SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

November 6, 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 –‘O God, Our Help’   #10)- Based on Psalm 119:153-160

ONSIDER mine affliction,

In safety do me set:

Deliver me, O Lord, for I

Thy law do not forget

After Thy Word revive thou me:

Save me, and plead my cause.

Salvation is from sinners far;

For they seek not Thy laws.

O Lord, both great and manifold

Thy tender mercies be:

According to Thy judgments just,

Revive and quicken me.

My persecutors many are,

And foes that do combine;

Yet from Thy testimonies pure

My heart doth not decline.

I saw transgressors, and was grieved;

For they keep not Thy Word.

See how I love Thy law! As thou

Art kind, me quicken, Lord.

From the beginning all Thy Word

Hath been most true and sure:

Thy righteous judgments ev’ry one

For evermore endure.

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS

HEN the proclamation is made, “Gather my saints unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice;” it is added, “and the heavens shall declare his righteousness,” Psalms 50:5,6.  So perfect is the sacrifice by which the everlasting covenant was ratified, that the heavens are represented as declaring God’s righteousness in the justification of His saints.  Hence He condescends to bear the name of “the Lord, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”   

JAMES HALDANE, 1845

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

IGHTEOUSNESS is the result of two things:  Christ perfectly obeying God from His heart and secondly, Christ enduring the penalty of all those chosen by God in eternity.  Righteousness is not pretend or partial, but complete and absolute obedience.  Such righteousness is altogether outside the experience of man.  To try to take something outside the experience of man and force it into the experience of man is to abuse it, dilute it, pervert it, and make it something that it is not.  Such righteousness is altogether outside the experience of man and, in its establishment and application of it is outside the experience of man.  The application of this righteousness is by imputation and imputation is solely an act of God.  Its objects were not consulted.  They were not advised nor were they called upon to make a decision or do a deed in order to obtain it.

The doctrine simply says Christ earned and established righteousness and God took this righteousness and charged it to all the accounts of those He chose from eternity.  This imputation of righteousness exclusively justified all for whom Christ died.  If He died for all men generally, then all men were justified.  If He died for a select, definite, limited number then those were justified before His eyes.  Justification is as broad as election.  Election is as broad as the predestination of God. And the predestination of God is as broad as the love of God.  It was the love of God that brought about the predestination of God.  It was the predestination of God that brought about the purpose of God in the righteousness and, therefore, the justification.  To make justification broader than the love of God or more narrow than the love of God is again to pervert the wisdom of God in what He has done to bring about the salvation of His people.  Imputation is always connected with just one thing- the obedience of Christ.  Therefore Christ is the only condition of the Law for justification and all other saving benefits, namely forgiveness, reconciliation, sanctification and adoption.  This is the message of God’s righteousness.                  DAVID SIMPSON, Powell, TN

SPIRITUAL LIFE

“Spiritual life is the consequence of spiritual quickening.  The baby cries because it is born; it is not born because it cries.”

COPIED

FULL PARDON AND JUSTIFICATION BEFORE GOD

“I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake,

 and will not remember thy sins.”  Isaiah 43:25

ARTHLY authorities may exercise their right to pardon condemned criminals, but none are able to justify (declare righteous) so as to remove all remembrances of the charges from the record.  How different, then, is the work of God in pardoning and justifying sinners!  The Lord God BLOTTED OUT the transgression of His people by the just payment of their sin in their Substitute, the Lord Jesus.  It is not because of anything in them, but for HIS OWN SAKE.  That is FREE GRACE.  The Lord Jesus so fully paid the sin debt of those He chose form eternity that they no longer stand under condemnation and wrath because of His obedience unto death.  All for whom He died not only stand absolved of all guilt, but stand perfectly righteous in His sight.  O sinner!  If the Lord Jesus died for you, then it must be that the Lord will have compassion on you and by His Spirit, turn you to His Son in repentance.  All whom He draws, come to Him and are taught that their sins were ALL forgiven at the cross and that as sinners they stand justified (completely righteous) before God because of Christ’s finished work.  Is this the hope and assurance that you have? 

 KEN WIMER

WONDER OF WONDERS!

, what a remembrance was this!  “He was made sin for us, who knew no sin,” and that we might have a complete salvation, He makes us “the righteousness of God in him.”  What a wonder of wonders!  For if He had merely put away sin, if He had only been the destruction of sin, taken our offences away, and left it there, what an astonishing display of loving-kindness and mercy would that have been!  But He has not only put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and been the destruction of it, but, O for a tongue to speak it forth!  He hath given His life a ransom for sinners to bring them to God; He hath fulfilled all the requirements of law and justice for them; He hath arrayed them in the majesty and glory of His righteousness, and they stand complete in Him.