Let's open our Bibles again to
the glorious ninth chapter of the book of Romans. Romans chapter
nine. Now I want us to focus our attention
on verse 16. Here in Romans nine, verse 16,
God, the Holy ghost, with one simple sentence, with just one
simple sentence, He exposes, denounces, and destroys every
form of idolatrous freewill works religion. I know at times you
must wonder, why does the pastor keep hammering away at this? I keep hammering away at this
because I am concerned for your souls and the glory of God. I'm concerned, especially as
I think about the days ahead when God has been pleased to
finish with me and take me out of this world and the congregation
is still standing here. May God be pleased to cause you
to hold fast that form of sound words you've heard from this
pulpit until the day that our Redeemer comes again. Don't be
moved away by the cunning craftiness and slight of men by whom Satan
would deceive you and destroy you and destroy your witness. Romans nine verse 16. So then
it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. So then that's the title of my
message. Paul is beginning to wrap up
his message in the book of Romans. He is summarizing his doctrine
in Romans 9, 16. Here he was inspired by God the
Holy Ghost to give us in one sentence a declaration of the
way God saves sinners. And with these words, I give
you one sentence to summarize my whole doctrine. So then it
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Salvation is not by the will
of man or by the work of man. Salvation is by the will of God
and the work of God. Get that and you won't stray
from truth in any area of Holy Scripture. Salvation is not by
the will of man, nor by the work of man. Salvation is by the will
of God and the work of God. Augustus Toplady died as a young
man, but he was marvelously used of God in Southern England. He
wrote back in the 1700s, Every religion except one puts you
upon doing something in order to recommend yourself to God.
Every religion except one puts you upon doing something in order
to recommend yourself to God. It is the business of all false
religion, top lady said, to patch up a righteousness in which a
sinner is to stand before God. But it is the business of the
gospel to bring near to us, by the hand of the Holy Spirit,
a righteousness ready wrought, a robe of perfection ready made,
wherein God's people, to all the purposes of justification
and happiness, stand perfect and without fault before the
throne. Now I want us this morning to
very briefly examine every aspect of salvation as it's set before
us in Holy Scripture and see if there is anything, any aspect
of salvation that is ascribed to any degree to the work or
the worth or the will of the sinner. Or is every single aspect
of God's salvation ascribed altogether to the work and will and worth
of Jesus Christ our God and our Savior? Let's see what the Scriptures
teach. Many years ago, there was a Camberlite
preacher in town. They had a Camberlite preacher
school. And I think they must have had
roast Fortner 101 for their opening course every first semester of
every year. He wrote an article in the paper,
and he was trying to reprove something I had written. He said,
the Bible says that salvation is by grace, but it never says
salvation is by grace alone. And he was right. The Bible never
says that. It nowhere says salvation is
by grace alone. But everywhere in the book of
God, it declares salvation is by grace alone. That means your
work Your doings, your feelings, your baptism, your sacraments,
your duties, your religion have nothing to do with God's salvation
and God's grace. Now, in order to sort things
out in our minds a little bit, let's look at salvation from
three aspects. First, what God has done for
us. and then what God is doing in
us, and finally, what God shall do with us. First, let's look
back at what God has done for us. Salvation begins in eternity. Long, long before God began his
work of grace in us, he began his marvelous works of grace
for us. If your thoughts about salvation
are in any way limited to time, Your thoughts about salvation
are wrong. Salvation is that which began before the world
was made in the purpose of God our Savior. It includes the past,
the present, and the future. I have been saved, I am being
saved, and I shall be saved. With regard to what God has done
for us, is salvation attributed to the free will of man or to
the free grace of God? Let's see. In surveying this
momentous great work of God called salvation, let's begin where
God began, with election. The eternal election of his people
in Christ. To whom does the book of God
ascribe it? This is what the scripture teaches
us. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory, for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Multitudes tell us that
election, if you have to deal with it at all, has to be understood
in some way as to make it somehow depend on you. Somehow God looked
out into the future with his great telescope of omniscience,
and he saw what you would do. He saw that you would believe.
He saw that you would choose Christ. Therefore, he chose you. If that's the case, then God
takes credit for something he didn't do. And God gets praise
for something that ought to be, of which the praise ought to
be given to you. For salvation was determined even before you
were created by something you would do in time. But that's
not what the scriptures teach. The scriptures teach us that
God chose his people like this, saying, Jacob have I loved. Esau
have I hated. And he did this before the children
were born, having neither done anything good or evil. And the reason he did that, God
tells us right here in Romans chapter 9, was that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. by Him who does
the saving, by Him who does the calling. So we join together
in saying, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could
not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hast thou not chosen me? My heart owns none before thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first.'" Hear the testimony of God. Turn
over to Romans chapter 11. Verse five. Even so then at this present
time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if by grace, then there's no more of works. Otherwise grace
is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Folks, that's confusing to me. I don't know why. Two
things cannot occupy the same place at the same time. If you
put something here in the place of this clock, nothing else can
be there. Only that which is in that place
can be there. If you put works in this place
of salvation, you push grace altogether out. It cannot be
a work both of grace on God's part and work on your part. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Yes,
bless God, there is a remnant, a remnant who must be saved.
It is a remnant according to the election of grace, and it
is by grace and not of works. Grace ceases to be grace unless
it is totally and absolutely irrespective of anything and
everything, whether good or bad, in the object of grace. In other
words, God's grace is absolutely unconditional, absolutely free. God's choice of his people in
Christ Jesus was altogether a choice of love, a choice of sovereignty
made by God's will and God's will alone. God's next work of
grace for us is revealed in what the scriptures describe as an
everlasting covenant, an everlasting covenant of grace ordered in
all things. And sure, David spoke of it in
2 Samuel 23, verse five. Are the blessings of that covenant,
the covenant made between God, the Father, God, the Son, and
God, the Holy Spirit, with our divine mediator, the Lord Jesus
Christ, conditioned upon works that we would perform? Or is
it a covenant of unconditional grace and a covenant that's immutably
sure, a covenant not determined by man's free will, but by God's
sovereign will? Are repentance and faith, obedience
and perseverance conditions of the covenant? Oh no, no, no.
They are fruits of the covenant. The scriptures speak very plainly.
Turn to Hebrews chapter eight. There are many places where we
read about this covenant, but in Hebrews chapter eight, the
apostle writes by inspiration, summarizing in the New Testament
to God's Israel, his church, that covenant which God made
with Abraham and with the children of Israel in the Old Testament.
He's telling us that Jeremiah's prophecy was talking about the
covenant of grace, which we have brought to us and made new to
us and sealed to our hearts by God, the Holy Spirit, when he
gives us faith in Christ. Hebrews 8 verse 8. Finding fault
with them, he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that
I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued
not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. You
remember when God brought Israel out of Egypt and he brought them
to Mount Sinai and he gave them the law. And then he gives us
from Exodus 20 through the end of the book of Deuteronomy, continual
instructions in the law that he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai.
And in that law, God said, do this and I'll bless you. Do this,
and I'll curse you. Do this, and you'll benefit.
Do this, and you'll be injured. Do this, and I'll have you. Do
this, and I'll cast you away. It was a covenant of law. The
children of Israel said, you go speak to God for us, and what
God says, you bring it back to us and tell us, and we'll do
it. And Moses went and got the law from God, and he came back
and said, this is God's law. Israel said, well, we'll do that.
We'll do that. We can obey God. And the first
thing you read about is them dancing naked around a golden
calf in defiance of God. No, no, no. Man cannot obey God. Man cannot perform righteousness. Man cannot do good. It's not
within the realm of possibility because his heart is evil, depraved,
and corrupt. Read on what he says about this
covenant. Verse 10, Hebrews 8. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord, this new covenant. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them
a God and they shall be to me a people. What does that mean? Read Romans chapters 1 and 2
and you will find that God's commandments, God's laws, were
written on the heart and conscience of every man by creation. There's
not a man in the world who doesn't know that adultery is wrong.
There's not a man in the darkest, most remote part of the world
who doesn't know that theft is wrong. There's not a human being
who doesn't know that lying is wrong. There's no one who doesn't
recognize and understand that murder is wrong. Everywhere you
go in the world throughout the ages of history, you see evidence
of God's law written on the minds of men. So man by nature knows
what God requires. He knows what's right and wrong. By those things, God controls
men in their behavior in this world in some measure. But that's
not the law he's talking about here. That's not it. What's he
talking about? He says, I'll write my laws on their minds
and put it in their hearts. He's talking about a new nature.
He's talking about regeneration, the new birth. In the new birth,
God comes in grace and gives sinners to be made partakers
of the divine nature, a new man created in us in righteousness
and in true holiness. which can not sin because it's
born of God. And that new man is that man
created in the image of Jesus Christ, the image of God, our
Savior. This law is written on our minds
so that he says, I'll be to them a God and they shall be to me
a people. Verse 11. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the
greatest. Everyone born of God knows God. God reveals himself in them and
to them by Christ Jesus. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. This covenant of grace, this
everlasting covenant, is a covenant God established before the world
was, by his own decree, made between the persons of the triune
Godhead with our God-man mediator, Jesus Christ the Lord. He, the
surety of the covenant, struck hands with the Father, and the
Lord God trusted everything into the hands of his Son. When we
are saved by God's grace, We come into the experience of that
which God did for us before the world was. We don't in any way
determine what God's going to do, but rather we come to experience
what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. Someone suggested many,
many years ago that the preaching of the gospel is like the reading
of the wheel. God has made his covenant called
his will in Hebrews 9 and his testament in Hebrews 9. And we
come preaching the gospel and simply declare to sinners the
testament, the will of God's grace. This testament that was
ratified and put into force by the death of the testator, Christ
Jesus, who now sits upon the throne to fulfill his will, his
testament, his purpose, his covenant for his people. And I come and
preach the gospel, and as God speaks by his word to you, oh,
I pray he will, If he never has, I pray he will this day. He speaks
to you the word of your salvation and causes you to believe that's
what God's salvation is. We come to read the will of our
elder brother. I love the factual story I've
often told you. During the days of Scottish covenanters
when there was such great persecution by Bloody Mary, one morning a
young believing girl was going to one of the secret meetings
of the local church and she was able to see at a distance some
of the soldiers coming. always looking for someone to
imprison because of the faith of the gospel. And she asked
God to give her wisdom to answer the soldiers when they questioned
her, not to forsake what she knew to be true. And they came
to her and asked her who she was and where she was going.
She gave them her name. She said, Our elder brother has
died and I'm going to a gathering of the family for the reading
of his will. That's what we do when we come
to hear God's word. Our elder brother has ratified
the covenant. He put it in force by his death
as the testator. And now we come to hear what
he has given us in his Testament. This covenant established in
eternity, ratified and put into force at Calvary is proclaimed
by the gospel. And we being called by God's
grace, receive the covenant and all its blessings by faith. and
the faith by which we receive it is also in the covenant, the
gift of God. So what do we say with regard
to God's covenant and his grace and the blessings of it in Christ
Jesus? Is the covenant established upon
the will of man or the will of God? The will of God. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. And then Something else God has
done for us is atonement. Atonement by the precious blood
of his darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Few people in this world understand
this. Few people in this world understand
this. Very few people sitting where
you sit right now under the sound of a man preaching from the Word
of God understand this. Very few people understand it.
See that you do. When Christ died to redeem, he
actually did redeem. He didn't just make it possible.
When Christ died to make atonement, he actually did make atonement. He didn't just make it possible.
When Christ died to make propitiation, he actually did make propitiation. He didn't just make it possible.
When Christ died to reconcile sinners to himself, he actually
did reconcile sinners to himself. He didn't just make it possible.
Christ's death at Calvary was the full satisfaction of divine
justice, for all the sins of his people made his when he died
in our stead. Listen to the word of God. For
he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. The Lord God Almighty gathered all the sins of his
elect through all the ages of time from the fall of Adam to
the last breath of man upon God's creation and piled them together
in one massive hideous heap and laid them on his son and more. He charged them to his son because
his son was made sin for us. And when his son was made sin
for us, God Almighty drew forth the sword of justice and buried it in his son. He swallowed up the wrath of
God for his people. so that God declares, fury is
not in me, to Jacob. He declares to the redeemed sons
of Jacob, fury is not in me. The death of Christ. is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. And the results of our Savior's
death, the fruit of his death, is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The Lord
Jesus Christ, with his own blood, entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. To deny the
efficacy of Christ's blood, to deny that he actually redeemed
his people from their sins, to deny that every sinner for whom
Christ died at Calvary shall be with him in glory is as blasphemous
a denial of the eternal God as to deny that Jesus Christ is
the virgin born son of God. For you declare his impotence,
not his omnipotence. You declare his inability, not
his ability. You declare his shame, not his
glory, when you say he tried to do what he failed to do. That
cannot be. That cannot be. Our Lord Jesus
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That is, he
died by the will of God as a substitute in the room and place of his
people and accomplished the purpose for which he died. Those people
for whom he died are redeemed. "'Tis done, the great transaction's
done. "'I am my Lord's and He is mine. "'Redeemed sinners in heaven,
"'say, Thou art worthy, O Lamb of God, "'for Thou hast redeemed
us. "'And redeemed sinners on earth
say, "'Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, "'but unto Thy name
give glory, "'for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake.'" Now second,
turn to Titus chapter three. Titus chapter three. Let's briefly
consider what God is doing in us. Oh, thank God for what He's done
for us. To God be the glory, great things He hath done. But
let's look at what God is doing in us. Titus chapter 3, verse
4. After that, the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, But according to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior,
that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Now, this is the experimental
part of salvation. This is the experimental part
of salvation. What do you mean, Pastor? This
is that aspect of God's grace that we come to experience in
time. It is what we know by experience. It is what we know because it
is wrought in us. And be sure you hear what I'm
saying. The experimental part of salvation is just as necessary
as God's eternal accomplishments in the covenant and Christ's
accomplishments at Calvary in redemption. Those who are chosen
of God must be redeemed, and those who are redeemed must be
born again by the Spirit of God. There is no life No salvation
apart from this experimental aspect of salvation as well.
Hear what God says concerning it. It is the spirit that quickeneth. It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing.
You hath he quickened. You hath he made alive who were
dead in trespasses and in sins. Not asleep, not just sick, not
just unconscious, dead, dead, dead, dead. There are no degrees of deadness,
dead. That means you had no ability,
no life, no passions, no desires, no aspiration, no knowledge of
anything righteous, holy, and spiritual. Dead, dead. And when the Lord God came, he
said, I saw you naked, polluted in your own blood, cast out from
your mother's womb, defiled, corrupt, dead. There you lay,
a rotting, aborted carcass in the open field. And I passed
by thee, and behold, thy time was the time of love, and I spread
my skirt over thee, and I said unto thee, live. Yea, I said
unto thee, live, and thou becamest man. That's how God saves sinners. Can these bones live? He said
to Ezekiel. Ezekiel said, Lord, you know.
He said, well, preach to the bones. And Ezekiel began to prophesy
to the bones. And the bones stood up. Bone joined the bone, and flesh
came upon the bones. And God said, that's what I'll
do with the whole house of Israel. I'll raise you from the dead. That's God's marvelous work of
grace. Every aspect of it is by God's
work, by God's grace, by God's will. No aspect is ascribed to
us. We experience the conviction
of sin, Holy Ghost conviction. of righteousness and of judgment. These are the works of God. The
works of God the Holy Spirit. Conviction is not just the Holy
Spirit comes and he tugs and pulls and strains and strives
and he's trying to get you to accept Jesus. That's not conviction. The word spoken of in John 16,
when it speaks of the Holy Spirit convincing men of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment, that's the word convince. Convince. Convince. When God comes in grace,
He comes and convinces you of your sin because of unbelief.
He convinces you of righteousness accomplished by Christ. He convinces
you of judgment finished by Christ because He shows Christ in you. He reveals Christ in you, and
you find yourself believing on Him. You see, faith, it is A choice we make, indeed it is. It is the exercise of our will,
indeed it is, indeed it is, but not initially, not initially. We come to Him because He comes
to us. We believe Him because He works
faith in us. It's called the operation of
God in Colossians 2. It's the operation of God. It
is his work in us. We choose him because he chose
us. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. Thank God for the
blessed gift of grace that gives us faith in Christ Jesus. Well,
what about good works? What about good works? We're
supposed to do good works. Not only supposed to, but God
tells us if we're born again, we shall. Good works. Good works. Well, that requires
effort on our part. It does indeed. It does indeed. But the effort on our part is
the result of God's good work of grace in us, not in any way
the cause of it. God has before ordained that
we should walk in good works. And he sees to it that those
who are born of God walk in good works, trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ. The fruit of the Spirit, love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance,
those things are gifts of God's grace in us causing God's people
in this world to live in this body of flesh, looking to Christ,
trusting Christ, seeking Christ, and seeking the will and honor
of Christ. But we must persevere. Yes, the
righteous shall hold on his way. But we persevere in grace because
God perseveres in grace. We persevere in faith because
God holds us in faith. We hold him because he holds
us. I can't think about God's grip
of grace upon us without thinking about Grandchildren, you know,
it's just the natural prerogative and responsibility of grandparents
to do things to annoy their children when they have children. And
when Will and Audrey Grace were babies, Faith was so scared,
you're going to hurt those babies. They're going to slip. They're
going to fall. And I'd take them and swing them. I'd just swing
them. You know how you take those babies,
just grab them by the head and swing them. And Faith's sitting
there cringing. She's just cringing. And I'm
laughing inside the whole time. And Will is holding on with all
his might. But his little old fingers wouldn't
even wrap around my finger. His security. was not his hold
on me. His security was my hold on him. And your security is not your
hold on God. Your security is God's hold on
you. We're in his grip. Thank God
we are. Thank God we are. But preacher,
what about sanctification? We've surely got something to
do with sanctification. Well, let's see if that's so.
Let's see if that's so. Sanctification is holiness. I
know folks like to say, Fortner's confused, he doesn't know the
difference between sanctification and justification. Well, I know
a little bit about it. I know a little bit about it.
I know wherein they differ and I know wherein they agree. Both
sanctification and justification are the works of God in us and
for us, not our works for God. To be sanctified is to be made
a saint. Now listen carefully, I've said
this before, I want you to get it. The word sanctify is used
six times in the New Testament. The word sanctification is used
five times. The word sanctified is used 16
times. That's 27 times altogether in
the New Testament you find those words. You reckon how many of
them, how many of those 27 places Is sanctification spoken of as
something that's dependent on you, or done by you, or performed
by you, or in any way made better by you? Not a single one. We're sanctified by the will
of God, we're sanctified by the word of God, we're sanctified
by the blood of Christ, we're sanctified by faith in Christ,
but nowhere do the scriptures speak of us sanctifying ourselves.
Sanctification is God's work of grace in us in regeneration,
making us to be partakers of the divine nature. So with regard
to all of God's work of grace in us, all of it, from the first
signs of faith to the last breath of holiness in this world. It
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Now, think for a minute about
what God shall do with us. The Lord's not yet done with
us. There are a few things yet to be done, but blessed be God,
none of them depend on us. Soon, God our Savior will bring
us safely across the swelling Jordan into our heavenly Canaan. And in the song of Moses in Exodus
15, we're told with regard to all our enemies, as we cross
over the Jordan, they shall be as still as a stone until they
pass over. As still as a stone. Our dear
Savior, who has led us through this wilderness of life, will
not leave us on the edge of the river. Rather, he will bring
us into the land of rest, that heavenly city standing before
us built upon a foundation of grace, entered by a door of grace,
which is our inheritance of grace. My dear friend, Brother Darrell
McClung, Now, Shelby and I went to see him shortly before the
Lord took him home. He was dying of cancer. He'd
been a dear friend for a long, long time. The last words I remember
him speaking were these. I wrote them down. Thank God
for that man in heaven. Thank God for Christ. Oh, how
I thank God for the blood of Christ. I'm still looking for
that man in heaven. Soon we shall see him. Our Lord will graciously sustain
his own in the hour of death. And then in the resurrection
day, our Lord Jesus Christ will complete his work of grace for
us, in us and with us. There will be a glorious resurrection.
These bodies raised in his likeness. Do you think about that a good
bit? I get lost in wonder thinking
about it. These bodies may liken to his
glorious body. Resurrection glory is something
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the
heart of man the things which God's prepared for his people
in Christ Jesus. And then there will be a glorious
judgment. When I was preparing this message,
I thought, how do I present this like ought to? Everybody is taught
to be terrified of the Day of Judgment. Terrified. Some of you were raised in churches
where they talk about Judgment Day as if God's going to get
out a great big projector and he's going to have a great wide
screen and he's going to show everything you ever thought and
did to the whole world. What stupidity, what nonsense. Oh no, our God has wiped away
our sins. And for God's saints, Judgment
Day will be a glorious day. You see, Judgment Day will not
be a day when God decides who gets to heaven. It will not be
a day by which it's determined whether you've done enough and
your good works outweigh your sins, or whether your sins outweigh
your good works. No, no, no, no, no, no. Judgment
Day will be a day of revelation. And God will make known to all
creation the right of his saints to enter into glory, and the
justice of his wrath in casting the unbelieving into hell. Every
man shall receive from God exactly his due, exactly what he has
earned, either in Christ his representative in surety, which
is life everlasting, or in yourself by your own deeds, which is nothing
but sin. To those on his right hand, the
Lord God will say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. I couldn't dream that, let alone
believe it, let alone declare it, if it weren't written in
this book. How can God say that to Don Fortner? How can God say that to me? Well
done, thou good and faithful servant. I've never done anything
good in my life. The best service I've rendered
to anybody had been self-service. I'm ashamed of it, but it's fact.
The best service I've ever rendered to God has been in horrible reality,
service to God. the very best of it. My service
to God is performed with these hands, dripping with blood, covered
with filth. I'll hide them from him. But
God says, well done, thou good and faithful servant. How? Because
God sees me as I really am. only in his son. And all that
his son has done, I've done in him. Thank you, my father. Thank you,
my father. And he says to those on his left
hand, who dare stand before him in their own goodness and righteousness,
saying, look here what we've done for God. depart from me,
ye that work iniquity, I never knew you." Oh yes, Judgment Day
will be a glorious day. Now turn to Jude verse 24. I'll
wrap this up. There'll be a glorious resurrection
and a glorious judgment and a glorious presentation. Then come at the
end, the Lord Jesus, God's servant, will present all his own before
the Father's throne in the perfection of his righteousness and say,
lo, I and the children which thou has given me, they're holy
and without blame. Look at June 24. Now unto him
that is able to present, to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Oh, my soul. The Lord Jesus,
for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising
the shame. What's that joy? He's gonna take
you. He's gonna take you. You who
are redeemed by his blood, saved by his grace, and with joy in
his soul, present you faultless before the presence of his glory.
To the only wise God and our Savior be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. And in heaven's eternal, everlasting
glory, this shall be our endless song of praise. Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? It is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. Amen. How long let's have a hymn.