Let me first make just two very
brief announcements. One is that Brother Eddie Ballard,
Mindy's dad, is doing just fine. He came through the surgery well. I guess the next morning at 9.30
he was sitting up in a chair and maybe sat there too long. He had a little bit of a spell
that day, but really he's doing fine. I understand. Doris and
Henry had seen him and said he was doing fine. And Paul yesterday
told me Eddie was doing just great. He appreciates your prayers,
and they do, I know. Also, my pastor, Brother Henry,
yesterday, not long before I left, he said, now you be sure and
say hello to my friends over there, and you tell them I love
them. So, consider it done. Turn back now in your Bibles
to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18. As I read and studied this portion
of Scripture. I could so clearly see that God's
redemption. God's redemption, the redeeming
of his people is particular. I know that Brother Cody Groover
was here to visit you, and what a blessing that was to us. I
see the smiles on your faces and know that it was a blessing
to you as well. Brother Cody was telling me that
the battle in Mexico, religiously speaking, the battle in Mexico
in this day and time, is over the doctrine of particular redemption. Or perhaps the proper way to
say that, the battle is over Christ. who redeems his people
particularly. Bill Clark says that the warfare,
the battle in Russia, and really all over this world, in our day
and our time, is going to be fought over particular redemption. My pastor has said for a number
of years that this is where the cutting edge is in our day and
time. And I have found it to be true,
too. A fellow in Lexington was telling me that he had friends
who professed to believe like we do. They professed to be true
believers. And I said to him, I said, well,
there's an easy way to find out. I said, you don't even have to
mention the term, but just explain particular redemption to them
and see what happens. And I talked to him later and
he said, yeah, I found out. found out he said, they don't
believe like we believe. And that's where the battle is.
And you know, this is a doctrine which shouldn't infuriate folks. It really shouldn't. It shouldn't
upset people. It ought to give cause for rejoicing. And believers
will rejoice. It's only those who are not truly
interested in a salvation that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ
who get upset over all this. That's who gets upset, folks
who aren't interested in the Lord Jesus Christ having all
the glory. You see, folks who aren't interested
in Christ having all the glory are what's called universal. They believe in universal redemption.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time explaining some error,
but what that means basically is universal redemption means
that They will say that God intended or wants to save all men. You
heard that for God loves you and God wants to save you. Well,
that's just saying God loves everybody and God wants to save
everybody and those. And then they go on and say that
those who want to be saved or who are willing to be saved or
who will do something to be saved. And the do part varies from denomination
to denomination. There's a one denomination says,
well, you can't. One out in Utah says you can't
have caffeine and you can't have alcohol. One, you know, this
group says, well, you can't go to R-rated movies and you can't
do this. And another one says, well, you
have to do this. The two do's vary. But the essential
essence of it is that God loves you and wants to save you. And
if you'll let him or you'll do this or do that, then you'll
be saved. Now, if that were so, if that were so, if Christ had
done all he could and now it's up to you, Stan, and you did
something, you know, you came down front and shook a preacher's
hand and said, I love Jesus, and he said, now you're saved.
The only problem with that, you see, would be that someday when
we all got to glory, OK, we all got in the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the problem would be is that, you see, Stan, you'd
have the right then to stand up over here amongst all the
saints and say, well, you know, I'm saved because I did this.
Because I came down and shook the preacher's hand, and I made
a profession, and I was baptized. Whatever it is, you could stand
up and say, well, I didn't ever have any caffeine. I didn't drink
any alcohol. You understand what I'm saying?
And everybody there would have to go, oh, good for you, Stan.
Let's give Stan a hand. Understand, you'd be getting
some of the glory, saying, and that can't be the truth, because
the Scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ, He must have all
three eminence. Folks, He's going to have all
the glory. So we know this has got to be
a lie. It's got to be a lie. Let me tell you if I can. I'm
going to. Let me tell you what particular redemption is, what
everybody's in a brouhaha about. Let me take just a minute and
tell you what it is. And then I just want to ask you one question
about it, OK? I'll tell you what it is and
then just ask you one question. All of God's word in these verses
in particular teach that God chose a people and he set them
apart. He made them particular. And
in time, what he did was he sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
to live a particular life, one that was perfectly righteous. That's how particular it was.
And that this particular life, he lived for these particular
people. And that God then had his son
die a particular death. It was one he didn't deserve.
And it was one that was particularly horrible, this death. But he
had him die this death for his particular people, in their place,
for their particular sins. And then in time what God does
is he sends a particular man, a particular preacher, to those
people. to tell them of this marvelous
substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then God gives them, this
people, particular ears. I had met a young man I'd never
met before up in Cottageville a couple of weeks ago, and that
morning I preached on Noah's Ark. I believe it's a message
of preached here at one time. And afterwards, this young man
came up to me and he said, I see what you're talking about. He
said, I never saw that boy. He said, Christ is that Ark,
isn't he? And I said, yeah, yeah. You know why he heard that? And
some folks don't. He had particular ears. God gave
me. Blessed are your ears, they hear.
Blessed are your eyes, they see. Blessed is your heart, it believes.
Well, where'd you get those ears, eyes and heart? This God gave
you those particular ears and eyes and heart to believe. To believe what? To believe this
particular gospel. Not a gospel, not some gospel,
not another gospel, but the particular gospel of God's redeeming grace.
And then one of these days, or it's not just any day, but on
a particular day, One that only God the Father knows. On a particular
day, God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to get these
particular people. And Christ is going to bring
these particular people in a particular way. Within a twinkling of an
eye, they're going to be made just like Him. They're going
to be righteous and holy. And with a shout, He's going
to bring them to His Father. And where is Christ now? What's
He doing? Well, he's preparing a particular
place. It's a particularly wonderful
place, as I read about it. No more sorrow, no more tears,
rejoicing, happiness, peace, contentment. It's a particular
place that he's preparing for his particular people. Now, that's
what particular redemption is. Now, here's my question. What is there about that not
to like? What is there about that not
to like? Why would anyone get upset, pray
tell, over what I just explained? Over that particular redemption?
Well, it can't be that folks are upset because it's too hard.
There's not anything to do. Christ has already done it all.
It can't be because it sounds horrible. It sounds wonderful
to me. All that's involved that I can
tell is to only believe that the one who declares it so, that
it is so. I contend that the only people
who get upset are the ones who will not believe that it's so. Will not bow, will not sing a
particular song. There's a song folks don't want
to sing. You know what that song is? Worthy is the Lamb. Folks
want to hear, let's give Stan a hand. Let's give Bob some glory,
instead of all glory to the Son. All glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's the problem. Now, all glory to the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. Who's excluded? Did I, in all that description,
exclude some people? Did I say, now this is intended
for everybody but not you, Stan. Did I cut you out of this? Did
I say, folks whose hair is getting thin, you and Ed, you're out.
Is that what I said? Huh? Did I say, if you drink
caffeine, you're out? You understand, we're not excluding
anyone. They're excluding people. They're
saying, if you won't do it our way, you're out. You know what
they're saying? It's their gospel that's excluding
folks, not ours. Nothing in that description excluded
anybody. No, it's only those folks who
would exclude themselves by not being particularly interested
in the glory of the Son of God. God's redeemed people, they're
particularly interested. They're keenly taken up with.
You young children may wonder, Why in the world do my parents
want to be here every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, and every
Sunday morning at 11 o'clock, and every Wednesday night at
7 o'clock? And every time anybody in the
church gets here, why do they want to be there all the time?
It's because they're particularly interested in the glory. They're particularly given over
to the glory. They're interested particularly
in someday being able to sing glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Particular redemption is not
the enemy, it is the friend of sinners. The Redeemer who redeems
a particular people in a particular way is not our foe. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the friend of sinners, and so is his doctrine
of the Christ who particularly redeems. Let's go through these
verses and let me show you how I see this, how it's revealed
in these verses. Verse 1 of chapter 18 says, After
these things Paul departed from Athens and came to Corinth. Now
it does say Paul, doesn't it? It doesn't say some fella. It
doesn't say a guy. It says Paul, doesn't it? And
there's a reason for that. Turn back to John chapter 1 and
I'll show you. God's particular plan involves
using particular men to preach this particular gospel. And they
have names for a reason. You see here in John 1, verse
6, it says, There was a man sent from God. The same came for a
witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him
might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. Did I leave something
out there? Yeah, I sort of skipped over this phrase there. What
was the phrase? There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. And the point I'm trying to make
about this, you probably already realize, is that if a person
ever hears the gospel, it'll be from a specific, particular
man. that God will send to preach
the gospel to you. Now, I love your pastor, but
he's not the man God sent to preach the gospel to me. The
particular man God sent to preach the gospel to me was Henry Mahan.
Some of you, the particular man God sent to preach the gospel
to you is Paul Mahan. And I tell you what, when that
happens, well, you better camp right there. It's all right if
you want to go over and graze on another under-shepherd's pastor
for a while. I love to hear your pastor preach
the gospel. It blesses my heart. But I know
of a certainty he's not—I'm not supposed to be sitting under
his ministry. He's not the man that God sent to preach me the
gospel day in and day out. If you have to, sell out and
move. When you hear that man preach, You know why? God gave
you particular ears to hear his particular voice. Go where that
is. Follow that. Listen, I don't
have much patience. When folks say, oh, you know,
I'm up here in the middle of nowhere and I've got nobody here
to hear the gospel from and what am I going to do? Well, sell
out and go where God's told you to go. Go where God's put a man
to preach the gospel to you. You say, well, what about my
job? What about it? There's plenty of jobs. There's only one gospel. What if you gain the whole world
and lose your soul? Go where God's ordained the gospel to
be preached. Sell out. You see, that's easy for you
to say, is it now? Is it now? Some of you know,
when I heard the gospel and what I was doing, I owned two big
businesses in the middle of Kentucky. Partners with two brothers walked
in one day and quit. I said, what are you doing? I
said, I'm moving to Ashland, Kentucky. Why are you going there?
You hear a man preach the gospel. What? My sister said, you've
lost your mind. Well, isn't it amazing? I've
got a better job in Ashland. And I lost my brothers, but I
gained so many more brothers. I've got brothers in Ashland
now that really love me. Carter Brown had a job in Lexington
making more money than you can shake a stick at. He just walked
in and quit. Picked up and moved to Ashland.
Oh, it can be done, folks. It can be done. If God's in it,
go where he's—listen—go where his particular representative
is. But notice in verse 1, it says, After what will turn back
a page to act seventeen and we'll see after what I won't make this
point one more time here. See an axe seventeen Paul had
been up in Athens and had been preaching up there. You remember
he went through that place and they had all those idols to the
even the unknown God on Mars Hill. Verse thirty two says and
when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some mocked and others
said well we'll hear these things again in this matter. So Paul
departed from among them and how be it certain men or does
it say all men. My Bible. It says certain men
particular man you see her. Particular men clave unto him,
and believed among them the witch was Dionysius, the Ariad Gappite,
and a woman named Damaris, and others with them." Certain ones. He names some here just so you
show you've got a particular people. And certain ones. Others of them. And what'd they
do? They clave to him. I know why
you love your pastor. God's given you a heart to plead
to Him, because you know He's the one God sent, particularly
to preach to you. And they claimed to Paul. They
said, Oh, Paul, we're going with you. We're going with you when
you leave this place. And they did. They just picked
up and left. And the next page, he's down here now. In chapter
18, he's down here now in Corinth. And verse 2 says, And Paul came
down there and found a certain Jew named Aquila. Does it say
he found all Jews down there? No. It says a certain one. Do
you see again? A particular one. He found Aquila
down there. Born to Pontus. Lately come from
Italy with his wife Priscilla. Another particular lady. You
ladies see, it's not just all men. You ladies particular lady,
she calls out to Priscilla, because that Claudius, he was the ruler,
it commanded that all Jews get out of Rome. And so they came
down there. I wonder why they came down here.
I wonder why that mean old Roman made them all leave. You know
why? Sometimes, sometimes the Lord
will make it easy. I mean, You know, when you hear
the call, you can either go or if you want to wait around, he
can shut down the whole plant if he has to. And he will. He'll
put you where you want to be. It's a lot less painful sometimes
if we just pick up and go. But let me tell you what, I mean,
he'll shut, he'll destroy a whole kingdom for one of his sheep. And he will. All right. Look
here then. In verse three, it says that
and because he was of the same craft, he opposed with them and
worked for by their occupation, they were tent makers. Paul worked.
Now, the reason he worked is, number one, he wasn't lazy. He
wasn't preaching for filthy lucre. He wasn't down there to leech
off these people and have an easy life off of them like so
many in our day. But there was no church in Corinth
yet to support him, and he wouldn't be a beggar and he wouldn't just
Do that so of necessity he worked and God is ordained that those
he chooses to pastor to preach and to be missionaries or evangelist
should be supported by God's people. That's why Cody came
through here. Why he came through here so that you'd have an opportunity. He didn't come through here begging
money. He came through here to preach the gospel to you to meet
you folks. So you'd understand he's a missionary. He's going
he's going whether you give him anything or not. Now you might
as well have the blessing. Might as well have the blessing.
And that's what we ought to do. We ought to bestow our gifts
upon men doing that. Because we don't want Cody down
there, do we? We don't want him down there
farming corn. We don't want him down there raising hogs, do we?
No, we don't want him being a computer expert down there somewhere.
We want him preaching the gospel. So we're going to labor so that
he can labor in the Word. And the same is true with your
with your pastor. Now, there's nothing wrong with
fourth season as Paul did here. He worked because there wasn't
any church there. But when the church in Corinth
was grown up, Paul quit making tents. You understand? And God's people, they're particularly
generous and they'll support the man God sends to preach the
gospel to them. God's people, I know for a fact
your pastor in all the years he's been here in the 20 years
I've been 13th Street I've never heard him remain preach one message
on giving not one I've never heard him make a plea to give
at all you know why he doesn't have to God's people his particular
people they give in proportion to their realization of how God
has pulled out his mercy and grace on them that's how they'll
give and you don't have to beg him to arrest him to God lays
it on their hearts And then look at verse four here, it says,
and Paul reasoned in the synagogue, and the better word there is
he preached. Paul didn't go in and argue with them. He didn't
go in and make issues with them. He went in and just proclaimed
the gospel. And Paul proclaimed or preached
in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the
Greeks. Now, notice the word every there. It says every, doesn't
it? You know where God's particular
people are when worship occurs? Every time. Every time. And I understand people would
get sick, and you have conflicts, but my dear wife taught me something
early on, and that's when I was such a novice in the matter,
I didn't understand that when you came home more tired than
any other time, and you thought, I just can't make it tonight,
that's when you better go. You know why? God will have a
particular blessing for you. Yes, he will. When you need it
the most is when he'll pour out a particular blessing to you.
That's the reason God's people, they learn that. And you're not
here every time because you're afraid you're going to go to
hell if you miss a service. And you're not here out of a
sense of duty. You're here because you learned
there's a particular blessing going to be handed out. Going
to be a meal served. Don't want to miss that. Every Sabbath, that's where Paul
was. That's the reason you're a pastor. It grieves him to be
gone from you. It really does. It really does. Because he knows where his particular
place is. God's people are particular about
where they are in the Lord's day. And it says here that Paul had
a particular message. And it wasn't one message for
the Jews and one for the Greeks. It was one message, and let me
tell you what the message is. This is one of the briefest messages
you'll ever hear, but here's what it was in verse 5. It says,
and when Silas and Timotheus, or Silas and Timothy, when they
came from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the Spirit. Now what
this means is the reason that sometimes it's great for your
pastor to go to a conference, to be around other men, is I
tell you what it'll do. It'll inspire him. It'll fire
him up, just like Silas. Silas and Timothy knew that Paul
was in a warfare. He wasn't walking in a place
like this. I told Henry, I said, I would
love to go over to Rocky Mount. I said, I just love it over there.
I said, it's like watching a mother bird flying to the nest and putting
worms in their mouth. I said, when she touches the
nest, And I said, when you get up to preach at Rocky Mountain,
I said, the mouths just go open. I said, everybody's hungry. Come
to hear the gospel. And it's so easy to preach to
folks like that. But Paul didn't have that situation.
He was going in a war. When he walked in that synagogue,
they were ready to kill him. You know, how many times did
they stone him and beat him and everything else? And that's where
he was. Well, Silas and Paul and Timothy
came over there to back him up, fire him up. And it says that
he was pressed in the spirit, and he testified to the Jews
that Jesus was Christ. Now, there's the message. And
my center reference says, Jesus is the Christ. That's the message. The whole message. It's so simple.
It's so simple. But it's a particular message,
and it's so simple, some folks miss it. And what it means, let
me just take a few minutes here now, and this is the meat of
this thing, so listen up. Jesus is the Christ. And when
it says Jesus here, it means a particular Jesus. When when
the Groovers were in Ashland, little Andrea was in my Sunday
school class. And just coincidentally, just
coincidentally, we have to be dealing with this very matter.
And I turned to her and I said, Andrea, I said, you've been in
Mexico 10 months now. I said, how many Jesus's have
you met? She said, Oh, she said, lots. She said, everybody names their
first boy Jesus. Well, is that the Jesus that
Paul preached? When I was a teenager, I was
fascinated by brothers who played outfield for Los Angeles, Matty
and Jesus Alu. Jesus was in right field. Is that who Paul was talking
about here? No. And listen, you've got to stay
with me here. The next step is we've got a
religious channel in Ashen where this lady is on there, I mean,
hours a day. And she just, she has a tambourine
and she gets to speaking in gibberish and saying things that don't
make any sense and they get all worked up. And finally, she and
about eight or nine around a piano or a microphone with a tambourine
and they all wind up just screaming this, oh Jesus, oh Jesus, and
just Is that the Jesus that Paul is talking about here now? I'm
asking you. Huh? Listen, these faith healers on
TV, I see them in Pittsburgh recently, I had to get out of
my hotel room. You know why? I fell into every
room in that town. I had to drive 60 miles that
night to find a room to stay in. Every room in that town. And the convention center was
filled up with people coming to hear a fellow named Benny
Hinn tell about his Jesus. Is that the Jesus that Paul was
talking about here now? I tell you, let's put it to the
test. When Isaiah saw Jesus, you know
what he said? I mean, I watch this fellow blowing
on folks and acting like he's reaching in and pulling devils
out of them and stuff. It makes the hair on the back
of my neck stand up. It scares me to death for him,
what he's doing. I don't know who that Jesus is.
Paul said it's another Jesus. The one Isaiah saw, Isaiah said,
I saw the Lord high and lifted up. When I saw him, his train
filled the temple. When I saw him, the building
shook. The doorposts of the temple shook. And I have this, I wish I could
convey to you this image I have of what Isaiah saw, who he saw.
He saw, he didn't see some, he didn't see some Jesus walking
back and forth on the banisters of heaven just wringing his hands. What he saw was he saw a man
sitting on a throne, high lifted up, at rest, at peace, with his
feet resting, propped up, resting. And when he saw him, he said,
he said, it's like if there was two big doors here, and I could
step back and open up those two doors, and out of this, these
doors, seeing as four diamonds came flowing, just came and flooded
out here till old Henry's sitting up to his waist in diamonds. I know what would happen if I
could do that with this light and stuff. If I opened that up
and it came, you didn't know what was coming, and it just
flooded out here, you'd all go, oh! Oh, look at that! Oh! You'd be overwhelmed. with the richness and the beauty
and the magnificence. It'd just take your breath away.
How's that? I said, when I saw the Lord,
His train filled the temple. It took my breath away to see
Him. How I lifted up. And he said,
when I saw him the other night, we had a storm come through Ashland.
You know what happened? I mean, it thundered and boom,
boom. You know, it woke me up at 530
in the morning, and I sat up in my bed. The walls of my house
were shaking from the thunder. And these kids, these kids who
got on the back of their T-shirts and the back of the car, the
decal says, No Fear. Listen, they haven't seen this
Jesus. That lightning shaking my house,
I'll admit to you, made me afraid. Made me a little bit afraid. It scared him to death. And Paul knew something about
this. Paul went in that synagogue, and he knew something about this.
When Paul went in there, you know Paul's story, don't you?
Paul was riding his high horse down to Damascus. He's going
to kill some of these people that love Jesus. He was on his
way down there to kill them, and this Jesus took Paul and
lifted him off that horse and went, Boom! He put him in the
dirt, didn't he, on his face. And a glimpse of this Jesus made
Paul blind. Paul went, huh! He couldn't see the light was
so bright. It blinded him. It made him go,
who are you, Lord? Who are you that I... He saw
him. Tell you what, he didn't dance
around and shout and say funny stuff, did he? No. No sirree. Did it frighten him? It frightened
him so much that he went, Lord just tell me what I should do.
Tell me, I'll do anything. Say what, if we ever get a glimpse
of this Jesus, all the foolishness will go out of things. And we'll
do the one thing that men by nature, only God's particular
people will do it. You know what the hardest substance
in the world is? It's not diamonds, it's men's knees. You can't bend
one. You can't bend one. Oh, you may
make it bend on the outside, but you can't make it bend on
... you can't bend the knee of the heart of a man. But the Lord
Jesus can. This Jesus that Paul preached,
he can do that. Yes, he can. He'll make men bow.
His particular people will bow. And Paul was preaching that Jesus
is the Christ. That's the issue here. Paul was
preaching a Jesus who is God in human flesh. This is God come. And most in our day, now listen
to me, I don't want to be flip about this, I don't want to be
careful, I don't want to be irreverent even, but most men in our day
are preaching a Jesus who is Jesus. They're preaching a man
named Jesus who's a man, who's an example, who's, they're sort
of willing for him to be a savior, you know, but God? But God, these
fellows that come around to your house and knock on the door with
literature to hand out to you, if you want to end it before
it starts, just ask that question. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God in human flesh? Oh, no. We don't believe that. Why not? Well, just don't. That's what the Word says. And
Paul went in and these Jews didn't believe that. Do you understand?
This Jesus Paul is preaching, they say, oh, he's not God. He's
not God. But he is God. He's almighty. You see, if he's God, he's almighty.
He's sovereign. He can do whatsoever he pleases.
With whomsoever he pleases. And that's the issue. Folks stand
up and go, that's not right. That's not fair. Some woman said
to Henry, my Jesus wouldn't do that. Henry said, that's because
your Jesus isn't Jesus Christ. He's not the Christ. Do you understand?
And that's the dividing line in our day. Folks are willing
for Him to be sweet Jesus born in a manger. They're willing
for Him to be that baby in the manger. But God? Don't listen to someone who's
saying Jesus is Jesus. Listen to somebody who's saying
Jesus is the Christ. The Lord Jesus is Christ. And this particular message,
there's only half of it. That's only half of Paul's message.
The other half, it must convey that, listen, Christ is Jesus. God is a man. He's the Savior. He's God's prophet, the Christ,
that prophet. And the reason it's got to be
that way is that it's not that he might save his people or that
he could save his people or that he's able to save his people.
It's that he will save his people. Christ lived a particular way,
holy and perfect, that he might have a righteousness to give
God's particular people. We have none of our own, you
understand. We don't have a righteousness.
And Christ died a particular way. He suffered untold misery
so God's particular people wouldn't have to, even though we do deserve
to die. Do we know that? And having accomplished
all that is necessary, the Christ, who is Jesus, is seated at the
right hand of God. And as such, this Christ is Jesus. This Christ is God our Savior. He's not waiting for you to do
anything. He's not waiting for me to accomplish
something. He's not hoping that we'll let
Him save us. This Christ, He is the Savior,
and He saves. It's what he does. He saves. He doesn't try to. He doesn't
make it possible for you to save yourself. This Christ, who is
Jesus, when he sets his eye on a particular person, he's going
to save them. How would that upset anybody?
I'm so glad. Not for me to do. It's done. He said it's finished. He meant
it's done. He saved me. He saves His people. And if you're one of God's particular
people, you're already saved. And you either already know it,
because He sent a particular preacher and has already told
you, or He will. He will, in due time. And let
me give you one more Scripture to drive this home. Turn to Matthew
1, real quick. Matthew 1. You see, in our day,
the deceptions are subtle. Lots of false preachers say things
about Jesus. They do, they say things about
him. And they say things about Christ. There's not, nobody's going to
listen to somebody who comes in and says, says just outright
error and hits you in the face with, you know, if you don't
walk down front here and shake my hand, you're going to hell.
Nobody's going to say that to you. Because you know that was
ridiculous, it doesn't say that in the Scriptures. So it's got
to be come at subtly and they'll say things about Jesus being
a man and they'll say things about Christ being God, but they
won't say Jesus is the Christ. And that is the message you see
here in Matthew 1, verse 21, when the Lord spoke to Joseph
who found his wife with child and was understandably having
a difficult time. What's the message that God gave
Joseph here? Look what he told him. He said
in verse twenty-one of Matthew one, And she shall bring forth,
Mary shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. Now does your, you have a little
mark there by your, by the word Jesus, and the center reference
says Savior. That's what Jesus means, is that
he shall Be called, his name shall be Jesus, for he might
save his people. He could save his people. He'll
make it possible for his people to save them. Is that what it
says? It says he shall. It's not up for debate. He shall
save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophets,
saying, and listen, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall
bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." What's
that mean? Which, being interpreted, is
God with us. Do you see that God was telling
Joseph, Mary's going to have a son, and he will have two Jesus
and Immanuel. And that means Jesus, a man,
is God. And Immanuel, Christ, is God,
who is a man. It's two in one, is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And why that is so particular
and so important is that if God isn't Christ, or if Christ isn't
Then listen, he had to be God so that his life wouldn't...
I mean, his life wouldn't have been perfect if he hadn't been
God. There's been no man yet to live a perfect life. And his
death wouldn't have been sufficient for all he represented if he
weren't God. But he had to also be a man because
his life wouldn't have been accountable to God for men if he weren't
a man. And his death wouldn't have been
acceptable in the place of men if he wasn't a man. But do you
know what the problem is? Men, by nature, we don't want
to bow to another man. That's part of it. The other
part is we don't want to bow to God either. And when you put
the two together, folks are going to have a fit. And in our day,
the reason so few preach this particular message is that it's
so hated, it's not believed on. is the main reason, but it also
meets with opposition because it doesn't get the results that
folks want. You can't fill up a church with
that message. You see in verse 7, what's it
say back in Acts 18? Go back there just a minute. Verse 7 it says, and he departed
when the, in verse 6 it says, and when they opposed themselves
and blasphemed, he took his raiment. They got upset, you see. They
cursed right there in church. They blasphemed. They got so
mad over what he preached. What did he preach? It was so
bad. Jesus is the Christ. I mean, did he go in there and
say, you Jews? No, he didn't do that. He didn't
say, if you don't stop this and you don't. He didn't do that.
He said, Jesus is the Christ. They started cussing and carrying
on and opposing themselves. And so he shook his raiment and
said to them, your blood be on your own hands. I'm clean, and
from henceforth I'll go to preach to the Gentiles." And verse 7,
"...and he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's
house, named Justice, one that worshipped God, whose house was
next to or joined hard to the synagogue. And Crispus, the chief
ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house,
and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized."
And verse 9, "...then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by
vision." be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace." You
see, Paul was being persecuted by the Jews, and the religious
folks were upset, as they get upset in our day. And the point
of issue in our day is particular redemption, or rather the Christ
who redeems particularly. But God spoke to Paul and gave
him comfort and peace of mind and courage to preach his particular,
God's particular gospel. And the reason why is in verse
10. For I am with thee, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee. And here's the reason. I have
much people in this place. I have much people in the city.
I know why the gospel's been preached in Ashen for 45 years.
God's got much people in that place. And it's obvious now,
isn't it? It wasn't 40 years ago. I know why the gospel's being
preached in this place. God has much people in this place.
Now you say, well, it doesn't look like we're packing it out. Well, in due time, in due time. God has much people, though.
And I'll tell you, here's the difference between false preachers
and true preachers, too. To your pastor, you're much people.
To your Lord, you're much people. To those fellows, you ain't many. You're not enough to keep the
Sunday school going. You're not enough to keep those
buses running up and down the highway. You understand what
I'm saying? Yeah, it's not enough. It's not
enough. And let's deal with this. Let's
deal with this. You see, if we had a, if we called together
a bunch of folks this morning in a big building
or went down to the mill or something and got a bunch of folks together,
And I stood up and said this to him, I said, I got some good news for you this
morning. First thing I'm going to do is write everybody here
a check for ten million dollars. And I've been building these
houses out here, I got these mansions, and you can just come
out and take one of them. And I got great power to heal,
I'm just going to make you all well. You won't be sick anymore,
no more sickness, no more problem. It just, I'm just going to make
everything right. No more trouble. You got a problem,
you come see me. I'll fix it. All right. Now, let me ask you
if the first reaction to that would be, that's not fair. That's not right. You're not
going to do that for everybody in the county? You're not going
to go to Roanoke and give everybody there $10 million too? That's
not fair. Is that what would happen? I
know what would happen. They would, we'd have a stampede.
They would kill each other to get up in the front of the line
to be sure they got their ten million first. Isn't that what
would happen? Now be honest, huh? I wouldn't
want to be there. I'm afraid I don't want mine.
You understand? I mean, it's our nature to be that way. And yet, when some fella gets
up, a particular man gets up and preaches a particular redemption,
Is there a stampede? No. Folks are screaming, it's
not fair. It's not right. For one reason
only. They hate it. They hate him by
nature. And we by nature all would, except
for his grace. We know that. We know that. It's not a matter of we're excluding
anybody. Who did Paul exclude here? Did
you hear who he preached to? First place he went was to Aquila
and Priscilla, other believers, and he preached to them. Then
he went to the synagogue and preached to all the Jews. Did
he exclude any Jews? No. They ran him out of there,
were going to kill him over it. So then he went down and spoke
to, preached to a group that was at Justice's house. You see, Justice was a certain
man. You notice that. He's not just
any man. He's a certain man, a particular man. He preached
to Justice. You see? And then he preached to Crispus,
who was the chief ruler in the synagogue, so he preached to
them. And then it says he preached to all the Corinthians. Who did
he exclude? You understand? What's unfair?
He preached the gospel to everybody. Who was excluded? Here's the key to this whole
thing. In verse 6 it says, "...they opposed themselves." Only folks
excluded are those who exclude themselves. They're not interested
in the glory of Christ or in His glorious gospel. Do we see
that? Hmm? Yeah. And when God does preach the
gospel, something happens, though. A particular thing happens, and
here's what happens. You see in verse 11 it says,
or verse 10 it says, or it says, I'm with you, Paul, and no man
shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this
city. But back up in verse eight it says, hearing they believed
and were baptized. Now that's what God's particular
people do. What a strange thing to do is to let some man take
you and dunk you under a bunch of water and bring you back up
again. That's a particular thing to
do, isn't it? Why do we do it? Because our particular God, our
Savior, has directed that that's what we do. That's the particular
thing we do to be identified with this particular people.
You don't have to get up and tell people, if you're not baptized,
you're not safe. No, no, no. He puts that in the heart of
his people and they'll follow after him and do it as he would
have it done. And we don't get the cart before
the horse. We don't get up and count baptisms. You don't tell
people to get baptized so they'll be safe. No, folks who are saved
get baptized. There's a difference. In verse
11 here, and I'll quit. And Paul continued there a year
and six months. teaching the Word of God among
them. Paul stayed until God was through with him preaching there,
where God had much people. He'll have much preaching. God
had so many in Corinth that he raised up a church. 1 and 2 Corinthians
is written to the church at Corinth, and this is where it all started.
And he continued there until Paul left. And there's something
here for us to learn. Obviously, God has much people
in this city. And he'll continue to have his
gospel here. We pray so for your sake and
for your children's sake and your grandchildren's sake. But
I tell you, there's something to be mindful of here. It's to
show you how this is done. As you know, Brother Cody Groover
came through here. His dad, you know, has been preaching
in Mexico for thirty-seven years in the Yucatan there. Obviously,
there's much people there, right? But you know what else? I think
there's much more. There's many more. You know why?
He's raised up another man and sent him down there. And the
reason I'm saying this is twofold. One, is that we need to be conscious
of what we have when we've got a man who stands up and preaches
the gospel. I know why the gospel's been
blessed in Ashland all these years. I know why it's been blessed
in Yucatan, Mexico all these years and where Bill Clark is
all these years. I know why it's so. You know
what they will do? They're not afraid to get up
and preach Christ, who is the particular Redeemer. In our day,
that's got to be the message. It's got to be it. And we need
to be thankful that we have a man who will do that and not take
it for granted. Not take it for granted. Boy,
we need to support that man financially. We need to support him in our
prayers and with our hearts. Because I'll tell you what, it's
the most precious thing you have. The most precious thing you have
is this man who stands in this pulpit and week in, week out,
week in, week out, preaches you Christ who redeemed a particular
people. And, you know, you need, we need
to pray there are situations where, like in Mexico, where,
you know, you wonder, you wonder, is God going to continue? Well,
looks like He is, doesn't it? Looks like He is. He's able to
do that. Where he's honored, he'll honor.
Where his word's honored, he'll honor those people. Well, I hope
this is a blessing to you. It's not a grievous thing. Particular
redemption's a joyous, joyous thing. Christ who redeems particularly. May the Lord bless his word. Thank you, God. God bless you.