I want you to go to John 6. We've
been talking about the doctrines of grace for weeks and weeks
here now. Literally, the gospel. What we call here the five points.
Five points, which we believe is not individual clusters, but
one cluster. The gospel. It is the gospel
of the glory. The gospel of God's unmerited
favor. And we started out with total
depravity, If you don't start here, you really don't understand
anything about life. Why does this happen? Why did
that happen? Why did this happen to me? Total depravity is at
the heart of everything bad that's going on. Everything bad that's
happened to you. Well, why did God let that happen?
Sin caused that. Sin caused that. If you've been
sexually abused, if you've been abused, You know, if you've totally
lost yourself, if your parents were off the wall, you had a
mother who was an alcoholic, or whatever the issues in life
are. And by the way, there's no one
in here that doesn't have problems. When people tell me, they go
like this, Pastor, I have issues. I go, me too. There's no one
that doesn't have issues. There's no one that doesn't have
a closet. And we don't want to let you
in, either, to our closet. We're all sinners. That's why
we need a Savior. Christ didn't come to save good
people. Only bad people get saved. So, if you're here and you're
a really, really, really good person, you're in the wrong church.
This is a church for mess-ups, for people who've fallen down,
for people who have missed the mark. This is a saying worthy of all
acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And now I want to get really
personal and individual with you here. My dear friend, if
you are here and are so downcast, you've been abused and misused
and life has beaten you up. Maybe you're a young lady here,
abused. horribly for years and years
and years. What a wonderful testimony Victoria
gave yesterday at the fashion show, where she just emptied
it all out to us. And we saw the things that happened
to her in life and how that God had restored her. Jim Taylor,
who is past president of Hummer and Cadillac, said to me after
that fashion show, he said to me, how does someone like Victoria
survive the things that has happened to her in life? And I got to
say to him, as I say to all of you and to myself, only by the
grace of God. Only by the grace of God. So,
we've been talking about total depravity. We've been talking
about that God has chosen us. And what an amazing and exciting
thing that is, that me, a nobody in this world, that God would
actually choose me, a mess-up like me, a person who has fallen
so many times, a person who has so much mess, and yet God chose
me. That's what we mean when we say
grace centers of hope. It's a center for mixed up, messed
up, failed, fallen, slimy, dirty folks who get to experience the unmerited
favor of God. Aren't you glad it isn't by works,
that it's by grace? Yes. Yes. And we see people's
lives restored because of God. I tried to say this several times
yesterday at the fashion show. We are unashamed of the fact
that we are faith-based and look to God. You take God out of the
equation here and there's nothing here. It's all going to arrive. Isn't that true? This is a God
place. You can't explain, you can't
explain Director Corrigan spending three to four hours with us.
Jim Novell on our board said to me after she left, he said,
you know, I've been her friend for so long, I've never seen
her spend that much time anywhere. By the way, Ann Mickens and her
family's here. We're glad to have you here,
Ann, and your family. Ann's on our board. I've got
to do a good job today. We've got board members here. God. Isn't it great to know God? The God of purpose. The God who
has a plan. The God who sustains us. So,
we've been talking about this gospel of grace. And so, I can
say today, before I forget it, I can say to you, though you've
wobbled in the stables of sin, though you're black as all hell,
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Unmerited favor and hope. They hold hands. They go together. And there's hope for you, even
the chief of sinners, if you are here today. Although I would
argue with you about whether you're chief or I'm chief. John
6. Last week we talked about the
44th verse. And we talked about the inability
of men and women to come to Christ. And John 6, 44 says this, No
man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. No man can come. Nobody can come. They don't want to come. Their
understanding is darkened. Their heart is hardened. They
don't have a will to come to Christ. There's no desire to
come to Christ. No man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me draw him. Anybody here been drawn? Inability. I'm so glad it's that
way, that God drew me. I was out there in Lodibar. I
was out there in the hood. I was out there in the hog pen.
I was out there in the place of no pastors. And God drew me. I know that there are many here
today who are absolutely stand amazed in the presence of Jesus
the Nazarene and wonder that he could love you, a sinner condemned
unclean. Inability. Talked about that
last week. Now, let's talk about irresistible
grace. Irresistible grace. Not for adventure,
not perhaps. but irresistible grace. And you'll
notice this in verse 37. Verse 37 of John 6. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. I love the shalls of God. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Have you ever thought about the
love of God? You know, I hear many pastors speaking on TV,
and oftentimes I hear them talk as if God the Father were some
kind of legalistic, abusive Father who had all these laws and rules,
the Ten Commandments, and you'd better keep them. And He was
unbending and He would abuse you if you broke His commandments.
But the Scripture doesn't teach that. The reason Christ died
was because God loved. You see, God is not this abusive
figure. And Christ plays the part of
a mother whose child is being abused by an abusive father. And the mother comes in and says,
No, you beat me first. You're not going to beat the
baby. And they picture Christ that way, and God as the abusive
father. But that's not what the Scripture says. Jesus died because
God so loved. That's why He died. And so, remember
this, that God chose you. It was God the Father that chose
you. Old man John on the Isle of Patmos in 1 John said this,
Behold what manner of love that the Father hath bestowed upon
us, lavished upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God. God the Father did that. Those
of you who have had an abusive father, or maybe you have a father
vacuum. Maybe he was a hard-working guy,
but you never felt anything there in a fatherly way. To some degree,
I had that, even though my dad was a pastor. To some degree,
I never got to where I really felt like he accepted me. I didn't feel like I could do
enough. Most of you know I didn't get to preach in his church for
over 30 years because I was some kind of renegade preacher. But
at any rate, I don't have a father vacuum really anymore because
I've got a daddy. I've got a heavenly father. And
I know his love is unconditional and that he loved me and that
he actually elected or chose me. That's an amazing truth.
and that He gave me to Jesus Christ to redeem me. The Bible is so clear about that.
You don't hear much talk about God electing a people and then
giving them to Christ to come down here and redeem. And I told
the first services, I was thinking about this this morning, how
wonderful this is. You know, God is Spirit. The
only person that you're going to see, the only God that you're
going to see when you get to heaven will have nail scars because
God is Spirit, right? That's what the Scripture says.
God is Spirit. But the Bible says that God came to earth in
Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. So you see how the Father
is moving toward us, how it's the great plan of God to save
us and to redeem us. So God came to earth. God invaded
history. But that's not even the end of
the story. Christ redeemed us, and then Jesus After he got up
out of the grave, remember, he went back to heaven. But before
he went back, he said, I'm going away. I'll not leave you as orphans.
I'm going to be here with you. And he sent the Holy Spirit.
So you've got God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit as three in one. All for your good and God's glory. You've got God saving you as
the author and finisher of our faith. The alpha and the omega,
the beginning and the end. How wonderful it is to know I've
been saved by God. If I was going to work with God
on saving myself, I'd mess it up. There's none of you in here
that can go to church enough to save yourself. You've got
a closet. Don't forget it. I know you've
got a closet. So remember that. All the Father giveth me shall
come to me." God put us in the hands of Christ to redeem. Isn't that a great truth? That
is such a great truth. Look at verse 39 because it interprets
verse 37 of John 6. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. You talk
about security. Jesus said, every last one that
the Father gave to Me, I'm going to raise up in the last day.
And I'll not lose a one of them. In John 10, verse 27, Jesus said
this, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them. And they follow
Me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of My Father's hand. My Father,
which gave them Me is greater than all, and no man is able
to pluck them out of My Father's hand." Every one of you who are
converted in here and have come to Jesus Christ are in the Father's
hand, and He protects His babies. Can you imagine one of God's
kids being kidnapped? You know, I see about these children
and often think about Hayden and, you know, keeping an eye
on her when she's with us and we're out in public, unless somebody
snatched her. Can you imagine what God would
feel? That'll never happen. There are
no stillborns with God and there are no kidnapped kids by God.
Satan's not big enough, the demons can't accomplish it. You cannot
defeat the purpose of God for you. I'm saved, and I know it. Saved by grace. In John 17, in
the Lord's Prayer, he prayed this in verse 6, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. We call that eternal security.
Say, well, Pastor, are you talking about once saved, always saved?
Absolutely. Say, well, I don't believe once
saved, always saved. Why not? Because I think people fall away. I don't know any people that
don't fall away. I only know people who've been
saved by God's grace who fall down and get up. All God's kids
fall down. And all God's kids get up. Because
greater is He that's in you than He that's in the world. We are
kept by the power of God unto salvation. We all have a closet. Let's talk about irresistible
grace quickly. I'm going to be through in a
minute. Or two. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Shall. Not perhaps, not maybe
so. All that the Father gives me
is going to come to me. Now, I'm going to tell you this.
They may be living in sin right now. They may not even know they're
on their way. Was there a time when you didn't
know you were on your way? It may be that they live in sin
20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 60 years or 70 years. In the early days of this church,
we were in Sterling Heights on Plum Brook, and there was an
85-year-old guy that began coming to the service. And one Sunday,
he came forward and he said, Pastor, I have received Jesus
Christ as my Lord and Savior. And I baptized him. He lived
to be 100. But you think about this. For 85 years, he didn't
know he was coming. But God knew he was coming because
God was going to draw him. And so I don't care if you're
8, 13, 14, or 85. All the Father giveth me shall
come to me. God is working out His plan.
Is that a good thing? I think that's a good thing. I let the head of the National
Day of Prayer read my speech. And the person said something
like this, well, pastor, God never leaves us. I am so conscious
of that. But I'm talking about seeing
the presence of God. I know God is omnipresent. I
know God is everywhere. But does God manifest Himself in
your life? The Bible talks about this in
this way. It says, For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate. And by the way, that's not a
cuss word. Predestination is not a bad thing. I wouldn't want
a God who couldn't determine to do something and then bring
it to pass. Whatever God determines to do, He's going to bring to
pass. Shall come to me. All the Father giveth me shall
come to me. I'm glad that's true. He's going
to speak to it. He's overseeing it. All things
work together for good to them that love the Lord, because He's
in charge. He's bringing this whole thing to pass. But it says,
for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. And whom
He did predestinate, the only also called. In the old church, we used to
sing this. I can hear my Savior calling. I can hear my Savior calling. I'll go with Him all the way. Have you got the call? Have you
got the call? I'm so glad I got the call. I
heard Him calling me. I thought you were loony, all
right. You guys are kind of spooky over there about this Holy Spirit
thing. If you ever get the call, you'll
like it. You will like it. All the Father giveth me shall
come to me. I hope today you get the call. I hope you get
the call today. I hope God calls you. You know,
when I got this certified letter about the Michiganian thing,
it talked about Pastor Clark has done this, done this, and
done this, and done this. I appreciate all of the good
things that folks say, but my friends, I am what I am by the
grace of God. I know if God ever took his hand
off me, I'd be a goner. And probably what I fear most,
I'll tell you this because you're my church, what I fear most about
this is that I would ever get to the place where I would take some of the glory,
where I would kind of cease to... I'd start to cheat a little bit.
I would start to believe, or you would start to believe. I
don't care where I am. I want to stand up and say this. We need God in America again.
We need God in our churches again. We've got to have God. The President
of the United States said this is not a Christian nation. I'm
telling you, my friends, that is not a badge of honor. It may
be true, but I'm not trying to please other religions. This nation was established on
the fact that God is God. And by the way, for those of
you who may be disagreeing a little bit, I'll get you a history book.
You're going to find out that the Bible was the first public
school reader book. You just have to be 67 to remember,
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
every morning in school. Yeah, I remember when folks were
not ashamed to acknowledge God. I want to close now with just this. I want to appeal just one more
time to those of you who are sitting here hopeless. Maybe
you've come over to Grace Centers, maybe just there for a few days,
or maybe you're here today and this is going to be your first
day. You're going to go over to Grace Centers. Or maybe you came
to the wedding. Or maybe you heard me on radio
and you just kind of wandered in here. Kind of see what's going on. And you got the call. You said, You know, something happened
to me while that man was preaching. I'm kind of a wild guy and yells
and screams a lot, but something kind of deep down inside of me,
something said, that's true. I need a Savior. I need a Redeemer.
I need the blood of Christ. I need forgiveness. I've got
a closet. That preacher had been reading
my mail. Here's what the next sentence
says in the text passage, verse 36, "...all the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out." Say, well, Father, him, who is that him? It's any
him. Rich him, poor him, heroin using
him, crack using him, prostitute her. churchy person, you will just
come to Christ. And how will you ever know that
God chose you? You'll never know until you come
to Christ. And when you come to Christ, you will say, I'm
chosen. Because you don't come to Christ unless you've been
drawn. The proof is in the pudding. Come to Jesus Christ.