SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE
December 4, 2005
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 121 (David)
Call to Worship: ‘I To The Hills Will Lift Mine Eyes‘
Scripture Reading/Prayer: I Kings 13 (Mike)
Hymn: #45 –‘Ye Servants of God, Your Master Proclaim’
Message: THE CHURCH IN HEAVEN– Rev.4:4-11
Hymn: #48 – ‘His Matchless Worth’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: John 12 (Jim)
Hymn: #256 – ‘It Is Well With My Soul’
Message: PARDON AND MERCY FOR SINNERS - Num 14:18-24
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: #52, Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned) Words based on Psalm 121
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to the hills will lift mine eyes,
From whence doth come mine aid.
My safety cometh from the Lord,
Who heav’n and earth hath made. [Repeat]
Thy foot he’ll not let slide, nor will
He slumber that thee keeps.
Behold, he that keeps Israel,
He slumbers not, nor sleeps. [Repeat]
The Lord thee keeps, the Lord thy shade
On thy right hand doth stay:
The moon by night thee shall not smite,
Nor yet the sun by day. [Repeat]
The Lord shall keep thy soul; He shall
Preserve thee from all ill.
Henceforth thy going out and in
God keep for ever will. [Repeat]
“For him who knew no sin God made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21
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OD caused the (sinless) Christ to become sin. He caused Him to become what He was not, NOT by imparting sin TO Him, or infusing sin IN Him, BUT by imputation. Christ bore the imputed sins of His elect as the sacrificial lamb bore the sins of Israel under the Old Covenant. HE died “the JUST for the unjust” (I Peter 3:18j). He “through the eternal Spirit offered himself WITHOUT SPOT to God” (Heb. 9:14).Christ’s obedience unto death satisfied divine justice for (*in the behalf of) EVERY sinner for whom HE died. He paid the penalty God’s Justice demanded of them in full. He discharged the sins of His elect. With the debt paid in full, they could NEVER be charged again. At the same time HE established the righteousness of God, which gives His elect a fixed/UNCHANGEABLE standing before God- “That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” When the condition is met, the MIGHT is taken away. And, the thing becomes reality! On the condition that Christ discharged the sins of His people and established the righteousness of God, ARE MADE; we HAVE become, (NOT might become), but HAVE become the righteousness of God in Him. This (simultaneous) DISCHARGE of sin and CHARGE of Righteousness AT THE CROSS is the BASIS of RECONCILIATION. MARK PANNELL, Albany, GA
THE GOSPEL IS THE POWER OF GOD
“I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation….”
Romans 1:16
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ANY have a form of godliness that is nothing more than man’s attempts at satisfying God’s holiness, or simply trying to appear as upright and moral before others. Dear reader, while morality may help us live better lives here on earth; it in no way is an evidence of right standing with God. In order to be right with God, mere morality will not suffice. It requires absolute holiness and righteousness before God. Here is where we read in the Bible that there is only one way that sinners can have perfect standing before a holy God and that by the just satisfaction of God’s law by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for sinners. Romans 1:17 teaches that in the Gospel, the very righteousness (justice) of God is revealed from faith to faith having been imputed at the cross. In other words, those to whom God has revealed salvation by His Spirit have been given faith to look to the Lord Jesus Christ alone and see in Him and His obedience unto death, ALL their righteousness before God. They stand justified by Him alone! KEN WIMER
QUICKENED TOGETHER WITH CHRIST
“And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6
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E have already considered the words, “God who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ.” Marvelous indeed is this act of grace and unspeakable this goodness. It breathes divine life into our dead souls! But superadded blessings fill up the cluster. The Apostle carries us onward to the contemplation of a wondrous work. “He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Gracious Spirit, magnify Christ before the eye of our faith, while we examine these truths! (1.) We are raised up together with Christ. (2.) We are sitting in heaven together with Him. How can such blessedness be? It is even so, Lord, for it has seemed good in Your sight to make this revelation.
(1.) We are raised up together with Christ. Wonderful is the Person of Christ! It not only represented, but, so to speak, it contained all His people. His punishment was their punishment – His sufferings their sufferings – His death their death – His righteousness and obedience their righteousness and obedience. So that each child of God is privileged to say, By virtue of my eternal oneness with Christ, I have in Him suffered all the wrath of God, which my sins deserved – I have in Him fulfilled every requirement of the Law. When He hung on the cross, I hung on the cross; when He rose again form the dead, I rose also; when He ascended into heaven, I ascended together with Him. Christ and my person can never be parted. He received me as portion of Himself forever.
HENRY LAW
IMPUTATION
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Y pastor often says that until it is a settled thing in the mind of a man as to WHEN the imputation of righteousness occurred, confusion will reign. There was only one imputation. It exclusively occurred at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was strictly a judicial act. The result was God declaring all the elect of all time righteous in His sight (Rom. 4:25, 5:1). God ratified this one time declaration of righteousness by raising Christ form the dead. The resurrection of Christ was objective proof positive to the elect of the finished justification of all those in Christ. Until Christ would come God did forbear with and did pass over the sins of all the Old Testament saints, including Abraham (Rom. 3:25). For without the shedding of blood there is no remission. Likewise, His attribute of forbearance also permitted a reckoning of the faith by promise, which faith was the objective contents of faith meaning Christ Himself and His future coming to bring in that everlasting righteousness that God would a long last impute to the elect upon the establishment of it (Rom. 4:3, 9, 11, 13, Gal. 3:18). Like Abraham, all Old Testament saints believed the promise of that one true righteousness TO BE established by the Lord Jesus Christ in their behalf (John 8:56). New Testament saints look back to that one time declared righteousness. WHAT Abraham believed (i.e., THE faith), God did impute to him for his righteousness (Rom. 4:3,9). And God did that without any condition to Abraham (Rom. 4:2). What God did by PROMISE for OT saints was actually accomplished and declared to be so upon the death of Christ (Rom. 4:25). This is precisely what the resurrection signified – righteousness imputed and sin not imputed resulting in finished justification, at the cross of Christ. STEVE BALOGA – Knoxville, TN
GROWTH IN GRACE AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST
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he more we learn of Christ, taught in truth by the Spirit through the Word, the more unreservedly the heart will trust Him who is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. The more He causes us to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him, the greater His person and finished work will be confirmed to our hearts and minds, and the more childlike our faith will become. “He must increase, but I must decease,” John 3:30.
KEN WIMER