[0:00] And turn in your Bibles to Titus 3. Titus 3, and we're going to read verses 1 through 8 this morning. Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities,! To be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.
[0:26] At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
[0:42] But God, our Savior, appeared. But when the kindness and love of God, our Savior, appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.
[0:55] He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life.
[1:13] This is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to stress these things so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.
[1:27] These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. I wanted you to remember a word last Sunday.
[1:42] Do you remember what that word was? Remember. Good. Remember. Remember how you're to act toward outsiders. Remember what you're supposed to be doing toward them.
[1:54] Remember what you used to be. Remember what God did for you. So, how does God want you to act toward outsiders, towards those who are in the unbelieving world?
[2:08] He says, subject to rulers, obedient, ready to do whatever is good. Don't slander anyone. Be peaceable. Considerate. Courteous.
[2:18] Humble. Gentle. Why? Why? Why? Why? Well, because you used to be just like them. You used to be just like them, living in malice, hating, being hated.
[2:34] You weren't. You weren't any better than they are. How soon we forget that. But God. But God saved you.
[2:47] God loved you. God found you in that condition. Dirty and defiled. And the exact place where they are right now, in the mud, broken, beaten, destitute, enslaved, and he rescued you.
[3:01] That's why you should be gracious to them. Because God was so gracious to you. Why should you be gracious? Because God was gracious to you.
[3:14] And it would be an incredible, an incredible affront, an incredible offense to God if we freely received and then we didn't freely give.
[3:30] And I say that, it would be an offense. It would be an affront. Isn't that what Jesus' parable about the unmerciful servant is about? The man who is forgiven billions of dollars, a huge debt, and then he goes out and he strangles his brother over $100.
[3:50] And the king didn't just say, oh, you bad boy, you shouldn't do that. It wasn't a slap on the wrist. I canceled all your debt because you begged me to.
[4:08] Shouldn't you have shown mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you? And it says, in anger, the king turned him over to the jailers to be tortured until he should pay back all he owed.
[4:21] This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you. Wow. Each of you, unless you forgive your brothers from your heart. the king was angry.
[4:35] It was offensive. It was an affront. How dare you? How dare you? I can't believe, I can't believe you.
[4:46] You are completely and ridiculously out of line. That's what's going on here. So completely, ridiculously, unbelievably wicked that I would forgive you all of that and then you can't forgive your brother a little thing?
[5:08] I was gracious to you and you can't be gracious to others. I forgave you and you can't forgive them. So brothers and sisters, if you're harboring resentment or malice against your sister or your brother, you are totally out of line.
[5:26] And if you are unwilling to be gracious towards those who are on the outside when you used to be just like them, you are completely out of line. How can you do anything else?
[5:37] How can we do anything else but be good to others when God has been so good to us? And so now we've come to verse 8 in Titus chapter 3 and he says, I want you to stress these things, Titus.
[5:54] I want you to stress them. Insist on them. These are the fundamentals. These are the fundamentals. So insist on them. Stress them. You can't get over them.
[6:06] Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time ever. And if you don't think so, I'll wrestle you in the back later. Because I guarantee you, you're about 10 years old and I can take you.
[6:24] He was the greatest basketball player ever because he had this perfect combination of talent and athleticism, a mental illness level competitiveness.
[6:35] But here's the thing. If you ask coaches, if you ask experts in basketball, they will tell you what absolutely set him apart was he was completely fundamentally sound.
[6:51] Bill Walton, you know, the 70s basketball player, big guy, does the commentating now. He one time asked Michael Jordan, how long did you spend working on those highlight plays?
[7:02] How long did you spend working on those plays where you fly through the air, you know, the ones that get repeated on ESPN, on the loop, and on YouTube, and Michael Jordan's 50 best dunks or whatever, and Michael Jordan looked at him in disbelief and he said, I spent no time on those things.
[7:21] I spent no time on that. I spent all of my time on the fundamentals. He was obsessed with the fundamentals. So his hands, whether on offense or on defense, were always exactly where they were supposed to be.
[7:36] His feet were exactly positioned the way they were supposed to be. His passing, his free throws, his footwork were completely and exactly the right way to do it.
[7:48] He was, he stressed, he insisted on the fundamentals. That's what Paul is saying here in verse eight. I want you to stress these things, insist on them.
[8:02] That means people are going to want to get away from it, just like a basketball player doesn't think, oh, why do I have to practice free throws again? Why do I have to practice my footwork again? People are going to want to get away from these things.
[8:13] We want to think that there's something higher, better, different, but Paul is saying, no, you have to insist on these things. These are the fundamentals. And so we quickly went through verses four through seven last week, but I'm going to be honest, it was too quick.
[8:30] It was too quick. Paul says stress them, and so we want to go back, just like a coach goes back, and he says we're going to practice those again, we're going to go back again this morning, back to the fundamentals.
[8:41] But these are the best kind of fundamentals because they are good news. They are really good news. Good news fundamentals. And we never outgrow our need to hear this, we never outgrow the gospel, and this is what I was saying in Sunday school, this is what I love about you as a congregation, as a whole, you don't get tired of hearing the gospel.
[9:06] You don't get tired of it, and when we preach the gospel, you don't say give me something new, you say that's good, thank you, I needed to remember that, thank you, you enjoy it. You know, sometimes the good news is so good, I don't know about you, but I wish I could be saved all over again.
[9:23] I wish I had two hearts to give, two hearts to believe, two tongues to say, Jesus, you're my Lord, you're my Savior. we never outgrow our need or our enjoyment of the gospel.
[9:38] And so, if you aren't saved, today is the day of salvation again. Thank the Lord, today is the day of salvation again. It's another week has gone by, and you aren't saved, and yet here is the Lord coming to you one more time, saying, this is the gospel, you are a sinner, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, here's the salvation, take it.
[10:05] So, the three, we're going to just do three fundamentals this morning, the three fundamentals this morning, and the first fundamental, first thing, we see verses four through seven, is that God loves sinners.
[10:20] God loves sinners. It is true, God loves the righteous. righteous. In another sense, God hates the wicked.
[10:31] He hates what they do. But there is this fundamental strain that goes through the entire Bible, that God loves sinners.
[10:43] He has this burning desire to be merciful and to do them good. And so, at one time, we were foolish, disobedient, and enslaved, hated and hating.
[10:56] And maybe that's you this morning. That's what we all used to be, but God loved us in that condition. He found us there and He loved us.
[11:07] Maybe that's you this morning. So here's number one. Everyone, God loves sinners. So maybe this is you. Everyone else revolves around you.
[11:20] That's the nature of indwelling sin. You bring everything into your orbit. Everyone exists for you. You're curved in on yourself and you insist everyone else be about you.
[11:38] I think it was Stuart Olley at one time said, you know what the sinful nature is, what indwelling sin is? You pull out your old class photo, but there's all your classmates, and who's the first person you look at?
[11:52] It's you. Other people get in your way. They don't do what you want, and you don't really care how they feel.
[12:05] Sin can be so bad that we barely even register other people as having feelings or desires of something different than our own, and it is all about us, and that's not love, and that's where we were.
[12:19] Hateful and hating. But in contrast to man's hatred, man's hatred of other men, look at God's love for man.
[12:34] Look at God's love for sinful man. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, in Titus, this is now the third time that word has shown up, this appearing, and it's attached to Jesus' coming.
[12:50] it's attached to this whole work of salvation that has come in Jesus Christ, and in this place, it's not so much what has happened objectively out there, it is what has happened in here, in my own heart, the appearing, the love of God rising into the sinner's heart.
[13:14] It happened to many of you, it happened to me, God broke in to our darkness, into our rebellion, and he broke into our night, and he didn't come into our life with a frown, and ready to destroy us, hurtful, but what does it say with love?
[13:33] With kindness and love, and love you remember there is philanthropia, we get our word philanthropy, it's love for men who need mercy, it's love for men who can't give you anything, they only have emptiness and brokenness, and they need, and so it's a love for man in need, and poverty, and so this love that God has for men is love loaded down with mercy.
[14:05] God loves sinners, and that's why there's a gospel, that's why we aren't what we used to be, because God loves sinners, and that's why Jesus came.
[14:16] Jesus didn't come to win a reluctant father's heart. Sometimes I think that people think that.
[14:27] We think that Jesus came and he died in order to win a reluctant father's heart. That's not why he came, he came to do the father's will. And what was his father's will?
[14:40] To save sinners. sinners. What did the father long for? What did the father want? The salvation of sinners, to reconcile sinners to himself.
[14:51] They're far away, they're lost to him. They're lost, and he wants them back, he wants them. What was his? So he knew our sin, he knew our guilt, he knew our wretched pride.
[15:06] We talked about that last week, we're wretched, and yet we're like, oh God, I don't need you. So we're wretched pride. He knew it all. He knew we had no heart for him. He knew we had no heart for him, but he had a heart for us.
[15:19] He had love for us. And that's why Jesus didn't come as a second Moses. He didn't come as a second Moses to give more laws, to say, do this and you'll live.
[15:33] He came better than Moses, full of grace and truth, John 1 says, brimming over with salvation. Remming over with salvation.
[15:44] And so why did he come that way? Because the Father sent him that way. God, full of love for sinners, eager to do them good, longing to save them, longing to bring light and rescue, sent his son.
[15:58] And so Jesus Christ came and now the spirit has come into our hearts. sin. And so now are you a sinner?
[16:11] Maybe, well, you are. And that can mean two different things. That means, you know, are you still an enemy of God? Well, God loves sinners.
[16:23] Romans 5, 6, 7, 8 talks about that. He loves sinners in their rebellion. Are you a sinner in the sense that you're still wrestling with your sin?
[16:35] You're not what you used to be, but you're not what you want to be. Well, here it is. God loves sinners. And he doesn't love them to leave. He doesn't love you in such a way that he leaves you where you are.
[16:47] He doesn't love you with some sort of milquetoast acceptance of just what you are and doesn't care about what you do.
[16:57] It's not that. He loves you in order to change you, to help you, to do you good. He doesn't accept the cancer of your sin. How would you like a doctor that saw you in your cancer and says, I love you and your cancer is fine.
[17:13] That's not love. And God doesn't love us that way. He doesn't accept the coronavirus of our sin. He wants to get rid of it because it's killing us.
[17:30] He wants us to hate our sin because he loves us. And so that's the first fundamental. And friends, we need to nail this down. We need to pray.
[17:41] I need to have this branded on my heart that God loves sinners and we need to nail this down because if we're going to do any good to those who are on the outside, if we're going to be forgiving like we talked about earlier, if we're going to be that courteous, gentle, humble, overlooking sin and loving people, being merciful and all the rest, we have to get on the same page as God's heart.
[18:13] We have to be on the same page as God's heart. If we think God hates those people and he just wants nothing but to destroy them right now, then you know how willing you're going to be to love them.
[18:26] If that's what you think God thinks and feels about sinners and he just wants to destroy them, he doesn't love them in any way, then what are the chances that you're going to be willing to love them?
[18:39] I'm putting the chance as zero. God hates them, God wants nothing more than to destroy them, so why should I do them good? And boom, right there, you've undercut exactly what God wants you to do, which is to be ready to do whatever is good.
[18:57] We won't have a heart for it. We won't have a heart for what we talked about because we are a hundred miles from where God's heart is.
[19:08] God loves sinners. God loves sinners. God loves sinners. He's saving sinners. That's the first fundamental.
[19:20] Now the second fundamental is this. God graces sinners. God graces sinners. He gives them grace. And what I mean by that is in salvation, it's all of grace.
[19:35] all this love and this good will that God has is nothing but mercy. It's mercy. And boy, is it mercy. Mercy.
[19:51] Remember, Paul says that's remember how how we used to be. all of that sinfulness. But God saved us.
[20:02] Why did God save us? He says, you see it there, not because of righteous things we had done. Let's just be very clear about this. God didn't save us.
[20:14] God didn't break into our lives because of righteous things that we had done. There were no works that impressed God. In Isaiah 59, we saw this in the adult Sunday school.
[20:28] They weave spider webs. That's the sinner's righteousness. Just spider webs. They hatch the eggs of vipers.
[20:40] There's no works that impressed God. And so what did we do? What could we do that would obligate God to save us? Nothing we did or could do could cover our sins. We were unclean.
[20:51] And so what we did was unclean. And if you have dirty hands and you try to clean off a garment, you're just going to make the garment dirty. Here's a perfect illustration.
[21:06] Friday, I have the funeral. Or it was Thursday, I had the visitation. And I did my home dry cleaning on my black suit to make sure it was all good. Because I thought I saw something on there and I took it out and there was a little spot.
[21:20] And I wiped that spot clean and the thing got really, really dirty. You want to know why? Because I just eaten a peanut butter sandwich. And I put peanut butter sandwich, peanut butter goo right on my just dry clean suit.
[21:36] That's what we do when we're like, I'm going to clean up my life. I'm going to impress God with my righteousness. And we take our dirty hands and we wash ourselves and we're no better for it.
[21:51] What have we done? what did we do that would so obligate and impress and overcome God that he would be forced to save us?
[22:03] It was sovereign grace. There was nothing we did. There was no resolve on our part that would make God act that impress God. God saved us and it was completely his own thing.
[22:18] His will. desire. It was sovereign grace. And we use that word all the time, but it's almost a cliche.
[22:28] What do we mean by sovereign grace? We mean the grace of a Lord. The grace that is stronger than anything. The grace that is free. It's the grace from a king to a convict.
[22:43] The convict can't put the king in his obligation. Grace that doesn't need anything from us. Grace that omnipotently wades through all the obstacles we put in the way.
[22:56] Grace that doesn't ask us to do anything except to repent and to believe. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
[23:09] Yes. Nothing I did. Nothing I did. That's the bottom line. This is a bottom line fundamental. This was Paul's point in Romans chapter 4.
[23:21] Now, when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift. Paul is saying we're not talking about wages. We're not talking about credits.
[23:33] We're not talking about earning. We're not talking about working for salvation. That's not how it happened. That's not how it happens.
[23:43] That's not how it happened for Abraham. That's not how it happens to anyone. However, this is what Paul says. This is the most undercutting worldview destroying little phrase.
[23:56] However, to the man who does not work. Who doesn't work. Who does not work, but trust God who justifies the wicked.
[24:08] His faith is credited as righteousness. righteousness. He doesn't work. He doesn't offer God anything.
[24:19] He just trusts them. Grace is God's free love to us and faith is the open hands, the open heart, the willingness to believe that believes in God's loving heart.
[24:33] We begin to trust God when we start to see he is good and I can count on him. He is not what I thought he was. He is not stingy. He is not waiting for me to balance the scales.
[24:46] He has done what needs to be done. And now he is just saying, will you trust me? I don't have anything to do and it is all mercy. And so this is what he says, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
[25:00] And yes, it was mercy. Mercy. You know the parable of the Good Samaritan was not really the point of the story, but let's use it.
[25:12] On the road down to Jericho, a man was waylaid by robbers. And the priest and Levite passed by on the other side, and the Samaritan sees this man broken, destitute, beaten, next to death, close to death, and he stooped down, got off his horse or whatever he was riding, and he helped him.
[25:32] And the point is, Jesus is making a point here, and Jesus at the end of the parable says, now who was the neighbor to the man? And the teacher of the law says this, the one who had mercy on him.
[25:49] The one who had mercy on him. Now, salvation is mercy. That man on the ground didn't have anything to do with the help that that Samaritan gave him.
[26:02] Salvation is mercy. And in the story, at least as far as salvation goes, we aren't the priest, we aren't the Levite, we aren't the Samaritan, we are the broken, beaten, destitute, close to death man on the ground who is going to die unless someone is kind to him.
[26:22] He had mercy, and it was surprising mercy. God has surprising mercy. In 1996, Ann Arbor, Michigan, there was a KKK rally, and like it is many times when there's something like that, there was a counter crowd, a counter rally, and the counter rally was actually bigger than the KKK rally, but there they were.
[26:49] The people were not happy with the KKK being there, and the police were doing a good job of keeping these two groups apart. and a lady in this group, in the counter group, with a megaphone, all of a sudden said, there's a Klansman in the crowd.
[27:13] Now, everyone turned, and somehow or other, a guy, you know, with those vests on, with the Confederate flags, and he had an SS, Nazi tattoo on his arm, on his, you know, his sleeveless arms.
[27:30] He had somehow found himself in this group. I don't know what he was doing. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when she said, there's a Klansman in the group, in the crowd, everyone turned and looked, and there he was.
[27:46] And they started chasing him out of the way. There's pictures of this, you can look at it online. There's pictures, and they started chasing this guy. And then, something happened.
[27:59] Mom mentality took over. Something broke. And someone knocked this fat, middle-aged Nazi on the ground, racist over.
[28:13] And people, they were carrying their sticks with the signs. They started hitting him with their sticks, hitting him, kicking him. And then, an 18-year-old, still in high school, a girl named Keisha Thompson, or Keisha Thomas, a black teenager, she flew out of the crowd and threw herself on top of this man.
[28:43] And so that she was taking the hits. She was taking the blows, shielding his body from their blows. And you can go home and look it up. You can look at the pictures. And what is most striking and startling about this is the look on her face.
[29:01] Etched in her face is anguish and desperation. She is doing anything she can to protect this guy who would do nothing but spit in her face if he had a chance.
[29:15] That's mercy. That's God's mercy. It's undeserved. It's unexpected. It's mercy on his militant enemies.
[29:28] And Jesus threw himself on top of his enemies and shielded them with his own body to protect us. And so he saved us.
[29:41] He rescued us. He rescued us from hell. That's where we're going. He rescued us from judgment.
[29:52] He rescued us from our madness. And we were as mad as that gathering demoniac. Deceived and enslaved to our sin.
[30:05] Hellbound enemies of God. Enemies of man. And he saved us. He washed us. He saved us through the washing of rebirth.
[30:15] We were dirty and he washed us. We were unfit for God. This is the idea of uncleanliness. Uncleanness. You know that from the Bible. The Old Testament gave the people this paradigm that sin makes you unclean.
[30:29] You can't come to God. You have to stay away as long as you are unclean. Well, we were unclean. We were unfit to live with God. We were like that man with leprosy.
[30:40] Remember high school, junior high? We talked about it on the ski retreat. We were that man with leprosy. We couldn't go near the temple. We couldn't be with God's other people.
[30:56] And Jesus said, be clean. And he was clean. And then he said, now go to the temple. Go right in and show him what I've done. And so we were dirty and he washed us.
[31:08] We were dead and he made us alive. That's how great his grace is. That's how great his love is. we were dead and he gave us this new birth, this renewal of the Holy Spirit.
[31:21] That word renewal is the word that is usually used for the recreation of the new heavens and the earth. And so they become the new heavens and the new earth.
[31:32] The home of righteousness. The home of immortality. That's what he's talking about. How great is this mercy? Well, he takes us from beaten destitute until we are now new creations ready to live forever to be at home with the Lord.
[31:55] And that's how great his love is. It's a new you, a new creation born of the Spirit. And so you have a new mind, a new way of thinking about things. That's what repentance is, is a change of mind. Where does that come from?
[32:06] That change of mind where you change your mind about what you think of God, you change your mind about what you think of yourself, about what you think of your sin. This new mind with these new desires, that comes from God. And that's you, Christian.
[32:17] God didn't find you clean and alive, but he cleaned you and he made you alive. And brother, sister, don't forget it.
[32:28] Don't forget what you are. And he gave us his spirits generously, nothing held back. All of him, all of the Spirit, all you need.
[32:41] Life is hard. Sin is stubborn, but the Spirit is mighty. Spirit is mighty. Omnipotent God, living in man.
[32:56] And you have all of him. And then verse 7 says he justified you. That's talking about guilt and righteousness. He justified you. You were guilty.
[33:07] guilty. You were guilty. I'm not talking about how you felt. I'm talking about what you were. You were guilty and he justified you. He made you right.
[33:18] He declared you right. And he made you right in Jesus Christ. He forgave all of your sins. We just sang it. His rose from mine. And it's not just a label.
[33:31] It's not just a declaration. It is a declaration. But it's a declaration because of what God has done. He has attached you to Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
[33:44] He has robed you in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so he doesn't just say it because he wants to say it. He says it because it is true of you now.
[33:55] You are robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so he's forgiven all of your sins. He's taken them away. He's dismissed them.
[34:05] He's thrown them behind his back. He's thrown them into the deepest ocean. As far as east is from west, however you want to!
[34:33] He's to accept you. That's why 1 John 1 9 says he's faithful and just. Would it be right any other way? He's clothed you with Christ and so you are in him.
[34:47] You're wearing Christ's clothes. You're wearing his righteousness. His splendor is your splendor and so God must say, God always says, as far as legal righteousness, you are perfect.
[35:04] You're accepted. Now that's the grace of God. That's the love of God for sinners. He does this for sinners. He doesn't do it for the righteous. He doesn't do it for those who work hard.
[35:16] He does it for sinners. He goes further. He makes us heirs. He makes us children of the heavenly father. We aren't paupers. some of you need to live up to your privileges.
[35:32] We aren't paupers. We aren't street children. We aren't desperately trying to survive. We aren't lucky children. We are heirs of eternal life.
[35:45] Glory is coming. Heavenly immortality blazing brilliant forever perfect holiness inside of us and in the world that we live in there is no sun.
[36:01] There is no temple in the new heavens and the new earth for the Lord is the sun and the temple and we will shine like stars.
[36:14] That's what we are heirs to. That's where we are going. Maybe your parents have given you some wonderful inheritance. It is nothing compared to what God is going to give you.
[36:26] He is not going to be put to shame by earthly parents at all. Your name is in the Father's will. And so when the role is called up yonder I'll be there.
[36:38] And if you haven't trusted in Jesus I just wonder can you do better than that? Can you do better than that? What's your hope compared! to our hope? What's your hope compared to my hope?
[36:53] You've got nothing. So leave the dark and come to the light. Leave your hopelessness and come to embrace this hope. There is grace for sinners.
[37:03] That's the second fundamental. God loves sinners and God graces sinners and how much he loads them down. Now here's the third fundamental and it's very brief.
[37:15] Paul says stress these things. Now he has a reason for saying stress these things. We've talked about these are the fundamentals these are the things that we have to insist on and now the third fundamental is Paul says stress these things so that that's the purpose that's the reason why you need to stress these things so that those who have trusted is good and if you're thinking is you see this dynamic of how we become ready and eager to do what is good do you want that well there's it's showing us how this actually fundamentally gets put into our lives stress these things so that those who have trusted in God will be or may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good so where you get the heart good and
[38:16] I'm talking about husband how do you get that desire to love your wife wife how do you get that desire to submit to your husband to love them all of Titus chapter two about older men and older women and younger men and younger women all of that godliness and all the godliness that we talked about toward outsiders where do you get a heart for that where do get holy desires to do those things well he says stress them stress these things load yourself down with your blessings load yourself down with your blessings load yourself down pile the treasure in your arms put rings on all of your fingers put crowns on all of your head multiple crowns fill your pockets pockets with all of this good stuff put every gold chain on your neck pile all the treasure in your arms don't stop until your heart is weighed down with your riches until god's grace and all of god's kindness is just spilling out of you so imagine someone getting soaked with water and they have their shoes on and they are walking and what's happening they are dripping water and water squishing out of their shoes how do you get that to come out of your life this love and grace and mercy you gotta soak yourself in it and then you will be careful to devote yourself to doing what is good you will have the same heart that
[39:55] God has and so when God says be ready to do good your heart will say I'm ready to do good when God says obey this command you'll say my heart says I want to obey this command I am ready I have the strength we do not do good out of the sense of poverty and of sadness and desperation and fear and guilt but out of a sense of I am blessed I am blessed I preached this on Friday you asked Christine Peterson how are you doing and she would always say I'm blessed I'm blessed you talked to her and what came out was joy what came out as peace and happiness and brothers and sisters she was a joyful happy person ready to do what is good Marcy said something very interesting she said oh she wasn't like someone that's just wanting to die and I know what she met as long as she was here she wanted to do what was good she wasn't in a hurry just to escape all this bad stuff she wanted to do good while she could she was a happy ready to do good
[41:08] Christian and where did that come from she was blessed and she knew it so three fundamentals God loves sinners God graces sinners he gives them not what they deserve!
[41:24] but incalculable mercy heaven will not be long enough for us to get to the bottom of how good God has been to us and then the third is the key to doing whatever is good is loading yourself down with these things stressing them to your own heart insisting on it and so your happy assignment is this stick to the fundamentals this week stick to the fundamentals fill yourself up with all of this good stuff cry to the Lord saw this in the Sunday school the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts cry to the Lord shed abroad your love your grace into my heart open your mouth wide and let God fill you up he will be glorified and you will be blessed and if you haven't believed
[42:36] I just don't think you're going to get a better deal than what Lord Jesus is offering you you'd be a fool to put it off one more day let's pray Lord we do live far too below our privileges and we live too far away from your heart and so forgive us and Holy Spirit bring us closer and closer to what you've told us and your goodness to us and help us to live in this grace in order that we might be careful to do what is good that we wouldn't be careless and nonchalant about doing whatever you have said is good but give us your hearts you have commanded these things now pour out your grace into our hearts in order that we might do them fill us up fill our hearts with the glory of
[43:45] Jesus Christ the goodness and the love of your heart and help us to repent of our hard thoughts of you of our low thoughts of you and to believe the fullness and the greatness and the majesty not only of your greatness but of your goodness in Jesus Christ and impart life this morning to dead hearts help them to see that they have no reason to sit in the pigpen hungry when there's more than enough at the father's house so give them grace to get up and go pray this in Jesus name amen!