Well, good evening. It's an honor
and privilege of mine to be here. I'm thankful you all had us up. It's a privilege to be with the
Lord's Saints. We're thankful to visit with
you. I'm thankful to your pastor and
his wife for the hospitality they've shown on your behalf
to us. We're grateful. I hope I have a message for you
tonight. There's some points I want to make that you may have
heard before, or points I've heard before. And if you've heard
them, you've probably rejoiced in them because you're here.
And if you haven't heard them, it'll be good to hear them for
the first time and or be reminded of them. But if you would, open
your Bibles to Romans chapter 1. We're working through Romans
there in San Diego, just begun. I looked at this Scripture for
quite a while, and the same points kept coming up to me. I want
to read this Scripture. Romans 1, verse 15. Paul writes to the Romans, he
says, As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to
you that are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel
of Christ. For, because, it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. Touch on this just for a minute
before I started. Paul was riding from Corinth
to Rome. He had never met those brethren.
It was just a letter to them. And he was ready to preach to
them. He was ready to come and declare
who Christ was to them and in that area. Rome was a hostile
place. It was the epicenter of the things
that were against Our God and Savior at the time. And He was
ready to go headstrong into them and tell them. And He was ready
to go to those saints and comfort them. He says, because I'm not
ashamed of this gospel. Many people hear this gospel
of Christ and they're ashamed. There was a time I was ashamed
of this gospel. They're ashamed because there
are some points you have to come to and you have to face. And
you either agree with those points or you'll reject those points.
We don't have a systematic theology to break down different points
of doctrine for what we believe. We have one doctrine of Christ
of who we believe. But with that, as I tell my children
and my old child, you know how you eat an elephant? You eat
it one bite at a time, don't you? And I've had some faithful
men over the years declare this to me, and they showed me how
to eat. They showed me how to take small bites. But I read
this from Paul and I wondered, am I ready? We just moved a couple
weeks ago from New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, to San Diego, California. And a lot of people ask me, are
you ready? And I say, I hope I am. I'm confident our Lord has a
work in that city. I'm confident he has a work on
this coast. I mean, my friends in the world
ask me, they say, well, how many people are there? And I say,
if it's a packed house, maybe 20, 25. And they laughed. And they said, you're going to
move all the way across the country for that few people. In San Diego
County, there's a little over 3 million people, and there might
be 30 people there that are gathered. They come into that house and
are gathered in His name to worship Him. And I thought, that to a
lot of people doesn't sound like much. That's a revival. Our Lord
didn't go out of business. Right now, He's actively performing
His will. Some people would shake their
head at that, but we remember Sodom and Gomorrah. That large
metropolitan area, how many people come out of that? One man, wasn't
it? One righteous man. So would I
be ready to travel all the way across the country for one person? That would be an honor and a
privilege if my whole life was wrapped up in that woman. Why? I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. He's made me that way. Why? Because it is the power
of God and salvation. So I want to look at some statements
tonight that could be offensive. Our gospel is an offense. I don't
want to be offensive and I don't want to be offensive. I don't
want to attack anyone ever. I hope the Lord keeps me from
that. And I don't want me to be an offense. But this gospel
of Christ, it's offensive to the natural man. The first point
we come to are these holy scriptures, this Bible that we hold in our
hand. Either these scriptures are the holy, inspired, infallible
Word of God, or they're not. You know, the Pharisees, these
great, educated theologians of their time, they never argued
if the writings of Moses were legitimate. Satan's not recorded
in the Scriptures to deny the Scriptures. He misuses them.
He tempted our Lord in the wilderness with them, but he doesn't deny
that they're true and real. This book, we hold 66 books written
by 40 different men on three continents over a period of 1,500
years. And all of those people, all
of those books, have one thing, have one message, and that's
Christ. There's a mountain of logical
evidence to prove that these Scriptures are true. That the
Bible is fact. It's the inspired Word of God.
It's not fiction. It's not a good story. It's truth. But convincing men and women
to argue with men and women To convince them that this book
is true does not convince them of the truth. The Holy Spirit
of God must perform that. That's His business, not mine.
We declare it. If you would, turn to Psalm 138.
The Lord has magnified His Word. Psalm 138 verse 2 says, I will
worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving
kindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. We have this gift. Your pastor used to say, how
you treat this word is how you treat the Lord. Do you value
it? The Lord shows a person that
these are His Scriptures. Psalm 119 says, Therefore, I
esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I
hate every false way. We cling to them, don't we? That's
something we have to face. Either this book is true or it's
not. Secondly, either God's holy high
command is completely sovereign in all things, or it's not. What does sovereign mean? My
pastor reminded me, we use a lot of words that we take for granted
and some people may not understand. But we forget the meaning of
them, don't we? So sovereign means a supreme ruler, absolute
authority in all things, and my favorite, self-governing.
It does whatever it wants. The queen in England, they call
her the sovereign. And many years ago, as far as
men and women go, the king or queen in England was sovereign.
They did as they pleased in anything. They'd say, I want that wall
moved. And the people went and moved the wall. What they wanted
was what was accomplished. Our God is sovereign. David said
it, but our God is in the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased. You're still there in Psalms.
Turn to the left a little bit. Psalm 135. Psalm 135 and verse
5. It says, For I know that the
Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that He did in heaven and in earth, in the
seas and all deep places. Why did they mention the seas
and deep places? Research in San Diego a little
bit, that used to be the tuna capital of the world. And they
still harvest a lot of tuna out of there. Men go out on the sea
in boats and they've got a pretty good idea of where that tuna
is, but they don't know. They can't see. It's a good example. There's a lot of things we can't
see. There's germs and microbes. I saw on the news that Whatever
they named it now, that disease over in China, they're worried
about coming. My God's the God of germs. He's
the God of elements. Psalm 135 verse 7, He causeth
the vapor to ascend from the ends of the earth, to make lightnings
for rain. He bringeth the wind out of His
treasuries. Who smote the firstborn of Egypt?
both of man and beast, who sent tokens and wonders into the midst
of the old Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants, who
smoked great nations and slew mighty kings. Sion, king of the
Amorites, and Og, king of the Bacian, in all the kingdoms of
Canaan, and gave their land for an heritage, and a heritage unto
Israel his people. Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever,
and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations." This point's
often been summarized as either God is sovereign and man's not,
or man's sovereign and God's not. We either bend to His will
or He bends to our will. But of these people, if man is
sovereign, and they have the ability to reject God, do you
think some of these Amorites would have rejected dying? Would
those Egyptian soldiers drowned in the Red Sea, would they have
decided to let God not kill them? Would there be anyone dead right
now? Every human on the face of the earth would probably still
be alive, wouldn't they? But we know better. Job wrote, seeing
his days are determined, the number of his months are within
thee. Thou hast appointed his bounds
that he cannot pass. As my pastor told me, he's excited
when people say, remember the reason for the season at Christmas
time. There's a day of the year that
this world acknowledges Christ was born. He came into that.
That's good. People say, well, I ain't going to die until it's
my time. They used to get me fired up pretty good. I'd get
pretty mad. But I'm thankful for that now.
In part, they acknowledge there's hope there. If there's breath
in their lungs, there's hope. But our God is perfect and a
total ruler over all things. In Romans 11.36 it says, That's
the source, speaking of Christ. And through Him, that's the means
by which He accomplishes His will. And to Him are all things. Is that most things? All things. To whom be glory forever. Amen. He will receive all the glory.
Christ is the source, He's the executor, and He will get the
glory for everything. So our God, the God of this Bible,
He's a sovereign God. Thirdly, either man is totally
depraved, totally sinful, completely helpless because of his nature,
or he's not. He's either dead or alive. And John's talked about that
the last few days. I was in the military for a long
time, and I thought I had a life or death child until this calling
came. And my friend said, well, at
least it's not life and death now. And I said, no, now is when it
is life and death. The man's either dead or alive.
They either want a little bit of help or they need to be saved. Most people don't mind help.
But the natural man doesn't want to be saved because that means
he needs to be saved. He's in need. Unfortunately,
we breathe in and out of our lungs and we know we're alive.
And because of that, physically we know we're alive, we spiritually
think and assume that we're alive. Jeremiah wrote, The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know
it? Who can know it? What does that
mean? That means we don't know it. I don't know my heart and
how truly wicked it is. The Lord's gave me a glimpse
of it, my sin nature and what I am. Not just what I do, but
what I am. He's given me a glimpse of it.
And I'm thankful He hasn't shown me completely how wicked I am. I'd probably die instantly. How does Gentiles get that way?
How do we have that nature? We're not under the law. Romans
5, 12 says, Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Adam, our seminal head, fell
in the garden. I tell our folks down south,
if two zebras have a baby, it has a baby zebra. If two sinners
have a baby, it's a sinner. That's what it is. Adam was our
head. And if you remember, There in Genesis when Eve ate, it's
not a popular subject nowadays, but the unity of man and wife. Adam was the head of that home.
Eve ate that fruit. Did she know she was naked? She
didn't know, did she? Adam ate the fruit and then they
saw their naked. So through him is when that knowledge
came. That's when our sin came upon
us. Genesis 6 verse 5 says, And God
saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. People say I'm not that bad.
God says you are. I say I'm not that bad. God says
I am. Fourthly, either God chose a
people in Christ to save, or He has no people at all. The
same scriptures that are perfect in declaring a holy and sovereign
God clearly declare, Christ came to save a people. A man wiser than me once said,
if you reject election, you have to reject the clear doctrine
of redemption by Christ. If you reject those, you have
to reject the doctrine of regeneration in Christ. And if you reject
those, you have to reject eternal life in Christ. I know you all know this well,
but Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will." What do we say to those things?
To the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. If we want to be accepted in
front of the Lord, We have to be in Christ, don't we? He has
to put us in Christ. A lot of people I've talked to
over the years, everybody wants to go to heaven if they're in
a sane mind. But they want to go to a place.
Heaven's not a place. Heaven's a person. Heaven happens
near wherever He is. You turn over to 2 Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says, But we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of
our Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.
As a side note, that Spirit is a capital S. How are we sanctified? Of the Spirit. Of the Holy Spirit. That's where our sanctification
comes from. Verse 14, whereunto He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Man has
a hope. It's that the Lord might call
some people. I've had dear friends of mine,
loved ones, family members, they say, I can't believe that you
say that God only chose a few people. And I said, I can't believe
that God did choose just a few people. Especially this one. God can save me, He can save
anybody. Fifthly, either Christ effectually
redeemed His elect on the cross, or He failed. Many people say,
well, He made it possible and you have to make it effectual.
Christ either redeemed His people, or He didn't. Matthew 1.21 says, And she shall
bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. He shall. We don't use that word
enough nowadays. That means he absolutely will.
There's not a choice in failure. I brought this up last week to
our congregation. Read the Ten Commandments. There's
some shalls in there. That's what you're going to do,
David. Is that it, gentlemen? He makes us that way. That's
what we've been given, the righteousness that we've been given. Christ
did it. It's not possible for failure.
Isaiah 42, verse 4 says, He shall not fail nor be discouraged.
He's not going to fail and He won't even be discouraged. Turn
to John. We've got John's Gospel in chapter
10. We'll stay in John just for a little bit. John chapter 10 verse 14. It
says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and have known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep."
Does that mean everyone? Did Jesus die for everyone? Does Jesus love everybody? If
the Lord loves you, you ain't got nothing to worry about. Turn over to John 17, just a
few pages. If the Lord loves you, Everything
is going to be fine. If Christ prayed for me, I think I'd be in good shape. Would
you? Look here in John 17 verse 9. It says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. And all
Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost. but the son of perdition
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. I'm speaking of Judas. One of the men there in San Diego
was going through the apostles being called and he said, well
why would Judas be there? How would that be of benefit? And he said, that's a wonderful
reminder to those men called to preach of Christ that he has
to maintain us. And the apostle said, Lord is
it me? but none of them is lost. Those
that are the Lord's are not lost. He's able to keep them. Either
God the Holy Spirit calls sinners irresistibly by His grace and
power, or He does not call sinners to Christ at all. Lazarus is
a great example of that. There in John chapter 11 it says,
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was, And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I thank
Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me. When Christ
raised Lazarus, He didn't have to. He was in communion with
the Lord constantly, wasn't He? He can just think that. We can
pray without ever opening our mouths. But how gracious he was
to say that out loud before he did it. As he declares in his
will, this is what I'll do, and then he does it. He did that
so they could learn. He said, and when he had thus
spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And when he that was dead came
forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was
bound about with a napkin, Jesus saith unto them, loose him and
let him go. Lazarus was brought to life by
our God here. But the Lord said, I must go
that the Comforter may come. This day and age, the Holy Spirit
comes to men and women, and they pierce them. He pierces them
in the heart and quickens them. He gives them life. Back to the
dead and alive, if I'm half alive, does He give me partial life?
No, it says those that He quickened, those that He made alive. That Comforter comes. Men and
women's hearts where they are, quickens them, gives them life,
and what does it do? Looses them and sets them free. Same as our
Lord did. Turn over to Matthew chapter
4. I normally warn people when I'm having to turn a lot, but
it's late in the evening, you all had a long day and long drives
to get here, and it does me well to keep me awake. It's good to see these, even
if we can quote them. It's good to look at the Scriptures
and read it, look at it as we hear it. Matthew chapter 4 and
verse 18, And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two
brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting
a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And He saith unto
them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men, and straightway
They straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on
from that he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and
John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, bending
their nets and he called them and they immediately left the
ship and their father and followed him." Those sinners were called,
weren't they? There's a movie years ago, you
all have probably seen it, that slow guys on a boat. And he was
waving to his friend and he wanted to say, come here, and he just
walked off the boat. He straightway left the boat, didn't he? Sinners are called, they straightway
leave themselves and side with God against themselves. Seven,
either God's elect will persevere to the end or none of them will. Our perseverance and faith is
not from our will or our works or our faith. It's from the object
of our faith. We are preserved by the free
grace and sovereign will of God Almighty. In John 10, verse 26
it says, But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep.
He didn't say those Pharisees, they didn't believe. Or they're
not His sheep because they didn't believe. He said you didn't believe
because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give
unto them eternal life, that they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave
them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand." That's comforting. We're accused often
that you say, well, God only saved a handful of people. Yeah,
but it's God's hand. That's a big hand. And they're
in His hand. Firmly in His grip. Turn over
to John chapter 6. John chapter 6 and verse 37.
It says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him
that sent me. People say, I wish I knew the
Lord's will for me. I wish I knew what God's plan
was. I hear that a lot. Here it is. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. I'll be
raised again at the last day if I'm His. That's hoping. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." The Hebrew writer was given examples and said,
by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, and told a little bit about it.
By faith Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah. We remember these
people. We said that these all died in
faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them
afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. All
of those Old Testament saints, they hadn't seen Christ come
yet. They were told that He was going to come, but they hadn't
seen that. It hadn't come to fruition. We
have the witness of Christ fulfilling all the prophets. All the Psalms,
all the types, all the pictures. We have it recorded. We see these
things. How much more comfort should
we have knowing that He said He was going to do it, and then
He did it. He says if we believe on His Son, He'll give us eternal
life. He will. Are you confident that He will?
I hope it's not in my hands. I'm in trouble. Many people look to a cross with
a person on it. We have an empty tomb. My Savior's
risen. If He's risen, I have hope to
be risen. Finally, number eight. Either
salvation is completely by the grace of God, or there's no such
thing as salvation. Salvation depends in any way
on the works of man, or all will perish. Psalm 14 says they are
all, let's turn there, Psalm 14. I've had, you all wouldn't
know this, I struggled in English. I know that sounds shocking to
you, but I had to work real hard in English, getting through college. I made good grades, but if it
took you an hour, it'd take me five. And I had to learn hard,
so I learned to pay attention to the little things. It was
a trial for me. The Lord taught me something
about it. Look at Psalm 14 verse 3. They are all gone aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that do good, comma. No, comma. Not one. Do you think that was on purpose?
Do you think the Lord preserved those commas with his text over
all these years? It says, there's none that doeth
good. Well, my grandpa, no. Your grandma didn't. Not one.
There's none that doeth good. Kevin Thacker, no. Not one. None that doeth good. No, not
one. Our works will not save us. It says, how much more abominable
and filthy is man who drinketh iniquity like water? We don't think about drinking
water, do we? How many swallows did it take for you to get that
glass down? I don't know. I just drank water. It's a secondary
act, isn't it? Don't even consider it. That's
how we consume iniquity. We don't know that, do we? But
we do. That's what the Lord says. The
Lord tells us that. No man will come by his works
and no man will come to God under his own will. Or all will perish. No man left to his own will can
come to Christ. He told us that in John 6. He
said, Therefore I say unto you that no man can come unto me
except it were given unto him of my Father. So it's not of
our works and it's not of our will. Is it our faith? Do I have a strong faith? And
that's what gets me through. The Lord comes down and says,
Kevin, he's doing pretty good. I'll help him out the rest of
the way. Ephesians 2.8 says, For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. People receive faith. We have
a very entitled generation, and I'm speaking of my generation,
and we think you get a gift at Christmas and you can receive
it, or you can give it back. I don't want that gift. I already
have three of them, I don't need it. If I had a cup here and I
took a pitcher of water and I poured water in that cup, that cup received
the water. We are cups, aren't we? And we receive that Spirit. We
receive that life. My cup runs over. He's abundant. So we can see in these Scriptures
that salvation is not by a man's works, it's of the work of God. It's not of man's will, it's
of the will of God for His people. Salvation is not of man's faith,
but the faith of Christ that's given to us. So this evening, I've covered
these eight points you may have heard before. And I hope I've
read to you more than I've talked to you. You say, why would he
want to do that? People can get mad at me and
that's fine. Paul said, I'm ready. And I ain't ashamed. But they
get mad at me all they want. They're not mad at Kevin Thacker.
They're mad at these scriptures, aren't they? That's in English,
black and white. But I ask again, and I don't
ask you, I ask myself. If I believe these things. Is this the holy word of God?
Is God sovereign in all things? Is man graveyard dead? Or is
He alive? Did Christ die for a particular
people? Did His death and resurrection,
was it effectual? What does that mean? Did it get
the job done? Did the Spirit call you and give
you life? Irresistibly. The Lord saved
me against my will with my full consent. I like that quote. Are you persuaded that He is
able to keep you from falling and present you faultless for
the Father? And with all these facts stated, salvation by grace of Christ
alone, it is, you have hope, don't you?
I want to know these things. I want to have hope. If I look
to myself, I'm going to be disappointed. If I look to another man, I'm
going to be disappointed. If I look to things or actions
I've done, I'm going to be disappointed. If you look to Christ and come
to Him, you will not be disappointed and you'll be lifted up in that
last day with life. I hope that was a blessing to you.