June 14, 2015
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
LOCATION
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd Floor
150 Washington Street
Rocky Hill, New Jersey, 08553
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
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. Check the announcements.
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All articles in the bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
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Missionary Lance Hellar is scheduled to preach the gospel to us Saturday and Sunday, June 27 & 28 at 10: 15am. We will have lunch after each service. Plan to attend and bring someone if you can.
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BREAK FORTH INTO JOY
Isaiah 52: 9: Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem.
The gospel is a call to joy. The “waste places of Jerusalem” are God’s people. Like those stones wasted in Jerusalem, every sinner God saves was dead in sins. But by Christ Jesus, our “living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet 2: 4-5)
The Lord Hath Comforted. Our joy is “the Lord hath comforted his people.” (Is 52: 9) The comfort of the gospel is that God does not declare what we must do but “The Lord hath!” The Lord hath heard, the Lord hath shined the light of his countenance upon us; the Lord hath made manifest his everlasting love and righteousness; the Lord hath fulfilled his exceeding great and precious promises to his people. The Lord hath comforted his people! (Is 40: 1-2)
The Lord Hath Redeemed. Our joy is “the Lord hath redeemed Jerusalem.” (Is 52: 9) God has come to where we are. The GodMan has walked perfectly under the law as our representative. Christ has taken the sin of his people, was wounded for our transgressions, died the death we owed to justice and with his stripes we are healed! (Is 53:5) Believer, there is now no more condemnation. (Rom 8: 1)
The LORD Hath Made Bare His Holy Arm. Our joy is “the LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations.” (Is 52: 10) Our God rules all things by the arm of sovereign power. (Dan 4:35) But his holy arm is even more powerful! His holy arm is Christ, the Power and Wisdom of God, who saved his particular people from our sins. He upheld his holy name, his holy law, and his holy justice. The righteousness of the law has been satisfied by the blood of the incarnate God who has made righteousness and peace kiss in perfect harmony. (Ps 98: 1-3)
All Shall See. Our joy is that “the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” (Is 52: 10) By sending his gospel to each of his lost children in the “ends of the earth”, the invincible grace of the Holy Spirit shall make each one “see the salvation of our God.” And in the day of judgment every knee shall bow and “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Php 2: 9-11)
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DEPART YE, DEPART YE!
Isaiah 52: 11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Babylon, that city of unclean idolaters, opposed to God and his people, is an emblem of this ungodly world, with its free will, works religion. (Rev 18: 2-4) God commands his child, “Go ye out of the midst of her.” We are commanded by grace, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?...for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor 6: 14-18)
We have to live in, do business in and conform to this world’s laws. (1 Cor 5: 9-10) But we must remember that by election, redemption and sanctification, God has separated us from this world unto himself. Our Redeemer says, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (Jn 15: 19) The Lord will have his saints be separate from this world’s principles, pleasures and practices. When God says “touch no unclean” it means bring none of this world’s man-exalting abominations out with you.
The Lord says to his child, “be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.” Every child of God is washed in the blood of the Lamb so that we are “clean every whit.” (Jn 13: 10; 15: 3-4; 1 Cor 6: 11) We still sin in our flesh but we are justified by his righteousness and washed clean in the sight of God. So the Lord says, “Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.”
When they went out of Babylon they literally took to Jerusalem the vessels of the Lord which the king of Babylon had stolen. But his saints bear treasures of gospel riches. We go forth unto Christ bearing his reproach. (Heb 13: 12-14) Our love for each other declares to all that we are Christ’s disciples. (Jn 13: 35) Believers need to be with believers who have the same motives, who operate under the same rule of faith which works by love, and who speak the same language of heavenly Jerusalem. “Iron sharpeneth iron” but “evil communications corrupt good manners.” (Pro 27: 27; 1 Cor 15: 33)
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YE SHALL NOT GO OUT WITH HASTE
Isaiah 52: 12: For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
Unbelief is hasty. “The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.” (Is 51: 14-15)
Therefore, God calls each believer to calmly and deliberately depart from all falsehood in faith, “knowing whom we have believed and [being] persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him against that day.” (2 Timothy 1: 12) We have no reason to be hasty. The LORD our God promises to keep all those who follow him in faith.
“The Lord will go before you!” He promises, “I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.” (Is 45: 2-3)
“And the God of Israel will be your rear-ward.” It means he will also be behind us to gather up any who fall behind. We have no reason to fear, “[Christ] shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” (Is 40: 11) Our great and glorious Redeemer promises, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” (Jn 10: 28-29) Therefore, Christ declares, “of all which he hath given me I [shall] lose nothing, but [shall] raise it up again at the last day.” (Jn 6: 39)