Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

AuthorClay Curtis
TitleWeekly Bulletin 6-30-2013
Bible TextIsaiah 48:3-8
Date23-Jun-2013
Series Isaiah 2008
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
Audio HI-FI Listen: Because God Knew (32 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
Audio CD Quality Listen: Because God Knew (128 kbps)  /  [go to notes]
 

June 30, 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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The Power of His Resurrection: When Paul spoke of wanting to know the power of Christ’s resurrection it is not simply the sheer power of God; it is the exceeding great and mighty power of the multitude of God’s perfections glorified together in the justification of his people by Christ’s sacrifice which demanded his resurrection.

 

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BECAUSE GOD KNEW

Isaiah 48: 3-8

In eternity, God chose whom he would save and by whom he would save. (Eph 1: 3-4; Is 42: 1-4)  The gospel is God declaring that he has accomplished the salvation of his people by his Son just as he said he would from eternity. (v3; Galatians 4: 3-5; Acts 20: 28; Heb 9: 12; Gal 3: 13-14)  God reveals these hidden mysteries in the heart of his elect child. (vv6, 7) Why did God chose to save his people this way? God says, “Because I knew…”

 

God Knew our Obstinacy

 

God says, “Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass.”  God foreknew our sin. (Ro 5: 12)  As unregenerate sinners we heard God speak in the gospel preached, in the light of creation, in providence, in the holy scriptures, through godly brethren and parents, even in his own conscious. Yet, we went on being obstinate, our neck an iron sinew, our brow brass. And brethren, how sad this also describes the old man of flesh in us now! God’s word is right and for our good, yet, when his word goes against us, so often we act as if we are the wise one.  We see the obstinacy in our children toward our authority but at the very same time before our heavenly Father we so often stiffen our neck. (Rom 2: 1)  May God teach us not to speak down to our children or to our fellow believers but to take our low seat as the chief of sinners. (1 Tim 1: 15; Ps 130: 3; 39: 5) Someone may say, “Not me. I am faithful to God.”  Yes, we are self-justifiers, too!  How thankful we should be that God chose to save his elect by his sovereign free grace in Christ because God knew our obstinacy.

 

God Knew We would Praise Our Idol

God says, “I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.” (v5)  God did not choose his people because he foreknew that we would repent and believe him or because of any foreseen merit whatsoever.  Election could not have been based upon foreknown goodness we would do because there is no goodness in fallen man for God to have foreknown! (Mk 10: 18) God foreknew that we would try to ascribe salvation to our idol called self. Therefore God determined from the beginning to save by his sovereign electing grace, his triumphant redeeming grace and his irresistible regenerating grace. (Ps 14: 2-3; Rom. 9:11-16)

 

God Knew We would Praise our Knowledge

 

God says, “They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.” (v7)  The gospel is the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. (1 Cor 2: 7) In wisdom, God foreordained that the world by its wisdom would not know him and that God would save through the preaching of the gospel.  (1 Cor 1: 20-21; 2: 8-10, 14) The works were finished from the foundation of the world in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, long before we heard. Christ came and finished the work of redemption, long before we heard.  God, in wisdom, opens our understanding and teaches us little by little to make his child ever dependent upon the gospel so that we will glory only in God, lest we should say, I knew. (Eph 2: 1-5)

 

God Knew We Would Deal Treacherously

 

God says, “Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.”  There is nothing unknown to God. God is Deity. All our sin was known to God beforehand.  Yet, he chose his elect foreknowing the transgressors we would be. This is the gospel of grace which makes us adore our God and melts our heart of stone.  Grace is the power that makes our iron neck submissive.  It is the fervent heat of unchanging love that melts the brass brow. Nothing makes a child of God more thankful and desirous to honor our Savior than when we behold his grace in light of our sinfulness. (1 Jn 2: 1)  God knowing our treachery, you would think we would have been vile in his sight. Yet he says “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life?” (Is 43: 4; Eph 1: 5-6; Gal 4: 6) It is because God our Father saw his elect only in his Son.  Everything necessary for God to receive us to himself Christ is for us and we are in Christ.  What is your problem? Christ is the answer.  What is your disease? Christ is the cure.  What is your sin? Christ is the cleansing fountain.  God foreknew all but God provided all in Christ.  God foreknew all our necessities, in Christ God provided full supply.  He promises, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” (Deut 33: 15) “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” (1 Jn 3: 1)

 


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John Bunyan wrote, "Now I saw that Christ Jesus was looked upon of God, and should be looked upon by us, as that common or public person, in whom all the whole body of his elect are always to be considered and reckoned; that we fulfilled the law by him, died by him, rose from the dead by him, got the victory over sin, death, the devil, and hell, by him; when he died, we died, and so of his resurrection. ‘Thy dead men shall live,’ &c. saith he. And again, ‘after two days he will revive us, and the third day we shall live in his sight;’ which is now fulfilled, by the sitting down of the Son of Man at the right hand of the Majesty of the heavens; according to that to Ephesians, ‘He hath raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ Ah! these blessed considerations and Scriptures, with many others of like nature, were in those days made to spangle in mine eye; so that I have cause to say, ‘Praise ye the Lord in his sanctuary, praise him in the firmament of his power; praise him for his mighty acts, praise him according to his excellent greatness.’ "—from Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners