Recently, a lady asked me what
the name of our church was, and I told her it was called Sovereign
Grace Church. She said, I know what grace is,
but what is sovereign grace? And I told her it was the only
kind of grace that there was. I said, the Bible teaches that
God has mercy on whom he'll have mercy. And He'll have compassion
on whom He'll have compassion. And whom He will, He hardens. So today, I just want to talk
to you as simply and plainly as I can about what is grace. What is grace? To many, it's
a name that parents give to their child. To others, it's something
that they say when they sit down at the table to eat. There are many that use that
word grace frequently in sermons and in Sunday school lessons,
but when you listen close, it really isn't grace at all. Especially if you know what grace
really is. I've heard so many people in
my lifetime say, I believe that salvation is by grace and grace
alone. And then they say, but I had
to accept it. That's not grace. That is not
grace. Others think that God bestows
His marvelous grace if you do this or that. Well, that's not
grace either. Grace has nothing to do with
anything that you do. Grace is a perfection of God's
divine character, which is exercise. Now listen, don't get mad at
this. This is what the Word of God teaches, which is exercise
only toward the elect and chosen of God. Our Lord said in John
15, He said, You've not chosen Me. But I have chosen you, my,
to think that God Himself chose me." That doesn't make me proud,
that humbles me. Neither the Old or the New Testament
is the grace of God ever mentioned in connection with mankind in
general. Grace is always distinguished
from mercy. Two different things. For the
mercy of God, Psalm 145 verse 9 says, is over all His works.
Let me see if I can explain that. God, every day, gives mercy to
thousands simply because, first of all, His rain falls on the
just and the unjust. The unjust don't deserve the
provisions of God. But God gives him. His mercy
is over all his works. His mercy is shown daily by his
longsuffering to the wicked. God would be just in taking a
wicked man and immediately sending him to hell. But God has longsuffering
and that shows forth the mercy of God Almighty. Now, grace is
giving us what we do not deserve. We've talked about this many
times, but it's very important. Grace is giving us what we do
not deserve. And mercy is God not giving us
what we do deserve. There's a difference. God, every
second of every day, God is showing mercy by His sovereign provisions
and giving men and women good things that they do not deserve.
but it's grace. And grace alone which flows the
goodwill, the love, the salvation of God into His chosen people.
So let's make that distinction first and foremost. Grace is
the eternal and absolute free favor of God. Free favor of God. And it's manifested in the eternal
blessings to the guilty and the unworthy. Is there any here this
morning that are guilty and unworthy? You're a candidate for God's
grace. That's right. You're a candidate.
I've come to call the sick. Those that are not sick have
no need of a physician. Are you sick this morning? Do
you have that loathsome disease called sin? Has God shown it
to you? You're a candidate for grace
if He has. But if you've got some merit
or feel you've earned something because of some good work in
you, then grace is not given to you. It's just that simple. Grace is only bestowed and given
to those who have no merit and deserve nothing but eternal hell. You see, grace is not only unmerited,
dear friends, but it's unsought. We don't seek for grace by nature
and it's most definitely unattractive to the one or whom it's bestowed
to. Grace found me. I wasn't seeking
it. I had no desire for it. But it
found me. It can't be bought. It can't
be earned. It can't be won. For if it could,
it would cease to be grace. It would cease to be a gift. Oh, I've come to see what a gift
it is. When something is said to be
of grace, we mean that the recipient doesn't have any claim on it.
That it was in no wise due him, earned by him, merited by him.
It comes to him as pure charity. Oh, and at first it's unasked
for and it's undesired. But once God gives it and shows
us that it's a gift of Him, then we desire it and we ask for it,
don't we? But in the beginning we didn't.
Now if you're still turned to Ephesians chapter 2, let's look
at verses 8 and 9. And most of you can quote these
two verses. I have a horrible memory and
I can quote these two verses. But have we really looked at
what they say? Let's look at what they say.
Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now, as we look at these things,
we see something of the grace of God in these verses. The first
thing we see is that we're saved by grace. That's how you're saved. That's how you're redeemed to
God. by grace. Salvation is by grace. Can you see that there? For by
grace are you saved. How plain can that be? Secondly,
it's through faith that we find grace. It's God-given faith that
shows us God-given grace. The third thing is that neither
grace or faith is of ourselves. It's not anything that we conjured
up, that we caused to one day appear. No, it was a gift of
God. That's the next thing. Grace
and faith are the gift of God. You know that a gift doesn't
have to be given. I know it's proper etiquette
to give gifts at certain times of the year at the discretion
of the one that gives. Grace and faith are the gift
of God. We know that salvation is not by work. And we know that
if it were, that we would boast. Men, by nature, are boasters. That's why many men and women
won't come to the knowledge of the truth. They can't toot their
own horn in this thing of salvation. God gets all the glory. Man gets zero. But you find me
a bonafide, good-for-nothing sinner, and I'll tell you what,
he'll rejoice in that. He'll rejoice in it. Now, if
you would turn with me to Romans chapter 4. Now, to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. You see, you
and I, we owe a debt of sin that we cannot pay. The wages of sin
is death. And even then, Physical death
is not the end of our debt. Eternal death, eternal condemnation. And we'll never ever pay for
our sin, even in eternal damnation. We owe a debt of sin that we
cannot pay. And to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace. If you're working, that's not
grace. You're not leaning on grace. You're not trusting in
grace, but of debt. In verse 5, "...but to him that
worketh not." Oh, I wish I could get men to stop working. Not
physically, but for this thing of salvation. "...but to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly."
Who's that? That's God Almighty. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. His faith is what? Counted for righteousness. Now
to be reconciled to God, that's why you and I must have perfect
righteousness. It can't be found by works. No
siree, it's believing on Him that justifies the ungodly. You
cannot, no matter how hard you try, in any way, work your way
to perfect righteousness. I don't care how good you are.
I don't care how moral you are. I don't care if you've never
said a bad word in your life. You can't do it. Why not cease? Stop working. Stop trying to
work your way to heaven. Perfect righteousness is a gift
of grace by faith. Can we see that? Don't you see
that's what this is teaching? Have you ever dropped a little
oil into water? Oil and water will not fuse together.
You'll always see the oil and it will be separated. And though
it's in the water, it's not a part of the water. It's separate.
You can leave it in there for a long time, come back and look
and it's still there. It's not like salt you can put
in and it dissolves. Oil and water will not mix, and
friends, neither will works and grace. It just won't fuse together. The absolute favor of God can
no more consist with human merit than oil and water can be made
into one. Now there are three distinctions
of divine grace. Probably more, but these are
the three that came to my mind. First, grace is eternal. Never forget that grace is eternal.
Grace was planned before it was ever exercised. Before there
was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. And God purposed it
before it was ever imparted. Look over at 2 Timothy with me. Seek your marker here in Romans.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1. Look at verse 9, another familiar
scripture. Who has saved us? Who has? God
has. And He's called us with a holy
calling. Not according to our works, but
according to His what? Own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus. before the world began. If God's grace was given before
the world began in the Lord Jesus Christ, let me ask you, how can
any man or woman say that he caused it, earned it, or bought
it, or deserved it? You weren't even here. Second,
grace is free. Never forget that grace is free.
No one has ever been able to purchase grace. You can't purchase
something that's free. You can't purchase something
that you truly receive as a gift. It wouldn't be much a gift with
it. And it's the same with grace. It's freely given. Look back
at Romans 3. Romans 3, look at verse 24. Being
justified, and you know what that word means, just as if I
had never sinned, just as if I was perfect before God Almighty. Being justified freely. Does free mean free? That's exactly
what it means. Justified freely. How? By His
grace, the two go hand in hand. Grace is always free, dear friends,
freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. If you're given a gift by someone,
as I said, who loves you, how much did it cost you? Nothing. It was free. But notice that
it says, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. To you
and me, it's free, but to God, It costs God His precious Son.
It costs God His most prized possession. For we're justified
freely, but it's through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Redemption through Christ costs
God His Son. Redemption in Christ was due
to God's blood being shed. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. There's no forgiveness. The blood
of bull and goats is not going to get the job done. It was the
precious blood of Christ that was shed. We received the grace
of God in Christ freely, but it cost God its sum. Third, grace
is sovereign, as I said in the beginning. I know what grace
is, but what's sovereign grace? The only kind of grace there
is. Because God exercises it. And
He gives it towards someone and bestows it upon whom He pleases. And even so might grace reign.
Look over at Romans 5. You're still there, right? Verse
20. Apostle Paul writes, moreover, the law entered. Why did God
give His law? That the offense might abound.
God gave us His law to show us just how horrible we are. to
show us just how opposed we are to the things of God. That's
why God gave His law, that the offense might abound. But where
sin abounded, what? Grace did much more abound. And that is, verse 21, that as
sin hath reigned unto death, As we said, the wages of sin
is death. Even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now friends, if grace reigns,
then it's got to be on the throne. And the occupant of the throne
is sovereign. It has to be sovereign grace. That's why it's called the throne
of grace. Hebrews 4.16. Grace is unmerited favor. Then it must be exercised in
a sovereign manner. Now, what do you mean by that?
Well, what I mean is grace would never come to us because we can
never merit it. It's unmerited. So there must
be a sovereign God to dispense it to the unworthy. Now, doesn't
that make sense? Sure it does. It's the truth.
It's the precious truth of God in Christ. The suspension of
grace is only through God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is no grace apart from Him. There is no love for the sinner
apart from God's love in Christ. If you're a child of God, God
loves you because He loves His Son. Now the issue is what do
you think of Him? What are you going to do with
that? You better hug up to Him, I'm telling you. You better hug
up to Him. He's your only hope. Therefore
the Lord declares, as I said, I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. I'll show mercy on whom I'll
show mercy. The great God of all things is
not under any obligation to any of His creatures. And I told
you this little story and I'm going to tell it to you again.
I grew up in a church where all I heard was, God loves you. God
loves you. God loves you. God loves you.
Doesn't matter if you love Him, He loves you. And I'm telling
you something. By the time I got to be a young
man, I felt sorry for God. Because He loved everybody and
nobody loved Him back. He was helpless. I'm going to
tell you what, according to these scriptures, a helpless God is
no God at all. There is no such thing as a helpless
God, the God of the Bible. Now, there may be a helpless
God of your imagination, but He ain't the God of this Bible.
If you trust in a God that's helpless and needy, then you
trust in a false God. I'm sorry to tell you. I'm glad
somebody told you. You need to hear it. And he's under no obligation. Especially to those who are rebels
against him. I want to get along and love
everybody. I really do. I'm incapable, but
I do want to get along as much as possible with everybody. But
it's really hard to love somebody that hates you when you know
they hate you. You can see it in their eyes.
You can hear it in their words. They detest you. They want nothing
to do with you. It's hard to buddy up to somebody
like that. And yet we feel as though God
is obligated to people that are rebels against Him. And I'm going
to tell you something, if we aren't rebels now, it's by grace,
because we were all rebels at one time. Yet modern day religion
tells you that God is obligated to save you and He wants to save
you, but you've got to let Him. That's not true. That's a lie. A lie from the pits of hell.
God's never wanted to do anything. I want to do a lot of things
and I'm not able. But God has never wanted to do
anything. And you can never let Him do
anything. For He does whatsoever He pleases.
That's what the Psalms say in chapter 115 verse 3. God's in the heavens. and he
does whatsoever he pleases. That sounds like anything and
everything to me. If he pleases to do it, he does
it. And he's not obligated. Many think that God's cast a
vote for you and the devil's cast a vote for you and you've
got the deciding vote. Ridiculous. Ridiculous. I'm going to tell you something.
If that is the truth, if that is the truth, dear friends, I'm
going to hell. If that's the truth, I'm going
to hell. Because if it's not for the sovereign grace of God
and Christ, by His divine intervention, I'd choose hell every time. And
just sing on my way. Sing and whistle on my way to
hell. Without grace, I'm telling you,
we're in a bad way. We're in a bad way without grace. In the times of Noah, God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination, not just some imaginations, not just a few imaginations,
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil and
only evil continually. Jeremiah 17, 9 tells us this
heart, the soul of a man, is deceitful above all things, and
it's desperately wicked. Desperately wicked. Who can know
it? You can. I can. God can. John 3.19. Everybody can quote
John 3.16, but nobody looks three verses down. This is the condemnation. That light's come into the world,
and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. That's talking about you and
me. Look back at Romans 3. Verse
10. As it is written. Where is it
written at? Is it written in the law of the
land? Is it written in the Declaration
of Independence? No, it's written in God's Word. And this is the only one that
counts when it comes right down to it. There is none righteous. How many is none? Not a one.
That's what it says. No, not a one. Not one. There's
none. that understand. How many understand? None. There's none that seeketh
after God. How many seeking after God? None. They're all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. Sounds like to me we need grace.
Sounds like to me that we better get on our knees and beg God
for grace. There was a preacher that once
asked a lady, he was a new preacher to a church, and there was a
lady there, and she was faithful to come, and one day in conversation,
he just simply asked her how long she'd been saved. How long
have you known and trusted the gospel? And she replied, she
said, I've been saved, and I've loved God all my life. And the
preacher told her, he said, well, according to Romans 3, that's
just a little too long. That's just a little too long.
There's none that doeth good. There's none that seeketh that
from God. There's none that understands. That's just a little too long.
Eternal life's a gift. Therefore, it can neither be
earned by good works, as we've said, nor claimed as a right.
And seeing that salvation is a gift, who has any right to
tell the giver? who has any right to tell God
who is the giver on whom he ought to give it to. I tell you with
no reservation, God never refuses this gift to any who seek it
wholeheartedly and according to the rules which He's prescribed.
He's never once withheld it to someone that truly wants it and
realizes he needs it. Not one time. He refuses none
who come to Him empty-handed. He refuses none that come in
the way of His appointing. That old song, Rock of Ages,
cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee. And that one verse is
as in my hand, no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling. Now salvation is not clinging
to a cross. It's clinging to the Christ of
the cross. And the song says, Thy cross.
So we're not going to make the cross something of special value. It was the one who hung on that
cross. How do we come as God appoints? Like beggars. That's how we come. Like beggars. We're beggars.
We're mercy beggars. But if a man and a woman has
no shame, no regret, no belief, Does God have the right to exercise
His sovereign will and do what He will with His own? I guarantee
you He does. You better believe He does. Our
Lord said in Matthew 20, is it not lawful for me to do what
I will with mine own? Is thine evil because mine is
good? And I've used this illustration
before. Let's say you own a vehicle and it's yours. It's free and
clear. If you want to take a sledgehammer and just beat the fire out of
it until there's nothing left, that's your business. That's
your prerogative, isn't it? Now if the bank still has a mortgage
on it, they may not appreciate it much. But if it's yours, it's
yours to do with as you see fit. It's lawful for you to do what
you will with your own. But then we think that's okay,
but then we're going to cry and complain and call it unfair when
God does it. God Almighty, Creator and Ruler
of all things, He's got the right to choose a limited number to
be saved. And if so, then who's wronged? We all deserve hell. Who's wronged? If God is compelled to give His
gift of grace to those who absolutely do not want it, is He? It seems
to me that nothing seems to anger the natural man more and bring
to the surface his hatred against God quicker than when you tell
him about the freeness and the absolute sovereignty of God's
divine grace. Why is that? that God should
have formed his purpose of grace from eternity without in any
way consulting the creature is said to be unfair. The clay stands
up and says to the potter, why have you made me this way? Why should God have to consult
me in anything? And when grace singles out, whom
is he pleased to bestow it upon, there arises angry protests from
old haughty rebels, and they say, why did you make me thus? That's unfair. That's not right. Let me tell you, everything God
does is right. And a lawless, fallen, depraved
rebel sinner dares to call in question the justice of God's
divine sovereignty? Regrettably, I don't think there
are many that truly understand the amazing and sovereign grace
of God. Grace is amazing, isn't it? Because
there is no other kind. It's just amazing. Grace is sovereign
because there's no other kind. Grace is eternal for God determined
before the foundation of the world, before there ever was
a sinner, to be gracious to some. Why else would Christ be called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world? Now let me tell
you this, and I'll hurry. Grace is distinguishing. Men
don't like that either. Men say, that isn't fair. You
need to consider who it is that distinguishes. By distinguishing,
I mean that grace discriminates. Don't go there. It makes a difference. Grace makes a difference. Grace
chooses something and passes others by. But why did we say
it passes others by? They don't want it. They don't
desire it. They don't need it. And then
they're going to get mad at God because He didn't give it to
everybody. I'll tell you one thing. You ask old Abraham about
distinguishing grace. There he sat in the midst of
idolatry. Everybody around him practiced
idolatry. And God said, you get out of
there. And he was called the friend of God. God's grace discriminates. And Abraham was glad of it. It
was distinguishing grace which saved publicans and sinners and
left those old religious Pharisees. Our Lord Himself said, live them
long. Let them be. Let them alone.
He said, they be blind leaders of the blind, and the blind lead
the blind. Both shall fall into a ditch.
God's grace is distinguishing, dear friends. Was it not distinguishing
grace which took Saul of Tarsus who hated Christ's followers
with a determined hatred? And it saved him. on his way
to Damascus. Acts 9, verse 1 tells us that
yet breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the Lord's
disciples, the disciples of the Lord. He got permission to throw
those in prison who loved Christ. His next breath that he drew
was with hatred and determination to cause innocent disciples to
be put in prison and to death. And yet on his way to Damascus,
God's distinguishing grace knocked him off his horse. caused him
to be blind, and when he got his eyesight back, he never saw
the same way again. Saul of Tarsus is now the Apostle
Paul, and he wrote the majority of the New Testament. You tell
me grace ain't distinguishing. You tell me grace don't discriminate.
Why, the Apostle Paul would have been the last that any believer
would have saved. God's mercy and His grace distinguishes. Who made the difference? God
did. Grace made a distinguishing difference. Don't ever forget
that. God doesn't have to save you,
but if you want to be saved, you come to God by Christ and
you beg for forgiveness. Now, earlier I read Genesis 6-5
to you, and I'm going to close with it, but turn with me to
Genesis 6. I want to show you the foundation
of this thing called grace. Genesis 6, verse 5. And God saw what God sees. He saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing
and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made
them. But Noah. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. What did Noah find? He found
grace. Probably correctly to say grace
found him, wouldn't it? Grace found him. Noah found grace
because grace found him. Where did he find it? In the
eyes of the Lord. In God's heart. God determined
and distinguished him. You tell me grace ain't discriminatory
and then you look at those multitudes that watch that arc float off
into safety. And you tell me God don't discriminate. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord, and because he did, he and his family were saved.
How were they saved? God put them in Christ. He put
them in that ark. And that ark is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now friends, it's the sovereign
grace of God that has and always will make the difference. Now
where is this free, sovereign, eternal grace of God found? In
the ark? I can give you the answer in
two words. In Christ. That's where it's found. Paul
said in Acts 20, he said all the things he'd been through.
He said none of these things move me. What things are you
talking about, Paul? All things. Everything that's
ever happened to me. Shipwrecked, bitten by serpents,
beaten with whips, stoned in prison. Don't move me. Neither can I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus." To testify the gospel
of the grace of God. The gospel is the sovereign grace
of God in Christ. It's all through Scripture, dear
friends. It's all through Scripture. The
gift of grace, Romans 5, which is by one man, Jesus Christ. Verse 17 of Romans 5, it says,
"...for if by one man's offense the death reigned by one, much
more they which receive abundance of grace..." Sovereign grace
is an abundance of grace. "...and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, one, one, one, Jesus Christ." And
in verse 21 of Romans 5, that its sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now that's the gospel we preach. And it sure doesn't gratify the
pride of man. And never will. Not the true
gospel. It proclaims unless we're saved by grace, we cannot be
saved at all. It plainly declares that apart
from Christ, the unspeakable gift of God, that the state of
every man and woman is desperate, helpless and hopeless. And the
gospel addresses men as guilty, condemned, perishing criminals. Well, I don't much appreciate
that. And you'd be upset with God. Because that's what He said
you are. The greatest moralist is as unrighteous
and sinful as the worst infidel. There is no difference. No difference. Oh, may God show us that we're
saved by grace and grace alone.