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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

December 13, 2015

The Lord God loves his elect even as he loves his darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for we ae truly one with Christ.

Daily Readings for the Week of December 13-20, 2015

Sunday 2 Timothy 1-4 Thursday Hebrews 9-10

Monday Titus 1-Philemon Friday Hebrews 11-12

Tuesday Hebrew 1-5 Saturday Hebrews 13-James 2

Wednesday Hebrew 6-8 Sunday James 3-1 Peter 1

· Shelby and I invite all of you to join us this afternoon for our annual Open House at the Parsonage. — There will be no service here tonight.

Happy Birthday! James Jordan-16th Celeste Peterson-19th

Nursery Duty: Today: Shante’ Birchum Tuesday: Elizabeth Peterson

Jehovah Loves His Saints! — Don Fortner

(Tune: #188 — I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord! — SM)

1. Jehovah is our God,

Our Portion and our Friend:

So let us sound His praise abroad,

And trust Him to the end.

2. Jehovah loves His saints,

Delights in all His own,

Though in ourselves sinful and faint,

Accepted in the Son!

3. He calls us His beloved,

And condescends to dwell

With sinners, who His mercy prove,

Redeemed from death and hell.

4. Rejoice, dear favored ones, —

Your God delights in you!

Let love and mercy be your song,

And heav’nly joys pursue!

God’s Love for His Elect

Thomas Manton

God could not love us with honor to Himself, if His wisdom had not found out this way of loving us in Christ…God was resolved to manifest an infinite love to man, but He would still manifest an infinite hatred against sin; which could not be more fully manifested than by making Christ the ground of our reconciliation…How could the holy God, the just God…love such vile and unworthy creatures as we are? The question is answered — He loveth us in Christ, and for Christ’s sake.

“Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.”

John 17:23

What can be the meaning of those astounding words falling from the lips of God our Savior? Who can comprehend this? Who can declare it? — “Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” God the Father loved Christ as his own Son, and loved him as our Mediator from everlasting. He loved him when he assumed our humanity. The Father loved him while he walked on this earth as his obedient Son, fulfilling all righteousness for us. Oh, how the Father loved the Son, even when he was made sin for us, especially when he was made sin for us, though justice demanded that he both slaughter him and abandon him, pouring out all the horror of his holy wrath and fury upon him!

Instances of Love

The instances and demonstrations of the Father’s love to the Son are marvelous to behold. Because the Father loves the Son as our Mediator He has put all things into his hands, trusting him with all his glory and all the people of his love. He has made him head over all things, put all things under his feet, and determined that in all things he shall have the preeminence!

Loved as Christ

The Father’s love for the Son is an eternal, immutable, indestructible love of complacency and delight. It will last forever! That I have no difficulty understanding. But what our Lord tells us here is infinitely gracious and glorious beyond my highest imagination. Our Lord Jesus here declares that God the Father loves us, his people, in exactly the same way as he loves him!

He loves us not merely as his creatures (like a man loves his dog), not merely as the descendants of Adam (as a man loves a man), and certainly not as considered in ourselves (as a man despises and hates his most implacable, obnoxious enemy). But God loves us in his son, for the sake of his son, as he loves his Son!

Do you ask, “How does God display such love for us?” Behold how he loved us! — “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us!” — Does he indeed love us as he loves his own darling Son? Did he choose Christ as our Mediator (Isaiah 42:1-4)? So he chose us (Ephesians 1:3-6). — Did the Father make a covenant with the Son before the world began (Psalm 89:28)? So he made a covenant with us (Jeremiah 31:31-34; 32:38-40). — Did the Father raise the Son from the dead, making him free from sin (1 Peter 4:1-2)? So he has raised us up from the dead, making us free from sin (Romans 8:1-4). — Did the Father supply the Son with all things in daily providence while he walked on earth? So he supplies us. — Did the Father send his Spirit and his angels to minister to his Son when he was tempted? So he delivers us out of all our temptations. — Does the Father perform all things for the Son? So our God performs all things for us. — Does the Father love the Son from everlasting? So he loves us with an everlasting love! — Does the Father accept the Son? So he accepts us! — Does the Father love the Son with utmost pleasure, satisfaction, and delight? So he loves us. — “Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me!”

God’s Love for Christ

and

God’s Love for Us

“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:23)

Let my heart be forever humbled, ravished, inspired, and filled with praise to my God for his great love to me. Let my soul be forever exultant, joyful, and at peace! Let my life be forever and alone his!

God’s Revelation

What a great, glorious Gospel truth we have here. It is something that could never be known except by divine revelation. How honoring to our God! It is just like him. How comforting to our souls! To the extent that we are able to believe God’s Revelation, our souls shall be comforted.

Our great all-glorious Savior says, “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” Thus, he tells us that God our Father loves his elect in Christ as he loves Christ himself! That is such an amazing, stupendous thing that were it not written in Holy Scripture, I would not dare to think it, much less assert it. But there it stands. And, oh, how my soul rejoices in it!

Our Savior’s Desire

It is our Savior’s desire and purpose that the whole world shall know that God loves us as he loves him; and so it shall be! A. W. Pink rightly observed…

“When God’s elect have all been gathered together in one (John 11:52), when the glory which Christ received from the Father has been imparted to them, when they shall have been made perfect in one, then shall the world have such a clear demonstration of God’s power, grace, and love toward his people, that they shall know that the One who died to make this glorious union possible was the sent One of the Father, and that they had been loved by the Father as had the Son, for ‘When Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory’ (Colossians 3:4); then ‘he shall come to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe...in that day’ (2 Thessalonians 1:10).”

Our Comfort

Hear the Son of God, my brothers and sisters in this world of sorry and pain, and rejoice! — “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me!” — What a pillow upon which to rest our heads! — What a comfort for our poor, aching hearts! — What a glorious theme for daily meditation! — What a cause for adoration, praise, and worship!

We may be despised, misunderstood, abused, and hated of men, but we are loved of God! God our Father loves us even as he loves his darling Son; and he has so loved us from eternity!

The Grace Bulletin

December 13, 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