God the Father, God the Word,
and the Holy Spirit. Now this message will be a nursing home. All I want to
do in this message is to be a herd. of things that you've already
believed, but if I could just talk to you here, like you said,
I would have you come to me at any time. I want to reaffirm
and confirm to you the things that you've already known and
believed. I would really care. And I hope
that you'll come to me. And I hope that you'll say the
things I just said to you. Now there are six things that
I want to characterize in my preaching every time I stand
and I just won't get more than that for six minutes. Number
one, I want my preaching to be godly. God, I want it to be so clear
who is getting control of what is being said and what is being
done. Number two, I want my preaching
to be man of AC. And if truly God is the all-glory
man, we'll be all man. We cannot get God too high to
be man. So, number three, I want my creature
to be Christ-centered. Christ-centered because He is
the King of God. I want my preaching to be scriptural. After all, it does not matter
what I think, or what you think, or what God says. I want my preaching
to be a person with it. I want my preaching to be thoroughly
filled with scripture. Number five, I want my preaching
to be of clarity. I want it to be easily understood,
or as in the words of Jonathan Edwards, I would rather be understood
by ten than admired by a thousand. I ain't saying that that's where
you're coming from, but it never lessens the good in the things
you do for it. Clarity. I want to be understood.
And then lastly, and sixthly, and something I quite often fail
at, brevity. I do want to be short, but I'm
so glad to be here to tell you about it. I have six basic points in this
message that you're taking. Six basic points and at least
two Scripture verses for each point. Two Scripture verses for
each point. One found in the Old Testament
and one found in the New Testament to show the cohesiveness, so
that both the Old and New tell the same thing. Two Scripture
verses for each point. I would say that what I say is
true. Everybody wants to be well-liked. That brand, well-thought-of,
especially through an African preacher, that spoke great things
that could never be liked or be well-thought-of. And many of them, under the pretense
of for love, for community, for loving people. They go to great
lengths to be well-liked, but it is not a love for him or a
love for God. You don't understand that. And Christi, of course, consequently,
most men have no firm convictions. without doctrine. They don't
say any dogmas. They don't affirm any dogmas.
You know what I mean by dogmas? Absolute truth. And they will
deal with or dwell upon anything except that which And God's Word
is very clear about it. He will deal with anything and
everything, except most people believe anything. They're not,
you know, I'm not a person who doesn't believe anything. Men
will stand up, I'm sure there are a great number today standing
up, right now, even as I do, and keep telling us that beforehand,
which is wrong. I'm not out to say it's wrong.
That's all that can be said about it. It's not. It's wrong. And
they'll preach on that and they'll get a great crowd. They'll preach against pornography.
They'll preach on patriotism. They'll preach on God's love. They'll preach that Jesus died
and bore all men. They'll preach that if you accept
Him, all your troubles will go. So that's the deal. Anybody can
accept Him. And they're in search of big crowds, big salaries,
big homes, big schools, big things. So if you let a John the Baptist
dare tell you what God's Word is about God, about me, about
me, about the person who's worth Christ, and they won't hear it. Many of them claim to believe
the things that we preach, but do not preach them in a covenant
manner. I've heard people say that about
themselves. That's what he said. Generally, people, generally
people with a spouse are very regimented. If a man is a staunch
Democrat, he'll let you know about it. If a man believes in
God, he will tell you about it, yes. And if God doesn't, but
these preachers, they like to say that these things are family
doctrine, whatever that means. Does he ever preach it to the
family? He said, No, I haven't heard
it much. What these preachers are doing
in reality, and my message this morning is not to denounce false
preaching, but what these preachers are doing in reality is apologizing
for God Almighty's Word. They have taken it upon themselves
to decide what they can or what they should or should not preach
from God Almighty's Word, right? When did God ever tell one of
his prophets to go down and preach to a people and use their own
discretion as to what the people should hear? Huh? Did he tell
that to Ezekiel? Ezekiel, you go down there and
you tell the people, you warn them, but do it in whatever way
you feel is necessary, whatever way you feel like they'll accept.
That's not right, is it? God told Ezekiel, you go down
and you tell the people exactly what I said. If you fail to do
so, their blood is on your hands. You tell them exactly what I
said for you to say. If they believe it, you leave
that up to me. If they don't, you wipe the dust
off your clothes and go to another people. What we need in this
day are more true God-called preachers who believe this to
be actually God Almighty's word. God Almighty's holy, unchanging,
inerrant, infallible Word. Men who believe every word of
it and are not afraid to proclaim it, every bit of it, regardless
of what the consequences might be. And we need more men, and
I do say men, who are more zealous for the glory of God Almighty
than they are concerned about the praise of men. Men who don't
try to make people feel good. but rather trying to glorify
and tell the truth about God, regardless of how people receive
it. They do want people to receive
it and believe it, but whether they do or not, that is not their
primary concern. But to glorify God, we need more
men who are not after their own recognition or fame or honor
or glory or riches or large congregations, but men who are determined absolutely
determined within their own minds and hearts not to know, not to
be taken up with, not to be concerned with, but be totally committed
to Jesus Christ and him crucified. But someone said, no, the sons
of thunder, that's who James and John were called by our Lord,
born of Jesus, is that how you say it? Sons of thunder are now
reduced to sweet little preacher boys. What I want to do, as I said,
from this message, is to proclaim, and these things every one of
you know by heart. I want to proclaim from God's
Word several, six to be exact, absolute truths, things that
are irrefutable. In other words, they cannot be
explained away. Undeniable, dogmatic in the fullest
sense of the word. No point of debate. Things that
are not up for any interpretation or up for debate, but things
that form the foundation of all of God Almighty's holy word.
Six doctrines, and two verses of scripture for each. Six things
that clearly describe who God is and how he saves people. Alright, number one. Turn with
me to Daniel chapter four. Daniel chapter four. The first point is, God Almighty
is absolutely sovereign in all things. Absolutely sovereign
in all things. God is God, in other words. And in Daniel 4 and This great king, who thought
he was a great king, was reduced to an animal, and he was brought
to see this glorious truth. Verse 35, Nebuchadnezzar was
brought to see this, that all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? Or, You can't do that. Yes, he
can. He's God. God is God. God is absolute creator,
and a creator does what he wills with what he may. Right? Cannot
I do with my own what I will? God says. Yes, he can and does. He is the creator. He is the
ruler. He is the sovereign controller
of all things. Turn over to Romans 9 with me
now, in the New Testament. Romans chapter 9. He is the potter,
as the Lord showed to Jeremiah in chapter 18, didn't he? He
is the potter. We are the clay. He is the creator. We are the creature. The creature. Look at Romans
9, beginning with verse He said
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. It's totally at his disposal,
right? His discretion. For the Scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same person, I raise thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, my sovereignty in all things over you, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth?"
And here's the argument people use. Verse 19, Well, thou wilt
then say unto me, Why does he yet find fault? Who hath resisted
his will? Who can resist his sovereign
will? And all Paul says to answer that is, Oh, man! Who are you? Who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? You have no
right to do that. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fitted or made up for destruction? Your
Bible read that? I doubt it. "...that he might
make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy which
he had fitted or prepared unto glory." What if God did that? Would that be all right? It sure
would, because that's the way it is. God does as he pleases,
when he pleases, to whom he pleases, or what he pleases, and nothing
can be said or done about it. That's our God, right? All people,
all things, all events are under his foreordained direction down
to the most minute detail, and everything is going exactly according
to God's plan. You can't change it, not at all.
His perfect plan, nothing and no one is going to stop it or
change it. God Almighty is in control. He reigns, he rules
among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can say unto him, You can't do that. Yes,
he can, and he does. Does this rejoice your heart? Paul said that several times
in Romans 8 and 9. He said, What do you say of these
things? And your answer to this, your attitude about this, reveals
a state of your heart. Right? Do you say, Well, let
God be God, and every man a man, a worm, a creature? Is that what
you say? You say, That's my God. When
you read that in the scriptures, when they say, here's our God,
and they say, where's your God? You say with David, our God's
in the heavens. He does what he pleases. He is God. That's
who my God is. Do you like that? You praise
God that you do. There's a world of people out
there that hate the very mention of the sovereignty of God. Right?
Now, number one, God is God. He decides who, what, when, how,
and where. He's God. That's what makes him
God. If he doesn't, he's not God.
Somebody else is. Alright, number two. Turn with me to Psalm 14
in the Old Testament. Number two. Man is absolutely
dead in trespasses and sins. Man can do nothing but sin. He can't do no good. He can't
think no good. He cannot call upon God. He cannot
seek God unless God gives him life. because he's dead. As Barnard would say, he's graveyard
dead. That's as dead as you can get. And here in Psalm 14, the
Lord tells us in very graphic language just how dead he is.
Romans 14, verse 1, the fool has said in his heart, there's
no God. That is, God in the true sense of the word, as I just
described him, as the scriptures described him. A lot of people
have a conception of God, don't they? A God they've made up in
their own imagination. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works, there is none that doeth good. Some? No, none that doeth good. The
Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. He says in verse
3, look at it, they are all gone aside. Every man gone to his
own way, which is 180 degrees from God. They are all together
become filthy. Do you have a marginal reference
that is a number beside that word? What does it say in the
middle of your Bible, beside that? Stinking! There's nothing
more stinking than a human cadaver or a dead body, right? That's
man, spiritually, to God Almighty, to a holy, spotless God, pure
and God who loves righteousness and holiness. Man is stinking.
Everything he does stinks of sin, of self-righteousness. There
is none that doeth good, no, not one. Not one. Not a few, not some, none. None. None righteous, no, not one.
None. Look over at Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2 with me.
And you know these verses by heart, but we need to have them
reaffirmed, don't we? Ephesians 2, man is dead in trespasses
and sins. He's totally helpless. He's totally
depraved. Not only can he not do anything
because he's dead, he will not. He's depraved. He will not do
anything. His will is depraved. Look at
Ephesians 2. Look at verses 1 and following.
You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Is that you? in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, your daddy the devil," he said. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, that's among whom you had your
conversation or life in time past, right? No thoughts of God,
didn't care about God, weren't seeking God. Now really now,
were you seeking God? No, he said in Isaiah, he said,
I'm found of a people that sought me not. Right? Was the Apostle
Paul, when he said, the Lord found me faithful, does that
mean the Apostle Paul was faithfully seeking God and Christ? No. Paul said, I'm a pattern of salvation.
How and who God saves. People that aren't seeking him,
but rather people that are seeking him. That doesn't mean that we
don't seek God, but I'll show you that in a minute. But in
time past, you had your conversation in time past, didn't care anything
about God, weren't thinking about God, thinking only of yourself,
the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. Wrath against
whom? Against what? Against God. Romans
8, 7, 8. Hate God, enmity against God,
right? The God that I've been describing.
Right? Is that right, Henry? Was that
you when you were in Methodism or whatever it was? You loved
your conception of God, didn't you? But not this God. What was
your reaction when you first heard it? Huh? You got mad, didn't
you? Wrath! Mad! But eventually God
made you sad, like Barnard said. God made you sad, then God made
you glad after hearing it. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together, made us alive unto
God. quickened us together and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ by grace, as you say. We are all by nature children
of wrath, enemies against God. We are brought
forth from the womb speaking lies. Our little children are
brought forth from the mother's womb speaking lies and doing
evil. We don't have to teach them evil,
do we? We don't have to teach them evil.
We're trying our best to teach them otherwise. And men and women
and boys and girls love sin and follow their father, the devil,
unless God Almighty, through his life, comes and quickens
them, gives them real life, spiritual life. Christ said, I didn't come
to show you how to live, although he did. He said, I came to give
life. Just like he went to Lazarus'
tomb and called a dead man out of the grave, the Lord of Glory
is going to have to do the same thing to you. You're going to
have to hear his powerful voice. And he comes to you, not vice
versa. You're dead, right? You're dead. And he comes to
us. There is no spiritual life in
us by nature, for the day that Adam rebelled against God, he
plunged the whole race into sin and spiritual death, and unless
God, who is life, comes to bring us life, and create a new life
in us, we will remain forever lost and dead in trespasses and
sin. Right? Man is dead. Now, since man is dead and only
God can give him life, since man is dead, a mere orphan wouldn't
do, would it? A mere offer to a man of life
wouldn't do, would it? Like him going down to Lazarus'
tomb and saying, Lazarus, would you like to accept me as your
personal Savior? Would that do? Would that do Lazarus any good?
No, not at all. Look over at Psalm 65. Since
man is dead, a mere offer wouldn't do. But God Almighty is going
to have to set His love and His affection upon that man and determine
to save that person from the foundation of the world. Are
you trying to say election preacher? That's exactly what I'm saying.
Now you've got it. God Almighty has to choose and
elect a people to be saved and then do everything necessary
to ensure their salvation from that day forward. From the cradle to the grave.
Not only does man start out dead, but he comes out of the womb
helpless. helpless and can do nothing for himself to the day
he dies. He must be carried and borne
on the shoulders of his Savior from all the way to the end.
But God Almighty chose and elected a people before the foundation
of the world, and I love this portion of Scripture. Psalm 65,
look at verse 4 with me. Blessed is the man whom God chooses. whom God chooses and causes to
approach unto him. Blessed is that man, and we're
never really going to know just how blessed we are until we get
up there some day and know, even as we've been known. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee.
Why? That he may dwell in his courts. You can't just accept
God. You can't just put yourself into
the family of God. He's got to adopt you, right? That's what predestination is,
God Almighty determining who's going to be in his family. That's
not in the will of man. That's totally up to God Almighty,
is it not? We have that discretion. We have
that right, don't we? We go down to an adoption agency.
We don't have to adopt any. We don't have to choose any.
We go down there and we look the children over, if we have
that option, look them over and we decide which one we want.
If that kid doesn't accept us, we choose them, right? You imagine
the absurdity of it? You take the worst little red-headed,
freckled-faced, mean-as-a-snake little boy in there, and he comes
up and kicks you in the shin and says, I've decided to go
home with you. I'm going to accept you as my
personal mom and dad. Well, that's what men and women
are saying about the sovereign God, are they not, in so many
words? I've decided to let God, or I've
decided to get into God's family. That's not in our decision, is
it? It's totally in God Almighty's sovereign will and good pleasure,
right? And he chooses whom he will. Do you like that? Your reaction to that greatly
determines the state of your heart before God. Blessed is
the man whom God chooses and causes to approach unto thee,
that he may dwell in his courts." Come on in. Come on in. You're one of my family. We shall
be satisfied with the goodness of his house, even his holy temple. God chose and elected a people.
Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2. And like I said, you can quote
these, but I want you to look at them. 2 Thessalonians 2. In
case there is someone who has not seen these, 2 Thessalonians
2. The word election, or some form of the word, is found in
the New Testament alone more than twenty-seven times. Twenty-seven
times, to be exact. That makes it pretty important,
doesn't it? If it's said one time, that's enough. But twenty-seven
Sounds like it's more than family doctrine to me. Sounds like the
Lord wrote it for everybody to see it, doesn't it? Huh? Do you
remember when Ananias came to the Apostle Paul after the Lord
revealed himself to him? What was the first thing he preached
to Paul? Election! Now wait a minute, that's not
good soul-winning tactics, is it? You don't go up to a man,
he's a baby, and first start preaching election. Oh yeah,
you do. Paul, Saul, God our Father has chosen you. It's the only
reason you came, Paul, because God chose you. Right? And that's what God Almighty
used to quicken you and awaken you, didn't it? This glorious
truth, which is part of a whole. God chose and elected a people.
Twenty-seven times, the word chosen. I began to number one
time the word chosen or some form of the word and quit numbering.
It's too many. Too many. Chosen. Look at 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because what? Because
you chose Jesus? Oh, my. That's why you're bound
to give thanks to God, because he's the one that did the choosing.
Because God has from the beginning chosen you. And that's what heaven's
going to be all about, is it not? Not unto mama, not unto
him, or this and that and the other. The preacher went unto
him who chose us, who loved us, washed us in his own blood, who
chose you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit.
You see, the Holy Spirit sets you apart. The Holy Spirit gives
faith, which we'll see in a moment, the belief of the truth. It was
God who called us, God who chose us, called us by this gospel,
he said, to the obtaining of the glory which is in Christ
Jesus. The salvation of a poor, blind,
dead, helpless, ruined, condemned sinner is totally by the free
and the sovereign electing grace of God Almighty in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are accepted in the Beloved. He is the first chosen. He is
that one that God talked about in Psalm 65.4. You know that? He is the blessed one whom God
has chosen, and we are chosen in him. He is the blessed man. He is God's elect in whom his
soul delighteth. He is the firstborn among many
brethren. He is the one whom God chiefly
loves, supremely loves, and we're loved in him. We're chosen in
him because of him. Not because of anything, you
know, but because of him. And God had to consider all of
those people who he chose in Christ. but for the foundation
of the Word. Right? That's the only way God,
as the Scripture says, could love us even while we were dead
in trespasses and sin. Right, Brother Doc? The only
way God could really love us, the God who loves holiness, who
loves righteousness, cannot even look upon sin and can't love
you if you're in it. The only way he could love you
is to consider you from the very beginning as being in Christ. In Christ. And this is the argument everyone
uses. That's not fair. It's not fair that God choose
this man and pass by this one, right? That's what everybody,
that's what they bring us. It's not fair. Well, that's true.
It's not fair. It's not fair. God doesn't do
to us what is fair, right? Or that is what is absolutely
right and just that we deserve, right? God doesn't give us absolute
fairness or else he'd give us hell. The wages of sin is what? Death. That's what we've earned.
The soul that's in it. I've sinned, you've sinned, we've
come short. What must happen to us? We must
surely die. God gives us mercy. Mercy. I don't want fairness. Or as
Luther would say it, I don't God does everything on purpose.
God saves men on purpose. God does all things according
to his eternal purpose. Very briefly, what is God's purpose? What is God's essential purpose
for all that he does, the reason he created this world and created
you, the reason he saved you? What is God's eternal purpose?
That's right, his glory. Most people think God's purpose
is just to serve man, kind of like a big sugar daddy, sitting
around, waiting on man, what he can do for it. No, he said,
this people in Isaiah 43, I've created for my glory, for myself. They shall show forth my glory.
He said this over and over again, the same thing, all through the
Scripture. I'm not doing this for your sake, although you reap
the benefits. You get the end glory, you get
the goodness that comes from it. I'm not doing this for your
sake, I'm doing this for my glory, my glory. And God shall gather
together all things, the scripture says in Ephesians 1, in Christ,
in Christ, and we're to the praise of his glory. We might show forth
his glory in Christ, his Son. So God's purpose is to glorify
himself, to glorify his son to glorify his so great salvation. I do this for my own namesake,
he said. So God chose a people. God chose
a people to save. All right, now look at Isaiah
53 with us. Who did God choose? Who did God
choose? God's elect. Paul said we can
know our election, didn't Oh, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1,
knowing, brethren, your beloved the Lord, your election, our
gospel came to you. If you've heard the gospel, it
came to you not just in word only, but with power and the
Holy Ghost and much assurance. You may know your election. Do
you believe this God? Huh? Do you believe this Christ? Do you? Do you believe everything,
a record concerning yourself? God says about you, see your
desperate need of Christ. Do you believe? Yeah, Lord, I believe. Help my
unbelief. You're elect. You're elect. Well,
Isaiah 53. God elected to save a people.
Something had to be done about these people, though. They had
sinned and had come short of God's glory. Their sins had to
be dealt with. God is holy. He will by no means
clear the guilty. Their sins have to be something
done about. This is why Christ came. This
is why Christ came. Look at Isaiah 53, verse 8. It
says, He was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall
declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land
of the living. He died, in other words. Who
did he die for? For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. Why did he die? To pay for the
sins of my people. Who did he die for? My people. That is who is stricken for.
Look down at verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed His chosen seed, all that the
Father had given him, shall come to him, and he'll make that offering
for it. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his day, the pleasure of the Lord, that is, the salvation
of God's people, shall prosper in his hand." What are you trying
to say, Pritchard? I'm trying to say, well, I'm just saying
what God's word says. Everyone for whom Jesus Christ
died will be saved. Everyone. And Jesus Christ shed
his precious blood. only for the elect of God. The
elect of God. He did not die for all people,
like this world says. Right? Look over at John chapter
10 with me. John chapter 10. He did not die
for all people. Now, the clarion cry or the common
preaching of our day is, God loves you and Christ died for
you. The two biggest lies that have ever been told. Two biggest lies that have ever
been told. And I'll lay them bare for what they are. Remember
the illustration I gave you one time? I said, what about when
I asked my wife to marry me? What if I had said to her, honey,
will you marry me? And she had asked me, well, do
you love me? And what if I had said to her,
well, yes, I love you. I love all women. Yeah, I love you. Sure, you're
a woman. I love all women. Don't I? Would she have married me? Huh? All men are saying to everybody
everywhere, God loves you. God loves you. You mean, God
loves me? Yeah, he wants to save you. God loves me, wants to save
me? Yeah. Oh, does he love the people in hell? Yeah, God loves
everybody, doesn't he? I don't want that love. Right? I don't want that love. And she'd
have been a fool to marry me, and most of you say she was anyway,
but she'd have been a fool to marry me under that condition,
right? But when I say unto her, honey,
yes, I love you, you're the object of my affection. I have set my
affection on you. There's no other woman that I
want. It's you that I want, you that I love, and I'm going to
do everything to have you. Would she marry me then? Oh,
she did. I have her. And that's the love
that God Almighty's people experience. That's the love that they rest
their souls upon and trust in, and a sovereign, effectual, particular
love, right? And that's the blood, that's
the sacrifice that they rest their souls upon, too. What good
does it do me if Christ died for me and died for people in
hell, too? Huh? That means the blood of Jesus
Christ is totally worthless, right? The scriptures say, though,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, does what? Somebody say
it. Cleanseth us. Now, if he shed
his blood for those in hell, it didn't cleanse anybody, did
it? Their faith is what made it effectual.
Then they get the glory, don't they? Then it's their faith that
saved them, right? It wasn't the blood of Christ.
If Jesus Christ shed his blood for all men without exception,
and some men die and perish and go to hell, what good is the
blood of Jesus Christ? What does the blood of Jesus
Christ have to do with salvation? Nothing. We're not splitting
hairs, are we here, brother? Our souls rest upon this. Are you saved? Is there a blood
sacrifice at the right hand of God Almighty that he will accept
on behalf of all sinners Is there an acceptable sacrifice, an atonement
that really put away sins once and forever, that never needs
to be made again? Is there? Is there a mediator? Is there
a substitute? Is there a sacrifice, an intercessor, an advocate,
a surety, the head of the covenant? Yeah, then I'm saved. No other
reason. No other reason. Jesus Christ
shed his blood for all of God's elect, and every one of them
will be saved. John 10, verse 11, says, I am the good
shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. What
other verse do we need? Everybody would acknowledge that
the scriptures talk about goats and sheep, right? Goats and sheep,
wheat and tares, right? True brethren, false brethren.
We are of God, the whole world, life and iniquity. Goats and
sheep. Who does Christ say from the
very mouth of the Son of God Himself? Who did he lay down
his life for? Who did he die for? Who? The sheep. Well, look over at
verse 24. The Jews came around and said,
How long are you going to make us doubt? If you be the Christ,
tell us plainly. I told you, he said. I told you. He doesn't mask his words. They're
not four-word, are they? They're perverse. They're all
plain to him that understands it, Proverbs 8 says. They're
all right to him that findeth knowledge. The Lord said, I told
you. I told you. The works that I
do in my Father's name, they bear witness unto me, but you
believe not." You're not my sheep. That gives me hope. That gives
me hope in my preaching. It sure does. That I don't necessarily
worry about the outcome. Because it's not left up to me.
And I do rejoice in knowing, and that's the reason I preach.
That's the reason we preach. In knowing that God's sheep will
hear his voice. This is the argument men use.
They say, if I believe that, why preach? That's why we preach. I've used the illustration before.
I wouldn't go fishing in a lake if I wasn't sure if there were
any fish there. Would you? I've done that far too many times. And I don't like grounding worms.
I like to catch fish. When God said to Paul, you go
into that city, I have much people in that city. Could he preach
with any enthusiasm, any zeal? God says, I've elected a people.
Go preach, they're going to hear my voice. And they did, didn't they? That's
why I preach. Number one, God said so. Number
two, God has a people and they're going to hear his voice. That's
why we preach, because we believe in action. If I believed it was
left up to my own persuasible powers or up to the will of man,
which it expressly denies in the I wouldn't preach at all. Or else I'd resort to all these
tactics that they resort to, wouldn't you? Dollar bills under
the seats, and so forth. I'd do whatever I could to get
somebody to accept Jesus. But since I know the power lies
in God, I just say, That's the way of the Lord! And the Lord
does the work. And I'm confident. The sheep
will hear his voice. I'll go sit down. Right? And you can take the same confidence
in talking to others about You don't talk to your blue-in-the-face.
Just bring a word in Caesar. Thus saith the Lord. This is
what the word of God said. But, but, but, no, no, no, but.
No yabbits, right? As Brother Jack would say, no
yabbits. Are there any yabbits? Yabbit! No, he just said, Thus
saith the Lord. Now go sit down. Go sit down. Christ died for those people,
and this is the next point that I was trying to bring out there.
The Holy Spirit of God. effectually draws and brings
all of those people that God chose, that Christ died for,
to him by faith. The Holy Spirit brings all of
these people that God chose and that Christ died for to him by
faith, to Christ by faith. We call it irresistible grace
or drawing or wooing. As I put it one time when we
went through the book of Ruth, it's like God Almighty flirting
with with his bride, with his children, flirting with them.
He does it in various ways. And I've got to hurry. Look over
at Psalm 110 with me. Psalm 110. Oh, I like this passage. Psalm 110. The Holy Spirit draws
every one of God's people. And though, even though this
thing is not of him that willeth or him that runneth, Romans 9.13
says that, 9.16 says that, not of him that willeth a runner,
but of God that showeth mercy. Philippians 2.13 is God that
worketh in us both to will and do of his good pleasure. John
1.12 and 13, it's not of blood, not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, but of God. And though it's totally of God's
will, he does make his people, those chosen people, willing. He woos them, he irresistibly
draws them, he shows them his glorious person and their despicable
person, and it points them to the beauty and the glories of
the Lord Jesus Christ and his effectual work, and him as being
all they need, their all and their in all, and doing everything
for them. And they can't help themselves.
They fall in love with him, by the power, this irresistible
wooing and drawing of God's Holy Spirit. Verse 3, Psalm 110, All
people, no, thy people, shall be willing in the day of thy
power." In the beauties of holiness, the beauties of his holiness,
and he makes us, he puts us, makes us holy, conforms us to
his image. So it's like God Almighty wooing
us or flirting with us through the agency of his Holy Spirit
See, salvation is a work of the three persons of the Godhead,
three in one, with three separate but vital works that work together. God chose a people. God chose
a people. The Holy Spirit or the Son of
God came down to die for and atone for, pay the sin sacrifice
for those people. And the Holy Spirit, they must
believe. Those people must believe, right? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, you're not going to call
unless the Holy Spirit woos you, makes you, sees you, shows you
your need of Christ and causes you, makes you willing to call
upon God, right? So that's the work of the Holy
Spirit, to make you call, to believe Christ. convict you of
sin, of righteousness, of judgment, all as it relates to Christ.
Christ said, The Comforter will come, and he will testify of
me, and I'll speak of himself. And that's how you know that
all of this that goes on today under the name of the Holy Spirit
is false, right? Because they're speaking of the
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit alone, and the preaching does
not draw men or point men to Christ, his person But they're
all taken up with signs and wonders and all that, and not with Christ,
the person of Christ. That's what the Holy Spirit does
to a man, to a woman, to a young person. And look over at John
chapter 3, and this is what our Lord said in John 3, verses 5
through 8. He said, John 3, verses 5 through
8, concerning the work of the Holy Spirit, he said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water, that
is, born into this life from your mother's womb, and then
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is just flesh and never
will be anything but flesh until God rebirths that person by his
Spirit. That which is born of the Spirit
is spirit. Verse 8, The wind blows where it lifteth, ye cannot
hear the sound thereof, can't tell whence it cometh, whither
it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit of God is sovereign, like the
Father and like the Son. You can't pinpoint where He's
going to be and when He's going to be there, and upon whom. He is sovereign. But the Holy
Spirit must draw and call His people. And lastly, lastly, None
of these people, none of these people whom God has chosen, whom
Christ died for, who paid that once-for-all ransom price for,
none of the people whom God the Holy Spirit has drawn to Christ
by faith, none of those people will ever, ever fall away. It is absolutely impossible. Are you saying once in grace,
always in grace? That's exactly what I'm saying.
Once in the grace of God, that is. Let's clarify whose grace
it is and what grace is. Not just a general offer, not
something you improve upon, but something that's done to you.
And once in the grace of God, in the good graces of God, always
in the good graces of God. Once in the love of God, he said,
I've loved thee with an everlasting love. If I know anything about
English, I know that means it lasts forever. Everlasting love. Therefore, I'm going to help
you, he said, with love and kindness I've drawn you. That's the work
of the Holy Spirit. Graven you on the palm of my
hand. You can't get any closer to God than that. You can't get
any surer than that. Christ said we're in the Father's
hand. We're in His hands and in the
Father's hand. Never to be removed. Never. In Isaiah 49, he says
this in verse 15, I just quoted it. Can a woman forget her sucking
child? Yes, they do, all the time. They
throw them in the garbage can, don't they? That she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they will forget,
but I won't forget, and that's all my salvation, is that God
won't forget me. I'm going to forget him. I have
forgot him. I will forget him at times, right? But my salvation is not based
upon me remembering him. It's totally based upon him remembering
me and remembering that covenant that he made concerning me that's
ordered in all things. And sure, this is all my hope
and all my salvation. Right? It better be all your
hope or salvation or you're leaning on something else. And I used
Sister Virgie last week about this, that there may come a day
very soon when she loses her mind, her faculties are gone,
and you may ask her who Christ is, what her hope is, and she
might not be able to remember the name of Jesus Christ. Is
that what her hope rests upon? Not at all. God remembers her
name. And he says, I have graven thee
upon the palms of my hand. Thy walls are continually before
me. And then John 10. I quoted this too. John 10 and
we'll quit. John chapter 10. Our Lord says
this over here. In John 10, verses 27 on, he
said, My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. And this blessed and glorious passage of Scripture. Look at
it. John 10, 28. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, never perish. Neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me,
he is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one in this
matter. We are not going to be put off. None can stay his hand. Now he
can open his hand once it's shut. Once it's shut. If God saves
you, what I'm trying to say is if God saves you, you're saved.
You're saved. If God saves you. If he gives
you eternal life, it's eternal. If someone who you thought, now
you say, well, I've known people, though, to fall away. I've known
people who profess to be Christians But yet they fall away. Well,
John describes that, doesn't he? 1 John 2, 19. He said, they
went out from us, but they were not of us. He said, no doubt,
if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.
Right? If they'd been saved by God,
they'd be saved. Right? But they went out from us, he
said, that it might be made manifest to you. It's sad when it happens,
isn't it? But that makes us cling to and
seek and look to the Lord a little more carefully when we see things
like this happen. It's sad when people leave and so forth. But
it shows us just where our salvation is found, doesn't it? Where it's
found. It makes us lean upon him and
cling to him and seek him that much harder. That it might be
made manifest that they were not all of us. That they were
not all of us. You see, all of God's people,
because he is God, because Christ is the Savior, and because of
what he did, and because of the Holy Spirit and his mighty power,
all of God's people will be saved. And that's what Christ is going
to do someday. He's going to present all of
those people to the Father someday. And he's going to say, like he
said in Hebrews, here they are. Every last one of them. I and
the children which thou hast given me. They're all here. There's
not a one of them missing. And they're going to read the
books with all the names written in them. Lamb's Book of Life.
And they're all going to be there. They're all going to be there
to the glory of God Almighty. Now, these are doctrines, right? These are doctrines. We've systematized
them in basically five or six doctrines. But let me say this,
and this is necessary to say it. It's not belief in these
things or these facts that saves us. It's not belief in these things
or these facts that save us. You must believe these facts.
Who is a believer but he that believes God? Right? You must
believe what God says. Two can't walk together except
they be agreed. That's the true sense of the word believer. You
believe all that God says. But it's not belief in these
facts or doctrines that save us, but it's a realization and
a belief or seeing or understanding that these things just talk about
who God is, who God is. This is eternal life, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and how else are you going
to know the only true God, except we see it in his words, except
he revealed these truths about himself, too. And these truths
are a manifestation of God's character, the way he saves his
people through Christ and shows who gets the glory. And all who
have truly experienced this in their hearts, this work, they
can say from the heart that that's who God is, that's who my God
is, that's who my Christ is, that's how he saved me, right?
I believe that there are some people who cannot really perfectly
articulate these things. As some of you can, so very well. But I believe they believe the
essentials of it, nonetheless. And God will clear it up to them.
God will show them very clearly. God will manifest it to them
in his due time. Right? And they'll say, yeah,
that's how God saved me. I didn't know how you put it.
I didn't know quite how to say it, but since you said it and
shown it, that's it. That's how God saved me. That's
my God, that's my Christ, that's who I am, and that's my salvation.
Right? More than doctrine. This is all
our salvation. And I never make any disparaging
remarks concerning the doctrine of God. Oh, no. It starts there,
doesn't it? It starts with the head. But
it's got to go much deeper. It's got to go down to a firm
realization and absolute persuasion of these things in your heart
and feeling a desperate need of this one to do the saving
and seeing your completeness in him. I hope the Lord will
bless that. to your understanding and for
his glory.