I have two verses of Scripture
on my mind this morning, which will go in conjunction
with what I read to you in Acts 17. The first is found in Colossians
chapter 4 and verse 6, where Paul says, let your speech be
always with grace. With grace. seasoned with salt. Now, he says that because, you
know, meat ain't very good without salt, is it? It could be the
best piece of meat in the world, but if it don't have salt on
it, it just kind of lays there. Well, that's the way speech is
without grace. Grace is what seasons the speech
to those who whom the Lord has given ears to hear, who is hungry
to hear, they want to hear grace. They want to hear mercy. And
he said, let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt,
that you may know how to answer every man. And grace is to speech,
Brother Mahan said, what salt is to meat. It is the basis of
everything we preach. And grace ought to be the attitude
in which we are preaching. And then the second scripture
I want you to see, you can turn over there with me, is in 1 Peter
3. 1 Peter 3. And here Peter tells
us, but sanctify, verse 15, 1 Peter 3, Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts. That is, think about who He is. He is gracious. He is merciful. He is kind. He is love. But He is also just. And He is
righteous. And He is holy. And this is what
Peter is telling us, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and
be ready always at any time to give an answer to every man that
asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you and to do it with
meekness and fear. And here again, he speaks not
only of giving the basis of what we believe, but to do it in meekness
and fear. Now, one of the ladies called
me a couple weeks ago and said she was having some trouble answering
a question that her daughter had asked her. And don't you
have trouble at times? People catch you off guard, catch
you unaware, and boom, they hit you with a question and you just
go blank. And you sit there and you know what you believe, but
it's hard to think of. And this is what Peter is telling
us. Don't set these things. We come
in here and worship them. We come in here and hear the
Gospel preached. Don't go home and set it on the shelf. Go home
and look at it. Do what those Bereans did. They
searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
And then think on those things and sanctify God and set Him
apart in your heart. And the question was this, why
do you believe what you believe? Now, here's where she's coming
from with this question. None of the major denominations,
longstanding churches that have been around for hundreds of years,
None of these denominations hold to or teach these doctrines. None of them. The Methodists
don't teach this. Actually, if you get down to
it, the Presbyterians don't teach this. And you can go on and on. The
Southern Baptists don't teach this. Nazarenes don't preach
this. Church of Christ don't teach
this. None of these long-standing churches that have been around
for hundreds of years, none of these denominations hold to,
teach, or will even tolerate anybody else in their membership
to teach these doctrines. And I'm talking about Catholics
and Baptists and Methodists and Church of Christ and Lutherans
and Episcopals and go on and on and on. None of these major
denominations believe or preach these doctrines, and none of
the institutes of higher learning will acknowledge these doctrines.
None of the colleges, at one time they did. Cambridge University
over in England held to these things, and a lot of the schools
in that day adhered to these things, but not now. Not now. None of the institutes of higher
learning will adhere to these doctrines of grace. And even
men and women who had no interest in religious matters at all,
who are just intellectuals, they're just people out here, successful
people, they run businesses, they hold offices, some of them
are politicians, some of them are businessmen, you just go
to the average Joe, he won't have these things either. He
won't have these things either. Well, what won't they have? Well,
let me just give you, just for the sake of a foundation without
going through a half hour of teaching, what doctrines am I
talking about? Well, I'm talking about the fall
of man in the garden, that he's presently under the condemnation
of God and the wrath of God. And this man is totally depraved
in his nature. Men don't have that. They won't
acknowledge that. Religious people won't acknowledge
that. And then secondly, that God, according to His eternal
purpose of grace, chose a people in Christ to save for the glory
of His name. They won't have that either.
And thirdly, that Jesus Christ came into this world as the representative
of His elect and a substitute for them, and wrought out for
them a perfect righteousness, and redeemed them from their
sins by His death on the cross." He died for His elect in particular. He did not die for the world. Men won't have that. They're
not going to have that. Fourthly, that because Christ
redeemed His people, the Holy Spirit of God is sent in conjunction
with the preaching of the Gospel to reconcile all for whom Christ
died. All those for whom He died, all
those that God chose, all those who fell, all those who were
redeemed. The Holy Spirit will affectionately call every last
one of them. Every last one of them. All His
sheep, He said, will hear His voice. They're all going to be
born of God. All of them are going to believe
and repent of their sins. And fifthly, that all who believe
will persevere in the faith, being preserved by the very presence
of God in them. And I'm telling you this this
morning. Religion won't have it. The schools won't teach it.
And the average man will dispute it, even though he don't know
anything about it. He don't know Scripture. He'll
just start here. Here's where he'll start. Well,
it seems to me Based on what? Based on what I think. And so, why does this little
group in Walkers Creek, Arkansas believe what nobody else will?
Well, if there's somebody here this morning that sincerely wants
to know, I've got five things for you to consider. If you're
here this morning and you believe these things, but you have trouble
sometimes trying to answer those who ask, these five things ought
to be a real help to you. So why do we, in spite of the
opposition around us, believe in the doctrines of grace? Well,
first of all, because these are the doctrines set forth clearly
in the Word of God. I have people tell me all the
time, well, that's your interpretation. That's your opinion. Well, let
me tell you something. The Word of God so clearly sets
forth these doctrines, these doctrines of Christ before men,
that they cannot be misunderstood. Though you were a child, he said,
you shall not err in these things. That's how clear it is. stated
in the Word of God. There is nothing in the statement
of these doctrines that need interpreted. Nothing in the statement
of these doctrines. And if you notice, I will preach
to you the Gospel, and then I will read a verse of Scripture, and
I don't go over and explain that verse. That verse is clear as
a bell. I just read that verse to you
as a foundation for what I just said. And these verses are clear. And this is what I hear folks
say who have no real practical understanding of the Word of
God. I just believe that the scriptures say something different
to different people. Now, that can't be. That cannot
be. If that's so, how in the world? He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. You couldn't say that if the Bible says different things
to different people. It has to say something in particular. It has to say something certain.
And it has to say it in such a way as to leave you without
excuse. Listen to this scripture here
in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, and it is profitable. Are you listening? Profitable
for what? For doctrine. It's profitable for doctrine. Doctrine can be established upon
the Word of God. Well, men are telling me it can't
be established. But it can. God says it can. because it's given by inspiration
of God and it's profitable for doctrine. That is, the teaching
of the doctrines of the Bible can be found and established
in the Word of God. It's profitable. What else is
it profitable for? For reproof. What's that? That means to be rebuked. I can
rebuke somebody. Somebody can say something, I
can rebuke that. How can I do that? Word of God. It's profitable
for that, for reproof. It's to contest something that
somebody else says. And then verse 3, for correction. Once I rebuke you, I can correct
you by the same book, by the same source. The Word of God
is profitable to make corrections. Whatever it is that's rebuked
by the Word of God can be established by the same source. And then
listen to this, fourthly, for instruction in righteousness.
Well, I believe man's saved by his own righteousness. I believe
he's saved by obeying the law. Another said, no, I'm saved by
grace. Well, how are we going to? Well, I have the source right
here for instruction in righteousness, the Word of God. It instructs
me in these things. And it does this, verse 17, that
the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all
good works. And if the Bible is not clear
in its statements and definitions of doctrines, or if we try to
spiritualize it away, saying it means different things to
different people, then there can be no judgment. Judgment
is according to truth. There could be no such thing
as an unbeliever. We all just believe different
things. And there could be no rebuke or correction. And these
are all things that people say who will not subject their beliefs
to the Word of God. Now let me show you just a few
of these doctrines of grace as they are set forth in the Word
of God. Let's start with the very first
one, man's fall and the condemnation of all his posterity. I want
you to listen to this. I've got some young girls here
this morning in their teens and some young boys. And I dare say
every one of you are going to be able to understand what I
am reading here. He says here in Romans 5, verse
12, We are four by one man. We are talking about Adam. By
one man. Sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for that all have
sinned. Do you need an interpreter for
that? That is pretty clear, isn't it? Do we really need an interpreter
for this? Sin entered and man died. That's
what it says. And death followed. Listen to
this one in Romans 5, verse 18. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation. I don't
need to explain that verse. That verse reads as clear as
a bell. You couldn't hire a lawyer to
put it any clearer than that. And then listen to this, 1 Corinthians
15, 22, For as in Adam, all die. You see what I'm talking about?
Men who say, well, that's your interpretation. No, this is not
an interpretation at all. This is the Word of God. Simple,
plain, Intelligible, easy to be understood. Here it is. As
in Adam, all die. All die. Man's fall in the garden
and the total depravity of his nature as a result of God's judgment
upon his sin is not some man's opinion. It's the plain declaration
of the Scripture. And then what about election?
Well, here's Paul's letter to the Gentile church. And he specifically
reminds them that they're Gentiles in chapter 2. He said, you remember
now, you were Gentile in the flesh. Without God in the world,
all those things, no covenants, you didn't have any of those
things. You were Gentile. So don't take these things that
I'm about to read and say, well, he's talking to the Jew. No,
he's specifically writing to a Gentile church. And in Ephesians
chapter 1, He said that, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. You know, Henry was teaching
a Sunday school class one morning, Pollard Baptist Church, the old
deacon there. was getting red in the face and
there was arguments and all kinds of things going on. And Henry
knew this whole thing was coming to a head. And that morning he
decided that all he was going to do is just read. He wasn't
going to say anything about anything. He was just going to read. And
so he read Ephesians chapter 1. And when he got to that verse,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, When he got to that, that deacon stood up and
he said, that's enough. And Henry said, what's enough? He said, I know what you're trying
to do. And he said, I'm not trying to
do anything. Oh, yes, you are. He said, you're
trying to teach election. He said, no, sir, I'm not trying
to teach election. I'm reading to you Ephesians
chapter 1. He said, is election what you
got out of it? That's what I got out of it. And it embarrassed him and he
got mad and he left and he never came back. But that's what it
says. Anybody can understand what it
says. It's not an opinion. What makes
it complex and what makes men rile up is because it's contrary
to what they've been raised to believe. But if you really want
to know why we believe these things, because they're plainly,
undeniably stated in the Word of God. So clear that a 10-year-old,
a 12-year-old could understand what these verses are saying. Listen to this here in Romans
11, 5. Even so, at this present time also, there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. 2 Thessalonians 2.13,
we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. Isn't that so? You can't deny
those things. They're planned. And what about
particular redemption that Christ died only for His elect? Well,
he said in John 10, verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd, the Good
Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. You can't get much
plainer than that, can you? John 17, verses 1 and 2, Father,
the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify
Thee, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He
should give eternal life to as many as Thou has given Him. Irresistible grace. John 10,
verse 26. You believe not, because you
are not of My sheep. As I told you, My sheep hear
My voice. And I know them, and they follow
Me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they will never perish.
And the perseverance of the saints. Hebrews 10, verse 39. We are
not of them who draw back, into perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul." Anybody here need an interpretation of
any of those things? Those things are crystal clear,
aren't they? And preserved, listen to this, who are kept, 1 Peter
1.5, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time. These verses need no interpretation. They are plain and clearly stated
in the Word of God. So why do we believe what we
believe? Because these things are clearly
stated and defined in the Word of God. And Paul said, let God
be true in every man, even if that man happens to be your father,
even if that man happens to be your brother, even if that man
happens to be your husband. You let God be true and every
man a liar. Isn't that what it says? And
then secondly, that's the first reason. Somebody said, well,
how come you all believe these things and nobody else believes?
Because they're plainly stated in the Word of God. And then
secondly, we believe these things because they're the only doctrines
that have a continuity throughout the Scriptures. Now, if you can't
find your gospel in the garden, if you can't find your gospel
at Abel's altar, if you can't find your gospel in Noah's ark,
you don't know the gospel of God. You don't know His gospel. He's
the woman's seed. That's where the promise began.
He's the woman's seed. First declaration of the promise
of God after the fall. In Acts chapter 17 and verse
2 it says, Paul, I read it to you just a little while ago,
as his manner was, went in unto them three Sabbath days, and
reasoned with them out of the Scriptures. Now let me tell you
something. There was no New Testament. The
Scriptures that he reasoned from was the Old Testament Scriptures.
And he sat there with them for three Sabbath days and reasoned
with them out of Isaiah. and out of Exodus, and out of
Genesis, and out of Leviticus, and out of 1 Samuel, and on and
on and on. And he reasoned with them out
of these things. Stephen in Acts chapter 7 recounted
the whole history of Israel preaching Christ to them. And rejecting
what he said, he said to them, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. You resist
His teaching. In all of the Old Testament Scriptures,
you resist His teaching as your fathers did, so do you. The gospel then is the same as
the gospel now. Well, preacher, can you make
good on that? I think I can. Listen to this,
Hebrews chapter 4, talking about Israel in the wilderness, those
that our Lord swore they would not enter into His rest, that
their carcasses would fall in the wilderness. Now listen to
this, Hebrews 4, verse 2. He said, for unto us was the
gospel preached as well as unto them. What was preached to them? The gospel. Isn't that what that
says? That's exactly what that says.
But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it. And people say to me all
the time, well, he said, that's the old Bible. I just add one
Bible, Old and New Testament. Just one Bible. And it all has
the same gospel. It all sets the same gospel forth.
And I'll tell you this, without an Old Testament, there's no
way to verify that Jesus was the Christ. If you just carry
around New Testament, you're going to be hard-pressed to convince
anybody of anything. That Old Testament is what established
His person and work. All of the Old Testament. You
look sometime this afternoon, you go over to Luke chapter 24
and read what the Lord did over there. They were walking along
that way confused and disheartened, and they were walking along there
troubled, and they said, we trusted that this was the Christ. And
the Lord, beginning at Moses, and all the prophets, He preached
to them those things concerning himself. He opened to them the
scriptures that they might understand them. And he pointed to himself,
and he said, this is what this priesthood is, and this is what
this sacrifice is. And he showed them those things
concerning himself. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And then thirdly,
we believe these things because they are the means that God has
ordained to reconcile sinners to Himself. Men are not called
hearing lies. I don't care what your experience
says. I don't care anything about that. I'm telling you this, you're
going to be saved when you hear the truth. That's when you're
going to be saved, not until. You are not going to be saved
hearing lies. Somebody said one time, well, there is enough truth
in that junk they preach to save every sinner on earth. I am telling
you this, they are going to hear the Word preached. They are going
to hear the truth declared to them by God's servant. And they
are going to be converted. And everything else is contrary
to the Scriptures. They are not called hearing lies.
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
And then listen to this here in 2 John verse 9. He said, Whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God. He hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. And if there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine,
receive him not into your house, neither be it him God's feet.
The gospel is the seed of regeneration, and without this seed, no son
can be born. Of his own will, this unchangeable
God that James talked about, he said, of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth. And now, he said, you take heed
how you hear. Take heed how you hear. Other
foundation, Paul said, can no man lay than that which is laid,
Christ the Lord. And then fourthly, we believe
what we believe because these are the doctrines that God the
Holy Spirit has confirmed in our heart. When men hear the
truth, when His sheep hear His voice, that message is confirmed
in their heart. And all the devils in hell can't
convince them otherwise. Once they hear it, they hear
it. That's it. Nobody is going to come in and
steal them away from the truth. Turn with me to I Corinthians
chapter 1. In Paul's second letter to the
Corinthians in chapter 4 verse 2, the apostle tells us that
he had renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in
craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully. Now
listen to what he says here. But by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. Paul was satisfied to preach
to men and let God confirm the message Himself. That's as far
as he took it. He didn't come and get the guy
by the hand, John, and say, come on now, come on, put one foot
out, take one step. He didn't do that. He didn't have a song leader
and an orchestra sing softly behind him while he said all
these words that he's memorized and all these cunning speeches
he got to get men to come down and make some kind of a profession
of faith. He didn't do that. Paul just
preached to them and left them alone. Left his message. Left that truth. Submitted it
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And if God
was pleased to do so, he confirmed that message in their hearts.
And if he didn't, he left them alone. And they went out empty. Empty away. He didn't try to
get them down an aisle. He didn't try to get them to
make a decision. Now look here in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse 4. He said, I thank my God always
on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ, that in everything ye are enriched by him in all
utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you. Ain't that how it comes? In that outcome, God confirms
that message in your heart. That's it. That's it. Verse 8,
"...who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be
blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." You see, believers
don't just intellectually reason these doctrines out. These things
are confirmed of God in them. It's the revelation of God to
you and in you. If it were just a matter of intellectualism,
I could sit down, if I could get men to sit still long enough
and take this book and show them in this book these things that
I've declared to you this morning, and they might have to believe
if they use this as the basis. But that's not how it works.
We declare these things plainly stated in the Word of God, and
then we leave them alone. We leave them alone. I submit
them to God. Let God do His work. He'll save
them or He won't. He'll convince them or He won't.
And if He don't, they won't. I guarantee you. Listen to what Paul says here
about these Thessalonians. I read to you, he went to Thessalonica
and they hired some men of the baser sort and beat him up. And
then he went on to the Bereans and preached to them. But Paul
said, I know your election of God, he told these Thessalonians,
because our gospel came not unto you in word only, but it came
in power and in the Holy Ghost. And you submitted yourselves.
Why? Because God confirmed that message
in your heart. And listen to this, I Thessalonians
2.13, For this cause also, thank we God, without ceasing, because
when you received the word of God, which you heard of us, you
received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the
word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. So why do we believe what we
believe? Well, we believe these things because it is stated and
defined clearly in the Word of God. We believe these things
because they are the only doctrines that have any continuity throughout
the Word of God. Free will is not taught in the
New Testament. But you can take some scriptures
over there and twist them and distort them a little bit, rest
them, as Paul said, to your own destruction, and you can come
out of there thinking something about free will. But you take
free will into the Old Testament, it ain't going to work. No way,
no how, no shape, there's nothing over there to even remotely think
that man might have a free will. These are the only doctrines
that have any continuity throughout the Word of God. And this is
the message that God ordained in preaching to save them that
believe. And these are the doctrines that
God the Holy Spirit has confirmed in our hearts. And here is the
last reason. Why do we believe these things?
Because no other message offers any hope to fallen sinners. Now, if you're not a sinner,
you can find hope anywhere. It's like going to the candy
store. You can go to any church all up and down this road. You'll
find hope. You can go in there and sit down.
You'll find hope. No matter what it is he's preaching on, you'll
find hope. But when God convinces a man of who he is, that he's
nothing, and strips him down, and shows him his total depravity, can't do anything for himself,
The only thing he'll find any hope in is in these doctrines
of grace and in Christ Himself. If he's not totally depraved,
he might find hope in being reformed. But his nature is such that the
Scripture says he's not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So he can't find no hope in that.
If he were not a rebel in his heart, he might be reconciled
with an appeal to his willingness, but his mind is enmity against
God. And it's not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. And if he were not dead in trespasses
and sins, he might repair the damage, but like the leper, he's
dead while he lives. Free will works religion offers
nothing for the sinner, it only makes his condition Worse. It aggravates his condition. Our Lord said the well need not
a physician. They don't need one. But the
sick do. The sick do. And sinners need
a Savior. The unrighteous, they need a
righteousness. The guilty need a justifier. And the dead need Him who is
life and who is the resurrection. We believe these things because
nothing else offers any hope to dead sinners. Our Lord said
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. Well, it's my prayer this morning
that the Lord will cause you, if this question has been on
your mind, to get this CD and listen to it again. And take
your time. Stop it after I state a doctrine.
And go over to that Scripture. And read that Scripture. Read
what it says above it. And read what it says below it.
I'm not afraid to submit what I preach to you to the Word of
God. Go look it up. And see if that ain't exactly
what God says on these matters. And I tell you if it is, you
better do what Paul did with his. You better gather it all
up in a box and take it out and throw it on the dung heap. And
let God be true. and every man a liar. And I exhort
you this morning to learn these things. Learn these things. Don't just come down here and
listen and go home. You go home and open this book up. Learn
these things. And then when people say, why
do you believe what you believe? You can tell them. You can tell
them. This is why I believe what I
believe. This is why I preach a lecture. This is why I believe
in total depravity. This is why I believe these things.
because the Word of God says it, and God confirmed it in my
heart, and I believe it.