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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

July 7, 2013

 

Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and the Preservation of the Saints are, in this house of worship, the constant themes of all our preaching, all our hymns of praise to our God, and all our conversations. If these things make you uncomfortable, you will be uncomfortable here until God gives you the comfort of his saving grace in Christ Jesus.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of July 7-14, 2013

Sunday                Proverbs 20-22                    Thursday       Ecclesiastes 5-9

            Monday                      Proverbs 23-26                    Friday             Eccles. 10-Song of Sol. 4

            Tuesday                    Proverbs 27-31                    Saturday                    Song of Solomon 5-Isa. 1

            Wednesday  Ecclesiastes 1-4                 Sunday                      Isaiah 2-5

 

 

·      I am preaching today for Rescue Baptist Church in Rescue, CA, where Bro. Gene Harmon is pastor.

·      Bro. Frank Hall will bring the messages here today. Bro. Todd Nibert, pastor of Todds RD Grace Church in Lexington, will be here to preach the gospel to you on Tuesday night.

·      CONFERENCE OFFERING — Our Bible Conference is scheduled for August 30 — September 1. We will receive an offering in preparation for the conference on July 28.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Rex Bartley-9th

 

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Pam Wood (AM) Mindy Peterson (PM)          Tuesday: Debbie Bartley

 

Assembled in His House of PrayerDon Fortner

(Tune: #437 — O Master, Let Me walk with Thee — LM)

 

1.    United, saints lift heart and voice,

In Jesus Christ the Lord rejoice;

His perfect righteousness proclaim,

And magnify His holy name.

 

2.    Assembled in His house of prayer,

Expecting Jesus’ presence here,

We wait to see Jehovah’s face,

And hope for fresh supplies of grace.

 

3.    ‘Tis here the Savior meets His own

And makes His grace and glory known,

In wonders of redeeming love,

In show’rs of blessings from above!

 

4.    Here we have come to hear His Word,

And sing the praises of the Lord;

Receive the treasures God has given,

And go, from strength to strength, to heaven.

 

1

In Christ

1 Corinthians 1:30

 

What wonderful words those are — “In Christ!” “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus!” Salvation is being “in Christ.” All true believers are in Christ. Every sinner born of God is in Christ. We are in him, as branches are in the vine, and entirely dependent upon him, drawing the sap of life from him. We are in him as members are in the body. We are in him as he is in the Father. We are vitally united to him by a living union of faith. We are not in him by an act of our own free will, but by the work of God’s free, sovereign, almighty grace! — “Of him are ye in Christ Jesus!

 

Eternally in Christ

Our union with Christ did not commence in time. We were in him secretly from eternity. There was a time before time began, a beginning before the beginning of time, when the Son of God stood forth as our Surety. As soon as he volunteered to save us, and the Father trusted him to save us, as soon as he was made the Surety of the better covenant for us (Hebrews 7:22), we were in him, in him by the will, purpose, and decree of the triune God.

 

Saved in Christ

To be in Christ is to be saved; and being in Christ from eternity, all God’s elect were redeemed by the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Being redeemed by the blood of the covenant Lamb, we were justified, named as the sons of God, and glorified in Christ before the world began (Romans 8:29-31), and were blessed of God with all spiritual blessings from everlasting (Ephesians 1:3). All that with which God can or will bless man, he has freely bestowed upon us in Christ in infinite measure from eternity!

 

Accepted in Christ

The God of all grace “hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6), not acceptable, accepted! That means that we were from eternity, are now, and forever shall be the objects of God’s approval, favor, delight, and satisfaction. Did not the Father speaking from heaven declare, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased”? Indeed, he did (Matthew 17:5); and because we are in his Son and one with his Son, the God of heaven is well-pleased with us, and never can be displeased with us, until he is displeased with his Son! Yes, he is often displeased with what we do, as he was with the thing that David did; and though he will show his displeasure, he will never cease his own to cherish!

 

Manifestly in Christ

At the appointed time of love, every chosen redeemed sinner is made to be in Christ manifestly, when he is born again by God the Holy Spirit, and given the blessed gift of faith in God’s dear Son. But our union with Christ is not more real then, than it was before. Indeed, it was our union with Christ by which we were sanctified by God the Father in eternal election, and preserved in Jesus Christ, unto the day that we were called by God the Spirit to life and faith in our blessed Savior (Jude 1). In Christ we are saved, safe and secure forever by God’s free grace!

2

In Christ — Real or Imaginary?

1 Corinthians 1:30

 

We are told more than 100 times in the New Testament that God’s elect are “in Christ.” This union of Christ and his people is so real that the Holy Spirit tells us we are “the fullness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Yet, multitudes who should know better speak of our union in terms like this: “It is as though we are one with Christ,” “We are considered one with Christ,” “God looks upon us as one with Christ.”

 

Real Union

That is not the language, or the teaching of Holy Scripture. Our Savior declares our union with him in these words, “I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). The Holy Spirit tells us that we live in Christ and Christ lives in us, that our life is hid with Christ in God, and that Christ is our life. Paul, writing by divine inspiration said, “Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20), and “for me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). Such language does not describe a legal fiction, or an imaginary union, but a real union, a union that is as vital to Christ’s glory as our Mediator as it is to our salvation in him and by him. Our union with our blessed Savior is the very heart of salvation in him. Without it, there is no possibility of salvation; and with it, there is no possibility of condemnation (Romans 8:1). There is nothing revealed in the Book of God more suited to give believing sinners confidence and strength, comfort and joy in the Lord than our union with Christ (1 John 4:17).

 

Glorious Union

What a glorious union it is! We are one with the glorified Christ. Who can fathom the depths of the words our Savior used to describe this union when he prayed, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:21-23).

 

Mysterious Union

This is a glorious oneness beyond the comprehension of our puny brains, but not beyond the grasp of God-given faith. As the three Persons of the Triune God are equally, eternally, and essentially One, so are the members of Christ one with him, their living Head. Our union with Christ our God-man Mediator is just as real, just as complete, just as full as his union with God the Father and God the Spirit. This marvelous and mysterious oneness can never be fully known until we stand before him face to face and see all things in the light of his glory. Then we shall know even as we are known. As the Three Persons in the Godhead are One, so are the partakers of the new creation one with Christ. He appears in heaven for us, and blessed be his holy name, “as he is so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) If we are one with him by his Father’s electing love, his own redeeming blood, and his Spirit’s regenerating grace, then his Father is our Father, his righteousness our righteousness, his nature our nature, his home our home, and his glory our glory.

 

 

3

The Grace Bulletin

 

July 7, 2013

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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