Come with me back to 2 Corinthians
5 and look there in verse 14 and
15. For the love of Christ constraineth
us. That's what constrains us. Christ
is our life. The love of Christ constrains
us. We're here because the love of
Christ constrains us. We love the gospel, the love
of Christ constrains us. We love His word, the love of
Christ constrains us. We love one another, the love
of Christ constrains us. We cannot do anything else. Because
we thus judge that if one died for all, that if Christ died
for all, Then all died with him, then were all dead. That's what
it means, that if he died for one, all, then all died with
him. And that he died for all. Now
the all he's talking about, of course, is God's elect, God's
sheep. That they which live, died with
him, live with him, should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them and rose again. Now when he said
henceforth, no, we know men after the flesh, he meant we do not
understand anybody according to their old nature. We don't
know them that way anymore. They though we have known Christ
after the flesh. Paul knew Christ after the flesh.
Most of us at one time knew Christ after the flesh by our natural
understanding. That's the way most people have
any understanding of Him at all and after their natural understanding.
That's why He knocks at hearts doors. That's why people are
always trying to go out and win souls and knock on doors and
pass out traps and win people to Jesus because they know Him
after the flesh. That's all the way they know
Him. Paul said, I once knew Him that way too. That's why when
he's struck down on the Damascus road, he says, who art thou Lord? He said, I'm Jesus, whom thou
persecuted, right then and there. He ceased to know him after the
fledge. He said he knew him then. And
then that's why he goes on to say there, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation. Old things are passed away. All
the ways that we knew Christ are passed away. And all the
ways that we know Him now are new, and the Scriptures are new.
But I want to go back to that verse 15, that He died for all
that they which live shall not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto Him which died for them and rose again. I want to talk
about living. Living not to ourselves, but
unto Him which died for them. I want to talk about how are
we to live in this world? How are we to live in this world? There are those who are constantly
and continually harping on how people are to live in this world.
People talk about living right. How many times have you heard
that statement made? Living right. Are you living right? Are you
living for God? Do you love the Lord? And I tell you I've heard this
a million, well not a million, that's a hyperbole. But I have
heard it said a multitude of times. If I ever profess and
join the church, you better believe I'll live it. I won't be a hypocrite
about it. I won't be like everybody else
up there. I won't be a hypocrite. I'll live it. If I ever do decide
to live it, I'm gonna live it. How many times have you heard
that? Well, let me tell you something,
how this kind of preaching came about, this kind of talk came
about. And I, you know, I was with a
fella just recently, and that's what he said, you know, that
they don't preach the gospel up there, and you know, do you
preach the gospel here and there? I said, don't make any difference
where the gospel is preached if you don't go hear it. If you're
not interested in it. You see, it's born, this kind
of talk, this kind of preaching is born of self-righteousness.
Born of self-righteousness. That's where it's born of. He's
like that, our Lord Jesus described that Pharisee and he says, there
are those who consider themselves more righteous than others and
despise others. How you always tell a self-righteous
man, he always despises others. Always finds fault with others.
You know, our Lord Jesus says this, when you make a proselyte,
you know what you've made him? You've made him two-fold more
of the child of hell than you are. So when you make somebody
a proselyte, and you make somebody like you, what have you accomplished
if you do that? So it's born of self-righteousness.
And I'll tell you what else this kind of preaching and talk is
born of. It's born of pride. Born of pride. You know, the
Pharisees loved to stand and pray thus with themselves, to
be seen of men. make long prayers, make long
their phylacteries, make long their robes, and stand there
to be recognized, to be something special, to be different, knowing
and seeing and understanding what others don't. But I tell
you nothing, you know, God says this, six things I hate, yea,
seven are abomination. The first thing He said He ate,
you know what it was? A proud look. Proud look there's
nothing so damnable and contemptible as religious pride look with
me in Luke chapter 16 in verse 15 I'll tell you what I'm talking
about. There's nothing so damnable and contemptible as religious
pride and I'll tell you what you can see it in a lot of places
and see it in a lot of people and You know, even those of us
who profess the grace of God, if we're not careful, we'll get
proud of our grace. We'll get proud that we're different
than everybody else. And that's one thing that we
must be very careful about. I'm grateful for the grace of
God. Bless God for grace. But I know one thing, if I'm
saved, it's I'm saved by God's blessed grace. And here look
what our Lord Jesus said about this religious pride in verse
15 of Luke 16. And He said unto them, Ye are
they which justify yourselves before men. You get around other
people and you talk about what you've done, what you've accomplished.
And if somebody starts talking to you about the condition of
your soul, you start talking about, well, I'm not this way,
I'm not that way, I'm not another way, but I'm this way. But you
justify yourselves before men. But God Knows your hearts. For that that men highly esteem,
brag on and hold up before others, that which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God. God said it's abominable. It's abominable. And I'll tell
you another thing that it's born of. It's kind of preaching. I'm
going to live right off. If I ever profess it, I'll live
it. And I'll tell you what, are you living right? I'll tell you
what, those folks over there, I've been living for Jesus now
for this long a time. But I'll tell you what, it's
also born out of contempt for your fellow man instead of love
for them. Out of contempt for you, fellow man, not having any
love for them, Paul said, I prevail in birth again to Christ be formed
in you. You see, the religious people
of our Lord's day, they had such contempt for other people, had
contempt for the Son of God, had contempt for the sinners
that came to Him, had contempt for everything that was just
and holy wasn't like them. How often did they tell our Lord
Jesus Christ when they'd watch Him heal on the Sabbath day,
it made them mad. See Him raise something, do something for somebody
on the Sabbath day, it made them angry. When they saw Him eating
without washing their hands, it made them angry. They had
such contempt. They had contempt for sinners.
Don't this man know that this woman that just came in here
to wash his feet, she's a sinner? Don't he know that? Why would
he let a sinner touch him? Oh, they paid tithes. They paid
tithes of the littlest things that they had. They was interested
in all their holy days. They was interested in weeping
so people could see how dedicated and committed they were. And
they was very interested in seeing who was meeting their standards.
And yet they would leave off the mercy and faith and love
and grace of God. and said, this man receives sinners. So it's born out of contempt
for your fellow man and having no love for him at all. And I
tell you this kind of preaching, you know, I'm going to live,
oh, I'll tell you one thing, you know, if they see you doing
something they don't think is right, I mean, boy, you're out,
you're out the door right now. And I know what I'm talking about.
I've been in this boat before. I've paddled this boat before.
I've been on this ship before. I've been on this ship here,
you know, that everybody had to meet some kind of standard
that I set up for myself and everybody else. And if they didn't
meet that standard, I didn't give them a child. I didn't give
them much of a chance of a snowball in a flat furnace. Y'all know
that. Some of y'all remember that.
But another reason how it's born, it's born out of the ignorance
of God. It's born out of an ignorance for God and what God requires.
It's easy for us to have contempt and it's easy for us to be self-righteous. Easy for us to be proud. That's
just our nature. We're born with that. That's
born and bred in us and we breed it into our children and our
grandchildren. But I tell you what it's born
out of also an ignorance of God and what He requires. You know
what God requires? He don't require me to be like
you. He doesn't require you to be like me. You know what He
requires? He requires truth in the inward
parts. He requires truth here in the
heart. He requires perfection. He says
this, it must be perfect to be accepted. And if it's not perfect,
if it's not perfect in thought, in word, in deed, in everything
you do, if it's not perfect, then God cannot accept it. And you know what else he said?
What God requires. He said, I require mercy. Not
your sacrifices. I don't need a sacrifice from
you. He said, look at all these cattle on a thousand hills. They
belong to me. He said, look at this earth and
all that's in it. It's all mine. He said, would
I ever ask of you of anything? Why would I ask anything from
you? And he said, I'll have mercy.
I don't want a thing you've got. And he said, and you go figure
out what that means. And then he said, I'll tell you
what else he requires. He requires a broken heart and
a contrite spirit. Heart broken over sin. Heart broken over your pride. Heart broken over your self-righteousness. Heart broken over your contempt. Heart broken over the condition
you're in. And a contrite spirit. And I
know this, that He says the flesh, they that are in the flesh cannot
ever please Him. And this kind of talk, this kind
of preaching. And I tell you, I told you all
here about some folks that I met up in New Jersey here recently. That the preacher, the preacher
would go to their houses and examine them. See how the wife
was, see how the husband was. And I was talking to somebody,
I was talking to Paul Mahan yesterday. And some folks that I know in
their place, he was telling me this, said the elders used to
go around and go into all, go to all the different halls and
visit to check people out, to make sure that they was meeting
the church's standard. Finally, one of them got to start
hearing the gospel. And you know what he said to
one of them elders one time? He said, let me come to your house
and examine you. Let me come see what you're doing.
You always want to know what I'm doing. Let me come to your
house to see what you're doing. You see, that's what this stuff
produces. And not only is it born out of
ignorance for God, but it's born out of ignorance of the way God
saves a sinner. They honestly think that God
will save a sinner because they've done something. They are in the
right way, or they're living right, or they're doing something
to make themselves acceptable to God. If it ain't doing nothing
but joining the church, or getting all their ducks in a row, and
going A, B, C, D, E, F, and make sure everything's just right.
But I tell you what, you know how God saves a sinner? He saves
him by grace. sovereign, free, grace. And if it's of grace, then it's
not of works. And if it's of works, then it's
not of grace. And you cannot wed them two together.
It's other salvation's all of grace. No works attributed to you, any
time, place, or any way. Or it's all of works, and you'll
never ever have anything to do with grace. You cannot mix them
together. It's one or the other. You're either going to do works,
all of works, or all of grace. And the Scriptures tells us that
salvation is of God's free sovereign grace. And you know why we call
it free grace? That means there's no condition
on it. It is really free. You don't have to repent to get
it. You don't have to believe to get it. In fact, if you repent,
grace brings you repentance. If you believe, grace gives you
faith. Ain't that right? And I tell you, not only that,
beloved, but it is by the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if Christ Himself took our
place, if He died for all, then we all died with Him. Is that
what it says? That if our Lord Jesus Christ
was really my substitute, really died for me and I died with him,
was crucified with him. Then, beloved, if I live, I live
by him, through him, because of him. And so God cannot require
me to pay for any sins if Christ already did it. If Christ was
my substitute, if Christ bore my sin, if Christ bore my guilt,
if Christ bore my shame, if Christ bore all that I am before God,
then God cannot come and require anything from me. Is that not
right? And listen, and not only did
He not be our substitute, but He's our satisfaction before
God. He satisfied justice. He satisfied
the Lord. He satisfied holiness. He upheld
truth by Himself. So if I have anything at all
to bring to God, then I tell you what, the death of Christ
is in vain. That's why Paul said, if we bring
righteousness, come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
What's the death of Christ for if you have to do something to
get it? What's the blood of Christ for
if it don't wash away your sins? What's the satisfaction of Christ
for if you won't try to satisfy Him yourself? What's the death
of Christ for if you think you can bring something? You just
nullify the grace of God. Nullify the death of Christ if
you ever try to bring anything of your own. And I tell you not
only that, but beloved, here's our problem. Here's our problem. People don't understand this.
This is our problem. You know what man's problem is? He don't
have to do anything to be a sinner. He was born that way. What do I got to do to become
a sinner? Just live. Just breathe. Get out of bed,
go to bed. He was born one. It's your nature. It's in you. Born, bred into
you. And how did we get it? By one
man. His rebellious nature and his
sin was charged to us and then beloved we inherited his nature. Well, how in the world am I going
to do? What am I going to do about that? How can I get out of this awful?
Well, I'm going to tell you. There was another man, the last
Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. God took that sin that was charged
us by Adam, and then our own sins. And He bore them in His
own body on the tree. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. The Lord wounded Him for our
transgressions. All of our sin, all of it, was
put on Him. And then you know what? I read
it to you there, for He made Him to be sin who knew no sin
that we might be made what? The righteousness of God. We
got an absolute perfect exchange. He got all that we were as sinners.
And we got all that he is as a righteous man. And that, if any man be in Christ,
what is he? He's a new creature. How'd that
happen? God gave us his nature. God gave us his righteousness. Oh, bless his name. And I'll
tell you something else, this kind of preaching, this kind
of teaching, and this kind of thinking, thinking, just the
thoughts of it. Have you all ever thought that
way? I'll just show you how self-righteous
we are and how prone we are to words. And how many times have
you all thought, well, boy, when I get in a better mood,
then I'll go pray. I'm so aggravated now there ain't
no bit of sense in praying. Lord, I'm so sinful I don't even
need to pray. I can't even pray. I promise I'm going to
start reading the Bible. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday. I'm going to read it every day.
Trying to make you feel better about yourself. That's what you
do. You ought to read the Bible. I'm not saying that. But that's
just how natural this stuff is to us. to make us feel better
about ourselves instead of trusting Christ because we ain't got nothing
to give anyway. It's the love of Christ that
constrains us to do these things. And then not only is it born
out of ignorance of the way God says, it's born out of ignorance
of oneself. You know what a man does, you know, he stands afar
off. And he says, I'm holier than thou. Come not near unto
me. Oh, you can spot them, their
hair a certain way, their dress a certain way. You know? And oh, don't you know that all
of our righteousness is ours as a filthy rag? There was a
Pharisee and a publican. And the Pharisee prayed thus
with himself, I'm so grateful I'm not like another fellow over
there. That other fella, I tell you what, he is so sorry. He is so sorry. He believes that
everything's of grace. He has just got freedom, and
here I am, and I'm over here, and I can't, you know, these
people enjoy themselves, and I ain't gonna be like them. Oh no, I'm going after holiness.
I'm gonna really live it. And you know, and then our Lord
says about this publican, That publican looked at that mercy
seat, saw that sacrifice on that mercy seat, saw that blood, and
he smote on his breast. That's where he knew where his
problem was. He said, God, God, be merciful, merciful to me,
the sinner, the sinner. You see, God's, I'll tell you
something, beloved, God's grace is the only level in this world. God's grace puts us, every human
being, on the same ground. If the President of the United
States, if God don't give him grace, he'll go to the same hell
as that fella that's sitting on a street corner, sleeping
under, over a vent with a, with a, with a, with a, a cardboard
box over him. And you, Me, my children, your
children. If God does not make them understand
that they're not any better or not any worse than anybody else,
grace will be the one to make them know it. And Paul was the chief of sinners. That's actually lived. Getting
ready to die. He became the chief of sinners.
But oh bless Christ's name. He's the friend of sinners. The
gospel is for sinners. The church is a gathering place
for sinners. How many of y'all got better
since you've been coming here? How many of you got more sanctified? How many of you got, you know,
how many of you feel, you know, like I've arrived, I've got there,
I know, you know, let's get on, let's get past the ABCs, let's
go on to LMNPQRST. Let's go on to that. Oh, the church is a gathering
place for sinners. Not for those who are better
or more righteous or more holy than somebody else. What are
the saints singing about when they're in glory? They're singing
unto Him who redeemed us by His blood out of every nation, every
tribe, every kindred among this earth unto Him whose blood washed
us. And oh beloved now, that's my
introduction. That's my introduction. So letting
I said I was gonna ask you how we gonna live Look with me over
in 1st Corinthians chapter 4 in verse 7. I talked about living
how we gonna live you gonna live you gonna when you be fast You're
not gonna be a hypocrite like the rest of us I'll tell you what if you There's not a person in this
building who ain't played the hypocrite one time or another. That's another one of them things
that's natural to us. And only believers understand
that. I'll tell you how we're going to live. I'll tell you
how we're going to live. Look what it said here in verse
7. 1 Corinthians 4, 7. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what have you received? What have you got that you did
not receive? Now, if you didn't receive it,
why do you go away then? As if you hadn't received. And
that's why Paul says here, who makes you to differ? Your beliefs? Your holy living? The way you
dress? The way you talk? What have you
got that you didn't receive? If you repented, God exalted
Christ to be a prince over Israel and to give repentance to him.
Do you have faith? For by grace are you saved through
faith and that's not of yourselves. Do you have love? He that's born
of God loveth him that's born of God. Do you have a new heart? Surely, surely you didn't make
that yourself. You see, God made the difference
in everybody. If there's a difference in somebody,
God made it. I'll show you what I'm talking
about. Look over in 2 Timothy 1.9. God made the difference. God made the difference. You
know, He made the difference between Jacob and Esau. And He
made, you know, two brothers. Born at the same
time. Come from the same womb. Had
the same father. Had the same mother. Raised in
the same home. Ate the same food. Isaac was the father and God
said, Jacob have I loved? Esau have I hated? When did you
do that? Before either child was born.
They hadn't done any good. They hadn't done any evil. When did you do that? He said,
I've done this, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. And he said,
Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? I'm the
running this outfit down here. I'm the one that's got all the,
I'm the big wheel down here. I'm the one that's got the silver.
I've got the gold. I've got the power. I've got
the authority. God laughed at him and said, you're going to
find out who's running this outfit. And he told Pharaoh, he said,
I raised you up for one reason, to drown you in the Red Sea and
let everybody on the face of the earth know that there's one
God in heaven and earth. And he raises up kings and he
sets down kings. He raises up nations and he sets
down nations. He's God and I want everybody
in this world to know him. He said, they're going to talk
about you from here to eternity. Pharaoh, what I did for you,
And then people say that ain't fair. You don't want God to be
fair with you. And oh, look what he said
here in 2 Timothy 1.9. This is what I'm talking about. Who made, God made the difference
in people. who hath saved us, and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace. And look what he has given to
us. And this was given to us in Christ
Jesus before God ever started the world. Oh my! Noah, who made the difference
in Noah and everybody else in the old world? Noah found grace. Who made the difference between
Lot and everybody else left in Sodom? God did. God did. You see, beloved, grace chose
us. Grace gave us Christ as our surety
and our substitute. Grace brought us to God. Grace gave His Son, and grace
caused His Son to give His blood, to shed His blood, to put away
our sin, and to satisfy God. Grace is what come and sought
us out. We wasn't looking for God. We
wasn't interested in God. When I was 20 years old, God
was the last thought on my mind. When I was 21, God was the last
thought on my mind. What in the world happened to
me one day that I got up and I began to think about sin. I
began to think about eternity. I began to think about my relationship
with God. I began to think about my responsibilities
as a man, as a husband, as a friend, as a neighbor, as a father. What happened there? Grace! He left all them sheep. We have
to find that one sheep when he found him. You know what he did?
He said, now I'm gonna, I'm gonna enable you. I'm gonna pick you
up and I'm gonna make you strong. And then you follow me real good
and I'll get you all the way back to the fold. No, no, no,
no. He picked him up and laid him on his shoulder. Grace is what brought us in the
day of his power. He made us willing. And you know
what he does and how all he's got to do to get somebody to
come? Zacchaeus! Come out of that tree. Lazarus! Oh, Lord, please, please, please.
Oh, he's such a corrupt, miserable, wretch, oil stick. Hold your
nose! Hold your nose! He's fixing to
open that... And you ever been around people
you felt like holding your nose? Well, I hold my notes for myself.
One of the marks of the covenant of grace is I'll make you to
loathe yourself. Loathe yourself. Oh my, grace
is going to keep us. Grace will keep us. We're confident
of this one thing, that He which begun a good work in you, you
know what He'll do? He'll finish it. He'll finish
it. We do know that. I give unto
them eternal life, and what does He say? They shall never perish.
Neither shall any man, any man pluck them out of my hand. And
I tell you this, I love this, grace is going to carry us all
the way to glory. Yeah, grace is going to carry
us all the way to glory. Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for us in John 17, he said in verse 24, he says, Father, I
will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my what? My glory, that glory, glory that
dwells in Emmanuel's land. And I'll tell you something else,
beloved. We are what we are by the grace of God. Paul said,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. And you know what one of
the titles of God is? The God of all grace. And Peter said, it's the true
grace of God that we stand in. And I'll tell you something about
God's people. They will not move. not a peg from the position of
being saved by grace. They won't do it. They just won't
do it. I'll tell you something else.
Not only do we live by grace, that's how people live. If there's
any sin, I'm responsible for it. If there's any forgiveness
of it, God's responsible for it. If I go to glory, God will
get me there. If I make it from day to day,
God's going to keep me by day to day. If I have sense enough
to get in and out of the rain, God will be the one to keep me
from it. If I open the Bible and understand any one verse
of scripture out of the whole thing, God will be the one to
make me understand it. And everything that happens in
this world from the day I'm born till the day I go to glory, God
orders every step of the way for me, every step of the way,
I could not be here, where I'm at, at this moment in time, without
every step that got me here. Couldn't do it. Now, I love it like that. I do. I do. I get up in the morning
and I say, and I've told you this before, this is God's day.
And I'm God's and He'll do with me that day what seems good in
His sight. He'll do with me what seems good
in His sight. Not what's good in my sight,
any of your sight, my neighbor's sight, the angel's sight, God's
sight. And let me hurry on, let me give
you this right quick. Not only do we live by grace,
but we also live by faith. We live by faith. There's four
verses of scripture in the Bible that says the just shall live
by faith. Four different verses. And I tell you, they live by
faith. And who is it that lives by faith? The just do. Those
that's been justified by the grace of God, been justified
by the death of Christ, been justified by the blood of Christ,
been justified by the grace of God. And they shall live. They're gonna live. They're going
to live day in, they're going to live day out. They're going
to live. We've got to live. We've got
to work. We've got to do things that we
have to do in this world. God gave us responsibilities,
and He gave us things we have to take care of, and we shall
live day in and day out. And the scripture says that every
day that we live, it says we walk not by sight, but by faith. And then, beloved, justified
by faith. Justified by faith we're justified. And I tell you, by faith, we
endure seeing Him who's invisible. This is something folks just
cannot get. And Jews always ask for a sign.
And people would rather have a counterfeit that they can see
than a living reality that they can't see. That's why they made
the golden calf. Said, we got to see this God
that brought us up out of Egypt. So I said, I'll tell you what
we'll do, we'll make us a God. That golden calf brought you
through the Red Sea? Oh, he's a good name. And you
go by people's houses, there's one up the road up here, they
got their, you can always tell a Catholic because they got them
a statue sitting in front of the house. Statue of Jesus or
a statue of Mary. If y'all got any statues, you
better be getting rid of them, because if I drive by and see
them, I may get a BB gun. Surely you wouldn't have one. But that's what people want.
That's what they want. That's why they wear crucifixes. That's
why they wear crosses. They want some semblance, some
emblem, so they can see, that they can touch, that they can
hold on to. And the Scriptures tell us they endure to see in
Him who you can't see. Peter said it this way, we love
Him in whom we have not seen. I've never seen Christ but by
faith. I've never seen God and I never
will see God except in Christ. And they walk by faith. They
talk faith. They live faith. And I know this
about true believers. You find a believer that the
one that God's given grace to and faith to, I'll tell you one
thing, he'll never ever quit. I don't care what happens to
him in his life, if God takes everything he owns, he'll not
quit. If he takes his children, he
won't quit. Takes his wife, he won't quit.
Takes his mother and his father and all of them at the same time,
like he did Job. He may sit and mourn, and he
may sit and weep, and he may sit and be in agony, but one
thing he'll never do, he says, he'll say, the Lord gave and
the Lord take away. I do know that without a fact.
I know that for sure. And I'll tell you something else
about their faith. You know how it works? It works. Faith not
dormant, it works. And it works by love. Works by
love. And I'll tell you this, beloved.
Christ, and how do you know you have faith? Because all true
faith looks outside itself. Never looks to itself, always
looks outside itself. Looks to Christ. Looks to Christ
and Christ alone. And then last of all, let me
give you this in 1 Corinthians 10.31. Let me show you this.
1 Corinthians 10.31. Look at this
one with me for just a minute. We live by grace. How are we
going to live in this world where people start talking about living
right? Next time somebody tells you that, say, well, I live by
grace. I live by faith. And then look at what else he
said here in verse 31. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Save by grace, live by grace.
God gives you faith, you live by faith. And then live. How's you gonna live? You're
gonna live for the glory of God. If you eat something or you drink
something or whatever you do, do all the glory of God. If you
can't give God thanks for it, don't do it. Now you think about that. Whether
it's drinking a beer or a glass of wine. Whether it's going fishing
on the creek bank. Going on a vacation and not being
in service for a while. If you can't do it, and thank
God for it, then don't do it. That's pretty simple, ain't it? I'd thank the Lord for, boy, I tell you, something good
and cold and refreshing and marriage. Oh, thank God for marriage. Thank
God for brothers and sisters. You know, if we can't thank God
for it, don't do it. He said, get, you know, whatever you eat
or whatever you drink, do it all to the glory of God. And
I tell you, live to the glory of the Father who gave His life
through His Son. Live to the glory of the Son
who loved us and gave Himself for us to wash us from all our
iniquities. Live to the glory of the Holy
Ghost who works in us what Christ worked out for us. And I'll tell
you something, if you don't get anything else I've said today,
you get this one statement right here. Stir yourselves and listen.
Glory is essential to God. Glory is essential to God. Man's
honor is not essential to his being. But God cannot exist without
His glory. Huh? He can't be God without
His glory. You and I. We don't have to have
honor. But God cannot be without His
glory. And attribute glory to Him in
all things that happen, because He's the first cause of everything
that happens in this world. He's the first cause of everything
that happens. It's like when you hear about
a believer dying, the first thing you say is, the Lord took him. That's the first thing you think.
The Lord took him. Even an unbeliever dies and you
say, the Lord called him to face the judgment. God's the first
cause. And all live content in this
world, satisfied in Him, satisfied in His Son. And God will not,
will not give His glory to another. He will not do it. He'll give
us temporal blessings, He'll give us spiritual blessings,
But He will not share His glory with no one. In fact, He saved
us to the praise of the glory of His grace. Ain't that what
it says in Ephesians 1? He saved us to the praise of
the glory of His grace. Our Father, O our Father, O God, God of all glory, God
of all grace, God who inhabits eternity, measures the waters
in the hollow of His hand, is to whom we come, is to whom we
come. And oh Lord, bless you for this
great, great salvation. Salvation of the Lord, we bless
you for it. Bless this message too, the understanding
to the hearts of those that are scattered out here today. Lord,
I know that if anybody gets it in their heart, if anybody loves
it, if anybody understands it, if anybody believes it, it's
because of your work. It's the Holy Spirit that does
it. And Lord, help us all to honor and bless your holy name.
Keep and preserve these saints here. Save your people in this
place. To you be all the glory. To you
be all the glory. Amen. Amen. Let's psalm. What number is to God be the
glory? 449 or 349? 449? Let's stand
together and sing this. At the end of this psalm, you'll
be at liberty to go. to stand again. Dear God, be the glory great
things He has done. Let the earth hear His voice. Rejoice! O come to the Father,
to Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory, great things He hath
done. the promise of God, the vilest
offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon
receives. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory. Great things He hath done,
I love this verse. are rejoicing through Jesus the
Son. But purer and higher and greater
will be our wonder, our transform with Jesus we see. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! His voice. Praise the Lord, praise
the Lord, let the rainbow rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, He did it all, all to him alone. See you tonight, 6 o'clock, God
willing. We will not fall. We will rise
up. We have to be gracious to each
other. We love each other. We don't want nothing. Nothing. Here it is. Are you ready to
go? Okay, I'm just going to let you
listen to my voice. I'm going to get you hooked up in there. It's hot I don't know. I don't know. Thank you so much for inviting
me.