I'm going to speak on the subject
of the experience of God's grace the experience Of God's grace
when we speak of grace We're not always speaking about the
same thing Sometimes when we speak of God's grace we are speaking
of his compassionate nature the Lord compassionate It's a remarkable
thing to consider that the God against whom we have sinned looks
upon his people in their sin, and rather than being enraged
at their sin, to speak in human terms, his heart is broken for
their sake, knowing what their sin has done to them. Much as
parents become brokenhearted over the waywardness of a child,
for they know full well what it will cost the child. If we were God, or if God was
like us, the earth would not have lasted past the sin of Adam. That would have been the end
of it. We like to think we're compassionate, and some are more
compassionate than others, or less ruthless, I don't know which
way to put it. But none of us is compassionate like the Lord
is compassionate because no one has sinned against us the way
we have sinned against the Lord. After all, nobody's killed any
of our children. And yet we, though we weren't
there, yet it could be said of us as truly as those that were
there that day with wicked hands have slain the Lord. And yet
God looks upon his people, yet in their sin, with their faces
turned away from him, hateful and rebellious, and he's compassionate
toward them. Sometimes when we talk about
grace, we're talking about the principle by which the gospel
operates. That is, grace as opposed to
works. grace as opposed to earning it. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's not of works,
lest any man should boast. Now people, when they come across
a scripture like that, I'm talking about unregenerate people. Unregenerate
people are compelled to find some way to introduce their own
efforts into the scheme of salvation. Because unregenerate people are
natural people, and the natural man does not receive the things
of the Spirit of God for their foolishness to him. And the idea
that God would simply forgive us on the basis of the works
of someone else is foolishness, and it's foolishness to a man
because he would never do that. I mean, man, like I said, he's
not gracious and compassionate like God is. And therefore, they
assume that God is going to deal with them the way they deal with
people who cross them. And they figure there's going
to have to be some way to make up for it, for the wrong they've
done to God. And so they'll say, salvation's
by grace, but somehow or another, when they're done, it ends up
that it's all dependent on something that you do. And they'll say,
well, that's not works. You know, this isn't a meritorious
thing, all kinds of things. But I'll tell you how you can
tell what a work is. Paul said, it's not of works,
lest any man should boast. Now, this morning in the Sunday
school hour, we looked at, may it never be that I should boast
or should glory, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ.
What is a work? It's anything you can boast in,
that you have done. And I don't care what it is.
even if it's how bad you feel about your sin. A fellow that
was part of the original group that began our church, no longer
with us, hasn't been to church in many years and expresses no
interest in it. But I remember at one point,
he made the comment, well, at least I know I'm a sinner. And
if I had the experience, Then that I have now, I might have
said, I'm not sure that you do. He was trying to boast against
the self-righteous. Well, my friends, if you boast
yourself above anybody else, you're boasting in something
about yourself. And whatever salvation you think it is you
have, it's of works and it will fail. Some people will say, as I mentioned
this morning, well, I'm no freewheeler. I believe in sovereign grace.
Well, now do you? Would you boast yourself over
a freewheeler if you really believed in sovereign grace? If you really
believe in sovereign grace, you have nothing to boast about.
You know that the only difference between you and the lost is the
difference that God made. And it started back before you
even existed, in fact it started back, for lack of a better way
to put it, before anything but God existed. When in His timeless
and spaceless existence, He chose a people for Himself. And if you really believe that,
you can't boast about anything, can you? So grace often talks about the
principle by which the gospel operates. And sometimes when
we talk about grace, we're talking about the abilities that God
gives to each member of his church for the building up of his church.
Paul said, and unto me is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. When Paul said
this grace was given to him, of course that grace first began
with the grace that saw him in his wretchedness and pitied him
and stopped him on the road to Damascus. But there was more grace than
that given to Paul. Because there was grace given
to him, not only to come to the knowledge of the gospel that
all of God's elect shall have. But grace was given to him to
understand. I mean he heard from Christ directly. He was what we call a foundation
builder in the church. He said no foundation can any
man lay but the foundation that's already laid. It says that the I believe it's in the book of
Revelation that the holy city, the New Jerusalem, is built on
the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. These were
the men who were given grace to know and tell the truth and
teach it. People were constantly saying
of Paul, evidently he was not a very good speaker, and there
was in the Gentile world many very good speakers, Men who made
their living speechifying. And there were some that crept
into the church and tried to undermine Paul's ministry because
of the crudeness of his speech. And they tried to say, you can't
be an apostle. I mean, come on. You've been
gifted by God. You can't hardly even talk. And Paul says, by the grace of
God, I am what I am. He said, I'm not worthy to be
an apostle. But that is what I am. And I
am that by God's grace. And God said to him, when he
prayed concerning this thorn in the flesh and whether it was
his inability to be an eloquent speaker, Or if it was some physical
infirmity, or even some moral weakness he felt in himself.
Whatever it was, there was something that made Paul think in his mind,
if I could just be done with this thorn in the flesh, I could
do more. Well, that was exactly the point.
He could do more. And God said to him, my grace
is sufficient for you. For my strength is made perfect
in your weakness. So, everybody here that is a
believer and is a member of the church of the Lord Jesus has
grace to be of some benefit to the church. You may not know
what it is. You don't have to know what it
is to be doing it. But don't think you're useless.
God has no useless people. He has no unproductive people. You just go on doing what it
is you do, looking at the Savior, seeking the Lord, and whatever
it is He intends to accomplish through and by you in His church,
it'll be done. And you may die never knowing
what part of the body of Christ you were. But it doesn't matter. I don't think my liver is right
now thinking, I wonder what I'm supposed to do? What benefit
am I? It's just being a liver. And
that helps my body remarkably. Can't live without a liver. I
know that's kind of a pun. But you need one. And you were
put in the church. of the Lord Jesus and you have
been given grace to be useful to the church. Everybody in the
church is that way. And sometimes when we're talking
about grace, we're talking about God's active work in the hearts
of his people, his chosen, to reconcile them to himself. And it is this that I want to
talk about this evening. The experience of the working
of the grace of God in the heart of one of his people. Now remember,
if you are his people, you are not his people because you believed.
You believed because you are his people. You heard his voice
because you were one of his sheep. You didn't know it. But by His Spirit and the power
of His grace, He came one day and revealed to you who you are. And He opened your eyes to the
truth of Christ. And He caused you to believe.
He gave life to your soul, to your spirit. Which immediately
expressed itself in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you
called upon His name. Now it's that grace I want to
talk about. The grace of divine power at
work in the heart. We must be careful that we do
not allow our belief in the sovereignty of God to make us think that
within the scope of our lifetimes we do not actually have to experience
anything. The old whatever will be will
be, whether it ever happens or not. You say, well, nobody believes
that way. Yes, there are some who do. There
are some who say that election is essentially salvation. And
it doesn't matter if one of God's elect ever hears the gospel or
believes it in this life. If he's elect, he's going to
heaven. Well, you know what? If a man or woman is elect, he,
she is going to heaven. That's for sure. But if they're
elect, they're going to hear the gospel. and they're going
to believe it, and they're going to call upon the name of the
Lord. They are going to experience that grace that chose them and
redeemed them by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, it doesn't
mean that you'll know or be able to pinpoint the exact moment
in your life that it happened. Many of us have had so many religious
experiences, we don't know which one was truly the call of God. We know this. We believe Him
now. Our trust is in Him now. And
there was a time when it wasn't in Him. So something's happened. We know that. But I want to look
at what this scripture says about the experience of God's grace. What happens to a man when God's
God comes to him in grace when he works in us to will and do
according to his good pleasure. You know, the free willers believe
that God wants you to do thus and so. Particularly to, you
know, believe Jesus, as Jesus in your heart, be saved and all
that. God works in his people to do his will. They will to do it, and they
do it, but only because he willed to do something in them first. The new birth is a work of grace,
and it's a work of grace that God does not ask permission to
do. That would be like God saying,
roll the stone away and telling Lazarus, Lazarus, is it okay
if I raise you from the dead? Well, what kind of response do
you think you're going to get out of Lazarus? Nothing whatsoever. When Jesus
spoke into that tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth, he did it
without permission and it was irresistible. Lazarus didn't
say, I'd rather not. Lazarus didn't say, almost thou
persuadest me to come forth. Maybe at a more convenient time.
Lazarus came forth. So what is this? How can we know
that it has happened? Now, when we speak of the working
of God's grace, it's very simple. God gives and sustains spiritual
life. When you and I were born, we
were the product of our parents and they were flesh and all they
could give birth to was flesh. Man was created a spiritual being. He sinned and he died spiritually. And the beginning of the work
of God in restoring His people is to raise their spirits from
the dead. I mean, for God's people who
have been born again, the resurrection is already half done. Well, it's
fully done to half of you. We're not halfway out of the
grave. Part of us is entirely out of the grave already. We've
been made spiritually alive. Now, how do we know that? Now I want to, before we go into
a few points here, I want to make it clear that we're not
reading this and finding that out so we can look at other people
and try to determine whether or not there's been a work of
grace done in their hearts. I've heard people say that, well
I don't know, I don't see any evidence of a work of grace in
that person's heart. Well of course you haven't, because you
can't see his heart. When God said to the prophet
Samuel, man looks on the outer appearance, God looks on the
heart. It wasn't a rebuke like we ought
to quit looking at the outward appearance and trying to look
in the heart. It's just simply the state of things. All we can
see is the outer appearance. That's all we got. We can't see another person's
heart. And we need to quit trying to
judge people's hearts. Because what we end up doing
is judging their hearts by comparing their outward appearance to our
outward appearance and we say, if they had a heart like mine,
they'd act like me. Well friend, no matter how you're
acting, you're not acting worthy of the grace that's been given
you. If we had to look at your outward appearance or mine, we
would have to say, I see no evidence of a work of grace in that person's
heart. No, what we're going to look at is not for us to use
to judge other people, but maybe to look at ourselves and see
if this pattern has ever been accomplished in us. And not only
that, because we really don't want to spend a whole lot of
time looking at ourselves for anything, but just to glorify
our God. in the power of His grace to
cause His people to do things they never would have done without
His grace. Now, the first thing is in verses
4 and 5. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and
the children of Judah together, going and weeping. They shall
go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion
with their faces thitherward, saying, come and let us join
ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. Now, when God begins a work of
grace, a man begins to seek the Lord. Now we have to break these
things down to understand them, but you realize that everything
we mention here might happen in a moment. But we know this, anybody with
spiritual life seeks the Lord. And it's not just something they
did back yonder, it's something they always do. They seek the
Lord from the moment that spiritual life is born in them, and they
seek the Lord until the life of the flesh is taken from them,
and they are in the presence of the one they sought their
entire spiritual lives. Grace is never without effect. God's grace is not a venture
on the part of God. It is a sovereign and irresistible
power, such that it makes people like Saul of Tarsus, who hated
God, hated his son, and hated the church of his son, so much
so he was going to do everything he could do to blot out the name
of Jesus Christ from the world, and in a moment, turned him into
one who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and who became probably
the greatest propagator of the gospel he once hated. Now friends,
religion can't do that. It just won't do it. Grace will. I tell people, I say, free will
got Saul halfway to Damascus. God's grace took him the rest
of the way. Met him there and stopped him. And then by grace brought him
to Christ. But a man seeks the Lord. Until
God works in grace, men will seek religion, morality, church
membership. They'll seek heaven. They'll
seek victory over this or that sin. And such seeking is highly
esteemed by men. But it's abomination to God. Remember what our Lord said?
That which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
God. And we could turn that around
and it would be a pretty good proverb as well. That which is
highly esteemed by God is an abomination to men. When a man seeks the Lord, when
a woman seeks the Lord, what it causes them to do, the world
is simply not impressed with. They say, that's nothing. We didn't hear you start speaking
in a tongue you don't know. We didn't see a light flash.
Or we didn't see you all at once be delivered from this or that
sin and never have trouble with it anymore. We didn't see you
dedicate your life to full time service. In fact, we didn't see
anything at all. That's right. You didn't see
anything at all. because God didn't do anything
to the outside where you can see. But in their hearts, they
are seeking the Lord. A man, a woman begins to seek
the Lord God Himself. It's not that they don't want
those other things, it's that those other things are the result
of his seeking the Lord. Now this necessarily implies
that they have been formerly cut off from God. You don't seek
that which you already possess. You don't try to unite yourself
to that from which you are not separated. The Jews had lived
in the paradise of their promised land, but they'd rebelled against
the Lord, so God had sent them out of the land of promise and
into the captivity. But among those people that God
sent into captivity, there was a remnant, according to the election
of grace, and He was going to bring them back, and this is
how it was going to happen. He was going to work in them
at the appropriate time, and they would begin to seek the
Lord. Now they were told at first,
go on up there, buy property, build houses. And what he was
saying was the prophet was telling them, the Lord has said you're
going up north, you're going into captivity, don't fight it.
Just go and live your lives in that condition. But it had been
told to them how long the captivity would last. And at the appropriate
time, we even find in the prophet Daniel, that he had determined
that it was time and he began to pray. Now he always, I realize,
sought the Lord. But you read in Daniel, that's
quite a prayer he prayed there. He began to seek the Lord, to
call upon his name more earnestly. Their hearts were turned back
to the land from which they had been driven, which was a picture
of our rest in Christ Jesus. They longed to return to that
relationship they had once enjoyed with the God of their redemption. And when God begins to work in
a person, they begin to desire the Lord. They don't seek him
as a means to an end. Now you think about that. We
don't seek God as a means to an end. We seek God as our God. It says they shall return. They
shall come. And they'll say let us join ourselves
to the Lord. Are you interested in the Lord?
And you'll notice that's all caps. All capitals. Have you sought Jehovah? Do you
really want Him? It is such an insult to the Lord
Jesus Christ. When people preach and the bait
they must use to get people to make professions is an eternity
in heaven. As though Christ Himself is somehow
distasteful and asking Him to save you is the price you got
to pay to get into heaven. I like what one of the old writers
said, he said, who wouldn't want to go to heaven if Christ is
the way? Now most people, and I mean this
was the free willism I was raised in, they never say it in so many
words, but it is the implication of the way they tried to quote
get people saved. It was kind of like, if you want
to go to heaven, you're going to have to come the Christ way.
Well friends, this is one of those things where the way is
just as glorious as the destination. Yeah, it's more glorious. And
the destination is simply the full realization of Him who is the way. If you
don't like Christ, you're not going to like heaven. Because
all they do is praise His name there. If you don't like church, the
worship of the church, you're not going to like heaven. Because
all that heaven is, is the worship of the church perfected. And
all that the church is, I may have got that backwards, all
that heaven is, is the worship of the church perfected. And
all that the church is, is the worship of heaven in imperfection. We're saying from our hearts
this evening, worthy is the lamb that was slain. Our flesh gets
in the way and we never say it good enough. We glorify his name the best
we know how but we never feel as though we really got the job
done. We will someday. We will be able
to honor him as he deserves to be honored by us. But they begin to seek the Lord.
The whole human race was at one time in God's paradise, but the
whole human race rebelled against God. So when did that happen?
Well, when the whole human race was just two people. And the
whole human race rebelled against God, in particular the man rebelled,
and inasmuch as he was a representative of all the human race then present
or ever to come, all the human race fell in him. They died in him and with him. and were cast out of paradise
with Him. But there was, in the humanity
that was in Adam, there was a humanity that by grace was in Christ.
And Christ came to save them. He came to bring them back to
paradise, and not the paradise that could be lost, not the paradise
established upon a covenant which the people in weakness may fail
to perform, but to a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten,
something that is the work of God's grace, and the work of
His Son, and the work of His Spirit, and we're being carried
along by the current of the grace of Jehovah. Come, let us join
ourselves to the Lord. Everyone in whom God's grace
has worked, everyone of them has a heart for the Lord. They
want Him. David said, When I awake, I will be satisfied
with thy likeness. Now because of the way It's done
in the King James and people don't pay attention to the commas.
They think that means I will be satisfied when I awake with
thy likeness. Well, that's true. But that's
not what the psalmist is saying. He's saying when I wake, meaning
when he's done with this walking death that we call life. When
I wake, then I'll be satisfied with your likeness, as with your
image, with seeing you. Paul, a man who probably knew
the Lord Jesus Christ as well as any man walking the earth
ever did. What did he say? Oh, that I may know Him. That
I may know Him. He said, I desire to depart and
be with Christ, which is far better. Far better. They seek the Lord. Why do they seek him? Their hearts
have been made to long for him. It says in Zechariah 12.10 that
a spirit of grace and of supplication shall be poured out on the whole
house of Israel. All of God's Israel. A spirit
of grace that causes them to pray and to seek the Lord. And to weep for him, it says,
as a lost son. And what do they mean by that?
Well, I think they're simply saying
this. I think the prophet is simply saying this. With the
same longing that a parent would have for a child that's been
taken away from them in death. I can only imagine what that's
like, but I know I can't know it fully. Only those who have
lost a child, I think, can know the full measure of that grief.
But I think any parent can at least imagine what that would
be like to lose one of your precious children. And you learn to get on in your
life. You don't have a choice. You
just have to learn how to get on with it. but every day you
long for them. And it says this spirit of grace
and supplication shall create a similar longing in the hearts
of God's people. They long for him. They'll look on him who may have
pierced and when they see him in his suffering and death in
their behalf, And the Holy Spirit is pleased to make them see that
it was done for them and for their salvation. Their heart
shall long for Him. They seek Him, for they know
that since it is He against whom they have sinned, it is from
Him they must receive the forgiveness of sins. Now, if I were to punch Tommy
in the nose, Would it do any good for me to go to my son-in-law
and say, would you forgive me for punching Tommy in the nose? I mean, I might think, hey, my
son-in-law will treat me better. I'm sure he'll say, OK. Wouldn't
do any good, would it? Brian can't forgive me for what
I do to Tommy. Only Tommy can. And we know that our sin is against
God. We may have, and I'm sure we
most certainly have, committed offenses against other humans. We don't sin against other humans,
we sin against God. And the absolute truth of it,
God's the only one you can sin against. Because He's the only
standard of righteousness there is. And you must go, if you want
forgiveness, you've got to get it from the one against whom
you have sinned. How do they seek him? Jeremiah
29 verse 13 says, you shall seek me and you shall find me when
you search for me with all your heart. Half-hearted seeking the Lord
will not even get you a half salvation. It won't get you anything. Now I understand this. We're
talking about the heart here. We're talking about the spiritual
nature of one who's been born again. With that whole heart,
he seeks the Lord. The trouble is, the flesh is
in the way. And that's why we can't look at what somebody else
does and determine whether or not he's seeking the Lord with
his whole heart. His whole heart may be seeking the Lord and his
whole flesh be against it. It's just a struggle. But I tell
you right now, you know what you want. You do. Right now you know what you must
have. Everybody's got something that
they must have and they are willing to suffer the loss of everything
else to have that. And you know whether or not that
something for you is the Lord Himself. Paul said, that for the excellency of knowing
Christ he had suffered the loss of all things and counted what
he lost just to be dung which was simply a word for anything
to be thrown away. In Jerusalem they had what was
called the dung gate and really it was just the way out of the
city to the garbage dump and everything you threw in the garbage
dump That's where you went. And what Paul was saying is,
all the things that I gave up in order to seek the Lord and
find Him, he said, I do count them but garbage. I remember
hearing testimonies in my youth, people brag about all they'd
given up for the Lord and act like they'd given up something
that caused them great grief that they'd lost it. Well, whoever
cried, dragging the garbage out to the curb. Whoever said, I
just can't stand giving up these old coffee grounds. I tell you, if you want the Lord, if by grace you've been given
this heart to seek Him, whatever it costs you to do so will be
like the garbage you put out at the curb. It won't mean anything. You'll seek Him with all your
heart. They seek with tears, it says. That's not our place
to determine whether a person's attitude toward his sin and rebellion
against God is sincere. Everybody's got their own emotional
makeup. There are those who cry at the drop of a hat, and there
are those that you'll probably never see them cry. And so when
it says they shall seek Him with weeping, with tears, it's not
necessarily speaking literally, because some just don't have
the emotional make up that gives way to tears. But we know what
tears mean. You know what's interesting in
the law? There is a right of purification for everything that
comes out of a person. It's really, you read some of
the laws and you say, why is there a law about this? For example,
this law. Now I don't mean to be indelicate,
but I remember reading it one time and I thought, what? He
told the Israelites when they were out there in the wilderness,
he said, and I'm just going to use our language, if you go out
there some way to do your business, you make sure to take a shovel
with you and you cover it up, lest I come through the camp
in the middle of the night and come upon it and reject you. And you say, God's worried about
hygiene? It's just another example. Everything
that comes out of us is an abomination in the sight of God. And for every other issue that
may come out of a man or a woman, there was a right of purification
for it, or a proper way to handle that which considered unclean.
For everything but one thing, tears. Tears is the only thing
that comes out of a human being that does not require a ritual
of purification to make them clean in the sight of God. And
why is that? Because he created them. He's
the one that caused them. And whether it be the literal
tears, because you're the sort that breaks down in tears, or
whether it just be the brokenness of your heart, that's what it's
talking about. If the grace of God has been
at work in you, there's been spiritual tears. He says He keeps
our tears in a bottle. Amazing. The only thing that
ever came out of us that God has respect to. The heart is
broken. Someone once said, the heart
is the only thing that is better broken than unbroken. What is it to be sorry or broken
hearted over sin? It is to be sorry for the sins
one has committed against God, but it is more. It is to be broken
enough to know that you have sinned and you cannot fix the
problem. The man who says, God, I know
I've sinned, but I promise to do better. His heart has not
been broken. He may be limping, but his leg ain't broke. Here's how you'll know that God
has taught you about your sin. You'll know you can't fix it.
You can't fix the breach that He created between you and God.
And for all your efforts, so long as you're in this flesh,
you will not be able to stop doing it. Really. Sin is going to be your
companion until you breathe your last in this life. I don't like
that truth, but it's a truth. But you know something? I'm glad
God said so because it explains the way I act. And why it's so
inconsistent with what I profess. But I know I'm going to be 64
at the end of February. And I've been in religion as
far back as I can remember, and a lot of that time in religion
was spent trying to overcome sin. And I haven't accomplished
anything yet. That doesn't mean that we don't
try to restrain the worst outbreaks of our sinfulness. However, if your heart has been
broken over sin, you know There's nothing you can do about it.
People in religion describe repentance as an attempt to be better. To be so sorry for your sins
you try to be better. No, repentance is giving up on trying to be
better. It's a realization you can't
be better. When God's grace begins a work
in his heart, There is a search made for sin, but none will be
found. Look at verse 20. I quoted this verse this morning,
or referred to it. Verse 20 of Jeremiah 50. In those days, and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. Notice this,
I will pardon them whom I reserve. He didn't say, I will pardon
those who come to the front, as we softly sing Rock of Ages
cleft for me for the 27th time. I will pardon those that promise
to do the best they can. No, the ones I reserve. He will pardon them. And he will
pardon them in such a way that there is no longer a record of
their sins. He has said, their sins and their
iniquities, I will remember no more. Brother Pledger said, what
God refuses to remember, we can't seem to forget. But thank God,
judgment's not based on what we can see. It's based on what
God sees. And when God does a work of grace
in the heart, there's a search made for sin. And it will not
be found. Now I realize we passed through
a period where we certainly seem to find it. But what will be
told to us in grace is that God looks upon us and this is the
only one that matters. He looks for sin and he won't
be able to find any. Why? Because he put it on his
son and his son bore it away. It's gone. You might say, I can tell them
where my sin is. Yes, you can. Are you going to?
Best thing to do is just keep quiet about it. This is the teaching of the Gospel.
To wit, that God has removed the sin of His people. It's gone.
And there will be a search made for it. And you might say to
them, it is in my history. I can tell you where my sin is,
just look at my history, it's right there. And yet we have
in 2 Corinthians 5.17 that God is reconciling the world to Himself,
not imputing men's sins to them. We may see them, we can look
at our past and oh what a wretched past it is. But God's not imputing those
sins to His people. Why? He imputed them to His Son. And God's not going to impute
the same sin in two different places.