Above all things, have fervent
charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude
of sins. Use hospitality one to another
without grudging. As every man has received a gift,
even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of
a manifold grace of God. Now, brethren, Dr. A.T. Robertson said that he knows
the Bible is a divine book because it stood so much bad preaching. And I do not know of anywhere
it stood more abusive preaching than in the matter of stewardship. Now Ed, I want to kill those
sermons that you've been preaching on stewardship of talent, and
stewardship of time, and stewardship of influence, and stewardship
of money. The only thing about them is
they just aren't so. The believer in the New Testament
is designated as the steward of two things, the mysteries
I'm preaching on that to my people in Louisville next Sunday afternoon.
Stewards of the mysteries of God, and stewards of the grace
of God. The stewards of the grace of
God. Over here in the third chapter
of Ephesians, for this cause I call He didn't
say a prisoner of Caesar. He wasn't concerned about that
at all. It was immaterial with Paul what Caesar did with him
and did to him. He considered himself a prisoner
of Jesus Christ, and he wasn't grumbling about it. And he wasn't complaining about
it. In the first chapter of Philippians, he said to those Philippian believers,
don't you worry about it. My bonds have turned out to the
furtherance of the gospel of Christ. And in that same first
chapter of Philippians, he said, for to me, to live is Christ. What is it to you to live?" Paul
said to him, it was one thing, Christ, Christ, Christ. Paul said, yeah, he's a prisoner
of Jesus Christ. And he said he's a prisoner of
Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, because of you Gentiles. Now, the word Gentile can just
as well be translated pagan, or heathen, and can just as well
be translated nations. And everybody that's not a Jew
is a Gentile, and everybody that's not a Jew nor a Christian is
a pagan. Well, Brother Mews, I know lots
of people believe in God, so do the Mohammedans. Same God
you do. Same God you do. And you say
they're pagans, Brother Mews? Their whole philosophy of life
is pure paganism. Their whole philosophy of every
man out of Christ is pagan. Now, your folks, and your kinfolks,
and your deacon's kinfolks, and the kinfolks of the president
of your woman's missionary society will get mighty mad when you
tell them that. But it's so. It's so. And Paul said, you Gentiles,
what's caused me to be in prison? And here's why you Gentiles,
here's why I'm in prison for you Gentiles. If you've heard of the, now the
word translated dispensation there is the same identical word
in the Greek that in 1 Peter 14 is translated steward. Brother, here's stewardship. You have heard of the stewardship
of the grace of God which is given to me for you, which is
committed to me for you. You've heard of the stewardship
of the grace of God that's committed to me for you. whereof I was made a minister
according to the gift of grace, and brethren, that's in the punctures
of balloons. Of all the things that makes
me feel sad is to hear somebody say, oh God needs that fine talent
of yours, you ought to give that fine talent of yours and those
wonderful gifts to the Lord. Well, brother, if you come to
God within a natural talent, and He ever gets any spiritual
service out of you, He's got to kill that natural talent. You'll never have but one gift
in a service of Christ, and that's the gift that the Holy Spirit
gives you in His sovereign life of sovereign distribution. And
he doesn't do it for how big you are, how eloquent you are,
how wonderful you are, what great personality you have, what great
talent you have. He does it as he will it. Oh, I wish I could make that
real to you. I wish I could make that real
to you. God didn't save you or call you
for your natural talent. If he had, it would not have
been grace. If God saved you to get any talent
you had in his service, it would not be grace. And when he saved you in grace,
he condescended that you there was in you by nature, he had
to completely rework it before he could use it. Oh, the gifts that are used in
the spiritual service of Christ are those gifts that are given
you by the Spirit of God in His sovereign distribution as He
willed. Absolutely. No, he couldn't have a little
in. Not even a little. He might have
been in. Nailed in. Let's take another hit at it.
Paul says, For I was made a minister, a preacher, according to the
gift of grace." Do you get that? I was made a preacher
according to the gift of grace. Now, brethren, if that ever gets
a hold of your heart, you want the two things you'll You'll
never be hunting for a job, and you'll never be jealous of somebody
who's got a bigger job than you've got. And I don't know of but two other
professions in the world that approach the ministry for professional
jealousy, and that's the profession of medicine and the profession
of law. And the jealousy that's characterizing
our ministry today never came to be until our ministry came
to be a matter of pulling for position and seeking for big
salaries. That's right. Absolutely. Two boys sat right behind me.
at the Southern Baptist Convention one time, and they were talking
about their churches. And one of them said, well, you
know, I'm going to have to move sometime before too long, and
I'm trying to get Dr. Truitt to come down and hold
an eight-day meeting for me, because, boy, you know it would
mean something to get a letter of recommendation from Dr. Truitt. Brother, that thing prevails
all too much. But brother, when you realize
that your being a minister of the gospel of Christ is a gift
of God's sovereign grace to you, boy, if you just get to be pastor,
take a wood hollow, you'll be glad. Now, that's right. Yes, sir. Did you ever notice this about
John Mark, the nephew of Barnabas? It was, and he went out on that
first missionary tour with Paul and Barnabas, and he was their
servant, their valet. And you remember, after a while
he turned back and went back home. Our version says, because
he did not like the work. That's a horrible mistranslation. He did not like Puperetes to
serve. And when Paul and Barnabas started
out on their second journey, Barnabas wanted to take John
Mark with him. And Paul wasn't taking anybody
with him. that was too big-headed to be
a servant. And Barnabas quit. And we never
hear of Barnabas but one more mention in the New Testament. I don't know what became of him.
But way after a while, in his last imprisonment, writing his
last letter, and he says, send John Mark to me, for he's good. you pay a wage to serve. John Mark came back into the
ministry right where he fell out, a servant, serving Paul,
the apostle. And he's the one who wrote the
gospel, interpreting our Lord as the servant John Barnabas
never did write any gospel. Let's take another hitchhiking.
Peter says here that we are stewards of the manifold grace of God,
and I want you to notice the very particular place at which
Peter brought that statement in. He's talking about liberality. He's talking about giving money.
Now, I'm going to knock you for a whole
pin, and he didn't say a word about poverty. Not a word. And he didn't say a word about
being stewards of money. Not a word in this world. But
he charged them to use their liberality, to use their giving
in a mighty consciousness of their divine stewardship of the
grace of God. And whether it's money or whatever
is in your hands, it is commandeered by the Lord Jesus Christ, who
said all authority is given unto thee in heaven and on earth to
one single supreme point. discharging your stewardship
of the grace of God. Everything in your life is to
that one end. Now let's go a step further. God's grace is behind and before
God's love. God's grace is behind and before
God's creation. List of other views? All that
God has ever created, of angels and principalities and powers,
of the infinite realms out yonder, of this planet, and everything
that pertains to it, and everything only, and of man. All that God has ever created
is unto one supreme objective, that he might demonstrate and
exhibit and show forth to all the countless unknown and unknowable
orders of created intelligences of which men and angels are only
two orders, his grace. His grace! There's an attribute of God,
there's an element of God, there's a characteristic of God that
creation could not demonstrate. The numerous planets in our orbits
out yonder could not demonstrate. All that covers this earth could
not demonstrate. All that grows upon this earth
could not demonstrate. and man on fall in the garden
could not demonstrate, and that's the grace of God. Not until God
had created a model of intelligence who possessed the power of choosing
right and wrong, and possessed the power of reproducing by procreation
his own kind. Not until that was done, and
until that one has exercised his power of choice, has chosen
of his own volition to rebel against God, only then could
God begin to demonstrate His eternal grace. And all God ever saved you for
is to show forth His grace. Oh, how my heart aches, and I
stay bedded in aches. I hear people say, saved to serve. God saved you to serve Him? Well,
that would be God driving a cute bargain with a lost woman. God
doesn't drive a bargain with anybody. Not even with to get
Baptist to time. That's a God's truth. If you
tie, God will prosper you. And if you don't tie, God will
take it out at the front door of a coffin. is God's heavenly people. And the Jew was blessed of God
materially, and the Jew was blessed of God materially in proportion
as he obeyed God's law. But a believer is God's heavenly
people. And the believer's blessings
are spiritual. And the believer's blessings
are in proportion and direct proportion to God's eternal purpose
of sovereign grace in each individual life. Now let's see if I can
make good on that. We'll be on the first verse in
the first chapter of Eden of the book of Ephesians and the
third verse. Blessed be the God and the Father
by the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings, spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, in Christ. Accordingly, as he looked round
the unfolding eons, and saw that one day you would believe on
Christ, and then he predestinated that you would do it. That'd
be the most dishonest God-dang-any-man-ever-did. I imagine it would be more dishonest
that God see you would do it, Ping, and then predestinate you
should do it. Be God-plenty-credit for something
he didn't do you. And I pray for you, listen. Don't
anybody move a hand or a head now. There isn't anything as dishonest
as Arminian theology, not even Washington City politics. The whole thing is a program
of robbery of God. That's right, absolutely. And, Brother Barnum, you and
I have said it together before. We have no sign of a revival
in America today as big as a piece of cloud on the horizon the size
of a man's hand. And you never will have, as long
as it's a publicizing and advertising and bouncing and blowing up of
me. And you never will have preaching
Arminian theology, because God cannot Not until God's the first thing,
but until God is everything! Everything! And God is playing second fiddle
to the whole parade, and the whole system of army and theology. One more step. Listen. Stewards are the grace of God. And if God, Mr. Barnaby Hughes,
if God saves you in the light of His consideration of one single,
solitary, infinitesimal quality within you, it would not and
could not be graced. That's right. More than that,
listen to what I mean now, no amount of immorality can hinder
the grace of God, one infinitesimal shadow, and no amount of principle
morality and moral excellency can command one to the grace
of God, not one infinitesimal shadow. If any amount of sin
and iniquity can withhold the grace of God toward any soul,
it ceases to be grace. And if any amount of morality
and proper moral excellency Confound him, anyone, to the
consideration of God, it ceases to be grace. And there's no way
it can be grace, except God does it all. I'm starting to believe. Absolutely. Absolutely. One more step. And it cannot
be graced until it roots back in the individual, personal,
unconditional divine sovereignty of God exercised in the distribution
of it. Now, intellectual nitwits and
theological topmenace make fun of the doctrine of election and
predestination. Reminds me of Dr. J.B. Gamble,
Barney. I heard her tell one time about
a neighbor woman of theirs. She wasn't a Baptist. And she
said, Dr. Gamble, I like you Baptist, but
there's one thing I just can't get on to. He said, well, what's
that? I think it would be the communion
question. She said, well, I just can't
understand this election and predestination. Well, brother,
that nephew, this woman, knew more than seven and a half million
Southern Baptists know today. When she said she couldn't understand.
By the way, Barnett, Ed gave me a joke today, I believe he
got it from you. A Catholic boy and a Baptist boy were going
to school together, a little fellow. And coming on home from
school, They passed the Catholic Church, and the little Catholic
boy, he made the cross and hailed Mary full of grace. And they
got on to the Pastor Baptist Church, and went on by the little
Baptist boy, didn't say anything. Got by the Catholic boy, said,
Saint, aren't you a Baptist? Yeah. Well, we passed the Baptist
Church. I know it. Well, you didn't say
anything. Well, he didn't know he was supposed
to say anything. So he got home and talked to his daddy about
it. Next afternoon, they were going back, and they passed the
Catholic church. And the Catholic boy did the
cross, and healed Mary, full of grace, came to the Baptist
church. And the little Baptist boy, he
did something about it like I'd have done, and mumbled something.
And the Catholic boy said, now what did you say? He said, I
said, a million more and fifty-four, and everyone a thousand! Yeah, that's wicked of me stealing
that from you, but I couldn't miss it, son. Tom Martin said, you'll never
get anybody to speak with you till you get them laughing at
you, and that's so true. When your congregation won't laugh,
just go to shore and get through this camp. That's right. Absolutely. The same nerves that
respond to laughter. Let us respond to the mellowness
of the Spirit of God. Yes, sir. Let's go one more step. It is not great, it cannot be
great until it's absolutely distributed by God's own sovereign act. And so this lady said, well,
I just can't understand this election business. Dr. Gaffer
said, Sister, I want to ask you a question. Are you saved? She said, yes, sir, I'm saved.
He said, I believe you are. I believe ever since we've been
living beside each other that you're a saved woman. He said,
Sister, I want to ask you another question. Did you save yourself
or did God save you? She said, why, God saved me.
He said, Sister, I want to ask you one more question. Did God
do it on purpose? Or was it an acronym? Now here, answer that, and you
can unravel the whole mystery of election. If you're a slave,
God saved you. If God saved you, He either did
it as an acronym, or He did it on purpose. If He did it on purpose,
He elected to do it. Absolutely. Now go back one more
time. Here in the second chapter of
Ephesians, we have this. Listen to it. And you, notice the words have
been taken, are in our palates. Give them. And you who were dead,
dead, dead, in trespasses, unexamined, Boys, you didn't have to train
that bird dog to set birds. That's the nature of the blessed
little creature. But you did have to train him
what you meant when you said dead. You get me? You did have to train
him to know there's a bird on the ground that can't move. When you said dead, Well, that's more than these
half-baked Armenian Baptists have ever learned. When Paul
said, No human being ever has one single
center of power of spiritual response to spiritual means of
grace until the Holy Spirit works them through. Amen. There are millions of people that have
sat by the side of other people listening to the same sermon. would be moved by the saint's
sermon, and come in all the feisty glory of the gospel, like a sun
feisting to a mighty cloud, in its own rhythm. And yet that
party sat there as unconscious of its meaning, as immune to
music, and as irresponsive as a corpse in a casket. What happened? This one was quickened. That one wasn't. Now, brother,
God had a right not to quicken either one of them. And neither
one of them could have ever said a word. And God had a right never
to save anybody. And not a soul at this side of
Eve could have ever said a word if God had never saved the But
God, for reasons you and I will never know, and I doubt that
we'll learn the reason in glory, chose to work quick digress in
you. And working quick digress in
you, he brought you on to conviction of sin. and bringing you conviction
of sin, he brought you over to repentance of sin. Let's be still.
Repentance is not some emotional duty that commends you to God.
Repentance is the claim of the whole mind and will and preference
from sin, from dead works, unto God. And the Holy Spirit works it. And it's in reference to Jesus
Christ, and not in reference to your form of cussing us. The
Holy Spirit doesn't convict the sinner of his sinful means. He convicts the sinner of the
sinner's attitude of rebellion toward the Son of God. Listen, he worked to you the power of
faith, he said. And then, as he went on there,
and sent Philip to the Ethiopian Europe, and Peter to Cornelius,
and Paul to Libya in Philippi. He brought somebody to show you
the gospel, and show you how to trust him. And that's the
only place you ever took any part in it. And everything God's done in
you from then till now has been great. Not one thing have you
ever accomplished in good behavior, in good deportment, in spiritual
service, in spiritual fruit bearing, in spiritual growth, in spiritual
development, but the grace of God wrought it in you. Well, we must hurry to the close.
Over here in the 15th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians,
right quickly, brethren. First Corinthians chapter 15
and verse 11, but by the grace of God I am what I am. You get that? You get that? You've known in your days more
than one gracious, gracious, gracious, gracious, beautiful,
rich, radiant, charming spiritual personality. Go back and sit
down and talk to him. I had an old man in my home community
when I was a small pot. Old man St. Bush. He was, as the old homely
expression used to be, he was as rough as pig iron. And he
was, too. And whether if he could have
hit a tune, he'd cusp it to a tune. And everything else in the ungodly
world in proportion. And brother, he had a temper, and he had a spirit of vengeance,
and he gave a big damn to Semp Bush. And one day the news went
out that Semp Bush had made a profession of faith, and had joined the
Church in Valkyrie. And everywhere that was reported,
folks said, well, it rings Semp a whole lot. Boys, listen, I
know a lot of the falling downs and bad mistakes that Sip made,
lots of them. But I saw Sip Bush live until
his word was a synonym for everything that's rich and beautiful in
the spiritual realm. And I sat by his bedside. he
died with pneumonia. God held his head, and he said,
Archer, it's worth it a Christian just to die like this. And he said, Archer, I can't
understand how God overcame as much as he had to overcome to
start with. And then he said, Archie, it's
all in the grace of God. That's what Paul said, by the
grace of God. I am what I am. Again, Ephesians, the second
chapter of the eighth verse, and the verses following. Just
look at it right quickly. Ephesians 2, Now the better reading
would be, for by grace ye have been saved through faith. Now let's be clear, the faith
is not what saves you. Your faith doesn't have a bit
more power to save you than that cotton pocket handkerchief, not
a bit. It's the thing your faith is in. And if it's in the wrong
faith, you're not saved. And if it's in your conviction,
you're not saved. And if it's in your repentance,
you're not saved. And listen, and if your faith
is in your faith, you're not saved. And if your faith is in
the experience you had, you're not saved. Your experience didn't
die for your sins. Your experience didn't satisfy
God's justice for your sins. Yes, sir. And if your faith is
in the feeling, you're not saved. The feeling didn't die for your
sins. Look out, be still now. And Barnabas,
here's one of the greatest sins of all, preaching the new birth
as if it were the condition of salvation. I didn't get a single amen on
that. The new birth never died for your sins. The new birth didn't die for
your sins. The new birth is what gives you
a new nature to live a new life after you're saved, but it didn't
save you. And the new birth is what gave
you a new nature to enjoy the realms of the redeemed when you
get there. But it's not what takes you there,
and not one thing's paid you, and that is somebody paid for
your sins in your place. Absolutely. By grace, ye have
been saved through faith, that none of yourselves is a gift
of God. The faith itself is none of yourselves. Not a word, lest any man should
boast. For ye are his workmanship."
Oh, how pretty that is in the Greek. Poem. Poem. The only piece of absolutely
symmetrically form literature in the world is a poem. I'm not
talking about these little middle teen ditties. I'm talking about
a poem for Amos. ye are his point, his symmetrically
formed personality, created in Christ Jesus of two good works,
which God hath before ordained, ordained that you'll walk in
them. And you're going to walk in them
too, brother. God may have a hard time ever getting you started
right, but he's going to get you started right. He's had a hard time keeping
me started after he got me started. But he never has had as hard
a time as he had with Jacob, with me as he had with Jacob.
And he didn't quit Jacob. And listen, Ed, get this, son.
You'll never hear him saying the God of Israel. He's always
the God of Jacob. He's the God of that old God
bargained by him. He's a trickster, and grasper,
and grafter. He's the God of Jacob. And God
kept on working with Jacob until he made him Israel. He's going
to keep on working with me and you until he makes it his poem. Born to British nobility, with
all that such position and wealth and affluence could afford, became
a moral dissolute. And when he awoke to himself,
he was the body's servant and slave. All the black African
princes, including her, embodied the individual. He went back to England. Three
different times he asked for automation. Three different times
he was turned down. And finally, an Anglican preacher
in a remote little church in a remote community argued to
the ministry. And a little remote church in
a remote community called him. And he served that little Anglican
church in that little community. It was He who wrote, I saw what
had His own truth, His light with eyes cast in me. And it
was He who wrote, obeyed and prayed, how sweet the sound that
saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found,
was blind but now I see. All the sins John Newton ever
committed, in selling sex, to black African priests, to the
imperialist body of sin, could not enter the sovereign grace
of God when God's power struck to save him. There is literature,
song, and all Christian hypnology that has brought challenge and
curse established ability to crystallize it talentlessly,
like John Newton's amazing grace. Girls, hit the chord. Head, come
and see it.