Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

September 4, 2022

 Weekly Schedule of Services

Proverbs 19:3: The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.

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FAITH BELIEVES WHAT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAN

Romans 4:19: And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: …

God promised Abraham that Sara would have a child. God waited until it was impossible for Abraham and Sara. Carnal reason would say impossible. But against hope, Abraham believed God. Therefore he did not consider his own body nor the deadness of Sarah’s womb. When God promises a blessing for his people, he does it in a way to make us know that God alone did it. God said Joseph would reign over his brothers. But first Joseph was enslaved, carried to Egypt, and imprisoned. Then God raised him. God declared Moses would deliver Israel. But first the infant Moses is cast into the river to die. Then God used Pharaoh’s daughter to save him, Pharaoh’s riches to raise him and his own mother to nurse him. Then God called and used him to deliver his people. God promised redemption for his people by Christ. But first Christ is despised, rejected of men, crucified on a cursed tree and buried in a tomb. Then Christ arises declaring he has made his people the righteousness of God in him. God promises to give his people faith. Then God uses helpless nothings to preach to helpless sinners. God gives us ability to do what we have no ability to do, believe Christ. By the same Power, faith ceases not believing when things appear impossible. Faith is itself “the substance of things hoped for” and “the evidence of things not seen.” Faith believes God with whom nothing is impossible.

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Repentance Toward God, And Faith Toward Our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21)

   These are the two things that sum up the work of salvation in a believer. Repentance and faith. “Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Both are by grace, both are the gift and work of God in salvation.

   Repentance. John preached “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The Lord Himself preached, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” What is repentance? Repentance is a godly sorrow over sin; the sin that I am, the sins I commit, and my self-righteousness. And repentance is confession of that sin toward God. “Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight” (Ps.51:4). Sin is against God, against His Law, against His goodness. Although it affects others, it is God we have sinned against. And so it is God we confess to, not man, for man cannot forgive nor forget those sins. It is God alone Who can pardon and remove the sin and its guilt. And there is no peace as long as there is guilt. How? How can one receive pardon of sin and freedom from guilt? 

   Faith. “Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Jesus Christ is the sinner’s substitute, Who Himself bore ours sins in His own body on the tree. Jesus Christ is the sinner’s Scapegoat, upon Whose Head we confess our sins, and by faith see Him take them on Himself, take them away, remove them far from us, never to be remembered again. By looking to Him and Him only we find peace.  Peace by His Word, which says, “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom.5:1).  By simply confessing our sins to God, and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace! Peace of mind, heart, conscience and life. By casting ourselves at His blessed feet, like the guilty woman, we will hear Him say, “Woman, where are thine accusers? Doth no man accuse thee? . . . Neither do I condemn thee.”  With a Word, He spoke peace to a guilty sinner.  And then she heard Him say, “Go and sin no more.”  As it is written, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy” (Prov.28:13).

   Repentance and faith are a way of life (eternal life), a state of being, and not a onetime thing. Repentance, faith, and the desire and ability to turn, are all by His grace (gifts), and are things we must ask for and pray for without ceasing.            

–Thomas Manton 1620-1677

SAVING FAITH

SAVING FAITH is a mysterious and wonderful thing, and also very rare. While it is true that all religious folks have some kind of faith, and some of them have much faith or great faith; yet there are very few who have saving faith. The one who has this precious, saving faith knows that his faith is a gift of God and that it came to him through the hearing of God’s Word (Eph. 2:8,9; Rom. 10:17). He knows that his faith is sustained by the power of God and would wither and die apart from that Divine power and grace (I Pet. 1:5).

   Saving faith does not lead a man to be always looking back to a time in history when he believed, but causes him to be concerned with Christ at the present. Saving faith never causes a man to look to his faith, but to God, to Christ, the origin and object of his faith; thus he doesn’t glory in self but in the Lord (I Cor. 1:30, 31). Saving faith never causes a man to look to his attainments and experiences as a ground or basis of his safety and assurance, but to Jesus Christ and him crucified and nothing else. Saving faith will cause a man to be obedient and submissive to the Lord, but will never lead that man to look to his obedience and submission as any part of that righteousness wherein he is accepted of God.

   Saving faith, as a friend and protector of our souls, stands up against that natural self-righteousness which we have and rebukes that hypocrite which dwells within each of us. Saving faith will never lead a man to measure and compare himself with other sinners, but with the Saviour of sinners, so that he may understand what the apostle Paul meant when he said, “I am the chief of sinners.” Saving faith will lead a man to say, “All of my righteousnesses are as filthy rags, but I am complete in Him.” Saving faith will bring a man to say “I abhor myself, but my Saviour and Lord is altogether lovely.” Do you have saving faith?

–Maurice Montgomery

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Sick one, dear to Christ! is your heart full of fear and trembling? Instead of joy, are you filled with grief? Oh, look to Christ by the eye of faith!—see Him as the portion of your soul—your loving, faithful, and compassionate Redeemer; and “let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Draw near to Him in sweet and close communion, and you will soon find that “in His presence is fullness of joy”—that He can satisfy every desire, and every need, and every aspiration—and raise, and refine, and purify them even in satisfying them!    

–John MacDuff