If you would, let's begin our service turning our Bibles to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians, the third chapter. As you're turning, I hope that everyone can attend our church dinner today at Pappy's. We'll have some good food and everything on their menu is delicious, as far as I can tell, and enjoy some time together. We'll also have a men's lunch Thursday, November the 6th, at the same place. So I hope you can all attend that.

Also, we want to remember Cosetta Bond. Her sister's been very, very ill, and they're expecting some test results tomorrow and or Tuesday that could be very dire for her sister. So let's hold her up in prayer as much as the Lord will bring her to our memory.

Philippians chapter three, we'll read the first 14 verses. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it's safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable unto his death.

if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend, that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press, toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

All right, we'll end our reading there. Let's stand as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship.

Thy mercy, my God, is the theme of my song,
the joy of my heart, and the boast of my tongue.
Thy grace, all-sufficient, from first to the last,
has won my affections and bound my heart fast.

Without thy sweet mercy I could not live here.
Sin soon would reduce me to utter despair.
But through thy free goodness my spirit revives,
And He that first made me still keeps me alive.

Great Father of mercy, thy goodness I own,
and the covenant love of thy crucified Son.
All praise

Okay, if you would now turn to song number 129, At the Cross. 129.

Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I?

At the cross, at the cross,

where I first saw the light,

and the burden of my heart rolled away,
it was there by faith I received my sight,

and now I am happy all the day.

Was it for crimes that I have done?
He groaned upon the tree.
Amazing pity, grace unknown,
full of love beyond degree.

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away.

It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When Christ the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature's sin.

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.

But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away, tis all that I can do.

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.

Our pastor has asked that we read Psalm 90. Psalm 90.

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, return ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight, are but as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the night.

Thou carriest them away as with the flood.
They are as asleep, in the morning they are like good grass which groweth up.

In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up,
in the evening it is cut down and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath we are troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in wrath. We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten. If by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Return, O Lord, how long, and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O, satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to thy days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and my glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish thou the work of our hands upon us. Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it.

And the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for this word that you've given us. That thy work through our Lord Jesus Christ is made our work, that in him we're made righteous and may come before your throne of mercy, that we might be made sons and call you Abba Father. Lord, we feel our sin in these days below, but we look to Christ, we rest in him. Father calls us to see our need and to run to Christ, calls us to cling to him, calls us to rest in him, in his perfect righteousness.

Lord, we feel our sin. Not as we ought, but you've given us, you've blessed us to give us a glimpse of it. We can't begin to comprehend God being made sin, but we rejoice that our sins are punished in our Lord Jesus Christ, that he endured your wrath for our glory. that we might be made thy sons, my daughters, and all that for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray that we would glorify him here below. Lord, as we endeavor to meet this morning, we pray that you would leave us not alone, that you would send your spirit to anoint our ears, our hearts, Lord give us seeing eyes, give us hearing ears, give us new hearts that receive thy word and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.

Give us the spirit of worship, leave us not alone, we pray that you would uphold our pastor through the trials of this world, mostly through his studies. Give him a word for your people. You've lifted him up as an under shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great shepherd. We pray that you would feed your sheep. For those who are going through difficult trials, Lord, we pray that you would Accomplish your will and be that right early. Return them to us. Lord, we pray for Kazetta and her dear sister. We know the trials of this world. We know that you've appointed all of them. We pray that you would have mercy.

Father, we pray For our young adults, for our young children, Lord, have mercy on them. Reveal yourself to them in a saving manner. Give them eyes to see by glory. To see the finished work in our Lord Jesus Christ. To run to him, to cling to him. to confess we have no hope outside of Christ. Father once again we pray that you would bless this service this morning, forgive us our many sins, cause us to look to Christ and rejoice that his works are made our works. It's in his name, the name of our precious Lord Jesus Christ, for our good, for his sake that we pray these things. Amen.

Keep your Bibles open there to Psalm chapter 90. That will be our text or at least jumping off point for today. I've titled the message this morning, Lessons Learned in 60 Years. We're celebrating Some zero birthdays today, mine being one of them. Back in January, I started the and 10 years of life, and I thought this might be a good time to bring this message. I got that from verse 10 there, Psalm 90. The days of our years are three score and 10. Well, I've entered those and 10 years. I know that I'm not as old as some of you. Some of you will think, well, 60 years old is still a baby. I tell you this, I told Roger this before the service today, I feel like I turned 80 before I turned 60. I feel a whole lot older than 60.

But I am old enough, been around long enough to have learned something. Some of you will recall a message Brother Henry preached reflections on 80 years. And you'll think, well, Frank, that's not very original. Let me tell you, this is not the first time I got an idea from him, and it won't be the last one either. But I may not have the years left in this life to preach a message on 70 years or 80 years, so I feel led to do that today. And one thing all of us find as we get older is what Moses writes here, how quickly the years go by. In verse five, he says, thou carry'st them away as with a flood. There is a sleep in the morning, there like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, and by evening it's cut down and withereth. In verse nine, he says, all our days are passed away in thy wrath. We spend our years as a tale that's told. The story's already been told, hasn't it? James. James 4 verse 14 says man's life is a vapor We're getting to be the time of year where it's cold and you see your breath in them You know when you breathe then it's gone That's our life. It goes that quickly the substance of it is about like that vapor, too You breathe out and see your breath try to grab it try to keep it try. It's a vapor

Psalm 144 verse 4 says man days man's days. There's a shadow that passes the way again just The substance of a shadow that goes away just as quickly as the sun goes away. Look at Psalm 103. Psalm 103, verse 15. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth, for the wind passeth over it, and it's gone. and the place thereof shall know it no more." That's how quickly the wind passes over it, and we're gone, and nobody even remembers we were ever here. So quickly.

You know, I've always believed that. Even when I was a teenager, I would hear older folks talk about how quickly the years are going to go, and how quickly you're going to go from being a teenager to being 70, and you just won't know what happened. I've always believed that to be true. But now I've experienced it. And since we know that this is true, you've either experienced it or you, I hope you younger folks will believe me when I tell you the years are gonna go like that. You just won't believe it.

There's something that we ought to do knowing how quickly this life is gonna be gone. Verse 12 back in Psalm 90 says, so teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Now, if we would apply our hearts unto wisdom, Christ is the wisdom of God. If we would apply our hearts to seeking Christ, if we would apply our hearts to God's word, that he might teach us something, what might the Lord be pleased to teach us? Well, I thought of five things, and these are not lessons that I've learned from me standing and looking around the world, you know, from my very limited viewpoint. These are things I've learned from the Word of God, and they have matched my experience, but the important thing is, is these are things that are taught in God's Word, and they're not a one-time lesson. These are things that the Lord is constantly reminding me of every day.

And here's how you can tell if the Lord's taught you something, if he's taught you something from his Word. These things I'm gonna teach you, Tell you about this morning, these five things and everything that I've learned that is of any value whatsoever leads me to Christ, drives me to Christ as my only hope. And if something you think you've learned doesn't drive you to Christ, to depend on him, to drive you to his feet, to beg for mercy and forgiveness, God didn't teach it to you. But if God teaches us something, I promise you this, it'll drive us to Christ.

And the first lesson I've learned is this, that I am totally depraved. Genesis 6 verse 5 says that God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And when I read that, I see a description of me. Isaiah said in Isaiah 64 verse 6, as an unclean thing. That's us, that's me, I'm an unclean thing. And all of our righteousnesses, those best works that we've ever done that we think might please God, they're filthy rags. Rags defiled by sin.

Look back at Psalm 14. Psalm 14, verse one. The fool has said in his heart, no God. There is, as in italics, what the fool says is no God. No, I won't bow. No, I won't believe you. No God. They're corrupt. They have done abominable works. There's none that do with good. No, not one. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men. He could see them all. To see if there were any that did understand and seek God. And this is what God saw. They're all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There's none that doeth good, no not one.

And the Lord has taught me and I've learned by experience that that is true about me. Now I'm not saying that man is totally depraved because I see the world going to hell in a handbasket, although it is. I don't say that because I see men waxing worse and worse and worse all the time. They're calling good evil and evil good, and there's such a decline in our society.

That's not why I say that man is totally depraved. The Lord has taught me that I am totally depraved. Not you, me. Me, because the Lord has showed me myself. And here's how he showed me that.

Honestly, you would be hard pressed to find a man more blessed of God is mercy and grace than me. I'm born into a family of generations of believers. God's been merciful to generations of my family before and those following me. Now that has to be by God's grace, doesn't it? We could just as easily be a bunch of people cooking meth and prostitutes. That's by God's grace. God's been so gracious

And yet, in myself, I still see so much self-righteousness. I put it down multiple times a day. I hate that in myself. I have doubts and fears that come up so easily. I find a desire for the glory of the flesh. And this is after the Lord has saved me, after He showered His grace and mercy upon me.

And the only explanation for that is total depravity. There's nothing good about this flesh and there never will be. One day God's gonna kill it and put it in the ground so he can take the new man that he's created in righteousness to be with him. But as far as this flesh goes, I am totally depraved. No hope in me, no goodness in me whatsoever.

And if God saved you, he's taught you the same lesson, hadn't he? He's taught you the same thing.

Second thing I've learned is this, my salvation had to begin with God's electing love. Look back at Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy 7. Verse 6. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, he's elected, he chose you to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you are more in number than any people, for you the fewest of all people. But because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he has sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of the bondman, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. That's what the Lord told Israel of old. And in John 15, verse 16, when the Lord had his disciples gathered around him, he said, you didn't choose me. I chose you. And I ordained you that you'd bring forth much fruit.

Salvation has to begin with God's electing love. It has to. Because you cannot talk sinners into choosing God's way of salvation. You can't be so persuasive that you can get men to make a decision for God. You cannot be educated into the kingdom of God. I don't care how well that you study and that you preach and how clearly you point out the truth of God's word, how clearly you're able to expound upon the scriptures and show Christ from the word. You cannot. Educate people into the kingdom of God, into faith in Christ. It can't be done. I've seen so many children taught the scriptures their whole life long. I mean by good teachers. I mean the best Sunday school teachers you'll find anywhere. Sitting under the best pastors, under the best preachers that you'll find anywhere. And as soon as they can get out of the house and go, they never come back. And to this day, they have no use for Christ, no use for the gospel, Many of them even hate it. But some of them stick around. Some of them hear the gospel and believe. And the only explanation for it is God's electing love, his distinguishing grace where he chose one and passed another by. It's the only explanation.

Now again, that is true from the scripture, but it's also been my experience. I was one of them, growing up under the sound of the gospel, three times a week hearing the best preacher of his generation, and I did not believe. I thought it was true. I thought the gospel I heard was true compared to other false religions, you know, just as a mental exercise. It seemed pretty obvious to me. But I could not believe Christ. I couldn't. I couldn't make myself believe Christ. I couldn't love him. I was just disinterested in hearing the gospel. And if the Lord left me to myself, I'd have wound up in hell, and that's what I would have deserved. There's nothing good about me. And really, it's worse. My situation is worse than somebody growing up in what we call open sin and the horrible things, you know, because I heard the sound of the gospel and rejected it. Yet God was pleased to be merciful. and reveal his son to me and in me. And my only hope of salvation was that God chose me first. Because left to myself, I never would have chosen him.

God, in his electing love, set his affection on me and put me in his son when I was unlovable. I had to be like Jacob. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. It had to be God to make the difference. And I know that the natural man and people in false religion hate to hear about God's electing love, but there's few things I love to hear about more than God's electing love. What an awe-inspiring thought. What a truth that just, that humbles us before God and lets us worship at his feet, to think that the holy God still has the capacity to love sinners. to set His love upon them and choose them and put them in His Son to save. To give them to His Son to save by the doing and dying of His Son come in the flesh. It's awe-inspiring. Only God could do that. And God didn't choose me because He, you know, He looked down through the telescope of time and saw there was some good in me. We already read that. God looked down on all men and saw there wasn't any good in them. I don't get any good in one of them. But he chose them anyway because God's good, because God's gracious, because God's merciful, because God is determined he's going to reveal his greatest glory in showing mercy to sinners through the doing and dying of his son.

Salvation had to start with God. Had to. Because left to myself, I never would have chosen God's way of salvation in Christ. I would have chosen trying to work to earn it. I would have chosen trying to be moral and doing all these things, you know, that false religion tells you you gotta do in order to be saved, but I never would have chosen resting in Christ and counting all my works but done, like the Apostle Paul did. The only way that had to start with God's electing love, because God's good, not because there's any good in me. And if God saved you, I know this. He's taught you the same lesson, hasn't he? Taught you the same thing.

The third thing I've learned is this. Salvation has to be by grace. Has to be. Can't be by merit. Can't be by our works. Can't be by our goodness. It has to be by pure, unadulterated grace alone. The definition we always give of grace is it's God giving me what I do not deserve. God saving me by his grace and giving me everything that his son earned by his perfect obedience, by his perfect righteousness, by his perfect sacrifice for sin. God giving me what Christ deserves and not giving me the wrath that I deserve. That's grace. That's grace.

I saw another definition of grace this week. I really liked it. Grace. is God's unmerited favor, mercy, and love shown to sinners through Jesus Christ. And through Jesus Christ, that's the key to this thing. God's grace comes to us through Jesus Christ. God's electing love, His electing grace, where the Father chose a people and gave them to His Son, it can only be through Jesus Christ. He put us in His Son to give His people what Christ earned. It comes just through Christ.

The Father sent His Son to do what He requires, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, to obey God's law perfectly, to establish a perfect righteousness, to make His people righteous through Christ our representative, through Christ the second Adam. That's grace. I mean, you think of all of our sins. Who's it against? Oh, it might hurt other people, but our sin's against God, isn't it? And God sent his son to take those people that have sinned against him, and he sent his son to obey the law for him, to make him righteous. That's grace. And then the father sent his son to pay my sin debt, and to do it with his precious blood. By the blood of his sacrifice where his body was ripped open and his blood poured out on the altar before God to put my sin away. The father didn't require me to pay for one of them. He sent his son to pay for them all.

Now think of the father, slaughtering his son so that he could justify a sinner like me. That's grace. That's grace. Salvation must be by grace. To show grace to me, the father had to give his son everything that I deserve so that he could give me everything that Christ earned by his perfect obedience. That's grace.

Look at 2 Corinthians 8. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's how this grace comes to us, through Jesus Christ. That though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. That ye through his poverty might be rich. Our Savior, who's rich, he's God. He's God in human flesh. He became poor. He emptied himself of righteousness. He emptied himself of life so that he could be the sacrifice for the sin of his people, that we might be made rich, given everything that Almighty God has for a sinner. That grace.

I recently sat Beside my mother in love, I was not allowed to call her my mother-in-law, my mother in love. And she knew that her time on this earth was just ours. And we talked about God's grace. How God could be gracious to sinners like us and do it through his son. through the sacrifice of his son. She'd been hearing the gospel a long, long time. And she told me, Frank, I've never gotten over it. Is there anything you love to hear more than the grace of God for sinners that comes through his son? And I tell you, I need grace. I love grace. I need it. I love to hear about it because how much I need it. I need grace. Grace, grace, grace, grace, and more grace. I need grace heaped upon grace. I need electing grace.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's what I need. Romans 11 verse 5, Paul said, even so then at this present time also, things haven't changed from the time of Moses, or from the time of Noah, even at this present time also, There's a remnant according to the election of grace. That's what I need. I need to be part of that remnant that God would choose me. I need saving grace, redeeming grace, grace that will pay my sin debt. Ephesians 2 verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith. You're completely and utterly saved by grace and you receive it by faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. And I love how Paul says is, by grace are you saved through faith. Well, that already eliminates our works, doesn't it? We're saved by grace. But he says, just in case you didn't get this, it's not of works, lest any man should boast. It's a grace so that all the glory goes to Christ.

Look at Romans chapter five. I need a bounding grace. I don't need just a little bit of grace. I need grace. that is greater than all my sin. Romans 5 verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. The law entered to show us how abounding our sin is. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign. through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, our Lord. See, it came to us by Christ, didn't it? That's the kind of grace I need.

Look at 1 Peter chapter five. I need grace that will establish me and keep me from wandering away from Christ because left to myself, that's exactly what I'll do. Keeping establishing grace first Peter 5 verse 10 But the God of all grace Who had called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus? After that you suffered a while make you perfect and established strengthened and settled you the more we become Established in the gospel the more we become strengthened in it. That's God's grace It's not us learning and getting better is it? It's God's grace heaped upon grace. That's why we're established and settled.

Look back at Titus chapter two. I need grace that will direct my steps through this world. I need God to choose me by his grace, to redeem me by his grace, to establish me by his grace, but I need his grace to lead me and guide me, to guide my steps through this world or else I'll go the wrong way.

Titus 2 verse 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, you notice it doesn't say offer salvation, bring salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us the denying ungodliness and worldly lusts that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. It's the grace of God that teaches me how to walk through this world.

I love God's grace. I love it. I mean, you just can't talk to me and preach to me too often of God's grace, because it takes the attention away from this flesh. We get in trouble. We get depressed. We get discouraged. We get down in the mouth as long as we look at this flesh, yours or anybody else's. We get down.

when we look at this flesh, because all this flesh is is corrupt, stinking, rotten. If you're in the sewer, you're going to smell like the sewer. You're going to act like the sewer. Of course, you're going to be depressed looking at the flesh. But grace takes our eyes off of the flesh and puts it on Christ, gives him all the glory, gives him all the praise.

Hearing about God's grace makes me dependent on Christ and happy to be that way. And if God's saved you, he's taught you the same thing. Aren't you happy to be dependent on Christ and on his mercy, on his grace, rather than on yourself? You are if God saved you.

And then here's the fourth thing I've learned. Believers are sinners still. This is a lesson we learn often. It's always hurtful. Maybe we're surprised every time it happens, but believers are sinners still, so we shouldn't be.

Paul and Barnabas split up over John Mark. I think both of them had a point, and both of them were wrong. And they split up over something that wasn't Christ. Careful now, don't do that.

Philippians 4 verse 2, Paul said, and I beseech Syntyche that they may be of the same mind in the Lord." Now these two ladies are believers, members of that local congregation, love God's grace, they love Christ, they believe Christ, but something happened, something happened to cause some sort of rift or division between the two of them. And Paul said, you be of the same mind in the Lord. This division wasn't of the Lord. It wasn't over the gospel. It wasn't over. You be of the same mind in the Lord. He had to tell them, now quit this and be of the same mind in the Lord. And it was just sin in them that even though they're believers, they caused this rift to start happening. What was it over? I don't know. How big was it? I don't know. But it was enough that Paul dealt with it. You be of the same mind in the Lord. If you and I will be of the same mind in the Lord, looking at Christ, not looking at ourselves, we'll be that close. There'll be no division.

Peter, bless his heart, caused such a division in the church. Remember, he's eating there with the Gentiles, having a big conference, and after the service, Peter's eating there with all those Gentiles, and then the Jews walked in. Peter got up right quick and went over with the Jews, like, oh, they're better than these Gentiles. Cause a division? Paul had to stand him to the face over him. Peter was a believer. Peter, he loved the Lord. But look what he did causing a division by looking at the flesh instead of looking at Christ.

The whole church at Corinth was splintered into a million pieces, sounds like. Because they're believers. Paul said, you're blessed in gifts and things that the Lord's blessed you so much. But yet there's this division because of the flesh, because believers are sinners still.

All those men who'd been so close with Paul, preaching and laboring together and traveling together, missionary trips and establishing these local churches and all these different places, abandoned him just as quick as a scared jackrabbit. And it hurt him. And that hurt him. Those men sounds like to me, most of them, some of them weren't, but some of them were believers. Why'd they do that? Why would they abandon this man who preached the gospel to them? Why would they do that? Because believers are sinners still.

Look at Ephesians chapter four. And all I can tell you about that is this. We can't control what other people do, we can't stop stop them from doing those things that hurt us. But we can pray that the Lord not let me be that guy. I don't want to be that guy. Lord, keep me, stop me from being that guy. Stop me from being that guy that is a distraction to the worship service that's going to get people thinking about me and my issues instead about Christ. I got issues, man. Our cousins said that. I got issues, man. I ain't gonna do you one bit of good to know anything about them. The only thing that matters is Christ. And if Lord teach us that, oh, we'll be better off.

Look at Ephesians 4 verse 1. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called, with all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering, forbearing one another in love and endeavoring, working hard to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. I pray that the Lord will stop me from being that guy that causes these divisions, that gets people's mind off of Christ, And when it happens, and it's gonna happen, it's happened before, it's gonna happen again, you and I, hopefully not being the one that did this, ought to understand and be ready to forgive, because we got the same nature. And the only reason I'm not the one that did it, that caused you to get your attention on my issues instead of Christ, is God kept me from it. God kept me from it.

And that brings me to the fifth thing. And this is something that's been on my mind a lot in the past weeks and few months. Brothers and sisters, Christ is all that matters. He's all that matters. And we see that in the gospel. This is the fifth lesson I've learned. The gospel is a person. It's a person. It's not some sort of legal standing before God that he calls you saved. Did you get saved? Are you saved? Salvation is union with a person. It's union with Christ so that we are what he is. It's being in love with Christ. It's believing him, believing a person. And I've used this illustration before, but I can't, I'm gonna use it again, because I can't think of a better one. To me, marriage is not a document that we got down there at the courthouse that the preacher and the witnesses signed that says I'm married. I mean, we got that legal document somewhere. I got no idea where it is, but I guess we still got it. To me, marriage is a person. Right there she sits. And loving her and caring about her is all that I ought to need to lead me to being a good husband. The same thing's true about salvation. Salvation is union with a person. And if we're looking to him, we can't go wrong.

Righteousness, this is something that we talk about, such an important tenet of the gospel, righteousness, being made righteous in Christ. Righteousness is not a legal standing before God, even though you're not righteous and you really never will be righteous until you awake in Christ's likeness and glory. That's not righteousness. Righteousness is a person. Jehovah said, Kenu, the Lord, our righteousness. He's the one that earned righteousness for his people, and we're righteous in him, by being put in him. And rather than argue about how God made his people righteous, how much was Christ made sin, so that how much could his people be made righteous, instead of arguing about that, you know what will make us happy? If we rejoice in Christ our righteousness. Let's look to him. instead of all these issues that people use to throw up a smoke screen. Same thing's true about justification. Justification is being made without sin before God. To have no sin. Now let's not pretend, it's not just a legal standing before God that you're not gonna ever be sinless until you wake in glory. No sir, Christ is our justification. There's no justification without Him. By His precious blood, He's justified His people. Sinless in Christ, so that you cannot be condemned. And I've heard people do this. I've had several conversations with people, and they wanna argue about justification.



Over when? Well, were you justified in eternity when the Father chose you and put you in Christ? Were you justified at the cross when Christ shed his blood to put your sin away? Were you justified when you were born again? Born again with a new righteous nature. Or will you not be justified until you're in heaven? And that's when you'll be completely sinless. Well, the answer to that question is yes. Yes. All four of them are true. Yes. But rather than argue about the exact nanosecond that we're made justified, let's rejoice that Christ has taken sinners like us and justified them in him. Let's look to Christ our justification.

We're worshiping. If we start looking at when we're gonna get down so many rabbit trails, because we're not looking at Christ. But if we rejoice in Christ our justification, we're gonna worship. and we'll worship together.

What about forgiveness, the forgiveness of our sin? You know the only way God can forgive our sin is if he gave his son the punishment our sin deserves, that he slaughtered his son in order to forgive our sin. Now, if we'll look at Christ and how our sin is forgiven, number one, we'll worship him. And number two, we'll forgive one another. will forgive one another as God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us.

What about peace with God? You and I have declared war on God. This separation between us and God is our fault. We're the one that declared war on God. We're the one that sinned against God and made the holy God angry. And instead of crushing us and destroying the whole human race, do you know what God did? He made peace for the people that declared war on him. And he made peace by slaughtering his son on Calvary's tree to remove the sin that made God angry. God's reconciled because he put the sin of his people. He made peace. And when that same blood that makes the father reconcile, that makes the father be at peace, the blood that took away the sin of his people, when that blood is applied to our hearts, We'll surrender, we'll surrender and there'll be peace with God. And that peace is not because I made my peace with God, it's because Christ made it for me. And that's so precious, that's so precious there's no other way to have peace with God, to have peace of conscience than through the blood of Christ. People paid millions and millions and millions of dollars trying to find a way to have peace of conscience. It's right there in the gospel. God gives it to his people for free. He made peace for us by the blood of his cross.

See, it's all Christ. I mean, I could go on and on. I could go on for the next hour. Everything in the gospel, everything, it is Christ. It is Christ. So let me tell you one more time. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come fall at his feet begging for mercy and begging for forgiveness. Come to Christ. Don't come to a doctrinal position now. Don't come to a doctrinal position. Come to Christ. Because if you come to a person and you love a person and you believe a person, you'll never leave him, you'll never stop seeking him, and he will never quit. showing you mercy, grace heaped upon grace, heaped upon grace, heaped upon grace. You come to Christ because it's all in Him. Men overcomplicate this thing of salvation. God made it so simple. It's all in one person. Now come to Him. Beg God to give you the faith to believe Him. Coming to Christ is right where you sit without moving a muscle, believing Him, believing Christ, trusting Him. And if you trust Him, you have it all. You have everything that God has for a sinner.

All right. I hope I'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together. Our Father, I thank You for this time that You've given to us to look into Your Word to read it, study it, to see Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you would be our teacher, that you would let your people forget the stumbling words of your servant. And Father, that you would speak, that you would be our teacher, and that you would apply these lessons to our heart, that we might believe and cling to and rest in Christ our Savior. Father, we ask this great blessing for ourselves, for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake, that he might get all the glory in saving such sinful men and women as we are. Father, it's in his name. For his sake, we pray. Amen.

All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnals to song number 466 and stand as we sing

Christ liveth in me. 466.

Once far from God and dead in sin,
no light my heart could see.
But in God's Word, the light I found,
now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me.

Oh, what a salvation this,

that Christ liveth in me.

As rays of light from yonder sun,
the flowers of earth set free.
So life and light and love came forth
from Christ living in me.

Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation is that Christ liveth in me.

As lives the flower within the seed,
As in the cone the tree.
So praise the God of truth and grace,
His spirit dwelleth in me.

Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation is that Christ liveth in me.

With longing all my heart is filled,
that like Him I may be.
As on the wondrous thought I dwell,
that Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me.