It's on, but I told you I've
turned it on. Welcome to the Sovereign Grace
Chapel. I'm going to do something slightly
different than what I normally do. First of all, I want to start
off with a statement. I do not believe Jesus Christ
because the Bible says so. Isn't that a statement? I believe
Jesus Christ because by his grace, I know Jesus Christ. He has revealed
himself to me. When Peter said it, thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. You understand what Christ
told him, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my father,
which is in heaven. I believe his word because I
believe him. I know it's kind of a subtle
thing. By his grace now, I can see his kingdom. By his grace
now, I have entered his kingdom. And by his grace now, I believe
his word. And I wanna speak today of his
grace, of God's grace today. Because that's where it started
for me. Him revealing His grace in me. And that's where it starts
for every child of God. Because before that, you really
don't know anything about Jesus Christ. And there's only one
way to know, and that is by His grace. We talk about sovereign
grace, and that's what I wanna talk about today. But specifically,
what I wanna call it today is God's grace. I wanna talk about
God's grace. Because believe me, I'm not interested,
except for in an informational way, and sometimes not much of
that, I'm not interested in the grace of the Baptist church.
I'm not interested in the grace of the Methodist church, or the
Presbyterian, or the Jehovah Witnesses, or the Mormons, or
the Muslim, or the Hebrew, or the Hindu, I'm interested in
the grace of the almighty God, as revealed in his word. And I have a certain, sure, scriptural
perspective here on the grace of Jesus Christ that I wanna
try and relate today, if I can. I wanna read you three pertinent,
particular scriptures dealing with grace, and then what I wanna
talk to you about is this. Scary grace. As you understand,
there are some to whom the grace of God scares. I'm serious. I mean, I know it
sort of sounds flippant. I'm bringing a message titled
Scary Grace, but I'm not being flippant. This is the truth of
God. It's the truth of this world.
It's in this Bible from beginning to end, but it's also all around
us today because to some, to some people, and I say the majority
of people, grace is scary. But first I want to look at Exodus
chapter 33, if you want to follow along, and begin reading in verse
17. And the Lord said unto Moses,
these are the words of the Lord God, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight,
and I know thee by name. And he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. There are those written of in
the scriptures. There's two in particular, definitely
in particular. Noah and Moses are said, Noah
was said to found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Moses is said
here, found grace in his sight. Now you understand both cases,
it says Noah found grace. Moses found grace. They didn't
get it. You understand? They didn't get
it. And he goes on to explain here. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. Hear the words of the Lord, because
those are them. Those are the words of the Lord.
This is a flat statement that the grace of God is given by
the will of God. Period. Put a period right there. Because I'm not gonna be talking,
when I'm talking about the grace of God, I'm not gonna be talking
about man's will. Because God doesn't. You know
why? Because the grace of God has
nothing at all to do with the will of man. That's what he said. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. I'll show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. There's no mention it works anywhere
You know why because there are none where where grace is concerned
Now it is no it was said to be a just man and walk with God
You know when it said that After it said that he found grace in
the eyes of the Lord Moses wasn't even looking for God He was hiding
from his people on the backside of a desert when God came to
him. Ah, the Lord chose to be gracious
to some by his will, by his will, and his will alone. So, are you
scared yet? Okay. The next one, Romans chapter
11, please. Romans chapter 11, and if you
know this, most of you do here, you probably might guess where
I'm going. Romans chapter 11. Yeah, just verse one, let's go
ahead. I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid,
for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people,
which he foreknew. What you not, what the scripture
saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel,
saying, Lord, they've killed thy prophets, they've digged
down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself 7,000
men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so
then, at this present time, Also, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. Paul didn't stop there. And if
by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is
no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, But the election hath obtained it,
and the rest were blinded. Election of grace. When, when Paul wrote this, at
this time, there's still a remnant of election of grace. And I'm
here to tell you today, at this time, right now, what is it,
2018, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And it's this grace, guess what?
It's not works. It's not works. I will tell you
this, election is a hated word. And it's an even more hated doctrine. People hate election. People
don't like you to talk about election. You know why? Election is of grace. So you understand, don't have
problems with a presidential election where you get to vote
and I get to vote and everybody gets to vote, all God's children
got to vote. But you understand, this is an
election of grace. It's got nothing to do with the will of man. It's
got nothing to do with the work of man. Oh, they'll say it. Oh, you believe that election
stuff. And that's the tone they use.
Because what they wanna do is dismiss, disannul, and discard
the election of grace. And if you have to disannul Christ
at the same time, they don't care. You know why? Because they don't want grace.
They do not want grace. Paul said it, at this present
time, there's a remnant. But answer me this question,
when was this election happened? When did this election happen?
Look at Ephesians chapter one, just for a minute, because we'll
be going to Ephesians two, of course. When did this election happen? Verse four of Ephesians one,
according He hath chosen us he being God Christ 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 I'm
just gonna stop right there The election of grace happened
before the foundation of the world. That's why men hate election. Election can't have nothing to
do with works, can't have nothing to do with the will of man, can't
have nothing to do with man, because man wasn't around when
it happened. He was not invited to the election,
there were no polling places. They didn't have a vote. I didn't
have a vote, you didn't have a vote. Guess what? They're scared of
grace. They're scared of grace. Election
choosing is not of works. Paul's playing. I'm not making
anything up. I'm not adding anything to the
scripture. He says it happened before the world began. And it's
not of works. God didn't look down and see
through the corridors of time. He didn't have to look anywhere.
God knows. And it wasn't the fact that God
knew what you would do, so he chose you. He knew that you would
choose him, so he chose you. I've heard that. But I've also
read what Christ said. You didn't choose me. I chose
you. And you know what he meant by
that? He meant, you didn't choose me, I chose you. The only election is the election
of God, which is an election of grace. In Jesus Christ, before
the world began. Now of course the last thing,
the last scripture I wanna read is Ephesians two and verse eight
through 10. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of
works, there it is again. Lest any man, why? Lest any man
would boast. And by golly, they do boast now.
And they want to boast more, but they think they're being
humble by not boasting so much. Yeah. not of works lest any man
should boast, for we are his workmanship created, created
in Christ Jesus. Unto good works which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. The grace of God is inextricably
tied to the salvation of sinners. Notice very closely that faith
is inextricably tied to what? Grace. By grace, through faith. It's not by faith, through grace. A lot of people want to preach
it that way, but they've got it backwards. It's by grace,
which is not of works, which is not of the will of man, which
is totally by the will of God, through faith. And that's the
gift of God. Oh, we believe by the gift of
God, faith. We are given faith by the grace
of God in his son, Jesus Christ. It's the faith of Jesus Christ.
He's the author of it, he's the finisher of it. I can't even add anything to
my faith, his gift. You can't add anything to it.
It was finished before you ever got it. Now that's a gift. You know what that is? That's
a perfect gift. Now I'm not perfect, but his
gifts are. All of his gifts are. Every good
gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights. And faith, the faith of Jesus
Christ The faith of God's elect is perfect because he made it
and he gave it. Notice also, this is in the present
tense. By grace are ye saved. By grace are, are, right now,
ye saved. There's no difference now. Still
a present tense. Are you scared yet of grace?
Some people are about right now. Some people don't like this.
But I think through these three different, yet related scriptures,
we're shown a good overview of grace. That's all I wanted to
do. The grace of Jesus Christ. In Exodus 33, we see that some
have found grace in his sight. And we also see that God's grace,
unlike everyone else's grace, is by his will and his will alone. Yes, I know that's Old Testament.
Yes, I know some people think God was different in the Old
Testament. They're wrong, but they think
that. Because this is the most complete and truthful thing I
can say to you, one of the things I can say to you, completely
and truthfully. God doesn't change. You understand, if grace was
by his will in the Old Testament, grace is by his will now. And guess what's gonna happen
tomorrow? Grace by his will. That's it. God doesn't change. You understand, we all change.
Everything changes. Men change. They don't like to
say how, because it says that evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse. We're not getting better and
better every day in every way. But God doesn't change. He never
has changed. In Romans 9 and 11, we'll see
that some are chosen, chosen by God, by grace, with absolutely
nothing of your works. and by his will from before the
foundation of the world. In Ephesians 2, we see that those
that are chosen and found by grace are completely saved and
brought to God by grace, through faith and not of works,
by the will of God. Do you see how the Bible speaks?
Some have grace, have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Some
have found grace in God's sight. You understand what we're dealing
here is the way God sees his people, not the way we see ourselves. Not the way we see, even we see
God. This is the way God sees us.
graciously in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. By grace, through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Those who
have grace in the sight of the Lord are those who have been
chosen before the foundation of the world by the will of God
in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is God. All of God's grace comes to a
man by Jesus Christ. He is the fountain by which the
grace of God is given to men. You got scripture for that? Well,
of course I do. John one and verse 17 put it
this way. For the law was given by Moses.
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace comes, grace came
by Jesus Christ. Grace came by Jesus Christ. There is no grace without Jesus
Christ, and that's it. Romans 5 and verse 15 put it
this way, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one, many be dead, much more, what? The grace of God, and the
gift by grace, which is by one man, one man, Jesus Christ. has abounded unto many. Verse 21 of Romans 5 says this,
that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign,
reign through righteousness unto eternal life, how? By Jesus Christ our Lord. There's no grace without Jesus
Christ. And I'm gonna tell you something, with Jesus Christ
is all grace. All grace. All grace by the will
of God. Oh, I like that. A gift by grace, by Jesus Christ. And grace raised by Jesus Christ. Now do you wonder why men are
scared of grace? Is it starting to come in a little
bit, maybe what I'm trying to talk about? They're scared of
this Jesus Christ. You understand? They like little
baby Jesus. They like old Jesus, you know,
that wise preacher. Now listen, of course, I'm not
gonna do what he said, and I'm not gonna listen to what he said,
but he was a good preacher, Jesus Christ was. He was a great teacher.
But I'm not gonna obey him. I'm not gonna believe him. But
boy, yeah, he was good. So where's that scary grace I was
talking of? I just preached the most hated
doctrine of the scripture. God's will of grace. God's election of grace. God's salvation of grace. You understand what men, religious
men in particular, and have a problem with. They hate that doctrine. They
hate that Christ of that doctrine. They hated Jesus Christ without
a cause. And he told us, they're gonna
hate you because they hated me. And there's a little bit of truth
to psychology. You gotta be real careful with
it, because there's a lot of wacko stuff. But here, what I'm saying
is that the natural man cannot understand the things of the
Spirit of God. And man fears what he does not
understand. And man hates what he fears. If they're hating Christ, it's
because they're scared of him. They're scared of him. And if
you've seen it, I've seen it, fear in people's eyes and in
their mouths coming out. Because here's the problem with
it. For most people, this is just a little bit too much grace. You know what I mean? This is
just a little bit too much grace. Can you tone it down just a little? You know, can I do something? Anything. And believe me, they
will do anything. If you told a man to crawl on
his knees for a mile, he'd do it. Somebody would. I wouldn't, but somebody would. It's just too much grace. They
don't mind the idea of God's grace. But they don't want it
to be everything. They don't want Christ to be
everything. Sure, he paid it all, but I have
to believe. You do have to believe. And you
can't. What? Without grace. Without
grace. Without his faith. Which is by
grace. You can't believe. You will not
come to me and you cannot come to me. And you can fight about
either which one of those you want to because it doesn't matter,
they're both true. They're scared of grace. Grace
leaves you without a hope in yourself. I said this yesterday
when we were talking at the lunch we were having. You can't know anything of God's
grace unless you know something about your sin. What does 1 John
tell us about sin, about believers, okay? First of all, they know
their sins, and also they know their sin. They know what they've
done, their sins. But they also know what they
are. And that's a sinner. Now if you're
a sinner, you want grace. An honest sinner wants grace. You know why? Because an honest
sinner needs grace. Dishonest sinners don't think
they need that kind of grace. That's the whole point. I don't know, you people don't
look scared. See, we've been talking about
this on and off, just at different times, different things. The
unbeliever, and we're talking about election, but this is also
true of grace, because it's an election of grace. The unbeliever
sees grace as excluding, putting them out. No, you were never
in. You were never in. You can't
be excluded. You're in that group. We all
were. The believer sees things differently. The believer sees grace as including. Including, because he saw himself
as being excluded, which he was. It is sin. But now the believer sees grace,
the believer sees without grace, everyone's excluded from God's
presence. Nobody's putting you out, you
were out. By his grace, the grace of Jesus
Christ, we are included in. Believers are brought in, who? To God. In holiness and in righteousness,
in true sanctification. Completely and totally justified. How? God puts you in him. For of God, of him, that's who
he's speaking of, Are ye in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Grace includes
us. Grace includes every child of
God. It started before the foundation
of the world, it's going on right now, and it's gonna continue
on to his day. The believer sees election is
by grace. The believer sees salvation is
by grace, faith is by grace, believing is by grace, living
in Jesus Christ is by grace. Walking in the light as he is
in the light is by grace. Enduring unto the end by grace,
by grace. You are kept by the power of
God through faith, by grace through faith. Huh, until the very end. Until complete salvation, ready
to be revealed at the last day. The believer sees grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. You understand, that's not too
much grace. That's just enough. That's just
enough. You know, I need that much grace. I couldn't get saved, I can't
keep myself saved, and I can't endure anything without his grace. But by his grace, we can endure
all things. Through Christ, who strengtheneth
me. It's all by Jesus Christ. and thank God for his grace. Our heavenly father, we are thankful
this day and other days, every day, for everything you've done
for us. You have sent your son to die
for our sins, to be raised for our justification. He is risen
and seated in glory and ever making intercession for us, and
we need his intercession every day. Thank you for your son,
our Lord. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your gospel, and help us, Lord, as we move on. We do
want to be enduring unto the end, and believe your gospel,
believe your son, and believe your grace. In Christ's name
we pray.