Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

Author Various
TitleWeekly Bulletin 7-25-2021
Bible TextVarious
Date25-Jul-2021
Article Type Bulletin
 

Weekly Schedule of Services

Sunday:

10:15 AM

Bible Class

 

11:00 AM

Morning Service

Thursday:

 7:00 PM

Mid-week Service

 

Services Broadcast Live @ www.FreeGraceMedia.com/live

 

Web Address

Be sure to bookmark our website for daily articles and audio messages:

www.FreeGraceMedia.com

Weekly Meeting Location and mailing address

251 Green Lane

Ewing, NJ, 08638

Clay Curtis, pastor

Phone: 615-513-4464 | Email: clay@freegracemedia.com

If you would like to receive this bulletin sent weekly

to your email then send a note to the email address above.

Articles in this bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.


Proverbs 16:24: Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

?-----------------------------?

We Have An Advocate

It is my heart’s desire never to sin against my Lord. And I desire the same thing for you. Oh, that we might perfectly obey God! But we will sin. You will, and I will. That is a sad, but a certain matter of fact.

            And this is another certain matter of fact: If we are in Christ, if we are true believers, our sins, be they ever so great, ever so numerous, and ever so hideous, can never alter our standing before God or our acceptance with him. Take comfort then, my sinful brethren, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). By all means resist sin, hate sin, strive against every lust of your heart. But when you do sin, in thought, in word, or in deed, do not despair. – We have an Advocate!

Don Fortner

?-----------------------------?

Sin is not put down nor repentance, faith and love produced by the strength and force of men.  The mighty masses of ice in the artic can withstand the fiercest forceful storms.  But with the soft ray of the sun the same hard mass melts into water.  “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” The great mountain shall become a plain before Christ by the Spirit of God working in the heart through the power of His gospel (Zech 4:6-7; Rom 1:16-17).  There are no more pleasant, edifying, powerful words than the power of the gospel of Christ spoken in love through the Spirit.  “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones” (Pro 16:24).

?-----------------------------?

To be without Christ is to be without anything of value.  To be without Christ is to be an unpardoned condemned sinner.  The day will come when that person without Christ will be cast into Hell.  To be without Christ is to be sick with a disease that is killing you, with no remedy.  Sin will be your ruin, because you have no Saviour. You will soon die without Christ.  You will go into eternity with no one to lean on.  None will comfort you.  To die is to live again, either in eternal life or eternal death. But without Christ there is none that will say to the storm, “Peace, be still.”

Milton Howard

?-----------------------------?

Job 1:20: Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21: And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.  There is as much wisdom, love and grace in what God withholds and takes from us as in what God gives.  Only faith and hope fixed on Christ will be made to rejoice that it is so.

?-----------------------------?

DETAILED REQUESTS

Philippians 4:6 … in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

God is gracious to give his child the requests we ask in prayer.  But when I think back on some of the things I have requested of God, I must confess what great mercy that God did not give me my petitions.  Instead, Sovereign Wisdom worked it far better than I could have ever dreamed.  That is my hope in God now.  It may be that one of the purposes in God commanding us to make our requests known to Him is so that after God gives something far better, we are made to see that only our Father knows what is best for us.  While it is good to make our requests known, after all our requests, we ask not my will but thy will be done.  And we ask for grace and faith to know that whatever God’s will be, it is best for me—and we give Him thanks.

?-----------------------------?

We Have An Advocate

…if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1)

This scripture recognizes our frail, sinful human nature. A believer does not love sin, does not excuse or justify sin, but grieves over sin and desires to be without sin. Yet he owns and confesses his sin! As Spurgeon once said, “Sin is my name, sin is my nature, and to deny is to deny the Word, deceive myself and call God a liar. My old nature is such that I will sin until I die, for sin pollutes the best things I do.”

     This scripture encourages the believer to trust and hope in the mercy of God at all times! It does not say, ‘If any man is holy, prayerful, and almost faithful, he has an advocate;’ but “IF ANY MAN SINS, he has an ADVOCATE with the Father.” It does not say, ‘If any man sins he forfeits his right to Christ’s advocacy.’ Grace that can be forfeited because of human failure is not GRACE at all. Mercy that is conditioned upon the merit of the creature is not mercy at all. If my title to glory rests upon my works, either BEFORE or AFTER conversion, it is a total failure. 

     This scripture declares that at all times, under all conditions, Jesus Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification, our advocate and our redemption. So when I sin, when I consider my past or present, and come creeping to my closet with a guilty conscience and an aching heart, I can rejoice in the mercy of my Father; for I have an ADVOCATE, JESUS CHRIST THE RIGHTEOUS!

Henry Mahan