My Sin and His Grace

Now, it's easy to commit sin.
That's the easiest thing in the world for us to do. But it's
hard to confess it. If we could bring men and women,
boys and girls, into such a state of heart that they honestly,
before God, felt themselves to be guilty, to be sinners, there'd
be hope for us. If we could bring men and women,
boys and girls, we can't do it. Our Lord said only the Holy Spirit
can convict men of sin. But if we could do it, if we
could bring men and women, boys and girls, into such a state
of heart that they felt themselves to be guilty, guilty as charged,
sinners in the sight of a holy God, that they were able to say
with David, against thee and thee only have I sinned, my sins
are ever before me. or like the publicans, God be
merciful to me a sinner. If they could really say that
and feel it, there'd be hope. But I believe the most hopeless
sign, the most hopeless sign that I see in this present generation
is that people are not sinners. They're just not guilty. In the
face of every scripture which we read, in the face of every
scripture which we present, In the face of every charge that
God brings against men because of sin, the word of a holy God,
men proudly, men and women, proudly lift their heads and plead not
guilty. I'm innocent. We take great pains
to hide our sins like Achan of old, who stole the wedge of gold
and the Babylonian garment. He took great pains to dig a
hole and bury it in his tent. He got it all covered up. He
felt because men couldn't see it, God couldn't see it. Or we
make foolish excuses, like Aaron. Moses said, Aaron, why'd you
build that cask of gold? He said, I didn't. I put the
gold on the fire and the cask came out. Or we blame society. This is vogue today. Blame your
parents for your sins. Blame society for your sins.
Blame your environment for your sins. Blame somebody, though.
Don't blame yourself, but blame somebody else. We learned this
trick from our first parents. Adam, have you eaten the forbidden
fruit? Yes, sir, but the woman gave it to me. Eve, why did you
give Adam the fruit? The serpent that you made, he
made it attractive. It's really his fault. It's really
not my fault at all. Or we often flat-out deny our
sins, like Ananias, who stood before Peter with his hand wrapped
around the gold and silver. And Peter said, You say you sold
this pot for so much and this is all of it? That's all of it,
every bit of it, while he held on to the remaining portion.
We cover our guilt with religious professions and religious ceremonies,
like the Pharisees of old. We be not sinners. Sin is gone
from our hearts and our lives, and we live only for God. I asked a good friend this week,
who used to be in a movement where they taught that when you
receive the Holy Ghost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that the
old nature departed, sin was eradicated, and I asked him,
I said, what did you feel like when you got mad, when you lost
your temper, when you got angry? And when thoughts of evil pass
through your mind, you claim to be without sin, you claim
to be perfect, you claim to be holy before God, you claim to
be without any guilt, what happened when you left the church and
you were at work or at home or somewhere else, and thoughts
of anger or envy or jealousy or covetousness or wrath or lust
or temper or any of these things passed through your mind? What
did you feel? Well, he said, I was deceived. And I knew I
was deceived, that I knew something was wrong, that I claimed this,
and I had it at times, but other times I didn't have it. Here's
what it is. Look at 1 John 1. Here it is
right here, but we're all so prone, like I say, it's easy
to commit sins, but it's hard to confess it. And I'm not talking
about to one another. You're not supposed to confess
your sins to other people. That'd do you no good. confess
them to God. That's our confession of the
throne of grace. But people won't do that. He
says in 1 John 1 verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth's not in us. But if we confess our
sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make God a liar and the truth's not in us. You talk about confessing
your sins to somebody else, that's really easier than confessing
them to God. It won't do you any good, but it's easier. Somebody said that to share it
with someone else, you know, that you get some relief, unburden
your heart. The place to unburden your heart
and find relief and forgiveness and cleansing is at the throne
of grace. But men will not confess their
sins. Charles Spurgeon once said, a
clear sense of our lost estate, a clear sense and feeling in
honesty of our guilt, is absolutely necessary to make us seek for
pardon, trust in Christ, and rest in his grace. Now, you think about that a moment.
That's the reason I said this message is the foundation. It
may be used of God to bring someone to this place of confidence in
Christ. Because a clear sense of our
lost estate, a clear sense of our guilt before God, is absolutely
necessary to make us seek for pardon. Now, we'll seek heaven,
but we're talking about pardon. to trust in Christ and rest in
his grace. For the scripture says the Son
of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus is coming to the
world to save sinners. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Listen
to this. This is his mission on earth.
This is why he came, to save sinners. In Romans 5 verse 6,
When we were without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. But where are there any ungodly
people? Verse 8, God commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Everybody claims Christ
died for them, but nobody is a sinner. Do you understand that? Verse 10, for if when we were
enemies, enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Everybody
claims to be reconciled to God by the death of his son, but
nobody ever claims to be God's enemy. Well, I've always loved God.
I've always believed on Jesus. I've always been a Christian.
Well, ever since I was a child, I knew that I loved Jesus. You
were never ungodly. You were never an enemy. You
were never a sinner. And it plainly states here that
those are the people for whom Christ came and for whom Christ
died. When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Listen to this.
A man in good health will never, never sin for a doctor. Christ
said that. The well need not a physician.
but they that are sick. Go learn what that means. As
a man who is warm will not reach for a coat. As a man who is not hungry will
not accept food. So none will come to Christ but
those who feel they must come. I must have him. You know why
you're not saved? You'd never come to that place.
I must have him. I must have him. Oh, you've come
to the place where you don't want to go to hell, but everybody's
been there. You've come to the place where you'd like to go
to heaven when you die. You don't want to die a heathen.
You've come to the place where you'd like to meet mother in
heaven. You've come to the place where you'd like to lead at least
a good life here on the earth. You'd like to have respectability,
good reputation, the fellowship of the people in the in the church,
but you've never had to have Christ. A must-have. Like a sick
man must see the doctor, must have the medicine. A hungry man
who must have food. A man crawling through the desert,
dying of thirst, must, must, must, must have water. For everyone
that thirsts, it comes to the water. I, bare salad, never find
anybody thirsty. This doesn't mean much to anybody
here tonight. But I'll guarantee you those
boys that were trapped in that mine for how many days recently?
If you'd have held this out to them, they'd have fought for
it. And the water of life? Oh, it's
nice. But it'll be yours when it becomes
a necessity. Not something nice, but a necessity. What comfort can a Savior bring
to those who never felt their woe. A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
None will come to Christ till they must come. None will come to Christ till
they are lost, ruined, and hopeless. Now, you listen to this. This
is something that I know is so. God taught it to me. But I've
never made this statement from the pulpit before. I just saw
this this week. while studying for this message.
Our Savior honored the law by obeying it, didn't he? We all
know, everybody here knows, this preacher knows, and you know,
that God Almighty loved his law. The law is a summary of the character
of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God. God
loved his law. And Jesus Christ, to save us,
had to honor that law and give that law its proper place He
had to be born of a woman, born under the law, subject to the
law, had to obey the law, to honor the law. In order that
God might be just and justify the ungodly, Christ had to honor
God's holy law and God's justice. He had to give it a place of
prominence and a place of honor and a place of respect, because
God will not compromise his law. But if you and I come to the
Savior, We're going to have to, first of all, honor his law by
confessing we've broken it. The man or woman who dares to
dishonor the law of God and lower its precepts by looking into
the face of that law, like that rich young ruler who said, I've
kept these things, my soul. That's not honoring God's law.
I've kept these things. What else should I do? That's
not honoring God's law. That's not falling before God's
law, looking in the face of God's law and saying, oh, the holiness
of it, oh, the perfection of it, oh, the glory of it, oh,
the guilt of my soul. That's honoring God's law. But
that religious devil who looks over the law like those Pharisees
of old and says, Thou shalt not steal. I don't steal. Thou shalt
not kill. I don't kill. Thou shalt not
commit adultery. I don't commit adultery. Thou
shalt not bear false witness. I don't bear false witness. All
these things have I kept from my youth up. You rascal! You
are not honoring that law. You are lowering it precept.
You're dishonoring God's law. You thought it was altogether
such a one as our little requirements here on this earth. You're bringing
God's holy law down to the level of man's law, saying, I've kept
them. I tell you, the man who honors
God's law is the one who trembles before it. I'll tell you, the
man or woman who honors God's law is the one who looks at it
and says, oh, terrible, terrible, awful requirement. I've sinned and broken them all.
Turn to Isaiah 66, verse 2. Listen to this. Isaiah 66, 2. God says in verse 1, Thus saith
the Lord, The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you build unto me? Where is the place of my
rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those
things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look,"
listen, "...to this man will I look, even to him that is poor
and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." That's
the man to whom I look, the man that trembleth at my word, is
of a contrite spirit. The sacrifices of God are a broken
heart. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. God save it such as be of a broken
heart and a contrite spirit. Yes, sir, sinner, Jesus Christ
the Lord came down here in redeeming us, honored that holy Lord. He
became subject to it. The Lord of glory became subject
to his own love. tried by it, and he honored it
in every jot and tittle. And then we come along, take
one look at it, and turn up our noses and smear at it, and talk
about its holy precepts being obeyed, rather than taking one
look at that law and saying, oh God, it's too much, too much. For Christ, listen to this, one
old hymn writer said this, for Christ as soon would abdicate
his own astute from heaven to sell you a throne. I have two divisions in this message,
but these two divisions say it all as far as I'm concerned.
And those two divisions are my sin and his grace. If I can become an object of
his grace, That's all I need. But I'll never become an object
of his grace until I see my sin. And that's what I'm saying that
the average person knows nothing about. A man would be a graduate
theologian, a man would be a graduate theologian
if he learned two lessons, just two lessons, my sin and his grace. my sin and his grace." That's
it. A man would have some knowledge of the way of life if he learned
two lessons, my sin and his grace. You say, you make it so simple.
One of the things Paul feared was that Satan would come and
deceive men and turn them from the what? Simplicity of Christ. A man will grow, he'll grow in
grace and he'll grow in the knowledge of Christ if he'll grow in the
knowledge of two things, my sin and his grace. A man will discover how God can
be just and justify the ungodly when he discovers the truth of
my sin and his grace. That's where we start and that's
where we wind this journey up, on those two subjects, my sin
and his grace. Well, let's try to find out something
about my sin. Look at Isaiah 64, verse 6. See
if we can find out something about it. As I describe my own
experience, I hope there will be those here tonight who will
be able to say, that's my condition before God. That's how I see
myself. George Whitfield was preaching
one night in a home, and a servant girl ask him to instruct her
in the way of life, and he said, well, young lady, he said, it's
just not that simple. I wonder why George Whitefield
didn't take a lesson from some of these modern soul winners
that claim they can lead anybody to Christ in about five minutes.
But he said it's not that simple. He said, I'll tell you what,
I'll be back here in a few days, and until I come back, I want
you to pray one prayer. Lord, show me myself. Show me
myself. Show me myself." When he came
back several days later, God had done just that. Every scripture
in the Bible applied to her, every charge, every judgment,
every condemnation. She was just a mass of jelly,
just broken, weeping, sorrowful. She looked at Whitfield when
he came back and said, there's no hope for me. Too great a sinner. Ah, he said, young lady, now
will you pray another prayer? Lord, fill me thyself. Fill me
thyself. Well, here it is. Look at verse
6 of Isaiah 64. We are all as an unclean thing. It's not just our outward acts,
and this is where most people have sin confined. That's the
reason they have it boxed up. That's the reason all old people
are good people. They not only run out of something
to do, they run out of the energy to do it with. So they all got
good. Everybody that's old dies and
goes to heaven. But our sins are not just outward
acts. That's not what's unclean. Our
very person is unclean. That's what he's saying here.
We, not our acts, not our deeds, we are unclean. The man who has
seen sin is the man who not only knows that the stream's polluted,
but the fountain's polluted. Who not only knows that the fruit
is bad, but the root is bad. That's the reason the fruit is
bad. And the sap is poisonous. And sin lies in our bone and
in our blood and in our nature. Sin goes down even deeper than
our thoughts go. You know where the metaphor unclean
came from here? We are as an unclean thing? You
know where that came from? The Amplified Version had it.
Ceremonially, a leper. Under the Jewish law, when a
person had leprosy, he was judged to be unclean. He could not go
into the house of God. He could offer no sacrifice.
God would accept nothing at his hands. He was an outcast. He was an alien. He was unclean. If he sat on a couch, they had
to wash it with water. If he drank from a vessel, they
had to break it. He must leave the camp. He must
go out and live alone. And as he walked alone, if he
saw even the shadow of an approaching person, he was to cry out loud,
I'm unclean! I'm unclean." You say, that's awful. That's
what he's saying is the condition of every one of us spiritually. Unclean. No one can approach
God. Don't you think for a moment
that out of Jesus Christ you can approach a holy God. You
are not welcome into God's presence. I don't care what the bumper
stickers say, I don't care what the preachers are preaching,
I'm saying that just like that leper outside the camp of Israel,
wandering around alone, crying, unclean! He could not approach
God, he could bring no sacrifice, he's not welcome in the camp,
he was cast out, he could not stand within the veil. God would
not accept anything from his polluted hands. And that's shaped
William by nature. The only reason that the high
priest could approach God's presence was he was carrying in his hand
the blood which represented God's Son's sacrifice. If he didn't
have that in his hands, God would slide him dead. God would consume
him with fire. God would blot him out immediately. Just coming into his presence. Unclean. That's what it says
here. Unclean. Born unclean. brought
forth unclean. We are all as an unclean thing. I'm not talking about comparing
ourselves with one another now. We're not talking about that
at all. This fellow's bad and that's not so bad and that's
pretty good and that's terrible and all that sort of thing. In
the sight of God we are all unclean. And that's who we're having to
deal with, with the God of It's not a matter of respectability,
it's not a matter of reputation, it's not a matter of religion,
it's not a matter of what you think of me or I think of you,
it's what does God say. What's the next line? And all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. It doesn't say our unrighteousness,
it says our righteousness. All our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. a polluted garment. If our righteousness
is a filthy rag, what must be our unrighteousness? Old George
Whitefield used to preach a message on the method of grace. That
was one of his greatest things. Most men preach, sometimes during
their life, their greatest message. And I believe this is the greatest
one George Whitefield ever preached. It's a very simple outline, the
method of grace. He would use this one statement
throughout the message, no man can speak peace to his heart
until, until. And he had four or five points.
The first one was this, no man can speak peace to his heart
until he sees his part in the fall. No man can speak peace
to his heart until he sees his actual sins. No man can speak
peace to his heart until he sees and is convicted of unbelief.
But then he said this, no man can speak peace to his heart
until he sees that the best prayer he ever prayed had enough sin
in it to send him to hell. And the best deed that he ever
performed was filthy rags. And the best righteousness that
he ever presented before the presence of a holy God, if it
hadn't been for the blood of Christ, would have damned his
soul." Do you see that? There's sin in our tears of penitence. There's unbelief in our faith.
There's hatred in our love. There's selfishness in our generosity. You don't see it, God sees it.
Because God requires perfection. I don't see it. We don't even know of the jealousy
that's in our charity, and the envy that is in our work, and
the hatred that's in our love, and the selfishness that's in
our generosity, and the unbelief that's in our faith, and the
sorry selfish motive that is in these things we claim, this
is the will of God, this is what God showed me, this is what God
taught me, this is what God led me to do. Yeah? Maybe he did. But ninety-nine
times out of a hundred, it has something profitable in it for
us. Our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. And look at the next line. We
all do fade as a leaf. What's the prophet saying there?
We fade like a leaf. Here's what he's saying. There's
failure and decay even in our resolutions to do better. This
seeing thing in us is a continual thing. We fade just like a leaf,
just like the leaf comes out now in the spring. You see these
little tiny leaves on the trees? They're so fresh and vibrant
and beautiful and tender, and they keep on, they get bigger,
and they're just so beautiful. We're going to keep getting better.
No, we're not. We're going to start fading. The natural man
promises, I'll do better. He promises, I'll straighten
up my life. He fully intends to do so. But
without Christ, we can do nothing. And we fade like the leaf through
the summer. We fade like the leaf. And our
best professions and our best resolutions and our best hopes
and our best pretensions have become nothing but shadows and
dreams. In all of my lifetime, I've heard
the testimony of one totally honest person facing death. Most everybody who's dying makes
his peace with God. Most everybody who's dying. Everybody
who dies, folks tell me, well, they got saved, or they made
it right with God, or something like that. Everybody gets religious
when he thinks he's going to die. One woman was totally honest. And it may be, God showed mercy
to her, I don't know, He did to the thief on the cross, but
she was totally honest. And that's when Brother Barnard
was pastor out in Borger, Texas. And he was telling about all
these, he was the only preacher in town, 60,000 people, he was
the only preacher that lived in town. And every time somebody
got shot, he'd have to preach the funeral, you know, or go
visit them. And there was a dance hall girl named Dixie, he knew
her, everybody in town knew her. But she's one of the prettiest
girls in town, and very popular, and very wild, and very worldly. And Dixie got shot in a barroom
ball. And she was lying in the back
room on a cot, and the doctor had come to see her, and he said
there wasn't any hope. This was way back in 1920-something.
And so they sent for Barnard. He came over there, and he sat
down beside her bed, and she was crying. She knew she was
dying. And Barnard took her by the hand. He said, Will you receive
Christ? Will you believe on the Savior?
Will you trust Him and be safe? She listened. Well, here's what
he said she said. She looked up at him and she said, Preacher,
there ain't no use lying. If I get well, I'm going to go
right back to living the same kind of life I lived before I
got shot. No use me lying to you or lying to God. That's the
truth. And he said she turned her face
to the wall and died. That's honest. We all do fade as the leaf, but
we have got all of these pretensions and we've got all of these resolutions
and we've got all of these professions and all of these vows and spurgeons
there. They're like shadows and dreams.
Fade as the leaf. Why don't we come down to it
and face the truth? Why don't we cry out to God?
We're all as an unclean thing. Our righteousness is a filthy
rag. We all do fade as the leaf. And
our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. See that
last leaf on the tree? Here's the picture here. All
the companions have fallen. They're all gone. There's one
holding out. There's one leaf left on the tree. Will it survive
the winter? Will it survive till the spring
thaws? The north wind blows, and that
one leaf begins to tremble. It's just holding by a thread.
And that old north wind blows, and that leaf shakes, and then
it's gone. Tried by sin, withered by iniquity,
it joins the rotting ones on the ground. There's none good,
no, not one. That's the last one. There's
none good, no, not one. Make him a right reverend, make
him a most worshipful master, make him a high supreme potentate,
make him anything he want to. There's none good, no, not one. And here's the tragedy, listen
to this, verse 7. And there's none that call upon
thy name, there's none that stirreth up himself to take hold of God.
This is what troubles me. This is one of the greatest sins
that we have. This troubles me more than anything else. People
don't seek the Lord. People seek fortune, they seek security, they seek
fame, they seek comfort, they seek honor, but don't seek God. And this troubles me more than
anything. that I see so much indifference in this matter,
seeking the Lord. Like Jacob of old, who said,
I will not let you go till you bless me. I will not. I read the other day about a
fellow who'd been working at a certain place 35 years, he'd
missed one and one-half day because of sickness. But every morning
for 35 years he punched that time clock. Every morning. Because as he punched that time
clock and went through that gate, it meant a payday. It meant security. It meant retirement. It meant
hospitalization. It meant food for his family.
There was some reward from faithfulness. And he was seeking those things
because he needed those things. And the Lord's Day comes, and
people meet to worship the Lord, and to sing praises, and to read
his words, and to deliver these messages prepared. And folks,
they've got a headache, or got company, or they went somewhere,
or all these different things. If you had an attitude toward
your payday, and toward your security, and toward your retirement,
and toward your things in this world, like you have toward the
house of God, you would be on welfare when you hit sixty-five.
That's right. But men don't call upon his name,
they don't spare up themselves to take hold of God. I preached
a sermon and a young man, not too long ago, on Sunday morning,
came up and said, pray for me, that message, bless me, I need
that, I need the gospel, I need Christ. Was he here Sunday night?
No, sir. And you know what I thought?
That young man's a liar. That's a dishonest young man.
If he needed God, he'd been here before church started. He'd been
here at 6.30. He'd been here at 6 o'clock.
He'd been outside the door waiting for somebody to come and unlock
it so he could come in here and hear about this Savior he needed.
That's dishonesty. That's deceit. God ought to send
him to hell. But I'll guarantee you, if we
had a rich uncle that died and he was going to read his will,
we'd be early. That's right. We'd be early.
The lawyer sends us a card. He says, now your rich uncle
died and he left $200,000. Be down at Second National Bank
on the sixth floor, room 614, at 10 o'clock Monday morning.
You'd be there at 9 o'clock. And you'd make two or three dry
runs up the elevator to see if you could get there on time.
You'd probably go down there at night to make sure that you
got there on time, so you could hear the will. I'm reading the
will of the Lord Jesus Christ. He left some folks some things,
because they don't value it very much, but he left it to somebody
at will. And boy, I tell you, That man who knows what it is
and who needs it, and who's poverty-stricken, who's a beggar at the throne
of mercy, he gets there a little early. And he says, I need what's
coming, I need what God's sending, I need it. They don't stir up
themselves to take hold of God. And listen, listen, and you've
hid your faith from us. We think that we're running around
here under the smile of God. We're running around here under
the patience of God. We're running around here under
the long-suffering of God. We're running around, this generation,
and don't know it, under the wrath of God, which he's holding
back till the cup gets full, and then he's going to pour it
out. That's right. Their foot will slide in due time. They walk in slippery places,
and the only reason they stand is God Almighty hasn't pulled
the rug out from under them yet, but he will. No man knows the
full extent of these words. Thou hast hid thy faith from
us." Christ found it out. He knew what it meant. My God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Christ said, You don't know me
or my Father. They were in the church, they
were studying the Bible, they were preaching, they were going
through the ceremonies, they were going through all of these
different rituals and sacraments and all of these things, and
Christ said, You don't know me nor my Father. God hid his face
from you. God hid his face. Oh, what a
dismal state was this! What horror shook my feeble frame! I discovered with all my religion
I didn't know his name. You think of that. Oh, what a dismal state was this! What horror shook my feeble frame! I discovered that with all my
religion I didn't know his name. I saw myself before his throne. Works of charity were my cream,
but alas, I heard his awful voice. I don't know your name. I don't know your name." That's sin, and it's not being
preached. Men don't see it. They're not
troubled by it. They're not concerned. But those
who are, I have some good news. Listen to Isaiah, verse 8. Those
who see this, God says, the man that I look to is the man who
trembles at my will, that broken heart, that honest person, that
honest person. God said I'm going to look to
him. All right. Isaiah says, But now, O Lord, thou art our
father. Have you gone with me to the
confessional? Where is it, preacher? Well,
it's not down in some Catholic church. And it's not down here
at the front which they call the altar, that ain't it. And
it's not to go next door and spill all your sins to your neighbor
and comfort one another. Where is the confessional, the
throne of grace? Have you been there? If you have,
then you can come to this place, thou art our father. What'd that boy say, the prodigal
son, who had spent all he had on rapturous living and come
to nothing, hungry, bankrupt, broke? homesick, destitute, depraved,
sick. He came staggering home and he
said, my father, I'm not worthy to be called your son, if you're
my father. You don't have to call me son,
but you are my father. You are my father. And I asked,
you've got hired servants in better shape than I am, and I'm
asking you to give me the place of a hired servant. That's what
the Canaanite woman said. She said, Thou art my master.
I may be a dog, but you're still my master. And the dogs eat the
crumbs from the master's table. That's what the thief on the
cross said, Thou art my Lord. I'm receiving what I deserve,
but Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You're
my Lord. I plead forgiveness upon thy great
love. Upon thy great promise, upon
thy great sacrifice, upon thy great infinite love through Jesus
Christ, I plead mercy." That's what a sinner can plead. He can
plead four things. He can plead the infinite love
of God, God's love. Some preacher said one time in
my presence, God could have saved everybody or God could have damned
everybody. Well, God might could have saved
everybody, but God couldn't have damned everybody. Because love
has to be expressed. Love has to have an object. God
is love. I know God's just, and God's
righteous, and God's holy, and God Almighty will punish sin,
but God has to express his love. Love's got to have an object.
And God must save somebody. Why not me? Huh? Why not you? God, you're going
to save somebody. You said so in your Word. You
sent your Son to save somebody. Why not me? Why not me? We can plead the love of God.
We can plead the merits of Christ. They're sufficient. Christ's
blood is sufficient. He's able to save to the uttermost. I don't care how rotten you are,
how self-righteous you are. I don't care. He's able to save
to the uttermost them that come to God by him. Why not me? He
can take a woman possessed with seven demons and save her. He
can take an impudent, impulsive fisherman named Peter and save
him. He can take a blasphemer and
persecutor like Paul, Saul, and save him. He can take a thief
in his dying moment and save him. Why not me? The dying thief
rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. There may I, though
vile as he, I don't claim any special treatment. wash all my
sins away, I can plead the love of God, I can plead the merits
of Christ, I can plead the word of God. You know what God said
in his word? He said, everyone that thirsteth,
come to the water, and I'm thirsty. He said, he that hath no money,
come! He said, whosoever will, let
him come! Take the water of life. Huh?
Why not? front of us. And his promise,
all that my Father giveth me shall come, and him that cometh
I will not cast out. That's what he promised. And
I plead those four things. Call it what you will. But I'm
a subject, I'm a subject of God, and I'm a candidate for his mercy. And I'm going to claim Now, if
that's too difficult for you, go to the next line then. Thou
art our Father, we're clay, and you're the potter. That'd be
all right, wouldn't it? Can you say that? Lord, I'm clay.
Nothing. I'm helpless like clay. I can't
fashion myself. I can't help myself. I'm totally
passive. I'm nothing but clay. You're
the potter. Make something out of me. Make
something out of it. If you don't feel enough confidence
to say, you're my father and I'm your son, then say, Lord,
I'm Clay and you're the potter. You can do that thing. See this
old pile of mud? Lord, you can put that on the
wheel of your grace and make something out of it. You sure
can. I know you can. I'm Clay, you're the potter.
Make something out of me. Give me a new heart. Give me
a new nature. Give me a new soul. I'm worthy
to be trodden underfoot. I'm worthy to be shaken like
dust off the feet. But Lord, you can make a vessel,
a thing of beauty out of me, a trophy of your marvelous, matchless
grace, if you will. I wish you would. I was, can you do that? I can,
I really believe I can. I can go up there in verse 6
and I can say that's it, and the older I get the more I see
that's it, but I can come down to verse 8 and I can look face
to face into his grace and I can say you're my father. Though
I'm a wanderer, I'm a son. Though I'm a failure, I'm a son.
Though I'm a sinner, I'm a son. I'm a son. And you're my father. And on the basis of that relationship,
I plead your mercy. And if I can't get enough, enough
confidence to do that, I know I can say this, Lord, I'm clay. Dig from the pit. But what a
potter you are. And will you take this clay by
your grace and make a vessel for the glory of Jesus Christ?
And keep it on the wheel. and cut the rough edges off and
keep it spinning and then put it in the furnace of trial and
affliction and sorrow and make it sweat and make it weak too
and bring it out and put it in the sun let it bake some more
and then put it back on the wheel again and smooth it over and
after a while by your grace in a few years when Christ comes
again you can present it before the multitude of glory as a vessel
that the Father made for His eternal praise. Our Father in
Heaven, we thank you for the promise of your grace, we thank
you for the assurance of your word, we thank you for your mercy
and practice

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My Sin and His Grace

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