Good morning. For our scripture reading this
morning, if you would turn your Bibles to Proverbs chapter two. We'll read verses one through
nine. While you're turning, Frank,
he texted me yesterday and told me that send everybody his love
and that they're having a wonderful time. So he wanted everybody
to know that. So now if you got your Bibles
to chapter two of Proverbs, he says, My son, if thou wilt receive
my words and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline
thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding,
Yea, if thou cryest after knowledge, and lifteth up thy voice for
understanding, if thou seeketh her as silver, and searcheth
for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the
fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord
giveth wisdom out of his mouth, and cometh knowledge and understanding.
He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a buckler
to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the path of judgment
and preserveth the way of the saints. Then shalt thou understanding,
righteousness, and judgments, and equity, yea, every good path. John come and lead us in the
call of worship. Light up this house with glory,
Lord, the glory of Thy love, which calls and saves a church
below and makes a heaven above. We deck no priestly shrine. What need have we of creature
aid? The power to save is Thine. this place light. Grant us, thy spirits, quick
be mine, a fresh supply of grace. On us thou hast bestowed thy
grace. Be to our children kind. Among thy sheep give them a place. And leave not one behind. If you would now turn in your
hymnals to song number 442 and we'll sing Praise Him, Praise
Him. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms, He carries them
all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus, who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals, loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Now if you would turn your Bibles
to Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 1 through
10. And while you're turning, Sorry,
Brother Rex, this morning I forgot to introduce you. Small mistake. So anyway, I'd
like to do that now if I could. We have with us Brother Rex Bartley
and his wife Debbie. And he preached us a wonderful
sermon already this morning. So after I read and pray, you
come back and do the same. All right, Ephesians chapter
two. And you, hath he quickened? who were dead in trespasses and
sin, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, among
whom also we had our conversation in time past in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But
God, I love that. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. It hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, and
two good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. We thank you, Lord, what a blessing
it is to read these words, these words of grace, and that's why
we've come here this morning, Lord. is by your grace are we
saved. That's the blessing in which
we have read and heard and lived by. We know, Lord, it's only
by your grace. Grace only through faith only
and in Christ only is our only means in which we can and we
will enter into eternal life. And that's what our prayer is
this morning, Lord. Teach us, show us thy glory, thy grace,
the mercies that lie in thy grace, the perfections How that we're
made perfect by the perfections of your Son, our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Our only acceptation that we
can enter into the kingdom of God. Teach us, Lord, show us
these things this morning. Be with Brother Rex this morning
as he preaches to us your gospel. Bless him, Lord, in your word,
those words in which you have laid on his heart. Let him bring
unto us in a way of spirit, in a way of truth. We pray for those,
Lord, who may not know these things, especially our families,
Lord, our loved ones, each and every one of them. We want them
to know these things also, Lord. And we also pray for those in
whom you have brought into these troubled times, very, very troubled
times. We pray for them, Lord, that
they would look to you, look to the Lord Jesus Christ for
these things also, for there they can find peace and rest
and they can find true healing through him. All these things
we ask in Christ's name, for Christ's sake only. All right. Brother Rex, if you would, come
preach us to God. Well, again, let me say that
it is indeed an honor to be here and stand in this place. Debbie and I moved to Danville
in October of 1974. And the Tates were living there
at the time. So as they say, we go way back,
way back before any of us had any gray hair. But it is indeed
good to be with you all. I so often, when I I'm about
to undertake this task. Think of the words of that song,
brethren, we have met to worship. And there's a line in that that
says, all is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes
down. And I can read and study and
read you my notes and make my best effort, but if the Spirit
of the Lord doesn't accompany what I have to say, then we've
pretty much just wasted a lot of gas. We could have just as
easily stayed home. So I pray that the Lord will
bless His Word. I ask you to pray for me as we
look at 1 John. Turn with me to 1 John. The book
of 1 John chapter 3. 1 John chapter
3. I just want to read the first
five verses of this chapter and look at the deep, deep meaning behind
these five verses. 1 John 3, verse 1, Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. The world knoweth us not, because
it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
the law, also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.
And we know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in
him is no sin. John begins his chapter with
the word, behold. Stop what you're doing and contemplate on the wonder that God has redeemed
a bunch of wretched sinners. John says, look in amazement
at what our God has done for us. Look at the manner in which
He displays His love toward sinners. This word manner, it means the
way in which something is done, the way one behaves toward and
deals with another. So John is saying to those to
whom he is writing, look at the unbelievably merciful way that
our God deals with His elect. Stand in awe, he says, in the
manner in which our God displays His love toward wretched sinners. But we have to ask this. Why
would God deal with us in such a manner? He's infinitely holy.
We're sinful. He's righteous. We are utterly,
by nature, utterly depraved. He's merciful. We're hard-hearted. He's good. We're evil. Now, did
he have anything to gain by showing love toward wretched sinners?
How could one who already possesses all things have anything to gain
by redeeming a bunch of worthless sinners? Everything was and is already
His. So what reason would God possibly
have for loving us? 1 John, this same book, 1 John
4, 16 tells us this, God is love. Now we have to understand, love
is as much one of His attributes as holiness, righteousness, goodness,
justice, mercy. Our God must have an object on
which to bestow his love. Now certainly that love was to
his eternal son, but much more than that, the love of our God is so abundant
and overflowing that he chose a number that no man can number
to be the recipients of his love. As our God is infinite, so are
His attributes, including His love. It is absolutely boundless. God the Father simply loved us
because He would. It says, for so it seemed good
in His sight. Now there's an old saying, action
speaks louder than words. And that certainly applies here.
God the Father doesn't just talk about loving His people. He puts
that love into action. Now we read and rejoice in those
familiar verses in Ephesians chapter one, blessed be the God
and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us. unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the pleasure of His will. He did all of what we just read
because He felt like it. It seemed good in His sight. And of course, there's that oh
so familiar verse that we love and that the religious world
likes to quote wrongly. They like to apply it wrongly. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have eternal life. This is the greatest demonstration
of love that this world has ever seen, or ever will see. Christ told his disciples this,
greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. Our pastor, Don Fortner, many
of you knew him, many of you heard him preach. He read us
a hymn from time to time that is a great description of the
magnitude of God's love toward his elect. This is the last verse
of that hymn. Could we with ink the oceans
fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of
God above would drain the oceans dry, nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky." Then our text in 1 John tells
us the result of God's love toward us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Contemplate those words for just
a minute. The sons of God. The sons of the One who created this universe.
The sons of He who holds all power. The sons of God. We cannot begin with our feeble
minds to imagine what those words mean. Not forgotten sons. God
only has one of those, but adopted sons. Made His by adoption. That adoption that was predestinated
before the foundation of the world. We just read it in Ephesians
1. But in order for that adoption to take place, something had
to happen first. And it was spoken of by Paul
when he wrote to the Galatians in chapter 4, verse 4. But when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law to this end, to redeem them that
were under the law, that, or in order that, we might receive
the adoption of sons. Without redemption, there is
no adoption. In order to become a son of God,
you must be every bit as holy, every bit as righteous as God
himself. And if you know yourself halfway
like I do, you know that there is not even a remote possibility
in and of ourselves. Not gonna happen. The only way
that happens is that we're cleansed and we're made righteous by the
precious blood of Christ. Men like to brag about being
descended from royal blood, from kings and princes. There is no
more royal blood than to be called a son of the living God. Our Lord told His disciples in
Matthew 5, verses 43 and 44, He said, He have heard it that
it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy. But the Lord said to them, I
say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despisably
use you and persecute you. And God the Father most certainly
demonstrated those principles which our Savior expounded by
the manner of love in which He displays to His people His love
for them. I want to look at these four
things for just a second. In this 44th verse, Christ lists
four things, and they are impossible for us to do unless God gives
us grace to do them. It's not in my nature, and it's
not in your nature to do them. But our Heavenly Father did them
all. These are truly amazing. I want you to listen to these
one by one. Commandment number one. Christ said, love your enemies. Now in Romans 5, Paul's describing
how that we are justified by faith, how that we have access
by faith into the grace wherein we stand, how that we rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. How that in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly, those that were the exact opposite of anything
holy and righteous, ungodly. But God the Father commended
His love toward us. The Scriptures tell us, while
we were yet sinners, enemies to the Holy God of this universe.
This is the manner in which John speaks of. The manner in which
the Father showed His love toward us. Verse 10. 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. Paul
wrote similar words to the Colossians in chapter 1 verse 21 when he
said this, and you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. Commandment
number two that the Lord said, bless them that curse you. Now, I'll be honest with you.
This is something that I have a really hard time with. And
when someone is openly and strongly making their hatred toward me
known, either by word or action, one of the hardest things in
this world, for me anyway, is to meet that cursing with a blessing.
Not so with our blessed Lord. When He stood falsely accused
before Pilate, He spoke not a word, so that Pilate marveled. Our God magnificently displayed
this principle of blessing them that curse you and the redemption
of lost men and women. In Romans 3, there is a description
of the nature of us, of fallen man. And verse 14 states that
their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. David wrote a
similar description of lost men and women in Psalm 10. Starting
in verse 7, he wrote this. His mouth is full of cursing
and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief
and vanity. He sitteth in the lurking places
of the villages. In secret places doth he murder
the innocent. Which is what the free will of
man did to our Lord Jesus Christ. It murdered the innocent. And
we're born with mouths that are full of cursing. We curse our
fellow man. We curse God by nature. But because of the love that
He had toward us, toward those chosen in Christ Jesus, in untold
ages of eternity past, our God blesses many who used to curse
Him. That is amazing. And the way
this is accomplished is stated in verse 3 of Galatians 3. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. This is the manner of love in which God puts into practice
these words, love your enemy. Bless them that curse you. Commandment
number three that our Lord gave, do good unto them that hate you.
Do good unto them that hate you. We're born with minds that hate
God Almighty. People don't like to admit that,
but it is true. Because Romans 8, 7 tells us
this. Because a carnal mind is enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. It is an impossibility. This
word enmity is an interesting word. It means a deep-seated
hatred, hostility, and animosity toward another. The natural mind
is enmity against God. We're born with it, and that
old nature which with we are cursed shall never lay down that
enmity toward God Almighty until it goes into the ground. It's
always there constantly. within us. But very few people
will actually declare, there's a few, that I'm an atheist, I
hate God, I hate the very mention of God. But very few people will
actually say they hate God. They reply when you say this,
I don't hate God, and by that they mean that they don't hate
the God that exists in their own mind. A God who stays in
the background like an obedient servant until he's needed. We've
seen movies where rich people maybe are having a dinner and
there's servants, a couple of them, standing in the background.
And the owner may say, James, clear the table. And James clears
the table. goes and stands back in the corner.
And that's how people see that they're God. It's just like,
just stay in the background until I need you and then I'll let
you know what I need and you can get that done and then go
back to the corner. But you declare to men and women
the absolute sovereign God that is proclaimed in this book and
they will hate both you and the God that you proclaim. They'll
shout that such a God is a monster. They will speak of the God you
set forth in the same way that Thomas Jefferson did in a letter
to John Adams. Jefferson was a man that, as
a historic figure, I greatly admire. He was used mightily
of God, like many of our forefathers who did not know God, but they
were used in the establishment of this nation in which we enjoy
such freedom. But Jefferson was a child of
the Enlightenment, and he wrote this in a letter to John Adams. Jefferson was a prolific letter
writer. He wrote this. Listen carefully
to what Jefferson wrote. I can never join Calvin, speaking
of John Calvin, I can never join Calvin in addressing his God.
He was indeed an atheist, which I can never be, or rather, Rather,
his religion was demonism. The being described in his five
points is not the God whom you and I acknowledge and adore,
the creator and benevolent governor of the world, but a demon of
malignant spirit. Mr. Jefferson, as so many of
the sons of men had no idea who the God of this book truly was. He had his idea of God, but he
was not even remotely close. Commandment number four that
the Lord gave, and pray for them which despisefully use you and
persecute you. This again is exceedingly hard
to do. It's against everything in our
natural way of thinking. to pray for someone who's doing
everything they can to make our lives miserable. Yet that is
exactly what our Lord Jesus Christ did when He hung suspended between
heaven and earth, being made a sacrifice for the sins of His
elect. I love that hymn, Blessed Redeemer, especially that verse
that reads, Father, forgive them, thus did He pray, even while
His lifeblood flowed fast away, praying for sinners while in
such woe, no one, no one but Jesus ever loved so. As our Lord was suspended on
that Roman cross, He looked through eyes probably nearly swollen
shut from the beating He had received. And He looked out into
the faces of many who were celebrating His agony and He loved them. Because they were among those
for whom He was dying. Just try to imagine that. We
hear of the sacrifice of our Lord and we rejoice in it. But there were many that actually
witnessed the sacrifice of this Lamb of God in person, who a
short time later were made aware that that sacrifice that they
had witnessed in person was that which had purchased their redemption.
We know this from what we read in Acts chapter 2. Turn there
with me if you'd like. Acts chapter 2. Now from what I've read, There were literally thousands
who witnessed the Lord's crucifixion. They say it was by a busy road
that men and women used to travel. It was up on a hill, so it was
well within view. And it was Passover, so consequently
there were thousands in Jerusalem at the time. But when I say that
our Lord looked into the faces of those who were cheering His
death and loved them, This is why I say it from this account.
Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 22, Peter declares, You men of
Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel of foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. You did this, Peter tells them. And he drives the point home
again in verse 36. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus,
whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ, And in the very next
verse, we read of many who had celebrated the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, crying out, men and brethren, what shall we do? To which Peter replies, repent
and be baptized. And our merciful God. I find this astounding. That day alone, our merciful God saved about
3,000 of these men who had had a direct hand and cheered the
crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ prayed for those
who despised and persecuted Him, even unto death when He prayed
this, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And
God the Father answered that prayer by saving about 3,000
souls on the day of Pentecost. But I feel sure that it didn't
stop there. I feel sure that through the
preaching of the disciples and the witnessing of those who were
saved that day, that many others who also witnessed the death
of Christ in person came to a knowledge and a saving faith of Him. This
is what John wrote of here in our text, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us. Ephesians 5, 2, and walk in love
as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Because of His unimaginable love
to His people, our Lord Jesus Christ willingly bore the punishment
due to their sins. In Isaiah 9, or I should say
in Isaiah 63 verse 9, this is an amazing verse. It says, in
all their affliction, He was afflicted. And the angel of His
presence saved them. In His love and in His pity,
He redeemed them. And He bared them and carried
them all the days of old. In their affliction, we read,
He was afflicted. This is described so well in
that familiar text in Isaiah 53. Surely, He hath borne our
griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet, we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. In their afflictions, he was
afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Our afflictions became his afflictions
as he bore the punishment that was due our sins. He carried our sorrows so that
we would never know the sorrow borne by those condemned to the
pit of the damned. And in the same way that our
afflictions became his afflictions, so his righteousness became our
righteousness. Blessed substitution. Next in verse 9 of Isaiah 63,
and it says, and the angel of his presence saved them from
the moment that one of God's elect is conceived in the womb.
Did you know, have you ever thought about the fact that when you
were conceived in your mother's womb, your mother was immortal
until she bore you. She could not die. You were one
of God's elect. You must come forth and be born
into this world. From the moment we're conceived
in the womb, we're overseen by guardian angels, preserved until
the time of love, until the time that the Spirit of God brings
faith in Christ and gives us the ability to believe on Him
who's able to save to the uttermost. David said in Psalm 9, verse
3, when mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish
at thy presence. And in Psalm 91 we read, there
shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy
dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep
thee in all thy ways, preserved from the very things that would
destroy us until the time of redemption. This very text is
quoted by Satan himself in Luke 4.10 when He took the Lord to
Jerusalem and set Him upon a pinnacle of the temple and bid Him to
cast Himself down. And we're told in Psalm 103 that
the angels of God excel in strength to do His commandments. Now,
God the Father doesn't send someone to watch over His elect who are
not equipped to do so, to protect His chosen ones from all harm.
No, He sends His angels who are extremely strong, who excel in
strength that we're told. But as strong as angels are,
both the angels of God and the fallen angels, they cannot override
the purpose and the will of God when it comes to save sinners
ever falling from grace. Paul wrote this to the Romans.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things to come, nor things
present, nor height, nor depth, or any other creature shall be
able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. So powerful is the saving blood
of Christ that it is impossible for a redeemed sinner to ever
fall from grace. There's not a force in this universe
that is able to make that happen. Then also in verse 9 of Isaiah
63, it says, in His love and in His pity, He redeemed them. This word pity means sympathy
and sorrow aroused by the misfortune and suffering of another. And
in Jeremiah 31, 3, our God says this, yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. An everlasting love. is one that
has no beginning and no end. We talk about things that are
eternal. You ask someone, what does eternal life mean? They'll
say, oh, that means life that never ends. No. In order for
anything to be deemed eternal, it has no beginning and no end. So is the love of God toward
His chosen elect. It never had a beginning. It never will have an end. Psalm 103.13 says, as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. But because God the Father chose
to take pity on His elect people, there was no pity, there was
no mercy to be had for His Son when our
sins were laid upon Him. In Psalm 69, verse 20, it tells
us as much, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. And I looked for some to take
pity, but there were none, and for comforters, and I found
none." Our blessed Lord died alone, though
surrounded by thousands, He died alone, forsaken even
by His Father, with whom He had dwelt in perfect unison for untold
ages of eternity past. Ezekiel 511, it describes the
attitude of our God toward those that
sinned against Him, and it is a good description of how God
dealt with His Son when He was made sin. This is what it says. Wherefore,
as I live, saith the Lord God, surely because Thou hast defiled
my sanctuary with all Thy detestable things, and with all Thine abominations,
this is our sin laid upon Christ. Therefore will I also dismiss
thee, neither shall my eye spare, neither will I have pity. There was no mercy shown to our
Savior when he was made sin. God took no pity on his son as
he hung on that Roman tree, because by imputation he deserved every
last ounce of wrath that was poured out upon him. and it was
poured out without measure. The Scriptures tell us that God
is angry with the wicked every day. So how angry do you suppose,
how furious was our God when all the sins of all the elect
were found upon His Son? God has never been as angry as
He was that day because there has never been such a concentration
of sin to be found upon one man in one place as Christ took upon
Him the iniquity of us all. And Ezekiel 7-9 gives us a similar
description of how God the Father viewed His Son as He hung between
heaven and earth paying that awful price for our sins. It says this, speaking of God's
attitude toward Christ. And mine eye shall not spare,
neither will I have pity. I will recompense thee according
to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord, that smiteth thee." Our Lord Jesus Christ knew who
it was that was pouring out His wrath upon Him, which is why He cried out, My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Because of our sins He was smitten
of God and afflicted. Isaiah 63 goes on to tell us
more of what our God did when it says that He not only took
pity, but that He bare them, speaking of His people. I already
quoted verses 10 and 11 of Psalm 91, but let me read verse 12.
Speaking of the angels of God, it says, They shall bare thee
up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. The protective hand of our God
is carried out using His angels that watch over us every moment
of our lives. And it says, He carried them
all the days of old like the good shepherd who picks up that
lost sheep and carries it on his shoulders. Our Lord carries
us by His good providence all the days of our sojourn here,
both before and after we come to faith in Christ. But this
verse means even more than that when it says that our God carried
us all the days of old. It is speaking of Christ carrying
us in His very heart before this world ever existed. We have always
been in Christ from eternity past. We sometimes use the term
we were put in Christ and yet There was never a time we were
put in Christ. We have always been in Christ. That is how He has carried us
from the days of old. But there is even more to this
verse than that. We love to talk about the pervenient grace of
God in our lives. But we have to understand, folks,
that that grace of God in our lives goes all the way back to
Adam. because God had to preserve everyone
in our family tree all the way back to Adam in order for us
to be born and one day come to a saving knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Innumerable circumstances where
our ancestors had to survive wars, diseases, persecutions,
genocide, plagues, and every other imaginable evil in order
for us to be born and later to be given faith in Christ. I know this on a personal basis. Debbie and I, a few years ago,
went to Gettysburg, and I had done some research on my family
tree. My daughter had given me an ancestry
membership, where you send it in and they tell you about your
family tree. Well, I did some research on
this, and my great-great-grandfather, fought in the Virginia Infantry
for the Confederates at the Battle of Gettysburg. And we found out
when we went to Gettysburg, there were 50,000 killed and wounded
out of 150,000 men. And our guide, who we had that
day, I asked him, he had a little book that told about all the
different divisions and regiments in the Civil War. And I said,
what about the 41st Regiment, Virginia Infantry? He looked
it up and said they were in the heat of the battle for three
days. And in searching through my family
history, I found that I think his name was Isaac Bartley, my
great-great-grandfather, survived that battle unscathed and father
to son three years after the Civil War. If he had died at Gettysburg,
I wouldn't be standing here talking to you today, but in our God's
providence, it could not happen. I think
it was Stonewall Jackson that once declared, there's no such
thing as a stray bullet. And that's the truth. This, then, is the manner in
which the triune God demonstrates His love toward His chosen ones. So let me conclude with a word
to those who may be sitting here today, may hear this in the future,
that do not know our Lord Jesus Christ in saving faith. You've
heard of the loving kindness of the God that we worship, of
His goodness and His mercy and His grace toward His chosen people. But the Scriptures also tell
of another side of this Holy God. It warns that this is a God who
will by no means clear the guilty. It warns that the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. It warns that God is angry with
the wicked every day, that the wages of sin is death. You need
to understand that this God whom you've offended by your life
of sin, that outside of Christ, He is nothing but judgment and
wrath. But there is hope for you, lost
man or woman, everyone who's sitting here today, who now find
themselves vessels of God's mercy, or once as you are, without faith
to believe. But the God of all grace did
something for them, and maybe He will one day do something
for you. He gave us faith, the gift of
faith, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. None of us are
better than you. None of us are smarter than you.
It was not our choice to believe on Christ. It is the inescapable
result of the faith that is given by God to His elect. But there
are some things that a lost man or woman can do. Not to recommend
yourself to God. but to put you in a position
where maybe, just maybe, God may be willing to show you mercy. Number one, you can put yourself
under the hearing of the Gospel, the free and sovereign grace
of God, the Gospel of Christ and Him crucified. The Scriptures
tell us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word
of God, the preached Word of God, the hearing of how Christ
died for sinners. Number two, you can read the
scriptures and seek the Lord in those holy inspired pages.
And number three, if God gives you a heart to do so, you can
plead to him for mercy like that publican that prayed, God be
merciful to me, the sinner. None of these things will guarantee
your salvation, but it is a sure thing that you will never come
to Christ without these things happening. So to those who are sitting here
that know the Lord and save in faith, I hope we never lose the
wonder of the manner in which our God displays His love toward
us. Thank you for your attention. Brother Rex, what a blessing. I mean, I don't
guess I've ever heard our Lord magnified in the way in which
we just heard it. It was truly, truly a blessing. Thank you. John, come to Smith. If you would, turn in your hymnals
to song number 299 and stand as we sing Day by Day. Day by day and with each passing
moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my
Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause to worry or forfear. He whose heart is kind beyond
all measure, day what he deems best. Lovingly, it's part of pain and
pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest. Every day the Lord himself is
near me, with a special mercy for each hour. All my cares he
faith would bear and cheer me, he whose name is Counselor and
Power. The protection of his child and
treasure is a charge that on himself he lay. As thy days thy strength shall
be in measure, this the pledge to me he made. Help me then in every tribulation,
so to trust thy promises, O Lord, that I will Thy face with consolation
Offered me within Thy holy Word. Help me, Lord, when toil and
trouble meeting, E'er to take as from a father's hand. One by one, the days, the moments
fleeting, Till I reach the promised land.