November 18, 2012
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST
CHURCH
LOCATION
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd
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, etc, are in
attachment. All articles in the bulletin
are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
NO
SERVICE THURSDAY 22
*******
Happy
Thanksgiving
“In every thing
give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:18)
On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge God’s sovereign dominion over all the
affairs of providence (Romans 8:28; 11:36). We acknowledge that “all things are of God.” We give thanks
to him for bountiful harvests, because he sends the sunshine and the rain. We
thank him for peace and prosperity, because he makes peace and creates evil. We
thank him for life and health, because they are his gifts. We also thank him
when the barns are empty, the nation is at war, the economy is ruined, and
death is at hand, because he who is our God is too wise to err, too strong to
fail, and too good to do wrong. His will is best. So we give thanks to him “in everything.”
On Thanksgiving Day we acknowledge and give thanks to our God for his
bountiful, saving grace in Christ. When you gather with your families Thursday,
do not fail to give thanks to God for “his
unspeakable gift,” the Lord Jesus Christ and his great salvation. Make
mention of his electing love, redeeming blood, regenerating power, justifying
grace, forgiving mercy, and covenant faithfulness. Let us acknowledge to him
and to all who will hear us that we are what we are by the grace of God. If we
are saved, he saved us. If we are righteous, he made us righteous. If we are
sanctified, he sanctified us. If we persevere in faith, we are kept by his
power. Don Fortner
*******
The Fraternity of Brethren
Henry Mahan
It was
the grace of God which taught Saul of Tarsus how to say "brother." If
the Lord had not brought this proud Pharisee down, his Jewish pride would never
have condescended to call a Roman "brother." But by the grace of God,
there is in the heart of this "Hebrew of Hebrews" such love for all
believers of every race and nation that he calls them all "my
brethren." Someone said, "Grace joins believers in a common
brotherhood and makes the prominent man embrace the poor and confess his love
for them; grace weaves the threads of separate individualities and
personalities into one undivided family!" Let the gospel be learned in the
heart and it will mark the end of selfishness, it will bring down the proud
from their elevated positions, and it will lift the young, the weak, and the
old to their common rights and position as sons of God also. "Liberty,
equality, and fraternity" may be heralded in the Bill of Rights; but only
the gospel can make us TRULY FREE, make us all EQUAL in the
person of our Lord Jesus, and give us the FRATERNITY OF BRETHREN in
God's family.
*******
Christ
is the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of the Father; what
solace then must that soul be filled with that hath the possession of him to
all eternity? John Bunyan
*******
Are You Not Much Better Than They?
Matthew 6: 26: Behold the fowls of the
air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your
heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
You believing
fathers and mothers who have domesticated pets, you feed those pets don’t
you? Would you ever think of feeding
your pets and not feeding your children?
Who feeds the fowls of the air?
Your heavenly Father feeds them (Ps 145:15, 16.) Do you think your
heavenly Father will feed his pets, and not feed you, his son and his
daughter? Are ye not much better than
they?
*******
Useless Care
Matthew 6: 27: Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his
stature?
Not only does
the believer not need to worry about our needs, but it will not do us any good
to do so. The Lord said we cannot make
one hair white or one hair black. He
told us that the protection of earthly treasures is out of our control—a little
moth will eat it, rust will eat, thieves will break through and steal it. We are not able to make the food we eat
nourish our bodies. Our anxiousness will
not add one minute to our lives. Let us
then rest in this soul-restoring reality, "My times are in thy
hand" (Ps 31:15.)
*******
Brethren, if
God did not allow Satan to fire his arrows we would never experience how
helpless we are to do one thing to deliver ourselves and yet how faithful God
is to do it all (2 Tim 4: 18).
*******
The Happy Ending
Ruth 1:6: Then [Naomi] arose for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had
visited his people in giving them bread.
The things
Naomi suffered and lost going down to Moab were hard to bear at the time. Yet, it was the way in which the LORD made
Moab bitter so that she returned to rest with his people in the place where he
had given them bread. It was the way in
which the LORD made her to behold how he had freely given her more than she
ever could have imagined! "And the
women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day
without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto
thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age…" (Ruth 4:
14, 15).
My dear, suffering
brethren, may the LORD make you to behold that he has not left you this day
without Christ your Kinsmen. May he
cause you to behold he has worked all that now appears bitter so that his name
may be famous in you. What grace! Christ Jesus shall be unto thee the Restorer
of Life all of your days!