Grace Baptist Church of Danville

October 28, 2012

The Word of God never tells me what other people should do, only what I should do. The Scriptures were not written for us to govern the lives of others by them, but for us to govern our own lives by them.

·      Quarterly Fellowship Today — I hope you can stay with us for lunch and enjoy a time of fellowship together this afternoon. — There will be no service here tonight.

·      East Hendersonville Baptist Church, Hendersonville, NC will host a Sovereign Grace Bible Conference October 29-31 (Monday-Wednesday). Scheduled speakers are: Pastors Tim James, Linwood Campbell, Mike Walker, and Don Fortner. The host pastor is Bro Carroll Poole.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Rickey Dale Birchum-29^th  Sandy Gladfelter-3^rd

CHURCH CLEANING IN NOVEMBER: Ron & Pam Wood

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Jenny Bartley         Tuesday: Celeste Peterson

Our Sovereign God Maintains His Universal Throne — Don Fortner

(Tune: #39 — This is My Father’s World — SMD)

1.    Our sov’reign God maintains His universal throne;

In heav’n, and earth, and hell, He reigns, and makes His wonders known!

His counsels and decrees, firmer than mountains stand;

He will perform whate’er He please; and none can stay his hand!

2.    All things His will controls; and His all-wise decree

Has fixed the destinies of all in matchless sov’reignty. —

Jacob by grace He saved, and gives no reason why;

But Esau’s heart He left depraved. — And who shall dare reply?

3.    What if the Potter takes part of a lump of clay,

And for Himself a vessel makes and casts the rest away?

Who shall resist His will or say, “What doest Thou?”

Jehovah is the Sov’reign still; and all to Him must bow!

4.    My soul, bow and adore the Lord in all His ways;

His sov’reignty none can explore; but I will trust His grace!

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things:

To Whom be glory evermore! Amen! Amen! Amen!”

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Justified from Eternity

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30) 

Faith in Christ is the evidence and manifestation of our justification, but not the cause of it. God’s elect were justified in Christ from eternity. Justification is one of those “all spiritual blessings” with which God’s elect were blessed in Christ before the worlds were made (Ephesians 1:3).

Christ our Surety

Christ stood before God as our Surety in the covenant of grace from eternity. In that covenant the Son of God voluntarily engaged to pay the debts of his elect and make full satisfaction for them. God the Father accepted him as our Surety.

            “Thenceforward,” wrote John Gill, the Father “looked at him for payment and satisfaction, and looked at them as discharged, and so they were in his eternal mind.”

As soon as one person becomes surety for another, the debtor is freed and the Surety is accepted. Thus all God’s elect were justified in eternity, as soon as Christ became our Surety. That is precisely what is stated in the text that heads this page.

God’s Will

Our justification did not commence in time, but in eternity. Paul, speaking of God’s eternal decree of predestination, declares that all of God’s elect were justified in his eternal purpose of grace.

To quote Gill again, — “God’s will to elect is the election of his people; so also his will to justify them, is the justification of them.” God’s act of justification is entirely an act of his grace. It is God accounting and constituting us righteous, through the righteousness of his Son. From all eternity God has looked upon his Son as our Substitute, and looking upon us in Christ, we are, and always have been, righteous in his sight.

Lamb Slain

In the mind and purpose of God, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8; Isaiah 53). God set up his darling Son as our Surety, our Substitute, and our Redeemer before the world began; and as such, in his own mind, he looked upon Christ as having been slain for us from eternity. Just

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as Abraham in his heart sacrificed his son at Moriah, and looked upon Isaac as one dead, so the Lord God looked upon his Son as slain from eternity, because in his heart the deed was done.

Eternally Blessed

Because God our Father looked upon Christ as one already sacrificed for us before the world was, all the blessings of grace were given to us in him from everlasting (Ephesians 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 1:9). The Holy Spirit tells us plainly that “all spiritual blessings” were bestowed upon all God’s elect in Christ before the world began.

All the blessings of salvation and grace were irrevocably given to us in Christ our covenant Surety in eternity according to the purpose of God in election. Astonishing grace! Adoption, acceptance with God, redemption, forgiveness, and an eternal inheritance in Christ, all were given to us in Christ, because he agreed to pay our debt and became totally responsible for all our obligations as our Surety in eternity.

Thomas Goodwin wrote, “We may say of all spiritual blessings in Christ what is said of Christ himself, that ‘his goings forth are from everlasting.’ In Christ we are blessed with all spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3). As we are blessed with all others, so with this also, that we were justified then in Christ.” Goodwin goes on to say that God the Father, in that everlasting transaction of grace with his Son, “told him, as it were, that he would look for (our) debt and satisfaction (from) him and when he did he let the sinners go free. So they are in this respect justified from all eternity.”

Two Facts

In addition to the plain statements of Holy Scripture, two facts compel us to look upon justification as an eternal act of God.

1^st Had it not been for the fact that God looked upon his elect as being righteous and justified in Christ from eternity, he would have destroyed our race as soon as Adam sinned. God spares the wicked for the sake of the righteous. Just as the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were preserved for Lot’s sake, so the human race is preserved for the sake of those whom the Father has chosen and justified in his Son from eternity.

2^nd The Old Testament saints were justified by Christ, just as we are today. Their justification was just as full, complete, and perfect as ours (Hebrews 9:15, 22; Romans 3:25). If they were justified before Christ came, it could not be upon any grounds except the fact that they, like us, were justified by the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the earth.

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The Grace Bulletin

October 28, 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 7:45 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