April 16, 2006

 

“False religion is always quick fix religion, which might well last a man’s lifetime, but it is gone forever. God’s grace comes into a man’s life and produces life changing effects, which for the most part go unnoticed by the world; while false religion always produces a big show in the flesh.”                                                                                                                             Russell Smyth

 

Daily Readings for the Week of April 16-23

                Sunday                    1 Kings 11-12                                                         Thursday                                1 Kings 20-21

                Monday                  1 Kings 13-14                                                         Friday                     1 Kings 22-2 kings 1

                Tuesday                  1 Kings 15-17                                                         Saturday                  2 Kings 2-4

                Wednesday             1 Kings 18-19                                                         Sunday                    2 Kings 5-7

 

·         Missionary Offering Today

·         Pastor Henry Mahan will preach here next Sunday.

·         We will have our Quarterly Fellowship on Sunday, April 30th.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Betty Groover-17th   Melissa Reed-18th

 

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Vicci Rolley (AM) Laura Peterson (PM)          Tuesday: Nancy Criss

 

In Christ We StandDon Fortner

(Tune: #308 — Higher Ground — LMD )

 

1.        By nature none are good, not one can boast of goodness in God’s sight;

Sinners we are, yes, everyone; and sinners never can do right.

Yet, God’s elect, let it be known, the righteousness of God are made. —

Made one with Christ, God’s darling Son, our righteousness can never fade!

 

2.        In Christ we stand, complete and just. — His holiness He gives to us!

Of Christ we sing. In Christ we trust. — God’s law cannot condemn the just.

The One-in-Three, and Three-in-One, has set His kingdom in our hearts.

In us God makes His wonders known, by boundless mercy He imparts.

 

3.        Life, light and holiness divine, by faith in Christ, we have received.

The Spirit makes His goodness shine, Who sweetly forced us to believe.

Redeemed by blood, we’re justified; and by the blood we’re sanctified.

And, soon, with Jesus crucified, with His own glory, glorified!

 

“Adoption is a privilege that exceeds all others. It is better to be a son than to be a saint. Angels are saints, but not sons. They are servants. It is better to be a child of God than to be redeemed, pardoned, and justified. It is great grace to redeem from slavery, to pardon criminals, and justify the ungodly; but it is another and a higher act of grace to make them sons; and which makes them infinitely more honorable, than to be the sons and daughters of the greatest potentate upon earth; yea, gives them an honor which Adam had not in innocence, nor the angels in heaven, who though sons by creation, yet not by adoption.”                                                                                                             John Gill

 

19

A Piece of Brass

 

He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for in those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan” (2 Kings 18:4).

 

I am confident that the religious, superstitious Israelites were horrified when King Hezekiah destroyed their sacred symbol (which they worshipped the serpent of brass Moses had made) calling it “Nehushtan— a worthless piece of brass. Hezekiah declared it to be of no value in the worship of God, but rather a hindrance to the worship.

 

                I can understand a person’s interest in that brazen serpent. It would be extremely interesting to see it. It would be interesting to see the rod of Moses, the tables of the law, the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, and the cross on which our Lord died! But interesting is all that these things can be, certainly not inspirational, nor edifying, nor of any spiritual value, nor of any consequence where our relationship with God is concerned. These are but types, pictures, and things which the Lord used to point our faith, hope, and trust to Christ Jesus! In the knowledge, love, and worship of God, “Christ is All!

 

                Hezekiah shocked Israel when he called Moses’ serpent “a piece of brass.” We may shock religionists today by calling the cross on which Christ died “a piece of wood,” or the tomb in which He laid, “a hole in the ground,” or the winding sheet in which He was wrapped, “a piece of cloth;” but, having served their purpose, that’s all that they are. And to make them of any spiritual significance is to be in danger of idolatry! Idolatry is a subtle tool of Satan and must be avoided. “God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” True believers have no superstitions regarding days, hallowed places on earth, religious relics, symbols, signs, nor ancestors. Christ is our Sabbath, our Altar, our Prophet, Priest, and King. To Him, and only to Him, we come, bow, believe and worship.                                                                Pastor Henry Mahan

 

 

The Witness of the Spirit

 

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.                                                                                                                                    (Romans 8:16)

 

To be called a child of God is to have the most noble title in heaven or earth. If we are God’s children, we should live in the enjoyment of all the privileges of full-grown children in the family of God. Soon, we shall know fully and perfectly what Paul meant when he spoke of “the glorious liberty of the children of God.” We should ever live in the joy of life in Christ, as the peculiar objects of God’s everlasting love, and as heirs of his unceasing grace here and eternal glory hereafter.

 

20

                “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (v. 15). — Religion brings bondage, the terrible bondage of rules and regulations devised by men, ever threatening punishment. Christ, by his Spirit and by his gospel, brings liberty. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace we have received, does not produce a slavish, fearful heart of bondage, such as that which possesses those who live under the law. All who live in the Spirit live in the liberty of the children of God, and from hearts of God-given, God-wrought love, gratitude, faith, and joy, we confidently look upon the holy Lord God, and call him Father.

 

                We who once, with good reason, feared God and did everything we could to hide from him and avoid him, now love him, seek him with all our hearts, delighting in his company, having no fear of wrath, judgment, or condemnation. God the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of adoption,” because it is by him that we are given the nature of God’s sons in regeneration, and because he is, by dwelling in us, the seal, the pledge, the assurance of our sonship and final salvation (Eph. 1:14).

 

                “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (v. 16). — God the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. What does that mean? If read and understood in the context in which it is given, it appears to me that it can mean only one thing. — God the Holy Spirit, by that which is written in the Word of God, bears witness with our Spirit of faith, the Spirit of adoption dwelling in us, by which the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts, that we are the children of God. Here is the witness of the Spirit. — “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (John 5:1, 9-11).

 

                “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (v. 17). — If we are the children of God, we shall possess the inheritance of God’s children in heaven. That is only reasonable. But here the Spirit of God tells us that all who live by faith in Christ, that all who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, being totally free from all sin and from all fear of condemnation, or even the possibility of it, live in the constant, immediate hope and expectancy of the glorious liberty of the sons of God, as “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” Being one with Christ, all God’s elect shall fully possess all that Christ himself has earned as our Mediator. The Savior himself declares that the glory God the Father gave him as the reward of his obedience (John 17:4-5), he has given to us (John 17:22).

 

21

Grace Bulletin

 

April 16, 2006

 

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