If you will, look with me back
here in 1 Thessalonians, and there in verse 4, it says, knowing
brethren, and in the margin it says, beloved of God, your election. Your election. I'm going to talk
some about election today. Election. And the effects, the
effects that it has on God's people. The effects it has on
those who are true believers. You know when God does something
for you, you know He's done it. You cannot doubt that. You can't
doubt that. And the doctrine of eternal election
is a scriptural truth. It's a blessed truth, glorious
truth. And it has a profound influence,
a profound influence upon those whom God by His Spirit taught
them this. Taught them this. And this is
a glorious truth. You know election's eternal.
Now we're going to have elections this year. And people will elect
somebody. That's not the way God does it.
We'll elect, put them out, elect somebody else, but God don't
do that. God's election is eternal. He chose us in Christ, when? Before the world began. He gave
us grace in Christ before the world began. And that's why I
said we're bound always to give thanks for you, brethren, beloved
of God, because God has from the beginning chosen you. Chosen you unto salvation. And so it's eternal. And as you
know, God has a purpose. A purpose of election. That's
what he said about Jacob and Esau. He said the children not
yet being born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose Of election, my stand, God said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. So God does things on purpose.
And then not only is election eternal, but it's also personal.
That's what he said here, knowing your election. Your election. You know, do you know your election?
Peter said like this, make your calling and election sure. Elections
personal. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, no
you're not, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. I ordained
you. God did this. And for whom he
did foreknow, them he also called people, individuals. And whom
he called, he also justified. Whom he justified, he also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who's going to be against us? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies
them. Huh? And I'll tell you what,
and it's promised. Not only is it eternal, and it's
personal, but God promised it. I want you to look with me in
Matthew. There's three places in Matthew 24 where election
is mentioned. God's elect are mentioned. You
know, I forgot all about this and I got to looking at it. Look
here in Matthew 24. There's three times here that
God talks about His election. And He promised, you know, election.
Election was promised. Our Lord said, All that the Father
gives me shall come to me. When were we given to Him? In
a covenant of grace before the world ever began. But look here
in Matthew 24 and verse 22. talking about the tribulation
and except those days should be shortened there should no
flesh be saved but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened
look down here in verse 24 There shall arise false Christs and
false prophets and show great signs and wonders, insomuch that
if it were possible, they shall deceive, listen to this, the
very land. Look down verse 31. And he shall
send forth his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and
they shall gather together his elect. from the four winds of
one side of heaven to the other. So I tell you what, election,
what a blessed, blessed thing it is. And I want to look at
the effect that this doctrine of election have on God's people,
on His elect, on His true believers. Now I love to preach this because
I feel like God taught it to me. He taught it to me. To think that God chose us, individuals,
people. God don't choose nations, He
chooses people out of nations. Out of every tongue, out of every
kindred. And to think that God, who is eternal, in heaven is
eternity. The heaven is His throne, the
earth is His footstool. Measures the waters in the hollows
of His hand. We said, I'm going to choose
that man. I'm going to choose that woman.
And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to send my son.
And he's going to die for them. And then I guarantee that every
one of them is going to come. And I'm going to keep them. till
I take them all the way to glory. And every one of them will be
with me where I am. So I want to talk about the effect
it has upon our thoughts, upon our understanding, upon our emotions,
upon our experience, upon our devotions, and upon our actions. Now you ask a true believer,
you ask the true believer, what he thinks and what he believes
in his opinion about God. Ask him that. What does he say?
What do you think about God? Well, I tell you the first thing
he'll tell you is that God acts like God. He's not a pretender
after the throne. He's not like us at all. He's
not like preachers presenting today. And I tell you what, you
ask the true believer what he thinks about God, and you know
what he'll say? Our God does according to His will in the
heavens, in the earth, in the sea, in all deep places. And when, and Abba Keneser said,
when my understanding returned unto me, he said, I see that
all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. Zero. Now all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing and He, He, God, does according
to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth and there ain't nobody can stop His hand or say
unto Him what you're doing. Huh? Oh my, that's what we've
done. What do we think about God? What
does God let people think about God? He's sovereign. He's eternal. He's immutable. I'll tell you what God declared
from the beginning. And I'll tell you this idea that
God has to... He's a spectator to the average
person in his own world. He's a spectator. He just watches
what's going on. He won't interfere in your life. I've heard preachers talk about
man's sovereign will He's gonna find out how puny he really is
one of these days for God Almighty does his will And I tell you
what I find great come Shirley and I talked about a lot this
week about how comforting it is to be in God's will in God's
hands I mean God got His hand on me. And I'm in His hand. He's not in mine. He's not left
up to me to accept or reject. And the question is, does He
accept me? Or has He rejected me? That's what I'm telling you.
The doctrine of election, the truth of election. What a profound
effect it has upon the heart of a believer. Huh? Oh listen,
God, God's immutable. What does that mean? That means
He don't have the ability to change. I change. Oh my goodness, I change. I can
change in the snap of a finger. I can go from being just as easy
going to being as hateful that quick. None of you all don't do that. I know you don't. And I tell
you something else about them. They don't talk about how powerful
their will is. They don't even talk about their
will. They talk about God's will. God's power. God's right. God's authority. And I tell you
what, beloved, I tell you about God and what we think about Him.
We think he's omnipotent. What does that mean? He's got
all power. We believe he's omniscient. That means he's all wise. He's
omnipresent. That means he's everywhere. And
oh my, what do we think about his judgments? Does as he pleases. If he wants
to leave my children without him, that's his business. If
he wants to save them, that's his business. If he wants to
leave a man without God, without ever doing anything for him,
that's his business. If he wants to smite us down
tomorrow, that's his business. And we're going to say it is
the Lord like Eli did, it is the Lord let him doeth what seemeth
good. Huh? I've seen too many people God's
elect, stand up and say I'll kiss the hand of God's providence
and I know I'm leaving this world soon. I've seen it happen too
many times. And I tell you what, you think
this, you think God, that the spirit of God and God and His
power doesn't work? You learn, God teach you about
Himself. And I tell you what, teach you
about election, you have a different view of God than you ever had.
That's why He told the Thessalonians, you turn from your idols You're idols of free will. You're
idols of self-righteousness. You're idols of self-will. You're
idols of self-confidence. You turn from your idols to the
true and living God. Huh? Oh, let's see. What do we think about Christ?
I'll tell you what Paul thought about Him. In the first verse
here, he called Him the Lord Jesus Christ twice. That's what
he thought about Him. And all my, what do we think
about Christ? What do we think about Him? Well,
I tell you what, we believe He's an effectual Savior. You know
when it says that He shall save His people from their sins, why
call Him a Savior if He can't save? Why do you even call Him
a Savior if He can't save? And that's what most people do,
they'll call him a savior, but I tell you what, he cannot actually
save anybody. But when we talk about the Lord
Jesus Christ, we're talking about one who came into this world
to represent us, to represent His elect. And how did He represent
us? He represented us in His life.
He lived a life you and I could not live. He was holy, harmless,
sinless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He lived our life
before God. Perfect life, sinless life. And
then, beloved, not only did He do that, but I tell you what,
He represented us in our death, in death. He died, why for? For our sin. For our iniquities. And I tell you what, He was buried. And bless His name, He was raised
from the dead and He ascended to glory. And the Scriptures
tell us that everything He did, we did in Him. When God looks at near you and
we're His elect, He said, No one, beloved, your beloved of
God is your election of God. And you know what that tells
us, beloved? That our Lord Jesus Christ, when God looks at us,
He looks at a sinless person. When God looks at us, He looks at a perfect man. When
God looks at us, we've already died. They say, well, you're
going to die one day. Yeah, we're going to physically die, but
we're not going to, this soul's not going to die. And not only that, but we're
going to have the same body Christ had. And then, oh my. And we've already been raised
from the dead. Death of sins, where did we raise
that? In Christ. It can't die unto
sin anymore. People say, well you better die
unto sin. We've already died unto sin. We're out in Christ. One of these times we're going
to be done with it completely and perfectly and always. But
I tell you what, until that goes on, as far as our standing before
God goes, right now, right now we're perfect, sinless, righteous. Why? Because God in His electing
grace taught us these things. Huh? That's just what I'm asking
you. I tell you what, we talk about
our Lord Jesus Christ. Why does God elect believe about
Him? They believe He's a covenant head that they were given to
Him in Christ before the foundation of the world. And I tell you
what, He's their substitute. He's our hope. He's our only
plea. He's our only righteousness.
He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. He's our
all and in all. He's our life. He's our Lord. He's our Master. He's our Redeemer. We have Him and want Him more
than we want anything else in this world. I mean, we want Christ more than
anything in this world. We can lose every relationship
we got, but this is one we can never lose. We can lose our minds, but He
will never lose us. Ain't that right? Now you're talking. I tell you something, He's not
a John that come lately. He's not a paper king. He's not
a pretender after the throne, and he certainly isn't a convenience.
And that's the way most preachers preach him, as a convenience.
You don't want to go to hell, do you? Nobody wants to go to
hell. Except Jesus, and you won't have to go. Well, how do I do
that? Raise your hand. Come up to the
front. Pray. Just sign this card. Come back
in the office with me and let me take you down a certain road. And they say, well, I tell you
what, you want an insurance policy to keep from going to hell? I
tell you, Jesus is your insurance policy. And I tell you what,
and this is the thing that really, really troubles me. When I talk
about Christ being a convenience, This idea that people can accept
and reject and get lost again, get saved again, lost again,
saved again. That means that every time they
come in here, they're wiping their feet on the Lord Jesus
Christ and saying, listen, I sinned and I fell away and everything.
I got to come back in here and get Jesus all over again. Paul
said, you know what you do when you do that? You crucify him
all over again. Oh, I tell you, this is what
I preach and this is what I believe. That the Lord Jesus Christ is
not a beggar. He's not leaning over the banisters
of heaven and said, Oh, I love you down there, won't you please,
oh, please let me in. Accept me. No, the Lord Jesus
Christ, He said, go get him, go fetch him. You know if David said go fetch
him, imagine what God says when he wants one of his to come home.
Fetch him! You reckon he's gonna be fetched? We sang that song, I need thee
every hour. Oh Lord, I need you every moment.
I need you every moment. Every moment. And then what do
we say about the Holy Spirit? What's our opinion, our attitude,
our thought of the Holy Spirit? Well, He's not just an influence,
He's a conquering power. Huh? He comes in power. And ain't that what He said here
in verse 5? For our gospel came to you, not
just in word only. And that's what I'm using. I'm
using words this morning. But if the Holy Ghost blesses
the Gospel, it comes in power. And it comes with assurance.
And you'll know what manner of man the people are that preach
the Gospel. And I'll tell you what, and how
does the Holy Spirit come and conquer? The Holy Spirit, what
He does, He works in us what Christ worked out for us. That
salvation that Christ accomplished and bought, the Holy Spirit comes
and applies it. And makes it effectual. And I'll
tell you, this is what he does. He's an irresistible power. And
how does he conquer us? He conquers us by letting us
know who Jesus Christ is. He makes Christ known to us.
He takes the things of Christ and reveals them to us. And He
shows us the love of Christ and the goodness of God and the mercy
of God and the grace of God. And He woos us. He woos us. What He does is He wins our hearts.
And so that's why every one of us is willing to come. Anybody
here? Unwillingly? Anybody come to
Christ unwillingly? No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm willing,
I'm willing, I'm willing, I'm willing. Oh, where'd I get that at? The
Holy Spirit come and worked it in me and worked it in you. And
the Holy Spirit, He has to uphold us. He's the one that teaches
us. He's the one that guides us into
truth. And He's the one who prays through
us. And now, that's what I'm asking you. What do you know
of the effects of election on the true believer? This is the
effects. What do you say about God? What do you say about Christ? What do you say about the Holy
Spirit? And let me ask you this. You got any good thing to say
about a man? You gonna get up and tell him
how good they are? You're a good fellow, you just
need Jesus. Oh my goodness, you know how
bad man is? You know how bad man is? Man
is so bad, so depraved in his mind, in his heart, in his will. I don't know how many preachers
have told me that man is limited in his ability. The only thing that he left untouched
was his will. Let me ask you this, if that's
true, why did Adam, why did he not willingly come to God the
minute he fell? Why didn't he do that? If he
left his will untouched, why didn't he come to Christ and
come to God immediately and say, I'm sorry, I fell, you told me
not to do. Why didn't he do that? I'll tell
you why. Because he's like every other
man and woman that's ever been born. He's going to put him on
some fig leaves. He's going to join the church,
buy him a Bible, get him a cross, get him some pictures of Jesus,
hang them on the wall. And he's going to dress himself
up. put bumper stickers all over
his car. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. I saw a fellow the other day,
I tell you what, he had a half a dozen bumper stickers on the
back of his truck. And I thought, he thinks he's
really doing something for God. But I tell you what, beloved
man, I'm going to tell you what I believe about depravity. Some
men are more depraved than others. But depravity means this, that
all men are as bad as they can be in God's sight. That 12-year-old
girl was dead. Lazarus was dead for four days.
He stunk. But that 12-year-old was just
as dead. She wasn't as corrupt. But it
only took Christ to get her out, to raise her up. That's what
I'm talking about. You may not be as bad as you
can be, but you're as bad off in the sight of God as you can
be. That's what I'm talking about. And I'll tell you what, you know,
man has no ability whatsoever to give himself life. You know, it'd be like the Lord
Jesus Christ Walking up to the tomb and telling Lazarus said
Lazarus Listen if you want to and if you're able and you're
willing You can come out of there That's about the way men believe
about the will of man Huh? But oh, there ain't no need to
tell about man's goodness and rights and power. We don't believe
he has any. I don't. I don't believe a man
has one ounce of power in him nowhere at all to do himself
any good before God. People say, well, I pray. You can't pray until you become
a believer. Honestly, people say, well, pray
the sinner's prayer. Every time I pray, I'm praying
a sinner's prayer. Ain't that right? That's the truth, ain't it? Oh
my. I can't do nothing but pray a
sinner's prayer. And I tell you, then ask them, Ask them about their opinion
of salvation. What's your opinion of how God saves a sinner? Let
me ask you this. Is it works or grace? Or a mixture
of both? Is it, you know, cooperate with
God? God's done His part, you do your
part? No, no, no. For by grace are
you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
what? The gift of God. Huh? Oh my. Jonah said it like
this. Salvation is of the Lord. I read a little story yesterday
out of somebody's bulletin. This woman, you know, this guy
was mocking her all the time about believing that Jonah was
swallowed by a big fish. Our Lord called it a whale. In
Matthew, He called it a whale. But he was making fun of her
all the time about how in the world can you believe that a
big fish swallowed a man? He said, I tell you what, I believe
the Word of God so much that I believe if the scripture says
that Jonah swallowed the whale, that's what I believe. And that's how much we believe
God's Word. We're not left to think of what
we think about things God tells us. Huh? Oh my, the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. Huh? It's God who has saved us. God who has called us. God who
has given us life. God did it. It's election. We talk about election. We talk
about sovereign grace. We talk about free grace. Oh my, that's what the effect
of election has on one of God's elect. Any of y'all disagree
with anything I said? You that are God's elect, you
disagree with anything I said? You think the same thing, believe
the same thing. And oh, what effect does the
doctrine of election have on our emotions? You can tell what
kind of effect they have on my emotions. But oh my, we talk about our
affections, emotions are our affections. You know, it's not
just a knowledge up here in our brain, but it's something that
goes past the ear. It's something that goes through
our mind and it gets down into our heart. It gets down into
our very soul. It gets down into our very blood. It gets down
into the inside of our hearts and souls. It's more than just
a doctrine we glory in. No, election. Listen, election's
not our savior. Christ is. Election's not our
salvation. Christ is. But we're chosen unto
salvation. You see, I don't know how to
say this. I'm going to try to explain it.
There's people that believe that you can be saved, you can be
one of God's elect, and never know it until you get to eternity.
But that's not what the Bible teaches. That's what we just
learned there. You know, our gospel came to you not in word only,
but in power and in the Holy Ghost in much assurance. Now
if God elects somebody and chooses somebody, that election and salvation
is in Christ first and foremost. Christ has a body. He's the head
of a body. And then He chooses those people. And then He's chosen
them unto salvation. All of God's elect are going
to be saved. Is that not right? So that makes
election not our Savior. Christ is our Savior. But we're
chosen unto salvation. In Christ. Huh? Does that make
any sense? And I tell you what, you know
our, and what an effect it has upon us. Woo! On our affections. One time I heard, I heard Henry
told this on Barnard. Said somebody wrote a book on
election. And said the hated doctrine of
election. Barnard told him, you need to
change the name of that, why do you do it? The Blessed Doctrine
of Election. It blesses us, don't it? Oh my, you think about the person
and the purpose and the glory of election. Christ chose us. God chose us. And God did it
on purpose. And he done it that he gets all
the glory. He didn't look down through time
and said, I'm going to see who's going to believe and who's not
going to believe. And so then I'm going to go down here and
I'm going to elect those who are going to believe anyway. That means God's going around
to find out who's the best fellow to select and that's not election
at all. How's God going to get glory
out of that? Oh my, and when we receive this
blessed revelation of God's glorious truth, oh the joy, the joy. Oh my goodness, blessed are they
who hear the joyful sound. Oh my, blessed is the man whom
thou choosest. Well that's a wonderful thing.
and then calls his son to approach unto thee. Oh my Lord Jesus said I thank
you oh father that you've hid these things from the wise and
prudent and listen to this has revealed it unto babes why even
so it seemed good in thy sight You know, men approach dignitaries
and kings only by invitation. Not so with God. God don't do that. Sovereign
don't invite, He commands. Can you hear God asking, inviting
somebody? God inviting somebody? Might invite you to the house
for dinner if Shirley's willing But I might do that You might buy me your house,
but God don't invite he says come and you come He said he prepared a great supper
and all those that were invited they started making excuses you
know about the The fool and the henpecked husband, don't you?
Two fools and a henpecked husband? You know about them, don't you? The fool had the supper made. He said, listen, I bought a piece
of ground. I need to go look at it. That's
a fool who buys something before he looks at it. Secondly, the
other one said, I bought five yokels of oxen. I need to go
try them. Why didn't he try them before he bought them? But he
used that to keep from coming to supper. And then the other
and he and Peck's husband said, I can't come, I married a wife. But oh, you know what God said,
you know what the man who made that great supper, he sent his
servant, he said, you go out into the highways, the hedges,
you go and you compel them to come in. And you know what? He had that
supper table completely full of the poor, the blind, the lame,
the helpless. They went out in the highways
and hedges, said, listen, come on, my master's got a supper,
come on. Boy, I tell you what, when you're
hungry, you go sit down. And I tell you, here's something
else now. Oh, on our affections, humility. Oh my. What have we
got to boast in? What have we got to glory in?
Huh? Oh, what have you got that you
didn't receive? Oh, Paul said, I am by the grace
of God, I am what I am. When David called Mephibosheth,
You know the first thing Mephibosheth said when he fell before David?
He said, Why lookest thou upon such a dead dog as I? Ain't that the way we feel before
God? How could you look on us? How
could you consider us? How could you have anything to
do with us? How? Oh my. And I tell you what, there's
three awful sins that men commit. And that's the awful sin of pride
of grace. Oh boy. Man, we know something
other people don't. And then there's the pride of
face. Oh, we're special people. I'm
really somebody. And then pride of place. Where
we're from, where we're going, and who we know. Oh my. That's no humility in that. And
I'll tell you something else this blessed thing does on our
affections. We all need comfort. And He's the God of comfort.
And when He sends hard trials, and sometimes He sends them hard,
hard trials, hard trials, we have great comfort in them. For
we know that all things work together for good. to them that
love God and the called according to His purpose. I tell you what,
when it comes to hard trials, God's absolute sovereignty in
all things gives us such comfort, such comfort, gives us such assurance.
We can rest in this, that God Almighty is the one doing it. Nobody else is doing it. And
oh, what confidence and assurance we have You know, when Paul said,
for whom he did foreknow, then he also did predestinate. Oh
my! First of all, we're predestinated.
I'm gonna preach on predestination down there in Texas, I think,
or else at Milton's one. But here's the thing. And then
he called them. Then he justified them. And you
know what he said? And then he said, he was talking about comfort
and assurance and confidence. Who shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? Will tribulation
do it? Trials do it? Peril do it? Will the sword do it? Somebody
wanted to beat on you? No! Life? Death? No! We're persuaded that
He has saved us and that nothing, nothing, nothing shall be able
to separate us from the love of God that's in Christ. How
come we know that? Because God said, I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish." If that's the
only verse we had in the Bible, that'd give us assurance, wouldn't
it? If that's the only verse in the
Bible. Well, I tell you, I don't have a clue. And then, what about our experience?
You know, people, we, we, now listen, I, We all have experiences. You cannot know God and not have
an experience. It's an impossibility. Isaiah,
he said, when I saw the Lord, he had an experience. He said,
woe is me, woe unto me. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I dwell in the midst of a bunch of people of unclean lips. But
I know one thing, he never trusted in that experience, he trusted
in Christ who saved him and took the coals of fire. And I tell
you what, we've all, we've all, people say all the time, well
you know God saved this me from cocaine, He saved me from this,
He saved me from that. Listen, God saves us from sin. We don't have no testimony other
than that God saved us from ourselves and sin. And you asked about what's the
testimony of a child of grace. You know what he says? Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory, for thy
mercy, for thy truth. Huh? Oh my, we say, oh listen,
blessed be the Lord God. Blessed be the Lord God who has
given us all things in Christ before the world ever began.
And I tell you what, you cannot, cannot, let me tell you this,
we don't trust in our experience, but you cannot know God without
having experience. And that's why, beloved, the
gospel, it does it for you. You don't do it yourself. I've
had a lot of experiences. I've had experiences way down
yonder, and I've had experiences way up there. I'm having an experience
right now. It's a very good one. Now tomorrow
it may be... But that's okay. But when God comes and does something
for a man, He knows God did it. He did do it. That's why He gives
God all the glory. Huh? Oh, look what He said over
here. Look at our experience. Look
what it said over here in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 12. If you're
looking at 1 Thessalonians, Colossians should be right on your page,
right next to it, right before you get to it. Look what it says
about God's elect here. That's why Paul said, by the
grace of God I am what I am. Put on therefore as the elect
of God. Oh my, holy and beloved. Bows
of mercy, that means hearts full of mercy. Kindness, humbleness
of mind and meekness. Oh my. And I tell you, that's what we're
talking about. We're having these changing, you know, and working
and God doing something for us. Putting on charity, verse 14,
put on charity the bond of perfectness. But I know this, Paul said, when
it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace. Now let me tell you something
else, it does not only have an effect, the doctrine of election
have an effect upon our experience. On our experience, Scott Richardson
told me one time, he said when he got a hold of a track on election
by Spurgeon, when he was a young man, and he said, I just wore
that track out. I preached on that track, I marked
that track up, and I preached on it, and preached on it, and
preached on it, and preached on it. You know why that is? You've got to tell what you know.
And if you're one of God's elect, you're going to talk about election.
But all right, anyway. What about our devotions? What effect it has upon our devotions?
When I talk about devotions, I'm talking about prayer. I'm
talking about praise. I'm talking about thanksgiving.
Oh my, whom we pray to. Here's the thing. You need to
give your life to Jesus. Listen. He is our life. I'm His lock, stock and barrel. Isn't that right? So you know people get up and
say, you need to devote yourself to this and devote yourself to
that. Here's the thing about it, God
and Christ already devoted themselves to us. And He bought us lock,
stock and barrel and I want Him to have every ounce of me. I
want Him to have my will, my affections, my emotions, my thoughts,
my understanding. I want Him to have all of me.
Don't you? And I tell you what, so that's
what I'm talking about, prayer and praise and thanksgiving,
generosity. And oh my, then let me close
with this one. It has an effect on what we think. has an effect upon our emotions,
and our affections, and our experience, and upon what we call our devotions,
our prayers, and our praise, and our thanksgiving. Oh, look
what it says here in verse 3 of 1 Thessalonians 3, when he talked
about these people's devotions now, and how they work toward
God. Paul said, remembering without
ceasing. Here's the first thing he said, your work of faith. Faith worked in you and your
labor of love. What you did, you did because
you love people. You did out of love. Everything
you did, you did because you loved. And then you have patience
of hope. You're waiting on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all these things are in the
sight of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? And then let me talk about our
acts, our actions. You know, we all have actions. People say, actions speak louder
than words. I don't know, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
But I do know one thing, we're predestinated to be conformed
to the image of Christ. We are. We're going to be conformed
to the image of Christ. And we want to be like Christ
as much as God will work in us to be like Him. And here's the
first thing we want to imitate Him in, in love. In love. In love. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said, you know, without charity, without charity, man don't have
anything. And you know, and we love Him.
Why do we love Him? Because He first loved us. Huh? And that's what love. Love will do something for you
and never ever want to be recognized for it or want a reward for it. And then how about forgiving? Forgiving one another even as
God for Christ's sake has forgiven us. And then how about generosity? Our Lord Jesus Christ, though
He was rich, He became poor, that we through His poverty might
be made rich. Has anybody got here anything
that God didn't already give them? This is something I believe,
and you know, if you don't want to believe it, that's fine, that's
alright. You can be wrong if you want to. But here's what I believe. I
believe that all our money is the Lord, so what we give, we
give to the Lord, as unto the Lord what He's already gave us.
We don't nickel and dime God. You know, we don't nickel and
dime God. We're not trying to sell anything, not trying to,
no, no. Everything we've got, God give to us. And people get
upset, you know, I remember some folks got upset one time and
they said, well, I'm going to quit giving because I tell you
they let so and so do something to us and they done that and
the other. And they said, I'm going to quit giving. Never hurt
us, it just hurt them. Ain't that right? So whatever
you give, you're giving it as unto the Lord. Not to Lantana
Grace Church. Not to Donny Bell. You're giving
it as unto the Lord. And then God give us wisdom here
as men and women to use that money, to use whatever God gives
us to His glory and the good of His elect. No matter where
they are. Right? So oh my, may we be generous. And may we, may we just tell
what we know. No more, no less. Huh? No more, no less. Well, is that
the effect of the doctrine of election on you? It is on me. I hope that was
a blessing. Is there a song that's got that
in it somewhere? Something about election? I can't
think of one. Oh how merciful How merciful
Precious Lord How merciful Thou art to me