Turn back to 2 Timothy chapter
4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. The Apostle Paul is writing his last
epistle, and he knows it. This is the last thing he will
write before he is executed because of the faith of the gospel. And his concern is for the truth
of God, the glory of God, and the church of God. And he writes
to his young protege in the ministry, the young man who had been converted
and trained in the gospel by Paul himself. And he says to
Timothy, I charge thee. I give you this final word. This is my last word to you,
buddy. I'm leaving you for eternity
with this charge. I charge thee. Therefore, before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing could be more sober.
I'm calling on God to bear witness to this charge. who shall judge
the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Not just preach, preach the word.
Man doesn't preach the word of God faithfully, he's not fit
to be called a preacher. Not worth the salt and powder
it'd take to kill him. And I'm dead serious. Be instant in season and out
of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. Here's the reason. The time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine. Folks won't sit and listen to
it. They won't sit and listen to
it. They'll go to church for any
reason under the shining sun. It's a poor man's country club,
they can get in cheap and stay in forever. They'll go to church
and play games, but they will not endure sound doctrine. They'll
go to church and be entertained, but they will not endure sound
doctrine. They'll go to church and have festivities, but they
will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust, and
that word lust doesn't necessarily mean sensual lust, means carnal
lust, he's talking about their own natural desires. After the passions and desires
and thoughts of their own hearts, shall they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears? You know how our politicians
keep their ear to the ground? What was that you wanted to hear?
Yes, sir, I'm in favor of that. Boy, I've been for that all my
life. Now, what was it? That's exactly what it's talking
about. Teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away
their ears from the truth. And shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things,
endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, Make full proof of thy ministry. Now this prophecy, which is made
by the Apostle Paul in this text of Scripture, has come to pass
today. All around the world today, this
hour, all around this country, particularly right here in Danville,
Kentucky, Religious people are gathered together in solemn assemblies
in the name of Jesus Christ to worship God. Most of them will
read from the Bible, one version or another. The more to their
liking, the better, as far as they're concerned. But they'll,
if they can find one that doesn't say anything, I think most of
these modern versions, if a fella could just produce something
with blank pages and call it the Holy Bible, that'd suit everybody.
But they'll read it from a Bible of some kind or another. And
they will sing from some kind of a hymn about God and His love
and His grace and His goodness and His holiness. And they'll
say their prayers. And they'll invoke God's blessings
and they'll pronounce God's benediction. They'll give their money and
they'll hear a little sermon of some kind. Now I do not doubt in the least
that they are sincere. I don't doubt it in the least.
They are sincere. But I'm telling you. I'm telling you because
I've got to tell you. It's time somebody spoke the
truth. They're as lost as they can be. Pastor, that's too hard. That's as good as I can get.
I can't do anything better for you. I can't do anything better
for them. If Bob Ponce went to the doctor
tomorrow morning, the doctor ran a test on him and found out
that he was eating up with cancer. And that his heart was just about
to stop beating. He's just right on the verge
of having a massive heart attack. And Doug knows that Bob's kind
of an emotional fellow, maybe, and he looks at him and he thinks,
well, I don't have to tell him this. I don't have to tell him
this. And if I tell him, he's going
to go home and he's going to be so upset. And his wife's going
to be so upset. And his kids, they're going to
get together and they're going to cry. Everybody, his friends,
everybody's going to be so upset. I'm going to do him a favor.
I'm going to say, now, Bob, you've got a little allergy, and if
you'll take some of this medication here, you'll be all right. The man ought to be hung. Wouldn't you say so? Put him
out of business. Such a man ought to be hung,
because that man's about to die, and he still was all right. I'm
telling you, this religious world is about to go to hell. And fellows
standing in the pulpit who ought to be doctors for their souls
are telling them they're alright. Lost. Sincere, yes. But lost. I had no question that they have
faith. But their faith is a false faith. I had no question that
they have hope. So that when they go to the hospital,
go to the doctor, and more than one they grit their teeth and
they say, I cannot believe everything will be alright. I got hope.
But it's a false hope. Having been taught and led by
blind and ignorant men, they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust, they
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they have turned
their ears away from the truth and had been turned into fables. I want to be crystal clear. I
want to be crystal clear. I'm preaching this message to
you because I want you to hear it, and God willing I'm going
to preach it tomorrow night. I'm not talking about Papists
and Hindus and Mormons. I'm not talking about that. I'm
not talking about Mohammedans and Buddhists and Pentecostals.
I'm not talking about the nonsense of the religious world. I'm talking
about men and women who profess to know, worship, trust, and
serve the living God by faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. Men
and women who claim to trust God and walk in the power of
His Holy Spirit. I'm talking about family and
friends. Moms and dads. Brothers and sisters. Relatives. Kinfolk. I'm talking
about folks who are close to Him. And I'm telling you, they
had turned their ears away from the truth and had been turned
into fables. I'm going to exemplify what I'm
saying. You know what a fable is. These are no new things to
you. I remember reading Aesop's fables and having them read to
me when I was a boy. I guess they don't do that much
these days, but a fable is a story that has been concocted by a
good storyteller, and the object of the fable is to teach a moral
lesson, to teach something concerning moral responsibility. But the
fable is factually a lie. In other words, the fellow has
just made up a story. It's just fiction. It's just
a fairy tale. It's just a story to illustrate
a truth, to teach a moral lesson. And I'm telling you that the
religious world today is full of fables. Fables by which men
who claim to be God's servants and who claim to be preachers
of the gospel tell men how to uplift themselves in a moral
sense, but the fables they tell are factual lies. They're lies. They're not even remotely close
to the truth. I want to give you three of them.
Three fables that have been dreamed up to teach people moral principles
and to keep them giving their money to churches and going to
mission fields and involved in moral deeds and moral good works
and such as that. But they are lies. They are fables
and they are lies by which men are deceived and their souls
are damned. These things are universally embraced. They're
universally proclaimed and defended literally around the country
and around the world through every denomination that is called
Christian. They're found in every denomination
that's called Christian bar none. I'm not talking about something
that's not found among Baptists. It's found among most Baptists.
I'm not talking about something that's not found in this group
or that group. It's found literally in every
denomination that's called Christian. The first fable is this. Folks
tell us God loves everybody. How many times? Is there anybody
who's never seen a sticker on the back of the car that says,
Smile, God Loves You? The whole world does! I mean,
you can go to a liquor store and see them, Smile, God Loves
You! I expect you can go to a whorehouse and see them if you wanted to,
Smile, God Loves You! Everything's alright. Everything's
alright. I listened to a preacher last
night coming home, early this morning, that's what kept me
awake. I had him plugged in, listened to him on tape, somebody
had sent me. And he said, he said, I'm telling you, God loves
the sinner. God loves the sinner even after
he dies and is buried in the grave. God loves the sinner.
God won't send him to hell. God loves the sinner. The sinner
sends himself to hell. God won't save him. God can't
save him. But God loves him. Such nonsense
is totally contrary to scripture. doesn't do the sinner any good,
he blasphemes God. In fact, the scriptures no where
suggest, the scriptures no where suggest that God loves everybody. That's not even implied in the
Bible. And those passages that are torn from their context,
which people constantly quote, do not say it, suggest it, or
imply it. John 3, 16 does not say that
God loves everybody. Does not say that. Meekness after
service, okay, exactly what it says. But it does not say God
loves everybody. This is what the scripture says.
The Lord is angry with the wicked every day. That's what the book
says. This is what the scripture says.
The Lord hateth all workers of iniquity. That's what this book
says. I quoted that to you right out of the Psalms. This is what
the word of God says. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. There's somebody in this world
God loves, and there's somebody in this world that God does not
love, but rather that God hates, who are the objects of his wrath.
Now I'm telling you the love of God as it is revealed in this
scripture is in Jesus Christ. God loves sinners only in Christ
and for Christ's sake. And you cannot know, you cannot
have any reason to have any suspicion that maybe God loves you till
you believe on his side. That's absolutely right. Nowhere
in this book does God tell a sinner, without faith in Christ, God
loves you. Nowhere in this book. Nowhere
do you find it written in scriptures. People say, we want to preach
what the Bible preaches. Do it then. Do it then. Read
the book of Acts. We just finished studying Acts
a few months ago, and we went through every verse in the book. Every single verse. The word
love's not there. And the book of Acts, that's
the beginning of the preaching of the gospel. That's the beginning
of New Testament church. That's exemplifying how it ought
to be done. And not one time does it say,
smile, God loves you, or anything like it. The proclamation of
redemption is there, the declaration of justice and grace and truth
is there, but the fact that God's love for sinners is revealed
only in Christ certainly is implied there in the book of Acts, because
it is never mentioned in the preaching of the gospel. So that
the message to sinners is not God loves you. The message to
sinners is God's holy. God's angry with the wicked every
day and the only way God can be just and justify your soul
is through Jesus Christ his son. God's love's in Christ. Secondly,
we are told that the Lord Jesus Christ died to redeem and save
all people. Christ died for everybody. Everybody
knows that. Everybody knows that. He didn't. He didn't. And I'm going to talk a little
bit more about that in a minute, but I want you to understand
that the Bible nowhere implies that Jesus Christ died for all
men. The Bible nowhere implies that
He redeemed all men. The Bible nowhere suggests that
He came to save those multitudes who were lost in hell. Those
for whom Christ died shall never die. It can't happen. It can't
happen. If one sinner for whom Christ
shed his blood suffers one minute particle of God's wrath because
of sin, then Christ died for nothing and his blood is meaningless.
Jesus Christ didn't die for nothing. He did not die in vain. Rather,
our Lord Jesus Christ died for and shall save those people given
to Him in eternity whom He came here to save, of whom Brother
Lidges spoke just a little while ago. And then we're told that
God the Holy Spirit is doing all He can to save all people. The Holy Spirit is drawing you. Now won't you let Him do it?
have His way with you. If you can prevent Him from having
His way with you, He ain't God. It's just that simple. It's just
that simple. You know that the Holy Spirit's
not trying to save all men. There are multitudes in this
world, multitudes in this world, to whom He doesn't even send
His word. Multitudes. The Apostle Paul wanted to go
and preach the gospel to some folks, and the Holy Spirit said,
no, you can't go there. Go over here. And he still does. He opens doors of utterance for
the gospel, and he shuts others. He brings some to hear the word,
and he arranges things in providence so that others cannot hear the
word. No, it's not his intention to save all men. The word of
God says nothing about the Holy Spirit trying to reprove, trying
to convince, or trying to regenerate. This is what the book says. It
is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The whole religious world to one degree or another declares
that salvation is accomplished by the will of man, the work
of man, and the work of man. The Word of God declares that
salvation is by the will of God alone, the work of Christ alone,
and the work of God the Holy Spirit alone. Now it's my responsibility
as a servant of God in this generation to do what I can. to stop the
mouths of religious gamesayers and rescue perishing sinners
from their pernicious lives. Paul tells me that the way to
do that is to preach the gospel, to exactly, clearly define the
doctrine of the gospel. Look at a couple of passages.
2 Timothy chapter 4. He says to Timothy, I charge
thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
judge the quick and the dead in his appearing in his kingdom,
preach the word. Be instant in season, out of
season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering. And what's the next word? What
is it? Doctrine. Doctrine. That's become a nasty word in
our society. Let me tell you something. The
word doctrine simply means teaching. That's all the word means. So
when I talk about the doctrine of scripture, I'm talking about
the teaching of scripture. Somebody says, I don't want to
hear doctrine. He's saying, I don't want to hear the teaching of scripture.
I don't want to hear the doctrine of Christ. I don't want to hear
the teaching of Christ. I don't want to hear the doctrine of
God. I don't want to hear the teaching of God. That's utter
nonsense. The only way you can possibly
understand that which is revealed in this book is if somebody stands
up and carefully, under the inspiration of God's Word, by the power of
God's Word and the power of God's Spirit, explains to you the doctrine
of the Scripture. The doctrine of the Gospel. Look
in Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. Paul's writing to Titus and he
says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6. 1 Timothy chapter 4. If thou put the brethren in remembrance
of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ,
nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto
thou hast attained. Paul says to Timothy, you meditate
on these, give yourself wholly to preaching, to study, to doctrine. Take heed to yourself. And in
verse 16 he says, if you do, you'll both save yourself and
those that hear you. so that it is the responsibility
of a pastor, of a gospel preacher, to clearly declare the gospel
doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. And no pastor is faithful to
his calling. No pastor is faithful to his
charge. No pastor is faithful to his
responsibility as God's messenger to men who does not faithfully
instruct men and women in sound doctrine with distinctive clarity
in unmistakable terms. Said it just that way. I wrote
it down just that way because I want you to understand it just
that way You can You can go preach Lots of places preachers can
I I've been at this a long time. I know lots of preachers and
lots of circumstances You can go preach most anywhere most
anywhere where folks aren't out and out infidels Open the Bible
up and you can talk a little bit about predestination And
you can talk a little bit about election. And you can talk a
little bit about limited atonement. You can even put out the idea
that somehow God's in control of everything. But you can do
it in such ambiguous terms that nobody sitting in the pew knows
a thing about what you're talking about. And it sounds just exactly
like what Pentecostal down the road preaches. And he says, Whoo!
Hallelujah! I had a preacher say to me one
time, Regrettably, it revealed far more about him than I like
to acknowledge. When I was a young man, I began preaching, and he
heard what I was preaching as I went around, I guess, and he
said, uh, he said, now Brother Don, there's a way to preach
these things so the folks don't know what you're talking about.
I said, what's the point in preaching?
What's the point in preaching? It's my responsibility as God's
servant. to tell you what this book says
in such language that you can't miss it. Now I can't make you
believe it. I can't make you, I can't make
you bow to it. But it's my responsibility to
tell it in such language that when you walk out those doors
you know exactly what that preacher said. I recall once when I was
in college this fellow came and preached and he didn't know beans
from apple butter but he had a doctor's degree and he talked
in all kinds of terms. I mean, he had flowery words. Boy, he is a spellbinder. You couldn't spell half what
he talked about. And this boy sat down beside me and he said,
we walked out and he said, boy, that's deep, wasn't it? I said,
did you ever swim in a creek? He said, no. I said, it wasn't
deep, it was just muddy. There's a difference. Just muddy. And I'm telling you, if a man
understands the gospel, he can preach it with clarity, and he
will preach it with clarity if he believes it. He'll do it.
He'll speak with such clarity that people will understand what
he's saying wherever he goes, regardless of consequence. Well,
you can't preach that. Folks will get mad. They did
in our Lord's day. He didn't go back. They didn't
pause the head hold back, we hold back, and I say we in the
most collective of terms, preachers hold back for one cotton-picking
reason. Shekels, that's all. That's all. Money, power, influence, position,
nothing else. And a man who will do it, dare
not call him the servant of God. He's not. He's his own servant. God's servants must proclaim
the gospel in unmistakable terms. And sound doctrine is essential
both to the salvation of sinners and to the spiritual stability,
maturity, and edification of God's saints. That's the reason
God gave his servants to be pastors and teachers in his church. Now
this morning we're going to go back to basics. And I'm going
to do what I have done often over the years here. I'm not
going to say anything new. I'm going to lay again the elementary,
basic, fundamental, essential truths of the gospel. And I want
to do so in such a clear manner that everybody here knows exactly
what I'm saying. Everybody who gets this tape
and hears this message by any means knows exactly what I'm
saying. And I hope it falls in the hands
of hundreds of preachers, because I want to know exactly what I'm
saying. The foundation doctrine of the gospel, basic Bible doctrine. And when you think about the
fundamentals of the faith, I've got a set of books back here
put together in the early part of this century, mid part of
this century, called The Fundamentals. And they're pretty good books.
They have some good things to say. But this is the things people
talk about when they talk about the fundamentals of the faith.
The inspiration of the Bible. The virgin birth of Christ. His deity. The creation of the
world. and the Lord's coming again.
I remember when I was in school, they talked about, we believe
the book, the blood, the blessed hope, bless God. Now those things
are absolutely essential, but those aren't real issues. They're
not real issues. Why argue about the inspiration
of the book? Why argue about the inspiration
of the Bible if you're not going to pay attention to it? I'm in denomination, stand up
and fight, been fighting for years over the inspiration of
the Bible. Do we or do we not believe this is God's Word? Why
bother? If this book's not going to be
your only rule of faith and practice, throw it away. Doesn't matter
if it's the Word of God or not. I wrote to a local pastor. He
was upset with me concerning this thing of ordained women.
He said, you're suggesting that we ought not ordain women. I
said, that's not what I said at all. I said, shoot, go ahead
and do it. You ignore everything else in
the book. You ignore everything else in the word of God, why
not ordain women? Go and ordain puppy dogs if you want to. If
you're going to ignore one thing, ignore it all. This book is either
the inspired word of God, and thus alone authoritative in the
house of God, or it's no better than toilet paper. That's exactly
right. Why argue about the Bible account
of creation, folks? Oh, they've been out of shape,
because fellows teach evolution. They teach Darwinian evolution
and preachers stand up in the pulpit every Sunday and teach
Arminian evolution. Far more damning. Far more damning. Those fellows only talk about
man evolving in a physical sense. These fellows stand in their
pulpits and talk about man evolving in a spiritual sense until he
makes himself to be the Son of God. Why argue over the deity
of Christ? Why argue over his virgin birth,
and yet deny the efficacy of his work? Meanwhile, while they
would be fighting mad, he suggested that they deny Christ's deity.
But I'm telling you that in pulpits right here in this town, today,
this moment, preachers all across this county, all across this
state, all across this country, deny the deity of Christ while
they talk about it. How can you say that? They tell
us that he tries to save and can't. They tell us He tried
to redeem, but He failed. They tell us that He tries to
get sinners to come to Him, but they won't come. If He tries
to do what He does not accomplish, then He's not God. And the doctrine
is an utter denial of the very deity of the Son of God. Now, some of you might be thinking
to yourself, well, Don, if these things aren't the issues, what
are they? I want to show you. And I'm going to go through the
scriptures. I'm going to show you from the Word of God very
briefly. And I promise I will do so very briefly, but I want
to make these seven statements. Now I want you to take notes,
and with everything I say, you can put down DSF beside it, because
Don Fortner said it. He'll stand by it and he'll die
by it. This is my confession of faith. This is what I believe.
This is what this congregation believes. More importantly, this
is what this book says. This is what it says. Upon these
seven points, there can be no compromise. God's saints embrace
them, love them, and rejoice in them. Only God's enemies oppose
them. Are you saying, Pastor, man's
not saved who doesn't believe these things? Of course I'm saying
that. Of course I'm saying that. The word of God's... How on this
earth can you talk about a man being saved who hates God? How
can you talk about a man being saved who hates God's truth?
How can you talk about a man being saved who will not bow
to God's word? That's utter nonsense. We live
in the silliest, perverse religious generations ever been. I want
everyone here to follow me now through the scriptures. To the
law and to the testimony, if I speak not according to the
word of this book, it's because there's no light in me. Is that
plain enough? If what I'm saying is not right
here in this book, don't you ever hear this preacher preach
again, lest you be damned with me. But if what I'm saying is
in this book, you better believe it, you better get after promoting
it, you better get after proclaiming it, because this is the truth
of God. Number one, I want to talk to you a little bit about
divine sovereignty. The one true and living God is totally sovereign
over all things. And when I say that God is sovereign
over all things, I'm simply saying God rules all things everywhere.
Everywhere. To say that, simply say God is
God. A God who is not sovereign is a peanut God. A God who is
not sovereign is kind of like carrying a round rabbit split
in your pocket. You can have all the superstition you want
to, and say, boy, he brings me good luck. But that God's just
a superstition, that's all. He's just an idol. God Almighty
is totally sovereign. Who is God? Our God's in heaven.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. In heaven, in earth,
in the sea, and in all deep places. That's Psalm 135, verse 6. Then
something rules God. There's something out there that
rules God. Now I'm telling you, find out what it is and go worship
it. Find out if there's anywhere,
anywhere where God doesn't rule. Anywhere where God doesn't have
His way, you go find out what's having its way, what's ruling
and worship that, because that's God. God rules. If God doesn't rule and govern
everything, then something else rules and governs God. If He
doesn't control everything, something else controls Him. If God is
not totally, absolutely, universally sovereign, then it must be concluded
that faith in God is nothing more than throwing a dime in
a wishing well. If He's not sovereign. So believe
God, what for? What for? Believe God? A God who can't control or doesn't
control every solitary particle of an atom in the universe? A
God who doesn't control every thought and movement of men and
devils? A God who doesn't rule to such a degree that the devil
in hell can't wiggle without His permission and His decree? By worshiping Him? By believing Him? Faith's nonsense. Because if God's not sovereign,
no promise he makes in this book can really be believed. Can't
be. I see Lindsey's son and daughter
here today, and please don't answer. Please don't answer. Your dad's a faithful man. But
I dare say there have been a few times along the way when he has
given his word something would be done, And something happened
he flat couldn't do it. Just couldn't do it. Something
came up at work. Somebody died. Somebody got sick
and I had to do this. Now that's not to impugn Lindsay's
integrity, that's to tell you he's just a moral man. And therefore
cannot be implicitly trusted. Cannot be implicitly trusted. Because He doesn't control everything. You can't believe absolutely
a promise made unless God solved it. Do you see what I'm saying?
You can't believe any prophecy of Scripture. The Lord says this
will happen, that will happen, this will take place, that will
take place. How do you know? Oh, He just knows everything.
He can't know what He doesn't control. You can't know what
you don't determine. The Lord God knows all things
as the omniscient God, but his foreknowledge of all things is
because of his predestination of all things. Not one word in
this book can really be believed if God's not sovereign. The Lord
God is sovereign creator of all things. He made this world and
all things in it. and you can talk about evolution,
and you can talk about all the scientific carbon dating, and
you can talk about all the nonsense scientists use, and I know there's
some smart fellas, smart, smart fellas, got good learning, good
learning, read lots of books, and they're chemical breakers,
you know, they're just, oh boy, they got brains big as this roof,
just brilliant fellas, but with regard to the things of God,
Brilliant men who are infidels, are reprobate, and don't have
good sense. Just don't have good sense. We
just kind of popped into being. Enough about that silliness. God created this world. All things
in the beginning God created. That's it. He's your creator. And God is sovereign as the ruler
of this world. All things are of Him. 2 Corinthians 5, 18. Romans 11,
36. For of Him, through Him, and
to Him are all things. No exception. And you know what
he's talking about? He's talking about the unbelief
of the Jews and the belief of God's elect among the Gentiles.
He said both of them come from God. All things. He's talking
about God turning away from the Jews and God turning to the Gentiles,
and he says all things are of God. Somebody said to Brother
Barnard when he was preaching that, he said, well, oh, you
make God out to be a monster. He said, well, get ready to meet
a monster, then that's who he is. I'm not about to try to lower
what God said. I'm telling you, this is who
he is. God rose. God's the sovereign disposer
of all things. That means when he gets done
with his creation, and he gets done with his purpose
for it, he'll throw it away. That's exactly what it means.
Satan, you see, is God's devil. And the book tells us what God's
going to do with him when he gets done with him. It tells us plainly
what it's going to do with him. Well, why doesn't God do it now?
Because he's not done with him now. Well, he could do away with
him now if he had the power! If he had the power to do away
with him now, he can have the power to do away with him in
the future. And if he doesn't have it now, he won't have it
then. God's Almighty, and He rules
everything. So that the King's heart is in
the hands of the Lord. Proverbs 16, verse 4. And He
turns it like rivers of water, with us whoever He will. He takes
the water, The king's heart is like I take a water hose, and
if I want to spray it right there, that's where it goes, and if
I want to spray it over the other, that's where it goes. And so he takes pagan, ungodly,
reprobate kings and turns them to do what he will have them
do for the glory of his name and the good of his people. Absolutely
so. The king's heart's in his hands.
And God Almighty is totally sovereign in the exercise of his grace.
Read the ninth chapter of Romans and come back and talk to me
about free will. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. The elder
shall serve the younger. And God said this before the
children were born, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. And somebody says, well, why
does he have fault with us? Is there no righteousness with
God? Who are you to charge God? Who are you to challenge God?
God forbid. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Even
as he said to Moses, I will have compassion on whom I will have
compassion, and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
whom he will he hardeneth. He said to Pharaoh, I raised
you up for this purpose, that I might dump your carcass in
the river, and the whole world remember what I did with you
in the river, and give myself glory. And so it has come to
pass. Now I want you to understand it clearly. God's totally sovereign. Secondly, let me talk to you
a little bit about total depravity. Turn to Romans chapter 3. We'll
look at one scripture, I can quote numerous, but Romans chapter
3. All men and women by nature are
totally depraved. Since the fall of man in the
garden, all people born in this world are born sinners. You didn't
come into this world a little innocent darling. That little grandbaby of Debbie's
downstairs, I presume she's down there today, she came into this
world with a vile, base, black, sinful heart, just like you.
just like you. And if you take that little baby,
put her aside in the closet, and boy, I'm not going to let
her ever see a bad picture. I'm not going to ever let her hear
anybody cuss. I'm not going to ever, I'll never let any alcohol cross
her lips or any smoke come in her nostrils. I'm going to, I'm
going to keep her away from the pimps, pushers, and prostitutes,
and I'm not going to do anything to her but read the Bible to
her and cause, I'm going to feed tapes to her and make her sit
there and listen to tapes 24 hours a day. And when she's 20
years old, you turn her loose, she's an absolute raving monster.
Because the sin is not our chonder, it's in here. It's in here. It's in here. We're born sinners. This is what the book says. Romans
chapter 3 verse 9. What then are we better than
they? No, in no wise. For we have before
proved both Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin. As it
is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good, no, not one. Chapter 5, verse 12. Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered into the world, And death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for they all have sinned.
Now when we say that men are totally depraved, I do not mean
to suggest, and the Bible doesn't teach by this, that all men are
as evil in their actions as they could be. If that were the case,
we'd be sure enough in a mess. That's not what it teaches. God
will never allow men in this world He will never allow any
man in this world to be as evil indeed as the best man in this
world is in heart. Did you get it? He will never allow Jeffrey Gommers
of this world to act to the full capacity of wickedness that Don
Fortner is. Never happened. Never happened.
Now I see a blank look on some of your faces. But I'm going
to tell you something. If you ever meet up with yourself
face to face, you're going to understand what I'm saying. Man
is utterly corrupt and depraved at heart. That's our nature. From within and out of the heart
of man proceed all evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, blasphemies,
and all such things. Our Lord said so. Read the book
of God with your eyes open. The problem with men, you go
to the emergency room over here tonight, and some fellow's been
in an accident, and he's just barely, barely hanging on to
life, and they pull him out of the car, and they take him to
the emergency room. They roll the men, and everybody
looks like they just gave up. And Doc comes over and examines
him, and he writes out on the piece of paper, you've got to
sign DOA. Dead on arrival. That's your
condition. Spiritually dead on arrival. Dead spiritually. Alive in sin. Alive in wickedness. Alive in
corruption. Alive to do evil. But dead in
sin. Dead spiritually in trespasses
and in sins. Now a dead man Can't do anything
changes condition. Can't do it. He can't see the
Kingdom of God. That's what our Lord told Nicodemus.
You can't see it. You can't see it. You take a
blind man out on this bright, sunshiny day, and open his eyes
just wide as you can and turn him up toward the sun. And talk
to him about all you want to. And you can describe it as clearly
as you're capable of describing it, and hold his eyes wide open
all the time. And you'll get just as frustrated
as he'll be because he can't see it. He can't see it, he's
blind. And here I am talking to folks
who by nature are blind. And it doesn't matter how good
a preacher I am, it doesn't matter how eloquent, how influential,
how well educated, how well studied, how well prepared, I can't make
blind men see. Only God can. Man cannot do anything
pleasing to God. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Can't do it. We impress each other with what
we do, but you can forget trying to impress God. God's just not
impressed with Bobby Estes. He's just not impressed. We're
sinners. Do you understand that? Man by
nature can't even hear the Word of God. Oh, he hears the letter,
but he can't hear what it says. Can't you hear what I'm saying?
You can study it out. Now I understand that. No you
don't. No you don't. But you sit there today and all
of a sudden God speaks to you by his word. You say, oh my God. Now I see it. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't. Man can't receive
the spirit and truth of God. He can't come to God. Can't come
to the Son of God. Our Savior said, no man can come
to me. John 6.44, no man can come to
me except the Father which is sent, and they draw him. No man can even call Christ Lord. That is truly call Christ his
Lord, apart from the Spirit of God. Man cannot believe. Cannot believe without God giving
him grace to believe. Total depravity simply means
you can't be saved by your free will or by your works. It means
that salvation is of the Lord. Because we are sinners, we all
deserve everlasting wrath. We are justly condemned and God
saves us only by his near free grace, not because of anything
we do. Thirdly, this book teaches unconditional
election. God Almighty from old eternity
chose some of Adam's fallen race to salvation and eternal life
in Christ. And his loving choice of some
was an unconditional election of grace. Oh, how I love it. Our Savior says, you have not
chosen me, but I've chosen you, John 15, 16. He speaks to us
by the Apostle Paul and he says, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love. He
says, after describing this reprobate age, some of you sitting out there,
most of you, most of you, myself included. We come from whole households of what we call good people in
a natural sense, good people. People just do anything for you.
Not just you, do anything for folks that don't even like Just
good people, what folks call salt of the earth. But they are living in the delusion and the damnation of false religion. And unless God snatches them,
like He did you, out from that damning snare of hell, They'll
go to hell. And this is what Paul describes
in 2 Thessalonians 2. He said, God has sent a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie, that they might be damned
who receive not the love of the truth. I read that passage and I try
to think, I wonder how those Thessalonians were listening
when they heard that. Paul writes this letter and they're
sitting there, maybe God got their attention as the pastor
started to read the letter. And rather than just going through
the motions of reading the scripture, they started to listen. And they
heard God describe how to sin is a strong delusion, turn anti-Christ
loose on this world. And men and women be damned who
would not believe him, but rather now will believe a lie. And I
can see folks who read things like that in the book, they're,
oh my soul, God, what are you doing? What's going to happen? What's going to happen? What's
going to happen to us? What's going to happen? And then they get to the 13th
verse. But we're bound to give thanks
to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to sanctification
of the spirit through belief of the truth. Chosen you to salvage. And I think I know how they responded. Because this is how I respond
in my heart. Oh, thank God. The only reason Larry Criss ain't
in hell tonight, the only reason, the only reason Don Fortner's
not in hell right now, the only reason, the only reason is God
from the beginning chose him. I'll tell you what it'll take
for you to go to hell. I'll tell you what it'll take for you to
go to hell. is for God to pass you by, just leave you alone,
just leave you alone, just leave you alone, just leave you alone. Oh pass me not, oh gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling, do not
pass me by. I'll hurry to the next thing.
And that is limited atonement. I make no apology for using that
term. In the fullness of time, the Lord Jesus Christ died for
and effectually redeemed God's elect. He redeemed them. He didn't just provide redemption. He didn't just make it possible
for them to be redeemed. He redeemed them. Either He redeemed
them or he can't be trusted at all. Either he redeemed them,
or he is not God. Either he redeemed them, or you're
yet in your sins and there's no hope for your soul. Preacher
can't be that serious. Well, it is too. It is too. You see, folks, they like to
say, well, you don't use the term limited atonement. Everybody
limits the atonement. Everybody does. Let's suppose
there's an Armenian preacher standing here, and he's talking
to you about the atonement. And he tells you Jesus died for
you, and Jesus paid for your sins, and Jesus wants to save
you, and He did it for everybody in the world. But that's not
enough. Does that limit the atonement?
Does that not limit the atonement? That limits its value. That limits
its merit. That limits its efficacy. One
fellow described it this way, between here and glory, There
is a great chasm. And the Arminian, free will,
works religion of our day has a huge bridge going across that
chasm. It's wide enough for everybody. Everybody, whoever has been,
is, or shall be, the Columbus made for everybody. There's only
one problem with it. It only goes halfway across.
And going halfway across, it's useless. It's just useless. All together, useless. It's a
limit in the worst sort of way. That is not the description of
Scripture. When the Scripture describes the atonement, it's
describing how that Jesus Christ, by His shed blood, has satisfied
the wrath and justice of God, and put away the sins of His
people, and He has spanned the gulf separating God and man. And all for whom He died march
steadfastly with confidence across that bridge, Because Jesus Christ's
death is sufficient. He has put away our sins. His
blood was not shed in vain for anyone. The scripture described
his death like this. John chapter 10, I'm the good
shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep and the
goats. You ever read that in the Bible?
It's just not what it says. He said, I give my life for the
sheep. The Lord Jesus was slain, for the transgressions of my
people was he stricken, the Lord said in Isaiah 53.8. He with
his blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12. The issue
is not merely that Christ died, but rather that Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures, and this is how it was done.
He died by his own sovereign will, having satisfied the justice
of God as our substitute, and he shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. Again, salvation is wrought in
God's elect by the irresistible power and grace of God the Holy
Spirit. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. and calls us to approach unto
them. Irresistible grace. What does
that mean? It means God saves sinners, gets
their will? No, no, no, no, no. It means God forces men to be
saved whether they want to or not? Only an idiot talks like
that, or a blasphemer. No, no. What's irresistible grace? It means that God So works in
the hearts of dead sinners who are by nature rebels, that they
willingly throw up the white flag of surrender and say, give
me Christ or else I die. That's irresistible grace. They
call on Him because they've got to have Him. They seek Him because
they must have Him. They believe Him because they
must have Him. And every sinner seeks Him. who believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ shall persevere in faith. Because all who are born of God,
all who are redeemed by God's Son, all who are chosen by God's
election shall be preserved in grace by the power and grace
of God. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Coming home this morning, you
can imagine how wide awake I got. I listened to this tape. This
fellow, he said, free will got you saved. Free will keeps you
saved. And free will gets you unsaved.
Now, I want to tell you the truth. He is exactly truthful with his
reason. He's a liar, he's a deceiver,
he's a prophet of hell, but he's exactly truthful with his reason. If free will gets you in, free
will's got to keep you in, and free will can get you out. That's
right. I wouldn't believe in the security
of the believer if I thought salvation depended on you. My
soul, I wouldn't believe in the security of that guy. I said,
what does it mean if I thought it depended on you or me? No! Man's fickle as water! Why man
can't save himself, keep himself, or keep himself from being lost
again! Well, how on earth can we tell? By the power of God! This is
what our Lord says, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never So here I am. Here I am. What's it been? 28 years ago, just about now. Just about now. I was living like some of you
with my fist in God's face. And I wouldn't have it. I wouldn't have it. Well, I tried
to make some bargains. I tried to ease my conscience
with one thing or another. First I tried to quit being so
mean, quit going out and carousing, quit fighting so much, quit cussing
so much, quit this, quit that. That didn't work. I tried to
talk myself into talking about, you know, Trying to believe in
seeking the Lord. I want to do right. I want to
do right. But I was leaving my fist in God's face. And that's
what unbelief is. There's not any excuse for it.
You can make all the excuses you want to. There's not any
excuse for it. Unbelief is a man setting his
fist in God's face and saying you're not telling the truth.
You're a liar. You can't be trusted. And I did it as long as I could
until one day God the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and let me see
Him whose blood atoned for all my
sins and caused me to see something
of my sins. And buddy, what I saw here made
all the things that I had been looking at out here look almost
like righteousness. Because my deeds were nothing
to compare what I am. And He drew me to Christ. And Him drawing me to Christ.
I believe it. And my sins haven't gotten any
better. 28 years later, this heart is more base, vile,
and evil than it's ever been. But here I am, kept by the power of His grace. robed in His righteousness, washed
in His blood, preserved forever by His grace. One last thing. All who are in Christ are free. Free, thank God, free from the
law in Christ our Lord. So that in Christ We're dead
to the law. Romans 6, Romans 7, Romans 8,
Romans 10. Dead to the law. Christ is the
end of the law. You're not under the law, but
under grace. What does that mean? That means that we're no longer
condemned by the law's righteous demands. That means that we're
no longer under the legal service of the yoke of the law. We don't
live by the rule of the law. Lost religionists have to have
laws. Lost religionists have to have regulations. rules and
regulations. If I join the church, I'll do
this, I'll do that, I won't do this, I won't do that. Lost religion
has got to be governed by that stuff. How would you lay this? Of course, I know this is a political