June
3, 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 11:00 AM Morning Service
Thursday 7:30 PM Midweek Service
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Sinners often object that God is unrighteous for choosing to
save ungodly rebels by his grace because in doing so he passes by multitudes.
But God is not withholding something from the multitudes that perish. Multitudes perish in unbelief because they do
not want God or his way of salvation accomplished by Christ Jesus. The Lord said, “this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” (Jn 3:19-20)
He said, “ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (Jn 5:39-40) Sinner, if you want eternal life then believe
on Christ and you shall be saved. The
question is not, “What about the multitudes that will not believe on Christ”
the question is “What about you? Will you?”
OUR ATTITUDE
As long as we are in this flesh, we will
have misunderstandings among us, unpleasantness’s, and even injustices; we will
feel that our rights have been violated and others have been wrong in what they
have said and done. What is to be our attitude? It is to be twofold: "FORBEARING
one another and FORGIVING one another." To FORBEAR is to control our
emotions, surrendering our rights for the time being in patient hope that God
will reveal his purpose and will. To FORGIVE is actually to pull the
misunderstanding out of mind and restore a state of love and fellowship. Our
Lord FORBEARS, that is, He is longsuffering and patient with us; and He
FORGIVES, remembering our sins no more. Pastor Don Bell
STAYED UPON JEHOVAH
Isaiah 26:3
It is easy for the believer’s mind to
become distracted in this world. There
is the rush of our daily routine, technology has caused a constant stream of
distraction, and our responsibilities are always on our minds. Sometimes it feels like the only time we have
to think is that first moment we wake up and the last moment when we lay our
heads down at night. Believer, get these
words down in your heart and carry them with you throughout each day, “Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he
trusteth in thee.” (Is 26:3)
God
Promises to Keep Us--Thou Wilt Keep Him
There is no more power in us to keep
ourselves or to recover ourselves after conversion than we had before. Keeping
grace is of the Lord who elected his people in Christ, who predestinated his
people to be conformed to his Son, who came into this earth and justified his
people from all our sin (Ro 8:33-34), who sent his gospel to you, regenerated
you, and gave you faith and repentance (1 Cor 1:5-9). If you are hearing his Voice right now, if
you are experiencing his peace in your heart right now it is because of
him. Without his keeping grace we would
leave God as surely as we would have never come to God in the first place. But
he promises to keep us. When our hearts
are distracted from our Lord it is like the chill that freezes over a pond, but
when the Sun of Righteousness breaks in he warms our hearts with the rays of
his love. The Prince of Peace is the
peace of our minds and our thoughts more settling and soothing than clear
emerald waters on a white sand beach.
We don’t have to make travel plans and take a long trip to find him who
is our Peace, for he is near. (Is 55:6)
God
Promises to Keep Us--in Perfect Peace
The Prince of Peace who laid down his
life for us, who was made sin for us, who has made you the righteousness of God
in him through faith is our Peace with God.
He is the Word that speaks, “Peace be still!” Our great Shepherd, our Peace, is right there
near always. But it is good for me to draw near to God (Ps 73:28) Have you found
it good for you? When the troubles of
this world interrupt our peace, he says, “Come,
my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide
thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.”
(Is 26:20) What comfort! The Lord does
not upbraid. We can come to our great
Shepherd in all honesty, crying, “My soul
cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.” (Ps 119:25)
He quickens with power which is able to make us grasp the spiritual reality,
with earth-fading power, with faith-increasing power, with soul-settling
power. The Spirit of God quickens us
with power to make us see Christ wearing his diadem of power riding on his
white horse with the sharp sword going out of his mouth conquering and to conquer. He quickens us with the power which separates
Christ in us from the old us, the gold from the dross, the kernel from the
chaff. So it is that he keeps us in perfect peace.
God
Promises to Keep Us--Because We Trust in
Him
As believers, we know that our troubled
spirit is never because of neglect from our Redeemer. It is always due to our
own neglect of him. Our worldliness, our
neglect, our proneness to let these things slip is so full of sin. Nothing but infinite, tender, unchanging love
and grace moves our Savior to keeps us, to turn us, to receive us. The honor of
his name is connected with his promise to keep us who trust him. We trust in HIM because we believe HIM. We believe HE is true. The Lord would not draw us and make his
promise to keep us and then betray our trust.
God is true to his own word, to his own holiness, to his own love and
mercy, to Christ Jesus his Son in whom all his promises to his elect ARE
TRUE. It is glorifying to his unchanging
love and grace to restore a wandering believer. He promises to anoint us with
fresh oil, heal our back-sliding and grow us by his grace (Ps 92:10; Hos
14:4). Our God is wholly true and “those who trust him wholly find him wholly
true.” Brethren, we cannot out-trust the trustworthiness of our Lord. He completely honors our trust because our
trust is in him. Our best most
trustworthy friend is Jehovah our Peace and Strength.
*******
“The knowledge of our ignorance is the
doorstep of the temple of knowledge.”
Charles Spurgeon