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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

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The gospel of Christ is not the ABCs of Christianity. The gospel is the A to Z of Christianity, and everything between A and Z.

Daily Readings for the Week of October 21-28, 2018

Sunday Luke 12 Thursday Luke 19-20

Monday Luke 13-14 Friday Luke 21-22

Tuesday Luke 15-16 Saturday Luke 23

Wednesday Luke 17-18 Sunday Luke 24

Happy Birthday! Susan Grant-28^th

Nursery Duty Today: Jayalita McCormack (AM) —Stephanie Wilkerson (PM)

To Know the Love of Christ — Don Fortner

(Tune: #497 — When I Can Read My Title Clear— CM)

1. How bless’d are they who know the love

Which moved the Son of God

To undertake their cause above,

And ransom them with blood!

2. Its length and breadth, its depth, and height,

Surpass all human thought;

Its sov’reign acts, its conquering might,

Are by His Spirit taught.

3. O God, my God, I long to know

My dear Redeemer’s love: —

His cov’nant bonds! — His work below! —

His deeds of grace above!

4. It is eternal, matchless, free,

Immutable, and strong!

I know it, for it conquered me;

And now it is my song!

Limited Atonement

We believe, rejoice in, and preach, without apology, the great and glorious Gospel doctrine of particular and effectual redemption accomplished by the precious, sin-atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ — Limited Atonement.

I defy anyone to find any place in the Book of God that even hints at the possibility that Christ shed his blood for those who perish in hell as well as those who are saved by it. Everywhere in Scripture, in every place, every chapter, every verse, every prophecy, every picture, and every type which speaks of or in any way explains the great and glorious redemptive work of Christ, it is always set before us as the redemption of a specific people and a redemption that is effectually accomplished, a redemption by which specific people (God’s elect) are actually redeemed.

Three Gospel Truths

Isaiah 53:6

In this portion of Holy Scripture, the prophet Isaiah speaks as the representative of God’s elect. And in this one verse of Inspiration he plainly states three Gospel truths experienced, believed, and confessed by every person who is born again by God’s almighty grace. Here are three Gospel doctrines held in common by all true believers.

Original Sin

“All we like sheep have gone astray.” — That is the doctrine of original sin. It is called original sin, because it was the first sin. We all went astray from God in the sin and fall of our father Adam (Psalm 14:3; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). This is the doctrine of original sin as it is set forth in the Word of God. Adam was the federal head and representative of all men. Adam’s sin was imputed to all men, because we all sinned in Adam. God does not impute sin where there is no sin. Adam’s sin was imputed to us all because we all sinned in our father Adam. — “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Adam’s depraved nature is imparted to all men by natural generation.

Personal Depravity

In Adam we suffered a great fall and a great loss. We fell from God’s favor into condemnation. We fell from sinlessness into sinfulness. We lost original righteousness, fellowship with God, access to God, and all spiritual life. We fell from life into death, from liberty into bondage, from peace into enmity, and from light into darkness. But that is not all. We are sinners by birth, sinners by nature (Psalm 51:5; Matthew 15:19). And we are all sinners by personal choice too.

This is the doctrine of personal depravity. — “We have turned everyone to his own way.” Because the heart of man, at birth, “is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9; Genesis 6:5), we are all “estranged from the womb” and go astray as soon as we are born, speaking lies (Psalm 58:3). — “We have turned everyone to his own way.”

God’s elect are like all other people by nature, ever going astray from God. Like sheep, foolish and ignorant, we ever stray from the Good Shepherd and the fold of grace, and from the path of peace and the way of life. Until we were looked up, sought out, and brought back by the Shepherd, we would never have returned. We had neither the will nor the ability to return to our God. Rather, we “turned everyone to his own way,” the way of his own choosing. Yet, there is hope because of…

Substitutionary Redemption

“And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” — The Triune Jehovah, the Lord God against whom we have sinned, from whom we have strayed, whose law we have broken, whose justice must be satisfied, has laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ, his own dear Son, all the sins of all his elect. The Son of God was made sin for us, so that he might be justly punished for sin in our stead, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“The Lord hath Laid on Him the Iniquity of Us All”

Isaiah 53:6

Our sins have all been laid on Christ, our great Substitute, by whose death justice has been satisfied and our sins forever put away.

Iniquity Itself

Our iniquity itself was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only was the Lord of Glory punished for sin, he was made sin. Not only did Christ bear the wrath and indignation of God against sin, he was made sin. The Son of God was made sin for us because there was no possible way for God’s elect to be discharged of their sins, but for Christ to be made sin.

God’s eternal determination to redeem was a matter of pure, free, sovereign grace. God did not have to redeem anyone. There was nothing in us to compel God’s favor. But once God determined to redeem and save an elect people, he could do it only by the satisfaction of justice, only by making Christ to be sin for us. If righteousness could come by law, by anything we could do, or in any other way, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21).

The holy Lord God could not justify his people unless he found a way to make them righteous; and he could not punish his Son unless he made him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (Proverbs 17:15). The Triune Jehovah looked upon Christ as the Surety of his elect in the covenant of grace, and said, — “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom” (Job 33:24). — And he “Laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Real Transfer

All the sins of all the elect were gathered together as one huge, hideous, obnoxious load, and made to meet upon Christ. He was made to be sin for us and punished as the sinner in our place (Psalms 40:12; 69:5; Zechariah 13:7). — Our text is talking about a real transfer of sin, not just a post-it note on the Savior’s forehead saying “sin.” — No! — “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all!” — “He hath made him to be sin for us!” By this means “the law and justice of God had full satisfaction and our recovery from ruin and destruction is procured” (John Gill).

Yes, this was a real transfer of sin and guilt. Our iniquity really did become our Substitute’s iniquity, when the Lord God laid it on him. Speaking as our Substitute, the Son of God cried, “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me...My sins are not hid from thee” (Psalms 40:12; 69:5). Jesus Christ never knew sin. Yet, he died as the greatest sinner who ever lived, for he was made sin for us, and was made to bear in his body all the sins of all his elect.

Christ really did bear all our sin, just as a Surety is really the debtor when he willingly puts himself in the room of another. Christ gave his bond as our Surety in the covenant of grace. The Lord God, having accepted Christ as our Surety, cannot look for payment from us. If he will have payment for sin, he must have it from him upon whom the debt has been laid (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

Payment God cannot twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety’s hand, and then again at mine!

The Grace Bulletin

October 21, 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