So very glad to be here. I'm
glad you're here. Yeah. Yes, indeed. Trying to figure out how to put
this stuff so I can find it when I need it. Before we begin, let's Go go
to the Lord in prayer. Dear Lord. God, our Heavenly
Father. We come. Before your throne. And the throne of your son. And we beg that in this small
place in the backside of nowhere, you would be pleased to come
into our midst and make your word alive in our hearts. Give
us the hearing ear and the seeing eye, both of which you tell us
in the Bible are from the Lord. In order for us to receive anything,
you have to perform a spiritual work of saving grace in our souls. In order for us, when we leave
this world to have any honest to goodness reason. that we know the true
and living God and we know him as he is revealed in the person
of that God-man Christ Jesus who lived in this world some
33 years and then was crucified and returned to glory and is
this morning sitting on a throne. Lord, trying to get someone to see
What's in this book of yours called the Bible is something
no man can accomplish unless you go before him and open hearts
and speak words that cause people to listen, truly listen. Lord, I thank you that you've
granted us a place in this world to meet to worship, to serve
you. There aren't many places anymore
of this persuasion. Thank you, Lord, for this privilege.
Thank you for sustaining and keeping me alive. And I beg of you to do so as long as you see fit. And when the time has come, take me just like I am. Everything, everything in heaven
is in and by and through Jesus Christ the Lord. We beg these
mercies in your name. Amen. This is an unusual outline in regard to the Lord's salvation. Specifically, salvation is of
the Lord. Now I've got a blue million references
and Doug took his share of them and I'm going to read you some
of mine and ask you to turn to some others. So if you take your
Bible Romans chapter 5, fifth chapter of Romans. Let's start at verse 12. Romans
5, 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, because all have sinned. We have our grandfather At the
beginning of time and in the Garden of Eden, we have him to
thank for this curse of sin being upon us, even in our mother's
womb. Verse 13, for until the law,
sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is
no law. Nevertheless, death reigns. from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude or the same manner as Adam's transgression,
Adam, who is a figure of him that was to come. This him is
none other than Christ. Verse 15, but as the offense
So also is the free gift. For if. Through the offense of
one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ has abounded unto
many. No, nobody knows the number of
persons who will make up the church of the living God and
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16, and not as it was by
one that sinned, so is the gift. Inheriting Adam's sinful nature
is here contrasted as it was in verse 16, not as it was by
one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. That's a state of being just
as if we'd never sinned and that is only possible if we are in
Christ and Christ is in us. For if by one man, verse 17,
if by one man much more They which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus
Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, namely Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. We're born sinners. You can't
get around that and believe this book. We are born sinners. And we couldn't atone in ourself
for the most minute sin you could possibly conceive of. I don't have time to go into
that, but I wanted you to understand that this offense, my goodness,
this is something. Therefore, verse 18, by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation. So by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men under
justification of life. And that is a marvelous statement
and everything in it hinges on the son of God crucified, buried,
risen, ascended and in glory and coming again. Verse 19. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Now did you catch that? By Adam's falling into sin, every
member of the human race is spiritually dead. Spiritually dead. And then it says, so by the obedience
of one, that is our Lord Jesus and his sacrifice of himself
were by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. It's an uncountable number. Scriptures
tell us that it's too big for us to figure out how many it
is. I can't imagine how many people have lived on this globe
called the earth for how many, it ain't millions of years and
it ain't thousands of years. This book will tell you how many
years it is, especially if you have that chronology in it. Sometimes
I disagree with that, but sometimes I think he's done a pretty good
job. Even so might grace reign. Grace is God not giving us what
we deserve. And the other side of that coin
is God's grace. is so marvelous and so wonderful
we cannot deserve one single drop and yet our Savior has paid
the penalty and the price and we are set free. All right now
to introduce where we're trying to work on this morning is Some of you will never have heard
this term, and those of you that have been here for a while probably
do. If I read my notes right here
on this one page, I preached on this subject in the 23rd of
August of 09. So that's been a few days ago.
But what I want you to do, is to look at how this salvation
that is the heart and soul of our Bible. Why did God send us
his word? To teach us the truth. The truth
about what? About God. About God the Son. About God the Holy Spirit. And
the truth about our salvation. Now you say, well, maybe there
should have been another way. That's not for us to say. This
has been the case since before this world was made. You have
three persons in that Holy Trinity who know precisely what they
intend to accomplish by this very method of redemption. And
it is a glorious redemption indeed. Now, if you take the doctrines
that are separating Baptist churches from other Baptist
churches and whatever denomination you want to speak of, it's all
involved in this. And the first statement I call your attention
to, now each one of these five things, and I'll run over them
quickly so that you can catch the order in which they come. In the 14th or 15th hundred in, I think,
Europe, which has been a long time ago, the people of the world, from
every continent were invited to this conference in order to
prevent the grace of God being everything and man not exalted
at all. And they disputed that claim
and so they, I forget the name of that confab but it was pretty
doggone big. And they were the ones who came
up with these five points. We call them the five points
of Calvinism. So there is one little word that'll
remind you of what each of these five is. That word is tulip,
T-U-L-I-P. Here's the T. total depravity. We're not partially depraved,
we're totally depraved. The second letter is you and
that comes to the subject of unconditional election. Salvation
is by divine choice. He elected us He gave us to his
son, and his son came and redeemed those people. And they're still
belonging to God. To say that Christ died for everybody
is to spit in the face of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To even
imagine such a thing is utter stupidity. And I ought to know
I was that way for a long, long time. And I still got plenty
of stupidity in me, but it ain't about this. I promise you that. So the second word is unconditional
election. God chose a people. There's not
been an addition or a subtraction since that choosing. And as people
come to live on this earth and ultimately die, If their name is in this Lamb's
Book of Life that the scripture speaks about, they'll be in glory. And if it isn't, no matter how
good people tell us we are and what wonderful things they tell
us we do, we're not going anywhere in that direction. We're going
straight to hell. It's inevitable. I mean, this
divides things as clearly as they could possibly be divided. This hundreds and hundreds of
people in this big, I forget what they call it now. I just
don't remember, but I've read it before and I wish I could
crank up my memory a little bit, but I don't think it's going
to happen. Here's the third thing. It is the L in TULIP. It is limited atonement. The death of Christ and the shedding
of His blood, which sets all of His people free, those people
who were not called Upon hearing the gospel of Christ and the
truth about God and the truth about ourselves, we will not
come to him. But I'll tell you what, if you're
one of this number, it might be said to be limited, but it
is far beyond our concept of understanding. But they will
come. The fourth word is the word I
for irresistible grace. If God calls, In the power of
His Holy Spirit, 40 mules couldn't keep you from going if you were
tied to them. God does as He pleases in heaven,
in earth, and in hell. And that devil is God's devil. And the leash that goes around
his neck is in our Savior's hand. And whatever He lets him do,
that's all he can do. No more. No more. Let's see, what was that? Irresistible
grace. All right, the last word is perseverance,
and it is the P in perseverance that makes that tulip to work. All right, let's go now and look
at some scriptures. Since you got your Bible already
opened to the New Testament, if you would turn in regard to
total depravity, to Matthew 15 Well, I don't know why I'm trying
to find it when I got it printed right here in front of my nose,
so we'll just Do it that way for a bit Matthew 15, did I tell you that?
Verses 18 through 20. And here's what you'll find. But those things which proceed
out of the mouth come forth from the heart and they defile the
man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, false witness,
and blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashed hands." Now you children put
a little plug in your ear when I read that statement. To eat with unwashed hands defiles
not a man. Now let me read you a statement
out of another book, and I'll not ask you to turn to that one.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints
which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now if that doesn't support what
we've just been speaking about in regard to total, absolute
depravity, number two, Unconditional election. Y'all still got your Bible? Where
are you? Oh, good. How about turning to
John? You don't have to turn if you
don't want to now. John chapter six. John six. Verse 37 through verse 50. This new Bible I'm trying to
break in has got red print for the words of Christ. I wish I'd rather have it all
black and white. So anyway, What verse did I tell
you, 37? All things that the Father gives
me shall come to me. And he's not talking about physical
things. Here's what he's talking about.
And him that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out. I tell you what, if the Lord
Jesus opens the door, the only people going through it are his
sheep. Verse 38, for I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the father's will, which has sent me that of all which
he has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up at the
last day. Why would the Lord Jesus lose
one of his sheep? You say, because he couldn't
find him. You can't use language like that when you're talking
about God. He knows everything, all the
time, everywhere, and everybody on this globe. I should lose nothing but should
raise him up again at the last day. Verse 40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which sees the Son and believes on
Him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the
last day. There's no uncertainty there. He asserts what he knows to be. And if he paid for their sin
on the cross, they cannot pay, pay also. Payment God cannot
twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. You ever paid a debt twice? It
ought to rankle you pretty good. I had such an experience and
I didn't like it. Accused me of buying gas and
not paying for it. And there was three or four of
us in the car and Ed Parker was one of them. Man, they come down
the sidewalk in their vehicle. Stop, blowing the horn, stop,
stop, stop. So we stopped a couple of blocks
up. They said, you didn't pay for your gas. I said, mister,
I know good and well I did. So when I was going back the
other way, my temperature went up. I mean, considerable. Got out of the car and headed
toward the door of that little service station. They said, you
know, trying to wave me to go back. Go back my foot. I'm going
to give you a piece of my mind before I leave here. If you can't
do better than this, you better not be stopping people, and especially
me. So I'll tell you whatever this
book tells you is the truth. And I'm not claiming to understand
it all, but I think I know some things about a good many wonders
in this precious, precious, Scripture. Let's see, we were on what? Still
on number one? Two, yeah, okay. Let me read you a statement out
of Matthew. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
you've hid these things from the wise and prudent, and you
have revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, so it seemed
good in your sight. And in 2 Thessalonians, but we're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. Second Timothy 1.9, who has saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
when before the world began. You know what that means? Before
there was ever a sinner. Now for our third statement is limited atonement. The L in
limited makes up one of the five parts to that tulip we were talking
about earlier. Let me read you a couple of these
and see how our time begins to unfold. This comes from the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah. You'll find this beginning at
verse 8. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Speaking of
our Lord going to the cross and who shall declare his generation. He was cut off out of the land
of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken, and he made his grave with the wicked and
with the rich in his death. He died between two thieves. Joseph of Arimathea offered him
a tomb that had never been used, carved out of a huge rock. And
that's where our Lord Jesus' body was laid. Made his grave
with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he
had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you shall make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail,
the birth pains of his soul, and shall be satisfied by my
knowledge, shall my righteous servant justify many For he shall
bear their iniquities. And since you can't pay a sin
debt but once, if you pay it, Christ does not pay it. But if
you belong to him, he takes care of all the debt, all of it. You just keep that in mind. All
right, our fourth letter. Well, let me back up to limited
atonement just a minute. I need just another reference
here, if you will. I don't think I covered this
one. It comes from 2 Corinthians. For God has made Christ, and
I'm supplying the name God and Christ. It says, for he has made
him. God has made Christ sin for us,
Christ who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. This is the only way a son and
daughter of Adam can be righteous in God's sight, and that is to
be in Christ. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. In him. Galatians says it this
way. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made
a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangs on a tree. And Hebrews 9, 12, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place. having obtained eternal redemption
for us. If our redemption is not eternal,
we ain't gonna make it. We'll be missing on that day.
Alright, number four is the letter I. This one has to do with irresistible
grace. I mean if If the hound of heaven
is looking for you, he's going to find you. You understand? You can't hide
from God. Psalm 65, four reads like this. Blessed is the man whom you choose
and calls to approach unto you that he may dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of your house, even of your holy temple. Psalm 110, thy people speaking
to Christ. The Lord God, Jehovah, speaking
to his son, that people shall be willing in the day of that
power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning.
You have the do of your youth. Christ is as strong and powerful
as he ever was. God can't change for the for
for good or for bad. He never changes! He's always
the same. Always. The eternal, irresistible
God of heaven and earth in three persons. Let's see, you got your Bible
still out? How about turning to John 6,
44 and 45, John 6, 44 and 45. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him and I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that has heard and has learned of the father comes unto me. That's grace that cannot be resisted,
irresistible grace. All right, to John chapter 10.
This time for number five, which is the letter P. I didn't tell you what else went
with it, I don't think. It's the perseverance of the
saints. I think I probably covered it earlier, but I'm not certain
of it. John chapter 10 verses 27 and 28. 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 The word man
is in italics. Anything you can imagine. Neither
shall anything pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave
them to me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. One. One and the same. The attributes
of one are the attributes of the other. All right, one more
scripture. The book of Jude, how quickly
can we access that? It's only one chapter, and it
is the preface to the last book in our Bibles, the book called
the Revelation. Jude, regarding this subject, the perseverance
of the saints, if we belong to God, I mean really and truly,
I'm not talking about if I think I am, but if I'm thinking correctly
and truly have any hope of being in Christ, then those saints
are going to be here when this world comes to an end. Alright,
the last two verses in the book of Jude. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise
God, our Savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and power
both now and ever. Amen. God cannot change. His gospel cannot change. His Son does not change. Always
the same. Always. Okay, Dr. Rogers.