Grace Bulletin

 

January 23, 2005

 

GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE

2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Telephone (859) 236-8235 - 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              7:30 P.M. Mid-Week Worship Service

 

 

Television Broadcasts

 

Danville         Channel 6-Sunday Morning                       8:00 A.M.

                        Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening               6:00 P.M.

                        Channel 6 - Friday Evening                         7:00 P.M.

Harrodsburg Channel 6 - Friday Evening                         7:00 P.M.

 

Web Pages

http://www.donfortner.com

http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm

http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp

 

January 23, 2005

 

The best answer for slander is silence.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of January 23-30

        Sunday            Exodus 15-17                                  Thursday        Exodus 28-29

        Monday          Exodus 18-21                                  Friday             Exodus 30-32

        Tuesday          Exodus 22-24                                  Saturday          Exodus 33-34

        Wednesday     Exodus 25-27                                  Sunday            Exodus 35-37

 

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Vicci Rolley (AM) Teresa Coleman (PM)          Tuesday: Jenny Bartley

 

Saved by God’s Own Decree Don Fortner

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

 

1.        Saved by God’s own decree,

Before the worlds were made,

Accepted in our Surety,

We were eternally.

The work was fully done

When Christ the Lamb was slain,

When God accepted His dear Son.

His Word to us is plain. —

 

2.        Whom He did predestine,

He called and justified,

And whom He called by love divine,

He also glorified!

From hence our comforts flow,

To silence ev’ry fear.

All things are for our good we know. —

With this our souls are cheered.

 

3.        Named by our God as sons,

Redeemed by Jesus’ blood,

And by the Holy Spirit born,

We trust God’s purpose good.

The solemn oath of God

Confirms His cov’nant true,

And giving us faith in Christ’s blood,

The Spirit seals it, too.

 

4.        Our God, faithful and true,

With Christ the cov’nant made,

The cov’nant stands forever new,

Its glories never fade.

Through trials we must go,

So oft perplexed with fear,

May we by sweet experience know

Our cov’nant God is near!

 

10

“That I May Win Christ”

 

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”                     (Philippians 3:8)

 

What is it to “win Christ” It is to embrace him in the arms of our faith. It is to have his heavenly glory as our Savior and Redeemer, Lord and King revealed in our souls. It is to have his atoning blood sprinkled upon our hearts and consciences in all its purging efficacy. It is to have our hearts melted and swooning and ravished with his infinite, redeeming, dying love. It is to have the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts by his Spirit.

 

What can rival this? Truly, this is an “exceeding and an eternal weight of glory!” How infinite! How indescribable! How transcendent the everlasting, immutable love of God in Christ is! It is love that passes knowledge! Its length and breadth, depth and height are beyond measure. It is only by the saving power and grace of God the Holy Spirit that any poor sinner is able to say: “What things were gain to me, those I count loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord—that I may win Christ and be found in him.” This is winning Christ.

 

Before we can thus win Christ, we must have him revealed in us, we must behold his glory, “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” We must see the matchless dignity of his glorious Person, the atoning efficacy of his sin-atoning blood, and the perfection of his righteousness. Oh, that this blessed Immanuel would come down from the heaven of heavens, where he dwells beyond the veil, into our hearts and fill us with himself, that we “might be filled with all the fulness of God!”

 

Is this not the ambition of your soul? — “That I may win Christ!” When you arise in the morning, may your soul burst with this desire — “That I may win Christ!” When you walk through the day, let this be the panting of your heart — “That I may win Christ!” As you are engaged in your daily business, make this the one thing you must have — “That I may win Christ!” When you lay down upon your bed at the close of the day, make this the prayer of your heart — “That I may win Christ!

 

May God the Holy Spirit graciously enlighten your understanding and mine that we may see him with the eye of faith. May he cause us to daily “taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him!” May he give us such daily glimpses of our Savior’s beauty and glory that we are made to see more and more that “he is precious” beyond thought, that our hearts may constantly long and pine after him, crying, “That I may win Christ!

 

11

 

“And Be Found In Him”

 

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”

(Philippians 3:9)

 

Robert Hawker once asked, “Who shall undertake to describe that glory imparted to a poor worm of the earth, who is brought into union with God’s dear Son?” This is the believer’s standing. We are in Christ. This is Christianity. This is salvation — to be in Christ, nothing less, nothing more, nothing different. It is not partly in Christ and partly in the law, or partly in the ordinances, or partly in the church. To be saved is to be in Christ.

 

Religion is knowing doctrines and facts. Salvation is knowing God (John 17:3; 1 John 5:20). Religion is knowing what I believe. Christianity is knowing whom I believe (2 Tim. 2:12). Religion is being reformed. Salvation is being regenerated (John 3:3). Religion makes men new converts. Christianity makes us new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17). Religion is being in the church. Salvation is being in Christ (John 15:1; Eph. 5:30).

 

Believers are people who are in Christ. We are in him by God’s eternal decree, by the Holy Spirit’s mighty operations of grace, and by a living union of God-given faith.

 

To be in Christ is to have perfect righteousness before God. Our righteousness is not something we establish by performing good works, but something Christ established for us as our Representative before God. We do not make ourselves righteous by our obedience to God’s law. Christ made us righteous by his obedience to the law for us (Rom. 5:19).

 

Our righteousness before God is the righteousness of God in Christ imputed to us by God himself. As I stand before the holy Lord God, I want to be found in Christ. As I live in this world, I want to be found in Christ, having no righteousness of my own, but only the righteousness of God in Christ; when I offer any service, prayer, or sacrifice to him, having no righteousness of my own, but only the righteousness of God in Christ; when I leave this world, having no righteousness of my own, but only the righteousness of God in Christ; when I stand before his great bar of judgment, having no righteousness of my own, but only the righteousness of God in Christ.

 

Ever to thy Savior cling,

Trust in Him and none beside

Never let an earthly thing

Hide from thee the crucified

 

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