October 6, 2019
SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH
MEETING LOCATION
251 Green Lane
Ewing, NJ, 08368
Clay Curtis, pastor
Telephone: 615-513-4464
Clay@FreeGraceMedia.com
MAILING ADDRESS:
7 Birch Street
Pennington, NJ, 08538
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.
All
articles by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
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SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE WEBSITE: The videos are now listed as individual
sermons, as well as full services—click here.
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ANNOUNCEMENT
Next Sunday, October
13, we will plan to observe the Lord’s Table and after service have a meal
together. Also, next week our mid-week
service is scheduled for Wednesday, October 16; I am scheduled to go to Tennessee
Thursday to preach for College Grove Grace Church where brother Chris Cunningham
is pastor.
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Proverbs 14: 1: Every wise woman buildeth her house:
but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.
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“In what light are all [the believer’s]
afflictions to be viewed, but as so many correctives, so much discipline
employed by their God in covenant, in order to make them "partakers of His
holiness." Viewed in any other light, God is dishonored, the Spirit is
grieved, and the believer is robbed of the great spiritual blessing for which
the trial was sent.” Octavious Winslow (1808-1878)
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(Psalm 139:17)
"How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is
the sum of them!"
What a comfort it is to have a personal God – to have
a God you can trust – a God who condescends to think on us – to consider our
needs – and then supply them? What if
all we had to believe in was "the laws of nature" – "mother
nature" – "the big Guy" – "a Supreme Being" – or,
"the man upstairs"? What if
all we had to look forward to was some set of "laws" and
"powers" – like the "laws of nature" – acting apart from
God?
It seems that there are so many who
try to get away from the thought of a personal God – One who redeems –
preserves – and provides for His people.
The Bible declares a personal
God who takes a special interest in His people—and thinks on them with a
tender, gracious consideration.
Pastor
Milton Howard
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(Psalms 139:17)
"How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is
the sum of them!"
Have you been in a place where you did not know what
to do? There seems to be no escape. Remember, He thinks on you. He alone can bring good out of evil, light
out of darkness, and order out of confusion.
The believer
does not run to his God merely in times of trouble. He delights himself in the Lord at all times,
and under all circumstances. "How
precious also are thy thoughts unto me, 0 God! How great is the sum of them!"
If God's
thoughts are so precious to us, how precious should His words be. In this Book we have the thoughts of
God. This is His Word. If I ever doubt what He said, I can go back
and read it. These are the words spoken
by God to His servants. If I give up my
Master's words, I give up His thoughts also.
His words are the extensions of His thoughts – the revelation of His
thoughts.
How many
times have you turned in the Scriptures and found a word that has exactly met
the predicament in which we have been placed?
No other word would have fit our need at that time. Know this Book. Memorize it.
The more you read it the more you will love it.
If God's
thoughts are so precious to us, how precious should His actions be. His actions
come from His thoughts. He always has gracious thoughts towards His people, so
His actions are gracious also.
Remember,
God first thought, then He acted. We may
not see any preciousness in a particular act of God, but if we judged according
to faith, and not according to feeling, we would see that His actions are as
precious as His thoughts. We can look
back over our past experiences and see how precious our trials have been to us.
As He
thinks on us, so we should think on Him.
At all times. Do you think on
God?
"How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, 0
God! how great is the sum of them!"
Pastor Milton Howard
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From the faucet water flows through the hose to the flower. God is the Faucet; the blessings of Christ the
water; faith the hose; the sinner the flower.
From God all the blessings of Christ flow through faith to the sinner.
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THE WISDOM AND PLEASURE OF GOD
1 Corinthians 1: 21: For after that in the
wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Due
to our fall in Adam, no sinner can know God by own wisdom. The wisest heathen never
came to a true understanding of God but worshipped and served the creature more
than the Creator (Rom 1: 22, 25). Then God created Israel and gave them his
oracles. Yet, left to themselves, the
gospel remained a hidden mystery. They worshipped
themselves the same as the heathen (Rom 2: 3; Jn 1:11; 1 Cor 2: 8) In the history of the world, not one sinner
ever taught himself the things of God, “neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2: 14).
In
God’s wisdom, he foreordained that after proving man’s wisdom utterly
worthless, Christ would send his preachers and save his people only through preaching
which gives Christ all the glory. The
Lord Jesus declared that John the Baptist marked the end of the old legal dispensation
and the beginning of the new gospel dispensation, saying, “The law and the
prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and
every man presseth into it” (Lu 16:16).
Christ even rejoiced in God’s wisdom to hide the gospel from the self-wise and
self-prudent and reveal it to helpless sinners, saying, “I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it
seemed good in thy sight” (Lu 10: 21).
Understand, the public preaching of Christ
is not God’s “Plan B” as some erroneously teach. God performs in time what God
purposed to perform from eternity, “Declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Is 46: 10) It was the wisdom of God to prove man’s total
inability to know God by man’s own wisdom. After that, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe from the first hour we
believe until the last.