Thank you, son. A son in love, not love. Okay, go back to Acts 11. We looked at this less than two
years ago. Someone may remember this, but
I was just glancing at it, and it struck me once again, and
I think you'll enjoy it again. Now Barnabas, as we read, was
sent by the Church at Jerusalem on a missionary journey to the
Gentiles, non-Jews. He was sent to a place called
Antioch. It was six or seven hundred miles
away, a long, arduous journey. He was sent to preach. and to
visit with new believers that the Church had heard about. The
Church had heard about the Lord through the preaching of the
gospel, revealing himself to many. It says a great number,
in verse 21, believed and turned to the Lord. This is not unlike
when you sent me to Santo Domingo to visit the church there. Not
a great number, but nevertheless, new believers. And you were glad,
and I was glad. I was so glad when I met those
people. They went there. You were glad,
weren't you, Hannah? And Sam, Hannah, you went to
Mexico and visited the believers down there you heard about? Did
it make you glad? Real glad. Well, that's what
it says. Barnabas, verse 23, when he came
and had seen the grace of God, he was glad. He was so glad. It made him happy. He rejoiced
in what he had seen at Antioch. This is a statement I want to
dwell on here. It says when he had seen the
grace of God, when Barnabas came to Antioch, it says when he had
seen the grace of God, he was glad. What that means, what it's
saying here is he saw the effects of God's grace through the preaching
of the gospel. It was the preaching of the gospel
which God used to save these people, this great number. It
was the preaching of the gospel of God's grace. We're going to
see that in a moment. The gospel of God's sovereign
grace, which God used to give birth to. They were born from
above to regenerate these people. through the preaching of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it said up in verse
20. Preach the Lord Jesus. It says a great number, verse
21, a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Because the gospel is the power
of God. Now go over to Acts 20, and I'll
show you this. Acts chapter 20. So Barnabas
saw the grace of God. What he saw was the effects of
the preaching of the gospel, the gospel of God's grace. Acts
20, verse 24. Now this is where Paul is bidding
the church at Ephesus goodbye, the elder. Verse 24, he says,
None of these things move me, that is, his impending death. Neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus. What is it,
Paul? to testify the gospel of the grace of God. See that? The gospel. Now in verse 32, he's bidding
them goodbye and says, Now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the
word of his grace, which is able to build you up. It not only
saves, it builds up and gives an inheritance. What Barnabas saw was the effects
of the preaching of the gospel of God's grace. What is that? What is the gospel of God's grace? Let's go to Ephesians chapter
1, which is the letter he wrote to those same people at Ephesus
in which God's clearly declares the gospel of
his sovereign Christ. Here it is, Ephesians 1. If we're
not careful, we'll stay right here the rest of the time. Ephesians 1, let's just read
it. Verse 1, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus,
to the faithful in Christ Jesus, all grace be to you. God has been so gracious to you,
sovereignly. The word grace means gift. It
means a bestowal of something upon someone. It's not an offer. It's not an offer. It doesn't
say that in God's Bible. No, no. Grace is a bestowal of
something, a gift bestowed upon to you and peace from God our
Father. God who should be angry is not. God, who is angry with the wicked
every day, is not angry with his people. He is at peace with
them. And it is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 3, he said, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places, or things, in Christ. The grace of God,
the gospel of God's grace, could be summed up in this one word,
Christ. He's that unspeakable gift, Christ. Verse 4, here's the grace of
God. Here's what God has bestowed upon the objects of his grace
and his love. According as God hath chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world, this is sovereign
electing grace. And no one should find fault
with God choosing whom he will, because had not God chosen somebody,
Nobody would have chosen him. Nobody. But God chose many according
as he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. Having predestinated us, a predetermined
end, that's what predestination means, a predetermined your destination
has been predetermined by God Almighty. I'm glad of that, aren't
you? If left to myself, I would fall
away. But no, we've been predestinated
under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to God according
to—why? Why did God do that? According
to the good pleasure of his will. There's nothing he saw in us,
but it was all according to the good pleasure of his will and
to the praise of the glory of his grace. To the praise of the
glory of his sovereign, electing, saving, redeeming, keeping grace. This is the gospel of God's grace. It's all because of Christ. Wherein,
that is Christ, he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. There's nothing acceptable about
any human God is holy. The righteous Lord, Scripture
says, loveth righteous things, and he hateth iniquity. Scripture
says he hateth all workers of iniquity. That's people, persons. But God, but God accepts some
human beings. How? Why? Because they turn over
a new leaf? Because they quit their meanness
and start living a good life, and therefore, oh no, they are
accepted in the Beloved, the Scripture says. Accepted in the
Beloved. That is, Jesus Christ came to
this earth as a man, as a human being. And what he did, he did
for these chosen vessels of God. He lived a perfect life. And
God accepted him. The scriptures and the Psalms
say the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness. God is
well pleased with that man because he's a good man, he's a righteous
man, a holy man. And God said it out loud from
heaven. This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. God never said
that about anybody. But he said it about that man.
Well, we're accepted in him. God put us in him. God charged
us with what he did. gave to us what Christ did, and
gave to Christ what we had come unto us—judgment, wrath, damnation. We are accepted in the Beloved. It doesn't mean he makes us acceptable. No, we are still sinners until
the day we die, until the day he presents us faultless, unblameable,
unreprovable in his sight, without sin. We are still unacceptable
in ourselves. But we're accepted in the Beloved. Right there is the heart of the
gospel, of God's grace. God gave him what we did, sin. And God gave us what Christ did,
holiness. He's made unto us all these things.
All right, we're accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have
redemption. No doubt about it, we have it.
through his blood, the forgiveness of sin. It's according to the
riches of his grace. Do you see that? His grace, his
grace, his grace. This is the gospel of God's grace.
Look at that chapter two. Let's go through chapter two
a little bit. This is the gospel of God's grace. This is what
God uses. You notice I'm not asking anybody
to do anything. I'm not asking sinners to accept
Jesus. None of that stuff. That's not
in here. This is all a declaration of
what God hath done for his people. And this is the power of God
unto salvation. This is what God Almighty uses. The declaration of who God is
and what he's done for his people in Christ is what God Almighty
uses to open the eyes, ears, and heart to give life to dead
sinners. Yes, sir. Look at chapter 2,
verse 1. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. That was you. That's you. Among
whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That
is, hating the God of the Bible. Isn't that right? We might not
have said it, but we lived it. We lived that way without giving
God a thought. That's right. But God. Here is the gospel of God's grace.
but God, who is rich in mercy. Mercy, mind you, mercy. This is sovereign mercy. Mercy. Sovereign mercy. Mercy means
not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what you don't
deserve. Do you understand? Grace is getting
what you don't deserve. It's somebody giving you something
you didn't earn. Mercy is God sparing or not giving
us what we do deserve. We're saved by sovereign mercy. That is, he shows mercy on whom
he will. Thank God he shows mercy at all.
He doesn't give some what they deserve. And sovereign grace,
that he gives them what they don't deserve. Sovereign mercy. and great. This is the gospel,
the good news. And he says, But God, who is
rich in mercy, that is, he has a lot of it. He shows a lot of
it. He shows a lot of it. For his great love wherewith
he loved us. Who's the us? Well, he's been
saying it from chapter 1. The saints, the faithful, those
who have been chosen by him before the foundation of the world,
put in Christ, predestinated His great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together
with Christ, raised us together with Christ by grace." By grace, you say? Salvation
by grace. By grace. and has raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus that in the ages to come." Now, here's what heaven's going
to be all about. This is what we're going to be singing about,
God's people, those that love grace now, those who've been
elected by his grace, chosen by his grace, saved by his grace,
who've heard this gospel of God's grace, who love it, love the
sound of grace, grace, who are kept by his grace. It says that in the ages to come,
verse 7, he is going to show us the exceeding riches of his
grace. Brother Kelly, God is going to
show us how that he did it all for us. Everything concerning that. He
predetermined it, purposed it, and willed it, and gave to us,
and did for us, and kept and taught us and this and that and
the other. The exceeding riches of his grace
and his kindness, how kind he was toward us, how? How? Through Christ Jesus. For Christ's
sake, for Jonathan's sake. You see? Verse 8, for by grace, in case
you didn't hear it the first time, he said, I'll tell you
again, it's by grace you're saved. Through faith, yes, we believe. We must believe. Without faith
it's impossible. But that's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. That's the grace of God. Verse
19 of chapter 1 says, exceeding greatness of his power to us
who believe, we believe according to the working of his mighty
power. See that, chapter 1, verse 19? Why do we believe? It's the working of his mighty
power, the Holy Spirit. God sends the Holy Spirit and
says, give that young person faith. Give them faith. It's all a gift. Grace is what
we're talking about here. Grace. And I'll go back to the
text in Acts chapter 11. This is the gospel of God's grace.
And this is what Barnabas saw had happened at Antioch. This
is what the preachers that went there preached. Read it. Read God's Word. And this is what Barnabas saw
at work. And I've seen it at work here.
I've seen it. And I'm still seeing it, and
hope to see it even more. Grace seen, look at verse 21
again. It says, You know, most people don't believe
what you just read. You know that? You know it's
so. Because it was so about you when you first read it and heard
it. You didn't believe that. I don't believe in that. Like
a man told me, I don't believe in that predestination. Why not? That's God's Word. Why wouldn't you believe? It's
not given unto them. It's not given unto them to believe.
That's the grace of God. It's a gift. But God is rich
in mercy. Gave you this belief in what
you once did not believe. Right, Robin? Grace is somebody
believing what they once rejected. The natural man, we saw that
I told myself I wasn't going to holler again today. The natural
man, in 1 Corinthians 2, the scripture says, the natural man
receiveth not the things of God. They're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually disabled. So grace, the grace of God comes,
and you believe what you once rejected. And you begin to love
what you once hated. You turn from your former course
that we read about, who walked according to the course of this
world. You turn from that. Do you just turn of your own
free will? Do you just one day, I think I'll turn to the Lord? Oh, no, you're turned. The Lord,
the Scripture says, turn us, Lord, and we'll be turned. I'll
not be turned. We've got a fellow in here who
trains horses. And there's no horse on the top side of this
earth that will turn without being turned. Will they? No, they don't want to turn to
you to be ridden and to be domesticated. No, no, no. They run their own
way, mostly to destruction. And every man, the Scripture
says, has gone his own way. But the Lord, in sovereign grace,
turns. Look at verse 21. It says that
they turned unto the Lord, the Lord, the true God. We've been reading that, haven't
we, in Exodus? I am the Lord, Jehovah, the independent one,
the eternal one. Everything I am and I do is independent,
not dependent on anybody, and eternal. Whatever I said from
the beginning, it will be done forever. But I'm Jehovah. And he said in Isaiah 43, I've
chosen you that you might know me, that I am Jehovah. I've chosen you. You don't know
that until I tell you. Like the Israelite. And you don't
believe it until he makes you. And you sure don't love it until
he gives you a heart petition. This is all grace, he said. Look
over at 1 Thessalonians 1. It says they turned unto the
Lord. 1 Thessalonians 1. Turn over
there quickly. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. You know these verses. I don't
grow tired of them. Do you? This is my story. This is my song. Praising the
Savior. He did the saving, he did the
calling, he did the choosing, he did the dying, he did the
working, he did it all, it's all by his grace. 1 Thessalonians
1 says, knowing, brethren, verse 4. Well, verse 1, he says, grace
unto you. He says that in every epistle,
and he ends it that way, every epistle ends it that way. Grace
to you, because you're saved by grace. Knowing, verse 4, brethren,
beloved, your election of God. Four, this is how you do it.
Our gospel came. Not this other one. Not the false
gospel. Not another one. But our gospel
came to you, not in word only, but in power. Life-giving, regenerating,
turning power. And in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance, read on. And it goes on to say, down in
verse 9, that those who heard about these
people, those who knew them, verse 9, they show us what manner,
or that is how this gospel came, of iterating we had of you and
how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true
God. God turned you from idols. What's an idol? An idol is a
man-made god. You see, people don't worship idols
in America today. They do over in some of these—oh,
no, wait a minute, it might not be—well, there's lots of statues. There's still lots of statues
in America. You go and average—well, there's lots of them. Lots of
them. A lot of people have them around
their neck. Some fellow hanging on a piece of wood, an idol. But idol is a man-made god. An idol is a little figurine
or something, a picture or something, that you make of your conception
of God. A man-made god. And an idol can
only do, now listen to me, an idol can only do what man lets
him do. Right? An idol is a man-made
God that can only do what man lets him do. That's clear enough, isn't it?
Does that sound familiar? The God of this world, these
gods that people are talking about, they're named Jesus and
they're called God, but they can only do what man lets them
do. Is that the one you believed
in? Darnell, is that the one you believed in before? Sherry, before you heard of the
true God, is that the one you believed in? If you let him be
your Lord? Roberta, is that the one? Everyone
in here is nodding. Is that right? Irene, is that the one you believed
in? But now, does the God of the
Bible do what you let him do, or do you do what he lets you
do? This is the living God. Scripture says, Paul, when he
went to Mars Hill and stood up there and preached, he said,
The God in whose hands our breath is. The God in whom we live and
move and have our being. The God of the Bible is the living
God. He's called that all the way through the scripture, the
living God, meaning he is life. You hear people say things like
this, God will change your life. Here it says we're dead until
he gives us life. God doesn't change life. Listen
to me now. It doesn't say that anywhere.
He changed his life. No, no, we're dead in trespasses
and sin. until God gives us life. The word quicken means to be
given life. Born from above means you don't
exist until somebody gives birth to you. There's a sign over here on one
of these false places that says if you don't like the way you
were born the first time, try being born again. Did that baby inside Mrs. Park's
stomach right now, did she decide to get there? He said, don't
be ridiculous. Did she try to be born? Did she
exercise? He said, that's foolish. That's less foolish than all
this talk today about getting into God's kingdom, getting into
God's family, you know, born, being, making yourself a spiritual
creature when you're nothing but flesh. Nicodemus couldn't figure it
out, could he? How can a man be born again? Can he enter his
mother's womb? No, he can't. You must be born
from above. Somebody has to give birth to
you. How does he do it? Right here. This seed. This opens the eyes of people.
It's like there was a day when the father's seed was planted
in her womb, and something there. It never was
there before. Where did it come from? The Father. It's a new creature. It didn't
create itself. And one day God takes this same
word, it's a new thing, it's a brand new, it's a strange doctrine
to Moses. And when God's pleased, opens
an ear to hear it. And the eye is to see it, and
the heart... And they believe what you never believed before,
see what you never seen, hear what you never heard before. Blue creature. Where am I? Idols. Turn from idols to the
living. That's what I'm trying to say.
To the living God. The true God. Do you notice that? The living and the true God.
You turn from an idol. Well, I don't believe that. Well,
go back to your idols then. Go on. Old Dove. Was it Hosea in the
last chapter of John that said Dove? I love that. I've got to quote it. He said
Dove. What have I to do anymore with
idols? I've heard him. I don't want
a God that I can control. Do you? I don't want a God who
can only do what I let him do. I want a God to lead me to my
own free will. Do you? Oh, no. I want a God in whose hands I
am and everything. Don't you? I'm not going to have anything
to do with idols anymore." Well, we turn to the living and true
God from idols. Go back to the text. Maybe you're
already there. No? You were in 1 Thessalonians. But, you know, let me say one
more thing about this. Most folks argue against this
by saying, you're calling God sovereign. What they say about God makes
God a tyrant. Now, you tell me which it is.
You tell me who's pulling the strings. You tell me who's manipulating
it. Come on out in front of this
book. It can only be one God. He either is or he isn't. God's either sovereign or he's
not. All right? So living in a true
God. God in whom we live, this grace,
the gospel of God's grace, is seen several ways, the effects
of it. And I've seen it here, and I
hope I'm seeing it again in some. And what this gospel of God's
grace, how you see it in people, is it brings repentance. It brings repentance. Now, repentance
is more than just admitting that you did something wrong. Repentance is more than just
admitting that you, my dad always says, stole a watermelon. People
back in that generation, Henry would tell you about all the
meanness they'd get into is steal watermelons. That's not repentance. Repenting, being sorry for that.
Repentance, all in all, repentance is saying everything about me
is wrong. The word repent means turn. Everything
about me is wrong. Everything about me is sinful. Everything about me, all that
I thought I knew is wrong. Everything I thought I knew about
God is wrong. Everything I thought about myself is wrong. I'm wrong,
and I'm guilty. It's not sins. I am full of sin. I can't think
right thoughts. I can't do right things. I'm just wrong. Everything about
me is wrong. That's what this gospel brings
a person to understand. God be true. Every man a liar. Wrong. And it brings repentance. Repentance, as one old preacher
said, repentance is repentance for what you are. Sin. What we
do is a product of what we are. Paul said, oh wretched man that
I am. Paul said the things that I would
do, I don't do. The things that I would not do,
that's what I do. Why am I this way? I'm a sinner. It's to repent of what you are.
It's to repent of what you've done. My sins are ever before
me, and my sin. And that old preacher said repentance
is repentance over self-righteousness. It's to repent to God and repentance
toward God. Say, I thought I was a good person.
I thought surely you were pleased with me. I thought, but oh, I'm
just self-righteous. I realize it. And this is my
next point. Grace brings faith. True faith. I've already said faith in God. No, God is God. But faith in
Christ. Faith is faith in Christ. Saving faith. My God's grace is faith in Christ. It takes a man, a guilty, repentant
person, and points them to Christ and Christ alone. To show them
that Christ is all their hope of salvation. And nothing they
do, ever have done, do now, or ever will do, but it's all Christ. Faith is in Christ. Faith is
in Christ. Faith is in Christ. Faith is
in Christ. Saving faith that God gives and
must show a human being is that all your hope of eternal life
is in Christ. His righteousness, it's more
than a doctrine, that's the wedding garment. And His blood, more than a doctrine,
it's wiped out, it's wiped out your past. His blood, the only
thing God can't see through is blood. Or their doctrine? Faith is in Christ, and Christ
alone. That's the gift of God. Most
people look, a lot of people have faith in their faith. Faith in their prayers, or faith
in their mama's prayers, or faith in their church, or faith in
their preacher, or faith in their baptism, or faith in this, faith
in that, faith in their new lease on life, faith in whatever. Faith
is in Christ. Faith is in that one who is at
the right hand of God right now, who shed his blood for guilty
sinners. One hundred percent faith in
him. Can you say that? Huh? Can you from the heart,
with the heart men believe in, under righteousness? Can you
say from the heart, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus
Christ's blood and righteousness. I dare not trust anything else
but holy lean on Christ's name, on Christ's That solid foundation
rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Yes, on Christ I stand. You say that from the heart.
Huh? Well, that's by God's grace.
That's by God's faith. Grace seen is faith. Grace seen
is humility. When you see a person saved by
God's grace, when you see the effects of this preaching of
God's sovereign grace, it makes people humble before God. And people, if there's one thing
that describes this present religious generation more than anything
else, one characteristic, one attitude, it's pride. Isn't it? You know it's so if
you're honest. Pride, all these bumper stickers,
they're not bragging on Jesus or bragging on whatever it may
be. They're bragging on themselves.
They're trying to show everybody how religious they are. Just
like the old Pharisees who made broad their phylacteries to show
everybody what great Pharisees they were. It's pride in themselves. But what this gospel of God's
grace brings is humility. Oh, if you're upset, wait, everybody
needs to know about it. If God saved you by His grace,
everybody will know about it. Yes, sir, without you having
to... Our Lord said, when you do your
alls, don't sound a trumpet. Here I come. I'm a Christian. That's pride of yourself. But
it brings humility. Humility. Someone, when the grace of God
comes to them, what they say from then on, their motto, their
statement of faith is this, by the grace of God, I am what I
am. Is that right? Oh, yeah. Yeah,
but you believed it by grace. Yeah, but you repented, didn't
you? That's the goodness of God. It's the grace of God. Yeah,
but you're not doing what you... It's the Holy Spirit keeping
me from... Yeah, but you're going to church now. I wouldn't go
if it wasn't His sovereign grace. Yeah, but what? I am what I am
by the grace of God. I'm nothing in myself. This gospel
of God's grace brings humility. Genuine. Heartfelt. Truth and
humility. If it's not there, the grace
of God is not there. The grace of God seen brings
love. It brings love. I mean God's people,
when the gospel of God's grace comes, they love to hear about
God being gone. They just love it. They don't
just say, well, I believe it and I accept it. That's what
it says. I sure don't like it, but I have
to. No, they love it. They love God being God. The
more you talk about God being sovereign, the more you talk
about God being sovereign, and electing, and choosing, and keeping,
and working, and holding, and predestinating, and purposing,
and will, the more they love it. They love it. Don't you,
Matt? Love it. I see it on your face.
I'm seeing it. There was a time, buddy, There's
another Bud. A fella came down from Michigan
to visit me one time and he said, sure are a lot of people named
Bud around here. Bud, there was a time when, you
didn't believe this, all you do now, when we talk about anybody,
it speaks about God being on the throne. Smile, love it. Love God being God. This is what
it means, all things work together for good to them that love God. That love God. Buddy, my dad was always dad,
and he still is dad. I love it that way. I wish I
was still under his roof. I wish he was still making the
payments, still doing all this for me. Well, bless God, our
God is. Some people don't love that. You do. Why? Why do you? God's grace. God's grace. They love Christ being Christ.
They love Christ's righteousness being their only hope. They love the truth because it's
God's truth. They love the brethren. They
don't just go around telling everybody and saying it and spouting
off. They really do love the brethren. You can see it, but that's who
they hang around with. They love the things of God. You can see it because when the
things of God are being talked about, that's where they are. The grace of God seen, and I've
got to quit, brings a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. Grace in the life. They want
to be like Christ. They really do. It changes them. It does. It changes. The fruit
of the Spirit is in all love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, long-suffering, all these things.
The fruit of the Spirit. This is what happens to them.
Grace in the life. Well, Barnabas, go back there
to our text. Barnabas saw this. He saw this
in the people he was preaching to. And I see it this morning.
I sure do. I don't see it in everybody.
I'm not infallible. Maybe the Lord is beginning this
work in somebody I don't know about. But after a while, it
shows up in a nod every now and then,
a smile, and eventually they kind of make their way down here,
and they kind of got to tell everybody about God's grace to
them. But I see it right here. I sure
do. I'm so glad. I'm so glad. It's upsetting that more people
don't, isn't it? You grieve for those that don't. You're sad
for them. You wish they would. There's
nothing you can do about it. It's God's grace, though. Well, and
it says he exhorted them, verse 23, let's quit with it, he exhorted
them all that with purpose of heart, with purpose of heart,
they would cleave unto the Lord. I probably ought to reserve this
for a whole complete message, but let me go on. Exhort. Do you remember that
message on reprove, rebuke, exhort? Exhort. It means to call near,
to come on now. Right, Ron, when you say like,
come on now, exhort, or would you come on, please? Exhort,
beseech, to urge, compel. He exhorted them all. I exhort
you all, male, female, young, old. I exhort you all. exhorted
them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto
the Lord." Now, this is fresh on our minds, because every single
marriage that is performed here, I read from Ephesians 5. Ephesians
5, the last A couple of verses says, For this cause shall a
man leave his father and mother, that he might be joined, that's
taken from Genesis 2, the word is cleave, that he might cleave
unto his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Now this is
a great mystery, he said. But I speak unto you, he said,
of Christ and his church. this cleaving to the Lord. He got to leave somebody else
to cleave. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother to cleave to his wife, and she to him,
and they become one. Cleave. He leave someone else.
He leave someone else. Would you turn in closing to
the book of Ruth, chapter 1? Can you find that real fast?
Because you've got to see this. This is what it means to be saved. Salvation is a marriage. Salvation
is a marriage. It's for God Almighty to make
you fall in love with Him. It's for God Almighty to make
you fall in love with Him. God loved His people before the
world. But would you stay with me? Huh?
Come on, it's going to be in 40 minutes. Air conditioning
is working pretty well. You've got padded pews. I'm the
one standing up. Would you come on? Salvation
is for God Almighty to make you fall in love with Him. He has
to make you. He has to woo you. He has to
call you. He has to give you a heart to
it. By nature, children of wrath. Well, Ephesians. I read to you in Ephesians, it
says, this is a mystery of Christ and his church. And I, when I
perform a wedding, I got this from my father, and he reads
these very vows. He reads Ephesians 5, and then
he gives these, he asks this question. Everybody. So and so,
do you take so and so, whom you now hold by the right hand, you
lay hold of, You know, salvation is for God Almighty to lay hold
on you and say, You're mine. And when He does that, you know
what? You hold back. Not until He does that. But you
hold back. When Jacob was running and didn't
know God, God came to him and grabbed him. and wrestled with
him. God wrestled with him, it says.
He wasn't seeking God. God got a hold of him and wrestled
with him. Well, before it was over, Jacob
was wrestling too. Jacob found out who it was that
had him. He didn't want to let go. I got to holler at that. I got to. He didn't want to let
go. And before it was over, Jacob
said, I will not let you go until you bless me. I know who you
are. He's the angel of God. He's blessed.
You're Christ. I don't want to let go. He's
cleaving. He's cleaving. And buddy, the angel's cleaving to
him. So and so, Hannah Park, Do you
take Jesus Christ, whom you now hold to, laid hold on by faith,
to be your husband? Dan Ogle, do you take Jesus Christ,
whom you have laid hold of by his grace, to be your husband? See, we're all the bride. He's
the groom. Huh? Do you? Gladys Hodges. Do you take Jesus
Christ? Do you promise in the sight of
Almighty God and these witnesses that you will be to Him a true
and devoted wife? What do you say? By God's grace,
I will. that you will love, honor, cherish,
and obey him in joy and sorrow, in prosperity the Lord gave, and in adversity the Lord taketh
away. That leaving all others, you will cleave to him, and him
alone As long as you both do live, Hannah, go ahead and say
it. Do you? Dan? I want to say it. I do. Yes,
sir, I do. By your grace. This is a marriage. It's a marriage. You fall in
love with Jesus Christ. And when the gospel comes, you
say, I do. I will. If God wills it, I will. By His
grace, I will. Ruth, this is what everybody
says to Christ, what Ruth said to Naomi in verses 16 and 17. Verse 15, Naomi said to Ruth,
your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. She has another god she believes
in, your sister-in-law, your sister-in-law. Won't you go with
her? Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. Her God's not God at all. Read
on. Ruth said, don't entreat me not
to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. Whither
you go, I will go. That is, if you entreat me. Now,
you're great. Where you lodge, where you are,
that's where I want to be. Remember, this is God's people
saying this to Christ. This is the marriage vow, Jeanette.
Carry it. Your people, my people. Your
God, my capital G-O-D. Where you die, crucified with
Christ, John. Where you die, I die. Where you're
buried, I'm buried. And the Lord do so to me, and
he will, if anything but death, join us, part us. And he said, with purpose of
heart, he exhorted them. Purpose of heart. Purpose of
heart. Out of the heart are these issues.
With the heart, men believe. With the heart. Purpose of heart. What's purpose? Since God's been so good to me, I want to live for His glory. Praise of the glory of His grace.
My children don't know Him. I want to be an example to them
now of what God's done for me. My family doesn't know Him. I
want to be an example. I hope that God will be gracious to
them too. Purpose of heart. Purpose. Live for His glory. Will I exhort you? Please. to
the Lord. Hold fast the beginning of your
confidence, steadfast in the end. Lay hold of the hope that's
set before you. Cleave to the Lord Jesus Christ
by His grace. All right, we're going to sing
in closing. Number 51. Number 51. Especially take note
of the fourth verse. Keep us, Lord, O keep us cleaving. still believe. Let's sing the
first, leave out the second verse, sing
all but the second verse. Let's sing. Praise the Savior, you who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Let me let us render
to Him all we are and have. Trust in Him, ye saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor God can set
us free.