June 14, 2020
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
Meeting Location and Mailing Address
251 Green Lane
Ewing, NJ, 08368
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
Clay@FreeGraceMedia.com
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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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Until further notice our online live broadcast begins
each Sunday at 9am. No Friday night bible classes until further notice.
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Proverbs 14: 34: Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any
people.
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THREE REQUIRED
THINGS
I travel to a foreign country preaching the gospel of
Christ, at least once a year. I have crossed the borders of our nation north,
south, east, and west many times. Whenever you leave this country and cross
into another, three things are required.
(1) You must
have a birth certificate to prove your citizenship.
(2) You must
have a visa from the country receiving you.
(3) You must have a clean record, no criminal record.
Soon I will leave this land of sorrow and sin. I hope
to enter into the bliss and glory of heaven. I hope to stand forever accepted
as a citizen of the New Jerusalem. Here is the basis of my hope.
·
I have a birth certificate. The Lord God
has given me a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17).
There is in me a new man, created of God in righteousness and true holiness.
·
I have a visa. I have a right to enter into heaven
itself by the blood of Christ, because I am washed in his
blood and robed in his righteousness (Colossians 1:12). God says, “It must be perfect to be accepted,” and
in Christ I am perfect! He has made me perfectly righteous before God!
·
And I have a clear record. The Lord
Jesus Christ has purged away all my sins with his own precious blood. Therefore
God will never charge me with any sin (Romans 4:8). When I stand before God and
he searches the books for iniquity and sin under my name, He will find none. Pastor
Don Fortner
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BEING
JUSTIFIED FREELY
“Being justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24).
What does it mean to
be justified? I am sure that there have been many definitions given and I by no
means can fully expound all that is involved in sinners being justified before
God. However, I am sure that it means to be eternally pardoned from all sin by
the precious blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:18). It means to be acquitted and
vindicated of all charges before the holy justice of God (Jude 24). It means to
be made and regarded righteous in God’s sight (Col. 1:21-22).
How are sinners
justified? By God as the source, "It
is God that justifieth" (Rom. 8:33). By grace as the spring and
fountain, "Justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom.3:24). By
Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and blood atonement as the ground, "Being now justified by his blood we shall be
saved from wrath through him" (Rom. 5:9). By His resurrection as the
proof and evidence, "Who was
delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification"
(Rom. 4:25). By faith as the means to receive this salvation in Christ, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with
God" (Rom. 5:1). Pastor Tom Harding
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SO ACCOUNT OF US
1 Corinthians 4: 1: Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ.
The word “account” is
the word translated “impute” in Romans 4:6-8. God made Paul and the other true ministers to
be of the ministers of Christ. Therefore,
Paul is not saying impute us to be the ministers of Christ and that will make
us ministers of Christ. Nor is he saying
impute us to be of the ministers of Christ though we are really not. He is saying impute us to be what God has made
us to be.
Imputation is God reckoning someone to be what
a prior act has made them to be.
Paul said, “Even as David also
describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God IMPUTETH righteousness
without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not IMPUTE
sin.” When God imputes the
righteousness of Christ to a believer God is accounting the believer to be what
Christ has made him to be by Christ’s obedience unto the death of the cross in
his room and stead. When God will not
impute sin to us it is because Christ put the sins of his people away so that
we have no sins to impute. Notice, “Blessed
are they whose iniquities ARE forgiven, and whose sins ARE covered.”
God never imputes in order to make us something. Nor does God impute what we are not. God only imputes what a prior act has made us
to be. When God imputed sin to us it is
because by Adam’s disobedience we were made sinners. Likewise, when God imputes the righteousness
of Christ to a believer it because by the obedience of Christ we were made the
righteousness of God (Rom 5: 19). This is
the “blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without
works.”
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MINISTERS
1 Corinthians 4: 1: Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ.
What amazing grace! God has given us the privilege of being
ministers of Christ. Ministers are
servants. A minister is not the guest being
exalted at the banquet table but the waiter doing the serving. We have not been made ministers to be
ministered unto but to minister to one another.
In the days of wooden ships an “under-rower”
was a servant in the lower part of the ship. He rowed wherever the captain of the ship put
him. Christ is our Captain. He appoints
where we will serve in this “fellow-ship.”
We have nothing to glory in because we row as Christ our Captain
commands by the strength and grace Christ gives.
Christ’s church is the opposite of this
world. This world considers great men to be those who are served. Christ says
to be the greatest in his kingdom is to be a servant. Do you want to be great in Christ’s kingdom? Christ says then serve. “Whosoever will be
great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among
you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mt 20: 26-28).
Christ is the greatest in his kingdom
because no one ever served to the extent Christ served his people. Let us follow our Savior who was so willing
to save sinners like us that he served by laying down his life as a ransom for
many.