you I'd like to thank everyone for
their courage and their prayers and calls and whatever you did
to jewel this last three, about three weeks now. And she's thankful
for it and she loves you all, as I do. And this song right
here, we can testify to, and it's one
that was written by a dear friend, Ed Hale, entitled to How Merciful. I was lost in sin and shame. How thou let me take the blame. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
was to me. When I could look down deep within,
And see the sinfulness of sins, Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful, Blessed
Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful
Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me A sinner lost and so
well bent Yet Thou say'st I must repent Blessed Lord, how merciful
Thou art to me I wondered why I should rebel Well, a soul deserving
hell Blessed soul, how merciful Thou art to me Oh, how merciful How merciful
Blessed Lord How merciful thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. I'm not ashamed of all thy grace,
Since thou came and took my place. Blessed Lord, Thou merciful,
Thou art to me. When this world ceases to be,
Eternal blood to speak for me. Blessed Lord, Thou merciful,
Thou art to me. Oh, Thou merciful, How merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful thou art to me. Oh, how merciful. How merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful thou art to me. Sing that chorus with
me. Oh, how merciful. How merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. Turn in your Bibles this morning
to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 5. You noticed as we read that third chapter
of Jonah, that when the word of the Lord
came to Jonah, he commanded Jonah to arise and
go into Nineveh and preach unto it the preaching
that I bid thee. That was the call of God. That
was the command of God. There were instructions as to
who he was to preach it to. There were instructions as to
where he was to preach it. And there was instruction in
what he was to preach. This prophet, this place, this
people, this message. And likewise, in the New Testament,
we have the same command and instruction and working of providence
with the gospel preacher. Preach it to who? Preach it to
where? But preach what? This morning I want us to read
these verses found in Revelation chapter five. And I saw in the hand of him
that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside
sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof. And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, weep not. Behold, the line of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seals thereof. In other words, the Son of God,
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, He alone is able to open the
book of God's purpose, God's will, God's salvation. Everything is bound up in the
sun. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders, stood a lamb. as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God,
sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before
the lamb, having every one of them hearts and golden vows full
of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang, they sung a new
song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof, for thou hast, thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation. And has made us unto our God,
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. What people in this world, leaders
of this world, the religious of this world, claim that they
want, that which they have as their
ideal or as their goal can never be accomplished by them. Never accomplished. Because they always say that
they want diversity, but at the same time, unity. Always is that. I saw it in a
news article this morning. Diversity, but unity. But these things are only accomplished
in the people of God. In the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They can only be accomplished
by the grace, the almighty grace of God. And so I've entitled this message
today, The Diversity and Unity of Grace. God alone, in the sovereignty
of His grace, has done this. God alone. Because in the first place, and
on the first hand, we see in the gospel, we see in the Word
of God, the diversity of God's grace to men. If you look in our text in verse
9, it says something that it says often. The cry of these people that
are in heaven that John sees in this vision They have been redeemed out of
every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation. In other words, there is great
diversity among the people of God, God's elect. They are a people out of every nation, and kindred, and
tribe, and people, and tongue. That covers all things. That's the great universalism. But it's particular because they're
out of that people. And God, in grace and mercy,
being gracious and merciful to whom he will, has chosen a people
out of or from among every, fill in the blanks, every people,
nation, tribe, tongue, whatever divisions are placed and made
and distinctions among humanity in this world. God has made this
distinction. And so he's not saying that it's
just American, or not just English speaking,
but every nation, kindred, and time. And that means also that
not just male, but female. Not just here, but in every place. Not just white, but black and
every other color. Not just the educated, but also
the uneducated. Not just city folks, but country
folks, not just the white-collar people, but fishermen and farmers
and carpenters and laborers, not just those who are religious
by tradition, but those who are also irreligious, not just those
who are old, but those who are young and grace crosses every
natural, every social, every economical, every geographical,
every political, every national, every cultural, every religious
barrier, every one, there is this diversity. And not only that, from every
background, of life, from every long tradition of life. And you can see it if you will
imagine the difference between the background of the woman at
the well that Christ met. Can you imagine her history? Can you imagine her circumstances? Here is a woman who had had five
broken marriages and was at that time not living with a husband. And yet we compare that to Saul
of Tarsus, who was a man raised up in religion, raised up in
morality, raised up and taught at the feet of Gamaliel. You see that? diversity that
we find among those of God's elect. And Paul at Corinth names
all this list of different crimes and sins and things. And then
he says of that people, and of such were some of you. So the only real true diversity
among men that is recognized by God is that diversity of His
grace wherein He chose one here and there out of this nation,
out of this people, out of this background, doing everything
and reminding us of this fact. Turn over in chapter 7 of the
book of Revelation. Chapter 7. Look at verse 9. John says, and
after this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man
could number. No man could number, but God
numbered them. He knows every one of them. He knows the number of hairs
on our heads. God knows them of all nations
and kindreds and people and tongue, they all stood before the throne
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in
their hands." All these great multitudes, not
a handful, not a few here and a few there simply, but they
stand before God as a great multitude, as many numberless that men cannot
number, but God has numbered every one of them because He
knows them and He chose them. So that when James comes along,
he tells us in the second chapter of James how each one of them
is to be seen and recognized. Look at James chapter 2. James says, My brethren, have
not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with
respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly
a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, And there come in also
a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth
the gay clothing, and saying to him, sit thou here in a good
place, or say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit here under
my footstool. Are you not then partial in yourselves,
and become judges of evil thought? Hearken, my beloved brethren,
hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that
love him? But ye have despised the poor,
Do not the rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment
seat? Do not they blaspheme that worthy
name by which you are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according
to Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Ye do well. But if you have respect
to persons, Ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery,
Yet if thou kill, you will become a transgressor of the law. So
speak ye, and so do, as they which shall be judged by the
law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without
mercy that showeth no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. In other words, there is no There
is such a diversity of grace that God's sheep are out of every
social and economical and every other level and division in society,
crossing every border, crossing every distinction. God has a
people of his choice that he has made his own and saved by
his grace. And the tendency of men is always
to flock together. Birds of a feather flock together. But in the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ, they're rich and poor and weak and strong and
male and female, young and old, people with degrees, people who
have no schooling whatsoever, farmers and carpenters, doctors,
whatever it is that the Lord chooses. Turn over to Matthew chapter
18. They're his children. Matthew chapter 18, at the same
time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child
unto him, and set him in the midst of them. And he said, Verily
I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. In other words, he was not talking
about children, He was talking about them becoming as children. Whosoever therefore shall humble
himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such
little child in my name receiveth me. But whosoever shall offend
one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that
he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Now, he's not talking about child
abuse there. That has its own judgment. But he's talking about any who
offend one of God's elect, one of these little children, as
John actually calls them in his epistle. Whoever offends one of them,
he said, it would be better that a millstone were hanged around
your neck and you cast into the depths of the sea. But look at what describes these
children. Whoso shall offend one of these
little ones which believe in me. That's who these little children
are. Those who believe and trust and rely upon and look upon the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. Whether they come from here or
there, whether or not they're black or white, whether or not
they're smart or not smart, whatever their political leaning is, whatever
their background is, wherever they're from, north or south
or east or west, Whoever shall offend one of my little ones, it be better for him that he
have a millstone. You know what a millstone is? It's a great big grinding wheel,
heavier than a man can lift. It be better than a millstone
be hanged around his neck. and he be cast into the sea,
than for him to offend one of God's children. Because they're from everywhere.
They're every kind of people. People want churches oftentimes
where they fit in. And you can find them. But God's
people, if it be his true church, there'll be a people from every
nation, kindred, tongue, and tribe. There'll be from every
background, there'll be every kind of people, and there'll
be people who have a certain unity. That's the diversity of grace. But the second part is also the unifying grace of God to
these people. They are a diverse people. in more ways than I can even
begin to speak of. But they are a unified people. And they are unified by the grace
of God. Meaning that they're united together. And they're united together with a world that is united against
them. The Romans, the Jews, Pharisees,
Sanhedrin, they none got along with each other. They all hated
each other. They were religious and they
were irreligious. But they all unified and joined
together to crucify the Lord of glory. And that's the way
the world is. The world, whatever it be reflected
in, whatever it be rise up as, the world always is unified against
those who are unified together in Christ. So they're unified. These people
are unified as true comrades with a common enemy. And that common enemy is spoken
of in scriptures in this way sometimes as the world and the
flesh and the devil. We're engaged in a conflict at
all time as a unified body against the world and the flesh, our
own flesh, and the devil. Because Christ said the world
hated me, so it'll hate you. He also said they are not of
this world. He also said that they'll be
persecuted because of Christ and his gospel. These of the
world are always trying to divide them. That's why so many warnings in
scripture. always trying to divide them. Whether it be a family member,
whether it be a religious friend, whether it be a co-worker, all of these make up the world
which is trying to divide this unified body of believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ. and they also have this unity. God's people have this unity.
They're united as those who every one are nothing but sinners. You say, well, your sports team
and my sports team are different. You like The Wolfpack and I like
the Carolinas, something like that. Or you want to vote Democrat,
you want to vote Republic, and you want this, that. That distinction
doesn't matter, but this one does. We're all sinners. We gather together and we confess
that we are all sinners and that we all or no better than the
other. But we're just the same. Why? Because we've only been saved
by grace. We're such sinners that we can't
look at one another or imagine ourselves better than the other
because it took the same grace to save us. It took the same
work of Christ to save us. Every one of us, therefore, In
this are not only sinners the same, but we're all saved by
grace alone. And we're unified in this. We
struggle with the flesh. Day in and day out. Paul said,
we have no confidence in the flesh. We know it by the Word of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. We know it by our experience. We've struggled and failed so
many times, rested, leaned on the arm of the flesh, only to
fall and fail before God and men. We desire to obey God. We desire to honor Him. We desire
to serve Him. We desire to obey His word, His
plain, simple statements. We desire, but we poorly fail. Is that your story? Or maybe you're some better than
me on this. So we're unified in this. We
have our struggles. We have our weaknesses. We have
our lapses of unbelief. We have all these things. We
cry out like Paul, oh, wretched man that I am. We have this in common. And we're
unified as those who know some things. They say, you can't know. We know some things. Why? Because
we've been taught of God. We've been taught from his word. We've been taught by his spirit. We're not the same. We don't
believe the same. We don't know the same things.
They say, you know. No, this is what we know. And
you know. I've had a tough week. Absolutely tough week. So I thought
yesterday morning I'd ride out to the flea market and kind of
look around, walk around, be outside. And I passed a booth. A lady
had a plate for sale for $2. And I never buy any religious
paraphernalia or anything like that. I never buy that. But she
had a little bowl for sale, $2. And on it was inscribed, Romans
8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them that are the
called according to his purpose. I bought it. And I said, Lord, I need to eat
cereal out of this bowl every morning. I need to be reminded of what
we know. All things. All things. We know. And we know we're saved and we're
blessed and we're redeemed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We know we're in the same family,
the family of God, the children of God. I've told you so many
times, like the man said, that you can choose your friends,
but you're stuck with your family. Is God your father? God's my
father too. We have the same father. We bow
our heads and pray, our father. We're his possession. You're
not your own. We're not our own. We're bought
with a price. We're united as those in this
same fleshly condition, weak and frail and failing and faulty,
that we might confess our faults to one another. Pray for one
another. You don't have to wonder about
whether to pray for me or not. Pray for me. I pray for you. I lay down on my bed. Some nights in my, I just envision
this congregation of people And I go by in my mind's eye
looking at your faces, praying for you, thinking about you.
Lord, I don't know all their struggles. I don't know all their
sicknesses. There's no way I could. I don't
know what they're going through right now. I don't know what
kind of assaults the devil is bringing upon them. I don't know
what kind of temptations or I don't know any of these things, but
I know I want you to help them. I beg you to have mercy on them
and help them. So we're united in this. We rejoice
in the knowledge that all our sins were imputed to Christ. That word means reckon. or accounted
or put on his account. Not the worst ones, not most
of them, but all our sins were laid on him. And we know
we're united in this knowledge that we've got a righteousness
that God will accept because he gave it to us. He gave it
to us when He gave us His Son. He made us the righteousness
of God in Christ. He accepted us in the beloved. He's loved us in Christ before
the world began. We know this because He said
so. Whatever the situation is, Whatever our state, whatever
our tribe, whatever our weakness, whatever happens in the church,
whatever, we have a song. It says here that they sang a
song. In verse nine, they sung a song.
What was it about? The worthiness of Christ. the worthiness of Christ. I don't want to hear about something
that I need to do to make me worthy or make me more worthy. I want to hear about the worthy
Lamb of God. And they cried out here, they
cried out, We kept the law, or we tried to keep the law, or
we wanted to hear about all the whole counsel of God, or some
stuff like that. They say this, worthy is the
Lamb, for He was slain. Slain. They want to hear about
the death of Christ. Isn't that funny how the gospel
is this, we preach Christ and Him crucified. If you could live as close like
Christ as any man or woman has ever
lived in this world, you'd still die in your sin and perish. They said worthy is the lamb,
that lamb that God provided as he did with Abraham. That lamb
that is a sacrifice for our sins, that lamb that opens the seal
of grace and the purpose of God's grace, that lamb that was slain,
who died on that cross, who died for our sins, and in that, he
redeemed us. You redeemed us. We had sold ourselves in Adam
on the slave market of sin. And you went down into this world
and redeemed us. You didn't offer redemption.
You didn't make it available. You redeemed us. That's an accomplished
thing. You redeemed us. You redeemed
us to God. And you did it by your blood. You did it by your blood. And we're united together as
those who believe this gospel, the gospel of the one mediator. We believe the one gospel. That
there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one way, one truth,
one life, and we want to hear about our beloved. We hear about his finished work
of salvation. You know in the book of Acts,
it says in the early church that they had all things common. Turn
over and look in Acts chapter 2. In verse 41. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto
them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of
bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all
that believed were together and had all things common. Were they all the same age? Did they all come from Jerusalem?
No. This was at Pentecost. They were
from all over the world. Did they all speak Hebrew? Did they all have kids that went
to the same school? Same age? Did they all have the
same hobbies and likes and stuff? root for the same team, have
the same political views? Not a chance. They all believed
and held steadfastly to the apostles doctrine, the gospel. That bound them together. Look over in Acts chapter 4. Look at verse 32. And the multitude
of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. How can that be? You know, the
Bible says, can two walk together except they be agreed? No, they
can't walk together. Does that mean that they agree
on everything? No, but they all agree on Christ. Neither said any of them that
all of the things which he possessed was his own. But they had all things All things common. And we're united as those who
can encourage and sympathize and comfort us
and help us and remind us of his promises
of truth. And love us. Love us. Look at John chapter 13. Some say, well, I don't know
if they're a Christian or not. I don't know if they're a real
true believer or not. Well, listen to this, John 13,
verse 35. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, if you have love one to another. That's not the basis of salvation. That's a mark of discipleship. That this diverse group that
Christ has redeemed, saved by his grace, we love them. We love because they're in the
same family. We love the brethren. Look over in 1 John. Verse John chapter three and
verse 14. Listen to what John says. We know we've passed, that we've
passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Now suppose I I said to my wife,
I love you, but I'm moving to Australia. I don't ever want to be with you
again, but I love you. That's the whole attitude of
fallen, self-righteous, religious citizens. Oh, I love them, all
right, I just don't want to be with them. I got a chance to ride with my
brother the other Sunday afternoon. It was good to be with him. My children. He that loveth not his brother
abides in death. Well, I don't know if they loved
the brother or not. You know. They don't want to
hear the gospel. They don't want to be with the
people of God. They don't love God. They don't know God. And for this reason, we preach
the gospel to all we have opportunity to. God knows them. I don't. But he said, go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature through this diverse bunch scattered
in the world. They're called on one side scattered,
and they're called on the other side sought out. You see, there's no greater form
of self-righteousness than to think God's elect are only those
just like you, or who you think they are, or who you like to
be around, or your type of people, because they're His people. You
hear me? His people. I want to be with
His people. His people are my people. And they're a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and
people, and tongues. And they stand before the throne,
and before the land, clothed in these white robes of His righteousness,
palms in their hands, cry with a loud voice, saving, salvation
to our God, which sits upon the throne and to the land. In grace there is great diversity, but there's great unity, great unity. Because those who were chosen
in Christ were chosen out of every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue. But they made to be one in Christ. Our Father, we thank you this
morning. We praise your holy and right name. We give you glory
alone. and we rest and find joy and peace and salvation
and every other thing in your dear son. With us, it's not Christ plus or Christ but, it's just Christ. We pray in his name, amen.