Don Fortner has pastored for decades at Grace Baptist Church. He has preached at conferences and churches around the country and around the world. Biblesoft has compiled an extensive collection of this seasoned pastor's sermons into one gigantic reference work for PC Study Bible.

Learn more about these titles below.

Fortner's Abridged Commentary

Beloved pastor, speaker and author Don Fortner brings us yet another impressive work: The Abridged Commentary. This volume includes an extensive 3,181 entries spanning every book of the Bible. Consolidations of some of these articles have been the source of several books and commentaries, but never before have they been amassed into a single work.

The Fortner Abridged Commentary is perfect for anyone - from casual students of the Bible to seasoned scholars. This is an easy-to-read work that is sure to impart biblical wisdom and insight from Genesis to Revelation.

Excerpts

"Bless The Lord, O My Soul!"    

Psalm 103:1-5

     "Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name." God's name represents who he is, embracing every attribute of his Being. Someone suggested, "Before we can thank God for his blessings we must thank him for his Being." This is what David stirs up his soul and ours to do.We must bless God for who he is: The Lord God Almighty, full of grace and truth (Psa.113:1-6;115:1,3;117:1-2;118:1;136:1-3;139: 1-24). It is the Lord God himself who is to be wellspoken of, eulogized, blessed with thanksgiving and praise (Eph.1:3)."Forget not all his benefits."There is no better way to stir up our hearts to bless the Lord our God than to recall all the benefits and blessings of grace we have personally experienced from him. Here are five things God has done and is doing for us in Christ, for which we should ever bless his holy name.

     "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities!" Our God is a God of forgiveness! He forgives all our sins; and God's forgiveness of our sins is a constant, perpetual act of grace through the blood of Christ (I John 1:9).

     "Who healeth all thy diseases!" Matthew Henry wrote, "The corruption of nature is the sickness of the soul; it is its disorder, and threatens death. This is cured in sanctification; when sin is mortified, the disease is healed."

     "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction!" Christ redeemed us when he died upon the cross (Gal. 3:13). He obtained eternal redemption for us when he entered once into the holy place with his own precious blood as our Representative (Heb. 9:12). This redemption is applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit in the new birth (Heb. 9:14). The power of redemption is experienced continually in our deliverances of grace (Psa.130:1,8).

     "Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercy!" Christ has made us kings and priests unto God; and he has crowned us with God's constant favor.

     "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Nothing can satisfy the soul but Christ! Christ, who satisfies our souls, promises to continually renew and revive us by his grace. As God replenishes the eagle's feathers every year, so he recovers his saints from their falls and decays, filling them with new life and joy as their days demand.

Don Fortner

The Wisdom of Grace

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”

(Romans 11:33)

Only the all wise God could devise and execute the sovereign purpose of his grace toward us. Behold the great wisdom of God in grace, and worship him. I see the manifold wisdom of God in his choice of his Son to be our Redeemer, — in his determination to accomplish redemption by substitution, — the glorious incarnation of Christ, — the life of Christ in this world, — the sacrificial, sin-atoning death of Christ, — and in the glorious exaltation of Christ.

The Choice of His Son

God’s choice of his Son to be our Redeemer displays his great, infinite wisdom. I do not pretend to understand the deep, hidden mysteries of the Covenant of Grace, the proposals, and agreements, and oaths of the triune God. I know that God does not need to plan, devise, or work out anything in his great mind. He knows everything. But I do know that a covenant was made (Jeremiah 31:31-34), that God the Father made proposals to his Son for the accomplishment of our redemption (Psalm 2:8; John 10:16-18), which our Savior voluntarily accepted (Isaiah 50:5-7), and that these transactions of grace between God the Father and God the Son were sworn to by Jehovah and secured the salvation of an elect multitude before the world was made (Hebrews 6:17-19; 8:10-12).

The Covenant of Grace

In the Covenant of Grace, as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures, God the Father proposed the conditions upon which redemption could be accomplished. God the Son pledged himself to satisfy all the demands and conditions required by the holy law, character, and will of God. And God the Holy Spirit promised to effectually apply all the blessings of grace earned by Christ’s obedience to the elect.

These are things that took place before the world began, when no one and nothing existed but the eternal God (Ephesians 3:11; 1:3-6; 2 Timothy 1:9). In those great, eternal counsels of grace, God set his heart upon his dear Son and chose him to be the Person who would perform the great work of redemption (Romans 3:25; 1 Peter 1:20).

Christ is the Redeemer of God’s own choosing. Therefore, he is called God’s Elect (Isaiah 42:1). When God set his eye upon his Son, choosing him to save his elect, he said, with regard to all his elect, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom (an atonement)” (Job 33:24). The triune Jehovah declared, “I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people” (Psalm 89:19).

We rejoice in the love, mercy, and grace of God. But it was the wisdom of God which found a way for a holy God to embrace fallen, sinful men and women in love, mercy, and grace. How we ought to admire the wisdom of God in providing such a Redeemer!

The Sermon Anthology

The Sermon Anthology must rank among one of Fortner's most impressive works to date, compiling 2,827 sermons - spanning years of ministry. The text alone in this work weighs in at over 70 megabytes!

If you are a student of the Bible you will also benefit from this work. The sermon notes are very easy-to-read and are sure to grow your understanding of the Bible. If you are a pastor looking for sermon ideas, you are sure to enjoy Fortner's massive Sermon Anthology and will likely find yourself referencing this work regularly.

These sermon notes are mostly expository in nature. Also included are several full sermon series including:

• Basic Bible Doctrine
• Christ's Warnings
• Crist Preminent
• Manifold Wisdom of God
• Names of God
• Through the Bible
• Who is God

Excerpts

"WHEN GOD BROKE HIS LONG SILENCE"    

Luke 1:5-12

     For four hundred years no one on earth had received any word from God. For four hundred years no prophet had been inspired to write a word of Inspiration. For four hundred years no angel had been sent from heaven to earth with a message from God to man. No revelation had been given, no vision had been granted. No word had come from God in four hundred years. Then, God spoke again! God chose one man and sent his angel to him with glad tidings from the throne of God. No one had heard from God since the days of the prophet Malachi. Then God spoke.

          Can you imagine what it must have been like to have been a man, faithful, devout, serving God in his appointed place, knowing that no one had heard from heaven in four hundred years, then, suddenly, to have an angel of the Lord to appear to you alone with a word of divine Revelation? That is what we have before us in our text tonight. Our text is Luke 1:5-12. The title of my message is this - WHEN GOD BROKE HIS LONG SILENCE.

Luke 1:5-12  "There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7 And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. 8 And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, 9According to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. 11 And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him."

          The first thing recorded in Luke’s gospel is the appearance an angel to one of the ordinary priests in Israel, named Zecharias. The angel announced to this old man that his wife, who was an old woman, well past the age of child-bearing, was, by direct, divine intervention, going to have a son, and that his son would be the forerunner of the long-awaited Messiah.

          What a great word of grace! It was too good for this old man to believe. Being a faithful man, Zecharias knew that God had promised four hundred years before this that when Messiah came some man, in the spirit and power of Elijah would go before him to prepare his way before the people (Mal. 3:1).

Malachi 3:1  "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts."

          It is, I am sure, impossible for us 2000 years later to grasp what an astounding thing this was. God made the promise four hundred years earlier. Then the heavens were silent. Not another Word was given. Then, suddenly, without any preparatory work, God sent his angel to a certain old man that Daniel’s prophetic weeks were about to be fulfilled. Messiah, the Prince” was about to be revealed (Dan. 9:25). That “seed” of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, was about to come (Gen. 22:18). “The Desire of all nations” who would fill the house of God with glory would soon be revealed from heaven (Hag. 2:7).

          Though we cannot begin to grasp the awesomeness of this great revelation given to such a man in such circumstances, there are several things in the verses before us to instruct our souls...

Don Fortner

About the Author

Don Fortner has pastored and faithfully declared the gospel of God's free grace in Christ at Grace Baptist Church of Danville Kentucky for nearly 40 years. He is a prolific writer and a popular regular conference speaker in the United States and throughout the world.

He has writen a number of books, many of which are available formatted for PC Study Bible: Discovering Christ in the Old & New Testament, Discovering Christ in All the Scriptures, Discovering Christ Day by Day, Grace for Today, Basic Bible Doctrine, The Attributes of God, The Church of God: What it Means to Belong, The Mysteries of God, Life After Pentecost, Glorious State of God's Saints in Heaven, What Does It Mean to Be Reformed?, and a Collection of Quotes.