Good morning. If you will, you
can open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. Six days ago, we had a funeral
for my grandfather, Henry Mahan. And the buildup to that, and
the last few days since, were filled with a lot of things.
There were a lot of stories that were being told. There was a
lot of joy that was being had. There were a few tears that were
shed. But mostly through that time
period, there was a lot of reflection for me. I owe so much to him. When I had the opportunity and
the privilege to speak at his funeral, what I simply wanted
to get across was how caring and wonderful of a man he was
that was portrayed best in what he preached and the way he preached
it. And this morning, what I want to do is use some of his words. I'm gonna start with quoting
something that he said in a message. He said, talking about preachers,
God didn't send us to explain Christ or to bring him down to
man's understanding. We are to preach what he says
in his word, preach what he's declared in his word, just to
preach all the counsel of God. And my friends, and I love that,
because he said that all the time, and my friends, this has
been, and is, and I trust will always be my only concern, my
determination to tell men the truth about God, to compromise
nothing, to hold back nothing, to boldly declare the truth about
God, the truth about ourselves. Let's tell the truth about ourselves. Let's tell the truth about the
Lord Jesus Christ and the truth about salvation. It doesn't help
men or profit men to hold something back because we fear that they'll
not like it. We think that they may not receive
it. Paul said, if I'm the servant of men, then I can't be the servant
of God. I have no power to make men believe
what I preach or even to believe God. I can't make men do that.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm only a messenger sent to
preach a message and to declare the truth. This is really comforting
to me because when I stand up here, and I can say this for
all the men that preach here, we feel extremely inadequate
to do this job. And to read words of someone
that in the last week I've heard comments such as, the best preacher
I ever heard, the best preacher of his generation, the best preacher
of our time, the best preacher of our century. When I hear him
say things such as, I don't try to explain things. I don't try
to change it or bring it down to understanding. I just preach
it. That gives me unbelievable comfort because I can't do those
things. Now, in the week or two before,
I heard of a specific message that was brought up numerous
times. I believe Gabe said it here, but I kept hearing that
same message, and I thought, well, what better thing to talk
about than the message that everyone kept saying. The message originated
from a man, Rolf Barnard, who was the person who preached the
gospel to my grandfather for the first time. And it was at
a, I think it was a two-week revival in the early 50s. And
there were hundreds of people from out of town. I think they
said there were people from 31 different states at this. There
were a couple men who were teachers of young preachers, and they
brought all their students. And he got up and preached a
message that he titled, Six Stubborn Statements. And in saying that,
there were comments that were made about all the people that
were there. And a preface to this that I
heard my grandfather say was that, in this word and in religion,
there are a certain number of truths that you have to come
to in the road. And when you come to them, you
either deal with them, or you gotta turn around and run. So
the title of this message is Six Truths We Must All Face. The first of these is God Almighty
is sovereign, all powerful, almighty in all things, or he isn't, but
he can't be both. We hear preachers talking all
the time about God trying to save men. About saying, God is
trying to save you. They say, God wants to do this,
or God wants to do that. But men, but you, you just won't
let him do it. They say, God has a wonderful
plan for you. He's got a plan for your life,
but you won't let him accomplish it. They say, if you would just
give God a chance, give God an opportunity to save you. What
kind of God is that? That's a God that's impotent.
The words God, and impotence, they don't go together. A God
that's powerless? The word God and powerless just
don't fit. The word God actually means power. It means strength. It means sovereignty. God rules over all. He's almighty. What kind of God
is it that wants to do something and can't do it? What kind of
God is it that wills to do it but he can't get it done? What
kind of God has a wonderful plan that he wants to put in operation
and the very creatures that he created won't let him accomplish
that plan? That's not a God at all. That's
not even a little g God. And that's definitely not the
God of the Bible. And that's why you have to make
up your mind on this. When you come to God's sovereignty
and you come to that truth, you got to deal with it. You've either
got to realize that God is sovereign or you turn and run. That's your
only options. The God of the Bible is sovereign.
He is almighty. He is all powerful. He does what
he will, when he wills, with whom he wills, or he's not a
God at all. The scriptures tell us God is
sovereign. Now the meaning of the word sovereign
is in the word. It means reigns. God reigns and
He rules. Who did God take counsel of when
He created the world? God created all things by His
power for His glory and created all things as it pleased Him.
It didn't matter what anyone else wanted. It's what God pleased
himself. God is also sovereign in providence. We read, he worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's what he did. In heaven, in earth, in the seas,
in all the deep places. Our Lord says, not a sparrow
falls to the ground without your heavenly father. He says, I have
spoken, I will bring it to pass. I purposed it, I'll do it. Look
here in Isaiah 45 at verse five. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee though thou hast not known me. That they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Look at verse 12. I have made
the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands, have stretched
out the heavens, and all their hosts have I commanded. I have
raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city, and he
shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the
Lord of hosts. Look at verse 17. But Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Ye
shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith
the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth
and made it. He hath established it. He created
it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited.
I am the Lord and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret
in dark place of the earth. I said not under the seed of
Jacob seek ye me in vain. I the Lord speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
And then look at verse 22. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. God is sovereign in salvation. He quickeneth whom he will. He
lifts the beggar from the dunghill. And this same beggar, he washes
him in his blood. He seats him on the throne among
princes. He does those things. God told
Moses, I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful. And
I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious. God says, my arm
is not short that I cannot save. So let's reason together for
a minute. Let's think about this. Do you
really think, do you honestly think inside there's a sinner who an almighty,
sovereign, powerful God created? And that God wills to save, wants
to save, and he can't do it. Do you really think that such
a thing could even possibly exist? Our God was able to save Saul
of Tarsus, a man who spent his life going against the gospel,
going against this guy. He threw him off his horse, blinded
him, and made him to see the truth. God was able to save Abraham,
a 75-year-old man who lived in a pagan, idolatrous land, and
convinced him of who the Lord was. God is sovereign, God is
almighty, and he's ruling on the throne. And as my grandfather
used to say, we're gonna find that out someday, but why not
find it out now? Let God be God and every man
a liar. Now the second truth you gotta
face in the road, when you come to it, you're gonna see that
man is either dead in sin or he isn't. A story that Henry
told, he used to tell a lot of stories about the TV broadcast
and I remember them greatly because I remember going up with him
on, I think it was Monday nights, and I would sit at the TV news
anchor seat. So he was filming it over there
and they had that anchor where you always watched the 6 o'clock
news with him and I thought that was the greatest thing ever.
I could sit in that comfortable chair and watch. But he was Such an
effective preacher through that TV broadcast that he used to
get mail all the time from it. And one story he told was one
day he said over the TV broadcast with his finger pointed straight
ahead, he said, now we've got one thing in common, you and
I. I'm a sinner and you're a sinner. And he got a letter in the mail,
just a couple days later from a gentleman. who was mad. He
was upset. He wrote him and said, he said,
how dare you call me a sinner? Now, he was mad not because Henry
called himself a sinner. He was okay with that. That didn't
bother him. He was mad that he had the audacity to point into
that screen and tell him specifically that he was a sinner. Well, men
are sinners. They are fallen creatures in
Adam. They are dead in trespasses and sin, or they aren't dead
at all. Some preachers say, God has done all he can, now it's
up to you. What kind of talk is that? Up to you? Up to me? Up to a dead man to give himself
life? Up to a dead man to born himself
again? How are you gonna born yourself
into the kingdom of God? It's up to a dead man to hear,
a dead man to see, or a dead man to walk. What could you possibly
do as a dead man? Now, we're dead spiritually,
by nature, by birth. The scripture says, in Adam,
all died. And by one man, sin entered into
this world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. It says, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sin. Sinners must be quickened
from the dead. A sinner must be born of the
Spirit of God. We must be operated on by God's
almighty, powerful, mysterious Spirit. The Lord told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. To which Nicodemus replied and
said, how can I be born again? Do I have to enter into my mother's
womb again and be born? No, that which is born of flesh
is flesh. Being born again in that way
would have done him no good. He just would have sinned again
and be sinful from his mother. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. The spirit of God is sovereign.
He'll quicken whom he will. He'll call whom he will, he'll
make alive whom he will, but all of this must be a divine
operation. There has to be an effectual
call in which God Almighty gives life unto that dead sinner so
that that dead sinner can hear, so that they can see, so that
they would be able to walk, to believe in the gospel. The Lord
said, the hour cometh, and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and live. Now, that's not written to those
that are in the grave because two verses later it then says,
and the hour cometh when they that are in the grave shall also
hear the voice of the Son of God and live. So this line is
speaking of us because we're dead. The hour cometh and now
is when the dead, when us, when his children shall hear the voice
of the Son of God and live. You must deal with these two
things before you deal with anything else. The first two truths you've
got to come to in the road is that God is sovereign. You have
to deal with that. And then at the same time you
have to deal with, I'm dead in sin. Now if you deal with those
two things, Or if you don't deal with those two things, where
we go from here just doesn't matter. Because if you don't
know who God is and you don't know who you are, then you definitely
aren't going to agree with these next things. The third truth
we have to face is God in Christ chose a people to save or he
didn't. I know when you mention the word
election, a lot of folks get all uptight. They get upset.
But the word election is in the Bible over and over again. The
elect, elected, or election is in the Bible around 26 times.
God did elect a people to salvation or He didn't. The Scriptures
declare that He did. God elected a people before the
foundation of the world in Christ. and gave them to His Son to redeem
and to bring to glory." It also says in the Scriptures, "'Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. According
to the good pleasure of His will, He chose us to salvation before
the foundation of the world.'" He chose us. Turn with me over
to Romans 8. Romans 8. This is probably the
first passage of Scripture that I remember my grandfather talking
the most about. And much of that is because this
was the message that he heard Ralph Barnard preach that first
time. And he was asked to quote this Scripture. And look at Romans
8, chapter 28. And we know, and remember here,
we're talking about God chose a people to save or He didn't,
Romans 8.28. 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. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" This will
help us in our next view. But it says, whom He called,
them He justified. And who He justified, He glorified.
If God be for us, who can be against us? In Thessalonians
2 it says, I'm bound to give thanks to God for you because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit. I'm so thankful in so many of
these scriptures We don't see things that say, God chose a
people. And then we have to go somewhere
else to find that God saved those people. In these verses, it keeps
telling us that not only did God choose those people, but
he saved the people. It's in the same verse. We don't
have to put things together, we can just declare it. The Lord
prayed it in his high priestly prayer. He said, Father, thou
hast given me authority over all flesh that I should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. In John 6, it
says, All that my father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Let me ask
you a couple questions. Did you love God or did he love
you? It says we love him because he
first loved us. Did you call upon God or did
he call upon you? Did you choose God? Did you make
that choice or did he choose you? Well, when did God choose
you? If you chose God, it seems to
say in the scripture that he chose a people before the foundation
of the earth, which means if you're saying you chose God,
you didn't choose the God. The scripture says He chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. According to the
good pleasure of His own will, God elected a people. Heaven
will be populated by people that are conformed to the image of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now to number four. When we face
this in the road, we've got to either believe it or run from
it. Jesus Christ redeemed a people or He didn't. When our Lord died
on the cross, did he fully, freely, completely justify us before
God? Did he pay for all our sin? Did
his blood provide a ransom? Did he bring us to God? So that
when judgment passes by God, he can say, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. Did he do this or did he not
do it? Some people preach that Jesus Christ died in the same
way to the same extent for every son of Adam, for the whole world,
people that are in heaven and people that are in hell. But
I'm not, and when I say this, this is his words, but I'm not
arguing the extent of the atonement. I'll leave it to someone else
of how many or who were saved. What I am gonna argue is this,
I'm going to argue the power of the atonement. If Christ's
blood was shed for all men, then His blood failed. If His blood
was shed for people who perish, then His blood failed. The song
of those redeemed in heaven is this, unto Him who loved us and
washed us from our sins in His own blood, The blood of Christ
is effectual. In the blood of Christ, you have
an atonement that it atones. The atonement actually atones.
You have a ransom. You have a redemption that redeems. In the scripture, it says, he
died, the just for the unjust to bring us to God. And he gets
the job done. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 5.
2 Corinthians 5, and look at verse
21. So either the Lord Jesus Christ
redeemed a people or He didn't. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. For He hath
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. The Lord said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. If Jesus Christ died on that
cross and bore our sins, and effectually paid for them and
put them away, and His blood is a ransom and an effectual
mercy seat, an atonement, a propitiation, then that blood was not shed
for people who perish. It was only shed for believers.
It was only shed for His children. He died for his children. He died for the elect. He died
for the people of God. Other sheep I have that are not
of this fold, them also must I bring and they shall hear my
voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. What I'm
saying here is the blood of Christ is effectual. The blood of Christ
is powerful and the blood of Christ saves. That's all it does. That's all it can do. It cannot
not save. Just like in Egypt, the blood
was not on every door. If the blood had been on every
door, there would have been no death in the land of Egypt. There
was no death where the blood was on the door. The difference
was the blood. Where Christ's blood has been
shed for a sinner, there's no judgment, there's no condemnation.
Romans 8 says, There's now no condemnation to them which are
in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
ask you or I to provide a righteousness. He asks us to receive one that
is already provided. When there was a flood, God provided
an ark. When the people were bit by fiery
serpents, He provided a remedy that was lifted up on a pole.
When they were thirsty in the wilderness, he provided water
from a rock. When they were hungry, he provided
bread from heaven. When there's a sinner, God provides
a savior. Now number five, salvation is
either by divine revelation or it's not. Does the Holy Spirit
actually quicken? regenerate all men, or just God's
elect? Does the Spirit try to save people
and can't? Does He try to call men to Christ
and fail? The Scripture doesn't say that.
The Scripture simply tells us, you hath He quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sin, and thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. The Spirit works in the same
way that the blood does. If the blood is on you, you're
saved, you're whole, you have His salvation. If the Spirit
is in you, then you've been revealed the truth. If the Spirit is not
in you, you haven't. It's not by might nor by power,
but by the Spirit, saith the Lord. The living God cannot fail
to accomplish what He sets out to do. We talked about a sovereign
God, all-powerful. Here's what men don't understand.
There is a general call when the word is preached. Now listen
to this, this is good. It's not my words. There's a
general call when the word is preached. When I'm saying the
things I'm saying up here, this is a general call. When God's
judgment comes, when God's providence is enacted, when the law is read,
a general call is what men hear. And all men hear this, just like
you can hear my words being said. But, my friend, the Holy Spirit
gives an effectual call. The Holy Spirit gives a call,
a life-giving call. The Holy Spirit brings the seed
of the Word, and that seed begets life. And that regeneration and
that quickening is effectual. It's powerful. The Spirit doesn't
try to quicken men. He quickens all the men that
the Word goes to. Now, finally, the sixth truth
we have to face is that all of God's people are going to persevere
or they won't. It says in the word, he that
hath begun a good work shall complete it in the day of Jesus
Christ. Now, why would we have a hard
time dealing with our perseverance? Well, I think that's because
anybody who can't relate to the first two, God is sovereign and
we're sinners, They don't struggle with this because they think
too highly of themselves. But when the spirit reveals himself,
reveals the Lord to a sinner, they get stuck on that second
one, and our flesh rules over us. We doubt, we worry, all those
kind of things, and we worry, are we going to persevere? Well,
the question to that, or the answer to that question is really
simple. Let's look at four of these things we've already covered.
First, God is sovereign. God does what He will, when He
will, to whom He will. If we believe God is sovereign,
and we move to the next one where we say that God chose a people. A sovereign God, if He chose
you or I. That's a sovereign God. Nothing
happens to those that He chooses. He says in the Word that if He
called you, He will redeem you. He will save you. We don't need
to worry about that. And then if we believe those
two things, we go to the next one, which I got ahead of myself,
Christ redeemed His people. A sovereign God called you and
He redeemed you. It's an effectual redemption.
The blood of Christ redeems every single thing it touches. If the
blood of Christ is on you, if the Lord Jesus Christ put His
blood on you, if you're in Him, you are redeemed. Perseverance
is irrelevant at that point. And then the last one is the
Spirit revealed it. If you believe those four things
that led up to it, God is sovereign, man is dead, or I'm sorry, God
is sovereign, you are dead. You have to believe you are dead,
not man is dead. God chose a people, and Christ redeemed a people.
If you believe all those four things, then it's very apparent
that the Spirit has revealed it to you. And if He's revealed
it to you, that He chose you, that He redeemed you, and that
He's sovereign, your perseverance is a non-factor. Don't ever,
ever worry that a child of God will have anything ever happen
to them that's not intended, that's not His will. Now I'm
gonna close with a story that I've heard my grandfather tell.
And I heard it listening to something earlier this week, and I don't
know if I'd ever heard it before. But there was a little boy who
was sent to the store by his mother. She had bought a vase. She had picked it out. She sent
him to the store to pick it up and to bring it home. So he got
the vase, and he started walking home. And he's holding that vase
in his arms, with both arms, his little tiny arms, carrying
it, going home, and he's determined to go home with it. He's gonna
get it to his mom. That's his job. That's what he's gotta do.
And he's on his way, and as he's coming down the road, he sees
one of his friends who's dribbling a basketball. And he tries to
go by the friend, and his friend says, hey, he said, hey, Jimmy,
let's just play a little ball. He said, I can't. I can't. I've
got to go home. I'm taking this vase to my mom. And Jimmy said,
no, come on. We'll just bounce a little bit.
Just lay it over there. Nothing's going to happen. It'll be great. So
he walks over and lays the vase a long way off, just to make
sure. Well, it doesn't take more than a few minutes, and that
ball hits that vase and breaks it into a thousand pieces. And
Jimmy runs over to that vase, or the little boy runs over to
that vase, and as he's running over to that vase, his friend
Jimmy turns, grabs his basketball, and he runs home. And the little
boy sits down next to that vase and starts crying. And he picks
up a couple of those pieces and puts two together, and he gets
a third one, and he puts it, and one of the other pieces falls
off. And he grabs a different piece and tries to put those
together, and he just can't. He can't get it, and he's crying.
I can't go home. I don't have the vase. And then
a shadow came over him. And he looked up, and it was
his dad. And his dad says, what's wrong, little boy? And he said,
Dad, he said, Mom gave me a job to bring this vase home, and
I broke it. And he said, I'm trying, but
I can't put it back together. And his dad says, you can't,
son. He said, you can't put it back together. That vase is gone.
It's ruined. You can't do anything with that
vase. And the little boy's just crying. And his dad says, well,
I'll tell you what. He says, how about I take you
with me, and we go to that store, and I buy you, I buy your mom
a new vase. And so he took him to the store,
and he bought him a vase. And he held that vase in his
arm. and he held his son in the other arm, and he walked him
home. God gave us a law, a perfect
law, and gave it to us, and that was a way to salvation. If we
obtained that law, but it didn't take us long, we ruined that
perfect law, we broke it into a thousand pieces, and there's
nothing we can do to put it together. And if the Lord is willing and
the Spirit reveals it to you, then you'll realize you can't
put that vase back together. You can't put the law back together.
You can't fix it. But God in His sovereignty, He
came down and He provided perfect salvation. He lived perfectly
and He went to the cross and He bore our sins. He paid for
a new vase. He bought us a new perfect salvation
that He earned and He took our sins upon Him and then He took
us home. He took all the responsibility
on Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ died for His children and gave
them His righteousness and took their sins upon Him. And if the
Spirit is, and if we're fortunate enough for the Spirit to reveal
that to us, we will understand that God is sovereign. We'll
understand that we are dead in our sins. We will understand
that God chose a people. We'll understand that the Lord
Jesus Christ redeemed those people, and that the Spirit revealed
it, and that we will persevere in Him. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our salvation, and that's all we have in Him.