October
20, 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.
About My Preaching
As a sinner called by God to preach the
gospel of his grace in Christ Jesus I take my responsibilities more seriously
than anything in my life. Christ and his
church—you my church family—come first. I
must give account to God for you. (Eze 3: 17-20: Heb 13: 17)
Therefore, I diligently seek a word from God as one that watches for
your souls. I weigh the words that I speak
from the pulpit carefully because my chief desire is that you see yourself as
nothing and Christ as All. I do not make
it my business to intrude into your lives but, like you do your children, I
observe the things with which you struggle.
It weighs on me like your own children weigh on you. I do not have answers
for individual problems in your lives.
But the gospel deals with principles which lay at the heart of all our
problems. That is why during the week I pray for each of you, asking God for a
word directly from him particularly for you and why I beg God to apply it to
your hearts as only he can.
As you know, I do not preach salvation by the
will, works or worth of sinners. It is
repeatedly declared from scriptures that God does not send preachers who do, nor
did his apostles tolerate such. (Jer 3: 15; 14: 14, 25-26; Gal 1: 6-9; 5: 12)
Salvation is entirely the work of the triune God toward God’s elect everlastingly
loved by God. But if over the course of time, I detect anything that is distracting
even one person from paying attention during the services, which is a danger to
your souls, I will address it. That is not preaching works; it is doing what I
am responsible to do. If you saw your
child in the street in the path of oncoming traffic you would not say, “I don’t
believe God saves by works so I will just hope God will get my child out of the
street.” You would tell your child to
get out of the street. It does not mean
you are a will-worker; it means you are being a faithful, loving parent. Likewise, it does not mean that I have turned
legal or that after six years I suddenly started judging any of you personally.
It is because I see things from the pulpit you do not see, souls who I am responsible
for, souls bound for eternity, being distracted from the one message through
which God saves his people. Thankfully,
the Lord has blessed me to minister to a people who are always receptive to
whatever is best for God’s people, who I know do not question my motives or
react like our children sometimes do when we tell them to get out of the street.
Also, when I preach about the cares of
this world, including examples of how carried away we can get with our jobs,
with our children’s sports and other examples from our life, remember that I am
also ministering to my own family, which includes a wife who works to help with
the ministry of this congregation, as well as a ten and twelve year old who
love sports. In addition to you, I am also
teaching them the importance of never allowing anything in their lives to interfere
with the preaching of the gospel. I
cannot express enough the importance of hearing the gospel. If you knew the
Lord Jesus Christ was speaking in person somewhere near you two days a week would
you be there? Well, the gospel sent by the
Head of the church who fills all in all, is God our Savior beseeching you
through his earthen vessels. (2 Cor 5: 20)
The preaching of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation because
it is Christ, the Power of God, speaking effectually through that gospel by which
he humbles pride-filled sinners into obedience to him by revealing Christ is
our only Righteousness and by which he brings to nothing the wise and prudent. (1 Cor 1: 19-31) Remember, God says the only
ones who lightly esteem the preaching of the gospel are those who perish. (1
Cor 1: 18) Christ, exalted over all with
all power, does not use the gospel of “another Jesus” to save his people
because our King has sovereign power to do as he pleases in heaven and in earth.
(2 Cor 11: 4; Eph 1: 20-23) Though sinners may prefer to forsake their own
mercy, God says he is pleased to save by the foolishness of preaching. (Jonah
2: 8; 1 Cor 1: 21)
Lastly, everything I say from the pulpit
is for each and every person. It applies to each and every person present. When God begins to rebuke us we must never let
Satan make us think it is just the preacher singling us out. Always consider
first—this may be God speaking to me. No word I speak is for one person only
but every word I speak is for all of us, me included, as sons and daughters of
God.
I hope this helps you to understand how
important the gospel is (and is to me) and how blessed we are that God has
established us as his gospel church for the good of each other. It is a great blessing of grace to minister
to a family of believers who are persuaded by God that God’s churches are not a
dime a dozen but God’s people are “a remnant according to the election of
grace,” who know God is serious when he says “narrow is the way, that leads to eternal
life and few there be that find it,” when he says in these last days “the time
will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts
shall they heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears.” (Rom 11: 5; Mt 7: 14; 2 Tim 4: 3) Sinners “after their own lusts” try on
churches like they try on shoes, concerned about little more than how the
preacher and people treat big, all-important ME, but sound doctrine they discard
like an old pair of worn out sneakers. There
is no greater sorrow for a pastor. But the gospel never returns void. (Is 55:
11) The two-edged sword always gets past the outward veneer exposing the
thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb 4: 12) May God be pleased to keep us
heeding his word, not as the words of men, but as did Peter, believing from the
heart, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we
believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Jn
6: 68-69)
QUICKENED, RAISED & SITTING TOGETHER
Ephesians 2: 4-6
“Quickened us together with Christ” means when the Holy Spirit, the
Father, and Christ’s own divine power quickened Christ from the dead, after he
has finished the work of redeeming his people from our sins, all the elect of
God were quickened together in him. It
is because we were quickened in him that Christ brought the gospel to us and the
Holy Spirit quickened us to newness of life.
“Raised us up together with Christ” means when Christ arose from the
grave all the elect of God arose in him. Likewise, in time, when Christ says to
us, “Lazarus, come forth”, we are not left in the tomb of sin and misery but
are brought out of the grave of our death, brought nigh to God in spiritual
life, with our conscious purged from dead works by the blood of Christ applied
within.
“Made to Sit Together in Christ Jesus” means
when Christ sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high then all his elect
sat down in Christ. Likewise, when he quickens us in regeneration and raises us
from the death of our sin and dead works, we sit down in Christ in the sweet
assurance that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, that we are
eternally accepted by his finished work. We cease living for ourselves, this
world, and our vain works. Our affection is set on Christ above. Knowing we are quickened, raised and seated
with Christ in glory is our hope that one day we will be there with him
forever.