all right, good morning church
I invite your attention to the book of Ephesians chapter 2 often
I hear the statement one church is as good as another the problem
with that is it's not true what makes a church a real church
is that the gospel is preached there you can have the softball
teams and the gymnasiums and all the entertainment that goes
on, youth programs. But unless the gospel's there,
no power there, because the gospel is the power of God and the salvation.
It's important what you hear. And God's given you two ears,
so you listen twice as much as you talk, and you learn the gospel. You ought to be able to go sit
in a congregation and decipher. This is not the same. There's
something wrong here. ears to hear the gospel. Because if God's ever going to
speak to you, He's going to speak to you through the gospel. Spurgeon
tells the story of a little boy that sat on the front row of
the Metropolitan Tabernacle and every Sunday he cupped his ears
like this. Finally Spurgeon said to one
of the deacons, go ask that boy's mother what's wrong with that
kid's hearing. And the deacon came back and
said, Mr. Spurgeon, The little boy says that you say, if he
ever hears from God, it's going to be through God's creature
preaching the gospel, and so he's listening intently that
he might hear from God. I hope you listen that way today.
When you go to church, you ought to hear from God. If you don't
hear from God, you might as well go to the Kiwanis Club meeting,
or Rotary meeting, or whatever. You know, I started this series
talking about the five points. We're on total depravity, and
perhaps this will be the last Sunday that we'll talk about
total depravity directly. Total depravity. You know, I've
been here thirty, thirty-four years now, pastoring this church.
For thirty-four years, I've been preaching the doctrine of total
depravity. I've been preaching the five
points. Total depravity, unconditional, extra-limited atonement, irresistible
grace, and perseverance of the saints. Why would I, after that
long period of time, start over and do it again? Simply because
there is one gospel, and only one gospel. There's only one
way to God. There are not many ways to God,
there's one way to God. And so, we teach the doctrine
of total depravity because it shuts men up and shuts the mouths
of men who would take credit for saving themselves. Total
depravity simply says you are dead and cannot save yourself.
You cannot. Salvation is of the Lord and
total depravity shuts you up to worship, giving God all the
glory. It shuts you up to this. When
I could not and would not come to Him, He came to me. I did
not first love God, He first loved me. When I was without
strength, He came to my cemetery and did for me what I could not
do for myself, to God be the glory. It takes away all of the
thoughts of it was my will and my decision and I walked the
aisle and I gave my heart to God. When you hear a man say,
a preacher say, a man or woman for that matter say, give your
heart to God. God doesn't want your sweet bag
heart. That's where your problem is,
is in your heart. The heart is desperately wicked. That's why you turn to the false
gods. That's why you use crack. That's why you use heroin. That's
why you sedate the pain of life. You set up your own god that
you worship, a false god, and it's because your heart is wrong.
That's why we said last night at our 70th birthday meeting,
last night over at the center, we said that salvation is of
God. That there must be a change from
the inside out. Many of you think that, you know,
Path is just a Republican and so he preaches against entitlement. My friend, it's not about being
a Republican or a Democrat. It's about this. that you are
entitled to nothing but hell if you get what you deserve.
You and I. All of us. Entitlement is totally
unbiblical. And it's bankrupt this country.
The idea that everybody owes me is so contrary to Scripture. The Bible says boasting is excluded. Totally. Completely. And the
craziest people in the world are people who say to God, I
just want what I deserve, that's all I want, what I deserve and
you know my little saying is don't worry about it baby if
that's all you want God will give that to you you don't want
what you deserve, how many want mercy? Amen, and the rest of
you are insane now we've taken two stories from the Bible one
found in the book of Ezekiel chapter 16 to illustrate the
totality of the fabric and God tells the story in there about
a baby whose mother and father forsakes it, whose mother and
father are both heathens, and this baby is born to heathens,
and then both mother and father, when the baby's born, it's not
swaddled or washed, it's put out in an open field to the loathing
of itself. And what God is teaching there,
and what Ezekiel the prophet says, God gave me this message
to you folks that you might know your abomination. Nobody gets
saved until they're lost. If you're not lost, you can't
get saved. If you're not lost, you can't
get found. Somebody's got to get lost. The hardest thing in
the world for me to do is find a sinner. If I could just find
a sinner, I've got some good news for sinners. But everybody's
so unfounded good. You know, well, you know, Father,
I do get drunk occasionally, but I don't use crack. No, sir! Admit adultery occasionally,
but don't use drugs. ...holds the privacy. It shuts
you up. God can save you or damn you
and still be God. God doesn't have to look your
way. God doesn't have to come to you. Just leave you in your
mess. You're crazy enough. to go to
hell. God doesn't have to send you
to hell. You go there all by yourself. You'll work your way
to hell. But you're totally free. The
mind is corrupt. The heart is corrupt. It's not
your hands. It's not your feet. It's your
heart. You need a heart transplant. You've got to be changed from
the inside out. That's what I was about to say. I emphasized that
last night. What Grace Centers does is proclaim
this. It's not a cold check from Washington
that the drug addict needs. It's not a house on Seneca Street
that the drug addict needs. The very first thing that needs
to happen is, you need a new heart. But you got a bad heart,
and only God can do that. So change comes from the inside,
and then that change begins to leak out on you. We're our greatest enemy. The
enemy's in me. Listen, if you want to stay warm,
stay close to the fire. If you're freezing, don't back
up. Come close. So the babe is out in the field
and God's illustrating it. The babe is laying out there
in the weeds. Vulnerable. The babe is without
strength, can't save itself. There's prowling lions, tigers. all kinds of sorts of things
out there that would devour that baby. It's without restraint.
Here's the picture. Baby is depraved, the sinner
is depraved, and God comes passing by. The Bible said, and I passed
by, and it was a time of love. I loved you. This is one of the
passages where we get the old hymn that we sing in our churches.
Pass me not, O gentle Savior! While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. See, the truth is, as Brother
Barnard used to say, you're on death row. You're locked up. On death row, you're going to
die. Capital sin punishment. The wages of sin is death. And Jesus passes by and He has
the keys of death and hell. swinging at his thigh, and he
can let you out or leave you alone. That's why somebody ought
to cry, over here, pass me not, oh gentle savior. You got the
keys to hell and death. Set me free. Am I right about
that? He must come to us. So, we talked
about the babe in the open field. Then, last Sunday, we talked
about Domer, and God said, I want Israel to know her abomination.
So I'm going to illustrate it. So he goes to his preacher, Hosea,
and he says to the prophet Hosea, go marry a whore. Oh God does
some good illustration. Because I want the people of
Israel to know their abomination and to know my grace. And I'm
going to illustrate it this way. So Hosea marries Gomer. If you
remember the story last week, she is totally unfaithful. She
has three babies, and every time she has a baby, she splits and
goes after her lovers. And every time Hosea says, when
she goes after her lovers, Hosea says to his servant, now you
follow her. When she gets in trouble, you
make sure she's protected. When she needs food and raiment
and clothing, you take care of her. See, everybody in here who's
saved by the grace of God ought to have goosebumps. Because when
you were out there in your craziness, when you didn't know God, when
you thought you were something on the end of a stick, when you
had it all together, you thought, God was sending His protective
angels to keep you alive. You should have been dead a long
time ago, but the grace of God, prevenient grace, was active
in your life, while all of hell was popping around you, all of
the craziness. You know you couldn't have enough
sense to play the radio were it not for the grace of God.
You should have had a nervous breakdown a long time ago, all
the mess that you got yourself into. Am I right? You should be crazy right now,
locked up somewhere. Because the world has just kicked
you and kicked you and bad things have happened. I mean, when you
were not a Christian, God all the time was there. There was
an unseen hand watching over you. There was holy protection
for being in grace of God in all of your mess. When you were
in the hood, you knew nothing about the neighborhood. When
you were a dead dog in Lodibar, God in grace was watching over
you. Remember I told you the story
how Dover ended up on prostitute row. She was old and ugly and
had arthritis and was stinky and dirty. And back in biblical
days, you know, prostitution is the oldest occupation in the
world. And what the pimp did back in
Bible days is put the most beautiful and the youngest girls up in
front of the line. And the older you got, the uglier
you got, the more wrinkled you got. you were at the end of the
line and the servant came to Hosea and said she's at the end
of her rope she's down on prostitute row and she isn't worth a nickel
Hosea got his coat and hat went to prostitute row of course the
pimp was glad to see him he was a wealthy wealthy guy and began
to try to sell him the girls at the front of the row, and
as he walked down, he refused each one, got to the end of the
line, and there was a crinkled, dirty, ugly, helpless, old prostitute. And Hosea said, I want her. I
will love her freely. I will love her without a cause.
This is the grace of God. And this is the message of the
Bible. This is the gospel of God's free
grace. This is the gospel of the glory. And unless you're in a church
that preaches this, they're not preaching the gospel. It's just
that simple. Now you're kind of bragging on
Grace Gospel Fellowship. We named this church Grace Gospel
Fellowship because that's what we preach. You notice We don't
place great emphasis on healing. We pray for the sick. We pray
for people who are hurting. But our emphasis is not on man. It's on God. Our emphasis is
on, to God be the glory. Oh, we believe in healing. Absolutely. I believe God can heal anything
He wants to heal. But that's not where our emphasis
is. Our emphasis is to keep in the man is to glorify God, to
give him praise and honor, to see this truth that God has come
to earth not to spy out our sin but to deliver us from our sin
and it is amazing grace and to God be the glory. So, that's
why we teach and preach the five points. Because when you've got
through with the five points, there's nothing standing but
the gospel. It's just the gospel. Let's go
to Ephesians now. And then next Sunday, perhaps,
we'll move on from Total Depravity. What I've tried to do thus far,
and will try to do this morning as well, is to beat you up, and
beat you up good, and then wash you and cleanse you and put bandages
on you and try to heal you through the grace of God. Amen? You've
got to be a sinner before you become a saint. You've got to
be lost before you can be found. You've got to be wretched and
blind before you see. So it's important. We're studying
the book of Ephesians on Wednesday evening and Darren has brought
some great and awesome messages from this book. I love the book
of Ephesians. It starts out with telling us
that God has elected us. That God has chosen us. I'll
tell you why you're saved and others in your family are not.
Because God chose you. If you go to heaven, it's because
God elected you. You can read it. It's not just
something I preach. It's found in the Bible. Just
read Ephesians 1-4. And Paul is extremely excited
about what he's saying. You know, he begins in the first
chapter, the third verse by saying, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. He's excited. In verse 4 he says,
According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Isn't that something? Chosen before the foundation
of the Word. God has chosen you before the
foundation of the Word. Can you say amen to that? Amen
and hallelujah. All right, let's begin reading
verse 16 of chapter 1 of Ephesians. It says, I cease not to give
thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayer. that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and in revelation in the knowledge
of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened." This is what
Paul is praying for, that the eyes of your understanding might
be enlightened. You know there is no truth except
revealed truth. You know no truth except it be
revealed to you, is what I'm trying to say. If you know the
doctrine and believe the doctrine of election, you say, hallelujah,
thank you, Lord, for revealing it to me. You know, there are
many preachers, many churches out there that hate the doctrine
of election. They will tell you it's hatched
in hell. It's just not true. God gives everybody a chance.
But God rolls the dice. that the reason you got saved
is because of rabbit's foot luck or because your will was better
than someone else's will. That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says God picked you out, that God chose you, that
God loved you in spite of yourself. You say, well, Pastor, are you
making some people better than other people? No, there is no
difference. Who makes you to differ from another? God. And how are you going to answer
that question? Who makes a seed to differ from
another? Are you going to say, I did, I'm the one, I made the
difference? No, idiot. Read your Bible. You didn't make the difference.
God made the difference. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His
calling. And that's not, I hope, I hope,
I hope. But God has called you. He's called you to forgiveness
of sins. He's called you to eternal glory. It's just this. If you might
know what is the hope of this calling? What is the hope of
this calling, Pastor? Tell me. Here it is. For whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. Whom He predestinated,
them He also called. Whom He called, them He also
justified. Whom He justified, them He also glorified. In other
words, He's going to take you all the way. It's a sure deal. You're heaven bound. That's the
hope. I have a good hope that will
not put me to shame. It's not a hope, a hope, a hope.
It's not a rolling of the dice. It's sure and steadfast. My anchor
holds in Jesus Christ. Sure, I know what is the hope
of his calling, but the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. Oh, my friend in the sweet vine
vine, if you're here and you're a Christian, it only gets better
for you. It only gets better. I know, I know we're getting
old, I'm getting old. Hearts hurt that never hurt before.
We're all getting older, you understand that. But the truth
is, it's getting gooder and gooder. Because one day, absent from
the body, present with the Lord. Can you imagine what heaven is
going to be like? If you could just think about
heaven being this way. The greatest service that you've
ever been in, church service, where you have been beyond yourself,
filled with joy and peace and love that passes all understanding. That's what heaven is going to
be like every day. No sin, no cancer, no death,
no sorrow. How can I describe it? Just eternal
bliss. Every day is going to be a great
day. That's right. It only gets better
for the Christian. Just hang in there. Hang in there. It's going to get better. I can
guarantee you that. But verse 19 is what I'm trying
to work my way to. Paul is praying that you might
know what is exceeding greatness of his power. Exceeding greatness of his power.
This is where it's missing in most congregations. It's the
power of man's will, plus the power of God, somehow kind of
a mixture there. You know, you've heard the illustration.
Here's the way it is. God votes for you, the devil
votes against you, and you cast the deciding vote. The only problem
with that is when the election took place, you were not registered. It's not, if you will, God will.
It's not you take a step and God takes a step. Dead men don't
walk or talk. I want you to know the power
that brought you to Christ. Exceeding, the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe. Who believe how? according to
the working of His mighty power. In the old church we used to
sing, God made a believer out of me. Are you a believer? Then God made you a believer.
Because you wouldn't be a believer if God didn't make you a believer.
Am I right about that? I'm not talking about being religious.
I'm not talking about, you know, believing in the big guy upstairs.
I'm talking about, do you believe that God condescended into this
world and in the person of Jesus Christ died as a substitute,
shed his blood in your room and in your place and removed your
sin as far as the East is from the West? And now you are free
from condemnation. and heaven-bound. It's not a
hope, a hope, a hope. It's not a rolling of the dice.
It's sure and steadfast, my anchor whole in Jesus Christ. Sure, I know what is the hope
of His calling, but the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints. Oh, my friend in the sweet vine
vine, if you're here and you're a Christian, it only gets better
for you. It only gets better? I know. I know we're getting
old. I'm getting old. Hearts hurt that never hurt before.
We're all getting older. You understand that. But the
truth is, it's getting gooder and gooder. Because one day,
absent from the body, present with the Lord. Can you imagine
what heaven is going to be like? If you could just think about
heaven being this way. The greatest service that you've
ever been in, church service, where you have been beyond yourself,
filled with joy and peace and love that passes all understanding. That's what heaven is going to
be like every day. No sin, no cancer, no death,
no sorrow. How can I describe it? Just eternal
bliss. Every day is going to be a great
day. That's right. It only gets better. for the Christian. Just hang
in there. Hang in there. It's going to
get better. I can guarantee you that. But verse 19 is what I'm
trying to work my way to. Paul is praying that you might
know what is exceeding greatness of His power. This is where it's
missing in most congregations. It's the power of man's will
plus the power of God It's somehow kind of a mixture there. You
know, you've heard the illustration. Here's the way it is. God votes
for you. The devil votes against you.
And you pass the deciding vote. The only problem with that is
when the election took place, you were not registered. It's
not if you will, God will. It's not you take a step and
God takes a step. Dead men don't walk. or talk. I want you to know the power
that brought you to Christ. The exceeding greatness of His
power to us who believe. Who believe how? According to
the working of His mighty power. In the old church we used to
sing, God made a believer out of me. Are you a believer? Then God made you a believer.
because you wouldn't be a believer if God didn't make you a believer.
Am I right about that? I'm not talking about being religious.
I'm not talking about believing in the big guy upstairs. I'm
talking about do you believe that God condescended into this
world and in the person of Jesus Christ died as a substitute,
shed his blood in your room and in your place and removed your
sin that fires the East from the West. and now you are free
from condemnation and heaven bound. That's what I'm talking
about. Power of God. In the early days, I remember
a gentleman asking me, you're not one of those old bloody preachers,
are you? Hell, fire and damnation, huh? You're not a streamer, are
you? You know, if you found out that
a truck driver in I think it was Rhode Island a few weeks
ago. That won the lottery $375 million. How do you think when you read
those numbers he goes, yep, I got them all. They're gonna go to
work, drive the truck all day. Yep, we sit in church and hear
the greatest message ever told. That you were dead and rotting
from the inside out. That you were a dead dog down
in Lodibox. couldn't save yourself, that
you were a babe in the open field, lost and helpless, that you were
a whoring gomer without any hope, and God came to save you. That
ought to do something to you. It ought to do something to all
of us. Yeah, the power, the power. Think about the power it took.
I'm telling you this, if anybody has anything to shout about,
those of you who are drug prone, think about the power that that
drug had over you. You worship that thing. There
is nothing that you would not do! Nothing! I've heard the most awesome,
awful, horrible stories. What a mother does with her children
just to get a hit. Get quiet in here now. That's
how dead we were. How ugly we were. How loathsome
we were. Yet God came to us. Isn't that
something? Isn't that something? Power. You know, God could have knocked
us in the head and just taken us all to heaven. If he wanted
to do it that way. But think about this. People
often say to me, you're a predestined parent, yes. Oh, you just believe
that people are going to go to heaven anyway? No matter what?
No, I believe people are going to go to heaven God's way. And
this is what's so marvelous. This is what's so marvelous to
me. That God elects the scuzzbags of this world and nobody, writes
their name in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of
the world, and then sends the Holy Spirit to get them. And
you know, it's kind of like catching a big bass. They don't like to
be on the hook. But when God gets you on the
hook, You're coming in. You're coming to show up. Yeah, you're going to be put
on the street. You're not going to get away. But you fight. But greater is he that's in you
than he that's in the world. There is a power that draws you.
Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love and in tender
kindness have I drawn you to myself. Power does. Think about the power that it
took to save you. You ought to stand in awe. You
know you. You don't have to look at anybody
else. Just look at yourself. Wow. God must be pretty busy
to save a guy like me. Or a gal like me. God wants you
to know that. And when you know that power,
and you're assured of that power, you say, you know, the blind
young man, that was healed of his blindness. They started asking
him all kinds of questions. He said, I don't know, but I
do know this man Jesus. I know he touched my eye. I know
once I was blind and now I see. And he did it. You know, you
don't have to know a whole lot of theology, but if you know
this, I was a crackhead on my way to hell and God came after
me and saved me. I know that. I know it took a
big power. You can be a witness to His saving
grace. Am I right about that? Power
of God. All right. Now He wants you to
know that power. Now chapter 2 just begins to
explain where we were and what we were and the power that had
to be exerted on us. Now watch this. Chapter 2. I
hope you have your Bible. I mean you, and you, and you,
and you, and you, and you, and me. And you made a lie. Doesn't mean you were alive when
he came to you. He made you alive after he got
where you were. He had to come to you. Where
were you? Out there in the cemeteries of this world? What were you
doing? Oh, you were active. I mean you
were dead, but you were active. That's what Paul began to explain.
You were dead. You were dead to God. You didn't
want anything to do with God. Oh, every once in a while you
had a thought. You remembered about granny going to church
and grandpa was a preacher. You remember people speaking
in tongues and you remember a lot of that, you know, that stuff.
But, depending on that, you're dead to God. There are people
in here right now dead to God. You're sitting here. You don't
want to be here. I was going to make an announcement in the
second service. Somebody came to me, several people came to
me last week and said, Pastor, do you know what goes on in the
back while praise service is going on? Do you know all the
talking about this and that, passing notes? That's because
there's a whole lot of dead people in here. You're not alive to
God. You really don't want to hear
what's going on here. You're just in here because you've
been using drugs and you got over there at the mission and
then you had to come over here. So you're really not into this
whole thing, you're dead as a doornail. On your way to hell and like
it. And if God doesn't stop you, you're going to reach your destination.
It's true. If you'll ignore all this, make
fun of all this, you know, just be here in the house of God and
really not be here, you'll be out there somewhere. But I do want to announce, so
everybody can pass the word, I'm going to be watching that
too. And I may walk the aisles more. I may preach most of my
sermon from the back. You just don't know me yet. Because
if my audience is in the back and is not paying attention,
I'm going to go back there. Because we're going to have church here.
And we're going to hear the gospel here. And I know there's dead
people here that don't give a hoot about God or what's being said.
But there's some people here who want to hear. Dead. So, you were dead. So that means
you were in the cemetery of this world, dead in trespasses and
sins. That's why you were dead. I know
probably this never happened to anybody in here, because you're
all good folks, but you ever got drunk, passed out in your
own puke? That's what that's talking about. That's what that's
talking about. You were dead! In your puke! I'm dressing it up for you this
morning, making it nice. Dead in your own puke! Now, look
at verse 2. You were dead in sins and trespasses.
Look at verse 2. Wherein in times past, O God,
help us all. Anytime you talk about in times
past, do you remember in times past? Do you remember? Do you remember? When the world
was a living thing, you thought? It was like a living thing? I mean, right now, since you've
been saved, the world is a dead thing, right? The world's a dead
thing. You've already seen there's nothing
out there. Money can't make you happy. New car can't make you
happy. New house can't make you happy.
New husband, new wife, new this, new baby, new that. The world
has nothing to make you happy. And to many of us who are Christians,
the world is just a dead thing. Those of you who use drugs, if
you're truly converted now, you know, you feel like this, what
a horrible, what a mess. Can't even imagine going back
out there and being in there, right? It's a dead thing. You no longer spend your time
in the crack house because it's just a dead thing. Vomit. Just mess. Dead things. You don't go back there. And if you do, you don't find
anything there you want. And time's passed. We all have
a past, don't we? We all have a past. But I want
to say this to you. You Christians, you can't let
the past rule your present. We'll get down to the present
pretty soon. Don't spend too long in the past. It's all right
to take a quick look, but don't stay there too long. Because
you'll get depressed about yourself. In times past, you walked according
to the course of this world. You know what that means? Whatever
was cool. Sometimes Miss Pam says to me,
you know she dresses me. My clothes are all picked out
every day. Hanging up and picking out. And I act like when y'all
say, she looks good today. I go, yeah, yeah, yeah, thank
you. Like I did it, but I don't. Occasionally I'll pick out a
tie, and she'll go, no, that's not in. And I go like, it always
makes me mad. I don't care what's in! Who says
it's not in? Of course, I always change it
and wear what she wants me to wear. But you remember, whatever
was in with the world, you had to have it. what everybody else
was doing. Whatever those spoke to, design
those clothes. You can tell I've had a toothache
and I'm taking Motrin, so you can tell I'm a little on read. Who says that's in? Oh, the world
does. I want some of that. They design
women's clothes and the skirts are up to their thighs and their
little babies can't hang on to mama's skirts. tail because it
can't reach that high because that's him that's him whatever
the world is I'm reaching out there for it but you remember
whatever was in I'm thinking right now about we used to put
Daniel Boone what was those tails we used to hang off of our coon
tail everybody had coon tail hanging off their mirror What's
the thing you put around your steering wheel? Yeah, that steering wheel cover. Whatever the world was doing,
that's the way we lived. According to the course of this
world, according to the prince of power of the air, now we're
getting more serious. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. We had an attitude. We had a
spirit. I'm going to do what the world
does and I have a spirit of rebellion in me. I don't care whether you
like it or not. Among whom also we all had our
manner of life conversation in times past in the lust of our
flesh. Now we really don't want to go
there. We really don't, do we? I mean,
the fact is we're all sexual creatures. Sex is a good thing in God's
context of things, but outside of the context God puts it in,
it is one mess. You want to talk about lust?
You don't have to go very far to talk about lust. Still battle
with it, right? We're still in our flesh, well,
no good thing, so we still battle with it. I mean, if you really
want to see depravity, that we are totally depraved, Just think
about your own lust. Really, it's not hard to prove
these things are true. Because the proof is in me. It's
in you. It's just there. In the lust
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind. Isn't that scary? You thought it and you did it.
You planned it, you plotted it, and you accomplished it. And
it was all wicked. Am I right? I mean, I'm not going
to leave you here. You can say amen. We're not going
to stay here too long because I can't stand it either. We're
not going to stay here too long because those of us who have
been quickened and made alive, we can't stay here too long.
It hurts too bad to think about What we are in our flesh and
how God has come to us now and delivered us from it. We don't
want to cry too much this morning. The desires of the flesh and
of the mind. Isn't the mind coming? Isn't it? No, we don't want to
go there either, Charles. No, we're going to go right along
here. And we're by nature. children of wrath. We were by
nature the children of wrath. By nature. When we came out of
the oven, we were little rattlesnakes. We were by nature. And as we
grew in overt actions, we began to prove what we were on the
inside by nature. We were deserving of hell. If
God could have gave us hell! By nature the children of wrath.
even as others. And then we all love this, don't
we? Hurry up, Panther! Get to verse 4! But God! This is the goodest part! But
God! You were, but God! God intervened. Aren't you glad
you got apprehended by God? Aren't you glad the blue light?
And I'm not talking about Kmart now. I'm talking about being
arrested by God. God caught up with you. God apprehended
you. God arrested you. That's what
I'm talking about. Look at this. But God who is
rich in mercy. Think about what goes through
your mind. You were a child of wrath. walking down sins, trespasses,
the devil was your guide. But God intervened. God moved
in. God apprehended you. And he had
to be rich in mercy. I mean, just think about it.
Somebody always spits on you. Somebody always hating you, moaning
at the mouth toward you. It's just the opposite of you. You don't hang out with them.
God moved in toward us. God came to us. Have you ever
thought about when God reached down and took a hold of you? Have you ever got a hold of something
you really wish you hadn't? Have you ever changed a baby's
diaper? Just think about a holy, righteous
God coming to you and getting a hold of you. Thank God He found
a way to come to us and take hold of us and not get Himself
dirty. Aren't you glad that God did
that? Come down into the coal mine
of sin in all of His spotless holiness and lay hold of us a
piece of dung on the dung hill. and not get himself dirty. Praise
God. But God who is rich in mercy
for his great love for which he loved us even when we were
dead. My dad used to tell me the story. He told me the story
a couple times about finding a body in the Kentucky River. A person had drowned. That body
had been there for days. And even telling me this story,
Dad would gag. And it happened like he was a
kid. By grace, you're saved! Oh, couldn't
we? By grace, you're saved! By unmerited
favor, you didn't deserve it! And then somehow, you must imagine
that somebody's going to take credit for their decisions with
Jesus. because in verse 8 he says for
by grace are you saved through faith and that faith is not of
yourselves it's a gift of God not of works lest any man should
boast loving them freely then verse 10 says we're his workmanship
we're his workmanship who else's could we be? God's
workmanship that means all Christians are a God work. If you're a Christian,
it's His workmanship. He did it all by Himself. And
notice this. Created. I love that word created. Because it means taking nothing
and making something. See, you were nothing. He had
nothing to work with. I heard a guy say this one. Well, you know, I gave God a
lot to work with. No. No, no, no, no. Can you imagine
somebody saying that? Liar. You know that's not true. There's nothing for God to work
with in us to create. If any man be in Christ, he's
a brand new creation. Is that right? A brand sparking
new creation. But we are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good work. I hear preachers say, oh no,
every Christian ought to do good work. I know what the Bible says.
The Bible says every Christian will do good work. You know why? I'm going to tell you this, good
works are automatic. Automatic in the sense that you have a
new nature. And that new nature never sins.
That's right. You've been born to God, your
new nature never sins. It's that old ugly flesh that messes up.
But your new nature does not sin. You understand what I'm
saying? Your new nature doesn't sit.
How many of you know there's two of you? Kind of. There's that old you. I'm sure
you're acquainted with that one. Then there's this one over here
that loves righteousness. The truth is every Christian
hates every evil way. Every Christian hates their flesh.
Here we go again. Here I go again. What am I thinking?
Right? Don't get quiet on me. It's true.
We all experience that as Christians. That's why you come in here and
you think I'm reading your mail. Because I'm a Christian. You're
a Christian. I know me. And so I know you.
In our flesh was no good thing. God ordained those good works
that we should walk in them. Christians walk in good works. You know, Joe made it. Old Joe Doe made it. He made
it by the skin of his teeth. Nobody makes it by the skin of
their teeth. You go to heaven by the grace
of God. I'm going to tell you this. If you're a crack addict
and go back after being converted and you go back, eventually you're
coming out of there. Let me say that again. If you're
a Christian, you're coming out of there. If you can stay, it's
because you're not His. They went out from us because
they were not of us. Had they been of us, they would
not have went out from us. That's what Scripture said. Yeah. You may go out, but you're coming
back. And it ain't going to take the preacher chasing you down
either. You're coming back. I first went to the mission.
Somebody relapsed. We'd go out there with a posse. I remember we were hiding out
on Paddock Street over there somewhere. And these guys came
out, it was about two o'clock in the morning, and these guys
came out with shotguns, and we were going to recover one of
our vans that one of you guys stole, and we're going to recover
it. When I saw those guys with that,
those shotguns, I thought, you know, I think it's time to go
home. Now, I believe this. Now I know this. The greater
seed that's in you is peace in the world. I don't have to run
you down. If you think I'm going to carry a baby bottle around
for you, Come on now. No, no, no. I'm going to say
this about you if you realize. You're either going to go to
hell or heaven. If you're going to heaven, you're coming back.
That's right. Because God's in you. Because
you can't quit. The reason you don't quit is
because you can't. This last verse. Look at verse
7. What's it all about? This is
what I've been saying. that in ages to come, verse 7, He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace. You see, we talk about
grace a lot here, but we don't know much about grace. We know
a little bit about grace, but we don't know much because while
the ages pile themselves one on top of another, while the
eons of time are piling up, God's going to say this, look child,
this is how good I was to you. You didn't even know it. You
should have been dead at two. Polio should have got you, but
I was there. My grace was good. Your daddy and your mother forsake
you, but I was there. I was there. You didn't know
it. You didn't realize it. You know what Charles is gonna
do? Lift both his hands and say, worthy, worthy is the Lamb that
was slain. There's gonna be a lot of shouting
in heaven. Oh yeah, you're not gonna sit there looking like
this. Amen, pastor. Amen, that's good, pastor. I
like that. Yeah, you were Calvinist, pastor.
Oh no, you're going to be hopping. I mean, when the will is read,
and you get it all, you're going to be happy. You're going to
be happy. Are you happy? I hope you are. Total depravity in the riches
of God's grace.