Our help and only expectation is in the name of the Lord who has made heaven and earth, who keepeth truth forever and never forsaketh the works of his own hands. Amen. Let us sing Psalter 51. The first two stanzas. Psalter 51. Amid the thronging worshippers, Jehovah will I bless. Before my brethren gathered there, His name will I confess. Come, praise Him, ye that fear the Lord, ye children of His grace. With reverence sound His glories forth, and bow before His face. Psalter 51, verse 1 and 2. you. ♪ God made me, and me alone ♪ ♪ Be the elder of his race ♪ ♪ And the right hand of his hand of grace ♪ you The scripture reading this morning is from Isaiah 55, but first we will read the Holy Law of the Lord. And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and resteth the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. Scripture reading Isaiah 55. Ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me. Herein your souls shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord, while ye may be found. Call ye upon him, while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the briars shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Let us pray. O Lord, it is yet in thy goodness that thou hast brought us all here in this morning to thy house to hear thy word, that thou hast yet spared us on the way here as we have heard of one that was almost in an accident Lord, thou hast yet spared each one of us, and thou hast yet given us the privilege to be together to hear thy word. Lord, we pray that thou wouldst bless it unto each one of us. For we have read that thy word does not return unto thee void, but it that it shall accomplish that whereinto thou hast sent it. O Lord, thy could be for the hardening of hearts, but it is followed with thy promise, that ye shall go out with joy. O Lord, we pray that thou wouldst apply it unto our souls with thy Spirit. We pray for all the needs that we have, whether physical or mental or spiritual. O Lord, we remember the family Monsur as they have lost a husband and a father. We pray that thou would be near unto them, that thou would be their comfort, for it is only in thee Lord, we also pray for the weak and the sick in our midst. We remember especially Mrs. Reineveld. She is very weak and it seems that she is in her last days. Lord, we pray that thou would be with her that thou wouldst also be her comfort for the first time or by renewal. Remember all the other ones that cannot be here, that are either sick at home or in an institution. We pray that also there thou wouldst give a blessing. We pray for the needs of our government nor thou knowest that there is a great need there, but thou art mighty to also work there, for we have forsaken thee as a country, but We pray that Thou would yet revive us, that Thou would give us godly leaders that would adore Thee rather than shame Thee. O Lord, be gracious unto each one of us. We pray that Thou would apply Thy Word, O it is a simple means of reading. Oh, with Thou, blessed unto all of our souls, we ask it for Thy name's sake alone. Amen. The title of the sermon is, Without Money and Without Price, out of Isaiah 55, verse 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price. The spiritual blessings promised and provided in the Gospel comprise all the things that man can need. They are described in the chapter before us as water, refreshing and cleansing, the water of life, of which, if a man drinks, he shall never thirst again. They are also described as wine, the wine of joy, exhilarating, comforting, making good the heart of men, a wine in which is no woe but fullness of holy delight. These blessings are thirdly represented as milk, for milk is almost the only article of diet which contains everything that is necessary for the support of men. and therefore it is a type of the satisfying qualities of the gospel. He who receives the gospel of Jesus Christ has all that his soul can possibly need for time and for eternity so that water, wine, and milk set forth a full supply of life, joy, and satisfaction According to the text, this provision for our souls is presented to us free. We are to buy it, that is to say, we are to have it with as good as a right and as full an assurance as if we had purchased it. But the purchase is to be made without money, unless we should make mistakes and suppose that, although money literally might not be brought, Some other recompense must be offered to God. It is added without price. The double expression is most sweeping, clearing away once and for all from the mercies of God all idea of their being purchasable by any method whatsoever. The gospel is not to be bought with gold. Neither are they to be bought with knowledge and wisdom, which are the mind's wealth, the money of the soul. A man may know much, but his knowledge may only puff him up or increase his condemnation. Neither are the gifts of God's divine grace to be bought by human merit. Merit connected with man is out of the question. You can call it demerit and you are correct. If we had done all that we ought to have done, still we ought to have done it, and even in that case we would still be unprofitable servants, away with the notion of merit as possible to fallen men. The day which saw Adam driven out of paradise blotted the words human merit out of the dictionary of the truth of God. Every sort of gift to God with the view of receiving His favor is excluded by the term without price. Some have dreamt that they might barter if they may not purchase. They, therefore, bring to God, instead of inward holiness, the beauty of outward ceremonies. and instead of bringing a perfect righteousness they offer a baptismal regeneration and a sacramental sanctity. They conceive that a kind of witchcraft rests in the use of certain words and postures and that God is thereby moved to blot out their sins. Others who are not quite so foolish have fallen in the same error under another form. They fancy that a certain amount of feeling will procure for them the gifts of divine grace. They must be distressed up to a certain point and made to tremble in a certain measure. They must become despairing or they can never hope for His mercy. Thus, they make unbelief, which is a sin, into a preparation for grace. and despair, which is an insult to a merciful God, and magnify them into a fitness for the reception of his bounty. Others have dreamt that partial reformation, the saying of prayers, the leaving of legacies, attendance upon orthodox teaching, or the performance of benevolent actions will surely procure for them the gift of grace. To one and all of them comes this gospel declaration. The gifts of God's love are without money and without price. I wish I knew how to put this truth of God into such words that everybody could understand me and that nobody could misunderstand me. Whenever a man is saved, he is saved because God freely saves him. not because there was anything in him to deserve salvation or any particular fitness in him why God should deliver him and not another. The gifts of God's grace are absolutely free in the most unrestricted sense of that term. Nothing good whatever is brought by man or is expected from man by way of recommendation to God's mercy. Everything is given free and is received by us without mercy, without money and without price. Upon that one thought I shall dwell, hoping that the Spirit of God will make it plain to your minds. How shall the young direct their way? What light shall be their perfect guide? Thy word, O Lord, will safely lead, if in its wisdom they confide. Upon thy precepts and thy ways my heart will meditate with awe. Thy word shall be my chief delight, and I will not forget thy law. Psalter 322, stanzas 1 and 4. Satsang with Mooji you. ♪ The children of the heavenly race ♪ ♪ Christ shall reign evermore ♪ Oh So first I shall notice the surprising nature of this fact. For it is very surprising to mankind to hear that salvation is without money and without price. It is so surprising to them that the plainest terms cannot make them understand it. And though you tell them a thousand times a day, yet they persist in thinking that you mean it costs something. They cannot be brought to accept it as literally true, that they are to have everything for nothing, salvation free, and eternal life is the pure gift of heaven's charity. Why, there are those sitting in this house this morning who know the way of salvation and are saved, and they will tell you that for many years they heard the gospel very plainly put, but that until God, the Holy Spirit, enlightened them, they did not really understand what was meant by simple faith in Jesus. They will admit that they could not bring themselves to the idea that then and there, just as they were, they had but to accept the salvation of God and it would be their own. They were unable to believe that so simple a matter could be the gospel. They looked for mystery, difficulty, and a complex preparation. They understood the words, but they missed the central sense. The grace and the freeness of the Gospels surpassed their thoughts. It is not an unusual thing to find children of godly parents who have heard the Gospel from their earliest youth still ignorant of the way of salvation, having failed to learn the simple truth of God. that salvation is the free gift of God and can only be received as such. Now why is it that a man does not see this? Why is it that when he does see it, he is surprised at it? I think it is first because of man's relation to God and his wrong judgment of Him. Man thinks that God is a hard master. That expression of the man who hid his talent in a napkin, I knew that thou wert an austere man, gathering where thou hath not sown, is precisely the idea which the mass of mankind have of the Lord. They judge him to be exacting, hard, severe, and that his law claims more of man than it should. They judge that he might have dealt more leniently with a poor, erring, fallible mortal like man. When the Holy Spirit convinces men of sin, they still retain hard thoughts of God and fear that he cannot be as gracious as to blot out their sins. Judging the Lord by their own standard, they cannot think that he will freely forgive. And though they are reminded of the great atonement, which enables God to be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly, they still think that because they could not readily forgive offenses against themselves, God must be as slow to pardon as they are. They believe he must be urgently pleaded with, recompensed at penances, conciliated with promises, or moved by tears before he will be brought into a loving state of mind so as to be willing to bestow his grace. Little do they know that mighty heart of love which throbs in Jehovah's bosom As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. He waits to be gracious, and is abundantly willing to pardon the ungodly if they do but turn to him. No doubt also the condition of man under the fall makes it more difficult for him to comprehend that the gifts of God are without money and without price, for he finds that he is doomed to work for almost everything he needs. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, is the sentence upon our race. If man needs bread, the earth demands that he dig for it or to use some other form of labor. Under the artificial conditions of civilization, scarcely anything comes to us of itself, but it must be bought with money. And man finds that he is in a place where, if he buys, it certainly is not without money and without price. money and price must be in his hands in every market and store or else he must go away empty handed and therefore he is apt to reckon that as it is so in this sin blighted world it must be the same in the kingdom of Christ and when he finds that he is not by works to purchase divine favor he finds it strange and is long in believing that it can be true He reads the words without money and without price and thinks that there must be something written between the lines to modify the sense. For surely there must be something to do or to feel before a sinner can receive the gifts of grace. And so without money and without price is quite a novelty. And man is astonished at it and cannot believe it to be true. Another matter puts man into this difficulty, namely, his natural pride. He does not like to be a beggar before God. The mass of mankind have generally some excellence or another which, in their own esteem, exalts them above others. You shall find a large proportion of the upper classes perfectly convinced that they are far superior to the poor, that the working classes are indeed an inferior order of beings compared with themselves. You shall find an equal pride among the working classes, which leads them to think themselves the real backbone of the country, a sturdy independence it is sometimes called. But when it intrudes into religion, it is nothing better than evil boasting. Pride is woven into man's nature. We do not like to be saved by charity and to have no corner in which to sit and boast. We long to make provision for a little self-congratulation. You insult a moral man if you tell him that he must be saved in the same way as a thief or a murderer, yet this is no more than the truth of God. For a woman of purity to be told that the same divine grace which saved the Magdalene is necessary for her salvation is so humbling that her indignation is roused, and yet it is the fact For in every case salvation is without money and without price. Man would gladly bargain with God and make God's temple of mercy into an auction where each man bids as high as he can and procures salvation if he can reach a certain figure. But here stands the open-ended gospel with all the treasures of infinite grace unlocked. and all the granaries of heaven with the doors taken off their hinges, and it cries, Whoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely. It asks neither money nor price nor anything of man. It magnifies the infinite grace of the all-bounteous Father, in that he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and reveals his grace to the undeserving. Thus I have spoken upon the surprising nature of this fact. But I need to add that though I have thus shown grounds for our surprise, yet if men would think a little, they might not be quite as unbelievingly amazed as they are. For after all, the best blessings we have come to us freely. What price have you paid for your lives? And yet they are very precious. Skin for skin, yes, all that you have, would you give for them? What price do you pay for the air you breathe? Or what price does a man pay for the blessed sunlight? God has given it freely, and to the beggar it is as free as to the prince. Life and air and light come to us without money and without price. And our faculties too. Who pays for eyesight? The eyes which glance across the landscape and drink in beauty, what toll do they pay? Or the ears which hear the song of the birds at dawn, what price is given for them? The senses are freely given to us by God, and so is the sleep which rests them. Tonight, when we lay our head down upon our pillows, the poor man's sleep shall be as sweet as the sleep of him who reclines on down. Sleep is the unbought blessing of heaven. You cannot purchase it. It is clear, then, that some of the best blessings we possess come to us by the way of free gift. Yes, and come to the undeserving too, for the dew shall sparkle tomorrow upon the grass in the miser's field, and the rain shall fall in due season upon the rising corn of the wretch who blasphemes his God. The influences which nurture wheat and barley and other fruits of the earth are given to the farm of the atheist as well as to the fields of the godly. They fall alike for the evil and for the good. For the Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works. We ought not therefore to be so surprised after all that the gifts of his divine grace are free. In the second place, dear friends, I want to show you the necessity of the fact mentioned in our text. There was a necessity that the gifts of the gospels should be without money and without price. A threefold necessity. First, it is from the character of the donor. It is God who gives. O brethren, would you have him sell his pardons? The King of kings, would you have him give forgiveness to the sons of men that so much perhead? Would you have him sell his Holy Spirit? And would you come like Simon Magus and offer money to him for it? Would you have him give to you as the reward of merit, adoption into his family? that you might become his sons and brag even in the halls of heaven that you climbed to this dignity by your own good works? Talk not so blasphemously proud. The great king has made a great supper. Would you have him demand a price for entrance and sit as a receiver at the gates of mercy? and stop each one who comes to see if he has brought a price to pay for entrance? No, no, that is not like our God. He deals not this way. When the prodigal came back, imagine the father keeping his son in quarantine to see if he had a clean bill of health. Imagine him saying, my son, have you brought a gift to reconcile me? The parable would be spoiled by the hint of such a thing. Its glory lies in the freeness of the Father's love, which asked no questions, but pressed the repenting child to his bosom, just as he was. God, the Great Father, must not be so dishonored in your thoughts as to be conceived of as requiring a price of you. You displease him when you think that you are to do something or feel something or bring something in your hands as a recommendation to him. Can you picture Jesus going about Palestine selling his cures? Can you imagine him saying to the blind beggar, how much have you left of the alms of the charitable to give to me for your eyesight? Or can you even think of his saying to Martha and Mary, bring me all you have and I will raise your brother Lazarus? Oh, I loathe speaking of it. It makes me sick to imagine such a thing. How weary must the Lord be with your self-righteousness, with your attempts to traffic and to bargain with Him. Oh, sirs, you are not dealing with your fellow men. You're dealing with the king of kings, whose large heart scorns your brides. Salvation must be given without price, since it is God who gives. Again, it must be for nothing because of the value of the blessing. As one has well said, it is without price because it is priceless. You could not think of a fit price for the blessing, therefore it must be left without price. The gospel is so precious a thing that if it is to be bought, the whole world could not pay for it. And therefore, if bought at all, it must be without money and without price. It costs the Lord Jesus his blood. What have you to offer? What? Do you imagine that you can buy it with a few poultry works? God himself became a man and bled and died to bring pardon and eternal life to sinners. And do you think that your tears, bending your knees, your gifts of money, and your emotions of your heart are to purchase this unpurchable blessing? Oh, believe, because it is so rich it must be given away if it is to belong to us. and there is another reason arising from the extremity of human destitution. The blessings of divine grace must be given without money and without price, for we have no money or price to bring. If you are to have eternal life, no terms but those of divine grace will meet your case. Think, dear friends, when the dying thief was hanging at the side of Christ, Suppose the Lord Jesus Christ had made a rule that a man should live a holy life for a week and then should have the blessing. Why, the thief must have died unblessed. Suppose that he had said to all men, it is absolutely essential that you join the church and be baptized or else I cannot save you. Then poor bedridden sinners must perish hopelessly. A gospel for nothing suited the dying thief. I admit it, says somebody. Ah, my friend, and surely you cannot be in a worse condition. Some years ago I had a very high compliment paid me by a gentleman who intended an insult. He ridiculed my preaching and remarked that it would be eminently suited to the lowest class of the American slave. This I accepted as an honorable admission. For he who could reach and bless the black man will now preach in vain to white people. I have heard of a preacher of whom his enemy said that he might do very well to preach to old women. Ah, then he will do for anybody. I suppose he would suit old women because they are on the borders of the grave and that it is where we all are. For we are all much nearer to the grave than we imagine. Free salvation suits the vilest of the vile, and it is equally suitable for the most moral. If it is all for nothing, nothing can be so poor as to be excluded from hope. If it is to be had without money and without price, no soul need be without it. Surely the price is brought low enough. The difficulty is that the price is too low for human pride. Sinners will not come down to it. Whereas every other salesman finds that he cannot get his customers up to his price, my difficulty is that I cannot get my customers down to mine. They will still haggle and haggle to do something, to be something, or to promise something. whereas here are the terms and the only terms upon which gospel grace is to be had, without money and without price. You shall have it freely, but God will have none of your bargaining. Take his mercy, take it just as you are, you are welcome to it. But if you tarry till you are better, your very betterness will make you worse. If you wait until you are fit, your fancied fitness will be your unfitness. Your hunger is your fitness for food. Your nakedness is your fitness for clothing. Your poverty is your fitness for the riches of mercy. Your sin, your loathsomeness, your hardness of heart, and stubbornness do but make you fit objects for wondrous divine grace. and for the amazing transformation which divine power can work in men. It is absolutely necessary that the blessings of grace could be without mercy and without price, and glory be to God they are. Before we continue with the third point, we will sing Psalter 431, stanzas 4, 5, and 6. Psalter 431, stanza 4, 5, and 6. Open saith the Lord, wide thy mouth believing, this my covenant word I will, if thou plead, fill thine every need, all thy wants relieving. Psalter 431, verses 4, 5, and 6. Alleluia. Alleluia. Help me, Lord, rejoice, my faith is found. you Aum. My third point is this, the profitable influence of this fact. If it is without money and without price, what then? Well first, that enables us to preach the gospel to every creature. Jesus Christ said, go you into the entire world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believes not shall be damned. If we had to look for some price or some fitness or some excellence in the life of the creature, we could not preach His mercy to every creature. We would have to preach it to prepared creatures, and then that preparation would be the money and the price. I am sorry that some of my brothers entertain the idea that the gospel is to be preached only to certain characters. They dare not preach the gospel to everybody. They try to preach it only to the elect. Surely, if the Lord meant them to make the selection, he would have set a mark upon his chosen. As I do not know the elect and have no command to confine my preaching to them, but am bid to preach the gospel to every creature, I am thankful that the gospel is put in such a way that no creature can be too poor or too wicked or too vile to receive it, for it is without money and without price. That is going to the very bottom. that takes in the most degraded, debased, and despised of our race, whoever they may be. If before I preach the gospel I have to look for a measure of fitness in a man, then I cannot preach the gospel to any but those whom I believe to have the fitness. But if the gospel is to be preached freely, with no conditions or demands for preparations or prerequisites, if this is the gospel that whosoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, then I may go to the most degraded bushmen, or savage Ashmanites, or untamable Modocs, and tell them the good news. We may speak of mercy to harlots and to thieves. We may penetrate the jungles of crime and cry with the same entreaty from heaven. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, for he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. The fact that the mercy of God is without money and without price enables us, by His grace, to preach it to every man, every woman, and every child born of woman. Now, note secondly, that this fact has the added effect of excluding all pride. It is to be without money and without price. You rich people have not a half penny worth in advantage above the poorest of the poor in this matter. Your station may be very respectable, but God is no respecter of persons. You may be numbered among the rank and fashion of society, but in God's esteem, one rank is as evil as another, and the fashion of all men passes away. Divine grace comes to the queen upon her throne and to the beggar in the street with the same message, without money and without price. The pride of wealth is utterly abolished by the gospel and so is the pride of merit. You have been so good and so charitable and you are so excellent and so religious and so everything that you ought to be and you fancy that there must be some private entrance, some reserved door for persons of your quality. But, sir, the gate is so straight that you must rub shoulders with thieves, drunks, and murderers if you are to enter eternal life. There is but one way, and that is the way of grace. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. Is it by the law of works? No, but it is by the law of grace. Those who are saved never sing well done to themselves, but when they get to heaven, they glorify grace alone. What a slap in the face this is for human glory and how much it needs it for it is impudent to the last degree. To all men there is but one rule, he that believes on him is not condemned but he that believes not is condemned already because he hath not believed on the Son of God. Again another influence of the fact mentioned in our text is that it forbids despair, without money and without price. And who can despair? You are feeling in your pocket and you find nothing there. You do not need anything. Salvation is without money. You have been feeling in your heart and you find nothing there. You do not need anything before coming to Jesus, for His grace is without price. You have been looking back on your past history. It is all blank, and it is all black. That is true, that Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. But you cannot find a redeeming trait in your character. Ah, but God has found a Redeemer, mighty to save, and if you rest in Him, He will save you from your sins. Whoever you may be, if eternal life is to be had for nothing, you are not too poor to have it. It is impossible that you can have fallen too low for the gospel, for Jesus Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him. I was for a long while pestered with this idea that I must have some extraordinary vision or remarkable revelation or singular experience and have something to tell, such as I had heard good people tell of. But when the glad tidings were made plain to me by the Holy Spirit, I was as if I had received a new revelation. Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth sounded like a new song in my ears. My heart leaped for joy at the news. Christ was nailed to the cross and I was to look at him and be saved. Just as the serpent of brass was lifted on the pole, and whoever looked was healed of the serpent bites, so was there for me eternal life and blessedness in looking to Jesus on the tree. Why did I not understand that before? Why? Why do not some of you understand it? I pray God the Holy Spirit make you see it this morning for that is the great truth of God which will save your soul. Everything for nothing. Christ himself to be had for the asking. Surely this truth should comfort the most desponding. Next it inspires with gratitude and that gratitude becomes the basis of holiness. They say that a free gospel will make men think lightly of sin. Well, it is the death of sin. It is the life of virtue. It is the motive power of holiness. And whenever it comes into the soul, it begets zeal for the Lord. The best morality springs out of gratitude for pardon, divine grace, and lively hope received as the gifts of heaven. Then, note again that the receipt of salvation, without money and without price, engenders in the soul the generous virtues. What do I mean by that? Why, the man who is saved for nothing feels, first with regard to his fellow men, that he must deal lovingly with them. Has God forgiven me? Then I can freely forgive those who have trespassed against me. It is the first impulse of a soul which receives burden from God to put away all enmity against his fellow men. I freely forgive the few pence that my fellow sinner owes me when I remember the thousands talents which were forgiven me by the infinite mercy of my God. The man who does not forgive has never been forgiven, but the man who has been freely forgiven at once forgives others. No, he goes beyond it. He says, now my God has been so good to me, I will be good to others. And as God is good to the unthankful and the evil, so will I be. And he goes forth to distribute the bread of life which Jesus Christ has so generously put into his hands. So then, as to our God, the free gifts of grace, working by the power and energy of the Holy Spirit, creates in us the generous virtues toward God. When we know that Jesus has saved us, we feel we could lay down our lives for Him. Self-denial springs of this. Yes, the death of self comes out of a rich experience of free and sovereign grace. Did the Lord love me when there was nothing to love in me? Did He love me with spontaneous love before the world began? Did he give his son to die for me, a guilty sinner, lost and ruined in the fall? Then I will give all that I have to God. It is the natural outgrowth of the grand doctrine of without mercy and without price. And lastly, beloved, I cannot think of anything that will make more devout worshipers in heaven than this. The purpose of God in seeking his glory by the way of redemption was evidently this. There were spirits in heaven who could worship him. There were angels who could adore him and remain faithful to him. But he wished to create beings that would be nearer to him than angels, though also in a certain sense still further off. An angel is a pure spirit. Man is partly materialism. God resolved that a creature that should be both spirit and matter should be lifted up above angels, should come nearer to himself than pure spirits have ever come, should, in fact, be related to himself through his son. Thus his son became a man that God, being all in all, next to God should stand man, made to have dominion over all the works of his hands, with all things put under his feet. Now observe that unless there had been some exercise of omnipotence, which would have taken away the high attribute of free agency from man, We do not know of any other way in which God would secure the eternal obedience and the reverent love and the perpetual humility of such creatures as we have spoken of, except by a remarkable experience of redemption, so that they should forever know that everything they had was the undeserved gift of sovereign grace. When they look upon the crown and wave the palm, they remember that they were once snatched from the horrible pit and the miry clay. When they gaze upon their robes of splendor and stand before the throne of God, peers of the universe, princes of the blood royal of heaven, no pride will ever flit across their perfect souls. because the memory of redeeming grace, dying love and blessings given without money and without price, this will keep them humble before the Lord. Oh, if they had given something, if they had done something, this would have marred the hole and left a gap whereby might enter the temptation to solve glory. Every child of God will know eternally that he is saved by grace, grace, and grace, from first to last, from beginning to end. And so, without a constraint, except that which is found within their own bosoms, All the redeemed will forever magnify the Lord in such notes as these. Worthy art thou, O Lamb of God, for thou wert slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood, and hast made us kings and priests unto God. May the Lord lead you all to receive his divine salvation without money and without price. Amen. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we come before Thee at the end of this service. Oh, we have heard the free gospel of Thy grace. Lord, this has left each one of us without excuse O LORD, ach it is thy own word, and we pray that thou would apply it unto each one of us, for thy own name's sake. Amen. Let us sing as closing psalter 422 stanza five and six. How blessed Lord are they who know the joyful sound. who, when they hear thy voice, in happiness abound. With steadfast step they walk, their countenances beaming, with brightness of the light that from thy face is streaming, and what follows. 422 stands for five and six. you Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Yeah. I am the light of day. Alleluia. Alleluia. Oh. God is love. you