In the 13th verse, it says, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Well, I want to ask this question, who are these people in whom God works? Well, I'll answer it three ways.

The people in whom God works are people for whom God has already done some works outside of us. God has worked grace in the hearts of his elect, of his chosen people, of the people ordained unto eternal life before the world began. You see, grace always travels a predestined road to the heart of a chosen vessel of mercy. Grace comes on purpose. A revelation of the gospel comes on purpose. It's directed by the almighty power of God to those who were selected in the election of grace before the world ever began. Grace never goes in experience where election and predestination do not send it. Where election and predestination sends grace, grace will go to that destination.

The reason God works within our hearts is because He's already done an amazing, glorious work for us in eternity past. He chose us unto everlasting life. And then God's saving grace comes to every sinner for whom there is a great high priest and a sacrifice has been offered on their behalf. You see, grace comes to all those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ tasted death.

By the grace of God, he came. He humbled himself. I read these verses here, verses one through five. Christ is our, he is our example. In verse 6, we have the identification of Christ. Who is He? Well, He's the one who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. In verses 7 and 8, Paul talks about the humiliation of Christ. He stooped down. How low did He stoop? He stooped lower than the angels. because the angels can't suffer, bleed, and die. The angels couldn't be offered as a sacrifice for our sins. Only one who is made flesh and blood, only one who could suffer, could redeem us. Christ humbled Himself, and He did it voluntarily. I know He was chosen by the Father in the covenant of grace to be our Savior, but it was not an election for which He was ashamed. He was delighted to do it. He volunteered to suffer for us. There was nothing about Him that would turn away from being our Savior.

And so therefore, having saved us by his voluntary death, by suffering all the hell that we should have suffered, therefore he has been exalted. And that's what it says in verses 9 through 11. You see, grace comes to those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has laid down his life as the good shepherd of the sheep. He forfeited his own life. He said, no man takes my life from me. He said, I have the power to lay it down of myself. And as he had the power to lay it down, because nobody could take his life from him, he had the power to take it up again. He said, this commandment have I received of my father. He who stooped so very, very low to bear our sins in His own body on the tree, He has been exalted because He accomplished the work of redemption He came to do. He did not try to do something and fail. He did not put forth an effort to save and then leave part of that salvation up to sinners to accomplish on their own. Everything a holy God in His justice demanded of the Savior for us has been accomplished. He said it is finished. He finished the work that God gave Him to do.

Who are the people in whom God does works? They are the people who are redeemed by the blood of Christ. They are people who have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. They are people whose sin debt has been retired. There are people who have no transgressions, no iniquities, no sins that stand in the way. Our sins were like great mountains before God. Christ came and took them all away.

And therefore God deals with us inwardly. He dealt for us outwardly in electing grace. He dealt for us in redeeming grace. And therefore, in time, he deals with us with inward grace. You see, grace comes to those for whom Christ suffered, bled, and died. Those for whom Hebrews says, for whom redemption was obtained. You know what that word obtain means? It means to reach out and take hold of it. That's what Christ did when He came. He came to redeem and He took hold of redemption and He accomplished that work. He redeemed us unto God by His bloody death. And He makes intercession for us.

The people for whom God works inwardly, are a people for whom Christ makes intercession. He never ceases, my friend, my brother, my sister, he never ceases to pray for you. I appreciate those of you who came to Mackie's funeral Thursday. I was thinking about her this afternoon. Christ made intercession for her, said, Father, I pray that she be with me where I am, that she may behold my glory. And that prayer request was immediately answered. And that's the way it's gonna be for you who are the people of God. You are immortal. Hear me, you are immortal till God's finished with you. And then you're not gonna stay a moment longer. And it's gonna take you home to glory.

He will send angels from his own throne to surround you upon your deathbed as he did for Lazarus in the book of Luke. And at the appointed time, The face of God indicates to his angels, bring him home. Said to the angels concerning Lazarus, bring him home. And even though the dogs licked his sores, and even though the rich man neglected to feed him, he was a child of God. He was fed with better food than the rich man could ever give him. He was fed with manna from on high, and he drank of the water from the smitten rock Christ Jesus. And the Lord said, bring him home, and the angels took him home. That's what happened for Mackie, and that's what happens to every child of God. You will be brought home safely. Thus it was written in the covenant of grace.

And so our Lord Jesus sealed your redemption with his own precious blood. And these people in whom God does work, the Spirit of God comes to them, and the Spirit of God brings them to Christ. You know, when I think about the grace of God, it often comes to the most unlikely, the most unlikely. Who would have ever thought that the thief on the cross would ever be a child of God? Who would have thought he'd be an heir of grace? Who would have ever thought he was a vessel of mercy? Who would have ever looked at that man dying on the cross beside the Savior? Who would have ever thought, you know, he's one of the Lords. I bet his parents had written him off if they knew the Lord. His associates in crime, they had said, well, he's just gonna perish in his sins. He looked unlikely. You just never know who the vessels of mercy are. Oftentimes it's the least likely.

Or what about Saul of Tarsus? You hear him cussing the name of Jesus Christ? You hear him ridiculing those who believe in the way of grace? You see him arresting those who believe in salvation by sovereign mercy? Do you see him throwing in prison those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Savior, that He's the King, He's God over all, blessed forever? You say, boy, I don't want that guy to even come to my church. He'll cause trouble wherever he goes. And he rides into Damascus, and the Lord knocks him off his high horse of pride down into the dust. He's gonna have to knock you down. Then he'll lift you up. He kills first, and then he gives life. He strips, he strips us of our self-righteousness. Then he robes us.

Why Saul of Tarsus had such an awful reputation that when the Lord came to Ananias and said, I got somebody I want you to preach to. And he said, in essence, he said, please get another preacher. I know who that Saul of Tarsus is. I've heard many things about him. Lord said, he's a vessel. I've chosen him. I've chosen Him.

And if I could bring it nearer home, who would have ever thought that you would be a believer? Who would have ever thought that you'd be a child of God? You see, when you believe, that doesn't make you a child of God. You believe because you are already a child of God. You've been his from old eternity.

For myself, I was wrapped up in false religion. I was quite comfortable, too, and very zealous. Well, that's the way Saul of Tarsus was, right? He was zealous. I tell you, anybody who's willing to kill somebody else for their religious views, that's pretty zealous right there. And you'd have to say this about the Pharisees who sought our Savior to his death, though they couldn't carry it out. They insisted that the Roman soldiers carry it out. They were full of zeal. It was misplaced zeal. But they were a zealous people.

But Saul of Tarsus, who would have ever thunk it He'd be the greatest of the apostles. And you. And you. And me. Who would have ever thought they were vessels of mercy? These people in whom God works They're special people, made special only by grace. These are people God chose unto salvation. Don't deny that. Election unto salvation is not the sinner's enemy. It is not. It's the sinner's friend. An election pursues us in saving sovereign grace. Christ died for us. He did something about our indebtedness, and the Spirit comes to deal with us.

You see, the Lord, He sends His grace to people who are utterly destitute of merit, who are completely unworthy of the least of his favors. People who are miserable, spiritual failures, corrupt sinners, depraved rebels, I hope that doesn't offend you. Vile, wretched, undone, condemned, worthless worms. You see, grace is for the sinful. It's for the fallen. For where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. So these are the kinds of people in whom grace works.

Well, what are the works of God that he accomplishes in the hearts of his people? In Isaiah, the Lord said, or Isaiah says, thou hast wrought all our works in us, everything spiritual. Everything that is of God within you, every desire, every willingness, every thought concerning the glory of Christ and God's amazing salvation, it's all due to God working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. Whatever works in us, that are related to God's great salvation is of the Lord. You have never and you will never have any thought or any desire or any willingness toward God apart from God working in you to will and to do of His good pleasure.

You see, in the book of God, this is the book of God, isn't it? This is the word of God. In the book of God, nothing is ascribed to us except our sin. That's all. If there's any good in you, it's not of you, it's of God. Everything related to God's salvation is wrought of God in us. Now let's just look at a few things here as time allows. First of all, regeneration, the new birth. The new birth is wrought in the hearts of chosen, sovereign, choice sinners. of the power and irresistible grace of the Holy Spirit. Go back to John chapter 1, and I can't spend much time on any of these, but I want to show you what the Bible says. Let me show you what Christ says.

John 1, regeneration, the new birth. Of course, you remember in John 3 that the Savior said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. But he didn't say how you can be born again. What can I do to be born again? Nicodemus, in his arrogance and in his spiritual foolishness, he said, well, can a man enter into his mother's womb and be born? And you want to say, are you crazy? Don't you have any common sense? But you see, when it comes to the things of God, the natural man doesn't have any sense. We just don't know. It's like that passage I referred to this morning in Acts, when Philip went to the Ethiopian eunuch and he said, do you understand what you're reading? And I would ask you, do you understand what you're hearing? And you remember what the eunuch said? How can I? How can I? Except somebody show me, except somebody manifest, somebody expose me, make known to me the very truth of God.

Look at John 1. Verse 11 says, he came into his own. And His own received Him not. His own family, His own nation, His own world. It's His creation. And His own received Him not. But there are some who receive Him. I've received Him. You received Him. You received Him. Several of us here received Him. What about you who are watching? You received Him? Have you received Him as prophet, priest, and king? Have you received Him as Lord? Have you received Him as the only one who reconciled you to God by His bloody death upon the cross of Calvary? Have you received Him? Well, if you've received Him, He gave you the power, the authority to become the sons of God. You don't become a son of God then, but you do have the right or the authority to say, I am a child of God. I didn't know I was a child of God till he revealed the truth to me.

Mired in false religion, trying to get everybody saved, doing all I could. Got to Bible college and we said, it's like we had a soul winning gun. And you get another notch on your gun. I got another one. Every week in college. Get a little note in my box. And everybody got it. How many souls were you on to Jesus this week? Oh boy. I was red hot. In heresy. In error. Thought I was doing God's service. Going on my way. And I found out about Sovereign Grace.

And the preacher who performed our wedding, he got wind of me speaking about the Sovereign Grace of God, divine election, particular redemption. He came, knocked on our little apartment door. I called him by name. I said, well, how are you? It's good to see you. He said, what is this I hear about you? I said, well, what's that? He said, I hear that you believe that God chose a people unto salvation and that it's really all of God. You don't believe that man's got a free will? Come on, Jim, you surely believe man's got a free will. I said, our will's enslaved. He said, where'd you get that from? I said, out of the Bible.

And he said, well, have you read anybody that believes this? I said, the college library is full of books by John Gill, by Arthur W. Pink, by the old Puritans. That's what they believe. And he said to me this, and I can still hear him saying, he said, you're about to ruin your ministry right now. He said, of course, he's a trustee of the college. He said, I had high hopes for you. He said, I've seen how zealous you are. You're a good preacher. He said, you're going to pastor a big church, but you're fixing to ruin it all right now. That's what he said. He said, you'll never pastor any church of any size at all if you keep going down this road. And he was right.

In the eyes of men, not very successful. You know, in the eyes of men, Noah wasn't very successful, was he? He kept at it though. I'm thankful God pulled me out of that mess. Taught me how God saves sinners. I'll tell you what God taught me. He does the work. And you see, this is what this is saying here. Those that received Christ, have you received Christ? I can tell you the reason you have received Christ as Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Sovereign, Prophet, Priest, King. I can tell you the reason. And it's this in verse 13, which we're born. You were born. Not of blood. You didn't inherit this. It didn't come through your bloodline, nor the will of the flesh, because the will of the flesh is depraved. Luther's book, Bondage of the Will, that's us. The will's in bondage. Don't tell me man's got a free will. Christ said, and you will not come to me that you might have life. You weren't born of the will of the flesh. Your will wasn't behind it, nor the will of man. It wasn't because of the wills of other people who said, you ought to be a Christian.

We used to sing courses when I was little, and a lot of them were good, but a lot of them were just junk. You ever get a song on your mind and you can't get it out? I had one on my mind this week. It went, everybody ought to be a Christian, a Christian, a Christian, the men and the women and the boys and the girls. I said, I sure did seen some dumb courses. You don't choose to be a Christian. Oh, Christians are made, but by God, he chooses. See, it's not of the will of somebody else, but of God. That's God working in you. Here's what happens. You're going along life's way, and all of a sudden, you hear the truth from one of God's preachers. And it gets your ear, gets your ear, and you start listening. A young man I baptized this morning, he said, and I preached to him for years and years, but he said, you know, I got to listening. I got to hearing. I was hearing something. I said, well, God used the ear gate. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And then God does a miraculous work.

Somebody says, well, how come you don't give an altar call? How come you don't ask people to come down the aisle and make a decision for Jesus? I haven't done that ever since I learned the gospel. I am completely satisfied to just leave you with the word of truth and trust God the Spirit to do the work. That's the way it ought to be, Ron. Isn't that right? That's the way it ought to be. I'm not going to put any pressure on you, beg you to come down here.

I tell you what, if all the people in all the so-called crusades through the years, if all those people had been genuine Repentant, believing sinners, sought and found by the great shepherd of the sheep. If all of them had been genuine men alive, they'd turn this country upside down. But we're just the worst for it. That's right, Hinton Allen. We're just the worst for it.

Gotta be born again. And that doesn't take place outwardly. That's the work of God in here. And maybe the Lord's dealing with some of you, I hope. And then there's another work within you. He works the gift of repentance. You see, Christ is said to be exalted to be the Prince of Israel for to give repentance, to give repentance. You don't have repentance. That's a gift from God, and he don't have to give it. That's the thing about the gifts of God. He gives his gifts to whoever he wants to. It's kind of like at Christmas. You give gifts to whoever you want to. If you didn't want to give me a gift, that's okay. I don't hold it against you for very long. You don't have to give me a gift. We give gifts to whom we want to. And God gives gifts to those whom He wants to give them to.

And the greatest gift He can give you is, as Paul says, the unspeakable gift of Christ Jesus. God gives new life, that's the new birth. God gives regeneration and God gives repentance to whom He will. And I have news for this religious but lost generation. You've got to repent, but you can't do it unless God gives it to you. There you go. You can get upset with him. You can get mad at God. That won't bother him. That won't bother him at all.

You ever heard George Whitefield? Some of you have. Maybe you've read his biography. He said this, no man has truly repented until he repents of three things.

Number one, his sins. I agree, it starts there. It's the things that you've done that are wrong. It's the words that you have spoken that are improper. and not pleasing to God. A man is not truly repented until he's repented of his sins.

Secondly, he says, a man has not truly repented until he has repented of his sin. That's his sin nature. That's his sin problem.

And then George Whitefield said, a man is not truly repented until he's repented of his sins. of his sin and of his righteousness. His so-called holiness.

Got people running around here today in religion saying, I'm holy and I'm increasing in holiness. They have no idea what holiness is because There can be no increase in holiness. Godliness, yes. Holiness, no. And they think that, you know, not smoking or not chewing or not cussing or not drinking, you know, I'm living a holy life. Those things, that don't have anything to do with holiness.

You see, people need to read 1 Corinthians 1, Christ of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification. That's holiness. Our holiness is seated at the right hand of God right now. You cannot be more holy than you are in Christ. There are degrees of holiness. I don't care what any preacher says. Either you are or you're not. And if you're in Christ, you're holy.

Because holiness is not something you flash around to people. That's what the Pharisees did. People said, oh, they're the holiest people on earth. They were the most ungodly. They were the most ungodly. I know they tithed twice in the week and they fasted and they They did all the things that the law said for them to do, but they despised God. They hated the gospel. Christ came and they said, we turned thumbs down on him. Well, what do you want me to do with him? Pilate said, they said, kill him. That's what we say. That's man's holiness for you.

What are the works of God in us? I'll tell you another one, conviction. John 16, Christ says when the Holy Spirit would come, you're convict of sin. Have you been convicted, convinced of your sin? Have you been convinced of righteousness? God requires that which you cannot possibly produce. and judgment. That's what happened at the cross. Christ judged sin. The Spirit of God convinces you of that.

And I'll tell you another work that God does within us. He gifts us with faith. Faith. Ephesians 2. For by grace you save through faith and that not of yourselves. No, faith is not a little, just a little bit of a flame within you. You just need to fan it a little bit and blow up into great faith. You don't have any faith. If you ever read by David Brainard, The thing that aggravated him and finally drove him to the throne of God as a mercy beggar was this, God demands what you cannot produce. And he got mad. That's not fair.

See, we lost all spiritual ability in Adam's fall. taste something else God produces in us, good works. Turn to 2 Corinthians and I'm gonna have to quit on this one. Look at 2 Corinthians, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I want you to listen to what Paul says. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10. But by the grace of God, Paul says, I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, it never is. He says, but I labored more abundantly than they all, than all who, the rest of the apostles. Yet, now watch it, yet, not I, it wasn't me. but the grace of God which was with me or in me.

So I gotta perform some good works. You know what Ephesians 2 says? Turn over to Ephesians 2. I've quoted a good bit of it. But look at verse 10. Ephesians 2. Verse 10. For we are his workmanship. Religion today doesn't know anything about that. Being his workmanship. Today it's I did it. I let him save me. I gave my heart to Jesus. I, I, I, I. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Watch it now. Don't you take credit for this. Don't you take credit for something that credit is not due to you, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. If you do something good, It wasn't you. It wasn't you. That's what Paul says. That's what he says over there in 1 Corinthians 15. Don't take credit for something you didn't do. You're a sorry individual if you do that. He said, it's the grace of God with me, in me.

I tell you, it's high time preachers stood up on their hind legs and declared that the works of God within us are solely of Him. And we won't get any credit. He gets all the glory. I got some other things to say, but I believe I'll just turn the faucet off and we'll go home. But all glory to the Lord. Let's don't try to take glory for something we ain't never done. The Lord said, he said, I am the Lord. I am the Lord. He said, in my glory will I not give to another neither my praise to a graven image. I don't want to be guilty of trying to steal his glory. I'd be in hot water sure enough. Let's praise the Lord.

Well, let's sing a closing.