Grace Bulletin
February 20, 2005
GRACE BAPTIST
CHURCH of DANVILLE
Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Sunday
10:30
A.M. Morning Worship Service
6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
Tuesday
Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening
Channel 6 - Friday Evening
Harrodsburg Channel
6 - Friday Evening
http://www.donfortner.com
http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm
http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp
It is not my business to determine, or even
imagine that I can know, the spiritual health of another. It is my business to
esteem all who are in Christ as Christ himself, and to love and serve them as I
would Christ himself.
Daily
Sunday Numbers
27-29 Thursday Deuteronomy 2-4
Monday Numbers
30-32 Friday Deuteronomy 5-7
Tuesday Numbers
33-35 Saturday Deuteronomy 8-11
Wednesday Numbers
36-Deut. 1 Sunday Deuteronomy 12-14
Today:
When Conscience Charges Me with Guilt Don Fortner
(Tune:
When I Survey #118 LM)
1.
When
conscience charges me with guilt
And
Moses would my soul condemn,
With
Satans accusations felt,
I look
to Christ to answer them.
2.
When in
my room and place He stood,
Made sin (O mystery of God!)
He
ransomed me with His own blood,
And satisfied the holy God.
3.
Now
justice smiles, with mercy sweet,
And
tells me I am reconciled.
Yes,
truth and mercy run to meet
And
kiss this sinful, mourning child!
4.
I look
to Christ upon His throne,
The
mercy-seat, the throne of grace,
There
interceding for His own.
My Advocate! He is my peace!
This is my
consolation in the matter: God has saved me with an everlasting
salvation. Christ brought in everlasting righteousness for me and obtained
eternal redemption for me by His shed blood and the Spirit has given unto me
eternal life. Gods grace in Christ has covered eternity for me and me for
eternity! Pastor Gary Shepard
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Where Can A Guilty Sinner
Find Peace?
There is nothing in all the world so tormenting as guilt. I do not doubt that the very fires of hell, that cannot be quenched, are relentlessly fueled by an indescribable sense of guilt tormenting the soul. The worm that never dies in the pit of the damned, that undying worm that forever gnaws upon the fully awakened consciences of the damned is guilt.
But even in this world, there is nothing more tormenting to a man than a sense of guilt. I am not talking about mere sense of guilt with regard to men, but a consciousness of guilt before the infinite, holy, eternal God! Some of you are struggling with such guilt. Your screaming conscience torments you day and night. You have tried to silence it with prayers, Bible reading, moral reformation, and religious duty. But when you toss upon your bed in the lonely watches of the night, alone before God, you find that your bed is too short and your covering too narrow, and you cannot rest. Your refuge of lies is swept away in a moment before the bar of Gods holiness, justice, and truth. In your very soul you cry and weep, tremble and quake with an overwhelming sense of guilt and the fear of eternal damnation. You cannot rest. You have found, and find day after day, that there is no rest for the wicked.
Some of you who are my brothers and sisters in Christ, true believers, some of you who are born of God, yet struggle with a horrible sense of guilt. You know that Christ paid your sin debt; but you still carry the weight of guilt. Oh, what an unbearable weight it is! You know that the Lord Jesus has redeemed you from the curse of the law; but you still carry the weight of the condemned in your soul. You know that Christ is the Lord your Righteousness, that you are made the righteousness of God in him; but your soul is still filled with guilt. Why? Because you are keenly aware of your own, inward lusts and sin. You still bear your own iniquities in your soul.
There is nothing that makes
the life of a poor, tender soul so painfully bitter as
this oppressive, unbearable load of sin and guilt. Satan knows that there is no
yoke so oppressive, no bondage so cruel to your soul
as this. Therefore, he constantly accuses you, and your flesh says, Amen, to
his accusations.
A Message from God
I have a message from God
for your soul. It is specifically to you who carry the weight of sin and guilt
in your souls that I speak. If God the Holy Spirit will give you ears to hear,
eyes to see, and a heart to believe what he declares to us in 2 Corinthians
5:21, you will find its message worth more than a mountain of gold to your
soul. I call your attention to one statement found in this sweet text. The
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declaration of God the Holy Spirit to
which I direct your attention is so simple and clear that it is stated in five,
short, one syllable words. Yet, in these five words God the Holy Spirit teaches
us the most important, most profound, most mysterious, and most soul-cheering
thing in all the universe. He hath made him sin.
I did not misquote the text.
The words to be, are italicized in your Bible. That means they were
inserted by our translators to make the text read more smoothly, though there
are no words corresponding to them in the text. In this case the words simply
should not be there. He hath made him sin.
Context
In this passage Paul is
calling us to faith in Christ. He urges us to be reconciled to God upon the
basis of reconciliation already made at the cross, promising righteousness, the
very righteousness of God, to all who trust Christ. This message, he urges us
to believe, and to believe now. His message is both urgent and authoritative,
for it comes to us from one who speaks as the very ambassador of God. Indeed,
it is God himself speaking to us by him (2 Cor.
But the entire message of
this passage, indeed, the entire message of the Bible is built and hangs upon
this one profoundly glorious fact. He hath made him sin. We cannot
be made new creatures in Christ until He hath made him sin. God cannot
reconcile us to himself until He hath made him sin. We cannot be
reconciled to God until He hath made him sin. We cannot be made the
righteousness of God in Christ until He hath made him sin. We cannot
receive grace until He hath made him sin.
What a profound truth, what stupendous grace, what wondrous mystery these words contain I cannot tell you. He, God the Father, hath, in holy justice and infinite mercy, made, to become, created, Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, his infinite, well-beloved, only begotten, immaculate Son, sin, an awful mass of iniquity, for us, helpless, condemned, sinful rebels!
This is the greatest transaction that ever took place upon the earth, the most marvelous sight that men ever saw, and the most stupendous wonder that heaven ever executed. Jesus Christ was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus Christ, the spotless Son of God, was made sin!
If ever we find rest, peace, and joy in our souls, if ever a sinner is made to be of good cheer, having the blessed knowledge of the forgiveness of sin, it must be fetched from that which is declared in our text. He hath made him sin for us. No sinner will ever find real rest for his soul, a bed that he can stretch himself upon and a cover broad enough to wrap himself in, but this. He hath made him sin for us.
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