Rescue Baptist Church
Call Us at (530) 677-1710


WELCOME TO RESCUE BAPTIST CHURCH

 Sunday Morning, December 17, 2017

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SCHEDULED MEETINGS

     Sunday Morning Bible Study     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   10:00 AM

     Sunday Morning Worship           . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   11:00 AM

     Sunday Evening Worship           . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     6:30 PM

     Friday Night Bible Study           . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7:30 PM

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OPENING HYMN

    “Come, Thou Fount Of Every Blessing”                             Page 2

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SCRIPTURE READING

     Psalm 66

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OFFERTORY

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WORSHIP HYMN

    “More About Jesus”                                                         Page 389    

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SPECIAL MUSIC

    To be announced.

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Message Title

    “Consider Your Calling, Brethren”

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CLOSING HYMN

    “I Know Whom I Have Believed”                                   Page 409

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 “Them which are called”
--1 Corinthians 1:24--

    “Did you know that God calls some sinners to life and faith in Christ, and does not call others? Most people think that God calls all men, that God seeks all men and that God is trying to save all men. But nothing of the kind is taught in the Word of God. God calls some and passes by others. He gives light to some and leaves others in darkness. ‘He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy.’ When God intends to save a sinner he calls that sinner with a personal, particular and distinguishing call. This is clearly the teaching of Holy Scripture.

     You have read what the Scripture says about the Good Shepherd: ‘He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out’ (John 10:3). He does not call everyone. ‘He calleth his own sheep.’  They are his own sheep because God the Father gave them to him, entrusting them to his care, in the covenant of grace, in eternal election, before the world began. They are his own sheep because he died for them. ‘The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep’ (John 10:11). The Lord Jesus Christ did not die for all men. He died for his sheep. He purchased them with his own precious blood. Justice held us in bondage, condemned, but Christ paid the price that justice demanded, suffering our condemnation and bought us.  We are his property.

     ‘He calleth his own sheep by name.’  That is to say, ‘He does not call all men in a general way, leaving it to man to decide who will and who will not come. Rather, he calls those sheep who were given to him and purchased by him. He calls them personally, one by one.’

     And this divine call distinguishes the sheep of Christ from all other men, because, when he calls his sheep, ‘He leadeth them out and they follow him’.   This is how we know who God’s elect are. The Shepherd calls them, they hear his voice and they follow him. Those who are not called by him, those who do not hear his voice, those who do not follow him are not among the number of his chosen, elect sheep. But those who are ‘the called’ are saved. God’s call is always effectual. It always results in salvation.” 

Pastor Don Fortner

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(1 Timothy 1:15) "This is a faithful [true] saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."

   “There is a lifetime of preaching in this verse but there are two points of great importance which are sometimes overlooked; the truth of the saying and the worth of it! To discover the truth of the gospel is to find true peace of mind and to discover the worth of the gospel is to find true peace of heart.

  1. The truth of it. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (1 John 5:11). I believe the record that God hath given concerning Christ; therefore, I am not troubled and confused by other voices or other claims. Let God be true and every man a liar. The apostle summed it up this way; ‘To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life’ (John 6:68).   My mind is satisfied!
  2. The worth of it. If I have Christ, I need nothing else, either in this life or in the life to come. I am complete in Him, redeemed in Him, accepted in Him, and already seated with Him in glory. I have ceased from all my labors and efforts to secure divine favor. His redemptive work is not only effectual but is sufficient for the greatest sinner, the poorest sinner, and the weakest sinner. ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’ (2 Cor. 12:9). Does this not leave your heart in a state of rest and peace? If not, then you have not yet discovered the worth of His great atonement.  

Pastor Henry Mahan

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A General Principle

   “It is a general principle that a blessing is about to come from God when we are moved to seek Him with all our hearts. Men do not, by nature, long for nor seek God. So if one is aware of his great need and impressed to seek mercy in Christ, he can be sure the blessing is already designed.”

Pastor Henry Mahan

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

  • Please continue to pray for our dear brother, Bill Silva. He survived the many hours of surgery Friday, but is facing a very difficult, lengthy, and trying time of recovery.
  • Because so many in our little congregation have come down with some sort of influenza virus, our worship service for this evening has been cancelled.

****** Cleaning duty this week:   John and Kathy Reeves ******

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SUGGESTED BIBLE READINGS FOR THIS WEEK

Monday                           Wednesday                    Friday

Job 12                             Zephaniah 2                    1 Thessalonians 4

Job 13                             Zephaniah 3                    1 Thessalonians 5

Job 14                             Haggai 1                         2 Thessalonians 1

Job 15                             Haggai 2                         2 Thessalonians 2

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Self-righteous free will works religionists will gather for public worship where sinners rejoice and glory in their own sinful works of the flesh. God’s enlightened saints gather for public worship where sinners rejoice and glory in Jesus Christ and His perfect work of redemption for them.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT  

WHERE?

   “Where can I go this Lord’s Day and hear the Mercy of God, not the Mechanics of grace? Where can I go and hear the Love of Christ and not the law of God for saints?   Where can I go and hear of the righteousness of God fulfilled by Christ and not the righteousness of the creature to be rewarded by God?

     Let us say, by God’s grace, this will be the place and I will be the preacher. The message will not be flowery but full of grace; it will not be with enticing words of man’s wisdom but the sovereign mercy of God to helpless sinners in a language all men understand. Let the scholars, theologians and authors go elsewhere to have their intellects ‘challenged’. Lord, make me Thy voice to Thy people!”

 Pastor Henry Mahan

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“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3).

    “Though I feel compelled to often warn against that which I see in myself and others, namely a tendency toward cold, loveless and Christ-less doctrinal orthodoxy, and Paul’s words often come to my mind as a warning (though I . . . understand all mysteries, and all knowledge . . . and have not love, I am nothing), yet I know that the religion of this world poses a problem, which, though no worse in consequence, surely exists on a much greater scale.

     How relatively few in this world have any understanding of sound doctrine at all, even intellectually? I cannot help but wonder how many people walk this earth having never even heard the truth as it is in Jesus. And for every person who agrees with sound doctrine, yet, being without Christ, they are puffed up rather than built up by it, there must be a thousand who will not endure sound doctrine at all. The truth of the absolute sovereignty of God, the eternal election of the saints, the effectual atonement of Christ, the irresistible power of God’s grace and the salvation to the uttermost of those who come to God by His Son Jesus Christ is still hated as much today as by the Pharisees of old, but if the future tense of Paul’s warning refers to a time when this hatred is more widespread, then surely that time has come. May God give my friends and I a voice and heart to faithfully honor Him in the preaching of the truth of the holy scriptures, which are able to make men wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Pastor Chris Cunningham

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   “Grace and truth are fitly and inseparably joined together. We cannot have grace without truth, nor truth without grace. Those who reject grace, reject truth, and those who reject truth, reject grace. ‘Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord’ (Romans 5:21). The grace which saves the sinner is not mere pity and sentiment such as we find in the creature. The grace which saves sinners is established on the principles of an honored law and a satisfied justice (Romans 3:23 - 26). Grace does not ignore the law nor set aside its requirements. No! It establishes the law (Romans 3:31). Grace establishes the law because it has a Substitute who perfectly fulfilled the law and endured the death penalty for all who believe, in order that God may be both just and justifier.”

Pastor Henry Mahan

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REDEMPTION

    “Redemption is the ransom of chosen sinners out from under the curse of God’s broken law and offended justice by the sacrificial, substitutionary, sin-atoning death of our Lord Jesus. Redemption is the satisfaction of justice by the blood of Christ and the deliverance of God’s elect from all possibility of condemnation (Eph. 1:7; Gal. 3:13; Col. 1:14; 1 Peter 1:18 - 20). The redemption of our souls by Christ’s shed blood also includes and guarantees the redemption (deliverance) of our souls from the bondage and dominion of sin (Isaiah 53:10 - 11); and the redemption of our bodies from the grave at the resurrection 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:14; 4:30). All who were redeemed by the blood of Christ must and shall be saved by God’s grace in him.”

 Pastor Donnie Bell

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   “The Christian needs Christ in his redemption as the object of Faith, for salvation; Christ himself the object of love, for devotion and service; and Christ in his coming glory, the object of Hope, for separation from the world.”

--W. Haslarn

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CHRIST IS ALL

 “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him; Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all (Colossians 3:1 -11).

    “Truly, ‘CHRIST IS ALL!’ And if Christ is ours, we have all in him. All who get the Son of Got get everything with the Son! ‘He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?’ (Romans 8:32). Our God has given us a word for that in the Bible. The word is ‘GRACE’!

Pastor Don Fortner