Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 5-21-2017
Bible TextIsaiah 55:3
Date20-May-2017
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: The Everlasting Covenant (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: The Everlasting Covenant (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

May 21, 2017

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

 

MEETING LOCATION

251 Green Lane

Ewing, NJ, 08368

Clay Curtis, pastor

Telephone: 615-513-4464

 

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.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: watch videos of our full services—click here.

 

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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS

Proverbs 6: 20: My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 21: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. 22: When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. 23: For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: 24: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. 25: Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. 26: For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

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Christ does not quicken the old man born of Adam. Therefore, the Spirit of God does not teach us the gospel in the natural man because “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.  It is in the new spirit that God teaches us the gospel. Those born of God “have received, the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1 Cor 2: 12, 14)

 

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“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another.” (Romans 12:10) The believer will in truth love all men. There is no room in a regenerate heart for hate, grudges, and bigotry, but there is a special love for those who are called brethren. The word here is ‘love one another as members of the same family, giving precedence and honour to one another’ (Phil. 2:3,4; Gal. 6:10). In making others happy, we find happiness. In giving, we receive. In promoting another’s welfare and honour, we are honoured.  A man’s character is not always revealed in what others say about him, but in what he says privately about others. Pastor Henry Mahan

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THE DIVINE LOVE OF GOD
By Pastor Gene Harmon

As a young boy, when the weather was warm, I seldom wore shoes.  I would run through the woods and the meadows barefoot.  Every once in a while I would stub my big toe.  When that happened, there was so much pain that my whole body went to the aid of that injured foot.  Both my hands reached down and grabbed the foot that was hurting, I hopped around on my good leg for several minutes, and even my voice seemed to help ease the hurt as I screamed in excruciating painful agony.

     I use those painful experiences that are still vivid in my mind, to illustrate how the members of the body of Christ are to come to the aid of one another.  We read these words in 1 Cor. 12:26 - 27: “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”

     Love cannot, and should not, be hidden.  It will manifest itself.  God our Father manifested His love for every member of the body of Christ by sending His Darling Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).  Our Lord Jesus manifested His love for His promised children by willingly laying down His life for our eternal salvation.  Listen to His words that were recorded for our learning: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12 - 13).  “... the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Rom. 5:5).  And the divine love of God that is in the heart of every believer will manifest itself by our love for one another.  This is how others see that we’re true disciples of our Lord Jesus (John 13:35).  “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.  Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Eph. 4:32 - 5:2).

                                                                                                  

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THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL, FLESH IS CARNAL

 

The flesh is the corrupt nature born of Adam in every sinner.   The flesh is not spiritual; it is carnal. Even in the believer the flesh is sin.  Therefore, we cannot delight in the law of God—in any word of God—in the old fleshly man.  As a regenerated believer the apostle Paul said, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” (Rom 7: 14) Paul delighted in the law of God in the inward, spiritual man which was given in the new birth.  But his old man—his flesh in which dwelled no good thing—made it so that he could not keep the law like he wanted to in the inward man. (Rom 7: 15-25)  Paul concluded, “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.  Who shall deliver the believer from the body of this death?  We rejoice as did Paul, saying, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

 

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THE EVERLASTING COVENANT AND SURE MERCIES

Isaiah 55: 3: Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

 

In order for any sinner to be saved, you must incline your ear. It is our responsibility to hear God speak. We come to God through the ear, hearing the good news that salvation is of the LORD. God makes two promises, first he says, “your soul shall live.” We are dead sinners. God must draw us, make us incline the spiritual ear which God gives and God promises we shall live forever. Then God promises “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”

 

     The everlasting covenant is God’s unending, unchangeable, unbreakable promise.  It is founded in the everlasting love of God toward his Son and toward his people. It is ordered in all things according to the eternal purpose of God.  God purposed from eternity to bring glory and honor to his name, giving his Son all preeminence in all things, by saving his people from our sins.  So God left no part of this covenant in the hands of his people. The contracting parties in this covenant are the three persons of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

    

     God the Father promised his Son that the Spirit of God would be upon him when he became Man like unto his brethren. The Father promised to give Christ full protection, to raise Christ from the dead when the work was finished, to give Christ his glory, and to give Christ the honor of revealing himself in his people. (Is 42: 5-8)

   

      The Son of God covenanted with the Father promising to take flesh like his chosen people. He promised to declare the righteousness of God as he magnified and honored God’s holy law declaring God just and Justifier of those who believe on Christ. He promised to purge the sin of his people and make us the righteousness of God in him. In short, the Son promised to save the church in a way consistent with the perfections of God and the honor of God’s holy law. Christ came at the time appointed and fulfilled every promise of the covenant as the Father willed. (Jn 6:38) By Christ’s perfect obedience every blessing of the covenant is sure to all who are called by God’s grace (Heb. 9:15).

    

     The Holy Spirit agreed to glorify the Lord Jesus. When Christ prays the Father the Holy Spirit comes into each child, regenerates and sanctifies his child, guide us into all truth, teaching Christ in our hearts. He abides in his people. The Holy Spirit will one day raise us from the dead and give us glory with Christ.

   

     This everlasting covenant is ordered in all things and sure because the triune God fulfills it all in Christ Jesus. Oh, incline your ear, come unto God and hear and God will make you with this everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David. David said, “Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.” (2 Sam 23: 5)