I'm not going to be looking in
Corinthians in our normal as we have been
going through this. Because of what we have written here or what we are doing
here today, I wanted us to think more upon that which is before
us. And I go back to the first chapter
in I Corinthians of what Paul said, where he said, For Christ
sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom
of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God." Now, Paul goes on to say in the
second chapter, And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not
with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the
testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness
and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Now, those words
comprise the essence of the gospel and what it is that we would
seek to declare. before you. And not just to say some things, but
to declare what it is that we believe to be true. But the Lord
has set forth before us a memorial. I believe that it was at the
center of the meeting of the early disciples each time they
met. I believe that was the reason
that they did meet, was so that they might remember the Lord's
death till He comes. Because that is the central purpose
of our gathering together. Now, Austin and I have had some conversations
as I have taken him to school several, or that is the case
that I take him to school from time to time when he's over here
and needs to go to Lake City. And we've talked about some things, and there's a little acrostic that
some people place a lot of emphasis on. I don't, but I think that
it is a good thing that it is a simple way to learn some basic
doctrines that are vital to the understanding of what the gospel
is. And it is an acrostic that uses
a flower, the tulip. I think most of you probably
have heard of the tulip and we've never made a big deal about making
that sort of a thing a big central part of what we're gathering
together to do, but it is a good thing to help keep vital doctrines
in our mind because when you stray away from the vital basic
doctrines of the truth, of the Gospel, then you can go off into
all sorts of stuff and anything can be acceptable. Now, I was
at a funeral yesterday, and it was supposedly a funeral having
to do with somebody that was a believer in Christ. But I came
away from the place wondering what in the world was it that
I heard, because there was no truth spoken in the place. Except one thing, and that was
the man did say that only Jesus Christ could take away sin. In that, he was right. But everything
else he said was wrong. And anybody that was there would
have been misled as to what the gospel is about. Now, this tulip
sets forth first the very place that man is by nature. He is
totally depraved. Now, a lot of people don't like
that word depraved because they think, oh, that's a terrible
word. No, we're not depraved. I mean,
because usually when you think of somebody depraved, you think
about somebody like Jeffrey Dahmer or the guys that flew the planes
into the World Trade Center. You know, that's the kind of
what we think of when we think about depraved is somebody, oh
boy, that somebody is really bad. That's like Hitler. I mean,
Hitler was depraved, but the rest of us, you know, we're not
really depraved. But the fact of the matter is
the word depravity simply points to the fact of what men are by
nature, that there is no good dwelling within us. And any good
that comes forth from us is the product of the Lord doing His
work to bring forth good, because left to ourselves we will be
as bad as we can be. Now that is just the fact of
the matter. Apart from the grace of God,
every one of us in here will be as bad as we can be. And sometimes
the Lord pulls back the reins a little bit and He shows us
what we will be. It is not a parasite. And He
teaches us by that. And so we are, by nature, total
depraved creatures, whether you like that terminology or not.
And then there is a you, and the you is unconditional election. Now again, this is a word that
sends some people into a total frenzy. You know, even when they find
out that the Bible uses the term, they don't believe the way the
Bible... They say, well, something must
be wrong here. We've got to explain this. You
know, it can't be. But the Scripture says that God
has chosen a people in Christ from before the foundation of
the world. They are ordained unto eternal
life, even as we read in the book of Acts in chapter 13, verse
48. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they rejoiced, and as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. Now I've heard men try to change
that around and explain it and do everything, but dear brethren,
sometimes the Lord just puts the truth right out there where
it can't be explained away. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Now how do we know who the sons
of God are? Because they believe. Not because
they say they believe, but because God gives them faith. And he
demonstrates who it is that he has chosen from before the foundation
of the world by giving them faith. No man who has ever been given
faith and been given a desire to enter into the kingdom of
God by faith through Jesus Christ needs ever fear that God has
not chosen him because no man will believe except that the
Lord has chosen him. We love him. Why? Because he
first loved us. Now every little child that has
been in Sunday school or went to Sunbeams or some of these
other outfits and deals that they do has learned that we love
him because he first loved us. Why? Because man is totally depraved
and he would not love the Lord unless the Lord loved him. And
so the Lord demonstrates those whom He loves by giving them
faith. And He has chosen a people. And when the Lord has chosen
a man, he can't be unchosen. And if He hadn't chosen him,
he can't be chosen. That's just the facts. My sheep
hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
And then it's interesting that this is at the center. The L in the tulip is in the
center. because it is the central doctrine
of the gospel. And that L stands for limited
atonement. Now, there are those that fight
against it and say, Oh, well, his atonement is unlimited. But
what they really mean is that it is useless because, dear brethren,
What the term limited atonement means is that it is limited to
those whom the Lord has paid the sin debt for. Now, when Christ
went to the cross, He went there for a particular purpose. He
went there for a particular people. And He accomplished exactly what
it was that He set out to do. And so the atonement is limited
in the sense that it is limited to that which He intended to
accomplish. And He has accomplished it. I
like to use the term particular redemption because when Jesus
Christ paid the price for sin, He didn't just make a general
offering. He didn't just go up there and
just pour out His blood and say, well, I sure hope it does somebody
some good. Now that's what some folks would
have you to believe. They would have you to believe
that Christ has just poured out His blood and it may or may not
do any good. Dear brethren, I'm telling you,
not one drop of Christ's blood was ever poured out and shed
that was not poured out particularly and absolutely to redeem the
people of His choice, those whom He loves. And he went there to
accomplish that. And he came away having accomplished
it. And he shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. Now some would tell you, I've
heard this, you may have heard somebody say this, I've heard
this said, that hell is a testament to the failure of God. Because hell is the place that
God has to put folks that don't cooperate and go along with His
way. And so Christ went and He paid
this price, but some people just won't receive it. And so consequently,
God just says, well, a guy can't do nothing else but put them
in hell. And so it's a testimony to his failure. How ridiculous! The Lord will destroy the wicked. The Scripture says that. He will do that. I don't have
any doubt about it. But I know this, that there is
no failure in that which Jesus Christ came to do. He accomplished
it. And that's what we come to look
at when we see this bread and this wine set before us. I mean,
we just don't take and pour it out on the ground, do we? We
don't just crumble up the bread and throw it out into the wind. What do we do? We individually,
we eat it. You are absolutely right. That's
exactly correct. We eat it. The Lord said, Whosoever eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood, have part in me. Because he said,
he that eateth not my flesh and drinketh not my blood, he has
no part in me. So, dear brethren, just by the
very fact that we come to this place and we particularly, each
one, take of this bread and take of this wine indicates the fact
that this is not just something that is generally poured out,
but it is given to those who take it. It is given to those
who are given it because, you see, we could not receive it
if it was not given to us by the hand of Him. And then there is the One of
the most glorious aspects of the truth that is set forth in
the eye of the tulip is irresistible grace. Irresistible. Now, again, some people think
that God has just done everything He can. He has left it all up
to men and they just can't... They just can do whatever they
want to. I mean, God can't even change the will of a man. That's
how some people think about the free will of man. They think,
oh, God would never violate the free will of man. Well, dear
brethren, who made the will of man? God did. It's His will. He can do with
it what He wants to do. And David understood this. He said, Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Now the will of man, the free
will of man, if you want to speak of it in this context, is a glorious
thing. See, men can will to serve the Lord if He makes them willing. By
their nature, they won't be willing. They will not come to Me. He
said that to the Pharisees. He said, You will not come to
Me that you might have life. You will not do it. He is speaking
to them right face to face. He said, You won't come to Me
that you might have life. But He stood, did He not? And
He said, Come unto Me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." Now, some people present this as,
again, like an open-ended thing. He didn't say, Come unto me,
everybody under the sound of my voice, did he? Did he say
that? No, he said, Come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden. Those who are burdened with their
sin, those who have been taught by the Spirit of God that they
are indeed a depraved creature without help and without hope.
He said, Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. And take My yoke upon you, and
learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Oh, what a glorious
thing is the irresistible grace of God whenever He comes to a
man and He begins to woo that man, and He breaks that man's
heart, and He shows him what he is by nature, and He draws
him with cords of love as He shows him the truth of the gospel,
and He shows him Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners, and
He says, Come unto Me. And those who are given the gift
of faith, they say, yes, Lord. We believe. We desire to walk
with You. We want to worship You. We thank
You for Your grace and Your mercy and Your kindness. Because you
see, it is the work of God to draw men unto Himself. That is
irresistible grace. And then the P. It just wraps it all up because
it is the perseverance of the saints. Now, I like to think
of it more as the preservation of the saints, but it is the
perseverance of the saints because, you see, what God ordains must
come to pass. Now, some people, they've got
a weird view of what predestination is. But whatever God wills to be,
must be. Whatever God wills to be, has
to be. See, it's not just that God wills
something to be and it may or may not happen. That's how some
people think of it. They think, well, we want to
pray according to the will of God so that the will of God will
be done. Well, dear brethren, whether
you pray for the will of God to be done or not, it does not
make any difference. When you pray for the will of
God to be done, that is just a matter of desiring to be reconciled
unto the will of God because I guarantee you whether you pray
or you do not pray, the will of God will be done. And it is
God's will. that He will bring His children
unto Himself. He will preserve them. He that endureth to the end shall
be saved. And the Lord will keep them from
falling. He will gather His people unto
Himself. So there is a preservation of
the saints, but there is also a perseverance of the saints.
Because the Lord does work in them, both the willing to do
of His good pleasure, and He is working constantly in them
to bring them to a place of greater trust in Him. Now you think that
you trust the Lord when you first begin to walk with the Lord. But as you come along the way,
you start to think that you don't trust Him at all. But the reality
is that you're trusting Him more because the more that you learn
of Him, the more you see your own weakness. The more you see
how little you have, but the greater you see Him to be. And
in our weakness, the strength of God is magnified. So may the
Lord help us this day as we come to this place to remember the
Lord's death until He comes again. Because what good does it do
to remember the Lord's death until He comes again if we do
not know what it is that He came to do? I mean, if we come here today
to remember the Lord's death and we think that He just tried
to do something, what are we remembering? No, dear brethren,
we are remembering that He poured out His blood for His people
that He might procure that purchased possession that was His, that
He might bring it to Himself in His own time. We remember
that and we rejoice because we know that it was His body and
it was His blood that was shed for us. And we praise Him and
thank Him today that He has given us the privilege to partake of
it, because not everybody is given that privilege. You see,
that is what grace is. Grace is the revelation of what
God gives, and it is put in contrast with those to whom it is not
given. Now, there is nobody that is
cast out from the presence of God that wants to be in the presence
of God. See, if a man wants to be in
the presence of God, it's because God, who is rich in mercy, has
caused him to desire it. Now, I didn't say if he wanted
to be religious. People do. I mean, buddy, where
I was yesterday, buddy, they love religion. I mean, they had
it coming out of their ears. I mean, people were all hooping
and hollering and carrying on about all kinds of stuff. But it wasn't about Christ. It
wasn't about the Gospel. It wasn't about the blood which
was shed for sinners that accomplished their redemption. Oh, that the
Lord might give us a love for Him, for His Word, for His truth,
for the understanding of what it is that Christ did when he
gave his body to be broken in his blood.