June 12, 2016
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.
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All articles by the pastor unless otherwise noted. As you read the bulletin at home with your children be sure to look up the scripture references.
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IMPORTANT
· Our annual summer meeting is scheduled here for Friday, July 22—Sunday, July 24. Each day our speakers will be Don Fortner, pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Danville, KY and Frank Tate, pastor of Hurricane Road Grace Church of Ashland, KY.
· Mid-week service this week is moved to Wednesday at 7:30 pm. There will be no service Thursday night. I am scheduled to travel to Crow, WV to preach Friday night and Saturday morning. Lord willing, I will drive back late Saturday so services next Sunday will be the same as usual.
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Many who would never touch alcohol are drunk with the wine of Babylon’s fornication, drinking in the devil’s message of salvation, righteousness or sanctification by the will and works of the sinner. Lord, teach your people that “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Rev 17: 1-2, 5; Rom 14: 7)
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Recently, someone told me they do not care for any religion at all because preachers do not tell the truth and religious folks are hypocrites. I agreed that, sadly, this observation is true with most. There is also certain true teaching that gives even true believers difficulty because it has been so corrupted by will workers. But there is a lot of counterfeit money in circulation, too! Will we throw away all our money simply because a great deal of it is fake? Doing so we will throw away true riches! We will let false doctrine cause us to reject true? We must not reject a single doctrine of God’s word simply because some pervert it or we will throw away the only true treasure there is in this world.
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MOSES’ FAITH
By faith, because he believed God, Moses despised all the pleasures, attractions, and honors of Pharaoh’s court. Faith caused him to relinquish what could have been a wide sphere of usefulness. Human reason would have led him down another path. It would have led him to use his influence on behalf of the people of God, to act for them instead of suffering with them.
Human wisdom might very well have said, “Moses, God’s providence has opened a wide door before you. Look what you can do for Israel as Pharaoh’s grandson. This must be the will of God.” But faith does not interpret God’s Revelation by his providence. Faith interprets God’s providence by his Revelation.
Faith caused him to think differently. Human reason and faith are always opposites. They never agree about anything. And, perhaps, there is nothing about which they differ so widely as in what we think of as the “openings of providence.” Human reason always regards such openings as opportunities for self-indulgence. I have known many who, when offered a better paying job, moved to a place where there was no gospel church, no place of public worship, attempting to justify forsaking the assembling of themselves together with God’s saints by asserting that it was “a providential thing.” Faith looks upon such “providential” things as opportunities for self-denial. Jonah found a ship going to Tarshish, because that was what he wanted to find. That which he might have thought was a “providential” opening was, in reality, the path of disobedience. “So he paid the fare thereof” (Jonah 1:3).
It is truly the believer’s privilege and wisdom to see our Father’s hand and hear his voice in everything; but we are never to be guided by circumstances. Our God promises, “I will guide thee with mine eye” (Psalm 32: 8). He guides us by his Spirit through the eye of his Word’s instruction and teaching. “Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee” (Psalm 32:9).
Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and forsook Egypt by faith, believing God’s Revelation (Romans 10:17). Had he acted according to sight and reason, he would have grasped the throne of Egypt. But he walked by faith, not by sight. Therefore, he is held before us as a noble example to follow. Don Fortner
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Isaiah 29: 19: The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20: For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: 21: That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.
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BY THE WORD OF THY LIPS
Psalm 17: 4: Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. 5: Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.
The word of God’s lips is the word of Christ our Head spoken effectually into our hearts through God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel of Christ. By the word of his lips, Christ compacts his church together so that we support the preaching of his word, forbear and forgive one another, and continue together in God’s paths because God ordained to save us by the word of his lips.
Therefore, it is only by the word of his lips that we recognize the paths of the destroyer and are kept from the paths of the destroyer. It is only by the word of his lips that God makes our goings be established in God’s paths. It is by that same word of his lips that Christ holds up our goings in his paths so that our footsteps slip not. So we see that the word of God’s lips spoken into our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of his gospel is our continual need. There are thousands of scriptures that declare this truth to us.
Therefore, be assured that when a man separates from the preaching of the gospel it is not for God’s glory or the good of brethren. Whatever takes one away from the gospel of Christ takes him and all under his influence out of God’s paths and puts him in the paths of the destroyer. Satan may beguile him into thinking he is separating himself for God’s glory, which was the Apostle Paul’s greatest fear. But when a man makes a brother an offender for a word he is playing the Pharisee and leaving God’s paths for the paths of destruction. If he is God’s elect then God will painfully chasten him into God’s path. If not, he is already brought to nothing and consumed.
May God make us meek to submit to him and poor so that we know that we have such need of God’s word that we cannot be offended by any of our brethren. May God make us beg Christ, “By the word of thy lips, hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not!”