Thank you, Brother Mike. You see what I mean by the wisdom? I'd like to open your Bibles
to Ephesians chapter 2, please. And while you're turning there,
I'd like to read the scripture that's on the front of today's
bulletin. From 1 Peter 5, 2 through 7. It says, feed the flock of God
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
but willingly. Not by default, Brother Mike.
Absolutely. Not by constraint, but willingly.
Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither as being
lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the older. Yea,
all of you be subject one unto another, and be clothed with
humility. For God resisteth the proud,
and giveth grace. I'm going to repeat that. For God resisteth the proud,
and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time. Cast all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you." That's why we worship Him. That's why we don't want to think
about ourselves. Because He, God Almighty, the
Creator of everything, cares for His people. Could a God, One who rules over
everything, who cares for His people with a love that He has
loved them before the foundation of the world? That means before
anything was ever created. That means before any stars were
ever put in place. That means before there was dust. Could a God who loved His people
ever allow one of them to go to hell? That's why Christ had
to come to this earth. That's why we're here to worship
Him, because He sent His Son, His only begotten Son, to be
a propitiation, to be the payment for His people. In Ephesians chapter 2 are some
very, very familiar verses. Verse 8, 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. Now these words, as you all who
have been here for some time and have heard me stand before
you and teach and preach, have heard me say these words over
and over and over again. And if you decide that this is
the church that you see the worship of Christ and that you want to
be a part of, you're going to hear me say them over and over
and over as long as God gives me the chance to stand here before
you. Things like, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. All things are for the good to
those who love God, to those that are called. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people. These are phrases that you will
hear from me over and over again. I'm telling you now, that's what
you can expect. That is my determination. They are very familiar verses
indeed, but one of these words stand out more than the rest
and is usually passed over to make the point that we read at
the end there, not of works, lest any man should boast. We
need to be very clear that works cannot get you into heaven. Doing
good deeds, serving the poor, Going to church on Sunday, Friday
night. Getting baptized. Coming to the
Lord's table. These are things that do not
save God's people. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Look at that verse again, chapter
2, verse 8. For by You see that? Oh, how quick I
have been. And I'm guilty of this, folks. This is my guilt here that I'm
sharing with you. Oh, how guilty I have been to
pass that phrase over. By grace are ye saved. By grace. To a sinner. One who has had
their true nature revealed. One who has been shown their
standing before God. One who has been revealed what
they deserve from the Almighty Creator. This Word is more important
than any other Word in all Scripture. Now that does not take anything
away from the rest of God's Word. But without this Word, grace,
and the meaning thereof, everything else would be meaningless. We are saved by grace through
faith. For by grace are ye saved. That's God's Word. You're not
saved by coming down to the front of the aisle and making a decision
for Jesus. You're not saved by exercising your free will. You're
not saved by those things that I listed off a few moments ago.
If you are saved, it is for one reason only. It is for the grace
of God that He is saving any of His people. The word is grace. For by grace
are you saved. This beautiful word simply means
unmerited favor. Something you can't earn, something
you don't deserve. In fact, just the opposite of
that, you deserve the opposite of grace. You have earned the
opposite of grace. You were born in a world of sin.
Everyone that has walked this earth other than Jesus Christ,
the Lord, has walked in sin, is born in sin, dead in trespasses
and sin. Unmerited favor. The word favor can best be described
by looking over at verse 3 of chapter 1. If you have a King
James Version, it's only one page over. Chapter 1, verse 3,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. God has blessed His chosen people
with the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
and in Christ alone. This is the favor of God to bless
His people with spiritual blessings. What, you may ask, what do I
mean that God favors people? Doesn't God love everybody? No, He favors people. He says,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Turn over to Romans chapter 8,
if you would. The fact that God favors some
and looks past others is taught throughout all of Scripture.
You're all familiar with the story of Cain and Abel, aren't
you? God favored Abel. And Cain got so jealous. How
dare God favor my brother more than me? How dare he? And he killed his brother Abel. Out of jealousy and outrage,
he killed his brother. Jealousy drove the sons of Jacob.
to sell the youngest, Jacob, a picture of God, a picture of
Christ. Had 12 sons, and the youngest
one he favored with a colored coat, a coat of many colors. And for that cause, for that
simple cause, oh no! Dad loves him and he doesn't
love us! How can we live with that? How
can we deal with that? That's not right! I'm the oldest! I'm the middle! Moms always liked
me better than dad, or than my brothers. Whatever reason you
want to use. And they sold their little brother
and told their dad he was dead. And God favored that young man. And made him the lord of all
of Egypt's monies. All the treasures of Egypt were
put in His hand. God favored all of Israel over
all the other peoples of that time. Even though they were the
smallest of all, as it says in the Old Testament, they were
just a little teeny country. They're still pretty much the
same, I think. I don't think they've really grown any over there, but God
favored a people, Israel, more than all the rest. None
of the other peoples of that world of that day, does anybody
know of anyone else that got the oracles of God? That had
the mercy seat, that had the staff that continued to bud,
all those things? The temple? Was there any of
the other ones that had that? No. God didn't dwell with any
other people but Israel, isn't it? He dwelt in the tent there
that they built? Does God favor some and not others?
Malachi 1 verse 2, you don't need to turn there. He says,
I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet you say wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord? Yet
I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his
heritage a waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Does that sound like God favored
somebody? He loved Jacob. The churches of today, if you
go into a dictionary and you look up a concordance, some of
these newer ones especially, and you look up underneath that
word hate, where it says the same thing over in Romans, if
you go over there and you look that up, not in the Old Testament,
not here, but in the New Testament, it'll say on there loved less
as one of the descriptions of that word. And then it has a
little thing in common that says inserted. That means somebody came in later
in one of the later translations and inserted something, added
something to the original meaning of that word. You go back to
the Old Testament right here in Malachi and you pull up that
same word under the old language and there is no doubt in you,
there will be no doubt in your mind. You will see God's word
hate means he hates. It will be destroyed. There is,
that is the most behemoth, I didn't say the word right. It's the
strongest kind of hate you can think of. But as all things are
with God, it's also a perfect hate. In Exodus 33, 19, and he said,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. Does God favor some and not others? Well, what about in Romans where
he says, he saith to Moses, speaking of it in Exodus, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. Does God have favor on some and
not others? Well, just to make sure that
we understand that, not only did he say that in Romans 9.15,
he says it again just two verses later, Romans 9.18, therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he harden it. There's no interpretation to
that, I think. That's as plain as anything I can see. God has
mercy on whom he will have mercy. He is gracious. To whom He will
be gracious. He has favor. On whom He will
have favor. To be favored of God is to be
blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Are you with
me in Romans 8? Verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for the good to them that love God, to them who are
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." Called according to his purpose. That's not just for pastors,
Brother Mike, although that is true. and they
must be called. The idea of an interim pastor
is so that I can be sure that this is what the Lord is calling
me to. I don't want to look at one little piece of sign when
I've been looking for six years asking, Lord, where do you want
me? And think, as exactly how he said, become a pastor at a
default. Absolutely correct. I need time to make sure this
is what I'm really being called to do, as you need time to make
sure that this is who you want to hear. Called according to His purpose
goes along with the very fact that we are called out of darkness.
We are called into the shining light of Jesus Christ, our Savior,
He who we worship, our King of Kings, Master of everything. called because of unmerited favor. Called when we didn't deserve
it. Called when we didn't even want it. So a good follow-up question
to that would be, well, if all have sinned and come short of
God, come short of the glory of God, well, why would he favor
any then? Why would God favor any of us? We don't deserve it.
Absolutely not. We all deserve to be in the same
place, in hell. Yet God has called some of us
out of that. God has given a new heart. It's
called being born again. You must be born again. That's not if, that's not well,
you know, maybe if you would be born again. That's not that
at all. Ye must be born again. That's God's Word, not mine. You must be called according
to His purpose to hear the Word of God and the truth that's in
it, as Mike had spoke of. And not all the world out there
hears the Word of God and the truth of it. A lot of people
hear what tickles their ears, what drives their fancy. And then they go home, and they're
the same people. But there are a few. There is a remnant. There
is a small amount that God has chosen unto himself. There were
2,000 in one city at one time. And then there were other times
where there was only one. The answer to why would God favor
any is very simple, for Christ's sake. Salvation is of the Lord. This
is where the word unmerited comes in. Unmerited means that you
can't earn it, you can't buy it. Anything else that you might
think of, imagine, or try, you can't. It's not yours. In fact, you deserve the opposite. Grace is grace and works is everything
else and they don't mix. If you try to add one little
thing. And that's what the world has done by saying, I exercise
my free will. God gives me the opportunity
to exercise my free will. He's given me the right to choice.
He's given me the ability to choose where I want to go. It's
my decision where my destination will go. Well, that's wrong because
you're adding a little bit of you. You're adding a little bit
of what you have done to salvation. And that makes
salvation of you and the Lord. And that's not correct. Salvation
is of the Lord, period. Jonah had to learn that the hard
way. He died in the belly of a fish. And I'm telling you, folks, I've
imagined. I've sat down and thought about that at times. This is
real. He was swallowed by a fish for
real. Some man. who has feelings, was
dying with weeds wrapped around his neck, as it says in scripture,
waves splashing over his head, and he knew he was dying. And
when God was ready, he spit him out on dry ground, and what was
the first thing he said? Salvation is of the Lord and
of the Lord alone. He had to learn it the hard way
how to go and preach to those mean and nasty Ninevites. And
they were. They were nasty people. That's
why he was scared, and he didn't want to go there in the first
place. I'm not going there, Lord. It's like going into the Hell's
Angels den down here in Sacramento and saying, what's going on,
guys? Can I ride with you? No. I don't
have enough tattoos on me. Called according to his purpose. Why would God have favor on any
for Christ's sake? Faith is a gift of God to His
elect, lest any man should boast. We do not just decide to follow
Jesus because we are smarter than we were yesterday, or because
we're tired of the way our ruined lives have been. By grace, by
the grace of God, we are called to know His mercy according to
His purpose. In John 6.44 it says, No man
can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. John 6.64 it says, But there
are some among you that believe not, for Jesus know from the
beginning who they were that believed not, and who should
betray Him. And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man
can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father.
That's God's Word. That's the Word of the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking right there. That is the horse that comes
before the cart. Salvation is of the Lord. Our
nature has bound us unto sin, unto unbelief, unto rebellion.
We do not have a nature that seeks God. We must be born again,
and with a new nature, a new heart, a new creature, as our
Lord says it. There is nothing in the old man
that God would look down upon and be pleased to see, for a
holy God cannot even look upon sin. Unmerited means that there
is nothing in our regenerated state, unregenerated state that
is worthy of God's consideration. Nothing. Why would God look down
if it was nothing to Him? That means that He looks down
on some with a very special eye. The eye of love. The love that he has for his
people. The love that he has for each
and every one of you that he has come into your hearts with. The love that he has had for
you before the world began. That's why they call him the
lamb slain before the foundation of the world. God knew that He would send His
only begotten Son to be our substitute, to make the payment, to pay the
price for our sins. That's pretty deep love. Unmerited means that there is
nothing in our unregented state that is worthy of God's consideration,
yet God has mercy on whom He will have mercy. You see, This
word in verses 29 and 30 of Romans 8, 28. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate. Predestinated. Predetermined. That's the same thing as chosen.
God says, you did not choose Me. I chose you. predestinated, predetermined.
Shows up twice, right there in 29 and 30. Whom he foreknew he
predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. God
the Father gave His Son a people before the world was, and God
the Son came to this world, born of a virgin, born of the Spirit,
walking perfectly, a walk that had no sin, no sinful flesh could
do. Everything He did was pleasing
to the Father, even the laying down His life, providing Himself
a perfect sacrifice, a perfect atonement, a perfect payment,
a full payment, Oh, blessed Redeemer, His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people. And God the Spirit goes about
calling all of those whom He has loved from before the foundation
of the world through the preaching of the Gospel. How will you know
about this Jesus if we don't preach the Gospel? That's what's important here.
This building doesn't mean nothing. It's going to all burn up in
the end. God doesn't save His people by
a building that's sitting here in this beautiful little creek
running next to it, a nice paint job. He saves His people for
Christ's sake through the preaching of His Word. How are you going
to know to call upon Him if you've never heard of it? I didn't know.
God brought me into this building and I heard about Jesus who rules
everything. Who not only rules everything
but loves me so much He gave Himself for me. Well how was
I going to know that if I didn't hear it preached? Now I know, I know that's a lot
to swallow isn't it? For forty years it was for me
too. All my life, until 1999 on my 40th birthday, I had been
around sayings like, you must come to Jesus. If you would just
stop, Johnny, if you would just stop doing those things that
get you in trouble with the law, running with those people that If you just stop doing stupid
stuff and do something smart and come to Jesus. Oh thank you Lord. That at the
age of 40 through the preaching of His gospel I was given new
ears. I was given new eyes. I was given
a new heart. I was given, I was given the
gift to believe. is a gift from God. It's unmerited favor. Not everybody
is given the gift to believe. I was made willing in the day
of His power to come to Him. This is unmerited favor. God
is gracious for Christ's sake, and for Christ's sake alone.
Because of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
God has mercy on whom He will have mercy. How can I know if
I am saved by grace? There are five points that we
call the five points of Calvinism, and not one single one of these
points can save you. So don't look at these points
and think, oh yeah, I'm saved because of that. But every single
one of these points have a part of your salvation. When God comes
to us, he teaches us that we're totally depraved. We're bankrupt. We have nothing. We come before
God, seeing our condition, seeing that we deserve to go to hell,
and we say, Lord, And the only reason we say that is because
the Lord has already started to do a work in our hearts. Before we even knew it. Lord
have mercy on me. A sinner. Depraved of everything. Unconditional
election. Not for any reason that I could
do. Not for any reason that you could do. Not for anything. God
chose a people because it was His pleasure to choose them.
Not because of anything they did, but because it pleased Him
to do so. Limited atonement. The atonement
was made by the blood of Jesus when He hung on that cross. The
payment was made in full. There is nothing left to do.
It's over. It's done. He said, Jesus said,
it is finished. And those who are going about
through this world thinking, I can do this, and I should do
this, and I should do that, I need to do this to be saved, they're
following a path of destruction. The atonement was made, and it
was made for a remnant of people. Oh, how blessed we are to be
a part of that, deserving something we have not earned. Deserving
wrath. God has mercy upon some. That
blesses me so much. Not all the sons of Jacob shall
perish. And I'm not going to say this
properly. I don't think I'm going to say it wrong, but I can't
remember exactly. But how does it go? Something to do with the
fact that the sons of Jacob shall not be consumed? That's kind
of close enough, isn't it, Mike? Because of the love of Christ.
were not consumed because of Him, because of His Atonement.
Irresistible grace. When God sheds His grace upon
His loved people, how could you resist? Especially
when He shows you what you deserve. Especially when He shows you
what you've earned. Because that grace is irresistible
because it's so great. It's the most wonderful thing
in the world. It's grace. God is having grace. Maybe on
me. Perseverance of the saints. No
matter what we go through, no matter how many times we are
in the place of David, the psalmist, saying, Lord, where are you?
Where are you today? I don't see you. I'm scared. This thing that's bothering me
in this world, it's overwhelming me. I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do with this relationship I'm having.
I don't know if I should continue here or go there. Lord, what
do I do? Where are you? How come you're
not showing me? Never fear, for I am always with
you, He says. And then, boom, he pops up and
he shows you he is still there, just as he did with David. The
Lord is my shepherd for whom I shall not want. He guided me
through pastures. Oh, what a wonderful saying that
is. That comes right after that first, that other part where
David was saying, Lord, where are you? You got the 22nd Psalm
and the 23rd Psalm. If these points mentioned resignate
from God's Word and are pressed upon your very soul, it may very
well be that God has loved you from before the foundation of
the world. It may very well be that God has sent His Son, Jesus
Christ the Lord, Creator of all things, King of kings, Lord of
lords, Ruler over all that is, to be your substitute. And if he has, then these closing
words in Romans 8 will bless your socks off, as we like to
say. Let's begin reading in verse 31. What shall we say, then, to these
things? If God be for us, then who or
what or anything else, what could be against us? If God be for
you, Polly Mary, there ain't a thing in the world that you
gotta worry about. Amen. I think we've clapped that. Don't tell Pastor Gene I did
that. Although he's gonna get a recording and I'll get a reprimand,
I'm sure. If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up. He that spared not His own Son, He who is so holy, so perfect,
so righteous, delivered His Son up for us. His Son was made sin for us that
we might be righteous before God. How shall He not? with Him also
freely give us all things. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies it.
If Christ laid down His perfect, precious, wonderful, loving blood
for the people that He loves, how could anything else be charged
to that? There is now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh the intercession
for us. I shall always be with you. He's making intercession
for us right now, even when we don't see Him. He's still sitting
on His throne right this minute, working all things out, even
if they're painful. I want to share something with
you. I had a conversation with a brother of Mara. And I'd like
you to add him in your desperate prayers. He's been married to Carol for
over 50 years. Is it over 60? Over 60, yeah. Yeah. And he said to me, he said, John,
I've never dealt with anything harder in my entire life. He's
been a cop. He was a policeman. He had to
deal with the scum of our world. He's told me some pretty nasty
stories. I've never had to deal with anything
harder in my entire life than watching the woman that I have
loved for all that amount of time become nothing more than
a shell. Lord, where are you today? That breaks my heart. But then he turned around and
he said, praise the Lord. Somehow, this is something I
got to go through. Lamar said that to me. Pray for him. He needs everything
he can get right now. Who? Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, any of those
words hit you yet? Anything look familiar to you? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all day long, we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. For Him, through Him who has
unmerited favor towards us, from Him who has loved us, For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present or things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Not even I. Not even I. And there may come a time when
I try. And there may come a time when, like Jonah, the Lord allows
me to do it. And if he does, I pray. I pray I can come out the other
side singing that wonderful song, Salvation is of the Lord. Unmerited favor is the title
of today's message, grace, I pray that the Lord blessed
you with that. I pray that the Lord might have
used his word to touch the hearts of some. Because I know in preparing
for it, he touched my heart in great ways. What amazing grace
our Lord has for us. And I think it'd be proper to
sing that song for an end of a message like that. Would you
stand with me and turn to page 203?