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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

January 15, 2017

“If God’s love to Jacob was real literal love, God’s hatred to Esau must be real literal hatred.” — Robert Haldane

Daily Readings for the Week of January 15-22, 2017

Sunday Genesis 43-44 Thursday Exodus 4-6

Monday Genesis 45-47 Friday Exodus 7-9

Tuesday Genesis 48-50 Saturday Exodus 10-12

Wednesday Exodus 1-3 Sunday Exodus 13-14

· I am scheduled to preach Wednesday night for Todds Road Grace Church in Lexington, where Bro. Todd Nibert is pastor. Service time is 7:00 PM.

· We will have our quarterly fellowship dinner next Sunday, January 22, after the morning worship service. There will be no evening service on the 22^nd.

Happy Birthday! Bernita Singleton-17^th Molly McCormack-17^th

Nursery Duty This Week

Nicole Abell (AM) — Stephanie Wilkerson (PM) Tuesday: Diane Campbell

Our Refuge is in Jacob’s God — Don Fortner

(Tune: #223 —Arise, My Soul, Arise — 66.66.88)

1. Born of a guilty race, exposed to death and hell,

We’re saved by sov’reign grace, with Jacob’s God to dwell.

Rejoice, give thanks, and sing aloud —

Our Refuge is in Jacob’s God.

2. Jehovah’s cov’nant grace, and Jesus’ wounded side,

Our Rock and Hiding Place is God Who for us died.

Be gone all doubts! Be gone all fear! —

Our Refuge, Jacob’s God, is near!

3. In vain our foes assail. In vain does Satan roar.

They never can prevail. We’re safe for evermore!

For Jacob’s God, our Refuge says,

“I will be with thee, and will bless!”

Your Responsibility

Pastor Eric Richards

While it is clear in God’s Word that salvation is God’s work alone, it is also evident that man is responsible for the light that God gives. And the fault of your damnation, if you perish, will be your own obstinate unbelief. You cannot give yourself life and faith in Christ. But you are responsible, while you have light, to believe in the light, in order that you may be a child of light (John 12:36). If God has mercy on you and saves you by his grace, it will be according to his own will through the light of his Word (James 1:18). But if you die and go to hell, it will be the result of your own willful unbelief and rejection of Christ, God’s Marvelous Light (Acts 13:38-41). Walk in the light, taking this sure promise of God as your beacon of hope: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David” (Isaiah 55:3).

“Jacob have I Loved, but Esau have I Hated.”

Romans 9:13

We worship God on his throne. “The God of all grace” sits upon the throne of absolute sovereignty; and it is “the Throne of Grace” (Hebrews 4:16). He gives grace to whom he will and withholds it from whom he will, as it pleases him. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy; and whom he will he hardens. If you would find grace, you must find it there, at the “the Throne of Grace,” bowing before the august majesty of the sovereign, eternal God. And that grace comes to sinners through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Coming to God

If we find grace, if we obtain God’s salvation, we will do so only at the Throne of Grace, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We come to God on his throne, through the merits and mediation of his own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing our sin, abandoning all self-worth and self-righteousness, crying, like the publican, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” — God be propitious to me, the sinner, through the sin-atoning sacrifice of your Son. We come to the sovereign Lord God, crying, like the leper, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole.” Come, oh, come to Christ! — “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).

Bow to the Word

As we read the Book of God, we must read it, bowing before our God, bowing before his sovereign throne, bowing to his Word. Are you prepared to do that? Are you prepared to bow to God and bow to his Word? Here, the Lord God speaks, and speaks plainly about his absolute sovereignty in the exercise of his grace. — “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

If you are one of God’s elect, you will fight that for just so long. God is going to win. He is going to win. He is going to conquer the proud heart. He is going to break the wild asses’ colt. He is going to ride you, until he rides you down and breaks you. The sovereign Christ is going to put his yoke on you. He will conquer you, either in grace or in judgment, but he’s going to conquer you. God is going to have the victory. You will bow to God. You will bow before his throne. The Triune Jehovah is going to magnify and exalt his himself. Christ will be triumphant over you and over me. One way or the other, in grace or in judgment, you will bow at his feet. — “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”

God’s Reason

I do not pretend to understand the great wonders of election, reprobation, and predestination. I don’t. But I do rejoice in all God’s glorious character as God, bow to his Word, and worship him. There are some in this world to whom God is gracious, and some to whom he is not gracious. And I know, because God has stated it plainly, exactly why God loved Jacob and why he hated Esau. — “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Romans 9:15).

“Esau have I Hated.”

Romans 9:13

My friend, Pastor Bruce Crabtree, wrote, “It’s a very serious matter to think God has the capacity to hate. This is most offensive to some people who could never bring themselves to believe God has such capacity.” Offensive as it is to proud, fallen rebels to hear it, it is twice recorded in Holy Scripture, “Esau have I hated.”

Sovereign Hatred

God’s hatred was a sovereign hatred. That is obviously the message of Romans 9:13. When the Lord God says, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,” he is using those twin brothers as an illustration of his great and glorious sovereignty in the salvation of sinners (Romans 9:10-26).

The Spirit of God, using Jacob to represent God’s elect and Esau to represent all who perish at last under the wrath of God, teaches us and teaches us plainly, as he does throughout the Word of God, that the difference between God’s elect whom he saves by his almighty grace in Christ and the reprobate who never shall be saved is a difference of God’s making, and God’s making alone (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 2:7-10; Matthew 11:25-30).

Bro. Crabtree also wrote, “God’s first hating Esau had nothing to do with Esau being a bad person. God simply passed him by in election. God did not put his name in the Lamb’s book of life. Determined never to save him. And none of this was because Esau was a bad person. It all happened before Esau had done any evil. God did not love and choose Jacob to salvation because Jacob was a good man, nor did God hate and reject Esau because he was an evil man. So, this love for Jacob and hatred for Esau had only to do with the election of the one and the rejection of the other.” God’s hatred of Esau, like his love for Jacob, was altogether a matter of divine sovereignty. — “He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth” (Romans 9:18).

Negative Hatred

God’s sovereign, eternal hatred of Esau was a negation of benevolence, a resolution and determination not to have mercy on him, not to give him grace and life eternal in Christ, a determination to leave him alone. — All it takes for you to go to hell is for God to leave you alone! All it takes for you to go to hell is for God to leave you alone! Well might we cry…

“Pass me not, O gentle Savior,

Hear my humble cry,

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by!”

God passed by Esau, giving him no consideration. His only consideration was for Jacob. God loved Jacob. He considered Jacob. He chose Jacob. The only cause was in himself. The cause was the sovereignty and freedom of God’s eternal will.

The Grace Bulletin

January 15, 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