Kyla, my message today is the
nature of grace. The nature of grace. Everything has a nature, the
way it works. It works a certain way, and that's
the way it is. Water's nature is to be wet,
to boil, to freeze. Man's nature is to sin. God's
nature is holy, righteous. Well, grace has a nature to it.
It only works and does things in a particular way. It has its
own nature. But here in Romans 5 and verse
17, it says this, For if by one man's offense, or that one man's
sin, that one's offense by Adam, death reigned by that one sin,
death reigned by that one sin. Much more, much more, this is
one of Paul's favorite phrases, much more. They which receive
abundance, abundance of grace, one sin, cause death
to reign. But we get abundance of grace
and of the gift, the gift of righteousness. Now this grace
and abundance of grace, this gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the
righteousness of the one free gift came upon all men unto justification
of life. Now let me comment on that right
there when it says, upon all men. The same men that all judgment
came to is the same men that all righteousness came to. It's
not every man in the world he's talking about. Because there's
going to be a multitude of people in this world that will never
know what condemnation is. Only God's elect knows what condemnation
comes upon us. And the same ones who are condemned
are the same ones who get righteousness. Do you understand that? Because
it's not talking about everybody. Because though everybody's condemned,
they don't know it. That's why whenever you find,
you know, you get stopped with a ticket and a cop's giving you
a ticket, that's why you get mad and argue with him. They
got you dead to rights and you're guilty, but you don't want to
be guilty. You want to fuss, you want to fight, I'll go to
court over it. Well, that's the same way it is about condemnation.
God brings condemnation upon all His people, on all men, His
people. And He gives the same justification
to the same people. Same thing is, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And it's not the end of
a verse. It goes right to the next thing, and it says right
then and there, being justified freely by His grace. Who has
said all that is sin? It's the same ones that's justified. It's a different people. All right, now watch this. For
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, So by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ. What does it say there in verse
20? Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound,
but where sin abounded, grace, grace did much more abound. Grace
reigns through righteousness. Grace. I love the word. I just
absolutely love that word. I love grace. I love it. It's
a wonderful word, a glorious word, a blessed word, a beautiful
word. And what a grace! It's a comprehensive
word. It covers so much. And here we
have a great contrast. We have here where sin's abounding.
It says we're sin abounded. I mean it's abounding. We're
sin's abounding. We have grace much more abounding. Much more abounding. We have
judgment because of sin. We have righteousness as a free
gift. What a contrast! We deserve death. And sin reigns. But where sin
reigns, grace abounds more. And where sin is, grace comes
and brings justification as a free gift. And, oh beloved, sin reigns
under death. And that's, you know, the cause
of the curse. I'm going to die. But the blessed thing is that
when I leave this world, I've got life. I didn't earn it. I didn't deserve it. Sin abounded,
but Christ brought righteousness and life as a free gift. Free gift. And look where it
says there again, where sin abounded, there in verse 20, grace abounded
more. Where sin abounded, grace did
completely overflow. And what he's telling us here,
no matter how much sin is present, the grace that comes from God
through Christ is immeasurable. What he's saying here is that
grace, where sin is, grace is so much more prominent, so much
more overflowing, it's like putting out a match with a whole bucket
of water. Isn't that right? Sin's abounding. But all life, for all the sin
there is, grace just keeps overwhelming it. Just keeps clipping it down. Just keeps... You got a match lit? Let's pour
that thing, pour a whole bucket of water on it. That's what grace
does for us. And look at all the people through
the Scriptures. You take Mary Magdalene. Seven
devils our Lord threw out of that woman. And where do you
find her at? At the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, what a woman she must have been. We can't imagine
what it is. We see people, women, that leave
their children, kill their children, walk off and mistreat their children,
do horrible, horrible things, seeking happiness, and yet they
never find it. That's what's so sad about people,
you know. They leave folks, they get divorced, they walk off and
leave their kids. Husbands leave their wives and
leave their kids and all these things, and yet you ask them,
are you happy now? Are you happy now? Since you
left your kids, are you happy now? Since you left your wife,
are you happy now? Has that sin made you real good
and happy? And then there's Zacchaeus. He
is a thief. Stealing people's taxes. Stealing
from the Roman government. Stealing from everybody else.
And he was up a tree. And I'll tell you, the Lord Jesus
says, Come down, Zacchaeus! Today I must abide at your house. He didn't ask him. He didn't
beg with him. He didn't plead with him. He didn't knock on
his heart's door. He never said, would you please let me come
to your house and will you accept me into your heart? No. He said,
I'm going home with you today. Salvation's coming to your house.
That's what we're talking about. And Saul of Tarsus, who became
Paul the Apostle, he's on the Damascus Road. He had in his
pockets wards, wards, arrest wards to go. and take, go in a service like
this here and start taking men and women and children and dragging
them out and putting them in jail and putting them in prison,
for one thing, believing on Jesus Christ, confessing His name as
Lord, confessing Him as your Savior, confessing Him as the
Son of God, confessing Him as the Messiah. And he said, oh,
I hated Christ. Christ's spirit had made havoc
of the church, hailing men and women to jail. He's on his way
to Damascus, and all of a sudden, the light above the brightness
of the sun came down on him, and it's so bright, struck him
blind. Down he went into the dust. That's grace taking the enemy
and making him a child of God, huh? Simon Peter. My goodness. For folks who always
like to talk about us hypocrites, and us folks who don't live right,
if you'd have been standing around watching Simon Peter, when he
bragged about, you know, I'm going to go to prison. If I have
to, I'll die. If I have to, it don't make any
difference to me. All the rest of them can forsake
you, but I'm going to stand right by you. Before the night was
over, he denied the Lord three times. There ain't no way in
the world that man can be a Christian. He can't much less be an apostle,
he can't even be a Christian. And then the boy walk over there,
and there he is standing, crying like a baby, and he's cussing. Oh, my! Boy! You start looking at the flesh,
and you look at the wrong place in anybody, whether it's an apostle.
The only perfect person who's ever been on the face of this
earth is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we go outside
ourselves and go to Him. And oh, beloved, what about even
those who nailed our Lord Jesus to the cross? Our Lord prayed
on the cross. He says, Father, forgive them.
They know not what to do. And just as sure as the Lord
Jesus was on the throne, those people, those people around there
were saved by His blessed grace. They were. They were. I believe that. Manasseh, a king
of Israel who took his own children and offered them to false gods
and offered them and burned them in fire. Offered him and set
him on fire, and offered him to strange gods, and burnt him,
his own children. God saved that man. You know
that? He saved Manasseh. You talk about
a trophy of grace. Oh, my. Sin is horrible. I mean, it's awful. But wherever
it abounds, grace superabounds. Grace overflows. Well, let's
look at the nature of grace. First of all, here's the thing
about grace. Grace is God acting freely. That's the first thing. Grace
is God acting freely. Now, what I mean by that, that
means that God does what He wants to, which is grace. He gives
it to who He wants to. And you know, He acts according
to His nature, and His nature is love. Now, you look with me
over here in 1 John chapter 4. I want us to see this blessed
thing called grace. Now, God acts according to His
nature. God is love. And people say,
well, God, you know, God don't have to manifest His love. Oh,
whoever has love, it has to be manifested. Love must, if you've
got it, it's going to come out. If you've got love for somebody,
it's going to show. Now, ain't that right? You cannot
have, you know, you cannot have love in your heart and it won't
show towards the person you love. Now, you can't stifle love. You can't do it. And if we can't
do it for the people that we love, and the folks that we love,
and our wives, and our children, and our friends, and our neighbors,
and you, and me, if we can't stifle it, if we can't keep it
from flowing, and we can't keep it from manifesting, how much
more can God keep from manifesting it when He Himself says that
He is love? So love has to be manifested.
People say all the time, they say, God doesn't have to show
His love. Yes, He does. But the difference is, he loves
whom he wants to. But here's how he shows his love.
Look what he said here in 1 John 4, chapter 4, verse 8. He that
loveth not knoweth not God. Don't know God. For God is love.
And this was manifested, the love of God toward us. You want
to see how God loved us and how He manifested that love? Because
that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. Here it is love. Not that we
loved God. No, we didn't do it. But that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the sacrifice,
the atoning victim, the mercy seat for our sins. So love must
be manifested, must be acted out. You see, we aren't even
free to love whom we will. There's people that we just can't
stand. There's things that we hate and abhor. And there's people
that we hate the things they do. You know, people say, you've
got to love everybody. No, we don't. No place in the
Bible says we've got to love everybody. We don't. We can't. If I loved every woman
like I loved my wife, how perverted would that be? If I let every woman in here
like I love my wife, you say, boy, that fella's a nut. And that's true. I can't love
you like I love her. So we aren't free to love whom
we will, but God is. So if God loves anyone, it's
an act of grace. It's an act of, if He loves you,
and what did the girl say, He loved me? before the world began? Oh my grace, is God loving His
people as individuals without promises from them, without obligations
to be fulfilled by us? He does not say, give me a promise
and I'll love you. Do something for me and then
I'll love you. No, no, no, no. God, beloved, He loves His people,
respecting, requiring, never, ever thinking that there's anything
He needs from them. Is that not right? Oh, my. And He gives His grace righteously
in view of the cross. Now, what I mean by that, beloved,
grace is not God just giving His love and His saving grace
to people capriciously or arbitrarily. No, no, it's in view of our Lord
Jesus Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.
It's in light of the justice of God being poured out on His
blessed Son and the wrath of God poured out. So sin was punished
there. And that's why grace now reigns
righteously. That's why, beloved, that's why
men's got to hear the gospel. That's why men must hear the
Word of God. I mean to think that you can live a life without
God, without Christ, without the gospel, and still go to glory,
and God still love you, and God still give you grace. That is
foreign to the Word of God and the nature of God, as hell is
from righteousness. And oh, that's what he says here.
It was an act, even the cross was an act of grace. Did we deserve
Christ coming? Did we deserve Christ going to
the cross? Did we deserve Christ banning
our sins? Did we deserve Christ there being
beaten bloody? So even that was an act of grace. Huh? And oh, beloved, I'll tell
you, grace is God acting freely. Loving must be manifest, but
He loves anyone. If He loves anybody at all, it's
an act of grace. That's why we don't stand and
tell people, and God have mercy on the man who tells everybody
that God loves you and loves you. Now, I tell you what, listen, that's not right. Here's what
folks got to understand is when they understand that God loves
whom He will, And that's an act of grace for him to love you.
That's an act of grace. You don't deserve to be loved.
You really don't. I don't either. We don't deserve
it. And it's an act of grace. So if God loves you, then I tell
you, if you tell everybody in the whole world, if I told this
congregation here indiscriminately that God loves every one of you
today, there may be an Esau sitting here, and I'd have lied to him. But I do know this, if God ever
does love you, it'll be because he wanted to, because he sure
ain't going to find nothing in you to deserve it. Is that right? Or me either? And let me tell
you, grace is uncaused in the recipient. Look over here in
Ephesians 4 with me. Grace is uncaused in the recipient,
as the Scots would say, in the recipient. Grace is uncaused in the recipient. You see, the cause lies wholly
and solely in the giver. in God Almighty. Look here at
Ephesians 1.4. Ephesians 1.4. Grace is uncaused in the recipient. You know, people say, God will
give you grace if you'll do this. God will give you grace if you
repent. God will give you grace if you believe. God will give
you grace if you get born again. You can't repent, you can't believe,
you can't do anything until God gives you grace. And here he says this, "...according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will." Now watch
this, "...to the praise of the glory of His grace." really hath
made us accepted in the beloved. Why did He do it? According to
the praise of the glory of His grace. Look down in verse 12.
That we should be to the praise of His glory. Down in verse 14, last part of
the verse, these purchased possessions under the praise of His glory. So everything, every bit of grace
we have, every bit of thing that God's done for us, it was done
for us before the world began. If you look, if you or me look
for a cause of grace in ourselves, we'll never find it. We'll never
find it. And that's what makes grace so
amazing. That's what makes it so amazing.
It's free. We didn't seek it. It sought
us. We didn't find it, it found us. It comes from God to men as they
are. As they are. Dead, lifeless,
cold, sinners, and it comes to them as they are. And it overflows. They come, here they are, they're
sinners from the top of their head to the sole of their foot.
full of bruise, wounds, and putrefied swords. And there they are, abounding
in sin. But here comes grace. Just overflows
it. It super-bounds over their sin.
Look what he said here in Ephesians 2.8. Look what it says here. Oh, my. For by grace are you
saved. Through faith. Grace and faith
be the ones, not of yourselves. Watch what it says here. The
gift of God. Not of works, because if it was,
you know what you'd do. Well, let me tell you what I've
been doing for the Lord. I have really done some things for Jesus. Well, who would it be? He must
have needed something done. Oh my, the average God today
is an old man in a wheelchair. Somebody's got to wheel him in
and try to get folks to feel sorry for him. And when they've
got a bunch of folks feeling sorry for him, they wheel him
back out. Take him back away. But, oh beloved, it goes on to
say here, Not of works lest any man should boast. And I love
this right here. For we are His workmanship. Oh listen, created in Christ
Jesus. Oh my. So you see, grace, grace
is God acting freely. It's uncaused in the recipient.
That's why it says about being justified freely. Amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, now I'm found. Was blind, but now see. To us
grace hath taught my heart to fear. To us grace my fear is
relieved. And I'll tell you something else
about grace. It's sovereign. It's sovereign. What do I mean
by that? That God has no debts to pay. Now, look in Romans 4. Now, I want you to know, I want
us to see this. They're talking about the nature
of grace. Grace is sovereign. What do I mean by that? That
it reigns. It reigns. Did sin reign? Grace reigns.
Grace reigns so much more than sin ever did. And God has no
debts to pay. He said here in Romans 4.4, Now
to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but it's
a debt. If a fellow's working, he gets
paid for his work. And that's what a lot of folks
think, you know, when I get to the end of the way, God's going
to give me my payday. I'm going to get a mansion. I'm
going to get to walk on streets of gold. I'm going to get to
fish in the river of life. And they make heaven to be just
a ridiculous-looking place. And listen. And they think that
when they get there, God's going to stand there and start paying
folks off for all the things that they've done. Well, listen,
you make a hundred dollars, I'm going to give this fellow a thousand.
That guy right there, he deserves this gold, he deserves that,
he deserves this other thing, and I'm going to give him all
this, that, and the other. Because they think that they've actually
earned it. And that's why, folks, you know
why so many people quit church? Why they quit being Christian?
It's because something happens in their life and they thought,
boy, after all I've done for the Lord, after all the church
I've attended, after all the times I've been a Christian,
and now God do me that way? God come and take a child. God
come and let me get sick. God let me get cancer. Oh, no,
no, no. I'm not going to serve a God
that deals with things like that. I'm just not going to. I'm going
to quit. If God don't love me no better than that, I'll just
stop. I've got news for you. It never started. Now, ain't
that right? That's why so many people quit.
God has no debts to pay. And let me tell you something,
there's no conditions on man's part to wait on. God don't wait
on conditions for you to meet before He gives you grace. Grace
doesn't wait for us to become worthy or to do some act before
it ever has to. It comes with all the power.
It comes with all the conditions. It comes with everything already
met. It's the one who acts, not us. And oh, grace can act toward
whom it will, how it will, where it pleases. Whether on a road
called Damascus or in a church house, in a prison or in a palace,
grace can work. It can work up a tree and it
can work on a tree. Zacchaeus up a tree and a thief
was by Christ on a tree. And grace acted toward a man
in his dying moments. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved a
man while he was dying. And that's grace seventy-five
years old before he ever heard the gospel. You're talking about
grace. What if God let him go on and
never heard it? What if God hadn't given him
an ear to hear? What if God hadn't given you an ear to hear, James? And there's some in here that
they haven't heard. And I pray that God will give
you an ear to hear someday, but I tell you what, if you ever
hear, it's grace that's going to give you an ear to hear. The
sinner and the hearer, both are of the Lord. And the king's heart's
in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water, and he turns
it wherever he will. Oh, it can take a thief. There was a man fixing to commit
suicide there, and he took care of the person. And Paul said,
don't do yourself no harm. Preach the gospel to him. He
was saved. Somebody had just mistreated,
indeed, two of God's choice, blessed men, Paul and Silas,
beat them till the blood was on their backs. And then God
saved the man after he'd done that. That's grace. Oh my. What it does, it can place
the worst deservers in the highest place. Took Paul, made him an
apostle. Took Mary Magdalene, set her
at his feet. Oh my. Listen to me. It can bypass a multitude and
save one person. You go through the scriptures
and you find where Christ just went to one person over and over
and over. He went to one person, the woman
at the well. He called one man out of that
great crowd, Zacchaeus. There was all kinds of people
in Jerusalem that went up there to worship and was going back
home, but Philip was only sent to one unit. God will represent Syria in the
time of man, who He's only sent to that one. That's what we're
talking about. And I tell you, that's why when
folks start under that, they'll quick twirl in their thumbs and
sit back and say, well, when God gives me my chance, I'm going
to take care of it, you know. I'm going to get right with God.
I'm going to join the church. I'm going to let folks know what
they've been missing. When I get, you know, I'm going
to get it right one of these days. I'm going to come back.
Yeah, I know you are. You're going to sit back and
wait on God to look at how nice a person you are and how good
a person you are. Next thing you know, you're going
to be sitting there and find out that God had no interest
in you whatsoever. Let that sink in. Oh my, or it can save a multitude.
It can save one at a time, and bypass a multitude, or it can
save a multitude at one time. Peter stood on the day of Pentecost,
and he started preaching, and God saved 3,000 people that day
in that one message. And then after that, there was
about 5,000 that got converted. He can save a multitude, or He
can save them one at a time. And even out of that 3,000, there's
ever one saved individually. You know that? And, oh, grace. And let me listen to this. Listen
to this. Talk about the nature of grace. Grace cannot act where
there is ability. Grace cannot act where there
is ability. Now, you think about that. If
you've got any ability, you don't need grace. If you can do something,
why do you need grace? If you've got any strength, you
don't need grace. If you've got any works, you
don't need grace. If you're doing all right, you don't need grace. If you can will or if you can
choose or you can do, if the rights and powers left in
you, then you don't need grace whatsoever. Grace only acts where
there's impotence. Grace only acts where there's
no ability. Ain't that right? Oh my, grace doesn't help. Grace doesn't help. We need an
insight more than help. Grace is absolute. It does all
or nothing. It does all from start to finish. And all you do is take and receive. And the minute there's any ability,
grace stops right there. We ain't got none. And since
there's no cause, since there's no cause in us why God should
show grace to us, let's just stop trying to give God a cause
for He's given grace to us, because there can't find a cause in it.
You know, folks say, well, God gave me grace because. There
ain't no because. There's never a because. If there
ever is, it ceases to be grace. You know what it is to fall from
grace? Do you know what it is to fall from grace? Look over
in Galatians 5 with me just a moment. You know, people say all the
time, well, he fell from grace. He fell from grace. They fell
from grace. But you know what it is to fall
from grace? Paul tells us you know what it
is to fall from grace. Makes it so obvious. That's what it says here. Paul
says here in verse 2 of Galatians 5. Behold, I, Paul, say unto
you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing."
Circumcision means you're going under the law for your cleanliness,
for your purification. It's a sign of the token, of
the covenant. Now watch this. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, if he goes back under that law for
his cleansing, for his purification, that he's a debtor to do the
whole law, to do it all. And this is the kicker to me,
this is frightening to me. Christ has become of no effect
unto you. No effect in His blood, no effect
of His righteousness, no effect of His power, no effect of His
love, no effect of His justification, no effect of His compassion.
Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified
by the law. Now watch it. You are falling
from grace. Add anything to grace, and it
ceases to be grace just that quick. That's what it means to
fall from grace. It's not going out here and using bad language. It's not going out here to listen
to a bad joke. It's not going out here and indulging
yourself in some alcohol. That's not what he's talking.
That's not going out here and saying, you know, that I've got
to change the way. And that has nothing to do with
it. Grace has to do, and falling from grace has to do with you
adding anything to the grace of God. You've got to honestly say, in
my hands, in me, there is in me no good thing. There is nothing
in me, nowhere, no way shall shake. There is nothing in me
worth God even taking a second notice of. And I'm glad you all don't know
me the way I know me. Oh, I'm so thankful for that.
And oh, beloved, that's why Paul said, also, you know, that the
grace of God teaches us to deny all ungodliness in worldly life,
to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
And I tell you, here's another thing about grace. Never no because. Grace never gives no because. If there ever is a because, it
ceases to be grace. Grace produces humility. I mean,
beloved, you're talking about putting you down, emptying you. When God makes us to understand
that we're the objects of His sovereign grace, It humbles us
like we've never been humbled. And it keeps working in us from
the day it starts humbling us and will not let us get up. It just keeps working on us,
keeping us down, keeping us down. Why such humility? Why such humility? Why do you call yourself nothing?
Why do you say you're... Why did Paul say, I'm the last
of the least of the saints, though I be nothing? Why such humility? Why did Job
get down in the dust and say, oh, I've whored myself. I'll repent in dust tonight.
Why does Isaiah cry out, oh, it's me, I'm undone, I'm unclean. Why did John see the Lord Jesus
Christ and fall as a dead man? Oh, we're brought to know our
absolutely unworthiness. David said, who am I and what
is my house? Mephibosheth said, Oh Lord, why
do you look upon such a dead dog as me? Simon Peter, when
he talked back to the Lord and questioned him, he said, Oh Lord,
depart from me, I'm a sinful man. The fact that I'd question
you, the fact that I'd wonder about you, the fact that I would
doubt you, Oh God, just depart from me, I'm so sinful to think
of you and talk to you and consider you in such a way. Were we worth Christ coming into
this world for? Were we worth our Lord Jesus
Christ being despised and rejected and hated without a cause? Were
we worth our Lord Jesus Christ being beaten and smitten and
stricken and afflicted until the blood was coming out of His
head, His hands, His feet, His back, His side? spat upon and
slapped and his beard pulled out? Were we worthy of our Lord Jesus
Christ coming here and crying out, My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me as our sin was found upon Him? Were we worthy of His blood? Blood? being poured out even
unto death? I know what David said, and I
know what Job said, and I know what Jacob said. I'm not worthy
of the least of your tender mercies. The least of them. And oh, beloved, when you start
sinning, what it took for God to save sinners like us, for
Him to give us grace and good righteousness. My word! You're talking about an anomaly,
a paradox, just an absolute. It's for a sinner, it's for somebody
that claims grace to be proud. That don't even make sense. We're
brought to know our complete inability. And yet, beloved, even though
we're brought to know our complete inability, yet we find ourselves
blessed, saved, and kept on an entirely
another principle outside of ourselves, grace, grace, and
more grace. And this is my last point. Flesh,
flesh has no place in the purpose of God's sovereign grace. They
that are in the flesh cannot please God. That's saved flesh,
lost flesh, sanctified flesh. It don't make what kind of flesh
it is. I mean, beloved, the preacher's flesh, the Pope's flesh, the
Apostle's flesh, the only flesh that was acceptable to God is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And our flesh, when we're talking
about us as we are, has no place in God's sovereign grace. I read
it to you there in Isaiah 40. What shall I cry? All flesh praise! What did the grass look like
this morning? We had just mown it here a few
weeks ago. It was pretty and green. And we'd mow it and it
looked so good and pick up all the stuff out of it. Man, that
yard looked so good. This morning, the Spirit of God
blew on it. He'd get out there and the grass
was dead, lifeless. He said, Why shall I cry? Oh,
bless this grass! But here's the next thing he'd
say cry. Behold your God! Who did he say that to? The same
one he said, all flesh is great! He turned around and says, now
behold your God! Oh my! This is why the natural
man, no matter how religious they get, they hate grace. They absolutely hate it. They
don't dislike religion. They no longer dislike the Bible.
They don't dislike going to church. They don't dislike praying. But
boy, when you start talking about grace, free, sovereign, holy,
glorious grace, that grace has no room for boasting. It will not have any contribution
whatsoever from the flesh. And they said, well, I just can't
believe that. I just don't believe that. I
just don't believe that God just don't look at us for something. Well, believe it. If you don't
believe it now, you'll believe it one of these days. And this
is why we rejoice in God's grace. Grace loved me before the world
began. Grace blessed me. And guess what? It does it as I am right now. It'll do it as I am this evening.
It'll do it as I am in my bed. It'll do it as I am tomorrow.
It'll do it as I am this time next year. Grace will do it all. Huh? All to Him we owe. And oh, beloved, and you know
when it was given to us? You know when this grace was
given to us? In Christ Jesus, before the world began. And oh, beloved, that's what
it says, we're sin abounding. Grace is much more bound. And
then grace is given us in Christ. Oh, don't you think? Didn't I
tell you grace is a wonderful word? Didn't I tell you it's
a beautiful word? You see something about the nature
of grace now?