I invite you to turn this morning
your Bibles, if you will, to the book of the Psalms 115, 115. I'd like to read the first three verses
of this Psalm this morning, speaking primarily on verse 1, on verse
1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. I'd like to begin this morning
by saying that the great contest between the religion of the world
and the religion of Jesus Christ is just this, who is entitled
to the praise and the glory of the sinner's salvation. Who is
entitled to the praise and the glory of the sinner's salvation? Now, I hope this morning that
every one of you would immediately say, well, the God of the Bible
himself should have all the glory and all the praise. I hope that
you would be able to agree with the psalmist. Not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. But we recognize
that in the religious world today there are many who will not give
God all the glory, all the praise for the salvation of sinners.
We recognize that there are many in the world who believe that
they should have some of the praise, some of the honor, some
of the glory for the salvation which they claim to possess.
And my heart was stirred this last week as I talked with a
gentleman about this subject. And the Lord moved my heart to
prepare this message this morning to bring to you because of the
conversation. It kind of grew out of the conversation
that I had with this fellow about eternal salvation and who should
have the glory, who should have the praise for it. Now I believe
that most of you here this morning, at least at the very outset of
our message, would agree 100% that the God of the Bible is
entitled to all the praise and the glory of His salvation. God's
people, God's people, the recipients of God's mercy and grace in Jesus
Christ, praise is comely for you. You ought to offer praise
unto your God for having saved you, having delivered you out
of the pit, having delivered you from eternal burnings. Now, beloved, this morning, your
answer to the question, who is entitled to receive the glory
and the praise for the sinner's salvation, I think will be determined
by your answer to another question, and that is this, is salvation
by free will or by free grace. Now, the first question will
be answered if you're able to scripturally, biblically answer
the second question. Now, to answer these questions,
I make no appeal this morning to the preachers and the theologians
of the past, though I thank God for what I have been taught by
the reading of many of the old writers from the past. Those were faithful men of God
who served the Lord in past generations, and they have been able to pass
down to us many things that have been most helpful, but I do not
appeal to them. Neither do I appeal to the preachers
and to the theologians of the present day, though I truly thank
God for all of those faithful witnesses and fellow servants
of Jesus Christ who minister to the souls of men in our day. I'm thankful to God for them.
I appreciate them. I rejoice that Christ is preached
and that men are holding up the truth of God in our day. Now,
to find the answer, while we do not appeal to those preachers
and theologians of the past or to none in our present day, where
are we going to find an answer to the question, is salvation
a free will or is it a free grace? Now then, in order, I think we
should turn to the Word of God because the Bible, you know,
is our one rule of faith and practice. We read in the book
of Isaiah, chapter 8, And verse 20, it says, to the law and to
the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them. Well, who, I ask, is
entitled to have the praise and the glory of salvation? Well,
what does the text here that we read this morning, what does
it say? Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us. but into thy name give glory,
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake." I invite you to turn in
your Bible to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The book of 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, and I'd like to read beginning with verse 26 and read
through verse 31. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26 through
31. Listen to this. For you see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called? but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, and base things of the world and things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made the Lord, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. He said, I am the
Lord, and he said, my glory will I not give to another. He shows
clearly here that no flesh has any grounds to glory in his presence
because God has called not, beloved, those that are wise after the
flesh, not those that are mighty, not those that are noble, not
many of them, but God has chosen the base and the foolish things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty. God has done this in order that
no flesh Would have any room or ground to glory before him
let him that glory Let him glory in the Lord now turn to the book
of Revelation Revelation the revelation and
we'll read beginning with verse 10 and then we'll read verse
11 the 4 and 20 elders fell down before him that sat on the throne
and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever and cast their
crowns before the throne saying I Thou worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Look in chapter
5, verse 9 through 14, and they sung a new song saying, Thou
worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands
saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in
the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four
beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders
fell down, and they worshipped him that liveth forever and ever. Now, beloved, as we read these
verses, it is evident to me that it is unto his name that the
glory should be given for eternal salvation, for the salvation
that lifts poor fallen sinners, poor fallen sons of Adam out
of the miry clay and puts them upon the rock, that all the glory
and the praise should be given unto him, unto the God of the
Bible. Now let me ask you this, is salvation,
let me ask you again, is salvation by the free will of man or by
the free grace of Almighty God? The Bible says in Romans chapter
9 and verse 16, so then, it is not of him that willeth nor of
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It's not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. In John chapter 1 in verse 12
and 13, it says, He came unto his own, his own received him
not, but to as many as received him. To them gave he the power
to become the sons of God, which were born not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Salvation, we're told, in the
Old Testament, is not by might nor by power, but by by spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts. In James 1 and 18, James says,
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. What, I pray,
this morning, if you can tell me, does that vile and ugly and
reprehensible term free will, what does it represent? What
does it represent? Well, beloved, first of all,
it should not even be in the vocabulary of a child of God.
There's no such thing as free will in man. Man's will since
the fall is in total, absolute bondage unto sin. His will is
biased to sin. His will is subject to his nature. He cannot will to do anything
contrary to his fallen nature, and therefore his will is not
free. Now, if he could exercise his
will apart from the bondage of sin and apart from the spiritual
death in which he finds himself, then, of course, he could claim
to have free will. But his will is in bondage. It's
in iron bondage, and his will is not free. His will is impotent
toward God, and it's biased toward sin and Satan and the devil. Now, I want you to hear me out
this morning. in all of the universe that's
free is the sovereign will of our God. His will is absolutely,
totally free. He is holy and He's just. He's too good not to do anything
other than that which is perfect and absolutely right in all cases. And therefore His will ought
to be and is, thank God, perfectly free. Would you not be on the
side of God's will being done in that that God is holy and
just and pure and good and absolutely right in all of His judgments?
Would you not say that His will ought to be done? Well, beloved,
any wise man would say the will of God and the will of God only
ought to be done. Now listen to me. Freewillism,
number one, is the religion of man. I want you to hear me this
morning. Freewillism is the religion of
man. And that's the reason why God's
being robbed of His glory, is because men are saying that the
glory belongs in part to them, because they've exercised a will,
their free will, and they've chosen Christ on their own. They've
come to Christ. They saw something good and reached
out and took it. Therefore, they deserve part
of the credit instead of the God of the Bible. Now listen,
free willism, here's what it represents. It represents anything
that's decided, anything that's determined, anything that's done
by man to attain salvation. That's what free will is. Anything
that is decided, determined, or done by man in order to attain
to the salvation of the Lord. Now, number two, free realism
is the religion of Satan. It's the religion of Satan. Lucifer
was the first freewheeler. Isaiah 14, verses 13 and 14,
where it says, For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend
into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Satan was a free willer. I will,
I will, I will. Now then also free willism was
the religion of those men who crucified the Lord of Glory. Turn, if you will, to the Book
of Mark, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, and I'd like to read
verses 9 through 15. I say that free willism, it was
the religion of those who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. I read
here beginning with verse 9, where it says, But Pilate answered
them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he knew that the chief priest
had delivered him for envy. But the chief priests moved the
people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said
again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him
whom ye call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again,
Crucify him! Then Pilate said unto them, Why,
what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly,
Crucify him! And so Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus
when he had scourged him to be crucified. Beloved, here we find
free will being exercised, as it were, by these men. But I
want you to notice that they cried out, Crucify Him! Crucify
the Lord of Glory! It was free will that in the
Garden of Eden reached up and pulled down the fruit and told
God to go to hell, that we was going to run the world as we
pleased, we'd do what we wanted to do. That was free will. It got man in an awful mess.
And here we have free will Crucifying as it were the Lord Jesus Christ.
We know that he was delivered up here by the determinate counsel
of God He was slain by the hands of men, but the sovereignty of
God and the pleasure the good pleasure of the Lord Overrule
here this so-called free will of man and brought to pass on
We know that great event that delivered and saved our souls
from eternal and everlasting burning. And so we praise God
that the Lord has overruled in sovereignty this particular case
here that we read of in Mark chapter 15. Well, free willism. I believe that it actually is
the religion of Babylon and it's the religion of Antichrist. It's against Christ. It's against
God. It's against the glory of God. It's against the praise and the
exaltation of the God of the Bible. Well, what is represented
by that glorious and God-honoring and that Christ-exalting term,
free grace. Oh, I wish we had a tongue to
speak of it, to tell it. Free grace, free grace. Now listen,
free grace represents everything that is decided, everything that
is determined, everything that's done by Almighty God to bestow
salvation upon His elect, to bestow salvation upon His people. That's what free grace, that's
what it represents. everything done, determined,
everything that God has done in order to save His people from
their sin. Now, free grace, you watch this
now and you listen to this, is the sovereign, voluntary, eternal,
immutable, unconditional, uncaused, uncontrolled, gratuitous bounty
of God's goodness by which salvation in all of its branches is accomplished. It is this grace that Paul speaks
of in Romans 5 and 21 which reigns unto the eternal life of chosen
sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans 5 and 21, Paul
says that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now consider with me. This free
will religion, I want you to know what it is. It is will worship. It's what it is. It's the worship
of the will of man. Now I can think of nothing in
all the world that's more foolish that's more debasing to humanity,
that's more dishonoring to God and more assuredly damning to
the souls of men than idolatry. And freewillism is, although
you may not admit to it and may not agree to it, freewillism
is idolatry, my friend. It's idolatry. Idolatry is evil. Idolatry is sin. And in my judgment,
The most abominable form of idolatry in all the world is that which
Paul in Colossians 2 and 23 calls will-worship. The worship of
the will. Will-worship is the worship of
yourself. It's the worship of yourself.
I did it. I heard a growing man, 50 years
old, say the other day, I asked him, did you get saved on purpose
or did you get saved by accident? And he said, I, I saw this deal
and the Lord presented salvation and I with my free will accepted
it. I said, well, then the difference
between you and those that are damned in hell is the fact that
your will was better than theirs, and you exercised your will,
and therefore you're not going to hell, but they are. And he
said, that's exactly right. Now that man is a worshipper
of his own self. That man, the difference between
him and others is that he himself, himself, there's something about
him that is different. Will worship is the worship of
one's self. Now notice, those who attribute
salvation in the whole or in the part to the will, the work,
or the worth of man, are the most abominably evil idolaters
in the world, for they worship themselves. They worship themselves. Would you call a man who worshiped
himself an idolater? I would. I would. And any man
who says that it's his will, free willism, I repeat, is the
worship of yourself. When a man says, it's my will
that made the difference. I did this, I did that. Now listen,
free will works religion makes man his own savior. It makes
man his own deliverer. It puts a man in the position
where he is now, wherever he might be. He says, I'm there
because of my free will. I did this, I did that because
my will moved me to do that. Well, it makes the will then
A sovereign, man's will sovereign over God. The work and the worth
of man to be the determining factor in salvation. And we know
that that's contrary to what the Word of God teaches. Did
you get it? It makes the will, it makes the work, it makes the
worth of man to be the determining factor in the salvation of the
soul. And as long as an individual
entertains that idea, that man is an idolater, and that man
will rob God of every thread of his glory. Just let him talk
long enough, and it's not unto him, it's not unto him... says that your salvation is determined
by your will, by your free will, your so-called free will. Now that's kind of hard, I recognize
that, and you and your preacher can talk about God and talk about
grace and talk about Christ and can talk about redemption and
talk about the Holy Spirit and regeneration, but you really
Worshiping yourself. That's exactly what you're doing.
You say well, I Know I don't think so. I think we're worshiping
the God of the Bible You're not you're an idolater because you're
worshiping yourself. You're you're worshiping your
own will and that is idolatry now your trust is in your decision
and Your trust, your confidence is in your goodness, and it's
in your worth. It's not in the living Christ.
You're not wholly casting yourself upon him. Your peace is derived
not from what Christ has done, but from what you have done,
my friend. Now, in your opinion, and I want
to make this clear, I alluded to it a few minutes ago, but
in your opinion, the thing that separates you from the damned
is not the will of God, it's not the work of Christ, it's
not the grace and the spirit of God, but it's your own will,
it's your own work, and it's your own worth. As far as you're
concerned, that separates you from the damned in hell. And
I'll tell you this morning, my friend, we need to examine carefully
and closely. You say, well, preacher, we don't
want to look at this thing too close. No, because if we look
at it too close, we're going to find that while we mentally,
as long as we don't define it, we can say, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. While we can say
that, that is if we don't look at it and examine it too closely,
but if we get right down to the nitty-gritty and begin to examine
it, we find that we don't really believe that. We don't really
believe that he ought to have, that he's entitled to all the
glory and all the praise for our salvation. Now, beloved,
I'm firmly dedicated as a preacher of the gospel to see to it that
God Almighty, the best I can, gets the glory and the praise
and the honor that's due His lovely, holy name. And I will
not in any way, shape, or form preach a doctrine that robs God
of His glory, that takes the crown off of the head of King
Jesus and puts it upon the head of man. I've heard people talk,
and I hear them all the time. I've heard people even contribute
the salvation of their loved ones to themselves. The fact
that they did this, they did that, and that that person wouldn't
be in heaven today if it had not been for them. My friend,
salvation is something that began a long time before any of you
and I got here, before we ever came into this world. Salvation
is by purpose. Salvation is by the sovereign
purpose of Almighty God. And salvation, nobody gets saved
unless God wills it. It's the will of God that determines
who will people heaven and who will go to hell. It's the will
of God. Now, let me say that in a little
different way. Salvation is by the will of God. Damnation is by the will of man. Everybody that goes to hell,
they go there because they want to go there, because they desire
that fellowship of the unholy and because they're wicked and
unconverted and unregenerate. God's sovereign will determines
who will go to heaven. It's the will of God that determines
who gets to glory, God's will. Now then, my friend, God, let
me say a little more about that in just a moment or two. I urge
you this morning, if in your heart this morning the work of
Christ, the grace of the Spirit of God, If that is not what has
made the difference in your life, the will of God, the grace of
God, and the spirit of Christ, if that's not what's made the
difference in your life, then my friend, I urge you to flee
from your idolatry. I want you to smash to pieces
the gods of free will and good works and human worth and give
God the glory and worship Him who is worthy of worship, not
unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory." Now then,
let me take you a little further here. I'm talking about who deserves
to have the praise and the glory of a sinner's salvation. Let
me say this, that salvation is a work of grace that is experienced
in time. Regeneration and faith, repentance,
conversion, sanctification, and preservation are things which
God's elect experience in this world. God's people experience
it here in the now, here in this world. But salvation began in
eternity. It began in eternity Ephesians
1 and 4 according as he has chosen us in him before before the foundation
of the world that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love 2nd Thessalonians 2 and 13 Beloved, we're bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved, because
God has, from the beginning, from the beginning, chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and the belief
of the truth. While we experience, as God's elect, these things
which we've shown you, In time all of this began in eternity
long long before God began his work of grace in me in you He
had began his work of grace for us Long before he began it in
us if your thoughts about salvation are limited to what you experience
now you listen carefully to what you experience in time if that
is the sum total of of your thoughts about salvation is what you experience
in time in this world, then you, my friend, have a very limited
and a very perverted view of God's work. A very limited and
a very perverted view of God's work. I read about a man one
time who said that when he was younger, Just a child that he
thought that the trees started to move and then the wind started
to blow. He thought that's the way it
was. But finally he found out that the wind blowed and then
the trees moved. You see, beloved, there's no
such thing as a man seeking God until God first seeks him. There's no such thing as anybody
ever being saved apart from God Almighty making the choice on
their behalf. We made our choice in Adam, and
that was to die rather than live. And in Christ, we have been chosen
to live and to live eternally. And the only way a son of Adam
gets out of his death in sin and gets into life in Christ
is for God Almighty to make the choice and to choose him and
to spiritually resurrect him out of the state of death, spiritual
death that he is in. And if we understood this wonderful
thing called salvation, if we're ever to understand it, We must
begin where God began, and where God began was with the eternal
election of his people in Jesus Christ. That's where it began.
And my friend, listen, to whom are we indebted for this, the
first of all spiritual blessings? God's election. God's election. To whom are we indebted? Well,
my friend, listen to me this morning. Pride says, well, to
me. Self-righteousness says, to me. Free will says, to me. But faith
joins with the Word of God and says, not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name. Give glory now for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. Well, is the election of grace
in any way based upon something that God foresaw the sinner would
do? Well, the Apostle Paul says in
Romans 11, verse 5 and 6, he says, even so, then at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. Not all, but there's a remnant.
according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then
it's no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if
it be of works, then it's no more grace, otherwise work is
no more work. Augustus' top lady wrote, grace
ceases to be grace unless it is totally and absolutely irrespective
of anything and everything, whether good or bad, in the objects of
it. Now that is a very, very important
statement. Let me give it to you one more
time. This is what he said. Grace ceases to be grace unless
it is totally, absolutely, irrespective of anything and everything, whether
good or bad, in the objects of it. Romans 9 and 11, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand not of works, but of him that calleth. There it is. very plainly spelled out in the
Word of God. God's election of some of the
fallen sons of Adam to salvation and eternal life was the work
of unconditional and eternal grace. Was God's election based
upon anything he foresaw in the center? The answer is no! No,
in no way. because grace and conditionality
are two incompatible opposites. You can't have grace and have
conditions. You can't. Now, they cannot exist
together any more than two things can occupy the same place at
the same time. They absolutely cannot exist
together. The same place at one time, we
say, if you slip free will, and works into the scheme of salvation,
you push out the grace of God. You push it out. You push it
out altogether. You've fallen from grace, is
the term Paul used in Galatians. If you establish grace as the
grounds of salvation, then you must throw out works altogether. You can't. Listen, grace and
works will not mix. They will not mix. Now what am
I doing? I'm trying to show you this morning
that the glory and praise for the salvation of the sinner belongs
entirely to the God of the Bible. That salvation is of God from
the beginning to the end and He deserves all the praise and
all the glory. I want to get you fixed up right
in your heart and then your tongue will be right and you will start
to give praise unto Him and not unto yourself. I know some people
that's 80 years old and some people that's up in years that
still never had their hearts disciplined and tongues disciplined
to give praise and honor and glory unto the God of the Bible
because they're old. warped in their theology and
God has not been pleased to straighten out their hearts and their minds
when it comes to the truth of his grace and that's the reason
why they're just continually just keep on with this free will
business and and that how that a little decision is all that's
necessary and my friend my friend God's got to do something for
a sinner He's got to do something for a sinner. Salvation begins
with God doing something for the sinner. And if God don't
cross your path, you're lost. You say, well, I made a decision.
You make a decision and go straight to hell. A decision will not
keep you out of hell fire. Only Christ can save your soul. It's when you, I know, I know
numbers of people that made decisions and had to get saved later because
they made decisions but they didn't do anything but decide,
decided something, I don't know what it was. It's like the old
preacher said, he preached one morning to a big crowd and come
back that night and it was about a third of the people there and
he said, well, we had about two thirds of the people here this
morning made a decision And that was that they'd all come back
tonight. They made a decision of some kind. Everybody makes
a decision every time he makes a move in this life. But the
only decision that matters is that decision that was made by
God in old eternity when your name was written down in the
book of life. Honey, that's the decision that makes a difference
when Christ chooses his own. Now then, I want to go ahead. Salvation then begins with God's
election. And God's election was a work
of grace alone. Where were you when God chose
his people? Were you around to give your
two cents? Put your two cents in? Was you around to, as it
were, to lobby God? To put your name on the book?
Was you around? No, no, no, no. Anytime people
want to get a law passed in Washington, D.C., they have the lobbyists,
and they go in there, and they persuade, and they talk, and
everything. But listen, beloved, there wasn't
anybody there in the Council Halls of Eternity except our
representative, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. We wasn't
there. Christ was our representative,
and God chose us in Him. Now I want you to turn being
that we've established that God alone is to have the praise and
the glory of eternal salvation, which is ours in Jesus Christ.
I want you to turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 13, and I
want us to look at verse 20. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
20 and 21. Let me read these two verses.
I'm not keeping you much longer, but just listen and bear me out
if you will. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ
to him be glory forever and ever. Amen. To him be glory Forever
and ever amen now listen to me in the last part of verse 20
It says through the blood of the everlasting covenant through
the blood of the everlasting covenant I said that our representative
Jesus Christ was in glory when election took place there was
a covenant of grace made there between God the Father God the
Son and the Holy Spirit and before the world ever began. Our representative,
the Lord Jesus. You see, God, representatively
speaking, has dealt with the first man, Adam, and he dealt
with the second man, the Lord from heaven, Jesus Christ. Christ
is our representative. Now then, in and by the covenant
of salvation, that Jesus Christ entered into, the Spirit of God
entered into, God the Father entered into, God's elect, the
salvation of God's elect was made sure. It was made sure. David speaks of that covenant,
that everlasting covenant as ordered in all things and sure. The Bible speaks of the sure
mercies of David. And those sure mercies of David
are the covenant blessings that our representative, the Lord
Jesus Christ, received on our behalf for us in the making of
that eternal covenant. Now then, those whom Christ represented
in that covenant, they shall be saved, no doubt about it. They shall be saved. Now I ask
you, were the blessings of that covenant Were they conditioned
upon our works or God's work for us? You see, in that covenant
the Lord Jesus Christ agreed. He agreed to come into this world
and to take upon himself a robe of our inferior clay and to take
upon himself our nature's sin accepted, willingness to bear
in his own body on the tree all of the sins of all those whom
the Father had chosen and give to the Son as a love gift. The
Lord Jesus said, I'm willing to go, and it was by his death.
He is the immutability. The immutable, the unchangeableness
of that covenant of grace, was it determined by man's free will
or by God's sovereign will? That will does not, or that covenant
does not change. It remains sure and steadfast. The promise is still to all the
seed. The promise is still that through
grace, that all those who come by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ
and all those who believe upon Him savingly, by God-given faith,
that they are saved based upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
in that covenant. Our repentance, our faith, our
obedience, our perseverance, are these conditions of the covenant
or are they fruits of the covenant? Which are they? Are they conditions
or are they fruits? Make it clear in your mind, beloved,
that the conditions of the covenant were met by that one who represented
us. Christ is the representative. He met all the conditions. He
came into the world. He bore our sin to Calvary and
he died on Calvary's cross. That was the condition, the soul
that sinneth, it must die. Christ died in our room and stood
in place. Repentance, faith, coming to
Christ, loving Christ, obeying Christ are fruits of the covenant. They are not the cause of our
salvation, they are the results of our salvation. When a man
is born of the Spirit, faith is not that which causes the
new birth. A man is born from heaven by
the sovereign will and purpose of Almighty God and he repents
and believes because he has been regenerated. A dead man can't
repent and a dead man can't believe. He believes and he repents because
he's alive to God. And until you are alive to God,
you neither repent nor believe. These are not conditions of the
covenant. I tell you that. They're fruits
of the covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ bought
those gifts for us. Every blessing of the covenant
comes to us according to the eternal purpose of God in election
and predestination by grace alone. This covenant of grace was established
in eternity. It was put into force at Calvary
by the death of God's dear Son, and it was sealed to the hearts
of God's elect by the Holy Spirit in time. It is read to sinners
in the preaching of the gospel. We're reading it to you today
and telling you that all the doing's been done. Christ did
it, did it all long, long ago. Sinner, nothing do. Jesus did
it. He did it all long, long ago.
Its blessings are received by a God-given faith. That faith
itself is a gift of covenant grace. Faith is a gift. of covenant of grace. I'm trying
to rob you. I'm trying, if I can, to take
every inch of ground that you got under you that would make
you breathe one second, that would bring glory to yourself,
some honor to flesh, and to kill it. I'm trying to stamp out Antichrist
in this building, in every one of your hearts. Trying to get
rid of it in religion Antichrist I'm trying to get men and women
to worship the God of the Bible and to give praise and glory
and honor Unto him who's worthy to receive it And the way we
do that is to take this thing little by little, little by little,
and pound it and pound it and pound it until men and women
say, well, after all, salvation must be of the Lord. Surely God
is the author of this thing we call salvation. Surely God has
done, this is His masterpiece. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everybody
could just say amen and praise God to that? Listen, some of
you in your heart, you'd like to, you'd say, well, I kind of
believe the Lord ought to be worshiped and I kind of believe
he ought to be praised, but that preacher's crazy. That preacher,
that's, oh, I mean, that preacher just simply, he won't give me
an inch of ground to glory in. No, sir, I'll not do it. I'll
never do it. As long as I got breath, I'll
never give you one inch of ground to glory. Paul said in Ephesians
2, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's a gift of God, not of works, lest, lest any man should boast. Any man should turn heaven into
hell by their constant boasting about how they got there. I've
heard it in Baptist churches. I've heard it, boasting. And it's because people are not
taught and tutored by the Spirit of God. Preachers have not been
faithful to the God of the Bible. And they've told people that
their faith causes their life in God, and it's not a bit of
truth to it. Life in God comes from down from
God. It's by the Spirit. And then
men are moved to faith. Then men are moved to repent.
Then men are moved to worship the God of the Bible when they've
got God-given faith. That's why so many people make
decisions and then just turn out like rotten apples in a barrel
is because they never had the life of God give to them. They're
not saved. The Lord's hands never touched
them. God's hand. You have to have a shirt from
two deputies to have a business meeting. You light a match in
most church buildings and the building would explode because
people are not saved. That's the problem. Never been
regenerated. Made a little decision. Took
their mom as Jesus. Had Jesus weased off on them
by the evangelist or the preacher. Don't know Christ! don't know
who he is, know nothing about God's salvation, shallow, shallow,
know nothing about the grace of God and the covenant of grace.
Well, what do we say with regard to God's covenant and all the
blessings of that covenant? And those blessings take in everything
from regeneration all the way until we take that last step
over into glory. The provisions of the covenant,
a sermon in itself, all bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus
Christ. I never bought one spiritual
blessing in all my life. I preached for 40 years and I
never paid for any spiritual blessing. God, through Christ,
has bought every blessing that I've ever enjoyed. or ever will
enjoy." Now, mark that down. I'm debtor to God Almighty. Are
you? Do you feel that? Do you feel
it? Well, was the covenant which David said was ordained to all
things and sure established by my will or by your will or the
will of God? It was the will of God. Mark
it down. Was the covenant put into force
by the work of Christ or does it wait upon the work of man
to be added to it? The work of Christ, beloved,
the work of Christ. Does God's covenant recognize
the worth of Christ or the worth of man? My friend, it recognizes
the worth of Christ. And the only basis upon which
a sinner can be saved is the merits of the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God will accept you on the basis
of the merits of Christ. forget your own worth. Not enough
righteousness in this building to get one of us to heaven, much
less the whole bunch of us. No, no, no. Does God's covenant,
if God's covenant, is it the results of man's free will, the
results of God's free grace? God's free grace, of course.
Beloved children of God, when we think of the everlasting covenant
and all of its blessings, Let us sing with the sweet singer
of Israel, David. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. For the everlasting covenant
by which we're saved is the work of God's everlasting and free
and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. That is the work that
saved me and Glory is all due to Him. We give Him the glory. We give Him the glory. Say, preacher,
you're just splitting hairs. My friend, your theology, what
you believe, is going to affect, we were talking about this coming
in this morning, it's going to affect every part of your life,
what you believe. You cannot worship the God of
the Bible and entertain ideas about Him and His salvation that
is foreign to the Bible. You can't do it. The only way
you can get right down on the rock bottom and worship the God
of the Bible is to believe, to be right about your theology,
to be right, to know what salvation is all about, who planned it
and purposed it, and to know that it's a work of God. It's not a human project. It's
God's work. It's God's work. God's gonna
have a people, his son, is going to have a bride and the Holy
Spirit's going to have a temple. This is God's purpose and He's
going to do it. He does it all through grace.
No conditions. No conditions. Salvations of
the Lord. You say, well, I don't know whether
that preacher there is going to turn out to be, whether he's
going to turn out to be a hard shell or what he's going to turn
out to be. I just believe what the Word of God teaches, that's
all. I believe the Bible. I believe in God's sovereign
race i believe that unto the lord not into us but onto him
all glory and praise is to be given may the lord bring that
to pass you're hearing this morning let's pray father thank you for
the lord jesus who loved us out of our sin and loved us out of
our death and sin and loved us into liberty and freedom and
to a glorious hope in eternity. Grant, our Father, that we may
be able to worship, that we can just be still in our hearts and
reflect upon what you've done, and that we can just rejoice
in it, praise you.