Grace Baptist Church of Danville

December 6, 2009

 

 

Obedience to our God is not just our duty. Obedience to our great God and Savior is the desire of our hearts, the joy of our souls and the purpose of our lives.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of December 6-13

            Sunday                      Ephesians 3-5                                              Thursday                   1 Thessalonians 1-5

            Monday                     Ephesians 6-Phil. 2                         Friday             2 Thess. 1-1 Timothy 1

            Tuesday                    Philippians 3-Colossians 1           Saturday                    1 Timothy 2-

            Wednesday  Colossians 2-4                                             Sunday                      2 Timothy 1-4

 

á      You are all invited to join us for our Open House at the Parsonage next Sunday night, following the evening service. Our worship service next Sunday night will begin at 5:30 PM.

á      Bro. Allen Kibby and I leave tomorrow to visit our missionaries, Walter and Cody Groover, and their wives, and several of the churches and pastors in Mexico. We plan to return late Friday. Bro. Larry Criss will preach the gospel to you Tuesday.

á      We extend our sincere sympathy to Schell Plouche and her family in the death of her mother.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Jesse Rice-9th Alexis Mason-10th LeAnn Duff-2th David Coleman-13th

 

We Bring Our Gifts with Love — Don Fortner

(Tune: O for a Thousand Tongues — CM)

1.    Our God, we bring these gifts to You

With willing hearts of love:

Redeemed by blood and saved by grace,

We bring our gifts of love.

2.    Without the least constraint of law,

Without hope of return,

We freely from our God receive,

And freely we return.

3.    All that we have we have as stewards,

And we would be faithful

To use what You have loaned to us

For Christ and His gospel.

4.    As Jesus sacrificed for us

And freely gave His all,

Teach us, O Lord, to sacrifice,

Teach us to give our all.

5.    As You once multiplied the loaves

To give so many food,

So multiply our meager gifts

And use them for much good.

 

16

Doing Things GodÕs Way

 

ÒThen wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded.Ó                                                                   (Exodus 36:1)

 

If we would worship and serve the Lord our God, the true and living God, we must worship and serve him in the way he prescribes. — Ask Uzza! We either do things GodÕs way, or all that we call worship and service to the Lord is but will worship and a vain show of religion.

In Exodus 36-39 God the Holy Spirit tells us how the Tabernacle was actually constructed by the children of Israel under the direction of Bezaleel and Aholiab. In the earlier chapters of Exodus we are told how the Lord God revealed the pattern to Moses in the mount and how Moses conveyed GodÕs revelation to his people.

 

Generosity

What a picture of devotion and generosity we have before us in Exodus 36! The men and women and their rulers, all the children of Israel are here held before us as examples of consecration to God in performing the work of the sanctuary. No effort was needed to move the hearts of the people to give. No appeals were made. No impressive arguments were given. Nothing was promised. Nothing was threatened. Oh, no! their hearts stirred them up. The streams of voluntary devotion flowed from within. ÒRulers,Ó Òmen,Ó ÒwomenÓ — all felt it their sweet privilege to give to the Lord, not with a narrow heart or niggardly hand, but in such a magnanimous way that Bezaleel and Aholiab told Moses that they had enough and too much.

 

Implicit Obedience

Not only did the children of Israel give generously, with open hearts and open hands, their obedience was implicit. They did everything exactly as the Lord commanded Moses (Exodus 39:42-43). The Lord God had given the minute, detailed instructions concerning the entire work of the Tabernacle. Every pin, every socket, every loop, every buckle was to be made exactly as God specified. There was no room for manÕs vote, manÕs reason, or manÕs common sense. Jehovah did not give a general outline and leave it for the children of Israel, or even Bezaleel, to fill in the details. He left no place for any man to offer an opinion, let alone prescribe a regulation. None! — ÒSee, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mountÓ (Exo. 25:40; 26:30; Heb. 8:5).

This left no room for human device. If man had been allowed to make a single pin, that pin would have been made wrong, would have been out of place in the Tabernacle of God, and GodÕs pattern would have been violated. GodÕs salvation by Christ would have been falsely represented! We see what manÕs Ògraving toolÓ produces in Exodus 32. There is no place for it in the worship and service of God!

 

17

Done as the Lord Commanded

 

ÒAccording to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the LORD had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.Ó                                                                                                             (Exodus 39:42-43)

 

What a rare thing: In Exodus 36-39 the children of Israel did everything as the Lord commanded! In constructing the Tabernacle they did exactly what they were told — nothing more — nothing less. God the Spirit constrained them to do exactly as they were instructed, that we might have in their obedience an example to follow. Blessed are they who follow the example.

 

The tabernacle was finished in all respects according to the divine pattern, and, therefore, it could be filled with the divine glory. There is a volume of instruction in this. We are too prone to regard the Word of God as insufficient for the minute details connected with his worship and service. This is a great mistake, a mistake which has proved the source of much evil and great error in the professing church. The Word of God alone is and must be our only rule of faith and practice. It is sufficient for everything (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We must bow to the Book of God alone; and we must never bow to any human creed.

 

Those who brought the gifts were all the congregation of the children of Israel: men, women and rulers, young and old, rich and poor, the well-known and the unknown.

 

Bezaleel and Aholiab were the men appointed by God to use the things the children of Israel brought for the service of God. While typical of the Lord Jesus, these two men also represent GodÕs servants, pastors and gospel preachers, appointed by the Lord to be overseers in his house. They were filled with the Spirit of God (Exodus 35:31). They were specifically gifted of God with wisdom and understanding to perform the work. God put it in their heart to do the work (Exodus 35:34). The Lord made it obvious to all Israel that they were the men he had chosen for the work. They were truly the servants of God. — They wanted nothing but to serve him as he had ordained. When they had all that they needed to do the work, they refused to take any more!

 

There is much to be learned from the gifts the children of Israel brought, the gifts God received and used for his glory. They varied greatly: Gold and Oil, Silver and Spices, Precious Stones and Wool, Brass and GoatsÕ Hair, Wool and Linen, Dyes for Blue and Purple and Scarlet, and Onyx Stones. The gifts all came from people with willing hearts, happy to give; from people who knew that what they brought to the Lord was not theirs, but his (Exodus 35:5, 21).

 

Because the children of Israel were stirred up in their hearts by the Spirit of God, stirred up by the knowledge of what was to be represented in the Tabernacle, the Priesthood, the Sacrifices and the Services of the Sanctuary, they devoted themselves to doing the work, giving whatever and all that was needed. — ÒThe stuff they had was sufficient for the workÓ (Exodus 36:7). — ÒAnd the glory of the Lord filled the TabernacleÓ (Exodus 40:35).

 

18

 

 

Grace Bulletin

 

December 6, 2009

 

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.freegraceradio.com

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com