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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

August 21, 2016

Soon you must die. Soon you will meet God in judgment. Soon you will be forever in hell or forever with Christ in Glory. — How will it be for you in eternity?

Daily Readings for the Week of August 21-28, 2016

Sunday Ezekiel 9-12 Thursday Ezekiel 20-21

Monday Ezekiel 13-15 Friday Ezekiel 22-23

Tuesday Ezekiel 16 Saturday Ezekiel 24-26

Wednesday Ezekiel 17-19 Sunday Ezekiel 27-29

· I am scheduled to preach Wednesday night for Redeemer Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where Bro. Fred Evans is pastor.

· We extend our deepest sympathy to Mary Lou Duff and her family in the death of Bro. Bob Duff.

Happy Birthday! Andrew Torson-27^th Casey Henson-27^th

Nursery Duty this Week

Nicole Abell (AM) — Celeste Peterson (PM) — Tuesday: Diane Campbell

We have an Advocate — Don Fortner

(Tune: #33 — Stand Up and Bless the Lord — SM)

1. In heaven’s holy court,

Where justice reigns and shines,

Truth makes a constant, strict report,

Of all our sins and crimes.

2. There Christ our Advocate,

Forever intercedes,

Takes up our cause, secures our state,

And His own merit pleads.

3. This is our joy and cheer: —

Before our Father’s eyes,

Jesus, our Advocate draws near,

And pleads His sacrifice!

4. Our guilt before us stood,

Like mountains to oppose;

But that blest ocean, Jesus’ blood,

All mountains overflows!

5. The law its sentence reads,

And we confess our sin;

His precious blood our Savior pleads;

And God declares us clean!

“That one who steers the vessel of grace is the Captain of our salvation. He has promised never to leave nor forsake his own. And He never will.”

— Pastor Larry Criss

“Moreover”

Exodus 3:15

In Exodus 3:15 our great God and Savior gives us one of his great “moreover” words. In verse 14 he tells us what he is in himself. Here he tells us what he is to his people. — “And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.”

It is as though the Lord said, “I have told you all that I am, the only eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient, unchanging, immutable, constant, faithful One. I am now what I have always been and what I shall forever be. ‘I am the Lord, I change not.’ And, ‘moreover,’ all that I am is yours. I am your God. I have made myself your God, bound to you by my own covenant. I am the sovereign God who chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in sovereign mercy. I am the God who has pledged himself to the salvation of my people by an unconditional promise of unconditional grace.

The Triune God

Here is a threefold declaration of covenant grace from the three persons of the Holy Trinity. The Lord God does not say, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” — He says, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” He did not say that just to fill up space. There is much more here than is commonly observed. We worship one God in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (1 John 5:7). The Lord Jesus Christ is himself God, the only God our Savior. All the fulness of the Triune God dwells in the God-man, our Savior (Colossians 2:9-10). Yet, all three Persons in the Godhead are engaged in the salvation of our souls (Ephesians 1:3-14). And the work of one is just as essential and just as glorious as the work of the others.

Revealed in Christ

Yet, the triune God is revealed and known, worshipped and adored only in the Person and work of our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:18). And all that God is, as well as all he does for us in and by Christ, is ours because of a covenant made before the world was, an everlasting covenant full of divinely glorious, sweet “moreovers” (Ezekiel 37:26-28; Romans 5:1-21; 8:28-32).

Moses asked the Lord to show him his name; and the Lord Jesus said, “I AM THAT I AM,” the covenant God of Israel. We have a fuller declaration in Matthew 1:21. — “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” — “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). — “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee” (Psalm 9:10). He whose name is I AM THAT I AM, JEHOVAH-JESUS, is able to save. He declares, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). — “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). And he will do it! — “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2).

A Tribute to a Faithful Man

Robert A. (Bob) Duff

June 24, 1940 — August 5, 2016

Late one Saturday afternoon in the middle of August, sixteen years ago, I received a call from a man completely unknown to me. When I answered the telephone, he said, “Bro. Fortner, this is Bob Duff. I live in Junction City. You don’t know me; but for the past six weeks I’ve been flat on my back, unable to do anything but read and watch television. I’ve been watching you on the television every Sunday morning. Bro. Fortner, I’ve taught Sunday School in these religious organization in this area for twenty-five years. Listening to you, God has shown me that I don’t know the Gospel. I wanted to know if it would be alright for me to come listen to you; and maybe the Lord will teach me the Gospel.”

I cannot say that is an exact quote from my friend; but it’s pretty close. The next morning, one of the first people to arrive for our worship service was Bro. Bob Duff. He introduced himself and took a seat on the third row, to the right of my pulpit, almost directly in front of me. He has occupied that seat every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Tuesday night since, except when sick. — God graciously taught him the Gospel of his free, sovereign, saving grace in Christ; and I had the privilege of baptizing him on September 17, 2000.

Bob and his wife, Mary Lou, have been close, cherished friends for these sixteen years, the kind of people you are blessed to have in your life. Bro. Duff was always anxious to do whatever he could to assist his pastor, whatever he could to help others, and whatever he could for the furtherance of the Gospel. Until his health began to fail, knowing from his own experience the value of such a ministry, he along with two other of our men, went to the local cable vision office and played recordings of my messages every Sunday morning, and Wednesday and Friday night.

Bob was never presumptuous, overbearing, or opinionated. He never pushed himself into the light, or into the center of a conversation. I never knew him to speak in even the slightest negative way about others. That does not mean he was not a man of strong conviction, but just the opposite. — His firm convictions regarding the Gospel of God, the work of God, and the sweet union of God’s elect with the Lord Jesus Christ caused him to highly esteem God’s elect and to always speak well of them.

In the sixteen years of pilgrimage together Bob and I never had a cross word. He was always an encouragement to his pastor. In every work we undertook as a congregation, Bob was ready to do anything asked of him. I do not recall ever preaching a message to him to which he did not have a meaningful and encouraging comment.

Though he was not a wealthy man, I happen to know of some very significant decisions he and his wife made shortly after coming into the fellowship of our assembly that were costly to them, but were things they wanted to do so that they could be more generous in supporting the cause of Christ.

My friend, Bob Duff, was truly a remarkable man. The grace of God made him a remarkable man. He has been sick for so long that I have already missed him for a long time. The last time we were able to talk together, he picked up one of our bulletins and said, “I read every word, and pray for you. Brother, I love you, and I’m praying for you.” As I write this tribute to this faithful man, I can almost see him now, beaming with joy, as he beholds the Lord Jesus face to face! Soon, my brother, soon, we will meet again. — Soon!

The Grace Bulletin

August 21, 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