If you would now open your Bibles
with me to Romans chapter 11. Romans the 11th chapter. Beginning in verse one, 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. Watch ye not what the scripture
saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel,
saying, Lord, they've killed thy prophets, dig down thine
altars, and I'm 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. And if by grace, then is it no
more works. Otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then is it no more grace. Otherwise work
is no more work. What Paul is saying there, it's
one or the other. It's all grace or all works. One or the other,
if you try to mix them, it's all, all works. Verse seven,
what then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it, and
the rest were blinded. According as it is written, God
hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this day. And David
saith, let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling
block, and a recompense unto them. Let all their works and
all their ceremonies, let that be a snare and a trap. Let their
eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back
always. I say then, or I'm sorry, we're
gonna end our reading there at verse two. Let their eyes be
darkened that they may not see, bow down their back always. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we've gathered together
here this morning to hear a word from thee. And how I beg of you
that you would not leave us to ourselves, that you not leave
us to our own thoughts and our own ways and our own ideas, but
Father, that you would give us a word from thee. As we open
thy word, Father, show us the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ
in Cause each soul here this morning to hear of the glory
of Christ our Redeemer and to run to him and find in him everything
that you require of us and everything that we need. Father, deliver
us from thinking that our own works and our own morality and
our own acts of religion could somehow make us more accepted
than we are. in Christ alone. Father, how
I pray you give us faith to rest in Christ, to see that he is
everything that you require and to rest in him. Deliver us from
ever thinking we can add something to the glorious, precious person
of Christ our Savior. Father, I thank you for this
place. You've given us this gospel to preach and to hear and to
believe. You've given us a place where
we can meet together and peace and unity and to preach it and
to worship Christ our Savior. Father, I'm so thankful. And
Father, we pray that you continue to bless your word here and everywhere
where it's preached. Father, bless your word in this
dark, dark day full of unbelief and superstition. Father, show
us your glory. Call out your people. Show us
your redemptive glory in saving your people. in our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we thank you for all
things, how abundantly and richly you've blessed us. And Father,
in this flesh, as we journey towards home, we're still a poor
and a needy people, full of sicknesses, troubles, and all the troubles
and trials and afflictions that this sinful flesh brings upon
itself. And Father, for your people that
you brought into the time of trouble in the deep waters, Father,
we pray for them. We pray that you'd heal, pray
that you would deliver. And Father, above all, we pray
that you'd comfort their hearts with your presence. Give them
a fulfillment of your promise that you do give grace sufficient
for every trial. cause us in these things to see
more of our weakness, that we might rest more fully in Christ
our Savior. For it's in his precious name,
for his sake and his glory we pray, amen. Right now, if you
would open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter two. We're gonna take just a little
break from our preaching through the book of Philippians. and
look at something that's been on my mind a great deal recently. My text or jumping off point,
whatever you want to call it, is Ephesians chapter two, verse
eight. For 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. Paul says, for by grace are you
saved through faith. The title of my message is this.
By grace are you saved. Well, what kind of grace saves
a sinner? I think that's an important question.
Hurricane Road Grace Church. We would call ourselves sovereign
gracers. I think everybody here would
say that of themselves. Well, what kind of grace is it that
saves a sinner? This has been on my mind for
some time now. You'll believe it or not. Saving
grace needs to be clearly defined in our preaching because the
natural mind has it all wrong. You know, if we don't know something,
our natural mind just tends to make up some story. We think
that it explains, you know, this situation and spiritually speaking,
we're always wrong. Always. I read somewhere recently
about a man saying, yes, God saves. by grace, but it's still
up to you to make the decision to accept it. That statement
is so wrong on so many levels. I don't want to spend a lot of
time with it, but that kind of so-called grace, that's salvation
by works that somebody is just calling grace because that's
a term they find in the Bible. All it is is salvation by works.
They're just trying to call it grace. That's exactly what the
Apostle Paul said in Romans 11 that we read a few minutes ago.
Salvation is either all of grace or it's all of works. If you
try to mix them, if you try to say, well, God saves people by
grace, but you got to do this, then what's God's grace got to
do with it? It's all of works. Salvation either has to be all
of God's grace or all of our works earned it. God's either
got to give it to us freely even though we don't deserve it, or
we got to earn it, one or the other. Thankfully, salvation
is by grace because we can't earn it, can we? Peter said the
same thing in that first conference that they had, that they met
together, all those apostles and elders and preachers, they
all got together in Acts chapter 11 to decide this question, well,
God saves his people by grace, but do you have to be circumcised
too? That's what some were saying, weren't they? They were saying,
oh, yes, God saves people by grace. But now, we can't just
throw all the law out. You still have to be circumcised
in order to be saved. If you're not circumcised, you
can't be saved, because that's the token of the covenant. They say, well, we can accept
some of the law being done away with, but not circumcision. I
mean, this is just the circumcision of the flesh, an outward sign
in the flesh was too important to them. And they got together
to decide about this thing now. It's just saying, well, God saves
people by grace, but you have to be circumcised. It's the very
same thing as saying, God saves people by grace, but you've got
to make a decision. It's the very same thing. And
I just wonder, Peter went over there in the corner and listened
to all this going on, you know. And finally, the apostle gets
up and says, men and brethren, nobody's ever been able to bear
up under the burden Nobody's ever been able to keep the law.
God saves Jew and Gentile the exact same way, by faith. Our law keeping, our attempts
at law keeping, us living under all these ceremonies, doesn't
make us more savable than those Gentiles who've been idolaters
and offering their babies and killing their babies as a sacrifice
to an idol. It doesn't make us any better
than them. We have to be saved same way they are. We're just
as vile. We're just as rotten. We're just
as guilty. All this ceremonial stuff we've
been doing hadn't made us more savable than the Gentiles at
all. We must be saved by grace, pure grace alone, without any
of our works. Now, like I said, men have many
crazy ideas about what grace is and kind of how to try to
explain it away to allow the flesh, you know, some credit,
something to do here. So I want us to see, what does
the Bible say grace is? What does the word of God say?
Because whatever the word of God says is true, isn't it? Well,
then I want to know what God says in his word. And find the
answer to this question, what kind of grace saves a sinner?
Now, the short answer to that question, it's God's grace. It's
God's grace. And that is many faceted. God's grace is so all encompassing
Don't have time to look at them all, but I want this morning
to look at six biblical definitions of what grace, saving grace is. And the first one, if you care
to look at Genesis chapter six, almost all of these will be very
familiar to you. God's grace is electing grace. Chip, I told
you I was gonna pick up right where I left off, didn't I? Right
where I left off in the Sunday school lesson. God's grace is
electing grace. Genesis chapter six, verse five. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And he
repented the Lord that he'd made man on the earth and he grieved
him in his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy
man who might have created from the face of the earth, both man
and beast and the creeping thing and the files of the air for
it repented me that I've made them. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Now Noah was a totally depraved
man. Every imagination and thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually, just like every other human being.
Every son of Adam alive at the time, alive today. When the scripture
says, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
that meant mankind, all men, including Noah. And I'll tell
you why that is. Because when Adam fell, when
he sinned against God, he fell and all of his descendants fell
in him. We all died spiritually in our
father, Adam. When Adam fell, he willingly
took that fruit in rebellion, open rebellion against God almighty,
and he fell. He lost the capacity to do anything
holy, to say anything holy, to even think anything holy, to
even desire anything holy, His nature became dead in sin so
that all he can do is sin. And you and I got his nature
when we were conceived in our mother's womb. Everything we
do is sin. Everything we can think up is
sin. That's all our nature, a sin
nature, can produce. It can only produce sin. So that
means we can't have some work that's holy. I mean, if we're
fallen in sin, we're totally depraved, we can't do anything
holy to deserve God's salvation or to get God to save us. Noah
was no better by nature than anybody else alive on earth at
the time. That's why Noah needed to find grace in the eyes of
the Lord. He couldn't earn it. He had to
find it. And the same thing is true about
you and me. We are just as sinful, just as
vile, just as rotten by nature as every other human being out
there today. Every one of them. That's why
we need to find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was saved
by electing grace. Of all the people that God could
have chosen to put in that ark, he chose Noah and passed by everyone
else. I don't know how many people
were alive at the time, but there are millions. God passed by everybody
else except Noah. Now that's the very definition
of electing grace. God chose Noah and passed everybody
else by. The scripture says that Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That word found has a few
meanings. Let me give them to you. First
of all, it means to find. Noah found something, that he
needed but he didn't have. Grace. The next meaning of that
word found is to me. Noah met something he didn't
know anything about before. Before God revealed it to him.
Grace. Grace. And thirdly, that word
found means to be found in. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord and the Lord put him in the ark. Put him in the
ark just like he put him in Christ, in the covenant of grace before
time began. Now this is the first time in
scripture the word grace is used. And I'm sure you've all heard
of what we call the law of first mention. Generally speaking,
wherever you find a word first used in scripture, whatever it
means there, that's pretty much what it means all the way through
the word of God. Now of all the people alive on earth at that
time, God chose eight souls, eight Noah and his family to
save them from the destruction that was coming. Now that's electing
grace. It can't be anything but electing
grace. God elected them. He chose those
eight souls out of the lump of fallen humanity. And as I tried
to say in the lesson this morning, electing grace is the only way
a dead sinner can be saved. I mean, we're dead. You've all
seen dead people, people in coffins or dead animals or something.
You've never one time seen them get up and do anything. Here
we are. We lay dead, dead. If we're going
to be lifted up, somebody else has got to lift us up. If we're
going to be made alive, somebody else has got to make us alive
because we can't do it. We're dead. That's why I say
the only way a dead sinner can be saved is God's electing grace. God must choose us first. That's electing grace. All right,
number two, look at Exodus chapter 33. God's grace is revealing grace. Exodus 33 verse 11. And the Lord spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned
again into the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun,
a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. And Moses
said unto the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this
people. And thou hast not let me know whom thou hast sent with
me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name. And thou hast also
found grace in my sight, Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I
found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know
thee, that I might find grace in thy sight, and consider that
this nation is thy people. Now, the Lord had told Moses,
Moses, you found grace in the eyes of the Lord, just like Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Moses asked the Lord,
he said, all right, if I found grace in your sight, show me
your way. Not just what you're doing. Show
me your way. Lord, show me your glory. So
I truly know who you are. If I know your glory, I'll know
you. If I know the glory of your way,
I'll know you. That's what he says in verse
18. He said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And here's
how the Lord responded. Verse 19 and he said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee. And I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. It will show mercy on whom I
will show mercy. Lord told Moses, here is how
you and my people can know me. It's not by the acts that I did
down there in Egypt. It's not that it's not the wonders
and the miracles that I performed in Egypt. It's not that that
display of my power over nature and over different things. Here's
how you can know me. It's by my greatest glory that
I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy at that sovereign
grace, electing grace. God will show mercy on whom he
will show mercy. And when the Lord reveals himself
to his people and saving grace, This is what he shows them. I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. It's sovereign grace.
It's my choice in my doing. And my greatest glory is showing
mercy and saving sinners who deserve damnation. Just like
their father, Adam, they've stood in open rebellion against me.
Nobody deserves to be saved. Everybody by their works deserve
to be sent to hell. But God says, I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. And Lord reveals that glory of
himself to everybody he saves. His glory. Does that thrill your
heart? Think about what you are by nature
and what you deserve. And God was gracious to you anyway.
He revealed himself to you by his greatest of all the things
that we thank God for. And we do, we thank the Lord
for material, physical, earthly things. We should, shouldn't
we? He's the one that gave them to
us. But all those things pale in comparison to His grace. I'll be gracious, to whom I will
be gracious. God chose a sinful people to
save just because He would. Not because they're good, because
they're not, but because God's good. And in justice, the father
sent his son to take the place of his people as their substitute.
He suffered and died to put away the sin that made God angry.
And now God shows mercy to his people in justice. That's the way every single believer
knows God. I'll make a statement that could
be a little bit shocking to you. You don't have to believe in
election in order to be saved. You have to believe Christ. I
don't know exactly how you can believe on Christ unless you
first hear of his electing love, but you don't have to believe
that doctrine of election. You have to believe Christ. But
every single saved person, when they hear of God's sovereign
electing grace, they say, amen. I agree with that. That's the
God who saved me. That's the savior who saved me.
That's the only way God could have saved me. He's revealed
his, his himself and his gracious power to save sinners. They don't
deserve it. That's how God reveals his glory.
His people is by the preaching of sovereign grace. All right,
next look across the page. Exodus 34 God's grace is pardoning
grace. Verse five, and the Lord descended
in the cloud and stood with him there, and he proclaimed the
name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed the Lord, Jehovah, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's
children unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses
made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, if now I found grace
in my sight, Oh Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee go among us
for it's a stiff neck people and pardon our iniquity and our
sin and take us for thine inheritance. Now the Lord came to Moses, he
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord's name is his character. He's declaring and telling Moses
who he is. And he said, Moses, this is my
character. I'm merciful, I'm gracious, I'm long-suffering,
and I'm abundant in goodness. I love this about our Lord. He
doesn't just have just a little bit of mercy. You better be careful
or you might outstand his mercy. You don't have just a little
bit of mercy. Not just a little bit of grace, not just a little
bit of longsuffering. He's abundant in all, abundant
mercy, abundant grace. He's abundant in his longsuffering. He's abundant in his goodness
to his people. And I'm so thankful, because
great sinners need the Lord to be abundant in mercy, abundant
in grace, abundant in longsuffering. Oh my goodness, you think what
the Lord got to put up with me? Oh, I need him to be abundant
in those things. That's the only way a real sinner
can be saved. But now read on. That's not all
the Lord said about his character. He said the Lord's abundant in
truth too. He's abundant in his holiness. He's abundant in his
justice. Everything God does is abundantly
right. the Lord keeps mercy for thousands.
He forgives the iniquity and transgressions of millions of
an untold multitude. And at the same time, he will
by no means clear the guilty. Now you might tell me how that's
possible. How is it possible to pardon sin, forgive iniquity
at the very same time How does he say it here? At the very same
time, you will by no means clear the guilty. How can you pardon
the guilty and not clear the guilty? Those are two opposites. How is it possible to do those
two opposite things at the same time? Well, I tell you, if God
will show you the answer to that, you'll know the gospel. You'll
know how it is God saves sinners. Here is what makes God's grace
so amazing. I just love this. I love to think
about this. In order for the father to pardon
the iniquity of his people, you know what he had to do? He had
to take the sin of his people away from them. And he had to
make the son of his love sin for his people. He had to make
his holy son to be sin, to be guilty of the sin of his people,
and then in justice, the father slaughtered him. See, Calvary
is a clear display of God's truth, God's mercy, and God's justice. Even when his only begotten son,
I mean the son of his love, when the father saw him made guilty
of the sin of his people, the father did not clear the guilty.
The father himself plunged the sword of justice into the heart
of his son so that sin would be fully punished, so that the
debt would be fully paid by his precious blood. And because of
the sacrifice of Christ, because his blood put away the sin of
his people, because his blood justified his people, made them
without sin, now the father shows abundant mercy and abundant grace
to his people Injustice. Injustice. See, the death of
Christ made it right for the father to pardon the sin of his
people because the debt had been paid by the sacrifice of Christ. Now, God didn't ignore sin. You
know, we get this, we get this mistaken impression. God's just
this old man with a long, you know, white beard. He's just
this grandfatherly love, you know, that's so timid and he
just, you know, He'll just overlook, you know, the sin of his people.
God can't do that and be holy. When I was in San Diego last
week, I was talking to the Thacker kids, and Kimberly's parents
are coming out to spend a week or two with them next month,
I think it is. Kevin and Kimberly are going
to go to Australia. Kevin's going to preach there. And they said,
oh, we like it when they come. We get away with a lot more stuff
than we do mom and dad. That's good. That's good. Kimberly's
mom and dad all let him get away with stuff, don't you think?
That's what a grandparent's job is. But that's not God. That's not God. No one but God could be so good
and so wise as to find a ransom for the sin of his people and
the death of his son so that He could show abundant grace
to the likes of you and me. Oh, I like that. Don't you? That's
good news. That's good news. Here's the
fourth thing. Look at Romans chapter three.
God's grace is justifying grace. Romans chapter three. Verse 23, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now God's grace justifies
his people. And that word justifies means
to have no sin. No sin, now what a miracle. A
sinner, all have sinned to come short of the glory of God, yet
God has made his people without sin. Now the only way a sinner
can be justified It has to be by God's grace, doesn't it? If
all we can do, if all we can think up, every thought and imagination
of our hearts is only evil continually. Everything we do is sinful. We
can't do a work that's going to make us holy. You can't sin
in order to make yourself holy. I mean, that just makes such
obvious sense. So God the son came in the flesh as the second
Adam, the second representative, the representative of his people.
And he did what his people never could do. He obeyed the law for
them. He obeyed and gave them a perfect
righteousness. And he shed his blood to put
their sin away. So that even God, who sees everything
and can't forget anything, says their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. I don't even see it. I've cast
it behind my back. Now God's everywhere, so you
tell me where his back is. He put it where it can't be seen.
because it doesn't exist anymore. He justified his people. Now
the only explanation, the almighty God, Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, would do something so wonderful for the likes of
us, is grace. Is grace, because we sure didn't
deserve it. I'll say it again, I just, I don't want us to ever
get over the glory of this. The Father made it so that he's
just. so that he does right when he
shows mercy to his people. Nobody but God could be so wise
and so loving as to find a way to remain just, to remain holy,
to remain God and not violate the attributes of his characters
and still justify his people. Who justified God? He's the justifier. We didn't do it by our words.
God's the justifier and that righteousness that the Lord Jesus
Christ earned as a main under the law. He gives it to his people
freely. Even that's not earned. Is it
even the, even the faith that, that believes on Christ, that
clings to Christ, even that's not earned. It's the gift of
God. Paul said in our text, God, the Holy Spirit, has given this
thing to us, this thing of faith, so that we see Christ, whom having
not seen physically, you love, you believe in. This thing of
salvation has to be all of grace, doesn't it? The Father chose
us in grace, even though we didn't deserve it. The Son died for
us in grace, even though we didn't deserve it. And the Holy Spirit
gives us faith in Christ, even though we don't deserve it. It's
all of grace. Then here's the fifth thing.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 12. God's grace is sufficient grace. 2 Corinthians 12 verse seven. And lest I should be exalted
above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations, there was
given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing,
I have sought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. For my
strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. This word sufficient, my grace
is sufficient for thee. It means enough. God's grace
is enough. It's all it takes to save you,
and God's grace is all it takes to keep you saved. It's enough.
And do you know why God's grace is enough to save you and keep
you saved? It's because the other meaning of this word translated
sufficient here means possessing unfailing strength. God's grace
is never going to run out of the power to save and keep his
people. And that lets us rest our souls
in Christ, because God's grace is sufficient. It's all powerful,
and it's all I need. God's grace, now it's sufficient
to save us. It's sufficient to keep us safe,
first and foremost. But when you look at it in the
context here, God's grace is also sufficient. It's of unfailing
strength to lead us through this world below. Now this world is
a tough place to live. Tough place to live. It's a tough
place to live because the world is so full of sin and because
we are so full of sin. Our old nature is still just
drawn like a fly to honey. Our flesh still thinks all the
wicked things of this world are so sweet. God's pilgrims. That's what we are. We're pilgrims.
We don't belong here. We don't live here. We're going
home. God's pilgrims got a tough trip. They got a tough trip. Because we're making this journey
in these sinful bodies. I mean, makes it tough. And you
just expect it. Now expect the trip to be tough. Expect it. Our Lord did not promise
us a life of ease. He promised his people a life
full of tribulation, trials, and troubles, and difficulty.
That seemingly seemed to get increasingly harder. Brother
Cecil Roach told me one time, he said, when I was a young man,
he said, there's a lot of blue sky. And then there would come
up a storm. and the storm would pass, there'd
be a bunch of blue sky. He says, I've gotten older. The
blue sky has become a sliver. And the storm's rolling one right
after the other. After the other, after the other.
Well, you just expect it. Expect this life to be plumb
full of trials and afflictions and difficulties because that's
what the Lord's promised us. And if you can call some trial
small, The smallest of them are too great to handle on our own.
The smallest of them are. Not to mention those hard ones
where the Lord puts you out there in the deep, deep waters, dark
waters. Well, now how are you going to
get through those things? How are you going to get through
them? Some of you at this very moment
are in it deep, aren't you? How are you going to get through
it? Huh? You're going to get through it
the very same way Paul endured his thorn in the flesh. It won't
be by our power. It'll be by the unfailing strength
of God's grace to keep us. See, we don't endure these trials
by our power. Matter of fact, you know how
we endure these trials by our weakness. by our weakness so
that we have to rely totally upon the Lord. Now this is my
advice, take it for what it's worth. When you're in a time
of trial and trouble, now do pray that the Lord remove the
trial. Do pray that the Lord heal, that
He deliver, that He, whatever the trial is, whatever the case
is, pray that the Lord deliver. And I'll tell you why you pray
that way, because the Lord's the only one who can deliver you.
He's the only one who's got the power to deliver you. But also, remember
this. There's going to be times the
Lord's not going to remove the trial. There's going to be a
time, a day come, he won't heal. Something's going to kill these
bodies, isn't it? He did not remove Paul's trial.
This messenger of Satan was buffeting him. You think,
oh, if the Lord could just He didn't. He didn't. He didn't
remove it. He did something better. He gave
him grace sufficient for it. Now that's a promise of God.
My grace is sufficient for you. Then my advice is pray or give
me grace sufficient for this trial. I can tell you He'll answer that
prayer, because that's His promise. If you would plead with the Lord,
plead His word. If you would plead with the Lord,
plead what He promised to do, because you know He's going to
do what He promised to do. And when the Lord gives you grace
sufficient to calm your heart, even though the trials, just
as bad as it ever was, the pain of it, the heartache of it, the
sorrow of it, the darkness of it, the uncertainty of it, has
it changed a bit? But the Lord gives you something
and gives you peace. That's peace that passes all
understanding. And in my experience, that's
been sweeter than the removal of the trial. It really has. Okay, here's the last thing.
Look at 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1. God's grace is eternal grace. 2 Timothy 1
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, when? Before the world began. Before creation, when only God
existed, God purposed grace for his people. Now the purpose of
God is just as sure as the past act of God. The purpose of God
is just as sure as something God's already done in time. And
the reason I can say that is God always, he always does his
will. Nothing's going to thwart his purpose. That's why salvation
in God's purpose is sure for his people. God's grace cannot
fail to do anything he purposed. I don't know everything it is
that God purposed, but I do know this. He's purposed to save His
people and His Son. God has purposed grace. The Father
has purposed grace for His people. And the Son purchased it. He
purchased that grace. He purchased every blessing God
has for a sinner with His blood on Calvary's tree. And the Holy
Spirit applies that grace. And He does it, not in some mysterious
way. We were sitting at home watching
TV, and when you're all alone He applies that grace to the
hearts of his people through preaching. Through the preaching
of Christ. Look what Paul says in verse
10. But it's now, God purposed this in eternity, but now this
is made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. See, all these things are brought
to light so we see them and believe them through the preaching of
the gospel. Now, God's grace. His saving grace is eternal.
It began long before human time began. And it will last until
the end of human time. And you just don't have to worry
that God's going to run out of grace for you. You don't have
to worry that you'll finally out sin God's grace and you'll
make him cast you off. Because God doesn't change. And
His grace is always sufficient. I know our sin is horrible, but
always remember this. Where sin abounded, grace. Grace did much more abound. So
hate your sin. I mean, absolutely hate your
sin. Be determined not to sin. But when you fail, don't despair
because God's grace is eternal. God's not going to change in
His purpose of grace for His people because God cannot change.
In order to take away grace from God's people, God would have
to change. That's not possible. Grace began
before human time. It'll continue all the way through
human time. And when time is no more, you
and God's people are going to spend eternity doing, singing
about the grace of God that saved a wretch like me. After we bow
in prayer, Let's start that right now. Someday, we're going to
sing it perfectly. After we bow in prayer, I want
to start right now. With what heart, with what tongue,
God's given me to sing amazing grace. Oh, it's a sweet sound,
isn't it? Let's bow together. Our Father,
how we thank you for your grace. It's only by your grace wretched,
vile sinners like we are could be saved. It's only by your grace
that you could reveal the glory of your son to our dark, dead
hearts, that you'd give us faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
how we thank you. And Father, I beg of you that
you'd cause us to cling to your saving grace. Oh, that we might
be enabled by thy spirit quit trusting in our works, to quit
thinking we can do something to make God happy with us, and
to rest in your eternal, unchanging, saving, sovereign, electing grace.
Father, it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake
we pray, amen. All right, Sean, come lead us
in our singing.