2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

March 20, 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.orgp

WEB SITE: http://www.shrevegrace.org Updated weekly with audio messages now available on-line.

CALL TO WORSHIP 

(Tune: ‘Amazing Grace, #236)  

Words by Tate and Brady, 1896 - Based on Psalm 105

H, render thanks and bless the Lord;

Invoke His sacred name;

   Acquaint the nations with His deeds,

   His matchless deeds proclaim.

Sing to His praise in lofty hymns,

His wondrous works rehearse;

Make them the theme of your discourse,

And subject of your verse.

   Rejoice in His almighty name,

   Alone to be adored;

   And let their hearts o’erflow with joy,

   That humbly seek the Lord.

Seek ye the Lord, His saving strength

Devoutly still implore:

And where He’s ever present seek

His face for evermore.

JUSTICE SATISFIED

USTIFICATION is a judicial term, and means an acquittal from guilt. It stands opposed, not to punishment, but to the desert of punishment [punishment deserved].  When a man, charged with any crime, is tried according to the laws of his country, the crime is either proved against him or it is not.  If it be, he is then pronounced guilty; but if it be not, he is declared to be not guilty, or in other words, he is justified from the charge.  But if a man be really guilty of a crime, he may be pardoned but he cannot be justified.  Pardon is merely an exemption from punishment, but justification is freedom from its desert [punishment deserved].  If mercy be extended to the criminal, he is pardoned, but no created power can justify him.  But what is impossible with men is accomplished by our God.

Wonder, O heavens!  Be astonished, O earth, Jehovah not only pardons, but justifies the ungodly!  He not only remits their punishment, but removes their sins also; so that heaven, earth, and hell are challenged to bring one fault against the ransomed of the Lord, if they be able.  “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?  It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?  It is Christ that died.” (Romans 8:38) 

                                                                                                                                                                                                   WILLIAM RUSHTON

ADDING TO YOUR FAITH

                                                        “Giving all diligence to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge.”  2 Peter 1:5

here are those who think that believing on Christ is as simple as adding 1,2,3.  They imagine that it is just a matter of willing to be a child of God and voila!  This is certainly not what the Scriptures teach.  Our Lord Jesus plainly stated, “No man CAN come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him,” John 6:44.  What then is this faith that God grants to those He draws to His Son the Lord Jesus, and in which they live and rest?

1. You must be taught of God.  John 6:45 teaches that those whom God the Father so teaches (by His Spirit), come to the Lord Jesus in repentance, trusting Him exactly as He is revealed in His Word.

2. If taught of God, you are submitted to the only true righteousness that God accepts and has imputed to the account of every one of His elect by the death of His Son, Romans 10:3, 4.  2 Peter 1:1 also confirms that this faith is obtained (not earned or merited), as a result of the righteousness of God established by the Lord Jesus Christ in His obedience unto death.  Notice the order in the verse.  It is not faith that makes us righteous before God, but rather, having been declared righteous (just and justified) by the death of His Son, (Romans 3:24), our believing on Him then is the result of that righteousness REVEALED to us in the Gospel, by His Spirit, Romans 1:17.  There is not an imparting of an additional or complementary righteousness at faith but rather a submitting in the heart to the righteousness already imputed at the death of the Lord Jesus, Romans 10:9, 10.  That is THE ONLY RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD of which the Scriptures speak- IMPUTED by grace through the just satisfaction for sin by the death of Christ the Mediator, 2 Corinthians 5:21.  God-given faith sees Him through eyes given by God’s Spirit and rests in what Christ accomplished, Philippians 3:9.

3. Where there is this God-given faith, there is a diligence to continue to grow in that grace from faith to faith, adding to that faith virtue (honor to Christ), and knowledge (ever learning of Him), Matthew 11:29.  We do not add to or complete the work of Christ.  That was finished once for all, Hebrews 10:10.  However, when taught of Him we do grow in faith, hope, and love for Him, and His justifying and sanctifying work which He accomplished at the cross!  (2 Peter 3:18)   Is this your testimony?                                                                                                                                                                                                         KEN WIMER

WHEN GOD CALLS HIS PEOPLE

“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”  I Corinthians 1:9

HEN God calls His people by His grace, it is to make them partakers of the highest bliss and the greatest glory that He could confer upon the sons of men.  And this not only in eternity, but in time; not only beyond, but this side of the grave.  He appeals, therefore, to them by His prophet.  “Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?  A land of darkness…?” (Jeremiah 2:31).  When the Lord calls His people out of earthly pleasures, is it for no other purpose than to lead them into paths of affliction and sorrow?  Does He make them leave the fleshpots of Egypt to starve them in a waste howling wilderness?  This was the complaint of the ancient murmurers that Moses had brought them up out of delights to abandon them to misery and despair? O no!  He calls them even in this time state to the greatest privilege and highest favor that His everlasting covenant could confer upon them, which is no less than “the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,” that they may have union and communion with the Son of God by grace here, and be partakers of His glory hereafter.  God’s dear Son is and always has been the object of His eternal delight.  To glorify Him has been from all eternity His fixed, His settled purpose; and in pursuance of this settled purpose, He gave Him a people whom He formed for Himself, that they might show forth His praise.  This, therefore the Redeemer addressed to His heavenly Father---“And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.” 

J. C. PHILPOT

rue grace always produces vigilance rather than complacency; it always produces perseverance rather than indolence.                            COPIED

n all the Word of God there is no doctrine which, if properly applied, is more conducive to godly loving than is the doctrine of salvation by grace, and by grace alone. 

SELECTED