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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

April 23, 2017

If Christ is my Savior, I owe God nothing, “for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.” — If Christ is my Savior, I owe God everything, for I am “bought with a price” that I might live “unto him who died for me and rose again.”

Daily Readings for the Week of April 23-30, 2017

Sunday 2 Kings 5-7 Thursday 2 Kings 15-17

Monday 2 Kings 8-9 Friday 2 Kings 18-19

Tuesday 2 Kings 10-12 Saturday 2 Kings 20-22

Wednesday 2 Kings 13-14 Sunday 2 Kings 23-24

· The Lord willing, we will have our Quarterly Fellowship Dinner on Sunday, May 14^th, following the morning worship service.

Nursery Duty This Week

Shante’ Birchum (AM) — Stephanie Wilkerson (PM) Tuesday: Diane Campbell

That Glorious Better Part — Don Fortner

(Tune: #66 — Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts — LM)

1. This is that glorious better part,

Most dear to each believer’s heart: —

Christ Jesus dwelling in the soul,

The sovereign Monarch of the whole.

2. Pursuing His eternal love,

He comes in mercy from above,

And enters by almighty grace,

The hearts of all His chosen race.

3. His Spirit plants His grace within;

There He subdues the power of sin,

Renews, transforms, and stores it well! —

And there He shall forever dwell.

4. Does Christ the Savior dwell in me? —

Then I shall endless glory see!

He is my Hope, in Him I rest,

In Christ I am forever blest!

God’s Holiness

John Gill wrote, “God only is essentially, originally, underivatively, perfectly, and immutably holy.”

The Puritan, Thomas Brooks, wrote, “Holiness in angels and saints is but a quality, but in God it is his essence…God’s holiness and his nature are not two things, they are but one. God’s holiness is his nature, and God’s nature is his holiness.”

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.”

Isaiah 6:3

When Isaiah saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up, he heard the seraphims continually chanting one to another and in unison, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” These seraphims represent God’s messengers: prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, and missionaries. In every age, in every place, God’s messengers are sent into the world to declare who God is and what he has done, so that men and women might know him, the only true and living God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. It is this knowledge of God which is eternal life.

All of God’s servants have the same message. Their message is, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” What does this message tell us about the character of God?

1. There are three Persons in the Godhead. — We worship one God in the trinity of his sacred Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. “The Lord of hosts” is one God. But in that one God there are three separate and distinct Persons (Revelation 4:8). All God’s messengers and all God’s people are Trinitarians (1 John 5:7).

2. This great and glorious triune God is the sovereign ruler of the universe. — He is here called “the Lord of hosts.” That is to say, he is the Lord of all creatures, the Lord of all beings, the Lord of all things. He who is “the Lord” (Jehovah) is Lord of all. That means, God is in absolute control of all things at all times. Any man who preaches a god who is something less than a total, absolute sovereign is a false prophet. And the god he preaches is no God at all. The God of the Bible is an unrivaled sovereign; and all his messengers always declare his glorious sovereignty (Isaiah 46:9-11; Daniel 4:35-37; Romans 9:11-24; 11:33-36).

3. And the whole earth is full of the glory of God. — God’s messengers see God’s glory everywhere and declare plainly that everything in God’s creation is but the reflection of his glory and shall be the praise of his glory (Revelation 4:9-11). God’s creation is full of his glory. God’s providence is full of his glory. And God’s salvation is full of his glory.

“Glorious in Holiness”

Exodus 15:11

Holiness is God’s nature. God is holiness. And holiness is God! The holiness of God is God. As Bro. Scott Richardson once put it, “The holiness of God has something to do with the wholeness of God. The holiness of God is the wholeness of God; and the wholeness of God is the holiness of God.” When you think of God, the first thing that should come to mind is holiness. When you think of holiness, the first thing that should come to mind is God.

Holiness is the transcendence of God. It is the supreme, absolute greatness of God that sets him apart from and infinitely above all his creatures. Holiness is the whole perfection of God’s infinite being.

The Holiness of God

Isaiah 6:3

God alone is essentially holy. The angels of God are holy angels; and his saints are holy, but not essentially holy. Their holiness and ours is derived holiness. God’s is not. God would not be God were he not holy. Holiness is essential to his Being. God is “The Holy One” (Isaiah 40:25; Hosea 11:9; 1 Samuel 2:2; Revelation 15:4). “Holy and reverend is his name” (Psalm 111:9). Holiness is the luster, glory, and harmony of God’s nature and attributes. It is “the beauty of the Lord” (Psalm 27:4). The Lord our God is “glorious in holiness.” Holiness is the glory of his Being and the beauty of his nature.

God’s Holy Being

All that God is is holy. This is one evidence of the divine origin of Holy Scripture. We know that the Bible is God’s inspired Word because it reveals a perfectly holy God. Such a God as this is not the invention of man’s depraved mind (Psalm 50:21). The god who is acknowledged by the vast majority of religious people is little more than an indulgent old man who has no personal sin, but is tolerant of sin in others, and so full of mercy that he is willing to compromise truth and righteousness to rescue men and women from the consequences of their sins, even if he cannot rescue them from sin itself. The God of the Bible is not an indulgent old man. He is omnipotent; and he is holy. He will by no means clear the guilty. This God will either remove your guilt, or he will remove you.

God’s Holy Work

All that God does is holy. Every work of God’s hand has the stamp of holiness upon it, reflecting in some way the character of God himself (Psalm 145:17). In creation he stamped upon the consciences of all men a sense of moral righteousness (his law), so that all men by nature know good from evil and are condemned by their evil deeds (Romans 2:14-15). In providence God often displays his anger with man’s sin in acts of judgment. Every epidemic is as manifestly an act of providential judgment upon fallen man as the fire and brimstone rained upon Sodom in Lot’s day. Our redemption by the blood of Christ, above all else, shows forth the holiness and justice of God’s character (Romans 3:24-26). God is so perfectly holy that he would not and could not forgive the sins of his elect apart from the satisfaction of his justice by the blood of his own dear Son. God is holy in creation, in providence, in redemption, and in the exercise of his grace. And he is holy in all his acts of judgment. When he sits upon the great white throne of judgment in the last day, when all men are gathered before him, he will grant eternal life to his elect in Christ and sentence the wicked to eternal death in hell upon the grounds of strict holiness, justice, and truth. Unless we stand before him washed in the blood of Christ and robed with his imputed righteousness, we will be damned forever. Justice demands it. But if we are washed in Christ’s blood and robed in his righteousness, we shall enter into everlasting glory. Justice demands it (Revelation 20:12; 22:11).

The Grace Bulletin

April 23, 2017

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