May
13, 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
GIVING THANKS
Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 13:15
We have nothing of ourselves. The only thing that has ever come from a
sinner made new by the grace of God is by God only, to his praise and glory and
not the believers. So no sinner has any
reason to pat ourselves on the back for anything.
Give Thanks unto God our
Father
Believers give thanks “always for all things unto God and our
Father.” The gifts of God our Father
include all things. (Jn 3:27; 1 Cor 3:21-23) Chiefly, the believer gives
thanks for God’s unspeakable gift—his Son.
In Christ everything required of the believer God the Father has made us
so that there remains nothing else for us to do to enter into God’s presence.
(Col 1:12) We are delivered and
translated (Col 1:13), have
redemption and forgiveness (Col 1:14), and have peace and reconciliation. (Col 1:20-22) We
have been and shall be presented perfect to God by Christ who washed us. (Col
1:22)
We are as complete in Christ as Christ is the fullness of the God
head bodily. (Col 2:8-10--“complete” is the same word as “fullness”, also used
in Mt. 5:17) Therefore we thank God and our Father. (Col 2:6-7) Brethren,
remember, all things God the Father has given us are for the purpose of setting
forth the good news that eternal life is the gift of God and this life is in
his Son. (Col 3:17)
Give Thanks in the Name of
our Lord Jesus Christ
We have access
to God only in the name of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus is the Door, the Way to God
the Father for God’s elect. (Eph 2:18) When
we own Jesus to be our Lord we are
confessing to God that we have bowed, surrendered, and cheerfully submitted
under the rule and dominion of Jesus Christ. (Phil 2:9-11) Believers confess that Jesus Christ is our Lord:
our King, Governor, Head, and our government rests in his hand. I remind you that this is more than just
something we say it is a heart made new. (1 Cor 12:3) Giving thanks unto the Father in the name of Jesus, our Lord and Christ is to confess and thank the Father that
we believe that the One who died on the cross is our Savior who successfully
put away our sin by his one offering. (Mt 1:21; Acts 4:10-12) Giving thanks to the Father in the name of Christ is to thank the Father and
confess to God that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God whom the Father
himself chose and anointed Messiah. (Jn 6:69; Heb 7:25) So we give thanks unto the Father always for
all things in “the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Give Thanks to the Name of God (Heb 13:15)
Everything God gives and everything the sinner praises and gives
thanks for are declared by his name. So when we praise him and give him thanks
we are really giving thanks to his name: JEHOVHAH
Jireh--I AM the Lord will provide (Gen 22:14), JEHOVAH Rapha--I AM the Lord
that healeth thee (Ex 15:25-26), JEHOVHAH
Nissi--I AM the Lord your banner (Ex 17:15),
JEHOVAH Tzidkenu--I AM the Lord your Righteousness (Jer 23:6; 33:16),
JEHOVAH Shalom--I AM the Lord your peace (Judg 6:24), JEHOVAH Shammah--I AM
the Lord is there (Eze 48:35), JEHOVAH Ra-ah--I AM the LORD your Shepherd. (Ps
23) JEHOVAH-Jesus thy Savior. (Is 43:3)
Brethren, I hope this helps put in perspective what it is to truly
give thanks and how much we truly have to be thankful for. (1 Chr 29:11-13)
Saved in Childbearing
1 Timothy 2:15: Notwithstanding she shall
be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness
with sobriety.
The first mother in scripture is Eve. She was first in the
transgression, just as every saved sinner will confess that they are first in
transgressing against our God (1 Tim 1:15).
Still, by declaring Christ (the Seed of woman) was coming God magnified His
unchangeable grace toward the woman, His bride, His elect church, the mother of
us all (Gen 3:15;
Mal 2:16;
Isa 62:5;
54:13).
Also, God declared the woman would have great sorrow in childbearing (Gen 3:16).
This sorrow speaks not only to what you ladies have to bear in having children,
but to the travail God’s church had to endure as Satan did everything he could
to prevent Christ from coming into this earth: Pharaoh ordered all the male
Israelite children to be killed; Haman sought to destroy all the Jews…the
people of Mordecai (Est 3:6); Herod slew all the children that were in
Bethlehem, (Mt 2:16.
See Rev 12:1-6).
God declared the only salvation for the woman (the church) is submission to her
husband (a type of Christ Jesus) who rules her in wisdom, providing her every
need (Gen 3:16;
Song 7:10;
Isa 26:8;
Eph 5:22-33).
Submission of the woman to her husband is despised in our day.
“Contemporary religion” places women in pulpits and allows women to usurp
authority over men. Free-will congregations claim to be the bride of Christ yet teach
the woman has the rule over her husband by their message that the sinner (the
bride) provides for Christ (the Husband) in allowing Him to save her. The more
this is the case the more hated it is for man to be in authority in the church,
to be head over the wife and his children in the home, even the scriptures
become politically incorrect. But at the core of it all is Satan’s desire to
turn Christ’s bride from submitting to Christ Jesus her Husband.
“Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith
and charity and holiness with sobriety” (I Tim 2:15).
Nevertheless, by continuing in faith in the Child born (the Seed of Woman) the
woman and all her children, God’s elect, shall be saved.
As members of the church, you believing
women and men are part of the Mother, the Bride of Christ. We have a Husband,
Christ Jesus. Those born of Him are our sons and daughters. We have a
responsibility to submit to our Husband and to teach our children to do so.
What a glorious privilege of grace. Never take it for granted!