Thank you all for having me back.
It's a pleasure. You took good care of me the
first time I was here, and so far taken good care of me now.
I trust it will stay that way. If you would, open your Bibles
to Romans chapter 8. I know many of you all have probably
heard this story, and if you have, I apologize, I'll tell
it again. There's a reason why the bulk of us are here. And
many people that I know are here, they came under the sound of
the gospel. In the 1950s, in Ashland, Kentucky, they had a
Bible conference at Pollard Baptist Church. And they hired an evangelist
to come and preach. His name was Rolf Barnard. And
they knew he was an evangelist. They didn't know what he was
going to say, and they didn't know who he was going to preach either. And he came,
and there was a young assistant pastor there by the name of Henry
Mahan. And he told him to stand up and quote Romans 8.28. And
Henry stood up and he said, We know that all things work together
for good to them that love God. And he sat down. And Rolfe said,
Son, don't you know the rest of it? He said, Stand up and
quote the rest of it. So he said, We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. And Henry sat down. And Rolfe
said, Purpose. Purpose and he screamed they
said it took the shingles off the roof. He yelled atop his
lungs purpose He said young man if you know something He said
you go home and you ask the Lord to show you what his purpose
is God does everything on purpose Henry at home and Lord showed
him a gospel and I heard the gospel through Henry my pastor
heard the gospel through Henry He was my pastor for a long time
several of you've heard him. He's been a blessing to all of
us and so I don't think I could out-preach this passage of Scripture,
but I think it'd help us to look at it. If we'll look at Romans
8, we'll begin in verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good. That's called providence. To
them that love God, to them who are thee called according to
His purpose. We call that election. Verse
29, 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,
then He also called. And whom He called, then He also
justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified. So what shall we say, shall we
then say to these things? If God be for us, Who can be
against us? Now many people quote this text
and they don't know what the meaning of the words are. They
arrange their lives around this concept and they set their motivations
and their hearts from these words, but they do it in error. They
don't know what it means. Most people want to argue over
these precious words. without understanding what God's
meaning of these words are. So I got this advice many years
ago, and it rang true then, rings true today, and I trust the Lord
to let this earth be here, it will ring true in the future,
is that it would benefit all of us if we would stick to Bible
terms. So what does that mean? If we
could determine what the Lord means and says in His Word, then
we can have a conversation with people that have worth and glorify
the Lord. And if people had a falling out
with us, if they disagreed with us and got mad at us, they would
get mad over what the Lord says in His word, not what Kevin Thacker
said that He said in His word. And so if we could do that, then
we would have the foundation of communication. We would have
the same meaning and context for the words. So what does those
things mean? So meaning, a good example of
that is the word receive. We live in a very privileged
society. We've got a lot of nice things,
and we have it easy in this country. We're not persecuted. But we
think, especially in this holiday time, you receive a gift at Christmas. Well, you could quite easily
give that gift back. I'm gluten intolerant or whatever, you know,
I can't eat that. But you can turn a gift away.
That's not the meaning of the word. The meaning of receive
is like this cup of water. If I took a picture and I poured
water in that, that glass received water. In fact, people could
argue that. So when I was a young child,
my mother had an old lamp, a glass, old burning lamp up in the attic.
She said, don't you go in that attic. You will break that lamp.
And what did I do? I went and had it, I knocked
the lamp over, it broke, and I received a butt spanking. Now I could have denied the butt
spanking, right? No. No, I received it. That's
what you get. That's the meaning of words are
important and the context is tremendously important as well.
So recently my youngest daughter, Clay, was preaching on Christ's mother Mary being a
virgin. Christ was born of a virgin.
And so our youngest daughter, she's only seven, she asked my
wife, so what does a virgin mean? And so Kimberly took her aside
and at the age appropriate level explained it to her. And everything
was fine. But two weeks later, our older
daughter came in, who's 12, and said, Mommy, what does, they're
in the kitchen by themselves, what does virgin mean? And she
said, well, I'm gonna have to address this. This is, obviously,
it's a conversation behind the scenes. So she, at age-appropriate
level, went into it and explained it to her. And after three or
four minutes of just an awkward conversation, that's hard on
a parent, my daughter looked at her and scrunched her face
up, and she said, what does that have to do with olive oil? She
meant virgin olive oil. Well, context is very important. We have to understand how that
applies, don't we? So I hope if you'll bear with
me today, we can look at the meaning and context of election,
providence, and predestination. I pray that we can see the meaning
individually, and then we can see how the context of all three
of those affect sinners. Many of the old commentators
used these words interchangeably. They would say election, predestination,
and providence, and one meaning the other, and they would use
them all at once. And I wouldn't fault a man over
using a word wrong. I'm going to go over three words,
and I'll probably say ten words wrong. So I wouldn't, if the
message is crossed, I wouldn't steer clear of him, and I wouldn't
throw it away because he might have got a word wrong. But I
think it would help us See Christ clear and better explain what
His works are, what He's done, if we could get a good grasp
on these three words. So first we'll look at election.
God's elective grace is not predestination. It's two separate things. Election
has to do with who the Lord saves through Christ. With the persons
that He's accomplished the work in. Those who are redeemed by
the blood of Christ. Those who are regenerated by
the Spirit. Those who will spend eternity
in communion with Almighty God. That's men and women. That's
who. God did not cast a vote for us. It's not that type of
election. We're not incumbents. We're not up for re-election
either, are we? But before the earth came into existence, God
chose a people for Christ to save. Not one more than He chose
and not one less than He chose will be with Him in glory. The
exact number. Humans in our natural state cannot
stand that fact. Why is that? It takes salvation
out of the hands of men and it puts it solely in our Redeemer.
We don't like that by nature. Men will pound a fist on stuff
and say, that's not fair. I don't have a chance. But that's
not what the scriptures say. The Lord says in his word that
he's going to save a few and the rest of them are left to
the eternal damnation that they've deserved, they've earned in Adam.
The only reason man won't bow to that is because he wants to
have all the glory in salvation and not God have it. He thinks
he can do something to pull himself up by his bootstraps and make
himself better because he wants to be equal with God. And we
think those things because we can't see truly what we are unless
the Lord shows us what we are. Spiritually, we're dead. Dead. Dead men don't do anything, do
they? My lungs are breathing right
now, air is going in and out of me. I might be physically
alive, but spiritually, all men at birth are dead. Left outside
of God's power, we don't know how weak we are, and we don't
know how strong Christ is. Some men try to keep the law,
or they get you to try to keep the law, and they think that's
salvation. But Adam, who wasn't holy, he
was morally innocent. He had never committed a sin,
but he had the ability to sin. But he had never known any wrong.
He had one rule. Don't eat of that tree. Now,
he wasn't starving. He didn't have an excuse. He
wasn't hungry. He had plenty to eat, everything
else. Adam couldn't keep one rule. How in the world am I going
to be able to keep... And people nowadays only focus on the Ten
Commandments. Read through Leviticus. They got some wild stuff in there
that I wouldn't even imagine would be a rule. It didn't occur
to me that. But if He couldn't keep that, what makes me think
I could keep anything? I know better. Let's turn to
John chapter 6. John chapter 6, we'll begin in
verse 44. It says, No man can come to me
except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up in the last day. It is written in the prophets
that they shall be all taught of God. And every man therefore
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
They have to hear and they have to be taught. They have to learn
of the Father. And then they come to Him. Let's turn over
to John 17. John 17, verse 6. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them. And they have known surely that
I came out of thee, and they have believed that thou didst
send me. I pray for them." For who? For everyone? No, those that
He sent, those that He gave to Him. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. Now,
if we're going to get mad over something, don't be mad at me
over what God says in His Word. You're not mad at me, you're
mad at the Lord. That's what He said. Jeremiah 31.3 says, "...the Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee." He pulls you. We'll look over Romans 9
real quick. I'm sorry, I'll have you all
turn in a bunch this evening. It'll keep us all awake. I won't go to sleep, you might.
Romans chapter 9, beginning at verse 13. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I loved a little less. No, that's not
what it says, is it? Jacob have I loved, and Esau
I really want to love me, and I'm praying that he does love
me. No. It says, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. What shall we say then? What
would somebody say to something like that? That's not fair. Is
there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Why would he do something like
that? Read on. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."
God loved the people for His glory. We're the beneficiaries
of that. I don't pretend to be able to
discern who Christ's sheep are and who's not. It's not our business
to separate the wheat from the tares. There are internal proofs
that can be assurances to those that believe that we are His.
Clay's actually preaching on 1 John right now. He's done four
sermons in a row on believing on Christ and love of the brethren.
And you think you hear the same message four times, four Thursdays
in a row, but it's a blessing every time. That's assurance.
That's two things I can't do. I can't choose to believe something.
If I'm a Chevy man, I can't love Ford. I can act like I can drive
one, but I don't believe that's the best. I can't change my mind
on what I believe. And I can't choose to love someone. There
are some big figures in history, in the past, they put you in
a room and said, you have to love that person. Oh, good luck. I couldn't do it. Maybe you can.
But the doctrine of God's sovereign election is not a litmus test
for us to judge one another. but rather it's a foundation
of God's eternal purpose, and it's a declaration of His mercy
towards hell-deserving sinners. It's a promise of hope. Jeremiah
1-4 says, Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before
I form thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest
forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations." If you get you a Strong's Concordance, if
you have one or borrow one off somebody, you can probably look
it up on the internet nowadays. And look up Covenant. And just read
down through there, because it gives you a short partial sentence
where that word is used. And it says, I will make a covenant,
and I will provide, and I will do this. The Lord is speaking
to us. He establishes the covenant. He gives it to us. He sustains
us through it. And He is the end state of it.
And a covenant is a promise. A promise is only good as a person
that can keep it. We have a good one that's the only true God
is the one that's keeping our promises for us. Because He foreknew
us. It's foreknowledge. The word
we use foreknowledge comes from what we use nowadays in medicine,
prognosis. It's the same Greek word. It's
an outcome. God, there's an air, there's a heresy in modern religion
when people come to this in the text. And they say, well, election
is the Lord looked down the corridor of time and He said, Mark, you're
going to believe on me. And so I'm going to elect you.
And then that's who the elect are. Our Lord is sovereign. He's not a fortune teller. He
doesn't do these things. It's not like a video game where
he's got a cheat code. He purposed it. And so when someone
says something like that, I ask them, did the Lord save you on
accident or did He save you on purpose? Think about that. Who's in control? Who's the one
in need? Do you need Christ or does Christ
need you? I think He's got a people. Let's
turn over to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter 1 beginning verse 18. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold
from your vain conversations received by traditions from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him
up from the dead, and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God." So how do we believe? It just says there in
verse 21, who by Him, who by Christ. We believe by Christ. He believes for us and gives
it to us. Spirit comes into us. When we're made to believe on
Him, we have life in us. So is spiritual life, is that
an option? The spiritual birth and the natural birth mirror
each other beautifully. We were talking earlier about
seeds and nature. Christ is a God of creation.
And you look all around and it echoes His worthiness and His
perfection and how we should desire Him. But you look at a
seed that reflects what the Spirit does in us. And a natural birth
reflects what a spiritual birth is. You didn't choose your parents.
You didn't choose to be born. A good example, like Kimberly
and I, we have four children. And our youngest one, we were
in Kansas whenever she was due, she was 42 weeks. She knows how
many days, she'll tell you. She was pregnant, I wasn't. But
she was overdue, like she was all the other ones. And we did
the turkey two-miler for the, there on the post, we ran two
miles. She jogged two miles, she was two weeks overdue. And
we did acupressure. I think in some way I was supposed
to just rub her feet. But the spots on the foot you're supposed
to push. And she drank castor oil. She'd do anything to try
to get that baby out of her. But it's the Lord that separates
a child from his mother's womb, isn't it? That baby couldn't
come out, we couldn't get it out. So that's how we get life
at Mears. Look back in John 11. Lazarus
was not given the chance to live again. The Lord didn't really,
really want Lazarus to choose to let Christ to bring him out
of that grave. God Almighty speaks and it's so. That's how it works. John 11, we'll get in verse 41. John 11, 41. Then they took away
the stone from the place where the dead was laid. 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." Now he's
saying out loud, he's praying to the Father, because he knows
he's in communion with the Lord all the time. When we pray, we
don't have to say it out loud. If you're at a restaurant and
you've got to roll up on the wall, I think California's like
New Jersey. They may have a rule up, you
can't pray in public, I don't know. But you don't have to say
it out loud, you can commune inside your heart. That's what
the cross did. But he's saying it out loud so
we could hear, so we could understand what he was doing. Verse 43,
and when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus,
come forth. And he that was dead came forth.
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them, Loose
him, let him go. That's how the Lord saves people.
He comes to them, He finds men and women where they are, and
He conquers them. And He says, Live, and they live. So that brings us next, how would
He do something like that? How does all that come to pass?
The next word is providence. Providence is the means by which
the Lord God Almighty accomplishes His will. It's the acting out
of His purpose. And it is ever present and continuing. Providence is not a hit and miss
divine intervention. It's a constant and complete
execution of the Lord's desire. It's His will come into fruition.
Divine intervention. We're not The pilot of the boat,
we're not the captain of the boat, and then whenever we get
in rough waters, then we switch out, and Cross steers the boat,
and then he goes back to being co-pilot. No. He controls everything. He controls everything in election,
and creation, and providence, and salvation, and sanctification. And no one lets him. That's an
oxymoron. People say it back home all the
time. Let God. Let go and let God. That's blasphemy. What kind of nonsense is that?
As a child, that's the definition of God. Our God is God. He does
what he wills in the armies of heaven, doesn't he? Romans 11.36
says, For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things,
to whom be glory forever. Amen. So of Him, He created all
things. Through Him, He controls everything. And to Him, He's going to get
all the glory. Christ is completely sovereign
in all things. Let's turn to Job 37. Job 37, verse 5. God thundereth marvelously with
His voice. Great things doeth He, which
we cannot comprehend. For He saith to the snow, Be
thou on the earth, likewise the small rain to the great rain
of His strength. He sealeth up the hand of every
man, that all men may know His work. Then the beasts go into
the dens and remain in their places. Out of the south cometh
the whirlwind, and the cold out of the north. By the breadth
of God, frost is given, and by the breadth of the waters is
straightened." It's frozen. Maurice Montgomery used to say, folks
would comment on that, and they would say, well, that's just
natural things. We don't think that much of it. You can't do
it, can you? Read on, verse 11, "...also by
watering he weareth a thick cloud, he scattereth his bright cloud,
and it is turned round about by his counsels, that they may
do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in
the earth. He causes it to come whether
for correction, or for his land, or for mercy." So how does man
respond to something like that? Luke 14. Hearken unto this, O
Job. Stand still and consider the
wondrous works of God. If humans had any sense at all,
we would stand back and say, what a God. You don't have to
turn to these. You can probably quote them better
than I can. But Ephesians 1.11 says, Him who worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will. Matthew 10.29 says, are
not two sparrows sold for a farling? And one of them shall not fall
to the ground without your father, but the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Nebuchadnezzar said in Daniel
4, And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
and he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? For in Him an axis,
for in Him we live and move and have our being. So the Lord is
able. And by His will and to the glory
of His graciousness and mercy, He picked a people out of the
group that was set for damnation. And He put them on the earth
and He controls absolutely everything in our lives and around us to
ensure that we are brought under the sound of the gospel. And
we're drawn to Christ after we're taught of Him. So what does that
leave us with? What's the culmination? He chose
a people and He hedged them about. Once He does that, what does
He do with them? Our last word is going to be predestination.
Here's our end state. And I'll try to be just as plain
as I can. Predestination is a sinner being
made exactly like Christ. It is the elect becoming the
spitting image of Christ. I don't know if y'all ever heard
that. Spitting image. My youngest son, they say he's
the spitting image of me. That's Southern slang for spirit
and image. He has my spirit and he looks
like me. He thinks the way I do and he
looks like me. We're going to have the spitting
image of Christ. We're going to have his spirit
and we're going to be like him. It's pretty because it was determined
before the foundation of the world and it's a destination.
Our destination is Christ. There's so many people tied up
and they want to go to heaven. They don't know what heaven is.
Heaven just happens to be where Christ is. That's where my heart
desires to be when this life is over. I want to be with him.
1 John 3 says, Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he
shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as
he is. If we are to be made like Christ,
what is Christ truly like? Some of the most beautiful poetry
that you could write of him has been quoted in Psalm 45, saying,
Now loveth righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore,
God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. I want to love righteousness. I want to hate wickedness. The only way to come into the
presence of God the Father is to be holy. And we are made holy
by Christ's accomplished work. We're almost finished up. Let's
turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 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. We can't earn
another crown. We can't get another jewel in
our crown. We can't get another room added
to our mansion, because He's already given us all spiritual
blessings in heaven in Christ. Verse 4, according as He hath
chosen us in Him, in Christ before the foundation of the world.
He's chosen us. It's election. To what end? That
we should be holy. That's sanctification. And without
blame. That's justification. Before
Him, for God the Father in love. Verse 5. Having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. according to the good pleasure
of His will, and to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." He's made us accepted
in the Beloved. That's how we're made, in Christ.
That's how we're accepted, from what He's done. As a side note,
I hear people say a lot of times that God loves everyone, and
He loves unconditionally. Or they say they unconditionally
love their children, or their spouse, or their dog, or whatever
they can find. There is no such thing as unconditional
love. God Almighty requires perfection
to be in His presence. And the only one that can do
that, the only one that can provide that, is His Son. God loves us
on the basis and the merit of what Christ performed. Colossians
1.21 says, And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight, being made holy. That's predestination. To be
made like Christ. Christ is holy. Can you become
more holy? That's something in our area,
maybe it's regionalized, that people say you've got to increase
in holiness. You're either holy or you're not holy. That water
either has poison in it or it don't. A woman's either pregnant
or she's not pregnant. At one day or nine months, you
have a child and you're pregnant. You're not pregnant, you're pregnant,
and then you have a child. You can't become more holy. It's
a state. So we've seen the meaning of
election, it's who the Lord chose and only who He chose. We've
seen providence, that's the execution of His will completely in everything. And predestination is being made
like Christ. So what's the context of these
three words? How does that affect us? God chose a people out of
the nation of Adam before the earth was, and every molecule
and every raindrop throughout history has moved according to
His will to bring us to know Christ through the preaching
of the gospel. And then He's going to make us like Christ,
and we'll spend eternity in His presence with His holiness and
perfection. So in our text back in Romans
8, it must be the last time we turn, Romans 8 verse 30, Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?" So if everyone has
the same understanding of God's words, what these things mean,
If we're all on the same page of what those words are, and
someone wants to argue election with you, they want to fight
over election, they don't think they need to be elected. That's
why they're mad. If someone gets mad over his
providence, they want to have the power and authority that
only God has. And if someone wants to put a believer down
because they believe in predestination, if they truly understand what
predestination is, they don't want to be made like Christ.
So is that what you believe? Do you need to be called because
you cannot come to Christ? Has He ordained your footsteps
and hedged you about to bring you to see your sinful flesh
and to show you that Christ has made a full atonement for you?
Has He given you the desire to be made like Christ? If He has,
that's good news, isn't it? That's what salvation is. And
you know it when it's effectual. It became effectual when God
spoke it. If you remember on the Mount of Transfiguration,
Moses and Elijah came down. They were already in heaven.
Christ hadn't died yet. The Father said, these are your
people. I'm going to make them just like you. You're going to
die for them. You're going to live for them and die for them. That moment,
I was with Him. And so at the end, someday when
I draw my last breath, I'll see Christ face to face. I'll be
made like Him. And I realize this whole time
I've been with Him. We've been one. Won't that be
something? I pray it's a blessing to you.