Psalms 111 verses 1 through 4, then we'll go to Psalms 103, then we'll go to Psalms 86. Psalms 111 verses 1 through 4. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great. sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endures forever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion." Psalms 103. Psalms 103 and verse eight. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. And Psalms 86 and verse 15. Psalms 86 and verse 15. I just picked these three verses. They have a central theme or a central word and we could go off throughout the scriptures and find this word And this is what we're gonna look at this morning. The Lord is gracious. Psalms 86 verse 15. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion and gracious, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. Gracious, the Lord is gracious. Now, there's a bunch of hymns in this book that we have either sing or have sung years past, but Amazing Grace. We sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, John Newton. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor has come thou fount of every blessing. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace greater than our sins. We sing, great God of wonders, who has grace so rich and free? Who has grace so rich and free? Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly. We speak of the grace that's found in that one. Jesus, I'm sorry, Jesus, lover of my soul, Plenteous grace with thee is found. Psalm, or hymn 125. Jesus paid it all, we know that hymn. For nothing good have I whereby thy grace to claim. I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's lamb. We can't purchase grace. Grace owes us nothing in and of ourselves. Psalms Hymn 52, Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned, we know that one. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon the Savior's brow, His head with radiant glories crowned, His lips with grace or flow. His lips with grace or flow. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing. We've seen that one. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing by great Redeemer's praise. the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. And there's more in there. Those are ones that we're familiar with. So we could go on and on. We sing these hymns when we as reclaimed sinners have been freed or touched or convicted by this almost undescribable Grace. I listened to a message years ago by Donny Bell and thought it was maybe out of Ephesians 2, 8, you know, by grace you saved. And he just talked about grace. And I just, it was, I just remembered it. It just stuck with me. And as I got this outline from somebody else, um, I looked at Spurgeon and on the grace gems and it was Spurgeon's hobby horse is what it was entitled. And it was, I'm determined not to know anything among you save Christ and him crucified. And so there is a tendency. And I had to go back over this and rewrite some of this because I'm glad that I read that. I'm glad that I was reminded grace. We can get, get so caught in sinful as we are. We get so caught up in grace. We forget who's the dispenser of grace. And that's, that's, that's Paul's hobby horse, the Lord Jesus Christ. So I'm going to describe, just a little bit this morning, this grace. This grace, but we must always remember that this grace is never separated, it's not alone, it's not set apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. So we'll look at these thoughts and definitions or whatever of grace, and then we'll We'll come back and tie it all together.

First of all, this grace that we talk about, and we talk a lot about grace. The name of the church is Sovereign Grace. This grace is sovereign. What do I mean? We talk a lot about sovereign, and we use it a lot. We use that term. Where do we get it? Well, several places we get it.

Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15 and verse 18, it's a shortened version of the word reign. R-E-I-G-N, reign. The word sovereign is not in the Bible. Sovereign grace is not in the Bible, but the concept reigning grace is, and that's where this comes from.

Verse 18 of Exodus 15, the Lord shall reign forever. Ever the Lord shall reign forever and ever Psalms 146 Psalms 146 and verse 10 Psalms 146 verse 10 the Lord shall reign forever even thy God O Zion unto all generations Praise ye the Lord. He's gonna reign and Revelations chapter 11 Revelation chapter 19, but let's look at verse chapter 11 first revelations 11 And verse 15 and the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever Ever and Psalms 19. I'm sorry revelations 19 Revelations 19 and verse 6 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundering saying Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent God reigneth, omnipotent, all-powerful.

So what it simply means, if you look it up in a dictionary or you look up the word reign in the concordance, the Hebrew and Greek, it means to rule over, to rule over. So when we talk about sovereign grace, we talk about God's ruling favor, His ruling unmerited favor, His ruling grace. It rules over us. It conquers us. That's why He can't deal. That's my phraseology. God doesn't deal with the old man. He just, you have to create a new man. You must be born again. That's where that term, we must be born again. The first birth is full of sin. It's earthy. It's of Adam. We must be born again. We must have a new creature.

So yes, that's the God of this book. And this is this free gift of grace or this, when we say talk about grace, we're talking about salvation or mercy bestowed, or we're talking about the way made to heaven. is bestowed according to God's good pleasure. So he can do with it, he reigns over this grace. He can do with it and dispense it to whom he so chooses. That's Ephesians chapter 1 verses 1 through 10. He does these things according to his good pleasure.

And oh how this goes against man's nature. When I first heard this, it made me very upset. It made me very upset. through a couple of books, got angry at a couple of friends. I said, I'm praying for this guy and he's going to be safe. And they said, well, if he's one of God's chosen, and I said, what do you mean? And so that's when I got my first lesson outside of Fanner Hall and SIU, got my first lesson in the sovereignty of God. And I didn't like it, didn't like it at all.

We think somehow that we are fit in and of ourselves to go to glory. But this does not agree with the book. Again, the book is our guide, our rule. It says we're born in sin. We are born against God, we're enmity, which means we're at war with God. We are full of sin and iniquity, Romans chapter three, Isaiah 64, six, write it down, look it up when you get home, even our best is described as filthy rags. So our best, we're already in the hole. So God's grace is first sovereign. It rules and reigns.

Secondly, this grace is unmerited. There's nothing in us to draw this grace forth. It comes from God in the person and in accomplishments of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are all ill-deserving, that means damnation, it is only through Christ this grace is given only through Christ and enabled by God the Holy Spirit that we are made acceptable Ephesians 1 verse 6 we're made acceptable in the beloved

thirdly this grace is not only unmerited not only is it sovereign it's unearned it's unearned unearned by us yet it was truly and totally earned by Christ for us. To earn, and you think about this, to earn something is to work for it. You go to work, you agree with your contract with your employer, and you get paid. That's your work, and that's the way it should be. You earn it. That is you work for it. That means you pay for it. or you gain deservedly. In the Webster's Dictionary, what is unearned is to gain deservedly by one's behavior. That's not grace. That's not grace.

How can we, who are starting, as I said, in a hole, in the negative, do such a thing? Romans chapter four. How can we who are fallen in Adam are representative. And somebody says, well, I wasn't there. Well, you weren't there, and I wasn't there when Christ died. So if you don't want to own up to one, you're certainly not going to get the benefits of the other.

Romans chapter 4, verse 4 and 5, to him, anybody, man woman boy or girl that works is reward not reckoned of grace that's what we're talking about super bounding sovereign unearned unmerited grace but of debt of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justified the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness to him that worketh not oh Work work work. That's what we do. That's if we're working for salvation To either ourselves or some other person other than Christ It's a debt It's a debt. It's not of grace

Romans 11 Romans chapter 11 verse 4, 5, and 6, Romans 11. But what sayeth the answer of God unto him? I have reserved unto myself, this is God speaking, I have reserved unto myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so, then at this present time also there is a remnant, according to the election of grace, What's a remnant? That's something that you cut little pieces and easily throw away. Good for nothing. That's us. But according to the election of grace, and if by grace, then it, salvation, is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace, but if it, is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. It sounds confusing, but But to the believer, it's not. You know exactly what he's saying. It's either works or grace. It's either oil or water. They don't mix.

In Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 10, verse 9, There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God, for he that is entered into his rest, Christ's rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from his. It's kind of like when he created the world and there was a Sabbath, he rested. That's what the people of God do because Christ is our Sabbath. We rest in him.

These pictures, that's why I love the Old Testament pictures. They represent, they show forth Christ so clearly. Bless God the Father, bless God the Son, bless God the Spirit. Our salvation, our keeping, and our final destination up in glory is not dependent on us, but on the holy, pure, honorable one, Jesus Christ.

Fourthly, not only is grace unmerited, grace unearned, grace is sovereign, but grace is abundant. Romans chapter five again. It's abundant. Romans five and verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense may abound, but where grace abounded, I'm sorry, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

One man, I can't remember who it was, said, the Lord is more ready to pardon than we are to ask. And I think that's true. We try to do it on our own. Just go boldly like Bruce said. Just go boldly to the throne of grace. The way is clear. The way is made ready. Grace is abundant. Grace overflows the cup that has been given to us. Grace supersedes our greatest sins. This is what Romans says. Grace restores and then some. what we lost in the garden under Adam. Grace is never exhausted. Grace never changes and it never will fail to meet our need or your need. It can't. God's grace, it's God's grace. It's God's grace.

And lastly, grace, the grace of God is successful and has purpose. That is It satisfies and accomplishes all that it was intended to do. What was grace intended to do? What's Ephesians 2 say? By grace are you saved? Grace is intended to save. That's the purpose.

This grace is always affixed to Christ. We don't set it up. I remember Joe saying something about, you know, setting it up on a mantel and intellectually discussing grace as an entity alone. Never. Never. It's together. As Gary Shepard would say, the harmony of the gospel. You start with Christ and you end with Christ. Christ all in between. The Alpha, the Omega. All of God's actions are on purpose. That's why we call it the purpose of grace. It's full of action. His grace is all of the above, which we've mentioned, sovereign, unmerited, unearned, but the end result of grace is the salvation of sinners like you and like me.

For by grace are you saved through faith. That's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any should boast.

Acts chapter four. Acts chapter 4, verse 10 through 12. Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him, does this man stand here before you whole, This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which has become the head of this corner. Neither is there salvation in any other." Who's he talking about? Christ. Not in Muhammad, not in Joseph Smith, not in Buddha, not in any man. There was neither salvation in any other, for there was none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

Acts chapter 15. Peter, this is Peter speaking, I love this phrase. Peter says in chapter 15 verse 11, but we believe, and he's talking, representing the apostles who were left, we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So you can't separate grace Oh, you can discuss it, and many theologians and many people do, and there's arguments. It's not to be argued. The Scriptures is not to be argued, it's to be believed.

Grace reigns through righteousness by Christ. By Christ. So when we speak, and I pray we speak from the heart of grace, God's grace, We never separated from the worth, the work, and the achievement of the Son of God. We sing that, ruin sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior.

I close with just these comments. Do we know this grace? Do we know this God and this Savior? run to him this day and be saved.

Bruce, would you close us please?