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So, I do want to say this, now the question is naturally raised, are works a basis for salvation? Obviously, they're not. I'm just going to go to one scripture, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace, God's unmerited favor, are you saved through faith? In other words, God gives you the grace to have the faith that you need to be saved. And without the doctrine of Calvinism, you cannot believe this statement, okay? Why? Because they think that in order to be saved, God is to graciously give you the faith. You don't actually believe the gospel. You just were over here in sin land and then all of a sudden, by grace, God plucks you out of it and puts you in repentance and faith land. Now all of a sudden, now I've just, I'm turned from all my sin, now I have the faith. It wasn't that I heard the gospel and decided I want to believe in it and put my faith in it and then he saved me by his grace through my faith, which is what the Bible actually says in Ephesians chapter number 2. So, somehow repentance and faith are inseparable graces. And that not of yourselves, it doesn't come from you is what the passage says. It's and that not of yourselves, what does the rest of it say? Help me. It's the gift of God, not of works. In other words, so he says this, even the faith that you have to be saved, it is a gift from God and not only that, but it's also not of your own works. In other words, you cannot earn it. And that's one scripture among many, many, many, many, many that I could go to this morning that clearly communicates to us that saving faith is an act of God upon an unworthy sinner. But look at Romans chapter 5 verse 1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, according to verse 1, I'm justified by faith, by my faith. Look at verse 2, by whom also we have access, notice this, by faith into this grace. What preceded the grace? My faith. How do I get to the grace? By my faith. I have to have faith to enter into his grace. Their whole doctrine is backwards. It's not the grace that enters me into the faith. You know why I have access into the grace? Through my faith. Grace is over here. I'm unsaved over here. This is faith. I go through the faith door into the grace area. By God's grace, I'm saved through my faith. You know why people go to hell? No faith. They did not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not some sinner getting better, pulling himself by his bootstraps or turning over new leaves. It is clearly an act of almighty God, whenever someone recognizes their sin, which is also an act of God. God helps them to see that they're a sinner. God helps them to repent of their sin, and God helps them to put faith in Jesus Christ. All of that is the work of God upon an unworthy sinner who will recognize his sin, who will recognize the Savior, and will repent and put faith in Jesus Christ. Let me give you their definition of repentance. Their definition of repentance is turning away from sin. They say that's grace. God gives you unmerited favor to just turn from your sins. That's not grace. That's work. All right, so it's obviously a work of God, but I would just challenge you with this. Please understand that the rest of that section of scripture says this, it's for by grace that you're saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship. In other words, he's still working on me, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So verse number 10 teaches us this, listen to me, verse number 10 teaches us this, that when you get genuinely saved, God is working on you, and one way that is manifested that God is working on you, that you will do works of righteousness. And obviously once you're saved, you know, we should do other good things. We should do the works of God. And here's the thing, good works are not necessary to save you. Good works are not an inevitable evidence of salvation. It is possible for someone to have no works whatsoever, zero, and be saved by their faith alone. The Bible makes that abundantly clear over and over again. And it's not just a hypothetical case. In fact, I think it probably happens a lot. When you really go out there and preach the gospel, you kind of notice a lot of people that are like the thief on the cross. They're ready to get saved, you know, by the skin of their teeth, by just faith in what Jesus did. And that's it. They didn't have any works. Are you saying, pastor, that if you get saved, you will do works of righteousness? Absolutely. I'm absolutely saying that. Are you saying, pastor, that if people who say they get saved and don't demonstrate works of righteousness, that maybe they're really not saved? Yeah. That's pretty much what I'm saying. How about Lot? Tell me all the good works Lot had. Now here's where we get ourselves in trouble as I pick those works of righteousness. In other words, if Dottie comes in here wearing a dress, you know, or wearing a blue suit, some of you guys got the memo, didn't you? Or a suit. Hey, listen, what I'm saying is that sometimes we pick what those works of righteousness are. Am I right about that? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You've got your list and I've got my list as well. Probably what we ought to do is just submit ourselves the word of God and say that Jesus said, or Paul said, or God said through Paul in the book of Ephesians, as well as other places that there will be works of righteousness manifest when someone truly is born again. Lot is a sorry Christian. Lot is like basically the epitome of the worst Christian. But he's still saved. And God didn't even look, he just said, just law. He said, hey, this guy is just law, he's righteous, you know, we saved him from the city. And like from his lifestyle, you'd be like this guy, the guy who is a grandparent and father the same day, he's from Kentucky, you know, he didn't go to Zorar, you know, he's from Tennessee or something. It's like, no, what kind of righteousness is that? You would look at this guy and say he's righteous. He lives in the most wicked city. He doesn't preach any righteousness. He married his daughter to sodomites. Then he fathered two children and grandfathers at the same time with his own daughters. And he's getting drunk in a cave by himself. Oh, he's such a righteous guy, though. Like, no, this guy is a shut-in, this guy is wicked, but you know what made him righteous is his faith in Jesus Christ. You know what made him righteous? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.