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Grace Baptist Church of Danville December 9, 2012
Let men denounce me as a base antinomian, curse me as a reprobate sower of licentiousness, and accuse me of the most horrid evils imaginable, I will not attempt to alter what God has declared in his Word or bring Christ’s free men and women under the yoke of the law. God says to all who trust his Son, “Ye are dead to the law!”
Daily Readings for the Week of December 9-16, 2012 Sunday Colossians 2-4 Thursday 2 Timothy 1-4 Monday 1 Thessalonians 1-5 Friday Titus 1-Philemon Tuesday 2 Thess. 1-1 Timothy 1 Saturday Hebrews 1-5 Wednesday 1 Timothy 2-6 Sunday Hebrews 6-8
· Shelby and I would like for you all to join us after our worship service this morning and enjoy our annual Open House at the Parsonage. There will be no service here tonight.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Alexis Mason-10th LeAnn Duff-12th David Coleman-13th James Jordan-16th
NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK Today: Shante’ Birchum (AM) Tuesday: Stephanie Wall
In Mary’s Babe Our God We See — Don Fortner (Tune: #98 — I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day — LM)
1. Sinners redeemed by Jesus’ blood Give praise to Christ (Incarnate God!), — Adore the grace and boundless love That brought our Savior from above.
2. The God Who, made the earth and sky, Assumes our flesh that He might die! In Mary’s Babe our God we see, — Jesus, incarnate Deity!
3. Hail, Jesus! God and Man in One, Both David’s God and David’s Son! Well might the angels come to earth To celebrate Your wondrous birth!
4. We sing of this most wondrous thing, And own this Child our God and King. Jehovah-Jesus, we adore. And crown Him Lord forevermore!
“Faith makes invisible things visible, absent things present, and things that are very far off to be very near.” —Thomas Brooks
4 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive!” Isaiah 7:14
About 700 years before the incarnation, the prophet Isaiah made several remarkable prophecies, giving specific details about the virgin birth, humble and holy life, substitutionary, sin-atoning death, resurrection, and glorious exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. These prophecies have all been fulfilled to the letter. Isaiah 9, 32, and 53 cannot be explained in honesty except by the fact that these were divinely inspired prophecies of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Skeptics and Faith
However, we must never expect skeptics and infidels to be bothered by facts or honesty. Faith is never produced by proving infidels wrong. Faith is the gift of God. Divine truth cannot be understood or believed on the basis of science, logic, history, or human learning. The only way anyone can ever understand anything in the Book of God is by believing God. And the only way any sinner can ever believe God is by the gift and operation of God in the new birth. While I have no delusions about convincing unbelieving men and women of divine truth, it is always beneficial to God’s elect to see how easily the skeptic’s brilliant objections to Divine Revelation are foiled.
Mary’s Virginity
One of the most commonly attacked statements of the Old Testament is Isaiah’s declaration in the fourteenth verse of chapter seven. — “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” We are told that the word “virgin” simply means “young woman” and that if Isaiah had really meant to say “virgin” he would have used another word. But the skeptic has a problem. The word Isaiah used for “virgin” is found eight times in the Old Testament, and is translated “damsel,” “maid,” and “virgin.” Yet, the dominant translation of the word is “virgin,” and there is no indication any of those “young maidens” were not young virgins. In fact, the Septuagint (the first Greek translation of the Old Testament) always translates the Hebrew word used for “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 by a Greek word which cannot mean anything except “virgin.”
The Incarnate God
When we refer to the irrefutable fact of our Lord’s incarnation and his entrance into the world through the womb of the virgin Mary, we often speak of what we call “the virgin birth of Christ.” That phrase is really a little misleading. The fact is, our Savior’s birth was as ordinary as ordinary can be. He was born in a cow stable by the normal biological process of birth.
5 The amazing thing is not how he came out of his mother’s womb, but how he entered it. The account given in Holy Scripture is emphatic. That “holy thing” formed in the virgin’s womb was conceived in her virgin womb by God the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). That “body,” in which the Son of God was able to bear our sins and suffer the wrath of God as our Substitute, was prepared by God the Holy Spirit in Mary’s virgin womb (Hebrews 10:5). Thus, it came to pass, “when the fulness of time was come, that God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law” (Galatians 4:4-5). It came to pass exactly as God the Holy Spirit said it would more than seven hundred years earlier by the prophet Isaiah. — God the Son came forth from the virgin’s womb, Immanuel, the incarnate God, to save his people from their sins.
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“His name shall be called Wonderful.” Isaiah 9:6 Everything about our Lord Jesus is wonderful. Here the prophet says, “His name shall be called wonderful.” We sing that chorus, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there is just something about that name”. There is “no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) His birth is wonderful. Angels came to proclaim it. — “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). What made his birth so wonderful? It was the Eternal God coming down and assuming flesh, uniting himself to man through the womb of a Virgin. Once he assumed flesh, and became a Man, he would always be a Man. Oh, yes He is Wonderful. His life and works were wonderful. His life was one lived in perfection, lived without sin before God and man. His was a life lived not for Himself, but for his people. To bare their sin in his own body on the tree, to work out for them an everlasting righteousness. He did this by his holy unblameable life lived in this sinful world, yet being without sin himself. His works of mercy and compassion, how wonderful they were! Men marveled at his words, at his deeds, at his compassion, his miracles. Oh, Yes He is wonderful in his life and works! His grace and mercy are wonderful. Everyone who has “tasted that the Lord is gracious” knows how wonderful his grace is. Consider the people to whom he has shown his grace and mercy. It is to sinners, the ungodly. Our Lord said; “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father for it seemed good in thy sight” (Matthew11: 25-26). If any one of us received from the Lord God what we deserved, we would be utterly and eternally lost. But blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, “who hath saved us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1: 9) —Pastor Donnie Bell
6 The Grace Bulletin
December 9, 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 |
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