Thank you. Is there anything that thrills
a parent's heart more than having your children enjoy each other's
company? And nothing grieves a parent's
heart more than seeing your children in conflict with one another.
Isn't that true? That's my experience with you.
It thrills my heart to see you fellowshipping in the gospel
together. I'm so thankful for it. who is a God, like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgressions
of the remnant of his heritage, he retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy." Mercy. That's the God we serve. There's no other God like Him.
No other God like Him. All other gods are false gods.
They're just idols, figments of men's imagination. We serve
the one and only true God. Pray that he'll be pleased to
meet with us this morning. Brother Burt, we're going to
sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Let's stand together. A minded, perfect peace with
God. Oh, what a word is this! A sinner reconciled through blood. This, this indeed is peace. By nature and by practice far,
how very far from God, yet now by grace brought nigh to him
through faith in Jesus' blood. So near, so very near to God,
I cannot never be. For in the person of His Son,
I am as near as He. So dear, so very dear to God,
more dear I cannot be. The love we're with, He loves
the Son, such is His love to me. Be seated. Do you believe that? I don't understand it. I can't
give a reason for it, but I do believe it. I do believe it. God's love is perfect. He doesn't love and measure.
I've heard people say, well, there's a sense in which God
loves everybody. No, there's not. No, there's not. God loves
righteousness. He hates iniquity. He loves Jacob. He hates Esau. He made Jacob
as an object of his love and all others are vessels of wrath
fitted for destruction. Oh, if we're in Christ, you cannot
be any nearer to God than the Lord Jesus Christ himself is.
That's how much you're loved. We have no We don't have the
ability to comprehend how much our God loves us. I pray the
Lord will show us just a little bit more of his love this morning. Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. For our call
to worship. We'll begin reading in verse
14. I am a debtor. I'm a debtor. I'm a man in debt. I'm in debt to God for His grace
and I'm in debt to you to preach the gospel. I am a debtor both
to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise.
So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel
to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, from his
faith to our faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. You know what it means to be
just? To be just before God means that you've got no sin, no sin
whatsoever in the presence of God. That's where I want to be, don't
you? It will happen from faith to
faith as God enables us to rest all the hope of our salvation
on the justifier, the one who put away our sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Let's pray together. I want us to pray for Mary Ann
Salzberg. flat on her back for the last
two or three weeks with excruciating pain and going to need to have
something done about that. So I pray the Lord will direct
her to a good physician and that he'll encourage her through this
time of trial. So let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we're so very thankful for the gospel. the good news of our
salvation in the accomplished, successful, redemptive work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who satisfied all the demands of your holy
law and put away our sin. We ask, Father, that you would
enable us in this hour to set our affections on things above
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Lord, enable
us to put away those things that are of the earth, those things
that so easily distract us. enable us to worship you in the
power of your spirit and according to the truth of your holy word.
And father, we do pray for our sister Marianne and we thank
you for her. Thank you for the fellowship
that we have with her in the gospel. And Lord, we pray that
you would comfort her now and that you would encourage her
with thy presence. We pray that you would give her
and Jerry wisdom to to find some relief for her pain and Lord
that you would put your hand on her and bring her to healing
and enable her to be back here with us. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen. Number 42. Number 42. All hail the power. Please stand. Number 42. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. Ye chosen seed of Israel's praise,
ye ransomed from the fall. Hail Him who saved you by His
grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Hail Him who saves you by
His grace, and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every
tribe, on this terrestrial bowl to Him all majesty ascribe, and
crown Him Lord of all. To him all majesty ascribe, and
crown him Lord of all. O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall, we'll join the everlasting song and
crown him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song
and crown Him Lord of all. Will you open your Bibles with
me please to Isaiah chapter 48. Isaiah 48. I can't sing that hymn without
thinking about the blasphemy that we used to say when we would
talk about making Jesus Lord of our life. God's made Him Lord. He is Lord
over the living and over the dead. He reigns sovereign over
all the affairs of men. When the Spirit of God enables
us, we just bow to Him, don't we? Acknowledging His Lordship. I've titled this message, Glorified
by Grace. I told you in the first hour
that I listened to a message this week titled, The Gospel
of Grace, and the word grace was used a lot in the message,
but it was never defined. God is glorified by His grace. And this passage of Scripture
is God declaring unto us that where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. This is God declaring unto His
people, I did not choose you because you were greater in number
than other people, but I chose you because you were the smallest
of all the nations. This is God saying unto us, I
chose those things which were not. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The weak things of the world
confound the mighty. the foolish things of the world,
to confound the wise, that no flesh might glory in my presence."
Notice with me in our text of verse 11, at the very end of
verse 11, this is the theme of this chapter. And this is every
believer's hope. I will not give my glory to another. How do I know if the gospel that
I believe and the gospel that I hear is the gospel? Who gets all the glory? All the glory. That's it. From election to glorification,
in redemption and in atonement and in sanctification, the Lord
Jesus Christ gets all the glory. I'll not share my glory with
another. Now the problem that men have
is that they want to get some of the glory to themselves. They
want to take some credit for something that they've done.
The gospel that glorifies God is all of grace. And it gives
Him the glory from the beginning to the end. I'll not share my
glory with another. Oh Lord, put it in our hearts
to give to You all the glory. We're not going to take any pride
in anything. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ
in the Spirit and we have no confidence, no confidence in
the flesh. That means we're not looking
to anything that we've done or anything that we're doing to
get assurance of our salvation. We're looking to the finished
work and glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ as all the
hope of our salvation and He's getting all the glory. We're doing like John, well the
preacher does like John the Baptist. Behold, look, the Lamb of God. He's the one that takes away
the sins of the world. You're not going to be able to satisfy
God's justice. You're not going to be able to
do anything. to remove one of your sins, He's going to have
to do it. And He's going to do it all or
He will not do it at all. That's the gospel. I'll not share
my glory with another. Is that the God you believe in?
It's the God who is. All other gods are false gods. Now notice how this chapter opens.
The Lord is speaking to Israel. Israel, that's the people of
God. You remember Jacob's name was
changed to Israel. And often times the Lord refers
to his people as Jacob Israel. Our first name is Jacob, that's
the name we were born with. The supplanter, the man of the
flesh, the deceiver. That's what we are by nature.
And then the Lord changed Jacob's name to Israel, a prince of God. A prince of God. And there's
our new nature. In the new birth, God makes us
children of the king. And then he calls us Judah, which
means praise. So he's addressing his words
to Jacob, Israel. You see the two natures that
you have? who are the praise of His glory
and of His grace because of His work of salvation. That's who
it's being written to. Now I'm interested in knowing
what God has to say to Jacob Israel who is Judah. Aren't you? Look what he says.
Hear ye this, Now oftentimes we say to our children, hear
this, listen to me now, God's speaking brethren, God's speaking. If you've never believed God
before, believe him now. God is speaking and he's saying,
hear me. house of Jacob, which are called
by the name Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah,
which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the
God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness." Now here's what the Lord's saying.
If I ask you to raise your hands, I suspect that 95% of the children of God would
raise their hands saying, I believe myself to be a Christian before
God saved me. Call upon the name of the Lord.
You say you're a child of God. You say you're part of the church.
But you didn't know Christ. It wasn't in truth. It wasn't
in righteousness. It's amazing how the Lord allows
most of His children to go through some false religion before He
reveals Christ to them. That's what He's saying. You
called upon them. You called yourself Christians.
But it wasn't according to truth. It wasn't according to the truth
of the gospel. It wasn't according to the righteousness
of Christ. You had some righteousness of
your own, didn't you? You had some element of error
in your gospel. And that little bit of leaven
leavened the whole lump. It wasn't that when the Lord
saved you, you just sort of tweaked everything and got everything
a little clearer. No, the error you had in your
gospel was not according to truth, and it was not according to the
righteousness of Christ. It was your own works, it was
your own will, it was your own accomplishments. And however small your error
was, It destroyed the whole gospel.
It ruined it all. It wasn't small at all, was it? For, verse 2, they call themselves
of the holy city and stay themselves upon the God of Israel, the Lord
of hosts, is his name. I fear that this experience that
most believers have had still is a problem with a lot
of unbelievers. Lord, don't let me deceive myself. Don't let me think that I'm resting
the hope of my salvation on Christ. If I've perverted the gospel,
I've twisted the gospel, I've changed the gospel, I've taken
from Christ His glory and given it to another. Reveal that to me. Lord, if this
is me, if I'm guilty of this, show me. Because I know that my heart
is wicked and desperately, it's desperately wicked, it's deceitful.
I can convince myself of things that aren't true. And that's
exactly what the Lord's saying here. You said you were staying
upon the name of God, you said you were a Christian, but it
wasn't according to truth. You were just saying it to yourself. We've been there, haven't we? Verse three. This is so glorious. I have declared the former things
from the beginning, and they went forth out of my mouth, and
I showed them. I did them suddenly, and they
came to pass, because I knew that thou art obstinate, and
thy neck is an iron of sinew, and thy brow brass. I knew how hard-hearted you were.
I knew you were deceiving yourself. I knew you were calling yourself
a Christian when you weren't. I knew you had a stiff neck.
I knew you weren't going to be changed. That's why I changed
you. And I changed you according to
the covenant of grace. Because I had determined to do
this long before you were ever made. Before you were ever born. I determined this in the covenant
of grace before time ever began. I slew my son and shed his precious
blood as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world in
order to redeem you. I knew you weren't going to come
to me. So I determined to come to you. In spite of your rebellion, in
spite of your obstinance, in spite of your inability, I purposed
your salvation from the very beginning. I have even from the beginning
declared it to thee, before it came to pass I showed it thee,
lest thou should say mine idol hath done them, and my graven
image and my molten image have commanded them." There was a
time when we thought we were Christians because the idol of
our free will had commanded God to save us. The idol of our good works had
commanded God to take notice of us. And God said, I knew you
were going to be like that. I knew that's the way you were. So I determined to save you and
to do it all for you. Thou hast heard, see all this,
and will you not declare it? I have showed thee new things
from this time, even hidden things that thou didst not know them."
When I revealed Christ to you, He was someone you did not know.
You had a Jesus, but He was a little J. You had a Christ, but you
denied Him, His glory as the Messiah, the anointed one, the
one sent of God to accomplish the salvation of His people.
You denied Him. And then I showed Him to you.
I opened the windows of heaven. You weren't able to hear the
gospel preached. Maybe it's happening right now
for somebody. Maybe the Lord is opening what
no man can shut. Oh, how I pray that'll be the
case. Maybe the Lord is showing you how self-deceived you've
been, and revealing to you the one
who will not share His glory with another. He won't do it. He's going to get all the glory. Verse 7, They are created now,
and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardest
them not, lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them." Now
what he's talking about here is the miracle of the new birth. Yes, our salvation. was secured in the covenant of
grace and by the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world before
time ever began. And all those whom God chose,
Christ died for. But that doesn't deny the necessity
of the new birth. You've got to come. You've got
to have a work of grace done in your heart. You've got to
be made to believe God. You've got to be given eyes to
see and ears to hear. A new heart. And that can only
come by the Spirit of God. And so when the new birth comes,
we can't say, well, you know, I've always been a Christian.
I've heard, you hear people talk like that, don't they? Well,
I've always believed God. I never remember a time when
I didn't believe God. Too long? That's too long. You've always
been a Christian. You've been a Christian too long.
You've never experienced the new birth. When God caused me to rest the
hope of my immortal soul on Christ, I knew that I had been dead in
my trespasses and sins. I knew I was hellbound. I was
driven by the grace of God to cast my hope on the one who cares
for me. You've got to be lost before
you can be found, don't you? You've got to be dead before
you can be made alive. But that's the problem with these
people who say, I swear by the name of the Lord, and I make
mention of the God of Israel, and I call myself a part of the
Holy City. You see, the problem is that
they won't admit that they're lost. They won't do it. And so God says, I'm going to
make you admit it. I'm gonna force you to see your
lost condition. And I'm gonna draw you to myself
because you won't come by yourself. Your neck's too stiff, your heart's
too hard. You won't believe. But I've established
a covenant of grace before the beginning of time and I'm gonna
make it happen in your experience. And not one of my sheep's gonna
be lost. I'm gonna save every one of them.
And I'm gonna get all the glory. All the glory. I'm not going
to do this for your namesake. Listen to what the Lord says
in Ezekiel chapter 36. You don't have to look this up.
I had pity for my holy name. I do not this for your sakes,
O house of Israel, but for my holy namesake, which you have
profaned among the heathen. I'm not doing this for your sake.
I'm doing this for my holy name's sake. I'm doing this for my praise
and for my glory. I'm not going to share my glory
with another. That's why David said in Psalm 115, not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory and praise
and honor. And John said in Revelation,
For thou hast created all things, and for thy good pleasure they
are and were created. He gets all the glory, doesn't
he? This is the only message of salvation that gives to the
Lord Jesus Christ all the glory. Every other message that man
promotes in this world through man-made religion gives you a
little something to do, doesn't it? Verse 8. Yea, thou heardest not. Yea, thou knewest not, yea, from
that time that thine ear was not opened, for I knew that thou
wouldst deal very treacherously, and wouldst called, and wast
called, a transgressor from the womb. From the womb. You and I came
from the womb, speaking lies. When that little baby starts
crying, and we have compassion on children because we're sinners
too, aren't we? But that little baby starts crying
like he's dying, he's lying. He's not dying, he's just hungry.
He's got a dirty diaper. He's lying to you. You know,
feed it, change his diaper, but he's lying. Isn't that the way we are? And we hadn't
quit doing it, have we? God said, I knew you were going
to be that way. I knew you had a stiff neck.
I knew you had a hard heart. I knew you were going to trust
in an experience. I knew that you were going to
call yourself Christians when you weren't. 9 For my name's sake will I defer
mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that
I cut thee not off I'm gonna do this for my glory
for my name's sake you deserve to be cut off You deserve to
go to hell that's what God's saying that's what you deserve,
but I'm not gonna do it In spite of all your rebellion,
in spite of all your false hopes, in spite of your free will and
good works religion, I'm going to save you from my namesake.
I'm going to have mercy. Behold, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. Every one of us knows something
about affliction when it comes to temporal things. We know what it's like to be
so afraid of our circumstances to not be able to sleep at night.
We know what it's like to have loss of something precious to
us. We know what it's like to go
through sickness and oftentimes life-threatening sicknesses.
Afflictions. God calls them necessities and
all these things the Lord has ordained in the lives of His
children in order to drive them to depend upon Him. But my brethren,
the afflictions I just described are true of unbelievers. There is an affliction that is
the believer's greatest affliction. When Job lost his children, his
possessions, and his health, what did he say? The Lord giveth,
the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And in all these things, Job did not accuse God. And then what happened? His miserable
comforters came, and the affliction of persecution, and the accusations
that were made, and Job began to defend himself. And then Elihu
comes and preaches the gospel and was angry at Job because
Job justified himself rather than God. And Job, after hearing
the gospel, said for the first time, after all these afflictions,
for the first time, he said, Behold, I see something I never
saw before. Behold, I am vile. And that My friend, and my brethren,
is the affliction of soul that every believer suffers more than
anything else. If you're a child of God, the
thing that bothers you the most in this life is your sin. The thing that distresses your
soul more than whatever circumstances God puts you in that are genuine
afflictions. The one thing that burdens your
soul more than anything else is your sin. God said, when the spirit of
grace and supplication is poured out upon the house of Israel
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they will mourn after Him whom
they pierced because of their sin, as one who mourneth after
his only Son. That's the affliction, isn't
it? Oh Lord, why can't I believe you? Why can't I trust you? Why can't I see you more clearly?
Why can't I have more joy and hope in Christ than I have? Why am I so distracted by the
things of this world? Why am I so attracted to the
pleasures of the flesh? Why? That's my affliction. Is that your affliction? When
God's given you a glimpse of Christ, you'll say with your
brother Job, Behold, I am vile. I have heard of thee by the hearing
of mine ear. I thought I was a Christian,
but now mine eyes have seen thee, and I repent in dust and ashes. Verse 10, behold, I have refined
thee. I put your sin on you. You see,
when the trials of life come, we always figure out something
to do about it, don't we? We either run to the doctor or
run to the bank or run to our friends or we go to this thing
or that thing. We always try to fix it, don't
we? But when God puts your sin on you, you'll come to realize
you can't fix it. You've got a burden on you that
you can't do anything about. You can't lift the guilt and
shame of your sin. I will refine you with affliction. I'm going to put the heat of
the truth of my holiness And I'm not going to show you all
your sin. You couldn't bear it. Well, I
couldn't bear it. But I'm going to show you enough
of it to where you know you've got a problem with God that you
can't fix. You need a Savior. I'm going to refine you with
affliction. What a glorious refining that
is. What's it do? It causes us to flee to the One,
the only One, who is without sin. The only One who was able
to suffer the wrath of God's justice successfully in accomplishing
the salvation of His people and putting away my sin once and
for all. I knew you wouldn't come to me.
I knew how obstinate you were. I knew how stiff-necked you were.
I knew that from the womb you were a transgressor. You were
a breaker of the law. If God hadn't taught you this,
let me say it again. You and I have never, ever, ever
kept one of God's laws one time. Everything you've ever done is
just break God's law. And if you can't see that, you
haven't seen Christ. For my name's sake, I'm going
to defer my anger. I'm going to pour out my wrath
on another. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. I have refined
thee, not with silver. I have chosen thee. I have chosen thee. Not everybody
gets the burden of their sin put on them now everybody's got
a conscience and everybody feels guilty about something But a guilty conscience can be
salved with with good works You got a guilty conscience you fix
that If that's all it is, is a guilty conscience, you can
go ask for forgiveness, apology, make gifts, whatever. You can
do some good things. You can get more religious and
start going to church and reading your Bible and all the things
that men do in order to try to salve their conscience. God's chosen people can't salve
their conscience. They've got a sin problem. There's only one that can fix
that. Verse 11, for my own sake, even for my own sake will I do
it. For how should my name be polluted? You see, every religion of this
world pollutes the name of God. I will not give my glory to another. Hearken unto me, O Jacob. And Israel, my called, I've called
you. God's not offering a salvation
to everybody. He's effectually, successfully
bringing his people to himself. When he calls you, you've got
to come. You can't not come. You don't
have a choice. When He calls you, He doesn't
say, well now you need to make a decision. When He calls you,
He shuts you up to where you've got no place else to go. That's why coming to Christ is
not a decision. It's not a choice. It's not a
prayer you pray. It's the work of God's grace
in the heart. You've been hemmed up by God. You've got no place to go. All
you can do is cast your hope on Christ. I am He. I am the first and the
last. Does that sound familiar? I am
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I chose
you in the covenant of grace. You didn't choose me, I chose
you. That's what the disciples, that's what the Lord told the
disciples. It's not by the will or works of man, it's by God's
mercy. I redeemed you. I bought back
that which you lost in your father Adam. I atoned for your sins,
every one of them. All the sins of all God's people
are atoned for already. You can't do anything to add
to what Christ already accomplished and you can't take anything away
from it. That's why this book concludes with, if any man adds
to the words of this prophecy, the curses of this book will
be added unto him. That means adding to the finished
work of Christ with your free will, with your works, with your
whatever. I'll not share my glory with
another. What a glorious God. I'm the first and the last. I'm
the beginning and the end and everything in between. I'm your
sanctification. He that sanctifies and they that
are sanctified are all as one. My holiness before God is bound
up in the perfect holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever
evidence of salvation I might be tempted to look at in my own
life, that's not my sanctification. What are you going to look at
in your life that's holy? That's what sanctification means.
You ever done something holy? Christ is my sanctification.
He's my holiness before God. He's the one who keeps me. He's
the one that's going to present me faultless before God's throne.
all the way to the end, depended upon Him. I'm the first, I'm
the last. I knew you were going to trust
in yourself being a Christian before you were. I knew you had
a stiff neck. I knew you were obstinate. I
knew you were a liar from the birth. I knew you wouldn't believe me.
I knew you wouldn't come. So I'm going to do it all, and
I'm going to get all the glory and all the praise, and my people
are going to say, Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Burke, come lead us, please. Number 116. Number 116. Oh, sacred head now. Oh, you can be seated. We're having the Lord's Supper. We'll
start. O sacred head now wounded with
grief and shame weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with
thorns the only crown. How art thou pale with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn? How dost that visage languish
which once was bright as morn? What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
was all for sinners' gain. My mind was the transgression,
but Thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior, tis
I deserve Thy place. Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe
to me Thy grace. What language shall I borrow
to thank thee, dearest friend, for this, thy dying sorrow, thy
pity without end? O make me Thine forever, and
should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love
to Thee. Bert, I'm sorry, that was my
fault. The Lord's Table is behind me, and I normally used to see
it up front. The last thing I want to do is
make the ordinance of the Lord's Table just sort of an afterthought.
That's certainly not what it is. The Lord's given us this
ordinance to illustrate the gospel. This bread, unleavened, is a
picture of the sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ. God made
him sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Christ bore in his body the sins
of his people, but he offered himself not to man. He offered himself to God, and
God was obligated to receive the offering because it was perfect,
sinless. The Lord said, as often as you
do this, do it in remembrance of me. All the way back in the garden,
a lamb was slain, wasn't it? Adam tried to cover his nakedness
with fig leaves and the Lord said, no, blood's got to be shed. For in the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die. Death is the only thing that
satisfies God's justice. And then in the Passover, Moses
was instructed to take the blood of the lamb and put it on the
doorpost on the linens of the house of the Israelites in Egypt.
And God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. God
didn't say when I see your decision, when I see your good intentions,
when I see your commitment, when I see his blood, I'll pass by
you. He's going to get all the glory.
Do this in remembrance of him. As you all know, our sister Armita
is getting frail. She's home today, not well. And so I want us to close the
service and have prayer for her. So let's, let's pray together.
Our heavenly father, we're so very thankful for the declaration
of your gospel. Know how we pray that you would
keep us faithful. to not mix the unleavened bread
with any leaven, to declare it boldly, clearly, with compassion,
that you would make it effectual to the hearts of your people. We thank you for our sister,
Armita, and for her faithfulness. And Lord, we pray that you would
comfort her and draw her to thyself and, or just give her hope and
peace in Christ and pray that it would be thy will to strengthen
her body and let her remain here with us for a while longer. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Dismissed.