Grace Bulletin

 

February 20, 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

 


February 20, 2005

 

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 Readings for the Week of February 20-27

        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

 

Missionary Offering Today — Your faithful support of our missionaries is greatly appreciated by your pastor. I encourage you to drop each of them regular notes of encouragement, letting them know your appreciation of them and your intercessions to our God on their behalf.

 

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Regina Henson (AM) Diane Campbell (PM)       Tuesday: Laura Peterson

 

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 Satan’s 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!

 

Everlasting Blessing in Christ

 

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. — God’s 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.

 

An Unbearable Burden

 

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 God’s 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. 5:17-6:2).

 

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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