Here We Stand Conference 2024 Session 3 - The State of Grace

I'm not Brandon Neely's twin brother, I know

that many of you were probably thinking that

last night because a couple of people

specifically asked me that question but it was

a pleasure

to meet him and certainly it's a pleasure to

be able to come and to preach the word

from this pulpit after the great preaching we

heard last night and I know that week

by week Pastor Brian has been bringing the

word from this pulpit so it's certainly a

privilege.

Now I have to note that as nice as this pulpit

is it's not quite as big as the pulpit at

Providence Baptist Church so if anybody could

be claustrophobic singing from behind this

pulpit it would be Roger Dale so I don't know

if you're a little bit claustrophobic but

if you were I can certainly understand.

On a more serious note the topic that I have

is the third state of man, the state of grace

and my text for this morning will be Ezekiel

chapter 37 verses 1 through 10 so if you want

to go ahead and turn there you can but just

for a minute I want to talk about the nature

of man and how it relates to these four states

, of course God has created every creature

under

the sun with a distinct nature and a distinct

calling to glorify him in a certain way.

That first Corinthians 1539 says that all

flesh is not the same flesh but there's one

flesh of men and another of birds and another

of fish.

He also talks about the glory of the stars and

the moon and the sun and the sense that

God has created each of them with a nature and

is intended for them to glorify him in

a certain way.

And so a bird who has one nature cannot swim

underwater or breathe underwater, cannot

spend a large amount of time underwater,

neither can a fish fly between treetops, of

course

I've never seen that before, maybe in a

cartoon and the reason why is because it is

not in

the nature of a fish to fly but they do glor

ify God as created by doing exactly what God

has

created them to do.

In a very similar way, depending on man's

state in relationship to God and particularly

in relationship to creation, to the fall, to

redemption and then finally to the consumm

ation

state, man will always think and act according

to his own nature.

That's a very important part to understand

regeneration.

Now Thomas Boston, as Brian mentioned

yesterday, has organized, building on August

ine's work,

has organized human nature into four different

states.

So last night Brandon Neely talked upon what

touched upon what Boston called the state

of innocence.

That is before the fall when Adam had not yet

sinned, he was capable of sinning but

it was also his nature that he was capable of

not sinning.

But then after the fall as man, as Adam sinned

in the garden and all of men have incurred

the guilt, the original or the imputed guilt

of Adam, we are now unable not to sin.

That is the second state.

That is a state in which all men are born and

Brother Brian very eloquently described that

last night and then my assignment for today is

to talk about the state of grace.

That is after regeneration man is still able

to sin and we continue to sin but also by

God's grace we are now able not to sin.

We're able to please God and to actually keep

the law in a way that God intended for us

to do before the fall.

And then finally the state of eternity or the

state of glorification.

Brother Neeson will talk about the final state

in which we someday will not be able to sin.

What a glorious time that will be but we'll

leave that for this afternoon.

Now because of imputed guilt as Brian

mentioned last night, every person is born

into this

second state and unless God brings us into the

state of grace, we don't have the power

to do good.

Our inclination is to do evil.

Our inclination is to sin.

We are by nature children of wrath and hostile

to God.

In fact Jeremiah 1323, God says can an Ethi

opian change his skin or the leopard change his

spots then you also can do good who are

accustomed to do evil.

That is the state of the unregenerate man and

just as I cannot fly like a bird and I cannot

swim deep underwater like a fish, the unre

generate person does not have a nature that

enables

him to think or to act or to love like a true

child of God.

That's what 1 Corinthians 2 is all about.

Paul says in 2 14, "But a natural man does not

accept the things of the Spirit of God

for they are foolishness to him and he cannot

understand them."

Why?

Because they are spiritually appraised or they

are spiritually discerned.

But those who are in Christ and who have the

Holy Spirit, we alone have the mind of Christ.

See because God has given us a new nature or

able to discern the things of God.

Now when it comes to free will, man is always

free to choose their actions but the const

ricting

force is their nature.

It is the state that they are presently in.

Man is neither forced nor compelled to sin but

they are governed by the present condition

of their own heart.

You see the person who is in the state of

nature, the second state is always hostile

towards God and their inclination is always

going to be to rebel against God and to, no

matter what they say, their heart is going to

be inclined to serve themselves and to

glorify themselves.

In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12-3, "No

one can say Jesus' Lord apart from the

Holy Spirit."

Now that doesn't mean you can't just say the

word Jesus' Lord.

Of course an unregenerate person can say that

but with conviction from the heart, with the

clear conscience, the fruit of regeneration,

no one can say with conviction that Jesus'

Christ is Lord apart from the supernatural

work of the Holy Spirit.

Now this person, this unregenerate person, he

or she glorifies God, okay listen to me,

by doing exactly what God has ordained them to

do according to their sinful nature.

Now you might not realize that but even the

person who has not come to faith in Christ

who is dead in their sins is still glorifying

God in the same way that a fish or a bird

or the stars or the moon or the sun is glor

ifying God by doing exactly what God has ord

ained

that person to do.

And as a result, the wrath of God is revealed

to them but on the day of judgment, God will

also be glorified as he presents them as a

trophy of his wrath, that he will be able

to demonstrate his righteousness by justly

condemning sin and this is not my

determination,

this is not your determination, this is

certainly when you think about Paul in Romans

9 and

his fellow kinsmen in the flesh, this is

certainly not what he would desire but who has

the

mind of God and God is glorified by justly

condemning sinners to demonstrate them,

demonstrate

his justice and to present them as a trophy of

his wrath.

But on the contrary, when the gospel is

preached and by faith and repentance, God

brings a

man or a woman into the state of grace through

regeneration, he or she is now able to glorify

God as a trophy of his grace.

And such on the day of judgment where when all

men, every knee shall bow and every tongue

shall confess, Jesus Christ his Lord to the

glory of the Father, his righteousness will

be revealed in two ways.

His righteousness will be revealed according

to his righteous judgment, according to the

standard of his law for some but for others as

Romans 321 says, apart from the law, the

righteousness of God is now manifested through

Jesus Christ.

And so there is a, I would argue a superior

demonstration of God's righteousness through

the gospel in which God provides a substitute

for sinners such as us, he pardons us on the

basis of imputed righteousness which Brian

mentioned last night and as a result he can

declare sinners to be just and to be righteous

and on the day of judgment he will say, look

at my chosen brothers and sisters, look at

these saints that I have called out of the

world, I have redeemed from my unglory, they

are trophies of my grace, look at the

righteousness

that is revealed through Jesus Christ in

bringing them to saving faith.

Well my topic this morning is, what I want to

specifically focus on is how God transfers

sinners from this second state of man, the

state of nature, to the third, the state of

grace.

You see in Christ, who is the second Adam, the

elect become a new creature and they regain

the power to not sin.

Now sometimes you may not feel that way.

We will still sin but our strongest incl

ination as regenerate beings is to not sin now

and

Thomas Boston in his book on this describes

this transfer to the state of grace in two

different parts.

So if you're taking notes you may want to

write this down.

The first part is that he says a change is

made in regeneration whereby their nature

is changed.

The second he says is that a change is made in

their union with Christ whereby they are

beyond the reach of condemnation.

So in other words, their relationship to the

law of God changes when they enter into the

state of grace.

Now due to time I would love to cover both of

them completely but due to time I'm going

to focus on the first one this morning.

I'm going to touch upon our union with Christ

but both doctrines are needed so just kind

of keep that in mind and towards the end of

the sermon I'll kind of tie both of those

together.

I'll do the best that I can but for the first

one to talk about God's work in regeneration

I want to look together with you at Ezekiel

chapter 37 and I'm going to give you four

main headings but I'm going to give them to

you as they come.

Ezekiel 37 is talking, this is a vision of the

valley of dry bones and it really among

other things it illustrates God's work of

regeneration in the human heart.

God is so gracious in that he gives us a Bible

that is fitted to preach.

He gives us doctrine in didactic form as

Brandon mentioned last night and the epistles

and

other letters but he also gives us the same

doctrine in these great illustrations and

these

great narratives and so what you see here is

really a theology of regeneration even

though the word regeneration is not actually

used.

Now it is used in Titus 3.5 and that word

there refers to restart something or to

rebirth,

to regrow something that is previously dead

and in Ezekiel chapter 36 the previous chapter

God promises the grace of regeneration in the

New Covenant.

He says in Ezekiel 36 verse 26, "Moreover I

will give you a new heart and put a new

spirit within you and I will remove the heart

of stone from your flesh and give you a heart

of flesh."

By the way I don't see any role that we play

in this in that verse to you, there's really

no way to squeeze that in there so that is

really describing God's work of regeneration.

It is covenant promise that he makes to his

elect that he will give them a new heart of

flesh and Ezekiel 37 verses 1 through 10 God

illustrates how he is going to accomplish

regeneration.

So the first point, the first thing I want to

look at in verses 1 through 3 is the state

of unregenerate man.

So this is man in the second state, let me go

ahead and start reading here.

Verse 1, "The hand of the Lord was upon me and

he brought me out by the spirit of the

Lord and sat me down in the middle of the

valley and it was full of bones.

He caused me to pass among them roundabout and

behold there were very many on the surface

of the valley and low they were very dry."

Now we probably have some sports fans in here,

you know that Tiger fans, LSU Tiger fans and

Clemson fans like to argue about which state

he was real death valley but I want to say

to you that this is the real death valley,

okay.

And this is not a game that's being played in

here and I love my Tigers but this is the

real death valley and this is describing a lot

, okay.

This is describing the state in which all men

are born into and which man is only able

to sin.

It's describing the effect of the curse of the

fall in which all who are in Adam are

born spiritually dead.

So if you look a little bit closer at the two

verses, you see Ezekiel is the man that

God has called for this vision, the hand of

the Lord was upon him.

Verse 1 says that he brought, Ezekiel is

saying God brought him out by the spirit of

the Lord

and set him down in the middle of the valley.

Now that means that he's not, this vision wasn

't of him, you know, up on the clouds

looking down.

God actually brought him into it to where he

could see these dry bones.

He was actually in the valley in this vision

where he could certainly smell and see and

the five senses were available to him and so

one of the things about the Bible is sometimes

it's good to just try to imagine yourself to

be in there and so if you could picture

yourself in here, you would be able to in a

sense see what Ezekiel is seeing and in

verse 2, God causes him to pass them round

about and behold there were very many on the

surface

of the valley and low they were very dry.

So we see in verse 1 that this valley was full

of bones.

We see in verse 2 that there were very many,

now we don't know how many, but in verse 10

God makes these dry bones live.

At the end of verse 10 it says that God

created an exceedingly great army.

So these were a lot of bones, okay?

This represented the whole house of Israel.

This represented an exceedingly great number

of folks and I don't think it's a coincidence

that when we're on the eve of Halloween that

God would have me preach a passage on the

dry bones.

If you go into my neighborhood, I was actually

thinking about this on the way here this

morning.

I've got neighbors that are starting to

decorate their houses, perhaps even spend more

money

now on Halloween decorations than they do on

Christmas.

I have a neighbor looking out my front yard

that has a 12 foot high skeleton.

I've got a neighbor in my backyard who must

have spent thousands of dollars.

I counted 20 skeletons on the way here and I'm

saying how little did they realize the

spiritual significance that this is not

describing who man will be after they died.

This is describing and illustrating the

spiritual state of who you are today.

I'm not a prophet or a son of a prophet, but

sometimes I feel like being like Ezekiel

and just going up next to one of these

skeletons and just asking my neighbors, "Can

these dry

bones live?"

That might be a little bit of an evangelistic

tip for you, by the way, as we think about

you might stand beside your neighbor or the

next skeleton and say, "Can these dry bones

live and proceed to talk about the second

state of man?"

At the end of verse two, he sees that these

bones were very dry.

This isn't like someone who freshly died.

This is someone who newly died.

This is someone who has gone through rigor

mortis, rot, decay, the vultures and the

animals

have already picked everything from the bones.

These bones have been dead for a long time.

This is a narrative of total depravity.

You can't get any more dead than this.

Ezekiel would have understood this.

By the way, this is not just a one-off

teaching of Scripture.

Ephesians 2.5, "Even when we were dead in our

trespasses, he made us alive together

with Christ, by grace you have been saved."

Orcolossians 2.13, "When you were dead in your

transgressions and the uncircumcision

of your flesh, he made you alive together with

him, having forgiven us all our transgressions

."

If you continue to verse three, God speaks to

him and he says, "Son of man, can these

bones live?"

When he asks that question, he's really giving

us the problem statement of man, that a man

cannot resuscitate himself.

This is the state of nature in which all men

are born.

It's a serious question that people need to

give serious thought to, can these bones live?

Just without a supernatural work, the answer

is absolutely not.

With God, with man, things are impossible, but

with God, all things are possible.

That's the point that God is making to Ezekiel

.

You see what Ezekiel does, he says, at the end

of verse three, he says, "Oh God, you

know."

He kind of passes the ball back to God.

They didn't have a developed theology of the

resurrection up to this point.

He says, "Only you know, Lord, but unless God

acts, man will stay in this state for

forever."

The good news of the Gospel is, he has acted

through his son, Jesus Christ.

There is hope.

That brings me to the second point.

Verses four through six show us the seed of

generation.

If regeneration is the cause of other things

related to salvation and Christianity, what

is the cause of regeneration in a sense?

There is a seed, and verse four tells us,

because God says to Ezekiel, "Prophesy over

these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones,

hear the word of the Lord.'"

The seed of regeneration is the word of God.

It is the proclamation of the truth of the

word of God.

Ezekiel is called to preach to these dry bones

.

The Bible is the catalyst.

It's God's instrument to bring forth

regeneration.

Peter says in 1 Peter 1, 23, "For you have

been born again, not of seed which is perish

able,

but imperishable, that is, through the living

and enduring Word of God."

Regeneration always occurs after the Word of

God is preached.

Paul says in Romans 10, 17, "So faith comes by

hearing, and hearing by what?"

The Word of Christ.

We need men today who are skillful with the

Word of God, who are willing to bring the

Word of God and preach the Bible, not preach

theatrics, not preach therapeutics, but to

preach the hard truths of the Word of God to

tell sinners that they are dead in their

sins, so that God will use the Word of God to

bring people to life.

Not just preachers, but do we have any Sunday

school teachers in here?

Sunday school teachers, parents?

This is the means by which God will use to

bring those little dry bones to life.

It is the Word of God.

That is what here we stand is all about, isn't

it?

We stand on the sufficiency and the authority

of the Word of God, and so we see here that

God uses the seed of the Word of God to bring

forth life to these dry bones, and it is

really

everywhere in the passage.

Verse 5, "Thus says the Lord God."

It's the Lord speaking to these bones, and

then in verses 7 through 10, five times the

word prophecy is used to refer to Ezekiel

preaching the Word of God to Israel.

Now, in verses 5 through 6, we see the content

of the seed, which is really a repetition

of Ezekiel 36, remember this chapter 37 piggy

backs off of that great New Covenant promise.

In verses 5 and 6, "The Lord God says to these

bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter

you that you may come to life.

I will put sinews on you to make flesh grow

back on you, to cover you with skin and put

breath in you that you may come alive, and you

will know that I am the Lord.'"

So what we see here is that through the gospel

, God calls a dead sinner to life and what

happens?

They come alive.

This is a picture of irresistible grace, that

when God calls His elect from the preaching

of the Word of God, there's a general call

that preachers make, but when God intends

to regenerate a heart, He gives a specific

call to a specific person, and the Holy Spirit

uses the preaching of the Word of God, the

Holy Spirit is a change agent, and this

supernatural

miracle occurs that takes all three members of

the Godhead to perform, and a person comes

to life, and the text says that it is God who

causes this to happen.

So I want to ask you, who is the focus of the

gospel here?

It's not man, I'll give you a hint there, God

is the focus of the gospel.

We don't even bring our own faith to our

salvation.

Through regeneration, God gives us a new

nature which now enables us to believe and to

repent.

The only thing that we bring to our salvation

is our own sin.

Ephesians 2-8, "For by grace you have been

saved through faith, and that not of

yourselves,

it is a gift of God.

It is granted to you as God changes your heart

and enables you to now believe the covenant

promises of God."

And so faith and repentance are actually the

effects of God causing the dead to live.

And so this is why the seed of regeneration

must be preached.

It must be the Word of God.

We cannot lose sight of the importance of this

book, that it is a supernatural book.

Other books, I read other books, but this book

reads me, and I trust that it just does

something to you as you hear the Word of God

preached and taught, and as you pray the Word

of God, that is these bones rattling and God

bringing to life, awakening you by the power

of the Holy Spirit through the living Bible,

the Word of God.

Now if we'll continue on in the passage, the

third headache that I have, verse 7 and 8,

I want you to see what I refer to as the state

of the almost regenerate.

The state of the almost regenerate, let me

show you what I'm talking about.

Verse 7 and 8 reads, "So I prophesied, as I

commanded, he bade God, and as I prophesied,

there was a noise, and behold, a rattling, and

the bones came together, bone to its bone,

and I looked, and behold, sinews were on them,

and flesh grew and skin covered them,

but there was no breath in them."

So they were not yet regenerate yet, and that

's why I say this is the state of the almost

regenerate, the state of the halfway saved,

and really there's no such thing as being

halfway saved, so the almost regenerate is

still not regenerate.

Thomas Boston and his book on the fourfold

state of man is very helpful in this area.

He gives some examples of what regeneration is

not.

Let me give you a few of those.

He says regeneration is not baptism in church

membership.

That's not regeneration.

Regeneration is not a good education.

Education is not going to change your heart.

You can have a PhD in biblical theology and

still be unregenerate.

You can be a dean of a seminary and still not

have a changed heart.

Regeneration is not turning from profanity to

civility and sobriety.

The longer I walked with Christ and the more

that I have tried to share the Gospel, I see

many people trying to convince themselves that

they are Christians because they are

moral people, and to them, what Christianity

means is morality.

It means voting a certain way.

It means acting a certain way.

It means raising a good family and those kind

of things, but that is not regeneration.

Regeneration is not engaging in all of the

outward duties of religion.

Boston also says regeneration is not a sharp

initial conviction, only to fall off and to

become as careless about their salvation as

they once were and sometimes to be worse

off than they were before.

And then finally, regeneration is not coming

forward too soon, only to later be regenerated

under sound preaching, and sometimes that

happens.

Sometimes somebody will profess Christ, but

only much later, sometimes in their 20s or

30s or maybe even in their 60s and 70s, the

Lord, at that point, they have been hearing

the preached word and the Lord will regenerate

their heart at a later time.

And the sad thing about the state of the

church today is that there are dead churches

who

are full of people who are almost regenerated.

They give the appearance of life.

And as a Baptist, it's important to understand

that in Baptist theology as it relates to

the church, Baptists believe in something

called a regenerate church membership.

Reform Baptist practice regenerate church

membership.

That's one of the differences.

And so what that means for us, what it means

for our pastors, what it means for our members

,

we all desire to see the church grow and to

build up the body.

But we need to be patient with people and let

God complete the awakening process because

perhaps they're almost regenerate, but the

Lord is still in the process of convicting

them of their sin, of showing them their need

for Christ, building up their theology such

that before they might say, well, why am I a

Christian because Jesus died for my sins,

but at some point they may be able to grow in

their theology and say, well, I now understand

the penal substitutionary atonement.

Now they may not be able to articulate it in

high doctrine words, but to be able to say,

I understand that I need a substitute.

There should be a basic understanding of how

it is that God saves a sinner.

I don't see how you can truly have confidence

that you're a Christian, if you can at least

in some way verbalize what happened at the

cross.

What's significant about this?

So you give people the opportunity for God to

complete the awakening process, and I think

our churches would be much healthier if we

were to be faithful to our understanding, our

reformed understanding of satiriality.

Okay.

And then finally, looking at verse 9 and 10,

this is the state of grace or the state of

regenerate man.

We see here in these verses, God says to him,

okay, so he prophesies once, he says prophesy

again, but this time prophesy to the breath,

prophesy son of man and say to the breath,

thus says the Lord God, come from the forewind

s of breath and breathe on these slain that

they

come to life.

So I prophesied as he commanded me and the

breath came into them and they came to life

and stood on their feet and exceedingly great

army.

You see, it's not until the Holy Spirit breath

es life in them that they can actually respond

to the gospel call.

And so that goes back to what I said at the

beginning.

In regeneration, God gives sinners a new

nature.

Okay.

Now along with that, we're also united to

Christ.

That's the other part of the state of grace.

We're united to Christ how?

In his death, burial and resurrection.

And as such, those who are transferred to the

state of grace actually begin to take on

a new identity, a Christian identity.

That's what Roman six through eight is all

about, that God has united us to Christ and

his death, burial and resurrection.

We have a new nature.

We are sin no longer has dominion over us.

The old self has been crucified.

In fact, Paul tells us the very first command

I believe in Roman six is to consider yourself

to be what?

Dead to sin.

And I want to say, if I could just put on my

pastoral hat for a second, a lot of people,

a lot of truly born again Christians struggle

with thinking of themselves in that way.

And if you can understand the believer's

identity, that you are now united to Christ

in his death, burial and resurrection, and you

just trust the Bible in terms of who God

says you now are, that will free you of so

many worries, so many bouts of melancholy.

You will have more joy because you will

understand that even when I sin, God tells me

to consider

myself to be dead to sin and alive to Christ.

And that's what it means to be in the third

state, to live in the state of grace.

Now Roman seven teaches us that there is no

part that's perfectly renewed, right?

Because Paul continues to practice the very

things that he hates.

We're going to still wrestle with the flesh

and no part is perfectly renewed.

That's going to happen in the fourth state,

the state of glorification.

But yet in the state of grace, because of

regeneration, there is a real change into

Christ's likeness.

Because we are presently today united with

Christ.

Paul says we're united with him in the liken

ess of his death, such that we are now dead to

sin because we have a new nature.

Now we're still able to sin, but by God's

grace, we're now more like the pre-fall and

that we are also able to not sin.

I think that's the hard part for people to

grasp is that in Christ, not because there's

anything good in you, but because of Christ in

you, okay, you are now able to not sin.

That's what it means to be in the state of

grace.

We're united in the likeness of his death and

in the likeness of his resurrection, which

means that we're alive.

We're unable to walk in newness of life, Paul

says.

We are now dead to sin, but alive in Christ

Jesus because God has made these dead bones

live.

Boston says in regeneration, four things

happen.

First, the mind is illuminated by the Holy

Spirit to the knowledge of God.

So you start to have an exact knowledge of who

God is and understanding of the relationship

between God's attributes and the relationship

of God to man.

So you start to see yourself a little bit more

clearly in relation to him.

You're able to see your need for the cross a

little bit more clearly and to understand

Christ and then also to understand the passing

, the vanity of this world.

The world starts to look different to you,

does it not?

Because God has illuminated your mind to the

folly of this world.

I never would have thought about these 12-foot

skeletons and hopefully there's some grace

there.

If you have one of those, I'm not beating you

up for that, but I would ask, think about

your motives a little bit on that, so maybe a

little bit, but you would start to see things

a little bit differently.

You would at least give some thought to what

God is teaching there.

So the mind is illuminated.

Second, the will is renewed.

That's why you desire Christ, why you trust

him now because he has changed your will and

has inclined it to good and God has cured you

of the utter inability to will which is

good.

You know, a regenerate person is now inclined

to want God's will rather than their own.

Those are the kind of things you want to look

for when you're looking at your children,

when you're looking for the fruit of

repentance.

What is the desire of their heart?

Are they more inclined to want to do what glor

ifies and honors God or are they making

decisions solely for their own good?

Third, the affections are changed.

Not only are the affections changed, but they

are regulated by God now.

Romans, what is it, five, he's put the love of

God, said the love of God in our heart.

So God directs our hearts.

Sometimes when I don't even think about, I don

't understand scripture and things are

a mess and I look at the world, there's just

something about the Holy Spirit that enables

me to love him and to trust him and to put a

smile on my face even when I'm going through

the rigors of life and going through the rat

race and going through the, maybe even having

a sense of melancholy, there's just something

about the Holy Spirit that he just keeps me

holding the rope until better days come and

this is an effect of regeneration.

And then finally, the conscience is renewed,

being willing to conform to the scripture.

The scripture becomes our authority.

There's no, just as faith cannot come apart

from hearing the word of God, you can't be

a true regenerate Christian and not love the

Bible.

That is one of those things, Hebrews 6, that

accompanies salvation as a love for God's

word because if you're not going to be willing

to obey him and to listen to him, how can

you love the God of the Bible without being

interested in his very word that he gives

us?

So as we, as I wrap this up, I know, looks

like I'm a little bit out of, close to being

out of time here.

So as we wrap it up, let me just conclude with

two questions, okay?

First, so how do you know that God has

transformed you or transferred you to the

state of grace?

I want you to ask that question of yourself.

Let me give you a couple of things to look for

.

First, don't look to yourself.

Look outside of yourself and look to the

person in the work of Jesus Christ.

The ultimate basis of our assurance should

never come from ourselves and not even come

from our own faith, but should come from the

object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember it ultimately, it's not your faith

that God is going to accept in heaven.

It's the righteousness of Christ imputed to

you that God is crediting to you in his ledger

in heaven.

That's the basis of your salvation and the

basis of your assurance of faith.

So first, you always want to look to Christ

and recognize that Christ's righteousness is

credited to you.

But second, as it relates to regeneration, you

do want to look inwardly for evidence

of regeneration.

Because again, Paul says in Romans 6, you

cannot continue to live in sin so that grace

may be increased because of our union with

Christ.

Paul says in Romans 6, too, how can we who

died to sin still live in it?

And rhetorically, the answer is you can't.

So you want to ask yourself, has your mind

been illuminated by the knowledge of God?

Do you really want to be here this morning?

And I think the answer for most of us, if not,

hopefully all is yes, because you're here

on a Saturday morning.

You're here not because you have to be here,

but because you want to.

But also, is there a change of your will that

's now bent towards lawkeeping?

We're not saved by keeping the law.

The nature of our relationship to the law

changes.

But do you desire to keep God's commandments?

Because Christ says, if you love me, you will

keep my commandments.

And then third, where do your affections lie?

Are your affections placed on the right

objects?

Do you truly love Christ in His person, His

work, and do you truly love the brethren,

as John says in 1 John?

So consider that.

And then the final question, and then I'll

turn it over to Brian, is if salvation is

entirely

a work of grace, then are there just going to

be a few people who are saved?

And the answer in verse 10 is absolutely not,

because we see that God is raising up an

exceedingly

great army.

And what an encouragement that is, that God

still makes dry bones live today.

And even as God is pruning His Church, I know

attendance numbers are going down in many

churches.

Even as God is pruning His Church, as false

teachers are being exposed, God is still

gathering

His elect.

And back then, He was using people like Ezek

iel.

During the time of the Protestant Reformation,

He was using people like Martin Luther and

John Calvin and John Knox and the great Reform

ers.

But today, He's using people like you and I,

just ordinary sinners saved by grace who

has experienced regeneration to go out and to

warn other sinners to be saved by grace.

And as we continue to share the seed of

regeneration, don't be surprised when God

continues to bring

dry bones to life.

Thank you.

Praise God.

You know, in our cohort of pastors, I'm going

to have to start giving out some nicknames.

For Philip, it would definitely be the court

gesture.

And I think for Chad, it's the scholar.

Man, that was good.

Praise God.

It was good stuff.

And just so thankful for each one of these

brothers and all that they do in our state

and for God's glory and the fellowship that we

have among our churches is just precious.

And I'm so thankful for each one of you.

Now, I've bragged a little bit on these

pastors and also their churches, I would just

want

to say have brought some refreshments, so we

're about to go and enjoy.

So thank you to each church that has done that

.

And then I have to brag on this church where I

pastor because all of you have wonderful

churches, but I'm pretty well convinced I

pastor the best church in the world with some

of the most incredible people.

So I just want to say thank you to those folks

who are running media for us.

They are the unsung heroes of this church, as

well as all those who have worked to prepare

the fellowship hall.

So many.

Thank you.

(inaudible)

Yeah, I pay them to say these things.

And so, you know, bribes go a long way.

You know, a $20 bill will get you a lot of

grace and not with God, but with man for sure.

So anyways, we are just so thankful for each

one of you.

So I'm going to ask a blessing on our meal and

our fellowship.

We are breaking here, and we are going to come

back at 12 o'clock.

Now that's 39 minutes.

Don't do like last night when I tell you 15

minutes and you take 25, okay?

We are going to start at 12 o'clock on the dot

noon because we are not going to take

time away from the word of God being

proclaimed.

And so I look forward to that.

So let's pray together.

We just thank you so much for each soul here

today and each church represented here today.

These churches are so precious to you, Father,

that you sent your son to this earth.

Having human flesh stepped down from his

throne in heaven and came to redeem creatures

made

from the dust of the ground so that we would

be his bride by grace, Lord.

What incredible price the blood of the Son of

God that was paid to purchase us out of

our slavery to sin and rebellion against the

King of all kings and the Lord of all lords.

So Father, we are just grateful and thankful

for all that you've done and the churches

here today and the work that you are doing

through these local churches in our community

and in our state.

Now God, as we enjoy this food and fellowship,

would you bless our time.

And thank you for all those who've worked so

hard to make this conference possible.

We pray all these things in the name of King

Jesus and for his glory alone.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.