Good morning again. Let's open
this hour's service with the hymn that's on the back of your
bulletin. So let's all stand together. We'll sing the hymn
that's on the back of the bulletin. All things together work for
good, for sinners saved by grace. We know things happen as they
should for all God's chosen race, for all God's chosen race. Our mighty Savior rules above
and nothing can destroy the special people of His love. This fills our hearts with joy. This fills our hearts with joy. What though the world and Satan
too, Against our souls assail, We know the word of God is true,
And Jesus cannot fail, And Jesus cannot fail. Who can a charge
against us place when God has justified? Redeemed and called
by sovereign grace, we shall be glorified. We shall be glorified. who shall condemn to endless
hell when Christ for us has died. Our Savior rose and lives to
tell that God is satisfied, that God is satisfied. Please be seated. Good morning. Could you turn
your Bibles to Exodus 12, Exodus 12 for a call to worship. And as we read this, I pray God
would give us faith once again to look to the blood. I think I heard Red Spurgeon said,
Michael, that even tears of repentance have to be washed in the blood
And that's why we're here this morning. Chapter 12, verse 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This much shall be unto
you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of
the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of the month they shall take
to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers,
a lamb for a house, and if the household be too little for the
lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according
to the number of the souls. Every man according to his eating
shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without
blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from
the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it up until
the 14th day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the
congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they
shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts and
on the upper door posts of the houses wherein they shall eat. And they shall eat the flesh
in that night, roast with fire, and unleaven bread and with bitter
herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden
at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his
legs, and with the pertinence thereof. And you shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning, and that which remain of it until
the morning you shall burn with fire. And thus shall you eat
it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet and your staff
in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's
Passover. For I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the
land of Egypt. That's Egyptians and Israelites.
And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am
the Lord. And the blood shall be to you
for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Including this morning. Shall we pray? Our blessed and merciful Heavenly
Father, we do confess to you this morning that we have no
claims on you no merits, no grant to stand on except the blood, the precious
blood of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness
is our only merit before thee. Lord, we struggle with unbelief.
We even attempt to self-atone. We present to you our filthy
works, our good intentions. Oh, how we pray this morning
that you would give us faith once again to look to the blood,
knowing that when you look to the blood, you are satisfied
in thy dear son. And for us who are in him, there
is no more sins, no more condemnation, no more wrath. Lord, only you
have the authority and the power to forgive sins. May you be pleased
to do that, to the preaching of your gospel, to the lifting
up of thy dear son. Lord, forgive us of our sins,
especially our unbelief. Thankful for your gospel. Thankful
for God gathering us this morning. Thankful for faithful preachers
that you have raised give messages to their heart, Lord, to preach
to us through them. May you be pleased now to bless
Michael as he comes and lifts up Christ. We are dependent upon
your Holy Spirit now to give us ears to hear and eyes to see.
Oh, Lord, we do want to believe and we do believe. Help our unbelief. For we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 169 in the hardback temple, 169. Holy Spirit, faithful guide,
Ever near the Christian side, Gently lead us by the hand, Pilgrims
in a desert land. Weary souls for air rejoice,
while they hear that sweetest voice, whispering softly, Wanderer,
come, follow me, I'll guide thee home. Ever present, truest friend,
Ever near thine aid to lend, Leave us not to doubt and fear,
Groping on in darkness drear. When the storms are raging sore,
hearts grow faint and hopes give o'er, whisper softly, wanderer,
come, follow me, I'll guide thee home. When our days of toil shall
cease, Waiting still for sweet release, Nothing left but heaven
and prayer, Knowing that our names are there. Wading deep the dismal flood,
pleading not but Jesus' blood, whisper softly, wanderer, come,
follow me, I'll guide thee home. Please be seated. The Bible's so big, you can't
get it in there. I keep thinking, Brother Greg,
one of the things he does that I'm so thankful for is usually
when he's going to be gone, he gives you plenty of notice. But
I'll tell you, it doesn't matter how much notice he gives. Each
day is a struggle, and as you get closer to that day, the burden
becomes heavier and heavier. I only pray this morning that
God would speak to us and that He would be glorified. Turn with
me in your Bibles please to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4. A few years back I received a phone call one Sunday
afternoon from a young man, and he says, Michael, I'd like your
advice on a matter. I tried to steer him to someone
else, but he says, no, I think you probably know what I'm struggling
with better than most. I said, well, I'll try to help
you. He said, I have been asked by a group of people that don't
have a gospel preacher to come and preach for them. He said,
I've never done it before. And I've been praying and I've
been studying and I am very, very worried. He said, how do
I know that the message that I believe God has given me is
from God and not from me. I said, well, welcome to gospel
preaching. I've never stood behind this
pulpit that as soon as I knew I was going to, that Lord, please
give me a message. Lord, if you don't speak, it's
a vain. If I speak, Lord, I always pray,
God, please shut my mouth. I said, just a few seconds before
walking here this morning, Lord, if this is not from you, please
don't let me speak. I said, well, you're going to
learn something about pleading with God. I said, I don't know
if I can give you some things that I've learned. I said, one
of them is don't ever take somebody else's message and try to make
it yours. I said, you may hear a gospel
sermon that you said, boy, that was unbelievable. Everybody needs
to hear that sermon and I'll just take that sermon and put
it in my own words and preach it. I said, God will never bless
it. Gospel preaching is what God's
dealing with you on. The message I'm gonna try to
give this morning is what God's piercing my heart about. And
I hope it's what he once said. I said, uh, he asked, well, how
do you come up with a sermon? I said, well, you plead with
God. I can tell you that right now. And, uh, you study his word
and sometimes he's pleased to reveal something of himself that
you never seen before. I said, other times it's, uh,
I've either hear something in a sermon or I hear something.
The people that I worship with say, and I think, wow, that's
a powerful saying. There's something there. I said,
but unless God gives you something, it won't be blessed. I have to
confess this morning that the sermon that God gave me, I was
reading a sermon by a man that I admire greatly. I
was reading a sermon by Brother Henry Mahan, and I read the first
two or three paragraphs, and I stopped. Because I knew right
then, that's the subject that God wants me to talk about. And
I said, I couldn't get it out of my mind. You know how you
get something out of your mind, it just keeps coming up, even
when you're not consciously thinking it comes up. And God was pleased
to give me things about that subject more and more. And next
thing you know, I felt like, well, here's a sermon. And then I struggled for many,
many weeks of what the title was to be. I've already got the
subject from Brother Henry and I couldn't, I kept coming back.
I said, you know, I realized right then God had given Brother
Henry a gift he hasn't given me. That was the ability he could
say a whole lot of importance and magnitude in just a few words.
I can't do that. And God had blessed him with
the ability to do that. And I said, well, Lord, I can't
come up with a better sermon, a better title. So I'm telling
you, I stole the title from Brother Henry and I got the subject from
Brother Henry, but I'm not going to preach his sermon because
I have no idea what he preached on. Matter of fact, the scriptures
I'm going to use are completely different than what I had in
the title. And the title of the sermon this morning is, The Difference. The Difference. In his word,
God has shown us that there are only two groups of people in
this world. That's it, just two. And every
descendant of Adam and Eve falls into one of those two groups.
He calls one of the groups wheat, and he calls the other group
tares. He calls one of the groups sick
who need a physician, and he calls the other well who need
no physician. He calls one of the groups children
of light, and he calls the other group children of darkness. He
calls one of the groups sheep, and he calls the other group
goats. He calls one of the groups children of God. And he calls
the other group children of the devil. We refer to them as believers
and unbelievers. And God has said in his word,
he will put a difference between those two groups of people. There's
going to be a difference between them. They look the same, they
act the same. If we lined them up in the wall,
you wouldn't be able to tell it, but God says there's going
to be a difference between those two people. And that's what I
hope the Lord allows me to speak on this morning, that difference,
that difference. And we want to start right here,
chapter four and start verse seven. Now, Paul has come to
Corinth. He has preached the gospel of
God's grace in Christ, and God has been pleased to give certain
people, certain people. I'm trying to put that in my
vocabulary, because that's the word of God. God kept saying,
a certain day, a certain man, a certain place. God put, give
a certain people out of all these Corinthians, the faith to repent
and believe. And they were different than
all the other Corinthians. And as time went on, they began
to realize, you know, we're different than those folks. We believe
different things than they believe. And as man naturally does, they
began to feel pretty good about themselves. They began to boast
of their difference. And Paul comes behind them in
verse seven, and he has to correct them and chase them. And here's
what he says in seven, he tells these believers, these are believers,
for who, who maketh thee to differ from another? He didn't ask what
the difference is, he said, who made you to differ? Someone made
you to differ and it wasn't me. And the rest of scripture, the
Lord says, the Lord made them to differ. God made them to differ. You see where God says He put
a division between the sheep and the goats. And He's telling
these believers the only reason you're different is because God
put a difference in you. If God hadn't come along and
left you to yourselves, you'd have been just like the rest
of the goats. But God put a difference in you. And then He tells them,
What hast thou that thou didst not receive? This difference
between you, it's not something that came from you. It's something
God had to give you. He had to give you the faith
to repent and believe. He had to change your mind about
who God was, who Christ was, who salvation was, who you were. And then he had to give you the
faith to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't boast. These are
not things that came from you. These are things you receive
from God. god called the difference and
god had to give you the things that made you different and when god does that you'll
be different you'll be different the whole time turn with me please
to matthew chapter ten so we now know that this difference
it is caused by god and it is given by god Now, how does this difference
come about? Well, let's start at verse 34.
The Lord Jesus Christ is telling his disciple, think not that
I am come to send peace on earth. His disciples and the Jews all
believed that when the Messiah would come, that he would establish
an earthly kingdom and the Messiah and his people would rule and
they would have a life of peace. They'd rule over the world. They
would be the rulers. They would have a life of peace
and comfort and ease. The Lord says, that's not what
I've came for. I come to bring a peace, but
not a worldly peace, I've come to bring you peace with God. You've come into this world and
you're enemies of God. Everything you think about God
and salvation and Christ and yourself is wrong. It's wrong. And I'm going to change your
thinking. I have to come and change it. He said, I've come
to bring peace on earth. I come not to send peace, but
I came to bring a sword, a sword. Now the soldier had two pieces
of weaponry. He had a shield and he had a
sword. The shield was to protect from
arrows and other people's swords and it was a defensive weapon.
But the sword was an offensive weapon. And when the soldier
swung that sword, that sword would cut and separate the victim
on who he swung it against. You remember when David, when
he slung Goliath, he fought, he knocked him out with a rock.
And then what did he do? He took what? Goliath's sword. And what did he do? He severed
his head. He cut his head off. He separated
his head from his body. He cut and separated Goliath's
head from his body. Everywhere in the word of God,
When you see this term sword, it's a two-edged sword. There's
the sword of the gospel of God's grace in Christ and the sword
of his spirit. And Christ says, I came to bring
the sword of the gospel and the sword of the spirit. When God
brings those two swords, he will cut and separate his people out
from the rest of the humankind. He is separating the sheep from
the goats. Now, sometimes just the sword
of the gospel, that doesn't cut and separate alone. You must
have both the gospel and God's spirit, because there's people
that'll hear the gospel and they'll walk away from here no differently,
will they? But when he sends the double-edged
sword of the gospel and the spirit, he's gonna cut out his people.
Now, most of us have not been farmers. I've been around a lot
of farmers. And you know what they mean, Robert? You mean when
they cut livestock? I've been around and they'd have
a hundred cows out there and the farmer said, I want that
one, that one, that one. And you would go in there and
you move till those three are separated from the rest of the
cows. That's what this term cutting means. But the Lord says, I come
to bring a sword. And when I bring this gospel
and I send my spirit going to cut out the sheep from the goats,
and when it does there is going to be a difference in them. And
it is going to have consequences. Look at verse 35, For I come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. The people that know you the
best and you know the best. The people that love you the
most and you love the most. I'm going to put a difference
between you. I'm going to put a difference
between you. And look at 36. And a man's foes shall be they
of their own household. The greatest enemy to the believer. are going to be those of his
family, the closest ones to him. They're going to be our greatest
enemy. When God cuts us and separates us out, it's going to be those
people who are going to be our greatest enemy and attack us.
If you're a believer, you know what I'm talking about, don't
you? I come from a very religious
family. I didn't say believers, I said
religious. And they often in other states, so I don't see
them very often, but when you do get there, sooner or later,
one of them's going to come up and tell me, because they know
Diane and I go to church, they're going to come and tell me all
the wonderful things they're doing for God. Well, we're tithing. You know,
we tithe more than 10%. Boy, and since we have, look,
God has really blessed us. We never dreamed we'd have this
much material wealth. We teach Sunday school. We give
to the poor. I counsel pregnant women. I do
this. You know, they didn't even have
a bus ministry before we got there, and we drive the bus and
drag these little kids in the church. And the only reason I
can figure they tell me that is they want to hear me say,
Oh, you sure are a good gift to God. God sure is lucky to
have you. You're doing wonderful things.
You are definitely a super Christian. But if God's brought the sword
of the gospel and the spirit to you, you can't say that, can
you? I remember what I say to them
usually is, eventually they'll get around to asking me, what
are you doing good in your church, Michael? And I'll tell them,
I'll say, well, I've never done anything for
God. God's had to do everything for me. And they'll look at me like I've
got three heads. What did you just say? I've never
done anything good for God. He's had to do everything for
me. I said, you see in me, there's no good thing. My flesh, there's
no good thing. I am nothing but sin. And they
know right now that you're saying something different, don't they?
Well, they usually don't want to talk about it anymore, so
they'll use what I call the rancher term, we'll just gather the troops
all together. Well, we may have some differences,
but we're all children of God and we're all going to heaven.
That's what's important. Round them up, join us mentality.
You understand what I'm saying? Come join us. Sometimes they'll try to smooth
it over and they'll say, well, won't you just come go to church
with us? No, no, I'm sorry. I can't. Well, you're going to be, yeah,
I'm going to be here, but I can't go to church with you. Well,
how come? God gives you the ability. Your
God's not my God. Your Christ is not my Christ.
And that idea of joining us turns 180 degrees. Bert, are you saying I'm not
saved? Is that what you're telling me? Are you saying that I'm not
saved? Whoa, whoa, only God knows who's
saved. Well, you think you're the only one that knows the gospel.
No, no, no, I'm not saying that. I know there's people in Lexington,
Kentucky that know the gospel. There's people in New Jersey
that know the gospel. I said, there's people in Australia
that know the gospel. There's people in Mexico that
know the gospel. There's people all over this
world that know the gospel. But what I am saying and what
God has said, compared to all of humanity, it's only a remnant. It's only a small group of people. By then, they don't want to talk
to you anymore, do they? God's put a difference in us.
And then, usually after that, it goes to anger. Anger. I had this happen to me. I grew up hearing the gospel.
I didn't say I believed it, I heard it. I knew some truths, young
people, but I didn't know the truth. I wasn't saved. I knew some truth, but I was
as lost as could be. But parents, I encourage you.
I heard some things as a four and five year old that stayed
with me all my life. And as that time went on, one
day, many years later, the Lord start piercing my heart. I knew
I had no relationship with God. And Diane said, just pick some
place that believes what you believe and we'll go. And boy,
that's very discouraging, I can tell you. We'd go to this church
and we'd say, we ain't ever going back there again. We'd go to
this church. Finally, after about four or five churches, we stumbled
on one, the first church that even talked about sin. I only
found some place that's going to tell me I'm a sinner. And
we began going and it was law, law, law, law is a fundamentalist
Baptist church. And I remember, you know, at
the end there was always, well, we told you you're sinners, but
you can make it right right now. You can walk down this aisle.
It didn't long, You know, see that didn't match what I heard
when I was four or five years old. I said, well, we can't remain. So I thought I'd do the decent
thing. And I'd go in and tell the so-called,
and I'm using this term nicely, pastor, that we would not be
coming back. And he said, well, how come?
I said, because I believe that salvation's by the will of God
and not the will of man. And I'll never forget it. He'd
been a preacher for 40-something years. He looked me straight
in the eye and he said to me, Michael, you are leading your
family and you down a dangerous, dangerous path. In fact, you
are leading you and your family to the pit of hell. He tried to intimidate me. Join in the group, you see what
I'm saying? But I couldn't do it. I kept going. I said, well, whenever
God puts a difference in you and you deal with your loved
ones, they're going to do all three of those things. They're
going to try to get you to join them. They're going to try to
tell you that you're the only one, you're arrogant and the
only one knows the gospel. And they're going to tell you that
you're doing harm to the name of God. You're bringing division
in the church and you're going to go to hell for it. That's
going to come if you do a difference. But God has, He has put a difference
in us. He's put a difference in us.
I told you I got the subject from Brother Henry. And I'd kind
of like to walk you through that because I tell you, it blessed
me. I hope it would bless you. Brother Henry had been off preaching
during the week for some of you that know him. And he had come
back on a Friday night, and he got home, and his wife Doris
had fixed supper. And this has happened to the
Etheridge household many times. When one of us traveled, they
sat down, and Brother Henry said, anything interesting happen while
I was gone? And his wife said, well, yes. Something very, very interesting
happened last night. Now, mind you, this was about
40, 50 years ago. He said, oh, well, what happened? His wife
said, well, I came home last night and I turned on the TV
and there was Billy Graham preaching from Russia. And she said, he
is a powerful, a powerful and a very eloquent preacher. Said that crowd was tens of thousands
of people and they were sitting on the edge of their seats listening
every word he said. He said, it was powerful. And
behind him on the stage were these other famous Baptist preachers
and there was these movie stars and these athletes and all these
Russian important people and there was a whole group of priests,
Russian priests, they were on the stage with Billy Graham. And Brother Henry, she said,
I tell you, I couldn't turn it off. and said he was telling
them how he and these other preachers have toured Russia and how God
had led thousands upon ten thousands of people from their preaching
to accept Jesus Christ as Savior. Said it was, it was powerful.
Brother Henry said, well, what did he preach? She said, well,
that was interesting. He preached a lot of the same
things you do. He talked about God and about holiness, about
sin, about Christ and about the blood of Christ. He used some
of the same terms we use. Brother Henry said, I knew right
then we had to have a conversation about the difference. About the
difference. He said, you know, Today, the technology has changed. This is back when, he said, television
has grown. Today, the internet. And he said,
if it weren't for television and the internet, people wouldn't
even know who Billy Graham is. So they wouldn't have known who
Jerry Falwell is. They wouldn't know who Jimmy
Swaggart is. They wouldn't know about Benny Hinn or Joel Osteen
or T.J. He said, nobody even know who
they are. But with television today, people know. And he said,
there are literally They become very powerful and very popular. And he said, you know, they have
some of them even millions of so-called followers. And I thought
to myself right then, I said, he's told the truth. The problem
is they're following those men and not following Christ. But
they're very popular and very powerful. And he said, now, take
Billy Graham. Billy Graham, he is dead, but
here was a man who believed that the Bible was the inerrant Word
of God. It was without error. And all
those sinful men wrote it, all they did, they didn't interpret,
they just wrote down word for word what God said like a court
stenographer. And he would be considered a
conservative Southern Baptist. Okay? And he's on the stage with
these priests. He said, these priests didn't
wear the same clothes as everybody else, did they? Well, she said,
well, no. Said they had on long robes and
heavy chains with Christ on it and crucifix. They had a staff
probably with a Christ on the cross with it. Said outside they
had a big pointy hat. He said, these clothes, just
like with the Jews, these clothes mean something. You remember
the Pharisees? They had different clothes than
the other Jews. They had blue borders and tassels. He said,
these clothes identified these men to the people as a man of
God. And they are to be heard and
they are to be believed. And here's Billy Graham on the
stage with them, joining hands for the so-called name of Christ. He said, here's these men, and
this is true if you've ever been around Roman Catholic, you know
it's true. Here's these men that they believe
there's four people in the Godhead. There's God the Father, Christ
the Son, God the Spirit, and Mary. And Mary is on equal footing
with the other three. She has no sin, and you can pray
to Mary for the salvation of your soul. here's these men that says you
know this is appealing especially you can bring your little baby
to me and we can put it and we can say some words on it and
I'll sprinkle some water over it and you can leave there knowing
that your child by this baptism has been put into the family
of God and when it dies it's going to heaven and men who wear the clothes
like these men they can tell people that God has given them
the power and the authority to forgive sin. Am I right, Wayne? You can go to that priest, and
that priest can forgive your sins. And here they are on the
stage with Billy Graham. Now, do they both believe the
same thing? No, they have a great difference, don't they? But here's
Billy Graham, who I quote him from the Huntington paper, who
called Pope John when he died, The world has lost one of its
greatest spiritual leaders. A man who marched in the parade
of the Cardinal in New York saying God has lost one of its great
men. And he's joining forces with these Catholic priests.
How can you do that? Well, the only way it can be
is there's something something that unites those two groups
of people, some belief that they have that is so strong that allows
them to put aside their differences. Brother Henry said, I've seen
it in Ashland. I know some of you, and I know Don, you've been
to Ashland, a lot of you. He said, one night I turned on
the TV and there's these group of preachers all holding hands
around in a circle. praying that God would give them
the money and the ability to buy this television station and
convert it to a 24-7 religious station. He said there was a
Methodist preacher, a Presbyterian preacher, Church of God preacher,
Pentecostal preacher, all the flavors of Baptist preachers,
they're all on the stage holding hands. He said, did they have differences?
Yes, but there's something that unites them. that lets them put
aside their differences, says what this core belief we have
is so great that we'll put aside our difference and we can join
together. Well, what is the difference? Here's the difference core belief
that they have from the word of one of their own. This is
from the tongue of Jimmy Swackert. And here's what he said, free
will is your passport to salvation. Free will is the foundation of
salvation. Salvation, listen, here's what
it is. This is what unites them all
together. Salvation is the will of man and not of God. That's the core belief that holds
all of these groups. That's what let Billy Graham
join these Catholics. They all believe that salvation
is by the will of man and not the will of God. And that belief
is so strong that it pollutes everything they believe about
Christ and about salvation. Brethren, if God's ever brought
to you the sword of the gospel and the sword of his spirit,
You know right then, you can't join them, can you? I can't join
them. God has taught me that salvation's
by the will of God. I'm hanging my very soul on the
fact that salvation's by the will of God. That's my only comfort. The fact that salvation's by
the will of God, it's my justification, it's my sanctification, it's
everything to me. And to join them? I'm going to
have to deny that that's true. That's the only thing I'm hanging
my soul on that, that I've been saved by the will of God and
not my will. We can't join them. Brother Henry
said, I can't join them. He said, I, if he, he said, Billy
Graham come to Ashland, Kentucky, I wouldn't go. And I couldn't
go. And I'd encourage our people not to go. Because I can't be
on that scene because I know that salvation is by the will
of God and not the free will of man. But every flavor, every
flavor of religion, I call it goat religion, is that salvation
is by the free will of man. And the only thing that differs
is what man does. And it's true about, you can
take your pick, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Scientology, Baptist, it
doesn't matter. They all behold to the truth
that they believe is true, and we know it's a lie, that salvation
is by the will of man. Well, we know it's different,
and I want us to look now, when did God put this difference in
us? When did he put this difference in us? And it starts in the covenant
of grace. When, you know, I thought about
this, in the covenant of grace, when God, a covenant's a promise,
God made a promise to God. Now, you want something you can
put your life on when God promises God? When God the Father determined
out of His own goodwill and pleasure that He was going to save a certain
people, not because of anything in them, but out of His will
and pleasure. And He took those certain people and He gave them
to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ made a promise to
God that He would do everything necessary for the salvation of
their souls. And He put those people, what
did He do with them? He put them in Christ. God's Word says He put them in
Christ before the foundations of the world. Robert, you preached
this. What does that mean? That means
everything the Lord Jesus Christ done, those people did also. Everything. He put them in Christ
and God the Spirit promised God that at the appointed time, He
would come to those certain people and He would give them the faith
to repent and believe. And there's no mention of Mary
anywhere in that covenant of grace. Now you think about these free
will salvation people, how strong is that belief? Well, you sit
down with them sometime and if you have, you'll sell this. Well,
you know, it says here, God chose the people. It says here, God
elected a people. Well, yeah, let me tell you how
that happens. This is what they do. They said,
you know, God's all-powerful and all-knowing. God looked forward
through the avenues of time, and he looked and he saw which
ones were gonna believe, and the ones that were gonna believe,
that's who I'm gonna choose. That's how free will has polluted
their thinking. And everything to believe has
been polluted by this idea that salvation's by the free will
of God. Everything they believe, Now
how foolish is that? See, they can't let it go, because
God hasn't given them repentance and faith. And they'll be a goat
unless God intervenes till the day they die. God made a difference in us in
the covenant of grace. Turn with me, please, to Exodus
chapter 11, verse 7. There's a time, this passage
talks about the children of Israel when they're
brought out of Egypt. And that is a historical fact.
But if that's all you see this for, then this Bible is nothing
more than a history book. And you can put it with the other
history books on the shelf. It's no value to your soul. But
that's not what it is. God said this is a book of Christ.
and how he saved sinners. That's what this story is about.
Verse 11 and 7, it says, But against any of the children of
Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast,
that you may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. Egypt is always a picture of
God's law. Always a picture of God's law.
and the Israel here is not the nation of Israel, because Paul
tells us, though they be of the grains of sand, the people in
the nation of Israel, only a remnant of Israel is going to be saved.
Most of Israel died and went to hell. The Lord's telling him
God's going to put a difference between the law and his people. This is spiritual Israel. I'm
going to put a difference between the law and my people that I
have given, the certain people that I have given Christ. And
that difference is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's put the difference. It's Christ in us. He's put a
difference between us, and now the law has nothing to do with
me. It's been satisfied. Christ in Christ. There's now
no condemnation. God put a difference in us in
Calvary. When the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became
sin. He took on the sin of those certain
people that God had given him. And he took on the wrath and
justice of God. And it was satisfied. And when
he did that, guess who else did it? Those who were in Christ. God put a difference in us in
the ascension. Now I've always felt I was kind
of warped because I tell you, when I looked across I see what
God thinks about sin. And I know He's not going to
let a single sin go unpunished. For somebody who's nothing but
sin, I need a substitute. But I see Christ to take on the
sin. But the ascension, I see right then that God is
satisfied with the work of Christ. That's a great hope to me. The
Lord Jesus Christ He satisfied the work of the course. He satisfied
God's holiness. And God brought him back. He
said he rose to be seated at the right hand of God the Father. And I hope I can explain this,
but I will see. When the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he rose from that tomb and he went back in the glory, he took
something with him, didn't he? Didn't he? He took something
with him. It says in his word that he took
something written on his breastplate. That's his armor. Now I want you to think. What
do you think that said on that armor? Do you think it said the
church? Is that what it said? No. It said he took with him
the names. of every one of those certain
people who God gave him. And that makes up the church.
What I want you to see, don't you know, I can only speak for
me here, if I were to see that breastplate, what do you think
the first thing I'm looking for? Whew, where's Michael Etheridge?
Man, I'm, you know, that's our nature, isn't it? But that's
what the breastplate, it says. It says the names, each of the
names of the people. What I'm trying to impress upon
you is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was for these people individually. If there had been just one name,
Brian Olson, on that breastplate, nothing would have been different.
Christ would have still had to come. There still had to be the
covenant of grace. There still had to be a crucifixion.
There still had to be an ascension. You see that. But it was a personal
salvation. It's a personal salvation. God put a difference in us. When he sent, and I talk about
this when, when he sent a John the Baptist to you. Has God sent John the Baptist
to you? Do you know what I'm talking about? Matt and Luke both said there
was none greater than John on the face of the earth, the gospel
preacher. When God sent to you a gospel
preacher and he brought the sword of the gospel to you and God
was pleased to send his sword of his spirit to you and give
you the faith to repent and to believe. He put a difference in you, didn't
he? He put a difference in you. I say this to our young people.
It is a great blessing to be with the Gospels preached, but
that's not salvation. Salvation is when the sword of
the Gospel comes with the sword of the Spirit. don't confuse
the fact you know some truth that none of these preachers
on TV know. You know some truth that the
president of these Bible colleges don't know about God and salvation.
But that won't save your soul. You have to know the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ. When John
the Baptist comes to you and preaches the gospel and the faith
is sent to you and you believe it's a person's salvation. You
can sit in this church for years, but unless a sort of spirit comes
with it, it's just more condemnation. Sort of spirit for years. I hope this is not wrong. I only
got one more point, but I told this Wednesday night, so I ask
forgiveness for the people here Wednesday night to have to hear
this all over again. I told you, I don't know of another
man that I know that's been more faithful to the preaching of
the gospel and more compassionate than Brother Henry Mayhem. Been used very mightily. Some
of what he's done, his offsprings affected all the people in this
room. A lot of people don't know this, but Brother Henry started
out as an associate pastor Now, I'm saying this, you stop me
if I think this is right, this way or, I remember Brother Henry
telling it, associate pastor in a large Baptist church in
Ashton, Kentucky. And it was a traditional, free
will, Southern Baptist church. And they loved Brother Henry
and he loved them. And I don't mean this literally,
but as the saying goes, they were all fat, dumb, and happy.
They were in religion up to their eyeballs. Brother Henry said
every year they'd have a revival. And he said it's more like a
county fair or carnival than it was a church meeting. They'd
have balloon rides and horse rides and tents here and all
those things. They was trying to draw people
in. If they could just get them in the building, they could win
some for Jesus. Isn't that what they like to
say? They could win some. Well, this year, Brother Henry
said he was in charge of getting the preacher for the revival.
And he said about two weeks before it was to start, the senior pastor
said, Brother Henry, who'd you get to preach this year? Brother
Henry said, I panicked. I had forgot. I got on that phone. He said, I called a friend of
mine who was president of a Bible college. And I said, Dr. Charlie,
you got to help me. We got revival in two weeks and
I forgot to get a pastor. Can you get somebody that would
come and preach and preach for the whole week? You think you'd
get somebody to come and preach for us? And the man said, well,
he said, you know, we've got a man that teaches in this school
and he's a great preacher. He said, would you ask him to
come? He said, I'll ask him. And he did, and the man agreed
to come. Henry said, I knew his name, but I knew nothing about
him. Nobody in that church knew nothing about him. And the church
was packed. It was packed. And that, you
know, I don't know, but 13th Street with Pollard was a big
Baptist church. It was probably the biggest in Ashton, I don't
know. So the man came, and Brother
Henry said, I was sitting up front there. He said, and the
senior pastor introduced him, he said, he hadn't been there
30 seconds, and I knew something was different already. Because
he said, he didn't, how you doing, glad to be here, none of that
stuff. He said, open your Bibles, and he began to preach. Brother
Henry said every word he preached pierced my heart deeper and deeper
and deeper. This man was telling me that
salvation was by the will of God and not the free will of
man. He kept saying, Wayne, you know,
God-willed, God-purposed, God-ordained. Brother Henry said, he just dart
after dart after dart. He said, but while he was preaching,
he said, there was people that got so mad. He said, I'm up front,
didn't notice. They got so mad, they got up
and left in the middle of the preaching. But he didn't stop. He said, he just kept going.
Brother Henry said, he preached for about an hour. And he said,
he sat down and he said, they said prayer. And he said, it
took me five minutes to get to my study. Because he said, I
had to know right now if what that man was preaching was true,
I've not been preaching the gospel. In fact, I'm not even saved. And he said, in an hour and five
minutes, by the time he started, by the time I got my study, when
I opened my Bible, God had rewrote my Bible. He said, it wasn't a verse here
and a verse here, a verse, it was everywhere. God-willed, God-ordained,
God-purposed. Brother Henson said, it pierced
my heart. First time he said, I ever heard the gospel. Said,
I've been a preacher for years. Well, whenever the gospel comes,
when that sort of the gospel comes and the gospel spirit comes,
it's gonna cut and separate. And sure enough, right after
he got done, Most of the men in the church met in the big
hall, and he said, it was a ruckus, because the goats were fighting
the sheep. There were most goats, and he
said, they said, this man is not to speak another word. Send
him packing this afternoon. We're not going to have him standing
up here bringing division in the church. And there was some
sheep said, this man was preaching the truth. He was preaching from
God. And he said, they argued back
and forth, back and forth, what to do. Henry said, I came in
there, he said, after, I said, I don't know, hour, hour, two
hours of arguing. He said, and it was heated arguing.
He said, one of the most respected men in the church stood up. Everybody
respected him. And this is what he said. He said, gentlemen, John the
Baptist has come to Ashland, Kentucky, And Ashland, Kentucky
will never be the same. And he is right. If John the
Baptist, the gospel preacher, ever comes to you and preaches
Christ and God sends his spirit to you to give you the faith
to believe it, I'm telling you right now, your life will never,
ever be the same. And thank God it's that way.
And your enemies will be those of your own household. The people
who you love and love you the most. That's why I can't, they
can't go by. I plead with God for my loved
one. Oh God, send a John the Baptist to them. Lord, I know
you're able to save them. I pray that you'd be willing.
You're the only one. They're lost and they don't even
know it. John the Baptist come to you
if he does there'll be a difference in your life my last point sorry
for taking so long God puts a difference in us in death in death I always feel bad I had some
health issues a few years back so I got more I got more doctors
than you got fingers And when you go, and they mean
well, I'm thankful for them, don't get me wrong, but they,
Michael, I mean one of them told me, I don't know why you're coming
to me. You know what to do and you don't do it. I've told you,
I don't know why you even come. And sometimes they'll come and
they'll try to pull this trick and they'll look at you and say,
if you don't start doing what I say, you know you're gonna
die? And I don't mean to aggravate
them, but when they tell me that, they kind of look at me because
it just brings a big old smile to your face. Yeah, I know that. I know I'm gonna die. If God put a difference in you,
there's no fear of death, is there? No fear of death. In fact, we understand what Paul
says, to live is Christ and to die is gain. You can tell me
all day, well you're gonna die. Yeah. Sooner the better as far
as I'm concerned. I'll die in God's time, I know
that, but what believer hadn't said, Lord, come and take me.
I'm ready. Please, I'm ready to go. We've
had some brothers and sisters in this church that we know that
they faced death. Some of them have been very painful
deaths. One of the great encouragements
we have, God put a difference in them. It was hard on us watching them,
wasn't it? But they had no fear of death. No fear of death. Come Jesus,
I'm ready. They anticipated the coming of
Christ. God puts a difference in you.
That's what I get up in Well, Lord, I pray, Lord, you brought
me forward another day. I'm thankful for that. I pray
you'll restrain the evil of this wicked heart and I pray you'll
cause me to rest in you and save me. But Lord, if you come today,
it'll be the best day of my life. I'm ready to go. Question we often have is, has
God put a difference in you? If He sent the gospel to you
and He's given you the faith to believe it, I promise you,
your life will never be the same. And we know that we can't join
the goats, can we? We pray for them, we plead to
God that He might send them, but we can't join them. Because
to join them, I'm going to have to deny that difference to the
detriment of my soul. The detriment of my soul. Lord,
keep me. Keep me all the way. And I know
he will at the end. Tom, would you? Number 39. Let's say number 39 in our spiral.
Number 39. Let's all stand. ? Wretched, lost, condemned, and
dying ? Guilty, I deserve God's wrath ? Long I fought against
my match meant I was courting death. But the blood of Christ had bought
me. He refused to let me die. This poor sinner, loved by Jesus,
must be conquered by and by. ? At the time which was predestined
? ? In the covenant of God's grace ? ? God in mercy sent his
spirit ? ? Blessed time of love and grace ? ? To reveal his son's
great merit ? as the sinner's substitute. I saw Jesus bleeding, dying,
suffering as my substitute. Precious blood for sin's atonement,
justice could not ask for more. I heard Christ cry, it is finished,
and I could resist no more. Thanks to God for intervening. Grace that broke my stubborn
will. Grace that would not let me perish. Grace that rescued me from hell. Sovereign grace, I will proclaim
it Irresistible and free Grace that chose me and redeemed me
God, by grace alone, saved me Sinner, now you've heard my story. Now I bid you trust my God. Christ, my all-sufficient Savior,
saves poor sinners by his blood. Amen.