What a privilege we have again
this morning to meet and rehearse the gospel together. I'm speaking
this morning from Matthew chapter 7. The title of my message is
simply, No Choice. No Choice. Let's begin reading
with verse 13. Enter in at the straight gate, the confined
gate. For wide is the gate, and broad
is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in
there. Because straight, confined is the gate, narrow is the way
which leads unto life, and few there be that find it. So beware
of false prophets. who come to you in sheep's clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by
their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns
or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree brings
forth good fruit. But a corrupt tree brings forth
evil fruit. Verse 18, moreover, a good tree
cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth
good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by
their fruits ye shall know them." So, not everyone then that says
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. They're
not all preaching the gospel who preach. But he who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not cast
out devils in thy name and have in thy name done many wonderful
works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you,
not before the foundation of the world, nor since. Depart
from me, you that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever hears these
sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him unto a wise
man, who built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And
every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall
be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the
sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew and beat upon the house, and it fell. And great
was the fall of it." Now obviously in this passage we're looking
today at three sets of two. Two gates, two trees, and two
builders. Religionists, false religionists,
have always found in these verses a choice that must be made. in
order for a person to be right with God, and that's completely
understandable on their part, since the element of choice is
an absolute necessity for anyone whose salvation is a matter of
their own good works. It's critical to their doctrine.
Choice, then, if you think about that, is actually then a function
of law-keeping. Choosing right over wrong, choosing
good over evil, choosing God as opposed to Satan and the world,
it's a function of law-keeping. Law-keeping is making a choice.
A freewheeler's ultimate salvation then hinges on only one thing.
How will you choose? How will you choose? But a careful
look at these three pairings and these verses that we read
this morning reveals that they aren't presented as choices at
all. They're actually presented as
divine revelations of unchangeable realities that have always been
this way and can be no other way. They're giving us warnings
and instruction to the spiritually wise in Christ, but they're not
giving us choices. Many a man or woman has been
momentarily shaken at the thought of going down the broad road
to hell instead of the narrow road to heaven. But fear alone
has never been sufficient to make anyone bow before the God
of sovereign predestinating. and electing grace, nor has it
been sufficient, fear has never been sufficient for anyone to
bow at the feet of Christ, the successful Savior who died specifically
for a chosen people. Fear won't make people do that.
Many a false prophet has warned his congregation against being
deceived by ravenous wolves who are out to scatter the sheep,
but none of them has ever seen themselves as devourers or would-be
devourers of God's sheep when they oppose the gospel of the
free grace of Christ. They've never seen themselves
in that light. It's not a choice they make. It's just what they
are. I remember frequently as a blind religionist, I often
preach that not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter
into the kingdom of heaven. That was a passage I visited
often, but it never, it never crossed my mind that I was one
of them. Never crossed my mind. It's not hard to understand,
when you look at this passage, that it's obviously better to
build a house on a foundation of rock than on sand. But no
one will ever choose to be saved by Christ, the solid rock, who
cannot fail to redeem every last one of those for whom he died.
No one will choose that. It's not a choice. No, my prayer
today is that God may grant us to see in these verses that what
unbelieving religionists see as salvation by choice. Is that
not the religion of our day? Actually, it's been the religion
of all time. That's where we're at, man has
always been. No, it's not a choice. These verses are actually a lesson
in our own inability to choose. Now let's pray. Father, we ask
as we look a little closer into these verses this morning that
you would be the great revealer, that you would be the great God
of heaven who shows us, pulls back the clouds and lets us see
that there is no choice. And the only one doing the choosing
is God Almighty. And Lord, we are left without
a choice. And I pray that. I pray that, Lord, knowing full
well that only sinners who are left without a choice will come
to Christ. And I pray that someone may be
left choiceless this very morning for Christ's sake. Amen. Now,
let's take a look at those two gates back in verses 13 and 14. Why? Why is it that anyone would
go down the broad way and go through that wide gate to destruction? Why would anyone choose to do
that? It's not a choice. It's our nature. It's not a matter
of choice, it's a matter of what we are. I don't know, have you
ever been going to some massive crowd proceeding to some event
and you're in this long line of cars and suddenly somebody
about three cars up peels out and shoots down an alley and
everybody looks at him and says, idiot. Everybody knows it's this
way, why would we think that way? Because this is where everybody's
going. We figured we're going to get there if we follow where
everybody's going. We're just kind of natured that way. There
is even a more serious aspect to our nature in terms of these
two gates. Look in 1 Corinthians 2. Let's look at verse 7. But we are speaking the wisdom
of God In a mystery. Even the hidden
wisdom that defines mysteries. It's a mystery because we have
not seen it. Which God ordained before the world and to our glory.
Verse 8. Which none of the princes of
this world knew. Those who crucified the Savior, those leaders of
Israel, none of those obviously knew. For had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And here's
the fulfillment of the Old Testament passage of which that's a fulfillment,
but as it is written. Eye, human eye, has not seen. No one has ever read it in the
scriptures. No one has ever seen clearly
the Lord Jesus Christ, the way God saves, salvation by grace. No one has ever read that in
the scriptures left to themselves. It's never been done. Nor ear
heard. No human ear ever heard even
a faithful messenger of God preaching the truth in its purest form. No human ear has ever heard that.
just on its own. Neither have entered into the
heart of man. The verse literally says it never
came up on a man's heart. A man's heart is our essential
self, who I really am. It never came up. That's my testimony. I spent 36 years in false religion
and it never came up. It never crossed my mind. It
never came up in my heart that God doesn't say that way. It
was never a part of my reality. It has never come up on the heart
of man at this particular point in verse nine. Most folks take
this and think it's talking about heaven. This is not a reference
to heaven. This is talking about revealed grace. It's never caught. We've never seen it, never heard
it, never come up in our heart. The things which God had prepared
for them that love him. It's never occurred to us that
predestination of God who loved his people so much that he would
predetermine every part of their lives and every event of their
experience of their lives to lead them to Christ. It never
crossed our minds. It never occurred to us that
God would have to choose a people if he saved anyone, because none
of us would ever choose him. It never crossed our minds. It
never crossed our minds that I could not choose to be saved,
that Christ would have to die affectionately for me, and that
I couldn't opt in or out based on my own foolish will. It never
crossed my mind. Those are the things that God
has prepared for those who love him. But thank God for verse
10. But God has revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things,
yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things
of a man? What can you tell about what I am thinking except the
spirit of man which is in him, unless I tell you? Even so, the
things of God knows no man, only the Spirit of God. Now we perceive
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom
teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual
things with spiritual things. Look at verse fourteen. But the
natural man, a human being as we are born into this world,
does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, and here's
why people are on the broad road. They never chose. They never
chose to be there. Here's why we follow the broad
road. It's our nature, for they are foolishness unto him. The ways of God, the truth of
salvation by grace alone, through the blood of Christ alone, by
the Holy Spirit's effectual call alone, those are things that
make no sense to the average man. And you don't have to be
religious to reject that. I listen to folks from all walks
of life. Some go to church, some don't.
Some have never been to church, and they still all hate the gospel.
It doesn't make sense to them. Why would a person proceed down
the broad road? Because it makes sense to them. False religion
makes sense to this creature of flesh that we are. It makes
sense to us. Why does it make sense to us? Because it exalts
us. Because it makes us the end factor. It makes us the deciding one.
It makes me an active person. I'm choosing to be saved. Oh,
no. Oh, people on the broad road
are there not by choice, but by nature. They can't be anywhere
else. They can't be anywhere else.
Now, what about those, though, that are on the narrow road?
Do you remember what it said back there in verse, I think that's
verse 14? It said, and the few there be
that find it. We have just completely brought
over a Greek word, that's the Greek word for find, into our
language and we use it from time to time on really special occasions
when someone cries out and says, Eureka! I found it! And usually it's something that
was important, you know, something that we really needed to find. Eureka!
Well, that's the word here. Few there be who can cry. Eureka! I have found this way. It was something that happened
to me. not something that I decided to make happen to me. Do you
understand that? That's grace. That's another definition of
grace. That's what grace is. Look in Matthew chapter 11. Our salvation is not by choice,
it's by revelation. The most demeaning, perhaps the
most demeaning word in all scripture. It's what free willers hate,
and it's what God delights in. Look here in verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank you, Father, Lord, sovereign of heaven and
earth, because you've hidden these things, these things of
the gospel, you've hidden them from wise and prudent. How hard
was that? What did he have to do to hide
them? He just let them go on down the broad road. He left
them on that road. He didn't have to try to somehow
contort the scriptures. The scriptures are clear and
plain. He didn't hide things here and there in some sort of
secret code. No, it's all right there. They
were hidden because of their nature. You've hidden these things
from the wise and prudent. You've revealed them unto the most intelligent people
among our race. No, you've revealed them unto
babes. Babes are helpless. Babes have
no possible hope in this world left alone, do they? Every last
one of them you leave, they'll die. You have to feed them. You
have to change them. You have to take them where they
need to go. You have to keep them warm. You have to do everything
for them. God only reveals his grace to babes. I don't like
that. My flesh don't like that. You
know, I spent my life trying to be smart. I'm no closer now
than I was when I started. But I still like to think of
myself as something above average. It's a sin of mine that I can't
get rid of. I wish I could. He didn't save an intelligent
Mark Daniel. He saved an idiot. He saved a
blooming idiot. Went halfway around the world,
supposedly preaching liberty in Christ to folks in Africa
who would never have it. I found myself the one that was
lost or more so than they were. He found a babe, just a helpless
creature. And he saved me in spite of everything
I was doing to the contrary. How did I get off the broad road?
It was not by choice. I didn't even like the choice
he made. When the gospel came to me, I
didn't enjoy it. When the gospel came, I didn't rejoice in it.
I said, no one believes stuff like this. He made the choice
and he put me on the good road. And I'm so glad that he did.
Now, let's move along. Two gates. Now we're going to
two trees. In this section, false prophets
and true preachers of grace are compared to two trees, a good
tree bringing forth good fruit and a bad tree bringing forth
bad fruit. Now, most folks make the mistake
in this particular section of these verses. They make the mistake
of calling fruit your behavior. The fruit is how you talk, how
you walk, where you go, where you don't, what you do, and all
the good works that you can perform. That's not what the fruit is
here. Actually, when he says that little phrase that these
people come in sheep's clothing, it was just an exterior, a thin
exterior, a wolf who somehow put on some wool and walked in
among the sheep so he wouldn't be recognized. That's the exterior
stuff. There's your walk. That's the behavior. Who appears?
Who appears more devoted than a Tibetan monk? And who appears,
at least in terms of their soft talk and their nice, pious language,
who appears more pious on the outside than a Roman Catholic
priest? But it's not. Your fruit is not how you live. Your fruit is not your walk.
Let's let the Lord show us what actually the fruit is here. Look
in Matthew chapter 12, verse 33. Here the Lord defines, you shall know
them by their fruit. Here's how we know whether a
person is a good tree or a bad tree, preaching a good message
or a bad message. Look at verse 33. Christ says,
either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make
the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt. Remember what he said
back there in our text? He said you can't get bad fruit
off a good tree and you can't get good fruit off a bad tree.
Look at nature. It doesn't happen that way. Apple
trees grow apples. It happens that way. You cannot mix those
things. Look at verse 34. generation
of vipers. How can you be evil? Speak good things. You see that
he's talking about fruit and the very first place he goes
is speak. You'll know them by their fruit. You'll know them
by what they say. Speak good things, rile the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. If you've got an evil heart,
the fruit you produce will be an evil word. Verse 35, a good
man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good
things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth
evil things. But I say unto you that every
idle word, how many times did your grandma ever get on you
and bring this verse up that when they caught you saying things
you shouldn't say, and they said every idle word? Watch that.
That's not what this is talking about. Every idle word is everyone
who stands to preach, everyone who stands to witness, everyone
who stands to give some testimony of God, and it's false. Idle
words are false witnesses. Isn't that amazing what God considers
about the majority of preaching going on around this world? God
just calls it idle chatter. It's just idle chatter. Oh, they're
polished. Their exterior is good. They're
in sheep's clothing. They certainly look like sanctified
people. But if you listen to what they
say, it's a bunch of nothing. It's a bunch of idle words. He
says, I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak,
they'll give account thereof on the day of judgment. For by
thy words, there's your fruit. By your words, you'll be justified.
And by your words, there's your evil fruit. By your words thou
shalt be condemned. Some of you, if you listen to
any religious radio, you've probably heard J. Vernon McGee. In that
particular message, it was interesting. He was preaching a message in
which he, I'm sure in his own mind, succeeded in saying that
what Calvinism teaches is true and what Arminianism teaches
is true. It was the most wonderful thing.
He could take two opposites. He could take black and white
and say white is true. And black is true. They're just
both true and we should all just get along and everyone should
be just happy. I thought it was truly interesting.
But it was nothing but thorns coming from thorns and thistles
coming from thistles. There was some things in there
that you could probably agree with. He made a few statements that
were probably statements that if you just took it and wrote
that down you could probably find agreement with. But it was absolutely foolishness. It was corrupt tree, bringing
forth corrupt fruit. You can't hear the gospel from
someone who doesn't know it. I'll tell you what you'll hear
whenever you hear the gospel. Look over in Romans chapter 10.
I like this passage. Romans chapter 10. Let's start
reading with verse 13. Verse 13 is the verse that almost everyone
gets together on, although if you read it in its context, you
won't read it the same way again. Verse thirteen, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher, someone to proclaim the message? And how shall they preach, except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet, how beautiful is the coming of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says,
Lord, who has believed thy report? So then, here's the essence of
it. comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Let me share something with you.
There are primarily two words in the original that translate
into our English word, word. One of those is the one we all
know, the word Logos. Logos is frequently used from
time to time in various ways. It's the word that simply means
a written word. It's a word on a page. It's a
symbol that has a particular meaning. But this is not that
word. This is not that word. This one is the word, rhema.
Rhema can only be experienced like what we're doing now. It's
a spoken word. It's a human being pushing air
through his larynx and forming a particular sound out of his
mouth. It gives you some, isn't it amazing to think about that?
It's just air and vibrating vocal cords, and yet God takes that
way that fragile that fragile sound wave going to your ear
and it's that way the most unreliable the most distortable the most
feeble way of communicating and God has staked his power on that
means to save his people if you hear the gospel oh yes, you may
read it in the scriptures you may run across it in some reading
and you may be touched by it And yet somewhere or other you're
going to end up like the Apostle Paul. The Lord struck him down
on the road to Damascus, but the Lord didn't raise him up
until Ananias was sent by. He heard the gospel from a man.
He heard a man's voice saying, this is the truth of the gospel. If you hear God's voice, you'll
hear it through a man. How humbling. And what an amazing
thought that God would choose such a feeble manner in which
to guarantee the salvation of every last one of his elect.
Isn't that amazing? No. Be careful who you listen
to. Be careful who you listen to.
There are many people out there who claim to preach the gospel
we believe. But you shall know them by their
fruits. If it's a truly good tree, it'll preach only good.
It'll only bring forth good fruit. It'll only preach a good message.
If it's like you can hear them most of the time, but every now
and then they just go south, don't listen to them. That's
an evil tree. Bad fruit is the sign of it. No. Two trees. Now, how did these guys get this
way? How did one come out with a true, a good message, and how
did one come out with a bad message? Well, that takes us down to the
last part of this message. The Lord explains that by giving
us this illustration of the two builders. He says there that
there is one wise builder. who built his house upon the
rock. Very, very wise. But how did
he get that way? How did that man get that way?
If you put all those together, here's a man who is on the broad
road going into the wide gate, and he's doing that by nature.
Here's a man who listens to a fellow teach him that salvation is a
choice that you must make, and you've got to do your best to
live a life in accordance with your choice, and God is going
to save you based on your obedience and your good works. He listens
to that kind of man. And now we come down to this
point and we find that some of those were actually put onto
the narrow road. Some say, no, I only listen to
these fellows preach because they're the only ones I hear
preaching the truth. And this is a person who says, and that's
the rock upon which I am. How did he find himself on that
rock? Well, look in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. This is another one
of my favorites. First Corinthians, chapter one,
verse twenty six. For you see, you're calling,
brethren. Salvation is not by choice, it's
by calling. Calling. If you've never been
called, you've never left the broad road. If God has never
sent his word to you and caused you to hear that all of your
efforts are vain, that all of your theological thoughts are
a waste of good brain power, and that salvation is by his
grace alone. If he's never called you, you've
never been saved. You see your calling, brethren, how that not
many wise men, not many folks who are smart, wise men after
the flesh, Not many mighty, not many people who seem to have
a certain innate ability, they seem to be able to deny themselves
their sinful passions. Not many mighty, not many noble. Those who are high-born, who
have a great name and are very highly respected, not many of
those are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world, not the smart, but the stupid, to confound
the wise. God has chosen the weak things
of the world, not the strong, not those who are able to stand
up and flaunt their walk and their words and their life. No,
but the weak, the powerless, those who can't do anything but
sin. He's chosen them to confound the things which are mighty.
And base things. If you look up that word, you'll
find that base is basically what we would call, I think in our
present day vernacular, we'd call them the nobodies. They're
nobodies. Not even ordinary people know
so much. They're just nobodies. Off everybody's radar, God chose
the base things of the world. And things which are despised
have God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are. That no flesh should glory in
his presence. But now look at verse 30. Here's
how people go from the broad road to the narrow. Here's how
they stop listening to foolishness and start listening to the gospel
of grace. Here's how they end up building
on a rock we didn't build at all. But of Him. But of God. Who did the building? Who did
the building? I don't remember building this
building. I'm in Christ. I'm on a solid rock. My house
is unshakable. I didn't build this building.
Who built the building? Of God. God built this building. God saves his people, but of
him are you in Christ Jesus? Christ Jesus is the rock and
Christ Jesus is the structure. He's everything in our salvation.
He's the whole. My house is Christ. If I have
a home in heaven, if I have a position at the right hand of God, if
I have anything that's blessed and grace to the side of God,
you know why it is that way? It's because God loves his son
and I'm one with him. You know, the foolishness of
religion is that religion sees God as doing something good from
way up yonder for us way down here. No, I'm seated at the right
hand of God. He loves me because I'm seated
in the person of his son. If God ever had any affection
for me, it's for Christ's sake. And if he ever will have any
affection for me, it will always be for Christ's sake. And through
eternity, you know why he'll love me? He'll love me for Christ's
sake, because I'm one with him. I'm one with Him. But of Him
are you in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us. There's what
we need. He is our wisdom. It could just
as well have been translated that way. Who of God has made
our wisdom? Our wisdom. Why do we think like
this? Well, I've studied hard. And got you nowhere. If we think
like this, it is of God. Through union with Christ, we
have a new mind. And we can understand a few things.
We can understand the things that are freely given to us of
God. He's not only our wisdom, he says he's our righteousness.
Our righteousness. Everything that God finds in
me and says, there's a just man. And I look at me and I say, where?
And he finds it in me because my righteousness is the righteousness
I have through union with him, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
is also my sanctification. My holiness, perfect enough for
heaven. Why? Because Christ is, and he
is my redemption. That according as it is written,
he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. So a person on the
narrow road has left the wide road because God put him there. A person who is listening to
the gospel being preached and will not listen to the bad fruit
of a bad creature is doing that because God has given him ears
to hear. And the person who builds his house on the rock and not
on the sand, did so because God built his house for him in the
Lord Jesus Christ. So what about that foolish man?
Back up just a few verses there in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, look
at verse 18. If you do not, this morning,
if you do not find anything in this message that you can latch
onto. Nothing in this message of the
gospel that you can say, I like the sound of that. It smells
so sweet. I'd like to taste that fruit.
I'd like to hear that message. I'd like to be built on that
solid. If you find nothing in here, look at this. This is where
you are. This is the foolish builder.
Verse 18. For the preaching of the cross that Christ absolutely
and perfectly saved every last one of his people when he died. It's to them who perish foolishness
that can't be true. That can't be true. But unto
us who are saved, it's the power of God. It's the only thing that
can be true. It's the only thing that can deliver me. For it's
written, God says, I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise, all those
false preachers, and I'll bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent, the intelligent, all those smart theologians.
I'll bring it to nothing. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? And
here's how. For after that in the wisdom of God, God in his
wisdom left the world to itself and therefore the world by wisdom
knew not God. And in that point it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. The foolishness of this manner
of communication. Most folks meet, but they don't
do this. They have a show. I've been to several of them.
They're interesting to go to. It's a real show. It's actually
a very highly choreographed presentation, but they don't do preaching.
Just a simple thing. One man telling other people
the truth of the gospel. He chose a foolish means. And
not only that, he chose this foolish message A message to
a person on the broad road that makes no sense to them, and says,
I will not have it. He chose a foolish means to deliver
his message, and a foolish message to most people, and he chose
that message and that means to save them who believe. The Jews
require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom. You may be one
who says, well, when God does something big, I will go that
way. Or if I can ever make that work in my mind, if I can ever
get my mind wrapped around it, I may believe you. Well, but
we preach Christ crucified. And the Jews a stumbling block,
because they thought they were righteous enough without it.
And unto the Greeks, foolishness, because they thought they were
smarter than that. But unto them who are, and there we are again,
unto those who are called, called. Whether Jew, a self-righteous
Pharisee, or a Greek, a person who doesn't know beans about
the Bible, wherever you come from, here's the truth. Christ
is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, let me finish. The last few weeks, I've noticed
that a passage has come up. A passage has come up, and I
want to paraphrase it for you, just briefly, in closing. I don't
have to turn there, but in 1 Kings chapter 18, in the face of 450
priests of Baal, Elijah challenged the people of Israel with these
words, How long halt ye between two opinions? It's almost as
though he was inviting them to make a choice. If the Lord be
God, follow him. If Baal, then follow him. And
human religionists universally refer to this passage as proof
that salvation is the result of making a personal choice.
But there was no choice offered on Mount Carmel that day. Do
you know how it went? The priests of Baal went from
a morning of prayer to an afternoon of jumping and screaming, and
finally to an evening of slashing themselves into a bloody mess.
And all the while, Elijah sat over there and mocked and pointed
them to the reality that there is no such thing as a God named
Baal. Cry aloud, he told them. He's
either talking or he's retired to some private location. He's
away on a trip or perhaps he's just taking a nap. Got to be aroused. And all day
long, from morning until evening, they were making the only choice,
their sinful natures and their foolish, depraved wills knew
how to make. That's the only choice that they
made. But none of their prayers, none of their rituals, and none
of their self-mutilations altered the foolishness of the religion,
because twice in that passage it says there was no voice, there
was no one to answer, there was no one who regarded, there was
no bell. There was no one listening. The only choice, and here it
is, I've heard so many people throughout my life say, well,
I made my choice. I'm on my way to heaven, I've made my choice.
The only choice that spiritually blind sinners ever make is deciding
which brand of false religion that they're going to sit under.
That's the only choice they ever make. Left to ourselves, our
darkened minds and depraved wills and deceitful hearts won't ever
choose, never choose the true and living God. But in that story,
you remember about the time of the evening sacrifice. That gracious
reminder at the end of every Jewish day, that if we are saved,
it is not because of what we chose to do for God, but what
he determined to do for us through the sacrifice. In the peaceful
calm of evening, after all the foolishness of that day, Elijah
set forth sinful man's only hope, the successful redemption of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it this way. He first
restacked the twelve stones of God's altar, one for each one.
Not a one was left out, each one of the tribes of Israel,
an Old Testament symbol of God's electing grace. Then he laid
down the wood and arranged the bloody sacrifice on it, a twofold
symbol, the symbol of the uncompromising justice of God and the unfailing
love of Christ. After that, he soaked it all,
you remember, with twelve barrels of water to demonstrate the absolute
impossibility that the blood of Christ could ever fail to
atone for anyone for whom it was shed. And then he did what
all redeemed sinners do, the same prayer we always pray every
time we meet. He prayed that God would glorify himself by
saving his people by grace alone. Hear me, he prayed, hear me,
O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that you are the Lord
God, and that you have turned their hearts back again. And
there's the only decision, the only choice that's ever made
in salvation. Christ put it this way, you didn't choose me, I
chose you. I made the choice, not you. How
did things end on that day, you remember? Then the fire of the
Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and
the stones, and the dust, and lifted up the water that was
in the trench. And what did everyone do? I suppose they made a decision. I suppose they made up their
mind. Do you read it? You know, it's interesting you
don't read in that passage. When you just wait until Bell wakes up,
when he wakes up, you know, I made my decision for him, but he wakes
up, it'll be different. No, no one said that. No one
said that. It says when all the people saw
it, they fell on their faces. And what'd they say? Well, we've
compared the doctrines of Baalism with the doctrines of Jehovahism,
and after thoroughly researching the historical evidence, we decided
to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We made our
decision. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. It wasn't a call. Elijah didn't call anyone to
make a decision. He made a presentation. He presented
the gospel. God saved his people, and the
rest of them were killed. The rest of them were killed.
They came to this decision. He is the Lord, He is the God,
and salvation is by Christ alone. I pray that the Lord may leave
you today without a choice. Let's pray.