SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE
MARCH 25, 2007
SUNDAY
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: #293- ‘The Lord’s My Shepherd’)
My Shepherd will supply my need;
Jehovah is His name,
In pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream.
He brings my
wandering spirit back,
When I forsake His ways;
And leads me, for His mercy’s sake,
In paths of truth and grace.
When I walk through
the shades of death,
Thy presence is my stay;
A word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight
of all my foes,
Does still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows;
Thy oil anoints my head.
The sure provisions
of my God
Attend me all my days.
O may Thy house be my abode,
And all my words Thy praise.
There would I find
a settled rest,
While others go and come,
No more a stranger or a guest,
But like a child at home.
SOUND DOCTRINE
Every
conscientious minister should consider that any doctrine which gives
ALL glory to God
is true, and this is precisely what will edify a living soul. Any doctrine
that gives ANY
glory or credit to man is false, because
“to HIM belongs all the glory, honor, and
praise, now, and forever more.” Sound doctrine will establish a
church in the faith once delivered to the saints, but a church without sound
doctrine will rapidly drift into will-worship as soon as the living saints
in it die out or move on.
STANLEY C. PHILLIPS, Quitman, MS
THE OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Rom. 6:6
Those who interpret the ‘old man’ as our sin nature, have a difficult time explaining this verse, particularly in light of the fact that our sin nature is anything but dead. This is where careful Scripture interpretation is necessary, that we not be found confounding the Word of God and confusing our hearers.
The Apostle Paul’s use of the term ‘old man’ is with reference to the first Adam. There is no earthly, created human older than he, and he is the representative man of all his descendants. Under Adam, we were chained, and bound over to condemnation, helpless in the fall, and guilty of God’s law. Dead in trespasses and sins, without life, there is none that could perform even the least act of obedience to satisfy a holy God. How precious and merciful then is the work of the Lord Jesus, who willingly came as the last Adam, the elect sinners’ Representative for righteousness, even as the old man, Adam, was for their condemnation. Christ was made sin (made the sin offering) and by His sacrificial death destroyed the body of sin, bearing its judgment, and completely satisfying God’s law and justice with respect to those for whom He died.
It is in this sense only that it can be said that the body of sin is destroyed. It clearly has not been destroyed in us, because as long as we are in this flesh, even as sinners made alive by the Spirit of God, that sin nature has not, and cannot change- Romans 8:7,8. The body of sin (the legal condemnation of sin imputed in Adam to our account) has by Christ’s death been destroyed FOR us. It is destroyed in Him and by Him who died in our place, and we died with Him as our Representative. Therefore, the old man (what we were in Adam), and the body of sin (the legal condemnation by imputation), are destroyed, Christ having borne it away in His obedience unto death. Therefore, we no longer serve sin, nor are liable to its curse and condemnation, even though it is still very much in us, because we have been justified (freed) from its accusations and condemnations- Romans 6:7. This is the same truth taught in Ephesians 2:15- “having abolished in his flesh the enmity.’ The enmity is not said to be forgiven, nor changed, but ABOLISHED. How? In His flesh! By taking the place of His people, being made sin (bearing its judgment and condemnation), all of the elect were at once reconciled to God their sin having been put away, and God’s righteousness imputed to their spiritual and legal account then and there. What more could give God’s redeemed, justified and adopted children comfort and assurance. By faith revealed, we reckon it to be so, because God says it is so. KEN WIMER
TRUE HUMILITY
True
humility in its greatest demonstration was evidenced by the subordination of
God the Son in his offices to God the Father for the purpose of redemption.
When He “thought it not robbery to be
equal with God,” He willingly set aside the glory He had with his
Father, but He did not cease to be God. When He
“made himself of no reputation, and took on
him the form of a servant,” He took into union with His divine
person, true sinless humanity, body and soul as God-Man. When He
“humbled himself and became obedient unto
death,” He was made to be sin by imputation only, in order to
satisfy all the conditions for the sins of His people as God-Man Mediator.
When “He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross,” He became a curse to put away sin
for all those He represented, for it is written;”
cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.” And through all this
He remained holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners.” What humility!
The second demonstration of true humility is by that sinner who is submitted to Christ and His righteousness imputed as his only means of salvation and acceptance before God. He has seen that God would be just to condemn him based on his best efforts to serve God and that nothing short of Christ’s righteousness imputed could ever recommend him to God. He has seen that Christ’s righteousness imputed is his one and only means of standing complete before a holy God, and he is glad to stand there. “Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner” is his only plea.
WINSTON PANNELL, Albany, GA