Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

August 18, 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

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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 services—click here.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

·         Fourth Friday class for our young people will be August 23^rd at 7pm.

·         Sunday, August 25, we are scheduled to baptize Cyril and Lenore Rennels in the Doodnath’s pool after the morning service.

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Proverbs 13: 19: The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.

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“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” (James 1:18).

The believer’s salvation begins with the will of God, not his own will. The natural will is not to come to Christ. “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (Jn.5:40). However, by the will of God and the Word of truth, the gospel is sown in the heart of God’s child and, in due time, when God gives the increase, a child of God is born. For the first time he is willing to come to Christ. Only God can do such a work. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” (Ps. 110:3).  Pastor John Chapman

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Man is naturally ignorant of God. He is ignorant of God’s Sovereignty. He does not understand that God is in control of all things. Man is ignorant of God’s Omnipotence. He does not understand that God does whatsoever he pleases. God does according to his good pleasure. Man is ignorant of the gospel of God, that it is the power of God unto salvation. All false religion denies these three truths. And being ignorant of these things, man says the most foolish things about God and about himself. Thankfully, it’s God’s sovereign, omnipotent power that makes the light of the gospel shine unto ignorant sinners. And God reveals this light to whom he will. “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself” (Ephesians 1:9).   Pastor Eric Lutter

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CHRIST’S CHARGE TO HIS CHURCH

Isaiah 60: 1: Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2: For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

The charge God our Savior gives to his redeemed, regenerated church is, “Arise, shine!” (Is 60: 1)  The marginal reading declares this is a passive “shining.”  It says, “Arise, be enlightened.”  For example, if you were standing in a dark field and people were looking for you they would not be able to see you for the darkness.  But if someone shined a light on you then they could see you, not because you are doing something, but by the light shining on you.  So it is when Christ shines his Light on us.  The reason Christ gives his church this charge is because Christ is our Light and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon his church, “For thy Light is come and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” (Is 60: 1-2)

I was with my family on a tour of a cave. The tour guide turned off the light.  We could not even see our hand in front of our face. That is gross darkness.  In ourselves, we were like everyone else in this earth—covered in gross darkness. To be in gross darkness is to be guilty by Adam’s disobedience but unable to see it; to be unholy by being born of Adam but unable to see it; to have no spiritual discernment but unable to see it; to be in gross darkness but unable to see it. That was our case, as it is the case of every sinner born into this world.

The Light of every child of God—of the whole church in heaven and in earth is Christ our Light. When Christ is our Light Christ is our Life, Christ is our Discernment, Christ is our Righteousness, Christ is our Holiness, Christ is our Liberty from the law, Christ is our Constraint to obey, Christ is our Law, Christ is our Glory, Christ is our All!  When Christ is our All then we have Christ our Light. He is the Glory of God risen upon his church.

We once only walked by natural light. But now our Light is spiritual. Now our Light is Christ (Rev 21: 23; Isa 60:19-20) This is true of us because Christ the Light of the world and he will not let his redeemed walk in darkness (Joh 8:12; 1 Pet 4: 14).  Brethren, by God’s grace, Christ is our Light and the LORD’s glory rests upon us. So Christ says, “Arise, shine!”

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HOW DO WE SHINE?

Isaiah 60: 1: Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

It is very important that we distinguish between the way the true church of God shines and the way the synagogue of Satan shines.  The harlot church in this world shines by drawing all eyes to her and her children. She “lets” their god save her though we know not how because she claims to do everything for her god.  Therefore, she shines by marketing her works. This is how she attracts her members and attempts to keep her members interested. On the websites of the harlot you will find she markets her prayer meetings, her alms giving and her many wonderful works. She has ministries for the married and unmarried, the child, the teen, the adult, the traditionalist and the contemporary. She arises by exalting herself. So she shines by drawing all eyes to her and her works.  But Christ’s church shines an entirely different way.

     First, the true church of God shines by preaching the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4: 5-6).  The one reason we preach Christ Jesus our Lord is because God is our Light and our Glory! (2 Cor 4: 6)  Christ’s Light and Glory makes us “renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Cor 4: 2). 

     The second way Christ’s church shines is by making certain in all our works it is Christ that is seen and not us (Matthew 5: 14-16).  The only reason we are the light of the world is because Christ is our Light. So we make sure men see and hear Christ our Light, not us. The only reason we do any good works is because it is “God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Php 2:13). So a believer will not make himself to be the focus but Christ! Even in our work of preaching the gospel, we know the glory in making the gospel effectual in the hearts of his people is God’s glory (2Co 4:5-7). When the apostle Paul preached the gospel, he drew all eyes to Christ, in truth and simplicity (1 Corinthians 2: 1-5)  Paul instructed the church at Philippi that the way we shine in this dark world is by drawing no attention to ourselves as we hold forth the gospel of Christ (Phil  2: 12-16)  Christ said do nothing to be seen of men (Matthew 6: 1-18) We want the only reason sinners join us is because of the gospel not because we marketed our various ministries to them.  Christ shall enlarge his church in his time, not us.