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Grace Baptist Church of Danville March 12, 2017
Miracles never produce faith in Christ. Pharaoh perished, though he saw all GodÕs wonders in the Land of Ham. Multitudes crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, and went to hell in the wilderness. Thousands ate the loaves and fishes multiplied by our Lord Jesus, and perished in their sins. Faith in Christ is the gift of God the Holy Ghost given to and wrought in sinners by the preaching of the gospel.
Daily Readings for the Week of March 12-19, 2017 Sunday Joshua 18-20 Thursday Judges 5-7 Monday Joshua 21-22 Friday Judges 8-9 Tuesday Joshua 23-Judges 1 Saturday Judges 10-12 Wednesday Judges 2-4 Sunday Judges 13-15
á I am scheduled to preach Tuesday and Wednesday for the Sovereign Grace Assembly in Wasilla, Alaska, and next Friday through Sunday for Yuba-Suter Grace Church in Marysville, California, where Bro. Rick Warta is pastor. — The Lord willing, Bro. Todd Nibert, pastor of Todds Road Grace Church in Lexington, will be here to preach the gospel to you Tuesday night. á We will have a fellowship dinner together today after the morning worship service. There will be no evening service here tonight.
Happy Birthday! Debbie Bartley-13th ShanteÕ Birchum-17th Eric Wall-17th Nursery Duty: Jayalita McCormack (Today) — Diane Campbell (Tuesday)
As I Received Christ at the First — Don Fortner (Tune: #228 — My Faith has Found a Resting Place — CMD)
So full of unbelief and sin, hope that itÕs heaven born? With temper vile and horrid pride, can I yet claim GodÕs grace? My sin, which cannot be denied, has robbed my soul of peace.
With weeping eyes the Savior view, and hope IÕm justified. Christ Jesus died for sinnersÕ sake. (And that I know I am!) The ground He gives I humbly take, and trust my Lord, the Lamb.
ItÕs by His merit (Gift of grace!) That this poor sinner lives! As I received Christ at the first, so now I come to Him — A sinner base and full of lusts, whose only hope is Him!
There is a marvelous, heavenly unity in the Bible, not to be found in any other book in the world. Every part of the Bible fits every other part. It contains one system of doctrine, one system of truth, one rule of conduct, one plan of salvation, and one rule of faith. How can this be explained? There is no explanation but this, — ÒAll scripture is given by inspiration of God!Ó
How does God speak to men? Hebrews 1:1-3
In times past God spoke to men by visions, dreams, miraculous wonders, and revelations. He once even spoke to a man by an ass. But those days have ceased. God hats spoken to men one last time, with finality, by his Son. And the word he has given us by his Son is the divinely inspired volume of Holy Scripture. Many tell us we should always expect a miracle. They tell us that if we do not see miracles, if preachers do not perform miracles, it is because we do not have sufficient faith, and the preacher lacks the anointing of the Holy Ghost.
Miracles in Scripture A careful reading of Holy Scripture shows that all the miracles performed by human instrumentality in the Word of God fall into four distinct periods. They were all performed during MosesÕ era, the era of Elijah and Elisha, the time of the Babylonian Captivity, and during the days of Christ and his Apostles. Times of Crisis These were all times of crisis in which God was moving in a special way to further his cause. Put them all together and they represent a very small portion of all the years covered by the Bible. In a word, miracles took place intermittently, confirming GodÕs prophets as his prophets, confirming the Lord Jesus as the Christ of God, and confirming our LordÕs apostles as his apostles. They never produced faith in anyone, and were never intended to produce faith. They never increased anyoneÕs faith, and were never intended to do so. They were only given for the confirmation of Christ and the confirmation of chosen men as GodÕs servants.
The Message Those who get caught up with the performance of miracles always miss the spiritual truths and messages they were performed to portray. — It was not the miracle that was important, but the message conveyed by the miracle. The miracles performed by our Savior were intended to portray the wonders of his grace. As he healed the bodies of men, making them physically whole, so he heals his elect, restoring that which he took not away, making chosen, redeemed sinners whole by his wondrous grace. As he raised people from the dead physically, so he raises sinners from death to life by his grace in the first resurrection and will raise the dead bodies of his saints in the glory of his second advent. As he miraculously fed the multitudes, so he feeds his saints by his grace, supplying all our needs, Òaccording to his riches in glory.Ó
Apostolic Gifts Ceased The apostolic age of miracles, signs and wonders, and speaking in tongues ceased with the fulfilment of divine revelation, with the full revelation of God given in Holy Scripture. Because we have the complete Revelation of God in his Word, we have no need for and must not expect the performance of miracles today. We have something far better than miracles; we have the Word of God (2 Peter 1:16-21). There have been none with the gift and ability to do those things by the Spirit of God since the days of the apostles. Those who yet pretend to possess such supernatural gifts are just pretenders. They are not the servants of Christ. The Holy Spirit tells us, with unmistakable clarity, that those who pretend to have prophetic and apostolic gifts today are not the servants of Christ, but of antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2:7-10; Revelation 13:7-18).
Dangers of Pentecostalism 2 Peter 1:16-21
The dangers of Pentecostalism are many, especially with respect to the Word of God.
Scripture of No Effect Pentecostalism makes the Holy Scriptures of no effect by adding speaking in tongues, ecstatic visions, the performance of miracles, and holy trances to the message of the Bible. In other words, they make their experiences to be revelations equal to, and even greater than that of the Bible. In practice, Pentecostalism is a denial of the sufficiency of the Scriptures. Pentecostalism implies that the Bible alone is not able to make a man Òthoroughly furnished unto all good works.Ó They would have us to know that something more is needed. — Something more than the gospel. — Something more than redemption. — Something more than salvation. — Something more than eternal life. — Something more than Christ!
An Additional Word As Mormonism is built not upon the revelation of God in Holy Scripture, but upon the vision Joseph Smith claimed he had, and wrote out in the Book of Mormon, Pentecostalism is not built upon the Word of God, but upon additional revelations from God men and women claim to have. The Pentecostal does not seek enlightenment from the Holy Spirit in the study and understanding of the Word of God. He seeks an additional word from God, an additional revelation, an additional source of truth, an additional basis of faith. These deluded souls fully believe that there are prophets and apostles today, possessing all the gifts and powers of Elijah and Paul; and they are seeking a message from heaven by these men. For them, the Bible alone is not enough. Modern day miracle workers flat out deny the sufficiency of the Word of God. In his book (Miraculous Healing), Henry W. Frost wrote, ÒWe are not to say, therefore, that the Word of God is sufficient.Ó
Superior Revelations The charismatic looks upon signs, wonders, and miracles as being superior to and more powerful than the Word of God! They tell us that if men do not believe the Bible simply as the pure Word of God, and submit to it as such, perhaps they will believe if they see a miracle. But our Lord rebuked such a thought, saying, ÒIf they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the deadÓ (Luke 16:31).
GodÕs Testimony The miraculous, spiritual gifts of the apostles were never intended to produce faith in men. They were temporary gifts, confirming to GodÕs elect the authority of the apostles as the messengers of Christ. We believe the gospel of Christ upon the divinely confirmed testimony of the apostles. ÒHe that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.Ó
The Grace Bulletin
March 12, 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
Web Pages http://www.DonFortner.com http://www.FreegraceRadio.com http://www.Grace-eBooks.com
Don Fortner
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Pastor FortnerÕs
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