Let's open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We'll begin at verse 1 and I'll
be working my way down to verse 10. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. which I preached unto you, which
also ye have received, and wherein ye stand." Now notice the definite
article, the gospel. There is but one gospel. It is not the Baptist gospel,
or the Papist gospel, or the Mormon gospel, or the Arminian
gospel, or the Calvinist gospel. It is the gospel of God. The gospel of the grace of God. It is the good news of redemption,
grace, and salvation by the doing and dying of God's darling son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel, the gospel of the
kingdom, the gospel of Christ, the gospel of God, the gospel
of peace, the gospel of the grace of God. This is what I preach
to you. This is what every man called,
sent, and gifted of God to preach, preaches to you. Not now and
then, not occasionally, not from certain portions of scripture,
but everywhere he turns in the book of God, he preaches to you
the gospel as it is revealed in the word of God, and understand
at the outset, Everything in this book is written in this
book by divine inspiration to teach us the gospel of God. It is the gospel that every saved
sinner, we and all our brethren in Christ have received, that
which you also have received. We've received it by the gift
of God's grace. We've received it by the hand
of faith. We eagerly take it. We embrace
it. We take it for our own. And wherein
ye stand. What a great word. Wherein ye
stand. just in case you can't tell it
by my accent, and I haven't given it away in conversation, which
I hope I have in both cases. I'm not only an American, I am
a Southern American. And I tell folks all over the
country, wherever I go, if I couldn't be a Southerner, I'd at least
be ashamed. One of the great characters in Southern history
is a man who was general in the Civil War by the name of Stonewall
Jackson. He got the name Stonewall Jackson
because he was such a courageous leader. He led his underlings
in battle from the front, not from the rear. And when they
were assaulted, he never turned back. And men commented, there
stands Jackson like a stone wall. In the grace of God, God's people,
having received the gospel, stand. stand firm, immovable, justified,
accepted of God, sanctified, holy, righteous, redeemed, called,
saved by the grace of God, wherein we stand, being kept in Jesus
Christ. Verse 2, by which also ye are
saved. Now you have that little word,
if. Whenever you come across the word if that seems in your
thinking to be a condition, read it as a promise and you get it
right. Wherein, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory,
if you hold fast that which I preached unto you, We are not saved by
our memory. We're not saved by our holding
fast, but rather being saved, we hold fast this gospel that
we have received. We're like Peter. When the Lord
looked at him and the disciples had left, and he looked at those
many professed disciples, and he looked at those who were many
and he said, will you also go away? And Peter said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? You're all we've got. Thou hast
the words of eternal life. We have received this gospel,
and we will not let it go. We will not be turned from it,
because we're saved by the grace of God proclaimed in the gospel,
unless you have believed in vain. That is, unless your faith is
just something somebody talked you into. unless your faith is
just a decision you made, unless your faith is just an interprofession
without the gift of life. Verse three, for I delivered
unto you first of all, that is, this is the first thing I preached
to you, and this is the preeminent thing I preached unto you, when
I preached to you the gospel, that which I also received. how
that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
In the preaching of the gospel, there must be the clear declaration
of how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
where men do not declare How that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures are when men declare the death of
Christ in a manner contrary to the scriptures. The gospel is
not preached. The gospel is preached as we
proclaim to men the how of Christ's death. The gospel is a person. It is not a system of doctrine.
It's not a creed. It's not a confession of faith.
The gospel is a person. That person is Jesus Christ the
Lord. Now watch this little word, Hal. I'm fully aware that this little
word was added by our translators. There is no corollary word in
the Greek text. But it was added for a reason,
and a very good reason. You who have studied any kind
of different language than English recognize that in translating
from one language to another, to give an accurate translation,
you must here and there add a word. If you ever try to read an exact
translation from any language in English, it's going to read
real clumsy. Doesn't matter what language
it is. Whatever it is, if you just read an exact translation,
just a verbal translation, you're going to read something that
reads very awkward and often makes no sense. In this case,
the word how was added by a matter of absolute necessity. In fact,
in 1 Corinthians 15.3, as it is read in our English translation,
this little word that was added, how, is the key to the whole
thing. The preaching of the gospel is
not, God help you to hear me now, The preaching of the gospel
is not merely declaring that Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. That's a historic fact that can't
be denied. If that's all there is to preaching
the gospel, then the papist, and the Mormon, and the Pentecostal,
and the Adventist, and the Baptist, and the Presbyterian, the liberal,
and the conservative, all preach the gospel. That is, just declaring
the fact that Christ died, according to the scripture, is not preaching
the gospel. Preaching the gospel is to declare
H, O-W, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. Now I stress this, I stress it
everywhere I go, I made my practice for The better part of 50 years,
everywhere I go to preach, the first thing I preach to them
about is the death of Christ. Everywhere I go, I preach it
all the time. Because this is the crucial issue. This is where the glory of God
is at stake. This is where the revelation
of God stands or falls. This is where salvation is found
or where the Savior is betrayed. It is in the death of the Lord
Jesus, the H-O-W, the how of Christ's death. How did the Lord
Jesus Christ die for our sins according to the Scriptures?
First, Paul is obviously referring to the Old Testament Scriptures.
Christ died for our sins according to that which was revealed, proclaimed,
prophesied, pictured, and typified in the Old Testament Scriptures.
He died as a sin-atoning sacrifice. Throughout the Old Testament,
God required sacrifice for sin. From the very beginning, in the
garden, before the law was ever given, God required sacrifice
for sin. A sacrifice not to atone for
sin, but a sacrifice to ceremonially represent to ceremonially picture,
to ceremonially typify, to ceremonially prophesy. There's one coming
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. As Brother Peter
so clearly said earlier today, as you preach the gospel, understand
those Old Testament folks, the people of God, who worship God
in the Old Testament ceremonies, understood what they were doing.
They understood we're coming here to worship God through the
mediator, Christ, who one day is going to be here. They understood
that. The women in Israel, do you know why women in Israel
all wanted to have children? Why they all felt themselves
to be cursed of God if their womb was barren? Do you know
why they all wanted a male child? Everyone of them who believed
God said, maybe, maybe, maybe, or maybe God will send his son
through my womb. They were hoping to be the mother
of that one who comes to be the Redeemer whom they worshiped.
And from the beginning, men and women came to God through the
sacrifice that God had appointed. That sacrifice representing Christ,
a sacrifice to atone for sin. Don't be afraid of that word
atone or atonement. It means to be at one with. A sacrifice by which God will
make himself and his people one in the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. He died according to the Old
Testament scriptures by divine appointment. The scriptures gave
us very specific dates and times so that if you read Daniel's
prophecy you know that Messiah must come and he must put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself in the middle of that 70th week
of Daniel's prophecy before the nation of Israel was destroyed,
before the scepter departed from the feet of Judah. He must come
at this specific time. He will die at the time of the
evening sacrifice set up by the ordinance of God in the Old Testament
Scripture. And he must die a violent, obviously,
manifestly, cursed death. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. He must die as a man. A man who
is God. A man who is God who's made to
be cursed. because he bear in his body the
iniquity of his people on the tree. This man who comes to die
according to the scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ died for
the satisfaction of divine justice because there is no other way
by which God can be just and the justifier of those who believe. He died as a substitute. in somebody's place, in the stand
of a specific people. In the Old Testament, on the
Day of Atonement, the high priest represented a specific people. He offered a sacrifice for a
specific people. He wore their names upon his
breastplate. The people were the children
of Israel. He did not make intercession
for anyone else. He did not offer sacrifice for
anyone else. He represented God's chosen people. And the Lord Jesus Christ died
as a substitute in the room instead of a specific people. You said,
preacher, are you talking about Jesus died just for his elect? Well, of course he did, dummy.
Of course he did. I used my words deliberately.
I said, dummy, you're a dummy if you imagine that God Almighty
attempted to redeem folks who are not redeemed. Not just that,
not only spiritually ignorant, your doctrine is blasphemous.
For your doctrine is a denial of the very Godhead of Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
a failure, and the glory of God is revealed in the accomplished
redemption of God's elect by Christ, our sin-atoning substitute,
who died in our stead. He's portrayed not only in that
Paschal Lamb, but on that Day of Atonement, the high priest
was required to take two goats. One, the Lord's goat, and the
other, the scapegoat. And over both goats, he confessed
the sins of the people. Because this one goat, the Lord's
goat that sacrificed, he must be slain. But there's another
goat bearing the sins of the people. He's the same savior,
the same substitute, the same act represented in the two different
goats. And the priest lays all the sins of the people on that
scapegoat. And He puts them in the hands
of a fit man. And that fit man is Christ Jesus
the Redeemer. And He carries him with all their
sins out into a land not inhabited. And He carries them away, away,
away, away. And after a while, here comes
the fit man and the sins of God. Gone! Not just hidden, not just
pardoned, not just forgiven. Gone! Did you hear what Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away. The scapegoat, bear them away. Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. This
one who died according to the scriptures, died as an effectual
sacrifice. giving access to and acceptance
with the Holy Lord God, an effectual sacrifice. Many years ago, we
used to take kids to camp. We'd take about 150 kids to camp
for a week. And Shelby and some of the ladies
would prepare the meals. And we'd teach them and preach
to them. And some of my sisters came up to help out with the
camp one year. And one of my sisters said to me, she said,
what do you mean by that word effectual? And I said, that means
it gets the job done. It gets the job done. Christ's
death gets the job done. In whom we have redemption through
his blood and maybe, if things go just right, the forgiveness
of sins. Have you ever read that in any
translation? Oh no. No. You see, having redemption
through His blood is having the forgiveness of sins. If Christ
died for my sins, there's no possibility that I can suffer
for them. If Christ put away my sins, if
He bare the wrath of God in my stead, if He bare all the justice
of God in my room, in my place, for me, I cannot bear it, God
will never pour it upon me. The justice of God is fully satisfied. The Lord Jesus died as that effectual
sacrifice prophesied and typified throughout the Old Testament.
There's so many pictures who can limit what we say. The very first sacrifice spoken
of in Scripture, Adam and Eve, God stripped off their fig leaves,
and he killed an innocent victim, and he made the skins of that
victim to be garments for the fallen pair. That's Christ our
Redeemer. And Adam taught his boy Abel
how to worship God. Cain didn't pay any attention.
And they came to worship God, and Abel offered a sacrifice,
the firstling of the flock, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cain
came with the works of his hands, believing on Cain. The Lord God
sent a flood. And it told Noah, build an ark. Build an ark exactly suitable
for you and your wife and your three sons and their three wives
to subsist and live comfortably all the days they're in that
ark. And the time came when the Lord God would destroy the earth,
and He shut Noah and his sons and their wives in the ark. And
then the flood of God's wrath came upon the ark, a beat upon
the ark, overwhelmed the earth. Everything was destroyed. That
ark bore all the fury of God's justice. But nothing touched
Noah. He's in the ark. He's in the
ark. Everybody for whom the ark was
made was saved. Everybody for whom the ark was
made was put in the ark. Everybody for whom the ark was
made went through the flood. Everybody for whom the ark was
made came out on the other side of the flood in perfect safety.
This is that one who's spoken of in the Psalms. He said, my
God, my God. Why hast thou forsaken me? He
said, my iniquities are more than the hairs on my head, so
I cannot look up. He said, reproach has broken
my heart. Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord God hath afflicted me
in the day of his fierce anger. This is that one who by one sacrifice
brought in everlasting righteousness, was numbered with the transgressors
and made an end of sin. Jesus Christ, God's son, our
sacrifice, our substitute. Look at verse 4. And he was buried. He was buried just like the scripture
said he would be. He was buried. Why? Does the
apostle, by inspiration, insist on this? He died for our sins
according to scriptures. He was buried according to scriptures.
Because the spirit of God knew that men would come along and
say, well, it just looked like he died. He didn't really die. So he was buried. For three days
Jonah was in the heart of the earth. And for three days, God's
darling son lay in the heart of the earth. He who was made
sin for us, slaughtered by the hand of divine justice, was buried
in the earth. until on the third day, according
to the scriptures, he was raised again. He rose again without
sin. He rose again. And the whole
theme of this 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians is the resurrection. And Paul lays such stock and
weight on the resurrection that he says, if Christ be not raised,
you're yet in your sins. And we're found false witnesses
of God. We're not God's servants. This
whole thing's tomfoolery. It's a fake. It's a sham. If
Christ be not raised. Because you see, our Savior said,
it's expedient for you that I go away. If I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But if I go away, I'll pray the
Father and He'll send the Comforter. And He comforts in a remarkable
way. He comforts in a remarkable way.
If I don't go away, He's got nothing with which to comfort
you. But if I go away, He's going to come and comfort you. He will
come and convince you of sin. Of your sin. Not because you
stole a watermelon or cheated on a test or broke the speed
limit. but of sin because you believe
not on me. And he'll convince you of righteousness
because I go to my father. had the Lord Jesus not risen
from the dead, and we arose with Him who is our substitute, one
with Him, there would be no salvation, there would be no righteousness,
for He came down here to bring in everlasting righteousness
by His obedience unto death as our substitute, and the demonstration
of the fact that He did All he came to do is that he rose from
the dead. Without sin he arose. Without
sin we arose in him. He ascended on high and took
his seat at the right hand of the majesty on high. And we who
are gods took our seat with him in heavenly glory. The Lord Jesus
rose from the dead on the third day. Listen to the scriptures.
Listen to the scriptures. Turn back a few pages to Romans
chapter 4. The prophet Hosea writes, after
two days will he revive us. In the third day he will raise
us up and we shall live in his sight. Well, that sounds like
when he lived, we lived. And when he died, we died. And
when he arose, we arose. And when he sat down in heaven,
we sat down with him. I think that's what Paul said, Jeremy
in Ephesians 2. He said we were quickened together with Christ. Raised up together with Christ. Seated together with Christ.
One with Christ in all things. And look here in Romans chapter
4 verse 25. He was delivered for our offenses. The word is
because of. because of. You young people
just getting out of school, if you got an F, you got an F because
of your mess. If you got an A, you got an A
because of your hard work. He was delivered because of our
offenses made his. And he was raised again for our
justification, because of justification accomplished. Look at chapter
five, therefore, therefore, since this man who is God was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification, therefore
being justified. being justified. Now, I'm going
to help you. You read in the New Testament
about faith in Christ, and you read about the faith of Christ. And the words are not wrongly
translated. They're not just translated at
the whim of the translators. But in every single place where
our translators translated the words, the faith of Christ, it's
talking about the faithful obedience of Jesus Christ, our substitute. And everywhere in Scripture where
it speaks of faith in Christ is talking about our faith in
Jesus Christ, the God-given faith that we have in Him. Nowhere
in Scripture, nowhere in Scripture is salvation, redemption, righteousness,
justification attributed to our faith in Christ. Matt, we were
not saved by believing in Christ. We believe in him because we're
saved. We're not justified by our faith in Christ. We're justified
by the faithful obedience of Christ unto death. And now being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Enoch walked with God. And before he was translated,
he had this testimony that he pleased God. Oh boy, I want you
to have a good testimony. I want you to dress right and
don't eat the wrong stuff and don't be caught chewing tobacco
or spitting on the sidewalk or doing stuff you ought not do.
Oh, I want you to have a good testimony. That ain't a good
testimony. That's the kind of testimony
Pharisees look after. I want men to know I love the
Lord. Oh, do you? Do you? I want the Lord to know
I love him. There's a huge difference. There's a huge difference. I
try to live in a manner that's honorable as a man. I want my
wife, my daughter, my grandchildren, my son-in-law, our church members,
my neighbors, my friends, I want them to be proud to call me father,
husband, friend, or neighbor. But that's got nothing to do
with a good testimony. That's just being the kind of man you
ought to be. What's he talking about? Enoch had a testimony
that he pleased God. Before it was translated, Enoch
believed God, and God said to Enoch, you're righteous, boy. You're justified. You're holy! I made you so. And Enoch's heart
ceased to condemn him. How do you know that's what he
meant? Because without faith, it's impossible to please God.
They that come to God must believe that He is, and that He's the
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, justified. How is that? Look down here in Romans 5, verse
5. Hope maketh not ashamed. Because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. By the Holy Ghost,
which is given unto us, he comes and speaks peace, sprinkling
the blood of the Savior. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. Our faith doesn't make atonement,
it receives atonement. Then in verses 5 through 9, back
here in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells us that the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ is an indisputable fact of history. It's one of those things that
The only way it can be questioned is for a fellow to just push
the facts out of the way. Just push them out of the way.
I have told you before, but I'd like to tell the story. We had
a fellow in the States, used to have a television program
early in the mornings called The Theodore Donahue Show. Some
of y'all may have heard tell of the idiot. But one day he
had a fellow, old, who was a teacher at Cornell University. He was
a smart boy. I mean, he had degrees running
out his ears. He was smart. World-renowned
scientist by the name of Carl Sagan. And whenever I wanted
to get my blood pumping in the mornings, while I was getting
dressed or shaving, I'd turn Donahue on and watch a little
bit. This really happened. This really happened. Donahue
said to him, he said, we know that all life came from the water. But how did animals first start
to walk? And Mr. Sagan stood up. And he
hadn't ever spoken of. He said, well, after three or
four billion years, the waters began to dry up on the earth.
And the fish had to flock from pond to pond. And they flopped from pond to
pond for another three or four million years until they grew
legs and started walking. And Donahue said, oh. If you want to believe in stuff,
what you got to do is just push everything that makes any credible
sense out of the way. That's the only way you can believe
that foolishness. And the only way you can deny that Christ
rose from the dead is to deny that it's possible to give any
fact of history you didn't personally see. Look at what he says. After
that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that he
was seen of above five hundred brethren at one time, of whom
the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen
asleep. After that he was seen of James,
then of all the apostles. These are all different events
when our Lord Jesus appeared to men resurrected from the dead.
And last of all, he was seen of me also as of one born out
of due time, as one who was born by an abortive sudden stroke,
where a man would hit a pregnant woman in the belly and cause
her suddenly to have a child. So God in his grace suddenly
birthed this man after the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead
and caused him to see the Christ in the flesh, the Lord himself
appearing to him. For I am the least of all the
apostles. They're not meet to be called
an apostle because I persecuted the church. Now, let me wrap
this up by looking at the first line of verse 10. But By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Paul said, I'm not fit to be
an apostle. I persecuted the church of Christ,
but here I am, an apostle of Christ. Not because I chose to
be an apostle, not because I earned the right to be an apostle, Not
because I was trained to be an apostle. Not because I deserved
to be an apostle. Oh, no. A thousand times, no. I'm writing to you as God's messenger. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And that fact, every saved sinner
gladly acknowledges. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. I'll make three statements and
I'll be done. Number one, this is my doctrinal confession. I have refused to write any kind
of confession of faith or adopt one in our congregation in Danville,
and I do so with good reason. Anytime you adopt a confession
of faith, you will bend the word of God to fit the confession
because you got to. Anytime you adopt something that
men have written and said, this is what we believe, you will
bend the word of God to make it fit what men have said they
believe. I testify to you by the grace
of God, I am what I am. Somebody says, well, you must
be ashamed of what you believe. Well, you don't know me very well.
I don't ever refer to myself as a Calvinist. I don't like
the term. I don't like the association that's commonly made because
folks don't know what they're talking about when they say it.
But some while back I was having to take some physical therapy
and folks got word I was a preacher. And women can be real pushy,
and gabby, and yak, and kale. And if you're that way, ladies,
you ought to learn to do better. But they can just be obnoxious. And this gal, she said to me,
you're not one of those Calvinists, are you? I said, you mean somebody
who believes in election, predestination, limited? Yeah, you're not one
of those, are you? I said, honey, I'm so Calvinistic, I'd make
John Calvin look like an Arminian. But that's not my confession.
My confession is by the grace of God I am what I am. The source of God's goodness
to us is altogether his own sovereign mercy and his own sovereign will. If you're lost, if you go to
hell, it'll be your fault, and only your fault, and you'll have
no one to blame but you. But if you're saved, if you enter
heaven's glory, it'll be God's work, only God's work, and you'll
have no one to thank but God. That's all. Let me tell you what
I am. Not what I am by nature, but
what I am by grace in Christ. I'm a sinner still. A believing
sinner. A forgiven sinner. A son of God. A saint. A saint. You ever sat on what a saint
looks like? Look up here. Look up here. This is what a
saint looks like. This is Saint Don. Now we smile at that, but I'm
telling you the truth. This is Saint Don. If you're in Christ,
you're a saint. It's called sanctified. It's
called holy. It's called righteous. All of
God's people are saints. In fact, if you would care to
read the New Testament one more time and mark down every time
you see God or any apostle or any writer of scripture, refer
to a believer as a sinner, give me a call and I'll give you $100. It ain't in there. We acknowledge
our sin, we confess our sin, but the scriptures speak of God's
people in Christ as saints. All of them. Paul wrote to folks
he had never seen and called them saints. He didn't even know
their names and he called them saints. Well, how could he know
that? He didn't know whether they drank
wine or chewed or spit or cussed. He didn't know any of that. How
did he know they were saints? How did he know that? Because
they believed Christ. We're saints, holy, righteous,
sanctified, not by what we do, but what God does for us. I am
in Christ, the very righteousness of God, by God's own purpose,
will, and decree from eternity. Christ is the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. And we who are his were accepted
in the beloved from the foundation of the world, from eternity,
one with Christ. Now that's a mystery. I can't begin, my brain can't
even touch it, let alone get around it. Eternity is just too
big for me to comprehend. But all that God Almighty has
done for us in Christ or shall do for us in Christ, He did for
us in eternity justified, glorified, accepted in the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Well, how could that happen before
we ever had any being? I don't know, but you got two
choices. Either say the book is wrong
or your understanding is wrong. I take my understanding and bow
it to the book. How about you? The book of God
declares God's people accepted, justified, glorified, righteous
in Christ from everlasting and made righteous by the doing and
dying of the Son of God in time and then made righteous. sanctified
by the gift of God in grace when he comes in sovereign mercy and
births us into his kingdom and gives us a new nature, new creatures
in Christ making us partakers of the divine nature so that
the believer lives in this world a righteous man Described by
God as God described Job, perfect and upright. Perfect and upright. And Beoldad said God won't cast
off a perfect man. Perfect and upright. Perfect
and upright. There's nothing, nothing, nothing
yet to be done to make me more acceptable and more pleasing
to God. that I am now and always have
been in his dear son. I have the nature of his son
for he made me partaker of the divine nature. He's given me
a new man created in righteousness and true holiness that cannot
sin. That new man living in this body
of flesh with the old man who still hates God and loves ungodliness. And the
two are constantly at war. And blessed be God one day, that
old man shall die. But the new man lives on exactly
as he is now, perfect in Christ Jesus, one with Christ. You understand
that? We're made new in Christ. In the new birth, God gives his
people A new life, a new record, a new
nature that we can't mess up. I've messed up everything I've
ever put my hands on. I've messed up everything I've
ever touched. But this, I can't get my hands on it. It's all
the doing of His hands who works in me both to will and do of
His good pleasure. And the Lord God says, now, this
is what I'm telling you you are. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God." He said, you
learn to think about yourself as I think about you. You learn
to esteem yourself as I esteem you, one with my son. The perfecting of holiness. is
neither more nor less than forsaking all freewill works religion,
forsaking all your righteousness, all your goodness, all your morality,
and confessing your sin, trusting Jesus Christ alone as Savior
and Lord. Salvation, the new birth, is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, that's my doctrine. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And this is my daily experience. Knowing what I am by nature,
what I was and where I was when God saved me, when he stopped
me in my mad rush to hell, I'm here to tell you and tell the
world by the grace of God I am what I am. In my daily struggles with the lust of my flesh, my weaknesses, the evil to which
I'm constantly inclined, I'm here to tell you and tell the
world and tell God, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Being preserved these many years,
when I've seen so many depart from the Savior, I'm compelled
to confess to God, to you, and to the world, by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And when I meet God in judgment
and stand before Him with nothing but Christ, I'll confess to Him
and to you and to the world, by the grace of God, I am what
I am. One third thing. This is my grateful acknowledgment. who maketh thee to differ from
another. What hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if
thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou hast not
received it? You know the unrighteous shall
not inherit the kingdom of God, and such were some of you, but
not any more. You're washed. You're sanctified,
you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. Oh, what blessedness. By the
grace of God, I am what I am. This grace was bestowed upon
me in Christ from eternity. This grace reached down and snatched
me as a brand from the burning. Grabbed me, arrested me, back
many, many years ago. Shortly after Shelby and I were
married, I was selling shoes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Back in the days when most folks couldn't afford to walk in and
buy a pair of shoes or they'd lay things away. Some of y'all
can remember those days you put down $2 on a $20 purchase and
come back and pay for it for the next six months. And I was
waiting on this lady. I sold her a pair of shoes. She
had been in the store before. Tall, thin, black lady. Most of our trade was with black
folks. It was on the south side of Winston-Salem. And she bought
a nice pair of shoes and I was laying it away for her, putting
it in a box, had to fill out a ticket. And I said to her, I said, what's
your name, ma'am? And she said, Grace Grabs. I
said, do what? She said, Grace Grabs. I said,
ma'am, I don't know if you know it or not, but that's exactly
what Grace does. She said, sure do, honey. That's how God saves sinners.
He grabs you. And if God doesn't stop you from
going to hell, you're going to hell. If God doesn't step in
your way, you're gone. If God doesn't keep you from
your will, you'll perish forever. Oh, God snatched sinners by your
grace from destruction this hour. This grace bestowed upon me was
not in vain, Paul said. And Don, how can you say the
grace of God wasn't bestowed on you in vain? Here I am. It was not bestowed on me in
vain. There you are, some of you who heard the gospel from
these lips. This grace bestowed upon me was
not in vain because God shall be glorified by it. He will,
in the last day, show forth in me the riches of His glory in
Christ Jesus and His grace in saving such a sinner. Sitting
there a few minutes ago, I was thinking about my dear friend,
Brother Norman Wheeler. The Lord took him shortly after
I saw him the last time. The time before that, I think
it was, Norman always liked to dress to the nines. He liked
to look sharp. That's a good idea. That's your
beast looking sloppy. And he was always real well,
very well dressed. And I bought him a, I ordered
him a French cuff shirt, just like this one I've got on. Where's
the? I got tagged, something on there, got my name on it.
Shelby C stood, there it is. And I thought he'd like it, he
got the thing. And the first time I saw him
wear it, he's just like this. I wonder if you can picture him
before God's throne. Dressed in beauty, not my own. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of His Son I am as near as He. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be, for in the person of His Son I am as dear as He. And with His spotless garments
on, holy as the Holy One. That's what it is to be saved
by His grace. Oh, may God make His grace yours
in the sweet experience of it this hour. Amen.