Religion tells sinful man what he ought to do for a holy God. The Gospel proclaims what the holy Lord God has done for sinful man.
Come, Sing of God’s Electing Love — Don Fortner (Tune: The Doxology — LM)
1. Come, sing of God’s electing love And His eternal purpose good. Let sinners saved by sov’reign grace Lift heart and voice in praise to God.
2. Before the angels sang His praise, Before God made the earth or sun, He chose the people He would save And gave them to His darling Son.
3. Without condition we must meet, God’s choice most sov’reign, wise and good, Was fixed by free, eternal love. He loved us just because He would.
4. Nothing in heaven, earth, or hell Can alter God’s most wise decree. Each chosen sinner shall be saved, And shall at last God’s glory see!
5. Immutable, His purpose stands, Immortal as it is sublime! God’s justice, mercy, truth and grace United make salvation mine!
“Partakers of the Divine Nature” 2 Peter 1:4
As all men were created in and simultaneously with the first Adam, all God’s elect were created new and simultaneously with the last Adam, Christ. As we had being in Adam from the beginning of creation, all God’s elect have had being with Christ from eternity. Being born of Adam in natural generation, we necessarily partake of Adam’s nature. And being “born of God” in regeneration, we are made “partakers of the divine nature.” As the seed of the first Adam partake of his nature, the seed of the last Adam partake of his nature.
The children of the first Adam are born of the flesh and are earthy in all their thoughts, feelings and affections. The children of the last Adam are born of the Spirit and are spiritual and heavenly in all their thoughts, feelings and affections. The children of the first Adam are born for the earth. The children of the last Adam are born for heaven.
These two men, the old and the new, Adam and Christ, flesh and spirit, dwell in every child of God in this world; but they do not dwell together. They are in a state of perpetual warfare (Romans 7:14; Galatians 5:16-25). The flesh, the old man, is altogether sinful and corrupt. It can do nothing but sin. The spirit, the new man, that which is born of God, is altogether righteousness and cannot sin (1 John 3:5-10).
Our existence in Adam was a representative existence, yes; but it was more. It was a real, vital existence. We had being in our father Adam from the beginning, being created in him and with him. Our union with him in the Garden was real. When he sinned, we sinned in him. When he died, we died in him. It is not merely that we were reckoned to have sinned and reckoned to have died. — We sinned in Adam and we died in Adam, because we were one with Adam from the beginning.
Now, here’s the good news. — Our existence in Christ from the beginning, before the foundation of the world, our eternal union with Christ, was and is a real, vital existence with the God-man, our Mediator, Surety and Savior. When he stood forth as our Surety before time began and was accepted of God as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), we were accepted in him and blessed with all spiritual blessings in him (Ephesians 1:3-6).
Yet, before we could enter heaven as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, something more must be done. Justice satisfied does not make anyone fit for heaven. Righteousness imputed does not make the ransomed sinner worthy of heavenly glory. It is only when redeemed sinners are made “partakers of the divine nature” in the new birth that the righteousness of Christ is imparted to them and they are, by the grace and gracious operations of God, made “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12). The imputed righteousness of Christ in redemption makes us worthy of heaven. The imparted righteousness of Christ in regeneration makes us fit for heaven.
“By Grace” Ephesians 2:5
The Apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear that our standing before God is not based upon what we deserve. — “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” (Romans 5:8-10). Since God saved us and gave us spiritual life in Christ by his sovereign grace “when we were enemies,” he will surely keep us in salvation by that same sovereign grace. The Spirit of God assures us that it is impossible for one of the elect to be lost, because Christ is both “the Author and the Finisher of our faith.” The whole course of our salvation is divinely planned and divinely guided. Our salvation is not according to our merits in its commencement, in its continuance, or in its consummation. — “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”
The sovereign love and unmerited grace of God is the cause of our salvation. Since his love and grace is unchangeable, the effect of it must be unchangeable. That is to say, God constantly communicates his love and grace to every believer. Once his love is revealed and his grace bestowed upon the heart, he never takes it away: “for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” God was not moved to bestow his grace upon us by anything he saw meritorious or attractive in us; and the absence of everything good in us will not cause him to withdraw the grace he has bestowed. When he first bestowed grace upon us, the Lord knew that we were totally depraved and sinful. He knew that we were full of evil and void of good. And though, since our conversion we have been guilty of ingratitude, unfaithfulness and sin of every kind, these things do not provoke the Lord our God to change his mind and withdraw his sustaining grace. He knew what we would be before he saved us. He chastens us because of our sin, like the loving Father he is; but he never withdraws his love. If he had not intended, from the beginning, to bear with our sin in longsuffering and patience and to forgive our sin for Christ’s sake, he would never have saved us and called us in the first place.
This is what I am saying - The cause of our salvation is entirely in God. His electing love, redeeming grace and saving power were given to us by an act of his sovereign goodness, without any consideration of what we were or might become. There was nothing in us to attract his grace. And there is nothing in any true believer’s heart or conduct which can ever cause the Lord our God to alter his purpose of grace and withdraw his love from us. This is what God himself says about the matter: — “I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul” (Jeremiah 32:40-41).
GRACE BULLETIN
June 15, 2008
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - 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
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