GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE April 10, 2011 __________________________________
The Gospel of God is not “good advice,” but “good news.” In preaching the Gospel we do not tell sinners what they must do, but what God has done. ___________________________
1. Amazing mercy! Matchless grace! Pity and love combined! The Mighty God will dwell, He says, “With ev’ry contrite one.”
2. He views all worlds, and fills all space; Binds winds, and measures storms; Yet stoops, and makes His dwelling place, In hearts of sinful worms!
3. His contrite ones He will revive, His mourners shall not faint; For He has grace and strength, to give To ev’ry needy saint.
4. His attributes all shining bright, Above and here below: — The God Who is and dwells in light, In mercy stoops so low! ______________________________________
There is no room in this house of worship for the adulation of flesh, the honor of man, or carnal displays of a religious show. Neither the will-worship of the Arminian, nor the gibberish of the Pentecostalist, nor the wild gyrations and hand-waving of religious Charismatics will be tolerated in this place. We come here to hear from heaven and to worship the Triune God, not to make a show of religious tomfoolery! _________________________________
“In the Beginning” Genesis 1-3
In my opinion, no portion of Holy Scripture is more important than the first three chapters of Genesis. If a man truly believes and understands Genesis 1, 2, and 3, he has grasped the whole system of Divine truth, for he has grasped the foundation of all truth. If we fail to understand what is revealed in these three chapters, we cannot understand anything else in the Sacred Volume. Perhaps that is the reason Satan has always raised up false prophets to twist, pervert, and deny the opening chapters of Genesis. Genesis 1 reveals the origin and creation of the universe and the formation of man from the dust of the earth. — “In the beginning God.” — Those four words show us that the Lord God is the Creator, Ruler, and Disposer of all things. — “All things were made by Him and for Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3).
Chapter 2 reveals the happiness, power, and greatness of man before sin entered into the world. In the garden, in his innocence Adam was the object of God’s favor and delight. God made him lord of the earth. All creatures were under his dominion. He lived in harmony with God, the holy angels, and the beasts of the field in perfect happiness. But Adam did not continue for very long in this blessed, happy condition.
Chapter 3 reveals the temptation and fall of our father Adam and the consequences of it. What a sad, sad picture! Man created in the image of God, man to whom God had given the whole world, man, the prince of God’s creation, rebelled against his Creator and lost everything!
When we had lost everything, when Adam and Eve were trying to hide themselves from the Lord God, trying to cover the shame of their sin and their nakedness from God, the Lord God stepped in, not to destroy them, but to save them by his grace! (Genesis 3:9). God Himself preached the first Gospel message, promising to destroy the enemy by the accomplishment of redemption through the woman’s Seed, our Lord Jesus Christ (3:15).
Then, He made a sacrifice for our fallen parents and clothed them with the skins of the slain sacrifice (3:21), picturing the garments of salvation, with which He would clothe His elect.
Then, we are told in Genesis 3:22-24 — “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” This, too, was an act of God’s grace. It was not, as many suppose, an act of His wrath. The Lord God drove Adam and Eve from the garden “to keep the way of the tree of life,” that is, to preserve and protect “the way of the tree of life.” ____________________________________
“The man is become as one of us.” Genesis 3:22-24
“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us.” — What a statement that is! It is not the statement of a mere man, but the declaration of the Lord God Himself. — “Behold, the man is become as one of us.” What can it mean?
First, this is a declaration of the fact that Adam was a type and picture of Christ our Substitute, as the Holy Spirit tells us in Romans 5:14, “the figure of him that was to come.” Nowhere do we see the love of Christ for his Church set forth so fully as in the case of Adam’s love for Eve. The popular notion is that Eve beguiled Adam. Eve did nothing of the kind. Satan beguiled her, allured her by deception into sin and rebellion against God; but the Holy Spirit tells us plainly that “Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:14).
Adam was not deceived to any degree, neither by the devil, nor by his wife. He knew exactly what he was doing and sinned with his eyes wide open. He saw her in the depths of her guilt and shame; and out of nothing but love for her, before he would be parted from her, he would be damned with her. He cleaved to his wife, for they were one flesh. And into ruin he plunged himself for her sake. In all this he was the figure of Him that was to come, our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
The horrid load of all my guilt was on my Savior laid; He loved me so that, for my life, my sin His own He made! Forsaken, there, by God in death, His heart was fixed on me! His love embraced my guilty soul, when nailed to the tree! For me He took the cup of wrath, and drank damnation dry! His love sustained His soul in death, — That I might never die! Oh, love amazing! love beyond the reach of human thought! That love shall be my endless song, which my salvation bought!
This is also a declaration of Adam’s present state and condition, and of ours, in Christ. Though fallen by nature, we are now, as Adam was, restored by grace. What God here says of Adam is true of every believer. Though in Adam we fell, in Christ we are restored, just like Adam was. Like Adam, we have been clothed with Christ’s righteousness, and we are “righteous, even as he is righteous” (1 John 3:7; Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16). — Like Adam, being renewed by grace, we are now created in the image of Christ, conformed to Him, created new by the grace of God “in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). — Like Adam, we are now reconciled to and one with God in Christ (John 17:21).
Enmity has been put away! Reconciliation has been made by God! Now, we are in a state of friendship with God! But more, in Christ we are one with God. — Like Adam, having been called from darkness to light in Christ, we know both good and evil. We know both the goodness of God and the evil of our own hearts! ______________________________
THE GRACE BULLETIN April 10, 2011
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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