Grace Baptist Church of Danville

August 5, 2012

 

Christ gives everything, demands everything, and deserves everything. Let me therefore submit everything to His will and devote everything to His service.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of August 5-12, 2012

            Sunday                      Jeremiah 18-21                                           Thursday       Jeremiah 31-32

            Monday                      Jeremiah 22-24                                           Friday             Jeremiah 33-35

            Tuesday                    Jeremiah 25-27                                           Saturday                    Jeremiah 36-38

            Wednesday  Jeremiah 28-30                                           Sunday                      Jeremiah 39-41

 

·      I am scheduled to preach tonight for Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, TN. Bro. Ron Wood will bring the message here tonight.

·      Bro. Matt Johnson, pastor of Rocky Ford Baptist Church in Liberty, KY, will be here to preach the Gospel to you on Tuesday night.

·      I am scheduled to preach in Boonville, NC for the Sovereign Grace Fellowship Monday-Wednesday. Bro. Linwood Campbell is the pastor.

·      On Thursday and Friday, I am scheduled to preach for Covenant of Grace Baptist Church in N. Wilkesboro, NC, where Bro. Mike Walker is pastor.

·      We are delighted to welcome Emily Rice into the fellowship of our assembly. Emily confessed faith in Christ in believer’s baptism last Sunday.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Anne Kendziora-11th   Ben Peterson-11th

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Lindsay & Diane Campbell-8th     Mark & Sherri Warta-9th      Jerry & Marilyn Sadler-10th

 

May We Receive The Word That’s Sown — Don Fortner

(Tune: # 46 O For A Thousand Tongues -- CM )

1.     Father, Your Holy Spirit send

From heaven to this place

To make our hearts and minds attend

The Gospel of Your grace.

2.     May we receive the Seed that’s sown

In broken, fertile ground;

Dig deep, break up the fallow ground,

And make Your fruit abound.

3.     To seek You, Lord, each heart dispose,

To each Your blessings suit;

And make the Seed Your servant sows

Bring forth the Spirit’s fruit.

4.     Bid the refreshing North Wind wake,

Say to the South Wind, “Blow.”

Let every plant of Christ partake

And all Your garden grow.

5.     Revive parched ground with heav’nly showers,

The cold with sacred fires;

And as the blessing, Lord, is ours,

Be all the glory Yours.

 

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NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Shante’ Birchum (AM) Stephanie Wall (PM)          Tuesday: Debbie Bartley

_______________________________________________________________________

 

What did Isaiah see?

Isaiah 6:1-13

 

God the Holy Spirit tells us in John 12:41 that the revelation given to Isaiah that is recorded in this 6th chapter of his prophecy was a revelation of the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But what is that? What did Isaiah see, when he saw Christ’s glory?

  1. Isaiah saw God in His true character, as He really is, in His glorious sovereignty and infinite holiness (vv. 1-4).
  2. Then he saw himself as a guilty, helpless, doomed, damned, lost sinner before the holy Lord God, “a man of unclean lips” (v. 5).
  3. Seeing God as He really is and himself as he really was, Isaiah saw the complete depravity of all Adam’s fallen race, “a people of unclean lips” (v. 5).
  4. By the goodness and grace of God, Isaiah saw and experienced the complete forgiveness of sin by blood atonement (vv. 6-7).
  5. Then, when he saw the Lord’s glory, Isaiah saw the purpose of the triune God perfectly fulfilled by Christ, Jehovah’s righteous Servant (vv. 8-13).

 

Gospel Preachers

 

These verses may have reference to Isaiah and his calling as God’s prophet. God’s servants are all called of God and all are volunteers in the service of Christ, being constrained by His call and His grace (v. 8). God’s servants are all sent men, sent of God to preach the Gospel (v. 9). God’s servants are to some a savor of death unto death (vv. 10-12), and to others a savor of life unto life (v. 13).

 

Christ our Surety

 

But Isaiah 8:6 begins with the words, “Also I heard,” as if to indicate a change. It seems to me that this last section of the chapter refers not to God’s servants (Gospel preachers), but to God’s righteous Servant, our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In the first seven verses of the chapter Isaiah tells us what he had seen and heard in a special relation to himself. Here he tells us what he was witness to regarding the accomplishment of our blessed Savior as the Surety of the covenant and the fulfilment of God’s everlasting purpose of grace in Him. The Lord God favored His prophet with a clear revelation of His covenant mercy and “the covenant of peace” held between the Persons of the eternal God (Zechariah 6:13; Psalm 40:7-10; Isaiah 50:6-9) before the world began.

 

The terms and conditions of redemption were proposed: — Mercy and truth must meet. Righteousness and peace must kiss each other. Righteousness must be established for the chosen by the obedience of a man

 

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of infinite worth. Justice must be satisfied by a man who is God being made sin and punished for all the sins of God’s elect, fully punished, that the holy Lord God might be “a just God and a Savior” (Isaiah 8:20). When those terms and conditions of redemption were proposed, Isaiah heard the triune God say, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then he saw our Divine Surety, the Son of God, step forward for us and say, “Here am I, send Me!

Question Answered

In verses 9-12, Isaiah, as if struck with what he had seen and heard, raises a question: “How long shall Satan, the enemy of our souls triumph? How long shall fallen man remain under the influence of that wicked one? How long shall Satan work havoc in God’s creation?” Hear what the Lord’s answer is in verse 13.

“But yet in it [shall be] a tenth, and [it] shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance [is] in them, when they cast [their leaves: so] the holy seed [shall be] the substance thereof.”

O for grace to bless the eternal Spirit for such a revelation! Now we see why it is that God preserves fallen humanity. There is one that stands by and looks on, and while to our eye there is nothing to be seen. As we see things, the whole race is like the withered, blighted branch of the vine; everything is hopeless, and dead, and lifeless. Yet, there is in it “a tenth,” “the holy seed, God’s elect, who must and shall be saved. Therefore, the Lord Jesus says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it” (Isaiah 65:8). Because He is longsuffering toward His chosen, an elect remnant, “the holy seed,” who must be saved, the Lord God spares the world (2 Peter 3:9). The purpose of God shall be accomplished. Christ will save His people (Romans 8:28-30). That is what Isaiah saw, when he saw Christ’s glory.

 

Christ Made Sin

For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

John Trapp commenting on Psalm 40:12 wrote that our Lord Jesus Christ was “maximus peccatorum, the greatest of sinners by imputation (2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:6), for our sins (which here He calleth His) He suffered. And here His bitter agony in the garden is graphically described. Neither is it absurd to say, that as He bore our sins in His own body upon the tree, He was first redeemed by Himself, and afterwards we.”

      Martin Luther said essentially the same thing. — Christ took our flesh upon Him, that He might take our sins upon Him. He was, maximus peccator, the greatest sinner, having the weight of the sins of [God’s elect throughout] the whole world lying upon Him. He took our flesh that He might take our sins, and so appease God’s wrath.”

      So obvious and blessed is this revelation of the Gospel that saved sinners throughout the world and throughout the ages rejoice to know it, rest in it, and proclaim it. None can understand it or explain it; but all give thanks for it.

 

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The Grace Bulletin

 

August 5, 2012

 

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