It's a joy, always a joy, especially
to be here in this congregation. Appreciate your pastor and his
wife, and appreciate this congregation very much. And thankful that
you keep doing this every year at my birthday. They do this now in honor. This
is sort of a memorial for my birthday. My birthday's tomorrow.
Tuesday, I guess. No, today's Friday. I'm well.
My birthday's Tuesday. You might want to remember that. It's a joy, and I appreciate
Don asking me to be here. I have a familiar text tonight
in Romans chapter 11, if you want to turn there with me, and
I trust you have your Bibles with you. Romans chapter 11,
I want to read the first seven verses. My message tonight is God's answer,
God's answer to a troubled prophet. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? God forbid. For I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Watch ye not
what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he made intercessions to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets,
they have digged down thy maulers, and I am left alone, and they
seek my life. But what saith the answer of
God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven
thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then
it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. What then? Israel, natural Israel,
have not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election
hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. I want to first
remind you about this prophet, and you'll find this account
in 1 Kings chapter 18 and verse 19 for the most part, but this
is probably one of the greatest Prophets that ever lived. He
lived in the days of Ahab, the wicked king of Israel. He was Jezebel's husband. We've all
heard of Jezebel. This was a man that lived during
that wicked reign and probably one of the greatest prophets
ever lived. And I say that even comparing
him to Moses. He was a great prophet. Mighty
in word and he was mighty in deed. Anybody that had any sense
feared this man They were scared to death of this man when he
spoke the fire of heaven may fall on you One day he went out
to the mighty Jordan River and took his mantle in his hand and
smoked the water and the river just parted It just parted He prayed that it wouldn't rain
and it didn't rain for three years and six months and He prayed
again that it would rain, and the heavens gave abundance of
rain. He was a mighty prophet, a mighty
prophet. Ahasuerus was the son of Ahab,
and he hated this prophet. He found out that Elijah was
close by Samaria, setting up on a hill. And he sent his captain
with 50 soldiers to go and get him. And he walked up to this
man of God and said, man of God, make haste and get down. The
king wants to see you. And he said, if I'm a man of
God, let fire come down from heaven and burn you up. And boy,
the fire fell and burned him and his 50 up. Now, Hazus was
a very arrogant man. He sent 50 more with their captain. He was a little bolder than the
first captain. Went up and said, oh man of God,
get down now. Come down now. He said, if I'm
a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and burn you up. And boy, it did. He sent 50 more
with their captain. And this captain came up and
he fell on his face and said, oh man of God, I saw what you
did. Have mercy upon me. Let my life be precious and my
men be precious. And God said, go with him, he's
not gonna hurt you. He's not gonna hurt you. This
was a mighty man. Remember Mount Carmel? We all
remember Mount Carmel, don't we? Where he faced down 450 prophets
of Baal. Faced them down. He said, we're
going to see today who God is. There's one God we're going to
ask him to reveal, he said. And he told the prophets, he
said, you build you an altar, you stack the wood on it, you
put your sacrifice on it, then you cry out to your gods. And
if he answers you with fire, he'll be God. Well, they did
that. They did that. Got their sacrifice,
began to cry out. Cried out all morning, nothing
happened. Elijah began to mock them. He
said, maybe your God is busy. Maybe he should cry a little
louder. Or maybe he's talking to somebody. Maybe he's asleep
on a journey. He mocked them. And they got
so upset they began to cut themselves with their knives and blood gushing
out of their skin. And the Bible says there was
no voice. No voice. No one regarded them. Could you imagine how frustrated
Satan was? That God would not let him move,
say anything, do anything. He was over there in the corner,
pouting as it was. God shut his mouth. And they
cried until they finally gave up. They broke the altar down
and Elijah repaired the altar and laid his wood on it. put
the sacrifice on it, had him to bring four barrels of water
and soak the sacrifice, soak the wood and fill the ditch up
with water. And he called on the God of Israel. And he said, Oh Lord, God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, let it be known today that you're
God. You're the God of Israel. Let
it be known that I'm your servant, and I've done this at your word,
and that you've turned back the hearts of the people, and fire
fell from heaven. That's pretty powerful, isn't
it? You got that kind of power with God. Fire fell from heaven,
burned up the sacrifice, burned up the wood, burned up the stone
and the dust, and licked up the water that filled the trenches. They all began to shout, God
is God. God is God. This was a great man, wasn't
he? He was a great man. What kind
of man was he really? When you got down to Elijah himself,
what kind of a fellow he was. You know what the Bible says
about this man? He was just like you, and he
was just like me. He was born in sin, like we are. He lived in sin until God converted
him and revealed Jesus Christ to him. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And every man where you find
him in the New Testament or the Old Testament, he must be born
again. Jesus Christ had to be revealed
to his art. He was a sinner. That's all he
was Saved with the grace of God, you know what James tells us
about this man He was subject to lack passions as you know
In and of himself he was as physically weak Spiritually weak as you
are and as I am And we've got an illustration of this, an example
of this, over in 1 Kings, and you'll have to turn over there
and read it at your leisure. 1 Kings 18 and 19, we don't have
time to turn over there. Don, he won't loan me, he won't
yield any of his time, so I gotta finish it my time. I don't blame
him. You remember when he had faced
down those 450 prophets. Killed them, he killed them.
Took them down to the brook Keshron and killed them. Threw their
bodies into the brook. The floods that was coming carried
them all the way down to the sea. Nobody ever saw them again.
The rains came and he outran the chariot of Ahab back to Jezreel. Ahab went in and told Jezebel,
Elijah's killed your prophet. And she sent him a note. A man
brought him a note and he opened it up and read it. And he said,
dear Elijah, by this time tomorrow, you're gonna be like one of my
prophets. I'm gonna kill you. And you know what he did? He
didn't even take time to pack his lunch. Man, he jumped up
and ran, finally left his servant behind, and he ran for over 40
days and ran all the way out of the country to Mount Sinai
in Arabia. That's the kind of man he was.
I think sometimes God is pleased to take his men, good men, even
his prophets, these great men, and humble them by the simplest
of means just to prove to you and I that no man is gonna say
anything or do anything of any consequence except God is working
in him and God is working through him. He did the same way with the
apostle Peter, didn't he? Peter's ready to fight, he's
ready to die. And just a few minutes later, he denied Jesus
Christ because a little maid looked at him and said, No man is anything, and no man
can do anything without the power of God, without the grace of
God. I wonder when these other people
heard that he ran. I mean they had such high respect
for him, they had such regard for him, and now he's ran out
of the country. Maybe these people begin to think,
man, he's nothing without God. Lord leaves him, he's just like
us. That's what God wants to teach us. That's what he's teaching
us here in this life. Boy, you and I have experienced
this. Some of us have lived long enough now that we have experienced,
we can look back, and some of us look back on some of the best
preaching that our country has known. You and I have sat under
some of the most powerful preaching and the most powerful preachers
that I've known in my lifetime. It was though God was speaking
to us, wasn't it? And we've watched some of these
men as they've gotten older and some of them have gotten so feeble
that they can't even get into the pulpit to preach to us. Some
have gotten so mentally weak that they won't even read or
have prayer publicly for the church anymore. They're no use
to themselves and no use to us as far as preaching is concerned.
And now we look at them. And we've watched them as one
by one we've lost them. And then we realize, oh God,
it was You speaking. It wasn't their voice I was hearing. You were speaking to me through
those men. Don't we remember it? Oh, and
their words went to our hearts. We just couldn't believe it,
the power that was there to convert us and deliver us and guide us
and edify us. And then we finally realized
it wasn't those men at all. They were preaching with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. And oh, when we lose Him, when we
lose Him, we may present theological arguments. We may set forth a
system of theology. We may even set forth plain truth. But I tell you, without preaching
in the Holy Spirit, it won't have any power to it. That's what God is teaching us
from this prophet. We're all just like him, aren't
we? We can't do anything without Jesus Christ our Lord. We can't
preach and you can't hear. And none of us can believe. And
none of us can repent. We can't even sing or desire
or shed a tear. We can't do anything without
Him. We're just like this scared pride.
We'll run and hide. We see something else in this
man. We see the danger sometimes that afflicts good men, gracious
men, in becoming full of themselves. fooling themselves. Our text
tells us here, I am left alone. And that's where you can go back
to 1 Kings 19 where Paul quoted this from, I am left alone. And he was alone. He was alone. And the Lord asked
him, he had fled to Mount Sinai, there in the cave, and the Lord
asked him, where are you Elijah? And he said, I only have left. I only have left. And I've been
so zillious. I've been so zillious for my
Lord. Israel has broken your covenant
and turned to false idols and worship. And I am left alone. Then a whirlwind came and the
fire came and the rocks ramped and the Lord asked him that same
question again. Where are you Elijah? I'm left
alone. I'm here by myself. I'm the only
one that's faithful. I'm the only one that hasn't
compromised. Everybody else, nobody else but
me left. Nobody. I am left alone. I only. I. I. I. When we start getting a lot of
those I's in there, we're in trouble, aren't we? Would you
think a man of this caliber could get in this attitude? I am left
alone. I don't know if there's anything
to this. The Holy Spirit leaves out only here and it just says
in our text, I am. I am. We know where that comes from,
don't we? That's God. That's the word Jesus Christ
himself said, I am. And here he's saying, I am. I'm left alone. I only remain. Elijah, have you ever heard of
a man by the name of Obadiah? I'm not for sure. Yeah, you're
not for sure. Yeah. You're so caught up in yourself,
you're so busy with your ministry, you don't know about a man that
serves in Ahab's court that hid 100 of the Lord's prophets and
he risked his life to do it. You don't know him? Do you know
those 100 prophets? I am left alone. Ain't nobody
faithful but me. I am so zealous. Did you ever get that way, Donny
Bill? Everybody got that way, haven't
you? You don't have to be a preacher
to get that way. Just let the Lord bless your message. And
before you get out of the pulpit, you'll be thinking, man, what
a message. Who was that? Was it Spurgeon?
Compliment him on the message when he left the pulpit. He said,
what a great message. And he said, I was already told
that while I was in the pulpit. We tell ourselves that, don't
we? Man, what a message. Look what
I'm doing. Ain't nobody doing what I'm doing. Somebody said, if the Lord's
going to bless us with his right hand, he's going to have to keep
us beat down with his left. That's just the way we are. Paul
was caught up into the third heaven, that great apostle of
the Gentiles. Saw things that he couldn't even
utter. God showed him abundance of things by revelation. And
he come back down and he was just ready to get lifted up in
pride and start saying, I, I, I. And God sent a messenger of
Satan to afflict him, a thorn in the flesh. Lest I should be
exalted above measure. Every time I see a young preacher
that says to me, God's called me to preach, the
first thing I say to him, man, I feel sorry for you. If God's going to use anybody,
he's going to beat him down. He's going to keep him low. You
ain't worth nothing if you don't. I remember a few years ago, I
was talking to Brother Todd, and I told him, I said, boy,
I'm just so nervous. I'm nervous when I'm making preparations
to go to the pulpit, and I'm nervous while I'm preaching,
and it just kills me. And he said, Bruce, you're taking
yourself way too serious. I was. Wasn't taking the ministry
too serious, but myself. A lot of this is pride, isn't
it? I want to have liberty to preach. If I feel good about
my message, that's all that matters. I was reading a book, a pastor
wrote, I think he's dead now. And he said, he talked about
the Lord. He said, the Lord humbled me.
He brought me low and humbled me. And he said, I'm so thankful
that he did because he brought me to the place where I didn't
need for somebody to come up and say, Pastor, good message.
Pastor, great message. He said, I realized it wasn't
about me. It was about those I was preaching
to. Is it edifying them? Is it helping them? Lord, I am
left alone. Ain't nobody doing anything but
me. The third thing about this prophet,
and I guess it just naturally reached this point, I'm alone. I'm alone. Naturally. Naturally, you're alone. Ain't
nobody as faithful as you are. Nobody doing as much as you are.
Nobody's so committed as you are. You've separated yourself
from everybody. I tell you, when we get that
way, we get lonely, don't we? You know, I can probably do without
the church. I can probably get through this
world without the body of Christ. I just don't know how. We're a body, aren't we? We're the body of Christ, the
Bible teaches us. You're members of His body. His hands, His feet, His ears,
His eyes. You separate your hand from your
arm, and what happens to it? It'll swivel up. It'll turn blue. It's useless. Remove your foot
from your leg. No foot, it ain't gonna do anything,
but lay there. We're members one of another.
We're in the body of Christ. And I tell you what, if we separate
ourselves from that body, If we don't stay in the communion
of the saints, I'd say you better get your depression medication
prescription filled because you're probably gonna need it. You're
probably gonna wind up just like this fella. I'm alone. I'm alone. Why are you alone? There's 7,000
prophets out there. That's not compromise. Why are
you alone? You know that the Lord didn't
save his people so they could separate themselves from his
people. He never does that, does he? One of the phrases you'll see
in the New Testament, or its equivalent, is always phrases
like this. Upon the first day of the week,
they assembled together. Together. You never see them
out there by themselves. Now let me stop and say, I know,
I know there's people in places in this country and in the world
that it's impossible for them together. I know that. I realize that. The providence
of God has shut them up out there, or people sick at home. But I'm
saying, brothers and sisters, this, If you're just running
everywhere, and if you meet with the body of Christ okay, and
if you don't okay, then you're gonna get yourself in trouble
if you're a child of God. Together. Even our Lord Jesus
Christ never spent his time alone, did he? He surrounded himself
with his apostles and his people. And He was only alone when He
come to the end. And He had to be alone there
upon the cross. You know what the Bible says? When the Lord
Jesus Christ comes back, we're going to be caught up together.
We're going to be glorified together. Everything's together. Don't separate yourself, dear
soul. Every time the body of Christ meets, if you can, meet
with them. And you won't experience what
this man of God experienced here. I'm alone. I'm alone. Now let's go for just a few minutes
to God's answer. Here's God's answer to this prophet.
I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed
their knee to the image of Baal. Paul is speaking here of God's
electing a remnant among the Jewish nation here in chapter
11. He elects a remnant among the
natural Jews. That's who he's speaking about
here, but he does that among the Gentiles. He's got his elect
among the natural Jews and elect among the Gentiles. And the Lord
saves his elect among the natural Jews and among the Gentiles,
and he brings them together in Christ, and he calls them the
Israel of God. And in Elijah's day there was
a remnant of Jews according to the election of grace. All the
way back in Elijah's day. And Paul said at this present
time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And
I would say probably we could just figure today there's a remnant
of natural Jews according to the election of grace. You talk to the typical, fundamental
Baptist pastor and you mention election to him and he'll get
red in his face. And yet he'll turn right around
and say, well we need to make sure Israel is preserved. God's beat you to it, bud. He's
already preserving that people. Why? He's got a remnant among
them. There would be no natural Jew
at all if it wasn't for election. Why does the Jew still exist
as a people? Because of election. God is reserving
to himself. A remnant. I love the definition
that the Holy Spirit here gives of election. If you had to tell
somebody what election is, right here is a perfect definition. In verse four, here's the definition
of election. I have reserved to myself. That's
election, isn't it? God reserving to himself. I love to use my imagination
sometimes. I try to stay in the scriptures
with it. You know what the scripture teaches
about the elect of God? That their names were in a book,
the Lamb's Book of Life, put there before the world began. And I love sometimes to imagine
that I can go back to the foundation of the world and just dive right
off back into eternity, and just sail and sail and sail back into
eternity. all the way back there to the
beginning. And I see in the Lord's hand a book. And the title of
that book is The Lamb's Book of Life. And there sits the Lord
writing names in it. And I say, Lord, what are you
writing? I'm writing names. I'm writing names. I know something,
Bruce, that you don't know. I know sin's gonna enter. I know
a fall is coming. I know what's going to happen.
Devastation. I know hell is going to enlarge
itself. Humanity is ruined. I know it. And what am I doing with writing
these names down? I'm reserving to myself. That's what election
is. Remember old J.D. Ward, what
he used to say? If God had not a chosen son,
heaven would have had none. Ain't that the truth? If God
had not reserved to Himself, there'd be no heaven. You see the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross and what's He doing? It's almost impossible to explain
what He's doing there apart from election. Isn't it? Because what
He's doing there is securing the elect. He's laying down His
life for the sheep. He's saving His people from their
sin. Take away election. And how do
you explain the cross? Here's the Holy Spirit at work
in hearts. Working in men's hearts. And
what's He doing there? What's the Holy Spirit doing
in men's hearts? In the hearts of sinners today?
It's difficult to explain it apart from election. He's making His people willing,
His people willing in the day of His power. He's teaching them
to come to Christ. How do you explain the work of
the Holy Spirit apart from election? How do we explain heaven apart
from election? Take away heaven and there's,
take away election and there's no need for heaven. God don't
need heaven. He's too big for it anyway. Who's
heaven for? I saw much people in heaven.
It's for people. You take away people and you
don't need heaven. And you take away election, you
don't have people. Without election, there's no
heaven and there's no earth. It's not needed. Election necessitates
these things. Look out into eternity. And there
you see a multitude that no man can number around the throne,
worshiping the Lamb of God. And they're singing to Him, and
they're shouting to Him, and they're dancing and leaping.
in their garments of white. And somebody says, what is this
place? This is the place God has made
for those he reserved for himself. Take away election, you don't
have heaven. Take away election, you don't have a kingdom. Inherit
the kingdom prepared for you. Take away the you, and you take
away the kingdom. And you take away election, you
take away you. We can't talk about the existence
and preservation of anything apart from election. Why is there
a world? Why does the sun come up and
the rain come down? Why is there fruitful seasons?
Why is hearts filled with gladness? Why are there nations? Why are
languages and tribes preserved? Why are families preserved? Explain
this apart from election, and you can't, because all of these
things exist for the elect. There is no families if there's
no election. There is no language, there is
no nations if there's no election. Explain why you've got a group
of people in this world and every age that believe God and believe
in the Son of God and they love Him and they love one another
and they serve one another. I look out at some of you, I
think of some of you so often, and remember some of the trials
that you've gone through, and sometimes when I think I'm in
a great trial, I remember what some of you have gone through,
and it encourages me because I say, that's nothing to what
they went through. And some of you have been on
the way decade after decade after decade, and you've been faithful
ever since I've known you. And why? How in the world can
this be explained apart from election? I cannot explain your
faithfulness to the Lord and your upholding His worship publicly
and privately any more than you can explain why these 7,000 men
didn't bow to the image of Baal apart from election. Why do we
have faithful saints? Because God has reserved them
to Himself. That's it, isn't it? You go to
these 7,000 men and you say, why haven't you vowed? And they wouldn't have said,
well, I pray a lot. Man, I pray a lot. You just don't
know how much I pray. And I read, man, I read several
chapters a day. I'm faithful. You know what they
would have said? The same thing you say. God reserved
me to himself. That's why I'm not bound. That's
why I'm not thrown in the towel. That's why I keep on keeping
on. That's why I endure hardness as a good soldier. God has reserved
me to himself. And you take away election, you
don't have any faithfulness. If there's no election, there's
nothing. There's no Paul. There's no Apollos. There's no Cephas. There's no
world. There's no life. There's no death. There's no
death of Christ. There's no death that releases
us and lets us go home. Because all of these things belong
to the election of grace. Listen to this, brothers and
sisters. This is how you and I feel about
God's election. If there's no election, there's
no Christ. How do you feel about that? He
belongs to the elect, and the elect belong to Him. Take away
election, there's no Christ. That's how serious we are about
this. Does this answer any of your
problems that you have? Next time you get lifted up in
pride, go right here. Ain't nobody doing what I'm doing,
boy. Oh yes, he's reserved to himself 7,000. There was a marked difference
in this prophet when the Lord told him that. You see a marked
difference in his life. He never was alone again. When
the Lord told him, I reserved to myself 7,000, the first thing
he did is went and found one of them. And fellowshiped with
him the rest of his life. And he was among the prophets.
They knew when he was gonna be taken up. Oh, this will do something
to your pride, won't it? I reserved to myself. This will
answer your question maybe about the doubts of your own salvation.
I don't know how many people come up to me and say, Bruce,
I'm so doubtful of my salvation. You know what I tell people anymore?
I said, you're probably doubtful that anybody's going to be saved.
You're probably doubtful of salvation itself. Nobody's, not even the
apostles or the prophets going to be saved and go to heaven.
This doubting of our salvation sometimes goes deeper than we
think. It's doubting the whole scheme of salvation. The Lord ain't saving anybody.
This answer is that. If there's election, then there's
salvation. And there's people in heaven.
Yes, there is salvation. There is. Well, the church, the
church is gonna be so diminished, nobody left. I beg your pardon. At this present time, there's
a remnant according to the election of grace. No since witnessing
to the lost people, Lord ain't saving anybody. I beg your pardon. At this present time. As far
as I know, the Bible teaches every generation the Lord has
his people. And he's saving them. He's saving. I have reserved to myself. Would
anybody dare to dictate to God who he can reserve to himself?
Would any man be so presumptuous to tell him who he can choose
and who he can't? And boy, he reserves some strange
ones, doesn't he? A widow woman starving to
death? A leper, a heathen general that
was a leper? He was one that God reserved
Himself. A thief on a cross in His dying hours, it was manifested. I've reserved Him to myself.
A bunch of ignorant and unlearned fishermen, He's reserved Him
to Himself. What if He's reserved you? What
if He reserved me? Oh. Oh, He's reserved you to Himself.
Your eternal destiny is sealed. And the Holy Spirit will make
sure of it. You're coming to Christ. You're believing on Christ.
You're cleaving on Christ. You ain't gonna let Him go. God
has reserved you to that end. Oh, if He's reserved you to Himself,
happy you and happy me if I'm one of them. Reckon you are? I'll tell you the only way I
know. You're just cleaving to the Son of God. You've renounced
every other hope, every other way, you've renounced salvation,
and you're cleaving to the Son of God to be saved by Him. If you're doing that, dear soul,
God has reserved you to Himself. And I did not take a minute of
your time. I love Don Fortner. And let me
say this, let me give a plug for one of his books before I
sit down. If you don't have the book, go on home. And I think
that's your last book. That's the best he's ever did.
He's got some good ones, but that's the best. If you don't
have going home, you need to get that book. If you can't afford
it, he'll give it to you. But if you can afford it, listen,
I'm not joking. But if you can afford it and
a little more, you make up for the one he gave to the other
person. Okay? Thank you. God bless you. Thank
you, Pastor.