If you want to turn with me to
1 Peter chapter 3, I'm going to, for the next couple
of weeks, digress from our studies in Leviticus, or at least I think
I'm going to. I want to bring some messages, perhaps particularly with our
conference in mind. But this particular message I
began working on late Monday evening, and I knew this is what
God would have me bring to you today. First Peter chapter three,
verse 15. If you're taking notes now, I
want to talk to you today very personally. I want to talk to
you about my own experience of grace. Sometimes that's the best way
to instruct folks about things. I'm certain that our Lord, as
he teaches his disciples to witness, teaches us to tell others what
wonderful things God has done for us. I wish I could get young
zealots to quit badgering folks about Calvinism and Arminianism,
quit badgering folks about whether they believe in free will or
free grace, quit badgering folks about predestination and election,
but just tell somebody what God's done for you. If they ever find
out what God's done for you, they won't have any problem with
free grace, predestination, election, or anything else. They'll bow
to the word. Let me tell you what God's done
for them. First Peter three, verse 15. Sanctify, the word
is honor, set apart. Oh, in this message and in my
life, this is my desire. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts, That's where it begins, in your hearts, in your hearts. And be ready always to give answer
to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that's in
you. Somebody ask you, why do you hope to go to heaven when
you die? Why do you think you're a Christian? What makes you think
you're one of God's elect? Have an answer. Have an answer. You better have one. You better
have one. And answer with meekness and
fear, with humility before God. That doesn't mean cowering like
a whipped cur before men. It means meekness before God. Humility, knowing who you are
and who God is and what he's done for you, and reverence.
Having a good conscience. Oh, God help me today. tell you
what I've experienced of his grace with a good conscience. Honest. I mean dead honest if
it kills me. Before you and before God. Honest. Honest. Religion teaches folks
to put on a mask and play games and act like hypocrites all the
time. Whereas they speak evil of you, they, who are they? Everybody outside Christ. You
can bank on it. They'll speak evil of you, of
your faith, of your doctrine, of your God, of your gospel,
of God's kingdom, of the work of grace you profess. And when
they can't deny what God plainly reveals in his word, they'll
invent lies to tell about you. That's just the way it is. That's
just the way it is. We don't, when we come into God's
kingdom, enter into a rose bed that smells good and sweet and
everything goes smooth. We enter into a warfare, we're
put on a stormy sea, and you're gonna have to face it. All right,
they speak evil of you. But you be ready, so that those
who speak evil of you, as of evildoers, that they may be ashamed. And they will be. You don't have
to defend yourself before anybody, from anybody, about anything.
You just don't. As soon as you quit doing it,
better off you'll be and the rest of us will be too. Just
quit. Just quit. Just quit. They speak
evil of you as an evildoer. They'll be ashamed. They will
be if you've got an answer. with meekness and fear. The day
is coming when the whole world is going to be ashamed of what
they've done to God and his people. Be ashamed that falsely accuse
your good conversation in Christ. Now, I don't by any stretch of
the imagination make any pretense of being a model of what Christianity
is. I'm not. I don't make any pretense knowing
everything revealed in this book. I don't. In fact, the longer
I study this book, the more I know of this book, the more convinced
I am there's a whole lot more in this book I don't understand
than there is that I do. That's just fact. That's just
fact. But I'm like old John Newton,
and I'm not what I once was, and I'm not what I hope to But
thank God I'm not what I once was, he said. I'm not what I
hoped to be and I'm not what I shall be. But thank God I'm
not what I once was. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am. And I want to tell you about what I know of God's
grace. My experience of grace has nothing to do with ceremonies
and rituals, outward, physical things. We confess Christ and
believe his baptism. We observe the Lord's table.
These are ordinances by which we worship God, not empty, meaningless
rituals. And you only worship God in these
ordinances as you understand what they mean. Unless a child comes to me, when
I say child, I mean a young person comes to me and they press the
issue. They press it. Without mama and
daddy twisting their arms, they press it. I never baptize one.
I don't do it. I just presume that a kid who
has to be told whether to eat green beans or not to eat green
beans is not a mature, responsible adult to understand what's going
on. I just don't. If we worship God in this ordinance,
we'll understand what we're doing. We'll understand what this commitment
is. We worship God as we eat the bread and wine. That's what
it is to eat and drink worthily. We eat and drink in the name
of Christ our Lord. These things, however, are not
the essence of the grace of God we experience. In fact, they
have nothing to do with the grace of God we experience. The grace
of God is not primarily a doctrinal thing. Doctrine's important. It's essential. That's not the
primary thing. The fact is, you can believe
all the right doctrines and still not know God. It's exactly right. People want to derate folks and
get them to believe the right doctrine. Now, you've got to
know truth. to know him who is the truth.
But you can know truth without knowing him who is the truth.
You can convince men of Calvinism, you can't convince them of that.
You can take a, trying to take an Arminian, a free willer, a
will worshipper, and someone who believes salvation by his
works, his work, or his will, and get him to believe, no, no,
no, no, now I believe in election. Now I believe in predestination.
Now I believe in limited atonement. You haven't done anything for
him. You haven't done a fragile thing for him. You can go to
hell as a Calvinist just like you can as an Arminian. That'd
be like trying to convince a fellow who's an atheist that God created
the world. Oh, well now I'm convinced. I
believe in creation. That hasn't done him any good.
That hasn't done him any good. Salvation, the grace of God we
experience is not primarily a doctrinal thing. Saul of Tarsus was just
as straight and clean and upright and doctrinally sound as any
man could be. That man believed all the right
doctrines, but he didn't know God. He believed exactly the
same thing Cornelius did and probably understood it far more
clearly. But Cornelius knew God. He was a just and devout man.
Saul was just an empty-headed, empty-hearted Pharisee in regard
to spiritual things. And certainly the grace of God
we experience is not primarily outward behavior. Churches spend all their labor
and efforts trying to get folks to quit and start. You quit doing
this and you start doing that. You quit going there and you
start going here. You quit wearing this and you start wearing that.
You quit eating this and you start eating that. Let me tell
you something. Let me tell you something. Anything a lost man can imitate
is not godliness. So you can mark that down. Anything
a lost man can imitate is not godliness. Has nothing to do
with godliness. Oh, I know he's a child of God.
I remember when he used to be such a drunk and such a rambler
and look at him now. That ain't godliness. That ain't
it. That ain't it. Whatever godliness
is, it's not something that the lost can produce. It doesn't
change with time, location, or circumstances. True religion
is not in meat and in drink, but in righteousness and in peace
and in joy in the Holy Ghost. That's where it is. That's where
it is. The grace of God that I've experienced
involves an inward spiritual knowledge of the living God as
he's revealed in Jesus Christ. Turn to Philippians chapter three
for a moment. You're familiar with this passage
in John 17. Our Lord Jesus in his high priestly prayer makes
this statement. This is life eternal. This is
it. This is it. I'm not about to
try to tell somebody how to be born again, because I can't tell
you how to be born again. That's like trying to speak to
a baby in his mother's belly and tell the baby how to get
out. I can't tell you how to be born again. I just tell you
God does it. And I'll tell you if that baby
comes out and everything's well, he's going to come out breathing.
He's going to come out breathing. And if you are born of God, you're
going to come out knowing God. You're going to come out knowing
Jesus Christ. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee. The only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. And that's just the way it is.
All who are born of God know God. and they know him as the
only true and living God, and they know him in the person and
work of Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Now look in Philippians
3.3. Paul says we are the circumcision. We are the circumcision. And
he's talking here about God's covenant people. Circumcision
is used as a representation of those who are the true children
of Abraham. We are God's people. We are those
who know God. We are those who are in a covenant
relationship with God. We are those who are blessed
of God, which worship God in the Spirit. That's not talking about just
right here. That's not talking about just Sunday morning, Sunday
night, Tuesday night. No, no, no. Oh, I pray that we
worship Him in the Spirit here. It's talking about a way of life.
We worship God. We worship God by His Spirit
in our lives. That's what it is. Not only do
we worship God, but we rejoice in Christ Jesus. The word means
we trust Christ. We boast in Christ. We find our
joy in Christ. He is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. We have none other. He's the
only hope we have before God. Have no confidence in the flesh. Now Lindsay, I've had some experiences,
buddy. I've had some experiences. I've had some experiences that
were deceiving to me for many years. I remember when I made the pressure
papers as a little boy. I remember what was said. I remember
what I experienced. I remember that unexplainable
feeling of euphoria. I remember this, that, and the
other. It was a delusion. A delusion. And I've had some experiences
since God saved me. Good experiences. There have
been times, Larry, when I've been able to worship God, I believe.
There have been times when I've been able to pray in the Spirit. There have been times, I believe,
when I've been able to preach in the Spirit. I think so. But I don't look back to that confession of faith or
to those experiences. No matter how good, no matter
how transforming, no matter how permanently embedded they are
in me, with any measure of confidence to tell me now, since I have
done or experienced or felt or known that, that means I'm a
child of God. That's a delusion, Bobby. That's
a delusion. That's a delusion. You remember
what Peter said when he was speaking about the mouth of transfiguration? He said, we were with the Lord
in the holy mouth, and we saw the Son of God in human flesh
transfigured into the glory with which he now sits at the right
hand of the throne of God Almighty. We saw Christ exalted before
he was exalted. We saw him glorified before he
was glorified. But we have a more sure word
of prophecy than that. That's nothing to build your
hope on. And folks talk about their visions.
I know I know God because. Martin Luther put it well. He
said, feelings come and feelings go and feelings. I trust the written word of God. Naught else is worth believing. That's it. No confidence in the
flesh. Well, where's your confidence?
Didn't you read it? We rejoice in Christ Jesus. I'm
righteous because I'm in Him. I'm righteous because He obeyed
God's law for me. I'm righteous because He satisfied
justice for me. I have hope for glory because
He's there. He took possession of heaven
in the name, in the room, in the spirit, as the representative
of his people. All right, now let me tell you
what I've experienced of God's grace. My experience of grace began, and in its primary, primary
essence, It is what I know and believe about God Almighty. I
want you to turn with me to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter
4. It's not what I know and believe
about God's law. It's not what I know and do about
this, that, or the other. It's not what I do or don't do.
It's not what I eat or don't eat. Grace begins with the revelation
of God in you. When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal
his son in me. You see, the only way a sinner
can ever know God is for God to make himself known in you. I know that God Almighty is sovereign. absolutely, totally, universally
sovereign. I know that. I know that. That's
a humbling experience. If you ever find out who God
is, you'll find out you're in his hands, he's not in yours.
When we say God's sovereign, I know God is God. Anything that
is less than the absolute universal sovereign, having his will everywhere,
at all times, with all things, in all circumstances. Anything
that's less than that's not God. It's just a puny, pygmy idol
that you carved up and called God. Look here in Daniel chapter
4. Nebuchadnezzar was just like
the rest of us. He looked at his kingdom and he said, oh boy,
look at what I did. Oh, look at that! This kingdom
that I have built with my hands. Oh, there's nobody like me. Nobody
quite like me. And God said, you'll find out
in just a little while. And it caused him to go completely
stark raving mad. Now look at verse 34. And at
the end of the days, I never should have lifted up my eyes
unto heaven, and my understanding returned unto me. If these insane preachers all
around this country and all around this state and all around this
city had ever had a Nebuchadnezzar's experience, their understanding
would return to them. If they ever met God, their understanding
would return to them. Now, they may be nice, do-good,
sweet fellows, but they're not nice, do-good, sweet fellows.
They're deceiving your souls into putting out who God is.
My understanding returned unto me, and I praised and honored
him that lives forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of the earth, that incommensurate old Don Fortner, are reputed
as nothing. Who are you? Who am I? I don't often pay much attention
to church signs anymore. I try to pay attention to the
road where it's more important, but I saw, I've seen one several
times. I hadn't seen this one in a few
months now. Drive down the road and there's
a big sign that says H without U. Isn't that sweet? You ain't that important. God was better in church without
Bill Roddy a long time before you came along. And he'll be
better. How does God refuse? Nothing.
You're insignificant. You're meaningless. You don't have any power. You
don't have any influence. You don't have any ability. You
don't have any strength. You don't have anything to contribute.
You've got nothing. Nothing God will have. Nothing
you can give. Nothing. Oh, preacher. Nobody's going to like to hear
that. You will if you ever see God. Because you'll find everything
in Him. Read on. All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And He does according to His
will. Where does God have His way? Well, God controls the good things.
But not the bad things. If He doesn't control the bad
things, really He can't control the good things. You can't control
anything. We make our plans and they fall
apart. Our schemes, they are our plans. We make our long-term
commitments and we take one step and everything falls apart. Because
we can't control the bad stuff. God does. He does according to
his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. Well, what does that include? Anything down here.
Anything in this creation. And none can stay his hand or slap him on the wrist and
say, what are you doing? What do is that? Do you really think
God Almighty is going to give an account of himself to you?
Do you really think God Almighty is going to stoop from his throne
and ask your permission to do something? At the same time,
my reason returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom,
my honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and
my Lord saw unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and
excellent majesty was added unto me." Oh, that's exactly what
happens when God saves a sinner. He puts you back in the kingdom. sets you back on the throne with
his own son, makes you kings and priests unto God, gives you
understanding and wisdom in the things of God. Now, now, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works
are true. How could God do that? His works
are true. I won't even question truth and
his way's judgment. Justice, the king of all the
earth will do right. And those who walk in pride,
he doesn't have any trouble at all knocking down a step or two.
He's able to erase. What does all that mean? Either
God is in control or he is controlled. Now you can take that up to heaven,
you can take that out to the sea, you can take that across
the prairie, you can take that over the mountains, you can take
that down to hell. Either God is in control or he
is controlled. Wherever, at any point, in any
circumstance, by any means, you find me a place where God is
not in control, show me what it is that's in control. That's
God. That's exactly right. Either God is sovereign or there's
something or someone sovereign over him. The Lord God Almighty
is in control everywhere. He owns his hands, does all things
as he will, and exercises his sovereignty over all things at
all times, never relinquishing it, and it's easy for him to
do so. What does all that mean? He who sits on the throne can
either save me or damn me. Rex, it's totally up to him. You see, salvation is the Lord's.
He gives it to whom he will. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy. Compassion on whom he will have
compassion. The Lord God Almighty, this great sovereign, is holy. When I speak that word holy, oh my God, I don't even have
any idea what it means. Holy. Holy. All that God is is holy. All
that God does is holy. All that God gives is holy. All
that God will accept is holy. That means He can't come near
you He can't come near me. He's holy. He's holy. If he gets to rubbing
shoulders with Betty Don and Don Fortner, he becomes defiled. He's holy. Either that or he
consumes us, one of the two. He's holy. God Almighty cannot
come down here and touch you or touch me in his absolute holiness. God's holy. He demands holiness. Listen to the psalmist. David
understood this. Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Who shall stand before the presence
of God and the court of God in heaven? I'll tell you who's going.
I'll tell you who's going to heaven. This is exactly... He
that has clean hands, Psalm 24, and a pure heart, and has never
lifted up his heart to vanity. That sets you out. Except God
himself find a way to take sinners into union with himself and make
us holy. Bless God he did. And that way
is Jesus Christ his darling son. He came down here into this world
and God in Christ has done what neither God nor man could do. Here's the glory of Christ. The
Lord Jesus Christ has taken hold of God and his holiness, and
taken hold of man and his corruption, and by satisfying the holy justice
of God and fulfilling the holy law of God, Jesus Christ has
now made all that can be just and justify the sinner in perfect
consistency with his holiness. He made his son to be sin. How? He was born holy. He never did
anything wrong. He never had a corrupt, vile
thought. He made his son to be sinned
by amputation. By amputation. Took our sins
and made them his. And that's how it makes sinners
righteous. Without you doing anything. Without you thinking anything.
Without you performing anything. God Almighty takes the righteousness
of his son and has imputed it to all for whom his son was made
to be sin. And now we're made the very righteousness
of God. Oh, God help me never to get
over the wonder of it. I stand before God on grounds
of perfect righteousness in His Son just as fully, just as truly
just as righteously as his son stood before God on the ground
of absolute guilt and condemnation, when God said, Away, O sword
against one that is my fellow, slay it, and slay the shepherd. How come he did it? Because that's
what his son deserved when he was made to be said. And when
he says to this sinner, Don Fortner, come on, enter into
the kingdom, prepared for you before the foundation of the
world. He's going to do it, Larry Cripps, because I fully deserve
it. Absolutely. I deserve it just
as fully as his son deserved my death. I deserve it just as
fully as his son deserves condemnation when he was made to be sin. The
righteousness of God in Christ has been made mine. My experience of grace then compels
me to face and confess, acknowledge the truth about myself. I didn't say I was. I don't act as bad now as I did
when I was a teenage boy, but I'm indescribably worse than
I was when I was a teenage boy. Thoughts in my heart, imaginations
in my mind, I learned the doctrine of total
depravity a long time ago. But I constantly eat the bitter
herb of total depravity, and it is bitter in my soul, in my
daily experience. But I am a sinner. justified, accepted. I am a sinner under the smile
of God's holy face in his darling son. A preacher, how can you
know that? I believe him. I believe him. That's all.
I believe him. I trust Christ. I have no righteousness
but Him. He's the only holiness there
is in this world. I trust Him for mine. He's the
only righteousness there is in this universe. I trust Him for
mine. He's the only atonement there
is with God. I trust Him for mine. He's the
only access sinners had to God. I trust Him. He's the only door. I take Him. He's the only lion. My experience of grace, I'll
quit in just a minute, come with me to Philippians chapter 3,
let me show you something. My experience of grace constantly presses me, constantly compels me, constantly forces constantly
inspires me with ever-increasing pressure, with ever-increasing
force to seek Christ, to seek Him. What things were gained to me? And he's talking about good things
now. His religion, his orthodoxy, his creed, his churchgoing. I
counted loss for Christ. The sooner you do, the better. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord. for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things and do count them, but dumb, it wasn't anything
to start with. I gave it all up, but I didn't
give up anything. I threw it all away, but I didn't throw
anything away. Just dumb that I may win Christ. Oh, but preacher,
I thought Paul already had him. Yeah, he did, but he didn't.
He was in Christ's hands and had Christ in his hands, but
he hadn't yet attained That which he was seeking. Absolute, perfect,
total union and communion and conformity with Christ the Lord. This is what I want. This is
what I've got to have. Freedom. And be found in him. Not having my own righteousness.
I hadn't figured out a way yet. We had these buildings cleaned
here two weeks ago and thought I'd clean them again, clean the
doors right here again, Friday, Thursday, Friday. And I walked
in Friday afternoon, just a little after dark, spider webs. Can't
get them off. They just hit you. They're all
over you. You know, you sit around like
this. That's the way righteousness
clings to a man. You're old. Just keep shaking
it off. Every time you think or imagine
or think about thinking that somehow you've got something
to contribute to God Almighty, shake it off as dumb. That's all it is. Just dumb. Oh, that I may be found in him,
not having one shred of a particle of my own righteousness, which
is of the law, but his righteousness, that which is through faith,
the faith of Christ, through his faithful obedience, the righteousness
of God and by faith in him, that I may know him. Oh, I want to
know him. I want to know him. I want to know him. I caught Doug's eye there. As
altergration will grow, they'll get to be about 12, 13 years
old. They'll keep all, and you'll do everything you can to try
to know them, to know them. To know the way they think, to
know what makes them think, know what makes them move, know what
they want and know what they need. And then they'll get your
age and they'll start trying to know you. But don't you know? No. Don't you know Christ? Oh yeah,
I know who he is. I know his doctrine, I know his
truth. Oh, but my God, I want to know him. Him who loved me and gave
himself for me. And I may know him. And I may know the power of his resurrection
constantly. What is that? Free justification. He was justified. power of his
resurrection. What is that? Well, it's the
life we live. That's what it is. It's eternal
life. That I may know him in the fellowship of his sufferings. What's that talking about? Well,
I want to be able to enter into and empathize with him and his
sufferings. Well, that's true, but that's
not what it's talking about. Bobby Estes, the fellowship of his
sufferings is this. I want to know him as I walk
day by day, when I feel it and when I don't. I want to know
him when Satan roars loud against me, when my own heart would condemn
me. I want to know him. And know that when he died, I
died. I died with him. Being made conformable unto his
death. What's that? Oh my God. Let me in my life be as Christ was in his death. Not my will, thine be done. Father, lower thy your name. That's it. That's it. That's my experience of grace. And I want to tell you something. It has been, and it is, the most
blessed, life controlling, sweet, delightful, bitter thing a man can ever experience. Sweet, delightful, joyful in
the spirit. Bitter to this man. But one of these days, something
I haven't experienced yet is going to happen. I want to be rid of everything
that makes it bitter. I want to adopt this robe of flesh and
rise in the glory of his resurrection. And then I'll have everything. Amen.