All right, good to see you all
again. Open your Bibles to the book of Titus, Titus chapter
1. Delighted to see all of you and to fellowship
together around the gospel of our Savior. And it's good to
be around folks that talk the same way we do again. I called one of the men in our
congregation yesterday. He said, I see you got that strong
southern accent again. And I said, well, you know, I
come down here to brush up on it a little bit just so I don't
lose that. But anyway, may the Spirit of God enable
me this morning to deal with the subject, eight things God
cannot do. Eight things our God cannot do. I know God's sovereign in all
things. You do too. Our God's sovereign. Somebody
said, would you define what you mean by God is sovereign? I'd
say God has the absolute independent right to do whatever He wants
to with all of His creation. And he not only has the right
to do what he wants to do, he does what he wants to do. That's
what Isaiah said. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did he. David said the same thing in
Psalms. Heathen said, David, where's
your God? We have our gods. Our gods sitting
on the shelves. We have gods of stone, wood,
idols that we fashion with our hands. We pick them up and carry
them where we want to carry them. We hand them with our own hands
or we've hired a goldsmith, he's fashioned them. And we have our
gods. We have them all set up, lined
up on a shelf. We bring them out when we need
them. We can't see your god. Where is your god, David? David
said, our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever he's pleased.
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, David said, Psalm 115, that did
he in the heavens and the earth, seas and all deep places. Nebuchadnezzar
learned of the sovereignty of God. He said his dominion is an everlasting
dominion. And nobody can stop him from
doing what he wants to do. This is the language of the Bible.
God Almighty is totally sovereign. He's got a right to do whatever
he wants to do. He made all things. The Lord
said, cannot I do what I will with mine own? I remember one time Nancy's daddy,
he had a farm. It was in steel construction
and then he retired back to the farm. Oh, about 125 acres. We was talking one day. He said,
explain to me what you mean by God's sovereignty. I said, well,
it's your farm, isn't it? He said, yeah. I said, why'd
you put that no trespassing sign up? He said, I didn't want anybody
coming on my property. I said, you got all them wild
turkeys over there. Sometimes I see 40 or 50 wild
turkeys. People stop along the highway,
you know, and look at the wild turkeys. I said, why won't you
let people hunt them wild turkeys? He said, well, they own my property.
I said, how come you plant alfalfa in that field and corn in that
field? He said, well, I can do whatever I want to. It's my property.
I said, that's exactly what sovereignty is. I said, except God don't
have to fence in his property, because he owns it all. And he
does exactly what he wants to do with all that he possesses.
That's his absolute right. This is the God of the Bible,
and I'll tell you this, you haven't worshipped. You have not worshipped
God until you've worshipped the God who's altogether sovereign.
If somehow or another you think God is, you know, waiting on
you and dependent upon you and what God wants to do might not
be done if you don't cooperate in some way, you got the wrong
God. You absolutely got the wrong
God. You've not worshipped till you've worshipped at the throne
of the sovereign God. He does what He wants to. You
remember when Peter and John, you know, they healed that guy,
the lame man, and then the Sanhedrin got so upset with them, threw
them into jail and ordered that they not speak anymore in the
name of the Lord Jesus. And they were ready to, the scripture
says, ready to kill them. A man stood up by the name of
Gamaliel. He told the Sanhedrinists, let's
go over here and let's have a little session amongst ourselves. He said, refrain from these men. That's what he said. Refrain
from these men and let nothing be done to them. For if it be of God, you can't overthrow it. If this
is of God, you can't overthrow God. Our God cannot be overthrown. That's what we're saying. He
does His will in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants
of all the earth. That's in all things good and
all things evil. God has his way. What's the worst
thing that ever happened in the world? And a lot of awful things happened
over the course of time. We know that. But our Redeemer, the Son of
God, impeccable, only perfect man came into this world. And all the religious world,
all the natural world turned thumbs down on him. Perfect man. They took him off to Calvary.
They killed him. You murdered the just one, that's
what Simon Peter said. You with your wicked hands, you've
slain him. You did it. In Acts chapter 4, We read that
those wicked things that they did, they did according to God's
eternal purpose of grace. Herod, Pontius Pilate, with the
Gentiles and the Jews, they all came together to do whatsoever
thy hand, thy counsel determined before to be done. After all,
how can God be a just God and a Savior as you prayed, apart
from the death of the Lord Jesus Christ? How can we be made righteous
except through the righteousness of someone who is altogether
innocent of sin? Yea, the very God-man himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He had to die. Justice had to
be satisfied. The death of the Lord Jesus was
no accident. He died on purpose, according
to God's purpose. God's got to be holy. God's got
to be just. He's not going to compromise
His justice. He's not going to compromise
His holiness. And He loves His people with an everlasting love.
So how can God who's holy and righteous and perfect, how can
He have any dealings with folks like us who drink iniquity like
water? How can He receive us and embrace
us without fouling Himself? Without defiling His holy character? And behold the infinite wisdom
of God. He uses sinful, wicked men manipulating
all things now. All things are of God. That's
what we're talking about. God is sovereign. The Son of Man
goeth forth as it was determined, is what the Scripture says. But
woe unto him by whom he is betrayed. Our God taking care of all the
details. in order to bring to pass that
which He purposed to do before the world began, because the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from before the foundation
of the world. God purposed His death. And He
used wicked men to bring it to pass. You say, oh preacher, I
hope that God will use me. You can count on it. He uses
everybody. Doesn't he? He used Pharaoh. I don't want to be used like
that, Mark. But he used him. He said, for this same purpose,
I raised you up. Isn't that what Scripture says?
I raised you up. Well, Pharaoh thought he just,
this is by entitlement. I'm in the family. I'm the son
of Pharaoh. I'll be Pharaoh someday. God
said, I put you on the throne. And God used him. And then God cast him aside.
God's going to use everybody. He's sovereign. Bow at his feet. Worship him. All things move at his command.
I tell you this, any God whose word can be broken, any God whose
will can be frustrated, any God whose power can be resisted,
any God whose purpose can be thwarted, any God whose pleasure,
His pleasure, what He wants, He can accomplish it, He's not
God at all. And you're wasting your time
worshiping a God like that. He's just a figment of man's
foul imagination. I'll tell you what's sad. This
very hour, throughout this city, throughout this nation, much
of the world, people are gathering like we're gathering. And many
of them are opening the Bible, right? And they're doing exactly
what the Lord said through the pen of Isaiah. You're praying
to a God that can't answer you. And you're calling on the name
of a God who cannot save. That king looked in the cave
where he had thrown Daniel. And he said, O Daniel, can thy God save thee? Daniel, you all right? Daniel said, O King, live forever.
Daniel worshipped the God who can save, and he can save through
a righteous way. That's the only way God can save
anyway, is in a just way, isn't that right? Not at the expense
of his justice, but in full accordance with his justice. Well, God is
sovereign. He does what he wants to do.
Now hang on a second though. That doesn't mean God can just
do anything. We got to qualify that. God can
do anything consistent with his holy character. Right? There's
some things God can't do. He just can't do them. Impossible.
Look, here's the first one. Let me give these eight to you.
I've got eight points and I've got 18 minutes, 19, 20 minutes
to do it. Let's see if we can get them
in here. Alright, here we go. Titus chapter 1. Stay with me.
I'll just kind of skip along the surface here. For the sake of time, let me
read the second verse. Titus 1 verse 2. In a hope of
eternal life, which God that cannot lie. which God that cannot
lie promised before the world began." Now, if there's anything
God has said, anything God has promised, anything God has threatened,
you can bank on it now. It's absolutely so, because He
can't lie. God cannot lie. He is the truth. That's our Savior, one of His
names. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Our God cannot lie. That means every promise in the
Word of God, children of God, embrace them. All things work together for
the good of those that love God to those who are called according
to His purpose. Embrace that promise. God can't
lie. You see, we've already established
God's sovereign. He rules in every situation.
Sickness, tribulation, all those trials, sorrows. He rules in
all of those things. And He says all of these things
are working together, not individually now. Don't isolate one thing
and say, I don't know how this is for my good. It's this thing
working with that thing working with this thing and everything
else and God putting it all together as only God can do and making
something good out of it. It's good for you. David said,
it's good for me that I've been afflicted. Why? That I might
learn thy statutes. That I might learn thy words.
Embrace God's promises. He can't lie. He can't lie. He said, Lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world. Is that true? Is it true or isn't
it true? God can't lie now. All His promises
are true. And they are all yea and amen
in Christ Jesus. Not outside of Christ Jesus.
You see, everything God's got for a sinner is in His Son. And
outside of His Son, He doesn't have anything for them but wrath,
and judgment, and righteous indignation. God can't lie. All His promises
are absolutely the truth. And all of His threats. And I... I don't know what your condition
is before God this morning, whether you've been brought to flee for
refuge for your soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know whether
you have been brought by the Spirit of God to throw away,
get rid of, everything you've ever leaned on, every good thing
you think you've ever done that would recommend you to God. I
don't know whether God the Spirit brought you to that place where
you repent of all your dead works and say like the Apostle Paul,
I count them bedung, to win Christ. But I'll tell you this, God's
threats are absolutely the truth. If you die in your sins, Christ
said, where I am, You cannot come. And he wasn't lying. You
can't come because outside of Jesus Christ nobody's righteous. And God's not going to have anything
to do with somebody who's not righteous. He can't. It's impossible. God can't lie. Here's the second
thing. Look with me in Malachi chapter 3 and you know this. You don't even probably have
to turn to it, but it would do good to read it again.
Malachi chapter 3. First, God can't lie. The second
thing is God cannot change or be changed. God cannot change
or be changed. Malachi chapter 3 verse 8. That's not what I want. 3.6.
Sorry. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob. That's all of us. We're sons
of Jacob. Lying scoundrels. Every one of
us. Ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Job said in Job 23.13, But he
is of one mind who can turn him, and what his soul desireth, even
that he doeth. James says, James 1.17, Every
good gift, every perfect gift is from above, cometh down from
the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. Psalm 33.11, The counsel of the
Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his hearts to all generations.
We are changeable creatures. We're fickle. We change our minds more than
we change our clothes. But there's no changing of the
Lord. No changing of His eternal purpose. What God decreed to
be done is going to be done because God's not making any new decisions. God doesn't respond to what men
do. God doesn't wait to see what
man does and then God says, well, I think I'll do this. All of
God's counsels are from the beginning, even before time began. His purpose
doesn't change. His power doesn't change. His
love doesn't change. That man tell me one time, you
know, before I was saved, he said, God hated me. He said that
I was saved and now God loves me. Well, he's got a real problem
on his hands because he's got a mutable God. I've got news for you. If God
loves you, he's always loved you in Christ Jesus. And if God
hates you, if you're one of the many, many Esau's, he's always
hated you. That's right, isn't it? God can't
change. God can't change. He can't change
in his being. He's unchangeable. Talked about
the folks that are sick, folks having problems, we pray for
them. We're not trying to change the
will of God, are we? Surely we're not. That's what
bothers me about people, how we're going to have prayer chain.
We don't want it to be broken, and we just get as many churches
praying about this as possible. And, you know, if we get enough
people, maybe we'll get God to see our point of view. God's not going to change now.
I tell you, it's a matter of prayer. It's not to change God.
It changes us. Brings us into conformity to
His will to where we pray, not my will, thy will be done. I'm
not trying to get God to change His perfect will. Why, that'd
be absurd. Why, that'd be foolish, wouldn't it? God has His perfect
eternal counsel? What He's always purposed to
do? Which is good and wise and holy and glorifying to His name? In which Christ Jesus has all
the preeminence? Would I want to change His will?
First of all, I can't do it. And secondly, I wouldn't want
to do it. You can't change God. God's unchangeable. He's unchangeable. Now here's the third thing. Look
at 1 Peter 2. God cannot sin, nor can He be
contaminated with sin. Look at 1 Peter 2. Our God cannot
sin, and He cannot be contaminated with sin. 1 Peter 2. Verse 22. Who did no sin. That's the Son of God. Neither
was guile found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. But he committed himself to him
that judgeth righteously. Who his own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. God cannot sin nor be contaminated
by sin. After all, he's God. Isaiah said, he saw the seraphim,
they're crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. And our Savior, the Son of God,
made likened to sinful flesh, not made sinful flesh, but made
likened to sinful flesh, made likened to His brethren. But
without sin, Throughout the Old Testament,
all those sacrifices that were offered to God, here's the qualification
always, without spot and without blemish. I love this verse in
Leviticus 22, 21. It shall be perfect to be accepted. File that one away. It shall
be perfect to be accepted. That's always the standard with
God. And that will never ever change. And when our blessed Savior took
our place, dying our death, in no way, shape, or fashion
was He contaminated with our filth. He bore our sin as a load. Isaiah puts it this way in Isaiah
53 verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned
everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him, literally
made to meet on him the iniquities of us all. Here's as best I can
see it. And nobody sees things 20-20
spiritually. I realize that. We're feeble
beings. But here's the way I see it and
here's the way it is. All of the sins of all of God's
elect were imputed to, charged to, reckoned to the Son of God
spotless in and of Himself. Those sins, the load of them,
never contaminated his inner being. Otherwise, he would have
been disqualified from being the Savior. Isn't that right? And he, by his death, by satisfying
divine justice, by honoring God's law in His death upon the cross,
established for His people, for His elect people, a perfect righteousness
that God Almighty is satisfied with. And that perfect righteousness
is imputed to, reckoned to, charged to, all of His elect. Wow! Isn't that the most glorious
thing you ever heard? I stand before a holy God this
morning, really, truly righteous. I don't bear my sin. God Himself
took them off of me and laid them on His Son and He doesn't
bear them. Because like that scapegoat,
He bore them away into a land uninhabited. And I go free. Go free. God can't be contaminated with
sin. Otherwise, He couldn't be the
Savior. I'll tell you something else,
number four, and I'm going to have to move on along, but God
cannot save a sinner without a suitable sacrifice. God cannot save a sinner without
a suitable sacrifice. Look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse
22. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22. God cannot save a sinner without
a suitable sacrifice. So God could save a sinner any
way he wanted to. I like reading A.W. Pink. First,
really, The meaty book that was put in my hands in 1969 was The
Sovereignty of God by Arthur Pink. I sat up all night reading
it. And I hold him in high esteem in many ways. But he's got some
notes in the book of John, in John chapter 3, and I'm paraphrasing
that, where he says that basically God could have saved sinners
any way he wanted to, but this is the way he chose. See, I don't care who the writer
is, there's error in the writings of all men somewhere. You put
them under a magnifying glass because only God's true. God cannot save a sinner without
a suitable sacrifice. Here, Hebrews chapter 9, verse
22. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood. What
did I say? Without shedding of blood, there's
no remission. Don't tell me God could have
saved a sinner some other way than the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Why, that contradicts the Word of God. It contradicts
the wisdom of God. It contradicts the integrity
of God. You mean to tell me God put His
Son through hell to save us? And he could have done it some
other way. You bring reproach upon the name and the work of
Jesus Christ. God cannot save a sinner without
a suitable sacrifice. That sacrifice must be innocent.
That sacrifice must be one of our nature. That sacrifice must
be a man of infinite merit. He's the God-man. Number five. God cannot take anyone to heaven
who is not perfectly righteous in his sight. Matthew chapter 5 verse 20, our
Lord said this to his disciples, except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. God can't
take anyone to heaven who's not perfectly righteous in his sight.
Hebrews 12, 14 says, without holiness. No man shall see the Lord. Preacher,
how good have I got to be to appear before God and be accepted? Oh my, you've got to be holy.
You've got to be as righteous as God is, Jim. Wow! As righteous as God is. You mean
if I do the best I can and try to live right? Be obedient to
the law, civil law and parental law. Live by the Bible and read
the Bible and pray. You mean that's not good enough?
No, that's not good enough. You've got to be righteous. This
holy God requires holiness. We've got to be justified by
the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. Oh, tell the world. Tell the
world. No acceptance outside of Christ. No justification outside of Christ. No going to glory. Everybody
talks about going to heaven. Good old ain't so and so. She's the best person I knew.
And you know, people pass by her in the casket and say, well,
if anybody ever made it to heaven, she did because she's such a
good person. There's none good, no not one,
none good but God. You better find out how you can
be as good as God if you're going to go to glory. And very quickly,
number six, God cannot send anyone to hell for whom Christ suffered,
bled, and died. And I got several references.
I won't take the time to turn to them. Isaiah 53, 11. Romans
8, 1. Romans 8.34, Galatians 3.13,
Hebrews 9.12, God cannot send anyone to hell for whom Christ
suffered, bled, and died. Top lady said, payment God cannot
twice demand. First at my bleeding, sure at
His hand, then again at mine. I give you several reasons. The
decree of grace won't allow it. God's chosen a people unto salvation. Well, they must be saved. That's
it. It must be. It can't wind up
any other way but save Randy. It's going to be saved. God's
purposed it. The love of God won't allow it. There's nobody
in hell who is loved by God. What kind of love wants to save
somebody but can't save somebody? That's not God's love. God saves
everybody He loves. There's nobody in hell suffering
the wrath of God, beloved of God. That's impossible. And the goodness of God won't
allow it. And the justice of God won't
allow it. This matter of salvation, you
better start thinking along the lines of the justice of God.
God being a just God and a Savior. How can you be a just God and
a Savior? Through the doing and the dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's how. And then, number seven,
God cannot save a sinner apart from the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1, 21-24. I hear men say, well, you know,
God can save men with the use of means, or without the use
of means, or in spite of the means that are used. After all,
God is sovereign. He can do what He will. Well,
I know God is sovereign. And He can do what He wants to,
but God can't lie. God can't do anything contrary
to His word. And he said in his word, he uses
the truth. Ye shall know the truth. That's what will set you free.
Not error. Not error. Preacher, don't you
believe that there are many people in these churches that preach
free willism and They're works mongers. Don't you believe there
are many people in there believe in that message that are really
saved though because they believe on Jesus? No. No. They don't know the truth. They
don't know the gospel. That's why we're all about the
gospel. That's why we preach the gospel. God doesn't use lies
to accomplish His purpose. God doesn't use a false gospel. I was telling somebody yesterday,
you know, there are those who believe that, you know, the Armenians
get them saved with their false gospel, but it's close enough. And then the sovereign grace
people, we teach them. Do you believe that? Do you believe
God uses error to accomplish His purpose? Do you believe God
is so short-sighted and so short-handed that he has to use the devil's
servants, false prophets, to accomplish his purpose of redemption. I don't believe that at all.
He doesn't use error. I tell you, where is that verse? Hang on a second. In whom you
also trusted after that you heard the word of truth. After that,
you've got to be confronted with who God is, and what you are,
and who Jesus Christ is, and what He's already accomplished.
You've got to be made acquainted with substitution and satisfaction. And that's two things that this
modern religious world is altogether ignorant about. You've got to
be confronted with the Gospel. With the Gospel. God cannot save
a sinner apart from the gospel. And finally, God cannot fail
to save any sinner who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell
you, I present to you the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory, in
His preeminence, Son of God, Son of Man, Sovereign Savior,
Successful Savior, Triumphant Savior. You believe Him? You're
safe forever. That's right. God cannot fail
to save any sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I'll tell you why. Because God gives you faith to
believe. He gives you repentance to turn
from your false religion, to turn from your dead works, to
turn from your idols. Till we worship God, we're idolaters. And we repent of that. And we
do an about-face. I used to be in the band. I was
a drum major in the band. Marching along. About-face! Ah, there's repentance in faith.
It's doing an about-face on these dead works. On your own rotten
righteousness. And looking to the sweet Savior
and His righteousness. And you accept it in Him. Amen. I'm done.