Of course, man tell you anything. But yeah, I remember I went out for a walk one day
was up here in a meeting and you said you care if I walk with
you and we walked together that day on Sunday afternoon. And
boy, I tell you why we travel a lot of miles and I love you.
Love his family precious, precious love you all. Love y'all, Ephesians
chapter two. I hope the Lord don't leave me
up here by myself. Wouldn't be good for you, it
certainly wouldn't be good for me. I hope he don't leave me here by
myself. Let me read the first 10 verses of Ephesians and then
go back and try to deal with them a little. And you hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, where in time past
you walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation or our manner of living, in times past, in the
lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love
were with he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised
us up together and made us set together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace toward us through Christ Jesus. For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. The Apostle Paul, the man who
penned this letter, God mightily, mightily used him to preach the
gospel of God's redeeming love, God's redeeming grace in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the things that he
did often in his ministry was he'd paint an awful, awful dark
picture, and then he'd change it, and he'd go from the darkness
and take you over into the light. And let me give you an illustration.
In Romans chapter 3, he starts out saying that there's none
righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh God. that the poison of asthma is
under their lips and their throat is an open sepulcher. And he
says that no man is justified by the law and the sight of God.
So he paints this awful, awful dark picture. And then he turns
around and says, but now, but now, since there's none of you
righteous, I tell you what, there is a righteousness. There is
a righteousness, but that righteousness is in Christ. Not by what you
do. And the worse you are, the more
you love the grace of God. The worse shape you are, the
better you are to love the grace of God. Done the same thing in
Romans. He started talking about how that we walked after the
flesh and our flesh was sinful and how sinful it was and we
fulfilled the lust of our flesh and we walked and we yielded
our members to the flesh. But he says, but God be thanked.
that you were the servants of sin, but now you are free. You're free. And here he uses
the same word. He talks about how desperately,
what an awful condition the human race is in. And then he uses
this word, but God, there in verse four, but God, who is rich
in mercy. How rich is God in mercy? How
wealthy is God? How wealthy do you reckon God
is? How rich is He in mercy? He read that Psalm tonight. His
mercy endures forever. He's the Father of mercies. And
His great love were with He loved us. And He uses this as a transition
from the words that He had been saying. And I want us to look
at this little word, but God, and go through the scriptures
and deal with this a little bit as we go along here. But you
know, He reminds us, and He goes on here, And what he does, he
says, I tell you what awful shape you were in. He reminds them
of what they were and what all men are by nature. We were dead
in sins. Walked in time past according
to the prince of the power of the world. And he says we walked
even according to the course of this world. Now when you have
a course, That means you follow that course. You go along the
line. You go along the course that's laid out for you. Well,
the world's got a course, and that course has nothing to do
with God, nothing to do with Christ, nothing to do with grace,
nothing to do with salvation. It's after the world. And I'll
tell you what, he's called the prince of the power of the air.
And I'll tell you, lived a life apart from God. That's what we
did. We lived a life apart from God. And I tell you what, we
were even by nature the children of wrath as others were. But
the gospel, and it comes along and it tells us that he describes
man's awful, awful disease, and he's got a disease. It's a disease
that's in the blood. It's a disease that's in the
flesh. It's a disease that's in the mind. It's a disease that's
in the will. It's a disease that's in your
affections. It's a disease that affects every part of the human
being. And I tell you, but before we
describe, when you describe this disease, you got to know what
the disease are before you know what the remedy is. And I'll
tell you something about the gospel. It's not for good men. It's not for good men. No, no. It's not for good men. You find
a good man, no, no. It's not even for righteous men.
It's not even for men that call themselves moral men. It's for
sinners. It's for children of disobedience,
it's for children who were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. And that's what this word, but
God, gives us. It gives us a word of hope in
being in that kind of condition. Oh, but God, who is rich in mercy. There we were, dead in trespasses. But God, who is rich in mercy. God, who delights to show mercy. God, who loved us with an everlasting
love. And he talked about us being
spiritually dead. dead in trespasses and sins.
You know, people that are dead, they don't hear. They don't hear. They don't see. They don't face
the tears or feel the tears of those who love them and pray
for them. They don't feel the tears. They
don't feel the anguish. They don't hear the groans of
a dying Savior as He's hanging on a cross. CRUELLY TREATED BY
THE MEN AROUND HIM. AND THEY'RE UNMOVED WHEN THEY
HEAR THESE THINGS. YOU CAN HEAR YOUR CHILDREN AND
YOUR FAMILY, THEY CAN HEAR YOU WEEP OVER THEM AND PRAY FOR THEM,
BUT THEY'RE UNMOVED EVEN WHEN YOU DO IT IN THEIR PRESENCE.
AND THEN YOU PREACH HELL AS DARK, HOT AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN, AND
HELL DOESN'T FRIGHTEN THEM. You preach the joys of heaven,
how blessed heaven is, what a glorious thing it's gonna be. But it doesn't
entice them. And when you use spiritual words,
they totally, totally miss the meaning of spiritual words. And
they don't understand spiritual knowledge. Our Lord told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. He said, how can I, being an
old man, enter the second time in my mother's womb? Christ didn't
say anything about entering into his mother's womb. He just told
him he had to be born again. Here's a teacher, a master of
Israel. He completely missed what our Lord, he said, what
that is born of the flesh is flesh. Can't make no more out
of it. If you could start over again,
you'd start out just the way you was when you began. And it's
like that woman of Samaria. Our Lord told her, says, oh,
if you had asked of me, I'd have give you a drink of living water.
You know what the first thing she said was? You ain't got nothing
to draw with. You ain't got nothing to draw
with. How you gonna get water out of this well? The well is
deep. How you gonna get water out of here? So where you gonna
get it? Totally undismissed everything
that Christ said. Spiritually unconscious of spiritual
truth, dead to it. Now you take a dead man, hit
him, bruise his body, but it won't cry out in pain. Take burdens,
pick up some big rocks and pick up some block and lay it on him. He ain't weary of carrying that.
Shut him up in the darkness and he doesn't feel a fear in the
gloom of the darkness. And that's the way unconverted
man that is laden with a load of sin, but he's not weary of
carrying it. He's shut up in the prison of
God's justice. But he ain't saying, please,
somebody let me out of here. I want to be free. He's under
God's curse. And I tell you what, nothing,
nothing causes no commotion in his spirit because he's dead. But there's hope. You know why
there's hope? But God, no. In fact, it's the only hope there
is. You find a fella in this kind
of condition, and I believe this with all my heart, as long as
there's life, there's hope. As long as there's life, there's
hope. And I'm not gonna give up hope on my son, my daughter,
my grandchildren. I'm not gonna give up hope. Not
gonna give it up. And when a man's in this condition
and in this state, How in the world is he going to get out
of that? He can't get himself out of it. Dead man can't give
himself life. Dead man can't get himself out
of the tomb. But God can. But God who is rich
in mercy for the great love we're with him. Let me give you another
word out of this little word about God. It's a word of miracles. A word of the supernatural act
of God. You know of God. People are skeptical
about the supernatural, about miracles. But listen, if it hadn't
have been, if God, God saving me is the greatest miracle that's
ever took place. People want to say, well, listen,
you come to our church and we'll show you what miracles are. We
got a preacher up there and lay hands on you and he can make,
he can, he can make the lame to walk. But can he give a dead
sinner life? Can He raise somebody up from
the dead? And the gospel, everything about
it tells you everything about you and me is a miracle. It's
supernatural. I mean, God, listen, listen.
God takes out a stony heart and puts in a heart of flesh. Is
that not a supernatural act? God goes into a man's darkened
mind, and he takes that darkened mind, and he turns on the light,
and it ain't in darkness anymore. He takes a man who can't see
God, can't see Christ, can't see grace, can't see salvation,
and God gives him eyes to see, and he sees it all. And he sees
everything's in Christ. It's like Mary. When Gabriel,
God sent a special angel to Mary. Gabriel. come down to her and said, Mary,
you're going to have a baby. And he said, God's the Holy Ghost
going to come upon you, and you're going to conceive in your womb,
and you're going to bear a son. And she said, how in the world
is that? That's impossible. I don't know
a man. But nine months later, she had
a child. Who was he? You know what Gabriel said? You're
gonna call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. And this was fulfilled by the
prophet Isaiah, thou shalt call his name Immanuel. That means
God is come to be with us. Oh my. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
every time he preached, folks didn't understand what he said.
And even his disciples said, how come you always speak to
them in these parables? He said, because I don't want
them to understand what I'm saying. I don't want them to understand
what I'm talking about. The only people I want to understand what
I'm talking about is the people that I do something for, that
I give them life, that I get all the glory, that I've got
all the power. And I tell you what, and I know
this, you just look at what you were,
and look at that you're what right now. You tell me that that
wasn't a supernatural act of God, huh? You tell me that wasn't
a miracle of God Almighty? If it isn't supernatural, everything
God does is supernatural. Do you know that? In fact, do
you know what he's gonna do as his final act? after he takes
us all to glory and judges the world, and it ain't going to
take him but about that long to judge this world and everybody
in it. It's already been done as far as he's concerned. He
don't have to line folks up and say, listen, stand up here and
I'm going to show you what all you've done. No, no. He already,
he knows what we all do. Judgment's already set. When he gets through with that
and we all go to glory, you know what he's going to do? He created
the heavens and earth we live in now, but he's going to create
a new heaven and a new earth. And you know the only thing that's
going to be there? Righteousness. That's going to be supernatural.
That's going to be supernatural. And what miracles. If it isn't
the gospel, if it doesn't produce miracles, it isn't the gospel.
It makes dead men to live. It takes ungodly sinners and
makes them righteous. It makes rebels into obedient
sons of God. That's what it does. That's what
it does. God ain't got no rebels in his
kingdom. Todd was telling me, and I've
heard this stuff for years, but this fella, was talking about
after the Lord raptures the church, he sneaks the church out of here.
That's how you gotta do it. You gotta sneak them out of here.
And now you think about, and you know, and if you're not saved,
if he takes somebody out driving a car that belongs to him, that
car's gonna wreck. If the pilot that's flying the
plane is a believer and the Lord takes him, that plane's going
down. And the rest of us who don't
live right, Everybody else that don't live right, when the church
is in heaven, we all gotta stay down here and go through seven
years of great tribulation. If there's any more tribulation
than we've already been through, I don't wanna go anymore. Do
you? I don't, that's just, that's
so ridiculous. That's so ridiculous. And God
takes dead men and gives them life. Takes deaf men and gives
them hearing. I remember One time down in North
Carolina, this woman got real, real upset because the preacher
asked his wife, said, would you get me a cup of coffee, honey?
So she went to get him a cup of coffee. This upset this one
woman, said, why didn't he get up and go get his own coffee?
That's what she said. Why didn't he get his own coffee? Can't
he wait on himself? Well, she left the church. She
left that night, left. Service was going on. Preacher's
up preaching. She walked back in, sat down
about halfway in the back. Next preacher got up, and she
stood up, and she said, I've been playing religion all
my life, but now I see, and now I hear. That one moment of rebellion
made her see that she didn't know Christ,
that one moment of rebellion. But oh my, and then let me tell
you something else about this. Not only is it a word of hope
for people who are dead in trespasses and sins, not only is it that,
people who were by nature the children of wrath even as other
children of disobedience. But I tell you, it's a word of
surprise. When we were in this awful, awful condition, awful,
awful condition, you know what happened? God broke in on us. He said, He didn't knock on the
door, He said, I'm coming in. I'm coming, I'm breaking in on
you, and I'm going to break in on you, and that's what He has
to do. He has to break in on a man,
and He broke in on us. And he invaded our little worlds,
invaded our hearts, invaded our minds, invaded our will, invaded
everything about it. He took in, he come in and broke
down everything that was against him. He told us, seek ye my face. And you know what we said? Oh
Lord, thy face I'll seek. But let me show you what I mean.
Look over here in Acts chapter nine. Look in Acts chapter nine. You know, here's a man, listen now, Paul
was a wicked, wicked, wicked man, a mean man, a cruel man,
God-hating man, a Christ-hating man. And it said here, in Saul,
yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter, slaughter against
the disciples of the Lord. He went in to the high priest,
and he said, Give me some warrants. I need a pocket full of warrants. And I'm going to go to Damascus
into the synagogues, and if I find any of this way that trust Christ,
believe Christ, and are Christians and are believers, he said, I
don't care if they're men or women. I want to bring them back
up to Jerusalem, and I want them brought in bounds, in chains. And as he journeyed, He got near
to Damascus, had all them warrants in his pocket, and suddenly,
suddenly, there shined right about him a light from heaven.
Oh, my eyes swam down. A light shined right about him
from heaven. And man, what happened then? He fell to the earth. And he heard a voice. Saying
unto him, God gave him ears. Saul, Saul, oh, why are you persecuting
me? And he said, who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Now listen
to what he says now. And he trembling and astonished. He was, you talk, the last person
you would ever expect to become a believer was this man right
here. If you'd have knew him, you'd
have said, there's no way in the world God would save that
man. He hates Christ too much. He
hates the Lord's people too much. And he trembling and astonished
said, Lord, I don't know what to do, but
you can tell me, you can tell me. And I'll tell you what, here's
a man the most unlikely man to ever become a believer on this
earth. And I tell you what, and our
Lord told him, I'm Jesus. And when he saw the Lord Jesus
that day, he saw the face of grace, he saw the face of love,
he saw the face of mercy, compassion, pity, Long-suffering? He saw one that because, in spite
of himself, in spite of who he was and what all he did, God
broke in on him on the Damascus road. And I tell you, that's
what I'm saying. And you're talking about a man
surprised. Not only were he surprised, he was astonished. But when he
got to his sight and he went straight away to preach Christ,
you know what they said? They're scared to death of him.
They were surprised, there's no way this man can know Christ.
And oh my, look in Galatians 2.20, look now back over in Galatians
2.20 with me for a moment. Oh, what a surprise, what a surprise. But God, here we are in this
awful condition, but God, but God, but God. He sang that song tonight. Amazing
love. Paul said in verse 20, I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. Is there two of him here? He
said, I live, yet it's not me that's living. Is he confused
here? Is there two of him here? He
said, I live, I'm solitarious, I live. Paul, I live. Is that two of me, two of him,
two of me? But he says, yes, not I that
live. It's really not me living. Oh
my, but I tell you what it is. Christ liveth in me. And then
here's the greatest surprise, that he loved me. He loved me. How do you know he loved you?
He gave himself for me. Oh my. Gave himself for me. And what about you? Are you surprised that you're
a believer? You think about it. Just think about it. You love
God's word. You absolutely love God's word.
I mean you love it. You don't just Believe it, but
I mean you love it. Over in Revelations, God told
John, said, go up to that angel and tell him to give you that
little black book. Give him that book. He went to that angel and
said, give me that book. And he took that book out of
the right hand of that angel. That angel says, eat it. And he said, it'll be sweet,
but it'll be bitter. And I tell you what, the Word
of God's sweet, but it also brings bitterness with it, because it
tells us who we are, tells us what we are, tells us what we
still are, apart from the grace of God. And I tell you what,
it brings some things to us. But don't you, ain't you surprised
that here you are, you love God's Word? I mean, love it. Love it. That's the most, this
is the most glorious book that's ever been written on the face
of the earth. I read a lot of books. A lot of books. Pup fiction. Junk. Empty my poor little old weak
brain. Don't take much, but you know. There's a dog, Jane had a dog,
named Spot. But anyway, but this thing right
here, you can read a book, leave it alone, but you can't leave
this alone. You read it over and over and
over and over. You'll come and you'll listen
to it, and you'll say, I'll remember that. He said something that
I'll never forget. You get out to your car and you
try to tell somebody what you just heard, and you say, what
was that he said? What was that he said? But you're here, you know why
you're here? Because you love God's word. You love the preachers
that preaches God's word. You delight in the word of God.
You come here, want God to say something to you. You don't care
if he says something to anybody else as long as he speaks to
you. speaks to you and where you are and what you need. And
then, here's another thing, that you love to hear preaching. I
don't know how many times people's told me, I wish, quit preaching
to me. I don't, I hate preachers, I
hate being preached to. And we come here, and that's
what we come for. We want somebody to preach to
us. Take God's Word and open it up and preach to us. Tell
us what God said. And here's another thing about
God's preachers, and this is why we know it's the gospel,
because God's preacher will tell you, you take your Bible and
you follow along with me, and you follow along with me in the
book, you follow along with me in the Bible, and see if what
I'm telling you is not so or not. That so impressed me when
I first started going to Grace Churches, Years and years ago,
way back in the late 70s, the thing was that those people that
say, get your Bible, I want you to follow along with me. Other
preachers never done that, I never done that. But we want people to understand
that yes, listen, and we love preaching. We had a meeting last
weekend and I told those preachers, nobody needs preaching to more
than I do. I'm gonna sit down here and I
want you to preach to me, zero in on me, because I'm needy. I need to hear from God. I need
my soul fed. I need my soul fed. I need to
hear from God. I need to hear what God does
for people like myself. We talked about being a surprise. You think about this. Paul said,
what I would do, I don't. What I hate, I do. But it's no
more I that do it, but who is it then, if it's not you? He
said, it's sin that dwells in me. He said, oh, the will is
present with me. I've got the will. I've got the
will to love God perfectly. I've got the will to listen to
God's word and remember every bit of it. I've got the will
to submit to Christ perfectly and completely. I've got the
will to whatever God puts in my life to say, yes, Lord, that's
fine. If you want to put me on the
sick bed, that's fine. We got the will to do everything
perfectly, completely, and honor God in everything we do. But how to perform, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That's what I'm talking about.
And listen to this. You love to pray. Oh, you like to talk to the Lord.
You go to the Lord. Sometimes you can't say nothing,
but Lord have mercy on me. And here you are, you love to
have fellowship with God's people. Why in the world do you want
to fellowship with a bunch of people like us? But that's what
we want. We want to be with people of
like mind. Paul called it, Peter called
it precious faith. Oh, we want to fellowship with
God's people. They're the most blessed people
on the face of this earth. Of all the people that I've ever
met in this world, God's people are the most precious, most glorious,
most generous, most kind, most gracious, most loving, most forgiving
people on the face of this earth. Ain't nobody like them. Ain't
nobody like them. I'd rather be, I've got two brothers,
two sisters, and I would rather spend, me
and Todd could spend two or three weeks together, and I'd enjoy
his company more than I would a half a day with either one
of my brothers or sister. You know how long it, last time
I was at my brother's house, he said, well, what are you doing
here? What are you doing here? I thought
I'd come by and see you, see how you're doing. But you know, when we see one
and I see one of the Lord's people coming, that's the most. Oh,
my goodness. We hug one another, kiss one
another. Delight in one another. Oh, my. And we are surprised to ourselves,
especially We're a contradiction to ourselves. We come sometimes and, you know,
you're probably not like this, I am, but sometimes you think,
I'm such a hypocrite, I'm so, I'm such a hypocrite, I just
oughta stay at the house. I'll just hinder the service.
But you say, nope, I gotta go, I gotta go. I gotta go. And there was a time You were
just the opposite of that. You didn't love God. You didn't
love His word. You didn't love preaching. You
didn't love fellowship. You didn't love nothing about
God at all. You were just the opposite. But
God, who is rich in mercy, for the great, great, great, great,
great love were with He loved us. When? Even when we were dead
in trespasses and sins. Oh my, are you surprised that
God loved you, gave himself for you, save you, quicken you? And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his
pain? For me who him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? And then this word but God
also tells us the gospel. Look back over here with me now
in Ephesians 2. Let me hurry. I don't have a
clue. I didn't turn this microphone
on either. Does that hurt? That don't hurt nothing, does
it? But look what it says here in
Ephesians 2. It says, God, in verse four,
for God loved us with this great love, even when we were dead
in sins, and hath quickened us. The gospel tells us that salvation
is of the Lord from beginning to end. Listen to this. He quickened
us together with Christ, as the first together with Christ. By
grace, you're saved. Has raised us up together with
Christ. Made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ. Together with Christ, together
with Christ. And it tells us here that He's raised us up and
made us set with Christ. We're seated with Him in heavenly
places. And listen to this right here. That in the ages to come,
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. Now what does He mean in the
ages to come? That's eternity. That's eternity. When we get
into eternity, it's gonna take us all of eternity. And all the
ages to come, Christ is gonna have to teach us about the riches
of His grace and His kindness toward us while we were in this
world. And I tell you, salvation's of
the Lord, for by grace are you saved through faith. Well, where in the world did
you get that faith? Well, it just don't belong to you. It's
a gift of God. Oh, my. Well, I'll tell you what,
we need to work for the Lord. We really need to do something
for Jesus. No, he said, not of works. Because if it was, a fellow
would brag and boast. In this word, we are his workmanship.
That word means poem, poema, poem. We are God's workmanship. He created us. Made us his poema. And he created us. in Christ Jesus. Oh my. Salvations of the Lord from beginning
to end. If we were dead, Christ gave
us life. If we're without God, we're together
with Christ. What a blessed, blessed hope
we have together with Christ. Saved by grace. Saved by grace. Saved because of grace. Kept
by grace. Grace, grace, and more grace.
Give me grace. Oh, I gotta have grace. And then
let me give you this. We talk about this word but God
in the condition we were in. What a word of encouragement.
What a word of encouragement for you whose hearts are broken
over somebody you love. Maybe your heart grieves over
a son. Maybe over a daughter. Maybe
a husband. Maybe a wife. And it absolutely appears hopeless,
hopeless, it appears hopeless. But God, but God. My daughter called me the other
night and she hadn't seen her in over two and a half years. But she called me the other night
and oh my, she was out of her mind. And it's awful that you
can't You can't talk with them when they're like that. You can't
deal with them, you just can't. But what in the world can I do
for her other than just pray? What can I do for her? What can I do for her? If I give
her money, she's gonna use it on drugs. When it appears hopeless, remember
this. We once were dead in trespasses
and sins. We once were the children of
wrath. We once were children of disobedience. We once walked
according to the course of this world. We were once by nature
the children of wrath, even as the others. But what made the
difference? God, who is rich in mercy for
the great love were with the elect. How great is God's love,
then, So keep on praying, keep on seeking, keep on shedding
tears over them, keep on being honest with them if you can,
if you get the opportunity. And then it's a word of encouragement
for us. We're left in this world. I'm
left in this world. You're left in this world. We're
left here to carry on, carry on the gospel, carry on living
for Christ, carry on seeking the glory of our Lord, And the
churches are left here. There's light in this dark, dark
world. Preachers are left here. What
for? To preach to what few God leaves
on this earth. And oh my, we're left here. The
faithful are left here. And we're left in a world that's
against God. We're left in a world that's
against Christ. And Antichrist is in full force
in this world right now. Well, what's our hope? Well,
I just have to be left in this world. What's my encouragement? To be left in this world. But
God, who is rich, rich in love. and who is rich not only in that,
but he has great, great, great, great, we don't have any match,
how great a love he has for us. So we're gonna keep on keeping
on as long as God gives us grace. And I love you all for it, I
love your preacher for it. Where I'm at, last March I was
there 42 years. I'd like to take a vacation,
but I'm the only preacher they got. I'm gonna have to keep carrying
on. Have to keep carrying on. You're
gonna have to too, Todd. I sure love all of you. Appreciate
you so much for listening, being here. Brother Todd, you come
on. Oh, thank you for that message.
You made a statement that