Well, thank you. That's a blessing. Always blessed by their music. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 13
again this evening. In every message, I want to honor
our God in the trinity of his persons. We meet together to
brag on the Lord. to speak of the greatness of
our God. We have no intention to exalt
the flesh. Rather, the flesh needs to be
abased, and only God, magnified in all things. We magnify God
the Father, the author of salvation, that one who is credited in Ephesians
1 as being the one who elected us unto salvation. He's the one
who predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ unto himself. We magnify the very second person
of the Trinity, God the Son, Christ Jesus. He's the one who
redeemed us. He's the one who bought us. He's
the one who saved us. We had to be reconciled to God.
He reconciled us. God didn't leave us. We left
God. We were in a mess. Our Lord Jesus
came down here to save His people. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. We bless the
name of our Savior who did the work of redemption for the full
satisfaction of God the Father, as is evidenced by His resurrection
from the dead. and then his exaltation to the
highest heaven. God has given him a name which
is above every name, that the name of Jesus, every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall confess, he's the Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Salvation's in Christ Jesus. It's not believing about him,
it's believing him. He's the savior of sinners. We bless the name of God the
Father, who sent his only begotten Son into this world. We bless
the name of God the Son, and we bless the name of God the
Holy Spirit. We must never forget it's the
Spirit of God who came, and he reveals the Lord Jesus to us. He's the one who gives us life.
He's the one who quickens the dead. Were it not for the work
of the Spirit of grace, None of us would be in here tonight
worshiping God. God the Spirit came to us through
the Word of the Gospel. And He made the Word of the Gospel
to be unto us the means of life. We're begotten of God the Spirit. God gave us spiritual life. So
I always want to boast in the Lord. We want to brag on the
Lord. It's the first and main reason
for doing anything is that God might have the glory. And also,
as I preach, I want to help you. We're on a pilgrimage through
this wilderness land. We hope to arrive safely on the
far shore that is heaven itself. I hope by the grace of God through
my ministry that I can be of some assistance to the other
struggling pilgrims. It is a struggle, isn't it? It's
not easy. Temptations of Satan are real. The lusts of the flesh are real. The imagination of each of us
runs rampant. You know, and I know, we're all
corrupt creatures. You say, but I do believe the
gospel, preacher. I know you do, but you're still
corrupting yourself. There never was anything good
in you, there isn't anything good in you by nature even now.
You're thoroughly polluted, and so am I. We read in the book
of Romans the words of the great apostle Paul. He said, I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Never
has dwelt any good in my flesh, never will dwell any good in
my flesh. When God the Spirit came to us
in His saving grace, He didn't come to do something about our
nature of sin. He didn't come to do something
about our Adamic nature. It's still rotten to the core.
It always has been, it always will be, and one of these days,
God's gonna put it in the grave. The only hope for us is the life
of God in the very heart of man, which is Christ Jesus himself,
who is the new man. We have the Lord with us. We
have the Lord in us. By his grace and by his mercy,
he has given to us new desires, new loves. a new motive in life. And I always want to help people. I see people who struggle. Some
people struggle with some of the doctrines of the Word of
God. I believe some people struggle with this matter of having a
blessed assurance of their relationship with God. Do you struggle with
that? You know, we know that the Bible
teaches election, don't we? But you know what I want to know?
Am I one of the elect? That's what I want to know. I
think about this a lot. There's no question about what
the Bible teaches, election and salvation. If you haven't seen
that yet, you need to read your Bible a little bit more. And
you don't have to read very far before you find out that God
says He's the potter and we're the clay. And He molds some men
under vessels of honor and others under vessels of dishonor. That's
what the Bible says. The Bible says, like in Romans
chapter 11, Elijah, you know, he said, Lord, I'm all by myself. There's nobody else. He's out
hiding in a cave. He's afraid of Jezebel. He said,
I'm the only one that's left alive. And God said, I've reserved
for myself 7,000 that haven't bowed the knee to bow. I've reserved
for myself. That's what salvation is. God
reserves a people unto salvation. But he did it before he made
the world. He reserved us. And The scripture says there
in Romans chapter 11 that even now, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. When those words were written
by the Apostle Paul there in Romans chapter 11, the days were
dark. Very much like the days of Elijah. And the word of God, the truth
of God, well, not too many people believed it. They were all wrapped
up in false religion. The days were gloomy, discouraging. But here's what the scripture
says. There was a remnant according to the election of grace. Don't
you think, Elijah, you're the last one? There's a remnant out
here, and don't you think you're the last one? Don't you think
this is the last church? if there's not another group
anywhere. I tell you, God has a remnant according to the election
of grace. There's no question about this.
God had from the beginning, he'd chosen you unto salvation. Here's
what I want to know, and here's what some people, they struggle
a great deal with. Preacher, am I one of the elect?
Preacher, I had a person tell me, I worry about that. Am I
one of the elect? And they said it in sincerity.
Not trying to be a smart aleck, Am I one of the elect? I know
there is an election of grace. I've read it in the Bible, but
here's what I want to know. Am I one of them? Is my name
written in the Lamb's Book of Life? I know there's a bunch
of names written in that Lamb's Book of Life, but I sure would
like to know if mine's there. And then there are others who
would, they struggle with this. They say, well, I know Christ
died for sinners. and I hear you preach it. I hear
you tell us of the Savior's love, His great compassion to those
who are wayward, to those who fell in Adam, to those who are
the race of God's elect. I know the Lord Jesus. He came
and lived a perfect life, and He died a substitutionary death
for His people. He redeemed His people. He reconciled
His people. He brought in righteousness for
His people. But here's what I want to know.
Did He bring in righteousness for me? Did He put away my sins? I read that all the iniquities
of all of God's people met upon His head. Did all of my iniquities
meet upon His head? That's what I want to know. And
people struggle with that. If I could just have some certainty
of it. And then we talk about the work
of the Spirit of God. You must be born again. And I
know you believe that, and I believe that. You must be born again.
Our Lord Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, except
a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. He can't
perceive God's kingdom, the kingdom of salvation. You can't see it,
you can't know it, you can't understand it, you can't grasp
it, unless you're born again. So here's what I want to know,
am I born again? This new life that God's got
to give, has He given it to me? And we ask those questions, people
ask those questions typically in times of weakness, doubt. So I just don't know, preacher,
I just, I'm worried. I'm worried. Well, the scripture says here
in Hebrews chapter 13, verse nine, It's a good thing that
the heart be established with grace. I think this is, here's what'll
help us, and I hope it'll help you. You gotta be established
in this. This salvation is all of grace. Now, if you're looking to yourself,
If you look into your deeds, if you look into the deeds of
the law, if you look into your own labors for God, you're not
going to have any peace and you're not established in grace anyway. Here's the first thing, and I
said this this morning, you've got to be established in the
fact that this is the gospel of God that you've been hearing.
Are you confident of that? Are you sure of that? Are you
sure salvation is only of grace? In that passage I mentioned in
Romans chapter 11, where it says, even now there's a remnant according
to the election of grace, it says, and of grace, so it's not
of works. Because if it is of works, it's
not of grace. Now you gotta be established
in this, is salvation altogether a work of God and a work of grace? Or do you think there is a little
contribution you've got to make to this matter of your own salvation? Or as I heard a preacher say
one time, I know salvation's all of grace, but we have to
help a little bit. Is that what you think? Examine yourself and see if you'd
be in the faith. Examine your own grasp, your
own understanding of this salvation. Is there really a contribution,
some contribution that you've got to bring to the table? You gotta be settled in this.
Because I'm going to tell you something. You'll never have
any real peace. You'll never have any real joy. Not in this matter of salvation.
In this matter of determining, am I one of the elect? Am I one
of those in whose stead Christ died? Have I been born again
of the Spirit? You'll never have any peace in
these matters until this issue is settled. Is this salvation
all of grace or is any facet of it dependent upon you? Because
if there is something dependent upon you, I can tell you right
now, you'll never have any real peace. You never will. You'll be saying,
I know I hadn't prayed enough, and you're right, you hadn't
prayed enough. You'll be saying, I hadn't read my Bible enough,
and you're right, you haven't read your Bible enough. Let me
tell you something, you've come short on everything. You have. You've never done enough
good things for God, because in order for God to accept you,
you've got to be good. You've got to be righteous. You've
got to be perfect. You've got to be holy. And there's
only one way that God can make you, declare you to be holy and
righteous and perfect, and that's in Christ Jesus. And if you struggle
with this, this matter of, well, I don't know whether I'm one
of the elect, I don't know whether He died for me, I don't know
whether the Spirit of God's done a work of grace within me, If
you struggle with those issues, I suspect it's because this isn't
settled. That you be established in grace. Grace. We sang last Sunday night,
tis a charming sound. Grace! Oh, how harmonious to
the ear. Grace. By grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Grace. Go back over to 2 Timothy 1.
Look at 2 Timothy 1. Here's what the apostle says.
2 Timothy chapter one in verse
nine. And the last word of verse eight
is God. So we'll just carry that over.
Verse nine, God who had saved us and called us with unholy
calling. And somebody might say, no, he
got that backwards. He called us and then he saved
us. No, he's got the right order.
We're the ones with the wrong order in our own minds. We think
nobody is saved till God calls us. Wait a minute. The reason
God calls us, the reason there's this effectual, irresistible,
arresting The call of grace to sinners to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ is because grace was given us in Christ before
the world began. Grace came first. Then you've
got to be established in this. What came first? And I'll tell
you what came first. Grace did. Grace began it and
grace will end it. Grace lays the top stone. Grace
lays the foundation. The foundation, stone or rock
of our salvation. Who is that? That's Christ Jesus.
Grace laid the foundation. All of our salvation, every bit
of our salvation, doesn't matter what part you're talking about,
whether it's righteousness, or forgiveness, or justification,
or sanctification, or holiness, or glorification, whatever part
of salvation you might be talking about, you've got to trace it
back to this, grace. Grace alone. Without any contribution
on man's part. And as we are gifted of God and
blessed of God to understand it's all of grace, that's when
we'll have some peace. When you find out, when you find
out, this is not dependent upon you. That's when you'll have some
joy. Until then, you're gonna be miserable because you're always
gonna come up short in everything you do. He says, look it again, who had
saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose and Grace, or as
one writer says, according to his own gracious purpose, which
was given us in Christ Jesus, when? When? Well, when we believe, no. No,
not when we believe, but before the world began. Read on. but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death
and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
whereunto I am appointed," he says, a preacher and an apostle
and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer
these things. Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed.
I'm not ashamed of this gospel of grace. Are you ashamed of
grace? I'm not ashamed. If I know my
heart and I know the heart's deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked, who can know it? But as we typically say,
if I know my heart, I attribute all of my salvation to grace.
And I rest there because it's God's grace. It's God's grace
that was given to me in Christ Jesus before the world began.
But Jim, don't you have to believe? I do believe. And that's a gift
of grace. You see, believing is due to
the grace of God. Just like praying, that's due
to the grace of God. Just like giving, that's due
to the grace of God. The grace of God is operative
in the hearts of believers. Go back to, or go to the book
of Titus. Look at Titus chapter three. The book of Titus chapter three. Look at verse five. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he hath saved us
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he hath shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, being declared righteous by His
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. It's all a matter of grace. Grace. Grace began it in old eternity. The election of grace. That's
what it says there in Romans chapter 11, the election of grace. Grace maintains it because we're
redeemed. We're redeemed by the grace of
God in Christ Jesus. He's the one who died for us,
and this grace, this grace, it came to us in its omnipotence. You see, grace never, if I could
personify grace, it doesn't try to do anything. Grace is always
successful. The grace of God works. It isn't that God's trying to
do something for you. The grace of God has done something
for you. The grace of God put you in God's
family. The grace of God joined you to
your eternal surety, the Lord Jesus, before God ever made the
world. Grace did that. Grace wedded
you to the Son of God. and grace has redeemed you, grace
has bought you, grace owns you, grace has laid hold of you, and
grace won't ever lose you. Isn't that wonderful? See, this
is when we can have peace. This is when we can have joy.
This is when we can have comfort, that all of this is of the grace
of God. Little wonder then that there
in Hebrews chapter 13, the writer says, It's a good thing that
your heart, your innermost being, your mind, your understanding
be established, be steadfast, immovable in the grace of God. I wanna be steady. I don't want,
as it says back here in our text in Hebrews 13, I don't want to
be carried about with divers and strange doctrines. A lot of variety among religions
today. And if you don't like what one
preacher is saying, most likely if you'll say something to him
about it, he'll probably Change what he's saying so that you
will like it. You see, preachers today and
churches today are kind of like men who own stores or women who
own stores. They try to give the customer
what they want. I look at McDonald's. They just
keep on going. You know the reason? They give
the customer what they want. That's right. They change with
the times. You can just about say goodbye
to Sears. They haven't given the customer's
desires and wants have been changing. And evidently, Sears hadn't kept
up with the change. They filed bankruptcy. You want
to be successful in the business world, you got to meet the needs
of the customer. You got to give the customer
what he wants. And that has been carried over
into religion. If you want a big church, if
you want to be successful in religion, give the people what
they want to hear. That's why we have teachers,
who now teach people who have itching ears. But the thing of it is, the grace
of God doesn't change. Isn't it interesting that in
this text, having stated in verse nine here, don't be carried away
with divers and strange doctrines, those words immediately follow
the stability of the one to whom we look, Jesus Christ, the same. Here's all these religions are
changing. They got new beliefs, new doctrines, new statements of faith. What do you have? Jesus Christ,
the same. Yesterday, and today and forever. We don't change our message.
We're not going to change our message to suit you. We're not
going to change our message to suit anybody. By the grace of
God, he's got to keep us in that realm also. Well, you say, Jim,
OK, you're helping me a little bit. I hope I am. I need to be
established in grace. I need to say that grace, I need
to see that grace is behind it all. Well, what's the foundation
here that I've gotta build on? I give two things. Number one,
the word of God. Well, I say, that's simple. Well,
it is simple, but it's the truth. Because you see, the word of
God That's the solid foundation upon which we build. It's what
God has said. That's all we need, what God
has said. Let me show you something here
in Hebrews. Go back to chapter 11. Look at chapter 11. Look at verse one. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it
the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed, watch this, by the word of God. We understand that. How were
the worlds framed? Word of God. The Word of God. And the same Word of God that
created all that exists, the same Word of God spoke by His Son in this world, who
is the incarnate Word. God in these last days has spoken
to us in, through, and by His Son. All He's got to say is in
His Son, the Word of God. The Word of God doesn't change. It's the same. I mean, heaven
and earth will pass away, but not the Word of God. God's Word
is settled. The Scripture says God has exalted
His Word above His name. Above His name! I'll tell you,
this is a solid foundation upon which to build on, the Word of
God. And I'll just go a little step
further. You better build on this foundation. Because the foundation of the
Word of God is never gonna change. It's never gonna change. It's
just like the one who is the fulfillment of this Word. He
doesn't change, His Word doesn't change. This is what you can
build on. You see, the Bible doesn't... It's not like the
religions of men that come and go and this is emphasized at
one time and then something else is emphasized. It's always the
same. That's what I told you this morning.
I tried my best to sit before you this morning. The reason
I believe this is the gospel of grace is because it's the
same gospel of the Old Testament. It's the same gospel the Lord
Jesus preached. It's the same gospel the apostles
preached. It's the gospel that gives God
the glory. It's the gospel that's the very
power of God unto salvation. It's His Word, that's what it
is, His Word. You wanna be established in grace?
Get in the Word of God. That's what you need to do. And
that's what most people don't do today. I tell you, they pay
a priest or a preacher. They pay them to study for them,
they pay them to pray for them, and they pay them to try to get
them into heaven. That's what they do. I tell you, nobody can take care
of that but Christ the Lord, and you better build your hopes
Build all the foundation for your salvation on this word right
here, immovable. And as you build upon the word
of God, here's what will happen. You'll be established in grace.
Because that's what the Bible's all about. And one last thing. I'll tell you something else
that'll help you. If you struggle, wanna have some peace and comfort
and joy, You know, am I one of the elected? Did Christ die for
me? Spirit of God, has he caused
me to be born again? And those thoughts typically
arise when our faith grows weak. I don't know if I have faith
or not. You know, that's what sometimes we say. I don't know
whether I'm a child of God or not. If you tell me that you
have such a no-so salvation, you've never doubted it. I don't know about you. I don't
think you're human. Build on the Word of God. Let
me give you the second thing. Go to 2 Samuel 23. Now I'll just speak for myself. I'll tell you, here's where I
find a firm foundation for my poor soul. Number one, the Word
of God, what God has said. Number two, the covenant of grace,
what God has done. See, it's really pretty simple.
What God has said, what God has done. If you want a firm foundation
to stand on and go through life on, right here they are. The
Word of God, what God has spoken, what God has said, and the everlasting
covenant of grace, what God has done. You look to yourself, are you
gonna be disappointed? And I know we have responsibilities
to live, to adorn the doctrine of God, and we wanna do that.
We wanna live for God's glory. But this salvation business,
it doesn't have anything to do with what you do in life, what
your habits are or what you, now what you do is affected by
this salvation. There's no question about that.
But what you do, that don't have any bearing with God. I find my joy in the covenant
of grace. Give this to you quickly. 2 Samuel
23. Verse one says, now these be
the last words of David. 2 Samuel 23. Now these be the last words of
David. And I'll jump down to verse five. He says, although my house be
not so with God. I think he's saying both me and
my household It's just, we're a total wreck. We were just a
mess. And they were. And he was. But the Bible says he's a man
after God's own heart, in his heart of hearts. He loved the
Lord. He loved the Lord. But his outward
behavior, so often, was awful. Absolutely awful. And not only
his behavior, but the behavior of his household. Lord, we're
a bunch of failures in my household. That's what he's saying. Although
that's a fact. Yet, yet, watch it. He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. He hath made with me through
a representative He hath made with me through a surety an everlasting
covenant. God has made a contract regarding
me. And I wasn't in that contract
as to one who agreed to it or who made it. Only one who had
received the benefits of it. That's my part in the covenant.
I didn't have anything to do with the making of the covenant,
the fulfilling of the covenant, or the conditions of the covenant.
That was dependent upon my representative. That gives me some peace, Bill.
That helps me. Everything God required, He looked
to my surety. He looked to my representative,
the Son of God for it. Oh, thank you, Lord. That helps
my poor heart. Watch it. Ordered in all things,
furnished. Furnished in all things. Everything
I need forever is in that covenant. Ordered in all things and sure. And that word, it's a broad word,
it means guarded. Somebody's guarding this covenant.
Somebody's watching over this covenant and all of the recipients
of the mercies of the covenant. God's watching over us. God's
gonna make sure this covenant comes to pass. He's made this
covenant with Christ Jesus on the behalf of his people. And
our Lord Jesus, he's the mediator of the covenant. He's a messenger
of the covenant. His blood is the blood of the
covenant, as we shall see toward the end of Hebrews chapter 13. It's sure. And he says, This is all my salvation. All
my salvation's in there. And like I said a while ago,
any aspect of salvation you want to talk about, it's in that covenant.
Made between God the Father and God the Son, and they struck
hands on it. They entered into a contract,
a legal binding agreement forever. and a multitude of folks just
like us, the elect of God, who would fall in at Him. We're the
recipients, we're the heirs of the blessings of the new covenant. Our Lord Jesus died to fulfill
all the conditions of the covenant, and He's the testator who died. And we're the heirs, and we'll
do anything to reap the benefits of it. That's all due to the
grace of God. He says, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire. It's all my delight. It's all
I take pleasure in. It's all I rejoice in. Covenant
grace. And I tell you, if that don't
warm your heart, you just can't be warm. Just can't be warmed. If that doesn't encourage you
amid the struggles of life, to be reminded This is all of the
Lord. And let me tell you something.
If you can rejoice in the word of God, and if you can rejoice
in this covenant, like David did, if you can, like the apostle
Paul says, he said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded
he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. You've committed your all to
Christ Jesus by the grace of God. I say to you, rest in the
Savior. Just rest. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. We've committed ourselves to
Christ Jesus. You reckon He can keep us safe? Like you folks, I get a paycheck. I'm thankful for that. Got a
paycheck today. Tomorrow I'll go down to the
bank. I'll commit it all to the bank. Now I'm not going to worry
about it. Because it's insured by the FDIC
and I know whatever the government does is wonderful. And they'll never mess up. But really, and that's what you
go to the bank, you make a deposit to your checking account or your
savings account, you don't worry about it anymore. You made a
commitment to them, you committed it all to them. That's why I'm
doing more, because I don't need more cash, got $40 on me, don't
need more cash than that, so I'll just deposit it all, commit
it all to the bank. Because I'm persuaded, when I
need it, it'll be there. And I made a full commitment
of my soul to Christ Jesus, to my gracious God. I believe his
word. I believe his covenant. Yeah. And he'll see me, he'll
keep me to the river, rolls its water at my feet. And then he'll
bear me safely over. where the Savior I shall meet."
That's good enough for me. That's established in grace,
established with grace. Well, I hope that'll help you
a little bit.