Come on, brother. If you will,
let's be turning to Ephesians 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Like I said,
we're going to have Sunday school in the first lesson. That's where
there's teaching. So they might not always be preaching.
They'll be teaching, and I don't see how you can preach and not
teach somebody something. I don't see how you can teach
and not preach Christ to somebody, but I think this would be really
good for you and for the, especially young folks here and the old
folks, and it's important we do so. The scriptures say, if
the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? That's
what we're given. Brother Don said this, because
I often hear people say, let's not discuss doctrine. We're gonna
look at the doctrine of unconditional election. Let's not discuss doctrine,
let's just get on with evangelism. Let's not talk about doctrine,
let's just worship the Lord. Or don't preach doctrine, just
preach Christ. That makes about as much sense
as a basketball coach saying to his team, boys, don't worry
about the baskets or the ball or those lines out there on the
court, just play basketball. You can't have basketball without
a basket, the ball, and the lines. And you can't have evangelism
and worship and Christianity without doctrine. They all go
hand in hand. They do. Here in Ephesians 1,
last week we looked at warn them of sin. I didn't give it a title,
but total, this title, total depravity. That's not just a
doctrine. That's something personal that
the Lord's people experience when the Holy Ghost is sent to
them. It's life-changing. It's life-changing. Not that
the law was too hard to keep. That's not total depravity. Not
that Satan, man, he's just a bully. No, that's not total depravity.
Not just, well, Adam died. And because of Adam, it's Adam's
fault. I'm like, No, me. Me. If God don't make this personal
to us, we'll die and perish in our sins. That's so. Unconditional election. I pray this is personal also. I pray this is individual to
each of you individually. God will make this clear. We bow to him. Bottom line up
front, before time began, as we're concerned with time, the
father willingly loved a people with an everlasting love that
would come to be born hating him, at war with him. He loved them anyway. Heathens
is what he calls them. And he chose a people to be Christ's
inheritance. That's what he tells us in the
Psalms. I'm going to give you the heathen for your inheritance.
Without anything in us, the sovereign grace, he did this.
And he put those people in Christ. Christ is their head. And he
had a physical body prepared for him to come to this earth.
And he was born of a woman, born under the law, and he lived a
perfect life. honoring the Father in all things. There ain't enough words in any
language to describe what that means. That's unfathomable. We can't understand it. That's
like being without sin. We talk about that, we ain't got a clue
what that means, because we ain't nothing but sin. There's a new
creation in us that understands Christ as whole, and we're made
like him, but we don't know what that's going to be like. And
he died, he willingly laid down his life, he gave up the ghost,
that inheritance in him, and he bore the wrath of God. We
don't really understand what that means. And he satisfied
that, all justice was satisfied, all honor was fulfilled, all
the law was fulfilled, every drop and tittle, and he rose
from that grave. Not in a hurry, not busting out
of jail, he folded the clothes, because it was right. That time
was coming and it was right. And he arose and he ascended
on high and he seated. He didn't do this for everybody.
He did that for those that were given to him. It was a people
and he's waiting for that last saint to be brought home for
that fullness of time. And in this world is going to
be over and we're going to have a big old feast, a wedding feast. Is there such a thing as election?
I thought about this more when I was getting ready. I've been
talking to people about this for 29 years. This ought to be easy for me.
Ought to be. Peter said, elect, when he wrote
his first epistle, he was addressing the people. He said, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit. Well, who does sanctifying? just
as plain as that there's an elect. Unto obedience and sprinkling
of blood of Jesus Christ's grace unto you in peace be multiplied.
Peter was writing to the elect. The Lord said this in Isaiah
45, he said, for Jacob, my servant, remember the total depravity
comes first. What's Jacob called? A worm. You worm, Jacob. And all the
worm Jacob say, that's right, I'm a worm. He said, Israel,
mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed
thee, though thou hast not known me. You wasn't looking for me.
You didn't care. You didn't even know what a holy
God was, but I've surnamed you. I love that. I've given you my
last name. I've said that before. That's
why, why do women, and I want my girls to hear this, you get
married, you take that man's name. If you won't take his name,
don't take him. That's horrible, because the Lord gave us a name.
His son's name is the Lord Our Righteousness. In Jeremiah 33,
16, it said, In the days, Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem
shall dwell swiftly. And this is the name whereby
she shall be called the Lord Our Righteousness. He gave us
his last name. I say how we dress is important,
because that's our gospel. Well, how we take our names is
important. That's our gospel, too. We've
been given our husband's name. Not everybody underneath the
sun. I ain't married to every woman. I'm married to one. He
has one body. A lot of members, one body, don't
he? This is throughout this book.
Some will admit, I've talked to many over the years, they'll
say, yeah, the Bible does talk about election. And some will
even say the Bible's really plain, about every page throughout. The Bible's plain that there's
a people and that that people's God's people and not everybody's
that people. But just like Pharaoh, we'll look at next hour, their
hearts are hardened. Their hearts are hardened. And
they willfully reject the Lord, and they willfully reject His
means, His doctrine, that points to Christ, and those that preach
it. Some say God looked throughout
time, and He saw who would choose Him. And so he chose those people
and said, well, that's close enough. We can just forget about
the bad stuff and eat on the good stuff at this place. That's
a lie. You know, in finance, that's
illegal in our country. It's called insider trading.
People went to prison for that. Would not the judge of the earth
do right? Are he going to cheat? Get him a crystal ball at Mama
Cleo and look down through time and find out who's going to kill
him? No. That's horrible. Who would think such a thing?
Some say. Well, for them to be elect, the Lord saved us against
our will. Amen. Amen. I didn't want nothing to
do with him. I didn't know him to want something
to do with him, and I wanted it my way. You know, that's,
man often confuses, mankind, everybody born of Adam, confuses
having our way with our will. Having it my way, that's just
a desire from my will that originates in my instinct and my true nature. I can't do nothing but that nature.
We call it unconditional election. Not just election, unconditional
election. That means there was no conditions.
There was nothing in that object of His grace that warranted,
merited, desired anything. No conditions, none. But God
chose them anyway. If the tea and tulip is revealed,
if it's a work of God, if God convicts us of sin, that's me personally, then this
you, this unconditional election is fabulous news. It's wonderful
news. Mankind gets so, I don't even
know if I got it in my notes today. Mankind gets so mad that, well,
how could God hate Esau? Now, if he reveals sin to us,
we'll say, how could he love Jacob? We're starting to learn
something about God. Instead of learning something
about what mommy and daddy said, and we've been playing church
our whole lives. People in funny outfits, we're starting to learn
what God says. And we'll say, how could he learn, how could
he love Jacob? How could he? How could a man
be just with God? Now we're getting somewhere.
And then this is good news. Like nobody, Lord wouldn't save
anybody, but he chose to save some. A rim, you know what a
rimnet is? It's a scrap piece of clothing,
scrap piece of fabric. And he sewed us all together
and ain't no seams. Few, few. Well, I just think
there's a whole lot of people out there and they're saved too.
God said few. Is he lying or you? He said,
few, few there be that find a remnant. Now, a little bit, a handful. His hand, we have no idea. Sands of the sea, uncountable,
isn't it? Stars of heaven, stars in the sky. Here in Ephesians
1. Verse three, 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, after this manner, here's the
way he did it, it's according to, according as he hath chosen
us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. He chose a people, he put them
in Christ, before the world was, and he did it out of love. Here's
the unconditional part. Verse five, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Well, it was because, you know,
this is probably the best one, or these were the easiest ones
to fix, or no, because he wanted to, just because he wanted to. ought to know the will of God.
What a thought. That he knows our frame, and
that he would look upon us, and he'd say, I love him. Put him
in my son. I want him made just like him.
And that he'd just be excited and say, well done, my good and
faithful servant. That's jaw-dropping. That's love, isn't it? What will
that result in? People say, that ain't kind.
Well, what's God say? Verse six, to the praise of the
glory of his grace. If God's grace, he said, I'll
be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. I'll have mercy to whom I'll
show mercy. And I'm going to do all that. Him being gracious
and him being merciful is putting us in the cleft of the rock,
is putting us in Christ. Will the thing formed say to
him that formed it, what are you doing? Who are we to reply against
God? This is to the praise of his
glory, of his grace. wherein he hath made us. Did we choose it? He made us
accepted in the beloved. Now words mean things, don't
they? The Lord speaks plainly and clearly. He made us accepted. How clear is that? The Lord saved
the people. He put them in Christ. It was
his will to do so. He was gracious in doing so.
He gets all the praise for doing so. And Christ gets all the praise
for redeeming us. And we're just thankful. Lord's people are happy about
that. Not sad. They're happy. So is believing in election salvation? There was a time in my life I
thought that. I thought, well, people believe in election. They're
like me. That's God's people. Does believing
in election mean you are saved? The Pharisees believed in election,
didn't they? They sure did, a lot of people do. Over in John 8,
they answered him, said, Abraham's our father. And Jesus said, if
you were Abraham's children, if you were the seed of Abraham,
true Israel, and he said, if you were, either you are or you
ain't, you would do the works of Abraham.
But now you seek to kill me, a man that's told you the truth.
I told you the truth, why are you mad at me? Paul asked the
same thing, didn't he? I tell people the truth and sometimes
people get mad at me. Why? Now you seek to kill me,
a man that told you the truth, which I've heard of God. We'll
see it next hour too. I ain't telling you my opinion
of what I think, I just tell you what God says. Abraham didn't
do that. The common people heard him gladly.
They were happy about it. They said, this is good news.
I needed good news. He said, you do the deeds of
your father. That physical nation Israel was
raised up to show us and typify that spiritual kingdom of Israel. I said, Lord said, I've given
nations for you. Nation. And he raised up those,
there was some spiritual Israel and physical Israel. but the
Lord raised that up, we're going through Exodus, and he did all
those things to show us what he does for and in, and will
do for his spiritual Israel. Paul said, it's not as the word
of God taking on effect. For they are not all Israel which
are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham,
that physical seed, are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. He says, not natural birth that
does this, and that's in believing families too. My grandfather was a believer.
My mom and dad were believers. I'm a believer by God's grace. And you know, I pray earnestly
for my children. Now the Lord's benefited you
all for having, you have believe in mommy and daddy, but the Lord
still has to save, don't he? It's been Isaac. That's that
one that was promised, that one that was miraculous, not of man's
doing. Are you sure? Am I? He said, that is, Paul doubles
down, explains it clearly. They which are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God. People's worried to death of
what's going on in Palestine and Israel today. Why don't you
shut up and hear what God has to say? Stop spinning yourself
up in conspiracy theories and what's floating in the sky or
what ain't floating in the sky and hear what God has to say.
He said, there it is, these are the children of flesh. These
are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed. The ones that he promised that
he was gonna do the work. That's a circumcision of the
heart. We have a new spirit put in us and we worship God in the
spirit. That's a spiritual people. They worship God in the spirit.
They rejoice in Jesus. They're happy about Jesus Christ.
And they have no confidence in the flesh. I just left, I can't
do it by myself. Left to myself, this is all hogwash. I rejoice in Him and I worship
God in the Spirit because of Him. He's done it. Look over
in Luke 4. I think we have time. Luke 4. Verse 24. And He said, Verily I say unto
you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Luke 4, verse
25, but I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in
the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years
and six months, when great famine was throughout the land, but
unto none of them was Elijah sent save unto Sarepta, the city
of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. He's telling us to those
Pharisees, to those ones that thought they were the elect.
And he said, you know what? There's a whole nation there.
There's three years of drought, three and a half years of drought.
And I didn't send my prophet to nobody but a Gentile widow.
You had a bunch of widows, but I didn't send my people to them.
I sent him to this one, this reptile. Verse 27, and many lepers
were in Israel at the time of Elisha the prophet, and none
of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian. Remember us looking
at that? That general from another country, that Gentile. No lepers
were cleansed in that time, except for Naaman. He said, that's my
people. My people's the one I send my
preachers to, and that it's effectual. and they're happy, and they rejoice
in Christ. They have new hearts put in them.
They just say live. Elijah didn't know if it was
Naaman or somebody else. He didn't know. He had the same
message regardless. He just gave it, didn't he? And all day in the synagogue.
Isn't that good news? If I was a widow, I'm about to starve
to death, and the Lord said, I'm gonna send my spirit to you,
and I'm gonna feed you and take care of you, we'd say thank you.
If we was a leper, even if we was a big old general who happened
to be a leper, and the Lord said, no, you're a leper that happens
to be a general, but I'm gonna cure you. Oh, cures for a leprous
heart. Wouldn't we be thankful? He said,
I chose him. They didn't know what was going
on. They had nothing but problems. He's a fool. But I loved him
before time. He was in Christ. I revealed
my son to him. That's good news, isn't it? That's
good news to God's people. Natural man hates it. Look at
verse 28. And all day in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath.
They said, get him outside, there's a cliff over there, throw him
off of it, kill him. We ain't gonna have this. Where's
all that come from? That's like with the Gnostics,
we looked at last time. The problem with that, a man
don't think there's two natures and it's as if Christ was made
sin. The whole, all that boils down
to one thing. That person ain't sin. Total depravity hasn't been
revealed to them. So we ought not applaud them,
we ought to pray for them and preach the gospel to them, warn
them. And then if the Lord uses that
to crush them, then we say, good, guess what? You're hopeless,
God chose people. There's hope. How do I know if
it's his? Do you love his son? Do you love
him or you hate him? Time's short, I'll cut to the
chase. Do you love him or do you hate him? Why, I love him
less. God calls that hate, it's one
or the other. Do you have to have him or is something else
more important? Somebody was sick one time, my
pastor said, they missed church, he said, did you go to the grocery
store? Yeah, I thought you was sick. Well, I had to get groceries.
If you can go to work, you can go to church. Which dad always
said, if you're well enough to go to a doctor, you're well enough
to go to work. That's how I'll die. He said, that's what the
guy ambulance is for. They'll take you to work. Election is unto salvation. It's not salvation, and it's
believing in it ain't salvation. Believing in Christ is salvation.
But election is the means the Lord used. Confession is unto,
that's what scriptures say. Confession's unto salvation.
Adoption, we just read it, is unto salvation. These scriptures,
these can make us wise unto salvation. And on and on and on. It's throughout
the scriptures, isn't it? Pharisees believed in election
and many others too, but it's not unto salvation. So what's
salvation? What is it? That's a good question, isn't
it? Being in the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing him. And that's not
just knowing about some dude named Jesus, as most common people
flippantly throw his name around. Knowing the Lord Jesus Christ
and loving the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what being saved is. People
say, I'm saved. What do you mean by that? Here's
what God means. He said, this is life eternal.
That they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sinned. Know him, understand him, love
him, be one with him. Who is in Christ? Who is it that's
had him revealed in them, or is going to, because we're trapped
in time. Some of them ain't been born
yet, maybe, I don't know. That's God's elect, isn't it? His sheep,
his sheep. He told us once, he said, you
don't follow me, you don't hear me, because you're not of my
sheep. My sheep follow me. My sheep are herd animals. They
get together. They look to me. He will lose
none. Those names who are written in
that Lamb's Book of Life. It says in John 6, 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. And this
is the Father's will. Here's what Almighty God has
purposed, that all of which he hath given me I should lose nothing. God elected the people. Period. And he won't lose one.
If that's everybody underneath of Adam, if one soul goes to
hell, and we know there have been, he's a fraud. We ought not believe him. He
has a people given to him, and he's going to raise them up at
the last day. I got four questions. These are old questions, and
they're good questions. Lady was telling a preacher one time,
she said, oh, I'm a Christian. I've been saved. He said, really?
He said, did God do it on purpose, or did you surprise him? That's
elementary, isn't it? We're getting down to foundations.
Did he do it on purpose? Remember last week, us looking
there at Exodus 6? This ain't a doctrine, this is
a person. He said, I will, seven I wills. I will, I will, who
did the saving? God saved his people and he did
it on purpose. Purpose. Boy, if we could get
that, if we had our eyes locked on a sovereign God who's holy,
we ought to walk through this earth just grinning ear to ear
and happy about everything. Period. Nobody pulled a wool over his
eyes. He's on his throne, and the more we know him, the more
we grow in understanding and grace, it's hard to when you're
a baby. As he grows us over trial and trial and trial and trial
again, we'll get where the trial comes, it hits heavy, and we
say, well, Lord's in it. I don't want to go through it. I recently
went through a trial, 30 seconds into it, I said, I got to listen.
I've learned, Lord, I see what you're teaching me. Mission accomplished. And then I had about three hours
left. And I said, if you could just go ahead and end this now,
it'd be great. I got the lesson. The lesson never changed. I did.
I got it. I won't make that mistake again. Lord taught me something.
He was a good teacher. He was effectual. But I had to
set foot. That was time. Did God choose
you, or did you choose God? The scriptures say, you have
not chosen me, but I've chosen you. People say, well, I chose
to believe on Christ. No, you didn't. You're lying.
At best, you're ignorant and you can't word it no better.
At best. And that's liberal. God had to
choose me. It's the only hope I got. I wouldn't
have. I'd have chose me instead of
him. He chose me. When did God choose
you? Well, sanctification is an act
that takes place upon the believing of the church. Ah, hush! I'm
about sick of theologians. Everybody's an armchair quarterback.
And when it comes to gospel, nobody'll attend church and nobody'll
give any ear to any of God's messengers. Sick of it. Put plainly. Bold. Looked at Wednesday night.
Tell me plainly. When did God choose you? After
you chose him? Well, we know that didn't happen.
Ephesians 1 forces, he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, before time was. We read, where's that name written
down? It's in that Lamb's Book of Life. We're reading Revelation
21. It said, they're showing no wise
enter into that God's kingdom. Nobody can enter into his presence.
Anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie. That cannot be in God's presence.
That means it's done those things or has the potential to do those
things. But here's those that can't enter into his presence.
Those that they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. Well,
did he write them down after the fact? I know the seal's gotta
be opened or something. It'll be a long time before we
go through Revelation. Here's another wording of it
in Revelation 13. The book of life of the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. We talk about the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world? That's directly attached to the
book of life. Wouldn't that take place before we was ever on the
scene? Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. He saved his people. For why did God choose a people?
Look here in Ephesians 1 again, verse 5. having predestinated us into
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. He made us. This is to his praise,
the praise of his grace. He was gracious to do these things
in his son, and because of that, We don't have the capacity to
be accepted. He said made, done. There's therefore now, did Paul
say now? Lord use Paul right now. There's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. That's right now. He said so. It also says accepted in the
beloved. What a thought. He's the Lord's elect. It says
in Isaiah 42, behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect. People
don't believe in the God of election. They don't believe in Christ
and they don't believe in God. He said, I chose Christ. Said Psalm
2, I put my people in him. Explains it clearly here in Ephesians
1. And he said, I'm going to send the Holy Ghost to them through
the foolishness of preaching by somebody I've already revealed
myself to, to tell them about it, plainly, just as simply as
they can. Christ is the Lord's elect and
we're in him and we're accepted by the beloved. When it comes
time for the believer to close their eyes, the last time on
this earth, and we exhale for the last time on this earth,
we have the first inhale and the last exhale. We ought not
be afraid at all. No more afraid than taking a
nap. We don't have yet afforded the luxury of naps, but if that
day comes, I wouldn't be afraid to take a nap. I'd be excited.
It's going to feel good. How much more so if we believe
what he says? Is he lying? No, he's faith witness. What's the outcome of those that
the Lord chooses to call to Christ and give life to? Peter said,
you can turn and close. First Peter. Chapter 2, verse 9, 1 Peter 2, 9. But ye
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation,
a peculiar people. That's wonderful, isn't it? That,
that ye. We didn't just do these things
and we're all gonna sit around high five all day and talk about how good we
got it. that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light." When we come
in contact with these things, as we go through these doctrines
that all point to the doctrine of Christ, I pray he'll make
us show forth his praises. We don't just say, that's right,
that's accurate. through logical discernment,
I can tell you that's what that text means. But it'd make us
happy, and our common people would gladly receive it, and
we'd click our heels together and thank God for it. Thank God
for it. And then that's in all things.
If we're in absolute misery, I mean rock bottom, and all we
can do is cry out to God. Thank you. Thank you. That's a special place to be.
Lord's done it. It's good, isn't it? Because
he's good. That's why. All right. That's pretty good. Father, be with us. Lord reveal Christ to your people
and those that see him and know him. Make us see him again and
the wonderful works and his person and the grace that you've showed
us. Lord have your spirit with us
and comfort your people and give them plainness and confidence
in that boldness. What a Savior we have, Lord,
to willingly redeem such a people. Make us thankful. Make us happy,
Lord. Give us contentment in your providence
and in your creation and your salvation. And keep us to that
day till we're made like him and his sins put away, never
to be spoke of again, never to smell again, as you promised
you will. It's only because of Christ we
ask these things. Amen. All right, we'll meet back
at 1030.