Summer Meeting July 30-Aug 2, 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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We are thankful to have Brother Don Fortner preaching the gospel to us this weekend. He is pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Danville, KY. The only way his visit would be better is if he had brought Mrs. Shelby with him.
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If the way of Salvation came by our thoughts, why would God give us the Bible? Why would He have preserved it all these years? What need would we have of the Holy Spirit to reveal these things to us? Why was there a need for a prophet in Israel? The arrogance of us to think we are above the need of these things. Our thoughts lead us to doctors that cannot heal; that do not know what is wrong or what health is. They lead us to spend for that which is not bread, and to work for that which will not satisfy. Milton Howard, pastor of Kitchens Creek Baptist Church, Ball, LA
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When you absent yourself from the worship of God, you absent yourself from the means of grace (the preaching of the Gospel) and lead all who are influenced by you to do the same. — What a costly choice! Don Fortner, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Danville, KY
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From a Letter Written by One Pastor to Another
“I think sometimes that I would make some dear pastor one of the finest church members he could have. I would love to go and just sit and listen to the gospel as the pastor preached. I’d never miss a service and never have a negative thing to say. As soon as the pastor left the pulpit I would be there to hug his neck and tell him that was one of the best messages I ever heard. I hope the Lord is pleased to let me sit and listen for a while and rejoice for such a blessed privilege.” From Central Grace, Rocky Mount, VA
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“I Do Not Frustrate the Grace of God”
When people turn to the law for righteousness they frustrate the grace of God and deny Christ and all that Christ accomplished. — “If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (Galatians 2:21). Not only is that so, but those who seek righteousness by the law violate the very law they claim to keep.
“Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?” (Galatians 4.21) The law says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” — Yet, if you seek justification by law then you make law your god.
The law says, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” — But, when you seek justification by law then you make law your idol.
The law says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” — When you seek justification by law, calling yourself a Christian, you take Christ’s name in vain.
The law says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” — But you who seek justification by law break the Sabbath, rejecting Christ who is the believer’s Sabbath, refusing to rest in Him.
The law says, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” — But when you seek justification by law, you willfully disobey your heavenly Father, refusing him the honor and glory due unto his holy name.
The law says, “Thou shalt not kill.” — But all who seek justification by law cry out against Christ, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
The law says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” — But he who goes to the law for righteousness plays the harlot and goes whoring after another god.
The law says, “Thou shalt not steal.” — Yet, all who go to the law for justification would rob God of His glory.
The law says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” — But when you boast of your obedience to the law you call God a liar. He declares, “There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that doeth good.”
The law says, “Thou shalt not covet thou thy neighbors house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife…nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.” — But when you go to the law for righteousness you seek for yourself the honor that belongs to God alone. When you teach others to do so, you seek to steal God’s bride (His church), and would have her be married to another.
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THE CONSTRAINT OF GRACE
Romans 6: 12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
The motive given to the believer to yield ourselves unto God is not the rule of the law but the constraint of grace. He says, “sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
Believer, since Christ fulfilled the law, put away our sin and paid the wages of death for his people, we have the assurance that sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under the law, but under grace. (1 Cor 15: 55-57) The law, sin or death can never say another word to Christ. Likewise, the law, sin or death can never say another word to us for whom Christ died. We are not under the curse of the law, not restrained by law, not motivated by law, not even ruled by law. “The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith.” (Gal 3: 11-12)
The saints of God are in another Kingdom, the Kingdom of Christ where grace reigns through the righteousness of Christ unto eternal life. (Rom 5: 17, 20, 21) Christ rules his kingdom by grace and mercy, not by the whip of the law. (Heb 8: 12) We are under God’s covenant of grace. (2 Sam 23:5) Grace works in us a far more superior motive than those ruled by law, “For the love of Christ constraineth us.” (2 Cor 5: 14-18)
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1 John 5: 11: And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12: He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
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"THE BEST FRIEND"
"THE BEST FRIEND you can have on this earth is one who will tell you the truth. One who will not help make you comfortable in a refuge of lies. One who speaks the truth to you in love. One who will continue to do so though you may not appreciate his doing so. May I be such a friend that the blood of others be not on my hands." Donnie Bell, pastor of Lantana Grace Church, Crossville, TN