It's always a joy to be here.
I've been looking forward to seeing you, old friends. I appreciate
your pastor and your pastor's wife. We were talking about him
last night, and what a friend he is. And I made the statement,
and I believe this, and you've probably proved this about your
pastor, too. When the going gets rough is when he'll show his
friendship. But he'll stick with you, won't
he? He will, and I appreciate that about him, I sure do. I
always look forward to coming down to here and Lindsey teach
the Sunday school class. Lindsey, I've never sat under
your teaching, but I've been blessed. And I sat there this
morning and I was listening to about when the Lord told the
children of Israel to stand still, in the midst of that chaos and
danger, to stand still. You'll never go forward till
you stand still. then go forward, we're through
the Red Sea, how unreasonable that is! But you know, the older
I get in the Lord, the more I understand that teaching. The more it scares
me to death to serve the Lord. I take it, it wrings me out,
I fear and tremble and I love it. I love it when I'm shut in
and Him being on every side, and I know that in my strength,
my wisdom, I cannot go another step, and yet I go. Because God,
my God, our God, says go forward. Then He opens up the way, doesn't
He, as you go. It's amazing. I appreciate that,
Lindsay, so much. I can relate to that, and all
of us can. Every believer can relate to that wonderful lesson.
I want you to turn with me this morning to what I have to say.
I tried to preach on this not long ago, but it's still somewhat
on my heart this morning. So I want you to turn to a very
familiar text over in Ephesians chapter 2. The book of Ephesians
chapter 2. And most of you, I bet, this
morning could quote my text because it's such a familiar text. In
verses 8 and 9. Ephesians chapter two in verses
eight and nine and ten, these three verses. And my subject
this morning is what is it to be saved by grace? What is it to be saved by grace? And the scriptures describes
that to us and that's what I want to simply look at this morning.
Let me read our text to us in verse eight. For by grace are
you saved through faith And that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
By grace are you saved. And he describes what it means
to be saved in the whole chapter one and i want us to go back
right quickly and the first thing i want us to look at what does
it mean to be saved and what he calls salvation here in verse
eight he calls blessings in chapter one what is it to be saved it
means god has blessed me it means you're blessed of god that's
what it means to be saved Look at how he says it in chapter
one and look in verse three and verse four. He begins here with
telling us that the whole scheme of salvation from start to finish,
from eternity past to eternity future, the whole scheme of salvation
is of God. It's of God. Look how he says
it in verse three. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us He has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. And he tells us here in verse
4 that not only is this scheme of salvation his plan and his
purpose, but he is the one who chose who would be saved. He is the one who would be included
in this whole scheme of salvation. Look at verse 4. 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. He
chose us. He chose all His elect people. When? Before they had a being. Even before the WORLD had a BEING,
before the ANGELS came into BEING, GOD CHOSE THOSE WHOM HE WAS GOING
TO SAVE! That goes all the way back to
the beginning, doesn't it? There's another passage that
says this maybe even plainer than this over in II Thessalonians
where the Apostle said, We're bound to give thanks to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, for He hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. What a blessing that is! That's
where it really began, wasn't it? With us. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. The Lord
Jesus sent his apostles out to cast out devils and to heal the
sick, and they came back to him sort of bragging. They said,
even the devils are subject to us through your name. It's always difficult to get
us out of the picture. They're subject to us. all they
went ahead and said through your name but it's still you know
we are preaching it to us they're subject to us and you remember
what the lord jesus told them don't rejoice that the devils
are subject to you but rejoice in this that your names are written
in heaven what a blessing that is that your name has been put
in the lambs book of life That's the first blessing that he mentions.
What is it to be saved? It means I've been chosen. God
has chosen me in Jesus Christ to be saved. And then he goes
on here in the next verse. Look in verse 5. Having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. He has predestinated us unto
the adoption of sons. You know, it would be amazing
if God just acted on impulse or something and said, you know,
I've looked at this man, I've looked at this woman, and I'm
going to adopt them as my child. I'm going to make them my son.
That would be amazing. But you know, it doesn't happen
that way. He predestinated them. Before time, He set that person
aside and this person aside. He had all eternity to think
about it. Who am I going to adopt as my
children? And He chose this one and He
chose that one and He set that one aside and said, that's my
child. Isn't that amazing? What is it
to be saved? It means back in eternity, God
in Christ set us aside to make us, adopt us as His children. That's a blessing, isn't it?
And that's what it means to be saved. And he says here in verse
six, he gives us the motive really for doing all of this, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath favored us in
his son because of his son, for the sake of his son. One thing
you'll notice about this apostle, as soon as he mentions the name
of Jesus Christ, as soon as he mentions redemption, his heart
is filled with Christ. And His mouth is filled with
Christ and His pen is filled with Christ. He's telling us
that God has did all of this for the glory of His Son. To
give His Son a great name in this world and in heaven. It's
all because of Christ, isn't it? The one year that the Holy
Spirit says, is the Beloved of God. That's what salvation is
about. That's who it's about, isn't
it? I was coming down yesterday and I was listening on the radio
and they were having the celebration of Veterans Day there in Washington,
D.C. and they had, I don't know which
chaplain he was, one of the armed services chaplain was praying. And while I appreciate, while
I appreciate very much what he had to say about, about God's
providence and ruling over this nation and keeping the nation.
I appreciate that so much. I wish we had more people to
think that way. But I thought as he was praying
and as he finished his prayer, he had had nothing of Christ
in him. There was no Christ in his prayer. He just rushed right
into God's presence and made his request and his thanksgiving,
but nothing of Christ. And I know why, and you know
why. Because there's Muslims there, and there's Hindus there,
and there's atheists there. And it's alright to approach
Him to God in general, in a general way. But never do it in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought of that scripture
where the Lord said, He that honors the Son honors the Father
also, and he that honors not the Son. What's salvation about? God has purposed to give His
Son a great name, and that's why He's saving sinners like
us. That's what Paul is saying here. He's made us accepted in
the Beloved. And then he goes on in verse
7 and says, "...in whom we have redemption through His blood."
What is it to be saved? It's to be redeemed, isn't it?
That's what salvation is about. That's the only way to be saved
is to be redeemed. Redeemed from the curse of God's
holy law. redeemed from the wrath of God,
redeemed from sin, in whom we have redemption through His blood. A redemption that's at a great
cost to God's Son, in whom we have redemption. And he goes
on to say this, even the forgiveness of sins. What a blessing! What does it mean to be saved?
It means we're forgiven of all sins. Did you hear what Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and now you're free. They're all taken away.
All sins forgiven. Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven her. Oh, I've often thought this and
I've often said this. What would it mean to us this
morning to leave this building and go home? knowing, having
the God-given assurance that every sin we've ever committed
against God is all forgiven. Wouldn't that be wonderful? To
live in the God-given assurance that all your sins that you've
committed against me, against my law, against my people, against
my word, against my spirit, against mercy, every sin of omission
and commission, it's all forgiven. What does it mean to be saved?
It means all your sins have been purged away. They're all forgiven. While we struggle with it, struggle
against it, we pray against it, we confess it, it's all forgiven. That's what it means to be saved.
That's wonderful, isn't it? How wonderful. Then he begins
here in verse 11 to tell them What awaits them in that world
that's to come? This is a wonderful thing. He
says in verse 11, In whom also we have obtained, we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
He doesn't say here what that inheritance is. Peter tells us
a little bit about it. He says it's an inheritance that's
undefiled and that's incorruptible. It's reserved in heaven for you. Who can even describe what it
is to be an heir of God? And yet the Apostle Paul said,
that's what is waiting for you. That's the blessing that God
has chosen you to, to give you this inheritance, this eternal
inheritance in heaven. And what will it be when all
the world, the history of mankind, has been raised and stand before
the King of glory in his very presence, at his throne on the
last day, and have him to say, come you're blessed in my Father.
You blessed. You blessed. He blessed you before
time. He chose you. He redeemed you.
He forgave you. He called you. He kept you. And
now come and inherit this blessing. Oh my. And he says that before
all the nations of this world. Come, you blessed of my Father,
and hurry the kingdom prepared for you." What does it mean to
be saved? It means all of that. And brothers
and sisters, I don't know of any salvation apart from this. The salvation, what it means
to be saved by grace, is described in chapter 1 of Ephesians. And
I don't know of another salvation, do you? There is no other salvation
but that. And how could these Ephesians
possibly know that such blessing belonged to them? Well, the Lord
had blessed them with another blessing. Look what he says in
verse 13. after that you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after
that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."
How could they possibly know that they were blessed? How could
they know they were chosen and redeemed and forgiven? He had
given them His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of promise. He had sent
the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, and He had revealed the
Lord Jesus to them. He had bore witness to their
spirit. You're sons of God. You're my children. We can't
know any of God's blessings until He sends the Holy Spirit into
our hearts. Crying, Father, Father. Salvation. What a blessing. What
a blessing it is. He says here that he sealed you
until the day of redemption. He sealed you. What does it mean
to be sealed? We hear that word quite often
in our society. I was listening to some news
the other day when they released all of the Kennedy tapes, when
Kennedy was killed, and they said, now we're gonna release
all the information and come to find out. They said, no, we're
gonna seal all of this. And it simply means we don't
want the public to see it. We're hiding this from the public.
We're keeping this private, shut away. That's what it means to
be sealed. We're here, aren't we? We're
not yet revealed, but we will be. We will be. Seal means this. When you seal something, you
seal it in your vault or you seal it in your safe, it means
that it's something precious. A fella was showing me his guns
last night. Got some nice guns. But I tell
you, they're not sitting in the corner. You don't go up in the
house and see them sitting there. Mark's got them in a big, huge
safe that he can't hardly open. He's got them in a vault. Why?
He values those things. My wife, he keeps most of her
jewelry in a little box. She don't have it locked up because
it's made mostly out of tin. When I come home, Some place,
I got a little place there in the windowsill where I put my
wallet. There's nothing in there that I can't replace. But if
you were wealthy, I tell you what you would do with your money,
you would keep it in the bank. You'd seal it up in a vault somewhere,
wouldn't you? That's what it means to be sealed.
And when we want to preserve something, when we finish our
gardens in the fall, what do we do? We seal it in jugs, don't
we? Until we open it up. That's what it means to be sealed.
And God has sent His Spirit into our hearts and He has sealed
us with it. And He says here, look in verse
14, look at this blessing. Which is the earnest of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit in our hearts
is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession and to the praise of His glory. A pledge, I looked
up this word and it said a pledge is part of the purchase money
or property given in advance as security for the rest. All
of us have did this. If you've done much dealing,
you go out somewhere and you see an old car and you say, man,
I've got to have that car. And you don't have but $100 with
you and you stop and you say, can I give you $100 and come
back tomorrow and pick this car and pay the rest? And then some
of us have come back tomorrow without any, because we couldn't
get the rest of it. And we couldn't get the $100
back. You ever did that? You know something that will
never happen with the Lord? If you're here this morning,
dear child, and He sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Father, Father, that's an earnest, that's an indication, that's
a promise on His part, that He'll have the whole of you in time.
He'll have your body with Him redeemed in heaven as well as
your soul because He has purchased the whole man. And that Holy
Spirit in your heart is just in an earnest of that. If He's
there, oh how He's blessed you. He's given you an earnest of
His eternal salvation. What a blessing. And now we come
to chapter 2 and unless these Ephesians begin to imagine that
such a salvation could be merited of them or that they deserved
it in any way, he reminds them of the most deplorable condition
they were in when this blessing came to them, when they were
set aside to this blessing. And look how he says it, and
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. You were dead! What can a dead
man do? Can a man who is dead in trespasses
and sins deserve or merit anything but the awful wrath of God? You
were a trespasser, he said. We all know what that means,
don't we? If you're out hunting somewhere and you see a fence
there and it has on the fence, no trespassing, we know what
that means, don't we? That means the owner of that
property don't want us over there. He forbids us from being over
there. And God puts no trespassers. He gives us a law. And he said,
don't trespass my law. Don't go there. And what have
we done? We went there, haven't we? We
violated God's law and His commandments. We are trespassers and we are
dead in trespasses and sins. And he goes ahead in verse 2
and he says this, wherein in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world. What is the course of this world?
Just dead in sin. Everybody's sinful. Everybody's
a trespasser. The course of this world. That's
the way this world is. It's just the way it is. Somebody
said everybody's doing it. Yes, they are. Just about everybody's
doing it except those whom the Lord delivers from it. And what
is the end of this course? Eternal death and misery. The
course of this world. But look at this. Who's motivating
this world to walk according to that course? According to
the prince of the power of the hour of the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. See, man is not thinking of all
these terrible things to do just on his own. He's got some help. He's got this spirit that can't
be seen. These fallen spirits, they're
in the mind. And they're tempted and they're
encouraging and they're motivated to live this sinful, wretched
lifestyle against God. Then he goes on in verse 3 and
he says this, nobody's exempt among whom also we all had our
compensation in time past. And look at this, in the lust
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh. and of
the mind. And somebody might say, well,
I never was open and profane. And thank God most people aren't. Some people escape the outward
motions of sin. Thank God they check it. But
you know, you can't escape the lust of the mind. That's where
sin has its origin. It's just a manufacturer of iniquity,
and it works 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The lust of
the mind, and notice this, he goes to the very heart of it,
and you were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. And that's our whole problem,
isn't it? Why does the natural man hate God? That's just his
nature. You don't have to teach your children and your grandchildren
to hate God. They hate Him by nature. They're
rebels against Him by nature. We all are. Everybody loves God
in our day. Just ask them. Just ask them. But it's not according to scriptures.
According to scriptures, our minds, our natural minds are
enmity against God. Now, I know that this is offensive
to this world. It is. It's offensive to this
world. You don't confront people with
these things. It makes them mad. It makes them
upset. It confuses them. It strips them of any of their
false hope. But why does this apostle go
into such detail to teach them of their awful condition, but to remind them and teach
them this? That these blessings of salvation
are not merited. They are not earned on your part. They are indeed blessings of
the free grace of God alone, without any consideration of
human merit, because we have no merit. We have no merit. When He says here in our text
in verse 8, By grace are ye saved, He means to teach us that such
grace is uncaused By us. The cause of grace lies wholly
in the Giver. The Triton God Himself. What is election? What is election
but God saying to us? I save who I'll save. You can't earn salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord. And it's all by grace. by my free
and sovereign grace. And since it's that way, God
is not obligated to give it to anybody. He could have withheld
it from everybody. And if He gives it to somebody,
it's owing to nothing but that grace that's found in His own
heart. Grace. Grace. It's uncaused. in the Recipient. You can't do anything to cause
God to be gracious to you. It's uncaused. He doesn't look
down and say, okay, I'm waiting. It's uncaused. This grace that saves us is unconditional. Not only is it uncaused, it's
unconditional. Not only does it have no debts
to pay, but it doesn't have to wait for any certain conditions
to be met or fulfilled on man's part. Grace does not have to
wait for us to do something so it can act. Did you notice in
verse 5 when he saved on past grace? The Apostle made a point
of that here in verse 5 of chapter 2. Even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are
saved. Even when We were dead in sin. You may
be here this morning and you may be dead in your sins. You
may be as dead in your soul and in your spirit as Lazarus was
laying there in that tomb. You're so dead, you're stinking
in your soul. You're dead in sin. But I tell
you this morning, without fear of being contradicted from the
scriptures, if you're one of God's, If He has redeemed you
by His Son, if He has chosen you in His Son, I'm telling you
this morning, He can come to you right where you are and save
you. Because salvation is by grace
that's uncaused in the reciprocate. And it's a grace that does not
have to wait upon something that you do. to save you, even when
we were dead in sins. And not only is this grace uncaused
in the reciprocate, and not only does it come to us when it doesn't
have to wait to do for us, but it comes to us and utterly refuses
our help. It utterly refuses our help in
saving us. IT DOES NOT SAVE THOSE WHO HAVE
ANY ABILITY WHATSOEVER TO SAVE THEMSELVES. NOT OF YOURSELVES. BY GRACE ARE YOU SAVED, NOT OF
YOURSELVES. NOT IN THE LEAST OF YOURSELVES
ARE YOU SAVED BY GRACE. IF A MAN CAN REPENT HIMSELF,
HE DOESN'T NEED GRACE. If a man can believe to the saving
of his soul on his own, he don't need grace. If a man can some
way or the other give himself a new heart and a new spirit,
he don't need to be saved by grace. If a man can merit forgiveness,
if a man can do anything to save himself, lift one piggy to save
himself, then he's not saved by grace. Because grace comes
to us and does all for us. By grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It does all, doesn't it? It does
all. What is salvation? He described
it in chapter 1. What is it then to be saved?
How are we saved? By grace. Therefore, boasting flesh has
no place in salvation. Not of works. lest any man should
boast." I wonder today if we could let this world just write
out what salvation means, write out the gospel that they wanted,
I wonder what it would look like. It wouldn't look like this gospel,
would it? It'd be gospel for good people, gospel for the learned,
gospel for the successful, but it wouldn't be gospel for a hell-deserving,
wretched, dead sinner. It wouldn't be that kind of gospel.
But that's the kind of gospel we find here. Grace. Grace. Grace saves us and shuts
away. That it strips us of all self-boasting
and fills us with humility. And yet at the same time we're
brought to see our absolute unworthiness and any ability to attain worthiness. He shows us at the same time
that we're blessed on a principle all together outside of ourselves. What is it? Grace. Free and sovereign
grace. You know something? That's how
a thief on the cross can be saved in his dying hours. Just because
of this kind of grace. That's how a man full of leprosy
that's ready to die a miserable death can be saved. It's all
of grace. That's why the Saul of Tarsus,
a man who hates God and killing Christians, can be saved. That's
why you can be saved and why I can be saved. If it's any marriage
involved, that eliminates all of us. But oh, if it's by such
grace that originated, that comes solely from the heart of God
through this bleeding, redeeming Savior, then a sinner like me
has hope. I can be saved. if it's all by
grace. I love how our text reads here
in regards to time. Look how it said, by grace you
are. By grace you are said. Isn't
it somewhat amazing and telling that he doesn't say, by grace
you were? Well, that's true. But He said, by grace you are
saved. And you know we could say that
yesterday. Yesterday we could say, by grace I am. And today
we can say, by grace I am. And tomorrow we can say, by grace
we are. Any time that you look at your
salvation, I don't care if you go all the way back to the planet
of it. or you come to the very present
time, or you look out in eternity that's to come, it's always you
are saved by grace. He never says, oh, now it's different. Now you've earned it, now you've
done something. Now you deserve just a little.
No, it's always you are saved by grace. One of the greatest
joys that I ever experienced in my heart, sometime when it
dawns upon me that I'm saved by grace. And I'll be saved tomorrow
the same way I was saved yesterday by grace that never changes. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, we're such a mess, aren't
we? We're just like the children of Israel, isn't it? Just like
them. We get so frustrated and we're so ignorant and we have
all of these thoughts. And we think, well, now God,
God expects something of us. Something we can do on our own. We're always having to stand
still, aren't we? And see the salvation of the
Lord. But oh, when this dawns upon us, I'm saved by grace. And when I think about dying,
when I think about the judgment, I think about I'll be saved by
grace. Grace. Looking for the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Somebody said, Bruce, Don't
you think we must believe? Yeah, we must believe. By grace,
so you say, through faith. And that knowledge itself, it's
the gift of God. You know, faith is as much a
gift of God as God's own Son is. God so loved the world that
He gave, and it's given to you to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You can't believe. We're not
born with faith. We can't muster up faith. It's
given us to believe. And you know something? When
He gives you an ear to hear in the Bible, that's called the
hearing of faith. When you truly hear the Gospel,
that's faith. This is only what I learned of
you, Paul said. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the
law or by the hearing of faith? Here and your soul shall live.
That's faith to hear. And that's a gift of God, brothers
and sisters. I think sometimes the reason He lets us fall into
unbelief, just to teach us, you can't believe on your own. And
you can't maintain that faith on your own. It's not that He
believes, but He gives us grace to believe. And He maintains
it and upholds it in our heart. By grace are you saved through
faith. What does it mean to be saved? Well, that's what it means
to be saved by grace. But one more thing before I close,
I want to look at, and that's in verse 10. Look at this, this
is an amazing thing. For you are His workmanship,
that word in my margin says you are His creation, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. What does it mean to be saved?
It means you are a new creature. You are a new creation. The old creature's not been taken
away. We know that, don't we? This old self? Oh, we're dreadfully
aware of that. But I tell you something else
we're aware of, too. We have a new self. We have a
new self. And He is a new self that never
existed before. He's a new creation. When the
Lord saves a person, He doesn't remodel him. He doesn't go in
and say, I want to do something to this old man, this old creature. I want to add on to him, give
me a place to dwell in the old house. It's not that way at all. He makes us new. If any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature. I was reading a commentary the
other day, and the commentator said, there's such a change in us that
it appears to be new. No, it don't just appear. Mark
it, it is new. I heard Brother Darwin Pruitt
say the other day, he said, when you read these commentators,
he said, always remember that they're commentators. And sometimes you need to go
to your Bible to understand, you know, what they're talking
about. They'll confuse you to death. It's not like they're
a new creature because there's such a change. There's a new
creature there that never was there before. Look at how he
says it over here in the 4th chapter right quickly. Look in
chapter 4 and look in verse 22. In verse 21 of chapter 4 he says,
If so be that ye have heard him, and ye have been taught by him,
as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former
conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
that you put on the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness." I know this about myself and
I stand in amazed about it. I have a new self. I have a new
self. Aren't you amazed at yourself?
There was a time when the worst day of the week was on a Sunday
because you had to go hear the gospel. And you had to endear
God's people for a couple of hours. And you couldn't stand
it when Dad said, let's gather and have scripture reading and
prayer. But now look at you. What are you doing here on this
cool day in November? You got up this morning and you
weren't feeling all that well, but you got dressed, and you
came, and you're here, and you listen, and you love what you're
hearing. What's wrong with you? You have
a new self. This old self has been put down
and put off. And you have this new self. And
oh, he's completely different than your old self, isn't he?
Sometimes the old self will pop up and there he is, and you have
to keep putting him down, keep saying no to old self, but you
have this new self. Aren't you amazed that you love
God? Aren't you amazed that you love Jesus Christ and his gospel
and his people and his ways and his commandments? Aren't you amazed that you have
two selves? The old self doesn't rule anymore. You have the new self. and is
ruled by grace. My wife came home one day and
she had been shopping and she had bought me a t-shirt. She
said, I found you a t-shirt that this suits you. And I opened
it up and it was a night shirt and it said, it's all about me. And I said, that just suits me.
Aren't you glad that the Lord has showed you it's not about
you anymore? And you don't have to walk after
the old cell. He'll give you a new self. And He's given you
all these new principles to live by. He goes on here. Let me just
give you one or two here in verse 25. Look at this. Wherefore put
in away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for
we are members one of another. Why shouldn't we lie one to another?
Well, liars go to hell. That's what the Bible tells us.
God hates lying. But look at this motive. This
is a motive for the new man. We're members one of another. Why shouldn't I lie to you? Why
shouldn't we lie one to another? We're members of the same body.
It would be like my hand taking a needle and sticking it in my
eye, or putting poison in my mouth, or my leg sticking my
foot in the fire. We love the body, don't we? We
don't lie one to another. We don't hurt one another because
we're the body of Jesus Christ. Boy, you just go on here and
read these gospel precepts. This is why I always say this,
that you don't send a gracious man to Mount Sinai to teach him
how to live. I know we delight in the law
of God. I just read where one man said the only rule of life
is the Ten Commandments. If that be so, brothers and sisters,
what's our rule when we've sinned? It tells us not to sin, don't
steal, don't bear false witness. What do we do though when we
have sinned? Then we have to go to the gospel,
don't we? If we sin, we have an advocate
with a father. Why do you wives reverence your
husband? Because you reverence Christ.
Why do you husbands love your wives? Even as Christ loved the
church. We have these gospel precepts
to live by and we love them. Because we have this in yourself.
We have this in yourself. Oh, if He's come to you and He's
made you new, praise Him for it. Live in His praises. Because
you go all the way back to eternity and He chose you to that salvation. He sent His Son in time to redeem
you. And He sent His Holy Spirit to
make you new. Live in His praises. Cleave to
Him. And find in the Gospel all of
these wonderful motives to be followers of God. That's dear
children. if you're saved by grace. God
bless you. Can we pray again? Oh, our Father, gracious, gracious
Father in heaven, so merciful, the Father of mercies and the
God of all comfort. Oh, we bless you for letting
us gather with your children today to hear your word taught
to us, for us to preach your word, for us to fellowship one
with another. No place we'd rather be, Lord,
than with your dear people, your redeemed ones, your loved ones,
your family. Thank you for so great a salvation.
Thank you for giving us an interest in it, giving us faith to believe
it. I pray for this dear people,
that you may lift them up on high. Strip them, humble them
of everything that's contrary to you. Chasten them, work in
them, Lord, for your glory and for the eternal good, bless the
dear pastor and his wife, Brother Don and Shelby. Bless Brother
Lindsey and all the other teachers here. Bless them, Lord. Continue
your work here in this place for your great namesake. In Christ
we pray. Amen. Thank you, church. Thank you so much. Lindsey.