For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent under the law that it is good. Then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that
in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is
present with me. But to perform that which is
good, I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now, if I do that that I would
not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank
God through Jesus Christ our Lord, So then with the mind I
myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of
sin. ♪ Jesus, love's boundless return
♪ ♪ From sorrow's cold and despair ♪ ♪ Give me life happy and blessed
♪ ♪ For He, O my Lord, I confess ♪ I'll be alive, I'll be alive,
with my Savior so high. I have found the way, found the way when Lord Jesus He prayed. I came to the Lord for relief, whimpered unto Him tenderly. He placed me and gave me in peace,
the Spirit to witness with me. So I'm happy in love, happy in
love with my Savior. So now I have found to be free,
found to be free, Lord Jesus, hear my prayer. Though many the troubles I'll
meet, Till He can carry me along, I'll see that His glory I'll
see, Glory is my joy and my song. Happy and long, happy and long,
with my Savior's song. Because it's true. It's true. I want to ask a question this
morning and then try to answer it from the Scriptures. Why does
God allow sin to remain in us? Why does He allow sin to dwell
in us? Paul was an apostle, labored
more abundantly than any of the other He was a man chosen of
God, separated from his mother's womb, called by the grace of
God, and Christ was in him. Wrote thirteen books in the New
Testament, and yet here he says, it's not I, but sin that dwelleth
in me. Not I, but sin that dwelleth
in me. It's an awful thing. And here's
this mature believer, this strong believer in Christ, dealing with
a warfare that goes on in the heart and flesh of every child
of God that's ever been saved. It's a warfare that goes on.
If anybody that's ever been saved by God's blessed grace ain't
got a warfare going on in him, it's an evident fact that he
ain't never been converted. Never had a problem with sin.
until God saved me. Never had a problem with my flesh
until God saved me. Always had a way to justify myself. Always had a way. I didn't care.
I just didn't care. But oh, here we are. Got this
warfare going on. The flesh lusts against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh, and you cannot, cannot do the
things that you would. You can't be as fleshly as you
would, and you can't be as spiritual as you would, because of this
flesh, because of this warfare that goes on in the family. And
here's a man, an apostle, fighting this warfare, fighting it. And if he had to fight it, what
about us? What about us? And you read in
God's blessed book, you find in the scriptures, How sin entered
into this world, how it got here. Come here through one man. And
once that one man fell, he passed on to us his fallen nature, over
and over and over again. And had not the second man came,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and saved us by His grace, sin would have
been our master. Sin was our master. Sin reigned
over us. But now we fight it, we war against
it, and it wars against us. But the Scriptures are full.
full of God's people that had this same warfare, and sin was
so manifest in their nature and manifest in their character,
in things that they did. You take Noah. Just as quick as he got off the
ark and had long enough to plant a vineyard and get some grapes
off of it, next thing you know, he's drunk, laying naked in a
tent. There's David. Not only did he,
he was a man after God's own heart. man after God's own heart. And
here you find him taking another man's wife and killing her husband
to try to cover up his sin. And be sure, God said, be sure
your sin will find you out. And then thus Simon Peter denied
the Lord three times, went out and went out and wept and cursed
bitterly. When he went in to witness to his own family, his
own sons and daughters, son-in-laws and daughters, and said, listen,
God's going to destroy this place, and you better come on, get out
of here. And you know what they said? They said, see, there's
one that mocked, mocked him. So we find these people in the
scripture, and there's evil and sin in the most blessed saints
of God that the scriptures are full of. And let me tell you
something, let me just mention this in passing. that what's
mentioned about him in the Old Testament is never mentioned
about him in the New. Noah found grace in the house
of the Lord. Lot was a righteous man. David, oh, my, they talk about
the... And, oh, listen, Abraham Oh, the things that he did, the
lies that he told, and yet when you see, by faith Abraham went
out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he received his
son to life again. So what blessed hope we have.
Now these men that I just mentioned, and I know you, you know God,
you love God, you love Christ, but yet their sin in the Scripture
stands out as great black marks in their character and history.
That's why we know the Scriptures are true. God don't even live
through Christ as He cover our sins. But in our own hearts and
in our own lives, we are painfully, painfully aware that sin, sin, Sin is through and through us.
As believers, we see ourselves oftentimes as a mass of corruption. We loathe ourselves. That's one
of the parts of the covenant in Jeremiah 32. It said, we said,
you shall loathe yourself. Have you ever loathed yourself?
Just despised yourself? And that's why Paul said, it's
not I but sin that dwelleth in me. And I'll tell you, that's
why our Lord Jesus says, the flesh The spirit of being is
willing, but you know what? The flesh is weak. And I'm told
we constantly blunder, stumble, and fall around, and yet we do
not excuse. We do not excuse our sin or justify
our sin. We only have one thing we can
do, say, Oh God, forgive me. Huh? And we even condemn ourselves
for it. But why did God plainly record,
why did He record the sins of the father of the faith? Why
does He allow sin to remain in us? He can take sin out of us
just like that. He can stop sin in us just in the snap of a finger. He can cause us to be without
sin and live the most holy, perfect lives in this world with the
snap of a finger, in the blink of an eye. But why doesn't He? Why doesn't He? Why doesn't He? Well, I'm going to give you four
or five reasons why. First reason is to constantly
remind us and teach us that salvation is entirely by the grace of God. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, nobody on the face of this earth would ever be saved. Would
ever be saved. It'd be impossible. And I mentioned
up there, I love the term free grace. I've told you why we call
it free grace. It's because there's no conditions
God saves us by free. Grace is free. Grace is free. As people say, well, God said
this, you've got to have some faith, and you've got to have
some repentance. Well, grace gives us faith, and grace gives
us repentance. Everything that we need, God
gives us, and grace is free. There's no stipulations. God
does not set no conditions on you. And that's why if we had
to meet some kind of condition for God to save us, then we'd
nobody be saved. If we had to live holy, perfect
lives, nobody would be saved. So God allows sin to remain in
us, to teach us continually and constantly, if salvation is not
by grace, no soul on topside of God's earth would be saved.
Is that not right? And I'm telling you, beloved,
salvation, and I love the term sovereign grace, because that
means that God sovereignly gives it to whom He will. If it's grace,
then God's not obligated to give it. If it's grace, God does not
have to give it. That's why it's free. He freely
gives it to whom He will. And if it's sovereign, that means
He reigns, and He's the one that gives it. You can't get it no
place but from God. And let me show you something
over here in Romans 11. Look here in Romans 11. And look
what is said here in Romans 11.5. You see, salvation is never,
ever in anything we do from the time God saves us to the time
we enter glory. Salvation is by the free grace
of God. Our doings have nothing to do
with our salvation. It's only by the doing of our
Lord Jesus Christ. It's by His life, not our life
that we're saved. It's by His doing, not our doing. It's by His death, not our death. It's by His blood, not our blood. It's by His work that we're saved. Oh my, that's why we have to
thank God for grace. Bless God for grace. Look what
He said here in Romans 11 verse 5. Even so, at this present time,
also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Everybody
knows what a remnant is, don't you? You go to a store and they
say, we've got some remnants. We've got some remnants of some
carpet left. That means just part of a whole. Well, God's
got the remnant, the part of a whole of the human race that
according to the election of His grace, He's got a remnant
left on the earth. And look what else He says here.
And it's by grace. then works has nothing to do.
It can't be no more works. If it's of grace, it cannot possibly
be of works. Now listen to this. Otherwise,
grace is not grace. But if it's to be of works, then
it's no more grace. That's it can't possibly be of
grace. Otherwise, work is not work. So it's either going to
be of works or going to be of grace. You can't mix them up. You can't mix them up when you
come to Christ. You can't mix them up once you've
come to Christ. You can't mix them up when you come to the
end of the way. Is that not right? And all we love is salvation.
Salvation is not our righteousness, but His righteousness being imputed
to us and charged to our account. We live by the very righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said in Galatians 2.21,
His righteousness comes by the law, by our doing. by our opinions, then Christ
is dead in vain. Now, you think about that. If
anything that we ever do could add to what Christ did, then
Christ died in vain. What could we possibly add to
who Christ is? What could we possibly add to
what Christ did? And that's why it's never Christ
plus me. Never Christ plus me. All of
you folks come down there and done all that wonderful work
and thank God for you. But I'm telling you, I bless
God for it. All the love and care that went
into that, God put it in your heart to do
it, but there will never... Your salvation's got to be by
grace, not by what you did yesterday. So you love to do it, you enjoy
doing it, And you've done it born out of love and faith and
grace in your hearts. But you would not look up to
God and say, well, I've done a good thing. You wouldn't do
that. It's not in your nature once
God saves you by His grace. And I tell you something, beloved,
salvation at no time, no time in our lives ever depends on
our works. Never depends on our works and
certainly never depends on our feelings. How do you feel right now? Do you feel real spiritual? Real saved? Real joyful? Feel like you can fight the devil
toe-to-toe? No. So your feelings, you can
know if we went by our feelings, oh, we'd be in a mess, wouldn't
we? Oh, what a mess! But, oh, our salvation is entirely
dependent on God's grace given us in Christ before the world
ever began. You know, I tell you that's why
Paul says, you know, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.
How do you live, Paul? By Christ who lives in me. That's how I live. You mean,
what about all your missions? Christ who lives in me. What
about being an apostle? Christ who lives in me. What
about my prayers? Christ who lives in me. What
about my labors? Christ who lives in me. What
about my time in prison? Christ who lives in me. That's
the only hope he had. That's where he pointed to his
salvation. Look with me over in 1 Peter chapter 5. Let's look
at this just a minute. 1 Peter chapter 5. I want to
talk about grace. That's why God allows sins to
remain in us, because of grace. To make us so, teach us that
salvation is all together of the grace of God. Oh my, Paul
said, by the grace of God I am what I am. We always say, I am
what I am by the grace of God, but Paul didn't start out with
that. By the grace of God, I am what I am. He didn't say, I am
what I am by the grace of God. He said, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. He starts with grace. Salvation
always starts with God and with grace. Look here in 1 Peter 5,
verse 10. Look what he said here. But the
God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered a while, Make you perfect,
established, strengthened, save you. Oh, the God of all grace. What do you reckon that means?
That means if you get any grace, it comes from God. All grace. All grace. I don't know how many
times you'll go to talking to people and they'll say, well,
I, you know, I know I believe in grace too, but I don't believe
in grace, but I just believe in grace. No buts there. A fellow stopped one time, and
we hadn't been here very long, and he saw our sign out there,
the Lieutenant Grace Church, and he stopped here, got out
of the car, and come in, knocked on the door, and come in and
asked me, he says, I see you've got grace on your sign. What
do you mean by that? Oh, boy, I've got a chance to
talk to him. Oh, that's wonderful. They want to know what I mean
by the grace, what I mean by having grace up there. But let
me tell you something, beloved, the God of all grace, look what
it says about the God of all grace. Let me tell you something
about it. Grace is eternal. God's eternal, so everything
about Him that He has for us has to be eternal. For whom he
did foreknow, what did he do? He did predestinate. Them he
did predestinate, what did he do? He called them. So everything,
God's grace was given us in Christ before the world began. God's
eternal, so what he has for us is eternal. He was given us before
the world began and will stay with us after the world ceases
to be. And not only that, but it's electing grace. God chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Grace chose us. Grace elected us. Grace set us
apart. And then it's effectual. Look
what it said here. He said, but the God of all grace
who has called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ. You reckon
God's grace could not bring a man to Christ? You reckon God's grace
could not bring a man to trust Christ? He has called us. How did he do that? Grace being
effectual, grace being powerful, grace having all power to bring
us to Christ. Blessed is the man whom Thou
choosest and causes to approach unto Thee. That is, get out of
that tree. I ain't coming down until they
sing two more verses or just I am. Or they sing, come on home,
it's supper time, come on home, it's supper time. Or shall I meet you at the river?
No, no. When God calls you, you're coming. And that's what's so wonderful
about preaching the gospel. God uses the gospel, the Word,
to bring people to Himself. And then look what it's enabling.
Look what is said again after that, after He has called us.
Look what in the middle of the verse. Enabling grace after that
you have suffered a while. after you've suffered a while.
You're going to suffer a while. Everybody's going to suffer a
while. But it's just a while. I'll be there a little while. That means it's not going to
be long. That's why he said, after you've suffered just a
while. What's he going to do then? You know what he's going
to do? He says He's going to enable
you, strengthen you, ensure, grace ensures our salvation. Look what He said, after you've
suffered a while, look what He's going to do for you. Make you perfect,
established, strengthened. And what else He's going to do?
He's going to settle you right now. Oh, listen. You know why God allows sin to
remain in us? To constantly remind us the salvations of grace. Oh,
let me tell you another reason why. Back over in Romans 7. Let me tell you another reason
why he does it. To make us know that in our flesh dwells no good
thing. Ain't that what he says down
there in Romans 7, 18? For I know it. That in me. That
is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing." Now when he talks about
our flesh, he's talking about our own nature, this body, and
all the nature that goes with us. Flesh is our own nature,
but sin manifests itself in this body, in this body. And I tell you something, beloved. remains the potential to any
evil or sin that any human being gets committed. The seed is there,
and the only thing that makes us to differ from anybody else
when it comes to doing some sin is God. You say, I would never
do that. Of course, God kept you from
it. God kept you in nature to do that. God gave you in nature
not to do things. And I say, and even in our lost
nature, there's things that God gave us in our constitution and
nature that we couldn't do against our nature, as such as mistreat
a child or murder somebody. We do it in our minds, maybe.
You know, when we hate somebody or despise somebody, that's just,
that's why Paul says, He says, that that I would I
do, not what I hate I do. Don't you hate to, you know,
just to think hard of somebody? Just to think, Paul says, you
know, don't even think ill of your neighbor. You know, that's
how sin, so insidious it is. It gets in our lives and we have
attitudes and thoughts and feelings towards people and towards things
that we look at ourselves and say, how could I be a believer
and think such things? Feel such feelings. You know, people think that you've
got to go out here and do an awful evil thing, but sin's so
part and parcel of us that we do it. We, you know, if there's
somebody, somebody cuts in, this is the simplest illustration,
but somebody cuts you off in traffic. What's your first reaction? You almost want to cuss, but
you don't. But you do call them an idiot.
stupid, don't you? And then you say, Lord, I hope
somebody don't say that about me. But that's what I'm talking about,
you know. In our flesh, that's what, you know, all of our righteousnesses,
our righteousnesses, all our righteousness are as filthy rags.
The flesh trusts against the spirit, the spirit against the
flesh, and you cannot do the things that you would. Paul said
in verse 15, that which I do, I don't approve of it. But I do it anyway. I don't approve
of my mind. When I get ready to pray, I don't
approve of my mind to run out way out yonder somewhere. I find
it, you know, pick up a newspaper or pick up a magazine or pick
up my computer. I can do that and enjoy them
instantly. And I pick up a Bible and I struggle
to read. Why? What makes it that way?
We approve of the scriptures. We love the scriptures, and we
love to read them, but we find it so much easier to do something
with the flesh. Well, I'm going to do that in
a minute, and then we always... Now, listen. You've never been a hypocrite,
have you? You're looking at the biggest
thing in the building right here. Remember all the evil hard thoughts
you've had of others. A woman told me one time, she
used to come here, and she hadn't been here in a long good while,
but she said she just could not, you know, somebody had wronged
her or something, she had done something, she said, I just cannot find
in my heart to ever forgive them a thing. And I remember plainly
saying, if you cannot forgive what somebody does to you, neither
will God ever forgive you. If you can harbor hate, evil
thoughts, grudges in your heart. Now, we have them. They come.
They manifest themselves, and we hope they never crop out.
We hope they never come out of our mouth. We hope that we never
manifest them. You can tell somebody despises you, they ignore you.
They act like you're not there. If somebody despises you and
don't like you, they'll just always, you know what they'll
do? Act like you don't exist. Don't want to be around you,
don't want to talk to you, don't want to look at you, don't want
to acknowledge you. And I know you've never had good
thoughts about yourself. Never had pride. Never had prideful
thoughts about yourself. You do something and say, well,
I hope that gets out on me. And if it don't get out on you,
you'll see that it gets out on you yourself. You'll tell it
yourself, won't you? But that's what I'm talking about. When
we think those things, and those things happen to us, we get alone,
and we just say, why in the world am I like that? Why did I think
that? Why did I act that way? Why do I feel that way? Why did
I let these folks know that I've done this thing? If I've got
that much pride and think so highly of myself, then I've got
to let folks know what a good person I am. And then we just,
this flash is just awful. And how many times when we should
have shown love and kindness, we were cold and indifferent.
How many times? Look in Philippians 3 with me,
just a moment. Philippians 3. And I tell you,
this is why we don't put any confidence in the flesh, right
here. That's why before God we put no confidence in our flesh.
Oh, this flesh is weak. Paul asked this question, are
we debtors to the flesh? What in the world has our nature,
our flesh, ever contributed to our salvation? Contributed to
our peace? Contributed to our joy? Contributed
to our walk with Christ? Absolutely nothing. We owe it
nothing. And look what he said here in
Philippians 3. We are of the circumcision through
children of God, which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and listen to this, have no confidence in the flesh. What does that mean? That before
God, I have nothing else to prove in my body, in my flesh, in my
own nature, that I have any confidence to commend myself to God. That's
what he's talking about. And back over here in Romans
8 and verse 2, look what it says. Excuse me, verse 3, not verse
2, verse 3. For what the law could not do
in that it was wheat through the flesh, Nothing wrong with
God and what His law says, but it's the problems with us. So
what did God do because of the weakness of our flesh, the frailty
of our flesh, the failure of our flesh, the sinfulness of
our flesh? God sent His own Son. And in the likeness of sinful
flesh, not flesh itself, not sinful, in the likeness of it,
and for sin as a sacrifice for sin, He just sent in the flesh. Let me give you another reason
why God allows sin to remain in us, showing us that salvation
is altogether grace, that in this flesh dwells no good thing,
and to teach us to be very patient, very kind, and faithful to our
brethren. Now, let me say this. We ought
never conclude that a man has no grace. because he has sinned. If you see somebody sin, if you
was around me sometimes and seen me do something, you'd conclude
that Donny Bell don't have any grace at all about it. If you
saw David take Bathsheba, would you have said, God doesn't love
that man, that man's not sane? Because if we conclude that a
man has no grace because he's sinned, then we have to also
conclude that we have no grace because of what we do. You understand
what I'm saying? I love what Scott Richardson
said. He preached on Noah one time. And he says, you notice
that his son saw his nakedness. Noah knew what he done. But he
says, blessed God, said God didn't ever see it. You know why? Because
he was covered with the righteousness of Christ. So don't never conclude that
a man has no grace when you see him fall. Or you see him, if
you saw somebody fly off the handle, get real, real angry,
you say, oh boy. Now that doesn't mean that it's
not sinful and it's bad. I'm not excusing sin. I'm not
saying that. But don't ever conclude, when
you see somebody fall, or somebody sin, that they don't have grace.
Because if you do that, you've got to conclude that you don't
have none either, next time you fall, next time you sin, next
time you get angry. Huh? We don't want to do that,
do we? You know what Paul said in Galatians
6? If any of you, any man, see a
brother, a brother overtaken in a fault, you that are spiritual,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted." Boy, I tell you what, I've had some
folks do me that way. I've had some folks take me aside,
say thanks to a man. You know, and teach me and instruct
me. And I was grateful for it. Oh,
so thankful. So thankful. And let me ask you
this. Do you know anybody, anybody
that's saved by the grace of God who hasn't acted uncharacteristic
of grace? Have you ever acted uncharacteristic
of grace? Oh boy, if you've seen... Noah
lived in our day. And God teach us this, please,
ingrain it in our very heart, soul, and nature as believers. If Noah lived in our day, and you and I happened to went
to his house and saw him in such a condition, would you say, what?
Noah isn't a Christian? Or would you went home and said,
Lord, please have mercy on Noah. God bless Noah. Forgive Noah. Lord, he fell. And help me to
keep it to myself. Don't blast it all over the church.
Don't let me go around and tell everybody what he done. If you would have been standing
there and Simon Peter warming himself at the enemy's fire, and he asked him three times,
do you know this man? And he said, oh, no, I don't
know him. And you saw him standing there and you heard him start
to cuss and carry on and said, Would you say, oh, Simon Peter,
oh, if he lived in this day, would you have said, boy, he
don't know the Lord? Or would you have went home and
said, Lord, please forgive Simon. That's not his fault, that's
just his old nature. God said, don't let me ever do
that. Please have mercy on him, please strengthen him, please
restore him. Please bring Him before you and
repent. Oh, God, do something. And that's
the way we got to deal with it. Go with it. And God blessed sin
remaining in us so we can deal with one another like that. Deal
with one another like that. And I'll tell you, there's another
reason why. Here's the fourth reason why. To remind us that
when we do sin, We have an advocate with the Father. Look over here
in John, 1 John, chapter 2. You know, to remind us that when
we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And guess who
He is? Jesus Christ the Righteous. Ain't you thankful that, James?
Huh? That's why John, he also said
in another place, if you see a brother sin or sin not unto
death, I say pray for him and God will forgive him. That's
what he said. And oh, beloved, I tell you,
when we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous, my little children, these things right under you,
that's a sin not. Oh, don't sin. Don't go out here
and sin. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate, we have a lawyer, we have someone to face God for
us, and He with the Father, and that is Jesus Christ the righteous. And He's already been the propitiation
for our sins, so our sins are taken care of. Now listen, when
we sin, we don't lose our salvation. I know there's a lot of people
believe that. They say, when you sin, you lose your salvation.
I just will not go back to church. I've lost it. And one of these
days, I'll really get, I'll go back to church and I'll get right
with God. But if we sin, We're not going to lose our salvation.
We're not going to be put out of God's family. Our Lord Jesus
said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me, I'll never cast him out. Never cast him out. I'm not going
to cast Simon out because he denied me. I'm not going to cast
David out because he committed adultery. I'm not going to cast
Noah out because he got drunk. I'm not going to cast you out
because you got a hard heart and a cold heart and because
you're not spiritual enough and your past rules in you too much.
I'm not going to cast you out. I'm not going to cast you out
because you didn't pick up a Bible for a week. I'm not going to
cast you out because you got mad and told somebody off. I'm not going to cast you out
because you're this way or that way. Has anybody been cast out?
Every single one of us had been cast out long ago. Ain't you grateful he don't cast
us out? Oh, bless his holy name. There's going to be a time when
he's going to shut the door, but he ain't never going to shut
the door on anyone he died for. He's going to wake up there with
five wise virgins. That's what he's going to do.
Oh, bless his holy name. And that's what he says here.
My, Lord, children, I write as we have an advocate. We may lose
the peace of our salvation. We may lose the joy of our salvation. But we can't never lose our salvation
in the bond of the covenant between God. You see, we didn't enter
into covenant with God. God entered into covenant with
Him and His Son. The thing that they intend to
do for us is between them, not us. Christ stood good as our
surety from the foundation of the world and took all of our
obligations to Himself. And the Father gave us to the
Son. And you have to break that covenant between the Father and
the Son for us to lose our salvation. We may lose the peace of it,
the comfort of it, the assurance of it, but we'll never lose it. We'll never lose it. And I'll
tell you, our Lord Jesus, listen to me now. Our Lord Jesus pleads
for us, and He don't never, ever, I'm going to tell you something,
He don't mention our name. He does not mention our name. No, He doesn't. When you do sin,
when Noah sinned, he didn't say, Noah. He didn't say, Father,
Noah didn't mean to do that. The flesh got the better of him.
You know what he did? He stood as a lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. He faced the prophet, and he
said, Father, here's the evidence. Here's, you want evidence that
he's mine? Look at my hands. You want evidence
that I've already paid for his death by my preaching? Look at
my side. So, Father, forgive them for
my sake. Keep them for my sake. Keep them
because I shed my blood for them. Keep them because I gave my life
for them. Keep them because you loved them
and gave them to me. And, Lord, Father, I'm going
to keep them. So, Father, forgive them. Don't
hold it against them. And then His reason is, is because
you and I went into a covenant, and here's the evidence that
I'm paid for. And when we get to glory, the only evidence that
you and I have any right to be there is still the same evidence
He pleased for us at the throne of praise. That's the only reason that God's
gonna hear Christ. Hear, hear, hear us. It is because
of Christ. And that's why we go and say,
Lord Jesus. Oh, Lord Jesus, hear me. Oh,
Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. Oh, Lord Jesus, please keep me.
And you know what he does? He goes to the Father and says,
Father, keep him. They just fail. Pick them back
up. He just, his heart just whips,
he just, his heart just done this awful thought, went through
his heart. Lord, bring father, forgive me. If not a sin you
can live, not a thought went through your mind that Christ
had already paid for and he can go to the Father and say, Father,
forgive him for my sin. Oh, bless his glorious, holy,
gracious, loving name. Oh, who's a Savior like undies.
Who is a god like unto ours? Who can say sinners like unto
our God? Huh? Oh my. And I tell you, remember
that our works or our righteousness did not commend us to God. And
our sin and all of our unrighteousness can't separate us from Him either.
Huh? Ain't that right? Oh, let me
finish up with this. Let me tell you the last reason. He lets sin remain in us to show
us and make us understand completely and entirely that salvation is
altogether the grace of God. That we have no confidence in
the flesh. So we'll be kind and patient and loving and forgiving
with our brethren. And because if we do, we have
an advocate with the Father. And the last reason he lets sin
remain in us is to wean us from this world, to make us so sick
of this world. We're really pilgrims. This world
is not our home. We know that all that's in the
world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. And none of these things are
of the Father. And he does this to wean us from this world. With
this world, we want out of it. Everybody here wants to be safe
from selfishness. Everybody here wants to be safe
from self-love. Everybody here wants to be safe
from covetousness and materialism, just wanting things just for
the sake of love. And He lets sin make us to want
out of this world. Make us homesick. And the only
people who get homesick is people who've got a home to go to. I know when we go off and we
come back and we start down our road and we start down our road
and go around that last curve and we get down there and we
see our mailbox and we see our fence and we look up and see
the house. Oh, we ain't been gone a while. There's no place
like home. And that's what we get to feel
in our hearts. Lord, Lord, when are we going to be done with
this thing? And all to make us want out and
make us want the joy and peace of believing. And I tell you
what, He does that to show us that the way of the transgressors
is hard. And let me show you this again in Philippians, and
I'm done. Philippians chapter 3 again. You know, He leaves
this old flesh in us and sin in us to make us desire Christ. and His salvation and His presence
more than anything else in this world. He leaves it in us to make us
desire Christ, desire His salvation and His presence more than anything
else in this world. Look what He said here in Philippians
chapter three and verse twelve. This is what I'm saying. That's
why He leaves it in us, not as though I'd already taken, Either
we're already perfect. We're not already perfect. Not
in this body. But I'll follow after. This is
what I'm going after. I'm following this. If I may
apprehend, may grasp why Christ also laid hold on me. I want
to understand. I want some understanding. I want to follow after. Lord,
You apprehended me. Why did You apprehend me? May
I live to Your glory. And brethren, I caught not myself
to apprehend it. The one thing I do, forgetting
those things that are behind, forgetting my lost estate, forgetting
everything about, reaching forth, reaching, reaching, reaching,
reaching. And the things that are before us, what's before
us? God's before us. Christ's before us. Eternity's
before us. Eternal life's before us. Christ
is before us, and look what He said. I press forward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And oh,
beloved, what is the prize? Christ Himself is the prize.
He gave us such a high calling, and Christ Himself is going to
be the prize, our reward. And oh, look what He says. Let
us, therefore, as many as be perfect. You said we wasn't.
That word perfect there means mature. Does every one of us
be minded like this? Let us think like this. And if
there's anything else God would have you to know, anything else
you ought to be doing, God will reveal even that to you. But
you hate Christ. You just keep on pointing toward
Him, going after Him. Paul said, that's where I'm headed.
And you know what? He said, when they get there,
you know what's going to happen when they get there? He said, not
as though I attained the resurrection, but that's where I'm headed. Oh my, I hope that's been a blessing
and encouragement. Next time you get discouraged,
next time this old flesh wears up on you, and that old serpent
whispers in your ear, old John Bunyan, he said one time, he
was on the, you know, if you've ever read the Pilgrim's Progress,
he was walking along one time, and somebody started talking
in his ear, saying some, oh, he said some blasphemous things,
blasphemous things. And he said, he said, he said,
I wonder whose voice is that? Oh, Lord, it's not my voice.
He said, it must be old Diabolus. It must be old Apollyon. It must
be the devil. And that's why sometimes Satan
gets right behind us, walks up behind us and whispers, Oh, it
ain't nothing to you. You ain't got no hope. Well,
God ain't going to... He ain't going to carry you all
the way through. You're just too sorry. You've done sin that
God ain't going to even forgive you anymore. God really don't
exist. There ain't no life to life.
He'll start telling you stuff like that. Eat, drink and be
merry. Ain't nothing to this life. We're
just a bunch of animals. We're going to pass away. Nothing.
And he whispers that kind of stuff in your ear. And you know
what you say? You do the same thing that our
Lord told Simon, forget me behind me, Satan. Greater is he that's
in you than he that's in the world. Next time somebody whispers
in your ear and you say, oh, surely that's not my mind. And
it may not have been yours. It may have been that old serpent.
Because he certainly whispers. And he's present. Our Father, oh, gracious, gracious
God, In the blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you
for your abundant grace and mercy given us in Christ before the
world began. Oh, Father, bring your people
to yourself. Give them the assurance, oh Lord,
that they belong to you. And if they've got that assurance,
we'd certainly love to hear it. And we bless you in Christ's
name. Amen. Let's turn to 2.36 and sing a
couple of verses of this. We're talking about grace, grace,
wonderful grace. The 236th, everybody knows this.
This is the believers, nationalists, they're anthem. Let's stand together. Amazing grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound That saved a wretch like me The grace that dawned my heart
And grace my weary feet Through many dangers, toils and
snares, I have already come. Take us all the way home. Oh,
I love it. God shall give His Son. We've no less things to say than
when we first begun.