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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

February 8, 2015

 

God enriches his saints by poverty, strengthens them by weakness, makes them healthy by sickness, and lifts them up by abasing them.

 

 

Daily Readings for the Week of February 8-15, 2015

Sunday                Leviticus 22-23                                            Thursday       Numbers 3-4

            Monday                      Leviticus 24-25                                            Friday             Numbers 5-7

            Tuesday                    Leviticus 26-27                                            Saturday                    Numbers 8-10

            Wednesday  Numbers 1-2                                                            Sunday                      Numbers 11-14

 

·      I am scheduled to preach Wednesday night for Todds Road Grace Church in Lexington, where Bro. Todd Nibert is pastor.

 

Happy Birthday!  Rachel Coleman-9th     Nancy Bailey-13th

 

Nursery Duty this Week

Today: Nicole Abell (AM)  — Celeste Peterson(PM)  — Tuesday: Shelby Fortner

 

And must it, Lord, be so? Joseph Hart

(Tune: #223 — Arise, My Soul, Arise — 66.66.88)

 

 

1.    And must it, Lord, be so?

And must Thy children bear

Such various kinds of woe,

Such soul-perplexing fear?

Are these the blessings we expect?

Is this the lot of God’s elect?

 

2.    [Boast not, ye sons of earth,

Nor look with scornful eyes;

Above your highest mirth,

Our saddest hours we prize;

For though our cup seems filled with gall,

There’s something secret sweetens all.]

 

3.    How harsh so e’er the way,

Dear Savior, still lead on,

Nor leave us till we say

“Father, Thy will be done.”

At most, we do but taste the cup

For Thou alone hast drunk it up.

 

4.    Shall guilty man complain?

Shall sinful dust repine?

And what is all our pain?

How light compared with Thine!

Finish, dear Lord, what is begun;

Choose Thou the way, but still lead on.

 

The Manifold Wisdom of God”

The Wisdom and Prudence of Grace

Ephesians 1:8-9

 

Oh, how I want you to know, enjoy, and confidently walk in the blessed light of “the manifold wisdom of God!

The opening word of our text, “Wherein,” refers us back to verse 7 and the riches of God’s boundless free grace in Christ in performing redemption and the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, “according to the riches of his grace!” “Wisdom” refers to God’s infinite knowledge. “Prudence” refers to the great, infinitely great skill by which our God accomplishes his wise and good purpose of grace in making “known unto us the mystery of his will.”

Ephesians 1:8-9 tell us that our great God has, by his Spirit, abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, in all knowledge and insight, in all the wisdom and skill of his infinite being, in revealing to us “the mystery of his will.

The mystery of his will,” which God the Holy Spirit has made known to us in the revelation and experience of grace, giving us faith in Christ, is our eternal election in and redemption by Christ, “which he hath purposed in himself” (Romans 8:28-30). “The mystery of his will” is all that Paul has declared in Ephesians 1:3-7.

            By indescribable brilliance and skill, the Lord God, the God of all grace, makes known to sinners the mystery of his will in the blessed experience of his saving grace in Christ Jesus!

 

Secrets Revealed

Our Lord Jesus says, in John 15:15, “I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” God’s everlasting love for us, his eternal purpose of grace toward us, even the redemption of our souls by Christ are secret things, known only to God, until they are revealed to us and in us by the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith in Christ. — “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). When faith is given, the mystery is revealed (2 Corinthians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Timothy 1:9-10).

 

Conversion

That is what happens in conversion. We have a beautiful picture of it in the opening verses of the Bible (Genesis 1:1-3). Paul told the Thessalonian saints that he knew their election because God had given them faith in Christ by the power and grace of God the Holy Ghost (1 Thessalonians 1:4-5); and we know our own election by our God given faith in Christ.

      The sovereign work of God in redemption and grace is the exercise of infinite wisdom and prudence, infinite knowledge and insight, infinite brilliance and skill. — God’s grace abounds toward us “in all wisdom and prudence.

      In a word, our God not only saves his elect in the only way we could be saved, but in the very best way. As is always the case, God’s way is the best way. We will spend eternity diving into the depths and soaring into the heights of all the divine “wisdom and prudence” of God’s infinite, boundless grace toward us in Christ.

The Manifold Wisdom of God”

The Wisdom of Grace

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

(Romans 11:33)

 

Only the all wise God could devise and execute the sovereign purpose of his grace toward us. Behold the great wisdom of God in grace, and worship him. I see the manifold wisdom of God in his choice of his Son to be our Redeemer, — in his determination to accomplish redemption by substitution, — the glorious incarnation of Christ, — the life of Christ in this world, — the sacrificial, sin-atoning death of Christ, — and in the glorious exaltation of Christ.

 

The Choice of His Son

God’s choice of his Son to be our Redeemer displays his great, infinite wisdom. I do not pretend to understand the deep, hidden mysteries of the Covenant of Grace, the proposals, and agreements, and oaths of the triune God. I know that God does not need to plan, devise, or work out anything in his great mind. He knows everything. But I do know that a covenant was made (Jeremiah 31:31-34), that God the Father made proposals to his Son for the accomplishment of our redemption (Psalm 2:8; John 10:16-18), which our Savior voluntarily accepted (Isaiah 50:5-7), and that these transactions of grace between God the Father and God the Son were sworn to by Jehovah and secured the salvation of an elect multitude before the world was made (Hebrews 6:17-19; 8:10-12).

 

The Covenant of Grace

In the Covenant of Grace, as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures, God the Father proposed the conditions upon which redemption could be accomplished. God the Son pledged himself to satisfy all the demands and conditions required by the holy law, character, and will of God. And God the Holy Spirit promised to effectually apply all the blessings of grace earned by Christ’s obedience to the elect.

These are things that took place before the world began, when no one and nothing existed but the eternal God (Ephesians 3:11; 1:3-6; 2 Timothy 1:9). In those great, eternal counsels of grace, God set his heart upon his dear Son and chose him to be the Person who would perform the great work of redemption (Romans 3:25; 1 Peter 1:20).

Christ is the Redeemer of God’s own choosing. Therefore, he is called God’s Elect (Isaiah 42:1). When God set his eye upon his Son, choosing him to save his elect, he said, with regard to all his elect, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom (an atonement)” (Job 33:24). The triune Jehovah declared, “I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people” (Psalm 89:19).

We rejoice in the love, mercy, and grace of God. But it was the wisdom of God which found a way for a holy God to embrace fallen, sinful men and women in love, mercy, and grace. How we ought to admire the wisdom of God in providing such a Redeemer!

 

The Grace Bulletin

 

February 8, 2015

 

Grace Baptist Church of Danville

2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Telephone (859) 576-3400 — 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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