SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH

2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118

CHRIST ALONE-SCRIPTURE ALONE-GRACE ALONE

 SEPTEMBER 9, 2007 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORSHIP 

SUNDAY 

Wednesday

7:00 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.

RADIO BROADCASTS: 9:00 AM (CST) Sunday on KWKH, 1130 AM, Shreveport, LA or live streaming at http://www.am1130thefan.com/pages/listen_live.html  

CALL TO WORSHIP 

(Tune: “O God Our Help” #10)

he head that once was crowned with thorns

Is crowned with glory now;

A royal diadem adorns

The mighty victor’s brow.

The highest place that heav’n affords

Is His by sovereign right;

The King of kings and Lord of lords

Is heav’n’s eternal light.

The joy of all who dwell above,
The joy of all below,

To whom He manifests His love,

And grants His name to know.

Amid the splendors of His throne

Unchanging love appears;

The names He purchased for His own

Still on His heart He bears.

PERFECT IN CHRIST JESUS

 "If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." --Galatians 5:18

He who looks at his own character and position from a legal point of view, will not only despair when he comes to the end of his reckoning, but if he be a wise man he will despair at the beginning; for if we are to be judged on the footing of the law, there shall no flesh living be justified. How blessed to know that we dwell in the domains of grace and not of law! When thinking of my state before God the question is not, "Am I perfect in myself before the law?" but, "Am I perfect in Christ Jesus?" That is a very different matter. We need not enquire, "Am I without sin naturally?" but, "Have I been washed in the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness?" It is not "Am I in myself well pleasing to God?" but it is "Am I accepted in the Beloved?"

SELECTED

OUR SAVIOR JUSTIFIED!

“He is near that justifieth me,” Isaiah 50:8

When wicked and evil men condemned Christ to die, there was no one who stood with him.  Even his own disciples were scattered from Him.  Yet, with confidence He could say, “He is near that justifieth me.”  Our Lord Jesus did not open His mouth to defend Himself, but He willingly and patiently submitted Himself to God the Father to justify Him through His sacrificial death for His own, 1 Peter 2:23. Peter declared that although they had by wicked hands taken and crucified Him, yet it was ALL by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, Acts. 2:23. Therefore, all the while the Lord Jesus suffered and cried, ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me,” yet His confidence was, “He is near that justifieth me!” 

How was God the Father near to justify His Son in His suffering and death?  It is the Father who sent Him into the world.  It was the Father who purposed to save a great number of sinners by a just payment for their sin.  It was the Father who raised Christ from the dead, having done ALL that was required for Him to be just and justify.  By His death, the Son satisfied every just demand of the Father. He laid down His life willingly and sacrificially in the place of those sinners the Father gave Him to save. He accepted to be their Substitute and satisfy God’s law and justice on their behalf. 

There is no other way that God has ever granted pardon to sinners and declared them righteous, except through the death and imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus there at the cross.  God must grant us repentance of thinking it in any other way. If Christ was justified as the effectual Substitute, having finished the work and being raised from the dead, it must be that His people were justified in Him as well, and therefore can by the Spirit of God say, “He is near that justifieth me,”  Romans 8:33,34   

                                 KEN WIMER

A REDEEMED PEOPLE LED FORTH

Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.

Exodus 15:13

NOT OF US

“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us,” . 2 Co. 4:6, 7.

The work of the Spirit of God, by the mercies of God is to call His elect sinners out of darkness into the marvelous light of the knowledge of Christ, 2 Corinthians 4:4.  So why would we preach anything else but Christ and Him crucified? Christ is the light.  We preach that the Spirit of God reveals Christ to the heart through the Gospel and is the only truth there is.  Therefore, this light that God gives to believers is our great treasure, 2 Cor. 4:7.  However, the excellence of the knowledge of Christ is of God and not of us.   It is this treasure, the light of the knowledge of Christ, that God puts within His elect that the power might be of God.

The power of God unto salvation is from the Lord Jesus Christ.  It’s not of any part of us, and so we preach NOT OURSELVES.  There’s nothing good in us.  Our Lord said that we cannot add one cubit to our stature.  MUCH LESS can we do anything about our spiritual condition, about spiritual light, about seeing the truth, understanding the truth, or having a knowledge of it in ourselves.  We cannot do it.  It is all by the mercies of God, and OF CHRIST.                                      JIM PENNYWELL, Shreveport, LA

CHURCH DIVISIONS

Better a holy discord than a profane concord

T. ADAMS 

NOTES

·         CLEANING SCHEDULE:  9/9-9/13

·         NURSERY: Elizabeth Strange

·         BIRTHDAYS: Dylan Cassel-9/8; Mathieu Kobou-9/23; John Pennywell-9/24; Jan Fegley-9/26.

·         RETURN HOME: Brother Ken and Layne are returning today, the Lord willing, from their trip to Malawi and India, scheduled to arrive at 5:45 PM.

·         BIBLE CONFERENCE- Providence Church, Powell, TN- October 5-7.  For more information, please contact Brother David Simpson- (865) 705-7471 or 865-705-3939.  Plan now to attend!