Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let's start. Let's pray. Greg, please come to the principal's office. Heavenly Father, we thank you for those who came out tonight for the one purpose, to do the one necessary or needful thing, that is to get your word front and center. fix our eyes firmly upon it to guard it from loss. By fixing our eyes firmly upon it is our prize, possession. Father, your word is the most precious commodity on the earth. And though it is everywhere, understanding is in short supply. Father, get and keep our attention. upon the word, upon the living word, Jesus Christ, the written word, which is your precious word, for you've magnified it, even above all of your name. Bless the introduction and the message this evening, for we pray in Christ's name, amen. Well, welcome. I'm blessed to be here again to peddle this word of God of ours. So tonight, quick introduction, hopefully, Pastor. I'm going to give you the chapters and not the verses because I'm going to charge you to receive the word with all readiness and search the scriptures daily to find out whether these things are so. It's in Acts 17. And how important it is that we do this. The more I study the real and the world that we live in, there's a lot of false doctrine. And we can listen to Scott, we can listen to me, we can listen to Judy, Terry. You need to do this yourself, because we get it wrong. I know I get it wrong. I'm way too young to not get it wrong. And it's very important that you search these scriptures yourself. And here's the results when we don't. In Proverbs 24, Solomon went by the field of a lazy man and by a vineyard of a man devoid of understanding. He's talking about spirituality. He's looking at a man that's lazy and devoid of understanding. And what he sees is a house overgrown with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles. Its stone walls were broken down. And when he saw it, he stopped. I love this. He stopped and considered it. And he looked upon it and received instruction. It's not houses that God's concerned about. It's not mountains. It's not oxen. These are people. These are spiritual people. And this is what? My house is a temple for the Lord of God. And this is what he sees when he sees somebody that doesn't read their word of God. He sees a house that's torn down and broken. And how important it is. that we do the same thing with the people in our lives. Do you know who reads the word every day in your life? The people that you come across? I noticed recently that I can recognize this very shortly in interaction with people. It's just if you get your word. And we need to know this stuff so we can receive instruction. I was just talking to Terry about that. I want to receive instruction with the people that I cross paths with every day. And this is what Solomon was talking about. And this is what happens when we don't search the scriptures daily and receive it with all readiness. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. So show your poverty come like a prowler and your need like an armed man. This is what happens to our spiritual life, whether you're aware of it or not. Solomon was aware of it because he was given wisdom by God and he searched the scriptures. So when he saw people, this is how he saw them if they weren't getting their word. So receive it with all readiness as I speak and receive it readiness from God. I mean, I'm up here speaking, but you need to listen to God and his word. So I want to look at two things briefly tonight. Our love for God and how we express it and how he actually accepts it. And the other thing I want to look at is no deceit found in us. In John 14, I'm going to share a few verses from here. Search it, find out where the verses are. By all means, please do. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. In another place he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. In another, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. And here's the warning that I think that we really need to consider. He who does not love me does not keep my words. So I can, waking up, so it's really important that I look at from God's perspective, like I talked about Jesus on the cross, who's on the left and who's on the right. How does God look and receive my love? I can wake up, and by all means, please do this, wake up, Lord, I love you, thank you for this day. These are commands he tells us to do, but how does he receive it? By me keeping his word and keeping his commandments. This is how he looks at me and says, oh, Greg's showing that he loves me today, not that he can receive my love, so that he can give me his. It's the only thing he wants, he desires from us, is to give him himself. He doesn't command or ask nothing of us that has anything to do with us, only that we may receive him in that. And so keeping his word, if you love me, you will keep this. This is a command, but he's not going to make us do it. So yeah, I can worship, I can cry, I can sing. Those things will be received by God if you first keep His commandment in His word. You can't not keep His commandment in His word and think that your emotions or your worship or whatever you want to lay it, there's no other avenue besides keeping His word and His commandments. He says, if you do these things, you love me. This is how I receive your love. So if you want to please Him, faith comes from hearing, hearing from the Word of God. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. I want to please God. I know what God's done in my life. I want to express that to Him properly. And His Word tells me that I need to keep His Word and His commandments. This is what Jesus tells me directly. So this is what I'm going to do, and I'm going to continue to do this every day. You're not going to find my house. Broken down, you're not. Because I get to make this choice every day today. And I'm going to talk about later about people in our lives that don't get to make this choice. And we're here so they can have the opportunity to make the choice. But I have a choice every day, and I'm going to make that choice every day. Like my dad said, it's a one-time decision. I don't wake up every day and say, hmm, I wonder if I'm going to read today. No, I'm reading. Tomorrow, I'm reading. I want to seek my God. And so this happened too. I talked about recognizing people where they're at spiritually, like Solomon did. I know he's talking about a house, but it's not houses God's concerned about. and uh... i have a friend of mine and i asked him if he's reading his word he said well yeah yeah yeah i'm like i know that answer no you're not no you're not and i'm like that's ok that's ok i get where you're at because i've been there but he goes to church every sunday and comes to a group with us on thursdays and it's great i'm encouraging him in that i didn't want to bring any condemnation on him because of where he's at in his spiritual life but uh... It came to me too about, he has children, and this is how I saw this, you know, if you love me, keep my word. If you love me, seek me through my word, through me, through Christ. I told him, you have kids, right? He said, yeah, and I'm like, well, if they called you today and said they loved you, would that make you feel good? Oh, yeah, of course, yeah. Then what if they called you tomorrow and did the same thing? Of course, yeah. And I'm like, do you understand that when you read your word and you pick it up to see God, this is what you're doing. You're making a phone call to God saying, I love you, Lord. This is how he receives it. And then it continued on. I said, what if you did this for 30 days or you do this for two hours every Sunday? That's great. That's amazing. You go to church every Sunday, but what about Monday through? Saturday you know I'm making that phone call and it seemed to reach him I hope he's reading his word But, and this is how I see it too, and the longer you go without, I don't know about you guys, if you have a friend you ain't talked to in a while, you ain't called in a while, every day gets a little harder to pick up the phone. It almost gets to the point where that phone call's impossible. And I hope I'm repeating this to you guys, and you already know this. Like, I really do. Like, I hope the importance of this. I've been doing this for three years and there's nothing else I want to do or talk about. I want to call God every day and tell him I love him. And this also relates to that, so when I went to recovery and my whole life I always went to God. I always called my parents with an agenda. Every time I called him, I needed something, as far back as I can remember. And it was so obvious that when this happened to us, and this is what we do with God when we don't take in His Word, and every time we go to Him, we have our agenda we go to Him with. But if you start taking in the Word every day, more and more, your agenda becomes less and less, and His more and more in your life. But I called my mom or dad, and I didn't need anything. I just simply called to tell him I love him. And it was such a dramatic moment. We all recognized what was happening when it happened, because that's never happened before. And I see that, too, that unfortunately, unfortunately, I don't know the right adjective to put there, but I have friends that don't seek the Word daily, and they have an agenda every time they ask for prayers. There's an agenda that's not God's will, and I'm not faulting them for this. But I know for a fact in my life, the more I take in this word, my agenda becomes less and less. That phone call is just a simple phone call to say I love you and to hear I love you back. That's really, and it should continue like that. And Ecclesiastes chapter 5. So walk prudently when you go to the house of God. My body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. My prayer life, my talking to God, I'm to walk prudently when I do this. And draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools. My whole life I called my parents with the sacrifice of fools. I need something. Here's what's going on in my life. You need to hear this. I need an answer. I need help. for they do not know what they do is evil. And there's a line when I go to God like this, I can't see it any other way that it's evil. I have my own agenda. I'm not worried about his will, I'm worried about my will. Um, do not be rash with your mouth and let your heart utter anything hastily before God for he is in heaven and you are on earth Therefore let your words be few For a dream comes through much activity and a fool's voice is known by his many words And there's a proverb too in many words sin is not lacking Um, we're going to look real quickly too about that can be a good thing before god with many words and sin not lacking but uh Yeah, don't go to God, as I said. And I've done this, and I still do it. I go to God in prayer with the sacrifice of fools. I recognize this because I read the Word, and I say, well, that was not lined up with His will at all. This is my flesh praying to God, expecting a result for this. He's not going to answer that. He's not going to answer to my... This is foolishness to Him. But the sacrifice of fools That is very acceptable to God. The many words of my confessions of my sins and we're going to look at Nathaniel and John chapter one. Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him and said to him behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit Nathanael said to him. How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree. I saw you so I love this Correspondence between Nathanael and Jesus for many reasons first off Jesus looked at a man just like me and said, look at this, that's a true son of mine in whom is no deceit. And when I first read that years ago, and it just struck me like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. I know this man is like me, and I know this man sins like me. I know this man has lied. I know this man sins, and he's just like me. He's no different to me. I'm no different than Nathaniel. I'm no different than anybody in here. We sin. We need a Savior. But I love that Jesus sees him and announces it to the people he's with. Wait, everybody wait. There's Terry, a true son of Jesus. In him is no deceit. And I'm like, well, how does he get to say this? I want to hear Jesus say this to me. And Nathaniel's response too. I love this. How do you know me? He didn't deny. that there was no deceit in him. And I think originally when I looked at this, I looked at sin. Sin's not the issue. He doesn't keep our sin. The sin's been wiped out. So it's deceit that I had to look at. And the Greek word is dolos, meaning craft, deceit, guile. Nothing slick or cunning, nothing hidden before God. So this is why Jesus, and this is why I'll tell you this morning that Jesus looked at me and said, there's Greg. my child in him who is no deceit. It's the most encouraging words I heard this week by God and next week it'll be something else. Because I know he did but you know what he did under that fig tree and this is what I love about the Word of God too because I might get up here God willing in six months and teach us a whole nother way but right now this is 100% true because it's the Word of God and he told it to me directly. that when he was under that tree he was confessing his sins because there's no other way that God can look at him and say in him is no deceit because he became undone before God it made me think of Isaiah coming into the presence of the Lord and he said woe is me for I am done and the first thing he did living amongst all the unclean people in Israel this wicked idol worshiping people he said I am a man of unclean lips when we go before the presence of God when we read the word He shows us who we are apart from Him. More importantly, He shows us who we are with Him. But when I go before the Lord's righteousness, I will see my wickedness. This is the process I've learned. Yeah, and this grace, this grace, this amazing hue, one other hue of the emerald rainbow, which is, I mean, I can't imagine how many hues there are in this rainbow, infinite. Nathaniel was not perfect and obviously sinned, but all that was required for him, for Jesus to look at him and say, he's a true child of mine and him is no deceit, is that he went to the one that was perfect and dumped that heavy bag of sins, Job's bag of sins, he dumped it out underneath that tree. For now, you number my steps, but you do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in the bag, and you cover my iniquity." And God gives us the ability, because I carry that bag often, and it's heavy. It's too heavy for me to carry. And all he says is, just dump it out. Get under that fig tree and dump it out. Give it to me. Cast your burdens, cast your cares, cast your anxieties on me. Cast your sins, is what he's saying. That's what these are, they're sins. It's one thing to throw a worry on them, but if I don't confess it as what it is, as a sin and my doubt of faith, kind of hard for him to keep working through me in that situation until I admit it for what it is, a sin. And Jacob just shared this chapter with me this morning, and of course I'm going to read Psalms 32. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. And here it is. And in whose spirit there is no deceit. There's no sin or iniquity imputed to us. Fact. Jesus died. Can't be. But there can be deceits though. I can still hold this stuff in. I can still keep this bag on my shoulder and let it weigh me down. I need to confess it to him. I need to go underneath my fig tree. And I practice this every morning now where, on my way, in case I miss something. When I sin, I acknowledge it. I'm quick to. I love his forgiveness. I get it as much as I can, what, 70 times, seven times a day if necessary. This is the process. Confess. Confess, confess, confess. And then it's supernatural. And someday you're not going to confess about that sin anymore. I know it. I know it happened to me. I had a moment under that fig tree and this it was such a divine situation In my life those of you that don't know I think most of you do But god actually uprooted a tree and put it right on top of me. I didn't go I didn't have the ability To make even make the choice when I was a slave to sin. I served one master and it was not god and uh He actually gave me an opportunity and planted me underneath a fig tree. He used my dad that day, but it was God. When I look back and I reflect on it, it was definitely God. I was at the throne room of grace and God said, who are you? And like the woman at the well, I didn't even realize what the answer that I answered. So I saw this in the woman at the well. God said, go get your husband. And she's told him one little detail. I don't have a husband. And that was enough. Because in that one little sentence, when I said, yeah, I stole that, I completely came undone before God. I came completely open. I had no more deceit in me. It was exposed before God. He didn't know every detail of that. And I didn't know it even happened at the time. This account was not accounted to me as righteousness. It was not. It was a divine thing that happened. He just gave me the ability to make the choice. And then we have people in our lives that don't have the ability to make this choice. And our job as believers and our faith in God is to give grace and mercy. so that God can give an opportunity to make that choice. And the choice this time, for the first time in my life, the easy choice was to tell the truth. The hard choice was to lie. And I even lied the first time the question was asked of me. I lied about it. So why would I not practice this every day? Because who was I before? Before Christ, I was a heroin and a crack addict. Now, I don't mean to get too personal up here, and I know we know this, but this is what happened to me. The Word of God worked out in my life unwittingly to me until I read it later. I said, oh my God, this was me. Because I know at that moment when I said yes, I stole $20, there was nothing else left in me. I had nothing else. Who are you? I'm an addict. I'm a sinner, and I'm going to stay this way. That basically was my response. And in that, I became a new creation, and I had to be very careful, too, that people, oh, I'm proud of you. You're doing great. I didn't do nothing. I confessed. I was honest before God, and my dad was there. I was honest before my dad, but it was God who I was honest before, because I had nothing left. There was no deceit in me at that moment. So now every morning, I go under my fig tree, and I replay the day before. I don't want any deceit in me. Lord, search my heart. Let me know. What was it? Search my heart. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Let me know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me into the way everlasting." So I practice this every morning now. I say, Lord, what did I miss yesterday that I can give you, that I did wrong, that I sinned? Because I'm sure I sinned. There's plenty of times I walk out of faith. If it's not a faith, it's a sin. So even if I didn't do something, it doesn't mean I didn't walk out of faith at some point. I want to recognize these things, and I want to give these to him because I know this is the process. Confess, and I will. It's supernatural. I don't have to try harder. I don't have to try not to be an addict. I become something new, and all that is required of me is to confess before him what I am and what I did and give it to him. Jeremiah 3, only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God. And even David, David knew this, and he was a man after God's own heart. David sinned, he did horrendous things. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your chesed, your loving kindness, according to your grace, according to nothing else of myself, but according to what you did, and what you freely give me, Have mercy on me. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from iniquity, and cleanse me from sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight. It's not a complicated thing. He says his... I always get him wrong. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. He's not a liar. We know that. God does not lie. I make it difficult. It's not. You know, I was having conversations with a friend recently, and I know he sinned. I can hear it in his voice. He said, yeah, I didn't have the best day. I'm like, oh, because you're looking at it from what you did today. You shouldn't have any good days if you're basing it on what you do. You'll have every day will be good if you base it on what he did for you. So summing up Psalms 145, the Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. If you don't know his truth, he'll accept yours. And the more you know His truth, it's just being honest in front of Him, knowing His Word, getting His Word. Because without getting His Word, I didn't know half of the things I do are sin. I want to know everything in me that's not of Him so I can give it to Him and put it on that cross where He died for it. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thank you. Okay, you warmed up? It was just right. Under Grace, Part 9, Incorruptible Love, Tuesday, August 23, 2022. We had our introduction. And it all fits together perfectly. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Proverbs 35. As stated on Sunday, it is keeping the Word and staying filled with the Spirit by which we walk around. as Jesus did. 1 John 2, 5, 6. He is the standard, the only celebrity of the church, the only role model of genuine spirituality, the one, the only one we are to imitate and emulate in Ephesians 5, 1 and 2. So how did he walk around? What determined every step that he took? It was his complete dependence upon the Word and upon the Spirit. He did nothing unless he saw his father do it, said nothing unless he heard his father say it. Well, how did he hear with his ear? He never judged by what he heard with his ear. but was led and informed by the Spirit of God. He was the Word of God personified. That should be your goal and mine, that that Word would become flesh in you and in me to push out human and satanic viewpoint, which are very similar. and natural to us all, to displace or replace it with divine viewpoint, the Word of God in all of its splendor and its many categories, so that we might be saturated, have a saturated soul, a marinated mind with the Word of God. That'll solve every problem you have. Because you'll know what to think, what to do, in every situation. That's called wisdom, Sophia. That's wisdom. And wisdom is the most important thing. If it costs you everything you have, get understanding. Proverbs 4, 7. Likewise, we are told, if we allege that we abide in Him, we should walk around even as He did. That's 1 John 2.6. Not as we do now with incidents and accidents. Ty said you missed part of it. It's hints and allegations also. You can call me Scott. Hurtful, harmful, and sinful thoughts words and deeds. Rather, as we learn to live like Jesus did in the days of His humanity to follow in His footsteps, we will sin less and less, but will not be sinless as he was. Remember in 1 John 2.1, little children I write unto you so that you do not sin, but if any man sins, let him know he has a defense attorney with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the mercy seat, the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. All of them paid for. There are consequences, ramifications, He's dealt with also. Mercy takes care of those, and grace keeps us moving forward in a straight line, not looking back or looking around, but looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. That is, all that's set, we are to hear and heed, hear and believe, behold and believe, and be changed, transfigured into that same image from glory to glory by the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3, 17 and 18. So, hiding the Word in our heart. So we met at sin against him. Set apart from sin by the word, the agent of sanctification, John 17, 17. Able, listen carefully, able not to sin. Able not to sin. That's posi non peccarian, Latin. Able not to sin. And even, listen to this one, non-possipicary, not able to sin. That is when you're filled with the Spirit and occupied with the person of Christ. In 1 John 3.8.9, Galatians 5.16, walk by means of the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. No one who is born of God continues to sin, for His seed abides in him, and the seed cannot sin. It's the sinless man that you are on the inside, and you experience that when you're occupied with Christ, filled with the Spirit and in the Word. You can't be wrapped up in the Word, focused upon the person of Christ, filled with the Spirit, loaded for bear, and sin. See how it works? It's one or the other. You're in or you're out. In a lot of smoking ass, you've got to go outside, like that stokey, that stinking thing. So, I can always relate to that. Some of you can, too. Others can't. Take it for what it's worth. So none of this is for the weak of heart. This is for mature believers. This is called the Word of Righteousness for those who are mature, who by reason of use have exercised their senses to discern good and evil, what's useful and what's useless, what's worthwhile and what's worthless. It's the Word of Righteousness. What does God consider to be right? Right things done in the right way for the right reason? Those are the only things that are right. Everything else is wrong, right? Right. Remember, there's no advantage to sin, only headaches and heartaches. corruption and destruction, self-induced misery, self-inflicted wounds, psychic pain from guilt and shame, and on top of it all, divine discipline administered in order to drive us or drag us back to church. And back to the Word. You say, what's church have to do with the Word? It's the pillar and ground of the truth, the church, where Jesus Christ has appointed communicators, official communicators that he picks, unlikely folk that he picks, to proclaim the Word to a congregation, those who recognize his gift and love the Word of God, and are growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, without incident or accident, without hints or allegations. So Ephesians, in our grace verses, 1, 1 to 6, so you get some little bit of context. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. You can turn to Ephesians. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints. Who were they? Who were the saints? You and me. Those at Ephesus were all saints who believed in Christ, were all saints, all set apart unto the plan, purpose, and will of God, and set apart from the wrong thinking, bad decisions, and rotten deeds of the old life. And apostles of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful Christ Jesus. Grace to you, and peace. There's grace. Grace to you. God's unmerited favor, his goodness, kindness, blessing in favor, because of the complete satisfaction, propitiation of Jesus Christ and his finished work sacrifice on the cross. which God sees and fully accepts as your justification of righteousness, your righteousness. Grace to you and peace, equal parts peace with grace, equal parts grace and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, one and the same. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. You believe that's true? You believe it's true? Every spiritual blessing. You believe you have every possible spiritual blessing? You do. Some of them you get here, and the other ones are being held in escrow. in heavenly places. In heavenly places. The vaults of heaven awaiting your arrival. They're too great for you to have in a natural body. So you've got to wait for you to get a glorious body so you can have these glorious blessings. The eternal variety of blessings. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ, Just as He chose us in Him, He chose us, He called you by your name. Keletos means He called you by your name. He chose us in Christ. He saw down through the corridors of time that you would believe in Christ, so He made that a fact of eternity and history, and made it, brought it to pass. Isn't that wonderful that he could do such a thing and has done that for each one of us? Then it says, he chose us in him before the world was formed. What? How could that be? That's too wonderful for words. Don't you think? He chose us in Him before the world was formed, before the foundation of the world. Before there was any place for you to live, He blessed you with every possible blessing. Even before the world existed, He slated you for that blessedness. Now that's grace. So that you would be That's how the English say it. Holy and blameless before Him, period. You see, they don't know where in love goes. They say that we would be holy and blameless before Him, period. In love, it either goes at the end of that, or in love He predestined us. It fits both of them perfectly. It goes from one to the other. He predestined us, poerizo, which means he set the boundaries, to Huyothasia, the adoption of sons, high-ranking adult sons, officials in his kingdom. through Jesus Christ to Himself. You're going to have a real relationship with the Father. It's good to get to know Him here, but you'll really have one with Him there. Jesus is going to introduce you personally to the Father. Father, here He is! And he'll say, well, Father, I could never see you, but I know Jesus was just like you. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So I was satisfied with Jesus, but I still knew that you were my heavenly Father, so I prayed to you all the time. And I said, Father in heaven! I said, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Jesus said, no one knows the Father except the Son, and to whomever he is pleased to reveal him. So I say, reveal the Father to me as well, for God cannot be seen. He does not have face or form. That's why Jesus came. He's the face and form of God. He's the visible image of the invisible God. We need to get to know Him. We get to know Him how? Through the Word, by the Spirit, by the teaching ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, that we might be holy, holy, holy, holy. by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Scriptures. That's how you're holy. That's how you're blameless. You're not blaming people for what you've done, what you do to yourself. You can't blame anyone. Oh, you can. That's what's called a psychological self-defense mechanism, and it's not true or right or real. It's something people do to trick themselves so that they don't feel terribly guilty for what they've done to themselves. It's easier to blame someone else, project blame on somebody else. But God doesn't see that. He wants you to be holy and blameless. Take responsibility for your own decisions. Confess your sins and remain holy and blameless moment by moment, day by day. Only acknowledge your sins. Jeremiah 3.13. 1 John 1.9. As many times as you need to. So, it says, to be holy and blameless before Him in love, He predestined us to the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ Himself according to the kind intention of His will. His will is His intentions are kind. It says in Jeremiah 9.23, he says, I know the thoughts that I have for you. The word there for thoughts is loving thoughts and kind intentions. All of his thoughts are loving. All of his intentions are kindness toward you. So, I didn't know I was gonna say all this or do all this. I should have been clear to the end by now, and I'm just at the beginning. So we'll just wing it. So it says, according to the kind intentions of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, that's His Beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The Father spoke on three occasions from heaven, and each time He said, this is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to every word that He says. In the end, all things will redound to the praise of the glory of His grace. Most assuredly, this is so, with or without your compliance, whether or not you become properly oriented to grace, thought, word, and deed, or even should you miss it, frustrate it, fail to get it, receive it in vain, or drift off course from it. All those things which we can do, we're warned against. It is ever still glorious in its expression and in its extension, and God is supremely glorious and gracious, who offered it in all of its fullness to you and me, to one and all. Ephesians 1.7, our next grace verse says, in Him we have redemption through His blood. the forgiveness of our trespasses, our sins. According to the riches of His grace. According to the riches of His grace. The riches of His grace, which will be seen, known, seen, understood, marveled at, by men and angels for the endless ages of eternity. Hear redemption through his blood, which brought the forgiveness of our sins." That means he was beat to a bloody pulp because of your sins and mine, because of the sins of the world. Never imputed to man, but stored in Job's bag and poured out on him that day in clusters of trillions. And he suffered the full penalty for every single one of them in a wormhole. Time, eternity condensed into three hours of time. Imagine the force of such things. You can't even begin, we can't begin to understand it. Redemption through His blood, which brought the forgiveness of our sins, is a major facet of grace, understanding, and orientation, as we've been speaking about. As seen in our 1 John 2 passage, Christ is our advocate and mercy seat. Hilisterion, that is, mercy seat for the relief from sin's consequences when we sin. for which we are profoundly and eternally grateful, for forgiveness and for the removal of sin's consequences. And gratitude always, always, always spawns love. And love is keeping the Word. Our love for God is keeping the Word. Give Him a call. Tell Him you love Him. That's a beautiful thing. That's what it's all about. Love is the objective of all doctrinal instruction, 1 Timothy 1.5. Love from a pure heart. That means you confess your sins. You're not carrying around any baggage, no guilt or shame or blame. It's all been placed properly under the tree, the cross. Love is the objective. Love for God, love for man, love for the brethren. That's Philadelphia. Love for the Word. and love for Christ, ultimately love for Christ, who is God, who is man, who is our elder brother, and who is the word of God personified, you get that? And love is the result of keeping the word. 1 John 2.5, whoever keeps his word, In Him, this one, the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know confidently that we are in Him, safe and secure from all alarm. Saved safe and eternally secure. That's how we know. Because we keep his word. His word tells us so. The Bible tells me so. Jesus loves me, this I know. The Bible tells me so. You say, well, why would you say that? That's like a child thing. You know, let us be like children and enter and function in the kingdom of heaven. Because that's what Jesus said. It's like unto this child. By the Word we know God loves us, and gratitude spawns our love for Him. Ephesians 2.5, our next grace verse says, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ, and in parentheses, but these are inspired parentheses, By grace you have been saved. He died for us and as us when he died on the cross, and likewise we were raised from spiritual death by his resurrection. Moreover, in Ephesians 2.6 We are never apart from Him, even now being seated together with Him—that's what 2.6 says—in the heavenlies where He is. Colossians 3.3, hid with Christ in God. It says, "...since we have been raised with Him." Keep on seeking the things that are above, not the things that are on the earth, for you died and your life is hid with Christ and God. That's Colossians 3. And when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory. These aren't passages I looked up. These are passages I know so well and have been in my mind and in my soul and residing and circulating there for all these many years, and they just keep getting more and more and more important. In 1 John 2.2, he's seated in heaven administering grace. from the throne of grace, and mercy from the mercy seat, Helestarion, even as he is in Hebrews 4.16, dispensing grace and mercy, mercy and grace to help in time of need from the green room. from that throne, emerald throne, with the emerald rainbow, with all of its palupuichilos, every hue of green, which is every category of grace. And it's enough for you and me, enough to meet every need, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 to 11. Ephesians 2.7, he says, so that in the ages to come, That's after human history expires. He might show the surpassing riches of His grace. This is too great. This is too great. I can hardly take it. He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us! In kindness toward us! Is that the God you know? He is so kind. kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Surely it will be clearly seen how kind the Lord is, how kind the Lord has been, how gracious, how merciful and kind He has been to us. Though that realization be limited here, it will not be afterward. Rather, it will be seen in all of its glorious and gracious fullness. where praise and worship will be spontaneous and unrestrained, where we will have no desire to curb our enthusiasm, an expression of unfettered worship, as we, along with the 24 elders, that is the leading humans, highest-ranking humans in eternity, 12 and 12, and the four living creatures, angels, will fall on our faces in his presence and weep tears of joy continually. Revelation 7, 11, 11, 16, and 19, 4. Read all about it. Not emotionalism, hyper-spirituality that whips people into an emotional frenzy, but in the fullness of reality, gratitude, and love, with praise and worship that will grow ever more glorious, greater and greater, and will flourish there. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you have been saved. This is a fantastic verse, as are the others. If we didn't have this one, we wouldn't understand anything about our salvation. For by grace you have been saved. Paraphrastic, perfect, participle. That is, our being have been and shall be. All of those in one. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And none of that came from you. Somehow, it came from God. Oh no, it's the gift of God. By far one of the most precious verses in the Bible, lest we should think our salvation depended upon something or anything that we did. It is this one passage that puts any such notion to rest. Think about it. What if this passage didn't exist? We would surmise, suppose, that we had something to do with it. That there must be something we did so that we could take credit for it, boast about it. Of course, it goes on to say, should there be any doubt that it's utterly gracious, in verse nine, not of works. Not of works. Is that clear? Not of works. It's nothing to do with your works. lest someone should boast. It's God's doing. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. See, hang it on the old fridge, this verse, so you never forget to remember it's not a work lest any man should boast. There's a play on words. You hear that? Never forget to remember. That's a play on words. It's called an oxymoron. And it's for morons who use oxycontin or oxyclean. That's what an oxymoron is. That's a joke. You are a moron if you use oxycontin, but not oxyclean. Proper application works very well to remove stains, tough stains. Ephesians 3, 2, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me, Paul now goes into the mystery. And we'll get to that another time. And we're going to wrap this up very quickly. Ephesians 3.7, Paul says, "...of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of His power." And Ephesians 3.8, he says, "...to me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given," there's grace again, "...to preach to the Gentiles," the nations, "...the unfathomable riches Christ. By grace, the least, Paul's the least, is made the greatest, the destroyer of the church, the wise master builder, the chief of sinners, the chief apostle. His mission? To preach to all nations the unfathomable riches of of Christ. And that is exactly what we plan to do until the day we die, or that we will be found doing until the Lord comes for us, whichever one comes first. Ephesians 4.7, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. In 4.29, he talks about those who communicate the word of God. Ephesians 4.29, Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment. so that it will give grace to those who hear. Greg read tonight, Let Your Words on Earth Be Few, from Ecclesiastes chapter 5. That is carefully chosen, gracious words, fitly spoken. Gracious words, fitly spoken, like apples of gold in settings of silver, is a word spoken fitly. in right circumstances. Ephesians 6.24, the final verse in Ephesians, Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with athartos, incorruptibility or incorruptible love. It says, the grace be with all those loving Jesus Christ our Lord in by or with incorruptibility, aphthartos, A-P-H-T-H-A-R-T-O-S, meaning uncorrupted, not liable to corruption or decay, imperishable, of things risen from the dead, incorruptible, uncorruptible, immortal, not corruptible, that which cannot be diminished or decreased, but which is stable and growing ever greater, bringing us back to the fundamental facts of grace. Finally, Here in this passage, grace be unto all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. Grace is the fertile field in which love grows. Plowing and planting, sowing and seeding, watering and weeding, fertilizing and feeding your garden, flourishing in the courts of God. Fruitful, that is, producing the fruit of the Spirit. Psalm 92.13, it says, planted in the house of the Lord. Like it or not, belonging to and attending with all regularity and priority a local church is not optional. It's mandatory. Thus the term planted means taking up ground, taking up space for growth and production of fruit. That's what you do. Planted. You've got to be planted in the house of the Lord. The house of the Lord was the same there as it is in 1 Timothy 3.15. The house of God which is the pillar and ground of the truth. Same one. Most of you are great. Some have fallen off the pace and wonder what's wrong. as some of those miss more than they attend or attend less, miss more these days. These are not the days to do such things. The blessings of grace are to the humble in James 4.6, and it's the humble who hear and are happy in Psalm 34.2. It says next, they will flourish in, he says, planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God, growing in grace, yielding fruit." And it says in verse 14, they still yield fruit in old age. That's us, the old ones here. Even in old age, many of us resemble those remarks. Though you may resent such a notion, it still may be so that you resemble it. And we do resemble those. And it says this, it says, they will still yield fruit in old age. They shall be full of sap, oh man, and very green. Their branches abiding in the vine, receiving the sap from the main vine, Christ, and very green, ready to sprout. Verse 15, to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. All that He says is right and true. Ephesians 6.24, Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. Listen to the similarity in this passage, our passage from Sunday. 1 John 2.1, My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous, he himself is the mercy seat for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. By this we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments. The one who says, I have come to know Him, and does not keep His commandments, what are His commandments? I told you, not the Ten Commandments, believe 55 times, abide, John 8, 31, 15, 4, and 5, love one another, in John 13, 34, and 35, and forgive one another, in Matthew 18, 21, and 22. 70 times 7, if necessary. The one who says, I've come to know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. He has deceit in him. But whoever, listen to this, keeps His Word, in him the love of God has been truly perfected. What's that sound like? Sounds like grace beat all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. In Him the love of God has been truly perfected. That sounds a lot like incorruptible love to me. I don't know about to you. By this we know that we are in Him. The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the introduction tonight, Greg, wonderful message, and the way that it dovetailed perfectly with the message that You gave me this evening. You always do it. You never cease to amaze us, and we just stand in awe and wonder of You and Your Word. It is indeed magnificent. Father, bless the offering this evening also in Jesus' precious name. Amen.