I brought you three messages
on the doctrine of election, and remember that in the first
message I spoke upon the subject of election, introducing it and
giving you a Bible definition of the doctrine. tried to show you that God didn't
owe us anything, but we owe him a great deal. If we are different,
it is because of God of all grace made us so. We have nothing there
for to boast of in ourselves, or to glory in in ourselves,
or to give him the praise. And we sure owe him a lot. I didn't think that anybody would
ever come to a correct understanding of the Bible doctrine of election
unless he started right there at that point. God doesn't owe
me anything but hell. If I go to hell, it will be my
own fault. But if I am saved, it is God's
sovereign grace, an act of his holy and sovereign will. related to Paul's, the effect
the doctrine of election had upon him and the use that he
made of that doctrine in witnessing and in his preaching and service
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this evening, I want to
deal with the fourth message. In dealing with this fourth message,
I want to bring a little different aspect. of the doctrine of election
that perhaps I haven't brought out fully, if I have touched
upon it. I really haven't dealt with it
too much in detail. But now, to begin our message,
you know, after we preached election and given all the scriptures
on it, and suggested these things that the Bible teaches, Most
people will just come and say, well, the way the thing is, it's
God foreknew who would believe on Christ. God foreknew who would
repent and believe, and so he looked down through the ages
of time and he chose those people who he knew would believe. Well,
that's the way most folks do. But let's come to the Book of
Romans, chapter 8, and begin with that verse 28 in reading,
and let's see what the foreknowledge of God really means. Paul said
here, and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God to them who are the call according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow," now
watch that, "...for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, whom he called them he also justified,
and whom he justified them he also glorified." Will you notice
in verse 29 that the apostle isn't talking about the knowledge
of God, knowing beforehand, but he's talking about what God did. Keep this in mind. What did he do? the scripture
says, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate, and
they get the calling and the justification and the glorification
in this wonderful chain here, inspired chain that the word
of God gives us. Now, what do we mean by foreknowledge? We mean by foreknowledge love
of God, God's affection to certain people before time. I'll give
you some proof of that, and this is very enriching to the souls
of those who believe. In Amos 3, verse 2, the word
of God says to these people, "'You only have I known of all
the families of the earth." Now, here you have the word, know.
God says to these people, I haven't known anyone else. I've only
known you of all the families of the earth. What does the word
know there mean? Does it mean that God didn't
know all the nations of the heathens? the nations of the world, he
just didn't know anything about them? He wasn't acquainted with
them? Well, it doesn't mean that at
all. God knew all about the heathen.
He knew their sins, their iniquity, their filthiness, foulness and
vileness and rebellion. He knew everything about them. Well, how could he say in Amos
3 and 2, of all the families of the earth."
Well, the word known there means love. God is saying, you only
have our love of all the families of the earth. God said, I just
didn't love these other families of the earth. And the word known
is used in the Bible, as you are well acquainted with, I think. interchangeably with the word
love. A lot of times you read the scripture where it says,
no, you can put in the word love. That means the same thing. For
instance, our Lord Jesus Christ said, I know my sheep. You know what he's saying? I
know my sheep. Does that mean he doesn't know
the goats, doesn't know anything about anybody else but his sheep?
Well, certainly not. He's saying, I love you sheep.
I love my sheep." Then in Matthew 7.21, one of the most awful scriptures
in the whole word of God that just shakes the daylights out
of you if you really get down and study it. And if it doesn't,
you really better study it. Verse 21, Our Lord said, Not
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name
have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works? Watch it now. Then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you." Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." What does the word know there, or knew? What does
that mean, the word knew that? You know exactly. Our Lord Jesus
Christ said, these folks, I never loved you. He knew all about
them. Knew the whole business. Knew they were false from center
to circumference, from head to toe. He knew all these works
that they claimed to do in the name of Christ. And to preach
in his holy name, he said, you are nothing but workers of iniquity.
I never loved you. Never loved you. Oh, that kills
some people, doesn't it? They say, oh, he loved everybody
and tried to save everybody. Lord Jesus Christ said, I never
loved you. Never did love you. And that is something to think
about, too, isn't it? I'll bring you to Romans 11,
verse 2. You ought to mark this one unless
you want to teach some of our dispensational friends the truth,
prophetic truth. You can read this and you can
teach them sovereignty at the same time. He says in verse 1,
Romans 11, I said Romans, Romans 11, I say then, hath God cast
away his people? He asked a question, now he's
going to answer it, God forbid. by also a ministerialite of the
seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin." Now, here it is,
"...God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew." You
see that? So here, again, the word means
love, or love aforetime. God didn't cast away his people
that he loved from the creation of the world before he created
the mountains or the stars or the heavens or whatever. No,
sir. Now, he cast a lot of folks away.
He cast a lot of Jews, a lot of the seed of Abraham away,
according to the flesh. But Paul said right here, God
never cast away his people whom he loved, whom he whom he foreknew."
Now, let's go a little farther. In 1 Corinthians 8, verse 3,
Paul says, "...if any man love God, the same is known of him."
Here you have the word in the sentence, love, and you have
the word, known. love God, the same is known of
him." You can use the word, love, there. He is love of God. If a man loves God, Paul says,
really, the truth of the matter is, it's because God loved him
first! Him first. I like to call attention
many times to people, that scripture in Galatians chapter 4 and where
Paul says to those Galatian Christians, but now, after that ye have known
God, and it seems he takes afterthought. I don't know how you read the
scriptures, but sometimes I think people read the scriptures and
they feel, well, that person that's writing the scriptures,
God is using him as a sort of machine, you see, just eliminating
his personality and so forth, but that really is not so. God used the personality of the
men he wrote, though he used it in such a way that what they
wrote, they wrote God's words, not their own. And yet those
words were their own in a sense. Now, here Paul says this, but
now, after that you've known God, and then he thinks about
that a little bit. And he says, really? Rather,
I'm known of God. So again he's saying, yeah, you
love God, but it's all because he loved you first. It's all
beloved. And you know, I can pick out
a number of places in the scripture where the writers of Holy Scripture
seem to have been affected like that. You get into that first
chapter of Genesis where he says, and he made the sun and the And
then there, I believe there's a comma, and the writer adds
this, and he made the stars also. I said, hmm, why did he say that? What did he bring that in? All
the stars, different shapes and forms and sizes and colors and
brightness and so forth, multiplied millions and billions of stars
out there. He made the sun and the moon,
and he said he made the stars also. And you find that personal
touch that God uses of the scripture writers to bring in these things,
and to sort of brighten up things a little bit. I'll give you another
scripture, Psalm 1 and 6. There are writers writing about
the blessed man, and he says in verse 6, the Lord knoweth
the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall
perish." You have the word, know, there. He knoweth. What does
it mean? It simply means he loves the
way of the righteous. He comes for that way of the
righteous. He likes it, but the way of the
ungodly is going to perish. So from all these scriptures,
to know And to foreknow simply means to love, and to forelove,
to love beforehand. And it's wonderful to know that.
So let's come back to Romans chapter 8 and verse 29, when
the Apostle Paul says here, "...for whom he did foreknow." For whom
he did foreknow. He is simply saying, for whom
he foreloved. This is what he did. All whom
he foreloved, them he predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. One of the pivotal points of
scripture, we might call it, is in Acts 2. And here we read something that
Peter says, he said, "'Ye men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles
and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you,
as ye yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain." Now, how did God the Father foreknow
that his Son would be taken by wicked hands of men, killed,
crucified on a cross of wood? How did he know that? Did the
Father just simply look down through the ages of time, and
he saw that wicked men would do that. And so because they
would do that, he simply knew that they would, you see. Is
that what the apostle is writing here? I think you see better
than that, do you not? Because Peter is saying here,
in verse 23, that being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain." Wasn't it on purpose that the Lord brought
this to pass, that it wasn't simply something foreseen that
men would do, and God knew it in that way?
But it was something that in his all-wise counsel he purposed
his son to die, and that to die by the wicked hands of ungodly,
ill-deserving sinners." Now, that's a wonderful truth, because
when we make the application of it, it just amounts to this,
that in whatever sense God foreknew his son to die on the cross if
he also foreknew me to become a Christian. You get that? If he just looked down to the
ages of time and saw that men would do that and knew they would
in that way, that they would kill his son, then he looked
down to the ages of time and saw that I would believe and
I would repent, and so he chose me. But you can convince me that
that's the way it was. that Christ died, that God simply
chose him to die that way because men would do that, and in other
words, then you can convince me that God chose me because
he knew I would believe. But I don't think you'll ever
do that. God saved me on purpose, and God didn't foreknow anything
about me in that way as a cause of his choosing me. So it was
an act of his sovereign will that Jesus Christ, his Son, died
on that cross and was taken by the wicked hands of men, though
God didn't force them to do it or had any part in their crime. And it was an act of the sovereign
will of God in choosing me unto salvation. Is that like an architect? An architect knows what a building
is going to look like before the building is constructed.
And you know why he knows it? Because he has designed that
building on the drawing board. He has trapped that building
to look a certain way. And so you didn't tell him how
the building is going to look He knows, he designed it. So we know this, God, dear friends,
is the architect. He is the builder of his church,
and he puts the material in his church that he wants in there.
He chooses whom he wants in his building. This is the way it
is that he's decided it. This is the way it's going to
be, and all the devils in hell, and you and I and anybody else
can't change it at all. He said, I will build my church,
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So God knows how
it will be. He knows whom he foreloved and
whom he chose as his own. All right, back to Romans 8. I'm going to stay here a little
while, because this chapter of Romans begins, verse 1, in a
wonderful way. to them which are in Christ Jesus."
Now, that preposition, in, has tremendous meaning, doesn't it?
Are you in Christ Jesus? There is no condemnation for
you if you are, if you are united to Christ our Lord. And he goes on to tell about
the wonderful things about those who are in Christ. It comes on
down through the 28th verse. and then closes the chapter,
beginning with verse 35, with five wonderful verses. Look at it. "'Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ?' Now, this is after he has written
that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. After he's written the full love
of God for his own, his predestination to be conformed to the image
of his Son, and the effectual calling of grace, the justification
of his own through faith, and then the glorification. And then he asks some questions
we'll talk about later. But Paul comes to the conclusion
here with five wonderful verses of who shall separate us. from the love of Christ. And
look at the awful things he mentions. Why, you'd think if anything
in the world would separate someone from the love of Christ, these
things would. Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sorrow,
as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long,
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, nay, In all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded," now all love to use that word, I am persuaded,
and mark it, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Now,
beloved, that's assurance. Paul says, I am persuaded none
of these things can separate us. Well, let's just call Paul
in here and ask him some questions. Paul, how can you be so sure? How can you be so confident?
How can you draw such and such confidence and peace and comfort
and assurance and hope. Here, what's the ground that
you stand on? Well, all right. I think Paul
would answer that question by saying, here's my argument. Verse 28, look at the argument. He says, And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. them who
are called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn of many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified." That's the reason he says, I'm
persuaded that. Why are you persuaded, Paul?
Well, because what God did for us, he anchored in eternity. It began in eternity and is anchored
in the glory yet to come, in the future, in eternity. So in verse 31, he just simply
makes the application. and says, what shall we then
say to these things? We will say to them, what things
is he talking about? He's talking about God's fordant
love, his predestination, his calling, his justification, and
his glorification of the believers. The election starting back there
in eternity past, and going through time until eternity future, electing
us and choosing us in his Son before the world began, and then
bringing us through and conforming us unto the image of his Son,
calling us out by his glorious grace, granting us justification
in his righteousness through the gift of faith, and then glorification
in eternity, absolute glorification. all reaching from one eternity
to the other. You see that? This whole chain,
this golden chain, is anchored on both shores of eternity. That's why I can be so sure.
Now you take a lot of fellows and they talk about once saved,
always saved, and when you ask them, how can you be sure? Well,
you know what to say, I believed, I did this, I repented, I accepted
Jesus, and this, that, and the other. And when I exercised my
free will, God did something for me. Boy, that's poor assurance. I'll tell you one thing tonight,
it's my assurance of resting in my free will of salvation. I don't think I could be very
happy about it. I just couldn't be happier about
it, but I don't know what my free will will do. I know what
God's predestination, and God's choice, and God's purpose, and
God's grace will do. I know what he'll do. And so Paul bases his assurance
here upon the elected, predestinating love of God the Father and his
electing grace. of his sheep, his people, his
chosen. Now, that's wonderful, because
what he's saying there in verse 28 is, we know that all things
work together. God not only saved you, chose
you in eternity, but called you in time and justified you, And
now he's making all providence work together for your good,
the devil and demons and angels and ungodly men and hypocrites
and everything in God's world, even the wagging of a dog's tongue
and his bark, too. And even the bird singing is
working together for the good of the child of God. We know that all things work
together. All kinds of diseases, accidents
if you want to call them, that, whatever! And so here this apostle
said, now watch it, can you make this application? What shall
we then say to these things? What shall we say then? Well,
I said to Jesus, and when I did that, he just did something for
me. He's just been talking about
what God did, not what you did. What God did, not what you did. I get so sick of this business,
you know, what I did. I did this, I did that, and you
hear it everywhere. And you say, these poor people
are either lost still on their way to hell, or they're gravely
ignorant, and they sure are not reading the Word of God. They're
just swallowing what some preachers go out and choose to preach.
And they don't choose a preacher on the basis of the word of God
being preached by the Church. Man, he just looks, I just think
this fellow, I like him, or his personality, or some quirk in
him, or the way he winks his eye, or wiggles his ear, or combs
his hair, or something. They choose him because, I don't
believe what he says. And people are doing that. And
they're running here and there. And never, dear friends, come
to the knowledge of the truth. And brother, it scares the daylights
out of me when I see it. I'm not running down these people
or berating them. Don't say that. I'm just mentioning
to show how deluded they are, how deceived they are by the
anti-Christian doctrine that is being propagated today. And
people are saying, well, the anti-Christian is going to come.
Brother, he's here, and he's in the churches. He's doing his
work of deceiving. And so they go on, and then people
say, well, this is just one church, there's two now, you see. And
if you're going to talk about the goodness of churches and
the goodness of men, you might agree, and that's all. So it
sure is. We have something better than
that. Better than that. Paul said, what shall we then
say to these things, this predestination, this foreknowledge, this calling,
this justification, this glorification that God doeth? If God be for
us, who can be against us? Who can be against us? I'll tell
you this, if God's for you like this, Paul is telling us here,
here inside us, you can't even be against yourself. Huh? I can't put your head against
the wall. You can't even be against yourself
if God is for you! Hallelujah! So, but he isn't true. Oh, my, he isn't true. Listen
to this. but delivered him up for us all."
Oh, my, that pronoun, collective pronoun, plural, oh, who's in
that? Are you in it? Delivered him
up for us all! How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Let's continue. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? What about it, brethren? Who's going to charge God today?"
When he quickly says, he gives a reason why you can't charge.
Why not? Because, he says, God justifies
it. Now, the great God of heaven, the God of all grace, the sovereign
of the universe, the creator of the heavens and the earth,
takes a poor hell-deserving wretch and justifies him, who's going
to charge him? Paul says, God justified him,
now charge him. Are you afraid to say that? Don't
skip that scripture. It is God that justifies. Well,
you might say, Preacher, I wish you were dead. I know, but listen,
God says, I am his elect. to the charge of God's elect,
God's chosen. You say, well, look, I wish somebody
didn't ride you out of town, tarred and feathered on a pole,
stripped down to the skin, and cut your hair off by the roots.
Listen, friend, I'm God's elect. I'm God's elect! My Paul, you ought to be killed. I'd like to stone you to death."
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's election, Paul? It's God that justifies it. My
brethren, you want a defense, here it is. You've got no other. Assurance and comfort and peace
and joy. My God, men will disturb a little
child of God to death. They'll pull every stop. cut
every rope and every string and overturn every stone to keep
you disturbed. You know that? I've been through
it. I'm still going through that.
I see what he's ever doing. And I don't think he left one
stone unturned. He just loves to disturb a little
child of God. He's so mad with God that he
can't love one of his little children to save his life. And so he just loved to disturb,
take his assurance away, take his peace away. And so here he
goes turning here and overturning there and overturning there.
How are you going to get your comfort? He said, my, the devil
is doing so much. And he's using these men, and
they're doing this, that, and the other. And they're saying
this, that, and the other. And I just can't rest. I can't
have any peace. I'm just torn up all the time.
I can't serve God. What are you going to do, Paul? Well, here's what Paul did. He
said, if God be boss, who can be against us? And who shall
lay anything to the charge of God the leg? He said, God the
justifier. God justified the sin of brother.
You can't charge me. I'll tell you that. What are
you going to do? You can't take God's justification
away, can you? Now, you charge Paul with writing
the antinomian doctrine and all that foolishness you want to
and die and go to hell and in your unbelief. Here, this is
for the comfort of the people of God. You get your eyes off
what the devil and men are doing and what they're saying and all
that. What's God doing? He says, I'm working all things
together for your good. Your good, not your hurt. I know,
but these things are hurting you. Why are they hurting you?
They can't hurt you if you're an elect of God. You're justified. And stop this complaining. The devil starts that, and you
just say, look here, little devil, I'm God's elect. I know I'm nothing
in myself, I have nothing, I can do nothing apart from Christ,
but I'm God's elect. I ought to go to hell for my
crimes, but I'm God's elect! Selfish, vile, wretched, I am
by nature! God chose me, I'm going to glorify
him. All right, let's go on, verse
33. isn't done, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, it is God that justifies." Now,
beloved, you know where most men are getting their peace?
Not from God's justification, but from whose justification?
Right, they're justifying themselves. Are they not? Ah, ah, ah, ah,
this. And they're finding justification
of themselves. Or they're finding some preacher,
or some people who will justify them. Boy, that's dangerous,
isn't it? They go, the devil will justify
you. He'll do that. Somebody says
about these fellows in jail, in prison, can you find any criminals
in prison now? All the criminals on the outside,
those fellows in jail, they're innocent, they've been framed.
You just can't find anybody there. That's guilty. Beloved, those
fellows justifying themselves in prison on their crimes, and
people outside doing the same thing, excusing themselves and
pampering themselves and trying to find some preacher to just
soft-soap them and never rub the fur and not lacerate them
and dynamite them as brother Lynn Berry put in that last ideal,
this fellow of mine, he would cut to death by the preacher,
and he said, either that preacher's a fool or I'm a fool, and he
said, God just accommodated me by showing me that it wasn't
the preacher that was a fool. He said, I appreciate that now. He cut me to death, and I thought
I'd never get back together, and that preacher didn't care,
it looked like. All right, let's not look for justification from
me. All the ears of most church members today are just listening
to somebody that says, you're all right, you're doing the right
thing, you keep on the way you're going, you're good. And some
preachers will tell you that and take a collection and go
on. Oh, no. Oh, beloved. How is it? that God can take
a guilty, wretched, filthy, vile, kill-deserving sinner and justify
him. That's God's problem, but he
solved it, and he did it. He did it through the atoning
work of his Son, through his electing grace and saving grace. It's given for me," Paul goes
on, and he's still arguing here. Verse 34 says, "...who is he
that condemns thee?" Beloved elect of God, who's charging
you? Who's condemning you? Of course, the devil will do
it. The ungodly will do it. The hypocrite
will do it. They condemn the Lord Jesus Christ,
but who's condemning you? And how can you be condemned?
He said, it's impossible, because God first justified you. And
Christ died for you and atoned for your sins, he paid for them,
and he's going to charge you again with them. And Christ has
risen from the dead and justified you, he's at the right hand of
God as our King of kings and Lord of lords, and he's there
making intercession for who? The whole world. That isn't what
he says, is it? He's making intercession for
us. You know, most people who get
torn up about election and predestination and foreknowledge of God, as
taught here in this chapter, the way they talk, of course,
you'd think they wouldn't believe these things. But when they start
praying, you'd think they did believe them. I have heard many
people pray contrary to these things. I have heard some I've
heard some men, I've heard some preachers pray something like
this. Now, Lord, you know that you
love everybody, and you're trying to save everybody, and you want
to save everybody, and to go on like that. I've heard them
go on. One preacher had a funeral, went on like that. He felt like
the corpse, the fellow that died in an accident, went to hell
because he found some liquor in the car. And he lived an ungodly
life, probably did go to hell, but who can say absolutely the
man went to hell? He doesn't know. But he felt
that way, and so he was just telling God in his pitiful prayer,
Lord, you love everybody, you want to save everybody, you did
your best to save this man. It wasn't your fault, he said.
God, I said, now he's going to start praying. He was just preaching
there for a while. about the love of God and God
trying to do this and trying to do that and couldn't do it. And then he really got to praying.
He said, but he wouldn't come. Oh, I said, now he's praying.
But he wouldn't come! That's what the Bible says. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, he
will not come! Now, he might have thought he
was still praying free will, and he was in a sense. You would
actually, in accord with the Bible, free will would take you
away from God all the time, and not joy. So if God the Father
has justified me, then anybody is going to condemn me. I challenge
the angels in heaven to condemn me, brother. I'm elect of God,
I've been justified and paid for by the precious blood of
Jesus Christ and clothed in his righteousness. That's all the
dress I need to stand justified in his holy sight. That glorious
clothing that he's given the people of God. All right. Now, who's going to condemn us? Can you get in that us? Are you
going to take yourself out of that us? You can't put yourself
in it, and you can't really take yourself out of it. God can't
put you in that, will he not? But how can you be sure that
you're in? How can you be sure? Well, look
at Romans 8.28. How can we be sure about that?
And we know, that's assurance, that all things work together
for good. For whom? For them that love
God. Isn't that what it says? Do you
love God? I mean, the God that Paul is
talking about, not some God that you've concocted in your own
mind and imagined some idol, and you bow to that and call
him Lord and shift him around one way or the other, whichever
way you want. But do you love this God, the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of election, the God of predestination,
the God of all grace? the Sovereign of the universe,
who does according to his will, and he doesn't ask anybody any
advice. Well, who are these who love
God? He says, who are the called according to his purpose. Now,
there's the question. Those who are really called,
I mean effectually, he's not talking about the general call
that goes out to everybody. for those who are really called
and brought to him by the effectual call of the Holy Spirit of God
according to God's purpose, love him, and nobody else does. Nobody
does, really. You and I didn't until we were
called. We hated God. And so we mustn't get mad with
God sending a senator to hell who hates him. If he's our friend,
neighbor, loved one, a relative, or what? We mustn't get angry
with God Almighty who sends a person to hell who hates him. And every
sinner in God's world hates him until he's called, effectually,
by the grace of God and the love of God put in his heart. None
of them will admit it, or at least most of them will not admit
it, but that's their case. Is it not so? All right. You see, you can't
break that chain that starts with the foreknowledge in verse
29 of God, comes on through predestination, or the forelove, as I said, then
predestination and the calling and the justification and the
glorification. You can't break, there's no weak
link in that chain that man has anything whatever to do with. I thank God that's so. So if
you stand here, where Paul stood right there in eternity, what
God did for him at the beginning end of that chain, that God loved
him from eternity, then you're going to stand there and glorification
at the other end of that chain in time, in time to come. I'm sure glad that I'm not saved
by my free will. No, sir. When you understand
the doctrine of election, beloved, you see what God has saved you
from, and what God has saved you to. He saved you to conform
to the image of his Son, and he's going to make you like him.
He's going to make you into the image of Jesus Christ. That image
that no sinner in the world wants to be like. I take my own case,
and I think it's exactly yours. I sure didn't want to go to hell.
I was willing for God to save me from hell, but I wasn't willing
for God to save me to be like his son, to make me into the
holy image of Christ. To tell you the truth, I'd rather
go to hell in my state of nature and to be saved into that image. Oh, when the work was done, and
grace came, and God put it in my heart, and stamped this image
there, I said, Lord, I thank you for it. I'm sure glad to
be in the way now. And whatever you want to do,
I like what I want. This is what I'm going to be
happy with. And folks can tear themselves to pieces and get
angry, and do everything in God where they want to do, I'm going
to be happy, God willing, with what God did for me, this poor
son who couldn't do for himself. What's the conclusion? Dan says,
if God had not foreknown us in a way of love, we'd never have
been saved. Dear friends, we'd never have
come to him. We've never been called in power,
and we've never answered that call. We've never tasted of his
justifying grace and his glorifying grace, if election is not so. Aren't you glad then that election
is so? Let me give you this before we
go. We have just a few minutes. on how God saved the sinner.
This poor woman was born poor, and she married young. She had
13 children. But, of course, before she was
married, just as she got strong enough to work as a child, they
put her in a silk factory to learn that trade. And then she
married, very young in life, and had these 13 children, and
a drunken husband. And she told that story, and
she said that she and her husband, her husband being a soft drunkard
and she being the type of person who liked to keep everything
tidy and nice in the house, and provide for the children, 13
of them, and working day and night herself to do this and
keep things together, said, we live like cats and dogs in the
house. And she said six months after
her youngest son was born, she felt a prick in her conscience.
Her conscience tricked her over her bad language and her bad
ways. And she tried to throw that off.
And she couldn't throw it off. So she tried to mend her ways
and she couldn't do that. And she was getting worse instead
of getting better. And she went on like that for
a good long time. And until she just felt now,
if I keep on the way I'm going, I'm surely going to I'm going
to stand in God's presence condemned. I'm going to perish in hell.
And God isn't going to be the blame for it." And so going in
that state for quite a while, one Sunday morning she told her
husband after cooking the dinner for him and all that and getting
everything ready, she said, I'm going to church. And church was
three miles away. She had to walk. And he warned
her, he said, if you go to church, I'm going to do certain things
to you. Which frightened her, but she said, I had to go. She
walked that three miles to church and had no neighbors, lived in
an isolated place. But she entered the church door
just as the preacher was giving out his text. And the preacher
gave this text there in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 11, where the
Lord Jesus Christ had just preached election. and sovereignty, and
then said this, and these are the words the preacher quoted,
and she heard it, she entered in the door and sat down, "'Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest.'" And she said she heard those words, and she sat
down, and she was weary, she was tired, and she felt rested,
and she felt comfortable. all during that service. And
when the service was over, she went out the door. And as she
went out the door, that rest left her, that comfort left her,
and she went home, thinking about these words. And as she got off
from work on Monday, she was sitting in her house, and she
saw that preacher coming up to visit. He came in and grieved her. He
was a little surprised that she lived in such an isolated place.
But she told him the story and how poor she was and so forth.
And he questioned her about coming to church and what effect did
it have on her. And she said, well, it had a
good effect. Well, tell me about it. She said, well, when I sat
down, I heard you say words like this, come unto me. loaded, and I'll help you." And
he said, Well, did you get help? She said, Yes. He said, Did you
get peace? No. She said, I didn't get peace,
but I got rest. Well, where did that rest come
from? Oh, she said, I suppose it came from God. Yes, she agreed, that rest came
from God. And then he went on to show her
that God had a people, sheep, election of grace. And he brought
them to himself, eventually, through all kinds of trouble
and all kinds of difficulties, and made them to see their ruin,
their sin, their filthiness and violence and undoneness. And
she confessed that there was no wretch on earth or in hell
that was more sinful than she. She told the preacher that. And
the preacher had prayer with him, and as he was leaving, he
said, do you have a Bible? And she said, no, we have no
Bible, but if we did, nobody in the house can read it. Well,
he said, would you like to read? Yes. Will you try? I will. Well, he said, I'm going
to send my daughter here to teach you to read. She'll bring an
easy book, and the next day the daughter came. and began to teach
this woman to read. And she said, I was so dumb.
She said, I hated myself. I just couldn't learn. It was
so hard. But he says, that dear little
daughter of that preacher took me, and in six weeks she taught
me to read. And I could read the Word of
God, and I can read it today just as good in six weeks as
I can read it today. So she said, I began to read
God's Word and to search and to go to church. And the more
I read, the more miserable I became. And the more wretched I became,
the more sinful, she said, I became. And so one day she got so miserable
that she said to herself, I'm in hell already. Isn't anybody
in hell any more miserable than I am? What difference would it
make? Why should I live?" And so she
decided to take her own life. And she decided this, I'm going
out to the well, I'm going to fetch a bucket of water, and
then I'm going up in the attic and I'm going to hang myself.
Fully intending to do that, she took the bucket, went to the
well and laid it down, and the When it was filled with water,
she started throwing up. When she started pulling that
rope up, she said, God darted his grace in her heart, and opened
her eyes, and made her to seek his love for her, and gave her
grace to receive him as her Lord, and acknowledge him as her Savior. She said she pulled that bucket
of water up and set it down and sat down by the curb in the back
well or the side of it and wept with joy and praised God and
thanked him for his great salvation. And God saved her. Between the
bucket going down in the well and coming up, God saved her
and put his grace in her heart. She began to read the Bible,
of course, with more delight, and go to the service of God,
to church, and to worship him. But she said just soon after
that happened, a terrible thing happened in her family. Five
of her children took fever and died. And that disturbed her
a great deal, but still she had this peace in her heart. And
her husband became worse than the family. They tried to aggravate
her, and he aggravated the children, and to destroy her peace. And
in spite of all of that, Christ gave her peace in her heart and
helped her to serve him and to praise him. And she said, one Saturday night,
I believe it was, it was late, she'd gone to bed, lying in bed
and the lights were out. She heard an awful crash downstairs. And she said, well, my husband
licked it up, and so he, something got in his way, he just pushed
it out of its way. And she went on back to sleep. Awaking next
morning, she went downstairs, she saw what happened. She said,
every piece of crockery that I had, he had just swept it off
the shelf into the floor, and it was broken to bits. It lied
down in the floor. Well, she said, my spirit started
to rise. Oh, she said, I really want to
raise. I said, Christ has taught me
maintenance, peace. She said, I didn't. I was able to hold my temper. I said, Christ has given me peace
through his words so much that I'll fetch the Bible. And I just
sat down in the chair with all that mess on the floor, broken
property and dishes and so forth, every one of them, and I just
started reading the Word of God until I forgot anything around. And after a while he came downstairs,
stopped on the steps, looked at her, looked at all her broken
pieces on the floor, and he said, No fire, no food." She said,
I didn't answer. I made no reply whatever. She said he walked out the door,
closed it. And shortly thereafter he came
back and he brought food, cooked food for the whole family. And
she said it was wonderful after that. Though, she said, my husband
wasn't saved. And through drinking so much,
she became sick. We had less money, but she said
we had more peace and more happiness in the home. Wonderful. But, she went on to the end of
her story, and told how God had blessed her, and that he had
given her 13 children. All of them had died except two.
One of them was steadfast and affectionate, the other was grumpy
and complaining and ill and so forth. But she said, I had one
of those 13 children out of all 13 that gave any proof of the
grace of salvation.