Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

August 13, 2023

 Weekly Schedule of Services

UPCOMING BIBLE CONFERENCES

• Oct 27-29         Grace Baptist Church                  Lewisville, AR

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Proverbs 20:23: Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.

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2 Corinthians 4:1: Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

How did we receive mercy? It was by the grace and power of God.  The Spirit of the Lord removed the veil from off our hearts, giving us spiritual sight and faith to believe on Christ our Lord. So then by the same irresistible grace and power of God, we faint not.  Christ our Life strengthens us inwardly.  “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh...For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:11, 16).

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One thing is certain about the life of the believer. Whenever there is a season of joy then trouble is sure to follow.  Our Lord promised it. Our experience verifies it.  But God teaches his child that God is faithful.  We are to rely only upon the Lord.  We hear David doing so in Psalm 27.  He ends with this, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Ps 27:14).

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THREE WORDS TO FOLLOW

This is what the LORD teaches his child through trials.

Psalm 17:14: Wait on the LORD:...We are now sinners, living in a now age and we want the answer now.  But when we try fix it then it is no different than trying to make ourselves righteous by our own works. God turned us from that in the first hour.  He is able to do the same now. The Lord told Israel their strength was to be quiet and have confidence in the Lord. But they fled on horses.  And therefore the LORD waited until they were like a tree with all its branches broken off, “that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him” (Is 30:18).

Psalm 27:14…Be of good courage.... Our sinful flesh makes it easy to lose courage.  But we are of good courage waiting on the LORD’s strength.  When our Redeemer hung on the cross, who was his strength?  “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Is 50:7)

Psalm 27:14:…and he shall strengthen thine heart:...this is why we wait and are of good courage, God shall strengthen thine heart.  Heart strength is far better than bodily strength. “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Is 40:29-31).

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It was due to the intercession of Christ Jesus that God did not consume us when we were enemies. How much more now that he has justified us! “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For 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” (Rom 5:9-10).

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God is righteous.  Since his Son made all God’s elect righteous, God will never forsake one believer.  It was Abraham’s plea for Lot, “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?... And [the LORD] said, [if there be but ten righteous men in Sodom] I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”  (Gen 18:25, 32).

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God gives a clear distinction between the hatred that is in every carnal heart and the love of God created in the new heart.

Proverbs 10:12: Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

Proverbs 16:27: An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire. 28: A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends.

Proverbs 17:9: He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Proverbs 18:6: A fool’s lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes. 7: A fool’s mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. 8: The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Proverbs 20:3: It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.

1 Peter 4:8: And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

God’s child reads these verses and thinks within his heart, “O, Lord, be merciful to me and forgive me.  Put a bridle on my tongue and increase love in my heart.”  The carnal heart reads these verses and thinks of someone else as the fool.