suffer this morning. I certainly hope you don't. Thank
you, Marvin. I appreciate it very much. I
feel while you open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, I feel so
blessed to be here, so honored to be
here for this first conference and I hope the Lord blesses you
to have many, many, many more. I told the folks down home I
was coming up here, and I told them all the preachers going
to be here, and I said, I'm going to really be in high cotton when
I get up there. And I am. I am. You know why they call
it high cotton? You've heard that probably all
your life. There's cotton that's high. That means you don't have
to stoop over real hard to pick it. don't have to bend over much,
you know, and so I'm in high cotton. These fellows are up
there, you know, and I really appreciate it. And all the folks
from Blantana Grace Church, they send their regards. Every one
of them said, be sure and tell them folks and tell Clay and
the people to love them and give my regards to Don and Todd and
all of them. You're talking about suffering
through preaching. They've been suffering to me for 38 and something
years. And this is the amazing thing,
they keep coming. They just keep coming. They must
keep, just keep coming. Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things, there are some
things we know. First John talked about, I don't
know how many things that we know. 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. I want to bring a message this
morning on predestination. Predestination. Let's look at
predestination. And predestination is one of
the most abused, misused, misunderstood doctrines in God's Word, in the
Scriptures. And it's so misunderstood, so
misused, and it's not only misrepresented by those who hate it. There are
those who hate it. John R. Rice wrote a book predestinated
to heaven or hell. No! That was a total, total misrepresentation
of anybody that believes in the grace of God. But He's not only
misrepresented by those who hate it, but them who claim to be
its friends. Words mean different things to
different people. So if somebody ever asks you,
what do you mean by predestination? What do you mean by foreknowledge?
What do you mean by grace? You ask them what they mean by
it. Because what they mean by it and you mean by it may be
entirely different things. Entirely altogether different.
And so you let them define it and then we define it by what,
hopefully, by what God says in His Word. You know, some people
say that predestinations will be what will be, will be. Well,
in a sense that's true. What God has willed will be. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
It says here that God who, according to His own purpose, He purposed. God does everything on purpose.
That's how He taught me the gospel. But that one word, the purpose.
And you know, He works all things after the counsel of His own
will. He does according to His will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no man, no man
can stay His hand or say unto Him, what are You doing? What
are You doing? And so we'll have to say that
what God's will, that's what's going to happen. Mark it down. And that's the way I want it
to be. I certainly don't want my will to be done. Oh, God's
will be done. And I tell you, but that's not
what the doctrine of predestination has to do with at all. Some say
predestination means that before men were born, God predestinated
some to heaven. God predestinated His Son to
hell. That's not true. That's not true. That's not true. That's an absolute misrepresentation
of predestination according to what the Bible teaches. It don't
say that anywhere in the Scriptures. But I'll tell you this. If any
man goes to heaven, it'll be God's fault, it'll be God's grace,
it'll be God's mercy that takes him there. And if he goes to
hell, if he goes to hell, it'll be because of his own sin, his
own wrong belief, and his own rebellion. God don't have to send a man
to hell. All he got to do is just leave him alone. But if
he saves him, he better not leave him alone or he'll go to hell.
He'll go to hell. And I hope, I don't want anybody
in this, that I preach to, every time I preach to somebody, at
home, wherever I go, It's in my heart's desire. It's my very
heart's being that I don't want nobody to go to hell. I don't. The people I preach to, I don't
want nobody to perish. I don't want nobody to miss Christ. I don't want nobody... I don't
want to preach to anybody and think that they're going to go
to hell. That's just too much for my heart
to bear. So that's why we preach with
great expectation. And that's why we preach the
gospel. But others say if a person is predestinated to be saved,
he'll be saved whether he hears the gospel or not. Whether he
seeks the Lord or not. Whether he believes on Christ
or not. Now that's one of the things that they really use against
us. That believe in the grace of God. They'll say that those
folks don't even believe somebody can be saved if they wanted to
be saved. And they say if God predestinated,
He can't be saved even if He wants to. That's not true. People
accuse us of that down home all the time. They say, those folks
up there, the man can't be saved even if he wanted to be saved.
Anybody who wants to be saved is saved. And they say whether he hears
the gospel or not, or seeks the Lord, or believes on Christ.
Paul says this, brethren, I know your election of God. How do
I know it? Because the gospel came unto
you. Not just in words, Don, not just
in words, but it came in power. It came in the Holy Ghost. It
came to the heart. It came to the soul. It came
to the spirit. It came to the understanding.
And when it came, it came with all the assurance that God has
done this work. That this is what you heard is
true. And it gives you assurance. You
know when you have the most assurance? When you're listening to the
gospel. Oh, listen. Brethren, we're bound
to thank God for you. Who hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation. Listen. Through the belief of
the truth, The sanctification of the Spirit. Belief of the
truth. Oh, listen. And I tell you what, if God saves
a man, anybody wants to be saved. And I'm telling you something.
I want to be saved. I want to be saved now. I want
to be saved tomorrow. And I want to be saved every
day that I get up. You know why I want to be saved?
Because I know me. I know me. I know how holy and
glorious and righteous and holy and blessed is God. And I know
how low and how weak and how frail that I am. I am just dust. So I want to be saved. I want
to be saved. But God uses means to call men
to Himself. Man is not going to be saved
without means. that please God by the foolishness of preaching
the Savior that believeth. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, and he that believeth not, what does it say? The wrath
of God abides on him. And if a man wants to truly know
Christ, he can. He can. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how are they
going to call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how
are they going to believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how are they going to hear? With what? Without a preacher.
Without a preacher. And no one, no one, no one is
ever perished at the door of mercy. Nobody. Nobody. And the word predestinate is
used four times in the Scriptures. Twice here and twice over in
Ephesians chapter 1. And I want to talk just a little
bit about this blessed doctrine, this blessed truth of predestination
that's plainly taught in God's Word. And may the Holy Spirit
come down among us and teach us today And there's four things,
four things that stand out in these verses that I read to you
this morning. And I hope that God will be pleased
to let us see what they say. And here's the first thing I
want you to understand. In verse 29, it says, Moreover
whom He did predestinate did foreknow. He did predestinate.
He might be the firstborn among the brethren. He also called. He called. He justified. He justified. He glorified. Whom He foreknew. He predestinated. He called.
He justified. And so the first thing we learn right here is
the salvations of the Lord. He did it. You know, everything
you find there, He, He, He, He, He. How many He's are there? You know who He is? Oh, listen,
that tells us that salvation is of the Lord. You done quoted
it. God who has saved us and called us with the Holy Spirit,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus. When? Before
the world ever began. Salvation of the righteous is
of the Lord, is what it says. Salvation is of the Lord. And
the gift of God is eternal life. It's a gift. The old hymn writer
said, Tis not that I did choose thee, Lord, for that could not
be. If thou hast not chosen me, I would have never chosen thee.
I'm going to ask you three questions. And I've asked these questions,
and you've probably heard them from a lot of different people.
But let me ask you three questions. And you ask people these three
questions here, and you're talking about a good way to witness to
people. Three questions. And answer these questions scripturally
now. Did you choose God? Or did God choose you? Did you choose God or did God
choose you? Huh? What does the scripture
say? Romans 3.11. Look what it says
over here. 3.11. Did you choose God or did God
choose you? Now a lot of folks think, you
know, I made, you know, I chose God and men tell you that. They
will stand up and tell you, flat footed, looking right at you
and say, you know, it is up to you to make the choice today.
I will tell you where I made my choice. I made my choice in
Adam. And had not God made me His choice,
that is where I would have been. And look what it says here in
Romans 3.11. There is none that understandeth, listen to this,
there is none that seeketh after God. So if nobody seeks after
Him, well, how in the world do you find Him? You don't. He finds
you. But oh, listen. He says, and
here's what Scripture says, know you not that you've not chosen
Me, but I've chosen you. Chosen you. And our Lord says
you will not come to Me that you might have eternal life.
And I know this. Men loved darkness rather than
light. Man left to himself would never come to Christ, never bow
to Christ. So, salvation. Did you choose
God or did God choose you? And here's the second question.
When did He choose you? When did He choose you? This
is what most folks believe down where I'm at. I call them Phoebe
churches. You know what the Phoebe church
is? Free will baptism. That's a phweeb. Sometimes they're everywhere. Phweeb. So if I ever said, that's
short for free will badness. We'll say phweeb. Every time
you're a phweeb, you know what I'm talking about. But oh, listen. When did He choose you? Did He
choose you when you heard the gospel? Did He choose you after
you believed? Did He choose you when you made
a profession? Did you hear and then take your
faith and mix it with His blood? Did you take your works and mix
it with His blood? Did you take your good intentions
and mix it with His blood? And when you've done that, God
said, well, I'll choose that man because he's professed. I'll choose that man because
he believes. No, no. According as He hath chosen us
in Christ from the foundation of the world, known under God
are all His works, from the beginning of the creation. And here is
the third question. If He chose you, and you didn't
choose Him, and He chose you, you believe because He chose
you. Well, why did He choose you?
Why did He choose you? Why did He choose you? Was it
because He saw something good in you? This is why, I don't
know how many preachers I've heard say, God looked down through
the telescope of time, and he looked around, and he looked
around, and he said, I'm going to choose that fellow right there
because he's going to believe one of these days. I'm going
to choose that person back there because they're going to be a
good, dedicated Christian one of these days. So he looks down
and he decides who he's going to save, but how are they going
to react to him? Ah, shoo, weep. Oh, is there something good in
you? Is it because He needed you? Because you weren't as bad
a sinner as another. We love Him because He first
loved us. Our Lord Jesus looked to heaven
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed
them unto babes. And every single one of us this
morning sitting here, and we all say we're babes when it comes
to standing in the presence of God. We're babes. Lord, we're
babes. You're going to have to teach us. We're babes. You're
going to have to cover us. You're babes. You're going to
have to take care of us. We can't take care of ourselves. You're
going to have to take care of us. Salvation begins with God's will,
not our will. His purpose, not ours. And I'm
going to say something right here. There's conditions to salvation,
you know. There is. There's conditions.
And Christ met every single one of them. Christ met every single one of
them. In fact, if you believe, He gave
you the faith. In fact, we're justified by the
faith of the Son of God. Faith has to be perfect. Like
everything that God requires of us, it has to be perfect.
Now our faith in and of ourselves is not perfect, but His is. So
we're justified by the faith, the faithfulness of Christ, His
work, His merit, His person, and everything about Him. And
that's why we keep coming to Him. Oh, second word. Second word. Over in Ephesians 1.5. Let's
look at that just a minute. Over here for a few minutes.
Ephesians 1.5. It talks about the second word
I want us to look at is us. Us. Us. Look what it says in Ephesians
1.5. It says, Having predestinated
us, us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to
the good pleasure of His will. Oh my! He predestinated us. I like that word us. Christ died
for us. Them. You know in this verse
there is not the mention of an unbeliever connected with predestination. Unbelievers is not connected
with predestination. It is He foreknew. He predestinated,
He chose, them He foreknew. Whatever predestination teaches
or brings, and whatever it accomplishes, it only has to do with believers. Not with believers. You know
what it says? He loved them with an everlasting
love. He chose them in Christ before
the foundation of the world. He called them by His grace. He justified them by His grace
in the blood. Salvation is so complete and
powerful that it says He glorified us. It's a done deal. But He
also predestinated us to some things. You know, reprobation. And spiritual blindness and hardening
of the heart, that's another subject altogether. But predestination
only has to do with believers, with the children of God. So
the second word is us. He predestinated us. The third
word is back over here again in Romans, Romans 8. The third
word is this. It's four words. The first word, he. Salvation to the Lord. That's
what predestination is. Salvation to the Lord. Third,
second word is us. Us He predestinated. And oh,
this is what I love right here. 29. For whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate. And this is what I'm talking
about. Conformed to something. To be conformed to the image
of His Son. To be conformed to the image
of His Son. Anybody here don't love and look forward to the
day that God will be done with this flesh, be done with this
body of sin, be done with this death, be done with this prison. And that's what this is. This
is a prison. This old body is a prison we're living in. That's
why when a believer goes, we rejoice. Man started out made. God said,
let us make man in our own image. But sin entered the world by
that one man that God made in His image. And we lost that image
of God. We lost it. Lost it. And oh how we lost it. We were not born in the image
of God, but in the image of fallen Adam, in the flesh. We were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others. But the Lord
in His free grace, God in His free grace, God in His blessed
purpose, predestinated, and purpose to have a people which no man
can number, no man can number, He took Abraham out when He called
him. And He said, took God to Himself,
said, Abraham, come out here. And Abraham came out there and
said, look up! Abraham looked up. He said, can you tell the
stars? Can you count them stars? Can
you tell me how many stars are up there? He said, no, I can't. He said, well that's how many
seed, your seed, is going to have. And you know who that seed
is? That seed is Christ. And that's how many people He's
got. It's going to be a multitude that no man can number 10,000
times 10,000. And you know what? And every
single one of us will be there like it's just us and Christ
by ourselves. That's how glorious He is. That's how glorious our
Lord Jesus Christ is. All of us will be there as if
we were the only one there. Huh? Oh my! And these people are predestinated,
and these people that God chose and predestinated to be conformed
to the image of His Son, they are going to be just like His
Son one of these days. John said it like this, Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall
see Him as He is. And you know what it says? We'll
be just like Him. We'll be just like Him. And oh
my! And that's the blessed object
of predestination to make a people like Christ. And God's determined
to have a people like the Lord Jesus Christ. and all the means
that are necessary to bring us to Christ and make us like Him,
He's ordained those means and He's predestinated those means.
That's why Paul, he says, you know, he said, as many as were
ordained or predestinated to eternal life, what happened to
them? They believed. Do you remember the day you believed? I believed yesterday. I remember
that. I believe today. And if God lets
me live, I'm going to believe tomorrow. And I'll tell you something.
How many of y'all here have trouble with unbelief? You know, you never knew you
had unbelief until you believed. Did you? Did I have a problem
with it? You never knew you had it until
you believed. Isn't that right, Todd? I stole that from Todd. I'm going to give credit where
credit's due. Oh, let's say I borrowed it. I borrowed it. But oh, listen. Known unto God,
you see, He has ordained us and all the means to predestinate
us. And one of these days, we're going to be like Christ. He chose
us in Christ. All the blessings He gives us
are in Christ. He made the Lord Jesus Christ
to be our surety. And you know, the shepherd is
responsible for the sheep. And He as a surety, and a surety
is one who stands good for someone who is unable, incompetent, insufficient,
and don't have the means to meet His obligation. Christ stood
as our surety because we're incompetent, We're unable. People say, well,
you know, back years ago when they put you in a mental hospital,
all they had to do was say he's incompetent. And they could put
you away for life. If your wife said he's incompetent
and kept saying that, they could put you away. But I tell you
what, we are incompetent in God. Huh? Not only are we incompetent,
we're impotent. We're unable. We couldn't pay
our debts. Oh my! He made us our surety. And then not only did He do this,
but chose us and made Him our surety from the foundation of
the world. Then He turned around and sent
Him into the world. Made of a woman, made under the
law. And then when He sent Him into
the world, after He lived 33 years, the Scripture says it
pleased the Lord to do what? To bruise Him. to make his soul
an offering for sin. Oh, and then it pleased the Lord
that after that, that all fullness, all the fullness of the Godhead
should dwell in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, so if He's the one
that's got all the fullness, that means if we have anything,
that's where we've got to go to get it. And you know what? I just thought of this. Thank
God. But it says we're filled with
His fullness. Now when you go to the ocean,
most of you all have been to the ocean. And you go out there
and get you a bucket of water out of the ocean. And fill it
full of the ocean. If you took anything out of the
ocean that's hurting at all, well that's what God takes us.
We're just nothing but empty vessels. He puts us in Christ,
fills us with His fullness, and brings us, sets us outside of
Him. And oh my, we're filled with
His fullness. And you know what? He is still
full after He has filled us with His fullness. He is still full. But oh, listen. In all the fullness
of the God. When you see God, when you see
Christ, you see God. And then it pleased God. And
this is what I like. We are talking about what God
did. This predestination. It pleased God by the fullnesses
of preaching to save them back. And then Paul, you know what
Paul said? He's all such a rebel, such a mean, cruel man. So unlikely
to be saved. But Paul says, when it pleased
God, He separated me from my mother's womb. And then down
the road, on the Damascus road, He called me by His grace. To do what? To reveal His Son
in me. And I tell you what, He is the
one who brought us repentance. He's the one who brought us faith. So every condition that's necessary,
Christ gave to us. And you've unquoted us. He'll
keep us by the power of God. And one of these days, He's going
to change this old vile body and fashion it like unto His
glorious body. And here's the fourth word. And
I'll be done. Look here again in verse 29. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. I heard a fellow tell a story. He went into an old country store
one time. Before I move on to the next
one. Went into an old country store one time. And he saw these
wooden dogs whittled, sitting all over the place in there.
Painted, you know, all painted and everything. And there's a
fellow sitting by an old potbelly stove whittling, whittling. And
there's still some old country churches or old churches. First church I preached in in
Tennessee had a potbelly stove in it. And we built a fire in
that thing in the middle of winter one time and all the walls come
alive. Started coming out of the wall. We was fighting walls.
That's true. And I helped cut the wood to
start that first fire. But anyway, this fellow sat and
whittled it. And he said, how in the world
do you do that? How are you so good at that?
He said, well, I cut away everything that don't look like a dog. And that's what God's doing to
us. He's cutting away everything. You know, He don't He don't take
us out of the world, He takes the world out of us. And He's going to keep whittling,
and He's going to keep working, and He's going to keep ordaining,
and He's going to keep dealing with us, and He's going to keep
working at us, and touching our hearts, and touching our minds,
and touching our souls. And one of these days, one of
these days, He's going to put that last cut, and we're going
to close our eyes. Bless His holy name. It's going to be with Him. And
it's going to look just like Him. It's going to be like Him.
Without sin. Perfect love. Perfectly. What a blessed day that's going
to be. To take God, take everything away from me that's not like
Christ. The fourth word is that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren. The firstborn among many brethren.
You know, he was the firstborn and he is the head of the church.
And what do we mean by the firstborn? There are other people that are
raised from the dead, but God raised them and Christ raised
them. This man raised himself from the dead. He is the firstborn. He is the only one who died and
rose again by his own power and he lives forever. Everybody else
that was raised from the dead had to die again. That is why
our Lord cried at Lazarus too. You know why? Because I have
got to bring him back into this world and he is going to have
to go through this again. He is going to have to go through
this again. But, oh listen, He's going to
be the firstborn among many brethren. You know where it says that we
have the adoption of children? He said He adopted, you know,
He predestinated us to the adoption of children. Let me see if I
can... You know why it says that He
adopted us? You know, we're sons of God by
birth. We're born again, sons of God by birth. He made us partakers
of the divine nature. He brought into existence when
He saved us a spiritual man who never existed before. This is
the man that we love the Gospel. This is the man who delights
in the Scriptures. This is the man who loves God
like He is. This is this new man, this man
that God put in us. This is the man that understands
the Bible. This is the man that desires
God. This is the man who longs to be conformed to the image
of Christ. God only had one Son. One Son. One only begotten Son. And that
Son is heir of all things. Heir of all things. Now if I
have, I've got two children, and three grandchildren, and three
great-grandchildren. So if I leave anything to them,
They're going to have to, I mean, it's going to be split up. They
get this part and they get that. But when God adopted us, and
the reason we are adopted is that as an adopted child, we
have right to the inheritance. And that's why it says Christ
is there. When Abraham told him to go get the bride for Isaac,
they said, this is what I want you to tell him when you get
over there. You know what he said? My master, have given all
things to His Son. And God has given all things
into Christ's hands. And so all the inheritance is
His. Now how am I going to get any
of it? God adopts us. And by that, He makes us join
heirs with Christ. And here's the thing about it.
With all the children He's got, It's like, you know, if you had
five kids, you cut the pie five ways, and everybody gets a piece.
Well, in Christ, we get the whole pie. We get it all. You know that
all of us will have an inheritance like we're the only one who gets
it. That's how wealthy our Lord is. He makes us join ours with
Him, and He's as wealthy as He ever was when He gives us everything
He's got. Oh, right. Oh, we're conformed to Christ,
born of God. Conformed to Christ in relationship. Now are we the sons of God. He
sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. We cry, Abba Father. And oh my, we're conformed to
Christ in character. We're not of this world, as He's
not of this world. And we're conformed to Him in
inheritance. Oh, we're joint heirs with Him. And I tell you
what, one of these days the scripture says we will see Him as He is
and we shall be just like Him, just like Him. And beloved, this
is the doctrine of predestination, salvation to the Lord. He predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the
firstborn among many brethren. And God has ordained that every
believer should be like His Son. And He has ordained the means
to accomplish that work. He which hath begun a good work
in you, he shall perform it unto that day. And this is the only
question we have to answer. Do you want to be made like Christ? The sooner, the better. The sooner,
the better. Amen? The sooner, the better. Amen. Thank you, Clay. Thank you for having me. Appreciate
it very much.