SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

JUNE 18, 2006

OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORSHIP

SUNDAY

WEDNESDAY

7:00 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 Worship the King,’ # 1)

Words to Psalm 149 by H. F. Lyte, 1834

 praise ye the Lord

With heart and with voice;

His mrcies record,

And round Him rejoice.

Ye children of Zion

Your Savior adore!

And learn to rely on

His grace evermore.

Repose on His arm,

Ye sheep of His fold;

What terror can harm

With him to uphold?

His saints are His treasure,

Their peace will He seek,

And pour without measure

His gifts on the meek.

Go on in His might,

Ye men of the Lord:

His word be your light,

His promise your sword;

The King of salvation

Your foes will subdue,

And their degradation

Bring glory to you.

THE LORD DIRECTS ALL THINGS

n Jeremiah 10:23, we read:  “O Lord, I know that the way of man is NOT IN HIMSELF; IT IS NOT IN MAN that walketh to DIRECT HIS STEPS.”  Now, let us reason just a little on this text.  Jeremiah says he knows that it is “NOT in man that walketh to direct his own steps.”  Did Jeremiah tell the truth?  If he did, then every one who teaches that IT IS in man that walketh to direct his steps is teaching a falsehood.  Every doctrine that is based on the idea that man can direct his own steps is based upon a falsehood.

                The next thought then is if man does not and cannot direct his own steps, then by whom, are his steps directed?  Solomon answers that question by saying, “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but THE LORD DIRECTETH HIS STEPS,” (Proverbs 16:9).  We will add to this one more statement from Solomon. He says in Proverbs 20:24:  “Man’s goings are OF THE LORD; how can a man then understand his own way? 

                MAN’S GOINGS (in the plural, not just one step of his goings, but ALL OF THEM) are of THE LORD.   In all candor and all seriousness, dear brethren, are not these three last scriptures cited the truth?  If they are, then beyond shadow of doubt, the predestination of all things is the truth.  God does not just merely permit man to walk as he does, but He “directeth his steps.”  His “goings are of the Lord.”  Not one step has ever been taken by man on earth that God did not determine in His counsel to direct.  If He did not determine in His course to direct the steps prior to man’s going, just what man’s steps should be, then He determined something since then and was not of the same mind now that He was before. That is impossible because He is an unchangeable God with an immutable purpose, Hebrews 6:17!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    JONAS SIKES, 1932

FROM A CHILD THOU HAST KNOWN THE SCRIPTURES- 2 Tim.  3:15

ne of the greatest mistakes into which parents fall is that of supposing that the first two or three years of a child’s life are unimportant as regards his/her training.  The truth is that in the formation of character they are the most important of all.  It is proven that from the impressions made, the principles implanted, and the habits formed, during these years, the child’s character takes on its complexion.

                The word ‘child’ used by Paul in speaking of Timothy’s upbringing is that of a babe in arms.  His mother and grandmother were instrumental in teaching him the Scriptures during these most impressive years, 2 Tim. 1:5.  And yet, it wasn’t just for moral correctness, discerning right and wrong, but as the means that God so pleasing, might make him WISE UNTO SALVATION, 2 Timothy 3:15.  As the next verse clearly states, ‘All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…for instruction in righteousness.”  Righteousness is best defined as the justice of God whether in the salvation or condemnation of sinners.  One of the most important lessons we can teach our children from Scripture then is that they need something more than good morals.  They need the very righteousness of God satisfied on their behalf. This, the Lord Jesus Christ came and established, and the Father imputed to the account of sinners for whom He died, Heb. 7:27. 

                If we raise our children simply to be moral, and not to see their lostness before a holy God, they will die righteously condemned in their morality.  But if by God’s grace, through the Scriptures, by the Spirit, they are brought to see that their own righteousness is but filthy rags, and that as needy sinners they cry out to God for mercy, and are made to submit to the justifying righteousness of God imputed at the cross, they will have the peace and rest of knowing the only righteousness of God wherein sinners have been made accepted in the Beloved.  To that end we teach them, ever looking to God our Father to reveal Christ in them by His Spirit.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 KEN WIMER

HE CAME NOT TO ABOLISH BUT FULFILL THE LAW

                                    “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill,” Matthew 5:17

hen Christ says He came to fulfill the law and the prophets He is saying that He would bring an end to the Old Covenant requirements by satisfying them – by fulfilling the law and the prophets.  Now let’s consider what this encompasses.  Well, for one He was the fulfillment of that which the prophets had foretold concerning His coming, who He was as both God and man, and what He would accomplish in His perfect, sinless obedience, all the way to His death on the cross.  So He fulfilled what they, the prophets, taught concerning Him and what the Mosaic law itself (particularly all the ceremonial aspects) – taught in types and pictures concerning Him. 

He also literally fulfilled the law by perfectly obeying it, not only the letter of the law, but the spirit of it.  His heart and motives were pure as well.  He complied completely with all of the revealed will of God.  Now today, we know that we are no longer bound by the law as it was given to Moses, for Christ did make an end of that by satisfying it – by fulfilling it.  We saw in our study of the rest of chapter 5 that Christ reveals the extent to which we too must comply with God’s revealed will if we are to meet God’s holy requirement for entrance into heaven by our own obedience or by our own efforts.  Just how far must our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees?  Well, Christ sums that up – what is required to fulfill the law – the righteousness needed before God, in the last verse of this chapter when He says in vs. 48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

So where does that leave us?  The price of admission into the kingdom of heaven is far beyond anything we are able to pay.  It took the doing and the dying of a God-man to meet this requirement.  We need a righteousness that we cannot produce.  Only that which Christ alone accomplished will suffice.  Christ alone is able and did produce the one righteousness that exceeds – for He alone was perfect.                 

                                                RANDY WAGES, Albany, GA