I believe I might be ready to
preach. Let's look again at Romans chapter 11. You've probably been able to
surmise from the songs that we've sung and the scriptures that
we've read, the subject that we'll look at this morning is
God's grace. I've titled the message Salvation
by Grace, not works. The salvation of a sinner. I
mean a real sinner, a sinner who's dead in sins, who can't
do anything but sin. Salvation of a sinner has got
to be by grace. It can't be by works. Anyone
who thinks that they can be saved by some of their works of the
law, some of their works and deeds of religion, they don't
know that they're a sinner. They don't know that they're
completely ruined in Adam. They don't know that they're
dead in trespasses and sins. That's the only reason they think
that they can do something. They don't know they're dead.
But if we know, God's taught us, that everything we do is
sin, and everything we do is sin, because everything we are
is sin, then we can't believe. We can't even begin to think
that we could be saved by some sinful thing that we do. The
salvation of a sinner has got to be by God's grace alone. Paul tells us that in verse six
of Romans 11. Even so then, that was verse six, and if by grace,
then is it no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
If salvation involves some work, then it's not grace. But if it
be works, then is it no more grace. If salvation is by works,
there's no need for any grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
See, salvation's got to be one or the other. That's gotta be
100% grace. or a hundred percent works. There can't be any mixture
of the two. Now if we believe that any part
of our salvation depends on something that we do or came to us because
of something that we have done, then we're not saved. That's
as plain and simple as I can make it. Salvation cannot be
because I made a decision to accept Jesus as my personal Savior.
That's works. That decision is a work that
I would do. And besides that, our natural mind could never
make a decision for Jesus. We can't do that. Our carnal
mind cannot make a decision to seek righteousness in Christ.
Can't be done because the carnal mind hates God. The carnal mind
is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can it be. So our works don't have anything
to do with us being saved. And our works don't have anything
to do with us, with our salvation after we're converted either.
Salvation can't be kept by our good works. It can't be earned
by our good works and it can't be kept by our good works. Sinners
who are saved by grace are always dependent upon grace. Sinners
who are saved by Christ are always dependent upon Christ. They never
quit being dependent upon him and start trusting themselves.
Now, salvation by grace means this, that my works, anything
about me, anything that I do, does not help God out at all. God won't have them. That's what
Ishmael represents. Paul tells us that in the book
of Galatians. Ishmael represents God's works, or man's works,
excuse me. Ishmael represents man trying
to help God out. Ishmael represents man trying
to help God keep his promise. How was Ishmael conceived? After
God promised Abraham he'd have a son with Sarah. Years had gone
by, no son. Sarah thought, I figured it out. God wants us to help him out.
Abraham, you marry my handmaid Hagar. She's young, she's strong,
she's in a prime of life. She can bear us a son. So Abraham
did that, and sure enough, Ishmael was conceived. But Ishmael was
conceived in the normal, natural course of life, wasn't he? By
the power of the flesh. By a young, strong woman. That's
not the God of promise. That's the son of the flesh. And that son grew, and then the
son of promise came. Then Isaac came from Sarah. This is the work of God. This
is the promise of God being fulfilled. And what did God tell Abraham
about that son? conceived in the flesh that represents
man's works, man trying to help God out. What did God say about
that son? Abraham cast out the bondwoman
and her son. Abraham loved that boy. Oh, he
loved that boy. That's his son. He watched him
grow. He loved that boy. Just like
our flesh loves our works. They got to go. Cast them out. Ishmael can't even have a shack
on the back end of the property. He's got to go. He's got to get
out. Because Ishmael represents works.
Grace and works cannot mix. God's promise and man's contribution
cannot mix. Salvation by grace means my works
don't enter into it at all. But if salvation comes by works,
then there can't be any grace. There's no need for grace. Grace
can't help us at all if salvation is by works. We've got to do
all the work ourself. We've got to ourself obey all
of God's law. If righteousness come by law,
then Christ is dead in vain. If righteousness can be earned
by us by keeping the law, then Christ came in vain. He died
in vain. He kept the law in vain. And
if we try to keep even one law, just one, in order to make ourself
more savable, grace or profit you might think. Christ shall
profit you nothing. That's how serious this matter
is. If salvation is by works, we may as well quit talking about
grace, because grace doesn't enter into it at all. Well, thank
God salvation is by grace. Salvation by God's grace is sure
and certain. God has provided grace that saves
real sinners. God's grace always results in
salvation. Always. I've got three points
I want us to see. Two about God's grace and the
third one about man's works. Here's my first point. God's
grace is electing grace. You know, a lot of people in
church buildings around the country and around the world talk about
grace. Everybody seems like talks about grace, but they mean something
different by grace than the scriptures mean by grace. God's grace is
electing grace. And that grace always results
in salvation. Verse five of Romans 11. Even
so then at this present time also, there's a remnant according
to the election of grace. God has a remnant that he has
reserved unto himself. It's a remnant that he elected
to save. He chose to save those people.
Now God's election is not a mean, cold, hard doctrine that keeps
sinners from being saved. Not at all. God's election is
a glorious doctrine. It's a gracious, loving, wonderful
doctrine that saves sinners who could not be saved any other
way. God's election is an election
of grace, of grace. Now, God didn't look down through
the telescope of time and see who would be good and choose
thee. Now, that'd be election of orcs, wouldn't it? God didn't
look down through the telescope of time and see, well, who it
was that would choose Him, so He chose them. No, that would
be an election of works. And that can't be. There's no
salvation in works. God choosing to save sinners
is an election of grace. God chose sinners who would never
choose Him. Left to their own devices, they
would never choose Him. God chose sinners to save. Sinners
who He knew would only ever sin against Him and would only ever
rebel against Him. But God chose them anyway. God
chose sinners who would not and could not do anything to be deserved. But God chose to save them anyway.
Now that's grace. An election of grace. Now we've
heard this so many times and it bears repeating. is not salvation. Election is
unto salvation. God must choose the people to
save or else nobody would be saved. And God did choose those
people, but their sin must be taken away by Christ to substitute. God did choose a people to save,
but Christ had to come and actually save them. Christ had to come
and make them actually righteous. He had to put their sin away
under His blood or they'd never be saved. Atonement must be made
or those people could never be saved. So Christ came in time. He was manifesting the flesh
in time. And He did exactly what the Father sent Him to do. He
saved His people from their sin. He saved them by His perfect
life. He gave His perfect righteousness
to them. And He took their sin, His own
body on the tree, and died as their substitute, died as a sacrifice
to put their sin away. The blood must be shed to atone
for sin or there can be no salvation. But then there's this too. The
blood's got to be applied. The blood must be applied to
the hearts of God's elect or there can be no salvation. God
chose a people to save, but those people must be born again. They
must be given a new nature that's holy. and righteous or God can
never accept them into his presence. Every last one of God's elect
are going to hear the gospel. They're going to believe it.
They're going to be born again with a nature that believes the
gospel. They're going to be born again with a nature that believes
Christ and loves Christ and bows to him and looks to him that
wants nothing other than Christ. Now, that's no small thing. God
will say His elect, all those people that He chose before the
world were created, He will save every last one of them. Every
last one of them will be glorified. Now God's elect are all born
in sin. And when you look at them, you think every one of
them is a lost cause. This is a lost cause. They're
dead, stinking, rotting in sin. They're born with the nature
that hates God, just like every other son of Adam. They're born
loving themselves and hating God. How will they ever have
life? They hate the gospel. How will
they ever hear it? How will they ever believe it?
How will they ever love it? God's going to see to it. God will
make it happen. God's grace always resolves. Salvation from sin. His electing
grace always results in glorification. All right, that brings us to
the second point. God's grace is a preserving grace. God's
preserving grace always results in salvation. Look at verse 1,
Romans 11. I say thee, 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. Now Paul in
Romans chapter 10 just got done telling us that God had rejected
the Jews. He blinded them. He hardened
their heart because they refused to believe. Judicial blindness
came upon that nation because they refused Christ. Christ came
to this earth as a Jew. He was of the house and lineage
of David. He came unto his own. His own received him not. It's
not just that they didn't receive him. It's not just that they
didn't open the door and let him in. No, they actively went out
and killed him. They had to put him away. They
can't stand him in their sight. They rejected him. So God blinded
that nation. They didn't want to see him.
So God made it so that they couldn't. No, up until that time, the Jews
had always been God's earthly people. God blessed that nation
with his presence, with the his word with the prophets, with
the tabernacle and the temple and all these things. And he
didn't give any other nation any of those advantages. But
nobody was ever saved because they were a natural Jew. Nobody
was saved because they descended from the loins of Abraham. Ishmael
is the perfect example of it. Esau. Nobody was saved because
they descended from Abraham. That would be salvation by works,
wouldn't it? If salvation came because, you
know, who my parents are, well, then we ought to do like a bunch
of these people and go out there and have 12 kids. You know, that's
how we're going to populate the kingdom, you know, is to have
all these kids. If my children are saved because of who their
daddy is, that's works. Tell you the truth about my children,
yours too. My children were born in this world lost because of
who their daddy is. That's the fact of the matter. Nobody's
saved because of anything about this flesh. That would be works.
Now, God did deal with that Jewish nation. as his earthly people. But they were a picture of God's
elect. They were never all spiritually
God's elect. They are a picture of how God
deals with his spiritual elect people. So when God turned from
the Jews and he sent the gospel to the Gentiles, he blinded that
nation. God did not cast away his people
that he foreknew. When God blinded that nation,
he didn't suddenly change his mind and cast off a bunch of
people that he foreknew. Now God didn't cast off his people.
Now God could have cast off all the Jews, couldn't he? It would
have been right if he did. None of them deserve to be saved.
Now God quit dealing with that nation as his nation. The presence
of God doesn't dwell anywhere over the Middle East anymore.
Now he dwells in his people, but he has not cast his elect
people away. Now the gospel goes into all
the world to reach all of God's people, not just a little nation
over there in the Middle East. But in His mercy, God has not
made it impossible for a Jew to be saved. Just because somebody
is a Jew doesn't mean that they cannot be saved. No, in justice,
God always has mercy. In justice, God always has mercy
reserved for His people. God has mercy reserved for the
worst of sinners. That gives hope to the Jews and
that gives hope to you and me too. Mercy's got nothing to do
with our nationality. It's do we need Christ or not?
It's for the worst of sinners. Now God's grace is a preserving
grace. One day the Romans came in and
they decided they're going to deal out justice to these Jews. They're tired of this and they're
going to come and deal out justice to them. There were times that
Roman army came in, they'd kill every soul. They'd wipe out a
nation. You know why they didn't do that
to the Jews? God had a people that were going to be born from
Jews living at that very moment. Hitler tried the same thing.
It was his determination. He was going to wipe out the
entire race. Know why he didn't do it? God
had a people. He's got a people, maybe some
of those people were his children, maybe some were going to be born
from some of those ones saved from the Holocaust, but he couldn't
wipe out those people because of God's mercy. He had an elect
people coming from them. Same thing's true about you and
me. When I was a teenager, I hope
you all, you kids, turn out to be way better teenagers. Be a
better teenager than I was. I was in two horrible car wrecks. Should have been killed in both
of them. Walked away from both of them on this day. You know
why? God's preserving grace. Only
reason. Only reason. God did not allow
that Jewish nation to be wiped out because he had mercy reserved
for future generations. God spared that whole Jewish
nation for a remnant. that God chose out of them that
would be born. Saul, Tarsus, young Timothy, others. That's
why God spared that whole nation for his Lexi. Now, God for new
people, he loved those people. He chose to save those people.
It was his will to save those people. That's God's will. Nothing
will ever change God's mind. God doesn't react to us. Nothing
ever changes his will and his purpose. Look back a few pages
at Romans chapter 8. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He shall accomplish all of his
will. Romans 8 verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good. To them that love God, to them
are they called according to his purpose, for whom he did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
then He also called. And whom He called, then He also
justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified. Whoever God chose to save is
glorified, and nothing will ever break that golden chain. This
is God's eternal will and purpose for His people. And God chose
to save a sinful people because God's merciful, because He's
gracious. Some of those people were Gentiles. That's why he
sent the gospel to the Gentiles. He had a people he chose to save
that were Gentiles. People sit right here. That's
why God sent the gospel to the Gentiles. Some of those people
God chose to save were Jews. And nothing those Jews could
do could make God unchoose them or cast them off. God chose them
in their sin. So there's nothing that sinful
thing that they did could make him unchoose them. The Apostle
Paul used himself as an example. He was a Jew, and the Lord saved
him. How did the Lord save Paul? By
his grace. Paul was a Jew descended from
Abraham, and he was from the tribe of Benjamin. That's the
smallest tribe, the youngest tribe, the most insignificant
tribe. Paul was the least of all saints, that's what he said,
and he was the least of all Jews, too. He was just from the small,
little, insignificant tribe of Benjamin. But God saved him anyway,
because salvation is by grace. I don't know anything about Saul
of Tarsus' parents, but I just bet you they were rebels to God.
I bet you they were legalistic. That's where Saul learned it
all. They weren't so offensive. He
didn't just snuff them out. For Paul's sake. And then Saul
of Tarsus. He went to school with Gamaliel.
He got to work in the Jewish religion. He's a Pharisee of
the Pharisees. He excelled everybody his age. I mean, he outdid them all. He's
so zealous and legalistic. And God put up with him in his
rebellion. He even put up with him murdering
his children. God put up with that. You know
why? Because God's gracious. Because he chose to save Paul
and he could not. He would not wipe Saul of Tarsus
out until God saved that rebel by putting him down in the dust
and revealing his son to him and in him. God's grace is a
preserving grace. God didn't wipe out Saul of Tarsus.
You know why? Christ had already put his sin
away. His sin was gone under the blood
of Christ. He was preserved in the blood
of Christ. And the same thing is true of all of God's people.
God's purpose of redemption shall never fail. No matter how sinful
they are, no matter how sinful their ancestors have been, no
matter what precarious position they might find themselves in,
God's grace is a preserving grace who keeps all of His people.
Because God chose to save them, He's going to do it. And that's good for us to hear
over and over and over again. so that we don't get discouraged.
In preaching the gospel, let's not get discouraged. God's Word
does not return unto Him void. When we don't see results like
we'd like to see, we don't see sinners being saved, we wonder,
well, what's the Lord doing that? Hold it right there. Don't get
discouraged. Just keep preaching the gospel.
That's what we've been called upon to do. We don't see growth
in grace in ourselves or in others like we'd like to see. We get
disappointed in what we do or think or other people say and
do. Don't get discouraged now. Just keep preaching the gospel.
The only way we're going to grow in grace is through the preaching
of grace. Just keep preaching. When we see some fall away, we
see people fall away to the law. We see people fall away to religion. I've seen it happen. I just talked
to a pastor just this calendar year. Someone had been with him
years and years. Got mad at him because he wouldn't
tell him how to live. Went to some legalistic thing. He's so disappointed. Well, be
disappointed, but don't be discouraged. God hadn't lost one, he chose
to say. Ever. Ever. And he's not about to start
now. God doesn't change. No. Don't
get discouraged. Just keep preaching Christ. That's
the only way any sinner is going to be saved. Look here at verse
2. God hath not cast away his people,
which he foreknew. Watching not, don't you know
what the scripture saith of Elias? That he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they killed thy prophets and
dig down thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my
life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men
who have not bowed the knee, to the image of Baal. So don't
be discouraged. Even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. Now it is easy to get discouraged
and we see false religions so rampant in our day. I made the mistake this morning
of drinking my coffee and turning on the television. I saw a program
had an interesting title. I wonder what they're saying.
They preach the Bible. It's the Bible church. I wanted
to hear what they were saying. And I was so, so disappointed.
It's easy to get discouraged. You see, false religion has just
such a hold on people. I looked out over that crowd. I mean, it wasn't a crowd a whole
lot bigger than this one. But they were just eating it
up, Eric. It just broke my heart. Oh! Why do you lie to those people
like that? Not only do they not believe the gospel, they actively
try to tear it down and remove it so nobody else can hear it
either. That's what happened in Elijah's day. Elijah, the
prophet, I mean, oh, wouldn't you love to hear Elijah preach?
But Israel wouldn't hear him. And not only were they not hearing,
they tried to remove his message from all their lands. All the
altars that used to be built where sacrifices were offered,
they tore them down. But they didn't just tear down
the stones. They dug down and got the foundations and ripped
them all out and planted sod over it, you know. So there was,
you couldn't tell there had ever been an altar offering where
sacrifices were offered to God there. They wanted every trace
of the worship of God taken out of their country. Not only did
they refuse to hear God's prophets, they didn't just, I'm not going
to go hear him today. They tried to kill him so nobody
could hear him. So he couldn't preach this gospel
anywhere. Israel actively rejected God. I was looking over my notes this
morning. I thought that sounded like a nation you know. Sounds
like our nation, doesn't it? Why didn't God wipe us out? Why
didn't God wipe out the whole Israel nation, the whole Jewish
nation? Because God had an elect remnant.
In that situation that Elijah thought was just total despair,
cutthroat, no it's not. I've got 7,000 people I've preserved
in my cell. They haven't bowed the knee to
Baal. I've preserved them. Not only are there going to be
believers to send from that bunch of rebels who's trying to kill
Elijah, there are still believers there. God's not going to wipe
them out. And there was exactly, all Elijah's so discouraged,
but there was exactly as many believers there should be exactly. The number seven, you know, is
a number of perfection. So the number 7,000 means a perfect
host of God's elect. They're all reserved. Not one
of them is missing. Not one of them is going to bow
the knee to Baal. You know why? God's preserving grace. It wasn't
because they had more backbone than everybody else. It was God's
preserving grace. He reserved them to himself. But poor Elijah. Oh, I can identify
with him. I can identify with the mistakes
that, you know, you read. God's Word does not gloss over
the mistakes that believers, men and women, make. And every
time I read one, I make a mistake. I'm going to identify with that.
Elijah thought I'm the only one. We think so much of ourselves,
I'm the only one left, you know. Well, you know, faithful men,
good faithful men, they often think the situation in the church
is a whole lot worse than it really is. No matter how bleak
it looks, just always keep this in mind. God's purpose of redemption
will never fail. Never. Just keep doing what the
Lord's put to your hand to do today. What's God put to our
hand to do today? Preach the gospel. Support it. Pray for it. That's what God's
put to our hand to do today. Then do it. And just always remember
that even though it looks like there's so few that believe,
God's not losing. God's not losing. God's not lost
one person that He determined to save. That was true in Elijah's
day, and it's true in our day. Even right now at this present
time, God doesn't just wipe out this whole thing because he's
got an elect people, an elect remnant that he's preserved,
reserved to himself. Christ has not returned. Do you
know what that tells me? God has a people. He's still
yet going to save, and he's going to do it through the preaching
of the gospel. Brethren, let's preach it. Let's preach it. God
has a people he has yet to save by his grace. Let's keep preaching
God's grace in Christ Jesus to him. And let's not worry about
what we perceive as results. You know, I'd love to see, I
pray for, that God just fill up this building with people
he'd save. But whether he does or he doesn't, I promise you
this, everybody's here and they're supposed to. I promise you that.
The results are up to God. Let's just preach the gospel
and do what the Lord's commanded us to do. preach the gospel.
That's how God's going to save his people. And that's how he's
going to feed his people, through the preaching of the gospel.
Salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord's will, it's
of the Lord's purpose, it's of the Lord's choosing, and it's
of God's grace. God's grace, his electing grace,
his preserving grace, always resolves in salvation. All right,
now what about the works of the law? The law is still written
down on paper. God's law hasn't changed. A lot
of people still want their works. A lot of people still want to
hear the law. You know, tell me the law so I know how to live.
Tell me the law so I know what to do to make God happy with
me. What about works? Salvation is by grace, not by
works. Third point is this. Man's works
always result in damnation. Always. And that damnation is
never God's fault. It's always man's fault because
man's works are evil. And I'm not just talking about
people out there that do horrible, wicked, hurtful things to people. I'm talking about religious people.
Our best religious works are evil and causes God to give us
eternal damnation. Verse 7, what then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for. but the election hath obtained
it, and the rest were blinded. Now, the Jews were so religious.
I mean, in their daily life, everything they did was about,
had some religious element to it. Everything they did was about
earning righteousness and pleasing God. That's what they were seeking
for. But it didn't work. They didn't
get it. They didn't obtain it. Why not? Because they sought
it all in the wrong way. They sought it by their own works
of righteousness. They didn't seek it through faith
in Christ. And the Apostle Paul knew about this firsthand better
than anybody. Oh, he excelled above all his
equals in his own age. He said of himself as touching
the law, what people would think about me outwardly. I mean, he
thought he had this thing down. But after he saw Christ, what
did he say? He said, I count all that stuff but done. that
I may win Christ and be found in Him." You can't obtain righteousness
through the law. But, he says, the election hath
obtained righteousness. Well, why did they obtain it?
Because they sought it where it's found. They sought it in
Christ. They sought it by faith in Christ.
I love what Paul says here, the way that the Spirit moved him
to write this. He calls believers the election. He doesn't call
them believers, although they are. He doesn't call them children
of God, although they are. He calls them the election. The
foundation of all of our hope of salvation, the foundation
of it, the beginning of it, is God's election. God's election
always results in glorification. But the rest, everybody who sought
righteousness by their own works, they were blinded. They didn't
want it. They hardened their hearts against
it. they wanted. And then God hardened their hearts
so that they could not believe God gave them what they wanted.
He gave them their way. Look here at verse 8. 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. They just plugged up their eyes
and plugged up their ears. You ever seen a child, you know,
little children think that if they can't see you, that you
can't see them. So you're standing right in front.
They just go like this. You know, they think you're still right
there, but somehow they think you can't see them. That's what
the Jews did. They just they cover up their
eyes. They stopped up their ears, you
know. Well, just because you stop up yours don't mean the
sound still there. I mean, it's still there. And God, they cover
up their eyes, stopped up their ears and God let them have their
way. He took the gospel away from God hardened their hearts
so they couldn't see. God gave them an ear that could
not hear. He gave them their way. And I tell you how He hardened
them. All He had to do to harden them
is leave them alone. Just leave them alone. Give them
what they want, withhold His softening grace, and they'll
grow harder and harder and harder and harder. But now think of
this. God withdrew His softening grace
from them. They got hard. They couldn't see. They wouldn't
see. But what did they do when God did that? Well, they didn't
go off into what we call open sin and immorality and just all
the awful, horrible things we can think of. That's not what
they did, did they? They became even more and more and more steeped
in their religion. I'm telling you, the worst kind
of lost is being lost in religion. The worst kind of blind is being
blind in religion. Verse 9. David says, let their
table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense
unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that
they may not see and bow down their back always. Let them just
always be under this great burden of law and never find any rest. And that's what their religion
is. That's what works religion is. It just always bows down
the back, always puts a burden on people and never takes it
off of them because there can't be any grace mixed with works,
can there? The Jews' religion became a trap to them. The table
that Paul talks about here is the Passover table. Their Passover
table became a snare to them. Salvation's not in ceremony.
Salvation's in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God had
blinded their eyes so that they could not see Christ in the ceremonies.
They left the crucifixion. of the Lord Jesus Christ. There
He was, hanging on a tree. And they left it. And you know
where they went? They didn't go out and celebrate
at a bar. They went to the Passover table. The table became a snare
to them. They turned their back upon the
Savior and trusted the ceremony. And that ceremony became a trap
and a stumbling block to them. The very thing that was supposed
to point them to Christ became attracted to them because they
trusted in it instead of the person. I'm telling you the worst
kind of loss is being lost in religion. The very thing that
should save them is going to damage them because they've used
it to trust something other than Christ. And I always want to
be careful about this. We need to apply this lesson
to us here today. Salvation is not being in the
right religion. with the right doctrine. Now,
you're not going to be saved apart from it, but salvation
is not just being around the right religion and the right
doctrine. Salvation is knowing Christ, it's knowing him, it's
believing him, it's believing the Savior that's revealed in
the gospel. It's not good enough. Please listen to me. Just like
there's no loss, like being lost in religion, there's no loss
like being lost in the pew where the gospel is preached. It's
not good enough to be around the preaching. We must believe
Christ. If you would be saved, you must
believe Christ. And here's God's sovereignty
and man's responsibility again. If anybody goes to hell, it's
because that's what they earned. Nobody in hell is going to be
able to say, I'm in hell because God didn't choose me. Nobody's
going to say, well, I would be in heaven, but I had to be in
hell because Christ didn't die for me. Nobody is going to be in
hell because God did not will their salvation. They're not
going to be able to blame God. I'll tell you why sinners go
to hell. It's for trusting in their own works and refusing
to believe Christ. That's why sinners go to hell. And everybody
there is going to say, it's my fault. But if anybody goes to
heaven, it's going to be because Christ earned it for them. God
gave them exactly what they deserve. because Christ earned life for
them. He made them righteous through
His obedience. He died for them to put their
sin away. The Spirit came and gave them life in Christ, and
by grace, they believed. Because of God's grace, they
believed God. They believed Christ. They trusted
in Him, and they were not ashamed. That grace, God's grace, always
results in salvation. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our great God, oh, how we thank
You for Your grace to Your people. How we thank You for Your electing
grace that You'd choose a people who would be so steeped in sin,
lost in sin, dead in sins, that we would never choose Thee, we'd
never look to Thee, we'd never search for Thee, but You chose
us anyway. Father, how we thank You. How
we thank You for Your preserving grace, preserved. everything to happen, just the
exact way it happened, so that we be born into this world and
brought to a place where we hear the gospel, where by your mercy
and grace, you give us faith to believe Christ, faith to see
Him, faith to rest in Him. Oh, how we thank you for your
preserving, keeping grace. Father, by that grace, we beg
that you keep us from ourselves, that you keep us from trusting
in ourselves, that you keep us from trusting and going after
the way of this flesh, But keep us always by your grace that
always results in the salvation of your people. Father, we thank
you. Bless this word to your glory, to the good of your people. It's in Christ's precious name
we pray, give thanks. It probably won't surprise you
that Mike's getting ready to come and lead us in singing Amazing
Grace. That's a good song to close out
this service, isn't it?