Greetings, friends, and welcome
to another broadcast of the Old School Primitive Baptist with
Elder Don Martin, Sr. Stay tuned for another Gospel
message of God's free and sovereign grace. I was blessed when I got
a note from, I guess I got a call from Brother Jim, and he left
it on my recorder, and then I got an email, and I emailed him back
about the 30th anniversary of this assembly and it has been
meeting and continued to be blessed to meet over 30 years. It is
unbelievable. In 1980 we began to have a first
meeting. and to think about the path that
God has brought us each over the years to get to the place
where we met that first time and then even brought us to the
point we're at right now. Isn't it wonderful to believe
that God has appointed our steps and that our paths have been
determined of Him and that It is God that has brought us thus
far, and it is God that is going to continue to keep us along
the way until we reach the final destination that we have been
determined to experience, and that is going to be immortality
with an incorruptible body, likened unto His immortal glory. I'm going to
invite you this morning, if God permits, to a portion of scripture
in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah in chapter 46 is a very special portion of scripture
because of the almighty character of God and
his sovereign attributes. Let me begin reading at verse
9 of chapter 46 of Isaiah. Isaiah 46 and verse 9. If you have a Bible, I encourage
you to follow it. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it." Now Isaiah in his prophetical
writings, as he's inspired of the spirit of God, has penned these words, that we are
to remember the former things of old, and that is what the
surmise of the Old Testament and Old Covenant is about, is
that we look back and that we remember these things. They are
written for our examples, the Bible says. The Old Covenant,
the Old Testament, was for a divine purpose. It was that which expressed
the law of God to the children of Israel, the statutes, the
testimonies, the commandments and the testimonies of God to
the children of Israel. that it would be a record for
our learning and understanding in this New Testament time, New
Covenant time of dispensation, that we would be able to reflect
back and remember these things and see all the more the omniscient,
omnipotent, almighty God of glory, who is unlimited and who is almighty
without any excuse. And the Bible says to remember
the former things of old, for I am God. And it says that there is none
else, there is no other God besides the God of the Holy Scriptures,
God, Jehovah, Elohim, Yahweh, the God Almighty of the Holy
Writ, and there is none other God than Him. Allah is not the
God that created the heavens and earth by and through the
means of His Son, Jesus Christ. Allah is nothing but a figment
of the imagination of the Islamic world and is that which has come
along as Mohammed had inscribed in the Koran as the
latter-day prophet or the successor of Jesus Christ. That is a lie. There is none that succeeds Jesus
Christ. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever, and He changes not, and no man takes His place, no
man succeeds Him in His deity, in His almighty person of God
manifested to us in the flesh. He is the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. He's the very image of the invisible
God, the Bible says. And Jesus Christ is God, and
by Him were all things created that were created, for without
Him was nothing created. And so they can say what they
want to say, but the Muslim world has come up with a new prophet,
a new savior, a new means and method, a new religion, and that
it is a false gospel. It is a lie. It is untrue. And yet it is the fastest growing
religion in the world. And it is so because God in His
determinative purpose is causing it to be. Because I believe that
the world and the nations of the world, and especially the
United States, the gospel to the point where
God has lifted his hand of grace upon this land, but yet even
though he has done that as far as a nation, there is a remnant
according to the election of God that shall continue holding
on and maintaining to the truth of the God Almighty of the Bible,
and that He is Almighty, and that He is unlimited in all of
His ways and His works among the children of men. Now the
Bible says that God, there's none like Him, and that He has
declared the end from the beginning. Now God has declared it. And
when God declares something, He speaks it to being, and that
is the end of it. He has declared the end, the
end from the beginning. Now let me share something with
you that may provoke you to thought. If our God, The God Jehovah,
who manifested himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who came born of a virgin, and was prophesied by this very same
prophet Isaiah, some 730 years before the Virgin Mary, conceived
by the Holy Ghost, the Virgin, a one chosen of God, to begot
the body of Jesus Christ, 730 years Isaiah said that it was
going to occur. Now listen to me. If God prophesied
that through his prophet Isaiah and anything could circumvent
that from occurring in its designated time, then God is not almighty
and sovereign over all things. But because God had determined
it by the prophet 730 years prior to, Mary did conceive that which was of the Holy Ghost
within her womb. She did begot him in that lowly
manger scene, and he did raise up to be among the chief elders
at twelve years old, instructing them in the things of God, which
they could not even get over, the fact that he had such wisdom.
And yet he grew in stature and in age, and then at the age of
approximately thirty, he went about preaching the gospel of
the kingdom of God. And he began to preach the gospel,
that good news message that God has come now and he's manifested
in the person of Jesus Christ to seek and to save sinners.
That is his mission. To preach the gospel of the kingdom
and to seek and save sinners. Now again, I reiterate, if the
prophets of old could prophesy and some of it not come to pass
because of the events that were brought about by the human creature,
then God is not fully, absolutely sovereign in all of his control
of all things in this time realm and this world in which we live.
But I guarantee you, and according to the authority of the Word
of God, nothing can circumvent, intervene, or to come about as
an event, or by the means or minds of men, that would change
what God has declared to come to about, to that which is declared
to be the end from the beginning. He's declared the end from the
beginning and everything in between. That's what's so marvelous about
the sovereignty of God is that He's not only declared the end
from the beginning but everything in between. He declared you when
you were to be born of your mother. He declared the steps that you
walk and He has ordered the path by which you are traveling even
today. And we are here in this small
little humble group, here in the D.A.D. building, here as
a remnant of people who have endorsed these truths from the
onset in 1980 when we began to meet together rejoicing in the
truths of God's absolute sovereign and free grace. And yet it's
still going on because God has kept the work going. He's kept
the fire burning. He's kept the truths in our heart,
engraved them there that we cannot get away from them. Now let me
ask you, those of you that have been taught the sovereignty of
God, can you quit believing it today? Is there any way you can
stop from believing that God is sovereign? Oh, it's impossible. Because God has engraved it upon
the heart of man. And so therefore, just as he's
declared the end from the beginning, so has he done that to us. And
we shall endure to the end and believe in those truths. You
say, well, we don't act like it sometimes. No, we don't. We're
imperfect people. We're walking in a flesh that's
sinful. It's prone to wander. It's prone to leave the Lord
that I love. But God ain't prone to leave
us. And He's promised never to leave us or forsake us. And He'll
never do that. He is quick to forgive us. He's
quick to chasten us. He's quickening us to bring us
back into the place where we ought to be and walk in the goodness
of His grace. For we have been ordained to
walk in good works. And when we don't, brother, you
ain't gonna get by with it. You'll get by. For whom the Lord
loveth, he what? He chastens them. Amen. He chastens
them. And to all that he loves, he
will chasten. You know the Bible says in the
12th chapter of Hebrews, he says that all, all, that's the totality,
of the elect of God shall be partakers of God's chastening. That means that none is going
to escape this chastening. That means that none are going
to live so righteous that they're not going to be chastened during
their time walk in this time world. We're all failures in
being perfect before God. But yet God has promised that
He will take and chasten us and He will take and correct us in
whatever means and method that takes to do. Declaring the end
from the beginning and the ancient times of things that are not
yet done. Things that are not yet done,
God has already declared them, and they just haven't come to
pass yet. We have got, if time permits, and God's tarrys is
coming, there is some, I believe, some more perilous times to be
seen and experienced in this time world, and especially in
America. Because America, as a people,
have taken and turned away from the principles of values and
the aspects of God of whom it was founded upon. And God will
not let this go by and will not wink at it without the nation
being chastened by God. And we're seeing it today. Look
at it economically. Look at it regarding the terrorist
threat. Look at what's going on in our
airports. People are going to x-ray machines
and stuff because the terrorists have got us so frightened that
they are concerned about someone going on a plane even with a
diaper on with explosives to where you can't even fly without
having your own personal body examined through an x-ray
machine. I mean, and it's all because
of Islam. It's all because of the Muslim
terror. It's all because of fear. And
here we are. We're in a nation that is becoming
captive to fear. And so in God's divine purpose,
it's being brought to pass. And what he has in store for
us is yet to be seen. Look at the government. You know,
it's a blessing to me. People say, well, look at the
government. They go on and on and on about
the political aspect. But you know, as a believer in
the sovereignty of God, I am convinced and I'm persuaded that
that God Almighty has set in place every magistrate, every
governor, every senator, congressman, and president that we've ever
had in this nation, in this place, by His sovereign purpose, fulfilling
His will. Osama Bin Laden was taken and
moved out of the way of power by God's determined purpose,
and no matter what anybody thinks about it. Look at the mess that
we've got to deal with over there since that happened. and look
at Afghanistan, look at Obama, traveling around. He ain't been
in the White House, Oval Room, doing any kind of business in
there that I know of for two or three months. He spent more
money on jet fuel flying around, campaigning for votes during
this past election, and been over in Asia trying to persuade
them to invest money in America, and they don't want nothing to
do with us. And he has wasted his time. And it's in God's divine
purpose. Because if he's declared the
end from the beginning, then he has wasted his time. But let
me assure you one thing. He's wasted his time because
God has determined him to. And he's only going to be in
that place of leadership as long as God has determined him to
be. And when God is finished with him being there and doing
what he's supposed to do, however distorted and messed up that
he makes it, God has determined him to be. And therefore, I can
rest in that. I don't really like it. But did
the children of Israel like it when they went out into the wilderness
and was out there for just a matter of days? They said, wow, we don't
even know what we're going to eat tomorrow. At least when we
was back in Egypt we had some onions and leeks and other edible
things, but we don't even know what we're eating tomorrow. And
then the Lord, He told them that I will provide manna for you
from above. They were to go out six days
and gather up this manna, and He fed them. But yet, it was
day by day that God provided their needs, and therefore, they
were uncomfortable with that. And so it is in America. We have
become a spoiled nation, used to having what we want, when
we want it, and it's changing. When you're out of work and have
no money and can't pay your mortgage, you don't get what you want like
you did five years ago. You can't have the things you
once had. And we're murmuring about it. And it's all part,
I believe, of God's chastening upon a nation that has rebelled
against the God of Heaven and the principles by which this
Constitution was founded upon. But nevertheless, God is fulfilling
His will. And don't be in despair because
He shall always have a remnant. He shall always have a remnant.
For when there is no more remnant, it's going to be when Jesus Christ
has come back and taken them off of this planet. And he sends
forth his holy angels to gather from the four winds of the earth,
the elect of God, the bride of Jesus Christ, of which he is
gathering together even as we speak this day. He's still seeking
and saving sinners as it pleases him, until that one lost sheep
that He's determined to seek and to save, that one remnant,
that one of the elect, that one of the appointed heirs of grace,
that one that is ordained to be in the kingdom of heaven in
glory is called into the fold until that day comes when Jesus
Christ is tearing and fulfilling His will in all things as even
we see it today. He is sovereignly fulfilling
all his counsel, and it shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. God is doing all his pleasure. And the Bible says in the 11th
verse of this 46th chapter, even to the point of calling a ravenous
bird from the east. You say, well that's insignificant
for God to care enough to even call a bird from the east to
go a certain way and go a certain place and to call a man that
executed my council from a far country. What he means by that
is, I will call a man to go forth and to prophesy and to execute
my counsel. In other words, express my wisdom
among who I send them to. And it says right here, he says, I will send him from a far country.
Yea, I have spoken it and I will also bring it to pass. I have
purposed it, I will also do it. What God has purposed he shall
also do. He's purposed to have a church.
He's having a church. That is the reason that Jesus
Christ had come to this time world. is to gather together
and call out of the depraved, sinful lot of mankind, of people
for his namesake, that they would be his church. That be his bride. And that bride is being prepared
and is going to be without spot nor wrinkle. And he's going to
come back for this spotless and without wrinkle church. He's
going to call them unto himself and they're going to be forever
with him in eternal glory to sing the praises of grace forever
and eternity. Yes, God declared the end from
the beginning from the ancient times of things that are not
yet done. Oh, what else has not yet been
done that God has purposed to do? That's a mystery. and the
secret things belong to God. We ain't supposed to know them.
And if we did know them, we may not have liked them, but let
me tell you something. If God told you when you were
going to die and the day that it was going to be, would you
want to know that? I believe he would haunt you.
And as the days begin to wind down, it gets closer to that
time. Man, I mean, you'd be a mess. But you see, we don't know the
time. God could call me home away from this time world before
I even get back up to Lake Panasoff. He could call any of us here
away. We could be killed today in the
appointed determined will of God in an automobile wreck before
we even get to our places of abode. And that will be the end. Our path has come to the end
and God has determined his will in our life. Now, if God could send out his prophets
as he done, in the old covenant to prophesy the things that have
not yet come to pass a thousand years beforehand as he did to
Abraham. He says, from thy seed shall
there be risen up a people. And from that seed, and we had
the seed of Abraham by the faith that God had given Abraham to
believe God. We had that same faith. And to
talk about faith a minute, faith is a gift of God, not of worthless
any man should boast. Grace and faith both are. You
can't separate grace and faith to the elect child of God. Jesus
Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. The Bible says
that the life and now we now live in the flesh. Paul says
we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave
himself for us. Do you realize that that word
of in there, you've heard me preach on this before I know,
but that word of has been retranslated in modern versions of the scriptures
and says in. by the faith in Jesus. There's
a difference between faith of Jesus and faith in Jesus. The
faith of Jesus makes him the originator of it. It makes him
the initiator of it. It makes him the one who alone
can grant it. And unless Christ grants faith,
no one shall be able to believe that he is who he says he is.
And Christ is the author and finisher of that faith. And it
is by the faith of Christ that we believe that He is the only
Seeker and Savior of sinners. And for without faith, it's impossible
to please God. That's what the Bible says. And
it also says in Hebrews that if the gospel being preached
is not mixed with faith, it shall not profit the hearer. And that means that the hearing
ear and seeing eye, as is prophesied in the Scriptures and the Proverbs,
they both are of the Lord. You cannot see the things of
the kingdom of God with a spiritual eye in the heart and mind of
your individual person apart from the grace of God. You cannot
hear the gospel and understand and perceive its truth apart
from God opening your deaf ears, which are deaf by depravity's deadness. We're dead. We're born
dead spiritually. We are dead before God Almighty
and we must be quickened and made alive by the Holy Spirit.
And then and then only are we able to hear and then only are
we able to see the Kingdom of God and that which makes up the
Kingdom of God. You say, well what is that? It's
people. It's people. We make up the Kingdom
of God. The Kingdom of God, Jesus said,
is within you. And each of us that possess the
Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ and by the operation of
the quickening of Christ's Spirit and by the new birth, we are
the Church of Christ. We are the people of God. We
are those who walk in this time world to a different drumbeat
than we did before we were regenerated by the power of God. We walk
to a different way. We're in a new way, a new and
living way, the Bible says. No, all that God had prophesied
in times past has come about, and those things which are yet
to come, they shall be brought about, for He alone has declared
the end from the beginning. And I'm so blessed to know that.
I'm so blessed to know that. The Bible says in regarding the
hearing ear, it says in the 8th chapter of John, it says that
they that be of God, heareth God's words. And they that be not of God,
heareth not the words of God. Now that's just as simple as
that. You say, why don't somebody Manifest
the hope in Christ. Why don't they want to go to
church? Why don't they love the gospel? Why don't they read the
Bible? You know why? Because they can't hear it. They
can't understand it. They can't perceive it. They're
deaf. And do you know that if someone's
here today and God has not given you a hearing ear to hear the
truth of the gospel, of the good news that Jesus Christ is the
only Savior of sinners, I might as well be standing up here talking
to you in Koniko's native language of Japanese. And of course if
I was able to do that, and God had blessed me to do that by
His Spirit, we have an interpreter here right here with us. Amen? She could stand and do what the
scripture says to do, let not a man speak with another tongue
unless there be an interpreter. We got an interpreter. But, and
to those whose ears are closed to the things of the kingdom
of God and the things of the spirit realm, they cannot hear
the truth of the matter to the understanding in the spirit and
soul of man. They only see and they can only
understand a religious aspect of it, but not to the changing
of the heart and the mind. You see, there's many religious
folks. You know, it's sad to see the demise of our country
and its morality. I saw on TV this past week where
40% Forty percent of the population
of the United States do not believe that marriage has any significance. Now, brother, that's a lot of
people. We've got 350 million people in this country, and you
take 40 percent of that, do not believe marriage is significant,
that just living together is okay. The Bible says marriage
is honorable. and is pleasing before God. Simple as that. but that dot
dot to the young generations of the day and i think it's not
going to be young generations it's it's folks that are already
brothers and sisters that are out there trying to live on their
social security checks in the best way to do it and live together
share social security and so they just give away what they've
been talking what they believe for the last forty years at the
church in the quick going and just start living with each other
and and uh... so nobody knows their business.
It is a major dilemma of immorality in this country. Furthermore,
30% of the American population believe that same-sex couples
should adopt and have children in this country. Now, wouldn't
it be nice, and I'm saying this sarcastically, that it would
be a sad thing when we Get to the point to where somebody asks,
who's your father? Who's your daddy? And you say,
I don't have a daddy, I got two mommies. Brother, it's there. I don't have a mama. I've got
two daddies. And we're living in that society.
And we wonder why our nation is at the position it's in and
regarding the economical problems and the terrorist activity and
the influence of the wickedness of Muslim power that is threatening
our land and our freedoms and so forth. It's amazing to me,
God has had his long-suffering patience even this long upon
this country. And the only reason I believe
that he has is because of the elect of God that are here. that
he still got his hand of mercy upon and because of those people
has he spared us from not more severity of punishment terrorism
in perilous times of which I think are around the corner. In the gospel of of John. I think I'll go to chapter 8. In the gospel of John, chapter
8, The deity of Jesus Christ was
challenged by a bunch of Pharisees and a bunch of the chief priests
of Judaism. And we find that they said that... let's see, let's start at verse...
let's start at... 37 verse 37 of chapter 8 of John's
Gospel. I know that ye are Abraham's
seed, but ye seek to kill me. Now, Jesus is saying to these
Judaizers, these Jews, He's saying, I know you're of Abraham's seed
by natural birth, by bloodline. But He says, but ye seek to kill
me, because my word hath no place in you. Now we're getting back
to this part about not having hearing ears and seeing eyes.
My word has no place in you. We wonder why people don't listen
to what we say when we talk to them about Christ, about the
gospel, our loved ones, our children. people we work with, co-workers,
and even the religionists of our society. Many people that
go to First Baptist Church or Okeechobee Independent Baptist
Church and so forth, they claim to believe the Bible. You talk
to them about the Word of God and they look at you like you're
kind of strange. Do you realize this also, that
there was a poll taken, I'm giving you some statistics because I
think it's It's a gauge by which we see
the demise of our society. There was a statistic in a poll
taken this past week again, I heard this, and it was on professing
Christians and if they could name the Ten Commandments. Well,
as ironic as that might be, you'd think if they were devout Christians
and studied the Word of God they could at least name the Ten Commandments.
Do you know that the four people that were asked that question,
they named two of them. And one of them was, thou shalt
not steal, and the other one was, thou shalt not commit adultery. And the rest of them, I can't
remember the rest of them. They said, can you tell me, another
group of people was asked, can you tell me what the first and
last books of the Bible are called? And one young lady, who was a
professing Christian now, she says, isn't it genocide? The
guy said, no, it's Genesis. She said, well, I don't know
what the last book is. Now this is a sad situation.
These are professing Christians. And we wonder why we've got problems
with people that will believe anything that comes along because
they don't know what the book says. They haven't read the book. They haven't studied the scriptures.
They haven't been taught the truth of the matter. Because
they don't have ears to really hear it, for the most part, is
the biggest problem. They have been those that have
been those tears that have been brought in by this easy-believe-ism
gospel that's been preached for the past 30 years amongst the
neo-evangelicals of our land trying to get souls saved by
the means and methods of men. All you've got to do is just
come and believe and make a decision for Christ. Make a decision for
Christ. And if you make a decision for
Christ, you shall have life and life everlasting. But, here's
the thing about it. Has Jesus decided for you? You
can make all the decisions you want, but Jesus Christ must have
decided for you. For He, the Bible says, Jesus
said, for all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
I shall know wise, lose none. Welcome brother, sit down here
a minute, listen to this priest here. And the Bible says that
Jesus said that I'm not going to lose any that the Father gives
to me because my sheep, they're going to know my voice and they're
going to follow me because they hear me. They hear the voice
of the good Lord. But the Bible says also that
those who are not the sheep of God are not going to follow him
because they'll follow another. They're going to follow a hireling. They're going to follow just
some religious guy over here that's preaching another gospel
other than the sound gospel of the Holy Writ. Amen? And the
Bible says that Jesus said, Well, I know that you're from the seed
of Abraham, but you're not able to see the truth of the matter,
because you want to kill me, and my word has no place in you.
I speak that which I have seen of my father, and ye do that
which ye have seen of your father. He's speaking about their father
being that of the devil. And they answered and said unto
them, Abraham is our father. Oh, wow! I'm from Abraham. I
got his blood in my veins. I'm a Hebrew. And the Bible says
Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would
do the works of Abraham. What were the works of Abraham?
He believed God, and it was catered unto him for righteousness. Amen. Because he was given faith. And that faith was a gift of
God. By grace he was given. Abraham found grace in the eyes
of God. Just like Noah did. And just
like the other prophets of God did. And the Bible says, But
now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you of the truth,
and which have heard of God. And this did not Abraham. And the Bible says, For ye do
the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be
not born of fornication. We have one Father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, that if God were your Father, ye would
love me. Now, if God is your Father, you're
going to love Jesus. Because there's only one way
to the Father, and that's through the Son. And you can't know the
Father without knowing the Son. That's why a Muslim cannot know
the Father without knowing Jesus. They don't know him by Mohammed. Jesus! That's the name! And I
want every name! And that's the name of Jesus!
God highly exalted Him by giving Him that name, didn't He? Amen! That's the name. And the Bible
says, why do you not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot
hear my word, you've got to have open ears by the Holy Spirit
that quickens and causes one's ears to be opened to hear the
truth. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your
father will ye do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it. Every lie has ever been told.
You know where it comes from, don't you? When God allows you to say a
lie or an untruth, you know where it comes from. Now let me tell
you this much. Satan has no free reign upon
the children of God. Satan is bound now. He's bound. Jesus Christ bound him. He rose
from the dead and defeated hell and sent for our sake. He bound
the prince. And he has no reign over it. And Satan cannot do one thing
that God does not sovereignly allow him to do. Because he is
the one that rules and reigns in heaven's glory and among the
heavens in this time of war. Amen is right. And the Bible
goes on to say, and because I tell you the truth, you believe me
not, which of you convinces me of sin? Oh, he that knew no sin,
he became sin for us, the Bible says. Yes, in 1 Corinthians 5,
verse 22, he, God, hath made him, Jesus, who knew no sin,
to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Oh, the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was tempted in every way, yet without sin, became sin for
us that we might be made the redeemed heirs of divine grace. Amen. Oh, on the cross of Calvary. Oh, He. that is of God, heareth
God's word, as I said earlier. He that is of God, heareth God's
words, and the rest out there don't care less about it. They
ain't got ears to hear, brother. They ain't got hearing aids that's
tuned to God's frequency. They can't hear it. They're listening
to another message, ain't they? Yeah, they're dead in sin. Amen, they're dead. They were born dead. It sends
depravity through Adam's lips. Oh, but Jesus come to set us
free. And the Bible says, Then answered
the Jews and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan,
and thou hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a
devil, but I honor my Father, and ye do dishonor me. And I
seek not mine own glory, for there is one that seeketh and
judges. Verily I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall
never see death. And they said to Jews and to
him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Oh, they said that Jesus
had the devil. Let me tell you something, that's
an unforgivable sin. They were never given here as
far as I'm concerned, because they called Jesus that which
had a devil. The Bible says Abraham is dead,
and the prophets are dead. And thou sayest, if a man keep
my saying, that he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater
than the father Abraham, which is dead, and the prophets who
are dead? Whom makest thou thyself? I'll
tell you whom makest thou thyself. God Almighty has taken upon Himself
the clothing of a flesh and body, and it's called Jesus. He was
born of a virgin Mary, in that lowly little manger sitting there.
And he came and he grew in statute and preached the gospel. That
whosoever believeth on me shall never perish, but have everlasting
life. And listen to me now. In the
book of Acts, Lydia, a seller of purple, a woman who was in
a place near Laodicea over there in Asia when the disciples went
there to preach. The Bible says that God had opened
her heart that she would attend to the things spoken by the disciples.
Unless God opens your heart, that you might attend to the
truth of the gospel, you'll never receive it. But when He does
open your heart, you'll have a contract a work of repentance fall upon
you. And you will say, oh God have
mercy upon this sinner. God forgive me. Because that
is the operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart of man.
That reveals to them their sinfulness, their unworthiness. It reveals
to them that they have no hope and no help apart from Jesus
Christ who comes to seek and save sinners alone. Oh, and the
Bible says, Jesus said that it is the work of God that you believe
Him that I have sinned. It's the work of God. It's not
a work unless any man can boast about it. What man can stand
and boast and say to God, I'm so glad that I decided to follow
Jesus. Oh no. We can't say that. But amen. Unmerited favor. Oh by the sovereign love of God
that he can come and seek out his own sheep and save them. This brother here, now he's got
a little handle on the truth here. Anybody that talks about
grace is a brother of mine. Because grace is where it's at.
The unmerited favor of God. Now, let me conclude by saying
this, that the Bible says that in the Roman letter, we are saved
by grace through faith, and that's not of yourself, it is a gift
of God, not of works, let's imagine both. Grace and faith both are
not of ourselves. You say, well what part do we
play in this thing? I'll tell you what part you play.
You are a recipient of the gift and grace of God. It ain't because... Now God, let me say this in closing.
God has not came and given opportunity for all of mankind to be saved. Now you're going to say, no way
to Him, brother. That sounds a little too tough now. That
sounds a little too stringent. Let me ask you this now. Upon
the cross of Calvary and the shedding of His Holy Blood on
that cross, for whose sins did He pay for on that cross? Now wait, did He pay for the
sins of the whole world? Now He loved the world and He
gave His Son, but did He pay for the sins of the whole world?
to the whole world? Oh, I don't know. If he did, then the whole
world is saved already, because they're redeemed automatically.
But I'm telling you, there is a particular redemption in that
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's particular in its application.
It's so particular, it's only applied to the elect of God.
He chose the elect. He called them out of a life
of sin and degradation and gave them a hope in Christ. And to
them through that blood is applied to you. And there is a particular
redemption in that blood. And if it were not so, then there
is a universal atonement, which some preach, even today. Some old brother up in the mountains,
they preach this universal atonement, that all is going to go to heaven,
and that the blessings you encounter in this life, it depends on your
obedience. Well, if that's the case, I ain't
going to get no blessing, because my obedience ain't good enough.
I need the obedience of Christ. And His obedience is what is
sufficient for us. Because the Bible says that it
is God that works in you both to what? Will and to what? Do of His good pleasure. Oh,
if He don't work in you to will and do, you ain't gonna do it.
There's a Holy Ghost in you to cause you to will and to do it. He that hath done a good work
in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. I need
a performer. I've got one. His name is Jesus
Christ. He's performing it for me and
for you to believe here today. I praise His name that we have
a performer. that is satisfying God Almighty
in the heavenlies, and that He is seated beside God the Father
making intercession for us even as we speak today. Oh, He is
our High Priest. He's saying, oh, them's my beloved
children, Father. Oh, they're mine. Oh, I mean,
you say, well, yeah, but Satan, he can do this, and Satan can't
do no more, as I said earlier, than what God in His sovereign
purpose calls us to come about. Oh, how about Job, huh? Could Satan do anything with
Job? No. He could only do what God said
he could do. You go down there and you afflict
his body, but don't you touch his soul. Oh, Satan's in. He knew that was bad territory.
Don't touch his soul. And so it is with the work of
Satan in this time world. He is limited and he's tied down
and he cannot touch the bride of Jesus Christ. that is being
put together without spot or wrinkle awaiting that coming
time when Jesus comes and descends from the heavens with a shout
and the voice of an archangel and the trump of God and He calls
that elect church out of this world. We're going to see Him
as He is and be transformed like unto Him, immortal and incorruptible
for the power and by the power and the glory of God Almighty.