GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE September 11, 2011
Gospel preaching works. It is always successful. It always accomplishes exactly what God intends for it to accomplish (Isaiah 55:11). Anything added to it is a distraction from it, not an adornment of it.
My God is Faithful — Don Fortner (Tune: #53 — How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds — CM)
1. My God is faithful in His ways To all His chosen ones. Let ransomed sinners shout His praise, And lift our hearts in song.
2. Faithful to His decrees of love, His cov’nant and His Son; Faithful to perfect that above Which grace has here begun.
3. Faithful to ev’ry promise giv’n, Though we unfaithful prove. We’ll sing, when we arrive in heav’n, His faithfulness and love!
4. Faithful amid ten thousand woes, To comfort and defend; Faithful to vanquish all our foes, And faithful to the end!
“These Things I will that Thou Affirm Constantly” (Titus 3:8)
Here are six facts plainly revealed in the Gospel of God that I am determined to preach relentlessly as long as God gives me breath to preach. These six things I urge every Gospel preacher to affirm constantly. And when the Lord has graciously laid my body in the dust, “these things I will that thou affirm constantly.”
1. All men and women by nature, since the fall of our father Adam, are sinners, alienated from God. — “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). As sinners, we are alienated from the life of God and have become enemies unto God. The wages of our sin and enmity to God is death. Every transgression must receive its just recompense of reward (Hebrews 2:2). All sin must be punished, either in the sinner, or in the sinner’s Substitute. The law, being broken, accuses of sin, condemns the sinner, and demands death. Unless satisfaction is made, the sentence of the law must be executed. The sanction of the law is death. It can never be abrogated, changed, altered, or abated. God will never relax his justice. — “The soul that sinneth, it shall die!” (Ezekiel 18:2). — But…
2. It is the will of God to save sinners. — “He delighteth in mercy!” God has decreed the salvation of some. Christ came to save some. There are some people in this world who must and shall be saved, because it is the will of God to save them; and God’s will cannot be frustrated (John 10:16). Every chosen sinner (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14), every predestined son (Romans 8:29-30), every heir of the covenant (Ephesians 1:3-7), everyone whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, from the foundation of the world, must be saved (Revelation 13:8). There is no possibility that even one of God’s elect will perish! — However…
3. It is impossible for a holy and just God to save any sinner apart from the satisfaction of justice (Hebrews 9:22). He declares, “I will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7). I know that God is omnipotent, almighty, and sovereign. He does what He will! But God cannot do that which is contrary to His nature and character. We do not rob God of His sovereignty when we repeat the declaration of Scripture and say, “God cannot lie.” He who is the Truth cannot lie! Neither do we rob God of His sovereignty when we assert this truth of Holy Scripture: — God cannot forgive sin without the satisfaction of justice. The just, holy, and true God must punish sin.
4. The only way the justice of God could ever be satisfied is by the substitutionary sacrifice of His Own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Job 34:23; Romans 3:24-26). God could not die, and man could not satisfy; but the God-man both died and satisfied. Two facts demonstrate clearly that there was no other way for justice to be satisfied. 1st The love of God the Father for his Son proves it. Would God almighty slay His darling Son, if there were any other way consistent with His justice to save His people? And, 2nd The prayer of Christ in Gethsemane proves it (Matthew 26:39). If the salvation of His people could be accomplished by any means other than His death upon the cross, would not God the Father have granted His tormented Son the desire of his soul?
5. It is impossible for God in His holiness to punish any sinner for whose sins justice has been satisfied by the blood of Christ (Isaiah 53:11; Romans 7:4). The law has no claim upon an executed felon! “Payment God cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding Surety’s hand, and then again at mine!”
6. Every sinner who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ has been chosen, redeemed, and called, and must be forever saved. It is written in the Book of God, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). May God the Holy Spirit now enable you by His sovereign grace to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. 5 The Place and Importance of Gospel Preaching Romans 1:16-17
We rejoice in the blessed Gospel doctrine of God’s electing love. We rejoice to hear our Savior say, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.” We say with the psalmist, “Blessed is the man who Thou choosest.” But election alone never saved anyone. Election is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. It is not enough that we should be chosen to salvation. Before God almighty in His holiness, justice, and truth could save chosen sinners, those who were chosen by Him must also be redeemed. Election is the work of God the Father. Redemption is the work of God the Son.
How we rejoice in and give thanks to God for our redemption by Christ! Precious blood indeed is that blood which put away our sins! Every God taught sinner has learned to give thanks to God for that glorious Gospel doctrine of limited atonement, particular, effectual redemption by Christ. Yet, even our redemption by Christ, though it guaranteed and infallibly secured the salvation of God’s elect, is not salvation. Salvation involves the work of the Father and the Son; but it also involves the work of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration and effectual calling. The effectual call is the Holy Spirit’s work of almighty, irresistible grace, by which He draws all chosen, redeemed sinners to Christ, creating faith in them, granting them repentance, and converting them by omnipotent grace.
The work of the Holy Spirit in effectual calling must be understood in two aspects: (1.) The outward, external call of grace, which comes to sinners by the preaching of the Gospel; and (2.) the internal call, which is the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit, by which sinners are effectually converted. It is the external call, which comes to sinners by the preaching of the Gospel, of which our Savior speaks when he says, “Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14). The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, declares that many (not all, but many) are called to repentance and faith in Him by the preaching of the Gospel, and that few of the many who are called are numbered among the chosen. This is the doctrine of Holy Scripture.
1. God calls sinners to life and faith in Christ by the preaching of the Gospel. 2. The Gospel call is universal in its scope. That is to say, we preach the Gospel to all without exception as the Lord enables us. Many are providentially excluded by God from the external call of the Gospel; but none are excluded by his servants. 3. This call of sinners to repentance and faith in Christ is an unconditional, unqualified call. 4. This call of the Gospel is given by Divine authority. 5. The call issued to sinners in the preaching of the Gospel is a sincere call. 6. This Gospel call is a most gracious call. 7. Though it is, in itself, ineffectual for the saving of any, when accompanied by the power of God’s Spirit, the preaching of the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
This is the importance of Gospel preaching. It is by this means that God calls sinners to salvation and eternal life in Christ. If I were you, I would find me a Gospel preacher, sit down, and listen to the preaching of the Gospel, earnestly praying that God might be pleased in His sovereign mercy to call me by His grace. I would hear the Gospel every time I could. I’d go to the house of God, praying like Fanny Crosby…
“Pass me not, O gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, Do not pass me by!”
THE GRACE BULLETIN
September 11, 2011
GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH of DANVILLE 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail [email protected]
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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