April 19, 2009
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
Of Princeton, New Jersey
Hebrews 13: 18: Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. 19: But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
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 Service
Thursday 7:00 PM Mid-week Service
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
Diana Castro has expressed her desire to confess Christ in baptism. We thank and praise our sovereign and gracious Savior who shows so great mercy to us helpless sinners!
The Gospel of God's Grace
Have you asked the question, "Why has God showered me with his grace when I am far worse than those he passes by?" Grace is God's prerogative to give to whomsoever he is pleased to bestow it upon. Therefore it is written that God hardened Pharaoh's heart. God did so by lawfully exercising his holy prerogative to withhold grace from the guilty. It is written that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Pharaoh did so because the gospel is to all natural men a taste of death. God says to you who believe to behold that you were the same as Pharaoh and would have continued but for one reason which made you to differ-according to God's prerogative he chose to graciously give you a heart to believe the truth. Therefore because of God's grace working in you, when you heard with the new heart which he created within you, the gospel was a savor of life to you. Because God gave more grace, the same gospel that became more and more a savor of death unto death to Pharaoh, becomes more and more a savor of life unto life to you. Even as the natural man reads these words today the net effect this truth produces shall be more death unto death to him. Yet you who have received grace are made to stand in amazement that though you were children of wrath even as others, though you hated God and his prerogative to give grace to whosoever he will, God still exercised his prerogative to give you grace to believe. Thus God magnifies to you what grace really is. This is the gospel of God's grace and this is how the grace of God's gospel operates. Now you know the answer. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. (Romans 9: 17, 18)
A Must-Have Gospel
By Maurice Montgomery, pastor of Bible Baptist Church, Madisonville, Kentucky
Those who have never heard the glorious Gospel of the free grace of God in Christ Jesus the Redeemer, need to hear that Gospel more than anything else in the world; but they, sad to say, do not feel that need. However, those who have heard and believed that Gospel MUST hear it! The hungry man MUST eat, the thirsty man MUST drink, and the sinner MUST feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness! He knows and feels his desperate need.
God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Salvation
By Todd Nibert, pastor of Todd's Road Grace Church in Lexington, Kentucky
God is one God, revealed in three distinct, separate persons...God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. 1 John 5:7 says, "These three are One." All three persons of the Trinity have a specific work in the salvation of the sinner. God the Father elected whom He would save before time began (Romans 9:11). God the Son redeemed those the Father elected (John 10:15). God the Holy Spirit gives life to those the Father elected and the Son redeemed (John 6:63). No one part of the work of the triune God is more important than the other, and no part of God's salvation is less essential than the other. They are all a part of that salvation which is "of the Lord" Jonah 2:9. To make any of these three aspects of salvation less important or non-essential is to miss the whole!
Observation
Through the law of Moses God pointed the sinner to himself, left the sinner entirely to himself to perform all, yet gave the sinner no ability to do so; through the gospel of Christ God shuts the sinner up in Christ, leaves the sinner entirely depending upon Christ to perform all, and continually persuades the sinner that Christ is able to keep all that we have committed to him.
The following question was asked Ian Potts, pastor of Honiton Sovereign Grace Church, Awliscombe, Devon, UK, included is his reply.
Who is the most significant leader of Christianity today, UK or worldwide?
The Lord Jesus Christ! Yes, he sends gifts - preachers - to His church (see Ephesians 4:11-12) to preach His word, and believers receive those preachers who preach the truth - they recognize them, appreciate them, love them for the truth's sake - but it is CHRIST who is the Head of His church, His body, and He has the ultimate authority in it. Christ speaks through those whom He sends to preach, by His Spirit, through His word, and they are given authority but it is always subservient to His. However, none is a 'pope' - Christ is the Head of the church, and HE builds it. It is His church, His Body, for whom He died. "I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). "Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it" Ephesians 5:25
Psalm 110: 7: He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.
By Robert Hawker (1753-1827)
I do not presume to decide the point, but I am very much inclined to think that Christ's drinking of the brook, was meant in allusion to the sufferings of Jesus. The brook Cedron, over which he passed in his way to the garden, the night of his dolorous agony, received all the filth of the temple arising from the sacrifices. Hence, therefore, Christ drinking of it in his way should seem to imply that all the guilt and iniquities of his people were emptied upon Jesus. He drank of it. The cup of trembling was put into his hand, and he drank it off, that his people might drink the cup of salvation. Sweet thought! And corresponding to that blessed scripture: He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Co 5: 21.)
THIS WEEKS FEATURED SERMON
The Glory in Trials
SERMONS
Have You Been Convinced?
Song of the Flesh and of the Spirit
Obey and Submit
ARTICLES FROM OTHERS
Self-Promotion
My Greatest Fear
God's Greatest Glory
DATES TO REMEMBER
May 1-3 Bible Conference in Rocky Mount, VA
June 19-21 Bible Conference in Crossville, TN
July 1-5 Bible Conference in Rescue, CA
July 24-26 Our Meeting in Princeton, NJ, scheduled speakers: Don Fortner and Marvin Stalnaker.
October 16-18 Bible Conference in College Grove, TN
Contact us for more information.