Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 11-18-2012
Bible TextN/A
Date12-Nov-2012
Article Type Sermon Notes
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Giving Thanks (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: Giving Thanks (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

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


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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                                                         

 

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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.

 

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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

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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?

 

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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.)

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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).

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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!