Praise ye the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation. O my soul, praise Him, for He
is thy health and salvation. All ye who hear, now through
his simple strong ears, join me in glad adoration. Praised be the Lord, who o'er
all things so wondrously reigneth, Shelt'rs be under his wings,
yea, so justly sustaineth. Hast thou not seen how thy desire
there hath been, granted in what He ordained? Praise ye the Lord, who with
marvelous wisdom hath made thee, decked thee with health, and
with loving hand guided and saving. How oft in grief Hath not he
brought thee relief, Spreading his wings for to shake? Praise ye the Lord, O let all
that is in me adore Him. All that hath life and breath,
come now with praise before Him. Let the amen Down from his people
again, Gladly for aid we adore. Your Bible's with me to Ephesians
chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. It's wonderful
to be here. A lot of new faces that people
have never met, but there's a lot of faces that I do know and remember
very well. It's just absolutely wonderful
to be here, and I hope the Lord is pleased to meet with us. I certainly hope everything so
far has been wonderful. Everything has been good. Everything
has been great. The man that God used here to
write the book of Ephesians, to write this letter to the dear
church at Ephesus, was used of God in a very unusual
way. They call him Paul the Apostle. You know, when you read the Bible
for years and years, and you get to hearing the men's voices,
you get the personalities, and you begin to hear the voices
in your head as you read, how they'd be speaking themselves
as if they're voices in your mind. Well, I've been reading
this man for so many years, and I almost picture him preaching
while I'm reading. But he was used in a very unusual
way, and he had a method that the Holy Spirit used him. The
Holy Spirit, when he used people to write the Scriptures, he never
made them mechanical. He never made them automaton.
He used their personalities. He used their way of thinking.
And that's why you see their personalities when you read.
But one thing that he did, one of the methods that the Holy
Spirit used with him was that would paint these incredibly
dark pictures, just horrendously dark pictures. And then he had
transitioned from these dark pictures, and he'd do it by using
this little word, but. But. And let me show you what
I'm talking about. Start here in verse one with
me, chapter two. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein time past you according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom we also had our conversation 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." That's a pretty bad picture, pretty
dark. See, he goes from that darkness,
and he transitions over to light. And he does that over and over,
and he's right. And he goes, he uses this, paints
this dark picture, and he uses this word, but, as a transition
from the darkness to the light. And he did it in Romans chapter
3, Romans chapter 6. In Romans 3, he began to talk
about how that all have sinned, none righteous, no not one, none
understandeth, none seeks God. And he concludes it by saying,
there's no fear of God before man's eyes. And now we know that
whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped. Everybody becomes
guilty before God. And he brings us to this awful
conclusion. We don't know God. We don't seek
God. We don't understand God. We don't
fear God. We don't have no righteousness.
We don't have nothing. And then he says, but now the
righteousness of God. There is a righteousness. And
it's apart from the law. But it's witnessed by the law.
And it's witnessed by the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
by faith of Jesus Christ. So that's a method. And I want
to use that tonight, if I can. And here he does in Ephesians
chapter 2. He says, but God. And I want
us to consider this two little words, but God. But God. And I'll say it like this. Let
me start out with a very simple, simple mind's got to deal with
simple things. It's a word of hope. When you
come across this word, but God, oh God, it's always a word of
hope. Always a word of hope and always
a word of encouragement. And what he does is he goes back
and he begins to remind these people of Ephesus what they were
and what man is by nature and what all men are by nature. And
he says, back in verse one, and you, you who were dead in trespasses
and sin. Now, it's an awful thing to be
dead. Now, let's picture with me, if you can. We've done this,
and all of us have seen this. We bring a casket in, and somebody
we love, somebody we dearly love, and we've known them. And here
they come in, and they bring them in. They bring in that corpse,
and we see that corpse. And that's the way the Scriptures
talks about us being dead in trespasses and sickness. And
that's the way the Spirit is dead. You've got this person
you love. You've got them you love and
you speak to them. You walk up before them and you speak to
them. And you tell them how much you love them. Tell them how
much you're going to miss them. And you're looking at them, but
they don't hear a word you say. And they don't look back at you.
And your tears fall on their bodies and on their clothes.
And you bend down and kiss them, and you even sometimes leave
the tears on your faces of your friends and loved ones. But they
don't feel your tears. They don't hear your cries of
their friends and loved ones. And that's the way it is. Men
are dead in trespasses and sins. They don't hear the groans and
the sufferings and the agonies of a dying Savior because they
don't hear it. They don't see it, and they don't
feel it. They're dead in trespasses and sins, just like that person
we're talking about. And all the pains of hell don't
frighten them. You can know preachers talked
about preaching hellfire and brimstone. Hell doesn't frighten
them. And you talk about the joys of
heaven and the eternal glories of being with Christ, and that
doesn't entice them. No, they're dead in trespasses
and sins. They totally missed the meaning
because they're dead in trespasses and sin of spiritual words. They
have no spiritual knowledge. They're like Nicodemus when our
Lord said, Thou must be born again. He automatically said,
Well, can I enter the second time into my mother's womb? Thought
of it strictly natural. How am I going to be born again?
He totally missed, unconscious, spiritually totally ignorant
of the things of God Almighty. Like the woman of Samaria. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, when He set out on that well, was tired and
weary. He said, Woman, give me a drink.
She said, How do you, being a Jew, ask of me a Samaritan for a drink?
You know the Jews and the Samaritans don't have any. That's like the
Baptists and the Pentecostals, you know. They don't have no
dealing. And here they said, Oh, my. He said to her, Woman,
if you knew who it was that asked of thee, you would ask of him
and he'd give you a drink of living water. What do you think
she said? She said, Oh, please give it to me. Give it to me
quick. But you know what she said? Said, what are you going
to get the water with? You ain't got nothing to draw
with. And this well is deep. Are you greater than our father
Jacob? Strictly natural. Didn't have a clue who she's
talking to and what he's talking about. That's what it is to be
spiritually dead. Totally missed the meaning of
the Word of God. And oh, take a dead man and you
hit him. He don't feel it. Bruise him
and he don't feel it. He won't cry out for any pain.
And you preach the gospel. And you preach it pointedly,
plainly, declare it, and hit them. And you'll say, how did
they miss that? Because they didn't feel it. They didn't feel
it. And oh, pile burdens upon him.
Take a course and pile burdens upon him. Put weight upon him.
And he isn't weary because he don't feel it. Shut him up in
darkness, and he don't feel the gloom of it. But oh, the unconverted
man, this is the way he is, the man dead in fast spits and sin.
He's loaded down with sin, got the burden of sin on him, but
he don't feel it. He don't feel the weight of that.
He's shut up in the darkness of his sin, and he don't feel
the gloom of it and the burden of it. And oh, he's shut up in
the prison of God's justice, but he doesn't long to be set
free. He's under God's curse, because
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them. And you tell him about being
under God's curse, but it don't cause him to have no commotion
in his spirit because he's dead. dead in trespasses and sins.
It don't stir him up. And oh, my soul, it's like a
deaf man. Thunderclap don't startle him.
Just like a blind man, a flash of lightning don't startle him
because he can't see it. And until God comes, and that's
what he's talking about, you, that's an awful place to be,
ain't it? That's a terrible place to be. And oh, my. And I'll tell you something about
the gospel. And it goes on to say here in verse 2, in time
past, this is what we were. Oh, remember, in time past, you
walked according to the course of this world. You know, they
have race courses, and you've got to stay on the race course.
You've got to stay on it to be legal in it and to do what's
right. And they've got a method, and they've got to go around
this way. And that's the way the world is. It's got a course. It's got
the world, and that's where we walked according to the course
of this world. And what the world, where the world went, we had
to go according to that course. And what it is to go according
to the course of this world is to live in a life apart from
God, without thinking of God, without considering God, without
considering the gospel, without considering Christ. Just the
only person you consider is yourself and what you're going to get
for tomorrow. And that's what he went on to say. And here's
who guided us while we was in this world. According to the
prince of the pair of the air. There's a demons out here. There's
a devil out here. And he takes people and motivates
them and tugs them and pushes them and probs them. And I'm
no match for him and you're no match for him. And that's why
he can take a man that's unconverted and just in the blink of an eye
have him doing what he wants him to do. in the blink of an
eye, and watch this, and this is the very spirit. You know
we love our children, but this is the facts of the case, and
this is the desperate condition they're in if they're unconverted,
and your husbands and your wives and your children. It's the spirit
of the world, it's the spirit of the devil, it's the spirit
of Satan that works in the children of the disobedient. And oh, and he says this, but
among whom also we had our manner of life in times past. in the lust of the flesh. Oh
my, we used to be so proud of what we could do and where we
could go and what we could accomplish and how free we was and how our
language, oh we felt so good about how gloryed in our, what
should have been shamed just with glory. And oh my, and it
manifested, this lust of the flesh, our lifestyle manifested
two ways. We fulfill the dark desires of
the flesh that will fall in nature. What the flesh wanted to do,
it did it. Somebody didn't like it, we didn't
care. Somebody reproved us about it,
so mind your own business. I'm going to do my thing. I'm
going to go where I want to go and I'm going to do what I want
to do. That's fulfilling the lust of the flesh. And then the
desires of the mind. Your mind wanted something, He
said, I'm going to get it. It's going to break somebody's
heart, I don't care. It's going to destroy your home, I don't
care. It's going to hurt somebody's heart, I don't care. That's what
we were. Oh, and I'll tell you something,
he said, I thought you was going to preach the gospel. Let me tell you something
about the gospel. The gospel, the first thing it does is it
addresses man's condition. It addresses man's lost and eternal
hopeless estate before God Almighty. It don't tell you that you're
in pretty good shape. All you need to do is start doing
better. It starts out with what an awful condition you are before
God Almighty. Dead, helpless, hopeless, without
God, without Christ in this world. That's what we are. Oh, the Gospel,
beloved, it's got to address what condition you're in before
you'll ever desire any help or any hope. And oh, it's not for
good men. It's not for righteous men. It's
not for moral men. It's not for people who want
to make resolutions and who just want to start trying to do better.
It's for sinners. It's for dead men. It's for men
without any hope. That's who it's for. It's for
people like me. And it's for the children of
the disobedient. Oh, but oh, when I describe people
like this, when we realize that's what we were. Is there any hope
for us? Is there any hope for the people
that's in this condition? Is there any hope for these people
that can't feel, that can't hear, that can't see, that can't move,
that totally enables any hope for them at all? Yes, there is! But God! But God! Oh my! Man enters the state,
what hope is there for him? If you're in this condition,
but God, huh? That's our hope. And not only
is this word a word of hope. That's what hope I have every
time I preach. Ain't that what you do? Oh, my! Why do people sit out there and
look at you like a cast iron in a new gate a lot of times?
And all I hope is that they're ever going to hear. I've spoke
to corpses before. Never heard me. And I speak to
lots of corpses whenever I preach. And oh my, I can't give them
ears, but God. I can't make them see the glory
of Christ, but God. I can't make them feel their
desperate condition, but God can. Oh my, look at this next
word, but God. It's a word that deals with miracles
and the supernatural. You know the gospel. I just love
the gospel because it does things. How in the world is a dead man
going to have life? How's a deaf man going to hear?
How's a blind man going to see? How's the lame going to walk?
How's the lame going to leap for joy and sing praises as you
do? By God. It's going to have to
take a miracle. It takes a supernatural act of
Almighty God. And oh, beloved, people love
miracles whenever they've got a physical ailment. They'll find
them a false prophet somewhere, and they'll stand in line, and
they'll have water sprinkled on them and oil sprinkled in
their face. And if I can just get that preacher to lay hands
on me. And they talk about being saved
as just, you know, that's just a byproduct. Oh, the greatest
miracle that God ever does for a man. The most supernatural
thing God does for a man is to quicken him. You have people
quickened who are dead. Lazarus? Yep, why you want? I want you to come out of that
tomb. Now, that's a miracle. Dead sinner? God, by the Holy
Ghost, said, I mean for you to live. And you know what you do? You live. Oh, it's like, and
all the way through the Scriptures, you have people totally miss
this, misunderstand this, even Mary. When the angel Gabriel
came to her and said, Mary, oh, you're highly graced. Oh, God's
blessed you. Said, you're going to have a
child. And that child's going to be the son of David. He's
going to be great. He's going to reign over the
house of Jacob forever and ever. And she said, Oh, no, no, no.
You don't understand. That's impossible. Miracles like
that don't happen. She said, I don't know him. I've
never known a man. I'm a virgin. I've never had relations. I can't
have a child. She began to argue with that. That angel said, Oh,
wait a minute. You don't know where I come from. I come from
the presence of God Almighty. And I come with what I say he's
going to do. We're not talking about you doing
anything. We're going to talk about what God's going to do.
And he said, the power of the highest shall overshadow you.
And that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. And oh, you see, that's what
we do. We stand back and say, how can this be? But God. That's what we need. We need miracles. It's like Nicodemus. You know, Nicodemus was a master
in Israel. He was a teacher. If he was here
and he was in a Jewish synagogue, he'd get up and he'd be the one
preaching tonight. If he was with a bunch of Pharisees,
he'd be the one preaching. That's why I didn't know nothing.
No Pharisee knew anything. I've never met a Pharisee yet.
I've never met a legal chef who knew anything. But he came to
the Lord by night, slipped in there in the dark, because he's
in darkness. And he began to brag on the Lord.
You know, he had some social skills and things. If you want
to talk to anybody and you're going to say something negative,
you always say something positive first. So he began to say positive
things about the Lord. Oh, you're a great man. Wonderful
teacher. No doubt you come from God. Look
at all these miracles that you're doing. And our Lord interrupted
him. He got rude with him. Nicodemus
talking, our Lord said, just wait a minute, wait a minute. You must be born again. You must
be born again. He said, oh, and there's lots
of folks around. He said, I'm going to show this
fella just how smart I am. I'm going to, in this little
argument we started here, he said, I'm going to let him know.
How can a man be born again? And in the second time, how can
I be an old in the second time into my mother's womb? And you
could hear snickers around the crowd. God may have scored a
good point. Our Lord said, Nicodemus, That
that's born of the flesh, that that come from the first time,
shapen in sin and iniquity, that that you, when you come from
your mother, you come the way you was made. Your flesh, that's
all you'll ever be, and that that's produced of the flesh
is nothing but flesh, but a man must be born again from above.
And he said, and it's the Spirit, said He comes, and He blows where
He wants to. He may, and you know the Holy
Spirit blowing right now, but where is He going to blow? I
don't know. Who's He going to blow on? I don't know that. The
only one who will know that is Him and the person He blows on.
But you know you hear Him coming, and we hear Him coming. He's
coming now. But where's He blowing? Who's He blowing on? Who's He
giving life to? Who's He quickening? Who's He
revealing Christ to? We don't know. But our Lord said,
just like that. That's the way of man. He blows
where He will. And He comes, and you don't know
when He's coming, and you don't know when He's leaving, and you
don't know what direction He's coming from, and you don't know
where He's going. But you know when He's been there.
Oh, you can tell that person that the Holy Spirit's blowed
on and moved on and worked in. You can tell it. The eyes change.
The mind changes. The speech changes. The way they
listen, everything changes. What happens? But God performs
a miracle. And I'll tell you something about
the gospel. I mean, you look at yourself. Miracle, that's
what you are. I'm a miracle. I'm a miracle. Absolute miracle of the... He
took a miracle to hang the stars in space. But when He saved my
soul, cleansed and made me whole, He took a miracle of love and
grace. You know what I contributed?
Nothing but sin. That's all. And if I tell you
something, Nicodemus said, Can a man be
born and enter into the mother's womb? And he said, Our Lord,
who in the world ever told you you could? Nobody said anything
about that. The new birth is not what you
do for God, getting to do something for you. You're absolutely passive
in the new birth. Passive in it. And that's why we have no power
over that, do we, Paul? The church can't do it. The Holy
Spirit takes that seed, that Word of God, and He puts it in
a man's heart. Now how long that seed even lays
there before it germinates? Only God knows that. But I'll
tell you one thing that's so encouraging. When somebody comes
here the first time, and they say, well, I believe I'll come
back. And they come here the second time, and they come the
third time. And they just come on Sunday morning for a while,
and they go on about their business. Then they start showing up on
Sunday night. Then after a while, they start
showing up. It's a pretty good indication that the Holy Spirit
put a seed there. And you know when you know it
germinates? When he says, I believe that! I think that's true! That's my salvation. What you're
saying, preacher, is my salvation. Seeds sprung forth and brought
forth fruit. Oh, if it isn't supernatural,
if it don't produce miracles, it isn't the gospel. It isn't
the gospel, because it makes dead men to live. It makes children
of disobedience to be obedient sons. It makes rebels to bow down and say, Lord, You're
Lord. Let me give you another one right
quick. Oh my, will anybody, will the
dead live? By God. Will anybody see? By God. And oh, it's a word of surprise,
but God's a word of surprise. We were in this awful, awful
condition. Horrible condition. Just terrible,
terrible condition. By God. How did this happen? God had to come where we was.
We certainly wasn't going to go where he was. God had to break
in on us. God had to come and do something
for us from Alpha to Omega. Is that not right? You think
of the least likely person to become a Christian, to become
a believer, you think of the most least likely
That's probably you, ain't it? Did you think you was ever going
to become a Christian? Did it ever enter your mind last
year that you'd be a Christian? Two years ago, three years ago,
four years ago? Well, who's more surprised? You
or God? But you think about the most
unlikely person in the scriptures that would become a child of
God, that would become a believer. There's a man named Saul of Tarsus.
He hated Christ with a passion. I mean, he hated Him. Hated Him. And the Scripture said in that
chapter, he went, he said, he went to the chief priests and
he went to those who were illegal. He said, I hear that there's
some of them people that's following that imposter, that Jesus of
Nazareth over there in Damascus. He said, if you'll give me the
warrants and give me the right and give me the papers, I'll
go over there and I'll get them people. And I'll bring them back,
and we'll put them in jail, and the ones that won't recant, we'll
kill." And this picture says he went breathing out threatenings
and slaughters. And oh, he got his warrants in
his pocket. And he started over toward Damascus.
And on his way to Damascus, there was a light above the brightness
of the sun. come shining down on that man.
And it was so bright that it blinded him. And he fell down. And he said, Lord, he knew that
something dramatic had happened. Lord, who art thou? And can you imagine the surprise,
the shock, The utter amazement that gripped his heart when he
heard that voice say, I am Jesus, who you're on your way to kill
His people, persecute His people, slaughter women and children,
hate with a passion. Can you imagine the utter amazement
of his heart and soul when he heard that voice say, I am Jesus? Whom thou persecutest? And not
only that, but the Scripture says that our Lord said, I appeared
unto thee for this purpose. Christ was there. He said He
appeared unto me as one out of few. So can you imagine the surprise? The shock? The amazement? How
can this be? And then he looked up. Now remember, he's blind. But
he's looking into the face of someone that only faith can see.
And I believe he looked into the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. and tenderness, and oh, nobody
was more surprised than him. In fact, when I, Lord, said,
Ananias, I got up, there's a man over here, and the street called
straight, and his name's Saul. Oh, I've heard about him, Lord.
He's an evil man. Oh, it even surprised everybody
else. Are you surprised that you're
a believer? Are you amazed that you're a
child of God? Huh? Oh, my. Look over here in Galatians 2,
back to your left, just a little. Let's look at this just a moment. Oh, me. I used to, and I still
am, I'm afraid that, I'm always afraid that the gospel will lose
its power and its glory and its effect on us all. And when I
was a young believer, I really was afraid of that. But I say
it's more precious, more glorious than it's ever been. But oh,
look in Galatians 2.20. This is the same man now. He's writing. This man who was
surprised. This but God. Here he is on his
way to persecute. But God. And watch this now. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. And what's
he talking about? I live, yet I don't live. I live,
and I don't live. What's he talking about? Is there
two of me? Is there I, a solitary? And then yet, is there another
person who doesn't live and lives by somebody else? What a thing to say. I live,
yet not. Is there two of him? Is there
two of me? Are we a contradiction to ourselves? Do we surprise ourselves that
one day, one time we come and we're just overjoyed with the
gospel, and the next time we come it doesn't move us or touch
us? Are we amazed that sometimes
here we are, we have these great desires after the Christ, and
in the next moment our desires are after someone else? Oh, is
it I? And yet not I? Is there two of us? Yes, there's
Saul and Tarsus, but there's also another man. Oh, yet I live. How do you live,
soul? Yet not I, yet not I, but God. I live now by Christ, the faithfulness
of Christ. And watch this, and what a surprise.
Christ lives in me. Christ lives in me. And it's
Christ who loved me. Do you see how personal it gets? Christ loved me. Christ loved
me. Christ gave himself for me. Me. Me, Saul of Tarsus. Me, the Christ-tater. Me, the persecutor. Me, the blasphemer. And Christ loved me. Christ gave
himself for me. Are you surprised that Christ
would love you? That Christ would give himself
for you? That Christ would bear your sins? for you, that Christ would suffer
for you. Oh, no wonder, but God. What a word of surprise. But
God. Oh, but God. Aren't you surprised
that now you're a Christian, that now you love God's Word? You love it. Are you now surprised that you
love to come in here preaching? When you used to hear it, you'd
turn the channel real quick. Are you surprised now you love
to hear the preacher? Are you surprised now that you
love to pray? Call on the Lord. Oh, ain't you
surprised that you love to gather like this with the people of
God and gather around Christ and gather around his gospel,
gather around his word and enjoy it so much? There was a time when every one
of us was just the opposite. How did this happen? But God,
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined
in our hearts to give us the light. of the knowledge of His
own glory in the face, in the person of His blessed Son. Oh,
we really truly find Him to be altogether lovely. Oh my, are
you surprised that God would love you? That God our Lord Jesus
would give Himself for you, save you, quicken you? And can it
be that I should gain and interest in the Savior's blood? Died He
for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued? Amazing! How can it be that Thou,
my God, shouldst die for me? Bless His holy name. That's all
you can say. Bless His holy name. Ah, Blood God! Let me tell you
something else. This Blood God contains, these
two words contain the whole gospel. Contains the whole gospel. Blood
God, why is He such, who is rich? He's wealthy, beyond measure. And why is He rich in it? Mercy?
Love? Oh my! Back over in Ephesians 2, let's
look at that just a moment. Oh, this gospel, but God, the
whole gospel is contained in these two words, because it's
by God. It's by God. This tells us that
salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. Ain't that
right? It was God who was rich in mercy for his great love. Not that we loved him, but that
he loved us. Not that we sought him, but he
sought us. He's the one that quickened us and washed us. We're
with it. Great luck. We're with it. He
loved us. And when did He love us? Even when we were dead in
trespasses. That's when He loved us. He didn't
start loving us when we started going to church, when we started
hearing the gospel, when we started reading our Bibles, when we started
praying. No, no. He loved us before you
and I ever existed. We're not in the equation when
it comes to loving us except to enjoy and believe. Before
I can imagine, you know, it's the most incredible thing in
the world to me that before I have resisted being the person that
I am, and the person that I was, and the person that I shall be,
that the Lord Jesus Christ said, God Almighty loves me. And with a great love. And when
will it stand? And oh, look what he done. He
raised us together with Christ. Everything he done, he done with
Christ, by Christ, through Christ. And what's this for? By grace,
are you saying? And you know, let me tell you
this in passing. The very word grace, the definition
of it shows you, tells you that it's not for everybody. The definition of it means that
everybody is not meant for everybody. Ain't that right? Just the very
definition of it tells you that. But oh, by grace are you saved.
And He raised the Son. Here we are. We're raised up
together now. We've been quickened. And we've been raised from the
dead. Huh? Where we at now? Oh, we're physically,
physically in Rocky Mount, Virginia, in Central Baptist Church. But
everyone who's been quickened together with Christ, loved of
God, we're sitting right now, seated in the heavenly, in our
head, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Right now, it don't say what's
going to happen. Don't say it's in the future.
It says that's where we are right now. And look what he says now in
verse 8. Oh, salvations of the Lord, for by grace. Are you saved? That's not of yourselves. You
didn't deserve it. You didn't merit it. You had
nothing in you that caused God to love you or do anything for
you. Grace means that God does it
in spite of you. And if He does it in spite of
you when you're out there in the world, imagine what He's
going to do for you since you've come to His blessed Son. And
through faith, and that's not of yourselves either. They're
the gift of God. He just gives it to you. I don't
know. He gives it to you. I don't think
I'll take it. I've never seen anybody that
the grace of God has come to that says, I don't want it. A freewheeler says, I don't
want that kind of doctrine. Armenians says, I don't want
that kind of doctrine. Boy, that person that God has
come to in grace, they say, Just keep on bringing it on. Bring
some more of it. Tell me some more about it. Tell
me some more about what God did. Tell me some about what God did.
Look what He said. Not of works. Oh, if a man had
the least thing to do with it, he would boast about it, brag
about it. Oh, did you see what I've done?
And I love this. We are His workmanship. That
word workmanship there means, I'm sure Brother Paul's told
you this so many times. That means poema. Same word for
poem. We are God's poem. You know,
we think to ourselves, there's no rhyme and reason to us. We
can't make head and tails out of ourselves. But it says here, we're God's
poem. As far as God's concerned, He's wrote this wonderful verse
concerning us. And the last verse, beloved,
concerns His great love that He loved us in Christ And the
last verse, beloved, shouts, Grace, grace unto the topstone's
widow. I mean, he's got a verse for
all of us with his poem. And watch this. And he created
us this work, this verse in his blessed son. And he did it under
good words. Oh, that's why, beloved. You
know, you don't know when you're doing them. Nobody else knows.
It just happens. It's spontaneous. And then God
ordained that we walk in them before the world ever began.
Oh, the gospel. The gospel. The blood of God
is the gospel. The gospel. And then, last of
all, let me tell you this. The blood of God. Oh, my. The blood of God. My family comes now, my daughter,
son-in-law, his mother, my two grandsons, been coming now about
six, seven weeks at home, and been in years. And I preach just like I am now.
I try just to, you know, you're so tempted to say something,
get in the flesh, be motivated to reach them, you know. But what hope is there for them?
Not God. God works miracles. God does
the supernatural. They're dead in trespasses and
sin, but God... Oh, and if they ever, ever hear
the gospel, you're talking about surprise. Oh, what a surprise. But let me give you this. But
God is also a word of encouragement. A word of encouragement. I know some of you here, you've
got people you love. You love them dearly. You love
them all your life. You care for them. You pray for
them. You cry for them. And there's those of you here
whose hearts are broken. Your heart aches sometimes. It
absolutely breaks over somebody you love. It may
be some of you mothers who've got a son out there in the world,
and you're so worried about him, so scared for him, and you pray
for him, and your heart just stays in fear about him. Maybe it's a daughter. Maybe
it's a dear daughter. A daughter, oh my, flesh of your
flesh and bone of your bone. And your heart breaks over and
tears come from your eyes and you get along with God and say,
Oh Lord. Maybe it's a husband, say, maybe
some of you dear ladies got a husband. And you'd love to have a husband
who believes. So you could talk about the message
together, what you heard, talk about it on the way to Set and
read the scriptures together. Maybe some of you husbands have
a watch. You say, oh, what's my wife doing? And sometimes you say, oh, it's
hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. Oh, God,
it looks hopeless. He says here, with a great love, don't never give up. Please don't
never give up. You keep on praying. You keep
on having that broken heart. You keep on seeking God, Father. And oh, here's a word of encouragement
for us. who are left in this world, believers. We're not like
the people on the cross who got to go with Jesus Christ the moment
he was converted. He saved us by his grace and
left us here. He could have took us if he wanted
to, but he didn't have to. He left us here. He left us here
to carry on. How in Central Baptist Church
are we going to carry on? How's Lantana Grace Church going
to carry on? How are we going to keep on preaching the gospel
when the men who ain't preaching it are filling their churches
from the pool? How are we going to keep on preaching the gospel
without compromise, without discouragement, without giving up? How are you who are faithful
and you know the gospel and you love Christ, how are you going
to keep on keeping on? How are you going to be faithful?
How are you going to be true to the gospel? How are you going
to be true to the church that God has called you to be a part
of? How are you going to do that? By God. By God. You see, we live in a world that's
against God. Absolutely, utterly against God.
Huh? We live in a world that's against
Christ. The Antichrist is in full force
in this world. Full force in this world. What
in the world is our hope? What is the hope that I have
in Crossfield, Tennessee? The God. That's what hope I have. What
hope do I have and you have? What encouragement do we have? By God. By God. And I'll tell you something
about that hope. It's a good one. When you get up against the wall
and back in a corner and you don't know what to do, remember
this. When you think that, Lord, I
don't think I can go another step, I've got it. Remember that. For he is rich
in mercy, for the great love. We're rich in love this year. Thank the Lord for that message,
and this will be a thanks for the food. We'll eat downstairs
in a few minutes. Our Lord, thank You. Thank You
for Your Word. Thank You for bringing it to
us. You've answered our prayer. We pray that You've planted it,
and it'll bring forth that fruit for Your glory. This is all for
the praise of the glory of your wonderful grace in the beloved. Thank you in Christ's name. Amen.