Brother Ron Potts, if you don't
mind, would you close that door upstairs as well? Some of you
know I learned to whisper in a sawmill, and I hate to keep
folks awake back there in the bedrooms. If you will, turn to
the book of the Psalms, Psalm 115. And just hold your place
there. Psalm 115. There is a hideously ugly monster,
a beast, that has risen up in the world. And I want with every
fiber of my being to nail his hide to the wall. He's been around
for a long, long time. A destroyer of men's souls. You
can read about him as we have in Revelation 13. You can read
on through chapter 20 and continue reading about this monster. We
read that he arose from the sea, that is, from the pagan, idolatrous,
Gentile world. He has many names by which he
is called, but the name is always blasphemy. Always blasphemy. He speaketh blasphemies. Nothing
but blasphemies. And by that, I'm telling you
that he speaks ascribing to man that which belongs to God alone. ascribing to man the work, which
is God's work alone, and that is blasphemy. He's found in every
part of the world. He has seven heads. He's very
powerful. He has ten horns. He's found
in high places on his ten horns or ten crowns, so that the kings
and the peoples of the earth are deceived by him. Like a leopard
he deceives. He's destructive, walking through
the forest of darkness with the feet of a bear. He's a furious,
devouring beast. With the mouth of the lion, multitudes
have perished by him. But his number is the number
of man. And whenever you think of this
beast, always remember his number is the number of a man. Six. Six. Six. The number of a man
is the number of frustration. failure and defeat. Do not ever
imagine that somehow Satan and Antichrist are in competition
with Christ in reality. The beast and Satan are but the
servants of Christ and Christ our King not only shall prevail,
He has prevailed and is prevailing over the beast. And yet we must
never fail to recognize the beast. He must be slain and will be
slain, not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God and
through the preaching of the gospel. Oh, may He be slain in
your heart by the Word of God. Nothing in this world is more
foolish or more debasing to humanity, nothing more dishonoring to God
and more assuredly damning to the souls of men than idolatry. Oh, but Brother Don, you surely
don't mean to suggest that all the moral decadence of our society
isn't worse than idolatry. Oh, I do mean to understand that.
Idolatry is the most debasing thing in the world, the most
dishonoring to God. And it is this idolatry from
which the demeaning, debasing moral decadence of society arises,
exactly as Paul tells us in the first chapter of Romans. It's
pathetic to see men and women worship gods that other men have
made. Look at verse 4 of Psalm 115. Dumb gods they are, made by the
hands of ignorant men. It's a hideously evil thing.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They
have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they
through their throat. They that make them are likened
to them. So is everyone that trusteth
in them. The psalmist is dead serious,
but he speaks with singing sarcasm of idolatry, because idolatry
is to be dealt with with the utmost contempt and sarcasm. I often visit Mexico, and when
I do, if I have occasion, I go to visit one of the Mayan ruins.
They're marvelous sights to see, the ancient ruins, the pyramids
down there. But I stand and watch in my mind's eye what I can picture
there of men and women worshiping beasts. and snakes and slaughtering
their own virgin daughters and casting them off of those huge
pyramids. And my heart sinks at the thought. I had been there when they were
having their high holy days in one of the cities we go to frequently
to preach. They have a huge statue of Mary
in a sort of a place about this size, 14 feet tall, starving
people, a gold-covered statue of the Virgin Mary. And lest
their God be stole, she's behind an iron cage. And they roll her
out on a track like a railroad car and folks come and burn incense
and make candles and make their prayers and my heart crushes
to see it. But there is something far worse
than that. The most abominable form of idolatry
in this world is that which Paul describes in Colossians chapter
2 and verse 23 with these words, will worship. will worship. Those who attribute salvation
in whole or in part to the will, the work, or the worth of man
are the most abominable, evil idolaters in the world, for they
worship themselves. Surely, pastor, you didn't mean
to say that, but let me see if I can say it again and be clear.
Those, all of those, you, your wife, your husband, your mother,
your father, your son or your daughter, you and I, anyone who
attributes salvation in whole or in part to any degree, To
the will, worth, and work of man are idolaters, the most abominable
idolaters, for they worship themselves. Free willism is the worship of
self. Legalism is the worship of self. Free will works religion, makes
man his own savior, for it makes the will of man, the work of
man, and the worth of man, the determining factor in salvation. Now hear me again, if your salvation
is looked upon by you, as something that is dependent upon you, are
determined by you at any point, in any aspect, your salvation
is that which declares you to be a lost, Christless soul and
idolater. Oh, I know folks talk about God
and grace, Christ and redemption, the Holy Spirit and regeneration,
but the Apostle Paul tells us they're talking about another
God, another Jesus, another spirit. They're talking about a gospel
that is no gospel at all. In reality, such people worship
themselves. They trust their own decision.
Their confidence is in their personal goodness. I may be addressing
some here. You still foolishly imagine that
salvation really is something that you have something to do
with. And your peace is derived not
from what Christ has done, but from what you've done. Redemption
is something accomplished for us, altogether outside us. Our hope is outside us. Our confidence
is outside us. It is not in our experience in
time, but it is in God's Son and the opinion of such. The
thing that separates them from the damned is not the will of
God, not at all. For they will tell you that the
will of God is that all men be saved. It is not the work of
Christ, for they will declare that Christ did his work, at
least in some sense, for all men. They will tell you that
it is not in the call of the Spirit, but rather in their own
will, their own work, and their own worth. Now, I want this evening
to go directly into the dark, idolatrous chambers of the human
heart and destroy the gods of men. My subject is free will
or free grace. I see you reach for your pen,
I urge you to do so. Free will, the religion of the
beast, or free grace, the religion of Christ. It can't be both. Understand that. It is either
all grace or all works, there's no mixture. Salvation is altogether
by God's will or altogether by your will, there is no mixture. Free will or free grace. Now let me give you three characteristics
of Arminianism. They are always true. And by
Arminianism, or free will works religion, take whatever name
you want to, It goes by many names. It may be Islam or Buddhism. It may be some of the mystic
religions of the Far East, or it may be Baptist, or Methodist,
or Pentecostal, or Presbyterian. It may be Reformed, or Pentecostal. It may be Papist, or whatever.
It goes by many names. But all freewill works religion
has these three identifying characteristics. You can mark it down, and wherever
you see any of these, you see all of them. And wherever you
see them, it is nothing but idolatry. Freewill works religion has an
exalted view of man. The Word of God declares that
man is dead in trespasses and in sins. That man is a guilty,
depraved, condemned, helpless creature by nature. That there
is none that doeth good. That no man left to himself can
or will come to Christ, trusting him alone as Savior and Lord.
There is not any language in the scripture more clear than
that, is there? Is that what the book says? Read
the third chapter of Romans. It's clearly what the book says.
Yet all free will works religion says, man is somewhat depraved
and he's dead in a sense. He is lost but not altogether
helpless. Though he sins, he's not utterly
sinful. Though he's condemned, he still has his free will. Man
needs God's help, of course. He can't save himself without
God's help. But his eternal destiny, his
eternal salvation, depends upon the work of his own will. Is that what you hear all over
the country, in this country and in mine, all over the world,
through preachers of every kind? Of course it is. Man has his
will. It's not God, but the sinner
who ultimately determines who shall be saved. Even in our news
commentators at home, I only listen to those who are most
conservative and don't listen to them much, and they're forever
talking about man having free will. God's given man free will. Contrary to the universal opinion
of man, no. A friend of mine at home described
it this way, he said, man, I guess you could say he's free like
a frog in a snake's belly. He can jump around all he wants
to, but he can't get out. There's nothing free about the
will of man. Any more than there's something
free about your mind, or free about your nature. Our nature
is corruption, sin, and death, and we are in bondage to what
we are. Second, false religion always has a demeaning view of
God. makes God sorta like us. In fact, God says, thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such in one as thyself. The Arminian,
the will-worshipper, thinks that God is like man, sorta weak,
subject to change, often frustrated. I don't know of anyone who openly
would deny that God is sovereign. I don't know of anyone. I have
heard papists speak of God's sovereignty, and I've heard fundamentalists
speak of God's sovereignty. I've heard liberals speak of
God's sovereignty, and staunch conservatives speak of God's
sovereignty. But they would say that God's sovereignty is limited. After all, God is sovereign in
most things. But certainly we could not say
that God is absolutely sovereign. This is what God says, behold
I make peace and I create evil. I the Lord do all these things. That's what God says. Men object
to that, I say take up your argument with God. Either God is absolutely
God, seated on his throne in the high heavens, always doing
his will in heaven, earth, and hell, or there is no such thing
as God. And anything less is but the
idolatrous figment of man's imagination. Men do not in word deny the death
of Christ or the redemption by his blood, at least most who
would claim to believe this book. But they limit the merits of
his death. They limit the efficacy of his blood, making the ultimate
factor in redemption not the finished work of Christ, but
the decision of man. Oh, but Brother Don, you must
recognize that there is a sense in which Christ died for everyone.
If there is a sense, any sense, in which Christ died for everyone,
there is a sense in which Christ's death is meaningless. This is
how serious these things are. They don't deny the necessity
of the Spirit's call, but they make the call of the Spirit to
be nothing but a A gentle nudging, maybe even a powerful nudge,
but a nudge that ultimately must be made effectual by man's will. So with brother Don, nobody actually
believes this. I had a local pastor in my office
many years ago. He came to try to sell me some
insurance. And when he found out I wasn't going to buy his
insurance, he wanted to know what's the difference between you and
me. What you believe in preaching and I believe in preaching. And
we took a little time. I asked him if he had some time.
He did. We spent the afternoon with me asking him to answer
some questions. One of them was this. Please correct me if I
misunderstand or misstate what you're teaching. You actually
believe that Jesus Christ, when he died at Calvary, did not really
redeem, justify, or save anyone, but rather that he made redemption,
justification, and salvation possible for everyone. And that
man, when he is called by the Spirit, giving assent to the
Spirit's call, makes the blood of Christ effectual for his own
salvation. So that by his faith in Christ,
he is actually redeemed and justified and saved. Well, yes. And I said,
Doug, that's damning heresy. Either you don't know God or
I don't know God. There's no possibility we both
know God. You mean a pastor, a man must
know all these things being called Calvinism and the doctrines of
grace to be saved? Of course not. But you must know
God in His Son. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. You just read, calling on His
name. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. His name is what and who He is. We call on Him whom God Himself
has revealed to us and in us and worship Him as such. Though
most loudly denounce that salvation is by works, when examined closely,
this is the third character. All free will works religion
gives the sinner something to do. either to get or keep or
improve upon God's faith. Top lady put it this way, every
religion except one puts you upon doing something in order
to recommend yourself to God. It is the business of all false
religion to patch up a righteousness in which the center is to stand
before God. But it is the business of the glorious 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. This is what I'm saying. False religion always makes room
for the flesh to boast. The great contest between the
religion of the world, the religion of Babylon, and the religion
of Christ is just this. Who is entitled to the praise
and the glory of the sinner's salvation? Is salvation by free
will or by free grace? I answer that question making
no appeal whatever to what men of the past have said. I highly
regard faithful men in the past and thank God for what I learned
from them. I make no appeal to the creeds of any church. I have
less to say for those things. And I make no appeal to men of
the present. I thank God for men who influence my life, from
whom I learn much. But I want us to understand what
the book of God says. After all, that's the only thing
that matters. Who is entitled to the praise? What does the
word of God say? Look here in Psalm 115, verse
1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. What does the book of God say?
Is salvation by free will or by free grace? It is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Now, I don't want anyone to misunderstand
what I say, so let me answer a couple of questions. What do
I mean when I use that vile, ugly, reprehensible term, free
will? I mean anything decided, determined,
or done by the sinner to obtain God's salvation. Free will religion
is the religion of hell. It is the religion of Lucifer.
It is the religion that crucified our Redeemer. Satan said, I will,
and thus demonstrates the character of the religion of this world
and the religion that follows him among those who are the children
of the devil. When Pilate had examined our
Lord Jesus, the scripture says, Pilate delivered Jesus to their If there were nothing else on
this earth and nothing else in the book of God to strike the
death nail to free willism, that's enough. Pilate delivered Jesus
to the will of man and the will of man crucified the Lord of
glory. What do I mean when I use that
glorious God honoring, all important term, free grace? I mean everything
decided, determined, and done by the triune God in almighty
grace to bestow salvation upon His elect. Free grace is the
sovereign, voluntary, eternal, immutable, unconditional, uncaused,
uncontrolled, gratuitous bounty of God by which salvation in
all its branches, in all its fullness is bestowed upon and
accomplished in chosen sinners. It is this of which the Apostle
speaks when he says, The law entered that the offense might
abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that
as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. I want
us this evening and just the next 15 minutes to examine every
aspect of salvation as it is set forth in Holy Scripture.
I want us to see if there is anything respecting the salvation
of a sinner anywhere in this book that is in any way ascribed
to a man's decision, a man's work, or a man's worth. Sometime
gold. a local Campbellite preacher.
For you who don't know what that is, that's Church of Christ folks
back home. It's Arminian badness started
about 150 years ago by the fellow named Alexander Campbell. He
writes in the local newspaper every week. They have a Bible
school there, and I think that their favorite subject is Fortner
101. But he wrote in the paper, he
said, nowhere does the Bible say that salvation is by grace
alone. He says the Bible says salvation
is by grace, but nowhere does it say salvation by grace alone. And he is absolutely right. It
doesn't say that anywhere. It teaches it everywhere. The
whole of salvation is by God's free grace. Now let's look at
three things with regard to salvation. What God has done for us, what
God is doing in us, and what God shall do with us. As we open
the Word of God, if you find any place in this book where
any part of salvation is attributed to man's free will. Are you listening? Any part, if you find any place
in this book, from cover to cover, where any part of salvation is
attributed to you, to man, to something you do, I want you
never to hear me again, for I am a false witness of God. If, however,
you find that throughout this book salvation is indeed always
attributed to God, you must never again hear that preacher of free
will, for the free willer does not know God, and he's a false
prophet. First, let's consider what God
has done for us. We'll begin where God begins
in his revelation of grace. Long before God began his work
of grace in us, he began his work of grace for us. If your
thoughts about salvation are limited to what you experience
in time, you have a very limited and perverse view of God's salvation.
Salvation begins in eternity. How can we talk about that? I
don't know, that's just how it begins. In the beginning, Before
ever the world was, God Almighty chose to save a people. And He chose a people whom He
would save. In the scriptures, it is called
election. To whom are we indebted for this
election? The first of all spiritual blessings.
Pride says to me. Self-righteousness says to me.
Free will says to me. Election, after all, must be
based upon something God foresaw in me. Faith, however, joins
the Word of God and says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto thy name. Give glory for thy mercy and
for thy truth's sake. Let's look at just one passage,
Romans chapter 11, verse 5. You know that great hymn, "'Tis
not that I did choose thee? For, Lord, that could not be!
This heart would still refuse thee, hadst 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."
Here's the testimony of Scripture, Romans 11 verse 5. Even so then,
at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. And if by grace, then it is 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. There is a remnant. This remnant
is according to the election of grace. And if it's by grace,
then works have nothing to do with it. Grace ceases to be grace
unless it is totally and absolutely free and unconditional. Because
grace and conditionality are two incompatible opposites. And God's next work of grace
is set before us in the scriptures as a covenant. A covenant. Before God made anything, He
made a covenant between Himself and His Son as our surety, by
which our salvation was fixed in all eternity. And repentance
and faith and obedience and perseverance are not conditions of this covenant,
but rather they're fruits of it. If you will, let's look at
one other passage in this regard. Turn over to Romans 9. Just flip
back to Romans 9. Verse 9. For this is the word
of promise, the word of the covenant. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The preaching of the gospel I
heard many years ago, compared by a preacher I highly respect,
he said it's like the reading of a will. A man has died, and a lawyer, I
think y'all call them solicitors, they call the family in, and
there's going to be a reading of the will, and everybody listens
with great interest. And the will of the deceased
is executed lawfully and all his goods distributed among those
named in the will. Well, gospel preaching is much
like that. I'm here tonight to read the
will of our Redeemer. Only he who died to make his
will fixed lives to execute his will. And as he gathers his family
one by one to hear the reading of the will, each one at his
own call hears the gospel as the gospel of his own salvation
and makes, he is made to know his inheritance of the Lord.
The covenant made from eternity is that which God gave us in
Christ, with which he blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in Christ, and we receive all the blessings and benefits of
that covenant by faith in Christ. Now there, you've given us a
work to do. It's called faith. Not hardly. Faith is called the operation
of God. Faith is the gift of God. It is the fruit of the covenant. It's part of the covenant. It
is that which He gives us by which He makes us to know that
we are covenant children. And then in the fullness of time,
God sent His Son into the world to suffer and die as our substitute. To make atonement for our sins. To redeem us from the curse of
the law. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken." That speaks of the atonement being made for
a specific people. With His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. That speaks of that atonement
for those specific people being an absolutely effectual atonement. Jesus Christ, with His blood,
actually obtained somebody's redemption. So much of religion just doesn't
make any sense. Let me ask you some questions.
If God loves everybody and wants to save everybody, that's simple
enough, isn't it? And yet everybody's not saved.
What does God's love and God's will have to do with anybody's
salvation? Nothing. If Christ died for everybody,
to make salvation possible for everybody, to make redemption
possible for everybody, what does the blood of Christ have
to do with anybody's salvation if some, after all, are not saved?
Absolutely nothing. If God the Holy Spirit calls
everybody and tries to get everybody to believe on Christ, what does
the gift and grace of God the Spirit have to do with salvation
if some are still lost in spite of Him doing all He can do? Nothing! Absolutely nothing. But that's
not what the Scriptures teach. The scripture says, Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. And he did it that the blessing of Abraham might come
on the Gentiles. That is, that God the Holy Spirit
might come in faith and grace upon all the redeemed. The whole doctrine of the gospel.
Stanza falls right here. How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. Everybody says Christ died. Everybody
talks about Christ dying. We just came through Easter Sunday. Everybody talks about Christ
dying and rising again. The historic fact that Jesus
Christ died is not the gospel. The gospel is the declaration
of H.O.W. how Christ died. He died by the
sovereign will and purpose of God Almighty as a justice satisfying
substitute for God's elect and by his blood effectually redeemed
his people from all sin and all possibility of condemnation.
Where in the Bible? are things we've spoken of said
to be the possession of all men. None of these things. These are
spoken of specifically as the works of God for His own. All right, briefly. What about
what God's doing in us? Turn to Titus chapter 3. 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 should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Now here the scripture speaks
of the experimental aspect of salvation. And the experimental
aspect of salvation is just as vital as that which was done
in the past outside us. It is the spirit that quickeneth
the flesh profiteth nothing. Regeneration is a resurrection
from the dead. No more and no less. It is a
resurrection of the dead. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and in sins, and he did it by pure free grace. When I was pastoring in the mountains
of West Virginia, I had taken my wife somewhere, I don't know
where, and I was out in the woods walking alone by myself out close
to Babcock State Park. And walking along in the woods,
I ran across some tombstones out in the middle of the woods,
an old, old cemetery, at least old for the states. I could barely
make out a few letters and a few of the names, a few numbers on
a few of the dates, but it was that old. I couldn't make out
any. And I looked around, make sure nobody was watching or listening,
because I didn't want anybody to take me to the funny farm.
And I began to preach to one of those fellows in the grave.
And I made promises to him. My daughter was about that high.
I promised him if he'd just get up and come out of that grave,
I'd take him home with me. I'd keep my daughter, have my
daughter to marry him. My wife and I'd take good care
of him. All he had to do was get up out of that grave. And
I did that just so I could tell you the story. So that's crazy. That's what preachers do everywhere
as they command sinners to make the first step toward God and
He'll do the rest. You come to Jesus and He'll come
to you. It sounds so wonderful except
it's damning. For it is a declaration that
you don't need Jesus after all. If you can come to Him without
Him coming to you, what use do you have for it? If you can make
the first step toward God, why do you need Him? None at all. Regeneration is the sovereign
work of God the Holy Spirit calling dead sinners to life in Jesus
Christ, giving them faith in Him and faith itself. is the gift of God's grace. We
believe according to the exceeding greatness of His power to usward,
according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. Oh, but Brother
Dodd, you know that we must maintain good works for necessary uses,
of course. Of course. And believers do. It's called the fruit of the
Spirit. because it is God who worketh
in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God declares
that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. I kindly suppose, maybe it would
be all right to suppose this, If God foreordained that we who
are His creatures walk in good works, He will see to it that
we do. And He does. Preachers these
days invent works and take folks to the whipping post and beat
them and try to get them to act like Christians when they know
they're not so they can pretend they're Christians too. God's
people are moved, motivated, controlled, and ruled by the
Spirit of God through His Word, and they don't need me to take
them to the whipping post. But don't we have to persevere
in the faith? Oh, yes. He that endureth to the end,
the same shall be said, and nobody else. And we persevere in the
faith because God holds us in His grip. I was a shoe salesman back in
1969. Most of our clients were black
folks up in the north section of town in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina. And I was waiting on a lady one
day, and she was going to lay away a pair of shoes. And as
I was wrapping them up and writing out the ticket, I asked for her
name. And she said, Grace Grabs. And
I said, what? She said, Grace Grabs? And I
said, ma'am, I don't have any idea whether you know it or not,
but that's just what grace does. She said, sure do, honey. And that's exactly what grace
does. Grace grabs the sinner and never lets go. God, by his
grace, grabbed me from the jaws of hell and has never let go. When I would have forsaken him,
he wouldn't forsake me. When I would have denied Him,
He wouldn't deny me, because He's faithful and He cannot deny
Himself. We're in His grip. Oh, thank
God for that omnipotent grip. But what about sanctification,
Brother Donald? Some of you I know have heard,
or I know some of you preachers warn you, don't listen to that
Fortner fellow. He doesn't know the difference between justification
and sanctification. Well, I'm not real bright, but
I know the difference. They don't. Sanctification is holiness. Is
that what it is? It's holiness. And the book addresses
all God's people as saints. Addresses all of them as saints.
No such thing as a believer who's not holy. Follow peace with all
men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. That's
Christ in you. That's not something you do for
Him. God says, walk before me and be ye holy, for I am holy. My friend, Sid Buggins, just
led us in a great hymn. You go ahead and live holy. That'd
be a good trick if you could pull it off. But you can't. No, you can't. It doesn't lie
within the realm of possibility. Holiness is perfection. And anything less than perfection
is not holy. Perfection. Now hear me, that
which God demands of us, God provides for us. And our sanctification
is also by God's work of grace. I challenge you, read this book
one more time. The word sanctify is used six
times in the New Testament. Sanctification is used five times.
Sanctified is used 16 times. In those 27 places, not one time
is sanctification ascribed to the will of man, or the works
of man, or something man must do. It is ascribed to the truth
of God, by faith in Jesus Christ, by the work of God the Holy Spirit,
sanctified in God's purpose, sanctified by the redeeming work
of Christ, and sanctified by the regenerating work of the
Holy Spirit. But never is it spoken of as something we must
do. And what about that which God shall do with us? He will present us thoughtless
before the presence of His glory. Thoughtless. To inherit heaven and glory. not based on something we have
done? Oh, no. These silly, silly people
talk about degrees of reward in heaven. Either heaven is altogether
the reward of free grace, or it is altogether the reward of
your works, and it's not of your works. what men imagine and think
of themselves, by which they think they elevate themselves
above others in their haughty self-righteousness. Oh no. Judgment
Day will not be a day when we shall be tried and it be decided
whether or not we are worthy to enter into heaven. No, no,
no, no, no. Judgment Day will be the Declaration
Day, that's all. The Lord God, according to Ephesians
2, 7, will take His bride, His elect, His church, and spread
us, He will spread us before wandering worlds. And He'll point at Don Fortner, And say, look here, what grace
has done. And for eternity our soul shall
be not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory
for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. Amen. Our Father, thank
You for Your free grace. Bless now Your Word. to the hearts
of these who've heard it as only you can for Christ's sake. Amen. I hope you can join us for the
baptismal service and if you