December
1, 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.
"Awake, O
sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the
Lord of hosts." Zechariah 13:7
Would we see, feel, and realize the
exceeding sinfulness of sin, it is not by viewing the lightning’s and hearing
the thunders of Sinai's fiery top, but in seeing the agony and bloody sweat,
and hearing the groans and cries of the suffering Son of God, as made sin for
us, in the garden and upon the cross….To see, by the eye of faith, as revealed
to the soul by the power of God, the darling Son of God bound, scourged,
buffeted, spit upon, mocked, and then, as the climax of cruel scorn and
infernal cruelty, crucified between two thieves,—this believing sight, this
fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, will melt the hardest heart into
contrition and compunction….For as all the sins of his people were put upon
him, the wrath of God due to them fell upon him, separation from God, under a
sense of his terrible displeasure, and that on account of sin, that abominable
thing which his holy soul hates,—is not this hell? This, then, was the
hell experienced by the suffering Redeemer when the Lord laid on him the
iniquities of us all (Isaiah 53:6).
JC Philpot
*******
LOVE ABOUNDING
Philippians 1: 9: And this I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all
judgment; 10: That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be
sincere and without offence till the day of Christ; 11: Being filled with the
fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise
of God.
The desire of Christ’s preacher is to
see those to whom he ministers bear fruit. (3 Jo 1:4; 2 Pet 3: 18) The apostle
Paul said, “I desire fruit that may abound to your account.” (Php 4: 7) Our
text is Paul’s prayer to God for the church at Philippi for that fruit.
That Your Love May Abound
Paul prayed to God “that your love
may abound yet more and more.” The believer, born of God, loves because God,
who is love, fills us with his Spirit. Therefore, those born again, love God, love
fellow believers and have a desire for lost sinners to be saved by God’s grace.
(1 Jn 3:14: 4: 7-8; 5: 1) This love is
not the fake, sentimentality the world speaks about. It is love in Christ, in
spirit and in truth, love for Christ and love for truth. Paul’s assurance of their love for him was
due to their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until the day he wrote
the epistle. They were partakers of the same grace of which Paul was a
partaker. True love and fellowship is in the gospel of Christ. (2 Jn 1: 1-2;
9) We rejoice when brethren rejoice and
mourn when they mourn because our brethren are one with us in Christ, born of
the same Holy Spirit. Our desire and
prayer for one another is that Christ might cause our brethren to abound more
and more in love.
Love Grown in Knowledge
Paul prayed that their love would grow
“in knowledge.” Love for Christ and for brethren grows in proportion as the
Spirit grows us in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. When we are born-again our “new man is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” (Col 3: 10; Jer
31: 34) Christ said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent?” (Jn 17: 3) We desire to know
more of Christ. Paul said, “That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto
his death.” (Php 3: 10) This knowledge is more than an intellectual
understanding it is the unction of the Holy One. The more we know of our ruin and the evils of
our heart the more we know the sovereign, everlasting love of God for us in Christ. There is no cause of God’s love toward his
elect but in God. By nature we are more worthy to be loathed than loved. (1 Jn
4: 9-11) God’s love chose us and entrusted us to Christ. Christ’s love for righteousness
and for us is why he became our Surety, why Christ assumed our nature, why
Christ was willing made sin for us even while we were enemies, why Christ bore
the wrath of God’s justice for us making us the righteousness of God in him, why
Christ brought the gospel to us and formed himself in our hearts. He says to
us, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (Jn
15: 12-13; Eph 3: 14-18) To grow in love is to grow in the knowledge of Christ
Jesus.
Love Grown in Judgment
Paul prayed that their love might
abound “in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye
may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.” The Holy Spirit gives us spiritual senses, exercises
those senses and thus grows our senses to discern both good and evil. (Heb 5:
14) One reason being in a church family is so important is that as we hear the
gospel we also suffer various trials together.
Christ our Head teaches his members using other members. Perhaps a brother causes us great trial. Christ uses it to remind us what is in
ourselves before God the Father. We
learn by experience how God is patient and longsuffering toward us. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
and we learn to be more patient and longsuffering with our brethren as God for
Christ sake is toward us. God teaches us
to trust Christ to make our brother stand, to be an encouragement, to remind
him of the precious blood of Christ. Perhaps you admire how another brother always
has a Christ-honoring word to cheer your heart. Christ uses that brother to
teach us to be helpers of one another’s joy. We learn how to love by being
loved. Also, our Master teaches us by
the word of God to try things that differ, to approve things that are of value,
to let go of things that are not, to approve things that are excellent. Paul
said, I show you “a more excellent way” which is, faith working by love. By
Christ growing us in judgment Christ makes us strive to be without offense to
those around us: not injurious to their property, or feelings, or reputation,
to strive to never cause others to stumble, to follow after things that make
for peace, that the ministry be not blamed. (Romans 14: 19-21; 15: 2-3; 2 Cor
6:3)
Fruits by Jesus Christ
Notice, that all these fruits are “by
Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God.”
The apostle Paul depended entirely upon God, saying, “This I pray.” We want to see God call his elect, to see
sinners repent from vanity, to believe on Christ and to grow in grace. But we are completely dependent upon God for
these things. The child of God grows in grace the same way we begin in grace, “Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the
glory and praise of God.” Only God can
create life in a sinner. (Jn 15: 3-5; 1 Cor 3: 6-7) And only God can bring
forth fruit in his child. Let us pray to
God for one another for this growth in love in knowledge and judgment as Paul
did for his brethren. Christ shall keep each of his redeemed children till the
day of Christ return our Advocate shall present us to God, blameless. (1 Cor
1:8)