SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE - SCRIPTURE ALONE - GRACE ALONE
April 6, 2008
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 93 (Mike)
Call to Worship: ‘Christ Bears The Name of All His Saints’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: 1 Thessalonians 1 (David)
Hymn: # 126- ‘Rock of Ages’
Message: Brother Layne Denton preaching
Hymn: # 352- ‘Jesus, Lover of My Soul’
WEDNESDAY
7:00 PM - Mid-week meeting
Nursery care available during all services; for ages 4 and younger.
Ken Wimer, Pastor- ( (318) 687-4943
E-mail: pastor@shrevegrace.org
Web Site: http://www.shrevegrace.org
Audio Messages Available On-Line; Updated weekly
Radio Broadcast: 9:00 AM (CST) Sunday on KWKH;
AM Radio 1130, Shreveport, LA area or LIVE streaming at http://www.kwkhonline.com/common/gap_streamer.php
Call to Worship
(Tune: #10- ‘O God, Our Help’)
1 – Christ bears the name of all His saints
Deep on His heart engraved;
Attentive to the state and wants
Of all His love has saved.
2 – In Him a holiness complete,
Light, and perfection shine;
And wisdom, grace, and glory meet;
A Savior all divine.
3 – The blood, which, as a priest, He bears
For sinners, is His own;
The incense of His prayers and tears
Perfumes the holy throne.
4 – In Him my weary soul has rest,
Though I am weak and vile;
I read my name upon His breast,
And see the Father’s smile.
SINNERS DEAD IN SIN
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o man ever did, ever will, nor ever can see Jesus really and truly as He is, and enjoy His preciousness, but those who are brought to see and feel their need of Him. Sinners, naturally dead in sin, must be made spiritually alive before they can see Jesus. A sinner in a state of nature is in a state of darkness. Darkness covers the great deep of his heart; and gross darkness the minds of the people. “Once ye were darkness,” says the Apostle, ‘but now are ye light in the Lord.” While a man or woman remains dead in sin, in a state of darkness and alienation from God, though he or she may be a vessel of mercy, and may have a personal interest in the salvation of Jesus, yet they never can see the Person of Christ, nor the glory of Christ, till divine life and light is communicated. The Lord Jesus Christ is to them while in this state, as the Prophet Isaiah describes, ‘a root out of a dry ground: without form or comeliness;’ and when He is seen, there is not beauty in Him that He should be desired,’ Isaiah 53:2. JOHN KERSHAW
THE SIMPLICITY OF ONE
“For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous,”
Romans 5:19
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n light of so many interpretations regarding the death of the Lord Jesus, do you find yourself wondering, why do some make it so confusing? Can’t we just get back to the simplicity of Christ?
Is there anything confusing about ONE? It only gets confusing when some endeavor to teach and preach views, perspectives, and interpretations other than the exclusiveness and necessity of the cross of the Lord Jesus and what He accomplished there for sinners. The apostle Paul declared, ‘I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,’ I Corinthians 2:2.
There is but obedience by which the many elect have been made righteous, Romans 5:19. There is but one sacrifice by which God has forever put away the sins of His children, and by that one sacrifice, fully, freely and finally declared them just before Him. Christ, ‘after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God,’ Hebrews 10:12.
There may be different perspectives of viewing the cross of our Lord Jesus, but there is just ONE cross, whether viewed from eternity, or viewed by faith. Even so there is but ONE election, ONE redemption, ONE justification, and ONE faith. Rather than speak of multiple justifications (in eternity, and again at the cross, and again at faith, and through works) the simplicity of the Gospel is ONE justification ordained from eternity, accomplished at Calvary, revealed by faith, and evidenced by works, but nonetheless, ONE justification. Even so there must be a ONCE for all imputation of righteousness, when ONCE it was established by Christ, and ONCE for all accepted of God the Father upon completion of Christ’s work of substitution at the cross, Daniel 9:24. It is intrinsically tied to the redemption that He accomplished through His shed blood (Romans 3:24). It was by that ONE blood shed that the Scriptures declare sinners to ‘have been’ justified by God’s grace, and all by THE REDEMPTION that is in Christ Jesus.
There is but one Lord, one faith, and one baptism (immersion), Ephesians 4:5. How then we must ever be taught by the Spirit of God to look to Christ and His finished work alone as our ONE hope of glory. ‘I do not frustrate (confuse) the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain,’ Galatians 2:21. KEN WIMER
CHRIST’S DEATH- AN ACCOMPLISHMENT
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hrist’s death is an accomplishment because His death ALONE, which includes His holy life of obedience to God’s law, His suffering unto death at Calvary, and His resurrection as His peoples’ representative, is the only thing that allows God’s law to pronounce sinners righteous and holy and give them the LEGAL BLESSINGS the law requires. The law of God can command obedience and can pronounce a blessing of life on PERFECT OBEDIENCE, but it cannot give a sinner the ability to keep the law or satisfy the demands of it. By His accomplished death, Christ satisfied both the penalty of sin ETERNAL DEATH) and its precept PERFECT OBEDIENCE)-“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”(Heb.10:10) The Lord Jesus Christ so perfectly satisfied God’s law and justice on behalf of all those He represented that the same law which could only pronounce a curse of eternal condemnation and death, can now only declare those for whom He died PERFECTLY HOLY and FULLY ENTITLED to enter into the holiest of all-“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”(Heb.10:17-19) If you are enabled to rest on Christ ALONE as the “Lord your Righteousness”, it gives evidence that Christ redeemed you at the cross and His death actually accomplished all the Triune God intended-“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My Righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.”(Isa.53:11) Is this your Savior dear sinner? I hope He is!
RICHARD WARMACK
NO CONTRADICTION
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here is no contradiction, whether real or seeming, between these two assertions: (1) that the blessings of grace and glory are peculiar to those whom God hath, in His decree of predestination, set apart for Himself, and (2) that the Gospel declaration runs, that whosoever willeth may take of the water of life freely (Revelation 22:17). Since, in the first place, none can will, or unfeignedly and spiritually desire, a part in these privileges but those whom God previously makes willing and desirous; and, secondly, that He gives this will to, and excites this desire in, none but His own elect.
JEROME ZANCHIUS