Thank you. That song goes well
with what we were just saying about singing, doesn't it? Children
of the heavenly King must speak their joys to the brother. Okay, go back a second, Timothy.
Are you okay, Hannah? Hannah's in that way, you know. Anybody has a good excuse to
get up every now and then. It's her. Nobody else. And if you feel a warm glow coming
from the back, Ed and Jeanette Berry are just
beaming all over. New grandparents. that the baby
is healthy and motherly. 2 Timothy, chapter 1. Now, this verse that we are going
to dwell on, verse 9, has a special meaning to someone we know well.
Well, all of us. But let's read verses 8 and 9
again. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord. Paul is talking to a young man named Timothy, and Timothy
was apparently a timid and shy young man, and the gospel was
hated back then as it is now, and it was not popular, and those
who believed it were persecuted. And Paul tells this young man,
and this is fitting, and let me tell you young people here,
whether you claim to be a believer or not, yet this gospel, listen
to me, listen everybody, young people especially, I'm talking
to you. Don't you be ashamed of this
gospel. In front of your friends, it
may not be cool. Our Lord said, if you're ashamed
of me, I'm going to be ashamed of you one day. If you're ashamed
of me. I told the young people in the
Bible school one year, I said, God, you know, people, young
people especially, think they're cool. That's the word. That was
the word back when I was cool. thirty years ago. But young people think they're
cool. That's another word for being proud. But young people
think they're cool. And I told the young people one
time, God sends all cool people to a very hot place. Count on it. God hates pride. Don't be ashamed of this gospel. He says, Be a partaker, verse
8, of the afflictions of the gospel. Be a partaker of the
afflictions of the gospel. You believe the gospel, especially if you preach it.
Young Timothy was a preacher. But if you just believe this
gospel and declare it to anybody, this gospel, I mean, the gospel,
you're going to be hated. You're going to be persecuted.
people are going to give you a hard time, because very few
people believe this gospel. You see, it was always that way.
It was that way back then, and it's still that way. So he says,
be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. You know, let me give you a good
illustration of this. And the gospel, what is the gospel? It's this, salvation is of the
Lord. In a word, in a phrase, salvation
is of the Lord. I mean of the Lord, 100%. It's God's work. It's not man's,
not cooperative effort between God and man. It's God's work.
Paul's going to tell us that in a minute. That man had nothing
to do with it. Why? Because God gets all the
glory. That's why. And that's just the
way it is. The salvation of a human being
is all of the Lord. And He gets all the glory for
it. Just take the word save. Let's just take the simple word
save. If you've been saved, did you have anything to do with
it? I mean, truly, if you were saved,
somebody's in a burning building, asleep in a burning building,
and a fireman breaks the door down, risks his life, and goes
in and picks that person up and takes them out of that building,
who is to be congratulated? Who gets the honor and the glory?
Huh? What did the person in the building
have to do with their salvation? I think that's a pretty good
illustration. Somebody's drowning, going down, and somebody else
dives in after them, risks their own lives. And that person doesn't
want people, they say, that are drowning, you know, fighting.
They're so under panic, they fight the person trying to save
them. They don't help them. fight against
them. Isn't that a good illustration?
You tell people the truth and they get mad at you. Paul said,
I've become your enemy for telling you the truth. But anyway, that
person dives in and wraps their arm around that person and swims
to shore. Now, is that person to be congratulated
for letting that person save them? He says, it's ridiculous. Salvation is up to the Lord.
And if you just tell people what God did for you, if you just
tell people what the Lord did for you, and that's what the
Lord tells us to do. Don't argue doctrine. Just tell
them what He did for you. And they'll get mad at you. They'll hate you. They'll hate
you for the Lord saving you. That's Lazarus. Let me give you this illustration.
Lazarus. The Lord raised him from the dead, didn't he? Lazarus. You remember that? He was dead.
But the Lord came by in mercy and grace and sovereign power
and called him, not any other dead people, but Lazarus. Called
him forth from the grave. And he wouldn't have come out
if God hadn't called him. Right? Lazarus was living proof
of the sovereign, electing, saving grace of God in Christ. What do you reckon Lazarus talked
about? How he let Jesus into his heart?
Don't be an idiot. Well, you know they hated him,
right? They hated Lazarus. They tried
to kill Lazarus. Why? For being raised from the
dead. They did. They tried to kill
him. Wipe out the proof. Man is not just an unbeliever.
He's a rebel. Hates the truth. Well, and the
blind man, there's many cases like that. The blind man, you
remember the blind man the Lord healed in John 9? He kept telling
the Pharisees, this man has to be from God. He healed my eyesight.
They said, you're just a sinner. And they kicked him out. They
hated him just for telling them what the Lord did for them. And
so it is. And so be it. So Paul tells young
Timothy, how could you be ashamed of what God's done for you? Don't be ashamed. You tell them. Be a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel. Now Paul is going to tell us
in a few words what the gospel is. And this is wonderful. I told you that this really meant
something to somebody that we know. Brother Don Bell, let me
tell you the story. Brother Don Bell, whom most in
here know, but many do not. Brother Don Bell, is right now
a pastor of a church in Tennessee. He's about 50. Well, he's over 50. 52, something like that. Don
was a pretty wild young man. He enlisted in the Marines when
he was 18. right at the height of the Vietnam
War and went over to Vietnam and served well and his time was
up and reenlisted, served two terms. Don would tell you himself
he had kind of a death wish. He was a wild young man. He just didn't have anything
to live for and he thought, Go over there. Serve two terms. He tells a story one time of
him being out in the middle of an open field where there was
Vietnamese danger and so forth, and just shaking his fist at
God. But anyway, Don came back. The Lord brought him back safely and became a wild man. as so many
of those veterans did, you know, who came back and had no, it
was, those fellows, Vietnam veterans are no different than Iraqi veterans,
people. They do it, they did the exact
same thing that our young men are doing in Iraq. And yet people
despised them. Anyway, came back, and under
all that bitterness by this, that he felt toward this country
and so forth, became a wild man. So many of them did. You know,
the drugs and all that. Just wild. You all see pictures
of him. He married young, had a child.
Make a long story short, he got religion. Somebody had him in a meeting,
Pentecostal meeting, and all excited. And people, you know,
their lives, they're miserable in their lives, and they get
religion and clean up their act. And John did. His act cleaned
up, and he became a preacher. He became a preacher, a Pentecostal
preacher. I mean a pew-hopping Pentecostal,
one of those early ones, holy rollers. Some of you all know
Don. That's not there anymore. Anyway,
wow, just as wild in religion as he was out of it. Lost. Still lost. And he heard the
gospel on tape, I think it was, and came up to visit a man named
Henry Mahan. He heard about this preacher
up there. And came up to visit. I remember
when he came around the first time. came up to visit, and Brother
Mahan gave him some things to think about, some scriptures.
And Don said one day he was sitting out reading God's Word, and he
was reading 2 Timothy 1. Now Don was a typical Arminian
preacher, believing that we clean up our act and God is well pleased
with us. And he accepted Jesus and turned
over a new leaf and all of that. Don was reading 2 Timothy, and
he got to this verse 9, and he said it, it's like God said it
out loud. And just smoked him. Broke him,
saved him. Verse 9, God who hath saved us. We didn't save ourselves. God
who had saved us and called us with that holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. When did this take place? Which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Don said
it just knocked all his religion out from under him. Everything
he ever thought about God, about salvation, he said everything
he was preaching was a lie. And it broke him. God revealed
the gospel to him. And he renounced all that past
religion, all his preaching, past preaching. Now, let's look
at this. This is such a wonderful verse
that tells us of the gospel. Now, Paul said there was another
gospel, didn't he? Paul warned of another gospel
over in Galatians 1. I was going to have you turn,
Read it for yourself sometime. Paul said, there's some which
come preaching another gospel. Even as far back as that, nearly
2,000 years ago, they were preaching another gospel. They called it
gospel, but it wasn't the gospel. It wasn't God's gospel. It wasn't
the scriptural gospel. It was another gospel. He said,
it's not another, it's a perversion of the gospel. Not the gospel
at all. Doesn't he resemble the gospel
of God? He even said one time that some
come preaching another Jesus. Now, he wasn't talking about
another man named Jesus. There were some who preached
Jesus, the Jesus of Nazareth. Our Lord said that, that many
would come saying that he was the Christ, preaching the Jesus
of Nazareth, but not preaching him right. Not preaching him
as he was, as he is, the true Christ of Christ. Even back then,
they were preaching Jesus, but not preaching him as he really
is. And it's more so now. I mean,
it's even more of that false preaching
going on now because there's more people. But he says now,
the gospel. Verse 8, look at verse 8, the
end of verse 8, says, The gospel is according to the power of
God. Be a partaker of the afflictions, the persecutions. Be prepared
to be hated because of the gospel, which is, and here's a good definition,
it's according to the power of God. The gospel is according to the
power of God. That other gospel, the false
gospel, is according to the power of man. The other gospel that's being
preached is according to the power of man's will, man's decision,
man's choice, man's works, man, man, man, man. It's according
to the power of man. And that's the way these false
preachers appeal to man, if you will, if you will, if you will,
if you will, if you will, won't you, won't you, won't you let
God, won't you let Jesus, won't you accept Jesus, won't you,
won't you, won't you, won't you. But the true preacher, here I go again, the true preacher says all his pleading is to God. He's not pleading with people
to do something for God. Salvation is of the Lord. He's
the one that has to save them. He has to decide it. He has to
do it. And so we plead to God, if you
will. If you will. Huh? You see the difference? Not if
you will. Won't you creatures let the Creator
do it? If you will save some people, we would be
eternally grateful. If you would exert your sovereign
power, it's according to the power of
God, the gospel. There it is in a nutshell. The
gospel, as opposed to the false one, is all about the power,
I mean the invincible, the effectual. the eternal power of God Almighty. Our God has all power. And I'm not mad. I'm not angry.
I'm just saying it as forcefully and authoritatively as I can.
God reigns. He does as He will, with whom
He will, because He will. And when he wills it, it's done. I like that. I'm glad he is,
God. Or I wouldn't be here this morning.
That's what I'm going to tell you about. God who hath saved
us, verse 9. It is God who hath saved us.
Who are we talking about? God saved us. We're talking about
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity, the
Triune God, all three persons of the Godhead were in this thing
of salvation. God purposed it. It was according
to his will and his purpose. He's the architect of it, the
author. Jesus Christ came and performed
it. He saved his people. All that
was given unto him by the Father in that covenant or that purpose
before the world began. Jesus Christ came here and did
everything required of him for the salvation of God's people,
fulfilling every jot and tittle of every law on their behalf,
thus performing a perfect righteousness which God Almighty accept and
must accept and only will accept. And Jesus Christ then imputed
it, charged it to all of God's people. And then in turn, Jesus
Christ took all the sin of all of God's people from the beginning
to the last sinner on earth and bore their punishment due unto
their sin, died that they might live. And then went back to heaven
itself and sat down and ever lives to make intercession, or
that is, as the covenant head, to make sure that every single
one he died for gets that salvation. and set the Holy Spirit, God
the Holy Spirit down here, the Holy Spirit, who must in time,
according to God's good time, in time bring the gospel, this
declaration of what God has done, to that person, and thus convicting
them of their sins, breaking their giving them a new heart. Regeneration is what it's called.
New life. Spiritual life. They were dead.
It's like calling them from the dead. The Holy Spirit breaks
their heart over sin, shows them who God really is. I mean the
living and true God. Not this peanut God that everybody
lets do things. But I mean the God of heaven
in whose hands their breath is, in all their ways, who can do
with them as He will. see the true God and see themselves
for what they are, a rebel against that God, liable to the wrath
of God. And God convicts them of their
sin and then shows them Jesus Christ, their suffering substitute,
their righteous representative, their salvation in a person. Nothing to do with them, but
He did it all for them. And He showed them their absolute
need of Him as their His salvation unto God and caused them to call
unto Him, believe Him, trust Him. It's the work of the triune God. Man is pensive in this thing
of salvation. Oh, he calls, but it's after
the fact. It's after the fact. God who hath saved It's God who
had saved us. Jesus Christ is that man who
came in that burning building and rescued me. Jesus Christ
is that man who plunged himself in the cesspool of sin, which
I was at the bottom. I wasn't just drowning. I was
dead and pulled me off the bottom of the muck and the mire like
Jonah in the belly of the whale. lifted me up and set me among
princes while He Himself stayed in that belly. It's God who hath saved us. Old Donnie said, that just hit
me like that. He said, here in all these years
I thought I let God do something. That's blasphemy. God who hath saved us and called
us. What is this call, this gospel
call? He calls it a holy calling, a
high calling, a blessed calling, a heavenly calling. It's God
calling sinners. God calling His people. Now,
this is not a plea or a begging people to do anything. Not an
offer that He issues to people. It's a notification. It's a declaration. It's calling
people to tell him about it. Are you with me? It's not asking
him anything. It's telling him. This gospel
call is not asking sinners to do something. It's telling him
what he's done. That's what the gospel is. And
this is why these idiots can't reconcile what we preach with
with how God uses it in salvation. They think if you don't ask people,
if you don't plead with people, if you don't beg people, if you
don't this and the other, how are they going to respond? This is what God uses. A man
just simply stands up and declares who God is. A man just simply
stands up and declares who Christ is and what he's done for his
people, declares what man is. And this is what God uses. Tell
me about it, all of you who heard that. This is exactly what nobody
asked you to do anything, nobody begged you, nobody pleaded with
you, nobody kept... we didn't play 120 verses of
Just As I Am in an emotional plea to, don't leave my mood
now, and messed up the spirit. What kind of spirit can be? We're talking about God who spoke
the world into existence. in his good time, says, let there
be life in Van Ogle's heart. And it was done. He's not asking
Dan to let him do anything, is he? Anymore he asked anybody in the
beginning, can I do this? Huh. Let there be life. Let there be life. Let there
be conviction. And it's done. And the preaching
of the gospel is just that, the declaration of who God is. And the preacher stands back,
doesn't ask anybody to do anything. He stands back and waits, and
the Holy Spirit does the work. And they come asking the preacher
what to do. Like the people at Pentecost.
Peter and the boys didn't say, Now, won't you all accept Jesus?
They just declared who Christ was and where He was, and what
they'd done to the Christ description sat down, and the people convicted
of their sins because of who was on the throne and whose hands
they were, they came running to Peter and said, Man, what
are we going to do? What shall we do? Peter said,
Repent and be baptized and confess it. You don't have to ask people. He just declared the gospel. Stand back, and the Holy Spirit
moves. And they'll start asking, begging, pleading. God who hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling, a powerful call, an
effectual call, a particular call. I've told you my story,
and I'm going to tell it again. with me while I'm talking. Turn with me to the book of Joel.
Joel, chapter 2. Over in the Old Testament, a
little book will give you time to find it. Book of Joel, chapter
2. I've told you my story, and it's
your story, too. But I have a brother who sat
under the same gospel I did for years. same gospel. And yet, he does not believe
the gospel. And we both are exactly the same. He knew us were the
same. And, you know, we're flesh and
blood. But one day, somebody made me to differ from
him. I had nothing to do with it,
nothing to do with it, just like him, a rebel. But God, but God apparently had chosen
me. I didn't deserve it, but apparently
He had chosen me and called me one day by the gospel. And my brother never heard that
call. He hadn't yet to receive the call. Oh, my. Now, it's true that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's Romans
10, 13, which so many like to quote. And I do, too. I like
it. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord. Well, where
did that verse come from? Joel 2, verse 32. That's just part
of the verse. Look at it with me. Verse 32,
It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be delivered. It's true. Anybody that's going
to be saved is going to call on the Lord to save them. That's true. Our Lord said, Ask,
and you shall receive. Seek, you'll find. Knock, and
it shall be opened. If you don't call on the Lord, you're knocked. If you don't ask the Lord to
have mercy on you, He's not going to. That's right. If you don't seek
the Lord, Scripture says, with all your heart, you won't find
Him. But now, who does call? Who does
seek? Who does ask? Those the Lord
first called. He calls first. Look at Joel
2, verse 32. In Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
that's election, shall be deliverance, as the
Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. Whoever calls, calls. Because God called them. Period. Right, John? That's what that
said. Why? Why are we insisting on
that? Any more than a man out there
in the water crying help? God calls. Just like John said,
we love Him. We do love Him, though. Believers,
we love the Lord. Yes, we do. We don't talk about
it, though. We're shamed of our pitiful love,
aren't we? We don't go around—self-righteous
people do. They go around and like to brag
about how much they love Jesus. They've got it on their bumper
sticker. God's people don't do that. If
they brag about anything, it's His love for them. We do love Him, though. Why?
John said, Because He first loved them. So, God gets the glory. Whomsoever the Lord shall call.
This call is a powerful call. Go back to the text. Whom the
Lord shall call. It's a powerful call. It's like
calling the dead to life. Folks, I was Lazarus. Weren't
you, Kelly? Me and old Kelly. There's two
of us. We were Lazarus. There's another one. Henry. Like
John. That was me. Dead and trespassed. did not have one interest in
this gospel whatsoever. But God, through the gospel,
called me by His grace. From death to life, darkness
to light, I was without a thought or care for God, God's Word,
Christ, God's Gospel, God's people, and I didn't have a worry or
a fear in this world. Not one fear of God or thought
of eternity, none whatsoever. But one day I wound up in the
church house where the Gospel is, under the sound of the Gospel. I wound up there somehow at God's
Word, just as if God said it out loud. He doesn't. He doesn't
speak out loud. He speaks through this Word.
But it was just the same as if I was the only one in there and
just smoked me. Just ironed me. Smoked me. Like
the people that pricked. Like Paul pricked me. Not the
pin prick, but I mean a sword. Smoked me. Convinced me. Convinced me of who God is and
what I was and who Christ is and my need of Him. Convinced
me. When he come, he'll convince the world. Christ said, open
my blind eyes. It was as if scales fall from
high, like Paul. How could I have been so blind?
That's what I thought. Or David, how could I have been so foolish?
Henry, that's the way it was with you, and I can tell you're
sitting there just the same. It's the same way, buddy, with
everybody God saved. It's exactly the same call. Powerful
call. Read on. He says, It's not according
to our works. Back in our text. Not according
to our works. God didn't say, Now there's Paul
Mahan. He's a good little fellow. He's a fine little fellow. We
can sure use him in the kingdom. He'll be of real service to us. I don't go out in my yard and
say, let's say, oh, there's a fine worm. Oh, I can use that in my
house. That'll really decorate my home. One worm gives another. Bags
of worms. Not according to our works. Our
Lord said in Titus 3, oh no, He says, not by works of righteousness
which we have done. He said, The kindness and love
of God our Savior toward us appeared not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. God just had mercy on us. Listen
to Moses talking. I was going to have you turn,
but I wish we had more time. I wish we had the capacity to
do it. But listen to Moses talking to
the children of Israel. He's talking to us. Moses said
this, he said, Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth
thee not this good land to possess it for your righteousness, because
you're a stiff-necked people, he said. That's what Moses said to the
people. Now, we're going into the land. He said, God's not
giving it to you because you're good boys and girls. If anything,
you're worse than the Egyptians. All you've done is complain for
forty years, but you're going in because He's
faithful to His Word, because He chose you, because He called
you, because He willed to save you. You're going in because
God hath willed to save you. That's why you're going in. Don't
say it's because of anything in you, because it's not. Isn't that us? Sure is, from
the preacher on down. Not according to our works. Read
on. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace. Purpose and grace. God's purpose. There was a wise old preacher
years ago. Some fellow came in and wanted
to argue with him about election. I'm going to argue against God's
sovereign right to choose whom He will. Think about it. That's
really what men are doing. Arguing against God's sovereign
right to choose whom He will and wanting to make sure man
has his right to choose. Anyway, a young fellow came in
talking to the preacher. E.W. Johnson was his name. And
he said, Mr. Johnson said, I don't have a
problem with this election. And Johnson, who was a brilliant
man, said, young man, let me ask you three questions from
God's word. I want you to answer from God's
word, not what you think, not what John Wesley think, not what
anybody think. Answer it from God's word. Did you claim to be a Christian? You claim to be a believer, don't
you, young man? He said, well, I certainly is.
He said, all right, young man, did you choose God or did He
choose you? Don't tell me what you think.
Tell me what the Bible says. Did you choose God or did He
choose you? Johnson said, let's turn to the
Scripture. Ephesians 1 verse 4. Turn with me. Ephesians chapter
1 verse 4. Look at it. Johnson wisely said,
This is what God's Word says. Ephesians 1, verse 4. And he
had the young man read it. And that's what we ought to have
people do. Don't read it to them, don't quote it to them. Let them
read it with their own two eyes, and their mouth will condemn
them if they read it. Verse 4, According as he hath
chosen us. And our Lord kept reminding His
disciples of that, didn't He? You did not choose me. I chose
you. Peter and the boys were fishermen.
Weren't they, Kelly? They weren't speaking. They were
fishermen. And God came by their boat one
day, passed by a lot of other boats, and stopped at their boats,
particular boats, particular men, and said, And they came,
according as he had chosen of. All right, young man, Johnson
said, when did God choose you? When? Don't tell me what you
think. Tell me what the book says. When
did he do it? God chose you then. When did
he do it? After you believed? Read on, young man, verse 4,
"...according as he hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world." So many times the Scriptures
talk about peoples whose names were written in the Lamb's Book
of Life before the foundation of the world. Why would anybody
who claims to believe the Bible argue that when God so clearly
says it? Why would some fool preacher Stand up and tell everybody when
they accepted Jesus that there's a new name in heaven. Because
he's a charlatan, that's why. He's a false prophet. Where does
it say that in this book? It says there's a Lamb's Book
of Life written before the foundation of the world with seals on it.
There are no new names ever put in that book. No erasures, no
corrections, no additions, no subtractions. sealed and it says in Revelation
that Jesus Christ in the last day is going to elucidate and
read the name. And every one of them will be
present and accounted for. Accounted for. Didn't cry. Thank God. Before the foundation
of the world, He chose me. Spurgeon said this. I like this.
Told it to you a hundred times. Spurgeon said I know that God
chose me, because I would never have chosen Him. I know He did. And He said, I
know He did it before I was born, because if He waited until afterward,
then sure would have chosen me then. The children neither Having
not yet been born, neither done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand. It was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated." Romans 9.11. And that's me. Jacob and Esau.
That's me and my brother. Paul and Dan. No different. No
different. But God. The difference is God. That's my story. Is that your
story, Nancy? That's your story, Sam? Yes, sir. God has saved us and called us. When? Well, here's the third
question. He said, young man, all right,
God is the one that does the choosing. God does it before
the foundation of the world. Now, here's the question of questions,
young man. Why? Why did he choose you? If you claim to be chosen, why? Why does God choose anybody?
You've already read, it's not according to anybody's works.
It's none good, no, not one. None righteous. Not one. None
speaketh after God. Psalm 14. None! Psalm 14 says
that. None! Another young man looked up at
that. He said in verse 5, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Because he willed it. That's it. Why? Because he did. Because he did. It pleased the
Lord. Scripture said, to make you his
people. Aren't you glad? He gets all the glory. Salvation
is of the Lord. Read on in our text, and I quit. He says it's according to his
own purpose and grace. Oh, grace. John David's salvation
by grace, isn't it? I mean grace. I'm talking about
unmerited favor. I mean something given to you.
I mean something bestowed upon you. I mean everything done for
you. I don't mean an offer. I mean something done for you.
Grace is not something God offers to you. It's something God does
for you, does to you, does in you. Grace is not an offer. It's a
gift bestowed. But by grace are you saved? It's something that happens to
you, something God has done for you, given to you, provided for
you, bestowed upon you, purpose, will, covenanted by God in Christ
Jesus before the world began. That's what it said. Again, given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began, according to God's
purpose, God's will, When God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
met together in that Council of Eternity and purposed to save
whom they would, listen, God Almighty purposed to save some
of these rotten creatures called sons of Adam. None of them deserved
it, but He did. He purposed to save. And lest
anybody should argue that that's not fair, He saved the people
which no man can number. As the stars of the sky and the
sands of the seashore, no man can number them. There's so many.
Isn't that great grace and great mercy? No man can number them.
But God numbered them. He numbered them. He knows them
all. It's the foundation of the Lord. Stand assured, He said,
the Lord knoweth them that are His. Why? He chose them all. We don't decide
to get in God's family. He made that choice and that
will and that purpose. He gets the glory for it that
way. I love it. But God Almighty purposed before
the world began to save some of these rotten, no-good creatures. He purposed to save, and He purposed
who He would save. Yes, He did. He purposed who
He would save. It's all by grace. It's all given to us in Christ
Jesus. Christ agreed to come down here.
And be a surety, be a representative, redeem his people. Christ said,
I'll do everything for them. I've already been through this,
but I like it. I like telling it again. Christ
said, I'll go down there. I'll live for them. I'll satisfy
your law for them. I'll suffer on their behalf.
I'll do it willingly. I'll die. I'll rise again and
ever live to intercede for every one of them. All for your elect,
because I love them too. And then God said back there
in that He said, well, then it's done. It's done. Seal the book
up. It's done. It's all going to
be done. It's all been done because I said so. And when Christ came,
he said, it's finished. It's done. And it sent the Holy
Spirit to round them all up for whom this was accomplished for.
And every one of them will. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice. Yes, they will. Every one of them will have to. They'll hear my voice. They're
drawn by his sovereign power. Call every one of them. Call
them. Bring them. The other sheep I have, they
must come. And also, I must bring them. And they all hear it. And that's
this gospel. Like you're hearing right now. That's what we all
heard. Oh, would that God would do it
for somebody else. And we'd give Him a glory, wouldn't
we? We're going to do it anyway.
We're going to give Him the glory anyway. If God doesn't save another person,
He gets all the glory. That's what this is all about.
His glory. Okay. What number? Seventeen? Number seventeen. And if God does this for you,
if God does it calls you by His power, you will, your heart will
be tuned to sing His grace. All right, stand with us. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy praise. Strings of mercy never ceasing,
Sing the second as the last. Here I raise my Ebeneezer, hither
by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure,
safely to the rival home. Jesus saw me with a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger Interposed
His precious blood