Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

10/03/2022

This is a very special time of the year. Celebrate Hashem’s mercies and salvation!

Yom Kippur was the only time when the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and call upon the Name of YHVH / YHVH (i.e., יהוה) to offer blood sacrifice for the sins of the people. This "life for a life" principle is the foundation of the sacrificial system and marked the great day of intercession made by the High Priest on behalf of Israel. For this reason it was also called the “Day of God’s Mercy,” or the “Day of God’s Name” (יום השם יהוה). This alludes to the revelation of the attributes of God’s Compassion after the sin of the Golden Calf (see Exod. 34:6-7) -- a disclosure that foreshadowed the New Covenant. How much more, then, is Yom Kippur the "Day of Yeshua's Name" (יום השם ישוע) since He secured for all of humanity everlasting kapparah (atonement)?

Yeshua the Messiah is Moshia ha'olam (מוֹשִׁיעַ הָעוֹלָם), the Savior of the world; He alone possesses the "Name above all other Names" (Phil. 2:9-10; Acts 4:12). It is altogether fitting, then, that God's "hidden Name" (i.e., shem ha-meforash: שֵׁם הַמְּפרָשׁ) was proclaimed before the kapporet (the cover of the Ark of the Covenant) in the Holy of Holies while atonement for our sins was made through the sacrificial blood.

This gives us a whole new perspective on Paul’s words (Rom. 10:9): “if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is LORD (יהוה) and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (i.e., that his blood was shed and presented on your behalf upon the heavenly kapporet), then you will be saved (that is, you will be reconciled to God and made a partaker of the atoning work of Yeshua).

Surely the Apostle Paul, a zealous rabbi who diligently studied Torah in Jerusalem under Rabbi Gamaliel (who was himself the grandson of the renowned Rabbi Hillel the Elder), understood the theological implications when he stated that the prophecy: "And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the Name of the LORD (בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה) shall be saved” (Joel 2:32) applied directly to Yeshua (Rom. 10:10). [Hebrew for Christians]
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Isaiah 45:23 Hebrew reading:
https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/isa45-23-jjp.mp3

Hebrew page (pdf):
https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/isa45-23-lesson.pdf
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10/02/2022

At one time or another we all need to be reminded that our Father, THE KING, cares for us and never leaves us to walk alone. Our DADDY has got this!

01/09/2022

12/04/2021

“And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John 1:5

12/03/2021

This week our small church family has been hit hard. First we had a text that a beloved daughter in law had Covid. Then word came from the same family that Mom was coughing and choking whenever she tried to eat, speak or swallow. After a couple of days she had lost four pounds and had a rattle in one lung. The next we heard she had tested positive for Covid. This sweet lady is sole caregiver for her invalid husband. Next came word from another family in our fellowship that a mom/grandma had tested positive and also her grandchild and aunt (by marriage). “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28.
So very thankful for the truths in God’s Word!

12/02/2021

I am prayerfully trying to attend our church page while our faithful fb administrator is I’ll. Please pray for her complete healing and for me as I try to fill in. Blessings to all who read our page.

12/01/2021

Today’s Reading: 1 Corinthians 4-7

“The Mysteries of God”

I Corinthians 4:1



The word “mystery,” as it is used in the New Testament, refers to something once hidden but now revealed. That which was hidden under the types and shadows of the law is now revealed in the gospel. That which is hidden from natural, unregenerate, unbelieving people is revealed to believers by the Holy Spirit. The word is used twenty-two times in the New Testament. But the mysteries revealed are seven.

1. The Mystery of Godliness (1 Timothy 3:16) is the whole body of revealed truth regarding the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ the incarnate, crucified, risen, exalted, saving Son of God (Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 2:2; 4:3).

2. The Mystery of Faith (1 Timothy 3:9) is the message of salvation by the grace of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the message of the gospel (1 Corinthians 2:7).

3. The Mystery of Spiritual Union (Ephesians 5:32; Colossians 1:27) is the blessed union of God’s elect with Christ. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. Believers are so thoroughly one with Christ that all that he is and has as the God-man, we are and have in him. His doing is our doing. His acceptance is our acceptance. And his reward is our reward.

4. The Mystery of Providence (Romans 11:25-27; Ephesians 3:3-9) is the fact that God has always intended to save chosen sinners out of every nation. To that end he sovereignly rules all things. Even the fall and casting away of the Jews was used by God to be a means of bringing the gospel to the Gentiles.

5. The Mystery of the Stars and Candlesticks (Revelation 1:20) is the assurance given to faithful pastors (stars) and gospel churches (candlesticks) that they are in the hands of Christ, established, provided for, and preserved by him.

6. The Mystery of Iniquity (2 Thessalonians 2:7) and of Babylon (Revelation 17:5) is the wicked influence of freewill, works religion, as it is used by God to be an instrument of judgment upon those who receive not the love of the truth.

7. The Mystery of the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51-58) is the wonder of how Christ will both raise the dead and reconcile all things to God (Ephesians 1:9-10) at his glorious second advent.



O my soul, give thanks to God for his rich grace heaped upon you by his Holy Spirit, for “it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God” (Luke 8:10). I am compelled to cry with my Savior in gratitude and praise, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matthew 11:25-26).





Don Fortner

11/30/2021

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” John 16:7

THERE is no sorrow of the believing heart of which the Holy Spirit is ignorant, to which He is indifferent, or which His sympathy does not embrace, and His power cannot alleviate. The Church in which He dwells, and whose journeyings he guides, is a tried Church. Chosen in the furnace of affliction, allied to a suffering Head, its course on earth is traced by tears, and often by blood. Deeply it needs a Comforter. And who can compute the individual sorrows which may crowd the path of a single traveler to his sorrowless home? What a world of trial, and how varied, may be comprised within the history of a single saint! But if sorrows abound, consolation much more abounds, since the Comforter of the Church is the Holy Spirit. What a mighty provision, how infinite the largess, the God of all consolation has made in the covenant of grace for the sorrows of His people, in the appointment of the Third Person of the blessed Trinity to this office! What an importance it attaches to, and with what dignity it invests, and with what sanctity it hallows, our every sorrow! If our heavenly Father sees proper in His unerring wisdom and goodness to send affliction, who would not welcome the message as a sacred and precious thing, thus to be soothed and sanctified? Yes, the Spirit leads the sorrowful to all comfort. He comforts by applying the promises—by leading to Christ—by bending the will in deep submission to God—and by unveiling to faith’s far-seeing eye the glories of a sorrowless, tearless, sinless world. And oh, who can portray His perfection as a Comforter? With what promptness and tenderness He applies Himself to the soothing of each grief—how patiently He instructs the ignorant—how gently He leads the burdened—how skillfully He heals the wounded—how timely He meets the necessitous—how effectually He speaks to the mourner! When our heart is overwhelmed within us, through the depth and foam of the angry waters, He leads us to the Rock that is higher than we.

He leads to glory. There He matures the kingdom, and perfects the building, and completes the temple He commenced and occupied on earth. No power shall oppose, no difficulty shall obstruct, no contingency shall thwart the consummation of this His glorious purpose and design. Every soul graced by His presence, every heart touched by His love, every body sanctified as His temple, He will lead to heaven. Of that heaven He is the pledge and the earnest. While Jesus is in heaven, preparing a place for His people, the Spirit is on earth, preparing His people for that place. The one is maturing glory for the Church, the other is maturing the Church for glory.

11/29/2021

Today’s Reading: Romans 12-15

“Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”

Romans 13:11



What a blessed portion of Holy Scripture we have before us today! Romans 12 begins by calling us to the most reasonable thing in the world — complete devotion to our ever-gracious Lord Jesus! Romans 13 assures us that our heavenly Father, the sovereign of the universe, rules all the rulers of this world. In the 14th and 15th chapters God the Holy Spirit teaches us to love our brethren and bear one another’s infirmities. All of this is written in the light of the glorious, blessed hope that is ours in Christ. —“Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.”



God’s Salvation

It is a common mistake among many to think of salvation only in terms of the experience of faith. But the Word of God never limits salvation to a time, a place, or an experience. When Paul writes, “Now is our salvation nearer than when we believed,” he is clearly speaking of salvation as an ongoing process of grace. It is a process of grace that began in eternity past before the beginning of time, is experienced by faith in Christ in time, and shall be consummated in eternity to come when time shall be no more.

This great work of salvation is the work of God alone. It was planned by God, purchased by God, produced by God, is preserved by God, and shall be perfected by God. From start to finish, “Salvation is of the Lord!” Therefore God alone shall have the praise for it. God’s work of grace that is called “salvation” must be understood as a work consisting of three things.



Salvation Past

Salvation is what God has done for us in Christ. In eternity, before the worlds were made, the Lord God loved us, chose us, predestinated us to be his own, adopted us, accepted us, and blessed us, justified us, sanctified us, and glorified us in and with Christ (Ephesians 1:3-6; Romans 8:29-30; Jude 1). Our salvation was arranged and accomplished in that covenant of grace ordered in all things and sure made between the three Persons of the holy Trinity before the world began. In that everlasting covenant, God the Father became our Father, God the Son became our Surety, and God the Spirit became our Sanctifier. In time, our salvation was obtained by the obedience of Christ as our Substitute. We have been forgiven, justified, and sanctified by the merits of his righteousness and shed blood.



Salvation Now

Salvation is also what God has done and is doing in us. We were dead. He made us alive (Ephesians 2:1-4). He made us new creatures in Christ. He gave us a new heart, a new will, and a new nature in sovereign regeneration. He produced repentance and faith in us (Ephesians 2:8-10). He is working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure (Philippians 2:13), and preserving us in life and grace by his almighty power (1 Peter 1:5).

The Lord God will save us through all the days of our earthly pilgrimage (Isaiah 41:10-11; 43:1-7). I do not know what troubles we may face tomorrow; but God will not forsake us now. He will finish his work in us. He who has kept us and is keeping us will keep us still by his infallible, unfailing grace (Malachi 3:6). In the hour of temptation, God will save us. When Satan assaults, God will save us. Though trials come, one upon the heels of another, God will save us.



Salvation Near

As we have been saved by the decree of God, the blood of Christ, and the power of his Spirit, and are being saved by his almighty grace, so we hope that we shall yet be saved. In this sense our salvation is yet future. When the Lord God is finished with us, when our salvation is complete, we will be exactly conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). And he shall at last present us faultless before his throne, and in the ages to come shall “show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).

We have good reason to anticipate the completion of our salvation by the grace of God. Our salvation will not be complete until the final restoration of all things under the dominion of King Jesus. But at God's appointed time, that shall come (1 Corinthians 15:24-25). All Christ’s enemies shall lick the dust before him and acknowledge his rightful dominion. He will rid the earth of all rebels against his throne, either by grace or by wrath. And sin shall be purged from God's creation. The glory of Christ shall be established everywhere and in all things. In heaven, earth, and hell everybody and everything shall glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. In that day we shall be conformed to the exact likeness of Christ our Savior. Then, but not till then, our salvation shall be complete (Romans 8:17-23). God will bring our bodies into union with our souls in perfect glorification. Then we shall be saved from all sin, all the consequences of sin, and all the sorrow that follows sin. We have been saved. We are being saved. And, soon, we shall be saved!