After the services we've had
this past weekend, I want simply to state tonight
as plainly and clearly as I can my heart's conviction concerning
the grace of our God. Now, it's my desire in all that
I preach, write, to set before you continually the glorious
sovereignty of our God. It's precious to my heart. That
is the sovereign character of our God. I take great comfort
in knowing that our Father rules this world, and I hope to communicate
something of that comfort to you. The God whom we worship
the God who loves us, the God whose glory we seek, the God
in whose name we worship, is in total control of the universe. He does all things as he will
for the glory of his name and the good of his people. I endeavor
constantly to set before you the blessed effectual atonement
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God, our Savior, actually
put away our sins. He put them away. He put them
away forever. They're gone. They're gone. Oh, what could be more comforting
to the hearts of guilty sinners than the knowledge that guilt
is gone through a satisfactory atonement, even the sacrifice
of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Redeemer. by his one great
sacrifice for sin, the Son of God has forever satisfied divine
justice. He has forever made atonement
for us. He has forever reconciled us
to God. That is, he has made us totally,
completely, perfectly, eternally accepted in the sight of the
living God because he has brought in everlasting righteousness
He has made atonement for sin, and we are complete in Him. There
is nothing, nothing, nothing to be added to Christ's finished
work. Nothing. We don't add to His
work even our faith, much less our obedience. We do not add
to His work our love for Him, much less our deeds for Him.
We add nothing to the finished work of Jesus Christ. Our faith,
our love, our obedience are things that are the results of his redeeming
grace. They are things that he purchased
and they are the effectual results of what he has done. Christ Jesus
entered in once into the holy place with the merit of his own
blood and by that merit he obtained eternal redemption for us. And
I delight as well to declare in the hearing of all men the
irresistible, almighty, effectual power of God the Holy Spirit
in the regeneration and conversion of sinners. I'm preaching to
some of you tonight who yet do not know our God, to some of
you who are yet dead in trespasses and sins, to some of you who
yet have not faith. And I delight to declare to you
that salvation is in no way dependent upon you. I am delighted that
it is not dependent on you and I'm delighted that I can declare
to you that it is not dependent upon you. You're dead, dead in
trespasses and sins and the only hope of life is that God the
Holy Spirit will give you life, that he will regenerate you,
that he will call you from death to life by the power of his own
free grace. And He has mercy on whom He will.
He gives life to whom He will. He calls whom He will. Unless
He calls you, you cannot and will not believe. Unless He calls
you, you cannot and will not come to Jesus Christ. Unless
He calls you to life, you cannot have life and you will not have
life. Why preach that to men? Doesn't
that shut men up, helpless and hopeless of ever being saved?
No. It shuts men up, helpless and
hopeless, except for the grace of God. And there's no hope except
God's grace. There's no possibility of life
except by the sovereign power of God's Spirit. While I was
sitting there just a moment ago, I made this request to God, our
Savior. Lord, Savior, Son of God, send
your Spirit and cause your Word tonight to declare plainly your
grace and in that declaration of grace be pleased to give life
to dead sinners. I don't plead with you and beg
with you as though salvation depended on you. I plead and
beg with God realizing fully that your salvation depends entirely
upon Him. And I tell you plainly that your
only hope is to fall out to Christ. Your only hope is to trust the
Son of God. Your only hope is to plead with
Him that He may show you mercy, that He may give you life. Like
that leper who came to the Lord Jesus and fell down at His feet
and worshipped Him. He said, Lord, if You will, You
can make me whole. Why don't you do that? Call on
Him right where you sit, right where you are in your heart.
Cry out, Lord Jesus, if you will, you can, I know, make this guilty
sinner perfectly whole. Maybe he will. Maybe he will.
I declare with equal joy the manifold grace of our God. Oh, the grace of God. The grace
of God. The grace of God. The whole of
divine redemption, the whole of divine revelation, the whole
of divine knowledge, the whole of divine glory is made known
to and enjoyed by men only by grace, grace, grace. Now this is my creed. Read with
me 1 Corinthians chapter 10, or chapter 15 rather, and verse
10. This is my creed. This is my
hope. This is my message. I have no
other word to declare to anybody. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Now look here. You're looking
at a man, a sinful, guilty, justly condemned, man of flesh and blood
just like yourself, a man with a heart full of evil, a man with
all the corruptions you have and some more, a man with all
the guilt of sin laid against him that you have and more, a
man whose conscience is made to recognize that if God Almighty
should cast him forever into eternal damnation, God would
be perfectly just in doing it. I stand before you a fallen,
depraved, corrupt son of Adam. You say, well, aren't you saved?
Yes, I'm saved. I'm saved by God's free grace. But I want
you to understand that this man standing in front of you is exactly
the same as you are. A sinner. Nothing joy but sin. Nothing but sin resides in this
body of flesh. Nothing but sin. My old flesh
is just exactly like your old flesh. That carnal man is just
exactly like the carnal man with which I was born into this world,
with which you were born into this world. I am a sinner. But this man stands before you
redeemed and justified. That is, pardoned and made righteous. Regenerated. God lives in me. God lives in me. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, lives in me. He lives in my heart. Perfect
in God's sight. Perfect. Complete in Christ.
A man with confidence in the teeth of all my sins. in the
teeth of all that I know I am by nature, in the teeth of all
that I do that's contrary to the revelation of God. And fact
is, everything I do is contrary to the revelation of God. Hubert
met me outside the door one Sunday morning or Sunday evening, maybe
Tuesday, I don't remember, a couple of weeks ago. After I'd finished
preaching, he said, I've come to the conclusion that we can't
even do right. Right. And you're just right. Everything we do, everything,
everything we feel or imagine or think, even the best of things
that we know about ourselves are so full of evil and corruption
and sin that were it not for the blood and righteousness of
Jesus Christ, we would be cast into hell for the very best that's
within us. And I'm telling you in the teeth
of all my sin, I have a reasonable, confident assurance hope and
expectation of living forever in the glorious presence of Almighty
God without fear. And that's by the grace of God.
That's by the grace of God, only by His grace. In this text of
Scripture, the Apostle Paul teaches us that as believers, we must
ascribe our salvation entirely to the grace of God. We who have
been redeemed by the blood of Christ, called by the power of
his spirit, and made heirs of eternal life, ought to rejoice,
to confess continually by the grace of God, I am what I am. As we look at this passage of
scripture, and really this is going to be a springboard from
which I'm going to make my comments this evening, I want to make
four statements in the light of this text. First, let me begin
by saying that this is all my doctrine. This is my doctrinal
confession. You want to know what do we believe?
What does the preacher believe? What does your pastor believe?
This is it. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. Now, this is what I believe.
I want to speak plainly and clearly so that there's no mistaking
my doctrine. We believe what people call the doctrines of
grace. Some folks call it Calvinism.
I don't particularly like the term, but that's all right. Folks
can call it whatever they will. What I'm going to say this evening
will identify the grace I preach. Each one of us as believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ can take this sentence and declare plainly
all of our doctrine, all of our creed, saying simply, by the
grace of God, I am what I am. One of the old writers said,
I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not what I hope to be. I'm not what I shall be. But
thank God, I'm not what I once was. And this is what I'm saying
to you. What we are right now, sons of
God, redeemed by blood, saved by grace, we are right now by
the grace of God. The Apostle Paul expressed it
in these words to the Ephesians. 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. Now, lots of people talk about
grace, but what do we mean by grace? I've never heard anyone,
except some deluded Campbellite, even talk about being saved by
works. I've never heard anyone else even remotely declare, we're
saved by works. But most people, when they talk
about grace, they're really talking about works. When they talk about
God's grace, they're talking about God having done what he
could, or God having done his part, and now you've got to make
up the rest. You've got to do something for
yourself. So when we talk about grace, I want you to clearly
understand what we're saying about the grace of God. With
these words, by the grace of God, I am what I am, the Apostle
Paul freely ascribed salvation in its entirety to the grace
of God. If you're saved, You do not owe
your salvation to anything that you have done, anything you have
experienced, anything that you have thought, or anything you
have felt. To you who are not converted,
I'm simply telling you that if ever you are saved, you will
be saved only as the result of God's grace, not as the result
of your goodness. We must deny our own works. We must deny our own merits. We must deny our own worth and
lay claim by faith to the works and the merit and the worth of
Jesus Christ our Savior. Everything in salvation is accomplished
by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. John says, or gives us
the words of our Lord Himself, who says, I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
He's the author and the finisher of our salvation. Am I elect? Am I chosen of God? Am I one
of those of whom the Scripture speaks when it calls Speaks of
the election of grace? Or that remnant according to
the election of grace? Or the elect of God? Am I chosen
of God? If so, I am chosen by His grace,
only by His grace. Am I now justified? If I am justified,
I'm justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. Am I born again? Am I indeed a living member of
Jesus Christ, united to Jesus Christ in a living faith? Am
I indeed one who lives in Christ, who has Christ living in me?
If so, I am regenerated. I am born again only by the power
of His grace. Am I called? Called to life? Called to faith? Called a child
of God? Called an heir of heaven? Called
in the hope of eternal life? If I am, If I am called, I am
called by the grace of God. Sanctified. Somebody says we
don't say much about sanctification. Well, whatever sanctification
is, whatever it involves, it involves separation, it involves
holiness, it involves righteousness, but whatever it is, if I am sanctified,
I am sanctified by His grace, only by His grace. And whenever
you hear me and talk about sanctification, and they put in there something
that involves works. Now you know for sure they're
not talking about biblical sanctification. Whenever you hear people talk
about sanctification and they insert something that depends
on you or something that's earned by you or merited by you, mark
it down, they don't yet understand what the Word of God teaches
about sanctification. We're sanctified by the grace
of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. Am I a son of God? If so, then
I'm adopted by his grace. Do I persevere? Will I hold on? Will I hold out? Will I continue
in the faith? If I do, I know full well that
I'm kept and preserved by the grace of God. Now, this is what
I'm saying. Mark it down. Salvation must
either be entirely ascribed to the grace of God or it must be
entirely ascribed to the free will and the merits of human
works. Now, turn over to Galatians 5.
Galatians chapter 5. We've read this text so many
times, but it does us good to read it. I was talking to a fellow
the other day, and I suggested to him that he read a certain
portion of Scripture regularly. He said, I'll write that down
and put it in a frame and sit it on my desk. I said, don't
do that. We have a tendency to ignore things that we just take
for granted. We just have a tendency to ignore
what's sitting in front of us. So look at this text of scripture
with me and read it with me one more time. Galatians 5 and verse
2, Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised,
now what's he talking about? If you do something to win God's
favor, if you do something to keep God's favor, if you do something
to perfect God's work, If you do something, it matters not
how great or how small. When you put your work in the
work of God, Christ profits you nothing. Nothing. It doesn't
matter whether it's baptism, the Lord's table, giving, church
attendance, Bible reading, whatever it is. If you lean your soul
upon something you have done to any measure to gain confidence
before God, and to win the hope of eternal life before God, then
you have, in effect, denied the need for Christ's atonement and
you have, in effect, denied the grace of God. Paul says, now
salvation is by grace. It's by grace, only by grace,
without any works at all. You put works in it and you destroy
it all. Look at verse 4. Christ is become
of no effect unto you. of no effect unto you. Whosoever
of you are justified by the law, that is, any of you who are justified
or seek justification before God on the basis of legal obedience,
Christ is become of no effect unto you. You have fallen from
grace. Now, Paul's doctrine is this.
If you mix law and grace, you've denied grace altogether. If you
mix law and grace, you have fallen from grace. Not that men can
be saved and lose their salvation. Not that you can be in grace
and then out of grace. But rather you have fallen from
the doctrine of grace, from the gospel of grace, for you have
denied salvation by grace alone. And salvation is all together. Altogether, underscoring your
mind, God underscored it in our hearts, salvation is altogether
by grace, free grace, sovereign grace, matchless grace, immutable
grace, eternal grace, altogether by the grace of God. There is
no middle ground. It is either all of grace or
it's all of works. We read the passage in Romans
11 earlier. If by grace, then it is no more
works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work
is no more work. Now with the Apostle Paul, I
do most freely and gladly denounce all merit on my own part. Can you join me? I do in my heart
and from these lips denounce all merit on my part. I have nothing, nothing to recommend
me to God Almighty but the blood and righteousness of Christ.
Is that right, James? That's it. Bob, is that right?
That's it. Nothing, nothing, nothing in
my hands, nothing great or small, nothing in my experience, nothing
in my words, nothing in my deeds, only Christ recommends me to
God. Here I stand. Here I stand. I lean on Him, only on Him. Job said, though he slay me,
yet will I trust him. This is where I stand. If it's
possible, if it's possible for a man to perish trusting Christ
alone, then it's possible for this man to perish. But I'm telling
you, it is not possible. It is not possible. It is not
possible for anyone who renounces all merit All works, all creature
comfort, all creature dependence and leans on Christ. It's not
possible for that man to perish. But anyone who doesn't will surely
perish. Can you do it? Will you do it? Will you? Can you? Do you? Put aside all creature merit,
all creature confidence, all hope in self. I mean everything. I mean everything. People say,
well, You got to give people something. You can't just take
away everything. You can't tell them that all
comfort is in Christ and all assurance is in Christ and all
hope is in Christ. If you do, then that leads me
into licentiousness and presumption. I'm telling you that anything
else is licentious and anything else is presumptuous. I'm telling
you that we must trust Christ alone. He is our Savior. Now,
for myself, I've never had to wrestle with the doctrines of
grace. Some people struggle with Arminianism and freewillism for
a while. I've never had to do that. My
wife had a struggle with it. God taught her the gospel, but
she can bear witness to you. I've never had the struggle.
With my own case, there was no possibility of question. I knew
then and I know now that if I am saved it is all together by the
free grace of God. In the beginning of my experience
it was so and I know that it is so even now. I'm constrained
to confess with Paul by the grace of God I am what I am. I am not what I am as the result
of anything good which God foresaw would be in me. For there was
no possibility of good in me. My heart was dead in trespasses
and sins. I had broken God's law in every
point from my youth up. My soul was a slave to Satan,
involuntary bondage to him in the bond chains of iniquity.
There was nothing in my disposition, nothing in my character that
could win God's favor. In fact, the opposite was true.
Everything in my nature was opposed to God. Everything in my thought
was opposed to God. I was a rebel whose heart was
bent on straying. I met a fellow last week. I suppose he was madder at me
than any man has been since I was in Bible college. After I finished
preaching one night, he understood my doctrine. I went down and
shook hands with he and his wife. Their son loves Christ. And he
hoped mom and dad might hear the gospel, so he asked them
to come and hear me preach. When I got done, he said, I'm
one of those hell-bent free willers that you were talking about.
I remember First Baptist Church and so-and-so and, well, you
talk, we're all going to hell. And hell was in his eyes, but
he heard what I said, maybe God, maybe God will do something for
him. I didn't argue with him, but I know this, every man by
nature is a hell-bent free willer. Every man by nature exercises
his free will in opposition to God and runs as strong and as
fast as he can from everything that has to do with the Holy
God. Now, he embraces religion along
the way. He embraces good works along
the way. He may embrace morality or immorality. He may embrace paganism or atheism. He embraces much along the way,
but he is a hell-bent free willer by nature. Just like me. My heart
was set on fire of hell, and to hell I willingly went. My
heart was bent in opposition to God. Everything about me,
the source and cause of God's goodness to me, lies altogether
in His sovereign mercy. He loved me freely. That is,
He loved me without a cause. And He still does. No cause. No cause. He chose me simply
because He loved me. Grace first inscribed my name
in God's eternal book. It was grace that gave me to
the Lamb who all my sorrows took. I have no quarrel with anything
that ascribes all of salvation to the grace of God. I'm a little
suspicious of people who get upset whenever you take away
works or take away the input of man or take away the dignity
of man. There is no hope for a poor sinner
such as I am, except the goodness of God in Christ. And my heart
rejoices to hear the Lord God declare, I am the Lord, and will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. And certainly Paul means for
us to understand, I am not what I am as the result of any strength
of my own. I am not what I am because of
any supposed goodness God foresaw in me. And I'm not what I am
as the result of any strength that I possess by nature. We're
not what we are because we chose God, but because he chose us. If I had been what I had chosen,
I would still be dead in trespasses and sins, and so would you. I've
often heard it preached that the difference between God's
people and the worldling is that we improved our opportunity by
choosing Christ. Every man has the opportunity,
you know. Every man has a chance. And God has given us all equal
chance to be saved, but some men improve their chances. Some
men improve their opportunity by exercising their will, by
choosing the Lord God. Now such rubbish may suit the
vain philosophers of our day. Such rubbish may suit the pagan
worshippers of free will. But God's children, I'm telling
you, all of God's children, gladly confess that the difference between
us and those who perish is not us, but God. It's not our works,
but His grace. Grace is not a tool with which
we work. It is the seal of God upon our
hearts. We do not operate on grace. Grace
effectually operates on us. If God had left me to my poor,
blind, sinful free will, It would have been this day leading me
to hell. My back was turned against my Savior. My face was set toward
hell. But God graciously interposed
himself and stopped me in my mad rush to hell and turned me
around. Here I was going. Fast as I could
go. Ignorantly. I didn't know it. Ignorantly going away from the
living God. Ignorantly going away from all
truth. And God stepped in my face. And God said, hitherto shalt
thou go and no further. God intervenes in the affairs
of men. Turn over to Ephesians 2. I say, blessed be God. He sovereignly
intervenes in the lives and affairs of men. And by grace, He changes
our wills. In Ephesians 2, Paul says we
were dead in trespasses and sins. Verse 2, he says, wherein in
time past You walked according to the course of this world,
you lived like everybody else. According to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, you lived under the dominion of Satan. Among
whom also, that is among these children of disobedience, we
all had our conversation, our manner of life in times past.
In the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, we were all getting what we could get and getting
what we got. We were all doing everything
we could for numero uno. All doing everything we could
for ourselves. That's the way of the world.
That's the way of the ungodly. That's the way of the unbeliever.
Every unbelieving man, by nature, lives for himself. Only for himself. And he uses others only to the
advantage and comfort of himself. And by nature, we were all the
children of wrath. justly deserving the wrath of
God under the curse and condemnation of the law, just like everybody
else. But God, but God, thank God. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. Can we not all repeat with David, Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee." Aren't you glad he wouldn't let
you go? Aren't you glad he wouldn't leave you where you were and
where you chose to be? Aren't you glad? Thankful to
God, He would not leave you to your will. Thankful to God, He
would not leave you to your way. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest, causest to approach unto thee. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. People all the time grab what
we preach and they say, I just don't believe God saves anybody
against their will. Well, yeah, he does. Yeah. He saves everybody he saves
against their will with their full consent. That's right. He makes them willing. He just
makes them willing. We weren't willing by nature.
He makes us willing. It was God who taught our hearts
to pray. It was God who made us feel our
need of His grace. It was God who stripped away
our pride. It was God who made sin a burden
to our souls. It was God who first brought
the glimmering light of hope through Jesus Christ to our hearts.
It was God who opened our blinded eyes and caused us to see the
beauty of Christ. It was God who gave us that first
trembling hand of faith to reach out and touch the hem of His
garment. It was God who first enabled us to see our sins were
washed away through the blood of His Son. And it was God and
is God who has kept us and is keeping us alive unto this day
and will not let us go. And are in most hearts we cry,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Not by might, nor by power, but
by my Spirit, saith the Lord. We believe according to the working
of His mighty power, even the mighty power of His free grace. Once more, when Paul says, by
the grace of God, I am what I am, he means for us to understand
I'm not preserved or kept. by anything in myself. Now, there are many who say that
divine grace begins the work of salvation. But somehow or
another, we must carry it on. We do truly believe in the perseverance
of the saints. And I say to you that God's saints
persevere. They begin in faith, they live
in faith, they walk in faith, and they die in faith. And anyone
who does not is not of God. I say that without reservation.
God's people live by faith. They live by faith beginning
to end. But I am telling you that our
perseverance does not cause our preservation, but rather our
preservation causes our perseverance. I'll try to illustrate it if
I can. You take a little baby, It's the child. And you pick
that child up with his fingers wrapped around your fingers.
And that child just clings as hard as it can to those fingers. You ever pick your boys up that
way, Wes? Just pick them up. They're just barely able to grip.
They wrap their fingers around. You pick them up by their arms,
and you hold them, and you play with them, and you talk to them.
What's holding them? Oh, they've got a mighty grip
on Dad. No. No. They're gripping on Dad for
dear life. They've got to have him. And
they know that you're going to fall. But it's not their grip
on you holds them. It's your grip on them that holds
them. You see what I'm saying? And God Almighty holds us. Yes, we hold to Him. Yes, we
cling to Him. Yes, we persevere in the faith.
But we recognize and freely, gladly acknowledge it is not
me that holds God, but God that holds me. By the grace of God,
I am what I am. Sometimes we just get tired.
We can't hold but just for so long. We get tired and let go,
but He will not let us go. He will not let us go. Oh, to
grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. This then
is the doctrinal confession of my heart. By the grace of God,
I am what I am. Salvation must either be altogether
by grace are altogether by works. And I say it is altogether by
grace because man is totally depraved and utterly helpless
by nature. Our salvation was planned by
God the Father in eternal election, accomplished by God the Son in
effectual redemption, and sovereignly applied to our hearts by God
the Holy Spirit in the omnipotent call of His grace in regeneration. And we are preserved in life
by God's grace alone. Now, this is what I say. If a
man is saved, it is the result of God's grace. If he is lost,
it's his own fault. In your heart, you know that
it's so. If it's right for God to save you in time, it was right
for God to purpose to save you in eternity. And if it was right
for God to purpose to save you, it was right for Him to purpose
it with immutable sovereignty in His eternal purpose. Secondly,
I want to remind you that this is our constant experience as
well. I read church history a good
bit and I like to study history. I like to study the lives and
biographies of men. And I have over the years read
of a few people who once professed to believe the gospel that I
preached to you and afterwards denied it. I watched a man last week or week before showing
up in strange places. His name is Kenneth Conley. First time I saw him, I was in
school in Springfield, Missouri. His father, Peter Conley, in his day was one of the strongest
grace preachers around. He was the founder of Texas College
of Theology where Drew taught, Judy. He had been kicked out of school
in Springfield, Missouri. He was teaching there at the
time. He'd been kicked out the year before I started in Bible
college. And his son one time professed to believe the message
that his father preached. I saw him a couple of weeks ago
on the John Enkelberg show, and then I saw him last week or the
week before on Jerry Falwell's program. And here's a man who
once professed belief in grace, now hobnobbing with free willers
and promoting free willers and promoting free will salvation
and free will works. And I confess, honestly, I don't
understand how it could possibly be, but for me, These truths
are the very fabric of my experience. Like bunion of old, they have
been burned into my heart as with a hot iron. They are written
in my very soul with the indelible ink of divine grace by the pen
of experience. And I tell you plainly, I would
rather die now, this moment, than dishonor my God by denying
any of these doctrines in the slightest degree. I have no intention
of doing so. When I came here, how time flies,
nearly nine years ago, I came here preaching what I'm preaching
to you tonight. If I remember correctly, the first sermon I
preached to you was on the subject of substitution. And I think
perhaps the second was on this text of scripture right here.
By the grace of God, I am what I am. God helping me, I'm going
to preach it more clearly, more constantly, more boldly, more
dogmatically, more fully if it's possible in the future than I
preached it in the past. Because the very glory of God,
the truth of God, and the souls of men are at stake in this message
of God's free grace. There have been times when God
has showed us something of the great depravity of our hearts. We've seen our sin in the light
of God's holiness, and God has allowed us to know something
of our secret sins. Sometimes when I finish preaching
One of you will meet me at the door or call me on the phone,
stop by the office, and you say, Don, I don't know how on earth
you know what's going on inside me, but you sure knew what was
going on today or yesterday. I know what goes on inside you
because I know what goes on inside me. I know something of the corruption
of our hearts. I know something about what secret
sin is. I'm talking about sin nobody
knows anything about but you and God. And you can thank God
nobody knows. Nobody knows but you and God.
We have been made to know not only our sin, but to taste the
bitterness of it. It's not a light thing. It's
not a light thing. If I had one desire, and I'm
going to have it, I'm going to have it, one of these days I'm
going to have it, it would be that I'd never sin again. Never. In thought, word, or deed. And when I get rid of this body
of flesh, I'm going to have that desire. But until then, We will go on knowing something
of the bitterness of sin. Frequently, we stand at the foot
of the cross in bitterness of soul, realizing what our sin
cost our Redeemer. You hear the agony? You see his blood. You see him wince with pain. And cry with broken heart. And with his blood. Flowing from his pierced brow. his nail-pierced hands, his wounded
side, with his cry, that heaven-shaking
cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see the
price of your ransom. Wes, that's the price of sin.
That's the price. My sin, your sin. And that makes
sin bitter to us. And when we've seen something
of the bitterness of our sin, and we've tasted the bitterness
of our sin, the depravity of our hearts, we give thanks to
God that salvation is in no way dependent upon these sinful hearts. but altogether upon his free
grace. We've also passed through strong
and terrible temptations. I'm talking now about experience.
Salvation is by grace. I constantly experience it. You read the word, and Satan takes some text of
scripture, some word, some holy word from
the holy God, and seizes your mind, and causes
your mind to wander in the most unspeakably evil ways. and tempt you to evil. You pray
and your prayers are just words. While you're praying for good,
you're thinking of evil. You come to the house of God
and the sermon is a good sermon, but there's
nothing good in it for you. You read the word and you know
it's the precious word of God, but it doesn't seem very precious. And with your hard, cold, callous,
sinful heart, there's still a word of comfort.
There's still a word of comfort. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. By the grace, not by what I feel. If my comfort from God, Hubert,
depended on what I feel, I'd be the most miserable man on
this earth. If my assurance depended on what I think or what I do,
I'd be walking around with my head between my knees in dark
despair all the time. all the time. If my hope of eternal
life depended upon what I experience in my own soul, I'd be of all
men most miserable. And I'm just telling you the
truth as honestly as I know how. But in the teeth of my sin, when
my heart is coldest, and it so often is, when my mind is most
polluted, and it not always is. When my experience is so empty in the teeth of it all, I trust
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ and I go to bed
at night with comfort and with joy and with satisfaction Declaring
to God my Father, by the grace of God I am what I am. That's
all. Folks try to excuse temptation.
Say, well, I didn't do it, you know. If you watched Mr. Swaggart babbling
about his confession of sin some months back, if he knew anything
at all about the grace of God and the gospel of God's grace,
as he got down and he said, now, I thought this, but I did not
commit that, as though to excuse the thought by not having performed
a deed. What comfort is there in that? Can you get comfort? from the
fact that your hands did not commit an evil when your heart
wanted the evil? Or that your mind did not speak
the evil when your heart spoke the evil? You see, the believer
recognizes that the sin in outward deed is but a very small manifestation. Now, I said what I meant to say.
The sin in the outward deed is but a very small manifestation
of the horrid corruption within. And that's the thing we love.
Satan would have no power to tempt us if our hearts were not
in agreement with him. He'd have no power to get us
to do evil where our heart's not inclined to evil. How often this truth has been
brought home to me when I have seen dear ones, friends,
men and women whom I cherish, men and women whom I esteem to
be strong in the faith, fall and forsake Christ and his gospel
altogether. Earl J., you and Lisa are in
for a rude awakening. I hope to be around to cushion
you Soon you're going to find out
something of the evil and corruption of your heart, the depravity, to a far greater degree than
you've experienced it yet. You're going to see it. And along
the way, you're going to see men and women whom you esteem
to be pillars in the faith fall by the wayside. And when you do, you will Start
searching within. Was it all a farce? A delusion
of Satan? Well, when I see others fall
and I experience these horrible temptations, these terrible passions
of my heart, I brace up my soul. And I say,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. Our hope is not in ourselves,
brother. It's not in what we do, feel,
experience, or think, or say. It's in Christ. Only in Christ. Children of God, look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Quit looking within. Quit looking
in your hands, or in your feelings, or in your deeds, and look to
Christ. There's our comfort. There's
our hope. There's our stay. Rest in Him. Rest in Him. And I've got to hurry. Here's
the third thing. This is our grateful acknowledgment.
By the grace of God, I am what I am. Let me just say a couple of things.
Remember where you were and what you were. when God found you. Hearken unto me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto the
rock whence you hewn and to the hole of the pit whence you digged. Don't ever forget, don't ever
forget, Oscar, that when God called you, you were naked, polluted,
dead and rotting, cast out in the open field to the loathing
of your person. And he passed by you, spread
his skirt over you and said, Leah, that's where you were.
That's where I was when he found us. And that's still what we
are by nature. That's still what we, nothing
to commend us, but only grace to save us. That's all. That's
all. As I read over the black catalog
of human sin, I read from the words of God
that The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor feminine, nor
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the
kingdom of God. And that's just what you were.
And such were some of you. But, but, you're washed, you're
sanctified, you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of our God. We also should gratefully acknowledge
that the only distinction between us and all other men is the distinguishing
grace of God. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou hast not received? And if
thou didst receive it, why dost thou gloat with it, as if thou
hadst not received it? What's the difference? What's the difference between
Peter and Judas? Tell me the difference. So Judas betrayed
the Lord, Peter denied him. What's the difference? What's
the difference between you and any man anywhere in the world?
Any man out here at North Point or up here at one of the brothels
or out in one of the bars Any woman out on the street corner?
Any woman or man sitting on death row? Any man or woman who's ever... What's the difference? What's
the difference? I'm talking about the reality. Now, I know because
of law and the fear of law and because of social rules and regulations,
some of us have got enough sense not to do things that other folks
do and get caught at. But what's the real difference?
We're all just alike in heart. We're all just alike in thought
and word. We're all just alike in inward
deed, though not in outward deed. What's the difference? The only
difference, Merle Hart, between you and any reprobate in hell,
the only difference between me and any reprobate in hell is
the blood of Christ and the grace of God. That's the only difference. Now, that's all. That's all.
And until men and women learn that, they'll not learn the gospel. I'm telling you there's no difference,
no difference, but the difference that grace has made. One last
thing. This is my hopeful encouragement.
By the grace of God, I am what I am. I'm encouraged with regard to
myself. If I am what I am by the grace
of God, I have hope. of obtaining that which I seek
after. The grace of God will cause me to grow in faith and
give me a fuller assurance. And the grace of God will bring
me to greater conformity to Christ in faith, commitment, and love. The grace of God will preserve
me all the days that I live here. I believe it. I believe, Wes,
if I'm living 20 years from now, you can find me right here Sunday
morning preaching the same message. The grace of God's going to preserve
me. The grace of God's going to preserve me. And when it's all done, the grace
of God will present me and you who believe in perfect likeness
to Christ himself in everlasting glory. Perfect. This is my encouragement as God's
preacher. I'm encouraged to preach the
gospel to every creature. There's no sinner so black, no
heart so hard, but what grace can convert that man and make
him a child of God. And this is an encouraging word
to you who yet believe not. These words sound out a message
of hope for sinners. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. If Christ had put any stipulations
or requirements that you had to come up to and meet, then
there'd be no hope for you. I mean, no hope at all. Because
you couldn't meet the first. But salvation comes all together
by grace. Can you catch that? All together
by grace. Without stipulation, without
condition. If it's altogether by grace that
sinners are saved, why should you perish? Why should you go
to hell? If men are saved without works,
without deeds, without experience, without doing, saved only by
grace in Christ, why should you die? Why should I die? God's
grace is for sinners. I qualify. I qualify. How about you? It's for sinners.
If somebody could find me some poor, lost, wretched, ruined,
helpless, hell-bent, hell-deserving sinner, I've got good news for
it. Jesus Christ died to save sinners,
and he saves every one of them. He saves every one of them. I thought you talked about the
election and limited atonement, particular redemption, and effectual
grace. I do. I do because I believe
it, and I preach it because the Word of God reveals it. And the
Word of God plainly declares that He heals as many as have
need of healing. He saves as many as have need
of saving. Christ Jesus saves sinners. He
saves sinners. Well, if salvation is altogether
by grace, let our hearts be humbled within
us and learn to lean upon this staff daily. grace, grace, grace
alone, and learn to treat other men with charity, kindness, and
sympathy. God give me a heart that will
not compromise the truth and glory of God, and yet still understands
and sympathizes with the fallen, depraved nature of man. for that's
what I am by nature. Let us never forget then to praise
our God and extol his matchless grace. Amen.