to be opening your Bibles to
Ephesians 1. Alright, let's ask God to bless us. Lord Jesus,
thank you for this gathering this evening and thank you for
each one that's come and I pray that you'll empower me with your
grace to have both wisdom and ability to set forth your gospel
with power so that it will affect our hearts, Lord. We don't want
to simply learn something in our minds, Lord. We want to be
moved by the things that we hear from your word. We want them
to have an effect on our hearts, to encourage us. As the scriptures
say, it is good for the heart to be strengthened with grace.
And we pray that you'll strengthen us this evening. make our hearts
glad Lord that we may praise your name. Now rather than continue and
finish this morning's message I'm just going to say that till
next Sunday morning and we'll continue on with that but
tonight I want to preach a message We'll call it the glory of God's
grace. Now the truth of the matter is that every message I preach,
it should be that it could have that title, the glory of God's
grace. Do you realize that that is exactly
why God does everything he does? Look here in Ephesians chapter
6, excuse me, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6, to the praise of his
glorious grace. Now he just talked about us being
blessed with every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ. He's spoken of predestination
of a gospel that runs according to God's pleasure and God's will. Sovereign grace. I mean, he said
it bold. And then he said, why was it
done this way? Why is God doing what he's doing in the way he's
doing it? that it might be to the praise
of His glorious grace. Now anybody who has experienced
the grace of God, has been made a partaker of the grace of God,
will tell you this, it's glorious grace. You know, when people
don't seem to be interested in the things of God's grace, I
more or less conclude that's because they've never experienced
it, they don't know it. And I don't say that by way of
judgment, like I think I'm any better, it's just that's the
way God's grace is. If you don't appreciate the truth
of grace, if you don't appreciate the preaching of grace, if you
don't appreciate the fact that all of salvation is by the free
grace of God, there can only be one reason for that that I
know of, and that's that you've just never experienced it. God
has not been gracious to you yet, therefore you don't appreciate
that grace. When people gnash their teeth
against the preaching of free grace, it just tells me, well,
they don't know what grace is. In the 30-some years, yeah, about
30 years almost, that I've been preaching the gospel, I've been
listening to it, I've heard a lot of messages. Some of them have been argumentative
messages where the preacher had a bee in his bonnet and just
had to say something about it. I've heard some very instructive
but somewhat dry messages where the preacher came off more like
a seminary professor than he did a preacher of the grace of
God. I've heard some messages on various
issues that have come up and they've had some profit to them,
but I can say this, that the closer that a man gets to preaching
grace, the more my heart rejoices. The clearer he is and the plainer
he is about God's salvation given to me based entirely on the merits
And the doing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more my heart is
strengthened, the more it leaps within me. Now, every kind of
message, or just about every kind of message, has its place. There are some messages that
shouldn't ever have been preached, and I've been the one to preach
a few of them. I mean, I've preached some messages,
and I thought we all might as well stay home for that. But
that's because we're flesh. But all there's different styles
of preaching, there's different purposes in this message or that
message. And sometimes there is, you've
got to hoe some corn, there's things come up you've got to,
quote, deal with, I guess. But when we can sit back and
listen, simply listen and take in that testimony of God's grace
in Christ Jesus, and be reminded once again of God's broad and
powerful promises in the gospel and of the certainty of salvation
through Him. Boy, that just, that makes, well
in my book that makes everything easy. It really does. All the
calls to duty and responsibility become easy. All the issues and
all the controversies that rise up within the church from time
to time. And I mean the church in general, not just this one
in specific. But all these things that come up, they just, it's
like the Lord when He was there on that, walking on that water,
or excuse me, when He was in the boat there and He just looked
at the water and said, peace, be still, and it laid down. So
I want to speak something, if I can, if the Lord will enable
me, of the glories of God's grace. Now there was and still is a
glory in the law of God. There is. And why is that? Well, because it's God's law.
Everything that belongs to God, everything that comes from God
is glorious in one way or another. He's the glorious God and nothing
that He does is devoid of glory. There's a glory in that law.
The law is glorious because it is true. in every respect have
you ever found a fault in the law when God designed the new covenant
called the gospel it's not because there was anything wrong with
the old covenant in fact it says he found fault with the people
therefore he made a new covenant the fault with salvation by the
old covenant did not lie in the covenant itself It lay in the
inability of the people to meet the terms of the covenant. If you go down to the car lot,
and there's this luxury car there that you would like, and there
in the window is that sticker, and it says $75,000, well now
there's nothing wrong with the car, and there's nothing wrong
with the sticker. But you still aren't going to
get it, probably. Why? Because of your inability to
meet the terms of taking that thing home. And the problem with
the law lay not in the law, or not in the blessings that the
law held out, nor in the demands that God made in the law. The
fault lay with us. We couldn't meet those demands.
The law is glorious and it has some power to restrain men from
their most evil outbreaks, but the law was only a shadow. of the good things which would
come. Brethren, if the shadow is glorious,
what must the reality be? If the shadow, and Brother John
read that this morning, that that covenant which brought death,
it had a glory about it. But if the covenant that brings
death has glory, how much more that covenant which brings life?
And if that which is only a shadow is glorious, imagine a shadow
being bright. If the shadow itself is bright
with glory, think of the greatness of the glory of the reality.
Now what do we mean by grace? Well, let me give some broad
statements about salvation by grace. First of all, we mean
by grace. that system of salvation which
is based entirely upon the favor of God towards His people. That's
what prompts it. That's what started it. God was
favorably disposed to a people. And everything in salvation is
based upon that favor. It flows from it. That's the
energy of it. That's the power of it. Or we
could say this in comparing grace and works. Works is the system
whereby men act and God reacts, isn't it? I mean, the law has
said this way, you shall live if you do these things. So if
men take action, then God will react to their actions and bless
them. But grace goes on this wise,
God takes action and men react to that. You know, one of the problems
with what is commonly referred to as free willism, they say
that God did some things, but that he's waiting on the actions
of men before he ever actually accomplishes anything. God did
some things, but he accomplished nothing by what he did. He awaits
for men, natural men, untouched men. And I tell you there's such
a blasphemy in free willism. They believe that the will of
man is unviable. They believe that God dare not
do something to a man without that man's permission. Now free
willism is based on that idea. And free willism is also based
on the idea that man, natural man, has within him the capacity
to actually do something that God would react positively to.
I mean, that's what they're saying. Even if it's just faith, they
believe, they think, they believe that believing the gospel is
within the power of a natural man. And for that reason, they
reduce faith to nothing more than simply making a decision.
Faith in Christ is nothing more than signing an insurance policy
Someone said, you know, fire insurance policy for hell. That's
all it is. That's what they think faith
is. But brethren, man is dead in
trespasses and sins and we would be fools and God would be a fool
to wait for a dead man to do something. Now imagine that. A scheme of salvation. that is
based upon dead men doing something. That's exactly what free willism
and legalism is. They're expecting a dead man
to do something. But God's grace says this, I
will, I will, I will, God will. That's what he's talking about.
The I there is God. God talks about what he will do and not
what we will do. That's grace. In law and works,
the power and energy must flow from man to God. Man's got to
initiate it. Man's got to carry it through.
All that God does leaves us with opportunities. Opportunities
that we've got to energize and make effective by something we
do in grace and faith. That system of salvation by grace
through faith. All the power and energy flows
from God to men. Now it is true that men believe
the gospel and are saved through faith but that power to believe
comes from God. And I know it's me that believes
but it's God working in me to believe. That's what grace is. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. In the scheme of grace, God takes
action and even the reaction that we have to what God does
is a reaction that God works in us. It's God that works in
you to will and to do of His good pleasure. That's right there. Boy, I tell you that right away. I just kind of relaxed when I
said that, you know, I get kind of wound up and I get worried
like everybody else and I'm not doing good enough. Isn't it good
to know it's not our doing, it's not our working, it's His. And
I figure God can do a pretty good job. In fact, That scripture
goes on. It says it's Him that works in
you to will and to do of His good pleasure. And Paul says,
and I'm convinced of this, He who began a good work will bring
it to perfection until the day of Christ. Now, I see a lot about
me that's imperfect. I look at my salvation. I look
at my experience of it. It doesn't seem finished. Does
that ever bother you that it doesn't seem your salvation's
finished? You know, you say, well, I thought Things would
be better by now. I thought I'd be done with this
or that sin. I thought that my heart would
be more thoroughly bound to the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought
that my desires would be more fully given over to Him. Well,
it's getting there. It says that He will perfect
it until the day of Christ. and he will perfect it at his
pace and in his way and at the right time it will be perfected. So I wish he'd hurry up. You
want it done your way? You're messing up pretty bad
before he took over. There's no reason to think you'd
do better if he let you have the steering wheel now. You remember
that old bumper sticker, my bumper sticker, God's my co-pilot? Remember
one time I read that and I looked at Vanya and I said, look at
that. He said, God's his co-pilot. Well, he's going to crash. God's
not the co-pilot. He's the pilot and he don't have
a co-pilot. He's the pilot. He's the navigator. He's the flight attendant. I'm
the passenger. That's all I am in this thing.
And the plane took off under his control. It's flying under
his control and it will land when he's ready to land it. And when he does, it'll be good. Now brethren, that's the system
of grace. And we're going to bring ourselves
under nervousness. We're going to make ourselves
just all agitated in mind if we move away from that. And think
for a minute that the slightest part of our salvation depends
on what we are able to do. in the concept of the scheme
of works each man stands alone and individually and he stands
or falls stands or falls based on what he does but in the scheme
of grace all stand in a substitute and are blessed according to
what he has done now when I look at what I have
done and I don't mean what I did you know back before I was saved
I've heard so many of these so-called testimonies where people talk
about how, you know, about before they were saved they did this
and they did that and they paint themselves with such a dark brush. Oh, what a wicked person I was. And then they talk about their
experience of getting saved. And boy, it's been all the glory
road since then. I'm pressing on the upward way,
new heights I'm gaining every day. I mean, that's what those
testimonies come up to. They say, oh, what a wretched
man I was. Paul the apostle said, oh, wretched
man that I am. Therefore, if there is to be
salvation, now think upon it, knowing what you are, both before
god opened your eyes to the truth and since he has opened your
eyes to the truth knowing what you are is there any hope for
your soul salvation if it is in any way dependent on you being
good you know when I struggle with
the unbelief of the flesh and I do You know, I never struggle
with the gospel of grace as opposed to, say, free willism. I never struggle with the gospel
of grace as opposed to legalism, thinking I need to add some of
the works of the law or this. That's never what my struggle
goes to. My struggle is simply this, with unbelief. Is this gospel
of grace true? Or is there no truth at all?
Because this I'm sure of. If salvation is not utterly and
completely by the free grace of God, there is no salvation. None. If it is not based entirely
upon what someone else other than me has done, then there
is no salvation for me. And therefore, my struggle with
unbelief is not between what I believe and a competing form
of religion. The only thing my flesh can say
to me to try to tempt me to unbelief is simply this. There is no God. There is no salvation. There
is no heaven. There is no hell. We're just
going to live and die like the other animals do. And once we
close our eyes, it's over. Really. When it comes to unbelief,
that's the direction my mind goes. Because if there is a heaven
and it must be gained by some other means than grace, then
my friend, nobody's going to be there. Well, it's going to
be God, and it's going to be the Lord Jesus, and that's going
to be it. But thanks be to God, this matter of grace, this matter
of salvation by grace tells us that every blessing which is
given is given because of what someone
else did. Now let's look at a few high
points of the glories of the grace of God. Look over at 2
Timothy chapter 1. Verse 8 we read this, So do not
be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me, his prisoner. But join with me in suffering
for the gospel by the power of God, who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not because of anything we have done. Now
that's the negative statement of grace. Not because of anything
we have done. And when you think of it, have
you ever done anything that you would think would make God want
to call you? Think about it now, what freewhellers
and legalists are saying. They're saying that they have
done something that made God think He ought to call them. Not because of anything we have
done, but because of His own purpose and grace. He saved us,
He called us because of His purpose, because of His favor. This grace,
this favor, now listen to this, this is wonderful. This is the
glorious grace. This grace was given us in Christ
Jesus before the beginning of time. Grace, while it invades time,
while it invades the experience of our lives grace was given
to every child of God before time even began that's why I
sang that song this evening before the world began God loved me
then he chose me for his own and heir a son in rich eternal
grace gave my soul a place thank God he included me isn't that something to think
that you know here we live our 70 plus years and in the whole scheme of things
we are here for a moment A moment. We are a quick blip. You know,
I was up in an attic the other day and I found that there were
some pieces of newspaper stuck to the underside of the roof
for some reason. I don't know what it was doing
there. But it looked really old. So I tried peeling it off. It's
brittle. I could get just little pieces off of it. I was trying
to find a date. I was thinking, I always think
it's cool if I can find a newspaper from the 1800s. And I found a
few. And we look at it and we think, that's so old. It's nothing.
It's nothing. 1800s? 108 or 109 years ago? We're just here but for a brief
blip. And yet even before the first
tick of the clock, God gave us grace in Christ Jesus. Now the
first glorious thought that comes to my mind from that is this.
The things that happen in time cannot affect what happened in
eternity. If grace was given to me before
time began, nothing that happens in time can ever rob me of that
grace. Because you see, time doesn't
rule eternity. Eternity rules time. Notice what he says here. This grace, this is the end of
verse 9, this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the
beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the
appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus. All that time will do
with the grace of God is reveal it. It doesn't make it happen. Nothing
that goes on in time initiates the grace of God. In fact, Jesus Christ, now hold
on to your seat for this one, Jesus Christ did not come to
gain us the grace of God. He came because the grace of
God had already been given to us. Is that true? He didn't die in
eternity, He died in time. You see that's what I mean when
I say eternity rules time. In eternity in the timelessness
of God's existence out there, so to speak. He gave us grace. Therefore, he determined how
time would run its course in order that that grace might be
revealed and experienced by us. In Malachi chapter one, verse
six, we read this, I am the Lord. I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed." You and I who believe the gospel,
we're here this evening. We're not in hell right now for
one reason. God gave us grace before the
world began. and therefore he has ordained
every minute detail of the passage of the history of this world
in order to bring about that grace that he purposed for us
in eternity. You know the destinies of men
is not an unsettled matter. We believe in what is called
predestination. God has already determined the
destiny of every man. And history is just a plane out
of that destiny. And not the most minute item
of history was left unpurposed, unarranged, unknown. Grace, since grace precedes time,
it proves that grace precedes our works. You know, and not
only precedes them in time, grace precedes our works even in the
scheme of cause and effect. You know, people are so opposed
to sovereign grace, they come up with the silliest thoughts
to try to explain, to try to somehow or another say it's by
grace, but it's really by the will of man. And they say, well,
you know, God back there in eternity, he looked through time to see
what we would do and chose us based on what we would do. Well, you know, I read this,
he saved us and called us to a holy life, not because of anything
we've done. And that doesn't mean that he
didn't, purpose these things for us after we did some good
works. It tells us that he didn't purpose
these gracious things for us or give us his grace because
of any good works he knew we would do later on. And of course, if anybody is
the least bit honest, he'll have to say, well, even if election
was based on what God foresaw I would do, I'd be a lost man. Because if he would have looked
at me before he chose me, there's one thing for sure, he'd have
never chose me. Isn't that so? Can you think of even a moment
in your life, the briefest moment, that you would like to say, okay,
what I was and what I did at that moment was what God saw
and said, I like that guy. I'm going to take him to heaven." Not a moment of our lives, not
the smallest detail, not the least act of our wills would
have ever prompted God to do the least bit of good for us. He chose us And that election
meant that some would actually be saved. I've heard people say,
and of course, you know, I come from a free will background,
and Gerald can probably identify with this better than some of
you all because you were raised in at least professedly Calvinistic
religions. But I was raised up in pretty
serious free willism. And you talk about election,
and they'd say, well, if God chose who's going to be saved,
that means a man could, you know, want to be saved, but God wouldn't
let him. No, it doesn't mean that, by the way, but that's
where man's logic will take him when he hears about God choosing
who would be saved. Election is not a method whereby
folks who might have been saved end up lost. Rather, election,
the gospel of sovereign grace, is that system whereby those
who would most certainly have been damned are saved instead. Do you see that? If it weren't
for sovereign grace, friends, there wouldn't be hope for anybody.
Nobody. If it wasn't that God did this,
got it all going before the world began, if it wasn't based entirely
upon the doing and dying of the Savior, if it wasn't that the
Holy Spirit came into the world and without permission and without
cooperation invades the hearts of men and women and makes them
willing, if that wasn't the way it was, friends, there's not
one soul would be saved. If all that God did was say,
well, I'd like to save some people, if all that Christ did was come
and make redemption possible and just simply open up the gate,
so to speak, and if all that the Holy Spirit did was stand
outside the man and beg and woo and beseech and try to convince
him to come, if that's all that happened, nobody would come. It takes an invasive force of
the Triune God to save a sinner. And I'm glad. I'm so glad that
God didn't wait for me. God didn't say, well, you know,
I love him. I don't want him to go to hell,
but I dare not go against his will. Every good thing God ever did
for me, he did contrary to my will. And I'm glad. I'm so, so
glad. In God's glorious grace, all blessings come to us on account
of the works of a substitute. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. Now God purposed these things and gave us His grace before
the world began. but God is just and if he did anything based
on what he foresaw in us it will have to be this he sent his son
to die because he said I've given these people my grace but if
I bless them it will be unjust because I must condemn the guilty
and they're guilty but Jesus Christ came into the world and
every blessing that you and I receive comes because of what he did. It says here in Ephesians chapter
1 verse 3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every
spiritual blessing in Christ. Now there's a negative and a
positive here to be taken from it. First of all, the positive.
We receive everything in Christ. He has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in Christ. And here's the negative statement
of it. We haven't gotten anything else but what he gave us in Christ. It's not like you get the basic
package in Christ and then there's some accessories you can add
on by your decisions and by your actions. In fact, look over here
at Galatians chapter 3. And I said that my unbelief never
struggles with any legalism, not consciously. I know good
and well legalism is wrong. But I also know there is a legalistic
spirit in every one of us. And there's a part of us that
still thinks we've got to earn these blessings. And even if
we've come to understand that salvation is by grace, we still
think, well, maybe there's some add-ons, some improvements which
we gain by being good. But listen to what the Apostle
says in Galatians chapter 3, beginning in verse 3, Are you
so foolish after beginning in the Spirit? And what does he
mean by that? Well, the Spirit is that which
testifies of Christ. The Spirit always turns our eyes
toward the Lord Jesus Christ and towards His righteousness,
towards His sacrifice. So as you begin, essentially
by saying begin in the Spirit, it means begin in the Gospel. Does your salvation begin through
the grace of God? But are you now trying to attain
your goal? That word means to reach perfection. You try to do that by human effort,
the flesh. You know what Paul's saying?
Do you think that this scheme of God, the gospel, starts with
grace and ends with works? Do you think, as Brother Donny
Bell said, that really all that salvation amounts to is that
when you accept Jesus, God puts you on a foot race with the devil
all the way to heaven, and you got out running. You know, he
just kind of gave you a little head start. Did God just begin it
and leave the perfecting of it up to you? Now notice this, and
people might say, oh no, no, no, I'm gonna get to heaven entirely
by grace. But you know, if we're gonna
expect any blessing from God on us while we live here, we
better walk in obedience. Now look, verse five. Does God give you his spirit
and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because
you believe what you heard. You have to believe. And here's
where I do struggle with legalism. It has to do with the areas of
the ministry. I just, I think that boy, I've not been good
enough that God's going to bless my preaching. And you know something? I've
not been good enough for God to bless my preaching. I haven't. Thank God the blessing upon the
ministry doesn't come from the goodness of the preacher. I'm one of these guys, we'll
have a... Sunday morning comes and I'm excited about the message.
And then it'll be one of those Sundays where there's a lot of
people missing. You know what goes through my mind first? I'll
think of some notable sin of the past week. Or something. Think, oh, God's closing it up.
I haven't been dedicated enough. I haven't been committed enough.
I didn't study enough. I sinned too much. And now God's going to take it
away. I wish I were quicker to remember
what the psalmist said. If you, oh Lord, should mark
iniquity, who could stand? And if the least of our blessings
depended upon the righteousness of our deeds, would we get any
blessings? No. Whatever becomes of this church,
brethren, whatever fruit is gathered in this location,
will be for this reason alone, God is gracious. God is gracious. Now we ought to want to do the
right thing. We ought to want to live decently,
uprightly, and it should grieve us when we don't. But brethren,
never think that God is going to withdraw his favor because
we've been naughty. Because if that's the way he
worked, not a one of us would have his favor. If you, oh Lord,
should mark iniquity, if you took notice of it. Plenty of iniquity in me for
God to take notice of, but evidently he doesn't. Plenty of iniquity
to mark, but evidently he doesn't. Because if he did, I'd be a goner. Not the slightest blessing is
given to us based upon our works. Every good thing we receive is
undeserved and unearned by us. Rather, the grace that we experience
is earned by Christ. Now I realize I've said that
grace was given us before the world began but it was given
us in Christ and that actual favor that we
receive is the favor that God has for the Lord Jesus Christ
and it overflowed from Him and on to us and that's good. Here's what the scriptures teach
us. God is treating us as though we were Christ. Whatever he believes Christ is
worthy of, that's what he gives to us. Because, you see, those
things he thought we were worthy of, he gave to Christ. And Christ endured on the cross
what we earned by our sin. And we experience through our
lives and on into eternity what Christ earned by His righteousness. Salvation by the grace of God
is glorious And then it gives us a foundation for real assurance
by the removal of all our sins from the presence of God. Look
at Hebrews chapter 10. begin here verse 15 says the
Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this for he says this
is the covenant I will make with them after that time says the
Lord I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write them
on their mind then he adds their sins and lawless acts I will
remember no more now someone might say this I'm sure people
have yeah you see there God puts us on the right path And he puts
his law in our hearts and we start acting right and therefore
he forgives all our past sins. I'd like you to back up a couple
of chapters here where there is a more or a fuller quotation
of this scripture. In verse 7 of Hebrews 8, it says,
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant,
no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault
with the people and said, The time is coming, declares the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful
to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the
Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their
minds and write them on their hearts, I will be their God,
and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his
neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, because
they'll all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,
for I will forgive their wickedness. Now that word in our translation
says forgive, it's a word for mercy. I will be merciful to
their wickedness and will remember their sins no more. Now here's
the thing that is being taught to us about this new covenant.
Yes, God puts within us a new nature, a nature that loves the
things that God loves. However, there's still wickedness,
or he wouldn't have to be merciful to it, would he? And this amazes me. Because I
remembered in my own time of being a parent with little children,
I wasn't always as merciful as I should be. And I know and you
probably all can remember just how aggravated and irritated
and angry you could get at the things that your children do.
And sometimes you dealt with them not as you should have,
you dealt with them in anger and wrath. I regret when I think
about it. I was laying in the bed trying
to take a little nap this afternoon and some of that stuff came back.
I blew my stack at my kids. Makes me feel bad. Do you know
what this picture, what the Lord's telling us here? When God sees
our sin, He pities us for it. It's more like, I believe, when your children get older,
And, you know, this really started happening a lot, you know, back
in the 60s and 70s as baby boomers started to come of age. And,
for example, just to take this example, the wayward daughter,
you know, girl comes home pregnant. Now, there's some dads just flying
to a rage about it, not a fool understand why they would. But,
you know, a lot of dads, they're just brokenhearted.
And they didn't look at that sin as a violation against them.
You know what their real thought was? Oh baby, what have you done
to yourself? And they worked to remove as
much of the damage as their waywardness would cause. And I believe that's
kind of the picture that's being told to us here. I'm merciful
to their unrighteousness. I look at their sins instead
of being moved to wrath, I'm moved to tears. Instead of visiting
their transgressions upon them, I will do all I can to remove
and fix the damage that they have done by their sin. And when
God does all He can, He does all. There's limits to how much
we can repair. of the disasters that our children
bring upon themselves, isn't there? There's only so much we
can do. We've got limited resources.
God doesn't have limited resources. And he says this, I'll be merciful
to their unrighteousness and their sins and lawless acts I
will remember no more. He goes out and he fixes everything
we mess up. And then he repairs the breach
that we have made with him. And he says, I'll never bring
it up again. You know, there's some parents,
they never can let go of what the children did to them. The
children got to bear that around their whole lives. Every time
they go visit dad, you know, somehow or another it gets brought
up what they did. God says, I won't. It's over. It's done. It'll never
be mentioned. I won't hold it over your head.
I won't bring it up in the day of judgment. It is to me as though
it never happened. Verse 19 of Hebrews 10, Therefore,
because of that, because of God's sovereign choice to not remember
our sins. Therefore, brothers, since we
have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us through the curtain,
that is His body, and since we have a great priest, a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere
heart in the full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled
to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed
with pure water all these are references to old covenant practices
and how they are fulfilled in the gospel and here's what he's
saying because in this new covenant that God is merciful to our unrighteousness
and will not remember nor ever bring up our sins then let us
with full assurance and confidence of acceptance come into his presence
with the blood of Christ knowing that we shall not be turned out Have you ever gone and wanted
to pray and you just figured you'd been so bad God wasn't
going to hear your prayer? That's got it backwards, friends. God will not hear the prayer
of a good man. God, I thank you I'm not like other men because
I tithe and I fast two or three times a week. And I'm not like
this tax collector over there." And you know what? He was right. He wasn't like other men, and
I'm sure glad there ain't a whole lot of them like him. God didn't
hear his prayer. He said he prayed within himself,
and that's the only person that heard it. That old publican, that nasty
tax collector. would not so much as lift up
his eyes toward heaven and said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And God heard him because he
was a sinner. God will not hear a righteous
man. He only hears sinners. And so remember, because grace
is sovereign, God is merciful to our unrighteousness. pities
us when we sin, knowing the trouble we bring ourselves by it, and
has worked to fix the damage that we do. And God will never bring up the
sins of His people, because they're under the blood of Christ, hidden
forever. And you and I, and God give us
grace to actually believe this, We can live our lives without
the least concern about how eternity shall play out for us. Because
eternity has already decided how it's going to play out for
us. And because that grace given to us in eternity has ordered
everything in time to bring about God's good purpose for us. And
because God, knowing that we are utter failures from beginning
to end, has vested the success of our salvation in the only
man that ever lived that didn't fail. And he has sovereignly, authoritatively,
as God over all, said, I'm not going to remember their sins.
They didn't happen. They're gone. Now let men write
up their rules or try to follow God's rules if they want to.
And think that by their obedience they can buy some kind of favor
from God. If that's what they want to do,
let them have it. And they can work as hard as
they want and sweat all they want. And let men say that God
has done all He can and now the rest is up to you. If that's
what they want to say and that's what they believe, I can't stop
them. and let them gnash their teeth at free and sovereign grace. It is my soul's only hope. If it is not grace, if it is
not free, and if it is not sovereign, this man's lost and lost forever. But to the praise of his glorious
grace is true, is real. Heavenly Father, strengthen our hearts with this
grace. Forgive us that we keep trying
to go back to buying your favor. Forgive us, Lord Jesus, that
we would think for a moment that all that you did wasn't enough
to buy all the favor of God for us. And forgive us, Holy Spirit,
that we're so ready to listen to the voice of the flesh and
find it so difficult to hear your sweet voice. But testify
loudly to us, Lord, of the things of Jesus Christ. Bless us in
the coming week, Lord, and if it pleases you, bring us back
together next week. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
All right, you're dismissed.