When I graduated from high school, about 17 years old, I was celebrating my 18th birthday
in the U.S. Navy. When I was going to high school
the last two years, World War II was in full swing. Our nation was at war all over
the world. And everything in America, everything
in our town, everything in our school, everything in our lives
revolved around the war. The boys who had already graduated,
some of the girls had gone into the service, some had been killed.
There were battles in the newspaper, on the radio, on everyone's tongue. Fellas were coming back from
the service, visiting our town. I couldn't wait to get in. My
brother was in the Navy. He was at the U.S. Naval Academy
in Annapolis, Maryland. So I joined the Navy when I was
17 years old. Went away to boot camp. And I enjoyed some of it. I felt like I was part of the
The effort came home from boot camp and I was somebody special
in town, you know, had a uniform, second-class seaman, that's next
to nothing. But I got my orders to catch
a ship in New Orleans and go over and fight the Japanese.
I figured like Charlie Payne said, once I was in it wouldn't
last much longer, you know. Well, I went down to New Orleans
and they put me on a ship. It was an awesome looking thing.
It was a LST. That's a landing ship tank. The
thing that was camouflaged and had 40 millimeters and 20 millimeters
and 50 caliber guns all over it and had big bow doors that
when you go up on the beach they open up and the Marines ride
out in their tanks and invade the islands They're just awesome looking.
And I went aboard that ship, and we were headed for the South
Pacific. Well, the first day out, first
day at sea, I told you I was a second-class seaman. And the
first day out to sea, they put me down in the bilges. You don't
know what bilges are, do you? It's better that you two didn't
know what they are. But a bilge is the lowest part
of the ship. If they'd have shot a plane down,
I wouldn't have seen it. If they'd have fired a gun, I
wouldn't have heard it. The bilges, that's the lowest part of the
ship. That's where the dirty, stagnant water gathers. And they
put me down there with some of these other second-class seamen
to clean out the bilges. And I remember it like yesterday.
This wasn't what I signed up for. Not at all. I was unhappy. After
hours down there cleaning out those bilges covered with oil
and grease, and weary of it all, and seeing no way out, I nearly
cried. And I thought that Scott said
one time, what am I doing here? I volunteered for this. This
is not what I signed up for. I'm not part of the effort. Nobody
even knows I'm here. Did you ever feel that way about
maybe where you are right now? What you're doing? You know,
the kingdom of God is a great thing. It's a great effort. It's
a spiritual battle, a spiritual war. We read about the great
preachers and the great Puritans and the great writers and the
great evangelists and the great missionaries. People talk about
Whitefield and Spurgeon and Bunyan and Knox and Edwards and Luther
and Calvin. And here I am somewhere in the
back room of some little building working seven o'clock in the
morning or four in the afternoon and nobody knows I'm here. I've never done anything outstanding
or anything great or had any part in the actual conflicts
or victories or successes or anything else. But you know,
what I needed was a broader look. If I knew then what I know now,
I'd have been a lot better off, wouldn't I? If I had known then
what I know now, I could have got a broader perspective. I
was just as much a citizen as President Roosevelt. He wasn't
any more a citizen of the United States than I was. He had a different
position, but I was a part of this country. And the Admiral
wasn't any more a sailor than I was. He had a different place.
The commander of that ship up on the bridge. He wasn't any
more a part of that ship than I was, or any more a part of
that war effort than I was. I was down in the bilge, and
he was up on the conning tower. But I was just as much a part
of that effort as he was. Just as much a part of the war,
just as much a part of the conflict, just as much a part of everything
that was going on. But I couldn't see that. I was
unhappy with where I was and who I was and what I was doing.
Just terribly unhappy. I needed a broader view. I needed
a broader understanding of my part of the whole war effort,
of the whole situation. I need a broader understanding
of that. And this is what you find in Ephesians 1, where Charlie
was reading a moment ago, if you care to turn over there.
This is what you find here. Now here, the Apostle Paul wrote
this epistle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And if you
didn't read some more material, you wouldn't even know where
he was. Did you know that? Do you know where he was when
he wrote the book of Ephesians? I've studied it through the years,
and I've preached on it, but I was working on this message,
and I called Don Portner to make sure. I said, Don, where was
Paul when he wrote Ephesians? He said it was in prison, wasn't
it? I said, well, that's what I thought too. But you couldn't
tell it from reading the book of Ephesians. But prison is a
terrible place to be. I've never been in prison. I've
never been an inmate. I've visited prison, but I've
never been in prison as a prisoner or an inmate. But a prison is
a terrible place to be, especially a prison in the days of the Apostle
Paul. It was nothing more than a hole,
usually a dungeon, stone floors and walls and very little care.
It wasn't like prisons today. But Paul was in prison, a terrible
place to be, locked up, embarrassed. ridiculed, mistreated, a common
criminal to most men, deprived of his freedom, and yes, awaiting
execution. But you don't find Paul sitting
down here dwelling on those inconveniences. He doesn't say anything about
it in this book. This letter he's writing to the church at
Ephesus, his friends down at Ephesus, these other believers,
he's writing to them. And he doesn't say anything about
his inconveniences, he doesn't say anything about his lot, he
doesn't complain. He rises above all, here he is
sitting writing, or dictating to some friend in the prison,
this book of Ephesians. And he doesn't complain about
the food, he doesn't complain about the fact that he had a
cold and no one cared for him. He doesn't complain about the
fact that he had no place to sleep that was comfortable. He
slept on a prison bunk with probably no mattress. He didn't complain
about, I'm sure, the rats and the roaches that were around
everywhere. He didn't complain about how the guards mistreated
him and ridiculed him, laughed at him being in prison. He didn't
complain about any of those things. But he opens this first chapter
of the book of Ephesians in verse 3 and says, Bless God. Bless God. I feel so guilty and
so convicted when I read the writings of the Apostle Paul,
especially his prison epistles. Blessed be God. You know what
he does? He rises above his present circumstances,
and this is the thing If I could convey to myself and to you in
this message tonight, whether it be a long or short message
or whether I quit right now or go on, if I could convey to you
one thing we need so desperately, and I'm talking to people who
know God now, who know Christ, who love Christ, who are redeemed
by his blood, we need to be able to, by his grace, rise above
our present circumstances. We need to rise above this this world in which we live.
It's labor, it's responsibilities, it's misunderstandings, it's
trials, it's burdens, it's sicknesses, it's weaknesses, it's pain, it's
sorrows, it's disappointments. We get so bogged down. It would
help me if I could just visualize Paul sitting there on that cold
wind blowing through. You know they didn't have any
air conditioning or any heat. Sitting there with everybody
whom he loved somewhere else, he was lonely. He was in Rome. He wasn't a citizen of Rome.
He was lonely. Separated from his friends, without
his books, without his parchments and reading material. depending
on someone else to bring him whatever food they wanted to
bring him, certainly had no private physician, an older man, his
bones aching with arthritis or rheumatism, waking up every hour
during the night hearing other prisoners wail and sob, just
a very terrible place to be. And yet when he starts writing
this letter to the church at Ephesus, He walks back through
eternity past, and he says, Bless God. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He hath blessed us. Well, I don't
have a lot of physical blessings right now, he said, but I got
a lot of spiritual blessings. In fact, all spiritual blessings.
In Christ Jesus, according as he chose us, his sovereign, covenant
grace, he set his love upon me. Think about it. I may be back
there bobbing the back room, cutting out a frame, but He set
His love on me. Nobody knows who I am, but He
does. He does. I may be down there at Armco
Steel Mill, back there in the sheet mill or somewhere, or the
tin plate mill or whatever they have down there, or down there
in the furnace, and nobody even knows I'm around that place,
but He knows, and He chose me. You may be standing in your kitchen,
Your children have broken your heart, and you're standing there
washing dishes and caring for the uncaring, and you say, nobody
cares. I beg your pardon. He cares. And who else matters? He cares
so much that he loved you before you was ever born. He deliberately,
on purpose, according to his grace, picked you out and made
you his own. Now I tell you, that's something
to bless God for. He chose me. Paul said, He chose
me and He predestinated me. He even predestinated, He even
predestinated these unpleasant journeys and these unpleasant
experiences to bring me to and to make me like Christ. Now He
even, even the most difficult, the most difficult experience
you've ever had. that left you with the deepest
scar and the most hurt that you don't seem like never get over. He predestinated that. Exactly. He altered it. It was in his
blueprints for you. And God's going to use it to
make us like Christ. I don't care what it is. I believe
that. There's not a doubt in this mind
or heart concerning God's sovereign covenant purposes in redeeming
His people. He's going to make them like
Christ. And He predestinated every step of the journey to
make me like Christ. And then He starts dwelling on
His present mercies, and He says in verse 6, He made me accepted
in the Beloved. I may not be accepted in Ashland's
social circle, but I'm accepted in glory. That's right. I just might not
be accepted in the high society, but I'm accepted in glory where
it counts. I may not be accepted in religious
circles, and I'm sure I'm not, but I'm accepted in the beloved.
Now you think about that. Why should I grieve over what
men think or say, or whether the preachers of this town look
with favor upon the 13th Street Baptist Church and its message
and its pastor? It's God's message, it's God's
gospel, and I'm accepted in the Beloved. And that's all the acceptance
I care for, thank you. I'm accepted in the Beloved.
And not only am I accepted, but it says in verse 7, I have forgiveness
of sins. forgiveness of sins. And it says
in verse 9 that he's made known to me the mystery of his will.
Do you know what that will is? I want you to take just a moment
and turn to the book of Hebrews. This is the will we're talking
about right here in Hebrews chapter 10. Now this is startling. Hebrews
the 10th chapter. Our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
here. This is a quotation from Psalms. But it's speaking of Christ in
verse 9 of Hebrews 10, Then said he, Lo, I come, I come to do
thy will, O God. This is the Lord Jesus, who comes
from heaven, who was with God and was God, and all things were
made by him, who is the eternal, omnipotent, ever-present God. took upon himself a human body
and came into this world, came down from heaven. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this
world. He came from heaven into this
world. But he came for one purpose,
on a mission to perform a task. It wasn't a shot in the dark,
it wasn't even a supreme effort. He came to do God's will. That's what he can. That's what
he says here. Lo, I come to do thy will. He says, the work that
I do is his work. The words that I speak are his
words. I can do nothing of myself, that is, as a man. I come to
fulfill the covenant purposes and good pleasure of my Father.
I come to do thy will. Listen. He taketh away the first. First covenant, first Adam, first
tabernacle, first priesthood, first sacrifice, first mercy
seat, first heaven, first earth, that he may establish the second,
by the which will I come to do thy will, by the which will we
are sanctified, we are accepted, we are forgiven, we are made
perfect through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. That's the will he's talking
about. And he's made known unto us the
mystery of this divine will. You know, there are a great number
of preachers that do not even understand this mystery of God's
will. They don't understand it. They
have a totally wrong conception of what God is doing. And notice
I didn't say what God's trying to do. What God is doing. God
is not trying to do anything. God is doing what He set out
to do. God is doing what he decreed and purposed from all eternity
to do, and he's doing it for the glory of himself and the
glory of his Son, the accomplishment of his purpose and the salvation
of his people. And he has made known unto us
the mystery of this will. Now, think of it. While you're
sitting there in your prison, wherever it is and whatever it
is, while I am, and you're reaching out for some kind of comfort,
who knows where I am? He knows. Who cares what I am?
He cares. He singled you out and made you
a part of his grand and glorious will, his grand and glorious
purpose, and he has blessed you with all spiritual blessing,
and he's let you in on his counsel. I tell you, it kind of makes
us a little proud, you know, when some high person, someone
in an official position or high position, or maybe calls us and
says, now, this is between me and you. And I don't want, it's
not for publication, but I just want to share with you what I
plan to do. This is what I plan to do. I've
got some plans laid, purposes, and it's a great investment I'm
going to make, and I just wanted to share it with you and let
you know that this is what I'm going to do. Boy, I know something
a lot of people don't know. He took me into his confidence,
and it just kind of lifts your spirits a little bit. Well, Emmy,
you know something? Almighty God, by the power of
His Spirit, through His Word, and through His Son, took me
back into His secret council halls, and He whispered in my
heart what He's going to do. Now you think about this. I'll tell you, He's made known,
verse 9, to me the mystery of His will. What princes and prophets
have desired to know and never did know, I know. What angels
have desired to look into, he's revealed to me personally. But
how you can scrub out your bilges when you've got that kind of
information. That's right. You can do the most menial tasks. You can be in the back room away
from everything and everybody. But you can go about your work
with a light heart and a glad heart. God knows I'm here. God's my Father, and this is
where He put me, and this is what He wants me to do at this
particular time. He may have something else for
me to do, but whether He does or not, He's made known to me
the mystery of His will. And He has sovereignly blessed
me with all spiritual blessings in His Son. I'm in Christ. What greater gift could God give? Like Charlie said, Christ is
not an offer, He's a gift. He's God's unspeakable gift. But Paul didn't stop there. He
took a trip back through eternity, back into the council halls of
eternity, and he rejoiced in God's sovereign purpose and God's
sovereign will and God's sovereign grace, and then he took a tour
right down through this present life and rejoiced in his own
blessings. He's accepted me and the beloved.
pardoned my sins and forgiven them, he's redeemed me, he's
taken me into his confidence, he's taken me into his very presence,
he's taken me into his counsel. And look at verse 10, and then
Paul takes a walk out yonder into the future, and he says
that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, when this all
is over, when God, you know the scripture says this, In the fullness
of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. Christ didn't
come one moment before he was supposed to. He didn't come one
day after he was supposed to. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world when he was supposed to. You see, in the fullness
of time means when God decreed it, when God purposed it. He
came into this world, and Paul says, in the dispensation of
the fullness of time, there's a day set when Christ is coming
back. Now there's no need for me or
any other preacher to be speculating. It's not going to hasten it nor
delay it. That's right, it's not going to hasten it nor delay
it. The return of Christ is just as firmly set as the first coming
of Christ. And that which he will have when
he comes again is that which he purchased when he came the
first time. And every sheep shall be lost. He said, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, that not one of them shall
be lost. And he'll raise them up. And
Paul said in the fullness of time, he's going to gather together,
he's going to gather together in one all things in Christ. When did God put us in Christ?
He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And God's going to gather together all things in Christ, known unto
God are all his works from the beginning. There's going to be
no surprises. Barnard used to say, there'd
be plenty of room in heaven, but not one vacancy. There won't
be one dwelling place that's not occupied. There won't be
one place setting at the marriage supper of the Lamb. without someone
seated there for whom that place was intended. That's right. He's
going to gather together in one, whether they're black or white,
Jew or Gentile, whether they're male or female, Baptist or Presbyterian
or Methodist. He's going to gather together
in one all things in Christ. Not all things in religion, all
things in Christ. Not all things that ever walked
an aisle or went into a baptismal pool are made a religious profession,
but all things in Christ, which are in heaven, which are on earth,
when he comes, even in heaven. I have a friend out in El Dorado,
Kansas. I've known this preacher for
a long time. I met him at Pine Bluff, Arkansas,
in a Bible conference. He's two or three years older
than I. His name is Bob McNary. We would
get a letter from Bob almost every two months. He sends contributions
for the television, the tape ministry, for the missionaries. He writes to me. I didn't see
him once every two or three years, but we corresponded almost every
two or three months. A man who loved the grace of
God and preached the grace of God. A man who stood boldly for
the grace of God. And Bob died about three weeks
ago. But his son wrote me a long letter
the other day. I got it just a few days ago.
And he told me a little bit about Bob's last hours. He really was
in reasonably good health. He didn't have any premonitions or any way of knowing
that his days were numbered. Bob went to the doctor and found
out he had a very bad heart condition. He needed bypass and bowel surgery. The doctor told him, said, you're
in very bad condition and I've got to operate. That was on Friday. And Bob said, well, let me go
home and preach one more message before I have my surgery. and
the doctor is a Hindu-Indian or something like, he said, what
are you going to preach on? He said, I want to go home and preach,
I'm not afraid to die, because I know that my Redeemer lives
in me. And though worms destroy this
flesh, this body in my flesh, I'll see the Lord. He said, all
right. The doctor said, it'll be fine.
Go home, preach your sermon, come back, we'll operate Monday,
Tuesday. But Bob went home and preached
his sermon, and he came back and lay down on the table, and
he died in the operating room. But he preached his message.
His son said it was a marvelous message, because he truly wasn't
afraid to die. And that's what Paul is saying
here. Like the hymn writer says, it'll be worth it all when we
see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small
when we see Christ. one glimpse of his dear face,
all my sorrows will erase. So let me bravely run the race
till I see Christ." Now, I don't have the capacity
nor the time to deal with all of these things here, but I want
to focus, if I can, on one verse. Paul is sitting in prison, all
the inconveniences and unhappiness all of the trials and heartaches
and loneliness and all these things, writing this epistle,
takes us back yonder to the Council Halls of Eternity and brings
us down to the Cross of Calvary, down to the present moment, all
the blessings that God has given to us and the mercies we have
in Christ, accepted and forgiven, and then takes us into the future,
he says, when God's going to gather together all things in
Christ. He won't lose one of his sheep.
He won't lose one of his people. It doesn't matter. You know,
God, the God of glory, who dwells in the heavens and the earth
is his footstool, even the heavens of heavens can't contain him,
who speaks all things into being, who controls the snows and the
winds and the clouds and the rains and all the galaxies of
all, so vast and magnificent and great is his person and his
glory and his is omnipotence and omniscience and all these
things, and yet, he knows every hair on your head.
Just like you know that baby's sitting by you. I know that's
difficult for us to comprehend. You know, we're busy people,
awfully busy people, some of us, and maybe we can't pay enough
attention to details because we don't have the capacity to
pay attention to details. We don't have the capacity, Ron,
to do all that we have to do and yet pay attention to little
details, like one of the babies says, Dad, can you help me? I
just don't have time. I just, tell your mother, I just
don't have the time. Would you do this? I just don't
have the time. We hardly, yet you love that
child, but here's what I'm saying, my God, being so infinitely great,
inconceivably majestic, and yet I never cry, he doesn't hear
me. I never cast a glance, he doesn't
see. I never have a thought, he doesn't
know. I never have a need, he doesn't
care. Now you think about it, I'm telling you the truth. I'm
not just preaching, I'm telling you the truth. He knows how many
hairs in my head. And he said, if you being evil
know how to give good gifts to your children, and we do, how
we adore those little rascals, he adores us much more. You don't
have the capacity to love your child like he loves you. You
really don't. Or your grandchild either. Not
like he loves you. You don't have the capacity to
give like he gives. I can't explain that, but I just
know it's so. You can't get lost in the shuffle.
You can down here, but not on him, not on his side. You can't
get lost in the shuffle. You can't get out of his control
and power and will and care and comfort. You can't do it. You
can't do it. Whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I sinned in the heavens out there, if I make
my bed in the graves out there, if I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, right there your
hand will have hold of me, and the darkness will be light about
me." You talk about lifting a man,
that ought to. I want to just look at one verse
in closing, verse 7. Ephesians 1, in whom we have
redemption. Whether others have it or not,
I have redemption. I have redemption. I don't just hope for it, I have
it. I have redemption. I don't just think so, I have
redemption in Him. I'm not going to have it now,
don't misunderstand, I have it. I'm not under the curse, I've
been redeemed. I'm not condemned, I've been
redeemed. So lift up the feeble spirits
and the feeble knees and the depressed spirits. We have redemption. What else? The forgiveness of
sins. Now brethren, I know that our sins are great. I know that none of us even have
the slightest conception of the sinfulness of sin. You say, oh,
I think I'm so terrible. You don't know how terrible you
are in God's sight. Why does it feel so wretched
and unclean? You don't know the half of it.
You just see what you're able to see. He sees it all. Even that which we don't think
is quite so bad, it is in His sight. And I know not only that
our sins are great, I know they're against God. They're against God. I don't,
David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned, done
this evil in thy sight. It's against God. And I know
that our sins are worthy of death. David said, God justified when
he condemns me and clear when he judges me. And I know that
not only are we worthy of death, but we deserve it. But shall
I dwell on these things, or shall I dwell on this which he says
here? I have forgiveness of sin. Now, you dwell where you want
to, but this is where I'm going to dwell. Now, this is where I'm going
to dwell. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sin. We sang it a while ago, my sins,
oh, the bliss of that glorious thought. My sins, not in part,
but the whole. a nail to the cross, I don't
bear them any more." What does he say about it? He says they're
blotted out. What does he say? They're separated from us as
far as the East is from the West. What does he say? The blood of
Christ cleanseth us from all sin. What does he say? They'll
be remembered no more. So why do we dwell on this fact
that our sins are so great? Of course they That our sins
are against God? Of course they are. That our
sins are worthy of death? Of course they are. That we long
to be perfect? Of course we do. But we're not. Then why not dwell upon that
which gives joy? The forgiver. And he says over
here, listen to this. I'll just find it and read it
to you. Over in the book of Micah, it says this. Who is a god like
unto our God, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the
transgressions of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for
ever, because he delights in mercy. He will turn again, he
will have compassion on us, he will subdue our iniquities, and
thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. That's
where they are. Well, not only that, but it says
here we have forgiveness of sin, and it's through his blood. Now,
I want you to note something. This is very important, especially
for the preachers in the service tonight. Redemption and the forgiveness
of sins are so put together that they appear to be the same thing.
And indeed, they are. Look at it again. in whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. You
can't have one without the other. You can't have forgiveness without
redemption. Would you have God forgive sin
without the penalty price? Where would be his justice? Would
you have God forgive sin without his law satisfied? Where would
be his righteousness? You're going to have to surrender
your God. And it's not redemption by his
power, it's not redemption by his grace, it's not redemption
through his love, it's redemption through his blood. Sin demands
death, and he died. Now he did redeem us because
he loved us, and he did redeem us by his grace, but he redeemed
us through his blood. Let's don't get so dignified
that we can't preach on the blood, that we can't sing about the
blood. We can't rejoice in the blood. It's the blood that makes
us atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. He said, I'm a just God and a
Savior. And Christ died that God may
be just and justified. So we have redemption. We have
the forgiveness of sin, and they're one and the same. And we have
it through His blood. Not through our experience or
through our feeling or going back to our decision. We have
rediction through his blood. And that's where we find our
comfort. I never, I don't think I've ever experienced a day,
spiritually, when I was totally happy with myself. Have you?
Now come on, just totally happy. I've never preached a sermon
in which I could say when I finished, well, I'm satisfied. No, never have. Never prayed
a prayer. Never done a thing, not a thing. I don't believe
that I could say, well, God, there it is. I'd like to say,
God, let me do it over. But I'd mess up, too, again. Always do. But I'll tell you
one thing. I have redemption, not in myself,
but in Him. That's where it is. It's in Him. I thought the other day, riding
along, here thirty-some-odd years here in Ashland posturing, I'd
like to do some things over. I would. But it wouldn't do any good. Still have that same human element.
Still have that same flesh. It would. God just has to overrule
for his glory. He has to overrule everything
we touch for his glory. He has to make it acceptable
in Christ. We just flat mess it up, that's all. If the hammer's not in the hand
of the expert carpenter, that hammer will break a window, it'll
hit the thing in the wrong place, it just has to be guided by the
hand of the master, the artist. That paintbrush will never paint
a picture, but in the hands of the artist, it can. But that
paintbrush has the ability to really mess something up. But
it's got to be held. Don't ever turn me loose, Lord.
You turn me loose, I tell you, your masterpiece is ruined. It's
flat ruined. I ain't even come up to sign
it to her. But I have the forgiveness of
sin through His blood. But watch this. According to
the riches of His grace. I have, it's according to His
grace. Solely and completely by His grace. Sovereign grace. Grace first inscribed my name
in God's eternal book. Grace gave me to the Lamb who
all my sorrows took. Grace taught my soul to pray,
and pardoning love to know. It's grace that kept me to this
day, and it's grace that won't let me go. And then this grace
is this forgiveness as I was right now. What's this? In whom
we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I don't like presumption
any more than you do. I'm afraid of presumption. But
my friends, God can't lie. And there's a certain... I know
we are filled with doubts and fears and all these things about
ourselves, but there's a certain... there's a certain thing that's
honoring to God to take him at his word. You know, like a beggar. Like
I'm downtown, there's a beggar on the street, and he knows me,
and he says, Hello, Brother Mahan, I've known you for many years,
and I'm kind of down on things, my luck right now, and I don't
have anything, and I'm broke. And I said, well, I'll tell you
what I'll do. If you'll come out to the house
this afternoon, I've got some work to do, and I'll pay you
real well, and I've got some clothes that I'll give you, and
some food I'll give you, and some money I'll give you. Well,
you just be out there. I'll be going home right now.
Just meet me out there in about a half hour. We'll do that. Oh,
you wouldn't do that for me, would you? Yeah, I'd do that
for you. Oh, no, no, you wouldn't do that for me. Yes, I would. Well, I'm just not worth it.
I know, but meet me out there. He just keeps standing there
arguing with me. You know, it provoked me after a while. But if he'd just look at me and
say, you've never lied to me, so you go on home, I'll meet
you. I believe that'd make me feel pretty good. Won't we take
God at His word? He said, He that believeth on
the Son hath life. I believe. Then I have life. He said, Whoso shall call on
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. I've called on
that name. I do call on it. I'm calling
it right now. His name. And I understand who that name
is. I understand what that name involves. Then I have eternal
life. That's what God said. He said
if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
us. I do, I have, and I do now, and I will. Then I have forgiveness. That's what he said. As many
as received him, to them gave he the right to become sons of
God. I do receive Christ. Then I have that right. Is that
wrong? I don't think so. I don't think
it's wrong to trust God. I don't think it is. And here's
the last point, and I'll close. It says here in verse 7, in whom
we have redemption. Oh, this redemption is in Christ. That's where it is. It's not
in religion. It's not even the right doctrine.
Not in the right church. It's in Christ. In Christ. That's where it all is. In Adam
we die, in Christ we're made alive. In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace. So why don't we rejoice? Whoever we are, wherever we are,
whatever we do, why don't we rejoice? I tell you, we're blessed
above all people.