I had somebody pose a question
to me recently, and they said to me, if God is sovereign, and salvation is by God's choosing
whom He will in Christ, If God is sovereign, and salvation
is by the redemption accomplished by Christ Jesus the Lord, if
salvation that is of God is sovereign salvation, in that He must come
and give a sinner life, and He must give faith, and He must
give repentance, and He must give all things that pertain
unto life and godliness, If salvation really is sovereign, God Himself
really is sovereign, the question was this, how then can God blame
me if I don't believe Him? The answer to that question or
that objection is Romans chapter 9 in verse 19. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? That objection is raised in the
Scriptures by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Apostle
Paul because God knows what man is going to say before he says
it. God knows what man is going to object to before he says it.
I'm here to show you this morning, I don't care about arguing with
anybody about anything. I want to see sinners saved. And I want to see God get all
the glory in doing it. So understand that it's not personal
between me and you, or between me and anybody, anybody else.
If that's the case, who gives a hoot? It doesn't, well, that
don't matter. If I win an argument against
you, or you win an argument against me, that's just two worms wrestling
against each other and all it is is a bunch of dung and nothing's
been accomplished. But if you want to hear God speak
and you want to hear how God says he saves people, then let's
hear God say how he saves people. The difference between my gospel
and that which I commonly refer to as a false gospel is my God
gets all the glory in it. And if you ask me who makes the
difference, it's not my faith making the deciding, casting
the deciding vote. That's not it. It's God working
it as he purposed to work it from the very beginning. Bringing
to pass exactly what God said he would bring to pass before
he ever even made a grain of sand, much less this dirt that
I am and this dirt that you are. The reason that men object to
the gospel is because man wants to exalt himself and man wants
to have some part in this thing of salvation so that he can come
to God and say he at least contributed something to it. I'm just warning
everybody that'll listen now. God won't have you if you come
that way. You're already in the grips of
hell, and if you believe that's the case, you're twice dead.
I'd rather you not have a hope at all than for that to be your
hope. Twice dead. Because you got a false hope.
I want you to see this. God is sovereign. He does elect
whom He'll save. He does work all things in providence,
good and evil. He has accomplished the redemption
of His people and His Son. He does do the regenerating,
the calling, the giving of all spiritual gifts. He does draw
to His side, to His Son, irresistibly, so that all you can do is believe
on Him. And you know you have when you
stop trying to say, well, what makes difference is me. What
makes difference is I believed him and that other person didn't.
We might as well be climbing up the tower of Babel, step by
step, rung by rung, thinking we're going to bring ourself
to God if that's what we think. That's the vanity and the deception
of our own dead human heart. That's exactly what it is. And
anybody that preaches it is their worst, the lowest spot in hell
will be for that person that preaches that message. That man
makes the deciding factor. The lowest, deepest part in hell,
rightfully so. When unconverted men and women
hear this truth, they have more than just that one objection,
though they have three objections. And I want to address all of
those objections. Here's the first one. When men
hear that God is sovereign to call each and every one of His
people to saving faith in Christ, He commonly uses unbelievers
as an objection to say God's not sovereign. He's not accomplishing
His promise in power. We do stand by faith. No doubt
about that. We do stand by faith. But when
we look at how God describes that nation Israel and how God
speaks of Gentiles and what he's done among the Gentiles, we see
something about what we are by nature. What we are by nature. When it says we're the clay and
that Israel was the lump of clay in God's hand and they became
marred in his hand, every one of us died in Adam. And when
we died in Adam, we still had the responsibility and we're
still born into this world with the responsibility to believe
God and to give all glory to God. But because we're responsible
to doesn't mean we have the ability to. Christ said, come unto me
all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
And he said, and no man can come to me except the Father which
has sent me drawing. If you don't think that's so,
that responsibility does in no way intimates that you have ability,
you ask the man who's having all his property foreclosed on
right now. He still has the responsibility
to pay his bills, but just because he don't have the ability to,
don't mean he's not responsible to. And that's the same with
every sinner. But if we're called and we believe
on Him, it's going to be because He did it. But folks will say,
well, but I believed and that made the difference. Well, let's
start with God first. Let's begin with Him. Let's begin
with Him. And let's work this thing down
to me and you. And let's start with Him. Verse
6. Romans 9.6, not as though the
word of God hath taken none effect. Paul said in Romans 3.3, he's
speaking here of Israel, some not believing in Israel. In Romans
3.3, he said, what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief
make the faith of God without effect? Does that prove that
God doesn't have the ability to call His people? That it's
not owing to His grace that people are called and saved? God forbid,
let God be true and every man a liar. The Scriptures declare
there's none righteous. The Scriptures declare they're
all gone out of the way. The Scriptures declare their
throats are open and secular. It says there's none that even
seeketh God. None that seeketh God. Look here
now, the faithfulness of God in fulfilling His promises of
calling out His people has and shall never fail. God's not a
man that He should lie. If He said from the beginning
He's going to call out a people, if He said it, He's going to
do it. If He's purposed it, He's going to bring it to pass. He
said, this is the word that goes out of my mouth. It won't return
to me void. Don't you rejoice in that? I
love the fact that God is God. I love the fact that what I'm
saying to you right now, God gets all the glory in it. It
thrills my soul. I love Him. I want to put God,
I want you to see Him so high and so lifted up. I want you
to see Him so adorned in holiness and righteousness and goodness.
I want you to just, to where all you can do is fall down on
your face and say, I can't even look up to somebody so good and
so holy. Well, if God said, He was going
to call a people. And now we're just looking at
Israel now, that nation Israel. And yet we see the multitude,
the majority in Israel perished during the days of the prophets
and are in hell right now. Well then, who gets the glory
for those who did believe? It's true. They stand by faith.
Those that were saved, they stand by faith. Abraham believed God.
Who gets the glory for that? Look at verse 6. This is why
those didn't believe. Folks will say, well, they just
didn't believe. That's why they weren't saved.
But now let's start right here. This is where God said. Verse
6. They are not all Israel which
are of Israel. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children." When God said, I'm going to save
all Israel, He wasn't talking about all of Abraham's children.
Salvation was never promised to all Abraham's physical children. Never. It was promised to his
spiritual seed. God's true children were chosen
of God, called in Christ in electing grace before the world began,
and then they're called in grace in time. They were called in
grace in Christ before the world began. All the promises that
were made to Abraham were made to Christ first. Galatians 3.15
says, The promises were made to Abraham and to his seed. And
it's not speaking of many. It's speaking of one. It's speaking
of Christ. And all those promises were made to Christ first before
the world began. That He was going to be the one
that would be the firstborn among many brethren. He would be God's
servant. He would be the one who would
receive all the glory of the triune God in His body, seen
and manifested, God in a person, in a body, and He would get all
the glory and all eyes would be on Him. And then in time,
In that seed, in Christ, all of God's children are called.
They're called into that door. They're called into that ark.
They're called into that path of righteousness. They're called
into that holy way. They're called into that refuge. They're called into that sanctuary. And that is a person. That is Christ Jesus the Lord. He said there, He said there,
look, verse 7, But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. If you'll
go back and look at Isaac, he's a type of Christ. He's a type
of Christ. He was a miraculous son of promise,
born of a miraculous birth, promised of God. And that's who Christ
is. He was promised before. Just
like God said to Abraham and Sarah, you're going to have a
son. And in Him, all my seed are going to be called. That
Son is Christ. And in Christ, all the children
of God are called. The true children of God. And
then Isaac is also a picture of all the everlasting covenant
of God, all of the children of promise, all of the chosen seed
of God born of promise, by God's promise, by God's promise, by
His Word, born of His Word, born of His promise, where everything's
ordered and sure because God ordered it and God made it sure
in Christ Jesus, His Son. Look over at Galatians chapter
four. I want you to see that. Galatians
four. There was two boys born there at the same time, Isaac
and Ishmael. Look at Galatians chapter four. Look at one of them was born
of a bondmaid, verse 22. Abraham had two sons, the one
by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the
bondwoman was born after the flesh. This is why all the sons
of Abraham are not true children of God, because they're all born
flesh, but some of them are born after the Spirit. Some of them
are born of a miraculous birth, regenerated, born again. Look,
but he of the free woman was by promise. This is how we're
going to be. We're either going to be saved
by the flesh, or think we're saved by the flesh, or we're
going to be truly saved by promise. Which things are an allegory?
For these are two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. That was the bondwoman.
And the other was from a She's in bondage even still with Jerusalem
now, in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all. This is the church
of God. This is God's doing. He says
there, verse 28, Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children
of promise. What, but as then he that was
born of the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirits,
even so it is now. Nevertheless, what said the scripture?
Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then brethren,
we're not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. We're born of
promise. He said, in Isaac shall thou
see be called. That's first in Christ, and then
every child called of God. is born of Him. Look back there
at Romans 9, look at verse 24. Even us whom He hath called,
you see that? Whom God hath called. What made
the difference? God called me. What made the
difference? I was born of the Spirit of God,
else I couldn't believe on Him. I couldn't have faith. Can you
say that? Can we say that? There's no possible way I could
have believed on Him. Had God not called me. Where'd
He call you? Well, first He called me in Christ
before the world began. He put His name on me and made
me His elect child of God. And then He called me by the
power of the Holy Spirit through His Word and called me into Christ. who are of the..." He said, "...to
us who he hath called out of the Jews only, but also the Gentiles."
So we're not talking about just a physical people. We're not
talking about just a physical nation. We're talking about God's
grace. God's grace. God's calling. God's
doing. And there's another picture of
this in Romans 9.10. Not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, He said
they're going to be called in Isaac, didn't he? Now here he's
showing us here with Jacob and Esau, another picture of it.
For the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, so that neither one of them could say, I am what
I am because of this good that I did. Whatever you want to name
it, whatever you want to call it, if you want to call it faith,
repentance, sanctification by your works, if you want to call
it standing on your head and stacking grease BBs, whatever
it is you want to call it, It's not of you, good or evil. Not
at all. Now look. But that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. He said to Abraham, in Isaac
you see he's going to be called. Now he's showing us how he's
doing it. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but he so have I hated.
Therefore, because of this, salvation is all of God's Word. It's all
of God's promise. Look back up at verse 9. For
this is the word of promise. See that? This is the word of
promise. You see, the difference between
the gospel and a false gospel is the gospel is the word of
promise. A false gospel is the word of
man. The gospel is the word of God's
promise. A false gospel is the word of man. A gospel is the
word of God's grace. The word of man is the word of
man's work. The word of God is the word of
promise. The word of man is the word of,
if you will, God will. He said, and its inheritance
can't be of the law. It can't be of me. It can't be
of some good or evil in me. It can't be of anything in me
because it is, if it is, Paul said in Galatians 3.18, it's
no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. By promise. And every one of
those that He promised to save, they're going to be circumcised
in the heart by God and they're going to be called and brought
into Christ. So the answer to this first objection, when you look at unbelievers
and you say, well, if God is effectual to call, why didn't
He call them? If they perish in unbelief, I
can tell you why He didn't. He never intended to. Never intended
to. God's Word is not without effect
because somebody perishes ununbelief. He never intended to call them. But who He does intend to call,
He calls them. Look at verse 8 there. That is,
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 how this thing begins.
It begins with God. Well, here's the second objection.
An unbeliever is going to hear that God elected His people in
Christ, and they're going to object with this objection, and
they're going to say, well, then that makes God unrighteous. That's not fair. That's not right
for God to choose some and pass by others. Verse 14. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. God has the right to have mercy
on whom He will. And no man has any right to question
Him for doing so. Look at verse 15. For He said
to Moses, it's not a new thing. It's what He said to Moses. I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Now, why is this so important,
Brethren? Why is this so important? Why
does a hard-hearted, stony-hearted, dead man, that's how we're born,
with a heart like a rock, why does a man like this take on
religion but deny the Word of God and deny the promise of God
and say, this Word makes God unfair? Everybody ought to have
a chance. You go home tonight and you get
you some dice and you roll them. You want your salvation based
on chance. Do you really want it based on
chance? I want salvation ordered and
sure in all things. You know why this is so important?
It's so important because if God didn't do it this way, there's
not a single soul who would be saved. Verse 16, when it says,
So then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
it's not just stating the fact, although it is the fact, it's
not of man's will, it's not of man's doing. But it's stating
the fact that there is none that seeks God by nature, and there
is none willing, and there is none running to God by nature.
And if he didn't but of God that showeth mercy, and if he didn't
show mercy, we wouldn't come. We just wouldn't come. Let me
show you the illustration Paul gives, verse 17. For the Scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. You know, before
God went, before he sent Moses into Egypt, he told Moses before
he went into Egypt, that he, God said, I will harden Pharaoh's
heart. He said, I will harden Pharaoh's
heart. God declared to Moses before he ever went into Egypt,
this, I'm gonna leave Pharaoh right where he was born. in complete
darkness. I'm going to leave him there.
Right there. That's all it takes for God to
harden your heart. Is just leave you right where
you were born. Right where you were born. You'll
take on religion. You'll wrap yourself in dung
from the sole of your foot to the top of your head. and you'll
think you smell like roses, and you'll try to come to God in
it, and you'll try to make yourself presentable to God by it, and
all you're doing by that is getting more hardened, and more hardened,
and more hardened, and more hardened. Because the more confidence you
have in, I did it, I did it, I did it, the less you want to
hear, God did it, God did it, God did it. Well, that's true. The more a man hears, God did
it! And the more he's thinking, I
did it, the less he wants to hear, God did it. God did it. I can't stand that noise. He'll
say, just give me something that tells me more about what I did. Well, when he left him there,
apart from the power of God having mercy on him, look over at Exodus
9. You know what Pharaoh did? Exodus 9, look at verse 34. When Pharaoh saw that the rain
and the hail and the thunder stopped, he sinned yet more and
hardened his heart. he and his servants, and the
heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children
of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses." Look at chapter 10, verse 1. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Paul's telling us, he told Moses he raised Pharaoh up for this
purpose, to show men and women what men and women will do if
God doesn't have mercy on us. So what did Pharaoh do? The Lord
said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart,
and the heart of his servants, that I might show these my signs
before him, and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and
of thy sons' sons what things I have wrought in Egypt. what
things I have wrought in Egypt, what things I have wrought in
Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them, that ye may
know how that I am the Lord. You mean God would leave a man
dead in trespasses and sins and let that man just rage more and
more against God And Pharaoh, it wasn't that Pharaoh
wasn't religious. Those pyramids weren't built
in Egypt, for secular reasons, they were built for religious
reasons, for religious reasons. You look at that thing, oh, that's
just base idolatry. It's no more base idolatry than
ever man sitting in a so called Christian church, who's thinking
I did I did I did. No difference. No difference. Look at Romans
9.22. What if God, willing to show
His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that He might make
known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which
He afore prepared unto glory, even us whom He called, not of
the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? What if God did that?
It's God's business. It's God's business. Do you like
for God to do His business? We don't want to see a sinner
perish, but do you rejoice in the fact that God said, I've
done this to show you my vessel of mercy, that salvation is by
me? That without my mercy and my
power, you would be just exactly like Pharaoh? So here's the second objection.
Answer. God's electing mercy is salvation
for perishing sinners. Without God's mercy we'd be left
with a hard heart just like Pharaoh. Look there again at verse Verse 29, Isaiah said, except
the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we'd been like Sodom
and Gomorrah. We'd be just like Pharaoh, just
like Sodom, just like Gomorrah. So then, verse 14, what shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. Verse 18, therefore hath He mercy
on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will be heartened. He told Moses, I'll have mercy
on whom I will and I'll pass by whom I will. Well, this is
the third objection and this is where we began. This was,
I said, the question that was posed to me. If, if then God
is sovereign over all men and all things, If then salvation
is by His electing grace, if then a man's got to be born of
the Spirit of God and given faith to believe on God, how then can
God find fault with me for anything? How can He find fault with me
if I don't believe Him? Here's the objection put into Scripture,
verse 19. Thou wilt say then unto me, Having
heard all this, you'll say then unto me, why doth he yet find
fault? For who hath resisted his will?
If everything is according to God's will, then who's resisted
his will? Listen. Entertaining the thought that
you and I contribute to the salvation that is of the Lord is crucifying
Christ. When Christ was crucified, men
were resisting the will of God and absolutely fulfilling the
will of God. And men in no way were excused
for what they carried out. And yet the will of God was accomplished. Accomplished. If God calls you by His grace,
You'll believe Him. You'll rejoice in the message
of God's free and sovereign grace. And you'll believe on Christ
willingly. And you'll be doing God's will. And both of them, both of them
fall under God's will. If He leaves you alone and you
reject Him all your life, you'll do exactly what you want to do.
You'll leave this earth doing exactly what is your will to
do. And you'll accomplish everything
that is God's will for you to do. And if you believe on Him,
it'll be because God gave you a willing heart and made you
willing in the day of His power, and everything that you do, you'll
do according to God's will. What I'm saying to you, brethren,
is we're not excused for not believing God. It's because God
is good and holy and merciful to save a bunch of polluted,
dead sinners, just because He's merciful to get some out and
call them out from the pollution we're in, all of us, the whole
lump, just because He's merciful to do that. doesn't give the
ones He leaves alone an excuse for not believing on Him. Responsibility does not mean
you have ability. We died in Adam, and all our
ability left us in Adam, so that we are without excuse, completely
without excuse. But if we do call on Him, if
we do rejoice in Him, it's all to God's glory, not to ours at
all, not to anything in us at all. Here's the answer God gives
to this question. Verse 20, Nay, but, O man, who
art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say
to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Why would a man ask this question?
Well then if salvation is according to God's sovereignty and God's
grace and God's going to get all the glory in it, then how
can he find fault with me for not believing? You know why a
man would ask that question? A man don't know what he is.
Don't know what he is. We're nothing. Less than nothing. We don't understand,
really, the magnitude and the awful, just malignant, wretched
thing that sin is. We don't understand it. We just
don't understand it. We're born into this world in
our hearts Let's see, if anybody here saw one of these
young people kick their father right in the face, it'd just turn your stomach,
wouldn't it? You'd just think, ugh, how wretched
a thing that is. We're born with a heart kicking,
God. I don't know how to describe
sin as bad as it is. And yet we have the arrogancy
in it when we behold this goodness of God to call Him evil. That's not right for God to save
some and pass by others. What, what a, what a maggot of
a man, what a stinking wretch for a man to think that thought. This is God's righteousness and
a man's gonna say God's unjust to save? Oh, well he can't far fall with
me then if he doesn't What a hard-hearted, hell-deserving, ungodly rich we are, if we think
that. This is the wisdom of God. What an arrogant, ignorant, just
ignorant Did you look down your noses on poor, ignorant, just
backwood, ignorant folks? Do you look down your noses at
them? If we do, if we do, if we think
this right here, anything contrary to this word of God, You pick
out the most base, simple individual on the face of this planet, and
you're infinitely more ignorant than they are. And so ignorant that we'll stand
before God who is standing looking each of us face to face right
here. and think that because we're
not standing up right now and speaking it out with our mouth
and saying, I don't believe any of that! We're thinking it because
we're thinking it in our heart that God don't know it. And God
is sitting right in our face and we're arrogantly thinking,
well, if I believe that way, God can't, if that's the truth,
God can't find any fault with me. And we will ignorantly walk
up to the throne of God in the last day and say, what do you
mean I didn't do any righteousness? Don't you see everything I've
done? Look at everything I've done. See, this is what sin did
to us. Sin turned us so wretchedly upside
down and wretchedly so against God that we have no idea by nature
how ignorant and arrogant and just base sinners we are. We don't have any idea. And if He left us alone that
way, we'd stay that way. Stay that way. This is what He
said. Look here. Verse 21. Had not
the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. This is the Spirit we need. Father,
we're the clay. You're the potter. We're the work of your hand.
That's the spirit the believer has. The spirit the believer
has. When he says, when a believer
says, not unto us, not unto us. But God, You receive all the
glory and all the honor. It's not just something we're
saying to try to sound like So folks will say, boy, he really
is something. It's real. It's real. It's the heart. It's the heart. He sent Jeremiah down there to
the potter's house, and he said, you go down there and you watch
that potter. He went down there and watched him. He was turning
this vessel on a wheel. You know how a potter does. He's
sitting there turning this vessel, and the vessel was marred in
his hand. And the potter just took it off
of the potter's wheel, and he just threw it back in the clump
of mud. Reached in there with his hand
and pulled him out a new lump, out of that lump, and fashioned
it just like he wanted it. And God said, can I not do with
you as you just watched that potter do? Who's God? Who's God? Are we? Or is God? The fear of God is the beginning
of wisdom. This is the first thing we learn. God's God and
I'm not. This is the issue to all three
of those questions. All three of those objections.
Well, if I see a bunch of unbelievers, that tells me God's Word is not
effectual to save. When I look at Israel and I see
God tried everything He could do, you see, and just those that
believed were saved, but those that didn't believe, the reason
they perished was because they didn't believe. That's true.
That's what Romans 11 says. They perished because of unbelief.
God said, you be careful lest you think you stand. If you're
standing, you're standing by God-given faith and not by something
you came and mustered up in yourself. Be careful. That's what he said.
The objection to this question of, well, if God elects the people,
that's not right. The objection of, if God's sovereign
and it's by His electing grace, then how can He find fault with
me if I don't believe? The objection to all those, the
heart issue of every one of those questions. is man's heart's a
stone. It's a stone. God saves. God saves whom He
will. God saves by His grace. God saves
by His power, working in the heart of His people through the
Spirit. And God will have all eyes of everyone He saves on
His Son, who put away completely, totally the sin of His people
by the sacrifice of Himself. And men can object all they want
to, but men are wanting the glory that belongs to God, wanting
the glory that belongs to His Son. This is what He said, verse 30.
We'll end with this. Verse 30. What shall we say then?
Now when you see this picture of the Gentiles, understand,
this is a picture of every man by nature. The Gentiles didn't
even have the Word of God. The Gentiles weren't seeking
God. They weren't making even any pretenses of seeking the
God of Israel. Not at all. And anybody that's
truly saved by God's grace, they're going to be saved just like the
Gentiles were. Exactly like they were. What shall we say then,
that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of
faith? But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law. You see, what
I've been telling you today is, is the salvation of faith. Not
the salvation of words, it's the salvation of faith. Why didn't they, why didn't Israel,
when you saw Israel, when God, Christ came to this earth, when
you saw Israel, didn't they, weren't they saying, wouldn't
they, they thought Christ tooth and nail right up to the point
of crucifying Him, that they believed God. but God's standing right in their
face, telling them the truth. And they said, don't speak to
us, we believe God. Don't tell us anything, we believe
God, they said. Why? They stumbled at that stumbling
stone. What's that stumbling stone?
Salvation's entirely accomplished by God and His Son. That's a
stumbling stone. I heard a man say to me recently,
God finishing the works before the foundation of the world,
that's a slippery slope. Is it a slippery slope or is
it a stumbling stone? Not a slippery slope to God's
people. It's a rock of salvation to God's people. It's a stumbling
stone to a man that wants to say, well, now I'm going to have
a little bit of a say in this. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense." Why would
anybody be offended at Christ? Because salvation is entirely
of Him. Only those that don't want salvation to be entirely
of Him can find offense with Him. Whosoever believeth on Him, they
won't be ashamed. I guarantee you, you sitting
here right now that rejoicing this gospel, you're not ashamed
of any of this doctrine that's been declared to you. You're
not ashamed of it. Anybody ask me, I'm sitting here
telling you. It's going to go out to the world.
I'm not ashamed of it. Oh, you shouldn't say that out
loud. Why shouldn't I? It's the glory of God. I was
ashamed of it before I knew Him, before He called me by His grace.
I was, but I'm not now. I'm not now, and you aren't either.
I've been called by Him. I'm not confused about it. Why? Because He's called you. He's
teaching His people. And that's salvation, brethren,
for all of Him. Amen.