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
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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: The videos are now listed
as individual sermons, as well as full services—
click here.
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Proverbs 13: 22: A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s
children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.
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THAT I MAY WIN CHRIST
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, Phil. 3:8.
What does it mean to WIN CHRIST? It doesn't mean that we can win His
favor, or win His blessings by some act that we do, nor does it mean that we
can win His special attention and get Him to do something special for us
because we have done something to receive special treatment from Him.
That can't possibly be what it
means; for that is earning not winning Christ. You may say, "Well,
preacher, if it doesn't mean these things, what does it mean?"
When the apostle talked about his
desire to WIN CHRIST, I believe he meant mainly one thing. It was that Christ
Himself was the prize; Christ Himself was the goal for him. Christ became all
in all.
In the light of our Lord's
glorious Person and His accomplished redemption, Paul counted everything else
but dung and rubbish; willing to lose all, his own ambition, opportunities and
attainments in the world. He counted anything that would detract from Christ's
glory that would hinder his conformity to His Lord as loss.
Our Lord Jesus Himself said
it like this, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but
whosoever will lose his life for My sake and the gospel's the same shall save
it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul?" (Mark 8:35-36).
"If you don't count all loss
for Christ in this world, it will be your eternal loss."
Pastor Don Bell
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CALLED UNTO THE FELLOWSHIP
1 Corinthians 1: 9: God is faithful, by whom ye
were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Union with Christ is the only way we can have spiritual life. Christ said, “Abide in me, and
I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the
vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the
branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (Jn 15: 4-5) The branch does not
give life to the root but the root the branch. So it is when God the Father
calls us into fellowship with Christ. We receive spiritual life from Christ the
Life (Jn 17: 21-23) Believer, you are a “habitation
of God through the Spirit!”
This is as amazing,
as it is essential, when God forms Christ in us then we become “partakers of
the divine nature.” (2 Pet 1: 4) Only by partaking of Christ’s divine
nature do we escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust.” We partake of all that Christ is and
all that he accomplished by his obedience.
This blessing of the last Adam is figured in the first. When Adam broke the law, all Adam’s children
were in Adam’s loins. Therefore, we all
became unrighteous by Adam’s disobedience. Once born of Adam, we became
partakers of Adam’s sinful nature. The result is our nature is enmity against
God. So all the credit goes to Adam for
making us unrighteous and unholy by his disobedience.
Likewise, when
Christ fulfilled the law, all his children were in Christ’s loins. Therefore, we became righteous by Christ’s
obedience. Once born of Christ, we
became partaker of Christ’s holy nature. So Christ gets all the glory for
making us righteous and holy by his obedience (Rom 5: 19). The result is that we believe and confess
Christ and love God and our brethren. “Herein is love, not that we
loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No
man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and
his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us,
because he hath given us of his Spirit. And
we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of
the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth
in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to
us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”
(1Jo 4:10-16).
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THE FELLOWSHIP
OF JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD
1 Corinthians 1: 9: God is faithful, by whom ye
were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
When God gives us the same faith, by the same Spirit, by
the same Truth, by the same grace then “we have fellowship with the Father,
and with his Son Jesus Christ” and “fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 Jn 1: 3-7).
The fellowship of
believers is in God’s Son, Jesus Christ in the gospel. (Php 1: 5) Having been given the Light of Christ, we
have “no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph 5: 11). Christ is the tie that binds us in Spirit and
in Truth. Fellowship with Christ means
each believer jointly partakes of everything that Christ possesses. When the
Son of God took on him the seed of Abraham under the law, his life was our life,
his suffering our suffering, his death our death, his resurrection our
resurrection. Now, through the new birth and faith in Christ, we experience the
truth that his righteousness is our righteousness, his holiness our holiness,
his acceptance with the Father our acceptance, his inheritance our inheritance—“ye
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). Every chosen,
redeemed, regenerated child of God is one, even as Christ and the Father are
one! This is what makes our assembly a
peaceful place. We are not in competition with each other. We are not trying to
earn better rewards than one another. We
are one! Therefore, we “fellowship in
ministering to the saints” (2 Cor 8: 4). We seek the good of one another. When one suffers, we all suffer; when one
rejoices, we all rejoice.
Knowing what
great inseparable unity God has graciously given us in and by his Son, Christ
Jesus our Lord, let us endeavor to keep this precious unity. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be
no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same
mind and in the same judgment” (1 Cor 1: 10).
How could we do otherwise, knowing that it is through the precious
blood of our Redeemer who laid down his life for us that God has called us unto
the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord!