All right, go back to Galatians
chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. We'll be continuing in our
series here the effects of grace, the effects of grace upon the
believing heart. Every believer in Jesus Christ,
we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free. We stand fast in his victory.
We stand fast in his success. We stand fast in his blood that
atoned for our sins. We stand fast in his righteousness
as all our righteousness before God. We are at liberty. We are not bound by the law. And yet the apostle encourages
those who are at liberty not to use liberty for an occasion
to the flesh. And I'm going to keep reminding
you of this. These two people in this Church
of Galatia, certain of them had failed. Certain of them Paul
was admonishing and rebuking because they had added the law
to Christ. It was a serious thing. A serious thing. So much so,
he said, I don't care who you are, if you add anything to Christ,
Christ shall profit you nothing. Then you had the other group
of the church who stood fast, who was always proclaiming the
liberty they had in Christ. And so this would always take
place. Those who were true believers
that failed would repent. They would turn. How then should
those who remained faithful treat those who failed? And so he's
saying to you that were steadfast, don't use your liberty as an
occasion to look down upon these brethren. He said, instead, love
and serve one another. And then he begins to tell us
the experience of every believer, the inward effect of the Spirit
is giving us life and faith, and as soon as life and faith
come, the first thing we experience is warfare. The flesh lusts against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These are two contrary
one to another, so that the result is always a stalemate. You cannot
do what you would. The Spirit would be holy, always
holy. Why? Because that's His nature.
He's holy. And the flesh would always just
be the flesh. Because that's who He is. And
these two are at war with one another. And then He manifests
those works of the flesh in verse 19 through 21. He manifests those works of the
flesh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance in relations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresy, envies, murders, drunkenness, reveling
in such life. He was testifying to us of our
flesh. Keep that in mind, that this
is the flesh in us that lusts against the Spirit. These sins
are OUR sins. They're the sins of OUR flesh. But conversely, in verse 22,
the Apostle begins to describe the nature, the fruits of that
new nature. The fruits of the new nature. I'm thinking of the illustration
simply like this. If you take an apple tree seed
and you plant it in the ground, and that tree comes up and it
sprouts branches and it sprouts leaves, you still don't really know what
kind of tree it is until you what? Until you see apples on
it. When you see the fruit on that
tree, then you can definitively say, that's an apple tree. Now, did the fruit make it an
apple tree? No, the fruit just manifest it
was an apple tree. An apple tree all along. It was
an apple tree when it was a seed, when it was planted in the ground.
It was an apple tree. The fruit just manifests what
it is. And so when God gave you a holy
nature, the fruit of this nature did not make it holy. So when
you manifest love, when you manifest joy, when you manifest peace
and long-suffering and meekness and gentleness and kindness,
you manifest these fruits. That does not make you holier. It just manifests what you already
are. And so that's what these fruits
do, they just manifest that nature. Just like the old nature, the
works of the flesh are just a manifestation of what's in the old man, isn't
it? Our Lord said, look, make the
tree good and the fruit will be good. You need a new heart.
That's what He's telling us. Man by nature has an evil heart.
And what comes out of an evil heart? Evil. Now you can dress it up, but
it's still evil. It can't produce anything but
evil. Even so, the new nature, when
God put the holy nature in us, what Peter describes as we are
made partakers of the divine nature. Then what does the divine
nature produce? Love. You that believe on Christ, you
love Christ. You love Him. Oh, you do not
love Him like you want to. I'll tell you this, you don't
love Him like you should. But you do love Him. And what's
the reason you love Him? He first loved you. Love. And then this love that is expressed
Now, it's easy to say we love Christ, isn't it? Isn't that
easy to say? Can't everybody say that? How
do you know that you really love Christ? John tells us this. If
you say you love God and you don't love the brethren, you're
a liar. I like John. He's very plain. He's very plain
with his words. He said, look, don't tell me
about how much you love God if you don't love the brethren.
Why? Because that's the fruit of real
love. It always loves the brethren. Why? Because you can see that
nature of Christ in them, and you love Christ, so why would
you not love them? And so we love the brethren,
love joy. Joy, remember, the joy of the
Lord is our strength. We rejoice not in the things
of the world, not in the temporal things. These things are fleeting,
these things are passing, and we're thankful for them. I'm
thankful for the joys God gives us in this life. I know this,
I'd like to have more of them, wouldn't you? I'd like to have
more of these joys, but they're just temporal, they're just fleeting. But the joy that God puts in
the heart of the believer is eternal. Why? Because our joy
is a person. Our joy, the joy of the Lord
is our strength. And the strength is this, that His joy is to save us. It is His good pleasure to give
you the kingdom. Doesn't that give you joy? Doesn't
that give you joy to know this? And I'll tell you what, it takes
faith to believe this. It takes faith to believe this,
doesn't it? That God is not begrudgingly going to give you the kingdom. I remember one man who believed
in progressive sanctification. He said, you know, if you progressively
become holier, then you'll receive all of this joy in heaven, but
if you don't, you'll just get in by the skin of your teeth.
That's like God's gonna begrudgingly give it to you. You didn't really
earn it as much as these other fellas over here. That's the most foolish thing
I've ever heard, because it's not what the Word of God says.
You realize because our judgments are passed, God rejoices over
you. Rejoices over you. Rejoices over
you! We're singing. We're singing. This is our joy. And peace. Peace. We know this, that our
peace comes by the blood of Christ. We have peace with God. Peace
with God. And this peace that we have,
in Philippians we went over this, that it is a peace that passes
understanding. In other words, I don't need
to understand everything God's doing. I just know He's going
to do it. This is my peace. I don't know
how God's going to bring me to Himself. He's going to bring
me to Himself. I don't know how the situations,
I don't understand the providence of time. I just don't understand
it. Someone once said this, if we
had the power of God, we'd change everything. If we had the wisdom of God,
we'd change nothing. And this is our peace, that Christ
has made peace and it doesn't matter what circumstances or
troubles befall us, we're at peace with God. And so we saw
then the next ones are long-suffering, gentleness and goodness. Long-suffering. Because we love God, because
we are loved of God, because we are at peace with God, because
He is our joy and our strength, we then should be long-suffering
toward others. Why should you be long-suffering?
Because Christ was long-suffering with us. Is that not so? Is He not long-suffering with
our ignorance? Do you know everything? I tell you, sometimes I am so
ignorant of things. When God opens my understanding,
I say, how can I be so foolish to have thought that? to have
felt that. You know, He is long-suffering
with us, isn't He? Just like He was with those disciples
that day He was in the boat, and the boat was full of water.
You think that boat could have sank? Was it possible for them
not to make it to the other side? They had God in the boat, and
yet because of their unbelief, They cast despair upon him. Carest thou not that we perish?
And you know what? He didn't rebuke them. He rebuked
the winds and waves, but he didn't rebuke them. He just wondered,
how could you have no faith? How could you have no faith?
Therefore, are we not to be longsuffering with others? Gentleness, this
word means kindness. And remember what I told you
about kindness. Kindness is not just a determination to be kind. It's not just a feeling we have. You see somebody in trouble and
you have feelings of kindness toward them, but you don't do
anything. That's not kindness. We're never to count feelings
of kindness as kindness. is always followed by action. And so when we see our brethren
have needs and we are moved with compassion, if we are exhibiting
kindness, then we would actually provide what they need. That's
kindness. Well, how do you know that? Because
that's what God did for us, isn't it? God purposed our salvation. He
had the desire of kindness in His heart. He was so kind as
to give us to Christ, to make Him our salvation. And Christ
was so kind. in His love for you that He came
into the world as a man and suffered the justice of God for your sins,
rose again for your justification, ascended to the throne of glory
for you. But what if He had never called
you? How would that be kindness? I tell you, the God of this world
is not kind. Christ that died for everyone but saved no one
is not kindness. That's not our God, is it? Our
God purposed to save us, He saved us, and then what did He do?
He acted on it. He called us. And He's still acting on it,
isn't He? He's still being kind to us. And gentleness, this goodness,
Every believer ought to be ready to do good. It is as though we should be sitting
on the edge of our seat looking for something to do that's good.
This is the fruit of goodness. It is in every believer. And
so now we move on to these next three faiths. Faith, meekness,
and temperance. Now the first three graces, these
have respect to the nature of God, don't they? Love, joy, and
peace. These are the nature of God. He is the God of all peace.
He's the God of all joy. And He is the God, God is love,
John said. He is love. These next three are how we treat
others. Long-suffering, gentleness, or
kindness, and goodness. But these last three have respect
to ourselves, respect to ourselves. These graces are true of every
believer and they are in every believer's heart. It is a grace
of faith, a grace of meekness, and a grace of temperance. First
of all, faith. This first of all has reference to the grace
of faith that every child of God has in Christ alone. True
faith in Christ is not and cannot be generated by the will of man,
by the emotions of man, and it can be generated by education.
Those are the main three things that religion says about faith,
that faith is generated by will. If you just were determined to
do something, that's how you generate faith. Or they say,
if I could just stir up your emotion, Why do you think they
spend millions and millions of dollars on beautiful sights and
sounds? They want to stir your emotion
because they believe faith comes by emotion. Others spend a lot on education. If they can just get you to understand
doctrine, they can get you to believe. If I can just convince
somebody that atheism is wrong and evolution is foolishness,
then I can get them to believe. Nope. No, faith doesn't come
that way. Why? Because the natural man
is spiritually dead. This is why faith can't come
this way. He is, first of all, he's dead in his heart. So when
we say emotion, the heart is the seed of the emotion. And
so why can't we emotionally move men to believe? Why? Because
the emotions, the heart, is deceitful. Emotions are deceitful. You found
that out? How many times you felt something and it was absolutely,
utterly wrong? We do it all the time. Our feelings
are deceptive. You can't get it by education
because the mind is corrupt. The corruptness of our mind.
What does it say about the mind? The carnal mind is enmity against
God. And it cannot be subject to the
law of God, neither need can be. It's corrupt. And you can't come by will because
the will of man is in bondage. The will of man is in bondage
to what? His nature. To his nature. Man's nature is corrupt, therefore
his will is corrupt. Jesus said that in John 6, verse
44. No man can come unto me. except by divine power, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. He will never come
to me. How many people are offended
by this? The whole religious world is just offended by what
I just told you. There is no such thing as free
will. Go tell them that. Go tell your religious friends
there is no such thing as free will and see what they tell you.
See if they're not offended by that. Free will is a delusion. Tell them that man cannot be
his own savior. That his decision has nothing
to do with salvation. That salvation is the work of
Christ. It is the work of the Holy Spirit
in the new birth. And the will has nothing to do
with it. But we who believe on Christ,
I tell you, a lot of believers, they don't understand the fullness
of this. I get it. They may not be moved. They may
not understand this, but they will not be moved from Christ.
They will not boast of glory in their will or works because
they know something. True faith knows this, that all
our salvation is dependent on Him, including our faith. Go to Ephesians 1 and read this. I think it is the clearest thing. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. This is the clearest
scripture concerning this. The nature of man, he says, and
you hath he quickened who were, what? Dead. Dead in trespasses
and sin wherein time passed. You walked according to the course
of the world. according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in
the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." You see, that was our condition. Isn't it, believer?
When God found us, that's how He found us. He found us dead,
walking according to this world, According to the Prince of the
Power of the Air, we were like the children of disobedience,
haters of God. What made the difference? Verse
4, but God. I think the two greatest words
in all of Scripture right there, but God. Had these two words
not been there, then no hope for us. Had God not done something
for us, we would have remained dead in our sins. But God, who is rich in mercy
for, listen, His great love, wherewith He loved us. Where was your love for Him? You were dead. You were walked
according to the course of this world. You had no love for God.
You hated God. Notice this, even when we were
dead in sins, when did God love you? Did He wait for you to get better? You know, Joanne, God looked
down and said, one day she's going to get good enough, and
then I'm going to love her. No? No. He loved us even when
we were dead in our sins. And what did he do while we were
dead in our sins? Hath quickened us together with
Christ. Oh, this is astounding. You that
believe on Christ, you know this. that when Christ came into this
world and died, you were in union with Him. You were in union with the Son
of God when He lived in this world and performed the righteousness
of God, so did you in Him. It's what we understand as a
representative. He came as a representative man,
and all that the Father gave Him He represented them, just
like the high priest of Israel. The high priest of Israel is
the one that killed the animal. The high priest of Israel is
the one that took the blood in. The high priest of Israel is
the one that confessed the sins on the head of the goat. What
did Israel do? What hand did Israel have in
all that? Nothing. He represented them when he did
it, even so Christ. represented us when he obtained
righteousness by his own obedience. He represented us when he died
for our sins. And listen, when God quickened
him from the dead, that testified of his success,
of his victory. And listen, when God quickened
him from the dead, he quickened us from the dead. We were in
him. By grace you are saved. And listen,
hath raised us up together. When Christ was raised from the
dead and he raised us up together with him. And where did he made
us? To sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. This was the mercy and grace
of God. And this was only by the mercy
and grace of God. He says that in the middle. I
think the Apostle Paul couldn't contain himself. He had to put
that parenthesis in there. By grace you are saved. You ever
want to read the end right in the middle of something? He's
reading you the end. It's by the mercy and grace of
God we were put into Christ. It was by the mercy and grace
of God that Christ chose that the Father chose us. It was by
the mercy and grace of Christ, God, that Christ died for us
and ascended to the Father. And God will by his own sovereign
grace then come at the appointed time and give faith, give faith
to everyone Christ died for. Look at this, he says that in
verse 7, This is the reason He did it, that in the ages to come
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. For this purpose, God determined
to save you, to show something, to set on display. What is God
going to set on display? When God came to you and saved
you, what did He set on display? The riches and goodness of your
will? The riches and goodness of your mind? The riches and
goodness of your... Is He so thankful that you chose
Him? No. He showed you something, the
exceeding riches of His grace. That's what He showed us. He
showed us that the riches and glory of his grace and kindness
toward us through Jesus Christ. And look what he says, for by
grace you are saved. The word grace means unmerited
favor, heard a thousand times ever since I was a kid. I know
that to be true. I knew it academically when I
was a kid. Now I understand it. And the
more I grow in grace, I understand this, without unmerited favor,
I have no hope. He saved me by unmerited favor. Listen to the means. Listen.
Through what? Faith. This is the means. God who purposed
it also purposed the means by which we should receive it. How
do we receive this? You receive this not by something
you see or you touch or you feel. You receive this through faith. Faith. And notice what he says
of faith. That, not of yourself. Is that not simple and plain
to understand that faith is not of yourself? I remember somebody
quoting this and explaining that faith is the gift of God. It
is of God and not of the will of man. And one person said,
I hate when those Calvinists quote that scripture. Of course
you do. It destroys all your doctrine. Faith is not of ourselves. Faith
is a gift of God. You that believe tonight, you
that have this grace of faith, how did you receive it? It was
a gift of God. It was a work of God upon your
heart to give you faith. Now why did He do it that way?
Look at that. Lest any man should boast. What do men want to do? Why?
Why do men believe faith comes by the will of man when God clearly
says it doesn't? John chapter 1, verse 12, but as many as received
him, to them gave he the power, the right to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name. You see, receiving
Him is synonymous with faith. Receiving Him is synonymous with
faith. What is it to receive Him? I'm thirsty. See this? I received the water. That's
it. That's what it means to receive
Him. God shows us our need. and we receive Him. Why? Not out of choice, but out
of necessity. You tell when Scripture came
in power and told me to believe on Christ, it was not a choice. I must have Him or I die. I hungered for Him. I needed
Him. And what? I received Him. But look what the next verse
says. How did you receive Him? By what means of power did you
have to receive Him? Which were born. You see? We were born again of the Spirit.
What Christ is going to talk about in John chapter 3 and verse
8 to Nicodemus. He says you must be born again. He said, which were born. How
were we born? Not of blood. I've got two children and I long
for Christ to save them. You've got children. You long
for Christ to save them. But they're not going to be saved
because they're your children. Blood has nothing to do with
it. Look, what else doesn't have anything to do with it? Nor the
will of the flesh. See that? I just don't... It astounds me that anybody would
believe in decisional regeneration. Anybody. We are not born again by the
will of the flesh. I don't care how much you determine
to be born again. Your will has nothing to do with it. Nor of the will of man. This
destroys the Catholic Church, doesn't it? Because they believe
by the will of some other man you can receive grace. No. How are we born again? But
by the will of God. By the will of God. So why do
you believe? You that believe, why do you
believe? You believe because of the grace
of God. You believe because faith is
a gift. And it's a gift because God will
not have any man to boast. There's no room for bragging
here, friends. There's no room for it. I believe simply because God
purposed for me to believe. I believe simply because the
Spirit of God has given me faith to believe. And that's the only
reason I believe. And that's the only reason you
believe. If you believe, that's the only reason. So salvation then in every part
including this matter of faith is a work of God. Look what he
says again in Ephesians. If I can stay over there, Ephesians
2. He says, For by grace you are saved through faith in that
and out of yourselves is a gift of God, not of works, lest any
mention of both. For we are his workmanship created. You getting this? God created
that new nature and what is the fruit of that new nature? It's
always faith. Created us in Christ Jesus unto
what? Good works. And notice this,
even our good works were ordained. Which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Therefore God, to God be the
glory and honor and praise for his great love wherewith he loved
us. Send his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And in a time of
love, listen to this, made us willing. Aren't you willing to believe?
That's a silly question to you, isn't it? Are you willing to
believe? I often, when that comes to my
mind, I think this. I believe. Lord help my unbelief. You know what I don't want? I
don't want unbelief. I mean, I don't want it. I want
to believe. I believe. And I tell you this,
I don't believe like I want to believe. But I believe. It is a product
of God. And so in the power of the Holy
Spirit, we believe. You that believe on Christ, you
know this to be true, God saves sinners. Isn't that true? You know that
to be true. God saves sinners. Go to Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Look at verse 13, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You believe
that? I do, because that's exactly what happened to me. Whosoever! You know why I'm saying
that? Because I don't know who the
elect of God are. I know only the elect of God
are going to believe. I do that. I know that. The other
thing is, I don't know who they are. So what does the scripture
tell us to do? Declare this, whosoever believeth,
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We do believe the gospel that
whosoever calls on Christ shall be saved, and all who call on
Him, all who believe on Him, how have they believed on Him? They believe on Him by hearing
about Him. Isn't this how your faith came?
We know it's a gift of God, but we know the means also by which
faith comes. It is by the hearing of the Word.
Look at this. He says, How then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? You can't call
on somebody you don't believe. And how shall they believe on
Him in whom they have not heard? You can't believe on somebody
you've not heard about. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As
it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. So we know this, the means by
which God uses, by the Spirit uses in this matter of faith
is what? The gospel. The gospel. Now I want you to understand
this. Faith never comes through a false gospel. Again, how can you believe on
somebody that you've never heard of? If somebody is preaching
a false Christ, and you believe on that Christ, then your faith is what? It's
false. It's empty. I remember, I've told you this
experience with Brother J.D. over and over, because it just,
it's the one that just is striking to me. I've seen it in several
others, but J.D. was the most vocal. If you remember
him, he's the most vocal one of the bunch. He came to me the
night he heard the gospel, the very first night, and he said,
I believe, I believe on the Christ you just preached. I believe,
I've heard his voice, and I believe him. And he, from that day forward,
was constant and steady to hear the gospel of Christ. But I preached this message from
Romans 10 and it upset him because he thought he was saved before
he got here, before he had heard the gospel here. And he came
into my office and said, I can't believe you don't believe I was
saved before I got here. And I said, JD, I never said
that. I don't know if you were saved before you got here or
not. That's not my vision. I just ask you this, did you
hear the gospel before you got here? Well, no. I said, how can you
believe on him whom you have not heard? Now, if you heard
him somewhere else, sure. Yeah. But if you haven't heard
of him before, how shall you hear? Believe on him in whom
you have not heard. Listen friends, God will never
use a false gospel to save his people. I'm not just saying that,
I'll show it to you. Go to Jeremiah chapter 23. Talk
about true faith. True faith comes as a gift of
God. It comes by the hearing of the gospel and not another. Jeremiah 23. Look at verse 16. Thus saith the Lord of hosts.
Make sure I got the right place, just a second. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain. They speak
a vision of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
They say still unto them that despise me, the Lord hath said,
you shall have peace. And they say unto everyone that
walketh after the imagination of his own heart, no evil shall
come upon you. For who stood in the counsel
of the Lord and hath perceived to hear the word of the Lord,
who hath marked his word and heard it. Now look at verse 30. Therefore, behold, I am against
the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words." These prophets
had come along and they said, this is what God said. This is
what God said. God said, peace on you. There's
not going to anything happen to you. You're all right. Everything's
going to be just fine. And God said this, I'm against
them. I'm against them, saith the Lord,
that steal my words, every one from his neighbor. Behold, I
am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues
and say he saith. Behold, I am against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them and
cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Yet
I sent them not nor commanded them. Therefore, they shall not
profit this people. What? at all. How big's a false church? How
big is religion in this world? Now consider this. It has zero effect on God's people. None. Why? They're stealing God's
Word. They're saying God said when
God didn't say it. And God says, I will not profit
this people at all. But we know this, that God's
Word in the mouth of His prophet, in the mouth of His preacher,
is powerful to the saving of sinners. And what's our message? Our message is Jesus Christ.
Our message is His perfect, successful work. For who? Sinners. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save one group of people, sinners. Why? Because that's
His people. His people are sinners. And when God gives them life,
he will also give them faith, and they will believe on him.
And the second thing about this faith is this, it will always
endure. Everyone who's given the gift
of faith will endure. I know that this warfare in our
flesh causes much doubts, fears, and anxieties. So many times we fall into sin. Our heart becomes cold and indifferent
to the things of God. When I speak of love and joy
and peace, you don't feel any of that. Circumstances of this life seem
to turn against you. You feel as though the providence
of God is not trying to help you but trying to destroy you. But my hope is not in the things
that I feel or the things that I see. My hope is not in the
circumstances of this life. My hope is in this. that the
one who gave me faith will keep me in the faith until he brings
me to see what I now believe. Remember
what Peter said? 1 Peter chapter 1, he said to the elect, Blessed
be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his
abundant mercy, he hath begotten us again to a living hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are kept by the power of God. Kept by the power
of God. Through what? Faith! unto salvation, ready to be revealed
at the last time, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for
a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might
be found to the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Who's going to get the honor
for your faith? Who's going to get the honor at the end of all
this? When your faith is tried and it comes out in the end,
who gets the glory for it? The same one who gave you this
fruit of faith. It might be to the praise and
the honor of glory in Jesus Christ at His appearing. And I'm going to give you this.
Faith doesn't mean just faith in Christ. It means faithfulness.
The fruit of faith always yields faithfulness. I like this text. It is required
of a steward that he be found what? Faith. Faith. I like that. It's not
required of a steward that he be found good. It's required of a steward that
he be found faithful. Now, what are we stewards of?
You that are believers in Christ, what are you stewards of? Now
according to religion, you're stewards of time, stewards of
your money, stewards of your marriage, stewards of your relationships. Nowhere in the New Testament
does it tell you you're stewards of those things. You know what
it does tell you? You are stewards of the grace
of God. May God help us to be faithful
stewards concerning the grace of God. The gospel of God's grace,
that's what we're stewards of. And so everything we do here
in faithfulness is for the furtherance of that gospel. Let us be found
faithful in witnessing. At every opportunity, let us
be faithful. Let us be faithful in our service
to God. Let us be faithful in our worship.
Let us be faithful in our study. Let us be faithful in our prayers.
Let us be faithful to serve one another. Why? Because we are
stewards of the gospel of God's grace. God has given this treasure
in early vessels. Everywhere you go, don't you
know you're a witness? I didn't realize this, how many
people in my neighborhood, I don't know many people in my neighborhood,
we kind of hunker down, and the people I know have been passed
away and gone, and the renters come in and move out, so I just
kind of don't know many people. Most every one of them know that
I'm a preacher. Never said a word to them. They
know. God help us to be faithful to
declare this gospel when he presents the opportunity. Be faithful
to do that. Testify of what we know. I thought I'd get through the
others, but I'm not. So, I pray that God bless this to you, you
that believe. Consider the greatness of your
faith. It is a gift of God. This grace that we have is a
gift of God. And consider the greatness of this that is kept
by God. Jesus said, those that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And he says, I will lose how
many? Nothing. That's encouraging, isn't it?
You that believe, isn't that encouraging to know this, that
your faith will not fail? It'll be tried, but it won't
fail. Why? Because it didn't come from
you. Your faith didn't come from you. It's a gift of God. I pray God will bless this. Let's
stand, be dismissed, and pray.