Mark, thank you for that prayer. Cause us, Lord. Cause us. We all who know the Lord from
personal experience of His grace, we know, don't we, that us being
here tonight, we are caused by God to be here. What a blessing. What a privilege. What an honor
it is for me to be here with you folks tonight. I want to
tell you hello from those at Rescue. I know it's California,
but we prefer calling it Rescue. We try to separate ourselves
a little bit from the other folks on the other side of the valley
from us, but hello. All the saints there in Rescue
wanted me to say hello, especially to this dear lady right here.
We miss you a great, great deal. and our prayers. We pray for
you constantly. You are a beacon. You men of
the church are a beacon of what many of God's saints strive to
be, patient. We know that one of the most
difficult things for us in the flesh is to be patient, to pray
and wait upon the Lord. And you folks here, all of you
men, are a beacon to the rest of us in patience, God-given
patience, in waiting for a pastor. We pray for you a great deal
on that matter, and we continue to pray that the Lord will bring
a pastor to this little congregation here in Kentucky. Larry Chris wanted me to make
sure I said hello. Gene and Judy Harmon wanted me
to say hello. So I had to get that out of the
way first. You read in the scriptures tonight,
give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his
deeds among the people. I'd like to ask you if you would
turn to the book of Isaiah, chapter nine. And while you're turning there,
allow me to read three verses for you. From Psalms 40, verse
five, we read these words. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works, which thou hast done, and thy thoughts, which
are to usward. Isn't that wonderful? To usward, usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. His thoughts, which
are to usward. Ephesians 1, verse 19, we read
these, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward,
who believe according to the working of his mighty power. In 2 Peter 3, verse 9, we read
these words, the Lord is not slacking concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us,
are those not just words of love that the Lord has for his people?
His thoughts, consider that, the thoughts of our creator,
the one who is master over every speck of dust, every molecule,
everything that is, has thoughts on folks like me. Folks who know what we are before the
face of our God, who know what we are in the flesh, who have been brought to an understanding
what grace means, that he would have thoughts on
a worm like me. Are you in Isaiah chapter 9?
Look at verse 6 with me for a moment. Just the first part of it there,
it says, for unto us. Now, I know your pastor a little
bit. He'd come out to rescue at least
twice a year. And before the Lord took him
home. My pastor retired, so I spent
a little time talking to Don on the phone, and I know he's
preached from these verses probably more times than anyone else has. You've probably heard it all. You're not going to hear anything
new from me. For unto us, unto us a child
is born. This child This God-man in the
flesh, this God-child was born for you and I. Unto us a son is given, the Son
of God, the light of the Father. The one who created all it is
for his sake was given to us. Who are the us? Look over at
verse 2 of Isaiah chapter 9. The people that walked in darkness. Do you remember when you walked
in darkness? I didn't know I was walking in darkness. I thought,
wow, I got the world by the tail. I'm going to just do what ever
feels good for John. I wasn't any religious type of
person. I didn't go to any kind of other
churches. I had the religion of John. It was all about me. And then one day, just like Paul,
I was sitting under the preaching of the gospel. I'd gone to rescue
to cry on my brother's shoulder. Had some troubles in my life.
Some of you may understand those kinds of things. I went to pry
on my older brother Lee's shoulder and the Lord spoke through the
preaching of his word. And just like Paul, the light
came on and I saw how dark it was before. The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Did you
notice, once again, so far what I've read for you in those three
verses, what we read here in Isaiah chapter nine, it's speaking
of a people. Not all of mankind. It's not
like the religious world around us would like us to believe.
God loves everybody. I wanna, quite honestly, if I'm
walking down the street and you hear that kind of stuff, I just
wanna walk up and say, how do you know? How do you know God
loves everybody? I've done that once or twice,
and it's always John 3, 16. Every single time. And it's always,
for God so loved the world, they forget, and they don't even pay
any attention to the fact that it says also there, whosoever,
whosoever believeth hath everlasting life. Those They that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Turn, if you would, now over
to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Us, them. I've titled this evening's message,
Privileged Generation, but you could also call it this, It is
Given Unto You. Here in Matthew chapter 13, we
look at verse 10, if you would. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? Verse 11, and
he answered. And he said unto them, Because
it is given unto you. because it is given unto you
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
it is not given. John, why are you always pointing
your finger at them? Why do you always gotta beat
up on the other religions? Can't you just get along? Can't
you just be happy and love everybody? Isn't that what Jesus would do? I had a conversation with a loved
one. She claims to be a Christian,
but there's some big differences between what she believes and
what I believe. She was trying to convince me
that the church she goes to on Saturday, I'll leave it at that,
I think you understand what I mean by that, that they would believe
in election if they were just taught. if they were just taught. And I shook my head and I said,
well, what are they being taught then? Election is all the way
through the whole Scriptures. It's all the way through from
the beginning to the end. Our Lord chose a people from
before the world was. Before a star ever twinkled in
the sky, He chose a people. And she's trying to tell me that
possibly they couldn't understand the doctrine of election because
they were not being taught it. God has not taught them of this
vital doctrine. And just because they don't know
it, yet doesn't make them reprobates. That's true. I didn't know it
one time before. Did you? Have you known it all
the time? No, that doesn't make us reprobates. But I can tell
you this for sure, God does not save people through the preaching
of lies. Psalms 31, five, thou hast redeemed
me, O Lord, of truth. Does that mean anything to you
folks? John 4, 24, God is spirit. They that worship must worship. You notice that word must. That's
not a maybe. That's not one of these things
that folks like to make a God who has maybes and mights. The
God of scripture is full of shalls and musts. And when he says must, we must worship him in spirit
and in truth. Teaching from the pulpit, folks,
that you can be saved if you just come down to the front of
the aisle and say a prayer. You can be saved if you'll just
show up on Saturday and worship on Saturday, or get into the
baptismal, or do whatever, or make a decision. Anything you do towards your salvation is mixing
works with grace and you completely obliterate. Obliterate the word
grace. It's no longer grace. Teaching that you must do this
or do that is a lie. And if you belong to God, He
will not leave you in a false religion. The truths of God's
Word must be revealed by God. Natural man cannot perceive the
things of God. We cannot even see the truths,
for the truths of God are enmity against our nature, against the
way we would come into this world. My ways, he says, are not your
ways. The Apostle Paul declares Israel,
the religious folks of that day, Israel to be a people that are
zealous for God. going about establishing their
own righteousness and not submitting themselves to the righteousness
of God. God had not revealed the truth to them, and he allowed
them to live in their own lie. Look over at Romans chapter 10,
if you would, please. In Romans chapter 10, we read
in verse one, brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. Isn't that our prayer
for our loved ones? Oh, how I would love this dear
sister of mine to be saved too. And as long as I can keep speaking
the truth to her, I have a hope. We read in the Scripture reading,
go out and tell the people. Isn't that our witness to the
world is that our God rules everything, including me, including my will? I'm thankful I don't have a free
will. Because if God left me up to
my free will, I'd be walking around just like I was 25 years
ago, following the religion of John. My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God." Oh, I'm telling you,
my sister has a zeal of God. Just not the God, but not according
to knowledge. I'm painting a picture here,
folks, because every one of us, if you're a child of God, If
you read those words that we read back there in Isaiah unto
us, then you know as well as I do the grace of our Savior
and not leaving us to ourselves, to this, to that, the zeal of
a God, the zeal of a religion of this. No, our Lord, because
He loved us, He would not leave us to ourselves. He would not
leave us according to our own knowledge, for they, being ignorant,
have God's righteousness. and going about to establish
their own, I'm sorry, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Now look over at chapter, or
look over at verse 13. Romans 10 verse 13. It says, for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? How are you gonna call on the
true and living God if what God is allowing you to hear is a
lie? Who makes us to differ? Our Lord
makes us to differ. He chose us from before the world
was that we, in the day of His love, would come out of that
world of self, self-righteousness, self-works. And here the gospel
preached for the first time. I remember the day sitting there,
my sister poked me in the, another sister, poked me in the, Stomach
like that. What? Listen to this guy preach. She goes, you're sitting on the
edge of your seat. I heard for the first time the
first thing in this world that made any sense to me. The world
around us has been going haywire for a long time. We can sit here
all day and talk about the things that are going on in today's
world. It's nothing different than what was going on in Paul's
day. It's nothing different than what was going on in Noah's day.
Natural men are going around ruling themselves, acting like
they know what's best for themselves. And that's exactly what we were
doing at one time, when the gospel was preached to us, and we heard
the power of God in his word, the power of our Savior. Not all who claim to be Israel
are of Israel. Some are imposters. Some have
crept into God's church, the gathering of God's people, and
they're ordained of old, as it says in Jude verse four. They're
ordained of old to make lasciviousness of His truths. You know what
that means? That means to make it wicked. That means to take the word of
God and interpret it into your own destruction. That means to
put your will above God's will, above His word. That's the same
thing the devil did. He says, I'll be like the most
high. Well, that's how we all come into this world, acting
like we're all high. Oh, what a good boy little Johnny
was. Some are trying to get to heaven
on their own merits. In our conversation with my sister, She claims to be a Calvinist,
like me. John, we're all the same. Some
people worship on Saturday. Some go and sit in a little box
and talk to a man about their sins. We're all the same. We're
all searching up the Christ. No, no. Total depravity, unconditional
election, limited atonement, irresistible calling, and perseverance
of the saints will not save you, but But Christ Jesus, the son of the
living God, is our only salvation, but you cannot teach of Christ
Jesus and him crucified without teaching those truths. Why was
Christ crucified? Let's begin over in Romans again,
if you would, turn over to chapter three, look at verses 10 through
18 with me. Chapter three, Romans chapter
three. Why was our Lord crucified? As it is written, verse 10, there
is none righteous, no, not one. Do you see the picture of you? There's a lot of people who are
religious who think that this doesn't fit them anymore. I was
that way once, but now I go to church on Sundays, I'm not that
bad a person anymore. That's the Pharisee standing
in the church saying, Lord, I'm thankful that thou hast made
me like that guy over there. God's people will always be that
guy over there on their knees, praising our Lord for his mercy
and grace, pounding our chest saying, Lord, have mercy upon
me, a sinner. I'm not gonna stop doing that.
I can't stop doing that until the Lord takes me out of this
flesh, out of this body of death. You know what I'm talking about.
If the Lord has shined his grace in your heart, you know what
I'm talking about. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that
doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher
with their tongues, they have used deceit, and the poison of
asp is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction
and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they
not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. I had no need of God before the
Lord saved me. I was okay. It wasn't until he
broke my heart, gave me a contrite heart, removed that old stony
one, and put a heart of flesh. And this fits every single one
of God's people. Every single one of God's people
know the pit that we were dug out of. Unconditional election. Look
over Romans 11. Look at verses 1-4. I say then, hath God cast away
his people? God forbid, for I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul
is speaking here, and he says, no, he hasn't thrown his people
away. I'm an Israelite. Verse two, God hath not cast
away his people, which he foreknew. What ye not that the scripture
saith to Elijah, now he maketh intercession? To God against Israel, you know,
I just read that the other day for the first time in correction. All these years that I've been
looking into the Lord's Word, I didn't realize until just a
week ago that Isaiah had made intercession against Israel for
their sins. I thought he was making intercession
for them. No, it's against. You ever read over something
so quickly, sometimes it just misses it? That was an example
for me. It never goes away, folks. Never goes away. Verse three,
Lord, they have killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and
I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer
of God unto him? I have reserved, I have elected,
I have chosen, I have kept to myself 7,000 men who have not
bowed the knee to the image of Baal. You know why God could
look upon that 7,000? Christ and Him crucified. Why
was Christ crucified? Because there's no other way
for you and I to be saved. There's nothing we can do. We
can't buy it. We can't earn it. There's nothing
we can do. We need a savior. That's why
Christ was crucified. He was crucified so that he might
choose, so that those that he had chosen before the world was
would be saved, that we would be reserved, that we would be
kept. Limited atonement, look over
chapter five, Romans chapter five. Verse eight, Romans five, verse
eight. But God commendeth his love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There's that word us again. Why
was Christ Jesus the Lord crucified? For us. Verse nine, much more
than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
the wrath through him For if when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we will
also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have
now received the atonement." Limited atonement. You know,
I've heard people say, well, Christ died for everybody. No.
No, no, if that's the Lord you worship, you worship nothing
of your own, only your imagination. Our God doesn't do things part
way. His desires are not turned. His purpose is not turned. Everything our Lord desires shall
be. If he desired to atone a people,
we read here, we have now received that atonement. Irresistible grace. Turn over
to 1 Corinthians to the right if you would, chapter one. Why was Christ crucified? So that the Holy Spirit could
come to each and every one of His people. Call us out of darkness
and give us life. Look at verse 22. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews
and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
One more, if you would please, turn over to 1 Peter 1, perseverance
of the saints. You see how these verses point,
and these are just five verses, this is just five different places
in the scriptures. If I spent, if I could go through
all the scriptures, which I'm not smart enough to do, but if
I could go through all the scriptures, we could spend the next, 20,
30, 40 years, maybe even more, finding all the places where
our Lord gives reasons for these things. 1 Peter 1, beginning
at verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept. Perseverance, folks, he who has
all power is keeping us. He's keeping us until the day
when we are taken out of these bodies of death and taken into
His presence. We are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. These truths must be revealed
to you. What an honor, what a privilege. Look with me, if you would, over
at Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. We're talking about a privileged
generation. We have the privilege of sharing
with every person that crosses our paths who our God is. Do the people that know you know
who your God is? Do they know the trust that you
have in Him? Do they know the faith that you
have in Him? I sure wished all the ones around
me did. I sure pray for the ones who
are religious in their own works, that they may see the one that
I rest in, the one that you rest in, Our Lord doesn't love everybody,
folks. And this is the magnification
of His grace. He loves us. He loves a people
for Himself. Usward. He looks upon us and
sees His Son, sees the blood of His Son. And He says, that
one's mine. I've already paid for all the
sins he's doing and all the sins he's going to do. This one's
mine. My son hung on the cross for
her. The greatest magnification of
God's grace is giving his son as our substitute. Grace doesn't get any better
than that. What He did was He gave us a perfect substitute,
one who established a perfect righteousness for us who have
no righteousness at all. In fact, He not only established
a righteousness for us, He became sin for us. God made Him to be
sin who knew no sin. That boggles my mind. I know
great men who have tried and done their best to teach me what
that means, but my small little mind can't comprehend it. I just
know it's so because it says it in His Word. And I know the
reason I know it's so is because He's given me the faith to do
it, to believe it. Whosoever believeth. The whosoever
are the ones that He's loved. and gave Himself for. The ones
that He shed His perfect blood on the cross for, so that when
God the Father looks upon you and I, He sees the perfection
of His Son. He's satisfied with the perfect,
righteous blood of Christ. I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed
good in thy sight. Look over at chapter 11. We're a chosen generation. We're
a privileged generation. Not in anything that we have
done, but what our Savior has done. In chapter 11, verse 27,
we read these words, And it came to pass, as he, our Lord, spake
these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her
voice and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and
the paps which thou hast sucked. And he said these words. But
he said yet, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of
God, and keep it. Do you understand how blessed
you are? Israel knew that for a while,
didn't they? Can you imagine how blessed they thought they
were as they left Egypt that day? Again, my mind can't comprehend
this, but I know it's so. The Lord says so. The waters
were parted, and Israel crossed on dry ground. Do you think they
thought they were blessed at that moment? Careful. Careful thinking you're blessed.
Oh, I know I'm blessed, but be very careful about that. I open by sharing with you my
conversation. And in that conversation, we
close with this point. If I go to hell, it's my fault.
If I go to heaven, it's God's fault. Folks, we've been called
with a holy calling. But that holy calling also warns
us over and over, beware. Not just of false teachings,
not just of others, but of ourselves as well. Our old nature that
battles with the new. 2 Corinthians 13.5, we read these
instructive words, examine yourself. Examine yourself, whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates? Paul tells some folks, he says,
take no confidence in what you do. In other words, don't take any
confidence in how you feel. Repent from your repentance is
a phrase that I've heard many a times. I've repented. Lord's turned me. Repent from
your repentance. Don't let anything of this flesh
get in the way of the blessings of God, and that includes what
you see as blessings. Turn to Him alone. Our rest is
in Him and Him only. He is either your all in all,
or He is not God at all. So what is the result of these
blessings of knowing that we are chosen of God unto us? He has looked upon us. What are
the results of that? Look over back at chapter 10
again. Our Lord gives us an example
of how we in the flesh can be easily deceived by our own feelings,
be easily deceived by our own what we call blessings. In verse 19 we read these words,
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all power
of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding,
in this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you,
but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."
This is what it is to glorify our Savior, to give Him full
credit for everything Without our Lord, we'd be right back
in that pit, right back in that deep, dark pit of self-righteous
wallowing. Give him full credit for our
salvation and for everything about us. We call him Lord. That means he's Lord of everything. even the trials that come our
way. And some of us have some pretty
heavy trials. Rejoice not in your good works.
Rejoice not in the works that God has given unto you, but rejoice
in Him. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulders. Everything that has been given
us comes from him. The government shall be on his
shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.