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Don Fortner will preach at 6:00 P.M. tonight at

Sovereign Grace Church

New Castle, IN – Bruce Crabtree, Pastor

Telephone 765-755-3355 – 529-6530

 

December 17, 2006

 

The death of this body will be the death of all my sorrows and all my sins. — Blessed anticipation!

 

Daily Readings for the Week of December 17-24

                        Sunday                      Hebrews 9-10                                              Thursday                   1 Peter 2-5

                        Monday                     Hebrews 11-12                                Friday             2 Peter 1-3

                        Tuesday                    Hebrews 13-James 2                     Saturday                    1 John 1-5

                        Wednesday  James 3-1 Peter 1                           Sunday                      2 John -Jude

 

·       We will have our annual Christmas dinner following the worship service this morning. There will be no service here tonight.

 

Behold The Christ of God and See Don Fortner

(Tune: #98 — I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day — LM)

 

1.     Behold the Christ of God and see

The glory of the Godhead Three,

The Father, Spirit, and the Son

Revealed in the incarnate One.

 

2.     The fulness of the Godhead dwells

In Him who ransomed us from hell.

We know the mighty God above

Through our Redeemer’s work of love.

 

3.     Great, holy, sovereign, just, and true,

God’s merciful and gracious, too!

In justice He has slain His Son

That He might save His chosen ones!

 

4.     In Christ, the Mediator man,

God has fulfilled salvation’s plan.

He magnified His holy law,

Yet saves His people from the fall!

 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” — (Acts 16:31)

 

There is no other way to obtain eternal life. Conviction of sin, repentance for sin, mourning over sin, and moral reformation of heart and life are not to be looked for prior to faith. These things come as the result of faith. When you look to Christ by faith, you will mourn over your sin because of him, but not until then. The Scriptures lay down no conditions for you to meet before you can trust the Lord Jesus Christ. The commandment of God to you is that you “believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.” And the promise of God to all believers is that they shall “not perish, but have eternal life.”

 

Come, ye weary, heavy laden, bruised and mangled by the fall;

If you tarry till you’re better, you will never come at all.

Not the righteous, not the righteous, — sinners Jesus came to call.

 

 

7

Are You Worthy of Heaven?

 

The Word of God plainly declares that no one shall enter into the glory of heaven who is not worthy to do so (Rev. 21:27; 22:11). The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9). And all are by nature unrighteous. “There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not” (Eccles. 7:20). We are all sinners. We all deserve the wrath of God. Yet, Paul tells us that there are some who have been made worthy to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints (Col. 1:12).

 

      How can that be? How can a sinner be made worthy of heaven? Only God can do it! Grace alone can make us worthy of heaven’s glory. Every believer, every sinner saved by grace, everyone who trusts Christ alone as his Savior and Lord has been made worthy of heaven by three mighty works of God:

 

2.    By Blood Atonement — The believer’s sins have been fully paid for by Christ, so justice cannot require further payment.

 

2.    By Imputed Righteousness — The righteous obedience of Christ has been imputed to all who trust him, so that the believer stands before God as one who is perfectly righteous, having fulfilled all his holy law in the Person of Christ, our Substitute.

 

2.    By Regeneration — In the new birth, God the Holy Spirit gives every chosen, ransomed sinner a holy nature. By these three works of grace sinners are transformed into saints and made worthy of heaven!

 

————————————————————

 

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.

(Psalm 57:7) — Pastor David Pledger

 

            It is good to be able to say with David, that “my heart is fixed.” There are many who could never truly be described by the word “fixed.” They are continually changing or, as the Scripture says, “carried about with every wind of doctrine. The apostle Paul tells us that one purpose of the Christian ministry is to do this very thing. In preaching the gospel, we edify or build-up the saints of God so that we will all have a fixed heart. Is your heart fixed in the knowledge that God is sovereign? We are not able to explain everything that happens in this world, but we do know for sure who is in control. Is your heart fixed in the knowledge of God’s sovereign grace? That God has blessed a people with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began, and that he has predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ? It is not good or merit in any man that allows God to save sinners, but only the redemption that he wrought in his Son? Is your heart fixed in the knowledge that all that the Father gave to Christ shall come to him and be eternally saved? Is your heart fixed in the knowledge that you have come to Christ? — No matter what some say or think, that you have found Christ to be precious to you? Is your heart fixed on Christ as being the only Mediator between God and men, and say with the hymn writer, “Other refuge have I none? If your heart is fixed, then determine by the grace of God that you will join with David and sing and give praise. “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen (Romans 11:36).

 

8

A Bag, a Book, and a Bottle

Isaiah 40:1

 

God takes great care to comfort his people in their many trials and sorrows in this world. He commands his preachers to have for one of their goals the comfort of his people. He says, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” Here are three things described in the Word of God that should be of great comfort to every believer.

 

A Bag

 

God has made a bag for our sins. Job said, “My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity” (Job 14:17). In ancient times, when men died at sea, their bodies were placed in a weighted bag, which was sewn together and sealed. Then they were cast into the depths of the sea. That is what God has done with our sins. They are cast “into the depths of the sea.” When Christ died, by his one sacrifice for our sins, which were imputed to him, he put away all our sins. They were buried in the sea of God’s infinite forgiveness, put away, never to be brought up again. God almighty will never charge us with sin, impute sin to us, remember our sins against us, or treat us any the less graciously because of our sin. That is forgiveness! “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”

 

A Book

 

The Lord has written a book for our names. Take heart, child of God. Your name is written in the book of God! Before the worlds were made, the Lord God inscribed the names of his elect in the Lamb’s book of life. In that book, God has recorded, not only the names of the chosen heirs of heaven, but also all things pertaining to them. — “In the book all my members were written” (Psa. 139:16; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 13:8; 17:8). The Lamb’s book of life is the book of God’s eternal purpose of grace, predestination, and election. The fact that our names are written in that book means that our salvation is a matter of absolute certainty and that all things work together for our good by God’s arrangement to secure our predestined end, which is perfect conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:28-30). When our Lord says, “Rejoice because your names are written in heaven,” he is telling us that we have nothing to fear. All is well for those whose names are written in heaven.

 

A Bottle

 

Moreover, the Lord God keeps a bottle for our tears. — “Thou tellest all my wonderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?...This I know; for God is for me” (Psa. 56:8-9). It was customary at ancient Egyptian funerals for mourners to have a small cloth or sponge to wipe away their tears. Then, they were squeezed into a small vial, a tear bottle, and placed in the tomb with the dead, symbolizing the care the mourners had for the one who had died. Even so, the Lord our God, our heavenly Father, our almighty Savior, and our holy Comforter tenderly cares for us. In all our afflictions he is afflicted. We are the very apple of his eye.

 

            Could anything be more comforting in this world of sin, sorrow, and death? The Lord our God has put our sins in a bag and buried them, our names in a book to remember them, and our tears into a bottle to show his tender care for us.

 

9

 

Grace Bulletin

 

December 17, 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

 

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.

 

Web Pages

http://www.donfortner.com

http://www.sovereign-grace/gracechurch.htm

http://www.freegrace.net/danville/default.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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