April 15, 2012
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
LOCATION
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd Floor
150 Washington Street
Rocky Hill, New Jersey, 08553
Telephone: 615-513-4464
Schedule of Services
Sunday 10: 15 AM Bible Class
Sunday 11 AM Morning Service
Thursday 7: 30 PM Midweek Service
Acts 20:35: I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
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2 Thessalonians 3: 10: For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 11: For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. 12: Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
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WHAT IS TRUTH?
In the religious realm one finds people exalting what they call “Dispensational Truth”, “Sabbath Truth”, “Baptism Truth”, “Church Truth”, “Kingdom Truth”, “Endtime Truth”, and one may find people exalting “The Truth”. This is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who declares “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
He is truly The Truth because “the truth is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:21), and He is “full of ... truth” (John 1:14), and “no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:21): Therefore no untruth is in Jesus, nor is there room for untruth in Him, nor does untruth issue from Him, and everything contrary to Him is untrue. His ministers bear witness that He is The Truth (e.g., John 5:33). His church is the pillar of the truth, exalting Him to all as The Truth (1 Timothy 3:15). He is “the way of truth” (2 Peter 2:2), The Truth who liberates slaves (John 8:32), The Truth who sanctifies God’s people (John 17:17). And He is my only Truth! Is He yours? DanielE. Parks
WHO FAITH BELIEVES IN
2 Peter 1: 1
Faith believes Jesus who is God. Jesus of Nazareth, born of the virgin, is God the Son (Jn 1: 1-3, 14; Mt 3: 17.) Jesus Christ is God providing himself a Lamb. On the cross was God satisfying the divine justice of God (Jn 11: 27; 1 Jn 5:5, 10, 20.) Faith believes Jesus who is the Savior. Jesus Christ joined himself, not with the nature of angels, but with the nature of his elect that he might save us from our sins by fulfilling the law in the likeness of our sinful flesh (Heb 2: 14-16; Ro 8: 3-4.) He is God able to raise us from the dead and Man able to sympathize with every feeling of our infirmities. Faith believes Jesus who is our righteousness. He is Jehovah Tsidkenu “the LORD our Righteousness.” In Jesus Christ the believer has fulfilled the righteousness of the law (Ro 10: 4.) Instead of God pouring out divine wrath on his elect God poured it out on Christ who came to make satisfaction for our sins. And that is what Christ Jesus accomplished (Ro 4: 25; 1 Jn 4: 10.) He is risen and coming again for us one day. Can you say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day?” If you believe on him be ever thankful (Mt 16: 17; Mt 25:34.)
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REPENTANCE AND FAITH
When God makes a lost sinner know that he is altogether sin then sin becomes “exceeding sinful”. Wrath from heaven is revealed against all his best deeds for it is all unrighteous. He looks fearfully into the fiery judgment of God towards him. And Grace always wins! Sooner or later the Spirit of God takes the things of Christ, and shows them to him. His sin takes on new meaning when he sees it was his sin that pierced his Savior. The poor wretch begins to cry out, “Woe is me, I am undone!”; “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” But the “Sun of righteousness” arises with “healing in his wings” saying, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee!” (Mt 9:2.) His heart is sprinkled, his evil conscience purged from his dead works. He beholds the lie in his right hand, counts all his former confidence dung. Grace has given him a new heart, turned him, made him willing to forsake all for the one who has become altogether lovely to him. What a day! Repentance and faith have been given him.
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The danger we face is less obvious than the catholic pope or the protestant will-worshipper. It is those who mix truth and lies with so much subtlety that the Lord said, “if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”
What Next?
Edited from Charles Spurgeon’s “A Solemn Warning for All Churches”
If I am wrong upon other points, I am positive that the sin of this age is impurity of doctrine and laxity of faith. These days you are told every Sunday that it is not significant what you believe, that all sects and denominations will be saved, that doctrines are unimportant things; that as to the doctrines of God’s grace, they are rather dangerous than otherwise, and the less you inquire about them the better, they are very good things for the priests, but you common people cannot understand them. Thus they keep back a portion of the gospel with cautious reserve; but having studied in the devil’s new Jesuitical college, they understand how to call themselves particular Baptists, and then preach general doctrines, to call themselves Calvinists, and preach Arminianism, telling the people that it amounts to no significance whether they preach damnable heresies or the truth of God. And what do the congregations say? “Well, he is a wise man, and ought to know.” So you are going back into as bad a priestcraft as ever. Presbyter has become priest written large, and minister has become priest in many a place because persons do not search for themselves and endeavor to get hold of the truth of God. It is everywhere proclaimed that we are all right; that though one says God loved his people from before the foundation of the world, and the other that he did not; though one says that God is changeable and turns away from his people, and the other, that he will hold them fast to the end; though the one says that the blood of Christ avails for all for whom it was shed and the other, that it is inefficacious for a large number of those for whom he died; though one says that the works of the law are in some measure necessary, or at any rate that we must endeavor to improve what we have, and then we shall get more, while the other says, that “by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God,” yet both are right? A new age this, when falsehood and truth can kiss each other! New times these when fire and water can become friendly! Glorious times these when there is an alliance between hell and heaven? Falsehood and error are linked hand in hand. “All we are brethren,” is the cry now, though God knows, we are of vastly different families. Ah! Now, who cares for truth except a few narrow minded bigots as they are called? Election — horrible! Predestination — awful! Final perseverance — desperate!...Read the Scriptures, and if every page is not full of them I have not read them aright, or any child of God either. Ay, laxity of doctrine is the great fault now; we solemnly protest against it. You may fancy that I am raising an outcry about nothing at all. Ah! no; my anxious spirit sees the next generation — what will that be. This generation — Arminianism. What next? Pelagianism. And what next? Popery. And what next? I leave you to guess.