SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

 

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

 

January 8, 2006

 

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: Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned #52 )  

 Psalm 126, Scottish Metrical Psalter

 

hen Zion’s bondage God turned back,

As men that dreamed were we.

Then filled with laughter was our mouth,

Our tongue with melody: (Repeat)

They ‘mong the heathen said, The Lord

Great things for them hath wrought.

The Lord hath done great things for us,

Whence joy to us is brought (Repeat)

As streams of water in the south,

Our bondage, Lord, recall.

Who sow in tears, a reaping time

Of joy enjoy they shall. (Repeat)

That man who, bearing precious seed,

In going forth doth mourn,

He doubtless, bringing back His sheaves,

Rejoicing shall return. (Repeat)

 

SAVED AND CALLED

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.” II Timothy 1:9

ERE is salvation in the mind and purpose of God before the world began.  But, if you look at the following verse you see that what God purposed before time, MUST have its accomplishment in time. “But is now made manifest (made known and accomplished) by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, which HATH ABOLISHED DEATH, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel,” v.10.

When Christ came into this world and acted in our stead, as our Surety, and our Substitute, keeping the Law perfectly, and went to the cross of Calvary, it says that HE abolished death.  That was the issue back in the Passover in the Old Testament, when the destroyer came through.  That was God’s judgment of death against sin.  He said, “I will pass over you.”  Well, how does God pass over His people?  The answer is that Christ, on the cross of Calvary, nearly 2000 years ago, shed His blood and abolished death for His people.  And when God saw that blood, He passed over them.

                It also says that “He hath brought light and immortality to light THROUGH THE GOSPEL.”  Now, we come to find out about it when God the Holy Spirit brings us under the preaching of the Gospel, and we’re born again by the Word of Truth.  We’re let in on what happened two thousand years ago, that is what God PURPOSED BEFORE TIME, and what Christ ACCOMPLISHED IN TIME!  So our redemption was accomplished by the appearing of our Lord, wherein He abolished death, by His own death for our sins, and it is brought to our knowledge (revealed) by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the Gospel.  Just as God told Israel, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you,” On that day when Christ was lifted up on the cross and shed His precious blood, God saw the blood of the cross, and that was OUR new beginning in Christ, as we’re considered in Him as His elect people.  Because when He died, we died, if He’s your Representative!

BILL PARKER, Ashland, KY

 

A FALSE REPORT

“Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.” Ex 23:1

ho among us was not moved in watching and hearing the cries of grief of the West Virginia coal miner families after learning that the report they had received three hours earlier that their loved ones were alive, was actually a false report?!  Their grief quickly turned to justified anger that someone had given them a false report.  Until the truth was known, they lived in a false sense of joy, excitement, and elation all the while unaware that those for whom they rejoiced were actually dead. 

Let this be a warning to any who, even in the name of Christ, falsely promise peace to sinners, or that all is well, by believing their report of a salvation conditioned on anything (man’s will, works, believing, or experience), and not on the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus alone.  How many are there that face death and eternity in false assurance based on a lie?  Someone has reported them alive, when death reigns, and they have never actually been delivered from the just wrath of God by the just satisfaction for their sin in the death of the Lord Jesus.  God forbid that even those of us who profess to believe the Gospel of grace, and salvation conditioned on Christ and His finished work alone, put our hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness, promising salvation or peace on any other basis than one’s sin having been charged to the Lord Jesus, and His righteous obedience imputed to their account.  This is the salvation of the Bible, and the only truth!  God purposed it in eternity for those He chose, and Christ accomplished it in time, satisfying God’s law and justice in His obedience unto death.  Christ’s death demands the life of every one for whom He died, and therefore, in time the Spirit will cause every redeemed and justified sinner to hear the TRUE REPORT of salvation by His righteousness imputed alone, and believe it, being delivered from every other false report or hope to that point.  Sinner!  Have you heard, believed and submitted to the TRUE REPORT?   Read Isaiah. 53!               K. WIMER

 

REDEMPTION

 

T

he means by which redemption is wrought out by Christ; and that is by His blood, His life, to which it is often ascribed (Eph. 1:7; I Pet. 1:18, 19; Rev. 5:9), this was shed, and shed freely, for the remission of sins, and for the redemption of men.  Had it been shed involuntarily, by accident, or by force, against His will, it would not have been a proper redemption price, or have answered such an end; but it was purposely and voluntarily shed, and with full consent.  Christ, as He had the full disposal of His own life, freely gave His life a ransom price for many; “I lay down my life for the sheep”, says He, as a ransom price for them; “I lay it down of myself” (Matt. 20:28; John 10:15, 18), and the blood that was thus freely shed was the same with that of those for whom it was shed, which was necessary- not the blood of bulls and goats, which could not be an adequate price of redemption, but human blood. Christ partook of the same flesh and blood with the children for whom He died; only with this difference, it was not tainted with sin as theirs is; which is another requisite of the ransom price. It must be the blood of an innocent person, as Christ was.   Much notice is taken in scripture of the innocence, holiness, and righteousness of the Redeemer; that He was holy in His nature, blameless in life, knew no sin, nor ever committed any; that He, the just and Holy One, suffered for the unjust. A great emphases is put upon this, that the price with which men are redeemed is “the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot” (I Pet. 1:18,19), for if He had had any sin in Him, He could not have been a redeemer from sin, nor His blood the price of redemption.                                                                                                   JOHN GILL