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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

January 8, 2017

 

Our Savior says, ÒAll power is given unto me in heaven and in earthÓ (Matthew 28:18). That means that no one else has any power.

 

Daily Readings for the Week of January 8-15, 2017

Sunday                Genesis 26-27                                 Thursday       Genesis 36-37

      Monday                Genesis 28-30                                 Friday             Genesis 38-40

      Tuesday              Genesis 31-32                                 Saturday                    Genesis 41-42

      Wednesday        Genesis 33-35                                 Sunday                      Genesis 43-44

 

Happy Birthday!  Allen Kibby-13th

 

Nursery Duty This Week

Celeste Peterson (AM) — Elizabeth Peterson (PM)  Tuesday: Shelby Fortner

 

Blest Sons of Jacob, Chosen Race Don Fortner

(Tune: #400 — Jesus, and Shall It Ever Be — LM)

 

1.    Blest sons of Jacob, chosen race,

Our GodÕs the God of sovereign grace!

He will perform what HeÕs begun:

HeÕll save each chosen, ransomed one!

 

2.    Though rocks, and hills, and mountains fall,

And darkness overshadows all,

WhateÕer our plight, whateÕer our lot,

Our GodÕs the same. — He changes not!

 

3.    Our comfort often ebbs and flows;

Our God no variation knows!

Though JacobÕs sons unfaithful prove,

God loves us with unchanging love!

 

4.    Though sin is mixed with all we do,

Our God remains faithful and true. —

HeÕll never leave, never forsake

His chosen ones, for JesusÕ sake!

 

ÒThe Heavenly JerusalemÓ

Hebrews 12:22

Pastor Gene Harmon

GodÕs Holy City, Heavenly Jerusalem, is his blood-bought church. His bride, the bride of Jesus Christ, is dressed in his perfect righteousness, and adorned with all the ornaments of his amazing grace (Revelation 21:2). Our Lord Jesus himself is the builder of his church (Matthew 16:18; Hebrews 11:8-10). All false religionists are just noise makers who are sinfully attempting to nail their own sinful works in a city whose Builder and Maker is God. All of them are an abomination to our great, majestic, triune God who will not share his glory with anyone.

 

God Loved Jacob

Romans 9:13 and 1 John 4:8-16

 

The Lord God declares, ÒJacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.Ó God the Holy Spirit tells us twice in one chapter, ÒGod is loveÓ How we rejoice in that great, glorious attribute of our God! — ÒGod is love.Ó (1 John 4:8, 16). John does not tell us that the God of heaven and earth is a loving God, or a God of love. He says, ÒGod is love!Ó Love is an attribute of GodÕs being. Because God is love, God must and will love. But we fall into grave and serious error if we attempt to measure and understand GodÕs love by our own. Our love is a passion to be loved. GodÕs love is a determination to bless and save. Our love is caused by something worthy of love in the ones we love. GodÕs love is caused by his love.

 

GodÕs Love for Himself

GodÕs love is independent, holy, and pure. Whatever GodÕs love is, it is not like us. It is like him. I have no idea what all that involves; but I know this: — The Lord God loves himself. GodÕs holy, blameless, pure love finds satisfaction in himself. The three Persons of the Godhead have eternally loved one another in mutual happiness and satisfaction. The Father loves the Son. The Son loves the Father. The Father and Son love the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit loves the Father and the Son. The Holy Trinity dwells together in perfect love, loving one another purely, perfectly, blamelessly, with complete devotion, for Òthe righteous Lord loveth righteousness;Ó and God alone is independently righteous.

 

Holy Love

God, whose love is holy, cannot love anything, or anyone that is not perfectly holy. Perfect love cannot fall upon anything but perfection. Holy love cannot fall upon anything but holiness. Pure love cannot fall upon anything that is not pure.

      A man may pity a suffering dog, but he cannot love it. He cannot be devoted to it. He cannot give himself to it. Love requires compatibility. And there is no compatibility between the man and the dog. Even so, God cannot love sinful man, for there is nothing in fallen man for God to love, nothing in us that is like God, holy and pure.

 

Jacob Loved

Yet, God the Lord declares, ÒJacob have I loved!Ó Jacob, like us, was a fallen, sinful man. How could the holy Lord God love Jacob? How can God love us? There can be but one answer. — God loves fallen, depraved sinners in Christ and for ChristÕs sake. Nowhere in the Bible is God said to love a man, outside of Christ. Nowhere in the Bible is a man assured of GodÕs love, apart from Christ. God loves his JacobÕs mediatorially. He loved Jacob before he became a sinner, in Christ. He loved Jacob though he was born in sin, in Christ and for ChristÕs sake. He loved Jacob, though he often sinned after he was saved, in Christ and for ChristÕs sake. God never loved a man, did anything for a man, revealed himself to a man, or accepted a man apart from his Son, the one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. GodÕs love for Jacob never changes, because God never changes (Malachi 3:6).

 

Faith Lays Hold on Christ Alone

Pastor Terry Worthan

The first experience of faith must be toward God in Christ Jesus. True faith, which is the gift of God, has for its object Christ alone, not the blessings and promises themselves. The Scripture says, ÒLet Israel hope in the LORD: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemptionÓ (Psalm 130:7). The sinner is not to set his thoughts on the blessings that he wants, but he is to look to, go to, and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ; for he himself is the source of mercy and the fountain of redemption. If we have him, we have all that he is. David said in Psalm 142:5, ÒI cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.Ó

            We have to venture the whole salvation of our souls on Christ, and on Christ alone. Paul writing to the Galatians said in 3:26, ÒFor ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.Ó We must cut loose completely from all other hopes and trusts. You say ÒBut if I believe in God that is sufficient.Ó No, no, ÒJesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by meÓ (John 14:6). ÒFor there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due timeÓ (I Timothy 2:5-6). Someone would say, ÒMust not I come to Christ feeling a need to be saved?Ó No, when you wait upon feelings you are waiting to bring something other than what you are, which is purely a sinner. Nowhere in the Bible will you find feelings a warrant for believing. ÒFor feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving; my warrant is the Word of God, naught else is worth believingÓ (Martin Luther).

            We must not rest partly on Christ and partly on doing all that we can. All that we do, and all we can do adds nothing to a personÕs salvation. In the matter of our justification Christ is all. In the matter of our sanctification Christ is all. In the matter of our reconciliation Christ is all. This is the doctrine of the Bible. Heaven is before us, and Christ is the only Door into it. Hell is beneath us, and Christ is the only deliverance from it. The law is against us, and Christ alone is able to deliver us from its curse. The wages of sin is death, and Christ alone retired the debt.

 

ÒEsau have I Hated.Ó

Romans 9:13

 

The word ÒhatedÓ in Romans 9:13 does not imply a positive hatred, which involves contempt, anger, and wrath. Rather, it is, as John Gill rightly observed, a Ònegative hatred, which is GodÕs will not to give eternal life to some persons, a neglect of them, taking no notice of them, passing them by when he chose others. So the word ÔhateÕ is used for neglect, taking no notice.Ó

      That is the way our Lord used the word in Luke 14:26. We are not commanded to treat our families and our own lives contemptuously, with anger and wrath. But we must, as we seek to follow Christ, give no consideration to our earthly relationships. We must pass by them and choose Christ. That is what the word ÒhatedÓ means in Romans 9:13. God passed by Esau, giving him no consideration. His only consideration was for Jacob. God loved Jacob. He considered Jacob. He chose Jacob. The wonder of this text is not that God Òhated,Ó or passed by, Esau. The amazing, wonderful thing is that God loved Jacob.

 

 

 

The Grace Bulletin

 

January 8, 2017

 

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

7:30 P.M. Mid-Week Worship Service

 

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