Let's go to the book of Ephesians
and also the book of Galatians. First of all, Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 1. And you hath he made alive, and
your King James will be quickened, and you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. And then Galatians beginning
with verse Chapter 6. And as many as desire
to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised
only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of
Christ. In other words, they compromise
the gospel. For neither they themselves who
are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. There must have been some awesome reason for God coming
to earth. I mean, this morning in a very
simple way, I want to just try to figure this out. This thing
called Christianity. What is it to be a Christian?
Am I a Christian? How would I know if I was a Christian? God come to earth. Why? Because it was the only
way. Because there was something horribly
wrong with man that man couldn't fix. Would you agree with that? This thing of being a child of
God, of being a Christian, is not to be taken lightly. Once
the wheels began to turn after God has touched the heart and
you began to really see It becomes the old, old story that's always
new and fresh. It never gets old. Someone has
said, the blacker the face, the whiter the teeth, until you know
how black your soul was. And I know some of you get so
weary of me talking about drugs and talking about this and talking
about that. Same old story every Sunday.
Remember this. The only time you're going to
say hallelujah is when you really see where God's brought you from. That's when you begin to praise
Him. From sinking sands, He lifted me. With tender hands, He lifted
me. From shades of night to planes
of light, oh, praise His name, He lifted me. I was sinking deep
in sin, far from the peaceful shore. sinking to rise no more,
but the master of the sea. Amen. Amen. David said, I was
in a horrible pit. I was in the miry clay. But he
picked me up and set me on the solid rock. See, unless you really
see he did that and you really get it, you're not going to shout
much. You're not going to get too thrilled
about this. In fact, you're not going to like this grace thing
really at all. You know, grace, grace, grace, grace. All he preaches
is grace. You don't know how bad you need
it yet. If you ever find out about this grace thing, first
you got to find out about yourself. And then you too will be singing
amazing grace. How sweet to sound that saved
a wretch like me. I think to myself often, I want
them to know the gospel. You say, well, Father, we know
the gospel. No, you know the word. When this church, when
we really get, when we really get where we know the gospel,
there's going to be a lot of joy in this place. There can't
be joy unless you're growing in grace. growing in grace. You don't know nothing yet. You haven't arrived. You're not
a theologian. I don't want a church full of
theologians. I want a church filled with sinners who've been
saved by the amazing grace of God. And that clearly understand
that through the ceaseless ages of eternity, you're going to
be praising Him. You don't even know how good
He's been to you yet. You are alive this morning because
of Him. You could have been off in the
ditch. You think about all the things
that could have happened, except God's hand was on you. Think
about where you've been and what you've done, and God's hand was
upon you. All you Christians, think about what you've done
since you've been saved, but God's hand was on you. You destroyed
everything. God's grace. Now, here's what
I want you to do. I want us to talk about being
dead. Isn't death something? When you think about death, what's
the first thing you think about? I mean, don't get all religious
on me now. I mean, think about the ugliness
of death. What's the first thing you think about? Yeah, I knew
you were going to say that. Think about what? Cold. Dead. That body, right? I have
a corpse up here. You touch it, it's cold. That's
why some of you don't go to funerals. I did that. I touched my grandmother
when I was eight years old. She was the world to me. First
time I've ever touched a dead person. When I touched her, I
knew she wasn't there. There was no doubt in my mind.
My nanny was not there. And death was cold. Like a rock. What else do you think about?
What else? Frightened? Dark? How about stench? You know, I've
honestly been where the bodies have been out too long. I've
held funerals where the stench. You say, this is Christmas, Pastor. I know. But really, you know,
if Christ were born, let's just say He was on the 25th of December.
I don't think He was, but I think He was born in the spring. But
at any rate, death and Christ, they are connected. I just read
to you in the Bible that death and Christ are connected. You
and I were dead. Now, if I had Space stand up
here, and let's just say that he had not become a Christian
as yet, he would be standing up here and... Just stand here,
Space, for a minute. I'm going to get an unlikely...
Don, why don't you, since you're a councilman, you come and you
stand up here with me too. Now, let's just say this. Here
is a man that's dead. But let's say this. Don has been
made alive, right? The Scripture says, and you have
he made alive, you who were dead, right? So, at one time, we were
all dead. This is a piece of salvation. This is what I'm trying to show
is a piece of the gospel. You were born into this world
dead. In other words, when you were
a little baby, your mother gave birth to you, and you were born
dead. You were dead to God. That's
what that means. And so, you were in a dark place. You really didn't smell good
in the nostrils of God. There was no perfume about you.
Corruption was complete. Your mind, your heart, your soul,
your body, everything was… You were born dying physically, and
spiritually you were dead. Now, tell me how that keeping
the Ten Commandments gives you life. Because you're dead. You're
dead to all good. We got to get this. Those of
you sitting in the back that try to get the furthest away
from church, you don't even want to be here. You came to the mission
a crack addict, a heroin addict, or from prison, and then I don't
want to leave any of you churchy people out. You're here because
maybe your crack addict son or daughter are here, and you're
as lost as they are. I know this is not nice, is it?
It's not nice at all, but it is the solid truth. So, mom and dad are lost, and
they have a lost son or daughter, and they're lost, you must be
born again. Whether you're churchy, or you're
in the hood using drugs. Is that right? You're still,
it doesn't make any difference where space goes as a lost person. He can go to First Baptist Church. He can go to Mass. But he still
stinks. He's still lost. He's still dead. He is inactive toward God. He is out of the will of God.
He is rebellious against the God who came into this world
and says, no, Christ will not rule over me. I'll be a Catholic.
I'll be a Baptist. I'll be a Methodist. I'll be
a Presbyterian. I'll go to church. I'll get sprinkled Dr. poured.
But I'm not trusting Christ alone, because He's dead. There is nothing
that space will not do. There is nothing that space is
not capable of in His deadness. So, and I know these two guys
will take this. Here's a hog. Space is a hog. He loves the mud. He loves the
mud. Hogs love the mud. They love
it. They don't dislike it. They love
it. It's so natural for them to be in the mud. Now, Don, on
the other hand, he's a sheep. What he is, is actually a dead
man that has been given life. Okay? So, now he has life in
him, right? Now he is one really mixed up
dude. Because now he does what he hates. He does what he doesn't want
to do. He is one twisted guy. And it's really important that
Don, as a Christian, grows in grace because he's going to understand
himself. In fact, he's going to think
about, you know what, how could I be a Christian? Unless he understands
this gospel, and unless you do, you know, I think what happens
is a lot of folks here that come to Grace Gospel, you do get saved. You get born again. And the next
thing you know, those old thoughts are back. And you say, nothing
happened to me. How could anything happen to
me? I'm out after the stuff again. I find myself plotting and planning. And the next thing you know,
Satan's got you in a corner telling you stuff that ain't true. Like
this, Don, you couldn't be saved. How could you be saved? And then if conscience doesn't
tell you, Deacon Jones will tell you. You ain't saved, sanctified. And before you know it, You're
really twisted and messed up. It's what the Scripture says.
And by the way, just a side note here. The hog, the unregenerate
religious person, always has something to say about this person. And if you're not careful, this
person, after they get saved in their flesh, will have something
to say about this hog. Are you still with me? I can't
believe that space did that, Don might say. I can't believe
space did that. Have you forgot, Don? Have you
forgot when you were pill-popping? Have you forgot where God found
you? All you saints shouldn't be looking at the hogs because
you were in the hog pen too. Don't ever forget where God found
you. Listen, you didn't find God in
the hog pen. He wasn't in the hog pen. God
found you in the hog pen. Right? And sitting under the
Gospel and learning the Gospel cause you to walk very tenderly. I'll tell you, about 98% of my
time I'm thinking about me. It doesn't take much to shake
me. And I thank God for that because of this. It causes me
to run to Christ. Listen, I've lived long enough
to almost search every crack and corner. I can't find much
good stuff in there. You know what I mean? No use
in me walking around here with my head in the air. Amen. And you know, I find this is
true, and I'm just being honest with you today. The bigger this
thing gets, the shakier I get. You know what I mean? Because
I know in my flesh dwells no good thing. You know, it'd just
take one good zap to really mess things up around here. You better
be praying for me. If you don't want me to mess
up, you kind of sound like people looking at you. They are. They
don't know what they're looking at, but they're looking at me.
They don't really see inside where all the stuff is. And my
own confusion about life. But the reason I'm talking this
way this morning is because I know some of you have not grown yet.
And honestly, God has been growing me since I was 8 years old. I've
been growing. I'm still growing. I'm growing
in this grace, and it's still amazing. And just understand
this. Don't get over it. Don't get
over it being amazing grace. Okay, you two can sit down now
just for a minute. You did a good job, too. You did. Just think about it for
a few minutes. I don't want you to stay there
too long. Think about ten years ago where you were. Just think about where you were.
And it's okay. Think for a few minutes about
the adulterous situation you were in. And it could have taken
place, or it was taking place, and you were really confused
about lots of stuff. It doesn't take you long to get
in the spider's web. The devil's slick. I mean, he
can't take you to hell, but he can give you a hell on earth
within yourself. You were dead, but think about
how dead you were. You're like a man or a woman
that's been stabbed a billion times. He's just dead, dead,
dead. Dead. And all of you in here
who use drugs continuously and are still hooked, unless God
comes and gets you and saves you and does for you what you
can't do for yourself, you're going to die using drugs. I'm
talking about a physical death. You're going to die dead. Dead
to God. Dead to mercy. Dead to grace.
Dead to love, you're never going to know it. You're never going
to figure it out. I mean, you've got that deep hole on the inside,
that emptiness inside of you, and you're just searching everywhere,
poking everything in you, sniffing something up your nose, doing
something to try to be at peace. Well, you have to have life.
You need life. And that's why we talk so much
around here about the hound of heaven. Here's what the Scripture
says. This is how dead folks are. Let's
go to Romans 1 real quick here. Romans 1. I want you to think
about it. This is where you and I were. It doesn't make any difference
whether you're in a good house, good home. It doesn't make any
difference where you are, whether you're in a religious institution. This was us, without Christ,
without being regenerated, without being born again. This is us. Let's begin with verse 18 of
Romans 1. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, ungodlikeness
and unrighteousness, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
That is, they suppress the truth. All of you who are not Christians
here, you know what you do? You hold the truth down. You
don't like me and you don't like what I'm saying. You didn't like
what I said about the Catholics or the Baptists or the Methodists.
You don't like what I said about you as a parent. But it doesn't
make any difference because it's true. And maybe if you get mad
enough, you'll investigate and find out it's true. You are wretched,
unrighteous. Alright, now watch this. "...who
hold the truth, suppress the truth," verse 18, "...in unrighteousness,
because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for
God has showed it unto them." You can't say you don't know
there's a God, because God showed it to you. Everybody in here
knows a God. You're not an atheist. There
are no atheists in the world. God has showed everybody that
He's God. All you have to do is look up.
All you have to do is look at the individual snowflakes that
fall to the ground. All you have to do, that maple
tree, I love that maple tree. I don't know what I'm going to
do when we move over to the other building, because I'm always
talking about that maple tree. You know, for years and years
and years, I've watched that maple tree around April start
to bud. And I say, hallelujah, there's
a God. Just automatic. All those leaves are gone now.
There's a God. The heavens declare there's a God. Look at verse
20. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen. Clearly seen. You're not a stupid
atheist. You're a smart atheist with a
brain who knows there's a God. And you lie to yourself and to
other people. Being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power. You look at stuff that has been
made and say, wow, He's a powerful God. Or that's what we ought
to say. So they are without excuse. Everybody
in here is without excuse. When you stand before God, you
won't say, nobody told me, nobody told me, or God Himself told
you. See, you're dead, which means you're in a state of rebellion
against God. You will not bow. You will not
hoist the white flag. You will not surrender. You're
dead to God. You're inactive toward God. You
say, this man will not rule over me. That's right. Verse 21, "...because when they
knew God, they glorified Him not as God." See, once you know
there's a God, you ought to say, Hallelujah. There's a God. Neither were they thankful. Oh,
some of you are so unthankful. You're talking and fiddling around
right now, writing notes, whispering in somebody's ear. Oh, I see
more than what you think I see. Vain in their imaginations. What
have you thought since you've been in church today? What have
you imagined since you've been in church today? Your eyes haven't
wandered, have they? Your foolish heart was darkened.
You know what? You didn't get more light. Your
heart was darkened. In your rebellion, you got darker. That's right. See, when you start
down, unless you're stopped, you keep going down. In and of
yourself, you never start up. It's always down. Always down. Just consider how you have contrived
to destroy yourself. How you plotted and planned to
steal your mother's car, to steal the gold in the house, to buy
drugs. You plotted and planned and schemed
because it's all dark inside. There's no light in there. And
even when you go to jail, you don't learn. You know why? Because
it's dark in there. They can put you in a cell. But
they can't get you out of that cell you're in on the inside.
And in that cell, it's dark. It's a dark cellar, and there
are creeping, crawling things in that cellar. Now watch this.
Verse 22, "...professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."
You thought you were a smart aleck, but you were really a
fool. Let me show you how smart you
are. The drug man took all your money, your house, your car,
your kids, and your own self-respect. You don't seem too smart to me.
Professing yourself to be wise, you became a fool. Wherefore,
God gave them up also. Oh, you don't want God to give
you up. You better pray God doesn't give you up. What if God gave
up on you? Be no hope. Boy, I'm glad God
didn't give up on me. Aren't you glad God didn't give
up on you?