Let's turn our Bibles to Romans
chapter 8. I sent out sermon notes this week
on Romans 8, verses 28 through 39. And shortly after that, I
got an email from Don. And he said that he had just
written a bulletin and written an article on Romans 8, 28 through
39. And I said, well, I'm planning
on preaching Sunday on those four questions. I said, I think
we've all preached that outline. I said, the one where, about
what does the love of God have to do with salvation. He told
me that, he said, Brother Hedren-Mahan and I were driving back from
a conference in Fairmont, West Virginia, when I was 27 years
old, and he said, we came up with that outline. So the outline
I'm about to preach is about 40 years old, and Brother Henry
and Brother Don are the ones who came up with it. Now, it's
common in most circles that lives are being taught to poor, perishing
sinners. There's really no other way to
describe it but they are being lied to. They glorify man by
telling sinners that God loves everyone. And the scripture says
right here in Romans 8, 29 that God foreknew. He foreloved a
particular people. They're called the elect in this
passage. They glorify man by telling sinners
that it's God's will to save all men. But we're told in this
passage that God saves those he purposed to save. Whom he
foreknew, them he also did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, them he
called. Whom he called, them he justified.
Whom he justified, them he glorified. He does it all according to his
will. They glorify man by telling sinners
that Christ died for all sinners. But this scripture here says
God justifies the elect. Christ died for the elect. They
glorify man by telling sinners that the Holy Spirit's trying
to call all sinners, but they just won't let him. But I don't
see anything in this passage that looks like God's having
a problem calling whom he will. It doesn't say anything here
about any trouble calling his people. So I have four questions
that I'm going to ask you to consider. And if we'll answer
these questions honestly, then we have to agree with what my
proposition is. And it's this. If salvation is
of the Lord, which scripture says, salvation is of the Lord.
If salvation is of the Lord, then God alone must do all the
saving. He must do it all. Now, here
my first question. First of all, it's commonly taught
that God loves all men. If God loves all sinners and
yet many perish in their sins, then what does the love of God
have to do with salvation? Now, you think about that. If
God loves all sinners, And yet some perish, and we recognize
that many do perish. Then what does the love of God
have to do with salvation? Preachers say, God loves you,
and make this blanket statement to all people. God loves you.
You've got a wonderful plan for your life. That's not offensive
to the flesh. It's not offensive at all. But
that's not the truth. God's Word plainly says God does
not love everyone. I'm going to give you these scriptures.
You can write them down or turn to them if you want. But I'm
going to go rather quickly. But Psalm 11 verse 5 says, The
Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked, and him that loveth
violence, his soul hateth. That's pretty plain, isn't it?
We're told right here in the next chapter, Romans 9, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. That's humbling to a proud sinner.
Because sinners by nature think we deserve to be loved of God. That's what we really think.
But sinners need to be told that God has no, He has no, no demands
on Him to love anybody. His love is toward whom He will. And when we speak of God's love,
brethren, if He loved all men, and yet one perish in sin, we
would have to say then that the love of God has nothing to do
with salvation. But we know the love of God does
have everything to do with salvation. Those He loves, He saves. Let me show you this. God says there, whom He did foreknow,
that word is loved beforehand, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son. Remember what he told Jeremiah? He said, before I formed you
in the belly, I knew you. That's the same knowing there.
I knew you. I loved you. I sanctified you
from the womb, he said, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. We love him because he first
loved us. God's love sent His Son who redeemed
His people. Scripture says, Behold, for peace
I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered
it from the pit of corruption. God in love delivered His people
from the pit of corruption. Thou hast cast all my sins behind
thy back. That's Isaiah 38, 17. God's love
regenerates his people. He says in Ephesians 2, 4, But
God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ by grace are you saved. You see, God's love is
very much a moving factor in the salvation of his people.
God does not love today and tomorrow throw his people in hell and
start hating them. That's what you hear from some
preachers. I've heard preachers say that, that God loves all
men until they die in unbelief and then God hates them and throws
them in hell. That would make God changeable.
And that would make his love to change. And God's love, he
says, I've loved thee with an everlasting love. His love is
everlasting. It doesn't change at all. God
saves those He loves, and nothing can separate us from the love
of God in Christ. That's what Paul ends up with
here in Romans 8, verse 38. He says, I am persuaded, and
it gives all that big list of things, and he says at the end
of verse 39, nothing shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let me answer
an objection, I know it's going to come. What about John 3.16? God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall
not perish but shall have eternal life. Well, the Lord there is
speaking to a proud Jew who believed that only the children of Israel,
the natural sons of Abraham, were God's elect. And our Lord
Jesus is saying that God has elect among the Jews and among
the Gentiles all over the world. That's what he's declaring there.
But Christ said in John 17 9, he said, I pray not for the world. The world doesn't mean everybody
without exception. It never means that in scripture.
If you go through scripture and look, it never means everybody
without exception. Our Lord said, I pray not for
the world, I pray for them thou has given me. So it's not, it's
not sinners who get to glory in loving God first. And that's
what this is all about. Men trying to give sinners the
glory for making the choice and loving God first. No, God gets
the glory for loving his people first. We didn't love him first,
he loved us first. Now secondly, It's commonly taught
and believed that it's the will of God that all men be saved. That it's God's will that all
men be saved. Well, if it's the will of God
that everyone be saved, and yet some perish in hell anyway, then
what does the will of God have to do with salvation? Why even
mention the will of God? If He doesn't save by His will,
why mention it? Go over to 2 Peter 3. This is
the passage that they use quite often in Armenian free will churches.
This is most commonly used. 2 Peter 3.9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to us. We're not willing not willing
that any should perish, that all should come to repentance.
And so they'll use that and they'll say, see, God wants to save all
men. And He's not willing that any
should perish. So why don't you let Him have
His will? That's what men are telling poor,
ignorant sinners. The us word here are God's elect. You know, the scriptures are
the one area where if we read a letter, we don't go back to
the beginning and see who the letter's written to. We do that
when we get a letter in the mail. Why don't we do that with scriptures?
Go back to 2 Peter 1 and look at verse 1. It says, Peter's
writing to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Verse
3 says, according as His divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge
of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. He's writing
to God's elect. He's writing to those that have
been called. And so the us word he's talking about is, he's talking
about those that God chose and those that God will bring to
repentance, His people. his elect. He's not willing that
any of his people should perish but that they all come to repentance.
Peter uses Lot as the example. Remember in Genesis 18 verse
23, Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah, that awful, awful place that
was filled with homosexuality and God was about to wipe it
off the map. And Abraham knew his nephew Lot's
there. And so Abraham drew near to God
and he said, will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Will you destroy those that Christ has made righteous right along
with the wicked? Peradventure there be 50 righteous
within the city. Will thou also destroy and not
spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? That be far
from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the
wicked. and that the righteous should
be as the wicked, that be far from thee, Lord, shall not the
judge of all the earth do right? And the Lord said, If I find
in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all
the place for their sakes. And Abraham went on down to ten
people. And the Lord said, I will not
destroy it for ten's sake. Now look at 2 Peter 2 and look
at verse 7. God delivered just Lot or righteous
Lot. He is the only one. Him and his
daughters God brought out. But he is the only righteous
one that God brought out of there. Just Lot. Then look at verse
9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver
the godly out of temptations. See that? He knows how to deliver.
So now go back to 2 Peter 3 and look at verse 9 again. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promises. Some men count slackness, but
is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Now look down at verse 15. an
account, you impute that the long suffering of our Lord is
salvation. Whoever God's long suffering
to, He saves them. He saves them. So if God's willing
that somebody not perish, they're not going to perish. If God's
willing they be brought to repentance, they're going to be brought to
repentance by God. And that's so with all God's
elect. You know, when I was in Houston, I can't remember if
I told you all this or not, I heard a preacher on TV who said that
God doesn't want us to be robots. And he said, God's done all that
he can do, and now it's up to you. And it's your will when
choosing God or rejecting God that's going to make the difference
in your eternal future. That's what he said. And here's
what he used. This is the scripture he used. John 1. Look there with
me. John 1. And I was amazed this
is the scripture he used to support that. He turned to John 1 and
verse 11 and he said this. He said, read this with me. He
came unto his own, his own received him not, but as many as received
him. To them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. And
He said, see there? You either receive Him or receive
Him not. It's all up to you. And that's
where He stopped. And look at the next verse. Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God. And He didn't even read that
verse. Exalting the will of man And
he didn't read the verse that says it's not by the will of
man by the will of God So by his sovereign will God chose
whom he would say He did and I'll show you why I look at Romans
9 and look at verse 6 It's not as though the Word of
God had taken none effect I For they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. Not everybody in Israel is God's
true Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of promise. These are not, they which are
the children of the flesh. These are not the children of
God. But the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
That's God's elect. This is the word of promise,
at this time will I come, God said, and Sarah shall have a
son. Isaac was born by the will of
God, by the promise of God. Not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. Here's why God saves by his sovereign
will, choosing whom he will, right here. not of works, but
of him that calleth. That's why. So that we know salvation
is not of works, but of God that calleth. So it was said to the
younger, said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it's
written, Jacob have a love, but he shall have a hated. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God not fair? God forbid. For he said to Moses, I will. See whose will saves us? I will
have mercy on whom? I will have mercy. And I will
have compassion on whom? I will have compassion. So that
it's not of him that willeth. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. But of God that showeth mercy. So salvation is to the praise
of God's will. But He gets all the praise. All
the praise. And the sinner gets none. We
don't get any and we don't want any. It wasn't our will that
saved us. It was God's will that saved
us. Now thirdly, false preachers say Christ died to redeem the
whole human race. Well, if He died to redeem everybody
and just one sinner perishes, then what does the blood of Christ
have to do with salvation? Truth is, Christ redeemed only
God's elect. Isaiah 53a says, for the transgression
of my people. That's what God said, for the
transgression of my people was he stricken. The angels, the
Holy Spirit said, his name should be called Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. That's who he is. And this gives
Christ all the glory that is due to Him. Because He accomplished
the redemption of His people. You see the issue is that Christ
finished the work God sent Him to do. The issue is He successfully
redeemed all His people on Calvary's cross. The issue is He fulfilled
the prophecy which says He shall not fail. That is the issue. The issue is not about not offending
sinners. Let sinners be offended. They
need to be offended. The issue is giving Christ the
glory due to His name. That's the issue. False preachers
tell poor sinners the lie that their believing makes Christ's
blood to accomplish their redemption. They say by you believing, you
make it effectual. Scripture says when he had by
himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
Christ didn't need our help. He did it all by himself. So
God will not execute justice on anybody for whom Christ died
because justice has already been settled for us at the cross. It's as top lady said, If thou
hast my discharge procured and freely in my place endured the
whole of wrath divine, payment God will not twice demand. First
at my bleeding shirt, his hand, and then again at mine. He poured
out justice on Christ and he will not pour it out a second
time on his people. So it's not the sinner who gets
glory for making Christ's blood effectual. It's Christ who gets
all the glory. He did the work. That's why we
preach this, is to give Him all the glory. Alright, fourthly,
men commonly teach that the Holy Spirit is trying to call all
sinners to life and faith in Christ. They say the Holy Spirit's
trying to call you. He's trying to call all men,
but that sinners won't let Him. Well, if the Holy Spirit is trying
to call all sinners and they resist Him and they end up in
unbelief anyway, then what does the call of the Holy Spirit have
to do with salvation? Why even mention it? Here is the verse they use, Acts
7 verse 51. This is the verse they use, Acts
7 verse 51. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your
fathers did, so do ye. And they'll take that and see,
they'll just plead with sinners and say, now see the Holy Spirit's
trying to call you, but you're resisting Him. Now surrender
to Him and lay down all your weapons and and let the Spirit
of God have his way. That's not the truth. It's true
that those that are uncircumcised in heart, they always do resist
the Holy Spirit. Why? Because the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Because they're
foolishness to him. Neither can he know them unless
they're spiritually discerned. So yeah, he always is fighting
against the Holy Spirit. But brethren, when the Holy Spirit
is determined to save somebody, He irresistibly gives life. There's no, you're not going
to fight against Him and prevail, not when He's pleased to give
life. Romans 2, 28 says this, He's not a Jew which is one outwardly.
Neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh,
but he is a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that
of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. God gets all the praise for the
circumcision of the heart, not man. Look over at Isaiah 55 and
verse 10. Verse 10, the Lord said, as the
rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not
thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth in
bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall
not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which
I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I sent
it. And James 1.18 tells us, of his
own will begat he us with the word of truth. God's word never
returns void. When the Holy Spirit brings his
word into the heart of a sinner, he accomplishes what he came
to accomplish. He always binds the strong man
and he always frees his child from the bondage of our sin nature
and brings us into faith in Christ. He always succeeds at that. He's not trying to save all men
and some are just resisting him and not allowing it to happen.
If that was the case, why would you even mention it? No, the
Holy Spirit is calling who He will, and He's successfully calling
His people. There's no doubt about that.
You know, when they tell sinners that it's your flesh, it's you
that make the difference, they're completely, totally flat in the
face of the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said, it's the
spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. You can't
do anything by your flesh. You can't do anything. It's the
words that Christ speaks that are spirit and that are life.
And they come forth in power. Now, if it was you and me that allowed the spirit to regenerate
us, or allowed the spirit to draw us to Christ, if that was
us that did that, then we would be the ones who make ourselves
to differ from other sinners, wouldn't we? And God says He
alone is the one who makes us to differ. Who maketh thee to
differ from another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Well, if you did receive it,
why glory as if you didn't receive it? You see, Paul's He is striking
the axe to the root of this free will business and men saying
that they allowed the Spirit to regenerate them. Paul says,
who makes you to differ? Everything we received we got
from God. We didn't have anything. We saw there in 2 Peter 1, He
gave us by His divine power, He gave us all things. that pertain
to life and godliness. We didn't have anything. So God
alone makes us to differ. So if you know that he gave you
everything, why would we glory as if he didn't give it? Will worshipers say this, they
say, well, God wouldn't save me against my will, but man's
natural will's not for God to save him at all. Our Lord Jesus
said, ye will not come unto me that you might be saved. Will
worshipers say, well man's will is free. Well everybody's will
is bound to their nature. Everybody, even God's will is
bound to his holy nature. God only does what's holy because
that's his nature. Everybody's will is bound to
their nature. And a sinner's nature is nothing
but sin and so he's bound to that nature. He can do whatever
he wants to within the realm of his sinful nature and it's
all sin. It's like a man in a prison cell.
If this was a prison, these walls were a prison and we couldn't
get out of here, you can get up and walk around all you want
to in here, but you can't get outside of this prison. And that's
what a man's nature is. It's the prison. It's the walls
that holds him and confines him. He can do all he wants to within
that confines of those walls, but he can't get out of that.
Everything he does is sinful. Everything. But Christ successfully
atoning for his people and sending the Holy Spirit, he frees us.
He frees us. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. He gives you a new nature, and
when he gives you a new nature, he gives you a new will to come
to him. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. So here's the truth. Here's the
truth. I wish every poor sinner that's
being lied to could hear this. Here's the truth of the matter.
Salvation is by God's everlasting love of his particular people. Who He loves, He saves. He doesn't
love everybody, but who He loves, He saves. Secondly, by God's
sovereign will, choosing whom He will, freely by grace, not
based on anything in us, God saves His elect. Thirdly, by
Christ's successful atonement of His particular people, we're
saved. He succeeded in redeeming His
people, and that's how we're redeemed. And fourthly, by the
Spirit's irresistible call, we're drawn to Christ, to faith in
Christ, and so God will not lose one for whom Christ died. That's
the truth of the Holy Scriptures. Listen to this now. Psalm 68
verse 20. He that is our God is the God
of salvation. And unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. That's what our salvation is.
It's God saving us from death. And all the issues of our salvation
from death belong to God. Salvation is of the Lord. Amen. Let's stand together. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for this day. Thank you for blessing us and
keeping us. Thank you for giving us the truth
of the gospel and making us bow to it. I pray, Father, that you
will bless this word to the hearts of your people and cause them
to truly see and glory only in the Lord Jesus. We thank you
for this day and pray that you enable us to worship you and
give you the honor and the praise due to your name. We thank you,
Lord, that you brought us here and provided this place for us
and that all things are of your hand. Lord, thank you for not
leaving anything to us. Forgive us our sins and our doubting. In Christ's name we pray, amen.