Okay, let's do the thing. Let's do the thing where we put our hands. What are you? No, no. Snail. Cricket. Owl. Wait. Okay, let's do it again. Okay, so I'm gonna, like, lift this down, and it's cold. There you go, lift it to your bottom line. There you go. That's very, very blackberry jam. Okay, let's do it again. I'm the bottom. Wait, I'm the bottom. Wait, who goes next? Wait, wait, wait. Okay, which one do I want? I want... Thank you. you you you you you you so so so you you so this morning as we gather for worship. We have some announcements before we get started. First of all, the Harvestville Prayer Guide for the month of November is available on the table next to the offering box. So please, if you haven't picked up your copy, please do so and use it to pray for our national pastors and our missionaries. Also, the Faithful Men School is meeting this afternoon from four to 7 p.m. We'll actually be meeting Pastor Matt's home in his basement area because we have, our conference room is locked, so we can't get into it. But those of you who are part of that know where you're supposed to be. And then our midweek service is scheduled for this Wednesday evening, November the 13th, from 6.30 to 7.30 p.m. We intend to watch the final session of R.C. Sproul's series, God Alone, which has been excellent. If anyone wants to come early and bring your supper with you, you can come at 5.30 and the fellowship hall will be open. And then please do pre-praying for me and several other brothers. Hello, Ellen. We had an altar call. I see that hand. I am scheduled to lead an ordination council along with Pastor Brandon Smith and Pastor Kurt Smith this Saturday. It'll be here actually that's being hosted. Some of you know Kim Brinkley, who is a deacon at Christ Reformed Baptist Church in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, where Nathan White serves as pastor. He is a deacon and he's being considered for the eldership. And so, our church has been asked to examine him. So, I would ask for your prayers that the Holy Spirit would make it clear. The church doesn't call men into the ministry, the Holy Spirit does. But it's the church's task to examine a man to see if the marks of a call are upon him. So, do be praying for us that the Lord will give clarity. And then our agape feast is scheduled for next Lord's Day afternoon, November the 17th. Each family or individual is asked to bring three things, a main dish, a side dish or dessert, and then tea or soft drinks. As always, we'll provide all paper and plastic wear and ice. We have an annual church business meeting scheduled for the Lord's Day afternoon, December the 8th. And then this is not in your bulletin, but the elders are calling a church business meeting for next Lord's Day afternoon, immediately following the benediction. And at the end of today's service, after the benediction, we'll be dismissing non-members because we need to inform you of what the business meeting is about for next week. So we will give a chance for you to step out and we'll have our members and families remaining here. If you've applied for membership, you can also remain as well. But we'll address what's happening next week then. Please do take a moment to silence all your cell phones and disconnect from all forms of social media. so we can worship the Lord without distraction. Well, a call to worship this morning comes from Revelation 5, verses 8 to 14. I opened our concert of prayer this past Wednesday night by reading Revelation 4 and 5, and that got me thinking about the call to worship this morning. I'm indebted to commentator William Hendrickson for his amazing insight into the setting of Revelation 4 and 5. By our very nature, we are all prone to think that the world revolves around us. That is that wherever we are, wherever geography we're located in, all the universe is centered on that spot. It's part of our fallenness and part of the fact that we're finite. But think about it, if we believe that way, if we think that way, then our tendency is to think that God is way out there somewhere, out yonder. on the far edge and periphery of all of creation, not maybe as in touch with everything as we think we wish he was or something like that, but he seems to be the one that's far distant. Well, of course, that's completely false. It is true that right now God is at the outer periphery of the universe. It's just as true that He's also right now filling every single cubic inch of the room we're sitting in. because He's omnipresent. He fills all of space, but He doesn't just fill all of space, He fills all of time. Do you realize God is here ever presently right now, but while He's here right now, He's also here yesterday? He's also here tomorrow already? Because even time cannot contain Him. He fills all of space and all of time because He's eternal. Therefore, He's not subject to time. And as we think about it, here's where William Hendrickson's remarkable insight comes into play in Revelation 4 and 5. If we tend to view our world in very man-centered terms, as if the universe spins and revolves around us, and God's on the outer periphery, here in the Revelation, John is writing to seven local churches that were about to enter into a season of intense persecution. And to encourage them, to comfort them, the Lord reminds them of something, and that is, the world does not revolve around you. It revolves around God. Have you ever noticed the throne room in Revelation 4 and 5? What is at the very center of everything? God is seated on His throne, and if you notice, everything emanates from that in ever-growing concentric circles. There's God sitting upon His throne, and around His throne, there's a rainbow. So that no matter which way he turns, as it were, on that throne, what's he see in front of him? He sees his rainbow. He's about to execute judgment upon those who persecute his church, temporal judgments and ultimately eternal judgments. But as he does so, he keeps before him the rainbow. And why is that important? Because that's his covenant. That's the sign of his covenant. I will never again destroy the earth with a flood. So as I execute judgment, I'm not going to destroy their world with a flood. Instead, I'm going to destroy it with fire, which is exactly what happens at the end of the book, right? But what's the point? The point is that the one sitting on that throne is a covenant-keeping God who always remembers His covenant. But then there's another group outside of that. You got the circle of the rainbow around him, but then you have another circle and it's the four living creatures. These strange beasts, they're appointed outward, ready at a moment's notice to go in any direction that God tells them. The moment he gives a command, they're ready to execute it. But then there's another circle. It's 24 elders. They're sitting on 24 thrones. They have 24 crowns upon their heads. But here's the thing, unlike the four living creatures who are looking out, which way are the elders looking? They're looking inward. They're looking towards the Lord. They're looking towards His throne. And why are there 24 of them? Because 12 of them are the patriarchs of the Old Testament. and the other 12 are the apostles of the New Testament. What's the significance? The significance is the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints are worshiping the same God as one people. But then there's another layer. There's another group and that is the angelic hosts who are gathered in heaven. And then all the spirits of just men made perfect, that is those who've died and gone before and have died in Christ and their spirits are there before the throne. And then on the outer periphery from that is us. We're on the outer periphery. God is not the audience out there, we're the audience looking in at him. But He's at the center of it all, and the point that's being conveyed by all this is everything that happens in life. Everything that takes place in history is unfolding according to God's sovereign decree. He is in charge. Even when we go through hard times, even when we suffer persecution, God is upon His throne. Now does that not encourage you? Does that not comfort you? And then you know what happens when we get to our text. There's a scroll that has seven seals. It's bound up and no one is found who's worthy to open those seals and to read what's in the scroll. And so John weeps and then an angel comes and says, don't weep because the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the scrolls and he looks up and he doesn't see a lion, he sees a lamb. as if it was slain. There is Christ standing there who is worthy to take the scroll into His hands and to begin breaking its seven seals. And what happens then is literally all of heaven erupts into praise. They start singing His praises. And there's no other way to say it, they just get really rowdy. They get so rowdy because they have a lot to sing about. They start by singing and praising him and saying, you have redeemed us by your blood from every tribe and every tongue and every people and every nation. You have made an effectual atonement for representatives out of every ethnicity, out of every language group. You've made us one people of God, but it doesn't stop there. It goes beyond them until thousands and tens of thousands are singing his praises in heaven. And then it goes even farther. In other words, all those concentric circles. Praise starts at the throne and it goes its way to the outer periphery till finally every creature on earth in the sea, above the sea, everywhere is praising Him. Now, what does this have to do with you and me this morning? Besides everything, we have gathered as a small local church a small but valuable local church. I personally think you're Powder Springs best kept secret, but nonetheless, we're a small but valuable church. We've gathered to worship the Lord, but here's the thing, we've gathered with a much larger company than we realize, because the praise started at the throne. We're joining our hearts and our voices to the angelic hosts. We're joining our voices to a hymn that started from the saints who are already in heaven. And furthermore, it's penetrated to earth. Do you realize the Lord's Day started, what, about 12 hours ago on the other side of the world? God's people have been at literally hundreds of thousands of his people have gathered for worship. They've had the gospel preached to them. They've sung his praises. Doubtless there have been new converts added to the kingdom this day already. There's baptisms have taken place. The Lord's supper has been celebrated. God's people have sung and the days just started. And we're just adding our voices to this cascading, ever-growing praise. And we have the privilege as a tiny little church to join in that. And so we should do it with all of our might, with all of our souls. Let me exhort you this way. We're part of this joyous, happy throng. Brothers and sisters, listen intently to the Word of God as it's read and preached this morning as if your soul depends upon it because it does. Join your hearts to the prayer that will be offered by one of our men representing our congregation before God's throne. And I keep coming back to something Pastor Matt said a year ago, sing lustily. That is, sing as if God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is your creator because He is. Sing as if Jesus is your Lord and Savior because He is. Sing as if He shed His blood for you because He did. Seeing as if you're dressed in His righteousness because you are. Seeing as if you've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit because you have. Seeing as if He is worthy of it because He is. Because He is. So listen to the words of Revelation chapter 5. Now when you take in the scroll, The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever. Then the four living creatures said, Amen, and the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever." Let's pray. Father, through the merits of Jesus, pour out the Holy Spirit upon us as we hear the gospel preached this day, as we sing your praises, as we join our hearts together in prayer. Lord, as the word is read and preached, Lord, would you do great and mighty things among us. And Lord, as we sing, help us to sing, realizing our hymns and our psalms, at the end of the day, they're just prayers. They're prayers offered before your throne. And I pray that they will ascend from this place as sweet-smelling incense, well-pleasing to you, and that you will come near to your people, save our children who don't know you, sanctify those who do. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Please take your songbooks, the little white books, and turn to page eight. We'll be singing by faith this morning. And while we cannot see that great throne and the 24 elders casting their crowns before him, we live by faith knowing that someday we will. Please stand with us as we sing. By faith we see the hand of God In the light of creation's grand design In the lives of those who prove his faithfulness Who walk by faith and not by sight By faith our fathers drove the earth With the power of whose promise in their hearts Of a holy city built by God's own hand A place where peace and justice reign We will stand as children of the promise. We will fix our eyes on him our souls reward. Till the race is finished and the work is done. will walk by faith and not with sight. I think the prophets saw a day when the longed-for Messiah would appear with the power to break the chains of sin and death. ♪ And Christ triumphant from the grave ♪ ♪ By faith the church was called to go ♪ ♪ In the power of the Spirit to the most ♪ ♪ To deliver good news and to preach good news ♪ ♪ In every corner of the earth ♪ We will stand as children of the promise. We will fix our eyes on him, our soul's reward. Till the race is finished and the work is done, we'll walk by faith and not by sight. ♪ By faith this mountain shall be moved ♪ And the power of the gospel shall prevail ♪ For we know in Christ all things are possible ♪ For all who call upon his name We will stand as children of promise. We will fix our eyes on Him, our soul's reward, till the race is finished and the work is done. We'll walk by faith and not by sight. Please be seated. if you want to open your Bibles to Psalm 119. All right. Thank you, Neil. Man of many talents is Neil Anderson. Thankful for you, brother. All right, Psalm 119. We're continuing through this Psalm of Bible delight. We're in the 19th stanza out of 22, so we're getting close to the end. That's verses 145 through 152. 145 through 152. And as we arrive here this morning, we find the psalmist once again with his persecutors drawing near to him with evil purposes and intentions to do him harm. And in this dark hour, the psalmist calls upon the Lord for help. He pleads the Lord's covenant promises back to him in prayer. And one commentator rightly remarks that we see in this stanza that Christian experience is urgent prayer shaped by sure promises. Before we read the stanza, I'd like to quickly make two observations about the psalmist's prayer. Firstly, it is an impassioned prayer. And we see this right away in verse 145, where he cries to the Lord, not with some of his heart, not even with most of his heart, but he cries to the Lord with his whole heart, answer me, oh Lord. And then in verse 146, he calls to the Lord, save me. And again in verse 147, he cries to the Lord for help. So he cries and he calls and he cries again for the Lord to answer him. But notice also how the timing of his prayer in verse 147 adds to the impassioned nature of it. I rise before dawn and cry for help. The psalmist is up early to call upon the name of the Lord. His situation demands it. His persecutors are drawing near to him with evil intentions. He doesn't have the luxury of sleeping in. He must battle with his enemies, and his battle starts early, before dawn, as he draws near to the throne of grace. But similar to his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only rose early to pray, but spent entire nights in communion with his Father, the psalmist likewise finds himself awake in the watches of the night, seeking God's face. And when was the last time you awoke in the middle of the night, perhaps weighed down by some particular fear or anxiety and unable to go back to sleep? What did you do in that time? Well, I must confess to you that I've often wasted those precious hours in the middle of the night, but not the psalmist. Like the Lord Jesus, he puts his sleeplessness to good use by communing with his heavenly Father. And so we've seen firstly that the psalmist's prayer is an impassioned prayer, but notice also that it is also an informed prayer. Look again to verse 147. I rise before dawn and cry for help, I hope in your words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promise, your words, your promise. As he rose before dawn and cried for help, what was it that marked his prayers? It was the word of God. I rise before dawn and cry for help. I hope in your words. As he was communing with God in the watches of the night, what governed his communion? It was the Word of God. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promise. The psalmist's prayers are impassioned, certainly, but they are informed. They're guided by the Word of God. They're full of Scripture. The psalmist is pleading God's promises in prayer. He isn't setting his hope on things that the Lord has not promised to give him. Rather, his prayers are anchored in the covenant promises of God. We just heard about how God is a God who remembers his covenant. Even upon his throne, there is a reminder of his covenant promises surrounding him. And the psalmist is leveraging this in prayer. And brothers and sisters, the many great and precious promises that God has given to us in Christ, they should also be the bedrock of our prayers. And it's here, when we are pleading the promises of God, that we can pray with confidence. It's here that we are praying, as the Apostle John says, according to his will, and therefore we know that we have received the requests that we have asked of him. One commentator put it this way, how important it is to be clear what he has and has not promised. How many Christians make shipwreck when suffering comes because they think God has broken a promise he has never made to them in the first place. We need to let our prayer be shaped not by our natural desires, but by the promises of the covenant God. Brothers and sisters, read the promises of God in his Word. Become familiar with the promises of God and offer impassioned prayer to your God, which is informed by those covenant promises. Well, if you're able, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Psalm 119, verses 145 through 152. Hear the Word of God. With my whole heart, I cry, answer me, O Lord. I will keep your statutes. I call to you, save me, that I may observe your testimonies. I rise before dawn and cry for help. I hope in your words. My eyes are awake before the watches of the night that I may meditate on your promise. Hear my voice according to your steadfast love. O Lord, according to your justice, give me life. They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose. They are far from your law, but you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true. Long have I known from your testimonies that you have founded them forever. Amen. May God bless the reading of his word. You may be seated. Please take your psalters and turn to Psalm 119. We're singing from part six, which is on page 280. And if you will, we will sing together verses 145 to 152 this morning. answer me and I, your statutes will obey. Oh, say before I call to you, your testimonies I'll display. I rose before the dawn and cried for my listen to my voice But you, O Lord, are ever near, and true always. Let us pray. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our God. We thank you for gathering us here together in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to worship you, to receive grace from you through your word. And we thank you, Lord, for gathering us together that you might bless us. Not that you might punish us or destroy us as our sins deserve, but that you might bless us by your grace with the forgiveness of sins, the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. God, you have created us for yourself, And our hearts are restless until they rest in you, Lord. So thank you for this great oasis, the Lord's Day, in which we might rest fully in you from all of our earthly labors and all of our temporary efforts, that we might set our eyes on eternal things, that we might commune with you, with all of the saints, Lord, we thank you for this great blessing and we praise you and worship you this morning for all of your perfections, your immutability, your immensity, your eternity, your simplicity, Lord, the great love with which you've loved us, the perfect justice that you show to all things which you have made, Lord, most of all, for your great mercy and grace shown to us through the eternal son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever this morning. Amen. We pray, Lord, once again for Bulgaria, We ask that your gospel would reach the Bulgarian people, and especially this week we pray for the minority Turks and Gypsies of this nation, that they too might hear the good news of salvation and be forgiven for their sins. We pray, Lord, that you would grow our church in spiritual depth and numerical breadth, that you would give us more biblically qualified elders and deacons in the years to come, and that you would protect us from divisive men and women. We thank you, Lord, that we have become self-governing and self-supporting. And now we pray, Lord, for our great ambition that we would become self-propagating in your time. Raise up elder qualified men within our church and association who can be sent to plant churches, both in our own country and elsewhere. And Lord, provide us the funds necessary to support these church planners. We thank you as well, Lord, for this beautiful building which you provided for us. And we ask that in your time, we would have our own place, a place of our own that we might fully use it for the propagation of the gospel. We pray for our own pastor and pastors Brandon Smith and Kurt Smith as they participate in an ordination council to examine a man for his fitness to serve as an elder of Christ Reformed Baptist Church in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, where Nathan White serves. Lord, we ask that you would make it clear to these men whether this man has been called to the ministry, to the eldership, by your spirit. We pray as well for our friend and faithful men school graduate, Brian Pendleton. We ask that you would bless the weekly men's Bible study that he is leading in his neighbor's home on the glory of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask that you would illuminate both Brian and the men whom he is teaching and that you would meet with them, that these men might be strengthened in their faith or converted if they are lost. We also ask that you give him wisdom as he considers future opportunities for ministry. We pray for our Cuban brothers, especially Pastor Yosmar Tabarez. We thank you, Lord, that he's been able to come home from the hospital, recovering from this fever. But Lord, we pray that you would continue to heal him and heal him completely. And we pray for the nation of Cuba as a whole and all of our brothers and sisters there as they continue to suffer from power outages. Lord, spare your people. from the persecution and the neglect that they're experiencing at the hands of their leaders. We thank you, Lord, for the South Korean mission team and the great provision which you've provided for them, 94% of their support for this year. Lord, we ask that you would provide the additional $7,511 for Sam and Tae-yook. and that you would provide it for them very quickly. Move the hearts of your saints that they might be generous. And thank you for answering our prayers for them. We pray for Julius Santiago and the pastoral internship, which he is pursuing to prepare him for his ultimate goal of planning a church in Chicago. We pray for Pastor Brett Shaw and the planting of Bozeman Reformed Baptist Church in Montana, and also for Pastor David Bain, planting a church in Oklahoma. Lord, we ask for all of these men that you would bless their efforts, that you would protect them from the evil one, and Lord, that you would give them grace and strength to preach the gospel faithfully and with great power. We pray for Pastor Luke Peterson. as he's being sent by his church, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Virginia, to be a missionary to Costa Rica. We pray, Lord, that you would provide the funds needed for this couple to move to Costa Rica in the coming months, and we pray for Pastor Alexander Longacre as well from Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, that you would bless their efforts to plant another church in another part of Jacksonville. And thank you, Lord, for the great blessing of the great numerical growth which they have seen, which has prompted this. We pray for Grace Baptist Church in Nairobi, Kenya, where Sam Aliotch serves as pastor, as they are sending two men out to plant churches. We pray for Pastor Emmanuel, that you would give him great success in planning a church north of Nairobi, and Babale, that you would grant him success in South Sudan, which of course is a very dangerous and inhospitable place, but it's his place of origin, Lord. We admire his great love for his own people to return there, even at the risk of his own life, that they might hear the gospel. So Lord, we ask that you would grant all of these church planners great success that you'd protect all of them from their enemies, both spiritual and physical, and that you would grant them great spiritual prosperity in the preaching of the gospel. We pray as well for Pastor Thomas Waters' 44-year-old son, Joshua. We thank you for hearing our prayers and shrinking his tumor, and Lord, Having heard our prayers for his physical healing, we have confidence that you will hear our prayers for his salvation as well. So Lord, very soon, let him be converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, that his sins might be washed away. And thank you for granting him more time. We come now to pray for our own nation, Lord, and most of all, we pray that you would revive the churches in our land and help them to recover the old paths of faithful gospel preaching and pure worship. We ask, Lord, that the churches of our nation would repent of the many sins which Almost all of the churches in our nation are guilty of the great compromises which our churches have participated in, in trying to entertain the lost rather than convict them of sin and neglecting to feed the sheep that are among them. Lord, send your Holy Spirit upon all of the churches in our land that we might rejoice at the number of churches that we see and have confidence that the true gospel is being preached within their walls and not be grieved so often by the compromises and neglect that's occurring in the walls of these churches. And Lord, we do thank you for the faithful churches which you have preserved among our country. We thank you for their ministries and we ask that you would strengthen them and give them great spiritual prosperity in the years to come. We thank you as well for our civil leaders, our President Joe Biden, our Vice President Kamala Harris, our two senators from our state, John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, all of our various congressmen and our Supreme Court justices, our Governor Brian Kemp, our mayors, our sheriffs, all those who have been given the watch over us. We ask, Lord, that you would protect these men and women from those who would do them harm, that you would give them great wisdom to lead us according to your law and according to good prudence. And we ask, Lord, that you would bless us through these rulers, that they would rule over us well. We pray as well and thank you for the good result which you gave us in this recent election. And we pray for our president-elect, Donald Trump, that you will grant him wisdom as he leads our nation once again for the next four years. And we ask, Lord, that you would preserve his life from those who would do him harm and all those others in his administration who are under threat. We pray, Lord, that you would regenerate our president-elect, Donald Trump, that he might truly know the Lord Jesus Christ and be washed from his sins. And we ask, Lord, that those that you've placed around him who have a good gospel influence, as few as they may be and as mixed as that influence may be, Lord, that those who know the true gospel and truly know the Lord Jesus Christ would prevail in influencing him to repent of his sins and be saved and also to rule well over this nation. Specifically, we pray, Lord, that you would see to it that the practices of abortion and same-sex marriage will be outlawed in every part of our country and Most of all, Lord, for these things to be achieved, we pray that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ would change the hearts and minds of the people of this nation and ultimately change our culture such that the people would love your laws and seek from the heart to be obedient to that which is good. We pray now for our members, Lord, we thank you that David Vincent's surgery was successful and we pray for him that he would recover well and very quickly and that his next outpatient procedure would go well on the 21st of this month. We pray for Grace and Elaine, the daughter of David and Terry Randall. We We thank you that this holistic wellness center was able to diagnose the problems that she's been having and prescribe treatment for her. We thank you, Lord, that her insurance is able to cover this and that this place was made known to her that she might get treatment there. We ask, Lord, that you would use these treatments to bring healing to her body and that she would be able to find childcare for her four children during these appointments. We pray for Laura Curry's neighbor, Mona. We pray, Lord, that as she's begun radiation and chemotherapy, that the treatments would be effective in fighting off this cancer and that, Lord, you would save her soul. We pray as well for a close friend of Heather Anderson. Lord, you know that this person is a Christian. and struggles with depression and anxiety and obsessive compulsive behavior. Lord, we ask that you would spare her from this darkest of times that she has endured. And we ask, Lord, that you would send your spirit to calm her anxieties and ease her depression to replace them with inward peace and joy. We pray as well for the friend of Ashley Nelms, Cody. who had a severe accident while cutting a tree. Lord, we pray that you would heal his body and use this close call with the end of his life to cause him to think about eternal things and his eternal destination, that his soul might be saved. We pray for Zach and his wife, Paige, known to Rosella Dunn. We pray, Lord, for Zach's cancer, which has spread throughout his entire body and brain. Lord, we ask if it is your will that you would completely heal this man of this deadly cancer, but regardless, that you would give your peace to them, this man and his wife, to guard their hearts and mind during this difficult providence. We pray as well for Summer Shannon, the daughter of Rich and Kathy. that as she is at school, the Lord will keep her healthy and safe, enable her to make wise decisions, and Lord, that you will surround her with godly friends who always point her to Christ. We thank you for the good indications in this direction which have already come during her time at school. So we ask, Lord, that you would continue to protect her and preserve her faith as she is at a spiritually hazardous place. We pray for Carl Voppel's brother and his difficult work schedule in the Navy. Lord, we ask that you would give him peace, that you would give him relief as well from this difficult work schedule. And Lord, that you would save his soul. We pray for our brother Sheridan Falconberry, that you would grant him wisdom and discernment in sharing the gospel with lost members of his extended family. And we pray for the many pregnancies known to our congregation. three grandchildren of Judy Slate, Marcus and Elizabeth Nicholas, MJ and Hannah Eyster, and John and Nikita Norton, myself and my wife, David and Terry Randall's son and his wife. All of us, Lord, are expecting children, and we ask that you would bring these pregnancies to a safe delivery for both mother and child, and that the children would be saved while they are very, very young. We thank you, Lord, for the progress that our pastor has made in completing 12 of the 13 chapters that he is responsible for in their upcoming book. Lord, we ask that you would give him wisdom and great dexterity with the pen as he does an extensive editorial review of what he's written and completes the 13th chapter of the book. We pray, Lord, for David Vinson editing his four chapters and Pastor Steve Martin who plans to complete his three chapters by the end of the month, and Pastor John Miller, writing his two chapters. Lord, we pray that you would prosper these men to have the completed manuscript turned in to Founders Press on time on Tuesday, December 31st. Lord, give these men great wisdom and allow this book to be a source of great edification to the body of Christ. Finally, we pray for lost loved ones and friends known to the people of our church. David Vincent's former co-worker, Jim, David and Kathy's friend, Pat, Pastor Kurt Smith's father, Olivia, an atheist known to some of us, people whom Jerry Slate Sr. regularly prayed for, Becky, Joe, and Tim, Jerry and Amy, Pastor Jerry and Angela's neighbors, Mrs. Avery Dudek's brother, Charlie, Dr. Rahimi, Mrs. Judy Slate's cardiologist, Leah, Larry, John, and Blondie, that myself and Jesse were able to share the gospel with years ago now. Lost or spiritually weak members of Laura Curry's family, Jesse Dudek's father and mother, Neil and Heather Anderson's oldest son, Joshua, Mrs. Ashley Nome's brother, Justin, Mrs. Judy Slate's friend, Bob, Lena Voepel's father, mother, brother, sister-in-law, and her mother's business partner, Malik, a Syrian-American composer who Neil Anderson has befriended, Mrs. Angela Slate's brother and sister-in-law, Jeff, and Stephanie, Casey Sykes' sister, Bree, and her boyfriend, Brian, and son, Finn, Mrs. Abigail Sykes' maternal grandparents, David and Stella, and Abigail's sister, Olivia, and her husband, Dustin. Lord, for all these many people and those people known to us who are not listed here, we ask that you would send your Holy Spirit through the preaching or the reading of your word. to grant them faith and repentance toward the Lord Jesus Christ, that their sins might be forgiven, that they might be dressed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, and they might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life. And we pray this morning that through the preaching of your word, through our brother Jesse, that you would bless us with very much the same things, to strengthen our faith, to remind us of the righteousness in which we have been dressed, and Lord, to fill us with the Holy Spirit and give us hope for the eternal life which is already ours and which we will soon fully partake of. Lord, bless our brother as he preaches to us. Bless our ears as we hear him and help us this day. Bless us for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ through the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name we pray, God's people said, amen. Good morning. Please forgive my voice. It began to go out last night. I think I've got enough to get through the sermon, but if it does anything weird, I am a victim. I'm not in control. We're preaching this morning over Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10. And I chose this text because it is one of the clearest gospel messages that I'm aware of. It's ministered in my own life, in my own walk, countless times. And I just needed refreshment in the gospel. And I figured perhaps some of you may as well. Our headings this morning are three. The first is Man's Role, verses one through three. The second is God's role, verses four through six. And the third is God's motivation, verses seven through 10. So you've got man's role in salvation, God's role in salvation, and God's motivation. I'll read verses one through three for us here, and then I'll pray, and we'll talk about it. Ephesians 2. Verses one through three. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, this treasure of yours is hidden in jars of clay. You know that I have no spiritual worthiness to bring your word this morning. Lord, I am made worthy only by being hidden in Christ Jesus. We too who sit under your gospel are not worthy to get to hear it in and of ourselves, but you have granted us all grace. You've dispensed to us mercy. that we might hear, and I pray that you would grant us ears to not only hear, but to know it, to know it in our hearts, to love it and to believe it. Lord, we long to believe it. Grant us grace, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Verses one through three, man's role, man's role in salvation. Starts off, Paul says, and you were dead, and you are dead. Now, we just read verse three, which tells us the scope of what Paul's saying in this first section here. He's talking about all of mankind, all of us, even as the rest, a few of the ESV, it says, even as the rest of mankind. All of us are being referred to here in verses one through three, not just the Gentiles, not just those of us that are not in Christ. Verses one through three was at one point true for everyone in this room. For some of you, it's still true right now. Paul says, and you were dead. Dead connotes quite a bit. It holds a lot of weight in the scriptures. First of all, and perhaps your ears perked up when you heard the word, it refers back to the curse that Adam and Eve endured. They were told the day that they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. And have you ever wondered why they didn't die in that moment? Have you ever wondered why they still continued breathing? Why there's a Genesis four? while the Bible continues on after they sin. Didn't God say he would kill them in that moment? Didn't he say that they would suffer death when they ate of the tree? Did God lie? Was he using hyperbole? What's going on in Genesis 3? The death that God promised Adam and Eve, if they were to disobey him, was a physical death. But even more so, beloved, it was a spiritual death. And that did occur the day that they ate of that tree. They had a spiritual death. And they were no longer naked and unashamed. They were exposed before God. Their sin was exposed before God. And the God that they once loved, they now hid from. Their death was a spiritual death. It was a death of their entire being, first of their spirit and later of their bodies. But God in his mercy stalled that second portion that they might repent and believe on Jesus Christ. So what I'm getting at is that this death is whole. It is entire. It encompasses your entire body, your entire being. What the Bible says is unflattering to us. If you are not in Christ, your soul is in one sense dead. Let that sink in. Believer, perhaps you remember a time when this was said of you, when your soul was dead. Dead to God, dead to his law. Dead also connotes obviously an inability to do anything, right? One who is dead cannot rescue himself. He's not mostly dead, he's not infirmed, he's not injured, he's dead. What can you expect of a dead man? How can a dead man heal himself or help himself in any way? Paul starts off laying it bare before us. You were dead. And what were you dead in? You were dead in your trespasses and your sins. That is to say, your sins caused your death. You were dead in sins, living in sins. He continues on in verse two. The sins in which you formerly walked. Now, this word walked is interesting. It's present in 1 John, which it's used multiple times, and it's actually used to describe the course or manner of your life. So Paul is saying here, these sins in which you once walked, that is, which defined you, it's defined how you lived, defined your thoughts, it defined your feelings, it defined your actions, You were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, which once defined you. And he gives what I call three accordings. You see the word according repeated a few times here. And these accordings, excuse me, they are describing, they're clarifying, they're expanding upon what it is to walk. The way in which we walked in our sins. The three accordings are according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and according to the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. We'll look at each in turn. First, we once walked, those of you not in Christ currently do walk, according to the course of this world. That is to say, you walk in the same manner as this world walks. You like the things that this world likes. You love the things that this world loves. You dislike the things that the world dislikes. That is how Paul describes the unbeliever here. This was true of us, beloved. I'm gonna ask this question multiple times. I want it to sit in our hearts today. If nothing else, I want us to walk away, the believers in this room. remembering who we once were. That is so important. We so often forget what we once lived in, and what once defined us, the apathy of our hearts, neglect of our souls. We forget so quickly how we once lived, and it's important to remember, because if we don't remember it, we forget what Christ has pulled us up from. After we walk in the Lord for a time, if you're anything like myself, you begin to forget how bad it was before you knew the Lord. You forget how powerless you were against sin. You forget that it could have one day been said of you and was one day said of you that you walked according to the course of this world. It may never be said of believers that such a thing is true now, but it was once true of you. You loved this world. You relished in it. You enjoyed it. And if you're honest, you didn't like God. You didn't like his church. You didn't like his word. You didn't like his law. That once defined you, beloved. Remember that. Remember the holistic death that once defined you, defined your souls. It gets worse. He continues on with a second according here. According to the prince of the power of the air. This is odd language. Perhaps some of you don't know what it's referring to, but unanimous consensus among all commentators I've seen. This is referring to the devil. This is referring to Satan. And the reason Paul says it this way is he's referring to something he'll say later in Ephesians 6, that Satan has a limited dominion over this world. The prince of the power of the air is referring to this old creation as it were, that which we currently experience now. God has granted Satan a limited dominion over this world, specifically over unbelievers. So don't miss what Paul is saying here because it's jarring and it's meant to jar us. He is saying that we once walked according to the ways of the devil. Do you remember when that could have been said of you, beloved? Do you remember when that could have been said of you? There is no neutral action in our lives. We love to think that we can be neutral. Maybe I'm not for God, but I'm not against him. I'm just waiting until something changes in my life, but I'm not against God. The Bible grants no such comfort. There is no neutral. The reason for that is that we are made, as we will see soon, to glorify God. And if you are not glorifying Him, you are dishonoring Him. It's one or the other, beloved. And remember that this could have been said of you. And certainly not every unbeliever walks according to the ways of the devil to the same degree, in the same manner. But it can be said of every unbeliever. It was once said of us, beloved, that we walked according to the ways of the devil. We listened to him. He was our master. He was the one who gave us our orders, and we obeyed him. That's what Paul is saying here. Calvin says, hardly could a more stark and terrible judgment be rendered And I wanna ask this to you in this room here. Could you paint the picture more bleak than Paul does here in verses one to three? If you wanted to, if you were writing an epistle, could you paint the picture more bleak than verses one through three paint it? Could it get any worse? I don't think so. Continues on here, according to the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. That is to say, according to our flesh. We once walked according to our flesh. So you see this common theme in scripture of the world, the flesh, and the devil. There's a parallel here in verse two. We walked according to the world, the flesh, and the devil. Right here, this third according is referring to the flesh. Do you remember being slaves to your own flesh? Do you remember having no power over sins. I remember as a young teenager growing up in Catholicism, I was unconverted. But because I grew up in Catholicism, I knew something about sin and I wasn't supposed to do it. I thought I wasn't supposed to do it so that I could be saved. So I fought certain sins. I never once tasted a victory. I can say that with full honesty. I never once tasted of even a limited victory. I would abstain from various sins I was fighting for a week at most and would fall horribly and be twice as son of hell as when I originally tried to stop fighting. I had no power over sins. Do you remember when this defined you? Do you remember when you were a slave to sin into your flesh? And even now we still experience tastes of this, beloved. Of course we do. We fall into sin constantly. This is true of us. But do you remember when it defined you? Do you remember when it defined you? Bleak, bleak picture indeed. He continues on in verse three. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature, children of wrath, even as the rest, even as the rest of mankind. A couple things here. First, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, it reminds me of language in Titus 3, where Paul there tells us that we passed our days in malice and envy. Do you remember passing your days, beloved? Do you remember passing them in sin? Do you remember chasing satisfaction? Unbelievers in this room, perhaps you can say that you're experiencing this now, where you're chasing satisfaction. You keep grabbing at things in this world. You keep looking for this new hobby, this new sin, this new pleasure, looking for satisfaction. And you think, finally, I've gotten it. And you remain discontent. constantly indulging your passions and your pleasures, and yet you find yourself empty. That was once true of us, beloved. Do you remember when you were empty? Do you remember not being satisfied in the goodness of the Lord? Paul paints the bleak picture, which we'll return to in our applications, but I'm gonna bring it up now in verse 12. After our entire text, he tells his audience, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. You remember when you had no hope? and we're without God in the world. Christ has truly saved us from so much, beloved. He has truly saved us from so much. So we see man's role, don't we, in verses one through three? Man brought the sin. Man brought the problem. the terrible, terrible situation that seems insurmountable. Again, could we possibly paint the picture more bleakly than what 1 through 3 paints for us? One more thing I want to mention before we go to 4 through 7. Paul says, you were by nature children of wrath. This whole block of scripture should make us squeamish. It makes me squeamish to teach it. But it's true by nature. That is to say, as we were born, we were children of wrath. And why is that? Because before you ever committed a sin before the Lord, you were found guilty in Adam. And you say, that's not fair. Well, two things to that. First, if you were in Adam's shoes, you would have fallen as well. Do you actually wish that you had Adam's responsibility? Do you think you could have done better? Second, and more importantly, if you don't think Adam's guilt on you is fair, what do you say about God's grace towards you in Christ Jesus? Beloved, we don't want fair. Paul says that you were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Calvin says, as the snakes are born with venom, as snakes come with venom out of the womb, so too we come as children of wrath out of the womb. It's a bleak and sad picture. What can be done? What can be done? Verses four through seven, these sweet words. But God, but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. So there's a parenthetical here. To make it a little bit clearer, I'm gonna read the text without the parentheticals. Paul paints this bleak picture in one through three, and he says, but God made us alive together with Christ. All this is true. We were dead, but God raised you up. But God made you alive together with Christ. And a couple questions come immediately from that. Why? Why did God do this? We actually get something of an answer here. First, because of who God is, but God being rich in mercy, being rich in mercy. I read this text and I just think of Calvin's calling scripture baby talk, as it were. I mean, rich in mercy feels like it just doesn't do it justice, right? The English language fails to communicate how marvelous and merciful God is. Why did he do this? First, because of who he is, that he is rich in mercy. And second, because of his great love with which he loved us. When did he do this? When we were dead in our transgressions. If you read chapter one of Ephesians, I'll read this text for us here, Ephesians one verses three through five, Paul is constantly leaning into the doctrine of predestination, which is a massive comfort if you just marinate on the doctrine a little bit, if you just let it marinate in your minds and in your hearts. Listen to this in chapter one, verses three through five. Paul says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will. So in love, in God's love for us before we ever existed, before our parents ever existed, before Adam ever existed, before anything has ever existed, God loved us. And there's something important that we have to realize here, that we have to realize here. It's so important, beloved, The Bible uses the language of God loving us in eternity past because again, the scriptures, as it were, some of these divine truths are communicated in baby talk, as it were. The Bible is not saying that sometime long ago before anything existed, God started to love us. What the Bible is communicating is that God's love for his church is eternal. It means it has no beginning. One theologian said, the reason I know that God's love for me will never end is because it never began. So there's something else important to realize here, beloved. If God's love for his church has always been, it was not caused. Nothing got the ball rolling on God's love for his church. God didn't look down the annals of history and say, those people look decent. They are less influenced by the world and by Satan. Those are the ones I will set my love on. No. Nothing started God's love for his church. It has always been. And that means it can never change. If nothing caused it to start, nothing can cause it to stop. Nothing can cause it to ebb and flow. God raised us up in Christ Jesus because of his great love for us. And notice again, what comes first? God's love or our being raised in Christ Jesus? It's easy to think sometimes that God loves us because Christ Jesus died on the cross. It's actually not true. Christ Jesus dying on the cross did not procure God's love for us. It didn't bring down God's love for us. Christ went to the cross because God loves us. It was a manifestation of God's love for us. And it was a playing out in time of God's eternal, unchangeable love for us. Because God loves his church and determined from eternity past to save his church, he sent Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus went down willingly to die for his church. There is no cause to God's love. So there is nothing that can take away from it. On our best days and on our worst, There is nothing that can take away from it. As one preacher said recently, you do not affect God. You might affect each other. Your children probably affect you. Your spouses might affect you. You're affected by your circumstances. You're affected by your jobs. You're affected by the circumstances of our nation. you don't affect God. And that is the best of news. It is the best of news, beloved. Because what it means is that God's love is not built upon the shaking sand of your works or of your faith. God's love is built upon the solid rock of himself, which means there's no changing it, there's no diminishing it. His love is and always will be. Continuing on, verse five says, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. He makes the point as clear as he possibly can here. If there was ever a time to suggest that man did something to move this situation forward, to advance the cause of his own salvation, it would be here. And Paul takes the opportunity to insert yet again, almost a redundant phrase, by grace you have been saved. By grace, you have been saved. By God's mercy, because of who he is, because of his eternal uncaused love, you have been saved. He takes man out of it completely. And he has raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Isn't it interesting that raised and seated are past tense? What Paul is saying is that you, believer, have been raised with Christ Jesus, and you, believer, are seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places. And you say, what do you mean? I'm seated in Das Memorial Church. What do you mean that I'm seated in the heavenly places? There's a reality that we would do well to meditate on, beloved. There's a reality of the already and the not yet. We have been in a real and a substantial way connected with Christ so that his resurrection is our resurrection. His ascension is our ascension. And that's what Paul tells us here. You have been raised with Christ. So just as he sits in the heavenly places now, so too do you. And while we are waiting for that reality to have its final commencement, where we will actually leave these mortal bodies, and ascend ourselves to the heavenly throne room that we just heard about in our call to worship. It is true right now, that is already true right now of us in a very real way. Our ambassador, our representative sits at the right hand of God the Father so that it can be said in a very real way that we are currently seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Continuing on here to the third division. So we saw man's role. We've seen God's role. Now I want to look a little bit more at seven through 10, God's motivation. So Paul continues on here. So that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. So that word, so, is qualifying something. What is it qualifying? It's qualifying, it's explaining, verse six, God raised us up and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why did he do this? so that in the ages to come, he, that is God, might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Paul says something massive here. He talks about God's motivation for redeeming his church. God redeemed his church for himself. In a very real way, he has done so for his own glory. First and foremost, God is for himself. God is for his own glory. And so I wanna ask you something. Are you for God's glory? Or are you for your own glory? If God is for his own glory, don't you think we should be for his glory as well? And this is why, beloved, this is why verses one through three are true for the unbelievers in this room. Your life might not have the visible outward disobedience that is so often true of some unbelievers, and that is a blessing, that is a common mercy that God has given to you unbelievers in this room, largely because of the ministry of our pastors, largely because of the shepherding of your parents. You have been shielded from some of the more wicked deeds of this world. But that doesn't mean that verses one through three are not true of you. They're true of you because ultimately man was created to glorify God. That's what it means that man was made in the image of God. Our greatest desire should be to glorify God. That is man's entire purpose. That would be our mission statement, right? Over the doorway, as it were, of our daily living. Glorify God. And when you don't do that, you are living according to the course of this world, living according to the ways of the devil, who does not glorify God. God is for his own glory. So let's learn something else here. If God is for his own glory, any doctrine that you come up with or that you hear that may serve to lessen God's role in the gospel, run from that. If you ever hear something that sounds clever, sounds like it makes some sense and slowly but subtly inserts man's role into this, You can be sure it is not from the scriptures. God is for his own glory. His redemption of his church is for his own glory. Any doctrine that thwarts that is not the gospel. It's unbiblical. Flee from it. God is for his own glory. Verse eight, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Now we get to the point where man Nan's role comes into play. There it is. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. Ah, so there is an instrument. There is a way to get the grace. It is faith. And that I can do. Wrong. That's wrong. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What is the gift of God? Faith. If faith were from our own power, Paul would be a lunatic. Verses one through seven would make no sense. For God to belabor the point that man contributes nothing, and to belabor the point that God has contributed everything, and then to say, but you do need to do one thing. There's one thing that you gotta bring to this. It's not totally free. You gotta figure out a way to get faith. No, even that is a gift of God, not as a result of works, not as a result of preparing your heart, of reading the Bible, of sitting under the preaching of the word long enough, of doing enough Protestant penance to render yourself faithful. or having faith, you don't stir it up in your own heart, as it were. Now, obviously, God uses means. That's not what I'm saying. All of those things I just listed are good things, things that you ought to do, knowing that God is pleased to use means to bring about his ends. But anyone here who is in the faith, you know, you know that you did not bring your own faith into existence. You felt it. because you've also felt the other side of it, haven't you? Walking in the Lord for sometimes you felt your faith wane, you felt it struggle. You know that if your faith is going to be preserved, you need the same power that you needed when it first began, which is God and his mercy. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works. Why? So that no one may boast. If the Arminians are right, and faith is the one work that we do, even if some Arminians will say, well, God helps us. God helps us, but we have to cooperate with him. The Catholics use the same kind of language. God helps us, but we have to cooperate. Even if that's true, don't you see how that's just the first domino that blows everything up? Even if that's true, that we have to cooperate, then there is still something to boast about. I cooperated better than that guy. We both sat next to each other in the pew, and I cooperated better, and I'm saved. Don't you see how that flies in the face of everything Paul has said? Faith is not a result of works. It is a gift of God so that no one can boast. So that on that final day, when you stand before the throne of God, and he asked, why should I let you in? No one can say, because I cooperated, because I remained faithful in my own strength after you started the process. I finished in the flesh what you started in the spirit. No one can say that. The Bible constantly time and again labors this point all over the scriptures. Nothing. Nothing. We contribute to salvation. And the same theme continues on. Verse 10, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Do you see this play on words here? We are his workmanship. Paul basically says salvation is not in works. In fact, we are God's work. We are his workmanship. We are recreated in Christ Jesus. John Calvin, I think so helpfully, makes this point here. He essentially says that we have a Excuse me, I lost my train of thought. Calvin essentially says that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works so that while we walk in the newness of life, it can be said of us that even now we are drawing from the power of the Spirit. It is not as though God starts salvation for us We get through verses one through nine and we realize, okay, message received, Paul. God started salvation for us. We didn't do anything to cause ourselves to be saved. But what now? Now we gotta stay faithful, right? Now we gotta remain faithful. We gotta keep on staying in the faith. He says, no, even now, you are the product of a re-creation. You are a new creation. created in Christ Jesus for good works. I'll read an extended quote from Calvin here. He says, Let godly readers weigh carefully the apostle's words. He does not say that we are assisted by God. He does not say that the will is prepared and is then left to run by its own strength. He does not say that the power of choosing a right is bestowed upon us and that we are afterwards left to make our own choice. But the apostle affirms that we are God's work and that everything good in us is his creation. Did you hear that? Everything good in us, even after our conversion, especially after our conversion, is His creation. It's not the mere power of choosing correctly or some kind of preparation or even assistance, but God has created the right will itself. It is His workmanship. Do you hear that? As we who walk in the faith now strive to please the Lord, we ought not do so in our own power. We would be fools to do so in our own power. Even maintaining and preserving our faith is not something that we can do in our own power. It's why the psalmist prays, Lord, preserve me. Why would he pray that? Because he knows that he does not have the power in and of himself to preserve himself. So God, excuse me, Paul, has thwarted here through verses one through 10, at every point, man's ability to do anything. Man created the problem with sin. Man was born by nature a child of wrath. He didn't cause God's love to start. He didn't bring the faith. in his own power that God uses to save us, and he doesn't maintain his soul after conversion in his own power. All of these things come from the Lord. Anything good in us comes from God. We must lean on him for power at all times and in all ways. And so, a couple of applications here. First, to the unbeliever here, Repent and believe. Repent and believe. You might say, well, how's that fair? You just told me that I can't do anything. You just told me that I don't have the power to bring about faith. How can I repent and believe? How can you tell me to repent and to believe? Well, I'm just following after the example of Christ. Christ said, Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And he also said, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. Christ said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he also said, no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the father. Christ said, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. And he also told Peter, after Peter's confession of faith, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Christ saw no contradiction, therefore I see none. God tells you, beloved, excuse me, unbeliever, repent and believe. Repent and believe. That's what He exhorts you to do today. And if you feel powerless to do that, you're in a good spot. You're in a good spot. And what I encourage you to do is go before the Lord on your knees and to ask Him to grant you faith. Ask Him for power. Ask Him for help. I remember in my early days as a Christian, feeling so apathetic to the things of the Lord. wanting to desire the Lord more. And I thought, well, if I can muster up some desire for the Lord, then he will begin to bless me. But no, even desiring the Lord is a gift from him. So if you feel this morning that you do not desire the Lord, go to him and ask him, God, grant me desire, grant me faith. I have no power to do any of it. See what he does. See what he does, unbeliever. The first application, repent and believe. Second, revisit verse 12. Remember, this is to the believers here. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. We would do well to remember this, beloved, because as we do so, we will begin to realize anew and afresh all that Christ has done from us. He has raised us from the grave and seated us with him in the heavenly places. We went from following the devil to seated at the right hand of God in Christ Jesus. We went from slaves of sin to slaves of righteousness. We went from lovers of pleasure to lovers of righteousness. God has done so much for us in Christ. He has not merely stopped at giving us a legal declaration of righteousness. Just as that death that I mentioned in verse one is holistic, so too the life is holistic. He has revived our souls and He grants us power anew now as we walk in faith to glorify Him and to honor Him. If you remember verse 10, we read, God prepared these good works beforehand so that we would walk in them. That puts works in its proper place. God starts by dismissing works completely. And he, excuse me, Paul starts by dismissing works completely. And he ends in verse 10 by acknowledging their proper place. And what is their proper place? They are thanks to God. It is like a thank you letter to God, your works. It is a means of glorifying Him. He has prepared these works beforehand that you would glorify Him in them. Isn't that freeing? The Bible calls good works fruit. We like to complicate work so much, but it's really not complicated. The Bible calls it fruit. And if you see an apple hanging from a tree, do you think, ah, now that that apple's there, now the tree lives? No. The apple is not the cause of the tree's life, it's the evidence of it. Your works are not the cause of your life, they're the evidence of it. and they're the privilege that we get as Christians to glorify God. We don't have to play, as it were, in the mud pies, as C.S. Lewis put it, of sin. We get to revel in the glory of righteousness. We get the awesome and wonderful commission of glorifying God in all that we do, in every sphere of our life. And by his power, we can do it. So beloved, remember, that you were at one time separate from Christ, without hope, and without God in the world. But bless God that that is not true for you now. Bless God that that will never be true for you again. Unbeliever here, if you want this no longer to be true of you, flee, flee to the Lord. No one has ever fleed to the Lord and been turned away. It's never happened. Flee to the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, We come before you asking that you would grant us by the power of your spirit to love your gospel. Those in here that do not know you, that they would love your gospel for the first time, that they would cling to Christ Jesus for the first time, abandoning any hope that they have to spare themselves. Grant that they might see him as all in all, which he is. We have done nothing, and he has done everything. And for those of us in here that do know you, grant that we would love the gospel afresh, I pray, that we would remember and recall to our minds all that Christ Jesus has saved us from, all that Christ Jesus has saved us to. God, grant that we would feel these things afresh, we pray, in Jesus Christ's name, amen. While you're turning in your hymnals to number 529, we're reminded of this verse in John 14, 21. He who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love him and show myself to him. Let's stand together and sing 529, love divine, all loves excelling. ♪ Love divine, all loves excelling ♪ ♪ Joy of heaven to earth come down ♪ ♪ Fix in us thy humble dwelling ♪ ♪ All thy faithful mercies crown ♪ ♪ Jesus, our full compassionate King ♪ Is it us with thy salvation Enter every trembling heart? Read, O read, thy loving spirit Into every troubled breast. Let us all in thee inherit, Let us find the promise Take away the bough of sinning, Alpha and Omega be, Lend of faith as its beginning, Send our hearts at liberty. Come almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive. Suddenly return. and praise thee without ceasing. Let us see thy great salvation Perfectly restored in thee Changed from glory into glory Receive the benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Well, this time I'd like to ask our visitors to be dismissed, please. Our members, if you would be seated, family members of members, those who have applied for membership, may be seated. In the sound booth, if we could disconnect from Zoom, please, and stop the recording.