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. If you've got a Bible
and would like to follow with me, I would invite you to the
Book of Romans. The Book of Romans, as you know, is titled as such because it
is a letter written by Paul to those believers in Christ Jesus
that be at Rome. Romans is a very unique book
because it sets forth much of the doctrine to those at Rome of the all sufficiency of Christ's atoning
work that was accomplished upon the cross of Calvary and the
teaching of God's people being made righteous through the redemption
that is found in and through Him and Him alone. And the first couple chapters of
the Book of Romans, Paul expressed to the church about the depravity
of man. For instance, in chapter 1, he says that there is none righteous, and there is none that seeketh
after God, for they have all gone astray. chapter 3 it makes it very clear
when he says that I'll begin reading the verse 10 in verse
10 of chapter 3 as it is written and he's referring
to the Old Testament writer I would say that also not only David's
writing in the psalm but also Isaiah's writing regarding the
depravity of man He says, as it is written, there is none
righteous. No, not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. Now Paul is saying that man by nature, he's setting the
premise here and the foundation to the believers of Rome. He
says that number one, man is depraved. He's been cursed with
the property. Sin has been passed upon all
men through the disobedience of one, Adam. And therefore all have sinned,
and there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that understand,
and none that seek after God. Now people, you've heard people
say, well you need to seek God. Now how does a person seek God?
The Bible says, Paul said, there's none that seeketh after God.
Man by nature will not seek after God. Number one, man by nature
is convinced that he's okay. Now, I lived 27 years as a non-believing,
unregenerate Christian. Living my life the way I wanted
to live it and was going along life's pathway thinking all was
alright. I didn't need nothing else. I
didn't need religion especially. Though I was brought up in a
little church up in Indiana when I was a young boy up until about
6 or 7 years old and that was about the end of my religious
experience. We moved to Florida. My mother
and father went through a divorce and I lived with my mother. My
mother worked all the time. My brother and I, we just kind
of meandered around and about on our own and got into nothing
but mischief and trouble. Religion was something that was
for old folks, I guess. or folks that needed a crutch.
But I didn't need no crutch, you see. I was a self-sufficient
guy like man by nature thinks they are. So the Bible says,
Paul says, there's none that seek after God. There's none
that understand. They've all gone out of the way.
They've all together become unprofitable, and there's none that doeth good,
no long one. Then he goes on and he expresses
the different aspects of man's makeup and how it's under the
curse of sin. He goes on and says in verse
13, number 1, is as an open sepulcher. In other
words, their vocal cords is what he's referring to, not just their
throat and by swallowing. But he says their throat or their
voice is as an open sepulcher. And a sepulcher is a tomb or
a grave. It's just a desolate, empty, musty, vile place. And that's what it is. You take
man by nature who has not experienced the love of Christ and the salvation
of God, his throat is as an open sepulcher. Cursing is just a
natural thing. It comes out of his mouth. I
curse like I can't express. The Lord's name in vain was commonplace
in my vocabulary when I was a young man and up and some, the Lord
got a hold of me at 27 years old. I would curse the Lord's name
in vain and using very, very wicked foul language was my normal
way of speech, except I did have a respect around women of using
certain words. I think because my mama. But
other than that, I'd say anything to anybody at any time. And the Bible goes on to say,
Paul said that not only is their throat like an open grave, but
that their tongues, they've used deceit. And poison of an asp
or a snake is under their lips, whose mouth is full of bitterness
and cursing. That was me. And that's man by
nature. Man by nature is born that way.
You know, it's just like a little child. Has anybody here ever
taught your child to say no? You know, that's one of the first
things that they learn to say, and where do they learn that
from? No. No. No. Where do they get that attitude
from? I'll tell you where they get
it from. They get it from Adam, or their mom and daddy. Yeah,
mom and daddy, that's true, because the bloodline of all mankind
is cursed with that same blood that is in the state of depravity. You don't teach a child to do
wrong, he's going to do it automatically. You've got to teach him to do
right. The Bible says to teach a child in the way they should
go, because they're going to go another way automatically,
by nature. Now we don't have to go into
detail about that. We've all been there. And we
see it. We've got grandchildren, great-grandchildren,
that unless God has worked on their heart, they're going the
wrong direction. The Bible goes on to say that
the apostle Paul says that their feet are swift to shed blood,
and man's feet are swift. That means that his goings, when
it says that a man's feet are swift to shed blood, it means
that his way of goings, his directions, and his path is leading him in
a way that he would like to shed blood and do whatever it takes
to gain what he wants for himself. Man by nature is the most selfish
creature God has put breath in. And will do anything to try to
achieve their own self-satisfaction. The Bible says in verse 16, destruction
and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace have they
not known. You don't have no peace and don't know peace until
you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is the Prince of
Peace, the Bible says. Unless you know the Prince of
Peace, you cannot know the peace of God, which the Bible says
passes all understanding. When you can have the peace of
God come upon you in the time of sorrow, grief, and great despair,
that peace is past understanding, the Apostle Paul writes in another
epistle. What I mean by that is that you
can't convey really what that is. is in mere words. It's just a piece that comes
over you in the time of despair. You just lost loved ones, lost
spouse, lost children. Lost my daughter in 2003 in Tampa. Killed on a motorcycle at 1.30
in the morning. You all knew about that. 24 years old. Lived a righteous life. Armories
a snake and was the youngest child of my three and she was
protected by her mama and she just was just a rebel. She was rebellious to the nth
degree. And the Bible says that thou
unto thee do not know any peace, the natural man by nature, but
there's no fear of God before their eyes. Now that right there
is one of the key attributes of an unredeemed sinner. There's
no fear of God. They don't fear God, they'll
use his name and vein in a heartbeat and don't have no respect for
anybody else that does fear God. Oh some may, if they've been
brought up in some religious atmosphere, they will have some
respect for folks who go to church or at least if I see them carrying
a Bible or somebody's talking about the Lord, some folks more
than others will be a little more I guess, tolerant towards
it. But on the most part, there's
no fear of God before their eyes. Paul goes on to say, now we know
that whatsoever things the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and that
the world may become guilty before God. The world! The world of
mankind, Paul says, becomes guilty before God because of the law. Now, if God permits, I'm going
to give you a little lesson about the law. Now, you hear people
say, I think I mentioned to this last meeting, Tom, I said that
I talked to some folks and a guy told me, he said, well, I know
I don't go to church like I ought to, and he says, but you know,
I believe in the Lord, and he says, and I try to keep the Ten
Commandments, and I made mention, I said, do you know what the
Ten Commandments are? And he said, well, I was taught
them when I was young when I used to go to Sunday school. I said,
you know what they are now? And he stopped and thought a
minute. He said, well, no, I couldn't
name them. I said, well, if you're trying to live a life pleasing
to God and keep the commandments and you don't know what they
are, Hello? You see how man, he gets himself
in a corner he can't get out. You need to know Christ and there's
a hope and a blessedness and a relationship with you and God
through Jesus Christ or you don't know Christ and you cannot give
enough excuses as to why God should have mercy on you. You
can't come up with enough excuses. But the Bible says that by the
law, it takes and shuts every man's mouth, that the world becomes
guilty before God. Now let me tell you about the
law. The law of God is perfect. The law of God, and I'm talking
about the Ten Commandments especially. Those are the Ten Moral Commandments.
There's over 350 some commandments given to the children of Israel
in the Old Testament. Okay, under the old covenant,
to Israel. But there were the ten moral
commandments that Moses came down from Mount Sinai with that
God had personally given him that was etched in stone. And
those commandments are the commandments as we know as the Ten Commandments. As holy as that word is that
was given of God to Moses, no man or woman ever born of natural
woman has ever kept it. So, here's the lesson. The commandments
were given to reveal unto mankind their inability to appease God
and to please Him according to His righteous and holy standards. The Ten Commandments is the standard
and the placard of God that he has put up and said, there it
is, you keep them and you shall be justified in my sight. And no man can keep the Ten Commandments
in his entire life. None can keep. You say, well,
Well, what do you mean? I haven't been that bad. That's
what people always come up with. I've not been that bad. You know
what they compare themselves with? With a murderer, a child
molester, or somebody that beats their wife consistently. They put this picture up there
of the most thoughtless and wicked of people, and they say, well,
I'm not that like that. No, you're not like that as far
as maybe the totality of how bad you could be, but you're
still not good enough. You see what I'm saying? No,
you're not as bad as you could be. All of us here being in the past, before we
was even a believer in Christ, I could have been two-fold, four-fold
worse than I was. If I was caught for some of the
things that I had done as a young boy, teenager, I would still
be in prison today. Because I was a thief. I was
a liar. I was out for what I could get
because I had no direction to turn me any other way other than
my own self-wants. The law is not a rule and guide
or guide we are demanded in this New Testament, New Covenant to
live by, because we have been proven by the Scriptures that
the law was given to reveal to us that we couldn't live by it.
For the Bible says this, it's what Paul wrote in the book of
Galatians, he says this, For the law was given unto man as
a schoolmaster. Now, schoolmaster was an English
word that was used in place of the word teacher we use today,
or educator. The law and the commandments
is a teacher to teach us of our depraved state and our sinfulness
until faith came, Paul said. But when faith came, the law
slew us. In other words, when the faith
of Christ comes into one's heart and mind and soul, the law is
revealed to us as something that we have been negligent in being
able to keep and therefore it has slain us. It causes us to
be prostrate before God and asking for mercy and help and hope in
the time of need. That's what the law does. When
you preach the law, it don't make people better. It tells
people how bad you are. Now let me tell you something
now. Now I've come to church today to tell you that, to tell
you something now that's really wonderful and good. I've come
to tell you that that law that has slew you, that has killed
you because of your inability to keep it, and that God has
crowned you a guilty sinner and cannot look upon you because
of that sin, I've come to tell you some good news this morning.
The Bible says that Jesus Christ, given of the Father, to come
and to seek and to save sinners. which is all mankind. He said,
I've come to seek and save sinners, and all that the Father give
to me shall come to me, and I shall no wise lose none. And that all
that the Father give to me, did you hear what I said? All that
the Father give to me shall come to me. When? In God's time. For me, I was
27 years old. I lived 27 years as a rebel,
as a Christ-rejecting, ungodly wretch. And you know something? I had to live that long to really
see how great and wonderful when it came my way. And Jesus
said, come unto me, my little child, for I've come to seek
and to save you. Has that been your experience?
Or will you say, well, I've never really done that bad. You ain't
done that good. If you're without Christ, you
ain't done good at all. But if you believe and trust
in Christ, you have all that God's got. His best. He sent His best. He didn't send
a mere, just a mere mortal to go on to the cross. He came,
listen to me, He came, clothed in human flesh, conceived in
the womb of that chosen Bethel Mary, begotten from her loins
in her womb into this time world, God with us. His name shall be
called Immanuel, and that word Immanuel interpreted in the Hebrew
is, the meaning of it is defined as God with us. Jesus Christ came, born of the
Virgin Mary, and God became one with us and amongst us, and God
is with us. and was there and preached and
taught the kingdom of God and that he and he alone was the
only way that a man, a woman, boy or girl could ever be reconciled
with God Almighty. He said, for I, Jesus said, I, John 14, verse
6, I am the way. There ain't two ways. Mohammed
ain't away. Buddha ain't been away. A brother,
I can't remember who it was, I heard him preach last week. He said, you can go and find
places where all of these gods of other religions have a memorial
or two. or some kind of a place where
they can determine where they were buried at and where their
remains still remain. You can go to Mecca and find
where Mohammed had died the death of the mortal man and his remains
were there in tomb. You can go to Indonesia or India
or somewhere and you can find where there's a place, a shrine
to Buddha where he died the death of a man. But I'll tell you what,
you can't go nowhere and find where there is a tomb that has
any of the remains or any of the of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know why? Because he defeated death and
hell. Because he was raised on the
third day. The rest of them all died at
the death of the mortal men that people honored as God and worshiped
as God. But oh no, not Jesus He didn't
die the death of mortal man. He died the death of a sacrificial
lamb. He went voluntarily to the cross
of Calvary and he gave himself. He said to Pilate, who said to
the people around the mountain, I have no part with this guy. I don't have nothing to judge
him for. I find no fault in him. And what is your will? And the
people cried out, crucify him. And he left it up to the people. And they took him out. They whipped him and they took
him and they disrobed him and put on that scarlet robe and
said, huh, you're such a king, look at you with that scarlet
robe on and that crown of thorns on your head and that blood running
down the face. and upon the body of this mortal
person. And you say that you're a deity? You say you're God? You say you
were before Abraham was according to the scripture? Oh, save yourself
if you'd be such a god and a king. Well, let me tell you something.
I'm glad that he didn't save himself from the crucifixion
that he had to endure. Because you know what? If he
would have, we would have no hope today. We would not have
a Savior, Brother Scott, today if he had not given himself voluntarily. He said to Pilate, he said, Pilate,
you have no power to take my life. I have power not only to
give my life, but also power to take it up again. He had no
clue what he was even talking about. But what he was saying
was, I'm going to come up again on that third day. I'm coming
up out of that grave. I'm coming up out of that tomb.
And they're not going to find any remnants of mine there. There's
going to be no bones and no flesh there. I'm going to be... resurrected
by the power of God Almighty because deity was manifested
there in the person of Christ and you can't kill God. and he
was God. Oh yes, you can wound a mortal
man of which he was part of, he was the God man, but it was
only wounded for a season. It was wounded for three days
and he was upon that cross. and his blood fell from his body
down upon the earth and he paid the ultimate price through that
blood as the sacrificial lamb of God. You see the Jews in times
past had to take the bodies of a unblemished lamb and they would
take that lamb and cut its throat and bleed it and lay it upon
an altar of wood And they would take that blood and they would
pour it over the body. of that unblemished lamb and
then they would light the kindling and the wood upon that altar
and burn it as a sacrifice unto God. That's what God told the
Jews to do in the Old Testament. That was part of the ministry
of the Levitical tribe. They took care of the tabernacle
and of the sacrifices for the sins of the people. They took
care of all the ministerial duties of the children of Israel. But
let me tell you something, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming
towards him in the second chapter of John's Gospel, he says, Behold! Behold! The Lamb of God! The Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. There He is! He's coming here! It was Jesus. And Jesus approached
him in the hymn. And He said, I must go with you,
John. Because John was baptized there
in the River Jordan. He says, I must go with you and
you must perform that work that is the fulfillment of all righteousness.
Now what did he mean by that? Jesus Christ was to be baptized
by his cousin, John the Baptist Luke, Jesus' cousin. And he took him out into the
water and he baptized him and he had to be baptized of that which was going to occur
in the time when he would be raised from the dead. You see,
he went down in that water. This is the picture and symbol
of baptism. They go down into that water. That's why we and
any Christian church that believes the Bible, believes that immersion
is the only way baptism can be accomplished. that that body
goes down and under that water and is completely immersed. That means that water completely
encompasses over that body as if it is dead in the ground as
one out here that's buried 16 feet deep. And then it's raised
up out of that water, that water comes flowing off of that body
as the resurrection is manifested in that person that is the believer
in Christ Jesus. It's demonstrating to the church
that I've come up out of that water and now I'm alive. And that is the symbol of baptism.
That's what baptism stands for. That's why it's Believer's Baptism.
If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you have no place to
be baptized. You can know every tadpole and
frog from here to Zofo Springs and be baptized in every creek
and river and any place you can find water. and wouldn't do you
a bit of good. You'd go down a dry center and
come up a wet one. Baptism don't change your heart.
You're baptized because your heart's been changed. Right? You get baptized because your
heart's been changed. You want to follow the Lord. That was
one of the first things that I wanted to do when Christ was revealed to me
as my Savior and that He broke my heart and caused me to see
Him as my only help and hope of ever having forgiveness of
sins. And I wanted to do all that the
Bible says that I was supposed to do in obedience to following
Him. And the first thing that I was
taught by a little independent Baptist church in St. Petersburg. It was near my home. I went there
the first week after my experience of knowing Christ. I went to
that little church on a Sunday afternoon. It was about 3 o'clock
and I got out of my car and I just walked down through the little
corridor of that church. This little church probably only
held probably a couple hundred. A little bit bigger meeting house
than this, but they didn't have that many people attend. But
I walked down through there and all of a sudden a guy came out
of the side door and there was a little office in there and
it was the pastor. He says, yes sir, can I help you? And I said,
well, I said, maybe. I said, you know, I've just had
an experience in coming to believe in Jesus Christ here in the last
week or so. And I'm looking for a place to
come and where I might come and go to church and be amongst other
people that believe in what I've been taught. And he said, well,
buddy, you done found one. He said, we got an evening service
tonight at 630. And I says, I'll be there. I
remember going in there that night at 6.30. I walked in that
meeting house in there and there were people gathering around
about, you know, it was probably about 60 or 70 that was in attendance
that night. And I walked in there, and you
know how a median house has been closed up for a while. You know
how even this one, if you walked in there and it's been closed
up for three or four weeks, it's kind of musty snow. I just, I
can remember walking in there at that sanctuary and smelling
that, that smell. Because I hadn't been in a church
since I was 11 years old. That was only because somebody
took me to them. I don't know, some kind of meeting
or something. But I walked in there and the smell was different. The people came up to me and
they grabbed my hand and introduced themselves. And then they started
the service, they started singing. And I started singing out of
a hymn book about, oh how I love Jesus, and you know, you're washed
in the blood. And I began to sing those songs
and oh my goodness, the Lord began to overwhelm me with, man,
you know, I found myself a home here. You know, this is wonderful. Well, to make a long story short,
you know, the unregenerate heart don't want to seek after those
things. I never before in my life had
a desire to go to be there at that church meeting at 6.30 in
Sunday evening and then go back again the following Sunday morning.
And then every time the door opened, I mean, I wanted to be
there. And I went out and I bought me a Bible. And I couldn't get
enough of it. I wanted to read. I read it every
day. And I'd go home at night and I'd read it at night. I wanted
to learn more and more and all I could. Because, you know, God
had done a work in my heart to give me a hunger and a thirst
after righteousness. That's one of the key evidences
of one that is born of God by His Spirit, is that they have
a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. They want to do what is right
before God to please Him because of what He's done for them. Oh
dear beloved, it says in regarding the law, it is given that all
would become guilty before God. Listen to this now. People that
say, well I try to keep the commandments of God, I try to keep the laws
of God, I try to obey God by doing this and doing that. Listen
to this, Paul goes on to say, he says, therefore by the deeds
of the law, shall no flesh be justified. He says it again in
the book of Galatians when he talks to the Galatian church.
He says by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified.
That means by the best you can do in trying to keep the law
and the commandments of God, you can never be justified before
God. For without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin, the Bible says. And it was the blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God, that is the only blood that can remove sin
in its entirety. Now the blood of the lambs of
the Old Testament procedures for the children of Israel to
be done annually. They would come and bring their
sacrificial lambs to the Levitical priests to have their throats
cut, to have them bled, and to be offered in their behalf. But
it was, the Bible says, it was an atonement that could not remove
their sin, it covered their sin. Now listen, there's a difference,
brother and sister, between having your sins covered and having
them removed. that the Old Testament and Old
Covenant only could teach that your sins can be covered if you
obey and do what God says in bringing a sacrifice. But let
me tell you something. Here's the good news of the New
Testament and New Covenant. Jesus said, I am the sacrifice
and there is none beside me and there's none coming after me.
And so therefore the blood of Jesus Christ does not only cover
our sins, but it removes our sins from us. It takes our transgressions
and removes them in all their totality. And to those of you
that have come to Christ and trusted in His precious blood
for the redemption that is found in that precious blood, and on
that broken body that was on the Calvary's tree, nailed there
for you and for me, that to we that have believed that, we do
not have any sins to our account any longer. Our ledger is clean. Our tablet is without anything
against us because Jesus paid it all in full. And the Father, when He gave
up the ghost, the Father had turned His back upon His only
begotten Son only for that season. Because you know why? He became
the sin bearer of all of his people's sins. And when Jesus said, O God, my
Father, why hast thou forsaken me? He was forsaken in spirit
because God saw upon him the sins of all of the elect, chosen
heirs of grace down through the ages of But oh, let me tell you, when
he came up out of that grave, he had made his journey to the
mercy seat of God in heaven. And he placed upon that mercy
seat his own precious blood. Oh, not the blood of an animal
lamb. It was the blood of the human lamb of God, the God-man
Jesus Christ that was placed on the mercy seat in heaven's
throne. And that appeased the Father
forever. Let me tell you this right now.
Those of you that believe on Jesus Christ, trust solely upon
His vicarious, sacrificial work on the cross of Calvary, there
is no sin against you today. There's no sin against you tomorrow. There will be no sin judgment
against you forever. For we have been redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb once and for all. And He's not going to
do it every year. He's done it once for all those
who believe upon Him. He bore our sin, past, present
and future. Now here's what's the wonderful
thing about it. You say, well what if I come
and I believe in Lord Jesus Christ and He causes me to trust in
Him and look upon Him and I go out and I do something that I
know is wrong and so forth. What about that sin? And what
about it? You ain't going to get by with it. If you're God's
child, you can't get by with just going out and doing what
you want to do and knowing this and rebelling against God. Because
the Bible says this, listen. In Hebrews chapter 12, the Bible
says this, For whom the Lord loveth, he chastens. You know what chastening is?
Let me give you a little analogy. Chasing is when my daddy came
after me with his 3-inch wide belt in his right hand. Let me tell you something. When my daddy came after me with
that belt, I had a pucker syndrome, Brother Clyde, like you've never
seen before in your life. My butt cheek would tighten up,
buddy, like a piece of hard coal. and the smoke, and the tears,
and the crying. Oh, I remember one time. I'll
just say this in closing down here. It's getting later. I'll
say this. I remember my dad. I remember
one time he got on me for something. I was about six. And my dad, I said something. And I said to my mother, I said,
you know something? When I get over another hour,
I don't want to kill him. My dad was in the bathroom around
the corner, and he was shaving. I killed him. Hey, he heard me. I killed him. When I saw my dad come around
the hallway corner with shaving cream on his face and his belt
in his hand, I knew that death was around the corner. He whipped me, and I did a jig
that you can't beat in any kind of music hall. I danced and squirmed,
and my butt was red for two or three days. I couldn't already
sit down. He says, you're going to what?
He says, son, I'll knock that meanness right out of you. And
I'll tell you what, he took a big bunch of it out of me. Yeah,
let me ask you this, brother. You didn't like it then, but
you seem to love it now. I do. You know why? You know
why? Because our God does the same
thing to us. If you know Christ and He's called
you and chose you to be His child, let me tell you, you can't get
by with just doing anything. Oh you can, you're going to do
it. We'll be rebels at times and
do things we know ain't right. But you can't get by with it. And he'll say, mm-hmm, mm-hmm,
you want to do this? You see, that sin is not held
to our account because Jesus paid for it on the cross. You
see, let me say this, there are many churches, and I'm talking
about Baptist churches, assemblies of gods and Nazarenes,
I can name the name, that call themselves Christian churches,
that will teach you, yes, you can come today, and you can make
a decision for Christ. Hello, I don't know where that,
you know, that started back in about 1880. Calling people to
make a decision for Jesus. Now here's the truth of the Scriptures. You want to hear the truth of
the Scriptures? Has Jesus decided for you? Has He chose you? It's not a matter of whether
you're choosing Jesus, or making a choice for Jesus, or deciding
for Jesus, has He decided for you? Has He chosen you? That's the question that you
preach at in many churches, and you won't be back the next week,
because people want to hear about the day. Their wills are bound. We have
a will that's bound by sin and cannot be loosed until God by
grace breaks the chain. And when He breaks the chain,
He makes us willing in the day of His power, the Bible says.
We shall be willing to believe on Christ in the day of His power
when He gives us that power to come unto Him because He calls
us. He calls us. I wrote on the forum,
on a predestinarian forum of which I fellowship around the
world, even England. We got people from England that
are strict in particular baptism over there who are really the
forefathers of the faith of we that are primitive Baptists in
the United States today that are still carrying on in small
assemblies over in England. And I write on the forum different
articles and I send them out. If you had a computer, I could
send them to you. You folks ain't got a computer. But I have sent them. Well, I was thinking Lyndon was
going to be the one to do it, but evidently she don't want
to be bothered with it. And in one aspect, you know,
I don't criticize people for not wanting to be involved in
it because it takes a lot of time. Folks would rather spend
their time doing other things, like farming, you know, things
like that. Anyway, and so, where was I at? A computer about sending out
an article, and the article that I sent out was about Has Christ decided for you and
chosen you and called you? If He hasn't, you have not the
capacity or ability to choose Him or decide for Him. And I'm going to close by saying
these few words. I said that a minute ago, but I keep getting
more thoughts. Jesus came up to Peter and Andrew, his brother,
they were mending their nets. Clyde, you can identify with
this as a mullet fisherman. They were mending their nets,
getting ready to drop their nets out to go fishing. And Jesus
came up to them and said, Peter, you and Andrew come follow me. Now he didn't go up and say,
Peter, I'd like to have you be one of my disciples, and I just
thought maybe, you know, I wonder if you'd consider making a decision,
maybe just quit fishing and kind of give up that and come follow
me, you know. Peter didn't say, well, what
do you got to offer me? I mean, I've got to make some
money, I've got to take care of my family. You know what the Bible says?
Jesus said unto Peter and Andrew, come follow me. You know what
the Bible says next? They dropped their nets and they
followed him. It was about two chapters later,
Matthew, I mean in Matthew's gospel, he came up to this tax
collector called Matthew. And he was there at the gate
of the city of Jerusalem. He was a tax collector. And tax
collectors were known as being not too honest people because
they'd take taxes of people where they're paid. Yeah. Either coins
or goods, and they would pocket some of it, you know. And they
got by with it. It was just a known thing. Jesus
went up to Matthew. He didn't say, Matthew, I want
to give you an opportunity to choose me. if you'd like to. You know what he did? He went
up to Matthew and he said, Matthew? He says, come, follow me. The Bible says that that man,
Matthew the puppet, had left his post at the gate that he
followed Jesus. There was no decision about it!
I wrote in this form in the article I wrote. And the title of the article
was hearing my beloved's voice. And then I went in an article
and I expressed these areas where Jesus had called people to follow
Him. And it was all of the divine
call of Christ that made them come, not of anything that they
did themselves. And that's the same way it is
today. If a person comes to follow Christ, it's because God's called
them. And they've heard the voice of the Son of God in their heart,
in their mind, and in their soul. And they're coming as a repentant
sinner, knowing that Christ is who He says He is, that only
He can forgive sins. Only He can cause us to be justified
before God. And so, that's the same way it
is throughout the entirety of the Bible. The Bible says that
there are many called, but few are chosen. Now, what that really
means is that when the gospel is preached, and that call goes
out, that Jesus Christ has come to seek and save sinners, only
the chosen of God, given to Christ by the Father, are going to have
ears to hear it and follow Him. Well, the Bible says in John's
gospel that he that hath not the ear To hear God's words shall
not hear, but to they that be of God shall hear the words of
God and follow Him. It's all a matter of having hearing
ears or not. Many folks don't have hearing
ears. They can be in a church and go there for 50 years of
their life. and be under the sound of the
fact that Jesus Christ and him alone on the cross of Calvary
is the only provision for a man to have their sins forgiven and
they can die and go to hell in a moment's notice because God
has never called them. Never been submerged? Well, anointed? Well, they have
never been spiritually emerged. They have never been called by
the Spirit of God to where they have seen themselves as a sinner
without no help or hope apart from Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
I want to close there. All I can say is that Jesus Christ, He says, He says, those that
hear my voice shall follow me. He says, for my sheep, they know
my voice. He says, they'll not follow another.
They'll only follow the voice of the Good Shepherd. Now, there's
two types of folks indicated in the scripture in the analogy.
There's sheep, which are God's elect, chosen heirs of grace. And then there's goats, those
that are the outcast and undesirable of God. There is also the analogy
of the wheat and the tares. I've talked to you about them
before in every last message. But the sheep of God shall hear
the voice of the Good Shepherd and they're going to follow Him
because they know His voice. And He shall call them and they
shall come. They don't make a choice in the
matter. God's already made the choice. And it's a wonderful thing that
He has words in the Bible like chosen, called, elect, ordained,
appointed, predestined. All those words ascribe a work
of God towards undeserving sinners. None of that has anything to
do with the human will and intellect doing anything. They're either
chosen, called, appointed, elect, ordained, and predestined to
be God's people, or they're not. And if they are, they're going
to come when he calls. And if they're not, they're not
going to come because they can't hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.
They're deaf. It's just like putting your hands
over your ears and you don't hear a thing. It goes in one
ear, not the other. and they cannot perceive the
truth of the matter. It's a spiritual miracle that
a person is born again of the Spirit of God. I want to close
my prayer. Would you pray with me? Father,
I thank you personally and I thank you Lord collectively for all
that you, Lord, have called into your precious church pride. Throughout the ages of time,
and the generations of mankind, you've had a people. And you
say that these people are of every tongue, kindred, and nation
upon the earth. And throughout time, you have,
by your grace and your spirit, manipulated and moved around
through the masses of people and populations of the world
and called out your people for your namesake. And they believe
on Christ. and they follow after Christ
and they love Christ and they're not happy apart from being in
fellowship with those of light, belief and faith. And so Father
we thank you for your precious word that's been preserved for
us. Almost 400 years we have what's
called the King James 1611 version of the Bible translated into
English from the original manuscripts of the Hebrew agreed to Aramaic
And it's been preserved for us so we can read it today and be
blessed in it. It's not been changed one iota.
And oh God, how wonderful it is to see that Jesus Christ and
Him alone can save a sinner. And so Father, I pray Your blessing
upon us. Cause Your Word to find place
in our hearts and our minds today. Bless us as we continue along
in fellowship and time of thoughts. In this we pray, in Jesus' wonderful
name. Amen.