November 20, 2016
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.
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All articles by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS
Proverbs 1: 10: My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. 11: If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause: 12: Let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: 13: We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoil: 14: Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse: 15: My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: 16: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. 17: Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. 18: And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. 19: So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.
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Scientist say the earth is billions of years old. But the fossils they use to make that determination cannot be older than the garden of Eden because scripture says there was no death before sin entered the world. After Adam died, and all mankind in him, the first animal death came as a direct result of Adam’s sin when God made coats of skins to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness, picturing Christ Jesus our Righteousness. (Gen 3: 21)
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Our Master said, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.” (Jn 15: 20) May God give us grace to speak and conduct ourselves so that our stand for Christ is what determines our standing with all who know us.
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All Flesh Is Grass
Isaiah 40:3-9
The two-fold message of evangelism is "All flesh is grass!" and "Behold your God!" This is the message which strips man of all his glory, as Job was when he said, "He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head" (Job 19:9).
It is also the message which gives all the glory for all things to the One to whom all glory belongs; our Lord Jesus Christ! The results of preaching man's inability and God's sovereignty will be a sense of the awful presence of God breaking the proud hearts of guilty men and women and bringing them to the feet of Christ for mercy.
Gone will be the voice of the proud sinner who stands in the church and debates whether or not he will patronize the Lord of Glory; whether or not he will accept Jesus; whether or not he will let God have His way; instead, we will hear men and women cry:
“Depths of mercy! Can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinner’s spare?”
Pastor Henry Mahan
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THANKSGIVING
Ephesians 5:20: Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
It is good we have a day to remind our nation to be thankful. But God’s saints give thanks always. We thank God “for all things” because all is the gift of God. (Jn 3: 27) His unspeakable gift is his Son Christ Jesus in whom our Father has made us fit to inherit heaven. (Col 1: 12) It is in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we give thanks because everything for which we thank God is declared in Christ’s name: JEHOVHAH Jireh—the LORD will provide; JEHOVAH Rapha—the LORD that healeth thee; JEHOVHAH Nissi—the LORD our banner; JEHOVAH Tzidkenu—the LORD our Righteousness; JEHOVAH Shalom—the LORD our peace (Judg 6: 24); JEHOVAH Shammah—the LORD is there (Eze 48: 35); JEHOVAH Ra-ah—the LORD our Shepherd (Ps 23). “Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, WE THANK THEE, and praise thy glorious name.” (1 Chr 29: 11-13)
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TO WHOM BE GLORY!
Galatians 1: 1: Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) 2: And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: 3: Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4: Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: 5: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
False teachers were trying to turn the Galatian believers from the gospel of free grace in Christ back to the old covenant law, teaching falsely that justification and sanctification is by a mixture of faith in Christ as well as the believer’s works of the law. Paul wrote to correct the Galatians, turning them back to Christ alone, reminding them that “in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” (Gal 5: 6)
WHAT CHRIST DID—Galatians 1: 4: Who gave himself for our sins,…WHO: Our Lord Jesus Christ, the GodMan; GAVE: willingly, voluntarily, freely, faithfully, fully. HIMSELF: not merely things which belonged to him but himself. FOR OUR SINS: sins are the one thing his people can claim as our very own. Everything else is given to us by him by his unmerited grace. It was not for sins of his own, not for sins of angels, not for the sins of all mankind. Christ gave himself for the sins of God’s elect chosen in him before the foundation of the world (Eph 1: 3-4; Mt 20: 28; Jn 10: 15-18)
WHY CHRIST DID IT—Galatians 1: 4: that he might deliver us from this present evil world,…THAT HE MIGHT DELIVER: that HE, not us, might deliver. He delivered his people in eternity when he entered covenant with God the Father; he delivered his people on the cross; he delivers each of his redeemed through the gospel through the new birth giving us faith to trust no other but him; he continually delivers us every hour of every day even when we do not even know it; he shall deliver us when he returns. FROM THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD—from ourselves, from fallen mankind, from the curse and condemnation, from the evil present throughout the world.
HOW CHRIST DOES IT—Galatians 1: 4: according to the will of God and our Father:...Not one sinner is delivered except according to the will, purpose, election and predestination of God our Father. God’s will is fulfilled only by Christ. (Zech 6: 12-13; Ps 40: 8; Heb 10: 7; Jn 5: 30) “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb 10: 10)
WHAT BELONGS TO GOD AND HIS CHRIST FOR DOING IT—Galatians 1: 5: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.