Let's open our Bibles now again
to Genesis chapter 14. I've titled the lesson or the message
this evening, I've lifted my hand unto the Lord. I want to
review what has happened, led up to this conversation with
the King of Sodom. I think it's important to see
what happened immediately prior to this. You may recall four
kings, came with their armies and they conquered this entire
region that was under the rule of five other kings. They took
absolutely everything that was of any value from Sodom and they
took all the people as slaves. That included Lot, Abraham's
nephew. And Abraham heard about this
and he took 318 men and went after those armies. And he took
those 318 men and he whipped them. I mean, he whipped all
four of those armies. He took everything and everyone back
from him, took it all back, brought it back home safe, didn't lose
anything or anybody. And Abraham did that as a picture
of Christ, our mighty conqueror. And on his way back home, Abraham
met Melchizedek, priest of the most high God, and Melchizedek
blessed him. Now the king of Sodom had come
out to meet Abraham, and the king of Sodom watched this go
on between Abraham and Melchizedek. And verse 21 is where we pick
up. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons
and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of
Sodom, I've lift up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God,
the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread,
even to a shoe latchet. And that I will not take anything
that is thine, lest thou should say, I've made Abram rich. Now, Abram, would not take any
of the spoils from this battle that he fought so that nobody
could say, I made Abram rich. I made him rich by giving him
all these things. Abram says, I've left my hand
to the Lord. He's the most high God, the possessor
of heaven and earth. And I'm not going to let anybody
take credit for what he's done or what he will yet do for me.
And you have to love that attitude, don't you? Love that attitude
of faith and that attitude of concern for the glory of our
God. And I did some reading on this and about all the writers
that I read talked about this matter of lifting our hand to
the Lord. Like it's lifting our hand to
the Lord to swear an oath. Just like when you go to the
court, you put your hand on the Bible and you raise your hand. They talk about it in those terms
and I reckon that that is true. Every believer can say this,
I've lifted my hand, I've sworn, I've confessed, I trust Christ
alone to be everything that God requires of me. I confess that
I, I swear, I confess, I trust Christ to save me or I won't
be saved. There's no plan B. Christ is
my all. He's my only hope. A believer
lifts their hand and they confess. I'm not trusting in anything
that I do. I trust Christ and Christ alone.
Look at first Samuel chapter seven, a believer will say, I've
lifted my hand to the Lord and they'll say, I've, I've committed
to him. I've committed my all to him.
The songwriter phrase that this way said, here, I raised my Ebeneezer. Here's where the songwriter got
that from and what it means. Whenever we sing here, I raised
my Ebeneezer. Here's what it means. First Samuel
chapter seven, verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and
set it between Mizpah and Shin and called the name of it Ebenezer
saying hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Now Samuel set this
stone up, I guess it was a pretty big stone. He set that stone
up where people would see it and when they would see that
stone, they'd be reminded how the Lord helped them this day
and gave them a victory over the Philistines. So when I raise
my Ebenezer, this is what I'm saying. I'm saying that the Lord,
is my help. I depend on him not to help me
by doing what I, you know, I'll do part of it and he'll do the
rest of it. When I say, here I raise my Ebenezer, the Lord
is my help, I'm depending on him to do all the saving for
me. And I'm not going to count on the flesh and rely on the
flesh to contribute to this thing in any way. And I would say that
that is an accurate interpretation of of the meaning there when
Abram says here, I've lifted my hand to the Lord. But I tell you mostly when I
think of this, when I think about raising my hand to the Lord,
I think of raising my hand to the Lord as a mercy beggar. I
lift my empty hand to the Lord, begging him to fill it. I thought of this as I was preparing
this message when our daughter Savannah Grace was a real little
thing. 18 months, two years, I don't know, little, teeny tiny. She had that, we called it a
poppy. And buddy, she worked that poppy
over at me all the time. She hid them around the house
so she could get that. And she'd come up to, she had that poppy.
And she'd just be working that thing over. And she'd lift up
and hand him. Now, you had to know, did mm
mean I want a cookie? Did mm mean I want picked up?
But she just lifted her hand to us, expecting that hand to
be filled. She needed something, and she
came to the person that gave it to her. And that's exactly
what I think of when I think of Abram saying here, I've lifted
my hand to the Lord. I'm an empty, needy beggar, and
I'm lifting my hand to the Lord to fill it. And I tell you, the
only thing I want in my hand is what the Lord gives me by
His grace. I don't want anything I've earned. I want what the
Lord gives me by His grace. I want to receive mercy as a
beggar from the Lord, that every believer knows this. I don't
care where you find him and what age you find him, every believer
knows this. I have received all of my salvation from Christ. All of it. Because he himself
is all of my salvation and I've lifted my hand to him for everything
that I need. And that's what I want us to
look at tonight. Now the King of Sodom says something that's
very interesting to me. It's a good spiritual picture,
a place for us to start looking at this lifting our hand to the
Lord. Now you think about what just
happened. The king of Sodom was part of this rebellion with these
four other kings, five kings, and they were crushed. They went
out to battle and they were crushed by these four kings. He went
to battle and he got whipped fair and square. He lost everything
and everyone in his kingdom. And while the king of Sodom was
hiding, he ran away. This battle's going bad. He ran
away. He's off licking his wounds somewhere.
And while he's doing nothing, Abraham went out and he whipped
those kings. Took everything back that the
king of Sodom lost. He took it all back. Didn't lose
a single thing. And as Abraham the victor is
returning, the king of Sodom, I guess these other several kings
or whatever, goes out to meet Abraham. And Abraham meets Melchizedek. And here's the king of Sodom
watching this go on. He sees the sacrifice that Melchizedek
brought forth, bread and wine, a picture of the finished work
of Christ. And the king Melchizedek, the priest of the most high God,
king of peace, king of righteousness, he blessed Abraham, and he left. Now the king of Sodom, I guess,
is next in line. Now he steps up. He says, you
know what, I'm gonna make a sacrifice too, Abraham. You take all the
valuables. I'll give them to you. I'll let
you have them. Just give me the people, the souls, is what that
word is interpreted, the souls. Well, that's pretty generous
of the king, isn't it? None of it belongs to him. He's already
lost it all. It all already belongs to Abraham. Abraham's the one who went out
and risked everything and took it. He's got all the spoils because
he won the battle. It's not the king's to give.
It already belongs to Abraham. Now here's the picture. Isn't
that exactly what Satan told Eve in the garden? If you eat
this fruit, you have what doesn't belong to you. God makes the
rule. But if you eat this fruit, you'll
be as God. You'll be the one to decide what's right and wrong.
You'll be the one to decide what's sin and what's not sin. You'll
be the one making the rules. Eve, right now, you're under
this rule. God says you can't eat this tree. You eat of this
tree, you'll be God. You'll be the one to make the
rules. It belongs to God, but you can have it if you eat this
fruit. And ever since then, man has been under the influence
of Satan, and been devising religions to try to take what doesn't belong
to us. Man has devised religions under whatever various names
you want to put them under, promising people they can have something
that don't belong to them. As long as they follow certain
religious rules and certain religious codes of conduct that these men
have made up. Even though that's not what God says in his word,
they just say you can make yourself righteous and have what doesn't
belong to you. If you just follow these rules, you know, that I've
made up. Well, the believer says, I won't take that. Now, I've
lifted my hand to God, and I'm not going to take what doesn't
belong to me. I've lifted my empty hand to God, and the only
thing I'm going to take is what God gives me by His grace. And
I thought of six things that a believer receives when we lift
our hand to the Lord in faith as a mercy beggar. These things
belong to us now. They belong to us. Why? Because God gave him to us. God
put him in our hand. And as we talk about lifting
up our hand, I want us to be able to go to the Lord and lift
our hand in faith. Let's not lift our hand and test
God and see if he's able to give it or will he give it. Be like
that little one and a half year old Savannah Grace and lift your
hand to the Lord knowing he can feel it. He's the one who can
fill my empty hands. First, look at Philippians chapter
four. Every believer will say this, I've lifted my hand as
a beggar to the Lord to provide for my physical needs. Philippians
four, verse 15. Now you Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but you only, you are the only one sending
support to me. For even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again under
my necessity, not because I desire a gift. I'm not desiring something
from you, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
But I have all and abound. I'm full, having received of
Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of
a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. but my
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. Now Paul here is talking about
his physical needs as he went out on this, this mission trip
and the Lord supplied them through the giving of the church here
at Philippi. Now start with these physical things. We've lifted
our hand to God for these physical things because they're the least
important of all the things that we need. But now they're still
important. I mean, go without food for a
while. Go without water for a while.
You see how those things are important. And they're not nearly
as important as all the spiritual needs that we have. But you know,
these physical things can be a test of our faith. They really
can. Now, I know this and you know
this. We at least know it up here. The Lord will provide. Every person in this room knows
this. The Lord will provide. Now, that doesn't mean I don't
do anything. I just sit around, you know, money just magically
shows up in my mailbox or something. No, I work. I go to work to provide
for my family's needs. That's how, you know, the Lord
never is gonna bless laziness, never. Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy
5 verse 8, if a man won't provide for his own house, if he don't
go out and work and provide for his own house, he's denied the
faith. He's worse than an infidel. Paul
told the church of Thessalonica, 2 Thessalonians 3.10, if any
won't work, Neither should he eat. This is the teaching of
scripture. We're to quietly work and eat
our own bread. Do an honest day's work to provide
for our needs, our food, our shelter, our clothing, and so
forth. This is what scripture teaches. Go out and do a good
job. Do a good job so your boss will
give you a raise. You have a little extra, you
know. Just be the absolute best employee that you can be. And
don't just do it for a raise. Do it because that's what's right.
Just be the absolute best that you can be. But don't ever compromise
worship to get ahead. Don't compromise worship to get
more physical things that will just perish with the using. I'm
telling you this, you're not going to suffer one for being
in the worship service. You won't. You're not going to
suffer one. Paul told the church here at Philippi, you've given.
You've given generously. You know the old saying, give
until it hurts? Maybe they did. But Paul says,
You're not going to suffer because you gave an offering. My God
will supply your needs. Seek the Lord. Isn't this what
our Lord told us? Seek Him. Seek His kingdom. Seek
Him first. All these other things will be
added to you. You live and you work so you can provide for what
your family needs. And while you do that, trust
the Lord to provide. Trust Him to bless you and your
efforts to provide for your family. You're not going to have to panic
and think, I got to leave the gospel to eat. No, you won't. No, you won't. Now, you might
eat ramen noodles, but you aren't going to starve. I'm telling
you, you're not. I've trusted the Lord to provide,
and I'm not going to look to the way of the world to provide
for me. And I'm telling you, if you're in need, if you're
in any need whatsoever, lift your empty hand to the Lord,
begging him to fill it. All right, number two, look at
1 Corinthians 1. I've lifted my hand as a beggar
to be called to Christ. I'm lost, I've gone out in the
wilderness, I've gone the wrong way, and I'm lifting my empty
hand to God as a beggar, begging him to call me to Christ. 1 Corinthians
1, verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh Not many, not mighty,
not many noble are called, but God had chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise and God had chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and
base things of the world and things which are despised have
God chosen. Yay. And things which are not to bring
to naught the things that are that no flesh should glory in
his presence. But off him, are you in Christ
Jesus who have God has made unto us wisdom, righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now I've lifted
my hand and begging God to fill it, to call me to Christ. Well,
what right does a sinner like me have to come to Christ and
beg him for mercy? Now what right do I have to do
that? Well, I'll tell you my right to come to Christ is Christ
calls sinners, sinners to come to Him. He's not calling the
self-righteous. He's not calling those that are
well. They don't need a doctor. He came to call sinners to Him.
And I'm telling you, as I read the scripture, I find I fit the
description of those that Christ came to save. I'm foolish. I have no spiritual wisdom. Spiritually
speaking, by nature, I'm dumb as a box of rocks. I don't know
God. I can't figure out God. I can't
figure out how it is that God would ever save sinners in justice.
I can't figure out how God could show mercy to me and still be
God and still be holy. I'm the foolish. But Paul says
that's exactly who God calls to Christ. I have no spiritual
might, no spiritual strength. I can't do anything good that
God will accept. I don't have any might to produce
any righteousness whatsoever. I'm not noble. I'm defiled by
sin. I'm so weak, I can't come to
Christ unless God the Holy Spirit draws me to him. I'm not respectable. I'm base. I am nothing, I have
nothing, and I can expect nothing from God. except His wrath, because
of my sin, because of my sin nature. Yet that's the very people
that Paul describes here as those that Christ came to save. When
I look at myself, I see that I am so low down. I am so far
gone. The only way I could be saved
is if God does all the saving. And you know what? God saves
everybody. This is just what Paul is saying
right here. God saves everybody. when He
can get all the glory for saving them. Now that's why God does
everything He does. It's for the glory of His Son.
And if God can save you, and Christ can get all the glory
for it, He'll save you. That's exactly right. See, salvation
is not of works lest any man should boast. God's going to
save you and me in such a way that we cannot, will not, boast
about anything about us. What we've done and what we haven't
done. If we're going to boast, this is what we're going to boast
to you. And not just that Christ died
on a cross, but what did he accomplish when he died on the cross? Christ
died on the cross, he accomplished what he came to accomplish. He
saved his people, every last one of them, from their sin. He did it all by himself. And
just to be sure, we all knew he did it by himself. All his
friends deserved him. The Father turned his back on
him. And by himself, he accomplished the redemption of his people.
Now salvation in that way where Christ did all the saving, where
he gave himself to put away the sin of his people. Salvation
like that gives Christ all the glory. Now I'm an empty beggar
and I've lifted my hand to God begging him to save me that way
and I'm going to keep my empty hand lifted to him until he feels
it. Because I've got no other hope, I've got no other plea,
and what's more, I don't want one. This is the only way I want
to be saved in Christ. But God's called me, He's called
sinners to come to Christ. Then brother, I'm coming to Him
just as I am. And if you are nothing, you don't
deserve even the least of God's mercies. I'll tell you what to
do. Lift your empty hand to God, begging Him to fill it. to save
you for his glory. All right, number three. I've
lifted my hand as a beggar to receive faith from the word of
God. 1 Corinthians 2, verse one. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ, him crucified. And I
was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. Now I've lifted my hand as an
empty beggar to God, because I need God the Holy Spirit to
give me faith in Christ. I've tried and tried and tried
and tried and tried to make myself believe I can't do it. So I lift
my empty hand to God, begging him to fill it. And I can tell
you from God's word, how it is that God is pleased to give faith
in the hearts of his people. It's through the priest's word,
through the preaching of the word. Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God, by the word of God being preached.
If anybody here is not saved, and you know it, Tell you what,
this is my advice to you. Be here to hear the word preached
as often as humanly possible, because that's how God gives
faith in Christ, his people. And I know that's a mystery to
the natural man. I've seen it happen. I've experienced
it my own self. I've seen it happen with others.
You just see the light go on, you know. And it's just you can't
exactly explain how that it is that God does that. I just know
he does it. This is the way he does it, because that's what
he says in his word. Now, I have experienced that,
too, but my experience really doesn't matter, does it? This
is what God says in his word. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. Now, if I'm going to lift my
empty hand to God for faith, tell you what, I'm going to have
to take it the way he gives it, aren't I? through the preached
word. You know, God could just wave
his hand and give faith to his people without them ever knowing.
I mean, they either don't know why they have faith in Christ
or they just don't even know they have faith in Christ or
they wake in glory. God could just wave his hand and do that,
but he won't. He won't do it because he said
he won't. God could, if he was pleased to do so, save his people
through the preaching of a lie. He could have a person sitting
under a false gospel and hear a lie, hear the preaching of
another Jesus and somehow save them. But I don't see how, you
know, but I mean, God could do that. I mean, but he's not going
to do it because he said he won't do it. God could speak audibly
from heaven. He could speak directly, audibly
to the ears of his people so that they hear him preach the
gospel. They hear him speak and him, and they believe him. But he won't do it. He won't
do it. If we're going to receive faith
in Christ from God, we're going to have to humble ourselves to
listen to another empty-handed beggar preaching Christ. That's
exactly what God is pleased to save his people and give them
faith in Christ through what the world calls a foolish activity
of preaching Christ. The world says that's foolish. It's foolish. to have service
where you don't sing very much, you don't praise what people
are doing very much, you don't have somebody up here playing
the drums behind Isaac while he's playing the guitar and he
don't have an electric guitar and big old boots like a kiss
hat or something. He's not trying to impress you.
And then you just preach? You just talk and expect people
to sit quietly and listen and think that's going to get people's
interest and get people's attention? To the sheep it will. To the
sheep it will. Faith in Christ comes by the
plain preaching of the unadulterated Word of God. And I've lifted
my hand, my empty hand to God as a beggar, lifted it to Him
for faith. And I tell you what, I'm going
to stay right here until He gives it. Because the only place He's
going to give it is through the preaching of His Word. And like
I said before, if you need faith in Christ, I tell you, be here
to hear the Word preached. While you're hearing, lift your
empty hand to God. This is the way He gives faith
to His people. All right, now Ephesians chapter 2. I've lifted my hand as a beggar
to receive from God salvation by grace. By grace. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Now, that's
all the explanation that we need. Salvation is by grace. For by
grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. But just to make sure we get this through
our thick skulls, not of works, not of works. If it's by grace,
Isaac, it can't be by works. But just to be sure we got it,
he said, not of works, lest any man should boast. That's the
second time we've... If we're going to glory, we're
going to glory. We're not going to boast in ourselves. Same thing
Abraham said way back there. I'm not going to take anything
from you fellas because you're not going to boast. You did something
for Abraham. God did it all. Now, if the Scriptures make anything
plain whatsoever, it's this. Almighty God saves His people
by grace. By grace. Not one person God
has ever saved deserved it. Not one. Yet God saved him anyway. Surely we can't think. We'd be
so full of ourselves, we can think we're worthy for the father
to send his son into this world to humiliate himself, to be clothed
in the weakness of human flesh, to be made sin for me, to be
slaughtered for me, To have the father's sons plunge the sword
of justice into the soul of his son. Not just his physical sufferings,
but he made his soul an offering for sin. Surely to goodness,
you can't think you deserve that. No, we don't deserve that. But
that's what God did. That salvation by grace. Not
of works. God didn't save his people because
of their works. God saves His people in spite
of their works. In spite of their works. Now
that's grace. That's salvation by grace. Salvation
is all of grace. The Father chose a people in
electing grace. They never would have chose Him,
but He chose them anyway. That's electing grace. The Son
came and died for those people in redeeming grace. He took their
place. He took their sin away from them
and made it His and took the punishment that they deserve,
so that they would live. That's grace, redeeming grace.
The Holy Spirit gives life to dead sinners in regenerating
grace. He makes them hear and believe
the Word of God as it's preached. The free gift of faith in Christ.
That's grace, isn't it? And God keeps his people. He
preserves his people by grace. Every one of us would wander
off if God wouldn't keep us, but he keeps his people by grace.
And one day, He's gonna come, for most of us, more likely in
death, He's gonna come and call us home. And I'm telling you,
that'll be a sad day for our family. That's gonna be a day
of glorifying grace for the believer. God comes and takes those people
home to be with Him in glorifying grace. And then from eternity,
from then on, time without end, We're going to be singing this
song, It Was All Grace. It was all of grace. I've lifted
my hand to God for salvation. I tell you how I want God to
save me. How I want my soul to be saved.
I've lifted my empty hand to God, begging Him to save my sorry
soul. And I tell you, if God's going
to save me, I'm going to have to receive it just like He gives
it, aren't I? By grace. Not by my works. Not by how good
I am. I can't earn it. It's got to
be by grace. And I'm telling you, I love it
that way. I love it that way. I love depending
upon God's grace. I can't depend on myself for
anything. I mean, anything. Here I was
planning this trip to New Jersey. Frank, you're not going. I can't
depend on myself for anything. I mean, I couldn't even get myself
to the car. I can't depend on myself for
anything. But I can depend on God's grace. I can depend on
His grace. And I tell you, I'm not going
to think, well, now I've lifted my hand to God for grace, and
He's filled my empty hand with grace. And now, I can do some
of this on my own. Add to some of what Christ did
by my works. No, sir. I'm going to depend
on God's grace. And I love it that way. I love
depending on God's grace. And I've determined if God's
grace, His grace in Christ Jesus is not enough to save me, then
I'll be damned. That's how much I trust Him.
And if you can only be saved if you are such a sorry, lost,
Filthy, condemned sinner, you can only be saved by grace. God's got to give you something
you don't deserve. Then I tell you, lift your empty hand to
God, begging him for grace. He's the giver of grace. He's
the only source of it. All right, fifth, I've lifted
my hand as a beggar to God to receive the righteousness of
Christ by faith. Now, righteousness is having
no sin. Righteousness is being not guilty. Perfect. Not guilty of any sin.
That God is holy. He can only accept people who
are perfectly righteous. But you and I come into this
world unrighteous. When we're conceived, we're unrighteous.
So if we're going to be made righteous, I'm telling you, we're
going to have to lift our hand to God and receive it as an empty
beggar from his hand. Now, hang on to your seats here
a second. Do you know what righteousness is earned? Righteousness before
God is earned by keeping the law perfectly. Our problem is,
you and me, we can't do that. All we do is sin. Do you know
what God did? He sent his son in the flesh
to do for his people what they could never do, obey the law
fully. As their representative, he obeyed
the law for them. He makes his people righteous
by giving them his obedience to the law. Just like Adam made
us unrighteous by his disobedience to the law, Christ makes his
people righteous by his obedience to the law. We were in Christ
doing what he did, just like we were in Adam doing what he
did. And the Father accepts his people in the righteousness of
Christ. Listen to this, Isaiah 42, verse
21. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. See, this is always God's eternal
purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who ever could produce a righteousness. And the Father's
well pleased with it. Now look at Galatians chapter
two. We just looked at lifting our hand to God for grace. And
look how Paul here talks about grace being tied to righteousness. Galatians chapter two, verse
21. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, if righteousness
come by my obedience to the law, then Christ is dead and vain.
If righteousness could come to me by me keeping the law, there's
no need for Christ to have come in the first place, but that's
not possible. So I've lifted my empty hand
to God as a beggar, begging him for righteousness. And I'm telling
you, if I'm going to receive righteousness, I'm going to receive
it the way God gives it. It's by faith in Christ. I'm
going to receive it by grace. I'm going to submit myself to
the righteousness of God by submitting myself and trusting Christ to
be my righteousness. All right. Number six, look at
Titus chapter three. This is the last one. Titus chapter
three. I've lifted my empty hand to God as a beggar. to receive
life and the new birth from the Lord. Titus chapter three, verse four. But after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not
by works of righteousness which we've done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ, our Savior. Now here's another thing I know
from the Word of God. All men are born dead, spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. I know that from reading the
scripture. And again, that's been my experience for myself.
I was born dead in sin. To this day, I carry around with
me a dead sin nature that can only sin, that cannot trust Christ,
that cannot love God, that cannot believe God's word, that can't
understand. Now, if a dead man is going to have life, somebody
else is going to have to give it to him. He can't give himself
life. He can't do anything for himself. All he can do is lay
there and stink. If he's going to live, somebody's got to put
life in him. I've lifted my empty hand to
God as a beggar. If I'm going to receive life,
I'm going to receive it the way that God gives it. Life's not
going to come by my religious activity. Righteousness or life
is not going to come by my works of righteousness and doing enough
things to make God so happy with me, He gives me eternal life.
If I'm going to have life, God's going to give it to me freely.
And that's the way I'll have to receive it. That's something
I've earned, a free gift of God's grace. And when God gives it,
I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll praise Him and we'll give
Him the glory for it. Just like Abraham said, somebody
else is not going to take credit for this. No, you know what?
Well, God did this. We're going to give him the praise
and the glory for it. Isn't that the only way a real
beggar can behave? That beggar that Peter and John
met there at the Gate of Beauty, what was the only way he could
behave? He looked up to them expecting a little bit of money,
expecting 50 cents, you know. They laid hold of him and healed
that man. That lame man, he walked, leaping,
running. Running into the temple praising
God. Did you wonder why he grabbed ahold of them and wouldn't let
them go? Why he went into the temple praising God? That's the
only way a beggar can behave. God felt my hand. I'm going to
give him the praise and the thanks and the glory for it. Oh, I pray
God make us mercy beggars. Lift our empty hand to God. Begging
Him for everything that we need. And that we'll receive it. just
like he gives it freely. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for the message of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. How
we thank you, Father, that you have made him to be everything
that we need. How we thank you for your tenderness
and your compassion, your love for sinners. that you feel every
empty hand that's lifted to thee, begging for mercy, begging to
be filled, begging to be filled with Christ. And Father, I pray
that you'd fill our empty hands, our empty heads, our empty hearts
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let each one of us here tonight
leave here believing in, finding our joy and rest and hope and
peace, finding our all in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I
know we ask a great blessing. What an astronomical, undescribable
blessing that we ask, the salvation of our souls. But Father, you're able. And
what we ask, we ask for the glory of your son. Father, would you
save us for your glory? In our day, would you reveal
to us, make known, the glory of Christ our Savior. It's in
his precious name. For his sake and his name, we
pray. Amen. All right, Isaac.