in thy courts. We shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Trust that God will bless the
reading of his word. Let's get our psalm books turned
to 442. If you would, 442, and we'll sing, praise him, praise
him, Jesus, our blessed redeemer. 442. Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer! Sing o'er His wonderful love
proclaim! Hail Him! Hail Him! Highest Archangels in glory! Strength and honor give to His
holy name! Praise Him! Praise Him! Tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him! Praise Him! Ever in joyful song. a a a Sound His praises, Jesus, who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him! Praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer! Heavenly mortals, loud with hosannas
ring! Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever! Crown Him! Crown Him! Prophet and priest and King! Christ is coming, over the world
victorious, power and glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Turn back with me now to page
226, please. 226. My Savior. I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned I only know at His
right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed,
Christ I for sinners this I bring, for in my heart I find a need
of Him to be my Savior. that he should leave his place
on high, and come forth, saying, O man, do not! You found it strange,
so what did I, before I knew my Savior? And though that evil field may
see the trouble of His soul in me, and with His Word contend
with me, as I with my dear Savior go. a a a a a a Pastor has asked that we read
Ephesians chapter 2 The first 10 verses of Ephesians chapter
2 And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins Wherein in time past you walked
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 also we all 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. 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 together with Christ. By grace you are saved and has
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Jesus Christ, through Christ Jesus. For by grace are
you saved through faith And that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God had before ordained that we should walk in them."
We'll end our reading there. Our Father, what a privilege
to call the King of heaven and earth, our Father, And Father,
we can only do this through the blood and righteousness of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we do confess that we're
all sinners, that there's nothing good in us to commend us unto
thee. But we do look to that one that is holy and pure and
righteous, our Lord Jesus. And Father, we do ask that you
be with our pastor this evening as he stands and opens the word
unto us one more time and he shows us Christ and him crucified.
For this is the only good news. able to make one wise unto salvation.
Father, we do pray for all your preachers this day that stand
and proclaim your word to your pastors that we know and those
we don't know, to your missionaries that you send forth. Father,
we ask that you give them the grace and the boldness to preach
Christ and him crucified. And Father, we do ask for the
sick and afflicted of our number that be thy will to raise them
up to come and hear this grand and glorious gospel one more
time. And Father, we do give you thanks for all things, for
all things of your hand. These things we ask in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it's for his sake and for his
honor and glory that we ask. Amen. Before the day star knew its
place, O'er planets went their rounds. The church in bonds of
sovereign grace, Was one with Jesus found. In all that Jesus did on earth
His church and interest have Go trace Him from His humble
birth Down to the silent grave ? Because for His saints He tasted
death ? ? All glory to His name ? ? And when He yielded up His
breath ? ? With Him His saints overcame ? With Him, His members
on the tree Fulfill the law's demands. Tis I in them, and they
in me, For thus the union stands. Since Jesus slept among the dead,
His saints have naught to fear. For with their gracious, suffering
head, His members sojourned there. When from the tomb we see Him
rise, Triumphant o'er His foe, He bore His members to the skies,
And with Him they arose. Ye saints, this union can't dissolve,
By which all things are yours, Long as eternal years revolve,
Or deity endures. Long as eternal years revolve
or Deity endures, Well, I was blessed by that. Thank you, Brother and Sister
Eisen. It's good to have a couple of
faithful preachers of the gospel with us this evening, Brother
Eisen, Brother Parker. And we're thankful that they
can be with us to worship with us this evening. Bill will be
speaking Wednesday evening. We're going to leave Wednesday,
go to not far from Richmond, Virginia, and see one of our
grandsons graduate from the school he's in there. He'll come back
for a few days, and then he'll go again. And he'll be here,
the Lord willing. Ethan will be here with us next
Lord's Day, so we look forward to that. But this evening, I
want you to open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter
one. If your Bible is like mine, this
is a well-worn portion of scripture, and I want us to look at a couple
of verses this evening, 12 and 13, and then we'll try to deal with the subject of all
of us considering your salvation. I want you to consider your salvation,
and I will consider my salvation here in Ephesians chapter 1 verse
12, that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first
trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. The gospel of your salvation
in whom also after that you believe you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. I want you to think about your
salvation. That salvation that you profess
to have That salvation we want to have. That salvation that God gives
by His grace to the unworthy. That salvation that had a beginning
in the very mind and heart of God. That salvation that is forever. That salvation that is all of
grace and all in Christ Jesus. I made the statement this past
Wednesday in beginning my message that we have lots of duties,
we have lots of responsibilities that we have to take care of,
but there is no greater duty to yourself, there is no greater
responsibility unto God than you and your salvation, you making
your, as the scripture says, calling and the election, sure. I don't wanna miss out on this.
I don't want to, after preaching the gospel for all of these years,
I don't wanna just direct you to the Savior. I wanna go to
him. I wanna know him. I want to know
him as the apostle says in Philippians 1, I want to know him in the
power of his resurrection. I want to know him. I don't want
to know just merely some things about him, though I do want to
know some things about him. But I want to know him. I want
to be found in him, not having my righteousness. We are all
by nature full of self-righteousness. And we tend, even after conversion,
we'll tend, if we're not careful, to look to ourselves, to look
to our works, to look to our deeds, to look to our prayers,
to look to our Bible readings, rather than looking to the Lord
Jesus. He's all of salvation. To know
Him is to know God. You want to know God? I want
to know God. After all, the Savior said in
John chapter 17, this is life eternal and immediate. I'm interested. I'm interested in life eternal.
Lord, what is it? It's to know Thee, Christ said,
the only living God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. That's what I want. I don't want
to miss eternal life. I don't want to miss Christ Jesus.
We're religious. We come to church. We read our
Bibles. We bow and pray. But listen,
we want to be found in Him, in union with Him, like y'all just
sang. This Savior, this Savior who
really saves. This Redeemer who really redeemed. This Reconciler who really reconciled
the people to God. I want to be found among that
number. I want to consider my salvation
and I want you to consider your salvation. Because it is a salvation
all of grace. In fact, it is all of God's free
and sovereign grace. What do you mean, preacher, by
sovereign? I mean God does what he wants
to do with all of his creation. We talk about this. We say God
is sovereign in creation. He's sovereign in providence,
and he's sovereign in grace. We know he's sovereign in creation.
The scripture says, thou were worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power, for thou has created all things, and for
thy pleasure they are and were created. God made all things,
he created all things. By the word of his power, he'd
made them just exactly like he purposed to make them. He did
not consult with anybody. He did not inquire what the angels
might think. The angels weren't there when
God purposed all things. And when God spoke all things
into existence, He did so according to the good pleasure of His own
will. All of creation, God made by His sovereign authority and
power. And then we say God's sovereign
and divine providence. which is just God bringing his
predestination to pass. That's what providence is. It's
God directing everything that he has ordained and he has ordained
everything. It's God bringing everything
that he has ordained to the point that he purposed for it to be,
to that end. Everything before God made the
world, He ordained everything and ordained the end to which
they would reach. And all along the existence of
those things and those people, He governs them, He directs them,
He moves them, He manipulates them, He guides them to fulfill
His own purpose found in Christ Jesus. God is sovereign in creation,
he's sovereign in providence, and he's sovereign in grace. He's sovereign in grace. Now,
when I think of the sovereignty of God in salvation, the sovereignty
of God in grace, There are three passages of scriptures that I
would especially go to. If you came to me and said, Jim,
would you help me to understand the doctrine of the absolute
sovereignty of God in grace? Here are the passages that I
would take you to. First of all, and go with me
to Romans nine. I'd take you to this one first.
Romans chapter nine. I would especially take you to
this passage of Scripture if you were, let's say, critical
of the doctrine of God's sovereign grace. If you have objections
to it, if you're kind of argumentative pertaining to the absolute sovereignty
of God in salvation, that is that he gives grace to some and
he doesn't give it to others. And who he gives it to is not
dependent upon them, it's dependent upon his will and purpose. This
is a passage I'd take you to. Now, I don't have the time to
read all of this. I'd love to, but for the sake
of reading some more scriptures, let me just go to verse 14. Well,
verse 13 says, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Don't try to weaken that. Don't
try to water that down. It just says what it says. God
loved Jacob. God hated Esau. If you have a problem with that,
you read on. Read on. Verse 14, what shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God unfair? God forbid, he's gonna answer
this objection. If you've got a problem with
God hating the one and God loving the other, he's gonna answer
this. He says in verse 15, for he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then,
it is not of him that willeth. Let every free willer hear that
verse. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. What
does that mean? Who makes an effort, who's laboring,
who's working, who's active. It's not of your will and it's
not of your works. That's what he's saying. but
of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith, and
he's always going back to what the scripture says. Let us learn
from that. See what does God have to say. You'd go consult with Brother
Gil or some other, Brother Halker or whoever. But what does God
have to say? I believe God's got lots to say
in this book that will help us to understand other passages
of Scripture, don't you? So he takes us for the Scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose. have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee." Whose power? God's power. Who raised him up? God raised him up. Well, he said,
that man was a devil, and God raised up a devil. Didn't he? It's what God says. That's what
the Apostle Paul says by divine inspiration, that I might show
my power, manifest my power, make known my power in thee and
that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. And
we're still declaring it this evening. Therefore, here's his conclusion. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy. He showed mercy to the Israelites. He showed mercy to Moses. He
showed mercy to Jacob. He showed mercy to Isaac. Therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will,
he hardened. Pharaoh, God hardened his heart. The Egyptians, God hardened their
hearts. Ishmael, God hardened his heart. Well, you have a problem with
that? Read on. Thou wilt then say to me, why
doth he yet find fault? How can God find fault with an
Esau? How can God find fault with the
Egyptians? How can God find fault with a
Pharaoh? Why doth he yet find fault? For
who hath resisted his will? Nay, verse 20, nay, but O man,
who art thou that replies to this God? Now let's just stop
for just a second here. And you think of what you are
and who you bring an accusation against. Shall the thing Shall the thing form say to him
that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? You're
a thing, he's a him. And then he expounds upon that,
verse 21. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor? and another under dishonor. He made Jacob and he loved him. He made Esau and he hated him. That's what God did. One was a vessel under honor,
Jacob. And another, a vessel under dishonor,
Esau. God made them both. Verse 22, what if God willing
to manifest or to show his wrath and to make his power, his ability,
his great strength known, endured with much long suffering the
vessels of wrath fitted to destruction and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared, ordained unto glory, even us whom he had called, not of the Jews only, but also
of the Gentiles. What a glorious passage of scripture
the Apostle Paul was inspired to write, and he presents his
arguments in a very analytical way. It's just, it's a masterful presentation of the sovereignty
of God in grace in answering the objections of fools who deny
this great truth. The Apostle Paul takes the words
of those who object to sovereign grace and he presents them in
such a reasonable way that he leaves you this way. He is so
very, very clear on this, that you're gonna have to do one of
two things, bow to the truth of God's word. Or you're just
gonna have to cut this passage of scripture out of the Bible.
Because you've got to deal with it. Do one of two things, bow
or rebel. If you rebel, you'll go to hell.
It's best to bow. You may say, Lord, I don't understand. That's okay. Lord, I can't comprehend
this. How can I be responsible to you? And yet you've ordained all things.
I don't see how Esau could be responsible, and Pharaoh could
be responsible, and the Egyptians be responsible, and yet you've
ordained all things. I can't comprehend that, Lord.
It's okay to deal with it that way. Give me some understanding,
Lord. Give me at least faith to believe
it. but don't be a rebel and say, I will not believe that,
that'll get you in real trouble. It gets you in trouble real fast. You see, here's what the apostle
is doing. He's presenting doctrinal arguments
for the skeptics, for those who object. It reminds me of this
passage of scripture, I'll read it to you in Titus 1-9, where
he says, holding fast the faithful word as he's been taught, that
you may be able by what he called sound doctrine, very sound doctrine,
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Now there's some
people out here who are argumentative about the sovereignty of God
in grace. And this, the Apostle Paul, he
just goes right up to them and says, here's the way it is. And
I'll give you my arguments. Now deal with it. That's just
the way he presents it. So these are doctrinal arguments,
and he's just masterful in the way he handles that. And of course,
he's led by the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit, in a very
mysterious way, used the gifts of the men who were inspired
to write the Holy Scriptures so that their own personality
comes through in their writing. And this is the way the Apostle
Paul was. He had a very sharp and keen
mind. You wanna argue about the things
of God? He sets before you the absolute
sovereignty of God in grace. Now, there it is. So I go this
path. I'll tell you another passage
I'd go to is 1 Corinthians 1. When I think of the sovereignty
of God's grace, I go to 1 Corinthians 1. And again, it is the Apostle
Paul speaking of God's electing in free grace, but his words
here, though he's presenting the exact same doctrine, they
don't come across as an arranged argument. of theological truths. It doesn't come across that way,
like the passage in Romans 9, because he's not stopping the
mouths of those who would deny the sovereignty of God's free
and sovereign grace. But rather, in this passage of
Scripture, he is reminding these Corinthians of that which God
has done for them in Christ Jesus. and he is appealing to them.
These were people who were divided. These were people who were contentious. These were people who were having
troubles in the church. These were people who were preacher
followers. And he brings them to this point. Listen, remember what God in
Christ has done for you. So he lays this out in this passage
of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 1 as being the very experience
of the children of God. He's saying, consider what God's
done for you. Now listen, see if you don't
get that idea as I read here, beginning in 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 26. He says, for you see your calling, brethren, How that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not. in order to bring to naught things
that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. He's bringing
the Corinthian people back and bringing us back to remember,
think of what God has done for you. See, this is not theological
arguments. This is not objections being
answered as it was in Romans chapter nine, but he's dealing
with the same subject of sovereign grace. But rather he presents
this in 1 Corinthians chapter one as being the very basis for
loving each other, getting along with each other and not being
contentious and that sort of thing, not being a preacher follower,
Because God has chosen you. He's chosen you. He's chosen
the foolish. He's chosen things that are not. And the reason is, verse 29,
that no flesh should glory in His presence. And then He reminds
them, but of Him, of God, are you. He's bringing this to an
individual, to each individual Corinthian believer, and he's
bringing it to each of us tonight. But of God are you, put your
name there. But of God are you, Jim Byrd,
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto me wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, who you gonna glory in? Glory in the Lord. Get your mind off the... the
other brethren in the church and the divisions of the church
and so-and-so and that trouble over there and so-and-so and
what's going on over there. Get your mind off all of those
things and remember who you are, what you were when God found
you. He chose you. And he made something out of
nothing. You're just nothing. He says it this way, things that
are not, that's you, that's me, things that are not, to bring
to naught things that are. Why? That we don't glory in ourselves. Who we gonna glory? We're gonna
glory in the Lord. So this is, and you can see,
it's an altogether different approach. to the subject of the
sovereignty of his free and sovereign grace. He's not being, he's not
answering objections here. No, he's reminding the people
of God of what the Lord has done for them. Well then, the third
passage I would go to is the one that we're at tonight in
Ephesians chapter one. We think of Ephesians 1, this
is, we find the very same doctrine that's set forth in this passage
of scripture as was set forth in Romans chapter 9. But in Romans
chapter 9, that was in the, I'd call it the context of answering
objections. And it's really a little different
than context of 1 Corinthians chapter one, because in that
passage of scripture, he's reminding them of their nothingness. You nobody. You weren't wise, you was foolish. You weren't noble, you weren't
great. But you see, God's chosen the
foolish things of the world, that just confounds the wise.
And the effect that had on those believers, I hope is the effect
that I trusted it's having on us. Who am I that God would choose
me? That he would set me apart. That
in everlasting love, he would give me to his son and entrust
my care, my salvation, my redemption, to the Lord Jesus Christ, who
then bore all the responsibility and the accountability for my
salvation. Who am I that I'd be the recipient
of such a great salvation? This is how Paul is presenting
it in 1 Corinthians 1. But, or yeah, 1 Corinthians 1.
Now you get to Ephesians chapter one, the very same doctrine. is set forth, but now it is all
in the context of a great hymn to God. It's like a great song
of praise. It's like he writes to the Ephesians
and he says, just sit back and let your mind and your heart
be absorbed in all that God has done for you in Christ Jesus. Maybe I could say it this way
about the passage in Romans 9. It's like he presents arguments
to the mind. Think. We need to think, don't
we? And I can't think for you. You
gotta think for yourselves. And the spirit of God's gotta
give you a mind to think about the things of God. We're all
the time caught up in the world and caught up what's going on
down here. Oh, that he'd give us a mind to think about the
doctrines of God, the doctrine of salvation by grace. And that's
what he's doing really in Romans chapter nine. He said, now think
with me, come on now. I can just, you know, here's
an objector and he's fussing at the apostle Paul. Paul says,
now come on now. Listen up, listen to what I'm
telling you now. But then you get to first Corinthians
chapter one And now he appeals to the heart in 1 Corinthians
1. Think who called you. Think of
who chose you. Doesn't that just melt your heart?
And you can understand his reasoning in going about it this way, especially
because we've studied the book of 1 Corinthians before. But
then we get to Ephesians chapter one. And now both the mind and
the heart are admonished as he presents a magnificent
eulogy to God. That's what this is. It is a
magnificent, a glorious, an unmatched eulogy to God for his free and
sovereign grace to the unworthy in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a theological argument.
Got that in Romans 9. It's not merely presenting a
motivation for ceasing to be divisive and contentious as it
was to the Corinthian believers. This is not a kind of a recounting
of or remembering of your experience of salvation and the reason why
God chose us, that's in 1 Corinthians 1. This is just to the praise
of the glory of his grace. This is all about God. It's about the worship of God. The one is to the mind, Romans
9. The other one is to the heart,
1 Corinthians 1. Now he just, it's as though the
apostle says to all of us, let's just worship God here. Let me honor the father. According
as he has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. He's blessed us with all spiritual blessings, he tells
us. He tells us that God chose us to be holy and without blame. He tells us in love he predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. And then he says, listen, it's
all to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he made
us accepted in the beloved. And all of the people of God
say, amen, brother Paul, I'm with you. I'm right with you
on this. And then he starts to talk about
the work of the son of God in verse seven, in whom in Christ
we have redeemed. We got it. We've got it, that
was a one-time work. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. In whom we have redemption, how'd
we get redemption? How'd he redeem us? Through his
blood. Through his bloody death, through
that penal sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. when he endured
the wrath of God for his people. When all of the condemnation
we deserve to suffer forever and ever fell on the Son of God. And he just bore it all, he consumed
the wrath of God. Wasn't any wrath of God left?
Not for his people. And I'll tell you what that means
to us. the forgiveness of sins. Now, wherever you have redemption
by the blood, you must have, there is always this result,
the forgiveness of sins. It's got to be. It's got to be. That's reason one of the most
devilish, devilish heresies of all time is the lie that Jesus
Christ died for everybody, for the sins of everybody. and you
by your faith make his death effectual, like all lies that
originated with the devil. Oh, how that robs Christ of his
glory. Don't you believe that lie? It goes on to wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us, made known. The mystery of his will. He doesn't
make known the mystery of his will to everybody. Everybody doesn't know the mystery
of his will, the mystery of how he saves sinners by substitution
and satisfaction. Everybody doesn't know that.
Everybody doesn't comprehend that. Everybody doesn't believe
that. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, or why do you make it known to us? According
to the good pleasure which he has purposed in himself. Do you
understand how God can be just and justify the ungodly? Do you
understand why Christ had to die? Do you understand what he
did when he died? Do you understand why he had
to die? Do you understand who died? Do you understand, having accomplished
the work that God gave him to do, that he's gone back to glory? God's exalted him. Do you understand
that? Do you believe that? Well, the
reason you believe the gospel is because of God's good pleasure,
which He purposed in Himself for you. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times, he might gather in one all things in Christ.
He's gonna gather all his people together, both which are in heaven,
which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ. The praise of his glory. Everything that the Lord Jesus
did was to the praise of his glory. And then he talks about
the work of the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of God. Verse 13,
in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the
earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of his glory. And isn't it interesting, from
verse three to verse 14, one long sentence, isn't it? One long sentence. And you just sit there, and as
you read that, and as I read it, as we think about it, as
we consider our salvation, we know it's all of God. Consider
your own salvation. It didn't start with you. It
didn't commence with you. It's not going to end with you.
You're not going to bring it to perfection. And all along
the way, it is never you. It is always God. It is God who
ordained you to everlasting life. It is God who sent His Son to
redeem you, to buy you, to reconcile you, and to give you an everlasting
righteousness. And that righteousness, I might
add, is not a pasted-on righteousness. It's the very righteousness of
God in Christ Jesus. That's not pasted-on. That's
real. That's glorious. So that when
God looks at us, he accepts us in the beloved because we have
his righteousness. He established it for us. Because
he, God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. That we might
be made in order that we would might doesn't mean, well, maybe
we will be and maybe we won't. The word might means in order
that. In order that we would be made
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Oh, beloved, if we're
in Christ Jesus, consider your salvation. If you're in Christ
Jesus, God sees nothing about you but righteousness. The righteousness
of his darling son. And as you read all of this,
you just say, blessed be God. And that's how Paul starts this,
blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
if you're an objector, go back and read Romans nine again. It'll
straighten you out. And if you're kind of, your mind's
clogged up with, your heart is troubled by others and your own
wrongdoing. Read 1 Corinthians 1 again, your
experience of grace and for pure worship. Say, Jim,
what? Okay, you've read these verses
here in Ephesians 1. What's in it for me? Honoring
God. That's what's in it for you.
There's no greater thing you can do than just bless the name
of God from your heart with an understanding that God gives
you of how marvelously blessed you are in Christ Jesus. Consider your own salvation. Consider the antiquity of it. Consider who brought it to pass.
Consider who's maintaining it. You don't keep yourself, you
know better than that. It's the Lord who's preserving
you. And he who hath begun a good
work in you, he'll finish it to the day of Jesus Christ. He's
gonna bring us all the way to glory because you see, In Christ
Jesus, 2 Timothy chapter one, verse nine, he gave us grace
in Christ Jesus before the world began. The Lord will give grace
and glory. And grace is the evidence and
the proof that he'll give us glory. It's wait and notice. You consider your salvation. how glorious it is, how wonderful
it is. And you'll just, you'll go to
bed tonight, you won't even be asking for anything, you'll just
be praising the Lord. That he showed mercy to you through
Christ. And he's always showed you mercy
through Christ Jesus. Well, let's sing the closing
song, shall we? Let's sing of God's love, number
two. Hymn number two, love divine,
love divine. Hymn number two. Let's stand
and we'll sing together. Close the service. Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down. Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
pure unbounded love Thou art. Visit us with Thy salvation,
enter every trembling heart. We don't breathe Thy loving Spirit
into every troubled breast. Let us all in Thee inherit. Let us find that second rest. Take away our grief through sinning
Alpha and Omega be In the faith as it's beginning Send our hearts
at liberty Come, Almighty, take me ne'er, Let us all Thy life
receive, Suddenly return, and never, Nevermore Thy temples
leave. Be with me, good, always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy host above. Pray and praise Thee without
ceasing, glory in Thy perfect love. Finished with Thy new creation,
pure and spotless let us be. Let us see Thy great salvation
perfectly restored in Thee. Changed from glory into glory,
till in Him we take our place. Till we cast our crowns before
Thee, Lost in wonder, love, and pray.