SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

May 7, 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 –‘Just As I Am’   #249)

Words by Anne Steele, 1760 - Based on Psalm 143

EAR, O my God, with pity hear,

My humble supplicating moan;

In mercy answer all my prayer,

And make Thy truth and goodness known.

And oh! Let mercy still be nigh;

Should awful justice frown severe;

Before the terrors of Thine eye,

What trembling mortal can appear!

I call to mind the former days;

Thy ancient works declare Thy name,

Thy truth, Thy goodness, and Thy grace;

And these, O Lord, are still the same.

Come, Lord, on wings of mercy fly,

My spirit falls at Thy delay;

Hide not Thy face; I faint, I die,

Without Thy blissful healing ray.

Teach me to do Thy sacred will;

Thou art my God, my hope, my stay;

Let Thy good Spirit lead me still,

And point the safe, the upright way.

Thy name, Thy righteousness I plead,

O Lord, revive my drooping heart;

Let these distressing fears recede,

And bid my troubles all depart.

THREE INDISPUTABLE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE GOSPEL

1. That Christ, in being made sin, as God’s sacrificial Lamb, remained sinless in every respect in his human nature- 2 Corinthians 5:21  “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.”  He took our sin by IMPUTATION, but not our depravity.

2. That Christ in His obedience unto death, established righteousness, and put away the sin of His people so fully that God the Father then and there approved it and in one simultaneous act declared legally justified from all guilt every sinner that Christ redeemed.  Their sin was discharged to His account, and His righteous obedience charged to theirs- Romans 3:24 “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”

3, That faith is the gift of God, which by His Spirit is revealed in His time in every redeemed and justified sinner, and causes them to know their own hopelessness apart from Christ and His finished work at Calvary, and to look away from themselves, through the Gospel, to the ONE righteousness of God established, approved, and imputed in Christ’s death.  Righteousness is not said to be established, appropriated, or imparted at regeneration, but REVEALED- Romans 1:17  “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith : as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”           

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    KEN WIMER

JESUS SAVES – OR DOES HE?

HE slogan “Jesus Saves” is an assault made upon the glory of Christ’s finished salvation.  To any who may not have noticed the basic subtlety of the slogan, never once in the Scriptures is Jesus presented in the work of salvation in the present tense of the verb “save.”  Just as the word “salvation” never has an “s” following it; neither does “save”. Rather, His work is, after its accomplishment on the tree, always presented in the past tense as “saved.”  “Who hath saved us, and called us,.” 2 Timothy 1:9.

                Not only is this true, but it follows doctrinal consistency in the work of the Godhead in our salvation.  It was the Father who hath “chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.” Ephesians 1:4. It was in Christ, the Son of God, that the Father “reconciled us by the death of His Son;” and “being reconciled we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:10  It was about two thousand years ago when God reconciled (past tense) us by the death of His Son, thus saving us by answering the full legal requirements of the holy law of God, and saving us then from the penalty and “curse of the law.”  Today, it is the Holy Spirit who calls us “with a holy calling” and that, not according to our own works, or cooperation, but according to God’s own purpose and grace which the Father gave us in Christ before He created the world.  Thus, the true and precise doctrine is “Jesus SAVED” (past tense).

In this writer’s escape from mystery Babylon’s freewill darkness, the experiential path was from Freewillism to Calvinism, and then to experience free grace.  In the Arminian (freewill) camp, the major there was: “Jesus saves,” – if you let Him, of course.  In Calvinism, there was but little difference.  There, too, we often heard such statements as:  “I was saved in 1956,” or “My husband isn’t saved.”  Often they also button-hole someone with: “Are you saved?” etc.  These statements, although extremely important, still imply that “Jesus now saves” – if you let Him.  They betray their misconception that salvation commences in effectual calling and regeneration.  This certainly is inconsistent with the doctrine of Christ, with the Gospel, and with experiential heart-religion.  Salvation COMMENCED WITH GOD and that BEFORE He created puny little man.  (See Romans 8:28-33 and Ephesians 1:3-12)  Effectual calling and regeneration, the gracious work of the Holy Spirit, is based upon and effectual through Christ’s redemptive work.                                           

                                                                                                                                                                             STAN PHILLIPS - Quitman, MS