because you want to know God,
because you're interested in the things of God, because you're
concerned about your everlasting soul. Presuming that, I want to speak
to you with utter simplicity and plainness. Who are God's
elect? Can they be known? Can they be
identified? Am I one of God's elect? I suspect
that question concerns you. I know this. I know that God
has an elect people in this world, a people whom he has chosen from
eternity in everlasting love, whom he's determined to save.
The scriptures speak abundantly and clearly concerning this.
Our Savior said to his disciples, ye have not chosen me. Salvation is not by your choice. It is not by your decision. It
is not because of you. Ye have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. Those are the words of the Lord
Jesus to men who followed him, to men who forsook all and followed
him. to men who willingly chose him.
But their choice of him was not the cause of them following him,
and was not the cause of him choosing them, but rather they
followed him because he chose them. And they chose him because
he chose them. They called upon him because
he called them. And if right now you call on
the Son of God for grace and life and faith. Your call is
the result of Him having called you to life and faith. The Scriptures
are plain. We're bound to give thanks all
way to God for you, brethren beloved of God, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Salvation begins
with God's choice. God chose some people. It's called
election. In Christ, before the world began,
not all people, some people. And he chose those people to
salvation, sanctifying them in Christ Jesus, and in time, calling
them by the gospel. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh
my God, how I thank you that you did not appoint me to wrath,
but rather you appointed me to the obtaining of your salvation
by Jesus Christ, the Lord. And you did it. I know this too. God's darling son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, died for God's elect, all of God's elect, and only
God's elect. And by the sacrifice of himself,
he accomplished everlasting redemption for God's elect. The good shepherd,
he says, giveth his life for the sheep. He said, therefore
doth my father love me because I lay down my life for the sheep. No man taketh it from me. I lay
it down in myself. I had the power to lay it down
and I had the power to take it again. This commandment received
I of my father. Before the world began, The Lord
Jesus Christ, God's son, stood forth in covenant grace as our
sheriff, and the Lord God trusted to his hands all his sheep, all
the host of his elect. And the Lord Jesus, taking charge
of those people, taking charge of God's sheep, assumed to himself
total responsibility for them. They're his care, his charge,
his responsibility. He who is Jehovah's righteous
servant said, give them to me. and I will bring them and present
them with myself before your holy throne, holy, unblameable,
unreprovable, in your sight with joy. And in that last day, the
son will bow to the father, the servant will bow to God, and
he will say, lo, I and thy children which thou hast given me. The
Savior says concerning these sheep, for whom he lived and
died, Them also I must bring. What a good word, must. Them also I must bring. It's what I sworn to do. It's
what I am as Jehovah's servant responsible to do. It is what
God, the triune Jehovah has trusted me to do. These sheep are already
my sheep, them also I must bring. And as she just said, they'll
hear my voice and they'll follow me. My sheep hear my voice and
they hearing my voice follow me. That's true concerning all
the host of God's elect. We preach the gospel, I say we. We as a congregation, we preach
the gospel in this generation, using as best we can, by the
direction of God's spirit, everything in our hands, every opportunity
that God gives, every open door God sets before us to preach
the gospel. We preach the gospel as widely,
as farly, to as many as possible in the generation in which we
live as God gives us opportunity. And that's all. We don't form
plans and devise means and work up methods and figure out skills
by which to get people to respond. That's what tricksters do. That's what hucksters do. That's what deceivers do. That's
what self-serving men do. That's what denominations do.
That's what evangelistic organizations do. That's what churches do.
God's servants, God's church preaches the gospel. Wait on
God. Let's see what he does. Let's
see what he does. Well, you need to tell people
what to do. If a fella's drowning, you don't have to tell him what
to do. You just throw out the lifeboat, or throw out the, whatever
they call that circle donut, I used to throw them out, or
whatever. You throw it out to them, and they grab it. If they
don't need it, they don't. If a fella's hungry, you don't
have to tell him how to eat. Somehow or another, he'll get
food in his mouth. And if a sinner needs mercy,
you don't have to tell him what to say. You don't tell him how
to speak to God. You don't put words in his mouth.
You wait. He speaks to God from his heart. Them also I must bring. All whom God the Father chose
to salvation shall be saved. All for whom the Lord Jesus Christ
lived, died, and rose again at Calvary shall be saved. the Son
of God came here to save shall be saved by the grace and power
of God the Holy Spirit. Because God the Holy Spirit at
the appointed time of love identifies God's elect. They're not known to them. They're
not known to them. You can't know them by the way
they're raised. You can't know them by who their
parents are. You can't know them by how much Bible they were taught
as children. God, the Holy Ghost, identifies
God's elect when he gives them life, gives them faith in Christ,
reveals Christ in them, and causes them to lift their hearts to
heaven. Let's say, my father. believing on the Son of God. Paul said to the Thessalonians,
knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. How could he
know their election? How could he speak to them and
say, I know your God's elect? He tells us exactly how. He said,
our gospel came to you not as the word of a man, You didn't
just come to church one Sunday morning and hear Don Fortner
preach. Oh, he's such a preacher. Or hear the Apostle Paul preach.
Oh, what a preacher he is. No, no, no, no, no. Our gospel
came to you in power and in demonstration of the Holy Ghost with much assurance. God spoke to you and you said,
that's it. God spoke to you and you heard.
And hearing, you believed and became examples of faith. You
became followers of Jesus Christ, publishing the gospel. From you,
the gospel sounded into all the corners of the earth. And you
abandoned your idols to serve the living and true God. And
now here you are waiting for Christ. We know your election
of God because God has identified you, giving you faith in Jesus
Christ. As Brother Scott Richardson used
to say, I've said all that to say this, if right now, if right now, right now, right now, if right
now you believe on the Son of God, If right now you come to
Jesus Christ, if right now you trust the blood and righteousness
of God's darling son, you're one of God's elect. God chose
you. Christ bought you with his blood.
God the Holy Spirit has called you. The faith that he's given
you in Christ is proof of the calling. And you're forgiven
of all sin. justified from all things, washed,
righteous, clean, pure, holy in the sight of God. Do you believe
on the Son of God? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? If so, you are one of God's elect. Now, open your Bibles with me,
if you will, to Romans 14. As we read these 23 verses of
inspiration again together, I want to show you how God's saints
are identified. How they're identified by God,
the Holy Ghost. As you know, Shelby and I just
returned from meetings in England and Ireland. And whenever we're
overseas, this always happens. Someone hears us speak and says,
you're from America, aren't you? and before I can say yes, they
follow that up and say, from the South. And of course, I reply
with a happy smile and say, yes ma'am, yes sir, we're from the
South. We live in Kentucky. I'm what
some folks call a thoroughly unreconstructed Southerner and
very thankful for it. You see, our dialect identifies
us both as Americans. And our dialect identifies us
both as being distinctly from the South. And I'm thankful that's
the case. But you can't identify God's
people that way. You can't identify God's elect
that way. You can't identify God's elect
by their dialect, by the way they speak. You can't identify
God's elect by their diet. by the things they eat or drink,
or choose not to eat or drink. There are folks who think he
can. They think he can. Oh, he's a godly man, he's a
teetotaler. He doesn't smoke or chew, and
he doesn't eat any fat, and he doesn't eat any pork. Oh, he's
a disciplined man. That don't mean he's godly. There
are Buddhists who do that. That don't mean he's godly. You
can't identify God's elect by the way they dress. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You can't do it. I know people think they can.
Sometimes we get that notion in our knowledge. You can't do
it. You can't identify God's elect by their demeanor, that
is, by the way they act all the time. You can't do it. You can't
do it. I had a preacher's wife tell
me one time, I was sitting in the living room, she said, I
can tell if somebody's saved or not in 15 seconds. I said,
what? I just have to look at them.
I can tell whether they're saved or not. I said, what on earth are you talking
about? No, you can't. No, you can't. You don't identify
God's elect by those things. But here in Romans 14, God the
Holy Spirit identifies God's elect by seven distinct things.
As we read these verses in chapter 14, it is not my intention to
give another exposition of these 23 verses. I want to simply show
you seven things in this chapter by which God himself identifies
his people in this world. They're not identified as Baptist,
Methodist, or Presbyterians. They're not identified as Catholics,
Campbellites, or Mormons. They're not identified as Jews,
Buddhists, or Moabitans. They're not even identified as
Calvinists or Armenians. How are they identified? Look
at verses one through three. Him that is weak in the faith. That is a fellow who, he's not
grown up, he's not as mature and strong and firm and confident
about things as you are. Receive you. But not to doubtful
disputations. Now probably if he's weak in
the faith, he appears real strong, probably, because he wants you
to think he's strong. And he acts very decisive, because
he wants you to think he's a man. He behaves with rash, dogmatic
determination, because he wants you to think he's something else.
But he's weak in the faith. but don't receive him to doubtful
despotations. For one believeth that he may
eat all things, and another, the fellow who's weak, eateth
herbs. He said, no, you can't eat this.
Now, that's been offered dietals. That's not healthy. No, you can't
eat that. Let not him that eateth, that
is, the fellow who's strong and realizes that these things have
nothing to do with godliness, let not him that eateth despise
him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth Judge him
that eateth, that eateth not, judge him that eateth. Now watch
this. Here's the first identifying
thing. For God hath received him. God hath received him. Now get this and get it good. Those who are gods, are people
God has received. Very strong word. We read in
Ephesians 1 that God's people are accepted in the beloved,
accepted in Christ. The word there is highly favored.
They are a people graced of God, blessed of God. This is another
word. This means to receive as one's
own. To receive as one's own. I'm just guessing this. I don't
know that I've ever asked my wife about it or heard her say
it. But I think I can tell you the most precious possession
she has of physical things. I can tell you. insignificant gold band on her
finger. I remember when she received
it as her own. We were down here at a conference
one time and she has, well you know how she works, she broke
one of the prongs, lost the diamond. I thought the poor girl wasn't
gonna go home. Doug was around, he found it. most precious thing
she has. How come? Because 50 years ago,
I put it on her finger and she received it as her own, as her
own. Now hear me, God's people, be
they weak or strong, see them sitting here? Your brother, your
sister, be they very knowledgeable in the things of God Not knowledgeable. Be they very firm in conviction,
maybe hesitant about things. God has received them. The God of glory has taken us
to himself. He's taken us as we are as his
own. He's taken us as we are with
all our weaknesses, with all our faults, with all our failures,
with all our sin, with all our doubt, with all our unbelief,
with all our inconsistency. She's mine. He's mine. And he says, they're the apple
of my eye. These are my anointed. Don't you harm them. Don't you
touch them. Don't you injure them. They're
received of God. Number two, verse four. Who art thou that judgest another
man's servant? Who are you? to decide what another
man ought to do, another woman ought to do, another man's employee
ought to do, another person's servant ought to do. Who are
you to judge another man's servant? To his own master he standeth
or followeth. Now watch this, here's number
two. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. held up by God, his elect, all
of them, whether weak or strong, whether newborn babes in Christ
or aged believers, whether learned or unlearned, shall be held up
by God, for God's able to make them stand. We often get disturbed by things
that men do and the injury they seek to do to God's church and
kingdom. We ought not. Now don't misunderstand
me. I am an under shepherd. It is
my responsibility as a doorkeeper in God's house to protect his
people, to defend them, to guide them, to direct them, to warn
them of false prophets of wolves in sheep's clothing. All those
are my responsibility. But having proclaimed to you
the word of God, I have to leave Mark and Regina in God's hands. Come here, let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something. Are you listening? They're safe
in his hands. They're safe in his, no wolf's
gonna get them. No ditch is gonna catch them.
No trap's gonna ensnare them. If they're gods, he'll take care
of them. For God is able to make them
stand. If you're gods, he'll keep you
in the midst of affliction. Sometimes I see you go through
trouble, difficulties, and I just, I don't know if I can handle
it or not. I just don't know. If you're
God's, you'll make your stand. You'll make your stand. When assailed by heresy, Paul
said, heresies must come so that they which are perfect may be
made manifest. Here she comes, there's one of
God's elect. That newborn baby, oh, God just
saved him, I'm so concerned. If they're gods, if they're gods,
he'll keep them. He'll make them stay. My dear
friend, Brother Harry Graham, from whom I learned so much,
was quite athletic. I was at his house one day sitting
in the carport, and when we were talking, he always doing something.
Fellas had to be always moving, doing something. And we were
sitting talking and he was leaning back in his chair with a tennis
ball. And all the time we was talking,
he's just throwing that tennis ball against the wall. Catch
it, throw it back. Catch it, throw it back. Catch
it, throw it back. And I asked him something to this effect
with regard to all the Harris's coming around. He said, brother
Don, you've seen this tennis ball hit that wall? And I said,
yeah. He said, well, I can wear that
tennis ball out and wear out that whole tube of tennis balls
and keep throwing. And you won't even find a mark
on that wall. It ain't going to hurt it. It ain't going to
hurt it. They shall stand. Though assaulted
by Satan with all his accusations, though Satan comes and would
raise Moses up and condemn you and accuse you, they'll stand,
they'll stand. When tempted of evil, they'll
stand. And even when they fall, even
when they fall, God's able to make them stand. The righteous
man falls seven times in a day. and the Lord raises them up.
They shall stand. For God is able to make them
stand. He chose them. He redeemed them
with the blood of his Son. He sealed them with his Spirit.
He holds them in the hollow of his hand. I'm confident of this
very thing, Paul said. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. All
right, number three, look at verses five through nine. God's elect are a people who
do what they do for the glory of God. I'm gonna tell you something
about every one of God's elect. They all live for God. They all
live for God, verse five. One man esteemeth one day above
another, One fellow says, we ought to keep the Sabbath day.
Another, esteem it every day alike. He said, no, it's all
right to go fishing on Sunday afternoon if you want to. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Now let me tell
you what that means. This is what it means. Don't
you try to live by my conscience. Don't you try to live by my conscience. We have a terrible, terrible,
terrible tendency to try to make our lives mold to another man's
life. Don't do it. Let every man be
fully persuaded in his own mind. Fully persuaded by God. Fully
persuaded by experience. Fully persuaded by the word of
God. I think it's in today's bulletin. If somebody's got one
handy. I've got that article in there about taking the counsel
of young men. I think this is the week I put
that in there. Yeah, he forsook the counsel
of the old men. You know, young men about always
do that. Isn't that amazing? Young men
about always do that. I know. Believe it or not, I
was a young man once. And, Usually, even as a young
man in God's kingdom, I was greatly influenced by my
peers who were an hour or two older than me. And man, they'd
get something on their head. Oh, this is what we got to do.
This is what we got to do. In history, there are books written
about a group of fellas who were Anglicans, they were lost as
a goose in a snowstorm, but they were all studying for the priesthood
in the Anglican Church. John Wesley, his brother Charles,
George Whitefield was among them. They called it the Holy Club. Do you know old men write history
books and brag about those fellows in the Holy Club? They read,
and prayed, and dieted, and made themselves holy. The holy club. All of them, one inspired by
the other, trying to work his way into righteousness. Everyone
of them, everyone of them, the holy club. Don't follow the guide
of men. Follow the guide of God's servants,
speaking to you through his word, yes. But even at that, let every
man be fully persuaded in his own mind. Fully persuaded of
what's God's will. Fully persuaded of what God would
have him to do. Fully persuaded of how God would
have him to live. He that regardeth the day, regardeth
it unto the Lord. That is, Paul's writing now in
this age when many Jews have been converted and they're still
retaining aspects of Judaism. He said, some folks believe you
ought to keep a whole a day. That's all right, that's all
right. He does it to the Lord. Others say, oh no, no, no, no,
no. That's all right. He does it to the Lord. He that
eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks. And he
that eateth not to the Lord, he eateth not. and he giveth
God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live
unto the Lord. And whether we die, we die unto
the Lord. Whether we live therefore or
die, we are the Lord's. Now this is what Paul said. If
God should give that young man right there life and faith in
Christ right now, he begins living to the Lord. And he is the Lord's
just as much as his grandfather, who soon will be 68 years old. Believers live for God, not for
themselves, for God. Not for the world, for God. Read
on. For to this end, Christ both
died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord, both of the
dead and the living. I'm gonna be preaching on that.
I've prepared two messages on it the last three weeks. I'll
get to it eventually, but I'll be preaching on that Lord willing
next Sunday. But let me tell you the essence of it. This is
not talking about really Christ's absolute sovereign dominion over
all things, though that's certainly true. Christ died and rose and
revived, ascended up on high so that he might be Don Fortner's
Lord and Lindsay Campbell's Lord and Mark Daniel's Lord and Diane's
Lord and Donna's Lord, I've got it right there, Donna's Lord
and Shelby's Lord. He's Lord over all his people,
not you, not me. They all live for him. They all
live to him. And living for the Lord, they
live for one another's benefit. Both the weak and the strong,
the newborn and the aged, as they're taught of God and enabled
of God, walking in the light they have, they live for God.
Now, let me see if I can put that in some shoe leather. As
a child, I thought as a child, I understood as a child, I talked
as a child, and I did a lot of childish things. I really did,
I really did. I was more childish than most. God saved me, I had been a, yeah,
you don't even know what all I'd been, but that's what I'd
been. And David, if it was possible to be a Ginnett, I was a Ginnett. I mean, if somebody just came
and hinted to me, boy, you ought not wear tassels on your shoes,
I'd cut tassels off. What are you doing wearing those
tassels? Don't you know godly people don't wear tassels? Santa
Claus and Christmas trees, oh, I was a Ginnett. I don't think
I'll ever forget the delight with which I took that little
girl out and got her her first Christmas tree. You were about
six, I guess. Five or six, maybe a little younger.
She was jumping up and down. I thought I'd never get that
tree home. We went in the woods, oh, she was so excited, and I
picked that, no, no, Daddy, let's get this. No, no, no, Daddy,
Daddy. I had to cut down a big tree and cut the top out of it
and carry it home. What made her so excited? She never was
allowed to have one before. How come? Because I wasn't persuaded
in my own mind we could. I was a child. I thought as a
child. I acted like a child. But I'll
tell you what I think she knows. And the best she could know it
then, I'll tell you what I think she knew then. Daddy's doing
this because he's convinced it's right. For God's glory. Weak as I was. Ignorant as I
was. Dumb as I was. Childish as I
was. Living for God. That means I ought to be sympathetic
to my brothers and sisters who act and talk like I did as a
child. My brothers and sisters seeking
to live for God. Which of you ever got upset with
a child learning to walk because they fell down? Anybody? Which of you ever got upset with
a baby because it messed his diapers? Now if it got to be
five or six, that's another story, I'm talking about a baby. Well,
that's to be expected. Of course it is, they're babies. So it is with God's people in
this world. Not many of God's babes are born
full grown with a full set of teeth and a full grown beard.
Not many, not many. The Apostle Paul was. He's the
exception, not the rule. Christ is my Lord, and he's your
Lord. We ought to treat each other
that way. The Lord's children. Oh, that's the Lord's child. He'll be all right. He'll be
all right. Wait at least a week or two,
maybe a year or 10. He'll be all right. He's the
Lord's. He's the Lord's. Here's the fourth thing. God's elect, God's people in
this world are people who live in the blessed hope and prospect
of eternity. And look at verses 10 through
12. Why dost thou judge thy brother?
Or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. Mm, mm. For it is written, as
I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me. Every tongue shall confess to
God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself
to God. Let us not therefore judge one another anymore. Don't do that, just don't do
that. But judge this rather, that no
man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's
way. You see, for the believer, judgment
and eternity are not things to be dreaded. And that's not how
Paul uses it here, but rather a matter of comfort, satisfaction,
peace. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
and said to them, with regard to those who were accusing him
of all kinds of stuff, he said, frankly, fellas, I just don't
care what you think. It matters nothing to me that
I'm judged of you. Nothing. I get, I know you don't
realize this, but your pastor is a little dogmatic, and the
things I believe nobody has to guess about. If anybody's heard
me preach once, they know what I believe and know what to expect.
Everywhere, everywhere. As a result, I get written up
a lot in small papers and big papers on both sides of the Atlantic
and across the Pacific and all across this country. And I'll
tell you what I never do. I never answer them. Never. Well, I do, really. I'll sit
down sometimes, spend a day and write a letter. Man, I can write
a stinging letter. Oh, I can write a stinging letter.
And I used to let them sit on the desk for two or three days
and then throw them in the trash can. Now I just let them sit on the computer
and hit the delete button. I just gotta get it off my chest. But
I don't answer them. How come? And they say, I'm prepared
to wait. And God will show everything
his true light. Say, I'm God's servant. I don't
need to defend myself. I'm not going to. And Bobby Estes
is God's servant. I have no business judging him
as to whether or not he's God's servant. That's not my business. That's God's business. Eternity
will make a difference. Eternity will show it all. So
you make this your business. Not to sit around and decide
who's saved and who's lost, who's a good Christian and who's not,
but receive God's children as God's children and you make dead
certain that you don't say or do anything to put a stumbling
block in the path of one of God's children. Don't stick your foot
out and trip them up. Pray for them and help them when
others trip them up. Don't do it, don't do it. have their eye on eternity, and
they live in the prospect of eternity. Number five, verses
14 through 17. Believers, saved sinners, God's
elect in this world, people who know God and live for God, are
men and women who seek to live peaceably with one another. They seek to avoid hurting or
injuring each other. They try to avoid strife and
conflict. They don't live for controversy
but for peace. They try to help, not injure. That's the picture we have of
Abraham and Lot, isn't it? There was a terrible strife,
not between Abraham and Lot, between Abraham's herdsmen and
Lot's herdsmen. And so Abraham said, we gotta
do something about this. Let's not have this lot. Where
would you like to live? Just take whatever you want to.
And they left and parted as friends, family, and brethren. That's
what God's saints do. They try to help each other,
not injure one another. Verse 14, I know and am persuaded
by the Lord Jesus that there's nothing unclean of itself. But
to him that esteemeth anything to be unclean, to him it's unclean.
Now I was raised in the finest city in the whole world. I was
raised in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. And let me tell you
one of the beauties of that great city. On a hot July day, when
the Reynolds Tobacco Company would open up the vats and they
had to turn that tobacco over, had to completely turn it over
every eight hours to keep the place from blowing up. They'd
catch on fire and blow up. They'd open the vents on those
vats. And on a hot July day, you could
walk anywhere in downtown Winston-Salem, or within a mile of town, and
you could breathe in the air and spit out the amber. Mm, wonderful
place to live, wonderful place. Now, to some people, that's unclean. You didn't know that, did you?
Yeah, some, oh, you saved now, you can't smoke, you can't shoot,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Up north, you can't do that.
You can't do that, no, no, no, no, no. Now down where I was
raised, you can't drink. Not if you're Christian. About
everybody smoked. About everybody smoked. It's
called regional sanctification and regional holiness and regional
foolishness. But to him that considers something
unclean, it's unclean. And if you think it's wrong,
don't do it. But don't decide whether it's
wrong for David Coleman to. That's not your business. But
if thy brother be greed with thy meat, now walkest thou not
charitably. Don't behave uncharitably and
ignore your brother. You don't have to have that glass
of bourbon or that beer or that cigar. Destroy not him with thy
meat for whom Christ died. Now, you're not going to destroy
God's saints, no. What he's talking about is don't destroy his peace,
his ease, mind, life. Let not then your good be evil
spoken of. For you see, the kingdom of God
is not in meat and drink, but in righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. Again, let me put this in shoe
leather. How often the good gospel of the grace of God is evil spoken
of by wicked men because they see God's people in contention,
fighting, strife, division. And the gospel's evil spoken
of. Our liberty in Christ is a good
thing. That's a good thing. And it's a good thing that we
use it graciously because that good thing is often evil spoken
of by weaker brethren when we insist on displaying our injury,
our liberty to their injury. I saw something on television
yesterday morning. We're still on European times. We were up real early and had
coffee, sitting in bed, watching the early edition of the Fox
News on Saturday. And the oldest man in the world
had a birthday yesterday. The oldest man in the world.
Now I'm fixing to tell this so the whole world knows, but I
only told two people yesterday. I had to be very selective because
it would injure some. But they asked that fella the
secret to his longevity and health. He was 112 years old yesterday. This was his answer. God, whiskey,
and cigars, That was his answer. God, whiskey, and cigars. He said, whiskey's all right
as long as you don't get drunk every half hour. You can't do that. Everything for the believer in
moderation, that's all right. That's all right. But you don't
have to use it. Just cause you can don't mean
you have to. If it injures a weaker brother, Gives him unease, makes
him uncomfortable. Leave it alone, leave it alone.
Number six. Here's another identifying thing
with God's elect. They're acceptable to and approved
of men. For he that is in these things
serveth Christ, look at this word, is acceptable to God and
approved of men. acceptable to God and approved,
not of wicked men, ungodly men, approved among God's people,
approved among men, women who know God. Let us therefore follow
after the things which make for peace and the things wherewith
we may edify one another. For if meat, for meat destroy
not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but
it's evil It's evil for that man who eateth with offense,
that man who does something when he really thinks he ought not
be doing it. It's good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine,
nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or
is made weak. God's elect are acceptable to
God. Acceptable to God. Not accepted
as accepted in the beloved, that's not the word here. Oh, I'll take that. I'll take
that. Now, I've told you this story dozens of times, but I
don't remember ever telling it with my daughter sitting in front
of me, so I gotta tell it with her sitting here. When she was
about four. I'd been away in a meeting, I
traveled a lot preaching then too, and we lived in the mountains,
and I had an old Chevrolet pickup truck, and when I'd get to the
top of the mountain, I had a CB radio, had one of them long whips
on it so I could get out a long ways, even had one of those illegal,
whatever they called it, to make me get out a little further.
And I'd get on top of Sewell Mountain and call home on the
CB and Shelby would answer it, and I'd tell her I'd be home
in about 15, 20 minutes. And when I'd drive up, Faith is sittin'
on the front steps, right in front of my office, front door
of the house, waitin' on Daddy to get home. And when I drove
up, it was this time of the year, she got up, came runnin' to me,
she had somethin' behind her back. She'd been out in the yard
and picked me a whole bouquet of beautiful dandelions. Oh, dandelions, those ugly stinking
weeds. Dandelions. But they were just
that pretty cotton looking stuff there and she thought it was
the most pretty thing. And she came running with that bouquet
of flowers. By the time she got to me, Neil, she was bawling
and I was too. She was bawling because all her pretty flowers
were gold. And I was crying because she did the best she could just
for me. If I could get them, I would
take $1,000 for them. How come? They're just dead to
my eyes. They're just dead. Who wants
them? I did. They were acceptable to
me. She brought to me the best she
could do just to please me. And I know God accepts our feeble
works through the merits and blood and righteousness of his
Son. But I'll tell you something else. God is my Father. And hard as it is for me to imagine
this, all that I am, warts and all. All that I am, bald head, baggy
eyes, weak legs, All that I am, all that I am, is acceptable
to God. He takes me as his own. He's received of God. One more thing, and this sums
it all up. God's elect are people who live
by faith. by faith in Christ. Hast thou
faith? Hast thou faith? Now listen, have it to thyself
before God. That doesn't mean keep it secret.
That means it doesn't depend on other folks. It doesn't depend
on what other folks do. It doesn't stand or fall before
Oscar Bailey's judgment or Don Fortner's judgment, no sir. Have
your faith, yourself before God. Happy, happy is he. that condemneth not himself in
that which he alloweth. You do what you're convinced
by God, his word, and his spirit, and your experience as you presently
are, you do what God would have you to do. And I'm gonna tell
you what, Rex, if you do what God have
you to do, that'd be all right with me. That'd be all right
with me. Well, it'll have to be. That
ain't even the attitude to have. Well, thank you, darling, that's
the way it is with me, too. You do what God had you to do.
If I can help you along the way, I will. If you want my counsel,
I'll give it the best I can, but I'll pretty much leave it
to you, just leave it to you. And he that doubteth is damned
if he eat. That doesn't mean going to hell,
that means his own, he does something, I shouldn't do that, but man,
Lindsey did that, Rex did that, Billy did that, Merle did that,
it must be all right, and just as soon as you, oh, I wish I
hadn't done, I wish I hadn't gone to that picture show with
him, I wish I hadn't said that, I wish I hadn't got involved
in it. Don't do it, just cause somebody else does. Walk with
God by faith, because He eateth not of faith. That is, he didn't
do it with good conscience, believing God, trusting Christ. For whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. Oh, I believe God and now I'm
going to act in faith. No, no. I'm done preaching for this morning.
And I've done what I believe God had me to do. Trust in Christ. I believe I'll do something in
faith. I think I'll sit down now. In faith. In faith. I think I'll
bid you goodbye here in just a minute. In faith. In faith. And I'll say Lord willing, I'll
see you tonight in faith. The just shall live by faith. He lives by faith. He walks in
faith. He's ruled by faith. He's motivated
by faith. He's governed by faith. He's
inspired by faith. And what he does, that whole
man, he's acceptable to God. Look here. congregation of men
and women, washed in the blood of Christ, robed in His righteousness,
born of God. You're fixing to go out to dinner,
aren't you? Accepted by God. I approve. How about you? Oh, God, give
you faith. Give you grace to walk in faith
for the honor of God. Oh, for God's honor. Nothing
else much matters, does it? Amen. You're dismissed.