Put my Bible down on this $10
puppet. Turn to Ephesians 2. I can't tell you how honored
I am to be here. And so many people I haven't
seen in so many years. Oh my goodness, and I told some
of them, I said, you know, we don't see one another for years,
and then we see one another at these meetings, and then we don't
have time to visit. Don't have time to visit, but
it is good to see you. Some people hadn't seen Tom since
Henry's funeral. But it is wonderful. I pray that
Marvin will be all right, I trust the Lord. Be merciful to him
and his family. It's tough on you all going through
that. So tough. Right here in the worship
service. But it would be wonderful to
go home to the, leave this General Assembly of the Firstborn and
go to that General Assembly of the Firstborn in glory. Wouldn't that be something? Wouldn't
that be something? All right, let me start reading
in Ephesians chapter two, read down to verse 10. Tom was cranked up, I'll tell
you what, I like a preacher cranked up. He was ready when he hit
this book, he was ready. I love a preacher ready. You
know, he's just priming the pump. I love him. Oh, how I love him.
Love his dear brothers. Oh, so many brothers here. But
look what he says here in verse four. But God, who is rich in
mercy, for his great love were with he loved us, even when we
were in dead and sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you are saved and hath raised us up together, made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come,
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. in kindness through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. God's glorious eternal purpose
towards the world, particularly his elect, is being carried out
right on time and exactly how it's supposed to be. And words
are wonderful. Words are what we use to communicate
to one another with. The words are wonderful if you
know the meaning of them, like dead. You know how many people
knows what dead means? Spiritually dead, you who were
dead in trespass. What is death? What does it mean
to be dead? So dead, so corrupt, so lost,
so helpless that a man cannot do anything for himself. Put
a burden on him, cry on him, hit him, Beg with him, plead
with him. He is dead and then nothing will
ever get through to him. Nothing, nothing. And then there's
this word quickening. You were dead in sin, hath he
quickened. Quickened, what does that mean? That means that he
quickens us, gives us life from that day. And then together,
I love this together. Look what it says back up in
verse five and six. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. and hath raised us up
together, made us sit together in heavenly places. Together. Together. We're together. And
then God. God, but God. What can you say
about God? You can't, what can you say about
God? He's not a pretender after the
throne. He's not somebody that can be
manipulated. He's not somebody that has to
wait to do anything. He's God. He has no rivals. He has no anyone that can even
come close to questioning him if they got any good sense. But
people say all the time, I don't think that's fair. Well, listen,
face God is not fair because He's gonna still be God no matter
what you say about Him, no matter what you think about Him and
how you feel about Him. He's God. And all mine, and He's
already dealt with riches. You know, it says there that
He might in ages to come show the exceeding riches of His grace. You know what we're gonna learn
throughout all eternity? Grace. I love this analogy. You know,
when we get to glory, it says there's going to be nothing said
or done for 30 minutes. Silence in that 30 minutes. What's
going to happen when the Lord takes us all there? Everybody's
going to be quiet, and everybody's going to be still, and the angel's
going to be shocked. You mean to tell me this is who
he bought and paid for? A bunch like this? And we'll
go walking down the avenue of glory land, down them golden
streets, and you know what they'll say? Oh, he's going to learn
the riches of his grace on and on and on and on. That's how
much grace he's got that we ain't gonna wear it out even when we
get an eternity. And oh, that's wealth. That's
wealth for ages to come. And when we look for a motive
for God Almighty doing anything for us, the only scripture you
have that you can answer is, but God, but God, only God. The Bible starts in the beginning,
God, and it ends up in Revelations, even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. Starts out with God and ends
up with Christ, even so come, Lord Jesus. And here, here in
my text tonight, verse eight is where I'm gonna get my message,
if God'll enable me. We have in our text three great,
blessed, wonderful gospel words in Ephesians eight. For by grace
are you saved through faith. I want to talk about being saved.
I want to talk about grace. And I want to talk about faith.
Three great gospel words. To lots of people, these words,
by overuse, have lost their meaning. People talk about, I preach grace.
Well. I don't, I've not hurt anybody
that I've met except one man. But oh my, you know, if they
ever had any meaning at all. You know, this idea, you know,
people has heard that God loves you so much and Jesus loves you
and Jesus died for you that people don't give a flip anymore about
it. It don't mean nothing to anybody.
They've been told that from the pulpit. They've been told that
when they've witnessed it for them on the street, Jesus loves
you. They've heard that so much till it absolutely means nothing.
You know, the only people that care about the love of God is
God's people. The only people that love the
love of God, the only people that cherish the love of God,
the only people that know anything about the love of God is God's
elect people. They're the only ones who know
anything about it. They're the only ones who appreciate it.
But now let's look at this first word, saved. For by grace are
you saved. Saved, when you hear that word
saved, a person that's gonna be saved,
before they ever saved, they got to be in danger. Gotta be some danger. They gotta
be in some kind of a trouble. They need rescuing. They need
somebody to rescue them. And they can't save themselves
from their danger, can't save themselves from their trouble,
can't save themselves and they need rescue. And I'll tell you
of one of the greatest dangers, this is the danger that we all
face. This is the danger we all face and that's sin. Sin, S-I-N,
S-I-N. That is something that's part
and parcel of us, born with us, and until we throw dirt in our
face and we draw our last breath, it's gonna be with us as long
as we're on this earth. And we, you know, people say,
you need to quit your sin. I wished I could, I would if
I could. I would, but let me tell you
something. You know, even us as believers, let me tell you
some of our sins. Self-righteousness, pride, hypocrisy,
Ill will? Gossip? Talking about people? Oh, listen. Wouldn't you like
to be done with sin? Those are sins you can't see.
Those are sin that most folks don't know anything about. But
I'll tell you what, that the only person that can save us
from sin is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Nobody can save us. And then not only we need saving
from sin, when Paul mentioned sin, you know what he said about
it? Sin is exceeding sinful. You want to describe sin? Sin
is exceeding sinful. Exceeding sinful and I'll tell
you when we you know, I'll tell you two other things. We're in
trouble with We're in trouble with God What for because of
our sin? And I'll tell you there's nothing
you can do to change his mind You say I'm gonna start living
right? I'm gonna start praying. I'm gonna start crying. I'm gonna
start reading my Bible that will not change God at all Nothing
we've ever said thought or done as ever ever impressed God and
God Almighty does not need us for anything anytime under any
circumstances He does not need us But we need him we need him
and I tell you we're in trouble with God and now we're in trouble
with God overseeing and Oh my goodness, I tell you what, and
then God's justice, it comes along and says, listen, I gotta
punish these people. I can't let them get by with
their sin. There's no way in the world I can let them get
by with their sin. There's no way that I can let
any human being on this earth get by with one sin. If I let
one get by with it, I'll let the next one get by with it.
So we cannot get by with sin. But what in the world's going
to happen then? Somebody's got to be punished. Somebody's got
to face God's sword of justice. It's going to come down on him
hard. And there's God. He said, no,
listen, there's nothing that'll ever cause me to clear the guilty. Nothing. He said, oh. Wisdom stood up one day and said,
I know a way. I know a way. I know a way. If my son is willing to go, I'll
send him. And I'll charge him. I'll put
on him. all the sin of all the people
that I've chosen from all eternity. I put all my sins from Adam all
the way to the end of the world. I put all of them on him. And
he's got such worth, he's got such merit, he's got such value,
he's got such preciousness. Bless his name. He's got so much
that God Almighty can take all of his merit, take all of his
worth, And when he put him on that cross and all those sins
from eternity future and eternity past met on the Son of God right
there and then, God raised up and said, I'm satisfied. I'm
satisfied. And I'll tell you what, when
you learn the gospel, you'll be satisfied too. There's nothing
will satisfy you like Christ bearing your sins in his own
body on the tree. Nothing will satisfy you like
that will. Nothing will quieten your conscience
like that will. And oh my, there's three tenses
of being saved. Let me show you that in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter one, I
believe. Three tenses of being saved. I don't want to take too long.
I know it's hot. Y'all are getting hot. But oh
my. You know, our salvation, Paul
said, is nearer than when we believed. We're not of them that
draw back to a perdition. We are of them that believe to
the saving of the soul. But now look what the apostle
said here in verse eight of 2 Corinthians 1. For we would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble. That's what I'm talking about,
trouble, which came to us in Asia. Now listen to this. We
were pressed out of measure, above strength, and we thought
this is the end of it. We even despaired of life. But
now this is exactly what everybody does. But we had the sentence
of death in ourselves. Every one of us got the sentence
of death in ourselves. Huh? Dead. You know, everybody's so
upset in this world, they get upset over the simplest things.
Listen, God gave, Christ gave himself for our sin to save us
from this present evil world. No, look what else he goes on
to say. So we have the sentence of death in our sin. That's what
we do. And here's another thing we don't
do, that we should not trust in ourselves. We don't trust
in ourselves. Who do we trust in then? God.
God, who raises the dead, and listen to this now, who saved
us from so great a death, and doth deliver in whom we trust,
has saved us, and trust that he will yet save us. He has,
he is, and he shall. And you know when I need saving?
Every day, every minute, every hour, Lord, save me. You know how many times I've
prayed that prayer, Lord, save me? I couldn't tell you, oh God,
how many times I've prayed that. Lord, save me. I don't wanna
miss Christ. I don't, oh no. Oh my, we are
being saved. It's like a man, it's like a
man in a, he's in a shipwreck, and he's floating around out
there in the water. The lifeboat comes along, picks him up, and
puts him in the lifeboat. He's as saved the moment he's
in that lifeboat as he'll ever be saved. He's saved. He may have fear, he may have
anxiety, he may be scared to death, but I tell you what, just
the minute he's in that boat, he's saved. And all he wants to do is touch
dry land. But he is safe from the time he got on that, and
that's the way we are in Christ. When Christ makes us to know
him, you can't help but trust him. You've got to trust him.
All right. And then let me look back over
in our text. Grace. Saved. Grace. Oh, my goodness. Oh, grace. Grace. I love grace. I just like somebody to just
say grace, and I'm happy. Said half a dozen times, I'm
happy. I've been preaching where I'm at 46 years and a half, be
47 in March. And you know, I'll go home and
probably preach this same thing. Like you said, we're not looking
for a message. We just, where we're going to start at and where
we're going to stop at. That's all. But grace, for by grace
are you saved. Grace is a charming sound. You
know, the scriptures is full of this word. Grace is mentioned
115 times in the New Testament, 38 times in the Old Testament,
and almost 100 times by the Apostle Paul himself. And grace is mentioned
12 times in Ephesians. Now, everybody I know, and I'm
going to just say it again, grace is God's undeserved favor, His
unmerited love. It is favor. It is favor one
finds in the eyes of a superior. Anybody more superior than God?
Anybody higher than God, he inhabits eternity. He rides upon the wind,
the clouds are the dust of his feet, the frost is the breath
of his mouth. And oh my, and to think that
this superior person, we found grace favoring his eyes. And
we can't claim febrile treatment. And as a right, we came, there
wouldn't be grace then. And if someone doesn't receive
grace, what can you say? What can you say? No one deserves
it anyway. Nobody. Anybody here deserve
grace? I hear people say all the time,
well, he deserves this thing. You know, he deserves that. And
I say, if we got what we deserved, it'd be awful. Oh my. You know, but Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Oh, Mephibosheth. They said,
David said, is there anybody yet that I can show the kindness
of God to? And he went over and he said,
fetch old Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth come there,
and the first thing he said, oh, why would you look, O king,
upon such a dead dog as I am? He was in the presence of a man,
and he said, why would you look upon such a dead dog? Oh my, that Canaanite woman,
she said, come for her daughter. And they said, Lord, and the
Lord wouldn't ignore her, ignore her, ignore her. He said, it's
not fit to give the bread, children's bread to dogs. And she said,
yes, Lord, I'm a dog. Oh, I'm a dog. I'll be the sorriest
dog you ever had. But please, please just let me
have a crumb from your table. Just give me a crumb. Just a
crumb, that'll satisfy me. Old Scott Rich said one time,
he said, I can go a long way on a crumb. A long way on a crumb. And oh my, you know, and then
Paul, who owned a Damascus Road, oh how God, God brought him down. I want you to look with me in
Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one. This is something I think
we need to look at. I hope you don't mind looking
at it with me. Luke chapter one. Look down at verse 28. And the angel came in unto her
and said, Hail, thou art highly favored. Look in the margin,
graciously accepted, or much graced. That's what we are. Oh my. And then down in verse
30, and the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, you found grace
in God's sight. You found grace in God's sight.
Oh my. You know, Noah, I mean, excuse
me, Moses, Moses, I hope I'm not taking too long. Moses, in
Exodus 33, he said, Lord, if I have found grace in your sight,
if I have found grace in your sight, let me know it. Please
let me know it. If I found grace in your sight,
he said, you have found grace in my sight, I call you by name. And he said, ask him again, oh
Lord, he said, if you don't go with us, don't send us up. And
he said, Lord, I wanna know that you found grace in my sight.
And you know how God told him he found grace in his sight?
The first thing he'd done for him was cause the goodness of
God to pass by. Oh, how good is God? The goodness of God went right
in front of him. Oh my goodness of God. Then he
said, then I'm going to proclaim my name. I'm going to tell you
who I am. I'm going to tell you how much
power I've got. I'm going to tell you who I am and I'm going
to show you what I can do for anybody I want to do it for.
He said, but you can't see me face to face. He said, there's
a rock right here. I'm going to put you in the cleft
of that rock and I'm going to put my hand over you. Put my
hand over you. Oh my. Not pluck me out of my
savior's hand, not pluck me out of my father's. That's a two-fisted
salvation. Who's gonna get us out of that? And he said, I'm
gonna put my hand over you. Can you see me? He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. I will, that's what I do. That's
what I do. And I'm so thankful that God
one day passed me by in mercy, one day passed me by in grace.
Oh, my. If I found grace, God's grace
is in Christ, and he gives it to us in the rock, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then back over in our text, look
what it says. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It's the gift of God. Grace is
the gift of God. Salvation is the gift of God. And it's free. It's free. It's free. God's not obligated
to give it. I'll show mercy to whom I will.
Grace is entirely depending on God's will. It is never deserved. Nobody
has ever earned a blessing on top side of God's earth but one
man, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And he earned enough
blessings for God to give us all the riches and all the blessings
and heavenly places in Christ. And oh my, it's not of works.
Not of works. If it's of works, it's not of
grace. If it's of grace, it's not a word. And men, in God's
word, We're overwhelmed, overwhelmed by God's grace. Overwhelmed by
it. Absolutely overwhelmed by it. Grace came. It has to come to
where we are. And I tell you, never get over
it. Never get over it. I've never
got over it yet. And grace is love for God, who
is rich in mercy with a great love. Love unconditional, love
unevoked, love undeserved. We sing that old song, come thou
fount of every blessing to my heart to sing thy grace. Amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost but now am found, was blind but now see. T'was grace
that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. Grace has brought me safe thus
far, and grace will lead me home. It's amazing, ain't it Bob? Absolutely
amazing. It's amazing. All right, let's
go now to the next. It's not of works, not by weeping,
not by willing, not by working. And the next one is saved grace
and faith. And that's not of yourself. Faith
comes from the same place grace does. It's a gift of God. Ain't that what it says? It's
not of yourselves. It's not of yourselves. Grace
is not of yourselves. Salvation is not of yourselves.
And all through faith. Grace gives faith. Faith is just
an instrument. It's an empty hand taking all
freely. Grace brought faith, and it brought
faith to us to trust Him, to look to Him. Faith never, ever
looks to itself. Faith never can find anything
in itself worth having. Oh, if you look in yourself,
all you'll get is depression and despair and discouragement.
But oh my, faith is good as its object. And its object, as Tom's
already said, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, faith has an object. If faith's object is yourself,
is yourself, Looking at yourself, it's not worth having. If it's
of works, you look to your swerks, it's not worth having. It's by
some free will that you exercise one day, it's not worth having.
It's just by a decision that you made, it's not worth having.
And got an old experience. Way it goes, you got to go way
back yonder and find out, oh, I got saved back yonder. I was
12 years old. I didn't live right all the time.
You know, I ain't live right. I ain't done the best I could,
but I have done the best I could. Got to go back to an old experience.
People saying, I can take you, as an old song said, I can tell
you the time and I can take you to the place. I'll tell you what,
I can't take you to the time, but I can tell you where the
place is, the right hand of God in the throne and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now when it happened, that's
another story. In fact, he ain't got done with
it yet. He ain't finished the work on
me yet, which I'm very thankful for. Oh my, and I'll tell you
what, If faith has anything but Christ, if faith has anything
but His blessed, glorious person, if faith has anything but His
blood, anything but His righteousness, anything but His love, anything
but His faithfulness, it isn't worth having. Take your eyes of faith off of
Christ and you'll end up having despair, depression, discouragement,
don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. And not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. And let me close with this right
here in verse 10. We are his workmanship. We're his workmanship. You know
what that word workmanship, it means, it means poema. It means poema. We're God's poem.
It's a workmanship. It's a workmanship. You know,
since salvation by grace, not of works, it's a work of God,
we are His workmanship. And look what else it says, created. It's a creation. Created in Christ
Jesus. It's a new creation. There's
something only God can do he creates a man when God saves
a man saves him by his grace He brings into existence a man
that never existed before Never existed before Until God saved
me by his grace and every one of you you WERE JUST A NATURAL
MAN, BUT WHEN GOD REGENERATED YOU, AND GAVE YOU A NEW HEART,
AND GAVE YOU A NEW MIND, AND PUT CHRIST IN YOU, THEN AND THERE,
A NEW PERSON CAME INTO EXISTENCE, NEVER WAS THERE BEFORE. HE MIGHT
HAVE BEEN, HE'S A BABY! HE'S A BABY! AND THANK GOD, LIKE
YOU SAID, FOR PREACHERS WHO START FEEDING THE BABIES. FEEDING THE
BABIES. AND THEN THEY GROW UP A LITTLE
BIT, AND YOU FEED THEM A LITTLE BIT OF SONGER MEAT, AND YOU GET ON,
ON, ON, YOU KNOW, AND THEN YOU GET OLD LIKE US, AND YOU If you
don't lose your teeth, you know you can really choose from me. Oh, my. It's God. He has to create something out
of nothing. It's his workmanship. I tell you, I'm going to tell
you a story, and I'm going to quit preaching for a minute and tell you a story.
Years ago, we lived in a little old place called Felicity, Ohio,
population 900. We was in a little old trailer,
and we was having to carry water. And we carried it in a bucket.
We didn't even have running water or anything. So I decided I'm
going to build me a wash stand to set a wash basin on it, set
a wash basin. I'm going to build me this little
stand. We're going to set our wash basin
out there and go out there and wash our face in the morning
and all that stuff. So I built that thing. Got the basin and
put on it. Just fell over. Just fell over. That's my workmanship. But we ain't gonna fall over
because God ain't gonna let us. You tell the workman the workmanship
by his work. This young man right here, I've
seen some of his work. It's incredible. I've seen some
of Paul's work. It's incredible. But you don't
see none of my work. But I tell you what, we're God's
work. We're God's work. We're his workmanship. And ain't you grateful that he's
working on us, working on us, and working on us, that he don't
let us go? And you know when we're gonna
finally be done with us? He gonna put the final touch
on it. Whatever that is, maybe 80, maybe 90, maybe tomorrow,
it don't make any difference. But when that final touch put
on there, the Lord's gonna say, come on, come on home, come on
home. I'm gonna go to my home here,
but I got a home up yonder. Eternal, not made with hands. Oh my. And I tell you what, you
know you can go by the character of the work by who does the work. Look at you. Look at you. Look
at God's work. I look at God's work out here,
what a blessing. What a blessing. God's got, look at the work he's
done around here. Woo. Started out with Tom coming
over at three o'clock in the afternoon, now look what. This
has to start with one preacher, with one message, and then have
God bless us. Thank you all very, very much
for listening. Love all of you. Love the brethren
I hadn't seen in so long. I love you very much. God bless
you. Thank you.