September 28, 2008
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
Of Princeton, New Jersey
Isaiah 40: 6: The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry?
MEETING 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
www.sovereign-grace.us/
www.sermonaudio.com/sgbcpnj
www.freegraceradio.com
Clay Curtis, Pastor
7 Birch Street
Pennington, New Jersey, 08534
Phone: 615-513-4464
Email: clay@sovereign-grace.us
MESSAGES AND ARTICLES
Our featured sermon for last week
Ministering Unto Widows.
September 30th Featured Sermon
Highly Esteemed But Hated
Latest Messages
Exploits of the Faithful
Spiritual Plenty in Temporal Famine
Well and Woe!
Rahab's Scarlet Thread
Latest Articles
This Book of the Law
Self-justification
What Is The Difference?
The Flesh and the Spirit
Christ Plus the Believer's Works
Do You Know the Difference?
Christ the Lord said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." (John 15: 14.)
The substance of a man's message reveals whether or not he keeps Christ's commands or is without law to Christ the Lord. Christ commandments are just that, his commandments. Christ our Commander charges us to believe on him, to follow him in public baptism, to remember him at the Lord' s table, to go forth and preach his name and to love our brethren. But it is he who makes the command effectual in the heart. When he speaks the words of spirit and life into the hearts of his messengers he reveals the glory of his person, in his work and his gracious commands. His messengers then declare Christ's glory in his person, his work and his commands; as Christ's word is preached, through the Spirit of Christ, the Voice effectually commands his sheep and they follow him.
On the contrary, the messenger who comes in his own name speaks Christ's commands as if they were his own. He omits the glory of Christ found in all of his gracious instruction, leaving sinners thinking they can obey without Christ who alone must make his instruction glorious in the heart by his grace. Such a man is offensive to Christ, and to the believer, because he unlawfully exalts himself to the office of commander thus disobeying the Lord while lording over God's heritage. He has put himself in Christ's throne and if he preaches the power of Christ the King then he will have to step down from his self-appointed position.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
THE WORDS OF THE VOICE
John 6:63: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Those whom the Spirit of Christ has given spiritual discernment are able to judge the stranger and his voice, not by the denominational banner he claims, the following he draws, or even his person, but solely by the message he declares. The Voice, the Word, the risen Redeemer speaks through his messengers and when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers (John 10: 4, 5.)
THE TIE THAT BINDS
In God's church the believer is brought to see that the tie which binds our hearts in Christian love is Christ himself. We are brought to see that Christ is the only dividing line. We see grace in the miracles God works before our eyes in those who gather to hear his gospel. The one we esteem as most harmful and wicked is the one God often saves and works in for the greatest good while those we once esteemed the greatest are proven by God to be proud and of no profit whatsoever. Yet, the most amazing miracle of all is the miracle of his sovereign grace in our own hearts which brings us to behold Christ as the issue. Through the exaltation of Christ and him crucified the Lord breaks our ties which we regarded as strong due to our carnal reasons and strengthens ties that we would have never regarded. This he does by making Christ All, in all his people, as he leaves all others in the religion of the flesh. Thus we behold God's sovereign grace as it effectually abounds over sin resulting in subjection and obedience to Christ our Life.
Experiencing Grace
The religionist who persists in forcing his hand upon his friends in order to have them do God's service is brought down to the dust when the revelation of the Holy Spirit causes him to behold Christ high and lifted up. Then he discovers that while he looked upon his friends as being in error, while he unknowingly exalted himself in self-righteousness above them in the name of serving God, they were the very ones who all along suffered long as they prayed earnestly to the God of all grace for his soul. For the first time he discovers that he had not put off the "yoke" of the law when he switched from his legal Mosaic observances to using the gospel as his legal measuring stick. Now he discovers Christ who brings his people under the easy yoke of grace, who makes the sinner obedient from the heart. Where once he would have argued against his friends who he perceived as going against his ideal of the believer's walk, now he delights in them for not compromising, for not using the same fleshly warfare as he used, but for declaring Christ whose dominion in the spirit is the Weapon of the believer's warfare which pulled down all his fleshly strongholds. For the first time he experiences grace, begins living by grace, and begins to abhor the academic intellectual pride he once labeled grace. Where before he was uncomfortable, dissatisfied, full of strife and constantly searching his religious devotions for peace, he now knows peace and grace and love by experience of it in the heart God created. Brethren, let us be ever bold that Christ is All, never forceful and constantly in prayer for Christ to have his way in the souls of one another.
Older
Top
