Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

November 28, 2010

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

Weekly Schedule of Services

One Life, One Meat, One Will

I Kings 17; John 4: 4-42

The work performed in the widow at Sarepta and the work performed in the woman at the well is one.  God the Father in Christ his Son sought out both women.  It was Christ speaking to both women.  Each rejected Christ at first for that which was earthy.  The Lord turned both to Christ the Living Bread, the Living Water.  Both had nothing but were given All. In each case, the Lord taught his messengers that though the Lord's charge involved literal going, dwelling and speaking, still it is the Lord sustaining and accomplishing the work by his Spirit, not our might and power.  May the Spirit work effectually to make Christ our Life so that our Meat is to do his will, to wait on the Lord and follow the Lord as we wait, to walk after the Lord and wait on the Lord as we walk, all the while amazed as the Spirit of God grows us up into Christ in faith and stunts us down in our own feeble sense!  The Lord says, “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14: 20).

The Furniture in My Father's House

     When I was a child living under my parent’s roof, I remember those times when I would come home to find the furniture in the living room rearranged. It always surprised me at first.  Sometimes I did not like it.  Yet, it was my father's house and his furniture.  But, in a little while I discovered that nothing about the house had changed.  My father was still my father, I was still his son. He still loved me and was still providing for me.  He was, still is, far more important to me than the furniture.

     Brethren, our houses, jobs, and earthly possessions are furniture which belongs to our heavenly Father.  When things are rearranged we are troubled at first. Fear not. It is our Father's house and furniture.  We like to point our couches toward man-made lakes.  What love when God, our faithful Father, rearranges the room so as to sit his child down in a better direction, facing Christ! We soon discover that nothing in our Father’s house has changed.  He is still our Father and we are still his child.  He still loves us and still continues to provide all for us in Christ our All.  This is the Peace that Christ gives, not as the world gives (not peace in the furniture) but the Peace of knowing we are accepted in the Beloved and nothing shall change his Love to us.  God our Father and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord is far more important than the furniture!

COVENANT FAITHFULNESS

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you (Isaiah 54:10). The mountains are the most stable objects in the material world—nature’s noblest emblem of immutability. But these have “change” written upon their stupendous brows. Time is furrowing them with wrinkles—wearing down their colossal forms. Atmospheric influences are subjecting them to continual waste and decay. The hoary-crowned Alp is included in the doom, “All these things shall be dissolved.” But, more enduring than mountains of primeval granite is God’s kindness. Whatever is dearest to us may change—and sooner or later must perish. The gourd we have lovingly nurtured and tended may wither, like Jonah’s, just when most needed. The gold we have taken a life-time to amass, may be forfeited by one adverse turn of capricious fortune. The brook which for long years has sung its joyful way at our side, may be dried in its channel. The “staff and beautiful rod” which blossomed in our household may be broken, and strewed in withered leaves at our feet. The cistern—hewn with such pains—may be fractured by a stroke of the chisel while hewing it, and lie scattered on the ground in fragments of shapeless ruin.  But God’s love is immutable and immovable! Mark the succession of golden links—”precious thoughts,” in our motto-verse. He speaks of the “covenant,”—”the covenant of peace,”—of “My peace”—a covenant not to be “removed.” These are glorious guarantees. Mountains, rocks, forests, all may decay and will decay; but “the Lord lives”—”His years shall have no end;”—”The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, upon those who fear him.”  Nothing can assail the believer’s safety or undermine his security. The oriental shepherds were used to girdle their flocks and folds with a belt of fire, to scare away the devouring wolves. ‘I,’ says God to His Zion, and to each child of Zion, ‘I will be that fiery defense. This covenant of My peace will be as a wall of flame—once within My fold you are safe forever. My sheep shall never—can never, perish.’ “Our cause,” says Luther, “is in the very hands of Him who can say with unimpeachable dignity, ‘No one shall pluck it out of My hands.’ I would not have it in our hands, and it would not be desirable that it were so. I have had many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have been able to place in God’s hands, I still possess.” “As soon might Satan,” says Charnock, “pull God out of heaven, undermine the security of Christ, and tear Him from the bosom of the Father, as deprive His people of their spiritual life.” Believer, rejoice in this faithful, covenant-keeping God. Anchor your soul on this Rock of the Divine veracity. The great adversary may try at times to impair your confidence—shake your trust—lead you to question your personal interest in the great salvation. But what are his negatives, to one affirmative of that God who cannot lie? His covenant of peace has something better than your own ever-fluctuating frames and feelings to rest upon. It is ratified by His own oath and promise. “The counsel of the Lord stands forever; the thoughts of His heart to all generations. “Just as the mountains surround and protect Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds and protects His people, both now and forever (Psalm 125:2). John MacDuff, 1849

SERMONS
After clicking on the following sermon links you will go to sermon notes where you will find an option at the top of the page to access the audio.

The Believer’s Treasure

Grace Exalted

The Three Applications of the Blood

The Treasure and the Pearl

Jesus is the Son of God (Kept from the Evil)

The Fire

The Practicality of Faith

Who is Speaking to Me?

ARTICLES

The Revelation of Christ’s Finished Work in the Heart

The Gospel in the Trees

No Natural Difference

The Difference Grace Makes

ARTICLES FROM OTHERS

You Think You’re Something

Resisting the Things of God

Today, With Christ

The Power of God

The Question of Good Works

But This Man

FREE E-BOOK

The Christian Remembrancer—Ambrose Serle

PRINTABLE TRACTS

A Good Place to Rest and Raise our Young

Saved in Childbearing

A Letter to a Preacher

The Church Were Everybody is a Nobody

O Ye of Little Faith