You'd be turning, if you will,
to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. I'll get there in just a few
minutes. As you know, you have been my
friends for so many, many years. I travel to a lot of places and
preach the gospel of God's grace. In recent years, I've had the
privilege of going to several places where I'd never been before.
And sometimes things are a little different. I was getting ready
to go preach to a group of people a while back, and somebody asked
me, you know, in the background of the place where I was going,
said, are you going to be uncomfortable? And I said, oh, no. They might
be, but I won't be. I won't be. I have a responsibility. I have a responsibility. Wherever
I go, to make known to the best of my ability the character of
our God, our Redeemer, His gospel, and His salvation. That's my
responsibility. I stand before you in this place,
this hour, either as the servant of God or the servant of Satan. There's no in-between ground.
Our Savior said, he that is not with me is against me. The Apostle Paul said, woe is
unto me if I preach not the gospel. He didn't say, woe is unto me
if I don't preach. He said, woe is unto me if when
I preach, I preach not the gospel. Some years ago, I was preaching
up in Buck Mountain, Tennessee. And a good many preachers came
to hear the message. After service, we had a fellowship
back in the back. One of the preachers was chatting
with me a little bit, and he acted so very sincere. And he
said to me, after a few minutes, I'd give anything if I could
preach like that in my pulpit. I said, do what? He said, I'd
give anything if I could preach like that in my pulpit. I said,
well, if you don't, I can tell you why. And he looked a little
puzzled. He said, why? That's the only reason. That's the only reason. You're
a hireling, and you do what you do for your own purposes and
for your own gain. God's servants are not such men. They are men who preach the gospel
of God's free grace. Paul said, though we are an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which
we have preached unto you. Let him be forever damned. Let him be forever damned. Well,
don't you think you ought to pray for him? No. Let him be
forever damned. Don't you think you ought to
reach out to him? I have. Let him be forever damned. It is our responsibility, if
we are God's servants, this man and mine, to preach to you the
gospel of God's free grace with such clarity that you cannot
be mistaken in hearing what we say. My wife is, you can't tell
it by looking at me, but I'm married to the best cook in the
world. And she makes a pound cake. Oh, my soul. I can taste it now. I haven't
had a bite in weeks, months. Don't get it very often. But
it's the best pound cake you've ever tasted. Man, you can smell
it, pick up pounds. It's wonderful. I don't have
any idea how she does it, and I don't plan to learn. But I'll
tell you what I know. She knows how it's made. And
if she wanted me to make it exactly like she does, she could give
me clear instructions, and I could make the cake just exactly like
she does, because she understands it. And when a man stands here
to preach, And you don't understand what he's preaching. There's
one of two reasons. Either he doesn't know what he's
talking about, or he doesn't want you to know what he's talking
about. No other reasons. And either case, he has no business
standing here preaching. You see, God's servants are sent
as watchmen upon the walls of Zion to watch over the souls
of men. They do so with great care, understanding
that a curse hangs upon their heads if they fail to meet their
responsibility. No wonder the old prophets used
to say, with regard to the preaching of the word of God, the burden
of the word of the Lord. to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this book, it is because there is no light in them. Doesn't matter which way you
go, that way, that way, that way, this way, wherever you find
a church building and a man who's not preaching the gospel of God's
grace, it's because he has no light and he has no business
pretending to be a preacher. He that hath my word, let him
speak my word faithfully, no matter where he is, no matter
to whom he is speaking. If I am God's servant, if I presume
to dare to stand in this place and speak to you eternity-bound
men and women in the name of God, speaking to you the word
of God, it is my responsibility before God and before you to
be faithful to God's word, faithful to the gospel of God's free grace,
faithful to God's glory, and faithful to your souls. I call
upon you who hear me to compare every word I have to say in this
message, not just in this one, but every time I stand to preach. Compare every word I have to
say with what's written in this book. If what I say is not exactly
what God has revealed in this book, don't hear me ever again. You do so to the peril of your
own soul. If, however, what I've got to
say is exactly according to what God says in this book, if you
refuse to hear, you refuse to the peril of your own soul. I
make you this promise. That which I have to preach to
you is that which has been inscribed on my heart by the finger of
God in the sweet experience of his grace. I don't come to the
pulpit to debate issues or to discuss things. I come to the
pulpit to declare what God has taught me by his spirit through
his word in the experience of grace. I don't come here bringing
questions. I come declaring answers. I don't
come to share an opinion. I come to declare to you the
word of the living God. My doctrine is not a theory,
an opinion, a conjecture, or a creed. It's not Baptist doctrine,
Catholic doctrine, Pentecostal doctrine, Presbyterian doctrine,
Arminian doctrine, or Calvinistic doctrine. It's the doctrine of
the book. It's the doctrine of the book.
The very truth of God. Now hear what I've got to say
to you. There are certain attributes of God's character. Certain things
essential to the character of God. Attributes of the divine
nature about which all who profess to be Christians are in full
agreement. Doesn't matter whether they're
conservative or liberal. Doesn't matter whether they're Calvinist
or Armenians. Doesn't matter whether they're Catholics or
Baptists. All who profess to be Christians would agree there
are certain things about God's character that are just so. God
is spirit. Eternal, immutable, independent
spirit. Everybody I know who professes
to be a child of God recognizes that and says that. God is holy,
wise, and good. God is good. Everybody agrees
with that. God is omnipotent, omniscient,
omnipresent. I don't know anyone who would
object to that. God is just. God is true. God is faithful. Everybody you discuss the things
of God with will agree with that. God is love, merciful, gracious,
long-suffering, forgiving. This past few days, The news
media, every time I've turned it on, has been talking about
Billy Graham. Somebody asked me last night, I think it was
Delilah, I'm not sure, something about that as well, I don't think
any more of Mr. Graham since he died than I did
while he was alive. They're going around telling
everybody, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life. If he does, he's got a strange way of showing it. But everybody
says, God is love. That's true. God is merciful. That's true. God is gracious,
long-suffering, forgiving. All those things are true. These
characteristics, these attributes of God's being, all religious
people, to one degree or another, recognize and applaud. But there
is another attribute of God, something else absolutely essential
to his character. And this is the one attribute
by which God throughout the prophets constantly identifies himself
as God alone. This one attribute. This one
attribute. This one thing, he says, this
is the thing that distinguishes me from all that you call gods. This is the thing that sets me
apart from all the gods of the nations around which you gather
and bow your knee and move your God from one corner to another
and say you're worshiping him. What is that? It is this one
attribute while men sing oh how I love Jesus and sing Jesus loves
me and they smile and beam. If a preacher stands up to discuss
this, suddenly they just get enraged. Just get enraged. I've preached
to folks who'd stand in a congregation of full house of people. They'd
sing Amazing Grace and just wave their heads and smile and roll
their eyes back and start to declare who Jesus Christ is and
their veins start to pop out. Veins on top of their head popped
out. They'd ball up their fist and they'd kill you if they could
for declaring this one attribute. There's one attribute by which
God himself says, I am God alone, and beside me there is none other. What is that? It is his absolute
sovereignty. His absolute sovereignty. God is sovereign. People say
that all the time. They say it all the time. I just
saw the news, I think, when we went in after having breakfast
this morning, and I came back to the room and it was on, and
somebody was at a place and Mr. Graham was praying at Reagan's
Inaugural and said, no, Mr. Bush's Inaugural. He said, Lord,
we thank you that in your sovereignty, you permitted Ronald Reagan to
be our president these past eight years. God's sovereignty doesn't
permit anything. Did you hear me? God's sovereignty
doesn't permit anything! He does as He will. All the time, everywhere, with
everybody, and He answers to nobody. Have you found your place
in Psalm 115? Psalm 115 verse 3. Our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Turn over to chapter 135, Psalm
135, and verse 6. Almost exactly the same thing
said. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, in earth,
in the seas, and all deep places. In heaven, earth, and hell, God
does as he pleases. Always, all the time, with everybody. He who truly is God is totally
sovereign. The God of the Bible, the one
true and living God, the God we worship, trust, and love,
is an absolute sovereign who performs his will everywhere
constantly. His sovereign, eternal purpose
is that which he brings to pass in time. Satan is not God's rival. He is God's devil, and he doesn't
wiggle without God's decree. You understand that? He's God's
devil. He doesn't do anything apart
from God's decree. We either worship God, who is
sovereign, or we worship an idol. There's no in-between grant.
The Lord, our God, is absolutely, universally sovereign. And I'm
here to assert, in the plainest, boldest terms possible, anything
less than an absolute sovereign is not God. Anything less than
an absolute sovereign is nothing but the idolatrous figment of
man's depraved imagination. Brother Don, don't you think
folks are just confused? Yeah, they're confused. Absolutely
confused. Blind men usually are. Anything
less than an absolute sovereign is nothing but an idol. Something
that men have carved out of the dark forest of their own depraved
minds and set it up and call this God. This piece right here,
you can set it up there and you can say this is Jehovah. This is Jesus. He's sovereign. He's eternal. He's the omnipotent,
omniscient Lord God. He died to save me. I believe
in him, I worship him. And you can be as sincere as
all get out, but that's still just an electronic device. It
ain't Jesus. It ain't God. Well, don't you think folks are
sincere? It doesn't matter. That doesn't
change who God is. God Almighty is indisputably
sovereign. He is the Lord over all. When I assert that God is sovereign,
I'm simply declaring that he's God. He has the right and the
power to do what he will, when he will, with whom he will, as
he will. I repeat, the God of this apostate
religious age, this generation of anti-Christ Christianity is
anything but a sovereign. Isaiah described him this way,
they pray unto a God that cannot say. They pray unto a God that
cannot save. You see, modern religion has
set aside God's sovereignty to make room for man's autonomy.
Today, men everywhere deny the sovereignty of God's will in
order to exalt the imaginary freedom of man's will. Men everywhere
set man up in the house of God, demanding that he be worshipped
as God. Paul calls that antichrist, 2
Thessalonians chapter 2. Man is placed in the place of
God so that man is given power over God. Man is given dominion
over God. Man's will has God Almighty in
a hammerlock and it can't do anything without man's permission.
The fact is the God of this enlightened 21st century church is a weak,
helpless, frustrated, effeminate idol which demands the respect
of no one. No wonder We have a religious
generation more corrupt, more vile, more base, more irreverent,
more blasphemous than any generation that's ever lived. We live in
a world in the United States of America, here in the South,
my soul, you can't hardly walk for tripping over church buildings.
Everybody's religious. Most everybody been saved two
or three times, but nobody references God because the God they pretend
to worship is nothing but an idol. Just their imagination
of what they think God ought to be. If God loves everyone,
as we're told, and some people still perish in hell. Would you
tell me something? What does the love of God have
to do with anybody's salvation? Nothing. If Christ died for all
men and some people go to hell anyway, what does the blood of
Christ have to do with the salvation of anybody? Nothing. If the Spirit
of God draws all sinners alike to Christ and tries to save all
sinners alike, what does the will and power and grace of God
the Holy Spirit have to do with anybody's salvation? Nothing.
Do you understand what I'm saying? The religion of this day makes
God's love, Christ's blood, and the Spirit's power totally irrelevant
and meaningless. Yet those are the very things
by which the God of this age is most commonly described. They
may describe your father's God, your neighbor's God, your mother's
God, maybe your God, but not the God of the Bible. A weak,
helpless, frustrated God is no more God than the totem poles
of barbaric tribesmen. The God of the Bible, I repeat,
is an absolute sovereign. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
5, verse 18. All things are of God. All things are of God. Well, you can't carry that too
far. No, you can't. Carry it just as far as your
mind's imagination will carry it and stop and rest for a while
and pick it up and go run some more. And you haven't begun to
commence to getting started to carrying it to the extent of
it. All things are of God. God, our God, is he who is sovereign
in creation. The Lord hath made all things
for himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. God, our God, is absolutely sovereign
in providence. Providence is but the unfolding
of God's eternal decree. It is but the accomplishing of
God's everlasting purpose. It is but the performing of divine
predestination. This is what the book of God
says. We know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. His purpose to save the people
he loved that they might be forever conformed to the image of Jesus
Christ his son. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Oh, God help
you to get hold of that. If you worship God, if you believe
God, you ought to go through this world with peace, with calm
in your heart, with delight, knowing that God's will is always
performed and God's will is always good. Always good for his people, always
good for his glory, always good for the advancement of his kingdom.
Our Savior said, Concerning God's sovereign. I thank thee Oh father
Lord of heaven and earth Because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes Even
so father for so it seemed good in thy sight God, I thank you
for your absolute dominion, for your absolute sovereignty. I
thank you for the blessed assurance that the wrath of man shall praise
thee and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain. This is the
God we worship. This is the God we worship. Again
Delilah and I were talking before anybody else got here this evening
and she mentioned something about humility. We have generally have
confused ideas about humility. When you think about humility,
this is what you automatically think. Most of you are old enough
to remember Gandhi in India. You know that dirty Indian who
walked around with a dress on and he walked like this. Oh, he's such a humble man. That's
not humility. That's not humility. That's a
show. That's all. Can you give us a
picture of humility? There was a man by the name of
Moses, a man by the name of Moses, who
walked right smack dab face to face with the king of the mightiest
nation on the earth, who had a warrant out for his arrest. He walked in and said, Pharaoh,
Jehovah says, let my people go. Who is Jehovah that I shall obey
him? Hang on boy, you fixin' to find out. And Moses was the
meekest man on the earth. What? That's meekness? Oh yeah. He knew who God is. And he knew whose he was. And
he knew who he represented. And that'll give you a backbone
of steel. Our God, the God we represent,
is in the heavens! And you think we're gonna back
up? Our God rules the universe, and you think we're gonna bow
and scrape before men? Our God sits on his throne, and
you think we're gonna beg men to do something for him? Oh no,
he's God, you're just puppets on his string. Oh, you can't
say that. Well, let me try it another way.
He's God, you're just puppets on his string. That's all there
is to it. That's all there is to it. Our
God is sovereign in creation, sovereign in providence, and
blessed be his name. He's sovereign in salvation.
Salvation is of the Lord. Turn to Romans chapter 9. Romans
chapter 9. Look at verse 16. But Brother Don, the way you
talk, man's will doesn't have any power at all. Man doesn't
contribute anything to salvation or grace. What's man's part?
Man's part is sinning and running. God's part is saving and catching.
Romans 9 verse 16. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hearteneth. The God of the Bible is an absolute
sovereign. And to declare God's sovereignty
is simply to declare that he is God. This is how God describes
himself. He says, I will do all my pleasure. A few years ago, I had to go
to the health center in Danville and take some therapy. And the
therapist found out I was a preacher. And after a while, they started
talking about religion. And one of them said to me one
day, I guess she'd read something I'd written or heard me on television
or something, she said, she said, you're not one of those Calvinists,
are you? And I normally would pass that off, I don't like that
term, because I never use it with regard to myself, but I
knew where she was getting and everybody out there was listening
to her. I said, honey, I'm so Calvinistic, I'd make John Calvin
look like an Armenian. Yes, ma'am. If you talk about
election, predestination, sovereignty, limited total, yes, ma'am. That's
what I believe and preach three times a week right here in Danville.
Come and listen. God Almighty is an absolute sovereign
who always does his pleasure everywhere. So that everything
that comes to pass in time, God purposed to bring to pass in
eternity, and effectually brings to pass by his sovereign providence,
according to the good pleasure of his own will, to the praise
of the glory of his grace. Well, does the Bible tell us
what it is that God is pleased to do? Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, in earth, in the seas, and in all deep
places. Turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter
12. First Samuel chapter 12. I recognize that the secret things
belong to the Lord. And I'm delighted to leave secret
things secret. But the things that are revealed
belong to us and to our children. And God has revealed them to
us for a purpose. Now let's look at some things
God has revealed about His pleasure. Subject tonight is it pleased
the Lord. It pleased the Lord. Let me show
you five things God's pleased to do. Number one, it hath pleased
the Lord to make you his people. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 12,
verse 22. The Lord will not forsake his
people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased the Lord
to make you his people. Look at this little band of believers
here in Sylacauga, Alabama. Look at yourselves. Look at yourselves. Of all people on God's earth,
why you? Why me? Why on this earth would
God Almighty have people like us and claim them as his own?
Louis, if you're God's, you're God's because it pleased the
Lord to make you His. That's all. That's all. It pleased the Lord to make you
His people. How did He do that? He did it
by special sovereign adoption. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons
of God. Forever the world was God Almighty
chose us as his own put us in his son accepted us in his son
and Then Christ came to redeem us by his precious blood and
because you are sons Not in order that you should become sons,
but because you are sons He sent forth his spirit into your hearts
crying Abba father that you might receive the adoption of sons
You and I are his because he made us his. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. As you
all know, I have one daughter. We have two grandchildren. I've
been praying for those two grandchildren since before they were born.
What I've been praying for my daughter since before God gave
her to us 46 years ago, is that right? 47 years ago. God, will you be pleased to hedge
them about with your goodness and sweetly force them into the
arms of the Savior? That's how you become His. You've
not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you
may go and bring forth much fruit. Some years ago, I was down in
Spring Lake, North Carolina, down close to where I was born.
And some friends of mine had just started chicken business. They started raising chickens.
They got a bunch of chicken houses down. Back then, they just had
three. And they'd get 100,000 birds in at a time. They'd get
them in, still had shells on their backs, just little bitty
chicks. And when they did, I was there helping them unload some
one day, and they had that huge chicken barn, lots bigger than
this church building. And they wanted all those chicks
down at one end. Down at one end. You ever tried
to herd chickens? Chicks? That's worse than herding
cats. But they figured out a way. They
had a piece of black plastic the width of that chicken barn
and the length of it on a roller. And they unloaded those chickens
and we just started rolling that thing up. And you bump into them
and just force them the other way. And just keep bumping and
bumping until they had them all herded up into about 10-15 yards
from the end of the barn. And then they let down the feeders
so they could stand there and feed. They didn't want to move
at all except just grow. So they let down the feeders
and those feeders were computerized to rise just a little bit throughout
the day, every day for six weeks. And as they stood there and fed
and got fatter and fatter, they'd spread out and the plastic would
roll back. But they managed to get them down to the end of the
barn by that black roller just pushing them down there. Pushing
them down there against their will. Push them down there without
their choice. Push them down there without
them knowing what was going on. Just keep pushing them that way.
Oh, God, will you take these and graciously hedge them about
with thorns if need be. Hedge up their way and sweetly
force them into the Savior's arms. Oh, what grace. If you today believe God, it's
because God was pleased to make you His. Number two. Turn to
Romans chapter 6, verse 23. It pleased God to make you His
people by the sovereign gift of life. By the sovereign gift
of life. The creation of life in you. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. How do sinners become born again? Well, you
have to say this prayer. You have to go through this experience. You have to come to the front
of the church. You have to repeat after the preacher. You have
to sign a decision card. You have to be baptized. No, no,
you just believe on Jesus and then from then on you got to
do good. No. Sinners are born again by the
sovereign power of Almighty God in the gift of His Holy Spirit.
Ezekiel. What do you see out there, boy?
I see a valley full of dry bones. They've been out there for a
long time. There are very many that are very dry. Prophesied
to the bones what? prophesied to the bones Okay,
so I began to prophesy to the bones and as I did Bone joined
to his bow and flesh to the bones and stood a mighty army with
life in him God says that's what I'll do for the whole house of
Israel. I'm gonna raise you from the dead You see the new birth
is not a decision men make The new birth is a resurrection from
the dead. It's a resurrection from the
dead. You can't produce it, and you
can't do anything to make it more likely. Did you hear me? We can't produce it, and we can't
do anything to make it more likely. We have a whole generation of
folks today who have backed themselves up into a corner because they
They don't think God's doing everything God ought to be doing
and something must be wrong. So let's alter our methods. But
in order to alter the methods, you've got to alter the message.
In order to alter the message, you've got to alter the doctrine.
And so they start trimming away at the gospel of God's grace.
Now, you can't say these things like this. It offends men. Would
you tell me what our Lord said that didn't offend men? Tell me what he said that did
not offend men. The gospel of God's grace is
an offense to men on purpose. The intent is to shut folks up
to Christ. Well, you got to employ some
methods. You got to have some entertainment
and some music and some this and some of that and some programs. Just slop. Just manure. Just so much stuff fit for hogs. In the church of God, We preach
the gospel of God's grace and sit down and wait. Just wait. Don't put pressure on folks except
the pressure of the word. We just wait. You don't manipulate
folks with psychology. You preach the word and wait.
You pray for God to work. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
You can't tell where it's coming from. You can't tell where it's
going. So is everyone that's born of the spirit, our Lord
said. And until a person is born again, he can't see or enter
into the kingdom of God. He has no ability to see. He's not talking about natural
eyes. He's talking about the eyes of the soul, the eyes of
the heart, the eyes of the mind. He has no ability to perceive
anything spiritual. I try not to scold folks every
time they say something wrong. Sometimes it's hard to resist.
Folks, my buddy over there, Joe, he's coming to a little truth.
You don't gradually come to truth. I've been reasoning with him,
arguing, getting him to read this, read that, read that thing, and
he's beginning to see things. No, when a blind man sees for
the first time, he has dazzling light shining in his heart. That's the revelation of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
You can't argue folks into the kingdom. You can't fuss them
into the kingdom. You can't reason them into the
kingdom. You can't pray them into the kingdom. You preach
and wait on God to work as he will. It please God to make you
his people by his sovereign gift of life and faith in Christ. He causes his own to believe
on him, giving us faith. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Faith, you see, is the gift of
God. Mr. Graham, in one of his books,
he said, man has a sixth sense. His sixth sense is faith. And all you have to do is believe
in Jesus. Well, in a sense, a little bit
of a sense, he's sort of right. All you have to do is believe
in Jesus. Give it a shot. Try. Try. You who believe, did you not
try and try and try and try and try and try to believe? And then
suddenly, One day you found yourself doing what you couldn't do just
a minute before, believing God. Believe in God. Believe in Him.
I remember when first the Lord began manifestly to deal with
me in such a way that I was aware of God doing something. I didn't
know what it was exactly, but I began to go to church and I'd
stay up at night scared to death of going to hell and I'd make
bargains with God, promise to do better, and I'd read my Bible
and I'd try to pray and I'd go to church and I'd read my Bible
and try to pray and I'd give an altar call and I'd come to
the front and I'd try to pray through and get saved and go
home just like I was before. I couldn't believe. I couldn't
find any peace. I couldn't find any rest for
my soul. I couldn't believe. I couldn't believe. And then
one day, I was sitting in a church meeting. Yes, a preacher, a fellow
from Orlando, Florida, named Jules Smith. His grandson and
I now, acquainted with one another, but he would preach him. And
for the first time in my life, I saw Jesus Christ crucified,
and I saw the glory of God in the face of Christ, found out
how it is that God can forgive sinners, and I found myself,
by wondrous, irresistible grace, believing God. because God commanded
the light to shine out of darkness and shined in my heart to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of his son. Turn over to Colossians chapter
1. Colossians chapter 1. Here's another thing. It pleased
God to put all fullness in his dear son, our Savior, the Lord
Jesus. Verse 18 and he is the head of
the body the church who is the beginning the firstborn from
the dead that in all things He might have the preeminence For
it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell
all folks I could I could preach on that for a long time. Let
me uh let me give it to you just briefly all the fullness of God
is in the God-man, Christ Jesus. I spent a little time on that
last night. All the fullness of grace is in our mediator,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, our surety, our crucified Savior. All the fullness of God's salvation
is in Christ. Get Christ, you get everything.
Miss Christ, you miss everything. The scriptures speak of God's
salvation this way. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption. Christ is our wisdom by which
we know God. Christ is our righteousness by
which we stand righteous before God, just before God. See if I've got one of our bulletins.
Yeah. Back years ago, I first started
passionately writing articles in bulletin. I used to write
them out on paper. I knew I could write a page and
a half, and she could squeeze it into one page article like
this. And she'd type them out on a piece of paper, and then
all this over here would be jagged. You know how it used to be. And
she'd take a straight line and mark it. And she'd count out
the spaces. And then she'd go back and type
that bulletin again on a stencil, those old bibliographic machines,
sloppy, messy things. and she would justify the right-hand
margin. Now all you do is you hit Control-J,
there it is. Justify. You see what that means?
You see the right-hand margin there? You see that? Watch this
over here. See that one? To justify the
right-hand margin is to make this margin exactly like this
margin. That's the best picture I know
of of justification. Here I stand, in Christ. Terry Hogue, here is all God's
perfection, righteousness, holiness, justice, truth. All of it. Here's everything required in
the law. Everything. And here I am, in Christ. Righteous, with his spotless,
garmless, holy, as the holy one. You got that? He is made of God
and to us, sanctification. Now I know I'll get in trouble
with some folks who will hear this. Not with you, but some folks
will hear it. And they'll cuss and carry on and say, Fortner's
messed up. Well, no, Fortner's not. They are. Sanctification is not
something you do. You know what sanctification
is? The word is holiness. That's the word, holiness. God
commands Lester Buckner, be ye holy, for I am holy. He won't
accept anything less. How on this earth can Lester
Buckner be holy? Only if God Almighty comes to
you in free grace and puts a new nature in you called a new man
created in righteousness and true holiness. A new man. It's called being made partakers
of the divine nature. So that the person who is born
of God has righteousness imputed to him because we have been made
righteous in God's Son. And we have holiness imparted
to us because we have been made partakers of the divine nature
in the new birth. And Christ is our redemption. That word translated redemption
in 1 Corinthians 1.30 It means deliverance. It's actually the
word means lucid. Deliverance by price and by power. It's talking about our complete
deliverance from all that we lost in the sin and fall of our
father Adam. Complete deliverance. We are
sealed by the Spirit of God unto the day of redemption. Redemption. Redemption is not
just talking about what Christ did at Calvary, or even what
he did before the world began. It's not just talking about what
he did in the new birth, giving us life and faith. It's talking
about the final, ultimate, complete deliverance of God's elect from
all sin and all its consequences. All the consequences, so that
when he's done, there'll be no tears, no sorrow, no sighing,
not for anything. For our God shall wipe away all
tears from our eyes. Salvation is the Lord's. It's of Him. It's in Him. It's from Him. And it does it
that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. William Romaine rightly observed
There is more to be received out of the fullness of Christ
than anyone upon earth has yet enjoyed. Now, come back to Isaiah
53. Isaiah 53. Give you two more
things, I'll quit. What is God's pleasure? It pleased
the Lord, Isaiah 53 10, to bruise Him. It pleased the triune Jehovah
to crush his darling son to death as our substitute. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. The Spirit of God translates
that this way in 2 Corinthians 5 21. He hath made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin. Thou shalt make his soul an offering
for sin. When you, Lord God, make him
what he could never be and never do, by a wondrous, mysterious
transfer no mind can comprehend and no lips can declare, when
you make him see it, then he shall see his seed. He'll see every one of them justified,
sanctified, glorified by Him. He shall prolong His days. He'll
rise from the dead and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
His hand. He shall see of the travail of
His soul and shall be satisfied. Now, I've given you this before.
It'd be worth writing down and remembering if you don't have
it written down somewhere else. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
shall never be discovered a miscarriage. Every sinner for whom Christ
suffered and died at Calvary will be with him in glory. He
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. How is that? For by his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many. For he shall bear their
iniquities. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Number four, Galatians chapter
one. Galatians chapter one. Verse 15. when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal
his son in me. When does salvation come? For
every chosen redeemed sinner there is an appointed hour. It's
called the time of love in Ezekiel 16. When the Lord God will meet
that sinner in his path to hell and stop him in his mad rush
to destruction and reveal his son in him. For everyone the
exact hour is appointed and at that exact hour that one shall
be called by God's grace and Christ revealed in him. You see
salvation comes by revelation, by God revealing Christ in you. He comes to the center. I've
been preaching for a while now, and I've had the privilege of
seeing some folks converted who were fairly young. And I've had
the privilege of baptizing folks in their mid-80s. One dear lady
heard the gospel and believed God. I baptized her when she
was 94 years old. Oh, how sad that so long before
God saved her. Well, sort of. But no, not at
all. You see, God saves his own at
exactly the right hour, in exactly the right circumstances. And
he ordained everything in the past and worked it all in his
providence. Just worked everything. Just
worked everything. Ah, the wonder of God's providence.
Just working everything. working everything exactly according
to His will to bring the chosen sinner to the point and place
we are saved from by His grace. And it pleased God to do that
by the foolishness of preaching. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. God's Word that goes out of His
mouth will not return to Him void. It will accomplish that
which he pleases. It will prosper the thing whereto
he sends it. I go somewhere almost every week,
sometimes several places a week, preaching the gospel of God's
grace. Several years ago, right after they started this TSA stuff,
I was flying out of Louisville, Kentucky going to a meeting and
had to go through that machine where you took everything out
of your briefcase and all the fellas saw my Bible laying on top of my
briefcase. He said, are you a preacher? I said, yeah. He said, where
are you from? I said, Danville, Kentucky. And
apparently he had heard something about some preacher down in Danville,
Kentucky. He said, you're not one of those preachers that believes
in predestination and election, are you? I said, of course I
am. I believe what's in that book. He said, if you believe
that, why do you go preach? I said, because I believe in
predestination and election. I know there's somebody out there
that's going to hear God's word at exactly the time God ordained. Last week or something, I was
in California and met young man and young woman. They're not
dating, not engaged in anything. As far as I know, they're both
from the same general area, came down two hours to the meeting,
stayed for the whole weekend and heard the gospel. First night,
came in and introduced themselves, and both of them have been from
wild backgrounds. You can't believe Buddhist backgrounds
and Catholic backgrounds. The young lady from She'd been
raised a Buddhist. She wrote mystic philosophy and
all that new age religious nonsense. And he had been raised a Catholic
and became an infidel and was looking for something to argue
against Christianity. I wanted to read something about
Romans 8.28. He said to me, actually spoke to Shelby before he did
to me, and then told me. She said, tell him what you told
me. He said, I was looking for something on Romans chapter 8.
And he said, first thing I found was a sermon you preached called
the most hideous doctrine in the world. I thought, that's
a good one to start with. And God saved him. And then I got messed up with
legalistic religion for a little while. And I remembered that
I'd done you something wrong. I remembered you saying in that
message on the most hideous doctrine that you'd written a commentary
on Galatians. So I went back and tried to find something on
Galatians. And I heard a sermon you preached on Christ in Galatians.
That took care of the law. And God gave him faith in Christ.
I somehow met this girl and shared the same thing with her. She
heard the messages. God pleased to save her. And
you just never know where God will take his word. I encourage
you, my friends at Fairmont Grace Church, don't ever become indifferent
about this business of preaching the gospel of God's grace. Make
it your business to proclaim in this age of darkness who God
is. How God saves sinners through
the doing and dying of Jesus Christ by the power of his spirit
through his word. And watch God work. Watch him
work. I'll tell you what God's doing.
I'll tell you what he's doing. You ever wonder, Lord, what are
you doing? I'll tell you what God's doing. Are you listening?
Tell you what he's doing. I tell you what he did yesterday,
what he's doing today, what he's going to do tomorrow. For as
long as tomorrow's come, he is adding to his church daily such
as should be saved. Because our God is in the heavens,
and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Our God, thank
you. Thank you. Thank you. for making
yourself known in our hearts as God over all, blessed forever. Thank you for revealing your
grace to us in your son, for the gift of life and faith in
him. Oh my God, how I thank you for
the privilege of serving you in this generation and preaching
the gospel of your free grace. Bless this congregation, this
dear pastor. God, bless them as they labor
together in the cause of our Redeemer and give glory to yourself
by them and by us. Amen.