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Grace Baptist Church of Danville

May 20, 2018

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Every heaven-born soul knows that there are two natures in him, the old man and the new, the carnal and the spiritual, the flesh and the spirit, that “the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these two are contrary one to the other.”

Daily Readings for the Week of May 20-27, 2018

Sunday 2 Chronicles 30-32 Thursday Ezra 4-6

Monday 2 Chronicles 33-34 Friday Ezra 7-9

Tuesday 2 Chronicles 35-Ezra 1 Saturday Ezra 10-Nehemiah 2

Wednesday Ezra 2-3 Sunday Nehemiah 3-5

· Bro. Bruce Crabtree and I are scheduled to preach Friday-Sunday for East Hendersonville Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC, where Bro. Carrol Poole is pastor. In conjunction with this meeting the Hendersonville church will celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Bro. Poole’s faithful service as their pastor.

Happy Birthday! Billy McCormack-25^th

Nursery Duty Today: Jayalita McCormack (AM) — Debbie Bartley (PM)

The Bread of Life — Don Fortner

(Tune: #118 — When I Survey —LM)

1. Poor, starving souls, trying to feed

On husks that cannot meet your need,

Behold, the gospel table spread—

Christ Jesus is the Living Bread!

2. This Bread, which money cannot buy,

Will life impart and life supply.

It fills the hungry with delight,

And never spoils your appetite.

3. This Bread of Life comes down from heav’n,

By sov’reign grace, it’s freely giv’n.

This food and medicine to saints

Revives the weary and the faint.

4. This Bread the carnal cannot taste;

But heav’n-born souls upon it feast.

Feasting, we feast, and crave still more,

To eat and live for evermore.

Every man knows by nature that God demands both righteousness and satisfaction. Every man knows this, by nature, because God has stamped it indelibly upon his conscience, that sin demands blood atonement. It is for this reason that throughout history, in all parts of the world (civilized and barbaric), men and women have attempted to appease the wrath of God and ease their consciences of guilt by blood sacrifices, even by the sacrifices of their own children.

Miraculous Power No Tongue Can Explain

“When the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet.” (2 Kings 13:21)

Here is miraculous power neither mind can comprehend, nor tongue explain. As Elisha’s dead body was an instrument used of God to give life to the one touched by it, so it is the gospel of God preached by mortal men that is the instrument by which God the Holy Ghost gives life eternal to chosen, redeemed sinners (1 Peter 1:23).

God’s Chosen Instrument

There was no power in Elisha’s dead bones to give life; but God made it an instrument by which he gave life. And there is no power in the most faithful gospel preacher to give life to anyone. But God has ordained by the foolishness of preaching to save his elect. — “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” — Three lessons:

1. Be sure you do not despise the preaching of the gospel but seize and treasure every opportunity to hear the message by which God may communicate life to your needy soul.

2. Do everything you can to get sinners under the sound of the gospel. God may be pleased to give life to those you bring to hear the gospel of Christ.

3. God often uses the labors of his people for the furtherance of the gospel long after they have left this world, just as he used Elisha’s dead bones to communicate life to that dead man touched by them.

Elisha a Type

As John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ, Jehovah’s Firstborn, Elijah was the forerunner of Elisha, to whom God gave the double portion of the firstborn. Elisha was himself an eminent type of Christ. As this man was cast into Elisha’s sepulchre, believing sinners are buried with Christ in the likeness of his death, confessing our faith in him who fulfilled all righteousness for us by his obedience unto death as our Substitute, our union with him in his obedience and death, and our confident hope of resurrection in his likeness in the resurrection Romans 6:4-6).

Old Testament Saints

Old Testament saints were not spiritual morons, as many foolishly think. Those saints of old lived by the same faith you and I live by, looking to Christ who is our Redeemer, our Resurrection, and our Life (John 11:25). This man’s resurrection prefigured both the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the grave and of God’s elect in him, with him, and by him as our Substitute, in the new birth, and in the second resurrection at the last day. Those saints of old lived in the sweet, assured hope of resurrection glory with Christ. Job declared that hope with joy (Job 19:25-27). And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of our Savior’s glorious second coming to accomplish it (Jude 14-15).

“By Faith in Christ Jesus”

Galatians 3:26

Salvation is, always has been, and as long as time shall stand always shall be obtained “by faith in Christ Jesus.” All who ever knew God came to him with a blood sacrifice. Read the 11^th chapter of Hebrews again. From the creation of the first Adam to the coming of the last Adam (throughout the Old Testament era), God saved sinners exactly the same way he saves sinners today and shall continue to save sinners until Christ comes again: by grace through faith in Christ.

Trusted Christ

Believing God, Adam (Genesis 3:15, 21), Abel (Genesis 4:3-5), Noah (Genesis 8:20-22), Abraham (Genesis 15:9-11; 22:8), and Moses (Exodus 12:1-13), all believed the promise God made in Genesis 3:15, and offered a typical sacrifice, which by divine institution represented the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. They did not trust those sacrifices that typified Christ. Those sacrifices could never take away sin (Hebrews 10:1-14). These men were not heathen! They were taught of God. They trusted Christ.

Not by Works

God did not save sinners in the Old Testament either by their works or by their legal (typical) sacrifices and ceremonies. God did not save his elect in the Old Testament in a different way. They were saved just like we are, by grace alone, through faith alone, in, with, and by Christ alone.

Not on Credit

And they were not saved on credit. Christ is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8; Hebrews 4:3). God’s elect were saved (redeemed, justified, sanctified, accepted, and blessed of God with all spiritual blessings) in Christ our Mediator before the world began. That is more than a logical supposition or theological position. That is precisely the language of Holy Scripture (Romans 8:29-31; 2 Timothy 1:9-10; Ephesians 1:3-6; Jude 1). We enjoyed the blessed experience of God’s grace and salvation in time, but “the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

Christ the Way

If you would find atonement and righteousness, if you would find acceptance with God, you must, like these ancient believers, look to Christ, the Lamb of God. You must believe on the Son of God (Romans 3:19-26; 8:1-4).

Christ is the Way. The only way sinners can come to God, the only way you and I can draw near to him is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no acceptance with God upon the footing of religious ritualism or our own works of righteousness. If we would be saved, if we would find acceptance with God, we must come to him like the publican of old, confessing our sins and trusting the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is written, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

The Grace Bulletin

May 20, 2018

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