Well, last week was our last
message in the book of James. And this week, I'm going to teach a little message here.
And I'm not going to teach you anything that you don't already
know, which really, the gospel is that, isn't it? I'm continuously
teaching each week something you guys know. And we're going
to look at five words for today. five Bible words, and then next
week we're going to start our study in the book of Galatians.
But we're going to look at five Bible words today. And again,
these are words that we already know. And I think it's important for
us, though, to look at these words and to reflect upon these
words. The Scripture never gets old,
does it? It never gets old. And for we who are the redeemed
of the Lord, We come each week, we want to hear about Christ.
Well, all these words that we're going to look at, these five
Bible words, their hub is Christ. And I consider these five Bible
words like spokes that come out of the hub. Because he's always
the center. He's always the center. It's
always about Christ and him alone. It's always about what he's done,
And never about anything we do, because we don't bring anything
to salvation. But we bring our sin, and that's
it, right? But as far as contributing to
salvation, we don't contribute anything to salvation. It's a
gift of God. We're going to see that in the main message today,
that it's a gift of God. And sometimes it's not even sought
after. Well, we know that the scripture actually tells us that
Christ seeks those who he was not sought after by. And we'll
see that in the main message as well. But these five Bible
words, you will hear them proclaimed by faithful gospel preachers
many times. And I find these words are melodious
to the soul. They're melodious to the born-again
believer. because, again, they get our minds set upon Christ.
They focus our attention upon what He's done, and what He's
done for us as believers. And sometimes we can become familiar
with doctrine or with certain things, and we'll say, well,
I know that. But I believe it's important
for us to always look at these words. always look at the truth
of the scriptures and to be marveled at it's like Psalm 23 we've all
heard it and and we could probably recite
parts of it but it's never old for the believer
and when you start looking into those words about the Lord and
who he is Lord our healer the Lord our Shepherd oh my Lord
our provider Jehovah Jireh. It's amazing when you start to
break down that song or do that down the road. I had that put
upon my heart to eventually go through Psalm 23 again and probably
in a Sunday school setting and just really break down the whole
song itself. But these five words again. These
five words. Will give us hope. Will give
us hope. The first Bible word that I'd
like us to look at is election. Election. And let us remember that outside
of Christ, there's no election. Right? There's none. And God's
election of his people is unconditional. It's not based upon anything
in us at all. Nothing in us at all. It's immutable, too. It can't change. If God chose
you in Christ, you're chosen in Christ. You can't change that
fact. Praise be to God, right? You
can't change that fact based upon our own sinfulness, and
all we are is sin. God has chosen to save a people. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
15. Now, when Adam fell in the garden,
Every one of us fell in him. All of humanity fell in him.
We are the children of Adam. All of us. The difference with
Christ is he is the seed of the woman. He wasn't tainted with sin. We're
tainted with sin from our father and from our mother. But look what it says here in
John chapter 15 verse 16, and I remember When I first heard
about election, I recoiled, because I believed that it was based
upon my will, that the Lord saved me. And I had never really saw
these verses. Look at this verse in John 15,
16, and remember when we were chosen, right? Ephesians 1 says
we were chosen in Christ, which means elect, in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Now look what it says here. ye
have not chosen me. Yeah, but I've chosen you. Now, how many people in this
world are told to pray a prayer or bow their head? That's not
even in the scripture, right? We know that, and we are gonna
see today, oh my, in the main message, we are gonna see God's
irresistible power. When he calls a sinner to him,
you cannot resist. You cannot resist. Look at this.
You have not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you.
Ordained us to what? That we should go forth and bring
forth fruit. That the Holy Spirit would work in us. And remember,
when it says bring forth fruit there, it's not by something
we do. It's by the Holy Spirit of God working in us and producing
this fruit. Joy, peace, longsuffering. He produces all that in us. He
gives us faith to believe on Christ. And that your future
to remain. That which the Holy Spirit rots
in us remains. Isn't that amazing? And that whatsoever ye shall
ask of my Father in my name, He may give it. And we know that's
all according to God's will and purpose. He answers our prayers
according to His will. We don't know His will. I always
look, if the Lord doesn't answer one of my prayers, it wasn't
His will for me to have that or do that. Period. It's amazing. I had a friend
back west, Paul, dear brother, he came to us. The Lord saved
him out of Mormonism and he heard one of our grace preachers preaching
on the radio. And he had mentioned that we had a work in Central
Point at the time, he came to visit us. And he stayed for six
years before he passed away. And I had the privilege of preaching
his funeral, and dear, dear brother, but he told me, he said, Wayne,
when I wanna buy something, I'll go into a store, and I'll go
in a store, and I'll see, well, do I really need it? I want it,
but do I really need it? And he says, I pray, I say, I'm
gonna go home and pray about it for one night. And he goes
home and he prays, the Lord wills, He says, I'll go back the next
day. If it's there, I'll buy it. If it's not, it wasn't the
Lord's will for me to have it. I said, that's awesome, Paul.
That was just his way of, if the Lord didn't want him to have
it, it'd be gone. And he said, sometimes things were gone. So
I just went, you know. But that was his, it was neat,
because that was his way of figuring that if it was the Lord's will
for him to have it, he'd have it. And if he didn't, he wouldn't.
So we all fell in on him. We all fell on Adam, and the
Lord will answer our prayers according to his will. Turn now,
if you would, to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians. And remember
this, we come into this world, right, lacking the ability to
save ourselves. We can't save ourselves at all.
We can't do anything to save ourselves, not at all. We're
dead in trespasses and sins. We do not seek God. There's none
that understand that. That's our natural state. We
do not understand God. We do not understand the things
of the scripture. But oh, when we're born again of the Holy
Spirit of God, Now we have an understanding. This book's a
whole different book, isn't it? Oh my gosh, it's incredible. Look at this, oh this is wonderful.
And this is a young church. Now anyone who says that you
shouldn't teach election to young converts, look at this. Now do we need to, this is something
that I gotta say. When the Lord saves us, we don't
know a whole lot. Some people say, well, you have
to know this doctrine to be saved. You look to Christ. He will teach
you those doctrines. Doctrine doesn't save. Christ
saves. Doctrine is sweet and beautiful
and wonderful. But it's Christ who saves. And
he will teach us these things. Think of this. We did not know
about election. I had no clue about election
before the Lord saved me. When the Lord saved me, I still
didn't really understand about election. He taught me that,
and now I marvel at it. It's actually one of my favorite
doctrines, because I know that if God hadn't chose me, I'd never
chose Him. So I love the doctrine of election,
personally, because it just makes me marvel that God chose me in
Christ. Look at this, though. So he's
writing to a young church here in Thessalonica, and remember,
What God wills comes to pass, right? Look what he writes here,
1 Thessalonians 1, verses 1 to 5. We give thanks, God, always
for you, making mention of you in our prayers. Remembering without
ceasing your work of faith, in labor of love, in patience of
hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God, in our Father,
knowing, brethren beloved, your what? Election of God. That means,
in the Greek, God-chosen. So election is a biblical word.
When people say, well, I don't believe in election, you're saying
you don't believe the Bible? Because there it is. Knowing,
brethren beloved, your election, you being chosen of God. And
remember what Christ said, you have not chosen me, I have chosen
you. See, there it is. Look at this. I love this next
verse, look at this. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only. Today we're gonna see that the
gospel came to Felix in word only, but not in power. He told
Paul, I'm gonna have you come back in a convenient time. That
convenient time never came, did it? But for these saints here,
the word of God didn't just come, they didn't just hear Paul's
words. But it came in power. In the power of the Holy Spirit
of God. And He made it effectual. And
saved their souls. It came in power. And in the
Holy Ghost. And in much assurance. We have much assurance as believers,
don't we? Now we doubt. We get tossed to and fro. But
our assurance is not in ourselves. Our assurance is in Christ. It's
in Christ and Him alone. It's wonderful. As you know,
what manner of man we were among you for your sake. And all that
happened according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Because they were chosen in Christ, and that Word came
with the power of the Holy Spirit of God, and they were regenerated,
and they were granted faith to believe just like we are as believers.
Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. And
then it says in Ephesians 1, 4, it says, according as he had
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love. Now, the Greek word
for chosen there in Ephesians 1, 4 means to this, to pick out. God picked us out, beloved. And
there was nothing in us that caused him to do that. Isn't
that amazing? Nothing in us that caused him
to do that. It also means to select in recipients of special
favor and privilege, to set apart. Beloved, we're set apart. We're
set apart. And this is all done based upon
God's sovereign will and purpose. The next word I'd like us to
consider is predestination. Now, this is a word that religionists
hate, predestination. Always remember to qualify someone.
Again, see, I'm not teaching you anything you don't know.
These are words we know, but I hope that it'll spur you to
rejoice in these wonderful words. Predestination, I always ask
someone if they say, do you believe in predestination, I always ask
them, what do you believe predestination is? It's usually not what the
scripture says. It's usually not what the scripture
says at all. And remember this, without Christ,
there's no predestination. Without Christ, there's absolutely
no predestination. We are, you know what we're predestined
to be? Conformed to the image of the sun. Does not everybody,
do we not want to be conformed to the image of the sun? Of course
we do. That's what we desire, isn't it? We desire not to sin
anymore. But we're sinners, aren't we?
Oh my. Predestination is also God's
sovereign arrangement of all affairs of the universe. He's
an absolute control He's an absolute control from eternity and right
now and into everlasting There will never be a time when God's
not in control He's an absolute control beloved my Either God
does all things and knows all things or he doesn't and we know
he does We know he does Scripture says this, remember the former
things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am
God, and there is none like me. There's no one like him. There's
no one like our King Beloved. No one. Declaring the end from
the beginning, the opposite again, you've heard me say many times,
the opposite of what we know, and from ancient times, from
times when we don't even know. From ancient times. Oh, from
all eternity. the things that are not yet done
saying my counsel shall stand that's our king saying that beloved
that's our redeemer saying that my counsel shall stand and i
will do all my pleasure it was his pleasure to save us it was
his pleasure to choose us in christ my it's wonderful calling
a ravenous bird from the east the man that executed my counsel
from a far country yea i have spoken it I will bring it to
pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. We are evidence. We who are believers
are evidence of those words. He chose us in Christ. Christ
came to redeem us. The Holy Spirit regenerated us.
He did in our lives what he purposed. And he had it come to pass, beloved.
Isn't that wonderful? He had it come to pass. Our God
knows the end from the beginning. Sometimes I just sit and marvel
that the Lord chose me. I'll be honest with you. Sometimes
I just sit and marvel that he chose me. My, oh, my. I just marvel at it. Listen to
this. Predestination is found in two
places. Let's turn to them. First one is Ephesians chapter
1. And then the next is Romans chapter 8. It says in Ephesians 1.5, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Predestination
is a biblical word, beloved. It's in the Bible. And it means, in the Greek, to
limit or mark out beforehand. to design definitely beforehand,
to ordain beforehand. God's already ordained everything
that's going to happen. And then look at verse 11, the same chapter.
It says, In whom we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, all according to God's will and
purpose. Now turn to Romans chapter 8, and we will see here that
predestination brings forth the scripture that were to be conformed
to the image of the Sun when we get the glory we're be
holy we'll have no sin he has no sin he's never had any sin
did he he's in glory sinless just like he was here on this
earth and eventually we will be conformed to his image and
we will be sinless in glory isn't that gonna be amazing It's gonna
be amazing. We struggle so much with sin
right now. We won't ever struggle with sin and glory. Never. It
won't even be found. Oh my. It's wonderful. I'll tell you what. Look at Romans
8 29. For whom he did foreknow, And
as we read this, it's all past tense. It's all past tense. For
whom he did foreknow, well, we were chosen in Christ. He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that
he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Now, when I was
a little tyke growing up in Canada, I had no idea that I was predestined
to be conformed to the image of the Son. When I was in my
20s doing things I shouldn't have done, I had no idea that
I was predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son. When
I was in my 30s, the Lord saved me. I didn't understand about
being conformed to the image of the Son. I hadn't heard a
whole lot about it, but as the Lord had me grow in grace and
I heard these wonderful truths, just embrace them. Now I know
I still don't fully understand it. If we're honest, we don't
fully understand these things. But right now, all of us who
are sitting here, we have been predestinated to be conformed
to the image of the sun from eternity, by God himself. Isn't that marvelous? So this
is why, because most people, when they bring up predestination,
say, oh, you believe people are predestinated to go to hell.
No, man naturally goes there. See, that's why you have to qualify
people, because that's what they think predestination is. What
we've just seen, the predestination is, is to be conformed to the
image of Christ. That's what predestination is.
And it's God who's done that. What does God have to do for
a man to go to hell? Leave him alone. Right there. What does God have
to do for a man or a woman to go to heaven? Everything. Everything. See, this is the difference between
religion and grace. My, oh, my. You know, the Gentiles,
Paul was preaching the gospel, and there were some Gentiles who were ordained to hear the
word of grace. It says this, and when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad. For so hath the Lord commanded
us, saying, I have set thee to a light of the Gentiles, that
thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. The Lord reigns, beloved. The third word, I got to get
going here. The third word is redemption. Again, a word you already know
about, redemption. Again, take Christ out of redemption. See, take Christ out of election,
there's no election. Take Christ out of predestination,
there's no predestination. Take Christ out of redemption,
there's no redemption. Because we can't save ourselves.
See, so all these words, again, have Christ as the hub. He's
the center of all these. We're going to see, it's like
a wheel with spokes. You take that center out, those
spokes are gone. they have nothing to hold them
together nothing at all so redemption what is redemption it's the ransom
of chosen sinners it's the ransom of chosen sinners who are elected
in christ out from under the curse of god's broken law see
we broke god's law we are deserving of the wrath of god but we've
been ransom beloved we've been purchased from under the curse
of the law and how is redemption accomplished by the perfect sin
atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ when he died in our room
in place by the shedding of his precious blood we are redeemed
by the blood of Christ we are ransomed by the blood of Christ
oh it's wonderful and no man can be justified no man or woman
can be justified by the works of the law None. We can only be ransomed from
God's law by Christ and Christ alone. My. For as much as you
know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, such
as silver or gold, we didn't buy our salvation. You can't
buy your salvation. From your vain conversations received by
tradition from your fathers, we can't be ransomed and redeemed
by keeping traditions. See, the Jews had lots of traditions,
didn't they? They had mixed, there was no grace in what they
were doing. They put all these commandments
upon man, just like religious people do today. All these things
that man would have to do, and they didn't even do themselves.
The scripture says, we are not redeemed by anything but the
precious blood of Christ. There's no merit in us, even
to be ransomed. It's God's favor. that he ransomed
us. It's God's favor that he chose
us in Christ. It's God's favor that we were predestinated to
be conformed to the image of the Son. It's all God's favor.
It's all God's grace and mercy. It says, but with the precious
blood of Christ, that's what we're redeemed with, is of a
lamb without blemish and without spot. We're redeemed by the sinless,
spotless Lamb of God. He shed his precious blood. He
purchased us out from under the law. That law, oh, it had such
a claim upon us. He purchased us, and he paid
everything that law demanded for us. Paid in full. It's wonderful. Who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world. We were chosen
in Christ. He's the lamb. This is not by accident that
he's the lamb of God. This is foreordained from before
the foundation of the world. he would be the mighty savior
that he would be the savior of sinners such as you and I in
God spared not a son but delivered him up for us all how shall we
not fully give him all things for who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect it's God to justify we're justified
by God beloved justified by God the son ransoming us pain pain
our sin that will Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that
died, yea, rather that is risen again and is even at the right
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall
separate us from the love of God? Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? No one. Because he keeps us. He keeps us. If it was up to
us, we'd be gone. He keeps us. So tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or sacredness, or
peril, or sword, that's all the things that can happen in this
world. It is written, for thy sake we are killed, as all the
day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us. That's in Romans chapter 8. Through him that loved us. Conquerors in Christ. And the
scripture declares, whom we have redemption through his blood
it's all through the precious blood of Christ and the believer
possesses this redemption the scripture says in Ephesians chapter
1 7 in whom we have redemption we have it beloved it's ours
why through his blood through his sacrifice we have it now
it's wonderful even the forgiveness of sins, according to what? The
riches of his grace. All according to the riches of
his grace. The fourth word I'd like us to
consider is being born again. Another Bible word. Another Bible word. Turn, if
you would, to John chapter three. Another Bible word. My, oh my. John chapter 3, Nicodemus, man
who was greatly admired among the Gentiles, a teacher, or a
teacher among the Israelites, I mean, comes to Christ at night. And
remember, when you're reading John chapter 3, I didn't see
this until Donny Bell told me one time, he said, when you read
down John 3, 16, the Lord's still talking to Nicodemus. He tells
Nicodemus that, he speaks to him about substitution when he
says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, right? You can't have 3.16, for God
so loved the world, and that's, we know is God's people, without
14 and 15. Take a look at it in your time,
it's incredible. But look at this in John chapter three, verses
one to seven. This is our Lord here, and He's
going to use a Bible word called born again. There was a man of
the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same
came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God. For no man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. So they couldn't
deny Nicodemus. He's saying, we can't deny the
works that you're doing. They must be from God. Jesus
answered, now remember too, this is a man who studied the scriptures,
who's taught on the scriptures, but he doesn't know God. He's
a religious lost man. Think of the cardinals in the
Catholic Church and the Pope himself, these are religious,
they look at the scriptures, but they do not know Christ.
They don't know him at all. Look at this though. Jesus answered
him, said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He just lays it right
out. He lays it right, and I believe the reason he does is because
Nicodemus was a man who thought himself that he knew a lot about
scripture, and the Lord just lays it right out for him. You
must be born again. Nicodemus saith, and how can
a man be born again, or born when he's old? Can he enter the
second time into his mother's womb and be born? So this is
a natural man's response to someone saying, you must be born again.
He's saying, you mean I gotta go back in my mom's womb and
be born? See, it's kind of condescending,
the way he's answering back. And then look what the Lord says
to him again, again. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except the man be born of water and of the Spirit. So there's
the Holy Spirit at work, right? Water, we're born, and water's
the word, right? In the Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not, again, he's gonna say it a third time here. Marvel not
that I say unto thee, you must be born again. You must be. In the Greek, being born again
means born from above. There's the Holy Spirit at work.
If it means to be born from above, it means that no man on earth
can do this. You must be born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. He must do a work in us, in you
and in I. That's what this is bringing
forth. It also means, in the Greek,
from a higher place. from a higher place so it means by the Holy
Spirit of God well again we're born into this world dead and
trespasses and sins we have no hope at all no hope at all but
you know what beloved rejoice because we're complete in him
we're complete in Christ he purchased us as we saw earlier he redeemed
us We're complete in Him. Absolutely complete in Him. So
we see that regeneration does not occur outside of God's work
and will. Again, you take Christ away.
Because what did Christ say? He said, I'll send the Comforter.
Who's the one who regenerates us? The Comforter. Without Christ
sending them, there's no hope. That's like this stuff people
talk about with the end times and all this. Here's a question
to ask someone. If they say, oh, there's gonna
be a tribulation and God's gonna take the Holy Spirit out. I used
to believe it, so I know what I'm talking about. They always
say, well, God will take the Holy Spirit out and then people
will be saved by reading the Bible or reading notes that people
leave behind. No one. And this is how you know
it's just foolishness. No one will be saved without
the regenerating power of God, the Holy Spirit. I asked one
of those guys one time, I said, you believe that that's going
to happen? I said, you believe the Holy Spirit can be taken
out? Oh, yeah. I said, no one can be saved then. He had no
answer. He never thought of that. No
answer at all. Donny Bell's the one who clicked
me into that. We were talking in a restaurant there one night
in Oregon after he preached, and he was bringing up things
that he had taught in the Book of Revelation, and that was one
of them. The Holy Spirit must be at work. It's his office. It's what he does. He regenerates
us. We're born again by his power.
By his power. Now, the last word I'd like us
to consider is purpose or providence. Purpose. You know God does things
on purpose. There's nothing God does that's
not on purpose. Isn't that incredible? Including
choosing us in Christ, including redeeming us with his precious
blood, including regenerating us, including conforming us to
the image of the Son. He does it on purpose. On purpose. Providence is the glorious, mysterious,
sovereign rule of the whole universe by God. Romans chapter 8 turn
with there we look at 11 scripture here Romans chapter 8 verse 28 Romans chapter 8 verse 28 the scripture declares
there that God works all things together for good to them that
love God A lot of people just stop right there. You hear this
verse quoted, people stop right there. They do not finish the
verse. You must finish the verse. And we do know as God's people,
we've been taught, haven't we, that all things work according
to God's will and purpose. It says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. Who are
the ones who love God? Those who are born again, those
who are redeemed by Christ. I did not love God in my natural
state, not at all. Now I love the Lord. My, but
I didn't before, look at this, for we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
call according to his purpose. God does things on purpose. If
you're here and you're saved, it's because God purposed that,
that you would be saved, that you would love Christ, that you
would love the gospel, that you would love God's people. Because
we didn't love any of those things before the Lord saved us. You know, God also governs the
whole universe according to his purpose. We need not to freak
out when things are going on in this world, because God is
governing all things according to his purpose. Now we do, we
get pretty excited, don't we? We do, I admit it, I'm the first
one to admit it. We get pretty excited about things going on,
and then we have to get a check in ourselves to go, God's governing
everything according to his will and purpose. what peace comes
over us what peace floods our soul beloved you know he raises
up leaders nations all according to his will and purpose he he
raised up the Greek Empire and all went forth and conquered
much land then he rose up and then it fell then he rose up
the Roman Empire mighty Empire went even further than the Greeks
and they're gone my oh my but think of that think of what what
was purpose there that that greek language went all across those
different places and then and then when the new testament was
written it went like a wildfire god does everything on purpose
don't he Everything's done on purpose. Think of this, I'm gonna
close with this. He elects his people according
to his will and purpose. He predestinates his people according
to his purpose. He redeems his people by the
blood of Christ according to his purpose. He regenerates his
people by the power of God the Holy Spirit according to his
purpose. And he keeps his people and he will glorify his people
in Christ all according to his will and purpose. God does things
on purpose. Hallelujah. That we were included
in Christ. Oh my. So we know these words,
but oh how they can make our souls sing. How they can make
our souls sing these wonderful truths.