I want to ask a very unusual
question today. In these verses that I read, where he said there, O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death. And then he said there in verse
20, Now if I do that, that I would not, if I do things that I say
I will not do it, I wouldn't do it, then it's no more I that do it.
But why I do what I do is because of sin that dwells in me. Sin that dwells in me. I'm gonna
ask you an unusual question. Why does God allow sin to remain
in us? Why does He do that? God, when
He saved us, He could eradicate sin in us and took us to glory
just like that. Anybody that, you know, the power
that He has to take a heart of flesh out, a heart of stone and
put in a heart of flesh, a God that's got the power to give
you new life, quicken you from the death of your sins, make
you a new creature in Christ, and uphold you day in and day
out, why would He allow sin to remain in us? Why would He do
that? You know, Paul, he started out
as an apostle. Then he says, I'm the last of
the least of the saints. Then he said, though I be nothing,
And then when he got to the end of the road, he got to the end
of his life, he says, Though I be the chief of sinners, he
just started up here and kept coming down, down, down, down,
down, down, down, down. You know, we find here a strong
believer, Paul the apostle, strong, strong believer, a mature believer. dealing with the warfare that
goes on in every believer's heart and mind. I mean, there's a struggle
that goes on in every heart and every mind of every believer
that's ever been saved by the grace of God. That's why I said
it's no more I that do it. When I would do good, I want
to do good, and the will is present with me to perform, but how? How? WHAT KEEPS ME FROM BEING
AS HOLY AND AS GRACIOUS AND AS KIND AS I WANT TO BE, AND NOT
SIN LIKE I DON'T WANT TO? WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THE MATTER
WITH US? Oh, my! And we read the Bible,
we read the Scriptures, and we read what God plainly revealed
in the lives of all of His Saints, you start out with Noah. Look
at Noah. God saved him in an ark. He preached
righteousness for 120 years. He got off that ark, planted
him some grapes. Next thing you know, he got drunk
and was naked laying in his tent. What about Abraham? He goes down
into Egypt, goes down into Gera, and he says, Denison, I said,
you tell them that you're my sister, because they'll kill
me, because you're so beautiful, they'll kill me and take you.
So he said, twice he did that, twice. He just flat out lied,
because he scared more for himself than he cared about his wife.
That's Abraham. What about David? out walking on top of his house
one day, out the palace, he looks down and he sees a woman. She's
bathing a little bit. He's the king, said, go tell
her to bring her up here to me. Ends up having a child by her.
And then he gets upset at her husband because he won't come
and lay with his wife because he's in the army. He said, he
told his general, Joab, put him in the heat of the battle. He
got killed. He said, I want him to die. So
he committed adultery, took another man's wife and had her husband
killed. And then what about Simon Peter? Lord, I'll die with you. I'll
go to prison with you. And then before the rooster crowed
twice, he had denied the Lord three times. Now, if God says
that and talks about those kind of things, and we find that there's
so much evil and sin, and the most, most honored and dedicated
believers in the Bible, people that we often talk about, and
we know, we know that these men knew God, we know that they loved
the Lord, we know that they loved God, we know that they worshiped
God, But there stands their lives with these black marks in them,
black marks in their character and in their histories. And in
our own hearts and in our own lives, we are painfully, painfully,
painfully aware that we are sin through and through. We can't
even come into a building like this and gather with one another
to worship that our minds don't wonder sometimes. And we as believers, we still
see and we learn more and more that we re just a mass of corruption. That s why the Lord says, Watch
and pray that you enter not in temptation, the Spirit s willing,
but this old flesh is so weak, so weak. But let me tell you
something, we certainly blunder, we fall, we stumble, And we sin, but I'll tell you
something we do not do. We do not excuse or justify any
sin that we ever do. We don't excuse it and we don't
justify it. Oh no, but we condemn ourselves
for it. We condemn ourselves for it.
And why, why did God plainly record the sins of these fathers
of the faith, and why does He allow sin to remain in us? The answer is simple. It really
is simple. You know why He does that? Why
He allows sin to remain in us? to constantly and continually
remind us that salvation is by the grace of God entirely and
completely and always by the grace of God. Can you imagine what we would be
without God's grace? Huh? Oh my, we understand that
salvation is entirely of the grace of God. I love the word
FREE GRACE because a lot of people use grace, but when I talk about
free grace I mean that God does everything FREELY by His grace
for His people and His people alone. Salvation is NEVER in
our doings, NEVER in any doing that we ever do, but in HIS doing
His doing and His dying. I seen this morning, when they
had on a church sign, they said, keep Christ in Christmas. I told
Shirley, right at the meeting, I said, keep, we got to have
Christ all the time. Don't just put Him in Christmas.
Christ, Christ is all in all. They want to keep him in one
day. I want him every day, all the
time. Don't you? One day a week, one
day a year won't do me any good. Oh no, and I tell you the scriptures
tells us. Look over in Romans 11. Look
in Romans 11 verse six. You know, So many people think that their
doings, that they do something to get a blessing from God, but
oh my, God lets us sin, makes us constantly understand that
salvation is by grace alone. But look what He said here in
verse 6, Romans 11, 6, And if salvation
is by grace, if it s by grace, then it s not of works, no more
works. Otherwise, grace is really not
grace, But if it be of works, then it s no more grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. He said it s either grace or
works. If you start working, then there
s no grace involved. And if it s grace all involved,
then works is not involved at all. And oh my, it s God who
saved us! and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. And I tell you, salvation is
not in our righteousness, no, no, no, but His righteousness
being given to us. We stand alone in the righteousness
of Christ. There's never any time, NEVER
any time in our lives, NEVER any time in anybody's life where
they have a righteousness that they have of their own. They
may THINK they do, but the ONLY RIGHTEOUSNESS that we can stand
in the SIGHT of God with is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of the LORD JESUS
CHRIST! And oh, my! That's why Paul says,
he says, you know, he said, I don't FRUSTRATE the grace of God! I'm
not going to FRUSTRATE it! He said, Grace or salvation,
if salvation come by the law, then why in the world did Christ
die? And if man's gonna be saved by
anything he thinks or does, then why did Christ die? What's the
purpose in the death of Christ? That's why I said I'm not gonna
frustrate the grace of God, I'm gonna trust in what Christ did
and Him alone. Oh my, none of salvation. is
EVER, EVER dependent on my works, and I'll tell you something else
it's not dependent on, on our feelings. On our feelings. Sometimes I
feel good, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I get so full of joy
when I'm preaching, I can't understand myself. But feelings come and
go, but the Word of God stands forever. And I'll tell you, our
feelings have NOTHING to do with our salvation. Absolutely nothing. Listen, how many days a week
do you feel like you're saved? How often do you feel like, boy,
I feel saved? Most of us don't feel that way
sometimes. You know when we feel the saved
the most? When we're sitting under the
gospel. You know the gospel puts us in,
or it puts us out. And oh my, but our salvation
never at any time upon our feelings. Our salvation depends upon God's
grace given us in Christ of the Lord Jesus Christ who is our
surety. Paul says, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Now listen
to me. Yet not I, but how do you live
then Paul? I live by the faith of Jesus
Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. That's how I
live. I live by the faith of the Son
of God. Oh, Paul said, by the grace of
God, I am what I am. Now, I want you to look over
in 1 Peter 5 with me. Now, keep Romans if you can and
look over in 1 Peter 5. And look in verse 10, 1 Peter
chapter 5 and verse 10, you all remember the story where the
Lord Jesus Christ was in a Pharisee s house eating, and a woman came in there, and she began to cry and weep
and wash the Lord s feet with her tears and wiped them with
the hairs of her head. And old Simon, he said this,
he said, boy, I said, if this man were a prophet, he'd know
what kind of woman this is. What do you reckon is wrong with
her? She is washing Christ's feet. She is kissing His feet. She loved Him, it's obvious.
But if this man were a prophet, he'd know what kind of woman
this is. What in the world's the matter with her? Well, she's
a sinner. She's got sin. Our Lord looked
at Simon and said, Simon, I got something to say to you. I got
someone to ask you what? He said, a man owed 500 pence,
$500, $5,000, nothing, just owed 50. And frankly, neither one of them
had anything they could pay. They couldn't pay. They didn't
have nothing to pay with. So there's in debt. He said,
But yet, they were frankly both forgiven of their debt. Which
one do you think will love Him the most? He said, the one that
was forgiven the most. He said, this woman, right here. Though she has much sin, she
is forgiven. And that's what the Lord is talking
about. You know, to point Simon pointed at her sin, Christ
pointed at what He did for her. And oh my, look in verse 10 with
me, 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 10. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen,
settle you. Oh, the God of all grace, That
s what He is. He s called the God of peace,
the God of patience, the God of all grace. His grace is eternal. God s eternal, so everything
He does and has is eternal. His grace is eternal! And then
what about His ELECTING grace? that He graciously elects a people,
chooses a people, and makes them His own. And I tell you what,
what about effectual grace? It's one thing to intend to give
somebody grace, but to effectually give it to them, I mean, give
it to them in such a way that they can't refuse it. Give it
to them in such a way that they say, oh, listen, I can't refuse
that. Oh my, you know, open your heart,
Christ opens our hearts, and oh my, effectual grace, He called
us, then look what else it says, Who hath called us, He called
us. How did He call us? Unto His
eternal glory. Who did He do it by? By the Lord
Jesus Christ. CALLED A SON TO HIS ETERNAL GLORY
BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. AND THEN LOOK WHAT HE SAYS, WE'RE
TALKING ABOUT NOW ENABLING GRACE, LOOK WHAT HE SAID, AFTER THAT
YOU SUFFERED A WHILE. THERE'S NOT A PERSON IN THIS
BUILDING THAT DON'T SUFFER, SOME. SOME SUFFERS MORE THAN OTHERS,
BUT THERE'S ALWAYS BEEN SOME SUFFERING IN YOUR LIFE, AND IF
THERE HASN'T BEEN MUCH, THERE WILL BE. AND THAT'S WHAT HE SAYS,
HE SAYS, ENABLING GRACE AFTER YOU SUFFERED A WHILE. And every
once in a while, he'll say, it's time for you to suffer a while.
Ain't you glad it says just a while? Don't say all the time, it says
just a while. And then, oh my, look at enlightening
grace. And I said, I've suffered make
you perfect. Oh my, make you perfect. Grace for grace, from faith to
faith. And oh my, it's after you've
suffered a while, look what else, then this grace that ensures
that we're gonna be kept. Make you perfect, oh my. Make you perfect, listen to this
now. Establish you, strengthen you,
and settle you down. That's what grace does. And you
know who's the God of grace? God of grace says, I'm gonna
make you perfect. I'm gonna establish you, I'm
gonna strengthen you, and I'm gonna settle you down. You know
you're settled whenever you trust Christ and Christ alone. Your
heart's settled, your soul's settled, your mind's settled,
your faith is settled. Everything about you is settled
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, and I tell you what, this
is the true grace of God. We're in your stand, John said.
Now, go back over in our text. Oh, the God of all grace. God
leaves sin to make us understand. Do you reckon, oh, I remember
what it's trying to be saved by doing something. I remember
very well. There was never no peace. Never
no peace, never no rest, never no comfort. Just never got through
doing until one day God called me by his grace. When God separated
us from his mother's womb, called us by his grace to do what? To reveal his son in us. to reveal His Son in us. All
right, I'll tell you what, here's the second thing why He allows
sin to remain in us. Oh, what an unusual question.
The second thing is there in verse 18. Yeah. For I know, boy, we know this,
I know that in me That is in my flesh, and when he's talking
about the flesh, he's talking about our old nature, this old
body. I know that in me, that in my flesh dwelleth, listen
to this, there's not a good thing dwells in us. Not one good thing
dwells in us, ain't that what he said? And then this is one
thing, everybody knows this, everybody's got this in their
heart and soul, for the will is present with me. Every one
of us had the will this morning to come here. We had the will
present with us to come and listen to the gospel. We have the will
to come here and believe Christ and ask God to have mercy and
grace. We got the will. We got the will
in us that God, if you had helped me and not let me, I'd never
sin again. I'd never have a harsh thought. I'd never have an unkind word
come through my lips. I'd never set any judgment on
anybody. But oh my. Oh, no good thing,
no good thing. But oh, I've got the will, but
how? How to perform that will that I have? How are we gonna
do it? How do you perform that will
that you have, that perfect will, that, oh my. And flesh is our
own nature, and sin manifest itself in this body. Look what
he said down here in verse 12 of Romans chapter eight. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors.
We're debtors, but we're not debtors to the flesh. What has
this flesh ever done for you? What has your flesh ever done
for you? What's it ever done for you?
And I tell you to live after the flesh. Oh my, we're not debtors
to the flesh. In our flesh, I'm going to tell
you something, in our flesh, REMAINS THE POTENTIAL TO ANY
EVIL OR ANY SIN THAT ANYBODY COULD EVER POSSIBLY COMMIT. I'M TELLING YOU, WE DO. YOU SAY,
BOY, I COULDN'T DO THIS, I COULDN'T DO THAT. THE ONLY REASON YOU
DON'T IS BECAUSE GOD RESTRAINS YOU. YOU KNOW, PEOPLE SAY, I DON'T
BELIEVE I CAN MURDER ANYBODY. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT THE SCRIPTURE
SAYS? TO HATE A MAN IS TO MURDER HIM. To murder him. Oh, my. That's why I said, you
know, in Isaiah 64, 6, he said that all of our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Huh? As Paul said, the flesh
lusts against the spirit. That means a warfare going on.
You know, And in a war, they have a camp over here and a camp
over there. And they go at war with one another.
Well, we got our bodies, we got our flesh, and we got our spirit,
our spiritual nature, and our old nature. And they're two different
armies. And you know where they meet
at? And they just smack and fight and war all the time. They just beat one another to
death. And I tell you what, that flesh, and I've said this so
many times and you know it, you can say it after me, the flesh
keeps us from being as spiritual as we would be. And the spirit,
the new creature in us keeps us being as fleshly as we would
be. And that's why we have this war
going on. And I've said this before countless
times, that I never had a war in myself until God saved me
by His grace. I never had a fight with me and
in my heart and in my soul until God saved me by grace. I didn't
know what sin was until God saved me. I didn't know what faith
was till God saved me. And once he saved me, that was
a battle that went on. And it started, and it shot me,
it shot me. I thought, boy, I tell you what,
my feet about that high off the ground, I was just rejoicing
all the time and everything. Election? Oh my goodness, I learned
election. I thought, man, this is the greatest
thing ever. Learned about God's sovereignty, God's rules and
reigns over everything. And then I learned about, he
died for a particular people, for his elect, for his sheep.
Oh, I went, I just went, I went everywhere preaching that. Thought
everybody rejoicing it. But boy, why I'm mistaken I was. Oh my. But there's this warfare
that goes on. Look what he says back up here
in verse 15 of Romans 7. And every one of us knows this,
for that which I do, I don't allow it. I say, I don't allow
myself to, I'm not gonna do that. For what I would, that I do not. For what I would do, say I'm
gonna will to do that, I don't do it. And then look what he
says, but I hate that I do it. I hate what I do. I said, I'm
not going to do it. Then I do it. And then I hate
what I do. And then look what he said in
verse 16 down. No, excuse me. Verse 19. Look
what he says for the good, for the good that I would, I do not. How many times have you said,
I'm going to call somebody, I'm going to do something for somebody,
I need to get a hold of somebody, I need to go visit somebody,
and you say, I'm going to do good. Next thing you know, you
talk yourself out of it. You would do good, but evil comes
right beside you and say, oh, don't worry about that. You can
do that tomorrow. You can do that some other time.
They probably don't need nothing. And we do that, talk ourselves
right out of it. And oh, my. You remember all
the hypocrisies that you've ever manifested? I've played the hypocrite more
than anybody in this building, more than anybody I ever know. Remember all your hypocrisies. Remember all the hard, hard,
evil thoughts that you've had of others? Hard thoughts, evil thoughts
that you've had of other people? Oh, my. Remember all the good
you've thought about yourself? All the proudful thoughts that
you've had of yourself? We're painfully, painfully, painfully
aware that in our flesh, there's not anything good at all. Nothing,
nothing good at all. Let me give you another one.
Let me give you another one. Oh, let me finish this one first.
When you should have shown love, when you should have shown love
and kindness, We all became cold and indifferent. When we should have shown love
and kindness, we were cold and indifferent. Look in Philippians
3. Keep Romans now. Look in Philippians
3. Oh, he says the flesh is so weak. Flesh is so weak. Look in Philippians 3. For we are the circumcision, circumcised
in heart, which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and we have no confidence in this flesh. None, none whatsoever. None, none, none. The flesh is
weak. There's nothing wrong with God,
nothing wrong with God's law, nothing wrong with the things
that God's told us to do. The problem with us is flesh
is so weak. Now back over in our text again. Tell you another reason why God
allows Sidney not to show us and teach us the salvations entirely
of grace. that in our flesh dwells no good
thing, and He does it to teach us to be patient, very patient
with our brethren. If you ever see a believer sin,
and if you've ever been around me, you've seen me sin, but we
ought to never conclude that a man has no grace if you ever
watch him do something he ought not do. that you think is sin. Don't ever conclude that. Don't
ever conclude. If you'd have been there and
watched Noah, there's no way Noah could be a saved man. He's
drunk. No way he could be a saved man. Peter denied the Lord three times.
If you'd have been in that building with him, you'd say, that man
in the, God could not have possibly saved that man. David, when he took Uriah's wife
and had her murdered, had him murdered, you say, there's no way in the
world that man can be saved. It'd be impossible. Well, if
we come to that conclusion, we have to come back to the conclusion
that we don't have no grace either, if we're honest. I've often said,
ONLY BELIEVE HALF OF WHAT YOU SEE, because you don't know what
really actually happened until somebody tells you. And don't believe ANYTHING of
what you hear unless you know the person that's telling you
is telling you EXACTLY the way it happened. Oh, my! Oh, if any man, if any
man see a brother a brother overtaken now i don't say they jumped into
overtaken overtaken with seeing overtaken with the fault ah boy i can't believe he done
that i can't believe he acted that way i can't believe he said
that i can't believe he acted like that but if you See a brother
overtaken, it catches up with him, it overtakes him. You which
are spiritual, if you got any spirit at all in you, you which
are spiritual, restore such a one, and listen to this, in the spirit
of meekness and fear, And that's what the next word says, bear
one another's burdens. That means bear what you've seen
them do or how they acted. You bear that. Don't go running
all over the church and tell them what they did. You bear
the burden that they just went under. You bear the burden of
knowing what they are, what you've seen them do. You bear that burden.
You bear it. That's what he's talking about.
Oh, my. And who acted? Is anybody here
who hasn't acted uncharacteristic of grace? Oh, my. Have you ever acted uncharacteristic
of grace? Oh, my. Huh? Oh. Oh, we got to be very, very careful
of how we think of one another, of one another. You know the
only reason Simon Peter didn't actually fall? And why David
wasn't cut off? When God, the Lord told Nathan
to call David over there and he talked to David and David
said, oh boy, I'm gonna deal with that fella. He said, you're
the man. But you know what, the next thing he said, God hath
put your sins away. That's the next thing he told
him, God hath put your sins away. Lot, if you'd have seen Lot down
there in Sodom, down there in Sodom, how could anybody live in Sodom?
How could anybody, but, and the scripture says, but, and God
had to drag him out of there. They had to go get him and take
him out. But the thing, next thing it says about him, is Lot
was a just man. and the ungodliness vexed his
righteous soul. If we had known a lot today,
we would have said, but here's the thing. If they're God's sheep,
leave them alone. God will deal with them. Leave
it up to Him. He knows exactly how to deliver
the godly out of temptation. And oh my, oh that's a hard lesson
for us to learn. And I'll tell you another thing.
And He leaves sin in us to remind us that when we do sin, when
we do sin, you know what we have? We have an Advocate with the
Father. Who is that Advocate with the Father? Jesus Christ
the Righteous. You know what an Advocate is?
It's a lawyer. It's a lawyer. An Advocate's
a lawyer. And we got the best lawyer and
it didn't cost us a nickel. Didn't cost us anything. And
here's the thing about it, when you go to court, say you're standing
in God's court, when you go to court, if you've got a lawyer,
that lawyer, he pleads YOUR case, YOUR case. You don't plead for
yourself, he pleads YOUR case. And thy Lord Jesus Christ is
our Advocate. Let me tell you something, you
know what HE pleads? He pleads his righteousness. He pleads his work. He pleads
his blood. He pleads his doing. He pleads
his dying. We sin, if we sin, Christ doesn't
say, oh my, we're gonna have to whip them, gonna have to straighten
them out. No, no, he says, Father, and there's an accuser of the
brethren. The scripture says Satan is accuser
of the brethren. He's up there all the time saying
things about us. And everything he says is probably
true. He said, you see what that fella done? See what that preacher
done? See what that deacon done? See
what that believer done? They said they believed grace,
but look what they did. You know what the Lord Jesus said? Points to them nails in his hands.
I paid for them. He don't talk about how bad you
are. He starts talking about how good he is. He don't talk
about how sinful you are. He starts talking about how righteous
he is. And he said, you know, and there's nothing, I'm telling
you something, beloved, when we sin, we don't lose our salvation,
we aren't cast out of God's family. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, you know what he
said? Absolutely nothing will cause me to cast him out. If
he'd gone cast anybody out, he'd have cast Noah out. He'd have
cast Abraham out. He'd have cast Jacob out. He'd
have cast Lot out, he'd have cast Abraham out, he would have
cast, oh my, he'd have cast, but I, listen, and you know,
and this is what, bless his holy name, this is what causes us
to live to honor and glorify him. You know why? Because he
says, nothing will ever cause me to cast him out. And I tell
you what, I'm so grateful that he says, listen, when I get cold
and indifferent, he's not going to cast me out. When I use the
wrong language, he ain't going to cast me out. When I tell some
stupid joke, he ain't going to cast me out. When I get ill and
hateful, he's not going to cast me out. When I get cold and indifferent,
he's not going to cast me out. When I go two or three days and
don't even think to pray or open my Bible, He's not gonna catch
me out. What are you gonna do about that?
I'm gonna, by God's grace, cozy up to Him as close as I can possibly
get. Oh, He ain't gonna catch us out.
Oh my. And you know, talking about sin,
talking about sin, don't lose our salvation. Let me just show
you something that the Lord does. You remember when he went to
that woman at the well? He went out of his way, said,
I got to go over there. There was one person was there.
And that woman had been married five times. And she was just
shacking up with the man she was, in our vernacular, shacking
up with her. He just said, boy, that's a wicked,
wicked woman. But you know what the Lord did?
If you knew the gift of God, you'd ask to him and he'd gave
you water, living water. Well, where in the world are
you going to get this water? So he talked to her and exposed
her sin, exposed who she was. You think that hurt her feelings?
She said, oh, no, no, you got to be a prophet. The Messiah
come, he's going to tell us everything. He said, I am. You know what
she done? She left her water pot, run into
town, said, come see a man. Come see a man. God, He saves the worst, the
worst, the worst, the worst. And I tell you something, your
daddy, James, your daddy one time come to me after the Lord
saved him. He was over in that other old building. He come sit
down in the office there one day and sit down in the chair
in front of me and says, Brother Donnie, he said, he said, boy,
I said, there's something really bad wrong with me. And I said,
what? The longer I live, the more sinful I feel. I said, how can that be? And I knew right then that when
a man talks like that, God's done something for him. Man never
owned up how sinful he is without the grace of God. Oh, no, no,
no. And oh, my. You know, the prodigal. I thought it wouldn't take too
long, but I ain't got nowhere to go and you don't either. But
you remember the prodigal son had two sons and the prodigal
took everything, the father gave him his inheritance. Here's your
inheritance. And he went out and he wasted it and roused his
living. That means he partied and partied
and partied until he got broke. I mean broke. He got so broke
that he went to start helping a fella at his farm, dealing
with hogs. And he said, I could eat the
husk that these fellas feeding these hogs. And then it came
to him one day, he said, oh my, my father has bred plenty. And he said, I'll tell you what
I'll do, in one I'll return and go back to my father's house.
Now, let me tell you what that means. That means that the prodigal,
while he is out there living the rightest living, wasting
everything that his father gave me, and every one of us has done
that. When we come out of our mother's womb, we wasted everything
that God gave us, misused everything. But he was still a son when he
was out there. And he said, I'm gonna go back
home. And the father was standing there watching for him to come. Looking for him to come. There
he comes. Who is it? That's my son. He was lost out yonder. And oh my, when he got home,
he said, father, I'll come back as a hard servant. I'll go on
wages for you. You can pay me. I'll go on wages.
And you just pay me a service." But her father said, oh, no. He said, you're a son. Bring
forth the best robe. Put it on him. Put them blessed
shoes on his feet. Put a ring on his finger. But
the point is, he was a son. And we may get way out there.
I heard Henry Mahan talking one time. Him and I was talking about
people and things and how people act and things like that. And
he says, you know, he said, a believer can live on husks for a while,
but they won't stay in that. They won't stay there living
on them husks. Every once in a while, we'll get way out there
and we'll start eating them old husks. And oh my, this ain't
fit food. I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna
go back to my father's house. Oh my, we can sure make a mess out
of things. Oh, we don t lose our salvation.
We may lose the PEACE of our salvation, lose the JOY of our
salvation, but there s no way in the world you can break that
bond of the covenant because that covenant is between the
Father and Son, not us, between them two, between them two. And
our Lord Jesus Christ is our Advocate. He pleads for us. He pleads His own wounds HE PLEADS
HIS OWN PURPOSE, HE PLEADS HIS OWN WORK, HE PLEADS HIS OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS,
HE PREACHES HIS OWN ATONING BLOOD. WE AREN?T EVEN MENTIONED! WE
AREN?T EVEN MENTIONED. HE ONLY TALKS OF HIMSELF. Remember
that our work or our righteousness or anything about us didn?t commend
us to God, so anything we do can?t uncommend us. Nothing commended
us, what?s going to uncommend us? Oh, my. And let me give you my last one. Give you my last one. Oh, that
we'd be saved by grace. That we know that in this flesh,
well, it's no good thing. That we have an advocate with
the Father. And here's the third thing. He
lets sin remain in us to do what, you know what he does? To wean
us out of this world. Wean us of this world. Is this
world, I have no taste for this world, do you? Oh my, wean us from our selfishness. Wean us from our self-love. Wean
us from our covetousness. Wean us from our materialism.
He does that to make us want out of this world, to want out
of it, make us want the peace and joy of believing. And oh, my! He has to empty us
before He can ever fill us. And oh, my! Weenbester! Oh, Lord, help us, not in this world. All that's in this world, John
said it this way, all that's in this world is the lust of
this flesh. The lust of the eyes, you know
what the lust of the eyes means? Look at me, look at me, look
at me. Look what I've accomplished, look what I've done. Look how
holy I am, look how good I am, look how righteous I am. Look
what I've accomplished with my life. That's the lust of the
eyes. And then the pride of life. Oh,
pride of race, pride of faith, pride of grace. But oh, wean
us, oh Lord, wean us from this world. Make us one out of this
world. And I tell you another thing
is to show us the way of the transgressors hard. It's the
way of the transgressors, that's what's hard. And last of all,
To make us desire Christ, while you turn to Philippians 3 with
me, to make us desire Christ and His salvation more than anything
else on this earth. To make us desire Christ and
His salvation and His presence more than anything else on this
earth. That's why God does that. Ain't it sad, ain't it so sad
that people talking about Christ in Christmas and all that, oh
my. But look what he said here in
Philippians 3, look in verse 12. Paul's talking, not as though
I had already attained, I haven't got to where I want to be. Either
we're already perfect, now he's talking about his flesh now,
But I follow after, I'm going after it, I'm following after
it, the will's present with me. If that I may apprehend, I may
absolutely apprehend one of these days, that for which also Christ
apprehended me, laid hold on me. I want to lay hold on what
Christ laid hold on me. But brethren, I count not myself
to apprehend it. But now listen to it, but this
one thing I do. And this is what God make us
this way, this one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind, reaching, reaching forth unto those things which
are before us. Eternal life's before us. Christ
is before us. Faith is before us. And oh, look
what he goes on to say, I press. I PRESS TOWARD THE MARK OF THE
HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS. Oh, I want to rate that
one. Now, you know what, the prize,
you get the prize when you what? Cross the line. And let us, let
us, let us, as many as be perfect, now this is talking about standing
in Christ, be thus minded, be minded like that. And if we're
minded in anything else other than understanding why Christ
saved us, and we want to understand it, why does it? That's why we're
reaching out to the things that's before us. If you'd be minded in any other
way, if your mind's on something else, and if in anything you'd
be otherwise minded, you know what? God will make you understand
what you're doing. He'll reveal it to you. Don't
think like that. Don't act like that. Don't let
your mind go there. Don't let your mind go there.
I hope, I hope that that gave us some comfort, some help. And oh my, one of these days,
one of these days, bless the Lord, we'll never ever sin again
when Christ calls us out of this world. will be done, done. And if, oh well, I gotta stop. I just gotta hush. Our Father, the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for your abundant grace
and mercy given us in him before the world ever began. Lord, I
pray that you'd bless this word to our hearts and our understanding. Oh, Lord, we need you. Oh, how
we need you. Not only do we need you, but
Lord Jesus is in our hearts to want you. We want you. We want your presence. We want
everything that you are and everything that you've done and everything
you accomplished. We want your salvation. We want
your grace. We want your power. We want your
long suffering. We want your patience. We want
your love. We want your forgiveness. We
want your justification. We want everything you've got.
Lord, we want it all. We want you and everything that
you have and everything you accomplish. We want it. Oh, Lord, we want
it. Not only do we want it, but we need it. God bless these dear
saints. Bless them and meet the needs
of their hearts. We ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost. But now am found, was blind,
but now I see. Twas 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 His grace
that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home when
we've been there ten thousand years with shining eyes the sun
we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Won't be long, we'll get to go.
Love you and God bless you, and I'll see you tonight. Don't forget
your bread back there, one for Pamela. And I'm glad he talks about him,
not us. All right.