Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 9-15-2019
Bible Text1 Corinthians 1:10-13
Date14-Sep-2019
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Perfectly Joined Together (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: Perfectly Joined Together (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

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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ON THE INSIDE LOOKING UP
Exodus 26
  
     Everything on the inside of the tabernacle was, in figure, a type of Christ and the redemption which God had appointed him to accomplish.  On the inside, looking up, was two curtains exactly the same in every detail joined together at the top by fifty taches of gold.  It is difficult to say what these taches were exactly but it is enough to know their purpose.  These taches were designed to join these two curtains to make one tabernacle.  (Exodus 26: 6)  On the inside, looking up, the sanctified servant sees his hope of righteousness in union with the righteous character of his representative by a divine coupling.  He sees in Christ, his God and Savior one tabernacle; one body and one hope of his calling.  On the inside, looking up, he sees himself as one with Christ and therefore acceptable to God in all that he does.  Peter tells us, "as lively stones we are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (I Peter 2: 5)  With this righteous covering and by the blood of our great substitute we can now eat of the bread and worship at the altar and do all in the light of his candlestick.                                          Pastor Darvin Pruitt
 
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As believers we are to care for, encourage and assist all men. We do so to other believers for Christ’s sake…they are our brethren. We do good to them as being one with them in Christ…chosen in Him by the same mercy and compassion from the Father…redeemed by the same blood of the Lamb…called out of darkness by the same Holy Spirit and kept by the same power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. But we are also instructed, as we have opportunity, to do good unto unbelievers…for this temporal life is their only reward and therefore shall be the best they ever know or have.                                                               Pastor Marvin Stalnaker

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CONTENTIONS
 
1 Corinthians 1: 11: For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 12: Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 13: Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
  
 The core cause of all the problems at Corinth were contentions among brethren.  It had caused so much disunity and distraction that they could not even hear Paul preach the gospel to them (1 Cor 3: 1-3).  This contention was over preachers. Some even said, “We are of Christ.”  These would not give honor to any preacher, even deciding they did not need the gospel.   Yet, all their contention was because they all took their focus off Christ! Brethren, if some thing draws our attention from Christ to ourselves then that thing will become the issue to us rather than Christ.  
  
     So how did Paul deal with this problem?  Paul used the motive of every true believer—“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,…” (v10).  Christ loved his people and laid down his life for us. He bore our sin, our curse and our death.  He turned the world upside down to call us, sanctify us and justify us.  All of this to make us one in the unity of the faith.  If Christ is precious to me then that will be enough to make me cease with contention that I might honor and glorify his name. 
 
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PERFECTLY JOINED TOGETHER
 
1 Corinthians 1: 10: Now, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.   

Brethren, we should never compromise the gospel of Christ. But we should learn to keep unity by compromising in lesser matters. The quickest way to become isolated and create division among brethren is to constantly object, to have a snobbish attitude that I am right and my brother is wrong. That is not the mind of Christ (Php 2: 3-5).  Let us learn to listen.  Scripture says, “Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”  Let us learn to give it time.  Let us learn ways to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Let us do so for the honor of Christ our Lord!

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IS CHRIST DIVIDED?
  
1 Corinthians 1: 13: Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
 
Christ does not create division in his body, only unity.  He was crucified for his people to make us one.  It is our oneness in and by Christ that we confessed when we were baptized in his great name.  

     Christ’s people are one because no matter the preacher who preaches the gospel to us, we all have one and the same teacher, “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me”  (Joh 6:45).  Those only taught by men may go on dividing.  But those taught of God are made willing to submit to Christ, submit to the pastor Christ has given to have the rule over them and submit to one another. They do so that they might protect the precious unity Christ has given them by his blood.  It is the difference that the grace of God makes in the heart! 

     Not only do we have the same teacher, God’s saints are one because we are taught the same gospel.  God does not teach one believer one gospel and another something else. There is one gospel!  It is the devil’s objective to make men think there is more than one gospel so that they have to choose.  The word “heresy” means “choice.”  But there is no choice when Christ reveals himself in his people.  In Joshua 24:2, the quotation opens with Christ speaking through Joshua, “Thus saith the LORD God of Israel.”  He gives repeated examples of how he delivers his house to serve the LORD alone.  The quotation is still open, Christ is still speaking, when he says the ones making choices are those he has not delivered but their choices are only between their idols, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, CHOOSE you this day whom ye will serve; WHETHER the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, OR the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell.”  But Christ takes away our choices, making us willing in the day of his power.  Therefore, he says, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Jos 24: 2-15). Christ served one true and living LORD for his house making us righteous. Therefore, he makes his house serve the one true and living LORD in the day of his power.  

     Oneness shall continue in Christ’s house because he works it, intercedes for it and it is the will of God our Father, “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” (Eph 1: 10; Gal 3:28)  Therefore, “with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” let us always be “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4: 2-3; (Php 2:14-16)