talk today about the sovereignty
of God's grace, the sovereignty of God's grace. Matthew 11.25. At that time, Jesus answered.
after He had pronounced woe upon all these cities and the judgment
that was to come. At that time Jesus answered and
said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. Now, I dare say you'll rarely
find anyone who doesn't say they believe in God being almighty,
especially over creation. Most folks don't mind God being
sovereign over creation, being the creator. They rejoice in
that, and they say, Oh, our God reigns, but the only place He
reigns is in the heavens. in the creation, but when it
comes to doing anything on the earth and doing anything in the
lives of men, it's left up to man's will, his power, his choices,
his rights, his opinions, and his reasonings. But there are some in this world
who rejoiced in God being God over all things, in heaven, in
earth, in the seas, and in all deep places, over every creature
that rises and wriggles on the topside of God's earth, that
there is not an atom that moves without the will and purpose
and decree of God." And I tell you, he not only rules
in the heavens and on the earth, but he even controls the affairs
of men in this world. Even the wicked. He controls
the wicked. Just do what God, the wrath of
man, He makes to praise Him. And I say those who know it and
know this and feel it and believe it, they know that they have
nothing to boast in in this world. Because if they know these things
and rejoice in these things, it's because God in His sovereign
grace revealed it to them. They didn't know it by nature.
But those who don't believe in the free grace of God, in the
sovereign grace of God, that God rules in heaven, in the earth,
in the seas, in all deep places, and rules and controls the affairs
of men in this world, those who don't believe it, I'll tell you
why. Because our Lord says, Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent. And God hid it in
such a way, with a Bible in their laps, that they will be responsible
And they will be to blame for not seeing it and believing it,
and rejoicing in the sovereign grace of God. And I know that
to be so. And the only reason that Christ
our Lord Himself, and the only reason we can give for the sovereignty
of God in His grace, and what I mean by the sovereignty of
God in His grace is that grace, God in grace reigns. God sovereignly
reigns over everything, but sovereignly reigns in His grace towards His
people. And that grace comes, and it
has power, and it has rights. And it's discriminating and distinguishing. That's what I mean by the sovereign
grace of God. But our Lord said here, Father,
I thank thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid
these things to the wise and fruited, and revealed them unto
babes. Why? Because it seemed good in
thy sight. And that's the way we feel the
same way. If God saves a man, it seemed
good in his sight. If he passes by him, it seemed
good in his sight. Whatever God does, we say, it
seemed good in His sight. And that ought to satisfy every
heart in this world. But it doesn't. And you know
why it doesn't? Because of the pride in the human
heart. Oh, the pride in the human heart. Man is so proud. He ain't going to bow to God.
He ain't going to bow to a man. He ain't going to bow to nobody
or nothing. He just thinks that he's got it all figured out.
That's why he called them the wise and the prudent. We know
too much to believe God. We're too smart to believe God.
We have too deep an understanding to believe God. We can rule our
own affairs without God. I can do multitudes of things
and I have without God. And oh, beloved, I'm sure, and
for me, speaking for me, what's good in God's sight is holy,
It's just, it's wise, and it's good in itself, because it's
God that does it. And you imagine how wicked and
vain and presumptuous must man be that would dare question his
Maker. Paul said, who art thou that
replies against God? How wicked, how vain, how presumptuous,
how arrogant, how proud, how despicable, how audacious A man
must be that he would dare question the God that gives him the breath
that he breathes. And all of mine, they do it this
way. They change his holiness. They charge his holiness with
injustice. He does something they don't
like, that's not fair. His wisdom with a mistake. God made a mistake there. He
didn't do that. Somebody gave me an obituary
the other day, and a son and a daughter got killed at the
same time. She was 16, he was 42, she was 17, he was 42 or
something. And they put it in their obituary
that God wanted you and He needed you and He took you so that the
man could make God smile and the young girl could go up there
and make God happy. to charge God's wisdom with mistakes, His goodness with partiality. And oh, I tell you, one of these
days God will silence every tongue, every mouth will be stopped,
Every mouth will be stopped, every knee will bow, and God
will shut the mouth of every man who does not believe in the
free and sovereign grace of God, and He'll judge the secrets of
men's hearts, and all those lies, all that arrogance, all that
pride, all that was against God and Christian God, God Himself
will come, and He'll make them see the awfulness of what they
thought and felt and said and done against Him Himself. when
our Lord Jesus Christ said, it seemed good in your sight. He's
going to come. There's a day coming, and He's
going to stain the pride of men. Now, I know that there's those
of us that don't presume to know all about God's way. We don't
even presume to know all about God's ways. No, no, no. But we
know this much about Him, that He's equal and He's just. that
he's equal in his dealings and he's just in his dealings. And
the only argument that we can say, because we don't have to
explain God and his doings in this world, but all we can do
is like our Lord Jesus Christ and say, it seems good in thy
sight. That's what we can say. And God
has been pleased to call some of us to say, yes, Lord, it's
good in your sight. Now let me give you a couple
of the principal reasons. What were the principal reasons
for God sending His Son into this world? What was the reason? What was the principal reasons
for God sending His Son into this world? And God sent Him
into this world. We didn't send after Him. When
Adam fell, Adam didn't seek a Savior. When you and I was lost, we didn't
seek a Savior. When you and I was unconverted,
we never sought God. We sought a God. We sought religion. We sought peace. We sought quiet.
We sought comfort. We sought legalism. But we didn't
seek God. But what were the principal reasons
for God sending His Son into this world that we might have
life through Him? The first reason is this, the
redemption and complete salvation of all them that believe. the
redemption and complete salvation of all them that believe. Now,
here's the thing, beloved, all men by nature are the same. I
mean, beloved, I don't care who they are, from the littlest ones
to the oldest ones, and everything in between, all men are by nature
the same. And I mean those you cannot turn
your hand for the difference in the nature of a human being. But in the last day, In the last
day, there's going to be a great gulf fixed. There's going to
be made to be a great difference in men. And you can read it yourself
in Matthew 25 when our Lord Jesus Christ said, in that last day,
that great day, he says that Christ himself will say, now
bring them all here before me. And as a shepherd divides the
sheep from the goats, he'll say, put the goats on my left hand.
Put the sheep on my right hand. And He'll say unto the sheep,
O enter thou into the kingdom that God hath prepared for you
from the foundation of the world, and you go. departs he in the
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." There's
going to be a great gulf fixed, and that gulf is fixed as far
as I'm concerned right now. But you know why? For those that
have been redeemed by the Son of God and by His blessed blood. He's redeemed us and gave us
a complete salvation. And the reason why? Under Him
that loved us. Revelation 1, 5. Under Him that
loved us and washed us. from our sins in His own blood. Huh? Thou was slain, this is
the song they sang, Thou was slain and has redeemed us under
God by Thy blood out of every kindred, every tribe, every nation,
every tongue, because Thou was slain and has redeemed us. You
see, beloved, He came To die, He came to wash us in His own
blood, He came to cleanse us from our sin, and it was for
the elect's sake and the elect's sake only. But that's the principle
purpose. But the highest purpose, the
highest purpose, and if you don't get nothing else I say today,
get this right here. The highest purpose, the greatest
end that God had in saving His people in this, in the work of
redemption, was to bring glory to Himself. That's the highest
purpose. He chose us in Christ, made us
accepted in the Beloved. Do you know why? To the praise
of the glory of His grace. Paul says, let no man glory in
me, and if any man glory, let him glory in the Lord. And Beloved,
what could we possibly glory in today? What could we glory
in yesterday? What could we glory in today?
You see, it was God's unspeakable love to us that He provided to
us the means of salvation at all. And He chose not to save
sinners. We would have had nothing to
say about it. We would have been left in our fallen state. We
would have been left as devils on this earth, half beast and
half devil. Left to the pride and self-righteousness
of our own hearts. And God did not ask to provide,
but He did, in an unspeakable love to us. And we cannot wonder,
much less complain, that in justice to himself, he done this salvation
and redemption in such a way, and he used such means in saving
sinners like us, that he gets all the glory and all the praise,
and he's due ever behind. Wouldn't you agree with that? Oh my, I didn't even know I was
lost until God got me lost. I didn't even know I believed
the lie until God taught me the truth. I didn't know where I was until
God made me know where I was. And for God to get all the glory,
I tell you, there's some things that men have to see. And you
say, well, everybody wants God to get your glory. No, they don't.
No, they don't. The Scriptures tell us that every
man will proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man who can fight. If you don't think a fellow won't
proclaim his own goodness, talk to him 15 minutes. That's right. You know, even
us, if we ain't careful, we start bragging about ourselves. But
for God to get all the glory, we must clearly see the awful,
awful depravity and guilt and utter ruin of the human race. How lost is man? How ruined is
man? How lost is he? How ruined is
he? Well, he's so lost and ruined that there's no hope for him
in the condition he's in without God Almighty coming in power
and in grace and doing something for them, or they'll stay that
way all the days of their life. Ain't that right? Oh, you think about man and his
utter inability to help himself, to lift himself up, How can he
lift himself up to God? Where's he going to get the power?
Where's he going to get the ability? Where's he going to get the strength?
Where's he going to get the will? Where's he going to get the affection
to love God? Where's he going to get the need
to know he needs salvation? Where's that coming from? And
so God makes man because man's in this condition. God gets all
the honor and glory in saving him. How lost is man? How unable is man? If men had
any idea of the condition they was in, we would have to have
a building ten times this size just to hold the folks that would
be here to hear God, somebody tell them that there's a free
salvation. But if you're a priest and there's
a salvation you can earn for, earn or marry people of flock
to it. You've got to have two services
in the morning. Preach salvation by water and
warm the water for them, and you got folks lined up to get
in the baptismal pool. You give them an altar to get
on and tell them that they'll get up there and they'll pray
until they pray through. They'll come to an altar and
stay there and weep and cry until the preacher tells them, I believe
you're alright now. That's how lost he is. And preachers
will stand up and tell them how good they are. God says that
there's none good, no not one. They'll put a necklace around
their neck and they'll kiss it and say, this is my savior. This
is my good luck charm. They'll put a statue out in the
middle of their garden. And they'll go out there and
they'll burn incense to it. And they'll give them a relic
and put it in their car. Give them one, put it on their
wall. Man is so lost that he will trust anything besides God. He is so lost and he don't know
he's lost. He has no power, none whatsoever,
and I'm talking to everybody from the least of my great-granddaughter
until the oldest one in this building. And oh beloved, that we, God's
done this and He saves us in salvation, but we got to see
how lost man is and that we'll understand that we're debtors
to God's free grace and undeserved mercy and that alone. Only God
in His grace can make a self-righteous man count his righteousness as
filthy rags. Only God in grace can make a
strong man count his strength to be nothing. Only God in His
grace can take somebody who is proud of who he is and make him
humble himself and say, everything about me is nothing but dumb. Only God can do that. Huh? And I tell you, because there
was, when you look at men in all outward appearance, there
seems to be a great difference in the characters of men. There
seems to be a great difference, but God in His grace, He manifested
His grace in such a way that shows us that there's no case
too hard, nobody too high, nobody too low, nobody too simple, nobody
too... You know, a smart man's badness,
it keeps him from coming to Christ. You know what it is? It's the
goodness. If you ever become a sinner, you know when you'll
be saved? You're already saved. Now, I'll tell you that. If you
ever become a sinner before God, not before your mother, not before
your sister, not before your wife, not before the people you
work for, but when you become a sinner in your heart and soul
before God, and you understand your utter inability, God's done
something for you. Now, that's true. Don't you think
that's right? Oh, my. And he has to have compassion. He's got to come down where you
are, because you can't go where he's at. And because of these
reasons, the man's uttered absolute lostness, we can see some of
God's wisdom in the ways he's appointed and the people he's
chose to save. And let me give you four reasons
why. Why, this is the way. God's going to bring glory to
Himself. And it's a complete salvation and rediction of sinners
in this world. Because man is so lost and utterly
lost that God's only way to save him is to manifest His grace
towards him. And He does it for four reasons. To stain the pride
of all human glory. He's going to stain man's pride.
I mean, He's going to put a stain on it. And secondly, he's going
to exclude almost everything. And he's going to bring the person
to the ground of the only hope that he has is in the grace of
God, in the blood of Christ, in the righteousness of Christ.
And fourthly, that the salvation of sinners might be sure. The only way salvation is going
to be sure is if it's of sovereign grace. Now, is that not right? Now, let me show you something.
Look with me over here. I said, here's the reason salvation
is by sovereign grace. It is to sustain the pride of
all human glory. Look over in Isaiah 23. Isaiah 23, verse 9. You know, man is struck on himself. It's obvious that man is struck
on himself. You know, if you go out to look
for a job, you write your resume, and that resume's filled with
all the good things that you've done and all the reasons they
ought to hire you, all your accomplishments, all your education. And you know,
you get politicians run on all the good things they've accomplished,
whether they've done it or not. But how many of you can sit down
and write just how many failures you've made? How many sins you've
committed, how despicable you are, how weak you are, how many
times you failed, how many times you overrode your own principles. You went over and above the things
that you yourself said, I would never do, and you did. We talk about our accomplishments,
but what about the other side of it? This is where God's going
to stand, the other side of it. You see, man's stuck on himself.
Look what he said here in Isaiah 23 and verse 9. The Lord of hosts
hath purposed it to stain the pride of all glory. And that
word stain means to pollute. To pollute the pride of all glory
and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.
All right, look over in Job chapter 9, 19 with me, in verse 9. Job's right before the book of
Psalms. Job 19 and verse 9. Look at this with me, just a
moment. Oh, man's proud of the place he's from, the place he occupies. He got pride of face, who he
is and his relationship. Pride of race, free white and
twenty-one. Pride of grace. And God help
us and please help us to never feel like that. Because we understand,
and God's taught us something about the salvation of grace
and the sovereignty of His grace, and the power and right for Him
to do what He wants to in this world, to never feel like that
we have got a handle on everything in this world, and that we're
different and above and beyond everybody. The only reason we
got anything is God made us different. Let's never get proud of that.
It's always come the way we started. We come as beggars, we come as
sinners, and it's come the way we started. But look in Job 19
and 9, look what he says. He has stripped me of my glory. What? He has stripped me of my glory and
taken the crown from my head. And then folks are lining up.
They're lining up to go to glory. See how many crowns they're going
to get when they get there. And Job said, he took mine off
here. Oh, God stains the pride of glory
because it's absolutely useless in eternal matters. You see,
beloved, a man can rule a kingdom. We see this all the time. A man
can rule a kingdom in a nation, yet be a slave. to his own lust
and his own passions. A man can have courage to go
out on a battlefield, under fire, with the risk of being killed,
to do something for another man to save another man, but he'll
be an absolute coward when it comes to things concerning God
and religion and Christ. A man can have such powers of
intellect like Einstein, and some of these men got great powers
of intellect, they can tell you, look at astronomy and tell you
so much about it, tell you so much about science, tell you
all about books and languages, and yet never, when they look
at the stars and talk about all their great intellect, never
consider God, never consider the creation. And somebody else
comes along, a preacher, and he goes and gets him a D.D. and
a Ph.D., and he professes to be wise in the scriptures. And
then he takes those old scriptures and turns them, by his reasoning,
into the most absurd errors. And he says, you know that God,
He loves every single one of you, and that He wants to save
you if you'll just let Him. That God stands, Christ stands
and locks at your heart's door right now if you just open and
let Him in. You've got, your will is sovereign
over God and God can't do anything unless you throw up both hands
and allow Him to do it. We know you're good people, you
just need Jesus. That's what they do. They take,
when they talk about grace, they say, yes, grace, but when you
talk about grace, they want to talk about human responsibility. If it wasn't for God's sovereignty,
man had nobody to be responsible to. Who you going to be responsible
to if not to God? Oh, my. Another comes along and
he bursts about how virtuous he is, how moral he is, how good
he is, how honest he is. And yet you follow him around,
he's not very virtuous. He delights in filthy jokes.
He's not very moral. He's not very honest. And you
follow him around, he approves, and he don't know nothing about
virtue, morality, or honesty, either one. And this is what
our Lord Jesus calls the wise and the prudent that our Lord
Jesus Christ said He hid these things from. Because in the midst
of their wisdom and prudence, they're strangers to God. They're
even strangers to themselves. And they're without Christ and
without God and without hope in this world. And the things
that alone are important to them, God's hidden from their eyes.
Hidden from their eyes. Oh man, his heart is so depraved,
his heart is so deceitful, that if God don't in sovereign grace
come and do something for him, and stain that pride, take the
crown off of his head, we see because of man in his desperate
condition, now listen to me, if God doesn't come and break
in on a man, I mean break in on him, he's got to invade him
He's got to invade his world, invade his mind, invade his understanding,
invade his will, invade his emotions, invade his affections, and he's
got to invade, he's got to break into a man and invade him! Or a man will live in his little
old world, and he'll die like he lived. All right? And I'll tell you, so that's
the reason, you see. God's going to sustain the pride
of all men. That's why salvation is by sovereign grace. And another
reason is to exclude all boasting. Look over here in Romans chapter
4 and verse 2. Look in Romans chapter 4. Not
only to sustain man's pride. Scott Richardson told me a story
one time. He was with a preacher. I believe
it was up in Virginia. And he was telling the fellow, he
said, boy, when God saves a man, he said, he takes all the pride
out of it, don't he? He said, well, no, not every
bit of it. He still makes enough interest
to make us weigh too much. Still got way too much in us,
don't we? But one of these days, bless His holy name, we'll be
done with it. Be done with this old flesh. Romans 4, 2, look
what he says. For if Abraham were justified
by works, if he was, if Abraham had been justified by works,
he were up to glory. But not before God. He might
glory before men and talk about what he accomplished. The wise
many of them went to say in verse 3, for what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. If men were saved in any way
by their own wisdom, by their own goodness, they could boast. And they would. They would. I could tell you how many people
have told me. That it was my will, it was my
choice, and my repentance and my faith that made the difference
in me being saved and somebody else not being saved. I don't know how many people
told me that over the years. And you see, whenever they could
be saved anyway by their own wisdom, their own goodness, their
own works, then they would rob God of the glory due unto His
name by boasting Him. The sovereignty of His grace
is manifested in such a way that He gets all the glory. If the
wise man glories, God makes him be a fool, for Christ's sake.
If the mighty man glories in his strength, God makes him to
be as weak as a little baby, and makes him as a baby, so all
he can do is cry, have a father, have a father. If a rich man
glories in his riches, you know what Christ does for him when
he comes in grace? He makes him poor in spirit,
poor and needy, until he cries out, O Lord, have mercy on me,
I'm poor and needy. Oh, beloved, the good, the bad,
the ugly, the beautiful, the wise, the ignorant, the rich,
the poor, the prince, the pauper, all stand on the same ground
before God. And if a man knows anything about
salvation, God's got to reveal it to him. The natural man does
not receive the things of the glory of God. And if there's
a difference in man's worship and knowledge of God, we all
owe it to the sovereign, free grace of God Himself. Not under
us, not under us, O Lord, not under us, but under Thy name
be glory. And I tell you what, this is
the free grace, sovereign grace, is the only thing that will give
hope to a man in this world and give him a good one. Moses said,
Lord, I want to see your glory. You really want to see it, Moses?
I'd like to do. Well, I'll tell you where you
see it at. You see it at over here in this rock. And I'm just
going to let you see just the back part of it. The back part
of it. And we got to be put in Christ
to see the glory of God. And he said, I'll cause my goodness
to pass before you. Anybody here say God hasn't been
good to you? Next time somebody talks about,
they say, how good has God been to you? Why don't you believe
Him? How good has God been to you? Oh, the goodness, I'll cause
my goodness to pass before you. And I will have mercy. on whom
I will have mercy. And I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. And you know, I'll tell you what
I do when I hear that. He says He'll have mercy. He
says He'll have mercy. You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to ask Him for mercy. He says He'll have compassion.
I pray He'll have compassion on me. Oh, Lord, do not pass me by. Oh, my. And thirdly, sovereign
grace opens the door of hope to the lowest, to the vilest,
and to the meanest, sorriest in this world. The sorriest in
this world. Now, let me tell you something. If salvation were only for the
learned, for the rich, For people who are well-behaved and for
the moral, they are the only one who is saved. What in the
world would there be any hope for me then? Huh? What would be any hope for me?
Huh? You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, you know, said, see that strong man over there? He said,
I'm going to choose this weak fellow over here just to make
that strong man. I wonder what in the world I'm doing. I'm going
to choose that fellow right there. He ain't got no education, he
ain't got no strength, he ain't got nothing going for him whatsoever.
I'm going to do that to confound that fellow over there that thinks
he's real wise. Got a good education, looks down
on that fellow, ain't got nothing. That's what I'm going to do.
Why you going to do that? There's no flesh or glory in
my presence. That's why I'm going to do it
that way. Huh? I tell you, the whole don't need
a physician. Let me show you something over in John 9, John
chapter 9. Let's look at this together. Down here
in verse 39, John 9, 9.39. This is after our Lord opened
the eyes of that blind man. Look what he said here. At least
the Pharisees hear now. And Jesus said, for judgment
I am come into this world. And this is the judgment I make.
That's why he said, fathers seem good in thy sight. This is the
judgment. This is the, you know, I said as a judge to make the
judgment. And this is the judgment that
I make, that they which see might not see. A fellow says, I got
it, I understand. So the fellow says, I can see,
I'm going to make it to where he can't see. And that they which
see might be made blind. Oh my, I'm going to make a distinction.
Those that say they see not. I don't see, I don't understand.
Lord, I know so little about you, but God will give you eyesight.
You say, well, I see, I understand. You're going to be made blind.
And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words
and said unto him, Are we blind also? Are we blind too? Our Lord said unto them, if you
were blind, if you were blind, you'd have no sin. You'd have no sin. What does
that mean? That you say, Lord, the only
place that can give me sight is you. You're the only one that can
give me sight. And that's why you should have no sin. But now
you say, ah, we see. We see the world's salvation,
works, will, our power, our rights, our prayers, our tithing, all
these things. Are you poor? So was I once. Are you ignorant? Well, God can
teach you, and He must. And still there'll be so many
things you'll never know, and you don't have the capacity to
know. The one thing you can do, you can know God, if God makes
you to know Him. Have you been an open, gross
sinner? Our Lord Jesus Christ said, you know, there were those who
were with men and women with women and that, and he said,
at least, he said that, you know, they were drunkards and revilers
and abusers of themselves, and he said, and I, they're now justified,
sanctified by the Spirit of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
And let me tell you this, salvation by sovereign grace not only stains
the pride of man, excludes all boasting, but it makes salvation
sure, sure for believers. It makes it sure. Sovereign salvation
by sovereign grace. The sovereignty of God in grace
makes salvation sure for believers. Now, if anything depended on
man, anything whatsoever depended on man, It failed. It failed. You know what it takes
to change a man's wisdom, make him from a wise man into a fool?
A fever. That's all it takes. A real high
fever. A hit on the head. And a man
can go to be obliterated in a moment. A stroke. Larry Matthews telling us about
his grandson yesterday evening. Had a fever and his little baby
is fine, fine. He got a high fever. And he got
to, no, no, no, no, no, that's not right. The babysitter went
to check on him and he wasn't breathing. She called the ambulance,
they took him to the ambulance. Took him to the hospital, still
couldn't get him to breathe. Carried him down to Knoxville. And they
finally got him breathing, but he went without oxygen so long
that he can't walk, he can't talk, he can't speak, he can't
cry. He had an ankle broke and didn't
even know it was broke. Sits in a wheelchair. He's 15
years old now. That's all it takes. So if salvation depended on man,
And you know, it may happen to me, it may happen to you, I may
be sitting in a wheelchair one of these days and I won't know
my name. I won't know my children, I won't know my wife. But it
won't make no difference. God already knows me. You know, it's not what I know,
it's who I know, and who He knows, and He knows me. That makes salvation
sure, don't it? That makes salvation sure. And,
oh, beloved, listen. Adam had all he needed for his
happiness, and he lost it. Adam was trusted with all he
needed for himself and all of his offspring, the whole human
race. But he lost it. He lost every bit of it. But
the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam, He came into this world,
and He brought everything with Him. He brought a righteousness
for all of His people. He brought a cleansing from the
sin for all of His people. He brought grace for all of His
people to save them and keep them and carry them to glory.
Huh? He brought us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And if this had been left to
man, if salvation had been left to man, when our Lord came into
this world, our Lord would have no disciples. Nobody would have
followed Him. His death would have been in
vain. Nobody would have come to Him. But you put grace in
His hands, salvation in His hands, and you mark her down, who He
purposes to save is going to be saved, and it won't fail. And they'll never be brought
to shame. And let me ask you in closing, what do you think
about sovereign grace? What do you think about God in
sovereign grace, saving whom He will? Are you like the Lord
Jesus Christ, for so it seemed good in thy sight? What's your
opinion of this blessed truth? What's your opinion of it? If
the Lord Jesus rejoiced in it and said, Oh, it's the good and
holy will of my Father that he hides these from the wise and
prudent and reveals among the babe and says, It's seen good
in your sight. How do you feel about it? If
you say, Well, I don't like it. Well, that proves right off the
bat that you have no part in God's grace, no part whatsoever. You see, if God wills one thing
and you will another, That war of wills got to end somewhere. And guess whose will is going
to win? Guess whose will is going to
come out on time? You ever had a war of wills with your children? Have you ever had a war of wills
with your children? When they just stand and scream
and cry and say, I'm not going to do that, and you say, I want
to do this, and they just stand there, I ain't going to do it.
They just stand there and cry and scream. And you know, your will is going
to be done, or you're going to give in to their will, or they're
going to give in to your will. Somebody's will is going to come
out on top. I'll tell you whose will is going to come out on
top in this business of salvation. God's is. That's why I give it up. Just
give it up! Because God's going to, and those old barners said,
you better hope He does. Oh my, doesn't it appear to you
that this blessed, blessed doctrine of God's free and sovereign grace
is an encouragement to sinners? What an encouragement to sinners
to come. Salvation doesn't depend on what you think, what you feel,
what you do, what work you do or don't do. It depends on Him. If you're a sinner, salvation's
in the hands of Christ. He's not looking for goodness
in you. He's not looking for a work from you. He's not looking
for a merit from you. He's not looking for a prayer.
He's not looking for anything from you. He's got everything
that you need. And if you feel your unworthiness,
if you feel sin, doesn't it encourage you that the Lord doesn't require
worthiness in those He saves? under no circumstances at any
time. God has provided the only means,
the only place He will accept a plea, and a place where He
will not refuse, and that's His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness of His blessed
Son in His only plea. Huh? Oh my, I said, preacher,
I just, that's the best news I ever heard. And I've been preaching
this for years and years and years and heard her preach for
years and years, and it's still the best news I ever heard. It
still hurts. It still fills my heart with
awe and wonder and rejoicing. And still makes me want to be
saved. The only way a sinner's saved,
through Christ. Through Him. Through Him. You say, ain't you getting better
preacher? No, no, no, no. No. Not getting any better. Huh? You're sure you're going
to get better. You're going to learn some things
one of these days. Well, about time I graduate. You know when
I graduate? When I leave here and go young.