Grace Bulletin
February 6, 2005
GRACE BAPTIST
CHURCH of DANVILLE
2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Sunday 10:00
A.M. Bible Classes
10:30
A.M. Morning Worship Service
6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
Tuesday 7:30 P.M. Mid-Week Worship Service
Danville Channel 6-Sunday Morning 8:00 A.M.
Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening 6:00 P.M.
Channel 6 - Friday Evening 7:00 P.M.
Harrodsburg Channel 6 - Friday
Evening 7:00 P.M.
http://www.donfortner.com
http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm
http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp
February 6,
2005
To deny the eternal union of God’s elect with
Christ and the eternality of our complete acceptance and blessedness in him, as
stated in Holy Scripture (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:3-6), is to deny the
immutability of our God.
Daily Readings for the Week of February 6-13
Sunday Leviticus
16-18 Thursday
Leviticus 26-27
Monday Leviticus
19-21 Friday
Numbers 1-2
Tuesday Leviticus
22-23 Saturday Numbers 3-4
Wednesday Leviticus
24-25 Sunday Numbers 5-7
·
Missionary Trevor Johnson and his wife (Teresa) will be with us on
Tuesday, February 15. The Johnsons are members of Bible Baptist Church in St. Louis, MO, where Bro. Holmes Moore
is pastor.
·
We will
have our Quarterly Fellowship Dinner following our service this morning. There will be no service here
tonight.
·
I am
scheduled to preach Wednesday night for Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, KY, where Bro. Maurice
Montgomery is pastor.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Faith
Hacker-7th Rachel Coleman-9th Nancy Bailey-13th
NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK
Today: Shelby Fortner (AM) Tuesday: Celeste
Peterson
Sinners Saved by God’s
Decree — Don
Fortner
(Tune: #99 — Hark the Herald Angels Sing — 77.77D)
1. Sinners saved by God’s decree, let us praise our Surety!
Souls redeemed, your voices raise, sing your great Redeemer’s praise!
Jesus, Savior, holy Lamb, we will praise Your worthy name!
You have washed us in Your blood, made us kings and priests to God
2. Worthy is the Lamb of God, Who has bought us with His blood!
Grace and glory in Him shine, matchless mercy, love divine!
Wondrous love indeed is this — He made our transgressions His!
Christ, for sinners, sin was made; and our debt in full He paid!
3. Saved unto the utmost now, Jesus, Savior, Lord, we bow,
Bow to worship at Your throne, bow to sing Your praise alone.
Righteous are Your ways and true. Endless praises are Your due!
Sinners saved by God’s decree, we will praise our Surety!
1
“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10)
I know that Christ is mine and I am his. Yet, I count all things but loss and dung, that I might win him, that I might be found in him, that I might know him. I know him; but, oh, how I want to know him! I want constantly renewed, ever increasing knowledge of and communion with the Son of God. This is the ambition of my heart — I want to know him, my God and my Savior, my Redeemer and my Lord!
I want to know him who is the great
Benefactor of my soul. I want to know the mysteries and glories of his
person, the riches of his grace, the greatness of his salvation, the benefits
of his mercies, and the depth of his love. May the God of all grace give us
grace never to take our eyes off of Christ! My soul, let Christ be the
all-consuming Object of your being! “That I may know him!”
I want to “know him in the power of his resurrection.” It is the power of his resurrection that declares that we are justified (Rom. 4:25). The power of his resurrection gives us spiritual and eternal life in him (Eph. 1:19). The power of his resurrection guarantees our resurrection (1 Cor. 15:47-49).
I want to live everyday, experimentally, walking in the knowledge of the power of his resurrection. Walking with Christ in the newness of life, I want the power of his resurrection to dominate, control, and direct my life in all things. I want to be continually made new by him.
I want “to know him in the fellowship of his sufferings.” I want to know my personal interest in his sufferings. And I want to know what he accomplished in his sufferings. We know that our blessed Savior accomplished our forgiveness, justification, and sanctification, and obtained eternal redemption for us by his suffering and death as our Substitute. As his sufferings are his glory, I want his sufferings to be my glory (Gal. 6:14).
I want to know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings to such an extent that I am ever “being made conformable unto his death.” This is what that means — I want to be conformed to Christ in his death, to be entirely consecrated to the glory of God, perfectly submissive to the will of God, and motivated by nothing but love for my God and his people.
“If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though
2
I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (vv. 11-14).
Certainly, this includes a great desire for the resurrection of my body at the last day. But primarily, the yearning spoken of here is a yearning for that moral, spiritual resurrection of grace that lifts us out of the death and darkness of sin. The world, the flesh, and all human life are death. In Christ there is life, real life, eternal life, a life of righteousness, peace and joy in communion with God! This is what I want. I have not yet attained it; but I am reaching for it.
In a word, I want what God purposed for me in eternity and Christ purchased for me at Calvary (Eph. 1:3-6). I want to be like Christ! These are the ambitions of my heart, the goals I seek, the things for which I live. I pray that God will make them more and more real to me. And I pray that he will make them your hearts’ ambitions as well.
Let us set our hearts upon these things, and by the grace of God we shall have them. — “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (vv. 20-21).
When I take it upon myself to say or write anything on the subject of prayer, I do so with great reluctance, because I fully and shamefully acknowledge that I know so little about the subject. My own prayers are so sinful that they are matters of constant repentance before my God. What hypocrisy there is in my petitions, when there should be utter honesty! What arrogant seeking of my own will, when there should be complete submission to my God’s will! What vain repetitions I make, when there should be nothing but the cries of a broken heart! How little I feel the sins I confess! How little I sense my deep need for the mercies I seek!
I often say my prayers, but do I ever pray?
Or do the wishes of my flesh dictate the words I say?
I might as well kneel down and worship gods of stone,
As offer to the living God a prayer of words alone!
How I long for the “Spirit of grace and supplication” to teach me how to pray as I ought!
3
GRACE
BAPTIST
CHURCH of DANVILLE
2734 Old Stanford
Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Telephone
(859) 236-8235 — E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Web Pages
http://donfortner.com
http://sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm
http://freegrace.net/danville/default.asp
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 7:30 P.M. Mid-Week
Worship Service
Television Broadcasts
Danville Channel 6-Sunday Morning 8:00 A.M.
Channel 6 - Wednesday
Evening 6:00 P.M.
Channel 6 - Friday
Evening 7:00 P.M.
Harrodsburg Channel
6 - Friday Evening 7:00 P.M.