SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

JULY 17, 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 –  ‘According To Thy Gracious Word’  #  192)

Words based on Psalm 119:26-32 by Brady and Tate 

M

y soul, oppressed with deadly care,

close to the dust does cleave;

Revive me, Lord, and let me now

Thy promised aid receive.

To thee I still declared my ways,

who didst incline thine ear:

O teach me then my future life

By thy just laws to steer.

If thou wilt make me know thy laws,

And by their guidance walk,

The wondrous works which thou hast done

Shall be my constant talk.

But see, my soul within me sinks,

Pressed down with weighty care;

Do thou, according to thy word,

My wasted strength repair.

Far, far from me be all false ways

And lying arts removed!

The path by thee approved.

But kindly grant I still may keep.

Thy faithful ways, thou God of truth,

My happy choice I've made;

Thy judgments, as my rule of life,

Before me always laid.

My care has been to make my life

With thy commands agree;

From shame and ruin free.

O then preserve thy servant, Lord,

So in the way of thy commands

Shall I with pleasure run!

And, with a heart enlarged with joy,

Successfully go on.

SUBTLE DECEPTION

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,”                                                                               2 Corinthians 11:3

he greatest counterfeit is that which is closest to the original.  When Satan beguiled Eve [literally ‘cheated by deception’], it was in turning her eyes away from the perfect man (Adam as a type of Christ) and the perfect standing she had in him, to look for something more!  What more could have been necessary for her enjoyment, comfort, and peace?  What could the tree of knowledge of good and evil offer her more than she already enjoyed in Adam her representative?

                The apostle Paul warned the church of Corinth of the same deception in being drawn away by those who presented themselves as Gospel preachers, preaching Christ and professing to be speaking by the Spirit of God, and yet who were actually ‘false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ,’ 11:13.  What was the issue?  Like Satan’s subtleties with Eve, they would draw sinners away from the one Perfect Substitute, Christ crucified, and their perfect standing in Him by His imputed righteousness, to another ‘tree of good and evil’- another righteousness, Romans 10:3.  Paul wrote that they are transformed as ‘the ministers of righteousness,’ but not the ONE TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS, established by Christ in His death at the cross, and imputed to everyone of God’s elect there, by the Father, Rom. 1:17.

                It was no light matter for Eve in the beginning, and it is no light matter for us today.  The question is, ‘on what ground does God declare poor, worthless, condemned sinners just (righteous)?’  Some say that Christ ‘guaranteed’ our righteousness by His death, but it is only realized when we appropriate it by faith and are given a ‘sinless nature’ upon believing. They call it an ‘imparted righteousness,’ worked in you, although that is not the language of Scripture.  Others say it is by a righteousness worked out by you.  Either way, it is to declare righteousness IN us, or BY us, and not IN and BY CHRIST ALONE!  

There is much interest in this ‘tree of knowledge,’ and much explaining as to what this supposed righteous nature is, but ultimately, it is drawing attention away from the ONE TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS, outside ourselves, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and His finished work alone, now seated in the heavens, His work complete! I Cor. 1:30, Heb.1:3, Col. 2:2.  Even as Adam and Eve were deceived in thinking they needed something more than that perfect standing they enjoyed with God already, let us not be deceived in thinking that our acceptance with God and fellowship with HIM is on any other ground than the blood and righteousness of Christ alone, fully accomplished at the cross, and imputed there, which the Spirit of God, in time does REVEAL (not impart) to sinner’s hearts, Luke 10:21, and causes us to rejoice in Him alone as all our salvation, who finished  the work!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          KEN WIMER

OUR MESSAGE

n our generation, men speak of Christ’s LOVE.  They say, “Didn’t he weep over Jerusalem?”  “Didn’t the people observe how He loved Lazarus?”  “Didn’t John say that He loved His own unto the end?”  Therefore, men say with all authority, ‘God loves you.’  Our generation speaks of His miracles.  He fed the hungry, He healed the sick, and He gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead.  So men surmise and say with all authority, ‘Surely, He will bring you a miracle.’ 

                And yet, we do not see our Lord speaking with men in this manner.  Rather, His was a ministry of confrontation.  He confronted them with His glorious person, and with His powerful word, but most of all with His finished work.   The message of Christ is without controversy, I Timothy 3:16.  He satisfied God by His inerrant obedience of the law from the heart.  He established everlasting righteousness by His perfect life and His penalty bearing death, Daniel 9:24.  He willingly was numbered among the transgressors, WITHOUT HIMSELF BECOMING A TRANSGRESSOR, and bore the sins of the elect away.  God discharged sin from the account of His elect, and charged their account with righteousness.  The glory of God is in this transaction between the Father and the Son.  BY RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPUTED, the GRACE of God stood, the MERCY of God availed, the JUSTICE of God saved, and the law of God JUSTIFIED.

                Let us never tire of hearing this one message.  For just as with our Lord Jesus, it is with this ONE message that we must confront our generation.  The means of our confrontation is more than with the doctrine of election and the sovereignty of God, even though there is no message other than that of a sovereign God and unconditional election.  Nor is the message one of God providing an opportunity for salvation, or even a guarantee of it, but rather that AT THE CROSS there was an actual deliverance and justification by God of His people there!