“Christ
stands in the gospel-ministry, at the door of men’s hearts, and knocks and
calls. Having the key of the house of
David, he opens the heart by the power of his grace, and lets himself in. In this way, and by this means, the Spirit
and his graces are received. Men are
called both to grace and glory by the gospel.” John Gill
Daily Readings for the Week of May 8-15
Sunday 1
Chronicles 22-24 Thursday 2 Chronicles 6-7
Monday 1
Chronicles 25-27 Friday 2 Chronicles 8-11
Tuesday 1 Chron.
28-2 Chron. 1 Saturday 2 Chronicles 12-15
Wednesday 2 Chronicles
2-5 Sunday 2 Chronicles 16-19
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! William
Stewart Hacker-10th
Though My Soul Be in
Distress — Don
Fortner
(Tune: #42 — All Hail The Power of Jesus’ Name — CM)
1. Christ Jesus is my righteousness;
In Him alone I trust.
And though my soul be in distress,
He’s still my Savior just.
2. Though I am often sore oppressed,
Bowed down with sin and woe,
My sinful soul in Him finds rest;
From Whom my comforts flow.
3. I will lay down and sweetly sleep,
For I have peace with God.
Though weak and wretched, God will keep
This sinner bought with blood.
4. Though Satan roar and countless foes
My soul seek to destroy,
My God their counsels overthrows,
And turns my grief to joy!
“It is my soul’s cry that God
will raise up many more able men to vindicate his truth in this day of empty
profession — men that can distinguish between form and power, between letter
and spirit, between the old man and the new, between death and life, between an
empty profession and real possession, between the real language of Zion and the
prating of hypocrites.” — John Warburton
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Perfection Required —
Perfection Given
Robert
Hawker
“Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”
(Matthew 5:48).
Was
there ever such a refinement of the most perfect law of the Lord as is
here drawn? And where shall we look for the fulfillment of it but in the Lord
Jesus himself? He indeed, and he only, observed it in the fullest extent of it.
And therefore the close of this chapter is express to the purpose with an eye
to him. “Be ye perfect” — that is, in the perfection of
Jesus, for there is no other way of finding perfection but in him. What men
talk of respecting sincerity for perfection, is a fancy formed no where but in
their own brain. But as the members of the body partake in all that belongs to
the head, so the members of Christ's body are considered
perfect in him. And when Jesus saith “be ye perfect,” he wills
what he commands. His biddings are enablings. Be ye
perfect in me. Hence the answer by the Prophet — “Surely in the Lord have I
righteousness and strength,” or
as the apostle renders it, “perfect in”
Christ Jesus (Isa. 45:24-25; Col. 1:28; 1 Cor. 1:30).
Four Tenses of Salvation
“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who
delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he
will yet deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:9-10).
That which Paul here states with regard to his
deliverance from physical death by the hands of wicked men, is a very good
declaration of God’s great work of grace in the salvation of our souls by
Christ. Salvation is the deliverance of our souls from the sentence of death by
the grace of God.
My Experience
Allow me to tell you my own experience of grace.
There was a time when, as Paul put it in verse 8, I was “pressed out of
measure, above strength, insomuch that I despaired even of life.”
There was a time when the Lord God caused me to see that I was a lost sinner,
cursed, condemned, under the just sentence of death, eternal death in hell.
When I had the sentence of death in my soul, I was made to see that I should
not, must not, and could not trust in myself. When the law of God had done its
work, I was altogether shut up to Christ, graciously, sweetly forced to trust “in
God which raiseth the dead.”
Now,
trusting him, I write as one sinner to another about God my Savior, “Who
delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he
will yet deliver us.”
I have
told you many times that “salvation” is a big, big word. It includes all that
is involved in delivering our souls from the sentence of death into “the
glorious liberty of the sons of God.” Paul speaks here of this salvation in
different tenses: past deliverance, present deliverance, and future
deliverance. If you will search the Scriptures, you will find that salvation is
described throughout the Book of God in various tenses. In fact, when we speak
of “salvation” in Bible terms, we must recognize that it is God’s work alone
and that it is a work with four tenses.
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The Eternal Past
Salvation is a work of the eternal past. The Holy
Spirit tells us in Hebrews 4:3 that all the works of God involved in this thing
called salvation “were finished from the foundation of the world.” God’s
elect were chosen in eternal love (Jer. 31:3), redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8), accepted in the
Beloved, and blessed with all spiritual blessings in him before the world began
(Eph. 1:3-6). We were named the children of God, justified, sanctified,
preserved, and glorified in Christ by God’s decree in old eternity (Rom.
8:29-30; 2 Tim. 1:9-10; Jude 1).
The Historic Past
The Spirit of God also declares that our salvation
was finished by the obedience of Christ as our Substitute in the historic past.
When our Savior cried, “It is finished,” it was finished (John 19:30;
Heb. 9:12). Redemption and righteousness were performed by Christ and finished
by Christ when he died as our Substitute upon the cursed tree. He brought in
everlasting righteousness for us, put away our sins by the sacrifice of
himself, and made us the righteousness of God. When he arose from the dead, we
rose with him. When he sat down in heaven, we sat down with him.
The experience of grace in salvation is also spoken
of as something accomplished in the historic past. The experience of salvation
involves that which we come to experience personally in time. It is the
experience of the new birth, the experience of receiving Christ. We who now
live unto God have been saved. There came a time when we who were dead in
trespasses and in sins were born again by God’s omnipotent mercy and grace,
when we were called from death to life by irresistible mercy, a time when we
were given faith in Christ and sealed in him by the Spirit of God (Eph. 1:13-14;
2:1-9; Ps. 34:6). Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we received the
atonement, we received justification, and we received life eternal. Now we
stand in grace experimentally (Rom. 4:25-5:11). If you would be justified
before God in your soul, if you would be saved, if you would have Christ, you
must believe on the Son of God. You must receive him (John 1:11-13).
The Present Tense
This thing called salvation is frequently spoken of
in the present tense. We who trust Christ are being saved. Paul tells us in 1
Corinthians 1:18 that the preaching of the gospel is “unto us who are being
saved” the power of God. In Romans 13:11 we read, “now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed.” Yes, I have been saved; and I am being
saved. I have come to Christ; and I am coming to Christ (1 Pet. 2:4). I am
being saving in this sense: I am “kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet. 1:5), being
continually forgiven of all my sins by God’s faithfulness, justice, and grace
in Christ (1 John 1:9-2:2). We rejoice in that which the Lord our God has done
for us and in us. But, we rejoice to know that his work for us and in us is not
over yet. There is more yet to come, more certain to come. It is written, “He
which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
The Future Tense
The Scriptures speak often of our salvation in the
future tense too. Truly, with regard to this matter of our salvation, “the best
is yet to come.” There is a very real sense in which the salvation of our souls
is a salvation yet to be revealed (1 Pet. 1:3-9).
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Grace Bulletin
May 8, 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
Channel 6 - Sunday Morning 8:00 A.M.
Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening 6:00 P.M.
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