November 20, 2005
“If all of the ‘if’s’ of the Bible hang on Christ, the believer can claim all of them as promises.” Rupert Rivenbark
Daily Readings for the Week of November 20-27
Sunday Romans 1-2 Thursday Romans 12-15
Monday Romans 3-5 Friday Romans 16-1 Cor. 3
Tuesday Romans 6-8 Saturday 1 Corinthians 4-7
Wednesday Romans 9-11 Sunday 1 Corinthians 8-10
· Missionary Offering Today
NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK
Today: Vicci Rolley (AM) Jenny Bartley (PM) Tuesday: Nancy Criss
Happy Thanksgiving!
Jesus, Savior, We Adore You — Don Fortner
(Tune: #291 — Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah — 87.87.87)
We in wonder bow before You, as our hearts with Your praise swell.
Give us grace to trust and love You, ever bowing to Your will.
Our Salvation and our Treasure, every grace in You we find.
Loved forever, loved forever, and redeemed by blood divine!
Come, O Lord, in Your good pleasure; and our souls with love inflame!
With Your presence, bless us, Savior, for the glory of Your name!
Salvation is More
Frank Tate
Salvation is more than a state before God. Salvation also includes the work of Christ in His people. I can explain that this way. Adam was our 1st representative. When Adam fell, I was put in a state of condemnation before God. When I was conceived, a man was born who bore Adam’s likeness. I have been a sinner ever since because that man can do nothing but sin, because Adam’s nature was put in me. Christ was also our representative. When Christ died, I was put in a state of justification before God. Salvation doesn’t end there. When I was regenerated a new man was born in the likeness of Christ. That man bears the image of Christ and that man can never sin. To deny this is to deny Christ part of His glory in the salvation of His people.
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“Earthen Vessels”
2 Corinthians 4:7
We must all face the fact that flesh is flesh. Though all who believe are saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood, and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, so long as we are in this world, we are just “earthen vessels.” When Paul talks about that salvation, which brings into our hearts “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” he reminds us that, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Cor. 4:6-7).
Gratitude
The more we think of the utter weakness of our flesh, the more thankful we ought to be that our security and preservation in Christ is not dependent upon our own weak nature, but upon God’s constant power and sustaining grace. We are so feeble that if the matter were left in our hands, we would all fall and perish very soon. Many cannot endure the teachings of Holy Scripture regarding this matter of our security and preservation in Christ, because it makes the whole of salvation a work of divine grace from beginning to end. It allows no room for human merit and works.
We do not pretend to live above sin. Sin is a sadly common fact of life. You will never find one of those men who lived and walked with God in the Bible bragging about his righteousness or his perfection. In fact, they all struggled with sin in their flesh. All of God’s people are like Paul. We have two natures within us, two principles struggling for supremacy; the one is good, the other evil; the one is righteousness, the other sin; the one is spirit, the other flesh. If we could avoid it, we would never sin. We abhor our sin as an indescribably evil thing! We long for the day when we shall be totally free from sin. But, for now, we have the treasure of God’s saving grace in these earthen vessels, so that the excellency, the greatness, the power, and the glory of our salvation may be attributed to God and not to us.
The Difference
Does this mean that God’s people are no different from the unbelieving of this world? Certainly not! The believer is like a man climbing up a hill. Occasionally, he slips down; but his face is always set toward the summit. The unregenerate man is always going down, because his face is set in that direction. The believer is like a man on a ship. He may slip and fall many times on the deck; but he never jumps over board. Our judgments may at times be wrong, like the bewitched Galatians (3:1). Our affections may cool, like the church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:4). Grace may, at times, seem to be lost to a child of God, but it never is really lost. The people of God, like the church in the Song of Solomon, may become slothful and negligent; but their hearts awake (5:2). The sun is
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sometimes eclipsed; but it regains its splendor. The trees lose all their fruit and leaves in the winter; but they have fresh buds in the spring. Israel may flee before her enemies at times; but she enters the land of promise triumphantly when her journey is over.
So, too, the true believer falls many times; but the Lord raises him up, and he shall finally enter into heaven triumphantly through the blood, the righteousness, and the grace of Christ. It is utterly unthinkable that one of God’s elect should fail to enter into eternal glory. Like Jonah, we all may at times flee from the will of God; but grace will pursue us, preserve us, and cause our hearts to return to him who loved us and gave himself for us.
Christ Alone
I am like you, a man struggling with sin. At times, my sinful thoughts and my sinful deeds almost cause me to despair. But I am reminded by the gospel and by the Spirit of God that his grace is sufficient, even for me. My salvation and my acceptance with God is not in myself, but in my Substitute. Like you, I am just an earthen vessel; but Christ is the Lord our Righteousness. He is all my Salvation, all my Desire, and all my Assurance. I hang all my hope upon him. Do you?
“I see men as trees, walking.”
Mark 8:24
I have often considered the case of this man as holding forth a sweet and comfortable lesson of instruction, to the small attainments of the followers of Jesus. Perhaps our gracious Lord, in the method he was pleased to adopt, in the opening of this man’s eyes by gradual means, intended so to instruct his people. My soul, look at it in this point of view. It may be profitable to thee. When the Son of God, who came to give light to the spiritually blind, as well as to restore vision to the eye of the body, first touched this poor man’s eyes, the effect was that when he looked up, the men he saw were only like “trees, walking.” The sight was imperfect, and the objects obscure.
So it is, very frequently, in our apprehension of spiritual things. But then, it should be remembered, and remembered with great thankfulness, that this imperfection of our sight differs altogether from total darkness. Objects we certainly see, though we do not clearly see them as we desire. If I see “men as trees, walking,” it is past a doubt that men I see. And, by a parity of reasoning, if, in a spiritual sense, I see Jesus in his suitableness, fulness, and all-sufficiency, for a poor sinner; though I long to see more of him, and to see him more plainly, yet the sight I now have is blessed, and being wrought by his own gracious hands, it begets a lively hope that he who hath begun the cure will perfect it.
Robert Hawker
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Grace Bulletin
November 20, 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