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: 7: The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the house of
the righteous shall stand.
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I AM ELECT BECAUSE I WAS
BORN IN UNION COUNTY, ARKANSAS?
God’s elect are not his
sheep because we live in America or France or Israel or any other country. The Israel of God are those God chose and
blessed in Christ by grace. Think of the
absurdity of me claiming that I am God’s elect because I was born in Union
County, Arkansas. Yet, many imagine that
God shall save a multitude because they live in that physical nation called
Israel, are the physical descendants of Abraham and call themselves Jews.
When God elected his people before the
foundation of the world, it was not with respect to our persons or works. God did not choose his people because of the
country in which we would live nor because of our race nor because of anything
we would do. If that were so then salvation would be by works rather than
grace. But God’s salvation is all of
grace.
According to God’s word, the new song sung
unto Christ by God’s elect is, “Thou art
worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain,
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood OUT OF EVERY KINDRED, AND TONGUE, AND
PEOPLE, AND NATION; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we
shall reign on the earth.” (Rev 5: 9-10)
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God must forsake His
integrity before He would abandon one of His people. But that cannot be: “faithful is He that
calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thess 5:24). “The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish
you and keep you from evil” (2 Thess 3:3). They who affirm that any of
God’s children will perish are guilty of the fearful sin of charging Him with
perjury. Arthur Pink
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To preach the gospel is to
preach the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to declare that he, by his
perfect, complete, finished obedience to God as a man, brought in everlasting
righteousness, made an end of sin, and obtained eternal redemption for God’s
elect.
Pastor Don Fortner
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THE POINT OF NO RETURN
While visiting Niagara Falls recently, the
tour guide pointed to a place in the river and said, “This spot is called the place of no return…anyone proceeding past this
spot will enter the raging rapids classified to be…“unsurvivable.” In my
mind, I tried to imagine the horror of someone plunging over the crest of that
mighty waterfall to a certain death and then realized…but for the grace of God,
that would be the end of every man born in Adam.
We’re all born sinners against God…born in a
state, except for the intervening grace of God, that can only be classified as,
”unsurvivable.” We’re born captive in
the raging torrents of sin and rebellion against the God of heaven and earth
and unless He is pleased to do something for us that we cannot do for
ourselves, we can count on one end…death!...“But
God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are
saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.”
Pastor Marvin Stalnaker
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THE PURPOSE FOR TRIALS
Acts 6: 1-7
The Lord gives a trial in
the midst of his church for the whole church to unite as one. The
Grecians were shown how quickly they would murmur, to teach the whole church,
and us, that we need the visitation of our Lord every
hour. Likewise, the Hebrew's were shown how quickly they would
respect persons based on outward appearance to remind the whole church, us
included, that our God saves by grace and is no respecter of persons. The
apostles were not allowed by God to let anything interfere with the preaching
of his word and prayer for his saints, showing the whole church, and us, that
the Lord's word is the most necessary of all things if we would truly provide
for the needy in the church. By using the church to provide the
temporal need of the Grecian widows, they, their brethren, and we today are
taught never to doubt the sufficiency of our Lord's grace--both in spiritual
and temporal matters--all things are yours. And the whole
multitude learned that God has a way of uniting the hearts of his people that
would never enter our minds. The Lord turns Satan's darts of discord
into a spirit of unity. The Lord works a spirit of forgiveness in
us, whereby we overlook the shortcomings of our brethren, and he does it by
showing us that there is not a bit of difference between any of us, save for
his grace. Therefore, they showed they trusted the Lord, their pastors and
their brethren by thanking God, by asking his blessing upon these men, and by
sending these seven men to the task at hand.
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THROUGH THE FIRE
Zechariah 13: 7: Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against
the man that is my fellow, saith the
LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will
turn mine hand upon the little ones. 8: And it shall come to pass, that in all
the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the
third shall be left therein. 9: And I will bring the third part through the
fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is
tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my
people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
No believer shall ever bear
the fiery trial that our Substitute endured.
His own Father unsheathed his sword of justice upon him. But what infinite good Christ accomplished by
passing through that incomparable fire!
He purged away the dross of the sins of his elect, satisfying justice,
bringing in everlasting righteousness for us then entered into his glory. Now,
our great Shepherd is gathering his lost sheep, using us to preach this good
news. But the servant is not greater
than his Lord. We must go through the
refining fire because reigning with Christ above means suffering with Christ
below. (Ps 7: 9; 11: 5)
It begins at conversion when Christ sends
his messenger to prepare the way with the fire of the gospel. Christ sits as a refiner, purifying us
inwardly from the dross of our flesh so that the only offering we bring to the
LORD is Christ our Righteousness. (Mal
3: 1-3; Jer 23: 39) Gatsby said, “When God brings Christ and the sinner
together, there is an alarming blaze of the whole of the sinner's lumber.” Then
trials begin. Believer, do not think
some strange thing is happening to us when we suffer persecution for preaching
Christ “but rejoice inasmuch as ye are
partakers of Christ’s sufferings.” (1 Pet 4: 12-14) When chastened,
remember, “God dealeth with you as with
sons;…for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness”(Heb 12: 7-10).
If he suffers us to hunger it is to humble and “make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth
of the LORD doth man live.” (Deut 8: 2-3) He leaves false preachers “for the LORD your God proveth you, to know
whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
(Deut 13: 1-3) Often, he tries
with choices like whether we would have long life, riches or the life of our
enemies. (1 Ki 3: 5). Will we make
selfish choices or seek Christ preeminently, trusting him to provide our lesser
needs? He not only gave Solomon wisdom
but provided the other as well. (Rom 8: 32)
What about when we face the impossible?
Seeing “a great company come unto
him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And
this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.” (Jn 6:
5-6) By the impossible trial, Christ teaches us to look to him rather than our
own understanding. What about the trial
that comes when we have been faithful?
Though Paul was faithful Christ cast him into prison. But it was to
bring the jailor and the elect in his house under the gospel by which the Lord
saved them. (Acts 16: 23-24) There are so many kinds of fiery
trials. But our all-wise Master is the
first cause.
Earthly gold is precious metal. It endures almost all fire. But when the Lord returns even “the elements shall melt with a fervent heat.” How does faith remain? The faith that God gives is “more precious than of gold that perisheth.”
(1 Pet 1:7) So when we pass through the fiery trial, our faith shall remain
to the praise, honor and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the end purpose of our trials.