Or else I die. Well, we're going
to look in Ephesians again. John read chapter 2 yesterday. Tommy read chapter 1 this morning. And I pray the Lord that was, oh
my, thank you. Mike and Debbie has been such
a blessing for so many years, oh my goodness, decades, decades. And yesterday, I'll tell you
this, one of the best days I've enjoyed in years. I mean, boy,
we had good services yesterday morning, the singing's been good,
the fellowship's And then go out there and eat like, you folks
must think we preachers are fattening hogs, you know? You get scared
to death we're going to lose weight and wither away to nothing. So you've got to feed us. But
I appreciate it. I loved every bit of it. I ate
enough for two of us yesterday. But I appreciate it so much.
And I am so thankful, John, that you asked me. And I'm so grateful
for all your love and appreciation for me. I've enjoyed myself very, very,
very much. All right, let's look here and
I'm going to start in verse 7 and read down to verse 10. And by
God's grace, I hope to say some things about these verses of
scripture. Ephesians 2, 7, that in the ages
to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. By introduction, let me say that
God's glorious an eternal purpose in this world is being carried
out, particularly His purpose towards His elect people. He
has an elect people, and He s carrying out His purpose in this world,
and everything that happens in this world, God does it for His
elect. Everybody else gets to enjoy
it, but He does what He does for His elect people. And words
are a wonderful That's how we communicate with one another.
God communicated with us through His Word. In the beginning was
the Word, the Word was with God, the Word, all things that was
made was made by Him. God came and communicated to
us through His Word. Made Himself known to us, communicates
us, and words is what we communicate with one another with. And words
are wonderful words, especially if you know the meaning of them.
If you know what they mean, like for instance DEAD. Here in Ephesians
1.2.1 it says, You that were DEAD in trespasses and sins. You know what DEAD means? DEAD
means you can speak to a fellow and he can?t hear you. You show
him something and he can?t see it. You put a burden on him and
he can?t feel it. So something has to be, you know,
when you KNOW what DEAD means, then you understand what the
natural state of a man is, and this natural state also is by
nature the children of wrath. You know, another word is QUICKENING,
you that were DEAD in trespasses, DEAD in your sins, YOU, YOU,
that were like that, I've quickened you, I've given you life, that's
what word quick, life, giving life, quicken you from the dead.
He read over there a minute ago in Ephesians 1, with the same
power that God used to raise Christ from the dead, that's
the power He used to give us life. He said, by the same power
that He raised Christ, that's the power that He saved us with,
the same power. And then the word together. Oh,
listen to what it says here, Ephesians. in verse 5 of Ephesians
2, And even when you were dead in sins, hath quickened us TOGETHER
with Christ. Look what it says in verse 6,
Hath raised us up TOGETHER, made us to sit TOGETHER in heavenly
places in Christ. TOGETHER! Everything Christ did,
we re TOGETHER! You know, we're so united to
Him, what He did, we did. He said, we're together. He quickened
us together, raised us together, set us together, everything that
Christ did, He said, we've done it together. We're together with
Christ. And then God, oh, God, look what
He says there in verse four after he told all the bad condition
we were in the state we were in but then he comes around and
says but god god god himself god almighty god who is sovereign
god who is gracious and he said god who is rich rich in his mercy
oh my i never That's one thing about apostles writing, they'll
put the awfulest, darkest picture, and then they'll turn around
and just turn on the light. But God, here you were dead,
here you were by nature, children of Israel, but God, that's what
has to happen, but God has to come. But God is the one that's
got all the riches. We was poor, He's got to have
the riches. I THANK GOD FOR GOD HIMSELF AND
WHAT HE DOES. I TELL YOU, I WAS PREACHING LAST
WEDNESDAY, NO, LAST SUNDAY NIGHT ON SEVEN ELEMENTS OF FORGIVENESS,
AND I TALKED ABOUT GUILT, GUILT, AND YOU KNOW, PHILEMON ONESIMUS
WAS A FUGITIVE, AND WE WERE ALL FUGITIVES, AND WHAT GOD HAS TO
DO IS HE HAS TO COME AND GET US WHERE WE?RE AT, And a fella
told me after, I said, I wish I'd have said that. He says,
you know, we're all fugitives. And he ran across a preacher
in Rome, but he said, God has to come and, you know, we're
all fugitives and God has to come get us by the nap of the
neck and bring us to himself or we won't come. And I said,
well, I wish I'd have thought of that and said that when I
was up there. But he does. You know, I'm serious about this.
God Almighty has to come and get a hold of you or you won't
come. GOD HIMSELF IN HIS WEALTH HAS
TO COME AND GET AHOLD OF YOU! HE HAS TO LAY HANDS ON YOU! HE
HAS TO PUT A POWER TOWARD YOU AND TOWARD US THAT ONLY HE HAS
THE POWER TO DO THAT, AND IF HE DOESN'T DO THAT, A MAN WILL
SIT AND NEVER KNOW WHAT IN THE WORLD HAS HAPPENED IN THIS WORLD!
And then look at another, riches, riches. Look in verse seven there
says that in the ages to come he might show the riches of his
grace and you read it over in Ephesians 1 it says the richest
twice twice god who is rich how wealthy you reckon the lord is how wealthy you reckon he is A lot of people got a lot of
wealth in this world, but there's nobody rich as God. The earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The heavens is His throne,
the earth is His footstool. God's got so much wealth and
He is so rich. He's been given grace and mercy
and power and love and kindness and salvation as long as he s
been God when he created Adam, and he has got as much as he
did when he started. All he does is give and he s
not any poorer than he was when he started. He s rich! He s rich! I remember one time years and
years ago, I was out in a little old country church, and there
was a big mountain that was at the top of Spencer Mountain.
I said, just stop at this little old country church, and I stand
there talking to the fella that runs the store, and I said, see
that mountain over yonder? He said, oh yeah. I said, my
father owns that. He said, what in the world are
you talking about? He said, I don't know who owns
that mountain. And I said, yeah, my father owns it. And my father
does. He owns the mountains and the
cattle on a thousand hills. And me and John was talking for
the service. I live from God's mouth to my
hand. I live on his wealth. And we
all do. Ain't you grateful that he's
wealthy? And he, you know, how much mercy does he give you?
How much grace does he give you? And he just keeps giving. And he's got exactly the same
as he did when he started. And oh, we're going to see it
one of these days, we're going to see it. Oh, he's wealthy.
And I tell you what, this wealth is in the ages to come. That's
what he says. And when we look for a motive
for God doing anything for us, he read it there just a few minutes
ago, that God predestinated us, made us accepted in the Beloved
according to the good pleasure of His will. He just willed to
do it. It was His good pleasure to will
to do what He did for anybody. He loved us because He willed
to do it. He gave us grace because He willed
to do it. He predestinated because He willed
to do it. That was His good pleasure to
do that, good pleasure to do that. And here in Ephesians 2.8,
I want to look at Ephesians 2.8, and I want to give you three
I hope by God's grace give you three blessed, wonderful gospel
words, gospel words. And they're in verse eight. The
first word is saved, saved. The second word is grace, three
great gospel words. And the third gospel word is
faith. Oh, a lot of people, these words
have no meaning whatsoever. They've been overused, they lost
their meaning. But if they ever had a meaning
at all, I thank God that God's taught me what they mean. But
when it says SAVED, SAVED, what does it mean to be saved? The
only people that's ever saved is people that's in trouble.
If you're not in trouble, you don't need to be saved. If you've
never been in danger, you've never been saved. If you've never
needed rescue, you've never been saved. When you go through the
Gospels, there are so many times that people were in trouble before
they called on the Lord. You know, Bartimaeus was blind,
he was in trouble, he was a beggar. Heard about Christ, Lord have
mercy on me. Peter was walking on the water
and he started going down. He said, Lord, I'm going to perish
if you don't save me. The woman at the well, she didn't
even know she was in trouble till Christ came. And then she
found out she was in trouble. She thought she would come to
get water and forgot all about water. Throw her water pot away. She went and said, come see a
man, told me all things. Oh, people gotta be in trouble,
trouble. That woman with the daughter,
with the grievously vexed daughter, come to the Lord. Lord, my, oh,
we're in trouble. Cornelius, I mean, the centurion
that brought his servants said, oh, he's gonna die. Oh, so many
things, so many people, people in trouble, but you won't never
be saved until you're in trouble. until you're in danger, until
you need a rescue. Now, I'll tell you some of the
dangers that people are in, and they don't, you know, first you're
in danger of God's justice. You're in danger of God's justice.
God's a just God, He's got to be just. And His justice demands
that His justice pay, somebody's got to pay the penalty for breaking
His holy law. And that's what the trouble that
men are in and they don't know it. They're in trouble with God's
law. Now, if you've ever been in trouble with the law in this
world, it's not a good place to be. You know, when they come
and knock on your door and arrest you. Or they find you in some
kind of bad trouble and they come and get you and the law
arrests you. That's what God's law does. He got to come and
arrest you. And you're in trouble with God's
law. And you know what makes people in trouble with God's
law? S-I-N, sin. Not sin, sin. And you know, in
trouble over their sin. No power. Here's another thing
that they have. We're in trouble with God's law.
We don't have the ability to keep it. We don't have the ability
To do anything about it. We don't. And we've got no power
to save ourselves. That's what he said, we're dead
in trespasses and sins. And I, you know, to be in trouble.
I've been in trouble a lot of times in my life. You know, there's
a difference in being troubled and being in trouble. And when
you're in trouble and you need a rescue, somebody else has got
to come and do that for you. You got lost here a while back,
you said you got lost. And it scares you when you get
lost. And when I got, he sang that
song, when I got lost, I got scared. When I got lost, I got scared.
I was like Mephibosheth when he come before David and said,
Lord, I'm a dead dog. Why in the world would you, King,
I'm a dead dog. Why would you have anything to
do with me? I was in trouble. I was in trouble over my sin.
I was in trouble over my shame. I was in trouble over my guilt.
I was in trouble before God Almighty. And there wasn't a thing in the
world I could do about it. And I knew I couldn't do anything
about it. And I'm telling you the truth. I come before God and I said,
and I remember saying this, I was about 22 years old. I remember
saying, Lord, I'd already spent 18 months in hospitals. I was
a mess. And I said, Lord, I know you
don't owe me a thing. Nothing. I was in such trouble that I
couldn't get help from my wife. I couldn't get help from my father,
my mother. I couldn't get help from a neighbor.
I couldn't get help from a preacher. I couldn't get help from nothing. Nobody could do anything for
me. Nobody, not a doctor, not a lawyer, nobody could do anything. I was like Peter, I was drowning. My head was, my nose was just
barely by the water. God didn't owe me a thing. Not
a thing. And all I said, Lord, if you,
but if you will, if you will, if you will, Would you have mercy
on me? I felt like the sorriest, mangiest
dog there was. But that's all I asked for mercy. For mercy. And I still ask for
the same thing. I'm still saying the same thing.
Mercy. Mercy. When it says here that
you were dead, a dead man has no power. God's law won't let you go. But
let me give you three tenths. You keep Ephesians and look with
me over in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Oh, excuse me, chapter
1. I'm sorry. 2 Corinthians chapter
1. There's three tenths of salvation
here. Three tenths of salvation. Most
folks, when they make a profession, you know, they say, well, I got
saved. You hear people tell you all
the time, I got saved. Well, I didn't get saved. Somebody asked me one time, they
say, do you tell people that you got saved or the Lord saved
you? I said, I always say the Lord saved me. She said, that's
what I thought, that's what I thought, that's what I felt like. That's a good question. Did you
get saved or did the Lord save you? But look what it said here
in 2 Corinthians 1.8. He said, we would not have you
ignorant of our trouble. See that there? We would not
have you ignorant of our trouble. We got in trouble, which came
to us in Asia, that this trouble came so bad that we were pressed
out of measure. We couldn't do anything to get
ourselves out of the situation. Above strength, we couldn't do
anything. And he said, we got in such trouble that we despaired
living. So we had the sentence. We said,
well, this is it. We had the sentence of death
in ourselves. And I think every believer does
that. He presses the sentence of death on himself. That we
should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the
dead. Now watch this. Which delivered
us from so great a death, and doth deliver us in whom we trust,
and will yet deliver us. three salvations. He saved us,
delivered us from the death of our sins. He DOES deliver us,
saves us, and He will YET save us. I HAVE BEEN, I AM BEING,
and I SHALL BE SAVED. Now, ain t that right? Don t
you think? And you know, one of these days I'm gonna be, what
old preacher you say, plumb saved. And boy, what a day that'll be,
plumb saved. We have been, we are, and we
are being saved. You know, our salvation is nearer
than when we believe. And we're not of them that turn
back unto perdition, but we believe to the saving of the soul. Let
me give you an illustration. There's so many in the Bible
about people need to be saved. You know, a fella gets out in
a shipwreck and we've heard a lot about people about shipwreck,
people dying in water and things like that, but they come out
and somebody's in a shipwreck, he's floating out in the ocean,
he's floating in the water. Somebody goes out there and get
a boat and they reach in there and grab him up out of the water
and pull him out of that water and put him in that boat. the
minute he?s out of that water and put in that boat, he?s SAVED! He?s SAVED! He don?t feel good,
he don?t feel saved, he?s got fears, he?s got doubts, but the
minute he?s taken in that lifeboat, he?s SAVED! He may still have
fear, maybe not feel safe, and it may be a long, long time before
he?s But His salvation is as complete when He got in that
boat as He's ever gonna be. And we're as completely saved
in Christ as we'll ever be, as righteous as we'll ever be. But
one of these days, we'll step from this world into the next
world. And that's how quick it'll be. God rescued me. And I needed
rescue, needed rescue. And then look at the second word
back over in our text. You gotta be in trouble. Gotta
be in trouble. And if you get in trouble, I'll tell you what you'll do.
You'll do just like Simon Peter did. Lord, save me or I'll perish. They was in that boat. They was
in a boat and that big storm came up. big old storm came up
our Lord Jesus Christ he is a man he was tired he'd land in that
boat asleep he had a pillow and the scripture said he was asleep
now God don't sleep but a man sleeps our Lord Jesus Christ
sleeping But they got in that storm and they run down there
and woke the Lord Jesus Christ up. That water was throwing on
that boat and getting up on the deck. And they run down there
and got the Lord Jesus up. And they said, Master, Master,
cares thou not that we perish? And that's where a lot of people,
Lord, don't you care what's going on in my life? And he got up. Now, listen, man,
God don't sleep. But when Christ got up, And he
just stood there and said, peace, be still. Man don't come, make
the wind stop. And man don't cause the waves
to lay down, but God does. And God said, they said, oh,
we're going to perish as sure as the world. But no, as long
as Christ's in the boat, they was as safe as it's ever going
to be. That's the way we are. But look
what he, back over here again, he said, by grace, Are you saved? Grace. I love that word. I love that word. Grace. Grace,
just a charming sound. You know, the scriptures is full
of the word of grace. And it's a hundred, the word
grace is mentioned 115 times in the New Testament. Mentioned
38 times in the Old Testament. 12 times in the book of Ephesians. Almost a hundred times by the
Apostle Paul Now I know that you all understand that grace
is God's undeserved favor his unmerited love We were dead in
sins, but God who is rich in mercy You know grace is God's
undeserved favor, and I'll tell you what We still don't deserve
anything and so everything we get God has to give it to us
And it's a favor when we talk about grace. Grace means it's
favor that you find in the eyes of a superior. A person whom
you can't claim any favorable treatment is a right. Can we
claim anything from God as a right? And that's what grace means.
A lot of folks think about their rights. And I have a right to
this and I have a right to that. And entitlement is now one of
the things that people talk about. Entitlement, entitlement, entitlement.
But when God talks about grace, that takes away everything that
we could possibly ever do. You know, if we get any favorable
treatment at all. Now, there's people that, you
know, if you got around somebody that looked at you and and treated
you with kindness and treated you with grace, and they're great,
great superior to you in wealth and intelligence or whatever
it might be. You'd feel favored, you'd feel
favored, you'd feel graced. And I tell you what, what a favor God shows towards
us. And you know, the word favorite,
if I could say it this way, first of all, Christ, is God's son,
but he made us his favorites. You know, people have big family. Now, who's your favorite child? But God said, these are all my
favorites. His favorites. What child's your
favorite? The one I'm with right then.
You know, we're God's favorites. You know, grace is discriminating
grace. People don't like discriminating
grace, but God's grace is discriminating. And you know what it discriminates
towards first and foremost? His sinners. His grace discriminates
towards sinners. If you're not a sinner, you know,
God's grace won't do anything for you. But when you're a sinner,
God discriminates towards you, only for sinners. And I'll tell
you, and He discriminates in whom He's gonna save by His grace.
He never intended to save everybody. He never, God doesn't love everybody. Christ didn't die for everybody.
God has a particular people. He died for those particular
people. And I'm telling you, bless His holy name, that He
gives His people discriminating grace. I've got a family. On my mother's side, I think
there was 10 or 11. On my dad's side, he had three
brothers, and I know my grandmother, my grandpa, and all these people,
and all my family. I got three brothers, two sisters, and I'm the only
one God done anything for, the only one. What happened? Why didn't he do that for one
of them and leave me alone? Why didn't he do that? Why did
he say, and I like what Tim said, you know why I'm named Donald
Bell? God before the foundation of
the world, He chose me Delighted in me and chose me in Christ
gave me grace in Christ before the foundation of the world You
know, that's and and he done it on purpose and and then you
know He said I want that boy to be named Donald Bale I'll
tell you where I want him to be born at he wanted to be born
in Dayton, Ohio You know what? I want him to do I want him to
grow up and And and I want his mother and daddy not to love
him not to care for him and farm him out when he's six Seven years
old. I watch what I want him to do And then I want him to
go to Vietnam, I want him to stay in Vietnam, I want him to
get messed up in Vietnam, and I want him to spend 18 months
in hospitals, I want him to go through every bit of that. And then there's gonna be a day
that I'm gonna cross his path. And when I cross his path, he's
gonna know it. And he is gonna be grateful all
the days of his life. Oh, I tell you what, what happened
there? Look over, keep Ephesians, look
at 2 Timothy 1.9. This is the verse of scripture
that God established me in the gospel. 2 Timothy 1.9. You all
know it, I can quote it to you, read it to you. But this is the
verse of scripture that God used to teach me the gospel. 2 Timothy
1.9, look what it says. I asked God three questions. I said, what part do we have in salvation?
What part do we have in holiness? And what part do we have in our
salvation? And look what it, and this is,
God answered every question right here. Who has saved us? Notice that s in the past tense,
and called us, and listen to this, with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, listen to this now,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And all those questions was answered
and my heart and soul settled down right then and there. And
you know where I was sitting? I was sitting in the woods up
behind my house, sitting in the woods with a shotgun. I went
up there to do squirrel hunting. I went up there and I was sitting
on a stump. And I read that verse of scripture and a light comes
on. A light shining out of dark places. As God shined the light out of
dark places, He shined in my heart. And oh my! When did He do this? Before the
world began. He chose us in Christ from the
foundation of the world. That's what grace is. That's
what grace is. And oh my! If someone doesn't
receive grace, What can you say? No one deserves it anyway. And
you know, they talk about Noah. They thought Noah was a just
man. And so God, since he is a just man, God said, I'll give
him grace. Noah was just like everybody
else in his day. His imagination was only evil
continued. You know what made the difference?
God said, I'm going to give grace to Noah. I'm going to give grace
to Noah. I'm going to single out Noah
out of this whole generation. And because I do that, I'm gonna
save his wife, his sons, his daughters, I'm gonna save them
all. I'm gonna save them all. And that's the first time that
you have the word grace mentioned. And I tell you, Noah found grace.
And Mary, all these people that worship Mary, the scripture says
that when the great boy came to her, he said, thou has found
favor with God. You've been graced by God. She
had to have the same salvation that you and I have. Mary was
saved the same way you and I was. And I tell you what, she'd tell
you that if she was here today. And I, you know, you take Mephibosheth,
He come out, listen, what did he deserve? He thought he was
gonna die. When David said, go get Mephibosheth and fetch him
over here and bring him over here. The first thing he thought
was when I get up before David, David's gonna slay me and kill
me. And that's why he come there
and laid down and said, I'm a dead dog. Why would you look upon
such a dead dog? Oh my, he didn't expect to live. He didn't expect to live. Oh,
Paul on the Damascus road. He didn't expect to have grace,
but then you know what he said? Here's only his way to put people
in jail. You know what he said later? When it pleased God who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace. Oh, Moses. I hope I don't take
too long, but look with me in Exodus 33. Exodus 33. This is a puzzling thing to me. I won't be puzzling to you, but
it is to me. Look what Moses here now, Moses,
he says here in verse 13, Exodus 33, 13. He says, Now therefore I pray thee
if I found grace in thy sight, What in the world is he asking
God if he found grace in his sight? He just done all kinds
of miracles and wonders down in Egypt. And then he says, show
me now thy way. That's the first thing grace
wants you to do. Show me now thy way. I don't want my way,
I want your way. Show me now thy way. And that
I may find grace in thy sight and consider this thy nation.
And he said, my presence shall go with you. And when God's presence
go with what Christ said, I'll give you rest. When God goes
with you, you get rest. Then look what else he said.
God just told him I'm gonna go with you, but he just, oh my. And he said, if your presence
go not with me, and listen to this, don't carry us. He said,
don't follow us. He said, don't carry us up. Lord,
he said, you gotta carry us. That's what he means, he carries
us. And then look what he goes on to say. And then the Lord
told him there, he said, wherein shall it be known that I and
thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is it not that you
go with us? Oh, that's how God, that's how
we know, he goes with us. And I and thy people upon all
the face of the earth are your people. You separated us by your
grace. And oh, and the Lord said to
Moses in verse 17, I'll do this thing that thou has spoken for
thou hath found grace in my sight. And listen to this, I know thee
by name. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. And he said, I'll beseech you
then. He said, after you've seen grace and understand God gave
him grace. And this is the thing we want.
He said, show me your glory. I want to see your glory. Oh,
I'll make all my goodness pass before you. How good is God?
How good is God? How good is He? Oh, He's good! He is good! There will not be
anybody that faces God in judgment that they can't say, God wasn't
good to them. Not anybody will be able to face God and say,
God wasn't good to me. God is good. He's good in three
persons. He's good in God, the Father,
good in God, the Son, good in God, the Holy Ghost and all His
goodness. And he said, then I'm going to
pray, proclaim the name of the Lord. I'm going to pray, proclaim
the name of God Almighty. And this is what he says. I'll
be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll show mercy to whom I show
mercy. And he said, you can't see my
face. For thou shalt no man see me and live. And oh, look what
the Lord said, behold, there's a rock by me. I'm going to put
you in that rock. And this is what God said. He
said, I'm going to put you in that, and then I'm going to put
my hand over you. You know, our Lord said this.
He said, you know, you're in my hand and you're in my father's
hand. And no man can pluck you out
of my hand. You know what that means? You got a two-fisted salvation. Christ's hand, God's hand. Now,
if you open them hands, you've done something. All right, let
me get on with you. God's grace is given to us in
Christ. He gives it to us in the rock.
He hides us in the rock. He cries to us our rock. And
it's the gift of God. Back over in our text. He says,
you know, for by grace are you saved through faith and that
not of yourself. It's the gift of God. Grace is God's gift. It's free. It's free. I love
it. My favorite subject about grace
is free grace. It's free grace. God's not obligated
to give it. He'll show mercy to whom I show
mercy. Grace is entirely dependent upon
God's will. It's never deserved. If it's
of works, it's not of grace. If it's of grace, it's not of
works. And then there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. Men who believe God's word and
been saved by the grace of God is overwhelmed by God's grace. Overwhelmed by God's grace. Grace
is God's love, unconditional. God who is rich in mercy. It's
unevoked, it's undeserved. Come thou fount of every blessing. tuned my heart to sing thy grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now
am found, was blind, but now I see. T'was grace that taught
my heart to fear, t'was grace my fears relieved. How precious
did that grace appear! The hour I first believed. Oh my. Oh, and it's not of works,
not of works. Not by weeping, not by crying,
not by working. And then look at the last word.
Grace saved through faith. And listen to what it says about
faith and grace and salvation. It's not of yourself. Grace is
not of yourself. Salvation is not of yourself.
Faith is not of yourself. It's the gift of God. Faith. Tim James dealt with faith. Oh,
so wonderfully yesterday. And that's not of yourselves.
Faith is just an instrument. That's all it is. It's just an
empty hand. It absolutely brings nothing
to the table. Grace brought faith to us to
trust Him, to look to Him. Faith doesn't never look at itself. Faith is as good as it's object.
Faith is as good as it's object. Now what do I mean by that? If
object, if faith is the object, yourself is the object of faith. Your faith is what you're looking
at. You're object of your faith. It's not good, it's not worth
having. If works, you look to your works to say, I have faith. Your faith's not worth having.
If you look and say, My free will, I made the decision for
Christ, and I exercise my free will, and I took advantage of
grace when God offered it to me, and He gave me a chance,
and said, well, then that faith is not worth anything. And if
you got an experience, If you got an experience, and I have
experienced, I've had lots of experience. That day that 2 Corinthians
1, 9 was given to me, that was a profound experience in my life. When I met these grace preachers,
that was a profound experience in my life, profound experience. But I don't,
you know, there's people down home, I guess they do it everywhere,
but they say, I got saved on this old-fashioned altar back
when I was 12 years old, I was 15 years old, I was 16 years
old, I got on that old-fashioned altar, I can tell you the time,
I can take you to the place. There's that old building that
I was in, I got saved in that old building about 45 years ago. And oh, I'll tell you what, I
ain't gonna give it up! I ain't gonna give it up. I ain't
gonna give up my experience. John and I was talking about
it. I couldn't tell you how many times over the years when people
finally hear the gospel, and the first thing they'll tell
you is, they'll come to you and say, if what you're saying is
so, what's about my mother? What about my daddy? What about
all them people that was THERE! What about THEM? Or what about
THEM? Will you go to HELL over what
Granny believed? Will you go to HELL over making
a decision when you was 15 years old? Will you go to HELL because you
exercised your free will sometime? Were you going to hell because
you listened to the hour decision and it was your hour decision? I'm not going to hell for anybody!
Not for my wife, not for my children, not for the church! I'm not,
God helpin' me, I'm not, listen, my mother and father's in God's
hands. Brothers and sisters, in God's
hands, my children's in God's hands, my great-grandchildren
and my children's in God's hands. And He'll do exactly what He's
right to do with them. He will do exactly what He wills
to do with them. And I will not say anything about
it. When Eli, Samuel said, God's
gonna come and kill both your sons. I'm gonna kill both of
them. They are wicked men. And they
both was in the ministry. Oh, Eli said, well, boy, I tell
you, I just don't believe God do me that way. I just don't
believe God do me that way. I just don't believe God would treat
me like that. No, he said, it's the Lord. Let Him do what He
seem as good. I've seen people get death sentences. Go to a doctor, six months, you?re
gone! You may have three months, you
may have six months, you may have a year! And I?ll tell you, I?ve seen
so many say, ?I?m just kissing God?s hand to providence, and
that?s the way it?s going to be, and I?ll go out of this world.?
Fellas, Shirley, I hope you don?t I love
her. Oh, I love her. But when my wife
got sick, a fellow asked her, that's what she said. She said,
we're going to kiss God's hands in Providence and what happens
is going to happen. And a fellow asked her one time,
sitting on the porch, she said, what hope do you have of being
saved when you leave here? She said, I'm a great, great,
great sinner. And I know that. But Christ,
Christ, Christ is a great, great, great Savior. I believe here
with that. And I tell you, we can all do
that. We can all do that. Oh my! And faith! You know, if
you got an old experience, if you got an old experience, give it up, give it up, give
it up. And if FAITH HAS ANYTHING BUT CHRIST, IF FAITH HAS ANYTHING
BUT CHRIST, HE AIN'T WORTH HAVING! You know, our salvation is COMPLETELY
OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES! FAITH HAS CHRIST AS ITS ONLY
OBJECT, AND THE FAITH ALWAYS GOES OUT TOWARD CHRIST NO MATTER
WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS WORLD! HE GOES OUT TO HIS PERSON! LORD,
YOU'RE GOD! YOU'RE MAN! YOU CAN BE TOUCHED
WITH THE FEELINGS OF OUR INFIRMITY! OH LORD, YOU'RE GOD AND YOU'RE
A PERSON AND I TRUST YOU! I'VE EMBRACED YOU AND YOU'VE
EMBRACED ME! I'VE FELT THE EMBRACE OF CHRIST
AND YOU'VE FELT THE EMBRACE OF CHRIST! I KNOW WHAT IT IS TO
BE LIKE JOHN WHO PUTS HIS HEAD ON THE BOSOM OF CHRIST! WE CAN
ACTUALLY EMBRACE HIM AND HE EMBRACES US! He's a person that's intimate,
have intimate relationship with. And His blood, oh, His blessed
blood that cleanses us and takes away our guilt and washes us
white as snow in His blood. And then His righteousness, He
takes us and gives us the best robe and puts the best robe on
us. And in His love, oh, Oh, we're so unlovable, but all
His love never changes. And how faithful, how faithful
has God been? How faithful has He been to us?
How faithful? How faithful has He been? How
unfaithful have we been? But how faithful has He been?
There's been days that I've went all day long. I'm gonna admit
this. There's been days I've went all day long, get to the
end of the day and said, I never prayed. I never thought
on God. I just got so busy. I got so
involved in things and get to the end of the day and I said,
Oh Lord, I'm sorry. I hope you don't do things like
that. But you know what? God go safe. I'm going to get
him for that. I'm going to get him for that.
No, no, no. He don't do that. No, we just
go back to Him and He reaches and takes us in His loving arms,
lets us enjoy His love, lets us enjoy His presence, lets us
enjoy His forgiveness. That's what faith is all about.
And oh my, this is the only faith that we
have, is the faith that makes Christ to be its object. Take
your eyes, take your faith, off Christ and take Christ out of
the equation and you have nothing. And oh, if you take your eyes
off of Christ and your faith in Christ, what you'll have is
just despair and depression and discouragement. And let me be
the first to tell you, don't do that. Just don't do it. Just
don't do it. Just don't do it. And it's not
of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Let me give
you one more thing here. That's what He said, it's not
of works in verse 9, it's not of works. And if a man has works,
He's going to let you know. He's going to let you know. People
say, I don't know how many people tell you something that they've
done. You know, our Lord said, don't let your right hand know
what your left hand does. And this says, look what it says,
and we are His workmanship. That word workmanship there in
verse 10, that means poema. We're God's poema. We're God's
poem. You know, we are His handiwork.
The heavens declare that it's His handiwork. And since salvation
is by grace and not of works, it's the work of God. We're His
workmanship. It's His workmanship. We're His
workmanship. And then look what else it says
about it. And you know, a work is known by the person who does
the job. John can do some wonderful work, and you know it's his work
because of the way he does it. I'll tell you a little story
I told our church last week. Back years and years ago, we
moved in this little old bitty trailer. I mean, just one of
them little round trailers, you know, and bathroom was about
the size of this. And you know, you folded the
table up so you could have room to sit on the chair in the living
room, you know, little old bitty thing. I decided, you know, we had to
pack water in a bucket. You know, we had to go somewhere
else and get water and get it in a bucket and take buckets
of water to the house. And we had a new baby, Doogie
was just a little bitty baby. And I decided I was going to
build a stand to set a washstand. basin on, an old tin wash basin. Everybody's seen them. Got to
go set this wash basin on it. I was going to build me a stand
and go put a wash basin on it, you know, so we could go outside
and wash our hands, wash our face. Well, I built that thing. I set it down, put a basin on
it. It fell all the way over. That's the best I could do. But boy, God's work's not like
that. No, it ain't gonna fall. No, no. And look what else it
says about it. It's a creation. Created. It's a creation. In saving a
sinner, God has to create something. He creates a new creature. You
know, as God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, He
shined in our heart to give the light of the glory of God in
Christ. In the original creation, there
was no resistance. But when He created us new creatures
in Christ, when He started working in us, He had to overcome our
rebellion, our hatred, our enmity, and He had to bring power on
us. Oh, in the day of His power,
He made us willing. We were dead, He gave us life. We were in darkness, He gave
us light. In His workmanship, He makes the choice of who He
creates. God, who begun a good work in
you, shall perform it under the day of Jesus Christ. And I love
what it says there, it says, we are His. We are His. He's what He made us to be. It's
what He made us to be. And then, every sinner is an
exhibition of God's grace. And then God ordained us under
good works that we should walk in them. Now, I don't know what
that means. I don't think anybody would admit
to having a good work. And the mystery of grace is the
last thing I'll say and I'm through. One of the mysteries of grace
is that a believer claims nothing good of himself, and yet they're
the best people on the face of the earth. Would you agree with that? We'll
claim no good in ourselves, but they're the best people on the
face of the earth. Thank you all very much. Appreciate
you. Love you. Hope to see you again
soon.