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Grace Baptist Church of Danville August 3, 2014
Slanderers are Satan’s bellows, by which the fiend of hell divides and stirs up contention. The best way to stop the slander’s tongue is to refuse to hear his slander. The best answer to slander is silence.
Daily Readings for the Week of August 3-10, 2014 Sunday Jeremiah 12-14 Thursday Jeremiah 25-27 Monday Jeremiah 15-17 Friday Jeremiah 28-30 Tuesday Jeremiah 18-21 Saturday Jeremiah 31-32 Wednesday Jeremiah 22-24 Sunday Jeremiah 33-35
· I am scheduled to preach Monday – Wednesday for East Hendersonville Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC, where Bro. Carroll Poole is pastor. · The Lord willing, Pastor Matt Johnson will be here to preach the Gospel to you on Tuesday. · Missionary Cody Groover (Yucatan, Mexico) is scheduled to preach here next Sunday evening. If you would like to designate an offering for Bro. Groover and the work in Mexico, please mark your check or offering envelope accordingly. · Bro. Frank Hall is preaching today for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in New Caney, TX.
Happy Birthday! Carol Brown-4th
Nursery Duty this Week Today: Alexis Mason (AM) — Stacey Hall (PM) — Tuesday: Diane Campbell
We have an Advocate — Don Fortner (Tune: #33 — Stand Up and Bless the Lord — SM)
1. In heaven’s holy court, Where justice reigns and shines, Truth makes a constant, strict report, Of all our sins and crimes.
2. There Christ our Advocate, Forever intercedes, Takes up our cause, secures our state, And His own merit pleads.
3. This is our joy and cheer: — Before our Father’s eyes, Jesus, our Advocate draws near, And pleads His sacrifice!
4. Our guilt before us stood, Like mountains to oppose; But that blest ocean, Jesus’ blood, All mountains overflows!
5. The law its sentence reads, And we confess our sin; His precious blood our Savior pleads; And God declares us clean! “Grieve Not the Holy Spirit of God” — Ephesians 4:30
How God the Holy Spirit must love us! Only one who loves us can be grieved by us. Others are angered, offended, and antagonized by our acts of evil. One who loves us is grieved. The blessed Holy Spirit has sealed us as the objects of his love in eternal election, sealed us in life in regeneration, and sealed us unto the day of our resurrection. He seals to us all the blessings of the covenant of grace, giving us faith in Christ and thereby assuring us of our interest in our covenant Surety and Savior. He lives within us. He guides us. He teaches us. He reveals Christ to us. And he comforts us. Let us take great care not to grieve him.
“Corrupt Communication” “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.” — By “corrupt communication” Paul means more than cursing. Many, who would never soil their lips with an oath, have mouths full of “corrupt communication”, by which the Spirit of God is grieved. What is this “corrupt communication”? The Apostle tells us in verse thirty-one. It is words of “bitterness”. It is speech that arises from bitter feelings, speech that is intended to hurt. Bitterness of speech is unbecoming in anyone. But for God’s children to speak bitterly of one another is horrid! Bitterness always arises from pride and jealousy. “Corrupt communication” is the language of “wrath”, the heat of jealousy and bitterness, and “anger”, feelings of ill-will toward another, vengeance, and inward desire to damage, hurt, and kill. Murder is the result of anger unrestrained by law. “Corrupt communication” is the result of anger restrained (outwardly) by law. It is the root of all “clamour”, fighting, brawling, contentiousness, and strife. This “corrupt communication” is “evil speaking”, slander, gossip, reproach.
“Put Away” Let these things be “put away from you, with all malice.” These things are sinful, carnal, corrupt. They arise from the flesh. They dishonor Christ. They grieve the Holy Spirit. They disrupt the fellowship of the saints. They hinder the cause of Christ. God forbid that we engage in such evil! Let us rather speak “that which is good to the use of edifying...and be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you”. If we cannot speak good of one another, let us speak nothing!
The Tongue When consecrated to God, no member of the body can be more useful, or do more good than our tongues. With the tongue we sing Jehovah’s praise, tell out the story of redeeming love, call sinners to Christ, and edify one another. But unless it is consecrated to the Lord, the tongue can be the most destructive member of the body. “It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” It is a weapon of anger, pouring out harsh, cruel words in a fit of temper. It is a weapon of malice, carrying slander and gossip from house to house, dividing friends and brethren. Well did James write, “If any man offend not in word or deed, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.” May God the Holy Spirit give us grace to bridle our tongues. The wounds of the tongue are deep, painful, and lasting. How much better it is to use this little, but mighty member to spread the heavenly dew of grace, pardon, peace, mercy, and love, than to use it spreading the hellish fires of hatred, anger, wrath, malice, and bitterness!
“We preach Christ Crucified” 1 Corinthians 1:23 Richard Cecil
There are many weighty reasons for rendering Christ prominent in our ministry: 1. Christ cheers the prospect. — Everything connected with him has light and gladness thrown round it. I look out of my window—the scene is scowling—dark—frigid—forbidding: I shudder, my heart is chilled. But, let the sun break forth from the cloud—I can feel—I can act—I can spring. 2. God descending and dwelling with man is a truth so infinitely grand, that it must absorb all other. You are his attendants! Well! But the KING! There he is!—The KING!” 3. Out of Christ God is not intelligible. — A sick woman said to me, “Sir, I have no notion of God. I can form no notion of him. You talk to me about him, but I cannot get a single idea that seems to contain anything.” “But you know how to conceive of Jesus Christ as a man! God comes down to you in him, full of kindness and condescension.” “Ah! Sir, that gives me something to lay hold on. There I can rest. I understand God in his Son.” But if God is not intelligible out of Christ, much less is he amiable, though I ought to feel him so. He is an object of horror and aversion to me, corrupted as I am! I fear—I tremble—I resist—I hate—I rebel. 4. A preacher may pursue his topic, without being led by it to Christ. — A man who is accustomed to investigate topics is in danger. He takes up his topic and pursues it. He takes up another and pursues it. At length Jesus Christ becomes his topic, and then he pursues that. If he cannot so feel and think as to bend all subjects gracefully to Christ, he must seek his remedy in selecting such as are more evangelical. 5. God puts peculiar honor on the preaching of Christ crucified. — A philosopher may philosophize his hearers, but the preaching of Christ must convert them. John the Baptist will make his hearers tremble; but, if the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he, let him exhibit that particular feature of his superiority—Jesus Christ. Men may preach Christ ignorantly—blunderingly—absurdly: yet God will give it efficacy, because he is determined to magnify his own ordinance. 6. God seems, in the doctrine of the Cross, to design the destruction of man’s pride. — Even the murderer and the adulterer sometimes become subjects of the grace of the Gospel, because the murderer and the adulterer are more easily convinced and humbled: but the man of virtue is seldom reached, because the man of virtue disdains to descend. “Remember me”, said a dying malefactor! “God, I thank Thee” condemned a proud Pharisee!
Congratulations to Colin and Anne (Peterson) Kendzioa on the birth of their daughter, Vienne. She was born Tuesday, July 29th and weighed 3 lbs. 7 oz. and is 17 inches long. Both mother and baby are doing fine.
The Grace Bulletin
August 3, 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
Don Fortner
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Pastor Fortner’s
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