Tonight we are going to specifically
look at verse 5. We have been looking at these
verses one at a time. And I want to read again in verse
3, begin there and read the context for you. Titus chapter 3 and
verse 3. For we ourselves also were sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, awful,
awful heart sins. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life." I love how the Apostle Paul says
this here in verse 5, "...not by our works, but by His mercy
He saved us. So that would be a good title
to think about just a little bit. Not by our works, but by
His mercy. Not our works, but His mercy
saved us. I love the way he puts that,
don't you? You and I have been studying,
we looked two or three weeks ago at our sins, our awful depravity
that the Apostle Paul was talking about here in verse Three, that
we were foolish and deceived in serving divers' lust. And
he says, that's what we were. That's what we were. And he convinces us of that,
that he may prove the cause of salvation is in the Lord. As
he said there in verse four, but after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior towards man appears. He says the same
thing in chapter 2 in verse 11 if you remember that. For the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men. It's appeared. This word appeared
means it's made known. It's shined forth. It's shined
upon your understanding. It's appeared. And he said here,
the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all
men. His grace has saved men. He never lifted a finger to save
the angels, did He? And I think probably they were
just as valuable as we were, don't you? They were high and
holy creatures, but when they sinned, He never lifted a finger
to redeem them. He's never said the grace of
God appeared to angels, but He said here the grace of God appeared
to men. After the kindness and love of
God, to man appeared. And then He's not speaking here
of all man, without exception is He? He's speaking of the saved. He's speaking to the saved. After
the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward us appeared. Who is the saved? Not everybody,
is there? We don't believe in universal
salvation. We don't believe that everybody
is going to eventually be saved, do we? But He is saying here,
mercy saved us. It saved us. So He is speaking
here to the saved. And He says, His kindness appeared
to you. And as I said, it means it shined
into your mind. It's been made known unto your
heart. It's become visible to your understanding. If God has saved you tonight,
then you see something in Him that you never saw before. And
you know what it is? Kindness. Kindness. If you're here tonight and you're
saved, the Lord has saved you, you see something in Him now
that you never did see in Him before. His kindness and His love has
appeared. I spent 22 years of my life,
I knew nothing about the saving kindness of God or the love of
God that brings salvation until it appeared to me. As far as you and I know, man
was God's chief creation. When God took man, took the dust
of the earth and made man and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, God says it's very good. Remember that? That's
very good. He never said that about the
universe. As far as we know, He never said that about angels
when He created them. And I think He's telling us there
that man is His most valuable creation. The angels weren't
made in the image of God, but we were, weren't we? Don't you
think it grieved God at His heart when man disobeyed Him? The Bible
says it offended God by the sin of one man, by the disobedience
of one man. The offense came. It offended
God when Adam sinned and disobeyed and fell. But you know, God has
purposed to save a great host of men out of Adam's race. And
He's done it for this reason, to give Himself a great name.
a great name for His kindness and for His love and for His
mercy and for His grace. And that's what we see here in
these verses that I read to you. After that the kindness and love
of God our Savior towards man appeared, not the works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. See these attributes in God?
He's going to glorify His name. He's going to get Himself a great
name in our heart. And how is He going to do that?
By making us value His mercy. By letting us see His love that
when we're on a fast track to hell, He stopped us and saved
us. And aren't you glad that He didn't
say that this mercy is trying to save us? This mercy has offered
us salvation. Aren't you glad He didn't say
that? I love the way the Apostle Paul said this. Not by works
of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy,
He saved us. Mercy comes to us and saves us,
doesn't it? I love that. That's a wonderful
thought. And I want you to look back, put your little marker
there and look back at these things the Old Testament. Look
back in Isaiah chapter 54. The Lord often uses these very
same words, His kindness, His mercy, His love and His grace,
when He talks about Him saving us. And He talks about these
saving attributes that you and I may remember why He saved us. Don't we forget so easy? We forget
so easy, don't we? So we find these Scriptures every
place. This grace, this love and this
mercy, this kindness appears to us when we are in a most deplorable
condition. And He reminds us of that over
and over and over. Look here in Isaiah chapter 54
and look in verse 4. Look here at this kindness and
mercy that He talks about here. Isaiah chapter 54 and look in
verse 4. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed, Neither be thou confounded, disgraced, confused, for thou
shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember
the reproach of your widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine
husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Redeemer, thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be
called." Now look what a condition we were in. For the Lord hath
called thee as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a
wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith the Lord thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee." I tell you,
I've had a sense, and you probably have too, of being forsaken of
God. Have you had that since He saved
you? I have, haven't you? You get a sense sometime and
you wonder, has He forsaken me? I had a sense of that before
the Lord saved me. I don't know if that was your
experience or not, but I had a sense. And that made me afraid. Because I knew if God forsakes
me, then there's no hope for me. And here He said, for a small
moment, have I forsaken thee? But with great mercies will I
gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as
the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wrought with thee, nor rebuke thee. for
the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on
thee." How does He save us? By kindness, everlasting kindness
and mercy, the mercies of the Lord. Turning to another scripture
with me, just over to your left, just a little bit more in the
38th chapter, 38th chapter. Look here what
Hezekiah says about the love of the Lord saving him. You remember
when Hezekiah was sick and the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah
to him, said, tell him he's going to die, put his house in order.
And poor Hezekiah, he turned his face to the wall and began
to cry and weep and pray. And look here how he prays in
verse 9. Isaiah chapter 38 verse 9. You
just get a sense of what this man was feeling when the Lord
said, ìYouíre going to die. Youíre going to die. Set your
house in order.î And he turns his face towards the wall and
he says in verse 9, ìThe writings of Hezekiah, king of Judah, when
he had been sick and was recovered of his sickness.î Heís writing
his experience now. ìI said in the cutting off of
my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am depraved of
the residue of my years.î I said, I shall not see the Lord, even
the Lord, in the land of the living. I shall be a whole man
no more in the habitation of the world. My age is departed
and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent. I have cut off like a weaver
my life. He will cut me off with pining
sickness. From day even to night wilt thou
make an end of me. I reckoned till morning that,
as a lion, so will he break all my bones. From day even to night
wilt thou make an end of me, like a crane or a swallow. So did I chatter, I did mourn
as a dove. Mine eyes fell with looking upward. O Lord, I am depressed. Undertake
for me. What shall I say? He hath spoken
to me, and himself hath done it. I shall go softly all the
years in the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, by these things
men live, and in all these things in the life of my spirit. So
wilt Thou recover me, and make me to live. And look what he
says in verse 17. Here is the reason for it all.
Behold, for peace I had great bitterness, but Thou hast in
love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption. Thou
hast cast my sin, behind thy back." What was it that wretched
down and delivered this poor man from the pit of corruption?
He attributed sure to love. Love. The love of God appeared
to him. And we talk about grace here
in verse 7 that I read to you in our text. And what did Moses
say about the grace of God when he said, Show me your glory?
Lord, show me Your glory." He said, I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head in worship. Remember that? There was something
about when God shined into Moses' heart and said, I'll be gracious.
That's my glory. Moses made haste in worship.
Boy, there's something about being saved by grace, isn't there?
When the Lord prepares our hearts to save us by grace, I tell you,
He'll give Himself a great name. That's when we'll worship Him.
And Moses went to Aaron and he said, Aaron, this is what I want
you to do. Every time the 12 tribes are gathered together
to worship, before they leave, I want you to go out in front
of all of them and hold your hands up and say this to them. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord cause His face to shine
upon thee and be gracious to thee. That's how much He valued
the Lord's grace. Be gracious unto thee. He coveted
that grace, didn't He? And you do too if He saves you.
He's gotten Himself a great name, kindness, love and mercy and
grace. Paul deals first here with a
negative. He begins with a negative here in our text. In verse 5,
when he's speaking here of how the Lord saves us, and he's very
adamant about this, not by works of righteousness which we have
done. How does God save us? First of
all, Paul said, not by works of righteousness which we've
done. Not by works of righteousness. You know it's not that Paul was
against righteous works. Man, if anybody ever promoted
and commended good works. It was this man. Look back here
in our text again. Look back in Titus what he says
about it. He says three things about good works here in our
text. In the third chapter in verse 8, look what he says about
them. Titus chapter 3 and verse 8.
This is a faithful saying. And these things I will that
thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works. These things are
good and profitable unto men. Be careful. Be careful that you
do good works. And then he says in verse 14,
And let us also learn to maintain, the word means to practice, good
works. or necessary uses, that they
be not unfruitful." Man, he loved good works. He promoted good
works. And back over in chapter 1 in verse 16, look at this.
He said, there are some who profess God and don't have any good works. And he said, it just proves.
It proves. They don't know God at all. Look
what he said about them. They profess that they know God,
but in works, They deny Him being abominable and disobedient and
unto every good work reprobate. So the Apostle Paul here wasn't
saying anything negative about good works. He promoted them. But what he so vehemently denied
here is that good works will save us. That's what he's against. Good works will not save us. He said this in another place,
by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Not of works. And when he says
here works of righteousness, he's not talking about works
of hypocrites. He's not talking about those
works where the Lord Jesus said on the Day of Judgment to those
self-righteous people, depart from me, you workers of iniquity."
When they were bragging about what all they had done, that's
not the works that Paul was talking about. He's talking about works
of righteousness. Truly works that Christians do. Works of faith. Works for God's
glory. Works that did because we love
the Lord Jesus Christ. He said these works of righteousness
can't save us. And if they won't save us, We
know the works of those hypocrites and false professors won't save
us. I want to give you two reasons
why works of righteousness can't save us. Two reasons why, and
this is so important, two reasons why works of righteousness cannot
save us. First of all is this, because
of the nature of good works. Because of the nature of good
works, What is the nature of good works? Well, they're caused
of God. They don't originate with us.
Our good works as Christians are caused of God. Now, I want to show you that
again. I want to show you this passage. I want you to turn over to Isaiah
chapter 26. You've probably read this verse time and time again,
but here is why good works can't save us. Look in Isaiah chapter
26. And look in verse 6, verse 12. Isaiah 26 and verse
12. This is amazing and this is probably
difficult for us to see in our own hearts, our lives. Because
when we do good, we do it because we have a desire to do it, don't
we? We do it because we believe. We do it because we love. But
you know, The cause of us doing that didn't originate with us.
Look here in verse 12. The Lord will ordain peace for
us, for thou also hath wrought all our works in us. Now isn't that amazing? Thou
hast wrought all our works in us. Everything that you do for
God's glory, Everything that you do through faith, everything
you do because you love, it is Him that is working in you to
will and to do of that good work. Now that is amazing. He has wrought
all our works in us. And you know what? God does not
work in us to do good until He first makes us good. He knows better than we know
that a corrupt tree will not bring forth good fruit. He knows
a bad sinner, a sinner who is dead in sins, cannot do good.
So what's the first thing He does? Is make us good. The first thing He does is make
us new creatures. Paul said that in Ephesians 2.10
when he's talking about not by works, lest any man should boast
because we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. So He first makes us good and
then works in us to do good. That's the way God does things,
isn't it? Our Lord said this about the tree and its fruit.
He said, either make the tree good first, first make the tree
good, and then his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt
and his fruit corrupt, for a tree is known by its fruits. For a good tree bringeth not
forth corrupt fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart brings forth that which is good. And an evil man,
out of the evil treasures of his heart, brings forth that
which is evil. You know one thing that we say
sometimes, God can't do this and God can't do that. This is
one thing God can't do. He can't bring good fruit out
of an evil tree. He just don't do it, does He?
When He wants good fruit from us, what does He do? He makes
us good. He makes us good. He makes the heart good. And
then it's out of that heart that He works to bring forth good
fruit. Doing good cannot make us good. We can't do good until God makes
us good. Christ was sending His apostles
out into the world and He said, I'm sending you out that you
may bring forth much fruit. And what did he tell them? Abide
in me. Abide in me as the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in me. Without me, you
can do nothing. So our first point is good works,
even righteous works, cannot save us because God is the cause
of these good works, not us. They didn't originate with us,
they originate with Him. He actually works it in us. So what He's working in us can't
be the cause, can it? It has to be something else. Consider this about the nature
of good works and we'll see it can't be the cause of our salvation.
The best works that we can do, good works, good works done by
the grace of God too has sin mix with them. The best we can
do, we see sin mix with it, don't we? You know what Paul said when
I would do good? Evil is present with me. It's
our motives, it's our heart that we can't do anything from a pure
motive unless we see sin mix with it. In Exodus chapter 28, listen
to this, the priest of the Lord, he was told part of his dress
was a little golden plate. It was a pure golden plate and
on that little plate it had holiness to the Lord. He was to take a
little blue piece of ribbon and tie it around his head and he
wore it right here on his forehead, holiness to the Lord. And he
said if he doesn't wear that when he goes in to minister for
the children of Israel, they won't be accepted. Holiness to
the Lord. And listen to what that was for.
It shall be upon Aaron's forehead that he may bear the iniquity
of the holy things. What a strange word that is.
The iniquity of the holy things. How can iniquity, how can holy
things have iniquity mixed with it? Our works is like that, isn't
it? They're just not perfect. When
they come from our heart, they're not perfect. They have sin mixed
with it. There's enough sin in our prayers. There's enough sin in our giving.
There's enough sin in the best deed we did for God's glory to
be repulsive in His sight if Christ our High Priest does not
bear those sins Himself and wash us from them and forgive us of
them. You know right now we need a
mediator between us and God. You say, Bruce, I'm saved. I'm
a saved person. And you're just as much in need
as a mediator as the most ungodly man in this world. I love Revelation
chapter 8 where that angel is there by the altar and he takes
this sweet incense and he puts it with the prayers of saints
and offers it to God. That's Jesus Christ. When we
come, we must come through His name, His blood, His righteousness,
His intercession. It's Him that's got this plate,
holiness of the Lord. And when we come in His name,
then we can know it's accepted because He washes it, puts His
sweet incense of obedience and intercessions on it, and makes
it acceptable. But us, we see sin mixed with
it, don't we? That's why we don't dare say,
well, my works can save me. My works can save me. They can't,
can they? They can't. They're just not
perfect, even in our own eyes. Thirdly, consider this about
the nature of good works. They are considered duties. Some
people, it kills them, bless their hearts, when we mention
this word duty, but the Bible mentions that all the time, duty. Our works, our good works are
duties. They are commanded of our Lord.
It is something that He has a right to command us to do. we're obligated
to do. And we do it out of love and
reverence to His name. But here's what Christ said about
it. When you have done all those things which are commanded you,
say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which is our
duty to do. There's no saving merits and
duty is How can we say, boy, I've done so good, that'll save
me? That's just your duty. As children of God, that's your
duty. And if it's your duty, my goodness, it can't save us. Why are we told such things about
the nature of good works? And you can go through the Scriptures
and prove all of these things that we've been talking about,
that we must be made good before we can do good. and that God
works in us to will and to do good. And when we do good, there's
a mixture of sin in that doing good. Why are we told these things?
There's a reason. And it's this, because it's so
easy to begin to trust in good works. It is so easy to begin
to trust in good works. You ever have that trouble? John
Bunyan, bless his heart, He was one of the most spiritual men
I've ever read after. Lived back in the 1600s. Wrote
several books. One book that he wrote was Grace
Aboundant to the Chief of Sinners. And in that book he gives seven
abominations that he found in his heart. And here was one of
them. Leaning toward the works of the
law to be saved. And he said, I hate myself for
that. leaning towards the works of the law to be saved. The Lord
Jesus spake a parable unto men who trusted in themselves that
they were righteous. The man said, I fast twice a
week. Boy, that is self-denial. You
fast twice a week? He probably thought, man, you
talk about denying yourself. I have denied myself. I fast
twice a week. I'm not unjust. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not an adulterer like that
publican." What was he saying? I am a separated man. I'm separated
from the world. I'm not like other people. And
then he said, I pay tithes of everything that I possess. Ten
percent of everything I have I give to the Lord. And he thought,
boy, what a contribution I made. What a contribution I made. But
isn't it easy to do that? Isn't it easy to do that? We
look down upon people. We try our best to beat them
out of works, but we have to be careful ourselves. There's
been whole churches got caught up in this and erred. Paul was talking about giving
all your goods to feed the poor. Remember that? All your goods
to feed the poor. And if I don't have love, if
I'm not born of God, it profits me nothing. You could empty your
cupboard, empty your refrigerator, empty your bank account, give
everything you had to feed the poor. And if I'm not born of
God's love, it profits me nothing. But he went one step further,
didn't he? I give my body to be burned, he said. That's the
ultimate sacrifice, ain't it? And he said, it profits me nothing
if I'm not born of God's love. The only way we can be saved
is by God's mercy. And mercy can only come to us
because someone else is good and someone else has done good
on our behalf. That is the only way mercy can
come to us. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. How? Through Jesus Christ. This mercy was poured out on
us abundantly through Jesus Christ. He's not denied doing good and
being good. But I tell you, it depends on
who you're talking about being good. Christ was good, wasn't
He? Christ did good. And it's through
Him mercy comes to us and saves us. Old Christmas Evans, he was
an old Welshman that lived back in the 17s and 1800s. Boy, he could wax eloquent sometimes. And he was preaching about mercy
standing at the gate to the cemetery. And mercy was wringing her hands,
wanting to go inside and take them out of the grave and give
them life. But justice was standing there
next to mercy and said, no, you can't, mercy, you can't. And
mercy said, what would it take? to satisfy you where I could
go in and give life to these people that's dead. He said it
would take Emmanuel's blood. It would take Emmanuel's blood.
What did it take before mercy could come and save us? It took
Emmanuel's blood, didn't it? It took a sacrifice. It took
somebody else's goodness. Somebody else doing good. So
mercy could come to us. And that's why Paul tells us
here in our text. that He saved us by mercy, which
He shed on us abundantly through Christ Jesus our Lord. So the
very nature of good works tells us that we can't be saved by
them. Not the best of our works. We don't offer them, do we? We
don't offer them. And then the nature of being
saved. What is it to be saved? How does
God save us? And when we consider the nature
of being saved, that tells us right there why works can't save
us. Look back over at the nature of salvation again in verse 5. Not the works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. And how did He save us? By the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. What is it
to be saved? It's to be washed. It's to be
washed by the washing. And I don't know why most of
our forefathers, bless their heart, when they read this, every
one of them almost see water. Every one of them get water out
of this. I can't understand that. Very, very few of them. John
Gill was one that didn't get water out of this, but there's
no water in here. When he's talking about the washing,
Water cannot even wash your flesh without soap. What can reach
the conscience to wash sin from the conscience? The blood of
Christ purges our conscience from dead works. This is the
washing of sin and defilement away from our conscience. What
can wash away my sins? What does it mean to be saved?
Well, it implies at least I'm filthy. I'm dirty. Sin has defiled my conscience.
I need to be washed. The very nature of salvation
tells me I can't save myself because I'm filthy and I need
to be washed. And what can wash away my sin?
I love that passage in Zechariah chapter 13 verse 1. He says,
In that day there shall be a fountain opened. We sang about that, don't
we? Emmanuel's fountain. He's opened
a fountain. And that's what that verse says.
In that day there shall be a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. That's why it's open. Everywhere
we're told that Christ's blood cleanses us from all sin. It
washes us from all sin. He loved us and washed us from
our sins in His own blood. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse us. How does
He save us? By washing us. I used to have
an old deacon friend of mine. He used to tell me, he said,
Bruce, salvation is not turning over a new leaf. It's not taking
your little sponge and rubbing it around, trying to smear everything
up. Oh no, he said, it's a new page. It's a new book. The Lord cleanses
us. He washes us. So that's the first
thing. How does He save us? By washing.
By washing of regeneration. Larry has some family that wouldn't
agree with that at all, wouldn't they, Larry? If they told him
about washing, they'd go down to the river. They'd go down
to the river. But here's something else, the
second thing about how He saves us is the washing, and now He
says, regeneration. By the washing of regeneration. In regeneration, there's first
a washing, and regeneration itself means A new birth. It means a rebirth. Being born
again. A new life. A life from the dead. You have be quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sin. What is regeneration? It's a
new life, isn't it? If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. A new creation. Can you create yourself anew?
Well, the very nature of salvation tells us that we can't be saved
by our works. It must be of the Lord. When
the Lord sent Ezekiel out to preach to those dry bones, and
as you begin to preach to them, Shannon, remember that, and all
the bones come together, and then all of the muscle come up
on the bones and all of the nerves. entered through the muscles,
then flesh came upon them. But there was one thing they
didn't have. Remember that? They didn't have life. They didn't
have any life. Man, they had come together.
And there they sat, and there were these beautiful bodies,
but they were lifeless. And what did He tell the prophet
to do? He said, Pray unto the wind, and say, Come, O breath,
and breathe on these slaves that they may live." And he said,
I prayed. And he said, breath came to them. What was that breath? That's
the Spirit of life, isn't it? Life. What is salvation? It's life. It's the giving of
life. Something we don't have in us.
And we can't muster it up. The life that we have that saves
us comes from without us. It comes from heaven. It resides
in the Son of God Himself. I give unto them eternal life. God has given to us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. These things have I written to
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have eternal life." That's what it is to be saved,
isn't it? It's to have life. Life eternal. Not like the life
that we had in Adam where it died because that was a created
life, wasn't it? But this is not a created life
that we have. This is eternal life. This is
the very life of the Son of God that can never die. He that hearth
My word and believeth on Him that sent Me hath everlasting
life and shall never come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. That's what it is to be saved.
And you can't do that and I can't do that. Salvation is of the
Lord, isn't it? It's in His hands. And all we
can do is just humble ourselves and say, Lord, save me. Lord,
save me. I want to be washed. I want this
life, this eternal life. How does all of this come to
us? By His mercy. By His mercy. Nothing else will
bring this life, this salvation to us but by His mercy. And when
I say mercy, I'm talking about free mercy. I'm not talking about
something you can earn. I'm talking about sovereign mercy,
distinguishing mercy. I'll have mercy upon whom I will
have mercy. That's a humbling thing, isn't
it? You see, salvation is not owed to any of us. We say this
constantly, don't we? And we don't say this to discourage
anybody. But we just say this to discourage
people from trusting in themselves, or thinking they're worthy to
be saved, or they deserve mercy. The best thing we can do is just
come and cast ourselves before the Lord and say, Lord, I've
sinned away any claims that I have on You. Depths of mercy, can
there be? Mercy still reserved for me. Can my God His wrath forbear? And me the chief of sinners spare?
That's the way Wesley said it, wasn't it? And that's the way
you and I ought to say it. That's our attitude that we ought
to have. And if this won't give us love
for Christ and won't produce in us a reverence for God admiration for Him, and living
for His glory, I don't know what else will. That's the best motivated
force that I know of, brother, when the Lord makes us to know
that He saved us, and it wasn't by our works, but His mercy,
His mercy. I will have mercy. Oh, what a
word, I will have mercy. May the Lord bless His Word.