I want to share with you a little
something that happened this weekend. Just blessed me to all
ends. Our Lord is so good, folks. We received a letter from a lady
in Arkansas. She said, Brother John, I listen
to your CDs as I drive around Arkansas, going around to different
people's homes I take care of. She says, I've come across your
CDs by way of the post office. And this is a name that I had
never heard of before. And so I'm thinking to myself,
well, how is she getting them from the post office? Is the
post office taking them out of the mailings? I knew there's
a couple people in Arkansas we mailed to, but it goes to their
house. It shouldn't be stopping at the post office. How's this
lady getting them? And she had told me, she goes,
I listened to your CDs, and I listened to them again, and I listened
to them again. But somebody got to two of them
before I could get there. Folks, this is our Lord using
his word to go out. to go out into the world in ways
that we don't even know of. I remember Pastor Gene telling
us one time about how he got a phone call from Australia once.
It was a totally different time of day. I think it was like midnight
or something their time. But they waited up till late
at night to call here, so it would be during the daytime,
and tell him that they had gotten one of his bulletins. Our God
works just wonders in sending his things out. I got on the
phone. I started calling our brothers
and sisters in Arkansas. Do you know anything about this?
And Ron Halsey, he was just sitting down to listen to this week's
CD. And he says, what I do is I listen to him, John. And about
six months ago, I got a little route that I have to go around
to all these different post offices. He says, I just make copies.
And I go around and put them on the bulletin boards. He goes,
I thought they were throwing them all away, because every
week I'd go back, they'd be gone. He goes, I found one lady, that
was what she was doing. She's throwing them away. He
goes, but he went to another one afterwards. He says, oh no,
people are taking those. So we've added this lady to our
mailing list now. I wanted to share that with you
all, because this is the grace of God, reaching out to his people. We forget sometimes of that grace
and how he reached out to each and every one of us. bringing
us under the gospel preaching. This lady, I don't know what
she hears from the pulpit, but she doesn't hear what is going
on in the CDs, because she said, I like what you're saying about
grace, and I'd like to learn more of it. You see, that means
that she's not hearing about grace from her pulpit. Grace
comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the master of grace. And
He's the only one who can teach us grace. Everything else is just nonsense
and man's made up imaginational stuff. We've come to our eighth
message in this series of nine describing nine characteristics
of God's grace. Now I would not be so bold to
hold these nine as the absolute nor the total of all descriptions
concerning His grace. But these are a good start to
pointing the children of God to His Son, Jesus Christ the
Lord, who is the master of all grace. His grace is the total
sum of the gospel. It's the good news. The fact
that He is gracious to sinners is exactly that. It's good news.
Let us never forget that pit that our great Savior pulled
us out of. Let us never forget what we used to wallow in. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We have
all come from our mother's womb speaking lies. The hearts of
all men are desperately wicked. We have all sinned and deserve
the wrath to come. You say, you say maybe, well,
that's not me. Well, then you do not believe
God. Those statements I just said are all told in his word,
the word of truth. When Adam fell in the garden,
all mankind fell with him. If you do not believe those statements,
then you're carrying a form of self-righteousness. Therefore,
what would you need a Savior for? What do you need a Savior
for if you're walking around in your own righteousness? The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. You must see yourself for what
you are before you look to Christ, the one who saves sinners. One
who has had these truths revealed to their heart, they see the
need of one who can save them from their sins. When our condition
of total depravity has been revealed to our hearts, we see that we
have no other place to turn to but to God's grace, unmerited
favor. You can't buy it. You can't earn
it. It's unmerited. That means nothing you can do. That means God comes to his people
in grace for no other reason. Not for
any reason that they have done. He even told Israel, the reason
you're my people is because I want you to be my people. It's not
because you're any big nation or anything. The Egyptians are
way bigger than Israel is. The Canaanites. Even in today's world, most of
the peoples around the world are bigger in number than Israel
is. But it had nothing to do with
their size, it was grace that God made them his people. You
will be my people and I will be your God is what he said. We preach sovereign grace. For
he is sovereign over all things. He sits on His throne ruling
the entire universe and everything in it. You'll hear that from
all the other so-called Christians, but they draw a line. They say,
oh yeah, God is in control of the weather, God is in control
of this, He's in control of that, but He's not in control of me.
I am the one who controls my own destiny. And that is raising
yourself above God. For God says He rules over everything. He sits on his throne of power
in heaven right now, doing everything as he sees fit, as it pleases
him. Scripture says the government
is upon his shoulders. This one we speak of shall be
called Jesus, for he shall save his people. Not maybe, not might. Not if they do something like
walk down the aisle and make a decision, not if they get in
this tub of water and get baptized, or not if they come to the table
and drink wine and eat bread, but because He has decided to
save them. He shall save His people. The
people that were given to Him by the Father, given to Him before
the world was, before anything was ever created, God the Father
gave us We were on the mind of God before
He ever created a star in the sky. His love for His people
is eternal. Eternal means as far as you can
go that way to as far as you can go that way. And if you're
on the earth, it just keeps going around and around and around
and it never can stop. It's eternal love. That means that everything that
was created was for those that He loves. Even creation itself was for
us. So that He might show His mercy
and His grace to His people. And that we would praise and
glorify Him in eternity. And by His grace He became flesh. He didn't have to do that. He
could have just wiped everything out. He came really close, as
I said in last week's message. All but eight souls perished
on the world when the Lord flooded it. All but eight souls. But because He wanted us to see
His grace, because He wanted to express His grace to His loved
ones, because He wanted to shed His grace upon those that He
loved, He became a man. God left His glory and became
flesh. and established a perfect righteousness
for His chosen. Yes, Christ is 100% man, but
He's also 100% God. Everything He did was perfect
in every way, just as He is now perfect in every way, and just
as He has always been perfect in every way. See, that's why this whole thing
about God loves everybody and He's waiting for you, that's
just telling me that God did something, but it wasn't enough.
And that's not a God. That's man's imagination. A true
God has done the job. When He said, it is finished,
it's finished. I like that. Because I know I
can't do anything to help it. And if I try to, I'm going to
mess it up. He became flesh and He established
a perfect righteousness for His chosen. But the sins of His people,
this righteousness that He established for us, that wasn't enough. You see, the sins of His people
must be atoned for. Atonement. Payment. Justice must be made. Scripture
tells us that there could be no remission of sins without
the shedding of blood. The sin debt had to be paid.
My sins must have been paid. Your sins have to be paid. And God provided Himself a sacrifice. A scapegoat. a substitute. But these three descriptions
were for those for whom He is loved from the foundation of
the world. He who knew no sin was made to
be sin that we would be made righteous in Him. We call Him Savior. No, He's
not a Savior for all mankind, for if that were so, then all
mankind would be saved. If He has all power, and He does,
and He shed the all-powerful blood, and He did, then that
blood is effectual, perfectly effectual. If it was for all of mankind,
absolutely all of mankind would be saved, but we know that's
not the case, don't we? Many will stand before the Savior,
our Scripture says, and on that great and final day, the Day
of Judgment, and declare the works that they had done. Have
we not cast out devils in your name? Have we not gone and fed
the poor and raised up these buildings and had all kinds of functions going on for the good
of the neighborhood, and had bands that played great music
and wonderful singers. Have we not all done this in
Jesus' name? They will hear these words. Depart
from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I have never known you. These will be those who have
heard and saw the wonderful works of God, yet they refused to believe,
for their rebellious hearts followed their own desires and the lusts
of their flesh, just as each and every one of us have done
and would be right there with them if it weren't for the grace
of our Lord. Please turn in your Bibles to
Isaiah chapter 57. Our subject for this eighth message
is reviving grace. Let us understand first that
what one who is revived of, one must have had that which they
are being revived of once before. You see revived means to be replenished. That means giving you what you used to have
and for some reason you turned away from it or you don't have
it anymore. Replenishing what you're out of. It means to be
restored. It means to be restored to whatever
condition you might have been in before. For some reason you're
not in that condition anymore. It means to be brought to. It
means to be returned to, revived. Revive us again, O Lord. Why? Why do we have to sing that? What does it mean, revive us? Reviving grace is a caricature
of God's grace that is in the act of restoring His people when
they have turned aside from looking to Him and begin to look to themselves. Are you with me in Isaiah 57
verse 15, if you would please? For thus saith the High and Lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in
the high and holy place. with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Oh, how often we turn away from
what our Lord has told us. Over and over again we have seen
in the book of Isaiah, turn to me, my people. Yet, the people
of Israel would turn away at every moment. Just walk out that
door is all it takes for me at times. I just stopped thinking about
who my Lord is. I need to be revived to that
all the time. I'm a stiff-necked person. That's
exactly what our Lord says about all mankind. We are a stiff-necked
people. How long should I bear with you?
If He loves me, He'll bear with me for eternity, and He surely
does. Hearing those kind of words and
those kind of promises just, that's what revives me. Remembering
that the flesh is weak, and my Savior is everything, revives
me. It reminds me, it brings me back
to that thought of who it is that is in controlling of everything.
Who it is that's working everything out for my good. In Scripture,
hunger and thirst are used to point to the physical need. Our
body's need is to be fed. We must have water to live. These
are things that we need to survive and we need to replenish. Over and over again, if you go
for a while without eating, you get hungry. These needs need
to be done over and over again. Most of you and I have never
experienced true hunger, maybe even true thirst for that matter.
But if you turn from those two needs, you will weaken. And eventually,
you will die from it. Our spirits have the same needs.
When we turn from our Lord and we neglect him in our daily living,
our souls begin to weaken. And if left to ourselves, we
would surely die. Turn over to John chapter 6 if
you would please. When we are out in this world, when we have left the place of
God to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there
are many, many things that distract us and turn us away from our
Lord. Kathy and I have done a little bit of traveling in our time.
in our lives. And there were times when we
would be away from worshipping with the saints. One time I remember
we had gone to the coast and we thought to ourselves, you
know, it's Sunday morning, we've got to do something. I need to
hear about the Lord. To be quite honest with you,
enjoying myself so much, I didn't even think a lot about it for
the last few days on the coast there. We had a nice hotel room.
So we pulled up on a beach. We whipped up the laptop, plugged
in our little cell phone thing into it, and sat there and listened
to Henry Mann preach a service. And we're revived, reminded of
who it is our savior is, reminded of who our king and master We both have experienced the
need to do something, either read the word or stop and listen
to a recorded message, something to revive our spirit. You see,
the world will beat you down. The war with the flesh beats
me down. Oh, how often my sin roars up
in front of me, that I need to turn from that and look to my
Lord for my Savior. But God's word brings me back
every time. When I look into His Word, I
am reminded that I have no ability to conquer the weight of life.
I have no ability to conquer sin in my life. Turn it to God. I went to my mom one time. I think it was even before the
Lord called me. I went to my mom and I was going
through some troubles with something. I don't even remember what it
was anymore. Actually, I do think I remember. It was my kids. Yeah. My kids, they're all right
today, but there was a day when I would notice it. So I went
to my mom, and my mom told me, she goes, well, John, you're
wasting your time trying to figure this out yourself. You need to
put it in the hands of God. And she told me that over and
over and over. It wasn't until the Lord called
me out of darkness and I began to remember and realize that
very thing. The troubles of life are way
too big for us to cope with, folks. There's cancer. There's mean people, mean and
evil, rotten people in the world. It's too big for us to handle.
Some of us think we're pretty tough. I can do this. I can take that. I used to think that of myself
at one time. Oh, how I've come to realize,
no, I can't. But my God can. My Savior can
and will for me. God brings us back. When I look
into His Word, I'm reminded that I have no ability to conquer
the weight of life, the burden of sin, but my Savior can and
I am reminded He does and will do so. In Romans 8.1, you don't
need to read this, it says there, There is therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit." This is a saying that reminds me. This
is the word of God, and it's exactly what revives my spirit. The promises of God are what
lifts my soul. But only God's grace can revive
the spirits of men. For not all who see the works
of God belong to God. Are you with me in John chapter
6? Look at verse 30. For they said therefore unto
him, What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe?
What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus saith unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth it to you, the true bread of
heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Our Lord
Jesus Christ became a man. He came down from heaven. Heaven
came down and glory filled my soul. Heaven comes down to me all the
time when I get down and revives my soul. Knowing that He is working it
all out according to His purpose revives my soul. Then He said unto him, Lord evermore,
give us this bread. And Jesus said, I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to Me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on Me shall
never thirst. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. That's reviving the soul of men. But even our belief, even our
faith, is a work of God. But I said unto you that ye also
have seen me, and believe not. Many that day stood in the presence
of their Creator, and still they did not know Him. He did many
good works right in front of them, raising people from the
dead, healing the sick. And they still didn't know Him.
They can read about all that right here in His book. Who makes
us to differ? Our Lord and Savior. God Almighty. Who makes everything to differ.
He does. Turn over to John 23, but hold
your place there, because we're going to come right back to John
6. John 10, verse 23, And Jesus walked in
the temple of Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? How
long do you make us to doubt about this thing of you being
God? Quit playing with us. Show us plainly, is what they
said in one of the previous books. If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. And Jesus answered him, he says, I told you, and you
believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye
are not my sheep, as I have said unto you. My sheep hear my voice. That's what revives my soul. I hear the Word of God, because
He has chosen me as one of His sheep. You hear the Word of God
being preached to you right now as you look into it. The truth
of His Word. Because He has chosen you to
be one of His sheep. Not because of anything you have
done, but because He has loved you from before time began. Because all that the Father hath
given Him shall come to Him, and you're one of His. You shall
come to Him. This is what revives our soul,
folks. His promises. We stand on the
promises of God because we can. Men may make promises, but men
will break promises. Have you ever had somebody break
a promise to you? Yeah, we have, haven't we? You can't really hold it against
them. It's their nature. It was my nature to do the same
to those that I promised and never kept. But ye believe not, because ye
are not my sheep. And as I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Where's the
if there? Where's the maybe? Where's the
what? No, it's I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. They shall never
perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. You hear the promises? When we're
down in faith, when we're sitting there thinking, am I saved? Am
I saved? How can I be saved after what
I just thought in my mind towards that man who cut me off on the
freeway? I use that because I drive on
the freeway a lot. How can I be saved, Lord, when
these thoughts go through my mind? Because I hear the voice of the
Lord, and he says, my sheep hear my voice. We hear the word of God. We hear
the word of truth. I was talking with my granddaughter's
future husband yesterday. We had two hours, one up and
one back. Well, not quite an hour, but close. And as we were
going back home, he began to talk a little more. He's a very
quiet young man, doesn't talk much. Don't hold it against him.
That's just the way he is. But once he gets to know you,
he kind of opens up a little bit. And I can't remember exactly
what was said to bring it up, but he said, you know, he goes to two churches. He goes
to one down there in the valley, and he likes to come to this
one. He says, the guy's down there, I'm always hearing stories,
but it doesn't have anything to do with the Bible. I mean,
he relates it to the Bible, but it doesn't have anything really
to do with what Scripture says. He says, I really like your messages
because everything you're saying has to do with God's Word. It's all about Christ. That's
what the Bible's all about. It's all about our Savior. We hear His voice. And that revives my soul when
it's down. My Father is greater. No man
can pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. These words that revive
my spirit when my faith is weak, these truths that replenish my
spirit. We read in Romans 10, 17, So
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Reviving grace comes from God,
not from men, not from the guy standing up in the pulpit, but
from God's word, the promises our Lord has given to his people.
But let us not forget that faith and the strength thereof are
gifts of God. It is by His grace that He strengthens
us. It is by His grace that He revives
us in our studying in His Word. Many look into God's Word, but
few are given faith to believe. Many are not the sheep of God.
But God has chosen His sheep and they will hear His voice.
And they shall be saved as He said. Look back in our text if
you would, chapter 6. Look at verse 37 where we left
off. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will no wise cast
out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
The will of God is that Christ came here to pay the sins for
His people to be their Savior. His name shall be called Jesus
for He shall save His people. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me that of all which He has given me I should
lose, how many? Nothing. But should raise it
up again in the last day. Is your faith weak today? Do you go through those times
when you wonder, Lord, where are you? Pull out a promise the Lord has
given his people. Pull out one of the verses where
the Lord says to your heart, be not afraid, for I am God. Be not afraid. Peace be still
to the winds of the world. That's the power our Lord has
over everything. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." Now turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 if you would please. He who is the source of everlasting
water, the very thing that we need to sustain us, the very
thing that our bodies need to be revived when we go without
it, He is the one, the distributor of that water. He who is the
bread of life is the distributor of that bread. When I am burdened
and brought low by my own sin, my Lord revives my spirit with
His Word. You see, grace being the works
of God and God alone ensures that He is the recipient of all
glory. If a man could claim anything,
then he would also claim the glory of it. That's why free
will is such a dangerous thing. I began following God in 1982. Have you ever heard anybody say
something like that? I hear it all the time from the
Christian churches out there. I started believing, back whenever,
whatever you want to put it. I, I, I. There's a guy on the radio, some
Ephraim something, I don't know, and I heard him on the radio,
on a radio here recently, and I was talking to the person about
it, and the guy's, he goes, yeah, he's an I preacher. It's all
about I. I like being a him preacher.
I want to preach all about him who really is the one who can
do things. If you look to me, if you look to the I, you're
going to be disappointed every time. Every single time. But if you look to him, if you look to him who can and
will He'll never let you down. He'll revive you, even when you're
low. You see, God will not share His
glory with another. That's why we read in verses
8 and 9 of chapter 2 in Ephesians, For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, that it is a gift of God. Not
of works, lest any man should boast. But as we continue on in verse
10, our Savior Jesus Christ, He reminds us that we were once
dead in trespasses and sin. Yet as we also read in verse
1 of chapter 2, He says over there, and you have to be quickened
who are dead in trespasses and sin. It is God who quickens. It is God who gives life. Verse
10 of chapter 2, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus, undo good works, which God hath before ordained, prepared,
set forward. Every step we take, folks, even
those weak steps, Israel is allowed by God's power to turn away from
Him. Why? so that they would be brought
back. You've got to be brought low
before you're going to look up. If you already think a lot of
yourself, why would you look up anywhere else? God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. Wherefore remember that ye being
in times past Gentiles in the flesh, remember that there was
a time when we all walked according to our flesh, when we all walked
in disobedience according to the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation, our lives in times
past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. Wherefore, remember that, that
ye, being in times past, verse 11 again, Gentiles in the flesh,
who are called uncircumcision, which is called the circumcision
in the flesh, made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
of the covenants of promise, having no hope without God into
the world. but now, but God, God who is
rich in mercy, rich in grace for His people. I so hope the Lord's Word is
reviving your soul today, giving you that, I can go out and face
anything now because my Lord is the one who's ruling over
it. I can go out and look at the evil of this world and not
Tower from it, because I know that my God is in control of
that also. But now in Christ Jesus, you
who were sometimes far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. We come boldly to this throne
of grace, because God has made it so possible for us, because
He shed His own blood on the cross for His people. When God
sees His people now, He sees the blood of His Son. The debt
paid. We are washed white as snow. For he is our peace who hath
made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. He has broken down that wall
that separated us from God. He has made us righteous in himself,
allowing us, giving us the power to be the sons of God and being
able to stand with God. You see, God can't even be in
the presence of wickedness, of evil, of sin. He's perfect and
holy in every way. And the only way for us to be
there is by the blood of Christ that was shed for us. Having
abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments, contained in the ordinances for
to make of Himself, of Twain, one new man, so making peace. and that He might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the crossing, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to
them that are nigh. For through Him, for through
Christ, for through our Savior, for through His blood, we both
have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, ye
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and the prophets, and that foundation is Jesus
Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. in whom all the building fit
framely together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. Those whom God is quickening
can read these words and receive reviving grace. the very reviving
grace that is spoken of in Isaiah where it said, he who is lofty,
he who sits above all things, he who sits on his throne, which
is Christ Jesus the Lord. He who is lofty and holy sits
with the broken and contrite heart and revives their souls. Brothers and sisters, when our Lord has brought these
things into our lives, just as He brought Saul into the life
of David, to chase David all around the country, taking David
here, David there. And then just in the moment when
David could have taken Saul's life, the Lord revived his soul. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. No. I can't do this. My Lord has shown me that He
is in control of everything. My Lord has shown me that He
has put Saul there for a reason. David's soul was revived because
he remembers God's Word, because he remembers the faith that he
has and the promises of God. God said, you will be king over
Israel. David remembered this. He remembered
the promises. When you're weak, look to God's
word and remember the promises. Amen.