Everyone pretty much readily
admits, in this day and time, that they were saved by grace.
Did you make a decision to believe God, or did God make a decision
to save you? Foreknowing, electing, and predestinating
you to be conformed unto the image of His beloved Son. the
Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says, before the
world began. That's the teaching of the Bible. This is a question
with life and death consequences. And if you think for a minute,
dear friends, that God desired to save you, but you had to add
your will to the equation in order to be saved, then you believe
in a free will works religion. And I'm confident now when I
say that you, in your decision, will make that decision your
salvation. I've seen it way too many times.
As a matter of fact, I did that for years. I put some stock in
walking down an aisle and saying a prayer and being baptized. I knew the date, the time, the
hour. That was my salvation until God
showed me the difference. It's only He that makes a difference.
I have decided to follow Jesus, men say. I made a decision on
such and such a date. And if that is what you believe,
that salvation was somehow dependent upon something that you added
to the equation, then I tell you this morning, plainly and
simply, that you're yet lost. Well, that seems harsh. God saves
by grace and grace alone. Anything added to grace, grace
becomes something other than grace. In other words, grace
is a free gift that God bestowed upon you and caused you to believe. But I chose to believe, you might
say, so isn't that a decision? No, that's grace. That's grace.
People who claim to have made a decision are saying that God
wanted to save them, but they had to help Him. That's what
they're saying. You're saying that He couldn't
save you apart from your will to be saved. If that's what you
believe, you've yet to see the God of this Bible. That is nothing
more than self-righteous thinking that endeavors to dethrone God
Almighty. God says whom he wills, apart
from any involvement by the sinner. God said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Where in that passage of Romans
9.15, I'm asking you sincerely, Where in that passage do you
see your involvement in any way? Did God say, I will have mercy
on those who will let me save them? He said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. Did God say, I'll have mercy
on those that give their hearts to Jesus? No, that's not what
He said. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. He said, I'll have mercy and
I'll have compassion and on some I'll harden. To those of you
that were in the Sunday School Hour this morning, this is probably
going to sound very familiar. And my text this morning will
be from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. But if you would
first turn with me to Ephesians 1. And while you're turning,
let me say this. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 13, but we are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath,
God hath, did you hear that? God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. What is the beginning that is
spoken of in that verse? Well, it was the beginning of
the beginnings. In Ephesians 1-4, look at it,
"...according as He hath chosen us and Him." When? Before the foundation of the
world. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him and love. God chose you before you were
ever made, so what could you have had to do with it? Our Lord
said in John 17, 9, we read it a moment ago, I pray for them. Who's He speaking of there? His
people. He said, I pray not for the world. What kind of God would
love the whole world and die to save the whole world and then
not pray for them? He said, I pray for them, those
that he gave Christ before the world began. Pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. We belong to God, friends. He's
our creator. He's the one that formed us.
He's the one that gives us life and paid the sin debt by the
death of his own beloved son. Oh, we bought with a price and
we belong to him and him alone. So when did God give His people
to Christ? Before the foundation of the
world. Before the world was ever made. Now some of you men know
something about building. About building a house. And when
a builder builds a house, what's the first thing that is done?
The foundation. Before there is a foundation,
the house has not been started. Now you may have moved some dirt,
cleared out a spot, but the house is built on the foundation. When
they start building, the first thing the homeowner says is,
hey, they started my house. They laid the foundation to my
house today. God chose and saved His people
in Christ before the foundation of the world was laid. So what
does man's decision or man's will have to do with being saved?
We were saved before the foundation of the world because Christ,
now listen, Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world, Revelation 13. And there will be some that say,
well, but he only died 2,000 years ago in Calvary. That's
true. It was over 2,000 years ago that
they crucified the Lord of Glory by their wicked hands, but in
the mind and the heart of God. Now listen to me. He was slain
as God's sacrificial lamb before the worlds were ever made. And
He was the sacrificial lamb slain for His people who were chosen
in Him at that same time. What a mystery. What a mystery.
And the child of God just believes it because God says it. You see,
if it's in God's heart, it is His purpose and according to
the counsel of His own will. And God elected and chose those
that He would redeem. And my will and yours had nothing
Now, brother, why are you harping on that? Because to believe that
is to have a false salvation. It's a matter of life and death.
Who saved you? Did God save you or did you save
yourself? It's a very important question.
I love the passage in Psalm 115.3. I think on it often. But our
God, our God, He seems to distinguish, David does, His God from other
gods, and rightly so, because there are a lot of little g-gods
that are preached today that aren't the God of the Bible. David said, Our God is in the
heavens and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. I just love
that wonderful truth. My God. The God of heaven and
earth. He's in the heavens and He does
as He pleases, how He pleases, when He pleases, to whom He pleases.
And I find great comfort in that. Don't you? And God was pleased
to predestinate, choose, call, and redeem a people who hated
Him without a cause. Christ Jesus came into the world
to do what? Save sinners. And the Apostle
Paul said, of whom I am chief. Believers will not argue that
they made a decision or exercised their free will in order to be
saved, but they will argue that when it comes to sin, they're
the worst of the worst. I've told you that many times,
but you know it to be so. When God shows you your sin,
reveals to you the depth of your depravity, we know because we
live with ourselves. We know what comes forth from
the heart. It's deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. And the scripture says, who can
know it? Well, we can't even know it as we ought, but God
can. And God does. And thank God He takes out that
stony heart and puts within us a heart of flesh that believes
Him, believes His Word. Salvation is of the Lord. By
grace are you saved. through faith. I did a wedding
one time several years ago at a big free will Baptist church,
and I'm not picking on free will Baptist churches. I attended
one all my life. I feel like I have somewhat of
a right to say this. There was a big banner hung across
the door that said, let go and let God. Let go and let God. Let God? How are we going to
let God when he does what he pleases? That's contrary to everything
in the Holy Scriptures. Everything. Do men and women
really believe that they can let God do something? Can we
give God permission to save us? That's what men say. Well, you
know, God has cast a vote for you. Satan's cast a vote for
you. The final decision is your vote. Your vote makes the difference.
Now, you vote right and you let God save you. That's not my God. My God has mercy on whom He'll
have mercy. Grace means unmerited favor,
undeserved favor. Let's go make that harder than
what it is. What some men call grace is not
grace at all. And if salvation depends on something
that you have done, then it's not unmerited and it ceases to
be grace. And it becomes works. Men and
women by nature love to hear about work's religion. They just
do. You know why? Pride. Because
it endeavors to take all the glory away from God and put it
on themselves. Now I want to consider just for
a few minutes this morning two verses of Scripture. And this
is what Paul said or wrote by the divine inspiration of God.
Turn over a page to Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. Ephesians
2. Look at the first six words,
for, by, grace, are you saved? For by grace are you saved. Saved by grace. Through faith. And that not of yourselves. Do men and women just skip over
these verses? Do they just read them without
giving any thought at all to what they're saying? That is
not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man boast. I'm going to tell you something,
friends. This is my hope. I only regret that I can't tell
you with more of my heart, that I can't show you with more zeal
and knowledge. But I will tell you this is my
hope, and I'll tell you why the best I can. I don't want to be
saved by works, because my work then requires perfection, and
I can't provide that. I want to be saved by grace.
God requires of me what I cannot provide. I don't want to be saved
by works. I want to be saved by grace.
This is why I love grace. Grace is Christ doing for me
what God requires and which I cannot do. I cannot do what God requires. I don't have the ability in salvation. It's the free favor and grace
of God who saves us. Let me ask, why should any despair. Seriously, you think about that.
If salvation be altogether the free favor and grace of God and
Christ alone, who among us should dare despair? If salvation be
of mercy and grace only, it is clear that our sin is by no means
a hindrance to our salvation. You see, now if God required
justice because of our transgression of the law, And if you desire
to try to keep the law to be saved, then your salvation is
utterly impossible because you can't do it. However, if the
Lord deals with us in grace and in mercy and says, I will forgive
them freely, then that very promise is given to me regardless of
my sin. Oh, I wish I could explain it
like it deserves to be explained. If the Lord speaks of mercy,
that very word proves that we're guilty. Who needs mercy but those
that are guilty? Grace is God giving the sinner
what they don't deserve. I don't deserve grace. That's
what makes it grace! It's unmerited. It's undeserved. I don't deserve it. That's why
it's grace. And mercy is not giving me what
I do deserve, which is condemnation. The justice of God and my offending
of the law justly should send me to hell. But mercy is God
not doing that. I want grace and mercy, don't
you? That's what gives me hope. The very statement that we are
saved by grace strongly, strongly implies that we are fit objects
for grace. And who are fit objects for grace
but the guilty, the wretched, the condemned. The law stops
our mouths. The scriptures say all the world
comes guilty before God. There's not a one of us that
does good. There's none righteous, no not
one. We all need grace. We all need it. The law stops
our mouths and makes us silently own up to the fact that we're
guilty before God. But the gospel opens the mouth
of the dumb by declaring that Christ died for the ungodly. and that he came into the world
to save sinners. If mercy comes to me by the sovereign
will and purpose of God, dear friends, then sin is swallowed
up and forgiveness and unworthiness ceases to be an obstacle for
God's redeeming love. I want to be clear here. I want
to be comforting. If we're saved by grace, as God
through Paul declares, then regardless, now this is important, please
hear this, then regardless of how horrific our sin be, it's
not the issue. It's not the issue, for in divine
mercy and sovereign grace, my sin is forgiven. It's forgiven
in the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the issue for
in divine mercy and sovereign grace, my sin is forgiven. Forgiven
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because He laid down His
life. Shed His blood. Being perfectly
holy and righteous, He became sin for us. Then at the same
time, God gave us in Him that perfect righteousness and holiness
that He required. That substitution and that salvation. There are many who are in deep
despair, even as we speak. who, if they could, get a hold
of this blessed message of grace, could and would be set free once
for all. But there are many who desire
and struggle to be redeemed, but with terror in their conscience,
there arises just maybe one particular crime, one particular sin that
closes the gates and shuts them out of salvation. So they think. They say, oh, you don't know
what I've done. It doesn't matter if I know. God knows. But dear
sinner, it cannot be so if salvation be of grace. Because whatever
the sin may be, regardless of what the sin is, its greatness
will only serve to illustrate the great grace of God. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Undeserved mercy can pardon one
sin as well as another. Undeserved mercy can pardon all
sin, every sin. If God acted on the rule of merit,
now listen, if God determined salvation to be on the rule of
merit with us, then no sin would be pardonable under any circumstance. But when He deals with us in
the way of grace, He can pass by any offense for which we seek
forgiveness. There's nothing that God cannot
forgive. Nothing that He will not forgive,
if you ask His forgiveness for it. And trust Christ to have
paid your sin debt. Tell me, Galatians 4.21 says,
You that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?
Don't you hear what the law is saying? Other than pride. Why would anyone desire to be
under the law when God has given grace in Christ? Why would anyone? Only pride is the only reason
I can think of. I'm going to work this out myself.
Well, you can't and you won't. Do you not hear the law and its
demands of perfection? Do you really desire to seek
mercy at Mount Sinai? I don't. No, sir, not me. By
grace, I'll look to the Christ on Mount Calvary, where he prays
in agony and pain, Forgive them, for they know not what they do."
That's grace. If salvation be of pure mercy
only, why should not God forgive 10,000 sins as well as one? And one old preacher said, the
Lord's mercy is a sea which cannot be filled, though mountains of
sin be cast in its midst. It's like Noah's flood, he said,
which covers all and drowns even the mountaintops of heaven-defying
sins. Christ died for all the sins
of all his elect throughout all time. The old songwriter wrote,
in depth of mercy can there be mercy still reserved for me?
Yes sirree. Yes sirree. There's mercy still
reserved for you. You see, in this thing of salvation,
God gets the glory. Man doesn't get the glory. Man
doesn't deserve the glory. Man didn't do anything. And on
the opposite end of the spectrum, let me just speak to you about
this for a minute or so. There are some here this morning
that have not yet seen sin as a horrible condition. There are
some here this morning that trust in their morality. They're kind
and friendly folks. They're forgiving and merciful
to others. They're generous, always willing
to help those in need. They don't talk bad about folks.
Always looking for a kind word to say. But Christ, the Great
Physician, did not come to help those in spiritually good health.
He came to help the sick. He did not come to call the righteous,
those good in their own sight, but sinners to repentance. Those that are well have no need
of a physician, our Lord said, but those that are sick. Don't
let your morality, your goodness stand in the way of grace. Men
and women are saved by grace. Look at our text again. For by
grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. To see yourselves as basically
good. You're saved by grace. Grace
is for the wicked. Redemption, complete reconciliation
to God. Being brought back into fellowship
with God is not in and of yourself. It's God's gift to you. Not by
works, lest any man should boast." Two men went up to the temple
to pray. You know the story well. One
was a Pharisee and one was a publican. One was the most religious, moral,
highly respected in the Jewish circle of religion, and the other
was just a tax collector who cheated and stole. But they both
went up to the temple and prayed. And the Pharisee stood, and the
scripture says that he prayed thus with himself. I don't believe
God heard him. He was praying with himself.
And what did he say? He said, God, I thank you. He
didn't say, I thank you for your grace and your mercy which redeems
me and Christ doing for me what I cannot do for myself. He began
to thank God and say that I am not as other men are. I thank
you I'm not like other men. It would be like me saying this
morning, Lord, I am so thankful that I'm not like Glenn. That's
just hypocritical, isn't it? I thank you that I'm not as other
men. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
unjust. I'm not an adulterer. Or even
this publican. I fast twice in a week. I give
tithes of all that I possess. I'm a good and moral person. I didn't come to call the righteous.
I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. This
is what our Lord said. And the publicans. Scripture
says, standing afar off would not lift up so much as eyes unto
heaven. That's so with God's people.
We're undeserving and we know it. We know that we don't deserve
it. Therefore we don't boast in any
works that we've done because we have done no works. We can
do no works. that would merit God's satisfaction. But this old publican, he's smote
on his breast. I can just see him, can't you?
It's like he's saying, Lord, take out this old heart of mine
and give me a new one. Oh, take it out. Be merciful
to me, a sinner. Now, if that's your prayer this
morning, you've got good hope. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Our Lord said, I tell you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalted to himself shall be abased, and he that humbled
himself shall be exalted. Friends, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Are you a sinner?
If God has shown you that you're a full-fledged, good-for-nothing
wretch, then His grace is for you. And it's by grace through
faith that you're saved. That's what our text tells us.
God's grace gives us the faith to believe. Isn't that amazing?
For by grace are you saved through faith. It's grace that God gives
in order for us to have faith to believe it. And now to sum
up all in a word, there is no circumstance or incident, not
anything connected with any man or woman that can shut him out
of the hope if he seeks forgiveness through the Savior's blood. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. that can
keep you from being reconciled to God, except unbelief. I will
not have Him to rule over me. Whoever you may be, regardless
of what you've done, grace can come and save you. Do you want
grace? Do you desire grace? Do you see
your need of grace? Let me ask it another way. Do
you want Christ? Grace is found in Him. Do you
desire Christ? That's where God's grace is.
Do you see your need of Christ? Guess what? I've got good news.
If you answered yes to those questions, then you've already
received grace. It took a work of grace in your
heart to be able to say that you want Christ, desire Christ,
and see your need of Christ. God's already done a work of
grace. Isn't that wonderful? Only God can give grace in the
Lord Jesus Christ who died for those that the Father gave Him,
and He will lose nothing, no, not a one, He said. All that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. You're safe in the shepherd's
fold, friends. You're safe. No chance of being
lost. No man can pluck you from the
hand that holds you in sovereign power. Always remember where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. For as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then?
Paul says, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer therein? When God saves you by His grace,
these are my last words, you're going to hate the sin that you're
now dead to. You are. You're going to hate
it. The child of God hates their sin and they love their Savior. You know why? Because He paid
their debt. I owed a debt that I couldn't
pay. He paid a debt he didn't know. You see, I needed someone
to take my sin away. May God give you the grace to
trust Him and Him alone.