February 18, 2007

 

“Whenever the Scriptures speak of the sufficiency of redemption, they always place it in the certain efficacy of redemption.” William Rushton

 

Daily Readings for the Week of February 18-25

            Sunday                      Numbers 20-22                                Thursday                   Numbers 33-35

           Monday                     Numbers 23-26                                Friday             Numbers 36-Deut. 1

            Tuesday                    Numbers 27-29                                Saturday                    Deuteronomy 2-4

            Wednesday  Numbers 30-32                                Sunday                      Deuteronomy 5-7

 

·      Missionary Offering Today

·      I am preaching today for Sovereign Grace Church in Jackson, Missouri, where Bro. Drew Dietz is pastor. Bros. Larry Criss and Darvin Pruitt will bring the messages here today.

·      Pastor Henry Mahan will preach the gospel to us March 16-18.

 

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Regina Henson (AM) Nancy Criss (PM) Tuesday: Celeste Peterson

 

I’ll Bless My Savior GodDon Fortner

(Tune: #405 — My Soul, Be on thy Guard — SM)

 

1.    I’ll bless my Savior God,

Who bought me with His blood.

With grateful heart all praise I bring,

To Christ, my Savior God.

 

2.    He is my great High Tower,

My Shield and my Defense. —

I’ll trust His mercy, grace and pow’r,

Goodness and love immense!

 

3.    The pow’rs of earth and hell,

My Savior shall subdue,

Beneath my feet, and Satan, too,

When He makes all things new!

 

The Sinner’s Great Need

 

“What is needed is not a new leaf, but a new life! ‘Ye must be born again’ (John 3:7). By physical birth we became partakers of the human nature. By being born again we become ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4). A Christian is the product of a divine begetting (James 1:18). The second birth is not an improvement of the old nature. It is the imparting of a new nature — entirely new! The old nature is hopelessly corrupt and incapable of ever being made fit for his presence (Romans 3:9-20; 8:7). The new birth requires a creative act of the Holy Spirit. ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature’ — a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).”                                                                                                                       Author Unknown

 

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“The Great Goodness”

Isaiah 63:7

 

As one transported and in a state of spiritual rapture, Isaiah exclaims, “I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he hath bestowed on them, according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.”

 

Physical Things

 

If we thought only of the physical things we now enjoy in this world, we ought to lift our hearts to God our Savior and say, “Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!” He gave us life, sustains us in health, and has given us a sound mind. It is God our Savior who daily furnishes our tables, clothes our bodies, and refreshes us with rest. It is the Lord God who has given us our families and keeps our families in domestic tranquility. Our heavenly Father fills our lives with friends, who are his friends. By his watchful care, we are protected from countless visible and unseen dangers. He gives his angels charge over us to keep us from danger. More numerous are his mercies than the stars of heaven. There is no section of our lives, no circumstance of our existence, no aspect of our daily experience upon which we can fix our eyes without seeing the great goodness of our God.

 

Redemption

 

But when we lift our thoughts to his “great goodness toward the house of Israel,” our hearts are utterly incapable of expressing the praise we owe to the great goodness he has bestowed upon us. It is in the redemption of our souls that the great goodness of our God is most fully displayed. Redemption was the thing that ravished Isaiah’s heart and mind. O Spirit of God, cause the redemption of our souls by Christ Jesus, according to “the great goodness toward the house of Israel,” which has been bestowed upon us, to ravish our hearts! To discover the heights or to fathom the depths of the great goodness bestowed upon us in redemption exceeds the capacities of our hearts. Yet, it is this great goodness that we most need, and this great goodness that most effectually ministers to our souls.

 

Covenant Goodness

 

What great goodness is revealed in the triune God purposing and planning the great work of redemption! The Eternal three-in-one God was not moved by anything except his own great goodness. No angel made the proposal, interceded, or advised. No man by his prayers or tears stirred pity in Jehovah’s heart. Before men or angels had existence, the purpose was fixed and the plan was formed by boundless love, unmoved, unasked, uncaused by anything except “the great goodness” of God toward his own.

            It was “the great goodness (of God the Father) toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses,” that moved him to choose us, to write our names in the Lamb’s book of life, and make proposals of grace and redemption for us to his darling Son.

 

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            It was “the great goodness (of God the Son) toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses,” that moved him to stand forth as our Surety and assume total responsibility for our souls, agreeing to satisfy every stipulation of the covenant for us.

            It was “the great goodness (of God the Spirit) toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses,” that moved him to become for us the Seal of the covenant, the Comforter, by whom all the things of Christ are conveyed to our souls.

            Upon the whole covenant of grace, write these words in bold, capital letters, “the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses!” The everlasting love of our God bestowed upon us in Christ from eternity is totally free. It is selfless, completely disinterested love, having no reward in view but the pleasure of doing good. There was and is nothing in us to recompense the triune God for “the great goodness” toward us. We have nothing to give him but what we receive from him.

 

 

 

 

Christ in You

 

The gift of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth is the gift of life; and the life given is Christ himself. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ begins in us. Every heaven born soul can say with the inspired Apostle, “Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul asks, in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you?” Our Savior says to all who are born of the Spirit “I (am) in you” (John 15:4). Christ dying for me is my redemption and justification, the solitary basis of my hope before God; but God the Holy Spirit declares that it is “Christ in you” which is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

 

            I recently read a good tract on the new birth. It was published anonymously many years ago. The author wrote, “The unanimous testimony of the Word of God is that when one is born again the Lord Jesus Christ comes in and becomes the life of that one.” That is exactly what our heavenly Comforter tells us in Colossians 3:4. — It is “Christ who is our life.” That is the meaning of Peter’s declaration that we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). No sinner has hope before God until Christ takes up residence in him.

 

            Christianity is not religion. Christianity is life. It is Christ himself living in us. He came to redeem us, to justify and sanctify us by his blood, that he might come in the saving operations of his Spirit to sanctify us by his grace to give us life (John 10:10). He does so by taking up permanent residence in us. It is written, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). “For me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).

 

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Grace Bulletin

 

February 18, 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