Thank you, ladies. I really like
the way they sung that last verse. The songwriter, the original
words was, He your Savior wants to be. And years ago, our brother
Steve Dole asked if we could change that to He your Savior
died to be. And that's the way they sung
it. Thank you. When you say God wants to do something, it implies
that He might fail. I don't like that at all. Our
God cannot fail. He wouldn't be God if He could. Well, I draw your attention to
the ninth chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah 9, if you would turn there. This will just be an introduction
to my message this morning. Concerning the preaching of His
glorious Gospel, the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write these words
in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 6 and 7. He said, I have planted, a
pause watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is
He that planteth anything, neither He that watereth, but God that
giveth the increase. Then in 1 Corinthians 4, 6 Paul
said, And these things, brethren, have I written in a figure transferred
to myself and to Apollos for your sake, that you might learn
in us, not to think of men above that which is written, that no
one of you be puffed up one against another. Then Paul was inspired
by God to ask three searching questions. that all of God's
enlightened children and only God's enlightened children can
give the right answers to for the glory of Jesus Christ our
Lord. He said, For who maketh thee to differ from another?
The right answer is God, that's who. And what hast thou that
thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Brethren,
we have absolutely nothing to glory in except this. He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Now, the preaching of his gospel
is God's ordained instrument that he uses to call his children
out of darkness into this marvelous light. God's not saving anyone
apart from the preaching of His gospel. He's not saving anyone
under the preaching of lies. I want to say something that
I know will offend a lot of people, but it's the truth. I don't want
to offend anybody, but I'd rather offend people than God. Those who believe, listen to
me carefully, those who believe in universal atonement, those
who believe in the universal love of God, do not have Christ
dwelling in them. They have never heard the gospel
with the ears of the heart. They don't know Christ. and they
don't know His Gospel. They're just religious, self-righteous
works people who glory in the flesh. We must preach the Gospel. God has ordained certain men
who are saved by His amazing grace through the merits of Jesus
Christ our Lord and our Savior to preach His Gospel. God's preachers encourage the
reading of the Holy Scriptures, but the reading of the Scriptures
is not the preaching of the Gospel. There's a difference. Certain
men stand before those that God is pleased to bring under our
preaching, And we take a text, a passage of Scripture, and we
use that passage of Scripture, by God's grace and His Spirit
working in us, to point you to Jesus Christ. All Scripture points to Jesus
Christ and it's the responsibility of God's preachers to get us
on that road that leads to Him as quickly as we possibly can.
And we prove from the Scriptures and compare that with, of course,
the surrounding verses and other verses of Holy Scripture to show
you the meaning of what God's Word is teaching us. And we're
fully aware of this God-honoring truth, like the Apostle Paul
wrote in 1 Corinthians, the words I quoted earlier, God is the
only one who can give the increase. We cannot speak to your heart.
And salvation is a heart matter. I was just speaking to Brother
John earlier. God must give us ears of the heart. Yes, we must
hear the Gospel with these, what an old preacher used to call,
hang-me-down ears. But if we don't have the Spirit
of Christ dwelling in us, it's just right through one ear and
out the other. We won't understand. The Word of God teaches us this.
The natural man, the carnal man, the man without Jesus Christ
dwelling in him, does not understand the Scriptures, the Gospel. It's
foolishness unto them. It's foolishness to them that
perish. But unto us who are saved, it's
the power of God. Now, my subject this morning
is God's sovereign, distinguishing grace. I want to read the first
part of Isaiah 9.6. Now, draw your attention to one
little two-letter word. The word, us. The word, us. We heard that word several times
in the second chapter of Ephesians that was read to us earlier.
But look at Isaiah 9 and verse 6, the first part. Us, a child
is born. Unto us, a son is given. Now, the false preacher who believes
in universal redemption will say that applies to everybody. This is talking about God giving
His Son for everybody. Listen, this Word is written
for God's children. This is a love book to His children.
And He gave His Son for His people. There's a lifetime of preaching
in Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. Let me read both of these verses. We read, For unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.
Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it,
and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. Now let me just explain, just
with one illustration, the importance of teaching the truth just from
one little phrase that's found in the seventh verse. The government
shall be on his shoulder. I heard one of California's most
prominent, well-known preacher on a tape where a lady asked
him When the Jews tell us that Jesus
Christ can't be the Messiah because the government is not on His
shoulder, how do we answer them? He said, tell them they're right.
The government is not on His shoulder. Not yet. But it will be during a thousand
year reign when He sits on the throne over in Jerusalem As is
predicted and prophesied in the Old Testament, He shall sit upon
the throne of David. Hear me. Jesus Christ is on His throne
right now. He rules over this whole universe
and everything in it right now. He has always, as God, ruled
over everything. But He has not always been the
God-man. That very man that was crucified
by wicked and ungodly men has risen from the grave. He has
entered into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of
God for us, His chosen people, His elect. And as the God-man, Every knee
is to bow to Him of things in heaven, things in earth, and
things under the earth, confessing that He is Lord of all. He's running the show. You all
believe that? All things are under His feet.
All things are in His hands. And God's enlightened children
delight in this wonderful truth, God's sovereign, distinguishing
grace. Because He has revealed to us
that we're in that number. Now, if you will, turn over to
Romans chapter 8. Like I mentioned, God's sovereign,
distinguishing grace is my subject. And I want us to see that this
God-honoring truth is plainly set forth on the pages of God's
Holy Word, just in this one little two-letter word, the word US. I'm aware that time won't allow
us to look at every verse, but boy, if you have the time and
if you have a concordance and you can look up the word US,
I challenge you to go to every verse of Holy Scripture where
that word is used, and for the most part, it applies to God's
chosen blood-bought children. Unto us a child is born that
points to the humanity of Jesus Christ. Unto us a son is given
that points to the deity of Jesus Christ. God sent His Son, the
second person of the blessed Trinity our Sovereign Creator
to become a man so that He could redeem His chosen people by the
supreme sacrifice of Himself. I want you to look at Romans
8.32, if you will, please. Romans 8.32 says, Speaking of
God, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for
Us all. That's not universal. That's
His elect. How shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Now, the verse we read in Isaiah
9.6, For unto us a child is born and unto us a Son is given. And
verse 32 of Romans 8, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? They perfectly harmonize. The
meaning is that God gave His Son to do something that no other
could do. To not only honor His law perfectly,
but to satisfy His holy justice by the supreme sacrifice of Himself. God's justice has been satisfied
through the perfect redeeming work of Christ our Savior. Look
at the next verse. Verse 33 of Romans 8. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? The word us in verse
32 is pointing to God's elect. That cannot be denied if you
believe verse 33 to be the inspired word of God. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. God
has justified us through the perfect redeeming work of our
blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. He didn't try to redeem
us. He redeemed His people. He didn't
try to save us. The angel from God told Joseph,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus for He shall save His people
from their sins. He didn't try to do that. He
did it. When He uttered, It is finished, the work of redemption was completely
finished by Christ our Savior. We just didn't know anything
about it until He came. to us under the preaching of
His glorious gospel and reveal these wonderful truths to us
by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. That's why
God gives us His Son. The Spirit of His Son. That's
why He sends Him into our heart. That we might be lifted from
that state of spiritual death unto life everlasting. We're
raised from that by the power of God. The same power that raised
Jesus Christ our Lord from the grave. We heard that from Brother
Don Forner last night. Jesus Christ has all power in
heaven and earth. And the Holy Spirit takes the
things of Christ and reveals them to us. That's His ministry. To give life to those that our
Savior purchased with His own blood. To reveal to us the unsearchable
riches of Christ that we might give Him all the praise and all
the honor and all the glory. For everything. Especially this
unspeakable gift. Eternal life through Christ our
Savior. Now let me take you over to Galatians chapter 3. And I want to bring you back
to Romans chapter 8 shortly. But let me show you some truths
in Galatians chapter 3. I trust will bless you for the
glory of our Savior, our blessed Redeemer, purged our sins. We read that in Hebrews 1.3.
That's past tense. He didn't try to purge them.
He purged them. He removed our sins from God's sight as far
as east as from the west. And God tells us in His Word
that He remembers our sins against us no more. Does that bless you?
Every time I think about that, every time I hear it preached,
every time my mind thinks on those things and I understand
it by God's grace and His Spirit working in me, I'm just lifted
in spirit to praise my God. For my blessed Redeemer who obtained
Hebrews 9.12, who obtained eternal redemption for me, I just want
us to understand that the Word of God teaches that Jesus Christ
Himself took care of our sin, dead and full. He paid the ransom
price in full for all of our transgressions. Past, present
and future. They're all taken care of. Matter
of fact, we read in Hebrews 10, you don't have to turn here,
but in Hebrews 10, We read that Jesus Christ came to do His Father's
will, by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Then we read down in verse 14
of that same chapter that by His sacrifice, by the sacrifice
of Himself, He perfected forever them that are sanctified. Then
we read in the next verse that the Holy Spirit is a witness
to us. So we have to have the Holy Spirit to reveal us. But
my Spirit bears witness with His Spirit that I'm a child of
God. Because I believe God and His Word clearly teaches these
wonderful truths which all of the worst religionists, these
Armenian free will false preachers and those who follow them blatantly
deny, trampling underfoot the blood of Christ, considering
His cross meaningless. Aren't you thankful God has delivered
you? Not just from sin. That too. What a wonderful God.
Not just from death. But from those camps of ungodly
so-called Christians who hate our God and hate His Gospel and
prove it by the doctrine they preach and believe. If you're
in Galatians 3, look at verse 10. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them." Don't those people who
are desirous of being under the law know what the law says? If
you're led by the Spirit of God, you're not under the law of Moses.
The Word of God teaches that. And that law is not of faith. We don't demean God's laws. They're
holy. But they were not given to save
anyone. They're our schoolmaster to bring
us to Christ. God uses His law to convict us
of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, to make us aware of
the fact that we cannot keep His law. We're just shut out
to God's mercy when the Holy Spirit deals with us. Those who
are under the law Have a curse pronounced upon them if they
don't continue in all the things that are written in the book
of the law to do them. And that means from your mother's womb
to the last breath we'll breathe in this life, we must be perfect. We must keep His laws perfect
before God would accept us. Well, you are shaping iniquity. You come forth from your mother's
womb. All of us do. Going astray and speaking lies.
We have Adam's fallen nature in us when we come out of our
mother's womb. Dead in trespasses and sins. And I like what Pastor Fortner
said last night. You know what the Greek word
dead means? It means dead. Graveyard dead, as Brother Henry
Mahan used to say. just as dead spiritually as Lazarus
was physically when our Lord Jesus called him out of the grave.
Now, this curse that's pronounced on all who do not keep God's
holy law 100% is a curse pronounced by God
Himself. There's no problem with God's
laws. The problem is with weaknesses of the flesh. We can't keep that.
And those who believe that they're justified by the law, they know
they don't keep God's law. They're liars. You might say,
is there any hope at all for anybody then? Yes, there is. Praise God. Praise our wonderful
God. There is hope for sinners. But only one blessed hope. What a hope He is. Jesus Christ
is every believer's hope. Every believer's one and only
hope. Look at verse 13 of Galatians 3. Christ hath... That's past tense. Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law. Did you notice the word
us? 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. Now, a curse was pronounced
upon any man who was hung for committing a crime. Now, listen
to me. Jesus Christ was crucified for
our crimes, the crimes of His chosen people. Isaiah 53, 6 tells
us that the Lord hath laid on Him, God hath laid on Christ
the iniquity of us all. Us all. God the Father made His
darling Son to be sinned for us. Our sins became His sins. Our crimes became His crimes.
Therefore, the curse that was upon us was transferred to Christ,
our Redeemer, who redeemed us from the curse of the law. It's
just as plain as the nose on my face. Jesus Christ did not
redeem the whole human race. He did not deliver the whole
human race from the curse of the law. You know how I know?
On that last day, when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
the sheep will be on His right hand, and the goats on His left
hand, and He's going to say to those on His left, depart from
Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. The curse is still on them. Jesus Christ didn't redeem them
from the curse of the law. He redeemed us, His promised children. The Word
of God clearly teaches that God the Father promised
a people to His Son before the foundation of the world. And
God illustrated that through the birth of Isaac. He promised
Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son, that Sarah would
have a son, that Abraham would have a son. And God waited purposely
till it was virtually impossible, humanly speaking, for Sarah to
have a son. She was 90 years old and Abraham
was 100 years old when Sarah conceived. Isaac was a child
of promise. God promised Isaac to Abraham
and Sarah and he fulfilled his promise by his power. And we
read in Galatians chapter 4 that we brethren as Isaac was are
the children of promise. You all believe that? I delight
in that. That gives God the glory. I want
you to go back to Romans 8 now, if you would please, and let
me quote that Scripture I quoted just a moment ago one more time.
In 2 Corinthians 5.21 we read, For He, that is God the Father,
hath made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. articles. And I made some copies
of it and I put them on the table in the foyer. I encourage you
to take a copy of that article. But in that article, Pastor Don
Fortner said, My mind is lost in wonder and admiration when
I think of the fact of Christ coming into this world Is it
not astonishing to you that the Son of God would become the Son
of Man, that He who created all things would become the woman's
seed, that He who is Lord of all would take upon Himself the
form of a servant to be despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, and that His purpose in doing
so was that in the fullness of time He might die the painful,
shameful, ignominious death of the cross in the place of guilty
sinners? These things utterly astonish
me. I say with Paul, great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. As a man, our Lord Jesus walked
on this earth in perfect obedience to his father's will. He was
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Everything
Jesus Christ did, everything He did was pleasing in the sight
of God the Father. While He was here on this earth,
walking amongst men, a voice came from heaven saying, This
is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. Every thought our Savior had
was perfect. Every word He spoke was perfect. Every step He took was perfect. Every deed He performed was perfect. And His motive for doing those
things was for the glory of His Father out of love in His heart
for Him. You know, the Word of God tells
us that we're to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength. Do you do that? Christ in us
does that. But He's every believer's righteousness. And He loved God the Father with
all of His heart, soul, strength, and mind. And that's ours. Every
step He took is mine. And that's perfect in God's sight.
Every thought He had, every word He spoke, every deed He performed,
and the motive for doing those things. That's mine. That's yours
if you're in Christ. God sees us in Christ. He sees
us in His beloved Son. He sees no sin in Israel. Not in spiritual Israel. Because
He sees us in His Son who has no sin. This is the Gospel. We're righteous in God's sight.
He has given us the righteousness of His Son. We have no righteousness
of our own. Our righteousness is as filthy
rags. Why would we want any other righteousness
than the righteousness of Christ? Oh, that blesses me. God sees
me in His Son without sin. Without sin. In my mind, it's
hard for me to comprehend. That's what Brother Fortner was
talking about in his article. It just astonishes me that God
would send His Son that He would come, that our Creator would
come and mantle Himself with the human body for the very purpose
of establishing the righteousness for us and satisfying the holy
justice of God as our substitute and bring us into this living
union with Himself for the glory of Jesus Christ our Savior, for
the glory of His grace and for the eternal good of those that
He suffered and bled and died for. Are you in Romans chapter
8? Look at verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. All things. All things. Things that we don't understand
that are painful. Things that come upon us that
cause us to be in almost a state of despair. Things that just seem to be something that just shouldn't
happen. You know, if we understand God's
absolute sovereignty, I'm not saying that we can delight
in painful trials, but we can delight in the One who sends
those painful trials. They're working together for
His glory and for our good. Look at verse 29, For whom He
did foreknow, that is, Those He did foreordain. That's what
the word means. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. One of the former members of
our church is telling people, he still lives
in this area, him and his wife, and he was right here. Both of
them were right here. hearing me preach this glorious
gospel. Taking them right into the Scriptures
and showing them we've been predestinated unto the adoption of children.
Showing them the very Word predestinated in Holy Scriptures. And he's
telling people, don't go to Rescue Baptist Church. They believe
in predestination. Blind. Spiritually blind. And worse
than that, blatantly denying the Word of God, it says in that 29th verse, for whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. I like that, don't you? I'm not
there yet, but I'm going to be. in God's sight in Christ. But
we're still in a body of death. We're still trapped in a body
that's a sinful body. I was sharing with Brother Bill
this morning, our standing in Christ is perfection. We're perfect
in Christ. But our state is still spiritually... not spiritually dead, but we
still sin. We still have sin that goes through
our mind. We entertain sinful thoughts. We do things we shouldn't. We don't do things we should.
That's the flesh. That's not Christ in us. But
we've been predestinated to be conformed to His image. And one
of these days we're going to wake up in glory, or we're going
to be here when our Lord returns, and we'll get rid of this body
of death. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Paul
said that right after he said, O wretched man that I am. Not
that I was, that I am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Savior. Folks, the last thing that's
going to be destroyed is death. And when we die, which our Lord
says, he that believes on Him shall never die. We're going
to be in the presence of our King. Absence from the body is
present with the Lord. And we'll be like Him, giving
Him all the praise and all the glory forever. But in His sight,
in His sight, as Christ Jesus is, so are we in this world.
Isn't that wonderful? God loves us with the same love
that He has for His darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is Jesus
Christ the Son of God? So are we. We're children of
the Most High God by virtue of a divine promise, a divine payment,
and a divine power for a divine purpose to give Him all the praise
and all the honor and all the glory. But this word, us, this
word, us, is used in a way that I want to draw your attention
to. Look at verse 30. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. He calls us with a holy calling,
with an inward, personal, efficacious call. Pastor Mahan said, you
know what the word efficacious means? It means it gets the job
done. And He calls us with a holy calling under the preaching of
His gospel. And whom He called, them He also
justified. Whom He justified, them He also
glorified. Now listen to this. What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for, who? Say it out
loud. Us! Us! If God be for us, who
can be against us? Well, let me put it another way.
If God be against you, who can be for you? Come to Christ, I
urge you. Today is the day of salvation.
If you're hanging on to anything that you have done and hope to
gain favor with God, get rid of it as fast as you can. Come
to Christ just as you are. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
according to the Holy Scriptures and thou shalt be saved. Look
at the last two verses. of this eighth chapter, and I'll
bring this to a close. The Apostle Paul says, for I
am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, and just in case you might have missed something,
he says, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us. God's elect. Once again, verse 33 defines
who the us are. God's elect. Nothing can separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Brethren, God loves us with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness, He draws us unto Himself. He has always
loved His people in Christ. There's no guarantee that God
loves you if you're not in Christ. But if you're in Christ, you
have always been in Christ. He chose us, it says in Ephesians
chapter 1. He chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. We were in Christ when Adam fell. We were in Christ when our Lord
Jesus came to this earth. We were in Christ when He suffered
and bled and died. Listen, God has already poured
out His wrath on us in our substitute. Jesus Christ has delivered us
from the wrath to come. We were in Christ when He died.
We were in Christ when He came out of the grave and when He
ascended to glory and He's seated on His sovereign throne of power
as our great High Priest making intercession for us. for us. Thank God for His sovereign,
distinguishing grace. I praise God that He Himself
purposed our salvation, executed our salvation, and revealed our
salvation through His darling Son, His finished work on our
behalf for His glory, for the glory of His grace, and for our
eternal good. Amen.