October 15, 2017
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
MEETING LOCATION
251 Green Lane
Ewing, NJ, 08368
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
MAILING ADDRESS:
7 Birch Street
Pennington, NJ, 08538
Schedule of Services
Sunday 10: 15 AM Bible Class
Sunday 11:00 AM Morning Service
Thursday 7: 30 PM Midweek Service
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NURSERY
We have a nursery equipped with a digital flat screen television broadcasting all services live, for children four and under.
All articles by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: watch videos of our full services—click here.
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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS
Proverbs 10: 9: He that walketh uprightly walketh surely: but he that perverteth his ways shall be known.
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THE COVENANT OF WORKS OR THE COVENANT OF GRACE: Which Do You Desire to Be Under?
Genesis 2:16-17
The covenant of works was between God and man. God said, “Adam, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:” Yet God puts conditions in and on the covenant of works. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: (there was a condition and consequence for disobedience) for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
The covenant of grace is unconditional. In the covenant of grace I never have to worry about whether I have done enough. In the covenant of grace, I never have to worry about whether I have done good enough. Why? Because it is about what Jesus Christ has done for the chosen sinner. It certainly was enough and it certainly was good enough. It was perfect! He is the only One who could satisfy God’s Holy justice and justify me. Why would anyone desire to be under the covenant of works? Pastor David Eddmenson
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REDEMPTION
By Pastor Donnie Bell
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; I 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 (I 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.
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CHRIST’S GIFT
Ephesians 4:11-12
By Don Fortner
Hearing the Word of God preached is so important that our risen Savior has specifically given the ministry of the gospel to his church as one of his chief ascension gifts (Ephesians 4:11-12; Psalms 68:18-19).
God has always gifted specific, chosen men for the work of the ministry, men he has specifically called to this great work to serve the souls of men. Jude tells us, that “Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied (or preached) concerning the Lord’s coming with ten thousand of his saints to judgment.” Peter tells us that Noah was “a preacher of righteousness,” the righteousness of God. God never left himself without witness, even in those earliest times, but at sundry times and after in diverse ways, spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
After the giving of the law, the Lord God constantly separated to himself a certain order of men to pray for, preach to, and serve his people; to lead, guide, and rule his people by his Word. Israel always had her prophets and her priests. Though the Jews were often carried away into captivity, and because of their sins scattered abroad among the nations, yet God faithfully and graciously kept up a remnant of prophets and preachers, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and others, to reprove, instruct, and call his elect to repentance.
Great as those days were, we live in a better day with better provisions. Many talk about the old days and old preachers as if the men called, gifted, and sent of God to his church today are somewhat deficient. That is not the case. We have the complete Revelation of God in Holy Scripture. God’s church today benefits from more than 2000 years of gospel preaching. In our day, in spite of the rampant heresies of this apostate religious age, we are blessed of God with the clearest, fullest preaching of the gospel this world has ever known.
When our Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, had through the eternal Spirit offered himself as a full, perfect, sufficient, effectual sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of his people, and after his resurrection had all power committed to him both in heaven and earth, gave commission to his Apostles, and in them to all succeeding gospel preachers, to “go into all the world and preach his Gospel to every creature,” promising to “be with us, (to guide, assist, strengthen, and comfort us always, even) unto the end of the world.”
As it is the responsibility of God’s servants everywhere to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16), it is your responsibility to hear the message God sends his servant to deliver. But most people utterly despise God’s gift. They do despite to the Spirit of grace, crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame by willfully refusing to attend God’s ordained means of grace. How terrible the end of such people will be! They despise the heavenly manna of the gospel, counting it a worthless thing. Our Savior declares that it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and Gomorrah, than for those who despise the gospel. Better that men had never heard of a Savior being born, than after they have heard, not to give heed to the ministry of those who are employed as God’s ambassadors to declare the good news of his free, saving grace in Christ.
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TRIALS, WORKS AND THEIR PURPOSE
Genesis 22: 1: And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Abraham’s only son is a picture of God’s only begotten Son, Christ the Lamb. Like as this was the son Abraham loved, God said, ‘This is my beloved son.’ Like as God commanded Moses to offer Isaac ‘for a burnt offering’, Christ Jesus was chosen by God the Father to be God’s offering for his people. All God’s true Israel, God’s elect, were guilty. God’s law demanded we die. His justice must be upheld. So by Christ laying down his life God satisfied his own justice. God can show mercy to his elect Israel and remain just. He is a just God and a Savior!
So why was this believer, Abraham, given this trial? Wherever God gives true faith, God tries faith. It is to bring glory to God! By this work of obeying God, Abraham’s faith was justified as being the genuine gift of God. We are in no way saved by our works. But works we do in the face of our total inability prove that our faith is given by God. It begins with bringing God the one sacrifice with which God is well-pleased, his own Son. Abraham knew God promised Christ would come through Isaac. He knew Christ was all his salvation and the salvation of all God’s elect. So he knew God would save Isaac for Christ’s sake. His faith was in God’s Lamb, Christ Jesus!
Believer, every trial is reasonable in light of Christ. When God calls us to part with something dear it is reasonable because God gave his own Son and Christ gave his Life for us. Just as Isaac bore the wood, likewise, Christ bore the cross on which he was crucified. It is reasonable for me to be called to bear the cross of suffering and rejection for Christ’s sake when Christ bore the cross of fierce justice for me! Isaac willingly laid himself on that altar to be sacrificed, picturing Christ who willingly laid down his life for his Father and for his people. Considering Christ’s willingness, it is reasonable for me to willingly suffer whatever light affliction God will have me to suffer. Throughout the trial, Abraham’s faith looked one place, saying, “God will provide himself a Lamb for a burnt offering!” Throughout the trial, look to the same place, saying, “God has provided himself a Lamb for a burnt offering!”
The end purpose of the trial is always to bring us nearer to Christ our Substitute, “Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.” May the trial of our faith make us lift up our eyes and behold Christ! But Abraham did not stop there, “Abraham…offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.” The trial is to make us offer up Christ to God in our stead through faith in him. And the trial is to bring us to this resolve, “And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.” Believer, since Christ has quenched the fire of justice against us, we shall see Christ’s glory both now and forever in the mount of the LORD. That is the end of God-given faith, the end of every trial and shall be our ultimate end in glory.