February 17, 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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Leviticus 19: 28: Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,
nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
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Believe God No Matter What
God blesses with his presence, power,
and goodness where God wills, when God wills, and none can stop his hand. But if Christ does not work in our midst it
will be our own fault due to our unbelief: “And
he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” (Mt. 13: 58)
God uses his saints to save his elect bringing glory to himself because all is
due to his sovereign grace. But if God does not use us, it will be our own
fault due to our unbelief: “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and
said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your
unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard
seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it
shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Mt. 17: 19-20) It
is to the praise of the glory of God’s grace that God reveals his glory in us,
giving us a knowledge of Christ Jesus so that we see his glory. But if we do not see his glory, it will be
our own fault due to our unbelief: “Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee,
that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?” (Jn
11: 40) Do you see how important it is
to believe the Lord? Salvation is of the
Lord. Believe the word of God no matter
what for God gives us peace in him through faith: “Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the
LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that
thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy
peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea…” (Is
48:17-18)
A MESSAGE FOR LOTS
2 Peter 2: 6-9
As Peter warns believers of false teachers
and their damnable heresies, he tells us their destruction is certain, their
judgment and damnation is sure. He gives
three examples comparing false teachers and their damnation in the rebellious
angels, the old world, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. But the Lord
knows how to deliver his children and shall.
False Teachers Compared with Sodom and Gomorrah
The wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah
was great. But the Lord declared the
wickedness of false teachers who exalt man’s worth, will and works as even greater
sin than those two wicked cities. The LORD addressed Judah in the days of Isaiah
as “ye rulers of Sodom, ye people of Gomorrah.” (Is 1: 10-11, 13, 15) In Ezekiel 16, the Lord makes a comparison of
false teachers in Jerusalem with the vile sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Ez
16: 1-2)
The false teachers were full of pride. (Ez 16: 48-49.) Pride makes
men forget their own wretched, helpless condition. Works religion promotes pride. The gospel declares men nothing. Christ saves us entirely himself.
They were full of bread. (Ez 16: 49) They misused the things God gave to
live for themselves in luxury, eating and drinking to excess. Christ is our
Bread. God keeps his regenerated child humbled under his mighty hand. Believers
live in dependence upon his fullness. But the natural religious man misuses the
word of God and material things in the name of building churches for Christ and
to indulge his fleshly lusts in the world.
The false teachers in Jerusalem were idle. (Ez 16: 49) If we find contentment in what God has given
us rather than in Christ himself we will wax fat and become idle. (Rev 3:
17-19) The riches of God’s grace, the
fullness of Bread in Christ, makes a believer active in promoting the name of
Christ our Redeemer, not idle.
They did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (Ez 16: 49) The poor and needy are sinners bankrupt of
all righteousness in need of Christ. Christ is all the Strength of poor and
needy sinner. The gospel is the message
whereby the poor and needy are enriched, clothed, provided for by the
righteousness of God revealed in the person and work of Christ Jesus. (Rom 1:
16-17; 3: 21-26) Where a man is not told
clearly he is absolutely ruined in sin, where man is exalted and the
righteousness of God in Christ not preached then there is nothing for the poor
and needy sinner. (Rom 10: 2-4) Our
gospel is free to the poor destitute sinner who comes to Christ empty. (Is 55:
1; 45: 13) Peter said they will not provide for your soul but through
covetousness they will make merchandise of you. The Lord Jesus is a refuge for the oppressed not
more oppression for him.
They were haughty. (Ez 16: 50) They
lifted themselves above God and men. Swelled with plenty and prosperity, they
looked down upon their fellow citizens and strangers. That was so of Sodom, but God says it was
worse in the idolatrous works-religion of Jerusalem. Peter warns us of it today. The Lord Jesus said to those who rejected
John the Baptist and himself that they were wise and prudent. Haughty men will not listen to a hick like
John the Baptist or even the Master. They are too haughty, too educated for the
simple, too wise and prudent for the nothings God uses to preach his word. But the Lord Jesus promises they shall be
brought down to hell. (Mt 11: 23-26)
The false
teachers committed abomination before the Lord. (Ez 16: 50) This refers to the sin of sodomy. God says
the religion of false preachers in Jerusalem was worse. God often compares the sin of works religion
to sodomy because both are committed openly and publicly, both are committed
with no fear of God, both change the order God ordained to glorify Christ the
Husband of his bride who produces children by the Incorruptible Seed of his Gospel
and because neither sodomy nor works religion produces children. (1 Thess 4: 3, 6)
False
teachers justified the physical acts of Sodomy. (Ez 15: 52) Though
the false teachers in their preaching condemned the physical acts of sodomy,
the Lord says that by preaching man’s works instead of Christ’s works, the
false teachers were committing the same sin spiritually and thus they were
justifying the physical sodomy of Sodom. False preachers can preach down
physical sins all they want, but committing spiritual adultery by not preaching
the sovereign election of God the Father, limited atonement accomplished by God
the Son, and the necessity of regeneration by God the Spirit, they justify those
they condemn for physical sins and are guilty of a far worse form of the same
sins.
Do we
hear Peter’s warning to us? Religion which makes the blood of Christ an unholy
thing by their works, by the doctrine of universal atonement, by constraining
poor sinners with the law of Moses, making merchandise of men’s souls is a far
worse sin than the sins of Sodom. The Lord told his disciples, “Verily I say
unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of
judgment, than for that city.” (Mk 6: 11)
The
Lord Knows How to Deliver his Children
Lot was righteous in Christ his
Surety. The Lord told Abraham he would
bring Lot out before he destroyed that evil place. We see repeatedly that the Lord knows how to
deliver his children out of falsehood: he brought Noah out, Abraham out, Lot
out, and Paul out and continues to call his children out from falsehood today. The
Lord has a remnant left. (Is 1: 9) This world will not be destroyed until
Christ calls them out. I warn you, along with Peter, we do well to take heed to
the sure word of Christ and his gospel. If you do this you will grow in grace
and shall never fall. But if your eyes
are on Sodom and her false teachers then before you go, come hear the gospel
consistently. The Lord will either settle
your heart on Christ or your heart will grow more angry and hardened against
him. But the Lord knows how to deliver
his people out of Sodom. Heed his
warning today before the fires of Sodom consume you. If you do not heed the warning they will
consume you!