1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4, Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only,
but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance,
as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received
the Word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. Past eight or nine Sundays, we've
been discussing the doctrine of grace, the five points of
what some call Calvinism, the five points of grace, which are
simply the gospel. That man is totally deprived
and cannot save himself. That God has unconditionally
elected a people unto salvation. And that Jesus Christ has invaded
history and come to this earth and died in their room, stead,
and place and actually redeemed them, bought them, paid their
sin debt, bought them out of and off of the slave market of
sin never to return again. And then the doctrine of irresistible
grace, that all God has chosen, elected and redeemed shall be
drawn irresistibly to Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit
through the Gospel. And that all of the elect, all
of those that have been for love, shall surely be glorified. And
we love Romans 8, 28, 29, 30, and following passages. We do
not quibble, we do not fight over Romans 8, but rejoice in
knowing that all things work together for good to them that
love the Lord, to them who are called according to His purpose.
And we rejoice in this fact that God has foreloved the people. or whom He did for love, before
love. He did also predestinate. And
whom He predestinated, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. And did not lose a one. And we
rejoice in that. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. Now, some may ask, why does the
pastor keep hammering the doctrine of election. Why do I keep preaching
this doctrine that God has chose a people unto salvation? Why preach such a doctrine? I'm going to give you a very
simple answer. Because it's in God's Word. If it were not in
God's Word, it should not be preached. But since it's in God's
Word, it ought to be preached. The doctrine of election is the
Word of God. Why are you looking at me that
way? Well, let me make it plain. Ephesians 1-4, according as He
hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. 2 Thessalonians
2-13, but we are bound to give thanks to God for you Brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. Is that in your Bible? Then that
ought to be preached. You say, well, I don't get it. It doesn't make any difference.
It's the Word of God. Some would answer, some truth
ought to be kept back from the common folk because they'll make
bad use of it. You know, when you say that,
What you're saying is exactly what the Catholic Church did
several hundred years ago when they kept the Bible from the
people. They kept it back from them lest
they misuse it, that they weren't able to grasp it. Let me tell
you, dear friends, all truth is revealed truth. And the Holy
Spirit is the revealer of truth. And the Holy Spirit reveals truth
to all God's people. He takes the scales off of their
eyes. Besides, those of you who don't
have your Bibles today, I would say to you very clearly that
I can lie to you. How do you know I'm not lying?
You better check me out. Because if I don't tell you the
truth, you go to hell. Get you a Bible. Don't come to
church without your Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ said this
in the Gospel of John. Search the Scriptures. He gave
a search warrant to every one of us. Search the Scriptures.
For in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. Search the Scriptures. Well,
you say, well, Pastor, I've heard that the doctrine of election
is dangerous. It's dangerous. Let me tell you
what's dangerous. Truth is never dangerous. Error
is dangerous. When we take the doctrine of
election and we say this, and this is the truth, whatever shuts
us up to this, that salvation is of the Lord from first to
last. He's the Alpha, He's the Omega,
He's the Beginning and the End and everything in between. If
you are saved, you are not saved by works, you are saved by grace
alone. You did not first call on God,
He first called on you. You did not first choose God,
He first chose you. And so the doctrine of election
says this, God chose a people that no man can number unto salvation. That's why I believe more people
are going to be in heaven than in hell. Because God's not going
to let the devil win. You people who believe in the
sovereignty of God in an election believe that just a little handful
will go into heaven. Yes, but look whose hands it
is. I say, but pastor, you know, this once saved, always saved,
this salvation by grace message, you know, people will abuse that.
People will abuse that. Yes, they will. But if we destroyed
everything that men misused, we'd have nothing left. Spurgeon
said, are we to get rid of all ropes because some fool will
hang himself? or because some fool will smoke
him? Should we get rid of all knives because someone will use
them as a dangerous weapon? Of course not. Men and women
are going to read the Scriptures and think about this doctrine,
and often they'll make mistakes about election. Who then shall
set them right if we don't? We who know the Word of God,
we who have studied the Word of God, if we don't rightfully
declare the doctrine of election. It's in the Bible. And therefore,
it needs to be free and it needs to be rightly declared. Remember
this, that the sun ripens the noxious weed just as it does
the fruitful plant. But that's not the fault of the
sun, but of the nature of the weed itself. Is that right? If you're so depraved and you
take the doctrine of election and say, you know, What is to
be will be, whether it ever happens or not. I can live like hell
and still go to heaven. You're a noxious weed. It's not
the doctrine of election's fault that you think that way. You're
just a depraved rebel. Okay. It's important while preaching
the doctrine of election that we're balanced in proclaiming
the doctrine of election. I mean by that, We balance the
doctrine of election this way, that man is totally deprived,
total depravity. In other words, man is dead. So man being dead in sins and
trespasses means that a salvation must come from outside himself,
because he's dead to God. Dead men don't walk, dead men
don't talk, dead men don't choose Christ. So if a dead man is to
have life, Somebody's got to choose the dead man. And somebody
with power has to come to the cemetery and give him life. And
that in itself is election. That you didn't come to God,
God first came to you. Somebody said, I found the Lord.
He wasn't lost. You were lost. And He found you. Aren't you glad? Now if you take
the doctrine of election, and preach it exclusively. In other
words, that's just all you preach. Election, election. You might
well distort it. You take my handsome face, a face like mine, and you simply
major on my nose. And that's all you talk about
is my nose. Pretty soon, just talking about
my nose, it gets so big that it distorts the whole face. They already, some of you are
thinking, he does have a big nose. So you balance this doctrine
of election with total depravity. Because see, if you get to thinking
God chose you because you were better than somebody else, you
become a Pharisee. God didn't choose you because
you were better than somebody else, because you were not. There
is no difference. All have sinned and missed the
mark. But God did choose you, and you ought to be happy about
it. Amen. So what is the doctrine of election?
There is such a thing, and it's taught clearly in Scripture.
Remember, as we talk of election, that man is not a robot simply
because God has chosen him. We're not like Big Ben in England,
the clock, you know, where the little robot, the little men
come out and they hit that bell, bong, bong, Man is not a robot
because of predestination and election. There is no such thing
as free will, by the way. I thought God gave everybody
a free will. Man's will is enslaved to his nature. And man's nature
is depraved. Nobody forced you to go to the
crack house. You went willingly. You liked it. Nobody had you
by the hair of the head and forced you to use heroin, commit adultery,
You just kind of willingly do it. Your will is enslaved to
your nature. But free agency is a different
matter, and what that means is simply this. God never saves
a man against his will. When God saves a person, they
want to be saved more than anything else in the world, because God
has done a job on them. God has regenerated them. God
has born them again. God has given them life. And
you better get out of their way because they're coming to Christ.
Nothing will stop them. They long for Christ. They hunger
and thirst for Christ. They're coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they come willingly. You
don't have to drag them by the hair of your head. Nobody is
drugged to heaven. I heard a preacher's kid say,
I used drugs when I was a kid. I was drugged to church. I was
drugged to Sunday school. We come willingly to Christ.
We long for Christ. I don't know exactly where the
free agency of man and the sovereignty of God meet, but both are great
truths. God has predestinated everything.
I've got two amens on that three. God has predestinated everything.
I'm going to tell you, God has not dropped the reins to this
universe. He's still in charge. He's a
mighty big guy. He's a God of plan and purpose.
There are no accidents with God. No such thing as rabbit's foot
luck and spitting on horseshoes and throwing them over your left
shoulder and black cats crossing your path. God is a God of purpose
and plan. And yet man is responsible. For
man acts freely. Now, if that's true and man must
believe to be saved, Does he not then have a free will? And
some believe because their will are better than others, they're
saved. You see, when you start talking
about... Let me ask you this. You've got three brothers. Two
of them are very successful. You're a drug addict. Or were.
And while your two brothers are very respectable men, they do
not love Christ. They're not Christians. They
don't go to God's house. They don't rejoice in the gospel.
But after 25 years of drug use, you have come to know Christ
and you rejoice in Christ. Now let me ask you, were you
saved because you were better than your brothers? No, God was
gracious to you. That's right. That again is election. That's what I'm talking about.
You're not saved because you're better than someone. God didn't
choose you because He foresaw you were going to believe on
Jesus. There would have been no need for God to choose you
if you're going to believe on Jesus anyway. God chose you by
sovereign grace. He chose you because it was the
good pleasure of His will. There was no difference. You
were a piece of dung on the dung hill. He picked this piece of
dung and this other piece of dung looked just like this piece
of dung, but He chose this piece of dung and didn't choose this
one. I know what you're saying. That's not fair. We're not talking
about being fair. We're talking about amazing grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. That's
what we're talking about. It's a humbling thought to know
God chose me. Me! You know who's most surprised
about my salvation? Me! And when I get to heaven,
The Lord's not going to hear the last of it either. You see,
it's God who makes the difference in regeneration. It's God who
causes us to be willing. It's God who did that. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? And what is thou that thou didst
not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, findest thou glory
as if thou didst not receive it. God makes the difference. You wouldn't say that you're
saved because you're better than somebody else, would you? You
wouldn't say you're saved because of your goodness, would you?
The truth is, you say, well, Pastor, sounds like a mighty
harsh God. You're looking at it in the wrong way. You know
what? There are people sitting in this
auditorium. You have spent 30 years in and out of the crack
house. 30 years, and you're still going
back. And you know what? God's been mighty good to you.
You're still alive. God's been merciful to you down
in the hood. Flip the coin on the other side.
Some of you are as lost as the crack addict in the hood, and
you've been in church all your life, and you're still lost and
without God, and you think you're better than the crack addict.
God's been mighty good to you. He should have killed you, Pharisee,
sitting in the church house, being a hypocrite, thinking yourself
better. Somebody ought to say amen around
here. It's true. I don't want to just pick on the crack addict.
There's some church addicts in here. Just as addicted. And you don't
sing Amazing Grace. You sing Amazing Me. God's merciful
to everybody. But He's more merciful to some.
Because He turned some of us inside out and said, here, look
at yourself. You're not so cute, are you? He born us again. in the power
of the Holy Spirit He'd born us again. Oh, He came to me! He came to me! When I would not
and come to Him, He came to me! That's the truth. He found me. This election, this choice of
God is a sovereign choice. He chooses whom He will. You
going to call God into account? That's what Paul says in Romans
9. You're going to call God into account? Well, why did you choose
him and not her? You're going to call God into
account, are you? The Bible says God elected a people. Now, are
you going to question God about it? God would say to you, Who
art thou, O man? Who art thou, O man? Can I not
do with my own as I please? The truth is, and I know a lot
of folks don't like this, But God can save you or damn you
and still be God. God doesn't have to look your
way. I just want to get what I deserve. Don't worry about
it, baby. If that's all you want, God will see to it that you get
it. As for me, I'd like to have a whole lot of mercy and a whole
lot of grace. God has a right, seeing we're
all criminals, to punish us all. We've all broken the law. I'm
talking about His law. All have sinned and missed the
mark. All have transgressed. There is none good, no not one.
None. Election is sovereign. And when
you come to see it, you are amazed. God chose me. The worm, the maggot
that I am, God chose me. And God works in me. And God
keeps me keeping on. Greater is He that's in me than
he that's in the world. And it's all according to the
counsel of His own will that He chose us. Election's free.
It's not earned. Even so, Father, because it seems
good in Thy sight. Jesus said in the 17th chapter
of the book of John, Father, You have loved them, the elect,
as You have loved Me. And You loved Me before the foundation
of the world. Jesus said, I pray not for the
world, but for them which Thou hast given Me out of the world.
Thine they were, and You gave them to Me. Election's irreversible. Aren't
you glad it's irreversible? You better be glad God doesn't
change His mind. Hey, hey, you didn't get saved
and surprise God. God didn't go one day. John! John, just trust in Me. Let me
write his name down. While God's looking down at the
book, writing his name down, he looks up. John, what happened? John, you just messed up! Those names were written there
before the foundation of the world, and while eternity rolls
on, those names will still be there. We've no less days to
sing His praise than when we first begun. We're all mess-ups,
but his election is irreversible. His election is effectual, as
I've already said. Those that he foreloved, he predestinated. He predetermined them. Oh, you
were out there in Lodi Bar, the dead dog that you were, like
my FIBA chef, out there lame on both your feet. like the baby
in Ezekiel 16 in the open field, laying in your own blood, helpless
and hopeless. But God had already elected you.
There you were in the hood, but God was going to bring you to
the neighborhood. God watched over you in all of your insanity,
but you were blood-marked, and the Holy Spirit was going to
fetch you out of your loading bar. It's effectual. He's going to
draw you to Himself. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love and in tender kindness have I drawn thee. Before I formed thee in thy mother's
belly, I loved you. And before you came forth out
of the womb, I set you aside. I sanctified you. Election is
personal. Jesus said this, I know my sheep
by name. You know, as you get older, you
forget names. Every once in a while I go, I
got two daughters. But God doesn't forget the names
of His kids. He calls His kids by name. He
knows their names. He knows their circumstances.
He knows where they are at all times. He knows where they are. Election is a doctrine that you
hardly grasp at the beginning of your spiritual and religious
life. You know, some of you are probably in here going, I've
just become a Christian. Is he saying? Yeah. Yeah, he's saying. And I want
you to hear it. Even though you might not enter
into it full-fledged this morning, I do want you to be introduced
to it. That you're saved because God chose you. I want you to
know that. You know, if we're going to teach
our children to pray, we don't begin by teaching them to pray
by saying, now the first thing you say is Amen. That's not the
way you start your prayer. And so to those of you who are
but babes in Christ, those who have spiritual life and you don't
even know it yet, but there's a hungering and a thirsting in
you. God has put that in you. You've
already been born of God. By the time you want to get saved,
you already are. Because dead men don't want to
get saved. By the time you want to get saved,
it's already happened. You already have spiritual life.
Oh, you're not getting that, are you? Let me make it a little
plainer. How many of you can remember when you were born?
When you came out of your mother's womb? No takers? Well, how do
you know you're alive? How do you know you're alive?
The first thing most of us did was when that doctor or somebody
gave us that first whack, was whack! And mom knew we had life. Save people have life before
they know it. Ah, you're still not getting it. Listen, by the
time you begin to long to know Jesus Christ, it's already happened.
Now it's time for you to be reconciled and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And trust Christ. Don't be worrying
about election right now. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and sometime or other you're going to find out, hey,
He chose me before I was ever born. This wasn't an accident.
He wasn't lost. I didn't found Him. He found
me. I didn't first call on Him. He first called on me. He tracked
me down. The hound of heaven got on my
trail and fracked me down. Be surprised where the Lord found
some of us. It wasn't in Sunday school. I understand that this is a little
difficult. All truth is revealed truth,
by the way. You won't get this unless God takes the scales off
your eyes. In fact, we are all salvation by works people by
nature. We just want to have a big part
in saving ourselves. And all over the world, preachers
are saying this, God has done all He can. God has done everything
He can. If that's true, we're in trouble.
And all you crack addicts are in big trouble. If God has done
all He can, if God is waiting on you, aren't you glad? Every crack addict in here, every
heroin addict, everybody that's saved ought to be glad that He
didn't wait on you. That prodigal son was down in
the hog pen. And the Bible says when he was
a long way off, the father saw him. The father knew he was coming
home. The father drew him out of the
hog pen and ran out to meet him. The doctrine of election is not
inconsistent with the invitations and promises found in the Word
of God, such as this, Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden. I can say that today. Are you burdened and heavy laden?
Say, well, what if I'm not elected? Don't worry about that right
now. I'll tell you this. If you're burdened and heavy
laden, you were elected. Have you ever noticed how people
who are so messed up seem so free? People with mess act like they're
free. When God quickens you, you see
the burden, the load of sin. You've seen what you've done
in your life and how you've sinned against God. And God says, Come
unto Me, all ye that labor in heaven, ladies. I'll give you
rest. My yoke is easy. My burden's light. So what do
I say to you here, those of you who have spiritual life, those
of you who are hungry and thirsting after Christ? I say, Come to
Christ. Come just as you are, without one plea. Without moving
a muscle, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ right where you
are and thou shalt know that thou art saved. Trust Christ. That's my message to you. And
you will find out that you were chosen before the foundation
of the world. Get hold of Christ. Election
does not deliver you from your duty. It's your duty to believe
on Christ. You're commanded to believe on
Christ. May God help you to believe on Him. And your business right
now, whether you understand election or not, your business right now
is to trust Christ. Election is a doctrine that sanctifies
you. People have said about me for
many, many years that I give people a license to sin. You
know, a pastor believes once saved, always saved. When God
saves you, He just keeps you and takes you all the way. They
got that right. They got that part right. They
say, Pastor, believe once saved, always saved. They got that right
too. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. People say, Pastor gives people
the right to sin, a license to sin. Now I want to ask you this. How many of you, before you sin,
buy a license? How many of you say, you know,
I need to go see a pastor because he's selling license to sin. I'm about to relapse, so pastor,
can you give me one of those license... The doctrines of grace
will sanctify you. Let me tell you this, grace will
make you holy. You don't even know how unholy you are until
grace gets a hold of you. And then you find out that God
is holy, holy, holy, and you're not. And that creates a problem. And then you come to understand
the Gospel. How that justice had a demand that you be punished
for your sins. And God sent His only begotten
Son as a substitute to die as the Lamb of God in your stead
and in your place. And God took your sins off you
and punished Him. And now you love God. You're
not serving God to try to earn your right to heaven. You're
serving God because you love Him. Yes. And I'll tell you this. If the
grace of God doesn't sanctify you, it's not worth having. It's
impossible to go from no faith to faith with no change. There's going to be a change.
And there's going to be a radical change. You're going to love
the things that you once hated and hate the things you once
loved. Even when you do them. How many times in 23 years here
Have I seen a little child of God relapse and come back this
way? I hate what I did, Pastor. I
hate what I did. I say, praise God. Greater is
He that's in you than he that's in the world. You went out, but
you came back. You fell down, but you got up.
Because greater is He that's in you than he that's in the
world. You're going to persevere. The evidence of our election
is the Word of God coming in power. I can flat out tell you
this. And I think this is what is missing
in churches across America. Let me tell you this, the only
spirit that can deal with the spirit of this age is the Holy
Spirit. In case you don't know, there's a war going on, a real
drug war, a pharmacia war out there in the streets of America.
And there's only one spirit that can deal with the spirit of hell,
and that's the Holy Spirit of God. Somebody says, I didn't
know you believed in the Holy Ghost. I do with all of my heart
and soul. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit
of Christ. Christ said, I'm going away,
but I'm going to be here. And He is here in the power of the
Holy Spirit. And men and women only hear affectionately. I can preach till my tongue rots
off and never convert one person. The Holy Spirit in power has
to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ and put it on your inside and
change you. And I'm asking you flat out,
have you had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ where He
has knocked you off your high horse and enthroned Himself in
your heart where He is your Lord and Savior? Preaching is all null and void
in conversion without the mysterious power of the Spirit of God. I
wouldn't even come here today if I didn't believe that while
I was preaching, the hound of heaven would start sniffing some
sinner out. Go down the aisles of this church.
Listen, the Lord Jesus Christ is not sitting down. He is active
as the Gospel goes forth. And He goes down these aisles
and He passes by certain men and women and comes to others
and borns them again. He is not an impotent Savior.
Jesus Christ is not walking the corridors of heaven wringing
His hands, hoping somebody will give Him a chance. He's King
of kings and Lord of lords! Have you ever felt His power
come on you? Yeah, you say, well now, preacher,
you know, preacher, be careful now, preacher, because salvation
is not feeling. I understand that, but if you
ever got saved, you're going to feel it. You're going to feel it. You're
going to know something has taken hold of you. A power greater
than yourself. You don't even understand you
anymore. All you can say is, once I was
lost, but now I'm found. Once I was blind, but now I see. Wonder working power. And when
that power comes upon you, you're going to know it. And that power
of the gospel of Jesus Christ brings assurance. Assurance. Blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste
of glory divine. Isn't that a foretaste? It is. You may not be able to answer
theological questions, but you have a blessed assurance. You
may not be a theologian. You may not know the books of
the Bible, but you have a blessed assurance. Now, I know I'm saved
because I was there when it happened. Something happened to me. Old Brother Barnard, I used to
hear him tell this story. There was a banker who was president
of a bank down in Georgia for 40 years. And he had the same
secretary. Her name was Mary. And the banker was a rough old
cast. And God saved him. He didn't
tell anybody. One day he called Mary into office.
He said, Mary, I want you to take some dictation. I'm going
to dictate a letter to you. He was dictating the letter.
And as he was dictating the letter, he heard Mary sniffing. Said he looked up and tears were
streaming down her cheek. And the president of the bank
said, why Mary, what's wrong? Have I said something to hurt
you? She said, no, I just want to
know what's happened to you. Something's happened to you. I've been in here for 40 years
with you. You're a changed man. Don't tell anybody you're saved
until somebody wants what you have. Amen. Somebody ought to want your peace
that passes all understanding. Your joy unspeakable and full
of glory. God's people ought to be having
a little heaven on the way to heaven. None of God's children ought
to be saying, my life sucks. Not another day, another dollar,
but this is the day the Lord's made. I'll rejoice and be glad
in it. Not good Lord this morning, but
good morning, Lord. Election. Spiritual joy. You ever got so happy in God's
house you couldn't hardly stand it? I used to think there was wrong
with some folks who got happy and had those running fits. Until
I got to having them at home. Somebody gets happy in church
and everybody goes, why shouldn't you be happy in church? You're heaven down. You're God's
choice. He has redeemed you. He has washed
you in His own blood. There ought to be a happiness. We've already seen a few weeks
ago that David danced because God chose him. And Michael mocked
him. And David said, you haven't seen
anything yet. I'm about to really get out. We shouldn't be intimidated with
regard to our choice. Have you ever been alone with
Jesus in your closet? I was telling the first crowd
here about how sometimes in my study, nobody's home. I'm intimidated
by people, you know. A lot of times by Ms. Pam. Intimidated. But when nobody's
home, just me and the Lord, I can scream all I want to. Hallelujah! I get almost Pentecostal sometimes. Me, the old Baptist. The chosen
frozen. I'm going to tell you this. Worshipping
God is an instinct. It's a pleasure. Worshipping
God is a holy thing. It's a joyous delight. My prayer
today is in talking about election and the grace of God, the goodness
of God, that you today, right now, will trust Jesus Christ.
Trust Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know there's some babies in here. So we can't feed them steak. We need to give you babies, the
milk of the Word. You're a sinner. Christ died
for sinners. Trust Christ. That's baby food. There's some young men and women
in here, middle-aged spiritually. We feed you, you know, more than
milk. We give you some mashed potatoes
and gravy, some green beans. Tastes good. You can digest that.
But now there's some of you who've been saved a mighty long time.
You know the doctrines of grace. We're going to get you a T-bone. that God elected you, predestinated
you, called you, justified you, and will surely glorify you.
Enjoy your T-bone. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.