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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

July 17, 2016

God never plays “Let’s Pretend.” He did not pretend to make Christ sin for us. He made him who knew no sin sin for us. And God does not pretend to make sinners righteous in Christ. He made us the righteousness of God in him.

Daily Readings for the Week of July 17-24, 2016

Sunday Isaiah 14-18 Thursday Isaiah 31-34

Monday Isaiah 19-23 Friday Isaiah 35-38

Tuesday Isaiah 24-27 Saturday Isaiah 39-41

Wednesday Isaiah 28-30 Sunday Isaiah 42-44

· Conference Offering — July 31^st

· Bro. Frank Tate and I are scheduled to preach in the Bible conference at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Princeton, New Jersey Friday-Sunday, Bro. Clay Curtis is the host pastor. The Lord willing, Bro. Mike Walker will be here to preach the gospel next Sunday.

Happy Birthday! Cliff Hellar-18^th Betty Burge-19^th

Happy Anniversary: David & Teresa Coleman-19^th Larry & Carol Brown-31^st

Nursery Duty this Week

Nicole Abell (AM) — Celeste Peterson (PM) — Tuesday: Elizabeth Peterso4

God’s Elect, Predestinated — Don Fortner

(Tune: #294 — Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us —87.87.87)

God’s elect, predestinated, by His purposes of grace,

Which can never be frustrated, shall be saved by sov’reign grace!

In His kingdom, all the chosen shall see Jesus face to face!

God’s elect, predestinated to a kingdom and a crown,

Shall by grace be new-created. God will send his Spirit down,

To regenerate and form them in the image of His Son!

God’s elect, predestinated, bought by Jesus’ precious blood,

Justly have their sins remitted, and made righteous by their God,

Never can be separated from the love of Christ their God!

God’s elect, predestinated, chosen in eternal love,

Shall by God Himself be fitted for their mansions built above!

From the Potter’s hand who made them they shall never be removed!

Yes, we are predestinated, as asserted by our King!

With this precious truth elated, we will sov’reign mercy sing!

Home to Glory, home to Glory, Christ will all His ransomed bring!

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Because of our innate and inescapable proclivity to all things evil, the more familiar we are with God’s Son, God’s gospel, God’s word, God’s worship, God’s preachers, and God’s saints the more we tend to presume upon them and take them for granted. It is sad, but true that familiarity breeds contempt, even with the precious things of God. Every believer has great need to beware of despising God’s holy things.

— Pastor Frank Hall

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Divine Predestination

Romans 8:29

“Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” — Don’t be afraid of predestination, and don’t be ashamed of it. We are predestinarians because we believe the Bible; and the doctrine of predestination is a blessed Bible doctrine full of comfort and joy for God’s people. Predestination is God’s absolute infallible purpose of grace regarding his elect, whom he foreknew. Our eternal destiny (perfect, glorious conformity to Christ) was fixed and settled by our heavenly Father before he made the worlds (Ephesians 1:3-6, 11; 3:11-12).

Those whom God foreknew in electing love he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When God made Adam, he saw that it was not good for him to be alone. So he made Eve “an help meet for him.” And the Lord God determined from eternity that it was not good for his Son (the last Adam) to be alone. So he chose to save a great multitude of sinners and make them just like his Son, a bride for him, a help meet for him. God looked upon his darling Son with such satisfaction and delight that he determined to have many sons just like him (1 John 3:1-2).

Our salvation, when it is finished in resurrection glory, shall be our conformity to Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the express image of the triune God; and God’s elect have been predestined to be the express image of Christ. This conformity to Christ is threefold.

A Climactic Conformity

In the new birth Christ is formed in us, we are made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). This is not a process, but an immediate work of God, an immediate resurrection from the dead, an immediate new creation of a new man in us “in righteousness and true holiness,” in conformity to Christ.

A Gradual Conformity

We are conformed to the image of Christ in our day by day experience of his grace, as we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior. By the power of his Holy Spirit dwelling in us, by the power of his Word working in us, and by the loving nurture and discipline of our heavenly Father, the lives of God’s saints are molded to Christ.

This conformity of God’s elect to Christ is not something we perceive in ourselves. As we grow in grace, we grow into a truer and truer realization that we are the very chief of sinners. Yet, the believer’s conformity to Christ is real. We are, by the operations of God’s grace working in us, made submissive to the will of God, though we repent of our rebellions against it. We are made patient in suffering, though we confess our horrible impatience. We are made to believe God more fully, while we weep over our unbelief. We are made to love our God and our brethren more completely, while our hearts break over our lack of love. We are made more gracious and forgiving, while we repent of our hardness and reluctance to forgive offenses.

A Consummate Conformity

Soon, O blessed thought! Soon, we shall be perfectly conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ in the resurrection.

In divine, sovereign predestination God eternally and immutably determined who he would save, how he would save them, when he would save them, and where he would save them. Then he arranged everything necessary to accomplish their salvation and to bring them to glory at last, perfectly conformed to the image of his dear Son. Predestination marked the house into which grace would come, paved the road by which grace would travel to that house, set the time when grace would enter the house, and guaranteed that grace would actually enter the house at the appointed time of love. Nothing was left to chance, luck, blind fate, or man’s imaginary free-will!

“The Firstborn Among Many Brethren”

Romans 8:29

God’s great design in predestination is the glory and honor of his dear Son as our Mediator and Savior. ― “That he might be the firstborn among many brethren!” In predestination, as in all other things, Christ has the pre-eminence. He is the Firstborn Son in the family of God.

The firstborn is the first to be born. Christ is the firstborn both as God and as man. He is God, the eternal Son, eternally begotten of the Father. And he is the Man of Redemption, brought forth by the divine decree in the covenant of grace (Proverbs 8:22-26, 30). The firstborn son is the one in whom the whole family is dedicated to God (Exodus 13:2). The firstborn son is the head of the family after the father (Deuteronomy 21:17). The firstborn son holds and manages all the property of the family in the name of the father. It is “the right of the firstborn.” (See Hebrews 6:20). It is in the firstborn son that the name and family of the dead is raised up and lives (Deuteronomy 25:5-6).

The Scriptures, when speaking of “the firstborn that openeth the womb,” were prophetic of the virgin birth of our Savior. None but the Lord Jesus ever opened the womb in birth. In every other instance, the womb is opened at the time of conception, not at the time of birth. Our blessed Savior, “the Firstborn,” was conceived in Mary’s virgin womb by the overshadowing power of God the Holy Ghost. He opened Mary’s virgin womb when he came forth from it to accomplish our redemption. Thus, throughout the Levitical dispensation, the firstborn of man and beast directed the eye of faith to him whom the triune God appointed to have everlasting preeminence as “the Firstborn.” In all things it is, was, and forever shall be the will of the eternal God that Christ have preeminence as the God-man, our Mediator and Redeemer. Our all-glorious Christ shall be “the Firstborn among many brethren.” When they are all gathered into heaven, God’s saints shall be a vast multitude that no man can number (Revelation 5:11; 7:9).

That is predestination. ― God has determined from eternity to save a great multitude of sinners for the glory of Christ. Let us never cease to be amazed at God’s grace toward us. It is amazing that he should save any, more amazing that he should save many, and infinitely amazing that you and I should be numbered among that many!

The Grace Bulletin

July 17, 2016

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