Open your Bibles once again this
morning to 1 Peter chapter 5. I want to re-read a few of those
verses that Joe read. beginning in verse 10. The Apostle Peter says, But the
God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect,
establish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, or Silas as
it is, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written
briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of
God wherein ye stand." Now, the title of my message
this morning is true grace or popular grace? You see, the Apostle Peter here
closes this epistle with these words, and in verse 12, he uses
this particular phrase. He says, I have written briefly,
exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God
wherein ye stand. The true grace of God. And I thought about it, since
grace is the most easily polluted thing in this world, the true
grace of God must be distinguished in every age. It even had to be distinguished
in the early churches. And it has to be distinguished
from the popular grace that is present in every day and age. You see, there is also a popular
grace in our day. For everything that God has,
The devil has a counterfeit. For everything that exalts Christ,
there is anti-Christ. And this popular grace in our
day masquerades under many banners, as many people now claim to believe
the doctrines of grace. It may be under many denominational
banners of different. It may be called Reformed. It may be under the banner of
being Presbyterian. It may be under the banner of
being Calvinistic. And it may even come under the
banner of being Baptist. But I've thought about this for
quite some time now, and I find that this popular grace, no matter
what banner it shows itself under, it has many common characteristics. I want to give you a few in the
beginning. Popular grace assumes that most
moral and religious people are Christians. Folks have no problem No matter
how the essentials of the gospel are denied and not believed or
taught, they have no problem with putting this biblical name
and term on people if they are simply moral and religious. They must be Christians. That's popular grace. Here's another common characteristic. Popular grace does not really
believe that the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ
is the gospel. They believe it is simply higher
doctrines and deeper truth, maybe. It's something that people who
are Christians or who have heard the gospel might at some later
date be brought to believe and confess. That's popular grace. And then here's another thing.
Popular grace does not really believe that it is essential
to hear this gospel of sovereign free grace to be saved. They believe people can be saved
before hearing it or even apart from hearing it. That is, the
gospel wherein the essential glory of God is clearly stated,
they believe that people can know God without ever having
heard it or believed it. And yet Paul says in Ephesians
1, speaking of Christ, he says, in whom we trusted or you trusted
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. And then I note also another
common characteristic, and that is that popular grace emphasizes
the law and preaches more about the law than the gospel. I've never understood that, but
it seems that so many who claim to believe in grace They have
much more to say about the law. They teach more about the law
than they do the gospel. And then here's another thing.
Popular grace in our day emphasizes moral and family and political
values more than the gospel of Christ. They have much more to
say about these things than they have to say about the Son of
God. They believe that He is essential,
maybe, and have some things to say about Him, but we move on
now to things that are really more important to believers than
Christ. And then also popular grace believes
that even though one might be saved by what they would consider
elementary things, we then go on to much higher things. There is a lot more. There is
a lot more to do. There is a lot more to understand. There is a lot more that is important
and more important than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what is oftentimes passed
off as grace is merely something like God giving us opportunity,
or God in grace making something available, or God in grace giving
us some assistance. But what is true grace? Well, true grace is biblical
grace. I'll just start right there.
Whatever anybody thinks about grace or believes about grace
or anything else, if it is not based on what is declared in
this book, it's worthless. It doesn't matter
how folks are sincere or whatever it is. true grace is the grace
that we find in Scriptures, and as Peter says here, it is the
grace of God. It is going to be consistent
with God as He is, and with God as He says that He is. It's the grace of
God. And I know this. Salvation, which
is the salvation of our souls and salvation from our sins,
that salvation that's in this book is all of grace. Listen to the Apostle Paul in
Acts 20. He says at one point in the latter
part of his life, he says as he's about to go to Jerusalem
where he faces great danger and likely death, he says, but none
of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,
so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus." What is that, Paul? He says,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God. He said, even if it means my
death or imprisonment or whatever it is, He said in another place,
Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel, and the gospel is
the gospel of the grace of God. There is no true gospel except
the gospel of the grace of God. Now turn over to Ephesians chapter
2. And in Ephesians chapter 2, I
want you to listen to Paul again as he says to these Ephesians
believers, these people who have been saved by God and who believe
God, in Ephesians 2 he says in verse 8, a most popular verse
of Scripture, He says, for by grace are ye
saved. Actually, what that says is this,
for by grace are you being saved. That is, salvation in the past
tense and salvation in the present tense, and salvation in the future
tense, all of which we find it in, in the New Testament, he
says, for by grace are you being saved. Somebody says this. Salvation, though, is contingent
or conditioned on faith. That is not true. Salvation is
only by grace. And that's what Paul is saying
here. He says, for by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's of grace
too. It is the gift of God. Even the faith by which one believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ, that faith is of grace, it too is
the gift of God." And then he continues in verse 9 saying this,
"...not of works, lest any man should boast." In other words,
grace is just the opposite of works. Grace is the exact opposite
of any kind of doing or legal obedience or whatever it is. Turn over to Romans 11. Romans 11, and listen to Paul
again. here in Romans 11. You see, in that day, and especially
in a place like Rome where there was so many who despised the
gospel and would not have anything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ,
listen to him even though that is the case in Romans 11 and
verse 5. He says, even so then at this
present time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And then he says this, 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 is he saying simply there? He's
saying if you add any work, I don't care whatever it is, even if
you make faith a work, he says it is no more grace. And if you add grace in the smallest
measure to work, the whole principle of work, then it is no more work. In other words, the two are mutually
contradictory to each other. They're like oil and water. They will not work. It must be
either all of works for all of grace." And he said, it is not of worse,
because just as sure as there was one particle of human effort
or human work in any way involved in the salvation of a sinner
that's supposed to be saved by God, that sinner would boast
in that work, because that's what sinners do. Paul, when he writes to the church
at Galatia, he says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. He says, for if righteousness
come by the law, if it comes by any principle of doing, then
Christ is dead in vain. If there was any way, even by
the help of God or the hand of God, in some way that we could
assist and in some way help God save ourselves, then Christ,
he said, died in vain. Listen to him again in Romans
chapter 4. He says, now to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. Everyone that works, if they
work, It would have to be that they would be given of God not
what was a gift of grace, but a debt that was paid. Listen to Paul when he writes
to Titus in Titus chapter 3. He says in that epistle, not
by works of righteousness which we have done, But according to
His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace. We should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life." That is, being justified by His
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. And so Paul sums up everything
with regard to what he has in Christ, and he states it like
this. He says, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. Did you hear that? He said, by
the grace of God, I am what I am. And I thought about that when
I read that again. I thought about that. Can you
and I really say that? I mean in all things. It doesn't
really matter what it is, but especially in salvation, can
we really say that from our heart? And do we believe that it is
true of us and in all things by the grace of God? I am what
I am. Well, what is true grace? As a matter of fact, what is
grace by definition? Well, grace by definition means
undeserved and unmerited favor. There is no way that you can
ever deserve grace. There is no thing that you can
ever do to merit grace. Another definition is this, the
favor of God to the undeserving. Or maybe this, God's grace is
His active favor bestowing the greatest gift upon those who
deserve the greatest punishment. And that's why grace is only
for sinners. All these people who under the
banner of grace And the very first thing that they would tell
you is what they do and what they don't do, and would essentially
deny that they are really sinners. And in so doing, they exclude
themselves from grace. has to do with those who deserve
nothing but judgment. Grace is specifically for sinners,
and it is for those who always find themselves and confess themselves
to be sinners. You say, well, I used to be a
sinner. Well, wait a minute now. What is the Apostle Paul doing
if there at the latter stages of his life he is coming before
all men and especially before God and saying this, O wretched
man that I am? I hear people say things like
this. If they were a real Christian, they wouldn't do this. If you want to find out what
a real Christian will do, has the potential of doing, you turn
over some time to Hebrews 11 and just read the names. that
God mentions there in Hebrews 11 as those who truly believe
God, you might be in for a surprise. Because there is no doubt that
these in Hebrews 11, such as Abraham and Noah and Samson and
a host of others, they were real Christians And they were saved
by God's grace. They were sinners. Abraham, even as a believer, lied to a king and told that
king that Sarah, his wife, was his sister so he wouldn't get
killed. The Bible says, planted a vineyard. And he got drunk from the wine
that he made from the grapes of that vineyard and did ungodly
things. And others that we read about,
Samson, the man himself, did exactly what he was commanded
not to do and even committed suicide, pulling the temple of
Dagon down all around him. But you say, they were saved,
weren't they? They were, by the grace of God. You see, grace presupposes the
fact that those who are saved by grace are sinners. That doesn't excuse their sin. John writes, and he says, I write
unto you little children that you sin not, but when you sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And in Him we are saved by grace. All right. True grace, as I said,
is the grace of God. And you know what? God is not
like people think He is. God, in showing grace to sinners,
will never, has never, and cannot ever cease from being God. God. I was watching something
on the TV, I forget exactly, I think the man said something
like this in like a recitation or a song. He said, what we ought
to do is take back our country and put it back in the hands
of God. My friend, our country and ourselves,
and every other country and everything in this world has never left
the hands of God. He does all things after the
counsel of His own will. Paul writes and he says, Grace
be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever." God saves His people as He will. As a matter of fact, when Moses,
and I've told you this so many times, but you can go right there
in Exodus 33, and you can read it for yourself. Moses, when
he was about to be used of God one more time, after he had seen
so much in the miraculous realm, he said, God, I beseech Thee,
show me Thy glory. And God said, this is my glory,
Moses. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. That's God talking. That's not
these preachers talking. Well, the Lord wants to save
you. The Lord's trying to save you if you let Him have it. No,
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. That means my children and your
children, my parents, your parents, my friends, your friends. It ain't in our hands. Paul said it is of God who shows
mercy, the true grace. Oh, I pray. I pray that God will be gracious
to them. I pray that He will save them
from their sin. I pray, and I know all the time,
if they're saved just like me, it has to be of God's grace. You see, God is an absolute sovereign. And grace flows from the sovereign
will and purpose of God. It's from God the Father, according
to the will of God our Father. Is that right? Turn over to 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9. Listen to what he says. He speaks
of God. And then he says in verse 9,
"'Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose, and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Grace is not a contingency plan
with God. Grace is purposed of God, purposed
by the sovereign will and decree of God before the world began. He purposed. He determined. He decided. He predestinated. Use every one of those biblical
words you will. He purposed to be gracious to
some folks. And if He hadn't, nobody would be saved. Because it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It's all God's work. Grace involves
that electing grace that Paul speaks of, and predestinating
grace, and everything that's necessary for God to assure our
salvation, every detail. Do you ever stop and think of
what one detail out of sort could change everything? one
event of weather, one act of a ruling king or whatever, a
government, if everything does not go just exactly right, things might not happen as God
would have them. That's why he works all things
after the counsel of his own will. He said, I'll do all my
pleasure. It pleased the Lord to do it. And grace is of God. It is He who saves us, who calls
us, who purposed to save us by His grace, and determined to
do it before we were born, before the world was, and He chose that
people in Christ before the world began, and He settled it all
before we were born, so we couldn't mess it up. When you get time, you go back
and you read Ephesians 1. And especially in those first
14 verses, you will find in Ephesians 1 there that the first few verses,
Paul is talking about God the Father, what He did. What did
He do? He did it to the praise of the
glory of His grace. And then he goes on a little
farther, and he talks about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son, and
what He did. He said, And He did it to the
praise of the glory of His grace. And then he goes on a little
farther, and he talks about God the Spirit, and what He does
in the people that God chose and Christ died for. And he says,
He does it to the praise of the glory of His grace. True grace is the grace of God. Not only that, but true grace
is, as Paul said, it is in and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you can just mark this down.
If I never tell you anything else that's true, you mark this
down. Where true grace, where the true
gospel of grace and the true grace of God is, Christ is preached. Jesus Christ and Him crucified
is the emphasis. You know, you hear these church
advertising, our emphasis is on reaching the lost, our emphasis
is on young people, our emphasis is on family life, where true
grace is. The emphasis is on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I wonder how many places, and
I'm not just talking about the Heinz 57 varieties of religion. I wonder how many places where
people claim to be Reformed or this or that or the other Calvinistic,
they'll hear sermons today where the name of Christ is not even,
or if so, barely mentioned. You say, well, that can't hardly
be. It is. And that's the truth. There'll be a lot of music. There
may be even a little political commentary. There may be a lot
of things that regard the family. All these things that make people
feel good. We're going to recognize you
today. Everybody that's had a birthday this week, stand up. Everybody
that did this this week. Everybody that worked in the
church building this week. Everybody that did this thing
or that thing or the other. You remember the signs that were
up places for a while. The church where everybody is
somebody. I thought about putting that
other sign up. The church where everybody is
nobody. And Jesus Christ is everything. You look at this book. Paul said,
we preach Christ crucified. I determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, people will
get tired of that. God's people won't. If you ever
find out the sinner that you are, you'll never be able to
hear enough about the Lord Jesus. You see, Christ is the emphasis
of true grace, and there is nothing better, there is nothing higher,
there is nothing more, and to hear that in Him we are complete. Is there anything more than complete? If I put a glass on this table
and fill it all the way to the brim top full, is there any room
for anything else? When they set up the tabernacle
and when they built the temple, They're all busy in these things,
you know. But the Bible says that the Shekinah
glory cloud of God would come into that tabernacle or come
into that temple. And when God came in in that
tabernacle or temple in that matter, everybody else had to
get out of it. They couldn't stand it. Because in His church, There's
only one Head. There's only one Glory. There's
only one Savior. There's only one Mediator between
God and men, the man Christ. There's only one. There's not room for you. There's
not room for you and I to boast. I know that's why I can't get
a crowd because I just can't brag on people. I appreciate
people. I appreciate every one of you
that do anything, that give anything in order to maintain the gospel
work in this place. I do. But I can't brag on you because
I'm to make the boast in Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus says, where the
Holy Spirit is present, who is the Spirit of grace, they talk
about Christ. They don't talk about law and
stories and humor and politics and all human righteousness. Talk about Christ. Well, you
say, you really don't You don't really
emphasize relationships enough. Oh, yes, I do. Paul said, writing to the church
at Ephesus, the same thing that I say to you, things like this,
husbands, love your wives. But that's not the emphasis of
my message. That's the example. Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it. The Lord said, When he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall
not speak of himself, He'll not be talking about the Holy Spirit
this and the Holy Spirit that, and have you got the Holy Spirit
and all that? No. He will not speak of Himself,
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will
show you things to come. He shall glorify Me. How can you tell if the Holy
Spirit is in a group of people? You get a funny feeling? Maybe
your skin crawls, maybe tears come to your eyes or something
like that? How many stupid movies have you
watched and got the same feeling? Is that of God? Is that the Holy
Spirit? I remember when I was a little
boy and I watched that movie, Old Yeller. When that dog died,
I cried real tears. I was real sad. That wasn't the
Spirit of God. He said, He'll glorify me. where Christ is preached, where
Christ is exalted, where the true grace of God, which is in
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that's where the Spirit of God
is. He'll glorify Me, for He'll receive of Mine and show it unto
you, all things that the Father hath are Mine. Therefore said
I, that He shall take of Mine and show it unto you. The law, John said, was given
by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. True grace in Jesus Christ is righteous
grace. Righteous grace. Let me read
you from Romans 5 and verse 21 what Paul says in closing out
that chapter of Scripture. He says, that as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord." Now, grace, true grace, is not simply God favoring you
and forgetting your sin. It is not God being benevolent
toward you. and then doing so in a way that's
inconsistent with his holy character. Suppose that someone comes into
your house and steals everything you have. And the police catch him. They
take him up one day before the court, and the judge is sitting
there on the bench. And the judge hears all the evidence. They
got him dead to right. I mean, you know, no question
about it. And the judge says, well, you
know, I know he's guilty and everything. He stole it all. But I just want to be gracious
to him. I'm just going to let him go. You know what the first thing
you're going to say is? There's no justice in this court. No
justice in this court. God's grace is righteous grace. I don't think I ever, when I
was picking out the hymns this morning that we were going to
sing, and I looked again at that hymn, Nothing But The Blood,
I don't think it ever struck me quite like it did this morning
when I first looked at that hymn. That line where he said, This
is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood. That's what righteousness is
about. God doing right in being gracious to His people. How is that? Because God is just
in His grace, righteous in His grace. He honors Himself and
His justice as He displays His grace. God's grace is in His
gracious Son who willingly and freely and voluntarily gave Himself
in the satisfaction of divine justice in the matter of our
sin. He didn't just sweep them under
the carpet. That price had to be paid. That justice had to
be satisfied. That ransom had to be made. And the only one that could do
it was the one who did do it. And that's the perfect holy Son
of God. When He went to that cross, that's
grace. That's God doing right, which
He must as the just God, punishing our sins. dealing with our sin,
Christ bearing our sin in His own body. Paul said, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. That is righteous grace. That
isn't grace like this. Well, God loves everybody, and
Christ died for everybody, and the Spirit of God is trying to
save everybody. There's nothing right about that. That's not this business of,
well, Jesus loves everybody and died for everybody, although
a whole lot of them are going to go to hell. There's no justice
there. If He paid my debt, That just
God is not going to send me to hell. Is there anything that makes
you any matter that when you know you've paid a bill and all
of a sudden in the mail you walk to the mailbox opening up a bill
and there it is showing that you hadn't paid it? Oh, that just infuriates you.
I know I paid that. I know He paid that. I got to quit, but true grace
is also preserving, keeping grace. If we're saved by grace, if we're
given eternal life in Christ, He said, I give unto them eternal
life, and they will what? Never perish. And I don't know how many preachers
multiplied Thousands of them over the centuries have done
their dead-level best to try to make that say something else.
But he goes on to say, no man is going to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. Somebody said, well, that don't
mean you can't get out of it. Let me tell you this, that sinner
that's in the hand of God, in Jesus Christ and who has been
given eternal life, they don't want to be anywhere else. No
way. For the Lord, the Lord God, is
a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. He's not just going to give grace
and not glory. He gives grace and glory. Grace is the stepping stone to
glory, if you will. They're kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. They're secure. Why? They're
saved by the grace of God through the blood and righteousness of
Christ. Now, if they save themselves, there's no safety there. And then true grace is also motivating
grace. We've got to do something to
get this crowd worked up. We've got to get them busy. We've got to get everybody worked
up. Well, I'll tell you this, if it takes me standing up here
and being a cheerleader for you, if it takes me standing up here
trying to get you to do something you don't want to do, let's just
call it off. If it takes me standing up here
week after week lambasting you, browbeating you, telling you
you ought to do this, Grace is the only truly motivating
power. Those who are saved by grace
are not motivated by the threat of punishment or fear, nor are
they motivated by the promise of reward. They can never be
punished for anything because they've been saved by the grace
of God in Christ. Christ bore all their punishment
for their sins, and they will receive, already have received,
all that God has to give in Christ because it's all of grace. Oh, well, we just want a little
bit bigger mansion in heaven. You can't get bigger or better
if you've already got everything by grace. And if you've got Christ, you've
got it all. You've got it all. I love so much when Abraham sent
his servant out to get a bride for his son. And you know, the question is
there in your mind, I guess, when he sends out his servant
to get a bride for Isaac in a foreign country, he says, you know, you're
thinking, will she come with? Will she come with? And so when the servant reaches
that land, finds that woman that the Spirit of God is directing
him to, he says to this woman, he says, God, he said, the Lord
has given my master, he's made him great. He's got servants,
he's got donkeys, he's got camels, he's got cattle, he's got sheep. God has made him great. And by his wife, my master's
wife, Sarah, he's got one son. And he's given all that he has
to his son. In other words, if you get the
son, you get him. Brother Miles told me a story.
I asked him to send it to me, and I just thought about it. who him and his son, I don't
know if this is true or not, but supposedly a man and his
son, along about the time of the Vietnam War, this man and
his son, they loved to collect art together. They really loved
art. That's a nice collection. He
got drafted, I suppose, into the army and he was sent to Vietnam
and he died in the process of rescuing another man. And sometime later, that man
that he rescued, when he got better, he sought this boy's
father out. And when he sought him out, he
told him, he said, now, he said, your son, he said he was, he
was something special. He said, I wouldn't be here today
if it wasn't for him. He just picked me up and he lost
his life, rescuing me and taking me to safety. And he said, I'm
not a great artist. He said, I like to do some artwork. And he said, I want you to have
this. He said, I painted this of your
son. And when the father saw it, he
saw it wasn't any real big, wasn't any real great piece of work. There was something about how
the man had just captured the personality somehow of his son. So he kept that picture of his
son and thanked him and later on he died. And they put up all,
all his artwork was about to go up for auction. And so the
big day came and there were people from all the art world because
he had some Rembrandts and some Picassos and things like that.
And so at the beginning of the auction, the auctioneer came
out and he said, the first thing we've got to do is sell this
picture. And he held up that picture that
the man had painted of his son. And all these art critics and
buyers were there and they said, oh no, let's get to the serious
stuff. He said, no, I've got to do this
first. And so they just kept harping
and complaining. He said, somebody give me $50
for this or $40 or something. And there was one man there who
was the man's gardener. He knew not only the pot, he
knew the sun. And so he was a poor man, but
he said, finally, it got down to $10. He said, I'll give $10
for it. And the auctioneer said, that
concludes this auction. And he said, wait
a minute now, where's all the other stuff? He said, the stipulation
of the will was, the person who buys this picture gets it all. That's the way it is with God's
Son. If we have Him, we have it all. There is no more. There is no better. We have it
all. That's the true grace of God. It's not this popular grace,
but the true grace of God. And the true grace of God assures
two things. It assures that all His people
are saved. There won't be any empty seats
in heaven. He saves all His people from
their sins because He saves them all by grace, righteous grace
in Christ. And the second thing it does
is it assures that all the glory goes to God. If I'm saved by
grace, I haven't got anything to boast in except Christ. And
not only that, but it'll do two things. The gospel of the true
grace of God will do three things. I've seen it. Thirty years, I've
seen it. Wherever the gospel of the true
grace of God is preached consistently, it'll do three things. Number one, it'll find out the
legalist. It'll find out that person who
really, though they may say they believe grace, it'll find out
that person who really is somehow trusting in something that they've
done. Can't stand grace. It's going to find them out. They
might be able to stand it a while, but sooner or later, You just
can't stand grace. The second thing it'll do is
it'll also expose that true antinomian. I said the true one, not those
who have called it. But the true one, the one who
really would use grace as an excuse for their sin. They use it as an excuse to lie,
an excuse to be ungodly in every way. Well, I'm saved by grace.
What does it matter? If you're saved by grace, really,
you know it matters. But it will find those people
out. They'll, under the guise of being saved by grace, they'll
just go out and do everything and show that they're not saved
by God at all. It'll do a third thing to you. It'll find God's sheep. It'll be good news to their ears. They'll hear this and they say,
tell it to me one more time. It'll be the only thing that's
ever comforted their souls. It'll be glad tidings. When the Spirit of God brings
them to know themselves to be real sinners, They'll rejoice
to be saved by grace. They'll rejoice in Christ Jesus. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God. And don't ever mistake this popular
grace for true grace. True grace is our only hope. And true grace assures God it's
all the glory. Our Father, this day we thank
you and we praise you how pitiful we are in trying
to talk about the true grace of God in Christ. Take your word, we pray, and bless your word to the hearts
of your people, that all the praise and all the
glory might be to you alone. And may in this assembly this
day some sinner be brought to be
glad, to rejoice in Jesus Christ and that salvation that's in
Him by grace. We thank You and we praise You. In His name, Amen.