July 8, 2018
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
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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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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS
Proverbs 11: 23: There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there
is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.
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Our deepest sympathy to our Brother Walt Montessi in the recent death
of his mother.
Work day Saturday, July 14 to prepare for our conference: we need ladies to give the inside of
the building a very thorough cleaning. Outside,
we mainly need men to help mulch the flower beds. The mulch will be delivered
by Saturday. If you have extra wheelbarrows and shovels please bring them.
For the men cutting the grass each week: since
the grass is slow growing in the heat, if it does not need to be cut then
please use the time to blow off the street and sidewalk all the way past the
bridge, plus the ramp and parking lot. Also, please weed the flower beds as
needed. When fall comes, use the time to
mulch the leaves with the mower.
Our 11th Annual Summer Meeting is
scheduled July 20-22. The speakers will be Pastor Don Fortner from Grace
Baptist Church of Danville, KY; Pastor Mike Walker from Millsite Baptist Church
in Cottageville, WV; and Pastor Gabe Stalnaker from Kingsport Sovereign Grace
Church in Kingsport, TN. For more
information on hotels go to our sermon audio page and click on events.
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2
Timothy 3: 16: All scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17: That the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
The scripture we hear preached each week are not fables
but the very word of God. When we hear
the word preached, we should receive it “not
as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually
worketh also in you that believe.” (1 Thess 2: 13) When taught doctrine, learn; when reproved,
submit; when corrected, repent; when instructed in righteousness, obey. The
word grows the man of God, throughly furnishing us unto all good works. If God
is working effectually in us then we will hear God’s word and live it!
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All the dark mysteries and painful
experiences of God’s providence will be cleared up for God’s saints in God’s
time. — “Jesus answered and said unto
him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter” --Pastor Don Fortner
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LOOK TO CHRIST RATHER THAN EVIDENCES
Judge ye, brethren, whether you could ever form a proper estimate of the
world by its appearance on any one day. If I had taken you out a month ago into
the fields, you would have declared that the trees were dead. What signs of
life would you have perceived? The bulbs were buried in the ground; you might
have taken a solemn oath that flowers were banished, and you might have
imagined that because there were none, there never would be any. But what was
your evidence of the world’s state worth? Look at it now, when the buds are bursting on
the trees, when the flowers are springing from the sod, when everything is
hastening on towards spring and summer. Why, as it is absurd and ridiculous for
us to judge of the world’s estate by the fact that there was a cloud to-day and
there was a shower of rain yesterday, and therefore infer that the sun has lost
its force and will never shine, it is just as ridiculous to judge of our
standing before God by our present standing, according to our evidences on some
one day.
Charles Spurgeon
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Our Lord and Savior said it plainly “No man can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is
written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”
(John 6:44-45). If Christ alone is your hope and salvation, you have only God
to thank for it. You have nothing to boast of in your flesh (1 Cor. 1:30-31).
In Christ we are spiritually born and only in him do we worship God in Spirit
and in truth. Read 1 Peter 1:23 – 2:10.
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DO WE WASH OUR FACE WITH THE MIRROR?
When a man looks in the mirror and
sees that his face is dirty, does he use the mirror to wash his face? Of course not! Nor when we look into the mirror of God’s law
and it declares us guilty, should we attempt to use it to wash ourselves. The
law was only given to be a mirror, to give us a knowledge of our sin and
declare us guilty. (Rom 3: 19-20) Then God’s grace makes us flee to that
fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, Christ Jesus, whose blood washes our
scarlet sins as white as snow. (Zec 13: 1; Is 1: 18)
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GOD’S COUNSEL IS UNCHANGEABLE
Hebrews 6: 13: For when
God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by
himself, 14: Saying, Surely
blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 15: And so, after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. 16:
For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to
them an end of all strife. 17: Wherein
God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 18: That by two immutable things, in which it was
impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
It is amazing how quickly men will believe
a man with some new prediction of future events based on some absurd theory while
questioning the very word of God. Think about that! Yet, man’s unbelief in no way alters God’s
unchangeable decree to save his people through faith in his Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ.
When God made promise to Abraham to bless him and all his elect in
Christ, God also made an oath, swearing by himself. Why did God swear by himself? When men make an oath they swear by the greater. For instance, in a court of law men swear by
God who is greater. Since there is no
one greater than God, he swore by himself. But is the promise of God not enough?
Why did God add his oath? An oath, confirms a man’s word, ending all doubt that
he is telling the truth. So to show that his counsel is unchangeable, God gave
not one but two unchangeable things in which it was impossible for God to lie—his
promise and his oath. And so after Abraham patiently endured to the
end in faith, he obtained the promise. “God is not a man, that he should lie;
neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not
do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Nu 23: 19) He declares
“the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure.” (Is 46: 10)
Yet, sinners hear this and go on questioning the word of God? As the
apostle Paul said, “What if some do not
believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.
Let God be true and every man a liar; as it is written, that thou mightiest be
justified in thy sayings, and mightiest overcome when thou art judged.“ (Rom
3: 3-4)
Truth is, man’s unbelief further proves that God’s counsel is immutable! Notice, it was not for everyone that God did
this, only for “the heirs of promise.”
Be sure to get this! As God made promise
to bless Abraham, God gave these two immutable things in which it was impossible
for God to lie, so that his elect—the very heirs that God was promising Abraham
he would save—would have strong consolation that we, like Abraham, shall obtain
the promise. Therefore, according to God’s
unchangeable promise to Abraham, the Spirit of God found us dead in unbelief, regenerated
us and gave us faith to believe on Christ in whom all the promises of God are
yes and amen to the glory of God. No! Man’s
unbelief does not change the faith of God to fulfill his counsel. But rather, sinners
like us, who now have fled to Christ our Refuge to lay hold of the hope set
before us, who have this strong consolation by God’s immutable counsel, are
living proof that God’s counsel is immutable!