Grace Baptist Church of Danville

August 28, 2011

Will worship and Christ worship cannot exist together. Either God’s will controls man’s will, or man’s will controls God’s will. Either God controls the devil, or the devil controls God. Either God rules man, or man rules God. God says, “I will do all my pleasure;” and all who know Him rejoice in knowing that it is so, saying, “It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth Him good.”

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

·      Our conference begins Friday night. There will be no service here Tuesday night. We will meet Thursday night at 6:00 PM to finish setting things up for the conference and do those last minute things necessary before our guests arrive.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!   Norma Rankin-1^st

NURSERY DUTY TODAY:  Jenny Bartley (AM)    Pam Wood (PM)

Waiting to be Gracious — Don Fortner

Isaiah 30:18

(Tune: #477 — When I Can Read My Title Clear — CM)

1. So great the love, so rich the grace of our eternal God, —

He waits to save a ruined race with efficacious blood.

2. He waits, while they His grace defy, until th’ appointed hour,

(Fixed in the council held on high), of mercy, love, and pow’r.

3. He waits to show His saving name and make His mercy known:

He waits His ransomed to reclaim and gather in His own.

4. My God, and did You wait for me, to manifest Your love?

Teach me to wait in hope to see my Savior’s face above.

5. God’s waiting to be gracious still, though clouds may hide His face:

I’ll wait the wonders of His will and sing His matchless grace!

“I believe men will argue about the new nature up until the time that they have one, and then they will just be grateful to the God of all grace, who makes all things new.”                                                                                                  — Pastor Chris Cunningham

“What a great and glorious God is the Great I AM.  He is the all sufficient one who having begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”                                                                                                                                   — Pastor Darvin Pruitt

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God’s Prophets and God’s Word

“The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” (Micah 1:1)

God’s prophets, pastors and preachers after God’s own heart, those men God gives to His Church to feed His people with knowledge and understanding, come with God’s message as it is set forth in His Word, with God’s authority. Those preachers of old came before the people to whom they spoke as men sent from God with a message, a message that must be declared.

Today the hireling minister comes to the pulpit to present a lecture on morality, or to give a sermon on religion, or to insist on the performance of some moral or religious duty, or instruct people in some point of denominational orthodoxy. Preachers today come to “share” some thoughts and give you something to think about. Micah came with “the word of the LORD!” What a difference! What a blessed day it was when “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John!” Where is the man today who comes from God to deliver a message from God to my soul? I want to hear that man!

Micah was such a man. He declared “the word of the LORD.” He preached “the word of the LORD,” that was given specifically to him, “the word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite,” to Micah from Moresheth-Gath in Judea. It was “the word of the LORD” given to him for the day in which he lived, “in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” It was “the word of the LORD” which Micah “saw,” that which he understood by experience, that which the Lord God taught him personally. “The word of the LORD that came to Micah” was God’s word to a specific people. It was both fresh and personal. It was specifically God’s word to and “concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.”

      In fulfilling the work of the ministry it is not enough to simply set before men the evidences of Christianity, or to insist upon the performance of religious duties. Those men God sends to His people as pastors according to His heart are messengers from God to men. God’s servants must declare to men the message they have received from Him by prayer, study, and meditation. We dare not alter or conceal any part of that which we have been commanded to deliver. —— “He that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully” (Jeremiah 23:28). We must make known all the counsel of God. And, having declared God’s message with all plainness and fidelity, we urge men to receive it with all the energy we possess. — “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11).

Those men who speak as God’s ambassadors to eternity bound sinners, who stand and speak to immortal souls in Christ’s stead, have a burden to bear: — “The burden of the Word of the Lord.” God’s prophets get their message directly from God Himself; and that message is weighty, so weighty that it is called, “The burden of the Word of the Lord.” And I’ll make you this promise: — Any preacher who does not find his ministry a burden here will find it a burden hereafter, a burden that will sink him into the lowest hell!

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Justified from Eternity

Romans 8:30

Faith in Christ is the evidence and manifestation of our justification, but not the cause of it. God’s elect were justified in Christ from eternity. Justification is one of those “all spiritual blessings” with which God’s elect were blessed before the worlds were made (Ephesians 1:3). Christ stood as our Surety in the covenant of grace from eternity. In that covenant the Son of God voluntarily engaged to pay the debts of His elect and make full satisfaction for them. God the Father accepted Him as our Surety. “Thenceforward,” wrote John Gill, the Father “looked at Him for payment and satisfaction, and looked at them as discharged, and so they were in His eternal mind.” As soon as one person becomes surety for another, the debtor is freed and the surety is accepted. Thus all God’s elect were justified in eternity, as soon as Christ became our Surety (Romans 8:30).

            Our justification did not commence in time, but in eternity. Paul, speaking of God’s eternal decree of predestination, declares that all God’s elect were justified in His eternal purpose of grace (Romans 8:30). John Gill wrote, “God’s will to elect is the election of His people; so also His will to justify them, is the justification of them.” From all eternity, God has looked upon His Son as our Substitute, and looking upon us in Christ, we are, and always have been, righteous in His sight. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). God set up His darling Son as our Surety, our Substitute, and our Redeemer before the world began; and as such, in His own mind, He looked upon Christ as having been slain for us from eternity.

            Because God looked upon Christ as one already sacrificed for us before the world was, all the blessings of grace were given to us in Him (Ephesians 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 1:9). The Holy Spirit tells us plainly that “all spiritual blessings” were bestowed upon all God’s elect in Christ before the world began. All the blessings of salvation and grace were irrevocably given to us in Christ our covenant Surety in eternity, according to the purpose of God in election. Astonishing grace! Adoption, acceptance with God, redemption, forgiveness, and an eternal inheritance in Christ, all were given to us in Christ, because He agreed to pay our debt and became totally responsible for all our obligations as our Surety in eternity. Thomas Goodwin wrote. “We may say of all spiritual blessings in Christ what is said of Christ Himself, that ‘His goings forth are from everlasting.’ In Christ we are blessed with all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). As we are blessed with all others, so with this also, that we were justified then in Christ.” Goodwin goes on to say that God the Father, in that everlasting transaction of grace with His Son, “told Him, as it were, that He would look for our debt and satisfaction from Him and He did let the sinners go free. So they are in this respect justified from all eternity.”

      In addition to the plain statements of Holy Scripture, two facts compel us to look upon justification as an eternal act of God. 1^st Had it not been for the fact that God looked upon His elect as being righteous and justified in Christ from eternity, He would have destroyed our race as soon as Adam sinned. Just as the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were preserved for Lot’s sake, so the human race is preserved for the sake of those the Father has chosen and justified in his Son from eternity. 2^nd The Old Testament saints were justified by Christ, just as we are today. Their justification was just as full, complete, and perfect as ours (Hebrews 9:15, 22; Romans 3:25). If they were justified before Christ came, it could not be upon any grounds except the fact that they, like us, were justified by the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the earth.

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The Grace Bulletin

August 28, 2011

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.

Television Broadcasts in Harrodsburg

Channel 6 - Sunday Afternoon 3:00 P.M.

Channel 6 - Friday Evening 6:00 P.M.

Web Pages

http://www.DonFortner.com

http://www.FreegraceRadio.com

http://www.Grace-eBooks.com

Don Fortner

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com