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
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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 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