It is no greater blasphemy to deny the virgin birth than to declare that there are some in hell for whom Christ died.
• Bro. Darvin Pruitt is preaching today for FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH in Almont, MI where Bro. Jim Byrd is pastor. • I am preaching today for GRACE BIBLE CHURCH in San Leandro, CA, where Bro. Jesse Gistand is pastor. Telephone: 510-886-9782 E-mail: gbc@flash.net. • Bros. Ron wood and Larry Criss will preach the gospel to you today. The Lord willing, I will be here to bring the message Tuesday evening.
Jehovah-jireh — Don Fortner (Tune: # 497 — When I can Red my Title Clear — CM)
1. Believer, let not unbelief Your peace and joy devour! — Jehovah-jireh sends relief, For ev’ry trying hour.
2. The Lord will keep you; be assured, Encamped on ev’ry side Is Christ the Angel of the Lord! — Jehovah will provide!
3. Though strength may fail and woes increase, Our God the same abides. His love and mercy never cease! — Jehovah will provide!
4. He saw us fallen, lost and dead, And did for us provide Himself a Lamb who, in our stead, Was sacrificed and died.
5. All grace in Christ for Abram’s seed, And heav’nly bliss beside, Jehovah-jireh has decreed Forever to provide!
“Wearied with His Journey”
“Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.” (John 4:6)
The word “wearied” tells us that our Savior was tired; but wearied is a much stronger word than “tired.” This word, “wearied,” means tired, sick, worn out, exhausted, beat down, burdened. Our Savior was “wearied!” He was weary with fatigue from his journey, weary with care for the souls of men, and weary with the burden of his heart, the burden he carried throughout the days of his flesh, the fact that soon he must be made sin to put away sin. This weariness was real, more real than any of us can imagine. Yet, our Savior’s weariness was a voluntary weariness. This was a part of the curse he had come to remove, the curse that was due us and seized upon him as a man, from the moment that he came forth from the womb, saying, “Lo! I come to do thy will, O my God!”
When he took our nature into union with himself, our dear Savior “took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17). He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows all the days of his humiliation (Isaiah 53:4). — “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. — “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:10, 17-18).
Child of God, when weariness seems to overwhelm you, look up to Christ. What an example he has given us. Though wearied more than any man, his weariness did not prevent him from continuing in his journey. Weariness did not prevent him from pushing forward in his work. Weariness did not keep him from doing his Father’s will. Weariness did not keep him from serving the needs of a poor, eternity bound sinner. Weariness with his journey did not stop our Savior from finishing his journey in the death he accomplished at Calvary for us.
Robert Hawker rightly asked, “And what can bring (such) relief to the pilgrimage tears of the redeemed, or so sweetly soothe the wearied frames of his people both in body and soul, as looking unto Jesus?”
Was he wearied with his journey through this world as Jehovah’s Servant? He truly was. Yet, he turned not back. So let me be found faithful to the end, though often wearied in the journey. — Was he wearied with his journey? He truly was, but never murmured because of it. So let me never grumble about mine. — Was he wearied with his journey, having no place to rest his head? Yes, he truly was; but he never let it disturb his peace. So let me not repine if I find the world treating me as an outcast. — Was he wearied with his journey, though rich, yet for my sake condescending to be poor, though the Lord of Life and Glory, yet “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;” subjecting himself to hunger and thirst, and weariness and affliction, tempted and buffeted, and despised; yea, “a worm, and no man, a reproach of men, and the outcast of the people”? He truly was. Spirit of God, grant me grace in every trying circumstance of life, as oft as I am weary of the journey appointed me in this world, to behold my blessed Lord “Jesus being wearied with his journey, (as) he sat thus on the well!”
A Dilemma for Those Who Believe In
Universal Atonement
God imposed his wrath due unto, and Christ underwent the pains of hell for, either… 1. all the sins of all men, 2. or all the sins of some men, 3. or some sins of all men.
If the last, some sins of all men, then have all men some sins to answer for, and so shall no man be saved; for if God entered into judgment with us, though it were with all mankind for one sin, no flesh should be justified in his sight. — “If thou, LORD shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand?” (Psalm 130:3) We might all go to cast all that we have “to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty” (Isaiah 2:20-21).
If the second, that is it which we affirm, that Christ in their stead and room suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the world.
If the first, why then, are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins?
You will say, “Because of their unbelief; they will not believe.” But this unbelief, is it a sin, or not? If not, why should they be punished for it? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then did he not die for all their sins. Let them choose which part they will. — John Owen
Limited Atonement
Limited atonement is the plainly revealed truth of Holy Scripture and the fundamental doctrine of the gospel. Deny it and you deny the gospel, you deny the faith of Christ. Many today try to talk out of both sides of their mouths, compromising the gospel while pretending to defend the faith. They tell us that there is a sense in which Christ died for all men and made salvation a possibility for all. The Word of God never dabbles in possibilities. The gospel is not good advice offering sinners the possibility of redemption; but good news, declaring to helplessly lost, doomed and damned sinners the effectual accomplishment of redemption by the sacrifice of Christ the Lamb of God, as the sinner’s Substitute. Nowhere in Holy Scripture is there the slightest indication that Christ died for those who are forever damned to suffer the wrath of God in hell. Rather, in every place where the death of Christ is proclaimed, in type, in prophecy and in the full revelation of the gospel given in the Gospels and Epistles, the Spirit of God sets it before us as a sacrifice of infinite merit and efficacy made for a specific people.
GRACE BULLETIN
October 12, 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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