January 21, 2007

When the Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for us, our sins were imputed to him, so that we might have his righteousness imputed to us and be made the righteousness of God in him.

·      Pastor Henry Mahan will preach here both services next Sunday. I am scheduled to preach next week for Rescue Baptist Church in Rescue, California, where Bro. Gene Harmon is pastor.

·      Missionary Offering Today

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Vicci Rolley (AM) Nancy Criss (PM)Tuesday: Regina Henson

Savior, Save Me from Myself — Don Fortner

(Tune: #233 —Depth of Mercy — 77.77 )

1.    God of grace, Your chosen keep,

Hold secure Your helpless sheep.

Safe within the Shepherd’s fold,

Keep my straying, fickle soul.

2.    Savior, keep me near Your side,

Hidden in the crucified;

Keep me from a world of sin;

Save me from my foes within!

3.    Lay me low before Your feet;

Break my pride and self-conceit;

Crush the raging pow’rs hell,

Savior, save me from myself!

4.    Prone to every lust obscene,

I confess to You my sin.

Bathe me, Savior, in Your blood,

Keep my heart for You my God!

No Personal Righteousness

Every heaven born soul readily acknowledges that he has no personal righteousness, honestly confessing that even his best deeds are filthy rags before God. Believers are no more able of themselves to think a good thought, form a good desire, speak a good word, or do a good work than unbelievers. Yet, it is written, “he that doeth righteousness is righteous.” All believers do righteousness. However, the righteousness they do is not theirs. It is the righteousness of Christ, that new man in them “created in righteousness and true holiness.” As Paul puts it, “Christ liveth in me.”

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Except Your Righteousness

“For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)

The Scribes and Pharisees were the most righteous men, outwardly, who ever lived. They lived by the ten commandments. According to the letter of the law, they were blameless. They paid tithes of all they possessed, fasted twice a week, and prayed three times a day. Yet, our Lord tells us that we must be more righteous than them, or we “shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The fact is that without perfect righteousness no one can ever enter into heaven (Revelation 21:27; 22:11-14). The righteousness required by God is a perfect righteousness, a righteousness which no mere man can produce. In order to enter that perfect kingdom, we must be made perfectly righteous by the righteousness of Christ (Romans 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21). All who believe are made the righteousness of God in Christ by two distinct acts of grace.

l. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us in justification (Romans 4:3-8). — Our sin was imputed to Christ at Calvary. Though he never committed sin, he was made to be sin, and became responsible under the law for our sins as our Substitute. In exactly the same way, the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to us, though we never have performed a righteous deed. Just as the law punished Christ for our sin, which was legally imputed to him, the law of God rewards every believer for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.

2. The righteousness of Christ is imparted to us in regeneration (2 Peter 1:2-4; 1 John 3:4-9). — “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If I am born again by the Spirit of God, I have a new nature created in my soul; a righteous nature is imparted to me, by which I reign as a king over the lusts and passions of my flesh. Yes, God’s people do sin. Sin is mixed with all we do so long as we live in this body of flesh. But sin no longer reigns over us. We are no longer under the dominion of sin (Romans 6:14-16; Galatians 5:22-23). The believer’s life is a life of faith, godliness and uprightness.

(The article above first appeared in The Grace Bulletin in November 1987)

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“Mine Iniquities have Taken Hold upon Me”

Psalm 40:12

Be astonished, O my soul! Adore the mystery of substitution and the great mercy, grace, and love of the Lord Jesus Christ the sinner’s Substitute! That these are the words of our Savior when he was made sin for us, we cannot doubt. (Hebrews 10:5). His love for us was and is so great that in verse 7 he declares his readiness to assume a body, and to accomplish his Father’s will in the salvation of his chosen, in agreement with the ancient settlements written in the Volume of the Book, saying, “Lo! I come, I delight to do thy will, O my God.” Then in verses 11 and 12 he prays for deliverance from his deep distresses.

      Why was the Son of God brought to such sorrow and grief? Here is the answer. — “He hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him!” Indeed, he could never have suffered the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross as our Substitute had he not been made sin for us. Justice would never have allowed it. The Lord God declares, “He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.” (Proverbs 17:15; Exodus 23:7).

      Hear the Savior’s words in Psalm 40:12, and worship him. “For innumerable evils have compassed me about.” The Blessed One of God, who knew no sin and did no sin, was made sin! He cried, “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.” He had no sin, but sin was laid on him, and he took it as his own. He was made sin for us. “The transfer of sin to the Savior was real,” Spurgeon wrote, “and produced in him as man the horror which forbade him to look into the face of God, bowing him down with crushing anguish and woe intolerable.”

      My soul, what would our sins have done to us eternally if the Friend of sinners had not condescended to take them all upon himself? Oh, blessed Scripture! “He hath made him sin for us!” Oh, marvellous depth of love, that made the perfectly immaculate Lamb of God to stand in the sinner’s place, and bear the horror of great trembling, which sin must bring upon those who are forever keenly conscious of it in hell!

      “They are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.” The pains of God’s holy fury against sin, his unbending justice and unmitigated wrath were beyond calculation, and the Savior’s soul was so crushed with them that he was sore amazed, and very heavy, even unto a sweat of blood. His strength was gone; his spirit sank; he was in anguish (Psalm 22:14-15). It was the thought and anticipation of being made sin for us, not of simply paying the debt due unto our sins, but of being made sin, that caused his bloody sweat in Gethsemane. It was this fact, the fact that he was made sin for us, that caused him to be forsaken of his Father as he hung upon the cursed tree on Golgotha’s hill (Psalm 22:1-3).

      O Spirit of God, let me never cease to be overwhelmed by the love of God in Chris, which constrained my all-glorious Redeemer to be made sin for me!

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Grace Bulletin

January 21, 2007

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 in 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

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com