Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 4-21-2019
Bible TextPsalm 22:1
Date20-Apr-2019
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 

April 21, 2019

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

 

Services Broadcast Live @ www.FreeGraceMedia.com/live

 

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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.

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SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: The videos are now listed as individual sermons, as well as full servicesclick here.

 

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REMINDER: FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 7PM

 

The fourth Friday bible class for our young people is this week.  We have a new, big screen television with sermon on video in the auditorium for the parents and anyone else who wants to attend.  Brother Ben Moyer is scheduled to teach the class to our young people Friday then to us all the first hour next Sunday.  Pray for him as the Lord enables you.

 

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Proverbs 13: 5: A righteous man hateth lying: but a wicked man is loathsome, and cometh to shame

 

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“He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.“ (Matthew 28:6)

 

What does it mean for sinners like us to know that the Lord is risen?  First of all it means, He died! The sinless one died!  Why did he die?  How could he die?  He died because the sin of His people was pressed into Him, and He was judged before the throne of God for the sin that He carried. The only way that the spotless, holy Lamb of God could die was by bearing the sin of His people.  So the fact that He died means, that’s exactly what He did! But The glorious announcement continues…

     He was laid in a tomb after suffering the righteous judgment and punishment of God so that His people wouldn’t have to, but He is not still in that tomb!  He is risen!  That means: the sin is gone, the punishment is over, and God is satisfied!  God the Father is satisfied with Christ, and He is satisfied with us IN CHRIST!  Every bit of that happened, exactly as the Lord Jesus Christ said it would happen.  Which means, the all knowing God is the very One who saved us. And to all who’s sins were put away in His death, burial, and resurrection, He says: “Come! Come see the place where I laid for you. Come unto Me and you will find rest for your weary soul.”

     When the burden and guilt of our sin begins to bring us down into utter despair, let’s remember the word that He sent to us through His messenger: “He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”  

                                                                                                      Pastor Gabe Stalnaker

 

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THE CRY OF ALL CRIES

 

As Christ hung on the cross “from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Mat 27: 45-46; Mar 15: 33-34) The answer to this question is the truth the devil abode not in; the truth for which he was cast out of heaven; the truth he has raged against from then until now.  It is because the answer to this question is the very glory of God.  Every word of this question is important.

 

My God, My God—As Christ suffered being forsaken of God, he owned God to be his God, manifesting his unwavering faith (Ps 22: 7-10).  From his birth to his death, Christ lived in uninterrupted holy obedience to God (Php 2:6-8).  His is the faith by which the righteousness of God is manifest and by which every believer is justified (Rom 3:21-22; Gal 2: 16).

 

Why Hast—"Hast” is past tense.  The work of redemption is finished (Heb 10:10-18).  Christs fulfilled the law, justifying his people, by laying down his life—one time.  Now, all who he justified must (and shall) be called to faith by the Holy Spirit because the same righteousness that demanded we be condemned, demands we be given eternal life. 

 

Thou—The hiding of the sun’s light typified the curse of the second death that God made Christ bear due to him bearing the sin of his people.  The condemnation of hell is “destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power” (2 Thess 1:9)  Christ suffered that living death on the cross as God removed the glory (the light) of his presence and power.  Though Christ is the delight of God his Father, showing his strict justice, God showed no respect of persons not even to his Son.  He hid the light of his countenance from him.  Christ’s physical death was the exclamation point, declaring he had accomplished dying the second death for his people so that we never will. 

 

Forsaken Me—Why did God forsake Christ on the cross?  Christ, himself, declares the answer, “But thou art holy…But I am a worm, and no man.” (Ps 22: 3, 6) God forsook Christ because God is righteous.  God forsook Christ to manifest he is the righteous Judge (Gen 18: 25).  The way God commanded judges to judge is how God himself judges (2 Sam 23: 3; Deut 16: 18-20; 25: 1; Ex 23: 6; 1 Ki 8: 32; Pro 17: 15; 24: 23-26; Is 5: 20-24).  God declares throughout his word that to make his sinful people the righteousness of God, God had to make his spotless Lamb sin for us (2 Cor 5:21; Is 53:6, 11; 1 Pet 2:24).  It was the only way God could justly pour out the wages of sin on our Substitute; the only way God could honor his law; the only way God could justify his people.  Oh, that God would reveal the importance of this in our hearts!  The answer to this cry is the very reason God made the world, the very reason for the fall, the very reason Christ took flesh, the very reason he was crucified, our very salvation—the righteousness of God (Rom 3: 25-26; 8: 33-34).  God declares it on every page of his holy word!  His righteousness is the gospel by which he births his children again of incorruptible seed!  To declare his righteousness is the purpose for which his church remains in this world.  God’s righteousness is the gospel—"for therein is the righteousness of God revealed” (Rom 1: 16-17).  Take away God’s righteousness manifest in Christ on the cross, we have no gospel!  Miss it, we miss salvation!  But thank God, Christ shall reveal God’s righteousness in the heart of each of his redeemed!

 

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WHY CHRIST’S CHURCH PREACHES GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS

 

Psalm 22: 24: For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.

 

When Christ finished the work of manifesting God’s righteousness in the justification of his people, God heard him.  Therefore, the Father raised Christ and gave him the glory of revealing his righteousness in our hearts, the same as God gave him the glory of revealing God’s righteousness on the cross.  So it is Christ, through the preaching of the gospel of God’s righteousness, through the Holy Spirit, that reveals God’s righteousness in our hearts.  He said, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.” (vv22-24; Heb 2: 11-12).  God truly has rewarded us double!  The same Redeemer who justified us by manifesting the righteousness of God on the cross is our Prophet who reveals the righteousness of God in our hearts so that we experience being made righteous through faith. 

 

     Does any wonder why we preach the glorious good news of the righteousness of God continually?  It is because the righteousness of God is the message that Christ, himself, effectually makes his church proclaim and the one message by which Christ makes his lost sheep to be born of him.  It is God’s righteousness that makes those newly born of God willing to unite and proclaim this good news with us! How do we know this?  It is what Christ himself said he would accomplish in his people by declaring God’s name through the gospel, “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.  They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this” (Ps 22: 30-31).

  

     Brethren, is not the righteousness of God great comfort to you?  Are you not thankful that the LORD loveth righteous judgment?  This is all our salvation!  The righteousness of God that required Christ bear our sin is the righteousness that made the just Judge forsake our Substitute by which Christ justified us on the cross.  It is the righteousness that demanded we hear the gospel and be given life.  It is the righteousness we heard preached by which we were born again.  It is the righteousness by which we are established and no weapon can harm us (Is 54:14-17).  And it is the righteousness by which God assures us that he shall never forsake us but shall preserve us forever—"For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved forever.”  (Ps 37: 28) This is why Christ’s church preaches the righteousness of God.  It is who our God is and it is all our salvation!