I have this week sought and I believe gotten a message from God for you for this hour. I want to introduce it with some serious, serious statements. Fifteen years ago, you called me here as your pastor and one of the first statements I made Before moving to Danville, I came here, if you'll remember, and preached for several nights. And one of the first statements I made to you was this.

I said, if you can go anywhere in this town, or within a reasonable driving distance of this town, and hear the gospel of God's grace, hear a man speak for God, tell the truth about God, any place where you can go and worship God, here or anywhere close to here, don't call me to be your pastor. Don't build this building. Go join up with them. And if you call me, then what you're saying is there's nobody here preaching the gospel of God's grace, and we want to hear it. Now, some of you will remember that, and perhaps you might think to yourself, or perhaps you thought then, well, what's such a great issue?

What is it that's distinguishes Grace Church from other churches? Why are we here? Why do we continue to plug along and do what we do? What is it that distinguishes you from other preachers? What is it, other than the fact that maybe you talk a little louder than others, what is it that distinguishes you from other preachers?

The answer is very simple. The one, one issue, the one thing that distinguishes us The one thing that distinguishes that man's ministry from anybody else in Madisonville, Kentucky, the one thing that distinguishes mine from other preachers in this area, is our message. That's it. Our message, not our diplomas or degrees, not what we have or haven't learned, but our message, what we preach.

Rather than magnifying man's works and man's efforts and man's will, rather than making men feel good about themselves, we declare that which is universally declared upon every page of Holy Scripture, salvation is of the Lord. We exalt and magnify the will of God because the Word of God exalts and magnifies the will of God. Now religion, as the article in our bulletin, that excellent article Maurice wrote on what is the icon of the age, Every form of religion, every form of human religion, doesn't matter what name it wears, doesn't matter what tag it wears, doesn't matter what denominational affiliation it has, every form of human religion magnifies, exalts, and honors the will of man and the work of man. But God's gospel, the word of God, God's servants, God's truth, exalts the will of and the work of God in Jesus Christ the Lord.

Now that's the difference. Concerning the popular opinion, the Bible does not attribute any aspect of salvation to man's good works, to man's free will, to man's choice, or to man's decision for Jesus. The Word of God just does not do so. Let me show you.

Turn to John chapter 1. John the first chapter. and listen to what our Lord says. Speaking to us by his servant John, we read as many, verse 12, John chapter 1 verse 12, as many as received him, to them gave he power, the right, the authority, the power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name. Now when you read that verse, read the next one, and it'll explain to you what he means. Who receives him? Who has the power to become the sons of God? Who do these on him? Which were born, get it now, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And that's what God says. Romans 9 verse 16.

So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God's work is never God responding to something we do. His work of grace is never God acting in response to something man does, but rather man's faith is his response to God's operation of grace. Grace is never spoken of in the Bible in any other way. According to this book, a believer's choice of Christ is the result, not the cause, of Christ's eternal choice of you.

Listen to what he says. You have not chosen me. You didn't. You didn't. I don't care what anybody says. I don't care what any preacher says. If you believe on Christ, you didn't choose him. He chose you. You say, but I did choose him. Yeah, sort of. Sort of.

There came a time when we who believe With all our hearts, willingly embrace the Son of God, and we do right now. We embrace Him with all our hearts. Nothing we want more in this world than Christ and His honor. But that's because He chose us. You understand the difference? It is His choice of us from eternity that causes us to choose Him. Somebody says, well, what difference does it make? All the difference in the world. All the difference in the world.

One man looks and he says, now God chooses you because you choose God. That man is saying salvation is your decision, your work, and your effort. We say you choose God because he chose you. That makes salvation God's work, God's effort, and God's doing. You see the difference? All the difference in the world. The one says you're your savior, the other says God's your savior. Now this book says God is your savior.

Grace is never conditioned upon us then. It cannot be earned, it cannot be won, it cannot be merited by any man in any way by anything he does. The primary meaning of the word grace is unmerited favor. Grace is God's sovereign, eternal, free favor towards sinners who fully deserve his wrath.

Now, were I to choose one passage in the Bible above others, that spells out clearly the message of God's free grace, and identifies and defines the operations of God's grace, that chapter would be Romans chapter 8. And I want you to turn there this morning. Romans the 8th chapter. Here the Apostle Paul plainly declares to us what God has done for chosen sinners in Christ, and why he has done it. Now notice what he says. I love the way the opening verse reads, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Oh, what a word of grace.

There is right now, as a result of Christ's thinnest work of justification, as a result of him having made us accepted with God, there is right now condemnation. None now, none tomorrow, none forever. No condemnation for anything, past, present, or future. To them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Verse 3, for what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, that is, because of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This is what God's done for us by his grace. He's redeemed us and freed us forever from all condemnation. There's no condemnation. Not only that, the Lord God has given us the spirit of adoption. Look at verse 15. For you have not received the spirit of bondage of gain to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father.

Now listen to me carefully. Listen carefully. I reverence God. Not like I should, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I reverence God. I cringe. I cringe at the thought of thinking lightly of him, much less speaking lightly of him. I reverence the Lord God. But I'm no longer afraid of him. I'm no longer afraid of him. Why? Because Christ has freed me from condemnation.

God Almighty is my Heavenly Father. And the spirit of grace is not a spirit of bondage that keeps us beat down and keeps us afraid of looking to God. The spirit of Christ is a spirit of freedom. Freedom to come to God, speaking freely as sons to their father, crying, I'm a father.

Let me give you a test. Give you a little work to do. You jot this down and look it up. Find me somewhere in this book, anywhere in this book, where anybody who knew God expressed a dread of meeting Him. Find me somewhere in this book where anybody who knew God expressed shakiness, uneasiness, a fear of dying and meeting Him in judgment. It's just not there. Folks who are spoken of in this book as believing God. Look to Him with confidence and with faith, because Christ has put away our sins. We're accepted of Him, and God Almighty is my heavenly Father. He's my Father.

My daughter's sitting back there. We don't get to see her around here a whole lot anymore these days, but she's sitting back there. And she still reverences me. I wouldn't tolerate much disrespect from her, but she references me. But she's not afraid of me. I hope she's never been afraid of me. Not afraid to come sit on my lap. Not afraid to come express her inmost desires or concerns to me. Why? Because she's my child and we have a special relationship with one another that's called a father and daughter relationship. I have a special relationship with God in Christ. He's my father.

And believers are given the spirit of adoption to cry, have a father. And if children, he says, I'm sorry, verse 16, the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. God, the Holy Spirit, through his word, speaking in our hearts, declares that we're God's children. How does he do so? Do you believe on Jesus Christ? He that believeth on the Son The book says so. Faith in Christ is the declaration from God, through his word, that we're his sons and daughters.

Not only has he given us this spirit of adoption, but he's made us joint heirs with Christ. And the children and heirs of God, and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. That means that whatever Christ possesses, in him we possess with him. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. And then God has given us the blessed hope of resurrection glory. In verse 23, not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. That is, we're waiting for Christ to come again and gather up these bodies which he has redeemed for himself unto everlasting glory. That's the hope that he's given us. And he has given us the blessed assurance of his wise and good providence.

In verse 28, Scripture says, we know, we know that all things work together, not isolated from one another, but together. All things mesh together like an intricate, detailed piece of machinery. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. lightning struck over the Bartley's yesterday, did a lot of damage. God in his providence sends a loud declaration that he rules the world, and that the thunderbolts and the lightning bolts are just the rod of his hand, and God sticks his finger and says, now pay attention to me, pay attention to me.

You say, well, what's, how is that for good? I don't have any idea. I don't have any idea what that particular thing, how it would particularly, distinctly do anybody any good. I don't understand that. But I don't need to understand that. I don't need to understand that.

I have God's Word, and my Heavenly Father has declared that these things, under his absolute control, all of them, he works together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. We don't see the details of most things going in our lives.

We don't see the details of how God secretly, wisely arranges to bring to pass those things that are vital and necessary to the souls of men and their everlasting good, but He does. And we simply walk before Him with faith trusting Him to do us good as He's promised that He will. And indeed He does.

For who? Them that love God. I do love Him, don't you? I do love Him. Not like I should, but I love Him. That means He works all things together for me. To them who are the called. I've been called by His grace. I know I've been called because I believe Him. And how do these things work together for good? According to his purpose.

Now, if you want to know what God's purpose is, read the next two verses. You don't have to guess, we're not in a quandary, we're not crying into secret things that belong to God, we're dealing with things that are revealed. And God's revealed purpose, by which he works all things in the universe, is found here in verse 29 and 30.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Now here the apostle declares to us that all the blessings of grace All the privileges of grace flow to us as the sons of God according to God's eternal purpose toward us, which is revealed in his foreknowledge, his predestination, his calling, his justification, and his glorification. Let's look at those five words this morning. Our text here gives us these five words of grace that are full of instruction for our souls. May God the Holy Spirit be our teacher. The first word is foreknow, for whom he did foreknow.

Now, you who listen to me regularly know that I seldom ever, almost never, refer to Greek words when I'm preaching, and there's reason for that. One, I'm not a scholar, and when I try to pronounce a Greek word, best I can do, I mispronounce it. is when I pronounce the word, you forget it quick as I announce it, and you don't understand anything about the pronunciation, the Greeks are not even talking about it, but occasionally it does some good to connect words.

And I want you to hear this word or no. It comes from a word prognosto in the Greek, and that word, that verb form, comes from the noun form of the word prognosis. Now you know what a prognosis is. A doctor takes you in his office and examines you, and he diagnoses the disease you have, or he diagnoses the case that you have, and being in consideration of all the treatments and all the operations and so forth, he gives a prognosis of what the end is going to be. Now, based upon his examination, based upon previous experiences, he makes a prognosis. Regrettably, most people think that's what God's foreknowledge is, but it's nothing of the kind. And when you start to think about foreknowledge, don't ever imagine that it is just a pre-science, or a previous knowledge of God about certain things.

I mean, I'll give you another point to help you in studying the Scriptures. Don't ever just do word studies. Get a dictionary and look up a word, or get a concordance and look up a word, and then go chasing it through the Scriptures and say, now, this is how we interpret Scriptures. That's a horrible way to interpret Scriptures. We use words in their context and interpret the scriptures as they're used. Let me give you an example, just a very clear example, that'll help you get hold of what I'm saying.

If you were to drive down the road, and on your way to lunch this afternoon, there's a terrible accident right out here on the bypass. And a man's driving a car. And you look inside the car, there lays his wife and his kids. Car's wrecked, smashed to pieces, and his family's dead. And you do what you can to help console him. Get back in your car and turn around and look at your wife and you say, oh, that poor, poor man. That poor, poor man. But the man was driving a Rolls Royce. And he's wearing a $500 suit. And he's wearing lizard skin shoes and gold rings. And obviously, he's not a poor man. Obviously, he's a very, very wealthy man.

But you use the word poor to imply one to be pitied. And that's a very proper use of the word. Though that is not what the word itself specifically means. You go downtown later on and you just walk around and some fella walks up kind of ragged and a little dirty and he just asked you, he said, could you spare a little help for me? And you reach in your pocket and you give him a dollar or two and try to help him out a little bit. say to you, wife, what a poor man. And the word poor then means one who is in poverty. You see the difference?

Now this word for know here, as it is used by men commonly, it means a knowledge beforehand. But as it's used in the scriptures, it doesn't mean anything of the kind. I want you to see what it means in the scriptures. This word for knowledge First of all, it refers to God-knowing persons. Notice what it says.

For whom he did foreknow. The text does not read what he did foreknow. The text reads whom he did foreknow. So that God's clearly, his foreknowledge clearly is not God knowing something about us, or God knowing what we will do and therefore deciding that he would save us, but rather it is God knowing us beforehand personally. And the word foreknowledge implies God's everlasting love for his elect.

Come back to Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah chapter 31. Now in this passage the prophet Jeremiah is speaking about God's covenant mercy and grace. If you get down to verse 31 of the chapter, Jeremiah begins to describe that covenant and that mercy which God promised us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

And if you wonder, well, how do we know this is talking about God's covenant with us? Read Hebrews chapter 8. There, the Apostle Paul quotes from this chapter and says, God's talking now about you. He's talking about his grace to you. Now, the basis of that covenant is in verse 3 here, Jeremiah 31.

The Lord appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with everlasting love." Now that love of God's, with which he has loved us with everlasting love before the world began, is a special distinguishing love. It would be of no significance whatsoever If Jeremiah understood God to mean here, now Jeremiah, I've loved you just exactly like I've loved your enemies. I've loved you just exactly like I've loved those who would destroy you.

I love them and I love you the same from everlasting. That's nonsense. That's utter nonsense. To declare that God loves everybody is to declare that God doesn't love anybody, and that His love is totally meaningless. But when God says to Jeremiah, and God says to us, I have loved you with an everlasting love, here's the response.

Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. So that those who are loved of God are those who are drawn by Him in His constraining grace to Jesus Christ. God knew His elect from eternity. as he knows no one else. He knew us in Christ with love and affection. He took infinite delight and pleasure in us. He found satisfaction with us. And God's foreknowledge then is that special distinguishing love for us that he has for us from eternity.

You remember in Genesis 4, the scripture says, Adam knew Eve his wife. Now that word knew does not mean he knew her name, knew what color hair she had, knew what she looked like, knew where she lived. It means he went into her as a man to a wife and he expressed his love to her in an intimate, intimate, intimate knowledge of her. That's the word. She's right here.

God says, I knew you. I knew you. Our Lord says to those on his left hand on the day of judgment, depart from me, you cursed. I never knew you. He knew all about them, but he didn't know them. You understand that? And God says concerning his elect, I know you. I know you.

His knowledge of us then is his special love for us. Secondly, God's foreknowledge implies his eternal election and ownership of his people. We are elect, Peter says, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous. That is, the Lord God approves and owns the way of the righteous. God comes to us and declares us to be his, saying, I know my sheep, and owns us as his sheep.

The Lord Jesus speaks concerning those sheep of his as distinct from all other people in the world. And he says, I know thee. I know them, they're mine. These are my distinct and peculiar people. So that those whom God foreknew, he owned as his people before the world began, and the scripture tells us that we were from everlasting accepted in the beloved.

Look at Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. Now don't take my word for this, look at the scriptures. Ephesians chapter 1. The Apostle Paul is talking to us about those things that God has done for us before the world began. All through the praise of the glory of his grace. You see that in verse 6? Wherein he hath made us accepted. Accepted in the beloved from eternity. So that God looked from eternity upon Babi Estes and accepted Not because it ain't good in you. Not because it ain't noble or bright in you. Not because of the pleasant disposition. God accepted you for Christ's sake.

Accepted you. And that never varies. It never changes. Do you understand that? God's acceptance of us is because of his love for us and his knowledge of us in Jesus Christ the Lord from everlasting. He owns us as he is. And then this word foreknowledge also is the same with the word foreordination. God's foreknowledge of his elect. His foreknowledge implies his absolute foreordination of those whom he loved from eternity unto salvation and eternal life in Christ. The Apostle Peter again, over in 1 Peter chapter 1, Look at it, if you will. First Peter, the first chapter. Verse 2, he says, it lacks according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

Now, if I had a nickel for every time some babbling Arminian threw that verse of Scripture in my face and said, now there you see, God chose us because he foreknew what we would believe, foreknew what we would do. I'd be a rich man. But read verse 20, same chapter, same book. Verse 20. Talking about the Lord Jesus, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times to you, or for you. The same word is used. The very same word.

The word foreknowledge in verse 2 is the word foreordained in verse 3, or verse 20 rather, verse 20, foreordained, is the same as foreknowledge in verse 2. Well, why are they translated differently? Because the translators were honest men. And they were dealing with the Scriptures honestly, translating them honestly, and they were declaring to us that we were elect of God by God's eternal, blessed, intimate, loving knowledge of us before the world began, just as Jesus Christ was known and ordained of God to the cross of Calvary before the world began. Exactly the same thing.

Our election then, our salvation, It's by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. It comes to pass by God's control, by God's power, by God's determination, not by ours. Even as the Lord Jesus Christ died at Calvary, not by the will of man, but by the will of God. Not by the purpose of man, but by the purpose of God. And this word foreknowledge also implies our infallible security. whom he did foreknow.

If God knows us, everything's all right. Everything's all right. You fathers, how many times you say to your sons or daughters, I know, I know, I know. They got a trouble, heartache, difficulty, I know, I know. That means, honey, it'll be all right. And anything needs to be taken care of, I'll take care of it. I know. And if God Almighty knows Larry Criss with that intimate, intimate, purposed love and grace of his favor in Christ Jesus, everything's all right.

We're justified by his knowledge of us. That's what Isaiah said, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. And our security, our peace, is found in God's knowledge of us. The Apostle Paul says, the foundation of God standeth sure. The Lord knoweth them that are his. He knows us.

Now think of it. If you are now a child of God, by faith in Christ, you were known of God from eternity. You're one of those whom he did foreknow. God Almighty, in amazing grace and infinite love, determined to save you before the world was made. This is God's foreknowledge. He loved you, He owned you, He ordained you, and He secured you in Christ before the world began.

Now look at the next word. He also did predestinate. Does the Bible teach predestination? There it is, laying right in your lap. The Word of God teaches it. Well, what does it teach about it? Don't be afraid of this doctrine. Predestination is a Bible doctrine. We believe it, and we preach it because it's in this book, and we rejoice in it because we understand it. We understand what the book teaches concerning it. Predestination is God's infallible purpose of grace regarding His election He foreknew from all eternity. was settled by God before the worlds were made.

Those whom God forged from eternity pitched his heart on James Rankin. And he said, I'm going to make him just like my son, just like my son. And then he arranged everything to guarantee that his purpose be accomplished. That's God's predestination. That's as simple as I can make it. And yet that's as profound as it is.

This conformity to Christ is a three-fold conformity. First, there is a climactic conformity to him, so that in regeneration, those who are chosen of God and redeemed by Christ are called to the Spirit and given a new nature, so that if any man being Christ is a new creature, old things are passed away, the old, all things are become new. Suddenly when a person is born again, that Christ whom we despise, we love, that Christ whom we could not and would not trust, we commit ourselves to Him, that Christ and His righteousness that we would not have, now we want more than life itself. It's a climactic conformity. But then it's also a gradual conformity. Believers do, day by day, gradually grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we do not improve in holiness and righteousness.

Either you're holy or you're not. Either you're accepted of God or you're not. But believers are not careless and indifferent about holiness. They're not careless and indifferent about righteousness. Believers are careful to put on Christ. Read the scriptures. Put on Jesus Christ. And those who don't, don't know God. By the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, by the Word of God working in us, and by the loving nurture and discipline of our Heavenly Father, the lives of God's saints are gradually molded to the image of Christ.

Let me give you an example. Now, when we talk about being conformed to Christ, that conformity has nothing to do with outward things that men generally talk about. Where on earth people got the idea that God's concerned about how long you wear your hair, what kind of shoes you wear, and that kind of nonsense is absolutely beyond me. I don't know where on earth man got the notion of such things.

But conformity to Christ has to do with character. It has to do with character, loving character, gracious character. The believer submits to God's will. He does so as a young believer. With willing heart, he submits to it. This is what's in the word, we submit to it. This is what God's done, we submit to it. But as he grows, that submission becomes the consuming passion of his heart. Oh, I want with all my heart to submit to what God says in this book and to submit to God's providence patiently.

I said a couple of weeks ago, we get ready for big things. Somehow we kind of prepare for them. But for little things. Oh, how they get hold of us. I had to preach at Franklin Thursday night. We had to find Shelby a wedding dress. That date's getting close, you know. So we shopped around in Nashville, shopped around, found her a wedding dress. Had a dinner appointment at 530 on the south side of Nashville, Brother Miss Gresham. And so I took off plenty of time to get there.

And traffic's just standing still. I mean just standing still in the interstate. And I'm beginning to get a little antsy. And got up there and the tractor and trailer turned over, crossed the lanes of the interstate, had the whole thing blocked. Dropped by that. Off we go again. Got down to about five miles. Traffic just standing dead still. Dead still. Now it's 530 and past.

And I'm patting my back, trying my best to keep my mouth shut, because I don't want to say anything wrong. But oh, I was not pleasant company. I just, I wasn't the least bit pleasant with what was going on. But this, too, is in God's providence. Another accident up the road. I'm fretting about being late for dinner, and there's three cars piled up there. I don't want that in those throes. Oh, what foolishness. What foolishness.

We ought to learn to submit to God's will. And believers do. They do. It takes God's discipline. It takes God's grace. But believers grow in patience and submission in God's providence. They grow with patience in suffering, in faith toward Christ and God our Savior, in faith and love one toward another because of his grace and mercy. Believers become more and more generous, more and more kind, more and more gracious, more and more forgiving, more and more patient with one another as they grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

But then there is this consummate conformity to our Lord Jesus. When we leave this world, we shall be perfectly conformed to Christ's image in perfect holiness. Oh, in the resurrection day, there will be the physical conformity, and that's great. But the greater, greater, far, far greater aspect of this blessed hope is moral conformity to his character.

We're going to be made like him, just like he is, perfectly holy, perfectly righteous. Now, I don't see how on earth anybody could have any problem with God's predestination when they understand that predestination is God Almighty having foreknown us, having chosen us, now he has predestinated everything necessary to bring us into the perfect conformity to the image of Christ. Doug Hatcher is sitting back there.

Graduated a couple of years ago from UK, engineering school. 27, am I right? 28, somewhere in there. I'll guarantee you, I'll guarantee you, buddy, before you were ever born, as soon as your daddy found out your mama was pregnant, he started making plans for you to go to school. I'll guarantee. I think I'd be safe there because I know he's already making plans. They're not even married yet. Well, what's a foolish thing like that? What kind of father? What kind of father would arrange for his son to go to school, get the best education he can, and have the best life possible? What kind of father would do that?

A good one. A good one. And I'm telling you that God our Father, who rules the world absolutely, totally, just as you say, from eternity, predestinated everything, necessary to bring us at last into conformity to Jesus Christ his son. That's predestination. So that from eternity in divine sovereign predestination, God eternally and sovereignly and immutably determined who he would save, how he would save them, when he would save them, where he would save them, and he arranged everything necessary to bring it to pass. That's God's predestination. Predestination marked the house into which grace would come, paved the road by which grace would travel to that house, set the time when grace would enter that house, and guaranteed that grace would actually come and enter that house at the appointed time. Nothing left to chance, nothing left to blind fate, nothing left to man's whimsical luck, and nothing left to man's imaginary free will. God predestined us. to be conformed to the image of Christ, that Christ Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren. That simply means that Christ might have the preeminence in heaven's glory, that he might be exalted and extolled and have all priority.

Now look at the third word, called. Whom he did predestinate, then he also called. Now there is a general call. It goes forth Whenever the gospel is preached, we call sinners to come to Christ. I urge you. Oh, I urge you. Come now to Christ. Come to Jesus Christ just as you are. Believe on him and you have life everlasting. Come to him and he will not cast you out. That's the promise of his word. But there's nothing that I can do. in my most earnest preaching that will cause you to come. I can't do it.

Now, we can tell sob stories, and we can tell fairy tales, and we can show scary movies, and we can stand up here and talk about hell, fire, and brimstone, and that's true. That's true. There is a hell to shun. There's judgment for men to face. And we can scare you into religious decision. It's not hard to do. We can talk you into making a profession of faith. Folks have been talking into it for hundreds of years.

Preachers have been talking folks into making professions of faith. But I can't persuade you to believe on Christ. I can't persuade you to live. I can't do that. Oh, but if God, the Holy Spirit, will cause this word that I preach to you to come not in word only, but in power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

To everyone who hears the word by the power of God's Spirit, he gives life and faith. You believe it, you'll trust it, you'll come to it. It's just that simple. The call of the is the invincible, irresistible power of God's Spirit coming forth by the Word of God by which he draws sinners to Jesus Christ affectionately and causes them to come. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto them. Let me see if I can illustrate it for you. When I was a boy, sixteen years old, I had been around a little bit, and I had created a lot of misery and trouble for myself.

I went and signed up for the Marine Corps, lied about my age, and I decided I'd join up. They took one look at me and figured I could absorb enough bullets for two or three fellows, I reckon. They'd come on a certain day, and we'll take you in at the induction service. I mean, it's just that simple. But somewhere, sister, somebody called, Told them I'd lied about my age, so they didn't take me.

A couple of years later, after God had saved me, I got married, and Shelby and I were on our honeymoon, and I can remember the advertisements like it was yesterday, back in those days, Uncle Sam won't chill. Everybody was invited. You remember that? Uncle Sam won't chill. Everybody was invited to come.

But the day I got home from my honeymoon, I'm talking about that day my draft notice was laid in the mailbox. That wasn't an invitation. That meant, son, this has got the authority of the government, you're to report to Charlotte, North Carolina, such and such a day, such and such a time. And so I did. I was drafted. I was drafted. And there wasn't much they could do in 1968, me just getting back off my honeymoon to compel me to make me willing to go. There just wasn't much way they could, except I preferred that to the consequences.

That's all. Now listen to me, listen to me. When God the Holy Spirit sticks his finger of grace in your heart, he makes you willing to come to Christ. And you come to him with all your heart. That's the irresistible call. All whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate, and whom he predestinated, them he called, and look at it now, and every one whom he called, them he also justified."

Justified. Who's justified? Who's saved? Who's made righteous in the court of heaven before God Almighty? Those whom God the Holy Spirit has called, they're justified. justified, made righteous before God. All of them. So that there's no possibility that the Holy Spirit tries to save some that aren't saved. Those who are called by grace are justified by grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. That simply means that God Almighty has made us in Christ right in the sight of God.

I'll give you a good way to define justified. as if I'd never said it. I'm justified. Are you? I'm justified before God Almighty, justified, so that there's no condemnation and no need to fear condemnation. I've been made accepted of God in Christ the Savior. One more word here. In whom he justified, them he also glorified. I can't talk much about that because I don't know much about it yet. I hope to know more right soon. But I know this. Glorification is the exact opposite of condemnation.

God removed the guilt of sin from us in justification. He broke the power of sin in us in effectual calling. And he will remove us from the presence of sin, the influence of sin, and all the consequences of sin. That's God's purpose. That's his purpose. Now you listen to me. Maurice read a little bit ago of God's purpose. He said, I'll do all my pleasure. All my pleasure. Nothing less than perfect glorification for all his people will satisfy God's purpose and fulfill his will and give him pleasure. Nothing less.

Reckon there's any possibility somebody may miss his glory? Oh no. Those whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that his son might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called. And whom he called, then he also justified. And whom he justified, then he also glorified. It's a matter of absolute certainty. Amen.