What a great hymn. Thank you,
Celeste. If you can remember four words,
you can remember the title of my message, my subject, and my
outline for this morning's message, just four words. Providence,
election, grace, reprobation. That's the subject of Romans
chapter 11, verses one through 10. providence, election, grace,
and reprobation. In preparation for our Bible
conferences every year, I always try, if the Lord allows me to
do so, to prepare and preach messages to you in the week or
two leading up to the conferences that will lay before you what
you're about to hear from those men who will be preaching the
gospel of God's grace to you during the conference. Our annual
conference is always billed as a Sovereign Grace Bible Conference. I choose the words deliberately,
both with reference to our continual labors here as a congregation,
the message we preach, and in speaking to others, sending out
brochures and so forth with regard to the conference. A Sovereign
Grace Bible Conference, a Bible conference intended to show men
and women the blessed glorious gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace precisely as it is set before us in the pages of Holy
Scripture. The preachers are never assigned
subjects. Thus far in the years I've been
preaching, I have never suggested to another preacher what he ought
to preach at any given time. I just don't do it. I don't try
to play the role of the Spirit of God telling me what to preach.
But I assure you that those men who come to preach to you are
always men who will preach in this pulpit what they consistently,
regularly, relentlessly preach in their own pulpits. I will
never have a man stand here and preach to you, of whom I am not
certain, preaches the gospel of God's free grace without apology
wherever he preaches. My messages this morning, and
again tonight, if God is pleased to bless them to your heart,
will be messages to prepare you for next weekend. Messages that
will whet your appetite for that which you will hear next weekend.
This morning's message, providence, election, grace, and reprobation
certainly does so. And tonight I plan to preach
to you from Isaiah 9, 6, and 7 about the subject, this is
my Savior. So let's look at Romans chapter
11, verses one through 10 this morning, line by line and phrase
by phrase, asking God the Holy Ghost to inscribe on our hearts
the things that are here revealed in his word. May he be pleased
now to take the things of Christ and show them to us. Here, the
Lord God shows us by his inspired apostle, how he accomplishes
the salvation of his elect and brings upon the wicked by providence,
election and grace and reprobation, his eternal purpose. He shows
us how it is that God, by providence, election, grace, and reprobation,
brings salvation to His elect and brings judgment upon the
wicked. I remind you, Paul had been telling
us about God's great, eternal, sovereign purpose of grace throughout
chapters eight, nine, and 10. And he continues with that same
subject in this chapter. He's showing us God's purpose
of grace as it involves all men, Jew and Gentile, bond and free,
learned and unlearned, black and white, male and female, in
all ages, in every part of the world, throughout the ages of
history. after writing as he did in chapter
10 about the fact that God had cast off the Jews and the Jews
as a nation are now lost and blind and in darkness and that
God sent the gospel to the Gentiles. He sent the gospel to call out
his elect among the Gentiles, which of course is you and me. Paul saw objections arising from
his adversaries. Gospel preachers always have
their adversaries. Adversaries who do not hesitate
to twist, pervert, and misrepresent what the preacher of the gospel
declares. I had a long talk with a friend
last night, a pastor who's having to deal right now with one of
those adversaries. An adversary who pretends to
be sweet and loving and kind a peacemaker, you know, you won't
take him out behind the shed and beat the fool out of him
because he's a deceiver, cunning, crafty. But you just leave him
alone and preach the gospel to God's people. These folks that
Paul is speaking of here, they misrepresent Paul's words and
Paul anticipates them saying, well, Paul, if what you're saying
is so, what does that mean? Has God cast away his people? Are all the Jews forever damned?
Where is God's covenant with Israel? What about God's promise
to Abraham? How are his promises to Israel
and Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob to be fulfilled? Is there
no hope then of the Jew being saved, obtaining God's righteousness? And in this chapter, Paul answers
their questions. First, speaking of providence.
He uses himself in verse one, as a marvelous example of the
work of God's good providence in salvation. Read the 107th
Psalm as often as you can, remembering that in Psalm 107, the prophet
shows us by divine inspiration how that God wisely manipulates
the affairs of a man's life. He wisely manipulates the events
of the world for the saving of His people, so that God's providence
is altogether engaged in accomplishing the everlasting good, the everlasting
salvation of His chosen people, redeemed by the blood of His
darling Son, the Lord Jesus. Paul tells us that back in chapter
8. Turn back there for a moment and read it. Romans chapter 8
verse 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. God is accomplishing everything
in time to save those people whom he did foreknow, for whom
he did, I'm sorry, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. and predestinated them to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Well, what are
you gonna say to this? What should we then say to these
things? We'll say this, if God be for us, all hell can't resist
us. If God be for us, all hell can
do us no harm. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Everything God does in providence,
everything, everything, everything. He does for the salvation of
his elect. In the opening verse of chapter
11, God the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to tell us the reason for
Israel's existence as a nation. salvation of his elect, his true
Israel, Abraham's true spiritual seed. Look at verse 1, I say
then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid. God forbid. He answers with his
usual way of doing so, with an expression of disgusting astonishment. How dare you make such a presumption? How dare you think such a thing?
for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin. Paul says, the Lord saved me
and I'm a Jew. That means God has not cast away
all the nation of Israel. There are some that God spares
even when God acts in judgment. Hold your hands here in Romans
11 and turn back to a passage many of you read this week earlier,
Ezekiel chapter 9 and chapter 20, Ezekiel chapter 9. Ezekiel
found himself in a similar position. Here God's judgment, Ezekiel
tells us, is falling upon the nation of Israel. falling upon
that nation for precisely the same reason as it did in Paul's
day. Particularly falling upon the
city of Jerusalem. And Ezekiel saw the Lord Jesus
Christ as the man clothed with a linen garment, the acorn by
his side, coming in judgment against that nation. He was sent
in judgment. But before he came in judgment,
He set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry
for all the abominations committed by the people of Israel. And
then in verse eight, when the judgment came, Ezekiel being
preserved by Christ made this statement, and it came to pass
while they were slaying them and I was left. I was spared. I will spare it. I will spare it. Then I fell
on my face and cried and said, ah, Lord God, ah, Lord Jehovah,
wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out
of thy fury upon Jerusalem? And then when we get to chapter
20, look at verse 33. The Lord God explained to Ezekiel
and explains to us what he was doing then and what he's doing
now. Ezekiel 20 verse 33. As I live, saith the Lord God,
surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, that
is, omnipotent grace, and with fury poured out, just dissatisfied
by Christ, will I rule over you. That's how he comes to rule you
as your sovereign Lord and King. Omnipotent grace and with fury
pulled out to the satisfaction of justice. And I will bring
you out from the people and will gather you out of the countries
wherein you're scattered with a mighty hand and with a stretched
out arm with that omnipotent grace and with fury pulled out
by that justice satisfied in Christ. And I will bring you
into the wilderness of the people. And there will I plead with you
face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness
of the land of Egypt. So will I plead with you, saith
the Lord God, and I will cause you to pass under the rod. like
a shepherd bringing his sheep into the fold, counting them
as they come in. So will I bring you into the
bond of the covenant. I'll bring you, my covenant people,
into the blessed experience of my covenant grace. And I will
purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress
against me. And I will bring them forth out
of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into
the land of Israel. and ye shall know that I am the
Lord. Verse 41, I will accept you. I will accept you with your sweet
savor when I bring you out from the people and gather you out
of the countries wherein you've been scattered. That's what happens
when God saves sinners. He causes the sinner who knows
his sin, alienates him from God, separates him from God. Suddenly,
God speaks peace to his heart and accepts him. And you find
acceptance in Christ the beloved. And look what God says. And I
will be sanctified in you. I will be honored in you before
the heathen. Back here in Romans 11. Paul says, I stand before you
as proof positive that God has not cast away his people. Though
the nation of Israel has been cast off, none of the Israel
of God, none of God's elect, none of Abraham's spiritual seed,
none of God's true children have been cast off or ever will be.
You see, God's elect are the salt of the earth. The salt of the earth. Now, we
use that expression with regard to men, women that we have high
regard for, think how they'll say, boy, they're the salt of
the earth. And we use it wrongly when we use it like that. What
we're saying is, they're as good as you get. They're as good as
you get. That's not the meaning of the words. Ye are the salt
of the earth. You who are gods. What does that
mean? God's elect are the preservers
of the world. God preserves the world only
for the saving of his elect. Providentially, all the earth
All people, all nations, including Israel and the United States,
are preserved and kept from utter destruction by divine judgment
only for the saving of God's elect. Our nation, by law, pays
women to murder their babies in their womb. We pass laws almost every year
in some state in the union to promote sodomy, to promote ungodliness,
and in every way possible, rid the nation of the name of Jesus
Christ and the worship of God. That's the nation we live in.
That's the nation, I sometimes laugh and sometimes I just get
mad. I listen to these political pundits, listen to folks, sodomites
and adulterers and fornicators and drunks. Sit on television,
talk about somebody, this is a moral issue. What on earth
would you know about it? A moral issue. How can you dare
even speak the word moral? But we live in such a nation.
That's the way we live. That's how the nation exists.
Why doesn't God destroy this place? For just one reason. For just one reason. Not because
we're any better than any other nation. We certainly are not.
For just one reason. God Almighty has a people whom
he will save using the sons of Ham in this generation as in
every other generation for the everlasting benefit of Shem and
Japheth his elect. The physical nation of Israel
has been cast away, but they're not utterly destroyed because
God has some of his elect among them. The world, though obviously
cast away in divine judgment as a whole, as we read in 2 Thessalonians
2. Religious as all get out, but
reprobate. Yet it exists still, because
God yet has in this world a people chosen by his grace, redeemed
by the blood of his Son, who must and shall be saved. God's
not willing that any of those chosen redeemed ones should perish,
but that all should come to repentance and knowledge of the truth, and
so it shall be. Beholding these things, beholding
the judgment of God all around us, every saved sinner, all like
Ezekiel, cry out with thanksgiving, and I was spared. You see, the
drunkard, the sodomite, the adulterer, the fornicator, the murderer
of babies. We're no different from them. Our hearts are no different.
We're not one iota above them. Not one, not one. But I'm spared. I was left. God let me never get over it.
I was left. I try to remind myself and my
wife and she tries to remind herself and me every time we
start talking about the religion of this age. That's where we were and that's
where we'd still be if God hadn't stepped in. Don't ever forget
it. Don't ever get over the wonder
of it. and I was spared. Let us then fall on our faces
before the throne of God, crying with gratitude and praise. Ah, Lord God, and I was spared. That's the secret to understanding
God's providence. He who is our God does all things
for the salvation of his elect. Let me then be content with God's
providence and leave it all in his hands. Let me not murmur
or complain with God's providence, but rather trust him for his
grace. Second, in verses two through
five, here's divine election. Here's an emphatic, important
statement. God hath not cast away his people,
which he foreknew. Neither among the Jews nor among
the Gentiles. There is a sense, of course,
in which all mankind are God's people. All are his creatures,
all are his subjects, all are his possession, all are his property
to do with as he will. That's you and me and everybody
else. God is not our property, we are
God's property. God is not in our hands to do
with as we will, we are in God's hands for him to do with as he
will. And we bow to his will as we
acknowledge him being God. All are his by creation, but
not all are foreknown by him. That is not all of the objects
of his eternal love and his purpose of grace. Many will hear him
say in the last day, in the great day of judgment, depart from
me, you cursed, I never knew you. That doesn't mean he didn't
know who they were or what they had done, obviously. They're
going to hell because he knew who they were and what they had
done. He said, I never loved you. I never purposed your salvation. I never did anything for you. I never benefited you with my
grace. I never knew you. Those are strong
words. Even so, Israel was chosen from
among the nations. They were called the people of
God and were blessed with the promises, prophets, the law,
the sacrifices, the ceremonies given to Israel. but all were
not foreknown. We know that because the vast
majority of them, we're told in the fourth chapter of Hebrews,
perished in the wilderness and went to hell. They were not all
foreknown. Elijah made intercession, not
for Israel, but against them in 1 Kings 19. He said, Lord,
They've killed your prophets, they tore down your altars, they're
a bunch of idolaters, and he prayed against Israel. Look at
verse three. Lord, they have killed thy prophets
and dig down thine altars, and I am left alone and they seek
my life. But how did God respond to Elijah? And he thought that he was all
by himself. He was the only one left that
knew and worshiped God. Verse four. but what sayeth the
answer of God to him? You remember in a still small
voice, God by spirit said to Elijah, I have reserved to myself
7,000 men, a perfect total number, exactly the number I intend,
exactly the number I purposed, a complete body, 7,000 men who
have not bowed the knees to the image of Baal. God cast away
the vast majority, as you'd look at it, in Elijah's day. And he has in our day, as Paul
writes here in Romans 11, cast away the vast majority of the
Jewish nation. Since men like Elijah are like
they are, let us remind ourselves we are like them. And sincere
men like Elijah are often wrong. Even faithful men sometimes despair. Even faithful men sometimes despair,
even for God's calls, for God's church, and for God's honor,
sometimes. You see, we're just flesh. When
the church and calls of Christ seem the lowest, When idolatry,
superstition, and heresy are seemingly in full command, God
always has a people whom he foreknew, whom he redeemed, and whom he
has called or shall call, always. And they're exactly as many as
he intends, exactly as many. Who's sitting here this morning
listening to this message? I'll tell you who. Everybody
who wants to. Anybody not here is not here
because they don't want to be here. Or they're absolutely unable to
be here. Those are the only way you can
look at it. And I'll tell you another way. Everybody God intends
to be here. Everybody. He brings men in and
keeps them away exactly according to His purpose. Exactly according
to His purpose. Who believes God? Who hears the
gospel? Who's saved by God's grace? In
every place, in every generation, at all times, exactly as many
as God has purposed to save by his grace. Understand this and
rejoice in it. Few in this apostate generation
of will-worship idolaters do. God's grace is discriminating
grace. It's always discriminating grace.
All who are gods are separated from and distinguished from the
rest of Adam's race by special foreknowledge, that is by electing
love, by special redemption, by limited atonement, by special
calling, by irresistible grace. As it was in Elijah's day, so
it is today. Look at verse five. Even so then,
at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. There always has been, there
is now, there always shall be until time shall be no more.
Even so at this present time, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. Elijah wasn't the only believer
in his day. And Paul wasn't the only believing
Jew in his day. God's elect in any age among
any people may be but few, nothing but a remnant. But God has a
people exactly as many as he has chosen according to the election
of grace. Those who are God's. Oh, how
I thank God for electing love. God chose us. That's the reason
we believe. God chose us in Christ. God chose
us in eternity. God chose us to make us like
Christ. God chose us according to his
will and nothing else. That's God's election. Number
three, Paul talks about God's grace. He tells us again that
all the work of salvation, is by grace and by grace alone. Look at what it says, verse six.
And if by grace, then it is no more works. Otherwise, grace
is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it. and the rest were blinded. Now,
almost all religious people, most of them, believe in some
kind of election. Most of us say, well, the election's
talking about election to salvation, and folks who do acknowledge
that elections, or election to service, rather, and folks who
do acknowledge that election is to salvation say, well, God
looked out in time, and he foresaw that you would choose him, so
he chose you. God looked out in time and he knew what you'd
do, so he decided to do something. Any fool knows better, but most
men are fools when it comes to scripture. The Bible never talks
about conditional election, only unconditional election. God elected
us according to his own sovereign eternal will, his own sovereign
purpose of mercy, love, and grace, and our works have nothing to
do with it. Left to ourselves, we would never
love God, we would never seek God, we would never come to God,
we would never believe on the Son of God. Our Savior said,
ye will not come to me. that you might have life. That's
true of everybody. No man can come to me except
my father, which sent me, draw him. That's true of everybody. The singular force by which sinners
believe is the force of God. Almighty, omnipotent, irresistible
grace. Brother Don, if you tell people
things like that, they'll get the idea. that there's nothing
they can do to get saved. I hope you do. That's my intention. There's not one thing you can
do to get saved. Not one thing you can do to save
yourself. If you're saved, you'll be saved
because God Almighty saved you according to his purpose of grace
in eternity. The doctrine of the Bible is
crystal, crystal clear. There's no room for misunderstanding
here. Salvation is by the pure, free,
unmerited, eternal, sovereign, irresistible grace of God. Works have nothing to do with
it. And if you push your works in,
I don't care if it's just the end of your little fingernail,
you push your works in, you push grace out. Any mixture of grace
with works is a complete denial of grace, a complete departure
from grace, a complete apostasy from grace. Paul said, if you
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. He said,
if you be circumcised, you're fallen. You've apostasized from
the grace of God. This grace is altogether according
to God's purpose. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Look at verse seven. What then?
What do we make of all this? I'll tell you what to make of
it. Salvation is of the Lord. It is by his purpose, by his
purchase, and by his performance. Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for. The whole of religion, be it
Jewish, Islamic, Protestant, Papist, Hindu, the whole of religion,
the whole of religion is men want to make themselves righteous
before God. Jews seek righteousness by their
obedience to the Law. The Muslim seeks righteousness
by his obedience to the Quran. The Papist and the Protestant
and most Baptist folks, most religious folks you know, conservative
and liberal, seek righteousness by obeying the scriptures. And
you wanna have a good testimony before me, and so fellows will
look at you and say, boy, Don Fortner, he's a good man. He's
a right, I know he's sincere. I can see godliness written all
over him. If they can see it, that ain't what it is. That ain't
what it is. No, sir. No, sir. Everybody wants
people to think they're righteous, and they want to think themselves
righteous, and want to persuade God they're righteous. And in
doing so, they stumble over the stumbling stone, as Paul tells
us the Jews did in Romans chapter 9, refusing to submit themselves
unto the righteousness of God, refusing to trust Jesus Christ
alone for acceptance with God. And if you are yet without faith
in Christ, you're yet under the wrath of God, a child of wrath
like everyone else, one with a sense of condemnation over
you so that you have no acceptance with God. I'll tell you why.
I'll tell you why in just a few words. It's because you refuse
to give up everything of yours and trust Christ alone. But a man's gotta know this.
A man's gotta feel this. A man's gotta do that. A man's
gotta experience that. When you give it all up, garbage. Just
garbage. Throw it all away! Manure! Put it in the dung pile! When
you can, you'll trust Christ alone. And until you trust Christ
alone, you will never count it all but dung. And that comes
when God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, shines
in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now look at verses eight through
10 in Romans 11. Here's the fourth thing. God the Holy Ghost inspired
the apostle Paul to tell us the cause of reprobation. Now understand
this, Lord willing I'll come back to it in a couple of weeks.
But understand this, reprobation, the casting off of people, the
eternal damnation of men, both the living and those in hell,
and those in the last day of judgment. Reprobation is both
by God's eternal decree and by God's strict justice. It is both
an eternal act and a judicial act. That shouldn't surprise
anyone. God purposed everything. Everything. Both the salvation of his elect
and the eternal ruin of the reprobate. And God does everything by strict
justice. Nobody goes to heaven just because
God purposed it. Merle Hart, if you enter into
glory, you'll enter into glory because you fully deserve it.
Justice says you've got to have it. That comes only by the doing
and dying of the Son of God. and nobody goes to hell just
because God purposed it. If you go to hell, you'll go
to hell because you refuse to walk in the light God's given
you and you refuse to believe on the Son of God. Look at Romans
11 verse eight. Judicial reprobation, that is
God's judgment upon Israel as a nation and upon individuals. is God's just recompense, God's
just right response to man's determined rejection of the gospel. Now listen to me, you who are
believers and you who are not, listen to me. It's high time you and I bow
to God. If God sends somebody to hell,
it's because they deserve it. That includes you and me, your
mama and daddy and mine, your sons and daughters and mine.
That's fact as revealed in this book. and don't act as though
or talk as though or somehow pretend that, well, here's the
exception. Here's the exception. No, no.
Everybody's going to hell who refuses to believe on the Son
of God. Everybody going to glory who believes on him because they
deserve it. Those who believe deserving of
everlasting life because they've been made righteous by Christ.
those who refuse to believe, deserving of everlasting damnation
because they trample underfoot the precious blood of the Son
of God. Romans 11 verse eight. According
as it is written, God hath given them. They didn't just happen
to fall asleep. That's not what it says, Skip. God hath given them. Because
they refused the love of the truth. Because they refused the
love of the truth, God sent them a strong delusion. God hath given
them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and
ears that they should not hear unto this day. That's God's work. That's God's work. And if God shuts you up in darkness,
you can't see. didn't hear that. If you did,
you'd tremble for folks and for yourself if you refuse to believe
on the Son of God. If God shuts you in darkness,
you can't see. If God stops your ears, you can't
hear. And the darkness men think they
have, the darkness they have, men think is light. And the deafness
they have, men think is the sound of God's voice. Verse nine, and
David saith, let their table be made a snare. Let the very
thing that ought to show them Christ be a snare to them, and
a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. Now
if you read where that's quoted from, Psalm 69, you'll find out
the one speaking is the Lord Jesus Christ. They've put him
to death and the master says, let their table become a snare.
Let it become, let it be a trap. Let it be a stumbling block to
them. Verse 10, let their eyes be darkened that they may not
see and bow down their back always. Now here's the long and short
of that portion of this text. If you go to heaven, it will
be by God's doing. You'll have no one and nothing
to thank and praise but God, the triune Jehovah, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. It won't be because Your pastor
was a better preacher than somebody else. It won't be because you
did something somebody else didn't do. It won't be because of who
you're related to. Jenny came in this morning, she
said she's glad to be here. She said, I'm so thankful, I
hope I never take it for granted. I have a good mother and daddy
who raised me under the sound of the gospel. If you go to heaven,
it won't be because your mama and daddy. Be they good or bad. It'll be
because of what God's done. And if you go to hell, it will
be your own doing. You'll have no one and nothing
to blame but yourself. That's all. But what about his
circumstances? Talk to God about it. He doesn't
consider them. What about the way they were raised? Talk to
God about that. He doesn't consider that. But man, they didn't have
a chance. They were raised by those do-nothing,
ne'er-do-wells, those people that have no class. They were
raised by those folks we don't have anything to do with. They
were raised as good as you were. just as good as you were, with
the same hearts, with the same depravity, with the same corruption.
If you go to hell, you won't blame your circumstances, your
mama, your daddy, your brother, your sister, your preacher, even
the influence of false religion. You'll have none to blame but
yourself. If God saves sinners by grace
alone, then it is altogether without work. without merit,
without goodness, without something you do. For the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. If God has chosen to save some,
and promised to save any who come to his son. Why not me? Why not me? Why not you? Our savior says, come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. He didn't say, come to me and
I'll give you rest if you meet this condition or that. He didn't
say, come to me and you might get rest. He said, come unto
me, all ye that labor and every laden, and I will give you rest. Are you coming to Him? Have you
come to Him? Will you come to him? If so,
it's because of God's grace, God's election, God's redemption,
God's providence. Give God the praise. Go home, my brother, my sister,
trust in Christ, With this word of astonishment in your heart,
of all the peoples of this world, in this day of darkness and judgment,
I was spared. Thank you, my God, for your free
grace in Christ the Lord. Amen.