Let's begin our second service
by standing and singing 356 out of your blue hymnals. 356, near
to the heart of God. ? There is a place of quiet rest
? Near to the heart of God ? A place where sin cannot molest ? Near
to the heart of God ? Oh Jesus bless sent from the heart of God. Hold us to wait before Thee,
near to the heart of God. There is a place of comfort sweet,
near to the heart of God. A place where we our Savior meet,
near to the heart of God. O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent
from the heart of God. Hold us who wait before Thee,
near to the heart of God. There is a place of full release,
near to the heart of God. A place where all is joy and
peace, near to the heart of God. Oh, Jesus, blessed Redeemer,
sent from the heart of God. Thank you. You may be seated. Good morning, everybody. I'm going to read 2 Chronicles
14 as long as my voice will cooperate. 14 So Abijah slept with his fathers,
and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned
in his stead. In his days the land was quiet
ten years. And Asa did that which was good
and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. For he took away
the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and break
down the images, and cut down the groves, and commanded Judah
to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and
the commandment. Also he took away out of all
the cities of Judah the high places and the images, and the
kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fenced cities in
Judah, for the land had rest. And he had no war in those years,
because the Lord had given him rest. Therefore he said unto
Judah, let us build these cities, and make about them walls and
towers, gates and bars, while the land is yet before us. Because
we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought him, and he hath
given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.
And Asa had an army of men that bear targets and spears out of
Judah, 300,000, and out of Benjamin that bear shields and drew bows,
240 score thousand. All these were mighty men of
valor. And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with
a host of 1,000,000 and 300 chariots and came to Marisha. Then Asa went out against him,
and they set the battle in a ray in the valley of Zephathah and
Moreshah. And Asa cried out unto the Lord
his God, and said, Lord, is it nothing with thee to help, whether
with many or with them that have no power? Help us, O Lord our
God, for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against the
multitude. O Lord, our God, let man prevail
against thee, or let not man prevail against thee. So the
Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah, and the
Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were
with him pursued them into Jerar, and the Ethiopians were overthrown,
that they could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before
the Lord and before his host, and they carried away very much
spoil. And they smote all the cities
round about Jerar, for the fear of the Lord came upon them, and
they spoiled all the cities, for there was exceeding much
spoil in them. They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried
away sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem. Father, we've come to you this
morning, and we just ask that the altars and
the strange gods in high places of this earth this morning, where
people claim to be worshiping you, be taken down, have them
cut down and broke down. And Father, we just ask that
As Asa did when we come across trouble, Father, that we come
to you and cry out. You're the only one that can
take the suffering away and the fear away, Father. And you'll
do it the way you see fit, and it'll be done by your will. And
we come to you and ask that your will always be done. And Father,
we're just so thankful to, again, have a place to come to meet.
And we ask that you open up everyone's eyes, ears, hearts this morning,
Father, to hear the message and receive the message that you're
gonna send to us. And Father, again, we just ask over the one
that you've sent to bring that message and give him the words
that you would have us to hear. Lord, we ask this in Christ's
name. As you remain sitting, let's
turn to 112, Blessed Redeemer. 112. Calvary's mountain, one dreadful
morn. O Christ my Saviour, weary and
worn, Facing for sinners death on the cross, That He shall save
them for endless loss. Blessed Redeemer, Precious Redeemer,
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, For
sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, Dying for me. Father forgive them, thus did
he pray, And while his lifeblood flowed fast away, Praying for
sinners while in such woe. No one but Jesus ever loved so. Blessed Redeemer, Precious Redeemer,
Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, Poor
sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, Dying for me. Oh, how I love Him, Savior and
Friend! How can my praises ever find
end? Through years unnumbered on Heaven's
shore, My tongue shall praise Him forevermore. Blessed Redeemer,
Precious Redeemer, Seems now I see Him on Calvary's tree. Wounded and bleeding, For sinners
pleading, Blind and unheeding, Dying for me. Good morning. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
4. Ephesians chapter 4, and we're
going to be looking at verses 25 through 32, but we're going
to do a little bit of review getting started. Last week we
were looking at Paul's instruction to the believer, where he said
first in verse 22, put off concerning the former conversation the old
man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Our flesh is subject to deceitful
lusts, having no power over it to put it away. And we saw that
this putting off of the old man, it is a work of God in grace
for the believer. It's a work of His grace. That
is because it cannot be a work of the flesh. The flesh is the
old man, and the old man is not going to put off the old man. Our flesh, when it gets in trouble,
may duck and lay low for a while and do things that don't draw
attention to itself, but we don't, by this flesh, put off the old
man. Therefore, it must be a work
of the Spirit of God done for us in grace. Let me also say that this verse,
verse 22, when it says put off concerning the old man or the
former conversation, the old man, a simple way to look at
that, to hear that word is don't live like the old man wants to
live. It's a work of grace. You ain't
gonna do it any other way but by grace, but what he's saying
there is don't live like the old man wants to live. And then
further, by the Spirit of grace, we are to live as we ought to
live in Christ. That is, being led by the Spirit. For as many as are led by the
Spirit, they are the sons of God. Romans 8, 14. And who is
led by the Spirit of God? The sons of God are. They are
the ones that are led by the Spirit of God. And so it follows
that being led by the Spirit, we see in verse 24, that ye put
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. Now that old man is not going
to put off the old man, but the new man will gladly put on the
new man. The Spirit will gladly put on
the new man. And both are accomplished in
the believer by the Spirit of God and grace. So that we see
here what Paul's talking about in Ephesians 4, it's an outline
of the believer's walk. It's just laying out for us the
fruit that the Spirit bears in his children. He's teaching us
this. He's growing us in grace. In
ourselves, we don't like what we see in this flesh, but the
Spirit is gracious and teaches the child of God, and he bears
this fruit in his people as he grows them. And so the instruction
here that follows, it can only be heard, it can only be followed
by one being led by the Spirit of God, because only then it
can be done in righteousness and in true holiness. Anything
this flesh does cannot be called righteous because it's not righteous,
and it cannot be called true holiness because it's not true
holiness. Only God is righteous. is holy, and what he makes holy,
that is holy. What he does, that is holy and
righteous. So, that's important for us when
we come to a verse like verse 29. Look at Ephesians 4, 29. Paul's speaking here in this
chapter about communication. That is what we're broadcasting.
What we're putting out. And he speaks of us ministering
grace to the hearers in verse 29. Let's read it together. He
says, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but
that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers. How does anything I do minister
grace unto the hearers." Well, if it's a work of grace, then
it's not of my flesh, but rather of the Spirit of God in me. And
so only a born-again believer is going to be ministering grace
unto the hearers. And the spirit leads the children
of God, and there will be, therefore, a bearing of fruit in his people. There will be a bearing of fruit,
the fruit of our Lord, in his people. Our Lord said in Matthew
12, 33, either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or
else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt. for the tree
is known by his fruit. And our Lord has made the tree
good. His people in the church, we
are that tree, that olive tree of the Lord's planting, of His
growing, and He's made the tree good by the shedding of His own
blood for His people. And this new man is His creation. This new man that Paul is speaking
of here, it's his creation, born of the seed of Christ, not born
of the seed of Adam, but of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are born
of his spirit and we bear fruits of his righteousness in us. I've titled this message, Ministering
Grace to the Hearers. Ministering Grace to the Hearers. So let's look at this passage
together and we'll see what the Lord is teaching us, what instruction
is being given to the new man, the new man that the Lord has
created in you. Paul says in verse 25, putting away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. If we're going to minister grace
to the hearers, we're going to speak truth. We're going to speak
truth to one another. And the rest of this chapter,
there's a lot of instruction laid out here in regards to what
Paul is saying about putting away lying, speak every man truth. There's a lot of instruction
about what we say. And there's a lot of ways that
we say things. There's a lot of ways in which
we say things or communicate to others. If you think about
it, we're saying something when we speak, by the things that
we say we're saying something, and we're saying something when
we don't say anything at all, when we choose to be quiet. Sometimes
that's a good thing, and sometimes that's a bad thing. And we're
saying something by the actions that we do. The things that we
do are also saying something. They're communicating something,
and this whole chapter is dealing with communicating. largely with
speaking, with the things that we say. And so breaking down
verse 25, Paul says to put away lying, because lying is a fruit
of the old man. Lying is a fruit of this flesh.
And when we speak a lie, it's spoken with the intent to deceive. That's what a lie does. It's
intending to deceive the hearer. And we can lie in a lot of ways. And I'd imagine Paul, who went
around to a lot of churches, had experience with the many
ways that this flesh lies. And he saw how lying, it caused
anger in people, it caused people to be deceived and misled, and
it was likely the cause of divisions. There was likely divisions in
the church over people that lied. And Paul isn't suggesting that
we now go about and tell everyone what we're thinking all the time,
because that can be hurtful. We don't necessarily say everything
that goes through our mind at any given moment, and we shouldn't
feel that we have to tell everyone because the intent isn't to be
hurtful or to be unedifying to one another. And therefore, we don't necessarily
want to address every offence. We can all offend one another
in various ways, and I'm not saying that I'm offended all
the time or anything. I'm just saying that we can,
we're able to offend one another in many ways. And we don't want
to address every offense that's given. I like how one pastor
said it. He worded it this way, saying
that about 90% of all offenses just need to be let go. Just
ignore them. Don't even address them, because
it's just going to create something worse out of it. So we don't
want to address every offense. Most offenses should just be
suffered and just bear it. Bear it. Bear along with your
brethren. But lying can include behaviors,
too. Lying can include behavior. So
we don't want to lie in the things that we say with the intent to
deceive one another, but we do want to be kind and gracious
and edifying in our speech and not say those things that are
not kind and edifying and gracious to one another. But lying can
also include behaviors. And being honest can mean that
you are real with one another. And we're not putting on a show
or pretension. We want to be kind. and not seek
to offend or hurt one another, but we don't want to put on a
show of religion, for example, and pretend that we're something
that we're not. And the example that comes to
mind in regards to that is Peter. And Peter was in one of the churches
with Paul, and he had been eating with the Gentile brethren. until some men from James, from
Jerusalem, came, men who were of the concision, or of the circumcision. And Paul addressed it. He says
in Galatians 2, verse 12, he said, he's speaking to Peter,
before that certain came from James, Peter, you did eat with
the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And so Peter there wasn't being
honest with those people who were of the circumcision. He
was putting on a show of religion to them who were of the circumcision. And Paul called Peter out on
it, saying, Peter, if you live like a Jew, then why by your
actions are you compelling the Gentiles to live like a Jew? If you live like a Gentile, I
don't know if I said, Peter, if you live like a Gentile, then
why by your actions are you compelling these brethren, these Gentiles,
to feel like they have to be circumcised in order to have
fellowship with all the church. Why are you doing that? So we
see how our actions can betray us, how they can be hypocritical. And Paul in the next verse called
it dissimulation. And dissimulation means hypocrisy. It just means hypocrisy. And
Peter, it tells us there, Peter feared men. And sometimes we
fear what others think. And so we change our behavior
for fear of what they would think. And Peter's thinking to himself,
I got to go back to Jerusalem at some time. What are these
men going to think of me if I'm sitting here with the uncircumcised?
What are they going to say about me? Am I going to have the same
influence over the brethren there in Jerusalem if I sit with these
Gentiles? And he's thinking of it like
that. And maybe he put on a good face
to it. But Paul called him out and said,
it's hypocrisy. You're doing a behavior with
the intent to deceive them. You're intending to deceive them
by your actions. And so we communicate in different
ways. There's many ways that we can
lie to one another. But Paul gives us a pattern. He gives us a pattern, and we'll
just look at this real quick, because it'll help us apply that
word where he says, wherefore, putting away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbor. And what I want us to see there
is speak with the understanding that you have of the Lord. Speak
with the understanding of his grace for you and what he's taught
you. And so he says in Ephesians 4,
verse 1, He said, I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called. Paul says, walk with the calling
that you've been called in. And then he gives some explanation
in verses two and three, but he sets it in the context of
what the Spirit has revealed to us about this hope that we
have. He says in verses four and six,
there is one body, one spirit and one hope of your calling. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through
all and in you all. And so what we see there in that
pattern is our walk, where we are being led by the spirit,
it's going to align with the understanding and the knowledge
that our God is revealing to us and revealing in us through
his precious gospel. Do you see that? Our walk is
going to align with how we've learned Christ. It's going to
align with his word. And so if God is gracious to
me, then I'm learning that I'm to be gracious to my brethren. If I am taught that God is a
God of this law and that that's my rule of law and that I'm held
to that law, then no wonder if I'm holding others to that same
law and judging them and being harsh and critical with them. But if I've been saved by grace,
if God is gracious to me and I see what a sinner I am and
how patient and kind and gracious he is to me, then I will be gracious
to my brethren and be patient. I should be, because that's our
walk. It aligns with our understanding and knowledge of Christ, which
is being revealed to us through his gospel. You don't get it
all at once, but we learn it, don't we? As we grow and we see
what we are and stumble in ourselves, we learn it. We learn it, and
when we forget, we learn it again. The Lord is so gracious to us. And so, live in a manner consistent
with your gospel knowledge in Christ. How have you learned
Christ? God is learning Christ in you
in grace, then be that way towards others. Because Paul tells us
that doing the deeds of the old man, when you look at verses
17 through 19 of this chapter, he says you haven't learned Christ
that way. If you have the spirit of God,
he's not teaching you Christ in that harshness and doing those
fruits of the flesh in that harshness and judgmental mindset. Turn
over, let's see this again, this truth where Paul is praying for
the Philippians. Turn to Philippians chapter one. Let the sirens pass. Philippians chapter one, and go to verses nine through
11. He's speaking of our learning in Christ. And we see how his
prayer is that we're going to walk according to that learning
of Christ. Philippians 1 9, in this I pray
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment or in the sense your understanding by the Spirit
of God what you're taught, that your love would grow more in
the knowledge and the judgment of these things, that ye may
approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ. All right, how do we approve
things that are excellent? Well, you're there in Philippians
chapter four, verse eight. Finally, brethren, he says, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, pure, lovely, of good report, if there be any virtue
and if there be any praise, think on these things. So according
to the knowledge that we have in our Lord, if we're approving
things that are excellent, it's because he's revealed to us things
that are excellent. He's making us to know things
that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense
till the day of Christ. We may live honestly before one
another in the new man, being filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. And so if we're filled with the
spirit of Christ, will it not influence our speech? Will it
or will it not influence our speech? Are we gonna speak lies
or are we gonna speak truths with one another? We're gonna
speak according as his words revealed to us, according to
the spirit of his grace, which is working in us. And then Paul,
back in our text in verse 25, again, he says, wherefore putting
away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor. for we are
members one of another. Well, what is the truth that
we speak? What is the truth that we speak?
Well, up in verse 15, back in Ephesians 4.15, he says, speaking
the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which
is the head, even Christ. And so truth, when we speak truth,
we're speaking things that edify. the body of Christ. We're speaking
things that cause our brethren to grow in the body of Christ. We're edifying that body. We're growing or learning of
Him. We're learning of Christ. So
if we're speaking truth, it's going to be that which is aiding
our growth in the Lord, that edifies us in the body of Christ.
So back in verse 25, we're to speak every man edifying truth
with his neighbor. We're to speak edifying truth
with his neighbor, that which edifies our neighbor. And then
the next question is, well, who is my neighbor? my neighbor,
right? Isn't that always the question
that our flesh asks? Because in my old man of flesh,
to my shame, I get what that Pharisee was asking. I understand
why he's asking that question. It was Luke 10 29, but he, that
self-righteous Pharisee, willing to justify himself, said unto
Jesus, and who is my neighbor, because in the flesh I want to
narrow that number down of who I should be speaking compassionately
to, of who I should be speaking to with grace, being filled with
grace as the Lord's taught me. Because if speaking the truth
in love is to edify my hearer, the most edifying thing I can
do is speak of his grace, speak of his The most edifying thing
I can do is speak any words that are perfumed and seasoned with
the gospel. It's so easy to talk about things
in the flesh. I know, I get it. I do it. And
it's so easy to just find common ground in the flesh, and it can
be so hard to find any common ground with another in the gospel. But we seek to The most edifying
thing I can do is speak with words seasoned and perfumed with
the gospel that so blesses my heart, and to do works that testify
of the gospel that I believe. And it should be evident that
I'm a new creature in Christ. Again, I'm not in a self-righteous
way or putting on airs to appear pious, but just a genuine desire
to be kind, and a genuine desire that the Lord would give opportunity
to speak more. And the Lord is able to do that.
And so Paul says, every man is to speak truth with his neighbor,
for we are members one of another. And that would seem to imply
that my neighbor then are those who are of the body of Christ. But remember what our Lord taught
us in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Remember what we learned
from the parable of the Good Samaritan, that it was the Samaritan,
or a neighbor, let me first say, a neighbor can be anyone of any
nation of any religion. A neighbor can be anyone, friend
or foe, believer, non-believer. It could be anyone. And it was
the Samaritan who showed compassion to a certain man, a man who was
not of his nation. A man who was not of his religion.
It was the Samaritan who showed compassion so that when he showed
him compassion, he made that man his neighbor. And the Lord
said, asked, who was neighbor? Who was the one that was neighbor
to the man? And he said that the Samaritan,
that the Pharisee confessed the Samaritan was neighbor to him. And that is that anyone that
we show compassion to, anyone that we speak edifying words
to, we're making them our neighbor. We're being neighborly to that
one. So whoever you meet and know,
make them your neighbor. Treat them as such. Treat them
as you would your neighbor. Because you probably are a little
more kind and patient with your neighbor, given all the stories
of things we've heard about how neighbors go to battle with one
another, you try to be a little more patient and understanding
and gracious to them, because you have to walk out every day
and see them. Well, whoever you meet, be their neighbor. Be their
neighbor. Be kind to them, rather than
justifying ourselves in a manner that we don't have to show compassion
to such a one. Just try that driving on the
road, on the highway, when someone cuts you off. And you think,
I'm going to show them what they just did. And then you zip around,
and you come close to their bump or two. But that's not being
neighborly. That's not being neighborly.
And then, speak the truth in love to them, that your words
and your actions may minister grace unto the hearers. And these words, what I'm saying
here, it resonates with what Paul says, even when he was writing
to the Colossians. Go there to Colossians chapter
4, and look at verses 5 and 6. Colossians 4 verses 5 and 6. He says, walk in wisdom toward
them that are without redeeming the time. Walk in wisdom to them
that are without redeeming the time. Let your speech be always
with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought
to answer every man. And so gracious speech, which
is seasoned with salt, that's what Paul's talking about when
we come to verse 29 in our text, Ephesians 4.29. When he says,
let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but
that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister
grace unto the hearers. So when Paul is describing our
speech as that which is good to the use of edifying and that
it may minister grace unto the hearers, that can sound mysterious
to us. And we wonder, well, how am I
going to do that? How am I going to minister grace
unto the hearers? you actually know it more than
what you think you do. And I kind of got into it earlier
in the message, but we know it more than we think we do because
it's in accordance with how the Spirit has given us to know Christ,
has given us a learning in Christ. So that, again, let me say, our
God has been very gracious to us. Think of how your Lord is
gracious to you and then be gracious to others in that same way. That's
the way we're seeking. That's the way we're praying.
It doesn't always work out that way, even when we start the day
in prayer. We see how quickly we're turned
away from being gracious and patient with others, but we seek
to. We seek to remember to be gracious
and we seek the Lord for it because only he can do that in us. Only he can work this in his
child. Now, think of another example.
There was a time When we were in darkness, and in darkness,
we lashed out at God. We spoke harshly to Him. We criticized
Him. We thought ill of Him and what
He was doing. We falsely accused Him and blamed
Him for our own problems, our own sins, and our own weaknesses,
and the trouble that we put ourselves into by our own foolishness. But God, you that are here, God
was very patient with you. God was very patient with you
and spoke kindly to you. In that same manner, when people
are lashing out at you and criticizing you and being harsh to you, be
patient. Be patient with them and speak
kindly to them, especially if they're lashing out at you for
your hope in Christ, for your hope in Christ. Our Lord said
in Matthew 5, 11 and 12, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and
persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you
falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you." And so they treated the prophets that
way. The Lord is just bringing you to experience and share in
the sufferings of our Lord and our Lord's people. Then another
thing that we should know is that we sinned and rebelled against
God, but he delivered us and he brought us into the light. He was merciful, he brought us
into the light, and we saw our sin. And when we saw our sin,
we were broken. We were sad and sorrowful when
we saw our sin and how we sinned against Holy God. And we cried
out to Him and we asked Him for forgiveness. And our God forgave
all our sins and trespasses in Christ. In a like manner, when
someone has sinned against you and they seek your forgiveness,
forgive them. Forgive them. If they ask you
to forgive them, forgive them. and do that in the same manner
that the Lord has forgiven you. And then even if they don't seek
your forgiveness, forgive them as well. He says there, look
at verse 26 and verse 27. He says, be ye angry and sin
not. Being angry isn't sinful. Our
Lord is angry with the wicked every day. Be angry and sin not. That is, don't now start thinking
out ways, thinking evil of them and thinking out ways to get
them back. Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath, neither give place to the devil. And what he's saying
there is, let it go. Pray to the Lord. Yes, you're
upset about it, and rightly so. But don't keep entertaining how
you're going to make them to know what they did to you and
how to get them back. And he says, don't let the sun
go down on your anger, because that gives the devil a lot to
work with. It gives him a lot to work with. When you harbor that and entertain
it and just keep feeding it and festering it, it gives the evil
one a lot to work with. What I've been thinking, especially
with brethren, especially with brethren who love our Lord and
believe the Gospel, like it says there in 1 Corinthians 13, I'll
just read in verse 7 and 8, this is what comes to my mind, that
love beareth all things, love believeth all things, hopeth
all things, love endureth all things. And Paul says, and love
never faileth." And my takeaway, what I see in that most, what
blesses my heart in that and for my brethren is, you know,
when there's an offense given, there's things that the Lord
teaches me, whether I'm the offender or have been offended. There's
still things that I see that the Lord teaches me in it and
turns me from foolishness and and sin, and me, and the Lord
instructs me, and I'm learning in that. Well, love for my brethren
believes, well, God's being gracious to me, and he's teaching me.
and I'm slow to learn and slow to hear it, and yet he keeps
being patient with me, surely he's their God, and he's teaching
them, and he's revealing to them, and maybe it takes time, but
there's things that take time with me, and the Lord's yet patient,
and so love believes, Lord, you're working in my brother's heart,
you're doing that as well. I trust you, Lord, and that's
what love believes, and he's my God, and he's teaching me,
Well, surely he's teaching that, because he's their God as well. And so that's a help to us in
that sense. So we're to forgive. We're to
forgive. Let me just show you one other
thing. We forgive, because it says there in 2 Corinthians 2
verse 11, he was telling them, brethren, forgive your brother
who's repented. Forgive them, lest Satan, should
get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices. So don't give him lots to work
with. When thoughts like that rise
up in your mind, because they do, just remember, love beareth
all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, love endureth
all things, love never fails. Lord help me. And just love them
and let it go. again, every time it comes up
in your mind. Remember that God is kind to
the unthankful and to the evil. And it's a good thing, because
otherwise we'd never know. He's kind to us continually,
even when we're evil. And even, you know this truth
in that you did many foolish things, We do many foolish things
and say many vain and foolish words. We act careless. There's
times where we commit sin and grieve the Holy Spirit. And if,
you know, we still, we did it then and we still do it now. We still do it now. And yet our
Lord, he teaches us, he receives us, He welcomes us in. He teaches
us more and more when we're sitting here and hearing his gospel. He brings it to our remembrance,
and he gives us a heart continuum. Rather than us getting hard in
our sin, he keeps giving us a heart a soft heart that desires to
hear his word. Lord, let me hear your gospel
today. Lord, please bring me there and
turn me from all my worries and cares and let me see Christ. And so, in that, he's feeding
us with the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
his flesh is meat indeed, his blood is drink indeed, and he's
feeding us that in the gospel. He's renewing us and refreshing
us with the Holy Spirit. So in the same way, pray for
your brethren. receive them kindly and speak
edifying words of grace to them. And so that's how we minister
grace to the hearers. We're just taking that which
the Lord's taught us and revealed to us. And as we're speaking
to them or acting, you know, doing things or saying things
or not saying things, it's in the hope. that it's a spirit
of grace, and it's as we've learned Christ, what he's taught us.
It's all of grace. And so even simple words of rejoicing,
when a brother says to you or sister says to you, I'm just
thankful to be here, that's ministering grace to the hearer. That's saying,
wow, what an encouragement. I'm so thankful they want to
be here too. Thank you, Lord. That's ministering grace to the
hearers. And so Christ laid down his life
to serve you and to give us life through his blood. And so we
ought to be ready to lay aside our rights and to put aside the
honor or the respect that we think we deserve or that we really
do deserve. Just put it aside and serve your
brethren as Christ served his brethren. because he deserved
so much more than what we gave him and give him in this flesh. And so, especially do that with
your brethren. And Paul sums it up perfectly
here in verse 32. Ephesians 4.32, And be ye kind
one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. That's ministering grace
to the hearers. And it also, notice it says there,
the hearers and not my hearers or your hearers. It's, you know,
not everyone that we serve, not everyone that we're kind to is
going to hear the grace that the Lord has shown to you, or
the grace that you're ministering to them. Not all will hear it,
but those to whom the Spirit gives faith to, they are the
hearers. And we don't know who they are,
because we don't always see it. We rarely see how the Lord ministers
that grace to their hearts. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy
2.10, therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sakes.
that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus with eternal glory." And so whether we see it or not or
ever know how the Lord ministered grace to the hearer, His hearers,
that He made to hear it, we don't know, but we just want to be
kind and gracious. And so every one of us can minister
grace just by serving one another in the same way that our Lord
served us and ministered this to our hearts. So I pray that's
clear and that he grow us in that blessing towards one another
as we serve one another in his body. Amen. All right, let's
pray. Our gracious Lord, We thank you
for your teaching, for how you minister grace to us and have
taught us Christ. Lord, it's impossible in this
flesh, in this old man, to minister grace to the here. We know we
cannot do it. We see how we fail continually. But Lord, by your Spirit, in
the new man, we pray that you would indeed put on the new man
in us, that we would walk being led by your spirit, that we would
have a heart and a desire to minister grace to the hearers.
Lord, that you would work this in us and use us to serve the
body and to serve those that we meet and come in contact with.
Lord, I know I cannot do it in this flesh, but Lord, I seek
you for it and we seek you for it in us and for one another
that you would use this body to be ministers of the grace
which you've ministered to us, that we would just repeat it,
just be repeaters of that grace which you've given to us, trusting
that your spirit will apply it severally as you will to the
praise and the glory and the honor of your name It's in the
name of our Lord and Savior that we pray these things. Amen. All right. So let's take the
Lord's Supper and then we'll close in a hymn after. So Brother
Jordan and Scott, if you guys would come and hand out the elements. And Scott, if you would pray. before and then hand it out and
then I'll read. Father, we come to you again,
thankful for our time together and for a place to come and hear
the message. And Father, we are thankful that
the message coincided so perfectly, hearing it at a time that we
needed to hear it. And Lord, we ask that if any
have offended us, that we forgive them and vice versa. And again, we just ask that you
watch over and care for us. Get us safe into our homes, bring
us back safely on Wednesday. And Father, we ask that you bless
the food and the time that we're going to spend together, our
conversation. Father, again, we just ask that
you watch over and care for us in Christ's name. Amen. I'm just going to read it, and
then I'll sit down, and then we'll take the bread and the
wine together. But I'm going to read from Matthew
26. Matthew 26, and it's just three verses there. And you see
that this is for disciples, those who are learning Christ, those
who believe Him and follow Him. We have no righteousness of our
own of this flesh. He's all our righteousness. our
hope and we read there in Matthew 26 26 that as they were eating
the Passover Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and
gave it to the disciples and said take eat this is my body
and he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying
drink ye all of it for this is my blood of the New Testament
which is shed for many for the remission of sins." And so, this
doesn't confer any grace on us, meaning if there's some sin or
some trouble that God's going to heal you because you've taken
this. Our healing and our forgiveness is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We take this in remembrance of
Him who gave His life for us and blesses us with spiritual,
eternal life in himself. And we're just thankful for that.
So take the bread and the wine in remembrance of your Lord who
gave his life for you. Stand with me as we sing a closing
hymn 255, Blessed Assurance 255. ? Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
? ? Who would afford taste of glory divine ? ? Hair of salvation,
purchase of God ? ? Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood ?
? This is my story, this is my song ? Praising my Saviour all
the day long. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Saviour all the day
long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending, bring from
above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of
love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest, I in my Savior am happy and blessed, Watching and waiting,
looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Thank you.