Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
while on others Thou art calling. Do not pass me by." He could
have passed you by, you know. Didn't owe you anything. You
were on death row. Could have walked right past
and left you to yourself. But aren't you glad He stopped
at yourself? And so we say with the psalmist,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but under thy name, give
glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Listen to the psalmist. Blessed be the Lord, my strength,
which teetheth my hands to war, my fingers to fight, my goodness
and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield and
he in whom I trust. Amen. I will cry and extol the
Lord, my God. Oh, my King, I will bless thy
name forever and ever. Every day I will bless thee. I will praise thy name forever
and ever. Praise the Lord. Psalm 146. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Why
I live while I praise the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God. while I have any being. Praise
ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God, for
it is pleasant. Praise is comely. Sing unto the
Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the harp unto
our God. The Lord take a pleasure in them
that reverence him, and those that hope in his mercy. Psalm
148, praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise ye Him, all His angels. Praise ye Him, all His hosts.
Praise ye Him, sun, moon. Praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens
and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. Praise
the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps. Praise the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song,
for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify
the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their
beds. Let the high praises of God be
in their mouth. and a two-edged sword in their
hand. And then Psalm 150, praise ye
the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary.
Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his
mighty acts. Praise him according to the excellent
greatness. Praise him with the sound of
the trumpet. Praise him with the psaltery
in heart. Praise him with the tremble and
dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments
and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high-sounding
cymbals. Let everything that hath breath
praise the Lord. Amen. The chief end of man is to praise
God and to glorify Him forever. We have come into this house
and gathered in His name to give Him glory and praise. When you're
reading in the Bible the great wonder stories of Scripture,
you have to take note how the Lord is most careful to perform
those miracles. He performs them in such a way
that He gets all the glory. Miracles bring about glory to
God. Gideon, you're going to defeat
the Midianites. But not with 21,000. Not with 10,000. You're going
to defeat the media knights with 300 men. And they're like kind
of dog water lappers. What a strange army. And you're
going to do it with pitchers and trumpets, not with cannons
and guns and bombs. So Israel does not vaunt itself
against God. That's King James, vaunt themselves
against God. It's as read from another version
today, they do not glory or boast because there's 21,000 and they
outnumbered the Midianites. 300 pitchers and trumpets. And the Midianites, who were
like grasshoppers, were defeated. So God gets the glory. Whether
you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, due to the glory of God. In John 6, we read about 5,000
people who were hungry. Over 5,000 people. There was
a lad there who had a couple of fish, and they were small
fishes, and five barley loaves, and Jesus fed them all, and there
was leftovers. Why? Whether you eat or drink
or whatsoever you do, do to the glory of God. Be careful about
success going to your head. I want you to turn to the book
of Daniel real quick here, Daniel chapter 4. And it says this, and I'll refer
back to this at the close of the message. Daniel chapter four,
here's what Nebuchadnezzar said. Chapter four, verse two. I thought
it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath
wrought toward me. I thought it was a good day.
to tell about the wonders that God has done in my life. How
great are His signs, verse 3 says, and how mighty are His wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest
in my house and flourished in my palace when He gave God the
glory. But this guy got messed up. If
you turn a page over in verse 30, here he's talking again. At the end of 12 months, he walked
in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. And the king spake
and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house
of the kingdom by the might of my power and for my honor and
majesty? Watch it. Don't let it go to
your head. You got clutch cargo. Don't let
it go to your head. You're about to build a new women
and children's altar, and God's going to take care of the funds
for that. Don't let it go to your head. Don't think you did
it. Don't think the pastor did it.
Don't think Grace Centers of Hope did it. Give God the glory
and the honor and praise. Let me tell you how to offend
God. Don't believe Him. Just don't believe God. Verse
31 says, while the word was in the king's mouth, there fell
a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is
spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And you're going to
eat grass like a beast until you learn this lesson. Verse 34, and at the end of the
days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my
understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High.
I praised and honored him that liveth forever and ever, whose
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
and he doeth according to his will in the army in heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand, nor say unto him, What doest thou? Oh, have you learned
that? Then lift your hand and praise
God. That is true. Look at verse 37, the last seven,
eight words. Those that walk in pride, God
is able to abase. Pride has no place in the Christian
life. Free will has no place as a braggamony
to why you are a Christian. It's not your works, not your
church, not your baptism, not your life, not your law-keeping,
not your confession, not your anything. Are you saved by grace? Yes. By unmerited favor? Yes. Deserved to go to hell,
but here you are in the house of God? Amen, is it amazing grace
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost
But now I'm found was blind, but now I see Isaiah 42 8 says I'm the Lord
that's my name my glory. I will not give to another You're
not gonna get it the Lord will give his people almost anything
and And He does. Marvelous blessings He bestows
upon us. But one thing He will not give
you, and that's a reason to glory, except in Him. My glory I will
not give to another. If I could live with one goal,
this one motive, this one desire, would be to give God all the
glory. That's why I like every praise.
Let's sing it again till we got it, right? I mean, let's get
it. Let's give him every praise. It's like this. Thank you, Lord,
for these clothes. This ought to be our general
attitude. Thank you, Lord, for breakfast this morning. Thank
you, Lord, for a good job. Thank you, Lord, for a parking
spot out front of the church. Thank you, Lord, for healthy
children. Thank you, Lord, for a good-looking pastor. I mean,
I could have looked like Don Woodward. I'm just kidding, Don. The Bible says that the Apostle
Paul feared for the church at Corinth, that the serpent who
deceived Mother Eve through his craftiness would deceive them
from the simplicity, and that word simplicity means a single-mindedness
that is in Christ. Don't be deceived from a single-mindedness
in Christ Jesus. Don't get away from this. He
foreknew me. He predestinated me. He justified
me. He called me. He glorifies me. It's a he message. To God be
the glory, great things He's done. The acid test is always
who gets the glory. I know some of you are saying,
Pastor, you have told us this 10 billion times, and yes, if
you keep coming here, you're going to hear it every Lord's
Day, every Wednesday night, every time you talk to me, give Him
glory, give Him praise. In fact, the apostle Timothy,
young Timothy, said this in 1 Timothy 1.11. He called it the gospel
of the glory. It's the gospel of the glory. The gospel of grace. I don't
know, somehow I know the devil tries to get us all to resist
this, and some way or other, grace becomes a common word.
Glory becomes a common word. We hear it so much, we don't
enter into it. I hope you enter into it today. God should have sent you and
me to hell, both of us. But He didn't. Oh, that's glorious. God so loved me that He came
down here, not to spy out my sins, but to deliver me from
my sin, to fetch me out of my lodibar. Salvation is of the
Lord. Praise God. Let me do it again. Praise God. Nobody ought to be sitting here
this morning who's been saved by the grace of God like this. It's astonishing. Think about
what you thought about yesterday and you're saved, you're heaven
bound. Lord, I was at a fashion show. Think about this, that you've
been predestinated to glory, that nothing can stop you. There is no doubt that we ought
to have a positive attitude. What are you down about? What
are you depressed about? God's got you. God's got it. Lift your hand and give Him glory. The psalmist and Job and David
and all of them would say things like, what is man that thou art
mindful of him? You're in the right frame of
mind when you're asking yourself that question. Who am I? What am I that you should be
mindful of me? That your eye is on the sparrow
and you watch over me? that I am so special that you
know the number of the hairs on my head. I lost a few, I washed
my hair this morning. Some of them fell out, so there
was a distraction, but God knows. Psalm 96 says, give unto the
Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord glory due
His name. God has chosen the base ones.
Those of you who have been delivered from church anity ought to have
both hands up because you've been delivered from a double
darkness, not only the darkness of your depravity, but the darkness
of religion. Those of you who have come to
see the free grace of God ought to have your hands up. Remember
when you hated to go to church? Remember when it was a drudgery?
Remember when it was boring? Remember when you heard legalism?
Remember when you left there beaten up and guilty and sore? And now you come into the house
of God and hear the gospel of the glory, the gospel of God's
grace, the gospel of God's mercy. The apostle Paul said, but of
him are you in Christ Jesus, who's made unto you wisdom. Aren't
you glad you're smart now? Once you were stupid, now you're
smart? You have the very wisdom of God. You know how God is just
and justifier of the ungodly. I can't tell you what I was just
thinking. I was thinking I wish I had a
little African-American in me where I could, you know, do a
little get down. I'm just too much of a snowball
to get down. God has made us wisdom. We understand how God can go
down into the coal mines of sin and get hold of a sleazebag like
you and me and not get himself dirty. That takes a mighty good
God. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me. Out in the darkness, no light
could I see. He put His great arm under, and
wonder of wonders, He saved even me. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus, the Nazarene, and wonder that He could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous, oh, how wonderful
is the Savior's love to me. He's made unto us wisdom and
righteousness. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. I have the imputed righteousness
of Jesus Christ. I'm as holy as God in Jesus Christ. I am without spot or wrinkle
or any such thing in Jesus Christ. I've been justified. I've been
declared not guilty. There is no condemnation for
me. Not now or forever. Hallelujah. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Now I want to show you how this
works. Because I don't think a lot of
times we get it. How does this work, this faith
thing, this giving God all the glory? Well, let's go to the
book of Romans real quick. You see, God has fixed this thing.
You're not going to get any glory. You can just forget it, discount
it, leave here today and know this for sure. I don't care how
religious you are, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian. I wasn't
boasting about any of that. All of them are a mess. Amen. Listen, there are no perfect
Baptist churches, no perfect Catholic churches. And besides,
if you went there, you'd mess it up if it was. Amen. Okay. God's fixed this thing. There's
one way to heaven. And it's not by works. And if you get to heaven, you're
going to have to trust God, because God's fixed it. Wouldn't it be
wonderful if someone here today, and you can do this at any time,
if you want to fall out up front here, if you want to come forward
while I'm preaching, it's okay, you won't stop me. If you just
want to, for the first time in your life, the lights come on
and you go, yeah! It's not my works. It's not my
baptism. It's not holy communion. It's
holy cow, God love me. And Christ died for me on the
tree of the cross. I'm going to trust God. Nothing
in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. For the first
time in your life, today you trust God. That's it. You say, well, don't I have to
know the books of the Bible? Don't I have to? You know, oftentimes
I get this question proposed to me. Why don't you ask people
to do something? Because there's nothing you can
do. God doesn't want you doing anything. He wants you to trust
Jesus Christ. Because if you do something,
you'll be patting yourself on the back. You'll be taking some
of the glory. Even those of us who are saved,
every good and perfect gift, you wouldn't have enough sense
to play the radio if it were not for the grace of God. Your
gifts, your talents, your abilities were all given. You can't take
any glory for that. Before you are converted or after,
all the glory goes to Him. That's why we've got to learn
to get off this negative thing, always talking negative in some
way or about someone. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Even for common things. I mentioned
earlier about a parking place. I went up to Beaumont to see
Youngin the other day, and it looked really crowded, and I
just kind of said this, Lord, give me a place close to the
door. I got out there and this Cadillac was pulling out, just
two parking spots from the door. You say, now pastor, you don't
believe. Praise God. You know, if you look, it doesn't,
it doesn't take a stare. You can give a glance. You will
see the blessings of God on your life and start praising him. Thank God for everything. In
everything give thanks for this is the will of God concerning
you. Amen. I love that passage. Now,
you're in the book of Romans? Let's go to Romans 3. You ought
to read Romans a lot. Look at verse 24. Well, let's
begin with verse 23. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. I got some news for you. You
missed the mark. You're not nearly as good as
you think you are. No way, no how. Everybody's missed the mark.
Well, how are we going to go to heaven? Well, look at verse
24. Being justified freely. That word freely means without
a cause. That is, there was no cause in
you for God to take you to heaven. There was no cause in you that
caused God to save you. There was no cause in you that
caused God to love you. This place ought to be on His
feet. There was nothing in you. There's nothing in you. And yet
here you sit, saved by the grace of God, saved by unmerited favor,
justified freely, that is, without a cause, by His grace. That's kind of a double positive.
Is there any such thing? That's kind of a double... Paul
was always talking about that, like that. We're more than conquerors.
Well, how can you be more than a winner? I won, I won, I won,
I won. I'm a winner, winner, winner,
winner. Being justified without a cause freely by the unmerited
favor of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Look
at verse 27. Where is boasting then? What happened to boasting? Oh, it's excluded. Nullified,
wiped out. Listen, if you go to some place
and hear some message where you're getting the glory, it's not God's
message. Boasting is excluded because
when we've been there 10,000 years, we've no less days to
sing His praise than when we first begun. Glory to God. Let's start down here. Glory
to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Look at Romans 4. What shall
we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the
flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. So
if you can be saved by what you do, God owes you. Right? That's what we will hear.
If you can be saved by works, then God doesn't get the glory.
But if you're totally, completely saved by the grace of God, God
gets all the glory. God is concerned about his glory. For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereup to glory, but not before God. For
what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God. Faith is the victory. Trust in
God. And it was counted to him for
righteousness. If you just know this, you don't
have to know a whole lot, you don't have to know the shortest
verse, the longest verse, you don't even have to know the difference
between Genesis and Revolutions. Trust God. What I'm saying to
you is that salvation is of the Lord. Right now, just trust God. The fool has said in his heart,
no God for me. Right where you are, trust God.
Without moving a muscle, trust God. You don't have to come up
front. You can stay in the back, eventually
you will upchuck it, but trust God. Right where you are. I'm not going to ever ask you
to do anything except this, trust God. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be safe. It's really simple, God's fixed
it that way. Now to him, verse 4, now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death.
If you work, then somebody owes you something. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. Saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Isn't that something? Not only has God imputed perfect
righteousness to you, accredited it to your account, imputed it
to you, but when you sin, and you do, because in your flesh
dwells no good thing, God goes like this, nope, not gonna charge
him with that. Not gonna charge him with that.
How many happy Christians do we have in here with that? Not
gonna charge her with that. No, no, no, no, no. My son paid the price. There's
power in the blood. There's no condemnation to those
that are in Christ. I will never stand guilty because
the price has been paid. God has imputed to me a perfect
righteousness. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. So today, I know some of you
are, as Christians, have sat under masks so long that you're
under such condemnation and false guilt and fear, and yes, in my
flesh dwells no good thing, but I'm not under condemnation. I'm
going to heaven and nothing can stop me, come hell or high water. I'm heaven-bound. I'm bound for
the promised land. Amen. Say, well, Pastor, now
listen at you. Well, Pastor, listen at you.
Don't try to argue with me about this. Just receive it. It's in
God's Word. You're blessed. You're heaven-bound. You're predestined. I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish. Get that look off your face.
This is glorious. You know, my future's much better
than my past. That's the way we ought to live.
Look at Paul in Romans 11. He says, in verse 6, he says
this, and if by grace, then it is no more works. Isn't that
simple? If it's by grace, it's no more
works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. The apostle in the
book of Galatians says, we do not frustrate the grace of God.
Some of you try to frustrate the grace of God by inserting
your own work. Don't do that. Grace can only
be grace when it is unmerited, undeserved favor. We only worship
when we're caught up in the wonder of it. The devil wants you depressed.
or mean as hell and religious, always accusing, always judging,
always looking at someone else. Understand this, were it not
for the grace of God, there go you. Christian people should
never get to a place where you can't put your arm around any
man or woman who's in the gutter and say, if God saved me, he
can save you. Oh, there's hope for you? I don't
care. Though you've wallowed in the
stables of sin, though you're black as all hell, though you've
done the worst that you could do, His grace reaches deeper
than your mess. He's a greater Savior than you
are a sinner. Some of you are wrestling with
all kinds of things, all kinds of things. Let me say that again
because nobody said amen. Some of you are wrestling with
all kinds of things. You're wrestling with pornography.
You're wrestling with homosexuality. You're just wrestling with something. Then on top of that, the whole
world has gone nuts. You can't pick up your newspaper
or watch the news. ISIS is over there cutting people's
heads off. The Muslims are trying to take
over. Everywhere you look, it's a mess.
Oh, I'm bound for the promised land. Don't mess with me, I'm
happy. Faith. Faith. You're shut up to trusting God.
You know why? Because God gets glory that way.
All of it. You're going to go to heaven,
somebody else bought you a ticket. What did you do? We used to say
this a lot around here. You did the sinning and God did
the saving. Well, I think we ought to be
holy. I do too. So help yourself. How's that working for you? How's that working for you? You
got to be holy. Holy. I am holy in Christ Jesus. You know who I'm afraid of the
most? Me! Anything short of faith cannot
please God. It's really this simple. Have
faith in God. The apostle said, God forbid
that I should glory. And if we just stop there, it
would be enough. God forbid it that I should glory. Then he
said, save in that one that was crucified
outside Jerusalem, that dark and dreary day outside Jerusalem. And just let me add this in closing. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And we don't even stop there,
just in case you think you're gonna come up with the faith.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that faith is not
of yourself. It is the gift of God. Saving
faith is the gift of God. So he gets the glory. I'm so
glad that he gave me faith. You ever heard the little song?
Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me Thy great salvation so rich and
free. Amen. Now I'm going to close with this.
Now how does this work out for you? As we give God glory and
trust him, life gets a lot better. You can talk all you want to
about your mess and how you failed and you know, I can do all things
through Christ that strengtheneth me. I'm more than a conqueror. I'll never be separated from
the love of God. My God is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think. I'm heaven bound. So show those pearly whites.
Amen. Put a smile on your face. You're
a child of God. You have an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled that fadeth not away. I meet people almost every day.
They go, I'm so weary. Let me tell you, that's not really
that spiritual. You know what? Cut the crap. It's more like this. God is so
good. Good morning, Lord. This is a
day the Lord's made. I'll rejoice and be glad in it.
I wonder what he's going to do today. That's the way we should live.
It really is. Yes, I know about the flesh. I do. You want life to flourish? Trust God. Trust God. Stop wringing your hands. He's
got you. If he doesn't have you, who does?
What are your options? Some of you in here don't even
have yourself. I mean, you don't even have yourself, right? Trust
God. I just don't see how it could
be that simple. I guarantee you this. Your life
is a lot more complicated than this. Simply trust God. Do you know what I mean by that?
I mean, you got so much mess going on, you can't even shuffle
it or shovel it. Trust God. How about this? Well, This is a mess all around me. Sometimes I feel like I'm in
the garbage dump, but all things work together for good to them
that love the Lord. While you're in the garbage dump,
He's got a diamond out there for you. There's something out
there. There's not a thing that overtakes
you or that comes your way except He's in charge. Miss Pam's going to speak to
these ladies today, so we've been kind of talking about how
she's going to tell how she died and how she's alive. I saw her die. Like that. I saw her die like that. I thought
yesterday. Here she is at the fashion show.
Here she is this morning sitting on the front row. You tell me
our God is not a miracle worker. He's a miracle worker. no matter where you are in life
as a Christian, God's got you. Stop your fretting. Stop your
worry. Trust God. Those of you who are without
Christ, haven't trusted him, I want to encourage you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ today. Pastor, is that all? Is that
all? Just hoist the white flag, lay
the shotgun down, and trust Christ. Trust Christ. I don't know how
to make it any plainer or any simpler. Trust Christ. Right
where you are, without one plea. Just as you are, without one
plea. Just trust Christ. And I know
this will happen. The peace and love of God will
fill your soul. There will be a peace that passes all understanding. When you hoist the white flag,
when you give it up, I surrender. I'm going to stop trying. I'm
going to trust you. I'm going to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then do this. I know you well, because you
can't help it. You're going to tell everybody.
So I'm not a talker. You may be a runner. The Spirit
of God gets hold of you. You may run down this aisle.
I've seen people run and then not know what to say when they
got up here. I've had people come forward
and go like this, I don't want to talk, but I just got saved.
Amen, that's okay, you don't have to talk, right? And I want
to tell you this too, the best preaching is telling what God's
done for you. So I was sitting over there in
the church and Clark got to yelling and screaming and you know, I
saw myself a sinner and it happened. The love of God
filled my soul. I knew I was free, free at last,
free at last. Thank God, I'm trying to quit.
Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last. The burden rolls away. All of
you that are wrestling with addiction, let me say this to you, especially
to you Christians, just stop it. Just stop it, God's got you.
Oh, I can hear it calling me. Shut up. Oh, it's so awful. You know,
I've done so much in my addiction. Forget it, God has. Why are you looking at me that
way? Forget it, God has. Your sins and your transgressions
will I remember no more. Amen.