April 1, 2018
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
MEETING LOCATION
251 Green Lane
Ewing, NJ, 08368
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
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
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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 services—click here.
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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS
Proverbs 11: 7: 7: When a wicked man
dieth, his expectation shall perish:
and the hope of unjust men perisheth.
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JESUS CHRIST IS BOTH FATHER AND BROTHER
Jesus Christ is
to His family what no mortal could be to his family: both Father and Brother.
Believers know Jesus Christ as their Father because Jehovah identifies
Him as our “Eternal Father” (Isaiah 9:6), and He calls us “My children”
(Proverbs 8:32), and we are His “seed” or offspring (Isaiah 53:10; Psalm
22:30).
Believers know Jesus Christ as their Brother because “He had to be made
like His brethren” (Hebrews 2:17), and “He [is] the firstborn among many
brethren” (Romans 8:29), and “He is not ashamed to call [us] brethren” (Hebrews
2:11; cp. Matthew 25:40; John 20:17).
Believers take great comfort in these two
glorious truths – for good reasons!
A father sees that the needs of his children
are met. Therefore, when a need presents itself to a believer, the believer may
say to it, “Jesus Christ, my All-Sufficient Father, will take care of you.”
A brother comes to the defense of
his siblings. Therefore, when Satan comes as a bully threatening a believer,
the believer may say to him, “Jesus Christ, my Big Brother, will take care of
you.”
Missionary Daniel E Parks
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TAKING SIDES WITH GOD
AGAINST OURSELVES
For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that
do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I
consent unto the law that it is good. Romans 7:15-16
Paul says, “For what I would, that I do not.” That
word “would” in this verse means to “choose and determine.” What Paul is saying
is this, “What I want to do, desire to do, what I would choose, determine and
prefer to do, I don’t do! Paul adds further, “But what I hate, that do I.” Paul is saying, “I want to do what’s right.” “I
would prefer to do what’s right.” “In
my mind, I choose and determine to do what’s right.” BUT I DON’T DO IT, and I HATE IT THAT I DON’T!
Paul continues and says, “If then I do that which I would not, I
consent unto the law that it is good.” It is here that Paul takes sides
with the law of God. Paul condemns his evil. Paul mourns his transgressions. He
consents that the law is good, and that God is right! Let me give you an
illustration. If a man commits a crime and the law finds him guilty, he is
judged by the law. He is found guilty according to the justice of the law. He
is sentenced according to the parameters of the law. His condemnation, according
to the law, results in him being put behind bars. Will that condemned man dare
say that the law is the reason that he is incarcerated? It isn’t the law that
put him there, it is his offence, his crime, and his sin that did.
The law of God is good. God
is right and just. Aren’t you glad that Christ died the “JUST” for the “unjust,”
to bring you to God? Do you see that it is YOUR sin that condemns you before God?
It is then that the saved sinner will do as Paul did. He will take sides with
God against himself and plead and beg for His mercy.
Pastor David Eddmenson
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PREVENIENT GRACE—PREPATORY GRACE
“Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness.” (Psalm
21:3)
The Lord God precedes the entrance of
Christ into the hearts of chosen, redeemed sinners with unknown, secret works
of goodness. Prevenient grace is preparatory grace. It is that grace that
prepares the chosen, redeemed sinner to receive God’s saving grace. By
prevenient grace, and then by the inward, secret work of God the Holy Spirit in
the heart, God makes the heart of his chosen good soil to receive the Word sown
(Matthew 13:3-9).
Sweet, indescribably sweet is that work of God’s providence and grace
that precedes his grace, prepares the way for his grace, and brings his grace!
Just ask any who have experienced it. How Bartimaeus must rejoice in his
God-sent blindness that put him in the Savior’s path, who brought seeing to his
eyes and light to his soul! That woman with an issue of blood for twelve long,
miserable years today gives glory and praise to the God of all grace who bowed
her body that he might bow her heart. I cannot begin to imagine the praises of
that once wild, Gadarene demoniac who now walks the streets of the City of God
telling how thankful he is that he once walked in darkness among the dead,
possessed of devils, that he might know the liberty of light, and
righteousness, and grace in Christ. I can almost see that poor woman taken in
adultery in Glory Land. How her face must beam with gratitude, joy, love, and
praise, as she worships the God of all grace who brought her to the Savior by
her being taken in adultery! See, yonder, the dying thief today with Christ in
Paradise! How he must be overwhelmed with the goodness of God that preceded the
grace he experienced when he was crucified with his Redeemer on Calvary’s hill!
It was the goodness of God in prevenient grace coming before that brought him
to be judged, condemned, and crucified, that he might have the Lord Jesus
Christ revealed in him as they hung together upon Calvary! Pastor Don Fortner
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BE NOT DRUNK WITH WINE
Ephesians 5: 17: Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the
will of the Lord is. 18: And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be
filled with the Spirit; 19:
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for
all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Drunkenness is sin. Drinking alcohol
is not. We are not forbidden to drink alcohol in scripture but we are forbidden
to get drunk. But the Holy Spirit is not using Paul to merely chop off one limb
of the corrupt tree. If that were the case this would not apply to those who do
not get drunk with wine. We should also look at “drunkenness” as a metaphor
which cuts at the very root of the tree, that is, our sin nature.
Drunkenness caused by drugs and
alcohol is like the intoxication caused by the old man of sin within us. Giving
ourselves to our old fleshly man is like giving ourselves to wine. When our
works, our belly, our senses, our pleasures, our glory, and the cares of this
world are a man’s god then he is drunk with the wine of his flesh. Our sin-nature is our root problem. A man could never touch alcohol but the root is
still there. When a man becomes drunk with literal alcohol, it is because he
first became drunk in his old man of sin.
The Lord is teaching us to walk after
the Spirit, not after the flesh. Notice, he says “And be not drunk with wine…But be filled with the Spirit.” Both effect something in us. The flesh produces
excess: pride, rioting, songs of the
drunkard, rejoicing in the works of the flesh. But being filled with Spirit
produces “Speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart
to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Therefore, by the grace of the Holy
Spirit, let us drink deep from the cup of salvation rather than being drunk
with the iniquity of the flesh or of wine.
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