2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

June 19, 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: ‘Amazing Grace, #236  Words by Isaac Watts, 1719)  

 Based on Psalm 118

            BEHOLD the sure foundation-stone

               Which God in Zion lays,

            To Build our heavenly hopes upon,

               And His eternal praise.

            Chosen of God, to sinners dear,

               And saints adore the name;

            They trust their whole salvation here,

               Nor shall they suffer shame.

            The foolish builders, scribe and priest,

               Reject it with disdain;

            Yet on this rock the church shall rest,

               And envy rage in vain.

            What though the gates of hell withstood,

               Yet must this building rise;

            ‘Tis Thine own work, Almighty God,

               And wondrous in our eyes.

O WHAT SLOW LEARNERS!

“Are ye also without understanding”  Matthew 15:16

HAT lessons we need day by day to teach us anything aright, and how it is for the most part, “line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”  O, what slow learners! – What dull, forgetful scholars! – What ignoramuses! – What stupid blockheads! – What stubborn pupils!  Surely no scholar at a school, old or young, could learn so little of natural things as we seem to have learned of spiritual things after so many years instruction- so many chapters read – so many sermons heard – so many prayers put up- so much talking about religion.  How small, how weak is the amount of growth, compared with all we have read and heard and talked about!  But it is a mercy that the Lord saves whom He will save – and that we are saved by free grace – and free grace alone! 

J. C. PHILPOT, 1802 – 1869

TWO VITAL QUESTIONS ANSWERED

1.     How can God be just and yet justify transgressors of His holy law?

The answer from Scripture is that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Head and Representative of His people, was made under the law to redeem them that were under it, Gal. 3.13 &4.4; and, in His people’s room and stead, has fulfilled, magnified and made it honorable Isaiah 42.21; already worked out and brought in an everlasting righteousness for their justification, by His death on the cross, Dan. 9.24; was made sin in that He bore it for them, and they have been made the righteousness of God in Him (at His death), 2 Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 53.10-11.  This is how God is just and yet the justifier of all that believe in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.26 & 5.15-21.

2.     How does a poor sinner come to the knowledge of his election and justification?

The answer is by faith in Christ Jesus, as his elect Head, and the Lord his righteousness and strength, Romans 5.1-2.  Faith is to justification what the flower is to the root.  Faith (the blossom) is the evidence of things not seen (the root) – justification, pardon, forgiveness, and adoption accomplished at the cross, Hebrews 11.1. To be justified by faith is to be justified by Christ, evidenced in that faith which the Spirit of God gives in regeneration.  He brings that unshakeable persuasion to the sinner’s mind and heart that when Christ died, He fully satisfied all the just requirements of God the Father, and put away sin, and granted forgiveness already to those who BY HIM do believe, Rom. 3.21-26.

Happy is the lot of that sinner who is so taught of God!      Isa 26.3-4 & 45.22-25. 

KEN WIMER