Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 5-12-2019
Bible TextGenesis 8:20-9:17
Date11-May-2019
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 

May 12, 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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Proverbs 13: 8: The ransom of a man’s life are his riches: but the poor heareth not rebuke.

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THE LESSON LEARNED AT THE POTTER’S HOUSE

“Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.”  (Jeremiah 18:2)

 

    When Jeremiah went to the potter’s house the Lord taught him that all men are in the hand of God to do with as He pleases.  If any of us will be saved we must learn that same lesson.  God is not in our hand to decide if we will let Him save us or not.  We are in God’s hand.  He decides what He will do with us.  God does not have to have mercy on you or me.  If God saves me He will be just in doing it.  If God damns me He will be equally just in doing it.  God is sovereign so does as He pleases.  Thank God He has been pleased to have mercy on sinners and save them by His grace through the glorious Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.                                                                   Pastor Frank Tate

 

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“NOT EVERY ONE”

Matthew 7:21

 

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke in Matthew 7, verses 21-23, words, which are to me, some of the most sober, startling in the Bible. H e says that there will be, not a few, but many who will stand before him at the last day, fully expecting to enter heaven, to whom he shall say: ”Depart from me.” So it is not enough to say I’m a believer, just about everybody does that, I must truly be one. And only Jesus Christ can make me one.  If I do not know Jesus Christ, may he convince me of it now and reveal himself to me, instead of being convinced when it’s forever too late.                                                      Pastor  Larry Criss

 

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THE RAINBOW

Genesis 8: 20-22; 9: 8-17

 

Whether young or old one thing that causes excitement for us all is to look up in the sky and behold a rainbow.  What is its spiritual meaning of the rainbow?  God made a covenant with Noah that he would never again destroy the world with a flood.  As a token of that covenant, God set the rainbow in the sky.  Each time you see the rainbow in the cloud remember that God promises, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” (Gen 8: 22) God promises, “Neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Gen 9: 11)

     The covenant that God made with Noah, of which the rainbow is a reminder, points us to the everlasting covenant of grace which God makes with his people in Christ.  After the ark bore the flood of God’s justice, “Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour.” (Gen 8: 20-21) Like as Noah built an altar, Christ is himself our Altar.  Noah made a sacrifice and offering; Christ is himself the sacrifice and offering for the sins of his people.  The fire of God consumed Noah’s sacrifice; the fire of God’s justice came down upon Christ in the room and stead of his people but Christ consumed the fire. God smelled a sweet-savour in Noah’s offering; in Christ’s one offering God smelled a sweet-savour (Eph 5: 2).  So in Noah’s sacrifice, we see Christ the Lamb for whose sake God will not curse his people, “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. And God blessed Noah and his sons,…And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you…neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth” (Ge 8: 20-21; 9:1, 8-9; 11; Eph 1: 3-12).

     So we see how God’s promise to Noah typifies the everlasting covenant of grace.  Therefore, believer, each time you see a rainbow in the sky remember God promises, “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.  For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee. (Isa 54:7-10)

 

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ASSURANCE OF GOD’S COVENANT

 

God said to Noah, “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. (Ge 9:12-13)

     First, the rainbow is God’s token of his covenant that he will not destroy the earth with a flood anymore.  But our assurance of the everlasting covenant of grace is that God the Father has set Christ in the heavens like as he set the rainbow in the cloud, “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” (Ro 4:25) Our risen Redeemer is himself the Covenant God has given to his people to assure us we are established in his grace (Isa 49:8).  John described Christ’s appearance, “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire” (Rev 10: 1.)

     Secondly, God said, “And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud.” (Gen 9: 14) The rainbow is the shining of the sun’s beams which seen only against the dark backdrop of a cloud; God brings the cloud over the earth for the purpose of showing us the glory of the sun in the rainbow.  Likewise, God’s glory in Christ is only seen against the dark backdrop of sin; sin is the dark cloud which came over the earth by God’s design just so we could see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.” (2 Cor 4: 6) When Ezekiel saw God’s throne, he saw God’s glory in Christ Jesus and described his appearance, “As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD” (Eze 1:28). So our assurance is God’s glory which we behold in Christ against the dark backdrop of sin like as we behold the sun shine in the rainbow against the dark backdrop of the cloud.

    Lastly, our assurance is not in our beholding Christ but in God our Father beholding Christ.  God said, “And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth” (Gen 9: 16). On the day of Passover, God promised, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Ex 12: 13).  As the rainbow is between us and God, Christ is between God and all his people.   When God looks upon Christ he is reminded of his covenant because this is how he sees Christ, “And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.  And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald” (Re 4:2-3).  Christ our Covenant is ever before God with a rainbow round about the throne therefore God “will ever be mindful of his covenant” (Ps 111: 5).