I preached on God's sovereignty,
the necessity of it, the sovereignty of the Father in salvation, the
sovereignty of the Son in salvation. Last week, God's sovereignty
over the righteous and the wicked. And tonight I want to talk about
God's sovereignty and the human will. Free will is this age's
God. It's man's God. He worships His
will. But look what he said in Philippians
2.13. For it is God who worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Can't get no plainer than that,
can you? It says the same thing in Hebrews 13. Now, you and I
know that the prevailing idea not just in the religious realm,
is that man has a free will. And that free will gives him
the power and the ability to choose good and the ability to
accept Jesus anytime he wills to do it and chooses to do it.
And if we deny that in this age of humanism and commercialism
in religion, we're called religious heretics. We're called blasphemers. We say we have a devil. But Peter
said this, he says, as there were false prophets among the
people, even so false teachers shall come in among you. And
he said, and because of that, the way of truth, the way of
truth would be evil spoken of. The truth, when you tell it,
they speak evil of it. And that's where we are today.
And it's not of him that willeth. It's not of him that runneth.
But it's of God that showeth mercy. And you know, folks, they
say, well, doesn't the Bible say, choose you this day whom
you'll serve? It does. But you go to Joshua and you
look through Joshua 24, verses 14 and on. Joshua said this. He says, you can serve the gods
on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites,
or the gods here, but as for me and my house, we're going
to serve the Lord. And then he went on to say that
God is too holy and you cannot serve Him. So it wasn't set before
them as a choice between serving God and serving somebody else.
They'd already made their choice. They're serving the gods of the
Amorites and the gods before the flood. Joe, Joshua, and his
family, they knew the Lord and they was going to serve Him.
So that's just, you know, and then our Lord Jesus says, you
will not. you will not come to me that
you might have life. But there are some people who
do come to Him, and they come to Christ. Well, how in the world
do they get to Christ? Well, the Scripture said in John
1 and 12, For as many as received Him, to them gave He the power
to become the sons of God, which were born Not of the will of
man, not of flesh, not of blood, but of God. They come because
they're born of God. And, you know, most people base
their theology, and look with me in Revelation 22. They base
their whole theology on one verse of Scripture. Really do. And then they misquote that verse
of Scripture. They base it on one verse of
Scripture, Revelation 22, 17. And then they misquote it, and
it says, And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. That's the Spirit
and the church. And let him that heareth say,
Come. I've heard and I say, Come. And
let him that is athirst come. Now watch what it says here.
And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.
Now that's not talking about taking Christ. That's talking
about people that's there, people that's already been coming, and
whosoever will, let him take of that water of life freely.
But now here's the thing about it. No one is willing to take
of the water of life. And that means, you know, it's
like that man who had the withered hand. Now that man who had that
withered hand, he had no power or that ability to stretch forth
that hand. until Christ has stretched forth
thy hand, and then the man stretched forth his hand. And so Christ
has to come, and He has to, and the Scripture tells us, He makes
us willing in the day of His power. Now, men don't have the
ability, don't have the power to receive the Lord Jesus Christ
in and of Himself. The natural man doesn't have
that ability. In fact, the scripture says his
mind is enmity against God. That word enmity means that it's
serious. And all you've got to do is find
out how true that is. You start talking to men about
they don't have a free will, that God has all the power, that
God does the choosing, that election's based on the purpose of God,
that Christ only died for His elect. And you'll find out real
quick that men have a great enmity in their heart against God. Great,
great enmity in their heart against God. And they'll just flat out
tell you, I don't believe that. And I'll tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ says to them, He said, you know, the world hates me.
He said, it hates me. Now let me tell you something,
man can choose, talking about the human will, man can choose
according to his nature. So before he can choose or prefer
that which is divine, prefer that which is spiritual, he has
to have a new nature. He has to have a new nature.
He must be born again. He's going to act according to
his nature. Why does a man act the way he does? Because of his
nature. And oh, beloved, that freewheeler,
you know, What makes the difference? They say, well, what makes the
difference in people being lost or saved is that they made the
right choice. That they made the right choice
and they had the faith that somebody else didn't have it, they had
the repentance, somebody else didn't have it. But what makes
the difference in the individual? What does the scripture say?
If a man makes himself to differ, and he asked this in 1 Corinthians
1, who makes thee to differ? Who makes you to differ from
another? If a man made himself to differ, then he could boast,
and he would boast. If he talked about he cooperated
with the Holy Ghost when he had his chance, he'd glory in it. If he made his will paramount
in his salvation, he would brag about it. But the Scripture says,
for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not in yourself
is the gift of God, not of worth, lest any man should boast. And it is written that no flesh
is going to glory in His presence. And oh, you look back at your
own experience. You look back at it. You were
unwilling. There was a time you were unwilling.
You didn't even think about God. He never entered your mind. And you were unwilling, and now
you're willing. Who made you to differ? Who made
you to differ? Why and when did you become a
believer? How did that happen? Well, look
at Psalm 65, 4. Let's see if we can shed a little
light on it. Psalm 65 and 4. I love the fact, I tell you what,
I would, but I had a will, and I read it to you this morning.
Paul said, you know, I know that is in me, that is in my flesh,
for it is no good thing. The will is present with me. The will to honor God, to believe
it perfectly, To live without sin, to live through God's glory,
to never question, never doubt, no unbelief. Oh God, it's in
our hearts. A house of wisdom, our wish,
and oh listen, but how to perform it. How to perform it. And that's
a believer. But look what, this is how we're
brought to Christ. Look what he said in verse 4, Psalm 65. Blessing is the man whom thou
choosest. Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus
of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art
thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth.
Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth.
Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus
of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth.
Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art
thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm
Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art
thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm
Jesus of Nazareth. Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth.
Who art thou? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Who art And the reason to do that, we
may dwell in thy courts, and oh, what a wonderful place to
dwell, like we are now. And we shall be satisfied with
the goodness of thy house, even at thy holy temple." Oh, who
made you the differ? Now, let me ask a few questions
about this human will, this will that everybody brags so much
about. Is this human will a self-determining thing, or is it determined by
something else? Does the human will just, the will just determine
to do something, or is there something that makes the will
do something? If the will is above and superior
to the other parts of our person, if our will is superior to our
mind, our hearts, our emotions, our affections, understanding,
so that it governs them, or is the will governed and moved by
them or their pleasures. Now listen to me. Does the will
rule the mind, or does the mind control the will? Is the will free to do as it
pleases, or does it render obedience to something outside itself? Is the will a sovereign, or is
it a servant? Is the will got all the power
and does everything, or does the will, the servant, to the
rest of the person? And I know you say, well, boy,
I tell you, this is important. Is the will free to do as it
pleases? Can you just will to do whatever you want to do? Or is there something in you
that's got to happen before your will acts? Is the will entirely free? of
our hearts and our minds, our understandings, our emotions,
our affections. If it is, then there's a man
within a man. There's a man within a man. But
now listen to me. The wheel is connected with our
whole person. It's like a dog. Dog got a head,
a body, and a tail. Now, if the wheel is free, then
that's the tail that wags the dog. And if the wheel is the
last thing, then the dog, the head, wags the tail. Because the scripture says, as
a man thinks in his heart, so is he. First of all, he thinks. Then his heart, he has a desire. Then he acts according to whatever
that nature and desire is. And this way, it's the dog that
wags the tail. And I'll tell you, let me show
you Genesis. Here's a perfect illustration of how, Genesis
3, 6. Here's a perfect illustration
of how the will acts and how man acts. Here's a perfect illustration
of it. Shows the order of man's doing. And you know how many people
have we witnessed too, and they're just not interested. And if they
had such a strong will, it seemed like we could convince the will.
And that's where preachers are messing up. They're trying to
talk people into doing something according to their will, and
their will has got to be made new before it can do anything.
You've got to have a nature that wants to do, and will to do.
And where do you get that at? But Genesis 3, 6, look what it
said. Here's exactly how. the wheel acts and how people
act. This is the order of the way
people act. Not the wheel first. Something has to be presented
to the wheel. And when the woman saw, when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food, that's our sense, that's our perception,
that's our intelligence. We look at something and we look
at it and we either want it or we don't want it. It either looks
wonderful or it looks bad. Well, to her it looked good,
it's her sense of perception or intelligence. And then look
what she said, and that it was pleasant to the eyes. Oh listen,
oh my, and then that was pleasant to her eyes, and then it was
a treat of desire to be made one wise. Oh my, then her affections
were going to make me wise. Well boy my, I want to be wise.
So her affections and her heart entered into the matter. Oh yes,
I want to be wise. I want to, oh I'd like to, I'd
like to have, and so her affections were involved, and then when
she was presented with it, And understood it and desired it,
the wheel was the last thing to act, and she took the fruit
thereof and did eat. She didn't look at that tree
and say, I just willed to eat me some fruit, just because I
just willed to do it. Something's got to be presented to the wheel.
Now, let me say a few things. I'll try not to be too long.
And I hope I... Oh, my. Let me talk about the
nature of the human wheel. What is the wheel? What is the
will that everybody talks so much, having so much pride about?
What is it? We've seen people over the years,
back years ago, we've seen people go back and get in people's laps
and pry in their laps and say, Oh, please, please accept Jesus. Come on, come on, come on. And
they couldn't convince them to do it. So what is the will? Well, the
will is the faculty of the choice that we have. And for you to
Have a choice. You've got to have two things
presented to you. Something good or something bad.
And according to your nature, you'll choose one of those things.
You've got to have a positive and a negative before the mind
before there can be any choice. You just don't say, I will do
something. No, no. Something's got to be
presented to your mind. And in an act of a will, there's
a preference, there's a choosing one above another. How many times
have we said to people, said, if you had your druthers, what
would you do? If you had your druthers, what
would you do? A fellow asked me about catfish.
He said, I don't like them. I don't know if you want to put
them in the pot. I said, no, I don't want to put
them in the pot. He said, I don't like them, don't
like them at all. I said, I don't like to eat them. He said, what? Now, you set a big ol' fine grill
in front of you, it's a different story. Yeah. Big ol' wall out, but that's
what I'm telling you. You have to have something presented to
you. And where there is no preference,
where you don't have nothing to choose from, then there's
no will involved. Is that not right? If there's
nothing presented to your mind, to your heart, to your will,
to your desire, then there's no will involved in it. Oh, listen. To will is to choose,
and to choose is to decide between two or more alternatives. But
something has to influence that choice. Something has to determine
that decision. When you sit down to eat, you
want coffee, tea, or meal? You know what's going to determine
what you want. You've got to have something presented to it
that's going to determine what decision you make. So what I'm saying, the will
cannot be sovereign because it's the servant of whatever is presented
to it. It's the servant of whatever's
presented to it. Ain't that right? Now listen
to me, beloved. The wheel's not the cause. There
has to be a cause to make it choose. To make it choose. The wheel's not the cause of
anything. There has to be a cause in order to make the wheel to
choose. And what determines the will is that which causes it
to choose. Now listen, to what determines
the will is that which causes it to choose. And let me say
this, whatever is the strongest motive that's brought to bear
upon the will, that's what determines what you will do. Whatever is
the strongest motive that's brought to bear upon your will, that's
what will determine your will. It's like when they took the
Lord Jesus and Pilate said, Oh my, I find no fault in this man.
I find no fault in this man. I find no fault in this man.
And they kept crying, crucify him, crucify him. And finally,
the scripture says, willing, willing to content the people. He had a choice. His wife came
to him and said, now listen. She said, don't do nothing to
this just man. I said he suffered much in the dream. Pilate knew
that there was nothing wrong with him being delivered for
envy. So he was presented with either turning with us or choosing
to tempt those people. With his will, the strongest
motive, because of his position, political power, he was willing
to contend the people. You know what? Human philosophy
teaches that the will governs the man. The will governs the
man. But scriptures teaches that the
heart is the center of the man. And the heart is who you are.
As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. For from within and
out of the heart proceeds evil thought, adultery, fornication.
As a man, out of the heart, it proceeds
all these things. And let me say this, when a man
is presented a choice, he will always choose whatever's most
agreeable to his heart, which is himself. Whatever you are
in your heart, that's what you are. Your heart is who you are. Whatever's presented to your
choice, you'll choose whatever's most agreeable to your heart,
yourself. Now, man will either choose a
life of self-ease and pleasure and sin, and he'll always choose
that kind of life instead of a life of Christ, of righteousness,
and of holiness. Why? Because he prefers that,
and because his heart's sinful. And why does the believer choose? and strive after Christ, and
press toward the mark of the prize of the whole high calling
of God in Christ, because we start in nature to do it. We
have been given a new heart, a new nature. And that's why
men do whatever their nature is. Why ain't my grandson here
tonight? It's not their nature. Their
nature is to go where they want to go, do what they want to do,
enjoy themselves, and live, and have a big time, And why are
you here and we're not out there? Because of our nature's change. And, oh beloved, in dealing with
the human will, we've got to consider three different men.
Three different men. First, Adam before the fall.
Adam before the fall. Now listen to this. The only
man that ever had a will that was free, that lived on this
earth, was Adam. And Adam, before the fall, before
he ever sinned against God, his will was free. It's toward good or evil. And
he was created innocent. He wasn't created righteous,
he was created innocent. Not in a state of holiness. And
in him, as he was created and came forth from his Maker, he
had no bias in him towards either good or evil. He was free. He was free. He could walk with
God, worship God, and beloved. And then the wife came and he
fell, of course, but he had no bias. He had no will. He said,
well, I'll do good or I'll do evil. He didn't even think in
those terms. So that's his will was free.
And then after he fell, he chose evil, of course, instead of good.
And then the sinner. The second person we've got to
consider is the sinner. Now, the sinner is born with
a will. He's born with a will. But have you ever seen a child
and one of the first things you've got to do is you've got to break
a child's will or he'll break yours. They're born with a will. Well,
they'll let you know real quick they've got a will. You know, the sinner is born
with the will, but that will is a slave to his evil heart.
That's why men are the way they are. That's why children are
the way they are. That's why children fight with you and argue
with you and debate with you until you know. And scream and
kick and carry on because they're born with the will, but it's
the will that's a slave to the evil heart. Jeremiah said, the
heart's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? And so, since he's got an evil
heart, his will, he's biased toward evil. His will, he's biased
toward sin. And then the third person we
consider is this, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, here's a
man who could not sin. And why he could not sin was
because he was born of God. He didn't have none of that in
his nature. His will was always that which is good, right, just,
and holy. He said, don't you know that
I must be about my Father's will? I have a will. My need is to
do the will of Him that sent me. And beloved, He was begotten
of the Holy Ghost. He didn't have any of Adam's
nature in Him. And He was not capable of turning toward evil. He could not thank evil. He could
not turn toward evil. He did have nothing in him that
was tempted of the devil. The devil comes, the prisoner
of this world comes, and he can't find nothing in me. But he can come to us, and he
finds plenty of killing to start a fire. You see, his will was biased
toward holiness and good, and the Scripture said he went about
doing good! And he did good toward man, and
he did good toward God. And I'll tell you the way man
is, and I'll tell you exactly the way man is. See that book right there? As long as I'm holding that book,
that book's held up. But now you turn it loose and
it falls. And that's what happens to man. If God don't hold him
up, he's going to go down, just as far down as he can go. And
if that book gets back up, somebody else has got to pick it up. God's
got to pick us up. And He's got to hold us up. Because
without the Spirit of God, without a new nature, we're right on
the ground. We're at the bottom. Ain't that right? And all will
be lost. I didn't push that book down.
I didn't have to throw it down. It just fell. And that's the
way we are. We just fall. And if God don't
hold us out. Man can only move in one direction. Just like that book. He's free
to fall. He's free to fall. Ain't that
right? And oh, let me tell you this
quickly. I've got to move on. Let's talk about the powerlessness
of the human will. Does man really have the power
in his will to accept or reject Jesus Christ? Huh? Man is totally depraved. And
what that means is spirit, soul, and body. That means, beloved,
in the sight of God, he is as bad off as he possibly can be. That don't mean a man is as bad
as he can be. A lot of people are worse acting
than other people are. A lot of people are more evil
in what they do than other people are. Some people sin with a higher
hand than other people do. But in the sight of God, everybody
is completely depraved and as bad off as he can possibly be
in the sight of God. He's a slave of sin. He's a captive
to the devil. He's dead in trespasses and sin.
And our Lord says, you of your father the devil, and the deeds
of your father you'll do. And sin, what is it? Sin, what
is it? We can talk about sins, but what
is sin itself? What is sin? The scriptures tell
us, Paul said that sin, and he said, the only way I can describe
it is that it's exceedingly sinful. Sin is something we're born with,
it's our nature. And sins is what we commit because
of our nature. And so, beloved, that's all a
man can do is sin unless he's converted. He cannot do nothing
else but sin. He can't stop sinning. He can say, I will. How many
times have you said to something that you've done, said, I'm not
going to do that anymore? Two or three weeks later, you've
done it again. But you take a man that talks
about his will and his power, I tell you, a man, his will without
regeneration, without a new nature, all he can do is sin! Riley, our little great-granddaughter,
all she can do is sin! God can sin! That's all they
can do! They can't do anything else!
They cannot do an act of righteousness, of goodness, anything right in
the sight of God! Why? Because he's depraved and
he cannot change his nature. And his will has got to act according
to his nature. Does the sinner have the power
in his will to yield himself to God? Can water rise above
its own level? Can a clean thing come out of
something that's unclean? Can a man's will reverse his
nature and his tendency to sin? No. But if he ever makes a move
toward God, God's got to make a move towards him. Our Lord
Jesus says, No man comes unto the Father. No man comes unto
Me except the Father which sent Me. Draw him. And the Scripture
says, They shall all be taught of God. And I read, a tree shall
cause them to approach unto you. And in the day of His power,
His people are made well. Now listen, God doesn't prevent
men from coming to Him. He sends men to gospel. People pray for You pray for
your children and grandchildren. I pray for you, Kevin. I pray
for all kinds. I pray for people. I pray for
my kids. I pray for my brothers. I pray for lots of people. And
when people pray for them, churches pray for them. And we witness
to them. How many times we witness to
them? Come hear the gospel. Come hear the gospel. All right, Popeye, you don't
know. You just don't know. Come hear the gospel. But He won't come? Prayers don't
move Him? Gospel don't move Him? Churches
don't move Him? Witnessing don't move Him? Why
does this show us just how corrupt His heart is and how enslaved
His will is? No one forces anybody to reject
the Lord Jesus Christ. He will admit and say, he knows
what is good. I know that's good. Yet he'll
continue on in sin. Why? Because he's a slave to
sin. The carnal mind's enmity against
God, and it's not subject to the law of God. Oh, that's why I say if
I could, if I could, if I could weave somebody into salvation,
all of my children would be converted. and be saved like that. If I could change, and Mary weeps
buckets and buckets of tears over our daughter, cried all
the way to church this morning, if I could change her nature
just to make her a better person, I would. But you can't make bad
people better. Even people that are bad, they
can't will to be better. What's our hope? Man's will is
free only to act according to his nature. A dove set up there
in Coog, beautiful, and he would not dare fly down, and there's
an old dead possum laying there, and he ain't gonna get out there
and eat any of that possum. Cause you know why? It's not the dove's
nature. But you take an old crow, take an old raven, he'll fly
down there and he'll just pick away at that old dead carcass,
rotten, stinking carcass. And that's the way human nature
is. It's going to act according to
his nature. We've got the nature of Christ, we're going to act
according to that nature. A man don't have the nature of Christ,
he's going to act according to his nature. And I'll tell you,
if that dove took on the nature of that raven, he'd eat flesh
too. But he won't. Oh my. Satan couldn't have no
will to holiness. And God could have no will to
sin or evil. The sinner is in his sinful nature. Could never have a will according
to God. Why couldn't he? He don't have
the nature. So what has to happen? He must,
must, must be Lord again. And that's something I can't
do, the church can't do. That's something only God can
do. Only the Spirit of God can do.
Huh? He must have the Spirit of God
come to him and create in him a new heart, a new will, a new
soul, and give him a new spirit. Isaiah said, I'll come and I'll
cleanse you from the filthiness of your heart, and I'll give
you a new spirit, and I'll put within you a new heart, and you'll
be mine, and I'll be yours, saith the Lord. For a sinner to be
saved, three things have to happen. First off is God has God the
Father had the purpose to save him. If a man is going to for
a sinner to be saved, three things have to happen. God the Father
had the purpose to save him. Ain't that right? God had the
purpose to save him. Called according to his purpose. Saved by grace according to the
purpose of God and the grace of God given us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And first, secondly, the son
has to purchase him. The son has to purchase him off
the slave market of sin and outmoney of the justice of God. Christ
has to pay for his sin. God's got a purpose to do it.
The son has to pay for his sin, has to pay off his sin debt and
pay off the justice of God and bear his sin. And thirdly, if
anything has to happen, the Holy Ghost has to apply that purpose
of God and that redemption of Christ. Those three things gotta
happen. And if God purposed to save you,
and Christ purchased you, pay for you, the Holy Ghost will
come, and He'll effectively apply what Christ did to you. Now,
you won't know, you don't know any of that stuff's going on
until after it's all taken place. You're just sitting there in
misery, and then when it happens, you say, what just happened?
Well, then you start thinking, you start looking in the Scriptures
here, and the preacher said, you mean God purposed to save
me before Thumb did? You mean Christ died for me when
He died on the cross? that He had me on His heart,
that He died for all of my sins back 2,000 years ago, yeah? And
the Holy Ghost came, makes Christ known to... Oh, what a wonderful
thing has happened! Oh, listen, if God only invited
us, if God only invited us, every one of us would be lost. Nobody
would come. He said, go out and bid them
to come in. Every single one of them said,
I got someplace else to be and something else to do. Then you
know what he says? Go out into the highways and
hedges and compel them to come in. And oh, beloved, there was
an offer made to the people of Jerusalem when they were dwelling
battling. Osiris the king said, how many of you want to go down
to Jerusalem and rebuild Jerusalem? I'll take care of everything
when you go down there. You know who went? It said in verse 5
of Ezra, chapter 1, it says the people that God had stirred up
and all the rest of them stayed in captivity. They just had to
stay where they was. They won't stay in captivity, won't stay
in enemy land, only if you went. Why? Because God stirred them
up. And let me, this is the way it really is, right here. You
take a man who is sick and he's in bed, and he's got the medicine
right next to his bed that'll cure him. And here's what his
situation is. First of all, he's blind. He
can't see inside his bed. Can't see the medicine. And then
his hand's paralyzed, he can't reach and get it. And then thirdly, he has no confidence
in the medicine. And then on top of that, he hates
the doctor, too. Now, that's the natural man,
ain't it? We tell him what the medicine
is. We tell him of the great physician. Tell him the remedy. Christ. Christ put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. We tell him where sight's at.
Lord, open now my eyes. We tell him, we tell him who
the doctor is, the Lord, the great physician himself. And I tell you, the Lord Jesus
came to do for his own what they could not do for themselves.
You know, that's what he said. He says, you know, the Spirit
of the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
I was poor, didn't know it until he made me know it. to the blind, to the hog, to
the lame, to those that are captive. And I'll tell you something,
not only did He do for them what they couldn't do for themselves,
but He done everything that they couldn't do for themselves from
the time they was born until the day they go into glory, because
they could do nothing to contribute to their salvation in any way
at any time on this earth. So He did it all, all to Him
alone. Well, if I preach the gospel,
that men are perilous to respond. I'll tell you why we do, because
we're commanded to go ye into all the world and preach the
gospel to every preacher. He that believeth that is baptized
shall be saved. And God will do the work. Look over in Ezekiel
37. God will do the work. This is what I love about preaching
the gospel. God will do the work. A man asked me today if we got
any sinners converted here this morning. I told you that that's
where people are, you know. Did you get any sinners saved
this morning? I said no. I just said no. But oh, look
what he said here in Ezekiel 32. We're talking about why priests
of the gospel men are perilous to respond. This is why. The hand of the Lord was upon
me and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and sent me
down the midst of a valley which is full of bones. caused me to
pass by them, go all the way around them, and behold, they
were very many in the open valley, and they were very dry. And then
he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, Lord, O Lord,
thou knowest. You're the one that knows if
these bones can live or not. If it's left up to me, they ain't
going to live. And he sent unto me again, prophesying
to these bones, preach to them. You mean turn up and preach to
a bunch of dry bones? I was a dead dry bone one day
and somebody preached it to me. Oh! And he said, oh you dry bones,
you're the Word of the Lord. You just imagine what somebody
could have come up on his heel, sitting up on a heel, he down
on that dial all them dry bones. Why didn't you? What was that
preacher doing down there holding a bunch of dry bones? And he
said, thus saith the Lord God to the bones. He didn't say the
preacher said to the bones, the church said to the bones. Monty
said to the bones. Thus saith the Lord God unto
the bones. Behold, I'll cause breath to enter into you, and
you shall live. Who will? God will. And I'll lay sinews
upon you, and I'll bring flesh upon you, and cover your skin,
and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know.
that I am the Lord." Huh? Oh, we've all experienced that.
God will do the work. God will do the work. And Lazarus
was raised from the dead. And that's why, beloved, that's what
I'm talking about. Man is in this condition. He can brag about
his will, he can brag about his choices, he can brag about his
power. But he's as powerless to do anything right, just, holy,
and good toward God as those dry bones were to save themselves. Huh? But if God tells them bones
to live, they're going to live. And if God says, Lazarus, come
out of the tomb, Lazarus, he that was dead, is going to come
forth. Ain't that right? And I tell you, Why would men
want to kill Christ? In light of all the good he'd
done, because it was their nature. We will not have this man to
reign over us. And if they got their hands on Christ again right
now, if Christ came to town today, and went in every church, and
he went around all the churches and started preaching, in just
a little while they'd be saying, man, we've got to kill this fellow.
This fellow, oh my goodness, he makes us all look so bad.
He's telling us, he said, we're a bunch of snakes and vipers
and hypocrites. Well, man, I may be a lot of
things, but I ain't a snake. Well, that's why they done it. But let me tell you something.
As many as were ordained to eternal life, what happens to them? All that the Father giveth me,
what are they going to do? They're going to come to me.
They're going to come to me. And so, see, that's where we
are. That's where we are when we pray for our family. See,
we understand. I understand that about my great-granddaughter,
a little old lady, four years old, before and after. I understand
where she's at. I understand that God, and I
love her. Oh, I love her and pray for her
and ask the Lord to protect her all of her life. Please make
her one of His, and all of our grandkids, and your family. Oh
my! But see, we understand what they
are. We know we can't talk them into anything. We know we can't
change their natures. But all we can do is pray for
them and witness to them, and trust that God will one day cause
this breath to come over that valley of dry bones. Because
we know that salvation's of the Lord, so there's hope. With the
salvation's of the Lord, then there's hope for a man. If it's
all of the will of man, then there's no hope for man. That's
the long and the short of it. If salvation is something God
does for a man, then a man can be saved. If salvation is something
that you, by your will, cooperate with God, then nobody's going
to be saved. And we understand that. And that
changes the way we look at our families, That changes the way
we pray for our families. That changes the way we witness
to our families. Ain't that right? It does. Our Father, O blessed, blessed
Father in heaven, Lord, Your Word is so powerful. Lord, we're shut up to you. Shut
up to your will, your power, your grace, your mercy, your
salvation. And we'd not have it any other
way. That's the way we want it. That's the way we desire it.
For your will to be done. For you to get all the glory.
And Lord, never let us forget from the pit from which we were
dug. And never let us cease to pray. for sinners to be saved
by the grace of God, for God to cause the gospel to go to
hearing ears, and that you'd grant faith, that
you'd do the work. We'll preach the gospel, Lord,
as long as you'll enable us. But, Lord, we know that you have
to do the work, and we pray that you will. Oh, Lord, we need you. We seek
you and we call on you for the lost, because only you can find
them, save them, and keep them. And we bless you in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.