Hopefully, by God's grace, bring
something out of it in a bit. Before I read, let me tell you
that Jim Foster was put in the hospital last night. He had a
stroke. And Bill Grisham has been in
the hospital now for, I guess, a week. Week Monday. Been there 12 days already? Oh
my goodness. Well, that's right, they come
and got her. Well, anyway, he's very, very
weak and I think they've got his breathing starting now, and
of course always Lola and Larry. And so let's read these ten verses
together. And you hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespasses and sins, for 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 or
manner of life, in times past in the lust of the flesh and
lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the mind and were
by nature the children of wrath even as others but God but God who is rich in mercy
for his great love were with he loved us even even when we
were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ by grace
you are saved and it says in the margin there by whose grace
you are saved by the grace of Christ and hath raised us up
and made us sit together 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 and His kindness
toward us 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 hath before ordained, or prepared, that we
should walk in them." This morning, I've titled it, Grace, Grace,
and More Grace. Grace, grace, and more grace. You see, I read the whole chapter. Talked about how lost we were. By nature, we were children of
wrath, even as everybody else was. But God, but God, but God. But there in verses 8 and 9,
it says this, For by grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. And I'm going to say it this
way. Grace is God's way. Grace is
God's method. Grace is God's motive, if I can
say it that way, of saving and blessing sinners in this world. Grace. That's His way of saving. That's His method of saving. And the motive of saving us is
grace, which was born before you and I ever was born. He was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world ever began. Now that's
how old grace is. That's how old grace is. That's
when God started grace in Christ Jesus and gave it to us before
the world even began. You know our Lord Jesus was sat
with a bunch of publicans and sinners eating. And the Pharisees
and the Sadducees said, why eateth thy master with publicans and
sinners? He says, well they that are whole,
you fellas, you Pharisees, you Sadducees, they that are whole,
they don't need a physician, they don't need a doctor. But
they that are sick, sick with sin, sick with this disease called
sin, sick of themselves, Sick of their awful nature Sick of
the life that they lived they that are sick They need a physician. They need a doctor But he says
you go and you learn what I'm talking about I'll have mercy
I Won't have sack. I'll have mercy and not sacrifices
and what he's saying is you fellas are You fellas, if you ever get
sick... He said, you'll come to me, but
I'll tell you what, I don't want your sacrifices. Don't bring
me your works. Don't bring me your prayers.
Don't bring me your deeds. Don't bring me anything that
you can do or think you can do that will make you whole, because
nothing you can say, nothing you can do, or nothing you can
offer will ever put sin away and make you whole. He said,
I want you to learn that. And I tell you what, God's the
only one that can teach you that. That's right, He's the only one
that can teach you that. And it says that Noah, first
place we find the word grace mentions is Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And when the angel Gabriel came
to Mary, he said, To her, hail thou that are highly favored,
graced upon graced, by God Almighty, for thou hast found favor with
God. And over here in chapter 1 and
verse 6, if you got your Bible open, chapter 1 and chapter 2
together, And it says here, to the praise
of the glory of His grace. That's why God does what He does.
It says that twice in that chapter, to the praise of the glory of
His grace. That's why He does everything
that He's done. There's nothing, absolutely nothing
in the creature. In the creature that moves God
to save Him. There's two things. Two things. that moves God to save a sinner.
His sinfulness and his need. And the, oh listen, and here's
what grace does for both of those things. He shows you, he shows
you your sinfulness and in that he shows you your need. Oh my. And grace makes us conscious
of both. when grace comes he makes us
see our need of Christ and makes us reveals to us and teaches
us that all we need is Christ and we don't need anything else
there's nothing good there's nothing righteous there's no
works that a man can do that can keep God from saving him
by his grace. That's right. No one is better
than another. That's what I love about the
gospel. It puts us all on the same ground. It puts the president
and the fellow that can't write his name on the same ground.
I love that about the gospel. And I tell you, the most think
that they're better than others. But oh, what a shock when they
find out. Depart from me, I never knew
you. But salvation, blessings, sustaining, keeping, all are
by God's blessed grace. Is that not right? I told you
grace for grace and grace and more grace. Here's something
about grace. There's a covenant of grace.
You know that's what it's called. The old timers called it the
covenant of grace. And you know in a covenant is
something you and I never entered into not with God. People say
you know we need to make vows and we need to enter into a covenant
with God. How could we enter into a covenant
with God? We ain't got nothing to bring
to the covenant. The covenant has an agreement between two
or more parties. What are we going to bring with
God? I mean, you know, what are we going to bring to make ourselves
good in that covenant? And that's why, you know, David
said, God has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure. And not only is it a covenant
with, and it's a God entered into covenant with Christ, and
it's a blood covenant. You know this ever covenant has
to be ratified. Two parties got to sign it. Call it a will, call it a covenant,
call it anything you want to call it. But I tell you it's
got to be signed and it's got to be ratified. Well Christ sealed
and signed and ratified the covenant of grace with His blessed blood. He entered into the holy place
with His own blood. and obtained eternal redemption
for us. And then our Lord Jesus Christ
is a surety of it. What does that mean? That means
that He is going to stand good for everyone that's represented
in that covenant. You know when you enter into
covenant you just have to stand good for it for yourself or your
wife or you or your wife. But when you get into a covenant
with a company or a house, a mortgage company or whatever you want
to call it. But here's the thing about it. Christ stood good as
our surety before the foundation of the world. He was the Lamb
slain. And that means, beloved, that
it's not like somebody going, you bond. It's standing good
for you. Christ took all of our responsibility
to pay all of our debt and to release us from anything that
was against us. And He signed it in full with
His blood and stood good for us. And God now requires absolutely
nothing from us. Christ did it all. Oh my, let me show you a couple
of things. Look over here in Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46. He's talking about a covenant.
Oh my. Isaiah 46. That God entered into
a covenant with us. Excuse me, 42 in verse 6. I'm sorry. I've just seen 6 down
there. Isaiah 42, 6. And he's talking about the Lord Jesus
here. He said, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness,
and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee, this
is talking about Christ now, for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles. I'm going to save a bunch of
heathens. Now look over here in 49, Isaiah
49 in verse 8. Look what he says over here,
talking about the Lord Jesus again. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable
time I have heard thee, and in a day of salvation I have helped
thee. And I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people to establish the earth to cause to inherit the
desolate heritage. So Christ, he's talking about
Christ in this covenant. And it's an everlasting covenant.
God said I give an everlasting covenant. I'll never depart from
them and they'll never depart from me. And let me tell you
this, this covenant of grace is in our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, He's the fountain of
all of God's blessing and He's the fountain of all of God's
purpose. Look over here in Ephesians 1
and verse 3. All of God's blessings and purpose
is given to us in His blessed Son. That's why he says, blessed,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in the heavens in Christ. Here's one of them great blessings
he's given us. According hath chosen us in him,
and listen to this, before the foundation of the world. And
He did it that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. And here's the goal, having predestinated
us. I love predestination. That means
you're going to get there just because you're already predetermined
to get there. You know, I was predestinated
to be here today and be a preacher and be a believer You know when
I was predestinated before the foundation of the world, where
was he given to me at in Christ? Huh? That's another one of them words
I love predestinated us oh my Then he talked about making us
accepted in the Beloved. We have redemption in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something. You know what this means? This
guarantees, this guarantees salvation for all whom Christ died. I mean
it guarantees it. Anybody for whom Christ died,
I guarantee you that they will be saved. Christ will come and
find them and save them and wash them in His blood. They are predestinated
to be believers. They are chosen to be believers.
They were given grace in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Ain't that right? Oh, listen. In the day of His
power, you know what happens? He makes them willing. He said,
blessed is the man whom you choose. That's one thing. If he stopped
there, that's a great blessing. But he said, whom thou choosest,
and then he says, turns around and causes them to approach unto
thee. And he said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come, shall come, will come, no doubt about it. Just keep preaching. God's gonna
get his elect. I prayed last night, up in the
middle of the night. Lord, send some sheep in here. Send some people in here. Send
some sinners in here. I got something to say to them.
And I may tell you not only is it a covenant of grace, but look
over here in 2 Timothy now. Go over to 2 Timothy. Chapter
3. And I want to show you something
else about grace. Not only is it a covenant of grace, Blood
covenant, the Lord Jesus, the surety of it, everlasting covenant,
eternal covenant. But it's in our Lord Jesus Christ
is all the blessings of it. And it was on purpose. Then this
grace, this covenant of grace, there's a formative grace. Grace
forms us and makes us into believers. Listen to what he said here in
verse 14, 2 Timothy 3. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned. Whatever you've learned, whatever
God's taught you, keep on keeping on. Continue in it. Because you've
learned. Where did you learn it from?
And you've been assured of. God's made sure that you know
this, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Who taught you? God did. Christ did. The Holy
Spirit did. and that from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures now listen to this now which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus continuing the things which you've learned grace teaches
us you know that Grace teaches us. Grace molds us. Grace forms
our way we think. Grace forms our hearts. Grace
forms our wills. Grace forms our thoughts. Grace
forms us and makes us and molds us into who we are as believers. And it keeps on working. It keeps
on forming. And I'll tell you what our Lord
said it this way. He said, no man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And as it is
written in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. And everyone that hath heard
and learned of the Father will come unto me. But grace forms
our minds the way we think. You don't think the way you used
to now, do you? When you was in works, when you
was in religion, when you was a freewheeler, your mind don't
think that way now. Huh? Your wills have been changed
dramatically. From wanting your will to be
done, to wanting God's will to be done. And oh my, how He changes
our attitudes. Oh, He changes our attitudes
about God, about ourselves, about one another, about the world.
Oh my. And here's what happens. Grace
teaches us our need of Christ. Grace teaches us of our true
condition. And grace makes us wise unto
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And that's
a wise man who knows that salvation's in Christ and Christ alone. Oh
listen, grace formed that in your mind. Grace molded your
heart and your mind and your will to those things right there.
That's why Paul, he said, He says, you know, I prevail in
Christ and prevail that Christ may be formed in you. And let
me tell you something, beloved, believers and Christians aren't
made by men. They aren't made by men. Bruce
Crabtree and I one time before this church up here was built,
they had a little metal building that they built. A little mission
of another Southern Baptist church. And Bruce and I stopped there
one day. We was in that old building and I was asking him, you know,
about how much this building cost and how, you know, how you
do it and all that. And this fellow that was responsible
for getting that built, he says, you know, he said, he said, you
would not believe how many churches I've established over the years.
I said, oh, good. He says, you know, you would
not believe how many people I've warned to Christ over the years.
That's all he could talk about, how much he had done for Jesus
in establishing missions and winning souls. But let me, to
me and Bruce both, Told him, said, no, no, there ain't nothing
to that. Nothing to that. But Christians aren't made by
men. Soul winners do not make believers.
Preachers do not make believers. The church doesn't make believers. God makes believers. Huh? They're made by God and they're
made in His blessed grace. Our Lord is the shepherd of the
sheep. Not the preacher, not the church, not the Pope, not
any bishop anywhere else. Our Lord is the shepherd of the
sheep, and He knows wherever one of them is at. Whether they
in China, Vietnam, North America, or in Asia. It don't make it
in South America. Don't make no difference where
they're at. He knows where they're at. And He'll go and find them
when it's time to find them. And He'll bring every one of
them and put them in His fold. Huh? And I'll tell you something
else. The shepherd's responsible for
the sheep. You reckon the shepherd's not
gonna take care of his sheep? The Lord is my shepherd. I'm
not gonna want. Huh? Oh my. And He'll cause us to grow as
He sees fit. Let me go back over here now
to Ephesians 2. I'm gonna show you something
else. We're gonna be all over the Bible today. So keep it close. Let's
go back over here where we were. We're going to talk about regenerating
grace. Regenerating grace. You know,
it says there in verse 1, You, you hath he quickened, you hath
he given life, who were dead in trespasses and sins. You walked
in that kind of a life. You walked according to what
this world was doing. And the sin that was in this
world. What was controlling this world. You even had your manner
of life like that. But oh listen. God quickened. Look what he said in verse 4,
5. Even when we were dead in sins. hath quickened us given
us life together with Christ by grace are you saved raised
us up from this death made us set together in heavenly places
in Christ by grace are you saved not of words lest any man should
boast you know only God only God can give life you know he says seeing you have
purified your hearts in obeying the truth obeying the truth you
know being born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible
by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever well how
in the world can this be well the wind bloweth where it listeth
now we have people all the time that pass from life to death
We see that happen all the time. There's a time that they're breathing,
that they're living, and then there's a time that they cease
to live. Just their breath stops and they
go. But how about being dead and passing from death back to
life? Being dead, oh wait, he can't
breathe, he can't move, he can't hear, he can't see, he can't
feel. But God says, breathe I say unto thee live, yea I say unto
thee live. Yes sir, I'm living, I'm hearing,
I'm seeing. I can feel, my heart feels, my
mind feels, my soul feels, my emotions get stirred up. Oh my! And left where there's life,
there's a crying out, a crying out always to the Lord Jesus. There's faith, there's trust,
there's commitment, there's obedience. And you know everything that
we have in our natural life, you have in your spiritual life.
You get hungry in your natural life, you get hungry spiritually.
You get thirsty in your natural life, you get thirsty spiritually. You see in your natural life,
you see spiritually. You taste in your natural life,
you taste spiritually. You feel in your natural life,
you feel in the spiritual life. Ever since you have naturally,
you have spiritually. Huh? And ain't that something? Oh my! Now listen, I tell you
God's the author of this life. And I tell you what God's the
author of, it must be right. It has to be right. People say, well, I don't know
if I'm saved or not. If God's the author of it, you
know you are. Ain't nobody going to talk you
out of it. Now, a person can talk you out of a profession. They can talk you out of soul
winners walking you down the Baptist Road and Romans Road.
But I tell you what, they cannot talk you out of God giving you
life. A person cannot deny the gospel
a person can't walk away from the gospel a man that God saves
he cannot not Except keep coming and coming and coming and coming
and coming to Christ. He can't do anything else People
worry about well, I don't you know, I have preacher Todd told
me the other day about a preacher. He said well talking about preaching
grace and talking about you know that that if his seed remains
in you, you sinneth not, that that new nature cannot sin. The
old nature can't do nothing but sin, but the new nature can.
Can't. And he said, that preacher said,
well, and this is a grace preacher now. Pastors are a pretty good
size church. He said this, he said, well I don't want to preach
to give anybody an excuse to sin. I've never had to have an
excuse to sin. Have you? Have I ever given you an excuse
to sin? Have I ever preached anything
to you other than Christ and His blessed hope that we have
in Him? I don't have to give you an excuse
to sin. You'll find plenty of reasons
to do it. Your flesh, you'll despise yourself for being that
way. And you'll say, God I hate and
abhor myself for the way I am. And at the same time you start
crying out, Lord, oh Lord have mercy on me. Listen, we're not perfect because
of the flesh, but our salvation in Christ is perfect. Our salvation
by grace is perfect. And I'll tell you something else,
God has no stillborns or any abortions. Does he? No, he doesn't. Well, let me move on here. I'll
tell you what, let me show you another one. Let's look over
in Psalm 19. You know, this restraining grace,
restraining grace, this is what we, that's what I was talking
about, you know. Restraining grace. What would we be if grace
didn't restrain us? How many times has God in His
grace kept us back from doing things? How many times? How many times? You know David,
remember when David sent his young men down to Nabal's house
and he was watching his sheep and taking care of his sheep
and protecting his shepherds and he sent some men down there
to get some food. And Nabal said, oh listen, I
ain't giving you nothing. I don't know who you are and
I've never heard of this fellow David. David girded on his sword,
got him a bunch of men. He headed that way. He said,
I'm going to put that man out of his misery and everybody that's
born of him. Abigail heard about it. She run
out there and she said, Oh, David, David, my Lord, the Lord keep
thee back from shedding the blood of a fool. And he said God kept
him back from shedding blood. God kept David back from shedding
blood. And how many times, how many
times has God's grace restrained us? I remember one time years
ago, When we first started this congregation here at this place,
I sent out a, I made a little folder, you know, of grace and
what grace is and the cry of the reformation. Scriptures alone,
grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone. And I made that and we
sent it out all over the county. Got a stamp from the post office,
didn't cost us anything to do it, send it out. Well, it cost
us a stamp from the post office, a special permit. But anyway,
to make a long story short, I heard a guy on the radio making fun
of that. He said, which is first? Grace? Christ? Faith? He's making fun of all
that. Man, I heard him on the radio
and I was in a store and a woman told me, she said, did you hear
that fellow on the radio this morning making fun of that thing? I said, yeah, I heard him. I
heard him. I got in my car. I drove to that
church. I pulled up to the door. And I mean, I was hot. I was hot. I was one of them pots that was
boiling over. And when the pot boils over, somebody's going
to get burnt. And boy, I pulled up there that
door and oh my, by the time I got out, I said, Oh Lord, have mercy
on me. God kept me from going in there
and dishonored Him and shamed Him. Just the fact that I was
that angry, I just well shot that fella. As far as, you know,
I mean, you know, angry. But I was a righteous in, but
I thought, man, I'm going to put that fella, I'm going to
straighten that man out one way or another. And God kept me back from that. And I left that day and I thought,
oh, I just trembled inside. Afraid of what I would have the
ability to do had not God stopped me and kept me from doing that. God kept me from that. And look
what he said here in Psalm 19 verses 12 and 13. Who can understand his errors? We can't understand them. We
don't even know most of the time when we commit them. Cleanse
thou me from my secret faults. Things that we don't, they're
secret to us and they're certainly secret to everybody else. Keep
back thy servant from presumptuous sins. What's a presumptuous sin? Let me tell you what a presumptuous
sin is. David committed a presumptuous
sin when he took Bathsheba. He presumed on God, I'm the king,
I can do whatever I want to do. And he presumed on God, on God's
grace, on God's mercy. And he presumed when he killed
Uriah. Simon Peter presumed when he
said, I'll go with you even to death. He presumed that they
have an ability that they don't have. And when you presume on
God's grace and say, well, grace will allow me to do this and
will allow me to do that and I can do it without impunity.
That's presumption. God will forgive me so I'm going
to do it anyway. I'm saved by grace so I can do
that and I'll get by with it. Oh, no, no, no. If we ever think
that way, God help us. God help us. God help us. And then I tell you what, grace
not only restrains us and keeps us back from presumptuous sins,
and listen to this, and let them, not these sins, the presumptuous
sins, have not dominion over me. Don't let them reign over
me. Then I shall be innocent, I shall be upright, and listen
to this, I shall be innocent from the great congregation,
great transgression, that transgression of turning against you. God help
us and keep us from using, like I said a minute ago, I don't
want to give nobody an excuse to sin, you don't need an excuse
to sin. Let me give you another one.
I'll tell you what, I'll give you another one. Restraining
grace, let's talk about growing in grace. Turn over with me now
to 1 Peter. Let's talk about growing in grace.
Growing in grace. You know, that's why I talk about
grace. Grace and more grace. You see
how much grace we need? And I mean more grace we need. More grace we need. You know,
he said over in 2 Peter 3.18 says, but grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it said here, growing in
grace is a growing in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you have to have grace before
you can grow in grace. That's a fact. But look what
he talks about here. Wherefore laying aside, verse
chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2. Wherefore laying aside all malice,
and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and evil speakings. Just lay them aside. Now here's
the way we start out. We start out as babies. As newborn
babes. Every one of us in here that's
regenerated started out as babies. Babies. Herman was 75 years old
and he knowed everything until God saved him. Oh, I know that. I know that. I know that. He'd tell me that
all the time. When God saved him, you know what he said? About
80 years old, he said, I'm just a baby. 80 years old and I'm
a baby. I'm a baby. And look what he
goes on to say. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the
word. We are going to get the sincere
milk of the word. Oh my, and that's why we're here.
We deserve, oh God give me a second milk. There's meat and then there's
milk. And babies start out on milk.
And they desire the sincere milk of the word. And listen to what
happens now. that you may grow thereby. What? That milk of the
word. That sincere milk of the word.
That honest milk of the word. The true milk of the word. And
then look here, when you take this, and you start drinking
this, and you start taking this milk, and you start growing thereby,
listen to this, if so be ye have tasted, oh my, when you drink
and when you eat, you taste. And what have you tasted? The
Lord's gracious. The Lord is gracious. Oh, I'll
take a bite of that. Mmm, ain't that good? Ain't that
good? Take another bite. Mmm, that's
good. Grace is good, ain't it James?
Oh, it tastes so good. It tastes so good. Oh boy, and
look here, and then he says, and here's what happens to those
that grow, that tasted, the Lord is gracious, and then when you've
tasted He's gracious and you've grown, to whom coming? To whom coming? Oh my! Men don't like him. They say,
oh there's nothing to him. But God says, this is my chosen,
this is my precious one. And we just keep on coming. We
started coming, we keep on coming, and we're going to keep coming.
And the last time we're coming, we won't be coming to Him the
last time, He'll be coming to get us. Oh my, grow in the grace of the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Grow in His love. Grow in the
knowledge of His sacrifice. And His blessed death and His
glorious life. of His satisfaction that He offered
to God. His blood, His righteousness,
His sinless humanity. And learn of Him in His Word.
Oh my, we sang that song, what is it? Teach me Thy Word, bread
of life, and teach me Thy way, teach me Thy will, teach me Thy
Word. Learn of Him in His Word. Learn a knowledge of His blessed
will. Learn of His ways. Learn of His
character. Learn of our blessed Savior's
wonderful, wonderful personality. It's real like Paul. I want to
know Christ, I want to win Christ, and I want to be found in Christ. And I want to know the excellency
of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it says in
Genesis, he says, and the voice of the Lord God came walking
in the cool of the evening. What voice do you reckon that
was? That was the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. God only speaks
to men through His Word. And His living Word is His blessed
Son. And that living Word was made
the Word incarnate. And you can't separate the written
Word from that living Word. If you got the living Word, then
this written Word will speak to you. Ain't that right? Oh,
and I'll tell you this, as we learn more of our Master, the
more we're transformed into His image. More of Him, less of us. Now let me give you over 2 Corinthians. Let me hurry. 2 Corinthians chapter
12. Oh my. We know this, and I tell
you what, we got folks that's experiencing this right now.
2 Corinthians 12. You know where I'm going. Oh
my. 2 Corinthians 12. Look down in verse 7. He said, lest I should be exalted
above measure, lest I get so proud Get exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations God gave me. There was given to me a thorn
in the flesh. Oh my, you get a thorn and it'll
fester and you just can't wait till you get it out. Well that's
the way Paul, he said he had a thorn. the messenger of Satan,
to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. And I
tell you what, we get to feel pretty high-minded sometimes.
And for this thing, I asked the Lord three times, take this thing
away from me. But look what He said, nope,
I'm not going to do it, Paul. I'm not going to take that away
from you. He said, but I tell you what, my grace is sufficient
for you. Yeah, that thorn is going to
stay right there. I bet I'll tell you what. You know, when
we talk about praying for the same things, He prayed three
times for this one thing. And He said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee. Oh my, listen to this now. My
strength is made perfect in weakness. The weaker you are, The more
glory I bring through you. So Paul said, therefore I'm going
to glory in how weak I am. How frail I am. How miserable,
wretched person that I am. That I would think that I was
going to be exalted. Think that I knew something.
Think that I was going to brag on something I was doing. He
said, I have glory in my infirmities and my inabilities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. Oh my. I tell you grace is sufficient
for suffering. We got folks that's suffering.
And grace is sufficient for that suffering. We have people and
we ourselves have been through trials. Grace has got us through
every single one of them. We have afflictions in our bodies
and in our minds and in our hearts and in our souls. Grace has been
sufficient for every one of them. Here's the thing, grace gives
us sufficiency to live. Everybody wants to talk about
dying, but grace gives us sufficiency to live in this miserable, dark,
foreboding, God-hating, Christ-rejecting world. Grace gives us sufficiency
to live. And it gives us the ability to
live fully. To live freely. live honorably
before God and for Christ. And I'll tell you something else,
grace is sufficient to put us down and humble us like it did
Paul. Oh, boy, you just know I've had
lots of revelation and nobody knows God like I do. Paul, you're
going down. Oh, my. His strength is made perfect
in our weakness. Oh, my. How weak are we? How weak are we? How weak are
we? And I'm going to skip one and
go to the last one. I'm going to skip one. I'm going
to skip one. Well, no. I'm just going to give
you a verse of scripture. Keeping grace. Keeping grace.
Look over with me in Isaiah 54.10. I'm just going to use a verse
of scripture on this. Most think of being kept. from
things, but grace keeps us to some things. It keeps us believing
and cleaving. Grace keeps us loving the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look here in Isaiah 54 10. For the mountains shall depart and
the hills be removed But my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that
hath mercy on thee. Look down here in verse 3 and
4. These are two verses of scripture
right here that, oh my goodness, blesses my heart. Hark! and unto me, O house of Jacob,
and that's who we are, and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
which are born by me from the belly, which are carried from
the womb, And even to your old age I am He. Even to your gray
hairs will I carry you. I have made and I will bear. Even I will carry you and deliver
you. Oh my God carrying us? I hope He never sets me down.
I don't want Him to ever set me down. Do you? Lord don't let
me down. You put a little old baby down
and it can't walk, can't do nothing. The first thing it does is it
comes. That's the way we are. Lord don't let me down, don't
let me down, don't set me down. Please don't set me down. Oh
my. And then last of all, Hebrews
4. I won't say a lot about this
because Bruce Crabtree brought an excellent, excellent, absolutely
wonderful message on this the other day when he was here. Let's
talk about the throne of grace. Verse 16. Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in the time of need. There's three, four
thrones in God's word. There's a throne of government. The heavens is his throne. The
earth is his footstool. And then there's a throne of
glory. Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and his glory filled
the temple. There's a throne of judgment
called the great white throne. But blessed be the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's a throne of grace. We've
already been to the judgment. Christ took us there. And we'll never have to face
it again. What's God going to judge us for? We ain't got no
sin. So we can't judge us for that. We've
already been to the throne of judgment. And we love his government. Oh, we love his government. And
we bow to his government. And we see his glory to some
degree. But here it says, Christ sits
at the right hand of the majesty on high. So let us come boldly
to the throne of grace. A throne of grace. You bow to the throne. But here
we have permission to come all times that we may attain mercy
and find grace to help at the last In the last time I will
give you one more and I just thought of this just thought
of this back over to Ephesians 2 I just thought of this and
then there is grace for eternity now watch this now look what
he said here in verse 7 Ephesians 2 7 that in the ages to come
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. That when we get to glory in
all the ages, it's going to go on and on and on. Grace in Christ
is going to show us off. He said, this is where my kindness
and my love went. I told you grace, grace and more
grace. You want some more grace? Oh Lord, thank you. God bless
it. Be your name for allowing us
to meet here today to worship, to talk of your blessed power,
mercy, grace. Give us in Christ before the
world ever began. God bless these dear saints.
Lord, save you people in this place. Continue to strengthen
your dear saints who are going through a great fight of afflictions.
We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Stand together. We're going to sing the old,
old faithful. How sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me. Once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see T'was grace that taught me my heart
to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. I first believed. Through many dangerous storms
and snares, Already come His grace hath brought
me safe thus far And grace will lead me home Listen listen listen God willing, I'll see you tonight.