June 19, 2005
As
Priscilla and Aquila were Paul’s “helpers in
Christ,” gracious God, make me a helper, rather than a hinderer to your
people.
Daily Readings for the Week of June 19-26
Sunday Psalm
51-59 Thursday Psalm 79-86
Monday Psalm
60-68 Friday Psalm 87-92
Tuesday Psalm
69-73 Saturday Psalm 93-102
Wednesday Psalm
74-78 Sunday Psalm 103-106
·
We will
have our Quarterly Fellowship Dinner following our morning worship service today. There will be no service
here tonight.
·
Missionary Offering Today
Bill
Rolley-21st Evan Rolley-22nd Bob Duff-24th Josh Peterson-25th
Ruth
Peterson-25th Walter
Groover-25th
Praise the Triune God Above — Don Fortner
(Tune: # 84 — Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus — 87.87)
Praise the God of our salvation: —
Praise the Father’s boundless love,
Praise the Son for our redemption,
Praise the triune God above,
Praise the Spirit for His calling,
Bringing life, and faith, and love,
Father, Son and Spirit reigning,
Praise the triune God above!
It is our great privilege to assist other local
churches when we have opportunity to do so. There are three churches we can
help.
Albany, GA — Recently, Bro. Mark Daniel
was dismissed from the pulpit of the congregation in Albany, GA, that had
called him as pastor just eight months earlier. He was dismissed for daring to
assert, as the Scriptures clearly do, that Christ was “made sin for us”
(2 Cor. 5:21). The wickedness of the men involved in that action resulted in
the gathering of a group in Albany who desire to establish a gospel church.
Pray for them as they seek God’s direction in this new work.
Princeton,
NJ — A few families have asked that I help them in establishing a gospel
church in Princeton, NJ. I will be going up as often as possible and arranging
for other preachers to fill the pulpit until the Lord is pleased to raise up a
pastor for them. Again, pray for this assembly and for me as I endeavor to
assist them.
Franklin,
TN — Our friends at West Harpeth Grace Church in Franklin, TN (Pastor
Chris Cunningham) have just purchased a place of worship. We want to help
them with the purchase of this excellent facility. If you would like to assist
this assembly, please mark your gifts “Franklin Church.” Any offerings marked
for that purpose will be sent to help this congregation.
22
The Scriptures declare that God’s elect were “accepted in the Beloved”
and “blessed with all spiritual blessings” in him “before the
foundation of the world.” Were we accepted and blessed in and with Christ
from eternity as righteous or as unrighteous? The obvious answer is the only
answer: — as righteous. In 1647 Samuel Richardson declared the same sweet revelation of
the gospel…
“Some place justification
to be only in the conscience.
But we place it only in Christ
where it is, and to whom it belongs. Justification
consists in taking away of sin. None but Christ can do that. Justification and acceptation are one. For
without justification there is
no acceptation. And seeing we are accepted in Christ, we are justified in him. If our justification be a spiritual blessing,
(as it is) then it is in Christ where all spiritual blessings are, "Blessed
be God, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ," Eph. 1:3. Where our redemption and righteousness are, there is our justification. Righteousness and justification are one. This we have not in our selves but in
Christ, "who is made unto us of God, wisdom and righteousness,"
1 Cor. 1:30. "In whom we
have redemption," Col. 1:14.
Our justification is a part of
our completeness. Therefore, where we are complete there we are justified. But we are not complete in
our selves, but in Him, Col. 2:10.”
Blessed, sweet revelation of grace. — Our Lord Jesus Christ is “The Lord Our Righteousness” eternally! — “Accepted in the Beloved!” What a sweet, soul-cheering declaration of grace. Though I am in and of myself nothing but sin, I am accepted in Christ. — Accepted in Christ before the world was made! — Accepted in Christ, though fallen in Adam! — Accepted in Christ before ever I heard his voice! — Accepted in Christ when he called me by his grace! — Accepted in Christ though often in darkness because of my own sin and unbelief! — Accepted in Christ immutably and forever!
I’m accepted! I’m accepted! I’m accepted in God’s Son!
Justified, pardoned, accepted — Holy as the Holy One!
Blest of God with every blessing, long before the world began!
Loved of God and one with Jesus, who can charge my soul with sin?
Heir of God, joint-heir with Jesus, heaven’s gates I’ll enter in!
Face to face, I’ll see my Savior, He Who put away my sin!
Lamb of God, eternal Savior, I will ever praise Your name!
Worthy, worthy, worthy ever is the Lamb for sinners slain!
See Him yonder, high exalted, King and Priest upon His throne!
Reign, almighty King, forever! Everywhere, Your will be done.
When is finished all the purpose of our God, the Three-in-One,
All Your saints will bow before You, casting at Your feet their crowns.
23
“Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28)
The church of God
is that which God purchased with his own blood. Yes, he who died upon the
cursed tree is himself our God.
Atonement for sin
stands or falls with the deity of Christ. All who deny our Savior’s deity deny
the atonement. What value or merit can there be in the blood of a mere man? And
all who deny the efficacy of his atonement, that is to say, all who deny that
all for whom the Savior died shall be saved by the grace and power of his
Spirit, deny his deity. They make his most important work, his most stupendous
task, and that upon which the triune God hangs his glory as God a failure,
asserting that he fails to accomplish his purpose in dying, that he shall never
see of the travail of his soul with satisfaction. Such doctrine denies
atonement altogether. Such doctrine leaves sinners with no atoning sacrifice
for sin and no hope.
The gospel of God
is the revelation of the glory of God in the face of his crucified Son. When,
with the eye of faith, we see the doing and dying of the Son of God, when we
see Immanuel obeying the law, rendering by his obedience and death complete
satisfaction to the violated justice of the Most High, offering a sin-atoning
sacrifice to God for sin, then we see how the holy God can be “a just God
and a Savior.” In the face of the crucified Lamb of God we see such glory,
merit, and efficacy breathing through every thought, word, and action of our
all-glorious Christ, that we embrace him, all that he is, all that he has
accomplished, and all that he has, with every desire and affection of our
heaven born souls.
Christ
crucified is all our hope and the whole of our religion. All God given faith,
hope, and love flow unto, and are fixed and concentrated in Jesus Christ and
him crucified. Nothing else can save and sanctify. Nothing else can clear the
conscience of guilt, speak pardon to the soul, support us in life, comfort us
in death, and make us fit for eternity. When the Lord Jesus Christ is thus
revealed to us and in us by the omnipotent mercy of God the Holy Spirit, when
he is brought near, we see, with the eye of faith, his pure and perfect
humanity and his eternal deity. And these two distinct natures we see combined,
but not intermingled, in one glorious Person, Immanuel, God with us. Until thus
favored of God, a person may see the deity of Christ taught in the Scriptures
and believe it as a point of doctrine; but he does not have that faith that
appropriates the doing and dying of the God-man to himself, saying with Thomas,
“My Lord and my God.”
24
Grace Bulletin
June 19, 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