SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE
JUNE 25, 2006
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 150 (David)
Call to Worship: ‘In God’s Own House Pronounce His Praise’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: 2 Kings 17 (Mike)
Hymn: # 176- Break Thou the Bread of Life
Message: REDEMPTION PURPOSED ‘FROM ETERNITY
Hymn: #110- ‘Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?
THE LORD’S TABLE
Hymn: #118- When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
WEDNESDAY
7:00 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: # 46- ‘O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing,’)
Words based on Psalm 150 by Isaac Watts, 1719
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n God’s house pronounce His praise,
His grace He there reveals;
To heav’n your joy and wonder raise,
For there His glory dwells.
Let all your sacred passions move
While you rehearse His deeds;
But the great work of saving love
Your highest praise exceeds.
All that have motion, life, and breath,
Proclaim your Maker bless’d;
Yet when my voice expires in death,
My soul shall praise Him best.
HOW PRECIOUS IS THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST TO YOU?
“…there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on His head,” Mark 14:3
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believe that the reason we remember what Mary did, is not the preciousness of the alabaster box, nor the value of her fragrant oil, but the body she anointed and because the Gospel is all about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Her name is remembered in association to the body of Christ which means His death. “She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, ‘Whosesoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her,” Mark 14:8, 9.
She broke the precious box and poured the precious oil on Christ’s head. Christ wasn’t dead yet, but by the grace of God she saw the preciousness, the tremendous worth of the Lord’s death, and what He was going to accomplish for her sins. When that became clear to her, nothing else mattered. In Philippians 3:8, when Paul saw Christ and understood that in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, He gave everything up for, as he says, ‘the excellency of Christ.’
Telling sinners that their only hope is Christ, telling them about what He accomplished in His death, and how His righteousness alone is their only acceptance before God, is the only good work any can do for Christ. Pointing sinners to Christ as their only hope is how we desire others to remember us. Not what man can do to honor God, but what the Lord Jesus did on behalf of sinners. MATHIEU KOBOU, Shreveport, LA
THE WORK OF REDEMPTION
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he work of redemption and the work of salvation are the same thing. What is sometimes in Scripture called God’s saving his people is in other places called his redeeming them. So Christ is called both the Savior and the Redeemer. Isaiah 49:26- “and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Savior and thy Redeemer the mighty one of Jacob.” [The word ‘Savior’ is yasha, from which is derived the name ‘Joshua’ in Hebrew, and ‘Jesus’ in Greek- Matthew 1:21. It means to ‘deliver,’ or ‘liberate.’ The word ‘Redeemer’ is ga’al which means ‘a near kinsman,’ Numbers 5:8. In both of these words together, we have the sum of the person and work of the Lord Jesus. To deliver His people, He had to be God, for none is able to deliver but God- ‘yasha’. And yet, His authority to do so was being made like unto His brethren- ‘ga’al.’ See Hebrews 2:14-18.
1. The term ‘redemption’ may be understood in a more limited sense, as in the purchase of salvation that Christ fully accomplished at the cross- Galatians 4:4, 5 When we take the word in this limited sense, we may say that the work was not so long in doing, but was BEGUN and FINISHED with Christ coming in the flesh (‘being made of a woman’) and on through his life until the time of His death, which ended in his resurrection. In this sense then, the purchase was finished, and the work itself, and all that pertained to it, was accomplished.
2. However, sometimes the work of redemption is taken more largely, as including ALL of God’s work, preparatory to the purchase itself, and subsequent to its accomplishments. For example, I Corinthians 1:30 puts ‘redemption’ in order after ‘wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification.’ The reason being, it is here referring to the final deliverance of the saints from the body of this flesh, in the resurrection at the end of time- Romans 8:23.
Clearly, the doctrine of Christ sets forth the work of redemption as ALL but ONE work with ONE design and purpose. The development of it in its various parts is not intended to imply separate works, but all one scheme. It is but one design that is formed, to which ALL the offices of Christ directly apply, and in which the Godhead (Father, Son, and Spirit) are in agreement. The several wheels are one machine, to answer one end, and produce one effect- the saving of sinners, by the full, free, and unmerited grace of God in Christ Jesus alone. All of the conditions for salvation were accomplished by HIM alone- He is both the Redeemer, and the Ransom, which together equal REDEMPTION full and free for His own.
KEN WIMER
THE ONLY LEGAL JUSTIFICATION OF SINNERS BY GOD
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he love and grace of God serve as the moving cause of delivering His chosen people. Having linked the particular election of God in eternity and the saving benefits of Christ on earth, (Eph. 1:3,4) Paul declares that it all is ‘according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace’ (Eph 1:5-6). While grace is the moving cause of our deliverance, the means of deliverance is what God did in Christ as the Sin-Bearer. To the Corinthians Paul wrote, ‘…we had the sentence of death in ourselves…but…God…delivered us from so great a death’ (2 Cor 1:9-10). By sentence He meant ‘pronounced judgment,’ which occurred when all men became regarded as sinners at the fall of Adam. This is legal condemnation. How did God deliver us from that legal sentence of death? He explained that later in the letter saying, ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him’ (2 Cor 5:21). This was a legal transfer. The sin of the elect was legally and justly transferred to Christ. His earned righteousness was legally and justly transferred to them. This legal transfer is the only justification before God that has ever existed. This is declared justification.
DAVID SIMPSON, Powell, TN
HE BORE ALL THE MANY SINS OF MANY
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he solemn words, “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many,” presents a solemn fact. That is, ‘the sins of many’ were all known to God and numbered in his omniscience so definitely that he imputed them every one to Christ, to bear them and put them away by the one whole and perfect offering of Himself. For unless every sin of the many whose sins Christ bore were known and determined, to the last and least sin, He could not have borne them when He was offered. And if only one sin of the many for whom the Lamb of God was offered was left out of God’s account and not imputed to the Surety of the better testament, then the ransom and redemption could not have been complete and perfect, therefore not accepted, and all must have been a failure. But the Omniscient One, who has numbered the very hairs of our heads, has not omitted the least or last sin of all whom He appointed to obtain salvation from their sins, by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. DAVID BARTLEY, 1900
NOTES