January 31-February 2, 2014
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.
We are happy to have Frank Tate, pastor of Hurricane Road
Grace Church in Ashland, KY preaching for us this weekend Friday 7:30 pm,
Saturday 11:00 am, and Sunday 11:00 am.
We welcome all to stay after services for food and visiting.
*******
CHRIST DIED FOR SINNERS
I pray that we
never become so gospel hardened, that our hearts do not leap for joy every time
we hear this glorious truth, Christ died for sinners. Let’s consider each word of this blessed
statement and rejoice.
CHRIST died for sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is the promised Savior, the long awaited
Messiah. And it is this One who gave
Himself to die as a ransom for sin.
Christ DIED for sinners. It is a miracle that the Lord Jesus Christ,
Life Himself, actually died, but an even greater miracle is why Christ
died. He died because He agreed to be
made sin for God’s elect. When the
Father imputed the sin of His elect to Christ, the holy Son of God was made to
be sin so He died under the justice of God’s holy law that demands death for
sin (Ezekiel 18:4).
Christ died FOR sinners. Christ died as the sinner’s substitute. Christ suffered the penalty of sin that His
people deserve. Christ died the death
that His people deserve so that His people would have eternal life. What mercy, love and grace that Christ would
die in the place of sinners! (Romans 5:8)
Christ died
for SINNERS. The Lord Jesus Christ did not die for good
people, for righteous people, or for people who needed a little bit of help in
order to be saved. Christ died for real
sinners, sinners who were dead in trespasses and sins and unable to do anything
for themselves. Christ died to pay the
entire sin debt of His elect. Jesus paid
it ALL, all the debt I owe.
How thankful
sinners are that Christ died for sinners!
Frank Tate
*******
FREE INDEED!
Isaiah 49: 9: That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them
that are in darkness, Shew yourselves.
All who Christ saves are guilty prisoners by Adam’s one transgression. And
receiving Adam’s sin nature we were born in a prison cell in chains which no man
could break. Our prison-nature was solitary
confinement, complete darkness, with no windows to let in the light. That is
what the flesh is.
If we would have been born free then later locked away for our crimes we
would have known the difference between freedom and imprisonment. But since we
were born in prison, we never knew anything but the total darkness of our
prison cell. Therefore sinners boast of
their free will. But a sinner under the power of his sin-nature has as much
freedom as a prisoner in solitary confinement.
Indeed, he can stand, walk, and lay down when he will but only within
the confines of his cell. We were in
prison, on death row, too blind in sin to know it --“Can the Ethiopian change
his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are
accustomed to do evil.” (Jer 13: 23; 2 Cor 4: 3-4)
God sent the Deliverer, Christ Jesus his Son, who purchased liberty for
those given him from everlasting by his death on the cross. Christ rose from the
dead with all power in heaven and earth “to loose those that are appointed to
death;” (Ps 102: 20) “to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the
prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” (Is 42: 7)
When Christ spoke with irresistible power into our hearts, saying, “Show
yourselves” for the first time, we, who hated the Light and would not come to
the Light, did truth by stepping forward in our hearts into his marvelous Light.
(Jn 3: 19-21; 1 Pet 2: 9) Christ said, “Go
forth” and for the first time, we became truly free to do God’s will--“And this
is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and
believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the
last day.” (Jn 6: 40) “Being then made
free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” “If the Son therefore
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (Rom 6: 18; Jn 8: 36)
*******
CHRIST ALONE
The person and work of Jesus Christ is an
offense to this lost world and the reason for it is very evident for those who
know and believe the gospel of the Grace of God.
·
Man
by nature is in darkness, blinded by the devil and Jesus Christ is the only
life.
·
Man
by nature has only his filthy rags of righteousness, Jesus Christ only is
righteous.
·
No
man by nature can please God; Jesus Christ alone is pleasing to God.
·
No
man by nature is accepted and just with God; Jesus Christ alone is the Just
One.
·
All
the obedience the natural man can render to God is utterly rejected; only the
obedience of Christ is accepted.
·
No
natural man knows the love of God; the love of God is in Christ Jesus alone.
Therefore if any would have light
and life it must be that which Jesus Christ
alone gives freely by His grace. If we would be pleasing to God and
accepted of Him, we must be accepted in Christ
alone. If we would be justified - cleared of all sin and guilt - we
must believe in Christ alone for it. For
only in Him can a Holy God justify the ungodly. If we would stand before
God without the shame of our nakedness manifested, we must be clothed in the
righteousness of Christ alone. If we
would know God loves us, we must see ourselves complete in Christ, for in Him alone can a Holy God love a sinner. If
men aren’t gathering to Christ as their all in all then they are scattering
from Him. If a man is not for Christ with all His heart, then he is against
Christ with all his heart. There is no middle ground. That which rejoices the
hearts of God’s elect is that very thing all others find offensive. Christ
alone, Christ alone, Christ alone.
Bruce Crabtree
*******
Christ did not come to make salvation possible for as many people as
might someday decide to accept him as their personal savior. The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to
make salvation CERTAIN for all those the Father gave Him in the covenant of grace. If this is not so, it is not possible for
anyone to be saved. Frank Tate