Many of you all know that Peggy
Yabala has been having some very serious medical problems for
some time. And the final results aren't
in yet, but the preliminary results are that Peggy has muscular dystrophy. And so I know she'd be encouraged
to hear from you and pray for her. She has her final test the
24th of this month. to determine for sure. Also, we've missed Brian and
Jill for a week or two now. Jill is suffering greatly with
nerve problems in her back. And I know you all can relate
to that. But the board enables you to
pray for her. I know she'd appreciate that. You'll take your bulletin. Turn
to the hymn on the back. Message this morning, the Lord's
put on my heart. Is on the subject of grace and
this him that we're about to sing once my self righteous soul
relied on my own works with hellish pride. But now whenever my soul
sings praise, each note shall echo. God's free grace, pre-grace. Let's stand together. Tom. Once my self-righteous soul relied
on my own works with hellish pride. But now whene'er my soul
sings praise, each note shall echo God's free grace. T'was grace that quickened me
when dead, And grace my soul to Jesus led. Grace brought me pardon for my
sin, And grace subdues my lust within. "'Tis grace that sweetens
every cross, "'Tis grace supports in every loss. "'In Jesus' grace my soul is
strong, "'Grace is my hope and grace my song. "'Tis grace upholds
when danger's near, By grace alone I persevere. "'Tis grace constrains my soul
to love, God's grace is all they sing above." Tis thus alone of
grace I boast, and tis alone in grace I trust, for all that's
past, grace is my theme. ? For what's to come is still
the same ? In countless years of grace I'll sing ? Adore and
bless my heavenly king ? I'll cast my crown before his throne
? And shout free grace, free grace alone Please be seated. Good morning, brethren. Scripture
reading this morning is going to be at the end of Luke. Luke
chapter 24, verses 36 through 49. Luke 24, verses 36 through
49. This is when he appears to the
town. And as day does spake, Jesus
himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, peace
unto you. But they were terrified and are
frightened. And suppose that they had seen
a spirit, by the way, by spirit means a ghost or afraid. He said unto them, why are you
troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold my hands, my feet, that
is I myself. Handle me and see, for spirits
have not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he had
thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they
yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them,
have ye any meat? And they gave him a piece of
broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And he took it and he did eat
before them. And he said unto them, These
things, these are the words which I spoke unto you while I was
with you yet. All things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me. Then he opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. Notice that understanding
the Scriptures is to know that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
all that was written in Moses' prophets and the Psalms. That's
the true understanding of the Scriptures. And notice that he
was the one that opened this understanding. That's apart from
God. He said unto them, It is written, and thus is that we hope Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead on the third day. and that repentance
and the remission of sins should be preached in his name among
all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses
of these things. And behold, I send the promise
of my father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until ye are endued with the power from on high. He's talking
about the promise of the Holy Spirit. Father God, we come before
you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to thank you for the so
many blessings that we have in Christ that the pastor spoke
about in the first message. Thank you for your grace and
your mercy and all these spiritual blessings that we have in Christ,
Father. We pray for the filling of your Holy Spirit for all of
us here so we may understand the meaning of the scriptures.
We may understand the work, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Father God, and what he means, Father. We also pray for all
the other churches preaching the gospel. We pray that their
message may be clear, that they may glorify the Lord Jesus Christ
and his word, Father. We pray for the sick among us,
Father. Pray that you might use it for
your own glory father God for the growth and edification And
we trust in you that you will do your will with them father
in Jesus name. We pray amen Number 334 let's stand together
again 334 334 Be Thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart. Naught be all else to me, save
that Thou art. Thou my best thought, my day
or my night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only, first in
my heart, I, King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art. I, King of heaven, my victory
won, May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun, Heart
of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my vision, O ruler of
all. Please be seated. Caleb Hickman
is going to bring special music. If you'd like to turn in your
inspired gospel to page 36, you can follow along. Love of God, hold the grace most
free. For all worlds His purpose stood. His heart is fixed on me. Elected by eternal love, covenant
firm and sure. Triune God, agreed in love, salvation
is secure. When He sees me, sees the blood
of the Lamb, He sees me as worthy, not as I am. By His blood He entered into
the throne room of our God. As my surety standing, salvation
for His own. My soul was given to the Son,
He promised to redeem. By blood and righteousness, He
is on. He would my soul reclaim. In due time he came to live and
die for me. He lives today and bears my name. Christ is my surety. When he sees me, he sees the
blood of the lamb. He sees me as worthy, not as
I am. By His blood He entered into
the throne room of our God. As my surety He's standing, salvation
for His own. In love He sent His Spirit down,
who gave me life and grace. He drew me and I followed on,
my Savior to embrace. Now I rejoice in covenant love,
amazing grace I see. I now am conquered by His love. My Savior is my King. When He sees me, He sees the
blood of the Lamb. He sees me as worthy and not
as I am. By His blood He entered into
the throne room of our God. As my surety He's standing, full
salvation for His own. I'd like to hear some more of
that. Caleb, thank you. That was a blessing. Will you
open your Bibles with me to the book of Zechariah, chapter 4.
Zechariah, chapter 4. I mentioned a few moments ago
that the subject of this message, well, the subject is Christ. has to do with the grace of God.
Grace is a word that we use a lot around here. The reason being that it is a small
word that summarizes a very, very large part of what we believe. The truth of God's free and sovereign
grace in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ tells us
How and why God saves sinners. Zechariah chapter 4 at verse 7. Who art thou, O mountain? Now the mountain in the scriptures
illustrates those things of separation. mountains physically separate
one place from another and the Lord told us that if we had faith
as a mustard seed we could say unto this mountain be thee cast
into the sea and and it would be so and the Lord says that
he has cast our sins into the sea and separated them from us
as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more. The scripture says our sins have
separated us from our God. And now the Lord says, who art
thou, O mountain? What are you compared to Zerubbabel? Now, Zerubbabel was an actual
man who came back from Babylon, leading the children of Israel
with Ezra and Nehemiah, and was instrumental in rebuilding the
place of worship. Solomon's temple had been destroyed
a generation or two before, and now 70 years before, and now
the stone is being laid in preparation for the new temple. Zerubbabel,
though, in our text, doesn't represent a man of history. He represents none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who lays the foundation
for the place of worship by laying down his life for the sheep,
for he is that great cornerstone on which the temple of God is
built. and he is the one who will finish
the work. Zerubbabel's name means born
in Babylon and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ was born in
the likeness of sinful flesh. He was born of a woman, born
under the law. This world in which we live is
a world of Babylonian confusion. That's
all it is when it comes to the gospel. And the only thing that
gives us any hope and understanding and clarity is the work that
Zerubbabel has done. And so our scripture says, Who
art thou, O great mountain? You cannot stop the work of Zerubbabel. Who are you before Zerubbabel?
Thou shalt become a plain. That's what we just quoted from
the book of Isaiah when the Lord said, oh, that thou would rend
the heavens and come down and the mountains would melt at thy
presence. Now, what you and I need is for
those mountains of separation to melt into the sea in the presence
of our Zerubbabel. And here's the promise of God's
Word. Who art thou, O mountain? Who art thou? You can't stand
up against Zerubbabel. Thou shalt become a plain, a level ground And he shall bring
forth the headstone thereof with shoutings crying grace, grace
unto it. Grace, grace unto it. When we want to emphasize a point,
we repeat ourselves, don't we? Repetition is the first law of
learning. Every good teacher knows that.
And the Lord knows that. He knows that we are foolish
and slow of heart to believe, and He often repeats Himself
to emphasize a point. But nowhere in the Scriptures
do we have grace, grace, grace, grace. The Lord has given us
an emphasis Reminding us that these mountains are removed and
that they cannot stand in the presence of Zerubbabel because
of God's grace. Now the first time we read of
grace, grace is a theme all throughout the scriptures. I think the word
is mentioned over 160 times. The first time it's mentioned
is in Genesis chapter 6, when the Lord says that he's going
to destroy the whole earth. And then in verse 8 of Genesis
chapter 6, he says, but, but Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And then in verse 9 it says,
and Noah was a perfect man and walked with God. Now, don't confuse the order
there. The Lord didn't say Noah was
a perfect man and walked with God, therefore he found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And because he found grace in the eyes of the Lord,
he was perfect, perfect, sinless in the sight of God. As he is,
so are we. That, you see, what was said
about Noah can be said about every child of God. And yet,
Noah, more than that, Noah's name, you know this Noah, Noah's
name translated means rest, rest. And we rest, why? We rest because
the works were finished before the foundation of the earth.
the work of redemption was accomplished in our surety, in our sin bearer,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who entered into a covenant of grace with
his father, a covenant of grace, a promise to save his people. And he's called the lamb that
was slain before the foundation of the world. And so our rest,
as we were reminded in the previous hour, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And all throughout the Word of
God, we learn about this subject of grace, to where the Lord deems
it so important for us that in Genesis chapter 22, verse 21,
which is the last verse of the Bible, the Lord says, and the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Amen. That's how important grace
is. I was talking with someone just
yesterday trying to speak to them about the gospel and they said to me, well yeah
I know it's all of grace. It's all of grace. And I said,
well Why don't you come and join us tomorrow? And they said, well,
I'm going to go to the Catholic Church and celebrate, what did they celebrate today,
Palm Sunday? I'm going to go celebrate Palm Sunday with my
Catholic friends. And I thought, you know, so many
people talk about grace and they have no understanding what grace
is. If there is a message of works salvation anywhere in what
the world calls Christianity, it is in the Catholic Church.
And yet they say grace. The Lord says If it is of grace,
it can no longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace. And if it be of works, it cannot
be of grace. Otherwise, works is not works.
What the Lord's making clear to us is that there's only two
messages of salvation in the whole world. One is a message
of works. And you can speak of grace all
you want, but if you put one element of works in a message
of salvation, it becomes a gospel of works. It becomes a gospel
of works. Many of us come out of religious
traditions that love to talk about grace, but then they made
a work out of faith. Any amount of works that you
put into the message of salvation turns it into a message of grace. You take this glass of water
right here and put one drop of arsenic in it, and the whole
water, the whole glass is polluted. Let me put a drop of arsenic
in it. Anybody want to take a sip? No. Why? Because it's polluted the
whole glass. And so it is with grace and works. You can have a glass of grace
and say all the right things about the gospel of God's free
grace and you put a drop of works in it and it ruins it all. So what is grace? Children of Israel here as Zerubbabel
lays the foundation for the temple cry, grace, grace unto it. Grace always acts from itself
to itself. No merit can warrant grace and
no unworthiness can stop grace. We speak of grace as being unmerited
favor. What is that? Well, it is a pure
act of God's favor without any consideration as to the worthiness
or unworthiness of its recipient. The grace of God is a pure act
of God's favor without any consideration whatsoever of the worthiness
or the unworthiness of its recipient. The grace of God is unprovoked. It is unmerited. It is undeserved. It is unearned. Its reason is found only, only
in the will and the pleasure and the purpose of God. That's the reason for grace.
Sometimes we say, Lord, why me? When it comes to why would the
Lord have mercy upon me? But be careful when you ask that
question. because there may be hidden in
the in the shadows of that question some thought that met perhaps
if there was something different in me that the lord would would
have grace upon me no i'm going to give you the only reason the
only reason to why me Why would God have grace on some and not
on others? I'm going to show you. I'm going
to show you from the Word of God. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. Ephesians chapter 1. Grace, grace unto it. Oh brethren, it's all of grace.
It's all of grace. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the spiritual blessing and He's in heavenly places. He's
seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. And for that
reason we bless God, we praise God, we worship Him according
as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
Now those who say they believe in grace but mix grace with works
will say yes, Yes, election is taught in the Bible, but what
that means is that God looked down through the quarters of
time, and He saw who would be upright and follow after Him.
He saw the hearts of men in His omniscience, able to see the
future, and He chose those who would choose Him. That's not
grace. That's not grace. according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Now
that's Noah. He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord and therefore he was perfect and walked with God in
his generation. God chose us in Christ and made
us holy and perfect in His sight, having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will. That's the reason. That's the
reason. Who are you, old man, to question
God? He's the potter. We're the clay. He has the sovereign right to
make out of the same lump of clay some vessels of honor and
some of dishonor. No man can say unto him, what
doest thou? No man can stay his hand. No
man can say, this is not fair. What God wills and what God purposes
is in the secrets of God's heart and no man can call him into
question. You see grace, grace is motivated
by the will and purpose and pleasure of God. And we bow. We bow, look at the, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us accepted in the
beloved to whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his grace, the riches of his grace, wherein he had the bounded toward
us all wisdom and prudence having made known unto us the mystery
of his will. according to the good pleasure
which he had purposed in himself. Now that's why I say that grace
Grace always acts from itself to itself without any consideration
whatsoever as to the merit or favor or unworthiness of its
recipient. It is in the heart of God alone. God's people rejoice. You mean
God's not looking at me for anything? No. You mean I can't mess it
up? No. You mean I can't deserve
it? No. That's what grace is. That's
what grace is. And that's why I said you put
any works in it, you've just contaminated the whole message. The whole message. You remember when the Lord said,
if any man come after me, he must deny himself, take up his
cross, and follow me. Let me ask you a question. What
does it mean to deny yourself? Does it mean to deny some things
that you might want? to indulge in for your pleasure
is that what it means to deny yourself well I'm sure that I
know there are lots of things in this life that we ought to
that we ought to abstain from but that's not what the Lord's
talking about that's the gift of the spirit that you read about
norm in Galatians chapter 5 that's called self-control that's the
work of the Spirit of God it's called temperance But that's
not what the Lord meant when he said, if you're going to follow
after me, you've got to deny yourself. Does it mean giving
up something in hopes of earning God's favor? No. That's self-righteousness. What is it to deny yourself? Well, denying yourself has absolutely
nothing to do with denying things. It has to do with denying you. In other words, denying yourself
is taking yourself completely out of the equation of salvation. That's what it means to deny
yourself. Remove yourself from the equation
of salvation altogether. to forget oneself, to lose sight
of oneself, and one's own interest, worthiness, or unworthiness of
salvation. Salvation is by God's free grace
and has nothing to do with self. Grace Grace unto it. Oh, what a what a glorious message
of hope and salvation that we have that it's all bound up in
the heart and work of God. You say, well, how do I know
that I'm part of that message? God's giving you the grace to
take yourself out of the equation of salvation. To deny yourself. to say I'm not going to put my
hand to that. The hands of Zerubbabel, our
text says, laid this foundation. And the hands of Zerubbabel are
going to finish. Let me ask you a couple of questions.
Does grace negate good works? No. It's the cause of them. It's the cause of them. It's
God that works in us, causing us to will and to do of his good
pleasure. Grace does not negate good works. It causes it. Does grace negate
obedience? No, it's the cause of it. Does grace encourage sin? No,
no. The only power that you and I
will ever have over sin is the grace of God. The strength of
sin is the law. You put a man under the law,
and all that law is going to do is make a rebel out of him. That's all it's going to do. Turn to me to Romans chapter
6. Romans chapter 6. Oh brethren, the good news is
that where grace abounds, where sin abounds, grace does much
more abound. The grace of God is greater than
our sin. After the Lord makes a clear
declaration of His free, sovereign, motivated by His own will and
purpose, favor toward His people, which he chose in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He says in chapter 6 of Romans
verse 1, what shall we say then? What shall we say to this grace?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
When the Lord Jesus Christ said, I have a baptism to be baptized
with, and I have a cup to drink from that you know not of, and
a disciple said, Lord, we're able. We'll do it. We'll follow
you in your baptism, and we'll drink of that cup. And the Lord
said, and you shall. You shall. He was talking about
the baptism of his death. He was talking about being made
sin and being immersed under the wrath of God as the sacrifice
for sinners. And he was talking about drinking
the bitter dregs of the cup of our sin when he said, Father,
if there be any way this cup can pass from me, he said to
his disciples, you will. Did they go to the cross with
him? Did they have anything to do
with the putting away of sin? No. But they were in him. They were in Christ. And when
he did it, they did it. And so now the Lord is saying,
if you've been baptized in him, You've been risen in Him. Therefore,
we are buried with Him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so also should we walk in newness of life. For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead
is freed from sin." Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live with him. Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I. Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me. Now all I'm saying to you, brethren,
I know you're thinking, well, sin seems so powerful in my life. I understand that. I understand
that. Grace doesn't encourage it. Grace
doesn't feed it. Grace doesn't excuse it. Grace
is the only power that you have against it. The only power. Does grace discourage witnessing,
preaching, worship, prayer, faith? In other words, should we just
become indifferent towards these things if it's all of grace,
it's all in the heart of God, it's all by the work of God?
No. No. Grace is the power behind
these things and the hope for these things. The Lord warns us in the book
of Jude, chapter 1, verse 4, when He speaks of those men who
crept in unaware, ungodly men, turning the grace of God into
lasciviousness. Now, the person without the Spirit
of God, and if you have not the Spirit of God, you're none of
His. The person without the Spirit of God would hear the message
of grace and come to the conclusion that we can indulge our unbridled
lust. That's what lasciviousness means.
And the Lord warns us of them and says that they are denying
the only Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Peter
tells us, Peter knew a lot about sin. He knew what it meant to
deny the Lord in his darkest hour And he says in 1 Peter chapter
2, as free and yet not using our liberty as a cloak, as a
cloak of maliciousness, but as servants of God. Grace is the
cause of our service. Grace is the cause of our hatred
for sin. Grace is the cause of our desire
to pray and to witness and to worship and to preach and to
serve God. It is the cause of us, of those
things. And the scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 28, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably. with reverence and godly fear. Grace is the cause of these things.
The law is the cause of works. Grace, grace is the cause of
worship. Now, the story behind Zachariah
chapter 4 historically can be found in Ezra chapter 3 and in
Ezra chapter 4. We won't turn there this morning
but if you'd like to read it at some other time you can. And
the scripture says that Zerubbabel laid the foundation stone in
Ezra chapter 3 for the temple. And the people came together
and the young people who had no memory of Solomon's Temple
shouted with praise to God for the laying of this foundation.
And the old men who remembered the glory of Solomon's temple,
wept. And the scripture says at the
end of Ezra chapter 3 that the noise was so loud that you could
not tell who was weeping and who was shouting for joy. What is the message there for
me and you? The message is that if the gospel of God's free grace
is true, It is of infinite importance, nothing more important in your
life and in my life. If it is not true, it is of no
value whatsoever. But one thing the gospel of God's
grace never leaves as an option is indifference. You hear, I see so many people
that seem to be indifferent towards the gospel. They're not indifferent,
they hate the gospel. The Lord said, if you're not
for me, you are against me. In other words, you're either
going to compare the gospel to your old temple and you're going
to weep over the gospel and be sad over it, or you're going
to see Zerubbabel lay in that foundation and you're going to
rejoice over it, and you're either gonna shout for joy or you're
gonna cry. As I said last Sunday, people
leave here, I want them to either be glad or be mad, but I don't
want them to leave here not wondering what it is that we believe. This
message of the gospel is clear. Now the other thing that we see
in Ezra chapter 4 is that Sanballat who was a Moabite and Tobiah
who was an Amorite, enemies of Israel, came to Zerubbabel and
they said, let us build with you for we seek God as you do. And Zerubbabel looked at them
and he said to them, you have nothing to do with us. And it angered, it angered them
to where they started writing letters back to Cyrus. All this is in Ezra chapter four
and accusing Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah of an uprising against
the king of Babylon. until the King of Babylon finally,
after many, many letters, the King of Babylon ordered the building
of the temple to stop. Some are easily discouraged and
will give up the cause when the cost of the gospel is made clear
to them. When friends and family members
try to get them to capitulate, to try to get them to say, come
on, let's just all get along. We all believe the same thing.
We're all going to the same place. May God give us the grace to
stand firm on the gospel of God's grace and say with Zerubbabel,
you have nothing to do with us. And suffer whatever consequences
might come as a result of that. That's the message here. Look
with me at Zechariah chapter 4. They shouted, crying, grace,
grace unto it. Some wept, some shouted. And
at this point they have the favor. Now Israel is under the authority
of the king of Babylon, or king of Persia, Cyrus at the time,
who allowed them to go back and rebuild the temple. So they've
got to answer to him. And they're rejoicing. But now after working
on the temple, they're commanded to stop. Moreover, the word of the Lord,
verse eight, came unto me saying, the hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house and his hands also shall finish
it. They weren't discouraged. I'm
sure they were discouraged as we all get discouraged. I get
discouraged. Lord, I can't tell you how many
times I've fought what Isaiah thought when he said, Lord, who
hath believed our report? Nobody believes it. They say they're part of it,
but they're not. They don't believe in grace. They have a works gospel. And then the Lord reminds me,
oh no, there's some that believe. You believe, don't you? You believe. Do you believe that with all
the trials and troubles and all the oppositions to the gospel,
not only in the world, but in your own flesh, that Zerubbabel
who laid the foundation will finish the work. God never starts
anything. He doesn't finish. Never. When did Zerubbabel lay the foundation? Well, that's the first thing
he did, historically. But what's the picture here of
the gospel? What's the picture here? There
was a long period of time between the laying of the foundation
and the finishing of the work. A king by the name of Artaxerxes
came to power, and he's the one that stopped the building, actually.
Cyrus liked the Jews and was in favor of them, but Artaxerxes,
when he got these letters from the Moabites and the Amorites,
he said, no, stop the building. And they had to go a period of
time before it was finished. What's this a picture of? When was the
foundation of our salvation laid? Well, it was laid in the covenant
of grace when the Lord Jesus Christ struck hands as it were
with his father and committed himself as the surety of his
people and laid down his life as the lamb before the foundation
of the world. That's when the foundation was
laid. What I'm saying to you is there's no such thing as grace
apart from election. You can't have grace without
election. We're defining grace here. Grace, grace unto it. What
is grace? You cannot have grace without
election. Without election, all you have
is the shifting sands of man's free will. That's all you have. You remember the story the Lord
told, a parable he told about a king, and the response of the
servants were, we'll not have this man rain over us you know that statement that
statement defines free will as clearly as anything in the scriptures
it defines the nature of free will as rebellion and it defines the
power of free will as Impotence. Think about it. What does the
world say? What did much of our country
say when our last, when our president was elected? He's not my president.
Well, unless you give up your citizenship and move out of this
country, he is your president, whether you want him to be or
not. And I'm not making a political statement. I'm just making a
fact. Men say, we'll not have this
man reign over us. He does. He does reign over you,
whether you want him to or not. And so what does that say about
free will? It says that free will has no power. Free will
can boast of saying, I'm not have this man reign over us,
but free will only exposes his impotence over God. will not have this man reign
over us shows the nature of free will is nothing more than rebellion
and it shows the power of free will as being impotent. And the only thing that does
away with free will is not if I chose God, but if
he chose me. And he did that in the covenant
of grace and without election, without predestination, there's
no grace. There's no grace. There is a remnant. The scripture
says, according to the election of grace, grace. Peter said, you were not redeemed
with corruptible things as with silver and gold, but with the
precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot
who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Any message of salvation that
leaves out God's sovereign electing grace is a message of works. For whom he did foreknow, He
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. And
whom He did predestinate, He did call. And all that He called,
He did justify. And all that He justified, He
glorified. It's all of grace from beginning
to end. For by grace are you saved through
faith. through faith. I shared recently
an example of faith being the rope that connects the anchor
to the boat. It's the anchor that represents
the Lord Jesus Christ and he's called the anchor of our soul
and all faith does is hold on to him. Hold on to him. And after I told that illustration
some weeks ago, Donnie Wigington, who's a sailor and said he was
out on a sailboat one time and he told his buddy, throw out
the anchor. And he threw it out and it wasn't
connected to anything. Donnie had to put on scuba gear
and go down and get the anchor, retrieve the anchor. Yeah, that's
what. men do throughout the anchor
but they've got no fed they've got no connection to him got
no connection to him why because they're trusting in the works
of their hands the hands of the ruble will have laid this foundation
his hands are the only hands that are pure so what is faith well contrary
to what men think about faith faith is not courage Faith is
fear. Faith is not strength. Faith
is weakness. Faith is not fortitude. Faith
is helplessness. Faith is not for the powerful. It is for the poor and the needy. Faith is the admission of my
total inability and my acknowledgment of my total dependence upon another. Faith is not sure and confident
in itself. Faith is humble and quiet. Faith
cannot be judgmental towards others while it stands in doubt
of itself. And it does not dare act outwardly
religious or pious in fear that the true nature of its own weakness
will be exposed. Faith. Lest you become as a little
child, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. Suffer
the little children come unto me, for such is the kingdom of
God." That's what faith is. Faith. Faith is trusting the hands of
Zerubbabel. Knowing that my hands are dirty. Acts chapter 7. Remember when
Stephen was preaching just before he got stoned and he brings up
the Jews when they built the golden calf with their own hands?
And there's an interesting phrase in Acts chapter 7 where Stephen
says, and they rejoiced in the works of their hands. They rejoiced
in the works of their hands. Anything you and I put our hand
to is defiled. Anything. And his hands, which laid the
foundation, shall finish it. Finish it. Oh, he's finished
the work. He's made an end of sin. He's
finished transgression. He said, I must be about my father's
business. And in John chapter 17, when
he's praying to his father, he said, father, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. What was the work? What was the work? To remove
the mountain, to make his people a plain, to
give them a throne of grace whereby they could approach God in their
time of need. And in his dying breath, he shouted,
it's finished. It's finished. Grace, grace unto
it. Our merciful Heavenly Father.
We ask that your. Sweet and powerful Holy Spirit
would drive home to our hearts. The truth. Of thy grace. For it's in Christ name we ask
it. Amen. Number 236 let's stand together
236. 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. 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 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. of of