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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

November 27, 2016

There is not one complimentary, dignifying, honorable word between the covers of the Bible about fallen man.

Daily Readings for the Week of November 27-December 4, 2016

Sunday 1 Corinthians 8-10 Thursday 2 Corinthians 4-7

Monday 1 Corinthians 11-13 Friday 2 Corinthians 8-11

Tuesday 1 Corinthians 14-15 Saturday 2 Cor. 12-Gal 1

Wednesday 1 Corinthians 16-2 Cor. 3 Sunday Galatians 2-4

Happy Birthday! Mark Daniel-28^th Tom Brice-3^rd David Burge-4^th

Nursery Duty this Week

Shante’ Birchum (AM) — Elizabeth Peterson (PM) — Tuesday: Ruth Wall

Happy Anniversary!

Skip & Sandy-1st Josh & Elizabeth Peterson-7^th Mark & Regina Henson-29^th

Thanksgiving to Our God — Don Fortner

(Tune: This Is My Father’s World #39 SMD)

1. Thanksgiving to our God,

We bring with hearts of praise,

For all the wondrous thingsYou’ve done,

For mercy, love and grace!

You, from our mothers’ womb,

Have carried us along,

And promised through old age that You

Will not forsake Your own!

2. Thanksgiving to our God,

The mighty Three-in-One,

The Father, and the Spirit, and

Christ Jesus, God the Son!

The Triune God we praise

For all His works of grace;

Chosen, redeemed, and called, we are

Trophies of sov’reign grace!

3. Thanksgiving to our God!

With hearts and voices too,

As ransomed sinners saved by grace,

We give our God His due!

While in this world we live,

Let us live for our God,

And may our dying breath express

Thanksgiving to our God!

A Tribute to a Faithful Pastor

Norman J. Wheeler

December 31, 1936 – November 12, 2016

I first met Bro. Norman Wheeler in April 2007. He and his family had been watching video tapes of our worship services in Danville for some time; and we had talked to one another by telephone a time or two. Bro. Norman, his dear wife, Hilda, and his grown children and their families all came to a meeting I held at West Park Baptist Church in Wolverhampton, England. After the service, some friends had us for a visit in their home, along with several others who had come to the service. The Wheelers and the Fortners immediately became friends.

Cherished Friend

Words cannot express how thankful Shelby and I are that our God made this faithful pastor and his family a part of our lives. After our initial meeting, Bro. Wheeler asked me to preach in his pulpit for three days twice a year. Each visit has more and more endeared him, his family, and Robert Street Strict Baptist Church to Shelby and me.

That dear friend, fourteen years my senior, was a constant source of encouragement to me. I never spoke to him without receiving a word of encouragement from him. He assured me, every time I saw him, of his unfailing intercessions on my behalf, and for our church family at the Throne of Grace.

The Lord God says concerning his servants, “they shall see eye to eye” (Isaiah 52:8). That was certainly true with Bro. Norman and me. In all the years of our friendship and labor together in the cause of Christ, we never had a cross word between us. Doctrinally, we were twins.

Faithful Pastor

The Robert Street church called Bro. Wheeler to be her pastor in 1974. He faithfully served the congregation he dearly loved for forty-two years. His failing health compelled him to stop preaching several months ago. But, as those who were blessed of God to have him for their pastor, will attest, for forty-two years he faithfully fed them with knowledge and understanding, expounding the Scriptures, proclaiming with boldness and joy the free and sovereign grace of God in Christ Jesus, our adorable Redeemer.

Resting

Today, my friend has ceased from all his labors and all his trials. Bro. Wheeler was almost 80 years old when he entered into his rest. His body will soon be laid in the grave; but he entered into glory Saturday morning. There he shall never again know sorrow, or pain, or weeping, or dying. He will never again struggle with sin, or any of the evil consequences of sin. He has entered into that rest the Lord Jesus Christ obtained for his people when he entered heaven as our all-glorious, successful Redeemer more than 2000 years ago. Norman Wheeler has taken his place, seated with the white robed throng around the throne of God and of the Lamb, looking on the face of the Son of God, singing with the ransomed multitude, “Worthy is the Lamb!”

Christ’s Ascension Gifts to His Church

Ephesians 4:11-16

Our ascended Savior gives to and sustains in his church on earth the blessed ministry of the gospel by pastors according to God’s own heart, who feed his Church with knowledge and understanding (Ephesians 4:11-12; Jeremiah 3:15).

Apostles

He gave us the apostles. Though they were chosen before his ascension, he gave them special power and authority afterwards. These apostles were given to teach us the doctrine of the gospel with infallibility. They were called and appointed by Christ himself, had their doctrine directly from him, and had God given gifts demonstrating the fact that Jesus of Nazareth, our crucified Savior, is indeed the Christ of God (Hebrews 2:3-4). The apostolic office and those gifts ceased with the apostles. Those who pretend to have apostolic gifts today prove themselves the servants of anti-christ by their pretended gifts (2 Thessalonians 2:6-10).

Prophets

The risen Lord has given his church prophets, too. The men Paul speaks of here are not the prophets of the Old Testament, but men like Agabus, who are Divinely gifted to understand the hand of God in providence, making proper and powerful application of the Scriptures. They are gospel preachers who, like the sons of Issachar, are men who have understanding of the times and know what Israel ought to do (1 Chronicles 12:32).

Evangelists

Our ascended Savior gives his church evangelists. These are itinerate preachers, missionaries, who go from one place to the other establishing gospel churches assisting churches in need by the preaching of the gospel. Every pastor is commanded of God to “do the work of an evangelist,” thereby making fully proof of his calling and service in the cause of Christ (2 Timothy 4:5).

Pastors

And the risen Son of God gives his church pastors who teach us the GOSPEL (Jeremiah 3:15). God promised in the days of the Messiah that he would give pastors after his heart, who would feed the people with knowledge and understanding. The work of God’s servants is here described in three ways (v. 12). (1.) He is to labor at perfecting, or unifying the saints. (2.) He is to labor in the ministry, dispensing the truths of the gospel. And (3.) he is to labor for the edification of the church. The pastor must labor for the salvation of God’s elect and labor for the growth God’s saints in the faith and knowledge of Christ.

The ascension of Christ and his rule in heaven is for the purpose of completing his purpose and will for his church (vv. 13-16). Het will continue to work through the ministry of the gospel, until his church is brought to perfection. For that purpose, he intercedes for us in heaven. Let every pastor take great care to guard the walls of Zion from those deceitful, crafty heretics who would destroy God’s church (v. 14). Let every Gospel preacher faithfully speak the truth in love (v. 15). It is Christ alone who can unite us in the Spirit, give us the blessed bond of peace, fitly join us together by the effectual working of his power in us (v. 16). The great purpose for which God has established a standing ministry in his church is the perfecting of the saints, establishing the whole mystical body of Christ, in Christ, our glorious Head.

The Grace Bulletin

November 27, 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