I'm still amazed that people
who claim to know God do not know Him as the Scriptures declare
Him. I'm amazed by that. I often wonder
if people are reading their Bibles, or are they just trusting and
listening to what preachers and others who don't know God tell
them. And unfortunately, you don't
have to talk to people long to discover this sad truth. They
just don't know the truth about God, about Christ and about themselves. Men have made God so dependent
upon sinful man that to hear it told, he can't do anything
without men and women's permission. Is this not the God that you
hear other men talk about? But that's not how the Bible
portrays God. You don't have to read very far
in the passages of divine inspiration to see that. The religious world
has absolutely no problem with the fact that God created the
heavens and the earth. Although they'll tell you, God
created the heavens and the earth. But they get angry and they throw
a fit. when you tell them that He rules,
reigns, and controls all things, especially them, in the world
today. Quite a different matter. Folks
will fight you tooth and nail to prove that God does not infringe
upon their will. What kind of God would do that,
they ask. Well, the answer is plain and
simple. The only true God. That's who. In Psalm 115.3 it
says, and we quote this all the time, but it's in the Bible. But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's the God of the
Bible. It's in this book where God's
sovereignty is truthfully declared. And a child of God does not want
anything less than a sovereign God. That's just a fact. Okay, read Psalm 135 verse 6
with me. And we'll read down through verses
10. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in
earth, and in the seas, and in all deep places. He causeth the
vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings
for the rain, and he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. Who smoked the firstborn of Egypt,
both of man and beast? Who did? Who sent tokens and
wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon
all his servants. Who did? Who smote great nations
and slew mighty kings? God did. The only one true God
is declared in this book, this book that you hold this morning
in your hands, to be the only one who declares the end from
the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done. God declares things before they're
yet done. And He says, My counsel shall
stand. No uncertainty in that. No ifs,
buts, or maybes. and I will do all my pleasure."
That's the God of the Bible. Isaiah 46, 10. This is what your
Bible says. This is what my Bible says. Obviously men and women, here's
the truth of the matter, would rather believe what others tell
them than to read for themselves their Bibles and believe what
God says about Himself. Naturally smart. I'm talking
about just naturally smart and intelligent folks say stupid
things. They say stupid things because
they don't have any knowledge of this book. They don't read
the Bible. And they hear men preach that
obviously don't read it. But they say things like God
wants to. Let go and let God. God is trying. God is willing. God is willing
but not able unless you give Him your heart. Let God have
His way. Give Jesus a chance. Here's one
that really gets me. Make Jesus Lord. A little late
for that. This blessed book declares that
God made Christ Lord long before we ever came along. Religious
people will say, well, now what they mean there is it makes Him
Lord over your life. He is Lord over your life. He's
Lord over your life whether you bow to Him or not. That's the
God of the Bible. People don't read the Bible.
Men and women better start reading their Bibles. God declares in
Jeremiah 32, 27, He says, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all
flesh. Is there anything And I repeat,
is there anything too hard for me? Well, to hear men speak,
there is. But to hear God speak through
His Word, there's not. There's nothing too hard for
God Almighty. Natural men and women think they're
in control of things, when in all reality, they're in control
of nothing. We're not in control of anything.
Nothing. We're nobodies. Would you like
for me to show you that in the Bible? Let me read that familiar
passage in Daniel 4.35. I don't want you to turn there.
And all the inhabitants of the earth, that includes you, me,
and everybody else, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. That's what the Bible says. But
brother, I think you're taking that too far. I'm reading what
the Bible says. They're reputed as nothing. And He, God, doeth according
to His will. In the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and none, there's not one that
can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou? Now what
are we going to do with that? Are we going to rebel against
it? Or are we going to bow to it? Do those who endeavor to
belittle God, do they read their Bible? Do they see these signs
and just ignore them? Or do they really have no fear
of God? Are they really interested in
God's divine truth? That's what King David said in
Psalm 36.1. And it's the same thing that the Apostle Paul echoed
in Romans 3.18. He said, there's no fear of God
before their eyes. No fear of God. That's not all.
He says plenty more about them before that. He said they're
all gone out of the way. They are together, become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Why, their throat is an open
sepulcher. That's a grave. And with their
tongues they've used as seat. The poison of asp is under their
lips. Their mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. I don't much
appreciate you saying that about me. I didn't. God did. And He
said it out of His Word. You better read your Bible. Men
better read their Bibles. The way of peace they have not
known. Men don't know peace because they don't know Christ. And they
don't know Christ because they don't know God's Word. And God
uses the foolishness of preaching from this Word to save those
that believe. And we wonder why religion is
rampant today, why people are just absolutely ignorant about
the things of God and His righteousness. Our Lord said this, He said,
search the Scriptures. Now, He's talking to the Pharisees,
the most religious, studied, educated, religious people of
the time. He said, search the scriptures.
He said, for in them you think you have eternal life. There's
a lot of folks today that do read the scriptures. And in searching
them, they think they have eternal life. But there's one thing that
they don't see. And our Lord said, they are they
which testify of me. You can search the scriptures
and you can think that you're born again and that you have
life and that, man, I'm telling you, you're set for heaven. Your
name's on the road. Your mansion's picked out. But
unless you see that they are the very thing that testify of
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're yet in your sin. Men and women
had not only better read their Bibles, but they need to prayerfully
read them. They need to get under the sound
of the true gospel where a man's telling them the truth about
the Scriptures. But what makes you think you're
telling the truth? Because I'm telling you what this book says.
But I love the fact that in Luke 1.37 it says, For with God nothing
shall be impossible. What a comfort. That's what gives
me hope for the mind. Love lost ones. That's what gives
you hope. As long as God gives them breath
with God, it's not impossible for them to yet be saved. It's not too late. But men and
women must repent. They've got to change their opinion
of who God is. They've got a wrong conception
altogether of who God is. They've got to admit, confess,
own up to the fact that they've sinned against God and Him only
and done this evil in His sight. Now let me tell you something,
friends. God is going to be justified when He speaks. concerning men
and women. And he's going to be clear when
he judges. He is not going to, by any means, clear the guilty. And he's not, by any means, going
to condemn the innocent. We're all guilty. What are we
going to do? We're going to have to find a
substitute. We're going to have to find somebody to stand in
our place that will appease God's eternal wrath and judgment. And
there's none on this earth who have an acceptable excuse. Not
a one. Now, sin. Sin. You know, that's
a little word. We use it so flippantly. But sin is the reason for this
pompous unbelief. Sin is why men and women are
in the ignorant state that they're in. And I don't mean to use ignorant
as a degrading term. It just means a lack of knowledge.
Lack of knowledge. Don't know the truth. Unless
God gives fallen and unregenerate men and women eyes to see what
Scripture declares them to be, they'll never see it. But it's
the Word of God that declares to me what I am. Now, most of
my life, I knew I had problems, but I never really knew why I
did. This book told me. This book
showed me why I was the way I was. Sin's what we are. We sin because
we're sinners. Sin. Sin. And it's the Word of
God that showed me what I am. I'm only going to give you a
few. I'm not going to have you look them up. You know them.
Most of you know them by heart. Genesis 6, 5. And every imagination
of the thought of my heart was only evil continually. I saw in Psalm 51.5 that I was
shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin. In Psalm 58, I saw that
I was wicked from the womb. For I was even born wicked, and
I went astray as soon as I was born, speaking lies. Comes natural. That's sin. This book's shown
me that all my righteousness, I thought it was righteousness,
it was self-righteousness, is filthy rags. Filthy rags. This book showed me out of Jeremiah
17 that my heart is deceitful above all things. Now I've seen
and met a lot of deceitful people. Experienced them. I've had dealings
with them. But God showed me that my heart is the most deceitful
thing of all. Deceitful above all things. It
says all things. And all things means all things.
And it's desperately wicked. Desperately wicked. It's the
Word of God that shows me what I am. Men and women better start
reading their Bibles. They better start reading. It's
the Word of God that declares the salvations of the Lord. People
aren't reading their Bibles or they'd say that. There's a whole
lot of folks out there that don't believe salvations of the Lord.
These precious God-honoring, Christ-exalting truths that come
from God's Word have to do with God's way of saving sinners,
not man's. Upon what ground will a holy
and just God receive sinners unto His fellowship? Sinners
are only received in knowing and trusting Christ. It's the
only way. This book teaches that and declares
that. What actually satisfies God's
justice and gains God's favor for a sinner? It's all found
in these inspired pages. Only the redemptive work of the
Lord Jesus Christ paying the sin debt of death. That's what
the wages of sin is, death. Is that not right? But God commended
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. That's in the Bible. Romans 5.8.
Men and women better start reading their Bibles. The answers to
these questions will be settled as all eternal issues are. They're
settled by the standard of God's glory revealed in Christ. They're
seen in this book. This is the only way that God
can be just and justify the ungodly. The Holy Scriptures identify
the Christ and God the Father sent to save a people. We've
seen it over and over. Christ came into the world to
save sinners. That's what this book says. Thou shalt call His
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Your
Bible says that, and so does mine. The Holy Scriptures identify
Christ. They tell us plainly that God
sent Him to save a people. A people chosen before the foundation
of the world. And the Bible distinguishes the
true Christ from all counterfeits. Only one Christ. One Gospel.
One Spirit. One Lord. One Baptism. One God. One gospel. They remove all grounds
of boasting on the sinner's part. I hear people boast all the time
about salvation. I have decided to follow Jesus. I made a decision. I made Jesus
Lord. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. That's not what the Bible teaches.
You better read your Bible. They show how God is absolutely
sovereign in salvation. He saves whom He wills, how He
wills, when He wills, and He saves them in the substitution
of His beloved Son whom He sent to live, die, and resurrect in
our place. According what? To the Scriptures. You better read the Scriptures.
The Scriptures teach how man by nature is a totally depraved
sinner in need of free, sovereign grace. Not just a mere possibility
of being saved if we meet certain conditions. That's what men tell
people. Where do you find that in the
Bible? Well, now, if you do this and don't do that, and you make
a decision, you exercise your free will, Where is it? It's
not of him that willeth. It's not of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. How are you going to get by that?
Salvation is not a mere possibility of being saved if a man meets
certain conditions. All commandments for sinners
to seek the Lord and find salvation are in this book. They're based
upon the perfection of God's redemptive character and Christ's
substitutionary work. And it's on every page if God
would give us eyes to see. This book reveals God's election. God elected and chose a people
before the world ever was. And He gave them all to Christ
and not one will be lost. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. I won't lose a one. I'll raise
every one of them up the last day. That's what the Bible says. Men and women better read the
Bibles. People better start prayerfully reading the Scriptures. They're
sitting on the coffee table. They better dust them off every
now and again and read it. That would be my recommendation.
There's nothing in any individual center according to this book.
Nothing outside of God Himself. Now listen. that influenced God's
choice of sinners unto salvation. Gary, you didn't do a thing to
influence God to have mercy on you. Nothing! And neither did
I. None of you did. God justifies
the ungodly and all whom God elected unto salvation are and
were before conversion by nature the children of wrath even as
others. A born-again sinner cannot boast
in anything that he has done to make him different. Whom maketh
he to differ from another? The Scriptures say in 1 Corinthians
4, 7. That's what the Bible says. Whom maketh he to differ? You don't who maketh thee to
differ from another. What do you have that you've
not received? And if you've received it, why
do you glory in it as if you did something to deserve it?
Child of God won't boast in anything he's done. He knows his character
and his conduct falls way short of God's holy standard and merits
nothing from God. You know how he knows that? God
revealed it to him in the Scriptures. And he knows that because of
his own selfish pride, his own self-love, his own self-righteousness,
that he would have never chosen God unless God had chosen him. We love him because he first
loved us. That's what the Bible says. That's
what the Bible says. The reason God chose one sinner
and not another is known only to God. But men hate that and
they claim that it's not fair. God has clearly revealed that
all who hear the gospel should believe on Christ. Christ alone,
seeing all the conditions for the salvation of sinners, has
been fully met in Him and Him alone. Isn't that who you're
putting your trust in? You've seen before that you didn't
see that. We put our trust in the church.
We put our trust in our decision. We put our trust in our free
will. But we don't put it in Christ. But the child of God
does. God has clearly revealed that
all who hear the Gospel should believe on Christ, seeing that
He's not just made salvation possible. All who hear the Gospel
are commanded to believe. All who hear the Gospel are forbidden
to believe anything else. The unbelief of many, even the
majority, will not make God's promises non-effectual. God's
elect will hear and believe God's gospel. They shall be made willing
to be saved based on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm
110 verse 3 says, "...in the day of His power." Whose power?
God's power. And the day of God's power is
when the elect of God hear and believe the certainty of the
salvation in the person and the work of Christ is revealed in
the gospel that's found in this book. They're brought to see
that they're justified by the blood of Christ, solely based
upon the imputation of His perfect righteousness. When God now looks
at me, He sees a perfectly righteous man. You know why? Because I'm
in Christ. Yes, I know God freely reasons,
God encourages, and God commands all who hear the gospel. Whosoever
will, it says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
Whosoever will is whosoever God wills. How could the doctrine
of election, God choosing, shut any sinner out of heaven when
God himself commands all who hear the gospel to believe? Sinners
shut themselves out by denying God's election of grace and insisting
that salvation or some part of it is dependent on them, the
sinner. That's how men are shut out. It's not election that shuts
them out. If I trust and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
I see from God's Word that He died for sinners, and God shows
me that's what I am, and I say, He died for sinners? There's
hope for me. How do I know that I'm an elect
of God? Do you believe in Christ? Oh no, we want to put a formula
on it. How do I know that I'm God's elect? Do you trust in
Him? You see, you're all in and all.
Do you see He paid your sin debt? Christ's finished work, His blood
sacrifice, His sinless humanity was the conclusion of His whole
work of redemption. This included His incarnation.
God became a man, friends. That's the only way you and I
are saved. God became a man and did for me and you what we could
not do for ourselves. And men want to say, what can
I do to be saved? You can't do nothing. God had
to come to earth and do it for you. That's what this book teaches. He was obedient unto death. The
scriptures say even the death of the cross in Philippians 2. God's entire satisfaction is
in the merit of Christ's work of righteousness. And it's called
the righteousness of God. You know why? Because that's
where He came from. This is the only ground of salvation
and it's revealed in the gospel. Christ's righteousness demands
the redemption of all those for whom Christ lived and died. This
is honoring God. And it's consistent with this
holy law and justice. It's how God is both just and
justified. Christ did not die to make sinners
savable. Is that what you believe? Well,
I hope not. You better read this Bible. God
did not kill His only beloved Son to make you and I savable
and then leave it up to us if we met certain conditions. That
would be salvation by works, not by grace. That's what men
say, well God looked ahead in time and saw who would believe
and then chose them based on their belief. And that's works!
He died to save His people from their sins. Christ came into
the world to save sinners, and you can be assured that those
sinners whom He chose will believe and repent. The certain salvation
of God's elect does not remove anyone's responsibility. However,
it is the greatest encouragement for all to seek salvation God's
way through Christ. That's the only way that man
can be saved, that women can be saved. And yet if a man turns
his back on this great salvation, how shall we escape if we neglect
so great a salvation found in Christ, in Christ alone. God removes every obstacle. He
provides all the means necessary for our salvation. He made his
people one with his son so that they themselves have now in Christ
satisfied his law and divine justice. When God now looks at
me, he says, perfect, holy, and righteous. Enter in, thou good
and faithful servant. It's only in Christ. It's only
in Christ. Well, you say that God has an
elect, but the scripts say, whosoever will. But the issue is not simply
whosoever will. The issue is whosoever will what? For example, Mark 8.34 says,
And when he called the people with his disciples, also he said
unto them, Whosoever will, that's not all he said. He said, Whosoever
will come after me. Let him deny himself, take up
his cross, and follow me. In Revelation 22, 17 it says,
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth
say, Come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will,
let him take the water of life. freely. Neither of these verses
say whosoever will believe what he wants to believe or whosoever
shall think what he wants to think. Each whosoever will is
qualified by a command that is directly related to the gospel
and it's found in this book. Study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed. The answers to
life eternal are in this book.