I am sure we have no right understanding
or appreciation of most of God's blessings. In fact, I'm quite sure that
most of what we think commonly to be blessings may not be that
at all. and that which we think to be
matters of great woe are indeed great blessings. But of all the blessings God
Almighty can bestow upon fallen men in this world, none compares
with the gospel of His grace. None compares. of all the people in this world
to whom God might be pleased to send his word. He calls his word to come to
this man. He sent his word and healed me.
Of all the places in this world where God might be pleased to
plant his kingdom, to plant his vineyard, to establish a gospel
church, he come right here and put one in this place so that
you can hear the gospel. Now I'm aware that you who are
my brothers and sisters in Christ have some real appreciation and
thankfulness for that. But you, nor I, have any real
awareness of what a great blessing that is. Let's read the parable
our Lord gave in Luke 19, beginning at verse 11, and see if we can
get some understanding of it by God's Spirit. Luke chapter
19 and verse 11. And when they heard these things,
all that had transpired on that road just outside of Jericho
going up to Jerusalem where the Lord Jesus came to where Zacchaeus
was, and looked up in the sycamore tree and saw him and said, Zacchaeus,
make haste to come down, for today I must abide at thy house.
And they heard him explain, now this is what's happened, the
son of Abraham, is among those poor sinners whom the Son of
God, the Son of Man has come to save. And I'm here today because
the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Among those things they heard, our Lord Jesus had told them
plainly in chapter 18 that He's going to Jerusalem. And there
he will suffer many things from the chief priest, and the Romans,
and the Jews, and be spit upon, and beaten, crucified, put to
death. But that's not the end of the
story. He said, when that's done, I'm going to rise again. And
the disciples didn't get it. They didn't understand it. As
they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, took a story,
gave them a story. We would use the word illustration
today. That's what a parable is, just an illustration. And
illustrations don't always fit everything. Illustrations are
designed to show one thing, just one thing, just one thing. If I start to give you an illustration
of something I'm dealing with in a message, the illustration
only relates to that thing I'm talking about. It doesn't relate
to the next thing or the thing before it. It just relates to
that thing. Our Lord gave parables. Sometimes the parables had some
background in fact, in history. Sometimes they were just stories,
but they were stories to illustrate heavenly truth. He spoke a parable
because he was nigh to Jerusalem. He was almost at the hour for
which he had come and almost at the place where he would accomplish
redemption for us. And because, there was another
reason why I spoke this parable. They thought that the kingdom
of God should immediately appear. What dopes they were. But don't
get too upset with them. They were like us, they learned
real slow. The Lord Jesus came, the Messiah, the King, they knew
that. But they being terribly affected by traditional Jewish
theology, by traditional Jewish customs. They were just thoroughly
convinced that when Messiah, the king, the son of David had
come, he would establish an earthly monarchy in which the Jews would
be made to rule over all peoples. And our Lord told them over and
over and over and over and over again, the kingdom of God's in
you. The kingdom of God is from above. The kingdom of God doesn't
have to do with these things. The kingdom of God is spiritual.
I'm going into my kingdom when I've brought in everlasting righteousness.
But they didn't understand any of it. They thought, and you
talk about being in for a shock. You can appreciate something
of the terrible shock they had. When they got into Gethsemane
and the soldiers came to arrest the master and they followed
him to the judgment hall, what's going on? What on earth is happening? They thought they were going
to an inauguration ball. They thought their master was
fixing to be inaugurated as the king. And now he's arrested,
about to be put to death in humiliation and shame. Their minds were fixed
on the notion that the coming of Christ the King meant the
coming of an earthly carnal kingdom, that he would be king over the
physical nation of Israel. They had terribly carnal notions
about the kingdom of God and the things of God. And I know
you have been taught better repeatedly, and I know that in your minds
you know better But you and I still have terribly carnal notions
about God's kingdom. Our master showed us this parable,
gave us this illustration so that they and I would understand
that for the present time, the matter that is of most practical
importance to be remembered is that he had come to seek and
to save that which was lost. Take care of that, then you can
think about the other stuff. Our business is not to know the
times or the seasons. Our business is not to sit down
and try to figure out when Christ is coming or what's happening
next on the prophetic scale of things. Our business is to preach
the gospel of Christ to the saving of chosen sinners. That's our
business. If they hadn't been so full of
their idle dreams of a temple earthly kingdom, They would clearly
have understood, as we do now, that when our Lord Jesus came
to that place outside Jericho and He looked up in that sycamore
tree and saw Zacchaeus and said, Today I must abide at your house. Salvation has come to your house
because you are a son of Abraham. They would have understood, Oh,
He is a King. Look at Him operate. He speaks
and it's done. He thinks and is brought to pass.
He accomplishes His purpose in the sovereign exercise of His
grace, giving mercy to whom He will. But they didn't understand
those things. They didn't understand what He
was talking about when He said He'd come to seek and to save
that which was lost, though they themselves had been sought and
saved by His grace. All right, now let's read this
parable, beginning at verse 12. He said, therefore, a certain
nobleman, went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom
and to return. And when he called his 10 servants,
looks like that's all there were, 10 servants. That's a specific
number given for a great many, but it speaks to the whole. And
delivered them 10 pounds and said to them, all 10 of his servants,
Occupy till I come. Busy yourself in trade with this
piece of money. But his servants hated him. And
sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to
reign over us. Lest I fail to say it. All his servants hated him. All His servants said, we won't
have you reign over us. Thank God. He hath not dealt
with us according to our sins. That which distinguishes the
servants we're going to read about here is not anything in
them, but something done for them. And it came to pass. that when he was returned, having
received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants, every
one of them, to be called to him to whom he had given the
money, that's what he refers to by the pound, that he might
know how much every man had gained by trading, by occupying. Then
came the first saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, well, thou
good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little.
Faithful in a very little. That's important. Faithful in
a very little. Very little. Have thou authority over ten
cities. Rule like a king. He grew like a king. And the second came saying, Lord,
thy pound hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to him,
be thou also over five cities. Then comes another one. Another
came saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept
laid up in a napkin, for I feared thee. Because thou art an austere
man, thou takest up that thou layest not down, and reapest
that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, out of
thine own mouth will I judge thee. All right? I want to judge
you by what you say. Because thou art an austere man,
he said, I feared you. He says, I'll judge you now,
thou wicked servant. But wait a minute, he kept the
pound, didn't he? He wrapped it up in a napkin, tucked it
away, make sure nothing happened to it. Thou wicked servant. He held on to it. Thou wicked
servant. He made sure nobody got away
with it. Thou wicked servant. He may have even polished it
a lot. thou wicked servant. What a word! Thou knewest that
I was an austere man, taking up what I laid not down, and
reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore, then, gavest not thou
my money, not yours, mine, mine, my money, into the bank? that at my coming I might have
required mine own, at least with interest, with usury. And he
said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and
give it to him that hath ten pounds. And they said to him,
Lord, he hath ten pounds. Isn't it amazing how God just
kind of drops in nuggets to let us know, I'm going to do what
I'm going to do, whether you understand it or not. The Lord's
already got 10 pounds. Take what this fellow has away
from him. Give it to this fellow who's
got 10 pounds. But you don't. For I say unto
you, that unto everyone which hath shall be given. And from
him which hath not, even that he hath shall be taken from him. To you who have God's grace in
your heart shall be given all the fullness of God's bounteous
grace and everlasting glory. But you who just have His gospel
in your hand. The privilege He's given you
of hearing His word. And there's no grace in your
heart. When He comes again, He's going
to take away everything that you now think to be a benefit
and ought to have been a benefit to your soul. And the meek shall
inherit the earth. while they cast you into hell. But those mine enemies, those
who hate their master, which would not that I should reign
over them, bring hither and slay before me." The parable we've
just read is an illustration, a picture, of things present
and things to come. which we ought to set our hearts
upon and meditate upon continually. This illustration is designed
to focus our attention upon our Savior and upon His cause in
this world. Its intent is to show us our
faithful God and Savior who has promised, Him that honoreth me,
I will honor. That's God's Word. 1 Samuel 2
verse 30. Honor God, God will honor you.
Honor God, God will honor you. And you can run that just as
far as you want to run it in any direction, in any realm of
life. But that which is primary is
the business of faith. He promises him that honoreth
me, I will honor. And our faithful God will reward
His faithful servants for their service, not in this world, but
in the world to come. All right, now let me give you
just a few things by way of explanation in this parable. He said in verse
12, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom and to return. Now, I don't have to tell you
the nobleman is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Let me give you
an illustration. Josephus, a well-known, famous
Jewish historian who wrote the Antiquities of the Jews, records
an event. It took place 30 years before
this spot right here in Luke 19, when our Lord is on his way
to Jerusalem to redeem us. Just shortly after our Lord's
incarnation, Herod was the king in Judea when our Savior was
born, but only a subordinate king under the rule of the Roman
emperor Caesar. When Herod died, his son Archelaus
was his successor. And this is the one we read of
in Matthew chapter 2. Joseph heard that Archelaus reigned
and he was afraid to return to Judea out of Egypt so he took
his child to the Lord Jesus and his wife Mary and they went to
Nazareth because the prophet said he should be called a Nazarene. But this Archelaus had no right
to be the ruler. He had no right to be the king.
The rule of the heralds was not a matter of succession like it
is when a person is really a king, because these folks weren't really
kings. They were subordinate kings under
Caesar. And Archelaus' rule was not really
just and right until he had gotten decree from Caesar, until he
had gotten specific sanction from Caesar declaring him to
be king. So he sent messengers to Rome,
and then he went himself to Rome. And he went there that he might
receive his kingdom from the hand of Caesar and then return. On the way. Now remember, The
Herods, these Idumean kings, were terrible. This man's daddy
is the one who said, I'm going to get rid of this Jesus who's
supposed to be king of the Jews. He's going to be rival to me
and my family. Let's kill every male child in the land. Kill
them all. Two years old and under. And
slaughtered them. That's a king. That's a king. That was his daddy. And Joseph said, I ain't going
back there. The Jews despised the rule of these Idumean kings
and despised these kings who were set up over them, who terrorized
them continually and who abused them horribly. And this is a
message they sent to Caesar running ahead of Archelaus. This is what
Josephus records. We will not have this man to
reign over us. We will not have this man to
reign over us. They were tired of the Herods
and preferred anything to their rule. They even asked Caesar
that Judea might become a part of the Roman Empire, even annexed
to Syria, anything preferable to serving as Caesar's servants
under Herod and his son. So Caesar divided the kingdom.
And he put Archelaus on the throne. He gave him a little less authority
than even his daddy had. Archelaus reigned as an ethnarch,
that is, a ruler who kind of has title as king, but he doesn't
really have any power of his own. Sort of like the Queen of
England now. She got a lot of money, she got
a big title, and got lots of jewels, but no real power. And that's the picture here.
When Archelaus returned, he's got his kingdom now. Now he's
king. You boys who sent that letter,
you made the mistake of signing your names." And did he wreak
havoc. He was horrible in his butchery. Horrible in avenging himself
of those who had sought to take him from his throne. And those
who had been faithful to him, if the word could be used to
talk about cronies who can be bought off. But those who had
been faithful to Him, He rewarded greatly. Now remember, these
things happened just 30 years before this. They had to be fresh
in the minds of these Jews. Particularly fresh, they must
have been in this thronging crowd on the streets going out of Jericho
that day. Because right there, as you go out of Jericho up to
Jerusalem, was a huge palace Archelaus built for himself when
he returned. And the Lord Jesus seizes this
familiar event in the history of the Jews, as familiar to them
as anything in our history would be to any of us. And he says,
now let me tell you about a nobleman and his servants. The nobleman
is the one talking to you. And thus, in the providence of
God, even in the events of the lives of men recorded in section
or history, he paves a way for this word of instruction to come
to us from the mouth of our Savior. Our Lord Jesus was in this world
as a man, a noble man, noble above all men, and he was a nobleman. He came here not to be a king,
but as the king. He didn't come here to get to
be a king. He came here as the king. He was born in Bethlehem, king
of Israel, for He is born the Son of David and the Son of God. This Lord Jesus, our Savior,
the Son of Man, this nobleman came down here And he's on his
way back to his father. He's on his way to receive his
kingdom. What's that talking about? He
is king by nature because he's God. And he's king by virtue
of his obedience. Because the father said to him
in Covenant Mercy, we read in Psalm 2 verse 8, when you get
done doing what I sent you to do, ask of me and I'll give you
the heathen for your inheritance. He ascended back to glory, having
accomplished redemption, having brought in everlasting righteousness,
now accepted of His Father. And He's there receiving a kingdom
from His Father. He says, sit now on my right
hand till I make all your enemies to be your footstool. And we
see Jesus sitting on the throne. We see not yet all things put
under His feet. I can't tell you that, but we
see Him sitting on His throne, and we are assured that He who
sits on His throne is sitting there ruling and reigning as
sovereignty, and He is subduing His enemies under His feet. He
came here to seek and save that which was lost. And you know
what He's doing now? He's still seeking and saving
that which is lost. Receiving His Kingdom. Every time He sends out His Word,
His Gospel, by the power of His Spirit, and calls out one of
His own, He's receiving His Kingdom, one by one. Sometimes He receives
them 3,000 at a time, like He did on the Day of Pentecost.
Usually, one at a time, He seeks out His sheep and receives His
Kingdom. And when He has received His Kingdom, When He has received
His kingdom, when all His enemies have been subdued by His grace,
who shall be brought under His feet by His grace, He's coming
again and He's going to take care of everybody else. And everybody
else is going to be made to bow at His feet, subdued under His
feet. Oh, what a day that shall be
when Christ comes again. Peter said, seeing that this
is the way things are, what manner of persons ought we to be? Oh, what manner of persons ought
we to be? What manner of persons ought
we to be? We live here the servants of God. looking for that glorious
day when Christ shall come again and receive us unto Himself,
that where He is there we may be also. And all wickedness and
evil and ungodliness forever put away, and God shall reign
forever all in all. Oh, what manner of person we
ought to be. Now, look at verse 13. And he called his ten servants,
and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till
I come. But his citizens hated him, and
sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to
reign over us. Our Lord compares his servants
to men who've been given charge of their master's money while
the master is gone. And they're given a strict command. A strict command. The master
says, now here's a pound. Here's some money. I'm putting
it in your hands. It's my money. I'm going to put it in your hands.
Occupy till I come. Now, that doesn't mean sit down
in a chair and fold up the money in a napkin and hold on to it
and lay it back. That's what one of the servants did. That
is not what it means. Matter of fact, our Lord scolded
this servant because he didn't make trade with his money. And that's what the word means.
It means busy yourself, making trade with my money until I come
back. Busy yourself, making trade with
my money until I return. But who are these servants? Now,
he names ten as being his servants, but they're just two groups of
them. And when He comes in judgment, these two groups are set forth
by just three of these servants. There's this man who takes his
master's money, and he trades it, and trades it, and trades
it, and trades it, until he finally gets ten pounds. Here comes the
master and says, I've got ten pounds. Your pound has made ten pounds. And the other one comes, and
he says, well, Lord, I haven't done as well as this
other fellow, but your pound. has got five pounds. At least
it don't look to me like I've done as well as he has. But your pound, not I with your
pound, he said your pound has gotten five pounds. And our Lord
deals with these as good and faithful servants. And then comes
this third servant. And he is a category to himself,
that wicked, useless, unprofitable servant. What does all this mean? It means that we to whom the
Lord God has given this great treasure, this great treasure,
the gospel of his free grace. What a treasure. What a treasure. What a treasure. God has called
you to hear the gospel. God calls you to hear the Gospel. I doubt your daddy ever heard
it, or his daddy before him. God calls you to hear the Gospel. What a treasure. What a treasure. What a great treasure. But what a tremendous weight. Because we're responsible for
it. To whom much is given, much shall be required. Not everybody
has heard the gospel. Not everybody has. These servants
are commanded now to make trade. To go with his money, his gospel,
and make trade. for the benefit of their souls?
Now let's see if I can make good on that interpretation. Let's
see if that's really what this means. Turn to 2 Corinthians
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Verse 18. All things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation. And this is it. This is the ministry
he's talking about. To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world of his elect, that's what it means,
to himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath
committed to us This treasure, this pound, the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be you reconciled to God.
For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. But the passage
doesn't end there. Go on to the next verse. We then,
as workers together with him, beseech you, beseech you, beseech
you, we beseech you. I can't help think my son-in-law
sitting there, Doug, he's put this treasure in your hand. He put this treasure in your
hand. Ronnie put this treasure in your hand. He put this treasure
in my hand. What wonders he's done to put
it there. Don't receive it in vain. Receive not the grace of
God in vain. This treasure. Yes, it is true. We cannot and will not trade
without money and without price for the pearl of great price
until and unless God the Holy Spirit causes us to do so by
His grace. But it is our charge and our
responsibility to make trade with this treasure. It is your
charge and your responsibility, having heard the gospel, to believe
the gospel, to bow to the Son and to worship Christ. And if
you refuse to do so, this treasure will be a waste. to drag your soul to the lowest
hell forever. The countless privileges we enjoy
compared to those who've never heard the gospel are pounds given
by Christ, pounds for which we must one day give an account.
In the day of judgment, You and I will not stand, our sons and
daughters will not stand side-by-side with those who've never heard
the gospel. They will not stand side-by-side with the sons and
daughters of a fellow like Osama Bin Laden. They will not stand
side-by-side with the sons and daughters of a fellow like Adolf
Hitler. They will not stand side-by-side with the sons and daughters of
a fellow like that witch doctor down in Africa or that witch
doctor over in New Guinea. They won't stand side by side
with the sons and daughters of the Chinaman raised in the heart
of heathendom. No, no, no. No, no, no. No. Those folks never had this treasure.
They never had this treasure. This message of the gospel of
God's free grace is always, always, either a saver
of life unto life or of death unto death. It will either cause
you to enjoy the sweet experience of God's grace, some more, some
less, but enjoy the sweet experience of His grace nonetheless, or
it will cause your heart to be hardened in unbelief and hatred
of the Son of God saying, no, no. We won't have this man to
rule over us. The faithful servants in this
parable represent those who believe the gospel, using the means God's
given us for the benefit of our souls. These faithful servants
rejoice in the prospect of the Lord's coming. By the grace of
God, we shall be found in the last day looking for him when
he comes again. living in hope of eternal life
with Christ our Lord. The unprofitable servants are
those who they have their pound and they memorize it and they
recite it and they write songs about it and they tithe to it
and they keep it wrapped in their napkin. But they don't believe
God. They will not bow to Christ.
And they shall be dealt with accordingly
forever. Both are His servants. And the
unprofitable servant and the faithful are equally used by
Him according to His purpose. They differ From the rest of
the world, just in this one thing, they have been given the privilege
of hearing the gospel and the unbelief of the wicked. The unbelief of the wicked. Turn
to Proverbs 1, very quickly. Turn to Proverbs 1. I can't spend
any time here, but I want to show you this again. The unbelief
of the wicked will be the cause of their just
damnation. Now listen to me, you who believe
not our God, if you go to hell, it will be
because you willfully hate the Son of God and will not have
Him rule over you. But see this is what the book
says, Proverbs 1.23, the Lord God speaks and says, turn you
at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you. I will make known my words unto
you. Well, I would, but God says you
turn. I'll pour out my spirit. I'll
make known my words to you. You look to me. I'll give you
my salvation. Read on. Because I've called
and you refused. Underscore in your mind, because. Because I have called. So I thought
it was because God predestinated me to hell. No sir, it's because
He called and you refused. I stretched out my hand and no
man regarded. But you have said it not all
by counsel and would none of my reproof. I also therefore
will laugh at your calamities and will mock when your fear
cometh. When your fear cometh as a desolation and your destruction
cometh as a whirlwind. When distress and anguish cometh
upon you. I laugh and I mock in judgment,
because you refused. The faith of the profitable servants
is described as service. Service. Good and faithful service. Now, what are you doing to serve
God? What am I doing to serve Him?
How do we serve the Lord? This parable, like many of the
others of our Lord's parables and teachings, has been horribly
twisted and perverted to be used as a basis for teaching works-based
rewards, or a basis for teaching works-based confidence and assurance,
or works-based peace and so on. Oh, now, what are you doing to
serve the Lord? What are you doing? Oh, Brother Don, you preach.
Yeah. But if you knew what was in my
heart, you wouldn't call what I'm doing
serving Him. How do you serve Him? How do
you serve Him? Look in John chapter 6, let me
show you. Now our service, the privilege,
the privilege of serving this master. Oh, what an honor. I
am his servant. That means I'm a child of the
king. That's about as good an honor as you get. This service
is a service in which and for which he supplies everything.
He gives the pound. All we need in his service is
right here. Right here. In the gospel of
His grace, in the revelation of Christ, our service is exactly
what we need. Exactly what we need. What is
it? What is it that causes the gospel of God's grace to bring
forth another pound, and another pound, and another pound, and
another pound in your soul's experience? What is it? Is it
your Bible reading and your praying and your church attendance? Let's
see. John chapter 6, verse 27. The
Master says, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for
that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son
of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed.
Oh, that's what we want. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do? that we might work the works
of God. What do we do? Tell us and we'll
do it. All right, here it is. Jesus
answered and said unto them, This is the work of God. This is the work of God. Oh,
I want to serve the Lord. Do you? This is the work of God. I want to do something for Jesus.
Do you? Do you? This is the work of God. And
it's the only thing in this book that's said to be the work of
God. The only thing done by a man
said to be the work of God, the only thing, the only thing. Oh,
but preacher, what about this? This is the only thing in this
book said to be done by a man that's called the work of God.
This is the work of God. That you believe on him whom
he has sent. to occupy till He comes, is to
make trade with the gospel. And that is neither more nor
less than believing Him. The more we believe Him, the
more our souls are enriched by Him, and the more we grow in
the grace and knowledge of God our Savior. And there's a reckoning day coming.
There's a day coming in which we will give an account for our
service. He calls these servants to Him.
First, the faithful. And this faithful servant called
to Him in verses 15 and 16, He very properly takes the place
of humility. Because you see, believing Him,
We understand, we really do, that we can't do anything to please our Master. What are
you going to do to please Him? Come on! How are you going to
please God? Come on! He says when He stands
before His Master, Lord, here I am. Your pound had brought
forth ten pounds. Here I am, because you sent the
gospel to me. Justified, sanctified, redeemed,
righteous, believing in you. Your pound brought forth ten
pounds. And the second one comes, he says the same thing. Your
pound brought forth five pounds. I haven't had the kind of experiences
that Brother Ponce has had, or the kind of experiences that
Brother Hacker has had, or the kind of experiences that Brother
Peterson has had. No, but here I am, believing you. And your parents did that for
me. And the Master says to both of them, well done. Good, faithful
servant. Both of them. It is not even, it is not even,
it is not even the quality of our faith that matters to God. It's faith,
faith in Christ, the object of our faith, so that He who seems
to have much, doesn't have any more than he who seems to have
little. Oh, he may experience more of
God's grace in this world, but not of God's glory in the world
to come. This unfit servant, this faithless
servant, he stand before the Lord, he said, well, Lord, This is all you gave me. There
it is. I knew you're an austere man,
a mighty man. I knew you gather where you haven't
sown. You pick up what you didn't lay
down. I'm scared to death of you, and I wanted to honor you.
So I kept your pound, and I didn't let anybody get it. Here it is.
And he said, why didn't you put it in the bank? At least you
got a half percent interest. but because you despised me and
despised what I gave you. Somebody come take this away
from him. Bring him here and slay him before
me. And so it shall be. Now don't
miss this. There is no correlation whatsoever. No correlation whatsoever. between our serving Him by what
we do and His accepting us because of whom we believe. But rather, our serving Him,
real service, is believing Him. That means it doesn't matter
whether we're talking about Regina Henson believe in Christ, or
darn fortunate, believe in Christ. He's given you and me this treasure,
the gospel of His grace. And He's done something for us
He hadn't done for other folks sitting right here. He's caused
His pound to bring forth five pounds and ten pounds. caused us to experience His grace. And our acceptance with Him is
all together because of His grace. Not because of what we do. Not
because of what we do. I want to serve Him. Oh my God,
we want to serve Him, don't we? We want to honor Him. We want
to do that which honors our God. We want to devote ourselves to Him.
Or to spend and be spent for Him. But everything we do for Him
is polluted by what we The only way Bobby Estes, we
can serve him and do his work is to believe him. And now he
accepts our doing through the merits of Christ's
blood and righteousness as being perfect in his sight. Because
even our sinful efforts at serving our God I washed in His blood
and robed in His righteousness. Amen.