SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE - SCRIPTURE ALONE - GRACE ALONE
April 20, 2008
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 95 (Mike)
Call to Worship: ‘Lord, When I Count Thy Mercies O’er’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: 1 Thessalonians 3 (David)
Hymn: # 48 - ‘His Matchless Worth’
Message: THE FEAR OF THE LORD - Isaiah 2:6-22
Hymn: # 16 - ‘The Lord is King’
Hymn: #- 468 - ‘I Will Sing the Wondrous Story’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Job 13 (Jim Pennywell)
Hymn: # 495 - ‘The Unsearchable Riches of Christ’
Message: GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE - Deuteronomy 5:22-33
Hymn: # 235 - ‘Pass Me Not’
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: #236- ‘Amazing Grace’)
1 - Lord, when I count Thy mercies o’er,
They strike me with surprise:
Not all the sands that spread the shore
To equal numbers rise.
2 - My flesh with fear and wonder stands,
The product of Thy skill:
And hourly blessings from Thy hands
Thy thoughts of love reveal.
3 - These on my heart by night I keep;
How kind, how dear to me!
Oh may the hour that ends my sleep
Still find my thoughts with Thee!
Chosen Of God
Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. Matt. 12:18
O, how we love to rejoice in the truth of Christ choosing out a people from before the foundation of the world. We have no hope outside of the merciful, gracious work of The Lord Jesus Christ. We are comforted in the knowledge that HE alone has completed the whole of our justification before God in the shedding of His blood at the cross on our behalf. As we were not alive in time when sin passed on all men; so also, we were not alive in time when justification unto righteousness passed on all for whom The Lord finished the work of redemption, in that amazing sacrifice of Himself at the cross. Romans 5:14-21
May we consider for a moment The Chosen One of God in light of this, His blessed work. As Pilate declared “Behold The Man,” Hebrews 12:3 tells us - “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” We cannot fathom or plumb the depths to which our Lord sank down to accomplish this amazing work. Psalms 42 & 88 It is right to marvel at HIS work; however it is more needful that we marvel of HIM; “Consider Him”, The Chosen of God.
Layne Denton
One Released At The Feast
“(For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)” Luke 23:17
Pilate sought many ways to be rid of the Lord Jesus without having to put Him to death. Clearly, He valued his own position before men more than the truth, and therefore delivered Him to the people in the place of a transgressor named Barabbas. As unjust as that might appear, we know that the Lord ordained every detail, Acts 2:23. Through it we see how the Lord Jesus was delivered up to satisfy His Father’s justice on behalf of sinners every bit as guilty as Barabbas. Here are some thoughts to consider.
1. The Scripture says, ‘OF NECESSITY he must release one at the feast.’ Every year at the Passover, it was customary for the Roman governor to release one of their own to them, in order to appease the people and make them more favorable to the Roman rule. In a greater and more vital way, the ideas of NECESSITY and ‘appeasement’ are certainly true of the reason our Lord Jesus had to be delivered up. It was necessary that God might justly put away the sin of His chosen people, according to His eternal election of grace. Forgiveness of sin could only be granted by a just satisfaction of the Law’s demands.
2. Of significance also is the fact that it occurred at THE FEAST. This was none other than the Feast of the Passover. It was established as a type of the death that the Lord Jesus should die as THE LAMB of God. Being God’s Lamb, to whom all of the Old Testament sacrificial lambs pointed, there could not be any sin in him. Pilate certainly found no just reason to put our Lord to death, nor did Herod (Luke 23:14, 15). And yet, God the Father had reason not to spare His own Son, and to deliver Him up, laying the sin of His elect ON Him, thereby charging Christ with their sin. Upon full payment through His death, He (God the Father) justified those for whom Christ died, having charged them simultaneously with IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS. Just as there was no sin in our Lord, but sin was laid ON Him, so there is no righteousness in us, but if Christ died in our place, HIS righteousness was put to our account when He finished His cross work, 2 Corinthians 5:21.
3. What then is the consequence of a just substitution? Barabbas was released from all guiltiness. He may have been near enough to hear their cries of ‘Crucify him, crucify him,’ perhaps thinking them for him, but the moment that our Lord was legally exchanged for him, he was judicially free, even though his personal deliverance did not come until they unbound him. So it is with us. If Christ died for us, we were immediately discharged of all sin and guilt at that time, Colossians 2:14, 15. By God’s Spirit and Word, in regeneration, we were made to know it, see it, and believe it, and delivered from our rebellion and unbelief, but our salvation was accomplished WHEN Christ died! Glory to His Name! Ken Wimer
The Place Of Justification
Some place justification to be only in the conscience. But we place it only in Christ where it is, and to Whom it belongs. Justification consists in taking away of sin. None but Christ can do that. Justification and acceptation are one. For without justification there is no acceptation. And seeing we are accepted in Christ, we are justified in Him. If our justification be a spiritual blessing, (as it is) then it is in Christ where all spiritual blessings are, "Blessed be God, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ," Eph. 1:3. Where our redemption and righteousness are, there is our justification. Righteousness and justification are one. This we have not in our selves but in Christ, "who is made unto us of God, wisdom and righteousness," 1 Cor. 1:30. "In whom we have redemption," Col. 1:14. Our justification is a part of our completeness. Therefore, where we are complete there we are justified. But we are not complete in our selves, but in Him Col. 2:10. If all things on which depends our happiness were accomplished, John 19:28, then was our justification also. For without that no man could be saved. Samuel Richardson (1647)
Paul never forgot the glory in which the Son of God appeared to him. He viewed this glory in connection with the cross on which his sins had been expiated. In it he beheld the exceeding sinfulness of sin; in it, connected with Christ’s resurrection and ascension, he saw the proof of all his sins having been forgiven. He was now begotten again to a lively hope of an unfading inheritance, but he viewed the cross as the center from which every spiritual and heavenly blessing flowed, and it alone was henceforth the ground of his boasting. Here he saw justice fully satisfied. On the cross he had died with his glorious Lord and Master. He knew he must follow him to the dust of death, but he also knew that he should have fellowship with Him in his victory over the grave.