Well, it's good to see everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 10. Luke
the 10th chapter. I'd like to begin reading in
verse 38. Luke chapter 10. Now it came
to pass as they went, that he entered into a certain village,
and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet
and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, does thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, Thou art careful and troubled about many
things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good
part which shall not be taken away from her. I'd like to take
just a moment to address what is undoubtedly on almost all
of our minds this evening. This week, the Lord suddenly,
unexpectedly called our brother Jotaro home. I know none of us
was expecting any of those events that brought that to pass. But
we do know this, those events were ordained by our God from
all of eternity. I don't understand, but I trust
he's doing right. And I know many people are looking
for some comfort and some stability right now. And that makes this
weekend very special. I can't think of a better time
for us to sit still and hear Christ preach, can you? You know,
I've told this congregation many times, we're not playing games
here. Every single time we meet, it's
a matter of life and death. It really is. And it's a crying
shame that it takes events like this to make us more serious
about hearing the gospel. But it does. And since That is
the case. Many of us are seeking the Lord,
maybe more than normal. I'm very hopeful that this weekend
will be a very, very special time of worship. That we're seeking
Him and He'll give us grace. He'll give us His presence for
the hour. You know, there's a lot of work
that goes into hosting a conference. I remember Brother Henry preached
a message one time in defense of Martha. There's a lot of work
that goes into hosting a conference, and I thank this congregation
in advance for how willing you are to be able to do all that
work. But now listen. We're not here to be seen of
men. We're not here to be praised of men. We're here to worship
the Lord. We're here to hear. And I pray
the Holy Spirit will enable us to focus on that this weekend.
I look forward to a time of fellowship and visiting, we've already had
some of that. But let's let our focus be on, like Mary, found
at the feet of our Savior. And hear His word, hear His word. All right, let's bow together.
Our Father, we thank you for this time that you've provided
for your people to come together and to worship your matchless
name. Father, we pray that you'd send your spirit upon us this
weekend. And Father, enable us to hear
a word from thee. Father, I pray that you'd speak through your
servants, that you'd speak to the hearts of your people. And
Father, let us see your glory. Enable us to sit in quiet awe
and wonder and to worship Christ our Savior. as his name is exalted
and magnified. Father, bless us for your great
namesake, we pray. Call out your people. Save and
comfort and encourage your people by the preaching of your word.
And Father, we pray a special blessing for those that are in
times of great difficulty and sorrow. We pray especially for
Brother Joe's family. Father, that you be with each
of them in a special way. that you give them a fulfillment
of your promise that you're always with your people, that your grace
is sufficient. Give them a special portion of
your spirit, we pray, to comfort them at this difficult time.
Father, again, enable us this weekend. Enable us to worship
you. Let everything that's said and
done here this weekend be done to the praise and the glory of
the name of Christ our Savior. Is it His name? For His sake
and His glory we pray. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Philippians chapter 1. I hope I didn't get you here this
evening on false pretenses. I know you're expecting to hear
Brother Chris Cunningham. But under the circumstances,
Chris felt it best that he stayed home this weekend I think he
made the right decision. So I was gonna take his place
this weekend. Except I told Isaac I will not be taking his place
seeing his special tomorrow. Isaac's gonna take care of that.
So I look forward to this opportunity. I've titled the message this
evening, Four Absolute Truths. In verse six, Philippians chapter
one, Paul says, being confident of this very thing. There's something
here that Paul was very confident of. We can only be confident
in something that's an absolute truth. You know, in a world that
seems to us so filled with uncertainty, now we know that it's not uncertain,
it's got a certain purpose, but to us, it seems like there's
so much uncertainty. People sure would like some absolutes
to hang on to, wouldn't they? And the only thing that you'll
find that is absolute truth is what you find in the word of
God. Nowhere else. Anything else is just presumption.
You know, someone says, well, I have faith. I have faith that
the Lord won't let the evil of this world touch me. Maybe, maybe
not. They say, well, I have faith,
you know, the Lord, I'm sick, but the Lord will heal me. I
don't need to go to a doctor. I don't need to take medicine.
I have faith that the Lord will heal me. If I have faith that
the Lord won't let me, you know, get sick in the first place,
or I have faith that the Lord's just not gonna let all the evil
and sin and the effect of sin in me harm my body, touch my
body, I have faith that the Lord won't allow that to happen to
me. Well, God undoubtedly has the power to stop that from happening,
doesn't he? But will he do it or not? I don't
know. Because he hasn't promised it in his word. The only thing
I know for certain is what God said He'd do in His Word. And
believing something that's not promised in God's Word is not
faith, it's presumption. It's presumption. Someone says, well, I'm sick,
I'm just gonna wait on the Lord to heal me. My advice to you
is go to the doctor. Our God's a God of means. Very
likely the means He's gonna use to heal you medicine the doctor
couldn't give you, you know. I can't say for sure if the Lord
will heal you or He won't heal you. I don't know. Because He
hasn't promised that in His word. Faith has to do with trusting
our soul to Christ. That's what faith is. It's believing
God's word. And the only absolute confidence
that you can have for your soul is by trusting Christ and Christ
alone. If you're trusting in your good
works, If you're trusting in your morality, if you're trusting
in your knowledge of the right doctrine, you're going to perish
in your presumption because you presumed on something God didn't
say in His Word. The only confidence and assurance
of salvation that we can have is trusting Christ alone. Marvin,
with nothing I've done or nothing I haven't done added to it. Nothing. There are four absolute truths
in our text tonight. and I earnestly pray the Lord
give us faith to believe them. Number one is this, the absolute
truth is salvation is by grace, not by works. Verse two, Paul
says, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul begins his epistle praying
for God's grace. He loves this congregation in
Philippi, so he prays God's grace for them. And he does that because
there's nothing we need more than God's grace. God's sovereign,
there's nothing any person in this room needs more than God's
grace. Grace is the undeserved, unearned blessing from God. That's
the only way a real sinner can be saved. Salvation by grace
simply means this. God does all the saving even
though we don't deserve it. That's grace. Salvation is not
a cooperative effort. For God first does his part,
then I do my part, and you know, we finish it up together. Salvation
is the work of God alone. God sent a giant fish to swallow
up Jonah and take him down to the depths of the sea to teach
Jonah this lesson. Salvation's of the Lord. It's
all of the Lord's doing. The Lord has to do all of the
saving or I will not be saved. Salvation cannot come from our
morality. I hope you're all moral people,
but you're not going to earn salvation by being moral. Salvation
can't come from our knowledge. Salvation can't be earned by
our service to the Lord. The salvation of a sinner has
to be by completely undeserved, unearned grace from God. From beginning to ending. Salvation is by grace. We're
saved by electing grace when God the Father chose a people
to save. He put them in his son to save. He chose a people who
would never choose him first. We're saved by redeeming grace
when God the Son died as a substitute for God's people to pay their
redemption price for him. We're saved by regenerating grace
when God the Holy Spirit moves in power and irresistibly calls
one of his people to come to Christ. He gives that dead sinner
a new, righteous, holy nature that loves Christ, that trusts
Christ, that comes to Him. We're saved by keeping grace.
Aren't you glad for keeping grace? If God keeps His people from
falling away from Him, we would fall away from God in a heartbeat.
I'd fall away from God, stay in this pulpit, trying to preach
God's Word to you if it wasn't for God's grace. Salvation is by glorifying grace. When in God's purpose, he reaches
down, takes one of his children, he takes them home to be with
him, and they're glorified. Our brother Joe experienced glorifying
grace Monday morning. When we got that news, my wife
said, everybody in that family has had a bad day, except for
Joe. Except for Joe. See, God saved
a people, a people who would never do anything except pollute
God's creation with their sin. A people who'd never choose God,
a people who would never love God, a people who would never
agree to salvation on God's terms in Christ Jesus, they'd never
willingly submit to God's rule, and they'd fall away from Christ
if God didn't keep them. That's who God saved. Now, David,
if that's grace, I don't know what is. That's grace, isn't
it? And if you just think about it for two seconds, I wish the
religious world would stop and think for two seconds. It's obvious. Salvation has got to be by grace,
doesn't it? First, salvation has to be by
grace because we can't earn it by our works. You know what we
earn by our works? The opposite of salvation. The
wages of sin is death. We can't earn salvation. We can't
earn righteousness. We've done a good job earning
death. So salvation has to be by grace. Second, salvation has
to be by grace so that the creature will never boast and boast of
himself and exalt himself before God. Let me show you that in
the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Salvation's got to be by grace
to humble the sinner so we don't try to boast before God. Ephesians 2 verse 8. For by grace, By grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Salvation's
got to be by grace. So all the credit and all the
glory goes where it belongs, to God Almighty. Third, salvation
is by grace. Because the only message that
will truly make a sinner worship God is the message of grace. If the preacher threatens you
with an inch of your life so you act like you're religious
and you're acting like you're worshiped, that's not worship.
Salvation by grace. That fills me with awe and wonder. How can it be that someone as
wonderful as God, as He describes Himself in His Word, can do something
so awesome for somebody low down as me. How's that possible? That's the
message of grace. Salvation by grace just makes
me fall at God's feet and worship Him. World's religion will never
do that. but Holly Grace will on it. Grace
will. Fourth, salvation by grace. This
is the only message that gives an accurate description of God
and an accurate description of man. Salvation by grace. If salvation is by grace, that
means man's got to be dead. We can't do anything to deserve
anything but God's wrath. If salvation is by grace, that's
got to be true, doesn't it? Salvation by grace says the only
thing a man can do is sin. We can't earn a righteousness
before God, all we can do is sin. Salvation by grace says
man is the natural born enemy of God. If you weren't the natural
born enemy of God, I wouldn't take grace as aid yet. Salvation
by grace says man cannot and will not come to Christ that
we might have life. We're natural born rebels. I
mean rebels. Now that's the truth about all
men, mankind. That's true you and that's true
me. But salvation by grace also tells the truth about God. See,
God is just. God is holy. Everything God does
has to be just. It has to be holy. But God's
also gracious. God must be gracious in the same
way He must be just. And how is it possible God could
be just? and still be gracious. How's
that possible? Well, the only way that's possible
is through the sacrifice of God's son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The
father made his son sin for his people so that the son could
pay for that sin in justice. He'd save his people from their
sins. And now God can be gracious to him. Now God can give him
life. Now God can accept them into
His presence because the blood of Christ in justice put their
sin away. Now, brother, that's grace. I
mean, can you think of anything more glorious than Almighty God
slaughtering His Son so He can save the likes of you, the likes
of me? That's grace. Salvation by grace. Look at Romans chapter 4. This
is the only message that makes salvation sure. to every sinner
who trusts Christ. No other message is an absolute.
Salvation by grace is the only message that makes salvation
sure to every sinner. Romans 4 verse 16. Therefore, it is of faith that
it might be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure
to all the seed. Salvation by grace makes salvation
sure to all the seed, to all those chosen of God. Now, doesn't
it thrill your heart to hear of God's grace? Doesn't that
drive you to Him? Doesn't that make it so that
you... I don't know how to say thank you enough. I don't know
how to praise you enough. I can't get low enough down in
the dust. I just want to be found at your feet. Only grace can
affect a sinner's heart that way. I'm thankful that God's
grace is an absolute. And let me tell you something. God's grace is sufficient for
you. It is. God's grace is sufficient
to save you. It's sufficient to keep you.
It's sufficient to comfort your heart. in the darkest times you
can imagine. It's sufficient to bring you
through this evil world here below and bring Him to His presence. That's an absolute. Thank God
salvation is but grace. All right, number two. It's an
absolute truth. The salvation is an inward work
of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Verse six back in
our text, Paul says, being confident of this very thing, that he hath
begun a good work in you will perform it. Now, salvation is
a work that's done in you. It's a whole lot more than a
legal transaction. Now, absolutely, the legal requirements
of God's law must be met by the sacrifice of Christ. Absolutely
must be. God's law, God's justice must
be satisfied. But salvation requires a whole
lot more than that. Salvation, means there has to
be a holy, sinless nature that God can accept. A person must
be holy. Without holiness, no man can
see the Lord. Now here's what man by nature can never understand.
Salvation is not an outward work. It's not an outwardly changing
your habits and changing the things that you do. Salvation
is a work of God in the heart. Salvation is not straightening
up and sinning less and being more moral. Salvation's a heart
work. Now where there's grace in the
heart, it'll show in your conduct, but it's got to start in the
heart first. We're not focusing on the outward, focusing on the
heart. If God gives his grace in your
heart, the outward will take care of itself. Salvation is
not found in observing the right religious ceremonies and traditions. The Jews can tell you all about
that. Salvation is a work of God the Holy Spirit in the heart.
And when we try to make salvation an outward change, you know what
we're doing? We're putting lipstick on a pig.
And when you put lipstick on a pig, what do you got? You got
a pig that looks ridiculous. That's what you got. And if all
we do is focus on the outward forms of religion and all the
traditions of religion, all you got is a lost sinner who just
looks ridiculous because he's trying to earn his own righteousness
before God. That's all you got. I'm not making fun of somebody
now. I'm just telling you the truth. That's the truth. Salvation requires
a work done for us and a work done in us. And God has to do
both of them. The work God does for his people
is the work of election. The Father chose a people unto
salvation. He chose sinners He was going
to save and gave them to His Son to save. That's a work God
did for us. The work God does for us is the
work of God's Son. When He paid the sin debt of
God's elect with His own precious blood. By sacrificing Himself
for their sin. That's the work the Son does
for us. But the work that God does in us is the work of regeneration. It's the work that God the Holy
Spirit does in God's elect. When the Holy Spirit causes a
sinner to be born again, there's a brand new nature born that
was never there before. It's righteous, it's holy, and
that nature is the nature Almighty God loves and will accept. Look
at James chapter one. Now this is an absolute truth. The new birth is the work of
God. is done by the will of God and
the pleasure of God. James 1 verse 18. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. Now there can't be any mistaking
what that says. I mean, it's just, there's no
ambiguity there. The new birth happens by the
will of God, by the pleasure of God. And that new nature,
born of God the Holy Spirit, is holy. Because he's born from
a holy seed. He can never sin because the
seed that conceived him is holy. You know, our nature is determined
by the seed that gave us life. You know, an apple seed can only
produce an apple tree. An apple seed will never produce
a peach tree. Because it's the nature of the apple seed. The
seed of sinful man can only produce more sinful flesh. Because that's
the nature of the seed. The only nature my father had
to pass on to me was a sinful nature. It's the only seed he
had to pass on. But this, what Paul is saying
here, of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth. With the Word of Truth. The seed
of the Word of God. When it's preached and God plants
it in the heart, that seed can only produce a holy, righteous
nature. Because it's the nature of the
seed. It's the nature of the word of God. Now only God can
do such a miracle. Only God can produce a nature
that He will accept. Only God the Holy Spirit can
cause Christ to be formed in you. In you. Not just to you. in you, in you. Christ in you, that's our hope
of glory. Now since that's true, the work
of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration is just as necessary as the work
of the Father in election and the work of the Son in redemption.
It takes all three, the Godhead, to save a sinner. Now that don't
tell you how lost we are, I mean it ought to. It takes the work
of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit Save somebody as lost
as we are, dead as we are. Now this is an absolute. God
puts in his people what he'll accept so he can take us into
his presence. All right, number three. This is an absolute truth. None
of God's elect can ever be lost. Paul said back in our text, he
that hath begun a good work in you, he'll perform it, he'll
finish it, until the day of Jesus Christ. God Almighty is purposed
to save a people. The father chose the people that
he would save. Then they'll be saved. I mean, I preach with
this complete utter confidence. God's people will be saved. God's
people will be blessed by the message of Christ. God's purpose
can't be frustrated, can it? God can't choose somebody and
they hate the gospel and never believe it. No, no, if God's
the father, purposed and chose a people to save, they're going
to be saved because God always does his will. He does his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay his hand. They're saying to him, what doest
thou? You know, Todd, I wish I'd learned
that lesson now so God didn't put me out on the field for seven
years to have to learn it, wouldn't you? God's going to accomplish
his will and his purpose. In order to pay the redemption
price, for that people that the Father chose. You know what God
the Son did? He took on Him flesh. He was
made sin for His people and He paid for the sin of His people
by His own agony and His blood shed as a sacrifice for sin.
God the Son did that. His blood put away the sin of
His people so that it does not exist. And you know what, since
Christ died for his people, you know what the justice of God
now demands? The justice of God now demands
they have eternal life. God's grace and God's justice
demand your eternal life, your glorification with Christ if
Christ died for you, both as justice and as mercy. The justice
of God demands those people not perish, because Christ already
died for them. And when He died for them, He
paid their debt. But, God's elect are born into this world in sin,
aren't they? A child doesn't have to live
very long until you see it's sin nature, doesn't it? So you
know what God the Holy Spirit does for those people? He creates
that new holy nature I just talked about. He creates it in His people. God's justice. will never allow
that nature to perish. Never, ever, ever, ever. Ever,
ever, ever. There's no reason for that nature
to perish. He's never sinned. See, the thing is, we gotta lay
down this old man. We gotta lay down this carcass
of clay so the new man can be released to go be with the Father.
And that new man will immediately go into the presence of the Father.
because of what the Holy Spirit made him. Holy and righteous. And Christ the Savior, He will
bring every soul that the Father gave Him in the covenant of grace.
He'll see to it. These other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. He's going to bring
them. He won't fail to bring them.
He can't fail because He's God. Now here's a question. I want
to just give you a theological discourse here. I want us to
be able to take this and apply it to our hearts. This is a question.
Did Christ do enough to save all of His people from all their
sin? Did He? Is Christ enough to save
you? Christ alone, is that enough
to save you? If Christ did enough, then all of God's people are
eternally saved and they can never perish. Is the blood of Christ alone
enough to pay my sin debt? It is because of whose blood
it is. It's the blood of God's Son. His blood is enough to pay
my sin debt. Then I don't owe a debt to God.
Everyone for whom Christ shed His blood is eternally saved
and they can never perish. This argument about once saved,
always saved is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. If God
saved you, you're eternally saved. If Christ shed his blood for
you, God's justice won't allow you to be deemed. The eternal
security of believers is an absolute truth because the whole Godhead
is gonna see to it, is gonna see to it. The Father chose a people. The
Son sacrificed Himself for them. And the Holy Spirit will use
what we're doing this weekend to call His people to Himself. He will. I know He will. The
irresistible power of the Holy Spirit, that's the only way a
sinner will ever come to Christ. I never try to talk anybody into
doing anything. Now I try in every message I
preach to tell you to come to Christ, but I'm not trying to
talk you into doing it, I'm just telling you this is the command of God's
word. You come to Christ. And if you ever start hearing
God and quit hearing me, you'll come. You surely will. I have no question about it.
This is the Savior's promise. Of all that the Father giveth
me, they shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. Can you think of sweeter words
that would cause you to run to Christ right now? Those that
come to me, I'll never cast out. If you trust Christ, I think
this is a fear of many believers. Will I quit? Will I fall away? Boy, I've seen
a lot of people do it. I've seen a lot of people fall
away. A lot of people quit. A lot of people go to something
else. Will I fall away? Will I go away too? If God began a good work in you,
you won't. He's gonna perfect it. He's gonna
finish it and bring you to glory. Now here's the last thing. This
is an absolute truth. This gospel, the gospel of God's
grace, it's the one and only message God uses to save his
people. He'll never use another message.
In verse five, Paul says, He's thanking them for their fellowship
in the gospel. From the first day until now,
they've had fellowship in the gospel uninterrupted. But their
fellowship wasn't in that they were fans of the same sports
team, or they lived in the same town, or they were members of
the same political party. What's their fellowship in? The
gospel. The gospel. Look at verse seven. Even as it's mean, it's right
for me to think this of you all, Because I have you in my heart,
insomuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel. You're all partakers of my grace. This is all about the gospel.
This is what binds us together. The gospel, we believe the same
gospel. And there's only one gospel. There are many different
messages men's made up, but there's only one gospel. There's only
one good news. It's the message, the one and
only message that glorifies God. Now, if God could choose you,
Christ could die for you, but you could still perish because
you didn't do something right, that message doesn't glorify
God at all, does it? God kind of looks like a wimp. He doesn't
have any power. The only message that glorifies
God is the message of sovereign grace. God saves whom he will,
when he will, and he does it. He saves them to the uttermost.
There's only one message that saves sinners. The message of
sovereign grace is the one and only message God will use to
reveal His Son and to exalt His Son. The gospel of our salvation. Paul said in Romans 1, it's the
gospel of God concerning God's Son. Now, the only message that God
uses to save His people is the message that's all about Christ. It's not Christ plus something
else. It's not Christ with little sprinkles or something else,
you know, mixed in here and there. The only message God uses to
save His people is the message of Christ alone. It's all Christ. Now, if Christ is gonna be revealed
to the hearts of His people, somebody's gotta preach Him.
If God's people are gonna know Christ, somebody's got to tell
them who they are, who Christ is. Then, brethren, we better
get busy preaching nothing but Christ and Him crucified. and
all this other junk has got to go out the window. We better
get busy preaching Christ and Him crucified. And if you find
a man preaching that message, you better park yourself. This
is the message of God sent to you. Well, Frank, what do people
do what they shouldn't be doing? You know, this fellow, he should
have done that and that fellow should have done this. People
are doing something wrong. I mean, they are. They always
have, they always will. But by God's grace, I'm not going
to preach against what people are doing wrong. If you're doing
something I think is wrong and I just preach against it and
preach against it and get you to start acting the way I want
you to act, you know what I've done? I've created a self-righteous
person. But if I preach Christ and Him crucified and you're
one of God's elect, it'll fix your wagon. It surely will. If
I preach Christ and Him crucified. You can drag yourself in here
feeling so low, feeling just drugged down. And you leave just with a breath
of fresh air. You leave with some encouragement,
some comfort, some confidence to keep going. It's the message
of Christ. It's the only way you'll do it.
It's the only thing. Well, what if there's some here
who are lost? Oh, there is. Absolutely there
is. And you know the best thing we
can do for them? Preach Christ crucified, just preach Christ
to them. If they're gods, they'll come,
they'll believe it. Well, what if there's some here
who say they've been trusting Christ a long time? Well, I'll
tell you the best thing we can do for them. Preach Christ to
them. The only way their hearts are
gonna be edified, the only way they're gonna be taught, the
only way they're gonna grow in grace, and the only way they're gonna
be comforted when they need comfort is hearing of Christ one more
time. Don't tell me nothing new. Just
tell me about Christ one more time. It'll absolutely get the job
done. Aren't we thankful for such an
absolute gospel to believe and to preach? I'm thankful, aren't
you? I hope the Lord will bless that
to you. We're going to take about a 15 minute break. When you hear
the music, Come back and sit down and Brother David, bring
us the message God's given to him, all right?