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August 6, 2006
False prophets handle the Word of God with cunning, craftiness and deceit, rather than with honesty, reverence and fear.
Daily Readings for the Week of August 6-13 Sunday Jeremiah 22-24 Thursday Jeremiah 33-35 Monday Jeremiah 25-27 Friday Jeremiah 36-38 Tuesday Jeremiah 28-30 Saturday Jeremiah 39-41 Wednesday Jeremiah 31-32 Sunday Jeremiah 42-45
á I am scheduled to preach Wednesday through Friday for Buck Mountain Baptist Church in Roan Mountain, TN, where Bro. Gary Perkins is pastor.
Saved unto the Utmost Now — Don Fortner (Tune: Depth Of Mercy # 233)
1. Saving grace and love divine! Who its heights and depths can tell? By God's infinite designs, Christ has ransomed us from hell.
2. Myst'ry of redemption this: Christ for sinners sin was made! Making our transgressions His, He complete atonement made!
3. By His blood we're justified, Freed from sin, and more than this: — Guiltless, since for us He died, By His grace made righteousness!
4. Saved unto the utmost now, Sing, oh, sing with heartfelt praise! Rev'rently, Savior, we bow, To extol Your love and grace!
The Power of Love
"Except the Father draw him," said Jesus. What is this drawing? It is the power of the Holy Spirit overcoming the self-righteousness of the sinner and convicting him of his sinful, guilt-ridden, lost condition. It is the Holy Spirit awakening within him a sense of need. It is the power of the Holy Spirit overcoming the pride of the natural man so that he is ready to come to Christ as an empty-handed beggar. It is the Holy Spirit creating within him a hunger for Christ, "the Bread of Life." God's power of salvation is the power of love. God says to His people, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee" (Jer. 3:33). God does not overpower us with sheer force; He overwhelms us with his infinite love. Pastor R. E. McNeill
16 Righteousness Imparted
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)
In regeneration we are sanctified, made holy, by righteousness being imparted to us by the Spirit of God (Gal. 5:23-24; 2 Pet. 1:4; Col. 1:27; 1 John 3:5-9). The new birth is nothing less than Christ taking up residence in the chosen sinner, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." In the new birth we are made "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). Believers are people with two natures (Rom. 7:14-24): that holy seed which is born of God and cannot sin (1 John 3:9), and the flesh which is nothing but sin (Rom. 7:18). These two natures, the flesh and the spirit, are constantly at war with one another so long as we live in this world.
When God saves a sinner, he does not renovate, repair, and renew the old
nature. He creates a new nature in his elect. Our old, Adamic, fallen, sinful
nature is not changed. The flesh is subdued by the spirit; but it will never
surrender to the spirit. The spirit wars against the flesh; but it will never
conquer or improve the flesh. The flesh is sinful. The flesh is cursed. Thank
God, the flesh must die! But it will never be improved. Taught in Scripture This dual nature of the believer is plainly taught in
the Word of God. It is utterly impossible to honestly interpret Paul's
epistle to the Galatians, the 7th chapter of Romans, and 1 John 3
without concluding that both Paul and John teach that there is within every
believer, so long as he lives in this world, both an old Adamic nature, that
can do nothing but sin, and a new righteous nature, that which is born of
God, that cannot sin, that can only do righteousness. The Holy Spirit's work
in sanctification is not the improvement of our old nature, but the maturing
of the new, steadily causing the believer to grow in the grace and knowledge
of Christ and bring forth fruit unto God. Known by Experience Every believer knows the duality of his nature by
painful, bitterly painful experience. Ask any child of God what he desires
above all things and he will quickly reply, "That I may live without sin in
perfect conformity to Christ, perfectly obeying the will of God in all
things." But that which he most greatly desires is an utter impossibility in
this life. Is
it not so with you? Though you delight in the law of God after the inward
man, there is another law of evil in your members, warring against you. 17 You would do good; but evil is always present with
you, so that you cannot do the things that you would. Even your best,
noblest, most sincere acts of good, when honestly evaluated, are so marred by
sin in motive and in execution that you must confess, "All my righteousnesses
are filthy rags!" It
is this warfare between the flesh and the spirit more than anything else that
keeps the believer from being satisfied with life in this world. Blessed be
God, we shall soon be free! When we have dropped this robe of flesh, we shall
be perfectly conformed to the image of him who loved us and gave himself for
us!
New Nature
This conflict is caused by and begins in regeneration because the righteousness of Christ is imparted to us in the new birth. C. H. Spurgeon said, "The reigning power of sin falls dead the moment a man is converted, but the struggling power of sin does not die until the man dies." A new nature has been planted within us; but the old nature is not eradicated.
Do not think for a moment that the old nature dies in regeneration, or even that it gets better. Flesh is flesh, and will never be anything but flesh. Noah, Lot, Moses, David, and Peter, like all other believers, had to struggle with this fact.
We need no proof of the fact that God's people in this world have two warring natures within beyond an honest examination of our own hearts and lives. Our best thoughts are corrupted with sin. Our most fervent prayers are defiled by lusts of the flesh. Our reading of Holy Scripture is corrupted by carnal passions. Our most spiritual worship is marred by the blackness within. Our most holy aspirations are vile. Our purest love for our Savior is so corrupted by our love of self and love for this world that we can hardly call our love for Christ love. From time to time we have all found, by bitter experience, the truthfulness of the hymn...
"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it! Prone to leave the God I love: Here's my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above."
Faith in Christ
Faith in Christ is not to work, but to cease from our labor and to rest in Him for all things. Faith in Christ is not to do anything, but to believe and own that all is done in Him, by Him, and is imputed to us so fully that we are rewarded as if we did it ourselves! Pastor Henry Mahan
18 Grace Bulletin
August 6, 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
DanvilleChannel 6 - Sunday Morning 8:00 A.M. Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening 6:00 P.M. Channel 6 - Friday Evening 7:00 P.M.
Web Pageshttp://www.donfortner.com http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp
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