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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

December 20, 2015

 

Let every man called of God to preach the gospel, every man to whom this sacred trust is given, give himself in the totality of his life to this blessed work for the glory of Christ.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of December 20-27, 2015

Sunday                James 3-1 Peter 1                    Thursday 2 John-Jude

      Monday                1 Peter 2-5                                  Friday                   Revelation 1-3

      Tuesday              2 Peter 1-3                                  Saturday              Revelation 4-7

      Wednesday        1 John 1-5                                   Sunday                Revelation 8-10

 

Happy Birthday!  Evelyn Wang-21st   Bettina Criss-22nd    Martie Hellar-25th 

Nursery Duty: Today: Nicole Abell (AM)  Celeste Peterson (PM)

Tuesday: Stephanie Wall

 

“Jesus” is Immanuel’s Name Don Fortner

(Tune: #93 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 77.77.77)

1.     Let our hearts and voices rise,

Join the triumph of the skies!

Earth and heaven now combine

To extol the Christ divine!

In our flesh the Godhead see! —

Christ, incarnate Deity!

God (O wondrous mystery!)

Took on our humanity!

 

2.     Passing fallen angels by,

God’s own Son came here to die!

He took hold of Abram’s seed

As our mighty Cov’nant Head!

For His loved and chosen race,

To bring mercy, peace, and grace,

God a mortal man became! —

Mortals, bow, and praise His name!

 

3.     “JESUS” is Immanuel’s name!

Through a virgin’s womb He came,

Fully God and fully man,

Without sin, God’s holy Lamb!

Christ came here to save His own;

And His work He’s fully done! —

See Him yonder, on the throne,

Christ, Immanuel, God the Son!

 

Merry Christmas! — Shelby and I thank our God for you and for the privilege of serving him with you. And we thank you for your thoughtful cards and generous gifts to us. We wish you all a very merry Christmas. I trust that the events of the next week will inspire us to adore and worship the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, and afford us opportunities to speak to many about God’s goodness and grace to sinners in him.

 

“As Thou hast Loved Me”

John 17:23

 

That little word, “as,” means “just as,” “even as,” in proportion as,” “to the same degree as.” When our Lord says, “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me,” he is telling us that there is a similarity of cause between God’s love for him and his love for us. — “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” The Lord God loves us for the same reason He loves His dear Son.

 

In Christ

God’s love is not a universal sentiment for all men. God’s love is in Christ. Apart from Christ, God is a consuming fire. This needs to be understood. These days, men everywhere are taught and universally presume that God loves them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Until you are united to Christ by faith, you have no reason to imagine that God loves you. Our faith in Christ does not cause God to love us. Our faith is the fruit and result of God’s eternal love for us. But, until a sinner trusts Christ, only the wrath of God is revealed and known to him; and the wrath of God is upon him (John 3:36). — Until you take refuge in Christ, God’s wrath is upon you!

 

For Christ’s Sake

God loves us for Christ’s sake. We are accepted in the beloved.” God accepts our faith, our worship, our works, and our persons only because of Christ, because we are in Christ, and because of what Christ has done for us.

 

Same Reason

And God the Father loves us for the same reason that he loves his Son as our Mediator. — Be sure you get this. It will help you. — God the Father does not love us for the same reason that he loves his Son as his Son. He loves his Son as his Son necessarily because his Son is one with him in perfection and praise. He cannot but love Christ as God. Else he would cease to love himself. But God’s love for Christ as our Mediator is based upon his perfect obedience unto God as our Mediator (John 10:14-17). It is a love he has won, earned, and merited by his obedience unto death as our Substitute.

 

Free and Deserved

Do you understand what our Lord is teaching us here? God’s love for us is free and, at the same time fully deserved! He said, “I will love them freely” (Hosea 14:4). Yet, his love, mercy, grace, and salvation flow to us upon the grounds of Christ’s obedience as our Substitute. He is merciful and gracious to us, forgiving us of all sin, and loves us “for Christ’s sake” (Ephesians 4:32-5:2). God the Father looked upon his Son from eternity as our perfect, obedient Mediator, and for the sake of his Son loved us with an everlasting love.

 

Same Way

That little word “as” also suggests a similarity of love. The Lord God loves his people in the same way as he loves his Son. God the Father loved Christ the God-man as “the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). So he loves his people who in Christ have been (and those who yet must be) renewed “after the image of him” (Colossians 3:10; 2 Peter 1:4). He loves Christ as his only begotten Son; and he loves us in Christ as his adopted sons (1 John 3:1).

 

Sweet Assurances Drawn from God’s Love

John 17:23

 

Because the Savior says, “Thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me,” we are assured that God loves his elect freely. In John 10:17 the Lord Jesus Christ tells us plainly that he earned his Father’s love as a man by his mediatorial obedience. Yet, when our Savior came into the world, the Lord God loved the Child freely, delighting in him even before he had fulfilled his will (Isaiah 42:1). He is that One of whom the Father says, “In him my soul delighteth!” Even so, he loves us freely (Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Hosea 14:4).

 

Tender Love

God loves us tenderly and affectionately. As the Father’s love for his Son is a tender, indescribably affectionate love, so is his love for us (Isaiah 62:5; Zechariah 2:8).

 

Immutable Love

And God’s love for his elect is immutable. There is no possibility of change in our God (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17). God’s love does not change. It cannot be taken from us; and it cannot be destroyed, neither by us nor by hell itself (Romans 8:35-39). We did nothing to earn it; and we can do nothing to destroy it, or even cause it to diminish!

 

Same Results

As there is a similarity of cause and a similarity of love, our Lord Jesus intends for us to understand that there is a similarity of results; that the effects and fruits, the consequences of God’s love to him and his elect are alike.

      Love that has no effect and bears no fruit is lip-love; and lip-love is useless love. Love that is never known by the one loved is a frustrated passion that destroys one’s own peace and happiness. Love that never sees benefit and blessing upon its object, but only misery and woe, is a tormenting love. But that does not describe the love of God. — Oh, no, a thousand times no! God’s love toward us, like his love toward his Son as our Mediator, is an effectual, fruitful, beneficial love. Here are five things mutually enjoyed by Christ and his people as the fruit and effect of God’s love.

 

1.     The Revelation of Secrets — All things are open, common knowledge between people who love one another. As all things are manifest and made known to the Son as our Mediator by the Father (John 1:18; 5:20), so all things are manifest and made known to God’s elect by the Son (John 14:21; 15:15).

2.     The Bestowment of Spiritual Gifts — God’s love is a bounteous love. He has given all things to the Son (John 3:34-35; 17:2; Ephesians 4:8); and he has given all his people all spiritual blessings, all heavenly gifts in his Son (Ephesians 1:3).

3.     Strength and Protection in Life — As the Lord Jesus was upheld, strengthened, and protected throughout the days of his obedience to do his Father’s will (Isaiah 42:1), so the Lord God upholds, strengthens, and protects us, the objects of his love, throughout our days of obedience in this world (2 Corinthians 12:9).

4.     Acceptance of All We Do for Him Everything that Christ did for God was accepted and well-pleasing to him because he loved him (Ephesians 5:2). And everything we do for God is accepted and well-pleasing to God through the merits of Christ because he loves us as he loved him (1 Peter 2:5; Ecclesiastes 9:7-9).

5.      Honor and Exaltation The Lord Jesus was honored and highly exalted by God the Father as the object of his love. He was given preeminence in, possession of, and power over all things (Psalm 2:7-8; Hebrews 1:8). The Lord God, our heavenly Father, will do the same for us (John 12:26; Revelation 3:21). Why? Because God our Father loves us as he loves the Lord Jesus our Savior!

 

 

The Grace Bulletin

 

December 20, 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

 

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http://www.DonFortner.com

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http://www.Grace-eBooks.com

 

 

 

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