Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Obviously, in the 17th chapter
of John, the Lord is praying to his Father,
and a very, very interesting prayer I think verse 9 is quite
startling. When the Lord said, I pray for
them, and we ask, who are them? The Lord always prayed perfect
prayers, and his prayers were always answered in the affirmative. I pray not for the world. That's not the message of most
churches. I don't pray for the world, I
pray for them. It would seem that there is a them that is
very special to him. If you go through the 17th chapter
of the book of John, you find verses like, Verse 6, I have
manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out
of the world. Thou gavest me out of the world? Thine they were and thou gavest
them me and they have kept thy word. In verse 2, Jesus says
to his father, as thou hast given me power over all flesh, that
I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. I hope that a question mark is
going there and you're going right along with me and reading
from the word of God and asking this question, who are them? I pray for them. Jesus said,
you gave me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given me. You know how many folks are going
to be in heaven? As many as God gave to Jesus
Christ. I was asked this week, and it's
been a 50-year questioning of me about this matter of the grace
of God. I want to answer the question. Pastor, if I believe like you,
I would just rest a whole lot more. I would just, you know,
I mean, if you believe that there is an elect number going to heaven
and that God has already chosen them, just, why don't you just
take it easy? Because I'm here, you see, to
endure all things for the elect's sake. I want to see John back
there on the back row who is a crack addict or heroin addict
and a drunk. Here's some good news. You see, the truth is, in spite
of all of the opposition to this place and the gospel, we win. We are winners. And so I want to just simply
preach or teach you the good news today. I brought no notes
because I couldn't put on paper what I wanted to say. So, and
you know, I'm, you know, when you get 73, things slip your
mind. I was on WMUZ this week and talking
to Chris and he goes, well, pastor, tell us where the four thrift
stores are. I couldn't think of where one
of them was. And I said, Chris, this happens
when you get 73. You tell us all where they are.
And he did a great job of telling us. The doctrine of election is more
than a doctrine. It's such a glorious truth. If you're here and converted
and have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you were chosen
by God before the foundation of the world, before you ever
used heroin, before all of those mess ups
in life, before divorce and family split, just before all of the
mess. Election is a wonderful truth.
Jesus said his disciples, you didn't choose me, I chose you.
And God in the book of Deuteronomy says to Israel, I didn't choose
you because you were greater in number than any people, I
chose you sovereignly. Think about this, that you little
elect here today, knowing that you were elected because you
know you've been saved by God, It was God who saved you and
not you yourself. You can say this, I've been loved
with an everlasting love. There never was a time when God
didn't love me. I know many churches today aren't
preaching this, but it's such a glorious truth. If it were
not for the truth of God's grace, I would have quit a long time
ago. I wouldn't have been in Pontiac. I just wouldn't have
been here. I would have given up. See, I
know this today. Someone here, somewhere in this
auditorium, I believe this, there is one of God's elect. Their
names are already written in the Lamb's Book of Life. I know
that here today that God blesses the gospel of
grace as it goes forth. And I know that you, whoever
you are, are here on purpose. You were destined to be here.
You say, pastor, this is such strong stuff. You ought to teach
this on Wednesday night. No, this is Sunday morning stuff. This is great stuff. There are people in here today
that are so miserable. Your life is such a wreck. You have committed spiritual
suicide. There is no hope in you. Amen. But there is hope in God, and
it's a good hope. Say, well, you know, really,
I have very little interest in what you are saying, pastor.
I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to those of you who
are here and you are so messed up. You are such a mess. You can't lay the crack pipe
down. You can't lay the heroin down. You can't lay the alcohol
down. Some of you are so churchy rotten. So miserable, and you've
been a Catholic, a Baptist, or a Presbyterian for 50 years,
and still miserable. No heaven on the way to heaven
in your heart. You get up every day miserable. Man, it's great to get up in
the morning and say, I am unconditionally loved by a sovereign God who
is God Almighty by Himself. A God who wrote my name down
and will never erase it. A God who is working in me both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. A God who is protecting
me and persevering me. And I'll never be lost. Hell
is not mine. The doctrine of election. There
are so many passages that I quote to you so often because I want
you to know them. It's important that you know
your gods. that you belong to him and he's
the one that is saving you. He has saved you, he is saving
you and he will save you. The three tenses of God's salvation. Doesn't it just give you goosebumps
to hear God say, before I formed you in your mother's belly, I
loved you and I ordained you, I predetermined you. To be my
prophet, that's what he said to Jeremiah. See, Jeremiah was
saying things like this, but I'm afraid. Do you ever get afraid? You ever fearful? Think about
this. I thought about it this morning.
At five minutes to six, I'm going to get on a jet plane full of
fuel. But you know what? I say to you,
no matter what happens, my God is in charge. Amen? That gives me peace. I don't
know what you're afraid of, but the doctrine of election will
help you. People said to me this week,
you know, if I believe that God just sovereignly chose people
and that they're sure for heaven no matter what, it's not no matter
what. You see, God is an active God.
He's had an eye on you from eternity. He chose you before the foundation
of the world. And we're bound to give thanks
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has
from the very beginning, and that's not just Genesis 1-1,
that's from the very beginning. When did God begin? He was. He's always been. Say, that blows
my mind. That's just way too deep. I know,
isn't it? It's waters to swim in. It's
a great and glorious truth. Say, well, what about all those
bad things that happen? I know He's so big and His eye
is on you to such a degree that He takes the worst things that
happen in your life and will turn them for your good in God's
glory. So Jesus in John 17 talks about
his elect. You see, you need to know this. There was a covenant made before
the foundation of the world in which God the Father gave all
of the chosen. Someone said last week to me,
oh, you believe God's got this little handful of people. I believe
God has a handful of people, but look whose hands they are
in. They're in God's hands, right? How big is your God? You know,
the bigger your God, the bigger his hands, the more people he
gets in his hands. He's an awesome God. You know,
I believe this, and this gives me great joy and courage today,
that there'll be more people in heaven than hell will have. God never loses. He's a mighty
God. When we've been there 10,000
years, we're going to be singing his praises while the ages pile
themselves one on top of another. Those of you who don't like election
right now, if you're up there, you'll love it. He chose me.
That's why I'm here. Had he not have chosen me, I
would not have been here. Amen. I know it's a lot to contemplate. So Jesus is praying for them
that God gave him in covenant redemption before the foundation
of the world. Now here's the heart of it. This
is why I'm such a positive preacher. I am a positive preacher. In
fact, I've gotten more positive. The more I've grown in grace,
the more positive I am. I came over here today not doubting
that God could convert somebody today. In fact, some of you could
just stand right up on your feet and start to clap. He chose me! I just saw it! I know I'm His! I mean, that could happen, not
that I'm pushing that. But I'll tell you this, I told
my old dad, Long time ago he was preaching from Ephesians
1-4, according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. And I was probably 12 years old. I was sitting to
his left about where Greg is sitting. As soon as church was
over I went up to him and I said, if I ever shout in church, If
I ever get happy in church, it's gonna be over what you preached
this morning, that I was chosen before the foundation of the
world. And you know, since 12 years old, I've been talking
about it, that God, and now here I am, 73, and I'm more excited
about it this morning that someone out there, you rattlesnake you,
God chose you before the foundation of the world and intends to do
something in time on your inside and turn you around. Think about this. In time, maybe
7,000 years, 6,000 years, in time, Jesus came. The God-man invaded history.
He didn't come to save people in some way or another, if they
will let Him, if they will give their heart back to Him, He came
to save His people from their sins. That's what Matthew 1.21
says. God elected a people, gave them
to Christ, and one day Jesus left heaven. The God-man come
to earth, not to spy out our sins, Not to be a prescription
for us to fill, but to actually lay down his life as a ransom. He is the redeemer of poor sinners. And he paid the debt in full. Some of you here are not converted
yet. You don't quite get it yet. But he saved you 2,000 years
ago on the tree of the cross. Say, what are you saying, pastor?
These people will just sit on their hands and never give their
life to Jesus. I'm talking about Jesus giving
his life for you, not you giving your life to Jesus. God will
work that out. Yes. He paid the sin debt in full.
He said, it's finished, it's done. I was justified. by God and then justified again
in my experience by faith in Jesus Christ. He paid the debt. I wonder if there's someone here
I'm talking to. I'm sure there is. I wonder if
there's someone hearing me today and somehow deep down in your
bones, there's a shout going on. You're going, wow, that's
the first time I do see that. That if Jesus died and paid my
debt, it's paid. There's no hell for me. There's
no condemnation for me. There's no judgment for me. Maybe
you've been a child of God for years, but nobody ever really
preached the free gospel to you. That God did it all, that salvation's
of the Lord. that He chose you and He redeemed
you. And in time you were born. What
a glorious story this is. You know, so many of you have
heard my chicken story. I'll tell it again though, I
was thinking about it this morning. I used to visit my grandmother
down on the farm in Kentucky and she had old hens and every
afternoon she would get corn cobs and she would chuck the
corn and then every kernel of corn would go in the bucket.
She rubbed the two corn cobs together, you know, and the corn
would go in the bucket. And then we would go out and
feed the hens. And one day I said to her, I
want to feed them today, Teddy. And she said, okay. So I went
out there and the old hens saw us coming and they began to gather
because they were used to Teddy coming out and feeding them.
And so I got out there and we shut the gate and got in there
where the hens were. And man, I reached down in that
bucket and I let those hens have it. I mean, I let them have it. I threw that corn at them. And
those hens were scared to death. I mean, they scattered all over
there. Teddy said, Kenny boy, that's
not the way to feed the hens. Here's what we do. She reached
down in that bucket, and this is what I'm doing in preaching
the gospel to you today. It's not a hammer on your head. She reached down in that bucket,
and she began to lay those kernels of corn on the ground, and she'd
go like this. Here, chick, chick, chick, chick,
chick. Here, chick, chick, chick, chick. And those hens that had run about
40 feet away, began to talk to her. Oh, I hope I can find a procking
hen in here today. You're hearing the sweet gospel. This is the sweetest message
I know, that salvation is by grace without merit on your part. and you come just as you are
without one plea, but that his blood was shed for you. The apostle
Paul said, I endure. Somebody said, you know, you
preachers haven't made, you just work one, two days a week. It's the hardest job in the world.
It's enduring. I endure all things. It's hard,
but it's sweet. You see, as we endure, we're
determined, gospel pastors are, to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's the message. Look to Christ. It's not your works. It's not
your church. It's not your baptism. It's not
your catechism, it's not your good life, it's not the Ten Commandments,
it's Christ alone. And we proclaim that. And the
awesome reward is this, that God discovers the elect through
the preaching of the gospel. You see, if you are here an elect,
you don't have an E on your forehead. So I don't know whether you're
elected or not. I know how to find out. Preach
the gospel. Some of you will say, that's
the sweetest message I ever heard. Some of you will say, the man
has lost his mind. I'm talking to those of you who
are outright sinners, you know it. You have no hope within yourself. You may be suicidal here today. And you are, if you're using
drugs, you're suicidal. Because you can be dead tonight
if you use this afternoon. That's just the truth. That's
why I have a sense of urgency. Tell them the gospel. And here's
the great news. God doesn't leave you to you.
Aren't you glad God didn't leave you to you? I'm the captain of my own ship.
Yeah, and you're going to hit the rocks too. And I'm not talking
about rocks rocks. I'm talking about the rocks. Look what you have done being
the captain of your own ship. You have destroyed yourself. Many of you know Herb Minnis. When Herb Minnis came to the
center many years ago, probably 20, 30 years ago, I don't know
how long, long time, Herb's still my friend. But I used to see
Herb in the hall and I would say to him, oh Israel, thou hast
destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help. That's found in
the book of Hosea. I called him Israel. He still
says, You know, he still says, quote that verse to me. We talk
about that. Oh, Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself, but in me is thy help. Today, have you destroyed yourself?
Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if God were an electing God and
he is? Can you just, you know, try to
lay hold of this? He may have chose me. It is not yours to find out whether
or not He has chose you. It is yours right now to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. It's like going through the doorway.
I tell this so often, you know, you go through the doorway, over
the doorway, it says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. You go through and look back
and on the other side, it says chosen before the foundation
of the world. You want to find out whether
you were chosen or not? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And how about right now doing that? You say, well, Pastor,
no man can believe except, I know, except the Spirit of God grant
him faith. You see, faith, believing on
Christ is a gift of God. Well, you just believe God saves
people anyway. No, he saves them his way. And
here's what God says, through the foolishness of preaching,
it is pleased God to convert people. So because you don't
have an E on your forehead, I'm dropping the kernels of corn.
Yeah, chick, chick, chick, chick. Or I might say this, here sheep,
sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep. You know what Jesus said? He
said, I know my sheep and they know me. Are you here today? Maybe this is your first time,
but maybe you've been here several times and something strange and
different You have come to like to be here. Sometimes my hearing is not as
bad as it maybe often is, but sometimes I hear people say,
I just love church. I go, oh, that's awesome. This
is a day the Lord's made, we'll rejoice and be glad in it. I
was glad when they said, let us go up to the house of the
Lord to hear that good news gospel. that God saves even the chief
of sinners. Think about this. Today could
be the day when God commissions His Holy Spirit to fetch you
out of your lodibar. To fetch you out, dead dog. You
have to read your Bible to know that story. Are you here today? In your innermost being, something
is going on. You see, the gospel is both objective
and subjective in this sense. It's objective in that God chose
you, you were not there. Jesus died, you were there in
him, in his substitute because God put you there. But you didn't
know that, you weren't around 2,000 years ago. You weren't
around except in the mind and heart of God and his son Jesus
Christ Jesus died on the cross and paid your sin debt and then
one day In time you were born and God watched over you and
God saw you using heroin I Didn't stop his love God saw you getting
drunk. I God saw you churchy and kind
of getting in that self-righteous mode, God saw. I've been thinking
all week about people calling us, you know, those other people,
you know, those people. And when Jesus said, I pray not
for these alone, but those other people, my people. Sometimes I want to say to people,
when you say those other people, oh, Are you talking about Sue
or John who came to Grace Center's attic and got their GED, went
on to college? Is that who you're talking about,
those other people? Maybe you don't get my drift
here. But you see, other people are my people that I pastor.
You see, I really do love you, and I believe that Christ, I
mean, we all have our warts, right? We all have our mess,
but I really believe that God has done such tremendous things.
People for, I don't know, 15, 16 years have said about space,
you know that Donald Duck guy you have in your church? I go,
yeah, that's space. Space is probably more intelligent
than most of us. He speaks three or four different
languages. He looks like a wild man, but he's just such a great
guy, and I love him. And this is kind of a, Chris, I haven't
forgot. I got to call you. Strange what the Holy Spirit
will bring to your mind in the pulpit. He's looking right at
me, and I haven't called him in two weeks. I promised him
I would. I will call you. What an awesome thing it is to
know that we're not in charge here, God is. God is. You know, I said to somebody
a couple weeks ago, you know, we have no money to do these
houses, and we have three houses. And this week a guy comes in
and gives us 30 grand to do the Moreland house. Those are not
accidents. Those are God things. How he's watching over this place
and what he's doing here and how he's filling this place up
and how people are coming. We've got a little elder board
now and we talk about things and You know, I think about stuff
like this. Well, you know, all our houses
are filled. We've got a real problem. All
our houses are filled. What do we do? Buy more houses. Say, but how are we going to
do that? Same way we bought the ones we have. God did it. A God thing. We don't stop ministering
to people. Paul said, I labor, I'm under
this burden. I endure all things, enduring
all things for the elect's sake. Say, well, pastor, you know,
you're just a faith guy. I wish I, if I was going to get
one thing from God, it would be more faith. I'm gonna trust
him more. I don't want to see things as a blockade. I want
to see my God able to do exceedingly abundantly, exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think. And I'm giving you a pre-warning.
I'm going away to rest up a little bit, but when I get back, I don't believe we've seen anything
compared to what God is going to do. You say, well, look at
what all's happening. Is that all you want? Not me,
I want more. Not more of material things, I'm not saying that.
I wanna see the elect come to Christ. I wanna see this inner
city church light up and people flocking in here to hear the
gospel. Just to give you a word before
we stand and sing. You know, Charles Hazen Spurgeon
is my pastor. So I read Spurgeon every week.
I steal all of his messages. I preach them to you and act
like they're mine. Spurgeon was going to build a
metropolitan tabernacle. He pastored the Park Street Church
at 15 years of age in London, England. And it was an old dead
church and Spurgeon went in there at 15 years of age and that church
came alive. and hundreds were converted to
Christ. And they packed people in there
and packed people in there. And finally, it came time to
build a new place of worship, the Metropolitan Tabernacle that
would seat over 6,000, 7,000 people. This actually happened
in Spurgeon's day on Sunday night. Spurgeon would say, now I want
all of you church members who will to stay home tonight. We
will pass out tickets for those who want to get in to come to
the service. I pray for the day when I'm passing out tickets.
Now you guys will have to stay home tonight because we got a
crowd wanting in here. That's the way it ought to be.
Anyway, Spurgeon built the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And they asked Spurgeon
where he wanted to build it. And he said, I want to build
it in the slums. He built the Metropolitan Tabernacle
in the slums of London. The queen and king came to hear
Spurgeon in their carriages. He preached to thousands, thousands
upon thousands of people from that inner city church, the Metropolitan
Tabernacle. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of people were converted. God can do that here. God can
do that here. And I believe God's gonna do
it here. I believe God is doing something so powerful I've never
seen. You know, 40, longer than that,
I get my years mixed up. Probably 50 years ago, When I
was going to Georgetown and Lexington Baptist College, I can remember,
and I was traveling all over the country, the churches were
just dead, just absolutely dead. And I would return home late
on a Monday morning, 3 a.m., go up in my room and fall down
on the floor and bang on the floor like this. There's got
to be more than this. There's got to be more than this.
I have prayed for revival and awakening and got to the point
just a few years ago when I thought it wasn't going to happen. I'd
already put us over Niagara Falls. We were past the redemption point.
America was not coming back. And then God gave us a wild man
in the election to be president of the United States. They say he's crazy, and he may
be, but I know God is in him doing something. We're getting
prayers back into school. I didn't mean he's crazy. He's
a very brilliant guy, really. But God is doing things. God
is doing things. I believe we're on the verge
of a great awakening. I do. And maybe we're in it. And it
would be absolutely glorious this afternoon You came to know the Lord here. And you confessed him. And it
would be like this. I'm not ashamed. I know something
has happened to me on the inside. I have, by faith, believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. I am a mess, but I believe he
can straighten me out. I am trusting him and him alone. Somebody said, well, you know,
Pastor, you got a bunch of alcoholics, and drug users over there, and
a few former Pharisees. Yes, we do. Once I was lost,
but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. And people are pointing to this
place over here. Every week, somebody goes, what
are you doing over there? What? This last story, and then
we'll go. I've told you about Ronnie Arnold
getting converted and me and the deacon going out to talk
to Ronnie Arnold when I was in Kentucky. He was the town drunk. He was an ex-marine, and every
time he'd get drunk, he'd want to shoot up the town. So his
wife came to church, and so I went out to visit him. He had tattooed
on his arm, mourned to raise hell, blah, blah, blah. He got converted. I was in the
bank at Danville, and the president of the bank said, Pastor, come
over here a minute. He goes, you know, my brother-in-law
is a sheriff here in Danville. Yeah, I do know that. He goes,
well, me and the sheriff have a question for you. Ronnie Arnold,
what did you do to him? We haven't arrested him in over
a year now. He hasn't shot at us. He got
saved. That's right. God is a life changer. Trust
Jesus Christ. Let's stand and sing together.