message “As Strangers and Pilgrims”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Central Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 5 September, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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“Then sings my soul!”

“He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.” | Isaiah 42: 4

There is a beautiful song in our hymnal titled: “How Great Thou Art.”

The third verse of that song says, “And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in – that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin… Then sings my soul!”

Once salvation is revealed to a child of God, from that moment forward the soul of that child sings the glory and greatness of the God who saved him or her.

The body may break, but the soul will never stop singing!

The heart may ache, but the soul will never stop singing!

Everything about the physical, mental, and emotional state of the child may be silenced under the overwhelming weight and oppression of sin, but knowing what the blood of Christ has done for sinners will cause the soul of that child to never stop singing, “My Savior God, to Thee; How great Thou art, How great Thou art!”

~ Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

Click here to listen to the message “Courage For The Discouraged”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 28 March, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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I WILL NEVER LEAVE THEE NOR FORSAKE THEE

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” | Hebrews 13: 5

Children of God often find themselves in distress and sorrow in this world and in uncertainty about the happenings of
this world.

So we need to be reminded often that our comfort and confidence comes from the certainty of salvation in Christ and His constant presence with His people.

His precious promise to never leave nor forsake His people comforts our heart in the worst sorrow and the greatest uncertainty about the things of this world.

~ Pastor Frank Tate

Click here to listen to the message “Rejoice With Me”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 3 January, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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TRUE OR COUNTERFEIT FAITH

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God” | Hebrews 3: 12)

Here, the Holy Spirit gives us the evidence of that God-given faith of God’s elect, and the evidence of counterfeit faith which the flesh produces.

True faith will take heed to the warnings of scripture, and search the heart for evidences of unbelief and cry out to God for aid. On the other hand, sham faith is full of presumption and looks to something other than Christ for assurance.

True faith will persevere to the end because it is fastened to a living person, Jesus Christ, (1 Peter 2: 4) while imitation faith will end in failure because it is resting on some false grounds of hope. (Isaiah 28: 17)

True faith in time of trial will bring the believer closer to His Lord, knowing the trial is from His hand and for our good. (Romans 8: 28) On the other hand bogus faith in time of trouble will result in the person departing from the gospel and from those who believe. An evil heart of unbelief is always manifested by departing from the living God. John said, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (John 2: 19)

Let us not be afraid to examine ourselves to see whether we be in the faith. (2 Corinthians 13: 5)

True faith is willing to submit to the word of God because it is the foundation of faith. (John 6: 66-69)

~ Pastor Tom Harding

Click here to listen to the message “Heirs According to the Promise”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Zebulon Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 31 August, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Pikeville, Kentucky

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Commit Thy Way Unto The Lord

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass” | Psalm 37: 5

Some of you are having great trouble and are walking a rough way.

It may seem to you right now that these sorrows are more than you can bear. Indeed, they ARE more than you can bear; but you do not have to bear them alone. David said, “Commit thy way unto the Lord”, and Peter wrote, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you” (1 Peter 5: 7)

You have committed your soul to Him; then you can surely trust Him with your home, children, and business. These things are far inferior to your immortal soul.

He has promised us troubles in this world, but not without HIS SUFFICIENT GRACE to carry us through them.

~ Pastor Henry Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “Golden Precepts and Precious Promises”

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Visit our primary website at www.ksgctn.org for more information about Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church, watch our livestream (when available) and access our previously recorded messages.

Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church Bulletin Article date: 12 September, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a