Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

June 12, 2022

Weekly Schedule of Services

Our annual summer conference is scheduled for July 8-10 with brothers Frank Tate, Eric Lutter, Kevin Thacker preaching.

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Proverbs 18:16: A man’s gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.

If a man’s gift which at the utmost must be of a scanty and transitory nature, hath such a power of opening the heart, what effect ought the great, the glorious, durable, and eternal gift of God’s dear Son to have in opening our souls to love him who hath so loved us? Qh! that a deep sense of this unspeakable Mercy may bring my soul continually before the Lord, with all the acknowledgments of love, and obedience, and faith, and praise.                                                                 

–Robert Hawker

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I Kings 5:10: So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire.

Solomon built the house of the Lord out of the cedars of Lebanon.  It began by Solomon making a royal decree and covenant with king Hiram who brought the cedars to Jerusalem (1 Ki 5) God the Father accomplished the building of his house through his royal covenant with God the Son.  Christ our King makes his servants kings unto God by his precious blood so that we believe and love Christ as king Hiram loved Solomon.  Like Solomon brought the cedars of Lebanon to himself through king Hiram, Christ our Solomon uses us to preach his word through which Christ brings all God’s elect children to himself—his choice cedars—and builds us up into his holyhouse.

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THE TREES OF THE LORD

Psalm 104:16: The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;

The same as the LORD planted the cedars of Lebanon, the Lord declares his people shall be “all righteous…the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified” (Ps 1:3).  All God’s elect are righteous and all are completely righteous in and by Christ our Righteousness.  He fills us with his fulness by the Holy Spirit which is like the sap that fills the cedars keeping our new man ever green (Jer 17:8). 

     But there were seasons the Lord sent heavy snow and drought upon the cedars of Lebanon. So he does his child.  Spurgeon said of God’s child, “He is not a hot-house plant, sheltered from temptation. He does not live in a world of holy and hallowed influence, preserving him from sin. He stands in the most exposed position, on yonder bare rock, where winds of mysterious Satanic influence and dreadful earthquakes of his own doubts and fears daily try him. Where terrific thunderbolts from God’s right hand, the thunderbolts of desertion and stern affliction all come against him. He has no shelter, no protection, except this—that the broad wings of the Eternal God always cover the cedars which he himself has planted.”

So there is a “need be” for the season of trial, as the apostle Peter said.  In these seasons the new man remains evergreen by the sap of the Spirit.  We are not hurt but bettered by the pruning.  It is only our flesh that withers because that is the “need be.”  By Christ delivering us through these light afflictions, God gives us a foretaste “of the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls.”  By taking away our false confidence, the Lord renews us again to behold Christ alone is our salvation so that he keeps us walking by faith rather than sight.  Peter said, “Whom having NOT SEEN, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, YET BELIEVING, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.”  Again, Spurgeon said, “To get us clean rid of that walking by sight, which is the disease of man, and to bring us to walk by faith in the Spirit, which is the glory of a Christian—this is a work well worthy of God.”

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ASSURING OUR HEARTS

1 John 3:23: And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24: And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

John is repeating what the Lord Jesus promised when he said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever…at that day, ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (Jn 14:15-19).  Our Lord is not teaching us to look at our faith and love for assurance. He is declaring that as the Spirit makes us obey Christ, the Spirit will comfort our hearts, assuring us that we are Christ’s and abide in his love.  It is by the Spirit that we know Christ, obey Christ and are comforted in Christ.

     We see this in Abraham.  When Abraham obeyed the Lord, just before he offered up his son the Lord stopped him, declaring, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Gen 22:12). The Lord already knew; the Spirit gave Abraham the new heart to obey him.  But the Lord assured Abraham in Abraham’s heart that the Lord knew.  This comfort and assurance is by the Spirit making us behold Christ our Substitute more and more as our only righteousness.  Immediately, Abraham looked up to see the Lord had provided a ram caught in a thicket to die in the place of Isaac.  And as the Spirit makes us behold Christ, he assures us that all spiritual blessings are ours in Christ for Christ’s sake.  The Lord called to Abraham a second time promising that because Abraham obeyed him, “in blessing I will bless thee” and will multiply your seed and overcome all your enemies (Gen 22:15-18).

    All born of the Spirit, by the same Spirit, love Christ and obey him.  The assurance and comfort that Christ gives through the Spirit is not confidence in our obedience but in Christ’s. The Lord declared the comfort and assurance is: “At that day, ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (Jn 14:19).  This is why Christ said, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if you do them” (Jn 13:17).