I know you do, too. Thank you,
Pastor. Thank you. Brother Bruce was telling about
that glass platform out over the Grand Canyon. My son-in-law,
Doug, president of the American Association of General Contractors,
and last summer, they took the whole family out to some meeting
out in Arizona, and last day of the meeting, We talked about
plans, and Doug said to one of his fellows out there, we're
planning to go out to the canyon and grab that platform and walk
out there and look over the canyon. This other contractor said to
him, don't forget, Lowbitter got the job. There is a chasm over the gaping
pit of hell, over which lays a sure foundation, and the bidder
is the son of God, and he offered his blood. an eternal covenant
for the world began by which he redeemed us from our sins
and blocked up forever that chasm. And all according to God's sovereign
election. That's my subject this morning.
Election. That's the short title. I'll
give you a longer one. God's free sovereign, unconditional,
electing love. Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy
chapter 7. Now, this is what I want you
to see clearly from our text and from the word of God as a
whole. This is the doctrine taught throughout
Holy Scripture. Our Savior's choice and election
of His people is not the result of something we do, have done,
or might do, but rather is the cause of everything He does,
has done, and shall hereafter do. Election. God's free Sovereign, eternal,
electing love is the cause of everything God does for us, has
done for us, and shall hereafter do for us by His grace in Christ
Jesus. Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse
1. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and have
cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Dervishites,
and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou,
what wonderful, distinguishing grace is displayed throughout
the book of God toward His chosen. God not only chose Israel in
preference to other nations, He chose Israel, the least of
all nations, in preference to the seven greatest, mightiest
monarchies in the world at the time. These seven nations were
the seven greatest, mightiest monarchies in the world. And
God said, I chose you, and cast them out. I chose you, and cast
them out. So it is in God's choice of His
elect, His spiritual Israel, in this Gospel day. Look around
you. For you see your calling, brethren,
Now that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world and things which are despised
hath God chosen. and things which are not." Nothings,
nobodies. To bring to naught the things
that are. Why on this earth has God Almighty
condescended to use such things as we are for the furtherance
of the gospel, the increase of His kingdom, saving of his elect,
the glory of his name, that no flesh should glory in his presence. So if God does anything, it won't
be my fault. And it won't be your fault. But
it'll be because God's chosen things that are not to bring
to naught things that are. Oh, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, I thank Thee. Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto these. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight." Verse two. And when the Lord Thy God shall
deliver them before Thee, Thou shalt smite them, and utterly
destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor show mercy unto them." Now, to the carnal mind, the
Word of God is terribly confusing. Some of you sitting here this
morning, I have no doubt, you listen to mom or dad or husband
or wife or brother or sister talk about the Word. You heard
our brother preaching from the Song of Solomon a little bit
ago, that magnificent message. And you you look at it and you're
like, I don't see a whole lot of wonders of that. I don't see
why folks are so excited about that. It's all confusing. And
you read this second verse in Deuteronomy 7, and you think,
well, how does that fit into what folks call Christianity?
How does that fit in with God being merciful and gracious and
kind and good? I heard just The other day someone
had taken some Gallup poll, taken a survey, asked folks what's
the number one question they would ask God if they'd asked
God anything they wanted to. Number one question, why is there
so much suffering in the world? Because men really think they're
better than God. Men really think they're better
than God. I'd fix this. I'd do things different. You
think you're better than God. Let me tell you something about
this book. It's full of jinns and snares. to trap and trip
up, reprobate men and women who will not believe God, that they
might stumble over the stumbling stone, Christ Jesus the Lord,
headlong into hell. That's the reason it's confusing
to you. The name of God will open your eyes and cause you
to see what the book says. Befriended by a natural man,
and look at this second verse, and they say, That's the way
wars ought to be fought. I've heard fellows say that.
That's the way we ought to fight wars, just kill everybody. I
don't think that's exactly why God wrote this. Somebody else
said, well, that's a portrayal of a cruel God and barbaric law. Well, that's not it either. But
if we read the chapter as God the Holy Spirit intends, As describing
something spiritual, what we just read is sweeter than honey
in the honeycomb. The Israel of God opposes enemies
as Israel did in Canaan. And the enemies that Israel opposed
in Canaan were all typical of spiritual foes warring against
God's Israel today. What are the seven nations? that
come out against you and me. Vain thoughts. The carnal care of this world. The vile lust of these hearts. Rebellions against our God. Horrid
murmuring and unbelief. The world is aching. These enemies, these nations,
war against my soul all the time. Are you preaching that? Tremendous
message. And trying to focus on what God
says to me. These nations rushing in, trying
to destroy everything. Everything. Every one of them,
rushing in. All these in league against us
assault our souls continually. Who would make peace with them?
Would you? No mercy can be shown. They must
be slain. You see, our enemies are God's
enemies. rob us of our souls, and they
would rob God of His glory, they would rob us of our heavenly
inheritance, and they would rob God of His crowned rights as
God. But that shall not happen. Blessed be God, that shall not
happen. Back long time ago, I was Twenty-six
years old. Doctors thought I was dying of
cancer, and I did too. And I got a card from a fella.
Luce, you may remember, Joe DeBusk. William DeBusk, William DeBusk.
I've not seen him since a long time before I got that card.
He attended church where my pastor, Brother Luce's dad was pastor,
when I was in school. And he sent me a card one day. I wouldn't have even known where
it came from if he hadn't had his address on the outside of
the card. Opened it up and had just one
thing inside it. The Scripture records. And it didn't even write
it out. I had to look it up. Romans 16,
20. The God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your heels Needless to say, that made my
day. Will you hear me, children of
God? The God of peace shall crush the serpent's head soon, and
all the enemies of our souls, the world, the flesh, and the
devil, he shall utterly destroy, and all the wealth of the nations.
He will call them to us. Verse 3. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give
unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son,
for they will turn away thy son from following thee. that they
might serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord
be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. What folly they
pursue, who choose to ignore this divine prohibition, given
both to Israel and to us by the law and by the gospel. If you choose to take for your
friends and your companions, you choose to take for your husband
or your wife, those who hate God, you will not influence them
for good. They will influence you for evil.
So I've seen exceptions. I have too. I have too. I've seen how God uses the devil
for my benefit, but I'm not going to get on side with him. The ungodly will seduce you to
evil and turn you away from following Christ. Hold your hands here
and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Actually, Brother Bruce recited
just a little bit ago. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. I'm
sorry, chapter 6. Look at verse 14. This prohibition specifically
has to do with religious spiritual matters. The Apostle writing
by inspiration says in verse 14, Be ye not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with
darkness? What concord hath Christ with
Belial? What part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? Now, watch this. And what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? Well, the thought is talking
about religious connections. It's talking about religious
associations. What agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God.
As God said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I
will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore stay
in and teach them this good. After all, you've got a position
now than me teaching the class down there at First Baptist Church.
They'll let you teach the gospel. If you were, they'd throw you
out in the class too. But my children like it down
there. You want your children to like it and go to hell with
you? Wherefore come out from among them. Come out from among
them. That's always God's command to
his elect with regard to all false religion. And be ye separate,
saith the Lord. Now watch this, and touch not
the unclean things. Thereafter their sacrifice, their
worship, their practices. You come out from among them,
you leave them, you abandon your ways of will-worship and be separate. Don't touch that unclean thing,
that unclean righteousness of man's own doing, and I will receive
you and will be a father unto you. you shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord the Almighty." Now, watch this. "'Having,
therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh.'" Because Donnie's talking about
all that Pentecostal nonsense you were in all those years.
All of it. All the filthiness of the flesh.
All that emotion and stirring of emotions and show, just show. See those folks wave their hands
down, roll right up. I had that happen while back
in Danville, and I said, I just talked. I said, put your hands
down, not going on here. If you want to wave your hands
and shake your butt, go somewhere else. Put it aside. Put it aside! We're not here to make a show
in the flesh. But what we're saying now, let us cleanse ourselves
of these things, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God. Bringing sanctification to its
ultimate end in the fear of God. What is that? In the experience
of grace, the believer, putting parts from all his works and
all his guilt and all his former religious idolatry, trusting
Christ alone, he's walking before God now in the sanctified work
of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Verse 5, Deuteronomy
7. But thus shall you deal with
them. What's this? The nations. and their gods,
and their churches, and their altars. You shall destroy their
altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves,
and burn their graven images with fire. I keep praying God make me like
Josiah. Utterly consumed with you, your
people, and zealous in the destruction of idolatry. Young King Josiah,
when he was eight years old, began to rave. And when he was
sixteen years old, he began to seek the God of his father David.
And when he was twenty years old, He began to purge Judah
and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved
images, and the molten images. He broke down the altars of Balaam
in his presence, and the images that were on high above them,
he cut down in the groves, and the carved images, the crucifixes,
and the crosses, and the pictures of angels, and all that nonsense,
and the molten images, and he breaks them in pieces and made
dust of them. And he took it out and strode
it over the graves of the priest who led the people in their ungodliness.
Well, that's not showing much respect. It wasn't intended to. What it intended to is showing
contempt. Contempt for everything that
would rob God of His glory and God's people of His gospel. It's
high time we show utter contempt for idolatry. I mean by that
every form of free will works religion. Complete contempt. Verse 6. For thou art an holy
people. Do what? Thou art an holy people. David
didn't say, I'm going to make you a holy people. He didn't
say you ought to be a holy people. He didn't say work hard and you
might be holy people. He said thou art a holy people
unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. Now here Moses dared to tell
the children of Israel Three things about themselves. Three
things that God, the Holy Spirit, inspired him to declare. These
three things I declare to you who are God's Israel. To you
who believe on the Son of God. To you who trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. You who are God's. If you trust
the Savior, you're God's Israel. And these things are true of
you. You are a holy people. unto the Lord. And holy people,
holy. Remember Brother Scott Richardson
preaching one time in this pulpit, many years ago, on the holiness
of God. You remember the sermon about
that? He started out like this, the holiness of God, H-O-L-I-N-E-S-S,
has got something to do with the wholeness of God. W-H-O-L-E-N-E-S-S. Oh, what a message. Holiness. Holiness is wholeness. What did our Lord do with the
lame man when he healed him? He made him whole. What did he do
with the blind man when he healed him? He made him whole. What
did he do with Lazarus when he brought him out of the tomb?
He made him whole. What do you do with a man armed
with wizard? You make him whole. What do you do with a sinner
saved by his grace? He makes him whole. He makes him whole. He gives you his spirit, a new
life, a new nature, a new heart, a new will. He makes you whole. Without him, you're not whole,
and you know it. There's something missing, and
you know it. Something you can't repair, and
you know it! But the Great Physician comes
in almighty grace and makes sinners holy. Makes you holy. The word means sanctified. Holy. Set apart for God. Distinctly God's. Holy. Made holy by Christ's sacrifice
in redemption. made holy by Christ's righteousness
imparted to you in sanctification, made holy by Christ's righteousness
imputed to you in justification. But the sanctification in the
experience of this, now understand what I'm saying, in the experience
of it, sanctification precedes justification. You can't know
that Christ redeemed you and put away your sin, satisfying
the law and justice of God for you, bringing everlasting righteousness
for you until the Spirit of God gives you life in sanctification,
in regeneration. That's the reason Paul said you
are sanctified. You are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So that Christ
Jesus has made us holy. made us holy by His obedience
unto death as our substitute. And He's come to us in regenerating
grace, in the sanctified work of the Spirit, and makes us whole
by His grace, giving us life. Next thing, the Lord your God
has chosen you. Chosen you. Let me camp here
for a little bit. Imagine that. God's chosen you. Of all people, you. He's chosen
you. Did you know that this book,
the Bible, the Word of God, that for most of you here, for most
of you here, this won't come as a surprise, but just pretend
that it does, will you? This teaches election. Go down the road that way, or that
way, or that way, or that way. And find any church building
around here, got a sign on the door, got a sign out on their
marquee saying, tomorrow morning the preacher is going to be preaching
on election. Go find one. Or you would take this book and
have nothing to say about it. I remember hearing Jimmy Swagger say one
time years ago, he said, the Bible does not teach election.
I said, well he's a liar. He's a liar. Of course, he proved
worse than that, didn't he? He's a liar. Man, any man who
reads this book says it doesn't teach election. It's a liar.
Now, he might not know what it teaches about it, but it teaches
on every page. Election's not a cuss word. It's
a good word. He's chosen you. He's chosen
you. I recall back some years ago,
a friend of mine, her son, was out to work in the yard down
in Fort Worth, Texas. And on Saturday, one of these sobering
folks, a group of them came by. He's out in the ditch trying
to clean things out. They're trying to buttonhole him. He
said, you don't want to come down there. Oh, yeah, yeah, we'd
love for you to come down tomorrow. He said, you don't want to be
down there. I said, well, why wouldn't we
want you? He said, well, what does your church teach about
election? Darling, this was their answer. I'm telling you the truth.
This was their answer from a little shop. He said, I ain't sure,
but I think about all of them as Republicans. This book teaches a lesson. Everywhere. Everywhere. Those who are God's
elect are here called chosen. These chosen ones are the people
God has chosen to salvation. They were redeemed by the precious
blood of Christ because they were chosen. They must and shall
be regenerated and called and saved by God's free grace because
they're chosen. They shall be preserved into
everlasting glory. They cannot perish because they're
chosen. They cannot be lost because they're
chosen. They cannot be condemned because
they're chosen. The chosen are uniquely special
to God, because they're chosen. They're chosen. Oh, how I rejoice in God's free,
sovereign, electing love of His people in Christ Jesus. You see,
election is the source and fountain of all grace. All the blessings
of divine mercy flow down to needy sinners from the throne
of grace through the mediation of election, according as He
hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee. Hast thou not chosen me, thou from through this end, ordain me that
I should live to Thee." Imagine. Oh, wondrous day. God chose me. Ordain me the object
of His grace that I should live to Thee. To You. Now, what's this? The Lord God
chose you to be a special people unto Him, above all the people
of the earth. Brother Larry, how many times
have you tried to preach to somebody or talk to family or friends,
and they say, well, you just think you're special. And you
kind of back up and say, oh, no, no, no. Well, quit backing
up. Yeah, I'm special. I want to stand right here, ain't
I? Is that what it said, Luke? What it said? Chose you to be
a special people to Him. Now that word special is bursting
with meaning. His peculiar treasure. His choice
jewels. His valued property. His workmanship. By grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works lest any man should boast. You are His workmanship. His masterpieces. His special masterpieces created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Special. Special. Under his watchful eye of protection
and constant care all the time. Special. His jewels shut up in his safe. He's chosen you to be special. Now, this election, we're told
about more in verse 7. God's eternal choice of his people
to salvation in Christ was an unconditional election of grace.
The Lord did not choose, did not set his love upon you, nor
choose you because you were more in number than any people, for
you were the fewest of all people. What's that mean? God didn't
choose us, and God doesn't save us because of our works. His choice of us was not based
upon some foreseen merit in us, or some foreseen idea that we
would choose Him, or we would will to have Him. Oh, no. We have no merit but Christ the
Lord. Our choice of Him is the result
of Him choosing us, not the cause. Our faith in Him is the fruit
of election, not the cause of election. Turn to 2 Timothy 1. Very familiar passage of Scripture.
Very familiar passage of Scripture. Paul is addressing his young
son, Timothy, concerning the Gospels, writing his very last
epistle, his last inspired letter. And he's addressing it to his
young son in the faith, Timothy, this young preacher he's trained
up all his life in the work of the Gospels. and is addressing
him for the last time. He says, now Timothy, don't be
ashamed of me or of my chains and my imprisonment for the sake
of the gospel, the gospel of God. Now, listen to how he describes
it. Who hath saved us and called
us with an holy calling. God hath saved us and called
us The word called here doesn't mean Don come to suffer. That's not the word. This word
means named. He saved us and named us. Named us the sons of God. Named
us His own. With a holy naming. Not according
to our works. Our works didn't have anything
to do with Him. We weren't even around yet. But according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. You mean He saved us, named us
His sons, and gave us this grace in Christ before the world began?
I believe that's what it said, isn't it? Well, that's primitive
Baptist doctrine. I don't care if it's Roman Catholic
doctrine, it's so. That doesn't change anything. That's what
the hard shells believe. Soft shells, too, they're going
to shell talk. But as now they manifest, what
happens when God says, you say, well, the way you folks talk,
it's as though when a man's saved, God just lets you know what he's
already done for him. That's pretty close. That's pretty close. He turns the light on. He causes
you to experience in time what he did in eternity. And the experience
is real. It's real. That child in the
womb has life. That child in the womb has life.
No question about that. Try talking to it. I know you
daddies do and think they hear you, but if they might hear the
sound, they don't understand a thing you're saying. Try getting
it to say something to you. Try getting a response out of
it. But it's got life. Well, wait. Nine months. And when that
baby comes out, that doctor slaps you on the bottom if they still
do that now. That's probably politically incorrect. Whatever
he does to clear out the lungs, and that baby goes to swollen.
Now, it experiences life. And we had life in Christ, our
surety, before the world began. Did he have life? Did he? Did he have life? He said he's
life. He is life. And as long as he
had life, before the triune Jehovah and my mediator Yerushalayim,
I had life in him. I'm one with him. Do I have life
with him now? He's in the right hand of God.
Sure I do. I'm one with Him, but you're
down here. And I haven't experienced yet the life that I have with
Him at the right hand of God. But Paul said, I sat down with
Him and have no questions. I sat down with Him. What happens
then when a man is born again? Look at verse 10. But is now
made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, what's
this, who hath abolished death, my death, and brought life and
immortality to life in my soul through the gospel. Oh, that's free grace. But Brother
Dunn, if that's the case, we don't really do nothing selfish.
Isn't that wonderful? If that's the case, nothing depends
on me. If that's the case, if this was
done in eternity, surely it can't be undone in time. That's what Ephesians 3.14 says.
If God did it, God did it from eternity. And God did it forever! And nothing can be put to it!
And nothing can be taken away from it! And God does it this
way! So that they'll worship Him. And verse 8. God's election is a free, sovereign
election. You say, well, why should He
choose me? Because the Lord loves you. Turn back to that passage Brother
Bruce preached to us just a little bit ago in Psalm of Solomon chapter
8. Why on earth would he choose
me? Why would he have me? Because
he loved you. Now watch this. Verse 7, Psalm of Solomon. Many waters cannot quench love, Neither can the floods damage.
He loved me with an everlasting love. And all the floods of sin, the
sin involved of our race in Adam, the floods of sin that come forth
in this wicked heart as I come forth from the womb, speaking
lies, The floods of sin before He revealed His Son in me, and
the floods of sin since He revealed His Son in me. The floods of
sin in my soul now. Can't drown this love. It's free, indestructible love. love my child unconditionally."
No, you don't. No, you don't. God does. God does. Indestructible love. You mean… You mean, Brother Bruce,
there's nothing you can do? Nothing you can do to cause God
to cease to love you? Now, if you try to buy that love,
Solomon says that the price would be contemned if you give all
the substance of your house. The price would be despised.
Oh, what can I do to get God to love me? Whatever it is, God
hates it. What can I do to keep God loving
me? Whatever it is, God despises
it. Oh, no, he's not free. Because
the Lord loved you. And because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, that the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt." I doubt there's a passage in
all the Old Testament that more clearly, fully expresses the
freeness of God's love to us than this. We love Him, the apostle
therefore wrote, because He first loved us. God's people do love the Savior. You notice Peter never taught
much about his love to the Redeemer. except to Him. Lord, You know
all things. You know that I love You. I had
great difficulty singing, My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou
art mine. I sure had difficulty singing,
Oh, How I Love Jesus. But we do love Him. That's the true confession of
every heavenly born soul. We love Him. Because He first
loved us. His love for us precedes our
love for Him by infinity. It exceeds our love for Him by
infinity, and it is His love for us, made perfect in us, brought
to its fullness in us, that's the cause of our love for Him.
We love Him. This love Made perfect in us. What's the
book said about it? Perfect love casted out all fear. Now, some marriage counselor
will get you aside and say that you perfectly love your wife.
She won't ever have any fear about anything. Doesn't matter
where you go. I wouldn't try it if I were you. If you perfectly love your husband,
he'll have no fear of your love for him, no matter what you do.
I wouldn't try that if I were you. That's not what I'm talking
about. Because Donny Bell can't love
Mary Bell perfectly. It can't be done. It just can't be done. Well,
what's that mean, perfect love casting it all off of you? Where
are you going to find perfect love? In God our Savior. And the love of God He shed abroad
in your hearts. He gives you faith in Christ
and now you lift your heart to heaven with no fear and say,
my God, my Father, my Father. And now have no fear because
His love revealed in you has come to its fruition. It's come
to its end. It's come to its completion in
you and cast out fear. And we love Him because He first
loved us. Therefore, because we thus judge
that when Christ died for all His people, we all died in Him,
that we should not henceforth live to ourselves but unto Him
that loved us and gave Himself for us. Therefore, the love of
Christ constrained us. The love of Christ controls us.
The love of Christ is the spring, the motivation, the inspiration
of our lives. The love of Christ causes us
to walk before Him in this world, seeking His honor and His glory
and the benefit of His people. We can first say it again and
learn that God's election is effectual. Because the Lord loved
you, because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers,
he brought you out with a mighty head, redeemed you out of the
house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. God's love is effectual. That's a mighty fancy word we
use a lot when we're preaching, and maybe you don't quite understand
it. Matter of fact, I was talking about it one time to my sister,
and she said, what does that mean, effectual? I said, it means
it gets the job done. It's effectual, because he loved
you. He brought you out with a mighty
hand, from bondage, from the bondage of Egypt. from Pharaoh,
the king of Egypt, from Egypt, the land of darkness and bondage
and idolatry. In fact, it's because of his
love for you that he sent you down to Egypt that you might
experience deliverance out of Egypt by his hand for his glory. You mean the Lord meant for him
to go down to Egypt? Of course he did. That part of
his covenant with Abraham, wasn't it? Soon as he made the covenant,
he said, you're going to Egypt 400 years, and I'll bring you
out, and you'll know I'm God. People talked as though our sin
and fault in our father Adam somehow slipped up on God and
took him by surprise, and he started trying to figure this
thing out, how am I going to fix this mess? Oh, no, no, no. His intent was Lucifer's fault,
Satan's. started huffing and puffing,
going to blow God's house down. I'll take over being God. I'm
going to see nothing there, but I'll be the most high. And the
Lord God said, Oh, what am I going to do? No. He said, This is the purpose
that is purposed in all the earth. Everything's in control. Everything
belongs just exactly as I ordained it, so that when the end comes,
The Lord God will crush Satan under your feet, children of
God, and He will deliver you from all the consequences of
the fall and the sin so thoroughly that there shall be no remnant
of evil consequences left in it. And the slime of the serpent
removed from God's creation, and everything, including the
fall, shall praise Him. Everything. Everything. I can just picture Moses on the
Canaan side of Egypt. He looks back on Pharaoh and
the armies of Egypt, and he's got all the gold and silver.
Everything was worth anything in Egypt, because he got it all
piled up out there in front of him. And he said, boy, I sure
believe we went down to Egypt. Look what we got in this! We're
better off now than when our father Jacob went down there
with his starving seventy souls. God rules everything for his
people. You see, our God is faithful. 3 verse 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God He is God,
the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them
that love him, and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. This
is our God. Thank you. Brother Don had been
talking this morning, last night, about our long relationships. Man, you've been faithful here
for a long time. Bruce and Sandy have been faithful folks here.
I met Harold Jost before I met Donnie. We've been faithful for
a long time. Carl and Abilou, I saw the others
this morning. Faithful for a long time. You know what I admire
in men? More than anything, more than anything, I admire being
able to predict about everything about them. I'm just, as much as you know
how dogs gonna react to that, I'm glad they do. I'm glad they
do. I like faithfulness, dogged dependability. Oh, how I admire God's faithfulness. When I was nineteen years old,
I was in college, but most of them went to the same citadel
of idolatry down west of Salem, North Carolina. If you haven't
figured it out yet, it's called Piedmont Baptist College, where
folks worship their will. And I was assigned to prepare
a sermon for a homiletics class, and I prepared a sermon and preached
it on God's faithfulness. I was 19 years old. Man, I had
the world by the tail on a downhill pull, and I knew everything.
And you know what? Moose, the sermon was exactly
alike what I would preach now in all points of theological
work. I've gotten most of it right out of John Gill. How the
hell is your... Man, it's good. But I'm going to tell you something.
I didn't know anything about God's faithfulness. I do now. Faithfulness in the dark and
faithfulness in the light. Faithfulness in peace and faithfulness
in evil. Faithfulness in smooth sailing
waters. a faithfulness on the troubled
sea. He abideth faithful. So faithful is he that if we
believe not, he can't deny himself. He abides
faithful. He abides faithful. This election,
is the choice of our souls by the faithful God. Brother God, I sure would like
to know something like this. Would you? What would you give,
want you to, if you could walk out those doors and confidently say, my name
is written in heaven, My name is inscribed in the Lamb's
Book of Life. I'm one of God's elect. Christ
redeemed me. The Spirit of God has sanctified
me. I've been called by God's Spirit. Oh, I'd do anything,
I'd give anything. Would you do nothing? Would you give nothing? You see, The long and short of it is this.
He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Mr. Spurgeon had a marvelous
commentary on that. It was not real law. He said,
I believe on the Son of God, I have everlasting life. He that believeth Son of God
hath everlasting life." Now, we command you to believe. God
commands you to believe. And some of you have been trying
for a long time to believe. And you can't. Unless God speaks and reveals
Christ in you. And then you will find a surprising
thing, a very surprising thing. You'll find yourself believing,
believing God, trusting His Son, resting on Christ. I believe. And you willfully,
gladly do so. But you just find yourself by
the sweet constraint of irresistible grace, believing on the Son of
God. Believing on the Son of God. If you believe, Christ is yours. Because He chose you in everlasting
love to be His special people, that He might redeem you with
His blood, call you by His grace. Now look at verse 10. God's faithful servant Moses
spoke to the immortal souls before him, as I must speak to you. And we pray of them that hate
Him to their face, destroy them. He will not be slapped to them,
to him that hated him. He will repay him to his face. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. He that believeth not is condemned. If you persist in your rebellion,
in your willful, obstinate hatred of God, which is what unbelief
is, you persist in living with your fist shoved in God's face,
saying, get out of my way! God Almighty will get out of
your way. And he'll repay you forever to
your face with everlasting damnation. God help you to believe. Amen.