All right, you may be seated.
I wonder if there's anyone here today that needs deliverance.
Amen. The truth is every person in
here needs deliverance. And our God is a deliverer. Isn't
that awesome? He is a God who delivers. He
rescues. And so the Apostle Paul in 2
Corinthians chapter one in verse 10, and I remember probably 48
years ago, the first time that I read this verse and saw the
three delivers that are spoken of in this 10th verse. And it
goes like this, who delivered us, who doth deliver us, and
in whom we trust will yet deliver us. He saved us, He is saving
us, and He shall save us. That's the three-tenths of salvation. You see, my friend, and how awesome
it is to know that the purpose of God is to deliver His people. As he said to the Israelites
in the long ago, after 400 years of captivity in Egypt, he said,
I am come down to deliver. That was God's purpose in coming
to Bethlehem, not to spy out our sins, but to deliver us from
our sins. When we speak of grace, Do we
not think of God's constant delivering grace? When I talk about grace,
I think of His constant delivering me. I need delivering every day. Is anybody here with me today
that feels the same? And I know this, by His grace,
He did deliver me as an eight-year-old boy. I know today he is delivering
me. Have you ever thought about all
of the captive things that are around you that would hold you
captive were it not for his delivering grace? thought about the things
you would have done had it not been for the grace of God working
in you. Even today, as we leave this
building, it'll be grace that follows us home. It'll be God's
grace, marvelous grace, God's unmerited favor that keeps us
from the craziest things delivering us. Present tense, he is delivering. And the future tense says he
will deliver. How wonderful. Yesterday, God
was very gracious to me. Tomorrow, he will be gracious. And the next day and the next,
and the next until there shall be no more day and time is swallowed
up in eternity. God is going to follow me all
the way to the pearly gates with his grace. Between here and heaven, every
minute that the Christian lives is a minute of grace. From here
to the throne room, you and I, Our recipients continually receiving
fresh supplies of His grace. Thank God we don't get what we
deserve. Those of you who are attempting
to earn your way to heaven, you're not going to make it. And by
the way, if you were honest, you'd know you have already failed. We never live a true, holy, happy,
blessed day except by divine grace. I am what I am by the
grace of God. You never think aright. You never
have a right thought. You never do a right act. You
never make any advance heavenward except by grace. Every day I'm
a monument of His mercy. Is that true of you? It's true
of me. Every day is a fresh display
of sovereign grace which is given to me. Every day my Father feeds
me. My Savior cleanses me. The Comforter sustains me. Every
day there is new manifestations of the loving kindness of the
Lord that break in on my wandering soul and give me fresh visions
of His miraculous love, the grace of God. And so, my friends, it
is a miracle, working love, this love of God. Often I'm asked,
Perhaps because we're not maybe as charismatic as some other
churches, I'm often asked, do you believe in miracles? And
I always say, you is looking at one. I am one, a miracle of
the grace of God. I'm probably more of a miracle
believer now than I was 50 years ago when I began to preach because
I've seen so many. Every day I experience miracles
of the grace of God. So let us go forward with great
confidence that God has worked. in us, God is working in us,
and God shall complete the work. And so today what I want to do
is simply take these three deliverances and talk to you a bit about them.
And I'm going to take the last one first. I'll preach the verse
backwards. He will yet deliver us. Wow, what an awesome thought.
Do you fear tomorrow? Don't fear, he will deliver you. He who hath begun a good work
in you will complete it. Do you have these thoughts that
sometime you're just not gonna make it? You're not gonna hold
out. Greater is he that's in you than
he that is in the world. It's God you see from first to
last. How important it is that we get
this straight. So well, pastor, you're always
preaching this. This is the same. I know it is
because this is the message that Satan would block the road with
in your life. To know this is so important.
Why don't you tell us how to live? Tell us how to live. Let
me tell you, it is grace that puts you in the way, grace that
leads you along the way, and grace that will take you all
the way. There's no more encouragement than that. Little drug addict. who has failed and relapsed and
relapsed and relapsed, and you wonder, will I ever get past
this? Will it ever end? And my answer
is, He will deliver you. There is not one deliverance
which you can ascribe to anyone but the Lord alone. If you've
been delivered, I can tell you who did it. God did it. You're
not going to deliver yourself. How long have you been trying?
Some of you have been in so many institutions. It's going to stop
those 30 day programs that your folks have spent 20 or $30,000
putting you into to get you off drugs. It doesn't work. God is
the deliverer. Even Grace Centers of Hope is
not a deliverer. And so as it is inside heaven's
gate, so let it be now to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Grace, grace. I love to say the word. Amazing
grace, God's grace. Praise to the God of grace, the
Father of grace, the Christ of grace, the Holy Ghost of grace. Be all the glory and honor and
praise forever. One of my favorite passages in
the Old Testament, not often read is Zechariah chapter four
and verse nine. And here's what it says. The
hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house.
Christ being a type, Zerubbabel being a type of the heavenly
Christ himself. The hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it.
He laid the foundation and his hands shall finish it. Who art
thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become
a plain. Do you see what he's saying here?
You got a big problem? You got a bigger savior. You've
got a bigger deliverer. And he shall bring forth the
headstone with shoutings, crying grace, grace, grace unto it. It's all of grace. When you and
I stand before God, the shoutings will not be worthiness to ourselves,
But it is God's grace. I'm here by grace. God's unmerited
favor. What needs to happen in the church
is we need to become, and the only way to become a grateful,
thankful people is to get into this thing of grace. That God
could have damned you. That God should have damned you.
That you were not worthy even of a glance from Almighty God. but he has delivered you. When
we've been there 10,000 years, we've no less days to sing God's
praise than when we first begun. And I know some of you don't
think you're gonna make it. I talk with many a little child
of God who has such fear and doubt. Let me tell you this,
you need to read Romans 8. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord, to them who are
the called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow, for
whom He did forelove. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son. Whom he predestinated, them
he also called. Whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Isn't that something? And I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. I know my
sheep and they follow me. That's what he said. You're going
to end up in heaven. because he's a mighty deliverer. He shall deliver us. And then the second deliverance
is this, and doth deliver us. You know, right now in this present
life, I really get excited about this. What if God just saved
you and left you to yourself? Aren't you glad God is at work
in you right now? That He said, you keep on keeping
on because greater is He that's in you than he that's in the
world. He's even now delivering us from
the powers that would enslave us. He's working in us both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. There is deliverance power working
now in us. Quit acting like you're so weak
and feeble. The power of Almighty God is
in you. You can accomplish this thing.
through his power. How many demons do you think
are out there ready to take you captive, setting snares for you? You think the devil's through
with you? You think Satan is through with you? He is not. How many times have you felt
the draw, the power, the shackles of some captivity that you felt
you were not going to escape, but you did, and here you are.
How many times have you said, I quit, but you haven't? Because greater is He that's
in you and He's working in you. How many times has He even here
of late kept you from wandering into devious ways? Times you
thought this week you would do such and such, but you did not
because he delivered you from doing that thing. How often it
seems you have been assailed by some temptation, but were
delivered from it. Some of you have been very sick.
Some of you have been very sick. I see Vanessa sitting over there.
What a miracle. She's been delivered from cancer. Judy. Judy sitting here, been
delivered. Miss Pam, delivered from death. God is a deliverer. Some of you think you'll never
get over your depression, but you will. He's gonna put a smile
on your face eventually. Amen. There'll be nobody unhappy
when they walk through the pearly gates. All will be joy and peace
over there. You can count on that. Now I want you to think about
this last one. Oh my goodness, you're going
to get out of here early. Lastly, Paul speaks in our text
of a past deliverance. When your eyes were opened and you saw the great death from which you had been delivered
from. Let me just try to make this
simple and come down a bit, if I can get to your level, just
a little bit. There's some baby Christians
in here. Maybe it's just happened since
you came to Grace Centers of Hope. Maybe it's just happened
since you've been attending our services here, but your eyes
were open. that you had been dead, but something
has happened on the inside of you. You can remember a time when
you didn't want to come to church. That was the last thing you were
going to do on Sunday morning. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians
2, and you hath he made alive who were dead. Think about that. You were dead. You were the dead
dog. You were down in Lodibar. You were in the Valley of Dry
Bones. You were the bloody baby in the field, helpless, without
strength and hopeless. And then Jesus came to you. Think about your past. Oh my
God, that ought to make you cry out. Oh my God. Oh my God, my
savior, my deliverer, dead to God. You were a filthy rag. There was nothing attractive
about you that caught the eye of God. God didn't see beauty
in you and therefore came to you. God saw spiritual death,
enmity, hatred, drugs, lasciviousness. No desire for Him. You were a God-hater, filled
with malignant demons. You needed deliverance. Not only
did you hate your life, you hated your captives, and you loved
your sin. no hope within, held tight by
wicked hands. And then Jesus came and set the
prisoner free. And your chains fell off, and
the dungeon was filled with light. And that's exactly what Mr. Wesley
meant When he wrote these words, Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature's night, Thine eyes diffused a
quickening ray, I woke the dungeon flamed with light, My chains
fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed
Thee. My chains fell off, my heart
was free, I rose, went forth and followed Thee. And then think
about Think about this because I want to quote his last stanza. Think about how God has delivered
you from your passions. You know, one of Satan's greatest
ploys is to remind you of your past. Do you understand today that
you have no reason to be thinking about your past because Jesus
Christ has already paid the price for all that stuff. forgetting
those things which are behind, we press toward the mark of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Think about what Mr. Newton could think about. And
yet he is the writer of amazing grace. He could think about raping
the female Negro slaves on the ship, which he was the captain.
He could think about his drunkenness. and feel the condemnation. He
was a swearer. People would cross the road when
they'd see him coming to get away from his foul language.
And yet God in mighty grace delivered him from his sin. And he wrote
that great hymn. Wesley wrote this, no condemnation
now I dread. Jesus and all in him is mine,
alive in him my living head, and clothed in righteousness
divine. Bold I approach the throne and
claim the crown through Christ my own. Bold I approach the eternal
throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. He has delivered
you in the past. Every one of us ought to go back
this morning And just think about this a little bit. Whether you've
been saved 50 years or 60 years, think about this. He delivered
me. He delivered me. He came to me
when I would not or could not come to him. I know you're sitting
there in amazement as it's quarter to 12 and he's through. He came
to me when I would not come to him. He came to me and delivered
me. All I want you to do is go home
today. Those of you who are Christian
thinking this, I am delivered. I am saved. I am a child of the
King, but it wasn't by my works. I have nothing to dread today
and nothing to dread tomorrow because God is at work in me.
And when I leave this world, absent from the body, present
with the Lord. What a great deliverance that's
going to be, right? And then those of you who are
held tight and you know it now, you have been convinced of the
Spirit of God. You know, I was thinking about
all the stories this week that many of you have told me. I remember
this has been years ago and this person is not here. And I guess
God brought this to mind, and this person didn't tell me in
confidence, so I can share it with you. One of our girls over at the
center was kidnapped by five or six men. She was taken to
an apartment, and she was bound. Her clothes was taken off. She
laid naked there on the bed and they put dogs around that bed. So she never got up. She couldn't
get off the bed. They were the watchdogs. And it was after that encounter
that she came to know Christ. I thought about her today. It's
been probably 20 years. What a great deliverance. Amen. I said, well, pastor, why would
you tell something like that? Because I know there's some of
you that have experienced stuff like that. And you think you
can't be delivered. You think too much has happened
to you. You think, you know, uncle John raped you and, you
know, cousin so-and-so did this and you've sold your body and
you've been out there in the crack house and sold yourself
to, and I'm not just talking about women now. There are men here that have
sold themselves, too, into homosexuality to get drugs. And you think there's
no hope for you. Let me tell you this. Let me
tell you this. The blacker the skin, the whiter
the teeth. You say, well, what do you mean
by that? I mean, the blood of Jesus Christ will make you white
as snow. I don't care what you've done,
where you've gone or where you've been. He's able to deliver you. Many times your conscience is
your greatest enemy. Your conscience hooks up with
demons and starts talking to you and you hear all the things
they accuse you of. How glorious is this gospel to
know there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
I don't know what you've done. I don't know where you've been.
I don't know how far you've gone, but I do know this. He's a greater
savior than you are a sinner. He's able to deliver you. And
here's what I would encourage you to do, what the apostle said
here, in whom we trust, in whom we trust. He said, he has delivered
us. He is delivering us. and we are
sure of this, He will deliver us in whom we trust. I said, well, what should I do?
All of those things you've said, you may not have spoken to anyone,
but you've spoken to me today. What should I do? Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And I guarantee
you that a peace that passes all understanding will flood
your heart and your soul, and the burden will be rolled away. Let's stand together and sing.