There are two powerful forces
at work in this world, and that is sin and grace. And no man has a message worth
listening to, no preacher, no evangelist, no missionary, has
a message worth listening to if he does not deal truthfully
and scripturally with these two forces. sin and grace. Those are the two powerful forces
at work in this world, in this nation, in this city, in this
community, wherever men are, sin and grace. And a preacher
does not have a message worth listening to if he does not deal
plainly and truthfully and scripturally with these two forces. He doesn't
have a message that will help you at all or help me. unless
he has a message that has something to do with this terrible, terrible,
evil, ugly condition called sin, and with the riches of God's
divine, sovereign grace. Those are the problems. And then
secondly, no man knows anything about salvation. No person, no
individual knows anything about salvation. Bible salvation, a
relationship with God, who does not have some understanding.
He doesn't have to be a theologian, but he has to have some understanding
of the sinfulness of sin. He's got to have coped with it,
and dealt with it, and experienced it, and grieved over it, and
mourned over it. Paul said, when I preach the whole gospel, I
preach repentance toward God, that's sin. Dealing with sin
and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's great. So a man cannot
know anything about salvation. He may have a religion, he may
have what he calls a faith, he may have a creed, he may have
some kind of religious attitude or morality, but he
doesn't know anything about salvation, about redemption, unless he has
some understanding of the the sinfulness of sin and the riches
of God's grace. And then no man can claim a good
hope. Now nearly all of us have some
kind of hope. Everybody that dies has some
kind of hope. We have a hope for everybody
that dies, some kind of hope. But no man has a good hope who
has not experienced in his heart the grace of God abounding over
his sins. Something's got to be done with
my sins. And there's nothing I can do about it, nothing the
church can do about it, nothing the water can do about it, nothing
the law can do about it, only God's grace can cope with sin.
It says over here in Romans 5 verse 20, the last line, where sin,
sin abounded, it overflowed, and it does. Grace did much more
overflow. That's the two forces, sin and
grace. And I'm saying that a message
that's worth listening to, a message that's worth recording, a message
that's worth passing on to someone else, deals with sin, sin, sin,
sin. And deals with grace, abounding
grace, overflowing grace, conquering grace, the riches of God's grace.
No man can claim a good hope who hasn't experienced something
of grace abounding over sin. Now what is sin? What is sin? Well, let's look at Romans 5.
Someone gave this definition. Sin is the ugly, undeniable fact
of human experience. Sin is the ugly, undeniable fact
of human experience. Somebody called it a root. John
the Baptist said the ax has got to be laid to the root. That
stubborn, tap root from which all of the The motions of sin
are derived, and the Apostle Paul called it a law of sin.
When I would do good, evil is present with me. I find there
a law warring against my spirit, warring. He calls it a nature
of sin, a nature of evil. Who shall deliver me from this
vile, sinful nature? Romans 5.12 says that by one
man, wherefore by one man sin entered into this world, and
death by sin. That's the origin of sin, came
from Adam. God dealt with all men through
Adam. As by one man sin came into this
world, so death passed upon all men for all sin. When Adam sinned,
I sinned. When Adam fell, I fell. When
Adam died, I died. That's where it all started.
Romans 5.18, he says here in 18, Romans 5, therefore, by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation.
God's judgment and God's wrath upon all men came because of
that man Adam's sin. And then Romans 5.19, by one
man's disobedience, many were made sinners. The many were made
sinners, practicing sinners. Practicing sinners. We have the
root of sin, the nature of sin, we practice sin. Somebody gave
this definition as a threefold definition of sin. Sin is missing
the mark. You're weighed in the balances
and found wanting. You've sinned and come short
of the glory of God, missing the mark of his glory, missing
the mark of his perfection, missing the mark of his holiness, weighed
and wanting. sinned and come short. He said,
secondly, sin is the transgression of the law. It's rebellion against
the law. It's stepping over the boundary
that the law has set. And then sin is iniquity. Iniquity
is crookedness, a perversion of righteousness. If you'll turn
to the book of Psalms 32, you'll have all three of these mentioned
in two verses, Psalm chapter 32 verse 1 and 2. Transgression,
overstepping the law. Sin, missing the mark. Iniquity,
crookedness and perversion. Psalm 32 verse 1 says, blessed
is he whose transgression, law breaking, overstepping the boundary. is forgiven, whose sin, missing
the mark, coming short of God's glory, weighed and found walking,
is covered. Blessed is the man to whom God
the Lord imputed not iniquity, crookedness, perversion, and
in whose spirit there is no guile. The sum of it all is this. According
to the scriptures in Luke 19.10, man is lost, like a lost sheep,
a lost coin, a lost According to John 3.16, man is perishing. Whosoever believeth on him should
not perish. According to John 3.36, man is
under the wrath of God. He that believeth not on the
Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. According to Isaiah 59.2,
I want you to turn to that one with me. Isaiah 59.2, man is
separated from God. Isaiah 59.2. Sin has separated
us from God. In Isaiah 59-2 it says your iniquities,
your crookedness, your perversion, your iniquities have separated
you and your God. Your sins have hid his face from
you and he will not hear. John 3-18 says the Son of Man
didn't come into the world to condemn the world. The world
was already, already condemned. We're condemned already. Man's
not on trial, the trial's over. The evidence is in. The conviction
is clear. The sentence has already gone
forth and man is awaiting execution. Ephesians 2.12 says we have no
hope and without God in this world. Galatians 3.10 says we're
under the curse of God's law. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in the book of the law to do those things which are written
there. John 5.29 says we are awaiting the resurrection of
the damned. And Psalm 9.17 says the wicked
shall be turned into hell. Oh, the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. God's judgment and wrath is against
sin. The canons of heaven are turned
against our sins. What can be done about our Well,
the only counterforce against sin is God's grace. Not legislation,
not law, not works, not morality, not human resolve or human strength,
not even the commandments of religion. These are all, someone
said, like wax before the fire. In Romans 5.20, we have the solution
for sin. We have the counterforce against
sin. We have that which conquers sin,
and it says where sin abounded, where sin did overflow, where
sin did cover, grace did much more overflow. Oh, to grace,
how great a debtor daily I am constrained to be. Let thy goodness
like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. Grace taught my
soul to pray, and grace made my eyes overflow, t'was grace
that kept me to this day, and grace will not let me go." The
only thing that can take away sin's penalty is the grace of
God. The only thing that can deal
with sin's conquering power is the grace of our God. The only
thing that can deal with sin's practice, and ultimately its
presence, is the grace of God. For the scripture says in Titus
2, the grace of God bringeth salvation. It says in 1 Corinthians
15, verse 10, by the grace of God, I am what I am. He declares
in Romans 3, we're justified by his grace. He declares in
Romans 11, 5, we're elected by his grace. In 1 Corinthians 15,
we are enabled by his grace. In Galatians 1.15, we are called
by his grace. In Ephesians 1.7, we are forgiven
by his grace. In Timothy 1.14, love and faith
are the gifts of his grace. In 1 Peter 5.10, we are established,
strengthened, and settled by his grace. And in Ephesians 2.8
and 9, it is by grace that we are saved. It is by grace that
we're saved. What are the principles of grace?
How does one participate in this grace? How does one partake of
this grace? Do I just walk down the aisle
and say to the preacher, I'm a sinner, I want God's grace.
I know something about the nature of my sin and the evil of my
sin and the sinfulness of my sin and the inability of myself
to conquer or deal with this sin or put it away. My sins have
separated me from God. I weep over sin. I grieve over
sin. I wrestle with sin. I'm conscious
of my sins. I want something to be done about
my sins, so hereby I just erase them. Well, this doesn't come
that way. Turn to Ephesians 1, Ephesians
chapter 1. I'm going to give you tonight
the six principles of God's grace. The six principles of God's grace. Now throughout the scripture
we have the healing of the body. Our Lord Jesus Christ heals some
folks. And I don't believe that these
healings and the account of them in the scripture is just to impress
us with the power of Christ to heal a sick body. I think there's
some There's some messages of redemption in these healing episodes. For example, there was a leper.
When our Lord came down from the mountain, there was a man
with leprosy. And you talk about inability. Here's a man rotting,
slowly decaying. His whole body is in the process
of rotting and decaying, and death is imminent. And he stands
before Christ. Here he is in his uncleanness. The leper was to
cry unclean, unclean. In his inability, there was no
drugs or medicine or doctor who could help him. He was a hopeless
case. And that's the way we are in
our sin. Our sin is a root, it's a law, it's a nature. Our sins
are not just without looking within, they're within looking
without. We're rotten from the inside. Our Lord said the Pharisees
cleansed the outside of the cup. They pray in public, read the
scripture in public, and they don't kill or commit adultery
or steal or so forth. And they stand before people
and somebody says, what a fine man, what a spiritual man, what
a godly man. But the Lord said on the inside,
They're like standing in front of a grave, and to see the grass
is cut pretty and the flowers are blooming and the monument
stands, but if you dig a little dirt off and look in, there's
dead men's bones down there. And Christ said that's the way
these religionists are. They appear outwardly beautiful,
but on the inside, They're dead, dead bones and rottenness, and
that's only God can deal with. That's the way the leper was.
His problem wasn't just the scaling of his sins, it was the disease
in here that made his skin scale. And he stood before our Lord
one day, and this is what he said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me whole. The people of this world can
put a little salve on my skin and it'll peel off and it'll
look good today, but tomorrow that rottenness inside comes
out again. And they can't help me. You can
make me whole. There was a man called Bartimaeus
who sat by the wayside. He was blind, totally blind,
been blind from birth. He was the son of Timaeus. And
he sat there and begged for 38 or 40 years. And Christ came
by and he cried, Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy on me. And Christ
stopped and said, what do you want me to do? Lord, that I may
see. That I may see. You see, Christ
can heal leprosy. Christ can drive away the darkness. Christ can cleanse that which
is within. Christ can give a new nature.
Christ's grace can do something about sin. Christ's grace can cleanse sin,
can atone for sin, can put away sin, He can give a new nature. He can make us clean from within,
without. He can justify us before God. But His grace is the only thing
that can do that. I can go up here in this pool
a dozen times and make all kind of professions and all kind of
decisions and all kind of commitments and all kind of rededications
and decisions and say from this moment on I'm going to serve
God, but that old leprosy is still in there. And for a while
I may look pretty good, but it's going to come out down the road.
Only Christ can give effectual healing and effectual cleansing
and effectual redemption. Salvation is not something you
do for yourself, or something you do for God, or something
you do for your preacher, or something you do for your family.
I hear preachers say, don't you want to meet your mother in heaven?
Well, my soul, who doesn't want to meet his mother in heaven?
But that ain't the way to meet mother in heaven, to decide I'm
going to do it. A man's not rich because he says
he is. A man's not strong because he
says he is. A woman's not beautiful because
she says she is. A person's not healthy because
they say they are. A person's healthy because they
are. They have the nature of health. And this is the way,
this thing of salvation, it's something God does. It's a miracle
of grace. It's a creation. It's a regeneration. It's a new birth. I can't save
anybody, you can't save anybody, nobody can save themselves. We're
just as helpless as that leopard. Here I am with sin, where sin
did abound, and up here it abounds. It abounds in my nature, in my
mind, in my heart, in my soul, in my flesh. It's a conquering,
ugly, terrible root. And the only one, the only counterforce
against it is the sovereign grace of God. Just like God said, let
there be light, God who spoke the light out of darkness is
able to do the same thing for me. Let him be clean. I will,
Christ said, be thou clean. And brother, there's some principles
of that grace. Look at Ephesians 1 now. You
have the word here in Ephesians 1. I want you to go through here
and just underscore it. You have the word according.
A-C-C-O-R-D-I-N-G. According. Which means the source
or cause or origin of this thing. And you find it first of all
in verse 4. You see it according as he chose us. Underscore that
word according. According. I learned something
here and you can too. According. There it is in verse
4, you see it, according. Now look at verse 5. Having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ for himself,
according. That's the cause, that's the
root, that's the origin, that's the source, according. According
to the riches of his grace. Look at verse 7. Here it is again. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sin, according. the riches of
his grace. There it is in verse 4, according
as he chose us. Verse 5, according to the good
pleasure of his will. Verse 7, according to the riches
of his grace. Look at verse 9, having made
known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good
pleasure which he purposed in himself. Verse 11, there it is
again, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. All right, verse 19, here it
is again, according, six times in this one chapter, the word
according, the source, the origin, the cause, and what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us would who believe according to
the working of his mighty power. It's according. Now let me tell
you something. I know that the message of this
day and under God, I want to tell the truth. I want to know
the truth. I want you to know the truth. But we have certain
advantages presented. You want a home in heaven, you
want God's mercy, you want a hope of forgiveness of sin, it's according
to what you do. Well, this says differently. This says according to something
else. This says I am a recipient of his grace, I am an object
of his mercy, I am forgiven and cleansed and made whatever I
am according to his grace, according to his purpose, according to
his good pleasure, not my good pleasure, his good pleasure,
Lord, if you will. Now if you just knew how helpless
we are, you talk about that leper, helpless, when God made him clean,
and only God can. And it wasn't according to what
he did, it was according to what God decided to do. It wasn't
according to conditions he met. He just had one condition. He
was helpless and filthy and diseased and dying. That's his condition. All the fitness he requires is
to feel your need of him. This is the thing that I've tried
to preach here and try to preach everywhere is that we've got
to come to a knowledge of what we are. A man's not going to
call for help until he needs it. Christ said, I came to call
sinners, not righteous people. That's one of our big problems.
We don't need Christ. We're not sinful enough. We're
pretty good folks. And therefore, he didn't come
to save pretty good folks. Christ died for sinners. Christ
came to heal lepers. Christ came to give sight to
the blind and liberty to the captive and preach the gospel
to the poor. Those who have nothing are nothing,
know nothing, helpless. Now we want to cooperate with
God in this thing of redemption. We want to do our part while
God does his part. We want to bring him our tattered
garments of self-righteousness and let him patch the holes in
it, you know. We want to bring him our wine bottles and let
him fill it, and God won't do it. He has nothing to do with
that. When I can come to God as a sinful leper, as a diseased
leper. And I can say, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. It's not I've decided to let
you save me. I've decided to let you make
me whole. I've decided to give you my heart.
God doesn't want your heart. God must give you a new heart.
You don't give God anything. You don't make any contribution
to God. He's independent and perfect without any of us. We
make no contribution to his glory whatsoever. Everything that passes
between the sinner and God comes from God. We don't have anything
to add to Him. It's the free gift of grace that
I want. It's the ministry of God's power
and spirit that I need. It's God to make me whole. I'm
a sinner. If we could just understand,
we're rebels, we're traitors, we're seeking not justice, we're
seeking mercy. Mercy. We're guilty. We stand
before the tribunal of glory guilty, convicted, condemned
already, on death's row, at death's door, waiting God's wrath, waiting
the resurrection of the damned, waiting for hell to move up and
meet us at our coming. We need to be rescued. He doesn't
have to do it. He doesn't owe us anything. We
stand there with nothing in our hands, naked. before God's searchlight
of holiness and say, Lord, you better stop me, I'm going to
hell. You better do something for me.
This is what he says in these six principles of grace. Look
at the first one in verse 3 and 4. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us, he blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ,
according as he chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the
world. Now, brethren, turn with me to the book of Colossians,
chapter 1. Everything spiritual, heavenly,
eternal, everything that is of God, all fullness, is in Christ. None of it is in us, it is all
in Christ. None of it's in the law, it's
all in Christ. In Colossians 1, verse 14, listen to this,
"...in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sin, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by Christ were all things
created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible."
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him, not for us, for
him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist, and he is the head of the body,
the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence, for it pleased
the Father that in Christ should all fullness, all fullness, not
the great majority of it, but all fullness, all glory, all
spiritual blessings, all redemption, all justification, all of God's
mercy, everything is in Christ Jesus. It's vested in him, it's
given to him, it's committed to him, it's for his glory, it's
all in him. If I have any part of it, I'm
going to be in Christ. That's the only way I can participate
and partake of any of God's fullness, is to be in Christ. That's where
it is. There's not even a drop of mercy outside of Christ. There's
not even a faint drop of love outside of Christ. Outside of
Christ, God is a consuming fire. The judgment and wrath of God
is upon everything and everyone outside of Christ. All fullness
is in Christ. That's where it's been put. It's
repeated in Colossians 2, verse 9 and 10. Listen to it. Colossians
2, 9 and 10. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in him. It's not doctrine that makes
you complete, it's Christ. It's not religion that makes
you complete, it's Christ. So everything God has for the
believer, everything that God has for anyone, angels or men,
is in Christ. How does a person get in Christ? Look at it again. God has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, according as he, before
the foundation of the world, chose us in Christ. When God
chose us in Christ and gave us to Christ and made Christ our
surety, at that very time he gave us all things pertaining
to God. It's in Christ. And I got in Christ by God Almighty's
decision, not mine. That's right. Turn to Hebrews
2.17. Hebrews 2.17. I want you to listen to this
now. Hebrews 2.17. Wherefore, in all
things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.
Hebrews 2.17. That he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. in things
pertaining to God. Everything pertaining to God
is in Christ. If I'm going to have anything
pertaining to God, there's no way that I can participate or
partake except in Christ, all things pertaining to God, to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people. That's where it
is, it's in Christ. And brother, a person gets in
Christ by the grace of God. by the grace of God. Notice the second principle of
grace, verse 5, Ephesians 1. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his own will. According to the good pleasure
of his will. Brethren, we are sons of God. Turn to 1 John 3. We studied this this
morning in our Sunday school lesson. 1 John 3, it says there
in verse 1, Behold, look with amazement, astonishment, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should
be called the sons of God. Who made me a son of God? The
Father made me a son of God. Why did he do it? because it
pleased him. That's right. He predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of his Son. He predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. It's all in
Christ. My Sonship is because of my identification
with the Only Begotten Son of God. My Sonship is because of
my identification and vital union with him who is the Only Begotten
Son of God. But the way that I got in Christ
was according to the good pleasure of God's own will. Now are we
sons of God. Verse 2 says, Beloved, now are
we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. You can't tell by looking at me now what I'm going to be.
And I have no idea, I have no idea at all what I'm going to
be like as a son of God because my present state and condition
does not reveal to me what I'm going to be. But right now I
am a son of God. Now turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 chapter. Let's look
at this, Romans 8 verse 14. Romans 8 chapter verse 14. He
says here, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God. They are the sons of God. And
you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Father, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, we are
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. He's the heir. And I participate in what he
has inherited through Christ, through Christ. Turn to John
chapter 1, verse 12. He says that everything is in
Christ, and we are in Christ by his choosing. He says that
he's predestinated us to be adopted into his family as sons of God
and being sons of God to be a joint heir with Jesus Christ. How does
one get to be a son of God? Does he volunteer? Does he decide
he's going to be a son of God? But it says it's according to
the good pleasure of his will. In John chapter 1 verse 12, listen
to this. But as many as receive Christ
by faith, To them gave he the right, the privilege, that word
power is right or privilege, to become sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood,
that is, not of family inheritance, not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but born of God. That's the second principle
of grace. Everything's in Christ. everything,
God's vested all fullness in Christ, all spiritual blessings
in Christ. And I participate of these spiritual
blessings because God in his grace chose me before the foundation
of the world in Christ. I'm a son of God, adopted into
the family of God, predestinated to be a child of God, a joint
heir with Jesus Christ. not by the will of the flesh,
not by the will of man, but by the good pleasure, by the will
of God, according to his good pleasure. All right, the third
principle of grace, verse 7, I'll move along more quickly.
In whom we have redemption. Brethren, think about this, redeemed,
redeemed, bought back, sold into slavery and bought back. In whom
we have redemption. Here, Elimelech sold everything
he had. went down into Moab and died
there, and Ruth and Naomi came back, and they were poverty-stricken
beggars. They weren't even allowed to
set foot on the land that used to be theirs. They lived in poverty
and rags and hunger. until one day Boaz the kinsman
redeemer came and bought their land back and happily once again
they walked on the land that belonged to them because it had
been redeemed and you and I had been cast out of the presence
of God, disinherited. Jesus Christ came down here and
redeemed what we lost in Adam and purchased it back and now
I stand on the the inheritance that is mine in Christ and and
and through his blood the forgiveness of sin the forgiveness of sin
There's nobody here that's able to forgive like God forgives
Can't do it because of the flesh. I know we trial for hard and
And we make every effort, but just something sticks in these
computer minds of ours, or in these fleshly hearts of ours,
and we just, we recall it, we remember it. If it happens again,
we didn't forgive it or forget it, we bring it up. You know
how that works. But God says, your sins, I've cast them behind
my back. I've cast them into the depths
of the sea. I've blotted them out. I've cleansed them, I don't,
God said, even remember them anymore. You can picture all
this root of sin and law of sin and nature of sin, God has forgiven
it, and God does it immutably, unchangeably, that's what he
says, the forgiveness of sin. I'll remember them no more. How
in the world does he do that? Why does he do that? He does
it through the blood of Christ and he does it according to the
riches of his grace. Not according to my faithfulness,
not according to my return, not according to my service, not
according to my ability, not according to who I am. He did
it according to the riches of his own grace. That's what it
says here. It was God's grace that sent
Christ into the world. It pleased God. to bruising. It pleased God to send him into
this world. It was God's grace that caused
Christ to walk this weary road of flesh in obedience to God's
law for my righteousness. It was God's grace that sent
him to the cross. He said, no man takes my life
from me, I lay it down. It was God's grace, it was God's
grace that nailed Christ to the cross. Grace sent my Savior to
die in my stead. Why should he love me so? Meekly
to Calvary's cross he was led. Why should he love me so? It's
according to the riches of his grace. That's so. I have redemption. My soul has been restored. I've
been restored to everything that I lost in Adam and more. I have
the forgiveness of sins. Every thought and imagination
Every word of foolishness and thought of foolishness, every
violation and transgression of God's law, every iniquity or
crookedness or perversion, every missing the mark, every coming
short of God's glory, he says, is forgiven. The blood of Jesus
Christ cleansed us from all sin. And it's not based upon my decision
or faithfulness or promises or vows or continuance. It's according
to the riches of his grace. That's what it says. The source
of this forgiveness, the cause of this forgiveness, the origin
of this forgiveness, is just his immutable, eternal, infinite
grace. That's all. And then the fourth
principle of grace is verse 9. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will. There's nobody dumber, there's
nobody dumber than a natural son of Adam in spiritual matters. Nothing is dumb, dumb, dumb.
There's nobody blinder, nobody digger. Bruce read it in a study
a while ago. The natural man's eye does not
see, ear does not hear, heart does not understand the things
God's prepared for them that love him. The preaching of the
cross is foolishness. The things of God are a mystery.
There's no way you can preach to natural men. You can simplify
it. You can make it plain. You can
explain it. You can bring it down into everyday
words. He cannot understand the mystery
of God's grace, God's redemptive will, God's being just and justifier. He cannot understand those things
unless the Holy Spirit reveals them unto him. That's so. And he does it, he revealed it
to us, look, according to the good pleasure which he purposed
in himself. Turn to Matthew 11. Matthew 11,
let me show you something. I know that the average preacher
and church person, the average person thinks that this, how
to be saved is a very simple thing. how to find peace and
how to find rest. It's very simple. Just write
in. We'll send you our little book here. We've published this
little book. It's how to find peace with God,
how to be free from worry, how to be baptized with the Holy
Spirit, how to be born again. It's very simple. You get this
and read it, and it'll fix you up. But it won't do it either. In Matthew 11, 25, at that time,
Jesus answered and said, Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven
and earth, You have hid these things from the wise and the
prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, father,
it seem good in your sight, it seem good to you." That's what
he said over here according to the good pleasure which he purposed
in himself. Christ said to the disciples,
who do they say I am out there? Well, some say you're John the
Baptist, some Elijah, some a prophet, some this. And what do you say?
And Peter said, you're the Christ, you're the Messiah, you're the
Son of God. He said, flesh and blood didn't
reveal that to you, but my Father which is in heaven. Blessed are
the eyes that see, and the ears that hear, and the hearts that
understand. Why do you speak to them in parables, Lord? Because
they seeing see not, and hearing hear not, and having hearts do
not understand. If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost. The world's gospel is not hid,
the social gospel is not hid, the liberal gospel is not hid,
the gospel of sinners save thyself is not hid, the gospel of God
is hid to them that are lost. That's right. Turn to Acts chapter
22. Saul of Tarsus, he's as smart
as any of us. Saul of Tarsus, he forgot more
Bible than you and I'll ever know. Saul of Tarsus, educated
at the feet of Gamaliel. Saul of Tarsus, recognized even
by worldly leaders as being an intelligent, strong religionist
and theologian. And yet Saul of Tarsus was dumb,
dead, deaf, and blind to the gospel of Jesus Christ till God
revealed it to him. And he says here, he sent to
him a simple preacher called Ananias. Saul wouldn't have let
him shine his shoes six months before this. But he came to him,
and he stood before him in Acts 22, verse 13, and he said, Brother
Saul, Saul was sitting there blind in his darkness. God had
stricken him blind. He said, Receive your sight.
And the same hour I looked upon him, and he said, Saul, the God
of our fathers hath chosen thee that you should know his will.
What will? His redemptive will. His will
of mercy. The mystery of his will. God
chose that you should know his will and that you should see
the just one, capital J. Who's that? That's Christ, the
one who justifies. The only just one. Just before
the law, just before God. And that you should hear the
voice of his mouth. My son thought he had heard God
all those years. He hadn't heard from God, he
had heard from the spirits of the lower world, religious spirits. All right, there it is. It pleased God. Galatians 1.15
said, It pleased God to reveal his Son in thee. Old Barnard
used to say, My voice is the only voice you hear. You're doomed. You're hopeless. You're helpless.
You're as sure for hell as you're sitting here, and I am too. My
voice is the only voice we hear. We've got to hear him who speaks
through his word. We've got to hear him who speaks
from heaven. We've got to hear another voice.
We've got to hear him who reveals the truth. We've got to hear
him who speaks and says, Thy sins be forgiven thee, peace
bestow. my peace I give unto thee." I
have no right to claim peace till he speaks peace. I have
no right to claim rest till he gives me rest. All the religious
voices, they'll give you the how-to and the where to go and
how much money to send and all these things, but the only one
who can make known the mystery of his will is the Spirit of
God, and he does that according to the good pleasure which he
purposes in himself. The son quickeneth whom he will. That's what he said, the son
quickeneth whom he will. Now God wants some sons, but
he's the only one that can beget sons. God wants some redeemed
hearts, some hearts that love Him, some sons, like Christ. But He's the only one that can
do that. Don't bring your old dead bodies up to the house and
lay them at God's doorstep. He doesn't want them. Don't bring
your old perverted, twisted, double hearts to God and say,
Here's my heart, Lord. He's going to create a new heart.
He's the only one that can do that. Now, if you cry out of
the cemetery and say, Lord, give me life. If you cry out of your
leprosy and say, Lord, if you will, you can make me whole.
If you cry out of your sickness and blindness and say, Lord,
that I might see! God doesn't want any blind servants. That's what he's got down here
mostly, blind servants running around without any vision, without
any message. That's like that fellow that
came to tell David about Absalom. He was the first messenger there. Did you read that story? Absalom
had been killed. Well, this guy didn't know it.
But the battle had gone in David's favor, and he came running to
David, and he got there before anybody. He was the messenger.
David said, Here comes the messenger! And he came running up, and he
stood before David, and David said, What about Absalom? You
know, I don't know. But he said, Now you just stand
over here. And he stood over there, and after a while, here
came another fellow that waited to get the word. He waited to
find out the truth. He waited to find out what happened
to Absalom. He waited to get the message before he went to
David. And he came running. David said, what about the young
man? He said, he's dead. He's dead. But he had the message.
This fellow standing over here got there first. He ran the fastest. But when he got there, he didn't
have nothing to say. Brethren, this is what I'm saying here.
I know there's a lot of folks running for God out yonder, and
they have a lot to say. What about sin and grace? Well,
I really don't know, but let's do something about when the Lord
comes. Do you know what's going to happen when the Lord comes?
Well, I'm not interested. I know what's going to happen
when He comes. He's going to send us to hell
if He doesn't do something about our sins. I want this message. All right, quickly, look at verse
9. Verse 11. in whom we have obtained an inheritance. We have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. By God's grace, I'm going to
be somebody someday, going to reign with Christ. But do you
know how I received that position and power? It was according to
the purpose, according to purpose. God's purpose. He worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. The last one there,
verse 19. He tells us here in verse, Paul
prayed for these people. He said in verse 16, I cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.
I want the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father, to give you
the spirit of wisdom. I want wisdom, don't you? A revelation
in the knowledge of Him. I want to know God, know Christ,
the power of His resurrection. Growing grace in the knowledge
of Him. Verse 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
that you may know what's the hope of His calling, that you
may know what's the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints, that you may know what's the exceeding greatness
of His power to us. How am I going to get all that?
According to the working of His mighty power. That's where you'll
come. And I know we look for a school
to train preachers so they can learn everything, but we look
for a Sunday school class so we can figure everything out
We look for a Bible study that we can explain the scripture,
all of these blessings of grace. I can know the words and not
know the meaning. I can know the doctrines and
not know the truth. I can know who wrote Ephesians
and who wrote Hebrews and which king was king over here. But
you know what Paul's talking about here? He's talking about
something that's deeper than that and greater than that. He's
talking about wisdom. There's a difference in knowledge
and wisdom. Do you know that? Somebody said knowledge is a
horse. Wisdom is the rider. Turns that horse. A lot of folks
got some knowledge. Not many folks got spiritual
wisdom. Knowledge is a wild horse running
loose without any direction. I'd rather have more wisdom,
less knowledge. I'd rather have a weak horse
under me with a little wisdom to guide him than a strong horse
running on his own will. Wisdom. Wisdom. A revelation
of the knowledge of him. Not facts about him and doctrine
about him and the morality of him, but knowledge of him. My
eyes being opened, enlightened, And I may know the hope of his
calling, the riches of his glory, and the exceeding greatness of
his power. Anybody can go through here and find these different
rules and regulations and present them, but who knows the riches
of the glory and exceeding greatness of his power to us? And Paul
says every bit of that is a result according to the working of his
mighty power. And the reason it's mighty power
is It has to overcome my will and overcome that which is right.
This is what I think, but that's not God's ways. My ways are not
your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
And only God's power can set aside my thoughts and instill
His thoughts. Only the power of God can stop
me from doing what I want to do and turn me in the direction
that He wants me to go. It's His mighty power. The working of His mighty power.
And it's according to that. And I pray so much, and I think
most of you understand what I'm doing, don't leave me to myself,
to my own judgment, my own wisdom, my own understanding. Turn me
and I'll be turned. Teach me and I'll be taught.
But brethren, it's according, it's not according to my spiritual
wisdom, it's according to His mighty power. Those principles
are great. Sin, that ugly, undeniable fact
of human nature. that leprosy and blindness and
deadness and rottenness, and where it did abound, where it
did overflow, His grace, according to His good pleasure, according
to His purpose, according to His counsel, according to the
working of His mighty power, His grace did overflow and conquer
and wipe out and sweep away and recreate and make anew. Shut
up to grace. Now, folks don't want me to say,
now, here's what you do to be saved. They want you to come
to the end of the message and tell them something to do. I'll
tell you what I'd do. I'd seek the Lord. I'd cry to
God. I'd lay before the throne of
mercy and say, Lord, don't let me go. Don't let me go. Rock of ages, cleft for me. Let
me hide myself in thee, Lord. If you will, you make me clean.
And that's what I'd do. And if he did, I'd run and tell
somebody about it. That's what I'd run and tell.
You will. You'll run and tell somebody about it. Our Father, oh, how
we are overwhelmed with the sense of our I'd like for you to first open
your Bibles to the 10th chapter of John, please.