Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 12-16-2018
Bible TextEphesians 6:18
Date15-Dec-2018
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 

December 16, 2018

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

 

MEETING LOCATION

251 Green Lane

Ewing, NJ, 08368

Clay Curtis, pastor

Telephone: 615-513-4464

Clay@FreeGraceMedia.com

 

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

 

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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 servicesclick here.

 

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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS

Proverbs 12: 16: A fool’s wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covereth shame..

 

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The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save his people from their sins. The blessed good news of the gospel is that he did what he came to do. With his own blood he entered once into the holy place, “having obtained eternal redemption for us!”

                                                                                    Pastor Don Fortner

 

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Ephesians 6: 18: Praying always…

 

It goes without saying, believers pray.  Christ confirmed to Ananias that he had indeed converted Paul by saying, “Behold, he prayeth.”  Yet, because we have the old man of sinful flesh, throughout the scriptures, we are constantly reminded to pray and given much instruction concerning true prayer, as we are in our text.  But we will focus on this first word, “Praying always.” (Eph 6: 18)

     Though we have much to thank God for and much to pray for so that we could and should pray always, it does not mean that believers are constantly bowing our heads and going through the outward motions of prayer.  Believers live in the spirit of perpetual, constant dependence upon God our Savior. That is the spirit of prayer.  Believers do not pray only when we are in need or distress.  We pray in good times as well as bad; when the way is clear as well as in trial.  Our minds are often thinking of how God chose us freely by his grace.  Or we think upon Christ’s suffering and successful redemption of his people.  Other times our minds are on the Holy Spirit’s regenerating power by whom we have life and faith.  We think of the great blessing God gave us to have the gospel preached in spirit and truth.  Our hearts are often comforted thinking of the great gift of brethren.   We think on these things, because the Spirit moves us in our hearts to think on spiritual things.  We are in commune with God.  We often consciously pray, thanking God for these things.  But whether we do so or simply rejoice in our hearts over these blessings, we are in the spirit of prayer always.  God looks on the heart.


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When sinners are converted, that is, when they come to “know Christ”, and not before: i.e., when He is revealed to them and in them as the only Savior and Redeemer, then they continue to increase in the knowledge of him (2 Pet 3:18).  They earnestly desire to know more of Him, and eagerly pursue the means and methods by which they attain to a greater degree of the knowledge of Him; so the words are, Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; (Hosea 6:3 ESV)                                     Pastor Terry Worthan

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BOLDNESS

     Every child of God would like to have boldness.  What is boldness exactly?  Boldness is being so assured of the truth about some matter that no one can convince you otherwise.  Boldness in salvation comes from knowing Christ. If we know Christ, it is obvious that salvation is only in Him so I won’t look anywhere but Christ.

    In Acts 4 the religious leaders were amazed at the bold declaration of Peter and John, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) The reason Peter and John were so confident that salvation is all in Christ is they had been with the Lord. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13)

    Don’t you think it is reasonable to expect that we would have more boldness if we learned more of Christ by spending more time being where Christ is preached?
                                                                                             Pastor Frank Tate

 

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TALK LIKE EVERYONE IS LISTENING

    I use my phone to broadcast our services ‘live’, and last Wednesday night, about an hour or so after the service, I discovered that my phone was still on ‘live recording.’  All of my private conversations were heard by whomever was still listening.  As you would, I carefully thought back on all that was said; fearful of having said something I shouldn’t have.  Then the thought occurred to me, ‘we should talk in private as if everyone were listening. We should talk to each other and talk about (or not talk about) each other as if everyone were listening. And we should act in private like everyone is watching.  Someone is listening and watching;  HE Who matters most. . . our Lord. “There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether (Ps.139:4).  “His eyes behold all things.  He even knows our thoughts.

     Fact is, if our hearts and minds were pure, merciful, and kind, then our private conversations and conduct would be without shame and reproach.  The Lord said: “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment” (Mt.12:36).  So all of our words are being recorded.

     May our conversation be holy and heavenly and may our conduct be like Christ, both publicly and privately.   Pastor Paul Mahan

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“Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you” (1 Pet. 5:7).


Cares are that which causes anxiety. What a host of cares we have! My sins, fear of the future, fear of that over which I have no control (which is everything!), unresolved conflict, the fear of how I will be provided for or the fear of being unable to provide… all my cares I am called upon to cast upon Him. If I do that, I no longer bare the burden of them. If I continue to bear the burden, I have not cast them upon Him. Why am I to do this? We are given this one glorious reason…. “For He careth for you.” If He cares for me, I have no reason to be anxious about anything. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”                                                                           Pastor Todd Nibert


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JESUS CHRIST LOVES EVEN ME

 

John 13:23: Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.

 

     The apostle John in the gospel narrative that bears his name referred to himself often as the disciple whom Jesus loved. Do you think that it was an arrogant statement for him to refer to himself that way? I can assure you that it wasn’t. It wasn’t because the Lord loved him more than the other apostles. It wasn’t because he felt that he was more special than the others. The reason he referred to himself that way was the fact that he never got over Christ’s love for him. To John, his name was not worth mentioning. He had done nothing to earn, merit or deserve Christ’s love. It was almost as if He is saying, “I can’t believe that the Lord Jesus loves me.” John knew that Christ loved Peter, James, Matthew, Mark and all the others, but all that he could think about was that Christ loved Him. It is the same with me. It is easy for me to see how the Lord could love others. But me? How could He love me? There is no reason that my Lord would be mindful of me, or merciful to me, and yet He loves me. I am the one who deserves the least of His love, and yet He loves me. When a saved sinner, by the sovereign grace of God sees Christ’s love for them, they do not desire to talk about themselves. No, they simply consider themselves as one whom Jesus loves. They want to talk about nothing but Christ’s love for them! It was this same dear apostle who wrote in his first epistle these words, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) Yes it is true Jesus loves even me.                                                                                            Pastor David Eddmenson