Let's turn to, excuse me, turn
to Psalm 111. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright
and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is
honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful works
to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He hath given meat unto them
that fear him. He will ever be mindful of his
covenant. He hath showed his people the
power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the
heathen. The works of his hands are verity and judgment. All
his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever
and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. Oh, our kind and gracious and
merciful Heavenly Father, we join our hearts together tonight
and uplift our praise to thee, he who is great and glorious
and mighty and powerful, who is also gracious and long-suffering
and kind and compassionate and considerate and thinketh on the
lowly such as we. How we do thank you for your
great grace that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have no hope
outside of him. Oh, how we love, seek to honor
him and love him tonight. Set him forth in our hearts.
Come in our midst and intervene and overcome. Rule in our hearts. May our hearts
be lifted to heaven this evening. May the flesh and the world and
all that is unlike you be put aside. And may we enter into worship. We bow down before you and confess
that we need you. We remember each heart and each
family that's gathered here tonight, meet the needs of that heart
and that family. Our needs are great and there
are many. Our burdens are heavy. Our sin is great. How we thank you for the forgiveness
that's in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who put our sin away. We pray
for our children and our grandchildren, and we know, Lord, they're in
your hands, and that's a good place to be. We would not have
them in our hands, but your hands. Lord, save them by your grace. Stir up their nest. Cause them
to sue for mercy and see their need of Christ. Be in our midst
tonight to bless us together as we worship and read your word. Pray for our pastor. Give him
strength, courage, and unction. Fill him with your spirit and
fill us with your spirit as we hear. Save us, Lord, keep us, and leave
us not to ourselves, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Second Thessalonians. And we'll look together in verse 13, 2 Thessalonians 2.13. But we are bound to give thanks
all way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. I want to talk about this
blessed, blessed doctrine, this precious, precious truth of God's
election, God's unconditional, absolute election of his people. If I understand the scriptures
right and the gospel, you can't preach the gospel without having
certain elements in the gospel. Certain truths have to be presented
to the minds of men. And without these truths being
presented to the minds of men, you're not priest of the gospel.
And these truths has to be dealt with. They must, men must have,
they have to be faced. You know, it's what we must do
when we preach. First of all, man, you cannot
preach the gospel without telling man how ruined he is in sin.
You cannot preach the gospel without preaching man utterly
and absolutely lost, sinners from the top of their head to
the sole of their feet, totally ruined, absolutely ruined. They don't need a shove in the
right direction. They don't need to make a choice. They made their choice in Adam.
They're dead. They're totally, absolutely dead
in trespasses and sin. And you can't preach the gospel,
I don't believe, unless you preach God's unconditional electing
grace. Unless you preach that God chose
some in Christ from before the foundation of the world, you
can't preach the gospel. Because if you don't preach that,
then you're not, you know, just a shot in the dark. It's rolling
the dice to see who's going to be saved. And another truth that
I believe absolutely to make element of the gospel is the
limited atonement, or what we call particular redemption. And
when I say limited atonement, it's not limited in its power
to save. If it was limited in its power to save, then nobody
would be saved. It's limited as to who is saved
by the redemption and the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
got the power to save whom it died for. The blood's got the
power to cleanse from sin all for whom he died. The blood's
got the power and the atonement's got the power to save everyone
for whom Christ died. And we can't preach the gospel,
I think, you know, without this wonderful truth of God's irresistible
grace. Now, why do you say it's irresistible?
We all resist it. We resisted it as not a soul
on top side of God's earth that didn't resist God's grace. But he makes it irresistible.
He effectually calls his people. In the day of his power, in the
day of his power, his people are made willing. Ain't that
what the scripture says? Ain't that what it tells us?
It's God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. It's God who causes us to approach
unto him and to dwell in his courts. And then we must preach
the perseverance of the saints. All of these things are elements
in the gospel. You might remember one time David
Pledger was up here preaching and he preached out of John chapter
six. And he preached all five of those things that I mentioned
to you. And he never used either one of the terms that I just
used. He never used what we call tulip or the five points of Calvinism. And he preached every single
one, and when he got through, he went back and showed what
he'd done. Never mentioned one of those things. But when you
preach the gospel, you preach all of those things in every
message you preach. You can't preach the gospel without
it. Some men say that it's just the death and the burial and
resurrection of Christ. No, it's not. That's just facts. But if you read what it says,
it says that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried again, was buried
according to the scriptures and raised again the third day according
to the scriptures. So we got to preach the death,
burial and resurrection of Christ according to the scriptures.
And that's, so let's look at this wonderful truth of the lecture,
this blessed, blessed thing of the lecture. First of all, we
see who elected us. He says, Brethren, we're bound
to thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you. Elections of God. It's God who chose us. It's God
that chose us from the beginning. This election is God. He chose
certain individuals to be his people. He served his affections,
set his will, set his purpose, upon certain individuals, and
it's according to the will of God. Look in Romans 9. Look in
Romans 9. We've seen this so many times.
God has from the beginning, and he told Simon Peter when he was
writing to those that scattered abroad, he says, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto the obedience of the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. He talked about election. These
men in the Bible, they loved election. They preached election.
They talked about election. They talked about being chosen.
But look what it says here in Romans 9-11. For the children, Rebecca, Isaac's children, she
had twins in her womb for the children being not yet born.
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said unto the elder, You
shall serve the younger." That's upside down to what God normally
does, but that's what God chose to do. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. And some people say it just means
he loved Esau less. That's not what it says. That's
not what it says. It says He hated him. He hated
him. And then we have election and
then there's predestination. We're chosen. And then after
election, then you have the predestination. What's this predestination? First
of all, we're predestined to be conformed to the image of
God's Son. Secondly, we are predestinated
to be the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And
who's the head of election? Who's the head of election? There's
got to be somebody. We were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Isn't that what the scripture
said in Ephesians 1? Look in Isaiah 42 with me. In
Isaiah 42. You know this business of election.
Somebody's got to be the head of the body. and God's purpose to have a body,
a people, joined together, born with Christ, lived with Christ,
being in Christ, and everything that we have to do, God did for
us in Christ. Look what he says in Isaiah 42,
1. This is the head of election. This is God's first elect right
here. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect, and whom
my soul delighteth. That's who it is. What was Christ
God's elect? Well, He was chosen to be head
over a people. He's head over the church, the
body, His people. We're flesh of His flesh, bone
of His bone. He was chosen of God, elected
of God, and you go down through there to be a covenant, to be
a light. to be a deliverer, to be a savior. You go through Isaiah 42 and
it talks about all the things that he was chosen to do. He's
chosen to be the savior of Gentiles. He's chosen to be the covenant
head of a people. And all those things he was chosen
to do. And Christ is the head of the
body. And we are the body and he's
the head. And he's the one, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're chosen
in him as members of his body. Chosen in Him as the pattern
we're going to be conformed to. Chosen in Him to the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ being the final end of that. You know what
God's going to do for us? Romans chapter 9. Look at that
again. Romans 9.23. You know what God's going to
do for us and do with us? You know, He did say this in
Romans 8.30. He said, For whom he did foreknow,
them he also called. Them he called, he also justified
him. They justified, he also glorified.
What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? And he is going to be chosen
in Christ to the glory of Christ and to a final salvation. Look
what he says here in Romans 9, 23. That he might make known
the riches of his glory. on the vessels of mercy, that's
us, which he hath afore prepared unto glory. You know, every one of us here
that's God's elect, that Christ died for, we were given to Christ. Every single one of us here,
we were vessels of mercy, chosen of four and prepared of four
by the riches of his glory, he prepared us for glory already. Vessels of mercy. Oh my, bless
his holy name. And our Lord Jesus, he was chosen
over angels. And then he chose Abraham. Then
he chose Isaac. Then he chose Enoch. Enoch was
not because God took him. And then out of the 12 tribes,
he chose Judah for our Lord Jesus Christ to be the king. And why
is it, why is it does God, why does God elect certain individuals
to salvation? And that's what it is, it's to
salvation. Elections not salvation. Elections unto salvation. That's
what it is. We were chosen to be saved. Chosen to be redeemed. Chosen
in Christ. Not by, not because there's anything
around us. It was because we were chosen
in Christ. And look what else it says, you know why God selected
certain individuals to salvation? First of all, it said it pleased
him to make you his people. 1 Samuel 12, 22. You're not better
than anybody else. He says you're not more wicked
than others, you weren't more righteous than others. But it
pleased me to make you my people. That's what he said. And the
second reason He does it is to the praise of the glory of His
grace. He gets all the praise. He gets all the glory. Can God
get too much glory? Can we give Him too much glory?
And the third reason He chose certain individuals to salvation
is according to the good pleasure of His will. It just pleased
Him to do it. Just pleased Him to do it. Let's
talk about You know, people say that God was unjust to elect. God's not right. That makes him
a respect of persons. That makes him one. He, he, he, he, he, you mean to tell
me that's, that's fair that God would save some and pass by others?
Well, Isaiah 45.9. You need to mark this in your,
of course I don't mark my Bible anymore. I ain't marked my Bible,
this Bible since I've had it. Used to mark them up all the
time, but I haven't this one. But if you want to and you enjoy
doing that, you just go ahead and do it. But here's one that
ought to be marked if you do mark your Bible. And all people
want to find fault with God and say, why, why does he want to
do that? Why would he pass by one, And
that's not right, that's not fair, that's not just. That makes
him a respect of persons. What about all the good that
we've done? I was talking to a man yesterday. He said, I spent most
of my life trying to be good and believing everybody that
was good was going to heaven. And he said, I wrote down in
my Bible all the things that I could hold against the people
in the church that they was doing that I thought wasn't right to
do. And he wrote down all these things in his Bible And God has
been opening his heart to the truth of the gospel. That's why
he came to talk to me yesterday because God was opening his heart. And he came to ask me a lot of
questions. And he says, now, I just go to worship the Lord.
Now all I want to hear is the gospel. All I want to know is
something about the grace of God. And he said, there was a
time that I was angry. He said that all I ever heard
about Lantana Grace Church was that it was a bunch of nuts over
there and that everything I heard about you was awful. And your
doctrine was untrue and it was not true and it wasn't right.
And he said, I've been listening to your sermon audio. I've listened
to lots and lots and lots and lots of messages. And he said,
I found out I'm wrong. And he said, I love this truth
that God does everything on purpose. He said, I found out that God
just doesn't do things capriciously and because we do something good
or do something bad. He said, I found out that God
does what he does on purpose. And you get up and face the day
because God's not taking this thing a day at a time. He's not
taking our lives a day at a time. He's got our appointed hours.
He's got our appointed days. He's got our appointed moment.
He's got our appointed second. and bless his holy name. Ain't
that right? Oh, he throwed all that stuff
away. Boy, he had all this thing down, you know, this to fight
people in the church with. Now he knows something, you know.
He said, ain't it awful that a fellow wants to think that
he could work his way to heaven? Ain't that awful? But this is
what I'm saying. This is what I'm saying. Look
what it said in Isaiah 45, 9. Woe unto him that saith unto
his father. No, verse nine, excuse me, I'm
backed up. Woe unto him that striveth with his maker. Let
the potter strive with the potter of the earth. Shall the clay
say to him that fashioneth, what makest thou, or the work he hath
no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto
his father, what begadest thou to the woman, what hast thou
brought forth? Oh man, what? Oh man, who art thou that replies
against God? That's what Paul said, who are
you to question God? Who are you to call in to question
God Almighty? And oh, it's unjust, he's respect
of persons. What about all the good we've
done? My God, my God's a God of love. And I tell you, we can't, we're
not gonna set God's attributes against one another. or exalt
one of these perfections above another. God's attributes, they
blend, they're true, and they're righteous, and they're just.
He never saved anybody apart from justice, and apart from
grace, and apart from love, and apart from mercy, and apart from
wrath. He never saved anybody from holiness.
All those attributes, they meet together in the blessed Son of
God, the wisdom of God, the power of God, the grace of God, the
love of God, mercy and truth and righteousness kissed each
other. Where at? At the cross? Not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. Why, for should
they say, where now is their God? Our God's in the heavens,
and you know what he does? You know what it says next? Does
whatever he pleases. And that suits me just fine.
That suits me just fine. And I'll tell you something,
when people start finding fault with God and His electing grace,
and we tell them about His electing grace, they say, oh God, God
has from the beginning chosen you. God did this. It's God's
doing. And if they start charging God
with these things, let them make it good. Let them prove that
God's a respective person. Let them prove that God's unjust.
Let them prove that God's not fair. Let them prove, let them
come up with, let them take the Bible and start telling you,
and say, show me where God's unjust. Show me where God's a
respective person. Show me where God is not fair. Show me. But I know this much,
salvation's not a matter of justice. It's not a matter of justice
at all. Look in Matthew 20. Oh, he does what he wants with
his own. Salvation's not a matter of justice
and not a matter of being fair. I tell you one thing, if God
was fair, if salvation's based on fairness, every single one
of us in this building, I'd already been in hell and we'd be out
in the world one. Salvation's based on being fair. We're not even fair with ourselves,
much less anybody else. Y'all know the story here in
Matthew 20. where the man went out early
in the morning, early, early in the morning, hired a fella,
called him to his venue. Went out at 9 o'clock in the
morning, hired some more. Went out at 12 o'clock and hired
some more. Finally went out at 5 o'clock, one more hour to work
and called some more people in to work. And all these fellas, they started
finding fault with what he'd done. Those fellas that come
in at the 11th hour, he gave them a penny. And that fellow
had come in at daylight that morning when he went out and
got him. He said, this is not fair. It's not right. We've borne
the burden all day. And he said, did you agree with
me for a penny? I did. He said, did this fellow
agree with me for a penny? He did. So the last was before the first. And look what our Lord said about
his. He said in verse 15, is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is your eye evil? Are you finding fault with me
because I'm good? You didn't have a job. You didn't
have a place to work. Nobody called you to a vineyard.
I went out and got you. I went out and found you. I brought
you into the vineyard. And then you won't find fault
with what I do with you and what I'll pay you and what I give
to you. He said, is not, is your eye evil because I'm good? Because
I was good to the fellow that work come in at the 11th hour
as good as the fellow that come in at the first hour. And so let them make it good.
And do you ever know anybody that God ever refused his mercy
to when they seek it? You reckon anybody ever died
at the door of mercy and perished at the door of mercy? Did the
Lord ever refuse to save anybody that sought to sincerely and
honestly come before Him seeking to be saved? I couldn't tell
you how many times people say, well, the way you preach, people
couldn't be saved if they wanted to. Well, I do know this, that nobody
wants to be saved till God makes them willing to be saved. I do
know that. But if a man wants to be saved,
I'm going to tell you something. If he really wants to be saved
from sin, not from hell and not to heaven, if he wants to be
saved from sin, if he wants to be saved from the awful condition
he's in before God, dead, dirty, rotten, stinking dog, corrupt,
corrupt, corrupt. If he wants to be saved, I got
news for you. He's been saved. God ain't never refused to save
anybody that ever come to Him seeking Him. Not one. Not one. Oh my, you know what it is? Man
just will not come to Him that they might have eternal life. And oh, they say it's unjust
for one to be saved and one to be lost. Well, who made a man
to be lost? God didn't make him to be lost.
In fact, every man is born lost, and if God don't find him, then
everybody would be lost. Was we lost? Did he find us?
Why did he find us? Because he has, from the beginning,
chosen us to salvation. We were one of his sheep. He
went out in the wilderness and found us. And oh my dear, God ain't never
made anybody lost. They're born lost, and if God
don't save them, God never caused anybody to sin. And I know this, if he was a
respective person, he'd have never chosen me. He'd have passed
right on by me. Well, let me give you a couple
things and I'll let you go. Why should we believe election?
Why should we believe it and why should we preach it? This
glorious, blessed truth of election. It's distasteful. It makes enemies
out of people. It makes people dislike the church. And those who believe it, man,
they say, well, you all think you're something special. You
think ain't nobody saved but you. Well, we preach it because
it's scripture. It's what the Bible teaches.
Ain't that what we just read? Brethren, we're bound always
to thank God for you because he hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation. Paul told the Thessalonians in
chapter 1 and verse 4, brethren, knowing your election of God. as many as were ordained to eternal
life. They believed. They believed. And you, my, all you've got to
do is go through the scriptures and see that God chose, chose,
chose, chose, chose, and passed by, passed by, passed by, chose,
passed by, chose, passed by. And the synonyms of elect or
chosen is over 100 times in the scriptures. The synonym of election,
elect, or chosen is over 100 times in the scriptures. In the
New Testament, the word believers is mentioned twice. Christians
is mentioned three times. Election is mentioned 14 times. 14 times. So that's why we preach
it and believe it because it's what the Bible teaches. Secondly,
it glorifies God entirely. It gives God all the glory. Man
has nothing to boast in. Who made thee to differ? Who
made thee to differ? He chose nobody's, nothing's,
and called them. And the third reason why we believe
it and preach it is the gospel cannot be spiritually proclaimed
without preaching election. You can't preach the gospel without
preaching election. You can't do it. Christ died
for sinners. He is elect. He accomplished
salvation, and God saves every one of his people on purpose,
not by chance or not by accident. The success of the gospel is
not left to me, you, or the power or free will of any man on topside
of this earth. The success of the gospel in
here tonight is not left up to me or you. It's left up to God. Is that not right? Oh, all you got to do it, you
know. Jesus Christ, our Lord, saved us with his precious blood.
The fourth reason why we believe it and preach it is this, this
precious truth. It produces humility, true humility,
not false humility. No, no. Whenever you find out
that you absolutely had nothing to do with your salvation whatsoever,
that God chose you, chose you before the foundation of the
world, gave you to His Son, and His Son willingly came into this
world, willingly lived your life, willingly died a death that you
would have to die, willingly buried your sin in His own body
on the tree, willingly went under the justice and wrath of God,
done all of that willfully, not only willfully, but with joy
before Him, He endured the cross. And when you understand that
it was God that done it all, chose you to have all of this,
then you'll always ask, why me? Why me? Why me? Huh? No wonder Paul said, by the grace
of God, I am what I am. And the fifth reason why we preach
it, it strips men of their boasting and their vain confidence in
the flesh. What have we got to boast in? What confidence, what
did our flesh ever contribute to our salvation? We rejoice in Christ Jesus, worship God in the spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Job said it like
this, he hath taken the crown off of my head and stripped me
of my glory. He'll shut our mouths and we'll
come and he'll bring us in this business of election when we
understand it and praise God for it. He brings us to our reliances
on Christ and Christ alone, on him and him alone. And I'll tell
you another reason why, the sixth reason why we love and praise
God for this precious truth. This blessed truth of election
makes men fearless and bold. Fearless and bold. If God be
for us, who can be against us? If God be for us, who in the
world can be against us? And it promotes, Sabbathly, it
promotes praise and thanksgiving. Look what it says there in verse
13 again, 2 Thessalonians. It says, brethren, we're bound
to give thanks. He thanks God for election. He
thanks God for salvation. He thanks God for holiness. He
thanks God for sanctification. Oh, we're always bound to thank
God for you, brethren. It causes us to give thanks.
Huh? Oh, my. It promotes praise, brethren. We're bound always to give thanks
to God for you because he asked from the beginning. chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the spirit, and it promotes
praise. Paul said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heaven, places, and chosen us in Christ. You see, believers
in the scriptures, they viewed election as a doctrine, a blessed
truth of praise and thanksgiving, of love and sanctification and
holiness and means and sovereign mercy. And the eighth thing why we do,
if all the doctrines of the Bible, this is the most hated, the most
ridiculed of all men, by men, if the world hates it and carnal
professors hate it, it must be so. Satan don't fight error, he fights truth. He despises
it. And I tell you, you can't preach
and maintain the grace of God without election. If it's of
grace, then it's no more of works. If it's of grace, then there's
no more works involved. And if it's works, then there
ain't no more grace involved. In salvation, when you're talking
about election, and that's why I said here in verse 14, we're
until ye called you. That's the means. We're until
ye called you by the atoning of our glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ. So brethren, What a blessed, precious truth,
the electing of God. Gotta give thanks for it. Gotta
give thanks for it. Our Father, in the precious name
of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we thank you for your electing
grace Thank you that you chose us, for we would have never chosen
you. Thank you for the gospel that
called us and teaches us this and revealed these things to
us, made us to know him. Thank you for choosing me in
Christ before the foundation of the world. Thank you for the
great love wherewith you loved me. Thank you for the mercy I
obtained through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the grace
you give me in him before the foundation of the world. Thank you for your great patience
with me. And oh, Father, you know that we're just dust, just
dust. So piteous, Lord. We're just
dust. And our lives are so frail. We're
so frail, so weak, no strength, No abilities. Can't do anything without you.
Can't preach. Can't pray. Can't understand
the scriptures. Can't love. Can't forgive. Can't be gracious. Can't be kind.
Can't do anything, Lord, without you. Without your spirit. So, God, work in us. Work in
me. Oh, God. For Christ's sake I
pray. Amen. See you Wednesday night,
God willing.