SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE
March 5, 2006
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 134 (David)
Call to Worship: ‘Praise to God on High’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: II Kings 2 (Mike)
Hymn: #228 – ‘My Faith Has Found a Resting Place’
Message: Brother Jim Pennywell
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 –‘Rock of Ages’ #126)
Words by Henry Francis Lyte, 1834 Based on Psalm 134
|
P |
RAISE to God on high be given,
Praise from all in earth and heaven,
Ye that in His presence stand,
Ye that walk by His command,
Saints below, and hosts above,
Praise, oh praise, the God of love!
Praise Him at the dawn of light,
Praise Him at returning night;
Strings and voices, hands and hearts,
In His praises bear your parts;
Thou that madest earth and sky,
Bless us in return from high!
UNCONDITIONAL REDEMPTION
|
T |
HE notion that the death of Christ is conditionally sufficient for all mankind, that is, if all mankind were to believe in it, leads the sinner at once to the performance of some duty which he imagines will give efficacy to the death of Christ, and render it available to him. By this means he is led to draw comfort from his duties, instead of the finished salvation of Christ. This error is the fruitful cause of the disquieting fears and legal bondage of many professors. They are constantly in fear lest they have not performed the requisite condition, and, after much toiling, their uneasy spirits are as far from rest as ever and again they utter the old complaint, “What lack I yet?” They have no notion that the work of Christ alone, made manifest to the heart by the Holy Spirit, is sufficient to give joy unspeakable, without the performance of some duty on their part; and therefore they are in constant perplexity lest this important duty should not have been performed.
WILLIAM RUSHTON, 1831
THE GLORY AND POWER OF THE CROSS
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14
|
W |
hen the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, the apostle Paul was not yet a believer. He was rather a religious zealot, resting on his laurels as a morally upright man, blameless as far as his understanding of the Law was concerned. But then, when it pleased God to reveal Christ in him (Galatians 1:16), he renounced in his own obedience to the law as dung, and submitted to the ONLY obedience that God has ever acknowledged and owned, that of His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 10:3,4.
No wonder the apostle exclaimed, ‘God forbid that I should glory, SAVE IN THE CROSS of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Even though when Christ laid down His life, Paul did not yet know him, yet He was known of Christ, and his sin was put away, Gal. 4:4-9. Even though for awhile, Paul proudly strutted around in a robe of righteousness of his own making, when it pleased God to reveal Christ in him, he gladly renounced that robe and received that which had already been imputed to His account in the death of God’s Son. Although Paul had lived in opposition to any world other than that of works religion, conditioned on man’s doing and fulfilling, yet in conversion, suddenly that very world turned against him, but seeing the cross of the Lord Jesus as His only justification before God, he considered the world as crucified to him and him to the world, having Christ as ALL. So it is with any in whom the Spirit has truly revealed Christ and Him crucified! He and His cross are EVERYTHING in redemption, justification, sanctification, adoption and final glorification, I Cor. 1:30. KEN WIMER
CHRIST’S DEATH AND OUR PART IN IT
|
I |
n Romans 6, Paul’s subject is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and our part in that death. Christ died, for He was obedient unto death. Now, what part did we have in His death? You say, ‘Well, I wasn’t even born yet!’ I must tell you, though, that if you didn’t have any part in His death then you will never be born again. What part did we (His chosen ones) have in that death? He died FOR us, His sheep. He said, ‘I lay down my life for the sheep,’ (John 10:15). He’s the Representative. He’s the Substitute. We did all the sinning, HE did all the saving. Even though we weren’t born yet, we sinned in Adam, and being born physically, we come forth from the womb speaking lies, totally depraved, alienated from God in our minds and hearts, being sinners in ourselves. And yet, Christ died for those sins. We were one with Him in the view of God’s law and justice. When He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. When He arose again, we arose again. Our sins were put away. The sins that we had not yet even committed were all put away there at the cross of Calvary. Do you believe that? I do! They were put away, right there, positionally and legally in the view of God’s law and justice, and we were then and there given His righteousness in return. BILL PARKER, Ashland, KY
NOT ONLY SAVED BUT GLORIFIED!
|
N |
OW there is one thing I would notice in being saved from sin; and this part of salvation which I have in view, I have sometimes illustrated by this simple figure. Suppose a vagabond should have robbed and plundered every one he came near, and at last should be taken up, be tried, cast, and condemned; and that after this the queen should pardon him, and he be sent out of prison. Would not all the neighbors be alarmed at the man, at such a vile fellow being set free, and say, “It is a pity such a vagabond should be let loose on society?” The man’s character is gone; and though the queen has pardoned him, yet no one would like to employ him or have any thing to do with him. But if the queen could really prove him to be innocent, and should take him openly and manifestly into her family, why the man would not then merely be pardoned, but there would be a dignity stamped upon him! An act of this kind would appear something like salvation, would it not?
Now our Jesus saves in this way. He not only saved his people from sin, and the awful consequences of it, but he raises them up to dignity and glory. They are saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation, and they have an everlasting robe of righteousness imputed to them, in which they are glorified for ever- “he raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him among princes, even with the princes of his people.” And thus he brings them into a blessed enjoyment of his immortal salvation. Jesus is not only the Savior of his church, but he is made such a glorious Savior to them that he is Jesus the anointed; a tender-hearted, a pitying and compassionate Friend; capable in the sympathy of his nature of coming into the sorrows, pains, trials, conflicts, and miseries of his people.
WILLIAM GADSBY