SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE - SCRIPTURE ALONE - GRACE ALONE
May 18, 2008
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 99 (Mike)
Call to Worship: ‘We Bless the Prophet of the Lord’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: 2 Thessalonians 2 (David)
Hymn: # 37- ‘How Great Thou Art!
Message: THE BRANCH OF THE LORD- Isaiah 4:2-6
Hymn: # 152- ‘Lo! He Comes, with Clouds Descending’
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 – We bless the Prophet of the Lord,
That comes with truth and grace;
Jesus, the Spirit and thy word
Shall lead me in thy ways.
2 – We reverence our High Priest above,
Who offered up His blood,
And lives to carry on His love,
By pleading with our God.
3 – We honor our exalted King;
How sweet are His commands!
He guards our soul from hell and sin
By His almighty hands.
4- Hosanna to His glorious name,
Who saves His own always!
His mercies lay a sovereign claim
To His eternal praise.
AN EVERLASTING LOVE
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f God's love to His people was an everlasting love as it respects eternity past, it must needs be a free love, in that it was fixed upon His chosen in Christ before they had done good or evil—yes, even before in God's eternal mind they were beheld as having any goodness in them, for there could be no goodness in any creature but what God resolved to give it from Himself—the infinite ocean of goodness. And His resolving to bestow goodness, special goodness, or special grace, upon one creature and not another, was from His sovereign love to one creature—when He passed by, or did not so love another, according to the good pleasure of His will; not because God's people were better than others, did the Lord set His love upon them and choose them, but because the Lord loved them. He loved them because He would love them, because He would be gracious unto whom He would be gracious, and show mercy on whom He would show mercy.
Oh, how silent would all flesh be before infinite Sovereignty, and how should they adore sovereign free love that are the happy objects of it!
Excerpt from the letters of Ann Dutton (1692 - 1765)
A JUST MAN AND PERFECT IN HIS GENERATION
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation…” Genesis 6:8, 9
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his is not a title that any of the Lord’s people will easily take to themselves, knowing the sinfulness of their own hearts. And yet, it is a title that the inspired word does attribute to sinners like Noah, Lot, (2 Peter 2:7), Job (Job 1:1), and others of the Old Testament, so it is important for us to understand, especially since Christ had not yet come and put away their sin. How then could these be called just? Here are a few answers.
1. The word ‘just’ is the word ‘righteous’ and has to do with one’s standing with regard to the law, or in accord with what it required. What God required was a blood sacrifice, and they came exactly as required. The word ‘perfect’ may also be translated ‘upright,’ or what is completely or entirely in accord with the truth. The truth is, ‘Without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, Hebrews 9:22.
2. They were just then in the manner that they approached unto God by His grace. Notice the order with Noah. He first found grace and then was said to be just and perfect. God required that they bring an animal sacrifice as a type and picture of the death that Christ would come and accomplish for them, and in this they did ALL that the law required of them as to how they should approach unto Him, through a blood sacrifice alone. This was not of themselves, but drawn by the Spirit.
3. They were called perfect (upright) in that they did not waiver from the truth, or seek to come to God in any other way than through the shed blood of innocent animals, Romans 3:20. The blood of bulls and goats could not put away their sin, but the faith accounted to them looked to the work of Christ alone, and they rested in the promise of God and were thereby distinguished in their generation by their way of worship. It was said therefore of Abel that he ‘obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts (blood offerings), Hebrews 11:4. Righteous how? Without sin? No! But as taught of God He was submitted entirely to what God required with regard to the blood sacrifices, a type of Christ’s death, Romans 10:3.
Habakkuk 2:4 states, ‘the just shall live by faith.’ Notice that it is in contrast to those whose soul is lifted up, who like Cain seek to come by the works of their own hands, By God’s grace, the just in the Old Testament were taught by the Spirit, and so called because they did not go about to establish their own righteousness, but through faith revealed looked to the work of the Lord Jesus alone that He would come and accomplish for them as ALL their righteousness. KEN WIMER
THE DEATH CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED
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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 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)
RICHARD WARMACK- Ruston, LA