Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter
5. It is good to be here. I hope the Lord will make me
a blessing to you as you have been to me. Here I am going to read the first
six verses. And hopefully God will enable
me to say a few things about them. Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
but whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only rejoicing in hope of the glory of God and the glory that
we give of God, the glory that God has shown us, the glory of
God we see in Christ, but we glory in tribulations. Knowing
that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. A title of my message this evening
is Transforming Grace, or Grace that Transforms. I know this,
that where the grace of God comes, where God sends His grace and
gives His grace, something dramatic takes place in men and women's
hearts. Their lives are changed. Their lives are changed dramatically.
And when the grace of God comes, Nobody seeks it. Nobody is after
it. When it comes, it has to come
to you. We didn't even know what grace meant until grace taught
us what grace means. Now, ain't that right? And it
was the grace of God that brought us this understanding. And it
brings salvation where it comes. And it brings great transformation.
Now, you keep Romans 5 and look with me in Colossians chapter
1. I'll give you an illustration, a scriptural illustration of
what I'm talking about. Colossians chapter 1. You know, when Paul talked about
the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto
all men. Now, I remember a person coming
to visit me one time, deacon of a Baptist church, brought
his Bible. He was going to show me how wrong I was. And he quoted
that scripture, you know. He says, now, you know, the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. And
I asked him, I said, do you mean to tell me that everybody out
here in the world, the grace of God has appeared to them?
He said, yes. I said, well, this means you go right now, start
knocking on doors and seeing what anybody knows about the
grace of God. Let's just start asking. Let's just go to town
and stop anybody on the street and ask them if the grace of
God has appeared to them. And if it is, what's happened?
What does that mean? Well, naturally, he wouldn't
do that. He wouldn't do that. But how did the grace of God
appear? The grace of God appeared through the Lord Jesus Christ
at all points in history. Every time the grace of God has
been brought to a man or a woman, whether it was Adam after he
fell in the garden, it would be the last person on this earth,
the grace of God appeared into this world through Jesus Christ
our Lord. But here, look what it says in
Colossians chapter 1, verse 12, talking about grace that transforms
us. And he says, giving thanks unto
the Father, which hath made us meet, or made us fit to be a
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. I believe
that's the saints that's in the light that we weren't in, but
who have delivered us. Now listen to this. From the
power of darkness, I mean saved us. Here we are in this power
of darkness. held by this power, this born in darkness, lived
in darkness, and raised in darkness, and naturally in darkness. And
he came by his own power and translated us into the kingdom,
took us from one kingdom to another kingdom, moved us from one place
to another place. And you think that something
like that can't happen and it not dramatically change you?
Take you from darkness and put you over in this other kingdom?
Take you from a kingdom of darkness and put you in a kingdom of light?
A kingdom of sin and put you in a kingdom of righteousness?
And oh, I talk about grace transforming. It transforms a person's character.
Where grace comes, it changes a man's character, transforms
him. He's not the same person he was. I mean, God changes him
from the inside out. It gives him a new heart, gives
him a new nature, gives him a new spirit, gives him a mind of Christ. I mean, his character's changed.
Everything about him changes. Not all that, but it transforms
all of his relationships. It'll change your relationship
with your wife, with your children, with God. How the grace of God
changed our relationship with God Himself. How the grace of
God changed our relationships with one another. How it changed
our relationship with Christ. How it changed our relationship
with sin. Changed our relationship. And I tell you, beloved, the
Scriptures are clear, plain, emphatic about us being new creatures
in Christ. It's emphatic about that, plain
and clear about it. About us being partakers of the
divine nature. And that we cease to be our own.
We don't belong to ourselves anymore. I do not belong to me. I'm the last one, and you count
up to start out at one? I don't even register on a scale.
And that's because of the grace of God in me. The world just
stops there. They want to get to the top,
and the believer, he's put in the bottom. And that's what we're
talking about, that we cease to be our own, that we've been
bought with a price, and the price was the precious blood
of Christ. When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And look
here in Romans 5, 2. I want to show you a little statement
in here and try to make some sense out of it for you and me
together. And look how it changes our relationships.
It says here in Romans 5, 2, By whom also we have access by
faith, and this is what I want to look at, into this grace wherein
we stand. Into this grace wherein we stand. Now this grace, we stand in grace.
God put us in grace, gave us grace, revealed grace to us.
And here we have, we stand in this grace, and how this grace
changes our relationship. And the first relationship that
changes is this. It changes our relationship with
God the Father. Look there in verse 1. It says,
Therefore, being justified by faith, what's this now? We have
peace with God. We have peace with God. Now,
there was a time, I wasn't at peace with God. But now I'm at
peace with God in here. You know why I say that? Because
we were enemies, enemies in our minds by wicked words. Enemies
of God. Enemies of His righteousness.
Enemies of the way He saved people. Enemies of everything that's
right, just, and holy, and true. We were enemies in our minds
by wicked words. I mean, that wasn't a good thought
that went through our brain. That wasn't anything righteous,
true, or just that went through our brain. We were enemies in
our minds. And the carnal mind is enmity
against God. That means it was furious. You
ever got furious until you think you don't explode? That's the
way we was toward God. We was furious. But now, beloved,
we have peace with God. And no longer under the wrath
of God. I know there are some preachers say that we never was
under the wrath of God. As far as God's concerned, that's
true. But as far as our experience
is concerned, that's another story. Ain't that right? I tell
you, I remember the wrath of God being against me and my experience.
You know, God being against me. And when I understood that God
could not look at me and could have no dealings with me, and
that God was angry with me, and I'll tell you something else,
and here's the thing about it, if you're angry with God, God's
angry with you. That works two ways. And I found out that because
I was angry with God, He is angry with me. He that hath the Son
hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life, but
the wrath of God abides on him. I have no problem telling you,
if you're not a believer, If you don't know Christ, if you've
never submitted to Christ, the wrath of God is like a cloud
hanging over your head. And in our experiences, so we're
no longer under the wrath of God. No, no, God now, he's no
longer angry. And oh, bless his holy name.
Now I can approach him with boldness and liberty and confidence and
freedom. No longer strangers from the
covenants of Israel, but now we're the sons of God. And let
me tell you something, we didn't make this peace. Preachers say,
make it peace with God. We could not make this peace.
What am I going to do to make peace with God? But I'll tell
you who made peace with God. Look what it says. We have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He made peace. How? Through the blood of His
cross. By taking the wrath of God upon
himself, by taking the justice of God upon himself, by taking
the just anger of God that was against me and taking it upon
himself, and bearing that judgment and that wrath in my place, in
my stead, now I have peace with God through my Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, now I do. And let me
tell you something else that changes, not only our relationship
with God, God says there is no peace to the wicked, says my
God. But look what else it says here. We have a transformed,
grace transformed our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
what it says down there in verse 12. Here's what we were. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men. Why? Because all of us have sinned. Who did we sin at? We sinned
in Adam. How did we sin? We sin by nature.
We were born sinners, conceived in sin, shaped in iniquity. And
look down below in verse 19. So by that one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. Now watch this. So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. We all went from being a sinner
to being made righteous. Being adjoined to Adam, now I'm
joined to Christ. And look what it says here in
verse six of Romans chapter five, talking about transforming our
relationship with Christ. Grace doing this. For when we
were yet without strength. Are you still without strength?
How many of you feel strong? Oh, boy, preachers tell you so,
you know, we need to point out people's strength to them. Now,
you don't have to point out to them. They all know what they
got. When we were without strength, strength to think right, do right,
act right, feel right, go ahead. We were without strength. You
know what it is to be without strength? Every one of you had
babies or had grandbabies, and they got no strength. You have
to carry them. They can't get up. You have to do it. They had no
strength at all. And that's the way we are. Somebody has to pick
us up. When we were without strength.
Now watch this. In due time, not only were we without strength,
Christ died for who? The ungodly. Oh, listen. But oh my, when we were sinners
and we were ungodly. But watch what he says down here
in verse 10. But God commendeth his love toward us, and that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What would that
spread? Christ died for the ungodly.
That's me. God commended His love for us
while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. We weren't
good men. We weren't righteous men. We
had nothing to commend ourselves, and yet, begloved, the Scriptures
tell us He was delivered for our offenses, raised, raised
for our justification. Look there in verse 9. His blood
justified us much more than it being now. And I love this word
now. Every time you read that word now, it always says now. There is therefore now no condemnation. I've been reading that. I've
been same pastor, same place for 32 years, and every time
I read now, it's still now. And now, much more than it being
now, justified by His blood. His blood justified us. His blood
cleansed us. Now, and look at this. And then
it says in verse 10, His death reconciled us. For when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
Oh, not only did His blood justify us and cleanse us, His death
reconciled us. And then, beloved, He says that
His righteousness is imputed to us. Look over here in Romans
4, and let me show you this a minute. Look in verse 21. This is Romans
4, 21. His righteousness is ours. We
were without strength. We were ungodly. We were sinners.
And now we are justified by his blood. His death reconciled us. And it says here in Abraham now,
being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he is able also
to perform. But now it was not written for
his sake alone that it was imputed to him. Now listen to me. Let
me tell you what happened to Abraham. Here's an old man, 75
years old. And he's out walking one day,
and God came to him and said, Abraham, told him to go out. And he got out there, and Abraham,
God came to him and said, look up, Abraham. He looked up. He
said, see all them stars? I do. I see every one of them,
as far as I can see. He said, do you know that's how
many children you're going to have? And then he said, look at all that
sand around you. He said, that's how many children you're going
to have. And they said, look east, look
west, look north, look south. As far as you see, it's all yours. Abraham says, yeah, I believe
that. I believe that. Now, that's why
I said it wasn't written for his sake alone. Now, how do you
look at the stars and say, I'm going to have that many children?
But he believed God and he didn't stagger at that. But it wasn't
written for his sake alone that he had this faith and that God
counted him righteous. But for us also, for us also,
to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him, believe
on God himself, who is just, that raised up Jesus, our Lord,
from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses. And there he
sits right now. There's Abraham's seed sitting
at the right hand of God. And there's all of these children,
just a few of them, sitting around here right now, with them heavenly
children. Oh, beloved, I'll tell you, it's
by Him that we have access into this grace. are standing right
now and always will be and always has been in Him and Him alone. I mean, beloved, I don't want
no part of me outside of Christ. I stand by this grace when we
stand. We stand in grace, saved by grace,
kept by grace, taught the grace of God, and we stand in it. You
see, beloved, we believe God's record that He gave of His Son,
and I believe that record, and I throw my lot in with Him, live,
sink, swim, or die. I've got all of my eggs, all
of my soul, all of my being, time and eternity given into
one man's hands, and I've never seen Him but by faith. And one
of these days, beloved, I'll see Him face to face. But everything
I am, I've given over to Him." Lock, stock, and barrel. Is He
able to keep it? Is He worthy of me giving it
to Him? Is He worthy of my soul? Is He worthy of my adoration?
Is He worthy of my worship? Is He worthy of me saying, Oh
Lord, it's you and you alone that I need, you and you alone
that I stand in? Oh, He changed our relationship with
our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you something else
that grace did. Not only our relationship with our Father,
God the Father, but with our Lord Jesus Christ. And also,
it changed our relationship to the Holy Spirit. Look what it
said here in Romans 5. It says here, The love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. How was the love of God brought
to us? How was the love of God showed to us? The Holy Ghost
shed it abroad in our hearts. How do we know about God commended
this love toward us? The Holy Ghost shed it abroad
in our hearts. How do we know Christ loved us before the foundation
of the world with an everlasting love? The Holy Ghost shed it
abroad in our hearts. How do we know? And I tell you,
and I know this without a shadow of a doubt, only God's children,
only God's elect, know anything about the love of God, and they're
the only ones that appreciate it. The only ones. I wrote a
little article here a while back on sick of love. And one of the
loves that I'm absolutely, utterly sick of is I'm sick of this love
that says God loves everybody. It's a sentimentality that Christ
loves everybody. Jesus loves you, and so do we.
God loves you, and so do we. I'm utterly contemptible of such
a love as that. And the love of God is shed abroad
in the hearts of those that Christ died for, that God commended
His love for, that Christ shed His blood for, and them alone.
And the Holy Spirit was given unto us, first and foremost,
by promise. Todd made a wonderful statement
before we come to service. Everything we know about Christ,
everything we know about the Scriptures, The Holy Ghost is
the one that teaches us. Yeah, look over with me in John
14, just a moment. Let me show you this. Look at
this together. I've been doing a lot of preaching
on the work of the Holy Spirit, and he's a person and talked
about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And he was promised. You know, John says that there
is coming one after me who is mightier than I. I'm not worthy
to loose a shoelace. And he'll baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. And this fire, you know, is emblematic
of the judgment. And oh, here he says in John
14, in verse 16, God talks about it. Our Lord said, I'm going
to pray the Father. And he's going to give you another Comforter.
And that word Comforter is capitalized. That's a title. That's one of
the names of the Holy Spirit. Comforter. That he may abide
with you forever. And on. How long is he going
to stay with you? Forever. Forever. And watch this. And
even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive. The
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He teaches the truth.
He reveals the truth. He speaks the truth, only blesses
the truth, only acknowledges the truth. He is the Spirit of
truth. And the world can't receive Him.
Because you know why? They believe a lie. And because
they don't see Him and don't know Him. But you know Him. We
know the Holy Spirit. We know His presence. We know
when truth is being told. We know when Christ is being
preached. We know ourselves because the Holy Spirit is in us. The
Spirit of Truth, that's how we know the truth, by the Spirit
of Truth. Now watch this. And He dwells in you, and shall
be in you, and I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I'm
going to come to you. How am I going to come to you?
I'm going to come to you by the power of the Holy Ghost. The
Spirit of God is going to come to you. Yet a little while, and
the world will see me no more. Just a little while, and the
world will never lay eyes on me again. He's going back to
the Father. He said, because I live, you
shall live also. Because I live, the Holy Spirit's
going to live in you. That's what he's talking about.
He was given unto us to teach us, to guide us, to comfort us. And you know, he's the only one
who can bear witness to us being a child of God. He's the only
one that can give you assurance that you belong to God. The Spirit
himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. We wouldn't know we were the
children of God without the Holy Spirit. I certainly can't. I'm
not going to give you. Have you ever tried to give anybody
assurance, Todd? Can't even get enough of myself. No, no. If the Holy Spirit can't
give you assurance, a preacher sure can't do it. Can he? And
oh, let me show you another thing. I changed our relationship to
the law. Look here in Romans 520. You talk about grace transforming
us and changing our relationship to the law. Look in Romans 5.20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound.
Oh, the law entered. And what did it do? It showed
us just how offensive sin really is. How big sin is. How powerful sin is. And you
know, the law condemns us. The law finds us guilty, whether
you feel it or not. And a man outside of Christ is
under the curse of the law, whether he knows it or not. And you see,
beloved, sin finds its strength in the law. And let me give you
an illustration about this. Now, talking about changing our
relationship to the law. You know, the law finds its strength
in the law. Let me tell you something to
do. You all go home tonight, some of you men, you go home
and you lay down the law to your wife. Just go and lay down the law.
Tell her what you're going to let do, what she ain't going
to do, where she's going to go, where she's not going to go,
how much money she's going to spend. Just lay down the law.
What do you reckon will happen? That's where, you see, we laugh
about it, but that's exactly what it seems, that's the way
it is. God lays down the law to us, and we do just like this. As very, very few people can
bear someone having authority over them. And when you start
manifesting that authority, start manifesting that power, start
manifesting your power, and laying down the law, That's when people's
hatred and resistance and struggling and murmuring begins, and that's
proof of their sin. And that's what the law comes
to prove to us, that that's what we are. You know, but now wait
a minute. Look down in Romans 6.14, talking
about what the law does. You know, we've changed our relationship
with the law. He says in Romans 6.14, for sin
shall not have dominion over you. It's not going to reign
over you. It's not going to have power
over you. And, oh, beloved, we're not under the law. And why ain't
we under the law? Because we're under grace. Grace don't lay down the law.
Grace obeyed the law. Grace fulfilled the law. Christ
obeyed it, and it's done and over and done with. And grace
were offensive bound. Grace did much more of that.
If you lend a match, and I'll run and grab the bucket of water
to put out that match, that's how much grace abounds over sin.
And I tell you, beloved, you know, we're not under law but
under grace. It says, not under law, Romans
6, 14. We're not under it as a covenant.
It's not our rule of life. People talk all the time about
your rule of life. What rule of life did Abraham live by? He was 435 years before the law. What law did Noah live by? They lived the same way God's
peoples always lived, by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And, oh, beloved, we're not under
it as a curse. It don't even condemn us anymore.
You know why? Because we're under the reign
of grace. We're under the power of love
and liberty and life. Oh, shall we sin, Paul says,
because of this? No, no, no. We're standing in
this grace. And because we stand in this
grace, it changes the power of our relationship to the power
of sin. It'll not have dominion over you. And you know why it
says it won't have dominion over you? First of all, God said it
wouldn't. God said it wouldn't. That ought
to be enough. But you know why? Because God
overcame. He subdued that power of sin
in you when you changed. When grace comes in you, you
never even knew what sin was till grace came to you. And now
sin is distasteful. And listen to me. You know as
well as I do, you don't have to do a thing in the world A
thing in the world, go anywhere, do anything to fill your sinfulness. Do you? You don't have to, what
do you have to do to fill your sinfulness? And oh, beloved,
His blood cleanses us from it, guilt. And let me tell you something,
where guilt is gone, there's freedom from the power
of it. If you ain't got no guilt, and if it's gone, what's going
to condemn you? Huh? And oh, beloved, sin manifests
itself in many, many ways. It's deceitful and deceiving.
It's hard and it's heartening. But grace abounds over sin. And let's look quickly in Galatians
chapter 1. Let me show you. You know, talking about how these
things change us. Grace transforms us. This is
grace within which we stand. Galatians chapter 1. Look in verse 3. Grace be to
you, and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God our Father.
You see, grace transformed our relationship to this present
evil world. Now, there was a time we walked
according to the course of this world, ruled by the princes and
principalities and powers of the air, the devil himself. And this world is an evil world.
I didn't know it was evil until I was brought up in it. But it's
evil. It's evil politically. This world
politically is so evil and so despicable and deceitful. And then you take the economic
world. It's cutthroat. It's evil. It's evil. It's just this old idea, as I
heard a preacher say one time, get all you can, get all you
get, then sit on the can. You know, it's just an evil world. And then you take the religious
world. You figure out any world you want to. The religious world. How evil is the religious world?
How evil is it? How many preachers get up that's
possessed of demons? I seen a little four-year-old
boy preaching yesterday, and as they call him preaching, he
had his little handkerchief out, wiping like his daddy does and
all that, talking about the Pentecost, the Pentecost, the Pentecost.
Four years old, about that high. Slapping on the pulpit, and they
thought that's the grandest thing since electric light. How evil
is that? How evil is that that men, grown
men, was standing all over amenity and church, encouraging them
to go on. How evil of man is it that would
have a four-year-old up with a Bible, pretending he's preaching,
and wiping sweat off of himself? How wicked a human being is that,
that would allow something like that to happen to a child? And
then they want to take your children away from you if you're smoking
an automobile with them. And they let a preacher, a little
boy, get up and preach. That's child abuse. And that's an evil world, and
God saved us from this present evil world. People say all the time, how's
the world treating you? I said, the world didn't treat me good
when I was in it. It didn't. If I'm telling you
the truth, it didn't. You know, I don't want to talk
so much about what kind of person I was, but I'll tell you what. Then it was a dog-eat-dog world,
you know, you go out and back in those days, you know, you've
done some awful evil things, but boy, you're trying to beat
somebody, somebody's trying to beat you. And then I ended up,
I ended up being in a hospital for 18 months and nobody, not
one person went to my wife and said, can I help you pay the
rent? Do you need any groceries? Do you need gas money to go see
Donnie? Not one person came to that hospital to visit me. Not one. That's the world. But when one of our brothers,
now they get sick, we pray for them. We visit them. We want
information about them. We want to see how they're doing.
We call them. We're interested in it. We must have thought we
were going to go see Henry. Last time we went to see Scott,
we went and left Scott on Thursday, and the Lord called him home
the next Tuesday. And I'm sure if Henry thought we were going
to go see him, he'd get to go home next Tuesday and say, hurry
up and get up here. I mean, honestly, that's why he would do that.
But we once walked it, but we've been chosen out of this world.
We've been called out of it. We've been redeemed from it.
We're in it, but we're not of it. We don't have the same spirit,
the same nature, the same attitude. How long have I been preaching,
Todd? Do you know? Let me tell you another one about how it
changes our relationship to good works. Back over in Romans with
me real quick. Romans chapter 5. I've got just a couple more
points. This world is so evil. And all you've got to do, you
know, look at your own family. You say, won't you come hear
the gospel? I'm going to one of these days. Won't you come
hear the gospel? I'm going to one of these days. I need to go here, I need
to go there, I'm going to go this, you know. And everything,
the Christ and the gospel, I don't care if your daddy's a preacher.
I don't care how often you talk to them, until God does something
for them, no matter what you say, they're not coming. Why
is that? Because they're of this evil
world. They're held by it, and bondage
to it, and they can't break the chains. And God's grace got to go before
grace. And that's what we need to do.
Say, Oh God, send grace to my son. Go let grace go before grace. Go and speak to the heart. Speak
to the soul. Make them feel their need. Make
them understand where they're at. Make them understand that
you're mad at them. They don't want me to get mad
at them, and they get scared that I'm going to get mad at
them, but God's mad at them. Let me tell you something about
our relationship to good works. Look if you're in Romans 5 and
verse 7. It says, for scarcely for a righteous
man would one die, yet for a good man some would even dare to die.
Well, well, now wait a minute. Good men? We weren't good men. We certainly weren't righteous
men. And oh, beloved, and I tell you, this talks about being good
men, and good men do good deeds. But until Christ came, we trusted
in our good works for salvation. We trusted in our good works
for blessings. But boy, when the grace of God
come and showed us that we weren't good men and that we did not
produce any good works, it showed us that our best, that the best
we had was nothing but filthy rags. Our righteousness was nothing
but filthy rags. And let me say this. There's
nothing, nothing, nothing we can ever do to get a blessing
from God, not one. We cannot do anything to get
God to bless us. Nothing. You can come to every
service here, get every CD, witness to everybody, pray, get up at
four o'clock in the morning, pray, read your Bible, ten chapters
a day, but that will not get one blessing from God. You know,
God blesses us the way He saves us. We get blessings because He'll
give them to us. And now we understand that we're
saved by grace, not by good works. And we do now the good works
that we have and good works that we do, and we don't have no idea
what they are. But we do because we've already
received. And then look at trials and affliction.
Changed our relationship to trials. There in Romans chapter 3, 5
and verse 3. Oh, how. For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourself. This is a gift
of God, not of words. But God created us under good
works in Christ. So we have them, but we don't. God works them in us. But look
here, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We've seen the
glory of God. We hope to see the glory of God.
We rejoice in the glory of God that God's given to us. But we
also glory in our tribulations. Now, when we were lost and unconverted,
our trials and things that happened to us, we thought they were enemies
to our good. What good did they possibly do
us? But now, beloved, we say this comes from the hand of our
Father. They were not for our good. Not for our good at all. But now we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God. Now watch what
it says. Knowing tribulation works patience.
Now, here's what happened. God sends a trial in your life,
sends some trouble in your life. You don't sit down and twiddle
your thumbs. You get up and go on to work. Mothers take care
of your children, send them on to school, go on to your jobs.
And you may be so heavy hearted, so broken hearted. You may be
so heavy you can't breathe. You feel like there's such a
heaviness on your chest you can't hardly make it. And you feel
like, oh Lord, how am I going to get through the day? But I'll
tell you something, that works that patience. And that patience,
look what else it says, and that works experience. When that trial's
over and you've waited on God, there's experience. You say,
the Lord kept me. He gave me sufficient grace.
He gave me strength. His strength is made perfect
in my weakness. He never forsook me. And experience gives us hope
that the next time we go through this, it's going to be the same.
It's going to come out the same way. Ain't that right? And that's
why if it needs be, if it's necessary, we are in heaven through manifold
temptations. And we're more than conquerors
through him that loved us. Look in Romans 8.18 with me just
a moment. Romans 8.18. has changed our
relationship to trials and afflictions. You know, you go on, you know,
you have these great burdens, you have these great pile of
afflictions, you have these things that you go through, and you
may not tell anybody, just you and the Lord knows, and your
wife knows, or your husband, but you go on. You go on. And look what Paul said here
in verse 18, I reckon that the suffering of this present time,
whatever you're going through right now, right now, are not
worthy. Don't even compare them with
the glory which shall be revealed in us. Oh, man, you just don't know
what I'm going through. Don't even mention it, to what
glory you're going to have revealed. Not even comparable. That's why
they're called a lie of affliction. And then you're talking about
changing our relationship. Let me show you one other thing
here, 1 Corinthians 15. It changes our relationship to
death. Grace transforms our relationship
to death. We've had a lot of folks called
home down home, dear folks, saints of God. And every single one
of them of late has went out into eternity with great joy
in their hearts, smiles on their face, testimony of God's grace
in their lips, looking forward to when they get to draw their
last breath to go home and be with the Master. And oh, it changes
our relationship to death. Look here in verse 15, excuse
me, 55, 1 Corinthians 15, 55. This is what we say. You know,
before grace came, death was called the grim reaper. That's
the grim reaper, you know, had this old dark hood over his head
and a big old barbed wire in his hand. Oh, my, now he's a
conquered foe. Listen to what it says here.
Oh, damn, where's your sting? Oh, grave, where's your victory? Well, the sting of death is sin.
Well, did Christ bear sin in his own body on the tree? What'd
he done? He took death and took that sting from out of it. Now
watch this. And the strength of sin is the
law. Well, he fulfilled the law. He obeyed the law in our room
instead. Now watch this. So thanks be
unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Victory over what? Death, the
grave, sin, and the law? So be unmovable, always abounding. Knowing that your labor in the
Lord is not going to be in vain. You know, now, and I've seen
this happen. I'll tell you, when I get a call
of some believer and they're going on, I always rejoice. I
say, thank you, Lord. I do. When I went in to see Scott
Richardson, when we went up to his funeral, and I can name several
just to know. Tammy lost her grandfather just
to A few weeks ago, and Floyd, and everybody knows Floyd down
our way, and boy, when he got sick and they told him he was
going to die, he got happy about it. He actually got happy about
it. He said, oh, boy. He said, this is over. They said, well, you won't take
any treatment. He said, why in the world would I want to do
that? Oh, I'll get this over with as quick as I can. He said,
I want this over with as quick as I can get it over with. Ed
Elmore, his son, sat there and he said, if you all knew what
I felt like and how I rejoiced in the name of Christ right now,
every one of you would be where I am if you could. But I went up to see Scott, and
there that little old bitty body left, you know, after sin had
ravaged it, after disease had ravaged it. And I looked up, and I walked
up to that casket, and I began to laugh. And that's what I do. When I get happy, I laugh. I
began to laugh. I began to rejoice. I began to
bless the Lord. And Mitch walked up beside me,
his oldest son, and I said, Mitch, you know what I'm rejoicing about
doing? He said, oh, yeah. I said, he's not there. That's
what I'm rejoicing about. I said, he's not there. I said,
he's done. Run his race. It's over. And
wasn't he looking forward to it? And oh, that's why I'm telling
you, grace changes our relationship to death. We'll pat on that casket
and say, I'll see you in the morning. How come we'll see him in the
morning? Because when we get there, it'll be our first day,
and that'll be our morning. And we'll see him in the morning. And it changed our relationship
to judgment, too. There's therefore now, right
now, No condemnation, no judgment. To who? Them that are in Christ. Oh, my. And that's the grace
we stand in. That's the grace we stand in.
Well, thank you all so much for being gracious and kind and putting
up with me. Lord bless you. Thank
you very much. Thank you, Todd.