Well, officially, good morning. It's good to be with you again.
I meant to thank everyone last night for the food. It was so
delicious. I appreciate all your hospitality
so far. Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11, last night
we looked at the fact that this man, Christ Jesus the Lord, this
man receives sinners. And what wonderful news that
is, if you're a sinner. That's the only time that's wonderful
news. If you're not a sinner, then
that's not good news at all. But if you are a sinner, and
if I am a sinner, just hearing this faithful saying that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, just hearing that
will make us cry, I'm the chief. Just hearing when God speaks
to the heart, and that resonates with the heart, I'm a sinner
and Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. That's
who He came to save. It makes His people cry, I'm
the chief. I'm the chief. Save me. Please save me. If you're looking
for a sinner, look right here. Well, this morning I'd like for
us to look at how God saves sinners. Who God has saved and how He
saved them. And we can see that right here
in Romans 11. If you look with me here at Romans
11 verse 1, it says, I say then, hath God cast away His people? Now let's start right here. God
has a people. God has a particular people.
A particular people. Verse 1 says, Hath God cast away
His people? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Foreknew. His people. which He
foreknew. Every soul that God ever chose
to save, He foreknew them. He knew them beforehand. That's
what it means. He knew them beforehand. He said
in Jeremiah 1 verse 5, Before I formed you in the belly, I
knew you. I knew you. David said, You know everything
about me. Everything about me. God foreknew His people. He chose them. He hand-selected
them. And the good news for every person
that He chose is this. He has not, and He will not ever
cast away His people. He foreknew a people, loved those
people, chose those people, and every soul that He chose, He
said, I will not cast them away. I will not do it. Verse 2 says,
God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Know ye not
what the Scripture saith of Elijah? How he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, he prayed to God, saying, verse
3, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine
altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what
saith the answer of God unto him? How did God answer him? He said, I have reserved to myself. You ever made a reservation?
You know how you make a reservation? You call beforehand. You select
beforehand. He said, I have reserved to myself. It's wonderful. I have reserved
to 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. There's still some of those chosen
left over. There's a remnant according to
the election of grace. God still has a people. God still
has a people. That's wonderful news. That's
worthy news of preaching the gospel. God still has a people. That's why this earth is still
going on. It's the whole reason it's still
rotating. God still has a people. He has
a people that He has purposed to and that He has determined
to set His love on. Set His affection on. Pour His
blood on. That blood that He shed for the
sin of His people. Verse 5 says, Even so then, at
this present time also, there is a remnant. There's a remnant. There's a chosen people out there. According to the election of
grace. The election. God's election. When we have an election, we
have an election coming up, don't we? When we have an election,
we cast our vote. That's what we do. We cast our
vote. We're the ones doing the choosing. You go into that little booth,
and we're the ones doing the choosing. And we choose based
on the candidate. We choose based on his or her
qualifications. We're looking at the candidate
to see what is the qualifications of the candidate. We're looking
at the political views and the opinions of the candidate and
other things like that. We're choosing based on the candidate. Well, thank God, he held an election. And in his election, he was the
only one who did the choosing. And not one of his choices was
based on the candidate. Not one of his choosing. None of it was based on the candidate. He did all the choosing, and
none of it was based on anything in the candidate. It wasn't based on anything about
the candidate. It wasn't based on the ability
of the candidate. The candidate didn't have any
ability. What's the qualifications? None. This was the only thing that
could be said about the candidate. This was the candidate's campaign.
Alright, this was the campaign. This is the only thing that could
be said about the candidate. He was corrupt. This one is a corrupt candidate.
Nothing but corruption. This candidate is wicked. This
candidate is vile. This candidate is a liar. He's
lying to you. This candidate is a cheat. The only thing found in this
candidate is sin. But God held an election. It was not an election of merit.
It was not an election of worthiness. It was an election of grace. That's what it was. It was an
election of grace. Grace means unmerited favor. It was an election of unmerited
favor. Grace means good will. That's what it means. Grace means
free gift. It was an election of free gift.
God chose a people to give a free gift to them. And that free gift was salvation
in the blood of the Lamb. Salvation in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When people first hear of God's
election, it's such a foreign thing. So foreign. You tell them
about God's election or they read something on God's election,
it's so foreign. The first response of the flesh
is always, what? What? Well, that's mean. That's hateful. That's not fair. That's not right. I don't want that kind of God. You mean He just chose and that's
it? You mean the ball is in His court
and that's it? I have no say in the matter? That's not loving. A person will think that until
God reveals sin to that person. Until a person really sees what
he is. Men and women, the flesh does
not know sin. We don't know sin until God reveals
it to us. But once God opens the eyes,
just like He did for Isaiah, and he cried, Woe is me. That's
Isaiah 6. 1-5 Isaiah is saying, Woe is
y'all. And then in the year that King
Uzziah died, God revealed Himself. He said, I saw the Lord sitting
upon the throne, high and lifted up. His train filled the temple.
The seraphims would not stop crying, holy, holy. This just God is holy. And the
door of the post was shaking. He cried, woe is me. I'm a man
who is undone. I have unclean lips. And I dwell
amongst a people of unclean. We're all undone. We're all sinners. And once God reveals that every
person on earth is running into hell, wanting hell, wanting rebellion
against God, saying, no God, the fool has said in his heart,
there is no God, there is in italics. Fool has said in his
heart, no God. I reject you. I will not receive
you. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, said, I choose you
anyway. I'm going to send my grace to
you anyway. That old hard heart you got there, I'm going to break
that heart. And I'm going to put in a heart of flesh. What
is the heart of flesh? It's Christ's heart. And I'm
going to give you a love for me just like I have a love for
you. As soon as a person sees that, they cry, thank God for
election. That's the most loving thing
I've ever heard in my life. I've never heard such kindness.
In spite of all of us, had God just left us alone, all of us
would have just been destroyed. Eternal damnation, eternal destruction. But God's love was so great in
spite of us. He poured the blood on us. And
He stopped us and He drew us to Himself. For our message this
morning, I want us to stress, I want us to focus and really
enter into what verse 6 has to say about this election unto
salvation. Verse 5 said, Even so then, at
this present time also, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. He said, And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. What Paul is saying in that verse
of Scripture is, salvation is either a free gift of God to
us, I mean totally, completely free, or we earn it. from Him. It's one or the other,
but it can't be both. It cannot be both. Either, and
this is God saying this, either salvation is by God's grace totally, or it's by man's works totally. Because it cannot be both. It
just cannot. False religion. You know, there's
so much false religion out there. Just so much false religion.
And there's all these different thought processes and such on
and so forth. But it all comes down to one
thing. Man is trying to mix works and grace. It all comes down
to that. If you want to know if the message
you're hearing is a false religion message, Assess this question
right here. Is it mixing works and grace? If it is, it's not the truth
of God's Word. It's not the truth of salvation.
If a man does not earn one piece of his gift, then it's not works
and a man can't claim that it is. And if God has freely given it,
if a man gives a gift and it's totally freely, freely given, then the recipient can't say,
I earned it. And if the recipient earned it, the giver can't say,
I gave it. You all go to work. Come Friday
at five, you want a paycheck. Your boss can't say, I'm giving
this to you for free. He's not doing that. You earned
it. Well, this is the issue that
keeps men and women so bound up in error, so bound up in false
religion. It's mixing works with Christ's
gift. And as long as we do that, that's
where we're going to stay. We're going to stay in error. We're
going to stay in false religion. But if God ever reveals to a
man the work of Christ alone, Grace alone. No strings attached. No strings attached. Free gift
salvation, wrought by Christ, start to finish. If God ever reveals that, then
man will stop mixing. He won't mix anything with anything.
He will see and He will say, salvation is by grace. It's by grace. Free, pure, total,
complete, all of grace. Salvation is by grace alone.
Look with me if you would at Galatians chapter 2. This is a very powerful verse
of Scripture. Galatians 2 verse 21. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. What does that mean? That means if salvation comes
to men and women because of their own works before God, then there
was no point in Christ dying. No point. If after Christ's death,
and think about this, if after Christ's death, man is still
in the same boat that he was in before Christ's death, then
what was the point of Christ's death? Ultimately, what that verse is
saying is, if it's by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise,
grace would not be grace. Now let me see if I can illustrate
that to us. I gave this illustration to the
brethren in Kingsport, and I believe it got the point across, so I'll
give it to you. Let's say that a person decides in his heart
and mind, you know, you think about it first, You decide to
do it. Let's say a person wants to buy
a present for somebody else. And this person ponders it, ponders
what the present will be, and then the person goes to the store
and buys the present. Pays for it. Store says you can
have it. The person brings the present
home. This person wraps the present,
writes a card, puts a card in it, takes it to the person that
it was bought for, places it in that person's hand, and says,
this is yours. Now, at that moment right there,
what does the recipient, the person who received the gift,
what does that recipient have to do first before the present
can actually be his? Once you get to that stage, and
it's right there, What does that person have to do first before
it can actually be His present? Nothing. Nothing. It was His in the mind
of the giver when the giver was thinking about what the present
would be. It was His when the giver went to the store and purchased
the present. It was purchased for Him. It was His the moment the giver
notified Him of it. All that previous work had been
done. And then the notification came.
This is yours. Already bought. Already paid
for. This is yours. The recipient
didn't select it. The recipient didn't purchase
it. The recipient didn't wrap it. The recipient didn't deliver
it, but it was His. It was totally His. Freely given. That's freely given. No strings
attached. It was His. That's grace. That's what grace is. That is
unmerited favor. That's pure good will. Now, the moment We mix the recipient's work with
the gift. The moment that a recipient receives
something and something is required of him to receive it, we ruin
it. We totally ruin it. It's not
grace anymore. Alright, I want to illustrate
that. Let's say that one of you ladies decides you want to buy
a pair of shoes for another lady. You see them, and you think,
oh, that looks like her. She'd love those. So you buy them.
You take them home. You wrap them. You bring them.
You give them. The lady opens them, and she
says, oh, I love them. And as she's reaching her hand
in the box, you say, ho, ho, ho, ho. They're not yours yet. You give me those earrings in
your ears, and you can have these shoes. You ruined it. You see that?
That's not grace anymore. That's not grace at all anymore.
We men go to the Home Depot or Lowe's or whatever and we see
something for another man and you buy that and you take it
to the guy and say, here I bought that for you. The guy says, I've
been needing one of those things. Ho, ho, ho, you've got to pay
me for that. Here's the receipt. You owe me. That's not grace.
Even if you say, split it with me, you pay me $25, you pay me
$12.50. That's not grace. That's not
unmerited favor. That's not a free gift. It's not grace. And you can't
claim it to be. Grace would no longer be grace.
Ephesians 2 says, by grace are you saved through faith. And
that is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. It's the gift. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. I want to show you three things
about God's grace and then we'll close. We'll be done. The first
thing is in Romans 11 verse 5. It says, Even so then, at this
present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. God's election was an election
of grace. It was of God start to finish. Start to finish. Him choosing
who He chose. It was not dependent on the ones
He chose at all. There was no requirement laid
on Him. No requirement at all in order
for Him to choose them. All sinners were the same. all
in the same lump, and the ones that He chose did nothing to
warrant or earn His choosing of them. It was an unmerited
choosing. It was an election of grace. Let me show you just how unmerited
it was. Look with me at Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. He chose every soul that He was
ever going to choose before the foundation of the world. Every
soul that would ever be chosen in the world was chosen before
there ever even was a world. Before the foundation of the
world in Christ. Romans 9 verse 11 says, For the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. Not of works, but of Him that
calleth. It was said unto her, The elder
shall serve the younger. So God's election was an election
of grace. Alright, the second thing is
right here in Ephesians 1. Verse 6, it says, To the praise
of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace." God's redemption. The payment that He made with
His own blood to forgive all the sins of His elect. Christ's
redemption. It was a redemption of grace. according to the riches of His
grace." What that means is, the payment was of Christ, start
to finish. Election was of the Father, start
to finish. Redemption was of Christ, start
to finish. Hebrews 1 says, Christ by Himself
purged our sins. by Himself. There was no payment
of man mixed with the payment of Christ. That payment was 100% freely given by Him. It had to
be. It had to be. There was no other
option. Our brother read a moment ago in Ephesians 2 verse 4, But
God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, He quickened us together
with Christ. By grace, you're saved. We couldn't make any kind of
payment with His. We couldn't mix any payment with His. We
were dead. We were dead. Dead in sin. Romans 3 says we
were justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. So, His election was an election
of grace. His redemption was a redemption
of grace. And the third thing is His calling. The calling of His people to
Himself by His Spirit, through His Word. It's a calling of grace. It's a calling of grace. What
that means is it's a calling to grace. It's a quickening to
grace. It's a quickening of grace. And
it's a quickening to grace, to a knowledge of grace, to a belief
of grace, to a hope in grace, to a trust in grace. The grace that God has given
to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Turn with me over to 2 Timothy
chapter 1. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, it says, Who
hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He chose
us. He saved us. And He called us,
and He did it all by grace. All of it by grace. Grace, grace,
God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace that is greater than all
my sin. Where sin abounded, grace has
much more abounded. Wonderful news. If it's grace,
then it's not works. Never has been, never will be. Otherwise, it wouldn't be grace
anymore. I love how there's a song we all know well, and the end
of it, I pray this for us, spiritually speaking. May God shed His grace
on thee. All of us, for Christ's sake.
Alright.