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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

April 3, 2016

Those who are in the flesh cannot be pleasing to God. Those who are in the Spirit cannot but be pleasing to God.

Daily Readings for the Week of April 3-10, 2016

Sunday 2 Samuel 4-6 Thursday 2 Samuel 15-17

Monday 2 Samuel 7-10 Friday 2 Samuel 18-19

Tuesday 2 Samuel 11-12 Saturday 2 Samuel 20-21

Wednesday 2 Samuel 13-14 Sunday 2 Samuel 22-23

· I am scheduled to preach Friday – Sunday for Robert Street Baptist Church in Dudley, England, where Bro. Norman Wheeler is pastor. Monday and Tuesday I am scheduled to preach for the Free Grace Fellowship in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland.

Happy Birthday!

Lindsay Campbell-6^th Gina Brice-7^th Sally Poncer-7^th Klaus Peterson-9^th

Nursery Duty this Week

Gina Brice (AM) — Celeste Peterson (PM) — Tuesday: Shelby Fortner

Thy Kingdom Come — Don Fortner

(Tune: #497 — When I Can Read My Title Clear —SM)

1. When Christ His royal sceptre sways,

To bring His chosen home,

The newborn soul with fervor prays,

“O Lord, Thy Kingdom come!”

2. Your righteousness, and peace, and joy

You freely give to some;

And when Your foes You have destroyed,

Then shall Thy Kingdom come.

3. Display Your pow’r, reveal Your grace,

And bring Your ransomed home!

Your Gospel send to every place: —

Thus shall Thy Kingdom come!

4. Your scattered sheep must be brought nigh,

Though far from You we’ve roam!

Reign, mighty Lord, Your subjects cry,

And let Thy Kingdom come!

5. In us and for us, Savior reign,

Till we arrive at home!

With joyful hope, we cry again —

O Lord, Thy Kingdom come!

“The burden of the Word of the Lord” is something about which I fear few, very few preachers know anything. For most who preach, sermon preparation is a regular routine, requiring discipline and study, but little more. I want to hear a man preach who carries in his soul “the burden of the Word of the Lord,” a message fresh from the heart of God, burning in his heart, that he must deliver to me, to lift my heart to God in repentance, faith, worship, and renewed consecration. O my God, make me such a preacher!

“By Grace are Ye Saved”

Ephesians 2:8

Almost all professing Christians profess to believe that salvation is by grace. The Bible states the fact of salvation by grace alone so often and so clearly that you can hardly find any who claim to be Christians who openly deny it.

The trouble is that the vast majority of men and women, and the vast majority of preachers talk about grace in such a way that they frustrate the grace of God. The grace they talk about is not grace at all, but works and freewillism, presented in the name of grace!

It is therefore needful that we be constantly and clearly instructed in the doctrine of the grace of God. Grace comes from God who sits upon, and sovereignly rules this universe from his lofty “throne of grace.” Again and again, God the Holy Ghost inspired the apostle Paul to tell us that salvation is by the grace of God. Obviously, this is a matter of great importance. It cannot be overstated or stated too often, or stated too dogmatically. — “By grace are ye saved”

Boasting Excluded

Salvation by grace destroys all room for human boasting (1 Corinthians 4:7).

“Boasting excluded, pride I abase;

I’m only a sinner saved by grace!”

If your idea of salvation allows you to boast that the difference between you and other people is something you are, something you have done, something you decided, or something you willed, you do not yet know the gospel of the grace of God. You have not yet been taught of God. You do not yet know God. No man, no flesh, can glory before God! God’s people know better than to boast even of their repentance and faith. We know that even these things are the gifts of God and the operations of his grace in us (Acts 5:31; 11:17; Romans 2:4; 1 Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 1:19; 2:8; Philippians 1:29; Colossians 2:12). All the graces that are in God’s saints are the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

God Glorified

Salvation by grace alone means that God gets all the praise, honor, and glory for it. God the Father gets all praise for planning it. God the Son gets all praise for purchasing it. And God the Holy Ghost gets all praise for performing it (Ephesians 1:3-14). — “As it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!”

Here is a litmus test for all doctrine. If it makes you swell with pride, if it causes you to look to yourself and say, with regard to any aspect of salvation, “There, I did that,” it is heresy. It is not the doctrine of the grace of God. However, if it causes you to bow humbly before God, blush with shame, and say, “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,” then you can be sure it is according to the doctrine of the grace of God.

Damning Doctrine

Any mixture of works with grace, any mixture of merit with mercy, any mixture of what you do with what God does is not only a terribly evil thing, but utterly damning to your soul.

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Grace plus anything is not salvation, but damnation. Faith plus anything is not salvation, but damnation. Christ plus anything is not salvation, but damnation (Romans 11:6; Galatians 5:2, 4).

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“The Grace of God”

Galatians 2:21

Most people imagine that grace is a passion, or desire in the heart of God to save sinners, or that grace is something God offers to men, or that grace is God giving sinners a chance to be saved, or that grace is something God gives men to use to work out their own salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth. All such doctrine is what God the Holy Spirit calls “frustrating, neutralizing, or setting aside the grace of God” (Galatians 2:21). The Bible never talks about grace like that.

Grace is both an attribute of God and the work and operation of God by which he saves sinners. Whenever you think about grace, or talk about it, always remember that as it is described in the Bible, grace has four distinct characteristics. Any definition of grace that violates any of these four characteristics is in direct opposition to the Word of God.

1. The grace of God is eternal grace (2 Timothy 1:9-10). It has neither beginning nor end. All that God does for any sinner in time he did for that sinner as one of his elect in Christ before the world began (Ephesians 1:3-6).

2. The grace of God is immutable grace (Malachi 3:6; Romans 11:29). It does not change and cannot be changed. Once bestowed, it can never be taken away. And it was bestowed upon us in Christ from everlasting!

3. The grace of God is sovereign grace (Romans 9:11-24). That simply means that God has mercy on whom he will have mercy, he is compassionate toward those to whom he will be compassionate, he saves whom he will save, and whom he will he hardens.

4. And the grace of God is effectual grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). Grace always accomplishes its purpose. Wherever God bestows his grace, salvation is the result. Grace is not the offer of salvation, or of an opportunity to be saved. Grace is the accomplishment of salvation.

The Grace Bulletin

April 3, 2016

Grace Baptist Church of Danville

2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438

Telephone (859) 576-3400 — 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