Turn with me in your Bibles if
you would like to the book of Proverbs, the book of Proverbs
chapter six. The difference between God's
elect and those left to themselves is the Lord. It's the Lord. He makes the difference. There's
nothing in us that makes us to differ. It's the Lord that makes
his people. differ. It's his power. It's
by his will. It's according to his own good
pleasure and purpose given to his people in Christ before the
world ever began. He makes the difference. And
if he doesn't make the difference, we have no hope. We'll be left
to ourself. Left to ourself. There's nothing
that we can produce but sin. and death and all he produces
is life and righteousness. There's nothing we can do but
we try to fix our sin but commit iniquity but all he produces
is holiness. He's completely other than we are and we're completely
dependent upon his choice, completely dependent upon his grace, completely
dependent upon his power to save us or none will be saved, none
will be saved. If he doesn't intervene, if he
doesn't interrupt us, if he doesn't halt us, If He doesn't make us
willing in the day of His power, we won't be willing. He'll just
leave us to ourself. We're without hope. We'll be
as the man here in our text. This poor soul that knows not
the Lord, nor desires the Lord is spoken about here. Let's just read our text. Proverbs
chapter six, verses 12 through 16, or 12 through 15, I'm sorry. A naughty person, a wicked man,
walketh with a forward mouth. He winketh with his eyes. He
speaketh with his feet. He teacheth with his fingers.
Forwardness is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually.
He soweth discord. Therefore, shall his calamity
come suddenly. Suddenly shall he be broken without
remedy." Suddenly. Notice the state of this wicked
man. The word here first is naughty. A naughty person means worthless,
wicked, and good for nothing. The second thing he calls him
is wicked and that word means iniquitous, meaning he's committing
iniquity, that's what makes him wicked. He doesn't look to Christ
as all of his righteousness, he's trying to fix himself by
doing. Whether it's taste not, touch
not, handle not, or it's trying to obey a certain law or ordinance,
he's full of iniquity, he's not looking to Christ. The third
thing it says is he's forward, that word forward is distortion. and crookedness, that's what
comes out of his mouth, crookedness. His words are not straight, his
words are not clear. For oldness is in his heart and
he divides mischief continually, he soweth discord. That word
mischief means evil, evil. He diviseth evil continually. But I want us to understand something
very important. As we read this and as we see this individual,
this is every single person that is not found in Christ. This
is every single person without exception that is not found in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Men will try to do something
to make themselves right with God, and that's called iniquity.
That's called iniquity. I can't make myself right with
God, and you can't make yourself right with God, but there's one
There's one that can. The Lord Jesus Christ did just
that on the cross of Calvary, didn't he? He made his people
right in the eyes of God. He made them righteous. He who
knew no sin was made to be sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That's good news. That's good
news if you're a sinner. This is not a unique individual
that we're looking at here. He's no different. He has no
ability to deliver himself. He has no ability to change this
character, this behavior. It's his human nature that's
brought him to this point. We're born evil. We're born sinful. We're born wicked. We're born
idol factories. You know what I'm saying when
I say idol factories, right? We'll make an idol out of anything.
Most of the time it's this right here. We make an idol out of
ourself. And that's what this man is. And he represents all
non-believers that the Lord leaves to themselves. It's a frightening
thought to think about the Lord leaving us to ourselves. If you
look at some of the men that went through different trials
and troubles and tribulations in scripture, Daniel gets thrown
into the lion's den. What if the Lord would have left
him to himself? Well, there would be no more Daniel. What about
the three Hebrew men that got thrown into the fiery furnace?
What if the Lord wasn't there with them in the fiery furnace? Well,
they'd have burnt up. So we're kept, and as we read in our call
to worship, we're kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation. The Lord keeps his people. The
Lord prevents us from doing these things. He gives us a changed
mind and a changed heart so that we honor him, we look to him
rather than looking to self. And that's exactly the difference
between the elect of the Lord and those left to themselves
as they look to themselves. Are you looking to yourself?
Is any part of your salvation? Is any part of your righteousness?
Because if you are, you don't have righteousness. It's self-righteousness. It's false. But oh, if the Lord's
made you look to Christ alone as your righteousness, there's
righteousness. There's righteousness by faith. Man worships himself. He deceives
others and worships himself. Much like what you see with Judas.
You know, Judas, it amazes me, He kissed the Lord's face and
still went to hell. He walked with him, he talked
with him, he did miracles with him, cast out demons like the
rest of the disciples. I mean, that's a scary thought
to know that he could do all those things by the Lord, and
then, and we know why. He was the son of perdition.
He was born for that reason, to betray Christ. It was the
purpose of God, but does that frighten you, Lord? Are you gonna
leave me to myself? Am I deceiving myself? I don't
wanna deceive myself. That's why I've titled this message,
But for Grace. But for Grace. There's the difference.
It's the grace of God that brings about salvation to the Lord's
people. It's the grace of God that we are kept. It's by his
grace. It's the love of God that constrains
us and keeps us continually looking to him and not self. We no longer
go back to the law and we no longer go back to self and try
to fix the things that we do. We have an advocate now. We know
that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous. That's who we come to. We come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord did not work his grace
in the heart of Judas. He was left to himself. He was
delivered to our adversary. But you know, I'm reminded of
another disciple named Peter, and the Lord told him, well,
first of all, the Lord told Judas that Whenever Judas left, he
told him, whatever you're gonna do, do it quickly. And he said,
from that hour, Satan entered his heart. So Satan desired to
sift Judas, just like he did Peter. And the Lord looks at
Peter and he says, Peter, Satan hath desired you that he may
sift you as wheat. But, and there's the gospel. But, he said, I've
prayed for you. That's the difference. That's
the only difference. Maybe you should have titled
this The Only Difference. I don't know, I've said that three or four times
now, but that's exactly what it is. It's the only difference. It's
grace alone. It's God's sovereign, precious
grace that makes us to differ. It's nothing in us. It's not
what we do or don't do. It's grace. It's grace. Otherwise,
we will find ourself being exactly like this sad individual that
we're reading about here. See, but for grace, we would
be as Judas. because salvation's of the Lord, not of us. We neither
can create it, can attain it, can choose it. We're powerless
in it. It's his salvation. When David
sinned with Bathsheba over in Psalm 51, he said, restoring
to me the joy of thy salvation. He didn't say my salvation. He
said, salvation's of the Lord. If I'm gonna have any joy, I
need the joy of his salvation. And that's exactly what the Lord
did too, wasn't it? If he does not choose to save his way by
grace alone, none will be saved. We'll be blinded to the truth,
we'll be blinded to our own devices, our own ways, our own natural
beings will just continually run to self, continually run
to self. Notice the sad state of this
man again. Here we are without Christ. That's what this is a
picture of. It's also a picture of all those who are actually
without Christ. We would be, the words are naughty,
which is worthless, wicked, good for nothing. Well, that'd be
us without Christ, wouldn't it? We're already good for nothing in and
of herself. Because of him, we've been made the righteousness of
God and Christ. That's the only difference. Grace
that did that. But without him, we're just good
for nothing. Without him, we're worthless.
We're wicked. The next word was wicked. He
actually uses the word wicked. That means iniquitous, full of
iniquity. That's what we would be without Christ. We would have
distortion and crookedness in our heart. We'd have perverse
lips. We wouldn't speak the truth. We would pervert the gospel.
We would change something in it if we're left to ourself. And we would always be on mischief,
which is evil. When he says we winks, we're
winking in arrogance. They're looking at each other,
winking to give each other an approval. It's all about self. It's all
about self-righteousness. I don't want to pick on anybody
in particular, but have you ever heard in religion, they like
to call each other brother. and sister a lot, but they do
it in such a pious way, it's annoying. It's not, it's look
at me and look at you. And I'm giving you my seal of
approval is what it is. It has nothing to do with actually
looking at each other as brother and sister. It has everything
to do with look at me and look at you. Look how good we are.
And it's the plateau of self-righteousness. That's all that it is. Do I call
you brother and sister? Absolutely. We don't do it the
way that they do it. We do it in love and in truth.
That's what I'm trying to say is the way that they do it. They're
winking in arrogance. They're giving each other approval, pats
on the backs, and that's what we would be without our Lord.
Without our Lord. We would hold to our iniquity
as our righteousness. Never forget this. There's a
way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is the ways
of death. There's a way that seems right unto man, but the
end thereof is the ways of death. If the Lord leads me to my way,
my devices, the Lord leads me to myself, I won't have any hope. But the good news is he promised
he would never leave us and he would never forsake us. He'd
go with us all the way even to the end. That's the good news.
That is the good news. Notice it says here that he speaks
with his feet. Let me find that. Verse 13, he winketh with the
eyes, his eyes and speaketh with his feet and teach us with his
finger. What does that mean? What does it mean he speaketh with
his feet? Well, you can know a lot about a man or a woman
based upon where they go to church, where they walk into, whether
they go into a place that has sheep or a place that has goats.
It's that simple. And if he's going to a so-called
goat barn, he's speaking with his feet. He's showing you what
he believes. He's showing you his self-righteousness. And this
is what I believe. That's what he's doing. And whenever
he says he's teaching with his finger, he's pointing. He's pointing
out everybody else's problem, everybody else's sin. I don't
have time to worry about your sin. I have my own to deal with.
We don't get on the pulpit here and point out certain sins that
maybe we know somebody does or that I don't do. We don't have
time for that. We declare Christ and the finished
work that he accomplished on Calvary's cross. That's what
we do. We don't teach by pointing each other out and calling each
other out like that. This is what all religion is,
is this self-righteous mentality of justifying self. saying, look
at me, look how good I am compared to you. And because it's false,
they have to compare themselves to others in order to justify
themselves. Who do you compare yourself to? The Lord Jesus Christ. And what does that make you and
I? Sinners. dead dog sinners, sinners in desperate need of
a savior, sinners that are full of wickedness, sinners that are
lepers from the top of the head to the bottom of their feet.
That's what we are. That's what we see when we compare ourself
to God's standard, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we see his holiness,
we know that we have to have his holiness or we will not have
any holiness, none of ourself. He has to make us righteous.
He has to make us holy. And he is the one that makes
the difference by grace, by grace alone. This man here though, he enjoys
the empty husks of free will. Do you remember the prodigal
son? He had enough of his dad's rules. He wanted to get out on
his own. He said, give me my, give me my inheritance. I'm leaving.
And his dad gave him his inheritance and he left. And it says that
he spent all that he had on frivolous living. He's probably a pretty
popular guy during that time. If you're throwing money around,
people kind of tend to hang out with you, you know? But as soon
as the money dried up, then what did he have to do? Well, he had
to go and tend to the hogs. Now, why is that such a big deal?
Because he was a Jew, and a hog is an unclean animal, according
to the Old Testament law. They've had no dealings with
hogs. Well, what's that a picture of? That's a picture of a false
church, is what it is. He was down at a false church.
He was eating the husks that those hogs were eating. Would
fain fill himself with the husks, but then he remembered his father's
house. Remember his father's house, the servants. He said,
I remember the servants. Servants have it better than
I do. He said, I'll go and ask my father to be a servant. He
comes back, but his dad didn't make him a servant, did he? What
did he do? Oh, he saw him coming from a long way off and he ran
to him. He kissed him, put a robe on his back, his ring on his
finger. He said, my son is home. Oh, that's a picture of the Lord
whenever we are brought to Him, what He does for us. He puts
the robe on our back, the ring on our finger. He sets us at
His table and He gives us plenty, all that we need. Everything
that we need has already been provided. There's nothing else
for us to do. That's the difference between the Lord's people and
those that are left to themselves. We look to His provisions because
we realize that He only accepts what He provides. He provided
everything necessary for the salvation of His people. we're outside of Christ, we have
no righteousness at all. But in contrast, the song we're
going to hear, we'll sing it here in just a little bit, was
grace that taught my heart to fear. And by grace, my fears
relieved, how precious was How precious was that grace appeared
the hour I first believed. Can you relate to that? It's
grace that made the difference, isn't it? It's not anything in
us, not anything that we've done, haven't done, or going to do. It's the Lord's grace that keeps
us from the sad state that we would undoubtedly be in without
the Lord. Now here's the good news of the
gospel. Here's what the Lord says. Jacob, I have bought you. I have pardoned you. I have redeemed you. I have loved
you with an everlasting love. You're mine. You're mine. Well, what does it mean if I'm
his? Well, if I'm his, that means he's mine also. Isn't that what
Solomon said? My beloved is mine and I am his.
There's perfect oneness between the Lord's people and the Lord.
And you think he's gonna lose one sheep? No. No, he said he
won't, and he cannot lie. He keeps his people even from
ourself. Isn't that glorious? I need to
be kept for myself. I need to be saved from myself.
And that's exactly what he does time and time again. Matter of
fact, we read that earlier. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. Ordered, I love that. Not offered,
ordered. orders. He has the authority.
He's sovereign, completely sovereign over the inhabitants of heaven
and earth. Under the earth, he's God, and
he orders the steps of his people. Those who are made to place all
their hope and trust in the blood of Christ alone are kept by the
power of God. We're made to believe and then
we're kept by him. What did he say over there in
Psalm we just read a little bit ago? He said, we're preserved
forever. Preserved forever. I love that.
I love that. Whenever we realize that we've
been bought, we've been bought. It tells us that we're not our
own anymore. And we were bought with the precious blood of the
Lord. That's what the scripture tells us. We were bought. We're
not our own anymore. We belong to him. I love that. That's good news to me. If I
belong to him, he's not going to lose me. He's going to keep
me. He calls us the apple of his
eye. He calls us his treasure. He calls us, he says that we're
a treasure to him. Think about that. How glorious
is that thought? I'm a treasure to him? How could
that even be possible? No, he's my treasure. He's the
treasure. No, he said, I made you the righteousness
of God in Christ. You're my treasure. You're my
treasure. All of God's elect were successfully
redeemed on Calvary's cross and they're kept. They're called
and they're kept for their, not just in this life, but for all
eternity, they're kept. They're kept with the precious
blood of the lamb. And thank God it's not based
upon what you and I do, but completely based upon what he did. None
of it's based upon us, it's all based upon him. Notice the next
thing here. And I think I got ahead of myself
on this, but that's okay. Verse 13, again, he winketh with
his eyes. He speaketh with his feet. He teaches with his fingers.
And I've already told us this, but he's constantly pointing
out the sins of others. Do you do that? Do you point
out the sins of others? I don't know of anybody here
that does that. I don't know of anybody here because number
one, we don't have time. I'm too worried about pointing.
My own sins out to myself. I'm constantly worried about
my sin. I don't have time to worry about other people's sin.
And that's the point, isn't it? The Lord gives us the heart.
Lord, I am the chief of sinners. And if you become the chief,
then everybody else's sin is of no consequence. You don't
worry about it. You don't think about it. You just think about
yourself. You carry the weight of your own sin. Well, here's the good
news. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The
only way sinners can have true peace is not to compare themselves
to others, but look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the only way we can have
peace. That's the only way we can have peace. We have to be
found in him, not having our own righteousness, which is of
the law, but having his righteousness, his righteousness. Look at verse 14. Forwardness
is in his heart. He divides with mischief continually.
He soweth discord. He soweth discord. He perverts
God's gospel, convincing himself that he's able to be acceptable
to God the way that he is. That's a message that goes out
today in this day and time that we live. Most churches actually,
that you're good enough for God. No, you're not. Jesus Christ
is good enough and we have to be found in Him. We have to be
found in Him. And here's the good news, that's
exactly what He did on the cross of Calvary as our substitute.
Took our sin, knelling them to His cross, giving us His righteousness,
perfect oneness and union. We died with Him on the cross,
raised with Him whenever He was resurrected. So we've died to
the law, we've died to sin, we've died to self. We're a new creature
created in Christ. Now, do we still have sin in
this flesh? Absolutely. The Lord didn't come to save
the flesh, but he gave us a new man and a new heart to believe.
This is what he did. This isn't something that's going
to happen. This has already happened for everyone that the Lord loves.
But we don't pervert the Lord's gospel. We love the Lord's gospel
now, don't we? We don't say, look at how good
I am. We say, look to Christ. We don't say, look at me. We
say, look at him. Look at the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ called them blind leaders of the blind. Most amazing part
to me, you read parts of John, there's a lot of conversation
our Lord had in the book of John with the Pharisees. And the conversations
as it would play out, they're talking to God. Face to face,
the one that created the heavens and the earth. By him, scripture
says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and
the word was God. All things were made by him and without
him was not anything made that was made. That's John chapter
one. So they're talking to the one. It goes on to say the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. So we know that that's Jesus
Christ. They're talking to Jesus Christ. They don't know that
it's him. They can't see him. He's just
another man to him. Actually, the scripture says,
no beauty in him that we should desire him. You couldn't see
nothing on the outside any different. But oh, thanks be to the Lord
that he revealed himself to some. He didn't stay hidden from everybody.
Every single sheep that he had, he revealed himself to them.
In mercy, why? Because of his glorious grace,
that's why. Because of his grace. He was
talking to the Pharisees and they hated him. Do you know why?
Do you know really what it came down to, why they hated him?
Because he exposed their iniquity. Because he exposed they didn't
have righteousness. He said, no, here's your righteousness,
it's not the righteousness of God, it's self-righteousness.
They said, away with this man, let his blood be upon us and
on our children. They hated him because of that. They loved themselves. They were lovers of the praise
of man more than the praise of God. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ,
he'll show you that you have a sin problem and we can't fix
it. And they hated that. How many times did they try to
kill him, try to stone him, try to lay hands on him? They said
that he just passed by them. That's amazing, isn't it? They
couldn't see him. They couldn't see him. He told him, he said,
you cannot hear my word and you will not come to me. And he said,
why? Because you're not my children. You're of your father, the devil.
That's what he told him. That's what he told him. This is why verse 15 says this.
Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly. Suddenly shall
he be broken without remedy. Judgment will be swift and there'll
be no escape for those who do not look to Christ, those who
do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, those who do not have
him as their righteousness. The judgment will be swift. Their
calamity will come upon them quickly. But for grace, this
would be our end. But the Lord's given us grace.
The Lord's given grace unto his people. I'm glad we named the
church Holy Grace Church. That's simple. But if you preach
grace, salvation by grace alone, then that's the true gospel,
because that's the only way that you can have salvation is by
free grace alone, by the sovereign grace of God. There is no other
salvation, but by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. But for grace, this would be
our end, but because of amazing sovereign grace, the Lord said,
I've redeemed you, I've bought you, you're not your own anymore,
I've bought you with a price, I have saved you from yourself. I've saved you from your sin.
He saved us from the world. He saved us from Satan. He saved
us from everything that we could not save ourself from. And he
gave us Christ forever. He gave us his son forever. There is a sweet balm of Gilead
that has never failed to heal one time. Do you see yourself
as sick? Do you see yourself as a leper? That balm of Gilead
has not failed one time to heal. That blood has never failed one
time to redeem. Not once, not once. It cannot
fail because of the source, the Lord Jesus Christ. His people
have been redeemed. They have been justified. They
have been sanctified. They've been glorified. They
just haven't even got to experience it yet. This is what the Lord's
done for his people. Now you can, when you lay your
head on your pillow at night time, if you're looking to Christ
as all your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
you can know that your record is clear. Your record is clear
before the throne of God. Think about that, a clear record.
As a matter of fact, it's his record that you bear. It's a
perfect record. It's the record of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what he did as the substitute for his people.
He gave us his record. So whenever the scroll is read
at the top of the page, you know what it's going to say? Jesus
Christ. So that's what it's going to say. It's his record. You
can't get, don't get any better than that. That's glorious. We
no longer glory in iniquity. We glory in Christ. We no longer
pervert the gospel. We glory for the Lord's gospel.
We praise him for his gospel. We're thankful for his gospel.
No calamity waiting on the child of God. Christ took that calamity
on the cross of Calvary. There's no wrath waiting on the
child of God. Lord Jesus Christ endured that wrath on the cross
of Calvary. There's no judgment or justice waiting on the child
of God. It's already been satisfied. The Lord is satisfied. Satisfied
with his son and satisfied with his people. Our substitute surety
took all of it and made us the righteousness of God in Christ.
He saved his people from their sin. And this poor man, I say
poor because that's a good word. I don't know if that's not the
best word I can use. I don't know what else. It's sad. This man's
condition is sad, but I look at him and you do too. We know if it's not for grace,
there go I. That's me without grace, without
God intervening in my life. That's me right there. And I
would have calamity and judgment and wrath and justice and I deserve
every bit of it. But because we're in Christ Jesus,
the scripture says, there is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. No condemnation, why? Because
he saved his people from their sin, all by his grace. And one of the songwriters said,
oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.
Let thy goodness, like a feather, bind my wondering heart to thee.
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I
love, here's my heart, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts
above. But for grace, brethren, where
would we be? Lost, hopeless, helpless. Oh, the Lord's given us his grace,
hasn't he? And his precious son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
pray. Father, bless this to our understanding
for your glory. Thank you for grace. Thank you
for grace. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.