Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

May 12, 2013

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

LOCATION

Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2^nd Floor

150 Washington Street

Rocky Hill, New Jersey, 08553

Clay Curtis, pastor

Telephone: 615-513-4464

Schedule of Services

Sunday 10: 15 AM Bible Class

Sunday 11:00 AM Morning Service

Thursday 7: 30 PM Midweek Service

Order of service, announcements, nursery schedule, etc., are in attachment.  All articles in the bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.

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A True Child and True Obedience
Romans 2: 29

    
Sinners do not become children of God and righteous and holy by anything we do.  The Spirit of God declares through Paul in Romans 2: 28, “he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.” A sinner is not a child of God by our first birth. A father or mother might be a child of God but that does mean their children will be. They may put their infant through a religious ceremony but that does not, and will not, make the infant a child of God nor bring their child into any covenant relationship with God.  When we are older, we may submit to believer’s baptism, join a church or do any number of works but no work a sinner does will make us a child of God or holy and righteous.  The Spirit of God declares, “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” (Rom 2: 29)  The true child of God is one born again of the Spirit of God.  Righteousness and true holiness comes, not by the outward keeping of the letter of the law, but by God the Holy Spirit creating a new man within a sinner, whereby he is no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit. (Rom 8: 9) The child of God will desire to be obedient to God outwardly, and to a greater degree will be.  But his delight for the law of God and his true obedience is in the inward man—the heart—where Christ dwells in him and where he dwells in Christ his Righteousness and his Sanctification—whose praise is not of men, but of God.

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OBJECTIONS ANSWERED
Romans 3: 1-31

     Sinners are made righteous by God alone. Romans 3: 31 means through faith in Christ the believer has established, magnified and honored the law not by our obedience, by Christ’s! “For by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous?” (Rom 3: 31; 5: 19) We are created anew in righteousness by God the Holy Spirit. Christ our Righteousness is formed in us then we are made the righteousness of God in Christ. All the praise goes to God, not man. (Rom 2: 28-29) Anticipating objections that sinners raise against this good news, the Spirit of God raises then answers some of those objections in this passage.

FIRST OBJECTION—“What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?” (v3) It might be worded this way, “If God saves by sovereign grace, what advantage is it for me to be in a gospel church under the sound of the gospel? Or what does it profit me to have the law if salvation is by grace rather than by my obedience to the law?”  The Holy Spirit answers, Romans 3: 2, “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” God gave Israel what we now know as the Old Testament scriptures by which God declared to them man’s absolute ruin and foreshadowed salvation of the Lord by his sovereign grace, apart from our works.  A person in an assembly where God has sent his gospel has better advantage. God has sent his gospel to you. It will be by the use of the law that God will shut the mouth of the one he saves (vv19-20) and it will be by Christ’s obedience alone that his child shall be made righteous. (vv21-26) None here will be able to charge God with not giving you an advantage, God has! (Lk 12: 48)  Therefore, use the advantage God has given you by consistently hearing the gospel preached, by searching the scriptures and by asking God for mercy.

SECOND OBJECTION: “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” (v3) Someone might point out the fact that most in Israel did not believe or that the majority in the world today does not believe.  They will say this proves God is not faithful to save his people or that God’s ability to save a sinner hinges on man’s willingness to allow God to save him. The Holy Spirit answers, “God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” (v4; Ps 51: 1-4)  A man’s unbelief does not affect the faithfulness of God. God’s power and ability is not bound by a sinner.  His electing, redeeming, regenerating, calling, keeping grace is sovereign and effectual—God chooses whom he will and saves them.  Man’s refusal to believe merely shows the necessity for God to do so. Sinner, take sides with God against yourself.  There is forgiveness with God but only to those who confess God true and themselves the liar.  (Ps 130: 3-4; Ps 51: 17)  But if some do not believe, it simply means God never purposed to save them. “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” (Rom 9: 6-13) 

THIRD OBJECTION: “If our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance?...For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather,…Let us do evil, that good may come?...”  (vv5-8) One will object, “If it is through our sin that God exhibits his righteousness then God is unrighteous to take vengeance on me?” The Holy Spirit answers, “God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?” (v6)  Sin is man’s fault.  Our inability does not change the fact we are responsible for our sins.  The person who is unable to pay his mortgage has no ability. Still, the lender is right to foreclose on his home because his inability in no way altars his responsibility.  Likewise, God is righteous to punish our sins though we have no ability to save ourselves.  But righteousness is not commended through unrighteousness. God declares his righteousness through the faithfulness of his Son (vv21-22) by God freely justifying his people by his grace “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (vv24-26)  Some will say, “If the truth that God does all in salvation is magnified by God’s ability to save one so sinful and rebellious as me then why not just do more evil so that God’s sovereign, irresistible grace can be magnified all the more?”  But such an objection is slander; that is not the gospel we preach! Any man excusing sin in the name of glorifying God shall be justly damned. 

     Sinner, may God shut your mouth long enough for you to hear and see that your worst enemy is not God, not anyone else, it is you.  May God make you guilty. Free justification by grace is good news only to the guilty.  May God make you object yourself today, saying, “How can complete acceptance with God through the Righteousness of Christ, not be good news to me?” Sinner, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.  May God make it so today before you object away the only hope there is for you!