I'm about as coordinated as a
sack full of live pigs. I want to express my love and
my appreciation for this church, echoing the words of Brother
Gabe and Brother Eric as well. for all of you that have contributed
so much, so much to have these conferences. I know a little
bit about the labor that's involved and the expense as well. And
so from Judy and myself, we do appreciate all of you for working
so hard for the glory of our Lord and having these special
meetings. I cannot even begin to tell you
how blessed I've been Friday, Saturday, and already that message
just almost caused me to shout. And I sometimes, and I don't
know if this is right or not, I don't think it is, but I ask
myself, you really think you're a child of God? Then I hear something
like what we just heard, and my heart just swells within me,
and I rejoice in Christ. And who can doubt what God has
done when He causes the heart to be filled with praise to our
wonderful Savior for His grace and His mercy through Christ
our King. So thank you for allowing me
to be here. and pray for us as we travel
back home and pray for David Edmondson and all of God's preachers
and all of God's saints wherever they gather that we all together
may look forward to that day when faith will give way to sight
and we'll be in the presence of the King of Kings for all
eternity. Now I want to confess something
and apologize if it offends you I was planning on preaching on
the subject of God's distinguishing grace this morning, but Brother
Marvin Stoniker stole my text yesterday. And I thought, well, I'll go
ahead and preach that anyway. Then I heard last night, if the
first preacher steals your text, that's your problem. And I tossed
and turned last night thinking, what am I going to bring? And I thought about a message that
I preached at Crossville last Sunday. So some of you who are
here who heard this message, I pray that it'll be a blessing
to you again. But I can never preach the same
message twice in the same way. And I left my notes back in Evansville,
which is not smart. I've been preaching long enough
to know to take some extra notes. So I thought, well, I'll bring that
message anyway. I've got a photographic memory,
but I lost my film. I ran out of film for those things
that I should retain. So turn with me, if you will,
please, to 2 Peter 3. Brother Gabe and I were talking
about this passage of scripture last night, and it kind of helped
confirm to me that this would be what the Lord would have me
to bring this morning. Now, I don't know if you've ever
heard this before, and it's not original with me, but let me
share it with you to help us understand the importance of
preaching the gospel and exposing that which is not the gospel.
If you take a white cloth and put it up on a backdrop of a
white wall, it's still white, but it doesn't show up quite
as well as if you put that white cloth up on a background of black,
that cloth will shine brighter. So if we take the truth and present
it up against the backdrop of air, that which is false, it
shines a lot brighter. Universal atonement is a lie
right out of the pit. Those who are preaching that
make the cross of Christ meaningless They trample underfoot the blood
of our Savior and count it as an unholy thing, which means
a common thing. And it's not. Our Lord Jesus saved His people
by the supreme sacrifice of Himself. And if you're believing that
He died for everybody, then He can't be your Savior. Now, I
know these people who are teaching that are blind spiritually, but
you would think that they would use a little reasoning, that
they would use a little logic, at least in their false way of
believing, when they come to the scriptures that clearly teach
that they're wrong. But they're so blind, they'll
twist the scriptures to their own destruction and justify what
they believe by saying the end justifies the means. That is
not true. Jesus Christ is not your savior
if you don't believe he saved you. Now that's logic, and I
know logic can't enter into the miracle of the new birth, but
still you would think that those who are committing their eternal
soul to something that they have done would make sure that that's
correct. Our trust is in Christ and only
in Christ. And here in second Peter chapter
three, there's a passage of scripture that the wicked just twist to
their own destruction. It's in verse nine. And I've
had them tell me in arguing with me about the grace of God, saying,
well, the Bible says God is not willing that any should perish.
Those are a few words out of the ninth verse. And what Peter
is talking about is the promise of our Lord's return. teaching
that there would be scoffers and mockers in the last day saying
whereas his promise all things are continuing as they were and
that's not true. God destroyed this world once
with a flood. Now he's promised not to do that
again, not with water, but he's coming in flaming fire taking
vengeance on those who know not God and obey not his gospel.
and peter is talking about the lord not being slack concerning
his promise as some in count slackness but as long suffering
to us word us word not willing that any should perish and down
in verse 15 peter talks about the writings of the apostle paul
and says that he has written Account that the long-suffering
of our Lord is salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also
according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you
So the Lord is coming back But not until all of those for whom
he died is safely in the fold and he's using preachers and
his gospel as Instruments to get the job done We have the
honor of presenting the truth before people, but only God can
deal with the heart. And when he does, his enlightened
saints will not settle for anything but that which gives our wonderful
God all the praise and all the glory. So let me turn you to
Romans chapter eight. And I did this over in Crossville,
just took some passages of scripture to show who Peter was talking
to when he used the word us-word. He's talking to God's elect.
He mentioned that in his first epistle. He's talking to those
who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
talking to those that God himself purposed to save through the
merits of Christ our Savior. We read in 2 Timothy 1 9 that
God has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now I
delight in that because God has revealed to me that I'm one of
his elect. There was a person that told
one of the members of our church who was witnessing to this man.
He said, well, no one of you guys are so happy. You're one
of the chosen. Those are his words. How can you not be happy if you're
in that group that God himself assures us of? that nothing can
be laid to our charge. So here in Romans eight, we have
some scripture that clearly points to the word us word or us as
being God's elect. We know it says in verse 28 that
all things work together for good to them that love God to
them who are the called according to his purpose, his purpose,
what God has purposed He is able also to perform. Who's going
to stop Him? Who's going to stop God from
doing what He has purposed? All of the evil forces of darkness
and all of humanity put together cannot thwart God's purpose one
iota. He's going to make sure. God
Himself has all power, and by His power He executes all things
that He determined before time began for His honor and for His
glory. And if all things were working
together for our good by God Himself, then He wouldn't be
God. Look at verse 29 down through
31. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? What shall we say to those wonderful
gospel truths that give our God all the glory? Look at the last
part of verse 31. If God be for us, us, us word. This is referring to the us word
that Peter mentioned in 2 Peter 3 9. If God be for us, who could
be against us? Brethren, we just heard a message
that gives us blessed assurance that Jesus Christ our Savior
our wonderful God forgives sins and proves that he forgives sins
by the miracles that he performed while he walked on this earth.
Every physical healing that he performed while he was here doing
his father's will, all of them pointed to the spiritual healing
of God's elect. He healed the blind. We were
spiritually blind. He gave ears to the deaf. We're
spiritually deaf. He gave legs to the lame. We're
spiritually... We can't take one step. in our
unregenerate state that's pleasing in God's sight. He raised us
from the state of spiritual deadness. All of these miracles apply to
the miracle of the new birth that God performs under the preaching
of His glorious gospel. If God before us, who can be
against us? Who is he that condemneth? Or
verse, verse 32. I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself.
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things, all
things that pertain unto life and godliness, all things that
give him all the glory through Jesus Christ our blessed Redeemer? He already did the greater by
giving his son. Won't he do the lesser? Of course,
because Jesus Christ himself fulfilled all that his father
sent him to do. When he said it is finished,
that's exactly what he meant. The work of redemption and all
of that before while he walked on this earth was his father's
will. And when he performed his father's
will and said it is finished God the father accepted what
his son had done for us And we were made accepted in the beloved
back then 2 000 years ago so We read in verse 33 Who shall
lay anything to the charge of god's elect? There's the us word
That's who peter was writing to And that's what Paul is meaning
in this verse, that we, God's elected people, his chosen people,
we have a promise from God himself that absolutely nothing can be
laid to our charge. I love that song you sang, you
and your sister. He didn't just pay a part of
our sins, our sins not in part, but the whole. past, present,
and future. All of my sins were laid on Jesus
Christ, but not just mine, all of the sins of His chosen people.
He bore in His body the sins of us all, so that we can say,
I've been pardoned, forgiven. Not only that, we read in Isaiah
where we're to comfort God's people. Comfort ye, comfort ye
my people. Tell Tell her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquities are pardoned, that she has received
double for all that we've done. We've received double from the
Lord, not just the forgiveness of sins, but a living union with
Him. We have become His children by
virtue of the spirit of adoption. We're in the family of God. What
a God who would justify a heathen like me From the top of my head
to the bottom of my feet, there's no soundness, but nothing but
putrefying source. And I see that every morning
when I look in the mirror. Well, when I believe God, I know
He sees no sin in me. He sees me in Christ. And that's
a joy that I want to share with everybody. I want to tell everybody
Jesus Christ took my sins and the sins of his people. And hey,
he by some way, how can we understand that? He removed all of those
sins from God's sight forever. And not only that, God remembers
them against us no more. and God is omniscient. He knows
everything. And I, I don't know how he forgets
our sin, but he sees us in Christ. That's the only way that we can
know that our sins not only have been pardoned, but God remembers
them against us no more. And we enter into a loving relationship
with him free from guilt because of who Christ is and what he
has done for us. Go over to John Chapter six,
if you will, please. The sixth chapter of John. We're
talking about God's will. We're talking about the will
of our God, who's not willing that any should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. God's the only one who can grant
repentance. And he does that with those for whom Christ laid
down his life. He grants us repentance unto
life. We read that in the book of Acts.
Peter talking to the church. And repentance, repentance is
not just a turning away from something. Genuine God given
repentance is turning away from our view of God. In our unregenerate
mind, we see him as a benevolent old man just wringing his hands
in heaven with a beard down to his feet, hoping he gets hope
that somebody might do what he wants them to do. God is holy. He's immaculately holy. He's immutably holy. He can't
even look upon sin. And when we see that, we turn
away from our phony view of God, but we also turn to Christ. That's
true repentance. Not only a turning away, but
a turning to. We have a wrong view of Jesus
Christ before he sends his spirit into our heart. We're deceived
by the foolish and sinful doctrine of
unregenerate men who are teaching works in order to gain favor
with God. Well, we see Him now. We see
Christ now as our blessed Redeemer, through whom we have obtained
an inheritance, through whom we see as the one who obtained
eternal redemption for us. So we turn away from that view
of approaching him by the works of our own hands and turn to
Jesus Christ, who himself satisfied the holy justice of God through
the supreme sacrifice that he offered before his father. And
we turn away from our own view of self. I used to think, well, I'm not
bad. You know, I've sold a few wild oats,
but I didn't kill anybody. I didn't rob any bank. Well, I read in the scripture
now, well, there's none good. No, not none, not any, not one. There's no good in any of us
in God's sight. Now, I'm thankful for moral people.
Don't misunderstand me. And I'm even thankful for those
religions that teach morality, because if it wasn't for the
morality of some, this world's getting worse and worse and worse. I'm not thankful for false religions
as far as dishonoring God, but do you know what I mean? That
there's people who at least, by what they believe, come away
from evil deeds, evil so much so that at least they're not
amongst those who are murdering and doing all of those evil things.
So I'm thankful for morality. But when we see Christ, we turn
not only away from a life of sin, we turn to Christ who tells
us to be like Him. And I know we can't abstain from
sin, I know that, but we can try We at least have the desire. There are murderers who justify
themselves by saying, well, I only killed one. I know others who've
killed three, four, and so they justify themselves. We don't
do that. We know we sin against God, but we are remorseful, aren't
you? I'm remorseful when I sin against
God, and I ask Him to forgive me. I'm asking Him every day,
and I know He has. I know He has forgiven me for
Christ's sake, but I still I still feel like I should approach Him
in prayer asking for His forgiveness when I lay my head down at night
and go to bed. Forgive me, Lord. So true repentance
is not only turning away, it's turning to. We must turn to Christ
and at the same time cry out to Him, Lord, not my will, but
thy will be done. and here in john chapter six
is a parallel passage that goes along with second peter 3 9 that
teaches us very plainly that jesus christ has a people that
shall come to him and for the reason why they will come to
him verse 37 says all that the father giveth me shall come to
me and him that cometh to me i want to know why he's cast
out now why are we going to come Why are we going to come? Because
God the Father draws us. Because we're drawn with the
cords of eternal love. Because He teaches us. When God
teaches us, we will come to Him. We read that in the scriptures. And we read here why we come
to Christ. Look at verse 38. For I came
down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. So God's not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And the reason
why we come is because Jesus Christ came to do his father's
will, and he did it perfectly. And so he moves in the hearts
of his chosen people at his own appointed time of love for them.
revealing Jesus Christ and his glorious gospel to us, making
us willing in a day of his power to run into the waiting arms
of our Savior by faith, by faith. I mentioned in my message yesterday
that I have never given an altar call. And the reason for that
is Jesus Christ is our altar. And we preach and we teach that
you, right where you are, right where you are, cry out for mercy. God has never turned a deaf ear
to a sinner who sincerely cries out for mercy in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how he works in us,
making us see our need of Jesus Christ, making us willing to
come to him by faith, by God-given faith, the faith that God gives
to his children. Faith is God's gift to us. And
when He does that, we will come to Him because it's God's will. We read in verse 39, And this
is the Father's will which had sent me, that of all which He
hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. Doesn't that make 2nd Peter 3 9 more meaningful
and this is what we're supposed to do compare spiritual with
spiritual that is scripture with scripture and All scripture is
given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for
reproof for correction and righteousness that the man of God may be Perfect
mature for thoroughly furnished unto all good work. I I don't
preach against works We're God's we're God's God's creation, God's workmanship. I couldn't, forgive me. We're
God's workmanship created unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. And so as we come to
Christ, with the mind enlightened by Him, we will see that it was
God's will through what Jesus Christ did for us, an accomplishment
of His will, that we come to Him giving Jesus Christ all the
praise and all the honor and all the glory. Come to Christ
right where you are. Come to Him right now and receive
that unspeakable gift, eternal life. through the one who loved
us and gave himself for us. Verse 39 says this is the father's
will which had sent me that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last
day. And in verse 40 says this is the will of him that sent
me that everyone would see it the son and believe it on him
may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last
day. So we must see the son. We must see who he is. He's my
God. He's my creator, who became a
man for this very purpose of redeeming me with his precious
blood. And he's my risen, exalted king
on his throne of glory, working all things after the counsel
of his own will. Let me take you over, please,
to Hebrews 10, and I'll bring this to a close. Hebrews chapter
10, if you would turn there, God's purpose in our life is to come
to Christ to give him all the glory. And we just looked at
where it was God's will that Jesus Christ would accomplish
what he sent him here to do. And that's our reason for coming
to him. God promised a son, I mean promised the people to his son,
and he's going to fulfill his promise. We have illustration
after illustration of that in the scripture. And I believe
My favorite illustration is the promise that God made to Abraham. He promised him a son, and God purposely waited till
it was absolutely impossible, humanly speaking, for Sarah to
have a son. Now, Abraham did hearken unto
Sarah. He took Hagar as his wife, and he had a son, and he named
him Ishmael. And that's an allegory. The Word
of God uses that as an allegory, an event that actually took place
that has a spiritual meaning. And Hagar produced a child of
the flesh. She was a young woman able to
conceive. Sarah had ceased to be after
the manner of women. So it's virtually impossible
humanly speaking, for Sarah to have a son. God did that on purpose. And when Isaac was born, God
fulfilled that promise. And I've mentioned this already
in one of my other messages, but I'm going to illustrate this
in a way that will help us to understand what we contributed
to our salvation. What did Isaac contribute to
his physical birth? He contributed nothing to the
promise He contributed nothing to Sarah conceiving. He contributed
nothing to him being born. And our Lord intended for us
to understand a little bit about the new birth because he used
that term, you must be born again. And we know Nicodemus couldn't
understand that, but God gives us an understanding of that.
so that we read in the scriptures in Galatians 4, 28, now we brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. We brethren, as Isaac
was, are the children of promise. God fulfills his promise to his
son by the very words that we read in John 6, 37 through 40,
by bringing us into a living union with Christ himself. by
revealing to us that it's God's will, not our will. And here
in Hebrews chapter 10, and I might add, Ishmael persecuted Isaac. And these people in this world
today who are holding on to the works of their own hands, they
hate us and they hate what we believe because they hate Jesus
Christ, the Christ of the scriptures. And here in Hebrews 10, starting
at verse nine, We read, and this is the word of God, Then said
he, that's Christ our Savior, Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. The covenant of works is done
away with the covenant of grace. And that's what Hagar and Sarah
illustrated, those two covenants. Now I'm not talking about the
covenant works being taken away as far as the unregenerate are
concerned, but it's taken away as far as God's enlightened children
are concerned. We're under God's covenant of
grace that was established before the great three in one, way back
before time began. And we've entered into that covenant
because Jesus Christ By the shedding of his own blood and it's referred
to his blood is referred to as the blood of the everlasting
covenant his blood Has satisfied god's holy justice and removed
every spot and stain from his promised children so The lord
took that away by the sacrifice of himself as far as the covenant
works verse 10 says by the witch will Now we're talking about
god's will And we read in second Peter 3 9, God is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But he's talking about the us word. God is long suffering to
us word. And Paul, I believe, was the
one who wrote the book of Hebrews is by the which will when Christ
came to do his father's will, we read by the which will we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. We're sanctified, made holy in
God's sight, just as holy as God himself. He will not settle
for anything but that which is perfect. We cannot enter into
eternal bliss unless we're as perfect as God Himself. And you
say, well, that lets me out. It does me, too, if I'm trusting
in the works of my own hands. But if I'm trusting in Jesus
Christ, He Himself has made us as perfect as He is. Look down
at verse 14. For by one offering He hath perfected,
how long? forever, them that are sanctified,
whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that
he has said before, this is the covenant that I will make with
them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws
into their hearts and in their minds will I write them, and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where
remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit
that God sends into the hearts of his children is the one who
takes the things of Christ and reveals them to us. That's his
ministry. And my spirit bears witness with
his spirit that I'm a child of God because he has given me faith
to believe him, to believe that all of my sins are forgotten
and forgiven and forever God remembers them against us no
more. Isn't that good? That's wonderful. And all you
have to do is read the scriptures of God has sent the spirit of
his son into your heart. Read the scriptures anywhere.
You'll find this blessed truth from Genesis one through the
end of Revelation and compare them together. Put them together. God's spirit will guide his Children
into all truth. And our Lord Jesus tells us he
shall know the truth. and the truth will make you free.
Brethren, how can you explain color to a blind man? Can't. And you can't explain
the truths of the gospel to a sinner who is blind spiritually. Doesn't
understand it. He can't understand it. But when
God sends the light, When God commands the light to shine in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of Jesus Christ, then we start understanding and we grow in
that understanding. We could come into this building
in the middle of the night, not able to see anything, but turn
the light on and it exposes the furniture, all that's in here.
Well, the light didn't put it there. And this is what God does
when He enlightens the mind. He takes us back to the cross
of Calvary and even further way back in old eternity when God
purposed all of this and He reveals to us by His marvelous light
what has already taken place for His glory and for our eternal
good. I want to share this story with
you in closing. Years and years and years ago,
when our children were really small, right after we had moved
to rescue California, Becky, our oldest daughter, wasn't even
in school yet. She hadn't even started school.
She's in her late 30s now. So this is quite a while ago.
And we lived in a house that was attached to our fellowship
hall. We had a big pane window. to the south and to the west
was a big parking lot. And the fellowship hall was between
the parking lot and where we live. And then the worship hall
was, we could see the whole worship hall from our front window. And
it was only 50 or 60 feet to the front door. So we lived in
a place where we thought was pretty safe for our children.
The fire hall was just less than 200 feet from where we lived. And it was the back of the fire
hall. It faced the street that led
up to our driveway. Anyway, our three youngest children,
Judeen, Daniel, and Becky, Judeen and Daniel were in grade school.
And they were out playing. And we warned them not to get
over where we couldn't see them. I was probably working. Judy
was washing clothes. We had a lot of clothes that
needed to be washed. It was just about every day.
Anyway, they were out there playing, and a man drove in in a van. And he parked where we couldn't
see that van. He was just looking out the window.
And he got out, opened the back doors of his van, and he got
some trinkets and took them over and was showing them to our three
children. And he said, I've got more over in my van if you'd
like to see them. So Daniel and Becky, the younger
ones, headed for the back of that van. And Judeen started
screaming, telling her sister and her brother, you know what
mom and dad has taught us? Don't dare get in a car with
strangers. You come away from there. And
they ran. Well, the man, he knew that he
was exposed. And he closed the doors and jumped
in the van and took off. Now, I shut her to think. I shudder
to think what would have happened to our Children if they had gotten
in the back of that van. But a warning sounded out, and
the Children remembered the warning. So I leave you with this. God's
Word is full of warnings to us. Come away from those who preach
another gospel. Come out from amongst those who
are deceivers. Keep yourselves under the hope
of the gospel. Don't forsake the assembling
of yourselves together, such as the manner of some is. Those
warnings are there for a reason. Now, I know God will never allow
any of His chosen blood-bought children to be taken from His
hands. I know that. But the warnings are there for
a reason. Keep looking to Jesus Christ, the author and the finisher
of our faith. If we're trusting in anything
other than Him, get rid of it as fast as you can. Believe what
the Word of God says concerning our Savior. He didn't try to
redeem us. He obtained, that's past tense,
eternal redemption for us. And by His willingness to come
to this earth and do his father's will, we have the promise from
God himself. If our trust is in him and only
in him, we have eternal life. Now, brother, I still have that
old nature, and I've been following Christ by his grace and by his
spirit working in me for over 40 years, almost 48. And that
old Nature has not gotten any better. Matter of fact, it can't
get any better. But Christ in me is perfect,
and He will always be perfect. And He tells us, hold on to me. Brethren, hold on to Him by faith,
as if your very life depended upon it, knowing that he has
a hold on you and he'll never let go. He will be with us now
throughout our whole pilgrimage journey till we cross the river
and enter into eternal bliss where we will see him in all
of his glory and praise him for all eternity what he accomplished
for us when he came to this earth. Amen. Thank you. God bless you.