Let's read from Psalm 89. Psalm
89. The Word of the Lord says, I will
sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I
make known my faithfulness to all generations. For I have said,
mercy shall be built up forever. Thy faithfulness shall established
in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my
chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. and the heavens
shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the
congregation of the saints. For who in the heavens can be
compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty
can be like unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all
them that are about them. O Lord God of hosts, who is a
strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round
about. Thou rulest the raging of the
sea, when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast
broken Rahab in pieces as one that is slain. Thou hast scattered
thine enemies with thy strong arms. The heavens are thine,
the earth also is thine, As for the world and the fullness thereof,
thou hast founded them. The north and the south, thou
hast created them. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice
in thy name. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong
is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. Justice and judgment
are thy habitation, are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth
shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. that shall walk, O Lord, in the
life of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou
art the glory of their strength, and in thy favor our horns shall
be exalted. For the Lord is our defense,
and the Holy One of Israel is our King. Then thou spakest in
vision to thy Holy One and saideth, I have laid hell upon one that
is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant,
with my holy oil have I anointed him, with whom my hand shall
be established, my arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall
not exact upon him from the sun, of weakness afflict him, and
I will beat down his foes before his face and plague them that
hate him. But my faithfulness and my mercy
shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me,
Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Turn
with me in your Bibles, please, to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. As we read down through here,
I want you to especially note verse 7. Tonight, by God's grace,
I wish to show you, and me again, the exceeding riches of God's
Verse 1, chapter 2 of the Ephesians, and you hath be 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 hath 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,
that we should walk in them. Heavenly Father, I pray that
you will guide our minds, our hearts, our thoughts to your
Word, to your Son. By the power of the Spirit of
God, we ask for your help. Only you can make this Word of
God powerful, quick, and a matter of faith. We pray, Father, that
you would do your work here among us, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Again, verse 7, that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. In Ephesians chapter 1, just
before that, it says in verse 7 of Ephesians 1, in whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according
to the riches of his grace." And then down in verse 18 of
Ephesians 1, "...the eyes of your understanding being lightened,
that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what
is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."
And verse 4 of chapter 2 again, "...for by God, who is rich in
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. Tonight, let's see
if we can see the exceeding riches of his grace. God's grace to
you and to me. Peter said it this way, but ye
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praise of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous life. David said it this way, the blessing
of the Lord maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it. Paul said in Romans chapter 10
verse 12, he is rich unto all that call upon him. In 2 Corinthians Paul said in
chapter 8 verse 9, that through his poverty ye may be rich. Isaiah said it this way, I will
give thee the riches of darkness and the hidden riches of secret
places. And then of course Paul said,
talked about the riches of the goodness of God and that riches
leads, that goodness leads us to repentance. Paul said in Romans
chapter 9 verse 23, that he might make known the riches of his
glory upon the vessels of mercy." And then he said, oh the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out. Paul talks
about in Colossians, all riches of the full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God. And then what
about Moses? Esteeming the riches of Christ,
the reproach of Christ, greater riches than that of Egypt. And Paul said of himself, unto
me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given,
that I should preach among the Gendiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ. eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him." To show means to point
out, to set a display. He's going to show the exceeding
riches of his grace and his kindness toward us to all ages, to all
generations. He's going to show his riches
of his grace and kindness to us. He's going to point it out.
And he's going to point out the riches of his grace, the riches
of his love, the riches of his mercy. Who's he going to point
them out to? Well, first of all, according
to the word of God, he's going to point them out to you and
to me. He's going to make us know what his riches of his grace
really is. Then he sort of pointed out to
the father, but you know, the father knows everything. So we're
going to look at that just a little bit. But one day, we're going
to stand before the father. The world might be pointing to
us and say, they don't deserve to be there. They shouldn't be
there. I'm a better person than that person is. But because of
the riches of his grace, the Lord Jesus points and says, they're
mine, the ones you gave me. I brought them here. And then I'm going to point out
the riches of his grace to those goads, to the reprobates, to
the lost in a certain day. And that's the gist of my message
of what I want to share with us tonight. He points out the
exceeding riches of his grace to his people. Salvation is of
the Lord, isn't it? Salvation is of the Lord. free
grace that comes to us, that the Lord has made known to us.
He became poor for our sakes that we might be rich in him. And Jesus Christ, if we're getting
nothing else through all of this, Jesus Christ is the richest.
I don't care what other riches you might talk about, but Jesus
Christ is the richest of his grace. He's the one that we're
going to see. He's, for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. He's the gift. He's the
gift. Paul said he's the prize that
I strive for. I press toward the mark of the
prize of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus my Lord. He's the prize. Our Lord told
several parables of the kingdom, and two of the parables, he said
in one there was a treasure hid in the field, and in another
there was a pearl of great price. And in either case, someone sold
everything they had to buy that piece of property to get that
treasure hid in the field, or sold everything they had to get
that pearl of great price. He's the treasure hid in the
field. He's the pearl. of great price. We were talking this evening
among ourselves and one of the things that people talk about
when they think about going to heaven, they're going to see
their loved ones, they're going to see this person or that person
and whatever. There's only one person I want
to see. All the other become, I mean,
we might know who they are. I'm not sure of that. We might
know who they are. We might know some of the saints
that have gone before. We will know, because out of
heaven came Elijah and Moses. Surely we'll know then, and so
on. But I only want to see him, my
Lord. I don't want to build a tabernacle
for Elijah, and I don't want to build a tabernacle for Moses.
I want to sit at the feet of Jesus. I want to worship Him
like I have never worshipped Him before. My body of flesh
will be gone. My new nature will spring forth
into new life, into flesh and blood body that will sit before
Him, and I'll never hurt Him again. I'll never sin against
Him again. I'll worship Him then and there
in spirit and in truth is all I want to say. He's my pride. Many things that we can say about
the riches of Jesus Christ, of what he's done, and I could list
a whole bunch of them here, and I will. I'm going to go through
just a few of them, but I'm sure that I have missed all of them
because I have. I wonder what it's going to be
like when we sit at the feet of Jesus and we get to hear all
the grace. not only to hear it, but finally
to understand it, all the race. You see, he is our substitute. There's a richness that we enjoy,
God's people enjoy. He's our substitute. He took
our place for us. We deserve to die and go to hell,
and he took our place and died for us, and took the wrath of
God upon himself. He is our substitute, not only
substituting that way, but the other way as well. He declared
us, made us to be righteous. His righteousness, God's righteousness. He's the double cure. He saved
from wrath and made us pure, the songwriter said. He alone
satisfied the Father. He alone is accepted of God. He fulfilled the law. He lived
a perfect, righteous life. He is the only sacrifice for
our sin. And He is the one who sanctifies
His people, as we talked about last Wednesday night. He calls
them, He justifies them, He glorifies them, and He forgives them through
the blood that He shed. The shed blood, the blood that
was do you and me, he shed, and through his shed blood, he turns
around and forgives us all our sins. There's now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. We're forgiven, redeemed, and
forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. He made us heirs
and joined heirs with him. How rich is that? He made us
heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. That means everything
he has, we'll have. Everything. Wow. All he is, we
are. He will never leave nor forsake
his people. Brad spoke about that this morning. What a wonderful message. He
is the anchor of our soul. He is the forerunner that went
into glory for us, before us, and there interceding to bring
us to him. One day, whether in actual death
or in calling up to glory, we'll probably, we'll hear these words.
Come up here. Come on. The riches of life.
I prepared you a place. It's a mansion. and it's big
enough to house everybody, a number that no man can number. I prepared
it for you. He is our surety. He is our Savior
and our Deliverer. How do you point that out? How
do you show that? You show it through the preaching
of the Word of God. You show it. Our pastor shows
it to us every service here. The preachers who come and speak
to us show it to us in every service. they show us the receding
riches of his grace." He preaches. They preach to us the gospel.
Here in Ephesians 1 verse 13, it says, "...in whom ye also
trusted after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of Christ." Word of God, the Spirit of God,
If you're a child of God, one of those that are elected before
the foundation of the world, God will make sure you hear his
word. God will make sure the Spirit
of God will give you life. It'll happen. It'll happen. He
calls men to come. Do they come? Don't they? He
calls men to follow. You remember Matthew there? Follow me? Matthew left his He
was public and stable. All of his money, all of his
tax receipts and everything, he just left them right there
and followed Jesus. He walked down by the seashore
and he saw Simon and Andrew there. He said, follow me, I'll make
you fishers of men. They left their nets, left their
fodder, left their ships and followed him. A little later
on he found James and John doing the same thing and he said, follow
me. And they left everything and followed him. How many follow? He calls us to believe. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Do you believe
that he is the Christ, the son of the living God? Do you believe
this incredible gospel that is preached here Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and in other services of our
brothers and sisters around the United States here? Do you believe
it? Some do, some don't. Do you hear
it? The hearing ear, the seeing eye
is of the Lord. Do you hear it? Do you hear God's
Word? Do you hear the voice of Jesus
Christ who said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me? Well, if he calls to come and
he calls to follow and he calls to believe and he calls to hear,
and I haven't said all the calls that are there, but if he calls
these things, what are you going to do about it? I'll tell you
what I do. Every morning when I wake up,
I start calling. Lord, I'm coming. I'm coming
to you. You're my only hope. I have to have you. I follow
him. Lord, whatever you want me to
do today, just let me know. I'll do it. I believe him. I
trust him. All my eggs are in one basket,
as Brother Todd said. I'm trusting him. I'm persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. And I sit there, and sometimes
I have my Bible with me, sometimes I'm just thinking of Scripture,
thinking of verses, and I'm listening to His voice every day. I have
to have His mercy. I have to, have to have His mercy. Oh, Father, be merciful to me,
I sin. You know, when the Word of God
is preached, according to the Scripture, Romans chapter 10,
there's at least three miracles that take place. There's probably
many more. But there's at least three miracles that take place.
One is regeneration. You won't hear if you're dead.
You have to be brought to life. And the Spirit of God brings
to life. There's regeneration. And then there's the hearing,
which is of the Lord. And then there's faith to believe.
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Picture with me a crowd of religious
people They have heard a message from a deacon, and it tricked
their hearts. It made them mad, so mad they
were gnashing their teeth. And they grabbed up this deacon,
and they took him outside the city wall, and they threw him
up against the city wall, and they picked up stones, and they
started stoning this deacon as he was dying. He said, I see
Jesus standing at the Father's right hand. They couldn't take
that away from him. They could take his physical
life. They could rock out his eyes. They could cause his hearing
to cease. They could kill that body, but
they couldn't do a thing about what he saw. I see. By the way, that's the only time
that Jesus stands in any current he did from the time that he's
been seated at the right hand of the Father. The only time
he stood in Scripture. I sort of think that Stephen
didn't have a monopoly on that. That when Herman gave his last
breath, the angels picked him up and brought him right where
Jesus was standing. And the first thing he thought
was his life. He saw his riches. He saw the
riches of his grace. It was the person, Jesus Christ
our Lord. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. I want you to see something here
with me about showing the exceeding riches of his grace to his people. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, look
at verse 10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his
body. According to that, he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. One day, we're all going to be
ushered to the judgment seat of Christ. We'll look at another
passage here in just a few moments, but the Lord will separate the
tares from the wheat. the Lord will separate the sheep
from the goats. And as we stand before the judgment
seat of Christ, our Lord, who by his grace has saved, through
faith, those sheep that are standing with him at the right hand of
the Father, he advocates for them. We have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's our lawyer standing
there. The world may be saying things
about us, like I said before, and probably true things. You
know that so-and-so that's standing in front of you right now? You
know what he did? You know how he lived? You know
what he did to me? You know how he spoke to me?
Why, he doesn't deserve to go in there. I have an advocate,
a lawyer standing there, and he's pleading for me. And you
know what he says? He looks at the record God gave
of his son and says, all his sins are paid for. He's been
made the righteousness of God. You can accuse him all you want.
It'll do no good. My lawyer speaks up and says,
but I'll go you one better. He's not only my lawyer there,
he's the judge sitting on the bench. And he cracks down the gavel
and says, not you, righteous, enter in, thou good and faithful
servant, thou that's been faithful over a few things, I'll make
you ruler over many. Enter into the joys of thy Lord. That's what the judge will say.
He's the judge, but I'll know you one better than that. I am
in him. I'm in Jesus Christ. I'm in the
lawyer, the advocate. I'm in the judge sitting at the
bench at the judgment seat of Christ. I have no reason to fear. I'll have boldness in that day,
the scripture says. I'll have confidence in that
day, the scripture tells me. Because I am in Jesus Christ. And he's accepted, isn't he? He's accepted. God loves him. So I'm accepted. And God loves
me. That's what the judgment seat
of Christ will be like for God's people. That's some of the riches,
the exceeding riches of his grace. And it points out to the Father
that all people haven't lost one another. Every one of them
is here. There's a number that can't be
numbered by us. But every one of them is here. And Father, I present them faultless,
not having spot or wrinkle, holy, without blemish. I'm presenting
them to you complete, perfect. If Jesus Christ could be rejected
by God, the Father, then so could I. But he's not. He's not, or
ever will be. God saw that the railing was
sold and was satisfied. He points this out to the father.
Now, he is eternal God. He knows everything. Here's my
sheep. I've not lost one of them, he
told him in John chapter 17. I've not lost one of them. I
finished the work, and I've not lost one of them. There are eternal
riches that we will enjoy. eternal riches. You know, I got
thinking about eternal. We really don't understand that
concept, eternal. All we understand is time. That's
why you'll hear the preachers say, eternity past, eternity
present, eternity future. Past, present, future, that's
time, isn't it? We don't quite understand eternity. God who
inhabiteth eternity, at any one point, he sees it all. We don't
quite understand that. That's, maybe it's just me, I'll
just say it this way, I don't quite understand that. That's
a little bit too big for this picky, unimaginable mind. Genesis
1-1, in the beginning, that's where time began. One day an
angel will step on the sea and one foot on the land and cry
out, time shall be no more. One of these days there will
not be any time. We sing the song when we've been
there 10,000 years. No such thing. No such thing. There's no time segments in eternity. But for our benefit, God brought
time into play because in due time, God sent his son. And his son finished the work,
fulfilled all the requirements. and says, Father, they're all
here. The eternal covenant of grace
I've fulfilled with you. We've done it. Here they are,
all your sheep, all your people. Not one of them is missing. Now,
if they don't give you hope and joy and excitement in your heart,
I don't know what will. And then he says, knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord. Let me show that to you. Turn
with me to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew chapter 25. He's going
to show the exceeding riches of his grace to these goats,
the reprobates, the lost. They'll finally know whom God
is. Schomburg that wrote the book
The Passover Plot will finally know. Well, he already does know
who God is. He said he just swooned on the
cross for the drugs they gave him. No, no. The atheist will
know there is a God. The religious man will know there
is a God as soon as he closes his eyes in death or God brings
him up in the resurrection. Matthew 25, verse 31. And the Son of Man shall come
in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. Then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory." That's the same throne, the judgment
seat of Christ. It's the same place. The great
white throne judgment of revelation, same place. God brings them all
up together. And before him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall this
king say unto them on his right hand, See what he's doing? I'll
show the exceeding riches of my grace to you guys. The people on the right hand
are God's people. Come ye blessed to my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Boy, that gives you assurance
that that kingdom has been prepared for us all the way before the
world began, is in the covenant of grace. For I was in hunger,
and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me
drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me in naked, and ye clothed
me. I was sick, and ye visited me.
I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we?" Notice he calls them
the righteous. When saw we thee in hunger, and
fed thee of thirst, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee
a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or
when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And
the kings shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto
you, It is much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." You've been there for
God's people. You've loved God's people. You
saw somebody hungry, you paid. They needed a coat, you got it
for them. They were in prison. You visited
them. They were strangers. You took
them in. You did it to God's people. Then
shall he say unto them on his left hand, Depart from me ye
cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels. Ladies and gentlemen, they all
deserve the wrath of God. We deserve the wrath of God.
All standing there deserve the wrath of God. But God made the
difference. On the right hand, he put the
righteous, those that he had saved, those that he had brought
into the fold, those who heard his voice, those who came to
him. On his left hand, he put the
goats. They'd never heard. Oh, many of them think they have.
As a matter of fact, for 40 years, I thought I had. I came in here,
and after two or three services, I realized I didn't know a thing
about Scripture. I didn't know a thing about God.
God's Word pricked my heart. I asked Peggy every once in a
while, I said, or I'll say something to this effect, I wonder why
God waited until I was 60 years old before he did anything for
me. Well, it was God's timing. It
was God's timing. That's when he wanted me. That's
when he showed me the Word. That's when he wanted me to have
life. But I've always been his. I've always been his. I just didn't know it until I
heard his voice. And then I knew, there's the
one I was looking for. And he says to these people,
depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never did. Do you know there'll be some
who'll argue with the Lord about that? They'll say, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not cast out devils? Didn't we do this and didn't
we do that? The audacity of being there and
arguing with God how to say it. If I could be, in other words,
iniquity, I never knew you. Maybe the saddest words of all
scripture. I never knew you. Paul talks about that. We may
know God and then he says, ye rather be known of God. Are you known of God? Are you
known of God? He reveals himself. He reveals
his riches. Heavenly Father, thank you for
your word tonight. Thank you for letting us see
again all the wonders, so many wondrous riches that you've given
to your people, and we've not even touched a part of all. Thank you for joy, for strength,
Thank you for protection. Thank you, Lord, for being with
us. But thank you most of all for
Jesus Christ, our riches, our salvation. Jesus, amen.