April 9, 2006
“The more I study the Word of God, the more convinced I am that the true gospel of free and sovereign grace is always the opposite of the Freewill/Reformed religion we have been brought up to believe.”
Russell Smyth
Daily Readings for the Week of April 9-16
Sunday 2 Samuel 20-21 Thursday 1 Kings 4-6
Monday 2 Samuel 22-23 Friday 1 Kings 7-8
Tuesday 2 Samuel 24-1 Kings 1 Saturday 1 Kings 9-10
Wednesday 1 Kings 2-3 Sunday 1 Kings 11-12
· We will have our Quarterly Fellowship on Sunday, April 30th.
· Pastor Daniel Parks will preach here on Tuesday, April 11th. Pastor Henry Mahan will preach here on Sunday, April 23rd.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Ann Margaret Gaydovchik-12th Jayalita McCormack-14th
To Jesus Crucified I Sing — Don Fortner
(Tune: #308 — Higher Ground — LMD )
1. Stretched on the cross, Christ Jesus died, for guilty sinners crucified;
From His dear hands, His feet, His side, flowed forth the saving, crimson tide!
That saving stream from Cal’vry flows to save and cleanse His rebel foes;
Though we deserve God’s endless wrath, Christ Jesus took our place in death!
2. He passed the fallen angels by, but came for chosen men to die;
Christ took our sins, He took our place, He died for us — Amazing grace!
Behold the scene of pain and woe; God’s justice, grace and wisdom know:
God found a way to save His own. — He sacrificed His darling Son!
3. Awake, my soul! Awake, my tongue! Sing to the Lord this grateful song. —
Hosanna to His precious name! Amazing love and grace proclaim!
To Jesus crucified I sing. My heart, rejoice in Jesus’ name,
Until upon the streets of gold, in Glory I His face behold!
Let nothing supplant the preaching of “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Without the preaching of “Christ crucified,” all else is vanity, religion is empty and meaningless, and that which is called “preaching” is a mockery to eternity bound sinners. Without the preaching of the cross no good is accomplished. Dark souls are not enlightened. Proud hearts are not humbled. Mourners are not comforted. The faint are not cheered. The hungry are hungry still, and the thirsty are thirsty still. Sinners are not converted. Saints are not edified. And God is not glorified.
16
The Sons of God
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh” (v. 12). — So far from being debtors to the flesh, the very reverse is the case. Because we are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit, we are under the strongest obligations not to live after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Being born of God, we owe the flesh nothing. We are debtors to the God of all grace, and to him alone: To God the Father who chose us, to God the Son who redeemed us, and to God the Holy Spirit who called us.
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (v. 13.) — To live after the flesh is death. To live after the Spirit is life. Those who live after the flesh are dead while they live. They have not been born of God; and, unless they are born of God in time to come, they shall die the second, eternal death in hell. The sin that is in us, our corrupt, Adam nature, must not be allowed to have its way. Our indwelling lusts must be subdued. We cannot remove sin from our nature; but we are responsible to rule over our nature by the Spirit of God who dwells in us. That is what is meant, by mortifying “the deeds of the body.” We are, by the grace of God, to put to death (destroy) the deeds of the body, the deeds of our corrupt nature.
Thus, “ye shall live.” Paul is addressing “brethren” who were already living in the Spirit, already living the life that God the Holy Spirit has given us in the new birth (Rom. 8:9). He is not here telling us that we will gain eternal life by mortifying “the deeds of the body.” His meaning is that, as we “mortify the deeds of the body,” we will enjoy the life that God the Holy Spirit has given us, the life that Christ has given us by his Spirit.
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (v. 14). — Believers enjoy eternal life in Christ, not only because we have the Spirit of life, but also because we are the sons of God. “To be led by the Spirit,” “to walk after the Spirit,” and to “live by faith” all express the idea of being under the rule and government of Christ our Lord by the Spirit, being led by the constant, efficacious influence of the God the Holy Spirit, as the children of God. As children are led by the hand and influence of their parents, so the children of God are led by the Spirit.
Dealing with this same subject in Galatians 5, Paul writes, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (vv. 16-17).
17
The Spirit of Adoption
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”
(Romans 8:15)
The Spirit of God dwelling in us leads us away from sin, and away from all dependence upon our own righteousness, in paths we did not know before. He leads us in the way we should go, in the path of faith, truth, and righteousness. In a word, he leads us to Christ, to his blood, to his righteousness, to all the fulness of grace in him, and into the presence of God. He leads us into the house of God, the ordinances of divine worship, the truths of the gospel, and at last into glory. He ever leads us to see the iniquity of our hearts and nature, to lay hold on Christ and salvation by him, and into the grace, and love, and favor of God, in Christ our Savior.
Those who are thus led by the Spirit of God, “they are the sons of God,” the objects of God’s peculiar love and tender care. We were adopted by our heavenly Father as his own dear children before the world began, and have been given the Spirit of adoption by his grace in regeneration (Eph. 1:3-6; Gal. 4:6; 1 John 3:1-2). We did not become God’s children by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Holy Spirit came to us in grace and gave us faith to trust our Savior because we were adopted as the children of God from eternity. At God’s appointed time, every chosen child shall be made the recipient of God’s saving grace and given the Spirit of adoption in the new birth (Gal. 4:6-7).
Chosen sinners come to know their election and adoption as the children of God, only as God sends his Spirit into their hearts in the saving operations of his grace, giving them faith in Christ. At the time of love, God sends his Spirit and causes his adopted sons to gladly receive the adoption of sons. When he creates faith in us, effectually applying the Savior’s blood to the believing heart, he gives us the right, in our own consciences, to be called the sons of God, enabling us to lift our hearts to heaven and, with confident joy, call God himself our Father. Blessed, wondrous grace this is in the experience of it!
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (v. 15). — The Spirit of God dwelling in us raises us into this blessed state of sonship. By regeneration, the new birth, we have been born into a new life, and made “partakers of the divine nature,” as Peter puts it. In the new birth God the Holy Spirit brings into existence a person who never existed before, a new person, a new creation, “which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Eph. 4:24). And “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,” never bondage, but liberty, the ever-increasing liberty of free grace in Christ!
18
Grace Bulletin
April 9, 2006
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