SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE - SCRIPTURE ALONE - GRACE ALONE
May 11, 2008
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 98 (Mike)
Call to Worship: ‘Jesus Is Our God and Savior’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: 2 Thessalonians 1 (David)
Hymn: # 330 - ‘Fill All My Vision’
Message: THE DAUGHTERS OF ZION- Isaiah 3:12-4:6
Hymn: # 226- ‘My Savior’
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: #49- ‘Our Great Savior’)
1 – Jesus is our God and Savior
Guide, and Counselor, and Friend
Bearing all our misbehavior
Kind and loving to the end.
Trust him, He will not deceive us,
Though we hardly of Him deem;
He will never, never leave us;
Nor will let us quite leave Him.
2 – Nothing but Thy blood, O Jesus!
Can relieve us from our smart;
Nothing else from guilt release us;
Nothing else can melt the heart.
Law and terrors do but harden,
All the while they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon
Soon dissolves a heart of stone.
3 – Teach us, by Thy gracious Spirit,
How to mourn and not despair;
Let us, leaning on Thy merit,
Wrestle hard with God in prayer.
Whatsoe’er afflictions seize us,
They shall profit, if not please;
But defend, defend us, Jesus,
From security and ease.
THE CHURCH’S ROCK
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esus makes earth hard, that you may long for heaven's holy rest. He shows you your self-vileness that you may prize His cleansing blood. He allows you to stumble that you may cleave more closely to His side. He makes the world a blank that you may seek all comfort in Himself. If He seems to change, it is that you may change. He hides His face that you may look towards Him. He is silent, that you may cry more loudly. His desertion prevents your desertion. He saves from real hell, by casting into seeming hell. But love fails not. All His dealings are love's everflowing, overflowing tide. On each the eye of faith can read, "I AM THAT I AM." Power goes hand in hand with love. They co-exist and co-endure. It was a mighty voice which said, "Be"—and all things were. It was a mighty hand which framed this so wondrous universe. It is a mighty arm which turns the wheel of providence. This power still is, and ever will be, what it always has been. No age enfeebles, and no use exhausts it. This is the Church's rock.
HENRY LAW
HOW CAN IT BE?
“…but how should man be just with God?” Job 9:2
Under the effectual work of the Spirit of God on the heart, an awakened sinner ponders, ‘What about my sins? Are they just passed over? Does God just look the other way? Is there no such thing as Divine Justice, which demands absolute satisfaction?’ Not only for our own consciences’ sake, but also for the glory of God, it is necessary that God not just pass by sins, but justly put them away, that He might be a JUST God and SAVIOR! The sin question must be settled! The law demands that our sins be punished, either in us, or by a Substitute. Here, dear friend is the glorious message of the Gospel of God’s redeeming, justifying grace in Christ.
Redemption means, ‘a buying back.’ The sentimental preaching of our day that has a god overlooking sin, and accepting something of the sinner, whether his faith, decision, or sincerity, as the basis of forgiveness, is totally foreign to the Scriptures, the character of God, and to the honor and glory of Christ. Redemption means deliverance through a ransom, and therefore we read in Romans 3:24- ‘Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ We are not justified when we believe any more than we were elected or redeemed when we believed. Justification is a Divine act of acquittal. It is the legal discharge of sin to Christ, and His righteous obedience to the sinner. It is ‘through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus’ and therefore is its immediate result. Justification and redemption (the ransom paid) go hand in hand. “For by one offering He hath PERFECTED forever them that are [have been and continue to be] sanctified,” Hebrews 10:14.
The Gospel declared aright tells repentant sinners that God has already been reconciled to them through the death of His Son- Romans 5:10. The command to repent is not in order for God to be reconciled, but rather because of a full, free reconciliation already accomplished by the blood of Christ. The sinner must be brought to be reconciled in his own mind and heart to that reconciliation worked out already by the Lord Jesus, otherwise, none can claim to be reconciled. It is the work of the Spirit to reveal to those sinners for whom Christ died the glorious, finished work of the Savior on their behalf, and in that they do rejoice!
When taught of the Spirit of God, redeemed, justified, reconciled sinners will never cease to wonder, ‘Why me?’ How can it be? It is only by the blood and righteousness of Christ, eternally purposed by God the Father, fully accomplished at Calvary and completely accepted by the Father there for them, and fully and finally revealed to the heart by the Spirit.
KEN WIMER
GOD’S FORBEARANCE AND REMISSION OF SINS
‘Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;’ Romans 3:25.
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od dealt with Abraham’s sin through forbearance. God did set forth for himself (Christ) as the bloody covering of the mercy seat, through THE FAITH (the body of truth revealed) that is in connection with His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness (at this time), for the passing over of sins that are past, in connection with the forbearance of God. There are two words in this text that declare God’s forbearance.
The two words forbearance and remission tell us God temporarily, put off bringing judgment upon the sin of the elect, even though it was a lengthy period. God judged their sin in Christ, whom God set forth to be a propitiation. He became the real sin bearer who satisfied the wrath and justice of God. Through forbearance and remission, as used here, God delayed the day of reckoning until the day of propitiation. God’s forbearance was unto the salvation of the elect. Moses described God as: merciful, gracious, longsuffering (Ex 34:6). Peter described salvation saying: the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation (2 Pet 3:15).
God only dealt with sin once. Sin was only borne away or remitted once. Law was only satisfied once. Justice could require but once. When is that once? “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb 9:28). Abraham, David, Isaiah, Paul and Peter had their sin put away once: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). This statement declares when, where, and how sin was borne away. Essential to God declaring righteousness was His discharge of sin. If you discover when God dealt with the sin of Abraham, you discover when He dealt with the justification of Abraham. DAVID SIMPSON- Providence Church, Powell, TN