You've probably already noticed
what I wrote in the bulletin concerning my gratefulness to
you, but I want to read it. There is no place I'd rather
be and nothing I would rather be doing to begin another new
year than here with you to worship our great God and Savior. And I mean that. I mean that. I'll confess to you the first
year I was here, first year or so, I would often get a little
homesick being 400 miles away from my sons and my daughter,
even further, and grandchildren. Couldn't just get in the car
in a few minutes be at their home and get a little homesick. But now, I get homesick when
I'm not here, when I'm not here with you. I'm thankful, thankful
that God has been pleased to knit our hearts together, and
I pray that he'll continue to do that more and more. When I felt directed to this
text of scripture, which I'll share with you in just a moment,
verse 15 here in Deuteronomy 15, I couldn't help but remember
a story that I read in the autobiography of William Jay, an old preacher
of the past. I got it out just to confirm
if my memory was not failing me. And it hadn't. He told the
story about visiting the place where John Newton, whom he knew,
but I think at the time he told this story, Newton had passed
away. But William Jay went back to his friend's house and he's
made his way up to the attic where old Newton had his study. And William Jay sat at the desk
of Mr. Newton and he sat on the wall
just above the desk written in very large letters were these
words in verse 15. And thou shalt remember that
thou was a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God
redeemed thee. I discovered, after I was well
into preparing this message, that Mr. Spurgeon had preached
it as well, had preached from it, and he began his message
with that same story that I just told you. And then I looked on
Free Grace and noticed that Mr. Fortner had preached from this
text, and he too, began his message by the same story that I just
told you. That's not a problem. And Mr. Spurgeon and Mr. Fortner both
titled their message, Remember. Remember. Well, I changed my
title because I too had titled the message, Remember. I changed
the title but not the text. Verse 15, and my message is this. Never forget. God give us grace,
children of God, never to forget that we were bondmen, slaves
to our own fallen nature, more enslaved than any literal bars
could do, and there was nothing we could do to free ourselves. It couldn't be done. It couldn't
be done. It took a greater power than
you and I possessed to free us from the bondage of our sin and
our depravity. And we read of it right here.
Who did it? Who's responsible? Who deserves
the praise? Thou shall remember that you
were a bondman, a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy
God, he redeemed you. He redeemed you. Peter said,
remember, you've been redeemed, not with silver, not with gold. That wouldn't satisfy God. That
wouldn't be a ransom for the soul of a man. But you've been
redeemed with the precious blood, the blood of God's own Son, the
blood of God. You've been redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ. Never forget. This is a needful
reminder, isn't it? for God's people, no matter when
they might have lived or where they may have lived. Whether
in London, when Mr. Spurgeon preached at the tabernacle
to that vast congregation in 1878, or in Danville, when our
dear friend and faithful brother, Don Fortner, preached in the
last message of 2015. or whether it be I preaching
to you this morning in Sylacauga, Alabama at the beginning of 2016,
this is an appropriate, necessary reminder. Remember, remember
what God has done. You see, John Newton never wanted
to forget what he was before God saved him. He didn't want
to forget that. Never wanted to forget that.
As a matter of fact, he wrote many hymns, but the one that
comes to mind especially, and I'm sure you know it as well,
is Amazing Grace. Don't ever forget, John Newton,
that you were a bond slave in Egypt. He was literally a slave
at one time in Africa, and was a captain of a slave ship himself,
and God saved him. God saved him by his amazing
grace. Is it any wonder that he wrote
in large letters just above his desk where he would sit and prepare
messages and would never want to forget that he was what he
was by the grace of God alone. In his old age, when his memory
was failing him, he said, I still remember two things. I still
remember two things. I still remember these two things,
that I'm a great sinner and that Jesus Christ is a great Savior. That's worth remembering, isn't
it? That's worth remembering. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
may we likewise never forget what we were before God called
us by His grace and revealed Christ to us. Never forget, you
were a bond slave and the Lord your God redeemed you. First consider that as it applies
to us as individuals. You in particular. You in particular. Take this verse of scripture
if you're a believer. If you've been redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ, if you've been called out of
darkness into God's marvelous light, if God Almighty has revealed
His Son to you, then apply this to yourself personally. God says
to you, He says to me, Remember, you were a bond slave, and the
Lord your God redeemed you. And then we'll consider, as it
applies to us as a church collectively. But first, as individuals, remember
what God has done. All flesh is grass, God says. And it has been said, and you're
well aware of, man The best of men, rather,
are only men at their best. Let me read with you a few verses
from Psalm 39. Psalm 39. Turn there with me,
if you will. Psalm 39. There's a word here
that we might say in which the psalmist gets very personal,
very personal. He should. May God be pleased
to make it personal to you and I. Here in Psalm 39, verse 4,
this is his prayer. Lord, make me to know mine end
and the measure of my days, what it is that I, I'm deliberately
emphasizing those, I, me, that I may know how frail I am. Behold, thou hast made my days. My days, not someone else's,
my days are a hand of breath and my age is as nothing before
thee. Barely every man, that includes
me, every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Think about it. Think about it. Our biography are each a history of God's faithfulness
to us, are they not? Are they not? Every child of
God's biography is a story of God's unfailing mercy and grace
to them every day of their sojourn here in this world. I read this
the other day. It's a story concerning Brother
Henry Mahan and Scott Richardson. I'd never remember hearing this
before. I thought I'd share it with you.
It illustrates, I think, what I'm saying. Brother Henry was
in Fairmont one time, where Brother Scott had pastored for over 50
years before his death. But at this time, he was visiting
Brother Scott. And one night, they took their
wives out to a fancy restaurant in town. And the restaurant was
a renovated two-story house that had been made into a restaurant.
And they received the royal treatment, and the waiting staff waited on them, and they enjoyed
a very nice meal. And as they were admiring how
that house had been renovated into this nice restaurant, Scott
said to Henry, I used to live here. He said, I lived here. He said, over 50 years ago, I
lived in this house. And he went on to tell Henry,
growing up, we were very, very poor. And my daddy couldn't afford
to take me out, or rather, to take care of me all the time.
And I was eight or nine years old. Imagine that. Eight or nine
years old. So occasionally, my daddy would
farm me out. He would send me to live with
someone else. And I would work for them for a place to sleep
and for food. And my daddy made a chest of
drawers and gave it to the woman that owned this house to pay
for my keeping. I lived in the attic, and I ran
errands for her to pay for my food." As Scott finished his story,
Henry said, Scott, when you were that poor coal miner's son living
in that attic, Did it ever enter your mind that one day you would
drive up here in the new Lincoln Continental and be escorted to
a table with this fine table setting, be served this fine
food and have money in your pocket to pay for it? And Scott said,
no, no. It never entered my mind. And one of them said, There are
three things it's very good for a believer to remember. Never
forget. Remember what we were. Remember what we were before
grace. Remember at that time you were
without Christ. Louie, let me be without health.
Let me be without friends. Let mother and father forsake
me. Oh, but God, don't allow me to
be without Christ. Let me be without riches, but
not without Christ. Oh, but at that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope. That's where you were. That's
where you were. Without Christ. Without grace. Without salvation. Without hope. Just spending your life as a
tale that is told and then feeling as the expression goes, a Christless
grave. That's where we were before grace.
It's good to remember. It's also good not to forget
this. We're not there anymore. Bless his name. But now, but
now, you who sometimes were far off are made now. Now, near,
near to God. How near? How near is a believer
to God? How close is he to God? How pleasing
is he to God? How accepted is he by God? As
Jesus Christ himself. See, think of that, as Jesus
Christ himself. Ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh. And we both have access unto
the Father. Now, therefore, ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints,
and of the householder of God, in whom ye also are builded together
for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. And remember." Thirdly,
Henry or Scott said, remember who made that difference. Who made that difference? Ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh, how? By the blood of Jesus Christ. Paul went on to write in Ephesians
2, for he is our peace who had made both one. He is our peace. I've told you the story, but
it occurs to me just now. And it'll bear repeating. Years
ago, a young man was working and a wall fell, nearly crushed
him, and he was dying. And they called for a preacher,
and he came and ran and kneeled down to the young man and said,
young man, I'm afraid you're leaving this world. Make your
peace with God. And the young man said, oh, no,
no. My peace was made with God 2,000 years ago on Calvary. Christ, by his death, reconciled
me to God and his own body on the tree. Remember, remember. through him that we have access
by one Spirit unto the Father. Remember, you were a bond slave
in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee." Children of God,
as we look back over the year that just went by, it's a blur,
isn't it, Lester? Man, they go by faster and faster
and faster. You younger people don't appreciate
that now. I can remember wishing that I
would hurry up and turn 18 and then 21 for wrong reasons. And
at that time, I thought, man, 40 was old. Man, I quit thinking
that 25 years ago. 40 is young. Oh, but this past
year, like all the rest, has gone by so swiftly, so swiftly. But we can say what Joshua said. Can we not listen to this? Joshua, near the time of his
death, called the leaders of Israel around, and he said, behold,
this day I'm going the way of all the earth. And you know in
all your hearts, this is our testimony, isn't it? Isn't it?
Child of God, can you and I not say the exact same thing? Are
these words not apocryphal to you and I? And you know that
in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing,
not one thing, Not one thing hath failed of all that the Lord
God spake concerning you. All are come to pass unto you,
and not one thing hath failed thereof. Is that not so? Written
on every page of our story is this, and it always will be. Whether we leave this world tomorrow,
this year, or we live another 10, 15, or 20 years, this will
always be true of the child of God. Surely, surely, without
question, without doubt, surely, goodness and mercy has followed
me all the days of my life. Surely that's true. There was
a saintly old lady, a believer, who her pastor noticed one time
as she had her Bible open in her lap and he walked by. And on the margin of so many
pages as she turned, there was T and P, T and P. Flipped over,
T and P, T and P. He said, what does that mean?
What does T and P mean? And she said, oh, that means
tried and proved. Near every promise of God, She
had experienced the truthfulness of it. That God had fulfilled
as Joshua said, not one word had failed, and she wrote T and
P, tried and proved. Is that not so, brothers and
sisters? Is that not so? My Redeemer said
to this helpless sinner, this faithless sinner so often, He has said, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. TNP. That's been tried and proved. He's never left me. He's never
forsaken me. He said, Larry, my grace is sufficient
for you. My grace is sufficient for you.
No matter what, my grace is sufficient for you. That's been tried, and
that's been proved. I read that I don't have a high
priest that can't be touched with what I'm going through.
Can't be touched with the feeling of my hurt, my heartache, my
tears, but He's moved by Him. He sympathizes with me. He's
touched. And I've come to Him with those
tears and those burns and those heartaches And I've tried and
proved over and over and over again. Yes, he can be touched.
He cares. He cares. And so shall all those
promises prove that we have yet to experience. They will be tried
and proved. The psalmist said, and I will
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Paul wrote, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. And John said, and they shall
see his face. That's going to be tried and
proved. Just as surely as all the others. Not one word shall
fail. Those have already been tried
and proven. They shall see his face. Be forever
with the Lord. They have been tried and proven
by multitudes already. Multitudes already. Isn't that
something? to think of as the church here meets the church
in heaven. Multitudes of the redeemed right
now, behold the King, see Jesus Christ, not through a glass darkly,
but clearly, face to face. And child of God, no matter what
may come your way, no matter of Hilltop experiences
are the deepest valley. You will never prove the exception
to this rule, that he'll never leave you nor forsake you. You
won't be the exception to that. You will not be the exception.
No, you won't. The hymn says, as we sang a moment
ago, come thy fount of every blessing. One verse says, Here
I raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by thy grace I come. That's recorded in 1 Samuel.
After God had given Israel the victory over their enemies, the
Philistines, Samuel set up a stone. as a memorial to God's goodness
and grace. Do we all not have such mileposts,
landmarks in our experience? And he called it Ebenezer. Ebenezer. That means a stone of help. A
stone of help. And he said, hither hath God
brought us. As we just sang a moment ago.
Ebenezer, a stone of help. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious
stone, a sure foundation, immovable, immutable, impregnable. And he
that believeth shall not make haste. Don't panic. Don't panic. All is well. It is well with our soul, with
our soul. That's not to say, looking over
the past year, or forward to this, this one, that we won't
have heartaches. We have and we shall. Our Lord
promised, among other promises, also this, in the world ye shall
have tribulation, no question about it. We'll have heartaches. We've shed tears. And we've said
goodbyes to some dear brethren. And yet, here
we are. Hitherto has God brought us. Hither by thy grace we've come. Here we are still, still looking
unto Jesus. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. continually gives you grace to
keep believing, to keep looking. That's a miracle. Still believing
in the Son of God, still following the Great Shepherd, still confessing
faith in Him. Just before I got back home,
I received an email from a man who moved into this area from
Mississippi, no Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, I believe he said.
But he wanted to know what Fairmont Church, Fairmont Grace Church
believed. So I answered him back and sent
him a bulletin in the email and told him he could listen to all
the messages preached here on Free Grace Radio and that would
give him a pretty clear indication what we believed. Well, he sent
me another email wanting to know our church covenant. Does your
church have a covenant? Do you have a particular confession
of faith that you adhere to and follow? And I wrote him back
and said, yes, the Bible. The Bible. The Word of God. What thus saith the Word. What
is your persuasion? I say with Paul, I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. I confess that I know whom I
have believed." And he's able. He's able. When I emailed Bobbie my text
and asked her if she could sing today in our service, she emailed
me back and told me the song that she would sing. And this
morning I got another email from her, but it didn't concern the
song, it was about The CDs that she mails to my cousin and my
mother and my aunt, she wanted to be sure of their addresses.
And she said, Larry, I thought I knew, but now I question whether
I do. I'm not so sure. Are those the
ones I send them to? And I said, yes, they are. Yes,
they are. She said, I don't trust myself.
That's a good thing. I don't trust myself either.
Child of God, child of God, measure your persuasion. Measure your
persuasion, your confidence, your hope of eternal salvation
of heaven, not by your own ability or worth. That is one poor measuring
stick. It just won't measure up. But
measure it by Christ. Don't measure your hope of heaven,
of salvation, of everlasting life upon your own merit, upon
your own worth, upon your own ability. Oh, no, no, no. Measure
it by Christ's ability, by Christ's worth, by Christ's merit. Now think about that. Think about
that. Measure your hope of heaven. of standing before God and hearing
Him say, welcome home. Enter into the joy prepared for
you from the foundation of the world. What hope can a sinner
like me have of hearing such blessed words? My hope is found
in nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Measure that hope by the ability
and merit and worth of Christ, and that will yield you far more
comfort and peace than anything else. Then with a well-grounded
hope you can sing grace has kept me safe thus far and grace will
lead me home. And now secondly, collectively
as a church, God has kept us, has he not? The world, you probably
have experienced this. Folks, ask where you attend church,
where you go, and you tell. And the world looks at us here,
especially the religious world. I should say especially the religious
world. The world, so to speak, doesn't
pay much mind to us, but the religious world, many of them
your loved ones, wonder why you even bother. Why do you even
bother? Why do you go there? You don't
have entertainment. You don't entertain. You don't
have celebrities to speak. You don't have puppet shows.
Why do you even bother? There's so few of you there.
Why do you even bother? I'd like to answer that question.
Why we bother? I'll tell you why we continue
to meet here. without offering anything else
but the gospel of God's grace. It's this, to bear witness to
and to proclaim this, what Paul referred to as the glorious gospel
of the blessed God. Do you know how rare that is? Do you know how rare that is?
To hear that message proclaimed in this religious Today, this
morning as I was having my first cup of coffee, I flipped on the
TV and was just kind of channel surfing, you know, when these
religious broadcasts were on. One man stood and said, salvation
is not by grace alone. Salvation is not just by grace.
And you know the verse he was quoting, Ephesians 2 and 8. I
said, man, his cheese has slid plum off the cracker. The man
must be out of his mind. So I flipped the channel. And
there's another one. This preacher had on robes. And I flipped it. The same thing
over and over and over again. Another one said, this is about
the fourth time I changed channels, said, grace won't help you if
you don't let it. And I said, thank God, Terry,
we don't have to hear that garbage. That's not good news, that's
not good news. No, we gather here, we bother,
we continue to do so because the gospel of God's free grace
is the only message needed to save a helpless sinner. Nothing
else would we meet here because it's written on our bulletin.
We preach Christ crucified. He's the power of God unto salvation,
the gospel of God's grace. That and that alone. Why do we
bother? Because our Redeemer commanded
us to. Forsake not the seeming of yourselves together as the
manner of some is. I know people who claim to believe
God, who claim to believe the Gospel of His grace, and hardly
ever see Him. Hardly ever see Him. There's
something wrong with that. No. Why would a professing Christian
not want to be where God's people are? where the gospel of his
grace is preached. You remember when we read in
Matthew chapter 11 that John's in prison, and whether for his
own sake or those disciples that he sent to Christ, it really
doesn't matter, but he sent them to Christ with this question,
Are ye he that should come, or look we for another? Brother
Frank Hall had an excellent article concerning that in his bulletin.
And he wrote, we learn from our Lord's response to John's disciples
that the solution for removing doubts and fears is the continual
reaffirmation of the truth. Go and show John again. He concludes the article this
way. Preacher Frank says, the Lord Jesus told John again, won't
you tell me one more time about him? Tell me about him. Oh, my heart's breaking. Tell
me about him who bindeth up the brokenhearted. Tell me the old,
old story one more time. Tell me how he loved me with
an everlasting love. Tell me how freely he gave himself
for me. Tell me one more time how his
blood washes away all my sins, all my faults, all my offenses. Tell me how he ever liveth to
make intercession for me. Tell me how rich his grace is
in glory. And when you're done, tell me
one more time. Tell me again the blessed message
of God's free grace. And our Lord said, He promised,
where two or three, if it's only two or three, not two or three
hundred, not two or three thousand, where two or three meet together
in my name, what did he say? There am I. There am I. Oh my
soul, there am I in the midst of them. Oh, why bother? Christ in our midst? The only
place in this world Christ has promised to be is where his people
meet. There am I. There am I. I who
redeemed you. I who have loved you, kept you,
and will bring you to my Father's house to be with me forever. I'll be in your midst until that
day. Why bother? Now, last of all, I want to make
a request. I want to ask you something,
to do something. Pray for God's continued blessing
upon us as a body of believers, as a part of the family of God,
as part of the bride of Christ. God preserve us. God preserve
us. Protect our fellowship. Keep
your little flock faithful to you, to your gospel to one another. We're brethren. We're brethren. We're members of his body, flesh
of his flesh, and bone of our bones. God keep us faithful to
you. We're brethren. Oh God, grant
us grace to act like it, to live like it, to love like it, and
to forgive like it. We're brethren. Again, let me
close by just a portion of that story I told you earlier. Henry asked Scott, when you were that poor coal
miner's son being farmed out, did you ever dream, did you ever dream that you'd
pull up here in the Lincoln Continental, be served this fine meal, and
have money in your pocket to pay for it. And Scott said, no,
I never did. Did you ever dream? Did you ever dream? I never dreamt. In my wildest dreams, did I ever
dream that Larry Criss would be called
a son of God? Behold, what matter of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we, of all people, should
be called sons of God. Remember, remember, you were
a bond slave in Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Don't ever forget. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above, all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Amen. God bless you.