and turn back to Ephesians chapter
2, where Brother Winston read to us just a few moments ago. Sometimes these chapter divisions
are unfortunate. I know they're made in the original.
There were no chapter divisions or verses. But here, in order
for us to study, in order for us to learn, and find things
and relate back to things, the writers decided to put these
things in chapters and verses so that we can find things and
we can use things and better use them, better have them at
our disposal. But in this first chapter of
Ephesians, Paul begins back here in verse 15. saying, After that I heard your
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him. And then after this, Paul begins
to declare the things that Winston just read to us. the gospel coming
to men through the preaching of the gospel. All the great
work of Christ, all the accomplishments of Christ, all these things that
God has ordained in eternity are all brought to pass upon
us and are revealed unto us. You don't just pick this Bible
up and open it up and all of a sudden all the eternal counsels
of God are just poured out in your head like a bucket of water.
We come to these things because they have given unto us. They
have given us gifts, and they don't come all at once. They
come a little at a time, just a little at a time. But I want
to begin this morning with some words I heard. I like to listen
to the preachers sometimes on Free Grace Radio on the Internet,
and they are made available for anybody who wants to listen to
them. So I noticed on there was a message by Brother Henry Mahan. He was my pastor years ago. Been
a dear friend to me for a long, long time. And in the introduction
to his message, he made this statement. He said, we are the
product of preaching. I want you just to think about
that statement for a minute. Boy, that really got a hold of
me. We are the product of preaching. Saved or lost, we are the product
of preaching. Men will readily run and defend
something that somebody else says even if they don't go to
church, and are convinced that what they're
saying is right and fair. Why would they believe that?
Because that's what they've heard. That's what they've heard. That's
what they've been influenced by. We're all the product of
preaching, saved and lost. And I'm talking about men of
past generations. I'll give you an example right
off the bat, right after creation, right after the fall of man.
Two men came before God to worship, Cain and Abel. One came with
the fruits of his labors. He came with, I don't know, vegetables,
flowers, whatever it was that he grew. He called hard poor,
he labored hard poor, he brought them unto the Lord and offered
them up to the Lord in worship. He had worship, and he offered
these things up for approval from God. And Abel, he came and
slew a lamb, and he offered that lamb up on
an altar in faith before God. Why would they do that? Why would
these two boys, two sons with the same parents, not a world
to influence them, just two boys, and here they are, they come
to worship God, one brings a lamb and the other one brings a bushel
basket full of fruits and vegetables and pours them out on the altar.
Why would they do that? Why would they do that? Because
of what they heard. Because of what they heard. And how they heard it. How they
heard it. We're all the product of preaching.
You can go down through time. Noah preached to a world of unbelievers,
and he preached for 120 years. He was a preacher of righteousness. He declared the righteousness
of God in Christ, the righteousness of God in a coming Redeemer,
a substitute, a representative. And he preached to this world
for 120 years, and nobody listened to him. Why? Because that wasn't
what they wanted to hear. We're the product of preaching.
Our nation, our laws, our form of government, our society as
a whole, whatever sense of morality we have is owing to the influence
of what we've heard and were taught by preaching. By preaching. That's the truth. That's the
truth. There's no one single thing that
has influenced the world in its ideas of godliness more than
preaching. We're the product of preaching.
My neighbor came over. It's been bothering him ever
since he found out I knew Winston. He wanted to ask me something. He wanted to pin me down and
ask me what it is I believe. Not really so much what I believe
as what I preach is what he wanted to know. What do you preach?
Why do you all meet out there in that little white building
way out there in the middle of nowhere? Why don't you just come
over here? We've got a big church. First Baptist Church right there
in Taylor. Just come over here. We've got Sunday schools. We've
got a college graduated pastor. We've got all the advantages
that you could ever hope for. We've got right here. Why don't
you come on? Why do you meet way out there? Why do they go
all the way to Kentucky to find a pastor to come all the way
down to Arkansas and then you all gather way out there in the
middle of nowhere? He's just dying to know. And he's got this
kind of preconceived notion in his head, and so he'd come up
and he'd just ask me some really off-the-wall question about,
he said, do you really believe that? I said, no, I don't believe
that. It was something like, do you believe that God just
has certain people that He's going to save no matter what?
And I said, no, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. I
believe God has a people. I believe that God chose a people. They didn't choose him, he chose
them. That's what Christ told them, wasn't it? Christ came,
appeared on this earth, God come into the flesh, stood before
his own disciples and said, You have not chosen me, I have chosen
you. I believe God has a people that
he chose. Read Ephesians chapter 1. We're
going to look at it here in just a little while, but he said,
Bless ye be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. God has a people. He chose a
people. I said he uses the word election
and elected some thirty-seven times in the New Testament. chosen,
go on and on and on. My people, my sheep, if thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly, I told you, said. I told you. I told you. I told you in the miracles I
did. I told you in plain declaration. My Father told you in an audible
voice at my baptism. I told you. The prophets told
you. Huh? The prophets. They all bear
witness of him. You're never going to have any
understanding of the scriptures until you understand that this
book is a hymn book. It's about Christ, front to back,
all about Christ. You'll never come to any kind
of an effectual understanding of anything in the book apart
from Christ. Why would God love you, John?
Why would God love me? Why would God show mercy to an
enemy like I am? Christ dying on the cross and
me kicking and fighting and scraping every inch of the way? Why use
enemies? That's how God made known His
love. Why use enemies if Christ died
for you? How can He do that? In Christ. That's how He can
do it. In Christ. He gives you in Christ. I'm telling you this, we are
all the product of preaching. We hear things that somebody
says, and we gasp, or we question it, or we just rule it out, one
or the other. And it's all based on what we've
heard since we were this big. Now, let me make the second statement.
All preaching is not of God. There's the problem. All preaching
is not of God. Paul uses two statements in verse
2 of Ephesians chapter 2 that Winston read to you there a while
ago. I don't know if you've ever seen the difference in the two
statements. But he says here, he's describing what he tells
us in verse 1, that we were dead in trespasses and sins. And here's
what that death is. Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world. And then here's the second
statement, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He uses these two statements.
We walked according to the course of this world. This world is
fallen. This world is under sin. By one
man, sin entered into the world. That's what he says in Romans
5 verse 12. It entered into the world, and this death passed
upon all men, and the evidence of it is that all have sinned.
We wouldn't sin if we weren't sinners. The course of this world is the
course of sinners. Sinners and ignorant. Sinners
and darkness. Sinners who are blind. And it
don't matter if you go to seminary. It don't matter if you join the
church. It don't matter what you do. You're still blind. Our
Lord said of those Pharisees and doctors of the law, He said,
they are the blind leaders of the blind. Ain't that what He
said? Sure, they hold the position
of pastor. Sure, they hold the position
of rabbi or pope or priest or whatever position it is that
they sew their little name tag on their robes, whatever it is
that they claim to be, whatever it is that men acknowledge them
to be. Yes, they have that title, just
like Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a ruler of the
Jews. He was part of the hierarchy
of Israel. He was a very learned man, a master of theology in
Israel. You know what the Lord told him?
He said, You can't even perceive the kingdom of God until you
be born again. Why? Because you're dead. You're dead in trespasses and
sins. Death, spiritual death, passed
upon all men. The evidence is they sin. They
sin. How do they sin? They sin in
their understanding. Which way you can sin, they sin.
They sin in their attitudes. They sin in their affections. Everything they do is sin. If
you go down to the bar, it's sin. If you go to church, it's
sin. If you pray, it's sin. No matter what you do, it's sin
because you are sinners. And all a sinner can do is sin. That's all he can do. That's
all he can do. He walks. That's the course of
this world. We come forth from the womb,
David said, speaking lies. We're conceived in iniquity.
All we can do is evil. That's all. I don't care what
you do to him. You can send him to school. You
can give him titles. You can give him all these things.
All he can do is sin because he's a sinner. He's a sinner. He walks according
to the course of this world. And then he says this. He makes this distinction. Listen
to this. According to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. What in the world is he talking
about there? He's talking about religion. I don't want to shock
you, but that's what he's talking about. He's talking about worldly
religion. Worldly religion. That's where
Satan works. That's how Satan works. He works
in religion. There's a spirit that's ever-present,
always at work in fallen man to keep him confused and ignorant
and blind. Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not. lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ should shine unto them." It's the spirit of
disobedience that causes the confusion, that causes the deceit. And he plays on that fallen nature
of man. He plays on his natural ignorance. He plays on his natural tendencies. His religion appeals to those
things. It appeals to the flesh. It appeals
to your pride. It appeals to your sense of right
and wrong because it's fallen. He appeals to those things. In
2 Corinthians 11, verse 13, he said, such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. You see that? transforming themselves. I grew up in religion, so if
there's somebody here this morning and that's where you're at and
I'm stepping on your toes, I'm stepping on them because I've
been there. I've been there. I've set out in a pew and sang,
I'll fly away. I've set out in that pew and
made false professions of faith and walked down the aisle and
accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. and prayed through at
a mourner's bench, and all kinds of foolish things that men in
religion do because they don't know any better. And I've sat
back and tried to have some confidence in those things and assurance
in those things, and those things are not of God. They are of the
religion of this world. That's that spirit that Paul
said. That's where God found you. He found you walking according
to the course of this world, a cursed course, a course of
sin. Sin in your nature, blindness, darkness, and being deceived
by the spirit of disobedience who now worketh, he said, right
now, ever worketh. He worketh constantly. He don't
ever let up. Twenty-four hours a day, he works
in your dreams, and he works in your thoughts, and he works
in your emotions, and he works at the job, and he works at the
church, and he works everywhere all the time. Never lets up the
spirit of disobedience. He worketh, he worketh, he worketh. And he takes what God says, and
he twists it around, and he puts a little question mark here and
there, and he puts a little question mark on your interpretations
of things, and he mixes it with a little works and a little will.
And the result is a religion that can't save anybody. It is
a redemption that cannot redeem, a salvation that cannot save,
and an atonement that cannot atone. They transform themselves. Beware of any man, I don't care
who he is, beware of any man who comes and speaks of a profession
of faith by some other means other than the means that God
has ordained from eternity. Beware of it. Watch out for it. I had a dream. I'm still hearing about that
message that was preached on the White House steps. I had
a dream. Well, a dream coming through a multitude of business.
That's what the Scripture says. That's what it says. A multitude
of business. It's not of God. God brings light
into men through the preaching of the gospel and by the power
of His Holy Spirit. That's how the truth comes to
those called of God. It won't come any other way.
It's not going to come any other way. Well, I was just sitting
alone in my room one day, you know, and the light bulb come
on. Somebody probably reached in there and turned it on. It's
not of God. God turns the light on. Read 2 Corinthians chapter
4. God turns that light on. The same God who commanded light
to shine out of darkness commands that light of Christ in the gospel
to shine in your heart. And if He don't, it ain't going
to shine. It's somebody else's light. It's somebody else's light. Over here in 2 Corinthians 11,
where I gave you reference a few minutes ago, such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And that's what they do. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. It pleased God, listen to me,
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. The
gospel is the power of God, Paul said, unto salvation. How shall
you hear without a preacher? These false apostles and preachers
transform themselves, and this transformation is usually very
dramatic. It usually starts out, well,
I was a drunk. You know, I hung out in the bars
and I was a drunk. And now, all of a sudden, he's
transformed to this perfect example of humanity. Nothing ever said about Christ.
Nothing ever said about his atonement, his blood, justification. Nothing ever mentioned about
any of those things. It all had to do with how he
appeared before men. how he appeared before men. It
is a transformation by his own doings. By his own doings, they
transformed themselves. Self-taught, self-confident,
self-righteous, and self is the central theme of their ministry.
They transformed themselves into the apostles of Christ, and Paul
said it is no marvel, verse 14, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing."
Now listen, if his ministers, whose ministers? These false apostles and false
teachers and false prophets and false preachers and false religion,
whose ministers are they? That is what he says, Satan's.
His ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to the works. The passage that
first came into my mind when I saw that was that passage where
Paul describes his kinsmen according to the flesh. He said, I bear
them witness they have a zeal of God, but it is not according
to knowledge, it is not according to truth, because they, being
ignorant of the righteousness of God and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of Christ. Why wouldn't they submit themselves?
Why would they go about trying to establish their own righteousness?
Because that's what the preacher told them to do. That's right. That's what Paul told them to
do. That's why Paul stoned Stephen, because Stephen preached contrary
to that. He preached contrary to that.
He said there's one righteousness, and that righteousness is in
Christ. It's in Christ. To walk according to the prince
of the power of the air is to walk in this way of Satan. It's to walk by the principles
of worldly religion. It appeals to man's fallen nature. It appeals to his appetites.
It appeals to his fallen sense of right and wrong. Paul declared, Christ is all.
I love the book of Colossians. He's all. He was all in eternity. He was all in creation. He's
all in providence. He's all in the church. Christ
is all. He's all in this thing of salvation
and redemption and sanctification and wisdom and anything else
you can think of that a man needs to be saved. Christ is all. If
you've got Christ, you've got everything God has for sinners.
Everything, everything that God has for sinners is in Christ. But he said down here in verse
8, Colossians 2 verse 8, Beware! Beware! Now, he just told them,
he said, If you receive Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him. And beware! Who are you going
to beware of? lest any man spoil you through
philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the
rudiments." Do you know what that word means? That's an old
English term. It means basic or fundamental
principles. That's what he's talking about.
The rudimentary principles of the world. Natural reasons, natural
logic, natural ends, natural goals, natural wisdom, natural. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him which is
the head of all principalities and powers." The design of religion,
I want you to listen to it, is to make salvation possible for
a man to attain. That's what it's all about. If
you just sit and listen to them preach, they're preaching a salvation
that you can attain. They're preaching the salvation.
John, it's like they set you out here on the table and they
say, come up and get you something. All you've got to do is get from
there to here and you can have it. All you've got to do is shake my
hand and you can have it. All you've got to do is come
up this bench. All you've got to do is join the church. All
you've got to do is be baptized. All you've got to do is make
a decision. It's a salvation that a man, a natural falling
man, a sinful man, can attain on his own. That's what it is. Come and get it. Come and get
it. That's what they tell you. Come and get it. And if that's
what you want, you can have it. It's easy to get. You'll go down
there and join up. Go down there and show up. That's
all you got to do. Just show up. Man, they'll sweep out of
that church and grab you and hug you and bring you up and
give you best seats. Come on in. Come on in. If that's all
you want is religion, just join up. Just pick one. Any one. Don't
matter which one. Pick the one that suits you. You can pick the one that's very
prim and proper. You can pick the one where they
throw songbooks. You can pick the one where they run around,
around, around the room. Or you can pick the one where
they're sitting there in a candlelight and everybody's quiet. You can
pick the one where they have a lot of ceremonies or the kind
that don't have any ceremonies. Just pick it. Join up. All you've
got to do to get religions, join up. The only way you can get
in Christ is for God to put you there. The only way for you to
have the salvation of God is for God to give it to you. It's
a gift. All the way through this first
chapter of Ephesians, Paul tells them that this thing is a gift.
It began in eternity when God the Father blessed all spiritual
blessings by giving to you His Son. He put them in Christ. All
these blessings are in Christ, and that's where He puts you.
That's why you're blessed. That's why you're blessed. Natural religion, the whole design
of it, is to make salvation possible for a man to attain. It is to
set forth an end that he can achieve and a goal he can reach.
But the gospel of God declares that with man it is impossible.
Here comes a man to our Lord, the rich young ruler. He had
every advantage a man could want. He was respected. He was a moral
man. When the Lord challenged him
with the law, he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
Outwardly, he was clean as a houndstooth. He didn't do anything. He was
a very moral man. He was a successful man. He was
a businessman. He was a rich man. He had every
worldly, fleshly advantage that a man could have, he had. And
the Lord knew right where to take him. He knew right where
that point of rebellion is, and he knew what his affections was
on. He said, just take everything you've got, give it to the poor,
take up your cross and follow me. He turned around and he said,
that's too much. And he walked away. I walked
away. And the disciples looked at each
other and they said, who then can be saved? And our Lord looked at them and
he said, with man it's what? Impossible. Ain't that what he
said? Impossible. You can't ever pray enough, give
enough, love enough, Sacrifice enough, feel enough to satisfy
this conscience, let alone God. This conscience will cry out,
I don't care what you do. Read about the old monks crawling
on broken glass up and down the stairway trying to satisfy a
holy God. You can't satisfy Him. The only one that can satisfy
Him is Christ. With man, it's impossible. And it's this preaching, this
preaching of a gospel that makes salvation possible for men, that
blinds men to the sovereign grace of God. They're blinded. They're
blinded coming in because they're biased. They're biased. You see, you're talking to them,
you're telling them, Your testimony, you're giving them the testimony
of God out of this book. And you're saying God says that
salvation is altogether a grace. It's altogether a gift. You're
telling him that man is a sinner, totally depraved. All his righteousnesses, his
best things that he does are filthy rags before God. And he's
in disagreement with you because that's not what he's been hearing.
It's not what he believes. It's not what he's been told.
And it blinds men. It blinds them coming in. It's
the bias of the preaching of this world. It blinds men. Blinds men. They won't even listen
to the truth. It's not a matter so much of
revelation. I'm standing here declaring the
revelation to you. That old eunuch out there in
the chariot, he was reading over in the book of Isaiah, and Philip
came up beside him and asked him if he understood what he
read. He said, How can I understand except somebody declare it to
me? He got up in the chariot and declared it to him. The revelation came through the
preaching of the gospel. It was a plain declaration, and
he received it. And by faith, laid hold of it,
rejoiced in it. What does hinder me from being
baptized? Well, here's some water. We'll baptize you right here.
Do you believe? Yeah, I believe. That's all that.
That's it. Ain't nothing there. To be saved, we must be as good
as God. That's what it means to be saved.
Can't do it, can you? You can't do it. I dare say there's
not a person in this room, and I know some of them, as sweet
and good in my eyes as anybody I've ever known, but there's
not a person in this room this morning, if I had a camera that
could record what's just been on your heart since you walked
through the door, if you'd want me to play on a big screen up
here for everybody to see. We've got to be made as good
as God. How can we do that in Christ? In Christ? That rich young ruler that I
just was talking about, he came to Christ and he said, Good Master.
The Lord stopped him right there. He said, Why callest thou me
good? I had none good but God. Whew! Man, I mean, none good
but God. The good man, the psalmist said,
perished from the earth. And none good, no, not one. It's not a quality that you can
find in a man, every good gift, every perfect gift coming down
from the Father of life, because that's where goodness dwells,
up there. None good but God. And if there's
any goodness in you, he put it in you. He gave it to you. Righteousness, perfect, unblemished
righteousness is required of God, and man can't produce it. How can a man who comes forth
from the wounds, beak, and lies produce a righteousness that
demands continual, unbroken obedience? Think about it. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not. in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. Well, you messed up at birth.
You've come forth from the womb speaking lies. Just put a checkmark,
you're out of there. You're out of there. Thought
of furlishness as sin, take me out. Righteousness. That righteousness
comes through Christ. Christ alone. He's the end of
the law for righteousness. Worldly religion preaches a gospel
that leaves men ignorant of God's righteousness by causing them
and encouraging them to establish one of their own. That was the
message of Romans chapter 9, verse 3. God demands perfect
justice. Nobody can be saved who is not
justified. And justification is God examining
a man's heart, mind, will, and ways and finding no flaw, no
blemish. Justification is God looking
on the thoughts and intents of your heart and saying nothing
but holiness and righteousness and love. Read about it over
in Hebrews chapter 1. God said that crown on His Son
because He loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Whether he was tempted, whether
God turned his back on him, no matter what it was, he never
changed. Never changed. That's righteousness. That's justification. God looks
there, finds nothing. This justification cannot be
obtained by man. Natural religion justifies itself
before men, not before God. Not before God. He said, I know
who you are. You are they that justify yourselves
before men. You've got an explanation for
everything. Sure you do, but not before God. Everything in the salvation of
God's elect must be given to Him. He's not going to migrate
out of darkness into light. He's got to be called out of
darkness into light. He's not going to separate Himself
from the world. God has to set a division. Isn't that what He did in Israel?
He set a division between them and Him. He set a division between
His people and the world. He's not going to evolve into
a believer. Faith must be given to him. Repentance
must be given to him. He must be led to it. A man's
not going to keep on keeping on, but he's got to be kept by
the power of God unto salvation. Religion is the direct opposite
to all those things. We preach to men who are themselves
the product of preaching. They're not seeking answers because
they think they already have them. They're not seeking repentance
because they believe they've already repented. Repentance
is not a finished work. It's not some isolated thing
you did twenty years ago. Repentance is a continual thing. It's a continual thing. Faith
is not something you did twenty-five years ago. Faith is a continual
process. It's looking, looking unto Jesus,
looking, always looking. And I tell you this, the gospel
is not something you do, the gospel is a person. And God the
Father blessed us over here in Ephesians chapter 1 with all
spiritual blessings in this person. And we're made acceptable by
this person, and we receive adoption through this person, and we're
justified through this person. And it's in this person in whom
God trusted everything. And Paul said, in whom we also
trusted when we heard. When we heard. Can you trust
who God trusted? It's all to the praise of the
glory of His grace when He made us accepted in the blood. And listen to this. He used that
word wherein over there in Ephesians chapter 1. Wherein he hath made
us accepted in the blood. And we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. The gospel of God is a gospel
of eternal purpose. God chose a people, appointed
his Son, sent his Son. to redeem that people. The gospel
goes forth and declares what God has purposed and what His
Son has purchased, and men receive it and rejoice in it to whom
it is given. It is the will of God that determines
salvation accomplished, the will of God that brought Christ into
the world, the will of God that brought Christ to the cross.
I came down not to do my own will, but the will of Him that
sent me. And it's the will of God that
seeks guilty sinners and brings them to the truth of the gospel.
It's the will of God that does that. We've got some visitors
here that weren't planning on being here. They're just here.
We've got some other visitors that's been invited. This is
the day they showed up. I've got some folks who come
here almost all the time. They're here this morning. Some
that come sometimes. But you're here this morning
by the will of God to hear this message. And you're not going
to leave this place the same as you came in. Now, you're either going to be
drawn of God by this gospel. You're either going to be drawn
of Him, or you're going to be shoved away. because his gospel never fails. It never fails. It accomplishes
what it was sent to accomplish. Paul said, Our gospel is the
savor of life unto life and death unto death, but it never just
lays there. It accomplishes what it was sent
to accomplish. And I tell you this, salvation
is altogether of the Lord in its eternal design and purpose,
in its promises, in its fulfillment, in its revelation, in its application,
in its ultimate glorification. It's all of God. And I don't
preach to a world ruled by demonic spirits, hoping somehow to convince
them or overcome them or be more powerful than He is. Peter thought that. He said,
I can believe that if John and the others, I can believe it.
Isn't that funny how we can do that? He believed it in everybody
else, but he couldn't believe it in himself. He said, I ain't
going to leave you. He said, Peter, Satan hath desired to
shift thee as wheat. He's going to put you in a bowl
and just shake it. See what falls out. See what falls out. I don't preach this world thinking
that I can overcome these odds or thinking that there's some
potential in a man that if I You know, if I fan the coals, that
little spark might catch on fire. Isaiah said, He's given us beauty
for ashes. You know what ashes means to
me? I was raised with a coal stove.
You went in there and opened the door and there wasn't nothing
but ashes. It meant the fire went out. The fire's out. Only God can
build a fire. These things have got to be given.
There's a story, and I'll close with this, over in the book of
Ezekiel, in Ezekiel chapter 16, of this little baby girl cast
out into the field. You all read the story. And she's
laying out there, and her cord hadn't been cut, and she's not
been washed or swaddled or anything. Some woman had this baby, didn't
want it, and threw it out in the sand. And that's where it
lays. That's the picture. And the Lord said, when I passed
by, I saw you as you were. Unwanted, uncared for, unloved,
unassisted, pray for the beast. That's what you are. Laying there
in your blood. And he said, why you was there
in your blood? You wasn't doing anything. You wasn't seeking.
You wasn't working. You wasn't running. You wasn't
doing anything. You was laying there on your own, in your blood,
in the sand, unloved. And I said to you, live. He didn't
say it in words. He said it by covenant. He said
it in purpose. From all eternity, live. And then he said, you begin to
multiply and begin to grow and begin to form some beauty and
begin to have some things about you. And he said, and I passed
by and it was a time of love. And he said, I entered into a
covenant and you become mine. You become mine. And then he
said, I took the ornaments and hung them on your ears, the earrings
and the jewel on the forehead and the chain around the neck
and embroidery work on you and fine linen and silk and all these
things that he gave to them to adorn this woman that he loved. Now I want to read something
to you and I'm going to close down here in verse 10 of Ephesians
chapter 2. That was my text today. For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
All them earrings of our good works, all them ornaments, all
that chain around your neck and the silk and the embroidery work,
if you have any, is all of God. And he said, And your beauty
and fame went out abroad, and everybody know you, and you become
beautiful through my comeliness. That's where them ornaments come
from. If you have a heart to serve God and a mind that loves
God, and out of that constraint of love, you're able to do things
and give things and sacrifice things and love people and preach
to people and do things for people. If you're able to walk in those
good works, those are all ornaments of grace. They're all jewels
given to ordain this One He beloves. And it's His comeliness that
people see. Our Lord told the folks, He said,
let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works, but they're not going to glorify you. They're going
to see them in such a way as to glorify your Father which
is in heaven. When you do that, you've got
good works. You've got the end for which we were chosen. And
you're going to walk in them because God ordained it with
His workmanship. God give you an understanding.
of the gospel of His sovereign grace.