Three inches in all. It's the
most we ever had. We got eight inches first walk. Then we got four inches next
walk. Yeah. We got a little bit of
that in the first one and a little more in the second one. They're
about 12 inches. I guess you see them about the same size.
I didn't go nowhere for that. I watched them from inside. That's
so pretty. I hope that's all we get. I've already started. Well, it's good to see everybody
out this morning. Well, it's 11 o'clock, kiddos. Got an announcement here for
a baby shower. from Mr. and Mrs. Lackey C, if
you don't know who that is, that's Greenbean. Have a baby shower on the February
the 5th, 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock at Whittier Depot Street, 135
Whittier Depot Street, Whittier, North Carolina. Says kindly,
RSVP by January 24th, that's tomorrow, if you think you can
go. And I have the number here, and
I'll put it on the bulletin board if you need to call. She's also
registered at Target and at Amazon.com. So that'll take care of that. Remember those who requested
prayer. Hannah has the COVID. At least that's what they said
at the hospital. They thought she might have the
flu and the COVID at the same time. So I don't know what the
situation is, but she was right in a fever. But it did drop down
at the hospital last night from 102 to 99. But my son-in-law
has had that, had that Omicron. And his fever went up and down,
up and down. It lasted about three days as
far as the actual infection was, about three days, and he started
feeling better. But do remember to hand in your prayers. And
because of that, everybody connected with her are out today and quarantined. So that's why we have such a
And Wanda's not feeling well, and there's a possibility she
might have the shingles. I hope it's not the case, but
there's a possibility of that. So remember her in your prayers
also. Since there's only a few of us, we'll just have dinner
today and not have an afternoon service. That'll give me a little
more time to get on the road and head to Winston-Salem. I'm
going to preach at Seattle Fort Baptist Church tomorrow at 2
o'clock, and then I'm going to spend Tuesday with my mom and
come back Tuesday evening. so that's my schedule him number
four hundred forty nine just uh... seven or eight of us so
let's sing out four forty nine to god be the glory God be the glory, great things
He hath done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son. It is life and atonement for
sin. And open the light gate that
all may go in. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. O come, ? To the Father through
Jesus the Son ? And give him the glory, great things he hath
done ? O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood ? To every
believer the promise of God The proudest offender who truly believes,
that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Praise the Lord, praise
the Lord, let the earth hear His praise. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. O come to the Father,
through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he
hath done. Great things He hath taught us,
great things He hath done, and great are rejoicing through Jesus
the Son. But purer and higher I wonder, I transport when Jesus
we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 268. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1, reading
verse 12 and read through verse 21, giving thanks unto the Father
who hath made us to meet, or suitable, to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness and hath translated us unto the
kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his
blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. And by him
were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him.
and 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
him should all fullness dwell and having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things at earth or things in heaven. And you, who were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled." Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
mercy and for grace. We thank you for words such as
these. that cheer the hearts of wretched
sinners that can say that they have, because of the work of
Christ, actually received redemption and forgiveness of sins. We have
been reconciled to God by the blood of His cross, and the one who did it for us
is the Creator, Sustainer, and Consummator of all things, who
cannot fail, who does His pleasure always, who does according to
his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay his hand or say a name, what doest
thou? Our great King and Master, our Lord and Sovereign, our blessed
Substitute and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is that name
that is above every name, that name that enables us and allows
us to approach into your presence forgiven and accepted, righteous,
sanctified, and justified, not because of anything we did, but
because of what he did for us. Help us, Lord, to remember that
every day, to rehearse it in our minds. We pray for those
of our company who are sick, especially remember Hannah who's
got the COVID. We ask, Lord, you'd be with her, be with her
family as they minister to her. We pray you'd help her if she
has any shingles. We pray you'd bring her back
to a good measure of health. The others who requested prayer,
Lord, we ask your help for them. Strengthen them in Jesus Christ.
Remember especially Melvin and Perry, Bobby Wright, and others
that have requested prayer. We ask your help for them. We
pray, Father, for ourselves this hour as we gather that you might
be pleased to give us worship as we see and consider the greatness
of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished for us when
we had no idea that he had done it. We're thankful that one day
you sent a preacher to tell us what you had done and to break
our hearts and move us to him for teaching us the way. We thank
you. Help us now to worship you. We pray in Christ's name. Now firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord. 268. Now firm a foundation, ye
saints of the Lord. for your faith in his excellent
word. What more can he say than to
you he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. I am thy God, I will still give
thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent
hand. When through the deep waters,
? The rivers of woe shall not be
overflowed ? For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless ?
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress In through thy retrials
I pathways shall lie. My grace all sufficient shall
be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee,
I only design thy dross to consume. ? And thy gold to refine ? The
soul that on Jesus ? Hath leaned for repose ? I will not, I will
not ? Desert to his foes ? That soul, though all hell ? Should
endeavor to shake I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Sylvester, you want to come up
here and receive the honors? Since there's so few, we'll just
use one. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Christ, our blessed Savior, the gift
from heaven for your people and assured their salvation and freely
gave them all things needful we ask lord as we return to thee
that which you've given us let us remember it's not our it's
yours and do so with a heart of thanksgiving we pray in christ's
name amen You. I invite your attention back
to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 21. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the first part of this chapter,
Paul has established the clear and absolute terms THE TRUTH
OF CHRIST'S GLORY AND HIS COMPLETE SOVEREIGN DOMINION OVER EVERYTHING
AND EVERYONE THAT HE HAS CREATED FOR HIMSELF. ONE CANNOT READ
THE WORDS THAT WE JUST READ IN VERSES 14 THROUGH 17 WITHOUT
ATTRIBUTING ALL THINGS TO THE GLORY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
BY WHOM ALL THINGS CONSIST. These verses declare Him to be
God, the very image of the Invisible God, the Creator, the Sustainer
and Consummator of all things, as well as the Redeemer and Forgiver
of His people. Nothing in this passage denotes
anything other than the doings of the Sovereign, accomplishing
only as God the Savior can. Verse 20 proclaims the resounding
and unqualified success of the substitutionary death of Christ, declaring that He made peace.
Peace has been made, been established, and reconciliation also for every
blood-bought believer or reconciled to God. he says in having made
peace in verse 20 having made peace not having made peace possible
nor having made peace available when he died on the cross of
calvary he made peace he made peace between men and god having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things to himself by him i say whether they be in heaven
or in earth, everything is reconciled to God by the blood of the cross. There is no human natural DNA
at this crime scene, this glorious crime scene that accomplished
our salvation. This is Christ's wondrous accomplishment
and to Him belongs all the glory for it. He has made peace for
the elect through the blood, that is, the sacrificial death
of His cross. There is not one scintilla or
even a slight intimation of possibility here or probability or any hint
of an offer or something made available. Done! One man said,
Most men's religion is two letters, D-O. True religion is four letters,
D-O-N-E. Done the great transactions,
done I am the Lord's and He is mine. Before we were born, before we were born, ere we drew
our first living, sinning, lying breath, our Savior, had already
made peace for us and had already reconciled us to God. And we
went on lying and sinning and hating God, being His enemy,
without any knowledge that this great and wondrous thing had
taken place. We had no knowledge of that great
deed and we did not care that we did not know. We were utterly
content in our criminal career, speeding like a juggernaut to
our utter ruinous end. It was all of grace, all of grace. And Paul, as always in the case,
declares that this grand and glorious and successful work
was entirely by the sovereign grace of God, by setting forth
the wretched character of the people who were reconciled to
God. and for whom peace was established. Their character proves that salvation
can only be by grace. We know the true character of
humanity in sin as born into this world as sons of Adam. We
can but rejoice that salvation is by God's free grace. The sovereign
grace of God is most clearly displayed against the darkness
of our sins. He who is forgiven much, loveth
much. Man's depravity is real, palpable,
and we don't have to read the headlines to know it. You can
read this book right here and find out. Grace, saving, redeeming
grace is only understood, only understood and appreciated by
those ruined sinners upon whom grace has been bestowed. Grace shines in the heart of
the elect sinner because only a ruined sinner can receive it
and rejoice in it. Grace is nothing more than a
word to those who have no need of it. Grace is the preeminent
doctrine of the Word of God because God's grace is in Christ and
it has pleased God that in all things Christ would have the
preeminence So He has the preeminence in grace. Grace, though appreciated
as the glorious doctrine that He is, is more than just a teaching.
It is the experience of every believer and is the constant
theme of the believing sinner's heart and mind. The doctrine
of grace is the consummate theology of every saved sinner. But the
experience of grace is to them life from the dead. Life from
the dead. So Paul not only declares the
efficaciousness of the grace in Christ by the death of Christ,
but he also reminds the believer of the pit from which he was
digged, and he always does that in all his epistles. Grace is
for sinners. So the Spirit inspires Paul to
take the believer back to where he was when grace searched him
out and when grace found him sinking in the mire. verse 21,
and you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled. That is the language. He said the same kind of thing
in Ephesians chapter 2. after he had set forth the glories
of that wondrous salvation in verses 3 through 14 of Ephesians
chapter 1. Beginning with the words that
he had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ according
as he has chosen us and in him for the foundation of the world
that we should be holy without blame before him having in love
having predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ unto himself to the pleasure of his own will wherein he is
made accepted in the beloved. He goes on to say we were redeemed,
we were given a mind and an understanding of these things. He called us
by his gospel, we heard the gospel, and we found out when we heard
the gospel that we were indeed the children of God. And after
setting forth that glorious work of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, the next words was this, and you, and you hath he
quickened who were dead. in trespasses and sins. Who's
he talking about? He's talking about all those
he just described in chapter one of Ephesians as being recipients
of this wondrous, marvelous work of salvation from eternity to
eternity. And then he says, and you at
the Aequican who were dead in trespasses and sin. This is a
divinely inspired caveat here. assures us that what follows
is designed to exalt the glory and the wonder of grace, which
is clearly defined by the ruined recipients thereof. Our Lord
said in the thirteenth verse of chapter 2 of Colossians, And
you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you
all trespasses." And you. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about me. He's talking about you. He's talking about
himself. And you. And you. Grace can scarcely be
uttered without these words, and you. Newton wrote Amazing Grace, how
sweet the sound. and revealed its amazing dimension
by adding the words that saved a wretch like me, and you, and
you. And you is that great high tower,
that impenetrable bulwark, that righteous rampart erected by
Paul against any and all who would bring the believer under
the law, the beggarly elements, the rudiments of the world discussed
in this book. Such grace haters believe and
declare that grace is hopefully delivered on the doorstep of
those who are anticipated to be obedient and those who desire
it and ask for it and accept it and those who deserve it.
This proves the otherwise and you who were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works and you is the divine disclaimer. of any notion of personal merit
and personal righteousness having anything to do with the grace
of God. It doesn't on any level and in
any place from start to finish. And you declares that when grace
found your dark soul, and it was dark according to Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 3, you were wholly undeserving of it, were
not seeking it, cared nothing for it, and in fact were embarrassed
by the thought of it When grace finds the sinner, it doesn't
find a friend. It finds an alienated person,
an alienated person, an alienated from God. The word alienated
here not only expresses the nature of the sinner's heart, but also
bears reference to the fact that when Adam sinned against God,
he was SEPARATED from God. There was a great gulf fixed
that no man could cross over. And that great gulf is only spanned
by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. That separation not only may
be applied to our own wickedness, our own wicked preference, but
is the truth and declaration of the effect of Adam's sin.
We were separated from God. We were born that way. It alienated
us from God. When grace found us, it found
one who was alienated from God. and in order for us to be reconciled
it must be by the action of another representative the last Adam
the Lord Jesus Christ we couldn't reconcile ourselves we were alienated
we were alienated thus while we were alienated Christ here
is plainly declared made peace by the blood of his
cross and reconciled us to God while we were alienated, while
we were enemies. He did not do this after we cleaned
up our act or made restitution for all our sins or made some
kind of fleshly atonement. He did it when we were in a state
of alienation Where were we? Away from God. Separated from
God. Not caring. Not wanting. Having
no interest. And wonder of wonders. Without
our knowledge. Without our consent. Without
the exercise of our will. Before we even existed. He reconciled us to God and made
peace for us by the blood of His cross. Likewise, when grace
came and found us, we were enemies of God. That is what it says.
Enemies in your mind. Enemies. God was not our enemy. We were His enemy. Scripture
makes that clear. We were enemies of God in Romans
5.10 it says we were enemies with God. In Romans 8.7 and 8
it says we were enmity with God. Now what does that mean? We weren't for God. We weren't
loving God. We weren't appreciating the fact
that He loved us and had a wonderful plan for our life. We didn't carry anything but
God's love. Nothing at all. enemies. Our hatred for him didn't damage
him, but like an aggressive terminal
disease it progressively damaged us ever plunging us deeper and
deeper into the infection of our own depravity. Our hatred
for God was the driving force and motivation for our life.
You ask people, say, oh no, I like God. Well, they like the God
of their imagination, the one they've made up in their mind. That's a lot like them. Almost
exactly like them. They didn't hate that God. They
didn't hate the God that loves everybody, because why should
you hate Him? He loves you. You might not care
for Him, but you'll tolerate Him. Somebody loves you, that's
okay. You know they ain't going to
harm you. They ain't going to do you no harm. What do you mean hell? He loves
us. Why would he put us in hell if
he loves us? That's the language. That's what the natural human
logic comes up with, doesn't it? It doesn't make sense that
God would love somebody with a love so powerful that it comes
from God himself. Suddenly he loves a person right
down to his last breath, but then because that person hasn't
exercised his free will toward God, he hates him. and cast them
into eternal hell. What kind of love is that? Not
love at all. Not love at all. We manifested our enmity to God
in wicked works, loving what God hates and hating what God
loves, disallowing what God commands and overtly committing what He
forbids. If any acts of morality were committed by us, they were
done to be seen of men and were designed for self-aggrandizement.
Such visible legal endeavors were designed to establish a
righteousness by which God would be somehow obligated to show
us kindness and accept us. Our works, however, were assaults
of an enemy. and designed to get rid of God
altogether and hardly conducive to acceptance. Our wicked works
are merely the symptomatic of a pathetic nature and our pathological
conditions. We were mad or insane in our
mind enemies of God. The Lord said in Psalm 14, There
is none that doeth good. Not one. There is none righteous. Not one. There is none that seeketh
after God. Not one. There is none that understandeth. Not one. How many then are seeking
after God? By nature. Nobody. How many are
righteous? How many good? None. This is the estimation that God
inspired the psalmist to write in Psalm 14 verses 1-3 and Paul
reiterated in Romans chapter 3 verses 10-19. We minded the
things of the flesh and not the things of the spirit. This is
how we are described. Our driving force and motivation,
our raison d'etre, the seed of our unnatural vile affections
was to hate God and be against Him. this is the alienated center
this is me by nature as I was born into this world and this
is where grace found me our mind enemies with God grace our Lord gives the Word of Grace
after He tells us what we are. I'm thankful that's the way it
always works in Scripture. It always works that way. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet in spite of, that's
what Barnard said, in spite of, you are now reconciled. Hath
he now reconciled us to God? These words are full of assurance
for the grace sinner. You see, reconciliation is not
something that's going to happen. It's not something that because
we do something it's going to be manufactured. Reconciliation
has taken place and you who were alienated from
God and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has
He reconciled, now has He reconciled. How did He do that? He did that
in the body of His flesh by His death, through death. Why? To present you, to display you,
to set this trophy of His grace on His mantle of glory. to present you holy what does
that mean? separate from sin without God perfect and righteous
before Himself holy unblameable I can't even imagine that word
sometimes I look at it and I think UNBLAMEABLE UNBLAMEABLE! UNREPROVABLE! CAN'T BE REPROVED! CAN'T BE BLAMED! HOLY! YET NOW THEE RECONCILE! This
is no future reference here as if to say that having been reconciled
that in some future day you might not be. This is future declared
with the little word NOW or rather further declared. As long as
you live, No matter what day it is, what
time it is, it'll be now. I always loved that fact. The first person I read, I think,
was Barnard, who made that point to me. He said, it'll always
be now. What about yesterday? That's
gone. What about all the things you did yesterday? They're gone,
too. What about all the trials? They're gone. all that madness you had against
this person or that person yesterday that's done now right now future's not promised we don't
know whether we'll be here tomorrow what do you got? you got now
this moment if you live into tomorrow when you wake up what
time will it be? it'll be now. It won't be tomorrow. It'll be
now. Glory be to God, now hath he
reconciled us. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Jesus Christ. He appeared once in heaven for
us now. This is the sweet, sovereign,
effectual grace accomplished in the body of Christ's flesh
through death, and the result is that magnificent substitution,
is that Christ has presented you holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in His sight. He said, this is my bride, decked
in her pristine robe of righteousness. Look at her. No spot in her, he says in Solomon. her beauty is renowned because
I put it on her he says in Ezekiel chapter 16 in Ephesians 5 he said he gave
his life for the church that I might present her without blemish
without wrinkle without spot without any such thing and having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things to himself, by him I say whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, in you who were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. To God be the glory. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. As you know, we're both married.