April 1, 2012
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
LOCATION
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd Floor
150 Washington Street
Rocky Hill, New Jersey, 08553
Telephone: 615-513-4464
Schedule of Services
Sunday 10: 15 AM Bible Class
Sunday 11 AM Morning Service
Thursday 7: 30 PM Midweek Service
Without Truth
Without truth there is no regeneration; for it is by "the word of truth "that we are begotten and born again. (James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:23.) Without truth there is no justification; for we are justified by faith, which faith consists in crediting God's truth, and so, gives peace with God. (Rom. 4:20-24; 5:1.) Without the truth there is no sanctification; for the Lord himself says, "Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth." And without the truth there is no salvation; for "God has chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thess. 2:13.) And as the truth is the instrumental cause of all these blessings, the divinely appointed means whereby they become manifested mercies, so truth enters into and is received by all the graces of the Spirit as they come forth into living exercise. Thus, without the truth, there is no faith; for the work of faith is to believe the truth. What is all the difference between faith and delusion? That faith believes God's truth, and delusion credits Satan's lies. "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
JC Philpot
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Proverbs 1: 7: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
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WHO AS GOD SHALL
Isaiah 44: 6-7
The sooner we learn to stop trying to fix what we think is broken and trust God who alone is able to work in the hearts of his people the sooner we will enjoy the worship of God and fellowship with our brethren. God alone shall make each of his children know and believe and rest in him as only God can. He does so by revealing three things in our hearts over and over.
God Reveals Our Dullness in Light of God’s Love (Is 43: 1, 22) First, God reminds his child that he called us though we have been dull in calling on him (Is 43: 1; 22; Mt 15: 8.) Secondly, the Lord reminds his child that God promises to be with us, though we have been weary of God (Is 43: 2; 22.) Thirdly, the Lord reminds his child of his unspeakable gift in giving his Son, as well as nations and people for us, though we have given so little to God and his church (Is 43: 3-4; 23-24; 2 Sa 24:24; 1 Ch 29: 16.) Who alone can speak this word effectually in the heart? God says, “I shall call, and shall declare it, and shall set it in order for me!”
God Reminds His Child of His Forgiveness (Is 43: 24.) God has not wearied us with the strictness of his holy law but Christ his Son was burdened and wearied with our sins and iniquities when the Word was made flesh, when the GodMan came and served under the law for us, and when “the LORD…laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53: 6), when “he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Co 5:21.) Brethren, our sins are not in the process of being pardoned, but are actually pardoned at this moment (Is 44: 22.) We forget because our memory fails. God forgets in the sense that he remembers the merit of his Son rather than our sins. God’s forgetting is not infirmity but rather God in utmost pleasure expressing his forgiveness to us effectually in our heart. He glories in his forgiveness of our sins. It is honor to his name! And this how God puts his delight into our hearts so that we truly delight in him! (Psalm 130: 4.) Who alone can speak this word effectually in the heart? God says, “I shall call, and shall declare it, and shall set it in order for me!”
God Brings His Child to Reason Correctly (Is 43: 26-27) What tenderness! This is not God begging, but how God himself gives repentance in the heart of his child of grace. Sometimes we push hard against the chastening hand of the Father attempting to justify ourselves by blaming our offenses on someone else? Doing so is putting others in remembrance. God says, “Put ME in remembrance.” Perhaps we shift the blame to our first father: “Oh, I sinned in Adam so I can’t be blamed for my sin!”, “My dad taught me to be what I am.” God reminds us others may have sinned, God will deal with them, but “What is that to thee?” (Is 43: 27-28; Jn 21: 21-22.) God removes this vain reasoning in his child. It is not another who has prevented ME from calling upon God, making ME weary of worshipping God, preventing ME from giving to God, making ME sin against God! When God penetrates the heart he has made he makes us to become as a little child, to stop justifying ourselves and to justify God (Ps 51: 6-9.) Then God answers that very prayer for forgiveness which God has created in our heart, saying, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Is 43: 25.) Who alone can speak this word effectually in the heart? God says, “I shall call, and shall declare it, and shall set it in order for me!”
Come Now (Is 44: 1-4)
Do you see how that God knows how to produce true worship in his people? Were all these transgressions mentioned without God working in our hearts then we might mend our ways but God sets all in order in the heart producing true worship through the simple declaration of this glorious gospel. Are you one God has chosen? Do you need help? Are you thirsty? Are you dry ground in need of the flood of his Spirit? Are you mourning for those around you? (Is 44: 1-4.) Only God can make this matter become intimately personal between his child and God. Who, as God, shall? Come now, reason correctly (Is 1: 18-20.)
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Hebrews 9: 26:…now once in the end of the world hath [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.