Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

December 11, 2022

Weekly Schedule of Services

 Proverbs 19:18: Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.

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That God is able, in His mercy, grace, and wisdom, to make a way for our sins to be laid on a Substitute and the guilty sinner to go free is the greatest glory of His nature that He has seen fit to reveal.   

–Henry Mahan

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If Elizabeth, the parent of John the Baptist, could say, to the Virgin Mary, “Who am I, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” much more may God’s elect stand astonished at his love, and ask, “What are we, that the Lord God of Israel should, in person, visit his people, and redeem them to the Father by his blood?” (Lu 1:68).

   –Augustus Toplady

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Hebrews 10:1: For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2: For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.   The only way sinners will stop offering God sacrifices for their sin is by the Holy Spirit purging their conscience. God makes the sinner know that Christ perfected his people forever by his one offering. He makes his covenant in their conscience declaring “their sins and iniquities I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin” (Heb 10:16-18).

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“He laid down his life” (1 Jn 3:16). In this [Christ] obeyed a special commandment of his Father. Adam was not only under the ten commandments, but he had a special commandment given him, to try his obedience to God’s will, namely, that he should not eat the forbidden fruit. In like manner, Christ was not only under the ten commandments, but under a special commandment, the most difficult that ever was given to any being, that he should die for sinners: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life. This commandment have I received of my Father” (Jn 10:17). And a little after: “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (Jn 18:11).  Therefore does he say: “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, THY LAW is within my heart” (Ps 40:8). And “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil 2:8).

    This was the most amazing trial of obedience that ever was. It was a long trial: “I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer my terrors I am distracted” (Ps 88:15).  He was “a man of sorrows” from his youth (Is 53:3)…There was nothing in the nature of things to oblige him to do it. There was nothing good or amiable in those for whom he died; they were vile sinners, not asking him to die for them, blind to his excellency and divine glory. Yet he was obedient unto death. This is the obedience by which he covers and justifies all those, however sinful, that come to God by him.

    The consequence: “Many are made righteous” (Rom 5:19). We have seen that in the fall and ruin of man, it pleased God to deal with man, not as a field of corn, each standing on his own root, but as a tree, in which all the branches stand or fall together. We were not made sinners, each by his individual sin, but all by the sin of one. In like manner it has pleased God to justify sinners, not each by his own obedience, by his own goodness and holiness, but “by the obedience of ONE” (Rom 5:19).

     –Robert M’Cheyne

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Ps 116:15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

This is certainly true of physical death.  But in context, God mortified the psalmist’s sinful flesh.  Our deaths through trials are precious in God’s sight. We behold more that God is gracious and righteous to us due to Christ crucified (v5; Heb 12:11)—the cross is certainly where the death of God’s saints is precious in his sight.  God brings us low, makes us simple, setting our affection on Christ above (v6; Col 3:1-4).  Our faith is grown to say, “Let God be true and every man a liar” (vv10-11; Rom 3:4).  We are made to follow Christ more fully in gratitude, saying, “What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me” (v12-19).   

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John 18:27: Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.

This fall of Peter is doubtless intended to be a lesson to the whole Church of Christ. It is recorded for our learning, that we be kept from like sorrowful overthrow. It is a beacon mercifully set up in Scripture, to prevent others making shipwreck. It shows us the danger of pride and self-confidence. If Peter had not been so sure that although all denied Christ, he never would, he would probably never have fallen. It shows us the danger of laziness. If Peter had watched and prayed, when our Lord advised him to do so, he would have found grace to help him in the time of need. It shows us, not least, the painful influence of the fear of man. Few are aware, perhaps, how much more they fear the face of man whom they can see, than the eye of God whom they cannot see. These things are written for our admonition. Let us remember Peter and be wise.

     After all let us leave the passage with the comfortable reflection that we have a merciful and pitiful High Priest, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and will not break the bruised reed. Peter no doubt fell shamefully, and only rose again after heartfelt repentance and bitter tears.

    But he did rise again. He was not left to reap the consequence of his sin, and cast off for evermore. The same pitying hand that saved him from drowning, when his faith failed him on the waters, was once more stretched out to raise him when he fell in the High Priest’s hall. Can we doubt that he rose a wiser and better man? If Peter’s fall has made Christians see more clearly their own great weakness and Christ’s great compassion, then Peter’s fall has not been recorded in vain.          

–JC Ryle