December 2, 2007

 

The Word was made flesh!” — God the Son came into the world in our nature that as the Captain of our salvation he might be made perfect through the things that he suffered. Only as God in our nature could the Bread of Life hunger, the Fountain of Living Water thirst, the Light of the World be compassed with darkness, the Sinless One be made sin, God be made to die, and sinners be made the righteousness of God in him!

 

Daily Readings for the Week of November December 2-9

            Sunday                      2 Corinthians 8-11                          Thursday                        Ephesians 3-5

            Monday                     2 Corinthians 12-Gal. 1                  Friday             Ephesians 6-Phil. 2

            Tuesday                    Galatians 2-4                                                Saturday                    Philippians 3-Col. 1

            Wednesday  Galatians 5-Ephesians 2               Sunday                      Colossians 2-4

 

·      Bro. Larry Criss is preaching today for Fairmont Grace Church in Sylacauga, AL, where Bro. Tommy Robins is pastor.

·      We will have lunch together following this morning’s service. There will be no service here tonight.

·      I will visit our missionaries Walter and Cody Groover, and a few of the churches in Mexico this week. The Lord willing, I will return on Friday. Bro. Daniel Parks, pastor of Redeemer Baptist Church in Louisville, will be here to preach to you Tuesday evening.

·      Our evening service next Sunday will begin at 5:30 P.M. Following the service, Shelby and I want all of you to plan to join us for our CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE FELLOWSHIP at the parsonage.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! David Burge-4th Jesse Rice-9th

 

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Cathy Pruitt (AM) Regina Henson (PM) Tuesday: Ruth Wall

 

Behold The Christ of God and See Don Fortner

(Tune: #98 — I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day — LM)

 

1.    Behold the Christ of God and see

The glory of the Godhead Three,

The Father, Spirit, and the Son

Revealed in the incarnate One.

 

2.    The fulness of the Godhead dwells

In Him who ransomed us from hell.

We know the mighty God above

Through our Redeemer’s work of love.

 

3.    Great, holy, sovereign, just, and true,

God’s merciful and gracious too!

In justice He has slain His Son

That He might save His chosen ones!

 

4.    In Christ, the Mediator man,

God has fulfilled salvation’s plan.

He magnified His holy law,

Yet saves His people from the fall!

 

13

Salvation is of the Lord!

Words of Wisdom

 

      The law knows nothing of mercy; the gospel knows nothing else. By the law I learn that I am guilty, but by the gospel I learn that I am not guilty. By the gospel I learn that I am justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. By the law I learn that I have ruined myself by sin and stand exposed to divine vengeance; but by the gospel I learn that the Lord Jesus was made sin for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in him. By the law my hopes are destroyed, and by the gospel my expectations are raised. By the law I am stripped, exposed, condemned, and slain; but by the gospel I am quickened, justified, accepted, and clothed.

 

O beware of trust ill-grounded; ‘tis but fancied faith at most

To be cured and not be wounded, to be saved before you are lost!

 

      To trust Christ Jesus alone is to depend upon him, to definitely, deliberately receive him as Lord and Redeemer. It means to trust Christ so utterly and completely that should he fail, there is nothing else! It is not Christ and the church, Christ and baptism, Christ and my faith. It is not Christ and anything else. — Christ is All or not at all!

 

      Jesus Christ is not a pasteboard king with royal titles and no authority. He sits upon his holy hill, invested with all power to capture the hearts of his subjects and to execute his threatened vengeance on his adversaries; and where he brings men under the rule of his scepter, he bestows the blessings of his kingdom.

 

To see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear His pardoning voice

Changes a slave into a child, and duty into choice!

 

      Church membership does not make a person a Christian anymore than owning a piano makes one a musician!                                        — Milford Hall Senior

 

“Good Tidings” — Isaiah 52:7

Robert Hawker

 

What glorious tidings of salvation must they be, when the very feet of those who bring them are accounted by the Lord himself to be beautiful! This is indeed good news from a far country; and when the soul that hears the joyful sound knows by heart-felt experience that Jesus reigneth in and over all his affections, this is a “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

 

I cannot dismiss this view of the beautifulness of the feet of Jesus’ sent servants, without reminding the reader how Jesus honored them (see John 13:3-5). Neither can I look at the servants without still having my mind more fully led to the contemplation of the Master.

 

Reader, think how beautiful were the feet of Jesus when he came over the mountains of sin, in our nature, and published peace in his blood! Think how the feet of Jesus appeared when on Mount Calvary they were nailed, for us and our salvation, to the cross! Oh, thou unequalled pattern of every thing beautiful and lovely!

 

14

The Captain of Our Salvation made Perfect

Hebrews 2:10

 

Christ was the Captain of our salvation from eternity. He was our Savior from everlasting. But in order to save us, in order to bring us to glory, the Lord Jesus Christ had to be perfected as a Savior. He had to experience something himself if he would be a perfect and complete Savior. What does that mean?

 

Christ was not made perfect in his character by suffering. He was always perfect, both as God and as man. But he was made perfect officially, as the Captain of our salvation. To perform the office of a Savior, to save lost sinners from their just and righteous condemnation, Christ had to possess three things: merit, power and sympathy. The only way he could obtain all three was by those things which he suffered, which consummated in his death as the sinners’ Substitute.

 

Merit — The Savior of men must have such merit with God that God can, consistently with the perfections of his nature and the requirements of his law, reverse the sentence of condemnation passed upon those for whom Christ suffered and died. He must have such infinite merit that we can, through his merit alone, obtain all the blessings of grace and glory, without any works of our own, without any merit of our own.

 

Power — The Captain of our salvation must possess all power in heaven and in earth so that he may, by the sheer power of his will, make ignorant, depraved, helpless, miserable sinners, wise, and good, and happy. He must have such absolute control of all things that he can make all things work together for the salvation of his people.

 

Sympathy — Moreover, the Savior of men must be able to sympathize with, he must be able to enter into the feelings of those whom he is to deliver and save. All these things are necessary if the Son of God is to be a perfect Savior; and all these things were obtained by him through the things which he suffered.

 

By his incarnation he became a Savior of infinite merit. The Savior of men must be a man, because man had sinned and man must suffer. But man, even a perfect man does not have merit of infinite worth for the saving of other men. Our Savior must also be God, because none but God has infinite merit to satisfy the claims of divine justice. Christ, the God-man, is both fully man and fully God.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ obtained the power to save as the reward of his obedience unto death as our substitute (John 17:2; Heb 7:25). This power is the legal, judicial power given to him as our Mediator, the power he earned as the God-man by his obedience unto death as our Substitute.

 

 

The Son of God became a sympathizing Savior by the things he suffered as a man for us (Heb 2:18; 4:15). Only one who has suffered can be touched with the suffering of others.

 

Made Perfect — Now, the Captain of our salvation has been made perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ is a perfect savior. He has made a perfect expiation of sin. He has brought in a perfect righteousness. His holy heart is filled with a perfect sympathy for his needy people. He is a perfect example for us to follow. He has perfect power, and is able to save all who come unto God by him perfectly!

 

15

 

Grace Bulletin

 

December 2, 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.com/gracechurch.htm

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com