Divine Remedy for Sin and Sinful Attitudes

Q: What does the Bible say about showing kindness and humility to others?

The Bible teaches us to show kindness and humility to all people, as instructed in Titus 3:2, which calls believers to be gentle and avoid speaking evil of others. In Titus 3:2, believers are urged to speak evil of no one and to be gentle, demonstrating humility to everyone. This directive emphasizes the importance of maintaining a Christ-like demeanor, not only towards fellow believers but also towards the world at large, which may be hostile or indifferent to the gospel. We are called to be good citizens and neighbors, constantly reminding ourselves that our conduct reflects Christ to those around us.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sufficient during trials?

God's grace is revealed through our weaknesses, as stated in 2 Corinthians 12:9, affirming that His power is made perfect when we are weak. The sufficiency of God's grace during trials is foundational to understanding His providence. Scripture reveals that God's grace enables believers to endure hardships. In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul emphasizes that when he is weak, then he is strong, meaning that in our struggles, God's grace becomes apparent. This aligns with the teaching in Titus 3:5 that salvation is not based on our works but on His mercy, further demonstrating that Christ’s strength sustains us through difficult times.

Q: Why is it important not to be judgmental towards others?

It is important not to judge others because we, too, were once lost in our sins, and all people are answerable to God, not to us. The Scripture warns against being judgmental towards others because every individual will ultimately stand before God. James 4:12 states that there is only one lawgiver who is able to save and destroy, highlighting that we are not equipped to judge others’ hearts or their state before the Lord. Additionally, Titus 3:3 reminds us that we were once disobedient and lost like those we might judge. Recognizing our own need for grace fosters compassion rather than criticism, reinforcing the need for gentleness and humility.

Q: What does it mean that we have been saved by grace?

Being saved by grace means that our salvation is based solely on God's unmerited favor, not on our works, as seen in Ephesians 2:8-9. Salvation by grace is a core tenet of Reformed theology and is expressed in Ephesians 2:8-9, which states that it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not of ourselves; it is a gift of God. This emphasizes that salvation cannot be earned through our actions but is a sovereign act of divine mercy. Recognizing this truth cultivates humility within us, understanding that every good thing we have is an undeserved gift from God, encouraging us to extend the same grace to others.

Q: Why should Christians show compassion to others?

Christians should show compassion because we have received compassion from God, as highlighted in Titus 3:4-5. Displaying compassion follows directly from our own experience of God’s grace. In Titus 3:4-5, Paul explains that God, through His kindness and love, saves us not because of our righteous deeds but due to His mercy. As recipients of such grace, it is our duty to reflect that same compassion towards others. Recognizing our shared human condition before God serves as a reminder that we all are in need of mercy, inspiring empathy and understanding towards those around us.

I could preach a sermon tonight on those two hymns and their
authors, the inspiration, the sharp contrast between the two
men and those two hymns, the writers of those hymns, two of
my favorite. The first one, What a Friend
We Have in Jesus, the writer of that hymn was Joseph Scriven,
who was born in Ireland in 1819, graduated from the university
as an engineer, was 21 years of age and engaged to be married
to his childhood sweetheart. And she, the day before the wedding,
tragically drowned in the lake. He was a believer But believers
are not all equally strong and able to endure experiences like
this. And he never did get over it. He left Ireland. He was so bowed
down with grief and sorrow, he left his homeland and came to
Canada, where he lived the rest of his life. He never married. He never held a regular job.
But he was the favorite son of a little village in Canada. Everybody
loved him. He lived alone, lived in a small
run-down shack, and he did odd jobs for people, most of the
time free of charge. He'd go around and take care
of people's houses and farms. Everybody loved him. Everybody
felt responsible for him. They brought him food, and he
worked for them. One day he was sick, and a dear
lady Down the road brought him a bowl of soup. He was up in
years. He died in his 66. She brought
him a bowl of soup and she walked in and he was lying there in
the bed and she put the soup on the bedside table and there
was a piece of paper laying there. She picked it up and she read,
What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear.
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. peace we often
forfeit, oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not
carry everything to God in prayer." She said, Joseph, who wrote this? He said, the Lord and I wrote
that. Well, when he was 66 years of
age, they found him in the lake behind his little house drowned.
Nobody knows what happened. They think he, in his despair,
he just took his He wasn't famous for that hymn. It wasn't even
published till long after he died. But that town erected a
monument to that man, a monument to Joseph Scriven, who was a
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. His life was full of strange
happenings, unusual things, but men are judged, as we'll go into
this message tonight, by their hearts, their relationship with
Christ, and not by what we see. That other hymn, Leave It There,
was written by a black man who was born before the Civil War
and left the South and went to Philadelphia and became a mortar
carrier for a bricklayer. He couldn't read or write when
he was 21 years old. The Lord saved him. He went to
school, night school, learned to read and write, learned to
read the Bible, and became janitor of a black church in Philadelphia.
And he labored as janitor for that church till he was 50 years
old. Their pastor died, and they called him to be their pastor.
And he became pastor of the largest black Baptist church in the United
States. He preached to thousands and
thousands of people. He died in 1933 at the age of
82, and spoke before the Southern Baptist Convention a time or
two. But he wrote that hymn, Take Your Burden to the Lord
and Leave It There. These great hymns are born of
a certain personalized sorrow and experience. You sit down
to write something and you don't do it. That's not the way it's
born. That's not the way it comes forth. Great poems and hymns
and sermons are born of a special anointing, inspiration, sorrow,
experience. We never want to find fault with
God's providence because he puts us through these experiences
that we might come forth with these messages. And if Joseph
Scriven had never, if he'd have married that young lady, he'd
have never written, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. If Charles
Tindley had never been a black slave, If he'd have never been
a janitor of a church, if he'd have never been a broken-hearted,
oppressed black man, he'd have never wrote Leave It There, Take
Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There. You don't tell what
you don't know. Let's look at Titus chapter 3
for a little while tonight. In Titus the third chapter, so
we don't despair of these experiences. And let patience have her perfect
work, the scripture says. Let the full providence and purpose
of God be accomplished in a given trial. We make a mistake sometimes
when a person goes through a trial and we start besieging the throne
to remove it. God didn't give it in order that
it might be removed at our discretion. God gave it to accomplish a purpose.
And this is the reason it's sometimes difficult to know how to pray
about a situation or a need or a problem. The only way I know
to pray is, the Lord will be done. And if we have a thorn,
his grace is sufficient. If we have a trial, his grace
is still sufficient. In Titus chapter 3, verse 1,
put them in mind. The preacher of the gospel is
to constantly remind believers that though we are citizens of
a heavenly kingdom and a heavenly country, we are to be put in
mind constantly to be subject to principalities and powers,
to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. We are to
be good citizens of the world through which we're passing.
We're to be good neighbors in the community in which we live.
We're to be good examples at the factory in which we work.
We're to be good husbands and wives in the homes in which we
live. We're to be good children in the family circles in which
God has placed us. We're ambassadors of Christ. And so often Christ is judged. He shouldn't be, but he is judged
by his people. We go into a bank, the president
of that bank may be an admirable kind, compassionate man. But
we don't deal with him, we deal with a teller. And she's obstinate,
rude, and cruel. We go out judging the whole bank
by that individual with whom we came in contact. A person
may not have any dealing with the pastor of the 13th Street
Baptist Church, with its Lord, with its head, with its people,
and they have dealings only with you. But their idea of the 13th
Street Baptist Church, of the Lord, of the gospel which we
preach, of the Lord which reigns over us, they come to the conclusion,
that conclusion, by their contact with you. We're ambassadors of
Christ our Lord, and our conduct in this world before men, before
magistrates and principalities and powers, before neighbors,
before people with whom we work, our conduct should be That which
brings glory to our Lord, and not reproach. And not reproach. That's what he's saying here.
Keep them constantly reminded that though they're citizens
of a heavenly kingdom, they're still passing through this world.
And they are to be subject to principalities and powers, to
obey magistrate, and to be ready to every good work for the glory
and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then the second verse, he
says, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, debaters,
arguers, but to be gentle, showing all humility and meekness unto
all men. Now, the believer is not to speak
evil of any man, it's said, of a believer or an unbeliever,
of a Christian or a non-Christian. We're not to be critics. We're
not to be judges. We're not to be fault finders.
We're not to be debaters. We're to be gentle men. And we
are to show a genuine humility and meekness before all men,
both in the church and out of the church. Now, this is difficult. It's not easy. Because we look
upon the world with its profanity and with its drunkenness and
with its dishonesty and with its greed. We feel that we ought to speak
forcefully and critically of these citizens, but we're exhorted
here to speak evil of no man. We're exhorted to be gentle.
We're not to be critics and we're not to be judges. Now, I'm laying
a footer here, I'm laying a foundation, and I'm going to bring you something
in just a moment, but keep this in mind. We see the world. And
it's a world of greed and graft and dishonesty and drunkenness
and profanity and looseness and all manner of perversions. And
we see it. But he still says, speak evil
of no man. All right? Secondly, we look
upon religion. Religion with its denial of the
gospel. Religion with its compromise
of the Word of God. We hear preachers and they compromise
God's Word. And they deny the gospel of God's
grace and religion is in its competitiveness and corruption
and it upsets us. But the word still comes, speak
evil of no man, but to be gentle and to be meek and to show humility
even before those people. And then we look upon our friends
and members of our family, our own children, perhaps a husband
or wife, or perhaps a cousin, or brother, or sister, or mother
or father. We look upon our family and our
friends, the people with whom we grew up. They do not worship
God. They do not honor Christ. They
do not live according to our principles and our convictions.
They are indifferent to those things that are dearest to our
hearts. But we are not their judges, and we are not to be
critics, and we are not to be Argers and brawlers. We're not
to speak harshly and cruelly. We're not to cut them off We're
to be gentlemen That's what said we are to be forgiving We are
to be humble before them and meet before them of speak evil
of no man Not brawlers not contentious not fighters not debaters Not
and darshan. I will listen to this song this
morning on television, onward Christian soldiers, prepare for
battle, go to war. I never did like that song. I
never did like that song. I don't know why, but it just
doesn't appeal to me. I don't want to take up a shield and
a gun and a sword and fight to conquer lands and so forth. I
want to take up this word in the power of the Holy Spirit
that's able to subdue the hearts of me. And then we work, the
people we work with, They are profane, they are worldly, they
are blasphemers, their language is terrible, their conduct is
even more terrible, and why we do not approve of their conduct,
nor their language, nor their profanity? And though we do not
join in their evil, we are not to be harsh, we are
not to speak evil of them, we are to be gentle. That's what
it says here. to speak evil of no man, to be not brawlers and
fighters, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. Why? All right? Why are we to
speak no evil? Why are we not to assume the
place of judge and critic and debater? Why are we not to judge
their evil and criticize their state? The Lord did. That's the
first answer people give back. The Lord did. I'll give you four
simple reasons. And I'll answer that statement
with the first one. You're not the Lord. I'm not
God. I'm not God. We're not God. A man is not answerable to me.
He's answerable to the Lord. His sins are not against me.
They're against the Lord. Now let me show you some scripture
on that turn. First of all, to the book of James. The book of
James, chapter 4, verse 11 and 12. James, chapter 4, verse 11
and 12. This is the first reason. Speak
not evil of an individual, nor to be his judge, nor to be his
censor, nor critic. The first reason, I'm not God.
His sins are not against me. I'm not to take it personally.
His sins are against God. He's answerable to the Lord God,
not to me. It says in James 4, verse 11,
Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil
of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the
law, and judgeth the law. But if thou judge the law, thou
art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There's one lawgiver
who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgeth another? We're not the judge, he is. He's
the lawgiver. He's the judge, he's the master,
and he has every right to sit in judgment on any man. But I
don't. But I don't. All right, turn to Romans 2,
verse 1. Romans 2, verse 1. Listen to
this. In Romans 2, verse 1, the Apostle
Paul writes, Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever
thou art that judges. For when thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest, doest
the same thing." Doest the same thing. And then in Matthew chapter
7, let's look at this one. In Matthew the 7th chapter, beginning with verse 1, Matthew
7, 1. Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment you judge,
you shall be judged. And with what measure you meet,
it shall be measured to you again. All right, here's the second
reason. I turn back to the book of Titus.
The first reason why we're to speak evil of no man, that we're
not to be brawlers and debaters and critics and censors, but
we're to be gentle, we're to be humble before all men. The
second reason is this, and the strongest reason, At one time,
we were one of them. At one time, we were one of them. We were one of these rebels,
disobedient, unbelievers, hating, hating one another, filled with
malice. Listen to Titus 3, verse 3. And he says, verse 2, to speak
evil of no man, not to be a contentious brawler and fighter, but gentle
for, verse 3, we ourselves also were at one time. in this very
condition. We have no right to condemn anyone,
no matter what his condition. For that was our condition, Charlie.
We have no right to sit in judgment on any man's sins because we
were in the same sinful condition. We have no right to be critics
of any man in any condition because that's what we were at one time.
Turn to Ephesians 2 and I'll show you that. And Paul doesn't
say you, he says we. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse
1, And you, hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sin? When in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, fulfilling the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and fulfilling the lust of the mind. And we were by nature the children
of wrath just like everybody else. That's what we were. One other scripture, 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. 1 Corinthians 6, listen to this
verse. Verse 9 through 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the
kingdom of God? And such were some of you, but
you are washed. God found me in the same pit
that he found every one of his people, every son of Adam. He
found you and I in the same sinful, depraved, wretched condition
of all men by nature. So we have no right to speak
evil. We don't agree. We speak the
Word of God. We tell the truth about God and
the truth about men and the truth about salvation. But we're not
judges and critics and we don't deal harshly with people who
are in that condition because we're not God. They're answerable
to Him. Their sins are against Him. And
the second reason is we were in the same place one time. And
that brings me to the third reason. It was the grace and mercy of
God that brought me out. That's right. It was the grace
and mercy of God. It was not that I was any better.
It was not that God saw anything in me He didn't see in them,
but it was His grace and His mercy, verse 4 of Titus 3. For after that, but after that,
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Any grace or any goodness or
any righteousness that I have is a product of His grace and
not of my works. It's not my works of righteousness
which I have done, but according to His mercy He saved me. Here's
a man that's a drunk. I'm not a drunk. I have no right
to berate him and belittle him because if it were not for God's
grace, I'd be a drunk. Here's a man that's a profane
swearer. Every other word he says is a
curse word, a word of blasphemy, and I say that And I've become
a judge, a critic. I deal with him harshly. I say,
get out of my presence, and I don't want any dealing with such as
you. If it weren't for God's grace, I'd be a blasphemer. I
was one time. And here's a person who is a
loose liver, who is lewd and uncased and wicked, a harlot
or a Republican, and I say, like they used to turn the picture
to the wall, you know, some daughter got in trouble and fell, and
the parent turned the picture to the wall, wouldn't allow her
back in the house. That's the vainest kind of pharisaical hypocrisy
that ever existed. Because if it were not for God's
grace, you and I would be in the same shape. Here's a person
whose life is all messed up, and I'm sorry it's messed up.
Their home life is divided, and just torn up and everything's
wrong and my home life is happy and I've got a nice wife and
children and we've got a happy home and all. That's only by
the grace of God. If it weren't for God's grace,
I'd be in the same confusion and you would too. So who are
you and who am I? to cut them off or to speak harshly
or critically or evil of that person. Who are we when everything
we have is by God's grace? That's right. That's third reason. If it weren't for God's grace,
actually He said, and you need to read this yourself, 1 Corinthians
4, 7. We need every one of us to underscore this in red, white,
and blue. And we need to put a star by
it, and we need to read it frequently, 1 Corinthians 4, 7. Who made
you to differ from another? What do you have that you didn't
receive? Now if you received it, what
are you glorying? There's nothing under heaven
as wretched and wicked as religious pride. There's nothing, there's
no evil under heaven that God hates more than he hates hypocrisy,
phariseeism, and religious pride. Me walking around here clothed
in the righteousness of Christ and bragging about my appearance.
Me walking around here with the grace of God in my soul, in my
heart, and the knowledge of the mystery of God, bragging about
my spiritual intellect. Why do you glories if you didn't
receive it? That's third reason. any grace
or goodness or righteousness. The only reason that Barney used
to say, anything this side of hell is mercy. And the only reason
that every one of us are not in eternal darkness is because
God had mercy on us. And God would not let us go.
We'd go to hell if we could, every one of us. We'd continue
to run from God if we could, but He wouldn't let us. He wouldn't
let us perish. He wouldn't let us flee from
His presence. He wouldn't let us forever be condemned. He took
hold of us and brought us back. And that's the only reason. And
the fourth reason why I have no right to speak evil of any
man, why I have no right to be a brawler or a contentious debater
of religious principles, is because I'm not God. Because at one time
I was one of those rebels. I was in the same pit. And he
lifted me out of the miry clay. And the third reason is any grace
or goodness or righteousness I have, anything this side of
hell, God gave it to me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing,
in the flesh no man can please God. Any grace, any mercy, any
spirit of righteousness I have is not mine, rather my nature
battles against it. The conflict that the Holy Spirit
has in me is not from God, it's from me. The battle that rages
between the Spirit and the flesh is because of the flesh. That's
right. It's not a product of our flesh,
but a product of His grace. And the fourth reason, actually.
Now watch this. If I do not have love and compassion
on others, then I'm deceived. And I'm still in condemnation.
Now you think about that one a little while. Actually, that's
what he says in 1 Corinthians 13. Turn over there and let's
look at it. 1 Corinthians 13. He says, actually, if I don't
have this spirit of forgiveness, this spirit of mercy, this spirit
of grace, then I am in the gall of bitterness. I am in a state
of condemnation from which I have not been delivered. I may talk
about my religious principles, but they are not experiences,
they are doctrines. I stand for the right. I stand
for the truth. A man can stand for both right
and truth and know nothing of either one. That's right. It's not, as Dr. Magruder used
to say, grace in operation, or the operation
of grace. It is not the operation of grace
that is important. It's grace operative in the heart.
That's what's important. Grace is in operation everywhere. God's grace and mercy has been
upon this earth since he invested this earth and before. But it's
grace operative in my heart, experiencing what I believe.
And he says here in 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, Though I speak with
the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal. He's been talking in chapter
12 about the gifts of the Spirit, and one of those gifts about
which he's been talking is the gift of tongues. That's diverse
languages in which they spoke the gospel. Every man heard the
gospel in his own language, and these men were gifted of God
to speak the gospel in other languages. But Paul said, I may
have that gift and I may be as one who can speak the gospel
in another language, one which I never learned, but if I do
not have love, love for Christ, love for men. He said it's my
talking in another language is like somebody beating an old
Chinese gong or tinkling a cymbal. Read on. I may have the gift
of prophecy. I may understand the mysteries.
I may have all knowledge, and though I have all faith, I have
faith, faith that can remove mountains, and I have not love. I'm nothing. And watch this one. I bestow
my goods to feed the poor. I distribute my guilt. best giver
the church has. I'm a tither. I give my offerings
in addition. I give to my neighbors. I do all these things. I may
even be a martyr. I may even be burned at the stake
because I will not relent. I will not recant. I will not
deny these doctrines by which I've lived and for which I'm
ready to die. I have not love that profiteth
me nothing. That's severe, isn't it? That's
severe. And yet our Lord comes right
along and He says, if you forgive not men their trespasses, their
sins, if you cannot have a merciful, forgiving spirit, then neither
will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. Charles Spurgeon
had a good comment on this scripture. He says, Brethren, I am a sinful
man. I owe my cleansing to the loving
grace and free favor of my living Lord. I was in the same mire
and unbelief of sin that all men are in by nature. But if
I have been washed, I have been washed in the labor of regeneration,
I have been renewed by the Holy Ghost, I owe all that I have
and all that I am and all that I ever hoped to be to God's sovereign
grace. And because of that, I am bound
by a strong love to my Lord and to all men. As Paul said, I am
a debtor to the Jew and to the great. Somebody else said this, eyes
that have not wept over my sins will never weep over somebody
else's. But eyes that have wept over
our own sins are quite ready at all times to weep over the
sins of others. Hearts that have never been broken
because of my own rebellion or our own rebellion will never
be broken because of the rebellion of others. But hearts that have
been broken over our own rebellion also will remain broken over
the rebellion of everyone else. If we have judged ourselves properly,
we will not be too quick to judge others. Our Lord said one time, how much
we love Christ depends, now he said this himself, he said how
much we love him depends to a great extent on how much we have been
forgiven. Isn't that what he said? He said
that when this harlot washed his feet. He turned to Simon
and he said that parable about the forgiving, the man's owed
a little debt and a big debt. He said, which of them will love
him most? And Simon said, the one to whom
he forgave the most. And he said, you've well spoken.
And here's another statement. How much pity and compassion
and understanding that we have for others depends to a large
extent on how much we're able to identify with them. Now you
think about that. And that's the whole foundation
of this thing that Paul's setting forth here. He said, don't be
too quick to judge, don't be too harsh, don't be a brawler
and a fighter, don't cut people off, don't speak evil of anybody.
Remember, you at one time, verse 3. And you know he divides these
evils. You know we think about evils,
but he divides these evils into a threefold set of evil. Look
at verse 3. There's evils of the mind, evils
of the flesh, and evils of the heart. Look at the first one,
evils of the mind. We were foolish. We thought we saw, but we were
blind. We thought we knew, but we were in darkness. We thought
we served God, but we were the servants of sin. Disobedience.
We were disobedient to God's law. We wanted our own wills
and not God's will. God's law was distasteful to
our minds. We hated it. Deceived as sheep,
we were led astray by Satan, led astray by our own evil hearts,
and led astray by evil companions. And then notice the next evils
of conduct, serving different lusts and pleasures. The word
lust here is longings, ambitions. passions, desires. Some are ruled
by the lust for money. Some are ruled by the lust for
fame. Some are ruled by lust for power. Some are ruled by
lust for passion. Pleasure, what is that? We took
pleasure in things of which we are now ashamed. Look at the
evils of the heart. Malice, evil, hate. We loved ourselves and hated
others. Out of our hearts proceeded all manner of evil. Sin takes
a different shape in different people, but it's in all of us. Here's a person, sin takes a
direction here, and we're so critical and so harsh and so void of understanding because
that's not the direction our sins take. Our sins take another
direction. And we don't understand that
individual. But our sin is restrained a lot of times by circumstances.
But it's in the heart of every person. Sin never appears so
exceedingly sinful as when we really see it in ourselves. And
this is the thing that's important. But let me give you an example.
David had this affair with Bathsheba. And she was expecting a child,
and he wanted to cover this sin up, so he sent for a husband
and brought him back from war. He was out fighting for David.
David was home. He was out fighting for David,
one of David's trusted lieutenants. And he sent for him to get him
to go and live with his wife and leave the field of battle
so he'd think the child was his. But he wouldn't do it. He was
such a loyal, so loyal to his comrades who were still out there
on the battlefield, that he wouldn't even go to his house. He said,
I'm not supposed to go and be with my family while my buddies
are out there fighting, and I'm not going. So David got him drunk
and tried to send him down there, and he went to sleep beside David's
door. Found him there the next morning. So there wasn't anything
to do to cover his sins, so he called him in and he gave him
a secret dispatch. He said, give this to the general
when you get back to the battlefield. And this man carried his own
death warrant, his own death certificate. David wrote on that
piece of paper, Uriah sent him to the worst point of battle
and then back off and leave him out there by himself so the enemy
will kill him. He didn't even open that, but he gave it to
the general and the general read it. All right, he sent him out
there, backed off, left him, he killed him. They sent word
back and things went along, you know, and several months later,
the prophet of God, Nathan, came before David. And he said, King
David, he said, there was a certain rich man who had several sheep. And he said a stranger came to
visit him. And this rich man didn't want
to kill any of his sheep and furnish the table, so he went
down to his neighbor who had one little lamb. And he stole
that lamb, and he had that lamb killed. And he fed his stranger,
Vishtonim. David said, you find that man
for me, and I'll kill him. I'll personally kill him. And
old Nathan backed up and looked at him, and he said, David, you're
the man. You're the man. And that's when David collapsed. You're the man. And this is the
thing so few of us have ever encountered from this book. So few of us. This is what Paul's
preaching here. This is what he's saying to every
one of us. He's saying, you're so ready. You're so ready to
wipe the world of evil out. You're so ready to go to battle
for King Jesus. You're so ready to condemn and
slash and cut off heads and cut people off. This is our nature. And it's never dawned upon you
that you were the same thing one time. You are in the same
condition. And if it were not now for God's
restraining grace, you'd still be there. Or you'd go back there. The only thing that restrains
you and the only thing that protects you and the only thing that meets
your need is God's strong arm. It's not you don't stand alone,
you don't fight these battles in your own strength. It's not
you, it's Christ that dwells in you. Every one of us, when
we're reading this book, and when we're finding the promises
and mercies and grace of God, that's exactly what it is. It's
mercy. That's the reason we need to
be gentle. Because it's not by works of righteousness which
be done, but according to His mercy. The writer said, lead me to seek
Thee, seeking Thee to find Thee, finding Thee to love Thee, and
loving Thee to serve Thee, and serving Thee to stay with Thee. That's all of grace. Do we really believe it's all
of grace or most of it? All of grace. Lord, give me Your
grace and make me gracious. Give me your mercy, and make
me merciful. Give me your love, and with it
a heart of love. Give me your kindness in Christ
Jesus. Throughout the ages, you'll show
forth your kindness to us in Christ Jesus. May we show forth that kindness
that you've shown to us in Christ Jesus to others with whom we come in
contact. Do a mighty work of grace in our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.

Divine Remedy for Sin and Sinful Attitudes

What does the Bible say about showing kindness and humility to others?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient during trials?

Why is it important not to be judgmental towards others?

What does it mean that we have been saved by grace?

Why should Christians show compassion to others?

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Divine Remedy for Sin and Sinful Attitudes

What does the Bible say about showing kindness and humility to others?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient during trials?

Why is it important not to be judgmental towards others?

What does it mean that we have been saved by grace?

Why should Christians show compassion to others?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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