October 4, 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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Ecclesiastes 7: 14: In the day of prosperity
be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over
against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.
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The
only way that one can truly empathize with a burden that someone is
experiencing is to have experienced that particular burden too. To say, “I know
how you feel,” and not having gone through that trial is not true. For all who
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Scripture reveals, “For we have not an High
Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15).
Marvin Stalnaker, pastor of Katy Baptist Church, Fairmont, WV
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ALL EARS
A
missionary to a remote tribe was attempting to translate the Scriptures into
their language, and he had difficulty finding a word for obedience; a virtue
that few of the natives practiced. One day, as he went home from the village,
his dog stayed behind. The missionary called his dog to come and follow him.
The dog came running at top speed. An old native by the roadside said in the
native tongue, “Your dog is all ear.” The missionary got hold of that
expression at once and so had a beautiful word for obedience: “A believer is all ears to the words of his
Lord!” Pastor Henry T. Mahan
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BELIEVE OUR REPORT!
Isaiah 53: 1: Who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
In Isaiah’s day, very few believed the gospel
he preached. When the Gospel walked this earth and men heard him preach they
believed not. He said, “While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may
be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide
himself from them. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet
they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be
fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath
the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Jn 12: 36-38)
Why do so few believe on Christ? Christ
makes that which men think is their righteousness to be filthy. Christ’s righteousness
makes the sinner appear as he really is: vile, an abomination in God’s sight. Not only this, the gospel declares there is
nothing the sinner can do to make himself holy and righteous so that God will
accept him. Our report declares Christ alone is the Righteousness of God. This means the sinner must take his hands off
everything and trust Christ to present him to God.
Still, many think they are safe to go on in
their unbelief because they are in the majority. Sinner, you would be wise not
to judge something right simply because the majority do the same. When it comes
to God, the majority is always wrong.
Oh, that God might use these words to
reveal to you that Christ is the Arm and Power of the Lord; that he might make
you believe our report and cast all your care into the saving arms of Christ. Hear and obey the Gospel, he says, “While ye
have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.”
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Luke 18:17: Verily I say unto you, Whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter
therein.
Believing
on Christ does not require us wait to reach a higher level of knowledge till we
can match wits with the wisest and most prudent in religion. Watch how the
littlest, weakest, most helpless child looks to his father and mother to take
care of him in everything. Christ says believing on him is to receive him like
that little weak, helpless child receives his father and his mother.
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THREE REASONS
BELIEVERS CANNOT BE DECEIVED
In 1 Corinthians 2, the apostle Paul distinguishes
between religious men: false and true, the spirit of the world and the spirit
which is of God, natural men and spiritual men. (1 Cor 2: 1-5) Paul declares
that God’s true children are given a new spirit in which the hidden Wisdom of
God is revealed by the Holy Spirit so that we know and speak the things freely
given to us of God. (1 Cor 2: 6-13; Eze 11: 19; 1 Cor 3: 21; 1 Jn 5: 11) But Paul warns “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for
they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1
Cor 2: 14) Though true of
all unregenerate sinners, in context, the natural man is the vainly religious man who minds the things of the
flesh, who speaks with “enticing words of man’s wisdom.” Paul gives three
reasons why believers cannot be deceived by the subtle craftiness of natural religious men.
1) “But he that is
spiritual judgeth all things.” (1 Cor 2: 15) One, believers cannot be
deceived by natural men because we have an unction from the Holy One and know
all things. By God’s Spirit, we can discern between the spirit of truth and the
spirit of error. We can hear when God is receiving all the glory and when the sinner is
being exalted.
2) “Yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord,
that he may instruct him?” (1 Cor 2: 15-16) Two, believers cannot be deceived by
natural men because spiritual men are taught by no man but by the Spirit of
Christ. Paul declares here what he declared in verse 11. Only the Spirit of God
knows the mind of the Lord so only the Spirit can instruct us in the new
spirit. Besides this, what natural man
is competent to teach anything spiritual to the child born of God? For what
natural man has known the mind of the Lord, that the natural man might instruct
the Spirit-born child of God? Not one!
3) “But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2: 16) Three, believers cannot be deceived by natural
men because Christ himself
is made our Wisdom. (1 Cor 1: 30) Christ makes known the things of God unto us.
(Jn 15: 15) By Christ dwelling in us, Christ give us his mind, to make no
reputation for ourselves but to take our place as his servants; to humble
ourselves and become obedient before him entirely dependent upon Christ to
exalt us. For we know, that is the mind of Christ by which he suffered the
death of the cross and saved us from our sins. (Php 2: 5-14) And “He is
in one mind, and who can turn him?” (Job 23: 14) So it is that
those with the mind of Christ cannot be turned from Christ. (Read these same
three things in 1 Jn 2: 20-27; 4: 4-6)