Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleBulletin for Annual July Meeting
Bible TextN/A
Date20-Jul-2016
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 

Annual Meeting July 22-24, 2016

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

 

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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.  

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All articles by the pastor unless otherwise noted. As you read the bulletin at home with your children be sure to look up the scripture references.

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We welcome everyone to our annual July meeting.  Services begin Friday night, July 22, at 7:30, Saturday morning, July 23, at 10:15 and Sunday morning, July 24, at 10:15.  All services will be broadcast on our live webcast at www.FreeGraceMedia.com.  This year’s visiting preachers are Don Fortner, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Danville, KY and Frank Tate, pastor of Hurricane Road Grace Church, Ashland, KY.

 

Schedule of Services Friday, July 22, 7:30 pm

 

Opening hymn

Welcome by pastor

Scripture reading and prayer by Scott Keller

Introduction by pastor

Message by Pastor Frank Tate

Two hymns (restroom break, be back before last hymn ends)

Introduction by pastor

Message by Pastor Don Fortner

Closing Hymn

Reminders by pastor

Ice cream after service


Schedule of Services Saturday, July 23 and Sunday, July 24, 10:15 am

Opening hymn

Welcome by pastor

Special by Sarah Keller

Scripture reading and prayer (Sat: Kevin DeRitter; Sun: Art D’Armiento)

Introduction by pastor

Message by Pastor Frank Tate

Two hymns (restroom break, be back before last hymn ends)

Introduction by pastor

Message by Pastor Don Fortner

Reminder’s by pastor (ladies dismissed to prepare the kitchen)

Closing hymn

Meal after service

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THE NEW BIRTH

 

            There are many old houses in our little town.  At one time it became very popular for people to buy those old houses and restore them.  Often people would remove walls to make bigger, nicer rooms.  They would replace all of the windows and doors.  They would put a fresh coat of paint inside and out.  Do you know what they had when they were finished?  They had an 80 year old house with fresh paint and new windows and doors.

 

            Most people think that the new birth is the same as remodeling an old house.  They could not be more wrong.  The new birth is not the remodeling or rejuvenating of the old nature.  Adam’s nature that we are born with is ruined.  It is beyond repair and cannot be remodeled.  We must be made new.  We must be born again (John 3:7).

 

When God the Holy Spirit moves in power, He does not remodel the old man, He causes God’s elect to be born again. The new birth is the birth of a new man who never existed before.  The new man bears the image of our heavenly Father just as the old man bears the image of our earthly father Adam.  The old man is born from Adam’s sinful seed, so he is sinful just like his father Adam.  The new man is born from new seed – the incorruptible Word of God, so the new man that is born in a believer is holy and righteous just like our heavenly Father.  The old man has eyes that only see earthly things.  The new man has new eyes that see and understand spiritual things.  The old man has ears that can only hear earthly tones.  The new man has ears that hear God speak through His Word.  The old man has hands and feet that are swift to do evil (Rom 3:15).  The new man has hands and feet that are swift to serve and follow Christ.  The old man has a dead, corrupt heart that is not capable of believing or loving Christ.  The new man has a new heart that is only capable of believing and loving Christ.

 

Remodeling may be good for an old house, but the old house of my flesh is beyond repair and is only good to be buried under ground.  I need a new man, born from above, who believes and loves Christ, who is “made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12).  Pastor Frank Tate

 

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“As Thou hast Loved Me”

John 17:23

That little word, “as,” means “just as,” “even as,” in proportion as,” “to the same degree as.” When our Lord says, “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me,” he is telling us that there is a similarity of cause between God’s love for him and his love for us. — “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” The Lord God loves us for the same reason He loves His dear Son.

 

In Christ

God’s love is not a universal sentiment for all men. God’s love is in Christ. Apart from Christ, God is a consuming fire. This needs to be understood. These days, men everywhere are taught and universally presume that God loves them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Until you are united to Christ by faith, you have no reason to imagine that God loves you. Our faith in Christ does not cause God to love us. Our faith is the fruit and result of God’s eternal love for us. But, until a sinner trusts Christ, only the wrath of God is revealed and known to him; and the wrath of God is upon him (John 3:36). — Until you take refuge in Christ, God’s wrath is upon you!

 

For Christ’s Sake

God loves us for Christ’s sake. We are accepted in the beloved.” God accepts our faith, our worship, our works, and our persons only because of Christ, because we are in Christ, and because of what Christ has done for us.

 

Same Reason

And God the Father loves us for the same reason that he loves his Son as our Mediator. — Be sure you get this. It will help you. — God the Father does not love us for the same reason that he loves his Son as his Son. He loves his Son as his Son necessarily because his Son is one with him in perfection and praise. He cannot but love Christ as God. Else he would cease to love himself. But God’s love for Christ as our Mediator is based upon his perfect obedience unto God as our Mediator (John 10:14-17). It is a love he has won, earned, and merited by his obedience unto death as our Substitute.

 

Free and Deserved

Do you understand what our Lord is teaching us here? God’s love for us is free and, at the same time fully deserved! He said, “I will love them freely” (Hosea 14:4). Yet, his love, mercy, grace, and salvation flow to us upon the grounds of Christ’s obedience as our Substitute. He is merciful and gracious to us, forgiving us of all sin, and loves us “for Christ’s sake” (Ephesians 4:32-5:2). God the Father looked upon his Son from eternity as our perfect, obedient Mediator, and for the sake of his Son loved us with an everlasting love.

 

Same Way

That little word “as” also suggests a similarity of love. The Lord God loves his people in the same way as he loves his Son. God the Father loved Christ the God-man as “the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). So he loves his people who in Christ have been (and those who yet must be) renewed “after the image of him” (Colossians 3:10; 2 Peter 1:4). He loves Christ as his only begotten Son; and he loves us in Christ as his adopted sons (1 John 3:1). Pastor Don Fortner

 

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Hypocrisy

Please quit acting spiritual. In the privacy of your own closet before God, if you want to raise your hands, wave your palms, roll your eyes up toward heaven, and show by bodily gestures that you are super-spiritual, if you dare do so, go ahead—but do not act spiritual before men. Our Lord strictly forbids outward displays of religious devotion. Only self-righteous Pharisees do things to be seen of men (Matthew 6:1-8).  Pastor Don Fortner