December 20, 2015
Weekly Schedule of Services
Sunday: / 10:15 AM / Bible Class11:00 AM / Morning Service
Thursday: / 7:30 PM / Mid-week Service
Services Broadcast Live @ www.FreeGraceMedia.com/live
Web Address
Be sure to bookmark our website for daily articles and audio messages:
www.FreeGraceMedia.com
Weekly Meeting Location
Rocky Hill Firehouse, 2nd floor
150 Washington Street
Rocky Hill, NJ 08553 / Mailing Address
7 Birch Street
Pennington, NJ 08534
Clay Curtis, pastor
All articles in the bulletin are by the pastor unless otherwise noted.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
December 24, Thursday—no mid-week service.
January 31, Thursday—regular mid-week service
Matthew 1: 18: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19: Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. 20: But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21: And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22: Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
As you all enjoy time with your families this week remember the great grace and love of God in giving his only begotten Son for his people; remember how that the Son of God was made flesh, how that he who is equal with God took upon him the form of a servant and served God faithfully and obediently unto the death of the cross in place of his people. We rejoice that Christ was born into this world. But our greatest joy is that Christ was born to die and by his blood we are eternally redeemed!
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JUDGE NOT ACCORDING TO THE APPEARANCE
John 7:24: Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
There was a poor girl who was not married when she discovered she was pregnant. She left town to have the baby. Judging by the appearance we would conclude that this was sinful. One can only imagine the rumors that folks must have spread about her.
Well, this girl was a sinner alright but she was chosen of God and saved by God’s free grace like every other child of God. She left town because it was written in the scriptures which Christ came to fulfill. The Holy Ghost overshadowed her and that holy thing formed in her womb is called “the Son of God,” the Redeemer who successfully redeemed all his people from the curse of the law on the cross.
Do you see how wrong we can be when we judge according to the appearance? Therefore, God our Savior declares unto us “Judge not according to the appearance but judge righteous judgment.
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WHY WAS CHRIST BORN?
The birth of Jesus Christ declares three great truths.
One, the birth of Christ declares his people were dead in trespasses and in sins, totally and completely unable to save ourselves. Nothing less than the Son of God coming in human flesh and offering himself as a sacrifice for our sin could save us from ourselves.
Two, the birth of Christ declares the love and grace of God who perfectly, completely, fully accomplished the eternal redemption of those he everlastingly loved.
Three, the birth of Christ was that Christ might die to declare the righteousness of God as just and Justifier. This work required the sin bearer be God to make all his work eternally complete. It required he also be Man, the holy Man with perfect faith and love. Faith and love in his Father which was so perfect that he willingly fulfilled the law by being made sin for both God and those he came to save. This perfect GodMan is so perfectly faithful that even when God hid his face from him in eternal, fierce wrath he yet said, “I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.” (Is 8: 17; Rom 3: 21, 22.)
These are the reasons why the Lord Jesus was born.
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The difference between the law at Sinai and the law of God written on the heart of Christ's witness is this: the law at Sinai centers the doing on man, saying, "Do this and live"; the law of God written on the heart centers the doing on Christ saying, "Christ has fulfilled it and now you have eternal life!" This is the message that makes Christ people willing to believe and do all by the constraint of Christ’s love. (Heb 10: 9, 10; 14-18; Gal 5: 6)
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GOD GIVES THE DESIRE
Isaiah 53: 2: For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3: He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
By appearing in this uncomely state, without any form to make men desire him, by choosing a bloody cross and death, by using the foolish means of gospel preaching, God manifests that it is only by the Spirit of God that Christ’s followers have life and faith to believe on Christ and persevere in faith.
Where men see no beauty, we see one whose “countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely”; “the branch of the LORD, beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.” Where scorners see a bloody pathetic victim hanging on a cross, we see a conquering Monarch by whom our warfare is accomplished and our iniquity pardoned, in whom we are made the righteousness of God, accepted in the Beloved; precious blood that paid our ransom and redeemed us from sin, death and hell! While the wise and prudent look down their holy noses and receive him not, by the power of his grace, we have been brought down off the same high horse to the dust of our sin and depravity. Grace has made us “behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1: 14)
Perfect Love we once rejected, now we receive! Perfect purity we once reviled now we rejoice in! Perfect Holiness we once blasphemed is now our Beloved! Perfect Mercy we once scorned is now our Savior! All to the praise of the glory of his grace which made us desire HIM!