SOVEREIGN GRACEBAPTIST CHURCH Of Princeton, New Jersey
Matthew 5: 33: Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 34: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: 35: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36: Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37: But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
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
Clay Curtis, Pastor 7 Birch Street Pennington, New Jersey, 08531 Phone: 615-513-4464 Email: clay@sovereign-grace.us
Be sure to bookmark our website for daily articles, sermon notes and audio messages www.sovereign-grace.us
Pluck Out the Eye, Cut Off the Hand! Matthew 5: 27: Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: 28: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. 29: And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 30: And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. 31: It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: 32: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
How does the believer pluck out the offending eye and cut off the offending hand?
Daily mortification of the flesh comes when the Spirit renews our inner man day-by-day to behold the faithfulness of Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior. Our Substitute so delighted to magnify the law of God, that he was willingly made sin, cut off out of the land of the living under the fierce wrath of God in our place, because it was profitable in honoring the righteousness of God that one member of the body should perish, and not the whole body should be cast into hell (Mt 5: 17; 2 Cor 5: 21.)
Mortification is by the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that our Hosea came into this land of whoredoms and took us as a bride for himself (Ho 1: 2, 3; Ro 8: 16.) We played the adulteress. Still, our God proved that he hates putting away. He provided all we needed until the day he revealed his redemptive grace in us (Ho 2: 5-14.) The Faithful Husband loved us and paid the price of his own blood to purchase his bride to himself. (Hos 3: 1-3; Eph 5: 25-27.)
Through the Holy Spirit, the eye of faith makes blind the offending eye; the hand of faith makes lame the offending hand. (Gal 5:16; Eph 4: 22-24; Ro 13:14; Col 3: 1-11.)
O, Lord, this hour grant us a fresh view of you. Cause us to behold you on your throne. Pluck out and cut off this offensive flesh by making us to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness that we might rejoice in the gospel of your righteous Person.
Poor in Spirit By JC Philpot Matthew 5: 3: Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Spiritual poverty is a miserable feeling of soul-emptiness before God, an inward sinking sensation that there is nothing in our hearts spiritually good, nothing which can deliver us from the justly merited wrath of God, or save us from the lowest hell. And intimately blended with the poignant feelings of guilt and condemnation, there is a spiritual consciousness that there is such a thing enjoyed by the elect as the Spirit of adoption, that there are such sweet realties as divine manifestations, that the blood of Jesus Christ is sprinkled by the Hoy Ghost upon the consciences of the redeemed to cleanse them from all guilt and filth. And thus by comparing its own wants with their blessings, and having and inward light wherein the truth of God's word is seen, and an inward life whereby it is felt, a soul wading the depths of spiritual poverty, is brought to feel that it must be the manifestation of the light of God's countenance which can alone deliver; that it must be the testimony of God spoken by his lips to the heart that alone can save; and that the want of this is the want of everything that can manifest it to be a vessel of mercy here, and fit it for, as well as carry it into, eternal glory and bliss hereafter.
To be poor, then, is to have this wretched emptiness of spirit, this nakedness and destitution of soul before God. Nor is it, perhaps, ever more deeply felt than in the lonely watches of the night, when no eye can see, nor ear hear, but the eye and ear of Jehovah; in these solemn moments of deep recollection, when the stillness and darkness around us are but the counterpart of the stillness and darkness of the soul, he that is spiritually poor often feels how empty he is of everything heavenly and divine, a sinking wretch without a grain of godliness; and without drawing too rigid a line of exclusion, we may unhesitatingly say that he who has never thus known what it is to groan before the Lord with breakings-forth of heart as a needy, naked wretch, he that has never felt his miserable destitution and emptiness before the eyes of a heart-searching God, has not yet experienced what it is to be spiritually poor.
Righteousness Which Exceeds By JC Philpot Matthew 5: 20: For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. There are three kinds of righteousness, or at least three kinds of righteousness which bear that name. There is inherent righteousness, of which we have none. There is imputed righteousness, which is all our justification. And there is imparted righteousness, when God the Spirit makes us new creatures, and raises up in the heart that "new man, which after God (that is, "after the image of God") "is created in righteousness and true holiness." When the Lord, therefore, said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven," he did not mean only an external righteousness wrought out by his obedience to the law for them, but an internal righteousness wrought out by the Holy Spirit in them. Thus we read of the inward as well as the outward apparel of the Church, "The King's daughter is all glorious within;her clothing is wrought of gold." Two kinds of righteousness belong to the Queen; her imputed righteousness is her outward robe, "the clothing of wrought gold;" but imparted righteousness is her inward adorning, which makes her "all-glorious within." This inward glory is the new man in the heart, with all his gifts and graces, what Peter calls "the divine nature," Christ in the heart, the hope of glory.
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