The Apostle Paul speaks of the
gospel coming to men and women. And then he speaks of the gospel
coming to men and women not in word only, but also in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. And there's a
difference, a great, great difference. When the gospel comes in power,
God speaks. God speaks his word by a man,
but God speaks. When the gospel comes in power,
conviction is wrought in the hearts of chosen sinners. When the gospel comes in power,
Christ is revealed in you. Life is given to dead sinners.
Faith is given to those who had no faith, and God is glorified
in the hearts of men. When the gospel comes in power,
God's saints are comforted, reproved, encouraged, rebuked, humbled,
and edified. Oh, may God send his gospel now
to you in power. subject is when the gospel comes
in power. You'll find my text in Isaiah
29 verses 17 through 24. When the gospel comes in power,
Isaiah 29 verses 17 through 24, when God sends his servants with
his message and speaks by his Spirit the word of his grace
through the mouth of his servant to eternity bound immortal souls. The gospel comes in power to
chosen redeemed sinners to whom he gives ears to hear. Here in
Isaiah 29, the prophet of God is speaking of this present gospel
age, this day in which we live, the end time, the last days. Whenever the scripture speaks
of the end time, the last days, it's not talking about just something
out yonder in the future now. He's talking about those days
that began with the incarnation of our Lord Jesus and continue
unto the second coming of our Savior and the accomplishment
of all things at last, gathering all things unto him for the glory
of God. So these last days, we're talking
about this gospel age in which we live. Let's read what he says
in verse 17. Is it not yet a very little while
And Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field. And the fruitful
field shall be esteemed as a forest. And in that day shall the deaf
hear the words of the book. And the eyes of the blind shall
see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall
increase their joy in the Lord. And the poor among men shall
rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought
to naught, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch
for iniquity are cut off, that make a man an offender for a
word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and
turn aside the just for a thing of naught. Therefore thus saith
the Lord who redeemed Abraham concerning the house of Jacob,
Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax
pale. But when he seeth his children,
the work of mine hands in the midst of him, they shall sanctify
my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear
the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit
shall come to understanding. they that murmured shall learn
doctrine. Isaiah here by the Spirit of
God describes the day of grace when the gospel comes in power
to God's elect, in that day, in that day. Now let me make
five statements, five statements that I make from this pulpit
very frequently. There's nothing new to you. I
make them from this pulpit because they need to be understood and
remembered distinctly. Number one, there are some people,
some men and women in this world, God has chosen to salvation from
eternity. God's elect, those chosen ones,
must and shall be saved. Yes, the Scriptures clearly teach
the blessed gospel doctrine of God's free, sovereign, eternal,
unconditional election. God chose you from the beginning. "'Ye have not chosen me,' our
Savior said, "'but I have chosen you. "'Salvation is not by your
will. "'It is not by my will. "'It is not by the will or work
of man, "'but by God's sovereign will.'" When I saw my friend,
Brother Don Martin, sitting here, I couldn't help but to think
of our days in school. We went to two different schools
of heresy just about the same time, I think. He attended Bob
Jones University. I attended Piedmont Bible College,
both of them utterly heretical in their doctrine. Let me tell
you what the rules were at Bob Jones University. At that time,
I haven't kept up with it lately, but at that time, it was without
question the most well-known fundamentalist Bible college
in the world. Is that accurate? When I was
in school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Piedmont Bible College,
when I started, some friends who were at Piedmont had transferred
from Bob Jones. You can verify or not whether
the story is true. And they told me, at Bob Jones,
the requirements with regard to student rule book were, if
a student were found with Playboy magazine in his dormitory or
on campus, he got five demerits. If, on the other hand, he were
found with Calvin's Institutes, he got 50 demerits. 50 is what
it took to kick him out. What a horrid, shameful thing
that men who claim to be men speaking for God, who claim to
be teaching the word of God and preparing preachers to preach,
deny the very basic fundamental doctrine of the gospel involving
God's election and Christ's redemption, particular effectual redemption. This book teaches God's election. The second statement. The Lord
Jesus Christ, God's darling Son, made atonement for the sins of
God's elect, all of the sins of all God's elect, and only
the sins of God's elect. The Lord Jesus died and effectually
redeemed those people loved and chosen of God from eternity.
And the scriptures state this with abundant clarity. There's
not some ambiguous thing tucked away someplace in some hidden
part of scripture. Limited atonement is the core... Man, the politicians use that
word. I'll forget that. Limited atonement is the basic,
fundamental, principle doctrine of the gospel. Deny it, and you've
denied the whole of the gospel of God's grace. You've denied
the deity of Christ. You denied the power of God,
you denied the wisdom of God, the purpose of God, and the work
of God. The scriptures teach substitution. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. I repeat what I said to you many,
many times. There is not one place in this
book, Old Testament or new, where the scriptures speak in any way
about the death of Christ and what he accomplished at Calvary,
where they do not speak of it as being designed, purposed,
and done for a specific people. Nowhere in the Word of God is
there a hint that Jesus Christ died for folks who wind up in
hell. There's not a hint of such a doctrine. And yet it is the
common doctrine taught around the world. Number three, all
of God's elect, having been redeemed by the blood of Christ, shall
be called from death to life by the irresistible grace and
omnipotent mercy of God the Holy Ghost. Eternal life is the gift
of God. Sinners are dead in trespasses
and in sins. I once heard a fellow preaching
one time and he was clumsily trying to refer to the Greek
text, but I liked what he said. He said, you know what that word
dead means in the Greek? It means dead. Dead, that's what
it means. No spiritual life, no spiritual
knowledge, no spiritual sensibility, no spiritual cravings, no spiritual
desires, no spiritual ability, D-E-A-D, dead. And if life depends on a dead
man to do something, there's no hope of life. Salvation comes
to sinners by the gift of God the Holy Ghost. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. It is
the spirit that quickeneth, the spirit that giveth life, the
flesh profiteth nothing. You hath he quickened, you hath
he made alive who were dead in trespasses and in sins. The means
by which God's elect are born again. This is the fourth thing.
The means by which God's elect are born again, called and given
faith in Christ is the preaching of the gospel. I don't know why many men object
to the scripture teaching with this regard. I know folks say,
well, we believe God's sovereign. He can save men with the use
of means, without the use of means, or in spite of the means
used. Yes, he could. He most certainly could, but
he doesn't. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. God saves sinners by the preaching
of the gospel. We have this treasure at Earthen
Vessels. God's put this treasure in our
hands to carry the gospel into the four corners of the earth,
preaching the gospel to sinners. Well, you believe in election,
just preach to the elect. I would if I knew who they were.
I don't know who they are. I preach the gospel at God's
command, calling dead sinners to believe, knowing full well
that none can believe, except God, by his word, birthed them
into his kingdom. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. It doesn't come any other way.
Oh, would to God I could persuade everybody under my influence
who has any interest in his soul. This is how God speaks from heaven
to eternity bound sinners. By his word, in the public assembly
of his saints, through a man just like the one talking to
you. Dirty, filthy, vile, wretched, sinful, just like you are. But
if God's pleased to speak and you hear his voice, you will
leave here living, believing on the Son of God. And one more
thing. There is a specific day appointed
by God before time began in which he will call each of his elect
to life and faith in Christ by the gospel. In Ezekiel, it's
called the time of love. thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. God will see to it that the sinner
he has chosen, the sinner he loves with an everlasting love,
the sinner for whom his son died at Calvary will be in the place
that he has ordained with his heart prepared by providence
and grace to receive the gospel at the appointed time of love.
I love the way he arranges it. And he'll send his word to that
center at the exact hour ordained from eternity by a preacher in
the irresistible power and grace of his spirit. When Brother Mike Walker was
here a couple of weeks ago, he preached to you Both messages,
Sunday morning and Sunday night, about our Lord Jesus going through
Samaria. He must needs go through Samaria. How come? Because there was a
woman there. A vile, morally despicable, bankrupt
woman. A woman chosen of God from eternity. A woman the son of God was sent
to redeem. for whom the time of love had
come and the Savior went to meet her with the word of his grace.
That's exactly what he does now. He arranged for that woman to
be at Jacob's well at the time he was there and arranged all
things by which he would prepare her heart to receive the word
of his grace. Lydia one day was meeting with
some other Jewish women by the seaside. Paul went down and reasoned
with them out of the scriptures. They'd been meeting, reading
scriptures together, talking about scriptures like women in
Bible study classes do when they have ladies Bible study classes.
You ladies, now I won't ask your forgiveness, I'll let you ask
for mine. It's usually a lot of yak about nothing. That's
usually just all yak about nothing. Women teaching theology, I suggest
you don't pay any attention to them. But they were down there
meeting, and they went through the law and went through the
services, and Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures concerning
Christ and Him crucified, and there was one lady there, a businesswoman,
passing through Philippi at that appointed time named Lydia, whose
heart the Lord opened. God arranged for eternity and
arranges by his providence to bring the chosen redeemed sinner
to cross paths with a gospel preacher sent in the power of
his spirit at precisely the moment he intends to give the sinner
life. You can mark this down. If you
belong to God, God's going to get you. God's gonna get you. Some say,
well, if he has to turn the world upside down to do it, he'll do
it. That's wrong. If he chooses to turn the world
upside down to do it, that's what he'll do. If you belong
to God, God's gonna get you. And he'll get you without preachers
tricking you, deceiving you, trying to talk you into something,
trying to con you into religion. If you belong to God, He will
call you by His grace, you will hear His voice, and you will
believe His Son. Look at verse 17. Is it not a very little while? What a remarkable word. Is it not a very little while? This is a prophecy about the
coming of Christ, the accomplishments of Christ. This coming was hundreds
of years in the future. And yet the Lord God speaks by
his prophet and says, is it not a very little while? With him
a thousand years is as one day, and one day is as a thousand
years. That means time means nothing
to God. Time means nothing to God. The day of grace will come to
God's elect in a very little while. Always exactly on time. If you're converted by God's
grace when you're 16, or you're converted by God's grace when
you're 96, it's a very little time to God. Oh, how sad that
he or she was so old when they first believed. Exactly the right time. I've
had the privilege of baptizing several people in their late
80s, in their early and mid 90s, and I would never suggest to
them that somehow or another God messed things up. At exactly
the time appointed, best for them, best for the glory of God,
and best for all God's elect, God calls His own. and Lebanon
shall be turned into a fruitful field. Read this whole chapter
and you'll see clearly the Lord has spoken about the casting
away of the Jews because of their unbelief. Lebanon here represents
the Gentile world, which was like a great forest, uncultivated,
full of fruitless trees. that God had ordained from eternity
that the gospel should go to the Gentile nations. He would
gather his elect from the four corners of the earth where he
scattered them through the fall of Adam and the scattering of
the nations. He would gather them at his appointed
time. They're called the sons of Jacob,
the seed of Abraham, the Israel of God. Well, the Rex read that
22nd Psalm, the very last verse says, a seed shall serve him. A seed, who is the seed of the
woman, who is the seed of Christ, shall serve him at God's appointed
time. And the Lord God, through the
preaching of the gospel, dug around and manured these unfruitful
Gentile trees. The Gentile world became God's
husbandry, his fruitful field, and it abounds with harvest unto
this day to his glory. And the fruitful field shall
be esteemed as a forest. The Jews, to whom the gospel
was preached for 2,000 years, the Jews who alone had the word
and ordinances of God for 2,000 years, they despised the word. despised the grace of God, despised
the Redeemer portrayed in all those sacrifices and took instead
the mundane sacrifices and the carnal ordinances and made them
a work of the flesh and claimed righteousness because they performed
outward religious exercises. For that God sent blindness to
Israel. For that the Savior said, your
house is left unto you desolate. The Lord God hid his kingdom
from them and gave it to a people who by his grace bring forth
fruit to his glory. Now let's look at verses 18 to
24. Here the prophet of God shows
us seven things that happen when the gospel comes to sinners in
power. Verse 18. that day shall the
deaf hear the words of the book. All men by nature, being dead
in trespasses and in sins, are deaf to the Word of God. They
cannot hear with understanding the gospel of the grace of God.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. Look back up in verse 9. Stay
yourselves and wonder. Cry ye out and cry. They are
drunken, but not with wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink. They're drunk. with the wine
of Babylon's fornications, the idolatry with will worship. Verse
10, for the Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep
sleep, and hath closed your eyes, the prophets and your rulers,
the seers hath he covered, and the vision of all is become unto
you as the words of a book that is sealed. which men deliver
to one that has learned, saying, read this, I pray thee, and he
saith, I cannot, for it's sealed. And the book is delivered to
him that has not learned, saying, read this, I pray thee, and he
saith, I have not learned. But when the gospel comes with
power, God gives the deaf a hearing ear. Blessed are your ears, because
they hear. As I sat this past weekend, and
listened to my friends preaching the gospel of God's grace, and
God spoke to my heart by his word. Those words pulsated through
my mind and through my heart almost every waking moment of
the weekend. Blessed are your ears, for they
hear. The hearing ear The seeing eye,
the believing heart, the understanding mind are God's gifts. It is He,
God the Holy Ghost, who gives us faith in Christ. He does so
by the preaching of the gospel. Turn over to Matthew 22. I want
you to see one of our Lord's parables. Verse 2. There is a general call, which
is what I do every time I preach the gospel. The gospel is preached,
and as we preach the gospel, we call sinners to Christ. Our
Lord himself issues a general call to men when he walked on
this earth. He said, come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and
learn in me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. There
is this general call. The general call must go out. It is by the general call that
the effectual call comes. But there is a general call.
Look at verse two of Matthew 22. The kingdom of heaven is
likened to a certain king, which made a marriage for his son and
sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the
wedding, and they would not come. And again, he sent forth other
servants saying, tell them which were bidden. Behold, I prepared
my dinner, my oxen, my fatling are killed, and all things are
ready, come to the marriage. But they made light of it. What's that mean? They laughed
at it? Probably that too. But this hasn't made light of
it. They said, we've got other things more pressing. We've got
other things more pressing. Tomorrow maybe. Right now we've
got too much to do. They went their ways. One to
his farm, another to his business, his merchandise. And the remnant
took his servants and he treated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king heard thereof,
he was wroth, and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those
murderers, and burned up their city. Obviously talking about
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Then saith he to his
servants, the wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were
not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as
ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into
the highways and gathered together, all as many as they found, both
bad and good. And the wedding was furnished
with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he
saw one man there which had not on a wedding garment, one who
didn't trust the Lord Jesus, didn't take his righteousness,
wouldn't have his blood. And he saith unto him, friend,
how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Then said the king to his servants,
bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Now here's the explanation. For
many are called, but few are chosen. Luke speaks of the same
illustration of the kingdom of heaven, the church of God, comparing
it to a marriage feast. And after these servants have
called many out of the highways and hedges to come to the marriage,
he sends his servant, singular apt, and he says to his servant,
singular, go and compel them to come into the marriage. That's
an irresistible call. That's a call that can't be resisted. That's the call that comes when
the gospel comes to you in power. There's a general call. And there's
an effectual call. The Lord Jesus came to Matthew,
sitting at the receipt of customs, that publican. There he is with
his money tin right in front of him, collecting taxes. And
the Savior said, Matthew, follow me. And he followed him. He came
to a fellow named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a small, short
fellow. And there were a whole bunch
of folks wanting to see who this Jesus of Nazareth is, this miracle
worker. And Zacchaeus climbed up in the
tree, I presume with a bunch of school children, because he
wanted to see Jesus of Nazareth as he passed by. And the Lord
Jesus came to that tree. And he stopped and he looked
up and said, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today
I must abide at thy house. sinners chosen of God will be
called by his grace to by the hearing of the word. Here's the
second thing. Look at verse 18. The eyes of
the blind shall see out of obscurity and darkness. All of us by nature are lost,
blind, groping in darkness and obscurity. The light that's in
us by nature is darkness. How great that darkness is. But
in that day when God calls, he causes the light to shine in
your heart and he makes you to see. He makes you to see your
sin and misery. The wrath of God that you deserve,
the danger you're in. He causes you to see the way
of life and salvation by Christ. causes you to see the great and
glorious truths and promises of the gospel. In short, he causes
you to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He, our God, who is the God of
this world, has hid these sayings from the wise and prudent. Paul
said if our gospel be hid, it's not hid because we're not playing.
It's not hid because we don't tell the truth. It's not hid
because we don't preach it. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
and then they're lost. God of this world, our blessed
God, he who sends darkness and blindness and stops the ear. He who shuts men up has hid it
from them. But God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He causes sinners who groped
about in darkness to see out of obscurity the glory of God
in the crucified Redeemer, to see how that God is just in justifying
sinners through the sacrifice of his Son. Those who are taught
of God. Come to me, the Savior said.
You see, when God does the teaching, you get the lesson. I can teach,
but I can't talk anymore. But when God does the teaching,
you get the lesson. Look at verse 19. Here's the
third thing. When the gospel comes in power,
the meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord. Our Lord
Jesus said, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Meekness is the fruit of the Spirit. And when God comes in
saving power, he humbles proud sinners and makes them meek. What does that mean? Meek. I've said this to you again many
times. Whatever men by nature, whatever carnal, unregenerate
people think about anything concerning God, Christ, redemption, salvation,
spiritual things, holiness, righteousness, grace, mercy, meat, faith, anything,
whatever men think about those things who do not know God, be
sure you understand it's wrong. And whatever you naturally think
about it, be sure you understand it's wrong. We get a picture
of meekness when we have someone like Gandhi, that fellow who
used to dress in that, I guess it was white, I never saw it
in person, looked like had a white dress on and some thongs and
he walked around like this. And folks say he's so meek. No,
he's a proud rebel. He's a proud rebel, that's all.
Despised God, worshipped idols of his own making. Well, what
then is meekness? When God comes by his grace and
reveals Christ in you, he will cause you to see yourself as
you really are and to see God as he really is in Christ. In Isaiah's here first five chapters
of this book, Isaiah He said, woe is this group, woe is that
group, woe are those people, woe be them, woe to them. And
then in Isaiah six, he describes his experience of God's grace.
He said, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted
up. His train filled the temple.
The seraphim cried, holy, Holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. Seraphim portrayed in the tabernacle
in the temple, looking down on that blood sacrifice. declaring
God's holiness. And the one he saw was the one
that sacrifice represented, sitting on his throne, called the throne
of grace. He's pictured in Revelation chapter
five as a lamb that had been slain, standing on the throne. He is the crucified God, man,
our savior. And when Isaiah saw him, he said,
woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. And
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He said, I have
nothing. I have no hope. And about that
time, one of the preachers, one of those seraphim took tongs
from off the altar. And he brought a live coal and
laid it on the prophet's lips. And he said, your iniquity is
taken away. Your sin is purged. And Isaiah is meek before God. He sees himself as he really
is, and sees God as he really is, and bows to worship him. The meek bow to God. The meek bow to Christ. The meek bow to Christ's righteousness. The meek bow to Christ's sacrifice. The meek bow to God's providence. They are men and women made meek
by God's free grace. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. Blessed are the meek. The meek
are sinners saved by God's grace. They know who they are and they
know whose they are. And the scripture says here,
they shall increase their joy in the Lord. The text might be
translated a couple of different ways. It might read, they shall
obtain their joy in the Lord. They used to get their joy in
the world, in their lust, in their proud, self-righteous thoughts
of themselves, their thoughts of superiority and goodness and
uprightness and morality, acceptableness with God. But now they obtain
their joy in the Lord, our righteousness, Christ Jesus the Lord. The statement
might be translated this way. They shall add to their joy in
the Lord. The meek. continually have joy
added to them by the fresh discoveries of the Savior's love, by meditating
upon Him, by fresh views of His person and His work, by fresh
experiences of His grace. They have their joy added to
them as they often fall. And the Lord raises them up.
as they often are cold and indifferent, and the Lord refreshes them.
You see, these things, too, are in God's providence, experiences
for which we make no excuse, but experiences by which the
Lord God graciously, sweetly forces us constantly to look
to our Redeemer. Look at the fourth thing, verse
19. and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. When the gospel comes in power,
blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
God. When the scriptures speak about
the poor, the poor in spirit, they're not talking about those
who are physically poor. Many poor men are very proud.
It's not even talking about those who are spiritually poor. Everybody
is bankrupt spiritually. But rather, it's talking about
men and women made sensibly poor in their souls. You see your
calling, brethren? Not many wise men after the flesh.
Not many mighty. Not many noble are called. God's
chosen the foolish things of the world. Things that are not. Things that are despised. And
that's what he uses to build his kingdom, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. Mephibosheth was a poor man. He was brought before David the
king. What a picture of our God's grace.
David sent down Lotabar and fetched Mephibosheth and brought him
right into the palace. Can you imagine how that man
must have trembled? That son of Saul had been hiding
all his life, and David sat him down, and he said, Mephibosheth,
I made a covenant with your daddy, and I promised him I'd do you
good. You will sit at the king's table
all the days of your life. And Mephibosheth said, what is
your servant such a dead dog as I am that you should have
mercy on me? Canaanite woman came begging
the master to have mercy on her daughter. Grievously begs to
the devil. And the master said to that Canaanite
woman, it's not right that I should take the children's bread and
cast it to dogs. And most of us would have got
up in a huff and said, well, suit yourself. I can do without
you. Not her. She had desperate need. She said,
Lord, it's not right you should take the children's bread and
cast it to dogs. Even dogs get to eat crumbs that fall on the
floor. And the master said, I've never seen such faith as this.
No, not in Israel. God's people are made sensibly
poor before him. We recognize that all I hope
before God is Christ and his righteousness. They shall rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. Let your
ease of mind, your ease of heart, your ease of character, your
moderation be known to all men, the Lord's at hand. Oh, children
of God, poor, bankrupt in yourselves, rejoice in free forgiveness,
complete reconciliation, perfect righteousness, God's gift of
holiness, God's gift of grace, peace with God, faith in Christ. Here's the fifth thing. They
shall sanctify my name, verse 23. God asserts that he will cut
off the proud, the self-righteous Pharisee who watches for iniquity
in others, in verses 20 and 21. He's talking specifically about
the Pharisees who feigned humility and feigned godliness, and they
came out to entrap the Savior in his words. They ask him a
question, just hoping he'd say the wrong thing. Now, some of
you know what that's like. I know exactly what it's like.
I get letters from folks just every little bit, usually preachers
who ask a question. And they, I know I'm not the
brightest bulb in the room, but they think I'm dumber than a
box of rocks, and I can't see somebody swinging at me with
a curve. But they ask a question. And when I was younger, it didn't
have better sense. I used to try to answer them.
I'm older now and I don't pay much attention to them. You don't
even answer them. When I do, I always answer them in a way so as to... irritate them, and give them
exactly what they wanted. Now I've got something I can
say about Fortner. That's exactly what the Pharisees, the Herodians,
the scribes, and the Sadducees did with our master. And they
do it to this day. They look for something that
can catch a little nick here, a quip there. He should have
said that different. He should have been more careful
about his words. Barnyards are full of what they
put out. But God's elect, the seed of Abraham, his redeemed,
his covenant people, being sanctified by him as God, sanctify him as
God. Look at verse 22. Therefore thus
saith the Lord who redeemed Abraham, not Adam, Abraham, not everybody,
Abraham, his seed, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob his
chosen. Jacob shall not now be ashamed. Neither shall his face now wax
pale. When he'd been sanctified by
God's grace, called and born again by God's grace, he that
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. But when he seeth his
children, the work of mine hands in the midst of him, what's that
talking about? Well, God saves households. No,
he doesn't. Though sometimes he does, but
not often. Usually one or two here and there
in the household. But he saves all the house of
grace, all the house of Abraham, all the house of Jacob, all the
house of his elect. When he seeth his children, the
work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they, that is Abraham,
Jacob, and the sons of Jacob, shall sanctify my name, and sanctify
the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. Sanctify
means to honor. Sanctify means to set apart. Sanctify means to hallow. God's
people, all God's people set Him alone from everything that
men call God's and worship Him in all the glory of His triune
Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, revealed in the person
of Christ, our crucified Savior, who by the sacrifice of Himself
put away our sins and satisfied divine justice. Here's the sixth
thing, look at verse 24. They also that erred in spirit
shall come to understanding. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, the foolishness to it. But right
after that, Paul gives an astounding statement. But we have the mind
of Christ. We judge, we discern all things. God's people have understanding. God gives them understanding.
They see. They understand because God has
revealed Christ in them. They know the necessity of Christ's
coming, the sufficiency and efficacy of his accomplishments, the blessedness
of his gospel, the joy of his grace. Verse 24, I'll be done. Here's the seventh thing. When
the gospel comes in power, They that murmured shall learn doctrine. I love that. They that murmured
shall learn doctrine. When God comes in saving power,
those who now murmur against Christ and his gospel learn the
doctrine of Christ. And you can just run just as
far as you want to with that. It'd be all right. Make everything
out of it you possibly can. But this is the essence of it.
Until the gospel comes in power, you can preach to them, and talk
to them, and reason with them, and they'll, well, yeah, but,
yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but. That's what goats do. They just
but, and but, and but, and but, and but. And sheep tend to but
too. But when the gospel comes in
power, God takes the but out of his sheep. they come to understand
doctrine. Isn't that something? Isn't that something? I meant
to say something to Brother Paul Mahan and his wife Mindy this
weekend about it. I remember when God saved Brother
Paul, I had just gotten acquainted with the family a year or so
earlier, and Brother Paul anxiously read things, and things he used
to fuss about. He came into his dad's study
one day, And he had a book with him, a little thin hardback book. He said, Dad, have you ever read
this? It was called Peek's Attributes of God. And his dad very nicely,
pleasantly, he said, yeah, it's pretty good, isn't it? Good now. They come to understand
the gospel. When the gospel comes in power,
and until it does, The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, and you won't make it. You won't make it. Quit fussing
with folks about doctrine. Quit arguing with folks about
election. I know our proud flesh, we want to prove ourselves right,
and that's all it is. The best way to minister to folks
Get them here to hear the gospel. If they won't come, take it to
them. Take a message. Take something written, something
preached, and keep it on hand. Look for an opportunity to get
them to commit to hearing it or reading it. I'll give you
an illustration concerning two friends. Brother Jim Wilson down
in Wichita Falls, Texas. Brother Russell Smith in Ballymena,
North Ireland. Both have been religious all
their lives. And Brother Jim's wife, Penny, would just forget
and leave tapes in the seat of his truck. And Jim would plug
them in, listen to me for a few minutes, and just get mad and
throw it out the window. And did it week after week after
week, month after month after month. And one day, put one in,
and he started reaching to get it. And Cod got it, and he still
holds it. Brother Russell Smith, somebody
down in Belfast, North Island, started giving him tapes. And
he'd plug them in. And he told me, I'll get so mad,
I'm gonna cuss, and just throw them out the window. Just throw
them out the window. The one day, plugged one in.
And God got him. When the gospel comes in power,
God saves his elect. Oh, may he be pleased to make
us instruments by which the gospel will be brought in power to chosen
centers in this generation. Amen.