I want to give you a verse in Romans 10 that not many people
believe. You'd be turning to chapter five,
but now listen to this. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. to every one
that believeth." Not many people believe that verse. And now in Romans 5, I have a
thought the Lord has given us. And I guess I would call the
subject or the title of this, I'd put it in the form of a question.
Is the doctrine of grace alone safe? Is the doctrine of grace alone
safe? And I want to read four verses,
Romans five, I'll pick up in verse seven. For scarcely for
a righteous man will one die yet pair adventure for a good
man. Some would even dare. to die. That verse talked about two kinds
of men, a righteous man and a good man. By nature, you
and I are neither. But God, verse eight, commended his love toward us
in that while we were yet sinners, we weren't righteous. We weren't
good. We were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. In these verses The little word. He is. I read it four times. Verse 8. It's his love. Verse 9, it's his blood. Verse 10, it's the death of his
son. And then the last line of verse
10, it's his life. So we see this clearly that it's
his love toward us, his blood that justifies us, his death
that reconciled us and his life that saved us. That sounds to me like salvation
is of the Lord. What do you think? And we could speak about each
of these four things, his love, his blood, his death, and his
life. But I want to look at the last one, the last statement
in verse 10, we shall be saved by his life. Not our life, but his life. Men who preach God's free and
sovereign grace as being sufficient in our lives for all things,
without attaching some law to it, we're accused of promoting licentious
living. The truth is the same grace that
regenerates keeps. And any claim or profession of
grace that regenerated you and can't keep you, there's something
wrong with that. Grace that regenerates keeps. We can't add to it. We can't
improve on it. We're not saved by grace and
works. We are saved by grace that works. Big, big difference. Grace that
produces a lifestyle and conduct becoming of a child of God. Dear old brother Henry Mahan
used to say this, said a lot of preachers rant and rave, bless
God, I believe God's people ought to live right. He said, they
do. I believe God's people ought
to love one another. They do. I believe God's people ought
to give. They do. Grace is the message. We don't have to beat God's children
over the head with law. Have no right to do it. They're
His young'uns, not ours. A lot of people forget that. So now the word saved here, we
shall be saved by His life. You say, well, I thought we were
already saved. We're already reconciled. But this word saved is not just regeneration, not
just being born again, but saved in the sense of full
salvation from eternity to eternity. That's what Paul meant when he
said, now is your salvation nearer than when you first believed.
full, the fullness of salvation. It commenced in eternity past
in the mind and purpose of God, and it'll consummate in eternity
future in our having been fully conformed to the image of God's
Son. The word saved here includes
complete and lasting safety, protection, healing, being made
whole, and preservation unending. The word saved here is not a
temporal thing, depending on us in any way. It depends on
the Lord Jesus Christ. We shall be saved by His life,
preserved and kept forever by His life, meaning that He lives. I'm telling you, if we could
ever get a hold of that, it would help us a lot. It really would. Now, most modern religious thought,
and you can hear this every way you turn, they would read this
like this. We're reconciled to God by the
death of His Son. but we're saved that he is kept
persevering by living for him. Many, many times I've seen a
preacher coach somebody down the aisle, get him to make a
profession and then go down there. And before the whole congregation
said, now you're going to live for him, ain't you? You're going
to promise to live for him. Well, Hey, If God's grace changed
your heart, that preacher or nobody else got any right to
put anybody under law. The children born into your home,
it wasn't your neighbor's responsibility to see to it they behave. It
was yours. See what I'm saying? Grace, grace. And people say, now, you know,
if you're saved, you've got to consent to, you've got to be
in pursuit of a bunch of rules and regulations. There's a lot
of things we've got to do. I heard a story once about this
dear lady who supposedly got saved in a church service. I
don't know if she did or didn't, but when they got through telling
her everything, she'd have to quit and start and all this kind
of stuff, she said, I'm sure taking on a lot today. Well,
salvation is not taking on a lot. It's letting go of a lot. I told you you didn't believe
that verse. For Christ is the end of the law. For righteousness
to them that believe. We're reconciled by the death
of his son. Much more, meaning not only that,
but we're saved, safe and secure, established, settled, governed
by his life. Notice it's not by the life you
live, but the life he lives. So that's why I'm asking the
question, is the doctrine of grace alone Safe. Is the grace that quickens a
dead sinner to life not sufficient to be effectual in that life
to live for God's glory? I promise you it is. It is sufficient. The law in the Old Testament
was given not as a standard for you to
live up to. It wasn't given to the Israelites
for that. Nobody could live up to that.
It was given, Paul said, that the offense might abound later
in this same chapter. In other words, the law was given
to make our sin so enormous. So abundant that we could never
see law as our answer. And yet people sit week in and
week out in church houses and be told that you're almost there. You just got to add this two
or three more things and leave off this two or three more things.
Law, law, law, law, law. It's never worked. It can't work. The law was given not for a remedy
for the likes of you. It was given as a reminder that
you need a remedy and Christ is the remedy. Listen to this Galatians 2.20
Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. I was represented in him. I died
with him. I died in him. I'm dead. Nevertheless, I live. Both of it, present tense. I
am crucified, present tense. Nevertheless, I live, present
tense. I'm dead in myself, but I'm alive
in him. Yet not I, it's not really me
that's living, I died. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me
and gave himself. for me. He loved me. That's personal. He gave himself
for me. And that word for there means
in the stead of me. He did it all for me. He did all there was to be done
for me. Jesus paid it all. He didn't
make the down payment. He paid it all. So don't add
law to grace. Grace is sufficient. Martin Luther, almost 800 years
ago in the year 1531, wrote this. on this phrase for me. And I
quote, I, wretched and damnable sinner, dearly beloved of God
the Son, if I could by work or merit love the Son of God, if
it was in me to love Him and come to Him Why should he
have sacrificed himself for me? This shows how the Papists, in
the 1500s, boy, you talk about the battle with the Roman religion. This shows how the Papists ignored
the Scriptures, particularly the doctrine of justification
by faith, if they had paid any attention to these words in scripture,
that it was absolutely necessary for the son of God to be given
in death for me, they would never have invented so many hideous
heresies. Did the law ever love me? Did the law ever sacrifice itself
for me? Did the law ever die for me?
On the contrary. It accuses me. It frightens me. It drives me crazy. Somebody else saved me from the
law, from sin and death unto eternal life. That somebody is
the Son of God to whom be praise and glory forever." End of quote. When King David brought Mephibosheth
to live with him, you're familiar with this story, 2 Samuel 9,
preached from it numerous times. David's the king. He brought
Mephibosheth to live with him. Did he give him a rule book?
No, it was all grace. Was Mephibosheth given a list
of chores to be done daily? No. It was all grace. Was there any thou shalt or thou
shalt not? No. Mephibosheth was not put
under any law. David said, this is your home
now. Do as you please. What true grace does in a believer's
heart is to make God's will our will. That's what grace does. Yet people say, boy, you got
to be careful. You can't tell people to do as they please.
I heard an old preacher one time to say, if you love God with
all your heart, which you don't. If you love God with all your
heart, do as you please. Because what you please will
be what he pleases. See, that's what it is. And that's
how grace works in us. Paul never said over there in
2 Corinthians, the 10 commandments constraineth us. He didn't say
that. He said the love of Christ constraineth
us. If you don't have the love of
Christ in your heart, no wonder you're so warped up. That's 2 Corinthians 5, 14. And
that word constraineth, it means to hold us, to hold us fast,
to sustain us and to move us and urge us on in pursuit of
Christ. You try to live by law and you
fail and you feel like you're going to hell most of the time. And if it were up to you, you
would. Your life is a roller coaster. I know, I ride it a lot. It's because you can't trust
the bus driver that you grip the seat and hold your breath
the whole trip. But hey, you can trust the bus
driver. He's had lots of passengers like
you. He never lets the passengers
help drive. And he won't let you. He's never lost a passenger and
he won't lose you. We're talking about grace. When the Son of God met Saul
of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, he arrested him by his power.
He quickened him by his grace. He did not give him a law to
keep. Grace alone is sufficient to
put a gratitude in the heart of God's child. to make a man
want to live and strive for the glory of God. You clean up your act a little
bit and quit cussing out loud. That don't impress God. Hell's full of folks that live
better than you do. That's got nothing to do with
it. This is about the grace of God. The woman in John 8, taken in
adultery. Did he give her a law? No, he
asked her. He said, where are all those thine accusers? Where's
all that bunch that brought you here and charged you? Hath no
man accused you? And she said, no man, Lord. And
he said, I'll tell you right now. No, he didn't. He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Was he condoning her sin? No.
But he put the grace of God in her heart. And that done the
job. That done the job. The demon
possessed man at Gadara, Mark chapter 5. Christ cast out the
demons and told the man, you go put some clothes on. No, he
didn't. The Bible says when the job was
done, here come the man sitting clothed in any right mind. Grace does the job, not law. And that man then said,
I'll follow you. I want to go with you. I'll keep whatever you say. The
Lord said, no, you go home. You just go home. Tell your friends
what I've done for you. No charge. I'm not trying to make a slave
out of you. I'm setting you free. Philip didn't give the Ethiopian
eunuch a law. He preached Christ unto him and
grace did the job. Peter didn't give Cornelius a
law. He preached Christ, preached the gospel. And grace did the
job. Is grace alone enough? It certainly is. Because the
true grace of God don't stop with regeneration. It's working
from eternity to eternity. From eternity past, we're chosen
in Christ. Then we're called to Christ and
changed by Christ and eventually conform to the image of Christ.
Grace does the job. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves is
the gift of God. Not of works. Lest any man and
every man would surely boast. Again, we're not saved by grace
and works. We are saved by grace that works. Is grace alone safe doctrine? Yes, it is. When Jonah disobeyed God, Was it law he broke, or was it
grace he sinned against? It was grace. The command was,
go to Nineveh. But the decree of grace was,
you're going. You're going. That's why some men hate grace,
is because they look at it as if Whether or not it works is
up to you. Whether or not it works is not
up to you. It always works. Jonah protested, get somebody
else, not me. And of course, I've heard that
preached many times. If you don't do what God wants you to do,
he'll get somebody else. What do you think? He's changing
his mind along the way? No, no. You'll do what God wants
you to do. Get somebody else. Grace replied,
I've got you. I'm not sending somebody else,
Jonah, I'm sending you. And it took the whale express
to get him there, but he got him there. Simon Peter denied the Lord three
times. And you know what the spirit
of law told Peter? You're through. You can forget
it, bud. He's through with you. You're
supposed to go fishing and forget you ever met this Jesus. But you know what grace did?
Go tell my disciples and Peter to meet me in Galilee. Tell him I didn't call you with
strings attached. I didn't call you with a bunch
of ifs. If you do this and if you don't
do that, I didn't call you by law, I called you in grace. And grace never quits. You may
quit a thousand times. I've quit counting at a thousand.
But grace never quits. Paul said, by grace are you saved. If, well there's no if. By grace
are you saved. Being reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more we shall be saved, fully saved eternally
by His life. Perhaps you're sitting here this
morning and every day that passes, the devil beats you up because
you're such a poor Christian. We all deal with that. But look
at verse 10. We're not saved or kept by being
a better Christian. We'll never persevere to the
end by being a better Christian. Ain't no better in you. All the perseverance is in God's
preservation. All the victory we have is in
getting a hold of this verse. We are reconciled to God by the
death of his son. And we're saved, preserved, protected,
healed, made whole forever by His life, not our life.