Let's look at 2 Thessalonians,
the second chapter. August the 2nd, 1969. That was a red letter day for
this man because this young lady, she married me. I married her
as a happy, happy day. And I'm so thankful for her.
After we got married, just a couple of weeks later, we both went
to Bible school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She went there for a year, then
transferred to another college. But it wasn't at that school
that I had a professor who knew the gospel. I was thankful and
am still thankful for him. Most of the professors I had
were, well, they were freewill Armenians. They really didn't
know anything about the grace of God, but this man, he did. He wrote up on the chalkboard,
on the blackboard one day, he said, here are five letters I
want you to write down. And I took out my ink pen, of
course we was taking notes anyway, and I wrote them down. He said,
here are the letters. T-U-L-I-P. That's spelled tulip. I'll tell you, that became my
favorite flower and it still is. It still is. But he wrote those up there and
you know, we were sitting there and Nancy wasn't there, it was
English literature class. And we were looking at each other
like What does this mean? I didn't know he was a botanist
or whatever. He's really into flowers or whatever.
He said, now this is what these stand for. T stands for total
depravity. He said U stands for unconditional
election. He said L stands for limited
atonement. I stands for irresistible grace. And then the letter P stands
for Perseverance of the Saints. And then he said, let me show
you some things here. He said, let's go back to the
T. He said, now, some of you, you've never heard some of the
things I'm going to say before you today, but he said, if you
can understand what this letter T stands for. If you can understand
total depravity, you won't have any difficulty with the rest. And then he said before us, Adam's
fall, our depravity, our sinfulness. If, as God's word says, if Adam
died in the garden, And if he died as our representative, then
we're totally depraved. We're absolutely, thoroughly
sinful. And the Bible says that's the
way we are. And therefore being absolutely,
totally depraved, if anybody is to know God, if anybody is
to be saved, If anybody is to be forgiven of their sins, if
anybody is to be accepted by God, there had to be an unconditional
election of sinners unto salvation. By the way, this is the title
of the message tonight, Unconditional Election. that is no condition
upon men. It's not something that we do
that kind of indicates to God that we're really serious and
therefore He says, OK, I'm going to choose you based upon what
I see that's in your heart. Oh no, it's unconditional election. God, before the world began,
in my Lord Jesus, The Lord selected, He elected a people unto salvation. This is a gracious, gracious
choice. And it's an absolutely sovereign
choice. It wasn't a random choice. It wasn't a choice without a
heart or without love. It wasn't like, okay, eeny, meeny,
miny, moe. Well, I'll choose this one. No,
it's an election. The election of God was an election
of love. He loved the people in Christ
Jesus before the world began. And He selected a people. Now,
not a few people, but many people. These people are from every,
every corner of the world. Of every nation, every kindred,
every tribe, every tongue. God chose them unto salvation. I'll come back to that. But he
said, you'll see the necessity of this unconditional election
of some sinners unto salvation if you understand that first
one, total depravity. If you've got a grasp of our fallen Adam, if you understand
what happened in Genesis chapter 3, then you will see that the
only way anybody would ever be saved is if God Almighty in everlasting
love elected them unto salvation. That's unconditional election. And then hell is limited atonement. And that simply means the Lord
Jesus, He died for His people. Who did He die for? Those who
are unconditionally elected unto salvation. Those the Father gave
Him. This morning I quoted John 6.37.
The Savior said, All that the Father giveth Me, come to Me. They shall come to Me, and Him
that cometh to Me I will lend. No eyes cast out. Those are the
ones He redeemed. Those are the ones He reconciled
to God. Those are the ones for whom He
came into the world. I also quoted Matthew chapter
1 and verse 21 this morning. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin." Who are His
people? Those who were chosen in that
unconditional election before the world began. You mean you
don't believe in universal love? No. You don't believe in God's
universal love? No. You don't believe that Christ
Jesus died for all men without exception? No. I believe that
whoever he died for, they must be saved, they will be saved,
because they don't have any sin. Their debt has been put away.
Well, whose sins did he make atonement for? Who are the people
that he redeemed from the curse of the law? The elect. The elect. And you'll see the necessity
of this limited atonement if you understand total depravity. Because we couldn't pay our debt,
we owed a debt we couldn't pay, and what's more than that? We
weren't interested in the debt being paid. We weren't interested
in how God could be a just and holy and righteous God and yet
justify the ungodly. That's not something we were
interested in. We were dead in our trespasses
and sins. And long before we ever lived,
in fact, long before God made the world, He gave us to Christ
Jesus. And He received us as a gift,
all of the elect. And it was for those people that
God gave Him that He came into the world. For these He lived. For these He suffered. For these
He bled. For these He died. For these
He arose again. For these He ascended. And for
these and these alone, He's the mediator between God and them. The Savior said in John chapter
17, I pray for those whom thou hast given me, I pray not for
the world. And if He didn't pray for the
world, then you can just bet the bank on the fact that He
didn't redeem the world. Whoever He prays for, that's
who He was dying for. Whoever He was dying for are
those whom the Father gave Him in eternal election. And those
that the Father gave Him in eternal election, the Father has loved
them, the Son has loved them, the Holy Spirit has loved them,
with a love beyond all comprehension, a love without beginning and
a love without end. Limited atonement. Irresistible
grace. God sends His gospel to His elected
people, to His redeemed people. And that Word comes to us by
the very power of the Spirit of God, and it's effectual in
our hearts. It burns down within us. Oh, the words of the preacher
only go to the ears. But the Word of God, when taken
by the Spirit of God and thrust into the soul, the Word of God
miraculously and mysteriously works a work of grace in the
heart of a man and suddenly he who is dead and trespasses in
sin is made to live. God says live. In Ezekiel chapter
16, we're like that deserted infant, cast out into our blood,
laying there not covered. And God says it was a time of
love. That's the time of conversion.
He says, I passed by and I saw you and I covered you. I washed
you. I washed you. I robed you. I wrecked you up. You became
beautiful through my comeliness. That's irresistible grace. This is grace that gets the job
done. You listen to the grace most
preachers talk about today. It's merely a want-to on God's
part. It's merely a desire on God's
part. God wants to do you good. God's
got a wonderful plan for your life. If you'll only let Him
have His way in your life, that's the way they present the grace
of God. But that's not the grace of God of the Bible. The grace
of God in the Bible gets the job done. It's effectual. It's
powerful. It's irresistible. It does God's
work. Grace is not a feeble thing.
Grace is not a weak thing. Grace is almighty. Grace is glorious. You know why? It's God's grace. No wonder we sing, grace greater
than our sins. It's greater than, it super abounds
over our sins. That's the grace of God. And
this grace is effectual, this irresistible grace working in
the heart. And I'll tell you once that grace
goes to work in the heart, it don't let you go either. It's
continual. That grace keeps you looking
to Jesus Christ, keeps you coming to Jesus Christ, keeps you bowing
to Jesus Christ, keeps you adoring Jesus Christ and you just can't
hear of Him too much. The grace of God does something
to our ears so that the name of the Lord Jesus is the sweetest
name in the world to us. And His gospel is the most precious
message in the world to us. And we don't want to hear anything
else. Irresistible grace. That's the
grace of God. That's the grace of the scriptures.
That's the grace we preach. Grace that gets the job done.
And then that last one, perseverance of the saints or preservation
of the saints. Do God's people persevere? Oh yes. Job said, the righteous,
they shall hold on their way. Oh, there'll be many falls and
stumbles and we skin up our spiritual knees. We do that many, many
times. But I tell you real believers,
don't quit. Don't quit. God won't let you. God won't let you. Oh, as His sheep, we may wander
off a little bit. But He brings us back. Thy rod
and thy staff comfort me. He puts the staff out, pulls
us back into line. That's what He does, doesn't
He? He won't let us go. We're preserved by the power
of God. We're kept by the power of God
through faith. He keeps us believing. All this unconditional election. It's just one of the sweetest
doctrines of the Bible. I tell you, if you're a believer,
if you're a child of God, doesn't it just melt you? Doesn't it just overwhelm you
that God would choose you? And there is no reason in you.
So I don't know why God chose me. Well, I don't either. Except
it was His good pleasure. Because, you know, we're like
the nation of Israel. And oft times, in many ways,
God's church, God's people, we're likened, or Israel is likened
unto us, or vice versa. The Lord said, I didn't choose
you because you're the greatest nation. In fact, you were the
least. And he didn't choose Israel because
they were a God-fearing people. No. They were a rebellious people. They were an idolatrous people.
Down there in Egypt, there's Israel and Egypt. There's two
nations. And I tell you, They're both
the same. They're both the same. Naturally,
they're both the same. There's no difference between
them. The Israelites, they fell into idolatry. They worshipped
false gods. The Egyptians worshipped false
gods. They worshipped Ra, the sun god,
and they had a bunch of other gods as well. And the Israelites,
they didn't maintain the worship of God. What was the difference between
them? The only difference between them was God's sovereign good
pleasure to Israel. That's the only difference. Because
one nation was as wicked as the other. And those whom God has
chosen unto salvation by nature, we are no different than anybody
else. And really, even after conversion,
Though God's grace does, it changes us. And if we have bad habits,
we've been practicing after conversion, the grace of God, it does. It
cleans up our life. We know that. We put off immorality. We take on morality. The things
that are pure and good and righteous, those are the things that we
embrace. But really, God's people, we're just like everybody else. We're weak. We're still sinful. We still have wrong motives.
There's no difference between you and your neighbor except
the difference God makes. Except the difference grace makes.
This is an unconditional election. In fact, the Apostle Paul says
in 1 Corinthians, who maketh you to differ from another? Why are you different? Here you sit this evening, where
you've sat, some of you, for many years, with your Bible in
your hands, listening, loving the message, rejoicing in the
grace of God in Christ Jesus. Why are you different from others?
You can just go up the road and here's a free will church up
here. Everything is built around man's
will. If you will, God will. If you'll
let Him, He'll do something for you. And that's what most churches
are preaching today. Why do you believe different
than that? Who makes the difference? God
makes the difference. And doesn't that just humble
you? Those of us who used to be in
free will religion, I tell you, there was a time I was full of
zeal. I worked at church camp and I
preached at campfire services. I tell you, I got a lot of people
to make decisions. Every Friday night at camp, I'd
show a movie to the region beyond. You have an altar call. Come
dedicate your life to full-time Christian service. And I got
to noticing every year the same people would come forward. It
was kind of over and over again. That kind of bothered me. But
it was all based upon man's will and man's way and man's decision.
And I was going to a Bible college, one of the trustees performed
our wedding. He said, ìYouíre going places.
Youíre going places. We got your future mapped out.î
Boy, big church, big church. Go to a Bible college, start
learning some truth. We get a visit. We got a visit
from this preacher, didn't we? Went to the door. Oh, hello.
Good to see you. Yeah, I want to talk to you a
little bit. Come in, sit down. Well, I understand that you're
kind of messing around this Calvinism business. That's what we call
it. I rarely use that word, by the way. But that's what he said.
He said, I hear you believed hula. I said, that's right. Man, this is the greatest thing
I ever heard in my life. He said, you're getting ready
to ruin your ministry. If you continue down this road,
you'll never pastor a big church. You will be a failure. And you're
not going to win souls for Jesus. You're not going to keep this
up, are you?" I said, well, I just believe it's the truth of God. And I took my Bible. I said,
it's what the scripture said. He said, you're going to regret
this. You mark my words, you'll never
pastor a big church. You'll never be respected by
the ministerial associations. You're going to ruin your ministry.
And you know what? He was right. He was right as
far as religion is concerned. It ruined everything. But not
as far as God was concerned. The world builds their religion
around man. Man's in the center. Man, he's
really the one that controls things. But God's gospel. This unconditional
election, it starts with God, it ends with God, and from the
beginning, from the start to the finish, it's all God. Or,
as Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. This unconditional election,
I tell you, it's an encouraging truth. You know, the Apostle
Paul, he went to Corinth. He had been over in Athens preaching. Remember, he preached on Mars
Hill. And then he went to Athens preaching. And we're not exactly sure what
happened, but I tell you, the Lord came to him and said, don't
be afraid, Paul. He must have been afraid. Must
have been fearful. After all, he had been meeting
with the Jews on the Sabbath day, and they weren't interested
in what he had to say. It's causing a ruckus. And he
left them, and he didn't go back. He didn't go back to preach to
them. And there was a few converted, and then the Lord spoke to him
and said, now, here's the way it is, Paul. Don't be afraid.
Because I have much people in this place. You know what that
did? It encouraged him to stay and
preach. What do you mean God had much
people in that place? There hadn't been but just a
few people, just five or ten people had been converted. Yet
the Lord said, I have much, much people in this place. What did
He mean by that? Many of God's elect were there.
Many of God's elect. And guess what? Paul didn't know
who they were. And they didn't even know who
they were themselves. They didn't even know. But God
knew because the Lord has known them from before the foundation
of the world. And the Lord said to the apostle
Paul, don't be afraid, just stay right there and preach. Because
I got much people in this place. They got to hear the gospel.
You see, our God, the same God who ordained the salvation of
a multitude which no man can number, has also ordained the
means whereby this gospel comes to sinners, these elect sinners. It's through the preaching of
the gospel. It's through one sinner getting up in front of
other sinners preaching about the Savior. And God gives the
listening ear, the seeing eye, and the believing heart to His
people. He uses a preacher. Oh, I tell you, it encouraged
the Apostle Paul. In fact, he wrote over to, in
the second letter to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 2, he said,
I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may receive their
salvation. I'm willing to go to prison.
I'll go to the dungeon. I'll be shipwrecked. I'll be
beaten with many stripes. I'll be stoned. I'll be said
to be a blasphemer. I'll put up with all of this
because God's got an elect people and they must hear the truth.
He just kept on preaching. Kept on preaching. In fact, when
the Lord dealt with Saul of Tarsus, you remember the story of Acts
chapter 9, the Lord smote him with blindness. He was riding
on his horse, knocked him off his horse. He had papers. He had papers from the high priest
going to Damascus that authorized him to arrest anybody who believed
in that way. the way of grace, the way of
Christ Jesus. Him who is the way, the truth
and the life. He had papers authorizing him
from the high priest, you got permission, you got official
papers to arrest these people, throw them into jail. And boy,
I tell you, he's on his way to Damascus, riding on his high
horse of pride, but God can knock a man off his high horse of pride.
And that right quickly. He knocked you off, didn't he?
You was riding along on your white steed. Yeah, you were. And he humbled you. He put you
in the dust before him and he brought you like Saul of Tarsus
to say, Lord, you're the Lord. And he was blind for three days. Three days. Meanwhile, there
was in Damascus a preacher. His name was Ananias. Now the
Lord spoke to him in a vision, came to him in a vision and said,
Ananias, why don't you go preach to somebody. His name was Saul
of Tarsus. Oh Lord, I'd rather not preach
that guy. Man, he's throwing everybody
in jail. Anybody who believes the gospel, anybody who believes
in the resurrected Christ Jesus, anybody who believes that Jesus
of Nazareth is the Son of God who lived and died and rose again
for sinners, he's throwing them into prison. Lord, could you
send another preacher for that job? The Lord said, you go preach
to him. He's a chosen vessel. That's
what God told him. He's a chosen vessel. And anybody, any lily-livered
preacher who's afraid to preach the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace, who's afraid to preach unconditional election
to people, I just tell you, look at Ananias. That's the first
thing he told Saul of Tarsus. And you can read over later on
in the book of Acts. Paul said, Ananias came to me
and he said, the God of our fathers has chosen thee. Well, you can't
preach that kind of doctrine to a newborn babe in Christ Jesus. Well, take it up with Paul. Take it up with the Lord. It's
His Word, isn't it? Isn't it the truth? You see, sinners have got to
be shut up. Sinners have got to be backed
in a corner with no way out and brought to see that nobody can
help them but God Himself. And He's under no obligation
to do it. He doesn't owe you anything.
I'm not begging somebody to do something for God. God's no beggar. God's no beggar. His servants
are not beggars. We just proclaim the truth. And I tell you, if you believe
the Gospels, because you are a chosen vessel. I am not ashamed
to say that at all. Are you? No, sir. God chose you. That is what the
Apostle Paul says right here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.
We are bound to give thanks all the way to God, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because the Lord has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our
Gospel unto the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."
This is an encouraging message. I tell you what, this encouraged
David when he was dying. He entered into the city of Jerusalem. that night, you'd see lamps that'd
be on in all the houses, all the apartments, kind of a hush
over the city. And you ask somebody, what's
happening? What's happening? Say, haven't you heard? The king
is dying. King David is dying? Yeah, he's
dying. He's dying. Up into the palace. up into the palace. If we could
go, we'd enter into the palace and enter into David's bedroom. And there he lay. And David said,
I've got some things to say. Well, I want to hear what a man's
got to say on his deathbed. If he's not drugged, if he's
still got his mind, I want to know what he's got to say. David in 2 Samuel 23 verse 5,
he said, although my house be not so with God, yet He's made
with me an everlasting covenant. That's that unconditional election.
He said it's ordered in all things. And I like this. It's sure. It's
sure. Well, it's nothing sure in this
world but death and taxes. God's covenant is sure. Unconditional
election is sure. Limited atonement is sure. Irresistible grace is sure. The perseverance of the saints
is sure. He said, this is all my salvation. And it's all my desire. That's
all I want. That's all I want. What is your assurance? I tell
you what my assurance is, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The
grace of God, that's my assurance. What about your faith? Don't
you get some assurance because you believe? I tell you, my,
well, probably being too honest with you, but my belief most
of the time, it probably ought to be called unbelief. As a preacher,
you ought not say that. It's telling it like it is. I'm
weak and feeble just like you are. I know you are, because
you may not have the same stuff I have. You're just a sinner
saved by free grace. And I know who's keeping you,
the same one who's keeping me. And if he let us fall, we'd fall
all the way to the bottom. But he won't let us fall. He
said, I got you in my hand. Got you in my hand. And we are
in my Father's hand. In the Father's hand there is
safety. No man is going to pluck us out of the Father's hand.
And Christ said, I and my Father are one on this. Keeping the
sheep safe. Nobody is as safe like God's
sheep are safe. It encouraged David on his death
bed I tell you what, it's a doctrine that will encourage us when we
consider our sinfulness, when we consider our weakness as we
face the struggles and the trials of life, the disappointments
of life, the doctrine of salvation altogether by grace, unconditional
election that will comfort the soul. David in Psalm 65 in verse 4,
he says, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causeth to approach unto thee. You see,
those whom he chooses, he causes them to approach to him. He draws
them with irresistible grace. He pulls us in. He pulls us in. Some of you men and ladies are
fisher people. Sorry to say fishermen. Fishermen,
fishermen. I know Joe and Jill go fishing.
He drives a boat. He puts the gas in the boat.
He's got the net ready. She catches the boat. You pull
him fish in. I was reading in the newspaper
today about this guy. Did you read in the paper today
in the sports section where this guy called five-pound largemouth
bass? He's talking about how he bent the rod over. He pulled
that in. Got it in the boat. Let me tell
you something. Our God pulls in all of His people. Irresistibly. Tell you, if that
gospel ever hooked you, if it ever hooked you, you're not going
to spit the hook out. No. You won't want to spit it
out. And He'll net you and He'll pull
you into the boat, into the ark of God's salvation, and you'll
thank Him forever for doing it. That's God's irresistible grace
in pulling you in. That will encourage you. He chose you and He calls you
to approach to Him. You see, here's how this encourages
us. It's not dependent upon us. It's
a good news. It's not dependent upon us. I
used to hear this all the time. You've got to keep on keeping
on now. You've got to walk the walk. He keeps me. He keeps me. And He'll keep me to the river. rolls its water at my feet, and
He'll bear me safely over where my Savior I shall meet." That's
this unconditional election. Oh, I tell you, it ought to bring
forth such thanksgiving from us. No wonder Paul puts it this
way. We're bound to get thanks. In
other words, we're obligated to give thanks. We're obligated
to give thanks. Who should we give thanks to? To God. Well, how often should
we give thanks to God? Always. Well, what do we give
thanks to God for? For you! That's what Paul says,
for you! Brethren, people who are born
of the same Father, people who are born of the same incorruptible
seed, we're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, loved with everlasting love. And what's the reason for
this thanksgiving? Because God, from the beginning,
He's chosen you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit. The root word sanctify means
He sets you apart. He sets you apart for God. We're
for God. We've been set apart for God.
We're His peculiar treasure. Isn't that amazing? The Lord said we're His heritage.
He said you're my jewels. He said you're like the apple
of my eye. That's God's elect. Oh, how dear we are to God. And belief of the truth. He brings
us to believe. Not to believe just anything
now, but to believe the truth. To believe Him who is the truth. To believe the truth about the
Lord Jesus. The truth about His deity. The
truth about His humanity. The truth about His blood, the
truth about His justifying righteousness, the truth about His resurrection,
the truth about His mediatorial reign, the truth of His Lordship. Whereunto He called you by our
gospel. What does He use to call people?
The gospel. And the Apostle Paul says, our
gospel. It's the gospel we believe. He's
given it to us. We preach the gospel. That's
how God calls people. Maybe today, here. Maybe on the
internet. Maybe as a result of somebody
listening to this CD way down the road. Watch this DVD maybe
years from now. I don't know. But I do know this,
and this is my encouragement. His word shall not return unto
Him void. It's going to do its job. I'm
encouraged. It encourages me as a preacher.
And I've had people say, oh, if I believed like you believe,
I wouldn't preach anymore. If you believed like I believe,
you'd get up and give it a shot. Because you know, the shepherd's
got some lost sheep out here. And he's going to find them.
They're out here roaming around. They don't know. They don't know
they're his sheep. They don't even know they're
lost. He's going to show them their lost, and He's going to
find them, and He's going to teach them who found them. That's what He does. So we just
keep on preaching the gospel. Because you're going to obtain
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to be glorified.
Because He predestinated that. Unconditional election. Whoo! You just can't give me too much
of this. No, sir. And I love this truth. See, it
gives God all the glory. And it helps us poor sinners.
It does us good. And when you find something that
glorifies God and does poor sinners some good, you're on to something
then now. You're on to something. Alright,
let's sing. Oh God, number 105, that beautiful.