I think many of you are familiar
with the great preacher, George Whitefield. He was a companion
of the Wesley brothers, Charles and John. But he preached here
in the United States among the 13 colonies for a long time and
organized an orphan's home down in Savannah. But I want to begin
my message this morning with something George Whitefield said,
a message he preached from Matthew's
gospel, in which he said, Our Lord said, heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words will never pass away. And then Whitfield
continued, the Lord does not care what happens to this world,
for heaven and earth, he said, shall pass away. And it'll pass
away with a great noise. and the earth and its works shall
be burned up. But God shall make a new heaven
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." Peter said, we
look for a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. So God will destroy the heavens
and God will destroy the earth. But Almighty God and he'll make
a new heaven and a new earth. But Almighty God will never make
a new gospel. Paul said, if we or an angel
from heaven preach any other gospel, let him be accursed. There's just one gospel. And
God will make a new heaven and new earth, but God will never
make a new truth. Our Lord said, I'm the way, I'm
the truth, I'm the life, and no man cometh to the Father but
by me. Almighty God will make a new
heaven and a new earth, but He'll never make a new Redeemer. He'll never make a new Savior,
because there is one body, there is one Spirit, There is one hope
of your calling. There is one Lord. There is one
faith. There is one baptism. And there's
one God. One God and Father of all who's
above all, who is through all, who is in all. That is our Lord. His grace His Son, His salvation,
and the miracle of that grace is what I want to talk about
this morning. The miracle of that grace of God. You remember
that song we used to sing, my Father is omnipotent, and that
you can't and I can't deny. A God of might and miracle is
written in the sky. It took a miracle to put the
stars in place. It took a miracle to put the
world in space. But when he saved our souls,
when he cleansed and made us whole, it took a miracle that
only God can accomplish, only God can perform. It took a miracle
of His love and His grace and every conversion that our Lord
brings to pass is a miracle of His grace. Write it down. It's a miracle. And I've got
a very simple outline. I found out that the most simple
outlines are the ones that are remembered and the ones that
are blessed of God. Simple outline. Here's my outline. The miracle of grace, this miracle
of the gospel of God's grace involves a change of mind. A change of mind and thoughts. This miracle of salvation, this
miracle of grace. Secondly, this miracle of grace
involves a change of masters. a change of masters and lords. And this gospel of God's grace
involves not only a change of mind and heart and thoughts and
a change of masters, it involves a change of manners. Write it
down. It requires a new heart and a
new nature and it will accomplish that. Remember this outline. The miracle of salvation starts
with the thoughts. The miracle of salvation crowns
a new Lord and a new master. And the miracle of salvation
produces new manners, new nature, new conduct, new heart. All right, the first message,
first part of this message is the miracle of salvation starts
with a change of thoughts. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
55. This miracle of salvation starts
with a change of thoughts and of mind about free people, free
persons. This miracle of salvation It
starts with a change of thoughts and minds about three persons. Read Isaiah 55 verse 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. And let the wicked forsake his
way, the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. Let him return
unto the Lord. And the Lord will have mercy
on him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways and your ways are
not my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are high above
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
higher than your thoughts. I've heard people say, well,
preacher, you can't condemn a man for his thoughts. No, I don't
and you don't, but God will. God will. He said, you've got
to change your thoughts. You've got to change your ways.
As a man, this is what God says, as a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. That's what he is. Thou thoughtest
I was such a one altogether as thyself, but I will set this
truth before your eyes." We've got to be changed in our thoughts,
in our hearts, in our ways. Let me ask you to turn to the
book of Job a minute. This is the last chapter of Job. And this conversation here, I
want you to follow this conversation. Job speaks and God speaks, and
Job speaks and God speaks. Just follow this here, listen.
And this is what took place in the life of Job. His thoughts
and his ways was changed. Listen here, Job chapter 42. Job speaks first. Job answered
the Lord and said, I know, I know that thou canst do everything,
and no thought can be holden from thee. Then God speaks. And the Lord said, who is this?
Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Who's this
fellow? Who is this doing the talking? It's Job talking. And
then Job speaks. He said, therefore have I uttered
I've uttered that that I understood not. Things too wonderful for
me, that's what I've been popping off about. Things too wonderful
for me, which I didn't know. And then God speaks. And the
Lord said, here I beseech you, Job. Here, and I'll speak, and
I'll demand of you, and I'll declare, and you declare thou
unto me. And then Job said, Lord, I've
heard of you by the hearing of the ear, and now might I see
of thee. Wherefore, wherefore, I hate
myself, I repent in sackcloth and ash. That's where the thoughts
God speak. Who is this, who is this that's
hiding counsel without knowledge? And then I found out I abhor myself." And Isaiah found
it out too. He said, I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. So that's the
first thing that takes place in conversion in this miracle
of grace. It's a change of mind, change
of thoughts, a new high. All right, let's see the second
part of this change. There's a change of thoughts
about about God, and there's a change of thoughts about who
Christ is. Who Christ is. Turn to 1 John
chapter 5. 1 John chapter 5. And I want you to read this carefully
like I did that passage from Job in 1 John 5, verse 20. A change of thoughts about who
Jesus Christ is. In 1 John 5, verse 20. And we know, and we know that
the Son of God is come. Who is this Son of God? Unto
us a child is born, a son is given. The government should
be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. That's who
he is. We know that the Son of God has
come. And then lots of next lines. And he's given us an understanding.
He's changed our minds about who He is, who God is. He's given
us an understanding. The scripture says, it's written
in the prophets, they shall be taught of God. They shall all
be taught of God. Every man that has heard and
has learned from God comes to me. The Son of God has come and
He's given us an understanding. He's changed our thoughts. our
ways, our hearts. He's given us an understanding,
listen, that we may know Him, that we may actually know Him,
that we may know Him that is true. I know, Paul said, whom
I have believed. I am persuaded He's able to keep
that which I've committed of Him against that day. I know
who He is. I know who He is. And what's
this? And we know something else. We
know the Son of God's come. He's given us an understanding.
We know Him that is true. We're in Him. Not in the church
only. Not in the doctrine only. We're
in Him. Christ in you. That's what the
Scripture says. Oh, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of the mystery which is Jesus
Christ in you, the hope of glory. And my friends, this, this is
that life's life, this is the true God. And this is eternal
life. This is it. We know. We know
who He is. Because the Son of God has come
and given us another. It starts with the mind. That's
where it starts. Starts with the thoughts, giving
us an understanding we may know God. We may know Him that's true. And that we're in Him, those
two. And this is the true God. And this is eternal life. That's
it. A change. Change of mind. Let the wicked
forsake his ways and forsake his thoughts and come to me.
Your thoughts are not my thoughts. Your thoughts are about God.
your thoughts about Christ, and then thirdly, the thoughts about
ourselves. Ourselves. Peter said, Lord,
it took him a while to find this out. He said, Lord, depart from
me. I'm a sinful man. Isaiah wrote,
I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips. David said, Lord, I acknowledge
my transgressions. My sins are ever before me. Job
said, if I justify myself, my own mouth would condemn me. The apostle Paul said, when God
came to me with his law, I died. I just died. Nothing left in
me. I want to give you an illustration.
It took place in the 50s. I was pastor of the
Apollo Baptist Church, and I learned the gospel of God's sovereign
grace, and I believed it, and I preached it, and some other
people believed it. But I was sitting in the study
one day, and the telephone rang. A lady on the line said, this
is Ms. Ed Simpson. And I knew her. She attended our church, but
Ed never came. He wouldn't be caught dead in
a church. He was macho, wasn't interested in the church. She
said, brother man, she said, would you come down to King's
Daughter's Hospital? Ed's been in an accident. I don't
think he's hurt too bad, but he's scared. He was working in
a sewer line and a thing blew up. And they got him in the hospital. But I think he'll be all right.
But he wants you to come talk to him about the Lord. Well,
Ed had never had any interest in the Lord, but I went. And
I took my Bible and I Walked in, she was standing on one side
of the bed, and I stood on the other. And Ed's eyes were about
that big. Just being involved in an explosion
of gas, your eyes can get that big. And he said, Prince, he
said, I need some help. I need to know the Lord. I said,
well, I'll do what I can, Ed. Open the Bible, you know. And
I said, Ed, settle one thing here. You know you're a sinner,
don't you? Got awful quiet in there. He looked at his wife, he looked
at me, and he said, I wouldn't say that. I said, what would you say? Well,
he said, I haven't always been the best fella in the world,
but I'm not the worst. And he said, I don't go to church
much, but I wouldn't call myself a sinner. And he looked over
at her and said, would you, honey? She said, no. I closed my Bible. I said, Ed, I'm sorry, I don't
have anything for you. I don't have anything in this
Bible for you. I don't have any hope for you. I don't have any
salvation for you. I don't have anything for you.
Because our Lord said He came into the world seeking to save
the lost. If you're not lost, He's not
seeking you. And He died for sinners, only sinners. Not for
people that claim they're not sinners. And I said, if you ever
get to be a sinner, come hear me preach, and I'll tell you
the good news. And I walked out. Is that wrong? But I'm telling the truth. God
died for sinners. If a man's not a sinner, he doesn't
need a Savior. He's got to be lost to be found. He's got to be naked to be clothed.
He's got to be dead to be raised. But he never did come and hear
me preach. But that's all right. That's
all right. That's all right. You know, the people in Matthew
7, let me tell you something. The people in Matthew 7 who heard
Christ say, depart from me. And that's what I did that day.
I just departed. The Lord said, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. But the Lord
didn't say that to people. He didn't turn people away because
they were sinners. He turned away from them because
they weren't sinners. They were self-righteous people. So the first thing about this
miracle of grace is a change of thoughts and mind about who
God is, about who Christ is, and really sincerely about who
you are and who I am. The Lord delights to show mercy.
He's plenteous in grace. He came to seek and to save the
lost. But he said to those who weren't
lost, depart from me, I never knew you. Secondly, the miracle
of salvation, it involves a change of mind, but it also involves
a change of masters. A change of masters. A.W. Pink, Arthur Pink, wrote a little
booklet entitled The Lordship of Jesus Christ. It made the
rounds back in the 50s and 60s. The Lordship of Christ. And he
insisted in this little booklet, he insisted that the disciples,
the disciples never address the Lord Jesus Christ as Jesus. They
never did. They always called Him Master.
Master, Master, Master. Master and Lord. You take your
concordance sometimes. I did this again this week. Took
down my strongest concordance. And I looked up the word Master.
And in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the disciples called Jesus
Christ Master 70-some-odd times. Master. Master. Master. And then start looking at the
word Lord. No man can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Ghost.
That's right. You call me master, you call
me Lord, so I am. Got to have a change of masters.
Barnard said one time, most preachers, most preachers say to their congregation,
if a person will come to the front, and say, I've accepted
Jesus Christ as my personal Savior? Are they saved? Are they on their
way to heaven? Well, I don't know. I hope so. But I asked them this. I don't
ask them who your personal Savior is. I ask them, who's your master? Who's your Lord? Who is your
prophet, your priest, and your king? No man can serve two masters. If you got a master, you serve
him. You don't serve any other master. Listen to the scripture. In Romans 1, you read it this
morning, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. That's how Paul regarded
himself, a servant of the master. A servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Colossians talking
about Epiphas. He said, Epiphas, who is one
of you, is a servant of the Lord. And the servant of the Lord must
be gentle. He must not strive. He must be
gentle. Hebrews 3 verse 5 says, Moses
was faithful in all his house, how? As a servant. the master's
servant. James said, James, a servant
of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said, Simon Peter, I'm
a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Jude said, I'm the servant
of Christ. This thing of salvation involves
a change of masters. That's right. And we become bond
slaves. Bond slaves of Jesus Christ.
That's true. A bond slave. Let me read that
to you. Turn to Exodus chapter 21. This
isn't a powerful scripture. It's a scripture that needs to
be read very carefully. There carefully, Exodus chapter
21, that's it, isn't it? Yeah, chapter 21, verse 1. Now watch this, listen. Now these
are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If you
buy a Hebrew servant, you know, he's in captivity by vets or
whatever, but he's a servant, Hebrews, and six years he'll
serve. He'll serve. And in the seventh
year, he gets his freedom. You get him, let him go out free
for nothing. At the end of that six years.
If he came in to your home and your servitude, by himself, he'll
go out by himself. But if he's married, his wife
will go with him. Whatever was his is still his.
See, he's going to be a servant for this master, and he serves
six years, and then he's free. That's the law. And if his wife,
he's married to a wife, she goes with him. Now listen to this.
But if his master, if his master has given him a wife, and she
has born him sons and daughters, the wife and her children shall
be his masters. It's the master's girl that he
married. It's the master's daughter. It's
the master's children. And if he leaves, he has his
freedom, he'd go out by himself. He's not going to take her with
him. He'd go out by himself. But if this man should plainly
say, I've got a new master, I love my master, he should plainly
say, no question about it, he's fallen in love with this new
master. The man can't have two. Fallen in love with him. He has
a wonderful master, and he's got to serve him, you know. And
he said, I love my master, and I love my wife, and I love my
children. I will not go free. I will not
leave him. Then his master. He's really
a master here. He really is a master. Not play
like. He's really a master. This is real. He's really. He'll
bring him for the judges, bring him to the door, or to the door
post, and bore his ear with an awl. Bore his ear through with
an awl, and He'll serve him forever. That's the only way you can serve
a master, is forever. Our Lord called Himself a bondservant. He said, My ear hast thou digged
into. My ear, I've been digged with
an awl in love with a master. That's powerful, isn't it? Everything that I have is
belongs to my master. Belongs to my master. And that's
just it. That's this thing of salvation. I've accepted Jesus as my personal
savior. No, by His grace and His mercy,
I've fallen at His feet and embraced His feet and wept tears of repentance. And He's my Master forever. And everything I've got is His. Everything. No debate about it. It's His. A wife, children, it's
all His. And until that takes place, we're
not here. All right, let me try something
else here now. Let's get to the third point. Yeah, that's it.
Thank you. Get to the third point. Boy,
we'd be lost, wouldn't we? Especially at my age. Now, this
thing, this thing of salvation, this involves a change of mind. It involves a change of mind,
change of heart about God, about Christ, about ourselves. It crowns a new master. It crowns
a new master. And then thirdly, it brings about
a change in manners, in conduct, in attitude. If there's not a
change, then it hasn't been accomplished. God didn't do it. I want you
to turn with me to Colossians. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. A change
of manners. Colossians chapter 3, verse 12. Put on therefore as the elect
of God, the bond slaves of Jesus Christ. Holy and beloved, bowers
of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering,
forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man hath
a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do
ye. And above all these things put
on love, which is a bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God, you've
talked about that this morning by the title, peace of God, rule,
rule in your heart. The peace of God rule in your
hearts. To the which also you call in
one body, be thankful. And let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and singing with
grace in your heart to the Lord. And whatsoever you do in word
or deed, do it, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
giving thanks to God. and the father by him. Wives,
submit yourselves unto your husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands,
love your wives. Be not bitter against them. Children,
obey your parents in all things. This is well pleasing unto the
Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children
to anger, lest they be discouraged. Servants, Obey in all things,
whom? Your masters. Your masters, as
we obey our master, according to the flesh, not with our service,
as men pleases, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatever
you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, not to men. Knowing
that of the Lord, you shall receive the reward of the inheritance,
for you serve The Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong, he's
going to receive of the wrong which he hath done. So respect
the person. Now watch, it doesn't stop there. Masters, give to your servants. I said this one time, if people
read all of this and get to that last verse, and really obey it,
you wouldn't need a labor union. You never do, boy. Masters, give
to your servants that which is just and equal. Knowing this,
you got a master in heaven. That's where it gets ready, the
master. It's a change of mind, thoughts,
a change of masters. And as God enables us to study
of the Word and pray, we grow in grace in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a growth in grace. I want
to tell you about the old violin. The old violin, the master came. It was battered
and scarred. And the auctioneer thought it
scarcely worth his while to waste much time on that old violin.
But he held it up with a smile. And he said, what am I bid, good
folks, for this old violin? Who start the bidding for me?
How about a dollar? Two dollars? Somebody make it
three. Going once, going twice? No.
From the room far back, a gray-haired man came forward. picked up the
bow, and tightened the loosened strings. And then he played a
melody as sweet as an angel sings. And then the auctioneer, in a
voice that was quiet and low, he said, now, now then, what
am I bid for the old violin? And he held it up to the bow.
Someone said, $1,000? Somebody make it 2,000. Somebody
make it three. Going for three, going once,
going twice, gone for 3,000. And the people all cheered. But some of them said, what changed
the words of that old violin? And the auctioneer said, the
touch of the master's hand. That's what changed it, the touch
of the masters. And many a man, a woman, boy
or girl, many a man whose life is out of tune, battered and
scarred by sin, is auctioned off by a foolish crowd, just
like that old violin. But then the master comes. When
the master comes, the foolish crowd can't understand. They never will be able to. Understand
the change of mind, thought, manners, attitude, the change
that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand. Genuine, genuine. Thank you, Pastor.