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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

August 31, 2014

 

The greatest blessing God can ever bestow upon any people in this world is to establish in their midst a faithful Gospel church with a faithful Gospel preacher as his messenger. The greatest curse God can bring upon any people in this world is to take his witness from them. And I cannot think of a greater abuse of a man upon his family than that of taking them away from the worship of God and the preaching of the Gospel.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of August 31-September 7, 2014

Sunday                Ezekiel 35-37                                   Thursday       Ezekiel 45-47

            Monday                      Ezekiel 38-39                                   Friday             Ezekiel 48-Daniel 1

            Tuesday                    Ezekiel 40-41                                   Saturday                    Daniel 2-3

            Wednesday  Ezekiel 42-44                                   Sunday                      Daniel 4-5

 

·      We are delighted to welcome our guests to our conference. The dates for next year’s conference are September 4-6, 2015.

·      There will be no service here tonight or Tuesday night.

 

Happy Birthday!  Norma Rankin-1st

Happy Anniversary:  David & Betty Burge-7th   Jamie & Nicole Abell-15th

Church Cleaning in September:  Allen Kibby

Nursery Duty Today:

10:00 Vicci Rolley & Diane Campbell 11:00 Jayalita McCormack & Stacey Hall

 

Our Sovereign God Maintains His Universal ThroneDon Fortner

(Tune: #39 — This is My Father’s World — SMD)

1.     Our sov’reign God maintains His universal throne;

In heav’n, and earth, and hell He reigns, and makes His wonders known!

His counsels and decrees, firmer than mountains stand;

He will perform whate’er He please; and none can stay his hand!

 

2.     All things His will controls; and His all-wise decree

Has fixed the destinies of all in matchless sov’reignty. —

Jacob by grace He saved, and gives no reason why;

But Esau’s heart He left depraved. — And who shall dare reply?

 

3.     What if the Potter takes part of a lump of clay,

And for Himself a vessel makes and casts the rest away?

Who shall resist His will, or say, “What doest Thou?”

Jehovah is the Sov’reign still; and all to Him must bow!

 

4.     My soul, bow and adore the Lord in all His ways;

His sov’reignty none can explore; but I will trust His grace!

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things:

To Whom be glory evermore! Amen! Amen! Amen!

 

Without Honor, Double Honor, Proper Honor

Matthew 13:57, 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:13

 

Men and women look upon God’s servants with greatly varying attitudes. Some give them no honor. Others set them upon pedestals and almost idolize them. What should a believer’s attitude be toward those men who faithfully labor in the work of the Gospel for the benefit of his immortal soul?

 

Without Honor

Our Lord Jesus tells us plainly that “a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house” (Matthew 13:57). Those people among whom our Savior labored, his own neighbors and kinsmen, were offended by the Son of God because of his doctrine, and looked upon him with contempt, giving him no honor. Because they were very familiar with him, they did not esteem him above anyone else.

            Our Lord turned this fact into a point of needful instruction to his followers. He tells us that God’s prophets are commonly more highly esteemed by people who live at a distance from them. Every faithful man, in every age and society, has experienced this sad and painful fact (2 Kings 2:23). In this modern age of electronic communication and ease of travel, a preacher is commonly known by many who live far from him, and is often admired by those who see him face to face only a few times a year. Those same people, if they lived near and regularly attended that man’s ministry, would soon cease to honor him.

I learned long ago that it is much easier to be a person’s pastor if he lives a thousand miles away, than it is if he lives next door. As long as he lives at a distance, a man has no sense of responsibility to the church or its pastor, and does not have to fit in with the family.

 

Double Honor

The Spirit of God tells us that pastors who rule the house of God well, “especially they who labor in the word and doctrine,” are to be “counted worthy of double honor” (1 Timothy 5:17). The word translated “honor” means “value, pay, preciousness, esteem, and dignity.” That means that the man who faithfully labors for your soul is to be counted by you as one worthy of “double” the honor you heap upon him, one to whom you cannot give sufficient honor.

 

Proper Honor

1st Thessalonians 5:13 tells us precisely what our attitude ought to be with regard to God’s servants. — “Esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.” Let every saved sinner in every Gospel church highly esteem his own pastor in love, realizing that his pastor (if he is God’s servant) devotes his life to the work of the Gospel for the everlasting salvation of those he serves. Give that same love and high esteem to all God’s servants known to you, for Christ’s sake.

            Such high esteem is proper honor to faithful men. It is honoring to God and honoring to the Gospel. And this high esteem is the secret to peace in God’s church. Where it is found, there is “peace among yourselves.” Where this proper esteem is not found, in any local church, there is turmoil.

 

“The Manifold Wisdom of God”

Displayed in the Incarnation of Christ Our Redeemer

Ephesians 3:10

 

The incarnation of Christ reveals the manifold wisdom of God (Isaiah 7:14; Philippians 2:5-8; 2 Corinthians 8:9). No mind, but the infinite mind of the infinite God could conceive and accomplish such a thing as this: ¾ The great, eternal, incomprehensible God assumed our nature and came into this world!

·      God became a man!

·      He who is the eternal Jehovah became Jehovah’s Servant.

·      He who is the eternal Spirit was born of a woman.

·      The immortal God became flesh and blood!

·      God, who is independent, self-sufficient, and all sufficient, stood in need of food, clothing, and shelter.

·      God, who owns all things, became a man who owned nothing.

·      He who upholds all things by the word of his power lived upon the charity of men.

·      God, who knows all things, as a man, had to learn how to walk, talk, read, and write (2 Corinthians 8:9).

·      He who wrote the law and gave it to Moses in the Mount became subject to the law, and performed obedience to the law as a Man.

·      The holy Son of God came under the obligation and sentence of the law as a guilty sinner.

·      He who is life was made to die.

·      God, who is infinitely, immutably, unchangeably happy, was made to suffer sorrow, pain, torment, and death.

·      He who is the object of God’s perfect love became the object of God’s unmitigated wrath.

·      The infinite, omnipotent God became a finite, feeble man!

·      The great sovereign of heaven and earth became a worm (Psalm 22:6).

·      The Holy One was made sin!

·      The Innocent Lamb of God was made guilty!

·      The Darling of Heaven was made the cursed thing, made a curse for us!

 

      No man can ever grasp the reality of the incarnation, much less understand it. But God, in infinite wisdom, planned it before the world was, and brought it to pass for the accomplishment of our redemption (Galatians 4:4-6).

 

See fulfilled the Gospel promise ― Christ, the woman’s promised Seed,

Born a babe, by birth mysterious, came to crush the serpent’s head!

Come and worship! Come and worship! Worship Christ our God and King!

 

Crush, O Lord, his power within us. Break our chains. Our woe undo!

Pull down every wall between us. Let us love and cleave to You!

Come and worship! Come and worship! Worship Christ our God and King!

 

27

The Grace Bulletin

 

August 31, 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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