I read a long, long time ago
something that was written by Roland Hill, a very, very gifted,
greatly used preacher in Great Britain. He said every sermon
ought to contain the three R's. And he wasn't talking about reading,
writing, arithmetic. The three R's Roland Hill said
every sermon ought to contain were these. Every sermon ought
to contain ruined by the fall. Every time a man stands to preach,
he ought to declare clearly what happened in the garden, how we
got in the mess we're in through the sin and fall of our father
Adam. Second, Mr. Hill said every sermon ought
to contain redemption by the blood. Every man who preaches,
every time he preaches, ought to declare plainly and clearly
what took place at Calvary, what God's dear son accomplished by
the sacrifice of himself, putting away sin, bringing in everlasting
righteousness, securing the everlasting salvation of his people. And
third, Mr. Hill said, every sermon ought
to contain regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Every sermon ought
to tell sinners and tell them plainly what happens in a man
when God saves him by his grace. When God calls the sinner, he
brings life into the sinner. When God calls the sinner, he
gives faith to the sinner. When God calls the sinner, he
makes him a new creature in Christ Jesus. And by the great operation
of his grace, the operation of faith in him, performed in him
by the Spirit of God, he receives all the blessings of God's grace
in Christ Jesus the Lord. Every sermon ought always to
contain those things. I make it my business, no matter
what I'm preaching on, no matter what the direct subject is, to
go over my notes carefully and make certain that when I'm done
preaching, you have heard from these lips one more time what
happened in the garden, what happened at Calvary, and how
God saved sinners by his grace. Otherwise, preaching is meaningless. It's just lectures in morality
and religion. Several years ago, a friend sent
me a series of sermons preached at Calvin College in Philadelphia,
preached by a very... I have read after him for many
years. The sermons were on the five points of Calvinism, as
they were called. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance
of the saints. As you well know, those things
are preached in this pulpit all the time. Thought I'd ask you
one time, say, how often do you preach those things? I said,
every time I open my mouth. Every time I preach, I'm determined
to proclaim those things. But I listened to those five
sermons with great care and interest. Everything the man said was precisely
accurate, true to scripture. Everything he said, every point
of doctrine was precisely accurate, true to scripture. I saw nothing
in any of the five sermons that was in the least bit incorrect,
except for one terrible thing. After listening to them twice,
he preached them in the chapel service at Calvin College. This
had been years ago. I came to this conclusion, if
I had walked in on Monday morning, and heard the first sermon and
heard all five of them, having never heard the name of Jesus
Christ, having never known anything about the gospel of God's grace,
not knowing anything about how it is that sinners obtain life
and faith in Christ, I would have walked out, Mark, just as
ignorant and just as lost as when I came in. He didn't say
anything, anything. to give direction to sinners
concerning God's salvation. All it was was theological, religious
talk. God save me from that. God save
me from that. And God save you from that. I want you to open your Bibles,
if you will, to Ephesians chapter 2. The first time I remember reading
this chapter of Holy Scripture I had not been saved but just
a few weeks and I read this chapter and came to verse four and understood
something profound and wonderful. In these two words, which I take
for the title of my message tonight, but God, but God, but God. And I have wanted to
preach from that text on that subject all these years, and
I believe God's given me a message now for you. Here in Ephesians
2, the Apostle Paul, by divine inspiration, paints for us a
dark, dark, gloomy picture of humanity. It's the same picture
drawn by the pen of all the prophets and apostles who went before
it. We are sinners by nature, lost and ruined in sin by the
sin and fall of our father Adam. Paul paints the picture darkly,
but no darker than it should be painted, and no darker than
it's painted throughout the scriptures. For example, listen to the scriptures.
Moses writes in Genesis chapter 6, God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. We were dead in trespasses and
in sin. We walked according to the course
of this world, after the lust of our flesh, the desires of
our minds, according to the prince, the power of the air, who works
in the children of disobedience. Every imagination of the thoughts
of your heart and mine, fallen sons and daughters of Adam, is
only evil. all the time. When the book of God starts to
describe man in Genesis 6, and describes man's depravity, describes
what we are by nature, and as it continues to describe us throughout
the pages of inspiration, the book of God paints the same dark,
dark picture. Only evil continually. I'm not a politician. I'm not
running for office. I'm not asking for your vote
for anything, so I can tell you the truth. That's what you are,
and that's what I am. People say, well, there's some
good in every man. There's nothing good in any man. There's some
spark of life in every man. There's no spark of life in any
man. Job wrote this way. Behold, God putteth no trust
in his saints. Yea, the heavens are not clean
in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water. Every man by nature drinks in
iniquity like water. He spews it out and he drinks
it in. Then David in Psalm 14 declares
the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men and
he found that they are all gone aside. They are all together
become filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Man, at his best estate, David
later wrote, is altogether vanity. Man, when he's all dressed up
at his best estate, when he's all fixed up in his finest performance,
at his best estate, is utter vanity, nothing else. Isaiah
says, we are all as an unclean thing. He said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He says we are
all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses, all our
goodness, all our good thoughts and good works and good intentions,
all our best performances and best aspirations are filthy rags
and we do all fade as a leaf. Our iniquities like the wind
have taken us away. Oh, what a black, black picture. this book page. Paul says here
in Ephesians 2, and you hath he quickened who were dead in
trespasses and in sins. Dead. Spiritually depraved, spiritually
deprived, spiritually dead. Dead in trespasses and in sins. What does he mean when he says
we're dead in trespasses? Trespasses are Deliberate effort
on our part to violate God. Deliberate efforts on our part
to violate God. Our efforts to take God off his
throne. Our efforts to shove God out
of our way. If you go out walking in the
woods and you walk up on a a farmed area that's been fenced in, or
a wooded area that's been fenced in, and you see signs posted
on trees every 20, 30 yards, no trespassing, keep out. No
trespassing, keep out. You pay no attention to the signs,
and you take your wire cutter and cut down the fence and drive
your fourth wheeler through right on the man's property, trespassing. You're saying to that man, you
have no right to tell me to keep off. That's what trespasses are. Man's deliberate, willful, purposed
effort to shove God off his throne and say, you've got no right
to be God. You've got no right to tell me what to do. You've
got no right to govern my life. You've got no right to rule this
world. Thou shalt not. Thou shalt not.
And you say, I will. I say, I will. I will. I will. And we go ahead with our intentions.
were trespassing, dead in trespasses and in sins. By one man's willful,
deliberate effort, Adam's trespass. Adam's trespass. Eve was deceived,
not Adam. Adam, with his eyes wide open,
said, God, get out of my way. You've got no right to be God.
And when Adam sinned, he died and we died in him. By one man's
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all men. That's what killed us. Our sins,
our trespasses. Paul says we were dead. We were
dead. Not mentally dead, not physically
dead, spiritually dead. Without life before God. Without life spiritually,
without life in communion with God, without life in connection
with God, dead, dead. Having no ability to see, or
to hear, or to understand, or to do anything righteous, good,
and spiritual, dead. God said, Adam, in the day you
eat the fruit of that tree, you'll die. And die he did, and we died
in him. Now watch this. Paul says, being
dead you walked. Our walk, our lives, the bent
of our wheels is the way we walked. We walked according to the course
of this world, just like all other rebels. All we like sheep
have gone astray. How is that? We have turned everyone
to his own way. The path of every rebel is the
path he chose. The path of every rebel is his
own way. Some walk in the high way that
men prove of and applaud, some in the low way men disapprove
of and hate, but we all choose our way and walk, everyone in
his own way. But we all walked according to
the course of this world, not according to God's word, not
according to God's will, but according to the prince of the
power there, Satan, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. In other words, we were all will-worshippers. We all had our conversation,
our manner of living, a state of our flesh. We talked about
our souls, only for our bodies, driven by greed, covetousness,
materialism, passions, ambitions, Our behavior in the desires and
passions of our flesh was utterly self-centered. Utterly self-centered. I know people look at men and
they do charitable, philanthropic things and folks brag on them
and that's the reason they do them. That's the reason they
do them. They make you feel so good. People
will think, no, beloved, If they didn't intend for you to thank
highly of them for doing it, you wouldn't know about it. You
wouldn't know about it. But men and women do what they
do in nobility in our esteem because of the lust of their
flesh. Every human being outside Christ Every human being without
the knowledge of God, every human being who doesn't walk with God
by faith in Christ, every human being without faith in the Son
of God lives for himself and nobody else. Lives for himself
and nobody else. That includes mothers who dote
on their children and fathers who love their darling little
children. and sons and daughters who try to please their parents,
there's something in it for me or I wouldn't do it. That's the
way men live. Not me, preacher. Yes, you too. You too. Not you. Oh, my soul. Yes, me too. That's the way we live. Not only
that, we were slaves to the lust of our flesh and the desires
of our mind. What we did not do, we thought. As I said to you this morning,
we're able to put restraints on our bodies. We're able to
put bits and bridles in our mouths. And we're able to fence in our
actions. But our minds, our hearts, who can control that? Who can control what goes on
in his mind? Who can control what springs
up in his heart? No man. There are no fences around
the imagination. No restraint to the imagination.
That means nothing is safe. Nothing is holy from the human
mind and the human heart. Not God. Not you, nothing. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is
holy. Nothing is considered by us to
be of any benefit except as we would use it for ourselves, consuming
it upon our lust. We may do something, or may not
do something, but what we don't do, we think. Others do it, and
we set back and condemn them with self-righteous glee. But we think the same thing and
justify ourselves. We think the same things. I wouldn't
really do that. It just came to my mind. If it
came to your mind, it came out of your heart. If it came to
your mind, it came out of your heart. The fact is we are all by nature
slaves to our lust, the lust of our flesh and the desires
of our mind. That's what we were when God saved us by his grace.
And that's what we are by nature. The Lord looketh on the heart. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God looketh on
the heart. He said, that which is highly
esteemed among men, that which you look at and applaud and approve
of and brag on, that which men highly esteem is an abomination
to God. God looks on the heart. And back
here in Ephesians 2, Paul says, you were by birth, by nature,
children of wrath. I've been trying to say what
those words mean for the last several weeks dealing
with this passage of scripture. I'll tell you what they mean.
Haters of God. Haters of God. God-hating people. God-hating people. All men and
women by nature hate God. I didn't say they hate their
thoughts concerning God. I didn't say they hate what they
think God ought to be. I didn't say they hate what they
think God is. But they hate God. Man by nature,
the heart of Adam, is a heart of enmity against God. Man hates God. Hates God as he's revealed in
this book. Hates God as he reveals himself
in the person and work of his dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
All of us by nature are God haters. You want proof of that? 2,000
years ago, God came into this world in human
flesh. God did. We've been singing about
it today. God came into this world in human
flesh. God became one of us. The word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. God lived in this world in
humanity. The real God-man in perfect righteousness,
in perfect holiness. lived a perfect life. Nobody
could find fault with anything he ever said or did. No man, not God himself. He lived perfectly. And man took
this holy one, this perfect one, this righteous one, lied about
him, spit in his face, beat him with his fist, jerked out his
beard, nailed him to a tree and laughed while he died. Man by nature hates God. Oh would God somehow I could
stand on top of the world and make every human being hear this
voice. Man by nature hates God. And the problem with the world
is that all men by nature hate God. We hated God And our consciences
screamed that God was angry, justly angry with us. The scripture
says God's angry with the wicked every day. We were children of
wrath, even as others. He that believeth not the Son
of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
What does this mean, children of wrath, even as others? What
others? The angels who kept not their
first estate. The citizens of Noah's generation. who ate and drank and married
and were given in marriage, the people who lived before the flood,
and God said, I'll destroy man whom I have made, the Sodomites,
those vile folks among whom Lot pitched his tent and raised his
family, even as others, even as others, even as others. That
generation of men who crucified the Lord of glory, even as others. Oh my, what a terrible, terrible
picture. What a horrible revelation. What
a hopeless situation. Dead, dead in trespasses and
in sins. Walking in the bent of our will,
the direction of our lives, walking in the course of this world.
slaves, bond slaves to the prince of the power of the air, willing
bond slaves to Satan and our lust, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind. Is there no hope? Is there no
hope? Jeremiah said there's no hope
as far as you're concerned. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Are the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that
are accustomed to do evil. Our Lord Jesus said, with men
it's impossible. The disciples saw him talking
to that rich young ruler, and that rich young ruler went away,
and they said, Lord, who then can be saved? He's the best man
I ever knew. I never knew anybody as good
as him. He's the best man any of us have ever seen. Who then
can be saved? With men, it's impossible. You see, what God demands, we
can't produce. What God commands, we can't perform. What justice requires, we can't
give. It's impossible. But with God, but with God, all things are
possible. Paul says we were dead. We followed
the course of this world. We were children of wrath, even
as others. And then we come to these two
words, but God. But God. How the picture changes. We were lost. We were ruined. We were dead. We were without
hope. We were without God. We were
without Christ. We were aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without peace in
this world. But God. God stepped in and here
we are. God stepped in and here we are. We could do nothing. You could
do nothing. I could do nothing. But there's
something God could do. Shamefully, there was nothing
I wanted to do but God. There was nothing anyone could
do for me. But God, this is my hope, these two little words. But God, we were born in sin,
shapen in iniquity, brought forth from the womb, speaking lies.
But God, we were estranged from the womb, guilty, went away from
our mother's womb, speaking lies, guilty, without hope, without
help. I was at my wit's end, without
strength. But God, But God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, even when we were in this terrible, terrible,
terrible condition. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his
great love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace, not by
works, by grace. Not by decision, by grace. By
grace are you saved. Now here's a summary of everything
I believe. Of everything I preach. Of everything
I know. Of everything I've experienced.
But God. But God. I believe in the total, complete,
utter ruin of the human race. I believe every man and every
woman in the world by nature is utterly depraved, vile, corrupt. You and me, your wife and mine,
your husband and the next woman's husband, your children and mine,
your grandchildren and mine, your neighbors and mine, utterly
depraved. Nothing but corruption within
the human heart. That's all there is. We shouldn't
expect anything else to come from any man. Our children. You don't have to teach them
to lie. They're born knowing how to do that perfectly well.
You don't have to teach them to hate. They're born knowing
perfectly well how to do that. You don't have to teach them
to be selfish. They're born capable of that. You have to teach them
to love, to tell the truth, You have to correct them, coddle
them, bribe them, whip them, reward them, and do everything
you can under the sun to get them to do the right thing. But
they know how to do evil by nature. Do you ever wonder why is it
so much easier to think evil than it is to think well? Why is it so much easier to hate
than it is to love? Why is it so much easier to be
hard and hold a grudge that it is to forgive. Why? I know the
answer. It's because man by nature is
dead in trespasses and sins. But God, but God, I was dead. I was running as fast as I could
to hell, running with both fists shoved in God's face from as
early as I can remember. Crying, get out of my way. Get
out of my way. Get out of my way. God, get out
of my way. Leave me alone. And God stepped in and stopped
me in my mad rush for hell. And if you're saved, That's exactly
how God saved you. And if that's not how God saved
you, you're not saved. The only thing stopped you from
going to hell was God stepping in. Nothing else. Nothing else. This is the sinner's hope, but
God. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Let me give you one picture. I'll call your attention to others,
but let's look at one. Back in Ezekiel 6. Ezekiel 6. Verse 6. I want you to get there. Ezekiel
6. Verse 6. When I passed by thee, He didn't pass by you by accident.
He must needs go through Samaria at just the right time. When
I passed by thee and saw thee, I saw thee polluted in thine
own blood. Here's a infant, unwanted, aborted,
cut out of its mother's belly, thrown out in the trash pile
in the open field. Nobody watched it. Nobody cared
for it, just thrown out there to rot in his blood and die.
When I passed by thee, I saw thee polluted in thine own blood.
I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said
unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused
thee to multiply as the bud of the field. and thou hast increased
and waxen great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments.
Thy breast are fashioned, thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast
naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love. I
spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I
swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith
the Lord, and thou becamest mine. And then washed I thee with water.
Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broadened
work, and shod thee with badger skin. And I girded thee about
with fine linen, and covered thee with silk. I decked thee
also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and
a chain on thy neck, and a jewel in thy forehead, and earrings
in thine ears, and a beautiful crown on thine head. Thus wast
thou decked with gold and silver. Thy raiment was of fine linen
and silk and brooded work. Thou didst eat fine flour and
honey and oil. Thou wast exceeding beautiful.
Thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a
kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy
beauty, for it was perfect. Now watch this. Through my comeliness,
which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord. There you were, dead,
cast out in the open field, rotting in your own blood, in your own
filth. But God passed by. God called,
God said live. God spread his skirt over you,
and God said live! And you became his, and he made
you exceeding beautiful. Well preacher, I don't like that
picture of me, and I don't either. I don't either, but it's so. I don't like iniquity, and I
don't like corruption. I don't like the open field pollution,
but it's so. and you're not going to make
it go away by denying it. You're not going to make it go
away by not preaching it. You're not going to make it go
away by refusing to believe it. God says it, it's so. Now, not
only is it written here, if you go back through the book of God,
and I've done this this week, I've gone through the book of
God and I've found every reference in this book where those two
words are used together, but God, but God. Let me remind you
of a few. Beginning in Genesis chapter
one. There's Adam. There's Adam. Oh, how God made Adam upright,
righteous, in his own image, after his own likeness. And then
Adam sinned. Adam turned and walked away from
God. Adam attempted to shove God off
his throne. And when Adam partook of the
forbidden fruits, he knew shame. He had never known that before.
He knew fear. He had never known that before.
He knew darkness in his mind. He had never known that before.
But Satan had deceived Eve, and now Adam, in his blatant rebellion,
sinned and died and plunged the race into death and condemnation. And now Adam knew sin. And he
found him some fig leaves, sewed them together, and where did
he find him? He's in the garden, hiding from
God. Sin made fools of us all. There
Adam is, trying to hide from the omnipresent, omniscient God
behind some bushes. And the Lord God came along,
but God. Adam, where are you? Adam, where
are you? And he called Adam to know his
nakedness. And he stripped him. And he puts
lamb skins on him. He killed an innocent victim
and clothed him with the skins, he and his wife. And he made
a promise. He said, Adam, I'm going to send
one, the seed of the woman, and he's going to crush the serpent's
head. And he's going to undo all the
mischief the serpent has done. And Adam had the gospel preached
to him by God himself, and Adam believed God. You read in the
scriptures of those men prior to the flood, God came and said,
I'm going to destroy the whole world. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Lot was down in Sodom. And Lot's given to us as a picture,
the Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous. And Lot was one
of those righteous ones, redeemed by Christ, accepted and beloved
before ever the world began. But Lot chose to live in Sodom. And Rex, God sent angels to bring
Lot and his wife and his two daughters out of Sodom. And Lot
couldn't be persuaded to leave. And the angel said, God sent
us here to destroy this place. And Lot couldn't be persuaded
to leave. God's going to destroy this place. And Lot wouldn't
leave. And the angels, one of them is
specifically described as being the angel of the Lord, laid hold
of Lot and brought Lot and his daughters out of the land of
Sodom. God stepped in. Had God not intervened,
Lot would have stayed in Sodom, and so it is with you and me.
The children of Israel were down in Egypt. They'd been there for
400 years. They didn't have a sword to fight
with. They didn't have a leader to lead them. They didn't have
any organization. They didn't have an army. They
didn't have anything. But they were terribly burdened,
and they cried to the Lord. And the Lord God raised up a
deliverer and sent Moses to bring Israel out of Egypt. You might
say, well, I'm sure glad Israel decided to come out of there.
They didn't decide to come out. Even after Moses came and God
performed wonders in Egypt, the Israelites would have stayed
right there. But God brought them out. When they finally were
brought out of Egypt because God caused Pharaoh to thrust
them out of the land. They come to the Red Sea and
here they are before this mighty ocean. Mountains on both sides
of them. And Pharaoh and all the Egyptian
army breathing down their necks. And they said, we're going to
die right here. But God stepped in. Moses said, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. And Israel walked across the
Red Sea. You see, salvation is of the
Lord. It's God's work. Not a cooperative
effort between God and man. Not a work to which man makes
some contribution. It's God's work. The Lord God
says, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Well, why would God act in such
a way with such people as we are? But God, who is rich in mercy. rich in mercy. There's a woman
in this book named Mary Magdalene. She was possessed of seven devils. Can you imagine the hell of a
life she lived? I chose my words deliberately.
The hell of a life she lived. What torment, what misery, what
ungodliness. But one day God stepped in and
cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene. And the Lord God stopped
her in a mad rush to hell, and she never got over it. There
was a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus, a proud, self-righteous
Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the law.
He said, I was blameless. Oh, what pride. This man Saul. hailed the church, cast them
into prison, had them put to death. When Stephen, the first
martyr, was stoned to death, this young man Saul was standing
there holding the clothes of those men who cast the stones,
watching with glee as Stephen was stoned to death. But one
day he has some papers and he's going to go after some more of
God's saints. But God, said hitherto shalt
thou go in no further and stopped him dead in his tracks. That's
what God will have to do for you if ever you come to know
Christ. That's what must be done for
you if ever you come to know Christ. I can't talk you into
it. Nobody else can talk you into
it. I can't, I can get you to be religious, I can get you to
join church, and I can get you to quit drinking or smoking or
chewing or cussing. I can get you to quit doing lots
of stuff. Anybody can. But I can't give you life. And I can't give you faith. Only if God steps in and stops
you will you be stopped. Only if God Turns you, will you
be turned? There was a woman, one day, came
out at the well. She had been married five times.
You'd have thought she lived in Danville in 2015. She'd been married five times.
And she was living with a fella this time, wasn't her husband.
And everybody knew her name. Everybody, every woman in town
want to keep her husband away from that gal. And so at noontime, she sneaks
out of the city to the well. You know why she snuck out that
day to go water, draw water that day? Because our Lord Jesus tells
us in John 4, he must needs go through Samaria. The appointed
time of love had come. when she must be called by his
grace. The thief on the cross. Reckon
why he was crucified that day. Because that day, he hung beside
one who is God in the flesh. And he heard men cry, he saved
others. Himself he cannot save. He says
he's the son of God. Let's see if God'll have him.
Here is that man, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And the day had come when God
would meet the thief and give him life. God who is rich in
mercy. Learn this, my friend. Your sins
will never keep you from Christ. So I'm such a big sinner, I'm
such a great sinner, I'm such an awful sinner. Come now, let
us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be red
like crimson, they shall be as wool. Come unto me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Though your
sins be as scarlet, I'll make them as white as snow. Come,
you sinners, Poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready, stands to save you, full of riches, full of pity,
grace, and power. Now look at the next sign. But
God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he
loved us. We didn't love God, but he loved
us. and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Do you know anything about representation?
Adam was our representative. And what Adam did, we did in
him. When Adam sinned against God,
we sinned against God in him. And when Adam died, we died in
him. But there is another one called
last Adam Jesus Christ the Lord he too is the representative
now the representative he is of God's elect and when he lived
on this earth we lived in him when he died we died in him when
he arose we arose in him we were quickened together with Christ
raised up together with Christ made to sit down together with
Christ in heavenly places but God I repeat, that's my theology,
that's my doctrine, that's my history, that's my experience,
that's my message. I read the other day how that
Laban did everything he could to destroy Jacob, but Jacob said,
God suffered him not to hurt me. The Labans of my flesh have
done everything they could to destroy me. but God suffered
them not to hurt me. Like Joseph's brothers, everything
hell unleashed upon me was meant against me for evil, but God
meant it for good. Like Samson, I was sore athirst,
but God wrought a great deliverance for me. We read in Judges 15,
but God clave a hollow place in the jawbone of an ass. the
jawbone of an ass that had been slain long ago, and waters gushed
out for Asamsin. And so it is with me. The Lord
God provides for me the water of life, and he does it by miracles
of grace none could expect. Like David, Saul, the Saul of
hell sought every day for my life to destroy me, but God delivered
me not into his hands. I was lost and ruined, hating
God, but God commendeth His love toward me. And while I was yet
in this wretched condition, Christ died for me. I'm often tempted,
tempted on every side, tempted from without and tempted from
within. But God, with every temptation, makes a way of escape that I
may be able to bear it. I had been sick, nigh unto death,
like a pathless, but God had mercy on me and raised me up.
I say to you again tonight as I did this morning, my heart
and my flesh faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. And soon I'll be laid in the
grave The psalmist said, death shall feed on me. But God will
redeem my soul from the power of the grave. He shall receive
me. And then he follows it with that
long poetic pause. Stop and think long about this.
God will raise me up from the power of the grave and God will
receive me. And when he does, He'll present
me faultless before the presence of His glory. And in the ages
to come, He will show to all worlds the exceeding riches of
His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus the Lord. But God, but God. But God, what wondrous grace. What great mercy, what hope for
sinners but God. I pray for our sons and daughters. I pray for your children. I pray
for you. And I pray God will intervene
and save. Pray God will do what only God
can do. That God will give them life
and faith in Christ. To that end, we proclaim the
gospel of His free grace. For that reason, we wait for
God to work. He said He would have a people,
and have them He will, exactly according to His purpose. All
right, let's take our Songs of Grace book. Turn to number 120,
if you will. We'll stand together and sing
this to the tune of My Faith Has Found a Resting Place.