Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 10-6-2019
Bible Text1 Corinthians 1:21
Date05-Oct-2019
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: The Wisdom & Pleasure of God (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: The Wisdom & Pleasure of God (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

October 6, 2019

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

 

MEETING LOCATION

251 Green Lane

Ewing, NJ, 08368

Clay Curtis, pastor

Telephone: 615-513-4464

Clay@FreeGraceMedia.com

 

MAILING ADDRESS:

7 Birch Street

Pennington, NJ, 08538

 

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.  

All articles by the pastor unless otherwise noted.

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SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: The videos are now listed as individual sermons, as well as full servicesclick here.

 

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Next Sunday, October 13, we will plan to observe the Lord’s Table and after service have a meal together.  Also, next week our mid-week service is scheduled for Wednesday, October 16; I am scheduled to go to Tennessee Thursday to preach for College Grove Grace Church where brother Chris Cunningham is pastor.  

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Proverbs 14: 1: Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

 

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“In what light are all [the believer’s] afflictions to be viewed, but as so many correctives, so much discipline employed by their God in covenant, in order to make them "partakers of His holiness." Viewed in any other light, God is dishonored, the Spirit is grieved, and the believer is robbed of the great spiritual blessing for which the trial was sent.”               Octavious Winslow (1808-1878)

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(Psalm 139:17)  "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!"

What a comfort it is to have a personal God – to have a God you can trust – a God who condescends to think on us – to consider our needs – and then supply them?  What if all we had to believe in was "the laws of nature" – "mother nature" – "the big Guy" – "a Supreme Being" – or, "the man upstairs"?  What if all we had to look forward to was some set of "laws" and "powers" – like the "laws of nature" – acting apart from God?   
     It seems that there are so many who try to get away from the thought of a personal God – One who redeems – preserves – and provides for His people.
    
The Bible declares a personal God who takes a special interest in His people—and thinks on them with a tender, gracious consideration.
                                                                            Pastor Milton Howard                                                                        

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(Psalms 139:17)  "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!"

Have you been in a place where you did not know what to do?  There seems to be no escape.  Remember, He thinks on you.  He alone can bring good out of evil, light out of darkness, and order out of confusion.

     The believer does not run to his God merely in times of trouble.  He delights himself in the Lord at all times, and under all circumstances.  "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, 0 God! How great is the sum of them!"

     If God's thoughts are so precious to us, how precious should His words be.  In this Book we have the thoughts of God.  This is His Word.  If I ever doubt what He said, I can go back and read it.  These are the words spoken by God to His servants.  If I give up my Master's words, I give up His thoughts also.  His words are the extensions of His thoughts – the revelation of His thoughts.

     How many times have you turned in the Scriptures and found a word that has exactly met the predicament in which we have been placed?  No other word would have fit our need at that time.  Know this Book.  Memorize it.  The more you read it the more you will love it.

     If God's thoughts are so precious to us, how precious should His actions be. His actions come from His thoughts. He always has gracious thoughts towards His people, so His actions are gracious also.

     Remember, God first thought, then He acted.  We may not see any preciousness in a particular act of God, but if we judged according to faith, and not according to feeling, we would see that His actions are as precious as His thoughts.  We can look back over our past experiences and see how precious our trials have been to us.

     As He thinks on us, so we should think on Him.  At all times.  Do you think on God?

"How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, 0 God! how great is the sum of them!"                                                      Pastor Milton Howard

              

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From the faucet water flows through the hose to the flower.  God is the Faucet; the blessings of Christ the water; faith the hose; the sinner the flower.  From God all the blessings of Christ flow through faith to the sinner.

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THE WISDOM AND PLEASURE OF GOD

 

1 Corinthians 1: 21: For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

 

     Due to our fall in Adam, no sinner can know God by own wisdom. The wisest heathen never came to a true understanding of God but worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator (Rom 1: 22, 25). Then God created Israel and gave them his oracles.  Yet, left to themselves, the gospel remained a hidden mystery.  They worshipped themselves the same as the heathen (Rom 2: 3; Jn 1:11; 1 Cor 2: 8)  In the history of the world, not one sinner ever taught himself the things of God, “neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2: 14).

 

     In God’s wisdom, he foreordained that after proving man’s wisdom utterly worthless, Christ would send his preachers and save his people only through preaching which gives Christ all the glory.  The Lord Jesus declared that John the Baptist marked the end of the old legal dispensation and the beginning of the new gospel dispensation, saying, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it”  (Lu 16:16). Christ even rejoiced in God’s wisdom to hide the gospel from the self-wise and self-prudent and reveal it to helpless sinners, saying, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Lu 10: 21).

 

     Understand, the public preaching of Christ is not God’s “Plan B” as some erroneously teach. God performs in time what God purposed to perform from eternity, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Is 46: 10)  It was the wisdom of God to prove man’s total inability to know God by man’s own wisdom. After that, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe from the first hour we believe until the last.