Good morning, everybody. If you
would, take your hymnals and turn to page 355. Stand with
me. It's one of my favorite songs.
Love thinking about the mercy seat of God. 355, 355. From every stormy wind that blows
From every swelling tide of woes There is a call A sure retreat
is found beneath the mercy seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds The oil of gladness on our heads, a place that all besides
more sweet. It is the blood-bought mercy. There is a scene where spirits
bleed, where friend holds fellowship with friend. Though sundered
far, by faith they meet, Around on common mercy sleep. Howither could we flee from thee,
When tempted, desolate, dismayed, Or have the host of hell defeated? Had suffering saints no mercy
seen? Of their uneagled wings we soar
And sin and sense molest no more And heaven comes down our souls
to grieve, while glory crowns the mercy seat. Thank God for the mercy seat.
Amen. Yes. If you would now turn over
to page 256. It'll take me a minute longer. There we go. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, Though
trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control. That Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought! My sin, not in part, but the
whole! is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sighed, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Turn with me, if you will, to
Ephesians chapter 2. I was up in Kingsport Friday
night and Saturday morning, and this is what I preached up there. And somebody told me just to
emphasize Hollard one spot more than the other. But if you watch the service
and seen the services up there, this is what I preached. But
let me start in verse four, rain down through verse 10. But God who is rich in mercy
for his great love were with he loved us even when we were
dead in trespasses and sins. hath quickened us together with
Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up and 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
and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are
ye saved through faith, and that not of yourself, It's 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. Our blessed, blessed, blessed
Heavenly Father, God of heaven and earth, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God our Savior, eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God. And Father, we're so thankful,
blessed to be able to come into your holy presence. And Father,
we're thankful, so blessed to be here this morning. to be with
the saints of God. It's always a blessing to be
with the children of God. And our Father, we thank you
for keeping us in thy mercies, blessing the congregation here
to have two faithful preachers, two messages so God-honoring,
Christ-glorifying, and edifying to your people. And Lord, we
ask for your presence this morning not only here, but in the other
meetings that's going on this morning, especially the meeting
in Kingsport. God bless your people with their
meeting. And, Lord, we're thankful, thankful
for your people wherever they may be. God, please meet with
us this morning. Send the gospel. Make it run
well. Cause it to be a blessing. Cause
it to build up people in the faith. cause it to bring salvation
to some poor sinner's heart. And Lord Jesus, we ask that you
would please remember our loved ones, brothers and sisters in
Christ, and also remember our loved ones that don't know you,
our sons and our daughters, our friends and our family, children
and grandchildren. Lord, they don't know you, but
we ask for your mercies. Oh, God, get them lost. Please
be with them and have them. Show mercy for Christ's sake.
We were once enemies of God as they're enemies of God. And Lord,
you can slay that enmity. It's in their hearts towards
you. Slay it and reconcile them to yourself through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Forgive us of everything that's
so unlike you. Slothful mind, slothful spirit,
slothful in so many ways. God, forgive us for Christ's
sake. Forgive me. God, enable me to bring glory
to yourself for Christ's sake. Amen and amen. All right, if
you stand with me, we'll sing the hymn of the day in your bulletin.
? Christ bears the name of all
His saints ? ? Deep on His heart engraved ? ? Attentive to all
His words ? The state and wants of all His love has saved. In Him, a holiness complete,
light and perfection shine and wisdom grace
and glory be a savior all divine the blood Which as a priest he
bears For sinners is his own The incense of his prayers and
tears Perfumes the Holy Throne. In Him my weary soul has rest,
though I am weak, and love. I read my name upon His breast
and see the Father smile. Well, I didn't know he could
sing. We've got a deep bench, don't
we? But I'm so grateful that he is
able and willing to do that this morning. I was surprised. It's wonderful to be back. I know that Sunday morning you
had Two wonderful, wonderful messages. I especially was blessed
by Brad's. Oh, I was so specially blessed
by that. I just sat there so blessed. And so it's so precious
to me. It touched my heart very, very
good. And, you know, he said it's through
his name that we have eternal life. He first started with his
name, the name. There ain't nothing but one name.
One name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. His name, His name. Well, I want
to deal with three blessed, blessed gospel words. Three glorious
gospel words this morning. And you know, words, words are
wonderful if you under know the meaning of them. If you know
the meaning. Words are wonderful. Like the
word dead. Now what does the scripture mean
when it talks about dead? Dead. He said, verse 1, it says,
you hath equated who were dead in trespasses and sins. That
means that the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit
of God. He can't know them. He can't receive them. He don't
understand them. He's dead. You can put a burden
on him. You can speak to him. He can hear everything that's
just said and done. But he cannot comprehend it.
He cannot grasp it. He can't get it. Because he's
dead. He can't hear. Dead man can't
hear. Dead man can't feel. Dead man can't react to what's
going on. And then what about quickening?
What is the scriptural meaning of quickening? It means to give
life. It means to raise from the dead.
It means to God, take that dead man that's in sins and trespasses
sin and quicken him from the death of his sins and give him
life to regenerate him. Give him a new heart, a new mind,
a new creature, a new creation. And then together, I want you
to look back up here at verse five and six and see what this
word together. This is what the scriptures means
about being together. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together, together with Christ. Quickened together
with Christ. In verse six, and hath raised
us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.
Whatever Christ did, we were together in that. He quickened
us from the death of sins together with Christ. Christ did that
for us. He raised us up together with Christ. We're seated together
in heavenly places in Christ. So am I. And then God. Oh, how
in the world can we talk about God? God Almighty. God who has all power. God who
inhabits eternity. God who the clouds are the dust
of his feet and the frost is the breath of his mouth. But
look what he said in verse four. But God, But God, we're dealing
with, if it hadn't been for God, if we didn't have that word,
uh, uh, uh, uh, Roland Browning, that's what he preached on. But,
that word, little, that word, little word, but, went through
the scriptures, just went through all the things that was happening.
Then he says, but, and that's the way this is. We were dead
in trespasses and sin, but God, but God, but God. Ain't she grateful that no matter
what's going on, there's God? Lost, but God. Dead, but God. Without love, but God. Without
mercy, but God. Without grace, but God. Oh, if
it hadn't been for God. What a whole lot. And then wealth.
Talking about wealth. Look in verse 7. That in the
ages to come, He might show the exceeding wealth riches, wealth
of His grace. And He's going to show us that
wealth of His grace throughout the ages to come. We're going
to spend eternity learning about grace. And if we look for a motive,
if anybody looks for a motive in God doing anything for us,
the scripture is the only thing that can answer why God does
anything for us. Look over in verse 5 of Ephesians
1. having predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. Here's the reason God
does anything. According to the good pleasure
of His will. Why does He do that? According to the good pleasure
of His will. Huh? Oh, look down verse 9. And this is what He does for
us. Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, Listen
to this now, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed
in Himself. Everything, well, the real motive
you can find is in God Himself. You can't find any motive in
yourself, you can't find any reason in yourself, you can't
find anything that you deserve, everything is according to the
good pleasure of His will and according to His purpose. And
I'm so thankful for that. And here in Ephesians 8, We have
three wonderful, glorious gospel words. And woe am I, for by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. And they're blessed, wonderful
gospel words. And the first word I want to
deal with is saved. Saved. The second word I want
to deal with, this glorious gospel word, is grace. And the third
one is faith. What glorious words is in this
one verse. Oh, blessed words. And to lots
of people, these words have lost their meaning because of overuse,
or they never understood what they mean anyway. You know, and
just like, it's like, you know, people's heard that God loves
you so much that it means absolutely nothing to them. They've heard
that Jesus loves you and Jesus died for you and we love you,
that it absolutely means nothing. It has no power, it has no effect. The only people who know anything
about the love of God and care about the love of God is God's
people. They're the only ones who care
about it. And if you ever find out what it is for God to love
a sinner, for God to love the unlovable, For God to love the
vilest, the most corrupt, the most despicable creatures on
the faith of God are worms of the earth. If you ever find out
that God loves, absolutely loves you, that'll just absolutely,
that'll overwhelm you. That'll just make you stand in
awe that God could love someone like me. Now, we fall in love
because of some attribute in somebody. The looks are some
character something about. We fall in love with people because
there's something about them. But God loves us and he can't
find anything good in us to love. But he does it. But he does it. But he does it. All right, let's
look at this word saved. Saved, saved. You know, if someone's
going to be saved, people say, I got saved. A woman asked me
one time, how are we supposed to say something? She hadn't
been a, she was just becoming a young believer. And she said,
should we say we've, that we've been saved or we are saved or
God saved us? We got saved or should we say
God saved us? I said, say the Lord saved us.
That's what actually happens. The Lord saves us. We don't get
saved by decision. You know, the only people that
want to be saved and need to be saved, and listen to what
I'm going to tell you. You got to be in danger. First,
you got to be in danger. Secondly, you got to be in trouble.
Thirdly, you need to be rescued. You can't rescue yourself. You
can't get yourself out of the danger, and you can't get yourself
out of the trouble, and you can't rescue yourself. And, oh, my,
what's one of the greatest danger we face? Sin. S-I-N. Oh, what an awful, awful
thing sin is. When Paul talked about sin, you
know what he said about it? Sin is exceeding sinful. Exceeding sinful. And I mean,
you're talking about in trouble over sin. Man, people think that
you sin with your hand and that you have to sin by doing something. But you don't have to do a thing
in this world to sin. You know where you sin at? In
your heart. If you do anything with your hands because it's
in your heart. A man don't become a thief when
he steals something. He steals something because he's
a thief. And that's what man's problem
is. He's got a heart problem. He's got a sin problem. He got
the sin of self-righteousness, the sin of self-will, the sin
of self-confidence, the sin of hypocrisy, the sin of lying. I mean, so many sins, but the
thing is, it's called S-I-N. Sin. Well, if we're in trouble
over sin, if we're in trouble over sin, that means that we're
in trouble with God, too. Because God says, I will by no
means clear the guilty. I won't clear the guilty. I won't
do it. There's no way I can clear a
guilty man. If a man's found guilty of sin,
if a man's found guilty of what he's done, and what he thinks,
and what he feels, and how he acts, if he's found guilty before
God, God's gotta punish that man. He cannot let him go. God has never, ever passed over
sin. God has, wherever he finds sin,
He has to punish it. He must punish it. God's law,
God's nature, God's holiness demands penalty, payment for
sin. Punishment for sin. Well, now there's either he's
gonna have to punish it in us or he's gonna punish it in somebody
else. And God in his sovereign, sovereign mercy, God in His love,
great God who is rich in mercy. For the great love we're with,
He loved us. Even when we were dead trespassers,
Christ quickened us. And oh, listen, there's only
one way that God can punish sin and stay holy and just and righteous
is for Him to find somebody willing and able to stand in our place. And you know what wisdom said
and mercy said and justice said and law said and holiness said? I'll send my son, my beloved
son, my precious son, my dear, dear son. I'll unbosom him from
my heart and I'll send him into this world and I'll make him
flesh I'll make him like unto his brethren, sin accepted. And
God said, if he's willing, I'll take all the sins of all of his
people, and I'll charge all their sin to him. Oh, from the first
man that sinned to the last man that sins, and God died for him.
Christ said, I'll bear all their sins. And let me tell you something. If God punished sins in Christ
and you're one of His, He can't punish you because He punished
you in a substitute and He can't punish sin twice. He'll never
ever punish sin twice. And God in justice took His blessed
Son and put our sins on Him. You just think about your sins
on Christ. But all the sins of God's elect
And here's the thing, Christ, who else could bear that many
sins? Who else had the power? Who else
had the ability? Who else had the willingness? Who else had the merit? Who else
had the virtue? Who else had the worth that God
would accept what he did on the behalf of all for whom he died
if it wasn't his son? And it's the virtue that he has,
the worth he has, and the glory that he has, and the worth that
he has, made him able to bear all our sins in his own body
on the tree. Huh? And let me tell you something. If Christ bore my sin, I don't
have no sin whatsoever. If He bore all my sins, God can't
come and get me. He's done had Him. Huh? That's what you call the gospel. That's the best news you'll ever
hear in your life. If you find out you're a sinner,
and you find out that God took your sin, your sin, and there's
Christ hanging on the cross in your place with your sin on Him, and God's wrath bearing down
on Him, God's justice demanding His death for sin, law being
upheld and God staying just and punished His Son in our room
and place. And if they're on Him, that means
He took them off of you and put them on Him. And God will never, ever come
looking for sin on you ever again. He'll never come looking for
you. he's already found the one that's born. And I'll tell you
something else, to show you that he did what God told him to do
and what he accomplished what God gave him to do, he was buried
and on the third morning he resurrected to prove that God accepted what
he did. And if He accepts him, what does
it say over in Ephesians 6? It says, to the praise, Ephesians
1, 6, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Listen to this
now. This is the glory of His grace. When He hath made us accepted,
we're at? In the Beloved. Accepted. Oh, to be accepted of God? We're
at? In God's Beloved. God's Beloved. Oh, my. Let me tell you something. Turn with me over to 2 Corinthians
1. Keep Ephesians now. Turn in 2
Corinthians 1. I want to show you salvation
in three tenses. Three tenses. And believers understand
this. And I hope I can help you, by
God's grace, to understand this too. Look what the apostle said
here in 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8. For we would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble." See, he's in trouble. He's in
trouble. That we were pressed out of measure. We was in such distress that
we even despaired of life. We was in such that we, you know,
this situation we're in is going to end up taking our lives, what
he said. We thought, well, we're going
to die right here. But what he said, and this is what every
believer does, we have the sentence of death in ourselves. Dead. Sentence of what? Sentence of
judgment, justice. I ain't got nothing in this flesh
to offer. I ain't got nothing to give to
God Almighty. Sentence of death in ourselves.
No, look what he says. And that we should not trust
in ourselves. We don't trust in ourselves.
Nobody that's saved by God's grace trusts in themselves. Now
watch what else he goes on to say. And here's the thing about,
but we do trust in God who raises the dead. Now that word delivered
means salvation. Who hath delivered us from so
great a death. That's that death of sins. And
doth deliver, and in whom we trust he will yet deliver us.
He has saved us, he is saving us, and he shall save us. And you know how often I need
to be saved? Every day. And I could not tell you, and
I've said this the other night, I could not tell you how many
times over in my life, my spiritual life, I've said, Lord, save me.
I want to be saved. I want to be saved. I really
want to be saved. I want to be saved for myself.
I don't trust myself. I want to be saved from my thoughts,
from my will, from self. I want to be saved. I want to
be saved. And once you ever cry out to
God the Savior, you'll always want to be saved. You'll always
want to be saved. We have, we are, and we shall.
We're being saved. We're being saved. And let me
tell you, let me give you a little illustration. A man is in a shipwreck. He's out in the sea in his shipwrecks. And he's over here in the water.
He's in trouble. He's in danger of drowning. And
he needs rescue. And he can't save himself. He
can't get himself out of the danger he's in. He can't rescue
himself. and he can't save himself from the dangers that he in.
But somebody comes along in a lifeboat and reaches out there and gets
him and pulls him into the lifeboat. Now the moment he's in that lifeboat,
he's saved. He's no longer in danger. He's
no longer in trouble. He's no longer needing rescue.
He's been brought out of the danger, been out of that, and
he's put in that boat, and he's saved the minute he's in that
boat. He may still have a little fear. He still may have some doubts.
He may, you know, maybe, oh, you know, oh, I'm so grateful,
I'm so grateful, but yet he won't feel real, real comfortable until
they get him up here on dry land. And that's the way we are. We
first become believers, we have a little fear, we have a little
doubt, you know, and Do we? But we're saved the minute, the
moment you believe on Christ, you're saved as you'll ever be.
Just like that man in that boat. You'll be, you're saved as you'll
ever be, just that quick. That's how long it takes. All
right, let me give you another word, grace. For by grace, verse
Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace are you saved, by grace. Grace,
grace, grace, oh, grace, oh, what a charming, charming sound. You know, the scripture is full
of this word, grace. Full of it, full of it. Oh, absolutely
full of it. It's 115 times in the New Testament
alone, the word grace, 115 times. In the Old Testament, it's 38
times in the Old Testament. And here in Ephesians, it's mentioned
12 times in 6 verses. 12 times the grace of God's mentioned. And I don't know how many times
in chapter 1 that it's mentioned. It's just in chapter 1. And grace,
grace, and I tell you, there's no other way you can address
it, but it's God's undeserved favor. It's undeserved favor. It's unmerited. by anybody. And what it is, it's the favor
or the grace one finds in the eyes of a superior from whom
he can't claim favorable treatment as a right. Now, who's more superior
than God Almighty? Who is higher than God? Who is
more powerful than God? And He's the only one that's
got grace. And the only grace He's got is in His Son. So if
we get any grace, we're gonna have to get it in the eyes of
God Almighty. That's where it's gotta come
from. It's gotta come from someone like Him. And I'll tell you what,
if anyone doesn't receive grace, if anybody doesn't receive grace,
what can you say? Nobody deserves it anyway. If
you ever deserved it, it ceases to be grace. It's like a man
asking, I read the other day where a man went and asked the
judge, please have mercy on my son. He said, your son don't
deserve mercy. He said, that's exactly what
mercy is. I know he don't deserve it, but
that's what mercy does. It comes to the undeserving.
Grace comes to the undeserving. NOBODY DESERVES GRACE! NOBODY
DESERVES GOD'S PRESENCE! NOBODY DESERVES GOD'S GRACE!
NOBODY DESERVES THE FAVOR OF GOD ALMIGHTY! NOBODY DESERVES
IT! OH MY! I KNOW, BUT I'LL TELL
YOU WHAT, BUT THERE'S PEOPLE, THE FIRST TIME THE WORD GRACE
IS MENTIONED, YOU KNOW WHERE IT'S AT? NOAH FOUND GRACE IN
THE EYES OF THE LORD. First time it's mentioned. And
you know what the conditions was when Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord? God looked down on the human
race and he said this, I see man's imaginations only evil
continually. Noah, I want you to build an
ark. He started building that ark
and built it for 120 years and he preached righteousness for
120 years. Not one soul believed Him. And that's the same way
we are today. We're in Noah's day. We're telling
about an ark, but nobody's interested. Nobody wants to get in the ark.
But God said, I'll tell you what. You take your wife, you take
your three sons and their three wives and get in there. Come
into the ark. And I'll tell you something.
He lets the rest of that world perish. in that flood. You say, well, that don't seem
right. Would it be right if God passed you by? And he very well may. You know, grace is, we just got
through saying grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. One man out of the whole human race. And you think
right now of all the people on the face of this earth, We would
be like eight people getting in that ark compared to everybody
else on this earth right now. That's how many billion people
live in China. And they worship Buddha and Confucius. You know the Roman God, the number
one Roman God was named Jupiter. They named the planet after it,
Jupiter. First Roman God. You reckon they deserve grace?
No, no, no, no. But oh my, grace. Let me tell you some folks that
got grace, found grace. David said to Mephibosheth, is
there any yet of the house of Saul that I may show kindness
to, that I must show grace to? He said, there's one, his name
Mephibosheth, and he can't come. He don't have the ability to
come. He can't walk. He's lame on his legs. Well,
I tell you what you do, you go get him and bring him to me.
That's what God says, you go get him and bring him to me. And you know what the first thing
out of his mouth was when he got in presence of the king?
He said, why thou lookest on such a dead dog as me? That's
what his estimate of his worth was in the sight of the king.
And what's our worth in the sight of God? Huh? Oh, my. And then there's that Canaanite
woman. Oh, bless her heart. I tell you, I love to think about
her. She come beg the Lord to please have mercy on her daughter,
have mercy on her daughter. Our Lord ignored her and ignored
her and ignored her, and she just kept on saying, come on,
come on, come on, have mercy, have mercy. He finally told her,
said, it's not right for us to give the children's bread to
dogs. And she said, yes, Lord, you're
exactly right. You're exactly right. But even
a dog gets to come from the master's table. He said, go thy way, thy daughter's
healed. Go thy way, thy daughter's healed. Thy daughter's healed. Oh my. You know, grace, what a blessed,
blessed thing grace is. And I will look over in Exodus
with me, chapter 33. Look in Exodus chapter 33 with
me. Exodus 33. Look down in verse thirteen. Now therefore I pray thee. He's
talking to the Lord now. If I have found grace in thy
sight. This is what everybody that God
gives grace to. Look what he says. Show me now
thy way. Lord show me your way. I want
to know your way. I want to know the way that you
take. I want to know your way. I want to know your way of grace. I want to know your way of mercy.
I want to know your way of salvation. I want to know you, your way. And if I know your way, I'll
know you, and that I may know that I found grace in thy sight.
And he said in verse 14, and my grace shall go with thee,
and I will give thee rest. And he said unto them, If thy
presence go not with me, don't carry us up here. And worsher
in shall it be known, in verse 16, that I and thy people have
found grace in thy sight. How shall we know? How shall
we know? And look what he said in verse
18. Moses said, Lord, I beseech thee,
show me my glory. God did. This is what God does. He said, I'll make all my goodness. before you. Oh, my goodness. Here we are. We sit here and oh, here comes
the goodness of God. Where's the goodness of God?
Oh, how good God is. How gracious God is. He said,
my goodness will pass before you. The goodness of my mercy,
the goodness of my grace, the goodness of my love, the goodness
of my power, the goodness of my sovereignty. I'll make all
my goodness to pass before you. And then look what else he says.
I'm going to reclaim the name of the Lord before you. I'm going
to tell you who I am. I'm going to tell you what I'm
like. And this, he said, this is my
glory. I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I'll
show mercy to whom I show mercy. And he said, Thou shalt cannot
see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. How can
we live if God nobody can see? The only place we can see God
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what he goes on to say.
And the Lord said, Beside me there's a rock. And there's beside
me a rock, and while it shall come to pass, my glory passeth
by. Now listen here, so my glory passeth by. I'm going to put
you in that rock. I'm going to put you in the cleft of that
rock. And look what he says, and I'm going to put my hand
over you. I'm going to put my hand over
you. Oh my. And I tell you what, and I'll
cover you with my hand while I pass by. Oh my. What is that rock that God puts
us in? Christ is that rock. He gives
us into Christ our rock. And then back over in our text
again, Ephesians 2. It says, for by grace are you
saved, not of yourselves. What does he say? It's the gift
of God. Salvation, being saved, is the gift of God. Grace is
the gift of God. It's free. God's not obligated
to give it. He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I'll be gracious. I'll show mercy to whom I show
mercy. Grace, grace is entirely dependent on God's will. God's
will, it's never deserved. If it's of works, then it's not
grace. If it's of grace, then it's not
of works. Ain't that what he says there
in verse 9? Not of works, not of works, because
if it's of works, a man's would boast. He would boast. Oh, my. And I tell you what, grace is
overwhelming. Grace is overwhelming. If you
got over God's grace yet, if you got over it and you're tired
of hearing about it, are you weary of hearing about God's
grace? You get to say, boy, I wish he'd
talk about something else every once in a while. ain't going to happen. It ain't
going to happen. I'm going to preach grace as
long as I'm alive and I got my right mind. Oh my. Men were overwhelmed and
grace has to come. We can't go to where it's at.
It has to come to us. Has to come to us. And grace
is God's love. Oh verse four. But God He's so
wealthy in mercy. How much mercy you reckon he's
got? And, oh, he loved us greatly,
loved us greatly. And, oh, my, it's unconditional,
it's unevoked, it's undeserved. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, has saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
I'm found. was blind, but now I see. It
was grace that caused my heart to fear. 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. And when we've been there 10,000
years by shining as the sun, we'll begin to sing his praise
which we just begun. 10,000 years we just begun. Oh,
that's overwhelming. Overwhelming. Overwhelming. Come
thou fount to my heart. To do what? Sing thy grace. All right. Oh my, look now down
at the next word. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Through faith. And I love, I
love how it expresses this. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourselves.
Grace is not of yourselves. Salvation is not of yourselves.
Faith is not of yourselves. Every one of these is a gift
that God gives us. And let me tell you something.
All faith has to be perfect. And you know where perfect faith
is found? We're saved by the faithfulness
of Christ. The Christ who loved me and gave
himself for me, I live by the faith. By the faith of who? The faith of Christ. And you
know, and this faith is not of yourself. Grace brings faith.
It's not of yourself. Faith is just an instrument.
It's an empty hand taking freely. Grace brought faith to us. People say, boy, it's exercise
your faith. You can't exercise something
you don't have. You can't. If you ain't got it,
you can't exercise it. You can't do it. But oh, it's
an empty hand. It takes everything freely from
God. And God has to give it freely.
God has to give it freely. Grace brought faith to us, and
what did it bring us to do? To where we could trust Him.
We can trust Him. That's why grace brought faith
to us, so we could trust Him. Faith trusts Him. Faith looks
to Him. Faith never, ever looks to itself. You know you hear people all
the time talking about their faith, my faith. My faith, my
faith has found a resting place, not in divisional creed. Oh,
it's not found faith there. Oh, no. But all my faith never
looks at itself, never ever trust itself, never looks to itself.
And I tell you, you know, the only thing that makes faith worth
having is its object. If your faith is your object,
then you ain't got no faith. It's object. And if object is
self, it's no good. If your object is your works,
it's not worth having. If it's by your free will and
some decision you made, by an old, old experience that you
had to go back someplace, sometime where you experienced something,
then you ain't got faith. If faith, I'm telling you now,
if faith has anything but Christ, If anything has anything but
Christ in His presence, Paul said, I know whom I have believed. If it has anything but His person,
anything but His blood as cleanses us from sin, any righteousness
but His righteousness, any love but His love, any faithfulness
but His faithfulness, it ain't worth having. It ain't worth
having. And I tell you, don't never ever
Ever, ever take your eyes of faith off of Christ. Don't ever
do it. You know all it'll do for you? Discourage you. Depress you. You start looking
at your circumstances and you know what you're gonna do? Oh,
I don't know if I'm gonna get through this or not. I'll tell you, this is a tough
road to hoe. Oh, if you start doing like that, you're gonna
get down and down and down and down. Let me tell you something. Just don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Make Christ to be
everything to you. Make Christ to be everything
to you. And then let me show you this real quick. In verse
10. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. His handiwork is workmanship. Since salvation is by grace and
not of works, it's the work of God, and we are His workmanship. Look what else it says in there.
Created in Christ Jesus. It's a new creation. God, in
saving a sinner, He has to create someone who never existed before.
That's what the new birth is. That's what it is. It's God bringing into existence
someone who never existed before. All I was was a natural man till
God came and regenerated me and made me a new creature, a creation. That's what it is. It's a creation.
He creates a new man, a spiritual man, a believing man, a man who
looks to Christ, trusts Christ. And before you never did. Now
you do. And that regeneration, that's
what happens. You know, God takes a person
and He, how does He make a new creation? First of all, He gives
them a new heart. Secondly, He takes their mind
and it's darkened and He turns on the light. Huh? And then He gives them new
understanding. Gives them new eyes to see things
He never saw before. Gives them new ears, said, well,
I never, I finally, I think I got it. I believe I see it. Now I see, now I understand what
you're saying now. Oh my, I'll tell you what, his
workmanship, and you know, he's the one who makes the choice
of who he creates. He which hath begun a good work
in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. We are
his, and every sinner Saved by God's grace through faith is
an exhibition of the grace of God. Grace of God. And oh, what a mystery of grace
that believers can find nothing good in themselves, but God said
he created them unto good works, and there's not a believer on
topside of God's earth to look at any work he ever done and
say, that's good. Nobody has ever looked at anything
they ever done and said, now, that's good. He can look to God
and say he's good, but he'll never look at anything he done
and say it's good. You know, people say all time
now, still I pray for you, say, I'll have a good thought for
you. I'll have a good thought for
you. Yeah, you just hold on, see how long that good thought
lasts. Don't last long, does it? Oh, my. Well, I pray that as
a blessing. I preached that Friday night,
and I thought, well, it won't hurt to try it again. I hope
it's a blessing. Our Father, in thy wondrous,
glorious mercy, thank you for meeting with us today. Thank
you for that abundance of grace that you give us in Christ, where
sin abounded, grace, grace, grace did much more abound. And Father,
bless these dear saints here today. God, I'm so grateful to
be here and be able to preach again, to be with them again. And Lord, strengthen them, encourage
them, and please bless and meet every need of every heart of
every home here and do it for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Amen and amen. There is a name
I love to hear. I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my heart. And faith is strength on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. how I loved Jesus, because He
first loved me. Now let me say something before
you leave. Taylor lost her brother. Zach's wife lost her brother
in an automobile accident. And they, on Venmo, you can send
money to help with the funeral expenses. But let me tell you
what the young man did. She told me about it this morning.
He gave his heart, went to what, a nine-year-old boy? Six-year-old? Six-year-old boy. Lungs went
to who? 19-year-old boy. Liver, heart, lungs, all went
to save other people's lives. Five people were saved by that
young man's death. Now, you talk about a blessing.
Now, it's awful that he's gone. But he was a young man and five
people, young people, a six-year-old, a nine-year-old, and a 19-year-old. And Zach told me that all five
of those people are going to keep in touch and want to meet
him. That is something, ain't it?
That's an incredible thought. That's an incredible thought.
So you remember them in prayer. And if the Lord blesses you to
give towards his funeral expenses, you do that. And we love you
in appreciation. You see tonight at six o'clock,
God willing.