November 4, 2012

 

So long as I have a choice, I will not vote for anyone running for any public office, from Dog-catcher to President, who promotes the murder of unborn children and/or Sodomy. Compared to these two things, no other public policies are even slightly significant.

 

Holiday Calendar

 

We all like to make plans for the holidays early. So here are things scheduled for our church family for the next two months. I hope you can all participate in each.

·      Sunday - November 25th — We will have our Thanksgiving/Christmas Holiday Fellowship Dinner together following our morning worship service.

·      Sunday – December 9th — Shelby and I would like for you to join us for our Annual Open House at the Parsonage following our morning worship service.

·      Tuesday – December 25th — Our mid-week worship service is cancelled for Christmas Day.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of November 4-11, 2012

            Sunday                      John 13-14                                                   Thursday            Acts 2-3

            Monday                      John 15-17                                                   Friday             Acts 4-5

            Tuesday                    John 18-19                                                   Saturday                    Acts 6-7

            Wednesday  John 20-Acts 1                                             Sunday                      Acts 8-9

 

 

·      Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church in Kingsport, TN has called Bro. Gabe Stalnaker to be their pastor. May God be pleased to bless their labors together in the cause of Christ for many years.

·      Bro. Frank Hall is preaching today for Millsite Baptist Church in Cottageville, WV.

·      Bro. Eric Richards is preaching this weekend for San Diego Grace Fellowship in San Diego, CA.

 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Cliff & Martie Hellar-10th      Bob & Mary Lou Duff-19th     Don & Denise Raneri-23rd

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Alexis Mason (AM) Stephanie Wall (PM)     Tuesday: Dee Dee Raneri

 

When We Our Weakness Know — Don Fortner

(Tune: Majestic Sweetness #52CM)

 

  1. Amazing, condescending grace! Mercy and love combined!

The God of heaven dwells, He says, in every contrite mind.

 

  1. He rules the world and fills all space, binds winds and measures storms;

Yet stoops to make His dwelling place the hearts of worthless worms!

 

  1. His contrite ones He will revive. His strength He will bestow.

His grace sufficient He will give, when we our weakness know!

 

Concerning the recent storm it would be wise for all to remember that “The LORD hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3), — “For He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof” (Psalms 107:25).

 

1

Watching the Election Returns

Jeremiah 31:1-10

 

Many of you will rush home after our worship service Tuesday night to watch the election returns. I expect Shelby and I will be up late doing that ourselves. So I thought it might be good for me to seize this opportunity to focus your attention on watching the election returns.

 

      A while back I received an invitation to attend a conference for “Reformed Pastors and Church Workers.” The theme of the conference was “Growing the Church God’s Way.” Like most religious groups and denominations, the emphasis of all the planned lectures and activities was “growth” and “success.” Even those who call themselves “Reformed” and “Calvinistic” are, for the most part, completely obsessed with numbers, numeric growth, and success in the eyes of men. In the Word of God that is never the case; and it is never the case with faithful men.

 

      When I read the invitation and the accompanying literature, I immediately thought to myself, “The only thing we do in this matter of growing the church is to get out of the way and watch God work.” Needless to say, I didn’t attend the conference. You and I do not grow the church of God. We just preach the Gospel and watch the election returns.

 

      There is a people in this world called “the elect” and “the ransomed of the Lord.” These people are such a vast multitude that no man can number them; but they are a specific number.

·      They are called “the elect” because they were chosen of God unto eternal life in Christ before the world began.

·      These elect ones are called “the ransomed of the Lord” because they were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and ransomed from the curse of the law by the sacrifice of God’s dear Son.

 

      The Lord God assures us repeatedly in His Word that these chosen ones, “the ransomed of the Lord,” shall, at God’s own appointed time of love, return to Him (Jeremiah 24:6-7; 30:10; 31:8; 46:27; Hosea 14:7). Jeremiah 31 tells us about the return of God’s elect to Him.

·      They were chosen, blessed, and accepted in Christ before the world began.

·      They were scattered over all the earth by the hand of God through the sin and fall of our father Adam.

·      They were scattered among the nations that they might be gathered to God’s everlasting praise.

·      These scattered sheep were gathered out of the world by the sin-atoning blood of the Great Shepherd when He laid down His life for them at Calvary, and carried with Him into Glory in His resurrection from the dead.

·      Now, the Lord God is gathering His elect out of the world by the power of His grace in the blessed experience of that grace given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

 

2

Would you Believe the Good News or a Lie?

Missionary Lance Hellar — Papua, New Guinea

 

Gospel means “good news” and the only good news is that of eternally distinguishing free grace revealed in the redemption of a particular people by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This alone is good news for it does not tell us that salvation is possible but, rather, that salvation has been fully accomplished for all those for whom Christ died. The writer to the Hebrews makes this clear — “with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” (Hebrews 9:12)

 

Why then is man so prejudiced against this wonderful message of good news? Why is there such virulent opposition to the truth of particular redemption?

 

The bitter root of this opposition is found in man’s fierce contention for autonomy from God from the day of Adam’s fall into sin and death, taking along with him all of humanity. If redemption is particular then salvation is of God. But man, in the corruption of his nature, will not have this. If redemption is universal then the determining factor of whether a man is saved or perishes is man’s will; his eternal destiny is in his own hands, and salvation is of man.

 

Believing the lie of universal redemption is really no different than believing the original lie uttered by the father of lies when he spoke to the woman telling her that her life was independent of God. “You will not surely die,” he said, but you will become autonomous from God for “in the day that you eat of it your eyes will be opened…and you will be like God” (Genesis 3:4, 5). Believing that lie worked out well, did it not?

 

Believe, rather, the truth of a particular redemption in which Christ brought in an everlasting righteousness for all those for whom He died; and believing in Him you shall not perish but be clothed with the garments of His salvation and have everlasting life. This truly is good news!

 

œ——————————————————————

 

T.U.L.I.P. or Termination

 

Let there be no mistake in anyone’s mind about our total commitment to the Gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ. With this pastor and this congregation, every religious, spiritual, ecclesiastical relationship stands or falls with this. No missionary or religious cause will be supported or encouraged by this assembly which does not publicly embrace and fervently preach and teach these five, plainly revealed Gospel truths…

  • Total Depravity
  • Unconditional Election
  • Limited Atonement
  • Irresistible Grace
  • Perseverance in Grace

 

3

The Grace Bulletin

 

November 4, 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 7:45 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