Just a reminder that the most recent messages from our Sunday meetings can be heard on our page on FreeGraceRadio.com.

God willing, Don Fortner is again hoping to pay a visit to the UK in 2010, but instead of preaching in multiple locations, it is hoped to have one combined conference at Eggleston Baptist Church, Egglesburn, near Barnard Castle in County Durham.

 

This means that we will have no Sovereign Grace Conference in Sidmouth, as we have done in past years, but we will be joining the brethren at Eggleston at the ‘New Focus’ conference. 

 

The conference is expected to be held between Friday 9th April and Sunday 11th April, following a similar format to the previous ‘New Focus’ Magazine Conferences held in 2008 and 2009, but this time it is expected that there will be several preachers scheduled throughout the weekend.

 

Further details to follow – but in the meantime please add the dates to your diary!

 

*Update: It is expected that, God willing, the following preachers will deliver messages at the conference over the course of the weekend: Don Fortner, George Ella, Allan Jellett, Peter Meney & Ian Potts 

 

(See http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=freegraceradio for messages by most of these preachers)

The latest times and dates for the Monday night meetings are as follows (again, please note the slightly later starting time of 8:15pm):

MONDAY December 7th 8:15pm
“When Christ Appears” Titus 3:1-7 (audio)
Darvin Pruitt (Pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Taylor, Arkansas.)

MONDAY January 11th 8:15pm
“I Loved Jacob” Malachi 1:2-5 (audio)
Don Fortner (Pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Danville, Kentucky.)

The latest times and dates for the Monday night meetings are as follows (please note the slightly later starting time of 8:15pm):

MONDAY October 19th 8:15pm
“The Burden of the Word of the LORD” Malachi 1:1 (audio)
Don Fortner (Pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Danville, Kentucky.)

MONDAY November 9th 8:15pm
“When Christ Appears” Titus 3:1-7 (audio)
Darvin Pruitt (Pastor of Grace Baptist Church, Taylor, Arkansas.)

As friends, and regular visitors to our websites, will know we have held meetings in Honiton in our home since 1999, and since September 2008 have also held meetings in the village hall in the nearby village of Awliscombe on Sunday mornings at 10:45am.

With the Monday night meetings having gradually built up in number over the years to a regular group of between 8 and 12 usually being gathered, it was hoped at the commencement of Sunday mornings that a similar size group might, in due course, be gathered. However, despite occasional visitors, the Sunday mornings have continued to be very few in number in terms of who gather, and as such I do not feel that it can reasonably be described as a ‘church’ for the time being! So for now, I’ve revised the description on the Honiton SGC page on here and renamed the meeting as ‘Honiton Sovereign Grace Meeting’.

Though our Sunday meetings are tiny in number (and now fewer than when we began) we still thank the Lord for His goodness towards us over the past year as we have looked to Him to bless the preaching of His word, to His glory alone. Whilst we cannot tell what the future holds, we nevertheless know that it is Christ alone who builds His church, that He uses His gospel to build it, and that wherever He sends forth His word it never returns unto Him void.

…And if you have a love for that gospel, or perhaps a desire to hear it for the first time, then we do of course extend a warm welcome to you to the meetings at Awliscombe.

There will be no meeting as usual in Awliscombe at 10:45am this coming Sunday (27th September) with the meeting being held at another time that day. Would any vistors who wish to attend please contact us by email at ianpotts@graceandtruthonline.com for further details.

We live in days which are not dissimilar to those described in the book of Judges, where “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”, (Judges 17:6). In a world which despises authority, where each has become his own authority, confusion reigns. As in the world, so in the churches. Despite much religion, many churches, and many who profess the name of Christ, we have to ask: where is the unity? One says this, another says that, one does this, another does that. All believe they are right, yet none are agreed.

What characterises religion in our day is an almost total lack of unity. There are a thousand voices saying a thousand things. Attempts may be made, under the banner of ‘ecumenism’,  to ignore the differences (and those teachings which highlight them), cover up the cracks, sweep the dust under the carpet, and unite under what is really little more than a pretence, a show, of unity, but the reality yet remains “every man [does] that which [is] right in his own eyes”.

Not so in Christ. In His church, His ecclesia, in the church which Christ builds, of which He is the Head, and in which He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, that church in which Christ is pre-eminent and His gospel is pre-eminent, what is manifested is a company gathered in unity in Him and in His gospel. It can be no other way – the gospel is that which God uses to save His people, to gather His people, to feed His people, to build His church, and to unite His church. Where the gospel is undermined, neglected, sidelined even, disunity will arise. Where the gospel is preached, unity will follow. Oh yes, everything will rage against it – the world, the flesh, the devil. Much will seek to assault it and divide it, but where Christ makes His gospel known, there He commands a blessing, and there He builds His church – “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

Is that where you are?

 

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”, Psalm 133.

South East London may be a little bit ‘outside’ of Devon… but for those residing in or around the Capital we would like to draw their attention to a small gathering of believers who meet in the area.

For a while now Lou Boden and Denis Burns and their respective families have been gathering each week to worship the Lord – often hearing messages on tape by Don Fortner.

They describe their meeting as follows:

“We are a tiny gathering of saved sinners who are limping through this wilderness together leaving upon our Beloved”.

If you would like to join with them, to hear the gospel and perhaps to encourage the brethren, then do contact them at:

mephiboshethchurch@yahoo.co.uk

Phone Lou Boden 07764 943 746

Dennis Burns 0794 0456273

“As We Be Slanderously Reported” Romans 3:8

I could produce stacks of letters I have received over the years, either warning me or accusing me, asserting that the doctrine I preach will cause people to live carelessly in disobedience, practicing every imaginable evil. Along with every other man who proclaims the Gospel of God’s free grace in Christ, beginning with our Lord Himself and His Apostles, I am constantly accused of being an antinomian, one who is opposed to the law of God, a promoter of licentiousness.

In itself, the accusation is insignificant. I am not much disturbed by what men say about Don Fortner. But the charge is not made against me personally. It is made against the Gospel we preach. Therefore, I cannot be silent.

The charge of antinomianism is leveled against us because we constantly preach the Gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ, declaring that sinners are redeemed, justified, sanctified and kept freely by the grace of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, without works.

Without apology, we constantly affirm that every believer is entirely free from the law of God and that God will never charge His people with sin, because He has found complete satisfaction for our sins in the blood atonement of His dear Son.

We place no form of legal bondage upon the children of God. We do not threaten God’s elect with punishment or entice them with promise of rewards in order to get them to do what they ought to do. God’s saints are not mercenary servants. They are all volunteers. We preach absolute grace, perfect substitution and immutable mercy, assuring those who believe that God will never cease to be gracious to them.

This is the armor in which I have done battle for forty-three years; and I do not intend to lay it aside until my warfare is over. Let men reproach me as they may. I am willing to have my name and reputation scandalized. If need be, I am prepared to lose friends and family and face bitter, implacable enemies. I am perfectly willing and content to be scorned throughout the world as a vile antinomian. I am accustomed to such things.

But I am determined, by the grace of God, not to drop or conceal one iota of Gospel truth, particularly as it relates to Christ’s glorious, effectual redemption and God’s irresistible, efficacious grace. I am always happy to stand in the company of others. But I am willing to stand alone. In either case, God helping me, I will not alter, or even slightly modify my message!

Don Fortner

Please note – for any who may wish to visit the meetings at Awliscombe, there will be no meetings held on Sunday 19th or Sunday 26th July. Back on the 2nd August!