I had Buford Smith, Jessie Smith,
who broke her arm and her shoulder recently. Her husband, Buford,
fell and broke his rib. Did he fall? And broke his rib. So both the families stowed up. Sharon's taking care of them. I remember Sharon, too. She has
to take care of them. Seek the Lord's help for them.
Remember the others who requested prayer also. Birthday this week. Piano player. All right, let's begin our worship
service with hymn number one, O Worship the King. ? Worship the King, all glorious
above ? ? And gratefully sing his power and his love ? ? As
shield and defender, the ancient of days ? of his might, O sing of his grace,
whose Rome is a light, whose ghetto be space. His chariots of wrath the deep
thunderclouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the
storm. what tongue can recite. It breathes in the air. It shines in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, and sweetly in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust and feeble
as frail. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 62, crown him with many crowns. You have your Bibles turned with
me to the familiar passage of Scripture, Romans chapter 8. Beginning reading with verse
28. And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, and 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. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also make an intercession for us, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is
written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are
accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us, or i'm persuaded
that me principalities things present or things to come any
other separate uh... uh... uh... uh... comfort and console our souls
in the full knowledge that you are on your throne, ruling and
reigning with absolute sway over everything and everyone. You control the universe and all that is therein. You
establish this world upon the floods We thank you, Father,
that in your great goodness and kindness, and according to your
good pleasure, you chose a number out of a fallen race that did
not yet exist to call your own, to call your family. Gave them life in Jesus Christ
through the preaching of the gospel and the work of the Holy
Spirit. made Christ to be their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. So fully redeem them and save
them that you will remember their sins no more. We are privileged and highly
graced to be able to think that such things apply to us. We are thankful for faith to
believe. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, those who have been added to the prayer list, Mr.
Smith and the folks we have, we ask that they continue to
be with his wife and the others who requested prayer for those
in our area who are still suffering from this flood. Help us, Lord,
to remember each other in prayer, to call
each other's names to heaven, to name our brothers and sisters
in Christ. help us to love one another.
In a world where love is waxing cold and things are waxing worse
and worse, give us grace to need each other and desire to be with
each other. Help us to worship you this day.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Hymn
number 62, crown him with many crowns. ? Crown Him with many crowns ?
The Lamb upon His throne ? Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
? All music but its own ? Awake my soul and sing ? Of Him who
died for thee Hail Him as Thy matchless King Through all eternity. ? Crown him the Lord of love ?
Behold his hands and side ? Rich wounds yet visible above ? In
beauty glorified ? No angel in the sky ? Can fully bear that
sight ? But downward bends his wandering eye ? At mysteries
so bright ? Crown him the Lord of life ? Who triumphed o'er
the grave ? Who rose victorious to the strife for those he came
to save. Whose glories now we sing, who
died and rose on high, who died eternal life to bring, and lives
that death may die. Crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known. One with the Spirit, through
him give from yonder glorious throne. endless praise, for thou for
us hast died. We thou, O Lord, through endless
days adored and magnified. Let us pray. Again, Lord, we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ with a heart full of thanksgiving
and praise, knowing full well that everything we have, we have
because of your mercy and grace. What we deserve, you kept back
from us by your mercy. And what we didn't deserve, you
gave us by your grace. Let us be thankful as we return
unto thee that which belongs to you. for we know we belong
to you and all we have does. Help us now to worship you in
this manner we pray in Christ's name. Amen. and and What prompted this message was I read an article by Todd
Nybert online last week. An article that was written at
the time of Thanksgiving, which we all, a great deal of us, celebrated
this last week, and was reminded of our Lord
saying, Be thankful in all things, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. and time and time again in the
scriptures the lord said to his people be thankful now there's
a reason for that that's just not a spoken in a vacuum the
reason is because by nature and by carnality and the old man
is never thankful for anything but by the grace of god we are
made to see what we have been given in jesus christ and that's
a wonderful and a blessed truth and john neiber's article simply
said It's a good time. It's a good time. The words of
our Lord through Paul the Apostle to the Roman Church after setting
forth the glories of God's grace from chapters 1 through 7 of
Romans, chapter 1, he distinguished the mind of the reprobate, and
it was a Gentile mind. It was reprobated, and he distinguished
in Chapter 2 the depraved mind of the Jew. And in Chapter 3
he set forth the depraved mind of everybody by putting all men,
Jew and Gentile alike in the same boat. It all concluded under
sin. In Chapter 4 he talked about
Abraham's faith and the fact that there are people walking
upon the face of this earth. They are called the Church. the
Bride of Christ, the Elect, the Chosen of God, who are said to
be in a state where God will never charge them with sin. What
a thing to think of that, that a man can walk on this earth
and not ever have sin imputed to him. And in Chapter 5, he
set forth the glories of God's love and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in imputation, and how in Adam we all die, and in
Christ shall all whom he represented be made alive. Then in chapter
6 he set forth the doctrine of baptism. I have pictures what
happened on Calvary's tree, that we were in Christ when He died,
that we were in Christ when He was buried, we were in Christ
when He was risen again, and even we were in Christ when He
ascended to glory to sit in heavenly places with Him. And in chapter
7, Paul sets forth the law and grace, saying that everything
that comes from doing the law is dead before God, it's dead
works, can produce no life, and everything that comes from God
is grace, and then he sets forth the fact that the child of God
is in a dilemma and a fix all his life because he has this
new nature or this spiritual nature. He is a man in the spirit,
born of the spirit, born of God, born from above. But he all still
possesses, still possesses the old man. And they're always in
conflict with each other. So much so that though he would
like to do right all the time, he doesn't. though he would like
to not sin at all, he does, because a principle in him says clearly,
without a doubt, that when evil, when he would
do good, evil is present with him. And he cries, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? This old man, this sinful nature
that I possess, who shall deliver me? He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ. He says, therefore, this is my life. With my mind,
my desire, my heart, I serve the law of God. But with my flesh,
I serve the law of sin and death. And then more wonderful words
cannot be spoken than that which was spoken next. He said, well,
that's a bad state to be in. He says, therefore, there is no condemnation to them
that are in Jesus Christ who walk not after the flesh but
after the spirit. Then we come to the latter part
of chapter 8 and he says some things about the children of
God that have to do with God's working and what God has worked. This is set forth in verses 28
through 30 of Romans chapter 8 and we know The word there is oida. This has been revealed to us.
Now, if it's been revealed to you, it only comes from heaven. That's how you get to know the
gospel. Old Barnard used to get in real trouble when he'd say,
salvation is by revelation. It is. If you know it, it's not
because you studied. if you know it is because God
showed it to you, opened your eyes and your heart and your
mind to receive the things that only faith can receive. Faith
cannot believe, unbelief cannot believe this Bible. It can't. It looks at it, sees it as foolishness,
sees what we're doing here this morning as foolishness. It cannot
believe. Faith can do nothing else but
believe. That's what faith does, it believes. The word faith and
the word belief are almost the same word. slight difference
in the application of it in scripture. But if God has given you faith,
you believe this word. If you can look at any part of
this word and say, I don't believe that, you're an unbeliever. Just
go ahead and say it. You can cast out any part of this book
and say, well, I don't like predestination. You're an unbeliever. If I don't
like election, you're an unbeliever. If I don't like reprobation,
you're an unbeliever. Just mark it down. Faith believes what
this book says from Genesis to Revelation, as the old preacher
used to say, from giver to giver. you can believe that word holy
bible front that's the truth we know the church roman church
all the church church living body price that all things work
working together good god we love him because he first That's why we don't love him
otherwise and the old man still hates him. The new man loves
him. To them that love God, who are
they? To them who are called. How are they called? They are
called by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, we are
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning
unto salvation. through sanctification of spirit
and belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Called,
and called, why? Because that's what God would
do, and that's what God did according to His purpose. God always does
His purpose. He always does what He wants
to do. He's always done what He wants to do. David said that
to those who were worshiping Isaiah. God is in heaven. He
had done whatsoever He had pleased in heaven and earth and all the
deep places. He had done exactly what He wanted to do. Preachers
in this day and age are telling people, God wants to do this
for you and God wants this for you and God wants that. If God
wants something for you, you got it. You're going to get it
because He always does what He wants to do. He's God and you're
not. according to his purpose. My
purpose shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. He said in
Isaiah 46. That's what he's working. Everything
for good. We can look at this world and
its chaos and its horrible situations that go on all around us and
we say, boy, it's the best of times. Everything's good. We know that. We know that. before a child of God. We know
that. We don't look at circumstance.
Well, we do. I wish we didn't look at circumstance.
I wish we believed God more. But we look at circumstance,
but circumstance doesn't have nothing to do with our peace
and consolation. God's purpose does. The only
rest, the only pillow you can lay down your weary head on at
night is to know this, that God is doing His will. in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? Then he says, Who
is all this done for? He describes these who love him
and are called according to his purpose. In verse 29 he says,
For whom he did foreknow. That word can be translated forelove,
prognosco, means to foreknow, means to intimate knowledge.
The same word would be used when Adam knew his wife. He's talking about a relationship,
an intimate relationship. God knows who He is, and He knows
them, not just that He knows them as they exist, but He knows
them personally. For we know that all things work
together for those whom He foreknew. He foreknew, and He said to some,
who claimed to be His and claimed to do everything they did in
His name. In Matthew chapter 7 they claimed
to do everything in His name. He said to them, I never knew
you. So if He never knew them, He
could not have foreknown them. These foreknown are those who
love God and are the ones who are called according to His purpose
by the gospel of Jesus Christ, for whom He did foreknow. He
also did predestinate. Also did predestinate. This is
the third or the fourth time this one unique word is used
to translate it for predestinate in the New Testament. Six times
it's used. First in Acts chapter four, when
it talks about the men gathering against Christ heard in Pontius
Pilate and the Jews and Gentiles gathered against Christ for to
do whatsoever God had ordained to be done. First time that's
used. Second time in Romans, twice, then in Ephesians also. or whom he did for or did predestinate
means to predetermine beforehand. You understand that? Everybody
understands that. The preachers who stand in the pulpit and say
that's a confusing term are liars. Lorraine Bentner many years ago
wrote a book called The Practical Doctrine of Predestination. Why
is it practical? Because you do it all the time.
And I do it all the time, and so does God. He does it all the
time. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
Jesus Christ might be the firstborn of many like Him, many brethren. How are we like Him? Well, Scripture
says we're already like Him. We don't fear the judgment, it
says in I John 4, verse 24, as He is, so are we in the world. Now, I don't fully understand
the ramifications of that, but that's what the Bible says, so
it's so. But it also says when we see Him as He is, we'll be
able to see Him as He is because we'll be like Him. How? That's the end of this conformity
to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's predestinated. His foreknown,
the ones He foreknew, He predestinated. Is this going to happen? You
betcha! It's going to happen because
God says it's going to happen. He predetermined it. This is
according to His purpose. Moreover, not only that, Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, and notice predestination in Scripture,
the word predestinate, whether it's prografo, proerizo, any
of those words that mean predestination in Scripture, none of them have
to do with things or wants. They have to do with whoms, with
people, with people. Whom he did foreknow, He also
did predestinate. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
everyone whom God predestinated to be like Jesus Christ, to be
conformed to His image, those who love Him are called according
to His purpose. Every one of them, every one
of them are called. Now, the CALL is the gospel.
You say, well, you preach the gospel. Yes, I preach the gospel
of God's substitutionary and propitiatory work of Jesus Christ
on Calvary Street, wherein He saved His elect by His own blood
and His own death. Yes, I preach the gospel. I preach
the gospel to everybody. Was everybody saved? No. What
I do is what is called a general call. I call people to repent. I call them to believe. I call
upon them to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Do they? Some do and
some don't. What's the difference? The difference
is if God takes a hold of that thing. The difference is God
takes this Word miraculously and wondrously and makes it find
purchase in men's hearts and gives them life by this Word.
It's called a seed, a sperm, a life-giving thing. You are
redeemed by the precious blood of heaven. You're born again,
not of corruptible semen, but incorruptible semen. Even the
Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, and the Word
of God is preached by the gospel. Preached by the gospel. Predestinated. He called them. when God calls,
people answer. He said that. Our Lord said that.
He said that to a bunch of people who were religious people and
believed that they were God's children, believed they were
saved, believed they knew God like nobody else knew God, and
believed they were God's elect, and they were. God's naturally
elect, but not spiritually. He looked them in the eye. He
says, you don't believe because you're not my sheep. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they
shall never perish. My father which gave them me
is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of
my father's hand. I and my father are one called
by his gospel and whom he called by his gospel He justified. Justified. That's a legal term.
Justification has to do with guilt. Justification has to do
with removal of guilt. Justification has to do with
declaring a person not guilty at all. Justification has to
be with declaring a person innocent of sin. Not only not guilty,
but innocent. How great was the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree! How marvelous and wondrous was
that death accounted before a thrice holy God, before whom the sun,
moon, and stars are not pure in His sight! How glorious was
it! It was so glorious that those
wretched, vile things He died in the room instead of, those
wretched, vile things He saved by His redeeming blood, stand
before God, and God says, You've never sinned! My soul. Arlene, you never sin. You never sin. And you know so,
I sin all the time. We're talking about how God sees
you. What a wondrous thing. What a marvelous thing. Justified. Just as if I never sinned. whom he called, he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Now we know that glory is out
yonder somewhere. And we know one day we'll shed
this moral coil and our flesh will go into the grave and we'll
not sin anymore. And we'll be able to worship
God without sin and sing with the angels the glories of the
everlasting gospel. That's out there somewhere. That's
that redemption that draweth nigh. It's out there. But he says we're already glorified.
Why? Because when God purposes a thing,
it's done. Jesus Christ died on Calvary.
He gave his life and died for the sins of his people. But he
was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He did what he'd
already done. He did in time what he'd done in eternity. Glorified. that's why the lord the song
of heaven will be blessed worthy is the lamb that was slain and
has redeemed us by his blood out of every kindred nation tongue
of people and has made us kings kings and priests of the god
the church is full of kings and priests god made them so glorified
Right now, we stand before God robed in the precious righteousness
of Jesus Christ, that pristine robe of perfection, and God sees
us as glorified. Glorified. That's what He's done
for those He's working for good, all good for. And the world is
gonna rye, you know, that's a good thing to know. And you ought
to be saying in your hearts and your minds, and when people say
all things in trouble, say, man, this is the best of times. These
are the good times. Why? Because everything's working
together for your good. These are the good times. These are the good times. Well, what can be said of such
a thing? When you really ponder and consider what has just been
spoken concerning poor, wretched sinners saved by grace. What can be said of that? If
God has done all this for you, this is a done deal. If God has
finished your salvation on Calvary Street, if Christ has redeemed
you by His blood, if you're justified and called and glorified, and
being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. What can you
say to these things? Well, if God be for us, who can't
be against Him? Who? He spared not His own Son,
freely gave Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him freely
give us everything? This world is yours. It's your
world. God gave it to you in Jesus Christ. So much so that no charge can ever be laid
against you. And God calls people to account
on that. I mean, Paul calls people to account on that. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? If God has justified you, if
in the holy court of God, before the holy bar of perfect and righteous
justice, you have been declared innocent of sin, how can anybody lay a charge
against you? Sometimes I feel, you know why?
Your conscience. and your conscience operates
in sin and it operates in the law and the reason your conscience
bothers you is because you've looked away from Jesus Christ
you're not looking to Him because if you look to Him your conscience
is quiet no charge listen if you feel
as if someone is charging you it ain't God it's the devil your conscience,
your neighbor, your wife, your husband. God never charged you. Why could He? He said, I don't
remember your sin. What's He going to charge you about? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Why can't He? Because God has
justified you. It is God that justifies. God's done it. If you feel like
you're going to raise up something that Christ died for and charge
somebody with, you'd better shut up. That's what the law keepers,
that's what the legalists do. They like to charge men with
things. They like to charge men. That's why Paul said they don't
have any idea what they're doing in the first instance. They don't
have any idea what they're doing when they're saying that one
of God's children is a whoremonger. One of God's children is a manslayer. He said, that's what they're
saying if they try to put you back under the law. You're not that. You're justified. Justified. And he goes on to
say, who is he that condemneth? Heaven, earth, hell, angels,
demons, deity. Who is he that condemneth? and one of the most powerful
statements for particular redemption or limited atonement in scripture
is found right here. Who is he that condemns? It is
Christ.