May 15, 2011
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
Weekly Meeting Location
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd floor
150 Washington St., Rocky Hill, NJ 08553
Sunday
10 AM Bible Class
11AM Morning Service
Thursday
7 PM Midweek Service
OUR STANDING
Our standing as Christians is founded upon the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We say it, we hear it, and nodding affirmatively we agree that it is true. Yet, all too often we fail to grasp the implications of this fact. All too often our actions and our attitudes, our feelings, our hopes and fears are motivated by something quite different. Instead of looking to Christ we look to ourselves. We imagine that if we could better overcome temptation we would be happier, if we could subdue our sin we would find more peace. We suspect that our interest in God’s love is hindered by our lack of faith and wonder if our conviction for sin has been deeply enough felt. So we become pre-occupied with ourselves and measuring the successes and failures of what we do as Christians, instead of being pre-occupied with Christ, the foundation that never fails. We build our hope upon our reputations, until our reputations take a dive. We draw comfort from our Christian service then stumble upon the suspicion that much of it is self-promoting. We are encouraged by numbers and size until we glimpse how fickle are the little kingdoms we have built. It is Christ that justifies; it is Jesus who makes peace in our soul. Our happiness and our assurance will never be complete if we base it upon anything we do in this world. When we look to ourselves to any degree we are looking away from the Lord. Our failures cannot breach our union with Christ any more than our successes can improve it. What I do, what I feel and what I say does not alter the Father’s free grace to me, the Son’s finished work for me, or the Spirit’s providential care of me. Too many Christians are joyful or depressed in measure to how well or poorly they feel they have performed their Christian duties. Too many preachers use these feelings to badger and manipulate their flock. Christians who are required to scale the bar of sanctified behavior are always watching the bar. They never lift their eyes from their own works; never enjoy the liberating peace of looking away to Christ. Christ is the peace-maker of our souls; our happiness in this world, and in the next, depends upon Christ alone. Robert Hawker puts it nicely, "Beloved, if you will fetch your peace from anything in the world but Christ, you will fetch it from where it is not. None but Christ! none but Christ! While your own acts proclaim nothing but war, Christ alone and His blood proclaim nothing but peace." God grant us freedom to enjoy the righteousness of Christ. Peter L Meney
BE OF ONE MIND
Where there is a oneness of heart and affection between Jesus and the soul, if what He loves we love, and what He hates we hate, if His Father be our Father, and His people our people, this sameness of mind will carry with it a sameness of affection and we shall take part in all that belongs to Him. The language of our hearts will go forth in words, like those of Ruth to Naomi when she said, “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” Ruth 1:16, 17. Robert Hawker
NO INTERMEDIATE
There is no logical intermediate between Calvinism and Arminianism that is capable of combining both systems. It is impossible to say:
(a) That a man is both totally and partially depraved.
(b) That election is both unconditional and conditional.
(c) That regenerating grace is both irresistible and resistible.
(d) That redemption is both limited and unlimited.
(e) That perseverance is both certain and uncertain.
Nor can there be a modification of one by the other. One or the other of the above mentioned points must overcome the other. It is impossible to blend the two, which is requisite in order to a modification. History records such efforts in the past, but despite the efforts, the two will not mix, nor can they walk together in peace. Nor can those holding either system force the other to their own view.
Rolfe Barnard
PRECIOUS BLOOD
1 Peter 1: 19: But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:…
For every believer Christ’s blood is precious because:
· We are justified by his blood
· His blood purged our conscious
· His blood continually “cleanseth us from all sin”
· His blood preserves us—“when I see the blood I will pass over you”
· His blood pleads for us in heaven—“it speaks better things than that of Abel”
· His blood gives us entrance with liberty into God’s presence—“brought nigh by the blood of Christ”
· His blood assures us—“this is the new testament in my blood”
· His blood is our peace with God—“having made peace through the blood of his cross’
· His blood strengthens us—“my blood is drink indeed”
· His blood makes us to overcome—“they overcame by the blood of the Lamb”
Peter sums it all up this way 1 Peter 2:7: Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.