I hope you will turn in your
Bibles to the book of Galatians, chapter 2. I'm going to speak
this morning from Galatians 2, 21. Galatians 2, 21. Let me read that verse. I do
not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain." There was a great conflict in
this Galatian church because some people had come
in and brought with them the works of the flesh. You know, the Jews, before Christ
revealed His grace to them, before He called them to himself. These Peter, James, John, all
of them were Jews. Paul was a Jew. And they were
raised in the law, subject to the law. Sabbath days, and holy
days, and feast days, and circumcision, and tithing, and all of the sacrifices,
sin offerings, burnt offerings, whole burnt offerings, all of
the things required by the law, they were subject to these things. And then Christ came and died
for us, and he is our Sabbath, he is our sanctification. He
is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to them that
believe. And God taketh away the first
circumcision, Sabbath days, holy days, feast days, sacrifices,
sin offerings, burnt offerings, all these things are done away
in Christ because He fulfills them. He fulfills them. Well, some of these people in
the church at Galatia were saying, it's alright to believe in Christ
and to accept Christ as your personal Savior. But you've got
to keep the Sabbath day. You've got to be circumcised.
You've got to tithe. You've got to not eat fish or
pork on Friday. Abstain from meats. Keep the
holy days and peace days. We have our Easter and Christmas
and Jews have their Yom Kippur or something like that and all
the Sabbath days and You got to do that. Christ's fine. That's
fine. Believe on. But these things
are essential. That's what to teach. And that's
what led to this. Now let's go back and read beginning
with verse 12 or verse 11 of Galatians 2. But when Peter was
come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was
to be blamed. He was at fault. Now these men
had a hard time getting out from under these traditions. It's
just like some of you and I and others had such a hard time getting
out from under traditions and customs of men. You take even baptism. Even baptism
rightfully administered is beautiful. It's a confession of Christ,
it's an identification with Christ, it's a It's a declaration of
my death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. But to tell me without
it, I can't be saved, is to make it a law. It's to add to Christ. I'm telling you. And giving's
fine. You'll be giving after a while
for our missionaries and these preachers and television programs. But to tell me now that I believe
on Christ, but I must give my tithe, that's to put me under
law. And this is Sunday. And the church
meets this morning, and you'll meet again tonight. I'll preach
up in Detroit, and Bob will be preaching here. But for me to
tell you, in order to be saved, you believe on Christ, but you
have to keep this day, and observe this day, and be in all the services,
and not pass the baseball in the backyard, and not go see
your family, and not cook a nice dinner. And you're putting me
back under law. And you're adding to Christ now. Now I'm redeemed
before God and justified before God and righteous before God
by Christ and Christ alone. What I do with this day is motivated
by the presence of His Spirit in this heart of mine. I want
to be here. I don't have to be here. I want
to be here. I'm reading this Word. I don't
have to read this Word to be saved. I have to believe on Christ
to be saved. I read this Word because I love
Him who saved me. Does that make sense to you?
I sat down last night as I do what I ask of you, what I preach
to you. I've got to endeavor or want
to endeavor to do. I sat down and wrote my weekly
contribution to this congregation's efforts and mission. But I didn't
do that because I had to, Charlie. If you feel you have to, tear
it up. Or go buy your new car. Have fun while it lasts. I did
it because I wanted to. Don't put any of God's children
under law, and that's what they were doing here. Under any, I
don't care what law it is. I don't care if it's a good law.
That's right. And even Peter, verse 12, listen
to this, but before that certain people came from James, James
was pastor in Jerusalem. Peter ate with the Gentiles.
He sat at the table with them, fellowship with them. Uncircumcised
people who weren't raised under the Mosaic economy. But when
they were come down from Jerusalem, from James, he withdrew and separated
himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. Get the
picture? They're having a church feast, and Peter's sitting over
here with these uncircumcised Gentiles who weren't under the
law, who weren't raised like he was, you know. They were just,
they just, they just believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when these fellas came down from Jerusalem, these strict leaders
of Judaism, He left that table and went over and sat with the
Jews. And verse 13, and other Jews dissembled likewise with
him, insomuch that Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation.
See what effect you have on people? You say, well ain't nobody as
beautiful as I do. Yeah, it is too. Because you
got somebody looking at you and following you. And Barnabas,
tall sidekick even, went over there with people. And when I
saw that they walk not uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel. What's the truth of the gospel? Christ is our wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification of religion. Christ is my Sabbath. Christ is all and in all. I am
complete in Him. That's the truth of the gospel.
Nothing God requires, demands, or commands is not made in Christ.
And that's the truth of the gospel. And Paul said Peter was not walking
according to the truth of the gospel. You see, even good men
can be misled. Even good Peter was a man God
used, but he was headed the wrong way here. I said to Peter before
them all, if you being a Jew, raised a Jew, raised in Sabbath-keeping
and tithing and all these laws, and now you don't do them, you
don't require circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, all these things. You live after
the man of the Gentiles, and not as the Jews. Why are you
compelling the Gentiles to live like the Jews? Why are you bringing
upon them that bondage from which you've been delivered? We who are Jews by nature, we
were raised in all of these things, and we were not pagans like the
Gentiles, with no Sabbath, and no law, and no prophet, no priest,
and no tabernacle. We know that a man is not justified
by the works of the Lord. Peter, you know that, and I know
that. But we're justified by the faithfulness, by the obedience
of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ,
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not
by the works of the law. For by the works of the law should
no flesh be justified before God. And while we seek to be
justified with Christ, we're found sinners. Is it therefore
Christ the minister of sin? In other words, if we seek to
be justified by Christ, and we go back to these requirements
of the law, that makes Christ the minister of the law. Because
the law reveals our sin. The law doesn't cleanse us, it
reveals what we are. Christ is not a minister of the
law, he's a minister of grace. God forbid. If I build again
the things which I destroyed, if I go right back, and this
is what a lot of preachers are doing. You hear these preachers
on TV trying to enforce tithing, where do they go to do it? Malachi. Law. Back to the Old Testament. If you wonder why they do that,
they can't find it in the New. You can't find it under Christ.
And they go right, all of this, this Sabbath keeping, they go
right back to the Old Testament. All of these rules and regulations
go right back to the Old Testament, right back to the law. And Paul
says, if I build again the things that Christ fulfilled and Christ
took away and Christ destroyed, I'm a transgressor. And I'm touching
the heart of God where He's most sensitive, the precious work
of His Son. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law. That doesn't mean I'm a, I'm
a lascivious, unbridled, wild asses coat. I live under God. I have a new husband. I'm dead
to the law. I'm dead to the law. That doesn't
mean I'm not hedged about and restrained and constrained. But
it's not the law that hedges me. It's not the law that motivates
me. It's not the law that constrains me. It's my love for Christ and
His love for me. You see that? Believers don't
need rules and regulations. Laws are made for ungodly men.
We got locks on all these church doors. Why we got locks on these
church doors? For you? No. If everybody was like you, we
wouldn't have a lock on the church door. Those locks out there are
for ungodly people. That's who those locks are for,
and all laws are made for lawbreakers. That's who laws are made for.
Laws are made for lawbreakers. Laws are not made for believers.
Paul says, I'm not under the law, I'm dead to the law. But
I'm not dead, I'm alive to Christ. I'm just dead to that law. I've
been in churches where they had ten commandments on the wall.
They want to put them in our schoolrooms. But I don't belong
in the schoolroom. We're not under Ten Commandments.
We're under Christ. You say, but yeah, but folks
need those Ten Commandments. Who needs them? You don't know
what's wrong to steal? You don't know what's wrong to
lie? You don't know that? You don't know what's wrong to
take a man's wife? You don't know that's wrong? Man, but I'm
talking about other people. And that's what I'm saying. The
law is for the lawless. Laws are for rebels. Believers
have the love of Christ. That's right, John. And that's
the reason you don't see the Ten Commandments on the wall
around. And you don't see any crosses and idols. You hear the gospel of Christ
from this pulpit. If you come to love Him and to
know Him and to believe Him, you'll honor Him. That's right. I'm dead to the law, but I'm
alive to God. And I'm crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. Yet, it's not I. It's Christ
that liveth in me. I'm not... You say, well, you
folks puffed up with your grace? Oh, no, it's grace. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It's
not I. If I show any love for anybody, don't give me the credit,
give him the credit. If this church gives anything,
supports missionaries and helps others, don't you praise men,
because if it was up to us, we'd be just like anybody else. It's
His grace, His grace, His grace. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. Now watch this, the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. I am what I am by the
grace of God. I do what I do by the grace of
God. His restraining grace, His constraining grace, His prevenient
grace, His continual grace, His persevering grace, His keeping
grace, His grace! That's all. That's all. And watch verse 21. And I don't
frustrate it, confuse it, or distort it. I don't compromise
it or mix it. If righteousness, if holiness,
If acceptance with God comes in any shape, form, or fashion,
or inkling, or outer, or jot, or tittle of the law, Christ
didn't have to go that cross. And if he did, he died in vain. That's right. He died in vain. A preacher made the statement
recently in a in a message, and I'm not taking issue with his
message at all. I'm simply calling attention
to this one statement in the message. He's a friend of mine,
and I think I know what he was trying to get across, but he
made this statement. He said, even Brother Mahan doesn't
have a pure grace church. Well, I think I know what he
was trying to say, but I have this to say. It's not a pure
church by any stretch of the imagination. Or you wouldn't
let me be the pastor. It's not a pure church. But it's
pure grace. It's pure grace. And I want to
clear that issue this morning. Anybody in this congregation,
or worship with this congregation, or hold membership with this
congregation that's not 100% convinced of and dedicated to
and supportive of the message of
the grace of God in Christ Jesus. I don't know whether you'd be
happy here or not. I don't believe you would. It's
pure grace. You can't mix grace and work.
Paul said if it's grace, it's not work. There's not even an
inkling of works in our salvation. If it's works, it's not grace.
It's got to be pure grace or pure works. Grace is not impure. That's the reason Paul said here
in verse 21 of Galatians 2, he said, I do not frustrate, I do
not compromise, confuse the grace of God. Now take down these four
things here that I want to show you. What's Paul saying? I do not, you see it there, verse
21? I do not frustrate the grace of God." In other words, he's
saying, I do not treat lightly the sovereign, immutable grace
of God in Christ to sinners as if it were a matter of minor
importance. Grace, Jim Eccles, is not of
minor importance around here. It's of the greatest importance.
You see, our salvation is all of grace from its origination
to its consummation. This is a grace church. This
is a grace preacher. These are grace people. Our missionaries
are grace missionaries. I wouldn't dare support officially
from this church a missionary that didn't preach 100% sovereign
grace. No way. Our salvation is all of grace
from its origination in eternity to its consummation in glory.
The hymn writer said grace first contrived the way to save rebellious
man, and all the steps that grace displays drew that wondrous flame. Grace first inscribed my name
in God's eternal book. It was grace who gave me to the
Lamb who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my soul to pray,
and grace made my eyes overflow. It's grace that's kept me to
this day, and grace will not let me go. Grace, all the works,
shall crown through everlasting days. It lays in heaven the topmost
stone, and grace deserves the praise. Paul is saying, I do
not frustrate the grace of God, that is, I do not treat it lightly. as though it were a matter of
minor importance. And then secondly, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, that is, now listen, I do not confuse the
issue. I do not compromise. I wonder
how many preachers this morning are standing in their pulpit
saying to themselves, I wonder how I can say this now. so as
not to offend anyone. I wonder how I can word this
so as not to make anybody mad. I wouldn't want to lose a tither,
or a giver, or a supporter. I wouldn't want to get the Ladies
Missionary Society down on my head. I wonder how I could say
this so as not to offend. When you take the offense out
of the gospel, you take the gospel out of your message. The gospel's
offensive to natural man. You can't make a believer mad
with the Word of God. By the same token, you can't
make a hypocrite glad. So Paul said, if I please men,
I'm not God's servant. So Paul is saying here, I don't
frustrate the grace of God. I don't compromise and confuse
the issue in order to take the edge off of it. The edge off
of it. The sharp point. See, the word
of God is a sword. It's got a sharp edge. Sharp
point. It cuts. It cuts. And we say this loudly and clearly,
and declare it without compromise, God is infinitely sovereign in
all things. Creation, providence, and salvation. Anybody vote against that? Or like we say, without compromise.
I don't take the edge off of it. I don't confuse it, I don't
compromise it. Man is a spiritually fallen,
dead creature. Without hope, without help, without
Christ, without God in this world. Dead in trespasses and sin, as
Brother Bowie said, graveyard dead. Spiritually. Is that so? Anybody got any objections? Man's
dead. He will not come to Christ. He
cannot come to Christ, is that offensive? Christ said it, no
man can come to me except my Father drawing. He will not come
to me that you might have life. Thy people are made willing in
the day of thy power. God in a covenant of grace, without
compromise, there's no way to say this, except to say it. God
in a covenant of grace, without taking counsel with any creature,
elected a people to salvation in Christ. Well, that's either
so or it's not so. I don't know any way to say it,
just say it. He didn't look down and see who would believe. He
didn't take into consideration who would believe. He said, 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. It was said there,
the elder shall serve the younger. God made the decision. Salvation
is a decision, but God made it. You responded. God made it. Salvation is by an act of the
will. God's will, not your will. He
made you willing. And He gave these people to His
Son before the foundation of the world. Chosen in Christ,
loved in Christ, accepted in Christ, according to the good
pleasure of His own will, for His glory. Brethren, That's either
so or it's not so now. And the word says it's so. Two
reasons, two things that make an election absolutely essential. One is God's immutable power
and our indescribable inability. We won't come to him unless he
chooses us. All right, Christ lived and died
for those people to whom the the father of whom the father
gave him. He lived and died for those people,
giving him. He's their righteousness in life and their propitiator
in death. And his life and death is effectual
to their salvation. His blood is sufficient. And
then, fifthly, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't quicken
all men. Quicken is to give life. The Holy Spirit doesn't regenerate
all men. The Holy Spirit quickens and regenerates and calls those
whom the Father gave to the Son. And they will all persevere.
So Paul is saying, I don't confuse these issues, I don't compromise
these issues, I preach them and declare them according to the
Word of God. And then thirdly, Paul is saying,
I do not mix. To frustrate the grace of God
is to mix. the grace of God with works and
merit and man's duties and responses. For, he said, if righteousness,
what is this righteousness? Holiness, acceptance with God,
sanctification. The Bible says he is able to
present us holy, unblameable, unreprovable. That's righteous
in God's sight. But he said if this comes in
any way by obedience or works or responses to laws, then Christ
died in vain. I have no righteousness of my
own. In fact, actually, the Word of God says our righteousness
is a what, Jim? Filthy rags. Our righteousness, our works,
this is what that's saying, we all do faith as the lead, we
all together become unprofitable, even our righteousness is a filthy
rag, it's saying that Let's start with me. Am I getting up this
morning and dressing and shaving and preparing myself to come
here to the house of God and worship God? If God were to judge
me solely on the merits of that effort that I put forward to
come worship Him, He'd have to damn me. Because there's too
much self in it. It wasn't... Now listen to me,
you know this is so. We do what we do most of the
time to get what we can get out of it. We have a reason for doing
what we do, and it's not always the glory of God. I prepare a
message to preach to you that there's no way in the world that
a human being can have perfect faith, perfect love, and perfect
dedication. I don't care how dedicated you
are, you're not dedicated enough. Christ is the only human being
God's ever been pleased with. Jesus Christ is the only human
being that could ever say honestly and truthfully Unreservedly,
I will be done. Not my will. That's so. And I guess you've given. I appreciate
it. I thank God for you. Some of
you have sacrificially given. But none of us have ever given
like he gave. He gave himself. All he had. We haven't even given like the
widow. We've saved back enough, haven't we? We're going to make
it through the week. We might even eat at McDonald's
four or five times. We haven't sacrificed. Our righteousnesses are filthy
rags now, and I'm telling you, you don't want God to give you
what you deserve, even based on what you've done today. That's
right. Our unrighteousnesses are bad
enough, our righteousnesses are filthy rags too. Now, I just
wish I could get that across. Let's turn to Galatians 5, 3
and 4. Listen to this. Galatians 5,
3 and 4. This is the seriousness of it. Verse 2. Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you, if you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
Now, there are men in this congregation who are circumcised, but you
didn't do it for religious purposes. But what Paul is saying here,
these Jews, see, that was a religious rite with the Jews. They did
it as a token of the covenant. They did it to identify them
as Jews. They did it to say that we're not Gentiles, we're Jews.
Christ fulfilled all of those things. Christ, the Holy Spirit
is the seal of our covenant. He sealed us in Christ. He's
the token and flesh. Sabbath day, tithing, circumcision,
doing good works, anything. If you do any of these things,
now listen to me, I want to be careful here, but this is so.
Circumcision is a simple thing, isn't it? Well, you know, all
the Jews from Abraham clear up to Simon Peter were circumcised. So here's a fellow that's converted,
a Gentile. And he believes on Christ, and
he's uncircumcised, and he says, well, David was, Isaiah was,
Jeremiah was, Abraham was, Isaac was, Jacob was, Joseph was, and
I'm not. I just better do it, just in
case. I know it doesn't, but just watch out now. He said,
if you do that, forget Christ, because he profits you nothing.
Is that what he's saying, Charlie? I'm telling you, that ain't about
forgetting. But I testify, listen, I testify again to every man
that does this, that he's better to do the whole lot. Don't stop
there, boy. That's what gets me upset about these Reformed
Baptists that are insisting on Sabbath-keeping, Christian Sabbath. Now, this is what upsets me.
They say the ladies, they did this up in Michigan while I used
to preach in Grand Rapids, the ladies weren't allowed to cook
on Sunday. You weren't allowed to take a newspaper on Sunday.
See, Sunday they changed Sabbath to Sunday, called Christian Sabbath. You weren't allowed to go busy
with anybody on Sunday. You couldn't go, your children weren't allowed
to go out in the yard and play. Everybody sat in the house on
Sunday. Just keeping the Sabbath. Like the old Jewish Sabbath from
six o'clock on Friday night to six o'clock Saturday night. Just
keeping the Sabbath. Going to worship and you say,
well, brother, wouldn't that be Wouldn't that be kind of good
in our day to shut all the stores down and people not eating in
restaurants and everybody just worship God? Yeah, if you did
it for that purpose, to worship God. But if you're doing it in
any way to please God or to find acceptance with God, you're in
trouble. Because you've got to do the
whole lot. Now just take her on back there
to circumcision. Get your lamb and sacrifice it.
You've got a Passover to keep. You've got a Feast of the Tabernacles
to keep. You've got a son to stone. A rebellious son. You've got
a son to stone. You've got a daughter to stone. And the boy she committed
adultery with. You've got to stone both of them.
Now, come on. We're going to have to keep the whole law here now.
We're going to keep the whole law. Don't gather any sticks
on Sunday. I'll tell you, and he says this
plainly, if you do one single, solitary thing in order to say,
well, I'm religious, I'm a Christian, I'm holy, God'll accept me and
God'll look with favor upon me because I did this thing. You
teach your children to type? Teach them the whole lot, because
they're indebted to keep the whole lot. I'm just telling you
what this Word says here. If you do these things to be
accepted of God, Christ profits you nothing. And verse 3, I testify
again to every man who does anything in order to be holy, righteous,
accepted of God, he's a debtor to do the whole law. Watch it
now, he's not through. Verse 4, and Christ is become
of no effect to you. You've got no advocate, you've
got no blood, you've got no mediator. Whosoever you have justified
by law, you are fallen from grace. You've departed from salvation
by grace. Isn't it a shame how our old
religious fathers mess things up? They use that fallen from
grace talk about a fellow that lost his salvation. You remember
back years ago, they say, he's fallen from grace. That's not
what that's talking about. That's talking about people,
and there are a lot of preachers that have fallen from grace.
They've departed from salvation by grace. They've departed from
preaching it. They departed from teaching it,
they departed from declaring it, and they're declaring you
must be baptized, you must tithe, you must keep the Sabbath, you
must do this, you must do that, you must believe Christ what
you must do. And then fourthly, go back to
my text. I'm not going to confuse it. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. I do not frustrate it by By making
it of minor importance, I do not frustrate it by compromising
it. I do not frustrate it by adding
something to it. And I tell you fourthly, I do
not preach the grace of God as a doctrine and lead men to define
the word grace as they will. But I'm telling you this, when
I preach grace, I define it. And our Lord did too. I'm going
to teach you something right now in the next ten minutes. That's Bible. Turn to Luke chapter
4. Luke chapter 4. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to Nazareth
where he was brought up. As his custom was, he went into
the temple on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. They were
delivered unto him the 61st chapter of the prophet Isaiah, rather
the book of Isaiah, and he opened it to the 61st chapter. And he
said in verse 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath
sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
He closed the book, gave it again to the minister, and sat down,
and all the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is
the scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bear him witness
and wonder at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. No trouble here yet, is there?
He's read the word. He's really read the Messianic
prophecy. No trouble. He's even said, This
day the scripture is fulfilled in your ears. Still no trouble.
He's preached grace, hasn't he, Bob? got no trouble. Nobody mad
at you yet. And they said, is this not Joseph's
son? And he said to them, uh-oh, watch it now, you will surely
say to me this proverb, position, heal thyself. Whatsoever you've
heard we've heard done in Capernaum, do here in this country. He said,
no prophet without honor, no prophet except in his own country.
Still no trouble. A lot of truth here, isn't it?
Grace, truth, power, no trouble. But he defines grace and illustrates
it. Now watch it. I tell you the
truth. There were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years
and six months, and great pain was throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elias sent by God, save unto Sarepta,
a city of Sidon, to a woman that was a widow. There are a whole
lot of Jewish widows in the days of Elias. And God didn't feed
any of them. He fed a Gentile widow. Sovereign
grace, illustrated. And there were many lepers in
the land of Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none
of them were cleansed, none of the Israelites, except Nahum
and the Syrian Gentiles. God chose one, and God fed him,
and God healed him. And all day in the synagogue,
when they heard grace defined, grace illustrated, John, they
got mad. has the problem that preachers
rather flaming say, well we preach grace, but they don't define
it. They don't illustrate it. That's where the problem comes.
When you start telling what you mean. This is what I'm saying.
I turn to John 10. It's everywhere. I'll just give
you a few portions of the scripture in John 10. Listen to this. John chapter 10. You're familiar
with it. I'm the door of the sheepfold.
I'm the good shepherd. I give my life for the sheep.
No problem with all that. All that, all the way down here
to verse 22. And it was at Jerusalem, the Feast of the Dedication,
it was with us. Christ had talked about the sheep, and the sheep
foal, laid down the life of the sheep. That's grace! Of the sheep
I have, which is in all this foal, them I must bring. Then
came the Jews, verse 24. And they said to him, how long
are you going to make us doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us
plainly. He said, I told you. I told you, all these things.
But you didn't believe me. The works that I do in my Father's
name bear witness to me. But you believe not, and I'll
tell you why. You're not of my sheep. That's why you don't believe. My sheep believe. My sheep hear
my voice. I know them. They follow me.
I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father gave them
me. He's greater than all. No man's
able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I am my Father's
one. Whoop! Stone in time. He illustrated
grace. took up stone to stone. Charlie,
he preached it for an hour, and nobody said a word. Then he defined
it. They said, well, tell us plainly.
He said, I told you, and you didn't believe me. The reason
you didn't believe, because you're not of my sheep. My sheep hear me. My sheep
believe me. My Father gave them to me, and
my Father will draw them. Turn to John 6. I tell you, it's
all the way through here, grace illustrated. And when grace is
defined and grace is illustrated, and that's what I try to do in
this pulpit, I don't want anybody going out saying, well, what
did he say? Well, what did he mean? I mean
just this, that Adam's whole race is dead in sin, in the cesspool
and dunghill of iniquity. And God, from before the foundation
of the world, for reasons found only in himself, a cause found
only in himself, because of his eternal affection and infinite
affection for Christ, gave him a people out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven. Christ came down here
and died for them, and the Holy Spirit is sending the good news
of the gospel to the hearts of them and calling them to Christ
and to faith. We're not looking for volunteers,
we're looking for sheep. Won't you be a sheep? If you
are, you will. Won't you come to Christ? If
he came to you, you will. If he doesn't come to you, you
won't. And you'll get plenty of legitimate reasons why you
don't want to come, too. John 6. All the way through this,
he's talking about, I'm the bread. I'm the bread. Our fathers did
eat man in the wilderness. I'm the bread. He came down to
this. Verse 37. And they said, verse Verse 34, Lord, give us this
bread. Give us this bread. And Jesus
said, I am the bread. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, he that believeth on me shall never thirst. I said
to you, you've seen me and you don't believe me. All that my
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I'll in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my will, but the will of him that sent me, and this is
my Father's will which is sent me that All which ye have given
me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day. Verse
44, he said, No man can come to me, except my Father which
sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. It's
written in the prophets, They shall all be taught of God, and
every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
unto me. And you go on down here to verse 60, Many therefore of
his disciples, when they heard this saying, said, This is a
hard saying. Who can hear it? And they walked off. Grace illustrates. One more,
Romans 9. Turn over there. Romans chapter
9. And Paul in this ninth chapter,
and I've got to wind her up, Romans chapter 9, what he did
in Romans 9, he talked about the advantages of the Jew. Romans,
now you see it here, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my
conscious family witness, and the Holy Ghost Our great heaven
is continual sorrow in my heart. I could wish myself a curse from
Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh who are
Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the
covenants, the law, the service of God, the tabernacles, the
promises, whose are the father, of whom concerning the flesh
Christ came. He was a Jew. God bless forever." Talking about
the Jews and their advantages and all that they had and all
these things. And then he illustrates. But,
verse 6, it's not as though the word of God had taken none effect.
You say, well, God's word failed then. These Jews rejected it.
Now watch here. They're not all Israel, which
are of Israel. Everybody's not a son of Abraham
who's a son of Abraham. Right? Everybody's not a true
Israelite, a true Jew who is a Jew. The sons of Abraham are
all over this world, but they're not all sons of Abraham. The
seed of Abraham is all over this world, but they're not the spiritual
seed of Abraham. There are Israelites all over
this world, but they're not true Israelites, not true Jews. Now
read on. Neither, because they're the
seed of Abraham, are they all children. Isaac was the son,
I mean, Ishmael was the son of Abraham. But in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. In other words, here's one father,
Abraham, who had two sons by two different mothers. One called
Isaac, one called Ishmael. They were both born to the same
father. Ishmael says, I'm a seed of Abraham.
No, you're not either. Isaac is, by divine choice. And you're not. One father, two
mothers. The bondwoman and the free woman.
Wait a minute, now go on. Verse 8, that is, they which
are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God, because they're Jews, Israelites, Ishmaelites, sons of Abraham. But the children of the promise
are counted for the seed. The promise to whom? To Christ. For this is the word of promise
at this time, will I come and save her, or shall I have a son?
All right, are you with me? This is interesting. He's illustrating
the sovereign grace of God. Here's Abraham. Abraham two sons,
Isaac and Ishmael, by two different mothers. But he says God chose
the seed in Isaac, not Ishmael. There's descendants of Abraham
and sons of Abraham, seed of Abraham, but not spiritually,
only in Isaac. But, he said, watch it now, not
only this, but when Rebekah had conceived, even by one, not two
fathers, one father, even our father Isaac, Now here's a father
with the same mother bearing two sons. And both of them in
the womb at the same time. See? Both in the womb at the
same time. Now listen. The children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, but the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand. Not of
works, but of him that called it. It was said to Rebekah, while
these two sons were in her womb, The elder shall serve the younger.
In other words, God will even bypass the rule of elder rule
and say, I choose the younger. As it is written, Jacob hath
a love, he shall have a hatred. What you got to say to this?
God unfair? God unrighteous? Paul is defining
sovereign grace. And he's taking the whole Jewish
race. And he said, these people have denied God, rejected God,
rebelled against God. Does that mean that the purpose
of God is defeated? Oh, no. No, he said God's purpose
is a softened purpose in His grace. And you take Abraham,
had two sons by two different wives. But God said, I've chosen
Isaac. But come on down, Isaac had two
sons by the same wife, who were in the womb at the same time.
And the one God chose was even the younger. And he said, I'll
take Jacob and reject Esau. So I'm saying this. And somebody
says, he's unrighteous with God. He said, I'll watch verse 15. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. And I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth or of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. That's pure grace.