I'm going to wax philosophy.
If you guys really knew what I felt
about philosophy, you'd know that that ain't particularly
true, but it may sound like that's what I'm doing today. I was going
through some stuff the other day and was looking for, going
through some articles. The Welch Track Publications
has asked me to write some write articles for them, and so I've
been turning in a lot of my old articles that I wrote in the
past, and looking at some things, little snippets of things, because
I, you know, whenever I travel for work, not to get off too
far off subject, but whenever I travel for work, a lot of times
when I'm going down the road, I get to thinking about things,
scriptures, and thoughts about scriptures and doctrine and things
like that, So I'll, you know, I'll do a voice memo or I'll
talk to text something into my phone to remember what I was
thinking about and then come back and maybe, you know, develop
that out into a coherent thought. And maybe write an article or
something like that. But anyway, I have little snippets of this
and that and all that kind of stuff that I go, well, anyway,
I was going through all these looking at stuff about writing some articles. the old articles that I had wrote.
Well, I come across the conversation and debate that I had a few years
back and primarily the conversation was over how God has created
man and what the purpose God created man for and everything. But in that conversation, The
person that I was conversing with, they said this statement
here, and I printed it out so I didn't get it wrong. They said
this statement, they said that, God is love and we are created
in his image, therefore God created us and desires a reciprocal love
relationship with mankind. So, and read back through the conversation
and everything, the premise is, and as I thought about this,
I thought, well, that was really my mindset whenever I believed
free will, whenever I believed Armenian thought and all like
that before the Lord showed me the truth of the gospel, that
I thought, well, since God is love, and we are created in His
image, therefore God has created us to love Him and He wants that
love relationship, but He doesn't want that love relationship to
be a forced love relationship. So God gives man free will. So the basis of free will is
God's love. The whole reason that God has
given man free will is because God is love and God wants us
to in turn love him with a true and genuine love back with our
own will, with our own choice. He wants us to love him because
it really isn't love if you force somebody to love you, right?
And so that whole mentality and that whole thought is that because
God wants to have this love relationship with us, the only way that that
love can be reciprocated is to give man free will to choose
to love him and then to give him a salvation that he can have
the premises of love. I mean, God forbid we love God
for who God is, not necessarily what God gives us, but what God
is, who God is. But I digress. That's another
thought. So the thought is, is so if God
has given free choice or free will to all men so that they
could in turn love him because that's what God desires. because
God is love, then salvation must be free to all men, and open
to all men, and upon all men, because God wants that relationship
with all mankind. That's why he created us, is
to have this return love reciprocation. And so, therefore, the whole
foundation of God is love, and I mean, excuse me, that free
will exists is because God is love. And so I got to thinking
about that, and I thought, you know, that really, there really
is a lot to say about that statement. If God is love, and we know that
the Bible says that, as a matter of fact, turn over, if you would,
to 1 John chapter 4, and let's just read the scripture where
it says this. Matter of fact, I'm going to
1 John chapter 4, and I'm going to back up to verse 6 and start
reading at verse 6. It says, We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of the earth. Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. It doesn't just say that God
loves, although the Bible does specifically say God loves, but
it says that God is love. that He is by nature love. That's part of His nature. And
therefore they say that since God is love, therefore He loves
everyone. Because if God is love, then
He has to love everybody. Well, we know that that's not
what the Scriptures teach us. God doesn't love everybody. And
I know that may be new news to some that are listening or watching
today. But I know for all of us, we
know that's not true. Matter of fact, I believe Brother
Larry has written a book called God Does Not Love Everybody.
Is that the right title? Does Not Love Everyone. But he
does love his elect from everlasting to everlasting. Yeah, he's got
one of those 1840 titles. One of those old Baptist titles. Fifteen paragraphs long is the
title. Anyway, Brother Larry wrote a
book about that also. God does not love everybody and
the Bible is very clear that God does not love everybody and
Of course we can talk about that maybe a little bit in what we're
looking at here today, but That is the mentality that everybody
has Because that is what's being preached in all these so-called
churches all across the world is they take this scripture right
here God is love and they apply man's wisdom to it and And they
say, well, if God is love, therefore God loves everyone. Because God
can't go against his nature, which is love. So rooted in who
God is, is love. And that love that God has for
everyone wants to be reciprocated through everyone. And to reciprocate
that through everyone, they must be saved. And to be saved, that
has to be offered to everybody. And if it's offered to everybody,
then they have to have the free will to accept it, because if
God didn't give them free will to accept that, then they couldn't
in turn receive it and love God freely. It wouldn't be free.
It wouldn't be true, genuine love. And so, that's the mentality
that men has, and they completely disregard what the scripture's
testimony about god is they completely disregard the other parts of
scripture that talks about who god is his nature in other areas
and they completely disregard salvation is all about and how
it was already accomplished and how it's applied they are completely
ignorant of the gospel of jesus christ and just as a side note
that is exactly why we not as looking at ourselves better than
anybody else, or that we have more superior knowledge than
anybody else, or that we're an elite class or anything like
that, whenever we say that those are false gospels and false churches,
we say that because that is unbiblical. We say that because whenever
you look at the Scripture to say that God loves everybody,
that Jesus died for everybody, that everybody has a free will
to accept Him because the Gospel offer is for everybody, and it
has to be chosen by you or it isn't a true, genuine love for
God. Those things are not grounded
in Scripture. Those are grounded in man philosophy
and the religion yes religion not not true religion not biblical
religion but religion of man just like any other religion
hinduism buddhism you know all these other isms that are out
there it's another religion that man has taken and in this case
in the term of christian religion man has taken and he's taken
some of the surface of truth, but he's applied that into his
own understanding and brought God down into a fashion that
they want, instead of the testimony that the Bible has of who God
is and how He operates. And you're thinking, well, where
are we going with this? Well, my thought in this whole
thing is, number one, it's completely off base. To say God is love,
therefore God loves everybody, therefore free will has to exist
so that that reciprocating love can be given back to Him is off
base because the Bible nowhere declares that that is what God's
purpose is. It doesn't give testimony that
that is how God is operating or what God wants. Matter of
fact, I even Googled earlier, before everybody got here, I
Googled just the phrase, you know, God
wants us to love Him. To see how much writing. You
wouldn't believe all the writings that are out there of people
that they say that God is wanting us to love Him. I even came across
one link that took me to an online Bible And it gave me 100 verses
that say how God wants us to love Him, wants our love. And I read out there a lot of
those verses, and half those verses had nothing to do with
God wanting us to love Him. It had to do with love. It had
to do with statements of fact that He has shed His love abroad
in our heart, that we should love God and love each other,
Those things are here, but nowhere in there does it say that God
wants us to love Him. Now, I'm not saying that that's
not true, but I'm just saying there's nowhere that was in any
of those scriptures and all the writings that I was watching
all came from this premise that man is thinking that God wants
us to love Him back. And that's God's desire, and
that's why He created man. That's why He gave man free choice. And that's why salvation is for
everyone, so that God can be freely loved by His creation. But brethren, listen, number
one, we need to understand that God doesn't need anything. And
what He does want, or as the Bible uses, as what He desires,
He does. He gets whatever God desires,
He gets. And I don't care, you can get
into all your arguments about this permissive will and this
secretive will and this, you know, all this kind of stuff,
revealed will thing and stuff, the two wills of God and, you
know, well, God desires this, but this is going on and everything
like that. You can get into all those theological
debates that you want. I'm just saying, if the Bible
says that whatever God is pleased to do, whatever God desires,
that He does according to his purpose and his will and nobody
can stay his hand and that nobody can stop him. If the Bible says
that in all clear terms but then says don't do this and someone
does that and then God is angered at them, that is God's purpose
that that would happen for a purpose. That doesn't mean that something
happened against God's will, that something happened against
God's plan and purpose. That ain't what that's talking
about. That's, you know, that's just a cop-out. That's just,
in my opinion, it's just someone who's trying to take some scriptures
and jumble them all together and to make God into somebody
that he's not whenever you're trying to say God has two wills
and that we have a will and that our will is bent to this or that
or however. All those arguments, in my opinion,
just, it's kind of running in circles. Let the Bible speak
and just say what the Bible says. God's will is the only will that
is free. God is the only one who has complete control over
all things. And God has not desired or purposed
that all men be loved or all men be saved. But let's look
a little bit more about how this concept of God's love being the
foundation of free will. That because God is love, therefore
we have to have free choice to love Him back. Well, look at this scripture
right here that we just read. It says, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. So this tells me right here,
number one, that the only one that can love the brethren and
therefore love God, matter of fact, if you look through scripture,
you'll find it pretty hard that Whenever you love the brethren,
that is you showing love for God. A lot of times we like to try to
disconnect the two loves, the love for God and the love for
brethren, so far that some can say, well, I definitely love
God, but a lot of times I can't love my brethren and everything.
Well, they go hand in hand. Love for God and love for brethren
are all one unit. And none of us can do that perfectly
at all. Matter of fact, any love that
we show, even in its imperfection, that we show for men or for God,
only comes because of God's work in us anyhow. It's God working
that love in us. It's not us trying to love or
being loved or doing love or whatever. We can't exercise or
exert love because we are flesh and we can't do anything that
pleases God. So the only working of love is of God working love
in us. So I would agree, definitely,
what this scripture says in the aspect of this, that nobody can
truly love God and the brethren unless God does it. It says,
for love is of God. Love is of God, it's not of man.
We have an affection, we have brotherly love, like, you know,
I love my family. I love my friends. Then I have
a relationship, love with my wife. I love my wife. You know,
we have those types of loves. And even in those, those are
imperfect also. But what it says here, it says
love is of God. So that tells me that the source
of love doesn't come from within myself. It comes from God. So
even if we say that God is love and he gives us free will so
that we can return that love to him, That love that is returned
to Him doesn't come from us anyway. It comes from God. The love is
God Himself working that love in us. Why? Because we won't
love God. The Bible says that we are enmity
with God, that in this flesh are carnal man, who we are in
Adam. That we hate God. Just the opposite. So no man
is going to love God unless God exerts His will upon us and causes
us to love Him. So there never really truly is
a free will reciprocating love back towards God. So the whole
platform is just null and void because you don't know the Bible.
You who said this and you who still say this You don't know
the Scriptures. You're ignorant of God's Word.
You need to be revealed. You need to be brought into the
light of what Scripture teaches. The whole premise is shocked
because no man can generate love, especially love that God requires,
so to speak, requires. No man can generate that. The
flesh cannot generate love. It can't. It's an inability. The natural state of man is hatred
towards God. And I know some people say, well,
I don't agree with that because even before I was saved, I didn't
hate God. I just had indifference to him. I didn't know about him. I didn't
hate him. No, no, no, no. That's because
you don't understand hate. You don't understand hate. If you don't love God, then you
hate God. If you don't, if you don't see
God, the Bible said you cannot serve two masters, you either
love one and hate the other, or hate one and love the other,
right? So even God himself puts it in black and white, concrete
terms like that. So it's not just the preacher
trying to make his point here. Even God says that. I can't serve
two masters. I'm either gonna love one, and
whenever I say love, it's not this ooey gooey, oh, the 25,000
stanza worship songs that everybody sits up there with their arms
raised and we're just gonna, with the praise team, just gonna
sing all day and everything. The ooey gooey feelings that
we get whenever the mood lighting hits and the songs hit and the
preacher comes out and he hits. You know, all this stuff. That's
not what we're talking about. We're talking about a love that
is a reverential servitude to God for who He is as revealed
in here. I love the God that is found
in here. And the God that is found in
here doesn't speak highly of who I am as a natural man. Who
the God is in here doesn't say you have such a good free will
and you can do whatever you want. In my sovereignty, I give you
choice. No. The God that I love has restricted
my will. The God that's in Scripture says
He doesn't love everybody and that He does hate some. The God
of Scripture, now how in the world did I come to love that
God? Because it's so antithetical,
it is so against opposed and crushingly wrathful against who
I am. How did I come to do that? Because God exerted His will
over my will. See, brethren, if you think that
God cannot trample a man's will, and I posted this earlier this
week, that, you know, Adrian Rogers and Billy Graham used
to always say this. They used to say that God is
a gentleman. He would never override your
will. Matter of fact, Billy Graham
actually said it. He said, that is something that
God cannot do. And then I posted a little meme
about Nebuchadnezzar down on his feet and hands eating grass. You know how God made Nebuchadnezzar
eat grass like a wild beast. You know, we don't have free
will. And yes, God does trample your will, our will. But let's
think about the mentality of this. God's love is the foundation
of free will. Free will is the foundation of
loving God. And God loves everyone, therefore
everyone has free will, so salvation then is for Everyone, that's
what the modern notion is. At least that's how I used to
preach it. Now, I can't speak for all Armenians out there,
but I'll speak for this used to be Armenian. That's how I
had believed. That's what I heard growing up.
I still hear that among people that I know that are Armenian. So God wants us to return this
love But then they go even further
and they say this, God's love also is the root and the foundation,
not only for free will, not only for the salvation of all men,
because it has to be covered for all if God wants all to love
Him. Then therefore, everybody has
to be given the chance, so the salvation must cover all. So
then if everybody is given free will, that also covers God's
justice. Because man has to be responsible
and accountable whenever he rejects or accepts God's love. So God has loved us. How did he show that he loved
us? By sending his son, John 3 16. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in
him. There it is. There's the free
will that God give us. so that we could reciprocate
the love back to him that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life." There you go. There's the gospel offer. Whosoever will believes in him. But brethren, that is not an
invitation. That whosoever will is not an
invitation. Another thing that I wrote a while back, same thing. Whenever Jesus said, whosoever
looketh upon a woman to lust, is that as much an invitation
to look at on a woman to lust? No. Well, then whosoever believes
is not an invitation to believe. It's a statement of fact. Whosoever
believes shall not perish, but have everlasting life. It's a
statement of fact. The believing ones will not perish.
Who are the ones that Jesus died for? The believing ones. Did
he die for them because they believed on him? No. He died
for them and they believe because He died for them. Whosoever looketh
upon a woman to lust is not an invitation to come and lust after
these women. He's just saying, whosoever looketh upon a woman
to lust has committed adultery in his heart. Who is the one
committed adultery in his heart? The one who looked upon the woman
to lust. You see, there is no free will. And God's love is not the foundation
for universal salvation. But see, they say, well, the
man doesn't have responsibility. God, because He is love, has
to give everybody a free will. Otherwise, they can't accept
Him or reject Him. And if they can't accept Him
and reject Him, then they're not responsible. Therefore, they
can't be judged. So if God is going to be judged,
and we know the Bible says that God's going to judge everybody
at the end, There has to be free will. So
now God's love is the foundation for righteous judgment for those
who accept and reject Jesus Christ. So see, they've taken this one
little phrase, God is love, and they've applied all this wisdom
of man and made God into this person who has to step in line
with their philosophy. God, you can't pick and choose. You have to choose everybody.
You have to give everybody love. You have to give everybody salvation.
And you have to give everybody free will. Otherwise, then they're
not doing it on their own. If they're not doing it on their
own, then they don't have responsibility and accountability. And we all
know Calvinists like to preach responsibility and accountability. I think Calvinists like to preach
that more than Armenians do. All y'all that's out there know
what I'm talking about. And no, we're not Calvinists. Here. So God has laid out this purpose
and plan. And what is at the foundation
of all of it? What is at the foundation of all of this? Man's
free will. If man doesn't have free will,
then there can't be love. If man doesn't have free will,
there can't be salvation. If man doesn't have free will,
then there can't be responsibility and accountability. So you see, everything is about
free will. It comes down to free will. It's
not about God. It's not about God's purpose. It's not about Christ and the
salvation that He has accomplished. It's not about the Holy Spirit
of God working out the whole thing that Jesus did for us and
bringing us to God, bringing us to an understanding of Him,
giving us life. It's not about that. It's about
you having a choice so that you can be responsible, so that you
can be accountable. And that's because God is love.
God's love. Well let me post something to
you on the other side of the coin then. This is where I guess we could
say we're on a wax philosophical a little bit. If God is love and therefore
that is the premise and the foundation for free will to exist, and God because he is love is
then required to love everyone of his creatures. And I believe that's what I hear
from Armenians, that's what I used to preach as an Armenian, is
that because God is love, he does love everybody and has to
love all of his creatures. What about Satan? Does God love
Satan? Does God love all the fallen
angels that followed after Satan? I'm not trying to be facetious
here and I'm not trying to be funny here. I'm truly asking
a question and I'm wanting you to think about this. This is
what whenever the Bible says rightly dividing the Word of
God That means whenever these statements are made, that we
think upon them, not only in their context, but the overall
context of the scripture and the doctrines that are being
preached within the scriptures. And so whenever we think about
these things, we don't just think about them at the surface level,
we think about the implications of what we are saying when we
say these things, that God is love, therefore we have to have
free will because we can't reciprocate God. So you're saying that God
is love and has to love everybody. Because of that statement, God
is love. God has to love everybody. Well,
what about Satan? Does God have to love Satan?
Does he love Satan? Then if he does love Satan, does
God want Satan to be saved too? And all his fallen angels? Does
God want them to have this reciprocating love relationship like he does
with the rest of mankind that he gave their free will? Do you
even believe Satan had a free will? Well, I know most Arminians
and even most Sovereign Grace people say yes. They think Adam
had a free will. They think that Satan had a free
will. And both of them, before they ever sinned, chose to sin
because they had a free will. Not because their nature was
made in such a way that they would sin, but they had free
will. We don't want to transgress man's
free will. So, by all means, we're not going to say that they
were sinner by nature. We're going to say that they
are free will to choose so they're responsible and held accountable.
Now that, my friend, is me speaking in sarcasm and being a little
facetious. Because it's dumb. It's not scripture. What about Satan? If God is love
and you're predicating the reciprocating love thing based upon man's free
will, then Satan should be also loved and that Satan should also
be desired to be saved by God. But is there any one scripture
that you can present to me to say that God has any love for
Satan or his fallen angels? or any desire for them to be
saved. I can't find any there. Matter
of fact, I find all through Scripture that Satan has his intended doom. God's predestinated judgment
upon Satan is already there. I mean, it tells us that hell,
the lake of fire was made for Satan and His angels, that He
was going to cast them there. Now, obviously we know that if
the Bible says that, that's what's going to happen. God can't lie. God's Word tells us that that's
what's going to be the final fate of Satan and his angels. And then all those who are wicked
are going to be thrown into the lake of fire. So we know that's
the destined end of everybody. We can't change that course unless
we rip out our Bibles or we say that God lied or something happened
that didn't, you know. Whoa, wait a minute. Something
changed. That was written way back then,
but something happened since then, so now we gotta add another
chapter to Revelation, to the rest of Scripture. No, it's gonna
happen, right? And you know what? Not one person,
I don't think not one person, maybe Unitarians, but not one
person I don't think, sits around contemplating and is heavy hearted
and burdened, that I wonder about old Satan. I wish he would accept
the Lord Jesus as his Lord and Savior. If only he would manifest
himself to me, I would preach the gospel to him. I know that
God's grace is greater than even his sin and he can overcome.
Well, I do know one person, Carlton Pearson. He believed that. Carlton
Pearson believed that even Satan could have been saved. Now, a lot of people are probably
saying, you're getting a little foolish here, preachers, but
I really want us to think about this. God's love is His nature. And therefore, because it's His
nature, He is bound or beholden to love everyone. The fallen angels made a choice and
in that choice was judged and now are going to suffer consequences
because of that choice. Therefore, they must have had
free will. Then they have the ability to
reciprocate love. So why doesn't God love them?
Why isn't God beholden to love them as he loved us? See, this is where I'm going,
this is why I'm telling you to think about these things because
what we say and how we use these little phrases to make these
man philosophy irregardless of what the rest of scriptures might
say has implications. See, if we say that God is love
and therefore is bound to love everybody and therefore everyone
has to have free choice so they can reciprocate that love then
that has to be extended to Satan and those fallen angels as well.
So that means that God does love them, and that since God loves
them, for God so loved that he gave his only begotten Son, therefore
salvation is open to Satan and his angels. Now you see what
kind of a predicament we've got God into with your man-made philosophies
and wisdom? You've now got God on the hook
for saving Satan, who he's already told is not going to be saved.
What are you gonna do now? But again, as I said, we're gonna
look at the other side of the coin here. Turn with me, if you
would, to Nahum. It's in the Old Testament. You reach Habakkuk, back up one. You see Micah keep truckin'. It's only a couple pages long
in my Bible, so I might pass it quickly. But go to Nahum,
chapter 1. I want to read something to you. We just read in 1 John 4a that
God is love. But let me read you something
else here. In Nahum, chapter 1, look at verse 2. It says,
God is jealous. Now, let me just say something
before I go even further. This word jealous, when it's
used in the Old Testament, when it speaks about God, doesn't
mean that God wishes that he had something that somebody else
has. How we get jealous, you know? You know, if some guy was
talking to my wife and I get jealous, I get over there and
get in his face. when the Bible says that God
is a jealous God, that means that God is a angry God, that
God is a fearful God, not one to be reckoned with, easily angered,
okay? And that's what jealousy, like
if a man goes and begins to speak to my wife, that jealousy is
not just wishing I had what he has, it's anger that You don't
be pulling up to my wife, you know. Who do you think you are? That's what that kind of jealousy
is. And the Bible here is not saying
that God just wishes he had something that he didn't have. No, it's,
he is angered that he is not getting what is his. What is
his is reverence and worship and honor and glory That is His,
by right. It says, God is jealous, and
the Lord revengeth. The Lord revengeth, and here
it is, and is furious. So basically it's saying God
is furious. Now look at that word furious.
In our King James Bible, it's translated furious here. But
the Hebrew word that's behind that, 34 times in the Old Testament,
is translated wrath. And the word actually means one
who holds wrath. This word furious here means
one who holds wrath. Someone who is wrathful. So it
says here that God is wrath. So here we have a passage of
scripture that equally says, like God says, it says God is
love. Here we have one that says that
God is wrath. Now let's apply the philosophical
conundrum that we just talked about to this side of the coin. If God is wrath and that is his
nature, now some will say that's not God's nature because God
can't have wrathful nature because he's love. You can't have the
nature of love and wrath, but yet the Bible says that. I'm
going to believe it over you. I'm sorry. But I'm going to believe
God over man. It says that he is wrath. And
if it says that he is wrath, then that means he is the embodiment
of wrath, and therefore wrath comes from him because he is
wrath. Just like love comes from him
because he is love. It's his nature. So God has nature
of wrath. So if God is wrath, like God
is love, therefore God is bound and beholden to give wrath
to everybody? When I say that about love, God
is bound, because He is love, to love everybody. Is God bound
to give wrath to everybody then? And then to extend eternal death
to everybody? Where in God's love, we learn
that because God loves us, He gives us eternal life. But if
God is wrathful, then God must give us eternal death. So is
that eternal death spread to everybody just like His love
is? Is that eternal death something that God offers then to everybody
and by free will they have to choose it themselves? because He wants everybody to
have the choice. Are you going to get wrath or are you going
to get love? But is God beholden to be wrathful
on everybody? Well, everybody would say, well,
no. No, God's not beholden to be
wrathful on everybody. Well, certainly everybody deserves
God's wrath, but God is not beholden to give wrath to everybody. But
He is love, so He is beholden to give love. You see the inconsistency
of the argument? If God is not beholden to love
everybody, or excuse me, if God is not beholden to give wrath
to everybody when God is wrath, then wouldn't it also be to say
that God is not beholden to give love to everybody even though
God is love? Now see, everything that we've
talked about from here back, is based upon unbiblical principles. That whole philosophy thing comes
because we don't know our Bible. But let's look at the more, in
my opinion, the more logical thing. But I know that Bible
isn't about logic. It isn't about wisdom, gaining
knowledge. It's about enlightened knowledge
that comes from God alone. The Spirit of God teaches us
and gives us true knowledge, true wisdom, that comes from
God to know what these things are actually talking about. If
God is love and therefore is beholden to love everybody and
if God is wrath, therefore He must be beholden to give wrath
to everybody. However, if that doesn't work and we clearly know
the Bible that God doesn't give wrath to everybody and He doesn't
give love to everybody, then there must be something else
going on here that somehow all of our philosophies and theologians
have missed. Well, they've missed the one
thing that is very clear and evident in Scripture. Look with
me at Romans chapter 9. Verse 18. Or excuse me, starting verse
15. I guess the question should be
asking 14 before we go to 15, Because whenever I say that, that God
is not beholden to love everybody and God is not beholden to give
wrath to everybody, someone's going to say, well, then isn't
there unrighteousness in God? Isn't it unrighteous for God
to not love everybody since God is love? Well, is it unrighteous
for God to not give wrath on everybody since God is wrath?
So if He doesn't give wrath on everybody, is God unrighteous?
No. Then what causes God to be righteous to say, I love these
people and I don't love these people? That I show mercy upon
these people and I hate these people? What causes God to be
just? There was a man who took both,
the love and the wrath. God's love was shown in the shedding
of the blood of His Son, and in doing so, God's wrath was
finished up, God's love was shown. In one man, love and wrath was
displayed, and who God is in His fullness. The reason that
God can say, I love these is because Jesus Christ became wrath
for these people. The reason God can say, I have
wrath upon these is because Jesus Christ did not. take their wrath,
and therefore God is just to give wrath to these people. Love
to these, why? Because of a substitute. Wrath
to these, why? There was no substitute. Is God
unjust in doing that? No. Why? For He sayeth to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, See, your will has nothing to do with your love. It has
nothing to do with your salvation. It has nothing to do with anything
that has to do with the reciprocation of a relationship with God. Your
will is not accounted for anything. Your will is governed by a sovereign
God whose will is the only will that is free. And yet we rise
up and we put our fists in our face and God's face and say,
we had free will, we will be as God. We think that we can
control our destinies, we think that we can control our lives,
we think we can control God. And God says, I am who I am. There is none beside me. There
is no other God. To be God means to have your
own will. To be God is to say that I control
destiny. I control everything. And there
is no one else that can say that. God is not in His sovereignty
giving you anything. God in His sovereignty has not
allowed you to pick and choose your destiny, to pick and choose
your love. He has not given within you to
try to live the law and to love Him. No, He's done everything. He's done everything. He's chosen
your destiny before the foundation of the world. He has sent His
Son to be your substitute by walking in your place, obeying
His law on your behalf. He took on your wrath that was
yours to be taken because of your sin. And therefore, He was
your substitute in death and He is your substitute in life.
He was raised from the dead for your justification. But even
more than that, He is also your faith. He is also your repentance. He is also your longevity in
persevering. If Christ is not in you, willing
and working His good pleasure, then you're just in your sin,
Adam, doing everything that is natural to man, which is, in
the Bible, is not of faith, it's sin. You can't get off the hook
for anything. Your will has absolutely nothing
to do with everything, and so God said, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Verse 18, therefore hath he mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will harden, he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say unto me, why does he yet find fault? There it is. What about responsibility and
accountability? We're going to be able to go
before God and say, God, you're sovereign and you predestined
everything. You made me a goat. I couldn't help but being a goat.
So how can you throw me off into the pits of hell whenever you're
the one who made me this way? You're gonna judge me for what
I did whenever I couldn't help it because your will overrides
my will. That's what it says there. That's
the argument that Paul's bringing up that we as Adam want to say
into God's face just like Adam did when he said, there's the
woman that you give me, it's her fault. God says, Who hath resisted his will? Who
hath resisted his will? That's the argument. And it says,
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made
me thus? What does Paul mean by that? He's meaning exactly
what he's about to say. The potter has the right to make
of the clay any pot that he wants and how he wants. It isn't about
responsibility and accountability, no matter how much these sovereign
grace preachers are out there telling you that you have a responsibility. To have a responsibility precludes
the fact that we have an ability that has been given to us. If
someone has a responsibility, that means that God has entrusted
to you something for you to carry out and to enact. Has God given to you anything
that has to do with your salvation? Whether it be justification,
sanctification, glorification? Has God given you anything to
do in that regards? So how can you have responsibility? I know those are words that people
like to tread light on. I don't know. It just sounds
so biblical that we have to have responsibility. That's because
it's been shut down our throats for so long. It's because that
the people out here are thinking that we can establish our own
righteousness before God and God's going to say, well done,
my good and faithful servant. Christ is the only good and faithful
servant. Christ is the only one that has accomplished all that
God has required. And He has either substituted
that for you or He has not. It is not of Him that willeth.
So to be responsible means that I have a free will. To be responsible
means that God has entrusted me to do something and God is
not. To respond to something that
is to be given to me for for accomplishment, I can't respond
because the Bible says I can't do anything spiritual unless
God Himself is working in me as the Spirit of God. So apart
from the Spirit of God doing the work, I cannot respond to
what God tells me to do. So then where's the accountability? Well, I will say this, God will
hold all people accountable. The Bible is clear about that.
But it's not predicated upon your thought of justice. It's
not predicated upon your thought of judgment. God will hold accountable
everyone. The pots that He made to be dirty,
He will hold them accountable as dirty pots. Those that He
made to be clean pots, He will hold them accountable as clean
pots. Not because they were cleaning them out of themselves, but because
they had someone that washed them up. Shall a thing form say to that
which formed it, why it's now made me thus? Had not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump, of the same lump, of the
same lump, the same lump. That means Adam is the same as
us. We are the same as Adam. But
out of that same lump. And by the way, he didn't make
Adam one lump and then change him into another lump after he's
sinned. No, he's the same lump. We're just like him. Hath not
the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one
vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing
to show his wrath, willing to show his wrath, why, because
God is wrath, and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, fitted
to destruction." That means God made some vessels for wrath and
He fit them for that destruction. He made them in such a way that
they would be who they are. Their will is not going to get
them out of that. Salvation has not been extended to them. Christ's
death did not apply to them. God is not looking for reciprocating
love from them. God didn't make them this way
and then say, oh, I'm going to watch and see. I hope they love
me. God is of one mind and who can
turn him? He's not a double minded man
saying I'm going to make this man where he's going to be condemned
as a fitted vessel of destruction and then sit up there hoping
that he looks to him for salvation. This is the degradated God that
we are preaching in churches all over the place today. And
that's not the God of Scripture. He says that He might make known
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He hath
aforeprepared unto glory. So if God chooses, He can give
mercy to one and not the other. So there, that right there, They're
hated verses. Matter of fact, I look down a
lot of times in commentators, and one of the first times I
get their commentary series or something, I immediately go to
Romans 9 and see, do they cover Romans 9 in their commentary?
Most of the time, guys skip it. Most of the time, they talk about
it as a national thing, that God has chosen nations and not
people, individuals. God has mercy on whom He has
mercy. And whenever He doesn't have
mercy, He has wrath. Now that right
there clears up the conundrum. Can God be love and not show
love? Yes. Can God be love and God
hate? Yes. Can God be wrathful in love? Yes. It's not an either or. Why? Because God is who He is. Because God is who He is. If God chooses who He gives mercy
to and who He doesn't, that completely eradicates the notion of free
will then, doesn't it? So the phrase that we began with
at the very beginning is completely and totally null and void by
the overall context of Scripture. Now there was a lot of Scriptures
I could have went to to dispel even more of this. But I think
just in enough of what we've seen here that the fact that
God is love and God is wrath and the fact that God has the
ability to choose some for wrath and some for love shows us that
it can't be a free will reciprocating thing. Now let me say this, whenever
I love God, does that truly come from within me? Of course it
does, it comes from God in me. Is it a genuine love? I hope
it to be. I hope it to be genuine love. If it is genuine love, it isn't
coming from me, it's coming from God. But brother, let me say that My free will isn't the one that's
causing it. God isn't waiting for me to respond back to Him
in love so that we can have this reciprocating relationship. No,
God has chosen to give relationship to me and then He has enabled
me to have a relationship with Him. Any relationship that I
have with God is purely because God has enabled that relationship
to happen. Because by nature, that relationship
would never happen. We would continue to be children
of wrath even as others. Meaning that we would be children
that is wrathful towards God, hateful towards God, angry towards
God, enmity towards God, against God. It is only because God has
taken and remove that heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh.
It is only because God has overwritten my will and given me the Spirit
of God in me that now has the love of God shed abroad in my
heart that I do love God for who He is in here. Do I love
the God that says I will choose one and not another? Yes. The God that I once hated, I
now love. Why? Because that's who He is.
Does God genuinely love? Yes, He does. God truly does
love, but God loves those who He has given to Christ. So, the fact that God chooses
who He will give mercy to and who He will not give mercy to,
that then eradicates the free will position. Now, look with
me at John chapter 6 and verse 44. And how does it happen? If there
is no free will, how does it happen? John 6 and verse 44, Jesus said
this, No man can come to me except No man can come to Me except..."
This is talking about our natural state. No man can come to God.
Why? Because it's not within his nature
to do so. He doesn't want to. That's why I'm saying it can't
be a free will reciprocating thing because there is nothing
in our part that reciprocates unless God gives us life. Unless God saves us, we will
never seek Him. We will never want Him. We will
never desire Him. God has to do the willing, and
the choosing, and the picking, and the deciding, and the enabling,
and the working. Why? Because in our flesh we
can't do it. It's an inability. This here,
this verse, so often they look at us sovereign grace people,
And they say that this is a, that we're saying that this verse
here is God being over saying that there's people that's wanting
to come to God. God said, Nope, you can't come and said, except
I draw you first. Like they're trying to pile in
to be with God. No, that's not what that's saying. This Jesus is saying, this is
an ability issue. This is talking about your ability.
You don't have the ability to come your desire. You don't have
the will to come. You don't have the desire to
come. No man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me
draw him. So we have to be drawn or brought
by God to Him. Why? Because our nature won't
do it. There is no reciprocating. There is no love. There is no
desire. So God has to do that. tell you
where did that drawing come from. Now here's where it says God
is love, and we believe that God is love, and we do preach
God's love, we just preach it biblically. God is love, but
He isn't love to everybody. That's the truth of Scripture.
And I wanted to say as soon as you get that under your belt
and believe it, but as soon as God reveals that to you, you'll
understand that God is love. And God has shown
great love by saving men. But God is not forced to do that
to every man. But turn with me if you would,
and the last scripture we'll look at here is Jeremiah chapter
31. Jeremiah 31 verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, now let's just stop
there and I'm going to mention something before I get to the
therefore. He has loved us with an everlasting love. That meant God was loving us
when there was no reciprocation. God loves us when there is no
reciprocation. He loved us when we were yet
sinners, the Bible says. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. The preacher says, and while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, not that He loved us.
No, if you take the whole of Scripture, we find out the reason
Christ died for us is because God loved us. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that Christ would
die for you. That's what that's saying. God
exemplified or showed His love by Christ dying for us. by God
saving us through the death of Christ. That's God showing His
love to us. No greater love has any man than
he lay down his life for his friends. Christ was showing God's
love by dying for us. And the Bible says why we were
yet sinners. Christ showed that love. He died
for us whenever we were hating Him, rejecting Him, against Him. There was no reciprocating of
love. God loved us. So yes, we believe
in God's true, genuine love for His people. But it is for His
people. It's not for everyone. It's for
those that He has chosen. I don't know why He chose me.
I don't know why He chose anybody else. The only scripture that
we have of why God chooses one and not the other is because
it is by the pleasure of His will. That's the only thing in
the Bible that tells us that it is by His will that He did
so. It isn't because we did anything
good or bad. Romans 9 told us that too, that
the purpose of God according to election is not because anyone
did anything good or bad. God didn't choose to save me
because I was good, and God did not elect someone else because
they were bad. It isn't because we were good
or bad that God elected before anything to make one a vessel
of honor and one a vessel of dishonor. The reason they do sin and then
they are accountable for that sin and they are that vessel
of dishonor is because God chose them to be that and He didn't
choose them to be that because He looked down and seen that
they wouldn't accept Him. No, He chose them because He chose
them to be that. Why did He choose that tree to
be an oak tree and not a cherry tree? Because He chose it to
be an oak tree. Why? Because it didn't produce
cherries? And it produces acorns? No. He
chose it to be an oak tree to produce acorns and he chose that
to be a cherry tree to produce cherries. He chose one to be
a vessel of dishonor to produce dishonorable things and to be
dishonorable. He chose the other to be a vessel
of honor to bring forth his glory. But it says here that He has
loved us with an everlasting love. Therefore, because God
has loved us with an everlasting love, there is an effect. There
is an effect to God's love. With loving kindness have I drawn
thee to Him. So the answer to John 6.44 is
who is it then that come? Who is it then that are drawn
by the Father? Those that have been given to
Christ, we learn that in John 6.44. John 6 tells us, all that
the Father gave of me shall come to me. Right? But here we learn
that all that come, or all that are drawn by God, are not everybody. The ones that God has loved.
The ones that God has loved. So here we go, if God is love, Is He beholden to love everybody?
No. Why? Because God can have mercy
on whom He will have mercy. And those that He gives mercy
to, He draws. Why? Because those are the ones
that He loves. The ones that He loves are the ones that He
draws. The ones that He doesn't love are the ones that never
get drawn. And that's why we find in Malachi God said, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. He despised and cut low everything
about Esau. Jacob have I loved, therefore
since I have loved Jacob, Jacob will be the chosen and Esau will
not. Well, Esau was the oldest. He
was the one that came out of the womb first. He was the one
that was supposed to get the birthright. By man's will, Esau
should have been the one. But God's will overrode that
and said, no, no, no. Esau will not receive the birthright
physical things, but also Esau will not receive the spiritual
things either. Jacob will. Now, Jacob was just as bad as
Esau. Jacob was a surplanter. Okay, Jacob had his faults. It wasn't whether they did any
good or bad. God chose Jacob and not Esau.
God chose me and maybe not someone else if I would be His. That's
how God works. It's according to His will. And
because He has loved us with an everlasting love, He draws
us. Those that He draws are the ones
that He enables to love Him. We love Him because He what?
First loved us. So God is love is not the foundation
for free will, but God is love is the exaltation of God's sovereignty. And so let us worship God as
he is and quit trying to lay at the altar man's free will
and worship it. All right, does anybody got anything
that you'd like to add or any comment? Amen. So much preaching out there that
is teaching that God loves us all and God is beholden to save
everybody. But that's not the God of the
Bible and that is why we say that. Brethren, it's not we're
saying it out of, again, that we're better than anybody else
or we're saying that out of an elitism or we're saying that
just because we like to hate on people. whenever we say, that's
a false gospel. Those are false gospel preachers.
Those are false gospel churches. Those aren't true churches. We're
not saying that ours is the only one that is. Thankfully, the
Lord has His churches all over the place. They're not very big.
They're not very many. But He does still have them all
over the world. And those people love the God
that is found here. Not the one that is taken a little
bit here and then made into this philosophical conundrum Jesus. But the one who truly is who
He is. Do we love God for who He is revealed as or who we think
He should be? So may we always be given to
love the God of the Scriptures. Alright. Again, anybody got any
questions or comments, corrections or rebukes or anything? thing
to add to that, brother? He says, get my book, you'll
find out. It is a good book, by the way. All right, let's stand and have
a word of prayer. As we pray again, well, thank you, everybody.
I did say that when we came on. Thank you, everybody, for our
prayers this week. While we were sick and everything, we're back,
all feeling better now. But I also want everybody who's
listening, we have a fellow that comes here. His name is Daniel.
I want y'all to remember him in your prayers. His mother passed
away this week. And remember him and his family
in your prayers, if you would. Well, let's go to the prayer. Brother, would you like to just We repeat that every day in our
word, thought, deed, and actions. We pray. We thank You for the
grace of God. And it's a gift. It's not any
merit in the preacher. Go with us now, we pray. Be with
Daniel now in a special way this week. In Your grace.