Now I want you to turn with me
again to Titus chapter 3, and I want to preach to you on
this subject, not by works. In Titus chapter 3 and verse
5, the Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration,
says, not by works of righteousness, which not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and 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. Now, I want to speak as plainly
as I possibly can and declare to you one more time that salvation
is not by works but by grace alone. I'm often accused of being
an antinomian. That's a big word. Most folks
don't know what it means even when they use it. It means one
who is opposed to the law of God and the promoter of licentiousness. I am accused of that because
I constantly preach salvation by grace alone, through faith
alone, in Christ alone. I do not hesitate to declare
that sinners are justified freely, not by their works but freely,
not by their doings but freely, freely by the grace of God through
faith in Jesus Christ the I am incessant in declaring that God
Almighty has so freely and fully forgiven the sins of his elect
that he will never charge the believer with his sins, past,
present, or future. He will never lay our sins to
our account again, for he has found complete satisfaction for
our sins in the sacrifice of his own dear son. I do not hesitate
to say that believers are, through the blood of Christ and by faith
in Christ, entirely free from God's law, from the curse of
the law, the dominion of the law, and the power of the law.
We are totally accepted of God in Jesus Christ. Now, you're
my witnesses to these things. I place you as believers under
no form of legal bondage. I don't threaten you with punishment.
I don't entice you with rewards. I want to encourage folks to
come worship God. But I'm not going to try to get
them to come by fear, and I'm not going to try to get them
to come by promising them that if they'll come be faithful,
then God will reward them in heaven. I'm fully convinced you'll
come eat until you get hungry. And the reason folks don't come
is because they're not hungry. I'm fully convinced you'll come to
meet with Christ as often as you need to meet with Him. And
if you don't come, it's because you don't need to meet with Him.
I'm fully convinced that you will come to gather with God's
saints as often as you need to gather with Him. And if you don't
come, it's because you don't need to gather with Him. And
so I don't try to threaten folks nor entice folks. I simply preach
the gospel to you, fully persuaded that the gospel of God's grace
is motive enough for folks who know God. I preach nothing that
is even slightly inconsistent with the message of free grace.
Therefore, wherever I go in this country or others, this scandalous
charge precedes me. Horton is an antinomian. I don't think I've ever been
anywhere except perhaps some of the churches in Mexico. I
don't think I've ever been anywhere else where Somebody didn't come
up to me and say, I've heard of you. And I know what that
means. I can almost guarantee what they've
heard. Men and women who cannot endure the message of free grace
give a scandalous charge against it, that it promotes licentiousness
and against those who preach it. Now, I take the accusation
as a badge of honor. I'm not upset by it. It doesn't
bother me anymore. When I was younger, it used to.
But I take it as a badge of honor because I recognize that the
fact that I am accused of that means I'm on the right track.
I don't want to be an antinomian. A man who's an antinomian, one
who is opposed to God's law, one who is a promoter of licentiousness,
doesn't know God. He's not a believer. And I certainly
don't want to be an antinomian. But I recognize that the Pharisees
accused our Lord of this. The Judaizers accused Paul of
it, and every man who has been used of God to preach the gospel
since the days of the apostles has also been accused with this
scurrilous charge of antinomianism. Now, I said all that for this
reason. I want you to understand that accusations are meaningless. You who Endeavor to be witnesses
of the gospel. You'll go around the community,
and you'll hear folks make similar charges. You'll hear folks say,
that doctrine promotes licentiousness. You folks don't believe that
folks ought to live right. You folks don't think it matters
how people live. And you'll hear those kind of
charges. Don't pay any attention to them. Don't pay any attention
to them. The fact is, this has always
been Satan's common tactic throughout history. Whenever the truths
of Holy Scripture simply cannot be denied. Whenever the message
we preach simply cannot be denied, then Satan will attempt to pin
ugly names on it and make folks afraid of it. Many times people
will respond to you about the gospel of God's grace and say,
well, that's hyper-Calvinism. And man, just the sound of that
sounds horrible. and you're, oh, scared to death
of that, don't pay any attention to it. That's double predestination.
Don't pay any attention to that nonsense. Just ignore the accusations
of Satan. Don't be shaken in your faith
because some fiend of hell puts a bad name on it. Don't be shaken
in your faith because some ungodly reprobate suggests that it tends
to some evil thing or conjures up some evil imagination in his
mind. However, I want this morning to state one more time that which
is clearly presented before us in this text of Scripture. I
want to show you that good works have absolutely nothing to do
with the accomplishment, the preservation, or the consummation
of our salvation. Now, be sure you get it all.
Good works have absolutely nothing to do with the accomplishment,
the preservation, or the consummation of our salvation. That means
this, Bob. Good works never enter into the
picture. Not in the beginning, not in
the process, not in the end. Good works have absolutely nothing
to do with salvation at all in its entirety. Now this is the
thing the Apostle Paul states in our text, and he states it
not as his opinion, but by divine inspiration. In fact, this is
the very first thing the Apostle says almost every time he mentions
salvation by grace. He tells us that good works have
nothing to do with the salvation of God's elect. Good works are
important and good in their proper place. The Lord willing, I will
deal with that this evening. God's servants always promote
good works, but good works have nothing to do with the believer's
salvation. Now, let's see if this is the
testimony of Scripture. Let's just look in the Word of
God. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2 first, or come back to Galatians
2. Galatians chapter 2, verse 16. Now, works is such a subtle,
subtle thing. Remember the circumstances. The
Apostle Paul was meeting with certain Gentile believers, and
Peter came up to meet with those Gentiles. And when certain of
the Jewish brethren came down and sat down with the Gentiles,
when they came down to see what God was doing with the Gentiles,
Peter had been sitting at the table with the Gentiles, eating
pork chops. He'd been sitting there having
a good meal, because God told him that what he's cleansed don't
any man call unclean. And so Peter's sitting there
eating pork chops with the Gentiles, and he saw these Jewish brethren
coming. And I can picture what he's thinking. He thought, boy,
if they catch me sitting down here eating pork chops, they're
going to think I'm some kind of a horribly evil man. They're going to have
the idea that somehow I've just violated every principle of righteousness
and goodness. And this is all he did. This
is all he did. He laid down his pork chops and
got over here and walked to one side. That's all he did. But
when he did, by that act, he led a dissimulation away. And Paul said, by that act, By
that act, he gave some implication in the minds of men that what
we eat or don't eat, what we do or don't do, has something
to do with our justification before God. And therefore, Peter,
he says in verse 14, when I saw that they walked not uprightly,
according to the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before
them all, I said to Peter publicly before every one of them, If
thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and
not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as
do the Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing this, that a man is not
justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And don't ever indicate it by
anything you say or do. Any inclination in your mind
that makes you imagine that somehow what you do makes a difference
in your acceptance with God, forget it! Put it out of your
mind. It's totally contrary to the gospel. Turn to Ephesians
chapter 2. Ephesians 2. Now this is familiar territory,
but I want you to see that this is Paul's constant insistence. He recognizes that self-righteousness
is so natural to man that every time he mentions salvation, he
says, I've got to make you understand your works have nothing to do
with it. Ephesians 2 verse 8, 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. You see it now? The salvation
you have, the grace you enjoy, and the faith that you have is
not of yourselves. You didn't get it by something
you did. You didn't get it by some will
of your own. You didn't get it by some work
of your own. It is not of works, lest any
man should boast. Salvation by grace in its entirety. Look in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and
verse 9. The apostle says, God hath saved
us. and called us with an 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. One of the old writers made this
observation a long, long time ago, and it's just as true today
as it was when he first made it. He wrote, I believe that
the root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian
church has suffered has been the effort of men to earn rather
than receive their salvation. That's the essence of it. Almost
every schism, almost every heresy the church of God has endured
in this world has been the result of this fact. Men prefer to earn
rather than receive salvation. Every sinner by nature thinks
that he can save himself, or at least that he can contribute
something toward his salvation. Now let me talk to you plainly.
Some of you are here without Christ. Listen up now. Listen
carefully. If you're here without Christ,
if you're yet under the wrath of God, if you're yet lost, I
can tell you exactly why. I'll tell you exactly why you
have not yet obtained God's salvation. I'll tell you exactly why you
have not yet come to trust the Son of God. I'll tell you exactly
why you're yet in the road to hell. Now listen carefully. You're
too good to be saved by grace. That's exactly why. That's exactly
why. You're too good to be saved by
grace alone, too good to be saved by faith alone, too good to be
saved by Christ alone without doing something for yourself.
I recall several years ago when Brother Todd and I went over
to Lexington and started to work there and they were meeting down
on Limestone. He met in that storefront and
he said, you know, I came down here and I thought down here
on Skid Row. Down here among these drunks
and winos and pimps and prostitutes and pushers, I thought surely
these folks down here would escape self-righteousness. But it ain't
so. He said these folks are just
as self-righteous as anybody going to church anywhere. Everybody
presumes that he's got some goodness, some merit, some worth by which
he can somehow wash himself up and at last make himself presentable
to God. And that's the problem. Man by
nature will never, never, never confess his utter sinfulness. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. The problem is we won't confess
them. We won't open up. Oh, we will confess deeds of
evil. That's not too bad. Everybody
achieved on a test. Everybody stole the watermelon.
Everybody had some lust. Everybody's done something wrong. We will rarely confess deeds
of evil, but we won't confess our sin. No man will by nature. The reason you're yet in your
sins is because you're too good. You won't acknowledge your sin
and thus you will not trust the merits of Jesus Christ. You're
not saved because you will not receive salvation as a free gift
of God's grace through the merits of Christ. And as long as you
try to do something to get saved. As long as you try to do something
to make yourself acceptable with God, as long as you try to do
something to appease God's justice and turn away his wrath, you
cannot be saved. One of the old hymn writers put
it this way, nothing, either great or small, nothing, sin
or no, Jesus did it all long, long ago. When he from his lofty
throne stooped to do and die, everything was fully done. Hearken
to his cry. It is finished. Yes, indeed,
finished, every jot. Sinner, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not? This is all
you need. Weary, working, plotting one,
why toil you so? Cease your doing. All was done
long, long ago, till to Jesus' work you cling by a simple faith. Doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. So cast
your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet. Stand in Him,
in Him alone, gloriously complete. Multitudes, multitudes of zealous,
devoted, religious men and women have lived and died confident
of their salvation, but they've lived and died without God's
salvation because they sought salvation on the grounds of their
works. Let me show you. Turn to Romans
chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Paul's talking
about the Jews. Were they devoted? Yes, sir. Were they zealous? You bet your
life. Yes, sir. You watch those folks over there.
They go to the wailing wall over there, that little ridden that
God left just enough of the temple over there, just the stump of
the temple, just a just a little bit of mortar there. That's all
it is. And they go over that wailing wall and God left just
enough there to keep them in blindness. And those folks standing
there with their prayer books and they chant their songs and
chant their prayers. And they're sincere. My soul,
nobody would wear those ugly beards, scraggly things those
fellows wear if they weren't sincere. They're sincere. They dress funny,
they look funny, they act funny, but they're sincere. The Islams,
the Muslims, are they sincere? Man, a fellow who's strapped
36 of dynamite to his body and blew himself up in the name of
God is sincere. He's sincere. Are they saved? No. As lost as a goose in a snowstorm. And folks in churches, are they
sincere? Yes, sir, they're sincere, as
sincere as they can be, but lost because they attempt to be saved
by something they do. They talk about grace, they say
grace, they say saved by grace, saved by Christ, saved by faith
in Christ, but they depend on their works, and therefore they
can't be saved. Listen to what he says. Romans
9, 32. Why have the Jews not attained
righteousness? Because they sought it not by
faith. Do you see that? They sought
it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For
they stumbled at that stumbling stone. God put a stumbling stone
right in front of them. And this stumbling stone is right
in front of you. And if you go to hell, you're going to go to
hell stumbling over Jesus Christ. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion, a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. What is it?
Salvation by Christ the Substitute. That's what it is. And whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. You believe on Jesus
Christ, cast your soul on Jesus Christ alone, cast away your
works, cast away your righteousness, cast away your goodness, believe
on the Son of God, and you will never come into confusion. When
you stand before the judgment bar of God Almighty, you shall
not be ashamed. The Philippian jailer asked,
sirs, what must I do to be saved? And the apostle Paul did not
give him a creed to recite. He didn't give him a work to
do. He didn't say, you'll be baptized and it'll be all right.
He didn't say, join the church. He didn't say, now, now you,
You'll see if this thing lasts and come back in six months and
we'll decide whether or not you're saved. This is his answer. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Merle, that's the simplest thing
in this world and the hardest thing on this earth for a man
to do. Simplest thing in this world.
and the hardest thing on this earth for man to do. You can't
do it unless God gives you faith. You can't do it unless God gives
you faith. Now I want to show you this morning
first that it is the universal testimony of Holy Scripture that
salvation is in its entirety by grace alone, through faith
alone, in Christ alone. I mean every aspect. From the
beginning to the end, it is a work of God alone, altogether the
work of God's free grace. The Word of God tells us constantly
that nothing is given as the result of man's works but wrath,
death, judgment, and eternal ruin. The wages of sin is what? Death. And, Ron, would everything
you are capable of doing and everything you do sin? Now the
wages is death, but not the gift of God in the sense of a present
waiting for you. No, no. The gift of God freely,
effectually, sovereignly bestowed upon you and brought in you is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God's eternal choice
of his people was an election of grace. without any consideration
of our works, good or bad. You're open here at Romans 9,
11, aren't you? Look at Romans 9, chapter 9, verse 11. Paul's
drawing an illustration. These two boys represent everybody
in the world. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, Now those are important
words, they're not just filled with space. The children being
not yet born, they hadn't done anything good, they hadn't done
anything bad. They've done no good and no evil. That the purpose
of God according to election might stand, what does it say?
Not of works. Not of past works, not of present
works, not of foreseen works. 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." Some folks would have the idea
that God looked down through eternity
with the telescope of omniscience. And he saw that in time, Lindsay
Campbell, being raised up in Dayton, Ohio, in a good He saw
that Lindsey Campbell, with all the right influences and all
the right pressures put on him and all the right training and
education, he saw that Lindsey Campbell would in time come to
his senses and exercise his will and believe on Jesus. And after
all, he would turn out to be a pretty good Joe. And therefore,
God said, I love him and I'll choose him. The reason why Lindsey Campbell
was born in Dayton, Ohio, born to Brother and Mrs. Campbell
in a home where God is honored and God is worshipped, raised
under the influence of the gospel of a man who preached it, and
brought up under the influences of godliness and the fear of
God. The reason why is because God
said, I've loved him and he's mine and this is the path by
which I'll bring him to me. And God did not look down in
eternity with that long telescope of omniscience and sand out of
Don Fortner. I see that though he's raised
without any influence of God's And though he blasphemes my name, and though he not only is but
does every abominable evil, and though he is a wretch of a man,
he will one day decide to turn around. And he will one day decide
that he'll become mine and he'll choose me as I choose him. A
thousand times. Now you listen to me and you
listen good. You listen good. All that Don Fortner has done
and is and all that you have done and are is your fault and
my fault. Nobody to blame but us. Well,
what about your mama? You can blame her until you die,
but when you stand before God, you'll quit blaming her. What
about your daddy? He was a drunk. You can blame
him until you die, but when you die, you're going to stand before
God and you'll quit blaming him. Or what about the educational
system? You can blame it until you die, but when you die, you're
going to stand before God and you'll quit blaming anybody. The only blame goes to me. for all the evil I am and all
the evil I've done. Sooner you learn that there you
will be toward recognizing something about God's grace and something
about reality. But I recognize this as well. The reason why Don Fortin was
born where he was born and jerked up by the hair of the head and
the reason why his life was given over to the vent of his own evil
lust. And by this path, I'll bring
him to myself and serve my God. Our redemption, turn over to
1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1, our redemption
by the blood of Christ was a free grace ransom and purchase. the
purchase of our souls out from under the curse and penalty of
God's holy law. It is written, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. Redemption is not a possibility. Redemption's an accomplished
fact. Redemption is not something that
is outshined and you might can get it. If pretty please, you'll
do what's right. Redemption's what God did in
Christ, and Christ obtained it for us with his blood when he
entered into glory, and he did it freely. without any effort
on our part. Look here in 1 Peter chapter
1 and verse 18. For as much as you know, oh I
hope you know it, that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver or gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who was foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifested these
last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised
him up from the dead, and gave him glory, that your faith and
hope might be in God." The Lord Jesus Christ, with his blood,
met the demands of God's holy law of justice, and having assumed
our sin for himself, he assumed total responsibility for our
sin, and he paid our debt, and our debt having been canceled
and paid, God Almighty charges us no longer with sin. The preacher doesn't reject you
somehow. Surely, surely, somehow, there's
some aspect that depends on us. Didn't Christ provide redemption
for everybody? If he did, then redemption somehow
depends on you. You did right. No, he didn't
provide the possibility of redemption. Rex Bartley, Jesus Christ bought
you with his blood and obtained eternal redemption for you. And
by the merit of his blood, he bought the gift of faith by the
Spirit of God for you. That's exactly right. He received
gifts for me and ye, for the rebellious also, that the Lord
God might dwell among them. Those gifts of grace were purchased
by the blood of Christ when he redeemed our souls. All who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ have been born again, regenerated,
and called to life and faith in Christ by grace alone. Our text tells us that We are
saved not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration. And
don't let some Campbellite or other fool tell you that's all
about the waters of baptism, the explanations in the next
clause, and or even the renewing of the Holy Ghost. How is it
that a man's born again? God the Holy Spirit goes to the
dead center and gives him life. But don't you think we need to
prepare ourselves? Oh yeah, but you can't. Don't you think that we ought
to do something? Absolutely. You ought to be holy, but you
can't. Don't you think that we ought
to pray? Yes sir, you ought to pray, but
I'm going to tell you something, you'll never pray. You can talk
about it, and you can mutter words, and you can go through
the motions, but you ain't going to pray until God the Holy Spirit
gives you life. A dead man can't do anything. Nothing. Nothing. Well, surely
I come into church to count for something. Nope. Surely if we
quit doing bad things and start reading the Bible, that'll count
for something. No. God may be pleased to use
it to give you life, but it don't count for anything. It don't
count for anything. Oh, no. How on earth is a man
born again then? Now here's the sound that I can't
not tell when it's coming or where they're going. So is everyone
who's born of the Spirit. I woke up yesterday morning about
five o'clock, had a horrific windstorm out here, and rain,
and hail. And you know how you wake up startled? I've lived
on this hill long enough to know, I've teased Bob about it, but
I agree with him, the wind always comes this way. Bad storms always
come this way. I'm fully aware of that. But
I woke up, where's that coming from? What's that? That's exactly
what happens when God saves your sin. What happened? God did something. How did that man suddenly get
turned around? He didn't get turned around.
He got turned to the inside out. He got new life. God came. That's what happened. God came.
He didn't come because I willed it. He didn't come because you
willed it. He came because he willed it. We're justified freely by the
grace of God. Paul tells us in Romans 3 20.
Justified freely by the grace of God. Justified freely without
a cause in us. Without any cause. That's what
the word freely means. Without a cause. Our Lord said they hated
me without a cause. It's the very same word. There
was absolutely nothing in him to cause me and to hate him.
They hated me without a cause. And there's absolutely nothing
in you. and nothing in me to cause God
to justify us. But we're justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. But what about sanctification? Surely we've got to mortify the
flesh. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, you do. Try
it. You know what mortified means,
don't you? It means kill it. You can keep stabbing it, but
you ain't gonna kill it. Surely, surely we've got to do good works.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir, you do. But you can't. Our sanctification, like our
election, like our redemption, like our justification, like
our regeneration, is the work of God alone. were sanctified,
Hebrews 10 verse 10, through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ one time. Now that word sanctified, it
has two significance, twofold significance. It means set apart,
and it means holy. We were set apart by God the
Father, Jude verse 1, before the world began. God set us apart
from the ruins of Adam's race. He set us apart. He said, I'll
be theirs and they'll be mine. God Almighty set you apart by
the ecstasy from all the rest of mankind. Sets us apart from
brother and sister, mother and father. He sets us apart. And
he did it from eternity. He's a component. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, by his death at Calvary, He came into the marketplace,
and the marketplace was the court of divine justice. And by his
blood, by his blood, he bought us and set us apart, and in the
court of heaven declared us to be holy. He bought us with his
blood. And God the Holy Spirit comes
in regenerating grace. indescribable and loving it. Though we're there with all the
children of wrath and loving it, he comes in sovereign grace
in the time of love. And with his rod and staff, as
we were told this morning, the Good Shepherd snatches us from
the jaws of hell and sets us apart. He sets us apart, gives
us a holy nation. God Almighty is going to save
us. And he will set us over here
on this island. We're sanctified, not by our
works, but by God's grace. Yes, preacher, but you got to
hold on and hold out and keep up and keep going. Yes, sir,
you do. The righteous shall hold on his
way. But I want to tell you something. God's saints are preserved and
kept, not by their works, but by God's grace. I look around this auditorium. Sometimes I come in here and
sit down when nobody else is here. I look where you normally sit. And I remember others who sat
there. Over the years, I've corresponded with so many, met
so many. Like seed, sown by the wayside,
boy, they get hold of it. They hear this message of free
grace, they say, that's it, let's go. And they're on fire, they're
on fire. and they fizzle out like a toilet
paper. You try to light a fire with a piece of toilet paper,
you can forget it. It's gone. It's gone. And then others, they
receive the word like stony ground hearers. They last a little while. They
last a little while. A little longer than some of
the wayside. Soon as a little opposition comes,
soon as some trial comes, soon as some persecution That's enough
of that. Enough of that. Others receive
the word like seeds sown among thorns. It springs up. This kind of spindly thing. And it seems to last a long time. About one in four. about one in four who come into the church through
the waters of baptism, about one in four, about one in four
who profess faith in Christ, about one in four who step into this way by profession,
about one in four with whom we walk for a while in the kingdom
about one in four receive the word of seed sown in good, and
it bears fruit. You know why it lasts? He said, I give unto them eternal
life, and we will continue holding
him, and the strength of the holding is in his hands. You
got that? See a child that's fallen out
of a window just hanging by the ledge and you walk over there
and you want to take hold of that child's arm and you take
that little child and just let go, trust me. You can't persuade the child
to let go. child's trusting its own. That child's got its mind on
that long, hard fall. And that child knows it doesn't
have the strength to hang on to your arm. But when that child finally recognizes
it simply can't cling to that ledge any He can't hold hold
any longer. You've got hold of his heart,
that child will grab hold of you and hang on for dear life.
But the strength is not in the child, it's in you. Would you
hear me? The strength by which we persevere
and hold to Christ, not in us. I hold to him for dear life. without him. But I recognize the hand with
which I hold him is the weakest hand of the weakest faith in
man. And it's not my faith holding
him, it's his grace. And when we enter into heavenly
glory, and enter into our everlasting reward, our reward in heaven
will not be by our but by the works of Christ as our substitute.
It's given to us as the free gift of God's grace toward us.
Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. How much of it are you going
to inherit? All of it. What are you going to get out of that?
How are you going to get it? That's it. That's it. Lord, not unto us,
but unto thy name. This is the doctrine I've preached
to you since the first day I met you. This is the doctrine I've
preached wherever God's given me opportunity to preach for
the last twenty-eight years. And God helping This will be
the doctrine I'll utter when I have uttered my last word in
this world. I preach this message, and I make this solemn pledge,
I will not alter it. I will not even slightly modify
it. Not for you, not for me, not
for anybody. God help me, it will not change.
I declare that salvation is the free gift of grace alone, that
works have nothing to do with it. And now I bid you come to
Jesus Christ, trust the Son of God, and trusting him, you have eternal
life. I recognize that you can't satisfy
God's justice. You may have tried, but you can't
do it. You can't do it. Christ can. You can't establish righteousness. You can't do it. Christ did. You can't give yourself a new
heart. You can't give yourself a new nature. I tried. I quit a long time ago trying
to explain when God begins to work in a man. I don't know.
I just know if he begins it, he'll do it. But I remember when
I began to be terrified with legal fear of judgment and hell. I tried. Oh, I'd made such a
mess of things. I tried to straighten up and
do right. It wasn't too hard to quit doing
stuff. After a while, you just find
out it costs too much. After a while, you find out you
pay too big a price. And it's not hard to quit doing
evil things. A man wants to quit stealing,
he just quits stealing. A man wants to quit drunkenness, he
just quits drinking. That's all. It's not too hard to quit doing
things. But what I found out is I couldn't
change my heart. I couldn't change my nature.
And the evil that was in me was just as bad as ever. Just as
bad as ever. I found out, by experience, and
I reckon the only way you'll ever really find out, by experience,
that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can give a hell-bent rebel,
look here, look here, look here! He did it for me. Salvation is
God's work. God's work alone. By God's grace
alone. Through God's gift of faith alone. For Christ's sake. Amen.