SHREVEPORT GRACE CHURCH
2970 Baird Rd., Shreveport, LA 71118
CHRIST ALONE - SCRIPTURE ALONE - GRACE ALONE
May 25, 2008
SUNDAY
Scripture Reading/Prayer: Psalm 100
Call to Worship: ‘The Love of Christ is Rich and Free’
Scripture Reading/Prayer: 2 Thessalonians 3 (David)
Hymn: # 145- ‘Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus!
Message: God Will Provide Himself a Lamb- Genesis 22:1-14
Hymn: # 48- ‘His Matchless Worth’
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: ‘Doxology’)
1 – The love of Christ is rich and free;
Fixed on His own eternally;
Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
Long as He lives, His own He’ll love.
2 – His loving heart engaged to be
Their everlasting Surety;
‘Twas love that took their cause in hand,
And love maintains it to the end.
3 – Love cannot from its post withdraw;
Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
He’ll love His own to endless day.
4- Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
And love will bring them safe to God;
Love calls them all from death to life;
And love will finish all their strife.
5- He loves through every changing scene,
Nor aught can him from Zion wean;
Not all the wandering of her heart
Can make His love from her depart.
THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST’S SUBSTITUTON
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he doctrine I preach hinges upon the fullness of Christ’s substitution. Since man’s sin is before and against the Law of God, he must be acquitted before the same Law. By substitution, the penalty due the sinner was transferred from the spiritual and eternal account of the sinner to the account of the one who was not a sinner, namely Christ. We have no such provision is human courts and jurisprudence. However, substitution is God’s method of dealing with the sin of His chosen people. Forgiveness and justification occur together, simultaneously, outside the sinner; wherein the sinner is both declared without sin and declared righteous. Neither has to do with the way the sinner looks at God; both have to do with the way God looks at him. In short, the substitution of Christ was so full, so exhausting of all requirements and penalties, God would and could require no more. He declared forgiveness and justification complete at the cross! For that reason, Paul taught the Law against the elect sinner terminated in the obedience of Christ: ‘Christ is the end of the Law’ (Rom 10:4). DAVID SIMPSON
THE FULNESS OF THE TIME
“And when the fullness of THE TIME, was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of son,” Galatians 4:4.
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he Lord Jesus Christ’s coming into the world was not an afterthought of God. It was according to His predetermined, eternal counsel. THE TIME of His coming was in exact accord with what the Father determined before hand, Ephesians 1:11. The unfolding of what was predetermined was exactly as God purposed from eternity- being made of a woman (virgin), made under the law (in order to satisfy its precepts and penalty) and thereby to redeem them that were under the law’s requirements, and that they should actually receive (be granted) the adoption of sons. Any point of view that denies the eternal purpose and will of God in the working out of salvation in the body and soul of the Lord Jesus Christ- (His coming, doing and dying) is faulty, and in grave error, I John 4:2,3.
The Biblical doctrine of salvation gives no place for a general plan of salvation, or making the outcome in any way conditioned on the sinner. Whether in redemption, justification, or adoption as sons, it is ALL of God, by His grace, in Christ Jesus alone- Romans 8:28-34. The justification of sinners and the imputation of righteousness to the spiritual account of God’s elect is very much a time issue.
The inspired word says, “In the fullness of THE TIME God sent forth His Son…” What was purposed in eternity was accomplished in TIME exactly as God the Father determined, Acts 4:28. The Scriptural language is one of purpose, promise, prophecy, and then fulfillment. When was it done? When were the sins of God’s elect put away? When could God justly declare righteous those sinners for whom Christ died? The simple scriptural answer is ‘in the fullness of THE TIME.’ God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law that He might (should) redeem them who were under the law’s curse because of their sin. The eternal purpose of God laid out the specific blueprint, but the fulfillment was accomplished WHEN Christ became a man, and WHEN He was made under the law, and WHEN He laid down His life, and actually redeemed and satisfied the righteous requirements of His Holy Father, not before, and not after- Hebrews 1:3. Thank God that in the fullness of THE TIME, Christ came and accomplished what the Father purposed from eternity. Now, through the preaching of the Gospel, the Spirit of God is calling to Christ each one for whom He died. KEN WIMER
CHRIST’S LOVE ILLUSTRATED
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owhere do we see the love of Christ to His church set forth so fully as in the case of Adam's love to Eve. He was the figure of the Coming One -- the Last Adam. The popular notion is that Eve beguiled Adam. Eve did nothing of the kind. Satan beguiled her by throwing the dust of fleshly expectancy in her eyes and allured her into transgression against, and distance from, God. The Holy Ghost tells us plainly that "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (I Tim. 2:14). Adam was in no wise deceived, neither by the devil nor by his wife. He knew what he was doing and sinned with his eyes wide open. He saw her in the depths of her guilt and shame; and out of pure love to her, before he would be parted from her he would be damned with her. He cleaved to his wife, for they were one flesh; and into ruin he plunged himself for her sake. In all this he was the figure of Him that was to come, yet very much unlike Him. Adam loved the creature more than the Creator. Christ loved the Father with the same love that He bore to His bride, the Church. He is ever the Unchangeable in saying with the affectionate servant, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free.” Whom once He loves He never leaves, but loves them to the end." Loving responsibility hangs upon Him with the perfection of gracefulness. Shifted responsibility from the loved wife to the Loving Husband is her salvation, succor, safety, and security. T. BRADBURY
THE LAW OF LIBERTY
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f my friend asks what this law of liberty is, I will endeavor to show him. It is taken from the law of release, when the jubilee trumpet was to be sounded, and liberty to be proclaimed according to the tenor of the law. "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go free for nothing. If he came in by himself he shall go out by himself; if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him." Every poor elect sinner is like this Hebrew servant, he has sold himself for nought (Isa. 42:3); and is the servant of sin, and under the dominion of the law - two hard masters indeed, who show no favor; he that is under the dominion of sin is also under the law of death; he that is delivered from the power of sin, is delivered from the law also, as the apostle intimates, "sin shall not have dominion over you;" but why? "because you are not under the law, (which is the strength of sin) but under grace," which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. In this state of servitude the sinner lies till the great trumpet is blown, Isa. 27:13; and the joyful sound reaches his ears, Psa. 89:15; by which Christ preached deliverance to captives, and sets at liberty those that are bruised with this yoke of hard service, (Luke 4:18). WILLIAM HUNTINGTON