This is our official announcement
that, Lord willing, we will plan to have our conference in January
15th, 16th, and 17th of January. Not sure who's going to be able
to come to preach for us, but we're going to plan to have it.
If anybody's available to help work on the kitchen, the new
kitchen, let me know your schedule and we'll try to Line up some
work around around your schedule, but we're trying to get that.
I don't know if we'll have it ready by January, but trying
to get as much work done in there as we can. So. I was just looking at this verse
in Psalm 119 just beyond where we were the first hour in verse
169. It says, let my cry come near
before the Lord. Give me understanding according
to thy word. Give me understanding according
to thy word. In other words, we're not saying,
Lord, help me to understand all my circumstances, but give me
understanding. Give me the grace to understand
who Christ is and what he's accomplished. and my dependence upon him for
all my righteousness. Lord, give me understanding according
to thy word. That's our prayer this morning.
Bert's gonna come and lead us in the hymn on the back of the
bulletin. Let's stand together. A guilty soul can flee to Christ,
uplifted on the day. O'er the dreadful wrath of God,
that sinners might go free! Behold the Savior's precious
blood, And know the love of God. Behold God's justice satisfied,
In Jesus' precious blood. Here in His love God gave His
Son, I come. Maybe soon. Genesis chapter 24. Genesis chapter 24 and verse
1. Abraham was old and well stricken
in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham
said unto the eldest servant of his house that had charge
over all that he had, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh,
and I will make thee swear by the God of heaven and the God
of the earth that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of
the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell. Thou shalt
go into my country and my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac. Chapter 24 of Genesis is about
the bride of Christ. It's about not opening up our
church to the world. It's about doing like Greg does
and preaching the gospel. This is God's country right here
where we are right now. And Greg preaches the gospel,
but only the kindred, those that are in Christ will hear it. You're
not to water down the gospel. If I have offended anyone in
this church, and that's the reason you're not coming to church,
I'm asking you to overlook the offense and come back to the
assembling of ourselves. Father, we come before you this
morning, Father, knowing Almost nothing father about the glory
of God, nothing about heaven and really nothing about our
own sin. Father, we just go through life
like happy children, father, just not caring. But you've taken
us away from that. You've given us peace. You've
given us hope. You've given us grace. You brought
us here together father to hear the truth. We ask that you continue
to bless Greg, Father, that he preaches the truth and cares
not for how many people are here, but only that the gospel is preached
and you will add to the Church daily such as should be saved. Be with us through this message
father give us open ear give us an open heart cause us to
understand the word of god and cause us to glorify your name
we ask these things in the name of the lord jesus christ amen We're going to sing to hymnal
number two in the spiral. Remain seated, number two in
the spiral. Lord, we come before Thee now
At Thy feet we humbly bow O do not our suit disdain Shall we
seek Thee, Lord, in vain? Fill our hearts with Thy rich
praise. Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. Now we seek Thee, here we stay. Lord, we know now how to go,
Till a blessing Thou bestow. Send a message from Thy Word, Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. When my heart groweth drear,
when my sin I remember, cause Thy face to shine through the
dark, By thy grace, hear my call, for thou art holy and I am not. Save my soul, precious Lord,
give me Christ. Precious Lord, by Thy hand, in
Thy righteousness I stand. Thou art holy, Thou art truth,
Thou art just. As my substitute I trust, dying
only for those you love. Save my soul, precious Lord,
give me Christ. Cause me to forsake my work,
trusting only in Thy blood. May I be found in Thy Son. Guide my heart, steer my mind,
cause me leave this world behind. Save my soul, precious Lord,
give me Christ. Precious Lord, by thy hand, in
thy righteousness I stand. Thou art holy, thou art truth,
thou art just. As my substitute I trust, dying
only for those you love. Save my soul, precious Lord. I can't remember what the words
were to that hymn before. But I like those words. Thank
you, Caleb. That was a blessing. Let's open our Bibles together
to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. And several have asked if we
were going to have services this Wednesday night in light of Thanksgiving. And the answer is yes, so we
will. If you're able to be here. Lord
willing, I'll be here and. Will go from there. We've been looking at Acts chapter
7 and Stevens. Preaching to these. Pharisees,
this was the Sanhedrin. It was the official religious
leaders of the day. And they are called the synagogue
of Satan. And Stephen declares clearly
not just the gospel, but their judgment for not believing the
gospel. And in verse 54, When they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. And verse 59 says, and they stoned
Stephen. I've titled this message, Dying
Grace. Dying Grace. And I realize that
there are some who would say, well, I'm not dying and I really
have no immediate interest in dying grace. And I would say
to that person that there will come a day sooner than you think
that it will be the only subject that you'll be interested in.
The only subject. For it is truly appointed unto
man once to die. Each and every one of us, the
Lord tarries, will experience physical death. And apart from
the grace of God given to us in that hour, we will be of all
men without hope and most miserable. This subject of dying grace is
a subject near and dear to the heart of God's people. The world may live their lives
in denial and fear of that enemy that has not yet been conquered
for them. But for the child of God, we
live in constant reminder of the reality of death. The hope that we have in death
and the one who has conquered that final enemy, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who has put away the fear and the judgment of death. And they are relying upon God's
grace then more than ever before. For the child of God, saving
grace extends to and strengthens in the hour of death. Stephen was called on by God
to suffer the most cruel and painful death, apart from the
cross of Christ that I can imagine, having to suffer being stoned
to death. And yet in these last few verses
of Acts chapter seven, we see the Lord giving to Stephen what
he will give to each one of his children when they face that
hour. We have no hope that we will
Enjoy God's grace then if we have no interest in God's grace
now So my hope is that the Lord will Will speak peace to our
hearts and bless us with his grace so that when that hour
comes I You remember what the Lord said to Martha? He said,
Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Martha, believest thou this? The child of God is going to
be more keenly aware of their need of grace in the hour of
their death than they've ever been in their life. And our hope
is that just as the Lord says of Stephen's death, look back
with me down at your Bibles, if you will, please, and look
at verse 60. And he kneeled down and cried
with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he
fell asleep. As cruel and painful as his death
was, The Holy Spirit describes the passing of this brother as
falling asleep. What's more gentle? What's more
peaceful than to lay down at night after a long, tiring day
and put your head on the pillow? And just fall asleep. Fall asleep. If that's to be true for you
and me. Then. we're going to have to have dying
grace. The outline, actually, for my
message is in your bulletin. If you notice, there's an article
there titled Dying Grace, and I have five points I would like
to try to make from this passage of scripture. And the first point
is that God gives dying grace The evidence of which is a good
confession. A good confession. You see, the
Lord always finishes what he starts. He always finishes what
he starts. You ever started something and
not finished it? Sure you have, lots of times. You either got
bored with it or you didn't anticipate some problems with it or one
thing or another and you gave up on it. That's never happened
to the Lord. What he starts, he finishes. And when he calls us by his grace,
he keeps us by his grace. And dying grace continues to
profess faith in Christ to the end. The only true evidence of
salvation is perseverance. It's the only true evidence.
Faith is the evidence of salvation, but how do we know that our faith
is not spurious? How do we know that it's not
feigned faith? Well, that it lasts to the end. That's how we know. How many
people we've seen over the years show evidences of salvation initially
And yet, where are they now? They've fallen away. And John
said, they went out from us because they were never of us. For had
they been of us, they would have remained. The Lord gave that
parable of the sower who cast the seeds of the word of God
out to the hearts of men. And some of that seed fell on
rocky soil. It sprang up, it showed evidence
of life, but because there was no depth to the soil, when the
sun came up and dried out the ground, the plant died and it
was fruitless. Some of the seed fell among thorns
and was choked out by the cares of this world and some of it
fell on wayside, roadside pathways and the birds came and took it
away. How much seed has been sown into
the hearts of men without grace, without salvation? Here's dying grace. Dying grace
perseveres. Stephen is testifying of his
hope in Christ to the last breath of his life. as will every child
of God. And the closer you get to dying,
the more precious the gospel will be to you, the more dependent
you will become on the Lord Jesus Christ for all your justification
and all of your righteousness, and the more willing you will
be to let people know that. That's dying grace. Dying grace
is giving a good confession to the end. Say, well, I don't know
if I could say the things that Stephen said in his dying hours
and moments of life. That's not what we're talking
about. We're not talking about being able to, we're talking about
the confession that Christ is everything in your salvation.
and that you are nothing in your salvation, that you're a sinner
completely devoid of any righteousness of your own before God, and that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the only successful savior of sinners,
and that your only hope of standing in the presence of God is for
the Lord Jesus Christ to stand in your stead and to be your
advocate before the Father. That's a confession. And that's
a confession that every believer makes until the end. I heard
someone say this week, well, you know, just because you're
a believer doesn't mean you have to go to church. And I would
respond to that by saying, we don't come to church because
we have to. What do you mean have to go to
church? This is where believers want to be. This is their confession.
This is their life, this is the hope of their dying grace, is
that the Lord will grow them in his grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when that moment of truth
comes, they will still be in the grace of God, declaring a
confession of their hope in Christ. Isaiah chapter 42 verse 4 says,
he shall not fail. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth. You see, dying grace is
not dependent upon our determination. It's not dependent upon our dedication. It's dependent upon him. This
is what he does. This is his work of grace in
the heart, keeping us from falling and presenting us faultless before
the throne of God. It's his work. Just like regeneration, the new
birth is by the grace of God, so being kept is by the grace
of God, so being presented is by the grace of God, and so the
ability to confess Christ. A good confession is by the grace
of God. Listen to what the Lord said
to Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 31, be strong and of good courage,
fear not nor be afraid for the Lord thy God, it is he that goeth
with you and he will not fail thee nor forsake thee. There's
our hope. Be of good courage and fear not.
Why? Because it's the Lord God that goes with us. And he said,
I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. I will cause you to confess
me all the way through to the end. I'm going to finish what
I started. When the Lord ascended back into
glory, he told the disciples, he said, all authority has been
given unto me in heaven and in earth. He possesses all power
and all authority. He said, therefore, therefore,
you go. and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded
thee. And lo, I am with thee always, even until the end of
the earth." Here's dying grace, brethren, is that the Lord is
gonna cause his children to confess Christ all the way through. to trust him to the end, and
like Stephen, to profess him. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter
6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. Oh, I want this dying grace.
I want what Stephen had. I want to be kept, and I want to
profess Christ. to the end. And if the Lord takes
his hand off of me, I'll fall away as quickly as you will.
Lord, I need grace now if I'm gonna have dying grace. I need
to profess Christ now if I'm gonna profess him in the end. Look what the Lord tells us in
1 Timothy chapter six, and we'll begin reading at verse 12. Fight the good fight of faith.
Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast
professed a good profession before many witnesses. You profess Christ. Lay hold on Christ. Keep looking
to Christ. Keep resting in Christ. Keep crying out for his mercy
and for his grace. For I give thee charge in the
sight of God, verse 13, who quickeneth all things. Lord, you've got
to quicken me, quicken me according to thy word, quicken me according
to thy judgments, quicken me according to thy righteousness,
quicken me, make me, that word quicken means to be made alive.
And it's the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. In the sight of God who quickeneth
all things and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate
witnessed a good confession. The Lord Jesus Christ gave a
good confession before Pontius Pilate, and he will see to it
that his children make a good confession to the end. It's called
dying grace. Dying grace will keep you dependent
upon Christ, looking to Christ, resting in Christ, and confessing
Christ to the end. It won't quit. It won't stop. Aren't you glad? Aren't you? If there was any way it could
stop, it would stop, but it won't. It won't. It's dying grace. Look over just a couple of pages
to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4 and we'll
begin reading at verse 6. This is Paul writing from his
prison cell in Rome and he says, for I am now ready to be offered
and the time of my departure is at hand. Stephen departed
this world just like you're going to depart this world and just
like I'm going to depart this world and Paul said my departure
is very near about to about take my head off. This is it. I have
fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give to me and not to me only, but all of those
who love his appearing. You see, you're not going to
love His appearing then if you don't love His appearing now. It's
just this dying grace. It's a fight, isn't it? It's
a war against the spirit and the flesh. I think I shared with
you all some time ago, Trisha and I were in Hawaii many, many
years ago. We got to Kona the day after the Ironman Triathlon. And it was a mess. I mean, there
were paper cups laying everywhere. The Ironman Triathlon was over. But we noticed that the finish
line thing was still up. And so we rented a car and we're
touring Kona and we got several miles away from the finish line
and there was a guy with numbers painted down his thigh, barely
getting one foot in front of the other. This was the day after. And he, we didn't follow him,
but I know where he ended up. You see, it's not how you start,
it's how you finish. It's how you, a lot of people
start out with a bang and finish the same way. You know, we just,
I finished my course, kept the faith, looking to Christ. Oh, sometimes it seems like I
can barely get one foot in front of the other, but by God's grace,
he keeps me. He keeps me from falling and
he's going to get me to the finish line. David, in his last words on his
deathbed, said, although my house be not so with God, Oh, the tabernacle
of my flesh. David's house was a mess. You
know, you look at, you look at so many biblical characters and
you, and you, you feel a bit better about how messed up you've
made your own children. You know, you just, I mean, we
do, we, you know, sinners just give birth to sinners and then
they just, it's, David said, my house is not like it ought
to be. But here's my hope, he made with me an everlasting covenant,
and that covenant's ordered in all things, and that covenant's
sure. And this is all my salvation and all my desire, though he
make it not to grow. And these be David's last words. He gave a good confession, a
good confession. What is our confession? Christ
is all. He's all in my election. He's
all in my regeneration. He's all in redemption. He's
all in my sanctification. He's all in my glorification.
Christ is all, that's my confession. Dying grace will confess that,
confess him to the end. Go back with me to our text. Verse 54, Acts chapter 7. And
when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and
then gnashed on him with their teeth, but he being full of the
Holy Ghost. How sweet it is when the Holy
Ghost ministers peace to our hearts. How sweet it is when
the Spirit of God ministers hope and light and understanding and
grace. And never will the Holy Ghost
minister those things to our hearts more clearly and more
surely than in dying grace. Dying grace. That's what it means to grow
in grace. That's the work of the Spirit of God. The work of
the Spirit of God is to bring us to Christ. Listen to John
chapter 14, verse 26. The Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you. As our physical eyes grow more
dim in death, our spiritual eyes will never have been as clear. Never has been as clear. seeing heaven open, seeing Christ
seated, standing at the right hand of God, receiving us as
our advocate. That's the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. I quoted this passage earlier
from Daniel chapter four in the previous hour. Nebuchadnezzar
lifted up his eyes and looked into heaven and his understanding
returned unto him. Who gave him eyes to see? The
seeing eye and the hearing ear, that's the gift of the Spirit
of God. And as our natural senses dim
in the hour of our death, our spiritual senses, our spiritual
sight will become more clear than ever before. I remember
hearing a dear sister say to her husband on her deathbed,
I've never seen my need for Christ more clearly than I do right
now. More clearly than I do right now. I remember standing at Brian
Belarus's bed just days before he slipped into a coma. And I
got Todd and Donny Bell on the phone and Brian FaceTimed with
them in Tennessee and. And he was just rejoicing over
what he had heard from them preaching the gospel and was thanking us
Oh, thank you. You see, that's dying grace.
That's dying grace. Last conversation I had with
Peggy before she slipped into a coma was about the gospel.
It was about Christ. It's the hope of the believer
and it becomes more and more sharp and more and more clear
and more and more precious. And we become more and more dependent
in that hour of death. And that's what the scripture
is saying here. He gave a good confession and he had a fullness
of the spirit of God. When the spirit of God ministers
grace to the heart, he gives us faith. You say, well, I don't
know if I have that dying grace. And my answer to you would be,
are you dying? If you're not, you don't need
it yet. But when you get ready to die, when the Lord appoints
that moment of truth for you, he will provide for you. You're
depending on his grace now, you will depend upon his grace then,
and it'll never be more precious to you. And he will never be
more precious to you than in that hour. Thirdly, dying grace
provides eyes of faith to see heaven open and to see Christ
standing as your advocate. just like in a court of law,
when a defendant is told to stand, to hear his sentence, his attorney,
his advocate stands by his side. And I can remember back in religion,
we used to try to proselyte people by asking them this question.
If God were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven, what
would you say? And then we would go from there
and try to get them to pray a prayer or whatever. You know my answer,
if somebody asked me that question right now, I would say this,
God's not gonna ask me that question. Well, what if he did? No, he's
not going to. That's a hypothetical situation that ain't gonna happen.
because my advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, is gonna stand
in my stead and he's gonna speak on my behalf before any questions
are asked. The Lord's gonna stand and he's
gonna say, Father, he's one of mine, I died for him, and the
Lord's gonna enable me to see Christ standing, receiving me
into glory. Never will we set our affections
on things above more than in the hour of our death. Heaven opened. Heaven opened
when the Lord Jesus Christ left his rightful place in glory and
was born of a virgin. The incarnation God being made
flesh. Emmanuel, God among us. That's
when heaven opened the first time when God came down. And
Isaiah said, Isaiah said, Lord, rend the heavens and come down.
The heavens have been rent and God has come down. And then they
were rent again there in Acts chapter one, when the Lord Jesus
ascended back into glory. And the disciples standing there
watching him being called up into heaven and the angels coming
and saying, men of Israel, why stand you gazing up into heaven?
Don't you know that this same Jesus that has been taken up
from you into heaven is going to come again in like manner
and the heavens will be rent again when the trump of God sounds
and the Eastern sky splits and the Lord Jesus comes back with
his church riding on a white horse and gathering up his people.
and destroying this earth, heaven will be rent. And heaven is rent
every time. Every time one of his saints,
precious in the eyes of the Lord, is the death of his saints, and
every time one of his saints closes their eyes in death, just
as the angels came and took Lazarus and carried him into the bosom
of Abraham, so the angel, God sends his reaping angels to carry
his people into glory. Never will you see heaven open.
Right now, we see heaven open by faith. Heaven was open 2,000
years ago. It was open when Christ came.
It was open when he ascended, and he ascended back as the living
word of God, presenting himself before his father and taking
his rightful place at the right hand of God. The father said
to the Lord Jesus Christ, sit thou here at my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. And those of us who are by nature
at enmity with God, the Lord Jesus makes us to be his footstool
and we sit at his feet and we listen to him and we follow after
him. We have a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. He's our advocate. He's the one who stands in our
stead and presents himself on our behalf. And when he ascended
back into glory as the living word of God, he did not return
void. He took with him the names of
those for whom he lived and died. And all the blessings of God
are in the heavenlies right now. You see, just as we're squinting
now to look through the windows of heaven and to see Christ there
through the eyes of faith, never will that vision be more clear
Then in dying grace, when in our last days we give our confession,
you confess me before men, I'll confess you before my father,
which is in heaven. And he gives us that confession.
He makes us to say, yay, Lord, amen. Christ is all. And when
we're filled with the Holy Spirit, a fresh anointing of the Spirit
of God in that moment of truth, whereby we're able to look into
glory, and see Christ not seated, but standing. We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one who stands
every time one of his children are received into glory and represents
them as their surety before God. What great hope we have, brethren.
What great hope. Death is real and it's coming
and you're not gonna stop it. And I'm not using that as a warning
or a threat, I'm just saying that, child of God, we have the
hope of knowing that the same grace that God gives us now to
save us will only strengthen in the hour of our death when
we are, like Stephen, able to look into heaven. Look into heaven. You see, one day, Heaven will not be open. Right now it is. Noah preached
a hundred years while building the ark. What was he saying to
those people? Come, there's a flood coming,
there's judgment coming. They mocked him. It's never rained
in the history of the world. What do you mean is a flood coming?
Water from the sky? How foolish is that? And then one day, the scripture
says, God shut the door of the ark. One day, God will shut the
door. And when that door shut, the whole world perished. And
Noah didn't hang a sign from the back of the ark saying, God
loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. No, the door
was shut. There was no hope for the love
of God. There was no hope for life. All
was to be destroyed. The only one that lived are the
ones in the ark. That ark is Christ. That ark
is Christ. You see, we'll have no hope of
being in Christ. in that hour when the door's
shut, if we don't have hope of being in Christ now. The Spirit
and the bride say, come, I'm declaring to you the same thing
that Noah, I'm preaching the same gospel that Noah preached.
There's a place of safety near unto God, and it's been pitched
within and without. The ark is waterproof. Judgment
cannot reach those on the inside of the ark. Come to Christ. Come
to Christ. And you'll have the hope of dying
grace, seeing heaven open and seeing Christ standing. Look,
look at standing as our advocate. Oh. What do we what do we say? Turn
with me to John chapter 14. John chapter 14. Look at verse, look at verse
16. Verse 15 says, if you love me,
keep my commandments. This is the commandment of God
that you believe. You believe on Him. We believe
Christ and look to Christ and rest in Christ. We'll follow
after Christ. And by His grace, He will cause
us to desire Him and to obey Him. Look at the next verse,
and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Oh, what a precious promise.
Lord, give me your spirit. Give me your spirit now. Now. If you being evil know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your heavenly
father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Lord, I need
your spirit. I need to be filled with your
spirit in that day. That day you've appointed for
me to leave this world by whatever means it might be. If I have any hope of having
your spirit then, I need your spirit now. I need your spirit
now. Go back with me to our text.
I want you to see something here. Did Stephen say, Lord, look at
what I'm suffering for your namesake? Surely, if anybody could work
their way to heaven, if anyone could earn the right to enter
into heaven, someone dying a martyr's death, like Stephen died, professing
faith in Christ, would be the candidate for that. Look at verse 59. And they stoned
Stephen. What was Stephen doing? Calling
upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Stephen was given in the hour
of his death the grace to ask for more grace. Sin was abounding,
and where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Stephen
was more keenly aware of his need for saving grace right then. He was calling upon God and asking
God for his grace. He wasn't asking God, you know,
Lord, look what I've done for you. You know, I accepted Jesus.
That's what the world says. Well, I accepted Jesus. What
would you say if you stood before God? Well, I would give him my
defense. I'd tell him about when I accepted Jesus and all the
things that I've done for him. But Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in thy name. Not Stephen and not any child
of God. They will call unto God and say,
oh Lord, receive my spirit. Receive my spirit. Never will you see your need
for grace more clearly than in the hour of our death. What does this remind you of?
Reminds you of the last words of the Lord Jesus on Calvary's
cross, don't they? But they're different. What did
the Lord say? Father, into thy hands I commit
my spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ was able
with total confidence to call upon God Almighty as his Father
and say, Father, I'm committing my spirit unto you. And now what's
Stephen's tone? Oh Lord, would you receive my
spirit? Would you have mercy upon me?
Would you have grace on me? You see, the truth is that no
man can come to the Father without Christ. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man can come unto Him apart
from Christ, outside of Christ. He's the only way. This is dying grace, a good confession,
A fresh filling of the Holy Ghost. The faith to see heaven opened
and Christ standing as your advocate, pleading your cause, presenting
himself to his father on your behalf. That's dying grace. And the grace to ask for grace.
Lord, would you receive my spirit? Would you have mercy upon me?
There's no claims on God. There's no demands being placed
on God. There's no works being presented.
It's asking for more grace. And notice in the last, in the
last of his breath, look what he said. Verse 60, and he kneeled
down. He wasn't kneeling, he was kneeling
before God. And he cried with a loud voice,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he said this,
he fell asleep. Being able to forgive is the
result of being forgiven. It's just that simple. And if you forgive not their
men's trespasses against you, the Lord said this, my heavenly
Father will not forgive you your sins. Now that doesn't mean we
forgive in order to get forgiven. It means that it's got to go
both ways. Anyone who's got an unforgiving
spirit against anybody for anything doesn't know anything about the
forgiveness of God. The Lord said in Matthew chapter 18, he
gives that parable of a king who had a servant who owed him
an exorbitant amount of money. And the servant came to the king
and pleaded his mercy and asked him to forgive him. And the king
forgave him, wiped his debt clean. That servant turned to his servant
who owed him a penance. I mean, it was just a few dollars. And that servant asked for grace.
He asked for forgiveness. He said, you know, give me time
and I'll pay it back. And he refused. And the other servants
went to the king and they said, told him what happened. And the
king was wroth, turned him over to the prison keepers to be tormented
until he should pay the full amount. That's what an unforgiving
spirit is. You see, we're servant number
one, aren't we? And what God's forgiven us in Christ is an amount
that cannot be paid. For us to turn around and not
forgive someone who's offended us. You know, Robert, you made
the point earlier, you said, if I've offended any of you,
please, you know. The scripture says, bear ye one another's burdens. You know what that means? Let
me give you a translation of that. Put up with each other.
Because you're just as offensive as they are. You know, just put
up with one another. And here's the good news, brother,
and if we've been forgiven, it's not hard to forgive. Not hard
to forgive. You know, most offenses, I've
been in religious groups where everybody wanted to confront
everybody every time they got offended. 99% of the offenses
just need to be forgotten. Just let it go. There may be
something serious that, you know, you need to meet with a brother
about and talk it through. But most of the stuff, don't
you start nitpicking every little offense and all you're going
to be doing is, you know, you've sinned against me and you've
done that. What'd the Lord say from the
cross? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And
we know that there was at least one that that prayer was effectual
for, that Roman soldier who immediately said, surely this was the son
of God. And we know there was at least
one at Stephen's death because the scripture says that they
laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. And
Saul saw the stoning of Stephen. He was right there. He gave consent
to it. And when the Lord arrested Saul on the road to Damascus
later on, he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who
art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
It's hard for you to pick a kick against the pricks, isn't it,
Saul? Now that's a picture of a farmer behind an oxen with
a sharp pointed stick. And he uses that stick to goad
the oxen to move forward. And if that oxen kicks against
the stick, it's only gonna make it worse, isn't it? What's the
Lord saying to Saul of Tarsus? Saul, I've been goading you with
the pointed stick. I've been pricking your heart
with what you observed when you saw Stephen stoned to death. And he cried out and said, father,
lay not this charge to their account. Hard for you to kick
against that, isn't it? That's forgiveness, that's love,
that's mercy, that's grace. And once you have that, you're ready to die, ready to
die. It'll just get better and sweeter,
just like it did for Stephen and just like it does for every
one of God's children. As they draw nigh unto that hour
of death, they will make a good confession. They will know what
it means to have a fresh filling of the Holy Ghost. Their eyes
will be open so that they see heaven open. And they see Christ
standing at the right hand of God as their advocate. They will be given the grace
to ask for grace even in that moment. and they will have a forgiving
spirit. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly
Father, we ask that you would minister grace to our hearts
now by your spirit in the Lord Jesus Christ and keep us in that
grace to the hour of our death. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Matthew, if you want to go get
ready, we're going to have baptism in a few minutes. Bert, you're
going to come lead us in 268. Let's stand together. 268. How firm a foundation, ye say,
of the Lord is lay for your faith. In His excellent Word, what more
can He say than to you He hath said, to you who pray? Fear not, I am with thee, O bearer
of good news. For I am thy God, I will still
give thee aid, I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee
to stand, Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go The rivers of old shall not be overflowed
For I will be with thee, thy couples to bless, And sanctify
to thee thy deepest distress. When through thy redress Pathways
shall I thy praise, all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I wholly design thy draws to consume and thy goal to refine. A soul that on Jesus' path we
all repose You may be seated. Let me rephrase that. This was
all about. It's all about. For young man
to hear from God. And to want to profess Christ
publicly. Before his church family. Matthew, it's just been a great,
great joy to be your pastor and to watch you over the years.
He came up to me last Sunday and said, Pastor, with tears
in his eyes, would you baptize me? Of course I will. Of course
I will. It's a great, great joy for us,
as I know it is for you, Matthew, as you profess your union with
Christ. That's what baptism is. It's
nothing complicated. It's simple. It's when Christ
died, I died. When Christ took away my sins,
my sins are washed away. When he raised from the dead,
I was raised from the dead. My life is, Christ is my life. I'm identifying
my union, my dependence, my trust in Christ alone for all my salvation. Matthew is with great joy that
as your church family, we baptize you in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, buried with Christ in baptism. Raised to walk a new life in
Christ Jesus and all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this dear brother. We thank
You for Your work of grace in his heart and causing him to
desire Christ and to follow after Christ. Lord, we pray You'll
keep him as we pray that for each of us, that this grace that
he is beginning to know would extend and strengthen to dying
grace. For it's in Christ's name we
pray, amen. Amen. Number 236, if you need
assistance, we're going to stand up and sing Amazing Grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come. ? Tis grace hath bought me safe
thus far ? ? And grace will lead me home ? ? When we've been there
ten thousand years ? Bright shining as the sun, we've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Amen. th th