So in our Bibles, again, to second
Timothy chapter one. There are many people. To think
this is the very last epistle that the apostle Paul wrote,
and I don't know if that's so or not, but I do know that it
was written in the very last days of the apostles life. He
was in prison at Rome and he knew very shortly he would be
executed for preaching the gospel. I don't know if you're like me,
but I kind of wonder. I wonder about Paul at that time,
what he was thinking about, what was going through his mind, what
things were on his heart. And if you wonder those things,
you really don't have to wonder for very long. The epistles that
he wrote from prison there tell us what was on his mind, what
was on his heart. The apostle Paul was very concerned
about the spiritual welfare of believers. those that he had
met, those that he preached to, those that he had not met, but
had heard about their faith and love for Christ. Paul was very
concerned that after his execution, that the gospel would continue
to be preached. He had warned the Ephesian elders
before he left Ephesus to go to Rome. He warned them what
would happen if they stopped being faithful to preach the
gospel. And he told them, you'll see my face no more. He was very
concerned. These men will keep preaching
the gospel. He knew some of them wouldn't. He knew their grievous
wolves would rise up from that very group. And how they wept
when he said, you'll see my face no more. But Timothy was the
pastor at Ephesus at that time. He was in that meeting of those
elders. Paul looked at Timothy, his son
in the faith. He loved him so much he saw those
tears on his cheek. That's what he said, I'm mindful
of your tears. That was in his mind. He was
concerned about Timothy. So he writes Timothy the second
epistle to encourage him to continue to preach the gospel no matter
what happens. It seems as if Paul is passing
the torch to the next generation. Paul's words of encouragement
to Timothy are also words to us to encourage us to be faithful
to preach the gospel in our day. But I don't know much about Timothy's
ministry after the Apostle Paul went on to be with the Lord.
I'm sure his ministry was not the same as the Apostle Paul's
was. And the same thing is true in
our day. Our ministry is not the same as different ministries
we've heard of in the past, but we're called on to be faithful,
to preach the gospel to our generation, to serve the Lord in our day.
I was recently in a meeting, and a number of people there,
it surprised me how many people were there, who first heard the
gospel through the tape ministry of Brother Henry. The very first
time they ever heard the gospel was on family radio from either
Brother Henry or Brother Fortner. And I remember those days. I
remember when they got on family radio The gospel was being preached. They were the only fellows on
that station preaching, but they're preaching the gospel. And it
was exciting. That was an exciting time. I
remember those those days in the late 80s and early 90s. But
now don't ever forget this. Don't sit here today and yearn
back for those days. Those days are gone. That's not
our ministry. That's not our day now. It seems like the 80s
are to me just yesterday, but they weren't quite a ways. This
is our day, 2016. This is our day to preach the
gospel. Don't forget this. God hadn't
changed. God's still in the business of
saving sinners. He's still saving his people.
And who knows what small things, things that seem small or insignificant
to us, that God may be pleased to use to have his gospel be
preached to somebody somewhere today, here or somewhere else. It might be. That's what the
Lord's doing with the internet today. Who knows? Just like he
did family radio years ago. And I understand that the work
here today is different than it was in the 70s and 80s and
90s. I was recently down at Pikeville. Brother Tom Harding has, I don't
know how many years it is, but starting in 1980, he has every
bulletin. He's got them all laid out in
order. And he's taking the articles Brother Henry wrote from the
1980s, got them all compiled in this little pamphlet. And
now he's starting on 1981. I was just flipping through those
bulletins, you know, just like, wow, I remember that. I remember
that. And Henry was going somewhere. I mean, every week he was just
going somewhere preaching the gospel, rushing back to get home
late Sunday night to preach to us Sunday morning. Well, it's
different. It's a different ministry here
now than it was then. But you know, the Lord may be
pleased. Maybe he'll be pleased to save hundreds, thousands.
It could be he's pleased just to save one. You know, hearing
the gospel is just as vital to that one as it would be to thousands. And that one is mighty important
to God. God chose that one. He set that
love. Mike just sang about. He set
His love on that one. He sent His Son to die for that
one. The name of that one was on the
heart of the Savior as He suffered at Calvary. God sent His Son
to seek and to save that one that was lost. That one's pretty
important, isn't it? Then it ought to be important
to us to be faithful. Even if it's just to that one.
to preach to that one, to preach the gospel wherever and to whomever
God gives us the opportunity. So it's my prayer as Paul charges
Timothy here, you'd be faithful to preach this gospel, that we'd
be faithful to preach this very same gospel. And I want us to
look at that gospel. Paul gives us specifically that
gospel here. That's what I want us to look
at for just a few minutes this morning. The title of the message
is the testimony of the Lord. Let's begin reading in verse
8, the testimony of the Lord. Paul says, be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me his prisoner, but
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. Now Paul tells Timothy, don't
be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. This testimony, he's
speaking of the testimony of the Lord is the gospel. It's
the testimony of the gospel. Your witness comes to court and
gives testimony, don't they? The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth and he gave testimony. His testimony was this. How does
God save sinners? Paul tells Timothy, now, don't
you be ashamed of that gospel. It's the witness of Christ. It's
the testimony of how God saves his people. The testimony of
our Lord is the gospel that gives us testimony of who the Savior
is. What he did, why he did it, and
where he is now. This gospel, this testimony,
tells us who Christ is. It tells us of his glorious person.
It tells us about his righteousness. It tells us about his glory.
It tells us how in unspeakable love and mercy and grace, how
he suffered for sin and how he put that sin away. It tells us
of his resurrection because he did indeed put that sin away.
This gospel tells us where he is now. He's at the right hand
of God at this very moment making intercession for his people,
making intercession for you who believe this man, making intercession
for me as I preach the gospel to you. This gospel is the testimony
of his return. He's coming back to get those
that he redeemed. They may be with him where he
is. This gospel is the testimony
of his eternal kingship. The Lord Jesus Christ is King. This glorious testimony is so
glorious because it all concerns the glorious person of our Lord
Jesus Christ. So Paul is right to tell Timothy,
don't be ashamed of that now. There's nothing to be ashamed
of there. It's all glorious. And here's another reason. Don't
be ashamed of this testimony. This gospel of Christ that we
preach is the only gospel God uses to save sinners. What a
gospel. This is the gospel of peace.
The gospel of peace with God. Boy, it sure causes a lot of
division among men, doesn't it? This is the gospel of peace,
yet it causes a whole lot of war with the flesh. That's what's
going on with Apostle Paul here. He wasn't in prison because he
did anything wrong. He was in prison for preaching the gospel.
They were so determined to shut him up, they're going to put
him in prison and cut off his head if they had to, to silence
him. That's how much the enemies of
Christ hated the gospel being preached. And today, men feel
the same way. If they can't put you in prison
and cut your head off, they'll do everything they can to stop
you from preaching now. from preaching the gospel, they
will. They'll make your life miserable. They'll do everything
they can to discredit you so people won't listen to you preach.
And don't ever expect that to change. It never will. I'll tell
you when Satan really starts to attack is when God really
starts to bless. That's when he begins to attack.
And that's why Paul told Timothy, now, Timothy, you endure with
the hardness of a soldier. You're going out on the battlefield
to preach this gospel, you battle, you contend for the glory of
Christ. You contend for the souls of
God's people. It seems like Paul's telling
Timothy, now Timothy, now it's your turn. Paul had shouldered
much of the burden, hadn't he? All the hatred had come to him,
the beatings, all the jailings, all those things had come to
him. But he tells Timothy, Timothy, when I'm gone, they're going
to turn to you. Now it's your turn to shoulder the burden.
It's just like I told you in the class this morning, right
here today. Now it's our turn to shoulder
the burden. It's our turn to take up this
burden to preach Christ our generation. We are to clearly preach the
testimony of the Lord. Well, what is the testimony of
the Lord that we're to preach? What is this gospel that God
uses to save his people? Well, Paul describes it here
beginning in verse 9. Who have saved us? and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according
to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
whereunto I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher
of the Gentiles." Now, here's my first point, the testimony
of the Lord. is that salvation is eternal. Paul says here that God hath
saved us. Now that's past tense, isn't
it? God hath saved us. Well, how past tense is it? Is it past tense back to when
I believed or I made a decision? No, it's got to go further than
that. How far back do we got to go? How far past tense is
this? You got to go all the way back to eternity. Paul says,
I'll tell you when this salvation was given to us. Before the world
began. Paul's making it sound like here
God's elect have always been justified, like they've always
been. Nobody's making it sound like they've always been saved.
Well, he's making it sound that way because that's the way it
is. God's people in the mind and purpose of God have always
been saved. It's what men call the doctrine
of eternal justification. I'll tell you what that means.
In the mind of God, God's elect were justified before time began. That was God's purpose. And God's
purpose can't fail, can it? Because God's God. He always
accomplishes His purpose. He always accomplishes His will.
God can't change. So if His people are justified
in Christ now, they've always been justified in Christ. And
they can never lose that justification. They can never lose that salvation
because God cannot change. That's eternal salvation. It's
eternal salvation because of who did the saving. Who did the
saving here? God did. Paul says, He hath saved
us. We need to get this out of our
head. We're not saved because we made a decision. We're not
saved because we walked in Nile or were baptized. He hath saved
us. That's something, salvation,
justification, is something that's already been done by God. God
purposed it in eternity. And then he created the world,
put Adam in the garden, gave Adam one law, just one rule. Adam don't eat that tree. And
Adam did it. You know why God didn't destroy
Adam the very moment he ate that fruit? because there were a people
in Adam. There are people who would come
from Adam's loins who were already justified before Adam fell. It
was impossible for them to be destroyed because the Father
had already put them in Christ, their surety. They were already
saved. Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. Salvation is eternal. And here's
the second thing. The testimony of the Lord declares
this. It declares God's sovereignty and salvation. I tell you, a
lot of our doctrine would be fixed if we just get this through
our fixed goals, through and into our heart. God had to put
it there, that God's God. Now, if we understand that, our
theology will be a whole lot better. God's God. First, the
testimony of the Lord declares this, that God saved a people
in divine power. in power that only God has. Only
God has the power to save a sinner. If salvation were left up to
you and me, we'd all perish. Because we're dead. We're spiritually
dead. We're powerless to do anything.
But God, who has all power, used that sovereign power to do for
his people what we could never do for ourselves. He used that
power to save them. He hath saved us. And second,
the testimony of the Lord declares God's sovereignty and salvation
in this way. It declares that God saved a
people in divine election. Paul says he had saved us. He saved a specific people. Well,
who's the us? It's God's elect. Look back in
Ephesians chapter one. This us is God's elect. Christ came to save them. Ephesians 1 verse 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according
as he hath 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 himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will. Now, who's the us
and the we there? They're the ones that God chose.
They're his elect. And those people shall be saved. No doubt about it. Not because
they did anything good to deserve it, but because of his own will,
of his own free will, of his own purpose, of his own goodness,
he chose to save them. He chose to set his love and
affection on them, and he gave them to his son to redeem. The
testimony of the Lord declares God's sovereignty and salvation.
Third, the testimony of the Lord declares that the salvation that
was purposed by God in eternity was accomplished in time by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says here in verse 10, but
is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
God's purpose to save a people is an eternal purpose. And from
the time of creation all through the time of God's dealings with
Israel, that purpose was always hidden in the types and shadows
of Christ in the Old Testament. And all those Old Testament types
of Christ, God's purpose was hidden there. It was always God's
purpose to save his people through the obedience of Christ, not
through our obedience, through the obedience of Christ. It was
God's eternal purpose to save his people through the sacrifice
of Christ, not by animal sacrifices, but by the sacrifice of the Lamb
of God. But we couldn't see that very
clearly, could we? We can only see it in the pictures
and the types and the shadows. God's purpose of salvation, how
he's going to save his people from their sins, didn't become
crystal clear until Christ appeared. One day, a child was born. The son was given. He grew and
throughout His earthly ministry, He gave us this testimony. This
is how God's going to save His people. He went to the cross
and suffered and He died and He rose again. He sent it back
on high. And we say, oh, now I see. Now I see what He was saying
there. Now it's obvious. Righteousness can't come by me
keeping the law. Adam couldn't keep one, much
less pages and pages and pages and pages of law. No, it can't
come by my obedience. It's got to come by the obedience
of Christ. Now I see, because he came and
accomplished it. Once Christ came, now it's obvious.
Sin could never be put away by animal sacrifices. The blood
of animals, it's impossible for it to take away the sin of a
man. but through the sacrifice of Christ. Now I see that's how
God removed the sin of His people. Now it's obvious. We have rest
in Christ. Not in a day, not in a Sabbath
day, not in a ceremony. Our rest is in Christ. Now it's
obvious because Christ came and made it obvious. That was His
testimony that showed us clearly how God saves His people. The
Lord Jesus came and He undid everything the first Adam did
to us. Adam, by his disobedience, made all his people guilty. Christ,
by his obedience, made all of his people innocent, made not
guilty. Adam was disobedient to one law. Christ was obedient
to the entire law of God. Adam, that law, oh, what a burden. Christ put the burden of the
law away. He kept it. The burden of the law is gone.
And Adam brought death upon all men. We live under this specter
of death. We're going to die. Unless the
Lord returns, we're going to die. But Christ our Savior came
and he abolished death. He abolished it. You know how
he did it? By dying in the place of his people. Christ abolished
death. He destroyed death. by destroying
the sin of His people. Sin is what causes our death,
isn't it? Well, Christ destroyed the sin. He put the sin of His
people away. How did He do that? How did He
take the sin of His people away? Well, the Father, in His divine
power, made His Son sin for His people. And Christ willingly
took it. He willingly took all of the
sin of His people into His body on the tree. And then He died
for it. He suffered and died. He shed
his blood to remove that sin, to cleanse from all of our sin. The blood of Christ made the
sin of his people to not exist. Well, now sin's gone. Through
the death of Christ, sin is gone. Then death is too, because sin
is what causes death. Whoever it is that Christ died
for can never die, because their sin has been purged in the blood
of Christ. Now, these bodies will die. We'll never have the
second death. We'll never have the eternal
death. Christ destroyed death by taking the power of death
away from his people. Christ died for his people. He
died in their place so they can never die. You know why? You already died in the person
of your substitute. So you can never die. The death
of these bodies has absolutely no consequence upon our souls. Other than this, it will set
our soul free to go be with our father. The death of these bodies
cannot bring about the second death of a believer because our
sin has been already purged, already been put away, removed
by the death of Christ. When Christ died, he took the
power of death away because he took the sting of death away,
which is sin. He came in time and he accomplished
God's eternal purpose of redemption. That's the testimony of the Lord.
Fourth, the testimony of the Lord declares this, that salvation
is applied through the preaching of the gospel. Paul says here
that God hath saved us. And he said he called us to,
he called us. Now, everybody the father chose,
the son died for. And everybody the father chose,
the son died for, the Holy Spirit's going to call. Well, how does
he call them? He calls them through the preaching
of the gospel. You know, to be saved is to know
Christ. Look in John chapter 17. This
is what our Lord said in his great high priestly prayer, to
be saved is to know Christ. John 17 verse three. And this is life eternal. that
they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. To be saved is to know God. Well, how can a sinner come to
know God? How can we ever know God? How can we ever know the
Lord Jesus Christ? It's only through the call of
the gospel, by hearing the gospel preached. It's by hearing and
believing Christ preached. I can show you that in Romans
chapter 10. God reveals his son to his people
through the preaching of the gospel by exactly what we're
doing right now, by preaching Christ. Romans 10 verse 13. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how should they preach except
they be sent? Oh, how are they going to do
that? God's got to send them a preacher. Now, could God save
sinners without them hearing the gospel? Of course he could. God can do anything. But he won't
do it. He won't. He's going to save
his people by the preaching of the gospel. Now, it could be. It could be. God would reveal
himself to you when you're reading the scriptures. Absolutely. You
could be reading one of the messages of the apostles. You could be
reading the scriptures and God could reveal himself to you.
He could, because this is the seed that God uses to give life.
But more than likely, you're going to be like the Ethiopian
eunuch. You're going to read that and say, I don't know what
that's saying. And God's going to send you a
preacher. and he's gonna preach, he's gonna preach Christ to you.
You say, oh, now I see. All of us, pretty much, are just
like that eunuch. We need some man to guide us,
to preach and guide us to Christ. Almost always, when somebody's
saved, it's because God sends them a preacher. Look at 1 Corinthians
chapter one. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 21. For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom, by its natural wisdom, knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified and the Jews a stumbling block under the Greeks foolishness.
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. How are they called?
How are those called so they see Christ the power of God and
the wisdom of God? Through the preaching of Christ.
How in this world can Christ ever be revealed to anybody if
Christ is not preached to them? God calls his people through
the preaching of the gospel. Well, you know what that tells
me? That tells me that what we're doing here every Sunday, every
Wednesday, is vitally important. Because by God's grace, we're
preaching Christ. And I tell you this often, and
here's why I covet your prayer so much. What man is sufficient
for these things? Who could ever preach Christ
unless God enables them? I'll tell you the other thing
I pray for. You pray for me as I preach and pray for everybody
else here that they listen. No man sufficient for these things,
either to preach or to hear, unless God gives us the ability,
unless he sends his spirit to bless. If the spirit does not
uphold me and able me to preach Christ to you, I won't be preaching,
I'll just be talking. And if the spirit doesn't give
you ears to hear and a heart to believe, you're just hearing
the words of men. But thankfully, this is our confidence
in preaching. This is our confidence in gathering
together as a congregation to preach the gospel. This is our
confidence. This I know the Holy Spirit is
going to call out his people to the preaching of the gospel.
And he must have a people here. He must. He's raised up a pastor. He's raised up this group. God
must have a people here. And that's our confidence to
continue preaching. It's our confidence in preaching.
It's my confidence to study and prepare and to preach. And it's
your confidence to support the ministry and come here every
week to hear it. That's our confidence. God's
going to save his people and he's going to do it through the
preaching of the gospel. Now, let me give you two reasons
why this salvation is so sure. It's guaranteed. The will of
God and the grace of God. Here's the fifth thing, the testimony
of the Lord declares that salvation is by the will of God. Now, it's
not too simple to say salvation has to be by the will of somebody,
doesn't it? It has to be by the will of somebody. Here's the
question, who's the somebody? Salvation is not by the will
of man. Salvation is by the will of God,
Romans chapter nine. Romans 9 verse 15. For he saith to Moses, this is
what God said to Moses. This is, this is God's word.
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
And you want to know what that means? It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It
means this. That man can't decide to get
saved. Can't do it. Man can't decide
to let Jesus into our heart. We can't decide to accept Jesus
as our personal Savior because salvation is not by the will
of man. Our will is dead. Our will is controlled by sin.
We can't do those things. Man cannot. Run after God and
get God to save us because of our efforts. Can't do it. Salvation
is by the eternal will of Almighty God. Now that's good doctrine,
but it's a whole lot more than good doctrine. That's the believer's
comfort. That's the believer's hope. God's
will and God's purpose shall be done. I forget exactly the
way he phrased it, But that was one thing Brother Wayne thanked
God for to open our classes. That God's will shall be done. That's our confidence. That's
our hope. Whatsoever the Lord please, that's
exactly what He did. In heaven, in earth, the sea,
in all deep places. Whatever He's willed, that's
what He's done. And that's cause for joy and
thanksgiving. God's will of salvation shall
be accomplished. God's purpose of the redemption
of his people cannot fail. That's our comfort. That's our
confidence. And then lastly, the testimony of the Lord declares
this. The salvation is by the grace
of God, by his grace. I told you earlier when Christ
came, he made God's way of salvation obvious by his testimony. He made God's way of salvation
so plain. And now we don't have to only
look at the picture anymore. I love those Old Testament pictures
of Christ. If it were up to me, I would
just always go to the Old Testament. I love those Old Testament pictures
of Christ. And I'll tell you why I love
them. Because now I know what they mean. Now I can see them
because the New Testament shows us how Christ fulfilled all those
things. Now we see clearly. because we
see Christ. Not as clearly as we will someday,
but we see him, don't we? And I'll tell you what the Lord
Jesus Christ made so abundantly obvious. Salvation is by grace. Christ made an end of the law. You who believe, the law's got
nothing to do with you. Don't look to the law. Don't
look to the law as a rule of life. Don't do it. You want a
rule of life? Look to Christ. Don't look to
the law as a way to make yourself savable. You want to find salvation? Look to Christ. Whatever it is
that's in your head you're looking for, look to Christ. He made
an end of the law. Salvation is not by works. It's
by grace. We don't hang on. We didn't get
our salvation by works and we don't hang on to it by works
either. Salvation from its beginning to its ultimate perfection is
by grace. Paul tells us this salvation
wasn't earned. He said it was given to us. That's
exactly what grace is. God giving us a free gift, giving
us what we don't deserve. Salvation. Is by God's collecting,
distinguishing, regenerating, keeping abundant grace. Salvation is by grace. What other explanation can you
think of for Noah? More. Why wasn't Noah destroyed
in the flood just like everybody else? It had to be because Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah wasn't any better
than anybody else. He had the same horrible rotten
nature as everybody else. Want me to prove it? After Noah
spent 120 years building an ark and preaching righteousness,
God put him in the ark, God shut the door, Noah saw it rain for
40 days and 40 nights. He saw the floodwaters rise.
They floated on top of the floodwaters in the ark for no telling how
long. He saw every human being on the face of this planet except
for him and seven of his family members in that ark perish. He
saw every animal on the face of the planet perish, except
for those who were in the ark. God finally made the floodwaters
recede. That ark landed on dry ground. Noah got out and started building
life, started farming, started doing all those things. And so
quickly, you know what we find Noah doing? Getting drunk and
lying in his tent naked. Why didn't God destroy Noah?
For the same reason he didn't destroy him in the flood. God's
grace, grace greater than all of our sin. How else could you
describe Lot? Has to be by grace, doesn't it?
Do you read of Lot doing one thing right? Can you find one? I can't. How can you explain
him? It's grace. You know why Lot
wasn't destroyed in Sodom? He knew Sodom was going to be
destroyed. He lingered. He lingered, grabbed hold of
him, and took him out. You know why? Grace. Grace. And Lot saw that. He chose that plain. That rich,
well-watered plain. He chose to live in that city
with those people. Even though it vexed him, he
chose to live there. He went and hid in the mountains.
And one day he looked back and that place where he lived was
leveled, just a black spot on the earth. He thought, my goodness,
God spared me from that. That's God's grace. And then
you know what he did? He produced two sons from incestuous
relations. Why didn't God destroy him? Just
how wicked, why didn't he destroy him? The same reason he delivered
him from Sodom. Grace. And the apostle Peter
begins to write. And he writes about old Lot,
who we can't find ever doing one good thing. He never did
anything right. And you know what Peter called him? Just Lot. You know why? Grace. Lot was justified by grace before
time began. His actions had nothing to do
with it. Now there's no excuse for him. I'm not excusing him.
I'm just saying this. His justification, his salvation had nothing to
do with what he did. It had everything to do with
God's grace in Christ Jesus. What other explanation can there
be for Saul of Tarsus? God changed his name to Paul.
He's writing this letter to Timothy. God saved that rebel, blasphemous,
injurious man. God called him by his grace.
God made him one of the greatest preachers of his gospel to ever
live. Is there an explanation for it? The only one there is
is grace. Salvation is by grace. What other explanation is there
for me? What other explanation is there
for you? It's only grace. Only grace. Do you believe his gospel? Do
you hear Christ preach? Do you believe him? Do you love
to hear him preach? Why? The only explanation is
God's grace. Oh, may God be pleased to make
us faithful to preach this gospel, the gospel of grace in our dear
Savior. We sure ought to be, shouldn't
we? Let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for the testimony of our Lord. How we thank you for its clarity. It's so plain and easy to understand. Everybody here this morning understands
this is the testimony of the Lord. It's not difficult to understand
you made it so plain. Yet in our flesh, we won't believe,
we won't bow, we won't surrender. How we thank you for your will
and your purpose of redemption. That you sent your son without
any input of our own to wash away the sin of your people,
to make us righteous in him, to make us righteous through
his obedience. That you sent your spirit without
any input of our own to give life in the new birth, to cause
us to be born again. to receive the gift of repentance,
to receive the gift of faith, to look to our Lord Jesus Christ
by your pure, sovereign, bottomless depths
of your grace to your people. Father, we're thankful. And how
we pray that you continue to be merciful, that you continue
to be gracious to your people. Father, cause us to be faithful
Give us a heart of faithfulness to this ministry, to preach the
gospel, this testimony of our Lord to our generation, to our
family, to our neighbors, to our friends, to this community.
Father, how we pray you bless your word. You still have a people. How we pray that you'd save them,
that you'd call them out, that you'd reveal your son to them
and in them through the preaching of your word. And we're thankful
to know you will. And we bow to your sovereign
will, knowing that you will accomplish all of your purpose. And we're
thankful. In the precious name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we give thanks and we ask that you'd bless your
word as it's been preached this morning.