Alright, well turn with me if
you would this morning over to 1 Timothy chapter 6. We'll be looking at several different
verses this morning. But I wanted to Start here, and
particularly want to look at two words. And I mention often
here that we know that the Bible teaches us that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. Therefore,
if all scripture is given by the inspiration of God, then
that means that they're God's words. And if they're God's words, then
every word is meaningful. Every word that God has given
us is truth. Every word that God has given
to us is a revelation of what he wants us to know. We often say it here at our church
and we hope to exercise ourselves in the following of this, but
we often say here that we don't go to a creed or a confession
or a denomination or a school or whatever to get the doctrine
that we believe. We don't follow after doctrines
so that we might fit in a certain category of people or a certain
group of people. Our doctrine is determined by
what the Bible teaches. We believe what the Bible teaches
and we formulate our beliefs around what the Scripture teaches. What's the phrase we always use?
That the Bible is our only rule of faith and order, right? The
only rule of the doctrine and the practice that we do. What
do we teach and believe about God and about Christ, about ourselves,
about salvation, whatever, and how do we carry out that practice
and how do we conduct the gathered assembly worship? That's the
practice. Okay, that's why we have certain
things that we do whenever we baptize, certain ways that we
baptize, who we baptize, How we do the Lord's Supper, well,
we do that because we're following the scriptures. Whenever we teach
about a certain doctrine, whether it be justification or whether
it be of atonement or whether it be of grace or whatever that
might be, we do that because of what the Bible says. And we
formulate those doctrines from scripture, not take a set of
doctrines that's been handed down to us under the umbrella
of orthodoxy and say, well, this is what you have to say. Because
listen, there's several confessions of faith that you can go out
there. I mean, the Baptists have lots of confessions of faith
and all of them differ. The Presbyterians have their
confessions of faith that have been amended and redone and all
that kind of stuff. And everybody else has their
confessions of faith, their statements of faith and all that kind of
stuff. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong for a
church to put forth a statement of, this is what we believe the
Bible to say. But again, as we've learned here
over many, many years, that a statement of faith or a confession and
creed is only as good as far as it aligns with the word of
God. And that it is not the final
rule of authority in anything. We do not base anything off of
a confession or a creed. Now, with that said, I stand
up here week after week and say, this is what the Bible says,
this is what the Bible says, this is what the Bible says. And many
people say, well, there you go. That's a confession. You're confessing
what the Bible says. And all we are doing is writing
down what we believe the Bible is saying. That's true. But I
often also tell you every week, don't listen to me. Don't trust
me. Don't take my word for it because I'm saying it. Don't
believe it because the Baptists say it. Don't believe it because
You know, sovereign grace people say it, or old school Baptists
believe it, or primitive Baptists believe it. Does the Word of
God say that? Okay? So, only listen to me as
far as I am telling the truth on the Scriptures. Okay? So,
there's a difference in confessing what one believes the Bible to
say and what is the truth. My confession of what I think
this says is not the truth. The truth is this right here.
Okay? So me saying what I interpret
to be the truth is not truth. It's only truth if it is what
this is saying. And so whenever we start looking
at confessions of faith and we start looking at all these things
Man, there's all kinds of verses written underneath them things,
right? You go to the 1647, you go to the 1689, you go to the
New Hampshire Confession of Faith, the Philadelphia Confession of
Faith, the Southern Baptist Confessions of Faith, all these Confessions
of Faith all have, down below them under each one of their
headings and topics that they're talking about, they'll have 10,
5, 15, 20, however many verses to support
what they're saying this particular doctrine is saying, right? So
everybody has their doctrines, but yet I can go through and
I'll look at every one of those confessions of faith, and even
though some of them, all of them have something good in there,
that I could say, I agree with that, I agree with that. Every
one of them, confessions of faith, I can look and say, I don't agree
with that, I don't agree with that. Even though all those bibles
and people often do that, and they'll take Look at all them
Bible verses. What do you think about them Bible verses? I say,
well, they're not Bible verses. They take Bible verses and they
place them in what they've done. But they've misapplied those
Bible verses as far as my understanding and the light that's been given
to me and understanding that's been given to me. I may be wrong
here. Don't trust me. Don't trust Dr. So-and-so. Don't
trust Confession of Faith writer so-and-so. You've got to go to
the Holy Spirit things. But that about faith and everything
is the fact that anybody can take verses of scripture and
apply what they want to apply to what it is they want to back
up. Everything has to be revealed.
Everything has to be taught of God. And therefore, whenever
we come to the scriptures to learn of the scriptures, every word of God's word. Unless
God gives us a deliverance from ignorance, when I say deliverance
from ignorance, I'm not using the word directly in the way
of some insult. I'm talking about the fact I mean, I'm not saying that they
are at all. They are in. God doesn't want
them from their parents or from us. That's unbelief. You can't walk in that. Only the light is in there. You cannot. I've seen. years ago. And I. understand and try to proclaim
and proclimate the best that we are able to do in the enabling
that God has given us, we try to preach the truth as it is
laid out in the scripture and to lay down any presuppositions. And I know that's hard because
we're all filled with presuppositions. Me and Brother Larry were just
talking about that this morning. We were talking about something and it
was like, He asked me a question, I was like, well, you know, yeah,
I believe that, but the reason I believe that is because I've
always been told that, so let me look. And so we got to looking
and we had to kind of convince ourself in scripture of what
we already thought we knew, right? That's how often we, listen,
after coming to the doctrines of grace, however many years
ago it's been now, after coming to the doctrines of grace, whenever
I was seeing how blind I was to the gospel, growing up and
preaching for so long, preaching a false gospel on how people
were saved and how we come to grace and everything like that.
After that, I just, man, if I'm wrong at that, then I could be
wrong on a lot of things. Take me back and let's go back
to Scripture and what does Scripture say? Now, one of the key things that
is prevalent in the majority of quote-unquote Christianity
is this notion that we have a free will. Brother Larry's wrote a
book on it called The Lies of Free Will or Free Will of the
Lies. I can't remember now how the title goes. Brother Larry's
wrote a book on it, a very good book. If you don't have it, pick
it up. On all his platforms, he's out there all over the world
somewhere. But anyway, he goes through and
he systematically goes through and shows you a lot of things
on how believing in free will disseminates the thought of sovereignty,
the thought of predestination, atonement, all this kind of stuff.
And then where some of these errors popped up and everything
throughout history. It's a topic that is hotly debated. But as vast as the debate is
on all these things, and as much as our default system yearns
to have free will, and desires to have free will, we do not
have a free will. The Bible teaches that we do
not have a free will. Matter of fact, this very thing
is what sets our church apart from most churches that are out
there. is because most churches out
there, their whole entire, their whole entire evangelical gospel
machine all runs on the gas of free will. If man doesn't have
a free will, then their whole mechanism comes to a grinding
halt. If free will is not true, then
everything that they're doing, everything that they're preaching,
and everything that they are trying to accomplish comes to
a grinding halt. And so a lot of people ask us,
you know, what, you know, matter of fact, I was asked when we
first come to Joplin, I had lunch with a man and invited me over
to teach at their church, and I went and talked to a men's
group over there, and one of the questions that they asked
me was, why another church? We're a Baptist church. Why don't
you just come to our church? Why come and start a new church? I said, well, first, I didn't
start the church. The church was started by Christ.
And second of all, I wasn't here whenever he brought the people
together. That's me. They just called me to be pastor.
So I didn't have a hand in any of it. But the reason for another
church is because what we believe and what you believe is diametrically
opposed. What we believe and what you
believe is so far in opposites that there can be no fellowship.
The Bible tells us that we are to withdraw ourselves, to remove
ourselves from churches that are preaching and teaching these
false Gospels, that are preaching and teaching these false Jesuses
and conducting church in a false way. And so we have another church
because at the time we didn't find anybody in this town, at
least the people that was here, didn't find anywhere in this
town that was holding to the New Testament church, to the
New Testament gospel, and to the New Testament Jesus. So here
we are. And therefore I went in about
five days of trying to explain that and why we are different. Why are we different? Why is
free will this thing that separates us from everybody else. Well
it's because God in His grace has given us to understand the
truth of the scripture. And unfortunately and sadly to
our hearts because most of our loved ones and our family, our
friends are still caught up in the lies of free will. Let's look at what the scripture
says. That's kind of the whole gist of what I wanted to talk
about today is why have we separated from everybody? Why do we make
such a distinction? Why is it that we have become
sectarian, if you want a 50 cent word? Why have we become sectarian? Why have we removed ourselves
from our friends and our family? Why can we not have gospel fellowship
with the ones that we love in the flesh? Why can't we have
that fellowship? Why can't we have that unity?
Why can't we, you know, go to each other's churches and just,
you know, everybody's loving Jesus and loving on each other,
you know? What was the old Gaither song?
Loving God, loving each other. You know, we, our group used
to sing that, that I used to be in. We used to sing that all
the time. And that is a wonderful song. I think, hey, I think that's
a great song for the true church of Jesus Christ. You know, loving
God and loving each other, that's the two things and all the law
and the commandments hang on those two things, right? But
why is there a separation? Is free will, is this something
that we are following after a man named John Calvin? Well, no. To be honest with, and I'm just
going to go on record, I know I've said it before though, but
I'm going to go on record. I could care less what John Calvin
says, Matter of fact, to be honest, here I am, I'm a guy that believes
in the Doctrines of Grace, a Sovereign Grace preacher, and I've probably
read about that much John Calvin. I've probably read that much
John Owen. I've probably read about that
much Knox, all these other Puritans. I've read about that much of
them, so their influence on me is not that great. Did I read
them when I first come to the Doctrines of Grace? Yeah, because
I wanted to know what this new thing that the Lord was showing
me in the scripture was all about, and other men that knew about
it. But as I began to read them, I began to disagree with them.
This is the only place that I could find comfort to know, this is
where truth is. I love Larry, and I think Larry
preaches and teaches a lot of good stuff, but I can't go to
Larry. I can't go to my grandpa, I can't go to my brothers and
sisters, and I can't go to my mom and my dad, I can't go to
my best friend. Listen, I have preacher friends,
Brother Royce and Brother JC, All the other brothers that we
fellowship with and everything down through the years and everything
like this, hey, I love those men, but I can't go to them because
I disagree with all of them on certain things. We all have different
understandings of things. And that doesn't mean that I
just disregard everybody. We all at least have the gospel
that we agree to on that. But if they don't have the gospel,
I can't fellowship with that. I can't go and be a part of whatever
they're preaching. as long as it comes down. And
whenever it all boils down, it all boils down to free will.
We don't agree on what the Bible teaches about free will and how
a person is saved. Many people believe that we have
a free will to make a decision for Jesus, to make a decision
and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and make him the Lord
of our life, to whenever he knocks on the door, we have to open
it and let him in. You know, all the little euphemisms,
come down to the front of the church, shake the preacher's
hand, whatever, all those things that are said that we have to
do, that all revolves around the fact that, or the presupposition
that people have, that we have a free will, that God has done
all that He can do, and now He's offering this salvation to you,
and in offering that to you, you have to reach out your hand
and take it. He's offering the gift, but a
gift isn't ever a gift unless you reach out and take it to
you. These are all things I heard growing up. All things that I
used to preach from the pulpit. But, brethren, nowhere in the
Bible does it say anything about receiving that gift. Now, it
talks about receiving, but not in the fact of reaching out and
grabbing and taking it. It means that we have received
it in the fact that it has been freely given to us and has been
freely applied in us and to us. We didn't do anything for it.
I'll give you the illustration before. I can go over there and
I can suck Zach right in the eye and give him a black eye.
He received a black eye from me. He didn't do anything for
that. He didn't have to ask for it.
He didn't ram his head into my fist. I hit him in the eye, he
got a black eye. He received a black eye freely. And if he back talks, he'll get
another one. No, I'm just kidding. You might
want to turn the camera and show Zach I didn't hit him. But it all comes down to free
will. Everybody believes free will
is at the heart of coming to Jesus Christ. And if free will
is the hinge pin on which salvation lies and swings, okay, if God
has done everything that he can and man just has to, by his free
choice, and I'm going to use those two terms because I've
had conversations with people who try to make a distinction
between free will and free choice. There is no difference between
free will and free choice. To choose something is to choose
something because you will to do something. Your will to do
something and your choice to do something, that's the same
thing, okay? You're not getting off the hook
by, well, that's the hot topic word, free will, so I'm going
to use free choice, okay? We choose. Because the Bible
says, choose you this day, so we're going to use the term choose.
free will and free choice are the same thing. So I'll use those
interchangeably. But it comes down to God's done it. He's offered
it. He wants to give it to you. His
desire is for you to have it. His pleasure is for you to be
saved. You have to reach out and choose
it and accept it. That means that salvation and
in all its dynamic is left up to one little thing, and that's
your choice. So that means all of salvation
and all of what it has accomplished, will accomplish, is accomplishing,
all of it is steamrolling with the gas of free will. Brethren, if you take that gas
out, then you don't have any moving vehicle. You don't have
any gospel. If you take free will out, you
do not have a gospel anymore. Your gospel is void because your
fuel is free will. You've got to have the free will.
Someone has to go and preach. It's all about the work of the
man, the choice of the man to become a preacher, to be surrendered
to God, to go to the natives, to go to the cities, to the urban
areas, to go to the rural areas, wherever God is wanting people
to be saved. I got to make a choice to become
a preacher and to go and save them. I got to make a choice
to learn everything there is to learn, to go to school, to
get educated, to go whatever. I've got to make a choice to
preach this message this week and this message this week and
this message this week so that everybody can hear everything
that needs to be heard. I've got to make a choice to
accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior and then I have to make a choice
to every day to live according to His law and then every day
I've got to make a choice to deny myself and to pick up my
cross and to follow Him and every day it's a choice, it's a choice,
it's a choice. Everything is fueled by free will. If free will isn't in charge,
if free will isn't fueling, then everything comes to a screeching
halt. Preaching comes to a screeching halt. The ministry comes to a
screeching halt. Saving comes to a screeching
halt. People's lives come to a screeching halt. Everything
comes to a screeching halt if free will is taken out of your
world system, your gospel system. Everything comes to a screeching
halt. But it's only in the truth, the true gospel, the true churches,
the true preaching, the true preachers, where free will can
be completely and totally absent and void as the Bible teaches. Free will can be completely and
totally not even regarded as it comes to salvation. And the
glory of God moves on. The church of Christ moves on.
Salvation moves on. Exaltation of Christ moves on.
Everything continues to move on to its intended end, which
is the complete and total glorification and magnification of Jesus Christ. And there doesn't have to be
free will at all, even spoken of, ever. And it continues to
fuel. Because it's not fueled by man,
it's fueled by God. It's not fueled by works, it's
fueled by grace. It's a gospel that is fueled
by grace and not words. If it's fueled by words, then
there is a place for man to falter and now it becomes defunct. But if everything is taken out
of the hands of man, if everything has nothing to do with any condition
of man, then it can't ever falter and it will be victorious. Look with me if you would at
1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 15. I don't know if most
people are aware of this or not, but in our King James Bible,
the word sovereign is not found one time in the whole entire
Bible. And I've actually had many people
say, you're preaching stuff that's not even found in the Bible.
You're preaching stuff that's not in the Bible. The Word sucks. Now we know that this term is
not found in the Bible. That doesn't mean that the teaching
of it's not. That's why I chose to go here first. Probably the most plainest place
in all of scripture I think, now there's other places, we're
going to read some other verses here, but probably the most plainest
place that shows that there is only one who is sovereign is
found here in 1 Timothy 6.15. It says, and I'm going to start
with the second part of the verse, it says, who is the blessed and
only, now this is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ here, we're
speaking of Christ, who is the blessed and only potentate,
those are the two words that I want us to look at, the only
potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who only hath
immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach,
unto whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and
power everlasting." The only potentate. Now, do we all know
what the word potentate means? I kind of had an idea of what
it meant. I went ahead and looked it up just to make sure that
I wasn't rednecking it and thinking up my own definition. But the
word potentate actually means someone who has all power, all
control, someone who is over all things. A potentate is a king, it says
king of kings, but a potentate was normally referred to as the
highest person in government, the highest one. He is the one who is in complete
and total charge. This right here, the Bible says
that He is the only Potentate. That means there's no other Potentates.
If He's the only, He didn't say He was the greatest Potentate.
It didn't say that He was the highest ranked. One of many. It said He was the
only potentate. So that means that he is the
only one with sovereignty. Nobody else has sovereignty.
We talk about the United States being a sovereign nation. And it has its connotation, its
context. We're not saying that it has
all power. It has, we declare ourselves to be sovereign is
the fact that we have power over our own country and we don't,
you know, nobody controls us outside But that's for another day, another
story. Christ is the only Potentate. Now, if He is the only Potentate,
that word Potentate also means sovereign. He is the only sovereign. So that means Christ is the only
one who has sovereignty. Now, we know that the word sovereignty
means the one who has all power, all control. For one to have free will, his
will must be sovereign over all other wills. To say that I have
free will means that there is no restraint on my will and that
my will can overcome anybody else's will. Makes sense, right? Free will means that my will
is completely free. Let's say free choice. My choice
is completely free, meaning that my choice can supersede and overcome
anybody else's choice. My choice is the sovereign. My
will is the sovereign. Nothing controls my will. Nothing
controls my choice. I am accountable and responsible
for my own choice and my own will. That's what people say,
right? Well, the Bible says there's
only one potentate. The Bible says there is only one sovereign. And I know, I used to say it,
I used to preach it, and I still hear it today. God in his sovereignty
has allowed us to have free will. That is a misguided, dumb, garbage
saying. That is dumb. I used to say it. I used to say dumb things. That
is dumb. That cannot be. That is a contradiction
in terms, a contradiction in truth. You cannot have one who
is sovereign and someone who is given sovereignty below him. There cannot be two who has sovereign
wills. One's will is subservient to
the other's. You say, well, what about the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? They have the same will. They're sovereign. They're one
God, too. Not three gods. They're one God. And in speaking of the only potentate,
by the way, it says Christ is the only potentate. So that God,
is manifested in the man Christ Jesus. Manifested in the God-man,
the only mediator between God and man, and that's the man Christ
Jesus. He is God in flesh. Emmanuel. He is the everlasting God. He is the everlasting Father. He is the Comforter. He is the
Word of God made flesh. All the fullness of the Godhead
is in Him bodily. If you've seen the Father, you've
seen Him. His Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. Everything that has
to do with the Godhead is all wrapped up in one God, one man,
Jesus Christ. He is the only God. He's the only potentate. And He's the only one that has
sovereignty. Did Jesus take a place of servanthood
in his time in ministry as our substitute? Yes, he did. Philippians
tells us that. But remember, Christ did not
think it robbery to be equal with God in doing so, but he
took on the form of a servant. He isn't a servant in the full
aspect of He is below us. He took on the form of a servant. He took on the role of a servant.
He took on the exercise of a servant to accomplish all that God had
purposed in salvation of His people. He took on that form. But He still was all God. He
was the only Potentate. And for one to have a free will
He must be a potentate. He must be a sovereign. He must
have sovereignty over all other wills. If his will is equal to
or in any way subservient or succumbed or thwarted by another's
will, then he is no longer sovereign. If God has a will and that will
is not done, if God wills something and somebody's other will can
say, no, I'm not going to do that, then their will is now sovereign
over God's will. He is no longer the only potentate. The one who not only governs
all wills, but overrides all wills, is the only one considered
a sovereign. See, we'll say, oh, well, we
believe God governs everyone's wills with His providence. But when people say that, they
mean, well, men choose what they want to do, and then God turns
it around to fit His purpose somehow. works that out. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. So we have our wills, but once
we will against God, then God works that out somehow and configures
everything out. Well, if God, let's just think
about this for a minute, and I'm getting off track. Just think
about this for a minute. So if man does something, he
wills to do something that God didn't want done. And God looks
at that and says, well, that's not what I wanted to do. This
is what I want done. So I'm going to work out the
circumstances after this so that it will still work out the way
that I wanted it to work out. Then is not God conforming all
other wills then to line out to where it still gets to where
he wants to go? Yes. So did that person actually go
against God's will? No. All that meant was God purposed
that man not willing so that the accomplishment of something
else might take place. Preacher, do you got any facts
for that? Yes, if you'll hold on, I'm gonna
get to it. Lord willing, I hope we get to it. So truly free will
means sovereign will. I don't think we can deny that
fact. To have free will means that
we have sovereign will. Free will means that there is
nothing binding my will. Free will means that it can do
as it pleases. Free will means that it will
accomplish anything that it desires to accomplish. That's what free
will means. And people just spout this off
all the time. I used to spout it off all the
time. Free will, free will, free will. Free will means I am sovereign
over all other wills. That's the only way my will can
be free. Now the reformed man is going to come in and say,
Preacher, you're partly right. But we do have free will, according
to our nature. Our will is dictated by our nature. Therefore, before we're born
again, all we can do is sin. But once we're born again, now
we have the ability to reject and refuse and to deny that fleshly
man and to follow after and to obey God and to do all these
things. And so we have free will in accordance with our will.
We can't come to Christ until we're born again. But once we're
born again, then we can freely choose to come to Christ and
freely will to do this or that. Brethren, we no more have free
will after we've been born from above than we did before. We
have no more free will. God governs the old man, natural
man, as much as He does the spiritual man. God governs who we are on
the Adamic level or on the Christolic level. He ordains all things,
controls all things. There is still no will that subverts
Him. A will cannot be free if it does
not have power to accomplish everything that it wills. If
it does not have the power to accomplish all that it desires,
it cannot be free. It cannot do what it wants to
do. Therefore, you don't have free
will. You say, I still think we have
free will, though, preacher. You're kind of pressing that
down. Well, let me give you a few examples. In Romans chapter 7,
Paul By the way, after he was converted, he wrote this. Verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent under the law that it is good. Now then, it
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For
I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good I find not. Paul here is saying, I think
I have a will to do something, but I can't do it. I love the
law of God. I delight in the law of God and
my inward man. And I desire to keep this law,
but guess what? I can't do it. Wait a minute,
Paul, you got free will. If you got free will, why can't
you just quit sinning? You got free will, why don't
you obey those laws? You got free will, moment by
moment. Second by second, can you not
sin for a second? Can you not sin for a minute?
Can you not sin for an hour? Well, if you can not sin for
an hour, You not sin for an afternoon? If you can not sin for an afternoon,
can you not sin for a day? Well, if you cannot sin for a
day, then why don't you make it a week? If it's all about just yielding
ourselves, then how come you don't yield? Why is it that not
one Christian, not one person who has ever walked on the face
of this earth, except Jesus Christ, has ever willed to quit sinning? Why have they not willed to yield
continually. Do you love your sin more than
you love Jesus? Well, if so, why don't you will
yourself to quit loving that? You see what I'm saying, brethren?
I know it sounds silly, and I know some people will say that's stupid
arguments, but those are, to me, in my mind, at least to this
simpleton, are valid arguments. Why can I not even will? You're telling me that I have
the will to change my whole entire destiny and to make God the Lord
of my life, the King of my life, that I don't have my own will
to give to Him all that He is deserving of. I don't have the
will to do that, but I have the will to change my whole entire
destiny. I have the will to be holy. I have the will to be sanctified. What's up with that? Why? Because sin is still in
me. You don't have a free will. Number
one, because you're not God. Number two, because you are a
sinner. Excuse me. Give me a piece of
candy. Let's think about Jonah. Did
Jonah have a free will? You're an evangelical out there,
you need to say yes. Jonah had free will. God told Jonah to
go to Nineveh to preach. Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh
to preach. He didn't think they were worthy to be preached to
or to be saved. Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh.
So what did he do? He hopped a ship to Tarsus. I'm
going to go this way, God. You want me to go to Nineveh,
I'm going that way. What happened? Was it just an
accident? that where that boat was at,
there happened to be this huge fish. Thank you. Was it by accident
that Jonah was the one who ended up over the boat? Was it by accident
that that fish was able to swallow Jonah? I mean, how many fishes are out
there that can swallow a whole man whole and him stay alive,
by the way? And it just so happened that
fish was coming along. where Jonah was thrown over. Was it
by accident that that fish swam all the way to Nineveh and just
happened to get a sick stomach and herb up Jonah alive and well
onto the shores of Nineveh? And did Jonah not go and preach
to those in Nineveh? Did Jonah have a free will? I
don't think he did. Did Jonah rebel against God? Yes, he did. Did Jonah, so to
speak, go against God's will? Well, from our perspective and
his perspective, yes, he did. But did he? No, he didn't. He went exactly the course which
God determined. Jonah devised his ways, but God
directed his path. What about Pharaoh? How many
times did Pharaoh announce that he was going to let the people
go? Did he? No, he didn't. He said, OK, I'm
going to let them go. Then what happened? He sat down and watched a little
TV and thought, you know what? This is dumb. Come here. Never mind. Go tell them to. They sit down and calculate
the costs and say, wait a minute. No, what happened? The Bible
said God hardened his heart. Did Pharaoh rebel against God?
Absolutely he did. Did Pharaoh go against God's
will? Let my people go. He did. He went against God's will to
let his people go. For a little while. Did he let
his people go? Absolutely. Were they delivered?
Absolutely. Exactly how God had planned on
doing it. But look, Go back to the beginning,
God said, go down and tell Pharaoh to let my people go, but he's
not going to because I'm going to harden his heart. I'm going
to show him signs, I'm going to show him wonders that my name
might be exalted. The whole facade, as some of
you might think it is, the whole facade was done, but that whole
entire thing was orchestrated by God of Hardening and softening,
hardening and softening, hardening and softening, hardening and
softening, taking the king's heart and turning it in his hands
as the rivers of water, wherever he wanted it to go, so that God might be exalted and
his power made known. Did Pharaoh have a will, free
will? No, his will did exactly what God wanted it done. What
about Abimelech? Remember Abimelech? He was the
king. that whenever Abraham came in, he was afraid and said Sarah
was his sister. Bimelech took Sarah in. She was beautiful. Took him in,
going to make her his wife. But what happened? His intent
was to take him as his wife, but God didn't let him. God changed
his will. For some reason, Bimelech didn't
lay with Sarah. And after it was all said and
done, Abimelech raised up and said, in my integrity, I didn't
ever touch the woman. And God told him what the true
story was. Did Abimelech not touch Sarah? Absolutely, he did
not touch Sarah. He didn't lay with Sarah, who
was another man's wife, even though he didn't know that. And
in somewhat truthfulness, Abimelech, in his integrity, didn't do that. He had yet to do that. He planned
on doing it, but he didn't do that. And why didn't he do that?
Because God governed his will and didn't let him do that. Why? So that God would be made known. God controlled Abimelech's will. We could go on and on. Nebuchadnezzar,
was it Nebuchadnezzar's will to walk on all four legs? To
eat grass with the beasts? Was that his will? No, Nebuchadnezzar
said that wasn't my will. That God does whatever he wants
in the armies of the heavens. But that's all. Apostle Paul,
as he was known as Saul before his conversion. Saul, what was
he doing? He was dead straight on his way
to Damascus. I'm going to go, I'm going to
round up the Christians. We're going to persecute them
if they don't come nicely. We're going to kill them. Whatever,
he already killed some. He'd already thrown others in
jail. He was on his way to Damascus,
bound and determined to go in this thing called the way. What happened? On the road to Damascus,
Jesus came down, preached him a nice little gospel sermon and
offered him an invitation to come forward to the altar and
put all of his burdens on the altar and accept him as Lord
and Savior of his life and to make him the Lord of his life?
To sign a card and become a member of the church through baptism?
Is that what Jesus did? Give him the offer of salvation?
But I'm not going to push you. I'm a gentleman. I would never
make you. Now what happened to Paul? The
Lord struck him down right on the road to Damascus, showed
him who he was and said, Paul, why you kicking against the pricks?
Why do you persecute me? Paul didn't argue. Paul didn't
say, you know, he said, get up, you're going to go and you're
going to talk to this guy that I've already let him know ahead of
time you're coming. Well, wait a minute. You didn't ask me if
I was wanting to go there. You didn't even ask me if I wanted
to be a Christian. And here you are, you told me you've already
planned out my whole entire life, and even my death. You've planned
out my death. No, Paul didn't have any say-so
in that. He didn't have a will in that. Now, do we have scripture
to back a lot of this stuff? Besides those stories that I
gave you, in Daniel chapter 4, It's that account about Nebuchadnezzar
that I was just talking to you about. But I want you to read
what Nebuchadnezzar wrote. Again, all Scripture is given
by inspiration of God. It's profitable. These are God's
words. I believe what Nebuchadnezzar
said here, he didn't say, this isn't just a recording of what
Nebuchadnezzar said, and Daniel wrote it down, just the quote
of Nebuchadnezzar. Now that does happen in Scripture
sometimes. that the writer will write down what someone said
and what someone said may not be truth as far as the truth
about what happened or about something you know but it is
truth in the fact that God's word is truth and that we're
learning what was actually happening but anyway Daniel chapter 4 look
at verse 34 it says now this is after Nebuchadnezzar made
walk like a beast on his four legs, or all fours, to eat grass. The Bible said that the dew come
all over him and that his hair grew out like eagle's feathers
and that he grew claws like an eagle or something like that. It said, at the end of the days,
I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my eyes into heaven and my understanding
returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised
and honored him that liveth forever, whose domain is an everlasting
dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing." That is a sock in our carnal
face. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. Now, brethren, you say, well,
what about the elect of God? Brethren, are we not as the elect
of God, not of this world? Yes, we have the Adamic man,
the outward man, this fleshly man. But the child of grace who
was the seed of Christ, who was in him before the foundation
of the world, He may be an inhabitant of the
earth in this vessel of clay, but His home is not of this earth. His home is with Christ. His
home is wherever He is. His home is not earth, it's heaven. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and He doeth according to His will.
What did Nebuchadnezzar realize? God doeth according to His will. in the army of the heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth that means that there is
nothing created because the only thing that's been created is
either in heaven or in earth that's everything okay heaven
or earth now a lot of people want to say outer space heaven and earth the bible says
one day that heaven and earth will pass away new heaven and
a new earth well it doesn't say andromeda it doesn't say wherever
else it's just heaven and earth because that's what god has made
is heaven and earth he said he did it according to
his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth." So His will works and He does whatever He wants
to do among everything in heaven and among all the inhabitants
of the earth. And it says here, none, whether
in heaven or in earth, can stay His hand or stop Him from doing
what He wants to do. Nothing can stop Him. So when
we thought that Jonah was stopping God, he wasn't stopping God.
Paul, in persecuting the church, was not stopping God. Some say,
well, he stopped it for a while. No, he didn't. It says here,
none can stay his hand. If it happened, it happened because
his hand wanted it to happen. You say, well, God's the author
of sin then. You need to read your Bible more.
It says, none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? They don't have the right to
ask the question. Look at Psalm 135. Psalm 135.
Look with me if you would, verse 6. It says, Whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth, in the seas and
all the deep places. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He. Whose will is sovereign, brethren?
It's the Lord's will. He does whatever He wants. Go
back to Psalm 115. Verse 3. But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Isaiah 46, 10. Verse 9. Remember the former
things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God,
there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and
from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far country,
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have
purposed it, I will also do it. Brethren, according to those
verses right there, the only potentate is the one who has
sovereignty. Therefore, he is the only one
that has free will. His will is the only one that's
unbound, unfettered. His will is the only one that
can literally do whatever it wants to do. But see, the other
thing is that the Bible says that he is almighty. That means
he has all power. So he not only has all authority,
he has all power. Therefore, that makes a free
will. If you remember, I mentioned
earlier that for one to have free will, or to be a sovereign
will, you not only have to be able to do as you please, but
have the power to overcome all others so that you can do whatever
you want to do. The reason that God can do whatever
He wants to do is because He has the power to put down all
other wills and make His will exactly what He wants it to be. There are all things that are
going to take place at the end from the beginning and I'm bringing
every bit of that to pass and none can stay in my hand. Why?
control everything in the armies of the heavens and among the
inhabitants of the earth. None can stay in my hand. I will do
all my pleasure. I will do everything that I please
to do. My will, I function after the counsel of my will, not your
will. That's what God is saying to
us. That's what God has revealed to us. That's the story of free
will. The story of free will is not
man. The story of free will is the
sovereign God. That's the story of free will.
If you want to preach free will, preaching all day long, but preach
that it's God that has free will, not you. Man doesn't have free
will or choice, only God does. Listen, men walk around thinking
that they have free will and thinking that they have free
choice because they make choices every day. Because they choose
to do something or not to do something. Okay? They think they can do whatever
they want. But what does the scripture say? Let's look. Proverbs Chapter 21. Sorry guys, I went from having
a dry scratchy throat to now this. I don't even know why I've
got my mouth watering so much. I can't hardly keep the saliva
from coming out. Proverbs 21.1, I quoted this
earlier. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whether so ever they let him. Is that what it says? No, it
says he turns it wherever so ever he wills. So, again, I've
mentioned this before when we talked about this verse. If God
can do that in the heart of a king, who is supposedly a sovereign,
if God can do that to a king's heart, can he not do that to
all the rest of our hearts? Absolutely he can. God does that
to whoever He wants. Why? Because His will is free.
God is sovereign. He is the only potentate. We're
not. We're reputed as nothing. And
He does whatever so He wills. In the armies of the heavens
and in the abundance of the earth, none of us can stay His hand.
That's why we don't have free will. It's because God has not
given us free will. God has in His infinite whoever
He is, whatever He is, however He functions, God has determined
that He and He alone is the only Potentate and that He and He
only is the only God and there is none else. He is the I Am. He is the self-existent One.
He is not controlled by anything or outside force outside of Himself. It's His counsel and His counsel
only that stands. Therefore, everything else cannot,
does not, will not control Him. Therefore, their wills are not
free. Their choices are not free. They're
all determined. by God. Now, brother, this isn't,
again, this isn't some theological system that I'm trying to follow.
This comes from studying God's Word and not just listening to
snippets of sermons of men that try to tell you every week what
you have to do. I posted something on Facebook
this week. The self-righteous like to preach, do. Those who
have been imputed righteousness preach, done. There's a difference. Why are we different? Why is
this church segregated from all other churches that's out there
in the mainstream? Why is it that we are careful
who we fellowship with? Why is it that we don't do all
these questions I asked earlier? Because we have different Gospels. We have different viewpoints
on who God is. We have a different viewpoint
on what Christ has accomplished. Theirs is a God who is still
trying to save people. Ours is God has saved. Theirs
is a God who is thwarted in all the things that He does because
man is given free will. So God wants things done, but
it doesn't get done because men choose to do different. We have
a God that has ordained all things after the counsel of His own
will, who has declared all things the end from the beginning. who
is controlling all things and he says, I've spoken it, I will
bring it to pass. I will do it. We believe in an
almighty God. We believe in an all-powerful
God. We believe in an only potentate. Therefore, free will is a myth. Free will in man is a fallacy. Look at Jeremiah 10. Verse 23. Jeremiah writes, O LORD, I know
that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that
walketh to direct his steps. Now there you go. You think you're
making free will and free choices? But the Bible here clearly says
it is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. What does the Bible say about
how man does and walks? Well, if we go back to Psalm
110, verse 3, it says, thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power." If we're talking about salvation that
is, right? If we're talking about salvation,
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Matter
of fact, in Larry's book that I mentioned earlier, I was honored
to be able to write the foreword for him in that, and in that
I took this very verse and broke this verse apart. that we are made willing in the
day of His power. Do we will? Yes, we willed, but
that will wasn't free. I didn't choose to come to Christ
whenever I wanted to choose to come to Christ. I came to Christ
because God made me willing to come. He turned my heart as the
rivers of water. He directed me. The question is, does man have
free will or free choice? The Bible says here, there are
many devices in a man's heart, nevertheless the counsel of the
Lord shall stand. See, man devises everything in
his heart, but the counsel of the Lord shall stand. God directs every move. every
step, every thought. So free will is sovereign will.
And brethren, there is only one who is sovereign, and that's
God. He is the only potentate. Therefore, he is the only one
that has free will. Men's will are all governed,
directed, controlled by God. We don't have will to choose
our own destinies. We don't have will to do anything.
Everything that we do today, everything that's being accomplished,
in this life is all because God is directing all things after
the counsel of his own will and has declared it as such and is
bringing it in his own power because he said he was the one
who was going to do it. By his providence, we talked about that
a few weeks ago, by his providence he makes sure that everything
happens exactly according to that will. Now you can argue
against that until you're blue in the face and you can Think
you're arguing to God you're going to change something, but
you're not. Because he said, none can stay my hand or even
say unto me, why doest thou? You're not going to get an answer
back whenever you ask that question to God. You can ask that question
all day long and he does not have to give you an answer. However,
one of these days you're going to stand before him and you will
see the only potentate in his glory And you will immediately
know why you can't ask that question. Because you are not God. Neither am I. Alright, does anybody
have a question or a comment? Anything you'd like to add? Amen. I take it that you agree with
that. Any corrections or rebukes? Alright, well. I pray that it's
not only been enlightening to some, but maybe it's been an
encouragement to others. Hopefully one day, like me, it
wasn't an encouragement all my life. I hated that. I hated. What I just preached, I hated
men who preached that. But now it's a comfort to me.
Why? Because that's who God is. And if I'm His, if I'm truly
born from above and everything, and I'm given love that's been
shed abroad in my heart, it's a love for the God of this Bible.
Because God's only revealed himself here, but he doesn't reveal himself
through Prophet Hezekiah, Walker, Jackson, you know, Popov, Hinn,
or whoever, you know, whatever their names are, Creflo Dollars,
and all those people out there. He doesn't reveal himself in
a new way. No, he's revealed himself here.
And so to the child of grace that the love of God has been
shed and brought in their heart, they love the God that is revealed
in scripture. And therefore, why do we find
comfort in the fact that we don't have a free will? So you just
mean you're all right with being a puppet, being a robot, being
a, you know, I'm all right with being clay. The Bible says that
we are clay in the hands of God. That's who he is. That's who
we are. And I find comfort to know that God's controlling it
all. And if He chooses to do this with His lump of clay, or
this with His lump of clay, that's His choice to do. And if the
Bible says that there isn't nothing that we can do about that, then
there isn't nothing I can do about that. And all my preaching
against it, all my hatred and vitriol towards it, and all my
trying to subvert God in doing whatever He wants to do, is still
for naught. Matter of fact, everything is
coming to its purposed end. And that is to continue to heap
coals of fire upon the head of whoever decides that they want
to do that and is bringing judgment against them. That's all it's
doing. So to the child of grace, we find comfort in this message.
We find comfort that God controls all things and that we don't
have to do anything. That doesn't mean we don't do
things. We don't have to do. this or that to be accepted,
to be saved, to do this or that. God is the one directing it all. Some may say, well, okay, surah
surah, huh? I say, not my will, but thy will be
done. Is that what the Lord taught
us to pray? Not my will, but thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Let thy will be done in earth
as thy will is done in heaven. Where you're at right now, what's
happening according to the scriptures, at least all we know, we don't
know the full gamut of it, We got a glimpse of it in Daniel,
we got a glimpse of it in Revelation, but we know now that there are
angels that are serving around the throne of God and they're
night and day singing, holy, holy, the Lord of hosts, the
whole earth is full of his glory. They're all serving him, doing
what he has designed them and desired for them to do. And whatever's
going on in heaven, nothing's happening that he doesn't want
to not happen or to happen. It's all happening the way exactly
as he planned. But guess what? So is it is down
here. That's why the Lord taught us to pray. Not my will be done,
but thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not that
we're giving him control. We're not giving him control
either. We're praying that our mind, our heart, our desires
would be given to rest in knowing thy will be done, not the desires
of my will. I can only see so far. I can't
see past today. I can't see what's going to happen
this afternoon. My wills and my desires are fettered
by God'sism. Why would we not want His will
to be done? He's the most wise God. He's a righteous God. He's a holy God. He's good, merciful. All these things that we talk
about God, He is that. Why wouldn't we think that his
wisdom is enough? So, okay, you're the most wise
person, and you say that you work in all things to the good
of them who are the called, who love you, who are the called
according to your purpose. Whatever you want to do, that's
great with us. We trust you, whatever you want to do. Whatever's
happening, we know it's for you and for our glory. are good in
your glory. All right. Nobody has anything? Let's pray. Gracious Father,
we thank you today for your mercy and grace in Christ Jesus. Once
again, Father, we thank you for this time together, for the word
of God, for the revelation of who God is. We thank you, Father,
that you do control all things and we find blessed assurance
and blessed comfort in the fact that you are God and there is
none else that you have. declared all things the end from
the beginning from ancient times and none can stay your hand therefore
none of our