If you would open your Bibles
with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. I really can't think of a better
way to close out an old year and this year, an old decade
and bring in a new one than meeting together with you and worshiping
our Savior and observing His table. I look forward to our
service tonight. Let me make just two announcements
quickly before we read our scripture reading. Janet got a text from
Shelby Fortner yesterday evening, and they had left the Cleveland
Clinic and were almost to Lexington. They were spending the night
with Faith and Doug. They had arranged a cancer treatment
for Don this morning, and Lord willing, at this very moment,
they are home, getting ready to sleep in their own bed, and
they are very excited about that. prayerful that that recovery
will go well. And this is not the first time,
but the second time our brand new baby Nova based in is here. She is here, right? Okay. She's
here. They had to leave between the services the first time they
were here. So if you didn't get a chance to meet our new baby,
she's here tonight. All right. We pray God's blessing
on her and her family. Hebrews chapter 12. We'll begin
our reading in verse 18. For you're not come unto the
mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, or
under blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of
a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could
not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it should be stoned, or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. But you're come. under Mount
Zion and under the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem
and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven and
to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made
perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the
blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape
not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not
we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven,
whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised, saying,
yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more,
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of
things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain. Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is
a consuming fire. Mike, you come lead us in a song. You would turn to page 236, probably
don't have to turn much though it's got it memorized. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
I'm found, Was blind, and now I see. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed. dangers, toils and snares, I
have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand
years Bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's
praise Than when we first begun Let's turn back to the front
of the book, page 17, Come Thou Fount. Come thou fount of every blessing My heart to sing thy grace, Dreams
of mercy never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung to my flaming tongues above, Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, Mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine heaven and
earth, And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger interposed
His hand. Hold to grace, how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, Prone to leap, the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it, Seal it for thy courts above. Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, and we'll
start in verse 28 and read through the end of the chapter, a familiar
passage. On this New Year's Eve, New Year's
really, we celebrate it as a time of change. We were talking a
little bit back in the study, and we were talking on the way
here, and we look backwards at things, and maybe we see them
as good or bad, but it's change. And we look forward to things.
We look forward to things with hope. And it's change, but that's
really, that's what the celebration is about. It's about change.
Our Lord, our Lord does not change. So with that in mind, starting
at verse 28. And we know, we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. What shall we say then? What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? 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? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Our Holy Father, we have much
to be thankful for. I pray that you teach us, teach
us to pray and to give thanks. Teach us to pray for those things
which are good. I pray that you increase our
faith according to your will and according to your word, that
you give us faith to trust. to trust that all things work
together for good to those who love God, to them who are called
according to your purpose. Father, give us faith to trust
in your purpose, to trust in your character and in your goodness, that all is well, that you're
in control of all things, that in this life, just as in salvation,
we can rest. We can rest in your goodness,
for it is finished. We can rest. faith to trust you
and forgive us our wandering hearts that don't. Father, keep
us. I thank you for the year that
you've given us and for this congregation, this flock of believers,
this time that we have to gather together and worship you. Father,
thank you. What a blessing it is for us
to worship together. Thank you. I pray for the upcoming
year that That your word continue to be declared from this place,
that you continue to bless us according to your will. We pray
that you continue to bless our pastor, continue to give him
messages, and the heart to speak the message from you. Give us
hearts to hear, that we always, at this place, that we always
hear a word from you. Give us ears to hear and a heart
to believe. Father, thank you for seeing
fit to speak to us through Christ. To call your children, to call
sinners to repentance and to the throne of mercy as you've
seen fit. Father, thank you. Thank you
for the good report on Don. I pray that you continue to be
with him and his family. For those who are struggling
with whatever the trial may be, congregation members that are
sick even now or struggling with whatever the trial is that you've
seen fit to bring. Father, I pray that you bring them through it.
Let that trial work your work and accomplish your purpose.
Give your children peace according to your will. Be with us this
evening, that this may be a time of worship, that we may worship
you in spirit and also in truth. And be with us in the coming
year. We pray this thankfully in Christ's name and for his
sake. Amazing love, how rich and free,
that God would set His love on me. all my iniquity and save my soul
eternally. Amazing grace, that Christ would
come to take my place. To bear my sin and then to die,
The Lord demands to justify. it be that Christ would die on
Calvary? For by that death He ransomed
me, from condemnation I am love, O wondrous thought, the
Savior my salvation bought. He drank the cup Of justice dry
To save my soul and justify Amazing love is still my theme For in
that bloody crimson stream My sin and guilt were washed away
When Jesus died, my debt to pay. Amazing love will be our song
when all the ransomed blood got thrown. Our gathered death is thrown. We'll sing of God's amazing love. Yes, we'll sing of God's amazing
grace. All right, open with me, if you
would, in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. I titled the message this evening,
A New Year's Resolution. Hebrews chapter 12, our text
or jumping off point will begin in verse 28. Where the writer says, Wherefore,
we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have
grace. whereby we may serve God acceptably
with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.
Now, the kingdom the writer speaks of here is the kingdom of God's
grace. It's the kingdom of God's dear
son, which God has put all of his people. This is the kingdom
he's put them all into. And this kingdom is a kingdom
that cannot be moved. Now, this kingdom is one of the
things the writer referred to back in verse 27. The end of
verse 27 talks about as of those things, those things which cannot
be shaken may remain. This kingdom is one of those
things that cannot be shaken. It cannot be moved because it's
established upon. It's built upon the grace, the
unchanging grace of almighty God. This kingdom is ruled by
grace. It's protected by grace. It's
kept by grace. So it cannot be moved. Now the
writer says, God has given us this kingdom. He's given us a
kingdom of grace. And he says, since that, so let
us have grace. And that phrase have grace means
let us hold fast. Let us hold fast to grace. The word means let us cling to
grace. Let us cling to grace like a
drowning man clings to a life preserver. Let us be clothed
with grace so that it's with us always, just fits us perfectly,
just like our clothes do. Let us be clothed with grace
and let us be joined to grace, joined at the hip so that we
cannot be separated from it. Now, at this time of year, people
like to make New Year's resolutions. And if you listen to the New
Year's resolutions that folks make, It's always to do better,
somehow to better myself in the next year. I'm going to learn
Mandarin or I'm going to, you know, whatever, get a promotion
at work. I'm going to be a nicer, sweeter person, you know, whatever.
It's always to make themselves better. Well, this is my New
Year's resolution individually and as the pastor of this church. My resolution, God is our helper,
is that we do not leave the best things. I'm not trying to make
us better. My prayer is we don't leave the
bed. We already had the best thing. It's God's grace. And
I want to look at holding to, clinging to, believing God's
grace as a new year's resolution. What does grace mean? What does grace mean? Now we
need God's grace. to enable us to believe in the
first place. We need God's grace to enable
us to cling to his grace in the first place. But that does not
mean just because I must, God has to give me faith. God has
to give me grace. But that does not mean that I'm
just ambivalent about this thing of seeking grace. We're to seek
God's grace. We're to hold on to God's grace
for all we're worth. I tell you, the person who's
going to find Christ is the person that seeks Him with all their
heart. Isn't that right? Well, the person that's going
to have grace, is going to cling to grace, is going to be the
person that's hanging on to it for all they're worth. Now, salvation
in its entirety is of God's grace. It's all of God's doing. We know
that. We know we're completely dependent
on the Lord to save us and to keep us. But we should hang on
to God's grace. Like it depends, us having it
depends upon our grip upon it. We shouldn't hang on to it loosely.
And I am determined to hang on to God's grace with everything
I've got. And it's because I don't have
any other hope. There's no other hope for my
soul. So I'm determined to hang on to grace. I'm determined not
to look away from God's grace. Like I could look and get something
else that could be added to God's grace to make my situation better. That's not so. I am determined,
God is my helper, to preach nothing but God's grace and to never
compromise the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. I am
determined to be motivated by God's grace, not for hope of
gain, of blessing from God, but to be motivated purely by God's
grace. That's clinging to grace. Now,
the only kind of grace that will save a sinner is God's grace. It's God's grace. You can describe
it many different ways, but the only kind of grace that will
save a sinner is the only kind is grace that only God can give.
It's God's grace. And there's no way anyone can
fully describe God's grace. God's grace is infinite because
God is infinite. And I spent the better part of
my waking hours on Monday Looking at every place in scripture,
the word grace is used a lot of them. And I want to give you
11 words from the word of God that describe God's grace. And I want to look at each of
these and not just see what the description of it is, but to
see our motivation to cling to this grace. And I, and that's
a lot of points, but I promise you, I will be brief. At first,
I want you to look at Genesis chapter six, Genesis chapter
six. This is the first. time we find
the word grace used in Scripture. And the first time the word grace
is used in Scripture tells me some things about God's grace.
You know, the old timers used to talk about the law of first
mention. Whatever a word means, the first time it's mentioned
in Scripture, that's what it means throughout. Well, the first
time this word grace is used in Scripture makes some things
glaringly obvious to me about God's grace. And number one is
this. God's grace is electing distinguishing grace. Genesis
six, verse five. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And he
repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it
grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air. For
it repenteth me that I have made them. And nobody can blame God
for doing it. That's what they deserve then.
That's exactly what we deserve now. This is still man's nature.
Our heart is only evil continually. But, oh but, Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Now there were millions of people
alive on earth at this time. And God was going to destroy
the earth. And God chose to spare only Noah and his family. God
chose to spare eight souls out of millions of people on earth. Now that is electing distinguishing
grace, isn't it? God made a difference between
Noah and everybody else on earth. And Noah didn't deserve to be
spared. Noah had the same wicked heart. There was only evil continually,
just like every other son of Adam. He didn't deserve to be
spared. How did this grace come to Noah?
He didn't earn it. He found it. Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And you know why Noah found grace?
Because God gave it to him. That's how he found grace. And
nothing's changed from then until now. God still has a people. It's a remnant. It's a small
number, but God has a people. On this planet, he is elected
unto salvation. The Apostle Paul said in Romans
11 verse 5, even so then at this present time also, There's a
remnant according to the election of grace. God has an elect people
and God's still yet saving them. I know he is. You know why? Because
the gospel is being preached. That's how God saves his people
through the preaching of the gospel. God has an elect people
and he's still saving them, saving them by his grace, saving them
through the preaching of the gospel of grace. Then brethren,
let us hold fast to electing grace. Because electing grace
is the only hope of salvation any son of Adam has. No son of
Adam will ever choose God. No son of Adam would ever choose
God's way of salvation in Christ unless God chose them first. Then let's claim that grace.
Let's claim it. Let's preach that grace. Let's
never back off this glorious truth of God's electing grace. Every other blessing God has
for his people flows from this fountain, the fountain of God's
electing grace. All right. Number two, God's
grace is saving, delivering grace. Noah was saved by grace, wasn't
he? Peter tells us God spared not
the old world, but he saved Noah. He saved him from the flood.
That's saving grace. Noah was saved from drowning
in the flood. because he was in the only place
of safety on the whole earth was safe from the wrath of God,
from the water that came from above. Noah was safe in the ark. Noah built that ark and God called
him in, didn't he? And who shut the door? God did. God shut the door. He shut Noah,
kept him safe inside that ark. And the picture here is that
salvation is found in Christ. Salvation is found by being in
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only place of safety from the wrath of God against sin and
God's wrath against all sin. The sin of every son of Adam
who ever lived is going to fall. It's either going to fall on
you or fall on your substitute. If you're in Christ, that wrath
falls on your substitute and you're saved from wrath, just
like Noah was saved from drowning in the flood. Now this is the
glorious doctrine of representation. You cannot understand the gospel
without understanding the truth, the teaching of representation.
God sees the whole human race in one of two representative
men. He doesn't see us in ourselves and individually. He sees us
in one of two representative men, either the first man, Adam
or the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you think of the blessing.
God sees us in one of those two representations. You think of
the blessing of being found in Christ, the Son of God, and not
found in Adam. You think of the blessing of
that. In Adam, what is there in Adam? Unrighteousness, sin. What's there in Christ? Righteousness.
What's in Adam? Death. What's in Christ? Life. In Adam, all die, the apostles
said. And in Christ, all are made alive.
In Adam, we're thrust out of God's presence. In Christ, we're
accepted. Accepted to come before the throne
of grace boldly, anytime you want, anytime you need. Oh, the
blessing to be found in Christ. And the only way a sinner can
be found in Christ is by God's grace. We can't earn it because
everything we do is sinful. Salvation is not by works. Salvation
is by grace. And that is the best news a sinner
has ever heard. Salvation is by grace. The worst of sinners have hope
of salvation if there's salvation by grace. Now, salvation is by
works, by your morality, by your religious ordinance and ceremonies
and things. Then the worst of sinners, they
could be shut out, couldn't they? But if salvation is by grace,
there's hope. There is salvation for the worst
of sinners. Oh, I'm so happy. Peter, he's
preaching in Acts 15 said this, we believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there he's talking there
about the Gentiles. We should be saved even as they, he didn't
say they're going to be saved same way we are. He said, we'll
be saved even as they. If you and I are going to be
saved, we're going to be saved the exact same way, the worst. I mean, you just get in your
picture in your mind, the worst, the most heinous, the most vile
sinner you can think of. Got that picture in your mind? How could that person be saved?
Only by God's grace. Isn't that right? If you and
I are going to be saved, we're going to be saved by the same
grace. Salvation by grace. opens up salvation for the worst
of sinners, then let us hold fast to saving grace. Let's hang
on to it because it's the only hope of salvation we have. It's
by being in Christ. What do you find? What do you
find outside of Christ? The writer of the Hebrews said,
a consuming fire. The only hope of salvation we
have is by being in Christ. Then let's hold fast to grace. saving grace and not depend on
our works, not look to our works to improve our relationship with
God for even one second, but depend on Christ and Christ alone. All right, here's the third thing.
God's grace produces obedience, the obedience of faith. God told
Noah to build an ark and Noah got busy building an ark, didn't
he? He built that ark in faith. Because he believed God. He believed
God was going to send rain on the earth. No one had ever seen
rain. Nobody had ever seen rain. It never rained on the earth.
But God said it's going to rain and no one believed him. No one
believed this place is going to flood. So he built an ark
just like God told him to. And he believed that there's
salvation in that ark. He believed it. He believed God.
This is the surface the writer to the Hebrews talks about. He
talks about serving God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
We serve God acceptably by believing Christ. That's how we do it,
by believing Christ, through faith in Christ. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. Then let's cling to this grace
that produces faith, that produces the obedience of faith. The obedience
of faith is to serve the Lord. When you serve the Lord and do
whatever it is God's given you to do. Whatever it is, whatever
God puts to your hand to do today and tomorrow and throughout the
rest of this year, whatever it is God gives you to do, you do
with all your might, serving the Lord. You serve the Lord. You be faithful to his cause.
And you serve the Lord doing all that without ever trusting
in anything you do to add to your salvation. You do everything
God gives you to do, still trusting Christ alone. Not looking, not
depending on your works in any way. And the best way I can illustrate
that is this. Noah built that ark. He never
went to engineering school. He never went to mariner school
to learn anything about shipping or tackle or boat building at
all, did he? Noah built that ark, but he did
not trust his life to his ark building ability. He trusted
his life to God. That's the obedience of faith.
All right, fourth, look at Exodus chapter 33. Here's a good reason to cling
to God's grace, because grace is God's greatest glory. Exodus chapter 33, verse 18. And he said, Moses here speaking
to God, I beseech thee Show me thy glory. And he said, I'll
make all my goodness pass before thee. And I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
And he says, thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man
see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there
is a place by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock and it shall
come to pass while my glory passeth by that I'll put thee in the
cliff of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass
by. And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back
parts, but my face shall not be seen. Now Moses, you think
about this man Moses, and he was born in Egypt in You know
the story how his mother ended up raising him? She taught him.
He knew he was the deliverer. He was taught who God is. He
taught the gospel all this time. He was a little fella growing
up. He ran from Egypt and spent 40
years on the backside of the mountain. About the time Moses
spent so much time alone with sheep, he forgot how to speak
to human beings. He whistled to sheep or whatever.
He forgot. I mean, this is a prince of Egypt.
He'd been alone so long, he forgot how to speak to people. He was
shy and backwards. He was just like a hermit up
there. That's where he wanted to stay.
And God told him, go down there to Egypt and tell them I said,
let my people go. And here he goes. I remember
Brother Henry talking about Moses getting his staff and heading
back across that desert toward Egypt. And Henry said, you're
getting kind of old for that kind of work, aren't you, Moses? Off he went. He went
down there and stood in front of Pharaoh and said, God said,
let my people go. Moses spoke to God in that burning
bush. Moses saw all the plagues, all
the wonders in Egypt. Moses saw that first Passover.
Moses saw the Red Sea part. He crossed over and all the people
crossed over. He turned around and saw Pharaoh's army drown
in that Red Sea. He saw the pillar of fire, the cloudy pillar. And after all that, Moses said,
God, would you show me your glory? Moses, haven't you seen enough
miracles? Haven't you seen enough wonders? You know why Moses asked that?
He knew there's a greater glory of God than these miracles. There's
something greater. I want to see it. I do too, don't you? I want to
see it. And Moses asked God, show me your glory. God said,
all right, Moses, I'll show you my glory. It's so great you can't
see it and live. This is my greatest glory, Moses.
And what did he do? God revealed to Moses sovereign
grace. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. Nobody can get me to, I'll do
it just because I want to. God's greatest glory. And you
know, people get, well, to quote our friend Dale
Simpson, they get fuzzed up about this. The wonder here is not
that God is going to pass by somebody. It's not just that
God's going to pass by whom he'll pass by. This is the miracle.
God's greatest glory is he'll be gracious to anybody. The almighty
God, holy, righteous, just would be gracious to anybody, to any
sinner and all they've done ever sin against him. And God's still
going to be gracious to him. That's God's greatest glory.
Not because they did anything to deserve it. Not because there's
anything good found in them, but because who God is. He'd
be gracious to those people. See, grace and mercy are God's
to give and that God would choose any sinner to save and that he
take them and just like he did for Moses, put them in the cliff
for the rock, put them in Christ, the rock of ages as he passes
by. So they'll live. Oh, that's God's
grace. That's his greatest glory. Brethren, Let's cling to God's
greatest glory for all we're worth. I want to see God's glory. That's what I pray for every
day. God, would you reveal yourself in your glory, your power, your
mercy to your people? Then let's seek it. Let's seek
God's greatest glory and his sovereign mercy to sinners. And
by God's grace, now we've seen it. This congregation has seen
God's grace. God's been so gracious. But let's do everything we can
to see more of it. Let's do everything we can to
learn more of it, more of God's sovereign grace. So I tell you
this, the more we learn of it, the more we'll rest in Christ,
the more peace, the more happiness, the more joy that we'll have.
As a church body, let's be sure of this, that we are doing everything
we can to preach this grace to the lost. Let's do everything
we can. There is nothing more important
than preaching the gospel of God's grace to the lost. Let's
start right at home with our families, our little ones, our
families that don't know. Let's preach the gospel. Let's
do everything we can to be sure we're preaching the gospel to
them and to our community. Let's be sure we're preaching
the gospel of God's grace to them. Let's be determined. to spread this gospel as much
as the Lord will allow us to do, because this is the great
need of all of us, beginning with us and everybody else. I
now look across the page at Exodus chapter 34. God's grace is pardoning
grace. Exodus chapter 34 verse 8. And
Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let
my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it's a stiff-necked people,
and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. Lord, pardon our iniquity. This is what Moses prayed. Lord,
we're stiff-necked people. We're rebellious people. Pardon
our iniquity. Not because we're any good, but
because you're gracious. Pardon our iniquity because you're
gracious. David had the same plea. He said,
oh Lord, pardon my iniquity for it's great. It's great. Now,
I haven't read all the details about it, but a pardon, a governor's
pardon has been in the news a lot recently. There are a lot of
people up in arms about some votes that the outgoing governor
of the state of Kentucky pardoned. And they're real upset about
it. I don't know where they should have it. I don't know any of
the details about it. But when a president or a governor governor
pardons someone, I guess it's fine if they do
that. They've got constitutional powers to do it, and that's fine.
But justice is not served. Justice, no, that person is under
the sentence of the law, and all the governor, the president's
doing is saying, you don't have to serve at all. They can go
free. They go back home to their family,
and I'm sure they're real happy about it. But justice has not
been served. Almighty God can't pardon like
that, can he? Justice has to be served. God cannot do anything
that's unjust. If God would let the sinner go
free, he wouldn't be just. That would not be right. It wouldn't
be just. So when God pardons, he doesn't ignore sin. He doesn't
violate his justice. He satisfies justice when he
pardons his people. By punishing Christ our substitute
to the fullest extent of the law. To pay for everything that
sin requires. And once Christ has paid the
debt, he's paid the debt with his broken body and his shed
blood. Now God can pardon injustice
because Christ took the sin of his people away. God does not
punish his sin for his people because he punished Christ instead,
in their stead. Now to me, that's the height
of grace that God would kill his only begotten son, the son
of his love. God killed him. The father thrust
the sword of justice himself into the heart of his son so
that he could show mercy, so that he could pardon wretches
like you and me. If that's not what grace, I don't
know. If that's not grace, I don't know what is. Then let's make this our determination.
Let's cling to that grace. Let's cling to it. There is no
hope of pardon. I have no hope of pardon. Because
I sin less than somebody else. God's not going to pardon me.
I'm like David. My iniquity is great. My iniquity is as great
as anybody else's. So let's cling to this grace.
The only hope we have of pardon for our sin is that the Father
punished Christ as my substitute in my place. And even though
my sin is great, where sin abounded, grace did much more. because
of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right. Sixthly, look in the gospel of
John chapter one. God's grace is in Christ. That's where it's all found in
Christ. John one verse 17. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now the law came by Moses. God gave the law, but he gave
it to Moses. It came to the people through Moses because God gave
it to him. And that law is perfect. But in that law, you'll not find
anything of forgiveness, of salvation, of righteousness, of life. You'll
find no acceptance with God. The law certainly gives no rest,
does it? It gives no hope and no peace.
The law always gives you more to do. I don't care if you've
been perfect up to now. You've got to keep being perfect. You've
got to be perfect forever to the day you die. And how are
you going to die if you don't ever break the law? See, you'll
be perfect forever. There's always more to do. There's
no rest. But grace came by Jesus Christ. Grace comes to sinners
because Christ earned it. But the end of verse 14 tells
us that Christ was full of grace and truth. He's full of it. And
sinners receive grace from Christ because he's full of grace. He's
full of truth. There's plenty for every sinner
that needs it. Verse 16 says, and of his fullness,
how he's full of grace. That's how we've received and
grace for grace. We've received grace from Christ's
fullness. It's all in Christ. It's all in Christ. That means
none of it's in me. None of it's in you. None of
it's in the law. None of it's in the ceremonies.
None of it's in religion. It's all in Christ. It ought to be obvious. Let's
seek Christ. Seek him. Seek him alone. And
if we're clinging to the grace that's in Christ alone, we're
clinging to him. You know what we'll do? We'll
seek him. We'll seek to be saved by him.
We'll seek to be made righteous by him. We'll seek to seek to
be accepted of the father by him. We'll seek to know more
of him. Let's make Christ our aim in
everything we do. Let's make Christ our aim in
everything. And if we make Christ our aim
in everything, I'm just real sure we'll find God's grace because
it's all in Christ. All right, now look at the book
of Romans chapter three. Romans three. Here's the seventh thing. God's
grace is justifying grace. Romans three verse 24. Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Now to be justified is to be
made without sin. The only way a sinner can be
justified is to have no sin, is if Christ took our sin away
from us and took it into his own body upon the tree and put
it away by his sacrifice. That's how our sin's been put
away. But if we're going to have a nature, a heart, a man that
is justified, that has no sin, that has never sinned, God the
Holy Spirit has got to do something in us He's got to give us a new
nature. He's got to cause us to be born
again with a nature that has never and will never sin. Justification
is not to be made just as if I'd never sinned. God can't deal
with as if. God can't deal with pretend.
Justification is to be made so that I have never sinned. That's
the man born in the new birth. That's the man born of God. Then
let's hold fast. to God's justifying grace. If
we're holding fast, if I'm holding fast to something, this is what
I believe, this is what I cling to, this is the mountain, I'm
going to stand on this now, justifying grace, then we're never going
to claim to be better or less sinful than other people. Even
the heathen, even those who are steeped in false religion, let's
not claim to be better than them because that's not so. Now is
it? If that was so, we wouldn't need
justifying grace, would we, Eric? I mean, that's just not so. Our
only hope of being sinless before God is God's justifying grace
in Christ Jesus. Then let's seek to be found in
Christ and not in our own rags of righteousness. All right, eighth, this is second
Corinthians chapter 12. This is very applicable. to many of our number right now.
God's grace is sufficient grace. Not long after I'd first become
pastor, someone I used to know and work with asked me if I Spent
a lot of time in hospitals and holding people's hands and telling
them everything's going to be all right. Anyway, I had that conversation. It's a sorrow for me to be called
to one of your bedsides and the Lord's calling you home. I'm
glad for you. Sorry for your family. God help us not to be the person
that runs around holding everybody's hand, tell them it's okay when
it's not. I'm thankful I can tell God's
people everything's under control. God's grace is sufficient. Second
Corinthians 12 verse nine. He said unto me, my grace is
sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. I know there's a lot of things that we need in this
life. I mean, you gotta have food and clothes and shelter. You gotta have those things.
You gotta have money to buy the things that you need. It comes
in mighty handy down here, bub. You gotta have it. I know that.
And we pray, don't we pray, for relief from sickness and pain
and suffering the effects of sin. And those things are needful. But there is one thing we need. I mean, we need, that we must
have. And it's God's grace. It's God's
grace. Can't stand before God without
it. I don't say this to all men without
exception, but I say it to every believer without exception, to
every child of God without exception. The word of God says, whatever
you are enduring right now, God's grace is sufficient for us. It's
sufficient. And whatever it is that we're
suffering, that makes us weak, that makes us so desperately
need God's grace, makes us call out to God for help, whatever
it is that's causing that weakness and that sickness and that pain.
Do you know what? It's good for us. It's good for
us. Because the weaker we are, the
more we'll realize how dependent we are on God's grace. And it's
good for us. God's grace will be sufficient. for every step of your life.
It'll be sufficient to save, God's grace will be sufficient
to strengthen, it'll be sufficient to comfort, and it will be sufficient
to bring you to glory by grace and grace alone. Then let's let
our determination to be dependent, to be completely dependent on
God's grace and never depend upon the arm of the flesh. The
power, the strength, the wisdom of the flesh, let our determination
be that we're going to depend upon God's grace. It'd be best
for us, if we would, to become less independent and more dependent,
more dependent on Christ. All right, ninth, look at Galatians
chapter one. God's grace is calling grace. Galatians chapter one, verse
15. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." God's
grace is calling grace. Remember, the first thing we
looked at was electing grace, wasn't it? God chose a people
to save in eternity. God the Son came to redeem those
people. to save, to redeem them by being
their representative, by obeying the law for them and giving them
his righteousness. Christ came in the flesh to be
the sacrifice, to be the perfect lamb, to be sacrificed for the
sin of his people. All right. How do we know that
all of those people will be saved? How do we know none of them are
going to perish? I mean, it's a number no man can number. If
you can't count them all, how are you going to know if one's
missing? Here's how I know not one will be missing. Because
God, the Holy Spirit, will call them to Christ by His grace.
And what a gracious call that God, the Holy Spirit, would call
a rebellious sinner who spent all their life long being rebellious
to God, that He call them to come to God's Son. Well, when? When's He going to do that? I'd like for him to do it right
now, wouldn't you? I think that the Lord is dealing with some
of our number right now. The Lord's dealing with them.
And I would like to see the Lord call them to Christ right now.
I mean, tonight, right at this very minute. I'd like to see
that. But when is the Lord going to do it? When it pleases Him. When it pleases Him. And here's
how you can tell. Let our determination be to depend
upon God's calling grace. We're resting on it. We're depending
on it. We're clinging to it. And here's
how you can tell if a preacher especially is clinging to God's
grace. If a man will continue to faithfully
preach Christ to people and leave them alone with God. And I try
to talk him into some decision. I try to talk him into walking
an aisle. I try to talk him into some sort of profession of faith.
Just leave them alone with God. A person who's clinging to God's
grace is going to trust God, the Holy Spirit knows how to
do this whole lot better than I do. And he'll call them when it pleases
him. And if I'm really clinging to
God's grace, I'm going to be satisfied to wait on him to do
it. God help us to do that. That's a good resolution, isn't
it? Right now look at Ephesians chapter 2. God's grace is a free gift. It's free. Verse 10. I'm sorry, verse 8. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Grace
is the free gift of God. It comes to us through faith.
I tell you what that means. It means you can't purchase it
by your works. You can't purchase it by your morality. You can't
make yourself more likely to get it because you're better
than somebody else. It's a free gift of God that comes to us
through faith. God-given faith in Christ. Salvation is not of works, lest
any man should boast. God's going to get all the glory
in this thing. The salvation of His people. We read there
in Romans 3, 25, we're justified freely. Freely. It's a free gift. The writer to the Hebrew says
we received this kingdom. We didn't win it. We didn't conquer
it. We received it because God gave it to us freely. Then let's
make this our determination that we're going to live depending
upon God's grace. And I think God's going to be
impressed with our good works. Now, the believers told to be
zealous of good works. Be zealous of it, and you ought
to. Be zealous of good works. Be zealous in the service of
this kingdom. But don't ever think God's impressed. Don't ever think that God's going
to give you more crowns or a better place in glory because of it.
No. The only way we can be saved
is God's free grace, his free gift. All right, last, look at
2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians, verse 2. God's grace gives a good hope
to a hopeless sinner. Second Thessalonians 2 verse
16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which hath loved us and has given us
everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts, establish you in every good word and word. God gives
his people a good hope through grace. And it has to be through
grace, doesn't it? There can't be any hope in anything
we've done. Because everything we do is full of sin and corruption,
self. The only hope of salvation a
sinner has, and I mean a sinner now, is God's grace. My hope of salvation depends
upon me being faithful to the day I die and always being able
to You know, just preach the gospel and Jonathan may not have
good hope. Seen a lot of old people lose
their minds, haven't you? Wouldn't be good hope. Wouldn't be good
hope. If my hope of salvation is dependent
upon I amass enough good works, it's not going to happen. I mean, it's not going to happen.
But if the only hope that you're left with, you can't find any
hope anywhere except in one place, in God's grace. That's the only
hope you have. That's a good hope. Christ is
enough if he's all you got. God's grace is enough if it's
all you got. Then let's cling to God's grace. Let's cling to it as a hope of
eternal life, as our hope of forgiveness. The writer to the
Hebrew says in chapter 13, that we should seek to be established
in grace, be rooted and grounded in grace so you can't be moved
away from it. The Apostle Peter said we should cling to grace
and seek it constantly so we can grow, grow in grace and the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I believe pretty
good New Year's resolution for us is to make grace our And if we do that, I'm confident
we'll grow in grace in this new year, 2020. I have no idea what this new
year will hold, but if the Lord enables us to make grace our
aim, to make this our resolution, it'll be a good year. And like
Jonathan said, there'll be a lot of changes. I mean, wow, from
a year ago till now, Wow, a lot of changes in there. A lot of
changes. You know what hadn't changed? God's grace. The message
of grace. The way the message God uses
to save his people, to teach his people, and to comfort their
hearts. That hadn't changed. So let's make that our aim this
year. Let's seek God's grace. Seek
God's grace. All right. I hope that'll be
a blessing to you. We're going to observe the Lord's table now
to close our service. So Wayne, you men come. the street
of the bread for us, if you would. Anytime we observe the Lord's
table is a very special time. Our Lord told us to do this in
remembrance of him, to remember him, his sacrifice. As we take
this Bread in a few moments, you chew it, you feel it crunching
between your teeth. You hear it being ground in your
mouth. That's to remind us our Lord's
body. He was made flesh and he was ground under the wheel of
God's justice. His blood was shed so that his
people would have grace. Special time, special person,
savior to remember. The Apostle Paul's instructions
to the Lord's table, 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, he says, For I
have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed,
took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said,
Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. This do in remembrance of me. Wayne, would you give thanks
for the bread? After the same manner also he
took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show, you do tell throughly
and teach the Lord's death till he comes. Well, Mike's going to come lead
us in a song, and our ladies have prepared what my experience
tells me will be some very delicious snacks and things to eat. We
can sit around fellowship for a little while before everybody
goes home. So I hope you all can stay for that, and that you
all have a very happy New Year. Mike, you come lead us in a song. Let's stand and sing 520, 520
to the tune of the Church's One Foundation. Another year is dawning, dear
Father, let it be waiting another year with thee,
another year of leaning upon thy loving breast, another year
of trusting, of quiet, happy rest. Another year of mercy,
of faithfulness and grace. Another year of gladness in the
shining of thy face. Another year of pride. progress, another year of praise,
another year of proving thy presence all the days. Another year of service, of witness
for thy love. Another year of training for
all your work above. Another year is dawning, dear
Father, On earth or else in heaven, another
year for thee.