Again, the message will go to
God in prayer. I ask for your prayers as I preach
the gospel to you always, that God, by His Spirit, will speak
to you through His Word. It's always necessary. It's always necessary. We're
not always mindful of it, but it's always necessary that the
Spirit of God take the Word and apply it. Without that, it just
rolls off in one ear and out the other. It may rattle around
on the inside a little bit, but it won't have any true comforting
value. And that's my desire for this
message, is that it comforts you. Because that's God's command
to his preachers, isn't it? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Say it to the Lord with this,
her warfare is accomplished. The Lord hath received double for all her sins. At the hand
of Christ, our sins have been doubly paid. And so, this is
what we should comfort one another with, the gospel this evening. And I know this is the intent
of the Apostle, is to bring comfort, to bring comfort to God's people. Please, don't be negligent to
pray for God's men, wherever they are. There are many that
we know, and there are many more that we don't. God has a people, friends. Don't worry about that. He does.
And He is tending His sheep. He is taking care of them. You
don't have to do that. I just need to feed you. I need
to feed you. Point you to Christ. Comfort
you. Instruct you in the things of
righteousness, which is what? Christ. And I know this, God
will take care of his own. He will discipline his sheep. He will shear them. He will take the food and make
it nourishing to them. So pray for God's men wherever
they are, because I know they need your prayers as much as
I do. Pray for God's congregations,
the churches, wherever they are. that they should be fed with
the gospel. I know when I was growing up,
I've told this many times, that there seemed to be an awakening,
a revival of sorts, when I was young. And the churches were
brimming over. They were just, every time we
went, there were people coming. I've seen what it is to have
those times. This is not those times. And I'm sad to say that a lot
of, I think, of God's people are suffering from self-inflicted
wounds. Self-inflicted wounds. There is a shortage, it seems,
and it just appears, and obviously it's not. God has a people, and
he has men he'll send, but there seem to be few preachers of the
gospel in this generation. It just seems that way. And we're
going to enter into that a little bit when Elijah here says that
he felt the same way. He said, I'm it, there's nobody
else, just me. Sometimes we feel that way. And
I hope this message will be a comfort and encouragement to you that
it's alright. It's not anything the Lord doesn't
know about. So pray for God's churches that
God would send pastors, and then pray that God give them a heart
to receive the pastors that He sends. That's a whole other problem.
That's a whole other issue. Again, self-inflicted wounds.
They're the worst, aren't they? They're the worst. Greatest enemy,
Philpott said, was self. The devil's not omnipresent,
is he? He can't be everywhere at once. Neither can demons or
angels. They're not omnipresent. You
know what? God is omnipresent, but this
is also true. Wherever I go, I'm there. So self is with me all the time. And he is the most horrible enemy
that I seem to have, is self. We pray God would keep us and
protect us even from self. Let's go to him in prayer. Our
gracious Father in heaven, we come before you thanking you
for another time that you have given, that you have put in the
hearts and minds of your people to come and hear the gospel. Lord, I know that you've given
me the message, and I do beg you that you would
take it by the Spirit, and pour it out, Father, to the
hearts of your people, even to this heart, that we might be refreshed. We
are truly in a dry land, a barren wasteland regarding the truth
of the gospel. And I thank you for this place,
this time that we can gather and set out all the things of
this life for a moment I pray that you would be gracious
and put us upon your shoulders, carry us through this evening. I beg you for the heart and the
mind and the words that your people need for comfort,
instruction, reproof, correction, whatever you intend. Father,
please do it. I pray, Father, for your men,
wherever they are, your other preachers of the gospel, that
you would be with them. These things I'm asking for myself
and this congregation, I also ask for them and their congregations. For this purpose, that Jesus
Christ might be praised, that the glory of your grace
might be exalted in the hearts and minds of your people, I pray for those that are sick.
Lord, we lay them that are sick, lay them before your throne of
mercy and plead for their healing, recognizing that only you heal.
You said that about yourself. You wound and you heal. I pray that you would heal your
people. those sick in the body and in
the mind, that you would bring them back, bring them to themselves,
bring them then to Christ. I plead that you'd forgive us
our sins, that you would cleanse us of all our unrighteousness,
and in this moment, in this time, give us hearts to exalt Christ.
And I ask you to do this. We have no power in ourselves
to do this. We ask you to do this in the power of your spirit,
according to the riches of grace that are in Christ. In His name
we ask. All these things we ask in His
name and for His sake. Amen. All right, take your Bibles,
turn with me to Romans chapter 11. Romans Chapter 11. Look in verses 1
through 6 this evening, title this message, form of a question, a remnant of grace or works? A remnant, yes, but a remnant
of what? Is it by grace or by works and
that's what the apostle is going to answer in this text. Is election salvation of the
remnant? I'm going to show you there is
a remnant. A remnant according to election.
But is election or salvation by grace or is it by works? Now, we have, I'm going to Rev
up here, I want to kind of get a running start at this. Getting
a running start. In Romans chapter 9, we read
very clearly that true Israel is not national, but spiritual.
And he declares that Israel was pictured by Jacob. That Jacob
was chosen before his birth, not according to any good or
evil that he had done, but according to the election of God's grace,
he chose him. And then he answers those objections
to this, and then he divides all men into those two groups,
vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. And then he makes the
distinction as to the difference. How can we tell the difference?
Well, the vessels of mercy are always going to be called. That's
what he said, even us who are called. Then he goes to verse
24 of chapter 9. The idea is even us who are called. And so he distinguishes vessels
of mercy in this that they are called of God to faith in Christ. Only those who are called by
the Holy Ghost to spiritual life and faith then may claim their
election. The only way one knows their
election is this, have you been called? I know many believe that it's
just going to work out. They just think it's all going
to work out. You ever heard that? It's just all going to work out
in the end. There's no need for this. It's okay. When we die,
we're just trusting God's going to be sincere. If we just be
sincere, everything's going to work out. But if God's not called
you from death to life, it's not going to be okay. God makes it very plain, it's
not all well. He said, say you to the righteous,
it shall be well with him. And so all who are called, we
are called and given life by the Holy Spirit. And then in
chapter 10, He tells us again the gospel in verse 4 is this,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. We're not
called to go back under the law. We're called to faith in Christ. Why? Because Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believeth that
Jesus Christ alone has fulfilled the law, fulfilled the law, both
in perfect obedience Every day of his life, from the time of
his conception until the time of his death and resurrection,
he had obeyed the law of God. He was a man under the law and
obeyed the law perfectly for the righteousness of his people.
And then not only did he actively and passively obey the law, but
he satisfied the justice of the law when he died. So both aspects
of the law, Christ fulfilled it. He fulfilled it. And the scripture says, Isaiah
42, God is well pleased for His righteousness. He's well pleased. And when God calls a sinner to
life and faith, that righteousness is then made our own. That's
how we become righteous, is that God gives us that righteousness
in the new birth. Paul says that the law to every
believer is fulfilled in us. That's amazing, isn't it? I don't
see it. You follow me around, you won't
see it. How do we know this? We know
this by faith because the Word of God testifies of it. And then he tells us in Romans
10 the means by which this calling comes. He says, Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a glorious
thing that you're not limited by your nationality. This was
a big deal back then. The Jews believed that the Gentiles
could in no way inherit the promises of God because they were Gentiles. But the apostle says, no, listen,
it doesn't have anything to do with that. He's saying, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then
he gives us what? The means of it, which is preaching.
Preaching of the gospel is the means by which God calls sinners. And preachers We're not sent
to just preach anything. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by what? The Word of God. We are sent to preach Christ. We are sent to exalt Christ.
We're sent to lift up Christ to you. That's it! This is not a self-help seminar. This is not a self-help wellness
group. This is not a divorce group,
or a singles group, or a, you know, I don't know, maybe those
things have their place just like basketball programs and
other things. That's not what we're here to
do. We're here to preach Christ, the gospel. Why? Because this
is the only means by which God saves sinners. I want to repeat
that. This is the only means by which God saves sinners. The preaching of the gospel. So in verses 13 through 17, the
apostle declares, reuses the scripture to point out again
the true nature of spiritual Israel. And last time we dwelt
on verse 21. Verse 21 where it says that the
Lord had stretched out His hands all the day long to Israel, to
national Israel. And what was the result of His
stretching out? He said to a disobedient and
gainsaying people, what is the result of preaching the gospel
as only an outward means? If that's all there is, if we
preach the gospel and the rest is up to you, what's going to
happen is you'll reject it. That's just the nature of man.
And so when faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God,
Paul's saying, listen, it's not just natural hearing. Everybody's
heard this. That's what he told them. He said, every Jew heard this,
but not all of them believed. In fact, the majority of them
rejected. Now, look at chapter 11. Now
we come to chapter 11. And Paul says, I say then, hath
God cast away his people? Here in chapter 11, the apostle shows us who are Gentiles. He
answers a question. The question of the Gentiles
would be at this time, well, if the Jews rejected Christ and
now the Gentiles are brought in, if we're brought in, does
that mean that all Jews are cut off? And Paul's saying, look,
that's what you're going to ask me. God stretched out his hand
to them, and they were always a disobedient, gainsaying people.
And he says, well, does that mean all of them are lost? Has
God cast away his people? What does he say? God forbid. For I am also an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. Has God cast away his people?
Now, by this phrase, his people, his people, I want you to understand
that he is talking about the elect of the Jews, his people. He's talking about those people
who were chosen that were among the Israelites, his people, the
elect. Has God cast away his elect people
among the Jews? No. Paul said, look, I am an
example of that. I'm an Israelite, God forbid.
For there are and always have been among the Jews, as well
as among the Gentiles, the elect. Will God cast them away? Paul
says, he didn't cast me away. If there was anybody that hated
Christ, it was the Apostle Paul. If there was anybody that rejected
Christ, it was the Apostle Paul. Before his conversion, he persecuted
the church, hated the gospel. And yet, he's saying, look, I'm
a shining example of hope for the Jews. God has not, that's what he answers,
look at this, he said in verse 2, God hath not cast away his
people, now notice this, how do we know he's talking about
the elect and not just the national Israel? By this phrase, his people,
listen, which he foreknew. Which he foreknew, this is a
very important phrase in understanding who Paul is speaking about. By this the apostle here, limits
the scope of these that God would not cast away. He, by this phrase, the people,
His people, listen to this, which He foreknew. He narrows it, doesn't
He? He narrows it down. It's not
everybody. It's not all the people of Israel
that He knew. He narrows it to those that He
foreknew. And what he's talking about is
this foreknowledge in electing and redeeming grace. Now the
Jews were again, in a sense, the people of God by a type. We went over this again in chapter
9. The Jews, the purpose of the
nation of Israel was to typify the elect. That was it. That
was their purpose. But we know this, not all of
them were predestinated unto the adoption of children. We
know this, that not every Jew believed. Not every Jew was represented
by Christ. Not every Jew was called of the
Spirit of God. But here this gives hope to the
Jews. to those that were of the nation
of Israel, to those that rejected Christ, to those who crucified
the Lord of glory. This surely would have been a
point of pain to them. Had they heard the gospel and
now they had been convicted of their sins, is there any hope
for us? And Paul says, yes. Yes, there's
hope. There's hope in this that not
the whole race was thrown away. Now some fools will take this
saying, this word foreknew. This is what they'll do with
it. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. They'll say the foreknowledge
of God is nothing more than God's knowledge of events. This is the free will heresy. That God would look down the
portals of time and see what man would do and then base his
electing mercy on whether they would choose him or not. that his election was based on
the foreknowledge of what you would do. But his foreknowledge of salvation
was not of events. This is not, in the text, he's
not talking about events, he's talking about men. He's talking about people. He
said, not the works of His people which He foreknew, but His people
which He foreknew. I think it's clear that He says
the same thing in Romans 8.29. He said, for whom He did foreknow. Not what, but whom. Whom he did for, know what? He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren. And so, by this, I want you to
see that there are two distinct Gospels being preached. I want
you to listen, and I want to be very plain. Again, I will
say this, and constantly say this, there are only two religions
in the world. Works and grace. You're either
saved by works, or you are saved by grace. The free will works religion
believes that man's will is free. That election is conditional
upon the will of man. That redemption was for everybody
and the redemption of Christ is contingent upon the will of
man to receive it. The Holy Spirit is trying. to convince men to believe. But the Holy Spirit is limited
and cannot overcome the will of man. Therefore, the conclusion
of such a religion is this, that some will lose their salvation. Now that is the religion we call
free will. I'm even trying to put it in
the best light I possibly can. That's the best light you can
put it in. That God's salvation is contingent upon the will of
man. That's one religion. The other
one is this, that man is totally, absolutely, utterly depraved.
Cannot and will not come to God God has in sovereign Unconditional
election chose some to salvation Christ redeemed them and only
them the Spirit of God will come to them and they will believe
and The Holy Spirit will give them faith and they will endure
until the end. That's the other religion And I want you to know that these
two religions are two distinct gospels. They're two different
gospels. They're not two views of the
gospel. Don't listen to that. You're
going to hear it. If you ever talk to anybody about it, they're
going to say, well, that's your view. This is my view. We can just get along. Paul says
there's only one gospel. Now listen to what Paul says
in Galatians chapter. Now the church of Galatians,
right? They believed in salvation by grace. They had no problem
with that. They believed that salvation was by grace through
faith. They had no problem with that. The contention with the
Galatian church was they added one thing. One law. They didn't even add the Ten
Commandments. You understand that? They didn't even try to
add the Ten Commandments. They added one law. Circumcision.
You know what Paul said? He said, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from Him to another gospel. Listen to
what he said, which is not another. And if any man preach or angel
preach another gospel than that which we preach, let them go
to hell. That's strong language. Paul
is saying this emphatically, there is only one gospel. And so we ask this, which gospel
was preached? Is it the gospel of works or
the gospel of grace? What gospel did Paul preach in
his letter? What gospel did the other apostles
preach in their epistles? Is salvation by grace or is it
by works? Salvation by the will of God
or by the will of man, which is it? This is very clearly shown in
Paul's description That God will never cast out those he foreknew
Now look back at your text and Paul is going to give us an illustration
He's going to give us an illustration We're going to use the illustration
of the history of Elijah to prove this doctrine and show his people that they were chosen by grace
and not by works. Look at this. Verse 2, he said, What you not
what the scripture saith of Elias? How he maketh intercession to
God against Israel. Here's Elijah. Now, Elijah's
in a bad place. He's being pursued by his own
people. They're wanting to kill him. And so what does he do? He makes
intercession not for Israel, but against him. He's making
a case for God to destroy Israel. That's what he's doing. He said,
I want you Lord, they're trying to kill me. Listen to what he
said, Lord, they killed your prophets. You sent them prophets
and they murdered them. They dig down your altars. They
took your altars and they broke them and they buried them. And now, look, I'm all alone.
There's nobody else. It's just me. I'm the only one
left. And now they seek my life. They had a total, absolute, national
hatred for God at this time. They were totally... It appeared
as though every Jew in the entire world despised God and His prophets. So much so they wanted to kill
him. It's not changed. This is not changed. Don't think
that just because we live in a civilized society that they
don't despise you. They do. I was talking to my mother the
other day. She goes on Facebook, and she's got, I think maybe
she's got about 100 people following, most of it's family, you know.
And she posted a message that I preached. And she said, you
know they took that down? Now how much do you have to hate
it to understand this? That there's only 100 people
that was going to look at that, right? And out of those 100,
I guarantee you maybe 10 would have looked enough to watch a
couple of minutes. But they hated it so much that
they had to find it and root it out. That's how much they
hate it. You know, I go on there and look
at sometimes we get, if we get 50 people to see a message, I'm
like, wow, we got 50 people. It's amazing to me. But yet, tell you the truth,
if they could have their way, they would snatch it out of the
mouths of 50 people. They hate it so much. What I'm
preaching tonight is hated, friends. It's not loved in this generation. And I'll tell you, it appeared
to Elijah that he was the only one left. And listen, sometimes
it feels the same with us. Look around. Look in your own
families. Look among your own friends.
How many actually love this gospel? I'm not talking about nodding
their head while you're talking. I mean literally love the Christ
that is preached in this place. Sometimes we feel like we're
alone. Elijah did. He felt like he was alone. And so in our day we feel like
him. that there are so few that believe the gospel. And I'll tell you this, even
among us, now consider the churches around us, consider the churches
that we know, and how small they are, and how, yet still, you
have people, even believers in these churches, leaving! As though there are multiple
places to go, they can just pick up and go anywhere. They leave for family or friends.
They leave about nonsensical things. I didn't like the preacher's
attitude. Petulant children. I'm picking
up my ball and I'm leaving. I didn't like the way he talked
to me. It's like being in the midst
of famine and somebody gives you white bread and you said,
no, I like rye. I won't eat it unless I can have
rye bread. God's people can be stupid, which
makes us what? Feel more alone when they leave,
when they disperse. And so we may feel like Elijah,
and we see, we look around us and know what? The false gospel
is very prosperous, isn't it? Very prosperous. Rich. Packed with people. Full of excitement and entertainment. False gospel seems to flourish,
evil men prosper, and the righteous suffer. But what saith God to
comfort his prophet? Look what God says. Now, he sees
his prophet, and he is despairing. He may be despairing, but listen
what God says to comfort him. What saith God unto him? Here's
the comfort. Here is the comfort in the barrenness
of this world. Here's the comfort for the believer
who feels isolated and by himself and alone and no one else loves
this gospel but me. I'm it. I'm the only one left. Look what God says. I have reserved to myself 7,000
men. who have not bowed the knee to
the image of Baal. He comforts him by saying, look,
you're not the only one. You're not the only one. The number that Elijah thought
was only one was much bigger. Yet in the scope of Israel, it
was still very small. There were 2 million people at
that time in Israel. Over that. How many did God save? 7,000 out of 2 million. Even so, it is still, we are
still few. at this time. He says, look,
even so at this present time. Just like it was then, it is
now. How many people did God save
in the ark? Eight. And not all of them were
spiritually saved. You consider that? Out of the
whole world, God reserved eight. And like I said, I think some
of those boys, they don't have any exhibits of faith. And so it is here, God says,
even so it is now, at this time, I have reserved, what, a certain
number. a certain number, what he calls
here a remnant. A remnant. I have reserved for
myself. I did this for me, God says. I did this for my glory. And the number I chose was 7,000. What happened to the rest? Scripture
tells us that God blinded their eyes. The rest were blinded. The rest were blinded. Even so
it is in this generation. God has reserved for Himself
a people that will not bow to the false gods of this day, will
not bow to the false gospel of this day. He has chosen a certain
number of people who will believe on Jesus Christ alone, And these
are the ones which he, what? foreknew. What Paul is trying
to tell you. Is God going to cast away his
people which he foreknew? No! He reserved them for himself. They are a remnant. A remnant. As in Elijah's day and in Paul's
day, so it is right now, God always has and always will, until
Christ comes, reserve for Himself a remnant that should comfort
you. I've told you this before, this
church is full. This church is full. This is
exactly how many God would have in this place. If God wanted
more, he would bring them. Is that not so? I know we get melancholy about
it. We get upset. I look and I see very few. It
makes me weep. I weep for this town. I weep
for this city. I weep for this country. This
country is following a false gospel. The majority of this
country is following a false gospel. And yet, what does it say in
Acts? In Acts chapter 2, verse 39, it says, "...the promise
is unto you, and unto your children, and to them that are afar off."
Listen to this, "...even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
How many is going to come? As many as the Lord our God has
reserved will come. Isn't that comforting? So the church is always full. And when God purposes to add
one more to His church, He does it. At the appointed time, He
does it. Scripture says they added to
the church daily, listen, such as should be saved. That's how
many He adds to the church. Now listen, I do not know how
many this remnant is. I don't. But there are things
that I do know. I do know that only those chosen
of God are chosen according to the election
of grace. Isn't that what he says in our
text? Look at this. He said, even so at this present time
there is a remnant according to the election of what? Grace. I know the elections of grace.
That's what I know. And I know this, that Jesus Christ
In grace came and saved all the Father gave Him. I know that.
The remnant God chose. The people God foreknew. Christ
came and saved them. He didn't try to. He saved them. I know He did. Why? He said it. It is finished. It is finished. And I know that
that remnant And only that remnant, according to the election of
grace, will be called of God the Holy Spirit, and they without
fail shall believe. They will believe. And listen,
none of them shall perish. These are things that Christ
had said himself. Of all the Father giveth me.
Of all the Father giveth me. Might as well say, the remnant
the Father gave me. I should lose nothing. How much is nothing? How many is nothing? How many
is he going to lose? According to the false free will
gospel, he loses a ton of people. According to the true gospel,
he loses none. He loses none. He said in John
10, Those that believe not, he said, you believe not because,
this is why, you're not of my sheep. You're not the remnant.
That's what he was saying. You're not the remnant. That's
why you don't believe. But he said, my sheep, the remnant,
hear my voice and they follow me. I know them and I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish. Now when are they
going to perish? When will the remnant perish? Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. The Father that gave me the remnant
is greater than all. No man shall pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one on this.
We are in line, in lockstep. We are one in will, one in a
purpose, one in this matter of salvation they shall never perish. And so then this election, this
love of God, this redemption for the remnant, is it according
to grace or works? Read your text, tell me which
one is it, is it grace or works? The remnant is chosen by grace
or works? Grace. The election, the remnant,
according to the election of grace. So the question is salvation
by the unmerited favor of God or does it come by something
man does? Is election determined by something
man does or is it determined by the unmerited favor of God?
I've told you there are only two religions in the world, works
and grace. Either God saves a man without
any works, without any merit, or he saves him completely by
his works. Completely by his works. See, the apostle tells us, according
to the election of grace, that all salvation is of the grace
of God. why it's called the election
of grace. In Ephesians chapter 1 he deals with this very thoroughly. In chapter 1 he deals with this,
he says, according as he had chosen us in Christ before the
foundation of the world. When did he choose us? In Christ.
When were the The remnant chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world purpose that we should be holy without blame
before him motive in love having predestinators under the adoption
of children means by Jesus Christ unto himself why according to
the his According to his will his sovereign
will the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved that's election Now then, in
chapter 2, he comes down to us in time, and he says, this is
our experience. And you hath he quickened who
were, what? What were you? Dead. In trespass, you see. No life. You were dead. You walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience. You followed your lust, just like everybody else.
You followed the prince of the power of the air, just like everybody
else. You were haters of God, just
like everybody else. Here's the difference to the
remnant. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us, in that while we were yet sinners, Read that, I don't want to misquote
it here. He said, But God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved,
and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places. When did he do that? He did that before you came to
Christ. He said even when you were dead.
This is what He did even when you were dead. Now how could
you have any work in that? How could you have any contribution
in that? You couldn't. He did it before you were given
life. And notice what He says He's
going to do in time. He said that in the ages to come He might
show forth the exceeding riches of His grace. In other words,
that's what He's going to do. He's going to show the remnant
the exceeding riches of His grace. He's going to show them. How
is He going to do that? In His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus, for by grace you are saved. Is there any question as to how
salvation comes? By grace or by words? Well, by
grace you are saved. Listen to this, through faith.
Faith is absolutely, completely necessary. You cannot be saved
without faith in Jesus Christ. It can't happen. Well, how does
faith come? That faith. Now, I remember this post
in this one time, and a guy getting all upset. He said, I hate when
Calvinists do this. And they say that, faith, not
of yourself. It, faith, is a gift of God.
Well, you hate all you want to. But what's the antecedent for
that? Faith. What goes before that? What is
the that he's talking about? Go to the next word just before
it, it'll tell you faith. That faith is not of yourself.
Listen, he's following it. It, faith, is a gift of God,
not of works. Now why is that? Lest any man
should boast. Lest any man should boast, brag,
or glory. Have you ever seen a so-called
conversion service in a freewill church? It is a celebration of that person's
will. I'm just so glad you came. I'm
so glad you did that. I'm so glad you made that decision. Oh, we're so happy. What are
they doing? They're bragging on His will.
As though His will had anything at all. If He is saved, His will
had anything to do with it. This is why God saves by grace,
because you get anything, you'll brag about it. That's you and
me. That's what we would do. We would brag on ourselves. Have people say, how dare you
tell me that I can't come to Christ. I came to Christ by my
free will. I was saved by my decision. Then if that's so, now if that's
your confession, listen to me, you have to admit, you're not
saved by grace. If your will saves you, listen
to me, you're not saved by grace. What are you saved by? You're
saved by your will. Your will now becomes a work. If your will is the cause of
your new birth, then you have no new birth. And we live in such an ignorant
age where men have claimed to solve this contention. Oh, I
got it, preacher. See, there's no need to get all
upset about this. I figured it out. I figured it
out. You see, salvation is by grace
and by works. They got a big fancy name for
this, semi-Pelagianism. They develop big words for all
kinds of things. There's Pelagianism who believes
only in free will. But then there's a semi-Pelagian
who believes in grace and works and free will, both the same
time. They said they've solved this
problem. Go back to your text, you're going to find out they
didn't solve this problem. These people believe that the
grace of God is some kind of floating thing above you, as
though God has done all these things for you. And the simple
thing is to just reach out and grab it. That's pretty much
their concept, is that you just reach out and grab it. God's
extending it, and you have to reach out and grab it. Now, if
you weren't dead, then I could see you doing it. I think Don
was talking about one of these so-called Catholic saints one
time. He said there's a tradition that
this guy got his head cut off. And then he picked up his head
and he ran a mile with his head in his hands. Don said, I believe
that he could have made it a mile if I believe he could have took
the first test. This is what men think. God's
taken a step and this is it. And his step is by grace. This
is by grace. And all you have to do is just
grab it, bring it in. There's one problem with that.
It's against the word of God. Look at your text, tell me if
it's not. The remnant, the elect, according to the election of
grace. And listen. If by grace, then it is no more
works. Otherwise, grace don't mean grace. If salvation is by grace and
works, then grace doesn't mean grace anymore. You've totally
destroyed the word grace. But if it's the other way, He
said, but if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work don't mean work. Do you see why I tell you that
these two cannot be mixed? I didn't tell you. Did you not
just read it? That grace and works can't be mixed? in this
matter of salvation, in this matter of the election, in the
matter of redemption, in the matter of calling, in the matter
of quickening, in the matter of faith, in the matter of continuance
in faith, it is either of grace or it is of works. It is not
a combination. It's now the... It's now the... I try to be nice. I really want
to be. The ignorant man. will come to
me and say, what about James? Of course, he's never read the
book of James, probably. He just has that one little phrase
he pulls out of it. And he says, faith without works
is dead. He'll just keep repeating it
over and over and over again, just like they do with God so
loved the world. God so loved the world. God so
loved the world. They just keep repeating it over and over as
though that makes it any better. It doesn't. Simple truth, if you just understand
what James talked about, he's talking about evidence. If there's
grace in the heart, there's going to be what? There's going to
be evidence. What are good works? Good works
are only the evidence of something that's happened inside. Religion tells you that good
works are something you do to help you inside. That's what the Pharisees thought,
right? They thought if you washed your hands and then you ate your
food, you would be holy on the inside. They thought works affects
the heart. Jesus said, no, the heart affects
the work. The heart affects the work. He
said, get you a new tree, and you'll have good fruit. Bad tree,
all it's going to do is bring out bad fruit. So what is a bad
tree going to bring forth? No matter what, it's going to
bring forth sinful works. What you need is a whole new tree.
And that's a work of what? Grace. It's a work of power. The power of God's grace in us.
And therefore, when we are born again, what comes out? That's
what James is saying. What comes out? If you say you
have faith but you don't have works, something's wrong, James
is telling you. Something's wrong with you. So the question is, in that text
in Ephesians, even our good works were ordained. Ephesians chapter
2, he says, God ordained us unto good works, he said, unto good
works which God before ordained that you should walk in them.
Even your works were ordained. How many times do you want to
do something that you feel is good and you can't? And how many times do you, not
really knowing you're doing anything, and you do a good work, you didn't
even know it until it was over. That happens. It just happens. Why? God ordained it. Sometimes
He lets you know about it, but I bet it's best He doesn't. We'll
start bragging about it. Even our works are ordained.
So then the question is, how is the remnant saved? The remnant is saved according
to the election of grace. They were chosen by grace. They
were redeemed by grace. They were called by grace. They
were quickened by grace. They believe by grace and they
will continue by grace. This is what we're called to
preach. Grace. We say, come to Christ. You say,
how? By the grace of God, come to
Christ. By the grace of God. How do you come to Christ? Come
freely. Come with nothing. Come empty. Why don't I have
any power? Good, because you don't have
any. I want to come, but I can't.
That's right. You can't. You figured it out.
If you ever come, what is it going to be by? Is it going to
be by works or by grace, if you ever come at all? And when you
come, how do you know? I believe. I believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, how did that happen? Well, it had to be by
grace. It had to be. There was nothing
in here. There's nothing to help me. Nothing
to commend me to God. How ugly is this? He chose me because he would. He redeemed me because he would.
He called me because he would. And oh, he keeps me because he
will. That's the only reason I can
think of that he would ever keep me. I wouldn't. I wouldn't keep
me. I despise me. So when a sinner comes, he has
to come like that leper. Man, that leper, he had no right to come to Christ. You know that? That leper came
to him, he had no right to come. He was supposed to be outside.
He wasn't supposed to be around people. And he fell down at the
feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said this, Lord, if you will, You can. When you try to manipulate God
to give Him healing, He'll do this. If He healed it, it had
to be grace. You know, I got hope. There's
hope for anybody to come to Christ like that. There's hope for anyone,
Jew, Gentile, I don't care where you are or who you are. You come
to Christ like that, there's hope. You know what he said? I will. In fact, God gave him leprosy. God's the one who gave him leprosy. God directed his whole life to
that one point, to bring him to Christ, because Christ was
always going to do it. He's always going to do it. Sharon
and I were talking about that woman in Samaria. I must needs
go through Samaria. I got somebody there. One of
my remnants is there. And so this remnant, is it by
grace or works? Tell me. Grace. Grace. Grace. I'm so thankful
for grace. free, unmerited favor without
works. I don't want to do good works. You bet. Why? Because of grace. Because of grace. I pray God will comfort you with
this. God has a remnant according to grace. And God will call him. Don't worry. He will. May he
use us to do that. That'd be a blessing, wouldn't
it? To use us. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our most gracious Father in heaven,
we bow again before you, praising you. We ask you to bring us through
and carry us through the message. Father, you have. I pray your
spirit take this word and make it very applicable to the hearts
of sinners. And that everyone that is saved
by grace, help us to cry, grace, grace. That others might come
according to your grace. That Christ might be exalted
in this place, constantly, steadily preached, faithfully declared,
according to your will and power. Forgive us our sins, we pray
this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.