I want to turn our thoughts this
morning to Romans chapter 11. I was thinking there on those things
that Brother Al brought to us. And surely if a man has within him the work
of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit is presently working
in him, He is going to desire the presence
of the Lord. And you know, that's not something
that we can decide to do. We talked a little bit about
fasting last week, and notice that Fasting is the result
of fervent prayer rather than vice versa. Fasting is brought
about not because a man decides to fast, but because his heart
is so wrought by the Spirit of God to seek the Lord that his
mind is moved away from the things of this world. And when the Lord
went up into the mountain and fasted for forty days. He didn't
just go up there and sit on a rock doing without food, but he went
there in spirit and truth seeking his Father, the blessing of his
Father, and he was so moved as he, the Scripture says, had the
Spirit of God without measure that food had no meaning to him. He didn't care about it. And
so it is in the matter of seeking the Lord early. What a blessing
it is when God moves upon the hearts of His people to seek
Him early. But no man can just decide to seek Him early, because
you might set your mind to do it, just like you might set your
mind to study the Scriptures. And well, you should. You certainly
would never tell a man not to study the Scriptures. But how
often is the Scriptures to us as an empty book except the Lord
be fit to open our mind and heart and give us, to cause it to be
sweet to our taste even as Jeremiah when he cut that roll up, the
Scriptures up and he put it in his mouth and he said it was
unto his mouth is that which was sweet. And only as the Lord
is pleased to work that in us will that be the case. And I
believe it's a true thing that the children of God are stirred
by the exhortations of the Scripture. As David said, I will seek the
Lord early. And we are stirred by the Spirit
of God to seek the Lord. If we're not, we know ourselves
to be in a cold state. And it is often that the Lord
uses the exhortations of the Scripture and the examples in
the Scripture to remind us of what a cold state we are in and
how much we need the presence of the Lord, even as that church
at Laodicea that speaks about in the book of the Revelation.
And the Lord spoke to them and said, You know, I would that
you were either cold or hot, because you are lukewarm, and
I will spew you out of my mouth. But it is only as the Lord is
pleased to stir men will they seek Him. And so whether it be
the lay of the sea in church or whether it be us, we know
from where it is that our power and our strength comes, and it
must come from the Lord. sounding brass, tinkling cymbals,
it's doing just the same thing with raising your hands. I mean,
if you raise your hands in praise because the Spirit of God has
caused your heart to be overwhelmed to the point that you do that,
then I believe that's a glorious thing. But if you just do it
because everybody else did it, which is what we see around us
pretty much. I mean, people just learn to
do stuff, and they just do it because everybody is doing it.
You know, what good is that? It doesn't make any difference
what you do if you just do it because everybody else is doing
it. But when the Spirit of God moves in our heart, and when
David danced before the Lord, I don't think he set out to dance
before the Lord. I mean, he didn't just decide,
well, I think I'll get out here and do a dance. No, the Scripture
says that he was praising God. I mean, his heart was so filled
with praise to God that he just forgot about the fact that he
was the king. I mean, his wife looked out the
window and said, well, you look like a fool out there. You're
the king of Israel, and here you are. He said, don't matter
to me. He said, I just wanted to praise
God. And so it is. What a glorious
thing it is when the Lord is pleased to move in His people
to cause them to praise Him with their whole heart. I want to
look in Romans 11 beginning in verse 29. I won't take the time
to read the whole chapter, but it is beneficial if you did read
it before coming to this. But nonetheless, For the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times
past have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through
their unbelief, speaking about natural Israel, the Jews after
the flesh, even so have these also now not believed that through
your mercy they may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all
in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor,
or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto
him again. For of him, and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever." Now, Paul
begins this chapter speaking about the nation of Israel. And he sets forth a principle
and a truth concerning the nation of Israel. natural Israel, the
natural descendants of Abraham. And he speaks about them in this
fashion, saying, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid,
for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe
of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people
which he foreknew, or that word is foreloved, that before the foundation of the
world he set his love upon. He hath not cast away his people
which he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture
saith of Elias? How did he make intercession
to God against Israel? And he said, I am left alone,
but the Lord told him, I have reserved to myself seven thousand
men who have not bowed their knee to Baal. And so he says,
even so at this present time there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. Now there is a people that belong
to the Lord out of every nation, tribe, kindred and tongue upon
the face of the earth. And they are the children of
God by the grace of God. Now, the only way that a man
becomes a child of God is by the grace of God. It cannot be
earned. It cannot be bought. But it is
according to the mercy of God delivered unto us. And so he said here, even at
this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of
grace, and if it is by grace, then it is no more of worse. Now, you cannot have a mixture
of grace and worse. Either the salvation of God's
people is by grace alone, or it is by works. Because when
you put works into the mix, then you have ruled out grace according
to what Paul says here. He said it is either by grace
or it is by works. Now which is it? Is it according
to the grace of God or is it according to the works of men?
And we believe that it is indeed according to the grace of God. I mean, what can a man, what
do we have that we have not received? What can we boast in? Can we
say, well, Lord, all these other people didn't seek you, but we
did. Well, why did we seek Him when no one else did, if that
is indeed true? Because of the grace of God.
What causes a man to call on the name of the Lord? The grace
of God. He won't call otherwise. Never
been a man that has ever called on the name of the Lord that
has not done so by the grace of God. That is the working of
God. Even so, at this present time,
there is a remnant. Now, the Lord has a people, and
He speaks of them in several places in the Scripture as a
remnant. Now, if you have a remnant of
something, it is not the whole thing, is it? I mean, if you
go to the store and buy a carpet remnant, You're not expecting
that they're going to bring you a whole roll of carpet out there,
are you? No, it's going to be a piece
that was cut off. And in many cases, it might be
a piece that nobody else wanted. I mean, just an old junk piece,
somebody would go by and say, well, that's just an old piece
of carpet. We'll just throw that out. But
you see, the Lord has a people that He calls a remnant. He said
that He would give He would reveal these things, the truth of the
gospel, not to the wise and the prudent, not to the multitude,
but to those who were small in number. And so he says here that
he has a remnant. And it is by grace. Israel hath
not obtained that which it seeketh for, but the election hath obtained
it. the remnant, those whom he hath
chosen out of it, and the rest were blinded. Now blindness in
part, as he says over here, has happened to Israel. That through their blindness
the truth might come to you, because you see the Lord has
seen fit, as we see with the apostle Paul, he was sent to
the Gentiles. Because the Jews wouldn't receive
the things of God, and even at the present time and the present
day, they stumble at this stumbling stone. Why? Because they go about
to establish their own righteousness. And when men go about to establish
their own righteousness, then they have departed from the grace
of God. It is only according to the goodness
and grace of God that a man can be righteous, and that is by
imputation as the Lord Jesus Christ is pleased to apply His
righteousness unto a man to give him a place to stand before Almighty
God. And when a man has an understanding
of the fact that our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight
of God, that is our personal righteousness, I mean, if that's
the best we can do, and he says, this is a filthy rag in my sight,
where could we stand with what we actually are in totality? We would be of all men most miserable. But the Lord says, according
to His grace, that he hath given that which is the gift of God
unto them, not according to their works, but according to his grace. And so it is that as we come
on down and read this last verse, if we understand... See, in other
words, in order to get the meaning of the last verse of this chapter,
one has to have an understanding of that which He has already
built, and He said, for of Him, through Him, and to Him. Now, who is the subject of the
through and the to? Him. For of Him, and through
Him, and to Him. You see, all praise And all things
are given unto Jesus Christ. He is worthy of all praise. There
is no place for glory. When you read what happens in
the vision that John had when he saw heaven opened, you don't
see anybody exalted in a place of heights, do you? You see one
exalted. because he is worthy to be praised. For of him, that is, from the
Lord of Christ, of him are all things. Now, the Scripture says
that without him was nothing made. He made all things, and
he made all things according to what the Scripture says, according
to his good pleasure. It pleased him. It belongs to
him. Now this is the thing that I
believe that a lot of people, and most unfortunately what has
become the mainstream thought and preaching of today is that
the world is kind of like a co-op type deal where God made the
world and gave it to men and then He just sat back and waited
to see what they would do with it. Well, dear brethren, if that
be the case, we would all be in a miserable condition. Because
if I was waiting on you to help me, I'd be in trouble because
you can't even help yourself. Now one thing is a true thing,
and that is a man that can't help himself can't help somebody
else. And so it is that the Lord has
concluded us all in unbelief that He might have mercy. You
see? It is of Him. All things are
His. It belongs to Him. Why would
a man get mad if you tell him that God chose the people in
Christ before the foundation of the world because He loved
them with an everlasting love? Why would a man get mad at that
if he understood that the world belongs to the Lord to start
with? Shall the thing formed say to him that made it, why
hast thou made me thus?" I mean, what grounds would we have to
go to the Lord and say, well, Lord, it's not right for you
to do that. What is it that the Lord could
do that wouldn't be right? I mean, where's the platform
that you would have to stand on to say it wasn't right? See,
there's no basis upon which you could stand to accuse the Lord
of anything. Whatever he does is right because
it's his to start with. It's of him. It came from him. All that you see or have belongs
to him. And so you don't need to get
too filled up with pride in yourself if you say, Oh, I've given this
to the Lord. What have you ever given to the
Lord? What do you have that you could give to the Lord? You don't
have anything to give to the Lord. The cattle on a thousand
hills are His. He's merely made you a steward
of the things that you have in the present time. So you can't
ultimately give anything to the Lord, but the privilege that
He's given to the people of God is to bring Him praise and to
offer unto Him the fruit of our lips, giving thanks unto His
name. But how would we even know to
do that? except that He had taught us. So it is of Him, dear brethren. And the glory of the Gospel is
going to be of Jesus Christ. That is, it comes out of Him.
Even our faith, we believe because of what? The
faith of Christ. Where did it come from? It came
from Christ. Why does a man believe? Because
God gave him faith. It is of him. And then he says
it is through him. Now this is the place where the
glory of the gospel is most plainly manifested. It is through him. It is through Jesus Christ that
the riches of the blessings of God have come down from heaven
unto men. There's no other way that a man
could have ever known anything about God, have ever seen God. The Scripture says no man hath
seen God at any time. He can't be seen. He's immortal.
He's invisible, the Scripture says. It would be impossible
for a man in his own self to ever have any knowledge whatsoever
of the Almighty God. the one who inhabiteth eternity."
Now, we are inhabitants of time simply because the Lord made
us. Nobody made him. He said to Moses, I am. But it is through Jesus Christ
that all of the blessings of God have come down to men. He
is not just one of many avenues through which the blessings of
God have come to men. He is the only avenue. He is
the only means whereby a man might know God. He said, I am
the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. And so it is impossible that
a man should ever know God without knowing Jesus Christ. And Jesus
Christ is not some secondary God, as some people seem to think,
but He is God. Isn't that what He told Philip? Philip said, Show us the Father
and it will suffice us. He said, Philip, buddy, have
I been so long with you and you have not known me? I and the Father are one. He
that has seen the Father, has seen me, has seen the Father. Now, how clear is that? How plain is that? I mean, He
is the eternal God. And so, when you hear people
running around here saying, Oh, well, we believe Jesus is a great
prophet. Well, do you now? Well, He was
a liar if He was. If he wasn't who he said he was,
then he couldn't be a great prophet, could he? I mean, he'd be a deceiver. What would make him different
than any of these other cats that run around out here and
call themselves some great prophet of God or someone sent from God? If what they tell you is not
true, that's what the standard in the Scripture is, that if
a man speaks not according to the Word of God, then he's a
liar. And here he said, I and the Father
are one. Why did the Jews hate him? Because
they knew what he said. They said, This man maketh himself
God. And they wouldn't have it. And that's the same way it is
today with all men apart from the grace of God. They will not
have this man to rule over them. But it is through him that all
the blessings of God come to men. And it is in the gift of
faith that we are brought to a place to see that. And life
and immortality are brought to light in the gospel. And the
gospel is the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And
apart from the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, there is no
gospel. It's not Christ and Him crucified
and then now it's all up to you. Or you need to add what you're
going to do to it, but rather it is through Him. How does a
man receive the blessings of God? It's through Christ. We'll not receive them any other
way. So it's of Him and through Him. And then it says, and it's
to Him. Our own thing. If it's of Him and through Him,
then it is to Him. that all the praise must be given. Now, one thing that I believe
unites the sons of God, though they might have varying differences
in views of certain doctrines and certain practices that they
carry on amongst themselves in their church meetings or whatever.
But this is a true thing. And I believe this is where the
rubber meets the road. And that is that all of God's
people, all of those who are the true worshippers of God,
desire that all glory be given unto Him, of Him, through Him
and to Him. That's what those in the book
of Revelation, that's the song that they sang, Thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive honor and glory and blessing and might
and power and dominion. For by Thy pleasure these things
are and were created. They belong to You. And it is
only right that all the glory comes back to You. You know, when I listen to what
somebody is saying when they are preaching, if that doesn't
come through, then I don't want to listen to what they have to
say. I mean, I've heard a lot of exhortations that were good
exhortations in and of themselves, but they weren't the gospel.
I mean, when we're telling people, instructing the saints of God
as to how they should walk and things they should do, those
things have a place, but they are not the preaching of the
gospel. Because whatever we say or do
must come back to this, to give glory to Christ. May we never look at obedience
as something we bring to the Lord, but may we always see it
as that which the Lord brings to us because it is through Him,
of Him, and to Him that all praise belongs. Why does a man walk
in obedience to God? Is it because he just decided
to do it? Or is it because the Spirit of
God works in him? The Lord said, Why do you call
me Lord and do not the things that I do? He said, If you love
me, keep my commandments. He said, Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly and hard. He says,
My yoke is easy, my burden is light. Why is the yoke easy and
the burden light? Because he is doing all the work.
I mean, He's performing in us. He works in us, the Scripture
says, both the will and to do of His good pleasure. That is
the work of God. It is the good pleasure of God.
And, well, He should receive all the glory and the praise.
Now, it's not unusual to find folks that want to praise God,
especially if it involves you know, getting all jived up and
whatnot. You can find plenty of folks
that are ready to do that. But at the end of the day, are
they ready to give Christ all glory and all praise? Or are they looking for something
that sets them apart? The Scripture says, knowledge
puffeth up. You see, sound doctrine is a necessary and needful thing. But a man can become puffed up
in what he knows and not give Christ all the glory. Because
how can you know anything unless the Lord shows it to you? You
can't know it. You can't understand it. You
can't have any desire after it. You can't have any love of it. But by the grace of God, He causes
these things to occur. So it is of Him. It is through
Him, through that which Jesus Christ has done in the behalf
of sinners. May we never lose sight of that
as we come to approach unto Him, that we come to Him as sinners. But it is by the grace of God. You see, Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners. He didn't come to try to save
sinners. He didn't come to save all that
would let Him save them. But He came to save those whom
He came into the world to save. And He has accomplished that.
And that is a glorious thing. And it is of Him and through
Him and to Him that all praise and glory be glorious forever
and ever. You know, the place that the
saints of God shall enjoy is through the ages to come to give
Him praise and glory. Now, you know, I don't know all
the details about how that's going to occur. I know this,
that the Lord didn't create us as... He didn't make us angels. He could have made us angels.
But He made us men. The Scripture says that He created
man in His own image. And the glory is that the redemption
of Jesus Christ is the redemption of sinful men. And He has redeemed
them. That is, He has bought them back.
And through the ages to come, not as sinful men, Because the
Scripture says that we shall be changed in a moment in the
twinkling of an eye at the last trump. That which is corruptible
shall be changed into that which is incorruptible. And through the ages to come
we'll give praise to Him with unseating lips, with hearts that
desire He, that He have all the glory. Now, if we'd all be honest,
we all like glory a little bit. I mean, every preacher that ever
took to the stand, if he'll be honest, he likes a little glory. Because he likes for people to
pat him on the back and say, well, you did a good job and
we really liked listening to you and all this kind of stuff. That's wickedness from the word
go. And it is in the heart of a man
by nature. And we will never escape it in
this life. But that grave will take it from
us. And in that day when God shall
come to judge the quick and the dead, none of that will ever
exist anymore. And our glory will be His glory,
that He be praised forever. Let the name of Jesus Christ
be exalted, and may our names be forgotten. Now, if you don't
think men like a little glory, you ride by the graveyard when
you leave here, and you'll see all these little monuments setting
up out here with their names on them. Why do we do that? So they'll always be remembered.
Why do we want to be remembered? Why would we want to be remembered
if we want Him to have all the glory? Let our name be forgotten
and let the name of Christ be exalted forever. He is worthy
of praise and of Him, through Him and to Him may always be
in our minds mindful of who He is.