Romans chapter 5. Let me start reading at verse
17 and make a few comments, and trust the Lord to bless these
words this morning. For if by one man's offense,
verse 17, death reigned, by that one man and that one man's sin,
death reigned, by that one offense, by that one sin, death reigned. Now, what it says here though,
but much more, they retrieve abundance of grace, not just
one time grace, like he only had one sin, that caused us all
to die. And death reigned by that one
sin. Much more, they which receive abundance of grace and of the
gift of righteousness, and it's a
gift, shall reign in life, not death. Death ain't gonna reign
anymore. Life's gonna reign. And how's it gonna reign? By
Jesus Christ. Death ain't gonna rain anymore.
Life's gonna rain. And it's gonna rain through Christ.
Therefore, as by the offense, that one sin, that one sin, by
that one man, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even
so, by the righteousness of one, by that one righteousness of
one man, the free gift free gift came upon all men not to judgment
not to condemnation but under justification of life for by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous now here's the reason God gave
the law and it entered into our hearts The law entered that the
sin might abound. Sin might appear what it really
is. That sin reigns and abounds in
our life. But now listen to it. Where sin
abounded, grace much more abounded. That as sin has reigned unto
death, even so now grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Death, life. Sin, righteousness. Judgment, justification. Contrast after contrast after
contrast. But my text is found there in
verse 20. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. I want to talk about grace. Grace. You ever heard a more
wonderful word? Grace. What a wonderful, wonderful
word. Grace. A beautiful word. Grace. They named Eleanor's and
Marlee, uh, Kim's, her great granddaughter and Kim's granddaughter,
Steve's granddaughter, Eleanor Grace. Oh my. The owner is a wonderful word,
but grace is a bad word. Grace, what a beautiful word. Grace, what a comprehensive word. Do you know what grace covers? How
much ground grace covers? How high grace goes? How wide
grace is? How deep grace goes? The height, the depth, the breadth,
the length of the grace of God. Oh, how comprehensive. And here
we have these great contrasts. Sin abounding. Death reigning. Life reigning. Grace reigning. Sin abounding. Grace abounding. Much more grace. We have judgment
because of sin, but we have righteousness as a free gift. We have death
as the consequences of sin, but we have life by the consequences
of our Lord's death and righteousness. And I want to talk about that
there. It says we're sin abounded. Grace
did much more about it. We're sin abounded. And you look
at your life. Even since you've been a believer.
But you look at your life until God saved you by grace. The only
thing that you had that you abounded in was sin. I mean, you just
abounded in it. We abounded in our thoughts.
Genesis says their mind was only evil continually. God was not
at all in their thoughts. And not only that, but they drank
iniquity like water. And as quick as they were born,
they went from their mother's womb, speaking lies. Everything
we had about us was sin. And it just, it flowed from us.
It abounded. Man opened his mouth and his
sin pops out. Men go somewhere, they go somewhere
to commit sin. Sin, sin, sin. And it abounded. Oh, but where that sin did abound
like that, here comes grace. And you know what it does? It
takes that sin and just overflows that sin. Just covers that sin. Just drags it. Just flows over
all that sin. Overflowed. Completely overflowed.
No matter how much sin is present, the grace that comes from God
through our Lord Jesus Christ is immeasurable. It's like a
fellow holding a match. This is the way we have sinned.
Now I'm not saying sin is useless, but it's like a fellow trying
to put out a match with a whole bucket of water. That's what
God does. Our sin, God pours this, pouring
out and putting out a match with a bucket of sin. God takes His
grace where sin is and so abounds over it that he absolutely can't
see it anymore. That's how much grace abounds.
That's how much it abounds. And you look at the people in
the scripture. Mary Magdalene. I've said this before. This is
a woman who had seven devils in her. Seven devils. My stepmother, she was mean. She fought like a man. She walked
around with a bottle of vodka in her hand almost all the time.
Just turn it up and drink it. Cussed like a Satan. Oh my goodness she was Oh, my
goodness, she's tough. Oh, she's tough. Mean. Fingers are brown from smoking
cigarettes. She'd just light one off the other, throw that
away, light another, throw that away. Just wild. Mary Magdalene's worse than that.
You know what grace did for her? Put her at the feet of Christ
with tears in her eyes. That's what grace does. Put her
at the feet of Christ. Tears in her eyes. Made her take
a box of ointment. Cost 300 pence. And take it to
our Lord Jesus Christ and open it up and pour it over his head.
And everybody in that room enjoyed it. And our Lord said, everywhere
this gospel is going to be preached, everybody is going to remember
this woman. Why? Because she done what she could.
Oh boy. And you know what else he said
about her? He told Simon, he said, her sins which are many,
they're forgiven. And that's old Zacchaeus. He
is a thief. He is a thief. He is up to treason. Our Lord
called him by name. He come down and you know what
he said? Grace worked in him so much that he said, I'm going
to take everything I ever stole and I'm going to give it back
four times. If I stole a dollar, I'm going to give back four.
That's what he said. I'm going to restore it fourfold.
So all the Tarsus, oh my, on the road to Damascus, taking
men and women and children like us, putting them in jail, having
some of them killed. What did grace do for him? Put
him at the feet of Christ who said, Lord, what wilt thou have
me to do? What would thou have me to do? Huh? And Simon Peter,
he stood and said, Lord, if you go to jail, I'll go to jail with
you. If you go to death, I'll die with you. Before the night
was over, he denied the Lord three times. What did grace do
for him? Set him at the feet of Christ. And even those that nailed our
Lord Jesus Christ to the tree, He said, Father, forgive them.
They know not what to do. Sin is horrible. It's horrible. But where it abounds, grace has
superabounds. Grace overflows. And I want to
talk, if I can, just a little while this morning, about the
nature of grace. The nature of grace. Grace is
God. acting freely. That's what grace
is. Grace is God acting freely. Grace is God acting according
to His nature. Now let me show you what I mean
by that. Look over in 1 John chapter 4 with me for just a
minute. Grace is God acting freely. 1 John chapter 4. God acting according to His nature
of love. Grace is God acting freely and
acting according to His nature of love. You see, I'll tell you
something about love. If there's love in a person's
heart, if there's genuine love, it's got to be manifested. Love,
if it's there, it's got to come out. It'll manifest itself. It'll
express itself. And so our God, He expressed
Himself in His love. He had this love in Himself.
He is love. And so He shows us how He manifested
that love. How He expressed that love. How
He showed that love. And let us experience that love. And look what He says here in
verse 7. Excuse me, verse 8. 1 John chapter 4. He that loveth
not knoweth not God. If you can't express love, if
you don't show love, if you're not caring and caring for people,
He that doeth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now how
do we know God's love? God said, here is how I'm going
to show you my love. I'm going to send my Son, my
only begotten Son, into the world. What for, Lord? Why do you love
us and how are you going to express it? You're going to express your
love toward us because you sent His only begotten Son into the
world that why? We might live through Him. Herein
is love. You want to know what it is?
You want it defined? You want it told how God views
love? Herein is love. Not that we love
God. We didn't love Him. Had no care
for Him. Had no interest in Him. Had no
thoughts of Him. But here in this love, not that
we love God, wait a minute, but that He loved us. And how do you know He loved
us? He sent His Son. What did He send Him to do? To
be a sacrifice for our sins. For our sins. Oh, listen. That's God. How do we know He
loved us? He sent His Son. How do we express
His love? He sent His Son. Now let me ask
you this. Did we deserve God's Son? Did we deserve God's love? Did
we want God's love? Did we ever desire God's love?
No! But now we love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. Oh,
listen, and I'll tell you, we aren't free. I'll tell you something,
me and you aren't free to love whom we will. We don't have it
in our ability to love whom we will. We don't. We don't have
that, you know, people say, oh, God loves everybody. No, He don't. And I'll tell you what, if I
loved every woman the way I love my wife, you know what you'd
think about me? You'd say, boy, he's one weird dude. He's a nut. But I can't love every woman
like I love them. I can love them like sisters.
I can love them like mothers. I can love them like children.
Love them like grandmas. Love the men like grandpas. Love
the brethren like brothers. But I just can't turn my love
on. But I tell you what. But God's love towards us is
an absolute act of grace. It's an act of grace. I will
love them, and you know what He said? I'll love them freely. I'll love them freely. So if
God loves anyone, it's an act of grace. And grace is God loving
His people. Now listen. Grace is God loving
His people as individuals. Individuals. without any promises
or obligation for any of us ever to fulfill. He loves His people as individuals
and He don't want no promises from us or don't give us any
obligations to fulfill. He just loves us and He loves
us freely and it's grace that caused Him to do it. Whoa, listen,
if you're trying to make promises to God to give Him to give grace
to you, stop it. If you're trying to get God to
obligate Himself to you by you promising Him something, just
stop it. If God's gonna love you, He's gonna love you, and
He's gonna love you when He loves you, you're gonna know it, and
you're gonna feel it, and you're gonna experience it, and you're
gonna be grateful for it. And I'll tell you something else,
He gives this grace righteously. I mean, He don't just capriciously
say, I love this one and I love that one. He gives us this grace
and this love righteously because of His blessed Son who come into
this world to bow our sins in His own body. He gave us grace
and loved us in Christ before the foundation of the world in
view of the cross. In the cross. was an act of sovereign
grace, sovereign love. Men, you and I certainly, certainly
didn't deserve Christ going to that cross for us, did we? We
certainly didn't deserve Him to buy our sins on that cross,
did we? We certainly didn't deserve our
Lord Jesus Christ to hang back naked before the world. Being
ridiculed and cursed for our sins, did we? But God did that. Why? Hearing His love that God sent. Who did He do it for? Us. Us. And let me tell you something
else about grace. Grace is uncaused in the recipient. Grace is uncaused in the recipient.
The grace that is called lies solely in the giver, God Almighty. Look in Ephesians chapter 1. Grace is uncaused in the recipient. I remember years ago, when Steve and Janet remembers this,
I went up there and started preaching the grace of God and the election.
And folks started, they understood that it was a different message. And people would say, he said, I don't believe grace that
way at all. And I said, you know, of course
they believed in going to altar. And they said, I said, well,
what made you to differ? He said, well, when I believed,
And somebody else didn't believe that night because my belief
was stronger than theirs. So God saved me by my faith and
my repentance was more genuine than theirs. So I said, then
it's yourself, your repentance and faith that made you to differ.
And God gave you grace because you repented and you believed.
Yes. A man don't know God that believes
that. No. If God ever gives you grace,
He ain't looking for a reason to give it to you. If He looked
for a reason in you to give it to you, would you ever give it?
He still ain't looking for a cause to give it to us. If He looked for a cause today
in me to give me grace, I wouldn't have any grace at all. Oh bless his holy name. But look
here in Ephesians 1-4. We have verse 3 first. Blessed be the Godfather by Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh we're going to bless him,
we're going to praise him. Why? Because he has blessed us. Oh how he's blessed us. With
all spiritual blessings. in Christ Jesus our Lord in these
heavenly places. Here's the first blessing. According
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Oh! He said, I gave them grace and
chose them because they believed. I chose them because they repented.
I chose them because they were faithful. I chose them because
they decided to join the church. I chose them because they prayed
with the heart. No, I chose them in Christ before
they ever existed. And here's why I did it. That
we should be holy. And then look what else he said.
I ain't going to find no blame in them. I ain't going to find
no blame in them. And oh, listen to this, so that
we would be this way before him in his love. And then he goes on to say, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by himself, by Jesus
Christ to himself. And here's the reason he did
it. According to the good pleasure of his will. Now listen, to the
praise of the glory of His grace, for if He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. So you see, it's uncaused in
the recipient. If we look for a cause in ourselves,
at any time in our lives, for God to give you grace, you'll
never find it. Never find it. And that's what
makes grace so amazing, is because it's free. It's free. It comes from God to men as they
are, and overflows as they are, and super bounds over their sin.
What I read to you there in John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 16,
that of His fullness have we received grace, That's enough. And he says, then
since I gave you grace, I'm going to give you grace because I gave
you grace. I'm going to give you grace for
more grace. You think I gave you grace before?
You just hold on. I'm going to give you some more.
You just wait and I'm going to give you some more. Well, what
about, I'm going to give you some more grace. I don't know
if I'll do this. I don't know if I can handle
this. I'll give you grace. Lord, you know how I said, I'll
give you grace. You don't know what I'm talking
about, I'll give you grace. You don't know how I feel, I'll give
you grace. Grace, for grace, I'm already giving you. Oh, for by grace are you saved. Through faith. And it ain't got
nothing to do with you. It's the gift of God, not of
worship, lest any man should boast. Oh my, let me tell you
something else about grace. Grace is sovereign, that means
it reigns. Over in Romans 4, let me show
you something. Oh listen, that's what I love
about grace. Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace,
grace, sovereign grace, free grace, overflowing grace. When we say grace is sovereign,
God has no debts that He has to pay. He owes no man anything. And look what He said here in
Romans 4.4. Now to Him that works, The reward
or the payment is not reckoned of grace, not counted as grace,
but of debt. Now, if you want to work, but grace is not of debt. Work
is of debt. If you work, every one of y'all,
the jobs that you have, you go on your job, you work your 40
hours, Every two weeks or whatever, you perform a certain work, and
you wait for somebody to reward you. They're going to pay you.
They're going to pay you. It's a debt they owe you. You
give them 40 hours work, they're going to give you. And you get
your check, and you open it up and see how much Uncle Sam took
out. See this, that, and the other. And you say, boy, I didn't
leave any money. But you work for it. You do that
in the world. But don't you come to God with
anything. Don't you come to God and say,
Lord, I done this work, you owe me this. Oh I know God's going
to bless me today. I got up at 4 o'clock this morning,
got down by my bedside and prayed. So I know we're going to have
good service this morning. Oh boy, that's what they say.
I know God's going to save my children because I shed too many
tears for them. I know we're going to have a
wonderful, wonderful time. I read three chapters in the
Bible this week, and God's going to really bless me because I've
done that. There ain't no grace in that. There ain't no grace
in that. You see, there's no conditions
on man's past to wait on. Grace doesn't wait for us to
become worthy or do some act. Grace just comes. And it does
the work. Grace does the work in the heart.
Grace does the work in Christ through the heart. Grace opens
the mind. Grace opens the heart. Grace is what makes a fellow
see and understand what's going on. Now there are some wages
that God's going to pay. You know what their wages are?
The only wages God will pay a man is his wages for sin. The wages of sin is death. You
live without Christ, you die without Christ, God's gonna pay
you your wages. He'll pay you off with eternal
judgment. He'll pay you off and your sins
will be the wages and the weight of them and the eternity of them
and the death of them and the judgment of them and the condemnation
of them will lay on you throughout all eternity. Now God will pay
that debt. He'll pay that debt. But here's
what I love about it. The wages of my sin and his debts
have been paid. Who paid it? God took our iniquities
and laid them on him. He was wounded for our transgressions. Through his stripes we are healed.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him, make his soul an offering
for sin. And God made him to be sin. And when the judge comes, you've
got to pay the uttermost Father, or they'll put you in prison.
Well, the judge comes, and however far he's been paid, and the judge
says, No guilt, no condemnation. When I stand before you, you're
justified. Why? Because Christ bore all. He by Himself put away sin once
and for all in the end of the world. My wages has been paid. The debt's been settled. And
Christ settled it. Huh? In grace, let me tell you
something. Grace can act toward whom it
will, how it will, and where it pleases. Whether it's on the
road to Damascus, whether it's in a church house, whether it's
in a prison, or in a palace, or whether it's up a tree. or
a man getting ready to draw his last breath standing beside our
Lord hanging on a tree beside our Lord Jesus Christ and he
says today thou shalt be with me in paradise grace can work
when you least expect it and it will work that fiend had no
idea when they nailed him to that tree that Christ was going
to take him to paradise that day Zacchaeus didn't have no
idea that Christ was going to save him that day Saul of Tarsus
had no idea that God was going to save him that day that Philippian
jailer had the sword ready to plunge him into his own heart and grace stopped him and saved
him There's a woman sitting down
on the beach one day. Mediterranean Sea, Philippi.
Paul was down there preaching. She started listening at him.
Grace opened her heart like that. There's an Ethiopian eunuch. Stop this. Stop this thing. Why? I see who you're talking about. This lamb, this man, from Isaiah
53. Stop this! Stop it right now!
There's a pool of water right there. What happened between the time
that fella got in that cart with him and he got over there? Grace.
That's what happened. Stop right here! There's enough
water there for me. Now, listen. He didn't get a
cup and say, now bend over and I'll pour it on you. He said,
here's enough water. Water? What do I do with him
immediately? I'll tell you, that's grace. Listen, it can place the
worst deceivers and the worst sinners in the highest place. He took Paul, made him an apostle. He took Mary Magdalene and put
her at his feet. He took that woman at the well, made herself numb. He took that
woman, taking her to adultery. When all was said and done, Jebber
looked up and said, is anybody here to condemn you now? They
come and brought her, said we caught her in the very act. Stoned her, killed her. hard,
cruel-hearted men and women, kill her, kill her, kill her,
kill her. And our Lord said, anybody here without sin, you
pick up that stone. The old white-headed men start
scratching their heads, start to ease away. Some of them young,
say, hey, you young fellows, they stood around and thought
about it for a while. They looked around and said, oh, the old
fellows are gone. They start sneaking out, too. Everybody's gone. But her and the Lord, Ah, we're those unaccusers. Who's accusing your heart? You
know why there ain't no accusation to your heart? Grace. That's why your heart... What? We're those unaccusers. Law? No. See it? No. God's holiness? No. God's justice? No. God's love? No. Oh, you got a lot of sense,
preacher? No, I don't. No, I don't. No, I don't. Why don't you? God said He doesn't
remember me anymore. They're gone. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? Oh my! Listen, grace can bestow
a multitude and save just one. And our Lord went to one person
so many times in the Scriptures. The woman at the well. Jackass,
the eunuch. Or He can save a multitude at
one time. He saved over 3,000 at one time. And let me tell you something
about saving that 3,000. You know what? Every one of those
3,000 was saved individually. 3,000 converted at one time, but every
single one of them was saved individually. He didn't just
save 3,000. Every single one of those people
was like you and I sitting here. God had to work a work of grace
in their heart and reveal Christ to them and save them. Every
single one of them individually. I like it like that. We are saved
individually. We're a body of believers. A body of a church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And there's a multitude here
that's saved this morning. But God saved every one of us
by ourselves. Didn't he? And I'll tell you
what, when those fellas looked at one another, what's wrong
with you? What are you crying about? What's going on with you? Oh,
I just trusted the Lord, and my guilt's gone, my burden's
gone, my heaviness is gone. You know, that just happened
to me too. There's 3,000 of them standing
around me, looking at the fellas standing by, what just happened? Women went home and told their
husbands. Men went home and told their wives. People went home
and told their children. Oh boy. I'm telling you. Grace, and listen. Grace cannot
act where there is ability. If there's any ability, grace
won't act. Will it? Can't act where there's
ability. Grace doesn't help us. Grace is not a thing that we
cooperate with. Grace is absolute. It does all
or it does nothing. It does the work from start to
finish. Ain't that right? The minute you get any ability,
grace gonna shut off just like that. That's why we don't see
anybody converted. Everybody's got power. Everybody's
got ability. Everybody's got a free will. And everybody you know can accept
Him or reject Him whenever they want to. And I tell you, grace cannot
act with air's ability. It can't. It can't. And listen, since there's no
cause in us why God should show grace to us. Let's don't ever try to give
Him a cause for giving us grace. It's just say, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's just do that. And
I tell you, you hear people say all the time, God gave me grace
because. There ain't never a because.
There ain't never a because. There's never a because. If as
ever because, it ceases to be grace. Paul said this, he says,
you know, that Christ has become effect, no effect to you, if you seek to be justified any
other way than by Christ. He said, you're falling from
grace. The minute you add anything to Christ, anything you try to
bring, grace ceases to be grace. to stay quick. In Christ death
ceases to be that quick. Let me go on here in a minute.
Another thing about grace. Grace produces humility. Grace
produces humility. Grace teaches us some things.
The grace of God that brought salvation to us and it brought
it. The grace of God that brought
salvation teaches us some things. And it teaches us this, grace
produces genuine humility. In ourselves, we don't feel it
like it should be. But where God makes us to understand
that we're the objects of His sovereign grace, it humbles us
like we've never been humbled before. And I'll tell you something
else it does, it keeps working in us to keep us that way. And why do I say that? Why is
this such humility? I'll tell you why, because we're
brought to know our absolute unworthiness. We're absolutely
unworthy. David said, who am I and what
is my house? When Peter was on that boat,
he questioned the Lord's word, and then when he did what the
Lord told him, nevertheless, that you weren't all that down
to net, and he seen that he had doubted the Lord's word, and
questioned the Lord's word, and then he said, Oh Lord, depart
from me. I'm such a sinful man. Oh, listen. Were we worth Christ's
coming? Were we worth Christ coming?
Were we worth our Lord Jesus Christ being despised and rejected?
Were we worth of His being treated so horribly? Of His bearing our
sin? Of His blood being shed unto
death? Of His being forsaken of His Father? Were we worthy
of our Lord going through that? Jacob said, I'm not worthy of
the least of thy two diversions. And I tell you what, we're brought,
God brings us to know our complete and absolute inability to become
worthy. He brings us to know our complete
inability to ever have any worthiness in ourselves at all. And yet,
beloved, we find ourselves blessed on another principle outside
of ourselves, and it's grace, grace, grace. Now look with me
in Isaiah 5, just a minute. Look in Isaiah 5, verse 11 with
me, just a minute. I'll say a five. Look in verse
11. Whoa under there. Look down at
verse 18. Whoa under there. Look in verse
22. Whoa under there. Look in verse
20. woe unto them look at verse 21
woe unto them 22 woe unto them that's Isaiah before he saw the
Lord look over at Isaiah chapter 6
he just I mean it was woe on everybody and everything you
just go back on your own time and read those woes that he pronounced
upon people And then he says, in the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord. Standing on a throne, if you
ever see Him, that's where you're going to see Him. High and lifted
up. And His train or His skirts filled
that temple. There was those seraphims, they
were flying with their wings and their eyes covered and their
feet covered, and they began to fly. And one cried while they
was flying around one to another, holy, holy, holy, thrice holy
is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And
the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried,
and the house was filled with smoke, the glory of God. Then
said I, woe is me, woe is me. I don't know why anybody else
has got to go about it, but who is me? Why? I'm undone. I'm undone. Oh, listen, I'm cut off. I'm a man
of unclean lips. And listen, everybody I live
among is just like me. And my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts. Now, what has God left him like
that? It would have been awful, wouldn't it, Rick? Watch what
happens. Then flew one of the seraphims. He had been to the
altar and he had a live coal in his hand. He had taken it
with the tongs from off the altar. Oh, and he laid it on my mouth.
And said, Lo, this fire from the altar, fire is judgment,
fire is what consumed Christ. Fire is what consumed the sacrifices. Christ consumed the fire. And
lo, this has touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thine sin is purged. Oh, bless his name. Well, let me give you another,
and I'll hurry. And talking about grace, Flesh, flesh, flesh, human nature
has no place in the purpose of sovereign grace. They that are
in the flesh cannot please God. Paul asked the question, what
do we owe to this flesh? Was the flesh led us to the Son
of God? Was it the flesh That contributes
to our salvation? Is it the flesh? The flesh is
nothing but a burden to us. And that's why he says cry, and
why shall I cry? I want you to say something.
But what do you want me to say? I want you to say, Oh flesh!
All flesh is like the grass. Out here in the grass. Just go
out and look at the grass. What's that grass worth? All
flesh is grass. It's like a flower and it withered
away and then it's gone. And then he said, but I'll tell
you what I want to tell them after you tell them that. When
they understand all flesh is grass and all the glory of men,
and it just fades away, he said, I'll tell you what I want you
to do, and you cry out this, Behold your God. Oh yes, I'm flesh. I'm grass
and I'm withering. Oh, we wither, we wither, we
wither, we wither, we wither. Perishing, perishing, perishing,
perishing, our glory's fading, fading, fading fast. Did you
ever think you'd be in the condition you are physically, Bruce? Fading,
that's it, glory fading away. This body, I tell you, when we're
young, we're full of life and vigor, and then we start dying,
starts taking its toll on us. We start withering away. And
we know that and yet God says look, look, look, look, forget
that, forget it, I tell you the only hope you got, behold your
God. So I ain't looking at this anymore,
I'm looking at that. I'm not only looking for myself
but for her and for you. Behold your God. What else we
gonna look at? That's why a natural man, no
matter how religious, he hates grace. Because grace leaves you
no room for boasting. It will not let you make any
contribution whatsoever. And that's why we rejoice in
God's grace, because we know that in us dwells no good thing. In our flesh dwells no good thing.
Yet God loves me, blesses me, and keeps me. How? by grace exactly
as I am. And this grace was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world ever began. How are you saved? Somebody asks you. Grace. How
do you stand? In grace. How do you live? By grace. How are you going to
enter into glory? By grace. for sin abounded. Grace did not
support that. Amen. Oh, Father, Father, Father, in
the blessed name of our Lord Jesus, Thank you for the day. Thank you for the abundance of
grace and mercy you've shown today. Oh, your mercies are so
free and so tender. Thank you for your great patience
and long-suffering with me. Thank you for the children of
God. Thank you for your grace that you gave us in Christ before
the world ever began. Lord, we can go through the day
because of grace in your love and care for us, your sustaining
grace. You're the God of all grace,
and thank you for it. Oh, bless you for it. We thank you in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's turn to 236. Everybody
knows this song. Y'all ought to know it without
even opening the song book. Just stand together. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, I once was lost but now am found
Was blind but now I see Was grace that found my heart How precious, how precious. How precious to me. How precious to me. This is how
I first believed. Oh, you're more than you come.
That'll be good. Oh, thank you. All is calm All is bright Well, the Lord bless you.