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. It's warm in the house
today, but it seems to be kind of cooling off a little bit.
But you know, we have an AC unit that's down today, our main one. But we've got ceiling fans and
the doors are open. And I was sitting here as Buddy
was speaking and I felt a soft breeze coming in here. Can you
feel a soft breeze coming in? God is faithful, again, and continues
to be, to fulfill all that is needed for his children. Yes,
it's not as comfortable and it's not as dehumidified as if the
air conditioner was on, but yet it's tolerable, isn't it? And
God is going to see that. I believe that it's going to
be tolerable for us as we continue to meet here in the moments ahead.
And so to Him be the glory for great things He has done and
continues to do. In the Gospel of John, there's
one verse I want to quote as a stark place. And it is a
verse that's in John 17, written as John the disciple was inspired
of the Lord. And he says, Sanctify them through
thy truth, for thy word is truth. Now, John is quoting what the
Lord Jesus Christ had said in his prayer. Because the 17th
chapter of John starts off because it says, Jesus spake these words
as he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, he said, the
hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son may glorify thee,
and he proceeds on from there. and begins to pray to the Father. He prays and he goes on down
through the list. He says, I pray for them that
thou hast given me. I pray not for the world. Now,
we need to get that anchored in our minds, that Jesus Christ
did not pray for the world. It says so in John chapter 17,
verse 9, I pray for them I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." Jesus
said, I pray not for the world in general, I pray not for mankind,
I pray not for the entirety of the human creation, but I pray
for them that thou hast given me, for they are thine. Now who's
he talking about? He's talking about those who
God the Father had given Christ to seek and to save when he came
into this time world, born of a virgin, clothed with the flesh
of mortality, and then went to the cross of Calvary and paid
the ultimate price and sacrifice for the sins of God's people.
Now let me make one thing clear. Jesus Christ did not die upon
the cross for the sins of the entire world. Just as Jesus said,
I pray not for the world, neither did he come, brother Buddy, and
die for the world. He came to die for a special
remnant of people, a people that's called the children of God. the remnant of God, the saints
of God, the bride of the Lord Jesus, the elect of God, the
appointed heirs of grace, those that are prepared by God, whose
hearts are open to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
who's been blessed with repentance and granted grace to believe
upon Him, who alone can bring life eternal and the forgiveness
of sins. So Jesus says, sanctify them
through thy truth, thy word is truth. The word of God, which
is preserved for us, given to us, that we can read from today,
is a sanctifying means. Now I say that, and let me clarify
it. There are those who have a problem
with the word means. Now, there are those who are
called means Baptists. You ever heard that term? They
are means Baptists. That means that they believe
that there is a means by which God uses to save sinners. And that means is the written
word. Jesus Christ. In other words,
you cannot be saved and come to the knowledge of Christ Jesus
unless you are under the preaching of the message of Christ. And therefore they are called
means Baptists because they are missionary minded the zeal to
go and preach that gospel that God would take and cause those
that heard it through this means to be saved. And that is all
part of the missionary movement to go out and to save souls. Now no man has ever saved a soul. If any soul has ever been saved,
Jesus has done it. And if any man, woman, boy, or
girl is ever to be saved, I mean delivered from sin and from the
curse of depravity, Jesus must do it, and not men. Now men are used by God to bring
forth a means of preaching. But it is not that preaching
that brings forth life eternal, nor the forgiveness of sins.
It is by the means of the preaching of the gospel that life and immortality
is brought to light. to the children of grace in this
time world. I come here and I preach here
at Fellowship Church not to try to transform people's hearts
and minds and lives. I come here to bring some food
that the Master may give me to share with you from the written
word that it might sanctify you. That means set you apart more
completely in the walk of the Christian way in this time world. And that's done through the operation
of the Word of God as it's applied to your mind and your heart and
your soul by the Spirit of God, not by man. Men are just messenger
boys. Listen to me. We're just messengers. That's all. Men can't convince
others to believe. I can't change a man's heart.
I can't cause a man who is lost in sin's degradation and under
the depravity of the condemnation of Adam's fall, I can't change
their heart and mind and soul. I can preach to them what the
antidote for that problem is, but God has to take and open
the heart of that one, and cause the truth to be endorsed, and
cause them to be born again of the Spirit of the Living God,
transformed in heart and mind, and made new creatures in Jesus
Christ. That's the gospel. That's the
good news I've brought to you today, that Jesus Christ has
come to seek and save sinners. And no man can intervene, no
man assists, and no man helps God to do that. It is a supernatural
work of the Spirit of God Almighty. men or messengers to bring that
good news to the children of God as to what God has already
done. If you're able here to sit here
in this meeting house this morning and hear what I've just told
you with a spiritual hearing ear that Jesus Christ is your
only help and hope of ever having a life immortal, It's because
God has opened your eyes and your ears and mind to hear it. The preacher can't open deaf
ears and open blind eyes. By which the Bible says that
those who are outside Christ Jesus are spiritually blind,
they're spiritually deaf, they're spiritually dead, and they need
to be quickened and made alive. And the gospel is not that quickening
power. The Spirit of God is, and only
the Spirit of God. The gospel is that means that
which brings that truth to light. It brings life and immortality
to light, to our understanding, to our revelation, that we can
rejoice in it. And if anybody ever needs to
have something to rejoice in, it ought to be those who preach
the gospel of an almighty, unlimited God, who is sovereign in all
His ways. What do I mean by sovereign?
He is unlimited in all His ways. For he seeks him to save those
of which the Father hath given him, even before the foundation
of the world, it says in Ephesians chapter 1. And so therefore Jesus
said, I pray not for the world, but I pray for them which thou
hast given me, Father, that they may be one, even as we are one.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.
Those that thou gavest me, I have kept and have lost none of them,
but that the Son of perdition, that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled, which was Judas Iscariot. He was predestined to be the
arch deceiver and the one to betray the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, wait a minute, you mean to tell me that God had before
determined that Judas was going to betray the Lord Jesus Christ,
cause him to be judged and then guilty of something he didn't
do and be put upon that cross? Yes, I am telling you that exactly. Because the Bible says in Acts
chapter 1, it says that by the determinative counsel and foreknowledge
of God and by the wicked hands of men, Jesus Christ was taken
and put upon the cross of Calvary. And the Jews and the Roman soldiers
that nailed him to that cross was fulfilling the Almighty's
will. Because if Jesus did not come and did not die on that
cross, my friends, we are yet in our sins and we have no hope!
And we are yet on our way to a burning hell of damnation,
of fire and brimstone, of which all men deserve. Is there any
man, any woman that deserves not to be judged eternally and
condemned by God Almighty? when lined up with the scriptures
and the law of God that he set forth that we should live thereby.
When you take the law of God which God had given the children
of Israel, and you examine oneself by that law, what it does, it
does, it points its ugly finger right at you and says, cursed
are you. You are guilty. You look at just
the Ten Commandments. the moral commandments that have
been determined as the Ten Commandments. And you read through them one
by one and see if you have ever committed any of them. If you've
committed any of them, the Bible says in the book of James that
if a man has neglected to keep, has failed to keep one part of
the law, he is guilty of all of it. And there's like 356 or
even more. Some of the Jewish theologians
have come up with as many as 400 and some laws and commandments,
statutes and testimonies in the Old Testament that the Jews were
given to live by. Everything from dietary rules
and commandments. They couldn't eat certain meats.
They could not eat swine. They could not eat certain animals. And those that chewed the cud
and had a clump of hoof, they could not eat it though. Seafood,
for instance, if it does not have fins and scales, you're
not to eat those. In other words, they couldn't
eat catfish. They ain't got scales on all
over. They got fins, shrimp, and other seafoods. God told
Israel, don't eat those things, they're unclean. But yet, praise be to God, God
give that to Israel and also for the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ to reflect back on which we cannot achieve by our
own efforts because of sin. Paul writes in the letter to
the church at Galatia, the Galatian epistle, and he says, the law
is not of faith. We are those who live by faith
and faith in the person of Jesus Christ. The law is not of faith. The law is of duty. The law is
of obligations. The law is nothing but works.
And a man, the Bible says, no man is justified by the deeds
of the law. No woman, no boy, no girl has
ever kept the deeds of the law perfectly to the point to where
it appeases the Father. Therefore, that's why the Bible
says, Paul says in Romans chapter 3, that all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. They've all gone astray. There's none righteous, no, not
one. For we've all sinned. And then
the Bible says in Romans 6.23 that the wages of sin is death. But, oh hallelujah, when God
puts in His word, that word but, it means stop, take note, we're
having a change of thought here. He says, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh no, the wages
of sin is death. Yes, we're dying. but the gift
of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord. And as
many as believe on his name shall be saved. For he that call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. And the Bible says in
the book of Acts as it was to Lydia, a woman of purple, the
woman who took textile material. and took crimson and purple materials
and made beautiful tapestries and draperies and stuff from
them. The Bible says Lydia, a woman of purple, whose heart the Lord
opened that she would attend to the things that the apostles
were going to preach unto her when they came into her region.
just as he does to every one of his elect children in time. He prepares their heart and opens
it that they would attend to the gospel. And when you attend
to the gospel, it is like a sweet-sounding trumpet in the ears of your mind
and heart. When you hear that, yes, Jesus
comes to seek and save sinners, and God has blessed you with
the ability to believe that truth, it's a sweet sound of music in
your ears that Jesus Christ, by His loving mercy and kindness,
has had grace upon you enough to cause you to believe that.
You see, you were caused to believe that. This is the difference
between many Baptists. Between the means Baptists, the
conditionless Baptists, the missionary Baptists, and we that are absolute
predestinarian Baptists. We believe that God causes things
to occur by His sovereign, unconditional, absolute purpose that He brings
them to pass for the glory and praise of His name, and His name
only. The Bible says that as many as
the Father gives me shall come to me and I shall in no wise
lose none, Jesus said. He said that no man comes to
me except the Father which sent me for all them. Oh, unless you
be drawn this day by God's sovereign cord of love and mercy and to
Him and seen Him as your Savior, Lord and Master, you shall in
no wise have any hope. It is my humble prayer that you have been blessed with
that blessed hope that Jesus Christ is Savior of your soul. For the message of the gospel
will only be meaningful to you if that be your case. Otherwise,
I might as well be standing up here talking in Greek. And you
know something? Sadly to say that in most churches,
throughout this land called the United States of America, from
the so-called pulpits of their meeting houses, there is a message
that's preached from the pulpit about that God has provided salvation. But now, it's up to you. That is totally a refuting of the historical
gospel message of the scriptures. God has never said anywhere in
the Bible that I have merely provided something for you and
I am giving you opportunity now. It's totally up to you. Now I
ask you this question. If man by nature is spiritually
depraved, meaning he is isolated from God and cannot have fellowship
with God because of sin, sin has infiltrated our natures to
the point to where we are aliens from God. And we are dead in
trespasses and sins, the Bible says. The Bible says, as I said
earlier, we're blind, we're deaf, and we are dead spiritually,
just as if you laid in a coffin in a funeral home. You are not
able to be awakened by anything that is to be spoken or preached
in the scriptures because you're dead. The only way that you'll
ever endorse and be able to hear anything of truth regarding the
gospel is that if you be raised from the dead spiritually by
the regeneration work of Christ through his spirit and being
made awakened and able to hear that gospel trumpet sound forth
from the walls of Zion's meeting houses and from the messengers
that God has sent forth. I don't stand before you today
and say God has made it available to you and it's up to you. I'm
here to tell you this morning God has come and He's not only
made it available, but He has come to seek and save sinners.
Now, if Jesus Christ don't seek and save them, they're not going
to get saved. Is He a failure in His mission?
Absolutely not. Everyone that He went to the
cross, and that He was suffering for upon that cross, and that
He shed His red, rich, royal blood for, have their sins forgiven,
and have them blessed with that hope of eternal, immortal glory
in Heaven. Every one. Not one. Not one more shall be added to
that number. Because as the Bible says, all
that the Father hath given me shall come to me. And they are
those which were given me before the foundation of the world.
Before the foundation of the world. I'm persuaded that before
the foundation of the world even had its form. Before the world
was even set in its orbit round to be moving around and about
in this universe as we know it today. That God had determined
a people to be To be his church, to be his bride, to be his elect
and chosen, appointed heirs of grace. And to everyone that he
has appointed, they shall be manifested as such in this time
world. How? Because they are called. They're called by the Spirit
of God. They're blessed to believe the
message of salvation. Their lives are transformed and
they desire to walk in a way that is Christ-like in their
integrity and morality and to seek the things that be of the
truth of the matter and of the scriptures. And they love the
Word of God. For it is a sanctifying balm
to the heart and mind and soul, to all of God's chosen people. Jesus said this, verse 20 of
chapter 17. He said, Neither pray I for these
alone, He said, now keep in mind, this
whole 17th chapter is Jesus' prayer. He's continuing to pray
to the Father. He hasn't stopped. If you read
it. If you haven't read that 17th chapter, John, in a long
time, take it home with you and read it this afternoon as you
have opportunity, and read the prayer of Christ on behalf of
those of his elect church. and those that the Father has
given him in that prayer. That's the true Lord's Prayer.
The Lord's Prayer ain't in Matthew where it says pray thee in this
manner. The Lord's Prayer as it has been
recited in vain repetition. You know, Our Father which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And so on. That is a sample prayer
that God was telling the disciples this is how you ought to pray
in regarding things to petition God in regarding as a sample. But the true Lord's Prayer where
He Himself is looking to heaven speaking to the Father on behalf
of the churches here in John 17. And he goes on to say in verse
20, he says this, neither pray I for these alone. I'm not praying
for just these disciples that are around about me now, Father,
and those who are under the sound of my voice right now. But he
goes on to say, and he says, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word. Now what that says is that from
that time on, when the gospel of Christ went forth from that
time on, by the disciples and the apostles, and everyone that
was blessed in time to receive the Word of God by the quickening
work of the Spirit of Christ, and receive that message of salvation,
the Bible says right there that Jesus prayed for them as well,
and they are us today! Do you listen to the text? He
says, Father, I'm not praying for these alone here that's before
me. Listen to me. But he says, I
am praying for them also which shall believe on me through their
word. In other words, the word that
has been written and preserved in the Bible, the scriptures.
as the record and the history of the workings of Jesus Christ
and the gospel that he brought forth and the salvation that
he has brought to the children of God. He says, they that believe
upon me through their word, I'm praying for them. Jesus prayed
for you, brother Earl, if you believe that today. And everyone
here that believes that gospel and believes that Christ is your
Savior, Jesus prayed for you. And I'm persuaded that He didn't
only pray for us there, Brother Buddy, but when He ascended upon
high, that He took His rightful place seated at the right hand
of the Father, making intercession for us. He prayed for us before. He is
there as our high priest making intercession for us now, saying
that these brothers and sisters that trusted in me are my children,
Father, and therefore my blood has cleansed them from all unrighteousness,
and they are my bride. Oh, he has a bride. Thanks be
to God, Jesus has a bride. He's preparing it. He's putting
them together. He's calling them out of sin's
lifestyle. He's transforming hearts and
lives. And as little as that remnant
may be in this time war in which we live because of the society
in which we're living in, it's so sinful and wretched. Do you
know I told you last week We have, we think about it from
the time that you was a little bitty child brought in, say to
this beaten house, you that have been brought up among this church
right here. Think about how that some of
you can go back and remember horse and buggies out yonder.
And then think about how there was Model T's out there. And
then there was Model A's in that house. The grounds was full of
cars at one time and this place was full of people here to hear
this old absolute gospel message of salvation. And you think about
it, and then how it slowly has departed away and there has been
a new message that has taken, infiltrated into the old camp. It ain't Zion's camp, it's outside
the real camp, because I'm persuaded sanctity of the gospel that was
preached among the saints of God in the 1600s according to
the history in that history book right there. You read it for
yourself. Take it home and look through
the history of the old school Baptists and read where they
come from, what they believed and how they taught what they
taught and were persecuted for what they believed. And yes,
we are in a sense persecuted for what we believe because they
say, like Buddy says, these people at work say, oh well, if you
believe in predestination, why do you even go to church? Everything
is going to happen the way it's supposed to be. There ain't no
sense in worrying about it. No, that ain't what it's all about.
The fact that God has predestined all things to come to pass is
the truth that causes the child of God to rejoice and be blessed
in it because we are secure in Christ. We don't have to do those duties
and works to try to keep it up. We don't have to go and teach
Sunday school or we don't have to do all these things and take
school buses and go out and gather in kids to come in who don't
have really no desire to be there in most parts. I've been down
that road in times past. in the 70s when the largest Sunday
school in the United States was up in Hammond, Indiana. They
ran 80 buses every Sunday. 80 buses. They went out as far
as 60 miles picking up kids and bringing them home. You know
what? After about 4 years or 5 years of that, he took on the
glory of having to pick a Sunday Those little kids came in there
and took crayons and marked all over the walls and they tore
up everything, swung from the chandelier, tore the fixtures
down, tore up everything. It was a maintenance problem
that was unending. They found out they wasn't trying
to change little children's homes. of salvation that they thought
they were going to get for bringing all these children into Sunday
school, but all they had was a maintenance issue that cost
the church more money than they could afford. You can't keep them away. I'm
telling you, people say, well, how many go to certain church? I say, it don't make no difference
how many go there. I'm persuaded as many were there
that were supposed to be there. You say, oh, well, that's kind
of fatalistic. Fatalistic is realistic. There's
as many here today that God had purposed to be here. Those that
are not here, for whatever reason, God has determined them not to
be here. They're not here. Now, as far as I'm concerned,
if they're not here because of some confidentially hindered
situation and just of their own desire to stay home or whatever
it was, they're missing the blessing. They're missing out on the blessing.
They're not doubting God. God is not... He's not embarrassed. He's not
making excuses for them. You don't hear God say, I'm sorry,
they're not all there that should be there today. No. As many as
are here today are those who God has determined to be here
and not one more. Now persuaded of this, Jesus said that I in them and
thou in me that they may be made perfect in one. that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and has loved them as thou hast loved me. Now Jesus said he did not pray
for the world. But I'll tell you one thing that
he did say that the world was going to do, and that's that
the world is going to take notice of the church. Now, you may say,
well, the world don't care nothing about this little beaten place
out here. Let me tell you, don't be surprised. There's folks that
know you personally, individually, that you work around and talk
to and are kinfolk and relatives of yours that know that you meet
out here and that has some influence upon them. And there's a testimony
because God has chosen you to be a part of an assembly of God's
people that you desire to meet with. That's why Jesus said in
Acts chapter 1, he said, when the Holy Ghost shall come upon
you, in other words, when you are regenerated and born in the
Spirit, ye shall be witnesses unto me, witnesses to who? Also to the world around about.
We're going to be witnesses of different people. Sell us the
good works. We are peculiar people, the Bible
says. Did you know you're peculiar
today because you're here? We're looked upon as peculiar
people. The world's out there jet skiing. They better enjoy
what they can. They're going to be fixing to
be out there jet skiing in oil for long. Amen. Done some wonderful things. That
whole Gulf is going to be oil. Every boat that floats around
the Gulf region of the United States of America is going to
have oil splashing up on the sides of its boards. Motors ain't
going to be able to run because of the oil clogging up their
water intakes. Next thing you know, the motor's
going to burn up because they ain't got no water. Keep it cool. One thing's going to lead to
another. Wildlife dying by the thousands. Man has destroyed his environment
and it's getting worse for the day. This is the worst catastrophe
that I think that we have ever been confronted with and it ain't
stopped. And I'll tell you what, it's just continuing to pour
out thousands and thousands and thousands of gallons of crude
oil every hour. And you know what? You think
it surprises God? No. God has just said, OK, Mr. United States and Uncle Sam of
America, you have turned your back on me as a nation. And I
want to show that all the devices of men that you have come up
with and that you have innovated to glory, and I'm going to take
and start destroying it. And brother, he's done it. The
Twin Towers went down. Biggest buildings in New York.
Men gloried, architects gloried, engineers gloried at the height
of it and all the wonderful things that they built years ago and
within, what, 20 minutes two planes went in and took it and
brought it down to nothing but dust and rubble. And now we got
a gulf of Mexico out there that the underwater sea life, fish,
seafood, and any microscopic part of it is slowly being destroyed,
choked out by the means and works of men. God said, go ahead. I'm surprised that this space
station up here that the Russians have been part of building that
it has not been blown up by some terrorist radical Islamic group. Sent up a missile up there from
India who's got missiles that can go out and reach that with
nuclear capabilities and just blow it up and laugh about it. I'll conclude with this. Jesus
said, I've declared in the last verse of the 17th chapter, verse
26, And I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." To everyone who is regenerated
by the Spirit of God, born again of the Spirit of the Almighty,
as Jesus Christ in them by Spirit. For it is Christ in you, the
hope of glory, that causes you, enables you, that empowers you
to live the Christian life. It is not by any duty, works,
and obligations that men try to load upon us to do and to
fulfill that pleases the Father, but it is Christ in you that
pleases the Father. And the Bible says that it is
Jesus Christ who works in you not only to will but to do of
his good pleasure. And the Bible says also, it says
for he which has begun a good work in you shall perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ. Now, where does that leave man
at in regarding trying to do something to please God and giving
an opportunity to do anything to please God? It leaves him
totally outside, standing there with his hands open saying, huh,
huh, there's nothing for me to do. The Bible tells me that if
this crisis causes me to will and to do this good pleasure,
then what part of me is making this work out and come about?
Let me tell you what, the old primitive Baptists that we stand
for, that are the predestinary and absoluters, we have been
called people who believe that God's people are puppets. Let
me tell you what, That ain't a scriptural word, but I'll tell
you one thing, if it's Jesus Christ in you that caused you
to will to do this good pleasure, we're about as close to a puppet
in fulfilling the will and the purpose of the almighty God of
glory as you want to get. And they only say that because
they're stupid and ignorant and don't understand the truth because
God hasn't revealed it to them. And I don't argue with them because
I know they can't help it. They can't help it, buddy, because
they don't understand a God that's almighty and unlimited. But I
come to preach to you an unlimited God this morning. That this church
house has stood for down through the ages of time. That I can
back it up by the history books. That men that stood in these
pulpits preached the truth of an unlimited predestined God
that has called all things that come to pass for the honor and
glory of His name. And no man shall stay in his
hand, and no man has the right to say unto him, Why doest thou
thus? For our God is in the heavens,
and he doeth whatsoever he pleases, the Bible says in Isaiah. And
do I believe that? Yes, indeed, I believe that.
And if I didn't believe that, I'd close the book and walk out,
and I'd quit preaching today. Because there is no message that
is any sweeter to my heart and mind than that. There's no message
in that book when men get up and start preaching about how
we ought to do this and do that and do that for Jesus that turns
me off any more than that. It makes me sick and I believe
it makes God sick. Because there's nothing but just
lukewarmness and that which takes away from the glory of God. When
they start telling men, we need to do this and that. Oh, we have
helped Jesus. Oh, we are building a new church
house for Jesus. You don't do nothing for Jesus.
Jesus either does it all for you or it don't get done. And
He is the one who does all things for His blessed bride church.
He's preparing us, the Bible says, in these latter days for
His soon coming. The Bible says the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself is going to descend from the heavens with a shout.
Now when He comes with a shout, as some might teach in some churches,
that Jesus is going to come back in a secret rapture. Now let
me tell you something. There's no secret about Jesus
coming back. For when He comes back and it
says that He's coming back with a shout, it's going to be loud
enough to where the world is going to hear that shout. And
it says that those which are asleep or dead in Christ shall
be raised from the dead. And we which are alive and remain
at that time shall be translated and be taken up into the heavens
with those that have been raised from the graves. And we shall
ever be with the Lord God. And that is going to be the general
resurrection of all of mankind, where the sheep and the goats
will be separated, and the wheat and the tares will be separated.
And let me tell you something in conclusion. There's only two
types of folks in this world. And they are called in the Bible
wheat and tares. And you know what wheat is. Wheat
is the good part. It has the good part of the kernel. And the tare is the weed. A tare
looks similar to the wheat, but you've got to look at it close
to determine that it's nothing but a weed and it has no value
at all. So it is with the non-elect of
God, those who God has been pleased to pass over in His salvation
by grace. And to pass over some, does that
make God unrighteous? Absolutely not. God is righteous
in all that He does, in all that He says. And God has been pleased
to choose some and to pass over others for His determined purpose.
And for His decreed glory and honor to be revealed in that
last day when He takes the sheep and says, O come unto Me, My
beloved church bride, and come on My right hand and enjoy the
bliss of eternal heaven with the saints of God. And then he's going to say to
those on the left hand, these are the tares, these are the
goats, these are those that were passed over, that are going to
be cast into the lake of fire with the devil and his angels
to ever be in torment for the remaining of eternity. I say remaining of eternity,
that is, without end. But the Bible says a smoker,
their torment shall come up before God forever. Forever! People say, well, what are we
supposed to do? What are we supposed to do about
loved ones that don't seem to have any care or hope for the
Lord Jesus Christ? Don't believe this message that
you're talking about. The only thing you can do is
pray. And pray, say, God have mercy upon these, and may I be
a testimony and a witness to them, and may it be used for
thee. And rest in Christ, knowing that
Christ can only transform the hearts of men. And you've got
to rest in Christ, and trust in Him. Lord have mercy upon
the sinner is our prayer. And that's the bottom line. If I could persuade, I had three
children. One of them was killed, as you
know. I got two children remaining.
They had no time for the church. They don't attend the church.
It ain't a priority to them. Since they got to be 17, 18,
being brought up in the church under my preaching and pastoral
care, they left. They didn't want no more to do
with the church. It was just too much. They couldn't
hear it. They heard the gospel, but they
could not perceive it. Jesus said there are many that
hear but don't perceive it. It's just like someone could
get up and stand and speak in Japanese, you could hear what
they're saying, but you can't perceive it. You cannot understand
it because it's a language different than what you are learned of. So it is with the gospel. God
has to give you a receiver tuned to the right station to be able
to receive that gospel and to perceive its truth and rejoice
in it. If he don't do it, it shall not
get done. To God be the glory, for he alone
saves sinners and gives us that hope in eternal life forever
and ever. Pray with me, would you please?
Dear God our Father, in the precious and matchless name of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That name that you have said
in thy holy writ, that you have given him a name that is above
every name. And at the name of Jesus Christ,
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he
is Lord to the glory and the honor of the Father. And in that
day, there'll be none that will refuse to believe that Jesus
is Lord, because they're going to see Him, number one, as the
King of Glory, as either Savior of their soul, or the Judge of
their souls in eternity, in damnation forever. But they're going to
know Him as the King of Glory. And so, Father, I thank You for
this Opportunity this morning, the privilege we've had to come
this way, and to open this Word, the Holy Writ, and to preach
from it, and to say a few things from the words within it that
might be edifying to the children of grace that be here among us.
And now, Father, we pray that as we depart, And as we go towards
the time that we might meet together around the tables as we have
lunch together, Lord, bless us. And may we be careful to give
Thee the thanks for the food before we partake of it as we
gather together in that fellowship time. And Lord, to Thee be honor
and glory and praise is our humble prayer. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.