Beginning with the fourth verse, But, but, after
that the kindness and love of God our
Savior toward man appeared, Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, But according to
his mercy he saved us, By the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, Which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, That, being justified by
grace, We should be made heirs according to
the hope of eternal life.
Now, The Holy Ghost describes us in verse
3, And Then he goes on in the
verse 4 and Verse 4 is Like stepping
into nice warm water Verse 3 is like
plunging into ice-cold water But verse 3
comes before verse 4 and And if we
will not have verse 3 we cannot have
verse 4 Verse 3 says describing us Describing
the nicest person here We're all humble And
nobody would say that's me man would say
that's my wife or wife would say that's
my husband or The child would say that's
my mother We always have somebody else in
mind.
I tell you frankly, I don't think it
fits me by nature But the nicest person
here Has to accept this as a reasonable
facsimile of his photograph foolish Disobedient Deceived
Enslaved to lust, pleasure-mad, living in malice,
Envious Hateful and hating one another Now that's
the description the Holy Ghost gives of us
And if we will not believe or as
bad as he says we are We cannot
believe that he's as good as he says
he is so this is our photograph Then
comes this little glorious word so small with
such a variety of meanings this little simple
word B-U-T but and The whole
thing is changed But after that the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man
appeared I Think this little word but as
it's used by Paul is One of the
most powerful words in the entire Bible It
is repentance.
It is rescue It is deliverance.
It is salvation.
It is a thousand things and Here we
have it coming between verse 3 and verse
4 Rescuing those who are in verse 3
By the kindness and love of God in
verse 4, but he says and you know,
I Think that there will be scenes in
heaven.
I am very cautious in painting heavenly scenes
I have listened to some real oratory By
men who know more about heaven apparently than
John the Beloved did And I'm very cautious
about it Also, I'm very cautious about quoting
God unless I quote from the scriptures themselves
or making dialogue between God and the soul.
I Am not sure that I know too
much about the future life since I know
so very little about this life But I
think I could be Nearly correct in Imagining
scenes that might be there in the days
to come When we meet somebody we didn't
expect to be there we are we've gotten
over and entered the celestial city and we
see walking toward us a man whom we
recognize because personality persists in the world to
come individualities unchanged our Total being remains Don't
think of yourself as a ghost or a
strange Zombie, you are going to be you
only glorified You are going to be recognizable.
You'll have a memory you will be able
to call the Memory things that happen below
Just as Jesus after he came out of
the grave Remembered what he had told him
while he was still with him before his
crucifixion so You're going to remember and you're
going to recognize this person coming toward you
and the last time you saw him he
was cross-eyed drunk and You understood that
he had lived and died that way and
the last you heard of him He was
somewhere in a coma and There'd been little
gaps hiatus They call that if you want
to be real learned little gaps in his
in his history You didn't know about and
you're going to say you here and he'll
smile and say yes I'm here and shake
hands with you and You'll say but how
did you get here the last time I
saw you you couldn't even stand up You
were a total hopeless Alcoholic and you had
14 jail sentences behind you and you knew
every warden in the state of, Illinois and
Every cop knew you and your picture was
in the post offices Now here you are.
How do you account for this and he'll
smile and say but but After the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward me
appeared something happened Don't you suppose there are
a lot of people a lot of Jews
who didn't know that man on the cross
there That repentant thief or a lot of
Romans who didn't know anything about it Later
on heard the gospel and perhaps never heard
of this man This repentant thief for the
Gospels were not immediately written And it's easy
to imagine Hundreds of Romans who believed in
the gospel of Christ when Peter preached and
little later as others preached But who never
saw who had never heard of the story
of the penitent thief on the cross and
the last day remembered of the penitent thief
was he was hanging up there along with
another thief and That he had been sentenced
to die Don't you suppose there'll be many
a Roman that'll walk up and say to
this thief you here Why I remember when
the newspapers came out and said that you'd
been crucified for insurrection and thieving and all
sorts of sins and the thief would smile
and say but I Was all you said
I was and worse and I had been
guilty of things the law never knew And
that I never admitted I was much worse
than anybody here knows I was only God
knew how bad I was but the kindness
and love of God my Savior appeared to
me and by a flash of spiritual Intuition
I recognized him as he died in the
middle there between us two dying thieves And
I said Lord remember me and he said
this day shall not be with me in
paradise So I want to sort of tip
you off you people who will be in
heaven before another Century passes.
I want to tip you off get ready
for some delightful surprises Because you're going to
find some people there.
You didn't know would make it You're going
to find people there now This is not
a plea to throw our arms around all
religions and all cults and all Christ denying
branches of Christianity know We're going to have
to come the only way there is to
come But some people come that way and
we don't know it we lose track of
them and that's it well The kindness and
love hour of our Savior toward a man
appeared and notice it says the kindness and
love of God our Savior and There's nothing
startling about that.
There's nothing there to bother anybody If I
said the ocean is vast.
Nobody would ever blink an eye If I
would say the rain that falls from heaven
is wet.
Nobody would ever move They'd wonder why I'd
said the obvious and if I were to
say the Sun is bright Nobody would say
anything else They'd say I wonder what he's
getting at because we all know the ocean
is deep and vast We all know that
the rain is wet and we all know
That the Sun shines brightly So when I
say the kindness and love of God Nobody's
going to even bat an eyelid on that.
We've heard that all our lives.
We know it's true That's nothing to wonder
at because that's the kind of God God
is and incidentally That's why unbelief is so
wrong.
It refuses to believe that God is the
kind of God he is but here we
say the kindness and love of God our
Savior and There's nothing there to excite attention
because God is kind God is love God
being that kind of God, that's what you
would expect a loving kindly tender well-reared
cultured mother You expect her to get up
and look after a baby And if you
say mrs.
Jones gets up at 2 o'clock in
the morning and gives her baby a bottle
nobody's going to run and give her a
medal Of course, that's the way she is.
We've known her since she was little and
that's kind of woman She is you could
expect that of mrs.
Jones.
That's all right.
We say we know that But listen, it
says here the kindness and love of God
our Savior toward man What kind of man?
Why a foolish man and disobedient man deceived
man Enslaved man pleasure mad man malicious man
Envious man hateful man.
That's the one now the love of God
suddenly turns aside and and Flows in its
fullness toward that kind of man put the
two words toward man on there and you
have a wonder of wonders and you you
you have a You have the reason for
and the source of many a great hymn
such as amazing grace how sweet the sound
Why did it amaze the man?
Because God was gracious.
No God is gracious and nobody should stand
amazed at God being love or God being
kind or God being gracious but that the
kind gracious love of God Should have as
its object such a slavish foolish disobedient deceived
lustful malicious envious hateful person as I am
That's where the wonder lies my brethren And
that is why the hymn writers have never
yet gotten over trying to get us to
sing The wonderful love of God and the
kindnesses of and the love of God toward
man toward man I say hateful and hating
one another hasn't discouraged God Not changed his
mind in the slightest about us What is
man that thou art mindful of him said
David?
And some of the scholars tell us that
that word mindful means a fixture in the
mind That man is a fixture in God's
mind God the only eccentricity of the great
perfect God is That he loves mankind with
a fixture that he can't escape.
He can't shake it off He loves mankind
because God is the kind of God he
is we may expect him to love us
and we may expect him to be kind
to us and so the why of his
loving us you sees not in us at
all the why of his loving us is
in him and The why of these being
kind to us is in him and yet
I would suggest Three thoughts here that might
help you intellectually if it doesn't spiritually Why
God loves us?
Well, the one is That God is love
and only does the thing that is natural
to him It is natural for the sun
to shine we say it is natural for
birds to fly and fishes to swim it
is natural for that which is love to
be loved and so we say God loves
us because it's the natural thing for him
to do Second reason he loves us is
that we're his creatures and he's pleased with
everything he made When I was up at
Glen Rocks, I took my bird book along
now don't smile and my field glasses And
I discovered two new birds.
I guess I know around 80 now species.
That's not many but that's that's a few
and I I said to somebody I have
just I just was asking God whether after
all the tents torn down and the big
woe is over and the battles done And
we don't learn war no more and man
will his brothers all all over the world
I wonder if God won't let me spend
a couple of centuries Investigating his wonderful world.
I love it.
God made it.
I can't help but love it I love
to tramp through the woods and See chipmunks
dash out and Vesper sparrows mount a high
tree and sit and try to sing That's
the best you can say for a Vesper
sparrow He's just doing his best, but he's
not much of a singer, but he's lovely
to hearing in the in the evening Well,
God's pleased with everything he made and when
when sin came in and ruined it Then
God started over to remake it, but he
still loves it apart from sin and we're
a part of his creation But there's a
third reason we're made in his image and
I don't make this as a statement But
I ask it as a question Is the
reason for God's undiscouraged and undiscourageable love for
us his persistent love for fallen man Could
it be that he loves himself in us?
Could it be that the great God who?
Sinlessly and perfectly loves himself Sees the tattered
fragments of his own image in the fallen
man and loves himself in the man and
seeks to redeem the man because that man
Has a family resemblance Don't think I mean
that he's saved.
No We must be born again to be
saved We must be renewed as it says
here to be saved But still fallen man
has in it even even the rich man
in hell Even that rich man in hell
had something divine in him Because he said
oh father Abraham Will you please let somebody
go and tell my brothers that they don't
come to this terrible place?
Why then I ask?
Why why did he say that he said
it because there was yet compassion in his
heart in hell And compassion doesn't come from
the devil I Wonder if he loves himself
in us.
Don't go away and say I said he
did But just say I asked the question
does it?
Then he says Paul still quoting Paul.
He saved us not by works of righteousness,
which we have done Why did he not
save us by works of righteousness because there
were none and Because there are none But
you say was not that a work of
righteousness when the poor man in hell wanted
to to deliver his brethren.
No That was a work of human sympathy
which was Given to the man by God
in creation, but that same man willfully had
rebelled against the majesty in the heavens and
Remember that no King reigning by rights ever
accepts the gifts of a rebel And nothing
that a rebel can do Ever is accepted
by the king against whom he rebels and
Therefore there were no works of righteousness the
man who is in rebellion against God Can
never bring a gift to God Cain tried
it Cain brought a gift to the God
against whom he'd rebel and God turned his
back on it thought it was a beautiful
gift a gift of fruit and flowers Beautiful
gift any woman would accept it and smile
and thank the man who gave it to
her But God wouldn't take it for it
was given to him by a rebel if
that rebel had repented and Gotten right and
been forgiven.
God would have accepted his fruit and his
flowers gladly, but he wanted nothing from a
rebel He saved us not by works of
righteousness why because there were none and are
none But according to his mercy, there's room
for a whole sermon in itself God the
salvation you have Accords with the infinite mercy
of God and not with any merit of
yours I know that's old stuff and it
sounds very fundamentalist and I am a fundamentalist
But it's true nevertheless the infinite limitless mercies
of God By how does he do it
now?
There's God suddenly become emotionally overcome that as
you get emotionally overcome and Rush out and
take us in.
No, he doesn't He does it by the
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the
Holy Ghost You see even infinite kindness and
love Can't receive an unregenerate sinner into heaven
Even the infinite mercy of God is limitless
as human thought and beyond Could ever receive
a sinner into the presence of the angels
Wisdom had to find a way To save
that Lustful slavish pleasure-mad malicious envious hateful
lying man It had to find a way
to save the man To justify him because
God is just and to cleanse him because
God is holy No one just person can
enter the kingdom of God so God has
to justify the man Love wants to do
it, but justice Forbids it and wisdom knows
how to do it.
So wisdom Sent Jesus Christ our Savior.
This was through Jesus Christ our Savior Jesus
Christ our Savior Notice it calls God our
Savior in verse 4 and Jesus Christ our
Savior in verse 6 and There's no incompatibility
there God the Father is our Savior and
God the Son is our Savior well, John
Bunyan said That when he's early Christian life,
he was very much worried about how Jesus
Christ could be both God and man He
said I wasn't willing to accept it on
anybody's authority.
God had to show me I had to
find it in the book he said He
said I got the reading in the book
of Revelation and it said and behold in
the midst of the throne and in the
midst of the elders There stood a lamb
He said the Holy Ghost showed me In
the midst of the throne there was his
Godhead in the midst of the elders.
There was his humanity He said oh, I
did exceedingly rejoice Exceedingly rejoice to see that
he stood with God at the throne as
God and with man Among the elders as
man So he's both God and man and
was through Jesus Christ our Lord He justifies
and he cleansed and he washes and he
regenerates and he renews he does all these
things through the mercy through his mercy by
The atonement in Christ's blood are almost finished
Now notice it says heirs here.
We are made heirs in verse Seven being
justified by his grace.
We should be made heirs according to the
hope of eternal life Heirs, that means we
inherit everything God has Heirs of God you
say I can't believe it You know why
because you won't believe verse 3 if you
don't believe you're as bad as God says
you are You'll never believe you're as well
off as God says you are I'll remember
if you won't believe you're as bad off
as he says you are You'll never believe
that he was well off through grace because
psychologically can't be done You hold out on
God as to how bad you are Your
nature won't permit you to take all the
promises of God as to how good God
is to you You crimp yourself and crowd
yourself be enlarged Oh ye Corinthians and see
how bad you are nor do you can
see how good God is and how wonderful
the grace of God is Now we're heirs
and I was trying to think about this
heir an heir of God that I am
one of God's heirs You know, we can't
take it in Let's imagine a little boy
Who has lived in the slums of some
great city?
New York's East Side say and He's now
eight or ten years old and he's had
a very narrow Life he's lived among ash
cans and in alleys and Stealing fruit from
corner fruit stores and ducking policemen.
That's the way he's lived He never had
a new shirt on his life His pants
are hand down three four Fellas up that
down to him and his shoes.
He never had a new pair on And
he's never slept anywhere but in a corner
and Suddenly Somebody comes along and adopts him
off the street corner one of the richest
men in America With yachts and outboard or
what do you call them?
These big power motors things they these rich
men from run around I see them on
the lakes and states of every kind and
Utterly rich beyond the description we go to
the boy and say, you know what?
You're an heir This man has adopted you
and you've suddenly Inherited vast ranches in Arizona
and great estates in Canada and Huge states
down on the coast in Florida.
It's all yours to say nothing of money
in the bank The little fella doesn't understand.
He'd exchanged the whole business for a pop
suckle sickle Sure, because you see He He
just he can't think like that and God
doesn't blame you for not being able to
think like that You are used to poverty
spiritual poverty.
Anyhow, you're used to Locking everything shutting your
door and locking and say to you what
did you lock that?
You're always used to live in that way
living in the slums of the universe But
there's only one place worse than Earth and
you know what it is.
Hell Hell the earth is suspended halfway between
Heaven and hell not yet forsaken by heaven
and not yet committed to it Here we
are and that's what we're used to and
then suddenly we have somebody so cold water
on us and say You're an heir of
God We shake our heads and say well,
I'm willing to believe it, but I haven't
a faintest notion what you're talking about Read
your Bible study it and pray and keep
on grow and expand and learn to think
the way God thinks and maybe sometime You'll
know a little bit, but if you don't
know here, you'll know there The heirs of
God heirs of God according to the promise
of eternal life, well, we scarcely know what
it is I wonder if that's why the
Lord gave us the communion service that we
sort of might sort of Get a hold
of something we could see in taste You
know The ideal is that we'd be completely
spiritual But the Lord knows us too well
to hope we can ever be completely spiritual
as long as we're walking around in this
mortal tabernacle So he made everything spiritual With
the wine and the bread he said now
you can have this and look at this
and feel it touch it taste it That
I'll let you have those two no more
I'll let you have those two emblems those
two elements those two Symbols and signs of
my death and resurrection and glorious coming again.
You keep on Be different from the world
And every so often he didn't say how
often there's difference of opinion among the brethren,
but every so often Eat the bread and
drink the wine say the words and sing
the hymns and pray and remember me till
I come And you'll become heir of all
that God has we Christians ought to be
the happiest people in the world and the
saddest The saddest because we live in a
heartbroken world and the happiest Because we're heirs
of The most gracious God and that was
Paul Paul said sorrowful yet always rejoicing.
How do you figure him?
Some of you people with adding machine minds
They insist on getting everything down and added
up at the bottom and then Prove it
four ways to show.
It's correct You won't do you won't do
God wants imaginative men and women that can
intuit things that the Holy Ghost can give
flashes of Understanding that you never can explain
and one of them is how a man
can be rich and poor at the same
time Paul said poor yet making many rich.
How did he do it?
Can't put that in an adding machine feed
that into Mr X and it won't come
out For how he can be sorrowful yet
always rejoicing How Jesus could sing a hymn
and go to the Mount of Olives.
There you have it two peaks Or a
peak in a valley The peak of song
and the valley of suffering We Christians are
caught there We never know from day to
day whether we'll be on the mountain peak
singing or in the valley suffering But it
doesn't make too much difference.
Anyway, because we're heirs of God And when
we receive the bread and the wine we
tell the whole world that wants interested to
know This is just a little reminder like
the ring on my wife's finger reminding Just
isn't isn't the marriage but it's just a
little symbol.
We recognize since we're here on earth And
this is a symbol we recognize perhaps it's
deeper than that but it is that It's
beyond that but it is that And it
tells us that he died that he rose
that he lives that he pleads and he's
coming back again Amen, amen, now we'll have
the communion service and Any persons that we
say visitors, but really you're not visiting here.
Nobody's visiting here We we use that we
call them guests we have a guest card
and I guess it's just the paucity of
the English language But really I'm as much
a guest here as you are Nobody runs
this church.
This is the house of God.
This is the body of Christ or Part
of the body of Christ and you have
as much right at the table as I
do So nobody can shut you out Let
me give you this little little thought and
then we're we'll have our communion service in
a Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky a Closed
communion Baptist Church The pastor Was a very
warm friend of Well, it was his brother
-in-law they pointed the church out and
told me the story his brother-in-law
who was a pastor in the Presbyterian Church
and The brother-in-law Presbyterian brother-in
-law was visiting the Baptist pastor Came Sunday
first Sunday and they had communion What Could
this pastor do his brother-in-law was
out of the fold and So he did
his best.
He said my friends If this were my
table I'd invite you to it and I'd
invite everybody to it.
There wouldn't be anybody that I'd Exclude I'd
invite everybody to it Said I my brother
-in-law's here and he's Presbyterian and I'd
invite him to it if it was my
table But he says since it's my father's
table.
I have no right to invite anybody So
he said but the children will know and
they'll come That was an easy way out
He thought it was so the Presbyterian pastor
got up down front and said could I
say a word?
And of course he had to grant him
the right.
He said I agree with my brother-in
-law This is not his table this is
his father's table and since his father and
my father's the same father then this is
my father's table and He said if the
pastor can't invite me to my father's table
He can't exclude me from my father's table
and he went up and got up and
went and took communion along with the rest.
I Think that's just delightful myself and that's
just delightful.
I Can't invite you and I can't exclude
you let every man examine himself.
Amen