4 and verse 16. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. Now almost all professing Christians
profess and claim to believe in salvation by the grace of
God. There's a reason for that. The
Bible states the fact that salvation is by grace alone, through faith
alone, in Christ alone, and states it with such emphatic clarity
that anyone who even pretends to believe the word of God must
assert that salvation is by grace. Very, very, very few people who
claim to believe the Bible, who would stand up and say no, salvation
is by works, or even salvation is by grace plus your works.
Though there are a few folks who do. There are very few. Yet
when men speak about grace, both those who sit in the pews, And
those who stand in the pulpits, when they speak about grace,
the way they speak about grace is an obvious frustration of
grace. You remember the Apostle Paul
said in Galatians 2, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For
if righteousness comes by the law or righteousness comes by
your works, then Christ has died in vain. And that's a frustration
of the doctrine of the grace of God. He does not imply that
somehow by man's deeds, God's grace is going to be frustrated,
but man by his words contradicts and thus frustrates the doctrine
of the grace of God. Now when we talk about grace
then, we recognize that grace must stand alone, and that there
is no mixture of grace and works. Now, I do not apologize for constantly,
constantly preaching on this. Some folks say harping on it.
That's all right, too. Well, I recognize that grace
and the doctrine of grace must constantly be reiterated and
the foundation of grace laid again and again and again so
that we not be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine
and the cunning, slight, and craftiness of men. Now this message
this morning, as I preach to you about grace, the grace of
God that brings salvation, this message is important, and it's
important for four reasons. First, it is very important because
salvation by grace destroys all room for human boasting. The
hymn writer said, boasting excluded, pride I abase, I'm only a sinner
saved by grace. The Apostle Paul raises the question
in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. For who maketh thee to differ
from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? And thus
he declares to us that the grace of God is always a special, distinguishing,
separating, particular act of God. Grace is that which distinguishes
one man from another, one woman from another, one people from
another. The grace of God and the grace
of God alone is that which makes us to differ from those who are
reprobate. The grace of God and the grace
of God alone is that which makes us to differ from what we once
were and what we are by nature. The grace of God and the grace
of God alone is that which separates men from those who perish under
the wrath of God and makes them to be the sons of God, to sit
with the princes of God in heavenly glory. If your idea of salvation
in any way allows you to boast that the difference between you
and other people is something you are, something you have done,
something you have decided, something you have willed, then your notion
concerning salvation demonstrates that you have never known and
never experienced the grace of God. You do not yet know God. Your concept of God, your ideas
concerning religion are totally foreign to the word of God and
the work of God. No man, no flesh shall glory
before the Lord, and God's people do it. God's people know by experience
and by the word, being taught of the spirit, they know better
than to boast of anything concerning grace in themselves. We read
in the book of God and recognize that always throughout the scriptures,
the gifts of repentance and faith and salvation are described as
being gifts of God's free grace. Repentance is not something that
we somehow conjure up. It is not something that the
preacher somehow is able to persuade you to. Faith in Christ is not
something that is brought to pass because the preacher has
great abilities and he can persuade you to believe, or because you
have decided that you will believe. Not at all. The Scripture tells
us that Christ is a Prince and a Savior, risen and exalted to
give repentance to Israel, that is, to the Israel of God. You
can read it in Acts chapter 5 and verse 31. When the Apostle Peter
describes the conversion and faith of Cornelius and his household,
he says to the Jewish believers concerning those Gentiles, he
said, God has granted them and given them faith even as he gave
it to you and me. The Apostle writes to the Romans
and says it is the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance. Faith is described in the epistle
to the Colossians as the operation of God. The Apostle says in Ephesians
1 that faith is brought to pass, it is created, and it exists
by the very same power of God that raised Jesus Christ from
the dead. Faith, then, is the gift of God. Salvation is the gift of God. It is the gift of God's grace,
not of works, lest any man should boast. So throughout the Scriptures,
we find that it is given to you in the behalf of Christ to believe
on the Son of God. Faith, we recognize. Repentance,
we recognize. All the gifts of grace are the
work of God Almighty in us by the power of His Spirit. Secondly,
this message is important because salvation by grace alone means
that God gets all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory
for it. God the Father gets all the praise
for planting it. God the Son gets all the praise
for purchasing it. God the Holy Spirit gets all
the praise for performing it. So that it is written, no flesh
shall glory in his presence. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. God's purpose is that everything
redound to the praise of the glory of his grace. Paul tells
us that three times in Ephesians chapter 1. Everything God has
done in saving sinners is to be down to the praise of the
glory of His grace. So if God saves you, He says
He does it not for your sake, but for His name's sake. To the
praise of His great name. Psalm 106 in verse 8. Now this
is a litmus test. A test by which you can test
all doctrine. I wish you'd get it. I wish everybody
who hears me would get it. I wish I could proclaim it from
the house cops around the world. All doctrine may be tested by
this. If it causes you to swell with
pride and to look at some aspect of salvation, some aspect of
that which is described as God's saving operation, and you say,
now there, I did that. There, that depended on me. That,
that was determined by me. That is what I did to make myself
different from other people. If that's the case, whatever
the doctrine is, it is damning heresy. and contrary to the grace
of God. All true doctrine causes you
to blush with shame, causes you to bow before the Lord God, and
confess not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory. Such doctrine you can depend
on is consistent with the gospel of God's free grace in Christ.
Thirdly, this message is important. Because any mixture of works
with grace, any mixture of merit with mercy, any mixture of what
you do with what God does is not only terribly erroneous and
terribly evil, but it is utterly damning. I think probably most people,
I've been preaching this everywhere I've been the last three The
last couple of weeks, these three places I've been, I've brought
this message or some aspect of it to them in preparation for
today. I think probably most who hear me, and perhaps many
of you, do not have any idea how serious what I'm saying is.
Any mixture of merit with mercy, any mixture of works with grace,
any mixture of what you do with what God does is damning to your
soul. It's damning to your soul. You
mean pastor? You mean to tell us that everyone
who believes that somehow their salvation somehow depends on
them? That somehow their salvation
depends on their works? That somehow what they do they
think really makes a difference? You mean that all those folks
are lost? That's exactly what this book
teaches. Now I want you to see it for yourself. We are saved
by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Grace
plus anything is not salvation, but damnation. Faith plus anything
is not salvation, but damnation. Christ plus anything will not
save your soul, but will surely damn your soul. Look in the scriptures
in Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11 and verse 6. If by grace, then it is no more
works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. Is it possible for language to
be more explicit and clear than that? If it is by grace, Paul
says, 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. It's got to be one way or the
other. It can't be both. There is absolutely no place
in which grace and works will mix together except in man's
depraved mind. There is no place where the two
can get along except in false religion. If salvation is by
grace, it is not by works. If it's by works, it is not by
grace. Look at Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5, verse 2. The apostle Paul writes to the
Galatians who had been bewitched by the carnal doctrine of legalism,
the carnal doctrine of self-righteousness, the carnal doctrine of works
religion. It is that doctrine which is
common to all men by nature. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. All men
by nature look and they say, well, that just makes sense.
You know what you do counts for something. You know that God
doesn't look at a moral, upright, religious man the same way he
looks at a reprobate, profligate, vile, drunken, harlot and adulterer. Oh yeah, he does too. Oh yeah,
your goodness in your eyes is nothing but sin in God's eyes,
for your goodness is but you fulfilling the lust of your flesh.
It's the same thing the drunk does when he takes to the bottle
on Saturday night. Very same thing, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind, because by nature we are
enemies to God and will not submit to the righteousness of God which
is in Christ Jesus. Paul says in Galatians 5 verse
2, Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. Now, that does not mean if you
mamas took your babies to the hospital and when they were born,
your boys were circumcised and they're going to be lost. That's
nonsense. It certainly does not mean if you are circumcised for
health reasons that you'll be lost. That's nonsense. And yet
I don't Think there's any danger, really, of any of you fellows
rushing out tomorrow and making an appointment with a doctor
to be circumcised for religious reasons. I don't see any application
there. Well, what on earth is the text
talking about? Paul is saying this, if you do something, if
you do something, anything, anything, by which you hope to gain improve
or keep God's good favor in grace, Christ shall profit you nothing. Does anybody have any interpretation
of that text that makes any sense except that? That's the only
thing that makes any sense. The only thing that makes any
sense. Look at verse four. Christ has become of no effect
to you. Paul is not saying Christ has become of no effect. He's
saying Christ has become of no effect to you. Whosoever of you
are justified by the law, for you're fallen from grace. Not
you once had grace and fell out of it, but you have apostatized,
you have departed from, you have fallen from the gospel of the
grace of God. Once more, as I said in the beginning,
this message is important because very, very few people Very few
professing Christians, very few preachers, and consequently very
few people in this world know what the grace of God is. Most
people imagine that grace is a passionate feeling. A desire
in the heart of God to save sinners. Or that grace is something God
offers to men. Or that grace is something God
gives men and gives them a chance to use to work out their own
salvation. Nothing could be further from
the truth. The Bible never talks about grace in that language.
Grace is both an attribute of God and the work and operation
of God by which he saves sinners. So whenever you think about grace,
whenever you talk about or discuss grace, have these things in mind.
Grace is an attribute of God. Consequently, it is like God. It is of the character of God
himself. There are four things that are
essential, essential in understanding grace. Whenever you think about
it, anything that is said or conceived that's contrary to
or inconsistent with these four things is not the grace of God. First, grace is eternal. It's
eternal. God's eternal. And the attributes
of God are eternal. And the works of God, though
performed in time, executed in time, were there in eternity
in the council of grace. Paul puts it like this, God hath
saved us and called us within holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Not only
is the grace of God eternal, the grace of God is immutable.
It's hard for us to imagine anything immutable. Everything about us
changes constantly. Everything around us changes
incessantly. There's nothing that we can see,
nothing we can put our hands on, nothing we have tasted or
felt or experienced in this world that is unchanging and unchangeable
except God and His grace. He says, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob.
tricky, deceitful, fallen, depraved, sinful sons of Jacob, but sons
of Jacob, chosen, covenant sons, people of God. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. For the gifts and callings of
God are without repentance, because God's grace is immutable. And
the grace of God is sovereign. Like God himself, it is absolutely
free, unconditional. Uncoerced, uncaused, unforced. The grace of God is described
like this by God himself. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. What does that mean? That means
if God is pleased to call you, If God is pleased to save you,
if God is pleased to have mercy upon you, if God is pleased to
grant you life, you shall live by his grace. And if God passes
you by, you will be passed by forever. Fannie Crosby's hymn is a hymn
every sensible man and woman or to make his prayer when he
comes into the house of God. When you came in here this morning,
it should have been on your heart. And if it wasn't then, I pray
that it shall be now. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry, while on
others thou art calling. Do not pass me by. Because if
God passes you by, you pass by. If you had sense enough to hear
what I'm saying, you wouldn't sit and clip your fingernails
and yawn and look at your clock wondering when he's going to
shut up and get out of here. You'd cry out, Lord God Almighty,
don't leave me to myself. The grace of God is not in your
hands. You're in the hands of God's grace. The grace of God
does not depend upon you. Your eternal destiny depends
entirely upon the grace of God. and the grace of God's effectual.
We don't use that word much in other places other than here,
but the word simply means it gets the job done. Grace always
accomplishes what it intends. By grace are you saved. The scripture does not say, by
grace is salvation offered. The scripture does not say, by
grace is salvation provided. The scripture does not say, by
grace you now have an opportunity to be saved. The word of God
says, by grace are you saved. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Now wherever God bestows his grace, Salvation is the result. Grace is not an offer of salvation
or an opportunity to get saved. Grace is the accomplishment of
salvation. I recall several years ago, one
of the folks in Asheville, one of the men in the church there,
was in the hospital with a fellow. And they were laying on the They
had to discuss some various things, and this old boy said to one
of Henry's members, he said, I got saved last week. This fellow
looked up at him, he said, I doubt that. Kind of took him back a
little bit. Just the language he used. I
got saved. No, you didn't got saved. God
saved you if indeed you're saved. Salvation is not something you
reached out and took. Salvation is something God gave
and operated in you. You received it because he performed
it and only because he performed it. As it turned out, God got
the fellow's attention. and God saved him in his dying.
But the fact is salvation is not something God offers you.
Salvation is something God operates in you. Salvation is not something
God just gives you an opportunity to get. Salvation is something
God performs. It's the operation of His grace.
Now let me show you how God's grace is described in the Scriptures.
And what the Scriptures say the grace of God does. Follow me
through the Word and we'll look at several things. Let me give
them to you, we'll move along as quickly as we can, but I want
to show you seven descriptions of grace in the Word of God.
Look first at that blessed passage in Ephesians chapter 1. And I
want you to see that we are saved by the grace of God, and that
grace by which we are saved is set forth in the Scriptures first
as covenant grace. Covenant grace. We don't use
the term covenant much, it's used in legal papers, but a covenant
is a contract, a covenant is a wheel, a covenant is a binding
agreement. And in the scriptures we read
that our salvation is accomplished in time because of a binding
agreement which took place between God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit in eternity. Now you can read about it in
Jeremiah 31, you can read about it in Jeremiah 32, you can read
about it in Hebrews chapter 8, in Hebrews chapter 10, many,
many places in the scriptures you can read about this covenant.
But here in Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul describes for us
what transpired in that covenant. Ephesians 1 verse 3. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now, how can you understand that
text of Scripture? What possible interpretation
can be given to it? As you read the text, is it possible
to interpret the text and say God blesses us As we move along
and decide and choose and will and do, and God then decides
that he will bless us in time with all spiritual blessings?
No. No. That's utterly absurd. That's
consistent with religion in man's thinking, but it's totally inconsistent
with the Word of God. Our text says, God hath at one
time in the past by one act, blessed us, all of us, not all
men without exception, that's crazy, but all who are in Christ. He had blessed us, all of us,
at one time, by one act, in the past, with all spiritual blessing,
all of them, all of them, in Christ. How did he do it? according as He hath chosen us
in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him, in love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. This is talking about covenant
work. This is talking about covenant grace. This is talking about
a covenant transaction. The Lord Jesus Christ standing
as our surety in the covenant of grace, having agreed to fulfill
all righteousness for us, having agreed to suffer the wrath of
God to the full satisfaction of His justice on our behalf,
now strikes hands with the Father, the Father accepts Him as the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and upon the basis
of His covenant suretyship, He blessed us with everything in
His sight. Blessed us. I've often used the
illustration, perhaps I've told you, I'm sure I have. Several
years ago when we were going to Australia, Betty Rowe called
up here and asked us to pick some things up. One of the things
she asked us to get was a pair of ladies Reebok tennis shoes. And so I went down to Watson's
to pick up the tennis shoes. They're expensive down in Australia.
They were kind of cheap here by comparison. And that was back
when Reeboks were in style. I'm sure something else is popular
now. I try not to keep up. But I went down and picked up
the tennis shoes down at Watson's department store. I walked in
there and found the pair looked like what she was describing.
They had a little pink stuff on the sides. I wasn't getting
them from me. I don't wear pink. That's just
not one of my colors. But I got the tennis shoes for
Betty Rose. I bought them as her representative
in her name with money that she had promised to give me upon
my arrival in Australia. Now, when I bought the tennis
shoes, they were hers. They were bought for her. They
were bought by a representative. In just exactly the same way,
before we were born, without any condition, the Lord Jesus
Christ stood as our surety, and upon the basis of His promised
redemption, the Father blessed us. And he received all the blessings
of grace in our room instead, as our representative. In that
covenant of grace, a people were chosen to salvation. We are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God had from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And those people chosen had a
ransom found for them. So that there was a ransom found
for the redemption of all the chosen. And the father said to
the son with regard to the chosen, deliver him from going down to
the pit. I have found a ransom. I found
a ransom. And that ransom is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And a seal was pledged. God the
Holy Spirit pledged Himself to seal all the chosen and all the
redeemed. It's described like this. The
Spirit seals the chosen and redeemed children of God by calling them
by His free grace through the preaching of the Word. And so
the messengers of God have this Word proclaimed, Hurt not the
earth till we have sealed the hundred and forty and four thousand.
Don't destroy the earth until all of them have been sealed
by the Spirit of God. And so the Lord God is long-suffering.
He is not slack concerning His promises. Some men count slackness.
But is long-suffering to us-ward, those who were chosen and redeemed
and must be called long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that
any of us should perish. but that all should come to repentance
and the knowledge of the truth. That's the reason you're still
living. That's the reason judgment hasn't fallen. That's the reason
the world has not yet been dissolved. God yet has a multitude described
as the 144,000, a great number which no man can number, but
a specific number ordered by God, the Israel of God, and they
must be saved by his grace. And the salvation of the elect
was secured in divine predestination. Whom he did foreknow, that is,
those whom he loved from eternity. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Now this is what God did. Before
the world began, he chose to save Ron Wood. And then having
chosen to save Ron Wood, he blessed him with every blessing of grace
in Christ your surety. And then predestinated everything
that comes to pass to bring you to glory. That's what predestination
is. It is God our Father arranging
from eternity with absolute sovereignty everything. necessary to bring
his chosen to faith in Christ and to glory at last. Saving
grace is covenant grace. And you simply cannot understand
what the Bible teaches about grace unless you understand that
it is covenant grace. Secondly, the grace of God that
bring us salvation is prevenient grace. Turn to Jeremiah chapter
1. Jeremiah chapter 1. Now we don't
hear preachers today talk much about prevenient grace. And there's
a reason for that. They always talk about what they
know. And not many of them know anything about prevenient grace.
Most of them couldn't define the word prevenient if you asked
them to. But in the days gone by, our
forefathers used to talk about prevenient grace a lot. The word
prevenient means preceding. or beforehand. Prevenient grace
is the secret operations of grace that precede and prepare the
way for God's saving grace. Prevenient grace is illustrated
many, many times in the scriptures and illustrated more often than
it is expounded. You want to see it expanded,
read Psalm 107. In Psalm 107, the psalmist describes
how God's grace goes before and prepares the way for his saving
grace. But it's illustrated numerous,
numerous times in the scriptures. First prevenient grace is formative
grace. Look here at Jeremiah chapter
one and verse five. The Lord God speaks to his prophet
and says, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. The Apostle Paul said very much
the same thing concerning himself. When it pleased God, He separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. Timothy, from a child thou hast
known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. Timothy,
like some of you, was tremendously blessed of God
in that you were raised to know the scriptures from a child. What a privilege. What a privilege. Casey sitting back there, as
Shelby tells me, has learned all the books of the Bible, and
Mark tells me he almost beat him to them when he turns to
them. We kind of smile at it, but oh, what a privilege. What
a privilege to be raised in a house where mom and dad set you on
their knees and pray for you. and teach you the word of God,
bring you to hear the gospel of God's grace. That's God's
prevenient grace. Prevenient grace. Not only is that prevenient grace
formative grace that molds you into what God would have you
to be and mold you into that which God will use according
to his purpose. Prevenient grace is often seen
as restraining grace. Hitherto shalt thou go, and no
further. Some of you were not raised up
like Casey. Some of you were jerked up by
the hair on your head, left to thin for yourself. Some of you
raised in a home where God was not feared, His word was not
honored, And while there might have been a pretense of religion,
the religion was idolatry and blasphemy. Some of you were raised
in a home of drunkenness, lust, squabbling, adultery, licentiousness
of every kind. And yet God in his providence
and grace restrained you from the evil that would have destroyed
you. Look in Genesis chapter 24. You remember how David sent his
men to get some refreshment from Nabal and Nabal saw them and
he shaved off their beards and cut off their skirts until their
buttocks were showing and those men of David, those soldiers
went shamefully back to David and David said, get your swords
on, we'll go kill that man and every man in his house. And when
Abigail, Nabal's wife, saw what David was about to do, she came
to David and she said, she said, the Lord hath withholden David
from coming to shed blood. She came out and pleaded with
David. She said, my husband's a fool. That's his name, and
God will take care of him. Don't bring his blood on you.
And when Nabal died, David said, I'll take Abigail. I've never
met a woman as smart as that in my life. And she became his
wife. God restrained David from the
evil he was determined to perform. Often he does such. I look back at my checkered life and I recognize that God often
restrained me from the evil that I was determined to accomplish.
evil that would have destroyed me for certain. This is what
it did with Abimelech. So, Pritchard, you mean God controls
even the evil that wicked men do? Oh, yeah. Thank God he does. He sure does. Look here in Genesis
20 and verse 6. Abimelech had taken Sarah, Abraham's
wife, and God said to him in a dream, God said to this pagan
king, this is not a godly man, this is a pagan. This is a fellow
who worships stumps and stones. This is a fellow who worships
the star and the sky and the moon and all that nonsense. He
said to a Bimelech in a dream, yea, I know thou didst this in
the integrity of thy heart. Now, that's using the word integrity
real lightly. A fellow's fixing to sleep with
a woman who's not his. But he uses, he says, you did
this not knowing who she is. For I also withheld thee from
sinning against me. I would have killed you. And
Bimele knew what he was saying. He knew exactly what he was saying.
He went to Abraham and said, why did you do this? Well, you were
about to bring the wrath of God on me. And God withheld me from
sinning against him. Oh, yeah, God's grace is often
restraining grace. And then God's prevenient grace
is overruling grace too. Look in Philemon verse 15. You remember Gomer, she took
her master's name and she just took everything she could get
and ran off down into the red light district and she found
herself sleeping with her lovers. What a strange name for men.
who will take and use a woman, and take everything decent and
honorable from her. My lovers, what a name. Nothing new is there. Nothing
new under the sun. Gomer says, when she woke up
in the mornings, there'd be a bag of groceries sitting by her door.
They were all in wool, or flax, or wax. She said, look what my
lovers gave me. Boy, they're good to me. And Hosea said she
didn't know. She didn't know. I'm the one
who set that bag of groceries by her door. Hosea found out
where Gomer was and how she was in bed with another man. Because
of his determined love for her, he provided for her constantly,
even that which she took and sacrificed to Baal. And thus
the Lord God portrays his grace. Larry, while we lived with our
fists shall square in his face, he provided for us and cared
for us and kept us. And he overruled the evil we
did to bring us at last to himself. Here in Philemon, verse 15, Philemon
had a servant by the name of Onesimus. And Onesimus had stole
his master's goods and he ran off to Rome. And while he was
in Rome, Either he was arrested or he was brought to utter poverty
and utter need and desperation and at last came to where Paul
was. But by whatever means, he and
Paul were brought together. And Omnissimus would never have
heard the word. He would never have been converted
in his master's house, though Paul often came to his master's
house. He must first be made to feel
the pinch of need and made to know the desperate depravity
of his heart. And he couldn't know it until
he was brought down with his master's goods to Rome by his
own evil deeds. And this is how Paul writes back
after Onesimus was converted. He writes to Philemon and says,
perhaps he therefore departed for a season. that thou shouldest
receive him forever. Mama and Daddy, cling to a little hope of grace
when your sons and daughters run wild and cast all care to
the winds and disregard every word and every prayer they've
heard from your lips. Perhaps they just departed for
a season, but you may gain them forever. For your children and for mine,
I far, far, far prefer that than that we should keep them like
the prodigal's elder brother in self-righteousness and lose
them forever. Perhaps. What God did for me, he may do
for thee. What he did for you, he may do
for your sons and daughters. Surely, surely, surely, the wrath
of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath wilt thou
restrain. How I rejoice and give thanks
to God for his free covenant grace, for his secret prevenient
grace. It is this prevenient grace that
keeps and preserves his elect throughout the days of their
rebellion unto the day of their calling. Prevenient grace gives
his angels charge over his anointed. Prevenient grace creates the
angels and says to the angels, the administering spirits, sent
forth to minister to, to protect and care for those who shall
be the heirs of salvation. Preving grace is the grace that
holds God's elect secure even while they live in rebellion
against Him. Thirdly, the grace of God by which we are saved
is described in Ephesians chapter 2 as regenerating grace. The
new birth is a regeneration, a resurrection from the dead.
A new creation. I know everywhere people have
the crazy notion that they can will the new birth. They can
choose the new birth. They can decide on the new birth. I've got news for you, it ain't
so. It's going to take something more than an exercise of your
will. Something more than a decision of your mind. Something more
than walking an aisle. Something more than saying a
prayer for you to obtain or to experience the new birth. The
new birth is a resurrection from the dead and that requires the
power of God. Look what Paul says. You have
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. That's
the condition you who are without Christ are in. Dead. You sit here And you, a lady may sit side by side her
husband, and her husband hears of God's grace, and his heart's
moved to tears, and his heart's moved to joy. She sits beside
him and looks over at him once in a while and says, I wonder
what on earth he's hearing, and I'm not hearing. Mama and daddy sit beside a boy
or a girl, and that child hears the word of grace. Their hearts
are moved to rapture, to worship God, My mother and daddy look
over there and say, I wonder what they're hearing, I'm not
hearing. You children, young people, you
come here and you listen and you watch me and I weep for you
and weep because of my sin and laugh and rejoice in God's grace
and you probably think, well, Brother Don, he's He means well,
but he's a little bit mixed up, a little too emotional, a little
too much put on. That can't all be real. And you wonder what it is. He
knows I don't know. I'll tell you what the problem
is. Are you listening? You're dead. Dead men know nothing. Dead men
feel nothing. Dead men taste nothing. Dead men think nothing. Dead. Dead. Dead. And unless God Almighty passes
by you, and opens your dead heart, and
drops into your dead soul, His saving grace, you'll be dead
forever. But here's God's call. Read verse
4. But God. But God. Not but you. Not but the preacher. Not but
the church. But God. God who is rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. Here's
the cause of his mercy. Look at verse 7. That in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. This is what he'll do. The Lord God will take Rex Bartlett and John Fortner and all the
host of his elect and he'll stand us before his throne in the sight
of wandering worlds and all those teachers and neighbors
and family who thought sure we were the seed of hell, will hear
him say, look here, what my grace has done. Grace. Grace. Pure, free grace. Here's the
character of it. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourself, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And fourthly, the grace of God
is described in Romans 3.24 as justified grace. Look at this. Being justified freely. That's an interesting word. You
remember when our Lord said, they hated me without a cause?
That's the word, without a cause. Justified without a cause. You mean preacher that men and
women are justified from sin and justified before God without
a cause? Without any cause in yourself. But justified freely by the grace
of God through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Now I
realize justification was accomplished long before we believed. It was
accomplished long before we experienced regeneration. It was accomplished
long before God gave us faith. We were justified in the purpose
of God from eternity, according to Romans 8, 29, justified in
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. When God decreed
it, it was done. And we were justified actually
at Mount Calvary when the Son of God shed his blood for us.
You mean, preacher, we were justified before we ever sinned? Yes, sir.
You mean we were justified before we ever came into this world?
Yes, sir. Christ paid our debt at terrible rate 2,000 years
ago, and justification took place when the debt was paid. Now we
didn't know anything about it. We hadn't experienced the blessings
of it. See if I can illustrate it for
you. If I owe a huge debt at one of the stores downtown, Bobby
Estes goes up and he wants to secretly pay my debt. He goes and pays the bill and
gets a receipt, sticks it in his pocket. And I go on laboring
for days, weeks, maybe months, maybe a long time before I hear
anything about this. And I'm laboring under the sense
of debt and obligation because I'm not in any way aware that
he paid my debt. But the debt was paid and all
legal obligations ceased when you paid the debt. And then a
week or two later, he comes over and he says, but Don, that's
for him to give me a receipt. I said, don't have to fret with
that anymore. It's all right. But my receiving
the receipt had nothing to do with paying the debt. You follow
me? And the Lord Jesus paid our debt
and justified us at Calvary. When the scripture talks about
us being justified by faith, it's talking about us receiving
and experiencing and experiencing the blessedness of justification
by faith in Jesus Christ. Our faith doesn't pay the debts.
Christ paid the debts. The Apostle tells us then that
we're justified freely by His grace. through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. And thus he declares that all
who trust Jesus Christ are justified by his grace without works, justified
through his blood. That means this, that means that
if you believe on the Son of God, right where you sit, if
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are forgiven right
now and forever of all your sin, because Christ died for you.
It means if you believe on the Son of God, the righteousness
of Christ has been imputed to you, laid to your account, and
you are freely, fully, forever justified, righteous before God. It means that we shall not come
into condemnation. But what if I sin again? There's
no what if about that. I'm sorry to tell you, you will.
But what if I, what if something happens and I cease to believe? In temporary spasms, you will. When the disciples were on the
ship and cried, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Our
Lord looked at them and said, how is it that you have no faith? But what if I commit some terrible
act? You just might. You just might. But if God gives you faith in
Christ, you shall not come into condemnation,
or you pass from death into life. And there's no changing that.
There's no changing that. We are accepted in the beloved. Thank God for justifying grace. Now look at 1 Corinthians 6. God's grace is also sanctifying
grace. I can't spend any time here.
I want to finish this, but I want you to see this. Most people
are sadly confused about sanctification. They think that somehow sanctification
is something we have a hand in. We do part of it. And they talk
about partial sanctification and progressive sanctification.
The Word of God doesn't use that kind of language. It just doesn't
use that kind of language. You look up the words, sanctify,
sanctification, look them up in the scripture, sanctified,
not one time in the New Testament. Is sanctification spoken of as
something that you do? Or something God wants you to
do? Or something that God does in part and you finish up? Sanctification
is spoken of as the work of God's grace. In justification, the
righteousness of Christ is imputed to us. In sanctification, the
righteousness of Christ is imparted to us. So that in regeneration,
we're made partakers of the divine nature. And we are sanctified
in Jesus Christ. Look here in 1 Corinthians 6,
verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But
now you're washed. You're justified. are sanctified
and you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. So that God from eternity sanctified
us in his decree. That means he set us apart for
himself. He said, these are mine. These
are mine. Christ at Calvary, redeeming us from our sins and
justifying us, God declared us to be holy and sanctified us
by his declaration. And then in regeneration, God
has put a new nature in every believer that is a holy nature
and sanctified us in that regard as well. Now, sanctification
does not mean that believers do not grow in grace. They do. It does not mean believers do
not pursue righteousness. It means exactly the opposite.
They do. It means that believers consecrate themselves to Jesus
Christ. That's the only thing that makes
any sense. They present themselves a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God. And then sixthly, look in our
2 Corinthians chapter 12. God's grace is sufficient grace. Paul had been translated to the
third heaven, and he says in verse 7, lest I should be exalted
above measure through the abundance of the revelations that was given
to me a thorn in the flesh. The messenger, let me read it
exactly as it reads in the text, the messenger, Satan, to beat
me. The messenger, Satan, to beat
me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing
I have besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from
me. So much for the notion that prayer
is God giving you a blank check saying, fill in the amount. So
much for the notion that prayer is just you demanding something
from God and He'll do it. Not on your life. Paul earnestly
pleaded with God to take this messenger Satan from him, so
he quit beating him. This thorn in the flesh. And
God said, live with it. Learn to live with it. Not gonna
take it away. Read on. He said unto me, My
grace is sufficient for thee. For my grace is made perfect
in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, And am I
strong? Will you hear me, children of
God? There is an infinite, superabounding, overflowing sufficiency in the
grace of God to meet your every need for time and for eternity. No matter who you are, no matter
where you are, no matter what your circumstances are, If you're
a believer, if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, God's word
to you is this. My grace is sufficient for you. And I'm here to tell you it's
so. It's so. This is God's word to you who
are tempted, tried. My grace is sufficient for you.
I'll uphold you. I'll strengthen you. Yes! I will
help you! I'll uphold you with the right
hand of my righteousness. God's grace is sufficient for
you to enable you to do His will in all things. I got this from
somebody years ago. Someone said, the Spirit of God
will never lead you where the grace of God will not keep you. Paul put it this way. Faithful
is he that calleth you, who also will do it. Oh, how many times I have fallen
back on that word from God. We came together in God's providence,
pushing 18 years ago now. And your word to me and my observation
was, this is a useless, futile task. But somehow, you and I, were
persuaded God was in this thing. And I came here with this word
on my heart. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do
it. Now just a young man, faced with
difficulties, trials, temptations. I look back at them now and they
were kind of like a kid falling down when he's learning to walk.
Didn't hurt much, but at the time it hurt awful bad. And I
fell on this word, faithful is he that calleth you, who also
will do it. And now, nearly 30 years later,
I can testify with honesty, I have never yet, being led of God,
put my hand to anything that God didn't fulfill. Not one time. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who also will do it. Whatever God's will is for you,
His grace is sufficient for you. His grace is sufficient to uphold,
sustain, provide for, and protect His servants, and make their
labors effectual to the souls of chosen men. Our sufficiency
is of God. This is one preacher, I promise
you, and I hope you'll take me to witness with you I promise
you, this is one preacher you'll never hear begging for anything. I'm not going to write letters
to folks and say, send us some money, send us some help. I'm
not about to do it. If God's it, God will provide
for it. His grace is sufficient. We've
proved it over and over again. His grace is sufficient even,
no, let me change that, especially for his fallen saints. Oh, I'd
like to speak a word of grace to the fallen. The psalmist said,
the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth
in his way, though he fall. Though he fall. Though he fall. And fall he will. You and me too. Though he fall,
he shall not be utterly cast down. For the Lord upholdeth
him with his hand. I had been young, and now am
old. Well, I can't quite say that.
I'm getting there. I've been young, and I'm getting
old. Yet, I have never seen the righteous
receive. Have you? I've never seen his
seed beg in prayer. Have you? And in the last hour
when you come to the swelling of Jordan, when you're about
to cross over to the other side, I promise you, you'll hear the
Son of God declare, my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace is sufficient for thee.
One last thing, turn to 1 Peter 5. I want you to understand this
too about God's grace. It's keeping grace. It's keeping
grace. I used to struggle with this,
particularly when first I was under what I think was God's
convicting work.