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God cannot be known by man except as God is pleased to make himself known to man. This he does by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit in the revelation of Christ through the preaching of the gospel.

Daily Readings for the Week of September 2-9, 2018

Sunday Ezekiel 40-41 Thursday Daniel 2-3

Monday Ezekiel 42-44 Friday Daniel 4-5

Tuesday Ezekiel 45-47 Saturday Daniel 6-8

Wednesday Ezekiel 48-Daniel 1 Sunday Daniel 9-10

· It has been our honor and joy to have all of you our guests for our conference this weekend. The planned dates for next year’s conference are August 30-September 1, 2019. Mark your calendar and plan to join us.

· There will be no service here tonight or Tuesday night.

Happy Birthday! Klaus Peterson-8^th Samuel Torson-8^th

Happy Anniversary: David & Betty Burge-7^th Jamie & Nicole Abell-15^th

Our Sovereign God Maintains His Universal Throne — Don Fortner

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

1. Our sov’reign God maintains His universal throne;

In heav’n, and earth, and hell He reigns, and makes His wonders known!

His counsels and decrees, firmer than mountains stand;

He will perform whate’er He please; and none can stay his hand!

2. All things His will controls; and His all-wise decree

Has fixed the destinies of all in matchless sov’reignty. —

Jacob by grace He saved, and gives no reason why;

But Esau’s heart He left depraved. — And who shall dare reply?

3. What if the Potter takes part of a lump of clay,

And for Himself a vessel makes and casts the rest away?

Who shall resist His will, or say, “What doest Thou?”

Jehovah is the Sov’reign still; and all to Him must bow!

4. My soul, bow and adore the Lord in all His ways;

His sov’reignty none can explore; but I will trust His grace!

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things:

To Whom be glory evermore! Amen! Amen! Amen!”

Hope

Pastor Henry Mahan

Somewhere between proud presumption and dread despair is the believer’s hope. Somewhere between fleshly familiarity with God and a slavish fear of God is the believer’s hope. Somewhere between modern decisionism and medieval fatalism is the believer’s hope. In the Word of God we are hedged in between the promises of God and his warnings. On one side we have his promises, lest we despair. On the other side we have his warnings, lest we presume.

The Solitariness of God

Exodus 15:11

The first recorded song in history was a song extolling the God of Glory for his solitariness as God, as it is displayed in redemption. Moses sang, “Who is a God like unto thee, O Lord?” The theme was repeated throughout the Old Testament Scriptures in the anticipation of Christ’s coming to save his people from their sins (Deuteronomy 33:29; Psalms 135:6; 71:19; 113:5; Jeremiah 49:19; 50:44; Micah 7:18). The Lord God declares his solitariness as God by issuing the challenge, “To whom will ye liken me?” (Isaiah 40:25; 46:5). That which separates and distinguishes God from all his creatures and from all that men call “gods” is his solitariness as God.

Inspires Reverence

We know that God is great in wisdom, wondrous in power, and abundant in mercy. But in these degenerate days of religious perversion, most people know nothing of God’s Being, his nature, and his attributes. There are very few who understand that God is infinite, majestic, great beyond imagination, and glorious. I want to do what I can to inspire your hearts and my own to trust, adore, and reverently worship the Lord our God, by constantly displaying the fact that God is solitary in his excellence and glory as God. There is no one and nothing in all the universe like our God. He is infinitely higher and greater than all his creation. It is the solitary excellence of God as God that inspires reverence for him, faith in him, and obedience to him. — Our God is incomprehensibly great!

One God

It must be stated and stated emphatically that there is one God, and only one (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 1 Timothy 2:5; Ephesians 4:4-6). God alone is solitary in his Being. There are many angels, many men, and many of all other creatures. But God is One. He “only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see; to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:16). Because there is one God, our allegiance is due to him alone, our affections are to be directed to him alone, and all who know, trust, and worship him are one body.

Alone Eternal

The one God alone is eternal. Angels are not eternal. Men are not eternal. And matter is not eternal. But God is eternal. In Genesis 1:1 we read, “In the beginning God.” In the beginning there was nothing and no one but God. There was a “time” before time began, when God dwelt alone in the ineffable glory of his own great Being. There was no heaven in which he set his throne and manifested his glory. There was no earth to be his footstool, to engage his care. There were no angels to sing his praise. There was no universe to be upheld by the word of his power. There were no men created in his image and after his likeness. There were no hours, days, months, years, or ages. From everlasting, in old eternity, God was alone in his glory.

He is the great “I Am,” “the eternal God,” who says, “I live forever!” The psalmist says of him, “Thy throne is established of old; thou art from everlasting” (Psalm 93:2). He is the first and the last, “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity” (Isaiah 57:15). This great God, who is alone eternal, is and must be the Creator, Possessor, Ruler, and Disposer of all things.

“God is Spirit”

John 4:24

In his indescribable solitariness, God is Spirit, eternal and incomprehensible. Our Lord Jesus Christ declares, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The Bible often ascribes to God terms such as “the hand of the Lord,” “the mouth of the Lord,” “the eyes of the Lord,” “the arm of the Lord,” and “the ears of the Lord.” But these terms are mere accommodations of language to help our puny brains understand the works of God. They are anthropomorphic terms, human terms, used to describe the works of the Lord God. But they do not, in any way, represent the nature and being of God.

Idolatry Forbidden

As you read the Bible you cannot fail to notice that never once were men given any kind of physical, visible, tangible representation of God’s Being. Even under the types and shadows of the Old Testament age of ceremonial worship nothing was given as a representation of God’s Being. All the types and shadows of the law represented his work of redemption through Christ. But nothing represented God himself. Why? Because God is Spirit. He is the infinite, incomprehensible, invisible, omnipresent Spirit.

Because God is Spirit, he expressly forbids every form of idolatry (Exodus 20:3-6). The law of God forbids the acceptance of any other god, the worship of God through any image or icon, the representation of God by anything visible, and the use of religious images, symbols, or pictures. That includes pictures representing our Savior, crosses, crucifixes, imaginary representations of angels or angelic forms, and religious relics.

Spiritual Worship

All true worship and service rendered to God must be spiritual, heart worship. It is not sufficient to come before God on bended knee, with prostrate body, or with words of praise. We must worship God with our spiritual nature, our souls, our hearts, our minds, and our wills, in and by his Holy Spirit (John 4:23-24; Philippians 3:3).

“The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)

“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3)

We must worship God alone. We must worship God spiritually. We must worship God sincerely. We must worship God in truth, in accordance with revealed truth.

The Grace Bulletin

September 2, 2018

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