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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

July 14, 2013

Baptism is the believer’s confession of faith in Christ. If God has saved you by his grace, if God the Holy Spirit has given you faith in Christ, — “Why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized.”

·      CONFERENCE OFFERING — JULY 28

·      I am scheduled to preach for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Princeton, NJ Thursday night through Saturday morning. Bro. Clay Curtis is the host pastor.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Diane Campbell-16th     Cliff Hellar-18th     Betty Burge-19th

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Doug & Faith Hacker-15th    David & Teresa Coleman-19th

Roger & Bettina Criss-21st    Frank & Stacey Hall-21st

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Jayalita McCormack (AM) Dee Dee Raneri (PM)          Tuesday: Sherri Warta

I Have Seen the Blessed Savior — Don Fortner

(Tune: Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus #84 — 87.87.D)

1.    I have seen the blessed Savior,

And I’ve heard His gracious voice

Look, my heart, upon no other.

By God’s grace, Christ is my choice.

Through His blood I am forgiven.

Christ is all my righteousness.

One with Him, an heir of heaven,

I look nowhere else for grace.

2.    In myself I have no merit.

Sin mars all I think and do.

Jesus Christ alone can save me.

All my hope, my Lord, is You!

I confess my sin and renounce

All my best performance, too.

Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,

All I need I find in You.

3.    In the person of my Savior

I have found the way to God.

By His merits I have favor,

And acceptance with my God.

For this matchless Pearl and Treasure,

I now give my life away.

Take me, Master, do Your pleasure,

I bow to Your sov’reignty.

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Christ Our Wisdom

1 Corinthians 1:20

Christ is Wisdom. Christ is Understanding. He gives wisdom and understanding; but the Holy Ghost tells us much more than that. He tells us that the Mediator-man Christ Jesus is Wisdom and is Understanding (Proverbs 8:12-14). If Christ is Wisdom and Understanding, as he asserts, then there is no wisdom and no understanding anywhere except in him. Furthermore, if Christ is Wisdom and Understanding, then all who are in him and have him possess wisdom and understanding.

In Christ Jesus

All who are born of God are “in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:30). We are in Christ by the rich, free grace and goodness of God the Father, who put us in him in sovereign election before the world began. In him we were and are preserved and blessed from everlasting. That secret, everlasting union with Christ was made manifest in time, when God the Holy Spirit gave us life and faith in Christ, by the operation of his mighty grace; but the union is from everlasting.

God’s Work

Our being in Christ is altogether God’s work. Our conversion, our saving union with Christ is not the result of something we have done. We are not in Christ because we are wiser, or better, or have made a better choice than others. We are in Christ because God put us in Christ. — “Salvation is of the Lord!” It is the purpose of God to make this apparent, and to force all men to acknowledge it. He dispenses his grace in such a way that he makes men see with regard to others, and to acknowledge with regard to themselves, that salvation is his work alone.

Our Wisdom

Though we are foolish creatures by nature, by virtue of our union with him, Christ is made of God unto us Wisdom. He is the one who gives us wisdom and understanding in all things spiritual. He is the shining light that dispels darkness in our souls. Christ is our Wisdom objectively, too. I mean by that that our highest wisdom is knowing him. Under the personification of Wisdom, our Savior says, “He that findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain the favour of the Lord” (Proverbs 8:35).

      Christ is the Head of his body the church; and as all the wisdom of the body is in its head, so all our wisdom is in him. The Lord Jesus acted for us as our Wisdom representatively, speaking for us in the everlasting covenant of grace and peace; and he is our Advocate with the Father, still pleading our cause and interceding for us in heaven.

      It is by Christ Jesus that the triune God is made known and revealed to man. He is the embodiment of God, the embodiment of Wisdom, the Word, the Revealer of God. As all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him, so all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are his. By him alone, they are made known

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to men. — “No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him” (Luke 10:22).

Truly Wise

And this union with Christ makes the heaven-born soul truly wise, because when Christ is formed within, we are given the mind of Christ and know all things (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). All true spiritual knowledge is derived from Christ; and it is only those who are taught of him who are made wise unto salvation. Christ is our Wisdom within to direct our paths, guide us in his way, and order our steps day by day.

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Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption

“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

(1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

Robert Hawker

Observe how blessedly Christ is here spoken of by the Holy Ghost, as made all these things to his people, and that by God himself. It is not only said, that Christ is the Wisdom, and the Righteousness, and the Sanctification, and the Redemption of his Church, but that God hath made him so.

Here, indeed, is the blessedness of the whole. For, when God the Holy Ghost leads a poor sinner to God in the perfections of Jesus, if it be demanded how, or by what authority, the poor self-condemned creature comes in another’s perfections and not his own, this is the answer, this is faith’s warrant: Christ is made of God unto the soul these things.

So that here is the authority in which all the Persons of the Godhead join. God the Holy Ghost, who regenerates the sinner and makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus, leads him to the throne in the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption of Christ Jesus. And, taught of God the Spirit, the regenerated sinner pleads in Christ and by Christ, on the footing of Christ’s person and work, for acceptance before God, and in the covenant word, oath, and promise of God the Father!

And, how then can any soul fail of justification at the throne, who thus pleads God’s grace and Christ’s righteousness as the sole means of acceptance? Who doth not see all human glory tarnished and divine grace praised, when as it is written, he that gloried, thus glorieth the Lord?

“Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

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The Grace Bulletin

July 14, 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

Pastor Fortner’s

Audio Sermons

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Books

Event Calendar