March 12, 2017
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.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: watch videos of our full services—click here.
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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS
Proverbs 3: 31: Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. 32: For the froward is abomination to the LORD: but his secret is with the righteous. 33: The curse of the LORD is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just. 34: Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. 35: The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
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EFFECTUAL IN THE ENDURING
2 Corinthians 1: 6: And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 7: And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.
Focus on the phrase “which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.” God causes his preachers to suffer affliction and consolation. Also, God causes his children to suffer the same afflictions and consolation as his preachers. Our one consolation is Christ. So both the affliction, as well as the consolation and salvation, are made effectual in us by us each enduring the same affliction then being consoled by the same Lord Jesus Christ. What is the fruit wrought in us by this? God unites us all in a blessed oneness in Christ where, with one voice, we glorify God for Christ Jesus his Son through whom we behold God’s everlasting love, mercy and comfort toward helpless sinners such as we are. (v11)
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THEN THE LORD WILL TAKE ME UP
Psalm 27: 9: Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10: When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
We have read verse 10 as declaring the faithfulness of God to take us up even when our dearest loved ones forsake us. But there is more. This Psalm is the faith of Christ seen in the darkness on the cross. As he cried in his heart for God not to forsake him, he received only the silence of divine judgment. Yet, in verse 10, our Substitute vindicated, not only the faithfulness of God, but the judgment of God for forsaking him. The last to forsake him would be those who loved him most who raised him from a babe. But it would not be until all had forsaken him that divine justice would be satisfied. Then says our Substitute, the LORD will take me up. And bless God, he did!
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PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Peter 1: 4)
The apostle Peter says here what he said in his first epistle. Believers are “born-again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever…and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” (1 Peter 1: 23, 25) These exceeding great and precious promises are the incorruptible seed, the word by which the gospel is preached unto you. By God’s divine power we are born-again of these exceeding great and precious promises. By these we are made partakers of the divine nature in the new birth. This is the only way we escaped the corruption that is in the world which is the corruption of our old sinful nature, which is only lust.
But when we are born-again in what way are we made partakers of the divine nature of our God and our Savior? Are we merely made to fellowship with the divine nature? Is it that we are merely partners with the divine nature?
The same word translated “partaker” is used in relation to the same subject in Hebrews 2. In context, God is declaring that it behooved Christ to be made one with his brethren. In order to become one with his people, the Son of God had to partake of our nature. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on [him the nature of] angels; but he took on [him] the seed of Abraham.” (Heb 2:14-16) Are we mere partners or fellowshippers with our flesh and blood? Did Christ merely become a partner or fellowshipper with our nature? A thousand times no!
Thanks be to God our Father, the Son of God partook of our flesh and blood in so great oneness that he became the GodMan. Only by doing so, could he and did he, deliver us through death.
Now, by his divine power, when we are born-again of the incorruptible seed of the gospel, of these exceeding great and precious promises, we are made partakers of his divine nature in the same oneness with him as he became one with us. This work of Christ for us and in us is the only way he has made us to escape the corruption of our old lustful, fleshly man which corrupts this entire world.
We cannot believe, or continue pretending to believe, this exceeding great and precious promise if we merely follow the words of men. But by the same exceeding great and precious promises that makes us partakers of the divine nature, Christ makes his child persevere following only the word of God.
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CHRIST HATH MADE US FREE
Galatians 5: 1: Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
By God’s effectual grace, those God has sanctified have been called into liberty which Christ Jesus has provided us by his works under the law on our behalf. Every believer is free in Christ. He has given us freedom to approach his throne of grace, freedom to use the gospel ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Table and freedom to use all things he has given us for his glory.
Furthermore, Christ has made us free from the guilt of sin in our conscience, knowing we are justified and there is no more offering for sin. (Heb 10: 2-3; 14-18) Also, Christ made us free from the reigning power of sin which kept us from trusting Christ so that now we can rest in him. (Rom 6:14-17, 22) Christ set us free from the wages of sin which is condemnation and death. (Rom 6: 23; 8: 1-4) Christ set us free from ceremonial law: circumcision, sabbath days, feast days, sacrifices and all carnal rites. Those things pictured Christ; now we have Christ and are free from the ceremony. (Col 2: 16-23)
Yet, Christ also made us free from the legal yoke of the ten commandments. The only reason I speak of the moral law separately from the ceremonial law is because legalist divide the law in two saying we are free from ceremonial law but not from moral law. Then the moral law is used to bind believers in a yoke of bondage which Paul is clearly warning believers to avoid.
Be sure to understand, believers in no way are free to violate God’s holy, just and good law. Such teaching is contrary to scripture. But scripture teaches that all who died in Christ and are born of God to faith in Christ, are free from the yoke, bondage, curse and legal rule of all old covenant law. We read repeatedly, “the just shall live by faith.”
In fact, God the Holy Spirit uses Paul to illustrate our freedom from all the law, using one of the laws in the ten commandments, adultery, to do so. (Rom 7: 1-4) The point of the illustration is that just as a woman’s husband has to die before she can marry another husband, or else she will be an adulteress. So the law had to honored, so as to have no more claim on us, before we could be married to Christ. But now that we have become dead to the law by the body of Christ, we are free to be lawfully married to Christ.
Now, as a wife brings forth a child by her husband’s seed within her so the believer’s fruit is brought forth, not by our dead husband the law nor by our crucified flesh which died in Christ. But it by Christ our Husband through his incorruptible seed, which is the word of the gospel preached unto us. By the word preached Christ produces a new babe within which is our new man. The fruit Christ produces in the inner man is faith which trusts Christ has made us the righteousness of God and love for our brethren by which we use this gospel to help each other by reminding us of our liberty in Christ, just as the apostle Paul is doing in this text.