February 10, 2013
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, nursery
schedule, etc., are in attachment. All
articles in the bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
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An epistle is a letter like you
receive in the mail. When you begin reading a letter we look to see who wrote
it and to whom it is written. When
reading the epistles in scripture, it is important to do the same.
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WHY ARE YOU ANGRY?
Genesis 4: 6-7
God taught Adam in the garden and Adam taught his sons
the gospel. There was a place where God would meet with the sinner and only in
the blood of a lamb slain. Cain brought
the fruit of the cursed ground—the same as a sinner bringing to God the fruit
of his cursed flesh, the works of his hands.
Abel came with blood, the same as coming by faith in the person and blood
of Christ Jesus. “And the LORD had respect
unto Abel and to his offering: But unto Cain and to his offering he had not
respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.” (Gen 4: 4-5; Heb
11: 4) “And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy
countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou
doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”
The Lord told Cain, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be
accepted?” What does the LORD declare it
is “to do well.” The answer is in Micah 6: 8.
The
LORD Requires You to Do Justly with thy God
The Lord requires that I confess my
sin and declare God just in all his case against me. I justly deserve his wrath and indignation
because all I am is sin. (Ps 51: 4; Lk 18: 13) God requires you to confess you
are nothing, have nothing, can do nothing to please God. To confess I have sinned against God is to
confess God is just in his sentence against me. I am guilty of all
charges. This is why Cain was angry. He would not confess he was unjust to come
with his works and that God was just in rejecting him for not coming with
blood.
The LORD Requires You to Love Mercy with Thy God
The publican begged, “God be merciful
to me a sinner.” We love mercy with God
when we delight for God to be merciful to us in Christ. To do mercy with God is to be saved not by
your sacrifice, but in the sovereign, free mercy of God in Christ. Christ’s person, his blood, his righteousness
takes in all that is included in the mercy of God. (Mt 9: 12-13) To do mercy with thy God is to delight in the
Righteousness of Christ; to do mercy with thy God is to delight in free
justification accomplished by Christ’s suffering unto death; it is to abhor
your sacrifices and delight in Christ the Mercy of God. Cain was angry because he had no delight in
his soul for the mercy of God found only in the person and blood of Christ
Jesus the Lord. Dear sinner, it is not
that you do not understand my doctrine, it is that you will not let go of you,
your sacrifices, your pretended goodness and come empty delighting to be saved
by God’s mercy alone!
The LORE Requires You to Walk Humbly with thy
God
When you are made to know that the first step in your new
walk is owing to the grace and power and wisdom of God then every step will be
in humble reverence and dependence upon God to keep you by that same
grace. The regenerated believer needs
God every hour. (2 Cor 12: 9; 3: 5; Is 40: 29-31) Paul said that he would
glory, not in haughtiness, not in some strength of his body, but in his
infirmities, his utter weakness. When I
am weak then is my God all my Strength.
This is what made Cain angry. He
would not come down off his high horse and submit himself in utter dependence
upon the grace of God.
Thou
Shalt Rule Over Him
Some say the last phrase in verse 7, “And
unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him” means that Cain
was still firstborn, that Abel would still be in subjection to Cain and Cain
would have the rule over him. But this
is the second thing that would have been Cain's had he submitted to the Lord, “Sin
shall not have dominion over you.” (Rom 6: 14, 16-18)
If any sinner declares God just and
himself guilty, if he love mercy in Christ, if he walk humbly with God ever depending
upon the grace of God to keep him then there is not a possibility that sin
shall have the dominion over you because you are not under the law but under
grace.
It does not mean that sin’s presence
will not be mixed in all we do or that a believer is able to keep the law of
God. Nor does it mean a believer is able
to make ourselves perfect by anything done or not done in our flesh. It does
not mean that there will not be unbelief mixed with our faith or that our relationship
with our brethren will not have sin mixed with it. It means we shall be more
than conquerors through Christ that loved us.
Instead, with Cain, sin crouched before the Door, dominated
him, and barricaded his entrance into Christ. Cain would not enter and could not enter because
of Cain’s enmity against God. And that same sin reigned so that he hated Able
because Abel was accepted in Christ Jesus and Cain was not. And Cain’s sin reigned more and more. Cain
turned his back on God, killed Abel and God cursed him forever.
Now here is the question to you sinner. Why are you angry? Why is your countenance fallen? If you do well, shall you not be accepted? Do
justly with thy God. Love mercy with thy
God. Walk humbly with thy God. Abel did and Christ Jesus saved him. Cain got angry and was damned. Who could possibly be angry about sovereign
and free salvation?
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As Christ’s righteousness is the only merit that can
exalt us to the presence and to the kingdom of God; so that doctrine alone is
to be considered as evangelical which depresses the righteousness of man, and
exalts the righteousness of Christ: leading us to trust, not on what we do, but
singly on what He has done and suffered for us. The business of the Law is to
knock us down from the pedestal of self-confidence, and to grind us small; as
Moses ground to powder, and dispersed the materials of the Israelitish idol.
The business of Grace is to lift us from the dust, to settle us upon Christ the
rock of ages, to put a new song of free salvation into our mouths.
Augustus Toplady
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Just because grace is unmerited
favor, it must be exercised in a sovereign manner. Therefore does the Lord declare, “I will be
gracious to whom I will be gracious”
(Exodus 33:19).
AW
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