If you will open your Bibles
to the ninth chapter of Romans, verse 16. The title of my message is Four
Questions for Thoughtful People. Four Questions for Thoughtful
People. Romans 9, verse 16. As you know, For more than 20
years, Brother Henry Mahan and I traveled together at least
once a month, somewhere preaching the gospel. The doors called
Shelby Friday, and I sat down while I was preparing this message
and had to stop back and think a little bit, remember and reminisce
a little. Often we would travel home on
Saturday, And he and I would work together. I'd write down
notes while he drove or he'd write down notes while I drove
and work on a message for the following Sunday. I remember
distinctly back in 1991, we were driving home on a Saturday and
we were talking about some things and raised these questions and
discussed them. And I came home and preached
to you a message similar to what I intend to bring this morning.
And Darcy called Shelby to, asked for a recipe for Hoppin' John.
It was cold down there too. And so we had an occasion to,
she had an occasion to chat with her and I had an occasion to
do a little thinking. These questions are not new to you. I've raised them in this place
many, many times. And the things addressed are
as simple as A, B, C. but as needful as breath for
your body. It's important. Four questions
for thoughtful people. Romans 9, 16. So then it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that ruddeth, but of God that
showeth mercy. We have read the context. The
Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, is talking about
God's salvation. He's talking about how God saves
sinners. And he addresses the issue at which men most constantly
rebel against the message of the gospel. It is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth. but of God that showeth
mercy. Salvation is not by your choice,
your decision, or your will. If it was left to your choice,
your decision, or your will, you will certainly go to hell.
Salvation is not by something you do. It is not of him that
run it. Salvation is by something God
does. If it were left for you to do
something, you most certainly would go to hell. So then, it
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. Now, here is the common creed
of the religious world. It doesn't matter whether you're
talking about a Baptist or Presbyterian, reformed or free will, doesn't
matter whether you're talking about Methodist or Hindus or
whether you're talking about Jehovah Witnesses or whether
you're talking about Mormons, it doesn't matter. This is the
creed of religion. They wear different costumes
and play different games, but this is their creed. We're told
by the whole religious world, I'm talking specifically now
about folks you know, I'm talking about your family and mine, your
acquaintances and mine. This is what they believe. This
is what they say with their mouths, preach from their pulpits, and
vehemently, vehemently, with anger, insist upon. This is their
creed. We're told by almost everybody,
God loves everybody without exception. God loves everybody without exception. And in an attempt to prove that,
the most commonly quoted text of scripture is John 3 verse
16. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. There you see, world means
world. God loves everybody in the world. Well, the fact is the word world
is often used in Scripture in a very limited way. In Luke chapter
2, Caesar made a decree and sent out an order that all the world
should be taxed, every man in his own city. I didn't get the
letter, did you? Anybody here get a letter from
Augustus Caesar saying go to your city to be taxed? Well,
it must not meet you then. World doesn't always mean everybody
in the world. It was used specifically in Luke
chapter two to refer to the Roman world at that specific time in
which Caesar Augustus was ruling in the Roman Empire. The word
world was used by the Pharisees in John chapter 12 when the Lord
Jesus had performed his mighty miracle, raising Lazarus from
the dead. The Pharisees said, behold, the world is going after
him. But not everybody did. There
are lots of folks who didn't go after him. Not even everybody
living there went after him. But it referred to a great multitude
of folks in that specific area who had seen or heard the report
of Lazarus being raised from the dead. And the Pharisees were
scared to death. They were going to lose a little
money and lose a little influence, lose a little power. And they
said, what are we going to do? The world's going after him.
In Acts chapter 17, we're told that the apostles were brought
before the courts and they were being accused. And they said
that they have turned the world upside down. They've disturbed
the whole world. No, they didn't. No, they didn't.
Just that little part of the world in which they had influence
up to that point in time. The word world is used in scripture
frequently to refer to a very limited group of people. In John
3.60, when the Spirit of God tells us from the lips of our
Savior, God so loved the world. He's not talking about everybody
in the world. He's talking about God's elect
scattered throughout the world. He's talking to a Jew, the proudest
of proud white folks that ever walked. the most segregated racist
who ever walked upon the earth amongst white folks. It'd be
like telling a white Southerner in 1860, God loved black folks
too. Or like telling a proud black
racist in 2021, or 2017, God loves white folks too. Oh, that can't be, that can't
be. He's talking about God loves his elect throughout the world,
wherever they are found, in any race, among any people, in any
part of the world. God loves his elect throughout
the world. And then we're told God wills
the salvation of all men and women without exception. God
wants everybody to be saved. God wants you to be saved. God
wants you to be saved. Let me tell you something. If
God wants you to be saved, you'll be saved. The proof text they point to
for that is 2 Peter 3.9. God is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance and knowledge of
the truth. Well, it helps sometimes. It helps sometimes. if you're
just a little bit honest, to at least quote the whole verse.
If you ignore the rest of the context, at least the whole verse.
And the whole of 2 Peter 3, 9 reads like this. The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering,
now listen to the words, to usward. He's talking about a specific
people, toward whom God is longsuffering. And we know that these are God's
elect because in verse 15 he tells us that the longsuffering
of our God is salvation. The Lord is longsuffering to
usward, not willing that any, any who, any of those toward
whom he's longsuffering should perish, but that all should come
to repentance and the knowledge of the truth. And then we're
told, and this is where the battle gets the hottest. We're told
by everybody, Christ shed his blood and died for all people
without exception, for the purpose of providing redemption for everybody. And in an attempt to prove that,
they'll refer to 1 John 2 and Hebrews 2, where John says he
is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. But to suggest that he is the
propitiation for everybody in the world declares one of two
things. Either his propitiation is meaningless,
or everybody in the world's gonna be saved. Because the word propitiation
speaks of satisfaction. If God is satisfied for the sins
of everybody, everybody's going to heaven. Or if he attempted
to make satisfaction and some folks go to hell anyway, then
his death is meaningless. In Hebrews 2 verse 9, we're told
that he tasted death for every man and folks jump all over that.
See there, he tasted death for everybody. No, he didn't. No,
he didn't. He tasted death for every man
he brings to glory. And the whole of the context
speaks to that. Right down in verse 16, he says
he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took cold on
the seed of Abraham. A specific people. He tasted
death for everyone he brings to glory. And then we're told
that God the Holy Ghost strives to save all men and women without
exception. That He calls everybody to Christ. He draws everybody to Christ
by the power of His grace. You've heard folks say, probably
you have, I have, He was almost saved. I saw him holding on to
the back of the pew. He left his fingernail prints
in the wood in the pew. He just held on and resisted
God. And what? Resisted who? Resisted who? I might could resist this dear
lady sitting here. I might could resist her if she's
trying to get me to do something I don't wanna do. I might could
resist some of you men in here. But God resisted who? Oh no, no, no. God's grace coming
to men by the power of the Spirit. We declare to be, upon the authority
of God's word, irresistible grace. You can try, but it won't work.
You can push back, but it'll break your heart. You can harden
your heart, but he'll melt your heart. You can say no, but he'll
compel you to say yes. God's grace is irresistible.
They say, in Genesis 6, the Lord said, my spirit shall not always
strive with man. As if, as if God were trying
to get everybody into the ark. The ark wasn't built for everybody,
Skip, it was built for Noah and his sons and their wives. That's
all, nobody else. God wasn't trying to get everybody
into the ark. God's work by his spirit, is irresistible work. God's work, all that God wills,
all that God purposes, all that God puts his hand to, he effectually
accomplishes. God never fails, ever. Now listen carefully. If what
the religious world is saying is true, if God loves all men
without exception, If God wills the salvation of all without
exception, if Christ died to redeem all people without exception,
if God the Holy Ghost calls all to faith in Christ without exception,
I ask you to answer these four questions. First, if God loves
all men without exception, what does the love of God have to
do with anyone's salvation? If God loves Peter, God loves
Judas. If God loves Moses and God loves
the sons of Korah, if God loves Isaiah and God loves Balaam,
if God loves me and God loves the damned in hell, what's the
difference? What's the difference? What is
it that makes the difference between the saved and the lost? Those who know God, those who
know Him not. What's the difference between those who perish and
those who are held in life eternal? What's the difference? Not God's
love. Not God's love. Oh no, oh no.
If God loves everybody, and some folks go to hell anyway, God's
love is meaningless. It's insignificant. It has nothing
to do with anybody's salvation. A preacher never thought of it
like that. It's high time you did. It's high time you did. If God loves all men alike, then
when you tell me that God loves me, you've told me nothing. You've made the love of God to
be meaningless, insignificant, worth nothing. We hear folks
all the time, preachers, God loves you and we do too. They
don't even know your name, they don't love you. They don't even
know your name. How you gonna love somebody you
don't even know their name? No, that's not possible. That's
not possible. God loves you and wants to save
you. If God loves you and wants to save you, everything's all
right. Or else that doesn't mean anything. One of the two. What
good does it tell a sinner, God loves you, if he hasn't the power
and the will to do something about it? There's no distinction
between God's love for the saved and God's love for the lost.
If that's the case, if he loves all those who are suffering in
hell, just as he does the glorified in heaven, God's love is meaningless,
mutable, changeable, and fickle like ours. We're told God loves
everybody. That means there's no power in
God's love to save his own or keep his own. And therefore there's
no comfort to be derived from telling anybody God loves you. If God loves everybody, what
good does that do? What help is that? If it is the
will of God to save all people, and some are lost anyway. What
does the will of God have to do with salvation? Nothing, absolutely
nothing. If God wills the salvation of
all people without exception, and some are not saved, the will
of God has nothing to do with man's salvation. His will, like
yours and mine, is helpless and frustrating, meaningless, insignificant. The will of God doesn't matter.
The will of God doesn't accomplish anything if he wills the salvation
of all men. Number three, if Christ died
to redeem and save all men, and some are not redeemed, some are
not saved, what does the blood of Christ have to do with salvation? Nothing, absolutely nothing. If Christ died to save all men
and some were not saved, then that awful absurdity must follow
that Christ is dead in vain. His blood was a useless waste. He suffered for nothing. His
death accomplished nothing. His death has nothing whatsoever
to do with anybody's salvation. If Christ died for all men without
exception, Then the shedding of his blood was an atonement
that doesn't atone, a redemption that doesn't redeem, a ransom
that doesn't deliver, a sin offering that doesn't satisfy, a propitiation
that doesn't propitiate. Number four, God the Holy Ghost
calls all to Christ and some who are called by him do not
come. What does the call and the power
and the grace of God the Holy Spirit have to do with anybody's
salvation? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. If the Spirit of God strives
to regenerate and save all sinners alike, if He seeks to bring all
men and women to Christ in faith, and some are not saved, then
He doesn't have power to give life to the dead. He has no grace
to regenerate He has no ability to save. Now listen carefully. To say that God loves all men
alike, that he wills the salvation of all, that Christ died to redeem
all, that the Holy Ghost strives to save all, is to say that salvation
is not of the Lord, but of man. My first year in Bible college
out in Springfield, Missouri, It didn't take me long to get
in trouble. I was called to the president's office first week
I was there. And I had a reputation for believing what I had been
preaching to you these past 37 years, the gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace. And every time somebody got an
opportunity, especially when there was a bunch of them, I
would get raked over pretty good. and we were on bus one night
going somewhere where we had to go or I wouldn't have gone
with them. And folks got to yacking and they got to singing, there's
a new name written down in glory and it's mine, oh yes, it's mine.
And then some young girl, I don't remember who she was, doesn't
matter, she's insignificant then as she is now. Female theologians
are always insignificant. But she stood up in the bus and
she said, Yes, it was my will and my faith by which God saved
me. Oh, well, good for you, good
for you. If that's what you've got, you
don't have God's salvation. To declare that salvation is
had, not because of what God does, but because of something
you do, is to declare that God is meaningless in the affair.
Meaningless. Now I want, by the grace of God,
to declare in His words, as plain as I possibly can, what the Word
of God has to say about these things. I hope God'll speak through
me, and I hope you'll hear what I had to say. That which I had
to say, I repeat to you as I often has, is God's revelation, God's
Word. Bow to it or perish. There's
no in between ground. There's no in between ground.
The first time you spoke to me about coming here as your pastor,
37 years ago, I said to you, if there's any place in this
town where you can go worship God and hear the gospel that
I preach to you, don't call me your pastor, go join up with
them. Place isn't big enough for two
of us. Why have two struggling works in one town where you can
have one good strong work? That's ridiculous. Go join up
with them. And I have not ceased in these
37 years to declare this message to you. Number one, the love
of God is the very foundation of redemption. It has everything
to do with salvation. And every sinner loved of God
shall be saved by God. Every sinner loved of God shall
be saved by God. But preacher, God loves some
more and some less. Where did you get that foolish
notion? Not out of this book. God said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love,
Jeremiah 31 verse 3. Therefore, therefore, since I
have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore, because I loved
you with an everlasting love, almost always spoken up in the
past tense. Isn't that amazing? I have loved
you and I never changed my mind and never will. With everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. I drew you
to me with loving kindness because I loved you before ever you had
any being. Ah, now that's love that means
something. That's love that means something. I loved you from eternity, therefore
I drew you to me in time. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but that he first loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. We love him only because He first
loved us. And if He first loved us, that
causes us in time to love Him. How I wish I had the words and
the ability to preach God's love as it ought to be preached. It
is infinite, everlasting, indestructible love that passeth understanding. And God's love that passeth knowledge
is saving love. Saving love. when this young lady sitting
here was just a baby. If you had seen me with her,
we used to, Shelby and I were talking just the other day, you
won't remember it, but we used to take her to the candy shop
at the mall every time we got a chance. And her eyes would
just dance with delight as she would pick out candy. And we'd
come out with a bag of candy she'd never eat. She'd never
possibly eat it all, but she was tickled to death. And if
I should see her walking out toward the parking lot, and there's
traffic coming across there pretty good rate of speed, and I said,
I'll do this, honey, don't walk out in the parking lot. And she
just kept on walking. And I said, honey, please don't
go out in the parking lot. You might get hit by a car. And
she just keeps on, she's laughing, eating her candy, walking along.
Honey, please don't, please don't, you're getting near that car.
Please don't go out there. He'd look at me and say, why
don't you stop her? I love her too much to interfere
with her will. You'd either smack me down or
lock me up. Rightly so. Love her too much to interfere.
Love always interferes. You raise your children and you
interfere with the way they're behaving all the time because
you love them. And if you don't interfere, you
don't love them. That's just fact. That's just fact. God because
of his great love interfered with me. And stopped me in my mad rush
to hell where I was determined to go. He said no. Thank God for his goodness. Thank
God for his love. God's love's not helpless, it's
almighty. His love is never frustrated,
it's always effectual. It's never weak, it's always
strong and always saving. These two things we need to understand
about God's love. The love of God is in Christ. Outside Christ. Listen to me,
you who yet push God out of your face. Try to rid yourself of
any influence of God in your life. You who will not believe
on the Son of God, outside Christ, you have no reason to faintly
be suspicious that God might love you. Oh no, God loves Christ. He loves sinners in Christ. He
loves sinners for Christ's sake. The love of God, we're told in
Romans chapter eight, is in Christ Jesus. You don't find it anywhere
else. It's a holy love. It can't be
fixed upon anything but holy objects. It is true God loves
sinners, but God loves sinners in Christ. And God's love never
changes. God's love is immutable love. I was reading one of Dr. Bell's
articles in his bulletin late last night. Actually, it was
an article by Bruce Patrick, not his bulletin. And Bruce was
talking to a friend, he said, what I like about God's salvation
so much, he said, I can't mess it up. My sins are forgiven,
I can't mess that up. I've been made righteous and
I can't mess that up. I'm loved of God and I can't mess that
up. I could, I could cause you who
love me to cease loving me. I could cause that dear lady
who loves me so much to cease loving me. That's possible. I
could behave in such a way. But I can't cause God to cease
loving me. That can't be done. His love,
like himself, is immutable. If you still imagine that God
loves everybody without exception, I'd like for you to explain something
to me. How come he sent a flood on the earth? I can imagine folks drowning
with their, going down for the last time, and somebody says,
but God loves you! They got a mighty strange way
of showing it. How are you going to explain the hail and the fire
that fell from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah? How are you going
to explain the earth opening up and swallowing the sons of
Korah and their families into hell? God loves everybody. What nonsense. What nonsense. How are you going to explain
the fact that hail is? How are you going to explain
that? The will of God. The will of
God. Not the will of man is the cause
of salvation. Our Lord Jesus appeared on the
earth and came to his own, and his own received him not. But
to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that called on his name. Now
this is how that happened. Which were born, not of blood,
That means just cause your daddy is a godly man, your mama's a
godly woman, that doesn't mean you got anything about it. That
doesn't mean you have a step up from God. That doesn't mean
you're one of God's covenant children. Oh no, Ishmael was
Isaac's son, he was not a covenant child. Oh no, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh. You mean my will's got nothing
to do with it? nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man. How about the will of man? I
got done preaching one Sunday morning. A lady was visiting
the church in lookout years ago. It's been a long time ago. And
she came back door. She said, she said that was a
good sermon. Her nephew was there. I guess
he's still a rebel. I don't know. And she said, you
called him by name, said you didn't give him a chance to get
saved. I said, I want. You didn't give him a chance to be saved.
I said, what on earth are you talking about? He said, you didn't
give an invitation. I said, the whole message was an invitation.
But you need to learn something. Salvation's not by chance, it's
by grace. Salvation's not by chance, it's
by God's choice. I can't hinder it and I can't
cause it. It's not by the will of man,
not by the will of man. I can't will you into the kingdom
of God. I pray for you. I pray for you. I call your names before God.
There's not one here today whose name I haven't called before
God this week. Not one here. I pray for you. But I can't will
you into the kingdom of God. I can't do it. But of God. But of God. But of God. So then, it is not of him that
will. nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. If salvation were left to the
will of man, no one would ever be saved. Our Savior put it this
way. These are His words, David, not
mine. No man can come to me. Well, you need to explain that.
Okay, let me try. No man can come to Christ. Well, how do you know that's
what it means? Because I know what the word no means, and I
know what the word man means, and I know what the word can
means, and I know what the word come means. No man can come to
me. And ye will not come to me, the
Savior said. You have no will to come, and
you have no ability to come. Preach. Oh, if I could preach
like no man ever preached before, if I could just, if I could find
ways to illustrate the truth and move you to passions deep
and excite you with all stirring words and emotions, no man can
come and you will not come. except the Father, which has
sent me, draw him." Ah, now, that's the difference. That's
the difference. If God draws you, you'll come. If God draws you. Oh, preach,
that means, that means, that means that God tugs at your heart and puts you in a position where
you can decide whether or not you're gonna come. No, no, that's
not what it means at all. When I was a boy, we used to
go visit my grandparents. and they had a well out in the
yard. And I wasn't raised on a farm, I was a city boy. And
I didn't know anything about farm life. Scaredest I ever got
growing up, I got in a pen with an old sow, a hog, and I thought
she was gonna kill me before I get out. I was a city boy,
I didn't know anything about that stuff. But they'd send me
to draw water from the well. And you know, nobody ever instructed
me about it. I just had a hunch what they
meant for me to do is go out to the well and drop the bucket
down in there and come back with water. And you know, that's exactly
what they meant for me to do. I never had a notion I was supposed
to go out there and ask the water to get in my bucket and come
up the well. I never even thought about that. Well, Brother John,
you're being ridiculous. Not near as ridiculous. as preachers
who imagine that God tries to save folks he can't save. Now
that's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. It was not my will that brought
me to Christ, but God's will. Hear what God says. Hear what
God says. Of his own will begat he us. of his own will begat he us.
We're born again by the power of God's omnipotent, irresistible
will in the call of his spirit that raises the dead. God says,
the Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass. And as I have purposed, so shall
it stand. Now let me spend a few minutes
talking about Christ atoning. The blood of Christ, the death
he died as a sinner's substitute at Calvary, upon that cursed
tree, was an effectual, almighty, sin-atoning sacrifice for his
people. The death of Christ was not a
crapshoot. The death of Christ was not a
roll of the dice. The death of Christ was not picking
the four-leaf clover. The death of Christ was not a
matter of chance. Nothing about it was left to
chance. It was all exactly according to the purpose of God, both in
the one who died, those for whom he died, the time he was executed,
the way he was executed, and the very moments he hung upon
the cursed tree. The scriptures speak plainly
about what Christ accomplished at Calvary. When he had by himself
purged our sins, purged our sins, not made an attempt to do so,
he did it. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. with his own blood, the Lord Jesus entered once into
the holy place. Our great high priest, typified
in Aaron, and the holy place, typified in the holy of holies,
where was the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, our great Aaron, our great high priest, with his
own blood, the blood of the true Passover lamb, entered in one
time into the holy place. the holy place not made with
hands, and obtained eternal redemption for us. He didn't try to do it,
he did it. Every sinner for whom Christ
died, he redeemed. Every sinner for whom Christ
died is justified. Every sinner for whom Christ
died is reconciled to God. Every sinner for whom Christ
died shall be saved because Christ died for us. The blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Christ's death was
the accomplishment of atonement, the accomplishment of redemption.
The accomplishment of forgiveness. The accomplishment of righteousness.
Not an effort made to do it. You hear ignorant preachers,
blaspheming preachers. I chose the two words deliberately.
Ignorant of God, ignorant of Christ, ignorant of God's word,
ignorant of God's salvation. and blaspheming, blaspheming
for they speak that which is directly contrary to the character
of God, making him who is God no more God than a stump or a
totem pole. You hear them say, oh, won't it be a shame that so many
for whom Jesus died will be in hell? If that could happen, it
would be a shame. His shame. His shame. His shame. If I put my hand to
do something and fail to accomplish it, the problem is not Mark Henson's,
it's mine. The shame is not Mark's, it's
mine. The embarrassment is not Mark's, it's mine. But of Jesus
Christ, our Savior, it is written. Oh, blessed be His name. He shall
not fail. He came to save His people from
their sins, and by His blood atonement, He saved His people
from their sins. Jesus Christ is an effectual
Savior. The best words I ever heard spoken
from the pulpit of Salem Baptist Church in Western Salem, North
Carolina, And the fellow, he raised no small dander when he
said it. Brother Tom Lawrence was from Wales. He came there
to preach in chapel one day when I was. A student there, they
had me sitting right on the first row. They wanted me close enough
to keep an eye on me all the time. And the only two people
enjoying the message, really enjoying it, was the fellow preaching
it and me. I thought I was gonna float out of that place. He's
talking about glorying in the cross. And he made this statement.
He said, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered
or miscarriage. And he stuck his finger out and
said, what do you think of that? And I said, amen, I like that. The
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered a miscarriage. To say that it is, is to say
he's not God. This past week, somebody got
real upset because Charles Stanley's son had made a statement in a
sermon that you don't have to believe in the virgin birth to
be saved. I don't know why they get upset about that, do you?
I don't understand why they get upset about that. Because almost
everybody who commented on it would tell you that Christ died
for folks to go to hell anyway. Now you tell me the difference.
You tell me the difference. I'm asking. If you can tell me
the difference, I'll sit down and never preach again if you
can tell me the difference. What's the difference? Both of
them deny that Jesus Christ is God. Both of them deny that He
is the Holy Redeemer. Both of them deny that He's Savior. Both of them declare that He
is a liar for He says in His Word what's not true. It's blasphemy,
blasphemy. Now assuming that God is true
and that His Word is true, I'm here to tell you it is not possible
for man to both believe the testimony of Holy Scripture and believe
that Christ shed his blood to redeem all men. Our Savior said,
I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep, for the sheep. He came to die in the place of
his people, Isaiah says. He bear our sins in his own body
on the tree. He was made a curse for us, and
thereby redeemed those for whom he was made a curse from the
curse of the law. Jesus Christ is an effectual
redeemer. On the lens you'll be getting
to the record and exodus of the Passover sacrifice, that Paschal
Lamb, sacrificed only for the children of Israel, not for the
Egyptians, just for the children of Israel, nobody else. Those
who were born Israelites are those who were converted and
made the children of Israel and circumcised as children of Israel,
only the Israelites, nobody else, nobody else. Christ, God's Passover,
was sacrificed for the Israel of God. All of them, every one
of them, and no one but them. And all the Israel of God shall
be saved at last by his blood. The new birth, regeneration, spiritual life, Faith in Christ
is the gift and work of God the Holy Ghost, not the work of man's imaginary
free will. The Spirit bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.
I sometimes have friends say to me, if he's not born again,
he's gonna be. I'm just sure he's gonna be.
And I usually don't say the name, but I think, well, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. The fact
is, I don't know who God's gonna call or when. And you don't either. But I know the Spirit blows where
He wills. And when it comes, like the wind,
something happens. There's a stirring that goes
on in the soul. But nobody knows it but the one
who experiences it. It's a stirring called Holy Ghost
Conviction, and the revelation of Christ by which he convinces
you of sin. shows you what you are. He's called the comforter. That
doesn't sound like much comfort, does it? He convinces you of
sin. The most bitter pill I've ever
had to swallow in my life is the conviction of sin. I still
choke on it. I can't tell you who know nothing
about it what it is. But you'll never know God except
he convinces you of your sin. And you'll never know the comfort
of the gospel except he convince you of your sin. For if he ever
convinces you of your sin, in the sweet revelation of Jesus
Christ, he also convinces you of righteousness. Here stands before you a sinner.
perfectly righteous, righteous before God, made righteous because
Christ, my Redeemer, has satisfied the law and gone back to the
Father and the judgment, and the judgment. Oh, Satan comes and he Talks
about your sin, your filth, and your dirtiness, and your corruption.
He shows you all the things that constantly disturb you. The fiend
of hell first tries to convince you you're too good to be saved.
When that doesn't work, he tries to convince you you're too bad
to be saved. He stirs up all your corruption. Oh, my corruption,
my corruption, my corruption. I'm so vile, so corrupt, so guilty. but the prince of this world
is judged. Judgment's over. I'm convinced
all spirit of God come today by irresistible power and convince
sinners of sin, of righteousness and judgment that we may all
in this place go home comforted with the everlasting consolation
of the gospel of God our Savior. Amen.