Grace Baptist Church of Danville

July 29, 2012

 

“Regeneration makes no alteration on the flesh, but the spirit. There is nothing in the flesh made holy. And there is nothing in the spirit left unholy.”                                                                                                                    Robert Hawker

 

Daily Readings for the Week of July 29-August 5, 2012

            Sunday                      Isaiah 64-66                                                 Thursday            Jeremiah 9-11

            Monday                      Jeremiah 1-3                                                            Friday             Jeremiah 12-14

            Tuesday                    Jeremiah 4-5                                                            Saturday                    Jeremiah 15-17

            Wednesday  Jeremiah 6-8                                                            Sunday                      Jeremiah 18-21

 

·      Following our worship service, we will have a special Quarterly Fellowship honoring Skip and Sandy Gladfelter’s 50th anniversary. — There will be no service here tonight.

·      Conference Offering Today: —Please mark your special offerings for our Bible conference — “Conference”.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Carol Brown-4th

CHURCH CLEANING IN AUGUST: Allen Kibby

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Jenny Bartley (AM)          Tuesday: Shelby Fortner

 

Mercy Speaks by Jesus’ BloodDon Fortner

(Tune: #393 — Take My Life and Let it Be — 77.77)

 

1.    Mercy speaks by Jesus’ blood,

Peace to sinners, peace with God!

Justice has been satisfied

By the God-man crucified.

 

2.    Christ alone the wine press trod,

Bearing all the wrath of God;

And “mighty to save” is He

Who was made a curse for me!

 

3.    Hear the blood speak loud and sweet,

Hear as truth and mercy speak, —

“Christ has full atonement made;

See, the debt is fully paid!”

 

4.    Should the law against me roar,

Jesus’ blood still speaks with pow’r, —

“All the debt was cast on me,

Ransomed sinners must go free!”

 

5.    Peace of conscience, peace with God,

Peace is mine through Jesus’ blood.

Justice satisfied I see

In God’s Son Who died for me!

 

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He delighteth in mercy!

Micah 7:18

 

I am certain that our views of God and his grace are weakest right here: – None of us have any idea how exceedingly willing the Lord God is to forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. At this point, we all think that God is such a one as ourselves. What shameful unbelief! We forget that “he delighteth in mercy!” When we think, talk, and preach about our Lord Jesus Christ, the triune Jehovah (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), when we think and speak of God’s mercy, love, grace, and forgiveness, let us ever throw open to guilty sinners, to the widest extent possible, the doors of mercy. Ever remember, — “He delighteth in mercy! Let us never be guilty of restricting, in thought or in word, the great mercy of our great God, who “delighteth in mercy!

 

God’s Benjamin

 

I am sure that every attribute of God gives him pleasure in its exercise. But here, mercy is singled out by Divine inspiration as his favorite. Though all the Divine attributes are eternal, mercy was the last to be revealed. His wisdom and power are seen in the creation of the world. His wrath is seen in the damnation of Satan and the angels who fell. His justice is seen in the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden when his law was broken. But in mercy he spared their lives. In mercy he promised a Redeemer. In mercy he provided a sacrifice. In mercy he clothed the fallen, naked, guilty pair with the garments of his salvation!

 

            You might say that mercy is God’s Benjamin, and he delights most of all in it. It is the son of his right hand. But it might also be called the son of his sorrow, for the mercy of God came to be revealed in the sorrow and death of his well-beloved Son.

 

God’s Glory

 

Who is a God like unto Thee?” — He is gloriously sovereign. He is infinitely just. He is perfectly holy. He is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, incomprehensible, and eternal; and “he delighteth in mercy!

 

            It is the glory of God and the pleasure of God to show mercy to sinners for Christ’s sake. The Lord our God is not a cruel tyrant, or a relentless sadist. Though he is holy, just, and true, he is a God who delights in mercy.

 

            God’s mercy is in Christ. God’s mercy in Christ is full. God’s mercy is free and unconditional. God’s mercy is forever. It is, like himself, immutable. — “Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

 

Followers of God

 

If God delights in mercy, how much more ought we to delight in mercy? —Not just in receiving it, but in extending it? “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven  you.  Be ye therefore  followers of God,  as dear children;  and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.” Forgiven sinners, living by and upon free mercy, ought to always be merciful. It is written, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy!

 

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Special Mercy

 

I know that God’s tender mercy is over all his creatures. In merciful benevolence he sends the sunshine and the rain both upon the righteous and the wicked. I will leave it to others to argue about what to call that and what the purpose of God in such mercy is.

 

However, Micah 7:18 is not talking about general benevolence. This text speaks of God’s special, sovereign, saving mercy toward his elect, that mercy of God which causes dead sinners to have eternal life in Christ. What does the Bible teach about this mercy?

 

Micah tells us that God delights in mercy. His hope for himself and for Israel was simply the fact that God delights to show mercy to sinful men. No man deserves mercy; but God delights to show mercy to the undeserving.

 

Mercy Displayed

 

We do not need to search very far to find abundant proof that God delights in mercy. His mercy is seen everywhere. I know that God delights in mercy, because the very fact that fallen man lives upon God’s earth proves it

 

Often, though his anger has been hot against men, he spared them in his great mercy (Psalm 78:38-39). The sparing of Hezekiah was an act of God’s mercy. The fact that Nineveh was granted repentance and spared from his impending judgment was the work of God’s mercy. Saul of Tarsus deserved God’s wrath; but he got grace instead, because, as he put it, — I obtained mercy!

 

The fact that you and I who are born of God are alive today (spiritually alive in Christ), accepted in the Beloved, sons of God, chosen, redeemed, and saved is abundant proof that God delights in mercy. In abundant, long-suffering mercy the Lord God preserved us in life and saved us by his grace (Ephesians 2:4-5).

 

God chose the vile refuse of this world as the objects of his grace, because “he delighteth in mercy.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-29). He lays hold on the polluted publican instead of the proud Pharisee. He saves the wandering prodigal, and passes by the self-righteous religionist. He lifts the poor out of the dunghill and sets him among princes. He embraces the vile harlot, and rejects the good moralist. He takes the dying thief home with him to glory, and leaves the pompous ritualist to his vanities.

 

Though we are now saved by his grace, our conduct proves that God delights in mercy. We have been ungrateful, unbelieving, and unfaithful. But his mercy fails not (Lamentations 3:23).

 

The greatest possible proof that our God delights in mercy is the sacrifice of his own darling Son in our stead. If you have any doubt that the God of heaven delights in mercy, go to Calvary and read of God’s abundant mercy. In order to show mercy to us, God killed his Son in our place. Calvary’s crimson tide spells out one thing most clearly — “He delighteth in mercy!

 

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The Grace Bulletin

 

July 29, 2012

 

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.

 

Television Broadcasts in Harrodsburg

Channel 6 - Sunday Afternoon 3:00 P.M.

Channel 6 - Friday Evening 6:00 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