2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

NOVEMBER 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.org

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

CALL TO WORSHIP

Tune: # 46, ‘O, For A Thousand Tongues to Sing’

Words based on Psalm 119: 169-176

et my request before Thee come:

after Thy word me free.

My lips shall utter praise, when thou

hast taught Thy laws to me.

My tongue of Thy most blessed word

shall speak, and it confess;

Because all Thy commandments

are perfect righteousness.

Let Thy strong hand make help to me:

Thy precepts are my choice.

I longed for Thy salvation, Lord,

and in Thy law rejoice.

O let my soul live, and it shall

give praises unto Thee;

And let Thy judgments gracious

be helpful unto me.

I, like a lost sheep, went astray;

Thy servant seek, and find:

For Thy commands I suffered not

to slip out of my mind.

WE’RE ALL SUSCEPTIBLE TO CATCH COLD

ome constitutions are so tender that every cold blast is sufficient to produce inflammation; and others are so susceptible of disease that they fall sick under the slightest faint of every epidemic disorder.  Such sickly constitutions must watch against the east wind, and not expose themselves to the air of the marshy fen [swamp].  But just such cold-catching, feverish invalids are we all in soul, whatever be the vigor and health of the body.  Let us then be afraid of the very breath of the world lest it chill the heart, or inflame the carnal mind:  let us dread exposure to its infectious influence lest it call forth into active energy our latent disease.

J.C. PHILPOT

SALVATION CONDITIONED ON JESUS CHRIST ALONE

 popular message that many believe to be the Gospel today is that God loves everybody, and Christ died to save everybody, and that the Spirit of God is working to try to get as many saved as possible, but ultimately we are told, “The choice is yours.” Now, as appealing as that may sound to the natural mind, if you will give it a little thought, you will see how this makes the sinner his own savior.  If God can will sinners to be saved, and Christ died to save everyone, and the Almighty Spirit is unable to persuade sinners against their will, then, ‘What does God have to do with salvation?’ You have put the power in the hand of the sinner, whom the Bible says is dead in sin and unable to save himself, John 6:44 and 66.

            No! Dear friend, the Gospel of God is that the Father chose a people in His sovereign will and gave them to the Son in electing grace, before time.  The Son of God then came and paid their entire sin debt, thereby justifying them before God, charging the merits of Christ’s death to them for righteousness, in a ONE-TIME, ONCE FOR ALL IMPUTATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS (justice). “He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us,” Hebrews 9:12.  The Spirit now effectually calls to Christ in time, by the Gospel, every one for whom Christ died.  Read John 6:37.  This He does by giving them life and light to repent, being born from above, of the Father of lights, in whom is no shadow of turning, James 1:17, 18.   

Let’s be careful, then, not to think that it is the new birth or our faith that brings about the imputation of God’s righteousness.  No!  It is the imputed righteousness of God at the cross that brings about the new birth and faith in every one to whom God has already charged the merits of Christ’s work.  Our Lord Jesus clearly established this order of righteousness established and imputed first, then the coming of the Spirit in John 16:7- “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” John 16:13 teaches that it is the work of the Spirit then to take the things of Christ and reveal them unto us. (Who He is and the redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness of sins, and justification already accomplished in His obedience unto death), That is truly salvation in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ alone,

The bottom line is, “Do you have a salvation conditioned on what you do, or something done in you, or on what Christ alone has done?”  It makes a difference!                                                                                                                                                                                                               KEN WIMER

OUR SABBATH REST

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God,” Hebrews 4:9

The word rest here is ‘sabbath,’ and therefore teaches a keeping of the Sabbath by God’s people.  Someone may ask, ‘Are we Sabbath keepers?” The answer is “Yes!”  However, our Sabbath is not a day.  It’s not a 24-hour period of time.  Our Sabbath is a person.  CHRIST IS OUR SABBATH.  Yes, we do keep the Sabbath by looking to HIM.  We REST in Him and His finished work. 

            Hebrews 4:10 continues, “For he that is entered into his rest (that is Christ Himself), he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”  Christ did the work, and He entered into HIS rest when He sat down at the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 1:3).  He entered HIS rest, having finished the work, satisfying God’s law and justice, and removing the burden of sin from His people.  We are no longer cursed because Christ became a curse for us.  He’s our Substitute because He was made sin for us.  Our sins were made to bear down on Him and He bore our guilt for us, drinking damnation dry.  He finished the work, and when He finished that work, HE RESTED.  There was no more work to be done, unlike the Old Testament priests whose work was never finished. The tabernacle had no place to sit because the priests always had a work to do.  After one day’s work, they continued the next.  It kept going and going, every year going into the holiest of all.