Listen to sermons at FreeGraceRadio.com

Grace Baptist Church of Danville April 2, 2017 Is salvation by the free-will of man, or by the free-grace of God? What does the Bible say? “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy!” Daily Readings for the Week of April 2-9, 2017 Sunday                2 Samuel 1-3                                               Thursday       2 Samuel 13-14       Monday                2 Samuel 4-6                                               Friday             2 Samuel 15-17       Tuesday              2 Samuel 7-10                                 Saturday                    2 Samuel 18-19       Wednesday        2 Samuel 11-12                               Sunday                      2 Samuel 20-21 · I am scheduled to preach Friday and Saturday at the Hurricane Road Grace Church Bible Conference in Ashland, KY, where Bro. Frank Tate is pastor. Happy Birthday! Lindsay Campbell-6^th    Sally Poncer-7^th    Klaus Peterson-9^th Nursery Duty This Week Debbie Bartley (AM) — Celeste Peterson (PM) Tuesday: Shelby Fortner Press on! The Prize is Just in View! — Don Fortner (Tune: #414 — Am I a Soldier? — CM) 1. Beloved of God, redeemed, elect, We’re precious in His sight. Fear not, dear saints, God will protect His chosen, day and night. 2. Your fiery trials and your foes, And all the tempter’s snares; Your deep distress, your Savior knows. On Him cast all your cares. 3. This is no strange thing, saints of old Passed through the fire to God. This is the way, as we are told, The consecrated road. 4. Press on! The prize is just in view! The struggle can’t be long! Almighty grace shall bring you through, To join the ransom’d throng! “Partakers of the Divine Nature” Evangelist B. B. Caldwell - 1899-1976 This divine nature befits us for heaven. Without it, heaven would be hell. If an unregenerated person should go to heaven without bring born again, without this Divine nature, heaven would be a hell to him, and not only that, but he would make heaven a hell for everybody else. How do you think an ungodly person would feel in a holy heaven, in the presence of a holy God, and in the presence of holy angels with all of the saints and the angelic hosts singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts?” You see we must have a nature to befit us for heaven. This nature is given us in the new birth! Forgiveness Psalm 32:1-2 Pastor Terry Worthan - Calvary Baptist Church, Winston, Georgia “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.” Forgiven, covered, not imputed! The accumulation of these synonyms not only sets forth various aspects of pardon, but triumphantly celebrates the completeness and certainty of the gift.      Forgiven, to lift and bear away a load or burden.      Covered, to cover over, as one might do with some foul-smelling odor. What do you do with a dead, rotten foul smelling carcass? Dig a hole and drop it in and cover it over. So a man’s sin is covered over and ceases to be an evidence before the Divine Eye that sees all things. He himself casts a merciful veil of the blood of Jesus over it and hides it from himself.      A similar idea is included in that last word not imputed; the sin is not reckoned or charged. God does not write it down in his great book on the debt side of the man’s account.      These set forth the great and blessed truth that a man’s transgressions may become, in so far as the Divine heart and the Divine dealings with him are concerned, non-existent! “True religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation of the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul, or, in the apostle’s phrase, ‘It is Christ formed within us.’”                                                         Henry Scrougal - 1650-1678 Wondrous Mystery 2 Peter 1:4 What a great, wonderful, glorious mystery the mystery of the Gospel is! “God was manifest in the flesh!” Our Lord Jesus Christ became one of us, lived, acted, obeyed, suffered, died, and rose again for us, his people, “according to the Scriptures.” Redemption He came down to earth that we might go up to heaven. He suffered that we might reign. He became a servant that we might become kings and priests unto God. He died that we might live. He endured the death of the cross that our enmity might be slain and our sins put away. He loved us that we might love God. He who was rich became poor that we, who are poor, might be made rich. He descended into the grave that we might sit together with him in heavenly places. He emptied himself that we might be filled. He made himself of no reputation that we might be made honorable. He became a worm and no man that we, who are but sinful worms, might be made princes with God, and exalted to the highest glory. He was made a curse for us that we might receive the blessing of his salvation, all the blessings of the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Though heir of all things, he was willingly despised of the people that we, who were justly condemned, might obtain an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and fades not away. His death was the satisfaction of divine justice, the ransom for us, the propitiation for our sins, the sweet-smelling savor to God, that we, who were an offence to God, might be freed from sin. He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Though Lord of all, he took the form of a servant that we, who were the servants of sin, might be made servants of God. He drank the bitter cup of God’s indignation and fury that we might forever draw water from the wells of salvation. He hungered that we might eat the Bread of Life. He thirsted that we might drink of the river of the Water of Life. He was numbered with the transgressors that we might be numbered among his saints. Though he is eternal, from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth was, yet he became a helpless infant that creatures of yesterday, sentenced to death, might live forever. He wore a crown of thorns that we might wear a crown of life. He wept tears of anguish that he might wipe all tears from our eyes. He bore the yoke of obedience unto death that we might bear the easy yoke of his grace. He poured out his soul unto death, laid three days in the heart of the earth, then burst the bars of death and arose to God that we, who through fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage, might obtain the victory over death, hell, and the grave and become partakers of his resurrection. He exhausted the penalty of the law that his redeemed might have access to God’s inexhaustible treasures of mercy, wisdom, faithfulness, truth, and grace in him. Though a Son, he became a voluntary exile that we, who were afar off, might be brought nigh by his blood. His visage was so marred more than any man that his ransomed ones might be presented before God without spot, or blemish, or wrinkle, or any such thing. He was forsaken of God that we might never be forsaken. He was hung up naked before his insulting foes that all who believe on his name might wear a glorious wedding garment of spotless righteousness forever. Regeneration Wonderful mystery! “God was manifest in the flesh!” — But of all the wonders of this great mystery of the Gospel, none is more wondrous than this. — The Son of God took our nature that we “might be partakers of the Divine nature!” That is what God the Holy Ghost tells us in 2 Peter 1:4. All who are born of God are, by the mighty operation of his grace in the new birth, made “partakers of the divine nature.” I have studied, meditated on, and rolled around in wonderful revelation of God for many years. I have quoted these words hundreds of times, asserting that all who are born of God are, by the regenerating grace and power of God the Holy Ghost, “made partakers of the Divine nature.” It is indescribably beyond the reach of my mind; but it is not beyond the reach of my heart.       That which is stated in this passage is so obvious that Peter tells us three times in this chapter that he is not telling us anything new, or anything not commonly known among God’s saints, but that he is simply putting us in remembrance (vv. 12, 13, 15) of things we know. — These are things that every saved sinner knows. All who are taught of God are born of God; and they all know these things by revelation and by experience. You may not yet know how to understand these things, or how to explain them to others; but, as you hear them, if you are born of God, you will see that these are things you have known all the days of your life as a believer. The Grace Bulletin April 2, 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

Pastor Fortner’s Audio Sermons Video Sermons Books Itinerary