2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE
August 28, 2005
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 119:73-80 (David)
Call to worship: ‘Begin, My Tongue, Some Heavenly Theme’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: II Samuel 23 (Mike)
Hymn: #196 – ‘Blessed Be the Fountain of Blood’
Message: RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED – Isaiah 54:17
WEDNESDAY
6:30 PM- Mid-week Service
Nursery care available for all services for ages 4 and younger.
Ken Wimer, Pastor- ( (318) 687-4943
E-MAIL: pastor@shrevegrace.org
WEB SITE: http://www.shrevegrace.org Updated weekly with audio messages now available on-line.
CALL TO WORSHIP
(Tune: # 5- Begin, My Tongue, Some Heavenly Theme) Word by Isaac Watts
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egin, my tongue, some heavenly theme
And speak some boundless thing;
The mighty works, or mightier Name
Of our eternal King.
Tell of His grace and faithfulness
And sound His power abroad;
Sing the sweet promise of His grace,
The love and truth of God.
Proclaim “salvation from the Lord”
For wretched, dying men;
His hand has writ the sacred Word
With an immortal pen.
Engraved as in eternal brass,
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness ‘rase
Those everlasting lines.
TRIUMPHANT IN CHRIST
“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and ,maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. II Cor 2:14
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HE word ‘always’ refers here to Christ’s work. It is always triumphant for us and in us. It is not that the works of Paul’s flesh are always triumphant, but God always causes us believers to triumph because we are in Christ, not only in our doings and serving of Him, but primarily in that we are saved by Him and remain kept by Him. Even in the miseries and failures of our flesh whether Paul’s or ours, God does bring about triumph in Christ. He does work through even these to bring glory to the Lord Jesus.
This is the only place in the New Testament where you find the word ‘triumph.’ The picture that this word paints is that of a noisy, loud, victorious procession. We know that it is not our righteousnesses that triumph. They are as filthy rags and our failures in the flesh are even worse. We know then that this cannot refer to us. Nonetheless, seeing our own failures and wickedness, we see our need of a Savior, and that is to the glory of Christ.
Once God has declared a man justified in and by Christ then no decision to the contrary can ever be made. THAT is noisy and loud triumph in Christ. It is glorifying Christ for all the men of the earth to hear, all of heaven to hear, and the entire spirit world to hear this truth. - That our God has declared a sinner justified in Christ, which can never be undone.
JIM PENNYWELL, Shreveport, LA
WELCOME ALL HEAVY LADEN SINNERS!
“And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them...”1Sa 22:2
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hat a motley band of sinners that gathered themselves to David! Everyone that was in distress- literally pressed into straits unable to find any solution. Everyone that was in debt-unable to pay their creditors. Everyone that was discontented, bitter in soul, distressed, and uneasy in their minds. For all this, David became their captain, to deliver them, lead them, and preserve them.
What a beautiful type David is of our Lord Jesus! He came to seek and to save that which was lost, Luke 19:10. He did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, Mark 2:17. He has by His obedience unto death, paid every sin debt owed to God’s law and justice for those He came to save. Even more, God the Father has imputed to their account His very righteousness, declaring them just before Him because of Christ’s shed blood, Romans 5:9, 10. In time, the Spirit will draw each one to Christ, whom He has redeemed and justified, revealing in them the blessed truth of sins forgiven and justification full and free by Christ’s death alone as revealed in the Gospel. It is by this means that such are delivered from their distress of sin and deserved guiltiness of soul, and brought into subjection to Christ, and to learn of His peace and pardon already procured for them in His death. All whom the Spirit so draws, the Father will not cast out, because they have been given to Christ already by Him, John 6:37. The blessed call of Christ to sinners is ‘COME UNTO ME’ all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,’ Matthew 11:28. KEN WIMER
RECONCILED TO GOD
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HE Scriptures are clear as to the exact timing of the reconciliation of all the elect to God. “And all things (are) of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (II Cor 5:18). All for whom He died (vv. 14, 15) were reconciled to God by the death of Jesus Christ. That occurred long before I believed, even when I was accounted an enemy of God (Rom. 5:10). The reconciliation of all the elect by God having been fully accomplished by Christ (v. 19), now Paul as an ambassador of Christ beseeches his listeners themselves to be reconciled to God (be YOU reconciled to God). The elect were ALREADY reconciled to God from His viewpoint, now the elect are to reconcile themselves to God from THEIR viewpoint. Reconciled to God by Christ (II Cor. 5:18), now we are to reconcile ourselves to God. How? By whole hearted belief in that twofold, simultaneous legal transaction at the cross of Jesus Christ of sin to His account and righteousness to the accounts of the elect (v. 21). This is the objective salvation of all the elect which must be believed. This is the way we reconcile ourselves to God.
STEVE BALOGA, Knoxville, TN
HIS GLORY FIRST
“To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Ephesians 1:6
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have rejoiced greatly in this passage over the years. What joyous peace there is in the knowledge that He has made us accepted, that He has loved us with no greater love; that He left His place of glory and took on the fashion of the creature to redeem to Him a bride.
Then I noticed in God’s purpose and wisdom the importance of the first part of this verse. Why did He do these things? Was it for His people’s sake? Yes, they do benefit, but it was chiefly for HIS SAKE, because His character is preeminent. The verse declares ‘to the praise – of the glory - of HIS GRACE.’ The subject is HIS Glory! May we be enabled to see His glory as preeminent and primary in our view of Him, rather than simply the benefits to ourselves. His Glory in this sense is His marvelous grace to us, the creature. Let us remember that Christ had a glory from before the world began and delight in HIS Glory, the Only Begotten of the Father. “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” John 17:5. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” II Corinthians 4:6 He is truly altogether lovely, Amen. LAYNE DENTON, Huffman, TX
THE ONE ARTICLE OF CHRISTIANITY
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he very thing that constitutes a believer righteous, is not any inherent holiness of which he is the subject; nor any works of his own, either legal or evangelical, whether performed with the help of divine grace, or in his own strength; but that which makes the sinner just, is the alone work of Christ, finished on the cross, imputed to all for whom it was accomplished, and believed by faith alone. This is the article of Christianity, the glory of the Gospel, and the very foundation of Zion!
WILLIAM RUSHTON, Liverpool, England- 1831