October 21, 2007

“The blood of the sacrifice must be applied as well as spilt. An unapplied ransom is no ransom. An unapplied Savior is no Savior. (Hebrews 9:19-20).”                                                                              — Robert Hawker

Daily Readings for the Week of October 21-28

·      We welcome Bro. John Chapman to our pulpit today. Bro. Chapman is the pastor of Ashland Grace Church in Ashland, KY. I am preaching today for Laird Street Baptist Church in New Caney, TX.

·      Bro. Larry Criss is preaching this morning for Buck Mountain Baptist Church in Roan Mountain, TN, where Bro. Gary Perkins is pastor. He is scheduled to preach this afternoon for the Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Kingsport, TN.

·      My message Tuesday night will be taken from Exodus 12. The subject will be: — How do we keep the Feast of the Passover?

·      College Grove Grace Church in College Grove, TN will host a Bible Conference Friday – Sunday. Scheduled speakers: Tim James, Bruce Crabtree and Don Fortner. Bro. Chris Cunningham is the host pastor.

·      Our featured message on FreeGraceRadio.com this Thursday will be False Dreams and Vain Comfort (Zechariah 10:2-3).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Susan Grant-28^th

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Cathy Pruitt (AM) Pam Wood (PM) Tuesday: Ruth Wall

Truth and Justice Cry as Loud—Don Fortner

(Tune: #233—Depth of Mercy—77.77)

1.    Truth and justice cry as aloud

As God’s love with Jesus’ blood,

“Every sinner bought with blood

Must escape the wrath of God.”

2.    Justice, mercy, truth and love,

Shining bright in Jesus’ blood,

Make secure our place above,

One with Christ! Approved of God!

3.    Let His praise forever swell —

Jesus has done all things well!

By His sin-atoning blood

He both saves and honors God!

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Three Felt Things

“That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, though he be not far from every one of us” (Acts 17:27).

            True Christianity is primarily a religion of the heart. It is inward and spiritual. A man believes with his heart. He repents in his heart. Prayer is found in and comes from the heart. And those things that are found in the heart are felt things. It is “Christ in you,” whom the Spirit of God calls, “the Hope of Glory” (Colossians 1:27). Those who seek and worship him “feel after him.” The Book of God speaks of three distinct things that are “felt” in the experience of every heaven born soul.

Felt Darkness

When the Lord God brought his ninth plague upon the land of Egypt, by which he destroyed the land, that is to say by which he destroyed the strength and confidence of the Egyptians, it was a plague “of thick darkness…even darkness which may be felt.” And when God the Holy Spirit comes in the mighty operations of his grace to save a sinner, his first task is to destroy all creature strength in the sinner. He does so by bringing into the soul of the chosen sinner the thick darkness of guilt. When he comes to convince a sinner of his sin, he brings into the land of man’s soul “thick darkness…even darkness which may be felt.” Darkness is often used in Scripture in this symbolic way (Isaiah 9:2; 29:18; 42:5-7; 50:10; Matthew 4:16; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 5:8; Colossians 1:12-14). The conviction of sin is something felt in the soul. — “I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light” (Lamentations 3:1-2).

Felt Healing

The first thing the Holy Spirit does in the sinner in the experience of grace is to bring felt darkness into his soul by the conviction of sin. Then, he brings felt healing by the conviction of righteousness. He convinces the sinner of righteousness, because Christ has returned to the Father, having accomplished what he came into the world to accomplish. He brought in everlasting righteousness. The bringing in of righteousness involved two things: — Obedience and Satisfaction (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). If ever God gives a poor sinner faith to touch Christ’s clothes, his righteousness, “the garments of salvation” (Isaiah 61:10), he will feel the healing of grace in his soul when he discovers that Christ has made him whole, righteous before God. We see this beautifully illustrated in Mark 5:25-29.

Felt No Harm

In Acts 28 we see a third felt thing. When Paul was bitten by a viper, “he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.” Like Paul, you and I have been bitten by a viper, the viper of hell, that old serpent, the devil. What pain the viper’s bite has caused us and is causing us! But as soon as the poor, perishing sinner is convinced by God the Holy Spirit (John 16:11) that judgment has been forever removed from him by the sacrifice of Christ, because justice has been satisfied on his behalf by the death of God’s dear Son, he looks to Christ in faith, shakes off the serpent, and soon feels no harm in his soul (Romans 8:1-4, 31-35). I cannot imagine a more glorious felt thing than “no harm.” Can you? Yet, this is something that cannot be fully felt until that great day (And it can’t be too soon!), when we shall at last shake off the beast of hell, that old serpent, the devil, into the fire of hell, and so completely and thoroughly triumph over him that we shall feel no harm! It is written, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:4). We shall forever feel “no harm” from the serpent’s bite and the sin caused by it!

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The Making of a Sinner — Pastor Tim James

Try as he may the preacher of the gospel cannot make a sinner. The Word of God alone cannot make a sinner. One may hear and read the truth of man's condition before God until it is committed to memory, but it will not make him to be a sinner in the biblical sense of the word.

The Lord does some writing in the hearts of his people (2 Cor. 3:1-3; Heb. 8:10-12). In big block letters He writes SINNER in the hearts of all whom He saves. And when God does this writing, try as one may, it cannot be erased, removed, covered up, or ignored. That person, in the true biblical sense of the word, becomes an acknowledged, self-condemned SINNER, and will be so throughout eternity. However, thank God, he does not stop writing there! Over the top of SINNER He writes another word in big red letters, blood-red letters...WASHED! This puts a song in their hearts, which they will sing throughout eternity (Rev. 1:1-4; 5:9-10).

Sanctification: The Certain Result of Justification

Pastor Chris Cunningham

The following is an article, by Abraham Booth, I received in a bulletin. — “Justification is a forensic term, and signifies the declaring, or the pronouncing a person righteous according to law. Justification is not the making a person righteous, by a real, inherent change from sin to holiness… but it is the act of a judge, pronouncing the partly acquitted from all judicial charges. That the blessing of which we speak does not consist in a real change from sin to holiness, will further appear from considering, that justification is diametrically opposite to condemnation. Now the sentence of condemnation is never supposed to make the person criminal on whom it is pronounced. There is no infusion of evil qualities into the culprit's mind; nor is he made guilty, either in the eye of the public, or in his own estimation. But being arraigned as a criminal, and proved guilty of a capital offence, according to the tenor of that law by which he is tried, he is esteemed worthy of death, and condemned accordingly. So, in justification, the subject of it is pronounced righteous in the eye of the law, is deemed worthy to live, and his right to life is declared. Hence that justification of which the Scripture speaks, and is now the subject of our inquiry, is called the justification of life. (Rom. 5:18) That the words justify, justified, and justification are used by the sacred writers in a forensic sense, and as opposed to the words condemn, condemned, and condemnation, is manifest to every attentive reader.”

I would add that what is equally evident to every attentive reader, who has been taught of God, is that God said: Prov 17:15 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD. Either God hates Himself, or everyone He justifies, forensically or otherwise, is actually holy. We are holy in Christ and partakers of His divine nature according to clear revelation. God’s justice cannot pretend we are holy and justify on that basis. The example given by Mr. Booth fully supports this truth. When under the condemnation of God, forensic condemnation if you prefer, is a sinner actually wicked, or does God just consider him so strictly in a forensic sense? I’ll say it again. If God considers me holy, I am holy. Adding the words “in Christ” to that statement does not make it less so, but more so. Praise Him forever for His marvelous grace!

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Grace Bulletin

October 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.freegraceradio.com

http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm

Don Fortner

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com