to the measure of his gifts,
and he ascended on high. The only way that anything is
made to be sinful is for us to make it sinful. Everything is
lawful, everything is good, and everything ought to be received
with joy and richly to be used richly. But here is a God who
gives to us and does not require anything from us. For instance,
God demanded satisfaction for his broken law, the soulless
sin, if it shall die. Well, he provided satisfaction
to himself. It pleased the Lord. It satisfied
the Lord to bruise him. God saw the travail of his soul
and was satisfied. You know, we can never satisfy
God. Nothing we could ever do could satisfy God. He requires
a righteousness of his own. God demands righteousness, and
righteousness means to be right in every single way. Not only
in what you say, not only in what you think, in what you do,
and what you don't do. It's not enough to do everything
that's right, but it's also right that you do everything that's
not wrong. And here we go, we got righteousness,
and God's righteousness, He will not settle for any righteousness
less than His own. Well, He requires us to be righteous.
Well, He gives us a righteousness. He made Christ to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. When Abraham took Isaac up the
mountain, and Isaac said, Father, we got wood, we got fire, we
got a knife, but where in the world is the lamb? Where is the
sacrifice? Abraham just told him, says,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb. And he did. And he provided
a lamb, first and foremost, to do something for himself, to
satisfy himself. And that's what people don't
understand, that God must do something for himself before
he can ever do anything for us. And that's what God did in his
blessed son. And I want to talk about some
of the blessed, glorious gifts that God gives us, His people. Now, He doesn't give them to
everybody. He only gives them to His people. And He's a coveted
God, and He gives all these gifts through His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. First of all, the first gift
that He gave, does anybody know what it would be? The very first
gift of His own Son. The gift of His Son. Look at
Romans 9 with me just a moment. Not Romans 9, excuse me, Isaiah
9. Isaiah 9. James, you've quoted
this a lot here lately. Isaiah 9, 6. You know, the gift
of His Son. When it says that God so loved
that He gave. That so loved means that He loved
after this manner. He loved in this way. He loved
to such an extent. And he loved sinners. He loved
righteousness. He loved holiness. And he loved
sinners. And he loved the people that
he gave to his son in this manner, in such an extent, in such a
wondrous way that he gave. His only begotten Son gave him. What did he give him for? Gave
him first and foremost to satisfy himself. Well, look here in Isaiah
9.6. For unto us a child is born, A child born in Bethlehem, a
child born of a virgin, a child born, beloved, poor, a child
born in poverty, a child, beloved, just a baby, just like everybody
else's that had to grow up. But listen here, unto us a son
is given. The child was born, but the son
was given. And the Son was given before
the world ever began to be the surety for His people. The Son
was given in the eternal covenant of grace, given to satisfy God. And watch this, the government
should be up on His shoulders. The government of what? The government
of God's purpose. The government of God's will.
The government of this world. The government of His people.
Who's going to govern us? Who would keep us in control?
Who would keep us from being rebels all the days of our life?
Who would govern us and provide for us and meet government's
folks? Ain't that what government does, folks take care of? Well,
our Savior does take care of us. And His name should be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. So you see, beloved,
what greater gift can God give? What greater sacrifice can the
father give than his own son? Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us. And how did he prove this love?
How did he manifest this love? How did he show this love? He
sent his own son. who was in His bosom, who was
daily His delight, who He rejoiced in, who was with Him when He
made the worlds, who was with Him when the stars were put in
the skies, who was with Him when the moon ever gave out its light,
who was with Him when He put the sun up there to hang in space. He was with Him there, and He
was in the bosom of the Father, and He was in love to the Father,
and He loved the Father, and He was unbosomed to the Father. And oh, here is love, not that
we love Him, but that He loved us and sent, sent His Son to
be what? The atoning victim, the perpetuation
for our sins. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
gift of God, and don't ever forget that. People think that God owes
Christ to us. No, no, no. I tell you what,
when Adam sinned, God could have said, I'll turn my back on this
world and I'll let every one of his descendants grow up to
be just like him, dead in sin to be rebels and end up being
devils. I'll just leave them alone. I'll
ignore them and I'll go someplace else and create another world
and I'll create a perfect race. But that's not what he did. Oh my, God does not owe anybody
anything and the only reason we have Christ is because God
was willing to give Him. The only reason we have Christ
was Christ was willing to be given. So if you have Christ,
God gave Him to you. God gave Him for you. God gave
Him for me. God did not have to do that.
It was born in His heart to do it. And it was born in Christ's
heart to be that gift. And oh, beloved, I'll tell you,
that's not like this. God's not like this. He said,
here's Christ. If you want Him, come up here and get Him. That's
what preacher Deuce says, like if I offer you this watch, all
you got to do to get it is just come up here and get it. If you
want Christ, that's all you got to do is come and get Him. That's
not true. That's a lie that has to run
out of the pits of hell. If you ever have Christ, God
will give Him to you. If you ever have Christ, Christ
will give Himself to you. Now, God gave Him, and He has
come, and He gave Himself. And we'll get into how you get
it here in a while. But all my gift Christ has given,
beloved, and I tell you, all other gifts because of our Lord
Jesus Christ, all other gifts and all blessings come through
Him, by Him, and because of Him. Look over in Romans 8.32 with
me just a moment. Romans 8.32. You know, people
take take Christ and salvation and God-given Christ so for granted,
and so, you know, it's just ho-hum. But
we understand what it was for God to give the Son of His love.
That's why He calls Himself the Son of His love. He was the Son
of His love. Do you know how grievous it is
for you to lose a child? Some of you have lost children.
And you know you're hurt, you're hurt deep. And you wouldn't have
gave Him up for nothing in this world. You would have died long
before we ever gave up a child. And here's God who loves, knows
more about love than the whole human race put together. And
His Son, that He loved His Son so much, and yet here's what
He done in this great love wherewith He loved us that He gave His
own Son. And the fact that the Son in
all life, for us ever to take that, this whole hum about that
gift. Look here in Romans 8.32. That's
what I'm talking about. The Lord Jesus Christ, the gift
of God, is the guarantee of all other gifts that we'll have from
the Father. It says in Romans 8.32, He that spared not his
own son. We've heard that old saying,
spare the rod and spoil the child. Well, here God did not spare
his own son. Everything that was required
for that son to suffer in order to save us, God did not spare
him. Did not spare him hatred. Did
not spare him rejection. Did not spare him punishment.
Did not spare him being made sin. Did not spare his ridicule. Did not spare him from poverty.
Did not spare his own son, but delivered him up. Here he is,
first home. Now watch this. How shall he
not with him also freely? With him also freely. Give us what? Always. Let me tell you a little bit
about where he gave us his blessings, son. Here's another gift of God.
Talking about the gift of God. Christ gave us the gift of his
Spirit. When our Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, He didn't come empty-handed. He came with gifts. He came with lots of gifts. And
who He gave, He gave the gift of His Holy Spirit. And you know,
He gave His own persons. And when He gave His persons,
His benefits, and everything that goes with Him, they're not
divided. He don't say, well, here's a part of a gift, and
here's another gift, and here's another gift, and you can have
this gift. By our Lord Jesus Christ, when you get Him, you
get everything that goes with Him. Everything that goes with
Him from eternity, everything that goes with Him in time, and
everything that goes with Him in eternity future. We get Him.
If you get Him, as in the greatest gift that Christ gave to us,
is by Him, is the Holy Spirit. He said, you know, He told His
disciples, He said, I'm going away. Oh, Master, where are you
going? I'm going back to my father.
I'll no longer be in this world. You won't see me anymore. And
they said, Oh, my. He said, But you know what? I'm
not going to leave you comfortless. You've had my comfort. You've
had my presence. You've leaned on my breast. You've
sat at my feet. You've ate at my table. You've
ate what I've provided for you. You've been used of me." He said,
I'm going away, but I'll not leave you comfortless. I'll not
leave you, and that word comfortless means as orphans. Mothers and
fathers may forsake you, but the Lord Jesus said, I'll take
you up. And He said, I'll not leave you comfortless. And beloved,
He said, I'll send the Holy Spirit, and when He's come, when He has
come, He shall lead you, He shall guide you, and He shall teach
you. And what's he going to teach you? He shall take the things
of mine, and shall show them unto you." Oh, beloved, you know
who the Holy Spirit's the one that regenerates us, the new
birth is by the Holy Spirit. He's the one who teaches us,
and He fills us. You know our Lord Jesus, One
of the greatest things, you know what the Holy Spirit is and what
He is, and He's a person. He takes the place of Christ
in this world for us, in teaching us. Where He taught His disciples,
the Holy Spirit now teaches us. Where He gave life, He says,
the word that I speak unto you, there's spirit in the life, He's
the one that gives us life now. The Holy Spirit does. And I want
you to look with me here in Romans 8, verse 9. We're talking about
the Spirit. People think when the Holy Spirit
comes, you'll come in such a way that you know you'll just start
speaking in tongues, get wild-eyed and dance in the aisles and all
that. But no, the Holy Spirit comes. He comes to the mind. He comes to the heart. He comes
to the understanding. He takes the things of Christ
and He teaches you. You can't be learning something
when you're jumping around all over the place and clapping your
hands. wallowing in the floor and speaking in a language that
nobody understands, you can't learn nothing like that. Be still. Look at Romans 8 and 9. It says
this, but you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. What does
that mean? That means, beloved, God don't view us in the flesh.
Christ not in the flesh, we're not in the flesh. If so, be it
that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Oh my, now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, what does that mean? That means
you don't belong to Christ. Spirit of Christ. And I'll look down
there in verse 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. What does that mean? Where
does the Holy Spirit lead you to? He leads you away from self
and leads you to Christ. Leads you away from the law and
leads you to Christ. Leads you away from self-righteousness
and leads you to the righteousness of Christ. Leads you away from
yourself. And that's why he says we've
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we've received
the spirit of adoption. And we cry, I have a Father.
And the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that
we're the children of God. How do you know you're a child
of God? The Holy Spirit bears witness to it. And I want to
show you one other thing about the Holy Spirit coming to us.
Over here in Galatians 3.13. And every blessing we receive,
we receive. You know, we pray through the
Holy Spirit. Paul said, I would rather pray with understanding.
And we need the Holy Spirit. You know, I need the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit's the one that comes and enables us to preach,
to see, to hear, to understand, to grasp. He's the one who quickens
us, gives us life. If you have life from Christ,
if you have understanding, it's the Holy Spirit that comes and
quickens you being born again, not by flesh and blood, but being
born again by the Spirit and by the water, by the Spirit of
God and the Word. But look here in Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. being made a curse for it, for
it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Now
watch this. Here's why Christ redeemed us. This is why He's
made a curse for us. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles, how? Through Jesus Christ. Well, what
is this blessing? That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. That the Holy Spirit would come
As we sit and hear the gospel, as we sit and hear Christ preach,
the Holy Spirit comes, and as faith comes to us, the Holy Spirit
comes and gives us that faith and takes His abode in us. Takes
His place in us. And you know, that's what Peter
said to them. They said, oh man, when he was
preaching there, and they said, all these fellows are drunk.
Peter says, no, no, no. He says, this is that promise.
Acts 2.33 says, this is that promise that the Lord Jesus gave
us before He ascended. This is that promise of the Holy
Spirit that He promised that He should send. And that's what
He talks about. He said, I'll not leave you comforted.
And the Holy Spirit came. And oh, He quickened all those
people, saved all those people on that day. Let me show you
Romans 6.23. Let me show you another gift.
Romans 6.23. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh,
the gift of God. Precious, blessed life. Oh, thank
God for Christ. Thank God for Him coming. Romans
6.23. For the wages of sin is death. But watch this. But the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Here we
have the gift of life. First of all, we have death and
we have life. And what about death? Death is
just the wages of our sin. Because of sin, we earn death.
Because of sin, we earn spiritual death. Because of sin, we earn
physical death. Because of sin, the wages of
our sin will be eternal death if God doesn't give us the gift
of life. And here is death and here is
life. One, we earn it. The other is given to us. One,
we deserve it. It's the wages of our sin, which
is death. The other is eternal life. And it's a gift. The other,
death comes through Adam. Life comes through Christ. And
this gift of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this gift
of life is given to us without any consideration of something
in us or in its recipients. You know, this life is given
by grace. Grace. Sustained by grace. You know, when God told Ezekiel,
carry down that valley of dry bones, bones scattered everywhere,
bleached out bones, a great valley of bones, dead, dry bones. I got a bone yard at my place,
way back over the corner. You go back over there and there's
been, I don't know how many cows I hauled over there, horse I
called over there. Bone yard. This is a bone yard. Can these
bones live? Lord, thou knowest. Thou knowest. He says, son of
man, speak to him. Go down and talk to a bunch of
bones. If you saw me up there in my
boneyard standing there preaching to a bunch of bones, you'd say,
Lonnie Brown is a bonkers man. We're going to put him in the
nervous hospital. But he said, can these bones
live? Oh, Lord, you know, I said, speak
to them. Tell bone to come to bone. And oh, there's a great
rattling bone come to bone. And then there's just nothing
but skeletons still. He said, tell flesh, speak to them the
flesh to come on them, flesh to come on them. And he says,
now, servant of man, speak to the wind and the spirit will
come, and the spirit comes and put life in them. Now what did
those bones do to get that life? Huh? That's how much you've done
to get life from Christ. God made them old rattly bones
come together, put a flash on you, put a spirit in you, and
gave you life. He saw you like that infant cast
out in your blood, in your pollution, and He passed by and says, the
time of life is now the time of love. And He said unto me,
I say, live. Yeah, I say unto thee, live.
And oh, beloved, that's what it is. That's what life is. Christ
comes and gives it to you. You're dead and He gives you
life. You're lost and He finds you. I read it to you there a
minute ago. He gave us the measure of grace
by gift. We're dead. Christ gives us life. We're deaf. He gives us hearing.
We're blind. He gives us sight. We're sick.
He's the physician. We're lepers and He cleanses
us. We're cripples and He makes us walk. Everything about us
is wrong and He takes and does everything and gives us life
in that condition. Eternal life is free, not only
unmerited by us, but we didn't ask for it. Our Lord said, it
was found in them that sought me not. Them both wasn't looking for
God or life. They didn't even know they was
dead. That baby wasn't looking for life. Christ found him. We
wasn't looking for God. God found us. Gave life to us. And in giving this eternal life,
the recipient is passive. Passive. That's what everybody
wants to do. They want to do something to
be born again. They want to do something so
God will do something for them. Beloved, how much did you have
to do with your first life? Nothing. And that's the way it
is in life. Christ comes and gives us life. Oh, the recipient is passive.
The recipient doesn't act, but He's acting upon them. He's brought
from death to life. And it's a spiritual life. It's
a life that never existed before. How about everybody here knows
what it is to have spiritual life. It's a life you never had
before. We talked about God, but we didn't
know God. Now we know God. And oh, it's a spiritual life
now. It's a life. of glory hereafter. And I'll
tell you what it is. This life is the life of Christ
in you. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. It's the very life of God. We're
made partakers of the divine nature. It's God talking to God
when you pray. It's Christ talking to Christ
when you pray. It's God in you responding to
God from the Scriptures. It's Christ in you responding
to Christ in the Scriptures. It's the Spirit of God in you
responding to the Spirit that's in the Scriptures. Is that not
right? How come that is? Because it's time that you didn't
have a clue what was going on. Oh, beloved, oh, what a blessing
God gives His elect. What a blessing, the blessing
of life. And not only is it eternal, it's
the quality of it. Oh, it's a blessing because the
Lord Jesus, He says, oh, this is eternal life that they might
know thee, the only true God. We knew God. But we didn't know
the true God. Now we know the true God. And
we knew about Jesus Christ, but now we know Jesus Christ. He's
the reality to you. And let me show you another gift,
Frank, quick. Over in 1 John 5. 1 John 5. Let me show you. It's the gift that the Lord gives
us life, then He gives us the gift of spiritual understanding. Boy, I'd love to see some bones
rattled today. Oh, look here, 1 John 5.20. Oh, and we know that the Son
of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we
may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true. Even
in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life.
He comes to give us the gift. He says we know that He has come
and given us an understanding. That means that there was a time
you didn't have an understanding. I read it over there in Ephesians
2. It says you know that their understanding was darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was
in them. Well, God takes away this ignorance. What's communicated
to the saint when he's born again is completely and entirely spiritual. And oh beloved, only then is
he able to have, only then is he able to learn, only then is
he able to get an understanding and have a spiritual knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was a time, beloved, that
our understanding was darkened, and God comes and turns on the
light, and He starts giving us an understanding of spiritual
things, an understanding of Christ, an understanding of ourselves,
an understanding of the Scriptures, an understanding of who Jesus
Christ is, an understanding of what He really did when He was
in this world. We always had an understanding,
but we couldn't understand spiritual things. Let me show you that.
Look over here in 1 Corinthians. We always had an understanding.
I mean, nobody here is just... You know, we have an understanding.
We were born with an understanding. We understood, stay out of the
fire. Not everybody did, but most of us did. You know, get
in out of the rain. You know, say, that fellow ain't
got no sense getting out. Well, no, most of us, we have enough
understanding to do that. And we was born with an understanding.
but not a spiritual understanding. We understood that there had
to be something from this world. It didn't begin by itself. We
always had an understanding, but we couldn't have understood
spiritual things. Look what he says here in 1 Corinthians
2.9. But as it is written, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
But wait a minute. Just don't stop there. That God
hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. That's entered into
my ear. I've seen it with my own eye.
And it's entered into my heart what God gave me in Christ. Huh? How did I know this? Where did
I find this that God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit? Now watch this. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. The Spirit
went into the purpose of God, went into the will of God, went
into Christ and His sacrifice and His substitution and everything
He did for His people. The covenant. Adam's dad, all
these things, he searched these things, the deep things. For
what know the things of a man save the spirit of man which
is in him? And what that means is that I don't know what you're
thinking right now. I do not know what you're thinking. People
look at you and say, I know what you're thinking. No. You know, people have told me
that before. I know what you're thinking. No, they don't have
a clue what you're thinking. I don't have a clue what you're
thinking. Only you know what you're thinking. Only you know
the Spirit and you know what's going on within you right now.
What you're thinking, where your thoughts are, where your hearts
are, where you're understood. You know right now, you know
you may be doing something next week in your mind right now.
And I would not have a clue that you're doing that. You may be cooking supper this
evening in your mind. I don't have no worry. And watch what this else says.
Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
We don't have a clue what God's will is, what God's purpose is,
who Christ is, what God prepared for us, what God's given to us,
until what? Until the Holy Spirit reveals
it to us. You know the mind of God, the will of God, the purpose
of God, the Spirit of God? When the Holy Spirit does. God,
if He keeps it to Himself, we won't know a thing. We'll be
religious. We'll go to church. Mary sent
me a little old thing yesterday, says, you know, going to church
don't make you, sitting in church don't make you a Christian no
more than standing in a garage makes you a connoisseur. That's true. But, oh, listen,
go on now. Now, we have not received the
Spirit of the Word. Now the spirit of the world is that spirit that
we're born with, the spirit of natural understanding. That we've
received the spirit which is of God. Now watch this, that
we might know the things that are, watch this, freely given
to us of God. Oh my. Do you have any understanding
at all today about the things of God, the things of Christ?
The things of the Scriptures? There was a time when we was
ignorant to the Scriptures. And this understanding that's
been given to us is by our Lord's coming. You see, beloved, God
gives us such understanding that makes the Lord Jesus Christ a
living reality to us. I mean, He's a living reality. He is as real to me as this pulpit
is right here. And to you? He's as real to me
as if He was present right here in front of me. And He's as real
that way to you. We now understand that He's above
all, through all and in all. We understand that He's perfectly
suited for us. I'm sick, He's the physician. I'm ignorant, I get my understanding
from Him. I'm weak, He's my strength. I'm
naked, He's my clothing. I'm empty, He's the one that
fills me. I need forgiveness, who else can forgive me? I need
washing? It's His blood that cleanses
me. I'm stupid? He's my understanding. And He's
my wisdom. And, oh, beloved, I'll tell you
something else about it. The more we know and understand,
you know what it does? It fires up our affections. It
makes our sanctifies our will, our fire. We say, Our, O Lord,
not our will, but Thine, be done. Raises up our mind and said,
Oh Lord, let it be fixed on you. And that's a supernatural act.
That's a supernatural gift that God gives you. Our Lord Jesus,
you know, He says, Father, I thank you that you've hid these things
from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. Why? Because it even so has seemed
good in your sight. Let me give you another one real
quick. Let me give you another one. Over in Ephesians 2. Yes. Yes. Now, if a Pentecostal was preaching
to you this morning, he'd be having you, he'd be waving flags
and handkerchiefs and everything, trying to get you stirred up.
But oh, the gift of faith. Oh, Ephesians 2.8. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast." So he gives us this gift of faith.
Now listen to me now. The salvation of God that Christ
worked out, that Christ provided, that God gave Christ to be, does
not actually become ours until we believe and rest on Him and
make Christ and receive Christ for ourselves. You know. God's got, that's why,
you know, I preach Christ. I've sent Christ before you.
But you can't say Christ is mine until you believe Him. Is that
not right? You can't say that I have Christ,
and I have faith, and I know what He did, until you say, I
believe Him. I believe everything you've told
me about Him. I believe what God said about Him. I believe
the record that God gave of His Son. That's what faith does.
Faith, beloved, you see, we can't see without sight, and you can't
see without light. And neither can we believe until
life and faith are given unto us. Now, man can't see until
God gives him sight. Man can't see until God gives
him life. And we can't believe until life
and faith are given unto us. Man won't believe until he has
life. And when God gives you life, you can't do nothing but
believe. And once you ever believe, you'll
always believe. And oh, beloved, just like God
must give us breath before I can breathe. Have y'all ever had
any problem breathing where you know it's hard to get a breath?
Well, you imagine what God does to you if He cuts your breath
off. I mean, you know, when it's gone, you're gone. And that's
why God must give us breath before we can breathe. So faith has
to come before I can believe. And that's what the Scripture
says. Faith is given by Him. Given by Him. And, oh, beloved,
I tell you, faith—people say, well, I certainly hope I believe. Well, why don't you believe? Why in the world don't you believe?
Why don't you trust Christ? Is He not worthy of trust? Does
He not have the power to save you, to keep you? Did He not
give to God everything that you required? Why don't you trust
Him? Why don't you say right now in
your heart, in your soul, in your mind? God give you faith. Say, Lord, give me... I believe. I believe everything that preacher
said. I believe what the Bible says. He shows me from the Scriptures.
I believe. Father, I believe. I want Your
Son. I need Your Son. And I want Your
Son. I want what He did. I want what He did and I want
Him for myself. I want Him for me. I need Him
for me. Do that. Just do it. Oh God, oh this gift
of faith. Let me show you another real
quick, Acts 17.30. Acts 17.30. You know, people say, well, you
know, aren't you supposed to have some kind of feeling, some
kind of experience? Man, if I went by my feelings,
I wouldn't even have come today. I would not have been here today
if I went by my own feelings. And some of you wouldn't either,
if you went by your own feelings, your own strength. But faith impels me to come,
compels me to come. And that's what faith does, you
know. But, you know, don't look for a feeling. You know, just
believe. That's what they said. They cried
out when Peter was preaching to them. They said, men and brethren,
what must we do? Peter says, repent! And believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And that's
my next gift. Look here at Acts 17.30. And the times of this ignorance
now God winked at, and now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. What is repentance? Repentance
is a change of mind. And what a change of mind it
is. It changes you. You have repentance if you change
your mind, first of all, about sin. Sin quits being sins and
becomes sin. Sin quits being something you
do. It becomes something you are.
You change your mind about sin. You repent about your rebellion
against God. Your mind against God has changed
dramatically. Oh, I want to bow to Him. I don't
want to rebel against Him. I want to submit to Him. Man
was so under submitted of sin and so blinded by sin. Now, I
tell you, there must be a miracle of grace before he will repent.
A miracle of grace. Where do men get a broken heart
and a contrite spirit? Where does that come from? Only the Holy Spirit can give
a soul a sight of sin and cause a man to loathe his sin, loathe
himself, and a will to turn against him. And, oh, beloved, repentance
is a change of mind about God, a change of mind about your own
understanding. You meet people all the time
and say, oh, I know, and you know, try to talk to them about
the Scriptures, try to talk to them about, oh, I know, I know,
I know, I know. I'll tell you one thing you'll
know whenever you do know something. You'll say, I don't know nothing. That's one thing whenever God...
you know that's what scriptures mean, whenever mouth will be
stopped, that's what God does. He shuts you up. You say, I used
to know everything. Now I don't know nothing. Lord,
I want to learn something. And all faith and repentance
are the first evidence of spiritual life. You know, whenever you
start believing what you're hearing, and your mind starts changing
about yourself, and about sin, and about God, and about Christ,
and about the scriptures, and you start turning against yourself,
and you start turning toward God. And you start believing
what's being said. Now, faith and repentance are
the first evidence of spiritual life when you start believing
and you start changing. That's what conversion is. You know, your conversion is
you turning from yourself to God. You're turning from your
own understanding to Christ's understanding. You're turning
from your own strength to Christ's strength. And so, you know, and
faith and repentance are first evidence, and it's brought about
by Holy Ghost conviction. The scripture says that Christ
was exalted a prince to give repentance unto Israel. And they
told Peter, says, why in the world are you over there preaching
to those Gentiles over there? You know Gentiles, you know you're
not supposed to. He says, God granted repentance, did repentance,
granted repentance unto the Gentiles. Now how can I know if I believed
and repented? How can I know if I believed
and I repented? I'll tell you how you can know.
You're always believing. You can't help but believe. Once
you have believed, you can't help but believe. And once you've
repented, you can't help but repent. You're constantly repenting. And, oh, my Lord, forgive me
for letting my mind wander. That's repentance. Forgive me of what I just said.
Forgive me of what I just believed. Forgive me of letting that thought
go through my mind. Where'd that come from? Always
believing and repentant. Both are states of being. Living
principles. Living principles in the heart.
I'm going to give you one more and then I'm done. 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. I love what Todd Margaret says.
You just can't help not believe. Once you believe, you can't help
not believe. Just not believe if you can. You cannot not believe
what you believe, can you? What in the world happens so
dramatically in a man's heart that once he believes, he can't
stop it? It is the gift of grace. Look
there in verse 4, 1 Corinthians 1, 4. I thank my God always on
your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus
Christ, that in everything you are enriched by Him in all utterance
and in all knowledge. What that means is that grace
is given to us by Christ and that by Him we are enriched.
We are made wealthy by that grace given us in Christ. Grace here
is used as all-inclusive, everything that Christ gives us, everything
that Christ is, everything that includes grace, that grace brings
with it. It includes, when grace comes,
it brings all of our Lord's merits. It brings all the benefits that
we get with Christ. It brings all the promises of
Christ. It brings God's guarantee of
keeping us in His providence, temporally and eternally. It
includes life, it includes sanctification, it includes preservation. And
every grace of the new nature, faith and hope and love, all
that's given when Christ gives us grace. And whatever grace
we have to endure trials, Christ gives it to us. Whatever grace
we have to resist the devil, Christ gives it to us. Whatever
faith we have to overcome the world, Christ gives it to us.
Whatever obedience, devotion, or sacrifice we make is of grace. Ain't that right? You know what
David said? He said, For all things come
of thee, And we're just giving back what you give to us. You
gave us grace and we're going to thank you for that grace.
Everything we got comes from you. What have you got that you
didn't receive? What have you got?