SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

JANUARY 21, 2007

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: #10- ‘O, God Our Help in Ages Past’)

lory to God the Father’s name,

Who, from our sinful race,

Chose out a people to proclaim

The honors of His grace.

Glory to God the Son be paid

Who dwelt in humble clay,

And, to redeem us from the dead,

Gave His own life away.

Glory to God the Spirit give,

From whose Almighty power

Our souls their heavn’ly birth derive,

And bless the happy hour.

Glory to God that reigns above,

Th’Eternal Three-in-One,

Who, by the wonders of His love,

Has made his nature known.

A RANSOM FOR MANY

“The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many,”

Matthew 20:28

hen the Lord Jesus laid down His life for the world, did He do it for every single person in the world?  This is an important question because if He died for everyone without exception, and yet many still end up under God’s eternal condemnation, then that puts in question not only Christ’s power to save, but God’s justice, having sacrificed His Son, and then punishing those for whom He died.      No! When the Bible speaks of Christ being the Savior of the world, it means the Savior of men and women from every tribe, nation, and tongue.  He died for everyone without distinction of race, as in all sorts of sinners in the world, Revelation 5:9.  He gave His life for many, the many that God the Father chose from eternity and gave to Him, John 6:37, but not all without exception.  The Good News is that having laid down His life, God the Father is just in forgiving and justifying everyone for whom He died. All who believe on Christ for salvation do so because Christ died for them! His ransom paid it all!

KEN WIMER

SUBSTITUTION

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Romans 5:8, 9

omans 5:7 tells us that it is possible to find a person who is willing to sacrifice for a worthy person but not a savory rebel, or a worthless scoundrel. That is what Christ did!

God saw nothing worthy in those for whom Christ died. They provided nothing worthy of consideration. They deserved nothing but judgment! The only thing that could deliver them from the licking flames of an everlasting hell was mercy, based on the satisfaction of justice. That required a substitute. Substitution appears throughout the Old Testament scriptures. In the Garden, God substituted an animal for Adam and Eve, then covered them in its ‘skins’ (Gen 3:21). When Abraham was about to offer Isaac, God provided a ram in his ‘stead’ (Gen 22:13). And, substitution is clearly taught in Isaiah 53: ‘Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows…he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed’ (53:4-5). That is precisely how God saves any sinner- The substitution of Christ. The sum of how God is just to justify is this:

1. He provided the propitiation- Romans 3:21-26.

2. He established the law- Romans 3:27-31.

3. He freely justified & forgave- Romans 4:1-8.

4. He included Gentiles in the faith- Romans 4:9-25

5. He predestined fruit consistent with justification- Rom.  5:1-5.

6. He executed His will by substitution- Romans 5:6-8.

DAVID SIMPSON, Powell, TN

GOOD NEWS TO FALLEN SINNERS

esus Christ, to a fallen sinner, is the chief object of desire, but Jesus Christ, as crucified, is the chief piece of that object.  Humbled souls look after the remedy, and they find it chiefly in Christ crucified; and hence are so many cries, “after bathings in Christ’s blood, and hiding in Christ’s righteousness- active and passive.”  Indeed nothing doth so cool and refresh a parched, dry, and thirsty soul, as the blood of Jesus, which made the poor woman cry out so earnestly, “I have an husband and children, and many other comforst, but I would give them all, and all the good things that ever I shall see in this world, or in the world to come, to have my poor thirsty soul refreshed with that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.”                                                                                ISAAC AMBROSE

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION

he question is not have you received Christ as your personal Savior, but rather how Can God be Just and consistent with his character attribute of Justice, and not send a deserving sinner to hell?  Since the scripture says, “The soul that sinneth shall surely die,’ and we are all sinners, how then can God be just, follow His law, and not change (he is immutable and thus cannot change), and still save a hell deserving ungodly sinner? In short How can God be just and justify an ungodly sinner? 

The answer and the understanding of this question my friend holds the key to eternal life. So what then is truth?  If it honors God in every attribute of His character, if it exalts Christ, and if it excludes boasting in a sinner, then it is truth.  Our character and conduct has absolutely nothing to do with our salvation.  If we cheat and steal, we will go to jail.  If we commit adultery, we will suffer consequences such as sadness, divorce, money problems, etc, and if we drink too much, it will affect our health, wealth and business.  But none of these things will prevent us from salvation, and the abstaining from these things will not gain us any points either.  Salvation is not conditioned on what the sinner does, or refrains from doing, as salvation and exclusively the work of God.   Salvation is not conditioned on our faith as we would have something to boast about.  Faith is given to us from God, and is the means through which we lay hold of the truth of the imputed righteousness of God.  God has one requirement to get into heaven- A PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS.  But the Bible says “There is none righteous no not one.”  Since we aren’t righteous, we need His righteousness.  He imputed this to His sheep at Calvary.