https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch The newest sermons from Grace Bible Church on SermonAudio. Religion & Spirituality Grace Bible Church http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification https://vps.sermonaudio.com/resize_image/sources/podcast/1440/1440/gracebiblechurch2.jpg https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch en Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:32:23 +0000 30 John Pittman Hey no The newest sermons from Grace Bible Church on SermonAudio. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/417262337422998 As usual during His ministry, Christ didn't explain to Martha how He would give eternal life to His people. He simply called upon them to put their trust in Him, and He would take care of their bodies and their souls. Most of them seemed not to grasp the intractable problem of granting eternal life to sinners. How can a just God forgive sins, when He promised never to clear the guilty? How can God put our sins behind Him, never to remember them against us anymore, as He promised in the New Covenant? Not understanding this, how Martha must have been crushed when Jesus was taken and put to death! She probably had not heard Christ's own promise that He would give His life to save His sheep. How can Jesus be the Resurrection and the Life if He is dead? How can a dead man save anybody? They didn't know, that it was His dying that would save us. Did Martha's faith waver when Jesus hung on the cross in agony and woe? It reminds us of the old Negro spiritual song we know well: Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? Oh, sometimes, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble! There was one man there who believed in spite of Christ's dying, and that was the penitent thief on the cross. Others were crying out, taunting Jesus to save Himself and the thieves who were crucified with Him. But the penitent thief, by an astounding work of the power of the Holy Ghost, was convinced that the Lord would reign in His kingdom one day, and he cried out to Jesus to remember him when that kingdom came. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/417262337422998 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 12 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:33:30 no John Pittman Hey - Jesus Sets Martha Right https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4626220327862 Just last week, we saw a shameless exploitation of the resurrection by prominent religious leaders, comparing our President to Christ, and blasphemously assigning the resurrection image to him. The resurrection of Christ was repurposed as a political propaganda event. This called to mind something that Jesus said to Martha on the way to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus informed Martha that Lazarus would rise again, Martha replied that she knew that Lazarus would rise again at the last day, but that she believed that Jesus could ask God, and God would grant it to Him now. This statement by Martha was incomplete and insufficient, because mere resurrection is not enough. Jews mostly believed in the resurrection of the just at the last day. The Pharisees believed it dogmatically, yet most of them died and went to Hell. It is not enough to believe in the resurrection! Christ's resurrection work includes resurrection unto eternal life, and resurrection to eternal torment and wrath. Now we can see why Christ corrected Martha, that her view of the resurrection was not acceptable. Jesus' point to Martha was this: the resurrection is not enough. Her error was, that she did not recognize the true power and authority of the Person standing before her. She did not recognize the Resurrector! Christ then made it clear to Martha. It wasn't good enough to know there would be a resurrection one day. It was not even good enough to assume that God would raise up His people. What was necessary was to believe that Jesus is the Resurrection, and Jesus is the Life! Without Jesus' life-giving power, the resurrection becomes an horrible judgment. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4626220327862 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:34:03 no John Pittman Hey - Jesus Sets Martha Right https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4126027384247 When Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, Isaac asked a pertinent question of his father: where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Abraham and Isaac both needed a lamb, but neither conceived that such a lamb was possible! The idea of the substitution of a lamb to save Isaac apparently never entered their thoughts, until God suddenly provided just such a lamb to save Isaac. Abraham didn't think of a substitute lamb, and he dare not suggest it to God in any case! How could any sinner suggest that God judge his own sin in the body of God's Own Son as a substitute, and let the sinner go free? The very idea would be blasphemous, were it conceived by sinful man! It is the heart wrenching beauty of it all, that when there was no hope for Abraham and Isaac, suddenly, God provided Himself a Lamb! Isaac was spared by the Lamb that God provided! But there was another party that needed a lamb, and that was God Himself! What God "needs," or rather, REQUIRES to accomplish His purposes, those things are not ultimately dependent upon independent third parties. Rather, what God "needs," God always provides Himself! God requires for Himself a Lamb to be sacrificed for sinners. That's because sin must be judged, and crimes must be punished. God promised that judgment! The judgment for sin is death! God needed a lamb, and He provided Himself that Lamb! Indeed, God provided that Lamb, the Lord Jesus, before the world was made! Christ was designated that Lamb from eternity, but only revealed to sinners during His ministry, and upon the cross. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4126027384247 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 29 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:45:20 no John Pittman Hey - It Wasn't Just Abraham & Isaac https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/328261810507114 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/328261810507114 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 22 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:22:08 no John Pittman Hey - Our Sins Are Blotted Out! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/323261616596269 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/323261616596269 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 15 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:52 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/38262144434066 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/38262144434066 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 08 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:43:01 no John Pittman Hey https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/372605714770 How are Christians to view the crime of starting a war of aggression against Iran, with all the murder and destruction that our nation and Israel have committed? The sermon delivers a prophetic and morally urgent indictment of America's involvement in a war against Iran, framing it as a war of aggression rooted in deceit, hypocrisy, and a violation of both constitutional and international law. It argues that the conflict was unjustified, triggered not by Iranian aggression but by a fabricated pretext—nuclear proliferation—after Iran had already capitulated on all nuclear demands, exposing the real motive as regime change driven by Israeli interests. Drawing on Scripture, particularly Isaiah 10, the preacher challenges the congregation to discern whether America is the instrument of God's judgment (Assyria) or the target of it, warning that praying for victory in such a war is a blasphemy against divine justice. The sermon insists that no prayer for protection or success can be made by those whose hands are full of unrepentant blood, and that only through repentance and faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice can sinners—soldiers, leaders, or citizens—find true forgiveness and hope. Ultimately, the message calls for a radical reorientation: not civic pride or nationalistic prayer, but a humble, gospel-centered repentance that acknowledges the blood of Christ as the only ground of salvation for all who have sinned, including those who have participated in or condoned war and violence. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/372605714770 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 01 Mar 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:45:31 no John Pittman Hey https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/224262355186180 Peter encouraged the brethren, by describing how their glorious, astounding salvation was foretold in their own history by the prophets. It was, in fact, the very Spirit of Christ Himself, that had revealed it all in the first place! They tried to discover what it all meant, and when it was to be, this promised suffering of Messiah, and the glory that would then follow. In Psalm 16, David had been told that Messiah would die, and rise again by God's promise, before His body could see corruption! Christ would then enter into eternal rejoicing in the presence of God. In Psalm 69, David foretold how Christ would be persecuted by wicked men, and that He would bear our sins, and be treated as though He were guilty of them. He would suffer great reproaches, and be mocked and disregarded by men. The hatred that men had for God would be laid upon Jesus. They would mock the Man Whom God had smitten. There would be no comforters found for the dying Messiah. In Isaiah 53, the prophet described the rejection of Christ by the people, and their believing that God had smitten Him for His Own sins. But the truth was, God would smite Jesus for the sins of God's people laid upon Him by God. He would be slain like a lamb of sacrifice in our place. God would be satisfied with His sinless offering, and by that offering, Christ would justify all those for whose iniquities He had been punished. In Zechariah 13, the prophet described how God's sword of judgment would awake against His Shepherd, the Savior, who would be struck down by God's wrath against Him. These texts, with others, set forth Christ's suffering and sacrifice, and then the redemption and salvation of God's people! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/224262355186180 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 22 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:46:22 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/21826196486565 "Whom having not seen, ye love!" Love for another person is often tied up in our seeing them, appreciating their looks. That is why a pretty person often captures our heart. Even in politics, a good-looking person has the advantage of being admired for his appearance. We are more likely to vote for a good-looking person than for a plain person, much less an ugly one! Isaiah had warned Israel that Messiah would have no attraction to them when He came, and there was no beauty that they would desire Him. When Jesus was crucified, He was mutilated, as the devil provoked wicked men to abuse and torture Jesus with thorns and nails and horrible floggings and a spear in His side. No doubt Satan wished to strip Christ of being made in the likeness of man, to take away His dignity and humanity. In this text, Peter is noting how remarkable it is that the saints love Jesus, even though we have never met Him or seen Him! This illustrates the miraculous faith that the Holy Ghost works in our hearts, to cause us to believe Jesus, and love Him with all our hearts! No one can truly love Jesus except by the faith God has granted to us! "Though now ye see Him not, yet believing!" Peter stresses anew that our love for Christ and our faith in Christ are strongly tied together. We love that sacred Man Whom we trust! We believe and love in Jesus, though we have not yet seen Him! Peter notes this fact as proof of our Gospel faith! We love a Savior we have never seen, and we believe His promises to us! Contrast this truth with idolatry, and the external beauty of false religion. Mankind is captivated by beauty and looks, and false religions cater to that carnal desire. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/21826196486565 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 15 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:42:44 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/211261913593747 Peter describes how we greatly rejoice in all of this: everlasting life, salvation by the precious blood of Jesus, our eternal inheritance, the power of God, and the faith that He has given to us. These are far better things than all those things we have lost in this old world. Peter notes that now there are temptations that can cast us down, and fill us with worry and heaviness. But our sadness is due to our failure to believe the promises of God of such great things He has done and will do for us! Peter explains that these trials are brought about by God Himself to purify and strengthen our faith. All along, our God-given faith is more precious than gold itself! The temptations and trial of our faith are likened by Peter to the use of fire to purify gold. The fire melts the gold, and the dross rises to the surface, where it is skimmed off, leaving gold that is purer and brighter and more valuable than before the refining. Peter notes that gold perishes – it tarnishes, it can be stolen, it can be lost, and in the end, it will all be burnt up in God's judgment of this world. But our faith does not perish, because God, who gave it to us, maintains it, and perfects it through tribulations, so that it increases more and more in the saints. In our lives, these trials burn off our lack of faith, and drive away the things that pollute our faith and mar us in our service to God. All those ways in which we don't trust in the promises of Christ, are driven away by the trials God sends to us. By the time we die and appear with Jesus, our faith is unalloyed with anything left of this world, or of our sins. Then, Peter exults, that faith glorifies and exalts the Lord Jesus! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/211261913593747 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 08 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:42:28 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/2226175230945 Peter's views and desires were completely turned upside down by Christ's relentless teaching. In the Scriptures, after Christ's ascension, Peter never spoke again of any hope for that old kingdom of Israel in this world. Rather, Peter urged the Gospel upon everyone, and described a new people of God, both Jews and Gentiles together, saved forever by Jesus. In 1 Peter, the apostle addresses in particular the Jewish believers in the diaspora. They had already lost their natural inheritance of the land, when God sent them into exile. Exile was part of the curse God promised in the Mosaic Law to all those who rebelled against His commandments. But God had chosen these saved Jews from eternity past to be set apart unto Himself by the Holy Ghost, unto salvation by the blood of Jesus, and to obedience unto the Lord! This was that New Covenant promise of old, wherein God would change His chosen people to love Him, and to know His law, and to be conformed to it, and to be forgiven from all their sins by God. They were not chosen simply because they were rebellious Jews, but by the desire of God, both Jews and Gentiles were chosen unto salvation apart from the keeping of the law, which none but Christ could ever do. This effective election by God is far better than being amongst the physical nation of Israel. Experience had already shown that being a part of physical Jewry would get you nothing more than the curse of the law and judgment. But these believers were elect beforehand to be set apart unto God, that through the miracle of the work of the Holy Ghost in their cold dead hearts, they should be saved and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb unto obedience! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/2226175230945 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 01 Feb 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:44:27 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/123262237502732 Christ's prayers for Peter, that his faith not falter, had sustained Peter as one of Christ's, when the facts on the ground utterly overturned Peter's expectations and false ideas about Messiah's work and purpose, and the future of the Lord's people, and the kingdom of Christ. Peter had looked for a Messiah to rescue and restore Israel, and restore the physical kingdom for Israel immediately. Jesus emphasized the distinction between physical Israel, and Christ's Church. His Church today is not a physical kingdom, but is rather the whole elect called out people of God, saved by the blood of the dying Jesus on the cross. That's when Peter spoke up against Christ, and pushed his own expectations. He denied that Christ must die, and seemed to pay no notice to Christ's promise to rise again the third day. Jesus sharply rebuked Peter for his statements against Christ's death, and warned him that he, Peter, loved the things that the world loves, and not the things that God loves. Man loves power, and force, and the rule of a physical kingdom right now. God loves the sacrifice of Jesus as His Own Lamb, slain to take away the sins of His loved ones, who cannot save themselves from God's wrath. If you reject the Gospel of Christ's death and resurrection, and pursue your own carnal ideas of the kingdom, you will lose your soul and life eternally! In this teaching, Christ was radically overturning and re-orienting Peter's expectations, and showing what things we must value, and what things we must let go of in this life. Peter still resisted Christ's teaching on these matters, which is why Jesus warned him of his impending betrayal, and prayed for his faith to be upheld. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/123262237502732 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 18 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:36:08 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/117262252543826 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/117262252543826 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 11 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:53:27 no John Pittman Hey - Our Nation is Flooded by Lies https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11226165974999 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11226165974999 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 04 Jan 2026 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:46:48 no John Pittman Hey - The Rapid Crash of Our Country https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/110261940454626 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/110261940454626 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 28 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:46:39 no John Pittman Hey - The Wise Men Seek Him Out https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1221252304734 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1221252304734 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 21 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:43 no John Pittman Hey - He Saves His People from Sin https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1220252344225874 Consider further the blessing of the saints being a royal priesthood. This was promised to Israel of old, but upon reading the actual promise, we immediately spy the problem. It was a conditional promise, requiring that "ye obey My voice, and keep My covenant." Israel eagerly declared that it would do so, but Israel never could obey the Lord and keep the Old Covenant, so those promises could never be obtained. All of Israel's history shows this to be the case, as it is filled with rebellion, idolatry, disobedience, hatred, and betrayal against God. By the time Isaiah prophesied, the nation was filled with innocent blood shedding, injustice, and bribe-taking. God forbade their sacrifices, temple rituals, offerings, and incense. God refused to hear their prayers any more. If any promises were to be obtained, there would have to be a huge revision of the covenant of blessing, for it is manifest that blessing cannot be obtained by law keeping and obedience to God. That better covenant was laid down in Jeremiah 31, where a New Covenant was promised, by which God would write His law upon their hearts, they would be His people, and He would be their God. Moreover, God would forgive their iniquity, and refuse to remember their sins against them! By operation of the New Covenant, it must be with a truly saved people, and it would be unilateral by God to them, since God would perform all the duties of the covenant, and there would be no duties required of the people. How could God do that? Their animal sacrifices couldn't forgive their sins, and Aaron's priesthood had utterly failed. So long as Aaron is the priest, there could be no hope for Israel receiving these promises! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1220252344225874 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 14 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:45:50 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1212251759233894 In his first epistle, Peter continued to stress the spiritual unity of believers by faith, turning away from any sectarian view of Jews and Gentiles, and stressing the spiritual temple being built by the Holy Ghost of all those with faith in Christ. Peter describes Christ as the rejected cornerstone, promised to Israel of olden times. It had been described as the place where rebellious Israel would be destroyed, and believing people would be saved! Christ is that living cornerstone, chosen by God, and precious. All who trust in that Stone are built up a spiritual house atop it, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Christ had told Israel that it would murder Him to seize possession of the kingdom, and that God would destroy the nation, and give the kingdom to a nation that would obey God. Jesus explicitly connects this judgment with the ancient prophecy of Israel's rejection of Himself as the cornerstone. Peter repeated the same judgment against unbelievers, Jews and Gentiles, and used the identical metaphor of the rejected, precious cornerstone. But then Peter described that other nation Christ had promised would be given the kingdom: you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a special people! These blessings Peter described to this spiritual nation that trusts in Jesus, are the very same blessings that God promised Israel just before He gave them His Ten commandments at Mount Sinai. But Israel had disobeyed God, and rejected the cornerstone, and tried to seize Christ's inheritance by destroying Him. Therefore, all those blessings fall upon a new nation, that glorious house of faith! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1212251759233894 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 07 Dec 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:34 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/12625123272335 The salvation of the Gentile Cornelius at God's command was bound to result in negative repercussions in the church at Jerusalem from certain legalistic Jews. The cry arose, "they are not like us!" But Peter easily rebutted such objections. Gentiles had been saved when he obeyed Christ and preached the Gospel to them! The Judaizers took another crack at it sometime later. Now they insisted that Gentile believers must be circumcised, and keep the Mosaic Law! In effect, Judaizers annex the curse of the law to the Gospel, because under the law, we are all condemned. But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse in our place, when He was crucified at Calvary. Peter now recalled that God had chosen him to first carry the Gospel to the Gentile Cornelius. They had believed the Gospel, and God had placed His stamp of approval on their salvation, by filling them with the Holy Ghost, putting no difference between Jewish and Gentile believers, purifying all their hearts by faith. Peter then makes this argument: if we Jews couldn't keep the law, with our centuries of rebellion and idolatry, why should we now test God by forcing the law on Gentile brethren, as an added condition upon what God has already granted to them without the law? But then, Peter articulated a glorious truth: we Jews believe that we shall be saved, just like the Gentiles! This is a new-found insight for Peter. No longer would he say that the Gentiles were saved just like us Jews. They were saved without law-keeping, without circumcision. We had tried and failed at salvation before we believed on Christ, but the Gentiles had come directly on in by faith alone in the Gospel! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/12625123272335 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 30 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:39:43 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1123252115598033 There are many instances of how God's power worked mightily in Peter, through the prayers of Jesus, to strengthen Christ's church. God instructed Peter that the Gospel was not just for Jews, but for despised Gentiles as well. When the Lord instructed Peter to go to Cornelius, Peter began to discern the true extent of Christ's revelation to him: that he must no longer separate himself from Gentiles as unclean persons, as the Jews did, because God would open the Gospel up to them also! The salvation of the Gentile Cornelius at God's command was bound to result in negative repercussions in the church at Jerusalem. Ethnic supremacy rises up whenever an exclusive privilege is opened up to others! The cry arises, "but they are not like us!" Cultural and ethnic clashes rose to the surface, and some Jewish believers objected to Peter's having consorted with uncircumcised Gentiles and even eaten with them! But this had been Peter's immediate objection when he told the Savior, "Not so, Lord!" The unthinkable things that had transpired, had been accepted by Peter, with the evidence of the Holy Ghost filling the new Gentile believers, so Peter was well suited to answer the demands for ethnic and religious separation that arose at the Jerusalem church. Peter related the entire sequence of events to the objectors, in particular Christ's command that Peter not call anything unclean which Christ has made clean. Peter had obeyed the Holy Ghost, doubting nothing. This itself was a rebuke to those who now insisted on second guessing Peter's actions and the Holy Ghost's commands to him. The Spirit's commandment trumped all their objections! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1123252115598033 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 23 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:05 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1119252217276920 There are many instances of how God's power worked mightily in Peter, through the prayers of Jesus, to strengthen Christ's church. After Peter persisted in preaching Christ's Gospel, the rulers beat Peter and the others, again prohibiting them from preaching about Christ. But the prayers of Christ for Peter, and the strengthening of the brethren, resulted in them all rejoicing, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame and persecution for Christ's sake! They went right back out and kept on preaching the Gospel, defying what the rulers had commanded. Soon, God instructed Peter that the Gospel was not just for Jews, but for despised Gentiles as well. Christ accomplished this by showing to Peter various unclean animals in a vision, instructing Peter to partake of them. Peter at first refused, saying "not so, Lord!" Under the law, Jews were forbidden to eat unclean animals. But the Lord explained that Peter must not call anything common or unclean that He had cleansed. Meanwhile, God had instructed the Roman centurion Cornelius to summon Peter, and he would come tell Cornelius what the Lord required him to do. Upon seeing Cornelius and his family and friends gathered together to hear what the Lord wanted Peter to tell them, Peter described why he had come: you know that it is unlawful for a Jew to keep company with the Gentiles, but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean! God had busted Peter out of his cultural heritage and prejudiced thinking, in order for Peter to lead the Gentiles to the Lord Jesus as their Savior. He could no longer avoid doing so by clinging to the idea that they were somehow inferior or outside of God's grace! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1119252217276920 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 16 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:44:27 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/111525055193781 The rulers threatened the apostles not to preach in the name of Christ, but had to let them go that time. But the violence against the church escalated during the next encounter: Peter and the others were again preaching at the temple the Gospel of salvation by faith in Christ. The rulers arrested and jailed them, and reminded them that they had been told not to preach in the name of Christ, yet they were still doing so, filling Jerusalem with the Gospel, and accusing the rulers of murdering Messiah! How dare they try to bring Christ's blood down on the rulers' hands! Early Christians were very clear on this point, because it was true: Peter had repeatedly accused the people and the rulers of crucifying Christ, even as he proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation by Christ through faith in His offering for sin. What a privilege it was for the early Christians to be able to confront those wicked rulers who crucified Christ, and face to face, force them to acknowledge the accusation of what they had done. After all, these very same people had demanded of Pontius Pilate, that Christ's blood be upon their hands, and the hands of their children! But now they were not keen at all to be confronted with their crimes against Messiah. Once again, Peter made it clear: that it was obedience to God's command that they both preach the Gospel of Christ, and accuse the rulers of murdering Him on the cross! Peter refused to cease preaching, and would not withdraw the accusation, even before the face of those very rulers who strongly objected to the truth. Therefore, Peter did it again to their faces! "The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree!" https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/111525055193781 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 09 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:49:08 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11725238487248 After healing the lame man at the temple, and preaching the Gospel to the amazed crowd that gathered, the wicked rulers tried to shut Peter and the others up. Peter confronted them by the Spirit with great boldness, but they rejected the Gospel, and showed no conviction or conversion at all. These wicked rulers didn't believe, because the Holy Ghost did not work in their hearts to believe. God had other purposes for them – not salvation, but wrath and judgment! They threatened Peter and the others not to preach in Christ's name again! The response by the church to all these threats, and this hatred by the rulers, is very revealing! It shows just how well Peter and the other apostles had obeyed Christ's command to strengthen the brethren. It turns out that they had all been very well prepared to react properly to the very first persecution of the church by the world. First, we find that they all raised their voices in praise to Almighty God as the creator of everything. This is in keeping with numerous psalms which were prefaced with the same attitude of worship. Next, they recited David's prophecy, that the nations and the people would rebel against Messiah. David asked the question, why do they rebel against Messiah? But the church now understood why: it was in order to carry out the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus by the hands of those rebellious people! God had before determined that they should do all those things. Why would that be? Because Messiah MUST BE put to death for the sins of His beloved ones, so that He could suffer all the demands of the divine justice that our crimes warranted from the hand of a holy, righteous God. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11725238487248 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:32:21 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1027251636281297 It was by the power of God's work in Peter, and by the intercession of Christ, that Peter believed, and not because of Peter's own so-called bravery and boldness! There are many instances of how God's power worked mightily in Peter, through the prayers of Jesus, to strengthen Christ's church. At his powerful sermon preached at Pentecost, Peter was bold in the Holy Ghost, and confronted the enemies of Christ, called them out for their sin in murdering Jesus, and commanded them to repent of their sin and have them washed away by the blood of Christ's sacrifice for sinners. After healing the lame man at the temple, and preaching the Gospel to the amazed crowd that gathered, the wicked rulers tried to shut Peter and the others up. Peter confronted them by the Spirit with great boldness, but they rejected the Gospel, and showed no conviction or conversion at all. In the Gospels, those same rulers were described as exceedingly wicked, accusing the Lord Jesus of evil crimes, and falsely condemning Him to death. Then they betrayed Him into the hands of their pagan tyrant Pilate, and gloated at the foot of Calvary as Jesus died there to save His people. Those very same rulers brought Peter and the others before them, and demanded to know by whose authority, and by whose name, they had healed this man. Such is always the way with sacralist, state-church religions, that they seek to control the Gospel, and to shut down "unauthorized" Gospel preachers. This is the challenge of the established religion, and explains the murder of Tyndale by popery, the imprisonment of John Bunyan by the Anglicans, and the persecution of Isaac Watts by the same crowd. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1027251636281297 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 26 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:36:09 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1020252254281997 Peter is an example of Christ's power to save us in spite of our fears and failures, because God has given us our faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and Christ prays for our faith to be upheld and strengthened. At his powerful sermon preached at Pentecost, Peter was bold in the Holy Ghost, and confronted the enemies of Christ, called them out for their sin in murdering Jesus, and commanded them to repent of their sin and have them washed away by the blood of Christ's sacrifice for sinners. Not only were believers strengthened and encouraged by the manifest demonstration of the power of the Spirit, but thousands of lost souls fled to Christ for forgiveness and salvation that very day! Peter testified to the glorious ministry of Jesus, and how the evil men in his audience had murdered Him by wicked hands. This was carried out in accordance with God's foreknowledge and determined counsel. Yet they were all still guilty of regicide and deicide. This was a bold accusation of criminal conduct of the worst kind! No longer was Peter afraid of these wicked people, but stood up to them and held nothing back of the truth. This sermon by Peter brought extreme fear and conviction in the hearts of many of his listeners: men and brethren, what shall we do, they cried out. This gave Peter his entrée to declare salvation and forgiveness of sin by the Lord Jesus! Repent and be baptized for the remission of sin! Soon after this, Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple gate by the power of the Lord Jesus. Peter then launched into the praises of Christ, how that the God of Israel had glorified His Son Jesus, the very same person Whom they had delivered up to Pilate. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1020252254281997 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 19 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:00 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Had Prayed for Peter https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1016251751525847 The night He was betrayed, Christ addressed Peter's failure, and that Satan desired to snatch him away from the Savior. But Christ prayed for Peter's faith, that it would not fail, and that Peter would return to Christ, and then strengthen his brethren. Peter is an example of Christ's power to save us in spite of our fears and failures, because God has given us our faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and Christ prays for our faith to be strengthened and upheld. Peter acted very boldly on occasions, contradicting Jesus, and denouncing the death that Jesus said He must die. Peter loudly proclaimed he would never deny Christ, and would die with Him, if it came to that. Peter swung a sword when wicked men came to take Jesus, but once Jesus made it clear that He would not resist, nor should His disciples, Peter and all the others forsook Christ and fled. Peter followed Him afar off when Jesus was taken to His unjust trial at the palace. There Peter warmed himself with the other servants, but his boldness completely collapsed, when a servant girl pointed out that Peter was one of the disciples of Jesus. Peter denied Christ three times, swearing and cursing that he didn't even know his own Savior! Peter wept bitterly at his betrayal of Jesus. Peter now understood the horrible truth, that Christ knew what Peter would do, no matter how much Peter boasted to the contrary. Jesus always knew. That meant, that Jesus' promise, that He would die at the hands of wicked men, was no doubt true as well. There was nothing Peter could do to stop the death of Messiah. To Peter, that meant that all hope was lost -- the kingdom Peter had longed for would not be established. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1016251751525847 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 12 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:35:47 no John Pittman Hey - Christ Must Open Our Eyes! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/10625201226793 When Jesus instituted the Lord's Table the night He was betrayed, there was no such faith exhibited by His disciples in the death that He would die to save them. Instead, there was only bluster and boasting about what they would do, all of which collapsed as soon as Jesus delivered Himself up to wicked men. But from the gospel text, we can plainly observe that Jesus, in His humanity, had great faith in what He would accomplish on Calvary's tree! Christ declared His desire to eat that last Passover with His disciples, before He suffered for their sakes. He believed He would accomplish His sacrifice of Himself to save all His people. Next, He declared His faith that His Passover supper would be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. That fulfillment would take place, even though the King would first be traitorously crucified! Jesus gave thanks in faithfulness for the cup, because one day, even though He would soon die, He would drink it new with His people in the coming kingdom of God. He gave faithful thanks for the bread unto God, that His very body would soon be sacrificed for His beloved people. He gave thanks for the cup, trusting that His blood shed on the cross, which that cup portrays, would execute the New Covenant, and that God would thereby forgive all the sins of His loved ones. Christ declared His trust in all these things, even in the face of His looming betrayal, and terror, and suffering, and abandonment by His disciples. Jesus believed that His death as our sacrifice would save His people from their sins! Thus, Christ in faith gave thanks for His Own cruel and bloody death for us. Christ declared His belief that His people would remember His death! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/10625201226793 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 05 Oct 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:56 no John Pittman Hey - Peter Could Not Save Jesus https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/103252147175832 In John 6, Christ describes in various ways, some of the work that God must do in poor lost people in order for them to trust in Jesus. This teaching is in the context of the people refusing to believe in Jesus, even though they saw and partook of an astounding miracle, the feeding of the five thousand. As we have considered before, physical miracles are not sufficient to bring a person to trust Gospel promises. Instead, we must have the miraculous work in us of the Holy Ghost, to change our hearts, and to give us the faith to believe in Christ's Gospel. The people asked Christ, what additional works of God must we do to obtain eternal life? As usual, the Jewish people were seeking to obtain their own righteousness by their keeping of the law. Christ turned their question around by His answer -- the work of God is that you believe on His Christ. Some theologians argue that the work being done is not that of the lost sinners, but rather by God Himself. In other words, it is God's Work in us, that we believe the Gospel! Faith is surely an act by us, but only because God works that faith in us toward Christ. No work of or by us can bring us unto Christ. The context in John 6 supports this interpretation, because Christ teaches us that men cannot believe unless God works in them, to cause them to believe. As Christ noted, though many of them had seen Him, yet they did not believe on Him. That is because only those whom God the Father gives to His Son will come to Christ, and everyone given to the Son will come to Him. Thus, no man can believe the Gospel unless God has first given that man to Christ, and every such man given to Christ will certainly believe in Him. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/103252147175832 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 28 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:34:34 no John Pittman Hey - No Man Can Come to Christ! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/925251729585531 Natural faith is our own thoughts and trust in this or that natural thing. But spiritual faith is the thoughts of God's Spirit in us, Who alone knows the things of God, and imparts them to us, and so we believe and trust in Jesus. Paul explained to the Philippians, that our faith in Jesus is given to us by God on behalf of Christ. But most people read right past this assertion by Paul, because of what follows next: that God gives us suffering for Christ's sake as well! We don't appreciate that sort of gift! We puzzle over it so much, that we fail to notice that the faith that God gives us, and the suffering He gives us, are a pair of gifts together. No doubt, the gift of faith relates to the gift of suffering, so that we may bear up under the later, by means of the former! Just a few verses later, Paul instructs us to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, because it is God that works in us, both to will and to do His good pleasure. We only desire to obey God's will, because God works that desire in us. Then He works the ability and power in us to obey His good pleasure. Thus, God is the ultimate cause of our being willing to please Him, and our being able to please Him! Neither thing comes from us, but rather both are the powerful working of God in us. Therefore, we ought to fear and tremble at that great power of God working in us! God's power changes us in a mysterious, yet mighty way. God's power changes our will, and enables our work. We must think of this truth, and embrace it, as we recognize our desires toward God, and our labor to please God. This is a great insult to those false teachers who claim we all have an "autonomous free will." https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/925251729585531 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:36:56 no John Pittman Hey - God's Mighty Power in Our Work https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/920252110214230 Saving faith only comes from God, and is not generated of ourselves. That faith comes by the working of the Holy Ghost in lost hearts, to grant us faith. Without that Spirit, we are all but carnal, natural, and in the flesh. Paul taught in Romans 8, that any such lost person cannot obey God or please Him at all. To receive the Gospel is to obey and please God, and therefore, such lost persons cannot receive the Gospel, or believe on Jesus Christ as their sacrifice for sin. But to be spiritually minded is to possess the Holy Ghost indwelling us. Everyone who is believing on Christ has the Holy Ghost residing inside him, and believes Christ's Gospel unto salvation. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul makes this even more explicit: the things that God has prepared for His loved ones can only be known by His Spirit. These things include Gospel truth, our sanctification, and our glorification unto everlasting life through Jesus Christ! The natural man, being without the Holy Ghost, cannot believe any of these things! He can know them in a mechanical way, but he cannot lay hold on them, embrace them, trust in them, and receive them. All these things God reveals exclusively by His Spirit in our hearts. This is because only the Holy Ghost can know the mind of God, being in fact God. And all these things can only be conveyed by that Spirit of God Who declared them and worked them for the good of His elect people. Thus the saints are knit together with God by that Spirit of God indwelling us. He conveys these truths to us, His Spirit to our spirit. Thus we have the most intimate communion possible between God and man, a spiritual union only the saints possess. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/920252110214230 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 14 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:14 no John Pittman Hey - Lost Men Unable to Believe https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/913252137297096 When the disciples asked Christ to increase their faith, Jesus never tried to give them tips on how THEY could increase their faith. Nor did He explain how HE would increase their faith! Strong faith, according to Christ, will bring powerful results. But Christ is more concerned that His people not think great things of themselves whenever they act in great faith. Rather, we are supposed to acknowledge that we are but unprofitable servants of God. There is to be no pride in our work for Him. The disciples had a very weak faith. They refused at first to believe the testimony of those who saw Jesus the day He rose from the grave! They rejected the testimony of Mary Magdalene and the disciples on the road to Emmaus as idle tales! When Christ appeared in person to them all, He upbraided them for their unbelief, rejecting the testimony of eye witnesses to His being alive again. The Apostle John was apparently the first to believe Christ had indeed risen, not by seeing Him, but by observing the way in which Christ's grave clothes were neatly arranged that Sunday morning in the empty tomb. No wonder it is John alone who recorded the incident of Thomas' refusal to believe, unless he could touch the wounds of Jesus with his own hands. Jesus told them all, that whoever believes on Him without seeing Him, is truly blessed indeed! This is not a "pat on the head" to those who believe, but rather a frank statement of the blessing of God on such persons, to be given such strong faith to believe in Jesus. John had himself experienced such a strong gift of faith, contrasted with Thomas and the other disciples, who had to see Christ alive for themselves before they would believe. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/913252137297096 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 07 Sep 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:39:35 no John Pittman Hey - But Only God Can Do That! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/97251430365304 In the healing of the lunatic son, we confront again the problem of faith, its necessity to believe the Gospel of Christ, and how it is to be obtained. The disciples could not cast out the demon, Christ said, because of their unbelief. In a wider view, Christ chastised the Israelites and their rulers as a "faithless and perverse generation." Nevertheless, Jesus was determined to do good for this poor man and his lunatic son! What an example of God's salvation of a rebellious and unbelieving people! But the man had little, if any, faith in Jesus. His cry was this: If thou canst do anything, have compassion and help us! Here was Christ observing, in His humanity, with human eyes, the truth that God always knew, that lost men CANNOT BELIEVE God in their own natural strength and wills. Thus, Christ observed close up humanity's poor broken state in these people. He saw it plainly, even if modern heretics stubbornly deny the inability of lost men to trust in the Gospel on their own. But we all see that same unbelief in our lost family and friends. Try as we might, we cannot convince them to believe. Only the Holy Ghost can work that miracle, to regenerate their hearts, and grant them the faith to believe and be saved. Christ pointed out to the father, that all things are possible for them who believe. But we must notice that Christ did not explain how an unbeliever can acquire such faith. But the desperate man replied to Jesus, I believe, help Thou my unbelief! He wants to believe, to save his poor son, but he knows his faith is tentative, and perhaps non-existent. But then we note this glorious truth: Christ heals this poor man's son anyway! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/97251430365304 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 31 Aug 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:34 no John Pittman Hey - The Miracle of Saving Faith https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/830252157532135 After Christ teachings, that He must die at the hands of wicked men, and be raised from the dead, came the miracle of the healing of the lunatic son, another glorious work performed by Christ, when His disciples had failed to cast out the devil from that poor man. The scene opens when Jesus arrives and catches the rulers questioning His disciples, because they could not heal the poor young man. Jesus didn't like to see these hypocrites questioning His disciples, because He knew why they were doing it – to mock them for believing on Jesus as Messiah, and to ridicule their impotence to heal this poor man. But Jesus comes and saves the day! He cast out the demon, and rebuked them all for their unbelief. This is a running theme throughout history: mocking the Lord's people in times of distress. A particular example is Nebuchadnezzar's mocking the three Hebrew young men, who refused to bow down and worship his giant idol which he had erected. So too the martyrs of Jesus have been persecuted, mocked, and put to death, even unto this day. Sometimes the Lord rescues them, and sometimes they are cruelly slain. Christ Himself was mocked at Calvary, as He had been telling His people for some time before. It was foretold by David in Psalm 22, what he had learned from the Spirit of Christ. The entire Psalm describes the humiliation of Christ on the cross, and His rescue by God, and exaltation when it was over. Christ had foretold His mocking and shame: "I am a reproach of men, and despised by the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying, He trusted in God that he would deliver him: let him deliver him now!" https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/830252157532135 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 24 Aug 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:29:44 no John Pittman Hey - The Wicked Hate Our Savior https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/82025010194728 The transfiguration of Christ, and the healing of the lunatic son, are well known miracles of Christ. Yet it is little noted that the context of these two miracles is Christ's rejected teaching, that He must die and rise again. Just before the transfiguration, Christ begins to tell His disciples that He must be treated with contempt by His Own people and by the Romans, and then taken out and killed, and then raised again the third day. Peter and the rest of the disciples didn't like that teaching at all. Peter rebuked Christ, and denounced the pending death of Jesus. Peter and the disciples longed for Christ to set up His kingdom and destroy the wicked Romans. The return of a physical kingdom then was one of the things that men embraced, but not God. Think of it: the means of our salvation and everlasting joy were rejected by the disciples of Christ, the very ones who followed Him and believed in Him! But God desired the sacrifice of Jesus, in fact, He brought it to pass, by the hands of wicked men who hated Messiah. Christ Himself, as our High Priest, offered Himself up as God's Lamb to take away the sin of His people. Within a week of their rejecting Christ's teaching, Peter, James, and John were present to observe the transfiguration of Christ on the mountain. They saw Moses & Elijah, two important patriarchs of Israel, conversing with Jesus about His ascension to glory. But God spoke to them all out of the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased! Hear ye Him! This was a word of rebuke to the disciples for objecting to Christ's sacrifice on the cross! No matter what the disciples thought, the only Person Whose thoughts matter is Almighty God! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/82025010194728 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 17 Aug 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:39:20 no John Pittman Hey - Miracles Cannot Convert a Soul https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/813252229505728 Consider the greatest tragedy of all – the murder of the Lord Jesus. In John 12, just before Christ went to the cross, He declared the distress of His soul at the prospect. Should He pray His Father to save Him from this hour? But for the cause of making a sacrifice He came to this hour! Jesus described why He must die: like a kernel of wheat, unless it falls to the ground and dies, it brings forth no fruit. Christ must die, so that life could multiply unto all His loved ones! Christ here expresses His personal anguish at the prospect of the coming dreadful hour, when He will be punished for our sins laid upon Him. Yet, He knows that it must be done, and that His whole life was an intentional pursuit of this very dark hour. Finally, the Lord Jesus intimates that His death will be by crucifixion, so that all sorts of the world's people might learn the Gospel and be saved. And so, the greatest tragedy is this: that the only perfect man ever, must be murdered by the state, by the will of God, and by Christ's Own will, so that He might be sacrificed as God's pure Lamb, to cleanse and perfect His people from every stain of their sin. Our Lord Jesus suffered both physically and spiritually, with the thorns, the vicious floggings, the humiliation, the mocking, the shame. But the wrath for our sins was also laid upon Him on the cross by God, and He was punished in our place and treated as guilty for us. Christ is the only unguilty, innocent man ever seen in this world! That glorious outcome of the tragedy for us was also foretold by Christ on that horrible night: You now have sorrow, but I will see you again, & your heart shall rejoice, & your joy no man taketh from you! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/813252229505728 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 10 Aug 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:35:46 no John Pittman Hey - Why Do Tragedies Happen? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8925218373049 Even the tragedy of death, God turns to joy, when God's glory is shown to us! When Lazarus was sick, the Lord Jesus tells His disciples that it is all so that Christ the Son of God might be glorified! Christ teaches us that, what is to lost men pointless and unredeemable is, to those who trust in Christ, meant to manifest the glory of Christ to us! Christ deliberately tarries until Lazarus has died, because God had ordained Lazarus to die from his illness. Jesus knew all that, and He intended things to develop as they did, so that we might see His glory in the conquering of death for His loved ones. We ought to take great comfort when death comes to us or our loved ones, knowing that each discrete step along the way was planned by God, to accomplish His good purposes for us, and to reveal His glory to us! Martha told the Savior, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother Lazarus had not died!" But God's will and purpose was to demonstrate in Lazarus' death what Christ next tells Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live! Whoever believes in me shall never die." Can we believe that? Do we believe it? We must trust in Jesus in every discrete step of the way in tragedy, and not question, why didn't God do this instead of that? If Christ had followed Martha's wishes, and healed Lazarus before he died, we would be less sure of His power over death! Thus, tragedies train us to trust in God, and God uses our tragedies to train others to trust in God. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8925218373049 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 03 Aug 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:39:55 no John Pittman Hey - Why Do Tragedies Happen? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8525223651093 Christ discussed incidents where a tower collapsed and killed many people, and where the tyrant that ruled over them murdered them and used their blood to pollute their sacrifices. Christ warned us not to assume that victims of tragedy are necessarily greater sinners. Israel, and indeed most people today, assume that God blesses the righteous, and so the greater the tragedy, the greater the sin must be. This was the false view for which Job's friends were rebuked. They falsely insisted that God would not have allowed the tragedies experienced by Job, unless Job had committed some secret iniquity against the Lord. Some tragedies, the Lord Jesus instructed us, are warnings of judgment to come for unrepentant sinners. Judgment is sure to fall against the wicked. Rather than speculate about why tragedy falls on other people, we are to realize our own wickedness is sure to be punished one day. Christ assures us that something bad will happen because of our sin, and we ought to seek repentance and forgiveness from the Lamb Who was slain for our crimes. But His disciples couldn't grasp the truth of this, and when they came upon a man born blind, they assumed that either he or his parents had committed some grave sin. But Jesus set them right: sin in that case had nothing to do with it, but tragedy befell the poor man so that the works of God might be seen in him. Indeed, shortly thereafter, Christ performed the great miracle of giving sight to that poor man who was born blind! Nothing like that had ever been seen before! This was a great work given to Christ by His Father, to testify to His bona fides, that Jesus has all the power of God, because He is God! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8525223651093 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 27 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:18 no John Pittman Hey - Why Do Tragedies Happen? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/724252124447164 According to God's Word, God works ALL THINGS after the council of His Will! God has a reason and purpose for every tragedy, but that doesn't mean that we know the why of it all at this time. This month, our nation's support for Israeli Zionism has blown up in our face. Even those who are enthusiastic supporters of Zionist violence and terrorism, couldn't withstand the outrage over Israeli attacks on Christian Palestinians and American citizens. Violent Zionist settlers have been burning fields and houses, assaulting and murdering Palestinians, blocking food aid vehicles from feeding starving people in Gaza, and trying to drive them away, so that the Israelis can seize their homes and fields for themselves. And so in the last month, settlers beat and murdered an American citizen visiting his family in Palestine, yet another church in Gaza was shelled, killing three people, and the historic Christian town of Taybeh, or Ephraim as it is called in the Gospel of John, has been under a sustained attack by settlers, burning homes and cars and fields, and destroying olive trees. The Christian leaders of the town have issued a plea to the world for help against these settler attacks. While at first it looked like US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who has supported the settler terrorism, would ignore the Christian plea for help, it quickly turned out that there are American citizens living in Taybeh who are under assault by the settlers. So yesterday, Huckabee toured the town of Taybeh, and denounced the settler violence as "acts of terror." All of this violence and oppression against believers is, of course, ordained by God for His Own purposes and for the good of His saints. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/724252124447164 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 20 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:24 no John Pittman Hey - Why Do Tragedies Happen? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/719252022317571 The horrible flash floods in Texas have claimed almost 300 lives missing or dead. There was no warning, and the shallow rivers in the region are quickly filled to overflowing, roaring down stream and carrying trees and buildings and vehicles with it, as well as animal and human victims. Some will say, that God didn't want this to happen. He was standing by and watching, and couldn't do anything to stop the flooding. But the Bible refutes such nonsense! God works ALL THINGS after the council of His Will! God has a reason and purpose for these floods, but that doesn't mean that we know the why of it all at this time. The Bible teaches that God not only made the weather system and processes, but that God controls them also. Many texts bear this truth out. God sends the rain, the floods, the heat of the sun, earthquakes, storms, the wind, eclipses, droughts, and a host of other meteorological events. In these texts, God takes personal responsibility for bringing all these things to pass. Sometimes God sends these things for judgment and wrath against ungodliness. The global flood that destroyed almost all mankind is but one such incident, where God took personal responsibility for bringing it about. God carries out these things, rarely directly, but overwhelmingly by His providence. God is the ultimate cause of all things that exist or take place! The Psalmist proclaims that the wind, the floods, the lightnings, the fire, the hail, they all fulfill God's word! In the book of Job, both Elihu and God Himself give God the credit as the meticulous cause of whirlwinds, cold, rainstorms, etc., and of them all obeying God's commands. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/719252022317571 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 13 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:55 no John Pittman Hey - Why Do Tragedies Happen? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/716252154265686 When Jesus spoke with His friend Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus, she inquired tentatively whether Jesus might ask His Father for Lazarus' life to be restored. Jesus quickly corrected her: I AM the resurrection and the life! Christ is not just powerful enough to raise His people from the grave. He is, rather, resurrection and life itself! His identity itself is resurrection and life. By His almighty power, as God Himself, He raises up all His people who trust in Him. This is because all of life was created by the Son of God. Jesus pushes further: whoever believes on Him, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die. Even in death, His trusting loved ones merely rest in sleep, a rest from which one day, Jesus will awaken us, and we shall never die forever! Everlasting life is here again promised by Jesus. How can God be just and justify sinners? How can the promised judgment for sin be reversed, legally and morally, so that God's promise of wrath is fulfilled against us? In John 10, Jesus described the only method: He should lay down His life for His people, His sheep, whom God had given to Him for safekeeping! But there is an additional duty imposed upon Christ, not only to lay down His life to save His sheep, but also to take up His life again in resurrection. Only in that way can Christ fully and completely save His lost loved ones, by dying in their place, and rising again in vindication and glory to lose none of them, that none of them ever could be snatched away from His saving, strong arms. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/716252154265686 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 06 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:45 no John Pittman Hey https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/71125221263194 In Ephesians 3, Paul describes the mystery of the Gospel, only then revealed in full. That God would save Gentiles as well as Jews, and unite them all together in Christ's church, was a veiled truth until after the Resurrection. But all of this was the eternal purpose, proposed in Christ Jesus as Lord. So by faith in Christ, we all have boldness, and access in confidence to our God. That faith was itself given to us by God through the Holy Ghost. By Christ's blood shed and presented in the holiest place in glory, and being cleansed by that blood, by faith we lay hold upon that boldness and confidence in Christ. Paul insists that those believers faint not because of his own persecutions. Indeed, being bold in Christ in the face of those persecutions is our glory. Paul next prays for them, as members of the family of God in Christ, that according to His riches in glory, they would be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Paul seeks that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith, and we ourselves rooted and grounded in the love of Christ, so that we might be able to comprehend, with all the saints, the infinite greatness of the love of Christ. Oh, how we need to grasp the truth of Christ dwelling in our hearts, and believe it is so! It is the unity of the Lord's people by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, which knits us together with Christ, and the Father, and with each other, that we may all be one in Christ! Oh, that we would know the love of Christ, which naturally cannot be known, but by His Spirit in us, and that we would be filled with the fullness of God Himself! In a real sense, the saints are all "taken over" by the Spirit of Christ in us. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/71125221263194 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 29 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:23 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/629251515582857 In Philippians 1, Paul describes how his persecution advances the Gospel! In his bondage, he displays the Gospel message even in the palace, and its spread is thereby furthered. Notice that this is the opposite of what false teachers preach. The Gospel is not preached by violence by believers, but rather by violence AGAINST believers! Further, Paul's boldness induces boldness in other Gospel preachers! Paul exclaimed that "many waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." Some people even preached the Gospel to hurt Paul, but he rejoiced in that also. Paul rejoiced in every way that Christ was preached. Rather than shutting down the Gospel message by jailing Paul, instead the Gospel message exploded. Paul expected to be released from his bonds, due to the saints' prayers for him, and the further supply of the Holy Ghost. Paul had an earnest expectation, that he wouldn't be ashamed of anything, but rather that in all boldness, as usual, but now more so, Christ would be magnified in Paul's body, whether in life, or in death. Paul knew he would not be ashamed in his suffering for his faithfulness to Christ and Gospel preaching. It would not, and could never be, in vain. The Gospel preaching could never fail to work God's will in the hearts of the hearers. In Paul's body, Christ would be magnified, whether in Paul's release, or in his death at the hands of his persecutors. Either way, Paul would be delivered from the wrath of wicked men. This makes Paul's dilemma greater, because he wins either way, in life, or in dying. Paul realizes that should he die, he would be instantly with Christ, and what joy that would be! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/629251515582857 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 22 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:42:41 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/62025012184010 Godly boldness is not of ourselves, or inherent in our ethnic lineage, neither is it a character quality backed by force or violence, but rather is in and through Jesus Christ. Paul exhorts us to prayer. Our prayer is to be continuous, in the Holy Ghost, and with watchfulness and perseverance. It is to be prayer for all the saints, and will include our petitions and supplications, which are supporting, upholding, and asking the Lord for help for all the brethren. Then Paul adds, "and for me." Paul asked the believers to pray for himself, that he would be able to speak boldly. Think of it: Paul desires prayers for more boldness in his Gospel preaching! The one whom Scripture portrays as very bold by the Holy Ghost, seeks supplication by his fellow believers for even more boldness. Paul asks for prayers, that he might be able to make known the mystery of the Gospel. The Gospel is a mystery to the lost, for it is foolishness to them, and while they might understand it, they are unable to trust in it, or believe it unto salvation. Paul did reveal in his epistles the essential help required from the Holy Ghost, to cause the natural man to be able to understand and receive the things of God. Paul also explained how the Gospel operates to save lost men, by the satisfaction of God's justice against poor sinners, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in our place and for our crimes, imputed to Him by God. Christ's blood is the appeasement and satisfaction of God's wrath against us for our sins, and by faith we lay hold of that sacrifice, and God imputes to us Christ's righteousness, making us fit to come into the presence of our holy and infinitely powerful God! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/62025012184010 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 15 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:46:48 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/61425195122850 At Iconium, bold Gospel preaching brought about the conversion of many Jews and Gentiles together. This preaching was done by Jewish believers to both Jews and Gentiles. But then, unbelieving Jews tried to shut down Paul's Gospel preaching! They poisoned the minds of some unbelieving Gentiles against Christ. Paul and the brethren didn't stop. For a long time, they continued to preach boldly the Gospel to all the people of Iconium. God honored their faithfulness by giving signs and wonders, to testify to the truth of what they were preaching, even under opposition by lost men. So the city was divided between Jews and Gentiles who believed in Christ, and those who opposed the Gospel. The unbelieving Jews and Gentiles assaulted Paul and other Christians, plotting to abuse and murder them, and trying to stop the spread of the Gospel. Notice the parallel with the murder of Jesus: recall how reprobate Jewish leaders co-opted the Roman tyrants to put our Savior to death on the cross! This cooperation between wicked Jews and Gentiles had been explained by Christ to His disciples beforehand. First, Jesus said, the Jewish rulers would corruptly condemn Him to death. Then secondly, they would turn Him over to the Roman governing authorities, to be mocked, beaten mercilessly, spit upon, and murdered by crucifixion. Sure enough, what Jesus described came to pass: the wicked Jewish leaders condemned Him to death, and the Romans carried it out at the cross. While initially crushed in spirit by this dreadful turn of events, the disciples, soon after Christ's resurrection, recalled that the Scriptures had foretold that lost Gentiles would believe on Jesus also! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/61425195122850 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 08 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:10 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/6425175513594 Paul's boldness is explicitly credited to the work of the Holy Ghost. An example of Paul's boldness in Gospel preaching is seen in his powerful and provocative sermon at the synagogue in Antioch of Psidia. Paul points out that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promises to the house of David, and that Christ is the long-desired Savior. Not only that, but right here, right now, word of this salvation is preached to you! Paul forcefully asserts that the rulers of Israel falsely condemned the innocent Jesus to death, never realizing that the prophets foretold Christ's death in the place of His sinful people, dying for their sins laid upon Him by God! But the third day, God raised up Christ from the grave, vindicating Him before all the world! Paul then declares glad tidings to his listeners, mostly Jews, but some others as well in the synagogue that day, of how the promise of a Savior, made to the fathers, has been fulfilled by Christ being raised from the dead. Paul then exclaims, "be it known that through this Man, the Savior, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and the justification of all those who believe on Him, from all things from which you cannot be justified by Moses' law! What Paul has described to these people that day was just that very work of God to provide salvation for His people, proven by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and yet most of Paul's hearers rejected his preaching, and later tried to shut Paul down from ministry in their town. Indeed, the Gentiles caught wind of Paul's Gospel preaching, and desired Paul to preach it to them as well! A week later, almost the entire city was gathered to hear the good news Paul preached. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/6425175513594 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 01 Jun 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:48:26 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/524252043112528 Regardless of what certain false teachers claim, as we have mentioned before, the Holy Ghost is powerful to sanctify every sort of believer, and suppress our character flaws for God's glory and our good, regardless of race. Paul's boldness is explicitly credited to the work of the Holy Ghost. He was bold in proclaiming the Gospel even when dangerous, followed by persecution, followed by Paul going elsewhere to preach. When Paul and Barnabas went to Paphos, the local minor ruler, Sergius Paulus, summoned Paul to hear the Gospel. Sergius' friend Barjesus, a sorcerer, interfered with the gospel work. No doubt this wicked man's income would be lost if his friend Sergius turned away from the devil's work and toward Christ. He needed to keep Sergius in Satan's thrall. Once again, Scripture tells us that it was the Holy Ghost in Paul that led him to denounce this wicked man to his face, as a child of the devil, an enemy of righteousness, and a perverter of the ways of the Lord! Then Paul called down judgment against the sorcerer, placing blindness upon him for a while. When Sergius saw what happened, he realized that the so-called "power" of his sorcerer friend was no match for the power of the Holy Ghost. All the benefits he supposed he had in his wicked friend, were worthless in the face of the truth of the gospel! Most people would have declined to confront the friend of the ruler, worrying that it would alienate him from the message, and perhaps even result in a violent reaction against the preacher. But not Paul. We see here a striking example of a boldness that could have been dangerous, but instead, the Spirit moved Sergius to believe the Gospel. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/524252043112528 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 18 May 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:32:16 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/51725225310880 Godly boldness is not inherited, nor comes from some so-called noble or superior lineage. God can and does embolden His people, no matter how lowly or poor or disadvantaged they may be. We were all lost in sin and degradation and humiliation, until Christ cleansed us with His Own precious blood. He has saved us, and placed upon us His nobility and honor, and a portion of His boldness, by the Holy Ghost, for God's glory, and for our great benefit! The apostle Paul is a key example. He was very bold in his persecution of the Lord's people, but at that time he was aligned with the wicked power structure of Israel, the same one that murdered Messiah. But when Jesus confronted Paul on the road, Paul was struck blind. Ananias went to lay hands on Paul in Damascus, and not only was his sight restored, but he was filled with the Holy Ghost. Immediately Paul began preaching Christ's gospel, and that the Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. This drove some of the local Jews into a rage, and they plotted to kill Paul, but Paul escaped over the wall and went to Jerusalem. Instead of piping down, and laying low, Paul started back up again, proclaiming the Lord Jesus, right there in the place where his former mentors and overseers were headquartered. They too plotted to kill Paul, so he left Jerusalem and went to Caesarea. This pattern repeated over and over throughout Paul's ministry: boldness in proclaiming the Gospel even though dangerous, followed by persecution, followed by Paul going elsewhere to preach. So we see that boldness and prudence are in no way incompatible. This is in keeping with Christ's instructions to His people during His ministry. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/51725225310880 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 11 May 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:48 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/510252258121829 The Holy Ghost is powerful to sanctify every sort of believer, and suppress our character flaws for God's glory and our good, regardless of race. The Lord makes us brave by His providential care and through His Word to us, and by being with us always. God instructed Joshua to be strong and courageous, because God Himself would never leave Joshua nor forsake him. Paul quotes that same text in calling for the saints to exclaim, that the Lord is our helper, and we shall not fear what man can do to us. This Holy Ghost boldness was well displayed by the disciples from the very first. Joseph of Arimathea was bold to beg Pilate for the body of Jesus, so that He might receive the promised honorable burial in the tomb. Peter's boldness was evident in his confrontational preaching at Pentecost. When the Jewish rulers called Peter and John before the council to rebuke them for healing the lame man in the name of Jesus, they grew bolder still! Acts is clear why this is: because they were filled with the Holy Ghost. This is very striking in view of Peter's denial of Christ at the crucifixion. Peter had before talked big, but was cowed by the words of a servant girl. But now by the Holy Ghost, Peter did not mince words, but rather declared hard words, that he knew would rile up those wicked rulers who had murdered Messiah. Peter threw Christ's warning back into their faces: they had killed God's Son to try to seize the kingdom, rejecting the cornerstone, but God had raised up and exalted Christ to be the cornerstone anyway! Even the wicked rulers marveled that these ignorant and unlearned men had great boldness before them. But they took note, that they had been with Jesus! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/510252258121829 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 04 May 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:41:03 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/429252126447333 The church is being polluted by a form of "our blood, our soil" extreme nationalism, that teaches that God gave America to Anglo Saxon Protestants, but all sorts of other people are invading our country and "ruining our heritage." These false teachers hold even Italians, Greeks, Jews, Hispanics, and Blacks as aliens, who should be excluded as far as possible from America. Often, they advocate discrimination and suppression, claiming a "spiritual basis" for these wicked notions. In the case at hand, the false teacher preaches that all blacks are under "the curse of Ham." But it turns out that Scripture never mentions a curse against Ham, but rather, a curse against one of his four sons, Canaan. Needless to say, Blacks do not descend from Canaan, so the curse against Canaan cannot be used to justify anti-black racism. Furthermore, this false teacher believes that Blacks ought to be made our servants, according to the terms of the imaginary curse of Ham! In fact, he teaches that the curse is actually a command for white people (which he claims are the "true sons of Japheth") to enforce the imaginary curse against Blacks! Meanwhile, he notes that the sons of Japheth were specially blessed by Noah in Genesis 9, which he supposes supports his view that white people are blessed and superior to the offspring of Ham and Shem. His false teaching on these matters is a mass of made up scripture, confusion, and circular argument that is unsupportable from Scripture. We obtain an insight into this false teacher's warped thinking and inability to grasp the logical contradictions of his beliefs, when we read one of his latest ideas. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/429252126447333 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 27 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:41:19 no John Pittman Hey - Our True Source of Bravery https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4212523152735 The malevolent coverup of the resurrection began, even while the women went to tell the disciples the good news. The guards came into the city and told the chief priest and rulers everything that had happened. Think of it -- the rulers and priests' own employees told them the truth about the resurrection, even though as soldiers, their words put them in potential jeopardy. This is how we know that the chief priests and all the people that were there knew Christ had risen from the grave. They knew because the guards told them. But they hated Christ, and had murdered Messiah, and they weren't about to allow His claims to be vindicated by His own resurrection. So they paid the soldiers to lie, and say that the disciples stole Christ's body. The soldiers lied for them out of greed, and the rulers were determined to suppress Christ's work at all costs. They had already murdered Him, so what was a little bribery to spread lies to deny His resurrection? This is in concert with what the scriptures teach, that the natural man, that is, the man without the Holy Spirit, cannot receive the things that be of God, because they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. Having and believing the facts aren't enough without the Spirit's supernatural work in your mind and heart. Without the Spirit, you cannot receive it. You cannot rest in it. You cannot trust in it. So it was with the rulers. They hated Messiah. They murdered Messiah. And they were going to continue their anti-Messiah agenda all the way to the end, no matter what they actually knew to be true. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4212523152735 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 20 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:34:14 no John Pittman Hey - But Christ is Risen Indeed! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/417252247397153 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/417252247397153 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 13 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:36:26 no John Pittman Hey - What Does Surety Mean? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/412252153366986 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/412252153366986 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 06 Apr 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:33:38 no John Pittman Hey - What Does Surety Mean? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4425214847813 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4425214847813 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 30 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:35:12 no John Pittman Hey - Then Were the Disciples Glad! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/44252146475187 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/44252146475187 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 12 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:45 no John Pittman Hey - Christ's Inexorable Work https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/44252144432122 https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/44252144432122 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 05 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:33:05 no John Pittman Hey - The Blasphemy of the Mass https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3312517293979 We find that Christ is uniquely special among all the sons ever born in this world! He was eternally going to be the only Savior for lost mankind! All His life was laid out beforehand, even to the point of the cruel acts of wicked men who murdered Him, all so God's method of redemption and the forgiveness of sin might be brought to pass, by the dying of Jesus as our substitute in the wrath of God for our sins. For example, Peter's sermon in Acts 3 sketches out the fact that Christ's death and resurrection were clearly foretold, and that Christ had to suffer as it was written, for the salvation of those who trust in Him. But most of the Old Testament prophecies about Christ that were used by Christ and the Apostles, focused on the things that could be seen and compared to what actually happened, but even those had to be pointed out. These are explicit claims of fulfilled prophecies, most of which of themselves aren't directly related to the prophetic work of Christ as our sacrifice. Rather, they are remarkable incidents in the life of a real Savior, to prove His power and right to fulfill the other, more theological promises to us. As foretold, Christ was born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Ghost, and would be God manifest in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us! As foretold, Christ was born in Bethlehem, and was worshiped by kings from far away who had studied carefully the promises of Messiah to come. As foretold, Herod tried to exterminate Messiah, and murdered countless little babies in the process. As foretold, when the Jewish leaders plotted to murder Jesus, He did not protest, or strive, or cry out in indignation. He was well pleasing to God. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3312517293979 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:34 no John Pittman Hey - Celebrating the Birth of Jesus https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11725016486945 We love to celebrate the birth of our dear Lord Jesus this time of the year, for it is a marvelous and glorious thing! The birth of the Second Person of the triune God, specifically to save us from our sins, by dying in our place on the cross, is a unique person, with a unique purpose, and full of love and compassion for His poor people! The wonder of it all, is that so many of Christ's particular virtues, and special acts, were clearly laid out beforehand by the prophets of old. In the garden, right after the fall of man into sin and ruin, God Himself promised, that the incarnate seed of the woman would one day crush the serpent's head, while being wounded on His heel. This promise of the incarnation was noted by the writer of Hebrews: forasmuch then as the children of God are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also took part of the same, that He might deliver them all! The psalmist David foretold the death of Christ, His faith and peace in His death, and God's promise that He would not see corruption. Afterward, Christ in His humanity would rejoice before God forever! We are all born with little or no knowledge of God's purpose in bringing us to life, and we travel through life, not knowing what will come to pass. Not so with Jesus! He knew. He always knew! He intended it to be so, that He should die to save His people from their sins. There is therefore, for Christ, a great deal of expressed knowledge beforehand of the purpose and arc of the life of Christ. God ordains all our lives and outcomes, but Christ's foreordained outcome and work were fully known to Him, and partly recorded beforehand for our knowledge and comfort by the prophets. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11725016486945 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 22 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:39:29 no John Pittman Hey - Celebrating the Birth of Jesus https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/122924034242683 Paul begins the book of Romans by expounding on the wrath of God against unbelievers, who have enough revelation in nature to compel them to worship their Creator, and to love Him, and yet they do not. They do not glorify God; they are not thankful. They descend into foolishness, gross wickedness, and the love of rebellion against God. But most of the remainder of Romans is about how God saves His loved ones from His just wrath! He does so, not by lowering the standards of justice, but by the dying of His Son as our sacrifice, and pursuing His beloved ones by the Holy Spirit. This was foretold in various prophecies, for example, by Micah: God will pardon our iniquity, and pass by our transgressions. God delights in mercy for His people. He will have compassion upon us, He will subdue our iniquities! God will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Indeed, our Lord Jesus, during His ministry, showed both common and extraordinary compassion on lost people around Him. Jesus kindly raised the poor widow's only son up in the very midst of his funeral procession! But more glorious is the compassion Jesus showed for lost sinners! The most amazing part is, that our Savior went to the cross, and suffered agony and shame for us, bearing our sins in His Own body on the tree, suffering the wrath of God in our place. And yet, He never laid a burden on His people as He died! He never leveled any recriminations against us, though it was for our crimes that He suffered so. He is always so kind to us, even when we are unkind to Him. He is so gentle with His people. He will never crush us, praise God! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/122924034242683 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 15 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:30:06 no John Pittman Hey - The Gentleness of Jesus! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/121824039186094 We are not to put our trust in princes, or in man generally, since all their plans disappear as soon as they die. Only God's plans survive, and continue to accomplish His purposes! No nation we can build or fight for can accomplish anything lasting for us. Our only hope is found in our Lord Jesus, and what He accomplished for us at the cross. He has saved His people, and one day will raise us up to everlasting life in glory! Early this very morning, the Assad government in Syria collapsed before the world's eyes! Now, Isis and Al Qaeda are in control, put into place by Turkey, Israel, and the United States. It seems that the countries in the middle east that protected Christians have all been overthrown by Israel and the United States, forcing believers to flee for their lives or be murdered by their new leaders. America has hated Syria and Assad because his government was friendly with Iran and Russia, and so we have constantly bombed its people, stolen their property and oil, and imposed killing sanctions that destroyed its economy and citizenry. Many people trusted that Assad would protect them. But now all at once, he has been driven out, and those people now await their liquidation by our terrorist allies who took over. That is why we are not to put our trust in princes! The Lord wants His people to trust only in His power, and in His Son's might and glory! Some teach that Israel is promised to return to the land. That well might be true. But the New Testament directs our attention to Christ's return to that land, of His reign, His rule, His judgment, His peace. That is what believers are to long for! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/121824039186094 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 08 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:31:12 no John Pittman Hey - Put Not Your Trust in Princes! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/12152422016417 Younger people often seem to have few worries, since everything is provided free by others, but as one grows older, responsibilities and concerns loom large more and more, and thereby, we ought to grasp how much we depend on our God's goodness to us. It helps us to do so by considering how little others have compared to us. Many live in mud huts, with no utilities, no doctors. In other places, many are martyred for their faith, or for political reasons. Poverty is rampant, with no shelter, little food, and no friends to count on. We see extreme violence today in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been murdered, hundreds of thousands of homes obliterated, and nobody is willing to stop it. Recall how Ethel Waters sang Irving Berlin's song "Suppertime" on the stage in 1933. It is the anguished cry of a black mother who has just learned that her husband has been lynched. She agonizes how she can tell her small children that their father will never be coming home again. She struggles with the problem of her duty to be thankful. She laments: How can I keep from crying when I bring their supper on? How can I remind them to pray at their humble board? How can I be thankful when they start to thank the Lord? Thus we see the problem we sometimes have in thanking the Lord during grief and trials and losses. Nevertheless, we need to give thanks to God in all things, even if only to take notice of the things we have that others don't have. We are to pray for them to be blessed also! The psalmist David had many things to say about thanksgiving to the Lord. Over and over, he exhorts the Lord's people to give thanks to God, to make known His wondrous deeds to all men. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/12152422016417 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 01 Dec 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:33:25 no John Pittman Hey - Others Have Almost Nothing https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11292429157720 Nobody can see the Lamb until God shows them their need for a sacrifice for their sins. This is done by miraculous work of the Holy Ghost in each individual who then comes to trust in Christ. Scripture many times describes the Lord Jesus as God's Lamb for us! He is our sacrifice to take away our sin, He is our salvation! In Abraham's case, God promised to provide a lamb Himself for a sacrifice, but it was not limited to that one time to save Isaac. Rather, Abraham came to understand God meant He would provide THE Lamb, the Messiah, one day for our sacrifice for our sin! The Passover Lamb is another old testament illustration of God's lamb. It was the blood of that lamb displayed on the doorposts of the house, that protected the people inside from the judgment and wrath of God passing through the land that very night. Paul makes it clear, that this Passover lamb pointed to our Lord Jesus. "Christ our Passover Lamb is sacrificed for us!" he declared. Paul also tied that Passover lamb and celebration to the Lord's Table. The Lord Jesus Himself repurposed the old Passover celebration as a remembrance of His becoming our Passover lamb. Jesus has thereby promised that when the wrath falls, God will pass over all His people who are under Christ's blood. Most prominent is the prophecy of Isaiah, how Messiah would be crushed and smitten by God for our own sins, laid upon Christ by God Himself. He would be "brought as a lamb to the slaughter." John the Baptist announced that Jesus was that long-promised Lamb of God, that takes away our sin. The Apostle John often equated Christ with God's Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, Who has redeemed us to God by His blood! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/11292429157720 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 24 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:31:48 no John Pittman Hey - Knowing We Need A Savior https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1120242337337012 Abraham laid Isaac on the alter and prepared to slay him, as commanded by God, but the Angel of the Lord stopped him at the last moment. But then Abraham turned and looked, and saw the ram caught in the thicket, provided by God, for the sake of Isaac! No doubt, that look was prompted by the Holy Ghost, so that Abraham might see the lamb that God had provided, just as He said He would! The instant Abraham saw that lamb, he understood everything: God's Lamb is slain in the sinner's place, and His wrath is done away with! The Holy Ghost had prepared Abraham's heart to see the lamb, and to grasp its necessity. Why is it, then, when we preach the Lamb to the lost around us, He is almost universally rejected? It is because lost men think they have no need for a Lamb of sacrifice to take away their sin. They are lost in their sin, and therefore they cannot see the need for a Lamb to save them. Trusting in the Lamb is unnatural without the converting power of the Holy Ghost to convince us of our sin, and judgment, and wrath, and salvation. Paul teaches that the natural man knows of God, but rejects that knowledge of God in rebellion. Therefore, he can only slide deeper and deeper into sin and willful blindness. The natural man, being void of the Holy Spirit, cannot receive the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him. This doesn't mean that lost man cannot grasp the basic content and meaning of the Gospel, but rather that he cannot embrace it, or value it, or trust in it. The gospel is hidden from the lost, because the god of this world has blinded the minds of all unbelievers, so that the light of the gospel of Christ cannot shine unto them. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1120242337337012 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 17 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:30:29 no John Pittman Hey - Knowing We Need a Savior https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/111324049414493 Too many good Americans see our country as the "indispensable nation" – raised up by God for great things, and God will surely continue to use us indefinitely, if only Trump succeeds. But America is already awash in innocent blood, both the unborn and many helpless victims around the world. Very few of us seem to care. We are 35 trillion dollars in debt, with no way out. Societal collapse is all around, with corruption and incompetence. The post office, the police, the courts, the public schools – all are catastrophic failures. Depravity and immorality saturate our own community, which is falling apart before our eyes, with murders, serious losses of population, worse and worse fools elected to run things. Some of them cannot even speak plain intelligible English in the public meetings they conduct! Americans are going to have to let go of our fanciful view that particular nations will survive in the long term, and do great good, and advance the Lord's kingdom. God controls all things, but not for the reasons we'd like Him to! The prophet Daniel declared: God removes kings, and sets up kings. He alone gives wisdom and knowledge. Scan through history and you will find that there have been many great kingdoms and peoples, but in the end, God has destroyed them all, and then raised up other kingdoms and other peoples to take their places. Therefore, it is foolish for us to look to any extent kingdom for our future hope. Babylon had a powerful and cruel king Nebuchadnezzar. He was forced to submit himself to the absolute rule of the God of Heaven. But God had already announced his kingdom's fall and the rise of the Persians. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/111324049414493 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 10 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:32:08 no John Pittman Hey - Put Not Your Trust in Princes! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1182405630143 Today in many churches, sermons on who to vote for, or who a Christian can never vote for, will be delivered. But not here. Instead, we will review some warnings about improper ways of thinking about elections. First, democratic representation brings along with it personal moral responsibility onto the voters whose candidate is victorious. In Christ's day, the people were ruled by foreign despots, and had no moral input into government conduct. But with the democratic process, now we do bear moral responsibility for what our elected officials do. Both major candidates are overt moral catastrophes. None of them believe the gospel or have repented of their gross sins. They will seize our money and waste it. They are using outrageous lying rhetoric against each other. They lie about what their opponents will do. Their hands are drenched in the innocent blood of countless helpless people the world over, and both have assured us they will continue those terrorist policies. Both major candidates openly advocate terrorist atrocities against innocent people. There are several moral pitfalls we easily fall into at election time. The first is moral pragmatism, to vote for the "lessor of two evils." But that begs the question, how can we really tell which candidate is the lessor evil? The next moral slip is to assume that our chosen candidate won't turn out to be nearly as bad as he appears now! Maybe he will surprise us by doing some good things! This demonstrates that determining the "lessor of two evils" is in fact impossible, because we cannot know the future or what God is trying to accomplish in all these things. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1182405630143 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 03 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:49 no John Pittman Hey - An Election Day Sermon https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/114242248441438 God promises a startling change in the condition of the mountains and plants and fields when Messiah comes to reign. There will be a marvelous transformation of this old fallen, broken down world, marred now by sin and corruption. In Isaiah 11, the change in the animal's behavior is underlined: where once there was discord and death and danger, Christ's reign will bring about peace and friendship and docility. The wild beasts will be tame in the hands of a little child! The lion will eat straw like an ox, and the beasts will no more destroy each other! In other words, the animals will no longer behave according to the fallen and corrupt world. According to God's explanation, the reason for this dramatic change is, that the whole world will be filled with the knowledge of God, like the water covers the sea! The overwhelming knowledge of God from the presence of Jesus Christ will overcome the corruption of sin, and will rule the behavior even of the animals! Paul used the promise of the glorious restoration of the creature by the promised glorification of the sons of God, as an illustration of the wonder of the comfort we have by the Holy Ghost, that we shall one day be glorified. If the animals, so much more the Lord's people themselves! Jesus made similar arguments about how God cares for the needs of the animals, so much more will He care for His Children! He uses the life and death of sparrows to show God's greater care for us! "Not one sparrow is forgotten before God! Fear not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows!" Christ goes further, noting that God provides the food and clothing and shelter for His animals, and therefore He will provide for us! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/114242248441438 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 27 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:35:10 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/102424224074043 God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his own most beloved son Isaac. Abraham had trusted in God's promises, and God counted it for righteousness. Abraham would not disobey God's command, even though it seemed that the killing of Isaac would overturn the covenant God had made with Abraham, because according to the Lord, all the promised blessings were to be in and through Isaac his son. Along the way, Isaac asked his father the most important question: where is the lamb for the sacrifice? Isaac was old enough to understand that God required an animal to offer up, whose blood was shed to satisfy God's demands upon His people. How could God be satisfied without a lamb to sacrifice? Abraham's response to Isaac was profound, even though he failed to grasp its full import: God will provide Himself a lamb for a sacrifice! What Abraham articulated had been revealed to him by the Holy Ghost, and he spoke prophetically. His statement had an immediate fulfillment, and an eternal one. Just a few hours later, God did indeed provide a lamb to take Isaac's place, and to rescue Isaac from being slain by Abraham. But in the future, God would provide Himself as THE Lamb of sacrifice, His Own dear only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, to take the place of His loved ones as our sin offering, to take away our sins completely. Before Christ went to the cross, all men could say in hope and trust was that somehow, someday, "God would provide Himself a lamb for our sacrifice." But now we can proclaim, no, now God HAS PROVIDED Himself our Lamb of sacrifice! The promise foretold to Abraham by the Holy Ghost has finally, after all these centuries, been completely fulfilled for us in Christ! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/102424224074043 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 20 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:04 no John Pittman Hey - Abraham's Promise Fulfilled! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1021241751116972 According to Paul in Romans 8, the comfort of the Holy Ghost for us includes the promise of our resurrection one day. The same spirit that raised up Christ will also raise up all of Christ's people! That power of Christ rising again will be deployed in every single one of the Lord's people! Then glory will be revealed in us, a glory that far exceeds the suffering of this world. But then, Paul inserts an argument about the creation as a startling example of the glory that will one day be revealed in us. That glorification of Christ's people will include the salvation of the natural world from the corruption of sin and death. It is as if Paul is saying, if we can hardly grasp the glory about to be revealed in us by the Holy Ghost, then look at how that same glory will result in the restoration and saving of the natural world! This is a teaching that most believers find wholly novel, and yet Paul thinks it an important reason why the glory of our resurrection is particularly spectacular. We don't like to think that man's fall so marred the physical creation, but it did. That fact explains all the pain and sorrow and dying and suffering of the entire world. But Paul teaches that our coming into glory by the resurrection power of Christ through the Holy Ghost, will have visible and astonishing effect upon the whole creation. That great glory that will be revealed to us at our resurrection, will extend to the whole creation. All the brokenness of the animals, their violence, their brutal deaths, their tragic existence, and the malignant power of nature, will finally be set right, with goodness restored, and Christ's righteousness overwhelming the world like a flood. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/1021241751116972 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 13 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:41:52 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/109242139218007 Peter claimed he would die before he would ever deny Jesus. When it came time for Christ's betrayal, Peter demurred. Why was this? The key is Christ's forbidding Peter from fighting to stop His murder. In other words, Christ deprived Peter of a "fair fight" with swords and fists. So long as Peter could strike the enemies of Jesus with weapons of war, his determination was secure. But Christ forbade Peter from using carnal methods in the cause of Christ. It was at this point, that the disciples all forsook Christ and fled. It turned out that Peter's boast to stick with Christ was limited to circumstances where He, as a man, could put up a fair fight with arms. Peter was a man of action, and such a battle appealed to him. So long as Peter could resist physically and violently the taking of the Savior, he was operating in his zone of comfort as a strong and determined man! But the idea of submitting according to the will of God to violent men, to murderers, to traitors, that Peter could not and would not do. If Jesus wasn't going to put up a fight, how could Peter? But Christ must be slain to save His people from their sin! The gospel plan of salvation was utterly contrary to carnal man's way of thinking. To submit to the Holy Ghost, to place one's hope in a savior who died to save us, was to turn away completely from all self-reliance, earthly power, strength, and self-righteousness. Peter and the other disciples were not ready for all that! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/109242139218007 Religion & Spirituality Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:43:20 no John Pittman Hey - The Evil of Christendom https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/10124046424129 There has been catastrophic damage by Hurricane Helene in Georgia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina. Some areas received over 2 feet of rain in eight hours. Some are calling this a 1000-year flood. There is massive flooding, where whole towns have been swept away in rivers of raging muddy water. It appears that many hundreds of people have been swept away in the floods and have drowned. Sometimes, floods are used by God as judgment against gross societal wickedness. The best example is the worldwide flood in Noah's day, which God directly brought to pass, that He might destroy the earth, and every creature that breathed, including all mankind. This was, God revealed, to purge away the great evil wrought by mankind. Only Noah and his family found grace in God's sight, and were spared by means of the ark. We know that ark was a picture of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Just like Noah, all those saved by the blood of Jesus have been shut up in that Ark. The wrath of God against sin, like an overwhelming flood that destroys all breathing life, was borne by that Ark, God's Lamb, while His people were safe inside. He sheltered us from God's wrath for our crimes, by being subject to that wrath in our place! God Himself speaks to Job, and confirms that He made all things to begin with, laying the foundations of the earth. He shut up the sea with doors when it broke loose, and carved out a place for it to stay put. He set bars and doors upon the oceans! He directly commands the sea, this far and no farther! He controls the snow and the hail and the wind. He creates the watercourse for overflowing floods. God's control of all nature, including the floods, is all-pervasive. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/10124046424129 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 29 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:34:29 no John Pittman Hey - Christ and the Flood Waters https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/92424175641684 Jesus never fails to save His loved ones! He never faces failure in saving anybody! When we were brought to Christ, we were already dead – dead in our trespasses and sins! In fact, we were too dead to come to Jesus on our own. In Ephesians 2, Paul describes our deadness. We had, not the Holy Spirit, but that vile spirit that works in all the children of disobedience. But God loves His people so, and is rich in mercy to us, even while we were dead in our sins, and so He made us alive together with Christ, by grace saving us! For by grace we are saved through faith, and that not of ourselves, even it is the gift of God to us! For lost people, it must be the Holy Ghost that brings us to Christ, because we are dead already! Jesus made this clear to Nicodemus: except a man be born again by the Holy Ghost, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Most appropriate to this discussion, is to recall that new, fleshy heart that God gives to those whom He will save. He told Ezekiel, that He would take out our stony, dead hearts, and give us new hearts of flesh, to know and to love and to obey Him. He promised to give us a new spirit as well, His very spirit, to cause us to walk according to His commandments! Our Savior has been very clear: He never loses a single one of us brought to Him by the Father for rescue! In John 6, Jesus couldn't have said it any plainer: "I came from heaven not to do my own will, but the Father's will. And this is the Father's will Who sent me, that of all that He gives to me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Christ also asserted here, that everyone who believes on Him, will have everlasting life! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/92424175641684 Religion & Spirituality Tue, 24 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:58 no John Pittman Hey - Christ's Sheep Never Perish https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/92024231933683 We all need to be saved from various things in our lives. In some cases, we need somebody with knowledge and skill to save us. Other times, we need someone with wisdom and prudence. Or sometimes, we need somebody with connections and influence to save us. But sometimes, we need a savior with the power and strength to save us! What is the nature of our salvation from sin and death and hell by Christ's Gospel? Paul reminds us that the Gospel of our salvation is, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; that He was buried, and rose again the third day according to the scriptures; and that He was seen alive again by numerous witnesses. But that raises the vital question: where is the power of Christ in His dying? Dying seems to be weak and powerless to us. How can a dead savior rescue anybody? Paul underlines this strange counter-intuitive juxtaposition of our weakness, and Christ's dying to save us, in Romans 5:6 -- when we were without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly! We were dying in our weakness, without strength, because we couldn't keep the law for our own righteousness, and therefore we could never escape the subsequent wrath of God against us. We needed strength, we needed power, so Christ died for us in our place. The love of God for us was thereby displayed, that Christ died for poor, helpless, lost sinners. Notice that Christ's salvation for us was His assumption of our weakness, and our sin, and our powerlessness to save ourselves. Christ swallowed it all up by dying in our place! Thus we are justified by His blood, shed for our crimes, and we are saved from wrath through Christ's dying for us. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/92024231933683 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 15 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:38 no John Pittman Hey - Weakness of Christ's Gospel? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/911242128238158 Leviticus 4:3 is a little noticed, curious text of scripture. There we find this requirement: "If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he must bring to the Lord a young bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed." Thus, God held all of Israel guilty for the sins of their priests! This is another example of the imputation of guilt upon persons who did not themselves personally violate God's commandments. Adam's sin is the primary example of this, which drives false Christians and heretics insane to hear of. But Adam was the representative of the whole human race, and when he sinned, in him we all sinned, and therefore we all died. In the case of the sinning priest, a heightened animal blood sacrifice was required, in which the blood was taken into the tabernacle and sprinkled on the vail, and daubed on the horns of the altar of incense that stood before that vail. But we recall that Caiaphas the high priest had our Lord Jesus put to death at the hands of the Roman tyrants. His was the greatest of sins possible, the killing of the Lord of Glory! This explains why Peter rebuked all the Jews of Israel at Pentecost: they had taken and by wicked hands had crucified Messiah! The listeners immediately grasped the dire nature of their sin in this matter, especially after Peter proved from Scripture that Jesus is the promised Messiah Who rose from the dead just like David had foretold. Therefore Peter warned the people to repent and trust in Jesus, and save themselves from their nation and its sin against Messiah. Many did so that day. There is an absolute necessity that our high priest be completely without sin. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/911242128238158 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 08 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:33:10 no John Pittman Hey - Our Perfect Sinless Priest https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/952422524581 Scripture makes it clear that the Savior joys in His people, and is pleased to meet with us here this morning. First, Jesus is certainly here with us today, for He told His disciples, that wherever two or three of us gather in His name, He is in the midst with us. Jesus was promised of olden time by God that Christ would see His saved ones. Isaiah recorded it this way: "He shall see His seed." In Hebrews 12, there is reference made to the joy set before Christ, by which He endured the pain and agony of the cross. No doubt that joy which Christ anticipated, included the saving of His loved ones, that is, the sure prospect of "seeing His seed," those whom He was about to redeem! In His high priestly prayer, Jesus refers to His joy – "these things I speak unto the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves." Thus, the joy of Christ in saving us, is fulfilled in each of us when we first believe on Him and enter into His glorious salvation! Indeed, He delights in mercy toward us, as Micah recorded: "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." God's joy breaks forth in singing over us! As Zephaniah recorded, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing!" Christ rejoices over the saving of His lost sheep, whom He seeks out and finds and brings home safely! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/952422524581 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 01 Sep 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:23:11 no John Pittman Hey - He Rejoices with Singing! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8282405472078 God made all the world perfect and good, with no animal or human death. It was a paradise! None of God's creatures killed another creature! God placed man as His highest creation over all the rest of the creation, giving him dominion over the creation and commanding him to subdue it. God provided only vegetables and fruit for food to His all creatures. Man's dominion was to be wise, non-violent, and benevolent. That's because man was made in God's image -- rational, spiritual, able to communicate with God, and most loved by God. But when Adam sinned, this all came crashing down. Thus, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, instantly they were spiritually dead, and physically, corruption set in, and dying soon they would be dead. They were both alienated and ashamed to be seen by God in their naked and disobedient characters, so they hid themselves from His presence. God pronounced several curses, which are but samples of the full consequences of the punishment of death upon Adam, all his descendants, and the creatures God had placed him as head over. But things soon grew much worse. The first man born in this world murdered his own brother in cold blood! Why? Because Adam was our representative before God. His rebellion was seen as a rebellion of the whole creation against God, which Adam represented. Adam was made in God's image, given God's command, and appointed by God to represent the creation. In man's fall, the whole world fell, and became subject to pain, sorrow, destruction, vanity, hopelessness, brokenness, and death. But the Holy Ghost works in believers unto our glorification! That glory will far exceed the sorrow & pain of our sufferings here. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8282405472078 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 25 Aug 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:45:50 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/819242249484805 In Romans, Paul dealt with life and death, both spiritual and physical, and we learn that spiritual life and physical life are not always tied together. Spiritual death and physical death only APPEAR not to be tied together. In the Garden of Eden, God gave a commandment: if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that day, you shall die. When Adam ate of the forbidden tree, instantly he was dead spiritually, even though that death was a silent thing. He lay spiritually dead in rebellion against God, and he was unable to hear and obey God's commandments, without the Holy Ghost first working a miracle in his mind and heart, a miracle of spiritual regeneration, spiritual new birth, in short, a spiritual raising from the dead. But Adam's physical death was also a stealthy thing, consisting of the onset of physical corruption due to sin. Little by little, corruption brought decay, disease, dissolution, detrimental aging, until finally Adam's physical corruption reached its pinnacle in death and the grave. This physical death proceeded apace, even in those souls where the Holy Ghost had since the fall worked faith to trust in God's promise of salvation for sinners! This meant that every person was dying physically, whether or not they remained spiritually dead, or were spiritually alive again through God's gracious work in them. In Romans, Paul makes it clear that the judgment for sin is death, and he doesn't distinguish between physical and spiritual death in the first five chapters. That's because the punishment for sin is all of one piece: death, both spiritual and physical, because the wages of sin is death. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/819242249484805 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 18 Aug 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:48:08 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/81224234930422 The Spirit bears witness to all believers, that we are the children of God by adoption, that we are therefore heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, and that because we suffer with Christ and in Christ, we shall also be glorified in and with Christ! God has given us a miraculous faith to trust in Jesus, and to persevere in all our trials and sorrow, because the Spirit testifies to us of the glory that surely will come one day! Paul elaborates to the Thessalonian believers upon this same theme of our faith growing to overcome persecution. He rejoices that their faith grows exceedingly, in tandem with unity and love together. Paul rejoices that those believers are an example of faith and patience in persecution, which he brags about to the other churches. Their example manifests the righteous judgment of God, Who counts them worthy of the kingdom of God. God's justice against their persecutors will be revealed one day, and it will be a righteous judgment. Paul exhorts them to rest with all the saints, until that coming day, when Christ and His angels will appear from heaven, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, nor believe Christ's gospel. The end of the wicked is everlasting destruction before Christ's presence, and by the glory of His power! Christ will, at that time, be glorified by and in His people, and be admired by them, because they believed upon Him beforehand. Paul therefore prays for them, that God would count them worthy of all these things, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with His power. All this is to be done, that our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in His people! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/81224234930422 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 11 Aug 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:34:21 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8824163723529 Our Lord Jesus was cruelly mocked and taunted during His ministry, and certainly when He was crucified to save us. Isaiah had foretold that this would be: "He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid our faces from Him, and esteemed Him not." When Jesus cast a demon out of the blind and dumb man, the Pharisees scoffed that He had done so by the power of the prince of devils. Imagine, they mocked Christ for doing a good thing for this poor man! When Jesus healed the man born blind, they denounced Him as "not of God," because He had healed on the Sabbath day. Later on, they asserted that He was a sinner, and that they didn't know where He came from. Christ Himself warned His disciples that He would be mocked and spit upon, and murdered by wicked men, and rise again the third day. At His trial before the Sanhedrin, He was blindfolded and struck on the face, and taunted to guess who it was that struck Him. When they hauled Christ before Herod, Herod and his men belittled Him, and mocked Him, and dressed Him in a gorgeous robe, like some character in a comedy. Pilate's men were the worst. They flogged our Lord Jesus, stripped Him of His clothes, dressed Him in scarlet, pressed a crown of thorns upon His head, and placed a reed in His hand. They staged their own "tableau," dressing Jesus up as a clown king, with royal robes, and a crown, and a scepter. They mocked Him with the words, "Hail, King of the Jews," and then as His blood ran down His face from the thorns, they smote His bleeding head with the reed. Then the people at the cross mocked Jesus. They wagged their heads at Him, and dared Him to save Himself. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/8824163723529 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 04 Aug 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:41:28 no John Pittman Hey - The Olympic Blasphemy https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/72924183276346 The Olympics are supposed to promote peace between nations in sport competitions. But this year, the Olympic games were re-purposed to promote sexual perversion in the name of "inclusion," and to force it into the faces of the public, to bring "peace and acceptance" for open rebellion against the Creator, Who made humans male and female. It is indeed "the world united against God." Much distress was caused by a tableau mocking Leonardo DaVinci's painting of the last supper of Christ and His disciples. Seated along a table were drag queens instead of disciples, with Christ being replaced by a very large lesbian dressed to expose most of her chest, wearing a headdress that depicted a halo. At the end, what she presented to the "disciples" and to the public is not the sacraments that represent Christ's body and blood as a sacrifice, but rather a nearly naked man, painted all in blue, with an orange beard, said to represent Dionysus, the Greek god of feasting, festivals, drunkenness, and revelry. After the outrage, the gaslighting began. Some tried to claim it was merely a representation of the feast of Dionysus, but the title in the program stated it was the Last Supper. Thinking what Christ did, in that final celebration of the Passover feast, brings into focus the vileness and the mockery of it in Paris. When the Lord Jesus celebrated that last Passover feast with his disciples, the night before He was crucified, He showed them something new, something far better. He showed them that He is God's true Lamb and sacrifice for the forgiveness of all our sins. Jesus used that feast to celebrate a better sacrifice than the Passover lamb could ever be! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/72924183276346 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 28 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:36:24 no John Pittman Hey - The Olympic Blasphemy https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/72424018232979 With the world abuzz about the news of the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, all sorts of foolishness is being circulated, abusing scripture to claim that Donald Trump is literally God's anointed servant to rescue America. Not only so, but the questions being raised about God's providence, make it evident that almost nobody understands God's absolute control over all things that take place, nor God's moment by moment upholding of all things by the Word of His power. For example, since Trump was shot at 6:11 pm local time, many have insisted that means, that Ephesians 6:11 explains this event! They believe that Trump was clothed in the armor of God, and that is why the bullets could not harm him. But clearly, the context of Ephesians 6 demonstrates that this passage applies only to believers. God's armor is only available to those who embrace His gospel by faith in its promises. The chapter speaks to the proper everyday conduct only of believers who trust in and obey God. Clearly, the text doesn't apply to Donald Trump at all! It refers to spiritual warfare by believers, not physical combat and fighting. God's armor is God's word, the truth, the imputed righteousness of Christ to His saved ones, the Gospel of saving grace by the death of Christ, saving faith in that Gospel, and the possession by believers of everlasting salvation by the Gospel through Jesus Christ. Next, there is the ludicrous "blood on the ear" claim, that Donald Trump having his ear bloodied by the assassin's bullet, somehow consecrates him for divine service to the nation. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/72424018232979 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 21 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:45:49 no John Pittman Hey - Thoughts on Trump's Near Miss https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/717242344276922 The world is abuzz with the news of the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. This failed attempt is but another instance of God's providence in our lives. That's because God is in control, and He determines all things. God has numbered our days beforehand, and He both gives life and takes life away. God ordains, and ultimately causes, the carrying out of all things in His world, using means, even the good and evil motives and acts of men. None of us knows why God spared Mr. Trump's life last night! We may never know in this life! Some people are glad Trump was spared by God. But others are very disappointed that Mr. Trump wasn't killed. Some folks believe God spared Trump to save our nation. Others believe that Trump's survival will destroy the nation! In truth, either group may be right, or neither group may be right! God's word teaches that we must be careful not to speculate about the purposes of God's working, unless they become apparent and plain. We know that God controls and rules over all things, but we do not know His purposes as He does so. We must also admit that, while God by His providence spared Trump's life, God by His providence took the life of the retired fireman who died shielding his wife and daughters from the would-be assassin. Therefore, the same question might be asked: why did God not spare his life also? His poor family must be asking this painful question even now. But only our God knows! And as believers, we must bow to the fact that it is God's right as creator to do as He did, even as Job ultimately submitted to that truth. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/717242344276922 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 14 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:47:55 no John Pittman Hey - Thoughts on Trump's Near Miss https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/712242250232847 God spared not His Own Son, but delivered Him up for us all! No wonder Jesus cried out on the cross, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me!" God did not rescue Christ from the suffering the wrath for our sin, for He "was delivered for our offenses." Scripture is clear: God Himself crucified the Lord Jesus using the hands of wicked men. He was delivered to wicked men by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God! Those wicked men did whatever God's hand and counsel had before ordained they should do. The text makes it clear, that what they did was utter rebellion against Christ, God's anointed One. Yet God had long before determined – indeed, it was by God's very hand! – what those murderers did to Jesus! God sacrificed Jesus because He laid our crimes upon Jesus, and would punish Jesus in our place as our substitute. God made Christ sin for us, He who knew no sin! God made Christ a sin offering for our sins laid upon Him there. Then God poured out His wrath on Jesus instead of us, so that Christ's sacrifice appeased God's wrath against us. In Galatians, this substitution is described by Paul as Christ being made a curse for us, to deliver us from the curse of the law. The curse of the law was God's promised wrath against all those who break His commandments. Only God can place that curse upon a sinner, and it leads to destruction at God's hand. That curse is no mere label for sinners. Rather it is wrath and punishment and death for the law breaker. Paul warns that that curse comes upon all men, for no man can keep God's law perfectly. At the cross, God cursed the Lord Jesus for us, and punished Him as though He were guilty for the sins His people do! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/712242250232847 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 07 Jul 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:34:20 no John Pittman Hey - Who Crucified Christ? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/7324013234214 Scripture also teaches that Christ, as our High Priest, sacrificed Himself to God for the propitiation of our crimes, which were laid on Him. Paul declared that Christ, out of love, gave Himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. No Old Testament lamb ever "gave itself" up as a sacrifice, but God's Lamb gave Himself as a sacrifice, not to the devil, or to some ideal of cosmic justice, but rather to God, to atone for our sins. Hebrews lays out in detail the active role Christ played in making Himself our sacrifice. He was appointed by an oath by God to be our high priest, to reconcile us to God, to represent us to God, and God to us, in His incarnate humanity, being made like us. Christ as our high priest offers Himself as an appeasing sacrifice for our sins to God. When first introduced, this truth shocks us. In Hebrews 7:28, Christ is said to have offered a one-time sin sacrifice for us, when He offered up Himself! But Hebrews grows more explicit: Christ being a better High Priest, not with animal blood, but by His Own blood, entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us! The Aaronic priests went often into the tabernacle with animal blood, that could never take away sin. They sprinkled it on the mercy seat before God to make an atonement. But Jesus presented His Own blood to God to appease God's wrath and purchase our redemption! He "offered Himself without spot to God," purging our consciences from dead works to serve the living God! Thus, Christ is the mediator of the superior New Covenant, such that by means of His death, He bought redemption for His people for the law we had broken. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/7324013234214 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 30 Jun 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:31:43 no John Pittman Hey - Who Crucified Christ? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/626240210209 The Scriptures clearly teach that Jesus was murdered by an evil people out of a rabid rage and rebellion against Him. Jesus foretold the acts of those wicked men. He repeatedly told His disciples that He must be betrayed into the hands of evil men, and brutally slain by them. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave, that pushed Israel's wicked rulers over the edge. Because of the miracles Jesus was doing, the rulers feared that the whole nation would soon follow Him, and the Romans would take away their positions and overthrow the nation. Imagine: they thought it was a good plan to kill the only Man Who could raise dead people from the grave! They'd rather grasp their privileged positions in Jewish society, than to seek refuge in Messiah! So they decided it was best to kill the holy, just, and innocent Jesus in order to "protect the nation." At the Passover, the rulers plotted to kidnap Christ with the help of Judas Iscariot, and then put Him to death. In the end, the rulers and the crowd cruelly murdered Jesus in the most foul, horrible way, by pressuring the Romans to crucify Him on the cross. Scripture is most clear about the wicked deeds that were done to murder Jesus, and yet there are people who call themselves Christians who claim these people did nothing wrong, that Christ wasn't murdered at all. They suggest that Christ volunteering to lay down His life makes their actions pure and just! They claim that because God obviously ordained that Jesus be put to death, God cannot charge those who accomplished His purposes with any sin. In other words, they believe that God cannot hold a man guilty if his evil deeds accomplish God's purpose! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/626240210209 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 23 Jun 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:36:49 no John Pittman Hey - Who Crucified Christ? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/62124031297322 Sometimes we read a short text in Scripture that we've never paid attention to before, and it fairly jumps out at us! Such was the case in Matthew 27:2, where the arrest of Jesus is described: "and when they had bound Him, they led Him away, and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate." We know how Christ was cruelly crucified, nailed to a cross, tortured and murdered and buried in the grave for us. But just those few words, "when they had bound Him," captured my attention. Of course Jesus had the right and power to reject such handling by His creatures. Often they had tried to seize Him, but He just stepped away from them. Soldiers who were sent to take Him returned emptyhanded, and gave as their explanation, "never a man spoke like this man!" But when the time of His death came, He submitted Himself to their hands. One of His disciples attempted to drive off the mob that night, but Jesus gently rebuked him. Don't you know, Jesus asked him, that He could pray to His Father, and a host of angels would come and rescue Him? "But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be thus?" All this was done, that the scriptures might be fulfilled. In John's gospel, additional details are provided, proving that Christ had the power to stop His own arrest, but He chose not to exercise that power. When He told them Who His was, they all fell back on the ground! All their "power" over Christ was only because Christ refused to deploy either power, or commands, to stop them. In fact, Jesus deliberately went to Gethsemane to be taken by Judas Iscariot, because He knew Judas would come there to find Jesus. Jesus only used His words to protect His people from being arrested! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/62124031297322 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 16 Jun 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:39:24 no John Pittman Hey - Who Crucified Christ? https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/68242351317160 Scripture teaches that God Himself rejoices over saving us! It was foretold that God would rejoice to save His people. The prophet Zephaniah recorded God's joyous singing over His saved people: "The LORD has taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy. The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing!" In Luke 15, Christ rebukes the Pharisees when they object to His eating with sinners, who wanted to hear Jesus' gospel, and needed Christ's salvation. Christ tells the story of a man who has a flock of sheep, and one of them has wandered off and is lost. The shepherd will go out into the wilderness and search, until he finds that sheep that was lost! Once found, he lays the sheep on his shoulders and carries him back home again! All along the way, he rejoices at finding his sheep! And when he finally gets back home, he calls together his friends and says to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost! Christ then concludes, that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents! Christ's use of the image of a poor sinner as the lost sheep that is found, is an example of a more general metaphor of Christ as the shepherd of His sheep, and His sheep being kept and provided for, and protected and saved. Sheep are recalcitrant, and foolish, and helpless, just like sinners. But we notice here and elsewhere, that Jesus is kindly disposed to His sheep! The reason is profound: Christ loves and cares for His sheep, because His Father gave those sheep to Him! The Father entrusted the sheep to Christ's care and protection and salvation. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/68242351317160 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 02 Jun 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:06 no John Pittman Hey - We are His Lost Sheep https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/61242230271779 The lot of mankind is frailty and weakness, when the body just won't go anymore. This often results in a loss of appetite and motivation and drive. It feels like a dishrag wrung out. This is a profound weakness, not to be confused with routine hunger, thirst, or tiredness. Rather, it is an invincible weakness that knows no cure. Sometimes it is the result of old age, or some illness, or perhaps medicine gone wrong. It is this latter cause that has knocked this preacher out the last several weeks! Thinking of the bodily weakness of Christ at the cross, I take comfort that Jesus knows my profound physical weakness! Usually, we speak of Christ's posture of weakness in submitting to death, wherein to others, He appeared weak, psychologically and positionally. But we exult in His strength in that lowly posture, because unbeknownst to everybody around Him, Christ always had the upper hand! He laid down His life to save us! His victory was by weakness and defeat! He trod all our foes beneath His feet by being trodden down! But today we speak of Christ's bodily physical weakness – not that strategic weakness postured to great victory. There are several places in Scripture that describe the bodily weakness of Jesus. In Psalm 22, many aspects of His crucifixion are portrayed, but references to Christ being "poured out like water," "heart like wax and melted," "strength dried up like a potsherd," and "tongue cleaving to my jaws," focus on the draining and profound physical weakness of our Savior at the cross. These are descriptions of the particular manner in which crucifixion drains the life force out of the victim, creating positional asphyxiation and heart failure. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/61242230271779 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 26 May 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:30:40 no John Pittman Hey - A Comfort for Weak Christians https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/5172409306800 Paul comforted believers, that the sufferings of this world are nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us at the return of Christ! Paul's personal salvation testimony was intricately tied to the union of Christ with His people in suffering. On Paul's way to persecute believers in Damascus, the Lord Himself confronted Paul with the reality: "Why are you persecuting ME!" Jesus declared that He treated Paul's assaults against the church as a personal afront and attack against Himself! Paul reminded Timothy how much persecution the apostle had suffered during his ministry, yet God had delivered him from them. Indeed, Paul taught that all who live godly in Christ will suffer persecution. Recall how the Savior warned us before He went to the cross, that the world hated Him, and therefore hated His people also, because we follow and believe on Jesus. Paul went on to declare his utter assurance of the power of his Redeemer to save him to the end from all persecution. He wrote, that for the cause of Christ and the gospel, "I suffer all these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day!" Paul also assures his converts of their privilege to suffer with Christ! To their adversaries who persecute them, their steadfastness in Christ, and their refusal to back down under terrorist attacks, proves they are doomed and hopeless fools. But to believers, that steadfastness in faith is a proof, that God will save us as He has promised. That faith, like the suffering, is a gift from God to all His people who He loves, not of our own making or sustaining! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/5172409306800 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 05 May 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:30:58 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/5324044342051 The saints are also joined together with Christ in persecutions and sufferings in this life. Christ promised that we would be persecuted. But Christ also linked that persecution with our eternal life to come at the end! His teaching on this matter tracks well with Paul's exhortation, that if we suffer with Christ, we will also be glorified with Him. Christ warned of personal betrayals by family and friends, and outright persecution for those who believe in Jesus. Christ promises that He will give us the words to speak as a testimony at the proper time by the Holy Ghost. Christ even warns the saints that some of us will be put to death for His sake. But then He promises us, that in all this, not an hair of our heads shall perish! He will raise up all of His people, and vindicate us completely, and restore that which was harmed and taken away, with new glorified bodies like unto His! We are joined with Christ in all these sufferings, because we are Christ's! We suffer with Him in this life, but Christ counts it all as done for His name's sake! This is because the world hated Christ before it hated us. If they would have persecuted Christ, they will persecute His people. That's because they don't know God at all. Some saints today suffer far worse persecution than do believers in western countries – in China, in North Korea, in Indonesia, in Iran, in Israel, in Saudi Arabia, in many African counties, in far-left liberal countries in Europe, including England, as well as Canada. Yet we see a rising tide of persecution even in our own country. The reason Christ gave for this persecution is His revelation of the world's dark wickedness and sin. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/5324044342051 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 28 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:41:41 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/42424224333886 Paul explains in Romans 8 the union of Christ and His people in suffering, death, and glory: "since we suffer with Christ, we will also be glorified together with Christ." Because we have been united with Christ as God's sons, we share with Christ in His humanity, as does Christ with us. We are all brethren with Christ in the royal family of God! All who trust in Jesus have been baptized into Christ by the Holy Ghost, and therefore baptized into His death and into His resurrection. Therefore, they have been baptized into Christ's suffering and glory! This union with Christ is firstly, vicarious and by imputation. We died with Christ at the cross. This was not our physical death, but rather spiritually and legally, a death to sin and the law's punishment. We then rose with Christ spiritually unto new life in and with Him! We were baptized into Christ by the Spirit of Adoption, and therefore we are Christ's, and we have "put on Christ." We are joined with Christ in His dying, and in His resurrection, and in His inheritance. This all has profound implications upon our lives in this world. Since we are thereby dead to sin in Christ, we ought not to continue in sin any longer, even though there is no longer any judgment left for our sin. Christ has taken away our judgment by dying for our sins in our place. The penalty for the broken law lies fully executed against us, but only in Christ, Who took our place in that judgment. Even as we died with Christ, we are also raised spiritually with Christ unto new life in Christ. Thus, because we have been joined together with Christ by the Holy Ghost, we suffer with Christ, and we are glorified with Christ. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/42424224333886 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 21 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:21 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/415242123333408 We look to many people to rescue us from danger and trouble. Firemen, policemen, EMT medics, doctors, or just a kind and strong passerby. But they are not always able to save the people who cry out to them for help. In our community, we have heard just this week of a poor woman whose car was swept off the highway by high waters, submerged upside down in the ditch, with water pouring in upon her. She called her husband to beg him to come save her. He called her again and she told him she knew she would not survive. She poured out her heart, telling him she loved him, and she loved her family. And then she died, before anyone could arrive to rescue her. She cried out to her own husband to save her, but he was unable to. All this should cause believers to rejoice at the power and glory of Christ our Savior, and how He saves us perfectly and forever! Unlike that poor man who couldn't save his wife, our Savior never loses any of His loved ones! That poor man had no plan to save his wife, for how could he? He had no ability, because he didn't even know where his wife was to save her. He didn't know what danger to plan for, and couldn't possibly be prepared when she cried out to him. Not so our Lord Jesus! The Apostle Peter informs us that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, God's perfect Lamb, Who was foreordained to save us before the foundation of the world! Christ's means, power, ability, and determination to save His loved ones were all planned before the world even began! Jesus planned ahead to save us, to pay the price of our redemption! In the Revelation, John tells us that the Lamb was indeed slain before the foundation of the world! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/415242123333408 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 14 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:39:33 no John Pittman Hey - Thoughts About a Tragic Death https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/492401785654 In Romans 8, Paul taught that those who belong to Christ are not of the flesh, but of the Spirit, which dwells in each of us. If Christ is therefore in us, our bodies are still dead, subject to the corruption of sin and death, but our spirits are alive, because Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us! And if we are led by the Spirit of God, we are the sons of God! The Holy Ghost is in us, animates us, moves us, prompts us, guides us into all truth, convicts us, inspires us, and comforts us! Thereby, we are led by the Spirit of God as His Own sons! Before, we were in the grip of a spirit of bondage unto fear, a spirit of doom and impending judgment for our sins, and death and hell. But Christ, by His dying for us, has delivered us, we who through fear of death were all our lifetimes subject to that spirit of bondage. But having saved us, we have been given the Spirit of Adoption, that is, the Spirit of Christ, the natural perfect Son, that Spirit that now leads us as though we were natural sons, the adopted sons of God our Father. By that Spirit dwelling in us, we can now cry, Abba, Father! We are knit to God through Jesus Christ by His Spirit dwelling in us, and leading us, more and more, to behave and think and act like Christ, the well-beloved Son. This provides us a closer bond then can ever exist between natural sons and their earthly fathers, and thus we partake of Christ as regards our sonship, even though by nature we were not God's children. Paul next declares that the indwelling Spirit of Adoption bears witness with our own spirit, that we are the children of God! That Spirit within us convinces us of what God has promised us! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/492401785654 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 07 Apr 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:31:43 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4624222337537 This Easter Sunday, we especially celebrate the resurrection of Christ. It is a most glorious thing! It brings joy to all believers! But there was a time when the prospect of our salvation was a sad thing. That was true before salvation had been accomplished, and before the purpose and consequences of Christ's death dawned upon the disciples. Jesus had told them many times that He would be put to death by wicked men, and then raised again the third day. Christ connected His death and His resurrection. But the prospect of His death made His disciples very sad. They seemed not to grasp the promise of His resurrection at all. The night Jesus was betrayed, He warned of their impending sorrow, and how it would be turned into joy that nobody could ever take away! The disciples were at that time so fixated on an earthly kingdom, that they didn't understand how a dead Savior could actually save them! Why did not they believe Christ's promises to them? Why did they ignore the Psalmist's prophecy of Messiah's resurrection? The Lord Jesus rose in victory and power and glory that Sunday morning, and the joy of it spread very quickly! The disciples wouldn't believe Mary Magdalene's testimony that Christ had risen from the dead. Only when Jesus appeared in their midst, and showed them His wounded hands and side, did their sorrow turn into joy, just as Jesus had promised them. Their sadness suddenly drained right out of them, when they believed that Christ had risen from the dead. In fact, there would be no comfort at all in Christ's dying for us, had there been no resurrection of the Savior! All of God's comfort of His people depends upon the Lord Jesus rising from the dead! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/4624222337537 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 31 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:35:57 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/327241632388114 The disciples asked Christ, who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? They were always jockeying for the best positions, sometimes to the point of embarrassment! They did this because they viewed the kingdom in terms of earthly kingdoms, where there were positions of power and prestige close to the king. How do we get into those slots in the kingdom of heaven? Jesus commences to disabuse them of this false view. He presents to them a little child, and tells them that unless they be converted, and become as little children, they could not enter into the kingdom! But the disciples had prevented little children from coming to Jesus, and had been rebuked by the Savior for doing so. They looked on little children as a burden and hindrance to the work of the kingdom, because they still considered the kingdom an earthly one. But Jesus informed them that "of such little children is the kingdom of God!" Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom as a little child, shall not enter therein. Some people falsely believe that Christ is teaching that all little children go to heaven, but this view completely misses Christ's meaning! Christ is asserting that all who would enter the kingdom must come to Him! All must trust in Jesus! Christ makes it clear, that God's jealousy and protection is for those little children who believe in Jesus! All must come to Christ as little children. This does not mean that older people must be literally converted back to small children physically. Rather, Jesus is using physical little children as a picture of the spiritual "little children" who will make up the kingdom of God. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/327241632388114 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 24 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:30:10 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/31924019347031 Paul makes clear in Galatians how we become sons of God: by being joined to Christ by faith, baptized into Christ by the Holy Ghost, put into union with Christ. There has always been an infinite love between God the Father and Christ the Son, as equal persons of the Godhead, loving and delighting in each other. Being in Christ, we now partake of that eternal and infinite love between Father and Son! This is the unity in love that Christ prayed for in John 17, that we all may be one together with Christ, and with our Father! We are not only children, but grown sons! Once we were under the law, under tutors and governors, to lead us to Christ, until the emancipation ordered by the Father. That took place when Christ came to redeem us from the law and its punishments, and when we received it by trusting in Jesus to save us. Our Elder Brother has redeemed all the children of God by being made a curse for us, we who were formerly under that curse of judgment for our crimes against God. Christ paid the just punishment from God for our sins that were laid upon Him at Calvary. Our Lord Jesus was always a Son -- holy, just, perfect, beloved and in His humanity, obedient to His Father. We were none of those things, we were not natural sons of God. But Christ has perfected us before God, and we are brought into the family of God. We are not perfect in ourselves, but perfect in Christ. By this great salvation, we have all been made sons of God, adopted through Jesus Christ, having been given the Holy Spirit of adoption as sons, whereby we cry, Abba Father! The Holy Ghost is implanted in our hearts, the Spirit of Christ, always the Son, is given to all of us who trust in Him! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/31924019347031 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 17 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:41:13 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3122416222023 When Mary Magdalene finally recognized Christ at the tomb on that resurrection Sunday morning, He disclosed to her a great truth: that His heavenly Father is also Father to His redeemed people! After His resurrection, Christ made explicit what He had previously mentioned during His ministry: that all people who trust in Jesus are the children of God. We have the same family relationship to God the Father as Jesus did in His humanity. That's why Christ taught us to pray to God as our heavenly Father, and to ask of Him the things that we need. Jesus even uses the example of earthly fathers, who provide good things to their children, as the lesser example of God our Father's solicitous care for us as His children. Christ taught us that we are not to be concerned about how God our Father will provide for us, because He certainly will provide what we actually need. Christ assures us that the Father already knows what we need, and so we are trust Him, and not fear or be distressed about it. Not only that, but our Father knows what we need before we ask of Him, and He lovingly provides those needs, even before we ask of Him! This is what all good earthly fathers do, to provide for their children. But then Christ tells us something astounding: fear not, little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give to you the kingdom! This is the first hint that, as God's children, we are entitled to a vast and rich inheritance! It is no common inheritance, but rather a royal one! We are the children of no mean family, but rather, of the family of the living God of all things! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3122416222023 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 10 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:35:40 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3924023401354 Christ described how He has many things to say to His people, but they were not able to bear them at that time. His disciples couldn't accept the death of Christ! They wanted a physical kingdom instead of a justifying sacrifice. They were prejudiced against the non-Jewish people, thinking that Israel was God's only chosen people, and not understanding the Gospel is for all mankind! They didn't believe the resurrection of Christ! They didn't realize that a heavenly country is far better than an earthly country. They didn't understand that Christ's kingdom, at this time, is pursued by spiritual means, rather than by physical strife. They didn't grasp the adoption of believers as the sons of God! They didn't understand how our bodies would be changed when Christ raises us from the dead. Christ had surely broached many of these matters to them, but they were not able to bear them then. Christ's answer to this is to send the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, to guide His people into all these truths, and many more! The Holy Ghost will guide us into all truth, because He will not speak of Himself, but He will speak what He hears about God the Father and His Son. Here Christ emphasizes the complete unity of the persons of the Godhead. There are no different stories told, or falsehoods conveyed, by the Holy Ghost. He is to be trusted explicitly and absolutely, as Christ's representative to His people. Christ then makes it clear: the Comforter, by doing this work, will glorify the Lord Jesus! Everything true about Christ glorifies Him! The truth about Jesus is His glory! There is nothing true about Him that blemishes or stains His honor and majesty! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3924023401354 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 03 Mar 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:43:48 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3224019331407 Christ tells us that the Comforter will reprove the world. This is speaking of the Holy Ghost's convicting power in the lost, either directly, or mostly through God's Word, often preached by believers. Jesus tells us that the Comforter reproves the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Every man is a sinner, but righteousness is required. Therefore, every man will be judged. The reproof regarding sin, Christ explains, is because they don't believe on Him. Whoever does not believe on Christ is already condemned for that reason. This sin of unbelief is particularly egregious since Christ has died, rose again, and ascended in glory to God. These three proofs the Comforter impresses upon the lost, whose sins remain with them, because they have not trusted in the sacrifice of Jesus that takes away sin. The Comforter reproves the world of righteousness, because Christ now appears in glory, and we cannot see Him down here anymore. Now that Christ has departed, the Comforter takes up His task of urging the need for righteousness in poor lost men, and vindicating the perfect righteousness of Christ. A powerful example of the Holy Ghost's reproof of wicked men's betrayal and murder of Jesus, is seen in the example of their murder of the martyr Stephen. He strongly accused the rulers of Israel of rejecting the Messiah, and of resisting the Holy Ghost. When they gnashed their teeth against Stephen, the Holy Ghost revealed to him, then and there, the glory of Christ at the right hand of God, and Stephen conveyed that truth to those wicked men. Here we see the Comforter sharply reproving sinful men who deny Christ's righteousness! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/3224019331407 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 25 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:40:48 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/22024117574239 Christ reiterates the coming persecution of His people. The cause is, that the wicked have not known Christ or the Father. Christ explains that He didn't tell His disciples these things earlier, because He was then with them. But now He is dying, and ascending to glory, so they will be without His personal, tangible, physical presence and comfort and protection. Because Christ was protected from death during His ministry, for His hour had not yet come, the physical presence of Jesus shielded His people, and comforted them during His earthly ministry. But when Christ dies, and rises again, and ascends to glory, a different condition will prevail – they will lose their comfort zone they had with Jesus there with them. They will lose their conception of safety and the stability of a physical kingdom, which is delayed until Christ's return. What they receive in exchange is far better: salvation by the death of Christ, a perfect priest before God, peace with God, and everlasting life! But Christ promises them something that He knows is better than His continued physical presence with them: the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost of promise! Indeed, Christ states that the Comforter cannot come to them, unless Christ first departs, or "goes away." But if Christ goes away, He will send the Comforter to His people! So Christ is telling us that it is expedient that He die and ascend to Glory, so that the Comforter can dwell within all the Lord's people, all the time. But more importantly, the Comforter cannot comfort us except the Son first die to save us! Without the completion of Christ's sacrifice at Calvary to save us, the Comforter has no comfort to give us! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/22024117574239 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 18 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:32:03 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/21524018361069 The Comforter will teach us all things, and bring to remembrance the things that Christ said. The Comforter will, as it were, take His place when Christ ascends to glory, and continue to teach and to bring to mind the things that Jesus had told them during His ministry. Christ warned us, that the world will hate us, because it hated Him first. That's because Christ chose us out of the world. Christ then introduces the answer to the world's derision and hatred and violence against the Lord's people: it is the Comforter! The Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, Who answers powerfully against the lies of this wicked world. Christ makes it clear that the Comforter testifies to the truth about Christ. He refutes the slanders against Jesus by the world. He convicts the world of sin against God and His Christ. Those who hate God and His Son cannot escape the rebuke of the Holy Ghost's testimony. They know that they have done wrong. But far better, the Comforter testifies to Christ's people the glorious things about our Savior! Christ contrasts the hatred and slander and persecution of His people by the wicked, with the comfort given us by the Comforter. The Comforter speaks to us the truth about our God, about our Lord Jesus. Christ puts great weight upon this work of the Holy Ghost for us, and for the cause of Christ in us. But Christ states that His apostles would also testify of Him, because they were with Him and had seen and heard Him. The Savior had previously explained that it is the Comforter Who will remind the apostles of the things that Christ said and did, so that their testimony will also be accurate and truthful. Their testimony is preserved in God's Word! https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/21524018361069 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 11 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:37:37 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/2724122482235 Christ promised us that He will pray that the Father give us "another Comforter," Who is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth. Christ promises He will not leave us comfortless, and we will know the Comforter because He will dwell in us. So the comfort we have in the Holy Ghost is, first, that He dwells in us, giving us life, and sustaining that life on account of the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. But Christ provides to us additional reasons why we are comforted by the Holy Ghost. He compares His personal face to face teachings with the work of the Comforter, because He will teach us all things, and bring to remembrance the things that Christ said. It is so easy for us to forget what we have been told and have seen, especially after our friends have gone away. But Jesus is guaranteeing that His disciples and His people will not forget what He has said and done for us! This is particularly important to the writing of the Scriptures. It is the Comforter that called to the Apostles' minds what Jesus had said and done, so that they could record it accurately in God's Word! It was the Comforter that made sure that the men God called to record His words, did so accurately! Thus, the Comforter comforts us in knowing that God's Word is pure and true, because He made it so. But Christ also indicated that the Comforter would teach things to the Apostles that God wanted them to know. Paul the Apostle had the gospel revealed to Him by the Spirit of Christ in more richness than the other disciples might have known previously. There is much teaching in Scripture that the Comforter conveyed to the writers for the first time. https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracebiblechurch/sermons/2724122482235 Religion & Spirituality Sun, 04 Feb 2024 12:00:00 +0000 John Pittman Hey 0:38:40 no John Pittman Hey - The God of All Comforts