All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will, and no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which
seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then
murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down
from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves.
Here's the reason not to murmur. No man, no man can come to me
except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will
raise him up at the last day, as it is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me,
not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God,
he hath seen the Father. Our Father, we do come to precious
name, blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, the one
you sent, the one you sent to do your will,
the one you sent that you gave a people to, the one you sent
that sees you, knows you, and Lord we bless you that you wrote
in your word that we'd be taught of God, and to be taught of God, So many in this world, God never
even goes toward, and the majority of this world never goes toward
you. But oh Father, Father, Father, You drew us, You taught us, and
You brought us to our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise You for that. We bless You for this privilege,
this honor, this wonderful time that You've called us together
this morning. Thank you for the people that's come out, for the
new ones that's come out, and we thank you that you've blessed
us to be able to worship together again publicly. Thank you for
those who are watching, listening, and Lord bless them. But Lord,
we especially pray for Dee Dee and her family, for Brother Larry
and Matthews, and God bless him, encourage him and Lola. Give
them great strength, give them sufficient grace, as we know
you will. And Lord, if there's any lost
among us, never come to Christ. May this be the day that they
hear that voice, hear that voice and come to Him who alone can
save. Meet our needs, bring glory to
yourself, save your people, save sinners for Christ's sake. Amen
and Amen. Gary, you come lead the song
in the bulletin. My message this morning is free
sovereign grace. Free grace. Now, the title is
good. If I can deliver on it. If I
can deliver on it. That's what I want to do. But
there in John 6.37 it says this. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
not cast out. Now we know that the Word of
God has no contradictions. It does not contradict itself.
God's Word is in perfect harmony with itself. And if there is
seemingly a contradiction, it's not in the Word of God's fault,
it's our fault, our understanding. Let me illustrate what I'm saying.
James says that a man, Abraham, was justified by his works when
he offered up Isaac. So he, James, says he was justified
by works. Paul turns around, says in Romans
3.28, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. Now these two men contradicting
themselves, No, no they're not. When Paul talks about our justification,
he's talking about our justification before God. Our sinless acceptance
before God. Whom God justified, He also glorified. Being justified by faith. Being
justified freely by His grace. And when James speaks, about
works being justified by works. What he's talking about is our
justification of our faith before others. That's what he's talking
about. He's not talking about we're
actually going to be justified by works that we do. But our
faith is justified by what people see us do. And that's what he's
talking about. And you know how did those folks
in Abraham's day know that Abraham had faith? He said, when these
young men, he said, traveled three days. He said, I, you stay
here and I, the lad, am going to go up yonder on that mountain
and we're going to worship and we're going to come again. How
did he know that he was going to come back? He was going to
slay his son. And so when he went up there,
everybody saw him go up there with all the wood, the fire,
and the knife. And Abraham's faith was justified by what he
did. And just like us this morning,
we're here to worship God. We've gathered here to hear the
gospel. We've gathered here to hear the word of God. Just because
we're here, that don't justify us. Faith is what Christ did. But yet, we want to be here. at the same time. Faith works
by love. But I tell you what, let me see
if I can make this sense out of this. You see, Paul says works
is not the cause of salvation. Works is not the cause of salvation.
James says works are the effect of salvation. Flowing from salvation. Flowing from faith. Coming out
of faith. and there's two sides to God's
truth God's absolute sovereignty nobody doubts that I mean God
in fact I believe in total predestination absolute predestination and God's
absolutely sovereign and at the same time man's a responsible
being because he's got a mind he's got intelligence he's got
reasoning powers man is not He can listen with his ears. A man
that's unconverted can hear the same thing that a person's converted
hear. But he's responsible for what he hears. He's responsible
to react to what he hears. And if he don't respond to that
responsibly and listen to God and do what God tells him to
do in coming to Christ, where's the fault lay? Is it going to
lay in him or in God? If he hears the same truth that
you hear and you believe it and he don't believe it, So he's still responsible for
what he heard. Old Barnard said one time, if
you've heard the gospel and you don't want to, you know, if you
don't want to hear the gospel, go someplace and dig you a big
hole and crawl in it. Because I'll tell you what, if
you ever have any light shined on you and you don't obey it,
you better be in a dark hole someplace, but still God's going
to find you. But don't, you know, that's what he's saying. God's
absolutely sovereign. But you're the one who has to
believe. That's what I'm saying. And you know, here in John 6.37,
it declares the truth of God's sovereign, predestinating grace.
All that the Father gives me shall come to me. They're going
to do it. They're going to do it. And yet
it also states here, and of this he said in verse 39, excuse me,
verse 40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone will see of the Son. So, I mean, have you seen the
Son? Have you seen the Son? And it tells us that if a man
will come to Christ, wants to be saved, can come to Christ,
and the Scriptures tells us he'll not be turned away. God will
not turn that man away. That's why people accuse us when
we believe in predestination and believe in the free grace
of God. They say, well, the way you preach, a man couldn't even
be saved if he wanted to. If a man wants to be saved, he
can be saved. He's got to come to the right
person. That's the difference. That's the difference. The first
says here that God chose a people. Those people were given to Christ
in the eternal covenant of grace. And these people, those given
to Christ, they must come. They shall come to the Lord Jesus
Christ and they shall be saved. They shall have everlasting life.
That's what the scriptures teach us. And the second truth, the
truth of this is that God declares that any man, any man, who comes
to Christ will be received, will have eternal life, will be accepted,
and will never ever be cast out. And both are true. You're not
going to be saved if you don't come to Christ. If you don't
come to Christ. And I say, and you know, and
I'll tell you this, we haven't learned to preach, we haven't
learned to witness, until we can declare both of these truths
and they're not enemies. Man's responsibilities in God's
absolute sovereignty. They're not enemies. They're
friends. They're consistent with the Word
of God. You know, if a man's consistent with himself, he's
consistent with a fool. But if a man's consistent with
the Word of God, that's another story. But here's the thing about
it. If you hear the Gospel, And you
don't believe, the fault lays at your door. And if we do believe, it's because
God brought us to Christ. Ain't that what our Lord said
over here in John 6, verse 44? No man can come to me Except
the father which has sent me draw him and I'll raise him up
in the last day now listen to this It is written in the prophets
They shall be all taught of God and if you've been taught of
God and you believe the gospel and you've heard it Every man
therefore that hath learned hath heard and learned of the father
cometh unto me And so we haven't learned to preach or witness
until we can tell men and women without fear or favor, if you
come to Christ, Christ will accept you, Christ will receive you,
Christ will take you into His loving arms and save you by His
grace, save you by His power. And yet at the same time, there
is people that's going to come, there's no doubt about it. Huh? Huh? You see, God chose a people
in Christ. And then Christ died for those
people, redeemed them. And they shall, by God's free
and sovereign grace, in due time, in due time, be brought to Christ. They'll be brought in repentance.
And once you start repenting, you'll never stop repenting.
And repentance, I'll tell you, let me tell you something about
repentance. Repentance is not only about being sorry for sin,
but repentance has a, the thing is that it's a change. It's a
change of mind. It's a change of will. It's a
change of nature. It's a change of heart. Now when
God taught us, and God brings you to Christ in repentance,
the first thing He changes is your mind about God, your mind
about Christ, and your mind about yourself. You think you're a
good person until God brought you to repentance. You think
God was a loving God and a merciful God. But God changed your mind
in repentance. About what? About God's holy
and righteous and just and gracious and love and light and holiness
and righteousness and yet all at the same time a Savior. And
then He come along and He changed your mind about Christ. Everybody gets to go to glory
when they die. But the only people who's gonna
get to go to glory is the people that God changed their mind about
Christ. This is my only hope. This is my only righteousness.
This is my only plea. This is my only acceptance. This
is the only way in the world God can have anything to do with
me is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I mean, he's
changed your mind about those things, ain't he? Ain't you grateful
he changed your mind? And I'll tell you what, they
come to repentance, they come to faith, and not one of them
shall perish. But it's equally true that any
man, any woman who will come and believe and trust the Lord
Jesus Christ shall have eternal life. They're going to come,
but if you will come, you can have eternal life. You know,
I don't want to be guilty of preaching the sovereignty of
God and election in such a way to discourage souls from coming
to Christ. I really don't. I really don't. I remember a young woman, now
she's an older woman now, she comes here, she hadn't been here
in a while on account of this virus. But I remember when she
was very young, even before she got married, and we were still
over in the other building. You know, the first thing she
wanted to find out, she worried herself to death over whether
she was one of God's elect or not. She kept trying to find
out if she was one of God's elect or not. And then she heard the
gospel for a while and then finally she stood up and she said, you
know, God's revealed to me that the Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who saves and he saved me. She was worried to death about
whether I was wanting, and she worried about it for about a
year. Just wallered it, you know. And wallered it around. And then
she stood up one day in the service and said, you know, the Lord
Jesus saved me. She said, I want you to know
it. Before I wanted to know something
else. Now I want to know Him. And that's the difference is
what I'm talking about. And that's why I want to encourage
you to come to Christ. To trust Christ. To rest in Christ. I tell you what, I'm not afraid
too many people's going to come to Christ. Are you? I'm not afraid
too many's going to come. So I mean we need to encourage
people and tell people and hopefully that they'll come to Christ.
We want people to come to Christ. Huh? But here's my first point. The sovereign eternal purpose
of God. Look in verse 37. All the Father gives me shall
come to me. We know this teaching the blessed
truth of election. God's sovereign free election. According as he has chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world, God chose a people. and then he turned around and
put those people into the hands of his blessed son he said you
know the shepherds responsible for the sheep and I tell you
when our father gave them to his blessed son and gave us to
his son our Lord Jesus Christ he stood for us He stood for
us from eternity. He stood for us in time. He stood
for us on the cross. He stood for us in His death.
And He stood for us in His resurrection. Everything He did, He was in
His hands and in His loins and in His body. Huh? And I tell
you, who are these people that are given to Christ? Who are
these people? I'll tell you who they are. They're
some of Adam's fallen race. I mean, you know, listen. We
were some of Adam's wit. You know, our father and mother
lost us and lost our rights to God. Lost our acceptance with
God. Lost our way to God. Lost the
truth of God. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ came
back and restored that. He restored life. He restored
truth. He restored the way to God. And
some of Adam's fallen race. That's why He said, All that
the Father giveth Me. I mean, beloved, we were just
as lost as anybody else. As sinful as anybody else. And
men, all men are sinful. All men are in Adam's fallen
race. But God chose some out of Adam's
fallen race. There we was. We was fallen.
If we had a headache, give us an aspirin. If we're blind, get
us some doctor to operate on our eyes. If we're crippled,
let's get us a crutch. But if we're dead, somebody's
got to give us life. And if we're falling and can't,
you know, you see these commercials, I'm falling and I can't get up.
Well, that's the way we was. We're falling and we couldn't
get up. Who got us up? Christ did. Let me show you John 17, 9. Look
over here, John 17, 9. Look what it says over here. Oh my! You know, our Lord Jesus
Christ said, I lay down my life for the sheep. And here He said
in John 17, verse 9, He said, All the Father which giveth to
me, He said, I pray for them. For
who? Those that you gave me. Those
that believes me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. Who's he praying for? Those that's been given to him. Listen our Lord Jesus Christ
says thou has given him power over all flesh that he He he
should give eternal life Huh to as many that were given to
him And I'll tell you these and I'll tell you this too. They
who are those for whom Christ died Here's something else about
him. Every one of them is a sinner a sinner a sinner And I tell
you, you're a sinner. I was a sinner all my life, but
I didn't know it until God taught me. I didn't know I was a sinner. I know that I was mean. I know that I was sorry. I know
I was hateful and hating. I know that I've done a lot of
bad things. But I didn't know I was a sinner. Oh, and then I found out that
Christ came to save sinners. And I'll tell you something about
us. They're painfully, painfully aware that they are sinners. Painfully aware of it. Painfully aware of it. Look in
Matthew 9. Look down here in verse 10. Oh my! You know that this is the reason. This is the reason I need Christ
more than anything else in this world. It's because of sin. Because of sin. That's why I
need Him. That's why I need him. Because
of sin. Look what he said here in verse 10. And it came to pass,
as Jesus sat at meat in the house, sitting down eating, behold many
publicans Jews hated publicans. They were
tax collectors. And sinners came and sat down
with him and his disciples. Sinners sat down to eat with
the Lord Jesus Christ? Publicans did? Look what he says.
And when the Pharisees saw it, talking about that faith you
know and when the Pharisees saw it they said unto his disciples
why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? what in the world
are they doing? we don't have nothing to do with
sinners we don't want them publicans in here we don't have nothing
to do with publicans we don't have nothing to do with sinners
but when Jesus heard you know what he said? They that are whole. You fellas that... You know publicans
are sick. Sinners are sick. They got something
bad wrong with them. They got a disease. They got
a disease and they can't heal themselves of that disease. But
you fellas are whole. You're not a publican and you're
not a sinner. So you don't need a doctor. But
I tell you what, you find a fellow that's sick, and he's got an
awful disease, and he's got something that just will destroy him in
the end, he's gonna go to the physician. And you know who the
physician is? The Lord Jesus Christ. The great
physician. Look what else he goes on to
say here now. But go ye and learn what I'm talking about. You go
and listen to what I'm telling you. You go and learn that. And
then you look in the Bible. You look and see if you can find
out, I have mercy. I'll have mercy. I don't want
your sacrifices. I don't want your righteousness.
I don't want anything you've got. For I didn't come to call
you Pharisees, you self-righteous, you're pride, and you guys that
stand off to yourself. I didn't come to call you. I
come to call sinners to repentance. There's an old song that says
this, that a sinner's a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost hath made
him so. And like I said, we're painfully
aware that we're sinners. One thing you'll not find a believer
do is bragging about how good he is. Oh no. Somebody else can
brag on them, they'll say, oh no, you don't know me. And here's
another thing that our Lord's teaching. The blessed truth of
election. And all the kind of people he
elected, Adam's fallen race, sinners. And our Lord is teaching
here the invincible, effectual call of the Spirit by this gospel. Ain't that what he says? They
shall come to me. An effectual effectual invincible
call of the Spirit they shall come to me and I'm telling you
something they must and they will in due time be brought to
the Lord Jesus Christ how they gonna be brought by the sovereign
spirit of God by the sovereign spirit by the power of God itself
you know it tells us over in Ephesians that God raised Christ
by the Christ was raised by the power of God from the grave and
it says that the same power He works towards us in saving us. The same power. I tell you, they
shall come to me. In due time, they're going to
come to Christ. Not only that, they'll be brought
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll be brought by the Spirit
of God. Ain't that what He says? All
that the Father, He said, all that my Father's taught of God,
they're going to come to me. And I tell you, they must come.
They will come. In God's grace, I do know this,
it's not going to be frustrated. God's grace is not going to be
frustrated. You know, people think, well,
they could, you know, if somebody don't come, it frustrates the
grace of God. No, no, you're not. No, no, God's
going to get His people. For whom He did foreknow, what
did He do? Them He also called. called. Paul told the Thessalonians,
Brethren, we're bound always to thank God for you because
He, God, hath from the beginning chosen you. What to? Salvation. How did He do it? Fear set you
apart. And what did He set you apart
to? To believing the truth. Boy, I tell you what, I say this
all the time, it's an absolute miracle that we believe what
we believe. It's a miracle that we believe
what we believe. It's a miracle that any of us
here saved this morning. Look at your past week. What
you've been doing, what you've been thinking, how you've been
acting. You look at that and you just automatically say, what
a miracle that I'm still here, still believing. And I tell you
what, and I know that in myself I absolutely have no hope whatsoever. If God don't save me, I won't
be saved. If God don't keep me, I won't
be kept. If God don't teach me, I won't be taught. If God don't
give it to me, I won't have it. Oh, come on, come on, come on,
exercise your free will, come on up here. Oh, no. God ain't going to, His grace
can't be frustrated. Oh no. I tell you, God marks
his elect. He puts a mark on them. They
told Spurgeon one time, since you believe in election, you
preach about God's elect all the time, won't you just preach
to the elect? He said, if I knew who they was,
I would. If I seen a mark on them, that's
what I would. Every time I'd be out in public, I'd look under
their heads, oh, that's one of God's elect. I'd run over to
them and start talking to them. But that's not the way it works.
That's not the way it works. But God marks His elect. He puts
a mark on them. Where's He first put the mark
at? Right here. Huh? Oh my, He marks His elect
in the heart. Sets His affection on them. Sets
His love upon them. And His love refuses, refuses
to take no for an answer. It's like a man, when he's got
it in his mind that he's going to win a woman, he's just going
to keep on and on and on until he gets her. He said, I've got
my heart set on her and I'm not going to settle for anything
other than her. Well, you think if you can do that, what do you
think about what God does? If He decides to set His love
on you, you're coming, He's going to win you. Huh? And oh listen,
not only that beloved, but He applies, He puts blood on this
ear. So that ear can hear things it
never heard before. Gets in that ear gate, comes
in that ear gate, gets in that mind, gets in that understanding. Then he puts it on your thumb
so that your hands can reach out and say, Oh Lord, I reach
out to you. I come to you. My heart comes
out to you. My hand comes out to you. Puts
it on your toe. Lord Jesus, here I come. Oh,
I come with my feet. Oh my, it's like Zacchaeus. You
reckon Zacchaeus could have refused to come out of that tree that
day? If you would have went to the average church service and
said Zacchaeus would you please come down? Oh Jesus wants to
save you Jesus is oh he's just standing here with tears in his
eyes his heart's breaking because you won't come to him. No. Zacchaeus! Come down. And you know what
else he said? Today I must, I must abide at
thy house for salvation has come to your house today. He didn't stand there and go. You know what he does? He draws
back his foot, boom, kicks in that door. Oh, it's like that infant in
that field. He's had something wrong with him. His mother and
daddy throwed him out. Didn't want him. Threw him out,
took him out from the mother's womb. Still had the cord, the
umbilical cord on him. Threw him out in the field. Threw
him out in the field. And he had that blood and mucus
all over him. His umbilical cord still on him.
And the Lord Jesus passed by. He said, I saw you. I saw you. I saw you polluted in your blood.
And I passed by. And I said, under thee live.
Yea, I say, under thee live. And then he spread his skirt
over him. And then he made him beautiful in his beauty. Oh,
he come to them old valley dry bones. Ezekiel! Yes, sir. Yes, Lord, what? Can these bones
live? Not if I have anything to do
with it they won't. They said stand up and preach
to them. How would you like to preach
to a guy that had dry bones? But he did. He did. But God did the work. God did
the work. That's what we're talking about.
That's what we're talking about. God marks His people. He calls
His people. Calls His people. And I'll tell
you what. I'll never forget. I'll never
forget as long as I live. The people that stood up and
confessed their faith in Christ. After they tried everything in
the world. But Herman is the one that stands out one of the
most to me. Sitting right there. One Sunday morning. Seventy-five
years old. Seventy-five years old. Been
in countless services. Played the guitar, sung with
Milton Howard. Been around Henry and Scott.
Just enjoyed their company so much. Loved Bruce Crabtree with
a passion. Loved Scott Richardson so much.
But he never had believed the gospel. but one morning I preached on the hour is coming
and now he is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God and they that hear shall live I was stepping out of the
pulpit just like this here Herman stood up said Donnie Donnie he
said I heard today I heard today 75 years old died when he was
92 and a half well didn't die went to live body died but he
lives have you heard that voice oh
what a blessed thing to hear the voice of the Son of God there's
nothing like it just nothing like it I tell you once you hear
it you can't hear it enough you can't hear it enough Sound of Jesus how sweet it is
in the believers ear Here's the third thing our Lord's teaching
here out of John 644. I mean John 637 He's teaching
the absolute necessity of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ He says
this they shall come to me shall come to me even those who are
given to the Lord Jesus Christ are I didn't know I was given
to Christ until I came to Christ and learned the gospel. You know,
even those given to Christ, they're not saved except they come to
Christ. Huh? Did you ever have any hope
of salvation until you came to Christ? No, of course you didn't. Huh? Even those that are given
to Christ, they must come to Christ. They must come to Him. There's no other door. There's
no other way. There's no other entrance. No
other acceptance. No other Savior. No other mediator. Nobody else can save you. And that's why He says, they
shall come to Me. Oh, listen. And I'll tell you this without...
You will perish if you do not come to Christ. You will perish
if you do not come to Christ. You know what Peter said, look
over here with me in Acts 15.11. Now he's talking to a bunch of
Jews here that just absolutely wanted to add the law to Christ.
Wanted to add the law to the Lord Jesus Christ. And they was
having a debate, they was having a council. And all this had to be circumcised
in order to be saved. Had to keep the law in order
to be saved. But look what Peter says here.
Now he's talking to a house full of, a church synagogue full of
Jews. That just absolutely wouldn't
come to Christ. But we, us Jews, me, Simon Peter,
me, Barnabas, Me, James, and John, we believe through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even like God
saved the Gentiles. Now I'm telling you, no matter
who you are, no matter who you are, Peter says we believe, we
believe. No matter who you are, you're
not accepted. No one's accepted before God.
No one will set foot inside of glory except they come to Christ. Now let me tell you what he didn't
say. He didn't say those who come to the front. Those who
come to the front. Oh that's a big deal to get to
come to the front. Oh my. I wonder how they're getting
people safe since they're meeting in these cars in their parking
lots. They go around the door, you know, going down and say,
roll down your window, I want to walk through and tell you
about Jesus. Get up on their hood and say, Oh! How long are they going to do
that? How are they going to get them saved when they can't even
get them in the building? Oh, my. Oh, my. And I tell you what, they didn't
say come to the preacher. They didn't say come to the preacher.
Don't come to the preacher. I don't know how many people's
come to my house over the years and talked to me and talked to
me in my office here and studied. I don't know how many people's
come. And all of them was wanting to
know what to do. What to do. What to do. And I'll
always tell them, you know, come to Christ. Believe Christ. Try
to preach the gospel to them. But rarely one of them ever did. And he didn't say come to the
church. That's what everybody says, come to church. And I've
told you this before, if you're going to invite anybody here,
say come hear the gospel. Don't say, come to the church.
Say, come with me to hear the gospel. Come with me to hear
the preaching. Come with me and hear what God
has to say from His Word. That's what we want people to
do. Going to church ain't going to do you any good at all. I
like what Larry Matthews called the other day. He said, are you
at the church building? You know, he didn't say, are
you at church? He said, are you in the church building? That's
what this is, a building. Church meets inside the building. And oh my! He didn't say come
to the baptismal pool. He didn't say come to the doctrine
of grace. He says come to me. They shall come to me. We come
to a person. We come to Christ. And I tell
you what, you'll perish if you only trust the doctrine. Now
let me tell you something. People ask me and I don't know
how many times and they may ask you this one of these days. When
did you come to the doctrine of grace? I didn't come to the
doctrine of grace. Grace come to me. You know why
people ask that? Because they're holding on to
a false profession back there and they just get to a higher
level. They got a deeper understanding. But I tell you this is the thing.
Grace come to me. Doctrine came to me. Christ came
to me. And I tell you what, and I tell
you, you can trust, you can be a Calvinist, believe in total
depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible
call, and perseverance to the same. You can believe in all,
you can put tulip all over your car if you want to. But I tell
you this, tulip will not bring you to Christ. Christ and the
gospel is the only thing that will bring you to Christ. And
here's the thing about it, old Joe Terrell said this one day,
when you separate Christ from any doctrine, all you've got
left is a bone. You've got a skeleton without
any meat on it. But you take election and being
chosen in Christ, then election has some power, some grace to
it, some love for it. When you're talking about limited
atonement, when you understand Christ died for you, it was limited
to you, then particular redemption, limited atonement, oh my goodness.
You can call it what you want to, but I say Christ died for
me. Talking about unconditional election,
I know it had to be unconditional because I certainly couldn't
have come on my own. Irresistible grace? Would I have
come without God teaching me and God calling me and God bringing
me? No! But you take Christ out of any
one of them and what have you got? You've got an old dry husk. Huh? Oh my! And I, listen, we've got to convince
God, we come to Him. We come to Him. This is the most
important point that I can say right now. Saving faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ is what a person must have. They must come to
a person. And we come to a person. Jesus,
I come. Jesus, I come. And I tell you,
coming is the same as receiving, bowing, believing, and trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you what, in the eye of
my mind, you know we have an eye in our mind. Our eye in our
mind, it looks to Him. The hand of our soul reaches
out to Him. The knee of my heart bows to
Him in all of His office. He's King, He's Lord. You call
me Lord and Master, I am. The lepers came down off the
mountain and the first thing they said, Lord, if you will,
thou canst make me whole, thou canst cleanse me. And oh my,
you know, that thief on the cross said, when you come into your
kingdom, please remember me. Oh, we surrender to a king and
this is not a condition of salvation, it's the result of salvation.
And we come to Him as a prophet to teach us, to reveal the Father
to us, to make the Word understandable to us. And we come to Him as our priest,
as our mediator. He's the one who reconciled us
to God. He's the one who intercedes with
us to God. And there's a living man sitting
right now at the right hand of God that can be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities. There's a living God and a living
man sitting at God's right hand with all power blessed in His
holy name. And believe that He takes up
our name and our cause before God. Huh? We wouldn't be accepted if He
wasn't. We come to Him. He's on the throne. That's who
we come to. And we come to Him to supply
all our spiritual needs. All our spiritual needs. In my
sin, I need a Savior. In my rebellion, I need somebody
to break my rebellion. In my unrighteousness, I come
to Him. What's this Him here? Let me
see if I can find the record. Let me read it to you, just to
show you what I'm talking about. For I come to Him out of my bondage,
sorrow, and night. Jesus, I come. Into Thy freedom,
gladness, and light. Jesus, I come. Out of my shameful
failure and loss. Jesus, I come. Into the glorious
gain of Thy cross. Jesus, I come. Out of unrest
and arrogant pride. Jesus, I come. Into Thy blessed
will to abide. Jesus, I come. Out of the fear
and dread of the tomb, Jesus I come. Into the joy of light
of thy home, Jesus I come. Out of my sickness, into thy
health. Out of my war, into thy wealth. Out of my sin, into thyself. Out of her sorrows, to thy balm. Out of life's storms, into thy
calm. Out of distress, to the jubilant
psalm. Out of myself to dwell in thy
love Out of despair to raptures above Upward for aye, o'er wings
like a dove Jesus, I come Out of the depths of ruin untold
Into the peace of thy sheltering fold Ever into thy glorious face
to behold Jesus, I come I come Jesus, I come You know
why? I see in Him, I see in Him all
the very power of God Himself. All of God's power is in His
Son. The power to create, the power
to sustain, the power to save, the power to keep. In Him I see
the wisdom of God. Oh the wisdom to make the world
keep it going, the wisdom of how God can be just and justify.
I see in Him my substitution, my sworn who took my place and
took my sins. And the most blessed word in
all the gospel to me is this, is satisfaction. Christ satisfied
God. And if He satisfied God, then
God's satisfied with me. Because I'm in Him. Oh my, and Paul said, I know
whom I have believed. And whatsoever I have committed
unto him, against that day he is able to keep it. And coming
to Christ, I'll wind this up if I can. Coming to Christ, I
leave all things that are contrary to Christ, whatever, whatever,
whatever relationship Whatever I possess, whatever it is, I
got to leave it to come to Christ. And I do. I want to. Leave my
religion for His righteousness. Leave my tradition for His truth. Leave my will for His will. My
worldly companions for His people. My family for His family. And Peter said, to whom coming?
We have come and we are coming. Continually coming. I come to
Christ, stop right there. Stop. Huh? Stay. You know you get a dog say, stop,
stay, sit. That's what God says. Stop, stay
and sit. I tell you what, when I found
Shirley, I quit looking for a wife. And I need no other than when
I've seen Christ, I need nobody but Him. This is the sovereign, eternal
purpose of God. What a blessed Savior. Hallelujah,
what a Savior. Hallelujah, what a Savior. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Four years, Andy.