Oh, He is absolutely Lord of
all, or He's not Lord at all. I'd like to ask you to turn in
your Bibles to the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. In last week's message, I mentioned
our brother Mike Lovelace's ministry, Free Willard. particularly one
panel that he had written where the young man called Willard
asks the old man in the picture there,
which looks somewhat familiar. I'm not quite sure where I've
seen the picture of that guy with bald head and big mustache
and beard, but I know I've seen him somewhere. In particular,
I refer to that very one where Willard says, why do we always
harp on sovereign grace? And that song you just sang points
exactly to it because he is Lord of all. The answer the old man
gave to that young man in the panel was because there's no
other kind. Grace is of the Lord. Even you and I, when we help
somebody, we call it grace. I'm gracious to this person or
to the homeless or to whatever you want to call it. That's not
perfect grace. There's something in our heart
somewhere or another that's working it. Only the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ give perfect grace. Sovereign grace. We don't rule
over everything as He does. And He rules over everything. He is Lord of all. This is a
truth, this truth, this fact, that God is sovereign over everything,
is the truth most attacked of God's Word, and is the one truth
that's most attacked from God's Word in our day. In fact, it's
possibly the most attacked of all times. If you sat back and
really put some thought into it, maybe if Abel would have
believed God, if he would have believed God
when God said, bring a lamb. Not Abel, I'm sorry, Cain. Maybe
Cain would have brought a land. But he didn't believe God, he
believed himself. He didn't believe in the sovereignty of God. So
maybe this idea of sovereign grace has been the most attacked
from the very beginning. I know this, that the world will
not have a God who rules over everything, who rules over all
things. The world makes itself to be
gods. Men, women of the world, especially
when it comes to their so-called free will. They say that God
rules over everything, yeah, but he's given us a free will
to do whatever we want to do, to make our own decision, to
walk to the front of the aisle, to do whatever. Well, that's
not what scripture says at all. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The God of Scripture has not
created everything and then turned it over to see what men would
do. He has known what men would do
from before the beginning. He knew that His Son would come
to this earth and be hung on a cross and the blood would be
shed for the particular people that He gave to His Son before
the world was ever created, the Scripture says. Christ is known as the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. Is that correct? The God of Scripture did not
create everything and then turn it over to men. No, because of
our sin, because of our very nature, if we were left to ourselves,
we would turn to sin, just as we see Saul. In the Sunday morning
Bible study, In the 19th chapter of 1 Samuel, and we're looking
at Saul and how he has grown more and more hatred towards
David, who's done nothing to him. That's what sin would do
to the world. That's what sin would do to us
if we were left to ourselves. But for the grace of God, there
go we. Our very nature, it's our very
nature, and if left to ourselves, we would turn to it. and act
within our nature, just as a lion will eat meat and a deer will
eat grass, we would follow our nature deeper and deeper into
sin. Is that not what's going on in
this country today? Are we not turning more and more
towards lies? Are we not turning the truth
into lies and turning lies into the truth? It is in our very nature to think
more of ourselves than what we are. I'd like to begin a series of
nine messages this morning. And it's interesting, as I was
considering these nine messages, Kathy pointed out to me, you
realize, John, that there's only nine Sundays left before the
conference. See how the Lord works there, Mike? Just like
that. He guides things just like that,
makes it go the way He wants it to go. So this is going to
work out real well. This morning, I'd like to begin
with what we call Regenerating Grace, Part 1 of 9. Before we begin, before we look
into our text, you cannot put new wine in an old cask. If you do, the new wine will
eventually corrupt from the old wine residue in the cask. You must have a new cask to put
new wine in. And so goes our heart. We must
have a new heart to receive our new Master. Where we were once
ruled by sin, we are given a new heart that gladly receives our
new Master, Jesus Christ the Lord, the giver
of life. Are you with me in Ezekiel 37?
Let's begin at verse 1, shall we? The hand of the Lord was
upon me, speaking of Ezekiel, and he carried me out in the
Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a valley
which was full of bones, and caused me to pass by them
round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley,
and lo, they were very dry, I've heard a man preach on this one
time and the actual original language word that used
there that is interpreted very dry is so parched. The word very
dry doesn't even describe it correctly from what I understand
the original language. It's like you went out into the
desert and you find a bone that's from an animal hundreds of years
ago and the sun has been baking it so long there is nothing.
Absolutely nothing left in it. You pick it up and it just crumbles
into dust. That's what that very dry supposedly
means. And he said unto me, Son of man,
speaking of God to Ezekiel, Son of man, can those bones live?
And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. He knows everything,
doesn't he? He knows whether they can live
or not. I don't know. I would look out there and say,
I don't think so. And again, he said unto me, prophesy,
prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, oh ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and
ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and
put breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that
I am the LORD." So I prophesied as I was commanded.
And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I
beheld, lo, the sinews of flesh came upon them, and the skin
covered them above, but there was no breath in them. Then said
He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and
say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four
winds, O breathe, and breathe upon these slain, that they may
live. So I prophesied, and as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood
up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto
me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried,
and our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts.
Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God,
Behold my people, I will open your graves and cause you to
come out of your graves and bring you into a land of Israel. And
ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves,
O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall
put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live. and I shall place in you your
own land. Then shall you know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord." Just as
these bones could do nothing for themselves, neither can dead
men give themselves life. You can't choose whether you're
going to live or not. God does that. He's Lord of all. Turn over to the second chapter
of Ephesians. Life comes from only one place,
the giver of life, Jesus Christ the Lord, the Son of God, of
whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth. He who has
been given all power in heaven and earth, sits on the throne
of glory, ruling over all that is, especially life itself. Are you with me in Ephesians
2? Verse 1, And you hath He quickened. That's just a fancy word for
meaning given life. What have we got that our Lord
has not given us? And if He's given it to us, then
why are we boasting? And you hath He quickened. I know this is talking about
me because check out what it says next. Who were dead in trespasses
and sins. That was me. I know that was me. I know what
I was. I know what I am right now. A
sinner. The difference is I see that
I'm saved by grace now because God in His grace and mercy put
life in this body. He cut out that old wine bag
that was in there called a heart and put a new heart in there. Well, John, you know, maybe you
weren't the one who's dead and trespassed. Okay, let's go on,
because it continues to describe me here. Where in times past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air and the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversations in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." That's John. But God. who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us. Even when we were dead in
sins hath quickened us, hath given us life. Together with
Christ by grace you are saved. We, who are like all mankind
having walked in darkness, have by his grace been given life
in him. Notice our new life is in the
One who gives life. And He gives life to whom He
chooses. You don't need to turn there, but in John 5.26 it says,
For I as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given
the Son to have life in Himself. In John 6.33 it says, For the
bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life
unto the world. Or in verse 48 of that same chapter,
he says, just in case you didn't know, our Lord says, I am that
bread of life. In the 17th chapter, verse 1
through 3, it says, These words spake Jesus, and he lifted up
his eyes to heaven. He said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give life, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life
eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent. Now I ask you to please turn
over to John chapter three. Life is given to all of those
whom the Father had given to the Son. It's called electing
grace. When I was talking to Pastor Gene about
preaching this series, he said, you know, John, you might add
one more to that series of messages. Actually, I'm glad I didn't accept
his advice on that, We wouldn't have had the Lord tell me it
was only nine weeks, right? But I thought about it for a
minute. He says, are you still there? I said, yeah, I'm thinking about
what you just said. And I said, well, you know, Pastor, it's true, I could preach another
message on electing grace just by itself. But electing grace starts in
the beginning of Scripture. And it goes all the way through
to the end. So in truth, Electing grace needs to be in every single
one of the nine messages. Because that's what grace really
is, isn't it? It's election. It's choosing
to be merciful to one who doesn't deserve it. Truth is, electing grace is part
of every message. God the Father, in His grace,
chose a people to be the recipients of His grace, and He is gracious
to them for His Son's sake. It is only by the grace of God
the Father that any are regenerated, any are made alive. It's only
by the grace of God the Son that any can be regenerated. And it is only by the grace of
God, the Holy Spirit, that any will be regenerated. In Titus 3.3 through 5, it says,
for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,
serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. But after that, the kindness
and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost." Because of His works, we are regenerated. We are born again. You must be
born again, it says, doesn't it? It's only by His grace that
any may live, for we have nothing that we can offer to earn life
eternal. We are but dead bones, as we
read in Ezekiel. To perceive the Kingdom of Heaven,
one must be given sight. How can one who is born blind
understand the color blue? Have you ever thought about that? How would you describe the color
blue to somebody who's never seen anything? Who's had nothing
but darkness in front of their face their whole life? How would
you describe blue? It's blue. I don't see that working too
well. Well, this is what it means to
be regenerated. Are you with me in John chapter 3? Look at
verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, And the same came to Jesus
by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. And Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you and to thee, except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. How can a man be born when he
is old? Can he enter the second time
into the mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must
be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit, electing grace. Everyone who is born of God, electing grace. The wind blows where He wills
it to. Who can tell where it comes from or where it goes?
And so it is with the Spirit. Regeneration or the new birth,
those are the works of God. Only God can give life. And He
gives it through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why
His people give all the praise. This is why we sing, praise the
Lord. He is Lord of all. Every one
of the songs that we sing here, we sing raises up the Lord Jesus
Christ. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, we lift up Christ. Praising Him for our
new birth. Praising Him for showing us how
dead we were. Praising Him for showing His
life in us. Which brings us to Him. which
gives us faith in Him, which helps us to trust in Him. We know He came to each of us
in a personal way, don't we? He's come to you a little differently
than He did to me, but He came to us personally. has to come to you personally
because that's the only way you'll see your sin. It's the only way
you can see your condition. We're so good at hiding what
truly is within us, aren't we? But yet we know what's in us
and so does He. What a love What a love he has
for his people that he would come to us when we were dead
in trespasses and sin and give us life. We know that he came to us, each
of us personally, and through the preaching of his word, he
removed that old, stony, spiritually dead heart and gave us a new
one in its place, making us new creatures in Christ. You don't
need to turn there, but in 2 Corinthians 5.17 it says, Therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. Oh, what a joy it is to trust
in my Lord. Whereas we were once dead in
the flesh, we are now dead to the flesh. And we live in the
Spirit. We live for Christ. And we live
by Christ. Let me close this morning's message
by taking you over to Romans 8. Verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. What did I just read from 2 Corinthians? Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Christ has taken our sins and
put them in the grave. And not only did He put them
in the grave, He left them there. He arose and went back to the
crown of glory that He has in heaven, sitting on His throne,
continuing to rule over everything that is. There's no condemnation to those
of us that are in Christ. All of our sins, all that we've
committed, all that we commit today, all that we'll commit
tomorrow, they have all been paid for. God remembers them
no more. That's a message that has to
be yelled out because I need to hear that myself. It's echoing
off the back wall right at me. I need to hear that every day. It's hard to go through this
world with the flesh and see our sin within ourselves and
think, oh, why did I do that? It burdens me. But it burdens me to turn me
to my Savior. The One who did walk perfectly
in my spot. The One who went to the cross
and shed His blood in my spot. I need to hear that all the time.
That's why the gospel is preached here and not some other phony
baloney stuff. About how good the church is
and does this and does that? No! The only thing I need to
hear is about how the Lord has done what it takes to save me.
Because I have to walk through this valley of the shadow of
death until the Lord sees fit to take me home. I need to hear the Gospel. And
the gospel is, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. Oh, how I wished. Oh, how I want to turn away from
the thoughts of anger when you cut me off on the freeway. Oh, how I want to turn away from
the thoughts that go through my mind in other places. If I had continued to be left
to myself in the flesh, that's exactly what I would love doing,
but what I love doing is walking after the Spirit. I don't do
it very well, but I do it as good as God allows
me to. My faith in my Savior is exactly
what the Lord has given me and what I need. How do I walk after the Spirit? Whosoever believeth in me is
what our Lord says. It's not what we do. It's not helping the poor. It's
not doing this for somebody else or being kind or joyful all the
time. Whosoever believeth in me is
what my Lord says. How do I walk after the Spirit? That's all I have. I believe
His word. I believe His promises. I will
never leave you nor forsake you. Even David. You know what? Turn over to the 22nd Psalm. We're going to come back to that
Roman, so just hold the page here for a minute. We've got a couple
more minutes. Turn over to the 22nd and the 23rd Psalm. We're studying in the book of
Samuel right now where we're talking about David. We looked
at one of the Psalms that David wrote during the time when Saul
was sending messengers out to get him so that he could openly
kill him. This is a man after God's own
heart. How do we walk in the Spirit?
Well, let's look at what David says here in verse 1 of Psalms
22. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Is it unusual for us to feel
like the Lord has left us? No. Very common. The trials of this
world can be terrible upon us. Cancer is a nasty, nasty disease that takes the
lives of many. Not only does it take the lives,
but it can be extremely painful. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not
silent. Now turn over to the 23rd Psalm. Look at the difference. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth 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 will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. He believes God. Whosoever believeth
in me shall have everlasting life, is what our Lord says. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies, thou anointest my head with oil,
my cup runneth over, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. That was the promise of God to
the people of Israel, and David believed God. those who walk not after the
flesh but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
and the flesh. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit
do the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Remember,
we come into this world spiritually dead. We must be regenerated. We must
be born again, the Lord says. Only God can give life. Because the carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can it be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. Does the Spirit of Christ dwell
in you today? If so, then your heart will burn
to hear more about our Savior. A burning that He puts there. I had to go to Pastor Gene and
Steve Doyle several times in the first few months and say,
why is John Reeves so interested? I don't understand what is attracting
me so much to this stuff I'm hearing from you preaching from
the pulpit. Except that it makes more sense
than anything I've ever heard in the world, ever. And they said, it's God doing the
work in you. Simple as that. He's teaching you to believe.
to believe His Son, whosoever believeth in Me shall have everlasting
life. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you, Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because
of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness, because
of His righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken, regenerate, Give
life your mortal bodies by His Spirit
that dwelleth in you. Abraham believed God and it was
accounted to him for righteousness. So here's my question for you
this morning. Do you believe God? If Christ the Lord dwells in
your heart, you will believe. He's not waiting for you to do
something. He's not waiting for you to make
a decision, to exercise your free will, to get baptized, or
to do anything else. If Christ moves into your heart,
you will believe. Whosoever believeth in me, shall
have everlasting life. John 3, 15. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. Amen.