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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

February 2, 2014

 

How graciously our God, by every providence, inclines our hearts to return to him, our Savior and our God! Oh, how gracious it is of him to visit his people, again and again, with spiritual sustenance, when by sin and disobedience, we call forth a famine upon our souls!

 

Daily Readings for the Week of February 2-9, 2014

Sunday                Leviticus 5-7                                     Thursday       Leviticus 16-18

            Monday                      Leviticus 8-11                                   Friday             Leviticus 19-21

            Tuesday        Leviticus 12-13                                Saturday        Leviticus 22-23

            Wednesday  Leviticus 14-15                                Sunday                      Leviticus 24-25

 

Happy Birthday!  Faith Hacker-7th   Rachel Coleman-9th

 

Nursery Duty this Week

Today: Jenny Bartley (AM)  — Vicci Rolley (PM)  — Tuesday: Stephanie Wall

 

Chosen of God Don Fortner

(Tune: #43 — All Hail the Power  —CM)

 

 

1.    Blest saints, survey the wondrous grace,

The God of heav’n displays:

He chose us out of Adam’s race,

To glorify His grace.

 

2.    We did not, would not choose the Lord,

`Til God the Holy Ghost

The love of God had shed abroad,

Revealing Christ in us.

 

3.    He chose, because he loved to choose,

But I would not be saved,

Refused Him, while I could refuse,

And bid Him go away.

 

4.    But when by sov’reign grace compelled,

I made the Lord my choice;

Made willing by God’s sov’reign will,

In Christ I now rejoice!

 

Christ’s Rest and Ours

Matthew 11:28-30

 

Are you weary in your soul, laboring under the heavy, heavy load of guilt and sin? Would you like to be free of your burden? Would you like to lie down and rest? What would you give, if your very heart and soul could find rest before God? — I’ve got a message from God for you.

      Are you carrying a heavy load, a crushing weight of burden that seems too great to bear, a yoke too hard to wear, a load you just cannot carry any longer? What would you give, if your very heart and soul could find rest before God? — I’ve got a message from God for you.

      The Son of God calls weary, laboring, heavy-laden sinners to himself, and promises rest to all who come to him (Matthew 11:28-30).

 

Rest Typified

It is this rest, promised in the gospel to all who come to Christ, promised to all who believe on the Son of God that was typified and portrayed in the Old Testament Sabbath. It was God’s purpose in giving all the sabbatical laws of the Old Testament that they should be a sign, a type, a picture of this blessed rest that is found in Christ.

      It was never God’s intention that people throughout the world should perpetually keep a Sabbath day, any more than it was his intention that we should observe the Passover. Those laws were never given to any Gentile nation. No one was ever required to keep those legal ordinances of the Mosaic age except Israel.

      The law was given to point us to Christ. Like circumcision, the Passover, and all other aspects of legal, ceremonial worship during the Old Testament, the legal Sabbath day was established by our God to be a sign, picture, and type of grace and salvation in Christ. This is not a matter of speculation and guesswork. This is exactly what God says about the matter in Exodus 31:13.

 

Christ’s Rest

Our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, has entered into his rest, and his rest is glorious, because he has finished his work (Isaiah 11:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 10:11-14). Our Savior’s rest in heaven is his glory. The marginal translation of the last sentence of Isaiah 11:10 reads, “His rest shall be glory!

As God the Father rested on the seventh day, because his work of creation was finished, so God the Son rested in the seventh day of time and entered into his rest forever, because he has finished his work of making all things new for his people (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 10:11-14).

      A literal translation of Matthew 28:1 reads, “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the Sabbath.” When the Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary and rose again, the old Sabbath of the law ended and the new Sabbath of grace began.

      Behold our exalted Savior! Do you see him seated yonder upon his throne in heaven? There he sits in the undisturbed, undisturbable serenity of his absolute sovereignty! His rest is his glory (John 17:2; Philippians 2:9-11; Isaiah 45:20-25). Because Christ has finished his work, the salvation of his people is certain (Hebrews 9:12). There is no more work to be done. Christ did it all. Since he has finished his work, he sat down in his glory. There he is resting! —— We ought to be just as restful!

 

True Sabbath Keeping

Matthew 11:28-30

 

I want you to see from the Scriptures that every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ keeps the Sabbath by faith, by entering into his rest (Hebrews 4:3, 9-10). We do not keep a literal, carnal Sabbath of any kind. Ours is a Sabbath of faith, a spiritual Sabbath. Because Sabbath keeping was a legal type of our salvation in Christ during the age of carnal ordinances, like the Passover and circumcision, once Christ came and fulfilled the type, the carnal ordinance ceased. — We are not carnal Sabbath keepers, but spiritual Sabbath keepers, true Sabbath keepers.

 

Sabbath Keeping Forbidden

In the New Testament, we are strictly and directly forbidden to keep any of those carnal ordinances of the law. In fact, we are plainly told that those who attempt to worship God on the grounds of legal ordinances are yet under the curse of the law. They have not yet learned the gospel.

      As Paul puts it in Colossians 2:23, those who pretend to keep a literal (legal) Sabbath in this gospel age (for any reason) make an outward show of spirituality and wisdom; but it is all will-worship. Such pretenses of humility are nothing but the satisfying of the flesh.

      Not only that, the whole matter of Sabbath keeping is strictly forbidden by the Holy Spirit in Colossians 2:16-17. Since the Lord Jesus Christ has, by his death at Calvary, blotted out the handwriting of the ordinances that was against us, since he nailed God’s broken law to the cross and put away our sins, he alone is our Sabbath. We rest in him. All carnal Sabbath keeping, any form of it, is strictly forbidden on the basis of the fact that in Christ all true believers are totally free from the law (Romans 7:4; 10:4).

 

Sabbath of Faith

But we do keep the Sabbath day. It is our soul’s great delight to do so. We keep the Sabbath by faith in Christ, resting in him. Christ is our Sabbath (Hebrews 4:3, 9, 10). We keep a spiritual Sabbath, not a carnal one. We rest in Christ, trusting his finished work, by faith entering into his rest. The believer’s life is a perpetual keeping of the Sabbath, ever looking to Christ, ever coming to Christ, ever resting in Christ.

      Our all glorious Christ gives rest to every sinner who comes to him in faith. As the ceremonial Sabbath portrayed a strict, universal consecration to God, so this blessed Sabbath of faith involves the perpetual consecration of ourselves to our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We keep the Sabbath of faith when we willfully, deliberately take the yoke of Christ. If you would keep the Sabbath, it involves much, much more than living in religious austerity one day a week. To keep the Sabbath is to bow to Christ’s dominion. To keep the Sabbath is to learn of him what to believe, how to live, what to do, how to honor God. To keep the Sabbath is to bow to his will.

      How can a troubled, weary, heavy laden, tempest tossed sinner obtain this blessed Sabbath rest? — I can tell you, both from experience and from the Word of God, there is only one way you can enter into his rest. You’ve got to quit working! You have to trust Christ alone for everything! — God will never accept the works of your hands. But he has accepted the work of his Son’s hand. Will you rest your soul upon the finished work of Christ alone?

 

The Grace Bulletin

 

February 2, 2014

 

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

 

 

 

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