Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 7-16-2017
Bible TextGalatians 3:1-5
Date15-Jul-2017
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: The Hearing of Faith (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: The Hearing of Faith (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

July 16, 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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ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

There will be no mid-week service this Thursday, July 20. Our conference schedule is Friday, July 21, 7:30pm; Sat, July 21, 10:15 am and 6pm; Sun, July 22, 10:15 am. For more info check www.FreeGraceMedia.com or our sermon audio site.

 

Sunday, July 30, we are scheduled to have regular services at the church building.  Afterwards, we will plan to go to Ravi and Debbie’s house where we will baptize Kimberly Thacker.

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SUNDAY’S READING IN PROVERBS

Proverbs 9: 7: He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot. 8: Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. 9: Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

 

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Do yourself a favor…do your soul a favor …avail yourself of every opportunity of hearing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. God still speaks to men through His Word. He spoke to me, who knows, He might speak to you—Pastor Scott Richardson (1923-2010)

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FORBEAR AND FORGIVE
By Pastor Henry Mahan

 

As long as we are in this flesh, we will have misunderstandings among us, unpleasantness’s, and even injustices (we will feel that our rights have been violated and others have been wrong in what they have said and done). What is to be our attitude? It is to be twofold: "FORBEARING one another and FORGIVING one another." To FORBEAR is to control our emotions, surrendering our rights for the time being in patient hope that God will reveal his purpose and will. To FORGIVE is actually to put the misunderstanding out of mind and restore a state of love and fellowship. Our Lord FORBEARS, that is, He is longsuffering and patient with us; and He FORGIVES, remembering our sins no more.

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MY FAITH
By Thomas Bradbury
(1677-1759)

 

My faith is not a part of the righteousness in which I am justified any more than my mouth is a part of the food which sustains my body. Faith is God's gift (Eph. ii. 8). It is the fruit of the Spirit in me, whereby I see, feed upon, and glory in Christ as He is revealed to me and in me. Faith is not a work performed by us in order to be justified; but it is a work of God in us by which we apprehend and glory in our justification.

 

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Scripture says there is none righteous, no not one.  Why then do the Scriptures speak so much of the righteous?  If there are no such persons on earth, why do Scripture always speak of the righteous.  This is a point of great importance: the Lord settle it well in your heart and mine.  We are poor sinners in ourselves; we have no righteousness of our own; yet, saith the Lord Jesus, the righteous one, their righteousness is of me (Isaiah 54:17).  We are made the righteousness of God in Christ (II  Corinthians 5:21).  When we are taught this by the Spirit of truth, instead of looking into ourselves for righteousness, we cry out in the joy of faith, I have found it: "in the Lord hath I righteousness"  (Isaiah 45:24).  Then we have a living union with the Lord our righteousness, by faith; being perfectly righteous in him, we have righteous hopes, fears, desires, a righteous walk, and righteous expectations; for we know our salvation is on the Lord.  The Spirit of truth does not lead us to the unrighteous notions of salvation on account of our own works, duties, and performances, either in whole or in part; but He shows us such matchless glory in our Lord's one everlasting righteousness, that we renounce all our own righteousness, and all dependence on it for salvation.  May the Lord  increase our faith in Him, and may the Lord our righteousness quicken our love to him for making us righteous. -- William Mason (1719-1791)

 

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THEN AND NOW

 

Brethren, as we read articles in the bulletin from preachers of the past we see that things then are the same as things now.  The following article by William Gadsby (1733-1844) is an example: “It does appear that most teachers think there should be a distinction made between the sheep and goats, but does it not appear that the greatest part of preachers, in this day, are attempting to give to the goats what belongs to the sheep, and to the sheep what belongs to the goats? For when on the one hand they address the unconverted, they tell them that it is their duty to look to Christ, and believe in him, and that they are warranted to offer them all the blessings of the gospel, thus making the gospel the unconverted man's rule of faith and practice; they, on the other hand, send the sheep to the law of works, and tell them that their comfort depends upon their walking according thereunto. And when any poor soul is in darkness, through the power of the world, the flesh, or the devil, instead of pointing them to Christ, and telling them that it has pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell, they tell them to 'remove the cause, and the effect will cease;' and thus the goats are sent to the law of life, and the sheep to the killing letter.”

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HEARING OF FAITH

 

Galatians 3: 1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 2: This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3: Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? 4: Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain. 5: He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

 

The true believers at Galatia, like all true believers, had been born-again and brought to faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit through hearing of Christ’s faith, who by his works, made his people complete in him. But some had come preaching “the works of the law” sending believers back to the law to be made perfect in the flesh by their own obedience.  Paul declared that the preaching of works does not make believers obedient but makes it “that ye should not obey the truth.”

 

So Paul asks the Galatian believers the question, “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” It was by the hearing of Christ’s faith that God sent the Holy Spirit and gave them life and faith in Christ.  Paul said it was, “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness….And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” (Gal 3: 6, 8)

 

     So seeing that all true believers are given the Holy Spirit, made righteous and holy, through the hearing of Christ’s faithfulness, Paul asks, “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?...He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”  Paul says since God sent forth the Holy Spirit and began this miracle of grace in you through the hearing of Christ’s faith, God will only continue to grow us in grace through the same message.  So then it is foolish to give ear to preaching which declares we are made holy by the works of the law by our own fleshly law-keeping.

 

     Believer, Christ has fulfilled the law for his people.  When Christ died, our body of sin died, we died to the law and the law died to us.  When Christ arose, he arose to live unto God and all his people did the same in him.  In the new birth, through God-given faith, God makes Christ both Righteousness and Sanctification unto us who believe so that now we live unto God by faith in Christ through the hearing of Christ’s faith.

 

     So if we would begin obeying the Truth, continue obeying the Truth and be grown in grace by the Truth then we must begin by hearing the faith of Christ the Truth and continue hearing the faith of Christ the Truth until the day we behold him face to face and are made like him. (Gal 2: 20-21; Col 3: 1-11)