All right, if you have your outline
you'll notice at the top I make the bold statement for by grace
only are you saved through faith for by grace only are you saved
through faith and that proposition I am sharing with you as a bridge
between what we have studied now for several weeks in the
book of second Thessalonians around the man of sin the son
of perdition and all of those ominous things that would occur.
We closed out last week addressing this process by which the Antichrist
system would permeate the world, particularly prophetically speaking,
as we move towards the end time. And we spoke about the delusion
that would befall men and women who would hear the gospel and
reject the gospel the most ominous language one could hear with
their ears is given to us in verse 11 and 12 and for this
cause God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe
a lie in the original language there's a definite article that
they should believe the lie and when you see the term cause cause
and for this cause in verse 11 what it predicates are what it
serves to underscore is that God is acting in relationship
to other actions. He's responding to something
that has taken place. And he's explaining to the church
of the living God, the reason why there will be an apostasy,
a departure from biblical truth, a worldwide disregard and antipathy
towards objective truth. a universal consent on the part
of the world to reject the Bible's teaching concerning God, concerning
creation, concerning man, concerning his nature, concerning the fall,
concerning the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ. And as we are
beginning to explain and explore in the Parable of Lazarus and
the rich man certainly our present world does not believe in the
doctrine of hell Nor eternal judgment and with them having
thrown off that yoke of the biblical truth We call it a biblical worldview
of God creation man his fall his need God's answer to man's
need which is Christ the consequences of receiving him is eternal life
and The consequences of rejecting him is eternal damnation. That
is the simple truth of the message of the gospel that has been going
into all the world, essentially from the beginning of time, but
much more prodigiously after the resurrection of Christ and
the giving of the Spirit of God, which birthed the church that
has been called to be its authentic witness to the world. Many women
have been confronted with biblical truth. But what the Bible says
is as we move towards the end of time, there will be such a
prevailing departure from biblical truth that not only will men
shun the truth, but there will be collective bodies of people
whose whole lives will be devoted to opposing biblical truth. So if I were to just make a graph
of the two categories of people in the world as we are moving
towards the end time, one category of people You can tell how straight
I draw, don't you? One category of people on this
side would be Satan's camp. And on the other side would be
Christ's camp. And those are the two essential
categories according to the Bible. In Satan's camp, there would
be a man-centered, man-centered worldview. That man is on the
throne. that he runs this world, whether
that's a system or whether that's an institution or whether that's
a political religio monopoly, the underpinning world philosophy
is man centered, man centered. It will be both political, as
we already saw, and it will also be religious, as we have also
concluded. But it will affect The whole
world, the whole world will be under a delusion. That's what the text is telling
us, a delusion. Now, on the other side, we have
Christ. Who has also manifested himself
in the body of Christ called the church. That's the vehicle
that's in the world bringing the witness or testimony of the
truth. That truth is about Christ and
man's need of Christ. The two instruments by which
we do that is the spirit of God. and the word of God. That's what
we're going to see. So you have Christ opposing Satan's
influence on this world. His influence is rooted in a
man-centered theology. God, man is ultimately on the
throne, but it manifests itself in politics and religion. And
the whole world is influenced by this. Revelation chapter 13
and 14. Christ speaks to the world today through the church.
The church is his witness. And we witness to the truth concerning
Christ, man's need of Christ, Christ's rule over the universe.
And we use two means, the spirit of God and the word of God. The
church will be faithful. The church will be faithful,
but the church will also suffer. The church will be faithful,
but the church will also suffer. So those are your two juxtapositions. A world that unanimously agrees
upon either tacitly or explicitly certain notions that are almost
an a priori assumption of nature. For instance, I'll just share
with you a few assumptions just in case you're new and you don't,
you know, you don't frequent the word of God or the scriptures.
The world as a whole basically believes that man is good. That's part of a humanistic construct. You don't meet many people who
say that mankind is basically evil. You meet most people who
embrace the ideology of, you know, most people in the world
are good. even though that particular assumption flies in the face
of all the evidence. If man is basically good, then
why do we lock our cars and put bars on our windows and live
away from the more aggressive areas of our world? Why do we
have Rottweilers and pit bulls and bull mastiffs and then Smith
and Wessons if men are basically good? Why do our sisters carry
all kinds of little armory to protect themselves? Why are we
prevailed upon by so much intelligence technology if man was basically
good? Why do we have cameras all over
the world now if man is basically good? See, we know that he is
not basically good. We know that man is basically
evil and inclined to hurting his fellow man. And that's a
problem. With the world, however, because
they are under such strong delusion, that's what the text says. Listen
to it again in verse 11. And for this cause, God shall
send them strong delusion. You see that term strong delusion?
Well, I've talked about that before. It's called a working
or energy of error. God shall give them over to a
working or energy. That's our Greek term in our
ghetto from which we get the term energy. A vigorous application
of error, a vigorous application of departure from truth and a
strong delusion is the efforts that result in every form of
opposition to the truth and its manifestation in all of the different
various cultures and various disciplines of life and various
venues of life by which we continue to perpetuate to ourselves That
the God that we know as a society is not the God of the Bible right
this Sunday. I'm going to be Preaching to
you in the heart of the doctrine of hell so it's going to be a
very difficult message and But the doctrine of hell is an abhorrent
concept to human beings because hell presupposes a punishment
for people who deserve it. Hell presupposes a punishment
for people who deserve it. Just the notion of hell disregard
right now all of the analogies and metaphors of which hell provokes
in us, but just the notion of a hell presupposes a punishment
and therefore a justice on the part of some persons. And if
we tolerate that possibility, our plausibility, then we ask
the question, who deserves to go to hell? See, and once you
start following that syllogism, there's a hell, that hell must
be based upon some type of indictment or judgment. That judgment must
assume that somebody is guilty for which they deserve hell.
And if somebody is guilty for which they deserve hell, who
is it that deserves hell? And then you are finding yourself
running from the possibility of that indictment falling on
you. And so your life now is bent
on seeking an escape from that indictment, either by removing
the whole notion of hell which is an easy way to do it if you
can get the majority to consent with you, there is no hell. Kind of like the devil said when
he said to Eve, you shall not surely die. It was just that
simple. To change the course of humanity
by one proposition, you shall not surely die, right? Now watch
this. Because the earth didn't open
up and swallow the devil, Eve or Adam at that particular erroneous
proposition, the notion for human beings whose hearts are hard
is we can actually throw out God-hating propositions, unbiblical
notions, and because God doesn't act, then maybe that notion has
some validity to it. Maybe there is not a hell. I
mean, after all, no one's been able to prove it, right? Well,
that's the interesting intrigue about Luke 16's exposition on
the part of Christ, how he deals with a man in hell and what that
man would do to get back to the world, to tell the world there
is a hell. Only Jesus rejects that proposition. No one's coming back. Everyone
has to deal with the information that's here. The information
that's here is the word of God, the spirit of God, the church
of God, the testimony of Christ 2000 years ago. That's the only
information we have. So what makes our text so important
is this. when it says, and for this cause,
God shall send them a strong delusion that they should believe
a lie. That act on God's part is not
arbitrary. It's the consequence of people
rejecting God. Whenever God gives people over
to reprobation or judgment or punishment, it's after God has
given several testimonies to them of the right way. Many women
suffer the judgment of God, temporal judgments, physical judgments,
psychological judgments, eternal judgments, spiritual judgments,
as a consequence of rejecting truth. Hell will be filled with
people who want to go there. You got that? Hell will be filled
with people who want to go there. We'll prove that as we develop
the text. This is the ominous thing about the Luke 16 account.
Our Savior is ultimately asserting that people go to hell because
they want to. They choose hell over glory through
the cross by faith. They choose the other. And so
in order to assist them, God gives them over to a strong delusion
that they should believe a lie. And the demon worlds engage in
assisting that proposition. There's no hell. There's no eternal
punishment. There's only oblivion or nirvana
or annihilation, or there's only heaven. Isn't that a prevailing
notion that everybody goes to heaven? Have you ever, I'm doing
a memorial tomorrow. Have you ever been to a funeral
where the preacher said, this man is in hell? I have to tell you the truth,
ladies and gentlemen, I knew him and ain't no way he's in
heaven. The thought is humorous because
it's virtually impossible and unheard of because when we get
right up to the shores of Jordan, that's when we labor even more
intensively to deceive ourselves. One of my points in our outline
for Sunday is the greatest deception in the world is at a funeral
service. We love to lie about people's
state and condition at the funeral service. Anyhow, It's interesting
because he says in verse 11 and 12, as we prepare for verse 13,
that God is the one giving this strong delusion that people would
believe a lie. The word is error, error, error,
and error is departure from the truth. According to 1 John 4,
verses 4 through 6, there are only two spirits in the world,
the spirit of truth and the spirit of what? An error is always missing
the mark. It's always missing the mark.
When you meet people who are in error, you are meeting people
who do not have access to the truth. They may be grasping at
things and they may be having notions and ideas, but they never
land on the truth. And when you say, wait a minute,
it's right here. You know, the spirit of error is working because
they say no, or I can't believe that. That doesn't make sense
to me. They're driven by error. Because
as we're about to see, to be anyone who has been privileged
to know the truth is a function of God's grace and only God's
grace. And so we read in verse 12, he
gives them over to a lie in order that they might be damned. Who
believed not the what? There it is. See, God doesn't
arbitrarily punish anybody. Punishment is always based upon
his justice. He says that he might that they
might be damned to believe not in the truth. That's this whole
category of people here, the whole world, under the delusion
because they rejected the truth that came from the witness of
the faithful church, that they all might be damned to believe
not the truth, but had pleasure in what? Unrighteousness. And
so here is the two sides of the equation. They rejected true,
but they embraced unlawful or ungodly pleasure. And isn't that
our world? Isn't that a depiction of our
present world? It loves self-gratification. It loves the unlawful pleasures
of sin. It lauds it. It flaunts it. It boasts in it. It prospers
in it. And it rejects the truth. And
in some places, it rejects the truth in the most mocking way. That's God having given them
over to the strong delusion. Look at verse 13. This is where
I want us to start now. but do you see that little word
but that's the only reason you and I are saying that's right
but but and I want to start here and run through a glorious concept
which some of you know and some of you don't know and that is
what we call the doctrine of election and we're going to now
explore seven aspects of the doctrine of election for tonight
to help us understand why it is that some people believe the
gospel and why it is that others don't believe the gospel. You'll
notice what Paul says after having used that language concerning
the deception and reprobation of the whole world, political
and religio societies, finding a religion. When I say religio,
it's a religion that basically is able to accommodate a humanistic
ideology to the absence of biblical truth. And so when we talk about
a world religion or a world of religions, we are talking about
ecumenism, right? We are talking about syncretism,
right? And we are talking about a wholesale
effort on the part of your ecumenical syncretistic society. That is
the hodgepodge of religious folk who gather together in the name
of love and unity under what we call a sort of neo-gnostic
or new age philosophy. neo-gnostic or new age you guys
know what new age is if you if you at least been around long
as I have you know what the new age movement is my parents and
many of you who were of my parents age budding as young teenagers
and young adults in the 40s and 50s and 60s you know how the
new age movement just began to thrive during those 60s and it
just permeated the world and it came into the church too.
And it's this idea of just love, love, love. Remember that? Remember
how love was just a big commodity in the fifties and the sixties?
Love, love, love. And all it meant was sex, sex,
sex and irresponsibility. And a whole bunch of children
were born out of wetlock and irresponsibility was ranked.
And the consequences of that was a baby boomer generation
of misfits and broken families. And this Gen X generation that
you and I are in is even worse because even though there is
a semblance of order in this, what we call a postmodern age,
their thinking is so corrupted that they don't know how to actually
think right. And there is absolutely nothing
for them in terms of a moral compass with parameters and boundaries
and distinctions of right and wrong, sacred and holy and unholy
and clean and filthy. There are no parameters there
because those things were extracted out of their mind by their parents
and by the generation under them, which is part of this delusion
so that if we're going to save the next generation, God's gonna
have to really act in a radical way To overcome that delusion,
it would have to be radical. Because people are only recovered
from those delusions by the transformation of their mind. And that is what
we call regeneration. We get ready to talk about that
right now. Some people are delivered out of those kinds of pits. I
was. And if you know Christ, you were
too. And it's so fundamentally important to understand that
when we are saved, we are not simply made religious. I don't
know why people would want to equate being saved with going
to church. Or learning how to sing certain
songs or getting moved by the spirit of God to do something
that's more exhibitional than is transformational and internal. When a person is saved, they
are rescued. out of one sphere and rim that's
destructive to not only their mortal being but their eternal
soul and brought into another rim of absolute deliverance comprehensively. It is both instantaneous and
progressive. When a person is saved, they
enter into a process and course of salvation that results in
them being totally saved. When a person is really saved.
You can see the journey because it's a journey away from where
they were Delivered and this is where the buck comes in it.
I'm gonna I want you to follow me through your outline We've
got a good 45 minutes. I'm gonna try to stop at 930
and And open the floor the mic for questions We've got a good
45 minutes. I'm gonna go through these seven
points. I want to read verses 12 and And 12 through 14, and
we're gonna come back and open up the doctrine of election and
help you understand the reason why some of you had your eyes
open and your hearts changed and your lives rearranged at
some point in time in the recent past. Verse 12, verse 13, I'm
sorry. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, where unto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's where we'll stop. But
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you. Why? Because
you didn't believe the lie. Why? Because you didn't reject
the love of the truth. Why? Because you didn't remain
in the pleasure of unrighteousness. Why? Because you weren't overtaken
by a strong delusion that you should believe the lie. We rejoice,
we rejoice and our rejoicing, this is an interesting term,
is a obligation that we have. Paul says in verse 13 that he
is, what's the first word? Bound. Do you see that? Bound. He says, I am bound, bound to
give thanks always to God for you. As he reflected on the Thessalonians
and he understood where they were before they were saved and
he understood what it was that saved them, it produced in him
a joy. But that joy was rooted in not
just sort of a whimsical sort of emotional outburst or sort
of haphazard type of feeling. He didn't wax nostalgic. It wasn't sort of a nostalgic
feeling. You know, when I think about
you Thessalonians, I just get a good fuzzy feeling. No, that
wasn't what it, the word bound there is a term means to be obligated. I am obligated. Another way the
word is translated is I'm indebted. And I want us to be able to work
through that. Another way it's translated is I ought, this here
then is used in an adjectival form. I ought to give thanks
to God. I'm indebted, I'm obligated to
give thanks to God. Some of these synonyms are in
your outline as well. Bound to give thanks to God,
I'm obligated, it's my due. It's my due. In fact, that same
word is translated duty. I am duty bound to give thanks
to God. Now, why does Paul feel that
way? Now, I want us to work through that for just a brief moment
before we go into development of the doctrine of election.
Paul says to the Thessalonians, I am duty bound. I am indebted.
There is a sense of oughtness in me. I must give God thanks
for you. when I think about where you
came from and where you are. See, that's a person whose mind
has been sanctified by the truth. and being sanctified by the truth,
there are certain things that he calls to mind in relationship
to what is prerequisite to the salvation of a sinner. Right
now at grace, we are working through, and this is gonna be
a good six month period before this stuff even comes home and
maybe even longer before it metabolizes the necessity of understanding
the importance of being a witness and evangelizing with the truth
of the gospel in the right way, under the right motive. But Paul
here, is thinking through a pagan people who were lost in absolute
abysmal darkness. If you remember the account,
they were just as blind and pagan as anybody. And they had the
gospel preached to them and God changed their life. Now, that
wouldn't be so astonishing if everywhere Paul went, every time
he opened his mouth, everyone that heard him believed the gospel.
But it's astonishing when you come to understand this, ladies
and gentlemen, not everyone believes the gospel. Not everyone receives
the truth of the gospel of the glory of God in Christ. And in
fact, the vast majority don't. When you start telling the truth
about what salvation really is, you are remarkably surprised
at how many more reject it than those who receive it. So that
when you actually meet a person who has been so broken by God,
before God, so that they bow to the word of God, you know
that that was such a word of grace. You ought to, you must,
you are indebted to thank God. You are indebted to thank God.
You are obligated to thank God. You are duty bound to thank God.
And that's the way that Paul is using it. It can be found
in several places. And the reason why is this is
very important for, you know, here's a here's a fundamental
principle that we are bound by. Salvation. Is of the Lord. God is the one who saves. You guys got that? God does the
saving. Now that's what we're getting
ready to see. He's bound to glorify God. He's obligated, indebted. He's under a must. He's under
a duty boundness to glorify God. And in your first point under
bound, here's the statement I make. Salvation cannot be properly
understood until we realize that God is the first cause of everything. Hostility to this means we are
still lost. Hostility to this truth means
we are still unsaved. When we talk about salvation,
what we are talking about is the act of God penetrating the
heart and the mind and changing the person's whole internal constitution
spiritually that they are now made compatible to receive truth. For us, according to the Bible,
salvation is a brand new work of regeneration, of being raised
from the dead, of being quickened, of being born again, born from
above, born a second time, made a new creature by God. That's what salvation is. It's
not merely some cooperative act between God and men on some superficial
level where they can sit to a few Bible verses. To be saved is
a work of God. Here's what Paul said, we are
bound to thank God always for you, brother and beloved of the
Lord, because watch this, God had from the beginning, what? Chosen you. God, you can say
this if you know you're saved, chose, what's the word? Me. God chose me. Why am I saved? God chose me. That's the only reason I'm saved.
I didn't choose God. I didn't call God. God chose
me. God called me. If it wasn't for
God calling me, I would have never called him. If he hadn't
chosen me, I would have never chose him. I was never and still
I'm not smart enough to choose God or to believe his word or
to embrace his truth. Something radical happened in
my life when I came to agree with God. There was such a change
in my soul that I found myself ready to forsake the world for
God. That was something that God had
to do. That was something that God had to do. So as we think
about salvation, we always say that God is the first cause.
Salvation is of the Lord because salvation starts outside of yourself. In other words, the determination
to save a person does not begin with the person. It begins with
God. The determination to save a person does not begin with
the person. It begins with God. That's why
I'm point number two, the determination. Who saved me? God saved me. Who
chose me? God chose me. So I want to go
to three verses just to affirm this. Ephesians chapter one.
I want you to see it in Ephesians. We're going to go to three or
four verses so that you might know that when you meet a person
who becomes saved, you are meeting a person whom God has chosen
unto salvation. Ephesians chapter one, one of
these, one of the most arguably Hateful books in all of the New
Testament because it's so explicit on this very point of what you
and I are talking I'm gonna read verses 1 through 4 and you'll
note it in verse 3 and 4 Paul an apostle Jesus Christ by the
will of God to the Saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus Grace be to you and peace from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ now watch this blessed be see
what he's doing He's eulogizing God. That's what the word blessed
means Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus verse 4 according as he hath chosen
who us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before him in love see verse 4 watch
this verse 4 has two bookends and The first bookend is the
fact that he chose us and the last of the bookends is in love. He chose us in love. Can you
see that? According as he what? Chose us,
that's the first act. And here's the motive, in love,
before him in love. He did it when? Before the foundation
of the world. How did he do it? By placing
us in Christ. According as he chose us where?
In him. Who is the him? Christ, the antecedent
is Christ, before the foundation of the world. Why? In order that
we should be what? Holy and without blame. Where? Before him. How? In love. The act of choosing a sinner
is an act of love on God's part to have him in his presence,
never ever to be threatened with banishment again. And the way
God accomplishes that is to place the sinner in Christ Christ being
for the sinner, all he needs to stand before God, all he needs
to be made right with God and he is made right with God because
God loves him. When God chooses you, it's because
he loves you. Do you guys get that? When God
chooses you, it's because he loves you and he wants you in
his presence. Election therefore is the basis
for the salvation experience Never forget that Election is
the basis for the salvation experience It is before the actual experience,
but it is the cause for which the experience takes place. You
guys got that? God chooses us as 2 Thessalonians
2 13 said unto what salvation. That means when God before the
world began determined to have a people for himself, he chose
certain persons that they might be in his presence before him
in love for all eternity. That was a determination on God's
part, but it still had to work itself out where in time. This is why I say to you gotta
be careful about loose language. When you use the term election,
you are not using the word election the same as the word regeneration
or the same as conversion. A person is elect in the determinate
purpose and foreknowledge of God. That election will necessarily
result in a conversion, which will be the work of the preaching
of the gospel, as we will see. But a person may very well be
just as lost and just as dead and just as blind and just as
rebellious as any person until the time of his conversion takes
place. having been already elected of
God. You guys understand that? So it's important for us not
to make election and regeneration or conversion synonyms. Otherwise,
as some of my brothers have made the mistake of saying, well,
he's not one of God's elect because he's not born again. That's a
flawed notion of what you must never, ever allow to utter out
of your mouth. It would mean that you aren't
thinking things through. You weren't born again at some
point. God didn't choose you at the
time he made you born again. He chose you before he made you
born again in order that you might be born again. You were
just like that person who's not born again. Just as silly and
foolish and wicked and vile and backwards as they were. And somebody
else might have said to you, ah, she can't be, he can't be
one of God's elect. Right? And then one day in God's
love, he called you by his grace and changed your life. And all
of a sudden we came to find out indeed she was one of God's elect. So it's important for you to
not think that you have the prerogative of a right to determine who's
elect and who's not. We can determine who's saved
and who's not by the fruits of salvation. but we can't determine
who's elect and who's not. The determination is on God's
part. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 and then 5 says, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. Chapter 1 of Ephesians unpacks
so many important things around that. Go with me in your Bible
to 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 3 and 4. I want us to revisit this
doctrine tonight because it's important for us to understand
why Paul is bound to give God thanks and why we should be bound
to give God thanks whenever we meet someone who is saved. 1
Thessalonians 1, I'm going to read verse 2 and 3, and here
it is. two, three, and four. And here it is, Paul explaining
this subject of God having determined to save us. 1 Thessalonians 1,
verse two. We give thanks to God always
for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering
without ceasing your work of what? Labor of what? And patience
of what? In our Lord Jesus Christ, in
the sight of God our Father. Verse four, watch this. Knowing,
beloved, your election of God. Do you see that? Now watch this.
Paul says, we know that you are elect because of the accompanying
fruits that come with election, namely verse three. Whenever
a person manifests his election, these things are going to be
there. A work of faith, a labor of love. and a patience of hope
in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
In other words, if an individual tells you they are elect, but
don't demonstrate the fruits of conversion, you have no reason
to believe they are elect. You have no grounds to deny that
they are, but you have no reason also to believe that they are.
Am I making some sense? Well, until you show me the marks
of election, I can't reasonably believe that you are elect. You might be, but you might not
be because you have yet to demonstrate the marks of election. Are you
guys understanding what I'm getting at? So while while an individual
is not yet experiencing or manifesting the fruits of conversion, He
may, she may, they may be elect, but until they prove it, we have
no grounds to affirm or deny the possibility that they might
be elect. John chapter 15, go with me in
your Bible to John chapter 15. I want you to see a few verses
around this. John 15, I'm gonna have to explain John 15 at the
bottom of our outline tonight, but I still want you to see it
here. The word election and the word, uh, chosen are actually
the same Greek word. So wherever you see the word,
especially in the new Testament, it's true in the old Testament
too. The word election and the word chosen are the same Greek
terms. Uh, it's just a smoother use
of the word when the option is given for chosen or election.
Jesus says in John chapter 15 verse 16 to the disciples, this
is a wonderful, loving admonition and rebuke to the disciples who
are about to take over the ministry of Christ. And Christ has left
them with some instructions and a vivid picture of Him being
the true vine, our Heavenly Father being the husbandman, and every
believer in Christ, or every professing believer in Christ,
this true vine is called upon to bear fruit. This is how the
Father is glorified. And if you don't bear fruit,
it means that you were not truly one of His. The privilege that
these disciples had required Christ to admonish them as he
said over in verse 16. Here it is. Watch this. You have
not chosen me. You see it. But I have chosen
you and ordained you that you should go forth, that you should
go forth, that you should bring forth fruit and that your fruit
should remain. that whatsoever you shall ask
of the father in my name, he may give it to you. Do you see
that? Now, this is one of the verses we use to underscore the
doctrine of election. But when I get down through my
last point, I'm going to go through what I call election in terms
of their classification. But what our master had to do
with these 11 men that he knew were as human as you and I are
was to help them to understand when you get into The river flow
of the work of the spirit of god and god uses each one of
you as wells of salvation For which not only hundreds but thousands
and thousands upon thousands of people will actually be converted
and brought into the kingdom of god I don't want you to lose
your mind and think that this thing started with you I don't
I don't want you to flip out and start acting as if you can
cap the spirit of God in a bottle or set it up in a formula and
sell it as the bishop and apostle of the gospel. You know how some
religions do. They find themselves having influence
in the lives of people. And now all of a sudden they
want to make themselves the first cause. This is the danger of
religion. Religion loves to establish formulas
by which people get saved and then take the credit for it.
And what God is saying to the disciples, don't you lose your
mind and tell people that they need to look to you for salvation. You guys are just dumb enough
for me to give you a simple instruction, and that's to stick your hand
out and say, look to Christ. That's about all you need to
do. Just tell the world to look to Christ and you'll be saved.
But once people start looking to you, you're gonna change the
gospel. I want you guys to know, you didn't call me, I called
you, and you guys know this historically. Peter, James and John, fishing.
Matthew the tax collector Levi did all these different cats
doing their business right just like you and I and Christ came
along and said follow me and They dropped their nets and dropped
their business and left their vocations and they follow Christ
We're going to talk about that here in a moment But see the
historical account affirms by Jesus that the disciples could
never teach a doctrine of salvation beginning with man It always
begins with God God chooses us, we don't choose ourselves. Go
with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 13. Interesting account
as the apostles are preaching the gospel and the gospel is
being rejected perpetually and unduly by the Jewish nation.
The apostle Paul and Barnabas are preaching and all of a sudden
the Gentiles get with an earshot of the preaching Verse 42 of
Acts chapter 8, watch this. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought them, begged them, implored
them that these works might be preached to them the next Sabbath
day. What words? The gospel. Forgiveness of sins
through Jesus Christ. Justification by faith apart
from the works of the law. Verse 43, now when the congregation
was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas who speaking to them persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God. And on the next day, they came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Now,
I've said it before. I'll say it again. Wouldn't it
be absolutely amazing if the whole city came to hear the gospel? You know, there was such an effusion
of the spirit in the ministry of the apostles that whole cities
came to hear the message. That's a revival. Listen to verse 44, verse 45.
But when the Jews saw the multitude, they were what? Filled with envy
and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it far from
yourselves, Seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves,
here it is, unworthy of everlasting life. Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Now watch this, watch this. What
just happened is precisely what Paul said in second Thessalonians
chapter two, where there was a category of people who heard
the gospel, but rejected it. Paul said, you have now just
made yourselves worthy or unworthy rather of eternal life. Because
you rejected the gospel we must turn away from you to the Gentiles
Now watch this Verse 47 for so hath the Lord commanded us saying
I have set you to be a light of the Gentiles that you should
be for salvation Unto the ends of the earth and when the Gentiles
what heard this they were glad They were glad see the whole
city had gathered together Jews and Gentiles Every kind of people
were there and the Apostles preached the same message the religious
legalist Rejected it because that's what the Jews were religious
legalist who were comfortable with thinking they could get
right with God by what they did by their Judaism by their circumcision
by their good works by their legalism and And the message
of the gospel is not by works of righteousness, which we have
done, but by his mercy hath he saved us. Salvation is by grace
through faith, and that not of yourselves is a gift of God.
It demolishes works religion. And the Jews hated the fact that
they would have to bow down to the crown rights of Christ and
cast aside all of their legal works religion in order to be
saved. The gospel does not please everybody,
ladies and gentlemen. When you meet a person who actually
thinks they have some kind of self-worth before God and you
tell them that they are nothing but a hell-bound sinner, they
are not going to like that message until God makes them nothing
but a hell-bound sinner. And then the gospel will become
sweet and reasonable, yay, necessary for them. These Gentiles were
happy. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad. Watch this. And glorified the
word of the Lord. Watch this. How? And as many
as were what? Ordained to eternal life. What? Believed. Why did they
believe? Because they were ordained. Do
you see that? Why did they believe? Because
they were ordained. They were ordained to eternal
life. They were ordained because they were chosen of God. It's
the only reason at some point in time, while the gospel made
you mad one day, it makes you glad another day. It's because
God had chose you in Christ. And one day he opened your eyes
to the beauty and the glory of the Savior. And all of a sudden,
the gospel was indeed for you good news. God chose you in your
outline. Point number two, he chose you.
The gospel is the work of God. Do you believe that? Go with
me in your Bible to John chapter six. Verse 29, a simple verse,
but I want some of you to see it just in case you don't know
this, because we have in religion today categories of people that
are operating in different frameworks, constantly seeking to chip away
at what we call the absolute sovereignty of God. We have categories
of religious people within the framework of what is called Christendom.
who are willing to devote their whole ministry to one area of
biblical truth in order to oppose God of His glory in that area.
When we say that salvation is of the Lord, we are saying that
from the beginning to the end, God is in control of the whole
of our salvation, that He gets the glory for it, that He gets
the glory by it. And there are those who would
argue, no, God is not in full control for a while. He may drew
up the plan or purpose the plan or determine the plan. Still,
unless you do something, God can't. Now, see, whenever you
hear people say can't and God in the same verse, we're talking
to different gods. Did you guys get that? The only
thing God can't do is lie. Change fail. Did you hear me? The only thing God can't do is
lie. change or fail. It's impossible for him to do
that. And so when they say he can't, he can't unless you let
him. Now we know that they have turned the tables upside down.
What they have presented to you now is a gospel where man is
in control of his salvation and God is at the behest of what
man does. Those who hold to such a gospel
vociferously have never ever experienced the change of their
heart, for they are still under the delusion that salvation begins
with their choice instead of God's choice. Do you guys get
that? See, it's kind of like this.
It's kind of like the analogy of being born again. That's why
I love the Lord's metaphors, because they're the only way
we can even begin to understand the mystery of things like salvation.
Now, it would be fairly ludicrous, wouldn't you think, that a child,
having been born, conceived in the womb, go through the whole
ingestion process, mature, develop, come out, and is just oblivious
to mama and daddy, in terms of a real cognitive awareness and
the ability to articulate, this is mom and daddy, until, you
know, six months, seven months, eight months down the line. Or
he gets one or two years old and they're able to talk. And
then he says, ah, you're my mama and my daddy. As if at the moment
he discovered that that's his mama and his daddy, that then
they become his mom and his daddy. When they were his mama and his
daddy, way before he had a comprehension of it. And so it is with salvation. By the time you understand it,
you have already been saved in order that God might get the
glory. Are you guys hearing me? You
didn't start your salvation. Salvation didn't start with you.
And if you chose God, it's because he gave you grace to choose.
And we'll see that, too. And so it's important for us to understand
that. No, no, no. Salvation didn't start with my choice. It started
with God's choice. Listen to what John chapter six,
verse twenty nine says. Are you there? I'm going to start
at verse 27. Jesus is talking about physical
food. He says labor not for the meat which perishes, but for
that meat which endures unto eternal life, which the Son of
Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do? Watch this, that we might work
the works of God. That's a good question. What
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Look at verse
29. Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God. that you believe on him whom
he hath sinned. You got that? When a man or a
woman believes on God, it's because God did it. It's his work. Planting faith in your life is
God's work. You guys got that? It's God's
work. It's God's work and that's crucial
because believing or receiving Jesus or as religion uses it
today accepting Jesus Which is a very flawed translation out
of the original language. The real word should be received
him John chapter 112 go there. The real word should be received
him when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ We receive him as
a gift When you accept something The attitude is you are on the
superior ground of determining whether or not that thing is
worth you even embracing. Doesn't that stink? Let me say
it again. When you accept something, you
are on the superior ground of determining whether the thing
that is about to be given to you is worth you even receiving
or not. Well, I've accepted the Lord
Jesus. Well, I remember accepting the
Lord Jesus. Doesn't that make you feel like
you something? I've accepted the Lord Jesus. When the fact
of the matter is, if you're saved, you received him. Are you hearing
me? You received him. And the people
that reject him, reject him because they never received him. You
received the spirit of God at conversion, didn't you? Well,
you didn't make the Spirit of God come into your life. You
didn't negotiate with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God entered
into your life. You received eternal life as
a gift from Christ, right? Well, you didn't accept eternal
life. Eternal life was given to you.
It was all a gift. It's a gift. And so it's so very
important to watch the way we use terminology. I received the
Lord, but I didn't accept him. He accepted me. But I didn't
accept him. See, I need to get the tables
right, don't I? See, these are the subtle, surreptitious, humanistic
terms that are often used to kind of lure the value of the
gift and make the one receiving the gift the object of focus.
And that's not right, according to the scriptures. Listen to
first John chapter one, verse 11 and 12. Are you there? He
came unto his own and his own what? Received him not. That's
what you and I all do by nature. Watch this. But as many as what? Not accepted, received. To them
gave he power or authority to become sons of God. Now watch
this. Even to them that what? Believe on his name. Now that's
what it means to receive Christ. To receive Christ is to believe
on his name. And to believe on his name is
to have the gospel preached so clear and full that you understand
what the name means. Watch this. Which were born not
of what? Blood. Nor of the will of the
what? Nor of the will of what? But
of God. But of God. So a man doesn't
believe out of his own human willfulness. He doesn't receive
Christ because he's a blood descendant of Abraham. He doesn't believe
the gospel because somebody was intellectually sharp enough to
inculcate in his mind all of the theological truths necessary
for him to draw a right conclusion. The reason you believe Christ
and receive Christ is because you're born again. When you are
born again, you are made a believer. It just comes with the territory.
When you are truly born again, you are made a believer. When my mother and my father
had me, I was a Gistan at conception. I wasn't one because I accepted
the name. I was born into the family. Am
I making some sense? I'm not making some sense and
to be born into the you know, I just decided I'm gonna be born
into the family of God today I'm just I'm gonna stop all my
sinning and my my hell-raising and I'm gonna just go now and
enter into the kingdom of God I'm gonna be saved. I'm gonna
be born again. I'm gonna receive and accept Jesus What a ludicrous
notion What a ludicrous notion. And yet this is inherent in much
of the theology that's man-centered and targeting people to do something
for their salvation rather than asking God to work. Do you know
when God targets a person for salvation, it's impossible for
them but to be saved? Do you understand that? Do you
know God knows how to hunt a sinner down from the farthest parts
of hell? Do you know the handcuffs of
grace can get a sinner anywhere, even in the depths of hell? toe
him out of darkness and bring him into his marvelous light,
resuscitate him by the spirit of God and raise him from the
dead and make him his own son and God get all the glory for
it. And that sinner will tell the truth. I was fighting and
kicking and arguing against it all the way through until God
changed my heart, right? And we, that's what we call the
power of the gospel. This other stuff is not the power of the
gospel. It doesn't give God glory. It doesn't underscore the power
that's necessary to save a person. It makes God sort of a beggar
at the door of the center, wanting to sell him a vacuum cleaner
called salvation. And if the center decides, then
God gets to now be his savior. That's sort of blasphemous if
you think it through, right? Hideous, huh? That's where we
are. Now watch this. Election, as
I said before, is not salvation, but it's unto salvation. In your
outline, the next point is the objective of election. Do you
see it? Go back to your text, the objective of election. The
objective of election is in order that you and I might be saved
is for this reason, Saint, that Paul is rejoicing because when
he thinks through the defection from the truth that's taking
place in all the churches and he considers the Thessalonians,
what he must admit is that God had chose them under salvation.
They received the gospel. They bore forth the fruits of
salvation and Having borne forth the fruits of salvation, they
now are persevering in the truth. So what election is designed
to do is to save you, and in saving you, it's delivering you
and me from the darkness of the lies of which we spoke about
earlier. So if a person says to me that
they are elect of God, If they are chosen of God, then I know
what's going to follow is an evidence of them becoming saved. And if they are saved, then I
know they are going to believe, right? Because a believer is
a person that's saved. That individual has been chosen
unto salvation, unto salvation. That's what that is. And belief,
as Paul is about to talk about, is going to be a critical part
of it. What's this? Watch this. But we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brother and beloved,
because God has chosen you from the beginning. God has from the
beginning chosen you to what? Salvation. That's the objective. In your outline, salvation, the
Greek term, Soter, or Soto, which is the verb form of it, but Soter. It's a Greek term. In the Greek
culture, Soter was a god and he was a god of salvation. His
job was to rescue. His job was to deliver. Do you see that in your outline?
When you are saved, you are rescued. When you are saved, you are delivered. When you are saved, you are rescued. You are delivered. You are recovered. When you are saved, God recovers
you. He recovers you from a damnable
state. And that's what the objective
of election is, to recover a person. In your outline, it says you
were captives and God released you. and God changed your condition. Do you see that? When you are
chosen on the salvation and that salvation experience takes place,
you were rescued, you escaped captivity, you were released,
you were delivered, you were recovered, and you were changed. Go with me in your Bible to Galatians
chapter one, verse four. I want you to see what Paul says
about that. And then Colossians chapter one, we're gonna look
at verses nine through 13. So it's very important, again,
to understand these verbs under salvation. When a person is saved,
they are delivered, they are rescued. And here's what Paul
says in Galatians 1, verse 2 and 3. Grace be to you, I'm sorry,
verse 3 and 4. Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins. that he might, here it is, deliver
us from this what? Present evil world. Now, it's
very important for you to understand that. See, when we get into the
realm of salvation, the whole experience of salvation, the
determination is God's choice, his purpose, his decree of election
before the world began for which he created the world. But when
a person is actually saved, there is a deliverance from this present
evil age. Some of your Bibles will say
age, some of yours will say world, is that right? Now, the reason
why the translators and some of our new translations translated
age is really no better than the word world, except the word
world is more archaic in terms of its old Elizabethan English,
old King James English. But the term age and world to
me are still very elusive terms for most people. Other than the
fact that a lot of people who will understand the term age
as meaning a different place or different dispensation, like
the age that is now and the age to come. The idea of age in this
context to deliver us from this present evil age is to deliver
us from this present evil system. To deliver us from this present
evil world system. When you and I are being saved,
God is delivering us from the way we used to think in conjunction
with the way the world thinks. Before salvation, we thought
just like the world. We received our theses from the
world. We received our hypothesis from
the world. We received our agenda from the
world. We received our methods from
the world. We received our course from the
world. We lived according to the course
of this world like everyone else. And there was no sense of a desire
to break out of that world system until God came into your life.
You remember how it was. Prior to conversion or what we
call the work of regeneration, I can see I'm going to have to
go into this in two messages to break it down because it's
important. You you might have had a notion that there was something
looming behind your neck while you were lost and unsaved, right?
But everything in you in terms of your passions and desires
and your goals and aspirations were in total concert with the
world. In fact, every day you look for approval from the world
that you were all right. The only little nagging thing
that was going on in the back of your head was God. That's
the only problem we have as human creatures, you know, conscience.
But you did everything you could to drown it out. You got high,
you got loaded, you entered into great levels of promiscuity.
You bought into all of the lies that the world told you that,
you know, this stuff that's going on in the back of your head is
the religion your mom and daddy taught you. You got to get rid
of that and we'll show you how to do it. You can get high enough, you
can get past that stuff. But some of us never could get high
enough to wash out that voice in the back of our conscience.
Am I telling the truth? And so, but we were bent on the
approval of the world. And this is why John says in
first John chapter two, verse 15, 14 and 15, all that's in
the world is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and
the pride of life. The world is filled with lust, not love,
lust. Eye, flesh, life. And so we bought
into it hook, line, and sinker until the spirit of God started
dealing with us. You remember those miserable days right before
God saved you? I do. Miserable! I thought I
was successfully running from God. Young man, I was on my way
to a certain amount of wealth, but I was just as stupid and
dumb as the average young African-American male in the hood. You know, you
got your plans and your schemes, and you don't know your plans
and your schemes are designed to fail and put you behind bars. That's the system. That's all
this designed to do, cause you to fail and put you behind bars
if God doesn't save you. In the midst of me just about
reaping my grand scheme, God hit me upside the head with the
word. He caused the word to penetrate my hearing because I was lusting
after a woman who ultimately became my wife. You know, God
knows how to get somebody, doesn't he know how to get somebody?
So I found myself looking up, asking why am I in this mess? And if you are there and get
me out, I'm yours. Up to that point, which was a
couple of months prior to it, I was a miserable sinner. You
know what makes you a miserable sinner? and this is what we pray
for for our children who somehow think that they are just as they're
you know they're different than everybody else isn't that what
they think they're different not me dad yes you what what
we what you pray for is god to make them so miserable that the
only comfort they can find is in Christ. Because that's what
God started doing with me, making me miserable. You know what he
does? He just frustrates your plans. He discombobulates all
your agendas. He causes more trouble, more
trouble, more trouble. He allows you to fail over and
over and over again. He shuts you up to failure until
you give up and say, God, you can have me. You can have me.
And see, that's a work of grace because God resists the proud.
He resists the proud. He got to break the proud heart,
doesn't he? Doesn't he got to break that proud heart? Break
that proud heart. And then all of a sudden you
call out to him. But God will have to do something else before
that happens. And in our outline, it's called methodology. Look
at it. We'll deal with methodology and then we'll come back two
weeks from now and we'll close out on the other two. Methodology.
Do you see that? Notice what it says going back
to our text. I want to use our text for that.
Second Thessalonians chapter two. Second Thessalonians 2 14. Notice what he says. He says,
but we are bound to give thanks unto God for you, brother and
beloved of the Lord, because God has chosen you. God is from
the beginning, chosen you to salvation through see that word
through. That's a term that implies implementation
of our methodology, our instrumentality. God has chosen you to salvation,
but it's through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. See it. So this here is another
part of the terminus process by which salvation is determined
on God's part for you and me. A person is not saved until the
Spirit of God enters into their life and brings them to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ. You guys got that? Cause I want
you to get this now because just in case we got some new agers
in here, watch this. A person is not saved because
they're nice. Now you say folk need to be saying
that's right. Cause you know, some of you ain't
nice. You know that right? Saved, but not nice. See, a person
is, a person is not saved because they're nice. See, right now
you should go, hallelujah, because I'm not a nice person. See, a
person is not saved because they're nice. Now watch it. You need
to be nice. Don't get me wrong. You need
to be nice. But nice people don't go to heaven. I'm sorry. You see, this is where
religion will get you in trouble again. You meet that person and
that person is so nice to you. And you go, they must be saved. They are so nice. Right. They are so nice because they're
nicer than you. They make you feel bad. Right.
And so you say they must be saved. But then you say, have you have
you come to know who Christ is? Oh, no, I'm not interested in
that. Now your conscience is smitten because you want to believe
they're saying, but you know, they have not received the truth
of the gospel. Watch this. They're nice, but they're not
saved. Are you hearing me? Nice does
not equal saved. Saved should produce nice, but
nice does not equal saved. What constitutes salvation is
the work of God's spirit in bringing the truth home to the heart of
a sinner. David said it in the Psalm like
this. The entrance of your word giveth light. It giveth understanding
to the simple. There is a time when the truth
penetrates the heart and penetrates the mind so that a person is
brought to a saving knowledge. Listen to what he says. He had
chosen you under salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. We are told in Romans chapter
10, 17, you don't have to go there. Faith comes by what? And hearing by what? That's essential
to being a believer. You can't believe something that
you don't know. Are you hearing me? See, this
is where now as a believer, you are now hedged in. You are hedged
in because you are a believer. The necessary question that follows
is a believer of what? Right? So now you're hedged in
because you are saying salvation is based upon certain beliefs
and you are absolutely correct. And this is where the crux of
the battle comes in. First of all, the world doesn't
like the fact that it needs to be saved. And then it doesn't
like the fact that it needs to be saved God's way. and it doesn't
like the narrow parameters and classification of terms constituted
believer and unbeliever. This is where, what's his name,
Larry, what's the guy on the news show, Larry what? Larry
King. Larry King, he just despises
the gospel so much he reaches out for every religious kind
he possibly can to help him understand the exclusivity of the gospel. Why if you say that Jesus is
the only way? Then all these other ways that
people are asserting are valid Why would you say that jesus
is the only way when you got hindus and you got buddhists
and you got you got nice people out there How can jesus be the
only way when you got to because you are asserting by saying that
jesus is the only way That these are not the other way and he
struggles with people and he just get all these preachers
He says help me understand that and the faithful preacher simply
says jesus is the only way biological inference it means that all the
other ways are not the way this is offensive to people this is
very offensive to people because people have to come to believe
certain things the Spirit of God works to inform you to to
transform you by the renewing of your mind. That's the work
of the Spirit of God. It's critical to your salvation. I'm just going to read one verse.
Go with me in your Bible, Ephesians 2, 4 through 8. I'm going to
stop here. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 4, and then
verse 8. I want you to hear it and then
we'll come back next week, a week after next, and we'll pick up
from here and finish on the concept of election. There are some things
there that I want us to still work through. Ephesians 2, verses
1 through 4. And then I want us to deal with
verse 8. Now watch this. And you, do you see that phrase?
You know what that's talking about? You. You know, in theology, well,
we like to work around simple terms, you know. It's talking about me. And it's
talking about everyone that's saved. And you who were what? See, you weren't sick. You weren't
misinformed. You weren't misguided. You weren't
lacking certain skills. You were dead. And you who were
dead in trespasses and sins, We're in in time past you walk
according to the course of this world according to the prince
of the power of the air That's the devil and the spirit that
now works in the children of disobedience. That's everybody
else see that word disobedience That's a synonym for not hearing
the children who will not hear that term can be translated Who
will not hear see the first principle of obedience is hearing? Hearing
Without hearing you cannot obey. The children of disobedience
are people who will not hear. You got that? Now watch how this
follows. Among whom also we all had our
lifestyle in time past. Is that true? I used to be right
there. Right there. Watch this. In the lust of my flesh. Fulfilling
the desires of the flesh. Watch this. And of the mind.
we're by nature that's in my fallen nature in my sinful nature
that's down in the core of my being I was a child of wrath
now watch this just like everybody else you know what that means
before a person is saved they are a child of what do you see
that a child of what there you go now now see now see that's
another problem now you talk to somebody that's unsaved so
where do I stand before God if I must say you are a a child
of wrath. You're under the wrath of God.
You guys got that? See, that's another proposition
people don't like. See, because the Christian church has so watered
down the gospel today that God loves everybody and no wrath
in God. He just loves people. You are
the apple of God's eye, child. All you need to do is accept
Jesus, right? Now, who would be in a hurry
if they were told that that's the condition that they were
in? Who would be in a hurry to come to God? If first of all,
you're the apple of his eye, God loves you. He'd been trying
to save you for so many years. Now he's getting tired. Now let
him in. Let him in. He's getting tired. You know,
after a while, he's going to just stop because he's going
to be out of wind. And you're going to win. You're going to
go to hell because you want to. And God tried to save you, but
he couldn't. Right. That's the ludicrous religion
we're in today, right? Where men are begging men to
receive God as if God was a beggar. That's where we are today. That's
where we are. This is the problem when we exalt
man instead of put him in his place. Sir, I'll tell you, if
you don't believe the gospel right now, you are one breath
away from hell. Got it? They used to talk like that long
ago. They used to keep it real. The methodology is the Word of
God by the Spirit of God. And here's the way I'm going
to put it as a basic principle, and I'm going to open the floor
for questions, and then we'll come back week after next. You see
in your outline where I say, for the preacher, the methodology
starts with the what? For the dead sinner, it starts
with what? Do you see how I say that? So
I want you to understand this, because in theology, my brethren,
my religious theological brethren, they love to get into all of
these conundrums and tie knots and things like, you know, which
came first, the chicken or the egg? You know, they they just
love to do stuff like that. Do you know a hungry man don't
care which came first? Give me an egg and cook me some
chicken. I don't care who came first.
Who cares who came first? You know, you sitting around
pontificating, you know, as if somehow we really need to solve
this mystery of which came first. God knows he made the chicken.
Now whether he put us an egg down here and said hatch or whether
he put a couple chickens down here and say lay eggs, God knows,
doesn't he know? See, I don't have to be troubled
about first causes. That's in his category. All I
have to do is embrace the process that God started long and I wasn't
there. By the time I came on the scene,
there has been now hundreds of billions of eggs and chickens. Right? Hundreds of billions of
eggs and chicken and all I need to do is find an egg or find
a chicken and I'm good to go because I can have a chicken
that makes some eggs or I can have an egg that makes a chicken
that makes some eggs. If I can get an egg or get a
chicken, I'm good to go. Right? You guys understand what
I'm saying? I'm good to go. See, I have to
be pragmatic at this point, right? And so when we are talking about
salvation, sometimes my brethren get into this idea of the necessity
of the Spirit of God converting you first before you can even
understand the Word. Well, this here is a circuitous
argument that has no basis in reality. Watch this. When it
comes to salvation, it's very clear that faith comes by what? Faith comes. Faith is not already
there. When the word is preached, you
discover immediately whether you believe it or not. And then
you may not believe it for years and years and years. And then
all of a sudden that word opens up like the Red Sea and you swear
you never heard the word of God until that day. And you didn't.
Because God changed your heart. But what happened? The preacher
had to use the word until the spirit came along. The word was
unprofitable to you. So for this preacher first is
the word for the spirit. It's himself. He has to come
and make that word alive in you This is why jesus says the hour
is coming and now is When they that worship the father will
worship him in spirit and in truth For such the father seeketh
to worship the spirit of god has to accompany the preaching
to save a person from their sins We need both. We need both. We need both. In the life of
the minister, it's the Word. In the purpose of God, it's the
Spirit through the Word. In my experience, it might be
the Spirit through the Word. In God's experience, it's the
Spirit upon the Word. It's the Spirit before the Word.
It's the Spirit with the Word. But both are needed for salvation.
Just like it's necessary for a man and a woman to come together
to produce a child, it's necessary for the Spirit to work through
the Word to convert a sinner. All right, the floor is open
for a few minutes for questions. Other than that, I want you to
remember now 730 is Calvary night next week. Come at 730. Bring your family. Let's worship
God Any questions? No, but no question. We can close
quickly get you guys on no questions. Everybody all happy and everything
Alright, let's stand for prayer Father thank you for this time.
Thank you for our gathering tonight. Thank you for an expectation
of next Friday where we can look at Calvary and sit there for
an hour and just gaze upon our savior and learn something about
why he didn't come down and didn't rejoice as we know that sunday
is coming it's the basis upon which you have a people everywhere
in the world that love you because you first love them for everyone
here lord as we leave tonight give us traveling mercies take
us home to our bow give us rest and prepare us to worship you
on sunday we pray in jesus name amen god bless you