There are many, many differences
between all human religion and the gospel of Christ our Savior. But let me give you one basic,
clear distinction, one thing that distinguishes all false
religion from the faith of the gospel. All false religion of
every brand, of every category, in every age, puts men to work
to produce righteousness. And hear me, any religion, call
it what you may, that puts you to work to produce righteousness
is damning to yourself. The gospel of God's free grace
proclaims righteousness wrought out by Christ Jesus the Lord,
and proclaims rest to troubled hearts in Him, telling you all
is done. All is done. And my subject tonight
is a God-wrought salvation. Turn with me, if you will, to
Isaiah chapter 26 and verse 12. Isaiah 26 and verse 12. The entire chapter is a declaration
of God-wrought salvation. But let's look for tonight at
verse 12. Lord, thou wilt ordain peace
for us. He has ordained it. And He will
ordain it. Peace. Nothing but peace. Great peace He gives to those
who trust Him. Thou wilt ordain peace for us. For now and blessed be His name
forever. Now watch this. For thou also
has wrought all our works in us. Our text gives a humbling
acknowledgement. It ascribes to God alone, not
to man, all things pertaining to this thing called salvation.
It slaves self-sufficiency It slays the notion of self-righteousness
which so horribly pervades all fallen, depraved human thought. We all like to think I'm rich
and increased in goods and have need of nothing, but we're not. Since God has wrought all our
works in us, we have nothing of which to boast. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? In knowledge, in understanding,
in grace, in faith, in experience, who maketh thee to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now, if thou hast received it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? You have
absolutely nothing. in which to boast yourself. Nothing. Nothing. But, no, nothing. Nothing. The text proclaims two things
emphatically. First, salvation is something
that is wrought in us. Thou also hast wrought all our
works in us. Salvation is an internal not
an external thing. All human religion is external. God's salvation is internal. All human religion looks to the
external, and by this judges godliness or the lack of it.
The gospel speaks of that which is internal. God's salvation
is what he works in us. All human religion deals only
with the outside. The gospel of God's grace deals
with the inside. Our Lord says to the self-righteous
Pharisees of every age, every society, and every generation,
you may cling the outside of the cup and platter, but within
are full of extortion and excess. All carnal religion is just surface
religion, nothing else. God looks on the heart. The Lord
looketh on the heart. People often ask me, do you think
so-and-so saved? Or do you think so-and-so was
saved? What a silly question. I have one disqualifying thing
that prevents me from making such a judgment. I can't see
your heart. I can't see your heart. And it
is horribly evil for me to presume that I can. The Lord looks on
the heart. God deals with the heart. He
said, I'll write my laws in their heart. He'll inscribe his law
in the hearts of his people so that in the new birth he causes
men and women born of his spirit to desire truth in the inward
parts and to delight in his law in their hearts. God hears the
confession of the heart. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made
with reference to salvation. This salvation, secondly, is
wrought in us by God alone. It's internal, it's in us, and
it's God's work. Thou hast wrought all our works
in us. I contend that every true believer,
every man, woman, or child who knows God, every true believer
makes this acknowledgment of grace. Thou hast wrought all
our works in us. God did it. God did it. Every
person taught of God is taught what Jonah learned down in Wellbelly
Seminary. Salvation is of the Lord. All
together, of the Lord. Now this is the universal testimony
of Holy Scripture. Listen to the Scriptures. The
salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. But what does that
mean? So then it is not of him that
winneth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. By the grace of God, Paul said,
I am what I am. It is God which worketh in you,
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. By his own blood,
the Lord Jesus entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. He put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. It's God's work. Altogether,
God's work. Brother Don, if that's the case,
it looks to me like unless God saves me, I can't be saved. You
understood me exactly right. It looks to me like if any man
goes to glory, It's all together God's doing, and God alone shall
have the praise of it. That's exactly right. The Apostle
Paul concludes the book of Hebrews like this, Now the God of peace
that brought her again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, forever and ever. Now, if the
work begun, if the work continued, if the work completed in any
way depends on you, the last phrase can't be true. To Him
be glory forever and ever. But that's true. God alone shall
have the glory of it. It doesn't matter how you study
this matter of salvation, at what angle you look at it, Salvation,
as it's described in this book, is altogether God's work. Turn
with me again to Ephesians 1. Let me show you this. It is the
work of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Here in the
first chapter of Ephesians, beginning at verse 3, the Apostle Paul
tells us that God the Father planned and purposed salvation
for his elect before the world began. And having planned and
purposed it, it was completed and done in Christ our covenant
surety. Blessed be the God and Father,
verse 3, of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath, what a great word,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Now, when you read those words,
heavenly places, if you want to read a lot of nonsense, read
what commentaries and those Bibles that have been messed with say
about those heavenly places, they talk about when you really
get close to God and you've gotten so holy that you almost float
in the air, that up yonder in that higher life, those are heavenly
places where you're blessed. No. Those heavenly places are
heavenly places. In the eternal purpose of God
Almighty, this is something done before the world began, not after
you began to walk close to God. In heavenly places, in Christ. Read on. This is how He blessed
us. According as He hath chosen us
in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. That does not mean He chose
us so that we would lead a holy life. Now, that's a good idea,
but that's not what this text teaches. Not being that he chose
us so that we could live better than other people. That'd be
all right, but that's not what this text says. He says that
we should be holy and without blame before him. It doesn't take much for you
to be holy and blameless before me because I got a lot of unholiness
and a lot of blameworthiness in me. but before God, to be
holy and without blame before Him. That's the object of God
in everlasting election and sovereign predestination, to make His people,
just like His Son, altogether without sin, without blame, without
spot, without wrinkle, without infirmity, without guilt, perfectly
holy in His Son. Read on, "...in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein," that is, in this rich,
boundless, eternal grace, "...he hath made us," not going to,
hath, "...hath made us accepted in the beloved." Salvation, then,
is something that was planned, purposed, and done by God the
Father in covenant mercy before the world began. And this salvation
is that which was purchased for us by the obedience of Jesus
Christ unto death by the shedding of His blood. Look at verse 7,
"...in whom we have redemption through His blood." What is that? The forgiveness of sins. Redemption
is not making forgiveness possible. Redemption is obtaining forgiveness. "...in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence." Here is the manifold wisdom of God. He found a way
to ransom our souls. having made known unto us, having
revealed to us the mystery of his will, according to his good
pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself. And here it is, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained,
already done, by his obedience and death. We have obtained an
inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Now watch verse 12. That we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Oh, what a word. God Almighty laid help upon one
that is mighty. He exalted one chosen out of
the people before ever any people had been made. He laid help upon
his darling son, our surety, our substitute, and our savior
before the world was made. And he gave him a commission
to save his people from their sins, to put away sins. to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to magnify his law and make it honorable, to bring us in the
perfection of his own glorious being in heaven itself before
God Almighty. And the son said, I'll do it.
And the father trusted him. He put everything in his hands.
I mean everything, all his purpose, all his glory. all His majesty,
all His wisdom. And the Son struck hands with
the Father and it was done. That we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted Christ. Now, this salvation,
which was purchased for us by Christ, purposed for us by God
our Father, has been performed in us by God the Holy Spirit. Look at this, verse 13. in whom
ye also trusted." You trusted him because the Father trusted
him. In whom you also trusted. When? After that you heard the word
of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, the good news of salvation
done. In whom also. After that you
believed. A better reading would be having
believed. You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest, the word we would use to say down payment,
the earnest money, the pledge of our inheritance. That is,
he's already told us we obtain this inheritance in Christ, being
predestinated unto this inheritance, which Christ has already earned
and purchased and possesses for us. Now, you're sure enough going
to get it, and you know it because God gave you His Spirit, causing
you to believe on His Son, the earnest of our inheritance, until
the redemption of the purchased possession, until the day when
these bodies are raised from the dead and we enter into glory,
unto the praise of His glory. This doctrine, taught in this
passage we just read, and in our text in Isaiah 26, is plain
and clear. Ours is a God-wrought salvation. Now let me answer three or four
questions very briefly. First, who are these people in
whom God works? Well, God works with everybody. God wants to save everybody.
The Holy Spirit's trying to save everybody. God loves everybody. No. No. To suggest such. People say, well, Brother John,
we just can't say that. People don't understand that.
We have to say there's some sense in which God loves everybody
and Christ died for everybody and the Holy Spirit's trying
to save everybody. To suggest or in any way imply that God
loves everybody is to mean that God's love is totally meaningless. To suggest or even imply that
Christ died to redeem everybody is to declare that Christ's death
at Calvary is utterly without significance. To suggest or even
imply that God the Holy Spirit somehow is trying to get everybody
to believe on Jesus is to declare that God the Holy Spirit's work
is absolutely useless. In other words, it is an utter
denial of God's very being and His character. God works his
grace in his elect, in those whom he has ordained to eternal
life before the world began. Don't ever apologize or be defensive
or blush to speak of God's sovereign election. Oh, I rejoice in electing
love. He chose me. And if he hadn't
chosen me, I never would have chosen him. And the same is true
of you. Ye have not chosen me, our Master
said, but I have chosen you. We are bound to give thanks unto
God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. Grace always travels a predestined
road to a foreordained house and gives life to a chosen sinner. Grace never goes where election
and predestination do not seem to. God's saving grace comes
to every sinner, every one of them, for whom there is a high
priest and a sacrifice at God's altar in heaven. God's saving
grace at the appointed time of love comes to all those, only
those but all those for whom the Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin and a sin offering. The Lord God made His Son sin
for us. And the reason He did it was
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Not He made His
Son sin for us hoping that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He made His Son sin for us Because
there's no other way for sinners to be made righteous before God. The only way it can be done is
if justice is satisfied, if sin is put away, if righteousness
is brought in. We are redeemed on the grounds
of absolute justice, judgment, righteousness, and truth. And
now, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree. And he did it, that we might
receive the promise of Abraham, the blessing of Abraham. What's
that? God the Holy Spirit giving us life and faith. Grace comes
to those, only to those, and to all those. for whom Christ
has obtained eternal redemption, and to those for whom he makes
a procession. Turn for a moment to John 17. The Lord Jesus is the High Priest
of God's Israel. Now, you remember in the Old
Testament, When he went in before God to do business before God
on behalf of the people, he wore a breastplate. And he wore a
breastplate with the names of everybody in the world inscribed
on it. Is that right? He wore a breastplate with the
names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel inscribed
upon the breastplate. because his offering, his sacrifice,
and his service was done before God on behalf of those people,
they and they alone. He was not a priest. The sacrifice
was not made, intercession was not made for anyone else, but
it was made for them and secured God's blessing for them. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is that high priest. who bears our names upon
his heart before God Almighty, and bears our names effectually
before him. He is not a priest for everybody.
He is not an intercessor for everybody. He is not interceding
for everybody. Look here at John 17, verse 9. Our Lord says here in his high
priestly prayer, I pray for them. I pray not for the world. That looks like pretty plain
language to me. I wonder what that means. I pray for them and
nobody else. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. Now just in case we missed it
the first time, he repeats it in verse 20. Neither pray I for
these alone, not just for these who now believe on me, but for
them also which shall, not them which may, them which shall believe
on me through their word. Oh, to whom does grace come? It comes to every sinner for
whom the Lord Jesus Christ obtained eternal redemption and on the
basis of that redemption makes intercession as our high priest
before God in heaven. Grace always comes to chosen
redeemed sinners, and I'll tell you who they are. They're the
most unlikely, unexpected, undeserving sinners you'll ever meet. When
God sent Samuel down to anoint a king for Israel amongst the
sons of Jesse, Jesse had a whole house full of sons. Big, grown-up,
good-looking, strong, wealthy men. Whole household of them.
And he brought them in one after another. And God said, Not this
one. Not this one. Not this one. Not
this one. Jesse, don't you have any more
boys? God sent me down here to get one of your sons and make
him king. He said, Well, this is all I've got except for David.
You wouldn't want him. Little old scrawny, red-headed,
blushing-faced fellow. He's out there tending sheep,
he said, go get him. And here comes David, youngest of all,
the one nobody would expect. He walks in the door and God
said, that's him. That's him. And that's always the way it
is with God's grace. Those who have no claim whatever
on God, those who are utterly destitute of merit, who are completely
unworthy of His favor, who altogether deserve His wrath, miserable
failures, corrupt sinners, depraved rebels, vile, wretched, undone,
condemned, doomed, damned, worthless worms. These are the objects
of God's grace. These are the men and women to
whom grace comes at the appointed hour where sin abounds. Not where it abounds in behavior. It abounds in all your behavior.
That's not it. Where sin abounds in your heart. Oh, David, when God made your
sin to abound in your heart before you, then grace does much more
abound. Oh, when God makes you a sinner,
He's declared you a saint. When God makes you to know your
sin, it's because He's come in mighty saving grace. Brother
Don, you mean the only ground upon which I can come to God
is my sin? That's the only ground on which
you can come to God. He gives you no other. He gives
you no other. And until you come to God confessing
your sin, you cannot come to God. But if we confess our sin,
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. All right, here's another question.
What works are these works that God works in His elect? What
are they? Whatever works there are in us
that are in any way related to this business of salvation, they
are God's works, whatever they are. The new birth, regeneration,
being born again, that's God's work. Repentance, that's God's
work. It's the goodness of God that
leadeth thee to repentance. Christ is exalted to be a prince
and a savior to give repentance to Israel. The only way you get
it is if God gives it. Conviction, the conviction of
sin, of righteousness and judgment. When a man or woman is made to
see and be convinced that sin has been put away, that righteousness
has been accomplished, that judgment is finished by the sacrifice
of Christ, God did that. You can't see it otherwise. Oh,
faith is the work and the gift of God Almighty. That which God
works in us, causing us to believe, is called the gift and the operation
of God. Yes, it is our faith because
God gave it, but it's God's work. It is God who worketh in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. To you it is given
in the behalf of Christ to believe on Him. Understanding? Any understanding
we have of anything spiritual, anything in this book, we have it because God the Holy
Spirit is that anointing which we have of the Father, and now
we discern that which is spiritual, because we have the mind of Christ.
We have light when God gives us light. We have understanding
when God gives us understanding. And whatever it is you understand
has nothing to do with your IQ, has nothing to do with your education,
has nothing to do with your training, has nothing to do with your ability.
It is God's gift. You see, if I can illustrate
this in such a way that you can get hold of what I'm saying.
I have a dear friend who's now in glory, Brother Elmer Harrell. mom and dad died he was orphaned
when he was seven years old and dropped out of school went to
work in cotton fields out in Oklahoma he could barely read could barely
read I mean he could but he had to struggle to do it but he had
an understanding Oh yeah, he understood the person and work
of Christ. He understood the free grace
of God. He understood the work of God's
Spirit better than most theologians I've read after. Understanding
of things of God is totally the gift of God's grace. This is
that which God has revealed to us by His Spirit. But what about
our good works? People say, You've got to preach
good works. People need to be preaching good
works. You've got to work on that. The
Scripture tells us that by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. And we are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath ordained. God's ordained us to good works.
I reckon, Larry Brown, that means God's going to seek to what you
do. Did He ordain us to them? Oh, but we must be careful to
maintain good works. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But any good work you
do, call it what you will, prayer, faith, brotherly love, any good
work you do, any service you render to Christ or His people,
it is God working in you. To God be the glory. That's all. That's all. There is nothing
in us to give us any room for boasting. Nothing in us to give
us any reason to glory in ourselves. Why is it that God has wrought
our works in us? Why'd He do it? Because if He
hadn't done it, they'd never be done. If He hadn't given us
life, we couldn't have lived. We were dead. If He hadn't made
us righteous, we couldn't be righteous. We're sin. If He hadn't
put away our sin, our sin could not be put away. If He hadn't
forgiven us, we could not obtain forgiveness. If He hadn't revealed
Christ in us, we could never have seen Him and believed Him. It's done this way because God's
determined something. He's determined that no flesh
should glory before him. But he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord. We are the circumcision, Paul
said, which worship God in the spirit and have no confidence
in the flesh. No confidence in any righteousness
performed by us, no confidence in any experience we have, no
confidence in any knowledge we attain, no confidence in any
works done by us, have no confidence in the flesh, but rejoice in
Christ Jesus. who of God is made unto you wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Why
has God brought our works in us? He has done so that our salvation
might be effectually and securely accomplished. You see, If any
aspect of this thing called grace, if any aspect of this thing called
salvation in any way depends on you, justification, redemption,
sanctification, glorification, if any of it depends on you,
it won't last. It won't last. You'll make a
mess of it. But it doesn't depend on you.
It's God's work. Listen to what he says. My salvation
shall be forever. And my righteousness shall not
be abolished. I am the Lord. I change not. And for this reason alone, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now, one question. Is my salvation a God-wrought
salvation? Is yours? This much I know. If you have a God-wrought salvation,
if I have a God-wrought salvation, a God-wrought salvation puts
a new nature in us. When a man or woman is born of
God, there's something put in him called a holy thing. That which is born of God, which
John says, can not sin. Now that's what it says. That makes a mess for a lot of
folks in their theology, but that's what it says. That which
is born of God can not sin. It's called being made partakers
of the divine nature. It's called Christ in you, the
hope of glory. But Brother Dodd, I'm so utterly full of sin. That's
the way it is with God's people. We delight in the law of God
after the inward man. That's who we truly are. And
the things we would do, we don't. And the things we hate, that's
what we do. But it's no more I that do it.
That's not really me. That's not really me. Well, who
are you really? Look up yonder to the throne
of God Almighty and see that man yonder. That's who I really
am. Christ in you. So truly one with
Him that by God's almighty grace I am made partaker of His very
nature. Christ in you, the hope of glory. You make it sound like God's
people are paranoid schizophrenics. Neither that or Christians. One
of the two. One of the two. We have a warfare in our place.
Because God's made us entirely new by His grace. And we still
have to live in this body of flesh which we despise. Tell you something else, a God
wrought salvation produces in every person who experiences
it a continually increasing abhorrence of self. My eyes have seen me. I've heard
with the hearing of my ear. And my God, I abhor everything
I know about myself. I abhor myself. Now God-wrought salvation renounces
all creature confidence and looks to Christ alone for hope. That's all. That's all. What's your hope, Christ? What's your hope? Well, I remember,
oh, you've got a bad hope. What's your hope? Well, I have.
You've got a horrible hope. What's your hope? I did. You
don't have any hope. You're fooling yourself. What's
your hope? Well, I've been... You don't
have any hope. You're fooling yourself. What's
your hope? Christ. That's all. That's all. But what about your feelings?
Feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. I trust the living Word of God. Naught else is worth believing. And when I feel much alive, I
trust Christ alone, His blood and His righteousness. And when
I feel nothing but death and sin, I trust Christ alone, His
blood and His righteousness. He is God's salvation brought
in us by God's free grace. Amen.