February
17, 2019
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
MEETING LOCATION
251 Green Lane
Ewing, NJ, 08368
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
Clay@FreeGraceMedia.com
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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Proverbs
12: 25: Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh
it glad.
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1 Corinthians 13: 8: Charity never
faileth
Even considering only natural love, it never fails. A sister can
disapprove of her brother’s lifestyle, be angry at her brother, even be
determined to never speak to him again, but when that brother is in need, if
there is but one grain of love in her heart for her brother, it will compel her
to acts of love to help her brother.
Charity is not our natural love. It is
that love that Christ, in his high priestly prayer, asked the Father to put in
his people. Be sure to get this. Our Lord said to the Father “that
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them” (Jn 17:
26). Charity is the love with which God loves Christ, which God has
put in a believer in the new birth. It becomes our love. We truly
love Christ. But it is God’s love itself withwhich he loves Christ which
is put in us. It is that perfect love that the apostle John spoke about
when he told us “if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
perfected in us.” It does not mean we love perfectly. But the love
of God itself is perfect love. He has given us, not all of that love
without measure, but he has given us “of his Spirit” by which he has
given us “of” his love. Therefore, charity never fails because God’s love
for Christ never fails.
John said no sinner should imagine that
he loves God, who he has not seen, when he does not love his brother who he has
seen. Separating myself from the assembly of God’s saints is not
love. There is no way for me to express love to a brother when isolate
myself from them. “Preacher, you must be writing to me, directly!”
If the shoe fits then yes! Love does not condone rebellion
but speaks the truth in love to the object of its love. John is even more
bold. He says such a man is a liar and the word is not in him. Even
natural love must express itself in acts of love upon its object. How
much more the love which is of God, the love wherewith God loves
Christ! Charity never faileth! When we no longer
possess faith and hope, believers born of God, will still possess love for God
and for one another!
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WHEN I AM WEAK THEN AM I STRONG – II Cor.
12:10
Sin is
so deceptive it makes us think there is some strength in our flesh. The
flesh makes us think we are smart enough to understand the things of God.
The flesh makes us think we are good enough to earn God’s favor. The
flesh makes us think we are strong enough to endure trials and
afflictions. We will go to hell trusting in the strength of the flesh
unless God by His grace makes us weak.
What a blessing to be made
weak! When God makes us weak in understanding so that we cannot
understand the gospel, then we will be strong because we will rely on God to
reveal it to us. What a blessing it is to believe in the heart what
cannot be comprehended by the head! When God makes us weak in our own
goodness, then we will be strong because we will rely on Christ to be all of
our righteousness. What a blessing it is when Christ is our
righteousness! When God makes us so weak that we cannot endure trials and
heartaches then we will be strong because we will rely on God’s grace, which is
sufficient for every trial. (II Cor. 12:9) What a blessing to rely on
God’s grace and goodness and not on my own strength! Pastor
Frank Tate
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TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?
When the Lord spoke of eating His flesh and
drinking His blood, many found it to be a hard saying, unbelievable saying, and
many of His disciples went back and walked no more with him. The Lord asked the
twelve. “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also
go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom
shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. John
6:67-68
- To whom shall we go for Truth? Christ
said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…” apart from Christ we cannot
know the Truth. Truth is a person.
- To whom shall we go for forgiveness?
Jesus Christ only has the authority to forgive us of our sins. “But that ye
may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then
saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto
thine house.” Matthew 9:6
- To whom shall we go for Redemption? If
we are to be saved we must be redeemed from the curse of the law. “Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree” Galatians 3:13
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Col 1:14
- To whom shall we go for wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification and redemption? Jesus Christ is all these to
every believer. “But of him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” 1Corinthians 1:30
God the Father has
made His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our all in all. “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free: but Christ is all, and in
all” (Colossians 3:11). Thank God if
you know that there is no one else to go to for all you need to stand before
God accepted.
Pastor John Chapman
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FOR I AM GRACIOUS
Exodus 22: 21-26: If thou at
all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by
that the sun goeth down: 27: For
that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin:
wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that
I will hear; FOR I AM GRACIOUS.
In each of these people that God protects we see a picture of you and I
who are saved by God’s grace: the stranger, the widow, the orphan and the poor.
They represent helpless sinners. They represent us who God has saved by his
grace.
It was only by God’s free and
sovereign grace that the precious blood of Christ has made us no more strangers
but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God. (Eph
2: 11-19). By God’s grace, he made us
know we have Christ our Husband who redeemed us and shall never leave us widows
(Hos 3:3) Grace sent us the Spirit of
adoption, so that now these once helpless orphans have God for our Father, God’s
church as our mother, and God’s people as our brethren (1 Jn 3:1). We were the poor bankrupt sinner. But God did not take advantage of us by usury
nor demand a pledge from us. Instead, God
gave us the pledge of eternal glory by giving us the Holy Spirit. Now, by God’s
grace, these poor sinners are enriched with the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Therefore, God makes us
remember our helpless condition and how God was gracious to us as we behold sinners
in the same helpless condition. The
motive for every believer in all our dealings with one another, and with all
men, is God’s grace toward us. Grace makes
us cover the sin of our brethren instead of expose it. Grace makes us bear one another’s burden. Grace makes us restore in the spirit of
meekness. “If so be that we have tasted that the Lord is gracious” then how
can we be anything but gracious!
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BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD
John
1:29: The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world.
I
can give you the Gospel of God in five words. “Behold the Lamb of God.” We could in three words say more than
most modern-day preachers say in a whole sermon by declaring to the lost, “Look and live.” “And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” (John
3:14) Christ Jesus, the Son of man and the Son of God, must be lifted up in
our preaching so that sinners can, “Behold
Him.” There is life in a look at the Savior. How do I know that? Because,
John the Baptist tells us, “Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Beholding and looking
to Christ is how sin is taken away. (continued
on next page)
Did you notice that little three-letter word “sin?” Did you also notice
the word “sin” is singular? Sins (plural) are what we do. Sin (singular) is
what we are! We sin because we are sinners. Sin is our state of being before
God! Looking and beholding Christ is how our state and condition of SIN is
removed. The sinner that beholds and trusts Christ Jesus “puts on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians
4:24) Dear sinner, Behold (look) to the Lamb of God, for He and only He can
take away your sin. There is only One Mediator between God and men, and that is
the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5) Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
all the sin, of all God’s elect, throughout all time.
Pastor
David Eddmenson