Turn with me to the gospel of
John chapter 10. To those of you that were here
in the first hour, we spoke from this text, John chapter 10. Look at verse 15. As the father knoweth me, even
so know I the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. For whom did Christ die? The
sheep. Is everybody a sheep? Look at
verse 24. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, how long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told
you and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not. because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Now obviously not everybody
is a sheep. If they were, they would believe
the gospel, and not everyone believes the gospel, but the
sheep do. The Lord said in verse 26, you
believe not because. This is why you're not of my
sheep. Who are the sheep? Well, here
are some of their characteristics. Again, verse 27. My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. They hear, they
know, and they follow. Verse 28, and I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. They are the ones that are given
eternal life and cannot be lost. He said, my father, which gave
them me is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. Who are the sheep of God? Well,
they are those that God gave to Christ. And they are those
who God gave Christ to. He said, my Father which gave
them me. Who are the sheep? Verse 27,
they know the shepherd's voice. Have you heard his voice? Do
you know his voice? And the shepherd knows them.
Well, doesn't he know everyone, you might ask? Not in the sense
that he knows the sheep. In the end, he tells all those
workers of iniquity to depart from him. Do you remember the
reason why? I never knew you, he said. Salvation is not only
us knowing the Lord, friends. Salvation is also about the Lord
knowing you. And I understand, I know that
our gospel is a divisive message. In Matthew chapter 10 verse 34,
the Lord said, think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I came to set a
man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. Yes, the gospel
is a divisive message, not among God's people. But among believers
and unbelievers, among the church and the world's religion, there
was a division. The scripture says time and time
again, there was a division because of him. Now listen closely. The belief that says that God
loves all men and women that have ever lived without exception,
that God willed the salvation of all men and women without
exception, that Christ died for all men and women without exception
and that the Spirit calls all men and women without exception
is a doctrine called universal redemption. And it's not so. Not according to the Scriptures.
It's not so. The teaching that God wills the salvation of all
men and women the same. Judas the same as Peter, Esau
the same as Jacob, the goats the same as the sheep is not
true. The Bible is very, very clear
on the matter. Of Judas Christ said, but woe
to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. Good were it
if that man had never been born. Then to Peter Christ said, Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath revealed
these things unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And
I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it, and I'll give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Now does that sound like the
same love? Does that sound as if the Lord
willed and purposed the same thing for both men? Turn with
me to Romans chapter 9. You probably knew I was heading
there. Romans chapter 9. Now God said in verse 13 concerning
two twin boys. He said, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now, let me ask you a question. Why did God love one and hate
the other? Verse 18, shines a lot of light
on it. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Surely
God, being the loving God that he is, must have looked ahead
in time and saw who would have believed, who would have done
good, and he'd love them based upon that. No, no, that's not
right. Look at verse 11. For the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil that the
purpose of God, The purpose of God. God is a God of purpose. According to election might stand. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. Now listen, God didn't love Jacob
because he had done any good. And God didn't hate Esau because
he had done any evil. God simply chose to love one
and not the other. God simply chose to hate one
when he should have hated them both. Look at verse 14. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is God wrong in doing this? Let me ask you another question.
Does God have the right to do what he will with his own? Does
God have the right to have mercy on one and simply leave another
one to themselves? You better believe He does. Now
if God loves all men the same, if God loved Judas as well as
Peter, Esau as well as Jacob, if Christ died and shed His blood
for the whole world, And the Holy Spirit calls every sinner
to repentance, but no one will be saved unless they surrender
their will and allow God to save them. According to that view,
man's will is the sovereign deciding factor in salvation, if that's
true. According to that way of thinking
and believing, God can love you, and He can will, He can purpose
your salvation, and Christ can actually pay your sin debt, and
the Holy Spirit can actually and effectually call you, and
you can still be lost if you don't do your part. I'm telling
you, if that's the case, if that's so, then the love and the will
of God The blood of Christ and the Spirit's call have no power
and no effectiveness and mean absolutely nothing in the matter
of salvation. Only man's free will and his
cooperation with God saves him. And I'm telling you, it's nothing
but an attempt by man to be his own God and be in control of
his own destiny. The gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scripture. How that Christ
did it. You answer the question of how
Christ died for our sins and you do so according to the scriptures,
then you've preached the gospel. You've preached good news. Now
you tell an interested sinner how God saved sinners and you've
given them hope of being reconciled to God. which is the hope of
eternal salvation. So let me ask you three questions.
Does God universally, without exception, love and will that
every man and woman ever born to be saved? Did Christ die on
the cross, shed his precious blood to put away all the sin
of every man and woman that has ever lived? Is the Holy Spirit
pleading and begging for sinners without exception to give their
hearts to Jesus and let God have His way? The answer to all three
of those questions is no. No. The scriptures say that God
hates all workers of iniquity. All that do unrighteously are
an abomination unto the Lord thy God, Deuteronomy 25, 6. And
if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
maranatha, which means accursed, the Lord cometh. First Peter
3.12 says, for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and
his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. And these things concerning God
are according to the scriptures. Now I know that God did not will
the salvation of Judas. You know how I know? Because
from the beginning, Judas was called the son of perdition.
That word perdition means ruin. It means loss. It means destruction. And I know that Christ didn't
die for goats. Because right here in John chapter
10 in our text, verse 15, he said, I laid down my life for
the sheep. Very specific, very distinguishing.
I know that God doesn't intend to turn goats into sheep and
save them. For those that are lost sheep,
Christ must bring into his fold for him to shepherd, according
to verse 16. All God's spiritual sheep will
be saved and the goats will be lost. Let me read a verse. Well,
matter of fact, we're close. Turn here with me. Matthew chapter
25. Look at Matthew chapter 25. Verse 32. And before him, before
God, shall be gathered all nations, speaking of the day of judgment,
and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided
his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
the right hand, but the goats on the left. And then shall the
king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Then shall he say also unto them
on the left hand, speaking of the goats, depart from me, ye
cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels. Now I know, The God, the Holy
Spirit does not call everyone because the scriptures are very
clear that God saves only those which are called. So if God called
everyone, then everyone would be saved. And if God loves everybody
and wills everybody to be saved, if Christ shed his blood and
died for everyone, and if the Holy Spirit calls everyone, and
there can still be one lost out of that number, then God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are nothing more than
complete failures. Now that's just how serious this
matter is. If men and women's salvation
is dependent upon their will to accept God, then man is God. And he's the author and finisher
of his own salvation. But that's not what the scriptures
teach. Christ is said to be Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end, the first and the last. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. Salvation is of the Lord. It's Christ, the beginning and
the end, who gives unto them that are a thirst the fountain
of the water of life freely. Now, the way preachers are telling
men and women today is a false way. And I'm not trying to be
ugly. I don't think that I'm better
than anyone else. I believed this way myself for
years. And I'm telling you, this is
often the case. When a man believes that he exercised
his will, that he made a choice, that he chose God, he can walk
an aisle, he can say a prayer, and he can get in the water and
be baptized, and it won't be long, he'll be trusting in his
will and his decision instead of Christ. That's just how we
are by nature. But when I see that God, who's
sovereign, who can do what He will with His own, when I see
that He had mercy on me, when He could have just left me to
myself, He wouldn't have been any less God if He'd have done
so. He just left me to myself. I would have gotten exactly what
I deserved. But that's what mercy is. God
not giving me what I deserve. And I'm telling you, God's shown
me what I am. I know that apart from the mercy
and grace of God, prone to one. If salvation is dependent on
my will, my way, my worth, and my work, then I will not and
cannot be saved because according to the scriptures, the sacrifice
that must be offered to God must be perfect. That's our dilemma. Must be perfect. I can never
provide the perfection that God requires and that's something
I can't nor could ever provide. Perfection. Can't do it. Must
be perfect to be accepted. Only a perfect man, now listen
to me, only a perfect man can appease the holy justice and
law of God. The Lord Jesus, he said, no man
can come to me. No man can. No man has the ability
to come to me except the father which had sent me draw him. That
simply means that we don't have the ability to come. Why? Because
according to the scriptures, we're dead in trespasses and
sins. A few verses later in verse 65
of John chapter 6 the Lord repeated pretty much the same thing. He
said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me
except it were given unto him. Now these words mean something.
Except it were given unto him of my Father. Who gives it? God
the Father. Salvation, mercy, grace, redemption,
faith. They're all a gift of God. No
man can come except. Here is the exception. Here is
the difference that God makes. And that's the giving of the
gift of life and the ability to come. Is a man saved when
he comes? Well, I'd say the man's given
life before he comes because a dead man can't come. Our Lord
said in the fifth chapter, John, verse 40, and you will not come
to me that you might have life. You will not come. Your will
is not to come. A dead man has no will. Yet the
exception to the rule, the difference that God makes is that he freely
gives us a will and a willingness to come to him for life. Christ
told the religious of his day, he said, search the scriptures,
for in them you think. You have eternal life. There's
a lot of folks memorizing scripture, students of the scripture, who
in the scriptures think, think that they have eternal life.
But Christ said you don't because they are they which testify of
me. Only in Christ are we given the
free gift of life and the ability to come. Only in Christ are we
given life and the willingness to come. In other words, life
is only given in Christ. He said, I am the way, I am the
truth, and I am the life. And then he said this, no man,
no woman, no sinner, nobody cometh to the Father but by me. Is there anything about that
that you and I don't understand? You know, if I'm the only man
on earth that has a car and you need to get somewhere and you
can't walk, you're crippled and lame, and I can't carry you because
I'm crippled and lame, then the only way you're going to get
there, the only way you're going to get to where you need to go
is by me. How much more so? Is that true
concerning getting to God? Lame. Crippled. Dead. You can't come. You're not willing to come. But
Christ is the life. He's the way. He's the truth.
And you can get there by Him. Now men will say, I love Jesus
and I chose to give Him my heart. According to the Scriptures,
that's not so. A lot of folks have lied to themselves. Why
do I say that? Because this book is clear on
the matter. John said we love Him because
He first loved us. That's the only reason we love
Him, because He first loved us. The Lord said, you've not chosen
Me, but I have chosen you. We only choose Him because He
first chose us. He fulfilled the holy law of
God for us. That's how Christ died, according
to the Scriptures, for His people's sin. He fulfilled the holy law
of God for us. We couldn't keep it. We couldn't
keep it. He satisfied the holy justice
of God in their room and in their stead. He was made to be sin
for them. That they might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. It's the only way God can remain
just and justify sinners, and that's in Christ. Christ has
died the just, or as the just one. For who? The unjust. That's me and you. Why did he
do that? The scripture says to bring us
to God. If you're going to be saved, if you're going to be
brought to God, Christ is going to have to bring you. He's the
only way. How is the lost sheep brought
into the fold? On the shoulders of the Good
Shepherd. Not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to His mercy He saved us. Do you hear that? Oh, that God
would give you ears to hear that. Not by works of righteousness
that we've done. Our righteousness is filthy rags,
according to this book. But according to His mercy He
saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Teresa and I have a mutual friend
that we both have known close to 50 years. Providentially,
this week he stopped by our house. And as it always seems to, the
subject of religion came up. And this fella, he's never heard
the gospel preached. I know him well. Never attended
church. But these were his words concerning
salvation. He said, when the good Lord comes
back, I'm going to remind him that I'm a good man and I've
done a lot of good things. And you know what? He has. He's done some good things. But
we nor our works will ever be good enough to appease God. Why? Because they got to be perfect
to be accepted. I don't want to make light of
the good that men do. I'm thankful for it. But I know
this, I can't put any trust in what I do because it's never
good enough. Never good enough. According
to the scriptures, Isaiah 1 verse 6, from the sole of the foot
even into the head, there's no soundness in it but wounds and
bruises and putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. According to the scriptures,
there is none that doeth good, no not one, According to the
Scriptures, it is written, none, there's none righteous, no not
one. Paul wrote, I speak to your shame,
it is so that there's not a wise man among you, no not one. Jesus
Christ, who of God, is made unto us. Now listen, this is our only
hope. He's made unto us wisdom. He's
made unto us righteousness, perfect righteousness. He's made unto
us sanctification. and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now
that's why we're here this morning, to praise and worship God for
the great things that He's done. When we talk about salvation
by works, we mean just that. But there's no work that we can
do that's good enough for us to save ourselves. If God requires
perfection, then perfection is what we must provide. I know
we ought to strive to be good. We ought to endeavor to treat
people kindly. We ought to be compassionate
and generous to others. We ought to help the unfortunate. We ought to give to the poor.
But the minute we start trusting in any of these things in order
to recommend us to God or to look to these things as a way
for God to commend us or reward us with His favor, then we've
completely missed the truth and the means of salvation. If salvation
is dependent on something I must do in order to be saved, then
I'm just telling you straight up, I'll never be saved. Because
I can do nothing that's acceptable to God because it falls way,
way short of perfection. As a matter of fact, if salvation
is at all dependent on me, that's just a burden I can't bear. I
can't bear that burden. If Christ can pay for my sins
to forever put them away, and if I am still accountable in
any way whatsoever to exercise my will to make Christ's death
effectual, then God is not just. God would punish His beloved
perfect Son and then still require something from me, then He's
not a just God. If God purposed before the foundation
of the world to save a sinner and conform them to Christ His
Son and then change His mind because the sinner which He purposed
to save didn't lend God His will, then God is nothing but a helpless
beggar dependent completely upon mankind to let Him save them.
Now, seriously, as I know how, I want to ask you a question.
Do you believe that this book, the Bible, is the inspired and
infallible Word of God? Because if you don't, then you
won't believe a thing that I tell you. But if God has shown you
that this is His Word, and that it's the final authority in the
matter, then you've got to see that when I'm telling you so,
I rest the eternity of my soul on the fact that this book is
the Word of God. And I believe wholeheartedly that it shows
us the only way that we can be saved and reconciled to God.
Let me wrap this up by once again turning you to Ephesians chapter
1. Please turn here with me. I want you to look at this. Ephesians
chapter 1. Look at verse 4. As He, that's speaking of God,
hath chosen us in Him, Christ. When did He do this choosing?
Before the foundation of the world. Why did He do this choosing? That we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. Having predestinated, we know
what that word means, predetermined, determined before it was done,
God predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to Himself. And He did this according to
the good pleasure of His will. Now most of you probably know
by now that I was adopted. My parents made arrangements
to adopt me before I was ever born. I had no say in the matter
whatsoever. I wasn't born yet. No say in
the matter whatsoever. My parents were not able to look
ahead in time to see if David was going to be a good boy or
an evil son. They just loved me. For no reason
outside of themselves, they wanted me to be their own. In other
words, before I was born, before I had done any good or evil,
the purpose of my parents choosing me was according to their desire
to have a child It was simply Leo and Sally Edmondson's choice
and the woman who birthed me, but it was according to the good
pleasure of their will. How much more so is that true
with God? He predetermined, He predestinated this adoption. And He did so according to what? The good pleasure of His will.
So we see in verse 6 that this is to the praise of the glory
of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.
And Christ is God's Beloved. We are accepted in Him. Verse
7, in whom? In who? Christ. We have redemption. How do we have redemption? Through
His blood. the forgiveness of sins, and
it's according to the riches of His grace." Now, if God saved
you, it's not because you were lucky. And God didn't save you
by accident. God saved you on purpose, and
it was according to the riches of His grace. That's what God
says. Doesn't the Spirit of God bear
witness with your spirit that these things are so? Is the love
of God meaningless? A parent has a small child and
they're riding their bike out in the street. And the parent
sees a car coming right for the child. And the parent hollers
out to the child, I love you, but I'm not going to violate
your free will. If that parent makes no effort
to save the child and keep the child from harm, leaving the
child well-being in the child's hand, I'm asking you, what kind
of love is that? What kind of love would that
be? Paul said, Christ loved me and He gave Himself for me. If
one of my children were out in the street and they were about
to be hit by a car, I tell you, if I can get to them, I'm going
to be hit by the car, but not them. If Christ didn't love me
and give Himself for me, I'd still be lost. When the Scriptures
say, nothing, nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ, And yet if a believer can still be separated by their
unwillingness to exercise their will, then the love of Christ
means nothing. But that's not the case. God
makes the unwilling sinner willing with his own power. God shows
the sinner their need. God shows them the way. God reveals
to them the truth. God shows them that eternal life
is in Christ alone and therefore nothing shall or can separate
us from the love of God because where is it? It's in Christ.
And they are persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, or any other creature shall be
able to separate them from the love of God. Where is it? Which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now let me ask you two very good
thought-provoking questions in closing. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? None. There is none. Paul tells
us why, for it's God that justifies. If God says, I'm justified, I'm
justified. Second question, who shall condemn
the chosen sinner that's found in Christ? Huh? Who's gonna condemn
you if you're in Christ? There's none that can. It's Christ
that died and is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, making intercession for us. Such is our union with Christ. Oh, I love to think about that.
Me and Him being one. When the Father looks at me,
He doesn't see the rotten, depraved wretch that I am. He sees His
beloved Son. That is how marvelous our union
with Christ is. For it's in Him that we live
and move and have our being. Isn't that right? The child of
God can now say, I'm unblameable. Boy, that don't even sound right
coming out of my mouth. I'm unblameable. I'm unreprovable. I'm above blame. I'm above reproof.
Why? Because I'm in Christ. I'm one
with the one who is truly, wholly, just, and perfectly righteous. Now, that's the best news I ever
heard. Oh, may God make it so to every
heart.