Please be seated. Our scripture reading for this morning is taken from Psalms 111 verses 1 through 10. If you'd like to read along, it's on page 883.

Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious. His righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He hath given meat unto them that fear him. He will ever be mindful of his covenant. He hath shewed his people the power of his works. that he may give them the heritage of the heathen. The works of his hands are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant forever. Holy and revered is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, a good understanding, have all they that do His commandments. His praise endureth forever.

May the Holy Spirit bless the Scripture.

Who can cheer the heart like Jesus by His presence all divine, true, and tender? pure and precious. Oh, how blessed to call Him mine.

You ever sing the hymns and they just reach out to you? Oh man, that hits home. Amazing Grace does that to me all the time. When I first come to know the Lord, Let me rephrase that. When the Lord first brought me to know Him. When I say I come to know the Lord, it kind of fits in with those who come to make a decision, with those who put all the power in knowing the Lord in their own hands. So I wanted to rephrase that. When the Lord first brought me to know Him. As a sinner. one of the greatest songs that touched me, the greatest songs that reached into my heart, the new heart, the heart that loves Him because He first loved us, was Amazing Grace.

I mean, many of these other hymns, like what I was just reading from this one, All That Thrills My Soul, how about this? The love of Christ so freely given, grace of God Didn't it just reach out to a sinner? Love, beyond, degree. Words seem to have taken a new meaning for me. I don't know, I not knew this moment, but knew since the Lord called me out of darkness. These words mean much, much more now than they ever would have meant before. Mercy higher than the heaven. I see you smiling and nodding your heads up and down. Yeah, that touches my heart. You're right, John. This comes to my heart as well. Deeper than the deepest sea, higher than the heaven. Oh, the mercy of God to His people.

Have you got our bulletin with you this morning? Why don't you turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 1, and then I want you to look at your bulletin with me. 1 Timothy chapter 1. I was thinking about this phrase that we'll read here in 1 Timothy chapter 1 in a moment. And as I was thinking about it, it just started to reach out to me, like the words of the hymn do. Like Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Just hits home, doesn't it? Oh, Lord, I deserve nothing. I deserve Your wrath if I deserve anything at all. It's Your wrath. Yet through the study of God's Word, I see over and over and over and over again His grace. That's why the message is grace, grace, grace. were saved by grace through belief, through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus.

Now, if you're with me, turn in your bulletins here this morning. Right underneath the opening hymn, the closing hymn, you see an article, Brother Joe Terrell. Joe Terrell has gone on to be with the Lord. The Lord took him home about a year ago. And he was a preacher back in one of those Eastern Bible Belt states. And he titles his article, Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul. And I thought to myself as I was reading that this morning, Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul. That's what these words do. That's where you're shaking your heads about it. Yeah, it's blessing our souls. It's reaching right down into the soul of this dirty, rotten, wretched human being, and saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. That's the Lord speaking His words to you and I. I have drawn you.

Listen to this. He takes his thoughts from Psalm 103, verse 2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Who forgiveth all thine Iniquities. If God was to measure my iniquities, which by the way He did. Notice I said did. When Christ went to that cross, now there you go, I'm getting right on the path to Christ just as fast as I can. We talked about that in Bible study, didn't we? Absolutely. Get right on the path to Christ as quick as you can. When He hung on that cross and said it was finished, God visited my iniquities upon His Son. That's how He says here, who forgiveth all thine iniquities.

Joe Terrell writes, he says, every time I read this song, I must stop and wonder. Does that affect your heart? Does that reach down to your soul? Who forgiveth all thine iniquities? He says, I must stop and wonder at the very first of God's benefits mentioned, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. There are many blessings mentioned afterward, but none can rival the glory and the sheer wonder of this first one, that he should be willing to forgive my smaller offenses, is a wonder. Or that he should be willing to forgive an offense once or twice. and every time they appear is more than this poor sinner can grasp.

He has not dealt with me according to my transgressions, nor shall he ever. He has removed my transgression as far from me as the east is from the west. Having withdrawn the frowning face of a judge, he has shown me the merciful face of a loving father. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all the redeemed of the Lord. Bless His holy name with me. Forget not this wonderful benefit, and it shall give strength to your heart and health to your bones. That is within me. Bless His holy name. Pastor Joe Terrell.

Paul, the apostle, writes, O wretched man that I am. Not that I was, though he was, but that he still is. He still was the very day that he penned those words by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Paul didn't get away from sin any better than you and I can. till the day the Lord took him out of this world. We're not going to get away from it. Which gives us great reason to cry out these words. Look at verse 14 of 1 Timothy chapter 1. And the grace of our Lord abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." Notice Paul didn't say which was in him. Notice he didn't give any credit to what he had done. All the glory goes to Christ.

But this phrase, this phrase that we see here in verse 14, exceeding abundant, that means something. That's grace. The grace of our Lord was exceeding and abundant. I'd like to consider these words of our Lord that inspired Paul to write, and love which is in Christ Jesus our Savior. Faith, a gift of God, is given because of Christ's faithfulness. Our Savior was faithful even to the death of the cross and all that the Father required to bring his chosen people unto himself. We sing, great is thy faithfulness. Turn in your handbooks over to page 43. Let's look at that. Page 43. Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not, as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be.

Verse 2, summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Do not the seasons all follow each other just like he promised they would? Do we not go through, I know we go through degrees, different degrees, some winters are worse, some summers are worse, but it's always winter, spring, summer, and fall.

Verse three, pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. Thy own dear presence to the cheer and to the guide, strengths for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousands beside. faithfulness. Once again, we can see how the glory is His, even the glory He has instilled in each and every one of us. Each and every thing instilled in each of us is a work of His glory. My faith is a work of His glory. My belief is a direct result of His abundant mercy and His grace, which is in His great Son, the Lord Jesus.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Have you ever stopped to consider that word, abundant? In the 23rd Psalm, the great psalmist, David, describes it this way. He says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. What an abundant of grace that he has a shepherd who would care for every one of his needs. That's what that means, I shall not want. Everything that he needs is not just in salvation, but in keeping us in this world. Are we not kept by the power of God, as it says in 1 Peter 1, verse 5?

David goes on, he says, He doesn't offer it to me, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. That's the green pastures of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The picture of peace and tranquility, all the food we need being the green, the greenness of the grass, which is what sheep eat. He leadeth me beside still water. statutes, to cause us to read His words, and they be still as calming to our hearts. He restored my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over.

The phrase is actually more than just abundant. Exceeding abundant is the word that we read. It is used once in scripture here in 1 Timothy Chapter 1, verse 14, and it means to superabound, to be exceeding abundant, or in other words, more than enough, as it is stated in my margin of my Bible. It simply means all that I need. As David was writing in the Psalms, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. All that I need is in Him. Calvary covers it all, doesn't it? Jesus Christ and Him crucified covers it all.

We were talking about this in the Bible study earlier this morning. We were looking at Don's book on basic Bible doctrine and he was bringing out why preaching Christ is the basics of all Bible doctrine. And it covers everything. And people will get tired of hearing it, but God's people don't. I look back at all the people that have come through these doors over the last 26 years. And all of those who came every Sunday for the same reason, and now they've departed out of this life and gone on to heaven to be with the Lord. But they kept coming back, and they kept coming back, and they keep coming back for this one reason.

Christ in Him crucified is enough. It's sufficient. That's all I need. It's abundant. It's not just abundant, it's exceedingly abundant. If I needed more, I'd have to go somewhere else, because that's all we preach here. And we're not going to change. That's all that's been preached here for 30-some-odd years.

Well, 38 years with Pastor Gene, 5 with me, 43 years. Guess what? That's all that was ever preached at Henry Mayhem's church. For all the years, 40-some-odd years, Don Fortner, all the 40-some-odd years that he preached, it was sufficient. That's what we come to church for. To hear about a man who saved us from our sins. That we see every day that we walk this earth. And we know it's not going to get any better. We know this flesh is not going to be any better tomorrow than it is today. There will always, as long as God has me in this world, be sin in this flesh.

which makes this phrase stand out so much more, just like Amazing Grace. Just like what we sang in the song, He is Mine. Oh, folks, this is good stuff for me. I'm sorry if it's not for you, but it's great for me. What my Savior faithfully fulfilled by submitting himself as my substitute, fills my cup with his grace. A sinner condemned unclean, once a blasphemer, as Paul states in verses 11-12 of that very text. Me, a sinner condemned unclean, a blasphemer, a lost Grace, grace, God's grace, that will pardon and cleanse within. That's the song we sing. Grace, grace, God's grace, that is greater than all my sin. You see where I'm going with this? How the phrases go right along with the songs that we sing that bring comfort to our hearts. It's God's grace that brings comfort to our hearts. Even when I fall to my knees crying out for forgiveness, crying out for strength, my Lord's grace is sufficient.

Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 if you would. Go to the left over just a couple pages, 2 Corinthians chapter 12. We looked a little bit at this I think last week. It's easy to think of the apostles who were extremely blessed with supernatural visions and miraculous revelations that no one has ever seen since. But in reality, folks, in reality, we see the same visions. They saw Christ on His throne. They saw Christ on His cross. They saw Christ as the Almighty God. We see the same. We have all the same revelations when God is pleased to press this upon our hearts, we too must take care not to become puffed up as Paul did. As Paul was afraid of. He looked, look at me in other words. I'm a child of God. I've got God on my side. I have the Spirit doing this in me. I have this going on in me. All of a sudden we start thinking better of ourselves.

of 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Paul saying, for though I would desire the glory, I shall not be a fool. For I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. And then he goes on to tell us how he approached God three times. He says, I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And here's the Lord's response to Paul. The Lord's response to you. The Lord's response to me. My grace is sufficient. For my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Don't be ashamed to be weak is what it's telling us. Don't be ashamed to understand that there's nothing in us that we can look to for a measurement of salvation. There's nothing in us that we can look to for assurance. For through our weakness, He's made strong. My strength, He said, is made perfect in weakness. That's why Paul goes on to close that verse with this, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Let us never forget the pit that our Lord has drawn us out of. I believe this is why the Lord allows us to continue falling into great sin. First, It's our very nature in this flesh. And secondly, we were reminded how great our Savior and how faithful our Savior and His grace is.

For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Another song we sing is, I am weak, but thou art strong. Oh, dear Lord, keep me from all wrong. Our sins may ever be before us, but our heavenly advocate is more than able.

Turn over to Jude chapter 1. Turn over to the book of Jude and look with me at a couple of verses over there. Our Savior is more than able. Folks, there's nothing, absolutely nothing that can turn the hand of God. God's hand turns everything. Look here at verse 24. Jude gives the glory to our Savior who is now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling. This is verse 24 of the book of Jude. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

This is that exceeding abundant grace. His exceeding abundant mercy to you and I. It's a cup that never goes dry. A cup that never goes below full. It overflows all the time. We get up in the morning and we look in the mirror and we see that sinful man that stands here in the flesh and we think to ourselves, how can God be merciful to me, a sinner? Through His Son. Through our substitute. The One who knew no sin, but was made our sin, was made to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Romans 8, verse 30. that is able to keep you from falling to prison, you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and forever. Romans 8 verse 38, for I am persuaded, writes Paul, that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us, to separate me, to separate God's elect, to separate the people for whom God the Father gave to God the Son, nor any other creature, to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He who is perfect and holy in all that he has done, everything he did, pleased the Father, even the death of the cross, became a curse. It says in Scripture, for curse it is all who hangeth upon a tree. He bore our sins in His own body. Folks, we see our sin in this flesh, but God sees us in His Son, the Lord Jesus. And we are clean and pure as He is right now. You don't believe me in that? Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10. Don't take my word for it. Look at verse 12 of Hebrews chapter 10. But this man, this one for whom God sent, this one for whom it says a body was prepared for him back in verse 5. This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, forever sat down at the right hand of God. From henceforth, expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering What? Perfected. There's that exceeding abundant mercy. There's that wonderful exceeding abundant grace that God has for His people. He's taken this sinful, wretched man and made me perfect before God. I know it's hard to understand. We can't comprehend it fully. We look at it through a glass darkly, as the Scripture said. But the day is coming when we will stand in His presence and everything will be right. He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

Turn back to Hebrews chapter 1. This is how He did it. This is a description of who it was that did it and what he did. Look at verse 3. Hebrews 1 verse 3. Who being the brightness of his glory. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Who being the brightness of his Father. Scriptures tell us that all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily. Every acclimate of God the Father, every acclimate of God the Spirit, dwells in the Son, the Lord Jesus, who is the brightness of His glory, and the expressed image of His person, it says, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself, what? Purged. You know that's one of my favorite words. Purged our sins. Isn't that good? Isn't that like amazing grace? What a wonderful word to hear, that this sinful man has been purged, has been wiped clean. All of my iniquities have been forgiven. Just like we read in that article, in the Psalm 103 verse 2. Thine, who hath forgiven all thine iniquities.

and purging us from our sins, God accepted His sacrifice. He accepted the blood that was shed on the cross over 2,000 years ago. He accepted the substitutionary death of His Son for you and I, and now His Son has sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. That's acceptance. That's acceptance of God for the sacrifice of his son. God saw the blood and the angel of death passes by. Isn't that what happened in Egypt? Isn't that what the angel of death did to all who had the blood on the post? Well, it wasn't that blood, the blood of an animal on that post that did it, but it was God looking into the future of what His Son would do, knowing that nothing would stop Him from doing what He had purposed to do, and that is what? Save His people.

Exceeding abundant grace. Good words, huh, Mike? Yes. That'll help me get through another day of this sinful flesh. I'll have to read it again tomorrow. And I encourage you to do the same somewhere in the Scriptures. Open your Bibles and read all anywhere through it. Anywhere through it.

Folks, our God doesn't do things halfway. I want to pause a moment and let that sink in. He doesn't do things halfway. He does everything perfect. Do you realize that that means being made sin? He was perfectly made sin as well. Try to wrap your mind around that one. He who is perfect was made sin perfectly. That you and I would be perfect in Him. He doesn't do things halfway, He does all things well. That's one reason we can say He's not waiting for us to do something. If He says it's finished, it's done, isn't it? Salvation is, well, the Lord, as I mentioned a moment ago, He looked on His Son and He saw that it would be done. He calls Him in Revelation the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. God has always looked at his son and seen you and I as perfect, purged by his blood. That doesn't mean he didn't have to come to this world and lay down his life, for absolutely he did. Blood had to be shed. And God provided all of that for you and I, exceeding, abundant mercy.

I love that word, that other phrase, but God. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened, quickened, made alive us together with Christ by grace you are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

In 1 Peter 1, verse 3, we read these words, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Look over Philippians 1, if you would. If you're in Hebrews, go to the left. just before Ephesians, or after, depending on whichever way you look at it. Philippians chapter 1. And while you're turning there, allow me to read our text once again from 2 Timothy. And this time I want to include a couple of verses with it.

Paul says in verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And then he says, and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

As we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, we grow in our love and in our faith. We learn to trust more and more of Him. Caleb Hickman had a Bible study this morning, if you have Sermon Audio. And that Bible study was on growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

You know, the world would love us to think that we are growing in grace as in our graciousness to the world. I'm getting better. I'm more gracious. I'm nicer to people, Roger, than I was last week. that verse is talking about. It's not talking about that at all. We grow in His grace. In the knowledge of Him as our backdrop, we can see the distressfulness of this flesh being in the sin. So we grow in seeing His grace become We don't grow it. I've lost my words on how to say what I wanted to say on that. We're more aware of his grace. Yeah, exactly. Thank you, James. That's what I'm trying to say, but I lost where I was going with that. But that's what I'm trying to point out. Thank you. We grow in the grace of our Savior, in His graciousness to us. We become more aware of how gracious He is to us. Thank you, James, that helped a lot. That's what he's talking about.

How do we do that? How do we grow in grace? By in the knowledge of Him. By learning more about His graciousness to us. Now look with me if you would. Where was I? Oh, not ready to get there yet. You're in Philippians chapter 1. Stay there.

Okay, so, we come there through the trials of this flesh. We see more and more the rule of this one, how he has rule over all that is. We see his abundant love for us. We turn more and more from the ways of this world, and we turn to him.

You know, I've been told that I don't preach on repentance enough. that I don't preach on it at all, as a matter of fact. You realize that every time I ask you or I take and I point you to Christ, I tell you to turn from the flesh and turn to Christ. That's what repentance is. I think I do that every message. But I actually have people who listen to several of my messages and say I've never brought out repentance. So just had to point that out in case they're listening today.

So, repentance. We turn from the flesh and we turn to our Lord and Savior. We turn more and more to the ways from this world and we turn to Him. This is what Paul is saying over in Galatians 6. In verse 14 he says, But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. See how he's taking us away from all the rest of the things of this world and points us to glory in the cross. Christ in him crucified is what that means. By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

We turn from our natural ways of this world, and we turn to our Lord as sovereign ruler over all that is. That's kind of almost redundant, isn't it, Mike? We just keep saying that over and over again. But that's what we need, isn't it not? Pointing us to turn to Him over and over and over again. We turn from our natural ways of this world and we turn to the Lord. We are born again, a new creature, a new nature.

We read words like this in Romans 8.31, What shall we say then today? If God be for us, who can be against us? Isn't that good stuff? That's just like amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He that spared not his own son. Folks, I never get tired of telling you this. I never got tired of hearing this over the 20 some odd years that Pastor Gene preached to me. It never tired. He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not give us all things? He loves us with an everlasting love. He draws us by His loving power. It's called exceeding abundant grace. That means more than we need. That means all that we need.

Oh, but John, you need to talk about this in Scriptures. You need to talk about that in Scriptures. No, I don't! Jesus Christ and Him crucified covers it all for a great sinner. He that spared not his own son. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? That goes right along with, how can you charge me? I'm one of God's elect. How can you charge me for what I do? If everything I do has been laid on His Son, it is God that justifies. Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Folks. I probably make more mistakes than any man who's ever stood in one of God's pulpits. But my Lord says this to me. Not only does he say in our text, exceeding, exceeding abundant grace, he says, who is he that condemneth John? My son is the one that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God making intercession for you. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, shall distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sore? As it is written, for thy sake We are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Or what about these words? What about these words here, Romans 8, verse 1? There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. These are but words of grace, abundant grace. And when these words of grace are revealed to a new heart, we see our Savior's love for us and the length that He went through to save us, and this is the result.

Look here at Philippians 1, verse 26. Paul, in his desire for the saints at Philippi, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ. That's what I want to hear from you, Roberta. I want to hear how the Lord and His sacrifice for us. I want to hear more abundance of your rejoicing in Him. Not in rejoicing of something you have done, not in the good facts that you come to church on Sundays, not in the good works that the Spirit might be doing in you in helping the poor, but who is your Savior? And what has He done for you? Because it means that if He's done it for you, He might have done it for me as well. And that gives me so much hope. Not hope in anything of this flesh, not hope in anything that I do, but hope in Him.

There you go, repentance. I'm pointing to repentance again. Glory to His name. Let's close with 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Glory to His name. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Begin with verse 23.

But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your coloring, brethren. How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty after the, not many mold or call, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, the things which are not to bring to naught the things that are. That no flesh should Glory in His presence.

But of Him, but of God, are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, that in glory in the Lord. We rejoice in His abundant grace towards us. To God be the glory. great things He hath done. Amen?

God has promised a people to His Son, and His Son has fulfilled all that was required of that promise. We stand on His promises and His promises alone, as it says in 2 Peter 1-4, wherefore I have given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.