Grace Baptist Church of Danville February 28, 2010
The Lord Jesus, our Mediator and Savior, possesses all power and authority over all things. That means no one else has any power or any authority over anything.
I am scheduled to preach next Friday – Sunday for Kitchens Creek Baptist Church in Ball, LA, where Bro. Milton Howard is pastor. The Lord willing, Bro. Donnie Bell, pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN, will be here to preach the gospel to you next Sunday.
Be Still, My Heart — Don Fortner (Tune: Jesus, and Shall it Ever Be? — LM)
Be still, my heart. My soul, be still. — The Lord performs His sov’reign will. He rides the storms beneath His feet, And sits upon a mercy seat.
His ways, though hidden from our sight, Are always just and always right; To His decrees all worlds must bow, And none may say, “What doest thou?”
This blest assurance is enough, — In every path, though dark and rough, Goodness and mercy shall attend My footsteps daily to the end!
“Some years ago an old Christian man whom I never saw wrote to me thus: ‘My dear brother in the Lord Jesus, you have need of many prayers, for I am certain you are the object of fierce attack on the part of Satan, whose cause you have much injured.’ Never was a truer word written! Every man who will speak the truth as it is in Jesus is sure to be fiercely opposed by the father of lies. The reason why preachers and professors in general spend such quiet and apparently happy lives is they never oppose Satan. Poor deluded souls! They eat, and drink, and are merry with their fellows, never for a moment alluding to serious things, but speaking of the news of the day, and are ‘hail fellows, well met,’ with the world at large! Why should such suffer persecution? They oppose nothing, therefore Satan leaves them unmolested. But it is not so with a truth-speaking minister. He must identify himself with God, and consequently he is shunned, and hated, and tempted.” — William Parks
“Then, the End”
1 Corinthians 15:24
When everything has run its predestined course, when time shall be no more, when this earth is dissolved in a ball of fire, the resurrection is past, and the judgment is over, we read, “Then cometh THE END!” The text might better be translated — “Then, the end!”
Though creation has revolted against God and sin has marred his handiwork, though it appears that everything here is in utter chaos, though antichrist seems to reign among men without rival, though Babylon (the great whore of free-will, works religion) has made all the earth drunk with the wine of her fornications, there is a day coming called “the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:21).
Though today all the world, all men and all events appear to be set in direct opposition to Christ, there is a day coming called “the dispensation of the fulness of times,” in which the Lord God will “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him” (Ephesians 1:10).
Though all men by nature despise his rule, there is a day appointed by God, in the which “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11).
Though all men by nature are the enemies of God, though Satan and all the demons of hell oppose his purpose, though men and devils unite as one, in thought, word and deed to rob the triune God of his glory, in the end, through the blood of his cross, by our Lord Jesus Christ, almighty God shall “reconcile all things unto himself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven” (Colossians 1:20).
The Lord our God tells us exactly how things shall be in the end (Isaiah 45:20-25). In the end every creature in heaven, earth and hell, every deed performed in God’s creation, by men, angels, devils and Satan himself, (Every deed!) great and small, good and evil, and every event of providence shall magnify, honor, exalt and praise our great and glorious God.
May God the Holy Spirit graciously turn our hearts and minds away from the cares and burdens, heartaches and sorrows, trials and temptations, difficulties and disappointments of this world of time and sense. It is my prayer that he will even take our hearts away from the pleasures, joys and comforts of this world and this brief existence. Come, O Spirit of God, come! Set our hearts and minds upon “the end.” Teach us, O Holy Spirit of God, teach us to live for eternity! When everything that shall be has been, when everything that must be has come to pass, when all the will, purpose, desire and pleasure of the triune God has been perfectly accomplished and fulfilled in all things and by all things, “then,” the Scriptures declare, and not until then, “the end!”
When All Things are Subdued to Christ
“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power…And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:24 and 28)
When the Scriptures here declare that the Son shall deliver up the kingdom unto the Father, they do not teach, suggest, or in any way imply that Christ is not God (1 Timothy 3:15), that the Son of God is in any way inferior to the Father (1 John 5:7), or that Christ will cease to be Prophet, Priest, and King over his Church and Kingdom (Hebrews 1:8).
What, then, does Paul mean when he tells us that when the end comes Christ shall deliver up the kingdom unto God, even the Father, and shall be subject to him? When the resurrection is over, when the great white throne judgment is done, and all things are created new, when all God’s elect are saved, there will be one final work to be done by our Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah’s Servant, as the Surety and Mediator of the covenant. The Shepherd will present his sheep to the Father, who trusted them to him. The Savior will present his Church in glory. The Son will present his brethren, all of them, to their Father. The King will present his Kingdom to God, even the Father (John 10:16; Ephesians 5:25-27; Hebrews 2:13).
Augustus Toplady was exactly right when he wrote, “I take the kingdom to consist of that innumerable company whose names were written in heaven; and which, when their numerical fulness is completed, the Son of God, who graciously consented to become the Son of Man for their sakes, will present in one, entire, and glorified body to the Father.”
In that great day, in the end, Christ will stand before his Father and our Father, with all his elect by his side in the perfection of his holiness, and say, “Lo, I and the children which thou hast given me. All are here. Not one is lost!” — “All, my Father, you chose and gave to me, all you trusted me to redeem, here they are, just as I promised, holy, unblameable, unreproveable, washed in my blood, robed in my righteousness.” — “All that I redeemed, every blood bought soul is here.” — “All those who have been regenerated, called, and sealed by the blessed Holy Spirit are here.”
He will, no doubt, go on to say, “Now, my Father, all the purpose of grace is fulfilled. All the counsel of peace is accomplished. All that we agreed upon in the covenant is done. In all things our great purpose in predestination is now fully accomplished. Now grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life!”
This shall be the end of all things: — “That God may be all in all!” God Almighty has from eternity ordained everything that comes to pass in time to make himself an everlasting and a glorious name (Isaiah 63:12, 14), that in all things Christ might have the pre-eminence (Colossians 1:18). And in the end God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as he is revealed, known, loved and worshipped in the Person and work of Christ, our God-man Mediator, shall be “ALL IN ALL.” The name of our God shall be hallowed as God in all things and by all things forever!
Grace Bulletin
February 28, 2010
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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