Wherefore, also it is contained
in the scriptures, behold, I lay in Zion a cheap cornerstone,
elect, precious. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is priceless, precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient,
whereunto they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that you should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light." Tom, the hymn on the back of
your bulletin, let's stand together. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
my beauty art, my glorious dress. Midst flaming worlds in these
arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head. This spotless robe the same appears
When ruined nature sinks in years No age can change its glorious
hue The robe of Christ is ever new When from the dust of death
I rise, To join the ransomed in the skies, Ye then shall this
be all my plea, That Christ has lived and died for me. ? O let the dead now hear thy
voice ? Now bid thy people to rejoice ? Our beauty this, our
glorious dress ? Jesus the Lord, our righteousness Please be seated. Good morning. Let us open the
word of God to Hebrews, book of Hebrews chapter eight, Hebrews
chapter eight. Now the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty of the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and the two tabernacle, which
the Lord pitched, and not a man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices. Wherefore, it is of necessity
that this man has somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth,
he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow
of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he
was about to make the tabernacle. For see Seth, he that thou make
all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount. But now he have obtained a more
excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with them,
he said, behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with the
fathers in the day when I took them by the hand and led them
out of the land of Egypt, because they continue not in my covenant,
and regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts, and I will I will be
to them a God and they shall be my people. This is us now,
a blessing. This is describing the new birth.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor. And every brother
saith, know the Lord, for they all shall know me, for the least
to the greatest. This is talking about the believers.
The body of believers now is different than the body of Israel.
Not all Israel was of faith. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor. And every man his brother say,
no, the Lord for this, you all know me from the least to the
greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness and their sins and the iniquities I will remember
no more. It's a wonderful blessing that
he does not remember our iniquities or our sins. They all have been
paid in Christ. And he says a new covenant he
has made, has made the first old, now that which decayeth
and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Father God, we come before
you, and the only way we can come to you, and that is in Christ. In Christ's behalf, in his name,
Father, to give you honor and glory, we hope that you might
accept all our songs, all our doings here in Christ. Please,
Father, send your Holy Spirit, Father, The message might be
a blessing, might exalt Christ. We need of your spirit to be
able to clear our eyes and our ears that we may see Christ's
glory more and more and more. May we see Christ more glorious
every time. May we see our need for him more
and more, Father. We thank you for the pastor.
We ask you to bless him, Father, that you may bless his message,
fill him with the Holy Spirit. We pray the same for all the
other churches that preach the gospel, that glorify Christ,
Father. Once again, we thank you for
this wonderful privilege that we have, this wonderful blessing
that we have to be here. And we recognize our need for
you to come down today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 158. 158 from the hardback. you Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove
With all thy quickening powers Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold hearts of ours Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily They go
to reach eternal joys. In vain we tune our formal songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues. and our devotion dies dear lord
and shadow At this poor dying rate Our love
so faint, so cold to thee And thine to us so great Come, Holy
Spirit, heavenly dove, with all thy quickening powers, come shed
abroad the Savior's love, and that shall kindle ours. Please be seated. Caleb Hickman
has prepared special music. There's a line that's been drawn
through the ages. On that line stands the old rugged
cross. On that cross, the battle is
raging. for the gain of man's soul or
his loss. On one side march the forces
of evil, all the demons and devils of hell. On the other, The angels of glory,
and they march on Golgotha's hill. The earth shakes with the
force of the conflict. The sun refuses to shine. For there hangs God's son in
the balance. And then through the darkness
he cries. It is finished. The battle is
over. It is finished. There'll be no
more war. It is finished, the end of the
conflict. It is finished, and Jesus is
Lord. Yet in my heart, the battle was
raging. Not all prisoners of war had
come home. They were battlefields of my
own making. I didn't know that the war had
been won. Then I heard that the King of
all ages had purchased salvation for me. And the victory was His for the
claiming. By His blood I've been redeemed. It is finished, the battle is
over. It is finished, there'll be no
more war. It is finished, the end of the
conflict. It is finished, in Jesus his
Lord. I don't know of three greater
words in the scriptures. It is finished. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem and cry unto her and tell her
that her warfare is accomplished, her iniquity is pardoned, and
she has received of the Lord double for all her sins. It's
finished. Wow. Everything necessary for
a sinner to stand in the presence of a holy God was accomplished
by what the Lord Jesus Christ finished on Calvary's cross. He put away all the sins of all
of God's people. There's nothing for us to do
to add to that. We dare not take away from it. It's finished. Oh, and that's the labor, isn't
it? The labor is to enter into his
rest. Because by nature, By nature,
and you have so appreciated that passage you read from Hebrews,
by nature, we want to do something. I want to try to bring a message
from Psalm 107, if you'll turn with me there in your Bibles.
And I've titled this message, Understanding Grace. Understanding Grace. Now, there
is a a huge sense in which we don't understand anything. How
can we understand the nature of God? How can we understand
what sin really is? How can we understand the incarnation? How can we understand the work
of atonement? How can we understand sovereignty?
These things are beyond our comprehension, aren't they? Everything is beyond
our comprehension. We understand so little of what
We believe to be true. Why do we believe it? Because
the spirit of God suddenly came and a voice from heaven spoke
and we all of a sudden believed. We just believed. We could not
believe. We just believe what God says
and we hang all the hopes, all the hopes of our salvation, not
on our understanding, but on Christ. And faith is that chain,
if you will, that links the ship to the anchor. And Christ is
that anchor that has been set sure. Nevertheless, if we take this
word understanding as what it means, discerning, discerning
the difference. There is a very real sense in
which this whole book, from the beginning of Genesis to the end
of Revelation, is a distinction between law and grace. Every
message, every story, every historical setting, God is setting at odds,
contrasting for us the difference between salvation by works and
salvation by grace. There is a way which seems right
unto man. Now that way which seems natural
unto us is that we would earn favor with God by something we
do or something we don't do. But in the end, that way leads
to death. God says, my thoughts are not
your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. For as the heavens are high above
the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts. You're not
going to be saved by your works. You're going to be saved by his
work. His work is finished. Oh, that God would give us faith
to believe him and distinguishing grace to understand the difference
between law and grace, because here's the truth. Now there's
some here that have never. Heaven hasn't been opened yet.
Their eyes have not been opened. Their ears have not been unstopped.
They just, they come and they sit and they listen. And Pam
was, Pam was talking to me during the break and she said, you know,
when, when Brian first heard the gospel, they lived down in,
in, um, Sebastian. She said, Brian drug me up here,
kicking and screaming. I didn't want to be here. And
I thought, well, we got folks like that that are here, right?
And we've got children like that that are here, right? You just
come kicking and screaming. And then all of a sudden, one
day, suddenly, I heard. I wasn't planning on hearing. Didn't
want to be here. All of a sudden, one day, the
spirit of God was pleased to arrest me and stop me on my path
of destruction and reveal Christ to me. What a blessing. But you know, even after that,
we still gravitate towards works, don't we? We have to keep hearing
the gospel lest we lean on our works and rob Christ of His glory
in salvation. That's the worst part about the
gospel of works. The false gospel of works robs
the Lord Jesus Christ of his glory. Now notice in Psalm 107,
the last verse, verse 43, who so is wise? Now in the Bible,
you have wise people and you have foolish people. Now we all
act foolishly from time to time. But a fool in the scriptures
is an unbeliever and a wise person is a believer. And that's who
the Lord is. Whoever is a believer, whoever's
got the wisdom of God and the mind of Christ, who's ever got
faith to believe God, look at the rest of this verse. Whosoever
is a believer is wise and will observe these things, believe
these things, hold to these things, even they shall understand the
lovingkindness of the Lord." Now, grace is not used as much
in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. The concept
is there, but the full revelation of grace doesn't come until after
the appearance and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
one of the Old Testament words that communicates this truth
of grace is the word lovingkindness. And so that's why I've titled
this message, understanding, loving kindness, understanding
grace, uh, whosoever is wise and believes these things, what
things, all the things that are here in Psalm 107, even that,
even that, even me, you mean I can discern the difference
between law and grace. Yes. Even they shall understand
grace. I want us to discern the difference
between law and grace. And I want every time the evil
head of law lifts its head to threaten us or to rob us of our
hope, that the Lord would remind us once again, it is finished. It's finished. We're saved by
grace. Sovereign grace. Free grace. Finished work of redemption. We looked at the first seven
verses Wednesday night, so we're going to start in verse 8 this
morning. Understanding grace, O that men
would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful
works to the children of men. Every good and perfect gift,
James tells us in James chapter one, comes down from our Father
above with whom there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Everything
that we have has been given to us of God. The breath that we
draw, the very next breath we draw, Whatever abilities we have,
whatever possessions we have, they belong to God. They don't
belong to us. They're on loan to us. Oh, the men would praise
God for his wonderful works and for his goodness towards men. Let me ask you a question. What is it that you deserve right
now? God gave you what you deserve.
You ask my children, when they were teenagers, if they had ever
said to me, Dad, that's not fair. You ask them what kind of question,
what kind of response they got from me. You know what's fair. If you and I got what we deserved,
we'd go to hell. We'd be separated from God and
torment for all eternity. That's what's fair. That's what
we deserve, isn't it? Now, let me ask you a second
question. What do you have in your life that's better than that? And the answer to that question
is everything. Everything, all the men would
praise God for His goodness. Everything is His goodness and
for His wonderful works. Now what is the, now that being
put aside, you see, that obligates all men to thank God for what
they have. Regardless of whether they're
a believer or unbeliever, all men ought to thank God for everything
they've got, for everything they've got's more than they deserve.
But oh, what do we have to be thankful for, brethren? His wondrous
works, his finished work of redemption. Not only do we enjoy his providence
in this life, but we enjoy the benefits of his grace, of his
mercy, of his salvation. The hope of eternal life, to
know God, to have my sins forgiven. Who has reason to praise God
more than the child of God? Oh, that men would praise God
for his... Listen to what Paul said in Ephesians chapter 1,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by
Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will
to the praise of the glory of his grace. All that men would
praise God. We have reason to praise God,
don't we? He predestinated us. He saved us. by Jesus Christ. He adopted us into his family.
He made us to be his children to the praise of his grace. Oh, that men would, that men
would praise God and thank God for the blessings of his grace
and of his mercy. How far short we follow that. Look at verse 7. He led them
forth by the right way. There's a right way and there's
a wrong way in this world. There's one right way and there's
a whole bunch of wrong ways. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. He led them to Christ, and then he led them by Christ. He didn't just lead them to believe
on Christ. Now the Lord Jesus Christ leads
them in the way and keeps pointing them back to himself. Oh, that
men would praise God. This is what it is to understand
grace, that all that we have in this world And in the next
is by the grace of God. It's all of grace. All of grace. I haven't used this example in
some time, but I think it's a good one because we hear of grace
being free, unmerited favor. If on your way home, you roll
down your window at a stoplight and you hand someone at the side
of the road begging for money, a dollar bill, that's unmerited
favor. They didn't do anything to deserve
it. You gave it to them freely. You didn't get anything in return.
You roll up your window and you drive on. Now, what if you pull up to the
stop sign and there's a guy standing there who just got out of prison for
killing your only child. And he's asking you for money. And you don't just roll down
the window and hand him a dollar, you unlock the passenger door
and you invite him into your car and you take him home with
you and you clean him up and you give him a room in your house
and then you go down to the courthouse and you adopt him into your family
and make him one of your children. That's grace. You see, grace
is much more than unmerited favor. It's demerited favor. Because
that's what the Lord's done for us. It was our sin that put his son
on Calvary's cross. And he didn't just give us enough
to get us by for another meal or get us through this life.
He took us and adopted us into his family and made us his own
and provided us everything we needed for our salvation. That's
grace. And anything else is works. Look at verse nine, understanding
grace. That's what we hope to leave
here doing this morning. Understanding grace. Understanding
that everything we have is by the grace of God. Understanding
his wonderful works and praising him and glorifying him and giving
him all the honor and all the praise for all that we have in
this life and in the next. For he satisfies the longing
soul and he filleth the hungry soul with goodness. You see,
we're in this world, we're eating all the rotten flesh of this
world, we're drinking the polluted cisterns of this world, and then
the Lord puts in our soul a desire for more. Lord, this is just
not it. This is not it. I've got to have
more. Blessed are they who hunger and
thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled and I know
I made this point a couple times recently but let me make it again
that doesn't mean that you will be blessed of God if you will
hunger and thirst after righteousness what that means is that if you're
hungering and thirsting after righteousness and you're not
satisfied with what this world has to offer it's because God
has blessed you and He didn't bless you without hunger without
feeling that hunger. You see, the need that God creates,
He satisfies. Isn't that wonderful? And if
He leaves you satisfied with the things of this world, you
see, most folks are just satisfied with what they've got. Or they
think that if they could just get a little bit more of what
they already have, they'd be satisfied. And so they're just pursuing
the things of this world. You know, I just get a little
more, then I'll be satisfied. He satisfied the hungry soul,
the hungry soul, the hungry soul that thirsts after righteousness.
He satisfies them and he fills them. For once we rest our soul
in Christ. Once we are able by the grace
of God to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, once God has given
us some discernment about grace, and we see that everything we
have is by grace, we know God's satisfied. And if God's satisfied,
then how can I not be satisfied? I'm satisfied with Christ. I
don't want to add to what Christ has done. I don't want to rob
him of his glory. I'm satisfied. I can sit. I can rest. I can believe on
Christ. For he satisfied the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. If the Lord has
not filled your soul with Christ and enabled you to rest in Christ
and believe upon Christ and be satisfied with Christ, and you're
still trying to fill that God shaped void in your heart with
the things of this world, thinking if I just get a little bit more
than I'll be satisfied. You're never going to be satisfied.
Ever. I told you. I heard a. A. Interview. That someone had done. With. Mr Rogers wife, you know Mr Rogers,
the TV child. He died this past year. I heard
an interview that someone did with his wife and she was recounting
the last days of Mr Rogers life on his deathbed and she said
that he kept asking me. He kept asking me, honey, do
you think I've done enough? And she kept comforting him by
telling him, yes honey, you've done enough. It's okay, you've
done enough. Now that's what it is not to
be satisfied with Christ. You think I've done enough? Can
I do a little bit more? People leave this world thinking,
I don't know if I've done enough. Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian
minister, as you might know, and he didn't understand grace. He was still hoping to be able
to stand in the presence of God by something that he had done.
Being satisfied, having your soul satisfied means that you're
satisfied with Christ and you're not looking to anything else
for the hope of your salvation. And that's grace. If God's giving
you that grace, oh, that's a discerning works in grace, isn't it? Look
at the next, look at the next verse, such as sit in darkness
in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron. And what does the addict say?
I can quit anytime I want. And what does the religious person
say? I'll believe when I get ready
to believe. No, you won't. And what's the child of God say?
I was bound in darkness. I could not believe. I wasn't
able to see. I wasn't able to come. I wasn't able to hear. I could
not believe. I was bound until the Lord came
and brought down the gates of hell and brought me out and made
me to hear. I was a slave to my sin. I couldn't believe the gospel.
You see, if you think you can believe the gospel whenever you
want to believe the gospel, then you're not bound. You're not
in darkness. You're not in chains. You are,
but you just don't know it. You know, it's like the addict
who thinks, well, I can get loose anytime I want. Here's grace. Lord, I was sitting
in darkness. I was in the shadow of death.
I was a dead man on my way to hell, and there wasn't anything
I could do about it. And you came and stopped me by
your grace. I didn't do anything. I didn't,
I didn't force your hand. I didn't manipulate you. I decide
one day I was going to, I was going to let you come into my
heart. I didn't turn over a new leaf. I didn't get religious
Lord. I was dead in my trespasses and sins and you quickened me
and made me to be alive. Verse 11. We're answering this question.
They that observe these things, they shall understand the loving
kindness of the Lord. That's the last verse of this
psalm. These are the things. And there's several messages
in Psalm 107. We already preached one Wednesday
night. We're going to do one this morning
and probably do another one this coming Wednesday night. There's
so much in this psalm about understanding grace. Look at the next verse. Because they rebelled against
the words of God. Lord, I was a rebel. I was hell-bent. I was saying in my heart, I will
not have that man reign over me. I'm going to do it my way. And Lord, you had to knock me
off my high horse. You had to make me, you had to
cause me to bow. You had to turn me. You turned
my sword into a plowshare. You turned my spear into a pruning
fork. You made me from a rebel that
was at enmity with you and going against you to one that was planting
the seeds of the gospel. Oh, Saul of Tarsus had his fist
raised to heaven, didn't he? And the Lord Lord made him a
minister of the gospel and all of us are when the Lord saves
you and puts the seed of Christ in your heart. You've got the
word of God. See, this isn't just for the, just for the preacher,
is it? They rebelled against the words
of God. I didn't believe God's word. I just didn't think it
was important. And if I did have an interest
in the Bible, I twisted the word of God to my thinking. I made it so that it was a message
of works, so that I could get the glory for my salvation. I
didn't believe what God was saying. It was all about Christ. It was
all for him. I was a rebel against the word
of God. And they contemned the counsel
of the Most High. I didn't have any interest in
God's counsel or in God's word. You say, well, I've never, I've
never been against God's word. I've always, you know, the Lord
said, if you're not for me, you are against me. If you don't
love God's word, believe God's word, There's only two places
to be. You either love him or you hate
him. Lord, I was a rebel. I was in
darkness, I was dead, I was bound in the afflictions of my own
sin in iron. In other words, verses 10 and
11, what the Lord's telling us is that he made us to be a sinner. That's a work of grace, isn't
it? You show me a sinner, I'll show you a work of grace. Lord,
I couldn't do anything to save myself. Look at, therefore, he
brought down their heart with labor. They fell down and there
was none to help. I thought, I can get myself out
of this. And I only added to my sin by trying to fix my own
problem, rather than coming to Christ. And I put myself under
the burden of the law, thinking, well, if I can just do more to
fix my own situation, then I can get things right with God. I
didn't know it was of grace. I was still thinking that it
was of works. And then I looked around. It
wasn't enough. And I looked around, and there was no one to help
me. No man to help me. My wife couldn't help me. My
husband couldn't help me. My children couldn't help me.
My parents couldn't help me. Preacher couldn't help me. There
was no man to help me. Then, then, you know, you heard people
say, maybe you said, I've said it. Well, there's nothing left
to do but pray. The only time you really pray
is when there's nothing left to do. If you're praying and working
at the same time, you're not really praying. Praying is pouring
out your soul to God. Lord, there's nobody to help
me. I've got to have you, Lord."
You see, then, when they found no man to help, when they were
under the burden of the law, when they were dead in their
trespasses and sins, when they were able to acknowledge
that they were, in fact, rebels against God, somebody said, well, you know, Believe what God says about you.
That's what I want to say. We've got some of the sweetest, nicest, most obedient children
in this congregation that you'll find anywhere in the world. And they may have a tendency
to look at themselves and compare themselves to other kids that
are doing things they wouldn't do, and they think, well, I'm
not like that. Believe what God says about you. God says every imagination of
your heart is only evil in that continuum. God says you are an enmity against
me. God says you are a sinner. You see, the only reason you
wouldn't believe that is if you were comparing yourself to someone
else rather than standing in the presence of God and realizing
there's nothing in me that's like him. Everything about me falls short
of his glory. He's right. I am a sinner. I
am in darkness. I am bound by my sin of unbelief. And I have rebelled against the
word of God, and I've not taken seriously the counsel of the
Most High. And I've been brought down low
under my labor, looking to my life and my labor to try to find
some answers to my problem, and there was no man to help me.
Then I cried unto the Lord in my trouble, and He saved me out
of my distresses." You see, that's the only time we're going to
cry, is when When verses 10, 11, and 12 become real to you,
then you will cry. You'll cry. And you won't just
cry to anybody, you'll cry to the Lord. And here's the promise
of God. You cry out to Him, He's gonna
hear you and He's gonna save you. No one's ever cried to Christ
as a sinner, casting all their hope on Him, believing that He's
finished the work and has not been saved. No one's ever done
that. He saved them out of their distresses. Now that doesn't mean the distresses
of life. Life is full of distresses. You know, you may have more distresses
as a believer than you had as an unbeliever. And in one sense, there's never
going to be an end to that. Things are only going to get
more complicated and more difficult in this world. But here's the
distress. It's the distress of sin, isn't it? You know that. That which is born in the storm
often dies in the calm. People who get religious because
they're in the middle of a trouble in this world, when the trouble
goes away, they don't need God anymore and they usually go away.
But one sin, one problem that you and I have that never goes
away, that's our sin problem, isn't it? And if we come to God
as a sinner, we'll always need a savior because we're always
going to be a sinner. They cried unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought
them out of darkness and the shadow of death and break the
bands asunder. He gave them the grace to believe. And now they can't not believe. All they can do is believe. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to
the children of men. His wonderful works, his work
of redemption. The difference. Between law and
grace. Is that those who've been saved
by grace? Praise the Lord for his wonderful works and acknowledge
him. For all that they have. In this
world and in the next. Those who are looking to their
works. Will. add to the equation something
they've done, a decision they've made, a work they've performed,
something they're not doing. Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they, even they, Lord, why would you give it?
Why would you enable me to this? That the whole world is full
of people, billions of people that don't know the difference
between long grace. Even they shall understand his loving kindness. Our heavenly father. Might you be pleased? That even. Me. Even us would have your discerning
grace to believe on Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. 236, let's stand together, 236. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, 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. His grace hath brought 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'd first begun Yes, Tricia wanted me to remind
everybody next Sunday, that's a week from today, we're having
covered dish after services. The old-fashioned kind. Everybody
bring something and we'll all share.