Would you turn to Romans chapter
8 with me? I've got a very familiar text
I want to read to you. In Romans chapter 8, in verse
28, 29, and 30. God's redeeming purpose is what
I want to look at just for a few minutes. I expect this to be somewhat
scattery. One thing I despise, I've come
to despise more than anything else, is a man gave me a CD not
long ago, and a preacher was preaching, and I'm telling you,
every word was pronounced so correctly. Everything was in
so much order. It went down so slick. I listened
to it for about five minutes, and I thought, I can't take this.
Spurgeon said, tie some knots in your message, for God's sakes.
We don't want everything to be so slick, it'll go down too fast.
So, this will probably be somewhat scattery, but that's alright,
it'll keep you awake, you know, it'll keep you awake. But this
is a very, very familiar text of scripture, you could probably
quote it, I wouldn't have to even read it to you, see, I know
exactly what that says. But let's read it together, Romans
chapter 8 and verse 28, 29 and 30, okay? Romans chapter 8 and
verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. and whom he justified, them he
also glorified." God's purpose. God's purpose. We admire somebody,
especially a young person who has a purpose in their life.
Not many people have a purpose that they work out and they plan
and then put their whole heart into it. But if we find someone
like that, we admire them, don't we? I was at a The ladies Bible
study the other night. My sisters go to a Bible study
and they wanted me to go. And someone said something about
the purpose of God. And I said, this would be a good
study for you ladies, if you want to study the scriptures.
Study and see what God is purpose. He has a purpose. God is a God
of purpose. No sooner has He said here that
all things work together for good to those who are called
according to His purpose, He turns right around and tells
us what God has purposed. Those He foreknew, He predestinated. Those He predestinated, He called. Those He called, He justified.
And those He justified, He glorified. That's God's purpose. He's a
God of purpose. And don't we find that everywhere
in the scriptures, in the Old Testament and the New Testament,
we often read about what God has purposed. Everything that's
happening is happening according to His purpose. And He calls
it an eternal purpose, that He purposed in Jesus Christ our
Lord. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse
11. Listen to how Paul, writing to
young Timothy, expresses to him this purpose of God. He said
God has saved us and called us not according to our works but
according to his own purpose which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. God's purpose is older than this
world. God's purpose to save people
is older than this world. Before he hanged the stars in
place, he had the purpose in his own mind. And it's not that
he looked down through time and says, well, I'll see this is
happening and I see that happening. I see this man will do something
and this man won't do something. So he backs back up in eternity
and says, That's my purpose. I see what people will do, and
I'll see what's happening, and then I'll work my purpose around
that. He purposed IN HIMSELF. This is the glorious thing about
God's purpose. It's not contingent upon what
He sees that's going to happen. That would be like God foreseeing
there would be a world, so He said, Well, I'll purpose to make
one. It doesn't happen that way, does it? He purposed within Himself. Why does God even have a purpose?
Because it pleased Him. You take a young teenager and
he's going through life and he has no desire to go to school.
He says, well, I can't see any need for it. I don't see any
reason to plan for this or that. He'll probably be a failure.
Well, God's not like that. He's a wise God. He's a God of
purpose. He plans. And he carries out
those plans. And that's what the Apostle Paul
is talking about here. He has good pleasure. He has purpose. And Ralph Barnard
used to say, if you find out what God has purposed, you'll
find out the gospel. Because that's what his purpose
is about. It's a redeeming And Paul talks about that here.
And that's what I want to simply look at here for a few minutes.
And maybe say some things to remove some prejudice that people
feel against this. And give you three or four things
that would comfort all of us concerning this purpose. But
it's very easy to see here God's redeeming purpose. He tells us
that plainly. Those He foreknew He predestinated
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brothers, and those that He predestinated,
them He called, and them He called, He justified, and them He justified,
He glorified. Now there's who's going to be
saved. Out of all the history of this
world, these are the people that will finally be saved, from the
beginning all the way to the end. God has purposed who He
will save. And then in this little two verse
here, these two little verses, we have the entire purpose of
God to save sinners. Who it is that purposes, who
He's purposed to save, how He saves them, All of this is right
here in these two little verses. And here's the thing about it.
It's fixed. It's fixed. There's no new names
being written down in heaven. There's no more people being
elected. It's all settled. It's all fixed. The number cannot
be diminished. Those that He foreknew, He glorified
them. Every one of them. And they can't
be added to. It's fixed. This is God's eternal
purpose. of those that he's going to say. Now let's just look at it for
just a few minutes. First of all, I love this word
foreknow. Those whom he did foreknow. Now if you want to find out,
and I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. I realize
that when I come here. You've already heard this before.
But if you want to find out what this word foreknow means, it's
only used four times in the New Testament, just four times. And
when someone says that foreknowledge is God looking down through time
and seeing what people would do and acting accordingly, foreknowledge
is never used that way. When you see the word foreknowledge,
it's always God knowing the person. That's so important, isn't it?
Listen to these four places and I'll quote them to you. Romans
11 and verse 2. God hath not cast away his people
which he foreknew. He says nothing about what his
people did or was. He foreknew his people. Listen to 1 Peter 1 and 2. Elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. 1 Peter 1
and 2. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. He foreknew the elect, not their
actions, not what they would do, but themselves. Acts chapter 20 and verse 23,
even as it deals with our Lord Jesus Christ, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God the Father,
Him. He foreknew Him. And then of
course you're in our text. those that He formed you. Remember
what the Lord said to Jeremiah? He said, Jeremiah, before I farmed
you in the womb, I knew you. Ain't that what He said? I knew
you. And this could be said to everyone that we read about here
tonight. The Lord could say to every elect
person, before you were in the womb of your mother, I knew you. Before I made the worlds, I knew
you. But this word, to know, is a
very intimate word. The first time we ever found
this word knew in the Bible, Adam knew Eve, his wife, and
she conceived. That's a very intimate knowledge. When the Lord Jesus says on the
Day of Judgment to the unbelievers that I never knew you, it's obvious
that he knew them. He called them workers of iniquity. But what's he saying? I never
loved you. I never loved you like I love
my people. Ain't that what he's saying?
I never knew you in an intimate, loving, covenant way. That's what that means when he
says I knew you. When he says, those that he foreknew,
it means before you were ever born, he had a knowledge of you. You can't do that, can you? You
ladies, remember your little children when they were in the
womb? You know, you patted your belly
and you think, oh, I'm gonna love this child. I'm just gonna
sweet, I'm just gonna sweet baby. And if you're looking back after
their teenagers, you just wonder sometimes, you know, don't you?
We can't forelove anybody, can we? But he can. I knew you. That's what this word foreknowledge
means. The Lord Jesus said, other sheep. I have. I know them. I know them in an
intimate way. They're in my heart. I love them.
I know them. I foreknow them. I want to provide
for them. I'm going to predestinate them
to be conformed to my image. So that's what this means. Them,
all things work together for good to them. Those he called,
them he justified. Those he justified, them he glorified. I want to be one of them, don't
you? I want to be one of them. And you know something, you can't
make yourself one of them. You can prove you're one of them
by coming to Christ and believing on them. But you can't make yourself
one of them. But oh, I tell you, I'd rather never been born than
to live and die without being one of them. Father, I pray for
them. I don't pray for the world, but
I pray for them that you've given me. And he says to them on his
right hand, come you blessed of my father. The foundation
of God standeth sure. The Lord knows them that are And he foreknew. Spurgeon asked
a lady one time in his congregation, he said, he said, dear sister,
do you believe the Lord knew you and loved you before you
were ever born? And she said, oh, dear Spurgeon,
if he didn't know me and didn't love me before I was ever born,
he'd never love me after I was born. That's amazing, isn't it? Isn't it a wonderful thought
just to think before you had your being, The eternal triune
God knew you. Those he foreknew. Those he foreknew. He predestinated. My second point
of that is this, and let's just do it like this. A little bit
scattering, a little bit out of order, but let's do it like
this. Let's stop here and think of maybe one or two ways that
we could remove some prejudice from this purpose of God, because
when you start talking about discriminating grace and the
purpose of God to save sinners, you stir up the dandruff of this
world. And they begin to exaggerate,
you know, and they become prejudiced against God and what He's saying
and what His purpose. And they say that's not fair.
Have you ever heard that? That's not fair for God to already
KNOW and PURPOSE who He's going to save. It's not fair for Him
to choose this number and pass by these others. It's just not
right! It's not fair! Well, here's the
first thing that maybe removes some PREJUDICE against those
that would feel that way. Do you want God to deal with
you in justice? Is that what we want? Do we want
to say, if I deserve to go to hell, then put me there, but
if I don't, don't send me there. Is that what we want? What if God marked one sin against
us? Just one sin, what would happen
to us? None of us want justice, do we?
We just sang about mercy, didn't we? That's what we want. This is called a covenant of
mercy for a reason, brothers and sisters. We're talking tonight
about God's eternal purpose of mercy. This is where the mercy
of God is revealed. He could have left everybody
to perish, couldn't He? But He said, this is the covenant
that I will make with them. I will have mercy. So let's not talk about that's
just not fair. If God has already chosen who
He's going to save and fixed it, it must be fair because God
is fair. And secondly is this. This might
remove some prejudice against this blessed truth of God's Word. What's He purpose for these?
Well, He tells us there in verse 29. He's predestinated them to
be conformed to the image of His Son. Who in the world could
find any fault with that? That He's predestinated them
to be just like His Son. He's shaping them, He's molding
them, He's fashioning them to be just like His Son. My goodness, who could find fault
with that? Could anybody find fault with the Son of God when
He was upon this earth? Did you ever find anybody so
meek and so lowly and so tender and so forgiven and so holy and
so God-pleasing? What if everybody was being conformed
to the image of God's dear Son? What a world this would be! Just read back in the study where
he laid aside his right to be treated as the Son of God. Laid aside what he could have
demanded of man. Laid aside his glory and veiled
it as it were. And he said, I'm just a servant.
I'm in the form of a servant. and became obedient to death,
even the death of the cross. And that's what God's forming
you, just like His Son. And He's never going to quit
until not only are you in His likeness spiritually and morally,
but you look just like Him physically. That's what the purpose of God
is about. And who can find fault with that? Nobody. Nobody. The world ought to love
God's children. They're just like His Son. His
Son never hurt anybody when He was here, did He? He never hurt
anybody. He went about doing good and
healing all that was oppressed. What a wonderful purpose for
God to determine and predestinate to conform these people to the
image of His dear Son. Anything wrong with that? Can
you possibly find anything wrong with that? My soul, no, you can't. This word predestinated is used
very, very few times in the New Testament. Let me just quote
one or two places to you and show that, my goodness, nobody
could find any fault with God predestinating people to be conformed
to the image of his son, predestinating their eternal redemption. In
Ephesians 1.5, listen to this, He has predestinated us unto
the adoption of children. He's predestinated us unto the
adoption of children. He's determined beforehand to
adopt us as His child into His family. We love people who adopt
children, don't we? You find some little orphan and
he's been mistreated and abused and he has nothing, he's in poverty
and some rich loving couple takes him into their heart and their
house and they begin to educate him and clothe him and feed him
and give him a place of rest and he turns out to be a productive
citizen of society and don't you just admire those people?
That's what God has done. He's predestinated these people
unto the adoption of children. These poor, fallen children of
Adam. What have we got? Nothing. We're
just poor, destitute, wretched. We're in a kingdom of darkness.
We have no bread to eat. We have no water of life to drink.
We have no rest in our souls. And he comes to us and he says,
I'm determined to adopt you. I'm going to adopt you into my
family. I'm going to give you a loving family. I'm going to
give you heaven's bread. I'm going to give you the water
of life. I'm going to give you rest for your soul. I'm going
to make you a citizen of a heavenly country. I'm going to adopt you.
Isn't that wonderful? That's what predestination is
about. He's predetermined to adopt them
as his children. Can you find any fault with that?
Oh, you can't, can you? Would you go up and find fault
with some wonderful couple that found some destitute child and
start blaming them? Why, no, you'd never do that.
Then why blame God? Why blame our Father in Heaven?
Another place this is used is in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
11. It says that we've been predestinated
unto non-inheritance. We have obtained non-inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works
all things after the counsel of His own will. God has predestinated us to INHERIT
HEAVEN. to inherit Himself. To inherit
all that a wise God can make. Everything that God is and everything
that He makes. He says, I'm giving it to those
that I've chosen in my Son. All of this inheritance that's
incorruptible and undefiled and fades not away, I'm giving it
all to them. Even myself, the heirs of God. My soul, isn't that wonderful?
That's what this is about. He's predestinated them unto
this inheritance. Would you get mad at some poor
child if his father left him all that he had? We wouldn't,
would we? What would a person's attitude
be if You found out one day that someone
that you knew had inherited riches. Would you be jealous? What kind
of attitude would that display on your part? I'm jealous. I should have inherited that.
That should have been mine. On what grounds? That man's father, he died and
left him this inheritance. It was his, my inheritance. He
didn't deserve it. He left it to Him and you're
mad at Him and you're mad at His Father who left it to Him? There's something wrong, brothers
and sisters, when men blame God and they're mad at God for predestinating
some people to give them an eternal inheritance. There's something
wrong when they druther him withhold the inheritance from all if he's
just going to give it to some. Ain't that shameful? If we loved one another, if humanity
loved each other as they should, they would glorify God for what
He's did in predestination. You know what they would say?
I may not be one of them. I may perish myself, and rightfully
so, but thank God not everybody's going to perish. Somebody's going
to heaven. Somebody's going to inherit all
God can make. If it's not me, then thank God
not all of my fellow man is going to perish with me. Wouldn't that
be a good attitude? But when men read that God has
chosen some to give them all things, they're mad at Him. They're
mad at Him. You would think that they'd be
happy, but they're mad at Him. I guess that's another proof
that man is so fallen that his feet is swift to shed blood. No, if He's not going to give
it to all, don't give it to anybody. There s a problem there, isn
t there? But it s with ME and not with God. Shall I not do
with my own what I will? It s His, isn t it? It s His. And we add to this something
else, I think, that Paul says here that would help to take
away the prejudice. We ve often heard people say
when we confront them with this truth that's taught here in this
text, that they say, Oh, you just, you just believe they're
just a handful of people. Just, just your, your little
groups, you know, that's all. God is determined to save just
a few. Somebody told Henry one time,
you just think God's going to save a handful, don't you? Henry
said, depends on whose hand it is. He can get a bunch in His
hand, can't He? And look what He says. He's the
firstborn among many brethren. Oh, there's not going to be a
few. We're not talking about a few. God has purposed in His redeeming
purpose to populate Heaven. Heaven is going to be populated
and plenty of room left. I love Revelation chapter 19
where the Apostle John said, I heard a great voice of much
people in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor
be to God. MUCH people in heaven. And if there are going to be
much people, why not me? Why not me? If many are going
to come from the north and south and east and west and sit down
with Abraham and Isaac, why not me? If we never read in the Bible
where God hadn't predestinated anybody to be saved, then we
might just despair. But when we read that His purpose
includes many, couldn't that give me some hope? Maybe I'm
one of them. We were reading, my kids were
telling me about some place, and I guess it was in Japan or
China, one. that they've got this forest,
and they call it the forest of death or something, but they've
got some guards or somebody that goes in that forest on a daily
basis and collects bodies of people who have committed suicide.
I don't know where it's at. I don't know if that's even so,
but that's what they were telling me. They told me the name of
the forest and everything, and I know those people have a tendency
to, every time they get in trouble, they just end it. They end it. And they go hang themselves,
or go cut their wrist, or shoot themselves, or something. They
have to go in there and collect the bodies. I read just the other
night, they said where the suicide rate among teenagers had skyrocketed. It was because of depression.
I had my dear great niece call me the other night, or my niece,
and said her daughter was cutting herself, and she was cutting
herself so bad she had to get stitches. Said she's so depressed. That's the devil's business,
isn't it? Jeremiah said it like this. He was telling people about
the Lord, come to the Lord, seek the Lord. And they said, we've
left strangers. There's no hope for us. So after
them, we'll go. There's no hope, they said. What
would a person do if they were convinced there was no hope?
If a person is in despair, they just don't care what they do.
They'll kill themselves. That's the devil's business to
do that. But what does this text tell us? There's hope. There's
hope. God has predestinated a great
host out of Adam's race. He is saving people, a multitude
that no man can number. There's hope. Oh, thank God for
His purpose. There's hope. I don't have to
die in my sins. If He's elected so many, why
not me? If nothing else, I'll go to Him
and cast myself upon Him. All I can do is perish. Have you ever known any to perish
at the feet of the Savior? Oh, if anything, somebody said,
well, that just cuts off my hope. When you tell me this, well,
I'm sorry, it shouldn't do that. Should give you hope. Should give you a good hope to
seek him. If God had the purpose to save
anybody, then all right, despair. But if he's purpose not only
to save, but he's saving many, then for God's sake, don't despair. Be like David while you cast
down all my soul. Hope in the Lord. Hope in the
Lord. Boy, here's something else. When
we investigated just a little bit closer, it's so encouraging
about this. I was talking to a young lady,
a young mother about this and She said under her breath, she
didn't know I even heard what she said, but when I was talking
to her about this very thing, she said, that leaves me out. She said that leaves me out. Why would she think that? That
leaves me out. Well, it could be that she's
beginning to think I'm such an ungodly person. I'm such a sinner. If he's already chosen who he
was gonna save, he sure didn't choose anybody like me. That
leaves me out. But there's a little word in
here, when we investigate it a little bit, that gives encouragement
to the worst of sinners. And it's this little word of
justify. Those he called, he also justified. Who does God justify? Could you
just turn your Bibles back over to the 4th chapter, and look in verse 1. What shall
we say that Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh is
found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath wore off to
glory, but not before God. For what saith the scriptures?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace,
but of death. If you're working to be saved,
then you're getting deeper in debt. But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth, who? The ungodly. And you know what that young
woman probably thinking when I was talking to her about these
verses? She was probably thinking to herself, well, those that
God has predestinated and those that he's purposed to save must
be pretty good folks. That must be why he chose them.
But I'm just not like that. I'm the scum of the earth. I
deserve to be in hell now. He couldn't have chosen me. I'm
ungodly. I'm a wretched sinner, but listen,
that's who he chose." He goes right back to this thing
again. He didn't look down through time and say, oh, that's a pretty
good person there. No, if anything, you look down
through time and say, there's not adultery. There's a fornicator. There's a drunk. There's a liar. You know why the Jews hated the
publicans? You do a little bit of investigating
on those rascals, buddy. They split up a lot of homes.
You know what they would do? They'd go around to the wives
when the husband wasn't home. And they'd say, your husband
owes me $100. I'll take it out and trade. That's pretty blunt,
but that's what they would do. They did with us that way that
had no money. That's why they were hated. They were sneaks,
they defrauded, they were ungodly people. They were the scum of
society. One of them was praying in the
temple one day. He went to the temple and was there praying. And he felt so sick in his soul
and so sinful, he began to see what he really was. And he went
in and raised his eyes towards heaven. He said, God, be merciful
to me. I was born in sin. I've lived
in sin. I'm an ungodly man. Could you
be merciful to me? Would you believe that's the
kind of guys God's chosen? He's not chosen good people.
He's not chosen holy people. What's the word justification
have to do with? Not of our goodness, but of our
badness. Not of our righteousness, but
of our sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
that publican went down to his house justified. That's the kind of people that
the Lord has purpose to save. The ungodly. His purpose to justify
them by His grace, His free grace. To justify them by the blood
of His dear Son. To justify them by faith. Maybe that would include us,
huh? Old Scott used to say, convince me that I'm a sinner. Just take your time and convince
me that I'm a sinner. And the more you convince me
of my sinfulness, the more interest you give me in him who died for
sinners. God's purpose is to get glory
to Himself. And if He chose good people,
He chose righteous people. He chose people who could save
themselves, or deserve to be saved, or could merit salvation.
He's not gonna get any glory, you aren't! Here's hope I have for a man
when he's bowing before the Lord with a broken heart over his
sin. Here's the hope I have for him. That's the kind of people
the Lord chose. Three things in closing. Some
encouraging thoughts concerning this. Here's a wonderful thing,
for those that he's chosen, those that he called and put his love
in their hearts, he says here that all things work together
for their good. I was reading another version
the other day and it said all good things are working together
for the advantage. I thought, now wait a minute.
I can, what if just all good things,
He went on to say here how we're killed all the day long, you
know, we're persecuted. Is it good? There are some things
that happens to Christians that's not good. There are some things
Christians do that's not good. Are those working? That's what
we're concerned about, isn't it? I'm not concerned that all
the good things I do is working for my good. It's some of the
other things that I've done. It's some of the other things
that happened to me. God is working all things for good. You take
one thing out of that and by itself and it may not be good
at all. Let me give you an example. You remember when Peter denied
the Lord Jesus? Now who would call that good? Nobody. It wasn't good, it was
sinful, it was shameful. But you know something? When
it was added to everything else and God arranged it with His
all-wise hand, it was for Peter's good. He denied the Lord and
it turned out for his good. I tell you one thing, it humbled
his pride, didn't it? Lord, everybody else may deny
you, but not me. Peter, I'm going to teach you
a good lesson. I'm gonna teach you a good lesson. I'll tell
you another thing he found out by his sinning. The Lord worked
this for his good. He found out he had an advocate
with a father. Don't you think after Peter's
sin was there weeping, he remembered the words of Christ? I prayed
for you. I prayed for you. And I tell
you, it was an awful thing for him to see him, but it turned
out for his good because he got a special message over and above
everybody else. When the Lord told those women
to go tell his apostles, and he said, you be sure and tell
Peter. It's just like a cake that you ladies make. You take
one ingredient, you take a cup of flour. You wouldn't eat that
cup of flour, would you? That wouldn't be good at all.
You wouldn't take a cup of oil and start drinking it and say,
boy, this is good. But you mix it all together,
put it in the oven, and you bake it, and it turns out a delicious
cake that you can sit down and enjoy. That's the way God is
working with His children, those who love Him and He's called.
Everything mixed together is working out for their good and
His glory. That's encouraging, isn't it?
This should encourage us concerning God's purpose. It should make
us patient. It should make us patient. There
may be a long span of time between being justified and glorified. That's where we're at right now,
isn't it? And we don't know what's gonna happen. There's some suffering. I love where the Holy Spirit
puts these three verses right here. Because before these verses,
He's talking about suffering. If we suffer with Him, the sufferings
of this present time. And then after He mentions these
verses, He talks about who shall separate us from the love of
God. Tribulation, pressure, distress, famine, life, death. What are we going to go through? We don't know, do we? We don't
know. Mark, I thought about you and
you'd still be working. But you're not able to, are you? What's going to happen to us?
What are we going to have to suffer before this life is over?
Well, think of this. In the light of God's eternal
purpose, It don't much matter. Because no matter how you suffer,
what you have to go through, it will not change what God has
purposed for you. Your eternal happiness has been
fixed. And that's what matters, isn't
it? If I know the end has already been decided, fixed by the eternal
God Himself, what does it matter what I'm temporarily going through?
It does and doesn't. Some of you are going through
some things. It'd be difficult for me to go through. I know
that. But think about this. It just don't matter. It just
don't matter. My eternal happiness is settled. And my fears and my doubts and
my anxiety about the present will not change my eternal home. It's fixed. Those He foreknew,
He predestinated. And those He predestinated, He
called. And those He called, He justified.
And those He justified, He glorified. It's history! Your redemption
is history! And you cannot rescind history. That's encouraging, isn't it?
Whatever my God ordained is right. And this is what He's ordained.
And it's not only right, but it's good. And the last list
of this, this is so encouraging. And it should really motivate
us to be good evangelists for our Lord. This should motivate
us to take the gospel to everybody. To our neighbors, to our co-workers,
our family, everybody. Why? because God has PURPOSE
to SAVE. A fella told me one time, he
said, If I believed that, I'd stay at the house. I wouldn't
do anything. I wouldn't witness nobody. I
said, How do you know since you don't believe it? Here's a man
who believed it. And look at the miles he traveled.
And he said, I endear all things for God's elect. I'm bound, he
says, but he said one thing for sure, you're not going to bind
God's Word. You ain't going to change God's
purpose. He's purposed to save some people, and He's going to
save them. Our Lord Jesus said, I've got
to go through Samaria, didn't He? I MUST go through Samaria. Why did He have to go through
Samaria? One of His sheep was there. Other sheep I have. They're not even born yet. but
they're mine, and I must bring them. Oh, brothers and sisters,
if God is purposed to save a host of people, then just go out and
testify to people. Preach the gospel to them. And
if God is purposed to save them, oh, He'll save them. You don't
have to be a preacher because you can't preach publicly. Who
can preach publicly? You just get up your thrash around
for a while and sit down and hope that God has used something.
Don't worry about how you stumble and how you can't think of scriptures.
God can take just one word from His blessed word and take it
home to their hearts and save little is much if God is in it,
and He's in the salvation of these people, and He may use
you. Do you believe that? That's why Lindsay keeps on teaching. God's chosen by the foolishness
of it to save those who believe. This is a wonderful text, ain't
it? I hope it's encouraged you. God
bless you. Thank you for coming to the public
worship of our God. God bless you. God bless your
pastor. God bless his dear wife. Let's
pray. Oh, our Father, gracious, eternal
Father. Our Father in heaven, holy is
your name. Thank you for your electing love. Thank you, blessed Son of God,
for your redemption that you've accomplished. Thank you for bearing
our awful load, bearing our shame, satisfying for our sin at a great
cost to yourself. Thank you, blessed Holy Spirit,
the third person of the sacred trinity, the revealer of the
deep things of God, the revealer of our Savior, the one who seals
us unto the day of redemption, our triumphant God, we lift up
our voices to you and we praise your holy and gracious and merciful
name. Give us grace in the days ahead,
I pray, more than anything else, to have hearts to live in your
praises. to have hearts to cast contempt
upon ourselves and our pride, our self-righteousness, to be
disgusted truly with ourselves, and to look outside of ourselves
for our hope and our salvation. Bless this dear people. Thank
you for them. Thank you that they're yours,
they're your family, they're your blood-bought ones. Thank
you for them. I pray for them that you'd keep
them and you'd keep their pastor and his dear wife and you'd bless
them and keep them and give them grace to glorify your name whatever
may come in the days ahead and to be faithful unto death. This
is what we pray for them. We ask it all for your glory.
Amen.