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[0:00] I think the fun group just left. So you're stuck with me. Question.

[0:14] Have you ever thanked God for the fact that you weren't around when the Bible was being written?! Have you ever thanked God for the fact that you weren't around when the Bible was being written? Just in the sense that all of your faiths are being written?

[0:29] Your failures didn't end up getting recorded in the Word of God so that everyone from every generation since then, for all of recorded history and into eternity, they will know, or they would have known if you were around, your failures, your fallings, all of those kind of things, so that people could read them as they're doing their daily devotionals, they're reading about Rich, right?

[1:01] If I had lived during that time, how Rich blew it here, and then they're having Bible studies, and the leader of the Bible study is like, yeah, well, Rich really blew it here, and yeah, that'd be great, wouldn't it?

[1:14] Wouldn't you like that? Well, we know who was there, right? Peter. Peter. The Apostle Peter, or as he was originally called, Simon.

[1:24] Remember, Jesus gave him a new name, Peter the Rock. And yet, we kind of recognize that Peter was somewhat of a colossal failure. When he failed, he really did it, and we have it kind of recorded in history.

[1:41] But the reality is, we all have failed the Lord as well. We're just not as widely known as Peter is, right?

[1:54] And when we fall, when we sin, we feel bad, right? We feel guilty. Sometimes people say that you shouldn't feel guilty.

[2:05] Well, no, you should. If you sin, there is a reason why you feel guilty, because you've done something that was against what God wanted you to do.

[2:15] You feel embarrassed, perhaps. You feel depressed, because here I go again. I did the same thing again. Sometimes we wonder, will God be able to ever use me again in his service?

[2:29] And it's interesting to me that the Bible paints its heroes, warts and all. We get to see their junk.

[2:41] We get to see their sin front and center. The Bible doesn't airbrush all the blemishes away.

[2:52] It's actually one of the reasons why we know the scriptures are God-breathed, that they are inspired. Because if it's fiction, if it's just legend, we wouldn't have these stories with so much failure happening to the heroes.

[3:10] The heroes of the Bible, we see them as flawed. And legendary stories and fiction stories and fairy tales, they don't do that to their heroes.

[3:20] They paint them with wonderful pictures, and they just make all the right choices all the time. And the Bible doesn't do that to its heroes.

[3:31] It lets us see all of the problems. I want to start with, before we get into where we see Peter doing it again and making more problems for himself, I want to understand failure and forgiveness and restoration.

[3:50] And then we're going to read into the text here. And I want to start with this, that failure is an event, not a person. How do you guys feel about that statement? Failure is an event, not a person.

[4:04] In other words, there may be times when I fail, but my identity is not my failure. Or my failure is not who I am. And I want to kind of endorse this, and yet also give you a warning that comes with this statement.

[4:23] And here's the first thing. You have this on your notes, that your failure doesn't have to be your identity. It doesn't have to be. And you'll notice that I've kind of underlined the little phrase there, have to be.

[4:38] If you fail or when you fail, that failure doesn't have to be your identity. But there is the warning, and the warning is this.

[4:51] We might think, I'm not a failure. I just failed. And I hope you see the difference there. My identity is not failure. But I have failed.

[5:04] And yet, if we use that as an excuse, if we say it in a way to justify skipping repentance, we're going to get ourselves into trouble.

[5:16] Because if we end up never trusting Christ as Savior, then your sin is your identity. And it's what costs us eternity with him in heaven.

[5:31] And so it starts with, for all of us, it starts with placing our faith, putting our trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And that then begins to erase that failure as our identity instead of our identity being in Christ.

[5:50] Here's what I want us to understand about sin or about failure. Sin is not merely a mistake or a misstep. Sometimes you hear people say this.

[6:01] Well, I made a mistake. No, that's not what sin is. A mistake is what you do on a math test. Right? A mistake is 8 plus 8 equals 15.

[6:16] At least I don't think that's true. I don't know how they do math anymore, but I don't think that's true. Anyway, right?

[6:27] 2 plus 2 is not 5. Right? A mistake is an error that you make on an exam. It's getting the wrong key cut when you needed a different key for your front door.

[6:42] And you got the wrong one cut, so you made a mistake and now you can't get in your front door. That's a mistake. Sin, choosing to commit adultery is not a mistake.

[6:56] That is just blatant sin, and let's call it for what it is. Choosing to lie, to bold-faced lie, to take something that doesn't belong to you.

[7:08] These are choices that we make that aren't mistakes. They are moral choices where we choose to do something that we know is wrong. And those aren't mistakes.

[7:19] That is sin. And it does more than just leave a mark on your record. It grieves the Holy Spirit. It wounds other people.

[7:32] And it forms habits. Habits that later on in life we dread. Because why did I ever start this? Why did I ever go down this road to begin with?

[7:45] How did that happen? And we can trace back into our lives and see where we went down that road. Now, there is an event that does define the person.

[8:01] It's just not an event that you participated in. It's not yours. That event that I'm talking about is not your event. The event is the cross of Christ.

[8:12] Jesus, when he went to the cross, took on an identity that wasn't his to begin with.

[8:24] Jesus is perfect and sinless and holy. All the things that we were singing about earlier, he is all of these things. He was never sinful. He never did any sin of any kind.

[8:39] And yet, when he went to the cross, we see this in 2 Corinthians 5.21. The Apostle Paul kind of identifies this for us. That God made him who had no sin.

[8:50] Talking about Jesus. God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us. There's a sense in which you could say that his identity became ours.

[9:04] He took our sin upon himself. He became sin for us. So that in him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God.

[9:18] There's a sense where when Jesus went to the cross, there was an exchange of identity. He took my identity as a sinful person. And he gave to me his identity as a righteous and holy.

[9:33] And that exchange happened. So that now when God sees me, when God looks at you as a believer, as someone who's trusted Christ as Savior, he sees you as having the righteousness of Christ.

[9:46] He sees you as perfect and holy. Even though you know differently. God has chosen to see you because of that exchange. Because of what Jesus did for us at the cross.

[9:59] And so, Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead is the event by which God has named you.

[10:11] He's given you, Revelation 2, he's given you a new name that identifies you as a child of God. And it's wrapped up, oddly enough, in this thing that we call baptism.

[10:26] Romans 6, 3 talks about this. Now, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? You could sub the word there for baptized with the word immersed.

[10:40] Because that's the translation of the word. Now, this is not talking about water baptism. When you were saved and after you were saved, you were baptized into water.

[10:52] That water baptism is a picture of this spiritual baptism that took place when you trusted Christ as Savior. That's one of the purposes of water baptism is to serve as a picture to the rest of the congregation and to anyone who's observing that, yes, I have trusted Christ as my Savior.

[11:13] And when I was saved, I was immersed into Christ, given a new name. We've been baptized into Christ Jesus. We've been immersed or baptized into his death.

[11:26] Verse 4, it says, Water baptism is a picture of this spiritual reality that takes place when we trust Christ as our Savior.

[11:49] And we get a new identity. And that identity is the identity of Jesus Christ himself. So when the Lord looks at us, he sees Christ.

[12:01] Isaiah foreshadows this. Isaiah 43.1, But now thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed you.

[12:12] Financial term. I have bought you back. I have called you by name. You are mine. So that when we trust Christ as Savior, it's not that we're a free agent.

[12:26] We're surrendering our life in that sense to Christ. And we're saying, I now belong to Christ. As Christ now belongs to me, as Christ is in me, maybe it's even more important to say that I am in Christ.

[12:42] Being in Christ makes all the difference. To us. That we are found in him. In Christ. And so we have a new identity.

[12:53] And a new name. So Jesus' death on the cross and the resurrection from the dead is the event by which God has named you. And no failing of yours gets a vote.

[13:09] In other words, once you belong to Christ, you are in Christ. Christ, we still sin. We still fail. But that failure, that sin, no longer has a say in terms of my identity.

[13:25] Every time I sin, I'm not now placed out of Christ. I remain in Christ all the time. And my identity still remains.

[13:36] I am in Christ. And so we have very familiar passages of scripture like Romans 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

[13:48] Right? That condemnation is no longer a mark on our lives. 1 Peter 2.24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

[14:05] So Jesus now gives us a new identity, a new name. We are now placed in him. We are in Christ. And that changes everything in terms of who we are in Christ.

[14:22] Now, let's take a look at our text. Luke chapter 22. And we've been, we've been in the gospel of Luke. I don't know if, if, if any of you remember when we started Luke, it's been, it's been quite a while.

[14:37] I think this is my sermon number 76 in the gospel of Luke. We're still, we're chapter 22. We're going to end at some point. I promise.

[14:47] Okay. Unless Jesus comes back and that's possible. Okay. But let's, let's go ahead and take a look at our verses for today. And, and I'm thinking we're going to end up just doing a few of the verses that I had planned, but let's see.

[15:01] Simon, Simon. Now, again, the context, this is Jesus having finished the introducing the Lord's supper. He's talked about the betrayal of Judas, right?

[15:12] He's, he's done this with his disciples. He's washed their feet. And now he says to Peter, and he calls him by his given name. Here again, not rock, not Peter, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you.

[15:30] What was that like? I mean, was that a conversation between Satan and the Lord? At some point, Satan demanded to have you kind of as in what happened with Job in the Old Testament, where, where the Lord and the devil are talking about Job.

[15:47] Hey, look at my servant Job. And, and Satan's like, yeah, but the only reason he's like that is because you've blessed him. And so great. Well, go ahead and take it away. Ooh, that's, that's tough.

[15:58] And now here's Peter. Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you.

[16:08] And again, I want to ask, what does that look like? Jesus prayed for Peter. And it's interesting what he prays for.

[16:22] You would think, okay, Jesus prayed so that Peter wouldn't fall prey, P-R-E-Y, to Satan's attack, right?

[16:34] That, that Peter wouldn't fail because of Satan's attack. Well, that's not what he prays for. He, he prayed that Peter's face would not fail.

[16:48] He, he doesn't pray that paid, that Peter won't fail. You know, Lord, father in heaven. I please, please make it so Peter doesn't fall.

[17:01] Make it so Peter doesn't sin. Make it so that Peter doesn't deny me three times. It's not what he prays for. He prays that his face may not utterly fail is, is the idea here, or die.

[17:18] The idea of failure here is that it fails to death. Okay. I completely and utterly fail. And when you have turned again, we have our, our word.

[17:32] It's a, it's a, it's a religious word, right? The word repent, right? It's a word that we're afraid of because, you know, sometimes it's, it's just, Ooh, that means I have to change something.

[17:44] Yeah, it does. Um, but it just means to turn the other way. And so that, that's the picture here. When Peter repents, when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.

[17:56] In other words, Peter, you're going to fail, but I've prayed that your faith wouldn't ultimately fail. And when you repent of that failure, I'm going to restore you so that you can strengthen your brothers.

[18:10] This is what, what, what Jesus is telling Peter ahead of time. You could, you could even call it prophecy because he's telling Peter what's about to happen.

[18:23] Peter says to him, Lord, I'm ready to go with you both to prison and to death. Peter. So a couple of problems here with Peter. He's filled with pride.

[18:33] He's filled with bravado. He's thinking, you know, I'm all that. I got this. I can handle this Lord. No, you know, whatever happens, I'm going to be right there with you.

[18:44] I'm going to protect you. I'm going to stand with you and fight with you. And Ooh, Peter, maybe you shouldn't have said that.

[18:56] And Jesus said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that, you know me.

[19:09] Wow. Peter. And we're going to find out a little bit later in the text. This is exactly what happens.

[19:23] There are three separate occasions where Peter's is asked. Peter is challenged by someone, Peter, you're one of the 12, aren't you?

[19:33] You were, you were, you were with Jesus. And three times Peter will say, no, I wasn't. Wasn't me.

[19:44] I don't know who you're talking about, but it wasn't me. And then the rooster crows. Peter remembers.

[19:57] Peter remembers. The words of Jesus. And he goes away. And he weeps bitterly. And for Peter, he thinks he's done.

[20:13] But there's a couple of interesting scenes that we have after the resurrection. One is early on when they're still trying to figure out Jesus being resurrected from the dead, that the possibility, could this be true?

[20:30] The Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. And then this group of women came to the, the tomb on what we know is Easter morning. On that Sunday morning, they came to the tomb with a bag full of spices because they figure that, that, that Nicodemus and, and, and Josephus didn't do a good enough job preparing his body for burial.

[20:58] You know, they, they, they, they put spices on them and then they wrap them up, uh, in, in strips of cloths to prepare them for burial. We kind of think of it as like a mummy.

[21:09] That's, that's the picture here. They, they, they put 75 pounds. The gospel of John tells us 75 pounds, the equivalent of 75 pounds of spices and wrapped him tight in strips of cloth.

[21:24] If he did survive the cross, he didn't survive that. Of course, he didn't survive the cross. The Roman soldier made sure of that when he stabbed him in his side through his heart.

[21:38] And the women are like, well, it's just a couple of guys doing it. So they probably didn't do a good enough job. So we're going to bring some spices Sunday morning and make sure they write the day after the Sabbath day.

[21:53] We're going to make sure that his body is wrapped up the way that it should be. And when they get there, they find the door open, right? I'm kind of getting ahead of myself here in the text.

[22:04] They find the door open and there's an angel sitting on the, the place where they buried, where they laid his body and the body is gone, but the angel is still there. And this is what they're told, but go.

[22:21] Tell his disciples. And who? Peter's singled out. Do you think it's because the Lord knew Peter needed that?

[22:40] The Lord knew that Peter would be struggling with his failure, with his bravado and his boasting, and I'll stand with you. And then he denies him.

[22:56] Go tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before. He's going to go to Galilee. And then, even after this, Jesus has met with Peter.

[23:11] He's met with the rest of the disciples. He's, he's given them marching orders, if you will. And even after all of that, John chapter 21.

[23:25] Simon Peter says to the group, and there's, there's like a handful of the guys that are there in this passage. Go fishing.

[23:39] Go on fishing. Now let me ask you a question. Is there anything wrong with going fishing? Tom's back there. Like, I hope not. I hope not. No, of course not.

[23:51] Nothing wrong with going fishing. But what is Peter saying here? Peter, at this point, is still struggling with whether or not God's going to ever be able to use him again because of what he's done.

[24:12] And it's when he goes fishing that Jesus meets him there on the shoreline. And he's cooking fish, and they're out in the boat. And they finally recognize that it's Jesus on shore.

[24:26] And, and, and Peter jumps out of the boat. The boat's not getting in fast enough. He jumps out of the boat, and he swims to shore because his Savior's there.

[24:39] And Jesus asks him three times, Peter, do you love me? And there's a sense of frustration there from Peter's perspective.

[24:51] Lord, you know I love you. Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. So Peter, full spectrum, has this incredible failure.

[25:10] And of course, he's forgiven by Jesus. And Jesus restores him to ministry. So that when we turn the page and we then look in the God, or the book of Acts, and the first time someone gets up to preach, here's Peter.

[25:28] Preaching in the boldness of the Holy Spirit. And thousands of people coming to faith in Christ. Peter's one of the early leaders of the church there in Jerusalem.

[25:40] Restored. It's amazing to see that, that transformation. But I want us to start with seeing Peter's failure in this way.

[25:54] Peter's failure was an event. Yes. Peter is not identified by that failure. But it was an event.

[26:06] In other words, you could stick a date on it. You could stick a name on it. You could identify it for what it was. But it was not the defining event in Peter's life.

[26:18] And it doesn't have to be the defining event in your life either. What makes the difference, and you have this on your notes, what makes the difference is whether your failure drives you away from yourself and to Christ, or if it simply plunges you deeper into yourself.

[26:41] And the Gospels give us a stark contrast to see the difference between the two, between Peter and Judas.

[26:52] Right? Because Peter, in faith, was forgiven and fully restored. He repented, and he was forgiven, and he was restored.

[27:05] Judas, who did not have faith, regretted his decision, but that regret, not repentance, that regret, drove him deeper into himself, and he ended up hanging himself as a result.

[27:25] And there's a difference there. Judas stayed in his identity as a sinful person who betrayed Christ.

[27:39] Peter, his identity is not wrapped up in his sin. His identity is wrapped up in Jesus Christ. Now, we've all sinned.

[27:51] I want to start with this on your notes, on the flip side of your notes there. Like Peter, we all have failed the Lord, and I want us to recognize how Peter failed so that we can recognize this too, so that we don't fall when we don't need to.

[28:13] Right? So, number one, oh, I think I, number one, behind spiritual failure, is a spiritual enemy.

[28:29] And who's our enemy? Satan. The sad thing is that people turn Satan into a caricature, cartoon figure, something to be mocked or had fun with.

[28:48] And we don't recognize just how serious the enemy really is. of course, we saw this in our text that Peter or Simon, Satan has demanded you to sift you like wheat.

[29:08] And Satan wants to do the same with you. He wants to take you down and out. He wants to make you, if you are, let's say, if you're not a believer, he wants to keep you that way.

[29:22] And we said a few weeks ago he'll use religion to do that. Right? Religion is a very useful tool for Satan to keep you lost. Because religion teaches you that, yeah, I'm doing okay.

[29:35] My good outweighs my bad. My skills are in my favor. Right? It's a lie. But if you're a believer, he wants to take you out so that you're ineffective, so that your light doesn't shine, so that you don't have a testimony that speaks into the lives of other people.

[29:55] That's what he wants to do in your life. The second thing is that behind spiritual failure is blindness to my own weakness. You're blinded to it.

[30:07] Peter didn't recognize his own pride. And that pride is evident in the conversation that precedes this. Right? Who's the greatest?

[30:19] Who's the greatest? Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? It's me. I'm going to be the greatest. They're arguing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom. Is that not pride? And bravado.

[30:33] Bravado is just thinking, I got this. I can do this. I can do spiritual things in my own strength. No, you can't.

[30:44] You can't. Peter didn't see that about himself. And so he's boasting. Lord, I'm ready to go with you, both to prison and to death if necessary.

[30:56] The third thing here is that behind spiritual failure is a dullness to the cosmic battle happening all around us.

[31:08] And here is again where I'm probably going to lose some people and I'm okay with that. Because if you don't take this seriously, you're going to get taken out as well. There is a spiritual battle that's happening all around us.

[31:23] It's happening right here in this room. We can't see it. We can't really even sense it. But we know that there are angels and demons that are doing battle all around us.

[31:36] We know this. The Apostle Paul makes it very clear in Ephesians chapter 6 for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

[31:58] That's interesting. The phrase spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. What are they doing there? Picture in heaven if you will kind of God's receiving room.

[32:13] where even the demons even Satan himself in a sense has access to God to at least go into that receiving room that courtroom picture that image in the movies where the king is sitting on his throne and he's receiving foreign emissaries who are coming offering gifts or asking for favors or arguing their case.

[32:40] the Lord is listening and this spiritual battle is happening all around us.

[32:54] We'll see in a moment how we face that what we do to win this battle if you will. Behind spiritual failure there is a failure of faith.

[33:06] Remember Jesus said it this way I'm praying for you that your faith may not fail ultimately fail.

[33:24] Now our faith does fail. Every time we sin by the way there is a failure of faith because faith is trusting Christ.

[33:37] It's not just something that we do at salvation. It's every day in faith we trust him. We believe that his way is better than our way.

[33:49] And sin every time we choose to sin basically we're saying okay Jesus get off the throne of my life I'm in charge I don't believe you have my best interest at heart I do so get off the throne and let me decide what is best for me every time we sin that's what we do we don't recognize it that way sometimes we can even get so comfortable with sin that conversation is so far removed we just automatically go right into the sin that's where sin becomes habit it we we are just okay with it and the Lord is like no it's the spiritual battle that's happening and there's a failure of faith and so how do we deal with that this this enemy that's around us this battle that's happening

[34:51] Paul says it again in Ephesians 6 in all circumstance take up the shield of what shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one it's a reminder that every day I need the gospel every day I need to place my face in him it's it's not I place my face in Christ to save me I did that back when I was 12 years old at church camp or I did that when I was 16 years old or I did that when I was 25 or I did that when I was six years old in my parents room and I prayed and I accepted Christ as my that's great that's how it starts but every day every day is a declaration Lord I put my faith in you I need you I need you to rescue me I need you to save me today because I'm fallen and I'm sinful and without you I would choose sin every time we need

[35:58] Jesus Christ we need our faith and oh how wonderful how abundant the grace of Jesus Christ this is interesting here again on your notes Jesus graciously prays for us it's the reason we are able to to persevere it's the reason why we have any kind of victory in our lives Jesus prays for us I don't know what this looks like we have a picture of this in a few places and I'm just going to give you one of these Hebrews 7 25 consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them the picture is Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father consistently constantly interceding on our behalf interceding means means he's pleading our case he's our advocate to the father pleading our case with him

[37:10] Jesus prays for you consistently constantly he's praying for you this this this blows me away the the Lord chose us right we we looked at this last week chose us before the foundation of the world knowing we would fail knowing we would fail I there was a day I remember this when I was in college and in college in in our dorm room discussions we would have late night dorm room discussions over the sovereignty of God and Calvinism and did God choose us or did we have free will and the struggle to try to understand all of this and we were looking at

[38:12] Romans chapters 9 10 and 11 blown away because there's no way we could really even understand it one chapter saying yes God sovereignly chooses! us and chapter 10 comes along and says whosoever will may be saved and it's like what do you do with that and it's wow and it's how do we figure that out how do we how do we get there but here's something we have to remember do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance what is it that leads me to repentance it is not a recognition of how terrible God is how awesome

[39:12] God is how just he is and he is all of these things it is to recognize that God loves me and he is so good to me and he is so kind that leads me it is his kindness that leads us to repentance even though I deserve his wrath he gives me his kindness so then the Lord restores us to serve and we keep on walking reminded of our weakness trusting in him and not in our own strength there is a passage in 1st Peter chapter 5 written by who 1st

[40:16] Peter chapter 5 written by Peter our failure right he's Peter's front and center in our text in Luke 22 right Peter's I'm bragging I'm going to stay with you and then he denies him three times and he falls 1st Peter chapter 5 if you could super impose 1st Peter chapter 5 the verses we're going to look at here in just a moment on to Luke 22 and this back and forth conversation between Jesus and Peter look at this this is in a sense autobiographical as Peter now this pastor is writing to his congregation believers particularly Jewish believers believers who are struggling because of persecution because to be faithful in following the Lord in the face of persecution is so difficult and in this instruction that he gives to them you can see this conversation between him and

[41:25] Jesus and these events that go on so 1st Peter chapter 5 beginning in verse 6 he says humble yourselves because I wasn't humble in that conversation I was not I was it's all about me man I'm one of the greatest right or I am the greatest I'll stick with you bravado pride all of that Peter says no no no no stop it humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that the proper time he may exalt you casting your anxieties on him because he cares for you just a little bit later that night going into the morning standing around the fire do you think Peter was anxious some little middle school year old girl weren't you with him no denying he knows

[42:33] Jesus no rather instead cast your anxieties I know you're going through persecution cast your anxieties on him because he cares for you be sober minded be watchful remember in the garden later on that night they go to the garden Jesus asks them to pray what they do yeah he fell asleep you ever done that before when you're praying Peter says be watchful why be sober minded be watchful your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour that's for you that's for me he's coming for us resist him firm in your faith this is what Peter became he stood in the face of persecution later on knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world still happening today after you have suffered a little while the

[43:54] God of all grace who has called you into his eternal glory in Christ will himself just like he did with me Peter would say restore you confirm you strengthen you and establish you this is Peter now all these years later writing still in a sense remembering what had happened and calling upon that grace that goodness of Christ and then finally number four the matchless grace of Jesus that shows a returning sinner that he shows to a returning sinner should make us cry out to him cry out in gratitude and in praise

[45:00] I told you about my days in the dorm room back in Bible college and after one of those late night sessions we're going back and forth and you could say that we were arguing and I came across this at the very end of that three chapter discussion Romans 9 10 and 11 right at the end of chapter 11 Paul gets to the end of that discussion and he says this oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways you can't there's no arguing with it's it's it's clear

[46:07] God is in control God is sovereign God has chosen you before the foundation of the world and yet there came this day when you recognized your need and you cried out to the Lord save me I trust you as my only hope I repent of my sin and I trust you as savior I don't get how all of that works here's what Paul is saying I don't get how all that works and it's how I answer that question today if somebody asked me well which one is it is it free will or is it predestination or yes that's the answer it's all of it the Bible says all of it I don't understand it it's okay I've said this before too the fact that I don't understand everything about God should comfort us because he's God and I'm not but what it does do and what it did to me that night is it drove me to my knees literally the side of my bed crying out to

[47:22] God saying I don't get it Lord why did you want me why did you choose me I I'm saved I am a believer in Christ and I fail you so often I fail you so miserably why do you put up with me why did you make me a part of your family why did you show me such grace I don't get it but Lord thank you thank you thank you for choosing me before the foundation of the world thank you for bringing me into your family thank you for that day when I recognized my need and I cried out to you for salvation and thank you this day and I still struggle with this

[48:23] I know that today I'm 62 I still fail I've been a Christian since 1981 that's a long I can't figure out how many years that is 45 years I still fail and my guess is that your testimony is the same you still fail and yet his grace is still sufficient Paul goes on for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor let me give you a clue nobody who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid ain't never that never happened none of us could ever do anything for the Lord or give him anything everything that we have everything that we are is from him for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever!

[49:35] Amen! Amen! God He's so good He's so good This world is not about all these terrible people over here and then here's us Christians over here and we've got our holy huddles and we feel a little bit isolated because the world seems to be going to hell in a hand basket and oh same grace that you and I have received is available to everyone else and we need to be the messengers of that good news to those who need to hear it because none of us deserve this none of us deserve this incredible kindness this never ending grace that he has poured out onto each one of our lives and

[50:37] I would say this if you've never trusted Christ as your savior that's the starting point put your faith in him recognize that you're a sinner you deserve his wrath because he is a holy God and cry out to him lord save me and he will do it when you recognize your sin and you say lord no more i trust you as savior he does what he promises he can do no other for he is god he cannot lie he cannot fail he will fulfill what he's promised to do in your life and if you trust him he will save you and as believers maybe you're here and you're maybe a newer believer you've been saved maybe just a few months or years or maybe you've been here and you've been a believer for decades and you still recognize

[51:47] I've got a long way to go but he's not done with us that's one of his other promises he's faithful to complete what he's begun Philippians 1 6 and he will finish the job that day when we stand before him face to face and we will be like him what a day that will be Lord we thank you thank you for the goodness and the grace and the kindness that you offer to us you're blown away by how good you are to us you've given us so much you've called us to be a part of your family you've adopted us into your family undeserving as we are you've made us one of your own you've given us a new identity in Christ we find ourselves as believers now in

[52:51] Christ in Christ Jesus we belong to you thank you Lord thank you for not giving up on me even though I fail Lord I pray for those who have never trusted Christ as Savior that they would recognize their need that they would see your goodness and your kindness your grace and that they would recognize their own sin repent of that turn away from it and trust you place their faith in you as Lord and Savior it's the only hope that we have we can't do this ourselves we can never be good enough we can't earn it it is only through faith in

[53:55]  Christ that we may be saved Lord we love you and we praise you and we ask these things today in Jesus name amen to you to you can see of you