Let's open our Bibles to Matthew,
Chapter 11. Wherever you find salvation in
the Scriptures, you always find that God doing it. You know,
He lifted me up out of the deep miry clay, set my feet on a rock, established,
established my goings, and put a new song in my mouth. You know, they talk about a new
song they're going to sing in glory, and it becomes new to
you here. before it'll be new to you there.
He puts a new song in our mouth, and it's all to the glory of
Christ our Lord. I've titled my message this morning,
Thank God for Grace. Thank God for Grace. I have never got over the grace
of God. I was lost for so many years,
relied on God so much, dishonored Him so much, and still doing
honoring near one ten thousandth of what he's worth. And that's
why I thank God for grace. Oh, thank God for grace. Start
reading with me in verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father. Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babe. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son. And he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him come unto me." all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and
you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light." Here our Lord Jesus Christ is giving thanks
to His Father. And oh, grace, what a wonderful
word, what a blessed word. And then when you put sovereign
in front of it, oh my, what a thing to think about, what a thing
to say, a good word, a good word. It's a strong word. It's a word
that means salvation. When I hear the word grace, I
think of salvation, full salvation, free salvation, complete salvation,
perfect salvation. And it's a word that gives such
comfort, such assurance. Because grace does all, brings
all, supplies all through God's blessed Son. Grace, oh, what
a word of assurance. For if God in grace does it for
us while we were yet sinners, we can't lose what was given
to us. He won't take it back. He gave it to us when we were
yet sinners. And he gave it to us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. So it ain't something that we're
going to lose later. And, oh, grace, grace, it's an
eternal word, an eternal word, a word that only God himself
could give. Born in the very heart of God,
that's what's amazing about grace. Only God himself could supply
a word like grace. When you really understand its
meaning, when you experience it in your heart, only God could
give this word, only, it has to be born in the heart of God,
and it's brought into time. God manifests this Word, manifests
this power, this wondrous, blessed thing called grace, sovereign
grace. He brought it in time for the
guilty, for the guilty. And it was grace. God in grace
gave us all we have, all we ever will have, and all we'll ever
be. He'll give it to us. That's why
Paul said, and we always quote this wrong, we say, I am what
I am by the grace of God, but he starts out with grace first.
He said, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. You start, he starts out with
grace. We start out with, I, he starts out with grace. We
always get it back. And O Lord of grace, our greater
debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. And every subject in the
Bible, when you look at the scriptures, The blessed word of God. Every
subject in the Bible is directly related to the grace of God,
except for one. You know what that would be?
A man falling by himself. The only
thing a man can do by himself is sin and fall. That's all he
can do. He can't do anything. But where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It's like taking a match. and
extinguishing it with a bucket of water. That's how much grace
abounds over sin. It was God's grace that determined
to save a people from Adam's fallen race instead of damning
and dooming the whole human race. It is the angels that sinned
when he cast them down. God took not upon himself the
nature of angels, our Lord Jesus didn't, but he took upon himself
the seed of Abraham, those chosen that Multituded, God said, Look
up yonder in the stars, Abraham. Tell me how many there are. I
don't have no idea. Count to seven. I don't know how many
there are. He said, Well, that's exactly how many children you're
going to have. Abraham looked up. He said, I believe that. Well,
our Lord Jesus Christ took on that seed, identified himself
with us. It was God's grace that made
our Lord Jesus Christ our surety. from the foundation of the world.
He stood as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And because He was our surety and engaged Himself to take up
all of our responsibility and answer to God for everything
about us, God never one time looked to any soul on this earth,
never looked to me, never looked to you, to provide anything,
to pay any debt, to do any work to secure our salvation. Christ
answered for us from all eternity, and He came in time to show that
what God purposed from all it took. Thank God for grace in
the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.
And it was God's grace that gave Christ to people in the eternal
covenant of grace. Oh, our Lord Jesus said, All
that the Father give me, every single one of them, shall come
to me. And everyone that comes to me,
ain't nothing he'll ever do. No situation he'll ever be in.
Nothing he'll ever say. No fall will be so great that
ever make me cast him out. That's grace. That's grace. Six
times in John 17, our Lord Jesus Christ said, those thou hast
given me, those thou hast given me, those thou hast given me.
God gave Christ to people. And it was and that's who I'm
after. They said one time they told Mr. Spurgeon said, you know,
if you believe in election, why don't you just preach the election?
He said, if I knew who they were, that's who I would preach to.
But I don't know who they are. But I'm going to preach God's
sovereign grace, because I tell you what, his sheep will hear
that voice. They'll hear that message of grace. That old goat
will say, but, but, but, but. That old goat, that's all he's
going to do. And it was God's grace that sent our Lord Jesus
Christ into this world in the fullness of time, made of a woman.
And it was God's grace that gave us faith and revealed Christ
to us. When Paul said this, he said,
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. And it was God's
grace that'll keep us in Christ, keep us cleaving, keep us believing. Now unto him that's able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before his coming. And oh, and it'll be God's grace
that will one day raise us up to eternal glory. And oh, what
a day that'll be. I can't hardly wait myself. And
oh, beloved, it's obvious. It's obvious then when we talk
about the grace of God. that there's not one thing, not
one thing a son of Adam has to glory in, not one thing, not
a single thing. There's only one thing that we
can glory in, one thing we can boast in, one thing we can rejoice
in, one thing we can find joy in, and that's the grace of God
given us in Christ Jesus. Now, God forbid that I should
glory, boast, rejoice in anything except the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom I'm crucified unto the world, the world's,
I'm dead to the world, the world's dead to me. Where'd I die at?
In Christ, on that blessed cross. And, O beloved, sovereign grace
is the answer to human sin. Free will's not. Walking in the
aisle's not. Making resolutions is not. The
gospel has nothing to do with resolving and making resolutions. Sovereign grace is the only answer
to human sin. Sovereign grace is the only answer
to human inability. If a man can't do it, somebody's
got to do it for him. If a man don't have any power,
somebody else got to do it for him. If a man is really dead,
he don't need to be told to be woke up. He got to be quickened.
He got to have life and sovereign grace. And I love this. is the
answer to human unwillingness. People go on and on. A man wrote
me a letter last week, and he sent me an article out of an
oral Armenian theological book about how Calvinists are scared
to death over that word, whosoever. Off a newspaper article, I hear
from folks all the time about it, and they say we're scared
to death about that whosoever. Well, I'm not. I'm not a bit,
because I know whosoever. I know exactly where a man gets
his will. I know exactly where a man gets
his power. And whosoever today hears the
voice of the Son of God, I know how he heard it. And whosoever
will come to Christ today, I know where he got the will to come
from. That's why this gospel, oh my soul, bless the name of
the Lord. I love this. The older I get,
the more I preach it, the more I enjoy it and the more I rejoice
in it. But here in this verses that
I've read to you, that's just my introduction. I'm going to
preach my message now. Here in these verses, 11 through
20, 25 through 30, we have seven things concerning God's sovereign
grace. Thank God for grace. We see the
sovereignty of God's grace. the unvarying, the unchanging
way in which God works that grace in the hearts of his people.
And first of all, in verse 25, look at the spirit. We are to
regard the sovereign grace of God. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee. Oh my, thank God for grace. I thank thee. Thank God. Wouldn't it be awful if we got
up this morning looking to ourselves to do anything to commend ourselves
to God, to get a blessing from God? Wouldn't it have been awful
if it's like the preacher said, you know, if you need to get
up early at four o'clock in the morning and pray so God will
give us a blessing today? Oh, thank God our Lord said,
I thank thee. Thank God he has purpose to save
the people. I'm not on a fool's errand. And
when you talk to somebody about Christ, you're not on a fool's
errand. You say it and leave God to do what He will with it.
But we've got to tell them, thank God He has purpose to save a
people. Thank God He has elected a people, chosen a people. And
when the Apostle, whenever you find in the Scriptures people
are writing about God choosing a people for His glory, you find
them giving thanks. You find them praising God. The
Apostle said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For he hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heaven and places. And here's one of
them, according as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that here's the results of it, that we should
be holy without blame before him, before God. Where at? What? In love he predestinated us. What to? The adoption of children
by Jesus Christ. unto himself. That's how I became
a child of God, chosen, loved, adopted, blessed with all spiritual
blessing. And he said, oh, brethren, and
I do this. I thank God for him. I thank
God for you. Oh, he said, brethren, we're
bound always, always to thank God for you, because he has from
the beginning, whenever the beginning was, Wouldn't you reckon that
was? You know the reason that Scripture
talks about beginning in time? That's just for us. If Adam hadn't
of never fell, there wouldn't have been no such thing as a
clock in this world. But he did, so God set time for me and you.
But in the beginning, chosen you unto salvation through setting
you apart by the truth. So you part by the spirit and
believe in the truth. But oh my, you run across folks
today and you mention election. Oh my, you think there's just
a few going to be saved. Oh no, I think there's a multitude
that no man can number going to be saved. You think you're
one of them, I do. If I was only eight, like it
was in Noah's day, I'd tell the rest of them to be looking for
the other seven and say, when you going to get on the boat
with me? Because I'll tell you why I believe that. I'm one of
them is because I do not. I am scared to death of myself.
I'm afraid to bring anything to God other than the name of
the Lord and the blood and righteousness of Christ. And all you mention
election folks get upset. They get angry. And you hold
my they say, well, I don't need people to see if they're going
to be saved. That'll make them if they they know they're going
to be saved. Why do you bother preach the gospel? They're going
to lead them to sin. Oh, no. It may lead a fool to sin, but
it won't lead a person who's been chosen and who's been saved
by the grace of God. Oh, no, it'll make him run from
it like it's a rattlesnake. You know, when our Lord Jesus
Christ preached his first message in Luke chapter four, oh, my,
they listened to him preach and they said, oh, my, listen to
what gracious words. Oh, what gracious words. Then
he began to tell them, he said, oh, Oh, they'll say, physician,
heal yourself, heal your own country, heal your own people.
And he said, well, there was many, many with us in Elisha's
time, but Elisha was only sent, or Elijah's time, but he was
only sent unto one, and she was a Gentile. And oh, there was
lots and lots of lepers in Elisha's time, but Elisha was only sent
to one. And it says they got angry and
grit their teeth, and they said, we'll just kill him. And oh,
you think everybody don't like election. Everybody don't love
election. But oh my, I just absolutely
love it. I just tell you, if it was something
that you could hug, I'd hug it. If it's something you could kiss,
I'd kiss it. If it's something that you could get your hands
on, I'd hold it physically. That's how much I love it. And
oh, beloved, and I said, God's going to get every single one
of his. That gives me such encouragement. And then look at the author.
So with that, with regard to sovereign grace of God, I thank
you. Look at the author of this blessed grace, this sovereign
grace. I thank the old father. He's the author of grace. God's
the author. God's grace begins with God.
It started with God. Now, it's true. I know it and
you know it, that every child of God Every single soul in here
chooses God. I choose Him. I choose the Lord
Jesus Christ right now in my heart and soul. Don't you choose
Him? Don't you want Him? Don't you desire Him? Every child
of God, they can truly sing from their heart, Oh, how I love Jesus. There is a name I love to hear.
I love to sing its word. Oh, I will love it. But, oh,
beloved, And we, every single one of God's blessed people,
they seek the Lord. They seek Him with all their
heart. They seek Him every single day. But they do that because
God chose them first. They love God, but God loved
them first. They seek the Lord, but the Lord
sought them first. They call on God because God
called on them first. You see, God acted first. And
what we do is we respond to His grace. That's all we do, we respond
to it. God is the first cause of everything.
Look, and you keep Matthew 11, but look in Romans 8, just a
moment. God is the first cause of everything.
And Nancy and I was talking about that last night. What? Well,
we'd be blithering idiots if we didn't believe that God wasn't
the first cause of everything. Look here in Romans 8. Look in
verse 29. And I want you to notice this,
for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. That he
might be the fourthborn among many, but moreover, whom he did
predestinate, in verse 30. Them he also called, whom he
called, he justified, he glorified. If God be for us, and I want
us to know this, he, he, he, he, he, he did it. He did it. No, you're not. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you and ordained you. You see, beloved, in regeneration,
we're passive. We're passive. We absolutely
do nothing in regeneration. You know, my dad's name was Donald
Bell. I'm a junior. His father's name
was William. And my Mary was here. She could
tell you what his father's name was. But in my great-grandfather,
everything I am today, generations back was in his loins.
Is that not right? I did not choose how tall I'd
be, who my daddy would be, my weight, the color of my eyes,
where I'd be born, what my name would be, what my nature would
be. I didn't have a thing in the
world doing any of those things. And if you can't do that which
is least, how in the world are you going to do that which is
greatest? Huh? That's the way this business
of regeneration is. Oh, God goes out. That ain't...
God goes out and we were in the loins of Christ before the foundation
of the world and everything that we are spiritually. Our spiritual
stature, our spiritual intellect, our spiritual birth, our spiritual
hunger, our spiritual thirst, our spiritual growth, our spiritual
understanding, our spiritual desires, every bit of it, our
birth. Well, we was in the Lord's of
Christ, and the Holy Spirit takes the seed of Christ and plants
Him in our heart, and it's Christ in us that's the hope of glory.
And everything we are as children of God is because we're regenerated
in Christ and by Christ. Now, conversion is when we're
regenerated and God gives us life and quicken us. Conversion
is our response to that. What we do is when we're regenerated,
we turn to God. In repentance, we turn to God
in faith. It's like a baby. When a baby
is born, is the crying what makes it live? No, it cries because
it is alive. And when God gives us life, we
start crying. We start hollering, we start
saying, oh, Lord, oh, Lord. And the first thing we say, oh,
Lord, have mercy. Oh, God, would you save me? Will
you have anything to do with me? You see what I'm saying? But
that life, you don't have nothing to do with that. Boy, when that
life's there. It's got to respond. And it responds
to the one who gave it life. A baby responds to its mother. Oh, my, I tell you. You know, this is the way our
Lord said it like this. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Now that's election. That's regeneration. And causes. That's our response. Causes us. To approach under
the. And all my let me show, I'm going
to show you one other thing, look with me over here in Romans
10. I want us to look at this. Romans 10, I. Now, you know,
this. David said it, he said, Lord,
thou says, seek my face. That's election. That's regeneration.
That's the power of God. Thou said, seek you my face.
The response is. conversion is thy face, O Lord,
I'll seek. He says, seek it. You do. And once you start seeking,
you never stop. Ain't that right? Would you agree
with that? This idea that you start and stop and go a month
and quit a month and in and out, that's. They do that for tires,
they recap tires. God don't do that. He gives you
a perfect salvation. Wrong salvation. But look here
in Romans 10, in verse 13. For whosoever, you see this,
I thank thee, O Father, salvations of the Lord, graces of God. And
we call on him, but he calls on us first. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, beloved,
when it says you're calling upon the name of God, that means once
you start calling, it's a continual call. It's not like these soul
winners tell you, they'll run you to that verse of Scripture.
They'll say, well, you sinned, come to the Lord. You believe
that? Yeah, I do. Well, then they'll run over here and say,
now, who says here, who says, come on, Lord, will you call
on the Lord? Yeah. Well, then you're saved.
That's not what that means. That means calling, calling,
who shall call, shall call and shall call and shall call. A
million more lords shall be saved. But watch this, now, how then
shall they call on him, in him, call on him in whom they have
not believed? You've got to believe somebody, not something, somebody. And it's seeing somebody, and
hearing of somebody, and somebody being made known to you. Well
then, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
heard? This absolutely boggles my mind, and we see people do
it all the time. They do this down home. They'll
get a person in the service the first time, and they'll get a
profession out of them the first time. And they've never heard
of Christ. They don't know anything about
Him. They just mention Jesus. And Jesus stands here and wants
to. But oh no. Here it says, How shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? I remember preaching
one time years and years ago, and Eleanor Boren. You know Eleanor
Boren? Wonderful, wonderful lady. And I've known her for 30 years.
And her and her husband, her husband was a free bill Baptist
preacher. And and when I started passing the church, he had done
quick preaching and. And after about two or three
years, I was preaching and I was preaching about Christ and the
Lord Jesus, and I said that the Jesus that's being presented
to you now that you understand now that you see now you the
sovereign Christ, the glorious Christ, the omnipotent Christ,
the one whose righteousness is ours, makes us holy and without
blame, and his righteousness is imputed to us, and we stand
before God holy and perfect. I said, is that the same Jesus
you trusted before? And the elder stood up and she
said, oh, no, no, no. The one I trusted before is not
the one you've been preaching to me. And her husband and their
daughters all... You see, she trusted an Armenian
Jesus. Well, who's he? Nobody. Got no power, got no glory, got
no strength, got no will. Oh, that's why we preach Christ
in His glory, as the Lamb slain and as the Lion of the tribe
of Judah. All power vested in Him, all
authority vested in Him. Got a crown on His head. Oh my,
got eyes of fire. got feet of brass and got a scepter
in his hand. And when you come into his presence
and you come with the right words, Oh, Lord, be merciful to me.
Oh, God, would you accept me for Christ's sake? Oh, Lord,
would you hear my cry? And he'll step forth that scepter
and say, Come on in. Come near. Draw a knife. That's
what he does. And then he goes on to say here,
And how shall they hear without a preacher? Oh, my. We had the best service today.
It's so good that the preacher didn't even get to preach. The most important thing that
a man has ever called to do, the most glorious calling, I
have to step down to be the president of the United States. A little old two by four fellow
from nobody from nowhere, don't know nothing, no education. I'm
telling you, I'd have to step down to be the president of the
United States. To be called to preach and preach
God's word. And you and you. Blessed to be
able to have a preacher that tells you the truth, that loves
you and takes God's word and says this is what the Lord says.
Not what I think, not what I feel, not what our denomination says
we ought to believe. But I have a preacher, as somebody
called of God, and he comes and tells you about the Lord Jesus
and his grace and his blood and his righteousness and his mercy
and his grace and his eternality, his kingship, his deity, his
incarnation, his eternal sonship, tells you all these glorious
things about Christ. Oh, and watch this. And how shall
they preach except to be sin? And as it is written, how beautiful
are the feet that dim the priesthood gospel of peace. Christ brought
peace, established peace by the blood of his cross. And oh, it's
good tidings of glad tidings of good things when you say salvations
of the Lord, salvations of grace. And how many times, and Todd,
Paul, you've done this. Todd must be thanking me. How many times have you seen
a preacher get in the pulpit and you look at his feet and
say, Oh, my blessed feet. I've seen your dad has seen the
pulpit so many times and say, Oh, I really have from the death. I've seen him walk up them steps.
You know, he walks slower than he used to. He used to hit the
pulpit. Now, you know, he's going a little
slower. So I watch him feet get up and start walking toward the
pulpit. I say, Oh, thank God for that. Those feet brought
the gospel to me, told me the truth, told me in such a gracious,
wondrous way. And there's old Scott Richardson.
And I could not tell you how many times old Scott got up to
preach. And I look at them feet while
he's getting up there and say, Oh, what And appreciate and desire my
Lord Jesus opened the scriptures and made me see things I never
saw before and hear things I never heard. Thank God for grace, thank God
for grace. Well, I'm going to go on something
else. But how are you going to call on him whom you have not
believed? How are you going to hear without a preacher? You've
got to know something about this. Sovereign Christ, he's the author,
God does it. And then here, back in our text,
back in Matthew 11, here's God's right to act as he does. Our
Lord said, Oh, I thank you. That's the way we're to react
to the grace of God's election. The author of grace, the Father.
And then look what he says. Here's God's right to act as
he does. Our Lord said in verse 25, Oh,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, And that's the, that's his, that's
his authority. Oh Father, Lord of heaven and
earth. He's the sovereign God. He's
Lord of heaven and earth. John, he's not, he's not wringing
his hands. There's a fellow told us that
Floyd was telling me the other day about his nephew. He was
doing something and he said, you know, God showed me that
he's going to do this one thing, but he said, I prayed and I changed
his mind. He decided to do it some other
way. Oh, God, Lord of heaven. That gives him his right. He's
Lord. The scripture tells us that the heaven of heavens cannot
contain him. That the heavens is his throne
and the earth is his footstool. He's the creator. We're nothing
but the creatures. And he said, is it not lawful
for me to do what I will with my own? And people get angry
and they argue and say, oh, my God's this way and my God's that
way. And they're exactly right. Their God is. But my God and
the God of the Bible, he sits on the throne and he don't ask
nobody if he can. And when he when he wills to
do something and when we think about the will of God and that
the will of God is one and we talk about the decrees of God,
the decree of God is one. Everything God does is just considered
as one. As far as he's concerned, it's
one. He declared the end from the beginning. And the reason
he can do that is because everything it takes to get to the end, he
does it. And he has no contingency plans.
He's never thought of anything, never forgot anything, never
asked for anything, never inquired of anybody. He's as good today
as he was yesterday, and he'll be as good tomorrow as he will
a thousand years ago. And when we get into eternity,
he won't be no different than he is right now. And guess what he says? He doeth
according to his will. Among the armies of heaven. Now, if that's what he does,
imagine what he'll do down here. Oh, my. Ain't you thankful? Ain't you? You know, I am so
thankful that it's the will of God that's done. And that's what
we pray for. We say, Oh, Lord, thy kingdom come. Bring your
kingdom into our midst. Bring your authority. Bring your
power. Bring your reign into us. Bring
it right down here and let folks know that you're God. Oh, your
kingdom come and your will be done. We want your will done
right here this morning. And we want it done this afternoon,
and when we go to bed tonight, we want it done when we get up
tomorrow. Thy will be done on this earth, just like it is in
heaven. And may it be done in my heart,
just like they do it in heaven. Oh, may my heart be as submissive
as they are in heaven. May my heart be as rejoicing
in your will as it is in heaven. Oh, that's what we want. And
men say, oh, that's not right. Who art thou, old man? Who are
you? that you would dare reply against
God. Shall the potsets of the earth, let them strive with the
potsets, but shall the clay, shall the pots say unto him that
formed it, why did you make me like this? Oh my, can he not
make one out of the same lump, same lump? One a vessel of honor,
another an ashtray, all comes out of the same clay. Tim James,
I was in a service with him years ago, and he went to the Kmart
that day, and he was going to preach out of Romans 9. And he
went and bought him some clay. And he ended up here, and he
got to preaching, and he went over and got him some of that
clay, and he plopped it down on the pulpit. He said, that's
my clay. I went and bought it today, paid
for it. He said, I can do just what I want to with that clay.
I can throw it on the ground. And if I was a good potter, I
said, I can make something pretty out of it. He said, but it's
mine, and I'm going to do what I want to. And he just went and
started to divide it up. And that's the way God is. We're
just clay. And I tell you, we talked about
this the other night. I've got to hurry, Paul. Don't I? We've
got plenty. But here's, we was talking about
that the other night, you know, that us as children of God, and
I believe you'll agree with me, See, if you don't think this
is right, that everybody who has been saved by grace, the
longer they understand and hear the grace of God preached, the
more they love and appreciate it, and the more they say, how
many times have you said in your heart and you've asked God, Lord,
whatever it takes, whatever it takes to keep me trusting you,
looking to you, believing you, desiring you, Believe in the
gospel, worship Him with your people, whatever it takes to
keep me. You do that very thing. He's
the potter, we're the clay. And we say, Lord, just keep working
on me. Don't ever give up. Please keep working on me. Because
we're absolutely scared to death of ourselves. Take me. Take me. If I'm one of your vessels,
and if you need to break me and start all over again, you do
that. You do that. And he's got the
right to do it. He's the Lord of heaven and earth.
He's the only one that can do it. All right. And then here's the objects of
his grace. I love this. I absolutely love this. And he
said at that time, verse 25, our Lord said, I thank the old
father, the Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid
these things. Oh, my, you mean God hides things? Yes, he does.
Well, he had to hide the scriptures for one thing. The natural man, the natural
religious, he sees just the opposite of what me and you see. And you've
hidden from the wise and the prudent and has revealed him
unto babes. Babes. Oh, babes, that's what
they call us, babes. Babes, all you all do is just
preach Jesus all the time. Why don't you get on to something?
Get on to some prophecy. Why don't you get on to the millennial
kingdom? No, just give me baby food. You know, he said, he said, except
you become as a little child. And receive the kingdom of God
as a little child, you can't enter in, you can't see it. And
let's look in Matthew 21, you keep now, you keep Matthew 11,
we're going to go right back to it. Look in Matthew 21. Verse
15. Oh, our Lord passes by the wise.
How many wise men have I? A fellow knocked on the door
at the church here a while back. I hope I'm not sounding like
I'm tooting my own horn here. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Oh, man, I mean, he's knocking
on the door. And I hollered, come in! So I went and opened
the door. Big old guy about like Steve
Becker. I'm a big old guy. He said, Are you the feller?
He reached in his pocket and pulled out and said, Are you
the man that told this lie on God? Are you the man who told
this lie on God? I said, No. No. I said, No, I didn't lie on God.
I told the truth on Him. The reason I told the truth on
Him is because the rest of you lied on Him. That's the first thing,
the first conversation we had. He said, you're the one who wrote
this lie, told this lie on God. I said, no. He said, I'm the
one telling the truth. The only reason I'm telling the truth
about him is because everybody else is lying on me. And oh,
that's what they do. They're lying on God here. And
that's why they pass by. They absolutely think we're idiots.
I couldn't tell you the time people brought their Bibles and
said, I'm going to show you how long. If you have people do that, I'm
going to show you. I heard you this morning said,
folks don't like elections. You was talking about elections
this morning on your radio program or TV or radio. But oh my, they, the wise, they're
too wise. They got to have them a strange
Bible. They're too wise to just sit and listen to what God's
got to say. They're too wise. They got to have play. They're
too wise for the simple gospel. They're too wise to have just
a couple of songs and make your services to be around the word
of God. They're too wise to just stay with with Christ and him
crucified. They got to move on to millennials.
They got to move on to charts and they got to move on to maps
and they got to move on with people going this way, people
going that way and forty nine horns sticking out of the head
or something another. And they got to go on. They're
too wise for just the plain, simple, powerful, glorious gospel
of Christ. But oh my, but who in the world
likes that? This little old babe does. And
look what he says in verse 15, now Matthew 21. And when the
chief priest and scribes saw the wonderful things that he
did, and watch this now, and the children crying in the temple. Now they weren't crying tears,
they was crying out, rejoicing. Hosanna to the son of David.
That's what it says. They were displeased. And they said unto him, Herest
thou what these say? You're taking, they're saying
things about you. They're giving you the praise.
They're saying you're the son of David. They're praising you.
And that makes them upset. They want the honor of men. They
want to be praised. They want the recognition. They
want to talk about the work they have come. They want to talk
about their church, the souls they've won, the buildings they've built.
the books they've written. And they said unto him, Hearst
thou what these say? And our Lord said, Yea, I hear
them. I hear them. I hear every word they're saying.
Have you never read? And he tells them what the Bible
says out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. Thou hast perfected
praise. You know, my father-in-law, he
is 75 years old when he heard the gospel. He's 80 now. The
81 in April. But he's sitting right there.
It's just a sword setting. And he's been in the services
for over 20 years. Heard the best preachers that
there was. Been in our home with lots of preachers. Picked the
guitar and sang with them. But whenever you'd talk to him,
you know, he'd always say, I know, I know. I know what the Bible
says. I read the Bible all the time. And oh, he just felt so
good about himself. Proud, oh my, he was son. One day, I was preaching from
John 5. The hour is coming, and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and
they that hear shall live. And I didn't know a thing that
was going on much. And I stepped down out of the pulpit, and I
decided to go down. I was standing there like this, and I stepped
down one step. He stood up, seventy-five years
old. Been here in the best preachers
in the country for 20 years. He said, Donnie, he said, I heard
the voice of Christ today. And that man who always had an
answer, who always knew everything. Who always said, when you mentioned
things to him, said, I know. Now you mentioned something to
him, he said, what was that you said? I've seen him cry and said, seventy-five
years old and a baby. When he reads the scriptures,
he'll say, I thought I knew something. He said, I don't know nothing.
And now he's an eighty-year-old baby. And he'll tell you he's
a baby. He's ashamed of how little he
knows. He's ashamed. You understand what I'm saying? You know a baby. Some of you
got babies and some of you going to have babies. Let me tell you
something about a baby. You know what babies respond
to? Love. Affection. But babies also need discipline.
And a brand new newborn baby don't need the discipline that
a 10 year old needs. But they need it. And they need care.
They need attention. And the wise and prudent, they
can't see, for they trust in their own eyesight, their own
understanding, and their own knowledge. But you take a baby,
and I'll tell you something else about a baby. And I know this
from experience. All in the world a baby can do
is make a mess. And somebody else has to clean
it up. I've changed a damn many diapers
I've taken. But you know, you think about
it. He's got to be held. He just makes a mess. He can't
clean himself up. He can't feed himself. He can't wipe his own
mouth. He can't wash himself. He can't
bathe himself. He can't do anything for himself. All he can do is
cry, reach out his hands, kick his feet, and that's the way we are. For
every time we make a mess, the Lord Jesus Christ comes and cleans
it up. Always wiping the stuff off our
face, always cleaning the sun. Always cleaning the sun. Oh,
ain't you grateful? And you know, I tell you, I've
got to quit, but I've got three grandsons, and we've got a house
full of babies down home. And I love babies. I truly, truly
love babies. I really do. They got to smell
their own. I mean, you know, they're just special. But if
I had a nickel for every mile I walked behind them boys when
these babies first started walking, crawling, You don't keep them
out of anything, you know, when you're a grandparent. You don't
keep them out of nothing. You just follow them around.
And they go to college, here you go running around behind
them. Then they go to walking, here you go running around behind
them. And I've been around my house, I couldn't tell you the
size of my bed. And when they got big enough
to, even before they started walking, I'd carry them off in
the woods. Paul's been with me and I'd carry them off in the
woods with me. And I sit on a stump, and I say, boys, listen. Listen
to God. Listen to God. Be out there and hear the voice
of God. That quietness, that stillness, that peace, that glory. And I followed them boys, and
I'm still following them. And that's the way the Lord does
us. We're just babies running around the Lord right behind
us. He crawls, He's right behind us. And not only is He behind
us, But he's also in front of us. Well, let me let me hurry. And here's the reason that he
gives us this grace. In verse 26, Matthew 11. Oh, I thank you, oh, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, you've hid these things, made babes
known. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. That's the only answer you need.
That's the only response we need, ain't it? Well, you do this,
Lord. Seem good in your sight. It pleased
you. You know, that's the only answer
I need. I don't need to ask no more. It pleased the Lord to
do it. It pleased God to bruise him.
It pleased the Lord to make you his people. It pleased God by
the fluences of preaching to save us that believe. And that's
good enough for me and you. That's good enough for me. And
it was for his name's sake that he saved us. And then let me
show you this, and I'm just about done. Verse 27. And here's the
channel. Here's where God gives all his
grace for men, right here. All things are delivered unto
me and my Father. This is where grace is. God vested
everything in his blessed Son. And no man knows the Son but
the Father. Neither knows any man the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever. He will reveal Him, that all
things, everything that you and I need, everything that some
sinner needs, everything that you that are unconverted need,
is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed, blessed
Redeemer. Everything that we need towards
God is in His hands. We need a mediator? We've got
one. We need a sacrifice? We've got one. We need blood?
We've got blood. The blood of the Son of God Himself.
We need righteousness? We've got a righteousness. His
righteousness. We need an advocate. We got one.
We need a high priest. We got one. And guess where he
sits? At the right hand of God. And
we need God to do something for us, to hear us, to receive us
and accept us and to hear from God. Everything God gives us,
he gives us in Christ. Of God, Christ has been made
unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
Everything we need. God gives us in Christ hourly,
daily, over and over and over again. And then look at this
last thing. What a gracious, gracious word
that our Lord gives to sinners right here. For me and you and
anybody else that'll listen. Come unto me. Come unto me. All you that labor
and laboring under that decision, laboring under that free will,
laboring under that self-righteousness, laboring under that works, and
you're heavy laden, and you're burdened down with your sins,
you come to me, and I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest from that
sin. I'll give you rest. And, oh, beloved, and He gives
it to us. And watch this now. Who is this
that says this? This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He knows all about the Father's purpose to save and elect people.
He's the Savior. He's the one that says, Come.
He who all things are delivered and has got all power and authority
to save whom he will. He's the one that says, Come.
He who died and bore our sins in his own body. He who was buried
and carried them away. He who rose again and sets at
the right hand of the Father says, Come. Can you come? Would you come? Would you dare to come? Would
you dare cast your soul on Him? Would you dare trust your soul
with Him? If I had 10,000 of them, I'd trust Him with every
single one. And, oh, He said, I'll give you
rest. And then He said, take my yoke upon you. Learn of Me. That's what we're trying to do.
Learn of our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm meek and lowly in heart.
Not when he gives you rest. And when you learn of him, look
what you find. You'll find rest. To rest here. He gives it when
you come. And then the more you learn of
him, you find rest. His yoke is easy. Oh, it's so
easy. Oh, it's so easy. It don't hurt
you. It don't gauge you. It's not
heavy. Oh, it just don't hurt at all. You know what? He does all the pulling. The
yoke is easy, and his burden is light. If you're not a believer,
if you never trusted Christ, God helped you right now to cast
your lot with Him, to give your very soul away to Him. Give it to Him. Brother Don started with grace,
laid the foundation, and let's end it with grace. Top Strong,
209. A marvelous grace. Number 209
in the green. And don't forget, tonight at
six o'clock is the service, and you men come a little early and
we'll ask the Lord to bless it. Stand with me. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, Yonder on
Calvary's mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was
spilled. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. That is greater than all our
sins. Sing the last verse. Marvelous,
infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe,
you that are longing to see His face. Will you this moment in
grace be seen? Praise, praise, God's praise. Praise, praise, God's praise. Praise, praise, God's praise. Praise, praise, praise. I don't know what to do.