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Eric Lutter

The Ledger of Grace

Philippians 3:7-10
Eric Lutter July, 9 2022 Video & Audio
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Grace Conference NJ 2022

In the sermon titled "The Ledger of Grace," Eric Lutter addresses the doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ, countering the belief that one's works can achieve righteousness before God. He argues that all human efforts and religious practices, akin to assets, ultimately come up short and cannot balance the spiritual ledger before the divine judgment. Lutter references Philippians 3:7-10, where the Apostle Paul declares that everything gained through religious observance is considered loss when compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. He also engages with Revelation 20:11-15, emphasizing that judgment is based solely on one’s faith, as only those whose names are written in the Book of Life will be saved. The practical significance of this sermon lies in the Reformed understanding that salvation is solely by grace through faith, which leads believers to rely on Christ for righteousness and to foster a life of humility and love towards others.

Key Quotes

“All our works come up short of the glory of God. We will never obtain a righteousness by our own works.”

“What saves a soul is whether or not their name was written with the bloody hand of the Savior in the Book of Life.”

“The righteousness that our God seeks is that which is declared in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“When Christ appeared to Paul and revealed himself to Paul by grace, he shined that light upon the darkness of all of Paul's religious confidences.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Morning. All right, returning to Philippians
chapter 3. And after you get to Philippians
3 and you put a marker there, turn over to Revelation 20. A long time ago now, I was in
community college going for a liberal arts degree and I had to take
accounting 101. And I remember that the professor
at the end of class, one of the two classes, he always gave us
a problem to work out using a ledger sheet for accounting. And I would
go home and I'd open up the book where I was supposed to and I'd
start copying out the items for the business that I was supposedly
the bookkeeper of and I'd start transcribing those items into
one of two columns, either assets or liabilities. And after about
an hour and a half, I guess it was, I'd get to the bottom and
everything was balanced out and looked real good and I'd feel
good about myself until I went into class the next time. And
he always began the class with the correct answer at the end
of the balance sheet. And every single time, without
fail, I was wrong. Every single time. And I would find out that it
wasn't because I transcribed numbers incorrectly, it's just
that I put the wrong things in the wrong column. I attributed
certain things that were liabilities as assets and vice versa. So
I always came up short. and always got it wrong, and
that's really how the natural man looks at judgment. He looks
at it as an accounting sheet. It's something that he just has
to balance out, and when things in the ledger of his mind seem
a little off, he knows that he could just make some adjustments
and start doing some religious service, make some sacrifice,
do some good work as he sees it, and he thinks that this is
going to make things right between him and God and he'll be reconciled
in himself and can go on in peace the rest of his days. But our
Lord tells us that all our works come up short of the glory of
God. We will never obtain a righteousness
by our own works. And so that brings us to Revelation
20 verse 11. Revelation 20 verse 11. Here we read about the Judgment
Day, and this is important for us to see. He says, and I saw a great white
throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. You know, you think about men
and women even who build great things in the earth. They build
houses, they build businesses, they do many works and they look
at those works and are very proud of those things. They get hospital
wings named after them, airports and streets named after them.
They get Hollywood stars and I saw even in Seaside Heights
when I was there for a few minutes, On Thursday, they even have planks
that have people's names stamped in them because they donated
a certain amount over and above that plank of wood to get their
name stamped on it. And it doesn't matter whether
you have a park bench named after you, those things won't be around
in the day of judgment. The heavens and the earth fled
away. So you can't look to those things
and say, look what I did, Lord. Look at all these wonderful things
I did for the people. And it says in verse 12, I saw
the dead small and great stand before God and the books were
opened. The books were opened. And another
book was opened. There's two kinds of books. This
second one being, or this other one being the book of life. And
the dead were judged out of those things, those books, those first
sets of books that were opened, which were written in the books
according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. And they were judged, every man,
according to their works." And what follows the judgment according
to our works recorded in those books? It says, and hell were
cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death." Meaning
this is the eternal judgment of God. Those whose works are
recorded in those books, every man, according to their works,
recorded in those books, deserves the eternal wrath and judgment
of God. All their works, whether you
think they're good or bad, righteous or otherwise, all those things
are worthy of eternal death. But notice here in verse 15,
it says, and whosoever was not found written in the book of
life was cast into the lake of fire. So man is judged according
to their works. It's appointed unto man once
to die, and after that, the judgment. They're judged according to their
works. But what delivers a soul from the eternal fires, the eternal
judgment of hell? It's whether their name was written
in the book of life. See, all our works stink. All our works, our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. Everything we do, when looking
only at the books, all that we do is worthy of eternal judgment. That's not what saves a soul.
What saves a soul is whether or not their name was written
with the bloody hand of the Savior. in the Book of Life. And if you
believe on Christ, thank God for that because that faith is
given unto you and revealed in you. And you look to the Savior
and not your own works by the grace of Almighty God. Because
the natural man looks to what he does. Natural man's trying
to reconcile and fix things and do things right. But if that's
your hope, you're going to meet an angry God of wrath. If you come to the Lord in the
works of the law, trying to do what's right and good and think
that's your righteousness and that's gonna speak well for you
in the day of judgment, you shall meet the God of wrath. You know,
people say it sounds like the God of the Old Testament and
the God of the New Testament are different gods. And you hear
that once in a while. How come God's so angry in the
Old Testament and now he's so loving he wouldn't hurt a fly
in the New Testament? Well, they're not two different
gods. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. There's
one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one shepherd, one shepherd. They're not different. God gave
us the law. Well, why did he give us the
law then? If he's not different, why did he give us the law? If
that's not how we're saved according to our works, he gave us the
law, it was added because of transgression. To make us to
see and to know how vile. My works are how ruined I am
in Adam, how corrupt and defiled and depraved I am in this flesh. God gave the law to make us to
see and understand what he meant when he said to Adam, in the
day you eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you
shall surely die. What does that mean, Lord? Look
at the law and look at your own works. And you see by the grace
of God, I'm coming up short all over the place. What I think
are assets are liabilities. What I think are liabilities
are liabilities. It's all sin and ruin. It's all
death and ruin. And by the grace of God, he makes
us to behold the one he's given in his son. And he blesses us
with words of life. He promises us in John 8, 12,
he said, I am, the great I am. He said, I am. the light of the
world. He that followeth after me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And that's not a command to your
flesh to keep yourself out of darkness, that's a promise that
he gives to his people. You shall not walk in darkness. And men have a different idea
of what that means not to walk in darkness, but what he's saying
is You're not gonna keep looking to your works in the law. You're
not gonna keep looking to create and make your own righteousness.
You're gonna forsake all that you have and all that you trusted
in and all that you laid up for yourselves against that day of
judgment. You're going to forsake them and look to me alone, your
righteousness, to the Lord Jesus Christ, your righteousness. And so we see the promise of
God and we see his grace. And that promise, when the Lord
promises us and we venture upon those promises, we rest in those
promises of our God, it doesn't mean that we're gonna have a
perfect trajectory of a growth in grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We think we should. And that's
why we often beat ourselves up about it and get ourselves fearful
and afraid thinking of what we should be and what we should
see. That's not what he's saying, because he gives us a spirit,
and by the spirit he teaches us that it's a walk of faith. It's a walk of faith. You're
gonna believe the Lord, you're gonna follow the Lord, but you're
also gonna see what you are in this flesh, lest we should become
puffed up. You know, we get into trouble
when we take the promises of the Lord and we use them to examine
our brethren and determine, you know, you should be growing in
the Lord. You were here and then you were here. So therefore,
logically you should be up here. So why are you down here now?
And we get into a great trouble with ourselves, we set ourselves
up for a great fall when we use that knowledge against our brethren. And we have to be very careful.
You know, that's why Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 8, verse one,
he said, he said, knowledge puffeth up. And that's where knowledge
puffs up. Have thy knowledge to thine own
self first. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. You hold yourself to a high standard. because that high standard causes
you to cry out, Abba, Father, save me. I'm afraid of what I
see in myself and in my own flesh. And the Lord corrects his people
and teaches his people that. He said, well, look at Peter.
Peter had a fall, right? He was, he withstood the Lord's
word that said to him, Peter, Peter, this night, all of you
are gonna forsake me. And he said, oh, not me, Lord,
not me. So not only did Peter forsake the Lord like all the
other brethren, but he even denied the Lord three times. Oh, but
after that, Peter had a wonderful trajectory, didn't he? Just growing
in grace, he wrote those wonderful epistles and he was a mighty
man of the Lord. But oh wait, one day Peter came
to Antioch and Paul, had to withstand him to his face because he walked
not according to the truth of the gospel. And Paul said to Peter, if thou
being a Jew livest after the manner of Gentiles, why compelst
thou the Gentiles to live after the manner of the Jews? And so
we're wise to be careful when we look at the promises and try
and hold them up to others and what we think others should be
doing and how they should be living. Trust the Lord's promises
made unto you and be gracious because knowledge puffeth up
and that's where it puffs up. And if you look at the context
there, it's knowledge was puffing up but when, but he said the
greater of these is love. Charity, love edifieth. And best
thing we can do for our brethren who are fallen in sin is love
them and be gracious to them, to be kind and merciful because
love edifies and love builds up and love helps and restores. And so Peter tried to give the
Gentiles the cold shoulder and help them in their walk by putting
them off and saying, now you're gonna wish you were like the
Jews. We're gonna show you the cold shoulders that you wish
and cry out that you're like us Jews. No, love them, love
them. Show them Christ through love.
And so I went off on a tangent there. But in that same thing,
in that context of the judgment, look at Revelation 20, verse
six. Our Lord says, blessed and holy
is he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such, the second
death, that eternal death hath no power and so that's because
of the blood of the lamb which has redeemed us and delivered
us and blessed us with his grace and mercy and it speaks of that
resurrection power which raises us from spiritual death as the
Lord said to Nicodemus, ye must be born again and that's that
new birth. is the resurrection power of
the Lord Jesus Christ raising us up from that spiritual death
that we had no idea of until we heard what the law saith to
the sinner. You're not righteous. You're
not righteous. But Christ comes and says, I'm
your righteousness. I've put away your sin. Believe
in me. And so the accounting of our
works that the natural man does That's not the righteousness
that our God seeks. The righteousness that our God
seeks is that which is declared in the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We preach Jesus Christ and him
crucified because Christ hath put away our sins, coming, bearing
the sins of his people, laying down his life, putting away their
sins. In Romans 3, 21 through 23, He says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law. What does the law say to us?
What's the witness of the law? Shut your mouth. Close your mouth. Stop your boasting. You're not
righteous. You're not as clean as you think
you are, like that commercial always says. You're not as clean
as you think you are. Shut your mouth. And the prophets
witness. What do the prophets say? Behold,
God's servant. behold the servant of God look
to him he's the righteousness of God look to him even the righteousness
of God which is by faith the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all then that believe for there is no difference
you know in that At 1 Corinthians 8.1 that I was talking about,
Paul writes there as well, we know, we know that we all have
knowledge. We all, we know, we know that
as well because the Spirit teaches us. And so, don't, when that
knowledge puffs up, the Lord's gonna deflate your head. You
know, it's gonna, and you know the sound that a deflating balloon
makes. It sounds like you're passing
wind. It sounds like you're laying a stinker. and you did, and so
that's when the Lord pops that puffy head and brings us low
in ourselves that we would love our brethren, because that's
what edifies. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. So we could put our assets and
liabilities in any column we like, but it all comes up short,
The salvation of God is the Lord Jesus Christ who loved me and
gave himself for me. In the life which I now live,
I live by the faith, the faithfulness of the Son of God. He's our life,
he's our all. I titled this message, The Ledger
of Grace, so let's get to it. By the grace of God, Paul in
Philippians 3, he's declaring his hope in the salvation of
Jesus Christ. He's been delivered by the faithfulness
of Christ, taking him out from the works of darkness and having
confidence in those dead works, that dead letter, that ministration
of condemnation, that ministration of death. He had been laying
up good works in store for that day, but Paul says, when Christ
came, what things were gained to me? Those I counted loss for
Christ. What things, Paul? All that I
had acquired in religion. And he spent his whole life in
religion doing good works and making sacrifices and doing the
things that he needed to do against the day of judgment. Now for
Paul, because he was a Jew, he was trusting in his lineage to
Abraham. And he was trusting in the sect
of the Jews that he followed, the Pharisees. He was trusting
in those things. He describes them in verse five
and six, Philippians five and six. He says, I was circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin
and Hebrew of the Hebrews. It's touching the law, I was
a Pharisee. Turning zeal, I persecuted the
church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, according to how the Pharisees see it, I was blameless. Now, you and me reading those
things may not think very much of them, but Paul did. Paul trusted
those things. He had all the confidence in
the world. And you think about what we trust
in today, and Paul's saying, you Gentiles, that's silly, that's
nonsense. You're an idolater, you're a
heathen. And he'd think that the things we trust in today
are foolishness. You know, instead of circumcision,
for us it would be baptism. And who baptized me? Well, I
was baptized by a brother in so-and-so. I grew up in this
church, and he was my pastor. Oh, that's a good heritage. That's
a good lineage that you have there. And we boast of those
things, and we have pride in those things. I'm a Christian
of the Christians. As touching the doctrine, I'm
a theologian. Concerning zeal, I persecute
those who don't see things and have the same understanding that
I have. They don't see things as I do, and I persecute them.
What's what? Touching the righteousness which
is in those doctrines that I consider to be the cardinal doctrines,
the most important doctrines, I'm blameless. I got that down. I'm a Christian of the Christian. And we know those things don't
save, and yet we do in the flesh put a lot of confidence in those
foolish things that cannot save. Salvation is a person. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's not my doctrine that saves
me, it's Christ. And doctrine's wonderful, it's
important, it teaches us about the Lord and it helps us in our
understanding, but salvation is coming to Christ as a sinner
in need of his grace to be covered with his blood, to receive the
forgiveness of God in him and having no confidence in the flesh.
What things, Paul said, were gained to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. Nothing can take the place of
Christ. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there's none other name given among men under heaven,
whereby we must be saved. When Christ appeared to Paul
and revealed himself to Paul by grace, he shined that light
upon the darkness of all of Paul's religious confidences. And Paul
was shown that his business of religion wasn't solid, which
means bankrupt, which means you don't have the money to pay your
bills. Close the doors, you don't have
anything to go on any longer, it's over. You've been condemned,
it's done, it's finished. And that's what Christ shows
us by grace. It hurts, it's painful to find
out that you're not righteousness and you're not worthy of the
grace of God, that you're not worthy of an eternal inheritance
with the Lord. You find out that you're dung
and your works are dung and you're vile and corrupt and evil. It
hurts. But when the Lord applies the
blood of Christ to your conscience and he shows you the sufficiency
of Christ's righteousness in his blood and what he did for
you, the sinner, then it's joy unspeakable. It's peace and comfort
and gladness. The Lord tells us, he says, all
that you owe has been paid. I found a ransom, the Lord says. You know, our Savior, when he
hung on the cursed tree to bear our curse, to deliver us from
that curse, we're told that he lifted up the voice and cried
out, it is finished. Then he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. And what the Lord declares to
us there is that the price that was to be paid, that the price
that was owed was the price paid in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sin debt for His people has
been wiped clean. Well, how do I know if I'm one
of His people? Do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ? The Spirit
manifests that in us. Faith is not of this flesh. You
that believe on Christ and trust him, that's the manifestation
of his mercy and grace to you and why you believe and why you
hope and why you follow Christ. The flesh wants to put up a barrier
and say, well, I don't know if I'm one of his children yet.
Well, you're probably not. But you know that you are until
and that day when you say, Lord, I don't have anything. Lord,
where else can I go? Lord, you alone have the words
of eternal life, and I don't have any other salvation to turn
to. Lord, have mercy upon me. Save me. Lord, help me. And so, against hope, Hoping
against hope that you are, you believe Christ and you trust
him and you venture upon those promises and you follow him and
receiving the spirit of adoption. Whether you know it or not, you're
crying out, Abba, Father, have mercy on me. Lord, save me, keep
me. Don't turn me away. Don't deal
with me as my sins rightfully deserve. And so he's turning
us by faith, he's growing us, not in the manner that we see
or would like to see according to the flesh, but according to
the walk of faith, which he speaks of, because the just walks by
faith, he lives by faith, trusting. Not because I see or feel things
or understand things the way I think I should feel, see, or
understand, but because I trust Him. I don't have anyone else
to trust, but I know He's the Savior, and I know He's the only
Savior, and there is no other salvation. Lord, save me. And He tells us in 1 Corinthians
6.11, year washed, but year sanctified. but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And so our
God tells us and reveals to us that his law is satisfied. The
debt's been paid. Christ paid it in full. He's
our surety. And that's what it means. He
says, put that on my account. I'm paying it all. Don't put
anything on their account, I've paid it all. So it's not our
works that give us life, it's the quickening power of the Lord
Jesus Christ who gives us life, who encourages us and heals us
and blesses us. He delivers his, he does it in
such a way that his sheep are delivered from fleshly confidences. And that's a continual learning,
a continual growth. In Philippians 3.3, Paul said
it this way, but we, for we are the circumcision, which worship
God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. So that brethren,
Christ Jesus is the boast of the believer. He's the one in
whom we glory and rejoice in. And we have no confidence in
the flesh. So confident was Paul in Christ's
righteousness that he wrote to Timothy saying, I've put away
all my works. I have no confidence in those
things. He said it this way in 2 Timothy 1.12. He said, for
this cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I'm not
ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day. That's confidence in the grace
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Not trusting your works, not
trying to make a righteousness for yourself, but saying, Lord,
I need you continually, ever, Lord, keep me. And so Paul says
in Philippians 3.8, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dumb that I may win Christ. Paul was taken from a head knowledge
to an understanding that Christ is his only righteousness, that
he needs him every day and every hour. He was made a partaker
of the righteousness of Christ in that first resurrection when
the Spirit of God came upon him and gave him birth of the new
man. of the seed of Christ, the righteous
seed of Christ. And in him was formed that new
man which believes the Lord and trusts him alone." Paul rejoiced
in Christ alone. And he says there in another
place, he says, I die daily. And the point being that we are
alive in Christ. But that life which we live in
Christ and grow in daily is a death in ourselves, seeing more and
more in ourselves that this flesh is corrupt, it is vile, this
isn't my righteousness, but I see more and more the glory of my
God in the face of Jesus Christ and we trust him more and more
so that we forsake those things that we have confidence in today. But tomorrow by his grace, we
forsake those things. You know, brother said it in
Matthew, but in Luke 14, 33, Christ said it this way, whosoever
he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my
disciple. And that is more than the things
that this world counts to be wealth. That's trusting in those
things that are our religious wealth. and our religious confidences,
and our good works confidences. Christ delivers his people, even
from a vain fleshly confidence, to trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
to walk by faith in him. When we see our sin, not to be
discouraged, but to keep crying out to him and following after
him. The prize, Paul says, is Christ. The prize is the Lord Jesus Christ. And our God is, conforming us
to the image of his son. You've probably heard this illustration.
I know I'm not the first to say, and it's probably better known
than I realize, but I heard of a preacher coming up on a man
who was whittling wood. And the preacher said, what you
whittling there? And he said, I'm whittling a
dog. And he was like, oh yeah, I can see that. That looks pretty
good. You're really good at that. How
do you know what to whittle away? And he said, I just take away
everything that doesn't look like a dog. And that's what the
Lord does. He just whittles away and takes
away everything that doesn't look like Christ. And he does
that because he's the faithful husbandman. And he prunes us
and takes away those things which take away from the glory of Christ. And so Paul had one Christ. He had life in Christ. And yet
the way he speaks is a faithful way that the Lord gives us When
Paul won Christ, but he said, I want to win him, he never stopped
wanting to win Christ. Even though he was a child of
God, he never stopped wanting to win Christ. He said in verse
nine of Philippians three, and be found in him not having mine
own righteousness. I don't want any deformity sticking
out, which is of the righteousness of the law. Take it away, Lord. but that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. And faith believes Him whom we
love. We don't cease believing Him
and we don't cease hungering and thirst for Him and we don't
cease seeing our need of His grace in us. You're not gonna
see perfectly what you know shall be in that day of grace when
our Lord returns. because it's a walk of faith,
not a walk of sight. And we don't want to walk in
sin, and we don't want to do things contrary to the grace
of God, and we want to be found faithful, looking to our Lord,
serving Him, trusting Him, but I promise you, it's exactly as
He says in His Word, The just shall live by faith. And it's
a walk of faith, believing Him, even when we're in darkness,
even when we're in the valley of the shadow of death, even
when we've fallen and sinned and done grievously against the
light that we have. Our Lord keeps us looking to
Him, walking by faith, because there is no salvation in any
other. And so the Holy Spirit gave Paul
a desire, a continual desire to know him more and more, even
though he knew him and you know him. But he gives you that desire
to know him more and more. Hold your place in Philippians
3, and just let's go over to John 17. I wanna show you something
from Philippians 3.10 that I think is a blessing to see in John
17. John 17 is the high priestly
prayer of our Savior. So here Paul says, so just hold
your place in each one. So Philippians 3.10, Paul says,
that I may know him, that I may know him. We've heard that before
in our Lord's prayer. He says in John 17.3, and this
is life eternal. that they might know thee, the
only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." And the
Father gives that desire to know him and know him more and more. Hold your place there. In Philippians
3.10, he then says, in the power of his resurrection. Now look
at John 17.2. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh, speaking of the Son of God, over all flesh, that
he, Christ, should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. The spirit in us breathes out,
cries out, Lord, I want to know you. Lord, I want to know that
power. What power? That resurrection
power whereby you raise your people from the dead. I want
to grow in that. I want to know that power. I
want to bear the fruit of my husband, my savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ unto God. Lord, use me. Have mercy upon
me. Have mercy upon me. And so, and
then he says, in the fellowship of his sufferings being made
conformable unto his death. That reminds me of that in Romans
12. Let's just go there, Romans 12,
one and two. To be conformed to the image
of his son. And Paul said, I beseech thee,
or I beseech you. Romans 12, verse one and two. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to the image
of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. You know, I really believe that
Paul had in view there Isaiah. When Isaiah stood there in Isaiah
6, when he stood before the throne of God, and he saw the glory
of the Lord, and that day his train filled the whole temple,
he and he alone is the king. He alone is the ruler. He alone
is sovereign, almighty over all things. There's no room in that
throne room for another train. It was all Christ's. It was all
Christ, filled the place. And Isaiah, then seeing God,
saw himself a sinner, the sinner. Lord, I'm undone. I'm a man of
unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. And the angel came, went to the
altar and took that live coal off the altar and touched his
lips and said, you're clean now, the altar being Christ, the coal
being Christ, you're clean of all your sin. And then, then
he heard, then he heard the voice. I heard the voice of the Lord
saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Isaiah just
stood there and said, Lord, here am I. Send me, send me. That's what it is to present
yourself to the Lord. It's not because we're anything
great in and of ourselves. It's because the Lord has cleansed
us and made us to hear him. And so that's what the Lord does
for his people. He fills you with his spirit. He shows you Christ. He shows
you over and over again. Paul said, I die daily. I see
in me corruption and death that is in this flesh. And I see Christ
and I want to win him. I want to know him more and more.
I want to know that power more and more. And Paul prayed that
prayer for the churches over and over again, that you should
know him, that you would know his might, that you would know
that spiritual understanding and grow in the grace and knowledge
of your Lord and Savior. But know this, it's not to use
against your brethren and tell them how to live and how they
should be living. It's to see in yourself your
own need of Christ every day, every hour. as you have received
him, so walk ye in him. How did I receive him? As a poor,
worthless sinner, a beggar. And walk in that every day, and
pray for your brethren, and love them. Love them, be merciful,
and pray the Lord bless them, and he'll bless you in it as
well. But I pray the Lord bless that word to your hearts, brethren,
and I do love you. I do love you and I'm so thankful
to be here again and to see you. I look forward to tomorrow. Pray
for us because we weren't expecting the extra message and the Lord
is burdening our hearts. But I love you, I'm looking forward
to it tomorrow.

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Joshua

Joshua

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