I had a professor friend once
who was a very eloquent man. His diction was perfect. And
he had never been to the South. And he was up from upper New
York State. He took a little trip down to below Atlanta, which
is where I came from, southwest Georgia. And he came back, one
of his graduate students, asking if he learned anything. He was
a very learned man, well-read, could discuss practically any
subject. He said, yeah, I learned some
new terminology. New terminology. He said, I did
learn some things. And I said, what was it? I just
kept bugging him. What was it that you learned? What was the,
he said, well, it was just a saying. I said, what was it? He said, it was a, I know that's
right. We have different ways of expressing
ourselves. And it all means about the same. And I think that's what we have
here. We have here a situation in which
we are able to accept people as they are. And that's really
what I've always, I mean, I came from Southwest Georgia, and there
were lots of problems in Southwest Georgia, and I never could understand
it. And I never took part in it. I'm thankful for that. And
that was before I knew the Lord. And I want to ask all of you
to pray for us in Franklin. And we're looking forward to
having the men of grace and Pastor Clark and Pam, the rest of you
down there to see us. And I want to add my voice to
his. I know it's been a long evening, but I want to thank
all of you for being such gracious hosts. It's an honor to have
been invited to participate. I speak for Lynn and myself and
for the entire congregation of Grace Church in Franklin. And
I thank all of you. The food has been wonderful.
The service has just been excellent. And the fellowship has just been
really, really edifying, really good. And that's the way it should
be all the time. And I do agree that there's a
unique work here. And, you know, my attitude is,
Lord, if you're not going to start something in Franklin,
start it up here in Pontiac. I want him to be glorified. So
I want you to pray for us, remember us before the Lord as we shall
do. Now what I'm going to do, you've been seated a while, I'm
going to let you stand while we read the scripture, okay?
And I'm going to use two or three texts, but just as a springboard,
we'll look at the New Testament book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3. In my subject
this week, even, even, and you guys did a great job on putting
that rap song together so quickly about Pastor Clark. When I got
to the motel room, Lynn showed me a paragraph or two that she
had written on us, and she said, I want to, she said, that rapping
so impressed me. She said, I want to write a song
that can be rapped about Pastor Kent Clark. And so she gave that
to Wayne, and boy, they did a great job on it. That was great. Fantastic. 2
Timothy chapter 3, and the subject tonight, all this week we hear
the name of this place is Grace Centers of Hope. And our church
is Grace Church at Franklin. We believe in the grace of God.
We're in Franklin, Tennessee, and we're a church. We are the
part of the ecclesia, the called-out ones. That's what the word church
means. And Justin back here has worshiped
with us. We want to be praying for him.
He's going into the military. We've known others of you who
were here. So tonight I'm going to speak
to you on the subject concerning the grace of God. 2 Timothy chapter
3, verse 1. This know also that in the last
days perilous times shall come, as dangerous times shall come.
Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters,
proud. blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false
accusers, incontinent, which means no self-control, fierce,
despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded,
Lovers of pleasure is more than lovers of God. But watch this,
in all of that, they're religious, having a form of godliness. But
in their lives, in their professions, they deny the power thereof. From such, turn away. Notice verse seven, ever learning,
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. I sang a little
song earlier in the week based on this text. May the Lord add
his blessings to the reading of his word and let God's people
say praise the Lord. You may be seated. I have three
points that I'm going to make for you tonight. I'm going to
tell you what they are. I was told years ago that you should
tell people what you're going to preach, and then you should
tell them, and then you should tell them what you told them.
So I'm going to have three points tonight. Grace needed, grace
opened, and the benefits of grace. Now, to illustrate the need of
grace, I need go no further than the very first book of the Bible
that Brother Frank Wright spoke to us twice from this week. When
we look at Adam, we know that when God Almighty put Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden, it was a perfect situation. We know
that he came there. Some people believe the Lord
lived there, but the Scripture says, when Adam heard the voice
of the Lord, it is God walking in the garden of the cool of
the day. So let's say this is the first family. There's a daughter,
there's a son, and there's a father. And God is the father. Perfect
family. Perfect fellowship. No envy, no jealousy between
anybody. No fighting between the man and
the woman about who's going to be the head, who's going to do
this. It was all a spirit of grace. It was a spirit of love. It was a spirit of perfection
and innocence. But when Adam disobeyed the Lord,
he fell out of fellowship with the Lord and fell into fear of
the Lord. The Scripture says when he heard
the Lord coming, just like you would look forward or anticipate
a visit from your father or your mother. The Lord came every day
in fellowship with his son and his daughter. But after Adam
disobeyed, you know, I taught you last year that the essence
of all sin is called deicide, deicidal. Homicide is when one
person kills another person. Suicide is when a person kills
himself. Genocide is when a person kills
a certain group of people. Deicide is the murder of God. And if you want to know why sin
is so bad, it's because the essence of sin is deicide. You see, only one sovereign can
sit on the throne. In order for me to have my way
and do my thing, God must be dead. And so when Adam attempted
to be independent of the Lord rather than dependent upon Him.
He attempted to shove God off of the throne and sit there Himself. Now a God who is dethroned is
as good as dead. All sin is deicidal in nature. That's why it's so bad because
all sin aims at the murder of God. Remember what the Lord Jesus
Christ said? about Lucifer when he was talking
to the Jews. And he said, they said, our father
is God. And he said, well, if God were
your father, you'd love me. They said, well, our father is
Abraham. He said, well, you don't act like Abraham. He said, Abraham
saw my day. He was glad. He said, you're
seeking to kill me. They kept saying Abraham was
their father, God was their father. And finally, he said, you are
of your father the devil. That's John chapter 8, verse
44. And the lust of your father you will do. Translation, you
act like your daddy. Like father, like son. And the
lust of your father you will do. Listen now. He was a murderer
from the beginning. And he abhors not any truth.
What is meant by that? Satan was the original sinner.
He was the original one individual who tried to push God off the
throne and be the God of God. See, that's what it's about.
When people talk about free will, the issue is not free will. The
issue is sovereign will. The issue is, I want to be free
to do anything I want to do, when I want to do, like I want
it, and I don't want to hear nothing from no God talking about
telling me what to do and what He's going to do to me if I don't
listen to Him. I don't want any of that. So all sin is deicidal. Remember that. That's what makes
it so bad, because it aims at the overthrow of God, and a God
who can be overthrown is as good as dead. So Adam went from fellowshipping
with his Heavenly Father to fearing his Heavenly Father. He went
from being totally God-conscious to self-conscious. He went from
no shame, a state of innocence, to shame and guilt. He went from
loving his wonderful wife, Eve, to the woman you gave me. She
gave me of the tree. And I did eat. He blamed the
woman, and then ultimately he blamed the Lord. If you had given
me to her, you and I would have been just fine. He said, you
messed up. You gave me her, and then she
gave me of the fruit. And we've been passing the buck
ever since. That's our problem. We won't take the blame. Psychiatrists
today tell you to blame it on your mother, blame it on your
grandmother, blame it on somebody else, blame it on the way you
grew up. And I know all of these things in practice. I didn't
have a perfect upbringing either. And it may shock you. I've been
to jail, too, not once but twice. I wasn't born in the ministry. Somebody asked Brother Barnard
one time. Brother Barnard, tell me about this salvation you're
talking about. He said, are you a Christian? She said, I've been
a Christian all my life. He said, that's just a little
too long. He is a little too long. Nobody's a Christian all
their life. So you see what sin did is it separated, it created
a death. And I taught you back Sunday
morning that the word death, the etymological Meaning of death,
when you trace it back, you find that what death means is to separate. When a person dies, they are
separated from their body. They are separated from this
world. They're separated from friends and family. And spiritual
death means to be separated from God. So Adam, who was filled
with God when he took the fruit and acted independently and in
disobedience, then the Lord withdrew his presence, and Adam was left
under his own flesh. and the power of His flesh. And
all of these fruits, fear and guilt and all of these things,
instead of being filled with the Lord, He was filled with
self-love. So that's how we see the need of grace biblically.
I could go on and on and on, but let me illustrate it for
you philosophically. Three things show us that we
need grace today, philosophically. By the way, the word philosophy
comes from two words, philo, which is a form of love, and
sophia, or sophia, which means wisdom or knowledge. So philosophy
means the love of knowledge. How many of you have ever been
sophomores in school? Okay. When you first get in school,
you're a fresh man, freshman. But then you become a sophomore.
And the word sophomore means wise fool. That's because after you're a
fresh man, then you know everything. See? There's a lot of enlightenment
in some of these words. Philosophically, how do we see
our need of grace? Number one, we have in the world,
and especially in the United States, a complete loss of a
sense of shame. You know, this week when I saw
some of you people come up and give you a testimony, I saw some
of you blush. You know, that's a good thing.
That's a good thing. That means your conscience is
not completely dead. It means that you still are able
to blush and you are not proud of these things. Thank you for
sharing them with us. Thank you for sharing them with
us, for being open and real. but you're not proud of these
things. You tell us these things to encourage us that the Lord
delivered you from these things, and we can be delivered also. Well, we have today a sense of
a loss of a sense of shame. Paul tells us, for example, in
Philippians 3, verse 19, he tells us about people one day who would
glory or boast in their shame. That is, they are proud of what
they ought to be ashamed of. That's where we've come today.
We have a loss in America of a sense of shame. Our consciences
now are hardened and we can do anything and we never really
have the kind of guilt that we should have from doing certain
things. A second way philosophically
that we'll see our need of grace is called privatization. Do you know what being private
is? Privatization means this. It means what I do publicly is
one thing, and what I do privately has got nothing to do with anybody's
business. And I can be anything I want
to in private, but when I come out and do my job, I'm not disqualified
by what I do privately. We've had a president of the
United States who had some private affairs, and people said, well,
he's a good president. A man that commits that kind
of sin is not worthy of the office. That doesn't mean if a man is
a pastor and he falls, it doesn't mean that the Lord can't save
that man who's even a pastor, but it does mean that probably
he does not need to be pastoring. And when a man is a president
of the United States or a head of something else and he has
the idea that what is done in private is not significant to
his public performance, that shows us we need grace. Because
what I am, we have a class down at Grace Church, a group of men
we meet once a month, and we are studying the idea, we're
using a textbook, and it's called, When No One Sees. When No One
Sees. What you are is what you are
when nobody else sees you. We all put on a good show for
each other. But what we are when there's
nobody but the Lord. You remember the person in the
Bible, remember Joseph? You remember he was sold by his
brothers? And then when he got into Egypt,
they sold him to a fellow named Potiphar. And Potiphar's wife,
she took a liking to Joseph. And she went after him every
day. And she said, I want you to lie with me. And he said,
I cannot do this thing. I can't do this because, he said,
there's a God that I serve. And he sees. She said, nobody
will see. He said, he sees. He sees it. My friends, privatization
shows us our need of grace. And then next, pluralization. You know what singular and plural
is? Remember that from your English lesson? Plural is more than one. Pluralization is the idea that
there are various ways of looking at life, of looking at what's
right, of looking at what's wrong, and all of them are acceptable.
It doesn't matter. There's a lot of different ways
to God, according to pluralization. There are multiple worldviews,
and no one view is dominant. You see, there was a time in
the United States, and I'll tell you, I'm going to tell you what
I'm doing. I'm not criticizing anybody, There was a time in
the United States when a person said God, they were talking about
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But I now qualify
what I mean by God, because you've got lots of gods and goddesses
now. You've got Allah. You've got Hare Krishna. You've
got the Buddha, Buddhistic gods. You've got all kinds of gods.
And you no longer just say God without a qualifying term. We
need to say the Lord God. The Lord God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that's the God I'm talking about. I do not believe that all the
other roads lead to heaven. I believe there's only one way.
Only one way. So you see from Adam, that illustrates
biblically our need of grace. And then just looking at life
in a philosophical way, a loss of a sense of shame, a loss of
conscience, privatization, what's done in private doesn't matter.
and pluralization, everything is acceptable, multiple worldviews. We're not allowed to exclude
anybody today. If you exclude anybody, then
you are not politically correct. If you can't say, well, everybody's
a child of God, regardless of their worldview. It doesn't matter
what they practice in their lives. It doesn't matter Whether they're
gay or straight, it doesn't matter. Whatever they are or what religion,
they're all acceptable to the Lord. The Lord loves us all,
and we're all his children. And all these roads lead to heaven.
Well, that shows our need of grace, because grace teaches
you better than that. These antithetical standards,
these standards, here's what I mean by an antithetical standard.
We've gotten to the place now when that which is abnormal is
accepted as normal. And that which is normal is looked
upon as you're way out in left field, brother. You're out in
left field. If you stand for anything that's
right, as you people do here and as your pastor does, well,
sure, you're going to be ostracized. You're going to be criticized. But see, you are beneficiaries
of the grace of God because the Lord is working among you and
he's using Pastor Clark and you other brethren, you elders and
deacons and all of you, he's using to witness to one another.
You know, Amos tells us in Amos chapter six in verse 10, he said,
there'll come a time when we will not be able to make mention
of the name of the Lord. That's almost where we are now.
You know, you can say anything, you can talk about anything,
you can teach anything, but you cannot preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. You can't meet and have prayer
in schools and in public places and all of these things. So would
you agree with me that we have a need for grace? We have a need
for grace. Grace is needed. Now, let me
try to open up grace a little bit for you. I want you to turn
to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. Second book
in the Bible. And then we're going to look
at Romans chapter 8. Grace needed. We definitely need grace. We've
been running from God since the Garden of Eden. We think we've been made so silly
and so foolish that like Adam and Eve, we think we can hide
from God. And that's what they did. They tried to hide from
the Lord. Let me open up grace for you in Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33. Moses goes
into the tabernacle in verse 8. Verse 9, as Moses entered
the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door
of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. And all the
people saw the cloudy pillar, verse 10, and all the people
rose up in worship, every man in his tent door, verse 11, and
the Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his
friend. And then Moses says to the Lord, now you've told me
to bring up all these people, verse 12. You said, I know you
by name. You said, I have found grace
in your sight. So he asked, verse 13, show me
your way. If I have found grace in your
sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find
grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.
And the Lord said, well, I'm going to go with you, Moses.
I will give you rest. And I will be your God. I want you to go with us. So
the Lord answers his request. Verse 17, the Lord said to Moses,
I will do this thing that you've spoken. For you have found grace
in my sight. I know you by name. Now watch
this, verse 18. He said, well, show me your glory. First you ask him, show me your
way. Well, I'm going to be with you. Well, show me your glory.
Show me your glory. What's the first thing the Lord
says? Verse 19, I will make all my what? Goodness. Now what is
grace? I'm going to be very brief here.
What is grace? The G in grace stands for goodness. The G in grace stands for goodness.
When the Lord saw a man in his depraved state, when he saw him
in his rebellious state, he could have absolutely destroyed him.
He could have wiped him out and said, I'll make me another universe
and I'll send him on to hell where he ought to go. But no,
the Lord looked down and he pitied human beings. He pitied the fallen
race. And he went down and he made
a plan by which he would rescue man from his fallen state and
from his rebellious nature to transport him into a position
to enjoy the Lord forever. One of the first questions in
some of the old catechisms is, what is the chief duty of man? And the answer is to enjoy Him
forever. To glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever. So the G in grace stands for
goodness. The Lord was good. He didn't
destroy us. He said to Moses, I will be with
you. The R in grace, the second letter,
stands for righteousness. In order for the Lord to have
fellowship with fallen man, he must provide him a righteousness.
You notice here in verse 20 of Exodus chapter 33, he said, You
cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. You see
that? No man can see me and live. How
in the world is a sinner who's fallen going to see God face
to face? Well, here he gives us a picture.
He says, Moses, you can't see me face to face right now, but
look, verse 21, there's a place by me, and you're going to stand
on a rock. Now that rock represents our
Lord Jesus Christ. But then he says, I'm going to
put you in the rock, verse 22. I'm going to put you in a cleft
of the rock, and I'm going to cover you with my hand. I'm going
to hide you in the rock, and I'm going to put my hand over
you and cover you. And when I pass by," verse 23, I'll take away
my hand, and you'll see my back parts, but my face shall not
be seen. You see, the Lord is hiding His face at this time
because they are under the law. Later we'll read in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21, that the glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. That's why you see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So here he says, I'm going to
put you in the rock. I'm going to hide you. And when
I come by, you're not going to die. Now, that's a picture of
righteousness. I'm going to wrap you in a robe
of righteousness so that you can approach me and have fellowship. The life that our Lord Jesus
Christ lived provided a righteousness. So what was Jesus doing when
he was living in this world? He was obeying the law in every
jot and every tittle. He earned a righteousness. He
earned heaven by his works. But he didn't need that righteousness
that he earned because he was born without sin and he lived
without sin. So he gives that robe of righteousness
to guilty sinners who seek him and who call upon him. This is
the righteousness. So the G is goodness. The R is
righteousness. The A is atonement, G-R-A. A is atonement. That's the means
of obtaining the righteousness. The way you obtain righteousness
is somebody has to provide it. Christ died as our substitute,
and his life and his death provides the righteousness in his atonement.
By the way, the word atonement is made up of two words, A-T,
at. and then O-N-E, one, and then
M-E-N-T, a suffix, atonement. Atonement means to take two parties
that are separated and bring them together, to reconcile them.
By the way, the word atonement is not even mentioned in the
New Testament. Now, you've got a quote in Romans 5.11. Let's
turn over to Romans 5.11. I'm almost to this third point
here. I won't be much longer. Book
of Romans in the New Testament, chapter 5. Here you will find in most of
your translations a word translated atonement. Romans chapter 5,
verse 8, Romans 5, 8, God commended His love toward us and that while
we were sinners Christ died for us. Much more then now being
justified by His blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved
by His life. Watch verse 11. Not only so,
but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. Most of your Bibles is going
to have a little note by that word atonement. You're going
to look in your margin, it's going to say reconciliation. Because that
is what the word is. The word reconciliation comes
from the world of the money changers. If you give me a quarter, I give
you two dimes and a nickel, we're reconciled. Right? You give me a dollar, I give
you 100 pennies, we're reconciled. Right? We don't mind that. Do
you remember what I told you last year? What if I give you
a five, a five spot, and you give me 100? Would we be reconciled? No, but
see, that's what the Lord Jesus Christ does. We give him nothing,
he gives us everything. See? The word reconciliation
comes from the world of the money changers. And what happened is
one Christ, who is at the same time God, can reconcile fallen
man and a holy God. Jesus Christ, our Lord, was God
so that he could please God and man so that he could die. You
see, God can't die, right? But God as a man can. A man can
die. So Christ takes on flesh in order
to offer himself in atonement to take the two parties that
separated at one moment and bring them together. So G is goodness
and grace. R is righteousness. A is atonement.
C is calling. Calling. How do you know you
have a part in this work that Christ did? 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 13 says the Lord has chosen you from the beginning to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and through belief of
the truth, whereunto he called you by our Gospel." You see,
calling is what this Gospel preaching is about. When we are preaching
the Gospel, we are praying that the Lord will call lost sinners
to repentance and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, E in grace, What does
E stand for, class? Well, it stands for two things.
E stands for the elect. In grace, G is goodness. But
God can't show me his goodness without me having a righteousness.
That's the R. But I can't have a righteousness
unless I have an atonement. That's the A. But how do I know
that atonement has anything to do with me? That's the calling.
That's C. But what about the E? Well, the E is the elect.
The atonement was made for the elect. God calls the elect. But guess what? The E also stands
for everyone that is thirsty. Everyone that is thirsty. You
say, well, I don't like this doctrine of election and stuff.
Well, since you don't like it, you don't have anything to do
with it. Why should you care if I like
it? You shouldn't care if I like it if you don't like it. I mean,
I have a right to like what I want to. You have a right to dislike
it, don't you? But I tell you this, if you ever
get interested in the glory of God, if you ever get interested
in being delivered from your own selfish sins, if you ever
get interested in eternal life, if the Lord ever deals with your
soul to bring you to the end of yourself, to make you cry
out unto Him, you will love this doctrine of the sovereign grace
of God in election. And let me tell you something.
You don't have to understand the lecture. If you're thirsty
for Christ, if you want the Lord Jesus Christ, it is because the
Father is dealing with you by His Spirit. See, we love Him
because He first... Guess what? We call on Him because
He first has been calling on us. You know, I could show you
a passage tonight. I won't do it in the interest
of time. One of my favorite passages is in the book of Job. And it
talks about a man going to bed that night, and he's got his
mind made up and his plans about what he's going to do the next
day. And King James says it like this. He says, God speaks to
man once, yea, twice, but man does not perceive it. So he goes
to bed that night, and while he's asleep, the Lord comes into
his room and reprograms this computer up here. And he goes
to bed that night and says, this is what I'm going to do tomorrow.
I'm going to do more of tomorrow than what I've done today. But
he wakes up next morning, and for some reason, he's got to
change his mind. And he says, no, I don't think I want to do
that. I think I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. He
changes his mind. The scripture says that God comes into rooms
often, and he changes your mind without you even being aware
about it. And hey, he doesn't even ask your permission. What
kind of a God is that that doesn't ask your permission? He doesn't make you want to.
He just fixes it so you want to. That's all. That's all right. He does that. And He does that,
the Scripture says, to hold back man from his pride. To bring
him down so that he'll look up. So that he'll look up. So, G
is goodness, R is righteousness, A is atonement, C is calling,
and E is elect and everyone that is thirsty. Last passage, Romans
chapter 8. All of you are familiar with
these verses here. I'm going to put a little different spin
on it for you. We see grace needed from the Garden of Eden and from
this philosophical view. We see grace opened, goodness,
righteousness, atonement, calling, and election. Now let's see the
benefits of grace. The benefits of grace. What you
people do here in this church is you make other people who
come here envious of what you have. You make them jealous of
what you have. That's what the Scripture says
you should do. When they are among you, they should say there's
something in that place. There's someone in that place.
There's something in there those people have, and I want some
of it. I want some of it. That's good.
Well, here are some of the benefits that the children of God have. Now, you all know Romans 8 and
verse 28. You all should know that by heart. Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. According to his purpose. Now let's just dissect that quickly.
He says, notice, he says, and we. Did you know that the epistles
are not written to the world? Did you know that the epistles
are written only to believers? Did you know that? Did you know
you have no part in this verse until you come to know Christ?
He said, we know. We who? We believers. We children
of God. We who trust the Lord. We who
have been called to salvation. Notice now, he said, we know. That's a Greek word that means
to know by experience. to know through faith. He said
we know that all things, not many things, not most things,
not just the good things, not the positive things, all things. Notice he says this, all things
work. Our universe looks like a universe
that sometimes is standing still. It was the the Jewish scientist
Einstein who discovered the subatomic world. And he said that when
you get down into the world that's so small that you can't see,
and you look at that world, he said everything looks like it's
just running every which way. But you know what Einstein said?
He said, but we know that God does not play dice. That was
his way of saying, it may look like it's out of order, but it's
all doing something specifically. And when you back up, you see
the created world out here. Everything in this world is working.
We got a working God. We got a God that never sleeps.
We have a God that never slumbers. We have a God that's holding
the stars into the place. We have a God that keeps the
sun up there. He keeps this thing rotating on its axis. He's the
one that brings the rain for you so you can have some water
to drink and you can take a bath and keep your bodies clean. All
of these things, God is the energy that works in all life. It's all working, working. We
live in a universe where nothing stands still. Nothing is idle.
The Lord is at work. All things become his tools of
craft to shape and form history as it pleases him. Because look
at the next statement. All things work how? Together. Might seem
contrary, but they are cooperating together in perfect harmony with
his secret purpose. Then it says all things are working
together for good. For the good of the souls of
his redeemed people. You see, whatever turns me to
Him is good. Do you remember the woman that
I told you about Sunday? The old woman that was lying
in the hospital bed and she looked like she was a corpse and she
just had bones sticking out? And when the nurse would go in
there, she'd say, the Lord so do must love me to do me like
this. She knew something about the
Lord working things together for her good. Whatever brings
Him glory has got to be for my good. If it turns me to Him,
whether it's sickness for the glory of God, whatever it is,
if it turns me to Him, if it makes me call on Him, if it makes
me look to Him, it's good. It's for my good. Then he says,
to them that love God. To them that love God. Do we
love His Son? Do we love His people? Do we
love His Word? And then he says, to them who are called according
to his purpose. Called by the gospel, called
by the spirit, called through the word, called to faith, called
to service. We've heard about that this week. To those who are called. Called
according to his purpose. All right. What happens to people
that are included in Romans 8, 28 and 29? All right. Very quickly. Very quickly. Here's some of
the benefits. First of all, verse 31. Verse 31. What shall we say to these things?
What things? These things he's just been talking
about here. Verse 29. Whom he foreknew or loved, he
predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Verse 30. moreover
whom he did predestinate than he called, whom he called and
justified, whom he justified and glorified." Notice that that's
all written in the past tense. It's got an E-D on it. It's as
if it is already done. Because from the perspective
of God, it is done. There is no time with the Lord.
We live in time. He does not live in time. He
lives above time. So what are the benefits? Here's
the first one. What shall we say to these things?
Verse 21. If God be for us, who can be against us? Now here's
the first benefit. No intimidation. No intimidation. Verse 81. Nothing
can intimidate a person who knows his God. You cannot be intimidated. You can't be intimidated by men.
You can't be intimidated by presidents and kings and queens. This week
I've had several of you ask me about my career in music before
I was ever converted. And I've had more questions about
Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton and Sonny and Cher
and Gary Lewis and the Playboys and all those people with whom
I played. I've had more questions about that than I have about
the scripture. I'm tired of hearing about Jimmy
Page. I wouldn't give you five minutes with Jimmy Page for a
second with our Lord Jesus Christ. And here's the point I'm making.
Since I have rubbed shoulders with all these big boys, I've
rubbed shoulders with all these people, just like Pastor Clark.
He's been with presidents and mayors and governors. You know
what I told a man? I said, since I met the Lord
Jesus Christ, I'm not intimidated by anybody. They just put on their pants
just like I do. And they're going to take them off, just like I
will, too. We're not intimidated by anything. Napoleon was going
to attack Russia, and Napoleon was asked this question. Napoleon,
don't you think maybe you ought to pray and consult God before
you go into Russia? You know what Napoleon said?
This is a matter of history. He said, I'll tell you whose side
God's on. He said, God's on the side of the largest battalion.
People have got the most men, the biggest army. That's who's
side God's on. You know what happened? Napoleon got ready to go into
Russia, and a few little snowflakes start falling. And after a while,
it was bushels of snowflakes. Then there were barrels of snowflakes.
You know what a snowflake is? You blow it like that, it's gone.
And that snow started coming down, and God Almighty stopped
Napoleon with snowflakes. That's the truth. And do you
know later that Hitler made exactly the same mistake? And Hitler
was a historian. He said, we're going to go in
and get Russia. He went in there, and God sent in a century, once
in a century, winter into Russia and froze the German people to
death. And the reason we won the World
War II, it's not because we had a superior army. It's because
God Almighty changed the climate and froze Hitler's men to death,
and they had to withdraw. See, we're not intimidated. We've
got a God that can use a snowflake and get people out of the way.
If you get in the way of the Lord's purpose, He'll run over
you. I'm telling you that. I'm telling
you. I have lived long enough, and
I don't mean to frighten you, but I have had some very, very
weird things happen in my life. I've had people from time to
time who've opposed me and who've said things that weren't true,
and do all this kind of stuff, and several of them are in eternity
right now. I'm telling you the truth. And
I just would be very careful when you're getting in the way
of the purpose of God. We are not intimidated. No intimidation. If God is for me, why in the
world am I afraid of anything or anybody? All right, number
two. No intimidation. That's verse
31. Verse 32. Deprivation. He's not going to
deprive me of anything I need. Look at it. He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? In other words, here's
what Paul's saying. Since God has given the best
that He has, which is His Son, why would He give you anything
else? That's for your good. Why would He withhold anything
else if He'd given you His Son? You understand his reasoning?
No deprivation. He's not going to deprive His
children from anything that they need to serve Him that's for
their good and His glory. No deprivation. All right? Thirdly,
these are all benefits now of grace. Thirdly, no accusation. Verse 33, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God to justify it. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's children? I can go down
into the pit of hell and shout into the face of the devil. Who
can condemn me? Who down here can condemn me?
Who can lay anything to the charge of any of God's children? See,
we have a Lord, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He never takes
any case except those of self-confessed sinners. Once you confess your
guilt, He'll take your case. And guess what? He's never lost
a case. He's never lost a case. No accusation. That's verse 33. Now guess who's the great accuser?
Well, the devil. See, you need to learn this.
His name is Lucifer. His name is Lucifer. But he has
titles. And a title is devil and a title
is Satan. Those are titles. His first name
is not Pastor, his name is Kemp, but his position is Pastor. You
got a queen over here in England. That's not her name, Queenie. Her name is Elizabeth, but she
is the queen. His name is Lucifer, but he is
the accuser. He is the adversary. That's the
meaning of devil and Satan. He's the accuser. And the accuser
of our brethren has been cast down by our Lord Jesus Christ. No accusation. Verse 34. Verse
34. No condemnation. Y'all ought
to be able to rap on this. No intimidation, no deprivation,
no accusation, no condemnation. Go! Alright? Verse 34. Who is He that condemns? Who can condemn me? Nobody can
condemn me. Nobody in heaven can condemn
me. Nobody in hell can condemn me.
Nobody on the face of the earth can condemn me. Nobody in history
can condemn me. I cannot be condemned. Christ
died for me. Christ has given me his righteousness.
That's what it said. No condemnation. It is Christ
that died. Yea, not only that, he said,
he has risen again. Not only that, he said, he's
at the right hand of God. Not only that, he's making an
assertion for us. You see, every time you say but,
he just gets a little high. All right? The next benefit of
the grace of God is no separation. Verse 35. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Now, I want to point out, I think,
an important point about this. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation? distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, that's danger, sword. The thing that you need to know
is the emphasis in verse 35, who shall separate us from the
love of Christ, the emphasis in that verse is not on me and
you saying we're not going to let anything separate us from
Jesus. The emphasis is on Him. He won't let anything separate
you from Him. That's very important. One of
the brethren said earlier in the week, I think it was Brother
Webb, it might have been Brother Wright, I'm not sure, but one
of them talked about crossing the street and the difference
between you holding the child's hand and the child holding your
hand. He has us. And what this verse says is Christ
will not allow anything to come our way that will separate us
from Him. He will not do it. He has promised,
I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. And
he will not allow anything before, listen, I believe this with all
my heart, before the Lord will allow one of his blood-bought
children to get in such a position that he'd be unjust. If he continued
to forgive them, he'll kill you and take you on to glory. I believe
that. I really do. Let me show you
something. Turn over here to 1 Corinthians.
I know some of you don't believe it because you were quiet then.
Turn over here to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter
11, and I'm going to finish. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. This is the chapter that we use
when we take the Lord's Supper. Okay? He says when you take the Lord's
Supper, verse 27. Verse 27, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Whoever shall eat this bread
and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of
the body and the blood of the Lord." Now listen now. I keep
pouring out these things about language. He doesn't say whoever
takes it who is unworthy. He says unworthily. See, when
we take the Lord's Supper, we're not drinking a toast to our worthiness. We're drinking a toast to His
worthiness. Taking it unworthily means the attitude that you have
in partaking of it. It's not a light thing. It shouldn't
be done in a flippant, laughing, comical way. It should be done
in a serious way, a way in which you dedicate yourself anew to
the Lord. Watch it now. Let a man examine
himself, verse 28, and then let him eat of that bread and drink
of that cup. Examine yourself means that while they're passing
out the grape juice and the bread, you ought to be thanking the
Lord confessing and saying, Lord, cover me with your blood and
thank you. Okay, watch this now. Verse 29. He that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,
not discerning the Lord's body. Now, this damnation here is not
eternal damnation. This is a type of damnation of
judgment. He's going to tell us what this
is. Watch this. Verse 30. For this cause. You see that
in verse 30? For this cause. What cause, Paul?
partaking unworthily, not examining yourself. For this cause many
are weak and sickly among you, and many what? What does that
mean? That you know that nobody, no
child of God in the New Testament is ever said to die. Children
of God fall asleep. Unbelievers die. Children of
God fall asleep. What does it say right here?
Many sleep. What does that mean? That means the Lord took them
out. Just what I told you. If I said jump on the camel,
you start jumping, Hans. Because I'm going to tell you,
it's in the Scripture. It's in the Scripture. He says
here that the Lord is going to take care of us. So here we got
it. The benefits are no intimidation, no deprivation, no accusation,
no condemnation, and no separation. There was a man who was in his
home. He was very, very sad because
he had just gotten home from a funeral. He had a little five-year-old
girl, and the funeral was to bury his wife and her mother. And when they got home, he put
her in her bed, and he went in and got in her bed. In a few
minutes, he could hear her crying. And he went in and said, honey,
what's the matter? And she said, Daddy, I'm afraid. Because since
Mommy's died, I'm afraid I'm going to be separated from you.
So he picked up his darling little girl, and he took her into the
room, and he put her in the bed, and he got right next to her,
and he said, now, sweetheart, you go on and go to sleep. Daddy's
here with you. And when she went to sleep, he got up out of the
bed, and he was a big man. And he got down on his knees,
and he said, oh God, oh God, my wife is gone. I'm in the dark. I can't see. Show yourself to
me. Reveal yourself to me. And the
Lord did. The Lord comforted him with this
verse. I'll not let anything, life,
death, persecution, anything, separate me and my love from
you. I paid for you. You're bought
with a price. Now glorify God in yourselves
and in your bodies which belong to Him. My dear friends, we are
in need of the sovereign grace of God. I've tried to show you
that. We're in need of the sovereign grace of God. And that grace
of God is righteousness, atonement, calling, G-R-G, goodness, R,
righteousness, A, atonement, C, calling, and E, election,
and everyone that's thirsty. And then here in Romans 8 we
have all of these benefits that are purchased for us in the Lord
Jesus Christ by the grace of God through faith in Him. Our
heart's desire is that you might be saved. Call on the name of
the Lord. Seek Him while He may be found.
This is a nation of sudden death. I've done six funerals in about
the last 30 days. I had a man die. I was supposed
to go on a vacation. I've been gone three days. They
called me, and they said, we'll put Brother Jackson in the hospital.
So I said, Len, I need to go back. I got a ticket, and I flew
back home. I went up to the hospital in time to see him and visit
with him before he died. I called a man to tell him about
the funeral, and the man I called died in 24 hours. And they buried
that guy and the other guy on the same day. A nation of sudden
death. Call on the name of the Lord
now while he may be found. Seek him while he may be found.
May the Lord add his blessing to his works. Thank you, Pastor
Clark.