November
24, 2013
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
Order of service, announcements, nursery schedule, etc.,
are in attachment. All articles in the bulletin
are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
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FOUR
MUSTS
Luke 24:44: And he said unto them,
These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all
things MUST be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the
prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
John 3:7: Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye MUST be
born again.
John 3: 14: And as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even MUST the Son of man be lifted up:
Acts 4:12: Neither is there salvation
in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we MUST be saved.
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How faint the best praise! How
wandering the best prayer! How selfish the best gift! When we feel
that we are nearest to God, how far off we are! When we feel that we are
most like God, how unlike God we are! What did the apostle say?
“When I am weak, then am I strong.” Our strength is always Christ, never
in anything we are or do. Henry Mahan
SEEING EVERY MAN CLEARLY
Mark 8: 22-25
Mark 8: 22: And he cometh to
Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
23: And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and
when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he
saw ought. 24: And he looked up, and
said, I see men as trees, walking. 25: After that he put his hands again upon
his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
Before God gives spiritual sight the sinner has none. (1 Cor 2: 14) The
sinner cannot see from where his sin originates, he does not see himself as bad
as he is, he does not see Christ with saving faith, and he does not see a need
to be born again. But when God gives spiritual sight the believer sees every
man clearly.
Adam
When God gives spiritual sight we see Adam is the representative man in
whom all men fell into sin and death. If we miss this fact, we will not
understand our need of a substitute. We
will miss why it is we need for God to come in Christ to accomplish the
redemption of his people. Adam is the
first man. What Adam did affected every
one that Adam represented, which was all men.
Adam broke the one law God gave him. Sin entered the world and death by
sin. All died in Adam. (Ro 5:12-14)
Our Natural Man
When
the Spirit of God makes us to see Adam as our representative the Spirit makes
us to see clearly that we died in Adam so that our natural man is nothing but
sin. (Rom 5:12) Eve conceived a child from
Adam, on down the line to you and me. So
not only did we fall under the curse judicially because Adam our Federal Head
sinned, his corrupt seed was passed on to us so that we are conceived with a
corrupt nature. (Ps 51:5; 58:3) We
did not sin to become sinners; we sinned because we are sinners. The heart, the nature, is depraved, wicked,
enmity against God. (Jer 17:9; Gen 6: 5; Jer 13:23; Job 14:4; 1 Cor 2:14; Jn
3:3, 6; Eph 2:1-3) As we are born the first time, every person is depraved,
lost, condemned, without Christ and without hope in this world.
The GodMan
The Holy Spirit makes us to see clearly Christ Jesus, the GodMan. Christ is God in human flesh and Christ is
the last Adam, meaning, he is the Head of each elect child which God gave him
before the foundation of the world (Rom 5: 14-21) Christ Jesus successfully
established everlasting righteousness—and is that righteousness—for all whom he
represented by his doing and dying. Each
one shall be made eternally alive and given faith by the irresistible grace of
God because the Spirit forms Christ in us by his quickening spirit and makes
each of his redeemed children to see Christ and to lay hold of him by faith. (1
Cor 15: 22, 45-49; Col 2:9-10; 1 Cor
1:30-31) Do you see the God-Man clearly? In his incarnation we see Christ is God; in
his obedience we see Christ is our holiness; in his death we see Christ is our
righteousness; in his resurrection we see Christ is our justification; in his
exaltation upon his throne we see Christ is our King; in his place at the
Father’s right hand we see Christ is our Advocate with the Father; in Christ
seated we see that Christ is our completion, the work is finished.
Our New Man
The Holy Spirit makes us to see our
new man. After being born of Christ the
Seed, the Living Word, by the gospel, that new man within us is born of
incorruptible Seed. (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10) Christ formed in you is, the hope
of glory. (1 Jn 3: 9-10, 23-24; 2 Pet 1: 4) This new man is a new creature
in Christ and, being born of God, according to God, all things become new. And they
truly do! (2 Cor 5:17-18) One of those
new things is a warfare between the flesh and the Spirit, the old man and the
new man, which was not there before. (Gal 5:16-25) All who have been born of God are one new man
in Christ, one with him and one in him, “the fulness of him that filleth all
in all” and Christ is All and in all. (Col 3: 11)
Now we see but not perfectly. But
in that great eternal day we shall see without the least hindrance of sin. Then we shall see Christ face-to-face.
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“Am I to bring no works, no faith (not even faith)? NO –
your faith brings you. Faith leaves all
works behind. It relies on God’s
gracious promises. It pleads God’s rich
mercy in Christ, to poor perishing sinners.
William Mason
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The Savior said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of
me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For
my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt 11: 28-30)