August 18, 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
?-----------------------------?
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.
?-----------------------------?
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: The
videos are now listed as individual sermons, as well as full services—click
here.
?-----------------------------?
ANNOUNCEMENTS
·
Fourth Friday class for our young people will
be August 23rd at 7pm.
·
Sunday, August 25, we are scheduled to baptize
Cyril and Lenore Rennels in the Doodnath’s pool after the morning service.
?-----------------------------?
Proverbs
13: 19: The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is
abomination to fools to depart from evil.
?-----------------------------?
“Of his own will begat he us with the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” (James
1:18).
The believer’s salvation begins with the will
of God, not his own will. The natural will is not to come to Christ. “And ye
will not come to me, that ye might have life” (Jn.5:40). However, by the will
of God and the Word of truth, the gospel is sown in the heart of God’s child
and, in due time, when God gives the increase, a child of God is born. For the
first time he is willing to come to Christ. Only God can do such a work. “Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” (Ps. 110:3). Pastor John Chapman
?-----------------------------?
Man is naturally ignorant of God. He is
ignorant of God’s Sovereignty. He does not understand that God is in control of
all things. Man is ignorant of God’s Omnipotence. He does not understand that
God does whatsoever he pleases. God does according to his good pleasure. Man is
ignorant of the gospel of God, that it is the power of God unto salvation. All
false religion denies these three truths. And being ignorant of these things,
man says the most foolish things about God and about himself. Thankfully, it’s
God’s sovereign, omnipotent power that makes the light of the gospel shine unto
ignorant sinners. And God reveals this light to whom he will. “Having made
known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself” (Ephesians 1:9).
Pastor Eric Lutter
?-----------------------------?
CHRIST’S CHARGE TO HIS CHURCH
Isaiah
60: 1: Arise, shine; for thy
light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2: For, behold, the darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon
thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
The charge God our Savior gives to his
redeemed, regenerated church is, “Arise, shine!” (Is 60: 1) The marginal reading declares this is a
passive “shining.” It says, “Arise, be
enlightened.” For example, if you were
standing in a dark field and people were looking for you they would not be able
to see you for the darkness. But if someone
shined a light on you then they could see you, not because you are doing
something, but by the light shining on you.
So it is when Christ shines his Light on us. The reason
Christ gives his church this charge is because Christ is our Light and the
Glory of the Lord is risen upon his church, “For thy Light is come and the
glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the
earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and
his glory shall be seen upon thee.” (Is 60: 1-2)
I was with my family on a tour of a cave. The
tour guide turned off the light. We
could not even see our hand in front of our face. That is gross darkness. In ourselves, we were like everyone else in
this earth—covered in gross darkness. To be in gross darkness is to be guilty
by Adam’s disobedience but unable to see it; to be unholy by being born of Adam
but unable to see it; to have no spiritual discernment but unable to see it; to
be in gross darkness but unable to see it. That was our case, as it is the case
of every sinner born into this world.
The Light of every child of God—of the whole
church in heaven and in earth is Christ our Light. When Christ is our Light
Christ is our Life, Christ is our Discernment, Christ is our Righteousness,
Christ is our Holiness, Christ is our Liberty from the law, Christ is our
Constraint to obey, Christ is our Law, Christ is our Glory, Christ is our
All! When Christ is our All then we have
Christ our Light. He is the Glory of God risen upon his church.
We once only walked by natural light. But now
our Light is spiritual. Now our Light is Christ (Rev 21: 23; Isa 60:19-20) This
is true of us because Christ the Light of the world and he will not let his redeemed
walk in darkness (Joh 8:12; 1 Pet 4: 14).
Brethren, by God’s grace, Christ is our Light and the LORD’s glory rests
upon us. So Christ says, “Arise, shine!”
?-----------------------------?
HOW DO WE SHINE?
Isaiah
60: 1: Arise, shine; for thy
light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
It is very important that we distinguish
between the way the true church of God shines and the way the synagogue of
Satan shines. The harlot church in this
world shines by drawing all eyes to her and her children. She “lets” their god
save her though we know not how because she claims to do everything for her god. Therefore, she shines by marketing her works.
This is how she attracts her members and attempts to keep her members
interested. On the websites of the harlot you will find she markets her prayer
meetings, her alms giving and her many wonderful works. She has ministries for
the married and unmarried, the child, the teen, the adult, the traditionalist
and the contemporary. She arises by exalting herself. So she shines by drawing
all eyes to her and her works. But
Christ’s church shines an entirely different way.
First,
the true church of God shines by preaching the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ (2
Cor 4: 5-6). The one reason we preach
Christ Jesus our Lord is because God is our Light and our Glory! (2 Cor 4: 6) Christ’s Light and Glory makes us “renounce
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the
word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves
to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor 4: 2).
The
second way Christ’s church shines is by making certain in all our works it is
Christ that is seen and not us (Matthew 5: 14-16). The only reason we are the light of the world
is because Christ is our Light. So we make sure men see and hear Christ our
Light, not us. The only reason we do any good works is because it is “God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Php 2:13).
So a believer will not make himself to be the focus but Christ! Even in our
work of preaching the gospel, we know the glory in making the gospel effectual
in the hearts of his people is God’s glory (2Co 4:5-7). When the apostle Paul preached the gospel, he
drew all eyes to Christ, in truth and simplicity (1 Corinthians 2: 1-5)
Paul instructed the church at Philippi that the way we shine in this
dark world is by drawing no attention to ourselves as we hold forth the gospel
of Christ (Phil 2: 12-16)
Christ said do nothing to be seen of men (Matthew 6: 1-18) We want the only reason sinners
join us is because of the gospel not because we marketed our various ministries
to them. Christ shall enlarge his church
in his time, not us.