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Grace Baptist Church of Danville February 1, 2015
The beginning and end of the faithful pastor’s work is to know Christ and to make him known. To that great work God’s servant must give himself entirely, and delights to do so.
Daily Readings for the Week of February 1-8, 2015 Sunday Leviticus 1-4 Thursday Leviticus 14-15 Monday Leviticus 5-7 Friday Leviticus 16-18 Tuesday Leviticus 8-11 Saturday Leviticus 19-21 Wednesday Leviticus 12-13 Sunday Leviticus 22-23
· I am preaching today for Rescue Baptist Church in Rescue, CA, where Bro. Gene Harman is pastor. You are privileged to have our friend, Bro. John Chapman, elder at Hurricane Road Grace Church in Ashland, KY, preaching the gospel to you today. — The Lord willing, Bro. Todd Nibert, pastor of Todds Road Grace Church in Lexington, KY, will preach here Tuesday night.
Happy Birthday! Faith Hacker-7th Raelyn Abell-7th
Nursery Duty this Week Today: Shante’ Birchum (AM) — Stephanie Wall (PM) — Tuesday: Diane Campbell
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!
If God has given you faith in Christ, you should confess him as your Lord and Savior, identifying yourself with Christ, his gospel, and his people without delay. “The Manifold Wisdom of God” “Out of the strong came forth sweetness.” Judges 14:14
Samson’s riddle is to be understood spiritually in connection with redemption, grace, and salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. The victory of Christ over Satan, by means of his humiliation, agonies, and death, the exaltation that followed his resurrection, the glory of God revealed in our Savior’s accomplishments, and the salvation of God’s elect are the things to which the riddle refers. Christ’s conquests over Satan, and ours in him, stand as God’s everlasting testimony to this fact. — Out of the eater comes forth meat, and out of the strong comes forth sweetness. Misery and Blessedness The holy Lord God, by infinite wisdom and grace, has made our sin and misery the occasion of our greatest possible blessedness. Let no one misunderstand my words. I offer no excuse for any man’s sin. And I certainly do not excuse my own. We do not attempt, by any means, to escape our own responsibility for sin, or to charge God with sin. “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (James 1:13). But our great God is so infinitely wise and gracious that he turns our greatest misery into our greatest good and sovereignly overrules our sin to make it an occasion for our eternal blessedness (Romans 8:28).
“Divine wisdom found out a way whereby the sinner might not only escape being miserable, but that he should be happier than before he sinned; yea, than he would have been if he had never sinned.” (Jonathan Edwards) Greater Happiness By the redemptive work of Christ, the sins of God’s elect are turned into a means of accomplishing greater happiness, joy, and everlasting glory than we could ever have known if we had never sinned. — “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” God in infinite wisdom ordained our fall in our father Adam, and overrules our abounding sin that his own elect might forever enjoy the superabundance of his matchless free grace in Christ. Nearer Union Sinful man is brought into a nearer union with God in the Person of Christ our Substitute than we could ever have enjoyed had we not known sin. Had we never sinned, Christ would not be our Surety and Substitute. But now God has assumed our nature in the Person of his Son. We are members of his body (Ephesians 5:30). Christ is our Brother and our Husband. And we are the Sons of God (1 John 3:1). Our temporary separation from God, by sin, has been made the means of our eternal union with God in Christ by redemption (John 17:20-23). Greater Knowledge Man by reason of his sin has greater and fuller knowledge of God, his glory, his grace, his justice, his holiness, and his love than he could ever have known had he never sinned. We see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ our dying Substitute (2 Corinthians 4:6). And in his death we have the love of God commended to us (Romans 5:8). This will be the theme of our heavenly praise forever and ever (Revelation 1:5-6).
Greater Love Our redemption from sin and death by Christ causes us to have a love for God that we could not otherwise have. One day this love will be brought to perfection. But even now, the love of Christ that constrains us is something Adam in innocence and the angels in heaven could never know. Great forgiveness produces great love (Luke 7:47). Great forgiveness is the greatest possible motivation for love, adoration, and praise (1 Corinthians 1:26-31; 6:20).
Greater Dependence Fallen man, saved by grace, has a greater, more sensible dependence upon God than he otherwise could. And God is glorified by his creatures’ dependence upon him. Fallen man, saved by grace, knows by painful and abundant experience that he has no hope but the free grace of God in Christ, who is our all in all. Fallen, helpless man cries, “The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him.” Did you ever notice (Genesis 2:17) that the forbidden tree was called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”? God is the One who planted that tree in the midst of the garden. And he ordained that our father Adam eat the fruit of that forbidden tree, to taste the evil of sin, because he had wisely and graciously determined that his elect might know the great and glorious good of redemption and grace in Christ. — “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!”
“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ” Galatians 6:14 Horatius Bonar
The cross saves completely, or not at all. Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgement that the cross alone saves, and that it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross or to its healing virtue. It owns the fulness, sufficiency, and suitableness of the work done there and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labors and enter into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see the glorious spectacle of all things done and to accept this completion without a misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the “It is finished!” of the sin-bearer and says, “Amen.” Where faith begins, there labor ends — labor, I mean, for life and pardon. Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up of all the former weary efforts to do or feel something good in order to induce God to love and pardon, the calm reception of the truth so long rejected that God is not waiting for any such inducements, but loves and pardons of his own good will. Faith is the acknowledgement of the entire absence of all goodness in us and the recognition of the cross as the substitute for all the want on our part.
The Grace Bulletin
February 1, 2015
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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