April 27, 2008 SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH Of Princeton, New Jersey
Psalm 9:16:The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
LOCATION Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd floor 150 Washington Street, Rocky Hill, NJ, 08553
SCHEDULE OF SERVICES Sunday 10 AM Bible Class 11 AM Morning Worship Thursday 7:00 PM Mid-week Service (The first Sunday of each month we meet at 10 AM for morning worship then observe the Lord's Table. After services we have lunch together.)
MAILING ADDRESS 114 Laning Avenue Pennington, New Jersey, 08534 Clay Curtis, pastor Phone: 609-818-1887 Email: clay@sovereign-grace.us
We are theologians only as far as our theology exalts Jesus Christ--Henry Mahan
AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD Tom Harding is pastor of Zebulon Baptist Church in Pikeville, Kentucy. As the people of God, we don't deny Adam's sin and guilt before Him. We also confess and own that in Adam all have sinned (Rom. 3:23), all have spiritually died (Eph. 2:1), that we are all guilty by imputed and actual sin and imputed and actual guilt. (Rom 5:12).
However, I have never read in the scriptures of anyone praying forgive me for Adam's sin, or Adam's guilt. Rather, the people of God are always praying, Lord forgive me for my sin, like the publican prayed, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner" or like David prayed, "Against thee and thee only have I sinned." We must understand, (and that only by sovereign revelation) that we are the guilty party, that we are ruined and lost and guilty before God. Until we do, we will never earnestly beg for pardon, mercy or say with Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42: 5-6).
FLESH AND SPIRIT Joe Terrell is pastor of Grace Community Church in Rock Valley, Iowa. Psalm 9: 9: The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. 10: And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
Believers do not have spiritual problems. They cannot have a spiritual problem, for that nature in them called spirit has been regenerated by the Spirit of God, and there is no flaw in it. But that is not to say that Christians have no problems with what are commonly called "spiritual things." Believers find prayer, study and meditation on the things of God to be difficult. The child of God struggles with a continuing tendency to sin. But, these difficulties do not reveal a spiritual problem, but a fleshly one. It is not a corrupt or dead spirit that makes "spiritual" labors difficult, but a corrupt and unwilling flesh. It is not from a believer's spirit that his sinful passions and desires arise, but from his flesh.
The problem is that both of the spirit and flesh are funneled through a single consciousness. A believer does not feel as though he is two people, but one person possessed of two natures, one of which has experienced the grace of God and one which is as lost as it ever was. The Spirit has already been raised from the dead and created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. The flesh's experience of the grace of God awaits the resurrection.
Until then, there will be a struggle, and much to his grief, the believer will find that the same old principles of sin and unbelief are with him, flowing out of a nature of flesh. But there will also be in him a nature of spirit which ever and always looks to Christ and finds in Him sufficient righteousness to justify his soul, sufficient power to keep him from falling, and sufficient hope to save him from despair.
PRECIOUS FAITH Maurice Montgomery is pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, Kentucky. That precious, saving faith which unites the sinner to Christ also unites the sinner to all those who belong to Christ. To be one with Him is to be one with them. Loving and serving Him has something to do with loving and serving them; and loving and serving them has something to do with loving and serving Him. Saving faith says that there is one Savior. Saving faith also says that there is one household, one family, one body, one vine tree, etc. "I (Christ) am the vine, ye are the branches" (John 15:5).
The Preeminence of Christ The Father's Love for and Honor of His Son as Our Mediator Don Fortner is pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Danville, Kentucy "He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence." (Col. 1:18) It is the purpose of the triune God "that in all things Christ might have the preeminence." God has determined to give Christ the glory of and preeminence in all things as the reward of his obedience to the Father's will as our Mediator and Substitute. Christ's preeminence is set before us in Holy Scripture as the display of the Father's love for and honor of his Son (John 3:35-36; 5:20-24).
The Lord Jesus Christ is everything to his Father. The Father loves the Son, delights in the Son, honors the Son, exalts the Son and magnifies the Son. Therefore he has determined that in all things his Son shall have the preeminence. Christ is to his Father what Benjamin was to Jacob, the Son of his love. The Father's love for the Son is evident for all to behold in the honor he has put upon him in giving him the preeminence in all things and over all things.
In his essential Deity as the second Person of the holy Trinity the Father gives nothing to the Son, because the Son is in every way one with and equal to the Father. But in his mediatorial character and office, as the Surety and Representative of his people, the Father has made the Son preeminent and has given him the preeminence in all things.
Christ our Mediator is preeminent in the affection of the Father's heart (Prov. 8:30-31). Nothing is so dear to the Father's heart as his only-begotten, well-beloved Son. The Father values, prizes, and cherishes the Son. He prefers his Son to all and chooses his Son above all. The Father loves his Son. If we could pry into the very heart of God, we would see nothing but his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is preeminence! The Father says of Christ, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased" (Matthew 3:17). God the Father is pleased with and delights in his Son. He delights in the righteousness of his Son, the sacrifice of his Son, the intercession of his Son, and his people in his Son, and for the sake of his Son.
As Christ is the preeminent object of the Father's love, so, too, he is the preeminent object of the Father's trust. God the Father has entrusted everything to the Son. He has put everything into the hands of his Son. The Father trusted the Son with his people (Ephesians 1:12), with all his creation (Psalms 2:7-8; John 17:2), and with his very glory (1 Corinthians 15:28).
God the Father has made Christ preeminent over all things by giving him the place of highest honor, majesty, and dominion. The Father has placed everything and everyone under the rule of his dear Son, as the reward of his obedience and death as our Substitute (Romans 14:9; Philippians 2:9-11; Hebrews 1:3-9; 10:11-14).
And God the Father will give his darling Son everything he asks of him. He shall see of the travail of his soul with satisfaction. That is to say, all for whom he died, all whose salvation he seeks, all his people shall be saved. That is the joy set before him from eternity, for which he endured the cross, despising the shame.
This matter of Christ's preeminence is much, much more than words of adulation, pretty phrases, and religious sentiment. The crown he wears is not a figure-head's crown, but the crown of an absolute Monarch. Indeed, our Savior is the only absolute Monarch who ever existed. And he is a worthy Monarch. God himself has given his dear Son the preeminence by devoting himself, his heart, his creation, yes, his very Being to the glory and honor of his Son. May he give us grace to do the same!
THE END Psalm 16:5: The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. Throughout scripture the Lord's people are not so much concerned with when the end will be but that Christ will be their end.
"Grace ceases to be grace unless it is totally and absolutely irrespective of anything and everything, whether good or bad, in the objects of it." Augustus Toplady.
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