April 22, 2007

“I ask no sign, no vision, no evidence without, nor feeling within on which to rest my confidence. God has given us HIS WORD and confirmed it in His blessed Son; and there my confidence, faith, and trust shall rest.”                                                                                                       Horatius Bonar

·      I am preaching today for Campus Church in Welwyn, England, where Bro. Stephen Bignall is pastor. Bros. Darvin Pruitt and Ron Wood will bring the messages here today.

·      You will be privileged to have one of our faithful missionaries, Bro. Cody Groover, here to preach the gospel to you Tuesday night. As most of you know, Bro. Groover has faithfully served our Redeemer in Yucatan, Mexico for many years. If you would like to make a special gift to Bro. Groover, or to the Mexican Preachers’ School, please indicate that on your check or offering envelope.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Joyce Montgomery-25^th Gina Blackburn-26^th

“It’s Done!”― Don Fortner

(Tune: When I Can Read My Title Clear #497 ― CM)

1.    “It’s done!” O hear the glorious news,

“It’s done!” “It’s done!” “It’s done!”

Salvation in its fulness is

A work completely done!

2.    The work of grace was all complete

Before the worlds were made.

The Lamb was slain and God’s elect,

By covenant grace, were saved!

3.    The Son of God once came to earth

His Father’s will to do.

When He returned to heav’n with blood,

Nothing was left to do.

4.    Now, sinner, all your doings leave,

And trust the Son of God.

His blood and righteousness receive,

And give all praise to God.

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Christ the Savior of Sinners

Pastor Gary Shepard

To say that Christ was not actually made sin for me would be to say that I am not actually a sinner. To say that He was not really made sin for me would be to say that God unjustly killed Him for it is the “soul that sinneth” that “shall surely die.” To say that He was not truly made sin would be to deny what is represented in the Old Testament sacrifice when the priest actually laid his hands on the head of the sacrifice and confessed the sins of the people. To say that Christ’s identifying with me the sinner was only legal and not actual would leave me only legally righteous and therefore not righteous so as to be able to enter God’s heaven personally. Death was as foreign to the Son of God as sin was, yet, He died. Why? Because “the wages of sin is death.” What He suffered in His humanity did not alter His deity. Rather, He sacrificed His humanity on the altar of His deity. When He died, that death was the clearest evidence that He had been made sin for us. The death that He died was the death that I deserved to die, not only as one who has sinned, but as one who is sin.

No Strangers in Heaven

“And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.”                                                                                                                             (Matthew 8:11)

I have often been asked, “Will we know one another in heaven?” Unless I am terribly mistaken in my understanding of Holy Scripture, the answer is obvious. God’s saints in heaven are engaged in constant, uninterrupted fellowship with their Triune God, with one another, and with the holy angels. A casual reading of the book of Revelation conveys the idea that God’s saints will forever discuss with one another and with the heavenly angels the wonders of covenant mercy, the ministry of the angelic hosts, redeeming love, saving grace, and divine providence. Yes, all God’s saints will see and know one another in that glorious world of bliss.

      Just before he died, someone asked Martin Luther, “Sir, will we know one another in the other world?” Luther answered, “As Adam knew Eve to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh by the revelation of God, though he had never seen her before, so shall the saints of God know one another in heaven.” As the apostles knew Moses and Elijah on the mount with Christ, though they had never seen them, or even a picture or description of them before, so shall we know the saints of God in heaven. In heaven we will know parents, wives, husbands, children, and friends far more perfectly than ever we knew them on the earth.

      There will be no strangers in heaven. If there were a stranger in the heavenly company, freedom and joy would be greatly hindered. Who is free around a stranger? In heaven’s glory, when the bodies of God’s saints are raised up to glory, we shall see and know one another and all God’s saints. When we sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, we shall all see Christ in all his glory and the Bride, the Lamb’s wife, in all the beauty which he has given her. We shall see and know every believer. And we shall love and esteem them all perfectly.

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The Old Man and the New

Romans 7:24

The inward warfare raging in our hearts, that which so painfully disturbs the peace and joy of God’s saints in this world, arises from the fact that every regenerate person lives in this body of flesh with two natures. Most people have been taught, and believe, that in regeneration the old man is changed, spiritually renewed; but the Scriptures teach that a new man is formed in the heaven born soul, making the regenerate “a new creature” in Christ.

            From the moment of his heavenly birth, until he enters into glory, the believer lives with two natures, flesh and spirit, the old man and the new man, that which is born of flesh and that which is born of the Spirit. The old man is in no way changed. That which is new in him is the new man, by which he has become a partaker of the divine nature.

            That the heaven-born soul is two men cannot be disputed. Who would say, “The old man is the new man and the new man is the old man”? That would be to confound the language of Holy Scripture and make it unintelligible. The new birth is not a reforming of the old man, but the creation of the new man. And with the creation of the new man in us, a violent warfare breaks out between flesh and spirit. That sad fact is verified in the daily experience of all who have “tasted that the Lord is gracious.” All confess with Paul, “That which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”

            Yes, in every child of God two distinct natures inhabit the same tenement. The “old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” His genealogy we trace back to his father, the “first Adam,” from whom he receives his corrupt nature. The “new man,” which after God is “created in righteousness and true holiness,” derives his being from Christ, his “everlasting Father,” the last Adam. Just as the old man is what he is by virtue of his union with Adam, the new man is what he is by virtue of his union with Christ. As by natural generation we receive the nature of “the old man,” by spiritual regeneration we are “made partakers of the divine nature.”

            Every child of faith can say with Job, “the root of the matter is found in me.” The Root of the matter is “Christ in you, the Hope of glory.” And “if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches,” “for as he is so are we in this world.” Nothing pure or holy is attached to the “old man.” But even the mind and conscience of flesh is defiled. Yet, nothing impure or unholy is attached to the “new man,” to that which is born of God, for “unto the pure all things are pure” (Titus 1:15). “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

            God calls his children “the holy people,” because they really are holy, “for his seed remaineth in them.” “Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” Until then, we must continue, like the Shulamite, “as it were the company of two armies.”

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Grace Bulletin

April 22, 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

Don Fortner

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com