Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 2-17-2019
Bible TextExodus 22:21-26
Date16-Feb-2019
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: For I Am Gracious (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: For I Am Gracious (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

February 17, 2019

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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Proverbs 12: 25: Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad.

 

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1 Corinthians 13: 8: Charity never faileth

 

Even considering only natural love, it never fails.  A sister can disapprove of her brother’s lifestyle, be angry at her brother, even be determined to never speak to him again, but when that brother is in need, if there is but one grain of love in her heart for her brother, it will compel her to acts of love to help her brother. 

 

     Charity is not our natural love.  It is that love that Christ, in his high priestly prayer, asked the Father to put in his people.  Be sure to get this.  Our Lord said to the Father “that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them” (Jn 17: 26).  Charity is the love with which God loves Christ, which God has put in a believer in the new birth.  It becomes our love.  We truly love Christ.  But it is God’s love itself withwhich he loves Christ which is put in us.  It is that perfect love that the apostle John spoke about when he told us “if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.”  It does not mean we love perfectly.  But the love of God itself is perfect love.  He has given us, not all of that love without measure, but he has given us “of his Spirit” by which he has given us “of” his love.  Therefore, charity never fails because God’s love for Christ never fails.

 

      John said no sinner should imagine that he loves God, who he has not seen, when he does not love his brother who he has seen.  Separating myself from the assembly of God’s saints is not love.  There is no way for me to express love to a brother when isolate myself from them.  “Preacher, you must be writing to me, directly!”   If the shoe fits then yes!  Love does not condone rebellion but speaks the truth in love to the object of its love.  John is even more bold.  He says such a man is a liar and the word is not in him.  Even natural love must express itself in acts of love upon its object.  How much more the love which is of God, the love wherewith God loves Christ!    Charity never faileth!  When we no longer possess faith and hope, believers born of God, will still possess love for God and for one another!

 

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WHEN I AM WEAK THEN AM I STRONG – II Cor. 12:10

 

     Sin is so deceptive it makes us think there is some strength in our flesh.  The flesh makes us think we are smart enough to understand the things of God.  The flesh makes us think we are good enough to earn God’s favor.  The flesh makes us think we are strong enough to endure trials and afflictions.  We will go to hell trusting in the strength of the flesh unless God by His grace makes us weak. 


     What a blessing to be made weak!  When God makes us weak in understanding so that we cannot understand the gospel, then we will be strong because we will rely on God to reveal it to us.  What a blessing it is to believe in the heart what cannot be comprehended by the head!  When God makes us weak in our own goodness, then we will be strong because we will rely on Christ to be all of our righteousness. What a blessing it is when Christ is our righteousness!  When God makes us so weak that we cannot endure trials and heartaches then we will be strong because we will rely on God’s grace, which is sufficient for every trial. (II Cor. 12:9)  What a blessing to rely on God’s grace and goodness and not on my own strength!  Pastor Frank Tate

 

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TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?

When the Lord spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, many found it to be a hard saying, unbelievable saying, and many of His disciples went back and walked no more with him. The Lord asked the twelve. “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. John 6:67-68

  1. To whom shall we go for Truth? Christ said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life…” apart from Christ we cannot know the Truth. Truth is a person.
  2. To whom shall we go for forgiveness? Jesus Christ only has the authority to forgive us of our sins. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. Matthew 9:6
  3. To whom shall we go for Redemption? If we are to be saved we must be redeemed from the curse of the law. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” Galatians 3:13

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Col 1:14 

  1. To whom shall we go for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption? Jesus Christ is all these to every believer. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” 1Corinthians 1:30

 

God the Father has made His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our all in all. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all (Colossians 3:11).  Thank God if you know that there is no one else to go to for all you need to stand before God accepted.  

                                                                                                      Pastor John Chapman

 

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FOR I AM GRACIOUS

 

Exodus 22: 21-26: If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: 27: For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; FOR I AM GRACIOUS.

 

In each of these people that God protects we see a picture of you and I who are saved by God’s grace: the stranger, the widow, the orphan and the poor.  They represent helpless sinners.  They represent us who God has saved by his grace. 

 

     It was only by God’s free and sovereign grace that the precious blood of Christ has made us no more strangers but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of God.  (Eph 2: 11-19).  By God’s grace, he made us know we have Christ our Husband who redeemed us and shall never leave us widows (Hos 3:3)  Grace sent us the Spirit of adoption, so that now these once helpless orphans have God for our Father, God’s church as our mother, and God’s people as our brethren (1 Jn 3:1).  We were the poor bankrupt sinner.  But God did not take advantage of us by usury nor demand a pledge from us.  Instead, God gave us the pledge of eternal glory by giving us the Holy Spirit. Now, by God’s grace, these poor sinners are enriched with the unsearchable riches of Christ.

 

     Therefore, God makes us remember our helpless condition and how God was gracious to us as we behold sinners in the same helpless condition.  The motive for every believer in all our dealings with one another, and with all men, is God’s grace toward us.  Grace makes us cover the sin of our brethren instead of expose it.  Grace makes us bear one another’s burden.  Grace makes us restore in the spirit of meekness.  “If so be that we have tasted that the Lord is gracious” then how can we be anything but gracious!

 

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BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD

 

John 1:29: The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,  Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

 

     I can give you the Gospel of God in five words. “Behold the Lamb of God.” We could in three words say more than most modern-day preachers say in a whole sermon by declaring to the lost, “Look and live.” “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” (John 3:14) Christ Jesus, the Son of man and the Son of God, must be lifted up in our preaching so that sinners can, “Behold Him.” There is life in a look at the Savior. How do I know that? Because, John the Baptist tells us, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Beholding and looking to Christ is how sin is taken away.  (continued on next page)

 

     Did you notice that little three-letter word “sin?” Did you also notice the word “sin” is singular? Sins (plural) are what we do. Sin (singular) is what we are! We sin because we are sinners. Sin is our state of being before God! Looking and beholding Christ is how our state and condition of SIN is removed. The sinner that beholds and trusts Christ Jesus “puts on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24) Dear sinner, Behold (look) to the Lamb of God, for He and only He can take away your sin. There is only One Mediator between God and men, and that is the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5) Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away all the sin, of all God’s elect, throughout all time. 

                                                                                  Pastor David Eddmenson