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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

October 13, 2013

If two angels were sent from heaven to serve the will of God for His glory, one to sweep the streets and the other to rule the world, it would not matter to either which task was assigned to him. So it should be to us, if our desire is to glorify God in serving Him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Mindy Peterson-13th  Jonathan Warta-19th  Ruth Wall-19th

NURSERY DUTY THIS WEEK

Today: Jayalita McCormack (AM) Celeste Peterson (PM)          Tuesday: Stephanie Wall

Preserved in Christ — Don Fortner

(Tune: #46 — O For a Thousand Tongues! — CM)

1.    How safe is all the chosen race,

Preserved in Christ our Head,

Before He called us by His grace

And after calling led.

2.    Preserved in Christ, and taught to love

His name, His saints, His Word:

Preserved to gain a throne above,

And praise and love the Lord.

3.    Preserved when earth and hell oppose,

Preserved in life and death,

Preserved when wrath destroys our foes,

And vict’ry crowns our faith.

4.    Preserved midst Satan’s fiery darts,

Through all this wilderness:

Preserved from our own wretched hearts,

To everlasting bliss!

“Many a man who might have been of great service to the Church of God becomes useless because he must branch out in some new direction in business which takes up all his spare time. Instead of feeling that his first care should be, ‘How can I best glorify God?’ his all-absorbing objective is to stretch his arms like seas, and grasp in all the shore. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars cannot silence the greedy horseleech which men have swallowed, which continually cries, ‘Give, give!’ Many add house to house and field to field, as though they meant to be left alone in the land! Alas, that Christians should be infected with the same fever! The rich man in the parable had no time for prayer, for he was busy in planning new barns in which to bestow his goods — but he had to find time for dying when the Lord said, ‘This night thy soul shall be required of thee.’ Beware, I pray you, of “the lust of other things,’ the canker of riches, the insatiable greed which drives men into the snare of the devil, for if it works you no other ill, it will do you mischief enough if, thereby, your prayers are hindered.”

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon, 1874

“In Christ”

1 Corinthians 1:30

Read 1st Corinthians 1:30 and see what the Lord God has made Christ to be to us, and has made us in Christ in the sweet and blessed experience of His grace. — “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption.”

Our Experience

Paul is talking about things we experience in Christ. He is talking about every believer’s blessed experience of grace. All true believers, all who are born again by the Spirit of God, are in Christ, vitally united to Him by a living union of faith. As the branches are in the vine, drawing life from and are entirely dependent upon the vine, we are in Christ Jesus. We are in Christ, not by an act of our own free-will, but by the work of God’s free, sovereign, almighty grace. Meditate often, child of God, upon this glorious fact. —— What does it mean to be in Christ?

Blessed of God

To be in Christ is to be blessed of God (Ephesians 1:3-6). In the everlasting covenant of grace, God blessed all His people with all spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began. All with which God can or will bless man, He has freely bestowed upon chosen sinners in Christ from eternity, in infinite fulness, and without measure. All who are in Christ have been blessed of God eternally with all spiritual blessings according to God’s electing love. In Christ, we are chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, and accepted of God! But we knew nothing of this great blessedness until we came to be in Christ experimentally by God’s gift of faith, uniting us to our Savior.

Favored of God

To be in Christ is to be favored of God, the objects of God’s favor and pleasure. With whom is God well pleased? Only Christ (Matthew 17:5). If we are in Christ and one with Christ, God is well pleased with us for Christ’s sake. He cannot be

displeased with the body if He is well pleased with our Head. As the smile of the Father is on His Son unceasingly and justly, so it is upon us in Him!

Complete in Him

To be in Christ is to be complete (Colossians 2:10). In Christ Jesus we are complete, full, lacking nothing, perfect. He is all our Wisdom, all our Righteousness, all our Sanctification, and all our Redemption. All that God requires of us, all who believe on the Son of God have in perfect fulness in Him. Being complete in Him, there is no lack, no need, and no room. The only way we can put anything else in is to push Him out!

Free in Him

To be in Christ is to be free, freed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13); freed from the yoke of the law (Romans 10:4), and freed from all possibility of condemnation by the law (Romans 8:1). It is no more possible for a believer to be condemned by God than it is for Christ to be condemned again, for we are in Him. Because we are in Him, because God has imputed Christ’s righteousness to us and will not impute sin to us (Romans 4:8), we can never be condemned. If the Lord God will not impute sin to us, He can never, for any reason, condemn us for sin. We are in Christ!

Understand This

Be sure you understand this: — Our experience of grace does not make Christ our Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption; and our faith in Christ does not make Him our Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption. But you will never know that Christ is your Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption until you trust Him, until you believe on the Son of God.

That is what the Holy Spirit tells us, when He describes Abraham’s faith as an illustration of saving faith. When Abraham believed the record of God concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus, it was imputed to him (conscientiously) for righteousness (Romans 3:24-26; 4:3-11; 6:11). As our Lord Jesus was “numbered” with transgressors when He experienced being made sin for us, we are numbered with Him when we experience being made the righteousness of God in Him. It is in this blessed and sweet experience of grace, as the sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, that all that Christ is is imputed to him consciously.

“The moment a sinner believes and trusts in his crucified God,

His pardon at once he receives, redemption in full through His blood.

The faith that unites to the Lamb, and brings such salvation as this,

Is more than a notion or name: — The work of God’s Spirit it is.

It says to the mountains, Depart, that stand betwixt God and the soul;

It binds up the broken in heart, and makes wounded consciences whole.

Bids sins of a crimson-like dye be spotless as snow, and as white,

And makes such a sinner as I as pure as an angel of light!”

The Grace Bulletin

October 13, 2013

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

Pastor Fortner’s

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