Let's say about now. Let's say
about now. I know I went a little long,
but it's about. Sorry, we're just gonna sing
out of the soft ones, I'm sorry. I just had all my numbers in
here, that's why I brought it up. Let's begin our second service
by standing and singing out of your soft hymnal. 134, I once
was a stranger. 134. I once was a stranger to grace
and to God. I knew not my danger and felt
not my load. Though friends spoke in rapture
of Christ on the tree, Jehovah said, Can you? Was nothing to me. Like tears from the daughters
of Zion that rolled, I wept when the waters went over his soul. Yet thought not that the lizard
had knelt to the tree, Jehovah said, Can you? T'was nothing to me. When free grace awoke me by light
from on high, Then legal fear shook me, I trembled to die. No refuge, no safety in self
could I see. Jehovah said, can you? My Savior must be. My terrors all vanished before
the sweet name. My guilty fears vanished with
boldness I came. To drink at the fountain, life
giving and free. Jehovah said, can you is all
thanks to me. Jehovah said, can you my treasure
and boast. ? Jehovah said can you, I ne'er
can be lost ? ? In thee I shall conquer by flood and by field
? ? My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield ? You would turn to
101, Electing Love Adored 101. ? Oh, glory to the great I Am ?
? Who chose me in the blessed Lamb ? ? Though millions of this
fallen race ? ? Shall never know or taste His grace ? ? Praise,
honor, power, and glory be ? ? To Christ, the Lamb of Calvary ?
? Who gave His life's atoning blood ? ? And reconciled me to
my God ? Grace to the spirit must be given Who frees from
sin and leads to heaven Chosen, redeemed, and called by grace
God alone I give my praise. Thank you. Morning, everybody. Turn with
me to Amos 3. Amos 3. Hear this word that the Lord
hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole
family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you
only have I known of all the families of the earth, therefore
I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together
except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest
when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of
his den if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon
the earth where no djinn is for him? Shall one take up a snare
from the earth and have taken nothing at all? Shall the trumpet
be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there
be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the
Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto
his servants, the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will
not fear? The Lord God hath spoken. who can but prophecy, publish
in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of
Egypt and say, assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria
and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the
oppressed in the midst thereof. For they know not to do right,
saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their
palaces. Therefore, thus saith the Lord,
the Lord God, an adversary there shall be even round about the
land, and he shall bring down the strength from thee, and thy
palaces shall be spoiled. Thus saith the Lord, as the shepherd
taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an
ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell
in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus on a couch. Here
he and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the
God of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions
of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel, and
the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground,
and I will smite the winter house with the summer house, and the
houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have
an end, saith the Lord. Father, we come to you this morning
just, again, just humbled to be here, to hear the gospel and
why you would put us here. We've earned nothing. We have
no reason to have been brought here, but through your free grace
and love, you've brought us here. You brought us here to hear the
gospel. And Father, we come to you so thankful for that. And
again, just for a place to come and hear a pastor that you've
sent us, that faithfully brings the message every week. And if
we don't deserve it, Father, but we're so thankful that you
stepped in, stopped us in our sprint to hell and brought us
here. And again, Father, we just can't be thankful enough. And
we ask all this in Christ's name. Alright brethren, let's turn
to Mark chapter 5, and we're going to focus on verses 15 through
19. Now, what caught my eye in this
passage are the two different responses to the work of grace,
the work that Christ did in the heart of a sinner that he saved. This grace that he did for them. Now first, in verse 15, we see
the response to grace worked in the sinner saved. Look at
verse 15. They come to Jesus and see him
that was possessed with the devil and had the legion, now here's
his response, sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And then
we're given the response of those sinners who had no work of grace
given to them, done in them by the Lord, but were witnesses
of what the Lord did in grace for this man. We're given their
response. And it says at the end of verse
15, and they were afraid. They were afraid. And they that
saw told them how it befell him that was possessed with the devil,
and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him, beg
him to depart out of their coasts." So we see here in this passage
the difference that grace makes. And we draw from this how necessary
grace is. the one thing necessary. If God doesn't do a gracious
work in our hearts, we're gonna be just like these people here
who witnessed what Christ did for this man in grace and drove
him out, wanted him to leave. And so, even though there's a
recipient here that bears fruits in them, we see that it must
be particularly given, grace must be given into the heart
of a sinner for them to rejoice in the work that Christ alone
can do for his people. And those left to themselves,
seeing what had been done for this poor man, their response
was to pray, to beg Christ to leave, to depart from their presence. They wanted him to go away. They
didn't want him to stay. They weren't interested in him
doing any more gracious works among them. They just wanted
him to leave. But we're told in verse 18 that
this man that was healed by Christ, that after they begged Christ
to leave, when Christ was coming to the ship, it says that he
that had been possessed with the devil prayed him. that he
might be with him. One's begging him to leave, the
other one's begging him to let him go with him and to stay with
him, that he might be in fellowship with him in his presence. And
so we see in this the glorious work of grace that our God does
in the hearts of his people, what he does for a chosen sinner. And when he works that work in
our hearts, we see the fruit is that we want Him to be with
us evermore. We want Him to remain with us
and never to depart from us. Whereas the unsaved or ungracious
souls, they couldn't receive what was done and asked Him to
leave. So what is it gonna take for a sinner to desire Christ,
to desire His presence, to want Him to be with them and them
to be with Him forevermore because both parties here saw a work
of grace. They were made witness to a work
of grace. One done in them and the other
one had no work of grace done in them. Well from this we can
see that except the Lord do a work of grace in our hearts, we're
not going to want his presence. We're not going to want his presence,
and we're not going to want to be in the presence of those to
whom this work of grace has been done. So the title is, The Difference
Grace Makes. The Difference Grace Makes. And
we have just two points. First we'll see the natural man's
reaction to grace. When he witnesses what the Lord
has done for a sinner and saving a sinner, we'll see, we'll look
at scriptures that speak to the natural man's response to grace. And then we'll see what grace
looks like, what the fruit is of grace worked in us. All right,
so let's, Let's begin here with this natural reaction. Now we're
not talking about what man does for the Lord. This man didn't
do anything to earn this favor from Christ. We're talking about
what Christ did for him. And that's how salvation works.
That's how grace flows. It's not our works that obtain
this grace from the Lord. It's all his work. It's all his
mercy. and grace and kindness to us,
undeserving sinners. So the scriptures declare to
us that man naturally is dead in trespasses and sins, naturally
he doesn't love the Lord, naturally he has no light regarding the
Lord, and he doesn't have a knowledge of spiritual things or an understanding
of these things. Now our Lord crossed the sea. He just crossed the sea to get
to the country of the Gadarenes, to come to this people for this
man, to save this sinner. And it says in Mark 5 verse 2,
and we'll read down to verse 5, that when Christ was come
out of the ship, Immediately there met him out of the tombs
a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the
tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often
bound with fetters, those cuffs around his wrists and feet, bound
with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder
by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any
man tame him. No one could sit him down and
talk some sense into him. He was possessed of a legion
of devils. He was a wild man. He was a raving
man. He was a violent man and one
that people didn't want to be around. It says in verse five,
always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs
crying and cutting himself with stones. So here's a fellow that's
terrorizing this region. He's a terror to this region. People were afraid of him. He
had many demons in him who were called Legion, for we are many,
they said. After Christ healed this man,
the people that knew him, knew what he was about, knew what
was going on, heard the stories, witnessed things themselves,
they looked at this man and they feared. They were afraid. But they were afraid of Christ,
the one who healed them. And they began to pray Christ
to depart out of their coasts. Now, I ask you, would you want
somebody like that running around in your neighborhoods? I know
many of us, I know when I was young, There were places in different
cities and family members that I knew. There was woods. I was
told, don't go there. Kids disappear from those woods.
Don't play around there. Don't go to that park. Don't
hang out over there. And there were just places where
where we didn't go when there was people in the town that we
knew were weird and we just stayed away from them. But would you
want somebody like that in your city? And hearing of those stories
and someone running around your neighborhoods, running around
in the woods where your kids play or in the cemeteries, among
the tombs or at the fringes of the park, someone that you were
leery of, would you want them there around you? But what they're
saying here is that they were more comfortable with the terror
that this guy was bringing and what was going on with him so
that they couldn't even chain him. They had to chain him, but
it wasn't even successful. They were more comfortable with
him running around than the Lord who healed him of that and delivered
that region from the terror that this man was bringing on them. And that's a picture of the natural
heart. That's revealing to us the natural
heart. Not only the natural heart of
this man, not only do we see ourselves in this man who's mad
and raving mad and didn't believe, possessed of devils and a man
who couldn't be tamed. and had no sense about it. Not
only do we see ourselves there, but we also see ourselves in
the townspeople and the people that knew him who didn't want
Christ around and weren't comfortable among a person who worked grace
in his people and for his people. And so it shows just how we're
much more comfortable with the works of darkness and people
that live in sin and in rebellion than we are with someone in whom
a work of grace has been done. It's just shown what we are by
nature, what we are by nature. And so that one in whom the Lord
has done a work or who boasts of his grace is going to be more
despised than someone who's a filthy sinner and who does works of
darkness and is very free with those works of darkness. Listen
to this scripture in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14. We're told there
that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit,
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And so, the natural man, our
natural response left to ourselves, we're only going to have a natural
response to the witness of what the Lord is doing among His people. The house where we live now in
Springfield, we bought about three years ago. And once we
bought the house, the house next door was also gone up for sale. And somebody bought that house
and moved in shortly after we did. And I remember talking to
my neighbor. And they're a little older than
us, about 10 years older. And he asked me what I did for
a living. And I told him I was a pastor. And you should have
seen the horror that came over his face. He looked like I just
told him that I was selling drugs out of my house. That all kinds
of horrible people were going to be shown up or something like
that. And that's because he had a vision of what life was going
to be like living next to a pastor. Someone who professed grace. and hope in the Lord. Now, it's
nice, we get along fine now, but the natural, his initial
response was a shock, like, uh-oh, what is this gonna be now for
me? Am I gonna be harassed by this guy and troubled by this
guy? And that's because we have a
comfort level. By nature, we have a comfort
level, more so with people that we think are like us. that are
just sinners, just like us, nothing special about them, nothing done
for them. And that's because we perceive
naturally what it means when someone professes grace and a
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in John 3, verses 19 and
20, he tells us why this is. He tells us why it is. He says,
this is the condemnation light, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming
to the world, and men loved darkness rather than light. They loved
darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are
evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hated the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved." And so if the Lord comes to one of His
lost sheep and works a work of grace in them, there's going
to be an effect of His grace. He's going to give them a new
heart. There's going to be a difference
that He works in them because Christ dwells in our hearts by
faith. He dwells in our hearts by faith.
And it's not that we're trying to be different. Some people,
after they hear, they try to be righteous and they try to
be different among others and to affect some change in others. But it's not that we're trying
to appear righteous. which is nothing more than self-righteousness. We're not trying to do that,
but we would bring honor to the Lord, and there's things that
we're no longer comfortable with. There's certain things that we're
just not comfortable with that we would have been comfortable
with previous to that work of grace. But it's the Lord who
has to work it in us, and so we want to honor Him. We don't
want to just run and put on the appearance that we don't want
to hide the light and hide the fact that he's done a work of
grace in us, but we're also not trying to do it. And yet, even
so, where grace is found, there's going to be an effect, there's
going to be a change to where you that have been turned by
the Lord, you may be counted as an outsider from people that
were once your close friends. If you turn over to 1 Peter 4,
we see this. 1 Peter 4, he speaks to this
very thing. And look at verse one. For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with
the same mind. For he that hath suffered in
the flesh hath ceased from sin." And what that means is we cease
having that as our pursuit. Living simply for the pleasure
of sin. Just to do the things that we
want to do that we know are sinful or offensive. to the Lord, the
Lord by the indwelling of His Spirit and Christ living in us,
there's things that we're just not comfortable with doing anymore,
that once we had no problem with. Verse 2, that he no longer should
live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men,
but to the will of God. For the time past of our life
may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when
we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revelings,
banquetings, and abominable idolatries. wherein they think it strange
that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking
evil of you." So it doesn't always happen. You don't necessarily
lose all your friends and you're not trying to lose all your friends. Again, it's not about putting
on a show of pretense and trying to be different. But if you want
to honor the Lord in all things, there's going to be some things
that you're just not comfortable with doing that you may have
been done before. And so there's a discord that
does come in between you and the world. There is a discord
that comes in between you because you can't make the natural man
understand the work of grace. We can be clear. We can declare
Christ simply, we can tell them of what he's done for us and
the hope that we have in him, but we can't work that faith
in their hearts. All we can do is speak the truth
in love and kindly and patiently, but we can't make them to see
the truth or believe it. And at the same time, while we
want to get along with them, we don't wanna bend the knee
and do that which is against our conscience and the light
that the Lord has given us. We don't want to just let foolish
things that we know are against Christ come out of our mouth.
We stop doing those things. Again, I'm not talking about
just changing things to change them. There's just certain things
that, after grace, we're not comfortable with and we don't
want to pursue and keep doing the way we used to be able to
do them. Paul said in Romans 12, verses 17 through 18, He said, recompense to no man
evil for evil. Don't strike back the way you've
been struck. If someone's done you wrong,
don't seek to do them wrong back in turn. Provide things honest
in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Be at peace. Be kind. Be gentle. Be patient. Talk to them. There's nothing
wrong. with that, live peaceably among others. But the reality
is that our Lord is going to be witnessed in us. If you used
to be harsh and mean and rude, and now you don't wanna be harsh
and mean and rude, people are gonna notice it. If you start
speaking kindly to them, they're gonna see it. And he says, turn
over to Hebrews 13, Hebrews 13. And look down at verse 12. Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have
no continuing city, but we seek one to come by him. By his spirit and his grace,
therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.
That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But
to do good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices,
God is well pleased." And so, it's not wrong to have friends
that don't believe that don't agree with you. It's not wrong. We're not seeking to separate
ourselves from them and lose that friendship or those opportunities
to declare what Christ has done for us. Just know that the time
may come that your relationship cools off. It's on ice. It's
not quite the same as it was. And it can be for the subtlest
of things. And it's because the work of
grace has changed you. It's the work that the Lord works
in you where you're more interested to honor Him than you are to
do something that captures their attention with you more. Not always, it's just the work
of grace that the Lord does in the heart of His people. So that
brings us to what does grace look like? What am I talking
about? Am I talking about putting on some show of religion, some
show of self-righteousness, something to try and make ourselves appear
different? Not at all, I'm not. Not speaking
of that, but we see here in our text, looking at verse 15, we're
given Marks of grace, he declares what this grace looks like. It
says, and he did it not only for this man, but this is what
our Lord accomplishes in all our hearts. This is what he does. It says that they came, verse
15, they came to Jesus, they see him that was possessed with
the devil and had the legion, and it says that they saw him
sitting and clothed and in his right hand. So this is speaking
to what Christ, by his grace and power, does for every child
of God. We're gonna be found sitting
and clothed and in our right mind. Where are we sitting? Where are we sitting now? Well, the child of God is delivered
by Christ out from the power and dominion of the evil one. were delivered from the dominion
of death and sin so that now we will be glad to be found sitting
at the feet of our Lord, to learn of Him. There is a time when
we were either knowingly or unknowingly taken captive by the evil one
at His will. But now, after that Christ has
come by His grace, We're called of Him and used of Him for His
will and for His purpose. We're under our Lord and Savior's
dominion and He's teaching us. We're seated at His feet to hear
of Him and to learn of Him so that He's working in us His will
and doing things according to His purpose, to the glory and
honor of his name and he's taken our heart. I was going to say
transforms our heart, but the word according to the scriptures,
he takes out this heart of flesh and he gives this heart of this
natural man and he gives us a heart. He words it in Ezekiel, a heart
of flesh, but it means it's a soft heart, a tender heart, a contrite
heart. A heart that is moved by the
touch of our God, and hears Him, hears His word, and hears His
voice. We desire His presence, and we
want to learn of Him. You know, the Scriptures give
us an example in Martha and Mary, right? And sometimes we are like
Martha, where we're just doing, doing, doing, but there's times,
by His grace, where we are like Mary. where we're found seated
at the feet of Christ to hear him. We just want to hear him.
We want all the other distractions and the actions and the activities
to go, and we just want to be found seated before our Lord
to learn of him, to hear his gracious word, to hear him speak
to us. Martha had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus's feet and heard his word. And the Lord
said of her, he said, Mary hath chosen that good part which shall
not be taken away from her. Is there something wrong with
Mary? Is she weird? Is she to be despised? Or has
she chosen that good part? And when we really think about
it, we know that's right where I want to be. I want to hear
of my Lord. I want to hear Him. and learn
of Him. She's persecuted sometimes for
that, for that desire to be with Christ. But what's better? To
learn of the world? Sometimes we want to hear and
learn all there is to learn about the world, to learn its ways
and to learn the intricacies and some of the exciting things
that we've heard about. But what's better? The world
or Have we chosen that good part which shall not be taken away
from us in Christ? Well, this man of grace in whom
the Lord worked his grace was found, Luke tells us, because
the parallel to Mark 5 there is he was found, Luke 8, is that
he was found sitting at the feet of Jesus. He was found sitting
at the feet of Jesus, just like Mary. was found seated at Christ's
feet, because that's where grace puts the sinner, the sinner saved,
puts us at the feet of Christ to learn of Him. Peter tells
us in Acts 2.36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye have
crucified, both Lord and Christ. And that means, what he's saying
there is that He is the power and the authority to take us
out of our mad dash to hell and to seat us at the feet of Christ,
to humble us, to bring us low in self. It takes time. It takes a lifetime. And we never
come to perfection in this flesh. We're perfected in Christ. And He has us. And He's keeping
us. And He'll never let us go. But
He grows us so that more and more we desire Him and less and
less of the things of this world. We decrease and He increases,
as John the Baptist learned and said to us. So by His power,
He seats us before Christ to hear of Him and gives us a desire
for Him. When His grace is worked in us,
that's what we desire. We desire to be seated before
Him. We desire to hear more of Him,
to receive larger and larger crumbs, greater and greater meals,
more and more of what He has to say to us, because grace works
that in us. And if the world persecutes us
for it, we're okay with that. We're okay with that. If we have
Christ, then the world can be taken from us. So grace is what
we need, and grace seats us at the feet of Christ like he did
Mary and like he did this man. We're also told, well, by Luke
in Luke 8, 27, that he wear no clothes. When he was running
around possessed with the legion, he wear no clothes. He was running
around naked. But now when they come and they
see him, He's not only seated at Christ's feet, but he's clothed. He's clothed, meaning that he's
not naked. He's not ashamed. He's no longer
naked, and he no longer has anything to be ashamed about. He wasn't
ashamed back then when he was naked, but now if he was left
sitting there naked and all the townspeople came up, he'd have
been ashamed. But Christ clothed him, clothed
him and took away his shame. We're told in the word that by
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities, meaning he takes away our shame. He's put away our sin. He's clothed
us with his righteousness. Peter in Acts 4.10 says, be it
known unto you Be it known unto you all, and to all the people
of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth
this man stand before you whole, whole. When Christ, by His grace,
comes to us in power and gives us life, delivering us from our
sins, we're made whole. We're made complete. We are made
sufficient to stand before our God in perfect righteousness
and holiness, wanting nothing. Because that's what Christ does
for His people. By one offering He hath perfected
forever than that are sanctified, those whom God has set apart
for this work. He's perfected us, and he makes
us whole, and he puts his robe of righteousness on us so that
we're not afraid to die. We're not afraid to stand before
our God in judgment. That one who knows not Christ
is terrified to die, fearful of judgment, because they're
naked. And when we're naked, we're ashamed. before others.
And I don't want to be found naked before my God. But Christ
takes away that fear because He's established His grace in
our hearts, given us faith to know that by His death He put
away our sin. And we are righteous in Him. He is our righteousness. He is all we need to stand before
God all our days for all eternity because He is our life. He's made everything to the believer,
and so now we're clothed in Christ's righteousness. And then lastly,
we see that this man is found in his right mind. Washed away,
taken away, was the death and the darkness that prevailed in
this man's mind. leaving him clouded under a veil
of sin, of dead religion, of death, of dead works, of all
those things. Christ delivered him from that
and now Christ rules in his heart and his mind. Not because this
man asked him to, but because Christ has the power and the
authority and by his glory he came into this man's heart and
delivered him. Delivered him grace and so this
man was given the spirit whereby he made alive by the spirit whereby
he now knows Christ as we read in 1st Corinthians 2 12 now we
have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which
is of God that we might know having a right mind that we might
know the things that are freely given to us of God a right man
a right mind and knows what has been given to us in free grace
and by the free grace of God in Christ Jesus we know these
things and it comes through the gift of the Holy Spirit whereby
we are given life delivered from death made alive to know him
to know that Christ is my righteousness he's everything He's made all
to us, and so that we are now holy and accepted of God. That's peace. That settles the
troubled mind. That makes us to know, Lord,
I'm so thankful for what you've done for me in your Son, Jesus
Christ, that you're not looking to my works, that one moment
I'm not up here, and the next moment I'm down here. Sometimes
we feel that way in ourselves, in our feelings, but we know
in the new man that it's all made right by the Lord Jesus
Christ himself, regardless of how I feel, regardless if I feel
down or sad or worried, my Lord has it all because he's made
everything to us. Turn over to Romans 8, 14. This is the faith that our Lord
works in us by his grace, established in our heart heart of every child
he loves and whom he's died for it says in Romans 8 verse 14
through 17 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they
are the sons of God for you've not received the spirit of bondage
again to fear our God isn't whipping us and beating us and telling
us to do better under the law he's comforting us in Christ
Ye've received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. So when you read this passage,
you see there's There's two responses to grace. One rejected the work
that they saw Christ did in the heart of this man. They rejected
that work. They didn't want to know it or
understand it. They were offended and asked
him to go away. They were afraid. We see it in
other parts of the scriptures. You know, the Jews, when they
heard Paul speak, said, away with such a fellow from the earth.
It's not fit that he should leave. So there's times where the word
despises, where the word is offensive and men despise that work of
grace in the hearts of his people. But we also see where the work
of grace is done in that heart, in the heart of the sinner saved. It says there that when Jesus
was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil
prayed him that he might be with him. How be it Jesus suffered
him not, but saith unto him, go home to thy friends and tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had
compassion on thee. So you just be patient. Many
in the world will not appreciate you. They won't rejoice in the
grace. You can't make them understand,
but there are some that heard this man and marveled at what
the Lord had done for him. And that's all we can do, is
be faithful to what the Lord has worked in our hearts by grace,
to just declare that according to the truth of our God and love. And so, even though we haven't
been removed from this world, even though we're still here,
We serve Him. We want to honor Him. We can
speak of what He's done for us. It's not about convincing others
of the truth or convincing others to believe Him. But we know whom
we have believed and we know that He's able. So go in that
strength and that comfort and declare what He's done for you.
And they'll marvel at it. Some will marvel and some will
even be drawn. but by the Lord to the Lord.
And so I pray that he works that grace in our hearts, settles
us, establishes us in Christ and ever keeps us. And that he
works that desire in us to ever be with him. But that wherever
we are, we're content to declare what he's done for us and how
that he's had compassion on us. And the Lord will take that as
he wills. and work it in the hearts of
his lost sinners, and join us to his sheep, and bless his people
there. So I pray he bless that word
to your heart. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for what we see here. Lord, that you did not leave
us to ourselves, but that you worked this grace in us. That
You've seated us at the feet of Christ. Lord, ever keep us
there. That You've clothed us. Lord, let us rejoice in and be
glad in Your righteous robe which You've put upon us. And Lord,
ever keep us in our right mind, looking to Christ, resting in
Him, trusting in Him, not going back to the law, not being turned
out of the way. But Lord, keep us. as you did
for this man, do for us as well. It's in Christ's name that we
pray and give thanks. Lord, we ask that you would bless
your work here, that you would bless your people, and you would
cause your word to go forth into the hearts of your people to
deliver us out of darkness, out of the chains and dominion of
sin, and that you would give life to your people use the ministration
of the word, the gospel word here, to call out your people
and to gather us together and to edify your body here. It's
in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. 137. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn of 137. What a day that'll be. So, There is coming a day when no
heartache shall come, no more clouds in the sky, no more tears
to dim the eye. All is peace forevermore on that
happy golden shore. What a day, glorious day that
will be. What a day that will be when
my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon His face, the
one who saved me by His grace. When He takes me by the hand
and leads me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day,
that will be. be no sorrow there, no more burdens
to bear, no more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there. And forever I will be with the
one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that
will be. What a day that will be when
my Jesus I shall see, and I look upon his face, the one who saved
me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand
and leads me through the promised land, what a day, glorious day,
that will be. Thank you.