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From Heaven Through His Church

“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” | Isaiah 2: 1-3

The passage speaks of all nations flowing unto the Lord’s house.

We read that many people, not just his elect from among the Jews, shall go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

Also, note that it is the Lord who shall do the teaching; that he shall teach, not of man’s ways, but of his ways.

The prophet says that when he teaches his people they will walk, not in the path of the little obstinate-stiff-necked hills, but in the Lord’s paths.

All this is because the law and the word of the Lord are going forth out of Zion from the top of the mountains and out of his Jerusalem.

“Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.” (Jeremiah 23: 1-8)

After our Lord established and exalted his church by his life, his sacrifice and his ascension, God the Father gave him all power in heaven and in earth to send forth the gospel from heaven through his church on earth that he might rule in the midst of his enemies.

“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth. The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110: 1-4)

From his throne in the mountain of glory, Christ Jesus the Lord is now establishing his church by drawing his redeemed people from the north, the south, the east and the west; an elect people out of all nations.

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)

From heavens Zion our victorious King Prophet is teaching his people through the local assemblies and pastors which he has established and raised up.

“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;” (Colossians 1: 21-23)

His people rejoice to hear of his way of electing grace, of establishing them complete in God’s presence in righteous judgment by his own wisdom, righteousness and holiness.

They delight in his way of regenerating his spiritually dead children when he comes in power and grace to each of them; his way of preserving them by the word of his power and of faithfully fulfilling his every promise.

“Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.” (Zechariah 8: 1-3)

As he draws them to his house one-by-one, it is not a grand spectacle or something even noticed by the world of religion who reject the gospel for another jesus.

“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.” (Micah 4: 1)

Yet, by the work that he alone is performing, his elect, hear his voice from heaven through his church on earth and they follow him.

“Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.” (Micah 3: 9-12)

Christ has made the path free of all thorns of sin and stones of ignorance; they know he is the Way and therefore they walk in his path.

“Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain. And they shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 51: 25-26)

This is the second manner in which the Lord establishes and exalts his house above the insignificant hills of falsehood.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “Faith’s Confidence” (17:15 minutes)

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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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 1 August, 2008 | Previous post date: 28 August, 2021 | Ewing, New Jersey

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The Purpose Of The Church

”And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.” | 1 Kings 8: 20-21

This was Solomon’s declaration concerning the temple he built, which is the purpose of the church.

The church (people of God) is the temple of God, wherein the Name of the Lord is proclaimed, worshipped and honored.

And it is the place where you will hear the gospel of Christ… Whom the Ark of the covenant represents.

This is the sole purpose of the church, the pillar and ground of the truth; to honor God and preach Christ and Him crucified.

~ Pastor Paul Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “Where Is The God of Judgment” (15:43 minutes)

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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: 15 June, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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Nothing But Christ

”And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” | Acts 5: 42

Oh! that those glorious days would return, when Christ and Christ alone, Jehovah’s Christ, and Jehovah’s chosen, may fill every pulpit, occupy every house, warm every heart, and flow from every tongue, in his Churches, and among his people!

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (2 Timothy 4: 2)

The Lord Jesus was with them, both text and sermon; they found enough in him for endless discourse.

Lord the Spirit, in mercy to thy Church, hasten the hour, when, the Redeemer shall arise out of Zion, and turn away ungodliness from Jacob!

Come my beloved, (saith the Church,) and be thou like to a roe, or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.

~ Robert Hawker

Click here to listen to the message “Election”

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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: 1 August, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a

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The Purpose Of The Church

”And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.” | 1 Kings 8: 20-21

This was Solomon’s declaration concerning the temple he built, which is the purpose of the church.

The church (people of God) is the temple of God, wherein the Name of the Lord is proclaimed, worshipped and honored.

And it is the place where you will hear the gospel of Christ… Whom the Ark of the covenant represents.

This is the sole purpose of the church, the pillar and ground of the truth; to honor God and preach Christ and Him crucified.

~ Pastor Paul Mahan

Click here to listen to the message “Wilt Thou Be Made Whole?”

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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: 15 June, 2014 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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A Backward Proposal

”And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” | Isaiah 4: 1

The proposal of these seven women represents the backwardness of the sin-depraved heart. This is the way all sinner’s think they can be accepted of God prior to Christ dethroning sin in the heart.

First, they are backwards in that it is the woman proposing to the man. Christ the Husband of his bride takes hold of her and not the other way around.

Secondly, their proposal of eating their own bread and wearing their own apparel has to do with the law concerning the responsibility of a husband to his first bride. “If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.” (Exodus 21: 10) (This is regarding his first wife.)

These seven women propose that the husband does not have to fulfill the law on their behalf but that they will fulfill it themselves. Christ the Husband is the end of the law for all who believe for he has fully honored the law’s requirement in providing for his bride. He is her Life-Food; he is her Righteousness; and he has united himself to her in Spirit fulfilling the whole duty of marriage so that she delights to be his.

Thirdly, when these seven women say, “Only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach”, they are saying what multitudes think. Multitudes think that all they need to remove the reproach of sin is to be called by Christ’s name.

Unless Christ is our Husband — unless Christ has taken hold of us – then the sinner will go on in this polluted idea that they are married to Christ when they are married to one who is anything but the GodMan – Christ Jesus the Lord – the husband of the Church.

Unless Christ is the perfect fulfillment of God’s holy law on the sinner’s behalf then the husband to whom we say we are married is no husband at all.

Unless Christ is our Bread (our life) we have no life.

Unless Christ is our garment of Righteousness we are naked in our sin.

Unless Christ has united himself in the duty of marriage with our spirit, we may call ourselves by his name yet it is nothing more than taking his name in vain. We still have the maiden-name of our father Adam and the reproach of sin remains.

These seven women illustrate the most popular idol of man’s imagination.

So how does the Lord declare he shall bring his bride into this marriage union? Listen and find out.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “God’s Rejoicing Over His Bride”

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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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 10 October, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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The Church Belongs To Christ

“Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.” | Song of Solomon 8: 11

While the church is in this world she is with Christ and Christ is with her, and she is safe. All is well!

Sometimes our doubting hearts become fearful about the welfare and safety of the Lord’s church.

But our fears are ill-founded.

The church belongs to Christ.

He loved her, chose her, and redeemed her.

She is in His hands.

He will defend her, protect her, and perfect her.

The church of Christ and the cause of Christ are safe.

~ Pastor Don Fortner

Click here to listen to the message “The Church-The Lord’s Vineyard”

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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 May, 2020 | Previous post date: 15 March, 2021

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The Greatest Story Ever Told

“And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.” | Genesis 22: 7-8

The Character and Covenant of Christ Render Salvation Certain

The common delusion of the day in which we live is to think of and speak of Christ as if He were merely a Saviour who had done all He could to save all mankind, but after all, had left it quite uncertain whether any will be eventually saved; whereas, His official character (Prophet, Priest, King, Messiah, Redeemer, Mediator, Covenant Head, Surety, Lord), and consequent covenant engagements, render the salvation of all His church a matter of infallible certainty.

~ Joseph Irons

Click here to listen to the message “The Greatest Story Ever Told”

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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: 17 October, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia

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The Church

“And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.” | Luke 21: 1

“The church shall survive the world, and be in bliss when the world is in ruins.” – Matthew Henry

“We may with the greatest assurance depend upon God for the safety of His church.” – Matthew Henry

“Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, there a church of God exists, even if it is full of many faults.” – John Calvin

“The church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam.” – Richard Hooker

Click here to listen to the message “When You See These Things, Look Up”

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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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The Morning of Forever

“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” | Isaiah 2: 1-4

The Lord Jesus Christ established and exalted his church by his life, death and resurrection. From heaven through the church on earth he is now establishing and exalting his church above every hill of falsehood by calling out his people, teaching them, and causing them to walk in him alone by faith. But there is one last work which he shall perform in establishing and exalting his house.

By the power of his grace working within his people in his church the Lord makes his people a peaceful people. Swords and spears are poor gardening tools. Therefore he makes his people instruments for husbandry. Believers have ceased binding others with the law–not only because we can not obey it but because an obedience to the law can in no way cleanse the filth of our flesh so that we are holy, only Christ can. Knowing that Christ has freely, fully, forever accomplished our warfare by reconciling us to God in righteouness and true holiness we no longer study how to war against God with the sword and spears of our works. Instead, we preach Christ who has made us more than conquerors. And though this is true of the believer in this life, we do not yet know the fullness of peace while we remain in this sinful flesh and sinful world.

Yet, in the end of these last days, after the Lord has called his saints from the four corners of this world, he shall then bring the remainder of the nations before him in judgment and shall rebuke many people for the hardness of their hearts and the sin that all men are. But at last he shall establish his bride in a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells only righteousness; where there will fully be no war and need for instruments of war. In that day he shall exalt his bride as the trophy of his victory by the work he performed from beginning to end. She shall be established and exalted when he presents her to himself, a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but holy and without blemish.

He established and exalted his church by his person and finished work, and by raising her in him to the right hand of God. He is establishing and exalting his church above the hills of every false dominion through his church through the gospel he teaches in the heart. He shall establish and exalt his bride one last time to be with him. On that morning when forever begins, all those present shall have one and the same song, “Worthy is the Lamb!” Amen.

~ Pastor Clay Curtis

Click here to listen to the message “Faith’s Confidence”

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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.

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church Bulletin Article date: 2 August, 2008 | Previous post date: n/a | Ewing, New Jersey

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Abide Here Fast By My Maidens

“Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:” | Ruth 2: 8

Sheep are social creatures.

They need the flock. If a sheep is found alone it is because it is sick or wounded.

Ruth wanted the flock. She said to Naomi, “thy people shall be my people.” Believers need the church.

I am suspicious of folk who talk about joining a church because they feel like they can help it out.

The church is a hospital for sinners. It is a well for the thirsty. It is a breadbox for the hungry. It is sought out, entered, and resided in because of need.

Believers don’t attend to help, they come to get help.

If providence has made you hungry, providence will guide you to the place where the bread is. What of those who believe grace but cannot seem to be part of an assembly? I have no answer, but I’ve never known one who has the joy of true and lasting fellowship who is not in the house of God, with the people of God worshipping the true and living God. There is where the sheep gather in one fold with one shepherd.

The church is not an organization; it is an organism. It is not a business; it is a family. It is not a building; it is a body. Nothing is more detrimental to the heart and spirit of a believer than neglect of God’s house. (Haggai 1: 4-6)

Two things are found to be true concerning the members of the churches of God: Every member is a believer, and every member has confessed Christ in baptism.

~ Pastor Tim James

Click here to listen to the message “The Desire of All Nations”

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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: 25 July, 2021 | Previous post date: n/a | Rocky Mount, Virginia