I invite you this morning to
take your Bibles and turn to the book of Acts chapter 18.
Acts chapter 18. I'd like to begin reading with
verse 24 and read down through the 28th verse. Acts 18 verse
24. And a certain Jew named Apollos,
born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures,
came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the
way of the Lord, and being fervent in the Spirit, borrowing over
in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the
Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak
boldly in the synagogue, whom when Aquila and Priscilla had
heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way
of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass
unto Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive
him, who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed
through grace. For he mightily convinced the
Jews, and that publicly, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus
was Christ. I want primarily this morning
to speak to you on a phrase found in the last part of verse 27. The last part of verse 27, who
when he was come helped them much which had believed through
grace. Of course this is speaking of
Apollos. that one who came to Ephesus
and had not had the privilege of sitting under the ministry
of the Apostle Paul, but had come to Ephesus and he was one,
the Bible says here, he was a Jew, he had been born at Alexandria,
he was an eloquent man, that means he was a learned man, and
also it says that he was a man that was mighty in the Scriptures.
a man who knew the Word of God, who had had a revelation of the
truth of God in his heart, a partial revelation of the truth of God. There was some of the truth that
he had not yet been exposed to and was not yet privy to that
he was to find here at Ephesus. It tells us here in verse 25
that this man, that he knew only the baptism of John, but he was
a man who was boiling hot in the Spirit. He was fervent in
the Spirit. He was a man who was zealous
for the things of the Lord, for the things that God had taught
him and instructed him in. He knew only the doctrine of
John. He knew and was acquainted with
what John had taught. And he began to speak boldly,
it says in verse 26, in the synagogue and it was there that Aquila
and Priscilla had heard him and they heard him preach and they
recognized that there was some flaws. He was a man of great
zeal and boldness and power But they recognized there were some
things that he just simply did not know that he needed to be
tutored, he needed to be helped, he needed to be instructed, and
so they took him aside. They having received the full
revelation of the gospel under the ministry of the Apostle Paul,
they took him aside and they instructed him, expounded unto
him the way of God more perfectly. And when he had been taught,
when he had been exposed to a full revelation of the truth of God,
then he felt in his heart that he ought to go down to Corinth.
Paul had been down to Corinth, that he ought to go to Achaia,
and so Aquila and I believe some of the other brethren at Ephesus,
they wrote down to the church at Corinth and said to them,
when he comes, you receive him. You receive him. Exhorting the
disciples to receive him who when he was come. And so he did
go down and when he got there the scripture says that he helped
them much which had believed through grace. Now then this
morning we find Apollos here at Corinth and we find him helping
them much. which have believed through the
grace of God. Now I hope this morning that
the Lord will enable us to speak on this passage of scripture.
There are three things that I want to talk about this morning. The
first thing that I want to talk about is that true believers
have believed through the grace of God. All those who have believed
have believed through grace. And the second thing that I want
to talk about is such people, these people that have believed
through the grace of God, they need help. They need help. Because Apollos was a great help
to these that had believed in the grace of God. And then the
third thing that I want to talk about is that this work of helping
men and women, boys and girls that have believed through grace,
is a much needed work in our day. I found it so every place
that I've gone. People are in need of help. They need somebody to expound
the Word of God to them more perfectly. They need somebody
to open up the Word of God. Somebody that will set before
them a full table of the bountiful blessings and feasts of the gospel. Somebody that will preach Christ,
that will exalt the Son of God and the truth about King Jesus. They need somebody to help them. And it's a great and needful
work in our time. And so let us begin this morning
by talking about the fact that those who believe, that they
believe through grace. Now, beloved, listen to me. I
hope the Lord will help us with this. It's my desire that I might
be an Apollos to you, that I might be able to help you that have
believed through grace. And then as your help, even as
Apollos was helped by Aquila and Priscilla, that you also
will be able to go out and help others, that you'll be an instrument
in God's hands to the blessing of many. Now then, the first
thing that I want to say this morning is that Luke, by the
Spirit of God, felt it necessary here in our text to insert these
words through grace. Now I recognize that there's
been an effort by many to simply take this out of the scripture. There's many who would like to
destroy any mention of the grace of God. There are many, many
today, in our day and time, preachers who want, if they can, to rob
God of His glory, and they're not interested in the gospel
of the free grace of God. But here in our text, the Spirit
of God moved Luke to tell us that Apollos helped them much
which had believed through grace. these that had believed through
grace. Now nobody in the days of Apollos,
nobody that knew the word of God and the truth of scripture,
nobody that had the revelation, the divine revelation of God
in their souls doubted the fact that men were saved by the grace
of God, that salvation was wrought in the heart by the sovereign
grace of God. But in our day and time, the
Holy Spirit, I'm sure, foresaw that many in after years would
deny the doctrine of free grace, they would deny the doctrine
of the grace of God, and they would conceal it, and they would
obscure this truth, and therefore the Spirit of God moved Luke
to state it plainly, these people believed through grace. That's
how they believed. They would have never believed
if it had not been for the grace of God. So we have it under hand
and seal from the Spirit of God that those that believed in the
Lord Jesus Christ, they believed through grace. Now, brethren
and sisters, surely the grace of God is to the front in all
good things. Everything that a child of God
has come from the hand of grace, from the hand of God. It was
given freely unto them by the Lord. Now, the first thing that
I'd like to say is that it is grace that gives us the gospel
which we believe. The gospel which we believe,
that gospel that we sing about, that gospel that we rejoice in,
that gospel that we hope in, that gospel was given unto us
by the grace of God. The poet said, grace first contrived
the way to save rebellious man, and all the steps that grace
displays which drew the wondrous plank. So beloved, the gospel
which you and I treasure, that gospel which is worth dying for,
that gospel which saved us from an eternal death, that gospel
was a gift of the grace of God unto our souls. Now also beloved,
I would like to say that it was the grace of God that chose the
people whom God would save and grace gave them over to the Lord
Jesus Christ Yes, the Bible tells us in Romans that it was an election
according to grace. That it was the election of grace.
It was God that chose us. It was His grace that moved Him
to choose us and to give us to His Son in that love gift in
old eternity which guaranteed that in time that we would be
brought out of our sin and brought into a living relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And furthermore, it was grace
that gave Jesus Christ to stand in the room and stand in place
and to bear for us that which was due us from the justice of
God on account of our sins. It was the grace of God that
gave the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. And then it was grace which led
the Savior to undertake and to carry through that great work
of substitution. You know the doctrine of substitution
is the very pith and marrow of all that we stand for and believe. It was the Lord Jesus Christ
who become what we are in order that we might be what He is.
The Lord Jesus took upon Himself, God laid upon Him all that we
are by nature and then transferred all the merits and all of the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ unto our account and now
as believers we stand before God as righteous as God's own
dear Son and so we rejoice in this doctrine of substitution
but it was the grace of God that enabled the Lord Jesus Christ
to bear that awful load to Calvary and to suffer there under the
wrath of God that was due our sin in order that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Yes, grace wrote the
first letter of the Gospel and grace will write the last letter
of the Gospel. Salvation is all the grace of
God from the beginning unto the end. I would to God today that
every preacher in America and everybody that hears those preachers
had a clear view of the grace of God. That they knew something
about what the grace of God meant so that they would quit frustrating
and confusing and mixing up the grace of God with human merit
and creature merits. Human endeavors and creature
merits. They would quit fooling around
and quit frustrating the grace of God and just simply preach
it. that those who believe, believe
through grace. That's why they believe. Now,
Romans 9 and 16 says, For it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. All he demands
of a sinner he provides in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
meaning of grace. Romans 11 and 6, If it be of
grace, it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. And if it be of works, it is
not of grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. It's plain, beloved, that if
God saves the sinner, and if a sinner is brought to believe,
it's all through grace. Now then, by grace, Ephesians
2.8 says, Are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves? It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Grace is God's riches at Christ's
expense. Grace signifies free and undeserved
favor, and as it comes from God to us, it is sovereign grace
which is moved only by the good pleasure of His will. Men are
made to believe, brought to believe, and able to believe. by the sovereign
grace of God. Grace, get it my friend, is the
active movement of the divine will to produce the results which
have been graciously determined on by the will of God in old
eternity. Grace, my friend, is what moves
God to save sinners. Now grace makes a distinction
between man and man and you'll never be humble until you see
that. And grace makes a distinction
between man and man and you'll never know the truth of God and
never be able to bow your knee as it ought to be bent and worship
the living God of the Bible until you understand that the grace
of God distinguishes between man and man. Why is it that you
believe? Why did you enter? Why others
refused? And why is it that you're a child
of God and you have a hope, a sweet hope in your breast that someday
you're going to be with the Lord in that eternal and pure city?
Why do you have the hope and other people don't have it? Why?
My friend, it's not to be found with you. It's to be found with
the God of all grace. His grace distinguishes between
men. And God saves some and leaves
others to themselves. God would have been just to let
us all go to hell. but in sovereign mercy and grace,
free grace, He came to some of us and by the effectual working
of His mighty Spirit drew our hearts out of the death of sin
unto Himself to grasp on and hold on to the effectual work
of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. Grace is exercised, and let me
emphasize it, according to the will of God, and not according
to the will of man. For the Lord hath said it, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. And so, my friend, we're to believe
these things if we're going to worship. We must believe, even
though that men would try. I read after Joseph Alexander
last night, and he was talking about how that men contrive to
take this out of this text. These people believed through
grace. And men want to say, well, people
believed because they were better than other people. They believed
because they could recognize a good thing when they saw it.
They believed because they had a little bit better upbringing. Their parents were, you know,
they were more strict and they brought up the child right. And
they believed because of their environment. There isn't an ounce
of truth in it. Men believed through grace. Nobody
believes except the grace of God moves them and enables them
to believe. It was grace that sat in the
council chamber of eternity and devised the scheme of mercy,
the plan of redemption, peace through the blood. The whole
dispensation of the gospel of the grace of God was designed
by God's free grace in old eternity. Now let us go on. I say then,
beloved, that while grace gives us the gospel to believe, it
does, it also gives us to believe the gospel. Now I want to emphasize
this. You say, Preacher, why do you
want to talk so much about this? I want to talk a great deal about
it because there isn't anybody else talking about it. I don't
hear anybody else talking about the grace of God. I've been around
in some Baptist churches and I don't even hear them talking
about the grace of God, nay of all people ought to be talking
about the grace of God. Now listen to me, what I'm saying
is that the grace of God not only give us the gospel to believe,
but it also give us to believe the gospel. Man left to himself
is an unbeliever, is that right? He's an unbeliever and he will
never be anything else but an unbeliever until the divine will
comes to bear upon his heart and until God by his grace brings
you out of your unbelief. And I talk to you today, I wish
I could do more. I could get you down and take
a phone and put it in your ear and pour it into your ear. I
mean I would do whatever I could do to get you to understand me. But you're shut up to the fact
that if you ever are a believer, I mean, if you ever miss hell
and go to heaven, it'll be because God lays hold upon you. It'll be because God touches
you. It'll be because God intervenes
and crosses your path and brings you out of your unbelief to meet
the deep depravity of our nature and the settled unbelief that's
in our hearts He gave the gospel to be believed and also gives
faith to his elect to believe the gospel. This is a wonder
of grace. But then, beloved brother and
sister, in the realm of grace, everything is wonderful, is it
not? Is it not? In the realm of grace,
everything's wonderful. Praise God. We're so steeped
in unbelief and depravity that we'll never come to receive the
gospel except through the operation of the grace of God upon our
consciences and upon our wills. The faith which comes to God
must first come from God. And until it comes from God,
you're not gonna have it yourself. It's got to come from Him. Faith
cometh. It comes down and it comes from
God. It don't grow on a human dunghill. It comes from God. And if you're
ever a believer, it's be because God gave you faith. So not only did grace give us
this gospel, it gave us to believe this gospel. We come because
He draws us. We came to believe because His
Spirit established and persuaded us to believe. O happy day! Next, I wish to add this, that
such believing is a sure evidence of grace. If one is enabled to
believe, if you have been enabled to believe, my friend, if you're
able to trust, I mean, if you're able to rest your soul on the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, I mean, if you're able
just to hug up to the redemptive work of Christ and to trust in
it with all of your might and power to save your soul, if you're
able to do that, My friend, that's a sure evidence of the grace
of God. Because there is no faith, there
is no believing, no true believing where the grace of God is not
found. No true believing. If you believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, you have the
grace of God in you. You have it in you. You've got
it in you. This is not talking about something
mysterious way off that we haven't experienced. If we've been unable
to believe, then the grace of God's in our hearts. It's in
us. Praise God. There's no surer
proof than this. Where there is faith, there is
grace. The one is the inseparable fruit
of the other. The scripture says, he that believeth
on him hath everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. These are not my words. These
are the words of God. These are the words of the scripture.
If you believe in Jesus Christ whom God has sent, then you have
the one sure and certain evidence of grace. Don't talk to me about
your good works and about what you've done. Don't talk to me
about that. This is the work of God that
we believe on him whom he has sent. This is the work of God
and the evidence. that you have the grace of God
in your heart is that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe on him? Now listen,
will you not examine yourself to see whether or not you truly
believe or not? Now listen, be sure of this,
my friend, be sure of this, that he that believeth not is condemned
already because he hath not believe in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. Be sure of this, that unless
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have not the grace
of God in you. You're not a child of God. Now
then, let me say on that if you believe through grace, that grace
which made you believe is the best guarantee that you will
keep on believing. Now did you get that? I say if
you believe through grace, that grace which made you believe
is the best guarantee that you'll keep on believing. Faith which is born of self will
die of self. Did you ever meet anybody who
got up and seemed like he knocked a home run? But they didn't. Faith which is born of self will
die of self. But that which is a child of
grace, that which is of grace, will live forever. It'll live
forever. If you have begun to believe
of yourself, then you'll leave off believing of yourself. You'll give it up. You'll never
make it. You'll never make it through
the graveyard, my friend. You'll never make it past the
bar of God. You'll give it up if you start
it on your own. True believers are not shut up
to the fact that they started this thing with God. True believers
are shut up to the fact that God started this thing in them. And until this gets worked into
you, you won't understand how it is that whom God saves there
never, never, never will perish. This is the work of God. Nothing
can be added to it and nothing can be taken from it. This is
the work of God. Now then, if God's grace began
your believing, God's grace will continue your believing and you'll
abide in the faith wherein you stand as long as you live. You'll stay in it if God started
it in you. Now this gives me great comfort
when I think about it For I want certainty for myself and for
you for days and years to come. Wouldn't you like to know this
is a settled thing? Wouldn't you like to know it's
all settled? And that I am a child of God,
that my soul is in the hands of God for eternity. And the
good grace and favor of God is toward me, never to be taken
from me again. Wouldn't that be a marvelous
thing just to be able to believe that? I mean, wouldn't that give
you a little help? Wouldn't that give you a little
comfort? Well, it's a comfort to my heart. Now, you listen
to me. If the faith whereby I have laid hold on Christ to be my
Lord and my Savior be altogether worked in me by the Holy Ghost
through grace, then I defy the devil to take away that which
he never gave. I defy him to take it away. He
never gave it. Or to crush or to stamp out that
which was created in me by the sovereign grace of God. I defy the devil to do it because
he can't do it. He can't do it. Now I defy my
free will, so called, if you please to throw away that which
it never brought to me. What I've got was not given to
me by my free will. It was given to me by the will
of God. I believe through grace. I'd
have never believed any other way. How about you? What God
has given, what he's created, what he's introduced, what he
has established in the heart of his people, he will maintain
there. Believe it, brother, sister,
believe it. God will maintain it. if He started
it in your soul. Every plant which my Heavenly
Father has not planted shall be rooted up, but what He's planted,
none shall root up, for it is written, I the Lord do keep it. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day
through grace. My brother's sister is the hallmark
of the precious metal of faith through grace. That's how we
got it. If you got it, you got it through
grace. And the fact of your believing
is the evidence of your grace. May the grace of God be given
to all of us that we may all truly believe. Now that brings
me to the second thing, and I'll hurry because I have got some
things here that I need to say. And most of you haven't given
God an hour in the last two weeks, much less given him one this
morning. So give him and give me a little time, if you will,
and let me say the things that are upon my heart. The second
point is that such believers need help. These that have been
saved and brought to faith through grace, they need help. They need
some help. Do you ever feel like you needed
some help? I know they do because we're
told in the text that Apollos helped them much which had believed
through grace. I know they need some help. I
know they do. Alright, well, in what respects
do these who have grace need help? And in what ways can true
believers be helped? Well, first of all, many believers
need help, I think, in further instruction. Very few of God's
people are born into the family of God with beards. Very few
of them. I mean spiritually speaking.
I mean, very few of the people of God know anything beyond the
three R's. Ruin, redemption, and regeneration. And not very many understand
the ins and outs of those three things. The people of God need
to be instructed, brethren. I think most of you are aware
of that. Now then, we're told that Apollos
was a believer, verse 26, and that he was mighty in the scriptures,
yet he only knew the baptism of John, he only knew the doctrine
of John the Baptist, and he was ignorant of many things, and
so he needed someone to show him the way of God more perfectly. Now then, I want to give you
some examples of what I'm saying here. In Acts chapter 10, I gave
you the example of Apollos. In Acts chapter 10, we have Cornelius. You can read about it, maybe
sometime this next week. But the Word of God tells us
plainly that he was a devout man, he was one that feared God,
and he was one that prayed to God always, yet Cornelius knew
very little about the Gospel. He walked in the light that God
had given him, he worshipped the Lord who was to come, and
he did not know, though, that he already had come. Cornelius was ignorant. to the
facts of the gospel. And God accepted his worship
because he walked in what life that he had, but God sent him
somebody who would speak words to him, somebody who would convey
the truth to him. God went to great lengths to
teach Peter that what he had cleansed was not uncommon or
was not common and so God of course gave him that vision and
taught him the truth about the fact that even a Gentile if he
washed him that he was clean and he was not common. Now then,
so Peter went to Cornelius he needed someone to show him the
glorious accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ, the meaning
of his redemptive work, the meaning of his finished work. He needed
somebody to preach Christ and the gospel to him, and so Peter
certainly did this. And Cornelius was made to rejoice. The Holy Spirit of God came down
upon those people. He got a group of people together
and Peter preached to them because they needed somebody to speak
words unto them that would edify them and instruct them in the
way of the Lord. Now, the next thing I want to
use as an example is old Peter. In the second chapter of the
book of Galatians, he was a saved man, but Paul had to withstand
him to his face. Peter had confessed Christ, he
had followed Christ, worshipped Christ, trusted Christ, loved
Christ, he had preached Christ, yet Peter was still entangled
with the spirit of legalism and bondage In spite of all that
he had heard, experienced, and learned, he was still entangled
in the spirit of legalism, a law-keeping spirit and attitude. And Paul
sharply rebuked his error, withstood him to his face. He needed some
help. And old Paul was just the man
to help him. It was a serious matter, my brethren,
and it still is a serious matter, this legalism business. Very
serious. I can take you some places this
morning where there's grief and sorrow and bitterness and where
churches are tore apart because people don't understand that
you can't mix law and grace. They don't understand the truth
of the grace of God and therefore churches are being ripped apart. People need help. And old Peter
needed that somebody would help him. Paul didn't condemn him
as an unbeliever and tell him he was a lost man. No. He took
him by the hand and led him along the way to a more mature and
sound understanding of the gospel. Peter needed somebody to show
him that Jesus Christ is the E-N-D of the law. That's what he needed. And old
Paul was just the man to show him that truth. And he did. He helped him. He helped old
Peter. And I wish that people had a
teachable spirit. And I wish they wanted to be
taught. I wish they weren't as wild as
jackasses and wouldn't stand still long enough for anybody
to tell them anything. and maybe they could get a little
hope and maybe they could get a little rest and a little peace
and get along with people a little better if they could just listen
to what the Word of God has to say about the grace of God and
find out that after all We're all sinners and none of us any
better than anybody else and if any difference is made it's
the grace of God and start rejoicing in the Lord and give up this
legalistic, bonded spirit and attitude. People need some help,
don't they? A lot of people don't want the
help, but they need it. People sometimes who need the
most help don't want it, but they need it. Now then, not only
do those who believe through the grace of God need instruction,
they need some comfort. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. God's people need to be comforted.
Large numbers of true believers are tempted to doubt and despondency
and distress of mind. There are days when there are
some of God's people Maybe even some of you here who are so depressed
in spirit that you're hardly able to look up. You can't get
your chin off of your chest. You're depressed and discouraged. Can a child of God get depressed?
He can indeed. He can indeed. He needs some
comfort. He needs somebody to come alongside
and help him. We all have times of downcasting
and uplifting and there are bruised and broken souls that need to
be bound up. They need the comfort of the
word of God, the comfort of a child of God coming. They need a son
of consolation like old Barnabas that can come and pour in the
oil and the wine of the gospel and heal the wounded spirit. That's what they need. They need
some help. They need some help. There are people suffering all
around you that just need something that you got, something that
you could say, something that you could help them with as a
child of God. Well, I think also that they
need leadership. They need leadership. They need
somebody to come and speak a word in season. Somebody that will
give them a promise that's seasonably quoted. Somebody that will help
them much. They have believed through grace,
but they need much help. And there's some of you here
this morning, and I know your heart cries out because you need
some help. You say, preacher, I just wish
that I could lay hold of these things that you're talking about.
And I just wish that I could get a hold of the grace of God.
And like you talk about it, I just wish I could believe the gospel.
I wish I could. My friend, listen. We're here
to help you. We're here to help you. We're
here to lead you. We're here to take you by the
hand. We're here to preach the Word of God to you, to open up
the Word of God and to expound the Scriptures to your heart.
That's why we're here. That's what this church is for.
Alright, now the third thing and I'll close. But don't get
in a big hurry, will you not? Don't get in a big hurry and
shut me off yet. I got some things I've got to say before I let
you go and so you listen if you will and maybe you can just kind
of you know chew on this in the coming week. I say that this
is a much needed work in our day. I say it is. It's a great, it's a needed work.
There's people everywhere and the people I've run into in these
two months that I've been gone, people, people, sad, sad cases
People need some help. They need some preachers. They
need some young men who've grown up under the sound of the Word
of God to go and preach the Word and to testify the grace of God. And oh, how I pray for an anointing,
a fresh anointing of the Spirit of God upon the churches where
the Gospel is being preached that God will lay hold of and
that men will once more Men will once more become willing, just
be willing to become risk takers. Oh, you know, we're called on
to live by faith. Call on to walk by faith. Trust
the Lord. But churches are no longer risk
takers. People no longer say, I'll just
sell out and move and go. I'll no longer just go and preach
the gospel. I'll no longer go and camp someplace
where it's not easy and preach the word of God and feed the
sheep of Christ. I'll not do it anymore. They're
now, they're no longer risk takers, they're caretakers. Setting on
what they got. They got a job, they got security,
they got the world's goods, and they'll sit on it. They're caretakers. They're not risk-takers anymore.
The just shall live by faith. And it's a time when the churches
of the Lord Jesus Christ need to become something more than
just caretakers. They need caretakers that are
waiting for the undertaker, if you please, to come along and
plant them like a fence post. People need to get up and begin
to do something to be an Apollos. to go and to help somebody that
needs much help. Somebody that's believing through
grace. This is a work that's worthy of the highest talent
and the greatest experience. It's worthy of it. You say, I
don't want to waste my life doing that. Preachers are not appreciated. Well, my brother and my sister,
it's a work that God has called some men to. And they are, it's
a worthy work. We pray for God's babies to be
brought in to the family, into the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ and wherever children are expected in the home that
we know there must be and there always is preparation and there
must be skilled persons there in readiness to care for the
weaklings. Do you look around for anybody
that needs a little help? You're concerned about some poor
babies in Christ that need somebody to just talk to them a little
bit? Somebody just to encourage them?
We're so wrapped up in ourselves and what's going to become of
us that we haven't got time to do anything for anybody. And
I'll tell you, if you believe through grace and if you've been
helped a little bit, then you ought to be about this business
of looking for some of the Lord's children You know, I'm not too
much of making children of God. I can't do that. I can't make
children of God. God chose his people in old eternity. Salvation to the Lord, that's
his work. But those who've been brought
in, those who are God's children in the fold, I'm talking about
how they need encouragement and help. And you can be looking
around for them. God will not send his babies
to a church that's not prepared to care for them. And you'd be
surprised sometime, the Lord's children are in our presence.
You say, well I would never expect today to be saved. Well nobody
would probably expect you would be. Salvation to the Lord, He
can save anybody. He can. He saves the most unexpected
people. He saved Zacchaeus up a tree.
He saved a maniac in a graveyard. He can save anybody. He saved
old Paul on the road to Damascus. He can save anybody. Look around
you. God's poor, afflicted, suffering,
storm-tossed children are all around you. And they need a little
bit of help and a little bit of encouragement. They need somebody
just to take them by the hand and lead them. You say they don't
believe what we believe. Well, teach them what you believe
if you've got a chance. If they'll listen to you, teach
them. Tell them. Do this because you've been helped
yourself. And do it because those who have
been in the dungeon, they know the way to the bread and the
water. They know the way. And so help
them a little bit. Be a help. Well, how do I see
our role here in the New Covenant Baptist Church in this town? I've asked myself this. I've
asked myself this. for the last two months. What
am I there for? What's that church there for?
How do I see our role? And I want to make it crystal
clear to you this morning, it's not you and me, it's us. And that we need to understand.
It's not the church and the preacher, it's us. We're in this thing
together. And what is our role here in
this place? Well, I think that our role is
to keep the resume of a true believer before every soul that
comes under our ministry. The resume of a true believer. I think that we're living in
a city where the preachers are dedicated to the proposition
that God Almighty will let him be. But we will not let him be
God. We won't let it be. We'll let
him be as long as he don't interfere with us. And long as we don't
have to believe those damnable doctrines that's taught in the
Bible, we'll ignore them. But I want you to know that we're
in this city, and these preachers that are in this city, according
to my understanding, are lying on God every time they get up
to preach. They tell men of free will, and
they tell men that God's will is in bondage to theirs. And
we're here to tell men that the only free will is God's will. His will is free! And we're here
to tell you that the only will that's not in bondage in the
universe is the will of God! It's not in bondage. And that's
what this church is about. That's what we're telling men
and women. God's will is the only will.
Now surely, my brethren, we can see this. The profession of today's
religious multitude, for the most part, begin and continue
and conclude with the big I. I. We must speak out against
this. One brother said after listening
to the testimonies of the people in his town that it sounded,
it reminded him of someone that was padding a resume in order
to get a good job. I made my decision. I accepted
Jesus. They almost always begin with
I. and also included in their professions I'm talking about
what we're about here and I'm not gonna keep you long but if
you just listen to me just listen to me a little bit let me I mean
just just just let me get this off my chest off my soul to you
this morning listen and also included in their profession
is a win They always contain a time, you know, greatly emphasized,
it's a year, a day, it's an hour when their religious experience
took place. When I was 12 years old, they'll
tell you, it's a time in their past. Sometime in the past they
look back and they say, at that time, well that's the time when
something happens, and this time in the past is to assure them,
as it were, for the present. And also part of their profession
is aware it was at an old-fashioned altar, back at that little country
church, it was in the prayer room. Well, another essential
part of these professions is what? Their confidence lies in
something they did. I accepted. I prayed. I decided. I went forward. I joined the church. I was baptized. I did this. I did that. Well,
where is the grace of God in all of this? I don't see the
grace of God. This is not the confession or
the resume of a true believer, although it is the general profession
and testimony of the religionist of our day. Now listen, our salvation,
and I've made that clear this morning, my salvation does not
depend or it does not emphasize me, it emphasizes Him. And that's enough reason for
you to be here, honey, is the fact that our salvation, our
gospel does not emphasize us, it emphasizes Him. Now then, The scripture teaches
He loved me, He lived for me, He died for me, He called me,
He saved me. It is not when I did something,
but it's when He did something. Fully on your when. You say,
well I did this, I did that 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years
ago, 30 years ago. Fully on it. The win that counts is when God
Almighty, before the foundation of the world, chose me and gave
me to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The win that counts is
when the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world.
It was when God put me in His Son and Christ died for me. The win that counts is yonder
on Golgotha's brow. It's on Calvary's tree. That's
the win that counts. And the what? Oh, listen, the
what is what he did in working out a perfect righteousness for
me. What is what he did when he died
and washed me from my sins in his own blood? That's the what
that matters. And so we need to see this. And
if we do, then we can understand why it is that we're here. Why it is that this church is
here. We can understand it. Now, beloved, our testimony is,
to everybody in this city, is that he did it all for us. It's
not what I'm doing now. Somebody said, are you preaching
to stay out of hell, preacher? No, no. No, no. I'm not preaching to stay out
of hell, and I'm not doing anything else to stay out of hell. It's
not what I'm doing, it's what he's doing. Now at the right
hand of the throne of God is my great high priest who ever
liveth to make intercession for me and to keep me eternally. This is the sum of the testimony
of this church. We did all the sinning and he
did all the saving. If you want to mark it down,
that's a testimony of these sinners here. We did all the sinning
and He done all the saving. Now then, I hope this morning
that the Lord has been pleased to administer some help. Listen
to me, those who believe, have believed through grace, they
need some help and it's a very needful and necessary work in
our time to provide that help. May God bless you. The poet said
we've listened to the preacher. Truth by him has now been shown,
but we want a greater teacher from the everlasting throne.
Application is the work of God alone. So maybe you'll get what
I said if he blesses it to your heart, opens your heart, and
help you. I know it's a lot said But you
just think on it, you wait before the Lord on it, you read your
Bible, meditate, and maybe God will be pleased to open your
eyes to Him, this all-glorious Redeemer and Savior. Mike, could
we have a closing hymn?