That's very good. Thank you.
What a blessing. Let's go back to the second Thessalonians,
the second chapter. As our brother read to us a few
minutes ago, He read about the man of sin. He read about the wicked one
that is being revealed. He's not being revealed to everybody.
He's uncovered to some. They need to understand this
man of sin, this wicked one, is all a false religion personified. I think when we read in the Scriptures
about Antichrist, I don't think we should be looking at a specific
individual, but rather every religion that is not the religion
of God is Antichrist. Every preacher that doesn't preach
the gospel of God's free grace. Every preacher that does not
set forth our Savior as both God and man, as the only Savior,
as the substitute for sinners, as that one who made satisfaction
for the sins of God's people, Every preacher who denies the
Gospel, every religion that denies the Gospel, that religion is
anti-Christ. And in this second chapter, the
Apostle Paul personifies all false religion. This wicked one,
this man of sin is revealed or he's uncovered. He's not uncovered,
he's not made known to everybody. But He is made known to God's
people. That is God's people, those who
love the Gospel. Those who believe on the Son
of God as He's revealed in the book. Those who love the Gospel
of salvation by grace alone, without any deeds of the flesh,
without any works of the law. Those who love the message of
grace, who love the message of Jesus Christ, whenever we hear
another message, it is revealed to us, it is uncovered to us
that that religion, that message is anti-Christ. This is what
the Apostle is saying. Now as the gospel of free grace
goes forth, There are many who shut their ears to the message
and they say, we're not going to believe this message. That's
too much grace. That's too much Christ Jesus.
Surely, preacher, there's something that man must do. We've got to
make some contribution to our salvation. Don't tell me that
it's all of God. Well, we've got to at least add
our faith. We've got to at least add our
repentance. And we say, no, there's nothing
you add to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it all. He finished the work of salvation
that God the Father commissioned Him to do. Now in old eternity
in the covenant of grace, our Savior stood as our surety for
all of His people, for all of the elect. And right then and
there, and I say right then and there, this has really been from
old eternity, that never had a beginning, but God has always
looked to the Savior for full satisfaction to every demand
that He set forth. And the Savior, He came into
this world to do the work of actually saving His people from
their sins. The angel said to Joseph, Thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins. And he did that. And those whose
ears had been opened, those who had been given a new heart, those whom God the Spirit has
resurrected from a spiritual grave, we love the message of
salvation by grace alone in Christ Jesus alone. And whenever someone
comes along preaching any other message, we just won't hear it. We just won't receive it. We
don't like it. Now all of you are gathered this
morning listening to the Gospel. in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
there are many people to whom this message is not a good sound. It's not good news to them. And
they refuse to hear the Gospel. As I said, too much grace, too
much Christ Jesus. Well, this is what God may do. He may send these people a delusion,
deception, a false gospel. Oh, the message may come from
someone who is very dynamic, someone who has a wonderful personality. It may come from a denomination
or from a church that's full of excitement and you're just
drawn in. God Himself is the One who is
ultimately the One who sent you the delusion. Because you wouldn't
receive the Gospel. Because you despise the message
of salvation by Christ alone. And you'll believe the delusion
because by nature man will receive delusion every single time. And then the Scripture says,
then God will damn you for it. He'll damn you for believing
the delusion. Well, I'm sure when the apostle
wrote this, those saints to whom he wrote, they must have, when
the letter was being written to them, and I remind you, this
was a letter, this is the second letter written to the church
at Thessalonica. And whenever the pastor or the
spokesman, whoever's reading the letter, as they read down
through these things about the wicked one, about the man of
sin, here's false religion personified, growing by leaps and bounds,
many people being deceived, and those who don't strong delusion and they believe
the lie, I'm sure many of them say, well what about us? Are
we going to be okay? And so he gets down to verse
13 and he says, but, now up to that point everything
has been somewhat negative, disturbing, very troubling. But he gets down
to verse 13 and he says, But we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning, what has God done from the beginning?
He's from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto, that is unto
this truth he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's my subject, chosen to
salvation. That's the subject for the hour.
Chosen to salvation. Election. Now this is not a lecture. We're not sitting in a theology
atmosphere, a theological atmosphere. It's not a theology class. I
want the people of God, I want those of you who love the Gospel,
those of you who love Christ Jesus as He's revealed in the
Book of God, those of you who delight to hear about the Book,
who delight to hear about the righteousness of Christ Jesus,
I want you to understand this doctrine of chosen unto salvation
is a doctrine full of love. It's a wonderful, wonderful doctrine. Oh, what a precious truth. And it should just absolutely
comfort your heart. It should speak great peace to
your soul. Salvation by God. Trace it back. Where do we trace this salvation
back to? God choosing us unto salvation. Now let me make several points
here. First of all, this is a biblical
doctrine. It's a biblical doctrine. And
that's all that matters about any doctrine, isn't it? That's
all it is. Is it a biblical doctrine? If it's a biblical doctrine,
wonderful, then don't be ashamed to declare it and absolutely
believe it. If it's a biblical doctrine.
If it isn't a biblical doctrine, we don't want to hear anything
about it. Well, this doctrine of the election unto salvation
is a biblical doctrine. Let me give you a few verses.
Go over to the book of Matthew. You know, the Lord often speaks
of the elect. The elect. And that's what we're
talking about. We're coming up on an election
here in the next couple of days. There's going to be an election.
You'll go and vote. I'm not going to tell you how
to vote. You seek God's will and you vote as the Lord would
have you vote. I'm not going to tell you how
to vote. I don't run your life. But in the vote, there's somebody
who's going to be elected. There's somebody who's going
to be the choice. What we need to understand of this salvation,
If we go back to its origin, let's just go back to the very
beginning, we have to trace it back to an election. Okay? To an election. Now, I know that
those in free willism, they say foolish things like this. Well,
in salvation, God voted for you and the devil voted against you. Now, you must cast the deciding
ballot. The vote is up to you. Well,
there's a lot wrong with that, but the basic thing wrong with
that is this. The election, when it was held,
the devil wasn't around to vote, and you weren't around to vote.
The only one who cast the ballot, the only one who did the electing
was God Himself. There is the election. That's
why this election is said to be all of grace. In Romans chapter
11, the election is said to be an election of grace. And through the Scriptures, those
whom God set His love upon, those whom God ordained to be His people,
who chose to be His people, they are referred to as the elect. here in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew
chapter 24, look at verse 22. Matthew chapter 24, verse 22, here it
is. Except those days should be shortened,
there should be no flesh be saved. for there should no flesh be
saved. But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.
Look at verse 24. For there shall arise false Christs
and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch that if it were possible, it's not possible, but if it
were possible, They shall deceive the very elect. And then again in the 31st verse, speaking of when our Lord shall
come back, He shall send His angels with the great sound of
a trumpet. They shall gather together His
elect. From the four winds from one
end of heaven to the other. There is a group referred to
as the elect. Go to Romans chapter 8. Romans
chapter 8. And we know this. The only thing
that matters is what the Word of God says. That's all that
matters. Well, let's go to the old theology
books. Let's dust off the old writers
and see what they have to say. Well, what they have to say really,
that doesn't matter. Well, I want to go to the Catechism.
I want to go to the London Confession of Faith. I want to go to the
Westminster Confession of Faith. I want to go to the Philadelphia
Confession of Faith. I want to see what the old church
fathers, the Baptist church fathers had to say in the case of the
Westminster Confession of Faith. That's the old Presbyterian church
fathers. I want to hear what they had
to say. Listen, what they had to say is irrelevant. It has
nothing to do with anything. All that matters is what God
has to say in the book. If God's Word teaches election
unto salvation, that He has chosen a people unto salvation, then
we best believe it. or otherwise will be found in
disbelief, in unbelief of God's Word, and therefore robbing God
of the glory that is rightfully His in salvation. Because if
you deny unconditional election, If you deny that we are chosen
to salvation by God and by God alone, then ultimately you're
going to make salvation dependent upon, conditioned upon the sinner
somewhere along the line. That's heresy. You say if a preacher
doesn't preach election to salvation, or you say he's not preaching
the truth, you got me right. Exactly right. The book of God
sets this forth. Romans chapter 8. And we know
in verse 28, most all of God's people know this and a lot of
people who are not God's people know this verse. And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. For whom He did
foreknow, it doesn't say for what God foreknew. What God foreknows
everything. It doesn't say what God foreknew.
It says for whom He foreknew. He also did predestinate. You
mean you believe in predestination? I've got to believe something
about it because right here it is in the Bible. I've got a college
professor who said, I don't believe a word about predestination.
I said, you just can't believe the Scriptures then. My brother
Tim James, he set it forth quite eloquently when he talked about
we're all predestineers. We all arrange to come here. We plan to come here. We predestinated
to be here. We did everything that was necessary.
We came, we put on our clothes, and we dressed whatever way we
decided to dress, and we got in our car. Everything we did
was because we had decided to do it. Well, predestination is
God deciding ahead of time, God determining ahead of time every
single thing that would happen. That's predestination. So you
mean God's pulling the strings of everything? Now you're understanding. You mean He controls good and
evil? Absolutely. You mean there's
nothing that lives or moves or breathes or wiggles but isn't
under the control of God? You're getting me right now.
Everything happens according to God's will, according to God's
predestination. It's like the guy who fell down
the steps. He was an absolute predestinarian.
He fell down the steps and he got up and he said, boy, I'm
glad that's over with. But we're absolute predestinarians. That's what I am. If you believe
the Bible, you've got to be that way. Now does that take away
from us our responsibility? Well, I won't even hold the rail
when I go down the steps. Well, that's foolish. Now you've
gone over into foolishness now. Well, if I'm predestinated to
die when I go across the road, I'll just shut my eyes and here
I'll go. Go ahead, and I'm more than likely
to be predestinated to die. I can't control what God has
predestinated, but by His grace, He has made me accountable to
Him. He has made me responsible to
Him. If there's a gospel to be believed,
I'm responsible to believe it. If there's a Bible to be read,
I'm responsible to read it. If there's a preacher to hear,
I'm responsible to hear him. If there's a song of grace to
be sung in my heart, I'm responsible to sing it. If there's a God
of glory to be praised, I'm responsible to praise Him. And if I don't
praise Him, that's my fault. So while I can't figure out predestination
and responsibility, who said you ever had to figure out anything? We just trust God's Word. We seek the Lord. I say to everybody,
seek the Lord while you may be Come thirsty to the water of
life and drink. Come hungry to the bread of life
and eat. Eat of the Savior. Feed on Him. Drink in the Gospel Word. And
when you do that, I'm going to tell you, it's because you're
predestinated to do it. Amen. Yes, that's right. That's absolutely right. Tell you what, we're going to wind
up in glory. It's all to the praise of the
glory of His free grace. every bit of it. Look here in
Romans 8 again. Alright, for whom He did foreknow,
verse 29, He also did predestinate to be conformed with the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom
He called, them He also justified. By the way, them He also called,
the word is named. He named us. What do you mean, Preacher?
He wrote our names down in the Lamb's Book of Life. There are
no new names written down in the Book of Life. My dad used
to sing in a quartet. Man, they sang good. They made
such great harmony. And I love good harmony. These
folks did such a good job in their harmony. Their favorite song to sing at
Quartet, back in Bassett, Virginia, years and years ago. I can't
even remember when it was, it was so far back. They sing, there's
a new name written down in glory, and it's mine, and it's mine,
yes it's mine, yes it's mine. Ever sing that? No extra charge
for the solo. You see, that's why I don't sing
solos. There are no new names written
down in glory. The names written in the Lamb's
Book of Life were written there before the foundation of the
world. The Book was sealed. It's sealed
with seven seals. Nobody's name is going to be
erased out of the Book. And everybody's name who was
inscribed in the Book of God was written with the indelible
ink pen of God's free and sovereign grace. Never going to be erased. Never going to fade away. In
fact, the Lord said, I've written your names upon the palms of
My hand. I'm not going to forget you.
So here's what He said. Moreover, on whom He did predestinate,
them He also named them. He named them. And whom He named,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things if God be for us, who can lay against us? He that spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? God's elect? Nobody's going to
lay a charge to God's elect. because God justified His elect. We're justified by the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus. We're justified by free grace.
We're justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. In fact, He says in verse 34,
who is He that condemneth? Nobody can condemn us because
Christ Jesus has died. Yea, rather He's risen again.
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. And then, one other Scripture.
Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. I'm not sure what y'all's allergies
are bothering you this time of year. I keep wondering if they'll put
something inside the water. Look at this, 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. This is what the apostle wrote
to these people in Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse
4. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. This is what the Apostle said.
He said, I know God showed you unto salvation. You want to say,
how do you know that? I mean, I understand you're an
inspired Apostle, but have you gone up into heaven and opened
up the Lamb's book of life that's sealed with seven seals? Have
you looked into the book to see our name? He said, no. No. How do you know that then? How
do you know? I'm looking at you this morning,
and as best as I can discern, and of course, I don't know anybody's
heart. I can't see your heart. But from what I perceive, I know
your election of God. As best as I can know. Well,
what do you base that on, preacher? Verse 5. Because our Gospel,
This Good News message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified of salvation
by grace. This Gospel, it didn't come to
you in word only. Now wait. It did first come in
word. It did come in word. But not
word only. That's what He says. But it came
to you also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance
as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the Word. You received the Word,
even though there was much affliction and much persecution, you received
the Word. How do you know your election? How can you know you're one who
will be elected? I understand, I believe, as best
as I can comprehend, there was an election of grace, but how
can I know that I'm one of the elect? Do you believe on the name of
the Son of God? Are you looking to Christ Jesus
alone? Now watch it. For everything. I'm talking about righteousness,
life, Forgiveness? Acceptance? Do you have any reliance
on your labors or your deeds, your tears, your faith, your
repentance? You say, oh preacher, Christ
is all of my hope. We're talking about the Christ
of the Scriptures now. Not Christ as you imagine Him
to be, but as He's set forth in the book. He's all of your
hope. Who do you trust in Christ? What did He do? He died for poor
sinners. I'm looking to His death. I'm
looking to His shed blood for the pardon of my sins. I'm looking
to Christ. Those things are the evidences
of election. That's what they are. They're
the evidences of election. I tell you, this is a biblical
doctrine. And it's a delightful doctrine. I fully believe this, that when
God brings a man to see that the reason he's saved is because
of God's eternal purpose of grace, when God makes us to realize
that our salvation is to be traced back to the eternal council chambers
of God Himself, when the Spirit of God shows us that Christ died
in the stead of sinners, He's satisfied God's just demands,
When the Spirit quickens us and gives us faith, and we're made
to realize we're one of the chosen ones, it fills us with thanksgiving
and joy. I've had people say, oh, that's
a hard doctrine. It's not hard. It's a soft pillow. It's a soft pillow. I tell you
this, the Apostle rejoiced in God's election of grace. The
Apostle Paul did. In Ephesians chapter 1, he said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He had
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy, without blemish, without blame, before Him in love. God
chose us. He delighted in that. That thrilled
His soul. It's not a hard doctrine. It's
a blessed doctrine. It's a sweet doctrine. It's an
encouraging doctrine. Because if we have any understanding
of our natural depravity, then we know if God had not set His
everlasting electing love upon us, we would never have gone
to Him, we would never have believed Him, we wouldn't be saved, we'd
perish forever, but for His electing grace. Simon Peter rejoiced in this
election. He said, you're a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood. You're a holy nation of peculiar
people that ye should show forth the praises of Him who called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light. David rejoiced
in God's electing grace. He said in Psalm 65 verse 4,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest. That means highly favored. Holy favored is the man whom
thou choosest, and causes to approach unto thee, that he may
dwell in thy temple. And I'll tell you somebody else
who rejoiced in electing grace. Our Savior did. You look over
in Matthew chapter 11. The book of Matthew chapter 11. Oh yes, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He instructed people the doctrine of divine election, and he rejoiced
in it, and he gave thanks for it. Look in Matthew chapter 11. For the sake of our time, look
at verse 25. Matthew 11, 25. At that time,
Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent. and has revealed them unto babes,
even so father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. He said, All
things are delivered unto me of my Father. No man knoweth
the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son, and he that knows whoever the Son will reveal him. He told his disciples, You didn't
choose me. I chose you. And I ordain you to go forth
and bear fruit. He said in John chapter 6, and
he said this several times throughout the Gospel of John. He said,
all that the Father giveth me. He spoke of those the Father
gave him. He said in his high priestly
prayer, of all those that thou hast given me, I shall lose nothing. I'm not losing any of them. I
tell you, this is a delightful doctrine. It's a soothing doctrine. It's a comforting doctrine. And
it's an encouraging doctrine. And I'm going to finish this
tonight, but let me say this to you. Maybe there's somebody
here this morning, or somebody watching, let's say a preacher, This election of grace, is it
for me? Can it be that I should be found
among the elect? Well, I don't know whether you
will be found among the elect or not. But if deep in your soul you
feel the need of Christ Jesus, I mean, this is not a shallow
thing. This is not something frivolous
to you. It's not a momentary, oh well,
I'm bothered now, but I'll get over it. I'm talking about deep
in your soul, you're greatly troubled. You need Christ Jesus. You're thirsty for the water
of life. You're hungry for the bread of life. Oh, I say to you,
you come and drink. Come and eat. I say, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I tell you, God's got lots of mercy for old vile sinners like me
and you. And if you do come, It'll be
because God effectually draws you to Christ Jesus. And He will
effectually draw you to Christ Jesus because you're one of those
sheep for whom the Savior died. One of those given to Him in
the election of grace. See, this is why we don't congratulate
sinners for coming to Christ. We don't say, wow, it's about
time. It's about time you made your decision. Oh, no. We give thanks to God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because God chose you. See, faith
in the Savior, it's an evidence of this election. It's an evidence. I say to all of you, come on. Come on with the rest of us.
That's all we are. We're just a bunch of sinners.
Everyone, we're a bunch of failures in here. You say, well, no, not
me. Well, I'm not talking to you then. I'm not talking, I'm
talking to the sinners. I mean genuine, a sinner is a
sacred thing. The hymn writer said, the Holy
Ghost has made him so. I say to sinners, you come on.
And know this, the reason you're coming And several of us, we're
still coming to Christ, aren't we? Because faith isn't a one-time
event. It's a lifelong pursuit of Jesus
Christ. The reason is because He chose
us. What a sweet doctrine. What a
sweet truth. Man, that encourages my poor
soul. This is an encouragement for
sinners. You say, well, don't preach election to sinners. Why
not? That's what I say. Why not? We
better preach that God's got to do something for us. We better
preach the salvation of the Lord. They say, well, people won't
believe you. You'll have a lot of empty spots in the church
like you do this morning. Well, I'm not preaching to those
that are not interested. I'm preaching to the interested
ones. And if we have an interest, I'll tell you who gave us the
interest. He did. He who gave that entrance, He'll
maintain it too. He'll keep us interested to the
day of Jesus Christ.