If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Genesis chapter 14. As you're turning, let me say
thank you for that song. That was worth the whole drive
here. That was such a blessing. So well done, and certainly is
our prayer that the Lord would speak and give us grace to receive. Genesis chapter 14, I've titled
the message this evening, I've lifted my hand unto the Lord. Now, we won't read this whole
chapter. Let me just tell you the Cliff Notes version of what's
happened in the first parts of this chapter. There were five
kings who kind of rebelled against the rule in that area of four
other kings. And these four kings, they came
and conquered the whole region. Four kings came with their armies
and whipped these five other kings. I mean, they whipped them. And they took everything of any
value at all from Sodom. Anything was any value, and they
took all the people from Sodom as slaves. And that included
Lot, Abraham's nephew. Somebody came and told Abraham
what had happened, and Abraham took 318 men, shepherds. He went and he whipped all four
of those armies with 318 men, brought everything that they
took back home safe, everything and everyone. Abraham did that. is a picture of Christ, our Savior,
and our mighty conqueror. Coming back home from his victory,
Abraham meets Melchizedek in verse 17. And the king of Sodom
went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of
Cheddei Laomer, and of the kings that were with him at the Valley
of Sheba, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of
Salem, brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of
the most high God, And he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram,
of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed
be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into
thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. What a meeting that was
between Abraham and Melchizedek. And the king of Sodom watched
all that happen. He watched that interaction between
Melchizedek and Abraham. And now the king of Sodom comes
in verse 21. And the king of Sodom said unto
Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And
Abram said to the king of Sodom, I've lift up mine hand unto the
Lord, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,
that I will not take from thee a thread even to a shoelatch,
and I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst
say, I have made Abram rich. Save only that which the young
men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me,
Aner, Eschol, and Mamre, let them take their portion. Now
Abram would not take any of the spoils that he went and won there
in that victory. He really wasn't going after
spoil, was he? He was going after Lot, his brother, his nephew,
but the scripture calls him his brother. And Abram's just not
going to take these things from the king of Sodom so that nobody,
especially the heathen, nobody can say they were the ones who
made Abraham rich. Abraham has lifted his hand to
the Lord, and he's not going to let anybody take credit for
what the Lord has done for him or what the Lord will yet do
for him. Now, you've got to love that attitude, that attitude
of faith in the Lord, that attitude of concern for the glory of our
God. Abraham just won't compromise
it at all. And you read many of the writers on this passage,
and they all talk about lifting up your hand to the Lord like
you're raising your hand to swear an oath, like you raise your
hand and say the Pledge of Allegiance. And I certainly agree with that.
Every believer will say this. I've lifted my hand to the Lord.
I've lifted my hand, I've sworn, I've confessed. By God's grace,
I trust Christ alone. I trust Christ to be everything
that God requires of me. I confess that I trust Christ
to save me or I won't be saved. But no plan B. It's Christ or
nothing else. He's my only hope. Every believer
lifts their hand to that and says, I confess. That's what
I believe. I confess I'm not going to trust
anything that I do. I'm going to trust Christ alone.
Anything that I have, anything that I will be, that's going
to be God's doing and God's making. And that is absolutely true.
But I tell you mostly when I think of this where Abram said, I've
raised my hand to the Lord. I think of it as raising my empty
hand to the Lord as a mercy beggar. I'm lifting my empty hand to
the Lord and begging him to fill it. And when I first was preparing
this message, I thought of our youngest daughter, Savannah,
when she was just a little thing. As soon as you stick a poppy
in her mouth, the kid was addicted to it. And she gets up a little
older, she gets to be one, she's toddling around, you know, in
twos. She had that poppy in her mouth all the time. I mean, the
kid learned to talk with that poppy in her mouth. She always
had that poppy in her mouth. And you can just picture her,
12, 13, 14 months old. She'd toddle up to you, and she'd
lift her hand up to you. And she'd go, unh. Now, you had
to know what unh means. You had to know. I want you to
put a cookie in my hand. Sometimes it means I want you
to put your finger in my hand and she'd lead you where she
wanted to go. And invariably it was to the
couch. She'd set a book there. She liked to be read to. She
wanted you to stop and read a book to her. Sometimes it meant pick
me up. Just pick me up and love on me
a little bit. You had to know what, uh, meant. Well, that's
what a mercy beggar's doing. They're lifting their empty hand
to the Lord because He's the one who can fill it. I'm lifting
my hand to the Lord and begging Him to fill it with the gift
of His grace. I tell you, I don't want anything
that I've earned from the Lord. I don't want anything to do with
what I've earned. I only want to receive what God gives me
as a mercy beggar. You know, a believer knows this
and believes this. We receive all of our salvation
from Christ. because Christ himself is our
salvation. And we lift our hand to him,
don't we, to fill it. Now the King of Sodom says something
that's very interesting here. It's a good spiritual picture,
a very good place for us to start. Now you think about what just
happened. The King of Sodom was part of
this rebellion. He got crushed by these other kings that came
in. He went out to battle against these other kings, and he got
whipped fair and square. And when he did, he lost everything.
And while the king of Sodom was off hiding somewhere, licking
his wounds, Abraham went out, and he whipped those kings that
had whipped the king of Sodom. He took back everything that
the king of Sodom had lost. He didn't miss anything. Everything
they took, without exception, Abraham brought it back. And
as Abraham the victor is returning, like I said a moment ago, the
king of Sodom watches as Abraham meets Melchizedek. And he sees
the sacrifice that Melchizedek brings forth, bread and wine. Melchizedek, how many years before
Christ was born incarnate, was already bringing forth a picture
of the finished work of Christ, the bread and the wine, unleavened
bread and wine, picturing the Lord's broken body and his shed
blood. And Melchizedek blessed Abraham.
Well, the king of Sodom watches this and he says, boys, I'm gonna
make a sacrifice, too. Here's what I'm gonna sacrifice.
Abraham, you take the stuff. You take all the valuables. Just
give me the people. Give me the souls. I'm interested
in the souls. Give me the souls. You take the
stuff. That's my sacrifice to you, Abraham. And I thought,
well, that's mighty generous of the king, isn't it? None of
that's his to give. He already lost it all. Abraham's
the one that went out and won it. This all already belongs
to Abraham. It already belongs to him, because
he's the one that went out and won the battle. It's not the
king's to give. Do you ever think about that?
Pretty subtle, isn't it? But the picture here is something
much more important than that. There's a spiritual picture here.
Isn't this exactly what Satan told Eve in the garden? Eve,
if you eat this fruit, you can have what doesn't belong to you.
You'll be as God. You'll be the one. It belongs
to God, but if you eat this fruit, you can have it. You can be God. You can be the one to set the
rules. You can be the one to say what's good and what's evil,
what's right and what's wrong. And ever since man has been under
the influence of Satan, has been devising religions, and this
is their goal, to take something that doesn't belong to us, Man
has devised religions. They're all under many different
headings, but it's all one. Man has devised a religion that
promises people they can have something that doesn't belong
to them as long as they follow certain religious rules and laws
and things that men have made up, even though that's not what
God says in his word. Even though God says in his word,
you can't make yourself righteous by your deeds. They tell you
you can have what doesn't belong to you. You can earn a righteousness
by your own deeds and your own good works. Have what doesn't
belong to you. Now the believer, like Abraham
says, I'm not having anything to do with that. I've left my
hand to God. I'm not going to take what doesn't
belong to me. I'm going to take what he gives me by his grace.
And whatever it is he puts in my empty hand, I lift my empty
hand to him as a beggar. Whatever it is God puts in that
empty hand, it's mine. It's mine because God gave it
to me. And that's what I want us to see tonight. I thought
of six things that a believer receives when we lift our empty
hand to the Lord as a mercy beggar. Number one is this, look at Philippians
chapter four. I have lifted my hand as a beggar
to the Lord. I've lifted my empty hand as
a beggar to the Lord to provide my physical needs. Philippians
four, verse 15. Now you Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving
and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica you
sent once and again, under my necessity, Not because I desire
a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But
I have all and abound. I'm full, having received of
Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of
a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. But my
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. Now that's true, spiritual, our
God will provide, will supply all your need, but here Paul
is specifically talking about physical blessings. And the Lord
supplied his physical needs through the giving of the church at Philippi.
Now I'm starting with this matter of physical things because they're
the least important. But we still need them, don't
we? You gotta have these things in order to live. And these physical
things, they could very well be a test of our faith. Now you
and I both know this, the Lord will provide. That's his name,
the Lord will provide. Now that doesn't mean that I
don't go out and work and supply what my family needs and just
expect the Lord's gonna provide my stuff, mysteriously showing
up at my doorstep. The Lord's never gonna bless
laziness. Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy 5 verse 8, if any provide
not for his own house, he's denied the faith. He denied the faith,
he denied the gospel, denied what we believe, and he's worse
than an infidel if he won't work to provide for his own house.
2 Thessalonians 3 verse 10, he said if any would not work, neither
should he eat. So we're to quietly work and eat our own bread, do
an honest day's work to provide food and shelter for your family,
and to have something to give, to give to others who are in
need, to give to the furtherance of the gospel. That's what the
scriptures teach us. Go out and do as good a job as
you can for your employer. I mean be the best employee that
you can possibly be. So when it comes time, annual
evaluation time, they'll give you a raise. Do that without
ever compromising worship. to get more money and more physical
things that are just going to perish with the using. I promise
you this, you'll not suffer loss by giving an offering to God.
That's what Paul is telling you here. You've given this offering
to help me, you're the only church sending me any support here.
You're not going to suffer loss. My God shall supply all your
need, he said. You're not going to suffer loss. And you're not
going to suffer loss because you arranged your life around
the worship service. It's just not going to happen. You live
and work so you can provide what your family needs all while trusting
the Lord to provide. He's gotta give us the strength
and the health and the job and do all these, do what God's given
you to do, trusting the Lord to provide. There's never gonna
come a time you're gonna have to panic and leave where the
gospel's preached in order to eat, never. I told our folks
at home, you might have to eat ramen noodles, but you're not
going to starve. Elimelech thought that, didn't he? He left Bethlehem,
Judah, and look what happened. The believer says, I've trusted
the Lord to provide. And I'm just not going to look
to the way of the world to provide for me. I'm going to look to
the Lord to provide. So if you're in need, you have
any need, you lift your empty hand to the Lord. He'll provide. All right, number two, look at
1 Corinthians chapter 1. I've lifted my hand to the Lord
to be called to Christ. If I'm gonna come to Christ,
God's gonna have to call me. I can't come on my own. He's
gonna have to call me. So I've lifted my empty hand to him to
call me to Christ. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring
to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in
his presence. That's really the same thing
Abraham's saying back there. I'm not gonna take anything from
you so you can't glory and say I made Abraham rich. But of him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now
I've lifted my empty hand to God to be called to Christ. Now what right does a sinner
like me have to do that? What right does a sinner like
you and me, what right do we have to come to Christ and beg
him for mercy? Our right to come to Christ is
this. He calls sinners to come to Him. I fit the description
here of those who Christ calls to Him and those who He saves.
I have no spiritual wisdom. By nature, spiritually, I am
as dumb as a box of locks. I don't know God. I can't figure
God out. I cannot figure out how it is
that God saves sinners in justice. How can God possibly be just
and justify someone like me? I don't know. I have no spiritual
might, no spiritual strength. I can't do one good work that
God will accept. Not one. I can't do one thing
to even start to produce any righteousness. I'm not noble. I'm defiled by my sin. I'm so
weak I cannot come to Christ unless the Father would send
and draw me. I'm not respectable, I'm base. I am nothing, I have
nothing, and I can expect nothing from God except his wrath. That's
who Paul's describing here. I'm so low down, the only way
I can be saved is if God does all of the saving. And you know
what, that's who God saves. God saves everyone when he can
get all the glory for saving them. That's why God does everything
he does. It's for his glory so that his
son would be glorified. If you can't contribute anything
to your salvation and God has to get all the glory for saving
you, then he'll save you. But he's not gonna do it till
he can get all the glory. See, salvation is not of works, lest
any man should boast. We're just not gonna boast about
one blessed thing that we've done in this matter of salvation.
If we're gonna boast, the only thing we've got left to boast
in is Christ crucified. What he accomplished when he
died upon Calvary's tree. Now that gives Christ all the
glory, doesn't it? that by his death he took away
the sin of his people and put it away forever, made them righteous
and brought them to the Father. His blood satisfied God's justice
so that he made it right for the Father to be merciful to
sinners like you and me. Now that glorifies Christ. Now
I've lifted my hand to God as a mercy beggar. I've lifted my
hand to him to save me, to him to call me to Christ, and I'm
not looking anywhere else. God has called me to Christ.
I fit the description here of the helpless, hopeless sinner
that Christ came to save. He's called me to Christ. And
buddy, I'm coming to Christ just as I am, in my helpless, hopeless,
naked condition. And if you're like me, you're
nothing. You don't deserve the least of
God's mercies. Tell you what to do. Lift your
empty hand to God. All right, number three, look
across the page of 2 Corinthians 2. I've lifted my empty hand
as a beggar to receive faith by the word of God. 2 Corinthians
2 verse 1. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. and
I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
power of God. Now Paul says, I came to you
and I preached nothing to you, but the bare word of God. I didn't
try to impress you with how eloquent I was and all the big words that
I knew and all this knowledge that I've accumulated. I came
to you and preached to you the bare word of God. So if you believe
God, you believe God. You're not believing God and
giving some mental assent to this gospel because you're impressed
with me. I don't want you to be impressed with me. I preached
to you the bare word of God so if you believe it, your faith
came from the word of God. I've lifted my empty hand to
God as a beggar because I need God the Holy Spirit to give me
the gift of faith in Christ. I can't tell you the number of
years I tried to conjure it up and make it happen to myself,
and it did not work. It won't work for you either.
I've lifted my empty hand to God. If I'm going to believe
Christ, He's got to give me faith. And I tell you how God is pleased
to give faith in Christ. It's through the preached word.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It
comes through preaching. And if there's anybody here tonight
that's not saved, and knows it, and wants to be, here's my advice
to you. You be here in this building
every single time the doors are open, as much as is humanly possible,
and be here to hear the preaching of the word. because this is
how God saves his people. It's by the preaching of Christ.
You can't believe on Christ if somebody preaches him to you.
Then be here to hear. It really is that simple. And
I know that's a mystery to the natural man. How is it that God
just gives faith to somebody that's sitting there listening
to the word being preached? Well, I can't really explain
that, but I just know this is so because that's what God says
in his word. Faith cometh by hearing. Now,
that's all we need to know, that God's word says it. But I can
tell you this, that's been my experience too. If you believe
Christ, it's your experience. I grew up hearing the gospel. I mean, from the time I was a
little fella, drug out of the nursery and made sittin' in pews,
I mean, I've heard the gospel. That's all I've ever heard. But
boy, I sure didn't know Christ. And I sat under that preaching
for years and years and years. And really and truly, I thought,
I've sat here so long, there's no way God's putting up with
me. No, I've heard too long and not
believed. I kept coming. And one day, the
light went on. And you know when that happened?
When the word was being preached. This is how God gives faith to
his people. Now if I'm gonna lift up my empty
hand to God for faith, tell you what, I'm gonna have to take
it the way he gives it, all right? Doesn't that just make sense?
I'm gonna have to take it the way he gives it. And he gives it through
the preached word. Don't try to take a shortcut
to this thing. Yes, God has the power to just wave his hand and
give his people faith. And they don't even know it,
they don't know what happens, they just wake up in glory and they never
even knew that they had faith in Christ. God's got the power
to do that, but he won't do it. He will not do it. God could
be pleased to save his people through the preaching of a lie.
He's got the power to save his people by believing when they
hear a false gospel and another Jesus. But I'm telling you this,
he won't do it. God's not gonna save anybody
through a lie. He's not gonna save anybody by
the preaching of another Jesus. You must know the Lord Jesus
Christ. God could audibly speak from
heaven, speak directly to his people like he did the fathers
of old, so that we hear God speak directly to us and hear and believe.
But he won't do it. I mean, he's got the power to
do it, but he's not gonna do that. God is pleased to save
his people and give them faith in Christ through what the world
calls the foolish activity of preaching, of preaching Christ. Faith in Christ comes by the
plain preaching of the unadulterated Word of God. It's not form. It's not religious form. It's
not religious ceremony. It's not having the right number
of songs, and the right number of prayers, and the right number
of scripture readings, and the right number of stand-ups, and
the right number of sit-downs, and burning the right number
of candles, and creating this religious atmosphere of smoke,
and mirrors, and incense. Faith comes from the Word. I tell you, I wish that we'd
get less refined and just start preaching the bare Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. Because
that's how God gives faith to his people. I've lifted my hand
to God, begging Him to fill my empty hand with faith in Christ.
And I tell you what, I'm determined I'm going to stay here under
the means that God's ordained to give it until He gives it.
If you need faith in Christ, I tell you again, you be here
to hear, lifting your empty hand to God, begging Him to fill it.
He will. He will eventually. You keep
coming. I tell our folks at home all the time, God saves sinners. You won't find a person in this
book came begging for mercy from the Savior and He turned them
away, not one. And you're not so special, you'll
be the first. You keep coming, lifting your empty hand to Him,
you'll feel it. All right, number four, look
at Ephesians chapter two. I've lifted my empty hand as
a beggar to God to receive salvation by grace Ephesians chapter 2
verse 8 For by grace Are you saved through
faith? And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not of works, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Just to make sure we got it plain
what he means here, you're saved by grace through faith, that
not of yourselves is the gift of God, Paul adds, not of works. It's not of works. If it's by
grace, it can't be of works, can it? Now the scriptures make
anything plain at all, it's this. God saves his people by his grace. Not one of them deserves it.
And God saves them anyway. That's the definition of grace.
God saves them anyway. God doesn't save his people because
of their works. Matter of fact, God saves his people in spite
of their works. He saves them by his grace. He
saves them even though they don't deserve it. And all of salvation,
from its beginning to its ending, and everywhere in between, is
all of grace. Before time began, the Father
chose a people. Chose to save a people. They
didn't deserve it. They wouldn't choose Him. He chose them anyway.
He chose to save them in electing grace. That's how this whole
thing started. Father's electing grace. The Son came into flesh,
and He died for those people in redeeming grace. And what
grace that he would take the place of his people. He would
be the substitute of his people. He would take their sin into
his own body upon the tree. He'd take their sin and make
it his and bear all of the punishment that their sin deserves. He'd
bear it till he gave up the ghost. He died for those people in redeeming
grace. The Holy Spirit comes, he gives
dead sinners life. in regenerating grace. God the
Holy Spirit comes and gives the gift of faith in Christ and life
so that you believe Christ and you can't not believe him. That's
regenerating grace. He gives life where there was
none before. And God keeps and preserves his people by grace. We're saved by grace, we have
to be kept by grace, don't we? Every one of us knows here, I'd
wander off this second if God didn't keep me by his grace. And one day, and it's going to
be right soon, God's going to take his people to glory and
make them all just like his son in glorifying grace from beginning
to ending. It's all of grace, and we're
going to spend eternity singing the praises of God for his grace
to us in Christ Jesus. Salvation is by grace. I've lifted
my empty hand to God, begging him for salvation, and I'm telling
you, I'm going to have to receive it the way God gives it. It's
by grace. It's by grace. I'm not going
to try to earn it by my works. I'm going to depend on God's
grace. I'm not going to think, well, you know, God saved me
by his grace, and he's taught me a little bit, and matured
me a little bit, and now I can add to this thing by my works.
No. I'm going to depend on God's
grace. The best definition I can think of of growing in grace
is this. It's growing more and more and
more dependent on Christ the Savior. Now I've lifted my empty
hand to God for His grace. And by His grace, I'm going to
depend on it. If God's grace is not enough to save me, I'll
be damned. I don't even want another option.
That's how much I trust Christ. Now, if you can only be saved
by grace, if you're such a lost, hopeless condition that you can
only be saved by grace, then you lift your empty hand to God.
He's the giver of grace. He gives it freely. All right,
number five. I've lifted my hand as a beggar
to God to receive the righteousness of Christ by faith. Now, righteousness
is having no sin. Righteousness is being perfect.
It's being guilty of no sin whatsoever. And that's the only people God
can accept. God's holy. He's righteous. He can only accept
people who are perfectly righteous. He can't even look on sin. Our
problem is you and I are unrighteous, aren't we? If we're gonna be
made righteous, we're gonna have to lift our empty hand to God
as a mercy beggar and receive righteousness from God. Now you
and I can't earn righteousness, but a righteousness is earned.
Somebody's got to earn it, but we can't do that. All we do is
sin, so we can't earn a righteousness. So God in his mercy, his grace,
his pity, his compassion for his people, he sent his son in
the flesh, made of a woman, made under the law to do for his people
what they can never do for themselves, obey his law. And that's just
what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He makes his people righteous
by giving them his obedience to the law. You see, God's elect
are in Christ. The Father put them in Christ.
So we did what he did. When Christ kept the law perfectly,
so did all of his people. And we're made righteous. Just
as surely as we were made sinners in Adam, God's people were made
righteous in Christ. The made sinners are made righteous
the exact same way, through representation, through our federal head. In
Christ, our federal head, God's people are made righteous because
in Him, we did obey the law. And the Father accepts them.
He accepts His people in the righteousness of Christ. Don't
turn to this, just listen to this. Isaiah 42, verse 21. The
Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake, his
own righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. Isaiah prophesied and knew this.
The Lord Jesus Christ is coming. He's the only one who can produce
a righteousness because he's the only one who can obey God.
That's the one the Father sent to establish righteousness for
his people. Now look over Galatians chapter two. Back, I should say, back at Galatians
chapter two. We've just looked at lifting
our empty hand to God for grace. And look how Paul here says how
that's tied to being made righteous. Galatians two, verse 21. I do
not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. I've lifted my hand
to God, my empty hand is a beggar to God for righteousness. and
I'm gonna have to receive it the way he gives it. He gives
it by faith in Christ. I'm not gonna try to establish
my own righteousness. If I could establish my own righteousness
by my own obedience to the law, that would say Christ didn't
need to come. Christ didn't need to come. He
didn't need to suffer and die. And you can bank on this. The father didn't put his son
through all that suffering, all that humiliation, and that painful
death for nothing. He did it to save his people
and to make them righteous. And I can show you that if you
look at Romans chapter three. If I'm gonna be made righteous,
if God's gonna fill my empty hand with righteousness as a
gift of his grace, I'm gonna have to receive it like he gives
it, by submitting myself to the righteousness of Christ. I quit
trying to establish my own righteousness and trust Christ to be my righteousness.
Romans three, verse 21. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law, without your obedience to the law, is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ,
by Christ's faithfulness to obey the law completely. Unto all,
upon all them that believe, for there's no difference, for all
have seen and come short of the glory of God. be justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness, not mine, His righteousness for the
remissions of sin that are passed through the forbearance of God.
To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Now I've lifted my empty hand to God as a beggar for righteousness.
If God's gonna fill it, I'm gonna have to take it like he gives
it. It's by faith in Christ. Not trusting myself, trusting
Christ alone. All right, here's the last thing.
Look at Titus chapter three. I have lifted my empty hand to
God as a beggar to receive the new birth from the Lord. Titus
chapter 3, verse 4. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we've done, But according to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. That being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Now I know this, all men are
born dead in trespasses and sin. I know that from scripture, that's
what God's word says. And boy, I can tell you that
by my experience. I know this, I was born dead in sin. I can
tell you that. I have a dead sin nature that
can only sin. It can't know God, it can't believe
Christ, it can't love him, it can't understand God. Now if
a dead man's gonna have life, somebody else is gonna have to
give it to him. He's dead, he can't do anything for himself.
If a dead man's gonna have life, somebody else is gonna have to
give it to him. I've lifted my empty hand to God as a beggar,
begging Him to fill it with life, and if I'm going to receive that
life from God, I'm going to have to receive it the way He gives
it. Life is not going to come to me by my works now. Life is
not going to come to me by all my religious activity. If I'm
going to have spiritual life, God's going to have to give it
to me freely. Christ earned it, and He's going
to give it to me freely. And if I'm going to receive it,
I'm going to receive it that way. freely, without doing anything
to deserve it. And when he gives it, tell you
this, I'm gonna praise him for it. I'm gonna give him the glory
for it. Isn't that the only way a mercy
beggar can behave? The only thing we can do is be
thankful. I lifted an empty hand to God
and he filled it. Thank you, Lord. It's all of
Him. It's all of His doing. It's all
of His power. It's all of His purpose. It's
all of His grace. Oh, how I pray God will make
you and me a mercy beggar, that we lift an empty hand to God,
begging Him for everything. And He'd make us receive it the
way He gives it. All right. I hope that'll be a blessing
to you. I pray God's blessing upon you.