2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE
October 9, 2005
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 119:121-128 (David)
Call to Worship: ‘In Mercy With Thy Servant Deal’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: I Kings 5 (Mike)
Hymn: #258 – ‘He Hideth My Soul’
Message: Jim Pennywell Preaching
WEDNESDAY
6:30 PM- Mid-week Service
Nursery care available for all services for ages 4 and younger.
Ken Wimer, Pastor- ( (318) 687-4943
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 119:121-128
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O all men I have judgment done,
Performing justice right;
Then let me not be left unto
My fierce oppressors’ might.
For good unto thy servant, Lord,
Thy servant’s surety be:
From the oppression of the proud
Do thou deliver me.
Mine eyes do fail with looking long
For thy salvation,
The word of thy pure righteousness
While I do wait upon.
In mercy with thy servant deal,
Thy laws me teach and show.
I am thy servant, wisdom give,
That I thy laws may know.
‘Tis time thou work, Lord; for they have
Made void thy law divine.
Therefore thy precepts more I love
Than gold, yea, gold most fine.
Concerning all things thy commands
All right I judge therefore;
And ev’ry false and wicked way
I perfectly abhor.
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HE greatest evidence of being lost is for one to be face-to-face with the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ and never truly hear it, see it, nor submit to it. II Corinthians 4:3
KEN WIMER
TO BE FOUND IN HIM
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Philippians 3:9
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ONE will be found in Christ who hope in any other righteousness than that of God in Christ alone – established, approved, and imputed at the cross. From Paul’s testimony here we learn three things:
1. What is the sole object of a convinced sinner’s faith. It is not what Paul was in himself, nor anything wrought in him (even by God), nor done by him. His only hope and plea was wholly and exclusively in the person and righteousness of the Son of God. If you have the faith of God’s elect, you will rest your soul’s hope ONLY on Christ and desire to be found in him in life, death, and in the judgment to come. Like Paul, you will constantly look outside yourself, to all that was wrought in Him and by Him. All other righteousness as a point of justification, forgiveness of sin, and hope of eternal life is nothing compared to the infinitely perfect and everlastingly glorious righteousness of Christ. I Cor. 1:30; Romans 5:9-11
2. What graces may be evidenced in us are the fruits of righteousness, not righteousness itself- Philippians 1:11; Isaiah 32:17. While I value the evidence of grace in me, i.e. faith, hope, love, repentance, I dare not look at them as my justification before God. They may be used of the Spirit as comfortable evidences that I am one with Christ and the object of the Father’s everlasting, electing, redeeming love, but they are not my righteousness. My righteousness is seated in heaven, seated because Christ accomplished righteousness and finished it on behalf of sinners such as I, and is set down at the right hand of the Father’s majesty above, Galatians 2:21, Galatians 3:6 with Romans 4:9 These graces are not bestowed on us as a rival to Christ, but rather as comforting mercies to enable us to glorify HIM and exalt Him in heart, lips, and lives.
3. What good works may be evidenced in us or by us do not justify our persons, but they do justify our faith, our profession, and adorn the very doctrine of grace against the charge of licentiousness. James 2:20-25. One found of Christ is more concerned to honor Christ in obedience to Him than to draw attention to himself and his good works. May we also be more concerned that the glorious light of the Lord Jesus Christ so shine through us, that men might see His good work for us and in us, and glorify our Father who is in heaven.
KEN WIMER
THOUGHTS ON ETERNAL JUSTIFICATION
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F there are any passages of Scripture having reference to justification, which thus represent it or bring it to view as an act passed in eternity, I have never discovered them, neither have the advocates of that sentiment, as far as I have seen, brought them forward. Besides, there are texts which, so far as I understand them, plainly contradict that idea. As Romans 4:25, “Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.” If the sentence of justification in behalf of the church of Christ was actually passed in eternity I cannot conceive how Christ only eighteen hundred years ago was raised for our justification. We needed not to be twice justified before God. “For by one offering He (Christ) hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (Heb. 10:14) Remember, it was by one offering He perfected. They could not be justified from all things without being perfected, and the one offering which perfected them was that making His soul an offering for sin; that offering of His body once for all, which He has accomplished on Calvary, as a time act. (Isa. 53:10 & Heb. 10:10) Again, according to Rom. 3:24, we are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” This justification must be the act of God, being “freely by His grace,” and it is through the “redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” If so, then the act of justification cannot be considered as actually passed until the redemption was actually made. Redemption is “through His blood.” (Eph. 1:7 & Col. 1:14) Again, “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son made of a woman and made under the law to redeem them that were under the law;” (Gal. 4:4,5) Hence, as redemption is so manifestly a time act for those who before “were under the law,” I cannot believe that the act of justification was passed until Christ was raised again. It is true Christ is said in Heb. 9:12, “To have obtained eternal redemption for us,” but a moment’s reflection on the passage and its connection will, I think, convince any one that the redemption is here called eternal, not because it existed form eternity, but because it shall be, in its effects, of eternal or everlasting duration. The fact of Christ’s obtaining it denies its having eternally been, as well as the connection.
SAMUEL TROTT