Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

May 28, 2023 

Weekly Schedule of Services

UPCOMING BIBLE CONFERENCES

              June 30-July 2  Rescue Baptist Church                    Rescue, CA

              July 7-9             Sovereign Grace Baptist Church    Ewing, NJ

              July 28-30       Redeemer Grace Church          Sellersburg, IN

       Oct 27-29          Grace Baptist Church                      Lewisville, AR

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Proverbs 20: 12: The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the LORD hath made even both of them.

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The robe that God provided Adam was an effectual covering, because He provided it.  The robe that Adam provided for himself was ineffectual, because he provided it.  Now Adam clothed with God’s coat was a safer person outside the fence of paradise then he had been inside. Why?  For within, his dependence was upon himself, whereas outside his life dependence was on another, even the promised Saviour.        

Donnie Bell

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SINGING PRAISES

(Psalm 21:13) "Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength: so will we sing and praise thy power."

The saints of God love to sing and praise God for all of His attributes. We are not ashamed to mention them, but rather rejoice in each of His perfection. David here mentions God's power as the subject of praise. Let me mention four areas of this power.

(1) God's children praise Him for His converting power. Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus and requested that they might know: "what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power (Eph. 1:19)." And he goes on to say that this converting power is the same as His power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. We were spiritually dead in our sins when He quickened us and gave us life in Christ.

(2) God's children praise Him for His keeping power. I Peter 1:5 "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Do we not all know of some that started this race and then turned back? Mr. Pliable still has his descendants. Yet we continue to believe and follow Him.

(3) God's children praise Him for His succoring power. "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted (Hebrews 2:18)." The word succor means to help or relieve, and because He learned by experience what it is to be tempted, our High Priest is able to help us when tempted.

(4) God's children praise Him for His transporting power. Yes, just as the angels carried Lazarus to Abraham's bosom when he died, so we shall be transported at death into the presence of our Lord.

                                                                                              David Pledger

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BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN

Matthew 5: 4: Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Have you ever thanked the Lord because he made you mourn? We usually think we have been blessed when things go the way we want and we are happy. The Lord Jesus Christ says, “Blessed are they that mourn.”  This world gives us many reasons to mourn.  Yet, as sorrowful as those things are, God's elect mourn our sin.  It is by the Holy Spirit making us behold our Lord Jesus who laid down his life and put our sin away.  How then is it that the blessed man is comforted? By the Holy Spirit making us behold our Lord Jesus who laid down his life and put our sin away.  This is the Power of the gospel.  The same sight produces the mourning and the comfort.  Only Christ crucified can produce tears of sorrow then turn them into the tears of joy.   "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins" (Is 40: 1-2).

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·       1 Thessalonians 2: 17: But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart,...

·       Paul loved his brethren.  But this is not natural love.  Paul only preached for the Thessalonians three sabbath days.  Then Paul was persecuted to another town.  This is the love that God puts in the new heart when we are born-again of one and same Holy Spirit by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts.  They were separated in body but not in heart.  Paul wrote to the Colossians,  "Though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ" (Col 2: 5).  Our Savior is not with us bodily but the Lord Jesus loves his redeemed, beholds us and is with us in Spirit. This is the love of Christ for each one born of the Spirit, the love Christ puts in our new heart so that we love Christ and our brethren.  This is that love that never fails.  It never fails because it is of God.

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