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GOSPEL PREACHING
ONLINE December 24,
2006 “Christ is
all and in all.” — He who knows
this knows what cheers and satisfies. Pastor Scott
Richardson Daily
Readings for the Week of December 24-31 Sunday 2
John – Jude Monday Revelation
1-3 Tuesday Revelation
4-7 Wednesday Revelation 8-10 Thursday Revelation
11-13 Friday Revelation
14-16 Saturday Revelation
17-19 Sunday Revelation
20-22 ·
THANK YOU! Your
unceasing expressions of love and kindness to Shelby and me are greatly
appreciated. Words cannot express our gratitude to God for you. And we thank
you for your generous gifts to us. We trust you will all have a
blessed Christmas. ·
There will be no service here tonight. ·
The Lord willing, we will have a time of fellowship
together after our evening service on New Year’s Eve, next Sunday. HAPPY
BIRTHDAY! Martie Hellar-25th Cindy Schwartz-25th Matthew Rice-27th See Fulfilled
The Gospel Promise ― Don
Fortner (Tune: #99―Angels From The Realms Of
Glory―87.87) 1.
Savior, here we lift our voices, and we celebrate the
day, When You
came, O blessed Jesus, in the form of human clay. Come and
worship! Come and worship! Worship Christ our God and King! 2.
When the heavenly hosts assembled, gazed with wonder
from the sky, Angels joy’d,
and devils trembled, neither knowing fully why. Come and
worship! Come and worship! Worship Christ our God and King! 3.
See fulfilled the gospel promise ― Christ, the
woman’s promised Seed, Born a babe,
by birth mysterious, came to crush the serpent’s head! Come and
worship! Come and worship! Worship Christ our God and King! 4.
Crush, O Lord, his power within us. Break our chains.
Our woe undo! Pull down
every wall between us. Let us love and cleave to You! Come and
worship! Come and worship! Worship Christ our God and King! My
Example
If my children follow my
example, what kind of people will they be? Will they be faithful or
unfaithful? Generous or stingy? Content or complaining? If every marriage has
mine as its example, will people be happily married? If every church member
were just like me, what kind of church would this church be? If every
employee were just like me... I could go on and on, but the point is “Faith
without works is dead.” A faith
that does not manifest itself in every area of my life is not saving faith.
The first thing the Lord said to each of the seven churches in Asia was, “I
know thy works.” It is our works
that prove the reality of our faith. The example we give is what we really
are! Pastor Don Bell 10 “The Man Christ
Jesus” “For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
(1 Timothy 2:5) This Man is no ordinary
man. This Man is himself God. He is the God-man. He became a man that he
might redeem men. He lived in this world as the Representative Man, the
Representative of God’s elect. He lived the full age of a man in perfect
obedience to the will and law of God to establish righteousness for men, even
the righteousness of God, by magnifying the law and making it honorable.
Then, when his hour had fully come, this Man, the God-man, our Lord Jesus
Christ, died upon the cursed tree as our Substitute, “the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God.” Now, this Man, who as a man put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself, is seated upon the very throne of God in glory, accepted as a man,
with God! Hear the good news of that fact. — Since there is a Man in
glory, accepted of God, there may be another, and another, and another!
Because this Man, the God-man, is in glory, “He is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by him!” Who is he? This man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is “the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of his
person.” Christ is both God himself
and the singular revelation and expression of the glory of God. “The
reference,” Henry Mahan wrote, “is to the sun and its rays. The Father and
the Son are the same as the sun and its rays. One is not before the other,
and they cannot be divided or separated. He is the perfect revelation and the
exact image and character of the Father (Isa. 9:6; John 1:1-3; 10:30;
14:8-10; Matt. 1:21-23).” What has he done? Much needs to be said in
answer to this question; but allow me to simply declare that which is the
essence of all our Savior did as the God-man, our Mediator. The Lord Jesus
Christ has “by himself purged our sins!” The Lord Jesus, of himself, by himself alone, and by the sacrifice
of himself, made atonement for all the sins of God’s elect. He took our sins
upon himself, bore them, and died under the penalty of them, thereby
abolishing them completely and forever (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:26; Col. 1:19-22;
Isa. 53:4-6). Where is he now? He is yonder in glory,
where more than two thousand years ago “he sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high.” The “Majesty
on high” is God the Father to whom majesty belongs and who is clothed with
majesty. His right hand is the place of power, greatness, acceptance, and
glory. There sits the Man, Christ Jesus, and all his elect in him. We have
been made to sit down with him in heavenly places! “There, like a man,
the Saviour sits; the God, how bright he shines; And scatters
infinite delight on all the happy minds.” Do you see him? “The head that once
was crowned with thorns, is crowned with glory now; A royal diadem
adorns that mighty Victor’s brow. No more the bloody
crown, the cross and nails no more: For hell itself
shakes at his frown, and all the heavens adore.” 11 “We Persuade
Men” 2 Corinthians
5:11 “Knowing therefore the
terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” The
object of evangelism is the conversion of chosen, redeemed sinners for the
glory of God. Knowing that all Adam’s fallen race is under the wrath of God
and must soon stand before the bar of God’s justice in judgment, we persuade
sinners to flee from the wrath of God and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as
Savior and Lord. What is the method of our persuasion? How do we persuade men
to come to Christ? “Pity Jesus” Some use the “pity Jesus”
method. Ignorant preachers commonly try to get people to feel sorry for “poor
Jesus” who suffered so horribly because men rejected him and would not let
him be their king. Out of sheer pity for “poor Jesus,” they get large numbers
of people to take sides with him. The pity is that the “Jesus” they preach is
not the Christ of God and the faith people have in him is a false faith. The
Christ of God did not die as a helpless victim of circumstances! “Scare with Judgment” Others use the “scare with
judgment” method. Shortly after I came to Danville, all the “evangelical”
churches in town got together to show a movie called, “The Burning Hell.” My
name was mud because I refused to have anything to do with their religious
scam. Why? Because, while the fear of judgment gets many to profess faith,
none are converted by it (Rev. 16:9). It is not the fear of God’s wrath, but
the revelation and exercise of his goodness that brings sinners to repentance
(Zech. 12:10; Rom. 2:4). Talk about Grace Many use these and other
methods, too numerous to mention, without real regard to the glory of God. In
the eyes of men they appear very successful. But no sinner has ever been
saved by them, only deceived. The only method of persuasion that is effectual
in producing true repentance and faith, either in personal witnessing or in
public preaching, is the talk about grace method. All conversions that are
the results of pity, emotionalism, and fear will in time prove to be sham
conversions. True repentance and faith are the result of gospel persuasion,
and that persuasion is based upon the accomplishment of redemption by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Read 2nd Corinthians 5:14-21 and you will see
that this was Paul’s method. So
talk up grace! Tell people about the Savior! Tell all who will hear you what
great things he has done for you by his grace. That is what our Savior told
the man in Mark 5 to do. — “Go home to thy
friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath
had compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis
how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel” (vv. 19-20). 12 Grace Bulletin December 24, 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 Listen to sermons
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