Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 3-24-2019
Bible Text1 John 4:16-18
Date23-Mar-2019
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 

March 24, 2019

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

 

Services Broadcast Live @ www.FreeGraceMedia.com/live

 

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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 servicesclick here.

 

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Our gracious God blessed John and Kelsie with a baby boy this past week.  Elias James Keller was born Tuesday, March 19, at 2:13am.  He weighs 8 lbs 2oz and is 20 inches tall.  Both Kelsie and Elias are healthy—Brother Greg C came home from the hospital.  He still has a virus so remember him as the Lord enables you.

 

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Gospel preaching is the means by which God saves his elect, nourishes his children, feeds his sheep, comforts his saints, edifies his church, and shows us his will. To neglect the preaching of the gospel is to despise God’s ordinance, destroy your own soul, and lead all those you influence to hell.  Pastor Don Fortner

 

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The Lord Jesus Christ filling his earthen vessel with the gospel, filling his pulpit with his earthen vessel, filling his pew with his people, filling his house with the preaching of his gospel and filling the heart of one of his lost sheep with his everlasting covenant is a part of Christ’s Mediatorial work the same as is his work on the cross.  Christ has all power in glorified humanity in Zion above that he might be “the Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that FILLETH ALL IN ALL..”  “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might FILL ALL THINGS” (Eph 1: 22-23; 4: 10).

 

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One of the saddest conditions I can be in is when I am convinced that the word preached is to me personally, and though it is according to scripture, though it spoken in love, though it is to point me to Christ, yet I only hear the voice of a man and am offended.  But the most blessed condition I can be in is when I am convinced of the same, and though my sin revives, though all my goodness dies, and though my tears flow, yet I hear the voice of my Redeemer and from a heart of faith I am enabled to cry out, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” (Is 52:7)

 

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The sinner who does not worship God’s Way worships his own.

 

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Communion with God

Isaiah 26:7-9

 

Communion with God manifests itself in many ways. But in these verses Isaiah shows us five specific things involved in it.

 

  1. Communion with God causes the believer to walk in the path of righteousness (v. 7).

All who are justified by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them are sanctified by the holiness of Christ imparted to him in the new birth. Believers are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). That new man created in us in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24) is “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). And that new man walks with God in uprightness (Ephesians 4:17-23). Any doctrine that teaches or implies that a person’s character and conduct are unimportant, so long as he believes in Christ, is not the doctrine of Christ.

 

  1. Communion with God manifests itself in waiting for him (v. 8).

This waiting does not imply idleness or indifference, but faith and diligence. To wait upon God is to believe him. Unbelief hurries and worries. Faith waits. Unbelief is fearful and cowardly. Faith is confident and courageous. To wait upon God is to stand upon the tiptoe of faith expecting him to fulfil his promise. To wait upon him is to serve him (Proverbs 27:18), to do his bidding, to serve his household, to do his will.

 

  1. Communion with God causes the believer to desire his Lord.

The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee” (v. 8). — God’s name represents his character, his Word, and his glory. This is what we desire to know and see. And we desire to remember him at all times, to have him always before our hearts.

 

  1. Communion with God causes men and women to seek him (v. 9).

The person who trusts Christ is one who is seeking him. The person who walks with God by faith is seeking him (Philippians 3:9-14). Constantly knowing our ever-increasing need of our God, we seek him. And…

 

  1. Communion with God enables the believer to learn by the providential judgments of his heavenly Father (v. 9).

The wicked inhabitants of the earth neither learn by God’s favor, nor by his judgments. But the believer, while he walks in this world, walks with God and is taught of God. He learns much by the works of God, even by the judgments of providence.

He learns to look upon temporal things as temporal and eternal things as eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). He learns to value Christ, his people, and his gospel aright. And he learns righteousness (Hebrews 12:11), the value of righteousness and where righteousness is to be found — in Christ alone!

   We have no righteousness but the obedience of Christ unto death as our Substitute. We have no holiness, but the holiness of Christ imparted to us in the new birth. And we have no communion with God but in, by, and with Christ Jesus.

                                                                                Pastor Don Fortner

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REMEMBER HIS HOLINESS

 

The children of God find our greatest comfort knowing that “God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.”  Hannah thanked God that “There is none holy as the Lord.”    When Isaiah beheld “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple” the seraphims gave humble reverence by covering face and feet, as “one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”  The four beasts fly before the Lord and “rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”  And there on the cursed tree, as our Substitute bore the sword of divine justice in place of his people, even in the midst of that great forsaking required to make righteousness and peace kiss, our gracious Savior made certain that his poor people know it is the very glory of God that he was manifesting, when he cried, “But thou art holy, 0 thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”  Oh, every sinner saved by grace rejoices that God loves us with an everlasting love.  We adore our heavenly Father for his endless tender mercies.  His abundant goodness fills our hearts and puts praise on our lips.  But above all our great High Priest instructs his people, “Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.”

 

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PERFECT LOVE

 

1 John 4: 16: And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us…17: Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  18: There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

 

God works in us so that “we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.”  Herein is God’s love made perfect within us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as Christ is loved of the Father, so are we loved of the Father in this world.  That’s right!  This is amazing but this is true!  In his high priestly prayer Christ said “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”  Even more amazing is that God does not merely make us know his love by merely teaching us.  He makes us know the love he hath to us by putting his perfect love in us.  Christ said, “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the LOVE WHEREWITH THOU HAS LOVED ME MAY BE IN THEM, and I in them” (Jn 17:26).  There is no fear in love when God has put in us the perfect love he hath to us, which is the perfect love wherewith he loves Christ; but God’s perfect love casts out fear.  He casts fear out of us because fear has torment.  Even an earthly father who loves his children does not want them living in fear, tormented that he will cast them out.  How much more our heavenly Father!  Brethren, “ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom 8:15-17 ).  Now, we can live unto God with no fear of condemnation, holy and righteous before him in Christ, even as God’s promised our father Abraham, “That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life” (Lu 1: 74-75)