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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

December 25, 2016

The prophet Isaiah says plainly that the Lord Jesus Christ “shall not fail.” Whatever the Son of God undertakes to accomplish, he shall accomplish. If he prays for a person’s salvation, that sinner must be saved. If he dies to put away a person’s sin, that person’s sin must be put away. If he seeks a sheep, the sheep must be found. If he says to the dead, “Live,” the dead must live. If he comes to save a sinner by the power of his grace, that sinner must be saved. — “He shall not fail!”

Daily Readings for the Week of December 25-January 1, 2017

Sunday Revelation 1-3 Thursday Revelation 14-16

Monday Revelation 4-7 Friday Revelation 17-19

Tuesday Revelation 8-10 Saturday Revelation 20-22

Wednesday Revelation 11-13 Sunday Genesis 1-3

· There will be no service here tonight. — I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, enjoying your families and friends and rejoicing in the great goodness, mercy, love, and grace of God incessantly heaped upon such sinners as we are in our Lord Jesus Christ, God in our nature, who loved us and gave himself for us.

Happy Birthday! Matthew Rice-27^th Marilyn Sadler-31^st Sam Wall-1^st

Church Cleaning in January: Jim & Susan Grant

Nursery Duty — Today: Nicole Abell — Tuesday: Diane Campbell

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Christ was Born in Bethlehem! — Don Fortner

(Tune: ##84 — Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus —87.87.87 SM)

1. See the Son of God assuming human flesh once stooped to earth;

Heav’nly hosts proclaimed His coming; and a virgin gave Him birth.

Angels sang it, angels sang it, — Christ was born in Bethlehem!

2. Christ, the Lord, our Sur’ty, willing to fulfil what He decreed,

Came, His promises fulfilling, God in flesh, the woman’s Seed.

To redeem us, to redeem us, Christ was born in Bethlehem!

3. All the prophets to Him pointed, all the types and pictures said,

That on Christ, the Lord’s Anointed, all our sins Jehovah laid!

To fulfil them, to fulfil them, Christ was born at Bethlehem!

4. Satan’s vanquished, though he rages, crushed by Zion’s mighty King!

We shall, through eternal ages, this triumphant anthem sing. —

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Christ was born at Bethlehem!

“Jesus is the Christ”

“Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.” (Psalm 40:7)

The writings of the Old Testament prophets abound in predictions of the Messiah, the Christ. God promised Abraham, “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” When Jacob blessed the tribe of Judah, he spoke of Shiloh, to whom the gathering of the people would be. Moses spoke of that Prophet whom the Lord God would raise up, whom the people of God would hear. In the Psalms and the prophets Messiah is given a variety of titles: — The Anointed of the Lord — The King — David’s Lord — The Child Born — The Son Given — The Mighty God — The Everlasting Father — The Prince of Peace — God’s Servant whom He Upholds — Messiah the Prince — God’s Elect in whom He Delights — The Branch — The Lord Our Righteousness — The Messenger of the Covenant.

All these names and titles belong to the Messiah. But are they all fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth? If they are, then he is the Christ. If they are not, we must look for another. The prophecies of the Old Testament give us eight specific things which must characterize the Messiah. By these eight things, the Christ is identified. And these eight things can be, with honesty, applied to no man in history, past or future, except Jesus of Nazareth, who is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God.

The Time

The time of Messiah’s coming was clearly marked out in prophecy. God told no one the day and hour when Christ would come. But he did identify the time in history. Those looking forward to the coming of Christ could not predict it. But those looking back cannot mistake it. Christ has come!

The coming of messiah must fit into a very specific time frame. Christ had to appear before the destruction of civil government in Judah (Genesis 49:10), while the temple was still standing in Jerusalem (Haggai 2:6-9), about the middle of Daniel’s 70th week, which would be 453-457 years after the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem began in 33 A.D. and the year that Christ died (Daniel 9:24-27). 37 years later, 70 A.D., Jerusalem was destroyed.

The Messiah had to come into the world during the time that Jesus of Nazareth lived upon the earth. He could not come at any other time.

The Place

The place where Messiah would be born was plainly foretold. — “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

The Family

The family from which Messiah must come was the house of David (Psalm 132:11; Isaiah 11:1). The Jews debated about many things. But they never questioned the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. They knew he was David’s son.

The Miracles

The miracles performed by the Lord Jesus declare him to be the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of David (Isaiah 29:18; 35:5-6; 42:6-7). Those miracles are the very things by which the Lord Jesus identified himself to the disciples of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:1-6).

Meek and Lowly

The Messiah must be one who comes as a King distinguished by his humiliation, meekness, and lowliness (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:1-9).

Death by the Hands of Wicked Men

It was prophesied that the Messiah must suffer and die by the hands of wicked men (Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 53:1-12). Our Lord’s tormenters used the very words and performed the very deeds he had predicted by his prophets (Psalm 22). And those words which describe the betrayal, shame, crucifixion, and death of Christ (Psalms 40 and 69) could find fulfilment only in the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

Resurrection from the Dead

The Scriptures declared plainly that Messiah would rise from the dead before his body had begun to decay (Psalm 16:9-11; Isaiah 53:10-12).

The Holy Spirit

And the prophets plainly asserted that messiah, the Christ, would set up his kingdom among the Gentiles by the outpouring of his Spirit upon them (Isaiah 49:5-6; Joel 2:28-32; Galatians 3:13-14).

“Jesus is the Christ”

“I delight to do thy will, O my God.” (Psalm 40:8)

David tells us that the Christ, the Messiah, whoever he is, is one who must perfectly accomplish the will of God. — “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” When the Lord Jesus came into this world, he came with delight to do his Father’s will. He delighted in that of which God approves. He delighted in that which God had appointed. And the law of God was in his heart, so that both inwardly and outwardly, he was perfectly holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin. — He knew no sin! We know that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God, because...

· He perfectly performed all the precepts of God’s revealed will in the law, bringing in an everlasting righteousness for God’s elect.

· He freely yielded himself to all the performances of God’s providential will, being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, as the Substitute for his chosen.

· He made complete satisfaction and propitiation to God’s justice, satisfying the penalty of the law, in the room and stead of his people.

· In doing these things he accomplished the complete, eternal salvation of God’s elect (Hebrews 10:5-14).

Christ came to do the Father’s will. He came to save his people. And he has done it. We know that Jesus is the Christ, because God accepted his work (Romans 8:32-34).

The Grace Bulletin

December 25, 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