June 23,
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.
*******
THREE REQUESTS
Psalm 9: 19-20
By faith, believers see God the Father and Christ our
Savior is our just Judge sitting upon the judgment-seat ruling for us. However
proud and strong our enemies may appear they are in the hand of our God. So our prayer to God is, Arise, O LORD. Here are three requests the believer asks of the
LORD.
Let Not Man
Prevail
If man were
allowed to prevail man would take God off his throne, put a division between
God and his children and ultimately destroy mankind. (1 Tim 6:10; Ps 12: 8; Isaiah
5: 7; 9: 15-17) Do not look to man. Look to the LORD whose hand is working all things
together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are the called
according to his purpose. (Rom 8: 28) Our strength is the Lord. He prevailed in
fulfilling the law for all the elect of God and justifying us from the curse.
God prevailed in creating us anew. He shall prevail in keeping us from the
evil. Look only to our Shield and Defender who sits on his throne in
glory. The Lord may not end the evil but
he can speak peace into our hearts and calm every storm. (Is 42: 13; 1 Sam 2: 9; Is 45: 13)
Let the
Heathen be Judged in Thy Sight
We ask the
righteous Judge of heaven to vindicate and save his children from the power of those
who oppress his saints. What a relief to
know the Judge of all the earth shall do right. (Gen 18: 25) There was one
righteous man in Sodom, just Lot, and for that one man the LORD spared Sodom
until he brought him out. As long as God has one child in this earth, he shall
judge the heathen for us. All God’s
saints are perfectly justified in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, not one of God’s saints will be separated from Christ. God
delights in his child, sets us as a seal on his heart, keeps us as the apple of
his eye, and preserves us safe to his kingdom and glory. God’s child is so one with Christ that the war waged against one
of Christ’s redeemed children is war waged against God. God will judge the
heathen, vindicating his child, for the sake of Christ. (Job 8: 20-22; Ecc 8:
12-13)
Put Them in
Fear
We are taught to
pray for our enemies. It is our prayer
that God make the commandment come that sin may revive and those who are yet
enemies in their minds may know themselves to be but men, that the fear of God
may be put into their hearts. (Job 28:
28; Pro 8: 13) The fear of God includes
a dread of God’s displeasure and a desire of God’s approval, a regard for God’s
excellency and submission to God’s will, gratitude for God’s benefits and
sincerity in the worship of God, as well as an inward delight in God’s commands.
When God sanctifies himself in the new heart, he makes us to behold Christ high
and lifted up. That is when the sinner will stand in awe of God. (2 Cor 5: 21; Is 53: 6; Ro 8: 22; Ex
34: 7; Phil 3: 9) When sinners are made to see the holy character of God in
Christ on the cross that is when we begin to have right views of self and right
views of God. May God give, and
increase, our fear of the LORD that we may know ourselves to be but men.
*******
“TRAIN
UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO”
(Proverb 22:6)
My
earthly parents considered their six children “a heritage from the LORD” (Psalm
127:3). Our father was very diligent to
fulfill his responsibility before God to “Train up a child in the way he should
go” (Proverb 22:6) and to “not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them
up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
Our father therefore ascertained
that his children heard the gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus during the
weekly worship services of
the church.
Our
father also ascertained that all his children were under the ministry of the
Word of God daily. He and our mother
daily gathered all six of their children around them to read to us from God’s
Word, help us memorize Scriptures, catechize us, pray for us, point us to
Christ and exhort us to trust in Him for the
salvation of our souls.
Parents,
many people and institutions daily endeavor to tempt our children into ways
they should not go, and to train them to do and be contrary to the Lord. If we do not daily train them in the way in
which they should go – who will? If we
do not daily point them to Christ – who will?
If we do not daily train and admonish them to be godly – who will? If we will not do so – why not?
If we
parents – especially we fathers – truly consider our children “a heritage from
the LORD” let us daily minister to them in such a way as to join Christ at the
final day in saying to our heavenly Father, “Here am I and the children whom
the LORD has given me!” (Isaiah 8:18).
Let us daily familiarize them with the Holy Scriptures, daily pray with
and for them, and daily point them to Christ who is the Way in which a child
should go (Proverb 22:6 with John 14:6).
Daniel E. Parks