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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

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No one has ever been saved by walking an aisle, kneeling at an altar, saying “the sinner’s prayer,’ making a decision for Jesus, getting baptized, joining the church, or by anything else they might do. Salvation is God’s work alone. — “By grace ye are saved!”

Daily Readings for the Week of August 18-25, 2019

Sunday Lamentations 3-5 Thursday Ezekiel 13-15

Monday Ezekiel 1-4 Friday Ezekiel 16

Tuesday Ezekiel 5-8 Saturday Ezekiel 17-19

Wednesday Ezekiel 9-12 Sunday Ezekiel 20-21

Nursery Duty Today — Brittany Torson

Christ is My Sabbath Rest — Don Fortner

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

1. The sabbath day, that day of rest,

Was sanctified and blest

To point us to our Savior Christ,

In whom alone is rest.

2. That legal sabbath ended when

Christ died and rose again.

Yet, there’s a sabbath that remains,

A rest that’s found in Him.

3. “Come unto Me,” the Savior said,

“And I will give you rest.”

O weary sinners, cease from works,

Trust Christ and find sweet rest.

4. Ah, sweet refreshment for my soul,

The rest of faith is rest!

Ceasing from works, I trust God’s Son. —

Christ is my Sabbath Rest!

“We Speak the Wisdom of God in a Mystery”

(1 Corinthians 2:7)

The gospel of God is a mystery revealed. There are many, many things revealed in this wondrous mystery no mortal can understand. But believing God’s revelation of them, we rejoice in them, as we bow to God’s revelation of himself in his Word and worship. I do not know how God could become a man and never cease to be God, but he did. I do not know how the omniscient God could learn as a child, but he did. I do not know how the almighty, the immutable God could hunger and thirst, but he did. I do not know how the eternal God could die and yet never die, but he did. I do not know how the infinite, omnipresent, incomprehensible triune God can reside in the body of a man, but he does. And I do not know how the holy Lamb of God could be made sin and yet never cease to be God the Holy One, but he was. I make no effort to explain these great mysteries. But I rejoice and give thanks to God for them.

“I Am Become Vile”

(Lamentations 1:11)

As we read this passage of Holy Scripture, we hear the all-holy Christ, the spotless, sinless Lamb of God make a shocking confession. — “See, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile!” How can this be? Can these truly be the words of him who is “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners?” Is it possible that that One who had no sin, did no sin, and knew no sin could bow before the triune Jehovah with broken heart and cry, “I am become vile”?

For a man to say that of him, would be utter blasphemy at its greatest depth, if he did not declare it himself. But if he declares it of himself, though no man can comprehend the mystery or explain the wonder of it, we can and should fall on our faces before him and worship in utter astonishment.

When our Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for us, when the reproaches of them that reproached the Almighty fell on him, when he bare our sin in his own body on the tree, the Lamb of God made himself vile before the triune Jehovah that he might be justly punished as our Substitute. Read what the Savior says about himself, when he was made sin for us who knew no sin (Psalm 40:12; 69:5-9, 19-20); and hear him with humble faith and reverent joy.

Ezekiel 4

Let me give you just one illustration of this vileness which our blessed Savior claims as his own for us. O wonder of wonders! O mercy of mercies! His beauty made ours makes us the perfection of beauty, only because our vileness made his made him vile, when he was made sin for us!

In Ezekiel 4 the Lord God sent his prophet to the nation to declare wrath and judgment. But, in the midst of the declaration, he gave a picture of hope. Ezekiel was required to lay on his side, first on his left for 390 days and then on his right for 40 days. Each of the 390 days represented the 390 years of Israel’s open rebellion and turning to idolatry in setting up their golden calves at Dan and Bethel. The 40 days on his right side represented the 40 years of idolatry under Manasseh’s wicked, idolatrous reign in Judah.

Ezekiel was required to lay on his side as one man bearing the sins of many, and bearing them to the full extent of their just punishment, “according to their iniquity!” As he did so, he made himself polluted, unclean, and vile by God’s command, eating his bread (one 12 ounce loaf a day made of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and fitches) smeared over with cow’s dung (vv. 12-15).

2 Corinthians 5:21

So it was with our blessed Savior, when he suffered the wrath of God in our stead upon the cursed tree. — “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Every effort of men to explain how the Son of God was made sin for us falls infinitely short and should be an embarrassment to the man who made the effort. Who can understand, let alone explain this wondrous mystery? Rejoice, my soul, in knowing this — The Lord Jesus Christ really was made sin for us, and God’s elect really are made the righteousness of God in him!

Immanuel’s Indescribable Sorrow

(Lamentations 1:12-14)

Here is a vision of indescribable sorrow. “All ye that pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.” Is any sorrow so deep, so undeserved, so effectual? What strong language our Savior uses here to declare that his indescribable sorrow is a sorrow that the Lord God himself put upon him. The Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily endured the painful, shameful, ignominious, violent death of the cross for sinners like you and me, that he might save his people from their sins and have us with him forever in the bliss and glory of his heavenly kingdom.

What mind can conceive, what tongue can declare the pain, agony, and sorrow the Lord Jesus Christ endured yonder at Calvary when he bore my sin in his own body on the tree and died in my place under the just fury and holy wrath of the Almighty? As he hangs there under the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, the divine Sufferer sends out a challenge. — “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow!” There is no sorrow in all the world, not even in the deepest, darkest pit of hell, like the sorrow of our Lord Jesus Christ enduring the terrible wrath and justice of God as my Substitute.

What was his sorrow, the sorrow done unto him, the sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger? Holiness was made sin! Innocence was made guilty! The spotless Lamb of God was made vile! The obedient Son was forsaken by his Father at the apex of his obedience! The righteous and faithful Servant of Jehovah was punished for rebellion and treason against the God of Heaven when he was most faithful! The Just One was executed by the sword of justice, because he who is holy, harmless, and undefiled was made sin and had become vile!

Who did this to this man? Who heaped such sorrow upon him? Who made him sin? Who ordered his execution? Hear him, as he tells us. — All this sorrow was done unto him by his own Father. It is that “wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.” Yes, Jehovah laid on him the iniquity of all his elect. The yoke of his transgressions was bound by God’s own hand and laid on him. Our sins were wreathed by God’s own hand into a yoke of thorns (like the crown made by the hands of wicked men from the thorns of this cursed earth) and laid on his neck. The Holy Lord God sent fire into his bones that prevailed against him. God made him sin for us. God made the Holy One of Israel vile for us. God forsook him. And God killed him.

All this agony was heaped upon the Lord Jesus by His Father! Yet, it was all undertaken and voluntarily endured by the Lord Jesus as our faithful Mediator and Surety (John 10:11, 15-18). He did not have to die. Death had no claim upon him. We had no claim upon him. We despised him and rejected him. We did not want him. Yet, he voluntarily laid down his life in our place, that he might reconcile us to God. He was willingly made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him! He died by the hands of men as well as for the sake of men. The Lord of Glory died for sinners who wished that he should be made to die.

There can be no explanation for the sufferings and death of the Son of God, but this: — “He loved us and gave himself for us!” Oh, what wondrous love is revealed at Calvary! Because he loved us with an everlasting love, the Son of God was made sin for us that he might die by the hands of divine justice to save us from our sins!

The Grace Bulletin

August 18, 2019

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