September
16, 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
Order of service, announcements, etc, are in
attachment.
A
Prayer We Can Pray
Psalms 106:4: Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy
people: O visit me with thy salvation.
We need never say we cannot pray because we have trouble making a sentence in
prayer. Here is a prayer we can always
pray. It is a blessing when God gives
you the prayer, and gives you the power to pray it; and when He does that, He
is ready in Heaven to hear it. Those who
pray this prayer do not ask for something impossible. "Remember me with the favor that thou
bearest to thy people." Nature
inclines me to pray to be saved from bodily pain. But this is not a favor enjoyed by all of
God's people. Many of them have gone
through great pain. Many have died at
the stake, hanged, and stretched on the rack.
Many have died of painful natural sicknesses. It was never intended that His people should
live without pain. Pain is one of the
best lessons to wean us from trusting in this flesh. This prayer asks for the common blessing that
God has given to all His people. This is
an everlasting favor; a favor that never changes. To pray like this is to pray like all the
great saints of the Scriptures. The Psalmist
asks for nothing but "Favour."
This is the way all God's people are saved, no matter how good or how
bad. We never want God to deal with us
on the basis of merit. We plead for
mercy. We acknowledge that
"salvation is of the Lord."
Milton
Howard is pastor of Kitchen’s Creek Baptist Church in
Ball, Louisiana.
*******
What the Lord has done for Me
Mark 5: 19: Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home
to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and
hath had compassion on thee.
What great things Christ has done for
me! Christ came to where I live, took
flesh and blood, and became God’s servant in my place. He fulfilled all the law’s requirements for
me as the Faithful Man in my place. Christ
paid the debt I owed to justice by becoming the Guilty Man in my place on the
cross. Having bruised the devils head,
casting my sins into the depth of the sea,
conquering satan and death for me Christ arose the Man accepted of God and
there I am in glory with him. Yet, Christ had compassion on me. The greatness of his compassion is seen in
how particular the Lord’s dealings were with me. He did not show this grace to all. But what amazes me most is Christ showed it
to me. I was not seeking him, I did not
love him, I tried to act godly, but I was a dead God-hater. I was as one “possessed with a devil”, “the
man who was born blind from his birth”, “the leper that was healed”, “the woman
that was a sinner”, the “woman with the issue of blood”, I am like Paul, “the
chief of sinners.” (1 Ti 1: 15) Still,
Christ came to me personally and spoke peace into my soul giving me eternal
life where there was only death and showing me that Christ has accomplished my
salvation and is, indeed, my Salvation.
Me, who all my life was in bondage,
has now been given the love of Christ in my heart. Now I know salvation is not of my will—that I
am thankful for because I was not willing.
Salvation is not of works—that I am thankful for because now I see my best
deeds all fall short of the glory of God.
Salvation is of God’s mercy—that I am thankful for because I need mercy (Ro
9:16) All glory and honor in the
salvation of this sinner goes to Christ for the great things he has done for me
and the compassion he has had upon me. Clay Curtis
*******
It is a rare thing to suffer aright, to have my spirit in
suffering bent only against God’s enemy, sin; sin in doctrine, sin in worship,
sin in life, and sin in conversation. John Bunyan
*******
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
2 Peter 1: 16-18
The gospel of salvation accomplished
by Jesus Christ is the counsel of God which saves sinners. This is the word of the Most High God with whom
you will have to do business sooner or later. Do you realize that whosoever
does not confess in faith that Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, but under the influence of the
spirit of anti-christ? (1 Jn 4: 3) Confessing Christ is confessing Christ
is all your salvation, nothing more, nothing less.
The Gospel is of the Power and Coming of the Lord Jesus
God the Son taking human flesh formed in the womb of the virgin declares Christ
has come in the power of the most High God. Likewise, Christ’s power and authority
was manifest by the way he spoke the gospel. (Jn 7: 46) Every miracle the Lord
Jesus worked declared he is God come in human flesh. (Mt 11: 2-6) The work of redemption which he finished declares
his power and authority as the end of the law, the righteousness of all who
believe. (Mt 27: 51) Christ’s
resurrection from the dead declares he is the Son of God in whom God is
satisfied with his people. (Ro 1: 4) Now, believers wait for the day when
Christ shall come again to receive his own to himself, and none shall be lost.
(Jn 10: 28-29)
Peter’s Eyewitness Testimony
Peter was an eyewitness in the mount of transfiguration. (Mt 16: 28-17: 1-8; Jn 1:14) Christ’s transfiguration was a pledge of
Christ’s power and coming again in glorious majesty. Moses and Elias was a pledge that the dead
shall be raised. (I Jn
3:1-2) What they spoke about was a pledge that Christ has
accomplished the redemption of his people--“[They] spake of his decease, which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem”, that is of the putting away of the sin of
his people by the sacrifice of himself. (Luke 9: 31) God’s commendation of his Son declares his
majesty. Peter suggested building monuments
to all three. Moses (law) and Elias (prophets) may bear witness of the
righteousness of God, but Christ alone receives glory for fulfilling the law
and the prophets. (Ro 3: 20-26) God is
well-pleased in Christ: as
Surety and Representative (Isa. 42:21; Eph 1: 1-8), with his life (Mt. 3:13-17), with his sin
atoning death (Is 53:10; Ps. 85:9-11), with his High Priestly intercession (I Jn 2:1-2), and with his Rule as King
(Is 42:1-4; I Cor. 15:24-28; Rev. 19:1-7; Jn 8:29; 1:
14) Are you pleased with him as God is pleased with him? (Mt
17: 6-7)