Brother Gene Harmon is pastor
of the Rescue Baptist Church in Rescue, California. He and
his wife, Judy, are just dear, dear friends and have been for
a long time. I hope you will get to know them
if you haven't already. Gene will be bringing the message
now and pray that God will be pleased to speak by you, my brother,
to our hearts. Thank you, Brother Don. That
last song was for me. My daughter asked me if I was
ready, and I said, I don't ever feel like I'm ready. And I pray
and pray and pray that my Lord will never allow me to stand
before His people to preach His gospel without Him being with
me. I can't do anything without the
Lord Jesus, and I'm thankful He's made me aware of that. So
I pray He will allow me his grace to declare his gospel truth for
his glory, for the good of his people. And I do want to take
this opportunity to thank Don and Shelby and the members of
this church for your labor of love in hosting these conferences. A lot of labor goes in to prepare
for them. A lot of labor goes in during
the conference. And there's a lot of labor after
the conference is over. And I'm so very thankful that
I've been invited to be a part of this. It's just too wonderful
to put into words. I want to bring some greetings
from some of our folks back home. Several of them have been here.
And they said, please give our love and our greetings to Don
and Shelby, the members here and others. One particular couple,
Lamar and Carol Garner, some of you may have met them years
ago. They sold their home and their
horses, bought a couple of guitars and a brand new Chevrolet truck
and a fifth wheel, and decided they wanted to tour this Bible
Belt and visit some Sovereign Grace conferences. So they've
met a lot of you. And they came to me and said,
please give those folks our love and our greetings. And so I wanted
to convey that. Now, if you will, please turn
to the book of Romans, chapter 2. Romans chapter 2, I've titled
this message, Israel's Advantage. And as an introduction to this
message, let me make a statement that false religionists who believe
in universal atonement absolutely hate. But it's the truth, even
though they hate it. The Word of God plainly declares
God's sovereign, distinguishing grace that he bestows upon a
particular people through the merits of Jesus Christ, our Lord
and our Savior, his chosen people, his elect, those he purchased
with his own precious blood. And that's found all through
the Bible. But one of my favorite passages
of scripture on this subject of God's distinguishing grace
is found in John chapter 10. You don't have to turn there.
Most of you are familiar with this passage of scripture. Our
Lord Jesus was dealing with some unbelieving Jews who insisted
that if he was the Christ of God to tell them plainly, he
said, I have told you, and you didn't believe it, the words,
the works that I do bear witness of the truth. If you don't believe
me for my word's sake, believe me for the work's sake. Then
he said this to them. He said, ye believe not because
you're not my sheep. He didn't say you're not my sheep
because you don't believe. He said, ye believe not because
you're not my sheep. Then he said, my sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. My Father which
gave them is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. If that
doesn't teach God's people distinguishing grace, nothing will. I've heard
His voice. Have you? Well, that's a pretty
bold statement. How do you know you've heard
His voice? Because He told me I'm no good. He told me I don't
have any good in me. He told me I'm spiritually bankrupt. I have nothing to offer Him in
exchange for my eternal soul. He told me that I was in a lost,
helpless, hopeless, spiritually dead condition, and there's nothing
I can do to get myself out of that condition. And I believed
Him. I did. I believed Him. That's
not by my doings. That's the Spirit of Christ dwelling
in us. No man, no woman, will come to
that understanding and agree with God, with what His Word
says about a lost, condemned sinner, unless the Spirit of
God reveals that to us. But He didn't stop there. He
told me I was one of His chosen people. That I was chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. That all of this
concerning the salvation of His people was purposed by God before
a star twinkled in the sky. That He saved me and called me
with a holy calling, not according to my works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given me in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And I believed Him. Then He told
me that He's my Creator, that He spoke everything into existence
by the word of His mouth. Just said, let it be. And our
great Creator told me that He humbled Himself and became a
man and walked on this earth for me. I don't have any righteousness
of my own, but He said, I provided one for you. I walked perfect
in obedience to my Heavenly Father, establishing a perfect righteousness
for you, a righteousness that God accepts. That's yours. I did that for you. Then he said,
and I also went to that cruel cross and endured the unmitigated
wrath of God as your substitute to the point that nothing could
be laid to your charge. I obtained eternal redemption
for He told me that. He told me that He by Himself
purged my sins. And I believe that. I believe
that I'm complete in Christ my Savior,
that all of my sins were laid on Him. And they were removed
from God's sight forever by his perfect redeeming work for this
hell-deserving sinner that stands before you. I believe that. The light came on. He didn't
stop there either. He told me, he said, I've come
out of the grave. I've been raised from the dead.
I was delivered for your offenses. I was raised again for your justification. I am now seated on my throne
in glory as a glorified God-man. All power on heaven and earth
has been given to me. I'm your blessed surety. I'm
your great high priest who's making intercession for you.
I'm your Lord and your God, and I believe Him. And He brought
me out of darkness into His marvelous light with a joy in my heart
that I can't even begin to put into words. And I don't have
to. If you've experienced that, you know exactly what I'm saying.
And that's God's distinguishing grace. For I found out right
from the start, a brand new Christian, I thought everybody believed
that, who professed Christ, my own brother, and a man his age
that we grew up with. was in an Armenian free will
church. And when I started telling them
the great news about being chosen in Christ and redeemed by Christ
and my free will had nothing to do with it, I found out right
then God's distinguishing grace is manifested to some and not
to others. A man is not a Christian just
because he claims to be a follower of Christ. And they went to their
pastor. Both of them belonged to the
same church. They went to their pastor and told him what I had
been telling them. And their pastor said, he's got
to come away from that doctrine. That will destroy his zeal in
just a little while. That was back in 1970. And they said to their pastor,
well, we'll go straighten his pastor out. And he said, I don't
recommend that you do that. He'll tie you up with scripture. What a wonderful way to be tied
up. So my subject this morning has to do with God's distinguishing
grace. And in Romans chapter 2, verses
28 and 29, We read these holy inspired words,
for he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew
which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart and the
spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. Now from those two verses of
holy scripture, Our dear brother and pastor friend Henry Mahan
said, a man is not a child of God, righteous before God, and
justified by mere name, nationality, profession, and ceremony. True
circumcision is not something outward, but it is an inward
work of grace in the heart. A man is a true Jew or redeemed
person who has a work of grace in the heart, who has renounced
his works and looked to Christ, who worships God in spirit and
truth, who has the law of God written on his heart and not
in his hand, and whose praise is from God and not from men." Really, let me just make an interesting
statement that I believe is very true. As much as I love the work
that went into putting these chapter divisions and numbering
the verses, sometimes a chapter division does more harm than
it does good. These first two verses of Romans
3 go right along with what we just read in the last two verses
of chapter 2. Then we read in verses 1 and
2, What advantage, then, hath the Jew, or what profit is there
of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because
that unto them were committed the oracles of God. These two
verses of Holy Scripture tells us that the Jews had an advantage
over the Gentile nations. If true circumcision was not
of the flesh, but of the heart, How did that Old Testament law
profit the Jews? Well, that circumcision, the
circumcision of the flesh, was a sign of the covenant God made
with Abraham. And Moses, writing under divine
inspiration, wrote these words from God to his people. He said,
thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy
God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all
people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not
set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number
than any people. For ye were the fewest of all
people, but because the Lord loved you, and because he would
keep the oath which he hath sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of
the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."
Now those words were written for our learning. And I was just
sharing with a man I just met earlier that when the early New
Testament apostles and preachers preached, that's all they had
was the Old Testament. And they preached Christ from
the Old Testament. They were given an understanding
of what the Old Testament writers were writing about. And every
message they preached was Christ and Him crucified, right from
the Old Testament. The circumcision of the flesh
was a sign of the old covenant of works. That circumcision did
not make an Israelite a chosen blood-bought child of God. Circumcision
of the heart is a sign of the eternal covenant of grace. And
those Old Testament Jews, folks, listen to me, those Old Testament
Jews had to be saved by the same way that God saves his people
in any generation. They had to be given faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Under those Old Testament teachings,
the oracles of God, those Old Testament saints saw Christ through
the eye of God-given faith. They looked forward to that fountain
that would be opened when our Messiah, our Lord Jesus, came
into this world. We look back to that same event
that took place at Calvary 2,000 years ago. Abraham believed God. He saw Christ. Our Lord said
so. And so did every Jew who saw Christ in those oracles. They believed God. They heard
the voice of Jesus Christ. Our text asks this question,
what advantage then have the Jews, and answers that question
with these words, much every way, chiefly because that unto
them were committed the oracles of God. Now the word oracles
in our text means utterance from God. It means utterance in any
language, but in our text it means utterance from God. John
Gill gave this definition of the oracles of God. He said,
and I quote, unto them were committed the oracles of God, by which
are meant the law of Moses, and the writings of the prophets,
the institutions of the ceremonial law, and the prophecies of the
Messiah, and the gospel church state, and in a word, all the
books of the Old Testament, and whatsoever is contained in them,
which are called so, because they are of divine, infallible,
and authoritative And they are of divine inspiration and contain
the mind and will of God and are infallible and authoritative.
And it was the privilege and profit of the Jews that they
were entrusted with them. When other nations were not,
and so had the advantage of them, they had them for their own use.
For hereby they had a more clear and distinct knowledge of God
than the Gentiles could have by the light of nature, and besides,
became acquainted with the doctrines of a trinity of persons in the
Godhead, of the sonship and deity of the Messiah, of the sacrifice,
satisfaction, and righteousness of the Redeemer, and of salvation
by Him." End of quote. So the oracles of God are extensive. It would take a thousand lifetimes
from a thousand God-ordained preachers to deal with the subject
of the world of God, and you would not be able to exhaust
that subject. So let me just mention a few
of those oracles. that those Old Testament Jews
who believed God had committed unto them and revealed unto them
by God the Holy Spirit. The nation of Israel had a God-ordained
high priest to represent them. The Gentiles did not. They might
have had a priest. But it wasn't an ordained priest
from God. They didn't have God's ordained
priest to represent them. The nation of Israel had God's
annual appointed day of atonement. The Gentiles did not. The nation
of Israel had the substitutionary death and the blood of an animal
sacrifice that made atonement for their sins for that year.
The Gentile nations did not. The nation of Israel had a place
where God would meet with the high priest on that day of atonement
in a place called the holiest of holies, that innermost sanctuary. And when he entered in, when
the high priest entered into the holiest of holies, He had
the names of the 12 tribes of Israel written on his breastplate
and on his hands. He had those names to show that
he represented a particular people, the nation of Israel. And in
that innermost sanctuary, with other things as well, there was
a mercy seat. And the blood of that animal
sacrifice was sprinkled on that mercy seat, making atonement
for the sins of Israel for that year. The Gentiles did not have
that. Now, all of that, folks, all
of that and so much more typified Jesus Christ, our great high
priest, who has entered into heaven itself there, there to represent a particular
people, his elect. And right there on his heart,
he had the names of all of his chosen people written. He represented all of those who
were given to him in the eternal covenant of grace. by God the
Father way back before time began, and only them. And he made atonement when he
offered himself as a supreme sacrifice for the sins of his
people. He made atonement not for a year, but for all eternity
for those he represented. Now, why did God do that? Why
did God choose a particular people? Why did He commit unto them His
oracles and pass by that whole world of Gentiles? We heard it
last night from the words of David, whom God inspired to write
these words. My God is in the heaven. He has
done whatsoever He hath pleased. It pleased God to do that. And
if it pleased God to do that, it ought to please me that he
did that. Our Lord Jesus, while he was
here on this earth, in one of his prayers, he said, I thank
thee, Father, that thou hast revealed these things. He has not revealed them unto
the wise and the prudent. I can't quote it. I've quoted
that a hundred times. But he's revealed that to us.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. I delight in my God. Do you?
Have you heard His voice? Do you know that God Himself
represented you when He became a man and walked on this earth?
When He honored God's law perfectly? When He satisfied the holy justice
of God? and delivered his people from
that wrath that's coming. You all believe that? Well, if
you don't, shame on you! Because the Word of God clearly
declares that. Now, if God moved David to write
those words, My God is in the heaven, he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased, then God is telling us that. Those are holy
inspired words. God is seated on his sovereign
throne of power as a sovereign monarch over this whole universe. And he's working all things after
the counsel of his own will. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? That's the God I worship. And I've heard his voice. And
I've heard it ever since that day he spoke to me under the
preaching of his gospel. Every time I hear the gospel,
I hear the voice of Jesus Christ speaking to me. And I never get
tired of hearing that. I never get tired of hearing
that Jesus Christ is my Lord and my God, my great high priest,
my blessed surety. I never get tired of hearing,
quoting Pastor Mahan again, I'm as sure of heaven as if I'm already
there, all because of Christ and what he's done for me. Now
would you please turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. Those Gentile nations worshipped
gods of their own imagination. Those men and women came into
this world in spiritual darkness, loving that spiritual darkness,
went through life. teaching their children to worship
false gods, teaching them their foolish, sinful way of belief,
came into this world, left this world, and went right into eternal
torment. And if it wasn't for the grace
of God, that's where every one of us would be, still dead in
trespasses and sins, running from God, hating God, refusing
to bow down to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, embracing a doctrine
that is so false and dishonors God so much, you wonder how people
could be so deceived. But there we were. We don't have
to turn there, but in Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through
20, we read, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them. For God has shown it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse. I don't understand where the
sovereign grace of God and the responsibility of man comes together. I don't think anyone can. Some foolish man told me years
ago, it's like a railroad track. They're side by side. You look
way down there, way down there, they come together. No, they
don't. You walk down there where they come together and they're
still just as far apart as they were when you get there. And
so they never come together. But I'll tell you this, I believe
it. I believe it's the responsibility
of every human being to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how
are they going to call on him whom they have not believed?
And how are they going to believe on him of whom they've not heard?
And how are they going to hear without a preacher? And how are
they going to preach except they be sent? So God has a people
that he intends to save. He saves us and calls us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. So salvation is of the Lord from
start to finish. And if we believe on our Lord
Jesus Christ as He is set forth on the pages of Holy Scripture,
we won't be patting ourselves on the back saying, oh, I'm so
thankful I was smart enough to make a decision for Jesus. We'll
thank God for His grace and His mercy that we just heard from
that 136th Psalm. And it endures forever. And He
bestows His grace and His mercy on those who were chosen in Christ
before the world began, on those who were redeemed by Jesus Christ
when He went to that cruel cross and laid down His life for us,
on those who are enlightened by God the Holy Spirit, we have
an understanding of our great, wonderful, majestic God who saved
us by His amazing grace. And we give him all the praise
and all the glory. You can amen that if you want
to. It's true. Now those Gentile nations, like
I said, they believe in gods of their own imaginations. And
I believe those Gentile nations represent, typify, all of free
will works religionists. And there's a lot of them out
there, going right across the street, meeting in a goat barn. And they're giving themselves
the glory, patting themselves on the back. And we were in that
same camp, folks. False religionists do not have
a sin-atoning sacrifice. If they did, they wouldn't be
false religionists. They do not believe the blood
of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from all sin. If they did,
they wouldn't be false religionists. They do not believe Jesus Christ
is their high priest who represents them before a holy God who cannot
even look upon sin. If they believed Jesus Christ
was their high priest representing them, they wouldn't be false
religionists. They do not believe Jesus Christ
is their mercy seat. If they did, they wouldn't be
false religionists. Armenian free will false religionists
blatantly declare They do not need Jesus Christ to be their
great high priest to represent them. From their own sinful,
polluted lips, they say they can approach God by their own
free will. But our Lord Jesus said, no man
can come unto me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I
will raise him up at the last day. He said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me, and I happen to believe that. They do not believe the blood
of Jesus Christ did anything for them. Those who believe in
universal atonement trample underfoot the blood of the everlasting
covenant, calling that blood an unholy thing. just a common
thing. They refuse to bow down to the
lordship of the risen, exalted Christ of God, denying his absolute
power over them. They believe they're more powerful
than God. We don't have to be a theologian
to see the falseness of that if the Holy Spirit has enlightened
our minds. And once again, we were just
like them, but Jesus Christ has redeemed us with His own precious
blood. We've been delivered from the
power of darkness, the power of sin, the power of Satan. We've
been translated into the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ, our
Savior. And by the supreme sacrifice
of Himself, Jesus Christ has delivered us from the wrath that's
coming. And I'm so thankful, aren't you?
In this passage of Holy Scripture in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2,
our Lord tells us that false religionists receive not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. Then we read these
holy inspired words from verse 11 down through verse 14, and
for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie. For this cause, because they
have no love for the truth that they might be saved, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. God
shall send them strong delusion. God does that. God sends them
strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all
might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in
unrighteousness. There's no difference between
them and those Gentile nations who believe those lies that they
taught their children and went to hell believing. Then we read,
and Paul was moved by the Holy Spirit to write these words,
But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord. Stop right there. My subject
this morning is God's distinguishing grace. Do you see the distinction
between those who God sends a strong delusion to that they might believe
a lie and those that Paul is talking about in these verses?
He refers to God's chosen people, beloved of the Lord. You don't
read that in the passages of Scripture before us. God didn't
set His love upon them. He set His love upon a particular
people. He loves us with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness, He draws us unto Himself. Well, how does He do that? I'm
glad you asked. Read on. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's under the preaching of his
gospel, under the preaching of the glorious gospel of God's
amazing grace through the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior, that
he turns the light on. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And we have this treasure in
earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. And I hear preachers, and I'm
one of them, I say that applies to God's preachers, but it applies
to all of us. God commands the light to shine
in the hearts of all of his chosen people at a particular time that
he himself appointed under the preaching of His gospel to give
us this understanding. Under the preaching of His gospel,
we're made partakers of His divine nature. We, God's chosen people,
are brought into a living union with Jesus Christ to the obtaining
of His glory. That's what our text says. And
it's the work of God the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. That's His ministry. to take
the things of Christ and reveal them to God's chosen blood-bought
children. He sanctifies us. He sets us
apart. Not under the preaching of lies.
Under the preaching of truth and belief of the truth is what
verse 13 says. So brethren, like Israel of old
who had the oracles of God committed unto them, God has committed
His gospel his divine utterances to his ordained preachers and
his local assemblies. What a privilege and what an
honor to be a part of a church that declares the truths of the
gospel as they are set forth on the holy pages of scripture.
We heard it last night, the simplicity of the gospel. Why make it difficult to understand? The Gospel points to Jesus Christ,
who He is. He's God Almighty. What He has
done, He became a man so He could redeem us from the curse of the
law. And He did that. He didn't try
to redeem us. He redeemed His people. The Gospel
points to the glorified God-man who has come out of the grave,
is now seated on his sovereign throne of power, making sure
that all those he represented are brought to him by saving
faith, to believe on him, to give him all the glory, to bow
down to the risen, exalted God-man. Jesus Christ, our Lord and our
Savior. So folks, if we want our unsaved
loved ones, if we want them to be saved, delivered, actually,
if they're God's chosen, we were saved at Calvary 2,000 years
ago, but we still have to experience the miracle of the new birth.
Is that not right? And if we want that to happen, we need
to get them under the preaching of the gospel. or at least try. There's no guarantee that God
will speak to the hearts of our unsaved loved ones if we do get
them under the preaching of the gospel. But on the authority
of God's Word, I can guarantee you if they don't hear the gospel,
they're not going to be saved. So this should be our desire,
our earnest, sincere desire to get our unsaved loved ones to
a place where the gospel is preached. Now let me share one more thought
in closing. Under that old mosaic economy,
under those oracles that God committed to national Israel, multitudes, more than not, went
right into eternal torment. They had the oracles of God committed
unto them, but they did not see Christ in those things that typified
Him. Some did. A remnant, a very small
remnant. Elijah cried out to God, I'm
all alone. And God said, no, you're not.
I have reserved unto myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee
to the image of Baal. Paul was moved by God the Holy
Spirit to write those words in Romans chapter 11. And he said
this, even so, then, brethren, at this present time also, there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. National Israel, the gospel is
committed to God's preachers and local assemblies. But many
come who think they're going to heaven because they believe
in the five points of Calvinism. Many believe that because they
belong to a gospel preaching church, they're OK. Some come
because their spouse comes. but have never heard the voice
of Jesus Christ. This is a personal thing between
you and God Almighty. Is your trust in Jesus Christ
and only in Him? Are you holding on to something
that you might add to the finished work of Christ? If you are, you
better get rid of it as fast as you possibly can. Because
my God will not share His glory with another. It's either all
of Christ or none. You either put your faith in
Him and only in Him, believing that He accomplished what He
was sent here to do, that you have redemption through His precious
blood that makes you acceptable in God's sight, or you don't
believe that. So we have this privilege of
having his gospel entrusted to us. What an honor. What an honor. We heard it last
night. I echo those words. Christ must
be all in all. And if you believe that, you
have the privilege and the honor of supporting His glorious gospel
with your time, with your prayers, with your gifts and your talents
and your monies, make that your priority, allowing nothing to
interfere with the privilege of meeting with God's people
on a regular basis, to hear about Jesus Christ, who He is, and
what he has done for us. God bless you. Thank you all.