April 5, 2015
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
LOCATION
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd Floor
150 Washington Street
Rocky Hill, New Jersey, 08553
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
Schedule of Services
Sunday 10: 15 AM Bible Class
Sunday 11:00 AM Morning Service
Thursday 7: 30 PM Midweek Service
Full Service Live & on Video on YouTube.
Search by pastor’s name.
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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. Check the announcements.
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All articles in the bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
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“THE WORD PREACHED DID NOT PROFIT THEM”
Hebrews 4:2
“The word preached did not profit them.” — What a sad statement! Here are some suggestions that, I hope, may help you to hear the Gospel with spiritual profit. — Gospel preaching is the ordinance of God, the means appointed by Christ himself for the saving of his people and the building of his Kingdom among men. This is the method by which God the Holy Ghost does his work in the souls of men. Consider these facts, and you will heed what I have to say here, though what you read may reprove you, and though the reproof may be painful.
1. Never come to the house of God to gratify your religious curiosity. When we come to the house of God, let us come seeking to know Christ, to hear of Christ, to learn of Christ, and to worship Christ. It is not an honorable thing, but a contemptible thing to sit around and discuss endless questions about nothing, ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth ((2 Timothy 3:5-7). Flee, flee religious curiosity, as you would flee the plague! Come to the house of God with humility, ready to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your soul.
2. Listen carefully, attentively, to the message God sends his servant to deliver to your soul. Give earnest heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God. Take great care to hear what God has to say to you. When God descended on Mt. Sinai in terrible majesty, to give his law, the children of Israel sat up and paid attention to his servant Moses! If they were earnest in hearing the thunderings, threatenings, and terrors of the law, how gladly sinners ought to sit up and anxiously hear the preacher of the Gospel, as he proclaims the glad tidings of free grace in Christ!
3. Do not allow Satan, or any by whom he is served, to prejudice your mind against faithful men, sent of God to preach the Gospel to you. Beware of entertaining any dislike of those the Holy Ghost has made overseers over you. If a man faithfully preaches the Gospel, receive him like the Galatians received Paul, before the Judaizers corrupted them, as an angel of God (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13).
4. Be careful not to depend too much on a preacher, or think more highly of him than you ought to think. God’s servants are instruments in his hands, no more and no less, just instruments by which God works in his vineyard. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9, 21-23).
5. Always seek grace from God to personally apply the message to your own heart and life. Always presume that the message was prepared with you in mind, and spoken to you alone. We are all terribly inclined to look across the room and behold a little splinter in our brother’s eye, rather than deal with the two by four in our own.
6. If you would receive a blessing from the Lord, when you hear his Gospel preached, you should do something before the sermon, during the sermon, and after the sermon. — Before the sermon, set things in order in your life so that you come to the house of God awake and alert; and pray for God’s blessing upon the preaching of the Gospel. — During the sermon, listen attentively, constantly praying for God to speak to your heart, for Christ’s sake. — After the sermon, discuss the message with one another, with your family, and ask God to plant the Seed sown in your own heart and in the hearts of others, for their everlasting good and his great glory (2 Thessalonians 3:1; Ephesians 6:18-19).—Don Fortner, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Danville, KY
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James 1: 18: Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19: Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:…
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1 Corinthians 3: 5: Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 6: I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 7: So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 8: Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 9: For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building…21: Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; 22: Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23: And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
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NOTHING
Luke 22:35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? and they said, Nothing.
So far from lacking anything, we live in luxuries’ lap and don’t know it. These disciples said "nothing" though they had no purse nor scrip. We have never lacked purse nor scrip (food pouch) yet we think of ourselves usually as being poor. I groan at my own ungratefulness when I look back on my years of plenty. Having a nice apartment, I lacked a house. Having a house, I lacked a new vehicle. Having a new vehicle, I lack a fishing boat.
I know that luxuries are not bad things and can be used, enjoyed and appreciated as the gifts of God that they are, but we tend to think of luxuries as necessities and this is dangerous. How we need to remember "we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out" (1 Tim 6:7). Having known no lack but rather great wealth I wonder if we had nothing but food and raiment if we could be "therewith content" (I Tim 6:8).
The Lord sent these disciples forth with nothing but faith. How preferable this is to having purse and scrip yet no faith. Would we trade our savings account, stock shares and 401K for faith in Him whose the earth is and the fullness thereof and "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"(Col. 2:3)? If these disciples lacked nothing then surely we who have like faith lack less than nothing. How grateful we ought to be and what givers we should be! If we ever have less than we do may this be our attitude: Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. (Hab 3:17, 18)—Chris Cunningham, pastor of College Grove Grace Church, College Grove, TN
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THE EFFECT OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Ephesians 1: 17: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,…
Did Christ live as though this world was his life? Was his affection set on things below when he served the Father in this earth? Absolutely not! “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb 12: 2) With Christ’s heart set on the joy of seeing God glorified and seeing all his brethren gathered round the throne in glory, Christ willing laid down his life, suffering not only death, but the death of the cross.
Two other men in scripture were given “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” more fully than any other believers. The first was Moses to who God showed his glory. The second was the apostle Paul who God called up to the third heaven.
The effect of having their understanding enlightened so fully was that it made them both willing to follow their Redeemer in laying down their lives for their brethren. No other believers in scripture made the remarkable statements these two men made. When Moses’ brethren sinned, “Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” (Ex 32: 31-32) Paul had the same heart, saying, “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Rom 9: 3) The more God enlightened their understanding to behold Christ the more it made them willing to lay down their lives for their brethren like their Savior did for them. And Paul wanted to know our Hope even more, writing, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Php 3: 10)
This is one reason why Paul prayed for God to enlighten the eyes of his Ephesian brethren more fully. Perhaps, he detected they were leaving their “first love.” (Rev 2: 4) Brethren, let us constantly pray for one another that God would enlighten our understanding of Christ more and more. The more we know Christ, the more we will consider it the greatest privilege of grace to lay down our lives for one another, for Christ’s glory, constrained by the great love wherewith God our Father and his Son loved us.