December 18, 2005
“Even the wrath of man is yoked to the chariot wheels of God’s decrees.” Edward Dennett
Daily Readings for the Week of December 18-25
Sunday Hebrews 11-12 Thursday 2 Peter 1-3
Monday Hebrews 13-James 2 Friday 1 John 1-5
Tuesday James 3-1 Peter 1 Saturday 2 John -Jude
Wednesday 1 Peter 2-5 Sunday Revelation 1-3
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Celeste Peterson-19th
NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK
Today: Vicci Rolley (AM) Pam Wood (PM) Tuesday: Laura Peterson
When He came, our God and King — Don Fortner
(Tune: #93 — Hark! The Herald Angels Sing — 77.77D )
With His praises in the sky, — “Glory to our God on high.”
God the Son, from Glory bright, comes to men the Light of Life,
David’s son and David’s God, Son of Man and Son of God!
Come to live and die for us, that in grace God might be just.
Well may sinners now rejoice! Trusting Him, lift up your voice!
God’s great Gift — (Unspeakable!), brings us grace unsearchable!
All the fulness of our God dwells in Him who shed His blood!
Soon His ransomed all shall know all the glory God can show,
And in bliss immortal sing, “Hallelujah!” to our King!
Well indeed might the Apostle say, “Great is the mystery of godliness.” Here as in a mirror we see the wonderful love of Jesus, that he who is the Son of God, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, a sharer of the Father's essence, of the Father's glory, should stoop so low to lift us up so high; that he should condescend to unite to his glorious Person our nature, flesh and blood; to wear a human body like our own; to feel as we do, to speak as we do, to walk as we do, to eat and drink and hunger and thirst and weep and sigh and mourn as we do; yet all the while be the Son of God, and should have a divine nature in as close union with human nature as our soul has with our bodily frame.
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“Jesus” — Who is he?
“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)
Who is this one called “Jesus”? That may appear to be a very strange question. You have heard about Jesus all your life. You may think, “Pastor, everyone knows who Jesus is.” If you do, you are very much mistaken. The fact is, very few people in this world know who the Lord Jesus Christ is. The Jesus “worshipped” in most churches is nothing but the idolatrous figment of man’s depraved imagination (Matt. 24:23-24). Who is this Jesus? Who is the Christ of the Bible? Will the real Jesus please stand up? Read the Book of God, and he will.
We must know, worship and trust the Christ of God, if we would know God, and be saved and accepted of him (John 17:3). If we trust a false Christ, no matter how sincere and devoted we are, we are lost, under the wrath of God, and utterly deceived. Allow me to show you from the Scriptures who this Jesus is of whom it is written, “He shall save his people from their sins.”
This Jesus, who is the Christ, is God the Son, the second person of the holy trinity. When the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, it is declaring that he is himself God the eternal Son, one with and in every way equal with the Father and the Spirit (1 John 5:7).
We who believe are the sons of God by adoption. He is the Son of God by nature. To say that he is the Son of God is to declare that this man who is called “Jesus” is himself “over all God, blessed forever.” That is not the language of a theological creed, but the very words of Holy Scripture (Rom. 9:5). He is not just a god, a great creature of God, or someone like God. Jesus Christ is himself God. “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16; John 1:1-3; 1:18; Col. 2:9-10).
All the attributes of divinity belong to him. He is the Creator, Sustainer, Ruler and Disposer of all things. He is the Revelation of God. He is the very embodiment of God. Those who speak otherwise speak blasphemy. If Jesus Christ is not God, he is not a good man, but an imposter, a charlatan, a fake, and a liar. If he is anything less than the almighty, infinite, eternal God, then we have no Savior, and we are yet in our sins. None but God could satisfy the wrath and justice of God to make atonement for our sins. That man who was born at Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago, who died upon the cross, who rose again the third day, and now sits upon the throne of glory, is himself God. The child born of Mary’s virgin womb is the Son of God given to save his people from their sins (Isa. 9:6).
The Everlasting Substitute
This Jesus, who is God in human flesh, is the sinner’s Substitute. He is the Daysman, the Representative, the Surety, the Mediator, the Substitute, by whose obedience unto death chosen sinners are reconciled unto God, without whom we could never be accepted of God.
The key to understanding the Word of God is understanding the gospel doctrine of substitution. Christ stood before God in the covenant of grace as our Substitute
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before the world began. He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). He is the Mediator in whom we were chosen and blessed (Eph. 1:3-6). He is the Surety trusted by God to save us, upon whose pledge we were saved from everlasting (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Tim. 1:9).
The Lord Jesus lived in obedience to God as our Substitute in this world to fulfil all righteousness for his people (Rom. 5:19). He died in the place of his chosen sinners under the wrath of God as our Substitute upon the cursed tree (Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21). The Christ of God, “Jesus,” that man who is God, intercedes as our Advocate in heaven, as our great High Priest, as our Substitute before the throne f grace (1 John 2:1-2). And this same “Jesus” will stand before the bar of God’s strict, inflexible justice as our Substitute in the day of judgment, as that One by whose merit justice demands the everlasting salvation of all for whom he lived, and died, and rose again.
Be sure you understand this glorious, gospel doctrine of substitution. If Jesus Christ is indeed God (and he is!), then all which he undertook to do as our Substitute must be effectually and completely accomplished by him. Those he undertook to save must and shall be saved. “He shall save his people from their sins!” “He shall not fail!
Many who claim to believe that Jesus Christ is God, and would fight you if you said they do not, in reality deny his deity, just as certainly as those who say he was not really virgin born. By denying the infallible efficacy of his substitutionary work, by asserting that he tries to redeem and save multitudes who are in fact lost in hell, they deny his very Godhead. The Jesus they “worship” is no Savior at all, for he lacks the essential character of God.
The Effectual Savior
This Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, who is himself the Mighty God, is the Savior of his people. “He shall save his people from their sins.” “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” It is nowhere written that he tries to save! A god who tries to do anything is no God at all. Christ alone is our Savior. He is our able, competent Savior (Heb. 7:25). He is our complete Savior (1 Cor. 1:30). And he is our effectual Savior. When he cried, “It is finished,” he meant it.
The Enthroned Sovereign
This Jesus, this man who is God, in order that he might save his people, now reigns upon the throne of universal monarchy to give eternal life to all who were given to him in covenant mercy to save (John 17:2). By virtue of his eternal Godhead and as the reward for his obedience as our Substitute, “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living” (Rom. 14:9).
Do you know this Christ? Do you understand who this Jesus s? Do you see why they called him “Jesus”? He is the Son of God. He is the sinner’s Substitute. He is the Savior of his people. He is the sovereign Monarch of the universe.
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Grace Bulletin
December 18, 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
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
Channel 6 - Sunday Morning 8:00 A.M.
Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening 6:00 P.M.
Channel 6 - Friday Evening 7:00 P.M.
http://www.donfortner.com
http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm
http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp