June 21, 2015
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
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NURSERY
We have a nursery equipped with a digital flat screen television broadcasting all services live, for children four and under. Check the announcements.
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All articles in the bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
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Lord willing, I am preaching this morning in the conference at Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN. We are thankful to have Brother Ravi Doodnath bring the message the first hour and Brother Eric Lutter in the second hour. Pray for these men that God will enable them to preach Christ boldly and clearly this morning.
Missionary Lance Hellar is scheduled to preach the gospel for us next Saturday and Sunday, June 27 & 28 at 10: 15am. We will have lunch after each service. Plan to attend and bring someone if you can.
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It is not my love for God that gives me peace, but the assurance of his love for me. “There is no fear in love; but” God’s “perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). Don Fortner, pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Danville, KY
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RELIGION OR LIFE?
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Religion is to know biblical facts; life is to know God (I Jn 5:20). Religion is to know what I believe; life is to know Whom I believe (2 Tim 1:12). Religion is to be baptized into the church; Life is to be baptized into Christ (Rom 6:3). Religion is to be reformed; life is to be regenerated (Jn 3:3). Religion is to be a new convert; life is to be a new creature in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). A man was asked, “And what is your religious persuasion?” He replied, “I am persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). Pastor Henry Mahan
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STRENGTH MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS
2 Corinthians 12:9: And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Pride is one of the greatest enemies to a child of God. Even the apostle Paul had to be kept from it. The Lord showed him things in the third heaven which no other believer on earth had seen. In order to keep him from being lifted up with pride the Lord gave him a thorn in the flesh. Paul asked the Lord three times, that it might depart from him. Instead, the Lord Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
CHRIST’S SUFFICIENT GRACE. Notice, the Lord Jesus says, “MY grace is sufficient FOR THEE.” He is speaking to you who believe on him. Have you ever gotten a thorn in your finger? You looked at it, held it, cared for it because your finger is a member of your body. Christ is our Head. Each believer is a member of Christ’s body. (Heb 4: 15) Our Savior cares for each believer as a member of his own body.
God’s grace never changes toward his child. (Rom 11: 29; Is 49: 16; Mal 3: 6) Even our thorns are God’s grace given by God’s preserving hand so that we can better experience Christ’s love and care and to prevent us from looking anywhere but to him. It is even grace when God will not remove the thorn.
Christ’s grace is sufficient for us because all fullness dwells in Christ. There is no limit to his grace. It exactly meets our need. There is always enough to meet our need. Spurgeon said, “Imagine a tiny fish being afraid of drinking up the ocean.” It is that foolish for us to imagine that we can exhaust the grace of God. God’s grace is sufficient to justify us freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom 3: 24); sufficient to make the promises of God sure to every elect child of God (Rom 4: 16); sufficient to give us the gift of everlasting righteousness in Christ. (Rom 5: 17); sufficient to super-abound over all our sin (Rom 5: 20); sufficient to “reign unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 5: 21); sufficient to regenerate us who were dead in trespasses and in sins; sufficient to supply us with “gifts according to the grace that is given to us” (Rom 12: 6); sufficient in health and sickness, in prosperity and poverty, in life and death; sufficient to raise our bodies like unto his glorious body. Believer, Christ’s grace is sufficient NOW! It is easy to believe in grace for the past or the future, but to rest in his grace for the immediate necessity is true faith. Right now, believer, you have no strength under your present trial, but Christ “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” (Is 40: 29; Ps 18: 2) So whatever or whenever the situation, rest in these words of our gracious Redeemer, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
STRENGTH PERFECTED IN WEAKNESS. Christ says, “for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Christ is the Power of God. His power was made perfect—manifest and shone forth—in weakness when the Son of God took the form of a servant. (Phil 2: 6-8) The Power of God began fulfilling the law and the prophets even while in the womb when he caused Mary and Joseph to flee from Herod because “it was written”; when as an infant he was brought to the temple by his mother “to do for him after the custom of the law”; when Christ obeyed the Father giving himself to be made sin for those given him of the Father; when Christ allowed himself to be nailed to a cursed tree; when Christ was forsaken of God the Father as the Substitute and satisfied justice for his people. In all this, we behold the Power by which God is just and the Justifier of all who believe on Christ Jesus, “For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.” (2 Cor 13: 4)
Therefore, within his people, it is Christ’s Strength that brings us to the end of ‘self’ to see that we are utterly without strength. That is when the Strength of Christ is made manifest to us. Then we behold, “When we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Rom 5: 6); that is when Christ reveals in our heart that what we thought was weakness on the cross is the Power of God unto salvation; that is when we see the preaching of the cross is the Power of God unto salvation; when we behold that we have no strength in our wisdom but Christ is our Wisdom; that we have no strength to justify ourselves but Christ is our Righteousness; that we have no strength to make ourselves separate and holy but Christ is our Sanctification; that we have no strength to redeem ourselves but Christ is our Redemption; and that is when we understand that God has chosen all these weak things that “no flesh should glory in his presence…that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor 1:18-31) Then we rejoice with David, "In the day when I cried unto thee thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul." (Ps 138:3.)
Paul concluded, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” If God uses our infirmities to make us see we have absolutely no strength except the power of Christ resting upon us, it makes us thank God, even for our infirmities. It is because when Christ, and Christ alone, is our Strength then we are strong. (Php 4: 13)
May our gracious Savior make us weak in ourselves that he might make us strong in him!