Grace Baptist Church of Danville

April 18, 2010

 

ÒThe sinner will never hunger nor thirst after righteousness till the sentence of death gives him an appetite.Ó  — William Huntington

 

 

Daily Readings for the Week of April 18-25

Sunday                1 Kings 15-17                                                           Thursday                   2 Kings 2-4

            Monday                     1 Kings 18-19                                                           Friday             2 Kings 5-7

            Tuesday                    1 Kings 20-21                                                           Saturday                    2 Kings 8-9

            Wednesday  1 Kings 22-2 Kings 1                                  Sunday                      2 Kings 10-12

 

á      Central Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, VA will host a Bible conference April 30-May 2. Scheduled speakers are Pastors Greg Elmquist, Joe Terrell and Marvin Stalnaker. Bro. Paul Mahan is the host pastor. — Telephone: 540-489-3035 — Email: pedm55@gmail.com

á      The Glory of Christ Bible Conference is scheduled for June 3-5. All meetings will be held at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church – 6828 Truman RD – Kansas City, MO. Scheduled speakers are Pastors Bob Ganote, Michael Pickett, Don Fortner and Steve Carpenter. Contact John Carpenter — Telephone: 816-690-3497 — Email: jcikok@gmail.com

á      I am scheduled to preach for MID-SOUTH BAPTIST CHURCH in Merigold, MS on Friday night, April 30 – Sunday, May 2. Bro. Bruce Gresham is pastor. — Telephone: 662-719-3516.

 

Jehovah-jireh — Don Fortner

(Tune: #110 — Alas! And did my Savior Bleed? — CM)

 

1.    No more, my soul, let unbelief

Your joy and peace devour; —

Jehovah-jireh sends relief,

For evÕry trying hour.

 

2.    Though Satan stalks and sins dismay,

With foes on evÕry side,

Still, all is well. — So watch and pray,

Jehovah will provide.

 

3.    My strength may fail, my needs increase,

While sorrow swells its tide;

But God, my God, will never cease

To love me and provide.

 

4.    He saw me ruined, lost and dead,

And did for me provide

A Lamb to suffer in my stead. —

IÕm spared, for Jesus died!

 

5.    All grace in Christ for all His seed,

And endless bliss beside, —

Jehovah-jireh has decreed,

Forever to provide!

 

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ÒBroken PiecesÓ

ÒAnd the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.Ó (Acts 27:44)

 

            The Lord our God takes pleasure in using Òbroken pieces.Ó In fact, it might be right to say, with regard to the people the Lord uses as instruments of good to his elect, he only uses Òbroken pieces

 

Rare

 

            A broken heart, a contrite spirit and a subdued will are rare things in our day. This is the day of human rights, human dignity and human sovereignty. Self-esteem, self-worth and self-promotion is the cry of the day. All men are demanding what they call Òtheir rights.Ó Every man does that which is right in his own eyes. All men by nature are exceedingly proud, selfish people. Preachers today, knowing manÕs natural pride, have capitalized upon it. They have developed a flesh pleasing theology of pride. Our forefathers exalted the dignity, the majesty, and the supremacy of the eternal God. But the smooth-tongued prophets of deceit in our day have set themselves to exalt the dignity, majesty, and supremacy of man. It seems that religion today is dedicated, not to the honor of God, but to the honor of man. Its purpose is to make man feel good about himself. Therefore we hear little about brokenness of heart, contrition of the soul and the subduing of manÕs will.

 

Yet, of this one thing you may be sure: — ÒThe sacrifices of God are (still) a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despiseÓ (Psalm 51:17). The Lord God declares, ÒTo this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my WordÓ (Isaiah 66:2). God will have broken material with which to build his kingdom. Sooner or later, the Lord God will bring us to nothingness before his presence, or we will never experience his salvation. GodÕs people, all of GodÕs people, are a broken people.

 

Christ Revealed

 

No man has ever experienced the grace of God in salvation, until his heart is thoroughly broken before the holy Lord God, revealed in the crucified Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. If ever a man finds out — Who he is — Who God is — Who the Lord Jesus Christ is and — What he has done for sinners, — if a man ever really learns these things, he will be a broken man.

 

When Job saw himself in the presence of his three miserable friends, he vindicated himself, and even cursed his day. He said, ÒWhy did I not perish from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?Ó But when he stood in the presence of God, he was a broken man; and he spoke as a broken man. He saw himself in all the hideousness of his sin; and he saw God, in all the holiness of his majesty. Then he said, ÒBehold I am vile! I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashesÓ (Job 40:4; 42:5-6). There is no pride and

 

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egotism here, no haughtiness, no self-vindication. Once Job had seen the Lord, he was broken. He loathed himself and blamed himself. Once Job saw the Lord, he honored God and vindicated him. The truly broken heart will always vindicate God, no matter the cost.

 

Found at the Cross

 

This brokenness can be produced in proud, stubborn, sinful men and women by the saving revelation of Christ in our hearts. Brokenness is found at the cross, only at the cross. The Lord God declares that when he pours upon the hearts of his elect the Spirit of grace, then Òthey shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstbornÓ (Zechariah 12:10). Have you been to the cross? Have you had the crucified Christ revealed in your heart? Has your heart been broken by the knowledge of the Lord? O Lord, evermore break our hearts before Thee.

 

 

 

Gold to Cherish

 

If someone handed you a piece of gold ore, would you take it, or would you cast it aside saying, ÒMost of this is just junk rock, worthless drossÓ? I doubt you would let the predominance of dross move you to reject the small amount of precious metal contained in it. You would be glad to take it recognizing that the value of the relatively small amount of gold is well worth enduring however much dross may encompass it.

 

Over the years I have come to realize that GodÕs people on this earth are much like gold ore: they are mostly the dross of human weakness, fleshly failure, and natural foolishness. But there is gold in them. The grace of God has done a work in them, and that work of God in them is so precious and valuable that it overwhelms any detraction the dross of the flesh might cause.

 

I believe that if someone handed me a handful of gold ore, I would not consider the dross at all in my estimation of its value. Let us esteem our brethren the same way. Let us be done with looking for dross and let us be occupied with looking for gold. And even if the dross is so evident that it cannot be missed, let us simply ignore it, counting it irrelevant to the value of the person. Let us highly esteem one another for ChristÕs sake, counting the gold of his gracious work worthy our tolerance of all the dross that surrounds it. — Pastor Joe Terrell

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Joyce Montgomery-25th

 

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Ruth Wall (AM) Pam Wood (PM) Tuesday: Celeste Peterson

 

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Grace Bulletin

 

April 18, 2010

 

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.Grace-eBooks.com

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com