I want to ask you to turn to
the book of Exodus, chapter five, please. Exodus, chapter five. All through God's holy word,
from cover to cover, he portrays himself as a sovereign God, working
all things after the counsel of his own will. He tells us
in his word that all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing
and that he, God, does according to his will an army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? This religious generation
that has manufactured a god of their own imagination doesn't
know God or his gospel and does not know Jesus Christ and their
Jesus that they worship doesn't even remotely resemble the Christ
of Holy Scripture. And I know that. And if you're
enlightened by God, the Holy Spirit, you know that too. This
wonderful relationship we have with the Lord Jesus gives us
a heart to worship Him in spirit and in truth under the preaching
of that one true gospel that points to Jesus Christ, who He
is, what He has done, where He is now, and what He's doing right
now. And we delight in those truths. We delight in them. And that's exactly what I want
to preach to you this morning. Our sovereign God, who has purposed
everything. Now Israel is in bondage to Egypt
at this time from the scripture I'm going to read to you this
morning. And this did not happen by chance. This was purposed
by God. He told Abraham hundreds of years
before Israel went down into Egypt what he was going to do.
When Joseph was sold by his evil brothers, A little band of ungodly,
sinful people bought him, took him down into Egypt and sold
him to Potiphar. They had wicked hands, his brothers. But when they stood before Joseph
and everything that happened to bring them before Joseph,
the seven years of plenty that God brought upon the land and
the seven years of famine that God brought upon the land, That
was purposed by God to get his people down into Egypt. Joseph was prime minister over
all of Egypt, and his brothers didn't know him. But when he
revealed himself to them, he said this to them, it was evil
on your part. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. So it was purposed by God. And
Joseph left strict instructions Knowing that Israel was going
to be delivered from Egyptian bondage, he left strict instructions
for them not to leave his bones down in Egypt, but to take them
with him. And so this is all purpose. At
this time, that little hand of believers, which amounted to
a little over 70 people, have grown to millions. And God has
sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his people go. And I want
you to see the response of Pharaoh when Moses stood before him.
Verses one and two of chapter five of Exodus reads this way.
And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go that they may
hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." And here's Pharaoh's response.
Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice
to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. And he told the truth. He didn't
know the Lord. He knows him now. And he knows
that God is on the throne and has always been on the throne.
But what I want to share with you is the response from Pharaoh
is exactly what God determined to be told, what He would say. Over in chapter 4 of Exodus verse
21, the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into
Egypt, see that thou do all these wonders before Pharaoh which
I have put in thine hand, but I will harden his heart that
he shall not let the people go." Now this modern religious generation
does not like to hear about a God who does this, but I'm telling
you the truth. This situation that we're reading
about, and every situation we read about in the Word of God,
was ordained and purposed by God for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Now, I want to prove this. I want you to go over to Romans
chapter nine, and I know you know this scripture well, but
I want to read it in your hearing that we might understand the
truth concerning God on His sovereign throne of power for the glory
of Christ and His ordained, redeemed people. God's glory is the salvation
of His elect. He tells us that in His Word. He told Moses that. Moses said,
show me your glory. Our Lord said, this is my glory. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So forgiveness of sins is for
Christ's sake, for His glory. God's sovereign grace and His
sovereign mercy bestowed upon a hell-deserving sinners is for
Christ's sake, for His glory. Jesus Christ by Himself purged
our sins. He established a perfect righteousness
for us by His perfect obedience before God the Father. And then
He went to that cruel cross knowing what was before Him, knowing
He was going to be made sin, but He knew He had to do that.
in order for us to be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And he never turned away from what God had purposed for him.
Not one bit did he turn away. He knew what was before him,
and he set his face like a flint, and he went there knowing that
when he finished what God had sent him to do, he would be redeeming
all of his promised children and nothing, absolutely nothing,
could be added to what he did or taken away from what he did.
So this wonderful salvation we have is according to God's covenant
mercies. Brethren, we serve a covenant
God. And that covenant God established this perfect covenant before
a star ever twinkled in the sky. A covenant between God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, which is one God. This
covenant was made. Our Father promised a people
to His Son, conditional upon what Jesus Christ would do when
He came to this earth. And He, the Lord Jesus, met all
the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace. And now the
Holy Spirit comes to us under the preaching of this glorious
gospel, enlightening His chosen blood-bought people at the appointed
time of God's love for them. Do you believe Christ? Is your
faith in Christ and only in Christ? Then the Holy Spirit visited
you under the preaching of His glorious gospel, and with one
syllable word said unto you, Live! Life comes from God. He alone can give life. And every Every miracle that our Lord Jesus
performed while he was here on this earth points to what he
does to his enlightened children when he brings us out of darkness.
Brother Paul Mahan wrote an article, and David put it in last week's
bulletin. I want to read it in your hearing. It's just a little
short article written by Paul Mahan. And he said, and I quote,
the Lord Jesus Christ performed many miracles while upon this
earth. He cast out devils, healed lepers,
gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf. He raised the dead. While these miracles certainly
proved Him to be the Christ, they are also illustrations of
how the Lord saves sinners. Every sinner the Lord saves is
all these things. possessed by a devil, a sinful
leper, deaf, dumb, blind, and dead in sin. Salvation is a miracle
of God's sovereign grace and power. Nothing more or less can
save a sinner but the power of Christ, the word, the truth,
and the gospel. May the Lord be pleased to perform
a miracle today. And that's so true. We were dead
in trespasses and sins, We were blind to spiritual truths, deaf
to spiritual truths. Nothing but sin covered us. It's
not just what we do, it's what we are. From the top of our head
to the bottom of our feet, we're just full of putrefying sores. No soundness in any of us. And
God came to us in the person of the Holy Spirit while we were
in that helpless, hopeless, depraved condition and raised us up out
of that spiritually dead condition and gave us life for the glory
of Christ our Savior. And it's talked about and worded
all through the scripture. And here in Romans chapter 9,
starting at verse 11, We read concerning two men, and it's
illustrated for us to understand God's electing grace, for the
children being not yet born, verse 11, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, But Esau hath I hated. Now that's God's
word, that's just as much God's word as John 3.16. God hates
as well as he loves. He loves a particular people
with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness he draws
us unto himself. But he hates all workers of iniquity. Our brother David brought that
out last Wednesday night going to the fifth psalm. And we know
that He does. But He never ever hated us. And
we were just as guilty as the rest of them. But He loves us
with an everlasting love. Does that bless you? Brethren,
it blesses me all the way from the top of my head to the bottom
of my feet to know that a hell-deserving sinner such as myself could be
loved of God. I understand God loving some
people, but to love me? I don't understand that, but
I'm thankful that He does. I'm thankful that He loves me
with that everlasting love and that He sent the Spirit of Christ
to come to me while I was in a helpless and hopeless condition
and draw me. by faith to the one who loved
me and gave himself for me. Read on. What shall we say then? The God-loving Jacob and hating
Esau, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid, for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. I read that again on purpose. People don't know that's in the
Bible, I guess. Because they still say, calling
God a liar, that it's their free will. It is not their free will.
The will is never free anyway. It's always bound by the nature.
And in our unregenerate state, we have Adam's fallen nature,
and there's no good in any of us. No good in any of us. We don't want God in our lives. We hate the light. We love the
darkness we're in. We won't come to the light. And
you know why? Our deeds are evil and we don't
want them reproved. But God tells us in His Word
that He has mercy on some. I'm telling you the truth. God
delights in mercy. He's a God of mercy. But He has
mercy on whom He will have mercy and compassion on whom He will
have compassion. That's His prerogative. He can
have mercy on whomever He will. God's on His throne in heaven.
He does what pleases Him. And if we're recipients of His
sovereign grace and His sovereign mercy, It's God himself who's
had mercy on us and we contributed absolutely nothing to this mercy
God bestows upon us. Read on. For the scripture saith
unto Pharaoh, now this is where I brought you this morning in
Exodus chapter five. and told you that what was taking
place there was exactly what God had predetermined, 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. Get a handle on
that. This Pharaoh that was on the
throne when Moses and Aaron went before him, was mama's little
darling boy at one time. He was the light of his daddy's
eye, the delight of his grandpa and his grandma. He ran around
probably playing with a stick or a dog, just a little boy who
grew up to be Pharaoh over all of Egypt. And it was God himself
that raised him up for this very purpose. to destroy him. When I first read about Pharaoh
and the Egyptian army going through those two walls of water, I told
Judy, I wasn't AWOL. Something bigger than man had
to get me to go between those two walls of water. I wouldn't
have went. But something bigger than a man did, and that was
God. He raised up not just Pharaoh,
but the whole Egyptian army and everything that took place in
Egypt for this very purpose. That His power might be made
known throughout the whole earth and that His name might be declared. God's name. God's name is Jesus
Christ the Lord. Everything He does is for the
glory of Christ our Savior and He has purposed this very meeting
this morning for us to know this God that is clearly spoken of
in the Holy Scriptures. Read on. Therefore, verse 18, therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
I had that very question asked me years and years ago by a man
who's steeped and still steeped in Armenian free will religion.
And he worded it this way. Why will there be a day of judgment
if man doesn't have a will? Same question. You know how Paul
answers this? Look at the next verse. 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? Work clay in the divine potter's
hands. Clay. And he forms a vessel as
it pleases him. And we dare not question God. God does what pleases God. And
as enlightened children of the Most High God, we're to recognize
this. Nothing resists the will of God. You can resist the Spirit of
God that's in the preacher, but you can't resist the sovereign,
irresistible, drawing power of God the Holy Spirit at your appointed
time of love when He comes and delivers us from the power of
darkness and translates us into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
You can't resist Him. You can't. God is God. He's sovereign. We read in verse
21, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump
to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? 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, and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared unto
glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles." So God is on his throne. He's the divine potter. We're
clay in the divine potter's hands, and he forms a vessel as it pleases
him. Now, if Christ dwells in you,
you'll delight in that. If he doesn't, you'll shake your
fist to the face of God and say, that's not fair. And that's what
these religious people today are saying. We're not talking
about what's fair. We're talking about what the
Word of God says. And this is what the Word of
God says. He's on His throne. He's the divine potter. He forms
a clay as it pleases Him. And when He forms us as a vessel
of honor and delivers us from darkness, He humbles us before
a thrice holy God and gives us the spirit to bow before Him
in humble adoration, recognizing and acknowledging that He's on
His sovereign throne of power and He does what pleases Him. Let me take you over to Luke
chapter 19. God has a particular people that
He suffered and bled and died for. and he calls him out of
darkness at his appointed time of love for them. Now, Lazarus
was dead physically when our Lord called him out of the grave.
And there were many dead people in that cemetery, but our Lord
called Lazarus by name. Lazarus, come forth. There were
many impotent men at the pool of Bethesda, but our Lord had
His eye on a certain impotent man, and He healed him. There was a lady at the well
that our Lord went to, and it says He must needs go through
Samaria. She was going to hear the voice
of Christ, her Savior, and through her, she brought many others
to hear the voice of Jesus Christ, and we must hear His voice. The voice of the preacher is
important. God has ordained the preaching
of the gospel as the instrument he uses to call his people out
of darkness. But we must hear the voice of
Jesus Christ. And he tells us in John chapter
10, after he told some unbelieving Jews that they were not his sheep,
he tells us, my sheep hear my voice. and I know them, and they
follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them is
greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one, so we must hear His
voice. God's ordained preachers delight
in preaching nothing but the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. But if you just hear the voice
of the preacher, you'll go away from this church building shaking
your head with nothing to profit you as far as eternity is concerned. But if you hear the voice of
Jesus Christ, will you hear me? Listen to me. If you hear the
voice of Jesus Christ, you have it all. All, all the blessings
of God are in Christ and are ours. We read that in the first
chapter of Ephesians. Everything that we need to take
us from that awful pit we were in to eternal glory with Christ
our Savior is found in Christ and only in Christ. He redeemed
us. He purchased us. He by Himself
purged our sins. He obtained eternal redemption
by the supreme sacrifice of Himself. He not only sanctified His people,
making them holy, He perfected us forever. And all of these
truths are found in the Scriptures. But the unbelieving, self-righteous
religious people of this day and of every generation since,
Adam and Phil have conjured up a God of their own imagination.
They want a God they can manipulate, a God they can control. And like
Pharaoh, they're doing just exactly what God has purposed. Here in
Luke chapter 19, we have the account of a man by the name of Zacchaeus. who sees the Lord Jesus Christ
and hears his voice and is called out of darkness, a particular
man. Now, Jesus Christ is a stranger
to Zacchaeus, but Zacchaeus is no stranger to Jesus Christ.
His name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation
of the world. And Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus. And he's a little man, he's not
very tall, and there's a crowd around our Lord. And so he climbs
up a sycamore tree so he can look down and see the Lord Jesus. And the reason he wants to do
that is so he can brag to his friends and tell them that he's
seen this man called Jesus. And we have people like that
today. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to see somebody
who you're a fan of, But when that gets in the way of coming
to Christ and worshiping Him on the day that's ordained for
His glory, brethren, Christ is not having the preeminence and
all that. I'll tell you the truth. If somebody told me that Elvis
Presley is alive and it's been proven that he's alive and he's
right across the street and we can go over there and see him.
If that interferes with me seeing Christ under the preaching of
his gospel and hearing the voice of Jesus Christ under the preaching
of his gospel, I could care less if Elvis Presley's alive. I'm
telling you the truth. I want to see Christ as the pastor
brings the message before us. I want to see Him raising Lazarus. I want to see Him healing that
impotent man at the Pool of Bethesda. I want to see Him healing the
lepers, giving sight to the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf.
I want to hear about how He did that, and why He did that, and
where He is now, and what He's doing now. I want to see Jesus
Christ, don't you? I want to see Him. Every time
I assemble with God's people, I want to see Jesus Christ. I
want to hear about Him. I want to know Him better. And
I'm not going to know Him better if I don't come under the preaching
of His gospel on a regular basis. Now, Zacchaeus is one of God's
elect. Starting at verse 1 of Luke 19
we read, And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold,
there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the
publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, who
he was, and could not for the press, because he was little
of stature. And he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore
tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus
came to the place, I have to stop. I have to stop
for a moment. This was all purposed by our
Lord Jesus. Zacchaeus was right where our
Lord wanted him to be. And he knew that Zacchaeus was
gonna be up in that sycamore tree. And he knew he was wanting
to see Jesus, but Zacchaeus had no idea. that he was going to
see him in a way that would bring him out of darkness into the
marvelous light of Christ. When Jesus came to the place
he stopped. He stopped. One of his chosen
blood-bought children was up in that sycamore tree, and it
was the time of love appointed for him. And our Lord looked
up and saw him, now catch this, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, Now, they have not been formally
introduced. And you might read this and just
miss this. But our Lord knows Him. And like
I said earlier, He wrote His name in the Lamb's Book of Life.
So He calls Him by name. He says, Zacchaeus. And we read
in the 10th chapter of John that our Lord Jesus calls all of His
sheep by name. My mama named me after Gene Autry,
but That was no accident. God moved in her heart to name
me after Gene Autry. My name was written in the Lamb's
Book of Life by God Himself. And when our Lord comes to us
in the person of the Holy Spirit, He calls us by name, draws us
unto Himself, giving us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ according to the Scripture. So He said, Zacchaeus, Make haste
and come down. Now catch this, for today I must
abide at thy house." Now our Savior came to do His Father's
will, and He was doing His Father's will. And this was the Father's
will, that this appointed time and place and appointed love
of God for Zacchaeus was ordained for the glory of Christ our Savior,
and He came down. And when our Lord calls us to
Himself, we come down off of that pedestal that we're on,
and we all have such a high opinion of ourselves, we think we're
something, until God humbles us and shows us that we're nothing,
and that without Christ we can't do anything. So, Zacchaeus comes
down. He says, Zacchaeus, make haste and come
down, for today I must abide at thy house. And he, Zacchaeus
made haste and came down and received him joyfully. That's
a picture of us. When God knocks us off our pedestal,
and we come down before Him on our face before God, acknowledging
that we deserve nothing but His eternal wrath, He makes us joyful
in the day of His power, and we make haste, and nothing can
keep a hell-deserving sinner who's enlightened by God the
Holy Spirit from coming to Christ and bowing before Him, thanking
Him for saving our souls. When they saw it, these people
around, they all murmured, saying that he was going to be a guest,
that our Lord Jesus Christ was going to be a guest with a man
that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood and said
unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to
the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false
accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, this
day of salvation come to this house for as much as he also
is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost. Zacchaeus was a promised
child of God. The Lord's not referring to Abraham's
biological seed. If you be Christ Then our Abraham
seed and heirs according to the promise. And Zacchaeus was a
changed man. He was ready to give back everything
that he took by false accusation. He was a changed man. He wanted
to please the Lord Jesus. And this is the new heart that
God gives us. And we were promised To God the
Son by God the Father we read this in Galatians plainly in
chapter 4 that we as Isaac was our children of promise and God
gives us this understanding that mercy has been bestowed upon
us because of that promise that was made from God the Father
to God the Son before the world was ever created. So we're children
of promise coming to Him by faith for the glory of Christ our Savior. And I've got to hurry. I want
to take you, if you will, over to Philippians chapter two. Philippians
chapter two. I want you to see this. We're
talking about Pharaoh's words Who is the Lord that I should
obey His voice? And I ask you this morning, who
is Christ to you that you should obey His voice? On the authority
of God's Word, I want to tell you who Christ is. He's Jehovah
God. He's our Creator. He spoke everything
into existence by the word of His mouth, and everything obeyed
Him by the word of His mouth. He is the one who came to this
sin-cursed earth, and took upon Himself the sins of His people. When He hung there on that cross,
This is so important, please don't miss this. When He hung
there on that cross, God the Father poured out His wrath on
His only begotten Son. We have already been found guilty
in Christ, and already punished in Christ, and already forgiven
in Christ, because He, the Lord Jesus, is our substitute who
took our hell for us. God poured out His wrath on Christ,
and when He did, He poured out His wrath on all those who were
in Christ. We've already been punished.
Let me say that again. We've already been punished.
And God is a just God. He cannot demand payment twice.
First at my Savior's hand, and then at mine. He can't. We've
already been punished. And God looks upon us now with
love and compassion, seeing no sin in us. Do you believe that? He doesn't see anything. He has
removed our sins as far as the east is from the west and remembers
them against us no more. No more. Jesus Christ paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Brethren,
the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed his people from all
sin. That blood was shed at Calvary
2,000 years ago. And when God saw that blood,
he saw his people redeemed by that blood. And so he passes
over us now for Christ's sake. And here in Philippians chapter
two, we read that Jesus Christ being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, that's in verse 6. In verse
7 of Philippians 2 we read, but made himself of no reputation,
this is speaking of Christ our Savior, but made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant that was
made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. And this is what I was saying
earlier. His obedience is our obedience. His righteousness
is our righteousness. So he was obedient even to the
death of the cross, and then we read in verse nine, wherefore,
and we need to know why that word is there. It's referring
back to what we just read. Wherefore, because of this, because
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore
God also hath highly exalted Him. We're talking about Jesus
Christ who suffered and bled and died for us. Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is
above every name. Now listen to this, that at the
name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Of things in heaven and
things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. I'm telling you, Jesus Christ
is on His sovereign throne of power. There's an exalted, glorified
God-man on His throne in heaven, and He is working all things
after the counsel of His own will. And this is the will of
God the Father, that those who see Him, those who see Christ
in all of His glory, bow down to Him, acknowledging that He
is Lord of all, that everything is under His sovereign control.
Nothing happens to you by chance. Nothing happens to me by chance.
Whatever comes my way, God has ordained that for the glory of
Jesus Christ, and we as God's children should delight in knowing
that our sovereign Lord is on the throne working all these
things for our eternal good and for His glory. We read that.
We read that in the Scriptures, that all things work together
for our good, to those who are called according to God's purpose.
All things. Now, I'm through, but I want
to leave you with this. In Romans chapter 10, And I'm
going to turn there because I don't want to misquote this. In Romans
chapter 10, we read in verse 13, Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? According to that
verse right there, when we call upon the name of the Lord for
mercy, we already believe. And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? I've brought before you what
I believe, the gospel of God's amazing grace, as it is taught
in the Holy Scriptures. that worked clay in the divine
potter's hands and he's purposed all of this, all of it. Paul told Timothy that God has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. When he told him
something else before he'd said that, He said, don't be ashamed
of his gospel, nor of me, his prisoner. I'm not ashamed of
this gospel. I delight in this gospel. The
gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone who believes. Call upon the name of the Lord
and thou shalt be saved. And if you call on him, he has
already given you a heart to believe what I've just preached
before you this morning.