April 24, 2005

 

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.There is something very striking in this loud voice of Jesus. Not like one exhausted; not as one dispirited; but as a conqueror in the field of battle, retreating with his spoils. Jesus cried aloud, that all on earth, and all in heaven, and all in hell, might hear, “It is finished!” What is finished? Redemption-work is finished. And from that moment the empire of sin, death, hell, and the grave were vanquished….And that song was sung in heaven,…thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.                 Robert Hawker

 

Daily Readings for the Week of 24-May 1

        Sunday            2 Kings 8-9                             Thursday                2 Kings 18-19

        Monday          2 Kings 10-12                         Friday             2 Kings 20-22

        Tuesday          2 Kings 13-14                         Saturday          2 Kings 23-24

        Wednesday     2 Kings 15-17                         Sunday            2 Kings 25-1 Chron. 2

 

·          I am preaching today for Fairmont Grace Church in Sylacauga, Alabama, where Bro. Tommy Robins is pastor. Bros. Ron Wood and Lindsay Campbell will preach the gospel to you today.

 

·          Wednesday night I am scheduled to preach for Todds Road Grace Church in Lexington, KY, where Bro. Todd Nibert is pastor. The service will begin at 7:00 P.M.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Joyce Montgomery-25th    Carole Pruitt-30th    Bob Pruitt-1st

 

 

Jesus is the One Thing Needful Don Fortner

(Tune: #300 — More Secure is No One Ever — LM Trochaic)

 

1.        Jesus is the One Thing needful,

O our precious Lord and Savior!

Ever true and ever faithful,

We will sing Your praise forever.

 

2.        Boundless fulness in Him dwelling,

Boundless grace for all His chosen,

Like a mighty river flowing

To all weary sinners broken.

 

3.        Mercy from Him overflowing

To the poor and tried believer,

And His blood in heaven pleading,

Brings salvation to us sinners.

 

4.        Trusting Christ, we are accepted,

Justified, our sins forgiven,

Holy as our dear Beloved,

And joint-heirs with Him of heaven!

 

5.        Yes, Christ is the One Thing needful,

Precious to believing sinners,

Ever true and ever faithful!

Be exalted, Lord, forever!

22

“Made the Righteousness of God” — How?

2 Corinthians 5:21

 

How are sinners made to become the righteousness of God in Christ? I appeal to the Word of God alone for the answer to that question. The opinions of men are totally irrelevant. What does the Book say? Nothing else matters.

 

        When Christ was made sin, that was a one time, once and for all act accomplished in the past, a work in which he was personally involved. But when the Holy Spirit speaks of us being “made the righteousness of God in him,” the word he uses for “made” is another word altogether. It is a present tense, passive verb, implying total passiveness on our part and means “continually cause to become.” He is telling us that those for whom Christ was made sin God continually causes to become the righteousness of God in him without doing a thing. Let me show you how he has done it and is doing it.

 

Eternally

 

Our great, all-wise, eternally gracious God made us righteous before the world was in Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, in his sovereign, eternal purpose of grace (Rom. 8:28-30; Eph. 1:3-6; 2 Tim. 1:9-10; Jude 1). If we were blessed of God with all spiritual blessings before the world began and accepted in the Beloved, it was not as unrighteous, but as the righteousness of God in Christ.

 

Judicially

 

We were made to become the righteousness of God judicially, in a legal sense, when the Lord Jesus died as our Substitute under the wrath of God, satisfying divine justice for us. When he had put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, he obtained eternal redemption for us and we were made to become the righteousness of God in him by divine imputation in justification (Rom. 4:25; 5:12, 17-21).

 

Experimentally

 

But this matter of being made the righteousness of God in Christ, while it is something with which we have no involvement, is not just a matter of law, any more than Christ’s being made sin was just a matter of law. It is not something that takes place altogether outside our experience, any more than Christ being made sin was outside his experience.

 

        Sinners are made the righteousness of God in Christ experimentally in the new birth, when we are made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). That holy thing in us that is born of God, that John tells us cannot sin, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). We experience this blessed thing (being made the righteousness of God) in the inmost depths of our souls, in the constant assurance of our access to, acceptance with, and the forgiveness of our sins by our God (1 John 1:7-2:2).

 

23

        We are in Christ, in whom alone God is well pleased. That means he is well pleased with us (Matt. 17:5). Our sacrifices are accepted of God as a sweet-smelling savor in Christ (1 Pet. 2:5). Our sins are never imputed to us, but perpetually forgiven because we are one with him who was once made sin for us, in whom we are perpetually made to become the righteousness of God.

 

Absolutely

 

Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, every sinner who trusts him is made to become the righteousness of God in him absolutely (2 Cor. 5:17; Col. 1:12). Discerning the Lord’s body, that is to say, knowing our need of a Substitute and knowing the Substitute himself, trusting his finished work and trusting him, sinners like you and me are worthy to enter his church, worthy to call upon his name, worthy to receive the Lord’s Table, and worthy to enter into and possess forever his glory!

 

Everlastingly

 

We shall be made to become the righteousness of God everlastingly in the last day in resurrection glory. We shall be raised in righteousness. We shall be declared righteous according to the record book of heaven at the Day of Judgment (Rev. 20:11-15; Jer. 50:20). We shall be declared righteous to wondering worlds to the glory of our God forever (Eph. 2:7). Then we shall forever begin to enjoy, in such experimental reality, as words cannot describe, the blessedness of being made to become the righteousness of God in Christ (Rev. 21:2-5; 22:1-6).

 

        I am lost in wonder. All this, all that Christ has as the God-man our Mediator, we have in him. All that he is, we are in him. All that he enjoys, soon, we shall enjoy forever in him, because…

 

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:17-21).

 

Truly, “Christ is All!” And if Christ is ours, we have all in him. All who get the Son of God get everything with the Son! — “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). Our God has given us a word for that in the Bible. The word is “Grace!”

 

24

Grace Bulletin

 

April 24, 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

 

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.

 

Web Pages

http://www.donfortner.com

http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm

http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp