Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. I want to welcome you to our
broadcast this morning. I have something that's a little
different for our broadcast this morning. Rather than me preaching,
what I actually have for you is five short messages preached
by Mike McInnis. Mike is pastor at Grace Chapel
in O'Brien, Florida. There will be no video with this,
it's just going to be audio only, and there are five brief messages. But I give you these five messages
because they're truly Christ-honoring messages. And I pray that they
bless you. They truly have been a blessing
to me. So I'll give you the five titles
to these five short messages. And of course, we hope to have
the titles underneath on the screen for you. But again, remember,
there's no video. It'll be audio only. Mike's first
message, his title is this. His first one is Complete Redemption. That is, complete redemption.
Mike's second message, that's Mike McInnes from O'Brien, Florida.
He pastors at Grace Chapel in O'Brien, Florida. His second
message, the title is this, Bruised for Our Sake. And here's Mike's
title to his third message. The third one's this, Arm of
the Lord. That's Arm of the Lord. Here's
number four, here's the title to Mike's fourth message, Power
to Choose. Power to choose. Then we also
have this message. That's the fifth message. A God
made in man's image. Did you hear that? I like that
title. A God made in man's image. I would encourage you, listen
this morning. Sit back, get you a cup of coffee,
hot cup of tea this early morning, and listen to this. This is Brother
Mike McInnis, pastor at Grace Chapel in O'Brien, Florida. Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Redemption is not an afterthought
with the Lord, nor is it a means to another end. It is not a partial
solution to a terrible problem which God is trying to solve.
It is not something man can in any way participate in. In fact,
the scriptures indicate that the redemption of sinners was
the very reason God created the world and ordained that Adam
should fall in the garden. He had prepared the provider
of Adam's covering long before Adam disobeyed him and incurred
the curse of sin. God will bring glory to his name
through the redemption of his elect children, and it is for
this end that he created man and this world in which we dwell.
that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus, having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should
be to the praise of his glory. It is impossible to preach the
gospel without preaching redemption. There is no gospel if there is
no redemption. Sadly, much of what is purported
to be the preaching of the gospel today is no gospel at all, since
the scriptural concept of redemption is ignored or misunderstood.
The word redeem means to buy back and to deliver. In order
to preach scriptural redemption, one must teach that redemption
involves the purchase of a former possession which was lost. Something
cannot be bought back if it was never possessed in the first
place. The scripture plainly indicates that Christ had an
elect bride given to him before the foundation of the world,
according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. By the same token, it was necessary
that this possession be lost in order that it might be redeemed.
Though never appointed unto wrath, nonetheless God's elect children
fell under the curse of the law and were separated from Him by
their sin. Redemption involves a particular
object to be purchased. There can be no such thing as
a general redemption, because redemption involves the purchase
of a particular object. Under the law, a man could buy
back a house he sold in a walled city up to a year afterward,
or a sibling could buy back his brother out of slavery. These
were not general purchases, but were very specific ones. The
Lord Jesus Christ has bought his people with his own blood.
In verse 7 of Ephesians 1, Paul says we have redemption. The
we has reference to the chosen in verse 4. Redemption involves
a particular time for the purchase. We read in Leviticus about the
laws of redemption. There was a specific time frame
for this redemption to take place. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world at the specific time which was ordained for him to
come. But make no mistake about it, it was necessary that he
come at that time and perform the exact requirement in order
for redemption to occur. But now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. This is not an ongoing transaction. Redemption involves a definite
price. He has paid the exact price necessary for the redemption
of his people. The law demands the death of
a sinner. He has poured out his life's blood to purchase our
redemption. We have redemption through his
blood. Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could
give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. But Christ,
the heavenly lamb, takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of
nobler name and richer blood than they. Redemption involves
a completed transaction. Where there is no finished work,
there can be no redemption. The Lord has accomplished exactly
what He set out to do. By His own blood, He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. The glorious message of the gospel is that Jesus Christ
has taken our sins by imputation upon his back and paid our sin
debt, imputing his righteousness to us. Therein do we rejoice
in a finished salvation and await his glorious return. Blow ye
the trumpet blow, the gladly solemn sound. Let poor insolvents
know to earth's remotest bound. The year of jubilee has come.
Return ye ransomed sinners home. Do you rejoice in the complete
redemption which Christ has purchased? Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song, the joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue. It
is outside the scope of natural man's understanding that love
could compel another to sacrifice his own self for those who despise
him and naturally hate everything about him. Paul said, for when
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There is no possible way that
such a thing makes any sense to the natural man. In fact,
it seems to violate his very sense of right and wrong, since
love is in his mind something that must be reciprocated in
order for him to demonstrate it. Yet the grand declaration
of the gospel sets forth as its very theme, the just dying for
the unjust, the chief of sinners being loved by him who knew no
sin. He who is unworthy of the least of the Lord's mercies,
being shown mercy by him who is worthy of all praise. The
one who hates sin and is the very antithesis to death, bearing
sin's curse and dying for those who despised his holiness, and
rushed headlong to embrace the death and destruction which resulted
from their willful disobedience to his commands. Oh, who can
grasp such a premise? It is too high for mortals to
comprehend, neither can the angels understand the glory of it, since
they have never experienced it and have never sinned. How can
it be that the darling son of God should come under the very
wrath of the one whom he adored? Why would he who had no guile
in his mouth be brought to cry out, My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Like Job's friends of old who
considered that Job justly suffered for his own sin, the natural
man has no comprehension of what Christ has done in willingly
laying down himself as an offering for sin and suffering pain in
the room instead of those who justly deserve to die. Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The modern use of the word bruise
means to slightly wound without breaking the skin, but the word
bruise here in the scripture literally means to crush, destroy,
or break in pieces. The wounding of the Lord Jesus
Christ was no slight wound, nor any mere discomfort endured by
him, but was a complete destruction of his humanity under the awful
load of sin's curse. The natural man can see the physical
suffering of the Lord as he was bruised under the hand of his
father, but he cannot fathom the depth of the agony which
he bore when he tasted death. His bruising involved having
the sin of his people laid upon him. Though he was personally
untouched or untainted by any actual act of sin, yet he had
all of the filth and guilt of the sins of his elect laid upon
him. He who was of purer eyes than to even look upon sin bore
every jot and tittle of its curse in their behalf. No person who
has ever fallen into an open sewer has ever experienced even
a hint of the foul stench into which he willingly sunk in order
to be a substitute for those given to him from the foundation
of the world. The full load of this began to
be laid upon him in the garden, and its foulness was so great
that he was in agony in mind and soul and cried out for deliverance,
but there was to be none. He bore our curse and suffered
our punishment without quarter or relief of any kind. His bruising
involved the destruction of his body. Much has been written of
the agonizing death which was to be had in Roman crucifixion.
But I dare say that men cannot describe the awful pain of the
eternal Son of God as the very life's blood poured from his
body. He who formed man from the dust experienced the very
death intended for all transgressors. The psalmist of old described
his misery in Psalm 22. Not only was he tormented by
his creation, but he became acquainted with their grief and suffering
in his own body on the accursed tree. His bruising involved a
total separation between he and the Father. This was the most
awful suffering that he underwent. Nothing that a man can conceive
as horrific could be as terrible as being cast out from the presence
of God in judgment for sin. Great numbers of the wicked shall
indeed experience this fate, but they shall do so in just
recompense of their deeds. He was innocent of any transgression,
enjoying the fellowship and presence of his Father before the worlds
were created, and yet for our sake he was bruised. Who his
own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we
being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. Thy mercy,
my God, is the theme of my song. I grew up hearing a message which
was purported to be the gospel. In this message we were told
that the Lord wanted everybody to be saved from the pit of hell
and had basically done all he could to provide a means whereby
men could escape that awful place if they would just avail themselves
of it. A good deal of effort was made to try to persuade men
to just let God save them, or at least give God a chance. Quite
often, great crusades and revival meetings were held. Eloquent
men, well-versed in the latest soul-winning techniques, were
brought in to ply their trade and reap a big harvest of souls,
which was accomplished by convincing them to walk forward at the end
of one of these meetings while the music played, and they were
reminded that they might not have another chance to be saved. Not much has really changed over
the years as these puppeteers and soul merchants exercise themselves
and woo their listeners with modern technology at their fingertips.
Many of them can even tell us in dollars and cents exactly
what it takes to win a soul for Christ. They come past sea and
land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, they make him
twofold more the child of hell than themselves. It is not within
man by nature to know the Lord. They are only able to see and
embrace the truth of God as the Lord sees fit to show it to them.
When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, had he wished to reveal
himself to all men, he could have simply appeared in the temple
or in the Sanhedrin on the third day. Every day thereafter he
could have gone about the city and countryside showing men that
he was risen from the dead. but he only showed himself to
his disciples. Men desire to usurp the glory
of God in whatever way they can. Well-meaning but mistaken men
think that they can assist the Lord, and in doing so become
in their minds a vital part in the salvation of the Lord's elect.
Man plays no active role in his or anyone else's salvation in
any sense, but the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.
He is their strength in the time of trouble. The true sons of
God find a great delight in this fact. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the absolute Savior of His people. He has known them. He has loved
them. He has purchased them. He has
triumphed over death in their behalf. He has imputed His righteousness
to them and their sin to Himself. He is presently revealing Himself
to them. He is calling them. He has sent
His Spirit to guide and comfort them, and He shall return to
gather them unto Himself. All of the glory belongs to him.
We have no time nor interest in hearing or speaking any message
other than that one which speaks of an accomplished salvation
for the sons of God in the person of Jesus Christ the righteous,
who are those to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. to those
whom the Lord is pleased to reveal it. All things are delivered
unto me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him. If any man gains a knowledge
of the Lord, and the salvation wrought by his hand, it will
be because he alone intends to open that man's eyes, and he
shall accomplish exactly what he intends to do. The fact that
he has been pleased to show men his salvation and give them an
interest in it is evidence of his great mercy. What has or
can any man do to deserve or earn it? The arm of the Lord
is revealed to those whom the Lord is not hardened or blinded.
Very few doctrines stir the ire of religious men any more than
the doctrine of reprobation. Paul gives the example of this
with Jacob and Esau saying, 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. On the one hand, reprobation
is an active work by the Lord to deny any of those whom He
has rejected any sort of access into His knowledge. On the other
hand, it is accomplished passively by allowing them to go on in
the way which their very nature causes them to desire to go.
We see this clearly in the Scriptures when the Lord said that He hardened
Pharaoh's heart, yet at the same time Pharaoh hardened his own
heart. The arm of the Lord is revealed unto men according to
the time appointed by him. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace
to reveal his Son in me, to everything there is a season, and a time
to every purpose under heaven. Oh, thou lovely, loving Savior,
bless us with a solemn frame. Teach us now, henceforth, and
ever to adore thy matchless name. Give us, blessed Jesus, give
us a sweet glimpse of thy sweet face. From all carking care,
relieve us, fill us with thy boundless grace. Thy mercy, my
God, is the theme of my song. The joy of my heart and the boast
of my tongue. Men are born thinking that they
have within their power the ability to choose right from wrong, good
or evil. This concept is most often referred
to as man's free will. It seems plausible, and in fact
very logical to men to hold on to this notion. When challenged
about this theory, I've seen men digress in fits of rage and
vitriol that would cause a sailor to blush. They're often quite
exasperated that anyone might so much as question this view,
which to the majority is sacrosanct and above scrutiny. We are quite
certain that man has the ability to choose evil and to walk contrary
to the commandments of God. He has demonstrated that ability
and power to choose from the very beginning, as Adam chose
to disobey God's clear directive not to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. The Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees,
Why do you not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot
hear my word, ye are of your father the devil, and the less
of your father ye will do. This is indicative of the very
nature of man, especially those of a religious mindset. The psalmist
said it like this, the wicked are estranged from the womb.
They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. So without
doubt, man can choose evil, which he does with striking regularity.
The other premise, however, finds no basis in the scripture. Man
cannot and does not choose to do good. Paul quotes the psalmist
saying, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Man's inability is not physical
in nature, but is rather rooted in the seat of his desire. A
man can only choose those things which he desires to choose, and
no man by his own nature can desire anything but that which
Paul describes as fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind. Now, this is not to say that
man cannot be taught to live according to some moral rule
or societal expectation, either through religious instruction
or natural teaching. Even dogs can be taught to sit
or heel at their master's commands. It is a great mistake, however,
to think that the keeping of a law or obedience to some religious
order is righteous in the eyes of God. Many hold up the Ten
Commandments as the standard by which men are supposed to
live. They chisel them on monuments and print them on yard signs
to remind men of their obligation, as if this was God's standard
and that by doing so they can influence men to keep them. Even
sadder, though, than those who live with a total disregard of
these commandments are those who think that they walk in obedience
to them. It is far more difficult to teach
a man who thinks he is a law-keeper of his wickedness than it is
to show the man who disregards the law of God that he is corrupt.
According to the Lord Jesus Christ, that man who looked upon a woman
with lust, even though he never was in the flesh unfaithful to
his wife, was just as much a breaker of the law as was that man who,
in disregard of the seventh commandment, became physically joined to another
woman. The standard of God's righteousness cannot be chiseled
in stone. The benchmark of that righteousness,
which alone is accepted in heaven, is the Lord Jesus Christ, who
did no sin, neither was gall found in his mouth. God allows
no deviance from a perfect keeping of his law. It is not righteous
in his sight for a man to outwardly obey the Ten Commandments or
even have a desire to keep them in his heart. Only a perfect
righteousness can avail in the courts of heaven. Any standard
other than this one, which gives a man any sort of comfort that
he has some righteousness before a holy and almighty God, is nothing
more than a delusion and an exercise in self-righteousness. That man
who has fled to him for refuge and embraced his righteousness
as his own knows that all that the Ten Commandments can do is
remind him of his inability to keep them. Each time he looks
at those tablets of stone, he is condemned, except he knows
but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. The only righteousness
which he can claim is that which is provided to him by that which
is imputed to him by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely
no man will be received into the presence of God on the basis
of any other righteousness than his. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song, the joy of my heart and the most of my tongue. The
natural man hates the concept of deity, which presents him
as an absolute God whose purpose is unaffected by the will and
activities of men. To consider that God can and
does do exactly as he pleases, regardless of the desires or
will of the creature, is sure to cause the old adamic nature
to rise up and begin to accuse him of wrongdoing. Paul said
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge. When they
knew who God was, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. They became wise in their own
eyes and were willing to worship a false god of their own imagination.
and making, who was like the creature himself. Man's religious
nature causes him to want a god of some sort, and he is willing
to worship any god but the one who determines everything that
shall and does come to pass, without any consultation with
his creation. By nature, men want a God they
can influence and persuade. They want rain when it suits
them, healing from whatever disease befalls them, and in general,
whatever they feel like they need. Most of so-called Christendom
believes that God is basically at the beck and call of men.
In fact, they picture Him as hoping someone will allow Him
to do what He wants to do. In essence, they see him as quite
powerless apart from the operation of man's free will. They speak
about his power but say that he has no hands, mouths, or feet
but ours. This sort of a wheelchair God
is exactly how David described the gods of the heathen. He contrasted
those gods with the true God when he said, but our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Whether
God raises us up in His mercy or casts us forever from His
presence to our own destruction is surely His prerogative and
in keeping with His own holy and righteous character. He may
not always do exactly what we would desire for Him to do. He
may confound our every desire. He may leave us destitute and
hopeless, but He will always be God and worthy of our praise. He owes no man anything. If he
had created the world and all of its inhabitants for the express
purpose of destroying it in the pit of hell, which one of his
creatures could accuse him of wrongdoing? He will do right. He may show mercy. It is only
when a man has come to a place of understanding that fact that
he can appreciate the grace and mercy of God, which has been
revealed in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The doctrine
of his unconditional election must then be seen as the divine
cordial that it is. His particular and definite atonement
will appear in all of its glory as the cornerstone of His redemption.
His irresistible grace and effectual calling must be a crowning jewel
whose splendor shines as His children worship at His footstool.
The glories of His preservation of all those which were given
to Him in the covenant of redemption can be viewed with great gladness. Yet there will be many who will
grow angry at the mention of such truth, and by doing so they
will show their disdain for the true God, preferring the honor
and benefit of men over the glory of him who rules in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Salvation is not
by chance, nor is it awarded on the basis of anything which
the creature can accomplish. If any man is saved, it will
be according to the sovereign mercy of God, who has appointed
such a man to receive his blessing. If any man has heard the call
of the gospel, it will be because he has given him ears to hear
and eyes to see. If any man believes the gospel,
it will be because he has in sovereign mercy bestowed the
gift of faith to that man. If any man perseveres to the
end, it will be because he has kept him from falling. Grace
is not fair, nor is mercy. Those who receive what is fair
shall be destroyed forever in hell, and not one can bring a
railing accusation against him who shall justly punish sin.
But oh, those who have been made the recipients of his mercy must
forever praise him who alone has made them to differ from
another, and has granted to them something they did not deserve.
Grace tis a charming sound, harmonious to the ear. Heaven with the echo
shall resound and all the earth shall hear. Grace first contrived
a way to save rebellious man and all the steps that grace
display which drew the wondrous plan. Grace first inscribed my
name in God's eternal book. It was grace that gave me to
the Lamb who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my soul to pray
and pardoning love to know. It was grace that kept me to
this day and will not let me go. Grace all the works shall
crown through everlasting days. It lays in heaven the topmost
stone and well deserves the praise. Thy free grace alone from the
first to the last has won my affections and bound my soul
fast.