Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. there is a certain and proper
order in which all things are done in the kingdom of God. When
a man confuses that order or seeks to rearrange it, he becomes
a perverter of the truth and is found to be fighting against
the truth rather than for it. We have all heard the familiar
idiom, putting the cart before the horse. We can laugh at expecting
to go for a ride in a cart which is in front of the horse rather
than behind it. Yet it is no laughing matter when men reverse
the order of the work of God in the salvation of his people.
There is no shortage of those who would declare that God works
in men who first exercise faith and obedience to the commands
of God. In fact, it is considered an oddity by the masses to hear
someone teach the scriptural doctrine which states the exact
opposite. Today's salvation peddlers go
about the countryside telling all who will listen that God
will deliver them if they will only believe. Most say that a
man can receive and believe the gospel any time he chooses. They
say that if a man's faithful, then God will bless him. They
picture the Lord of heaven and earth waiting with hands tied,
just hoping someone will believe the gospel, so that he can open
the windows of heaven to them. This line of thinking does not
only get the cart before the horse, but actually shoots the
horse and expects the cart to move by itself. Faith is not
the cause of God's blessing to men. Rather, faith is the evidence
of God's blessing given to those to whom He is pleased to save.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Many today confuse the saints
by using the term foreknowledge to purport that God chose His
elect by knowing ahead of time what men would do. This makes
the sovereign God of the universe to be a mere fortune teller.
The Lord set forth the proper order when he said to his disciples,
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you
that ye should go forth and bring forth fruit, that your fruit
should remain. The word foreknowledge means
to love beforehand or to ordain according to purpose. Luke uses
this word when he says him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. David understood this proper
order when he declared, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest
and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy
courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thine house, even of thy holy temple. Even as the
hymn writer Josiah Condor penned these words in 1836, "'Tis not
that I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be. My heart
would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me." It is a
characteristic of those who have been born again to both delight
in the Word and teaching of God and to cast oneself upon His
mercy. In whom else can their trust be found? The language
of praise is that which is fluently spoken by those who have been
brought out of darkness and into the light. It would be easier
to find darkness emanating from the sun at noonday than it would
be to find those who are made alive in Christ Jesus without
any desire to praise his name. The prevailing notion of the
present day is that the blessings of God are poured out when and
if men praise Him. Yet this is putting the cart
before the horse. The reason that any man praises the Lord
is because the Lord has already blessed him by giving him a desire
to praise His name. Life must precede action, and
it is only those who have been quickened and made alive by Christ
who will ever have any desire to praise Him in the highest.
Men do not influence God. Rather, God moves men according
to the good pleasure of His will. Many teach that man can and must
be convinced to believe the gospel through the persuasive and oratorical
preaching of it. Yet dead men cannot hear. They
must be quickened by a power which is totally apart from any
words which can be spoken by men. Men hear and believe because
they have been awakened from the dead by the power of the
Holy Ghost. And you had to quicken who were dead in trespasses and
sins. To say that men are born again because they believe is
to put the cart before the horse. God is the first cause of all
events, and the salvation of His people is an event which
is totally performed by Him for His glory and their benefit.
He shows mercy to whomsoever He wills. Men cannot cause themselves
to be the objects of that mercy by any endeavor, prayer, or act
of so-called faith. God is rich in mercy to all who
call upon His name. None who ever come to him with
a broken and contrite heart shall ever be turned away. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. Yet none will call upon him until
he is pleased to give them life. And those upon whom he is pleased
to show this mercy shall both hear and believe. Do you believe
him to be the King of kings and Lord of lords? If you would like a free transcript
of this broadcast, email us at forthepoor at windstream.net.