I cannot tell you how very delightful
it is to awake every morning and walk through every day and
lie down at every night, no matter what the experience of the day
or the night may be, knowing it is well with my soul. because
I am redeemed by the blood of Christ, accepted in the beloved,
made the righteousness of God in him. Oh, I pray God will give
you that grace now, this hour, and forever. Here are five facts
of which I'm absolutely certain. All five are true of me and all
five are true concerning you. You may or may not like them,
but they're not questionable or debatable. You may not even
acknowledge them, but in your heart, you know they're all true. And you will be wise to lay them
to your heart and never let them out of your mind. Know that God
is When I was preparing the message
I first wrote that I know there is a God that's wrong. I Know
that God is No question in my mind and there's no question
in yours Because I don't believe that you're lying to yourself
lying to God and lying to me I There's no such thing as an
atheist, only liars who pretend not to believe in God. I know
that God is, he stamped your conscience and mine with an awareness
of his being that you cannot silence. Try as you may. You look out upon God's creation
and see the wisdom and power of God manifest every day. Every day. Not even a fool, not even a fool
can believe in evolution. Evolution is just a delusion
with which men attempt to delude themselves and others and shove
from their minds a conscious awareness of God. In the beginning,
God. That's the source, the origin,
the cause, and the end of everything. God is, God is. How can you prove
that? Don't have to, you know it. You will search in vain, this
book, you will search in vain to find one argument given to
prove God's being. Not one argument. Not one argument. Why? Because God has stamped
on you, in your mind, in your heart, in your conscience, an
awareness that God is. That's just fact. And I know
that I am a guilty sinner. Sin is the one thing we all have
in common. This is the deadly plague and
disease of our race. We're not just weak and impaired,
we're guilty and sinful. We're sinners, all of us, sinners
by nature. We were born that way. Every
boy and girl born in this world is born with a sinful nature.
I don't mean by that that they're not perfect. I mean they're born
with a decided bias toward evil. Every child of Adam is born with
a decided bias toward evil. Well, he's such a good boy. No,
he's not. No, we're not. He's just hedged
in in God's providence and acts like it. Every child born of
woman is born with a decided bias to evil. We're centered
by choice. The wicked go astray as soon
as they are born, speaking lies. Most natural thing on this earth
for human beings is deceit. The most natural thing on this
earth for human beings is cunning, craftiness, deceit, lying, cheating. That's our nature. That's not
the way I am. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. It's exactly what you are. It's
exactly what you are. We have all got the old man of
sin within us, even we who are born of God. Though redeemed
by the blood of Christ, regenerated by his spirit, sanctified by
his grace, the old man still lives within the people of God.
I don't mean he survives. He lives constantly in us. We've been made partakers of
the divine nature by the new birth. The new man in us is Christ
Jesus himself, the hope of glory. This new man created in righteousness
and true holiness. We're new creatures in Christ,
but the old man, Adam, is still there and he never gets any better. The flesh always lusting against
the spirit and warring against the spirit. And the root of all
sin, of all the evil in this world. We all like to think we're
better than somebody else, and we see things, and hear things,
and read things, and observe things, and think, oh, I can't
stand that. I'll tell you the biggest reason
you can't stand it, because what you see with your eyes is what
you know is in you. The heart is deceitful above
all things. Who can know it? Out of the heart,
from the heart, from within, proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, witchcraft, wickedness, variance, emulation,
wrath, strife, all these things come from within and proceed
out of the heart of man. That's a pretty good description
of David Coleman and Don Fortner. of his daughters and my daughter,
of his granddaughter and my granddaughter. That's a pretty good description
of all of us. That's what we are. And I know that if God sends
me to hell, he would be perfectly just in
doing so, perfectly righteous. If God sends you to hell, He would be perfectly just and
perfectly righteous in doing so. If God sends yours to hell,
he would be perfectly just and perfectly righteous in doing
so. And if God sends mine to hell, he would be perfectly just
and perfectly righteous in doing so. He does right. That's all he does. The wonder
to me is not that God sends men to hell. The wonder to me is
that God doesn't send all men to hell. Hell is what we deserve. Hell is what we've earned. Hell
is what we've merited. Anything short of hell is mercy. And I know that God can either
save me or damn me. It's all together up to him.
God can either save you or damn you. It is altogether up to Him
and up to Him alone. I have no merit before God. I
have nothing by which to win His favor. I know that within
Him is all power and all righteousness and all truth. I know that it
is within the range of his righteous power to save me if he will. And I know it is within the range
of his righteous power to save you if he will. But it's up to
him. It's all up to him. If he saves
me, he will be doing that which is righteous and just. If he
damns me, he will be doing that which is righteous and just. If he saves you, he will do it
righteously and justly. If he damns you, he will do it
righteously and justly. God has mercy on whom he will. And whom he will, he hearteneth.
God Almighty is sovereign. Would to God I could make this
generation hear this. God is not in your hands, you're
in God's hands. God is not in your hands, you're
in God's hands. And fifth, I know this. Unless
God himself intervenes to save me, I will surely perish in hell. And unless God himself intervenes
to save you, you will surely perish in hell. Salvation is
of the Lord. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. I
can't save myself. I can't contribute anything toward
my salvation. I can't add anything to my salvation. I'm not only guilty, I'm helpless. A guilty, helpless sinner before
God. God requires righteousness. I
can't perform it. God requires compliance with
his holy law. I can't give it. God requires
satisfaction to his justice. I can't render it. My repentance
is not enough to satisfy God. My faith is not enough to satisfy
God. He demands righteousness, obedience,
satisfaction. He won't have anything less.
That means I must have a divine mediator. You must have a divine
mediator, a surety, a daysman, a mighty substitute who can suffer
in our place and satisfy the demands of God's holy law or
we must perish. Where can such a foul, sinful,
guilty, helpless creature as I am, as you are, find hope? Paul tells us in Romans 15 and
verse 4, whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope. The only hope for fallen man is found in him who's revealed
in this book. The only hope for fallen man
is found in Jesus Christ the Lord, the Redeemer, the sinner's
substitute, the friend of sinners, this man who saves sinners, who's
revealed in this book. I want us today to look at the
scriptures, and I want to call your attention to several words. I've got 10 down, there could
have been 100, but 10 words specifically that give me comfort and hope
before God Almighty. The comfort of scriptures. Oh,
what comfort this center finds here. I pray you will as well. Let's begin in Matthew chapter
one. Matthew chapter one. The first word that gives me
comfort and hope is found in Matthew 1 23, Emmanuel. Sinner though I am, I have hope
because God sent his son into this world and called his name
Emmanuel. He said he shall save his people
from their sins. And then in verse 23, behold,
a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted
is God with us. God in our nature. God in union with man. God in humanity. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. God manifest in the flesh. If God had meant to condemn the
world, he would never have sent his son into the world. This
is what our Savior says. God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be
saved. Surely then, God means to have
mercy upon men. Behold, God has made his Son
one of us. God clothed his Son with humanity. He has given him our nature.
so that he might redeem and save fallen men. He took not on him
the nature of angels, but it took hold on the seed of Abraham. So he came here not to save angels,
but to save men, specific men, covenant chosen men and women,
the sons and daughters of God Almighty, chosen in him before
the world began. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
Emmanuel. Well might sinners rejoice that
more than 2,000 years ago, Jesus the Christ was born at Bethlehem. Our Savior's name is Jesus. He's come to save. His name is
Emmanuel. That means he who has come to
save is able to save. He's God with us. The second word you'll find in
Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians two. We could read
the whole chapter together, but for the sake of brevity, just
look at verse five. The very last line. By grace
ye are saved. Grace. Oh, what a word of comfort
and hope for sinners. Grace. Somebody says it's the unmerited
favor of Christ. It's more than that. It's the
favor of God toward sinners who've earned his wrath. It's the favor
of God toward sinners who deserve judgment. The favor of God toward
sinners who deserve hell. It gives comfort and hope to
my heart to know that salvation is purely a matter of divine
grace. We live in a world, a religious
world of ignorant men and women who don't know God from a billy
goat, and they take comfort and preachers give them comfort in
their works, in their imaginary goodness, thinking by these things
they make themselves righteous, or at least make themselves more
righteous, make themselves holy, or at least make themselves more
holy, so that I don't do, it's amazing to me folks always talk
about holiness in things they don't do. I don't go here, I
don't wear that, I don't drink this, I don't eat that, that
makes me holy. What stupidity. Only men and women duped by Satan
are duped into thinking they have a goodness that makes them
holy or righteous before God. Honesty compels men and women
who know themselves sinners to flee from such delusions. I can't tell you how many times over these 51 years I've been
preaching the gospel of God's grace. I've had folks come to
me after God saved them, raised in religion, many of you, and
raised in Sunday school from the cradle roll up, hearing about
their goodness and their good works, and hearing about how
they love Jesus and how they serve Jesus and all the good
things they do for Jesus. And they tell me, Mother Donna,
somehow I just always knew that wasn't right. I tell you how
I know it's not right, because your heart tells you it's not
right. Your own mind tells you it's not right. Your own conscience
tells you it's not right. You know you're seeing at heart
and there's not any goodness in you. since God saves sinners
entirely by his grace, without any consideration or expectation
of merit on your part, there just might be hope for you, and
there just might be hope for me. You see, the grace of God, come close and listen to me.
Listen to me. I'm telling you something about God's grace.
It's hard to get hold of. The grace of God is free. It's free. It's free. Comes with no contingencies. No qualifications. No preconditions. Free. But I don't feel. I said
it's free. But I said it's free. But preachy,
you know, free! Means that you don't bring anything
with you to get it. It's just free. It's eternal. That which God does today, God
did from eternity. The grace God gives today, God
gave in eternity. This grace is always effectual. I don't spend any time at all
trying to con folks into making a profession
of faith. Trying to twist your arm, get
you to make a profession of faith. Or try to tell you you've been
saved. If God ever saves you, you won't need me to tell you
about it. And if you can be assured of it by some man, God hasn't
saved you. That's just fact, that's just fact. I'll tell you
what I spend my time doing, pleading with God to have mercy on you. Because you see, God's grace
is always effectual. Always affection. Oh wind of
God blow today Where you will on whom you will give life to
dead sinners this grace given us Freely is in Christ Jesus
and it's immutable Isn't that wonderful? God's grace is immutable
It never changes I know people accuse us of giving
license to sin and promoting licentiousness and all that stuff.
Frankly, I just don't care what people accuse us of. I take it
as a badge of honor any time the religious world cusses me.
I take it as a badge of honor. But I'm telling you something
about God's grace. Not many folks tell you. You can't change it. You can't diminish it. You can't
destroy it. The Savior said I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish Now look at first Thessalonians
chapter 1 Here's a third word of comfort
Oh what comforting hope this word gives It's the words you
don't hear much in churches these days. You don't hear much from
preachers these days. They'll fuss about it and cuss
about it. I went to my first Bible college out in Springfield,
Missouri. First year in college out there. Right before I got
on campus, they had passed an edict. You weren't even allowed
to say this word on campus unless you were denying it. Election. Election imagine a Bible College
One of the nuts they're called on me to have a service at dormitory
one night and I just read first chapter of Ephesians and everywhere
I ran across election and predestination. I just said bleep bleep And what
are you doing? I said, I'm censoring the Word
of God. You told me I couldn't say this on this campus The Bible
College you you can't say election here unless you're talking against
it listen what Paul says in first Thessalonians 1 for Knowing brethren
beloved your election of God. God has chosen some folks unto
salvation, maybe you. God has chosen some folks unto
salvation, maybe you. Well, we know the Bible teaches
election, but we can never know who God's elect are. I beg your
pardon. No, I don't beg your pardon.
You beg my pardon. Paul said, knowing, brethren
beloved, your election of God. I know you're God's elect, and
I'll tell you how I know you're God's elect. You believe on the
Son of God. Read the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians.
Our gospel came to you, not in word only, but in power, and
in demonstration of the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.
Not only is it true that you believe the gospel, but believing
on Christ, you bow to Christ. And you're looking for Christ,
and you proclaim Christ. Hebrews chapter seven, verse
22. Here's the fourth word. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. A surety. A surety. That's not a word we
use a great deal these days. Somebody goes to get a loan,
they can't really, banks can't justify giving them a loan if
they'll get a guarantor, that's a surety. Sort of, sort of. That means if I can't get the
money from this fella, I'm coming to get it from you. But both
of you are responsible. That's not really a surety. Not
a strict sense of the word. A surety is a man who assumes
total responsibility for the obligations of another. Jesus Christ is the surety of
his people. Before the world began, he willingly
assumed total responsibility for all his elect. He said, Father,
you put them in my hands. and I'll bring in everlasting
righteousness for them. I'll satisfy justice for them.
I'll pay their debt. I'll pour out my spirit upon
them and give them life. I'll seek my sheep, every one
of them, and bring every one of them safely home to you. And
I will at last say, Lo, I and the children whom thou hast given
me, give them to me. And the father trusted us to
the hands of his son, Arshirete. And the father and son struck
hands together in covenant love. Read about it in Ephesians chapter
one. And God Almighty, the triune Jehovah, never looked to me for
anything again. God looks to Christ for everything. and so do those who trust him. We come to him, guilty sinners,
casting our souls upon him alone as our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. This one who is our surety, number
five, we're told in Galatians chapter three, Christ hath redeemed
us. redeemed us. Redeemed us. He bought us out from under the
curse and bondage of God's holy law. There are three words commonly
used for redeemed in the scriptures. They're commonly used for bought.
One word is to buy something like you would buy a piece of
property. If you buy a piece of property,
you own it. It's yours. But you don't take
it anywhere. You do what you want to with
it, but you don't move it. There it is. I bought that acre.
I bought that 5,000 acres. It's yours. It's stock and barrel
yours. You can do with it what you want
to, where you can, except where the government passes laws and
tells you you can't. But it's your property. It's your property.
That word is used in the sense that Christ bought the world
to dispose of it as his own. Another word that's used is the
word that means to buy out of or to redeem. When I was going
to school out in Springfield, Missouri, I didn't have two nickels
drubbed together, but I managed to get together enough money
to buy a plane ticket to fly out there, 58 bucks, and I bought
a suitcase. Pretty nice little suitcase,
bought it at a pawn shop. I forgot what it paid, 14 or 12 dollars,
something like that. But it was a nice little suitcase, and I
carried it out there. And when I brought it back, I
took it right back to the pawn shop a year later. And sold it
back to them for at least as much as I had in it, maybe a
little bit more, but it was pawned. And they gave me a pawn ticket.
And you know what I did with the pawn ticket when I left there?
I took it out and threw it away. I had no intention of going back
and getting that suitcase out. I had gotten rid of it. But at
any time I wanted to, I could go in there and take that ticket
and say, here's the money, I'm gonna buy it back. And you go
in a pawn shop, lay down the money, give them the ticket,
pick up the suitcase, and you walk out with it. That's the
word used in Scripture talking about Christ redeeming us. He
didn't make us redeemable. He didn't make it possible. He
went into the marketplace of divine justice, and he paid the
price. of his life's blood and brought
us out from under the curse of God's holy law. And the third
word that's translated redeemed or bought in scripture is a word
which means to loose, to set free. That speaks of our experience
of redemption, resurrection, regeneration by the power of
God the Holy Ghost. Christ comes by the power of
his spirit and sets his redeemed ones free in the glorious liberty
of life and faith in Christ. Now, here's the sixth word. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. The psalmist says
in Psalm 130 and verse 4, there is forgiveness with thee that
thou mayest be feared. Oh, what a great word this is
from our God. These two things always go hand
in hand. Redemption by his blood and the
forgiveness of sins. For everyone that's redeemed,
there is forgiveness. All who are forgiven have been
redeemed. They're exactly the same people.
That in itself tells you Christ did not die for folks who go
to hell. That's as blasphemous as it can be. Oh, if he died
for folks who go to hell, his blood doesn't matter. No, no,
no. Wherever forgiveness is found,
it's found in those who are redeemed with his blood. What a great
word. God freely forgives sin. He has forgiven me all my sin,
past, present, and future. He so thoroughly forgives our
sins, so fully and completely forgives our sins, that He promises
never to remember them against us again forever. Forgiveness. Oh, blessed is the man to whom
God forgives sin. The man forgiven of sin is sin
lifted up by God and taken away by God, cast by God into the
depths of the sea. The fourth, or the seventh word,
rather, goes hand in hand with this. You can look at it, if
you will, James chapter two, James two. The scripture was fulfilled,
verse 23, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
Now what on earth does that mean? What on earth does that mean?
I've got here one of these post-it notes. This is what most folks think
it means. God took out a post-it note and he wrote righteousness and pasted it on Abraham's forehead.
Nothing more than that. God just pretended that Abraham
was righteous. What nonsense. No, no, no, no. Our sins were imputed to Christ
because he was made sin. And his righteousness was imputed
to Abraham, and it is imputed to us because we have been made
the righteousness of God in him. God reckons us righteous. He does so justly because God
made us righteous. in exactly the same way as he
made his son sin for us, he made us the righteousness of God in
him, and having made us the righteousness of God, he imputes righteousness
to us. How is that? God came to Abraham
when he called him by his grace, and he said, you're righteous.
He came to Eden, he said, you please me. And when God saves
the sinner, he consciously imputes to that sinner the righteousness
of Christ. He sprinkles your conscience
by his spirit with the blood of Christ. Like Aaron would go
in with hyssop and sprinkle the mercy seed and sprinkle all the
vessels of the sanctuary. God sprinkles the conscience
and says, you're clean. so that the guilty conscience
is purged of guilt. And you can lift your heart to
God in heaven with peace and cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. David understood
this. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. I charge myself with sin. Satan
charges me with sin. You may charge me with sin, God
will never charge me with sin. Because God imputed my sin to
his son, who has made sin for me. And God has imputed to me
his righteousness, who has made me the righteousness of God in
him. In Ephesians 1.6, You have the
eighth word that's full of comfort and hope for any believing sinner,
accepted. In whom we have acceptance. No, that's not it. He hath made
us accepted in the beloved, accepted. You hire a fellow to do a job,
and he comes and says he's finished with the job, and he has, and
you agreed to pay him, but you, well, here. And then you go to
work trying to get the job done the way you wanted it done. Happens
more often than not. Had a car mechanic shop and paid
to get it fixed, and you get it out and the transmission's
still slipping. You've already paid the bill,
let the car run and you go on, it's acceptable. That's not the
word here. He has made us accepted and to
be loved. Have you ever seen that lady
smile at me? Are you conscious how much she
accepts me? That's the word. That's the word, accept. favored, honored, pleasing. Merle Hart is completely pleasing
to God in his son. All together by his free grace
because of his work. This is called God's salvation.
Here's a ninth word that gives me great comfort, hope, and joy. Found in 1 Corinthians 15, many
places in the scripture. Let me just read this to you.
Beginning of verse 19 of 1 Corinthians 15. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we have all been most miserable. Now Paul's not saying that our
life in Christ is miserable. He's saying if there's no hope
beyond this, then the man who claims hope is the most deluded
man in the world. But now is Christ risen from
the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For
since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own
order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they their Christ at
his coming. I live in hope of the resurrection. I have had the responsibility
preaching the funerals and burying a good many people I dearly love whose resurrection shall be a
resurrection of damnation. But I live in hope of the resurrection.
We buried our dear friend Brother Bobby last week in hope of the
resurrection. That's a good burying. That's
good burying in hope of the resurrection. This same hope that Job expressed
in the earliest book written in the volume of Inspiration.
The book of Job was probably the very first book written.
Job said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. Me too, Brother Job.
I know that he shall stand at the latter day upon this earth,
and I know that after my skin worms destroy this body, yet
in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me. Soon I'll see my Savior face
to face. Resurrection glory one last word. I want you to see this one Isaiah
53 Isaiah 53 He pleased the Lord to bruise him
verse 10 He hath put him to grief When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin He shall see his seed He shall prolong
his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. Satisfied. Satisfied. The triune God is satisfied. with the obedience and death
of Christ for the satisfying of his law and justice. The Lord
Jesus shall in the resurrection day be satisfied. For all for
whom he died, he will have with him in glory. And the children of God shall
be satisfied. I've told you many times, I don't
have a clue what hell is and don't want to know. It's indescribably
beyond imagination. And I really don't have a clue
what heaven is, but oh, how I want to know that. It is indescribably
beyond imagination. This much I know. Blessed is
the man whom thou choosest. and causes to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in thy courts, we shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house. As for me, I will behold thy
face in righteousness. Oh God, my Savior, I can't be satisfied with less
than this, but then shall I be satisfied when I awake with thy
likeness. Emmanuel, grace, election, surety,
redeemed, forgiveness, imputed, accepted, resurrection, Satisfied. Satisfied. All that is mine. It's mine. I mean mine. How do you know? I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you have it? Would you
have all that? Believe on the Son of God. And your faith in Him is God's
declaration in you. All this is yours. Oh, God give
you grace then to believe His Son. Amen. Take your Songs of
Grace book and turn to number 42. Number 42, I'll ask you to
stand together as we sing another hymn.