And they're disputing over how
man is saved. Some came and said, you know,
that they had to be circumcised after the manner of Moses and
they couldn't be saved. And others said that not that
it was needful to circumcise and then to command them to keep
the law of Moses. Well, they went to Jerusalem
and they want to settle this issue. And Peter says how that God saved Cornelius, the first Gentile.
How he saved him there in the book of Acts, after the resurrection
of our Lord. And he says there in verse 10,
talking about the law, circumcision and the law. Now therefore why
tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which
neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Not able to bear
the law, not able to bear that awful yoke. But we believe, but
we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we should
be saved even as they. And I want to ask the question
this morning, hopefully by God's grace answered, what is a grace
believer? What is a grace believer? We
believe that we, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
should be saved. What is a grace believer? What
is a person that believes in the grace of God? What is it? Look over in Acts chapter 18
in verse 27 with me just a moment. And these fellas disputing over
salvation. What is scripture salvation?
What is a grace believer? What does it mean to be salvation
by grace when we say that? But look what he said in verse
27. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren
rode, exhorting the disciples to receive him, who, when he
was come, helped them much what had believed through grace. For he mightily convinced the
Jews, and that publicly shown by the scriptures, that Jesus
was the Christ. So what is scriptural salvation
and what is a grace believer? When we talk about salvation
by grace, what do we mean by that? We use words and terms
that religion doesn't use. And wherever you go, they don't
use these terms. They don't use these like we
use them. We talk of grace. We talk of
sovereign grace. We call our churches sovereign
grace churches. We call our preachers grace preachers. Preachers of the free sovereign
grace of God. And we'll see, we'll see somebody
and we'll say, boy, he loves grace. He loves the gospel. And
we talk about the gospel. We don't talk about man and his
abilities or what he can do. We talk about the gospel and
its absolute necessity for the conversion of God's elect. Now
that's something you don't hear in other churches. That's something
you don't hear in religion. The absolute necessity of the
gospel for the salvation of God's elect. I was talking to Bruce
Crabtree yesterday and he's got some new folks coming and one
man was looking for a place where they was telling the truth and
he was visiting at this place and been going for a while. The
preacher got to talking about election and the preacher told
him, he said, you know, you're elect when you believe. After
you believe, then you are God's elect. And that young fellow
told him, he says, no, no, I wouldn't. You know, I know you're the preacher,
but that's not the way it is. Election was before you and I
ever was born and before everything ever happened. And we believe
because we were elected, ordained to eternal life. All who were
ordained to eternal life, what did they say? They believed.
They believed. So what is a grace believer?
What is a grace believer? What is a true Christian? And
I'm going to try to answer these two questions. In the salvation
of sinners by Almighty God in His grace, is presented in the
Holy Scriptures and I'll tell you this and no doubt about it
the salvation that's presented in this Bible in the Holy Scriptures
always makes people grace believers they can't believe nothing but
grace but until grace comes until they're actually saved They can
believe hell's a high house and the devil's a groundhog and it
wouldn't make any difference to them. Ain't that right? They brag and boast. They put
it on their church signs in that free will. Free will. Free will. And they
brag about something that God says that he's the only one that
has it. And if the soul is saved, and
I know this too, if the soul is saved who never had any previous
religious experience, no religious experience before, he'll tell
you this, he'll say, how did you get saved? Well, God saved
me. God did it. Well, what's your comfort? What's
your assurance? Jesus Christ. And he said, he said, well, how
did he do it? He said, well, he done it by
grace because evidently there's no other way I could be saved
because I didn't have nothing, didn't do nothing. He's like
old poor, old Jack the Huckster. I'm a poor sinner of nothing
at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all. Well, Jack, you've had
that experience. I did. I experienced I was a sinner.
I experienced I'm nothing at all. And I experienced that Jesus
Christ is my all in all. Well, you can't join the church
on that. Well, I can't tell you anything
else that I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. And Jesus Christ is my all in
all. And I'll tell you, that thief
on the cross, he didn't know anything about five points of
Calvinism, but he knew. If you could ask Him right now
what, how salvation was, you'd say, Jesus Christ, that man on
that cross, spoke to me, revealed Himself to me, and told me that
I was saved. And that I would be with Him
eternally. He understood that He didn't have no ability. He
understood He couldn't do any work. He understood that He couldn't
do any good deed. He didn't have any merit. He
said, I'm here justly so. And he understood that he could
not save himself and that he would go to hell if Christ didn't
do something for him. And he said, indeed, justly so.
And he knew that that man on that cross had a kingdom. He
knew that. But our problem is that we have
to unlearn so much. We've learned so much religious
trash and garbage that preachers teach and preachers talk. Now
I'll tell you this, beloved, God gets no glory from a lie. God gets no glory from a lie.
If a preacher lies to people and manipulates them and talks
them into something, God gets no glory from man manipulation. Oh no, if our faith doesn't stand
by the wisdom of men, His glory is revealed and His will and
purpose is revealed and redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
if a soul can be saved where God is not preached as God, now
listen to me, if a soul can be saved where God is not presented
as God, the God of the Bible, Where man's inability is not
proclaimed, then tell me what is the purpose of the gospel. If there is no difference in
what the gospel says and what that church down the road says
down here. Salvation is in water and this
is up here that says salvation is by works and making your decision
for Jesus. If there is no difference in
that, why in the world do we even exist? Let's just shut the
doors and go join up with it. And we can't do that, can we?
Because of the Gospel. And I tell you the Scripture
truth is that salvation is of the Lord. Before we can know
what Scriptural salvation is, we must first know what salvation
is. And who needs it? Who needs to
be saved? Who needs to be saved? Huh? Today's gospel, let me tell you
something, today's gospel is a set of facts. Men go through
a set of facts. They say, well, the gospel is
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if you believe
that, you'll be saved. But that's not what the Bible
says. The death, the gospel is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ
according to the Scriptures. His resurrection according to
the Scriptures. Everything has to be according
to the Scriptures. You can't save men with a set
of facts. And you know they'll come up
to you and say, well, are you a sinner? Well, yeah. And they'll show you from the
Bible that yes, as you know, we've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Well, you admit that, don't you?
Yes. And well, God says that Jesus Christ died for sinners.
So if He died for sinners, then evidently He died for you. Well,
they'll show you that in the Bible. Then they'll go to Romans
3, you know, John 3, 16. See there, God loves you. Well, just bow your head and
pray after me and you'll be alright. And they go through these propositions
and has truths and they're convincing people of what they believe because
they all want to go to heaven. And they all want to go see mommy
and daddy and walk on streets of gold. Try God. 30 days free trial. And if you're satisfied, not
satisfied with Him, bring Him back. God, Jesus Christ like Coke,
things go better with Him. And they make these foolish,
foolish, God dishonoring, lying, awful statements and talk about
man with his power and his ability. All he has to do is just let
God, just please cooperate with God. Oh Jesus Christ stands begging,
begging at your heart's door to be let in. Won't you open
up and let him. And men have devised so, so many
ways to save themselves and for sinners to be saved. But what
does the scripture say? How does God save a sinner? And
why does God save a sinner? Huh? Well, I'm going to tell
you. And I'm going to tell you what
the Scripture says about it. The first thing, talking about
salvation by grace, what is a grace believer? The first thing God
does for a sinner is elect him. Can you back that up from the
Scriptures? I can. And you read it yourself, I'll
just quote it to you. But first, well let's look at
2 Thessalonians 2.13. Let me show you this. You read
Ephesians chapter 1 and see if it don't say that God has chosen
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And He did it that
we should be holy. That we should be without blame. And He did it in love. And He did it to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He, He, He, God, made us accepted. Where at? In the Beloved. Why? To the praise of the glory of
His grace. And look what it said here in
2 Thessalonians 2.13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, Now listen, beloved of the Lord,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Oh wait,
from the beginning chosen you to what? to be saved, to salvation. How do you do it? Through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the gospel, belief of the truth.
You see, beloved, salvation is in Christ, by Christ, and through
Christ, and for Christ's sake. First thing God does is He chooses
a sinner. Our Lord Jesus Christ told all
His disciples, He said, no you're not, you've not chosen me, but
I've chosen you. I have ordained you. The scripture
said in Mark 3.13, He went up onto a mountain and what did
it say? He called unto Him who He would. First thing He does
is elect Him. First thing He does is He changes.
And then people say, well, what about me? Am I born of God's
love? Let me tell you something. Election does not shut the door
on salvation. You know what election does?
It guarantees. It's the only open door there
is. Election guarantees that there's somebody going to be
saved out of this mass of miserable humanity. And had not God chosen
some, not one soul on this earth would have ever been saved. If
he'd have left it up to us, keeping Moses' law and be circumcised,
we wouldn't be saved. If it left it up to us to be
a Pharisee and live according to the strictest sect of the
law, we wouldn't have been saved. If it left it up to our free
will and cooperating with Him, we wouldn't be saved. But if
He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
we'll be saved. And not only that, but He chose
us not only by election, but He chose and He done it by a
covenant of grace. Now we're talking about grace.
Romans 5.2 says this, this grace wherein we stand. We stand in
grace, called by grace, saved by grace. And when was grace
first given us? In Christ before the foundation
of the world. Is that not what it says in 2
Timothy 1.9? And oh, and He says, you know, we accept it. That
word accepted means grace, grace in the beloved. Let me ask you
this question. Did you choose God? Now let me
tell you, did you choose God as He's revealed in the Holy
Scriptures? What was God's like before He ever made Himself known
to you? What was He in your mind? What was He like? He was always
trying to satisfy Him. Always trying to pacify Him.
Always trying to appease Him. Always trying to live good enough
to get His approval. Always trying to do something
to get God to look at you and set His heart on you and do something
for you. And so you've done everything
in your power to get on His good side. And found out about the
time you thought you had it right, you wasn't on His good side.
And you had to start all over again. That's a miserable existence,
ain't it? That's why Peter says, why tempt
you God to put a yoke upon the disciples that we, nor our fathers,
are able to bear? Did you choose the Lord Jesus
as He's revealed in the Scriptures? What was He like to you? Was
He that baby in the manger? Was He that person that's standing
there knocking at your heart's door? Is He somebody standing
with outstretched arms begging and pleading for Him to please
let you do something for Him? Do you patronize Him and say,
well, one of these days I'm going to be saved. One of these days
I'll let Jesus into my heart. One of these days I'll accept
Jesus. I know one thing you didn't see Him as. You didn't see Him
as the God of election. You didn't see him as the one
sovereign sitting on his throne with all power and rights. Oh,
I'll tell you how we saw him. We saw him as a God of love and
sentimental weakness. Sitting in his chair. Whoa, he
couldn't have no hands but our hands, no feet but our feet.
And you saw him as one that you must cooperate with. He'll save
you. But you had to cooperate with
him when you got your chance. He wanted to save you and keep
you safe, but you had to cooperate with Him. And when it was all
said and done, you ended up saving yourself when it was all said
and done. I tell you, I know this. You,
me, or nobody else would have chosen God, who not only hates
sin, but hates the sinner. And you know that's why people
say, they say all the time, well God hates the sin, but He loves
the sinner. How do you separate the sin and
the sinner? Sin is something you do out here, and it's all
out here by itself, and so He hates that sin that you do, but
it's not you that does it. Well the scripture says that
God is angry with the wicked, how often? Every day. The scripture
says, Psalm 911, that God hates the workers of iniquity. God
says that He hated Jacob and loved Esau. Now, you would have
never chosen a God like that. In fact, you'd have gotten mad
at a God like that. God had to come and do something
to you to make you know that He's that way. He says in Proverbs
16, verse 4, the Lord hath made all things for Himself, Yea,
even the wicked for the day of destruction. There ain't no way in the world
you would have chosen a God like that. You never knew a God like
that existed. Did you? But He does. And He is. And He always will be that way. Oh, tis not that I did choose
thee for the Lord, that could not be. This heart would still
refuse thee, but thou hast chosen me. T'was sovereign mercy called
me and taught my opening mind. The world had else enthralled
me, to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none above thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. And not only does He save in
election, not only is He God, and He done it in a covenant
of grace, that He chose us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He done it because of a covenant of grace that He
entered into. And that Jesus Christ is a surety
of that covenant of grace. And not only does He elect them,
then listen to me, this is what a grace believer is, this is
what Scripture salvation is. He reveals Himself to His elect. How else would you have ever
known Him? How do you know you want to be His elect? He revealed
Himself to you. Oh listen, let me look over here
in John 6, verse 44, just a minute. You know Isaiah saw the Lord
high and lifted up. And he saw the Lord high and
lifted up. And my soul, he started talking
about, oh my, I saw the glory of God. You know what the first
thing out of his mind, what mouth was? After he saw God in His
glory. You know what he said after he
saw God in His glory? He didn't jump up and down and
start whooping and hollering shouting hallelujah and run in
the aisles and said, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, I got
saved, I got saved, I got saved. No, when he saw the Lord, you
know what he said? Woe is me. Job said, I heard about you with
the hearing of the ear. Oh, those three comforters of
mine, they come and talk about you, and talk about you, and
talk about you, and talk about you. And I heard about you with
my ear. Now my eye sees you. And what
did He say? He said, I abhor myself. I abhor
myself. You see, God reveals Himself
to His elect. And He's not like we thought
He was. He's not like He thought He was.
All thy children shall be taught of God. Look in John 6.44. This is why I say all the way
through the Scriptures, only when God reveals Himself that
men can know Him. Look what our Lord said here.
No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me.
Draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. It is written
in the Prophets. Now listen to it. And they, who's
they? Who are they? Shall all be taught
of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard... Now listen, this is what we're talking about this
salvation that God reveals. Every man that hath heard and
hath learned of the Father, what does he do? He comes to me. God
has to call a man, reveal Christ to him and teach that man something.
And I know this, beloved, that when God comes and teaches a
man, the first thing He teaches is him is that Oh my, he's not
like I thought he was. I ain't got no power, I ain't
got no strength. Daniel said, when he prayed before
the Lord, he says, when God revealed himself to him, he said, my comeliness,
all my beauty turned into corruption. And I tell you what, it's the
only way in the scriptures, it's only when God reveals himself
that man knows him. It's only in his light we see
light. Let me give you several illustrations. Like Adam. When
God created Adam in the Garden of Eden, all Adam knew about
him was that he was his creator. This is the God that made me.
And he gave me this great power, this great intellect, and he
gave me a righteousness to stand. But he told me that if I'd done
one thing, Eat of that fruit of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil. He said, I would
die. Well, God's true. So he knew him as a creator,
but after he fell, after he fell and covered himself with those
fig leaves, you know what he found out about God? First of
all, that he's just. That he died. But also he found
out that he's a savior. What do you mean? Well, God justly
condemned him to death. Justly put him out of the garden.
But at the same time, God slew the animal, God shed the blood,
and God covered his nakedness. So in justice, he drove him out
of the garden, but in grace, As a Savior, He clothed him,
and slew the blood, and covered him in the blood, and covered
his nakedness. Do you know Him as a just God
and a Savior? And like Noah. Noah wasn't no
different than anybody else in his day, but the Scripture says,
Noah found grace in the eyes of God. And then he knew God is a just
God as he started preparing that ark. That's the grace of God.
Just God. God said, I'm going to destroy
everybody and everything on the face of the earth. All this man,
every man where I look, I just see nothing but wickedness and
depravity and sinfulness and murder and rapine and oh, everything
that you can imagine a man can do. That's what they're doing.
And I don't even enter into their mind. So he knowed him as a just God,
going to store everybody. But when he got in that ark,
he knew him as the Savior. And Abraham, Abraham, oh God
revealed himself to Abraham. How did he reveal himself to
Abraham? As the God of glory and as the God of election. Abraham,
I've chosen you. Abraham, I called you. Abraham,
I've entered into a covenant with you. And I make you a promise
that you'll be a father of many nations. And I tell you, when
he reveals himself to God's elect, this is what a grace believer
is. This is what scriptural salvation is. God reveals himself as a
God of predestination. Never even knew that words in
the Bible, did we? Until when? God revealed Himself. You mean to tell me that God
predestinates everything? I mean to the hairs on your head,
to the breath you breathe, to the molecules that's in the air.
You ever sat and see the dust floating in the air when the
sunlight comes through a window? God ordained every one of those
dust mites. You're looking at things that
God ordained that they just fizzle through the air. If a dust piece
of dust out of his eyes, you know what happened? It'd get
in our nose and get in our throat or something and choke us to
death, man. If God didn't have control over it. And all he declared
all things from the beginning, declared the end from the beginning.
For whom he did foreknow, what did it say about them? Them. He also did predestinate. I love
that word. People say, what's the matter
with them? I don't know. I just don't believe God's got
a predestination. Well, then you don't believe
God then. Huh? What about, not only He reveals
Himself as a God of predestination, but a God of purpose. That everything
He does is on purpose. Men make salvation, first of
all, to be a chance. Now say, God's got to give every
man, I don't know how many people I've heard tell me this over
the years. God's got to give every man a chance. He wouldn't be just if he didn't
give every man a chance. Well salvation's not by chance.
If you want to live and work, play a game of chance, go to
Las Vegas and gamble. That's chance. Salvation's a cooperative effort.
God will save you if, if, if, if there ain't no ifs in this
business of salvation. As God declares, so shall it
come to pass. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? God who has saved us and called us, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And He reveals Himself
as the God who has all power. He's got all power. He's the
only one who can change a man's heart. He said, I'll take this stony
heart out and I'll put in a heart of flesh. You know what's in our hearts
before God saves us? The first thing He said is pride,
evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, everything
you can think was in our heart. And then God takes out that heart
and He puts in a new heart. People say, well give God your
heart. He don't want your heart the way it is. He can't take
it the way it is. He's got to change it. What in
the world would He even do with our own miserable black hearts? And you say, if I know my own
heart, well I tell you what, I know what I know about mine.
I know it's deceitful above everything and desperately wicked. And if
God hadn't given me a new one, I wouldn't have a care for God
at all. Oh listen, I tell you what, not
only have you received His powers and His rights to save whom He
will and when He will and how He will, but you see Him as a
God of discriminating choice. You know, He don't have to do
this for me if He don't want to, if He don't will to, if it
ain't His desire. Oh, He's a God of discriminating
choice. He said it's not of Him that
willeth. I will for my children and grandchildren
to be saved. But it's not of him that will
if it's not of that man that talks about I will to be saved
and I made my choice for Jesus and I walked the hour for Jesus
and then I walked the old sawdust trail and said oh I did that.
But it's not of him that will if it's not of that fellow that's
running. But it's of God that shows mercy. And this is His
glory revealed in the scripture. He said, I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. And I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. Now you reckon God will have mercy on you today?
You reckon God will show compassion to you today? You know they have these old games
and stuff like that and people do a thumbs up or a thumbs down. And I tell you what, God don't
use thumbs, up or down. You know, God uses the gospel.
And He has mercy. And He has compassion. But I
know this, He does not owe it to give it to you. And if He
does, it is because He wills to do it. He certainly don't
owe it to you. Wouldn't you agree with that?
And, oh beloved, we found out He works all things out to the
counsel of His own will. And you know where He reveals
Himself at? As He reveals Himself, He reveals Himself in His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. If our
gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. But, oh listen,
God has shined the light God has shined the light into our
darkened hearts to reveal God's glory where we're at in the person,
in the face, in the blessed face of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
He revealed Him and everything about our Lord Jesus Christ spoke
God, God, God, God, God. Salvation, salvation, salvation.
Our Lord Jesus when He was born, you know what they said about
Him who was going to be born? Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall be a Savior. Who is this that is going to
be born? Immanuel. God's come to be with us. And
in His life, our Lord Jesus Christ said, O Philip, show us the Father,
and that will suffice us. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, Philip,
have you seen me? And you've never seen the Father.
He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And all in His
death on the cross, there we see God in all of His glory and
all of His power and all of His justice and all of His wrath.
But also in His love and in His mercy and in His grace. And oh, then there's His resurrection. God raised Him from the dead. And then the Lord exalted Him
and sent Him at His own right hand. And He said, You sit right
here and I'll make every one of the enemies you'd footstool
one of these days. God revealed Himself in him by
saying this about him. Every promise I've made, I give
to you in my Son. And every one of them is yay.
Every one of them is yay. Every one of them is amen. Our
Lord Jesus Christ says this, you come to me, All that the
Father gives me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I'll in no wise cast out. That's a promise. That's yay. And just say amen to it. I give
unto them eternal life, they shall never perish. That's the
promise. I'll give them eternal life.
The promise is they'll never perish. That's yay. And we say
amen. And then he says I'll raise them
up at the last day. That's a promise. And that person that believes
in me, I give them eternal life. I have eternal life now. I'm not going to get it. I got
it. It's not something that's way
out in the future. It's something we possess right now. And let me tell you, I've got
the first issue that has to be settled. What is scripture salvation?
What's a grace believer? The first issue to be settled
in the salvation is who is God? Who is God? Can a man be saved
and not know God as He is? Can he? And I tell you what, how do you
know that you've seen God as He is? You stop talking about
Him. Your mouth has stopped bragging
about yourself. Your mouth has stopped talking
about your abilities, and your goodness, and your morality,
and your merit, and your words. You stop your mouths. And when
they find out about God, they're not disappointed with Him. They're
not displeased with Him. In fact, they love him just exactly
the way it is. And they wouldn't change him
for $10,000. Not one iota of a thing about him. Oh, listen. Who is God? That's
the first issue that has to be settled. I remember talking about ministry,
ministry, ministry. I had a ministry. Boy, when I
realized who God was, I never ever said ever again, I had a
ministry. call myself a preacher, call
myself a pastor. People say, boy, my church does
this and my church is this and this and you know, I ain't got
a church. Christ does, but I don't. I've
got a few sheep that I preach to and try my best to feed them,
but I don't have a church. No. And I'll tell you something,
this is what we're talking about. A man, when he sees God, when
he understands that he comes to the end of himself and salvation
is by grace, you know what he does? He learns about his awful
guilt and condemnation before this God, this holy God. He no
longer compares himself to other men. He ain't comparing himself
to nobody else. No way, no how, no shape, no
form. He sees himself in the light
of God's holiness and he says, I'm the one that's in a mess. I'm the one that's the sinner.
I'm the one that woe is me. It's not woe is them, woe is
them, woe is them, woe is them. It's woe is me. And he sees not
only his inability, but his unwillingness in every part of his act. He
knows that if God don't save him, he won't be saved. And I
tell you what, I don't mean to take too long, but the man that's
been saved by the grace of God and God revealed himself to,
this is what a grace believer, he has done with himself. He writes dead, dead, dead, dead,
dead, dead. In me is nothing good. In my
flesh is nothing worth talking about. He's done with himself. He denies himself. His thoughts
of goodness and righteousness and the power of his free will
and strength is gone. Oh my. And he sees how desperately,
desperately he needs somebody to take his place. Somebody to
bear his sin. Somebody to please make him acceptable
to God. And the only person who can do
that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And he comes to the
place where he don't trust nobody and counts on nobody but the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he's afraid of himself. He's afraid of himself. And you
know what he does? He trusts his soul. He trusts
the Lord Jesus Christ with his most precious possession. And
you know what that is? His soul. His soul. I trust my soul, my eternity
into the hands of Jesus Christ. I'm headed for eternity. It's awful to watch somebody
you love take their last breath. And I'm going to take mine one
of these days. It's awful to watch them get
cold from their feet. And they just get colder and
colder and colder and then all of a sudden there ain't no life
left. That's eternity. That's the end. And I trust the Lord Jesus Christ
with my soul when I take that last breath. and you reach and
touch me, and I'll be as cold." The heart don't beat. The eyes don't see and the ears
don't hear. But you enter into the presence
of Christ. Oh, we trust our souls with Him. We trust Him so completely
and entirely that we won't argue or find fault with Him in no
way. And we understand that salvation,
this is what a grace believer is, is entirely of the free,
pure, sovereign grace of God in Christ. Salvation is in a
person. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. I know whom I have believed. You know what God calls
us? You know what God calls us? God
calls us worms. Worms. Worms. Oh, thou worm, Jacob. Our Lord
Jesus said about Himself, He said, I'm a worm and no man. He's so identified with us. I'm
a worm and no man. You know what else He calls us?
He calls us grasshoppers. grasshoppers. He calls us clay. And he'd take
out of that lump of clay, he'd take and make one a vessel of
honor and another a vessel of dishonor. You say, boy, that's
just, that's awful to talk about people that way. That's not what
God says about us. And I tell you what, you know,
next time you brag about yourself, feel good about yourself, say
that's just one worm. You know, I'm a worm. Me bragging
about myself, I'm a better worm than this other worm. Now we
look through, when we get by some worms to go fishing, we
look through to find the best one, you know. We want to use
a great old big one. We want the best. But you'll have no qualms of
putting a hook through that thing and watching it wiggle and squirt.
And listen, is God going to use you, put you on a hook, or are
you going to be one of them save worms? Huh? And it's not of works. We know that our works don't
enter into it. The man knows that his works have absolutely
nothing to do with it. If it's of works, then it ceases
to be of grace, and if it's of grace, it ceases to be of works.
And who makes us to differ? What have we got that we didn't
receive? Who makes you to differ? And we understand, the grace
believer understands this, everything he has is a gift. If he repents, Christ granted
him repentance. If he believes, God gave him
faith. And it's God which works in us
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And you know when
God saves a sinner, in the salvation of a scripture
salvation, a sinner is saved because it pleases the Lord.
Paul says this, he says, when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, And called me, listen to it, by His
grace. And what else did He do? He revealed
His Son. Where at? In me. In me. According to my understanding
of the Scriptures. And if you disagree with me,
I hate it for you. I hate for you
to be wrong. But if you disagree with me, To my understanding,
according to the scriptures, it's impossible for anyone or
anything, any person to be anything but a grace believer. If God
ever saves a man, he cannot be nothing but a grace believer.
He can't be nothing else. No one in the Lord Jesus Christ
is trusting in Christ, is fighting, is fighting God's sovereignty.
No, no, they know who God is. They're not upset about election. They thank God for election. They're not fighting their inability,
their total depravity. They're not upset with God because
Christ Jesus died for his sheep and laid down his life for his
sheep. The particular redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. They're
not upset and fighting God about his effectual calling that he
calls and he calls in such a way that a man cannot become. And
they're not upset with God because he preserves and they all want
to persevere to the end. They're like what Paul said. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And I tell you, the more they
go on in life, from the moment they learn that,
the more they go on in life, the more they see and know and
understand that it's salvation, aid of the Lord, and by grace,
not one soul would ever be saved. Because they know themselves
and they've seen God. And the only difference is God
made it. And He made it through Christ.
Amen? Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus, thank you for your abundant mercy and grace
given us in Christ. Father, I ask that you'd be pleased
to make this message effectual. To make it real, to make it vital,
to make it life-giving. As someone will today. Lord, we've sowed the seed, we've
cast the word. And Lord, it's in your hands
to do with it as seemeth good in your sight. And we know you
will. Cause you're the judge of all
the earth and you must do right. And we bless you for that. In
Christ's name. Amen. Amen. 209. 209. Stand together. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and
our guilt. the blood of the lamb was shed. Grace, grace, God's Third verse will be the last. Dark is the stain that we cannot
hide. What can a man to wash it away. Yonder o'er the snowing a glimpsing
tide, wider than snow you may be today. Praise, praise, Grace at a party And clears within
Grace Grace God's grace