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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

March 23, 2014

 

We worship the Triune Jehovah: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and we are saved by the work of the Triune Jehovah: the election of God the Father, the redemption of God the Son, and the sanctification of God the Holy Ghost. As all three Divine Persons are essential to the Divine Being, these three works of God are essential to salvation.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of March 23-30, 2014

Sunday                Ruth 4-1 Samuel 2                          Thursday       1 Samuel 13-14

            Monday                      1 Samuel 3-6                                                           Friday             1 Samuel 15-17

            Tuesday                    1 Samuel 7-9                                                           Saturday                    1 Samuel 18-20

            Wednesday  1 Samuel 10-12                                           Sunday                      1 Samuel 21-24

 

·      The Lord willing we will have our Quarterly Fellowship next Sunday.

·      Please mark your special offerings for Grace Baptist Church’s new building in Taylor, Arkansas — “TAYLOR.” At the end of the month we will send your gifts to friends there. Thank you for your generosity.

 

Happy Birthday!  Bobbie Estes-24th

 

Nursery Duty this Week

Today: Alexis Mason (AM)  — Sherri Warta (PM)  — Tuesday: Celeste Peterson

 

Kept by the Power of God — Don Fortner

(Tune: Stand Up and Bless the Lord #33 — SM)

 

1.    Chosen by God’s free grace,

Redeemed by Jesus blood,

Believers all are kept in grace,

Kept by the pow’r of God.

 

2.    Not one can e’er be lost.

We rest upon God’s Word.

(Shall Satan cheat the Holy Ghost?)

We glory in the Lord!

 

3.    Our weaknesses and sin

Shall not undo God’s work.

God will not cease what He began,

Or break His faithful Word!

 

4.    Saved by God’s sov’reign grace,

And kept by His great pow’r,

We’ll reach at last His holy place,

And live for evermore!

 

“Our Gospel, the Gospel of God, concerning his Son Jesus Christ, is manifestly unflattering to the flesh, and we have no desire to make it otherwise. We are careful not to be personally offensive to people, but the offense of the Gospel (Galatians 5:11) cannot, must not, be diminished.” — Pastor Chris Cunningham

 

The Kept

1 Peter 1:5

 

God’s elect are described as a people “who are kept by the power of God,” kept by the power of God through the continual, unfailing supply of faith in Christ by the operation of his grace, “unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” The fact that our standing before God is not based upon what we deserve is stated clearly in Holy Scripture. In Romans 5:8-10 we read, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

 

Paul’s Argument

Paul’s argument is this: Since God saved us and gave us spiritual life in Christ by his sovereign grace “when we were enemies, he will surely keep us in salvation by that same sovereign grace. He who has done the greater will surely do the lesser. In Hebrews Paul assures us that it is impossible for one of God’s elect to be lost, because Christ is both “the Author and the Finisher of our faith. The whole of our salvation is divinely purposed and divinely guided. Our salvation is not according to our merits in its commencement, in its continuance, or in its consummation. — “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.

 

Divine Immutability

The sovereign love and unmerited grace of God is the cause of our salvation. Since his love and grace is unchangeable, the effect of it must be unchangeable. That is to say, God constantly communicates his love and grace to every believer. Once his love is revealed and his grace bestowed upon the heart, he never takes it away: “for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” God was not moved to bestow his grace upon us by anything which he saw meritorious or attractive in us. And the absence of everything good in us will not cause God to withdraw the grace he has bestowed. When he first bestowed grace upon us, the Lord God knew that we were totally depraved and sinful. He knew that we were full of evil and void of good. And though, since our conversion, we have all been guilty of ingratitude, unfaithfulness, and sin of every kind, these things do not provoke the Lord our God to change his mind and withdraw his sustaining grace. He knew what we would be before he saved us. He chastens us because of our sin, like the loving Father he is; but he never withdraws his love. If he had not intended, from the beginning, to bear with our sin in longsuffering and patience, and to forgive our sin for Christ’s sake, he would never have saved us and called us in the first place. The cause of our salvation is entirely in God. His electing love, redeeming grace and power were given to us by an act of his sovereign goodness, without any consideration of what we were or might become. There was nothing in us to attract his grace. And there is nothing in any true believer’s heart or conduct which can ever cause the Lord our God to alter his purpose of grace and withdraw his love from us.

 

Distress, Debt, and Discontented

Pastor Tom Harding

 

“And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were with him about four hundred men” (1 Samuel 22:2).

 

King David is portrayed in scripture as a personal type of the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our blessed Lord on many occasions was called the Son of David (Matthew 9:27; 23:23; 15:22; 20:31; 21:9; 21:15; 22:24).

Here in our story of David in 1 Samuel 22, he is on the run for his life. His own father-in-law, King Saul had given command to everyone to kill David (1 Samuel 19:1). But there were some that sought out David as their Captain, King and Saviour to provide and protect them from the wrath of Saul who had impoverished them (1 Samuel 8:10-18). Some saw in David what no one else saw, they were given eyes and understanding that David was God’s anointed King and they sought mercy in him. Those that were distressed, in debt and those that were discontented came to King David for relief.

This is a good picture of sinners awakened by God the Holy Spirit through conviction of their sin, who are stressed out over sinning against God (Psalm 51:4), who are in debt to God’s law and justice, and who are discontented (bitter of soul) about unbelief. What sweet relief we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, who put away all our sin by the sacrifice of himself, who paid all our sin debt in full (Hebrews1:3; 9:26; 1 John 1:7); who relieves and heals our “broken and contrite heart” with his love, mercy, and grace (Psalm 34:17-19; Luke 4:18). According to the promise of Scripture, those truly convicted shall be comforted by the Lord Jesus Christ (Isaiah 40:1-2; Matthew 11:28-30; John 16:8-13).

Blessed is that sinner who knows his spiritual poverty, who is enlightened to see the Lord Jesus Christ as the Captain, King, and Lord of their salvation (Hebrews 2:10), who is able and willing to supply our every need. As Paul says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

 

God Put Me in the Ministry

1 Timothy 1:12

I am a preacher because of God’s call and God’s gift. God put me in the ministry. Supernaturally, mysteriously, God opened the door. God gave me the message. God gave me the gifts. God sent me on this mission. God gave me this stewardship. God gave me this dispensation. I didn’t seek it. I didn’t volunteer for it. I didn’t covet it. As an old preacher once put it, “I neither thought it, nor sought it, nor bought it.” But God put me in the ministry.

I am a preacher of the Gospel because I have been called of God to be a preacher of the Gospel. I cannot find any man in the Bible who volunteered to be a prophet or a preacher, except a false prophet. I cannot find a man, anywhere in the Word of God, who went to school to prepare to be a preacher, or prepare for the ministry. You will not find any man in this Book who was called to be a prophet or a preacher who was not a prophet or preacher. It is the call of God that makes a man a preacher; and the making of the preacher that is the call of God.

The Grace Bulletin

 

March 23, 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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