Thank you, Houston. Good morning. Can you believe it? It's our
last last services this morning. It's been a wonderful weekend.
The Lord's been so gracious and merciful to send us faithful
watchman and give us clear, clear gospel messages. Our hope this
morning is that he'll be pleased to do the same and give us ears
to hear. I want to ask you, if you will,
to open your Bibles with me to Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. Clay, I'm so sorry, but I'm going
to mess you up. OK. All right. Clay's going to be preaching
the first message, and he has his notes on a laptop up here.
And I just touched it, and it went crazy. and if I was clay and I came
up here and saw this I'd go crazy. When our Lord began his public
ministry in Nazareth he went to the synagogue as his custom
was and took the scroll from the minister and opened it to
Isaiah 61 and read this passage of scripture and then sat down
and said to the congregation this day This prophecy has been
fulfilled in your ears." And their first response was that
they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth. And that's our hope this morning, that we would wonder
at the gracious words that speak, that proceed out of the mouth
of our Lord. That he would speak these truths
to our hearts as he has this weekend. I know he has mine.
I know I've talked to many of you and he's done that for you
as well. Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1, the
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed
me. That anointed is the Messiah,
the Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world in the full power of the Spirit of God to accomplish
the salvation of his people. And that's what he's saying,
this day has been fulfilled in thy years. To preach good tidings
unto the meek, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captive. Now, that captive is a prisoner
of war. And you and I, because of our rebellion against God,
have become prisoners. And the Lord came to set the
prisoner free. And the opening of the prison
to them that are bound, those are criminals. We've, in our
rebellion against God, we've violated His law. And the Lord
Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law, satisfy all of God's
holy demands, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
that's the year of Jubilee, when all the debt was canceled, all
the property was returned back to its original owners, and all
those who were in slavery were set free. That's what the Lord
came to do. The day of vengeance of our God.
There's two days of vengeance spoken of in the scriptures.
The first day of vengeance is when the fiery wrath of God's
vengeance fell on the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. And
that was a day of vengeance. And the Lord was satisfied when
he saw the travail of his soul. And then there's a day of vengeance
coming when God will punish all sin. I want to be part of that
first vengeance, don't you? To comfort all that mourn, to
appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of happiness, that they might be called the
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
gives to him all the glory, all the glory. We can't take any
credit for anything. He did it all. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we come before Thy throne of
grace thanking You, Lord, that the law has been fulfilled. justice
has been satisfied. We have an advocate, a savior, thy dear son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who bore the shame of the sins of his people and
satisfied your holy justice. Lord, we pray that you would
cause him to be lifted up in our midst again this morning
as you have this weekend. We pray your blessings on our
fellowship. We thank you, Lord, for the. For the comfort and
the hope that you give us and the forgiveness of our sin. We ask Lord that remain strangers
to your grace that you would be especially merciful to them
and open the eyes of their understanding and cause them. Cause them. To see thy dear son. To cast
the hope of their salvation on him. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. David's last words were, although it be not so with
my house, yet he has made with me a covenant, an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things insure. This is all my salvation
and all of my desire. That was the inspiration of the
hymn that we're about to sing, number 21. Would you stand with
me, please? And in your spiral hymnal open to number 21, Tom's
going to come and lead us in that hymn. ? God the Father and the Son ?
And the Spirit three in one ? In eternal ages past ? Made a covenant
sure and fast ? God my Father chose his own in the person of
His Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law. ? And retrieve me from the fall
? Christ in love so willingly ? Stood as my great surety ?
For my price he offered blood ? To appease the wrath of God
God the Spirit, heavenly dove, promised to come down in love. ? Life and peace and grace ?
To the chosen, purchased race ? He seeks the lost, heals the
lame ? And he brings us to the Lamb ? By his mighty sovereign
call God's elect are gathered all. ? This poor sinner is secure
? For God's covenant will endure ? It is sealed by God's own word
? By his spirit and his blood ? Blessed holy covenant God I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace, and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Hymn number 222 from the hardback
blue hymnals. We're going to remain seated
and sing that hymn now. There is a fountain. filled with
blood, 222. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. ? Wash all my sins away ? Wash
all my sins away ? And there though I though vile as he ?
Wash all my sins away Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be safe to sin no more. ? E'er since, by faith, I saw
the stream ? ? Thy flowing wounds supply ? ? Redeeming love has
been my theme ? ? And shall be till I die ? ? And shall be till
I die ? and shall be till I die. Redeeming blood has been my theme
and shall be till I die. When this poor, lispy, stammering
tongue lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter tone,
I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save. Caleb. Caleb Hickman is going
to bring special music now, and then we'll hear our first message. Bethlehem, Calvary, all of its
tales. Mountains and plains with His
praises shall swell. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. ? Unto the uttermost ? Wonderful,
glorious ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? There on the cross where He stood
as my stand ? Oh, what a Savior Curing salvation when He rose
from the dead. Oh, what a Savior is mine. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a
Savior. ? Come to the uttermost ? Wonderful,
glorious ? Oh, what a Savior is mine ? 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. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a
Savior is mine. On to the outermost, wonderful,
glorious. Oh, what a Savior. Thank you for that, Caleb. That
was a blessing. I enjoyed that. Let's turn in our Bibles to Romans
chapter 5. At times, Brethren have expressed to me
their fear and their doubt over their sins. And a common cause
I find is to be because as believers we see what great sinners we
are. And we hate our sin. And we hate
that our sin is dishonoring to God our Father so gracious and
to our gracious Lord Jesus Christ. Another common cause I find is
that sinners do not, believers do
not behold how truly one we were with Christ our head. So that
what he did, we really and truly did. And I find that there's
a misunderstanding sometimes of what imputation is. You know, some of the old, old,
old writers got it exactly right according to the scriptures.
But somewhere along the way, men began to use their own definitions
of the union of Christ and his people and especially of imputation. And they erred from the scriptures.
So for sake of comforting God's people, the sake of believers,
and for the sake of sinners in need of Christ, I'd like this
morning to preach on these subjects. I've preached on this a lot in
the past two or three years. Our folks back home, I told them
this morning I'm going to be plucking the same string I've
been plucking for a while here lately, but I think it's needful And
I want to approach this a little differently than what I have. I want to try to speak from a
first-person account of this. Paul, you know, sometimes tells
the gospel from his personal account. He'll say, I am this
or I am that. And that's what I want to try
to do this morning. And my aim here is I hope that this will
help you to see just how truly one God's people are and were
in Christ when he walked this earth and went to the cross.
And I hope you'll help you to see that what he did, we really
did. Now, I've titled this the story of a sinner saved. This is my story. And my story
begins here in Romans chapter 5, which takes us back to the
garden. My story begins in the garden,
in the very beginning, in the garden. It says here, and I want
you to focus on the words, and so, and the word have. He says, wherefore, Romans 5.12,
wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death
by sin. And so, that means for this reason,
in this manner. For this reason, in this manner,
death passed upon all men for that, and that word means in
whom all have sinned. Now what I'm about to say about
myself is true of everybody here, and it's true of everybody in
this world, whether they admit it or not, whether they will
confess it or not, it's true of all men. But Adam was my father. Adam was my father. He was my
head. And as such, I was in the loins
of Adam. I was in Adam. I was so one with
Adam that I was in the garden. All those many years ago, in
the very beginning, I was there. I was in the garden. I was the
one to whom God gave that one law in the garden. And I broke that law. I'm the
one who trespassed against God in the garden. Now, does God's
definition of headship really mean we're that one with Christ? Does this thing of headship mean
that I was really in, I mean one with Adam, that I was really
in Adam and there in the garden? Does it mean that really? Go
with me to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 9. As I may so say, Levi also, who
receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in
the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. Levi was not born for years and
years and years later. But Abraham was Levi's great,
great, great, great grandfather. And Levi was in the loins of
Abraham. And when Abraham met Melchizedek
and he paid tithes to Melchizedek, Levi really and truly paid tithes
to Melchizedek. He was one with Melchizedek. Well, I was born thousands and
thousands and thousands of years after Adam. But I was really
in the loins of Adam. He's really my great, great,
great grandfather. I was in him. And I really and
truly broke that one law in the garden when Adam broke that law. Now, let's talk about imputation
just for a moment. Imputation is God reckoning to
a man's account what the man has been made by a prior act. Imputation is God charging to
a man what the man has been made by a prior act. Romans 5 and 12 through 14 tells
us that, teaches us this. God imputed sin to me and death
passed upon me because in Adam I have sin. Now listen to this. Wherefore as by one man sin entered
into the world and death by sin and for this cause and this manner
death passed upon all men in whom all have sin. Now watch
this verse, for until the law, sin was in the world. But sin
is not imputed when there is no law. For until the law, that
means that between Adam and Moses, God gave no other law. But that one law he gave in the
garden, he gave no other law. Men sinned from Adam to Moses. And it says there, God will not
impute sin where there is no law. Where a man has not been
made sin, God will not impute sin to him. Why? Because God only imputes sin
after a man has been made sin by a prior act. Now read on,
verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned from
Adam to Moses, that means though there was no law given, God did
indeed impute sin and men died. Even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam's transgression, even over them
that had not broken a known law like Adam did in the garden. Well, if God will not impute
sin until after a man has broken his law and there was no law
until Moses, how then was God just to impute sin to men from
Adam to Moses? How was that just? Verse 12,
because by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin
and in this manner and for this cause, death passed upon all
men. because in Adam all have sin. Now listen carefully. God did not impute to me something
I am not. That's something you hear from
time to time. God is counting us something
we're not. God didn't impute something to
me I'm not. God imputed sin to me and death
passed upon me because in Adam I have sin. God did not make
me sin by imputing sin to me. That's common. I think I may
have said that before. God made us sin by imputing sin
to us. God imputed sin to me and death
passed upon me because in Adam I have sinned. By one man's disobedience,
I was made a sinner. That's why God imputed sin to
me. Imputation didn't make me that. I was made so by Adam's
disobedience. And God did not impute sin to
me before I was made sin. God imputed sin to me because
in Adam all have sin. Now, be sure to get this. According
to Scripture now, and I'm not talking about the definitions
of men. I was challenged on this myself. I had to go back and
just look at Scripture. I hear so many different things,
you know, and you just say, I just want, what does God say about
this? God only imputes what a man has been made by a prior act. Go to Leviticus 17. Leviticus
chapter 17, verse 3. And these examples I'm
going to show you, I'm going to show you three examples. These
examples are everywhere the word and its forms are used throughout
the scripture. Leviticus 17.3. What man, soever
there be of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb,
or goat in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and
bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of
the Lord, blood shall be imputed unto that man. Why? He hath shed
blood. Do you get that? God's imputing
blood to him because he shed blood. It's a fact. It was already
done by a prior act, and that's why God's charging him with it.
And so that man will be cut off from among his people. Go to
1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. There are many more examples
in the Old Testament. While you're turning there, I'll
give you one. Was it Elimelech that was the
priest that offered for David? And a man came and he charged
Elimelech with a bad motive. That's what he charged him with.
He imputed to him a bad motive. And Elimelech said, I didn't
know anything about this. It wasn't a bad motive. What
I did was a good motive. But that man imputing a bad motive
to Elimelech didn't make him have a bad motive. The imputation
doesn't make us something. It didn't make him have a bad
motive. But look here with me, 1 Corinthians 4.1, let a man
so account of us, that word account is impute, let a man so impute
of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. As Paul is saying here now, if
you'll account me to be a minister and a steward of the mysteries
of God, I will be. Now he's saying account me to
be so because that's what I am. That's what God made me by prior
acts. Look at 2 Peter 3.15. 2 Peter 3.15. Account, that word is impute,
account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. If we account the longsuffering
of the Lord to be salvation, are we making the longsuffering
of the Lord salvation? It is so. See, God only imputes
what is fact according to what already is, what a man's already
been made. Now, concerning Adam's sin, the
prior act that made him sin was his disobedience. That was the
prior act that made Adam sin. And after that, God found Adam
in the garden and he imputed sin to him because he had sinned. It was a fact. And concerning
my sin, The act that made me sin was Adam's disobedience. I was there. I was in his lawns. And the act, the prior act that
made me sin was Adam's disobedience. And therefore, after that, God
imputed sin to me. God imputed sin to me. So this
is my story. In Adam, I broke God's law and
I died and I became guilty. And therefore, God imputed sin
to me. I needed justification from my
sins and I could not in any way obtain it. I couldn't make it
happen. I was born into this world from
Adam's corrupt seed with an impure, sinful, spiritually dead sin
nature, full of guile, deceit, hypocrisy, full of enmity against
God, hatred against God. My grandfather was a pastor.
And I loved him dearly, and I spent a lot of time with him during
the week. But on Sundays, I wouldn't ride home with him after services.
He preached the gospel. I would not ride home with him
after services on Sunday. And I wouldn't even go see him
for a few days, because I hated what he preached. I hated what
he preached. I couldn't make myself alive.
I couldn't make my heart holy. I could not make myself to be
without God. Now, can you say that this part
of my story is your story, too? Can you say that? I know a lot
of you here can say that's my story. Well, now, if you don't
own this part of my story to be your story, you can't take
part of this next part of my story. This part's got to be
your story or you can't have any part of this. This next part
of my story. Now here's where my story becomes
amazing. There in Romans 5, in verse 14,
at the end of that verse it says, Adam is the figure of Christ
that was to come. Everything we just looked at
about representation, about headship, God made Adam that way, to be
a head of his people, his people to be in his loins and be one
with Adam to picture Christ in whom his people are one. We were
in Christ when he came to this earth. We were in him when he
was made a man. And just as all Adam's children
were in his loins and did that which Adam did, all Christ's
people were in his loins and did what Christ did. And just
as all Adam's children are eventually conceived of Adam's corrupt seed,
all who were in Christ shall eventually be conceived of Christ's
incorrupt seed, born again of his incorrupt seed. Let's read
it, put it all together here in Romans 5.12. Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, for this cause
and this manner death passed upon all men in whom all have
sinned. Now take out the parentheses
and read verse 18. Therefore, by the offense of
one, judgment came upon all men who were in Adam to condemnation. That's how we read that because
that's the whole point here is Adam was a representative man.
He was a public man representing a people. We all, by the offense
of one judgment, came upon all men who were in Adam to condemnation. Even so, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men who were in Christ unto
justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the first part of my story
began in a garden. It began in a garden, so I'm
going to begin the second part in a garden. Remember, according to scripture
now, God only imputes what a man has been made by a prior act. Well, concerning Adam's sin,
we saw the prior act was his disobedience. And therefore,
after he disobeyed God and became sin, God imputed sin to him. But concerning Christ, The prior
act that made him sin could never be disobedience because Christ, the Son of God,
came down and became the righteous and holy God-man who knew no
sin and would not sin. He could not have been made sin
by disobedience. He would not disobey God. The
prior act that made Christ sin was obedience. It was obedience. You see, in another garden called
the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ presented himself to God as the
spotless Lamb of God. And He hath made Him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. This was typified This was only
typified, but in the old covenant, under the old covenant, they
came and they had to bring a spotless lamb. That lamb had to be put
up, it had to be watched, it had to be made sure it had no
blemish in it whatsoever. And they brought this spotless
lamb and the high priest killed that spotless lamb. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. That high priest put his hands
on that lamb, and in type and in picture, the sins of the people
was transferred to that lamb. And God said, and when that sin
was transferred to that lamb, now that lamb is sin. Now, God said, kill the lamb. It can be killed now. Ceremonially,
typically, it can justly be killed because it's bearing sin. The
Lord Jesus Christ was forgotten in the womb of a virgin and came
forth never breaking one law of God. In fact, he was the first
one to ever really open the womb, showing that he's the first one
to ever really fulfill the law of the firstborn. And then eight
days later, he was circumcised under the law. And scripture
says if a man's circumcised, he's a debtor to keep the whole
law of God. And he did. And he knew no sin. And he went to the Garden of
Gethsemane as the spotless Lamb of God. And he made him sin. It's only then that he was numbered
with the transgressors. Only then did God impute sin
to him. You know, in fact, it was only after Christ was made
sin. I don't know when exactly he
was made sin, but I know this. God didn't even allow men to
impute sin to him before their judgment seat until then. Remember Christ said that he
alone came to fulfill the law and the prophets. That's why
God sent his son. If we could have fulfilled the
law and the prophets, God would not have sent his son. He sent
his son to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. And Christ said,
All the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled by this, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. And thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two hang all the Law
and the Prophets. We're not talking about that
sweet neighbor that you love, that you do anything in the world
for, we're talking about that one that litters your lawn. We're
talking about that one that comes over and defaces your property.
We're talking about that one who hates you and your children
and everything about you. We're talking about that neighbor. Now, Christ came to fulfill the
law and the prophets. That cup right there is not filled
full. When that cup is fulfilled, you
won't be able to put another drop in it. That would make it
filled full. That would make it fulfilled.
That's what Christ came to do to the Law and the Prophets.
He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. And Christ fulfilled
all the Law and the Prophets in perfect obedience, loving
God and His neighbor all His days on this earth. But especially
we see it when He laid down His sinless life to be made sin for
His people. and therefore he was justly made
a curse and he bore God's wrath to the full satisfaction of justice. Being made sin has something
to do with darkness, being left in darkness. I know Adam sinned by breaking
the law in the garden, but when did he actually, when was he
made sin? when God took away his spirit
from him. And on that cross, God withdrew
his countenance from our Lord. And our Lord was in darkness
for three hours and cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? But you know, Adam did what Christ
said. Adam said, We will not come to
the light because we love darkness and we hate the light because
our deeds are evil. But while Christ was in darkness,
he prayed, Father, saved me from this darkness. He called upon
the light while he was in the darkness. That's the mystery to me, how
he was made sin. That's a mystery. And yet at
the same time, our Lord never ceased being the faithful, holy
Son of God, calling upon his Father even while he was cast
out in the outer darkness. That's the second death. That's
the death we're going to have to die if we face God in judgment
without Christ. It's called outer darkness. It's
called being God withdrawing the glory of His presence. That's the second death. That's
the living death. That second death that never
dies is the living death Christ suffered while He was in that
darkness on the cross. That's beyond me. That's holy,
holy ground. That's what our Redeemer was
doing. Now here is my story. I am crucified with Christ. I am. I am crucified with Christ. Just like Adam was my head and
I was in his loins, Christ is my head and I was in his loins.
I was there. I wasn't born for thousands and
thousands of years later, but I was at Calvary. And I perfectly fulfilled God's
holy law. I perfectly loved God and my
neighbor as myself, laying down my life for God and his people. And not only that, I went under
the law and justice of God. I stood that day before the holy
judge of heaven and earth. And he called to account all
my sin. And he poured out his holy wrath
upon me in justice that day. You say, well, Clay, you didn't
do that. Yeah, I did. I did that. That's
how real oneness with Christ is. When Christ laid down His
life and loved God and His children as Himself, I did that. And when
He suffered the wrath of God to satisfy the justice of God,
I did that. Look at Romans 6.6. Now, what
does that mean, Romans 6.6? knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him. Our old man is crucified with
him, that the body of sin, that's all our first creation was. That's all our first creation
is, is a body of sin. Our old man is crucified. The body of sin is destroyed. That henceforth we should not
serve sin. That henceforth we should no
longer be in bondage under the curse of the law. For he that
is dead is freed. And the word is justified. from
sin to you and me my old man right now seems like he's alive
to you I'm a sinner and to you my old man seems like he is alive
and you don't know the half of it you ought to see what he's
like to me but read the scripture again
brethren my old man was crucified he is dead he is destroyed He
is buried. You look at Christ going into
that tomb and that stone being rolled on that tomb, you look
at Clay Curtis being his body of death, his old man being buried
and out of sight of God and His holy law forever. But my story doesn't end there.
Romans 6 says if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with Him. knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over
him. And in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise,
impute ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. God tells me
to impute that I myself walked out of that tomb three days later. I came out of that tomb three
days later. And 40 days later, I defied the
law of gravity because my God is the law of gravity. And I
arose and I sat down at God's right hand. And Paul says, if
you then be risen with Christ, seek those things of which are
above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, because you
are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. That's where
I am. That's where I am. But my story
doesn't end there. Remember, I not only died in
Adam, I was born of his corrupt seed. I was born spiritually
dead with an impure heart full of guile. I told you last night,
1969, I was conceived in sin. 1970, second month of 1970, I
was born into this world a sinner. Unable to know God, unwilling
to know God, hating God. I was not only at zero, I was
beyond, I was in the negative as far as hating God and wanting
nothing to do with God. But there's a conjunction in
the scripture that I love. This is a blessed conjunction.
It's the word and. And I love this word and. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And I'm
thankful for that. That's what we just talked about.
I'm thankful for that. The Lord will not impute iniquity
to his people. You know why? They have no iniquity
to impute. Christ put away our sin. When
He had by Himself purged our sin, He sat down. But it doesn't
stop there. That verse does not stop there.
There's something else equally as important as that verse. And
this is the conjunction I'm thankful for. Blessed is the man unto
whom the Lord will not impute sin and in whose spirit there
is no guile. I'm thankful the songwriter wrote
the water and the blood from Christ's wounded side which flowed.
Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure."
I'm glad the songwriter wrote, grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Before the conjunction is the
blood of Christ, that's the work of righteousness that he accomplished
for his people on the cross. after the conjunction is the
water. That's the work of sanctification
that he accomplishes within his people and both are necessary
and both are done by Christ through the blood of Christ, both of
them. Christ looked at Nathanael and
he said, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no sin. And
Nathanael looked at our Lord and he said, We've never even
met. How do you know that about me? Or how do you know anything
about me? We've never even met. The Lord
said, before I ever met you, when you were under the tree,
I saw you. What did he see? You know how he said, an Israelite
indeed. You know how Jacob was made an
Israelite? You know how his name was changed to Israel? Christ
came to Jacob, found him in the wilderness, and Christ wrestled
him down and pinned him and gave him a new heart, gave him a new
spirit, and brought Jacob to cry out for mercy to God and
scripture says and that's how he prevailed with God and Christ
changed his name to Israel He said Nathanael I know you you're
an Israelite indeed because I've wrestled you down and I've pinned
you and I've given you a new spirit and I saw you praying
to me under that tree under that olive tree with a spirit in which
is no guile I know you I gave you that spirit. I gave you that
heart. Jacob and Nathanael's story is
my story. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God
sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, whereby
You cry, Abba, Father. That's my story. I had no idea
what happened. The only thing I knew is Christ
came. I didn't even know Christ had
come. I didn't know how it happened. I just knew that this man has
told me everything that ever happened to me in my life. I
was like the Samaritan woman. First he told me everything I
had done in Adam. And I thought, there's no hope
for me. And then he told me everything I did in Christ. And I found
my heart believing on him. And I cast all my care on him.
And I found out this is what had happened. Being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. And this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. He came and preached
the word to me. I had been hearing a man preach
the gospel. And for the first time in my life, I heard Christ
preach the gospel. And so now this is my story.
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. That's not
talking about my faith. That's talking about Christ's
faithfulness. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's how I
live. And I'll tell you this, happy
is the man who to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity and
in whose spirit there is no doubt. I'm a happy man. Well, that's not where my story
is. One day, soon, my story's really
just gonna start My story's going to really begin one day real
soon. One day real soon, I'm going
to get to put off this body of death that I'm carrying around. Get to lay it off of me in a
grave. And you know what's going to
happen? Absolutely nothing is going to happen to my spirit.
Absolutely nothing is going to have to be done to my new spirit
because when Christ gave me a new spirit, it was created in the
righteousness and holiness of Christ. In my spirit, I'm going
to go and be with Christ immediately. And then Christ has promised
me He's coming again. I'm like Paul in that ship. Wherefore,
sirs, I believe the Lord as it was told to me. He's coming again.
And when he does, he's going to raise this corrupt body that
you see now, but it's not going to be corrupt then. It's going
to be raised fashion-like to his glorious body, and when I
see him, I'm going to be just like him, just like him. And that's when my story's really
going to begin for all eternity, praising this one who did all
this work for me. You see, when God says he won't
share his glory with another, that's why. If you had a son
like this, would you allow some little wretch that was nothing
like him to brag and boast that he was better than your son?
No. God won't share his glory with
another. Now, somebody might ask this question. How do I know
if I was in Christ's loins? How do I know if If what he did,
I did, how do I know that? There's only one way to know. If you believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ is your only hope, that he is your wisdom, your
righteousness, your sanctification, and your redemption apart from
you or anything you've ever done, If you believe Christ sent forth
the Holy Spirit and you were born of the Spirit of God's Son,
irresistibly brought by Him, by His will, made willing in
the day of His power to cast all your care on Christ apart
from your will. And you can take this story where
I've been saying I in the first person and you can put your place
in my place and you can say I. That's my story. and if that's
not the case with you if you cannot take your place under
adam and say yes i stand in that i pray today i pray god will
come to you this is the reason for this conference is to glorify
christ to exalt christ and christ promises that through the exultation
of him he told uh... uh... uh... Ezekiel, I'm going to come into
this valley of dry bones. You just declare my works, and
I'm going to come, and I'm going to bring life into my people.
And they're going to rise up, and these dry bones are going
to live. We tell you you can't do one thing, and then we tell
you now you believe on Christ, because that's what God told
us to do. You go tell them to stand up and arise. Tell these
dry dead bones to arise and live. Whoever ever heard of such a
thing, God said, I'll breathe into them and they will. And
I pray that's what will happen for you if you've never believed
on them. I'll tell you something, this is the only hope there is. This is why this world was created.
It wasn't created, well, for whatever it is that you're into
and you love and you're doing and you think that's, boy, this
is what the world was made for. No, it wasn't. It was made for
Christ. It was made to glorify him. And
if you're never brought to him, you're going to miss out on what
this whole world was created for. I pray God bring you to
cast your care on Him and rest in Him. He's all. He's all. Thank you, Brother Greg. Thank
you to Brother Greg. Thank you, Tricia. Thank you,
Cyril and Lenore. Thank y'all for your hospitality.
Thank all of y'all so much. And if anybody finds a cell phone,
let me know because I've lost mine. Thank you.