Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 06-04-2017
Bible TextIsaiah 55:4-6
Date04-Jun-2017
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 
June 4, 2017

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

 

Services Broadcast Live @ www.FreeGraceMedia.com/live

 

-----------------------------

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.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: watch videos of our full services—click here.

-----------------------------

 

SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS

 

Proverbs 7: 1: My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. 2: Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. 3: Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. 4: Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: 5: That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

 

-----------------------------

 

WE PREACH NOT OURSELVES

By Pastor Don Bell

 

2 Cor. 4:5: For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.

 

There is not a God called preacher who preaches himself. What could they say about themselves? What do they know but what God taught them, what do they do without Gods grace working in them. Does he labor in the gospel; does he love Christ, and the Lord’s dear people? All these are the gifts and blessings from the Lord Jesus.

 

     In what can they Glory in but Christ and His blessed Cross and the salvation he accomplished on his cross? What does he have that he didn’t receive?

 

    If you hear a preacher talking about his ministry, his accomplishments, his labors, his abilities, his degrees, and the souls he has won, he is preaching himself.

 

     Gods preachers are servants first of their Master the Lord Jesus and then serve you in the gospel with joy and thanksgiving. We want nothing from you, we want you, and that you owe one another nothing but love.

 

-----------------------------

 

For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” (1 Co 11:19)

-----------------------------

 

THE DOG FOLLOWS HIS MASTER

By Henry Mahan
Song by John Newton

 

So long as two men are walking together, you cannot tell which one of them the dog belongs to. But let the two men part company and it then becomes evident; the dog will follow his master! The dog does not hesitate, de­bate, or remain undecided; he quickly follows the one he loves.

     Where Christ and men separate; where the Word of God and the traditions of men divide; where the ways of God and ways of the flesh part, ­the servant of Christ does not hesitate, debate, or remain undecided; he follows Christ, whom he loves, regardless of the cost.

     The master may go to a sim­ple cottage, a meal of dry bread, and a lonesome ex­istence while his companion enjoys all the luxuries of the world. But the faithful dog cares little for these things so long as he is with his master.

 

"Content with beholding His face,

My all to His pleasure resigned;

No changes of season or place,

Would make any change in my mind;

While blest with a sense of His love,

A palace a toy would appear;

And prisons would palaces prove,

If Jesus would dwell with me there."

 

-----------------------------

 

“If I profess with loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that point where the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him!  Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-front besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”  Martin Luther

-----------------------------

 

GOD MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

When a person rejects scriptural doctrine concerning how God saves sinners because it does not agree with how they profess to have been saved then the person proves they are looking to their experience rather than to Christ. 

     The person who by God’s grace is truly looking to Christ, though they may not have previously heard a certain point of doctrine, will submit to it when they hear it preached from God’s word. They will either confess that the word declares exactly how Christ saved them or Christ will make them renounce their former vain experience and confess him for the first time.

-----------------------------

 

GOD’S GIFT

Isaiah 55: 4: Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. 5: Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. 6: Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

 

Christ Jesus is the sum and substance of the gospel.  God has given his Son and exalted Christ therefore God’s promises us that Christ shall save his people from our sins, so God exhorts sinners to come to Christ that we might be saved.

 

The GiftIsaiah 55: 4: Behold, I have given him.  If God will receive all the glory for being our Justifier then God must do the justifying himself. If God will receive all glory for being just then God must satisfy eternal justice for his people. If God will receive the glory for reconciling his people unto himself then God must do the reconciling. This is why it was necessary that God give his Son.  “To declare I say, HIS righteousness, that HE might be just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” (Rom 3: 26) Christ finished the work.

 

The Purpose—Isaiah 55: 4:…for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Christ is a witness to God’s people who alone reveals God to us. Christ said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;” (Jn 14: 9; Mt 11:27) Also, Christ is the leader of God’s people. Christ leads his people in the way we must go in order to be saved.  “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.” (Is 48: 17) Lastly, Christ is the commander of his people.  He is the King who commands his subjects. By Christ’s power we are made to obey and believe on him. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” (Ps 110:3)

 

The Call—Isaiah 55: 5: Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee. Christ knows each individual sinner he redeemed in all the nations. Our names were written in Christ’s book in eternity in divine election. We know him not until he calls us.  But when he calls it is effectual therefore we run to him and cannot be moved away—“Behold, thou shalt call…and they shall run unto thee.” Therefore, Christ shall lose none!

 

The ReasonIsaiah 55: 5:…because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified him. The reason God gave his Son is because God has and shall give all glory to him.  All his people shall glory only in him!

 

The ExhortationIsaiah 55: 6: Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.  Has God given you the Son of God? If so call on him now without delay!  “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 Jn 5: 11-12)