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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

February 18, 2018

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Holiness is not a work performed by sinners, but a gift bestowed upon sinners. It is not something performed by us, but something performed in us by God the Holy Ghost in the new birth. That “holiness without which no man shall see the Lord” is “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Holiness is “the sanctification of the Spirit” by which chosen, redeemed sinners are “made partakers of the divine nature.”

Daily Readings for the Week of February 18-25, 2018

Sunday Numbers 20-22 Thursday Numbers 33-35

Monday Numbers 23-26 Friday Numbers 36-Deut. 1

Tuesday Numbers 27-29 Saturday Deuteronomy 2-4

Wednesday Numbers 30-32 Sunday Deuteronomy 5-7

· Grace Baptist Church of the Ozarks in Nixa, MO has called Bro. Eric Lutter to be their pastor. God be with you, our friends, as you devote your lives to Christ and one another for the building of his kingdom.

· I am scheduled to preach Friday night through Sunday morning for Fairmont Grace Church in Sylacauga, AL, where Bro. Larry Criss is pastor.

Happy Birthday! Jerry Sadler-20^th Charlie Meadows-22^nd

Nursery Duty This Week

Shante’ Birchum (AM) — Elizabeth Peterson (PM) Tuesday: Ruth Wall

Oh, Matchless, Boundless Love — Don Fortner

(Tune: #33 — Stand Up an18d Bless the Lord —SM)

1. Oh, matchless, boundless love,

That makes us sons of God,

Let saints on earth and saints above

Adore and praise the Lord!

2. Oh, matchless, sov’reign grace,

That sanctifies us here,

And seals to us in heaven a place,

When Jesus shall appear!

3. Oh, soul-transporting thought,

To see Him as He is,

And, with the sons of God, be brought

Into eternal bliss!

4. Oh, happy, joyful state,

(With Jesus face to face!)

Casting our crowns down at His feet,

We’ll give Him endless praise!

Sanctification

1 Corinthians 1:30

The Lord God demands that we walk before him and be perfect (Genesis 17:1; Leviticus 22:21). He cannot and will not accept less than perfection. And what God demands God performs. What God requires God gives. Christ is made of God unto us perfection in three ways. First, perfection requires perfect obedience; and Christ obeyed the law of God for us. Second, perfection requires atonement, or satisfaction; and our Lord Jesus Christ fully satisfied all the demands of God’s law by his sin-atoning death as our Substitute, redeeming us from the curse of the law. Third, perfection requires a perfect nature; and Christ formed in us in regeneration (sanctification) is that perfect nature. Thus, by righteousness, satisfaction, and sanctification, God makes his elect “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12).

God’s Work

When the Spirit of God declares that Christ is made of God unto us “Sanctification,” he is telling us that our sanctification is, like our righteousness and redemption, altogether the work of God. It does not, in any way or to any degree, depend upon us. It is not a progressive work that begins with God planting a “principle” of holiness in us in the new birth, which grows by our disciplined determination to be holier and holier, until we are ripe for heaven. No! Christ is our Sanctification. Sanctification is accomplished by God the Holy Ghost forming Christ in us, causing us to be made partakers of the divine nature (Colossians 1:27; 2 Peter 1:4).

Eternal and Experienced

Sanctification is ours in Christ from eternity, by virtue of our union with him (Jude 1); and it is ours in the sweet and blessed experience of grace, when, being born again by the mighty operation of God the Holy Ghost, we are given that “holiness” of nature “without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). In fact, the word translated “sanctification” is the same word that is translated “holiness.” Christ is made of God unto us “holiness.”

The believer’s new nature is perfect. It is Christ in you, that new man created in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:24). This new nature formed in us in the new birth, John tells us, does not sin and cannot sin, because it is born of God (1 John 3:1-9).

Two Natures

The believer is a person with two natures, flesh and spirit, the old man and the new man. The old man will never surrender to the new. The flesh will never surrender to the Spirit. Yet, we live not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Romans 7:14-25; Galatians 5:22-23; Romans 8:1-11).

There is within every believer, so long as he lives in this world, both an old Adamic nature, that can do nothing but sin, and a new righteous nature, that which is born of God that cannot sin, that can only do righteousness. This new man is Christ in you, “who of God is made unto us sanctification.”

Redemption

1 Corinthians 1:30

The word here translated “redemption” means “complete deliverance by ransom.” It is used to declare that all God’s elect are completely delivered from sin and all its evil consequences by the ransom price of Christ’s sin-atoning blood poured out for us at Calvary and the omnipotent power of his irresistible grace in the new birth and, at last, in resurrection glory.

Always look upon God’s works of grace as broadly as your faith’s imagination will allow you. Never limit them. When you have taken in all you can of it, your faith’s imagination will not have begun to reach the fulness of God’s grace as it is revealed in Holy Scripture. And, of all the words used to describe God’s grace, none is so rich, full, and assuring as this word, “redemption.” — Christ is made of God unto us redemption.

From Eternity

The Lord Jesus Christ was made redemption unto his chosen in eternity, before the world was made. He is the Lamb who, verily, was foreordained and slain before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). The Lord God made Christ our redemption before we needed redemption. We were justified in him, accepted in him, blessed in him with all spiritual blessings, sanctified in him, and glorified in him, with him, and by him before time began (Romans 8:30; Ephesians 1:3-6). Christ was made our complete deliverance from sin before there was such a thing as sin!

At Calvary

When the Son of God bore our sins in his own body on the tree, he was punished to the full satisfaction of divine justice in our stead. The holy Lord God drew forth his dreadful sword and buried it in the Savior’s being. Jehovah smote Jehovah with all the fierceness of his holy anger, until all anger against our sins wore itself out on him, and our sins were forever put away! When the Lord Jesus died in our place, he was made of God unto us redemption!

In the New Birth

In the new birth every chosen, blood-bought sinner is effectually delivered from death in sin by the merit of Christ’s blood and by the omnipotent power and grace of God the Holy Ghost. Graciously sprinkling our hearts with the blood of Christ, God the Spirit purges our consciences of guilt (Hebrews 10:2, 22), and makes Christ Jesus unto us redemption!

The Resurrection

And there is a day of redemption yet to come (Romans 8:22-23; Ephesians 1: 13-14; 4:30). Soon, when our Savior comes again “to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe,” he will cause a great change to take place. Our bodies, sown in the grave in corruption, shall be raised in incorruption. These mortal bodies shall put on immortality. Mortality shall be swallowed up in life (1 Corinthians 15:51-55). Then, Christ shall be made of God unto us redemption in the complete deliverance of his elect (body, soul, and spirit) from all the consequences of sin!

The Grace Bulletin

February 18, 2018

Grace Baptist Church of Danville

2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Telephone (859) 576-3400 — E-Mail don@donfortner.com

Donald S. Fortner, Pastor

Schedule of Regular Services

Sunday

10:00 A.M. Bible Classes

10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service

6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service

Tuesday