Grace Baptist Church of Danville July 3, 2011 _________________________________________
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage! ____________________________________________
· We are delighted to have Pastor John Chapman and his wife, Vicki, with us today. Bro. Chapman is pastor of Hurricane Rd Grace Church in Ashland, KY. Our pastor is preaching for Rescue Baptist Church in Rescue, CA, where Bro. Gene Harmon is pastor. — Bro. Larry Criss will bring the message here Tuesday evening. __________________________________________
The Brightness of His Glory — Don Fortner (Tune: #400 — Jesus, and Shall it Ever Be? — LM) 1. There’s not a ray of glory known, Around the great Jehovah’s throne, Which our Redeemer does not wear, Proclaiming His own Godhead there. 2. The Father’s glories, all Divine, In Christ the Mediator shine — The image of the unseen God Is Christ Who bought us with His blood! 3. All pow’r and wisdom, love and grace, Shine brightly in Immanuel’s face; All glorious in the Father’s view, — The brightness of His glory too! 4. The fullness of the Godhead dwells In Him — and heaven’s anthem swells, With hallelujahs to the Lamb, The Son of God, the great IAM! ________________________________________________
Limited Atonement We believe and preach, without apology, the blessed Gospel doctrine of Limited Atonement. The Son of God died for and redeemed God’s elect, all the elect, and none but the elect. The Lord God declares, “For the transgression of my people was He stricken.” The Savior asserted plainly that He laid down His life for His sheep. And His penal sacrifice of Himself as our Substitute at Calvary effectually accomplished the eternal redemption of all for whom He shed His precious blood. It is written, “With His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us!” __________________________________________________
Three Facts about Redemption Isaiah 63:5 The only hope for fallen, guilty, depraved sinners is redemption, a redemption which includes atonement for sin, satisfaction for justice, and effectual deliverance from the guilt, power, dominion, and consequences of sin. Such redemption could be accomplished by only one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior. Not only could He alone do it, He has done it; and He has done it alone. He declares, “I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.” When we consider the subject of redemption, we have come to the most important of all Gospel truths. In our day men more quickly attack the doctrine of the cross than any other. They more vehemently deny the glorious efficacy of Christ’s sin-atoning blood than any aspect of Gospel truth. Multitudes who sing the words of Cowper’s hymn…
“Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power, ‘Til all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more…”
assert with absolute dogmatism that there is no real saving power and efficacy in Christ’s blood; for they declare that multitudes are in hell today for whom Christ died; thus demonstrating that they know nothing of that Savior revealed in Holy Scripture of whom the hymn was written.
The Holy Spirit declares in Hebrews 10:1 that the law in the Old Testament Scriptures had a shadow of good things to come. That is to say, God, in the Old Testament, under the types and shadows of the law, gave many pictures and prophecies of what He would do for and give to His people through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The sacrifices offered to God in the Old Testament could never take away one sin. However, the law did have many instructive pictures, types, and shadows of our redemption by the blood of Christ. In each of those types, pictures, and prophecies setting forth the redemptive work of Christ several things are obvious. Here are three very obvious facts revealed in the Word of God about our redemption by Christ. These three revealed facts teach us much about the subject.
1. The redemption portrayed and promised in the Old Testament was revealed only to a chosen people. Only the nation of Israel had the passover sacrifice and the promise of a Redeemer, because only the Israel of God, God’s elect, are the people for whom Christ the true Passover was sacrificed. 2. The redemption sacrifice was made, offered to God, and accepted by God for a specifically chosen people, named by God himself. Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ died for those people given to Him by the Father in the covenant of grace before the world began. He said, “I lay down My life for the sheep.” The good Shepherd died for His sheep, not for the goats of the world. 3. The redemption portrayed the effectual deliverance of all those for whom it was accomplished.
Every soul for whom the passover lamb was slain walked out of Egypt by the power of God. Even so, every sinner for whom the Son of God made atonement by His substitutionary death at Calvary shall be delivered from the curse of God’s holy law and saved from sin, death, and hell by the merit and power of His precious blood. Not one of those for whom Christ died, under the wrath of God, shall perish in hell. They all must and shall be saved. ______________________________________________ The Free Obedience of Christ Isaiah 50:5-7 — John 10:16-18 “The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed…—…Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” — Let me show you three things from these words which fell from Him of whom it is written, “grace is poured into Thy lips.” The Commandment Of The Father — The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of Himself here not as the eternal Son of God, but as the Good Shepherd, the Mediator, the Surety of His people. He says, “This commandment have I received of My Father.” With those words He declares that His death as our Substitute was arranged by God before the world began (Psalm 40:7; Hebrews 10:7-10). The death of Christ was not accomplished by the arrangement of men or by the arrangement of hell, but by the arrangement of the Triune God (Acts 2:23; 1 Peter 1:18-20). The death of Christ at Calvary was accomplished by the arrangement of an eternal covenant, sovereign providence, and infinite love (John 3:16; Romans 5:6-8).
The Obedience of Christ — The Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life voluntarily, as an act of free obedience to his Father. No man forced Him to die. God the Father did not compel Him to die, or take His life from Him. Oh, no! Our Savior died voluntarily, by His own will. Our Redeemer’s death was accomplished by His own power. — “He poured out His soul unto death!” It is true, “it pleased the Father to bruise Him.” The Father cried, “Awake, O sword, against One that is My Fellow. Smite the Shepherd!” Yet Christ took the cup of wrath in His own hands. The Son of God fell willingly upon the sword of justice. Our Savior died by His own will. The Son of God laid down His life for the satisfaction of Divine justice as the Substitute for chosen sinners, for the glory of God, because of His great love for His elect. Moreover, He laid down His life that He might take it again by His own resurrection power and reign forever as our Redeemer-King (Romans 14:9; Philippians 2:5-11).
The Father’s Love for His Son — Our Savior says, “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life.” I know of nothing in heaven or earth so sweet to meditate upon and so impossible to preach or write about as the Father’s love for His darling, dying Son. Hear it again. “Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life.” God himself never saw anything in all the world so lovely, so infinitely worthy of His love, admiration, and honor as the death of His dear Son upon the cursed tree for his people. “Herein is love!” Because of this great act of love, because of this great act of Christ’s free obedience to the Father as our Surety, the Father has given His Son everything (Isaiah 53:4-12; John 3:35; 17:2)
Oh, how the Triune God loves us! The Father gave His Son to die for us! The Son laid down His life for us. The Spirit now sprinkles us with the blood of Christ and declares us “Redeemed!” Believer, gaze steadfastly upon your crucified Redeemer and realize that “Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” ________________________________________________ THE GRACE BULLETIN July 3, 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 Tuesday 7:30 P.M. Mid-Week Worship Service Television Broadcasts in Danville Channel 6 - Sunday Morning 8:00 A.M. Channel 6 - Wednesday Evening 6:00 P.M. Channel 6 - Friday Evening 7:00 P.M. Television Broadcasts in Harrodsburg Channel 6 - Sunday Afternoon 3:00 P.M. Channel 6 - Friday Evening 6:00 P.M. Web Pages http://www.DonFortner.com http://www.FreegraceRadio.com http://www.Grace-eBooks.com |