March 18, 2007
CALL TO WORSHIP
(Tune: “We’re Marching To Zion”)
Join all who love His name, and sing His praises and fame;
Great God, prepare each heart and voice,
Great God, prepare each heart and voice;
In Christ, we will rejoice; in Christ, we will rejoice.
[CHORUS] We’re looking to Jesus,
Trusting and hoping in Jesus;
We’re looking only to Jesus,
The Lord our Righteousness.
God’s glory now shines forth, in Christ, He is satisfied;
His love provides what He demands,
His love provides what He demands;
And Christ paid all the costs; and Christ paid all the costs.
In Christ I am secure; by Him my soul is sustained;
From Him I all things now receive,
From Him I all things now receive;
In Him my soul shall live; in Him my soul shall live.
(Psalm 5:11)
“But let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because Thou hast defendest them: let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee.”
TODAY’S
SPEAKER:
HE
MADE AN END OF SIN
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him,”
2 Corinthians 5:21
Christ died to put an end to the guilt and condemnation of sin as the Substitute for His people. He experienced sin’s legal penalty but not its power in His person. He could die for sin in no other way. Dying with Him as their representative, His elect died to the same thing: sin’s guilt, condemnation, and penalty. He died once for all- (Heb 7:27; 9:12, 26, 28; 10:10, 12, 14, 1 Pet 3:18). His death was conditioned on the penalty being real; although neither the sin nor the penalty were His own (Isaiah 53; Matthew 20:28). He redeemed others not Himself. He completed the work (John 17:4), died to sin, suffered the penalty of it, and ceased to bear it. If forgiveness is still only potential, and not actual, for Christ’s own, He must yet be bearing sin. That is impossible! He came the first time to bear sin, and when He appears the second time sin will have no claims upon Him (Heb 9:28).
DAVID SIMPSON- Powell, TN
God’s eternal purpose to redeem guaranteed its fulfillment in time
Perhaps one of the clearest passages of Scripture showing the relationship between God’s purpose in eternity to save by Christ, and the outworking of salvation in time is found in Psalm 40:6-8 with Hebrews 10:5-10. In the volume of the book (eternal or inspired word) it is written and therefore purposed, but then…’a body hast thou prepared me,’ v. 5. It was absolutely necessary that Christ should place himself under the law to pay the penalty that we deserved and to merit eternal life for the elect, which they could never merit for themselves (Psalms 40:8; John 10:11; Galatians 1:4; 4:4-5). On behalf of the elect he assumed and fully discharged all violated conditions and incurred liabilities of the covenant of works (Matthew 5:17-18). He accomplished this by rendering a perfect obedience to the precept of the law (Psalms 40:8; Isaiah 42:21; John 9:4-5; 8:29; Matthew 19:17), and thereby once for all justified His people, having suffered the full penalty incurred by the sins of his people (Isaiah 53; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 5:2).
Ken Wimer, Pastor of Shreveport Grace Church
The beauty of holiness is in the provisions of God’s covenant
In the Everlasting Covenant of grace made before time, God the Father covenanted with God the Son to glorify himself in the full, free eternal salvation of a multitude of guilty, hell deserving sinners out of Adams fallen race. This was his predestinating purpose even before he created the world and set man as the caretaker of his creation. In this covenant, God gave this number which no man can number out of every kindred, tribe tongue and nation to Christ and conditioned all their salvation upon him. Christ agreed with the Father to come in time and satisfy all the conditions for their salvation by taking all the responsibility for their salvation upon Himself. Read Galatians 4:4-5. “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 sons.” Notice the word “receive”. The Greek word is “ap-ol-am-ban’-o” which means to receive what was promised. Salvation is a gift. It is not earned; it is not received by anything done by the sinner or in the sinner. It is not by anything you or I might be enabled to do. It is received as a free gift based on the promise the Father made to the Son before we were ever created. It is of free grace because it is not conditioned on the sinner in any way. It was ratified by the blood of Christ. That’s why it’s called a covenant of grace.
“Give unto the Lord, O ye kindred’s of the people.” This “kindred” is every sinner for whom the Father and the Son covenanted to redeem. It is those sinners of like mind concerning how God saves sinners by a perfect righteousness, worked out and established by Christ’s obedience, suffering and death on the cross and freely imputed by God the Father there at the cross. “Give unto the Lord glory and strength.” Only the justified can perform this.
Winston Pannell,