Grace Baptist Church of Danville

August 19, 2012

As the God of truth cannot impute sin where there is none (Proverbs 17:15), so He cannot impute righteousness where there is none. Because Christ took away our sins, being made sin for us, and made us the very righteousness of God in union with Himself, all God’s elect have righteousness imputed to them.

·      Bro. Frank Hall is preaching today for Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, KY.

·      I am preaching today for Sovereign Grace Church in New Castle, IN, where Bro. Bruce Crabtree is pastor.

·      Bro. David Pledger, pastor of Lincolnwood Baptist Church in Houston, TX, will bring the message to you this morning. Bro. Cody Groover, missionary in Merida, Mexico, will bring the message to you tonight.

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Alexis Mason (AM) Celeste Peterson (PM)          Tuesday: Mindy Peterson

Brethren, Let Us Walk Together – Don Fortner

(Tune: #123 – In the Cross of Christ I Glory -- 87.87)

1.   Brethren, let us walk together

In sweet fellowship and peace;

Let each one prefer the other;

Thus shall joy and love increase.

2.   As a fam’ly, it behooves us

Each to bear the other’s load.

As we journey homeward, let us

Help each other in the road.

3.   Knowing how our God and Father

Our offenses does forgive,

Let us, as forgiven sinners,

One another’s faults forgive.

4.   Let us, for our Savior’s honor,

Keep the Spirit’s unity, --

One in Christ, living together,

Full of love, from envy free!

“I went down to the potter’s house.”

Jeremiah 2:1-10

God sent His prophet Jeremiah down to the potter’s house to teach His servant the message he must deliver. It is the very same message the Lord God teaches all His servants to preach; and preach it they do. The picture and the message it conveys focus on three things: clay, wheels, and a potter.

The Clay

The clay here represented the house of Israel. Israel had been dug from Egypt like clay from the pit. God brought them up into the land of Canaan, where He gently shaped and molded them. But they were stiff and unyielding. A heart of stone was in them. Therefore that nation was marred in the hands of God; and He turned His grace toward the nations of the world. The Apostle Paul, by Divine inspiration, enlarges this message and tells us that the clay represents all men (Romans 9:18-24).

      Clay is raw material, infertile mud, useless, except in the hands of the potter. That is what you and I are, useless clods of red earth, sons and daughters of Adam. God dug us from the pit of fallen humanity by the hand of His omnipotent grace. He filled us with His mercy and fashioned us into the image of His own dear Son.

      Some are God’s elect, sinners chosen to eternal life, vessels of mercy, made and prepared by God to be filled with mercy, afore prepared by God for glory. All who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are vessels of mercy. — Nothing but mercy comes to God’s elect (Psalm 23:6).

      Others are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. You can fuss and squawk about it if you want; but if you do, your fight is with God Almighty and his Holy Word. This is a fact revealed in the Book of God. — Some in this world are vessels of mercy. Others are vessels of wrath (Romans 9:11-24; 1 Peter 2:7-10; Jude 3-4).

The Wheels

The potter Jeremiah saw had wheels in his house, wheels he used to mold the clay as he would. The wheels (plural) Jeremiah saw in the potter’s house represent the purpose, promises, providence, and power of God. All the circumstances, experiences, and events of our lives in this world are wheels used by God to mold and shape His people into the image of Christ, according to His will (Romans 8:28-29; 11:36). And the wheels of providence and grace move according to God’s eternal purpose of grace in predestination.

The Potter

The Potter is the Lord God Himself. You and I are as clay in the hands of God. He owns us. He has (and always exercises) the right to rule us, use us, shape us, and dispose of us as He will. He says, — “Cannot I do with you as this potter? Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in Mine hand.” God is not in our hands. We are in His hands. God is not ruled by our will. We are ruled by His will.

“The clay is in the potter’s hand.”

Jeremiah 2:1-10

You and I are in the hands of God, like the clay is in the hands of the potter; and He has the right and power to do with us exactly what He will.

      Throughout the Bible, God identifies Himself as one who has and exercises total control over all things, at all times, and in all places. His will, His purpose, His plans, His works, and His power are irresistible. He who is God has the incontestable right and the irresistible ability to make, govern, use, and dispose of all things according to His own will. — That includes you and me.

      You and I are clay in the hands of God. We belong to God; and God has the right to do with us what He will. He says to you and to me, — “Cannot I do with you as I will?”

      The God of the Bible, the one true and living God, the God we worship, trust, love, and serve, is totally, absolutely, irresistibly, uncontrollably, universally sovereign. He created all things, owns all things, rules all things, and disposes of all things according to His own pleasure, even you and me! Nothing in this universe, nothing in heaven, earth or hell wiggles or moves, but by the will of God.

      God rules everything, absolutely. In creation, in providence, and in grace God is sovereign. — God is incontestably sovereign over all His works and all His creatures (Daniel 4:35-37). He is no more a debtor to us than the potter is debtor to the clay. He has the right to make and mar, use and dispose of us as He will. And he is not accountable to us for what He does to us or with us.

      God exercises His sovereignty with the greatest ease. It is very easy for God to do with us what He will. He makes us as it pleases Him, changes us as it pleases Him, uses us as it pleases Him, and disposes of us as it pleases Him. We cannot resist Him. He’s the Potter. We’re the clay. He’s God. We’re just men! One turn of the potter’s hand, one spin of his wheel completely alters the shape of the clay, makes it, mars it or makes it anew. So it is with us. Our times and our lives, the times and lives of all men are in the hands of God (Job 12:23; 34:29; Psalm 107:33; Isaiah 45:7; 46:9-13).

      And God will be glorified in all His works. Vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor both reflect the potter’s wisdom, power, and skill. Vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy show forth the praise of God. — “The LORD hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Proverbs 16:4).

God formed us out of the clay (Job 33:6). We are just clay in the hands of the Almighty. — “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” (Isaiah 64:8). God has the same power over us that the potter has over the clay (Romans 9:21). We ought to willingly submit ourselves to the will and wisdom of God, being willingly pliable in His hands as the clay is in the potter’s hands (Isaiah 29:15-16; 45:9).

The Grace Bulletin

August 19, 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