APRIL 24, 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: #17- ‘Come Thou Fount’)

Words based on Psalm 110 by Harriett Auber, 1839

esus, Lord, to Thee we sing,

Thee our Savior, Priest, and King,

Who our guilt and woes sustained,

And the cup of vengeance drained;

Now You sit enthroned on high,

Crowned with pow’r and victory;

All Thy foes shall prostrate fall,

Every nation hear Thy call.

As at morning’s youthful hour,

Dewdrops gem each leaf and flow’r.

So, O Lord, Thy sons reborn,

Shall Thy crowded courts adorn;

Gladly own Thee for their King,

Gladly free-will offerings bring,

Till Thy spreading empire prove

Boundless as Thy wondrous love.

FAITH’S WORK

“Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   2Th 1:11 ·         It exalts God as sovereign in ALL things (Creation, Providence, Salvation, and Judgment) - (Romans 11:36).

·         It testifies that man is nothing and shows him dead in his sins, unable to come to Christ in repentance, apart from the Spirit of God drawing him to Christ. (John 6:44).

·         It teaches redemption, justification, sanctification, and complete forgiveness of sins by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, I Cor. 1:30. His perfect obedience unto death accomplished the salvation of His people once for all, (Heb. 9:12-15).

·         It attributes believing, love, and hope to the irresistible grace of God, produced by the Spirit of God.  These are gifts of God to those He chose and redeemed, (Titus 3:5,6)

·         .It keeps God’s children in the way, persevering in THE FAITH once delivered to the saints, Jude 3.  Any who hear and turn away, fully and finally never were His- (Hebrews 10:38,39)                                   

 K. WIMER

CHRIST JUSTIFIED

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit             1Timothy 3:16

e are no more justified by the voice of the law, or of him that judges according to it, by a mere pardon of sin, than Adam, our first surety, was justified by the law, at the first point of his existence, before he had fulfilled the obedience of the law, or had so much as any trial whether he would fulfill it or not.  If Adam had finished his course of perfect obedience, he would have been justified… He would have been approved of, as having fulfilled the righteousness of the law, and accordingly would have been adjudged to the reward of it.

            So Christ, our Surety, (in whose justification all whose surety he is, are actually justified), was not justified until he had done the work the Father had appointed him, and kept the commandments through all trials, and then in his resurrection he was justified.  When he had been put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, I Peter 3:18, then he that was manifest in the flesh was JUSTIFIED IN THE SPIRIT.  When God justified HIM in raising HIM from the dead, He not only released Him from His humiliation for sin, and acquitted Him from any further suffering or abasement for it, but admitted Him to that eternal and immortal life, and to the beginning of that exaltation that was the reward of what He had done.   And indeed the justification of the believer is no other than his being justified with Christ this head and surety of all believers.

            As Christ suffered the punishment of sin, not as a private person, but as our Surety, so when after this suffering He was raised from the dead, He was therein justified, not as a private person, but as the Surety and Representative of all that should believe on Him.

COPIED

SINNERS AND YET RIGHTEOUS!

hough believers are justified from all sin by Christ’s righteousness, and have all their sins pardoned through Christ’s blood, yet their sins do not hereby cease to be sins. Justification from sin by Christ’s righteousness, and pardon of sin through Christ’s blood, free them from obligation to (the) punishment due to sin, but do not destroy the nature of sin.

JOHN GILL

REPRESENTATION

“For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous,” Romans 5:19

n an individualistic world where people are taught that they stand or fall on their own, it is hard for many to believe that God’s way of salvation is not based upon each one’s personal obedience, but rather by the obedience of Another- the Lord Jesus Christ.  The salvation of Scripture is one of representation, the righteous obedience of Christ the Substitute, put to the account of those whom God from eternity chose and purposed to save.

1. How is it that we as created beings became sinners?  The Scripture says that it was BY ONE MAN’S DISOBEDIENCE.  When we read Genesis 3, we have the account of Adam’s disobedience, the guilt of which God charged to every one of his descendants, Romans 5:12.

2. How is it that any then are made righteous?  The Scripture declares that it is BY THE OBEDIENCE OF ONE, or it may also be translated BY ONE OBEDIENCE (once for all). This is speaking of Christ’s obedience unto death whereby God charged the sin of His elect to Him, and immediately charged to their account HIS perfect obedience thereby justifying them once for all- Hebrews 10:12, 14

3. When is it that we as individuals were made to know the effects of Adam’s disobedience?  It is from the moment of our birth.  We are born in this world as lost, depraved, and ruined by His fall- Eph. 4:18