Open—R. Ruga, C. Little, D. Brown
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The scream that from the past and the flow and I'll be turn of love the empire.
Oh yeah.
Oh, there gifts come up. If I've had anything I blame.
We lost to see the Savior saying.
You're just saying those lovely words.
Redeemed by blood and saved by grace, we look to see the Savior's face.
When a brethren is weakened.
Stole the grace of God together.
Apart from the grace of God, we are nothing. We have nothing. We owe it all to the redeeming blood, to the saving grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Where would we be this afternoon were it not for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Would any of us be here? No, we'd each be our separate ways.
Forgetful of the Lord and of His kindness, of His love, and of the finished work that He accomplished at Calvary.
Look with me the scripture in Genesis.
The first book of the Bible, Chapter 9.
Suppose we are in glory.
And uh, we walked down that street of goal and we meet this man, Noah.
Up there we say no, I'm why?
I knew I was gonna meet you here because you certainly were a righteous man.
You are a preacher of righteousness for 120 years.
And God finds you alone, upright amongst all others.
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Little wonder, Noah, that you're found here in glory. Not surprised in the least.
You know what? He would answer me.
This 9th chapter.
Verse 20.
21.
I began to be a husband. Then I planted a vineyard and I was drunk the wine and I was uncovered in my tent.
You know, left to myself, I wouldn't be here. It was the grace of God that brought me here.
You omitted to refer to another passage in the 6th chapter, I believe, concerning myself.
And here's why I'm here.
Genesis chapter 6.
Verse 8.
I found grace.
I found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Do you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ?
That's the only grounds upon which I'm hearing. I would say I found grace in the eyes of the Lord after He spared me and my family. I turned aside so quickly from following the right way. I'm not here because of my righteousness.
Or because of any good that I have done. I'm here because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn to the next book of the Bible, Exodus.
Chapter 2.
And as we continue.
I walked down the street of glory. We meet this man, Moses.
When Moses.
The neatest man upon the face of the earth. Weren't you the one who forsook all the treasures of Egypt and identified yourself with the people of God? That was quite a choice you made. Little wonder God took you, brought you up here to heaven.
Didn't you interpose on behalf of the Lord's people, and they had so quickly turned aside to idolatry?
And you had said, Lord, blow my name out of my book.
And God wouldn't do that. And that was certainly commendable.
That was honorable of you to do that, Moses, and I see that now. You are in glory. You know, Moses would correct me and he'd refer me to a verse here in the second chapter of Exodus.
He said. Have you never read verse 12?
When I looked this way that way.
I saw nobody, and I slew an Egyptian.
And I hid this Egyptian in the sand.
You know, Ruben, that was murder. I'm not here because I was better than anybody else.
No, I'm here because of the grace of God that had pity on me, the grace of God that spared me from just punishment.
He could have terminated my life just then or my service for him just then and said, Moses, I'm finished with you.
But instead, he gave me another chance. He allowed me to learn lessons for 40 years on the backside of the desert.
And then to lead his people for 40 years.
I can understand.
Why Moses would know something of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn back a few pages in your Bible. The end of Genesis. Is there not another illustration?
Chapter 49.
This man was used of God.
To the priesthood in Israel, a signal of honor to the tribe of Levi.
They had murarites. They did this service and the Tabernacle in the wilderness.
Finnegan's most faithful in God's judgment was about to be poured upon Israel.
Hi Levi, your name means join. Join to the Lord. Ah, I knew I'd meet you here in heaven.
I'm afraid Levi would tell me. You know, Ruben, you have the wrong slant on my life. I didn't deserve a bit of it. I didn't deserve a bit of it in that 49th chapter of Genesis.
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And verse five, Here's what Jacob, my father, had to say in all truth about me.
Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. Have you never read what I did when I tried to avenge my my sister Dinah and my brother Simeon and I? We went into that city and we slew all the men. We put them to death. I said I know something about that Levi I knew.
They're useful to the whole city for one man. I knew of multitudes of people who were saved by one man, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
He said yes.
I was saved as a result of his work too.
Levi joined to the Lord blessed in such a favorite position of drawing nigh to God on behalf of the people.
But not because of any worth of his own.
Not at all. It seemed as if God chose the very worst there amongst his people, and showed grace to them and brought them nigh so that they could serve in the most holy things.
What a position, what an honor.
And so he's brought into glory because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the New Testament, dear brethren, let us turn for a moment.
To Luke.
Chapter 9 You know who is the beloved disciple who leaned on the bosom of the Lord?
Young man, I'm sure.
Doesn't like to refer to himself. In his Gospel of John he refers to himself I think 7 times as the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Very close to the Lord.
So much so that the Lord committed to John his mother there at the foot of the cross. Oh, John, I suppose you're here in heaven because.
Of your affection for the Lord and what you did for the Lord's mother.
And furthermore, all that I've read that you have suffered before the Lord.
I understand that. And they banished you to the Isle of Fatness and uh, the Lord gave you a wonderful revelation concerning what would happen to the church in the last days. John knew certainly in that way way continued on until the coming of the Lord.
Well, he would tell me, you know, that all that is true.
But you know, I had a very wrong spirit when I was down there on earth, and the Lord had to reprove me.
Read Verse.
54 of that 9th of Luke.
When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
You know, when I was down there, I wanted to destroy all those Samaritans.
You think I deserve to be here in glory? I had a wrong spirit about me. The Lord had to correct my spirit. I do trust that He did because later on in the 8th chapter of Acts I went back to those same people with Peter and I called down the Spirit of God from heaven, not fire.
But the Spirit of God came down from heaven when those very same Samaritans which I would have destroyed had received the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. No, I'm not here because of any merit on my part. I'm here because of the grace.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I continue walking down the courts of glory, and I encounter another man.
Surface of reference says to him in First Timothy, First Timothy chapter one, the great apostle Paul.
You would think of anybody deserved to go to heaven.
The apostle Paul should be there. What he endured for Christ's sake, model to the believers. He's shipwrecked. He was in the deep a night and the day thrice was he beaten with 40 stripes.
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Save one, he was stoned. Prison oftentimes.
This dear man suffered much for Christ.
Paul Flynn wonder that you are here. You certainly deserve to be here.
You know, I think that the apostle Paul would say there's a scripture which I wrote to Timothy in that first chapter, which I am forgetful of, verse 13.
Before I was a blasphemer.
I was a persecutor. I was injurious.
But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly.
In unbelief.
In the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is exceeding abundant towards me. No, I'm not here because of any work on my part. I was the chief of chiefest of sinners. I was mad towards Christ. I was persecuting those that were of the way even unto other cities, and bringing them and hailing them into prison.
But First Corinthians 15 But by the grace of God, I am what I am.
Dear President, what about you?
What about me?
Are we any better? Can we lay claim to glory that we deserve in any way to be fair?
I'm trying to the gospel.
Look again, Gospel of Luke.
Chapter 14.
Lovely words, redeemed by blood, saved by grace. We look to see the Savior's face. Well, here we are in the 14th chapter of Luke present.
Where verse 21 There we are. Here's our description. So that servant came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bringing hit her, the poor, the main, the halt and the blind. There we are.
The boy named.
Hall and Blind.
That's the ones God calls in. Do we not know?
Grace of God.
By the grace of God, we are what we are.
There's a strange place for me, but I have a few thoughts concerning grace.
If you turn with me to the book of Titus.
I believe it's Titus.
Yes, Titus.
Chapter 2.
Beginning at verse 11.
For the grace of our Lord, the grace of God, which bringeth salvation.
Hath appeared to all men.
Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.
We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
Looking for that blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself.
For us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a per a peculiar people, zealous of good works, these things speak.
And exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
Very interesting here to think that God brings in the thought of grace. Grace teaches us something, doesn't it? What does it teach us? It teaches us to be kind, to be gracious, to to help others.
With love and compassion, the grace of God. We will never fathom the grace of God. So I just thought of this, these few little verses here it says the grace of God.
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That bringeth salvation, as our brothers brought out. How would you know anything about the Lord Jesus if it wasn't for His grace that is wrought in your heart and caused you to turn from darkness to light to serve the living and true God? It's the grace of God.
We know it's the mercy of God too. You have mercies of the God every day, even here, and everyone in this room has the mercy of God.
But those blessings are eternal.
You've never seen one of them yet, but the grace of God has brought us something.
You know, we don't just sit there and relax and say, well, I, I thank God for the grace. And so I'll just go on from there.
No, that's not it. God's grace has brought you, taught you something. Are we learning? Are we listening to what He has said? I think it's very precious to see that when God teaches, He teaches us something that you'll stay with us for eternity.
Oh, we practice it now if we do.
But then in those scenes of glory, when we look into His blessed face and we see that kindness and love, compassion of His.
Are we gonna question that? We're gonna say, oh, the grace of God has brought me into this position.
Because of my being, here is the grace of the living God that is wrought has brought me into a place of nearness and blessing. And so I just think of these little verses here. The grace of God that brought salvation has appeared to who? To all men. Have all men received it? No, they haven't.
And they're the losers.
But the grace of God has appeared to all men. No one will ever be able to say in that coming day, why didn't know that?
No, you will not say that.
Because it appeared the grace of God, the mercy of God has brought into this picture here for us and he says teaching us.
It's appeared to all men and it teaches us something.
What does it teach you? What does it teach me?
Well, I think it's very precious to see that He teaches us to be gracious, to be kind, to be loving, to be favorable towards all men, not just some men. You know, we can all, we can certainly don't agree with the sins of man, but we can certainly love him and seek to help, be helped to him. How do we know this? By the grace of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world in grace and truth.
Would you like to put it differently? We like to say truth and grace, but that's not the order. The order is grace and truth.
The Lord Jesus Christ, he manifested that in this world and so I just thought of this, these few little verses here that remind us that this grace of God.
It says teaching, teaching us that denying ungodliness, that's the first thing, denying ungodliness. Turn away from that which is ungodly, which is not pleasing to God.
It teaches us that what teaches us the grace of God, because the Lord Jesus Christ manifested all that grace toward us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
You didn't know that, did you?
That God, in his love for you, He knew you before you were born.
We can't preach the gospel by telling people that because they say well.
They'll they'll do work it out for themselves. But God knew you were before you were born. So the grace of God has come and brought something to you. And I say to myself, what am I doing with it? Am I practicing it? Am I putting it into practice? Am I using that? That's what God has given me. And so it's interesting to see here the first thing is denying ungodly lusts.
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Are you tempted to do something wrong?
Be careful.
You should deny it. You should turn away from it.
So it says, denying ungodly lust.
Uh, that we should.
That we should.
Live now, he says. You turn away from those ungodly things and live.
How soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.
Soberly.
As to yourself.
Not foolish, not uh, with crazy thoughts, but soberly and righteously toward others.
And godly in the presence of God, knowing that he knows all about me.
These are precious things and they've been taught us.
And God isn't going to change his word. He's not going to say, well, I told you that in Titus, but I'm not going to. I'm going to change that. Now, has he done that? Never. Never. The word of God is forever settled in heaven.
You'll never change it. No matter how we change, He doesn't change. So I just think how lovely and precious this is soberly as to my personal self, as to myself living soberly. Then righteously toward you, toward others, that we might always remember the grace of God that is wrought in our hearts. Then he says godly. And when do we do this? When we get home. No, no, no, no.
That's what the Scriptures tell us here, doesn't it? In this present world right now, we can live soberly, we can live righteously, we can live godly. Why? Because the grace of God has taught us this. It's the grace of God. You don't do it. You can't do it yourself. You can't do it in your own strength. In my early days, I was, I was a might say, short fuse person.
Again.
Yeah, angry quickly, but God had a lot to teach me.
So I learned something from the grace of God.
His matchless grace, he taught me to be sober, to be righteous toward others, and to be godly in the presence of the one who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. How precious this is to see. And then he says, in order that, you know, we speak about thinking of the Lord to come, we speak about the coming of the Lord. And I think if you look at Thessalonians first, Thessalonians 4, we find it.
Before he speaks about that at the end of that chapter 4.
He tells us about.
The way.
Of walking plainly in this world and godly in this world. You read the first part of that first chapter or 4th chapter of Thessalonians. You find that.
So it's beautiful when we think that God has has that the grace of God has taught us something. I always ask myself, how much am I learning? How much have I assumed? How much have I assimilated the truth that God has given me? This is what he wants on us.
I'm sure every I'm sure everyone here knows the way of salvation, but what are we doing with it?
How are we treating it? How are we have we how we how we accept them? Have we practiced it point of thought there something to think about looking for that blessed hope in verse 13 and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. And then he has to add who gave himself for us. That's precious truth he gave himself.
In Saint Abrie or Michael.
He gave himself, He came down to that cross, bore all the judgment we deserved. Have you ever thought as we sit this morning? He sat this morning remembering the Lord. Have you ever thought how much it cost him?
We will never know how much it cost.
Eternity will never exhaust it.
The sufferings of Christ.
And the glory that you found.
Well, I just thought of that looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing, the great God and our Savior. Notice it says great God, the Blessed One, the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back, but also He's coming for us first.
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Then he's coming in judgment as we, as we heard our brother with the gospel spoke concerning the judgment of God. He's coming when he comes back, he comes back with the Saints. The 19th of Revelation tells us so.
Comes back with the Saints of God. But this is all connected to my soul, at least with the grace of God that has been extended to me and to you, to each one of us. The grace of God so who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.
Redeem us from all iniquity.
I've heard many, many sad stories about real children of God. I say real. At least they profess.
And their life doesn't prove it.
What do you think about that? Solemn, isn't it?
If we make a profession or confession of the Lord, we better be careful.
That we practice it.
Because God is not going to be mocked.
Merry man is going to receive.
His deeds done in the body. So here he says, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.
Not only so redeemed from iniquity, but then purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Now there's so much in this, I'm not going to take up more time, but I just thought of these verses. How precious it is to see that it's connected with the grace of God. God's grace. You know God's grace has gone out to all, but if you haven't received it, if you haven't listened to it, if you haven't taken it in.
Then you're still in your sins, but here, he says.
In verse 14, Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself.
A peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Wonderful thing to think that once we were on a downward Rd. we've been brought to an upward Rd. For one thing, that we might honor God in our pathway, a path of good works. Good works won't get your salvation, but the scriptures are very clear that after you are saved, your works should follow. Good works should follow, but it just the the climaxes. These thoughts, these verse 15, these things speak.
And exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Now I can stand here and tell you this with the authority of the word of God.
I can't say I'm perfect, I can't say that I can do these things, but I, I'm responsible, knowing this, to bring it out. So he says these things, speak and exhort and rebuke with all authority. What authority? The authority of the word of God. That's all. That's the only authority we have. We don't have any other authority. We can't do it as an individual, but it's the working work worthy of the word of God.
I just commit submit these thoughts and the precious thing is.
To enter more in your soul into the grace of God. The grace of God that has brought salvation has taught us these things. Sometimes we're poor learners, aren't we? We don't learn quickly. We don't learn enough. We don't listen to the word of God. So my little conclusion here would be to remember the grace of God and to listen to what he has to say.
And to follow the injunctions of the word of God.
Thinking of brother little was saying and some.
Thoughts here might help us too.
First Peter chapter 2 and verse 9.
You are a chosen generation.
A royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him who have called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
Just a few brief comments thinking of the word chosen. We don't choose ourselves as God has chosen us.
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You chose this eternity past.
Since generation here believes the Thus we are as a Christian, uh, nation you might say, the Christian people bought by the blood of Christ. We are that generation, you might say, we are chosen by the Lord.
And what that comes responsibility and look at the words royal priesthood and I looked at revelation one verse there connects to that revelation because one and six revelation one and six is have made us kings and priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
And thinking how we are made a royal priesthood now, while we're in this pathway, we still have, we have responsibility as a royal priesthood in this world. It's thought to be taken lightly.
We have the truth of the Word of God and that being gathered through the precious name of the Lord Jesus.
And when these truths are precious, should be precious to us, and it comes with the responsibility in our walk and our pathway here to show forth these truths.
And connecting to that thought is this is we're in a holy nation that Scripture tells to be holy as I am holy.
If you're going to walk the responsibility or role of a royal priest, there's holiness required there.
What's involved in holiness? Well, our brother Little talked about grace.
Grace rolling forth love to those who don't love us.
So kindness.
Show the.
Give these scriptures out as far as.
Salvation is concerned. That's so important. We're saved by grace and we should show forth that salvation the Lord has given us. We shouldn't just talk that we should walk it.
This holding nation was set aside. Next word says peculiar people.
I wrote in the side of my Bible here, Treasure. God sees us as a treasure, and the margin says we're purchased.
We've been bought at a price that cannot be measured. We bought redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus.
So where are his treasure while we're here? And the word peculiar means also set aside.
We are his own, we don't own ourselves, we've been bought.
And young people and older ones alike, it's so important to remember that we do not belong to ourselves, we belong to the Lord.
That means we should walk circumspectly. We should walk righteously.
We should walk as chosen people. We should walk as royal priests. In other words, we are not part of this world. Scripture says we are ambassadors for Christ. We go a little bit further down the chapter here and.
I just there it is, verse 11. I'm sorry, dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, we are not part of this land.
Anymore, we're born here, yes?
And we walked in this world as this world at one time in our lives. But we've been purchased now. We do not belong to ourselves. We are pilgrims. We're passing through the land. We're, we're, we're looking for something greater. We have a hope that's assured and it's before us. We'll be with the Lord soon. That's what our hope is. That's what we're looking for.
But we must not forget that we are to.
Act as royal priests. We are to be holy. And what's the result of that? When we do these things, we get this fact brought out in verse nine. It says praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. When we walk as a chosen people, when we walk as a royal priest, when we walk as someone is holy as unto the Lord, when you walk as a peculiar separate person, what are we doing?
We're showing praises to the Lord by our actions.
We're not just doing it for the sake of doing it.
The Lord is praised in our actions. He's praised in our words.
These are so important. Anybody can carry on things like being holding an appearance and and words and so on.
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But it's if you can't, if it's not done without realizing that you're doing it for the Lord, it doesn't mean anything because you do it for yourself. If you think you can do these things in your own, you're doing it for the Lord. You're doing it unto the Lord.
So you're showing forth these praises to him, It says Here we've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light.
The Lord has given shed His light to us with His precious word, and with this light we have something to show us in our pathway here, to give us instruction on how to be a chosen people, on how to be a royal priesthood and how to be holy.
That's why this book must be read, must be meditated, honestly having in the first, uh, book of Psalms.
There's only one way to know what the Lord has for us is to dig out those Nuggets.
The Word of God is so many precious thoughts for us, so many Nuggets for us, but we must dig them out.
So we know how to walk as his children.
The world has no idea how to walk for God.
Because it does not know what is in this precious book that we have here in our hands.
Verse 10 says which in time past were naughty people, what are now the people of God?
I was speaking that briefly for a second ago, stating that we are no longer of this world, we are now the people of God.
We are not our own.
Ruth Paul says having your conversation honest among the Gentiles.
We must be honest, we must be speak with truth, integrity.
This world has given up on truth, has given up on integrity.
World doesn't know what it means to be submissive.
To the rulers did not Sadly, in the family home today is breaking up so much because there is not submission to the mom and dad.
There's not submission from the wife to the husband. There's not submission in a sense the husband to the wife needs.
It's a different meaning there, of course, but there's submission that's lacking. And verse 13 says submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to be the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto him.
That are sent by him.
It's for the Lord's sake we're to do these things, not for us.
Verse 15 says for so is the will of God.
There's 15 again. 4 So is the will of God. It's God's will that we do these things. It's God's will. How is it be? That's why to pray for the powers that be. Sad to say, many of the powers that be don't even know who their God is.
But we are to submit to them because if you don't submit, you have just orderedliness. The nation has this ordinance, the home has this ordinance, the assembly has this ordinance. There's no order, so we must submit ourselves.
And because it's the will of God. And when we do these things, we go back up to our verse.
Umm 9 I'm sorry, it says praises of Him. What are we doing? We're praising God when we submit to his will, to his authority, when we show love, when we show grace. All these things, of course, must be done in truth.
Because you can't show grace and then just say, oh, he's a Sinner, but I'll go along with them.
There must be proper order obviously, but God shows love to us by going to the cross in Calvary. He loved us 1St and our response is to return that love to Him and the small measure we can do and remembering that He has chosen us before the foundation of the world. We did not choose Him, He chose us.
And we have responsibility that comes with it. Just a few brief thoughts that came into my heart and brother little is talking there and and thinking how we are procure people. We're chosen people and we've been bought with a price that cannot be measured. These are nice thoughts to leave with us. I trust the Lord touch your heart as he touched mine reading these verses.
Because we are his, his own. We are his dear, dearly beloved.
00:45:07
Oh divine, all praises.
Joy of Heaven.
I wish him heartbreak all the way. Dreams of hearts. They make his crown.
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This is the sweetest sound. I'm glad I had Larry. Sorry here.
When conscience, charge and justice come, what dreams of dark fear?
To create a 2000.
And 17.
I can't take a break.
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And we shall reign with him, and shall we see his head?
Hanson, Florida.
Oh oh, 02/02.
Find Jesus thine.
Lord, and thy heart of mine.
I think tomorrow.
Is for a hungry.
Lord.
00:50:34
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And.
I'm lying for ever and more.
Lord.
See.
Uh, 11/3, 6:11.
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