Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 10-14-2018
Bible TextZechariah 13:7-9
Date13-Oct-2018
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 

October 21, 2018

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

 

MEETING LOCATION

251 Green Lane

Ewing, NJ, 08368

Clay Curtis, pastor

Telephone: 615-513-4464

Clay@FreeGraceMedia.com

 

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

 

Services Broadcast Live @ www.FreeGraceMedia.com/live

 

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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.

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SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: The videos are now listed as individual sermons, as well as full servicesclick here.

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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS


Proverbs 12: 7: The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the house of the righteous shall stand.

 

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I AM ELECT BECAUSE I WAS BORN IN UNION COUNTY, ARKANSAS?

God’s elect are not his sheep because we live in America or France or Israel or any other country.  The Israel of God are those God chose and blessed in Christ by grace.  Think of the absurdity of me claiming that I am God’s elect because I was born in Union County, Arkansas.  Yet, many imagine that God shall save a multitude because they live in that physical nation called Israel, are the physical descendants of Abraham and call themselves Jews. 

 

     When God elected his people before the foundation of the world, it was not with respect to our persons or works.  God did not choose his people because of the country in which we would live nor because of our race nor because of anything we would do. If that were so then salvation would be by works rather than grace.  But God’s salvation is all of grace. 

 

     According to God’s word, the new song sung unto Christ by God’s elect is, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood OUT OF EVERY KINDRED, AND TONGUE, AND PEOPLE, AND NATION; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev 5: 9-10)

 

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God must forsake His integrity before He would abandon one of His people.  But that cannot be: “faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thess 5:24). “The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you and keep you from evil” (2 Thess 3:3). They who affirm that any of God’s children will perish are guilty of the fearful sin of charging Him with perjury.  Arthur Pink

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To preach the gospel is to preach the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to declare that he, by his perfect, complete, finished obedience to God as a man, brought in everlasting righteousness, made an end of sin, and obtained eternal redemption for God’s elect.

                                                                             Pastor Don Fortner

 

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THE POINT OF NO RETURN

     While visiting Niagara Falls recently, the tour guide pointed to a place in the river and said, “This spot is called the place of no return…anyone proceeding past this spot will enter the raging rapids classified to be…“unsurvivable.” In my mind, I tried to imagine the horror of someone plunging over the crest of that mighty waterfall to a certain death and then realized…but for the grace of God, that would be the end of every man born in Adam.

     We’re all born sinners against God…born in a state, except for the intervening grace of God, that can only be classified as, ”unsurvivable.” We’re born captive in the raging torrents of sin and rebellion against the God of heaven and earth and unless He is pleased to do something for us that we cannot do for ourselves, we can count on one end…death!...“But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”                         Pastor Marvin Stalnaker

 

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THE PURPOSE FOR TRIALS

Acts 6: 1-7

The Lord gives a trial in the midst of his church for the whole church to unite as one.  The Grecians were shown how quickly they would murmur, to teach the whole church, and us, that we need the visitation of our Lord every hour.  Likewise, the Hebrew's were shown how quickly they would respect persons based on outward appearance to remind the whole church, us included, that our God saves by grace and is no respecter of persons. The apostles were not allowed by God to let anything interfere with the preaching of his word and prayer for his saints, showing the whole church, and us, that the Lord's word is the most necessary of all things if we would truly provide for the needy in the church.  By using the church to provide the temporal need of the Grecian widows, they, their brethren, and we today are taught never to doubt the sufficiency of our Lord's grace--both in spiritual and temporal matters--all things are yours.  And the whole multitude learned that God has a way of uniting the hearts of his people that would never enter our minds.  The Lord turns Satan's darts of discord into a spirit of unity.  The Lord works a spirit of forgiveness in us, whereby we overlook the shortcomings of our brethren, and he does it by showing us that there is not a bit of difference between any of us, save for his grace. Therefore, they showed they trusted the Lord, their pastors and their brethren by thanking God, by asking his blessing upon these men, and by sending these seven men to the task at hand.

 

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THROUGH THE FIRE

 

Zechariah 13: 7: Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. 8: And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9: And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

 

No believer shall ever bear the fiery trial that our Substitute endured.  His own Father unsheathed his sword of justice upon him.  But what infinite good Christ accomplished by passing through that incomparable fire!  He purged away the dross of the sins of his elect, satisfying justice, bringing in everlasting righteousness for us then entered into his glory. Now, our great Shepherd is gathering his lost sheep, using us to preach this good news.  But the servant is not greater than his Lord.  We must go through the refining fire because reigning with Christ above means suffering with Christ below. (Ps 7: 9; 11: 5)

     It begins at conversion when Christ sends his messenger to prepare the way with the fire of the gospel.  Christ sits as a refiner, purifying us inwardly from the dross of our flesh so that the only offering we bring to the LORD is Christ our Righteousness.  (Mal 3: 1-3; Jer 23: 39) Gatsby said, “When God brings Christ and the sinner together, there is an alarming blaze of the whole of the sinner's lumber.” Then trials begin.  Believer, do not think some strange thing is happening to us when we suffer persecution for preaching Christ “but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” (1 Pet 4: 12-14) When chastened, remember, “God dealeth with you as with sons;…for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness”(Heb 12: 7-10). If he suffers us to hunger it is to humble and “make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” (Deut 8: 2-3) He leaves false preachers “for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut 13: 1-3) Often, he tries with choices like whether we would have long life, riches or the life of our enemies. (1 Ki 3: 5).  Will we make selfish choices or seek Christ preeminently, trusting him to provide our lesser needs?  He not only gave Solomon wisdom but provided the other as well. (Rom 8: 32) What about when we face the impossible?  Seeing “a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.” (Jn 6: 5-6) By the impossible trial, Christ teaches us to look to him rather than our own understanding.  What about the trial that comes when we have been faithful?  Though Paul was faithful Christ cast him into prison. But it was to bring the jailor and the elect in his house under the gospel by which the Lord saved them. (Acts 16: 23-24) There are so many kinds of fiery trials.  But our all-wise Master is the first cause. 

    Earthly gold is precious metal. It endures almost all fire.  But when the Lord returns even “the elements shall melt with a fervent heat.”  How does faith remain?  The faith that God gives is “more precious than of gold that perisheth.” (1 Pet 1:7) So when we pass through the fiery trial, our faith shall remain to the praise, honor and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That is the end purpose of our trials.