October 21, 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: 8: A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that
is of a perverse heart shall be despised.
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John 6:37 All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out.
There
is a definite people the Lord has in view to save. The certainty of their
salvation is secured in Christ. Christ
did not fail and he cannot fail to save anyone for whom he died. “For the
Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Christ’s death reconciles us to God. The need for reconciliation is due to the
enmity we are against God by our wicked, fallen nature. “In Adam all die, even so in Christ shall
all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). The “all” from 1 Corinthians 15 is the
same “all” in John 6:37. In Adam, all that the Father gave to Christ
died in trespasses and sins along with all the seed of Adam. Even so, all that the Father gave Christ shall
all be made alive in Christ. There are
no ifs, ands or buts about it. All that
the Father gave to Christ shall come to him. For he shall give them spiritual life and he
shall call them and they shall come.
Some will argue that Christ died for all
and it’s up to them to decide whether Christ’s blood and sacrifice will be made
effectual for them or not. But this is
not the language of scripture. Such a
view is carnal and damns men and women to hell who hold such views unless God
gives them repentance. This is so for
the following reasons. They are calling
Christ a failure. They are teaching that
billions for whom Christ died are eternally dead and burning in hell under the
wrath of God. They are calling into
question the truth of God in such scriptures as John 6:37, which assures us
that everyone God purposes to save he gave to Christ to save them. They are saying that man is ultimately the one
who saves himself by his works. Because it’s the work of his will in making a
decision to let Christ save him that is the determining factor whether a man is
saved or not. But the Lord by the apostle Paul declares “So then it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy”
(Romans 9:16). It’s God’s choice, not
man’s choice. “…and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed”
(Acts 13:48).
Man is so dead in sins and locked up in
the bondage of a depraved will and blind heart that he will never come to the
light of Christ. God therefore must
deliver his people out of their spiritual death and darkness. It is true that a sinner must receive Christ
and believe on him. But this is because
it pleases God for them to know what God has done for them in his Son. God is pleased to glorify his Son in the
hearts of his people. The scriptures
teach that this receiving and believing is a work that God does for the sinner.
Just look at the scriptures. This is what they teach. “But as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God” (John
1:12-13). God gave them spiritual birth
and the gift of faith to believe that the righteousness of Christ and the work
he did on the cross is entirely sufficient to save them from all their sins.
Anything God is pleased to do, he does, with or without our permission.
There is nothing more the sinner adds. Christ’s blood has redeemed his
people. His death justified his people,
so that God now justly forgives their sins. And because they are saved by Christ, God is pleased
to make known in their hearts what he has done for them in Christ. By God’s power the sinner is brought to hear
this gospel and believe this gospel. By
faith, they understand and receive what Christ has done for them. “But we are bound to give thanks alway to
God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). Paul
is giving thanks to God for their faith. He does not thank the sinner for their faith. It is a gift of God (Eph 2:8, 1 Peter 1:3). All works necessary for salvation are worked
in the sinner by the Holy Spirit. “For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
A sinner’s decision does not save sinners.
Christ saves sinners. May God grant
repentance to any sinner who trusts in their decision, or the giving of their
heart to Jesus. May God show every
sinner the evil of their hearts for trusting in the day they walked down an
aisle to an alter to give their life to Jesus or believing their baptism or
church membership saved them. Christ
alone is the propitiation God has provided to save sinners. Saved sinners put all their hope and
confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
saved sinners give God all the glory and praise for giving them life and faith
to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where
is your confidence today? In your
decision or in salvation God has provided in his Son, the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world? “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;
and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Pastor Eric Lutter
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FALSE CHRISTS
“If
any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For
there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs
and wonders” Matthew24:23,24
The vast majority of so-called ‘Christian’ religion in the world
today is actually proclaiming ‘false Christs’. It is not that they proclaim and
interact with the true Christ in a wrong way; their ‘Christ’ is actually false,
exactly as the Lord Jesus Christ warned his disciples in Matthew 24. The
question you should always ask of the those who try to persuade you to follow
their ‘Christ’ is whether he is the Christ of the Bible. For example, is he a
Christ who offers salvation to all without exception in the hope that they will
exercise faith and believe him? That is a false Christ, an utterly impotent
Christ when it comes to securing the eternal salvation of even one
hell-deserving sinner. The Christ of scripture is the one who came to save his
people from their sins (Matt1:21); they are the people, the elect of God, that
the Father gave to Christ before the foundation of the world. He redeemed them
alone, a multitude which no man can number and he accomplished his mission
completely leaving nothing to the whim of human will.
Then ask if the
‘Christ’ they point to is one who is trying his best to make this world a
better place if only people will learn to cooperate with each other. If he is,
then he too is a false ‘Christ’ because the word of God declares clearly that
God’s purpose is to bring this present evil world to an end in judgment for sin
and to bring in his glorious and unrivalled kingdom, the Kingdom of God, in
which violated divine law and justice has been completely satisfied in the
doing and dying of the Son of God as Substitute for God’s elect; hence true
believers are called to pray sincerely, “Thy Kingdom come!”.
Look at their
methods, their programmes, their social objectives and ask whether these
reflect the truth of scripture concerning the Christ of God. The salvation he
has accomplished is certain; it depends in no way on human gimmicks to get
people to ‘follow’ it. All that God requires of his true people is faithfully
to declare what he has revealed of salvation accomplished for it is ‘by the foolishness
of preaching that it pleased God to save those who believe’. He, in sovereign
grace, gives each and every one of the multitude he loved with ‘everlasting
love’ a new nature and a new will to trust Christ and the salvation he has
finished for them.
God calls his people simply to preach the
Christ of scripture as faithfully as we can to the text of the Bible as we have
it and leave the quickening, the calling, the regeneration of dead sinners to
God’s Holy Spirit.
Pastor Allan Jellett
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WE
REJOICE IN TRIBULATION
Romans
5: 3-11
After
working his purpose in a trial, the love of God toward us fills our hearts by
the Holy Ghost. By reminding us of our
sin and God’s keeping grace, God grows us in hope that “if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his
Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” The end purpose of the trial has come when God
brings us to “joy in God [himself]
through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement.” That is when God’s love toward us is so
magnified in our hearts that we even rejoice in the trial, itself. It is what Paul meant when he said, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake:
for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2Co 12:9-10).
Brethren, some of you suffering serious
trials have told me that you are not there yet.
James said, “Let patience have her
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Wait on the Lord because in the Lord’s time,
he never fails to give his child the full benefit for which he gave the trial.