June 29, 2008
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
Of Princeton, New Jersey

Isaiah 1:24: Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 25: And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 26: And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. 27: Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

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.)

WEB ADDRESSES AND MAILING ADDRESS
http://www.sovereign-grace.us
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sgbcpnj
http://www.freegraceradio.com
114 Laning Avenue
Pennington, New Jersey, 08534
Clay Curtis, pastor
Phone: 609-818-1887
Email: clay@sovereign-grace.us

Recommended Sermon
Title: The Master and His Dog (if getting by email click on the link)
Speaker: Paul Mahan
Text: Matthew 15: 21-28

Thought To Consider
Find in the scriptures one sinner saved through a lie concerning Christ, or by a prophet or preacher of lies, find one place where a sinner saved was left amongst liars, then you can say you have successfully proven God has no power to save in judgment and in righteousness or call out his people from among their captors.

THE GOSPEL OF FREE GRACE
Written by Pastor Henry Mahan
It is not easy to preach the gospel of free grace because by nature we are prone to get bound by a system. It is very easy to get bound to a creed or a system or denominational guidelines, and then try to make God's Word fit that system, fit that creed, or fit those guidelines. We begin to hunt what we already believe in the Bible, and that is dangerous. I've heard many Armenian preachers tremble lest they go an inch beyond John Wesley, or an inch beyond Arminius, or an inch beyond some other famous free-will preacher. Then I've heard some Calvinists, some sovereign grace preachers, who speak as if John Calvin were the final authority. Well, these men are not the final authority.... It is time that the Scripture becomes our final authority.... We are to seek to preach the Word of God -- not what Baptists believe; the Word of God, not what Calvinists believe.... I really don't know any difference in what they call high doctrine and low doctrine. I read these statements, "That's high doctrine -- that's low doctrine." Well, if God's Word teaches it that's enough; and if God's Word doesn't teach it, let's do away with it.

NOT COULD HE BUT WHY WOULD HE!
Galatians 1: 6: I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8: But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
I can hear the opposition Paul might have received from such a dogmatic statement. Whether men are saved under legalists or go back to legalism, their defense is always the same. "Paul, our experience is different than yours." "I know, I know, I know I was saved upon my confession and you can't take away my profession, no matter where I am now." "My experience is different from yours, Paul, but it is my experience and I can not deny my experience." "If I confess that God saves in power and calls sinners out irresistibly then I must deny my profession. And my profession I can not deny." "I'm not saying these law-binding preachers are saved, or out-and-out free-willer's are saved, but I was saved under one of these preachers and among those free-willer's." "Paul, you are making the way narrower than it has to be."

The Way is the true and living God, revealed in, and creating a new spirit within, worthless flesh by his own power, in truth and in spirit, and anything else is another way. Paul calls the preachers of this other way, "Perverts!" Be sure you find out the Christ which Paul preached because according to Paul any other gospel which we lay hold of is the laying hold of perversion. Those who preach it--even if it be an angel from heaven--and those who are bewitched into believing it, are worth nothing else but being cursed, according to Paul.

You who are fathers of a son, consider what you would do if you had the power to exalt your only son. If men raised themselves up and told bald-faced lies as to the accomplishments of your son, and men fought tooth and nail holding to this false testimony of your own son, denying you, and your power to reveal the truth of your son, saying that this false version of your son was the one who saved them, what would you do? If you had the power to declare the truth of your son in the hearts of men would you do it? Well, God does.

When John the Baptist spoke with the Jews who thought they had a leg-up because their natural father was Abraham, John said, "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Yet, God never did. He has the power to save in the manner that pleases him. It pleased him to save them that believe through the truth, through the doctrine of Christ his well-beloved Son, and that is how he saves. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness

Growth in grace begins by God's power, with the truth, and continues in the truth by God's power. Deny the power of God or not, but grace which begins under the gospel of a helpless jesus and progresses to the true doctrines of grace without a renouncing of the hidden things of dishonesty and a public profession of Christ is not the sovereign power of God's grace. It is the intellectual assent of man which the sinner calls grace. It is clinging to something man has done while denying the power of God. The Lord warned plainly, If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!