Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

Free Grace Media

Of Princeton, New Jersey

 

Author Various
TitleWeekly Bulletin 10-10-2010
Bible TextVarious
Date09-Oct-2010
Article Type Bulletin
PDF Format pdf
Word Format doc
 

October 10, 2010

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH

 

 

Weekly Schedule of Services

Sunday:

10:00 AM

Bible Class

 

11:00 AM

Morning Service

Thursday:

  7:00 PM

Mid-week Service

 

Web Addresses

Be sure to bookmark our website for daily articles and audio messages:

www.FreeGraceMedia.com  |  www.FreeGraceRadio.com

Weekly Meeting Location

Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd floor

150 Washington St., Rocky Hill, NJ 08553

Mailing Address
7 Birch Street

Pennington, NJ 08534

Phone: 615-513-4464  |  Email: clay@freegracemedia.com

If you would like to receive this bulletin sent weekly to your email then send a note to the email address above.

 

 

We welcome Brother Gabe Stalnaker, his wife Hannah, and their children.  Gabe is the song leader and Bible class teacher at Central Grace Church in Rocky Mount, Virginia.  We also welcome back with us, Brother Paul Mahan, and his wife, Mindy.  As most of you remember from our conference, Paul is pastor at Central Grace Church in Rocky Mount.  These are long time friends and brethren of Melinda and me.  We look forward to the messages the Lord will use these men to deliver to us this morning.

 

A GOOD PLACE TO REST AND RAISE OUR YOUNG

Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself,  where she may lay her young, even Thine altars,  O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.” Psalm 84:3

     F OR several years now I have watched a bird, a swallow, build a nest in the vine that clings to the church-house wall. Every year, in the same place, that bird builds her nest on that wall. And every time I see her I think of this scripture: “the sparrow hath found a house …” The saints are like that bird.

     By God’s grace, we have “found a house.” We have found a place “which God hath chosen to cause His Name to dwell there” (Deut.12:11). By God’s grace, we have found the house of God, the church of God, the assembly of the saints, the temple of God, where Christ and His people dwell together; where we behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in His temple. In our Lord’s sovereign providence and mercy we have found “a nest for ourselves.” The church of the living God, where Christ is worshipped, preached, and dwells in the midst of His people, is a nest: a place of comfort and safety, a haven of rest for the weary and heavy laden sinner.

     After that bird labors to build that nest, she herself rests in that nest. Are we not ‘laborers together,’ ‘building up one another on this most holy faith’ (which is Christ!)? And do not we, ourselves, rest in that very faith, that very One, Whom we want our young to rest in? Yes, we have found a good place to rest, where Christ, our Altar, our Refuge, our Bread and Water of life is found. And this is a good place to lay our young.                    

                                                                                                                       Paul Mahan

 

1 Corinthians 3 5: Who then is Paul, and who [is] Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?...7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

I cannot but admire the very happy method, which the Apostle adopts to cure those errors, in calling off the attention of the Church from all the different servants they had been classing themselves under, and directing their minds solely to the Lord. Who then (saith be) is Paul, and who Apollos? Well might he, ask the question. Who were they, or who is any man, but receiving, all from the Lord. All the good that is done upon earth, the Lord doeth it himself. It would tend to damp all human pride, if this thought was kept alive by grace, and always uppermost in the heart. For indeed, strictly and properly speaking, it is impossible to add to the Lord’s glory, by all the services of his creatures. And this one thought, duly weighed in the heart, would at once throw to the ground, all the supposed services of men, or angels: namely, that Jehovah’s glory is in himself, and from himself, and to himself. If no world, or creature, had ever been, God in his threefold character of Person, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are all glory to each other. How strikingly Elihu reasons on this point, taught by the Holy Ghost. If thou be righteous, what givest thou hire? or, what receiveth he of thine hand? Thy wickedness may hurt a man, as thou art: and thy righteousness may profit the son of man! Job 35:7-8. How unanswerably conclusive this is? And how ought the consideration of it, to hum­ble to the dust, every idea of the services of creatures. It is the grossest mistake upon earth to suppose, that the praises of God, or the services of man, are enjoined for adding to God’s glory. Even among men, the wise and noble part of our fellow creatures pass by, and dislike any praise or approbation which is offered them. And how condescending must it be in the Lord, to receive the services of his creatures? Indeed, so far ought the consciousness of being em­ployed by the Lord, as instruments in his Almighty hand, to any service, excite pride, that it tends, under grace, to beget the greatest humility.                                                  Robert Hawker

 

REJOICING IN OURSELVES ALONE

Galatians 6: 1-4

When the carnal yoke is lifted off of the natural man, when he visits the congregation where brethren are led of the Spirit of grace, the gospel he hears declares he has no power to constrain himself much less work obedience in another. Now no one is looking at him or telling him to look upon others.  Therefore, the issue becomes personal between him and God.  The natural man finds that in himself he can not make himself submit or rejoice in the preaching of the mighty ability of God in Christ. When the focus is all Christ, he finds out what he is and he has no rejoicing in himself (his heart)--everything that made 'church', 'church', is gone.

 

On the other hand, in that sinner where God is alive and working, where the Spirit of Christ dwells, the believer is given a single eye for Christ.  He is given a heart to rejoice in the gospel of Christ.  As much as it goes against every power of hell in his own dead flesh, as he hears how Christ bore his burden in his own body on the tree, by the Spirit of God, the believer takes the burden of his erring brother onto his own back.  He does so by putting the sin of his brother behind him and speaking to his brother of the power of God in Christ and by waiting on God to make the word of grace effectual in his brother's heart.  He has the law of Christ--the law of love and grace and mercy written on his heart. This power constrains him like no carnal restraint can.  The believer proves his own work, that is, his heart is set on his relationship between him and his Lord and his Lord's ability and not on another.  By the Spirit he knows that the work which the believer has been given is truly all God's work. His heart is settled by the persuasion of grace that Christ alone has redeemed all God's elect, is able to call them through the gospel and is able to make fallen brethren stand through the same gospel--this is the "rejoicing in himself alone."  The natural man has not this Spirit and finds no rejoicing where the child of God finds all rejoicing (Rom 8: 8-16).  Oh, may God give us grace to trust God to do what only he can!                                                              

 

SERMONS
After clicking on the following sermon links you will go to sermon notes where you will find an option at the top of the page to access the audio.

 

Who Hath Ears to Hear

The Lord of the Supper

Three Confirmations

 

ARTICLES

The Lord Stood Upon the Rock

Moses Smote the Rock

Water Came Out of the Rock

The People Were Allowed to Drink

The Rock Followed Them

 

 

PRINTABLE TRACTS

A Good Place to Rest and Raise our Young

Saved in Childbearing

A Letter to a Preacher

The Church Were Everybody is a Nobody

O Ye of Little Faith

 

ARTICLES FROM OTHERS

Joy or Offense?