SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

APRIL 10, 2005

OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORSHIP

SUNDAY

WEDNESDAY

6:30 PM- Mid-week Service

Nursery care available for all services for ages 4 and younger.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Ken Wimer, Pastor- ( (318) 687-4943

PO Box 5028, Shreveport, LA 71135

E-MAIL: pastor@shrevegrace.org

WEB SITE: http://www.shrevegrace.org Updated weekly with audio messages now available on-line.

CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: #10- ‘O God Our Help)

Words by Tate and Brady, 1696

 GOD, my heart is fully bent

 To magnify Thy name;

 My tongue with cheerful songs of praise

                                         Shall celebrate Thy fame.

2.  To all the listening tribes, O LORD,

Thy wonders I will tell;

And to those nations sing Thy praise

That round about us dwell.

3.       Because Thy mercy’s boundless height

The highest heav’n transcends;

And far beyond th’aspiring clouds

Thy faithful truth extends.

4.       Be Thou, O God, exalted high

Above the starry frame:

And let the world, with one consent,

Confess Thy glorious name.

HOW AND WHEN?

t is no idle debate, but one that hits the very heart of the Gospel, not only HOW God justifies sinners, but  WHEN He justifies sinners.  This is one of the earliest questions in the Bible as recorded in Job 9:2- “ I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?”  There are those who will say that it doesn't matter 'when' so long as we agree on how, but the Scriptures make WHEN the issue as much as HOW.   Hebrews 1:3 states-“…when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ When were the sins of God’s elect purged (the tense there is once for all)?  It is clearly at the cross, Hebrews 10:10.  If it says that Christ sat down, that means the work is complete.  To make our righteousness before God to be established, accomplished, or fulfilled anywhere or anytime else is to proclaim an unfinished work of Christ.  Even to say that Christ secured the salvation of God’s elect at the cross is not to declare what the Bible says.  He finished the work there! – John 17:4.                                                                                                                      KEN WIMER

ADDRESSING SINNERS

eep close to the Bible and prayer.  Bring your difficulties to the Lord, and entreat Him to give you, and maintain in you, a simple spirit.  Search the Scriptures.  How did Peter deal with Simon Magus?  We have no right to think worse of any who can hear us than the apostle did of him.  He seemed almost to think his case desperate, and yet he advised him to repentance and prayer.  Examine the same apostle’s discourse, Acts 3, and the close of Paul’s sermon in Acts 13.  The power is all of God and the means are likewise of His appointment.  He always is pleased to work by such means as may show that the power is His.

            What was Moses’ rod in itself, or the trumpets that threw down Jericho?  What influence could the pool of Siloam have, that the eyes of the blind man by washing in it should be opened?  Or, what could Ezekiel’s feeble breath contribute to making dry bones live?  All these means were exceedingly disproportionate to the effect, but He who ordered them to be used, accompanied them with His power.  Yet if Moses had gone without his rod, if Joshua had slighted the rams’ horns, if the prophet had thought it foolishness to speak to dry bones, or the blind man refused to wash his eyes, nothing could have been done.  The same holds good on the present subject:  I do not reason, expostulate, and persuade sinners, because I think I can prevail with them, but BECAUSE THE LORD HATH COMMANDED IT.  He directs me to address them as reasonable creatures, to take them by every handle, to speak to their consciences, to tell them of the terrors of the Lord, and of His tender mercies, to argue with them what good they find in sin, or whether they do not need a Savior; to put them in mind of death, judgment, and eternity, &c.  When I have done all, I know it is to little purpose, except the Lord speaks to their hearts; and this to His own, and at His own time. I am sure He will, because He has promised it, Isaiah 55:10, 11; Matthew 28:20.                                                                                                                                 COPIED

THE LORD IS MY HELPER