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