The Nature of Grace

Q: What does the Bible say about the nature of grace?

The Bible teaches that grace is God's uncaused, sovereign mercy freely given to sinners. Isaiah 57:18-21 describes the nature of God's grace, emphasizing that grace is not earned but bestowed freely by God based on His loving nature. Grace is characterized as uncaused; it depends solely on God and not on the merit of individuals. Grace is also sovereign, meaning God is under no obligation to give it, and He chooses to extend it to whom He wills, including the most undeserving persons. This absolute sovereignty of grace means that all glory goes to God, as He alone can save and heal the sinner without any preconditions that must be fulfilled by the recipient.

Q: How do we know that God's grace is uncaused?

God's grace is uncaused as it is not dependent on any merit from the recipient but stems purely from His sovereign will. The concept of uncaused grace asserts that there is nothing in the sinner that merits God's favor. Romans 9 highlights this principle, stating that God will have mercy on whom He wills. This affirms that grace is entirely detached from human ability or worthiness, making it an expression of God's divine sovereignty. The acknowledgment of grace being uncaused leads to humility in the recipient, who realizes that their salvation is a gift, not a reward for good behavior or inherent worth. It emphasizes that all glory belongs to God, for He reaches down to save those who can do nothing to save themselves.

Q: Why is sovereign grace important for Christians?

Sovereign grace assures Christians that their salvation is solely a work of God, not based on human effort or merit. Understanding sovereign grace is crucial for Christians because it highlights the nature of God's saving work as independent of human actions. As defined in Isaiah 57:18, God observes the ways of the sinner and, despite their wickedness, declares His intention to heal and restore. This underscores that salvation is rooted in God's unchanging will. Recognizing that grace is sovereign frees believers from the anxiety of needing to meet conditions for God's favor and reinforces the comfort found in relying entirely on God's mercy. It fortifies their faith and encourages unity within the body of Christ, as all believers share equally in the grace that God has poured out upon them without distinction.

Q: What does it mean that grace cannot act where there is desert or ability?

It means that grace is given only to those who are fully aware of their unworthiness and inability to save themselves. The notion that grace cannot act where there is desert or ability emphasizes that true grace is meant for those who recognize their complete lack of merit. If a person thinks they have the ability to achieve righteousness or that they deserve grace, then they do not truly understand grace. In Isaiah 57:18, we see God promising to heal a sinful people, which illustrates that grace operates in the context of human inability and unworthiness. It is significant because it reveals that no one can claim they have earned grace; rather, it consistently shines on those who acknowledge their state as sinners. Thus, grace is absolute, offering hope solely on the foundation of Christ’s atoning work.

Q: Why does the proud mind of man hate the grace of God?

The proud mind resents grace because it undermines self-sufficiency and human merit. The disdain for grace by the proud mind of man arises from a fundamental desire to establish self-worth and merit before God. As discussed in the content, the grace of God is an affront to human pride because it declares that no one can attain righteousness through their own actions. In a world that often equates value with merit, grace calls for total reliance on God's goodness rather than one’s own qualifications. Because sovereign grace operates independently of human achievement, it challenges every notion that we might have about earning favor or standing before God. This, in turn, leads some to reject the concept of grace altogether, preferring to trust in their perceived abilities and righteousness instead.

Now then, if you're back in the
book of Isaiah chapter 57, let's begin reading with verse
18 down through verse 21. Verse 18 through verse 21. I have seen His ways and will
heal Him. I will lead Him also and restore
comforts unto Him and to His mourners. I create the fruit
of the lips. Peace, peace to him that is far
off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. But the wicked are like the troubled
sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God
to the wicked. I want to speak this morning
on this subject, the nature the nature of grace, the nature of
grace, or that we might understand the grace of God, that we might
understand it, that we might rejoice in it. The only hope
that any of Adam's race has to miss hell and gain heaven is
found in the grace of God. And this morning we want to talk
about the nature of God's grace. And I want to make to you this
morning at the outset seven statements about the grace of God that I
believe will be most helpful in your understanding the things
that we will be saying about verse 18 primarily here in Isaiah
chapter 57. There are seven statements that
I want to make that will help you to understand the nature
of God's grace. First of all, I want to say that
the grace of God, let me say it like this, grace is God acting
freely. It's God acting freely according
to His own loving nature. The grace of God is God acting
freely. God is in no bind and He does
not have to do anything. He certainly does not have to
bestow grace upon any man. Grace is God acting freely according
to His own loving nature. Number two, grace therefore is
uncaused It is uncaused in the recipient. Its cause lies wholly
in the giver who is God. Now you may wonder, why did God
show his grace to me? Why does God show his grace to
the kind of people that he shows it to? Well, beloved, the reason
is to be found with God alone. The reason is to be found with
Him because His grace is uncaused by the recipient. There was nothing
in me or you to merit esteem or to give the Creator delight.
It is because God would have mercy upon us that he had mercy
upon us. Paul reminds us of that in the
ninth chapter of the book of Romans. He says he will have
mercy upon whom he will have mercy. He'll have compassion
on whom he will have compassion. And so the reason why God shows
his grace to a sinner is Holy in himself if the reason is with
God and God alone number three Grace also is sovereign, not
having debts to pay or fulfilled conditions on man's part to wait
for. Now this is very important that
we understand this. God's grace is absolutely sovereign. God does not owe any man anything. God does not owe any man his
grace. He has no debts to pay. God is
not in debt to sinners. He doesn't owe anybody anything.
Not only that, but God can exercise His grace He doesn't have to
wait until some condition is met on the behalf of the sinner.
He doesn't have to wait until man does something, or if man
makes up his mind, eventually God can. No, no, no, that's not
it. God doesn't have to wait for
conditions to be met or to be fulfilled, and He certainly is
not in debt to any individual. Now God is able to act toward
whom and how he pleases. God can act toward men. It can
and does often place the worst deservers in the highest favors. The grace of God often puts those
in the highest favor that deserved least the grace of God from a
human standpoint. God exalts poor sinners and lifts
them up and saves them and leaves those who possibly are more noble
after the flesh and those who possibly we would recommend to
God, leaves them standing by and gives His grace to the fallen
and to those who are sinners indeed. Now then, fourthly, grace
cannot act where there is either desert or ability. Now get this, grace does not
help in any situation. It is absolute and it does all. The grace of God does it all.
Now, I want you to understand what I'm saying here. That the
grace of God, it doesn't act where somebody deserves to have
it. If you deserve the grace of God and there's nobody here
that does, let me make that clear to you. By nature, as we come
forth from the womb, we are sinners. We're depraved sinners and we
do not deserve the grace of God. We deserve the wrath of God and
the judgment of God. But the grace of God never, never
is it given where there is desert or ability. Now if a person has
ability to save themselves, then why do they need the grace of
God? God is not going to save anybody that has the ability
in and of themselves or feel that they have the ability. The
grace of God will never touch them. The grace of God is for
those that are ill-deserving, hell-deserving, unworthy people
who recognize their inability, that they have no ability on
their own part to please God, to justify themselves before
God, to in any way repay their debt that they owe to God. The
grace of God are for those very people. And so we're describing
God's grace. It's not for those who deserve
it. Or for those who have ability, and grace does not help. It does
not come to somebody who has some ability, somebody who has
some good morals, and come alongside and just help them over the hump. Just help them a little bit.
Because there's some people, you know, that just feels that
all they really need is just a little push. If they just get
a little push while they've got enough, you know, almost enough
to get over and to get in themselves and they just need a little help.
Well, the grace of God is not for those people. The grace of
God, listen, it's absolute and it does it all. And wherever
men are saved by the grace of God, they're saved wholly by
the grace of God and not saved by any ability of the sinner. It's all together of the grace
of God. Now, you see, somehow or other
we get these ideas in our heads, I don't know if we grow up with
them, that somehow or other there are some people that are in better
position before God than others. This is not the case. All men
and women are born sinners, born alienated from God, born cut
off from God, born needing the same assistance and the same
help and the same grace if they're going to be saved. They all need
the same grace and the same degree of grace. The grace of God must
do it all. You cannot save yourself and
you can't help God save your soul. All right, now then, that's
the fourth thing. The fifth thing is this. There
being no cause in the creature why grace should be shown. Nobody is worthy of God's grace. Nobody by their life down here
attracts the grace of God to them. No, so notice that there
being no cause in the creature, why grace should be shown, the
creature must be brought off from trying to give cause to
God for His grace. The creature must be brought
off from trying to give cause to God for His grace. Now that's a strange statement,
isn't it? It really is. Because most people
have the idea that what the preacher's trying to get them to do is to
somehow or other get good enough to where they'll attract the
attention of God and then God will take up their case and He'll
do something for them. Because they somehow or other
are good enough that God is attracted to them. But this is not the
case. And what we labor to do and what
we must do, seeing that no individual comes into this world worthy
of the Lord's salvation and worthy of the grace of God, what we
must do is to try to bring people, bring them off the idea that
they have something or they are something that God's interested
in. Now brother, sister, this is
very important that we see this. We cannot give cause to God for
His grace. We have not and we cannot. You
cannot do it. Now what I'm doing is casting
you entirely upon the grace of God. I'm showing you the true
nature of grace. You must be brought off this
idea that you caused God to be merciful to you. That there was
something about you special. There is nothing special about
a sinner. All that he owns is his sin and
that's all that he has to commend him to God is the fact of his
sinnerhood. He got nothing else. You say,
well, I've got a few things. That's in your own eyes. You've
got a few things. And that'll damn you to hell.
Every little thing that you've got that you'll bring up and
offer to God as a reason why God ought to do something for
you and save you. will damn you to hell that much
more. You've got to be brought off
all this idea that you can give God a reason for saving you. That puts these religionists
out of business. That will destroy a legalist. And it ought to destroy. We ought
to, if we can, to tear down, as Jeremiah said, God sent me
to tear down and to destroy. And so this kind of a message
will destroy the religionists. Because they feel that somehow
or other they're just special people, don't you see? But God's
people are just poor sinners saved by grace and that's the
only difference between them and the man who's walking the
street without any hope before God is that God in sovereign
grace and mercy has reached down and Touched their poor souls
and made them live. All right now the sixth thing
the discovery by the creature that he is truly the object of
divine grace works the utmost humility. For the receiver of
grace is brought to know his own absolute unworthiness and
his complete inability to obtain worthiness, yet he finds himself
blessed on another principle outside himself. That principle
being the principle of grace. That principle being God's favor
toward him. No reason except to be found
with God. And that humbles a man. And that
brings a man low in his heart. And it makes him to rejoice in
God. It brings him to a place where
he has the utmost of humility because he has become a recipient
The grace of God that brought salvation to his soul number
seven and the last statement is this therefore Therefore we
conclude that flesh has no place In the plan of grace it has no
place in the plan of grace This is the reason why grace is so
hated because the proud natural mind of man but for this very
reason The proud mind of man hates the grace of God. It's
because the flesh has no place in the plan of grace. Now, you
see that just puts a man out of business if he's trying to
save himself. Puts him out of business. He
cannot, he cannot, I say, he cannot save himself because flesh
has no place in the plan of grace. But now listen, for this very
reason the true believer rejoices. The true child of God rejoices
that his flesh has no place in the plan of grace. Is there any
body here that is enlightened? Anybody here that is illuminated
by the Spirit of God? Anybody here have any understanding
of the things that we're talking about? Is this not what makes
the heart rejoice? Is that the flesh that God doesn't
take into account? That our flesh had no place in
the plan of grace? If our flesh had anything to
do with the grace of God, we'd all go to hell. Because our flesh
is no good. Paul said, in my flesh there
dwelleth no good thing. There isn't any good thing in
us to recommend us to God. Our sin is what recommends us
unto God and to His Son, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, now then that brings
me to the text. here in Isaiah chapter 58. That helps you to
understand something about the nature of God's grace. And now
look at this verse in verse 18. I have seen his ways. I have
seen his ways, God says, and will heal him. I will lead him
also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. And the last part of verse 19
says, and I will heal him. Now, beloved, this chapter here
describes the wickedness, the horrible wickedness of the people
of Israel. And then to see not judgment
coming upon them, but to see mercy flowing out, it overwhelms
us, does it not? Now, if you listened as we read
this chapter, You see what an awful, awful state that these
people were in, how extremely sinful and wicked they were. And to see that God doesn't cut
them off and that He doesn't send judgment, but that He says,
I've seen His ways and I'll heal him, this overwhelms us indeed. I've seen His ways, saith God,
and it's not added I'll destroy him, but I will, I will heal
him. Now, the grace of God is like
God Himself. The very nature of God is to
show mercy. God is a merciful God. And God is wondrous, matchless,
boundless in mercy and grace. And so, truly, God's grace is
just like He Himself. Now, many a man out here in the
world relieves an unknown person in distress whom he would not
think of helping if he knew his character. There's a lot of people
that we meet in this world that if we really knew them, if we
knew their character, we wouldn't touch them. We wouldn't offer
any assistance to them. We would not help them. Now the
Lord, I want you to understand this, he is aware of the unworthiness,
fully aware of the unworthiness of those He deals out His grace
and it is the glory of that grace that He pours this grace upon
the utterly undeserving. He knows exactly what men are
and yet He is kind to the unthankful and He is kind to the evil. He
gives His grace to those who like Manasseh and David of old
and Saul of Tarsus and the dying thief have nothing but sin about
them and they deserve the wrath of God rather than the gracious
love of God. But these are the kind of people
to whom the Lord gives His grace. Now the text here declares, here
in verse 18, that the sinner has been observed by the Lord. It says this, I have seen his
ways. I have seen his ways. Now the
Lord describes their state, their past, present as an eyewitness
would describe Their situation and if you were to turn over
to the third chapter of the book of Romans I wish you would because
here we find a description of the natural man. Here's what
God says about the natural man Romans chapter 3 beginning with
verse 10 As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth,
there is none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have
used deceit. The poison of asp is under their
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their
feet are swift to shed blood. destruction and misery in their
ways and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear
of God before their eyes. Now what we have here is a description
of the natural man. And so the Lord describes man
as if he was an eyewitness to everything about them. Now the
eye of Jehovah never sleeps. It has never taken off of a single
creature which He has made. It sees Him everywhere. It sees
Him through and through so that He not only hears His words,
but God knows the thoughts of man even afar off. He does not merely behold a man's
actions, but He weighs Men's motives and he knows what in
what is in a man as well as that which comes out of a man And
if you turn to Matthew chapter 15, you can see what the Lord
here Describes is that which comes out of a man? Now the Lord
is observing you this morning and he knows you through and
through he knows everything about you But listen to this In verse
18, But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from
the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceeds
evil faults, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses,
blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands
defileth not a man. Now you know something about
the sitting there, I'm not going to get into that. But here is
the awful discovery, if you please, that God finds as He observes
the creature. As He looks upon the sinner,
this is what God sees. In Psalm 94 and verse 9b, the
Bible says, He that formed the eye shall he not see? Hebrews
4 and 13 says, neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes
of him with whom we have to do. And so this text here this morning
is true in the fullest possible extent. I have seen His ways."
There isn't anything hid from God, beloved. And every one of
you here this morning, while you might have hid some things
as you've lived out your life, there isn't anybody here that's
ever hid anything from the God of the Bible. Everything is naked
and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do even
the little things. And this becomes a dreadful thought
in our hearts when we realize that even the little things God
Almighty has been a witness to. God has seen your ways. He's
seen your ways at home. He's seen your ways away from
home, the ways of your desires, the way of your evil lustings,
the way of your murmurings, and the ways of your pride. God has seen all of this. It's
all exposed unto Him. He's seen them all and He's seen
them perfectly and completely and the wonder of it all is this.
God is speaking of His chosen people. He's speaking of those
that were chosen in Christ in old time. He's speaking of those
that He's set His love upon and His affection upon. He said,
I've seen them as they went astray. But He said, I will, I will heal
them. I'll put my mercy and my wisdom
to work with divine skill to heal this poor sinner of the
wickedness of his soul. They've committed all kinds of
sin, and they've scoffed at religion. They were infatuated, these people
were, by sin, and they could not have enough of it, and they
sinned with both hands. And what mountains, as the text
referred to as we read, was there upon which Israel had not set
up her altars? What stone was there polished
by the flow of the stream which they had not consecrated to an
idol? They even offered thanks offerings
unto smooth stones out of the creeks. What giant oak was there
throughout Basham under which they had not performed mystic
and diabolical rites to the false god? The land was stained with
the blood of their children that they offered to Moloch. And Steve
Gunderson here one Sunday, he told you about what this Moloch
was. The land it reeked with their
infamous sins, for in their worship of their false gods their oratories
were full of lewdness and all manner of indescribable filth. These people, beloved, were sinners. They were sinners. They were
base sinners. God says, I've seen it. And even
though they've debased themselves unto hell, I will heal them. And if there should be somebody
here this morning that this word should come to, and you know
what you are in a state of nature, and this word has come, yet God
says, though you've debased yourself to hell, I will heal you. Listen,
you say that sounds too good to be true, and it would be if
you're dealing with men, but you're not dealing with one of
your own kind. You're dealing with Him of whom
it is written. Who is a God like unto thee,
passing by transgression, iniquity, and sin? For all manner of sin
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now then, beloved,
I'm a very feeble preacher, and I realize that, and I don't know
how to put this, how to so put this declaration of grace into
words that are forcible enough, because I stand astonished my
own self at the very nature of God's grace, and that God does
take those that are the most debased, He takes those that
are the most fallen, and He heals them and He lifts them up. I'm
not here to explain. I cannot explain it. I'm here
just to set it forth. I want to set it forth to you
this morning that God's grace is able to lift up and to heal
those who have fallen. Makes no difference how far they've
fallen. If God takes up your case, He
will heal you. He will heal you. And it does
amaze me that God's electing love should cast its eye upon
the very vilest of the vile, and then that he should say,
I've seen him, I know what he's done, I understand it all, and
yet nevertheless, I mean to save that soul, and I will save that
soul. I will do it. Now, in the second
place, I want you to notice how it's the Lord here who bestows
His mercy upon the chosen sinner. It's sovereign grace, because
God says in verse 18, He said, I will. He said, I will. Now I will, as I've told you
before, and I shall, are only the highest sense becoming when
used by God. You and I, listen, it's not for
you and I, for me to say I will, we will if God wills. God needs
no ifs. He needs no ifs. Because he is
not in debt, I told you earlier. And he doesn't have to wait.
on anybody to meet conditions. God says, I will. He speaks like the God he is.
I will heal him. I will heal him. There's no condition
expressed. He does not say if he will. No,
when God says, I will, Man will be willing in the day of his
power. And the gospel of Jesus Christ
does not depend upon men being willing or unwilling. God makes
men willing in the day of his power. There is a higher power
than the will of man. Else man were God and the will
of man would be omnipotent. And such is not the case. God
is omnipotent. God is all-powerful. God is able
to save whom He will, when He will, and in the very precise
way that He lays out in the Scripture that He does save sinners. The
Lord knows how by sacred arts of wondrous grace to make the
stout free will of man so-called healed itself. to the perfect
free will of God, and thus he takes the sinner captive and
leaves him triumph to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. I like
that. Spurgeon said that. The Lord
knows how by sacred arts of wondrous grace. He knows how to do that.
You say, well how would God ever make a man willing to be saved? How would God do that? How would
he go about doing it? He knows how. He knows how. By
sacred arts of wondrous grace. God knows how to make a man willing
in the day of his power. The grace of God is man's only
hope. It's man's only hope. And if
you just understood that, If it was not for the intervening
grace of God, none of Adam's race would ever, ever experience
salvation. Never, never would a man ever
come to a place where he'd have any hope, any soul at all, if
it wasn't for the grace of God, which we're talking about here
this morning. Well, there was only two things
that God could do with these Israelites. He being the kind
of God that he was, he would either heal them or he would
just put an end to them. He'd just wipe them off the face
of the earth. And that's the way it is with
you. He'll either heal you or send you to hell. That's the
only two things God can do with a rebel. He'll either break you
and save you or send you to hell. It's in His power to do either
one. It's in His power. And you better
hope that God intends to be merciful unto you. Now, I'll heal them,
He said. And the scripture says, by His
stripes, By His stripes we are healed. Jesus came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Why did Christ come
into this world? He didn't come here because there
was good in this world. He came because there was absolutely
no good whatsoever in this world. And He came here to find His
own. And He came here to seek and
to save that which was lost. and to deliver by His own death
on Calvary's cross all those whom the Father had given to
Him. The sinfulness of man was his
need of a Savior's coming, and for that very reason, Jesus Christ
came into this world. I come as a physician, and the
physician has nothing to do with the healthy. His business lies
with the sick. His business lies with those
that are sick. And so God in very deed does
heal sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. He heals them from
the disease of sin. He takes away their sin. He cancels out their sin debt. He pays their debt to the full. He changes their mind by giving
them repentance. And they have indeed a change
of mind because God puts in them a disposition that changes their
attitude toward God, toward sin, and toward the people of God.
Now He renews their heart. He makes them hate the sin they
once loved and leads them to seek after the holiness which
once they despised. God heals the sinner. God does something in the heart
of that man or woman that he saves. The church is not a hospital. The church is full of people
that have been healed. The people of God are healed
people. It is true. that we need comfort
and we need encouragement. It is true that we need somebody
to stir us up to remember what God has done for us, but the
people of God, the church is not a place where people are
just, you know, as it were, they're just being given some attention
in order to make them just a little better. No, God heals men and
women. He saves them to the very depths
of their souls and they're added to the church And they come into
the church healed men and women. They're safe, they're souls I'm
talking about. I'm not talking about your bodies.
I'm talking about your souls. Your souls are healed. You're
clean everywhere. God's washed you and made you
clean. Your sins are forgiven and put
away and you're healed. before God. Now then, he has
opened a house for thieves and drunkards and harlots, and he
set the door wide open and said, Come and welcome! Sinner, come! But when a man comes to Christ,
he's healed. God heals the soul, and he blots
out the blemishes, and all the spots are taken away, and he's
accepted in the beloved, and God looks upon him as his darling,
and as that one that is spotless before him, And as his own spouse
made pure and white by the garments of salvation, God looks upon
his people. They're a healed people. God
saves by his grace. He heals by his grace. The sinner
who enters in is no more what he once was. And if you've not
been made a new creature in Jesus Christ, then of course you're
not one of God's people. You must experience this new
birth wherein God puts within you this principle of His grace
which changes your soul and changes your life, makes you a new creature
in Christ. Old things passed away. Behold,
all things become new. And then also the Lord says in
this text here, He says, I will lead him also. I will lead him
also. Now what has God done? He's looked
and He's observed the sinner, and He's healed the sinner, and
He says, I'll lead him also. I'll lead him. Now that's these
people that have debased themselves to hell. That's these false religionists
and these people that were idol worshippers. And God's done something
for them. He said, I'll lead them. The
soul of man, even when he's healed, does not always know which way
to go. He does not always say, you know, he's bewildered. Sometimes
if you just think a little bit, it's kind of like a man going
into a dark barn and turning a light on And I don't know whether
they have so many pigeons here or not and sparrows, well you
certainly do have pigeons and you have sparrows, but back east
it seemed like there was a whole lot more of what there is here
and it's probably because there's more barns, more places for them
to habitat. But anyway, you go into a barn
and flip a light on in a dark barn and they just go every direction
and they're bewildered by the light. Well this is typical of
a poor sinner whom God has been pleased to shine the light in
his soul and he's come to life. in the Lord, but he doesn't know
exactly just what to do. And look at the world he lives
in. Look at the flesh and look at the devil, which is his adversary. And a man doesn't really know
how, just exactly which direction to go. And so, now listen, this
morning here, As a child of God, the Lord says that I will lead
you. Now the Lord says I'm going to
lead you and He does this in the Christian life. He does this
in the believer's life. In Romans 8 and 14 it says that
they that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. God leads. His people into church
life. He leads them into the study
of the Word. He leads them in their personal lives. The Spirit
of God leads the Lord's people. He doesn't just lead them to
themselves. He guides them. He leads them. David said, The Lord, He will
be my guide even unto death. God guides. He leads His people. Cast yourself upon Him and ask
Him to lead you. And He will. The Spirit of God
comes and dwells in a man. It dwells in the soul of a believer,
in one whom God has healed, and the Spirit of God leads. And
then the Lord says, I will restore comforts to him. I will restore
comforts to him. Now in God's dealings with a
sinner, one of the first things that he must do is to, as it
were, take away the comfort that we once had in our false in our
false peace. You know, everybody has a little
something that they take a little comfort in. You take the worst
sinner out of hell, even if it's a bottle of wine, that's a little
comfort to him. And you find people and you're
just surprised as you talk to them what it is that they feel
is worth living for, that just is a comfort to them. Some people
it's this, some people it's that. And so many times what God must
do Before He comforts a soul, He must bring that individual
and strip him of everything. Strip him of every little comfort
that he has and bring him right to the end of himself. But then
after a while, the Lord restores true, genuine, valuable comfort
to that poor soul. Well, what sort of comfort does
the Lord give? Does He restore? Well, He gives
the comfort of perfect righteousness. Isn't it marvelous, wonderful,
amazing, I can't get over it, how God makes righteous the soul. How he makes righteous the soul.
Through one man's obedience shall many be made righteous. Men are
made righteous. These kind of sinners we've been
talking about, that have debased themselves to hell, they're made
righteous through the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ with our law works. God makes us righteous by imputing
the lovely righteousness of His own Son unto us. He gives us
a perfect righteousness. And if you've ever been out here
trying to do good, and falling over yourself, failing at every
turn of the road, not being able to complete anything in your
life. And just your life has been a mess and you failed at
about everything that you ever tried to do. I'll tell you, you
get a hold of what I'm talking about. The Lord comforts His
people with a perfect a righteousness, the righteousness of His own
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's mine! It's mine. You can
say anything you want to, but who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Bring up what you want. Bring
up whatever you please about me. But I am perfectly righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is not a spot There is
not a blemish on my record before God. On God's books, I am clean. That's what that song was talking
about a while ago. We're righteous, holy, as the Holy One in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's how we're made righteous.
This is the way the Lord comforts those poor, poor souls that He
saves. And then we have this comfort
of complete acceptance. This, the comfort of adoption. The comfort of the sealing of
God's Spirit. in our hearts, God telling us
what I'm telling you this morning, personally bearing witness to
our own souls, of the sealing of the Spirit, telling us that
we belong to Him. You say, well, I've never experienced
that. Well, ask. Seek it. Ask God to tell you
that He is your salvation. Ask Him to tell you that you
belong to Him. Ask Him to show you in His love. He's a very loving and merciful
and gracious God. And if you've trusted His Son,
Christ Jesus, then ask Him, Lord, in mercy, show me that you belong,
that I belong to You. Show me that I am Your child.
Show me that I belong to you. Make it known to me. I've lived
out my days and I've never really known whether I belong to you
or whether I don't. Make it known to me. Seal it
to my conscience. This is one of the comforts God
gives to those that He heals. It belongs to believers and God
will give it to those who seek it. Now then, we have also the
comfort of daily fellowship, for we are admitted to speak
with God and to draw nigh, because we have been already brought
nigh by the blood of Christ. Somebody said, well, you know,
if I just could get a little nearer to the Lord, maybe I could
pray. Maybe I could seek the Lord if
I get a little nearer. I know what you're talking about, but
really that's erroneous. That's really wrong. Because
we've already been brought nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ.
We've already been brought nigh. It's not a matter of getting
any nearer. You've already been brought as
near as Jesus Christ is unto the Father. You've already been
brought near. And you're already near. You're near to God right
now. You've been brought nigh by the
blood. You can pray right now. You can
seek the face of God now. And you can plead the blood now
because you've been brought nigh already. This is one of the great
comforts of a child of God. I'm not waiting, maybe later,
maybe I'll get close to God. No, no, we're close right now. If we believe the gospel, we're
close right now, as close as we'll ever be. This side, the
river of death. Right now, comfort, okay, and
then the comfort of perfect security. We're led to feel that whether
we live or die does not matter because we're safe in the arms
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have the comforts
of a blessed prospect beyond the grave in the land of the
hereafter where the flowers shall never wither and roses ever bloom
in that place, God's people. will be and they will be with
the Lord there. And we have the comfort of knowing
that on this side God comforts His people that way. The comfort
of knowing that all things work together for our good here in
this world and for His glory. The comfort of having the angels
for our servants here in this world. You ever think about that?
The angels for your servants. The angels to take care of you
going down the highway. The angels to look over your
house at night when you lie down and go to sleep. You don't know
anything about what will happen before morning. But the people
of God know that the angels of God are their servants. And they
take care of them. These are some of the comforts
that God said I'll restore to him. I'll give him these comforts.
I'll restore them. Now, all of this All of this
to the man of whom it is said, thou didst debase thyself unto
him. All this for the sinner. All
this for that one who is chosen of God to give unto Christ. All
these comforts for him. A crown in heaven for one who
but for mercy had been damned in eternal hell. A crown in heaven. New songs and glory for lips
that once used blasphemy and cursing here below. New songs
and glory for them. The presence of Jesus and the
likeness of Jesus for one that often rolled in the mire of sin
and uncleanness and filth here below. And all of this due to
the nature of grace. The fact that the grace of God
is free and sovereign Uncaused. It's exercised by God, whose
hands are free. He can just, He can show His
grace to whom He will, when He will, as He will. Absolutely free. Sovereign grace. I don't know of any verse in
the Bible, and I thought about this a whole lot, that more illustrates
the nature of God's grace. than verse 18 of Isaiah 57. I've seen his ways, ain't no
question about what I know all about him, but I will heal him. I will heal him. And he said
further here, he said, I'll lead him and then I'll restore comforts
to him. I'll do it. I'll do it. And all
of those who have witnessed his downfall, witnessed what he is
and kind of been on the sidelines, He said they're going to be comforted
too. Those that feared God and walked with God and waited patiently
for God to do something in the life of this sinner. When God
does something in their lives, then those that's been on the
sidelines, they'll be comforted too. They will. They'll have
the mourners for these people. And brother, sister, I don't
know whether you've done any mourning for anybody or not. There's some
people around that ought to be mourned for. I'll tell you that. There's some in our families
that we need to mourn over. Need to be praying that God will
intervene. Because if God don't intervene,
they'll go to hell just as sure as I'm a foot and a half high.
They'll go to hell if God don't do something. If the Lord don't
reach out and take a hold of them, somewhere or another, get
their attention and bring them to Christ. We need to mourn for
some of these people. There's some of you people here
this morning, maybe, Maybe there have been some folks mourning
for you already, praying for you, shedding tears for you,
begging God to do something for you. Well, if God ever heals
you, they'll have some comfort. They'll have some comfort. They'll
be blessed and rejoice. Well, that's the nature of the
grace of God. I hope this has been some help to you. I hope
the Lord will use it. And if there's some poor sinner
here this morning and you can hope in Christ, and you can get
to Christ, you can come to Him, if you can, and trust Him, then
we'll give praise to God for it. We'll rejoice with you for
what the Lord's done for you. Father, we give thanks for this
privilege. We ask You'll bless and own the
message and use it in the hearts of these that have heard it this
morning. Accomplish Thy purpose for Christ's sake. Amen.

The Nature of Grace

What does the Bible say about the nature of grace?

How do we know that God's grace is uncaused?

Why is sovereign grace important for Christians?

What does it mean that grace cannot act where there is desert or ability?

Why does the proud mind of man hate the grace of God?

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Articles

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About

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The Nature of Grace

What does the Bible say about the nature of grace?

How do we know that God's grace is uncaused?

Why is sovereign grace important for Christians?

What does it mean that grace cannot act where there is desert or ability?

Why does the proud mind of man hate the grace of God?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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