Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 5-10-2015
Bible TextPsalm 15:4
Date09-May-2015
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: He Who Keeps His Oath (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: He Who Keeps His Oath (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

 

May 10, 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

 

Services Broadcast Live @ www.FreeGraceMedia.com/live

 

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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Pastor Donnie Bell from Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN is scheduled to preach for us Sunday, May 24 at 10:15 and 11:00am. 

 

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ARISE AND SIT DOWN

 

Isaiah 52: 2: Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem:… 

 

    Before God regenerates us to life and faith in Christ, we are nothing but perishing creatures of dust in bondage under sin, under the curse of the law, under the power of Satan. But when the Holy Spirit gives us life, God effectually commands his child to shake off the old man of dust, along with all our deeds of immoral and self-righteous sin. He says to spiritual Jerusalem, “arise, and sit down.” This is the command of grace because when Christ arose and sat down, all God’s people arose and sat down in him eternally alive, free from sin, death and hell!  Believer, arise and sit down! Eternal life and eternal freedom are yours in Christ! (Jn 8: 36; Rom 8: 12-15) 

 

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HE THAT SWEARETH TO HIS OWN HURT

 

Psalm 15: 1: LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?...4:…He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

 

    The purpose in giving these things, as with all the law, is to show us our sin and inability, while showing us the greatness of our Savior who did all of these in perfection and is the end of the law for righteousness to every believer. Let’s concentrate on this requirement, “He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” “Swearing” is to take a solemn oath before God to do a thing.  The man who shall dwell with God is the man that keeps his oath, even to his own hurt. Such a one is perfectly faithful to his word. He can be counted on because he is honest, upright, faithful and just in all his dealings. That one is Jesus Christ. (Heb 13: 8)

    God the Son entered covenant with God the Father to be Surety of his people, promising to be born in the likeness of sinful flesh because those Christ came to redeem are flesh. (Heb 2: 14)  It meant his own hurt because Christ would be despised and rejected of men. (Is 53: 3)  Yet, Christ kept his oath.

    The last Adam promised to be the spotless Lamb of God.  It meant his own hurt because no man had ever served God in perfection like Christ so it made men hate him all the more. (Jn 15: 22-24; Pro 29: 27; Ps 69: 9; 31: 11; 109: 25) Yet, the faithful One kept his oath.

   Christ promised that in his own body he would bear the sin of all the elect of God that the law might be honored and magnified and God’s holy justice upheld. (1 Pet 2: 24; Is 53: 6; Heb 9: 28) It meant his own hurt being made what he was not for he “knew no sin.” (2 Cor 5: 21; Heb 7: 26) It meant his hurt from bearing the despised shame,  (Heb 12: 2) from bearing the wounds from men venting their hatred for God, (Is 52: 14; 53: 5) and from being forsaken of the God he loved. (Ps 22: 1-3; Mt 27: 46; Mk 15: 34; Is 6: 3; Rev 4: 8; Deut 32: 4; Rom 3: 26; Ex 34: 7) Yet, Christ kept his oath.

    By keeping his covenant all those for whom he was hurt are now healed, reconciled, and redeemed from all iniquity. (Is 53: 5; Heb 9: 12; Rom 5: 10; 2 Cor 5: 20) When God gives us a new heart, through faith, God makes with us an everlasting covenant. Since Christ “sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not”, Christ is our assurance that God’s covenant is ordered in all things and sure, yea and amen so that though our flesh withers like the grass, the word of our God shall stand forever. (2 Sam 23: 5; 2 Cor 1: 20; Is 40: 8) Every believer shall one day enter glory with God because Christ is the true promise keeper!

 

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THE LAST THING MY GRANDMOTHER TAUGHT ME

 

         Last summer, I spent five days with my Grandmother Curtis. They were the last five days of her life. The last thing she taught me was that our flesh is utterly worthless, powerless, and full of inability. 

    As I sat helplessly by, she struggled to take each breath. She could not raise herself out of bed. Her thoughts came out in incoherent jumbled words. At times her heart rate jumped to 150 beats per minute, at other times it dropped to 25 beats. All these things were entirely out of the control of a woman who all my life had been one of the strongest women I have ever known. Then she took one last breath. There were no more.

    All I could think about is how desperately wicked our own depraved hearts are to deceive us into putting confidence in our flesh: in our will, our strength, our ability. It is so very sad that sinners are being told that they can give themselves life by their works; that they can keep the law themselves; that they must do certain things or they cannot be saved.  If there was anything that you told my grandmother she must do by her fleshly strength to save herself from death, it would have been utterly impossible for her; it would have been mockery to do so; and poor sinners are being mocked the same way.  The requirements contained in God’s law are as utterly impossible for sinners to keep in perfection to save ourselves from spiritual death as it was for my 90 year old grandmother to do anything physically in her flesh.  “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.” (Is 40: 6-7) 

   Scripture says, “Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jonah 2: 9) It means God chooses, redeems, regenerates, draws, gives faith, preserves, resurrects and glorifies sinners through the person and work of his Son, Christ Jesus. May God make us confess we are sinners totally dependent upon God’s mercy and make us willing to put all our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. May God make us put away all man’s vain requirements and reveal in our hearts that Christ is All!  If God is pleased to give us a long life like my grandmother, eventually, we will all come to those last five days.  What a comfort it would be to face them knowing that when they are over we will open our eyes with God our Savior and give him all the glory for our complete salvation!