I appreciate Brother John inviting
me to meet with you this morning and bring you a message from
God's Word. I want you to turn in your Bibles
to the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. Let's bow for
prayer. Our Father, we do thank you for
this Lord's Day. We thank you for the privilege
of meeting here together with so many dear friends we've loved
for so very long. Ask your Lord to bless the Word
as it's preached. Leave me not alone. Give me the
power and presence of your Holy Spirit. Make your Word to be
effectual. to every heart for the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Pray, dear Lord, for the pastor
this morning and for all pastors everywhere who are preaching
the gospel of our Savior. Make the gospel to run well,
if it be thy will, and make the gospel to be effectual to every
heart. We pray it for Christ's sake.
Amen. I'd like to begin reading with
verse 6, 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 6. Now here's my subject. The
God of all grace. I've got a good subject. The
God of all grace. Verse 6, listen to it. Humble
yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. that
he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him,
for he careth for you. Now be sober, serious, solemn,
vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist and fast
in the faith, that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. Now verse 10, here's my text
and I'm going to read it slowly and read it phrase by phrase
and I want you to listen very carefully. But the God of all
grace, the fountain of every blessing, that's our God, the
giver of every gift, the source of all mercies, life, and love. The God of all grace is our Father,
which art in heaven. And the God of all grace, the
next line says, who hath called us unto His eternal glory. It's His glory, not ours. He made the covenant of grace.
He chose us. He included us. He gave Christ to redeem us.
He justified. Translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. That's the God of all grace and
the only one who can do all those good things. But the God of all
grace who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Jesus Christ. Now watch this. After that you
have suffered a while. Our God had only one son without
sinning. He doesn't have any sons without
suffering. After you have suffered a while. I'm glad he added a while, aren't
you? Not forever. God only had one son without
sinning. and doesn't have any without
suffering. For our Lord suffered the cross, the cruelty of the
cross to atone for our sins. It is given unto you, Peter,
Paul said, to believe on Christ. And it's also given to you to
suffer for Christ's sake. It's given unto you to believe
on Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. Whom the Lord loves,
He chastens. If you be without chastisement,
you're not a son. So all of God's sons suffer.
All of them. All of them. Then he says the next line here.
Listen. The God of all grace who hath
called us into His eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after you've
suffered a while, make you perfect. What's that word mean, preacher?
Mature. We know that we're not perfect
in this flesh, but he's going to make us mature. He's going
to enable us to grow up. We'll not be without trial now.
We'll have plenty of trials. We'll not be without thoughts.
We have plenty of those. We'll not be without failures. But we'll be mature. I want you
to turn over just a moment to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter 4. After you've suffered a while,
not without trials and faults, but we might be mature in Christ. Ephesians 4, listen right here,
verse 14. Ephesians 4, 14. That you be henceforth no more
children and carried about, tossed to and fro, and carried about
with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning
craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking
the truth in love." But speaking the truth in love may grow up. That's what he's talking about.
He'll make you mature. He'll enable you to grow in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ. He'll help you to grow up. Be
no more children tossed to and fro, but grow up, grow up into
Him in all things, which is the Head, our Lord Jesus Christ. Read my text again now. After
you've suffered a while, make you perfect, established, Establish
you. Poor Peter. He had such a difficult
time growing up. The Lord said to him one time,
He said, Peter, He said, after you're converted, strengthen
your brethren. You know what? Salvation is instantaneous. Just as soon as a man believes,
he's saved. When was Abraham saved? Just as soon as he looked
into the sky and God said, you're going to have a people, he believed
God. You save up there. Salvation
is instantaneous. Growth takes a lifetime. Conversion
takes a lifetime. I don't care how old you get,
you're still learning about Christ. Learning about the truth of the
Gospel. Learning, learning, learning. Oh, I tell you, that's so important.
Peter, Peter was converted and God made him that champion of
Pentecost. Preaching the Gospel. He'll establish
you. He'll establish you. He'll establish
you in Christ. He'll make you stable, unmoving,
on the rock, unwavering in Him, being able to say at all times,
I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed.
I'm persuaded He's able to keep that which I've committed to
Him against that day. Unwavering. unwavering, unmovable,
stable in Christ. And listen, and He'll strengthen
you. He'll strengthen you and He'll settle you. You see, are
these three things here, He'll make you perfect, establish you,
strengthen you and settle you. Are these the same thing? No,
not at all. Not at all. Salvation, as I said,
is instantaneous. Conversion takes a lifetime.
So He'll establish you in Christ, establish you in faith, establish
you in the doctrines of Christ, and He'll strengthen you because
we're all weaklings by nature. And He'll strengthen us day by
day. We're weak by nature, but we're
strong in Christ. I can do all things through Christ
who what? Strengthens me. He'll establish
you firmly, strongly, on the rock, Christ Jesus, in the doctrines
of Christ. And then when you fail and fall
and stumble, He'll strengthen you. He'll hold you up, lift
you up, and then He'll settle you. How many times have you
said to your children, would you settle down? And how often the Lord has to
say to them, would you settle down? I know who holds tomorrow. I don't know who holds tomorrow,
but I know who holds my hand. Let me show you a scripture I
found a few days ago in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 30. Turn to Isaiah chapter 30. These
are two things that I need so desperately, and I guess you
do too. Isaiah chapter 30. Listen to this. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 7. You got it? For the Egyptians
shall help in vain and to no purpose. Therefore have I cried
concerning this, their strength is to sit still. Just sit still. Now here's the other one, right
across the page here, verse 18. Verse 18, listen. And therefore
will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious to you, and therefore
will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you, for the
Lord's a God of judgment, and blessed are they that wait for
Him. That's the two things, sits to
Him. Sit still and wait on God. And
wait on God. He's the God of all grace. Turn
back to my text. Paul said in Romans, Oh the depth,
both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable. How unspeakable. How unanswerable
are His judgments and His ways. Past finding out. You know, when
folks begin to talk and to brag about how well they know God,
and when they talk about their knowledge of God, what God will
do, what God won't do, what God can do, let me tell you this,
God will do all of His pleasure. His pleasure. Because His judgments
and His ways of the past, find it out for you and me. Just sit
still and wait on God. Isaiah said this, who have directed
the Spirit of God? With whom took he counsel? Who
instructed him? Who taught him knowledge? Who
showed him the way of understanding? Our God will do, he said, what
he will, when he will, with whom he will, And he said this, and
none can stay his hand. God moves in mysterious ways
his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps on the
sea and rides upon the storm. Oh, I've found several illustrations
of this this past week. I'll pass them on to you. God
will keep Abraham childish. Childless. He didn't have a child.
Not an heir. Not a woman. Seventy-five years
old. And he was living down in the land of idolatry. And God
caught him. And told him to come and go to
a land that He would show him. Make him feel great people. And
give him some. But he had no sons. Sarah had no sons. Past seventy
years of age. So they waited. They walked and
wandered and waited, and no son. And finally, about 15 or 20 years,
Sarah got an idea of how she'd help God out. And she told her
handmaid, she said, God's not going to give us a son. You know,
Sarah laughed. Sarah laughed when God promised
her a son. And the angel said, wherefore did Sarah laugh? I
didn't laugh, she said. Yes, she did, too. Yes, she did. They got Hagar to go in to Abraham
and he had a son named Ishmael. And Ishmael began to grow and
became a pretty good sized boy. And that was a catastrophe. Because
after a while, after Sarah was in her 90s, God gave her a son. God gave her her son Isaac. And they were all so happy. And the Lord said, Abraham, get
rid of that boy. Get that bondwoman out of this
house and that boy out of this house because the two can't dwell
together. And Abraham said, let them grow
up together. God said, law and grace don't
grow up together. Works and faith don't grow up
together. Get rid of that boy. And so Abraham did. Sent him
out. It was a tough time. Very difficult
time. But he's still growing up. Still
learning lessons from God, like all of us did. And so, Abraham
made a covenant with a king called Abimelech. A neighbor king. Enemy king. And he said, let's
be friends. King Abimelech said, well fine. So Abraham got along fine. He
planted a grove, built a place to worship God. His son was growing
up. And about 20 years passed. And
Abraham's scripture said he was very happy. And one day, you
know God didn't speak to him very often. He hadn't spoken
to me lately as he spoke to God himself. But he spoke to Abraham. He said, Abraham. Abraham said,
here I am. He said, Abraham, take your son,
whom you love, your only son, to Mount Moriah, sacrifice him
on the altar for me. That old man walked for three
days with his son and some fellows with him, took some supplies,
came to that mountain, came to that mountain, and Abraham said
to the boy, he said, you stay here. You stay here. The lamb
and I are going together to worship God, and we'll be back. Remember
him saying that? We'll be back. So he started
up the mountain, and Isaac was carrying the fire and the wood
on his back, walking up the mountain. Pretty good-sized young man.
And the old man was walking beside him, and Isaac turned to his
dad and said, Father, he said, here's the wood, and here's the
fire. Where's the lamb? Abraham said, my son, God will
see to it. That's what that scripture said.
God will see to it. Let me tell you this. He will
too. God will vindicate himself and he'll vindicate his people
and he'll do what he pleases. God will provide. God will see
to it. And it took Abraham a while to
realize that and to understand that. Think about Moses. I thought
about Moses. Israel had been in captivity
in Egypt for 400 years. And the Lord said he would raise
up a deliverer. He would raise up a deliverer.
And the deliverer didn't come. 400 years. And he got around
that the deliverer was going to come. And Herod said, well,
we'll just kill all the boy babies. We won't have a deliverer. We'll
just kill all the boy babies. And so they started doing that.
But Moses' mother, she had a baby and she saw. This was just no
ordinary child. She saw God only in this young
man, little boy. So it took him down by the river
and put him into the river in a basket and put his sister there,
Miriam, to watch him, make sure nobody got him and took him away. And so Pharaoh's daughter came
down. And she saw that basket, sent
her girls out there to get it, brought it. That was the most
beautiful baby. Just so beautiful. She took him
up, she said, I'm going to keep him. I'm going to take him home.
And she took him home. And she raised him up there.
Brought his mother to be his nursemaid, his own mother. And
she was so glad to have him. And he grew up. He got 40 years
of age. And he's educated the finest
schools and the finest in the army and our forces and the building
and he was a genius, 40 years old. The heir to the throne. But he realized that he was an
Israelite. Came to realize he was an Israelite. Think he knew who his mother
was, real mother. And so one day there was a the
Egyptians and some of the Israelites quarreling, and Moses stepped
in to straighten them out. And when he did, he killed the
Egyptians, buried them in the sand, and left. The next day, he was down. He
appointed himself as the deliverer. He's going to be the deliverer,
and he's going to do it by his own strength and ability. He's going to deliver Israel.
So the next day, two Israelites were quarreling. And he said,
you men are brethren. He said, don't quarrel. And one
of them spoke up and said, who appointed you our judge? Are
you going to kill us like you did that Egyptian? Pat was in the fire. And Moses
knew it. And he got out of that place.
He left Egypt. He left Egypt with just a staff
in his hand and a coat on his back. Broke. Had to leave. And God put him out there. I
tell you, God moves in mysterious ways. God put him out there for
14 years. Moses was so arrogant and so
proud and so self-centered like a peacock. He's going to lead
the people out of Egypt. He's going to be the deliverer.
He's going to be this, that, and the other. He's not going
to be anything until God says so. And God stripped him and
broke him and humbled him. Let me show you a verse of Scripture.
Turn, if you will, to Numbers chapter 12. Numbers chapter 12. God never used a peacock to do
anything but strut. And Moses had to be taken down,
had to come down. In Numbers chapter 12 verse 3,
this is what happened after 40 years. Now the man Moses, Numbers
12 verse 3, now the man Moses was very meek above all the men
which are on the face of the earth. Got to grow up. Establish
you, strengthen you. And he'll send you. And Moses
came down. And one day, God hadn't spoken
to him at all. One day he walked up that mountain
and he saw a bush that was burning, but it wasn't consumed. And he
said, I'll just get up closer and see about this bush. So he
walked over and a voice from heaven said, Moses, Moses, God
spoke to him. Eighty years old. St. Magi and
whatnot. Takes me that long to get straightened
out too. How about you? And God said,
Moses, take off your shoes. You're on holy ground. Moses
took off his shoes and he saw God. And that's when God gave
him orders to deliver my people. And he went down. See what I'm
trying to talk about? And I'll tell you, you know,
one day Samuel went down to anoint a king, Jesse's household. And Jesse passed before him seven
sons. And every one of them, God said,
I don't want one of them. I don't want one of them. And
Samuel said, well, you got any more boys? He said, there's a
young one out there taking care of the sheep. He said, well,
go get him. You go get him. And he went out
and got David and brought him in and God crowned him king. Sit still. Wait on God. Wait till God accomplishes His
purpose. Now I want to talk about this
grace, this God of all grace, and give you five words. And
I'll make it brief. Five words. Five words. God establishes you, He'll strengthen
you, He'll settle you. Wait on Him. Now here's the five
words. Here's the first one. The God of all grace is the God
of prevenient grace. Prevenient grace. P-R-E-V-E-N-I-E-N-T. Prevenient grace. What's that
mean, preacher? Well, look it up in the dictionary. In Webster's dictionary, it says
this. Prevenient grace. This is grace
before any human action. This is grace before grace. This is the act of God before
any act of man. Prevenient grace. And that's
what Jeremiah said, what the Lord said about Jeremiah. Turn
to Jeremiah chapter 1. Jeremiah chapter 1. That's what
the Lord said about Jeremiah. He said this is God's prevenient
grace. The God of all grace which is
grace going before grace. In Jeremiah 1 verse 4. Then the word of the Lord came
to me saying, before I formed you in the belly. That's prevenient
grace. Before you ever were formed in
the belly of your mother, I knew you. I chose you. I elected you. You're mine. Prevenient grace. I knew you. And before you came
out of the womb, I sanctified you and ordained you a prophet
unto the nation. And then said I, oh, Lord God,
I can't speak. I've got no business doing this.
I'm just a child. But the Lord said to me, don't
you say I'm a child. For thou shalt go to all that
I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, that shalt thou
speak." Prevenient grace. Prevenient grace. As many as
received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God,
even to them that shall believe on his name. Which were born,
not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of will of
man, Let me show you another scripture.
Acts chapter 13. Listen to this. Acts chapter 13 verse 48. I want
you to look at this carefully. Provenient grace. In Acts chapter 13 verse 48,
Paul had preached to these people. And verse 48 says, And when the
Gentiles heard this, this message, this gospel, they were glad and
glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, they believed. They were not ordained to life
because they believed. They believed because they were
ordained to life. The ordination to life came before
the belief. That's exactly right. Prevenient
grace. The God of all grace. Even the
grace before grace. Let me show you a scripture now.
Here's the second thing. Covenant grace. Covenant grace.
Turn with me to 2 Samuel 23. 2 Samuel chapter 23. 2 Samuel
chapter 23. Now here, David, David's getting
old and about to die, and the last words that David spoke on
this earth, these are the last words of David, in chapter 23
of 2 Samuel 23, 2 Samuel 23. Now these be the last words of
David. David the son of Jesse said,
the man who was raised up on high, The anointed of God, the
God of Jacob, sweet psalmist of Israel, said, the Spirit of
the Lord spake by me, his word was in my tongue. The God of
Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me, he that ruleth over
me must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be
as the light of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning
without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth.
by clear shining after rain. Here is the last word. Although
my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this is all my
salvation and all my desire, although we make it not to grow. This is all my salvation and
all my desire, although we make it not to grow. God has made
with me a covenant, ordered in all things, ensured. One of the
old hymn writers said this, come friends and sing with sweet accord,
with many pleasures tell, the covenant with David's Lord in
all things ordered well. This covenant stood ere time
began that God with men might dwell, eternal wisdom through
the plan, in all things ordered well. T'was made with our Lord
for his bride before the sinner fell, t'was signed, sealed, ratified,
in all things ordered well. Preventive. Grace before grace. The covenant. Now watch the third
thing about this God of all grace. That is restraining grace. Oh, this is a pot. I take too much time. But let
me show you this restraining grace. Now, David had been crowned
king, but Saul was still in power. David fled from Saul. Saul was
trying to destroy him. And David was fleeing from him.
And David has some men with him, about 400 men with him. And there's
a wealthy landowner named Nabal. And he had lots of money and
lots of land and just a real powerful man. And he sent some
of the young men down to Nabal, this great landowner, and said, Our leader, David, needs some
provisions. We need something to eat. We
don't have anything to eat. And this Navel got angry. He
said, who is David? Why should I share with this
David? He's just run away from his master. I'm not going to
have any dealings with him. And so the young men came back
to David and told him what Navel said. I'm not going to help him. And David, I want you to turn
to 1 Samuel and see what David said. Oh my, listen to this. In 1 Samuel chapter 25, this
is probably exactly what I would have said, what you would have
said, what most people would have said. David spoke up and
said in 1 Samuel chapter 25 verse 12. Are you ready? You got it? So David's young
men, turned their way and went again and told David all the
things that this man said to the son of Mabel. And David,
verse 13, David said to his men, gird on every man his sword. And they girded on every man
his sword. And David girded on his sword.
And there went up after David four hundred men. and 200 abode
by the stuff. And David said to them, you'll
read that later, David said, we're going to kill every male
in that entire household. Everyone that pisseth against
the wall is going to die. And David got those men and headed
to take vengeance against this man and against his people. And
the man's wife, Abigail, was a woman who loved God and knew
God. And she got, without her husband
knowing, she got all of her servants and got a bunch of food and wine
and cheese and all these things and put them on some donkeys
and headed out to find David. He's on his way to kill Abel,
kill her husband and everybody in her family, and she's on her
way to meet him. And you'll see it here in 1 Samuel
25, verse 23. And when Abigail, you got it?
1 Samuel 25, 23. When Abigail saw David, she hastened
and lighted off the ice and fell before David on her face and
bowed herself to the ground. Now, David's king. David's king
of Israel. She knew she was king of Israel.
She fell on her face. Fell at his feet and said, upon
me, my Lord. Upon me let this iniquity be,
and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience,
and hear the words of thy handmaid. Let not, my Lord, I pray thee,
regard this man Belial, even Nabal, for his name is as he
is. Nabal is his name, and folly
is with him. But I, thy handmaid, saw not
the young men of David sent. Now therefore, my Lord, verse
26, as the Lord liveth and as my soul liveth, seeing the Lord
hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging
yourself with your own hand, now let thine enemies and all
that seek thee Seek evil to Thee, my Lord, Thee as neighbor. And
now this blessing, which Thou, handmaid, hath brought unto my
Lord, let it be even given unto the young men that follow my
Lord." And David, oh, that's restraining grace. Has God ever
restrained you? Restrained? Just put a lasso
around you and settle down a little bit. Just wait on God. And that's
what she's saying, that don't you avenge yourself. Avenge is
mine, God said, not yours. Avenge not yourself. Don't take
issue with people and fight your own battles. God will take care
of it in His due time. Now what did David say? Look
at verse 32. And David said to Abigail, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me."
This is restraining grace. God Almighty provided grace,
covenant grace, and now restraining grace. Read on. And blessed be your
advice, and blessed be thou which hath kept me this day, from coming
to shed blood, and from avenging myself with my own hands." Restraining grace. And you know something? God killed
that old boy, Mabel. And Abigail married David. They
lived happily ever after. She went to meet him. Settle
him down. God Almighty restrained him.
He was so glad. Come, friends, and sing with
sweet accord, where many pleasures tell, the covenant made with
David's Lord, and all things ordered well. All right. Here's the fourth, real quickly
now. Sufficient grace. Prevenient
grace, God grace before grace. Covenant grace, God chose us. Restraining grace, God keeps
us. Keeps us. And then sufficient
grace. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 1. Here's the Apostle Paul. It is
not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions
and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above
14 years ago. Whether in the body I don't know
or whether out of the body I can't tell. God knows such a one was
caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether
in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knows how
that he was caught up in the paradise, and he heard unspeakable
words, which is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a man
will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities.
For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool,
for I will say the truth. But now I forbear. lest any man
should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that
he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of revelations that was given
to me, that was given to me a thorn in my flesh, the messenger of
Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted God raised Paul off of
high there. Off of high. And God sent him
a thorn to let him know that he's still in the flesh. He's
still a man. He's still a frail human being. And so he said,
for this thing, verse 8, I besought the Lord three times. I prayed
three times that God would make this thorn depart from me. And
God said, My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you.
For my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly,
therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, because if I take
pride in them, the power of God won't rest upon me. I will glow within in my infirmities,
rejoice in his grace which is sufficient, because I want the
power of God to rest upon me. My brethren, count it all joy
when we are tried of God, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. Every trial in the life of a
believer is ordained of God. I don't care what it says. It's
ordained of God. Secondly, these trials are from
our God, and they're for our good. And they will fulfill God's purpose
for us. Whatever the trial is, it's from
God. And God ordained it for our good
and for His glory. And it'll accomplish His purpose.
And thirdly, but along with that trial, He will give thee sufficient
life. He will. Mike used to sing this song.
He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth
more strength when our labor increase. To added affliction,
he addeth his mercy. To multiplied trials, his multiplied
peace. His love has no limit, His grace
hath no measure, His power no boundary known unto men. For
out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and
giveth and giveth no grace." He does, doesn't He? He does. Now here's my last point.
God of all grace, prevenient grace, grace before
grace, covenant grace, restraining grace, sufficient grace, and
dying grace. A man asked Spurgeon one time,
how does a person acquire dying grace? Spurgeon said, are you
near death, my friend? He said, well, thine grace will
be given to you when you need it. When you need it. And Paul needed it at this time.
And Doris and I do too. We talk. I'm here at 81. Doris is 81. And our friends
are about all gone. Everybody here is younger than
me. Not a person here as old as we
are. And we talk about it quite often. We talk about, is God
going to take her first or me first? Like your mother and daddy,
God took them almost at the same time, didn't He? In fact, Jeff
didn't even know that Magalie was dead. Wouldn't that be something? You think about that and how
wouldn't that be something, to go home together. Well, it's
going to be. And every sermon that I preach
may be my last sermon. I recognize that. I know that.
I'm ten years further than God promised me. Three score and
ten. I'm eighty. And I won't die in
grace. And he gives it. He gives it. And he lets us sit and talk about
it. With no qualms. That we shared with you yesterday.
Glad to talk about it, aren't we? Glad to. And I recommend
that everybody here think about it a little bit, because my son
was 21 when he died, and my daughter was 42 when she died, and Charles
Ferguson was only 52 when he died. And God killed great David
Brainerd when he was 29, and Marvin Murray McShane when he
was 30. And he let John Wesley live to be 92. So God will do
what He will when He pleases. He may let me live to be 92.
I doubt it. But it's alright. I'd rather
not. But Paul said this. He faced
death. And he said, I'm now ready to
be offered. My time is at hand. My time is
in His hand. And it's at hand. And Paul looked
at the past, and he said, I have no regrets. I fought a good fight,
and I kept the faith. Looked back with no regrets about
a bit in this world. And Paul looked at the present
with no complaints. He said, my course is finished.
My course is finished. And he looked at the future with
no fear, and he said, therefore, Henceforth, the Lord hath given
to me righteousness, perfect holiness, not to me only, but
to all that love his appearing. There is reserved for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, should give
to me, and not to me only, but to every one of his people."
So then, the Lord took the fear out of them. The fear of death,
honestly, and I don't lie. You know that. You've been with
me a long time. I tell the truth. I really, I
really look forward to God calling me home. I honestly wait for
God to take me home. And I'll tell you why that this
fear of death is gone. I'll tell you why it's gone.
I'll give you four reasons. Three reasons. Number one, Christ
died. He walked into the grave, his
footprints go in, but they came out. And because he lived, we're
going to live. Secondly, he removed the sting
of death. The sting of death is sin. That's
what you talked about in your lesson. He died for our sins. There are no more. There's no
condemnation of the living Christ. Our sins are gone. Why should
I fear death? The sting of death is sin. And
I don't have a sting anymore. All those wasps that fly around
me don't have stingers. Hornets either. They don't have
stingers. God took the sting of death out.
And then thirdly, he changed the character of death. The character
of death. People look on death as a curse.
God calls it a blessing. Blessed are the dead who die.
People call it loss. I lost my sister. I lost my brother. I lost my
son. No, I did not gain. Death is not a loss. It's a gain.
And death is not a penalty. It's a reward. The Lord says
I'm coming and my reward is with me. It's not down here. These aren't rewards. It messes us up all the time,
all this stuff we keep to ourselves. It causes us a lot of problems.
Death is not a penalty, it's a reward. And death is not the
end of life. It's the beginning. When they
walk by and say, well, maybe he ain't dead. No, he ain't either.
I beg your pardon. I said that at Aunt Emma's funeral.
She ain't dead. She's still living. She just
went home to be with the Lord. Don't you believe it? They tell
you I'm dead. I'm not. I'm alive in Christ
Jesus. I want Mike to turn in the hymn
book to number 173. I believe that's the one. 173. I want you to turn in your hymn
book. I want you to read this first verse with me. I'm just
going to sing the first verse and then we're going to all sing
the rest of them. Listen to this. Be still, my soul. The Lord is
on your side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
and pain. Leave to your God to order and
provide. In every change, He faithful
will remain. So be still, my soul. That's
what that scripture said in Isaiah. Sit still. Thy best, thy heavenly
friend, through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Let's stand
together. Mike's going to sing it, and
then we're going to sing the next two verses.