Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

Harry Ironsides was the pastor of Moody Church, and he was in Southern California giving a talk at an evangelistic meeting. He came out afterward and was walking along the boardwalk by the Pacific. And a lady came up to him who was dressed in the costume of a gypsy. And she saw Ironside coming, not knowing who he was. And she said, sir, I am able to tell your fortune. I can for a quarter tell your past, your present and your future. She held out her little palm and she reminded him again, for just a quarter, your future. The Ironside turned to the lady and he said, that’s very interesting that you should present that offer to me. He said, as a matter of fact, I have a book that is able to tell your past, hopefully your present and possibly your future.

She said, a book. It’s in a book. And he reached into his coat pocket and took out his New Testament. And he says, and I turned to the second chapter of the Book of Ephesians. And the lady said, what is it that you have in your book? He said, it will not cost you even a quarter. Let me tell you what my past was and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also I once conducted myself in the lusts of my flesh, fulfilling the desires of my flesh and of my mind, and I was by nature a child of wrath.

The gypsy lady looked at Ironside and she says, I understand. I understand. You’re one of those Christians. He said, hold it. And he grabbed her arm. He said, there’s more. I want you to know what my present state is. And then he read, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved me even when I was dead in my trespasses, he made me alive again with Christ. And the lady started to shake his grip off, but he only grabbed her firmer. And he says, there is but one more thing that I want you to know about me, and that is my future. That in the age to come I would be with him and he would show me his exceeding riches of grace in his kindness toward me in Christ Jesus.

At this point, Ironside says, she was on her feet and I couldn’t hold her any longer lest I should be charged with assault and battery. And she fled down the aisle saying, I took the wrong man. I took the wrong man. Ironside knew where he had come from. He knew where he was. He knew where he was going. And all of it was related to the work and life of Jesus Christ. Today I’d like to ask you simply, do you have a past, a present, and a future in Jesus Christ? Do you know where you are going? Do you know where you’ve come from? There are many things about the Christian life that perhaps we take for granted. And as you buy a new car, you smell that sense of newness.

Then you drive it for a few weeks, you think the car that you would have always keep clean. Suddenly, there’s an old coke can in the back, a discarded bulletin, some old books, pair of sneakers. And suddenly, after a few months, that car that you said I’m going to keep shiny and polished and new just becomes another closet. And suddenly you realize, I’ve forgotten. I’ve forgotten what a great event this was in my life, and I couldn’t keep it going. And as we look at the scripture today, I hope that it is with the sense of a newness, of a vitality, of remembering your past, remembering your present, and remembering your future. For there are things that a Christian should take very seriously, that they should always be in our mind, fresh awareness that it should never just simply disappear.

And then we say, oh, yes, I remember something about that. But there are certain teachings of God’s word that should always be in the front of our mind. One of the first is that a Christian takes very seriously their state in sin, and also the fact that they were dead in that sin. We should never, ever forget that there was a time when were dead in our trespasses. We read in chapter two of Ephesians at verse one, and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

And were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. As you read the sermons of some of the great pulpitis of the Christian church, you read Calvin, Luther, Whitfield, Spurgeon. There is a common thread in all of them, and that is, the older they become in their life in Christ. The greater was their awareness of their own personal sin and of their personal indebtedness to God, who took them out of that state. It’s also interesting that people who looked at them would have made the observation, why Spurgeon? He is more godly today than he was yesterday. But if you asked Spurgeon, he would have said, no. I am more aware of the sin that clings to me than I have ever been in my life. The reason?

Christians have a very clear understanding of the state of death and sin from which they have come. And without that knowledge, there is no clear understanding of the Christian faith. I was reading recently about an English prince who had gone to Spain. He met the king of Spain, who brought him aboard his boat, which was powered by a galley of slaves, at the oars. In celebration. And as a special gift to the visit of this English prince, the king of Spain said, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do today. I’m going to let you choose from this galley one man who can go free for the rest of his life. You choose him. So the prince went down into the depths of the hull of the ship. Where men were chained to oars with a sentence that was for a lifetime.

And he went to one man and he said, how is it that you got here? What did you do? The man said, I’ll be very truthful with you. I really shouldn’t be here. I was just simply tending my farm. I did nothing, and I was taken captive, and here I am. The prince listened, and he said, that’s terrible. But he went to the next man, and he asked him, tell me, why is it that you’re here? The man looked at him. He says, well, I have been a bad man, but really, I’m not as bad as some of the others here. And I’ve seen that what many of these others have done is far worse than anything that I’ve done. I guess I really feel that I’m being treated unjustly. To be here for the rest of my life.

So the prince went to another man. Why are you here? I’m here because I killed a man. They had the right to kill me. But instead, the landlord sent me to this ship that I’d lived the rest of my days rowing. And I’m thankful that I’m here, because if I wasn’t, I’d be dead. And I’m guilty. The prince turned to the king. He said, I’ve decided who I’ll set free. I’ll let this man go. For this man who is so guilty should not be here with all of these other innocent men, you see, there was a knowledge in that man of his sin. He knew that if that king wanted to, he could have simply taken his life, and that would have been a fair punishment. The Christian knows the same thing. I, Ken Smith, am guilty of sin.

And if God chose to take my life and to cast me into the furthest parts of his kingdom, that would be a fair sentence, and I deserve whatever judgment God would place upon me. But the scriptures tell us, when we see that, when we know of our sin, that he has taken us out of that estate, never forget the world out of which you came. Never forget your sin. But also, we are told that a Christian takes very seriously the love of God. It is amazing how nonchalant Christians can be about the love of God. When was the last time that a tear came to your eye or a lump came to your throat?

Or just an internal sense of the love of God that filled you, and you wondered if you were able to even control that awareness of what God had done for you in Jesus Christ? Or on the other hand, has the love of Christ become something that you take for granted, like the love of a spouse or the love of a child? And you think to yourself, why, of course, God, he should love me. I trusted in Christ five years, ten years, 20 years ago. The teaching of scripture is that a Christian never nonchalantly takes the love of Christ, but always is aware of what God has done for him. We read in verse four and five of chapter two of Ephesians this great truth.

But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together in Christ. By grace, you have been saved. If someone came to me and said, ken, I just was reading in the paper about a man in Texas, multimillionaire, and he died and he left his estate to his closest relative. Isn’t that interesting? I said, yeah, it’s real interesting. But there’s a lot of things happen, and I guess there are other things that are of more interest to me right now. Oh, but there’s one thing I forgot to tell you. Your uncle, you’re the one who has received his inheritance. How could I have forgotten? Suddenly my interest would become so great. I’d ask uncle, who, when did he die?

I would become so concerned about my long lost uncle. I’d want to know all about his family. I’d want to know what has he been doing for all of those years. I could not control my interest because I had been the recipient of a great gift, a great inheritance. And as Christians, we need to realize that we too have been recipients of an inheritance. It’s one thing to say that Christ died for the world. It’s another thing to say Christ died for Susan, Christ died for Joe, Christ died for you, and he gives you his inheritance. You would always feel grateful to your uncle in Texas.

Do you always feel grateful to your father in heaven, who spared not his only son, Jesus Christ, that you might have life, that you might be taken out of that state of death and brought into a state of living? But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when were dead, in trespasses, he made us alive with Christ. But also, we see that there is some other quality of living, the Christian life that we need to take seriously, and that is found in verses six and seven. That God raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might show his exceeding riches, of his grace, in his kindness towards us.

In Christ Jesus, we need to take very seriously that we are called upon as Christians to die to ourselves. Do you struggle with that death? What is it right now on a piece of paper that you would say God is working internally in your heart and mind? What quality of living does God want to change in your life? We’re told that he wants to bring us in that age to come, that he might show to us all the exceeding riches of his grace. God wants us. He desires with all of his heart, as Christian’s, that we would see that we are to die to self each day and grow in the likeness of Christ each day. Do you know about that? Do you take it seriously? Are you seeing the changes in your heart, your life, because of what Jesus Christ has done?

We’re called to see that. Jesus told us that unless a seed is put in the ground and it first dies, that outside covering must fall off so that the new life can sprout up. And as Christians, we are called also to die to self, to be put in the ground, so that he might begin his work of new birth. And it’s not simply a new birth of receiving Christ, but then all of the benefits that are ours of following him. Do you know about the age to come, the changes that God is working in your life? Do you look forward to them as friends? Or on the other hand, when you see that God is beginning to work in controlling your tongue or your thoughts or your actions, and you say to yourself, this is too painful. I don’t like being under the dirt.

I don’t like being like a seed in all of this darkness and feeling that outside covering falling off, this is unpleasant. I will crawl out from the dirt and I’ll go back and I’ll live my life as I always did before. There are many Christians who are crawling out from the soil saying, leave me with this death covering. Don’t put me in the ground. I don’t want to know about the age to come. I don’t want to change. I don’t want you to control my thoughts. I don’t want you to control my thinking. I don’t want you to control my tongue. Leave me alone. But God doesn’t leave us alone and we need to thank him that he is showing us the age to come.

He puts us in the ground and he wants us to grow into something new, something fresh, something full of life, something that you and I could never be on our own. Roland Hill is a minister in England and he was given an inheritance that was to be passed along to another minister. He was the executor and was to give the inheritance as he saw fit. Well, Roland Hill knew the life of this other minister and he was sure that if he gave the entire hundred pounds inheritance at once that this minister would probably go out quickly and spend it. And so he came on this plan. He said nothing about the death and he sent to the pastor a note. Here is five pounds more to come. The next week in the mail, another letter. Here is another five pounds more to come.

And the weeks continued that got up to that 20th week. Here’s five pounds more to come. Do you know as Christians we need to remember that when God gave us that first five pounds and he said, I forgive you of your sins? More to come. Next week he said, I’ve redeemed you. More to come. Then he says to you, I adopt you as my son and daughter. More to come. Then he says to you, I bring you into my church, more to come. Then he says to you, I introduce you to the fellowship of the saints, more to come. And then as we pass from this life into death and that old nature falls off and we find ourselves in his very presence, he says, I have raised you from the dead. More to come.

And then as we have spent our first million years in eternity, he comes to us and he says, a million years. More to come. That is the gift of grace that is ours through Jesus Christ. More to come. More to come. For we are saved by grace. And it’s his gift to us as a Christian. Do you take seriously your sin? Do you take seriously the love of Jesus Christ? Do you take seriously that you must die to yourself and grow up in Christ? Do you take seriously that salvation is a gift and that there’s more to come every day? And finally, take seriously that God has a good work that he wants you to accomplish for the building of his church here in this earth for eternity. It’s a marvellous thing to know the living God through Jesus Christ.

It is a wonderful thing to know of his grace. It is a wonderful thing to know that through the blood of Jesus Christ we can be given new life. I trust you know it. I trust that you’re experiencing the blessed hope, the great joy, the great comfort, the great knowledge of knowing that you are one of his.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.