THREE ESSENTIAL ACTS OF DIVINE GRACE

We hear much talk today about "the simple plan of salvation". Preachers everywhere tell us that salvation is accomplished by "an act of man's freewill". They tell us that eternal life is obtained by "making a decision for Jesus". If you care for your immortal soul, you must lay aside all the rubbish of modem religious philosophy and search the Scriptures for the truth of God. The easy-believism, decisionism, and freewillism of modern fundamentalism is a trick of Satan. No one has ever been saved by it; but multitudes have been damned by it. You may say, "But I was saved in that kind of religion." You are deceived. God does not use religious lies to save his elect. "The gospel", not heresy, "is the power of God unto salvation". Push aside all that you have heard preachers say about salvation, open the Book of God, and you will find that in order for you to be saved you must be the object of three essential acts of Divine grace.

You must have a complete REDEMPTION from the curse of God's holy law. Your sin must be punished. Your guilt must be removed. The law and justice of God, that demand your eternal damnation, must be satisfied. Your only hope of redemption is the shed blood of Christ, the sinner's Substitute. The gospel of the grace of God declares that this redemption was accomplished by Christ, when he died at Calvary, for all who believe (Rom. 3:24-26; II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:10-13; Heb. 9:12). You must also have a perfect RIGHTEOUSNESS, such as the holy, righteous God of heaven will accept. A holy God requires holiness. He requires perfect, flawless righteousness. Sinful men, such as we are, cannot produce such righteousness. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, has produced righteousness in the earth by his life of obedience to God. And his righteousness is of infinite merit before God. Without this perfect righteousness, you can never be accepted by God (Heb. 12: 14). It is this perfect righteousness of Christ which God imputes to all who believe. And you must be REGENERATED by the grace and power of God. Regeneration, the new birth, is not something you do. It is something God does for you and in you. Regeneration is a creation of spiritual life in a man (II Cor. 5:17). It is a resurrection from spiritual death (Eph. 2:1-4). If God the Holy Spirit comes to you and gives you life by the power of his grace, you will live. You will repent of your sin. You will believe on Christ. You will bow to Christ. You will follow Christ. God's saving grace is sovereign, effectual, and irresistible. If God passes you by, you will remain dead in your sins and perish in hell. If you were wise, you would cry out from your inmost soul –

Pass me not, O gentle Savior!

Hear my humble cry,

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.