Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

October 30, 2022

 Weekly Schedule of Services

Proverbs 19: 12: The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.

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“No revealed truth is more generally doubted and disbelieved than this, the plainest of all revelations, that the Lord is gracious and full of compassion, and ready to pass by the iniquities of his people.” 

       –C. H. Spurgeon

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When the rule of the children of Israel was transferred from Moses to Joshua, Moses laid his hands on Joshua bearing witness that Joshua was full of the Spirit and Wisdom of God so that Joshua would deliver Israel to the promised land rather than Moses.  The law and the prophets lay their hands on Christ bearing witness of Christ (Rom 3: 21-22).  When the Spirit of God gives us faith we lay our hand on Christ confessing that he alone gave the law the righteousness on our behalf, honoring and magnifying it, so that Christ is all our Righteousness and we are under our Lord’s rule.

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In the face of events that shake our society to its very foundation, we must not be shaken.  Our God is still on his throne.  Let us, therefore, walk through this world of woe, even through this valley of the shadow death, confident and free of fear.  God has not given up the reigns of the universe.  He has not taken his hand off the helm of the ship.  He is still in total control of all things, at all times, in all places.           

–Don Fortner

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CASTING ALL YOUR CARE UPON HIM

Believer, do you have any burdens, worries, anxieties, concerns or fears? If you’re reading these words you do. We may try to convince ourselves or others that we are so spiritually stable, faithful, and grounded, that we are beyond the reach of these plagues of the old man. But to you who have been made honest and willingly admit the battle that rages within, remember these words of comfort, “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you” (1Peter 5:7).       

–Marvin Stalnaker

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Christ’s people are the temple where God dwells.  Christ prayed to God our Father, saying, “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” (Jn 17:23)  By indwelling us, he makes us dwell in him. Thus we are made perfect in Christ.  This oneness is inseparable.

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Every sanctified child of God has what David had. “The LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies” (2 Sam 7:1).  David fought many battles in many wars. But it was the LORD who made    David victorious! God’s saints fight the fight of faith. But it is Christ who makes us victorious! “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Rom 8: 37)

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In gratitude for God giving David peace from all his enemies, he wanted to build God a house to God’s honor.  God showed in type that it is Christ who builds his house.  Still, God saw David’s heart and said, “Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thy heart” (1 Ki 8: 18).  While God’s child knows that Christ alone builds the Lord’s house, out of gratitude for how God has given us rest in Christ, our heart is to honor God our Father and his Son, Christ Jesus in all things.  Like David, we are always looking for ways to further the gospel of Christ and help God’s people.

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Years ago I was preaching in a place I had never been among people I did not know.  A very religious man kept telling me about “church plants.”  I had never heard the term and wondered why he was so proud of providing potted plants for his church building.  It turned out he was boasting about how he and others had been skillful in starting several churches in foreign lands.  Brethren, it is Christ alone who builds the Lord’s house, adding to the church daily such as should be saved—such as were ordained to eternal life by God (Acts 2:47; 13: 48). God gives his children the privilege of being instruments in God’s hand to preach the gospel but we have no room to boast for only God plants his church.  The LORD promised, “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more.’ (2 Sam 7:10).

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When God makes his everlasting covenant of grace known in our hearts declaring that all the work of making us righteous and holy is by God in Christ, apart from our works, then the believers bows in humility and praises God in thankfulness and amazement.  When God revealed this to David, “Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who [am] I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?...For thy word’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know [them.] Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for [there is] none like thee, neither [is there any] God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears” (2 Sam 7: 18-29).

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When God moves in salvation, He lays hold of one sinner and makes him a preacher. He lays hold of another sinner and makes him a hearer. He puts a message in the preacher, and gives him the ability to preach it. He puts faith in the hearer, and gives him the ability to believe it. And when the transaction is finished, all parties give God all the glory for all of it! The preacher cries: “Salvation is of the Lord!” The hearer cries: “Salvation is of the Lord!” The preacher takes no credit for the message! The hearer takes no credit for believing the message! They both in complete agreement say: “To God be the glory, great things He hath done!”

–Gabe Stalnaker