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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

October 29, 2017

Our God sits upon “the circle of the earth” (Isaiah 40:22). The word “circle,” as it is used here is very comprehensive. Our great Savior, the infinite God, sits upon the whole sphere of the earth, encompassing and ruling all creation. We who inhabit this globe are nothing but meaningless “grasshoppers,” “less than nothing, and vanity” (Isaiah 40:17).

Daily Readings for the Week of October 29-November 5, 2017

Sunday John 1-2 Thursday John 9-10

Monday John 3-4 Friday John 11-12

Tuesday John 5-6 Saturday John 13-14

Wednesday John 7-8 Sunday John 15-17

· Daylight saving time ends at 2:00 AM next Sunday morning. Set your clocks back one hour Saturday night.

· We welcome Bro. Carroll Poole to our pulpit today. Bro. Poole is pastor of East Hendersonville Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC.

· Our pastor is preaching today for Robert Street Baptist Church in Dudley, England, and is scheduled to preach for Free Grace Fellowship in Ballymoney, North Ireland, Monday and Tuesday.

· The Lord willing, Bro. Todd Nibert, pastor of Todds Road Grace Church in Lexington, KY, will be here to preach the gospel Tuesday night.

Happy Birthday! Sandy Gladfelter-3^rd

Happy Anniversary: Cliff and Marty Hellar-10^th

Church Cleaning in November: Bill Rolley & Charlie Meadows

Nursery Duty This Week

Debbie Bartley (AM) — Celeste Peterson (PM) Tuesday: Ruth Wall

Jesus, the Name — Don Fortner

(Tune: #355 — From Every Stormy Wind that Blows — LM)

1. “Jesus!” — The name adored above,

The name that we supremely love,

The name which Satan most detests,

The name in which sinners find rest!

2. “Jesus!” — No name is half so sweet!

Jesus, our Savior, God complete,

Revives the broken, contrite soul,

And sins, and fears, and foes control!

3. “Jesus!” — Your name is my delight,

My food, my joy, my strength, my light,

The armor, I would ever wear,

My pledge of heav’n, my glory there!

“O the Depth!”

Romans 11:33-35

We cannot understand the goodness and severity of God in his infinite sovereignty. But beholding these things we have cause to worship this great God (Matthew 11:20-26).

Through the fall of Israel, God has brought salvation to elect Gentiles. Through the salvation of elect Gentiles, God is bringing his saving mercy and grace again to Israel, saving his elect among them by the gospel. And, in the end, all Israel, all of God’s elect, shall be saved. Not one of God’s elect shall perish.

Infinite

It is the great glory of God that in all things he is infinite. The very fact that God is infinite and incomprehensible is the basis of Paul’s praise. A god who can be understood is no god at all. But our God is infinite. He is beyond comprehension. The very Person of our God, his character and his works, his grace and his salvation, his purpose and his providence, is a mine so deep that no one can reach its depths, so full of riches that no one can calculate its fulness.

No mere creature will ever fathom the wisdom of God. Here Paul speaks specifically of the wisdom of God’s secret and eternal decrees. No man shall ever comprehend the perfect knowledge of the eternal God. Neither men nor angels have any perfect knowledge of God who knows all things. The judgments God exercises upon men and nations are beyond the reach of man’s discernment. And the ways of God in providence no one can find out. It is enough for us to know that —

“God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform;

He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.”

Supreme

If God’s infinite wisdom and knowledge are beyond the reach of human thought, if his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out, who is there in heaven, in earth, or in hell who can defy his supremacy (Romans 9:14, 19-21)?

No man knows the mind of God. His thoughts, his purpose, and his will are totally unknown unless God himself reveals them. And this revelation is made by Christ alone and in the Book of God alone. Only he who dwells in the bosom of the Father can declare him.

God has never taken counsel with any of his creatures, and never will. The counsel of peace and the covenant of grace were established between the Persons of the sacred Godhead. God needs no counsellor, for he is infinitely wise. And no man is capable of giving him counsel. That would be like the sun seeking light from a candle (Isaiah 40:13-17; Job 38:4-7).

What nonsense it is for any man to prescribe to God what he must do, or teach him how to govern the world! God is no man’s debtor. If God owes you anything, he will surely pay. But he owes you nothing, except the wages of sin, which is death. All of these things are true with regard to creation and providence, but Paul is specifically talking about election, redemption, and salvation. God has mercy on whom he will. God devised a way to save his chosen: Substitutionary Satisfaction! And God ordained the best possible way of saving his chosen by which we will be made most beneficial and he will be made most glorious.

Of Him, Through Him, and To Him

Romans 11:36

Here is an assertion of our great God’s glorious sovereignty. — “For of him, and through him, and to him are all things!” That is an absolute, unqualified assertion of unlimited, infinite sovereignty. Not only is the Lord our God supreme, he is totally sovereign. All things are of him. I place no limitations upon the sphere of God’s sovereignty. And I place no restrictions upon the works of God’s glorious sovereignty. He is totally and universally sovereign. Observe Paul’s language. “For of him, and through him, and to him are all things.” All things come from God. They are of God as to their source. They are through God as to the means of their accomplishment. And they are to God in their purpose. They are of him in the plan, through him in the working, and to him in the glory which they produce.

Creation and Providence

In all the works of creation and providence God is absolutely sovereign, and always exercises that absolute sovereignty (Genesis 1:1-5; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 11:1-3; Romans 8:28-30). God is before all things, and by him all things exist. There was a time when there was no one except the great I Am. God existed alone in the Trinity of his sacred Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. There was a time, before all time, when there was no day, but the Ancient of Days. In the infinite boundlessness of eternity God was alone in his glorious, ineffable Being. There was no sun, yet Jehovah dwelt in glorious light. There was no foundation for the earth, yet his throne was fixed and firm. There were no heavens, yet his glory was unlimited. God inhabited eternity in the infinite majesty and happiness of his own self-contained greatness. If God was indeed alone in eternity, the first thought, the first idea, and the first act of creation must have arisen from within his own infinite mind.

Eternal Decrees

All things are of God in plan, purpose, and design. Eternal wisdom gave birth to all the plans of all future creations. God ordained the size and orbit of every planet. God fixed the place of every star. God appointed the flow of every creek and river. God set the boundaries of the oceans. God determined the cycles of the wind. God ordained the height of every mountain and the space of every valley. God gave every creature of the earth his being, the place of his dwelling, the services he would perform, and the number of days he could live.

In his own glorious wisdom God mapped out the course of human history, and the course of every person in history. God ordained the heavenly host to be the servants of his chosen seed (Hebrews 1:14). God ordained the fall of our Father Adam. God ordained the entrance of sin into the world. God divided the race of humanity into the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. God ordained the time and course of every event in all the lives of all before time began (Matthew 10:30). When the plan was all fixed and settled, and almighty God ordered his purposes, he created the world. Mere arrangement and purpose was not enough. There must be an act as well as a purpose. And that act was creation. The only instrument of creation was the Word of God. God spoke the world into existence by Christ, the Word. God created the world out of nothing. God created all things in the world. And God created man in his own image.

The Grace Bulletin

October 29, 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