God has done a wonderful thing for us.
He's brought us salvation and eternal life, and
He doesn't want us boasting in what we
have done.
In fact, He doesn't want any flesh to
glory in His sight.
So, even the faith by which we are
saved, God gives to us as a gift.
So I can't even boast about my believing
the truth of God.
Well, the truth came to me, and I
examined the truth, and I decided I'm going
to believe it.
Nope.
By grace are you saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God.
It's not of works, lest any man should
boast.
You see, God knows the tendency of our
old nature to want to receive glory.
That's a part of that sinful nature.
That's the thing that tripped up Satan.
I'm going to exalt my throne above the
stars of heaven.
I'm going to sit in the congregation in
the sides of the north.
I'm going to ascend into the heights.
I will be like the Most High.
I want people to recognize and worship and
glory in me.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning, who didst exalt thyself,
looking for glory?
God knows that that's a part of our
nature, and therefore, He placed salvation outside of
our capacity, outside of our ability.
He made our salvation on the basis of
His grace, His work, His work through Jesus
Christ, and my believing that work, and then
He gave me the faith to believe it.
He drew me unto Himself, placed the faith
in my heart to believe His truth, and
granted unto me through His grace this glorious
gift of eternal life.
For by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves.
It is a gift of God, that faith
by which you were saved.
And it is not of works, your salvation,
lest any man should boast, for we are
His workmanship.
The Greek word translated workmanship is poema, from
which we get our English word poem.
You are His work, you are His poem.
A poem is a thing of grace, a
thing of beauty.
God wants your life to be a thing
of grace and a thing of beauty, and
as God works in your life, it will
become a thing of grace and a thing
of beauty.
You are His poem.
The poet seeks to express himself in beautiful
terms.
He seeks to express beauty in attractive terms.
God is seeking to express Himself, and your
life becomes that expression.
As God works in you, you are His
work.
As God works in your life, conforming you
into the image of Jesus Christ, you then
become the revelation of God to the world
around you.
The expression of God.
Now, Jesus, it says, was the express image
of His glory.
He said one day to His disciples, if
you have seen the Father, you have seen
Me.
Or if you have seen Me, you have
seen the Father, rather.
Philip said, show us the Father, we'll be
satisfied.
If you have seen Me, you have seen
the Father.
How sayest thou then, show us the Father?
Don't you believe that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me, and the
works that I do?
I do not of Myself, but the Father
that dwelleth in Me.
He doeth the works.
Believest thou then, that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me, or else
believe for the very works sake.
So, God wants you to be the expression
of Himself to this world.
And that is the purpose of God's work
in your life, to conform you into the
image of Jesus Christ.
Now, as we get to the fourth chapter
of Ephesians, Paul will tell us that God
is appointed in the church, pastor, teachers, evangelists,
prophets.
Apostles, and not in that order.
He put pastor, teachers last, but I like
to reverse the order since I am a
pastor, teacher.
But their purpose was for the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the building up of the body of
Christ until we all came into the unity
of the faith, the knowledge of the Son
of God, unto the complete or fully matured
man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fullness of the image of Christ.
You see, this is God's work in you,
conforming you into the image of Christ.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said, And we
all with open face, as we behold the
glory of the Lord, are being changed from
glory to glory, even into that same image.
God expressing Himself through you, as God knocks
off the rough edges, and as God smooths
out those rough spots, His whole purpose of
His work in my life is to conform
me into the image of Christ that He
might reveal Himself through me to the world.
His love through me, His grace through me,
His kindness through me.
Now, a lot of times as God is
doing His work in me, and He begins
to chip off some of those clumsy edges,
I begin to scream.
I don't always like that work of God,
but it is important that I submit to
that work of God.
I don't always understand it.
Lord, why did you chip that one off?
I thought that looked pretty good, you know.
And I don't always understand why certain hard
places have come into my life.
But God is working.
It's important that I know this, because as
I know this, then I can yield to
these things.
I don't fight them.
I say, well, Lord, my life is Yours.
If any man suffers according to the will
of God, let him commit the keeping of
his soul unto Him as a wise creator.
God, my life is in Your hands.
You do what You know best and what
You see best.
Lord, I accept these things that are coming
my way.
You work, Lord, Your work in me that
You might reveal Yourself through me.
You are His poema.
Created together in Christ Jesus unto the good
works that God has before ordained that You
should walk in them.
God has already determined, foreordained that work that
You're to accomplish for His glory.
God has a plan and a purpose for
Your life.
You remember when Mordecai sent the message in
to Esther after she had said, Hey, I
can't just go in and see my husband
anytime I want.
You know, we've got laws here in Persia.
And unless he calls me, I really can't
go in to see him.
And if I would presume to go in
and see him, if he doesn't hold the
golden scepter, they'll take my head off.
And her cousin Mordecai sent back a message
and said, How do you know but what
God has brought you into the kingdom for
such a time as this?
The whole background.
The beauty contest where she was chosen to
be the new queen.
The deposing of the old queen, Vashti.
And all of these circumstances.
How do you know that God isn't working
and hasn't been working all the way through
up to this point to prepare you for
this precise moment in history to bring deliverance
for God's people?
Now, don't think within yourself, he said, that
if this edict goes through that you're going
to escape.
Or that the edict can actually go through
for deliverance will arise from another quarter.
Or God is going to do his work,
but you will be the loser.
If God has chosen to use you to
do that work and you fail.
So God has been preparing you.
How do you know?
But this isn't what God has been preparing
you for.
And as God works in our life, we
can know that God has a purpose and
a plan.
He doesn't just work happenstance in us.
It isn't just some kind of a capricious
act of God that I've been through these
severe testings or trials.
It's a part of God's plan in preparing
me to do the work that God has
already decided that I should do for the
glory of his kingdom.
So I can look back in my life
and I can see how God was preparing
me and working in me to prepare me
for this place that I am today.
And I can go back all the way
back actually to my birth and even before
my birth to see how God had his
hand upon my life even in the prenatal
state as he was preparing me for the
work that he wanted me to accomplish for
his glory someday.
And I can see that preparation in my
early childhood as God gave me such a
godly mother who before I was born, when
my sister for all practical purposes had died,
made a covenant with God and said, God,
if you'll just spare my little daughter's life,
if you'll give me my little girl back
to me, I will serve you and minister
for you the rest of my life.
And how God miraculously healed my sister instantly,
brought her back to life.
She started breathing again.
And two months later when I was born,
my mother said, Father, I will fulfill my
vow to you through my son.
I'll dedicate him to serve you.
And thus, from my earliest memories, my mother
was teaching me to memorize the scriptures, following
me around at my place.
She let me be a normal boy, play
ball and everything else.
But as I was a child, she'd follow
me around, having me recite scriptures.
Bedtime.
I never heard of Goldilocks or Red Riding
Hood until I grew up.
But I knew all about David and Moses
and Joshua and Paul.
These were my bedtime stories.
David.
God was preparing our early years of ministry.
Those times of great frustration.
Those times of failure.
Those times of hardship.
Those times of learning to trust God for
the evening meal.
When we would be absolutely...
Well, no, that's an overstatement.
When we would be almost broke.
Because one night when we came right down
to it, we were almost broke.
We went through Kay's purses and my pants
pockets and our dresser drawers and we did
find 37 cents.
And we headed out to the store with
37 cents to buy our evening meal.
Challenged by how nutritious a meal that we
could purchase for 37 cents.
How balanced and nutritious.
It was a real challenge and we made
it.
We had a bunch of carrots and a
can of pork and beans.
And when we laid them on the counter,
the guy totaled them up, he said 37
cents.
Had it figured out.
Laid the cash on the counter and we
started out the door and he called us
back.
And he said, you know, I'm sorry.
I've been intending for a long time to
do something for your kids and here, I
want you to take this.
And he reached under the counter and gave
us a $10 grocery certificate.
I told Kay, let's go over to the
meat counter.
And I said to Kay, pick out two
of the best T-bones.
God's treating tonight, we're going to eat steak.
God was in it.
God was preparing us.
Preparing us to trust Him for the evening
meal.
Preparing us to just believe in Him and
to know that He would supply the needs.
Teaching us to be careful and frugal with
His funds.
Teaching us to be wise and careful as
we spent His funds.
All of it was important and necessary preparation
for God had in mind the whole while
the ministry that we're experiencing today.
I didn't have any idea what God had
in mind.
I had ambitions.
Hopefully one day I'd have a church of
250 people.
That was my great ambition in life.
I was tired of little churches of under
a hundred because they could never support the
needs of the family.
And so I worked as Paul, laboring with
my own hands so that we would not
be chargeable to the churches.
When we first began Calvary Chapel, we worked
laboring with our own hands.
And I was prepared to continue to work.
But God had other things in mind.
Far and above anything we'd ever dreamed.
The work that God has in mind for
you to do for Him.
Now, I do believe that we can check
out of God's program if we desire.
I think that we can say, OK, Lord,
that's it.
I've had it.
I don't want to go through this anymore.
I'm going to take another path.
And I think that we can actually miss
out on that plan of God that He
has ordained for our future.
Not that we were going to miss salvation.
Don't misunderstand me now.
That's not the issue at all.
The issue is God's perfect plan for your
life.
Not the work that God has before ordained
that you should accomplish for His glory.
I think you can miss that.
If you rebel against the work that God
is seeking to do in your life today,
to prepare you for that work.
Now, I do believe that God does prepare
the instrument before He uses the instrument.
It is the days of preparation that we
often despise.
Though the Bible tells us, do not despise
the days of preparation.
The days of the small things.
Lord, I want to get on to the
big thing, the big work you've got.
No, no.
It's necessary that God first work in me
before God can work through me.
That is why we are told in the
Scriptures to count it all joy when we
go through some real hard testings.
That's why we are told to rejoice in
tribulation.
For God is working in you because God
wants to work through you.
He's got a plan for you.
A work that He wants you to accomplish.
Now, I don't think that I've arrived.
I think that God has yet a greater
work in mind for me to accomplish for
His glory.
And it is exciting to me each day
to see the new opportunities that God brings
into our path in the expanding of the
ministry as we seek to do His work.
And so God still prepares me.
I haven't arrived by a long shot, but
I'm on the way.
And one day when I do arrive, I'll
look around and I'll see Paul and John
and I'll be in glory.
You know, when I have apprehended that for
which I've been apprehended.
Paul was very conscious of the fact that
when the Lord called him, God had a
plan in mind.
And he said, I have not yet apprehended
that for which I was apprehended.
Still on the road.
There's still something to be done.
God still has a purpose and a work
for me yet to fulfill.
And when I have completed, when I have
apprehended that for which I was apprehended, do
you think God's going to leave me in
this sin-cursed world any longer?
Oh, He loves me too much.
He's going to take me to be with
Him in the eternal glories of His kingdom.
Wherefore, remember that you, in time past, as
a Gentile in the flesh, were called the
uncircumcision by those which are called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hand.
So, remember as a Gentile you were totally
excluded by the Jews.
Excluded to salvation.
That at that time you were without Christ.
Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers from the covenants of promise, you had
no hope and you were without God in
the world.
Now, He's going back again.
You, before the coming of Jesus Christ into
your life.
A real separation.
A real wall between you and God.
You and the people of God.
You were without Christ, you were an alien
from the covenants and strangers from the covenants
of promise and you had no hope for
you were without God in the world.
That is one of the saddest, most tragic
pictures of mankind.
No hope without God in the world.
Without Christ, without hope, without God.
It's a tragic thing to try to exist
in a hopeless state.
One of the greatest things the Bible does
for us, it gives us hope.
Even in a world that is deteriorating around
us, there is hope.
In fact, the more the world deteriorates, the
greater the hope becomes.
Do you know what is the latest conclusion
of the most brilliant economists in the world?
Do you know what they declared to be
the only hope for the world at this
point?
They are now declaring that the only hope
for the world is a unified monetary system.
In their latest writings, publications, they are beginning
to espouse this as the only salvation for
the world.
The only hope for the world is a
unified monetary system worldwide.
That's the only thing that will cause mankind
to lay down their arms because we'll all
realize that we're having the economic problems in
trying to build these tremendous armaments and everything
else and we'll all be joined together in
an economic endeavor to make the world a
better place.
So we've got to have a unified monetary,
worldwide monetary system.
Interesting that they would come upon that as
the only hope of the world and when
that is established, they will be hailing that
as the salvation of the world.
And it is interesting for us as children
of God to realize that the Bible says
that's exactly what will be established by the
Antichrist and will cause him to be hailed
as the savior of the world is when
he brings to pass a unified monetary system
worldwide.
And so the world is talking about these
things and, you know, this is our only
hope and we can't do this, you know,
we've had it and all and they're without
hope really because whoever could put together a
worldwide unified monetary system.
And while they're talking about this doom and
gloom, we're saying, all right, it's getting close.
You know, as soon as they get that
thing inaugurated, I'm going to be gone.
All right, you know, and so we have
this glorious hope in Christ.
Where the world is without Christ, it's without
hope.
Where it's without God, it's without hope.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were
once far off, you've been brought nigh by
the blood of Jesus Christ.
You were once an alien.
Now you've been made a part of the
family of God.
You were once a stranger.
Now you're at home in the kingdom.
For he is our peace.
Not he will bring us peace.
He is our peace who has made both
one, that is both the Jew and the
Greek or the Jew and the Gentile.
He's made us both one and broke down
that wall of partition that used to separate
us.
Having abolished in his flesh that enmity that
once existed, even the law of commandments contained
in the ordinances in order that he may
make in himself of the two one new
man, so making peace.
So Jesus took the two diverse and divergent
systems.
The Jew who was trying under the law
to be righteous before God and failing.
The Gentile who was totally alienated because he
wasn't even close by way of the law.
And this tremendous difference that existed between the
Jew under the law and the Gentile without
a law.
Both of them failing to please God or
to come into fellowship with God and Jesus
broke down this barrier, this wall that existed
between man and mankind and he's made us
all one in him.
So Jesus, the common denominator and he is
the one way by which man can come
to God.
The Gentile apart from the law, the Jew
within the law system all have to come
this new route that Jesus has established.
So that as we all come by the
same path through Jesus Christ, we become one
and no longer does this great difference exist
between the Jew and the Gentile.
So in making from the two one new
man and thus he has made peace.
That he might reconcile both unto God in
the one body by the cross having slain
the enmity thereby or in the cross, you
see, he fulfilled the law.
The righteous demands of the law were fulfilled
in the death of Jesus Christ.
The law righteously demanded that the sinning soul
should die.
Now under the ordinances, they had the provision
that they could take an animal as a
substitute and thus cover their sins.
But the righteousness of the law had to
be satisfied.
It was satisfied in the death of Jesus
Christ and so there he brought an end
to the law and its authority over man
because the law has now been totally satisfied
through his death and now through his death,
he has reconciled both.
That is the Jew who could not keep
the law, the Gentile who had no relationship
to the law.
We've both been reconciled to God in the
one body of Christ by the cross and
there he put an end to this enmity
that existed between the two and he came
and preached peace to you which were far
off and to them which were close.
The same message he preaches to all men
whether you were far or near for through
him we both have access by one spirit
unto the Father.
There is one God and one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus and
you have no access to God apart from
Jesus Christ and I don't care how I
am accused of being narrow in that statement.
I am only stating to you what the
scriptures declare.
You can only have access to God through
Jesus Christ.
Yes, it is a straight gate and it
is a narrow path but it leads to
eternal life.
Broad is the gate and broad is the
path that leads to destruction and many go
in.
There is the flow, the flow of the
world but straight is the gate and narrow
is the way that leads to eternal life
and few there be that find it.
So Christ has made the way by which
man can come to God.
It is a road that is marked by
blood but it brings us into fellowship and
in communion with the Father.
So you are no longer strangers and foreigners
but you have been made a fellow citizen
with the saints and of the household of
God.
So it is not only Christ settling down
and making himself at home in your hearts
but you just being a part of the
household of God at home with God and
you are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and the prophets.
Now these are not the prophets of the
Old Testament but the prophets in the New
Testament church and we are not really built
upon the foundation of the apostles.
They are not the foundation upon which we
are built but we are built upon the
message of the apostles.
That is the foundation.
Paul said, No other foundation have we than
this which is already laid which is Jesus
Christ.
Peter said, You are the Messiah, you are
the son of the living God and Jesus
said, That's good Peter, God revealed that to
you and upon this rock I am going
to build my church.
He is the foundation upon which we are
built.
The message of the apostles and the prophets
that God has provided salvation through Jesus Christ
and that he is the way by which
we might come to God.
That is the foundation laid by the apostles
and the prophets in their teaching and in
their ministry.
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
God is building a habitation for himself.
A body in which to dwell.
The body of Christ.
The body of believers.
I become a part of that building of
God.
You remember Jesus said, Where two or three
are gathered together in my name there I
am in the midst.
We are the building of God.
We have been built upon that foundation laid
by the apostles and the prophets.
Jesus Christ the chief cornerstone upon which this
building is built.
You remember that Peter standing before the Sanhedrin
quoted that particular Psalm 118 referring to Jesus
Christ.
He said, This is the stone which was
set up not by you builders but the
same has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the work of God.
It's marvelous in our eyes.
Psalm 118 Christ the chief cornerstone.
He was the stone that was set up
not by the builders.
They rejected him.
He came to his own.
His own received him not.
Those leaders of the Jewish religion rejected the
chief cornerstone.
There is an interesting story that in the
building of the Temple of Solomon remember not
the sound of an axe or a hammer
was heard.
No sound of iron.
But all of the stones were quarried away
from the building, carried to the building, perfectly
carved out and then just fit in without
even the use of mortar.
Perfectly carved and fit together.
So they had the architect and he drew
the blueprints for each stone and they would
mark them and put them in their position
within the temple as they were building it.
And the story goes that there came from
the quarry a stone that did not have
its mark.
And so the builders could not figure where
the stone went.
So they finally just cast it aside.
Figured it was a mistake from the quarry.
And when the temple was complete they sent
to the quarry and they said where is
the chief cornerstone?
And the quarry sent back and said we
already sent it a long time ago.
And they sent back and said we have
not received it.
It's not here.
And they said we've got our invoice and
you've signed it.
It is there.
And finally over in the bushes that had
now grown over the thing someone dug out
and said well there's a stone over here.
Could this be it?
And sure enough it was the chief cornerstone
of the building that the builders had neglected
and cast aside and they found out hey
this is the one it fits.
It's the chief cornerstone.
So Jesus Christ said of not by the
religious leaders by the builders but God has
made him to be the chief cornerstone.
This is the work of God.
It's marvelous in our eyes and neither is
there salvation Peter said in any other for
there is no other name given among men
whereby we must be saved.
The chief cornerstone upon which the whole thing
is built in whom all of the building
is fitly framed and grows unto the holy
temple in the Lord.
So when you have Christ building on him
the whole building goes together fitly framed together
the holy temple in the Lord in whom
ye also are builded together as the house
of God through the Spirit.
Again where two or three are gathered together
in my name there I am in the
midst the house of God where he comes
to dwell among his people.
And how glorious it is to be able
to gather together with the family of God
and to experience the presence of Jesus Christ
and the power of God's Spirit as he
is working to build this habitation not a
physical building but our lives that are being
knit together fit together in this whole plan
of God this glorious building where God will
reveal himself to his people and through his
people to the world.
Thank you Father for that wonderful work of
your Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives
for that grace whereby we were saved for
your work in us as you prepare us
to do your work for your Spirit drawing
us near when we were without hope and
without Christ and without God in this world
for making us a part of the family
of God fitting us together as we are
built upon Christ O Lord you're beautiful and
we love your work Amen You are his
workmanship created together in Christ Jesus under the
good works that God has before ordained that
you should walk in them God has a
plan for your life this week God is
working in you God wants to work through
you as you yield yourself your lives to
God you'll begin to discover that which God
intended and purposed for you to do for
his glory but you can only discover it
by yielding to him as a potter works
with the clay and as he begins his
work with the clay in his mind he
has a vessel that he intends to make
out of that lump of clay to take
that shapeless bit of mud and to carefully
work with it until he forms a vessel
that he has in his mind to form
from this bit of clay so God takes
your life as a bit of clay and
has in his mind a vessel that he
wishes to form in order that it might
perform a specific work or function God knows
exactly what function he wants you to fulfill
within the body now that clay has really
no choice of its destiny nor does it
have necessarily any knowledge of its destiny until
as the potter begins to form it it
can begin to understand what its destiny is
going to be as you begin to look
at the shape that things begin to take
and begin to realize God is preparing me
for this or God is preparing me for
that and I begin to understand what God
is preparing me for as I see the
thing take form and take shape but the
only way I can really discover what God
has in mind for me is to remain
completely yielded to his touch the moment I
resist and stiffen the work will be marred
in the hands of the potter and many
times he has to start all over again
take that piece of clay here we go
again back to zero you know hope I
listen this time the wheel starts turning oh
Lord what are you doing now I don't
know I like that you know point how
many times I was back to zero just
a blob again poof but in time we
learn that the potter knows best just to
yield our lives to the touch of God
to let God work in us that we
might do the work that he's planned for
us so God bless you as he works
in your life this week making of you
an instrument that he might use to bring
glory to his name