Thank you. So good to be here
with you again. I always like folks to know what's going on
behind the scenes. Politicians get in trouble for
not being transparent. What Brother John didn't tell
you when he was inviting all the men to come up and sing,
he didn't turn around and look at me, you notice that. But while
you weren't looking, he did turn around and invite me to sit down
while the men came up here to sing. And he just thought I was
going to be in the way. One thing I've never been accused
of, and he has invited me to. I don't mean to make you think
about a job. I've never been accused of being
a good singer. But if I was a sewing machine, I wouldn't be a singer.
But I hope God's given me a message for you that will cause you this
night to rejoice being washed in the blood of the Lamb. It will cause you to delight
in that blessed assurance of faith our brother just expounded
to us from Hebrews chapter 10. There is a hideously ugly monster,
a beast that roams the world. whose hide I want to nail to
the wall. This beast has been around for
a long, long time. It's the beast that John describes
in Revelation chapter 13. You don't need to turn there.
I'll call your attention to some highlights. I would urge you
to read about him when you get home. He's described in Revelation
13 by divine inspiration as one who arose from the sea. And in
the word of God, the sea commonly represents the whole Gentile
world. It speaks of the pagan world
of unbelievers, the pagan world of idolaters. He has many, many
names. But his name is always blasphemy,
ascribing to man the works of God, ascribing to man the character
of God, He has many names. Sometimes he's called Baptist
and sometimes he's called Buddhist. Sometimes he's called Papist
and sometimes he's called Pentecostal. Sometimes he's called Presbyterian,
sometimes he's called Methodist. Sometimes he's called Campbellite,
sometimes he's called Russellite. But his name is always the same.
It's blasphemy. Blasphemy. Because he attributes
to man the character of God. and attributes to man the work
of God. This beast is found in every
part of the world. John tells us he had seven heads.
Now, when you read these pictures in the book of Revelation particularly,
don't try to imagine a physical beast. That's not what John's
talking about. He's talking about spiritual powers of darkness. These seven heads speak of this
beast having influence throughout the whole world, the completeness,
the totality of his influence among mankind. This beast is
powerful, powerful, more powerful than you can imagine. He has
10 horns, 10 horns. Horns throughout the scriptures
speak of power. Power. I'm not a farmer, but
I live in a rural area. And my wife was a farmer. She
taught me how to raise green beans. And she never could teach
me how to milk a cow, but she taught me how to raise green
beans. And I tell you what I have observed. Animals with horns
usually get their way. This beast has 10 horns. He about
always gets his way in this world. He about always gets his way.
He's found in high places on those 10 horns. He has 10 crowns.
He's recognized everywhere. He's recognized in Moscow and
in Washington. He's recognized in Mexico City. And he's recognized in Toronto.
He's honored everywhere. He's deceitful, like a leopard. He sneaks up on you. And he's
destructive, walking through the dark forest of man's fallen,
depraved heart and mind with the feet of a bear, wreaking
destruction. He's furious, devouring with
the mouth of a lion. Multitudes perish by him. But
his name has a number. His number is 6-6-6. 6-6-6. My dear friend, Brother Maurice
Montgomery, who's now with the Lord pastored in Madisonville,
Kentucky for years, and for a good long while I'd drive down to
visit with Maurice and his wife Sue and They lived on the street,
you'd come up to it at a crossing and right at the stop sign where
that one street dead-ended into another, they lived on Choctaw,
right across the road was a house. And that fella had that house
for sale for the longest time. And he couldn't sell it. He couldn't
sell it. Madisonville is where the Happy
Goodmans are from. You never heard tell of those
folks, have you? That's happy folks who's in gospel songs.
Vestal Goodman lived down there. Religious as all get out. Religious
as all. Just as religious as you've been.
They couldn't sell that house. You know why? A realtor finally
suggested something to them. Said, you need to go to the courthouse
and change the address. The address was 666 Chalkpaw Drive. He changed the address and sold
the house in a couple of weeks. Don't be afraid of that number.
6, 6, 6. That's the number of man. That's
the reason they identified 6, 6, 6. That's the number of frustration,
failure, and defeat This beast shall be slain. He must be slain. He will be slain, not by might
nor by power, but by the Spirit of God through the preaching
of the gospel. Everywhere I go, it has been
my mission in this world to do everything I can to destroy the
beast and all his influence by the preaching of a mighty savior,
the mighty God, Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing in all the
world is more foolish, more debasing to humanity, more dishonoring
to God, and more assuredly damning to the souls of men than idolatry. It's pathetic to see many women
worship gods they've made with their own hands. Isn't that sad? Isn't that sad? In the scriptures,
as you read through the scriptures this year again, I hope you do,
mark the places where God describes idolatry. He says over and over
and over and over again, You worship the works of your own
hands. Where'd you get that God I made
him? I made him pretty. I put a lot
of gold on him. See that? I don't just have just any ordinary,
simple God. Poor folks have that. I've got
a pretty God. He's big. Not so big I can't
pick him up and move him around, but he's a big guy. What does he do? Well, he can't
do anything, but I made him. How does he help you? Well, he
doesn't really help anything, but he's pretty to look at. How
silly. I remember my first trip to Mexico. I was 26 years old. Yes, that's
been a while. I went down there. I went down
to Fatachibachin. And we were there on one of their
holy days. If you want to see what Romanism
really is, don't go down to the local papist place. Go down to Mexico, or South America,
or Brazil, and see how they behaved down there on one of their holy
days. We're going to a poor, poor, poor village. I'm talking
about folks who lived on dirt floors, folks who didn't have
running water in their houses, poor village. I mean, this huge
Roman Catholic church building, been there for hundreds of years,
huge thing. And in the back, in the back,
they had this cage. Curiosity got the best of them.
I went around to see what it was. It was a 14-foot Virgin
Mary covered over with gold. 14 feet high. Man, that's where
that peak is right there. 14 feet high. And they had to
put her behind a cage with locks on it so nobody would steal their
God. And they'd come and burn candles to it. She was on a set
of tracks like a railroad, like you have a railroad car so that
when they had their really good days, had their holy days, their
high days, they'd turn her around and roll her inside. Any other
time you could get to her by just going around the back of
the church building, you'd have to go inside. And folks would come, burn candles,
and they'd go, I watched that and wept. How sad. How sad. How sad. Your pastor
went down there with me one time. We went to the ruins, didn't
we, when you were there? Folks, those volume ruins, that's the
way folks used to do. They're doing the same thing,
just right down the road in town, got a 14-foot virgin Mary. Do
it in Kentucky, too. August 31st, 1995, I looked it
up again today. In Cold Spring, Kentucky, there
was a marvelous condescension of the Holy Mother who came down
to earth and a man saw it. and saw the statue and got wrote
up about it in the paper. Well, you don't believe that
do you? Somebody did. They wrote it in the paper. Somebody got fooled. We were
reminded of it. What's it talking about? Idolatry. But the most abominable form
of idolatry in the world is described in Colossians chapter 2 and verse
23. Paul calls it will worship. Will worship. Will worship. Those who attribute salvation
in whole or in part to the will, the work, or the worth of man
are the most abominably evil idolaters in the world because
they worship themselves. They worship the work of their
hands, what they've done. Free willism is the worship of
self. The whole religious world is
engaged in it. I don't care which way you go,
down the road that way, or down the road that way, or back up
the road that way, or back up the road that way, whichever
church building you run into first, I'll guarantee you, come
Sunday morning, they're going to be worshiping men. They put
men in the house of God, in the place of God, and describe to
man the work that God alone can do, called salvation. It's called redemption. It's
called grace. Free willism is the worship of
self. Legalism is the worship of self. Free will works religion
makes man his own savior. For it makes the will, the work,
or the worth of man the determining factor in salvation. Now hear
me and hear me well, if your salvation in whole or in part
is looked upon by you as something done by you, determined by you,
or dependent upon you, you don't yet know God. You don't yet know
God. You are still a lost Christless
soul, an idolater. Now, you may talk about God and
grace and Christ and redemption, the Holy Ghost and regeneration,
but you worship yourself. You made a decision for Jesus
when you were a little boy. This sounds ridiculous. This
sounds ridiculous. All we can do is hope that they
made a decision for Jesus a long time ago. What difference does
that make? Somebody asked years ago, the
little Sunday school boy asked the Sunday school teacher, do
you reckon Adolf Hitler was saved? And the Sunday school teacher
said, this was in a Southern Baptist church. She said, well,
son, all we can do is hope that when he was a little boy, he
made a decision for Jesus. You trust your decision. You
find peace, assurance derived not from what Christ has done,
but from what you've done. Redemption is something done
by Christ for us, altogether outside us. Our hope of heaven
is not in us, in our experience, in our feelings, in our knowledge. Our hope is outside us. Our hope is in Christ Jesus the
Lord. He's our hope. He's our hope. If you've got to look in here
for assurance, you're looking at the wrong place. And if you
find it, all you found was a delusion. That's exactly right. You declare,
I hope, Brother Rick, as you just described, our assurance
is Christ. It's outside us. It's outside
us. I've never been on the sea much. Your pastor was a sailor. I never
was. But I've been on some pretty
good sized boats out in the ocean. And I'll tell you what you do
with an anchor. You don't use an anchor to steady
the boat when the sea gets rough when you've got it laying back
there in the back end of the boat. If you want to steady the boat
with the anchor, you throw it outside the boat. As long as
it's inside that boat, it won't stabilize a thing. It won't do
anything. It just looks like an anchor.
That's all. It might be nothing but a huge
piece of concrete, but that's all it is. It just looks like
an anchor. But if you throw it overboard outside the boat and
it latches on to a solid rock, then the boat is held in place. Hear me, hear me, hear me. We
have an anchor. Sure and steadfast, it's Christ
Jesus and he's outside us. He's sitting yonder in glory.
My hope, the totality of my hope is that man yonder in glory. All that he is and all that he
did is all my hope. But the lost man, in his opinion,
the thing that separates him from the damned is not the will
of God and the work of Christ or the call of the spirit, but
his own work, his own decision, his own will, his own worth.
Now, my subject tonight is free will or free grace. Free will
or free grace. There's no in between grammar.
Free will is the religion of the beast. Antichrist. Preacher, are you saying that
all free will religion, everybody who believes in free will, they're
antichrist? Oh, yeah, that's what I'm saying. An Antichrist. I go to church
like that, well then you're following Antichrist. You're following
the beast. That's where my granddaddy's
always going. If you want to follow your granddaddy to hell,
go ahead and follow him, but you're still following the beast.
It's Antichrist. Free will is the religion of
Antichrist. Free grace is the religion of
Christ. Now let's see if this is what
the book teaches. Turn to Romans chapter 9 and
verse 16. Romans chapter 9 and verse 16. I'm sure I've told you this story,
but it bears repetition. Many, many years ago, I was preaching
in Louisville, Kentucky, where Brother N.B. Magruder was pastor
of Redeemer Baptist Church. And they had asked me to come
up and preach in a meeting, a combined meeting with him and that congregation
in First Presbyterian Church in Louisville. And I got done
preaching. And Brother Magruder came to
me after the service. He was a much older man, brilliant,
brilliant fellow, sharp, sharp man. He said, isn't it amazing? that the Armenian takes that
which is the weakest aspect of man's character and makes it
his god. What do you reckon is the weakest
aspect of that man sitting there I call my brother Kian? What's
the very weakest thing about him? He's a pretty strong fella.
What's the very weakest thing about him? His dear wife might
not tell you, but I bet she knows. I bet she knows. His will. There's nothing about you as
weak as your will. Nothing. You don't know, kid. He's stubborn. You just get the
right thing and dangle it in front of him. We'll find out.
We'll find out. His will. Lays potato chips,
made millions on it. Y'all remember? Bet you can't
eat one. Did you ever try to eat one?
Just one. I've never even tried. No. Now
let's look and see what God says about this thing of your will.
I believe man has free will. I believe God gave us free will.
I believe everything depends on man's will. Man's, let's see. Romans 9 verse 16. So then, this
is the conclusion of the whole thing I've been talking about.
This is the conclusion of everything I've said to you from Romans
chapter one, verse one, right up to Romans chapter nine, verse
15. This is the whole thing. Justification, sanctification,
confessing Christ, walking with Christ, being free from the law,
believing on Christ, being saved by God's grace. This whole thing,
election, predestination, divine providence, the purpose of God.
So then, this is the whole of it, it is not of him that willeth. Amen, we go home now. It is not
of him that willeth. Now, you've told us, you fellows
all the time talk to us about man, God's side of salvation.
When are you gonna talk about man's side? Well, let's see,
try it again. It is not of him that willeth. It is not of him that willeth. Anybody have a Bible that reads
otherwise? Anybody? Any translation? Any translation? It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. I remember many, many years ago
at a Bible conference in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, The fellow who
passed it over and popped down just close to that area, North
Carolina, he was preaching to the Jewel Wilson. He said there's
a little boy in his church and he carried papers and the fellow
stopped him on the street one day and asked him if he had got
saved. He said the Lord saved me. He
said, I'm talking about your part in salvation. He said, I
didn't have any part in Lord save me. He said, you don't understand
me correctly. This is just a young boy. He
said, you should have had something to do with this thing you call
salvation. He said, well, I guess I did
the sinning, he did the saving. I did the running, he did the
catching. I did the losing, he did the finding. God saved me. Would to God I could get this
generation to understand this. It is not of him that winneth,
nor of him that punneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now
let me give you three characteristics of all false religion. Doesn't
matter what name you give it. I don't care whether you call
it a reformed Baptist or a free will Baptist. I don't care whether
you call it Roman Catholicism or Episcopalianism. I don't care
whether you call it Southern Baptist or Independent Baptist.
I don't care whether you call it Pentecostal or Presbyterian.
Three, three things. Always characterize all false
religion. Number one. All false religion
has an exalted high opinion of man. Makes man to be much more than
the scriptures declare him to be. The scriptures declare that
man is dead in trespasses and in sin. That man is guilty. Depraved, condemned, helpless,
incapable of doing any good thing. The scriptures declare plainly
that no man left to himself can or will come to Christ, trusting
him alone as Lord. Is that what the book says, Pastor?
That's exactly what scripture says. No man can come to me.
No man can. You will not come to me, the
Savior said. It's not going to happen. It's
not going to happen. Well, Mr. Graham taught us that man has
a sixth sense. Man has the ability to believe
on Jesus. Where'd you get that nonsense? Try. Go ahead. Try. Try. I'll tell you what you do. I'll
tell you what you do. When you have got your wife by
the hand, and her pulse is gradually declining, and you're about to lose her,
and the doctor's right there wits in. and you've got six babies
to raise, try to believe Him. Try. You can't, and you won't,
except He graciously forced you to believe Him. It won't happen. Except He give
you faith, you'll never have faith. except he calls you to
come, you'll never come. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto me. Man is not just sick from the
sole of his foot to the top of his head. He's not just plagued
with the disease of the heart. The scripture says all that.
But when man in the garden fail, He didn't just stub his toe,
he died. In the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And we robbed God, attempted
to, of his glory as God, taking that which God forbade in our
father Adam. And when we did, we died spiritually. Died spiritually. Man created
body, soul, and spirit. Suddenly, it's nothing but body
and soul. Until born again by God the Holy
Ghost and made whole again, made to be body, soul, and spirit.
The spirit of God taking up residence in us. Man knows nothing of spiritual
life. Second, all false religion, in
one way or another, exposes its evil by giving a demeaning view
of God. Sit down in one setting and read
Isaiah 40 through 46. Just read those chapters in one
setting. And God describes himself over
and over and over and over again. He said, Brad, to whom will you
liken me? What shall I be like? What shall
I be? In Hannah's prayer, she said,
their rock is not like our rock. God says, how are you going to
compare me to something? Hey, what are you going to compare
me to? Thou thoughtest. that I was altogether such in
one as thyself. You thought I was just like you.
You thought I could be changed like you can. You thought I could
change my mind like you do. You thought I could be bought
off like you are. You thought I could be bribed like you are. You thought I would be a respecter
of persons and I would honor you for something you do and
not another. You thought if you could do enough
or think good enough or convince other folks that you do. You thought I was like you. You
thought I was like you. You thought I was altogether
like you, a little bit bigger maybe, but when you talk about
my sovereignty, you're talking about sphere sovereignty. Isn't
that a wonderful term? Sphere sovereignty. It has sovereignty
in some areas but not in others. You don't deny the death of my
son or redemption by his blood. You just declare that it was
just an effort, didn't really accomplish anything. You don't
deny. You don't deny that no man can
come to me except the spirit of God. Draw him. You don't deny
that. What you deny is that the calling
and the wooing and the drawing of God the Holy Ghost is effectual,
irresistible grace that gets the job done. You make God to be like you. I lay that charge at the doorstep
Of all free will works religion. Call it by whatever name you
will. It makes God less than God. Number three, all false
religion, all false religion always gives sinners something
to do. You got to do something to get
salvation. Well, no, no, no, sir, we don't believe that. Got
to do something to keep it. Oh, no, no, no, no, we don't
believe that. We don't believe that at all. No, no, no, no.
But there's something you have to do to improve God's salvation. Oh, now, that's a different story.
That's a different story. We're saved by grace, but our
holiness depends on us. We're saved by grace, but our
favor from God really depends on us. We're saved by what Christ
did, but our standing in heaven really depends on us. Will you
have any crowns when you get to heaven? Will there be any
stars in your crown? You may as well kiss the toe
of the pope and call that godliness. Or suck his toe and call that
godliness. I don't care. It's ungodly idolatry. It's ungodly
idolatry. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. If you're in him, God puts you
in him. And if you're not in him, you have no life. Who of
God is made unto us? Wisdom. He is the revelation
of God. He is that one in whom all God
resides, by whom alone God is known, in whom alone God is known. And righteousness, righteousness. Righteousness is right behavior
before God. You know, I have your pastor
and his wife food. I really do. They think I'm a
good fellow. Just ask them. Just ask them. In fact, to the best of my knowledge,
neither one of them ever saw me do anything that was very
bad, to the best of my knowledge. I behave around them real good.
But it's not hard to impress them, because they ain't much. That's just fact. They're just
fallen, depraved sinners like me. That's all. It ain't hard
to impress you. That's no trouble. That's no
trouble. I don't know why I didn't learn
that when I was a kid going to school. If I had just tried, I could
have got sent out a pile of trouble. It ain't hard to impress folks
like you. But right before God, right before God, That means
right thoughts and right motives all the time. From the first
breath to the last. Righteousness. I can't do that. I did that in substitute. Jesus Christ the Lord. He is made of God unto my soul. Righteousness. His name is Jehovah
Sidkenu. And he gave me his name when
he wed himself to me. He says so, Jeremiah 33, 16. Your name is Jehovah Sidkenu. Brother Mike, the saints of God
in heaven are clothed in fine linen, clean and white, and it's
called the righteousness of the saints. Somebody said, well,
that's plural. The righteousness is of the saints. I like that, too. I like that,
too. All the righteousness God requires
in all his holy character, in all his law, both righteousness
in obedience and righteousness in satisfaction, Jesus Christ
is to me. Jesus Christ is made to be all
I need, all I need. That's it. That's it. And sanctification. Sanctification. Do you know what
sanctification is? Sanctification is holiness. Be ye holy, thrive holy. Holiness. Now I know folks say,
oh, he was such a holy man. And if
you listen to fellas, doesn't matter whether they're reformed
or unreformed. Folks talk about religion, talk
so strange. They don't just say holy. And that makes it sound more
holy. I'm going to tell you something.
Listen close. Listen close. Either you are
or you ain't. Either you are or you ain't. There are no two ways about it.
Mother Marvin, either you got hair or you don't. Isn't that
true? That's true. We got a little. We got a little. I know some folks don't have
any at all. Not that way with holy. Either you're holy or you're
unholy. I just got your eye in it. That's
true of you and that's true of me. Either you're holy or you're
unholy. If Christ is yours, you're holy. He's called Christ in you the
hope of glory. He is that holiness, that holiness,
that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. When
God comes to sinners in saving mercy, he invades their lives
with himself. and creates in you a new man,
created in righteousness. What does the book say? Anybody
know? And true holiness. True holiness. Holiness is not
something you do. It just isn't. Holiness is Christ
the Lord. His holiness is that perfect
sanctification that we have by the blood of Christ and the grace
of God. His holy character is given to
his people so that salvation is altogether God's work. It's not left to you to do something. I like what Augustus Toplady
said in this regard. He said, every religion except
one puts you upon doing something in order to recommend yourself
to God. It is the business, Toplady wrote,
of all false religion to patch up a righteousness in which the
sinner is to stand before God. But it is the business of the
glorious gospel to bring near to us by the hand of the Holy
Spirit a righteousness ready wrought, a robe of perfection
ready made wherein God's people to all the purposes of justification
and happiness stand perfect without fault before the throne. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who God has made into us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification,
garments of salvation, wrought out by the hand of God our Savior,
and redemption. Redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ
actually did redeem somebody at Calvary. That means he bought
them back to God. That means he bought them out
from under the curse of God's holy law. By satisfying divine
justice in our room instead, he who was made sin, who knew
no sin, fully satisfied all the fury of God's holy wrath and
justice when he died in our room instead. I just read last week. Book of Leviticus again. In chapter
6, God gave a commandment to Aaron and his sons. They were
required to eat the sin offering in the holy place. They weren't
allowed to take it out and barbecue it outside. They were required
to eat the sin offering in the holy place. When you get to Leviticus
chapter 10, Aaron had two of his four sons who decided not
to do that. They decided to offer strange
fire and take the sacrifice outside and have a roast. And they were
smitten of God in the holy place because they offered strange
fire, fire that God didn't provide. And the Lord God said to Aaron,
you stay right here. And he said to his other two
sons, y'all stay right here and don't shed a tear. Don't even
give an indication of sorrow. Your sons deserve to die because
they despised God's sacrifice. They deserve to die. And then
he repeated the commandment. He said Aaron and his sons must
eat the sin offering. Now, if you care to do so, and
I highly recommend that you do, Get your concordance and look
up the words that are translated sin offering. Everywhere you
find them in the Old Testament scriptures, no exceptions. No
exceptions. The word in every place is sin. Well, why did the translators
translate it sin offering? Because it was an offering brought
because of sin. An offering brought to make atonement
for sin ceremonially. Aaron and his sons were to take
the sin of the people and consume it in the holy place where the
sacrifice was made before God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, God's
darling son, our high priest, took our sin. And he who knew no sin, was made
sin for us. In the holy place, before God,
God's sword of justice was buried in him until justice was satisfied. And he steps out of the holy
place, ascends up into glory, and says, the Lord bless you
and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine
upon you. the Lord Jesus is made of God
and to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. But the word redemption, as it's
used in 1 Corinthians 1, it's talking about something beyond
that. It's talking about that, Brother Rick, of which the Holy
Ghost is witness and the seal until the redemption of the purchased
possession. It's talking about resurrection
glory. He's talking about David. Christ who bought us. He who
bought us shall redeem us. Totally, completely, finally
deliver us up to God. Whole. Body, soul, and spirit. in the perfection of righteousness
and true holiness, blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing. The Lord Jesus will at last present
every sinner who trusts Him, who trusts Him before the throne
of God in his own perfection, having accomplished the will
of God as our surety, our mediator, our substitute. Trust it. Trust it. Trust it. Preacher, you've already told
us we can't do that. I know. I know. I know. You can't. Trust me. Trust me. Brother Don, I can't explain
it. This troubled me for years. I
can't explain it, but somehow I find myself believing God. Well, I tell you all about that.
That's because Christ is made of God and to you wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That according
as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. Amen.