Well, it's good to be here again. I have known and by the mercies of God have gotten
to know people all over this country that love God. He's been merciful to them. Just
as the brother spoke a while ago, called him by his grace,
revealed Christ in him. And these people are special.
They're peculiar people, but they're special in the eyes of
God. And it's a privilege to know
them and think about them and pray for them. But it's a special
privilege when I get to speak to them. It's a special privilege. If you will turn with me to Ephesians
chapter two, You should have this chapter
memorized by now. I very seldom when I first started
preaching would preach from Ephesians because I used it all through
my message. But I've learned that that message
is in every book from Genesis to Revelations. And you, hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past, in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Now this good works that were
created in Christ Jesus, he's not talking about, although they
may be included, but he's not talking here specifically about
your gift to the church or your attendance to the church. or
anything like that. What he's talking about, these
good works here, is this faith that he's given you. He's talking
about that repentance that came with that faith. He's talking about the love of
God that he's established in your heart. Only believers love
God. Nobody else loves God. Why come
they love God? Because they're his workmanship.
created in Christ Jesus unto good work. Worship, who worships
God except believers? You see what I'm saying? These
good works that he's talking about are his workmanship. These are things that God, what
can I do, the disciple said, to work the works of God? He
said, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom
the Father sent. That is the work of God. So this
faith and these things that he's talking about here in this chapter
were created in Christ Jesus unto these things, who has enabled
us, made us meet, he says in Colossians, to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in life. Now if you'll look here
with me in Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians 2 is Ephesians chapter
1 applied. It's stated in chapter 1, it's
applied in chapter 2. He tells us of a blessed union
of grace whereby we're raised from the dead with our Lord and
seated with Him in heavenly places. Seated with Him at the right
hand of God. My soul, a dead sinner. Here's
a man who didn't know God. Here's a man who's a rebel against
God. He's a sinner. He's born in sin. He's known nothing in his whole
life but sin. Even his righteousnesses are
filthy right. He's never known anything but
sin. But now this man is quickened. He didn't know it, but God quickened
him together. He put by divine covenant union,
eternal covenant union, quickened him together with Christ. And
when Christ raised from the dead, He raised him with Him. When
Christ ascended into glory, He ascended with Him. When Christ
sat down at the right hand of God, we're seated with Him in
glory. Now there's no other way that
that can be except for this eternal union wherein God hath made us
one with our Savior. And as he prayed a while ago,
he just sees Christ. God sees Christ and he smiles
on the believer because he sees Christ. He tells us of our former
condition walking after the course of this world. walking according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now
worketh in the children of disobedience, living out all of our days after
the lust of the flesh. He's not talking about so much
an adulterous lust or the way men perceive lust to be today.
He's just talking about your earthly desires. A bigger, better
house. A bigger, better car. That's
what he's talking about. We lived out our days without
any consideration for the reason God created us. He didn't create
you so you could have a bigger house and a finer car. God has
something more in mind. He's going to reveal His glory
in the salvation of sinners. And He's making us aware of it. And He tells us about that blessed
union of grace, whereby we're not only raised with Christ,
but seated with Him in glory. And He tells of our former condition,
whereby nature, the children of wrath, even as others. I hear folks talk about this
all the time. I just have run out of things
to say. I don't know what to say to them
when they say this. Most of the time I just am silent. But we weren't good folks who
made some bad decisions. That's how this world portrays
people when they join the church. They tell them about their former
condition. You're good folks, but you made
some bad decisions. We weren't careful folks who
slipped up. got blindsided. Something come
on us, and we didn't realize it, and before we knew it, we'd
fallen into some snare that Satan had. No, we're all spiritually
dead. Now that's the truth of it. We're
spiritually dead, fallen, depraved sinners. Who but a depraved sinner
could stand before God with his head up toward heaven and look
down on a saved individual, on a object of God's mercy and say,
I thank God I'm not like him. Huh? That's a depraved sinner. A depraved sinner looks at the
world and says, boy, I'm glad I'm not like them. Well, you're
exactly like them. You're exactly like them. And
He tells us that. He tells us who we were. And
He tells us, what maketh thee to differ? Who hath made thee
to differ from another? But God's come to us, and now
we have a hope. We didn't have a hope before,
but now we have a hope. We've got a good hope by grace.
We have what the Scripture says is eternal life. And now we walk by faith. We
don't walk by the law. We don't walk by religious standards. We walk by faith. We understand
that these things are ours and we know it by faith. There's
no other way to know it. And our whole lives have changed.
We're new creatures in Christ. That's what he tells us in 2
Corinthians 5. New creatures in Christ. Peter said, in time past, you
weren't a people. You weren't a people. Boy, I
used to stand up, when I was in religion, I'd stand up and
talk about being one of God's children and talk about, you
know, being a son and being an heir and all this kind of stuff.
Peter said, you weren't a people. Time past, you were not a people,
but now you're the people of God. Back then you'd not have obtained
mercy. You obtained a profession of
faith, you walked down an aisle, you signed a pledge card, whatever
they told you you had to do to be saved, you went out and did
it. Talked yourself into some experience. But he said you hadn't obtained
mercy, but now you've obtained mercy. And the reason you have
is because he called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light. And Paul reminds us in Ephesians
2 where God found us. In verse 11, in time past Gentiles
in the flesh. You know what a Gentile is? That's
an idol worshiping heathen. And that's what he tells us we
were. That's where he found us. Gentiles in the flesh, just idle
worshiping heathens, ungodly barbarians, without Christ. My soul, we didn't know Christ,
we didn't even know what the term Christ meant. But we'd sing
about it, didn't we? Back in religion, I'd just swell
up and sing Amazing Grace, and I didn't no more know what grace
was than the man in the moon. We were without Christ. Strangers from the covenants
of promise. I never heard that word covenant
used, but one time when they were talking about the church
covenant, what the church believed, their statement of faith was
called a covenant. That's the only covenant I ever
heard about in 16 years of listening to men preach. And then Paul said we had no
hope. To have a false hope is to have
no hope. You know, you get a four-leaf clover. Go out there
and you find you a four-leaf clover. And you carry that thing
around. It gonna bring me luck. You don't
have luck, you don't have the blessing of God, all you got
is the weed in your hand. That's all you got. Well, that's
what it is. If you don't have a true hope,
if all you got is a hope, a hope, a hope, that's not a hope. And
that's what he's saying. When God found you, you didn't
have a hope. To have a false hope is to have
no hope. To have a hope that's without
a basis is to have no hope. You be ready. Paul says, you
be ready to give an answer to any man who asks you a reason
for your hope. To have a hope that's no more
than a wish is to have no hope. And then watch this, he said,
you were without God. That's where he found you. You
was without God. You had a God. You had a conception about God. You had an idea about God, but
you didn't know God. You didn't have God. You were
without God. And those who are ignorant of
God are without God. Paul said, How shall you call
on Him in whom you have not believed? And how shall you believe on
Him in whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
without a preacher? You don't have a God. You've got a God. You've got a statue. You've got
an imagination. You've got some idea of what
you think God is. An unreconciled man is a man
without God. He's been banished. He's been
kicked out of the garden. He's cast out. He's driven out
of God's presence. All disobedient rebels are without
God. He tells us we were Gentiles,
we were without Christ, we were strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope without God, and then what's this? In
the world. In the world. What is there in
all the world to assist a sinner and bring him to Christ? Is there
anything in the world to assist a sinner? Have we talked about
this world? We left that to this world? We
hate to leave this world. Why? Why? What is there in all the world
to assist us in? To bring him to Christ. If there
was anything of any value in this world, now listen to me,
Christ wouldn't have refused to pray for him, would he? But he said, I pray not for the
world. In the world, John said, you
shall have tribulation. Our Lord said, the world hates
you because it hated me. And then John said, all that's
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, it's not of the Father. This is where he found us, without
God in the world. A fallen world, a cursed world.
A man in the world hoping to find the blessings of God is
like a man in the desert hoping to find a river. He's looking
in the wrong place. What he's looking for is not
in the world. Not in the world. Now if the Lord will allow me,
let me give you several things to make this way of salvation
as clear as the Lord has purposed it to be. First of all, in my
text, he speaks very plainly that everything concerning the
salvation of sinners is the gift of God. My nephew asked me one
time, he said, well, you're saying this, and they're saying that,
and the guy down the street's saying something else. And he
said, I've been around religious folks all my life, And he said,
they're all telling me something different, and they're all swearing
up and down, they're telling the truth. He said, how is somebody
like me, who's not acquainted with the word of God, who's not
a, he's not been to church, how am I supposed to know who's telling
the truth and who ain't? And I thought about it for a
minute, and this is what I told him. I said, you never will,
but for the grace of God. Huh? This thing's a gift, isn't
it? The only way you're gonna get
it is if God gives it to you. It's not what you're gonna bring
him, it's what he's gonna bring you. Not what you're gonna give
him, it's what he's gonna give you. Not because of any value
in you, but to show his glory and show the riches of his mercy
and grace, he's gonna show you something. Salvation is a gift. The leading statement in verse
eight tells us, by grace are you saved. Isn't that what they
said? And then back in verse five,
he said, by grace you are saved. We were saved when God put us
into a union with his son. Raised us up together with him
and seated us in heavenly place. People tell me all the time,
well, I don't believe in this eternal justification. You don't? You mean there's some part of
God that's not eternal? You mean God didn't know in His
mind when He purposed to do this, He didn't know in His mind that
He was going to justify you when He raised Christ from the dead? We justified in Christ from the
foundation of the world. Does that mean Christ don't have
to come and die? No, that's the reason he came
to die. By grace you are saved. Salvation
by grace and everything concerning the salvation of chosen sinners
is the gift of God. He doesn't use the word reward
here. He doesn't use the word earned
here. He doesn't use the word deserved
here or any such things. He said salvation is the gift
of God. By grace are you saved. Is that right? That's exactly right. And he tells us it's not of yourself
Boy, I wish we could learn that, don't you? It's not of yourself. There's nothing in you. When
you look within, oh, pastor, I'm just, I'm searching myself. I'm looking within. You're looking
in a black hole. There's nothing in there. An
empty shell, that's all it is. You're not gonna find anything
in there. It's all in Christ. It's all
in him. It's not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. If God don't put it in there,
it's never gonna be in there. Listen to this scripture, I love
this scripture. Henry Mahan told me one time,
said this is the most comprehensive verse of scripture in all the
Bible. And here's what it says. This is in 1 Corinthians 1, I
think it's verse 30. Of God are ye in Christ Jesus. How'd you get there? Of God. who of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. This thing did not originate
in us or by us, it does not find its creation to be of self, But
it confesses we are His workmanship. We're His creation. Here's the sinner. He has no
auction. He has no feelings. He has no
forethought. He has no motivation. He's without
vision. He's without repentance. He's
without faith. He's without any sense of God. or godliness. And God moves upon
that dead sinner and begins a work in him. And he arranges for him
a kind and merciful providence. People say, well, I was lucky
that day. No, no, just get rid of that. I wish they'd take that
out of the dictionary, don't you? I hate that word luck. God arranged for him a kind and
merciful providence. In some unexpected way, he suddenly
finds himself in the presence of a preacher. I think about
that Ethiopian eunuch every time I think about myself. That Ethiopian
eunuch, he thought he was, wanted to know God, and he went over
there and they told him, they said that the Jews have feasts
all through this time, and if you go over there, you'll learn
what God's all about. And he went over there and he
went through All the feasts and the Passover and the whole nine
yards and he was coming back and riding along in his chariot
reading the book of Isaiah, still didn't know who God was. But
God sent him a preacher. How'd that preacher know where
to go? God sent him. Here's an Ethiopian eunuch and
he's out here in the middle of nowhere. There's a revival going
on down here. And God takes this man out of
that and sends him out here in the wilderness. And here comes
a chariot and this little caravan coming, Ethiopian eunuch in there. And still didn't know who he
was going to preach to. Preacher didn't. He just going
with the providence of God. And God separated him, called
him, told him to go out there. He worked things out and there
he went. And he's walking along there in the company and he's
looking all about wondering who God sent me to preach to. I wonder
that all the time. Reckon who God's going to send
me to preach to. That's what keeps me going. God's got a people. He's going to call them. How's
he going to do it? Through the preaching of the
gospel. Well reckon who I'm gonna preach to, reckon who he is.
I'd like to know him, I'd like to meet him, I'd like to speak
to him. And he's walking along in this big caravan and he's
walking along and he's looking at all these servants and maids
and all these people and he still don't know it and he walks upside
this chariot. And he looks over there and there's
a guy reading a scroll. And he said, hey, he said, you
know what you're reading? He said, how can I except some
men tell me? He said, you're the one God sent
me. Kudos. And beginning with that
same passage, he preached Christ to her. And just as soon as that
man believed, he said, there's water. What does hinder me from
being baptized? He said, do you believe? He said,
I believe. With all my heart, I believe.
Let's go. Baptized him. Isn't that something? In some unexpected way, he finds
himself in the presence of a preacher. Never seen anything like it,
never heard anything like it. Nobody else preaches what that
man preaches. He finds himself hearing things
that he'd never heard before. Nobody ever told me God was sovereign,
absolutely. Absolutely, immutably sovereign. Did they ever tell you that when
you were a kid? I never heard that. What I heard was men resisting
God and men changing God's mind and stuff like that nonsense. You find yourself hearing things
you never heard before, or considering things that you heard many times,
but never really considered. It begins without any explanation,
this man does, to suddenly believe the things he's hearing. I tell you, I found out, not
only from the preacher, but he was reading to me out of the
word of God, out of Romans chapter 3. Showing me what a sinner was. That's the first time in my life
I actually believed God. That's me. That's talking about
me. That's me. None righteous. None that understandeth. None
that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way.
They're together become unprofitable. None that do a good, no not one. No fear of God before their eyes. You find yourself suddenly believing
things that you'd heard many times but never really considered
before. Now suddenly you believe in these
things. He can no longer shrug off God's
testimony concerning his sin, and his sinnerhood is no longer
just a doctrine to me. It's not something to argue over,
but it's a reality, and the old wretched man that I am, Paul
said. He didn't say, well, I believe
in the doctrine of depravity. No. And you won't either if God
ever convicts you of sin. You'll cry, the old wretched
man, who's going to deliver me from the body of this dead? We're living in a day when men
think that they can memorize the doctrines God called them
to preach. That's a bunch of baloney. Paul
said, he revealed his Son in me that I might be able to preach.
You can't preach about salvation until God saves you. What are
you going to talk about? What you thought, what you read,
what Spurgeon said? Tell me what you know in your
heart. Tell me that. Show me that. I believe, show
it to me. I don't wanna hear it, I don't
wanna see it on a piece of paper. I don't wanna argue with you
about it, just show me. Show me. This thing's the gift
of God, and I'm gonna tell you something. When God does a work,
he's gonna prove that it's his work and not yours. He's gonna
prove it. You're gonna do what nobody else
in this world can do. You're gonna worship God. You're
not going to pretend. You're not going to come in here
and just sing a bunch of songs and read some words and go home. You're going to worship God.
He said, here's the believer. Here's the true Jew. He worships
God in the Spirit. He does. The Spirit reveals Christ
to him and his heart's raised up and his mind's raised up and
his emotions are on fire and he worships God. He's thankful
to God. God called me, by his grace. Huh? He can't shrug off God's testimony
about things anymore. not his sinnerhood, none of those
things. His conscience is pricked and
he can't fight it anymore. He told Paul, he said, it's hard
to kick against the pricks, ain't it? His heart's broken and now
he begins to mourn over his sin. And what of his standing before
God? He doesn't have one. He don't
have one. He finds himself taking sides
with God against himself. Isn't that what David said? He
said, I confess these things that you might be clear when
you judge. Clear in your testimony, clear in your judgment. And then suddenly this man's
terrified. If his sinnerhood is true, then
so is the just and holy God. who will by no means clear the
guilty. He said, Cursed is every one
who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. Does that make the host stand
up on your own? Boy, it doesn't matter. Then the preacher begins to talk
about the mercy and love and kindness and grace of God and
Christ Jesus. In the ages to come, he said,
I did all this for you. I made provision for you. I put you in my Son. I chose
you in my Son. I predestinated you to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of my will. And I did all this and I killed
my son on your account. I set him up as the substitute
and he bore your judgment in his body on that truth. And then he died. And he satisfied
my justice. And I raised him from the dead.
And when I did, I raised you from the dead because I appointed
him your substitute. And I raised him up in heaven.
And right along with him you went. And I seated him at the
right hand of God. In full favor with God. And I did that that in the ages
to come I might show it to you. I might show you something of
the riches of my grace and my kindness toward you in Christ
Jesus. What comes to the sinner when he hears the gospel? Huh? The riches of God's grace. The
riches of God's mercy in Christ. You mean there's mercy for me? Mercy for me? Oh my soul, if he can save me, he
can save anybody. That's what Paul thought. That
whatever saves anything. If he can save me, I'll never
forget this story I read about John Newton. This friend of his
came down and he said, John, did you hear about old Sutton
Sutts down there? You remember what a notorious
man he was? I mean, everybody despised him. He said the Lord saved him. And
he said, I'll never despair of salvation again to any man since
he saved him. Old John said, well, I've never
despaired of salvation since God saved me. Oh, you begin to see for the
first time in your life the God of glory making provision for
all sinners in Christ. And you hear about a loving Father.
He's not the judge now, He's the Father. Because you're sons, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart. And what
do you cry? Have a father. Have a father. A loving father. Predestinating
chosen sinners to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. You hear Him bless His holy name
for choosing a people in Christ. Making Him by divine and holy
union one with His people. choosing us in Christ that we
might be holy. I hate to think what I am before
God outside of Christ. An abomination, an absolute abomination. But in Christ I'm holy. You know
what holiness is? It has to do with the wholeness
of God. All of his attributes in perfect
harmony. You're holy in Christ. Everything that makes God, God
is glorified in the sinner in Christ. Everything. You're holy. And you're without blame. There's
no blame to be put on you. He died for our sins. He bore
my justice, my judgment. And here's the third reason.
He said that they might be holy without blame before Him in love. And I used to look at that and
try to figure out how in the world and what in the world did
Christ have to do with me loving God? That's not what that verse
of Scripture is talking about. It's that you might be before
Him being loved. That's what that Scripture means.
Holy without blame before Him being loved. God loves us in
Christ. Outside of Christ He is a concerning
fire. But He loves everyone He put
in Christ. He loves them. He loves them. And He always loves them because
they will always be in Christ. You hear Him bless His holy name
for choosing a people in Christ and making Him by divine and
holy union one with His people. Making Him our head and representative. Making Him our covenant charity. God has a covenant and that covenant
has stipulations. These were the dying words of
David. He said, although it be not so with my house, yet have
God made with me an everlasting covenant. Now listen, ordered
in all things and sure. This is all my salvation, all
my desire. How'd he make it sure? With the
surety. Every stipulation God had was
met in Christ. He's our surety. He's a complete,
and sufficient provision, and in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in him. By grace are you saved, saved
from the curse of your fallen parents, and saved from the curse
of our depraved nature, and saved from an unholy and ungodly world,
saved from the power and influence of satan and satanic religion
and saved from a well-meant but misplaced love of family. Our Lord said, your enemies shall
be those of your own household. You won't tolerate a stranger.
You won't tolerate somebody you meet up here on the street. He
says something, go sideways boy, draw the line, away you go. He
goes his way, you go But your family, you tend to be tolerant,
don't you? Your enemies shall be they of
your own family. They love you, but they love
you with a misplaced love. And they think they're doing
you good. They think they're, I guess, keeping you from a cult,
if they can convince you. Because that's how they see it. By grace are you saved. And then secondly, our text tells
us that it's not of works. I just get so tired of preachers
telling me what to do. Come forward, go back, stand
up, sit down, sign this, do that, pray this, repeat after me. The list is endless. It's not
of works. This thing is the gift of God,
it's not of works. And this is talking about the
works of the flesh, the efforts, actions of ungodly men. The trying
and self-devotion to keep the law and to keep church rules
and statutes. And it also encompasses all the
hour-walking, pledge-taking, promise-making, and church-joining.
that this religious world would have you to do. It's not of works,
lest any man should boast. Give a man a part in the redemptive
work of Christ, he'd brag on it for all eternity. I've heard
them say it. I don't know so much about this
and that, but one thing I can say, no, you don't have anything
to say. You don't have anything to say.
One thing I did, no, no, God wouldn't let you. Because he
knew what you do, you do exactly what you're doing, you're bragging
on it. Many has been a vile sinner
who demanded of himself a separation to the ministry to balance out
his evil life. He called himself into the ministry,
I have to do this because I did that. Usually it concerns some immoral
actions or an adulterous life or some criminal behavior as
a young man. But he remains ignorant. Ignorant
in his religious ideas. And these ideas are a much greater
offense than whatever crime he committed. Do you believe that? When a man commits a religious
sin, it's far greater than drunkenness, violence. When he creates a religious
sin, boy, he's stabbing God in the heart when he does that.
He never tells the drunk this, but he tells these Pharisees
that, you're an abomination before God. It's not of works. Men tell me,
you take the first step, God'll take the rest. You do the best
you can, that'll be good enough with God. It's not of works. He said, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. When the gospel
comes, he said, it's now come without the law. The law's not
even in it. It's not of him that willeth,
he said, nor of him that runneth. It's not of works. It's of God
that showeth mercy. Paul said, we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lust
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating
one another. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Where did it appear? Well, it appeared in Christ.
But it appears in the gospel to men. To whom God will reveal it, it
appears in the gospel. After that the kindness and love
of God our Savior toward man appeared, now listen, not by
works of righteousness which you've done, that's not what
brought it to you. Well I made up my mind I was
going to church, so God revealed the truth to me. It's not other
works. Not other works. And this is what he's saying
here, this appearance of the kindness and love of God our
Savior toward man, it didn't appear by works of righteousness
which we've done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. And then thirdly, it comes to
the sinner this gift of God through faith. By grace are you saved
through faith. Believe. That's what it comes
down to, ain't it? Believe. And this is the good news, the
God spell, the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. God ift in heaven
of its greatest treasure. Paul said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be
of God and not of wealth. I can't change a man, I can't
convince a man of anything, but God can. God can. The very judge and God of their
everlasting ruin is suddenly seen as a loving father sacrificing
his son on their behalf. The hymn writer said, oh the
love that drew salvation's plan and oh the grace that brought
it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span in Calvary, in Calvary. It is an incredible thing how
God takes His holy justice and inflexible righteousness, which
terrorizes the sinner. These things will want to terror
to us. I don't know about you, but I
got a place where I couldn't sleep. I just knew God was gonna
take me any minute. Take me any minute. But He takes
that same justice, and that same holiness, and that same inflexibleness
in Him, and He makes it the very assurance of our salvation. Listen to this, Romans chapter
three, verse 24. being justified freely by His
grace, through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation for our sins, through faith in
His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of our sins,
that God is actually righteous when He forgives you. And he did this in the Old Testament
saints and he does it today to declare his righteousness that
he might be just and the justifier of them that believe on his side. Isn't that something? He takes
that very justice, that very righteousness that made us tremble
in our shoes and makes it our assurance. God's justice has
been satisfied. God cannot twice for sin to man. Can't do it. Can't do it. And so now Paul says this, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. Huh? That bears assurance, isn't
it? Who is he that condemns? Christ
that died. Yea, rather that's risen again,
who's even at the right hand of God. It's by grace through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now let me ask you something.
Is there a stirring in your heart this morning? These things that I've told you
this morning, or read to you this morning, is there a stirring
in your heart? Is there an interest glowing within? Do any of these
things which I've mentioned press upon your souls? Then know this. It is the gift of God. Treat
it that way. Cherish it that way. Take it
with you that way. May the Lord add his blessing
to the preaching of the gospel.