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January 28, 2007
With regard to the Book of God, Christ is “the key of knowledge.” Without the key, men can never unlock the Chest and discover its riches. — They just fumble.
Daily Readings for the Week of January 28-February 4 Sunday Exodus 30-32 Thursday Leviticus 1-4 Monday Exodus 33-34 Friday Leviticus 5-7 Tuesday Exodus 35-37 Saturday Leviticus 8-11 Wednesday Exodus 38-40 Sunday Leviticus 12-13
We are delighted and honored to have Pastor Henry Mahan and his wife, Doris, with us today. Bro. Mahan will preach this morning and again tonight. Our pastor is preaching this weekend for Rescue Baptist Church in Rescue, CA, where Bro. Gene Harmon is pastor. Bro. Lindsay Campbell will preach to you Tuesday night.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Teresa Coleman-29th Merle Hart-1st CHURCH CLEANING IN FEBRUARY: Don and Shelby Fortner NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK Today: Jayalita McCormack (AM) Emily Rice (PM) Tuesday: Ruth Wall
Behold the Wond'rous Love of God — Don Fortner (Tune: #497 — When I Can Read My Title Clear — CM)
1. Behold the wond'rous love of God, So infinite and free! His love makes us the heirs of grace And gives us liberty!
2. In the eternal ages past, Before the world began, God's love devised the scheme of grace To ransom fallen man.
3. God in the covenant of grace Elected all His own; And for the ransom of our souls He gave His only Son!
4. And for the love He has for us Christ Jesus bled and died, That by the merits of His blood We might be justified!
5. In love the Holy Spirit came To raise us from the dead. He gave us life and faith in Christ. And by His grace we're led.
6. That love which chose and ransomed us, And raised us from the dead, Will never, ever let us die. It's wond'rous love indeed!
10 What is your comfort? Pastor Henry Mahan
Are you happy? Yes! but I am not without times of sorrow and depression. Like any human, I weep over loved ones, friends, sickness, death, and disappointment. But I sorrow not as those who have no hope. — Christ is my hope! He loved me, gave Himself for me, and will make all these things work together for my eternal good.
Are you at rest in your soul? Yes! but I am not free from concern and conviction over my sins and my infirmities. I love Christ but not as I should or as I desire. — Christ is my rest! I am satisfied with Him, His mercy, His grace, and His love; but I will never be totally satisfied until I wake with His likeness.
Do you have peace? Yes! but that peace with God, peace of conscience, and peace in any situation or condition is not based on my merit, feelings, nor religious duties. — Christ is my peace! He said, “In Me ye have peace. In the world ye shall have trouble.”
Any man or woman who claims continual, uninterrupted joy, rest, and peace in this world is either not telling the truth or has no connection with reality! True joy, rest, and peace are things we enjoy in Christ in the midst of troubles, afflictions, and infirmities.
Paul’s exhortation was “rejoice in the Lord.” When I am conscious of my weakness, failures, and sins, I rejoice in Christ, my righteousness. When I am concerned about food, clothing, and shelter, I rejoice in Christ, my provider. When I am sick, Christ is my healer. When I am grieved, Christ is my comfort. When I am faced with death, Christ is my life! So it is not necessary to put on a false face and deceive others. We are still human; but our peace, rest, and joy is Christ.
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.”
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” Proverbs 27:6
When God reveals to us the spiritual nature of His law and thereby convicts (convinces) us of our sin, then He uses the law to give us a knowledge of our sin. This is what caused Paul to say, “O wretched man that I am!” It was by this knowledge of sin that Job of old cried out, “Behold, I am vile.” It is the knowledge of our unrighteousness that causes us to submit to the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. This application of the law to us by God, is the faithful wound of the Friend of sinners whereby He causes us to sue for mercy, in Whom alone it is found. — “I thank God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Pastor Chris Cunningham
11 Herein is Love
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
We rejoice to know that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Love is an attribute of God. But that does not mean that God loves all men. Any reasonable person, whose mind is not perverted by the influence of Arminian, free-will religion, must recognize that fact. Did God love those multitudes whom he swept off the earth in the flood? Did God love the degenerate Sodomites, upon whom he rained fire from heaven? Did God love Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their followers whom he swallowed up into hell? Anyone who imagines that God loved those multitudes might well pray to be forever hidden and excluded from the love of God! But the Scriptures nowhere assert, or even imply, that God’s love is universal, that it extends to all men. The Scriptures say, ”He loved us!” And the “us” whom he loves are all believers, past, present, and future. “He loved us,” who are chosen, redeemed, and called by his almighty grace. John tells us four things about the love of God in this text.
1. God loves sovereignly. — “Herein is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us.” There is nothing that compels God to love any of his creatures. But in his infinite goodness, God says, “Jacob have I loved.” Our God is infinite, immutable, and sovereign, and so is his love. He loves whom he will, because he will, and he loves them eternally, “with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).
2. God loves sinners. — “He loved us.” I preach fully, without reservation, unlimited love, unbounded mercy to the vilest of men. We have nothing in us worthy of consideration. We deserve the utmost extremity of God’s wrath. But “he loved us!” Who can express the infinite magnitude and fulness of those words?
3. God loves sacrificially. — He “sent his Son.” God gave his darling Son to suffer and die upon the cursed tree to save the multitudes of his elect whom he loved with an everlasting love. — “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).
4. God loves savingly. — God loved his elect before the world began. But in order for us to be reconciled to God, justice had to be satisfied. Therefore, our loving heavenly Father made his Son to be the sin-atoning, justice-satisfying “propitiation for our sins.” Through the substitutionary death of Christ, all the sins of God’s elect were washed away. — “Herein is love!” The love of God is more than a helpless passion. It is his saving commitment and determination toward his elect.
Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, “we have known and believed the love that God hath to us” (1 John 4:16). It is the knowledge of God’s infinite, saving love for us in Christ that casts out all fear and causes us to love him and one another (1 John 4:18-19).
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Grace Bulletin
January 28, 2007
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 in 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 at FreeGraceRadio.com |
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