Please be seated. It is so very
good to be with you. I hate to say this, but you probably
want to turn that microphone down or PA system down. I learned
to whisper in a sawmill. And I'd hate to bust your speakers.
Can you crank it down a little bit? Yeah, crank it down a little
bit. And good to have friends from over at Jackson, Pastor
Brother Drew Dietz, and some of our folks from Danville, and
then folks over from Crow, West Virginia. So very, very glad
to have you all here. And it's good to get to meet
you folks from here in Cape Girardeau. Just met your pastor just a little
while ago. And I am so thankful that God caused our paths to
cross in his wise and good providence. And it is my prayer that God
might be pleased to visit us these next three nights in a
special way. I will be working my way to Psalm
115 if you want to turn there. I realize I am a total stranger
to most of you as you are to me. I assure you I stand before you
either as the servant of God a representative of God to your
soul, an ambassador of Jesus Christ, whom you must hear. For I am a false prophet and
the servant of the devil, one whom you must never hear. There's
no in-between ground. A man standing in this place
either speaks for God and speaks of God or he's opposed to God
and represents the wicked one. He that is not with me is against
me, the master said. The apostle Paul wrote to the
Corinthians and said, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. He said, though we are an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. That's strong language,
but it is absolutely fact. If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
forever damned. forever damned. God's servants,
those who preach the gospel of God's grace, the gospel revealed
in this book, they preach as God's watchmen, set of God to
watch over the souls of men, to watch on the walls of Zion,
knowing that their message is a message of life or a message
of death. by the order of God, so that
those who hear, if God speaks, never hear indifferently. To
some, to God's elect, we are a saver of life unto life. to the reprobate, to the ungodly,
to the unbelieving, to those who will not believe. The message
preached is a savor of death unto death. So if God's pleased
to speak by me, by this empty, worthless, dirty pipe to your
soul, it will either be for your soul's everlasting salvation
or for your everlasting torment. There's no in between ground.
No wonder the old man used to speak of the burden of the word
of the Lord. To the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, now listen, doesn't
matter whether I'm talking about this pastor, this pastor, or
that pastor, or any other pastor. If they speak not, head by the
wall, if they speak not according to this word, It is because there
is no light in them. Now that's just fact. Any man who preaches but does
not preach that which is written in this book, it's because there
is no light in him. He doesn't know God from a billy
goat. There is no light in him. He that hath my word, God says,
let him speak faithfully. Every man sent of God, every
man called of God to preach the gospel of God's free grace must
be faithful to the word of God. faithful to the gospel of God,
the gospel revealed in this word. And there is no understanding
of this word apart from the gospel of which it speaks, the good
news of redemption, grace, and salvation by Christ. Every man
called, gifted, and sent of God is and must be faithful to the
glory of God and faithful to the souls of men. I call upon
you who know God. To pause and pray for me. Pray
that God will be pleased to speak by me to your soul. So that you
will be given clearer knowledge and understanding and joy in
Jesus Christ our Lord. So that you will be more fully
consecrated, devoted to him than ever before. And for you who
do not know God, pray that they may hear God speak. that God made by his word give
life to dead sinners and calls them to believe on the Lord Jesus. Now I make you this promise.
That which I am about to preach to you is that which has been
inscribed upon my heart by the finger of God in the sweet experience
of his grace. I'm going to tell you some things
I know Because they're written in this book, and I've experienced
them myself. Things that God has graciously
taught me. When I was not quite 17 years
old, God stepped in my way, stopped me in my mad rush to hell, and
revealed Christ in me. And these are the things the
Lord has taught me. What I'm about to preach is not
Baptist doctrine or Catholic doctrine or Pentecostal doctrine
or Presbyterian doctrine. It's not Arminian doctrine. It's
not Calvinistic doctrine. It is the doctrine of this book. So I want you to follow me through
the scriptures and I want you to see that what I have to say
is in this book. If it's in this book, you better
believe it and you better hear it. If it's not in this book,
don't hear me. Don't ever hear me again or any
man who preaches what I do as you care for your soul. Is that
plain enough? If it's in the book, we bow to
it. So I don't understand. I don't
understand. I don't understand how a brown cow can eat green
grass and give white milk and yellow butter, but I drink the
milk and eat the butter. There's a lot in this book I
don't understand, but I bow to what God says in the book. Whether
it's beyond my mind, beyond my reason, or not, I bow to what
God says in the book. And if you're gods, you do too. And if you don't, you're not
God's. I don't care what you've experienced.
I don't care where you go to church. I don't care how many
visions and dreams you have. I don't care how many times you've
been to church altars or prayed or what you've done. If you don't
bow to God, you don't know God. God's people are folks who bow
to him as he revealed himself in his word. All right, let's
look in the book of God. Who is God? Who is it? There are some things
about God, some attributes of God. With us we speak of an attribute
and we say that man's smart or that lady's pretty or this person's
gifted to play the guitar, that one's gifted to do this, that.
Their attributes are just certain traits about them. With God,
his attributes are those things that are essential to his being.
So that if he ceased to be that which he is by nature, he would
not be God. Now there are certain attributes
of God about which everybody who professes to be religious,
everybody who professes to be Christian certainly agrees. God
is spirit. God is spirit. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. God is holy. Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. God is holy. Holy and reverend
is his name. God Almighty is omniscient. He knows all things. He knows
all things. Perfect knowledge of everything.
He is the omnipotent, omnipresent God. God is righteous. God is just. God is true. I don't know anyone in any religious
circumstance who would object to any of those things. But let
me tell you something about God that most people who call themselves
Christians are utterly ignorant of. This is something about God. If you go down the road, I don't
have any idea how many church buildings we passed on the way
over here. But stop and knock at the door of each one of you.
And just ask the preacher about it. I'm telling you, the folks
don't have a clue who God is. They don't have a clue who God
is. For you have this attribute of God. This thing that is absolutely
essential to his character. as essential to God's being as
his holiness, his eternality, his justice, and his truth. But
it's something about which most religious people know nothing.
The God of this book is absolutely sovereign. Absolutely sovereign. Now when
I say sovereign, I don't mean that God has great power. When
I say he's sovereign, I don't mean that God sort of controls
things. When this book speaks of God
in his sovereign character, it tells us about one who is God,
who always has his way in heaven, in earth, and in hell. with everybody
all the time. That means there's nothing in
heaven, nothing in the earth, and nothing in hell. No man,
no angel, no demon of hell that wiggles but by the decree, will,
and purpose of God. Amen, that's so. And if the God
you worship, the God you pretend to worship, is not absolutely
in control of all creation, all providence, all things, all the
time, the God you worship is no God at all. The God of this
religious generation no more resembles the God of this book
than a gnat resembles an angel. Turn here to Psalm 115. Let's
see what the scripture says. Psalm 115 verse 3. Our God is
in the heaven. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Wow. Look at Psalm 135 verse
6. Psalm 135 verse 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all
deep places. That takes in everything. Everything
that is, everything that has been, and everything that shall
be is brought to pass in time by the will, purpose, and power
of God. This is what God says, I make
peace and I create evil. I create light and I make darkness. That's God talking. That's God
talking. God doesn't try to do things. God doesn't just want to do things. Everything that is, God does. But what about the devil? Let
me tell you a little secret. It'll help you. He's God's devil. He's not God's rival. He's God's
devil. He's on God's leash. And it doesn't
do anything except that which God has purposed him to do for
the good of his people. No exceptions. You remember God's
servant Job? Oh, how the devil tested Job. Do you remember who took up the
issue? There was a day when the sons
of God, the angels of God, I presume is what it's talking about, came
to give a report to God. And Satan came along with them.
He was one of God's creatures too. He came to give a report
and the Lord said, where you been devil? And he said, I've
been going up and down in the earth. And the Lord God said,
have you considered my servant, Job? It wasn't Satan who brought
Job up, it was God who brought him up. And the devil said, well,
you turn him over to me, I'll give him a blessing. God said,
go do what you can. Go do what you can. And he smote
Job. Oh, what trouble. Yet in all
this, Job said not, nor charged God with folly. And the angels
of God came to give a report again and Satan came along with
him and gave a report, where you been devil? I've been going
up down through the earth. He said, have you considered
my servant Joe? Look what you've done to Joe. He still worships
me. And he said, uh, skin for skin and all that a man has,
he'll give in exchange for his soul. You give me, you give me
permission to afflict Job's body and I'll get him to blaspheme
you. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Here's the
devil begging God for permission to do what he's doing. Yeah, he's God's devil. And the
Lord said, all right, Job's in your hands. But don't you hurt
him. Don't harm his life. And oh,
how Satan afflicted Job. But still, Job is God's servant,
worshiping him, and was not in any way injured of the devil. Oh, but preacher, you read the
book of Job. Job had all kinds of troubles. Yeah, but he wasn't
injured. He wasn't hurt. Read the end of the book. He
only profited by them. Do you remember when Satan said,
back in Genesis 14, he said, I'm sorry, Isaiah 14, he said,
I will be God. Lucifer lifted up his heart.
He said, I'm going to take over the God business. I'm going to
shove God off his throne. And this is what God said in
response. This is the purpose that is purposed
in all the earth. You mean, preacher, God controls
the devil? Either God controls the devil
or the devil controls God, which do you want? Well, God takes care of the good
things, the devil the bad things. Well, if I were you, I'd worship
the devil then, because I don't have any trouble with the good
things, it's the bad things that give me trouble. God controls everything,
the good and the bad. He who truly is God is totally
sovereign. The one true and living God is
in total control of all things at all times, always performing
His will always performing his pleasure. Therefore we sing as
David did, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now I've said all that because
I want you to understand this. Anything less than an absolute
sovereign, is nothing but an idolatrous figment of man's depraved
imagination. You may as well worship a stump
as to worship a God who's not sovereign. You may as well worship
an ant as to worship a God who's not sovereign and call yourself
Christian while you do it, but there's no Christianity in it.
He who is God is sovereign everywhere and over all things at all times. When I assert that God's sovereign,
I'm simply declaring that He's God. Man's problem is that he
wants to be God. He wants to be God of God. You
and me too. It is our nature to want to control
God. Let me tell you something. God won't be controlled by you.
God won't be manipulated by you. You are controlled by God. And
you are manipulated by God. God doesn't bend to your will. You bend to his will. The God
of this apostate religious generation is anti-Christ and not Christ. Anti-God and not God. This generation is well described
by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 45 verse 20. He says, they pray
unto a God that cannot save. They pray unto a God that cannot
save. Modern religion has set aside
the sovereignty of God to make room for the autonomy of man.
Today men everywhere deny God's sovereignty, the sovereignty
of God's will, in order to exalt man's imaginary free will. The fact is, the God of the enlightened
21st century church is a weak, helpless, frustrated, effeminate
idol which commands the respect of no one. Now let me, I want
to be crystal clear. If there's anything I want to
do is be clear. Everybody tells us everywhere
we go, God loves everybody. Smile, God loves you and has
a wonderful plan for your life. Can't you imagine Brother Noah
putting a bumper stick on the back of the ark as he's floating
across the horizon, folks are going down for their last breath,
and he says, smile, God loves you, has a wonderful plan for
your life. That'd be absurd. That'd be absurd. If God loves
everyone, If God loves everybody, and some folks go to hell anyway,
then God's love is meaningless. God's love's irrelevant. If God
loves everybody, and some folks still perish, God's love doesn't
make any difference. Wouldn't matter whether God loved
them or didn't. But the book teaches otherwise. This is what
the book says. Jacob have I loved. But he saw,
have I hated? Oh, boy, that's deep. That's
not very deep. If you read it in the newspaper,
you wouldn't have a problem with it, would you? If you were to read, if you were
to read a letter from this pastor sitting right here, you read
a letter from Brother Joseph Heflin, and you knew it was his
handwriting, and he said, Don Fortner, I love. Shelby Fortner,
I hate. Who would have trouble understanding
that? But anybody having trouble understanding that? Why, no!
That means he hates her. That's what God said. Jacob have
I loved, but he so have I hated. Oh God, make me Jacob. Let me be numbered among those
whose names are Jacob, not among those whose names are Esau. Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And what a difference it made.
Jacob was blessed of God. Esau is forever damned. If God loves all men alike, and
some men perish anyway, then God's love is meaningless. We're
told that the Lord Jesus died to redeem and save all men. That
sounds wonderful to folks. They think that's just grand.
Well, if Christ died for all men alike, if he shed his blood
to redeem all men, and some are not redeemed, if Christ died
to redeem Judas as well as Peter, and Judas is not redeemed, he's
not, is he? He's not, is he? If Christ died to redeem him,
and he's not redeemed, then the blood of Christ is meaningless. His dying for Judas didn't mean
anything. It didn't accomplish anything. The fact is, this book
never represents Jesus Christ as one who died for all men.
Nowhere in the book. There's not a hint of it anywhere.
In fact, in every place in this book, where the death of Christ
is spoken of in every single place where it is spoken of in
type, in prophecy, or in explanation. It is always spoken of as the
sacrifice of Christ as a substitute for a specific people called
the Israel of God, His elect. Well, Brother Don, I never heard
it like that. Well, this time you did. If Christ died for all
men, and any man is not saved by his blood, then his blood
makes no difference whatsoever. But that's not what the book
says. Our Lord Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. And there were some Pharisees
standing around there, self-righteous religious folks. Pentecostal,
Baptist and Presbyterians, Catholics and Buddhists and others. They
were all religious, good religious people. So good you couldn't
stand to be around them. And they said, we don't like
that. We don't like that. Do you know
how the Lord responded? You remember how I responded
to him? I wasn't talking to you. You're not in my sheep. You're
not the ones I was talking to. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. You're not in my sheep. As I said to you, my
sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me.
I give them eternal life because the good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. If God the Holy Ghost is trying to save all men,
If he tries to get all men to believe on Christ, if he's trying
to get all men to be born again by the operations of his grace,
and some people successfully resist him and will not be born
again by him. Whoever heard of a dead man resisting
something. Folks have the idea that somehow men can overpower
the spirit of God. God came. His will was just too
strong for him. God couldn't save him. If God
the Holy Ghost seeks the salvation of all men, and any man yet dies
in his sins, then the work, the power, and the person of God
the Holy Ghost are totally irrelevant and meaningless. Now this is
what I'm telling you. Your mama's God and your daddy's
God Your neighbor's God and your son's God, your neighbor's God
and your daughter's God, the gods of this place and that place,
that place and the other place, their God is no God at all. He's utterly meaningless, utterly
useless, totally irrelevant, totally irrelevant. He doesn't
mean a thing. Why do you reckon it is that
in churches these days, The worship services are anything but worship
services. Why do you reckon now, rather
than have a church building, you got a family center? Why do you
reckon it is that we have contemporary worship services? You know what
the word preceding contemporary is in your dictionary? It's contemptible. Why do you reckon? Because people
hold God in contempt. And the God of this age is worthy
of nothing but contempt. Do you remember how Elijah spoke
concerning the Baal worshippers and their God? Read the 18th
chapter of 1 Kings. You won't read a comedy strip.
Elijah, he said, maybe your God's asleep. Scream a little louder.
Maybe he's gone on vacation. Scream a little louder. Maybe
he's back there in the outhouse. Holler real loud. And he wants
to do it. He's poking fun at their God.
Because their God is utterly contemptible. And I'm telling
you, a God who wants to do what he fails to do, who purposes
to do what he doesn't accomplish, who tries to do what he doesn't
perform, is utterly contemptible, meaningless, and useless. All
he is, really, is a good luck charm. That's all he is. Just a good luck charm. And when
I was a boy, we used to have rabbit foot. Did you all have
rabbit foot when you was a boy? You know what you do? You had rabbit
foot? Man, if you got a little scared, you'd rub that thing.
That wore off evil spirits. Just rub that thing. Make wishes
on four-leaf clovers. That's the god of this age. It's
just a good luck charm. That's all. Nothing else. That's
the way folks use him. It's good luck, John. Just something
to ward off evil. When you get in real trouble,
then you gotta turn to the Lord, not the God of this book. Listen to what this book says.
All things are of God. All things. 2 Corinthians 5,
verse 18. All things are of God. Listen
to this. For of Him and through Him And
to Him are all things, to Him be glory forever. Romans 11,
36. Of Him, through Him, and to Him. Everything originates with God. Everything. Well, Brother Donald,
explain that. When I can explain God, I will.
Everything originates of Him. That's the word, isn't it, Tom?
Of Him. and through him. That's a means
by which things are brought to pass. Of him, and through him,
and to him. The final end of everything is
God. So that there's a time coming
called the restitution of all things, when the Lord Jesus Christ,
our God made mediator, shall completely restore God's creation
to God. And everything that has been,
Adam's fall, Satan's fall, Satan's rebellion, the fall of the angels,
all the trouble, all the heartache, all the sorrow, all the sin,
all the corruption, all the crime, all the darkness, all the war,
all the pestilence, everything that has been in the history
of humanity shall prove to have been for the glory. Everybody in heaven earth and
hell is gonna say amen as we ought to be God Almighty is sovereign
in all creation Proverbs 16 verse 4 listen to this the Lord Jehovah
Hath made all things for himself Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil and Now, you can read that one of
two ways. Either way is good. Both ways are true. The Lord
hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the
day of judgment. God made the wicked for himself
to give praise to him at last in their judgment, and they shall.
Or you can read it, the Lord hath made all things for himself,
yea, even the wicked, for the day of evil. We live in an evil
day. Evil day. I said to the folks
at Crow, Friday night or Saturday morning, either Crow at home
or I don't remember. But come November, we get to
vote between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Isn't that
a wonderful choice? Not Barack Obama, my soul. Oh,
no. We get to vote between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Almost
as bad. Isn't that evil? Horrible. Horrible. I've been
going to polls and voting since I was 18 years old, and I've
always gone with a clothespin on my nose. I'd love to go one
time and vote for a dog catcher I was happy to vote for. But
we got two godless, reprobate, wicked people running for president. Where'd they come from? The Lord
hath made all things for himself. even the wicked for the day of
evil. He raised up Pharaoh to bring Israel into captivity and
to drive them out of Egypt, to persecute them and chase them
to death, to dump Pharaoh in the river. But he raised up Pharaoh. God made all things for himself,
everything, everything. Years ago, it's been a long time
ago, our dear friend brother Todd Nibert, pastor of Todd's
Road Church in Lexington. He's my daughter's pastor, her
family's pastor. He got very sick. We all thought
he was going to die, doctors did too. And I was called and
said Todd wanted to see me, myself and Brother Mahan. We went over
to see him. It was on a Monday. Brother May and I both had preaching
engagement together that night down in Cherokee, North Carolina,
but we started spending as much time as we could with Todd. This
is what his wife said. She was brokenhearted. She looked
at Shelby and said, what are we going to do? And she said
to me, how can I be disturbed by this?
God did it. Oh God, teach me to be disturbed
by nothing. If it doesn't disturb God, it
oughtn't disturb me. This is God's work. God Almighty
is sovereign in providence. This is what it says. Surely
the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath
wilt thou restrain. We find it in Psalm 76, 10. So
that whatever men do, whatever men do, whether you're talking
about a man like Shimei cussing David out, or whether you're
talking about a man like David taking his friend's wife and
murdering him, or whether you're talking about a woman like Tamar
dressing herself like a harlot and having incest with her father-in-law,
Or was he talking about a man like Lot going down to Sodom? A righteous man like Lot, lying
with his daughters, raising up pagan people after him? Whatever
it is that men do, all the wickedness of men shall ultimately praise
God. I believe in God, do you? I worship
a God who's in control of things, do you? And those things that
are in you that God won't use for His glory, all the wickedness,
Bruce, that's in you, that God won't overrule for His glory,
and all the wickedness that's in the whole human race that
God won't use for the benefit of His people and the glory of
His name, He restrains. so that men do nothing but by
God's decree and God's will. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. We know that. We've been taught
of God. We've read the book. We know
that all things work together. Our problem is that we have terrible
tunnel vision. We just can't see but one thing
at a time. We get focused on just one thing, and we get all
bent out of shape. I mean, we get all bent out of
shape, because all we can do is just see things just one little
bit at a time. Does it say that this thing works
and that thing works and that thing works and it's all going
to turn out alright? That's good luck charm stuff. No, no, no.
All things work together. All things, like a great piece
of machinery, work together for good to them that love God, to
those that love God. Who are they? We love Him because
He first loved us. Those who love God are those
who are loved of God. to them who are thee called.
And they work together for good according to God's purpose. Everything works together for
good. Years ago I read article, someone
talking about God's providence, and they're using the illustration
that there was a woman from Great Britain who was in India, and
she was interested in buying one of those exquisite Indian
rugs that everybody bragged about and all the rich folks had. And
she found a place in one of the markets where they sold the things. And she stood there and looked,
and looked, and looked. And she had the most peculiar
look on her face. And finally, somebody came over
and spoke to her, who spoke English, and asked her if he could help
her. And she said, well, I've heard so much about these rugs,
but they sure don't look very pretty to me. He said, ma'am,
took her by the arm, walked over. He said, you're looking at the
wrong side. And she took a look and backed
up, and backed up. Oh, she was just breathless.
Now, what she had been looking at was just so many knots and
cords. And while we're here, Walter,
all we can see is knots and cords. That's all we can see. Oh, but
when we get on the other side and look back over the hours
of time, and see what God has done. Oh, God moves in a mysterious
way. His wonders to perform. He plants
his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm, always
performing his will. Our God is absolutely sovereign
in creation and in providence. And our God is sovereign in the
salvation of his people. Listen to the book. No, don't
listen. Turn and look at it. Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter
9. If I were a betting man, if I
were a betting man, and don't go out here and tell folks Fortnum
and Mason gambled, but if I were a betting man, if I were a betting
man, you from up in Michigan, go in
your hotel, And go ask around and find out how many people
in the churches in your neighborhood have heard somebody read Romans
chapter 9 from the pulpit. I ain't talking about preach
from it. I'm talking about read it. Just read it. I bet you $100
to a dime you won't find one. Read it last year. Just read
it. Why not? Because it says everything
folks despise. Look at Romans chapter 9, verse
16. Everybody wants to brag on man's will. His good works. Listen
to what God says about your will and your works. So then, it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. Salvation
is not by your decision and salvation is not by your works, they got
nothing to do with it, but of God that showeth mercy. For the
scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my
name might be declared there on all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hearteneth. Turn back to Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter 1. Salvation is God's work. Salvation
is of the Lord. Look at Ephesians 1 verse 3.
Paul is describing for us God's saving grace. He's calling for
us to give praise to God. Now listen to how he speaks.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Watch
this now. Who hath blessed us? Oh, the
Lord sure has blessed me. And by that you mean I've got
a good job, and my house is paid for, and I've got a good retirement,
and all the grandkids come see me every Father's Day? Lord sure
has blessed me! Oh, that might be just what sends
you to hell. That might be just God's curse on you. What's he
talking about? He's blessed us. Not he's going
to bless us. Not he might bless us. He hath,
at one time, before the world began, before ever anything was
made, blessed us. All who are blessed of God are
blessed of God with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. There's nothing God withholds
from His own. He has blessed us all who are
his with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Well, how did he do that by election? according as He hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him Now if you want to read a
lot of gobbledygook Go get you some commentaries and read what
that means. He's chosen us that we should be holy and without
blame before him. Don't misunderstand election.
Oh, election, election is God chose us so that we'd learn how
to live a holy life. Well, that'd be pretty good. Give it
a shot. Give it a shot. your holiness. Your holiness is filthy rags.
I'm talking about what we're doing right now. It's shot full
of sin. You gonna offer what we're doing
right now to God? Oh no, he's chosen us that we
should be holy and without blame before him. Here is a man Justified
and sanctified by God Almighty in Jesus Christ Justified and
sanctified holy and righteous before Him And it tells us in
Romans chapter 6 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead
indeed under sin, but alive under God Justified and sanctified
holy before God holy before God, me, you, if you're in Christ,
as holy as Jesus Christ himself. Let me show you something. I've
got one in here somewhere, our bulletin for yesterday. You folks
who are too young to remember before computers came out, you
can't appreciate this. Used to be, I'd write a bulletin articles.
I write one every week, a couple of them every week, really. And
my dear wife would type them up. I wrote them out longhand,
and she'd type them up. And the margins over here would
just be all jagged, just like you write it out. Never come
out even, never. And she'd take a straight edge. and mark it
down through here, and she'd count the spaces. And she'd go
back and type them a second time on a stencil and hope she didn't
get to the bottom and mess up and start all over again. And
she'd space them out. It was called justifying the
right-hand margin. Now you've got computers, you hit Control-J,
it's done. Let me show you what that means.
Here's the right-hand margin. A justified margin, this margin,
is exactly the same as that margin. Exactly the same spaces. It's
called justified right-hand margin. Now listen to me. Here is God's
holy law, God's justice, God's truth, God's holiness, God's
sword, God's perfection. And here I am in Jesus Christ. with his spotless garments on,
holy as the Holy One. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of his Son I am as near as he. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be, for in the person of his Son I am as dear as he. Watch this now. Folks say, well,
that's hard doctrine. Hard? No, it's love and doctrine. Look at the next line. In love.
In love, having predestinated us. Oh, now, Brother Don, that's
deep stuff. That's deep stuff. Well, let's
see how deep it is. If you have planned to go fishing
tomorrow, And you've got your boat all loaded up with your
gear. And you've arranged to be off work. And you've got your
wife busy going shopping. And you've got your son. He's
ready to go fishing with you. And you have made your appointment
to fish tomorrow morning. You say, well, I've predetermined
that. Well, that's all right. That's
fine. But you don't have any control
over anything. You may drop dead. Or your boat may sink while you
got tied up. Or your wife may die. Or you may trip, break your
leg getting in the boat. You don't have any control over
anything. So your predetermination is meaningless. But you do know
what the word means, don't you? Predestinate. Oh, boy, that's
deep. No, it means predestinate. That
means to determine the destiny beforehand. There it is. Is that in the Bible? Well, you
got one open, don't you? In love having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children, God having chosen us in Christ, having
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, predestinated
us to enjoy the blessed privilege of sonship by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Now watch
this next slide. to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted, accepted in the
beloved. I'm going to quit in a minute,
but I want you to get this. When are you most accepted of
God? I mean really accepted of God.
Let's forget you. David, you remember David? David,
that man after God's own heart? Do you reckon that he was more
accepted of God when he was bringing the ark of God up out of the
house of Obed-Edom, leaping and dancing before the ark because
God chose him? And he was going to establish
a place for God to be worshipped. Or was he more accepted when
he was in the arms of Bathsheba? When was he most accepted? When
was he really accepted of God? Oh, Brother Don, anybody knows.
It was when he was dancing before the ark. Oh, no. Oh, no. You see, your acceptance with
God doesn't depend on where you are, or what you're doing, or
how you feel, be it good or bad. Our acceptance with God is in
the beloved. Christ is our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption. If you've got some other kind,
you don't have Him. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. Even in preaching what I do doesn't
make me any more God's favorite than if I Did what David did? You got it right. What you do
doesn't make you any less God's favorite if you're in Christ.
Even while you sit here and do what David did. Amen brother Don, that's right.
Our righteousness speaks for us. Our righteousness personally. But our real righteousness, our
true righteousness, our righteousness before God is Jesus Christ himself. We're accepted in the beloved.
Now watch this next line. In who? We have redemption through
his blood. In whom we have complete deliverance
from sin and all its consequences through his blood. Deliverance
by blood and by power. Even the forgiveness of sins.
The forgiveness of sins. So thoroughly forgiven through
the precious blood of Christ. that God never brings it up again. So thoroughly forgiven through
the precious blood of Christ that God never treats us any
the less graciously for having sinned. No wonder David sang
and taught us to sing, oh the blessedness of the man. to whom
the Lord will not impute sin. You see, God made his son to
be sin for me. And when he made his son to be
sin for me, because he was made sin, my sin was justly imputed
to him. And when he was made sin for
me, The Lord God Almighty cried, awake, O sword, against the man
who is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd.
And justice justly slaughtered God's darling son. He died because
he fully deserved to die when he was made sin for us. God always
deals with everybody in strict justice. Why did he do that? That we, every sinner for whom Christ
died, every sinner loved and chosen of God from eternity,
predestined unto everlasting life before the world began,
every sinner whose name written in the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, that we should be
made the very righteousness of God in him. made the very righteousness
of God in him, so that now, since Christ died for me, since Christ
died for me, justice, justice, justice, did you hear me? Justice demands my everlasting
salvation. That's called justice. I'll get
the glory because I fully deserve it. And if you get to glory, it'll
be because you fully deserve it, not by what you do. Oh, no,
no, no, no. By the doing and dying of God's
darling son in whom we fully obeyed God's law and perfectly
satisfied his justice so that now he who is our God is a just
God and a savior. He gives us life. by free grace,
according to His will, in complete compliance with perfect justice,
for the praise of the glory of His grace. Now, if you would
have such life, if you would have such salvation, if you would
have such a God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe it. Your faith in Christ will not
put away your sin. Your faith in Christ will not
justify you. Your faith in Christ will not
make you righteous. Your faith in Christ will not
make you holy. Your faith in Christ will not
make you one of God's elect. Your faith in Christ will not
cause you to be born again. Your faith in Christ is the evidence
of it all. If you can believe, If you can,
can you believe Him? Can you trust the Son of God?
If you can, it's because God, before the world was, said, I'll
be your God. And you shall be my child. Because
God chose you. Christ redeemed you. And God
has worked all things together for your good. And God, the Holy
Spirit, came to you and gave you life. And now you believe
in faith. Faith. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. How do you
know you aren't written in a book of life? I believe God. Sometimes I feel like it. But
I'm going to be as honest with you as I possibly can, Paul.
Not much. Not often. Most of the time, my heart's
so dead and lifeless and corrupt and unbelieving. I'm not talking
about sometimes. God forgive me. Most of the time,
most of the time. But feelings come and feelings
go and feelings are deceiving. I trust the written word of God. Nothing else is worth believing. And this is what God says. He
that believeth on the Son of God. What is that? Hath everlasting
life. I don't know much. But I know this. I believe on
the Son of God. And God says I have everlasting
life. Believe it. and go home walking with God
in sweet acceptance and blessed assurance with everlasting life
in Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.