Many of you, I'm sure, plan to
go home tonight as soon as I get done preaching and watch the
election returns. And I have been informed that
I will be doing the same thing. Shelby is a, she's a bit of a
political junkie. She watches that stuff and keeps
me informed. And so we'll stay up pretty late
tonight watching the returns as well. So I thought it might
be a good idea for me to seize the opportunity and talk to you
about watching election returns. Now, I haven't popped a cork.
I know what I'm doing. I'm going to preach to you about
election returns. The title of my message is Watching
the Election Returns. Now, let me tell you what gave
a little rise to this message. Last Tuesday, I received an invitation
I was invited to attend a conference specifically for reformed pastors
and church workers. Why they sent it to me, I don't
know. This conference is going to be held down in Durham, North
Carolina, close to where I was born. Like most religious organizations,
most denominations, the emphasis is on church growth. Matter of
fact, the subject of the conference is growing the church God's way. I've heard that a great deal
in recent years, particularly it strikes me when it comes from
folks who claim to be reformed or Calvinistic. And I don't identify
with either of those terms, but the common notions folks have
concerning folks who believe sovereign grace are reformed
or Calvinistic. All the lectures and all the
activities at this meeting are for the purpose of teaching people
how to grow the church God's way. Sadly, even those who claim
to believe the gospel of God's grace for the most part in this
world, those who would be called reformed and Calvinistic are
obsessed They're literally obsessed with church growth, numeric growth,
and success in the eyes of men. They want to be seen as accomplishing
something. They want men to observe them
as men who have figured out how to get God's blessings on a people
and cause the church to grow, to grow in numbers, particularly. In the Word of God, that is never
the case. Find me a place in this book
where anyone was obsessed with trying to get people to come
and join the church, obsessed with making the church a large
super Sunday school or mega church. Find me any place in this book,
Old Testament or new. Never was the case. Never was
the case. And it never is the case with faithful men. Never, never. When I read that
invitation, I immediately thought to myself, the only thing we
do in this matter of growing the church is get out of the
way and watch God work. Get out of the way and watch
God work. Needless to say, I don't plan
to attend the conference, but I knew as soon as I read the
invitation what the title of my message was going to be tonight.
Watching the election returns. You and I do not grow God's church. That's God's business. You and
I just preach the gospel of God's grace and watch God return his
elect to himself as he said he would. Now tonight I want to
mix two prophecies together. We'll begin in Jeremiah chapter
31. Jeremiah chapter 31. There is a people in this world
called the elect. Those same people are called
the ransomed of the Lord or the redeemed. God's people in this
world are called his elect in this book more often than they're
called anything else. Why people should be afraid to
use the term elect or election or be bashful about it or act
as though somehow they ought to be embarrassed because they
say something about it, I can't fathom. More than any other term
used in the Word of God to describe God's people is the word elect,
more than any other term. These who are the elect are called
the ransomed of the Lord. These people, are a vast multitude
that no man can number, so vast the number cannot be calculated
by men. That's a vast, vast number. I
hear the politicians talk about our national debt. I don't even
have any idea what the term trillion represents. I see it written
out, and I'm certain I can figure it out, but I just don't think
like that. But even the fellows who can
calculate that have no calculation of the number of God's elect. Imagine that. They are always
at any given time looked upon in this world by God and in the
Word as a remnant. They're looked upon as the offscouring
of the earth. They're looked upon as that which
no one else would have. God only deals with remnants,
but His remnant, His elect remnant, is a multitude that no man can
number. And don't ever miss this, it
is a definite number. These who are God's elect are
called the elect because they were chosen of God unto eternal
life in Jesus Christ before the world began. These elect ones
are called the ransomed of the Lord because they are the people
for whom Jesus Christ shed his blood. Brother Don, we've always
heard that Christ died for everybody. You've always heard wrong. That's
just wrong. If Christ died for folks who
are in hell, his death is meaningless. If Christ died for folks who
are lost anyhow, the fact that he died for them is utterly insignificant. To teach such a doctrine is to
teach that Christ is a failure, and to teach that he's a failure
is to declare he's not God. That's how serious it is. Jesus
Christ died for his elect. He redeemed his elect. They are
called the ransomed of the Lord. And at the appointed time of
love, which God sent from eternity, each of the elect shall be brought
to himself. Look at Jeremiah chapter 31.
The Lord assures us repeatedly in his word that his chosen,
the ransomed of the Lord, shall at God's appointed time return
to him. These who were chosen of God
from old eternity were scattered among the nations. Scattered,
dispersed by the fall of our father Adam, according to God's
decree. Scattered, dispersed after the
flood among the families of the sons of Noah, among all the nations
of the earth. Scattered into every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. They were scattered specifically
that they might be gathered and gathered in such a way as to
greatly magnify and honor and glorify the name of our God. They were scattered that God
might gather them so that all men might know that he's God
and acknowledge that he's God, glorifying him in the great accomplishment
of our redemption and salvation. These scattered sheep were gathered
by Christ Jesus, shed blood at Calvary. He ransomed them all
at one time by the sacrifice of himself, with his own blood
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for these elect ones. And they were seated with him
when he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
He hath quickened us together with Christ, raised us up with
Christ, and made us sit down with Christ. And now the Lord
God is gathering his elect out of the world by the power of
his omnipotent grace. This is what's transpiring in
time. God is returning his elect to
himself. God is gathering his scattered
ones to himself. That's all the explanation needed
of all history. God is working salvation in the
earth for his people. Look at Jeremiah chapter 31 verse
1. At that same time, saith the
Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel and they
shall be my people. Now, if you read later on in
this chapter, you read about the covenant that God makes with
his Israel. And he makes this covenant very
strong, plain language, forgiving their sins and their iniquities
and their transgressions, writing his law upon their hearts, putting
his spirit within them. He says, I will be their God
and they shall be my people. but he's not talking about that
physical nation over on the other side of the world. No, no. Hebrews
chapter 8 and Hebrews chapter 12 make it plain. He's talking
about another Israel. He's talking about the Israel
of God. He says, they all shall be my people. Verse 2, thus saith
the Lord, the people which were left of the sword found grace
in the wilderness. Even Israel, when I went to cause
him to rest, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. Again, I will build thee, and
thou shalt be built. Oh, Virgin of Israel. What a
way for God to describe us. Oh, Virgin of Israel. We see
them in the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation and again
in the 14th chapter of the book of Revelation. God's elect gathered
in heaven called virgins who have not defiled themselves with
men. But we, like the children of Israel physically, have done
nothing but defile ourselves. Yet in Christ Jesus, from everlasting
to everlasting, made pure before God and described by him as chaste
virgins in Christ Jesus. O Virgin of Israel, thou shalt
again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in dances
of them that make merry. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon
the mountains of Samaria. The planters shall plant and
shall eat them as common things. This land that God made desolate,
he said, I will restore. For there shall be a day that
the watchman upon the mount of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and
let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God. Remember in Hosea
chapter 4, God said Ephraim is joined to his idols. Let him
alone. But even in Ephraim, there's
an elect remnant. And God says, there's a day when the watchman
upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, arise, let us go up to Zion
unto the Lord our God. For thus saith the Lord, sing
with gladness for Jacob and shout among the chief of the nations,
that is, among the Gentiles, publish ye, praise ye, and say,
O Lord, save thy people the remnant of Israel. Oh God, help us thus
to pray. Help us thus to proclaim good
news. God shall save His people, the
remnant of Israel. And let us pray continually that
the Lord will save His people, the remnant of Israel. Behold,
I will bring them from the north country and gathered them from
the coast of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame,
the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together,
a great company shall return thither. They shall come with
weeping and with supplications will I lead them. He promises to lead, but he leads
his people with supplications, leads us by us with broken hearts,
supplicating his throne. I will lead them with supplications.
I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in the straight
way, wherein they shall not stumble. They'll not depart from this
way. They won't stumble in this way. For I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn. Ephraim? Ephraim? My firstborn. Jesus Christ is
the firstborn among many brethren, and all who are in Christ are
called the church of the firstborn. That's because David in Christ,
we're one with him, and we're God's firstborn. We're God's
firstborn, the people peculiarly blessed of God. Hear the word
of the Lord, O ye nations, hear this, all nations of the earth,
and declare it in the isles afar off and say, he that scattered
Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth flock. The scattering was God's work
and the gathering is God's work. He that scattered Israel shall
gather them and he will keep them like a shepherd keeps his
flock. Now turn back to Isaiah chapter
35. This is perhaps a more familiar
prophecy. Here The Lord God shows us how
he returns his elect to himself. Here we can watch the elect return. Here we're told not only that
God's elect shall return to him, but how it is that he accomplishes
this work. Now, hear me, you who do not
know God, you must turn to the Lord. You must turn to the Lord. That's deliberate. That's purposeful. That's something you must do.
But you will never turn until you have been turned by his grace. I don't spend my time begging
you to turn to God. I spend my time begging God to
turn you to himself. I don't stand up here and tell
stories to draw crocodile tears from folks and get them all stirred
up in a passion to make a profession of faith. I spend my time pleading
with God, seeking a message from God that he may turn you to himself. Surely Ephraim said, after that
I was turned, I repented. And after that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. You must call upon
the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But you will never call on God
for grace until God has called you by his grace. It won't happen. It won't happen. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. We must
return to the Lord, but none will ever return to the Lord
until they have been returned by the mighty operations of God's
own grace. Ye were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned. Not, but now you have returned.
But you are now returned. We who are gathered to Christ,
worshiping Him, gather ourselves willingly and gladly to worship
Him at His footstool. But we gather around Him because
He gathers us around Him. We turn to Him because He turns
us to Him. We return to Him because He has
returned us to Himself. Draw me, O Lord, and we will
run after thee. Turn us, O God of our salvation,
and we shall be turned. Here in Isaiah 35, we have a
prophecy that certainly speaks of the restoration of Judah and
the revival that took place at the end of Hezekiah's reign after
the Assyrian invasion. The prophecy also reaches to
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in his advent to redeem
us in the first advent when he came in the flesh and spreads
the gospel in all the nations of the earth. And the prophecy
speaks of the coming of our Lord Jesus in his glorious second
advent. All during these times, when
our Lord Jesus came again in the restoration at the end of
Hezekiah's reign, when he came in the earth and sends the gospel
out now by the power of his spirit, and when he comes again in his
glorious advent, he is gathering his elect to himself. He gathers
us by providence. He gathers us by grace, and in
the end, He will gather us in the resurrection, all His ransomed
ones. Now, I'm not going to spend much
time about the history of the passage, because Judah and Hezekiah
are no longer with us. Not much point in talking about
the history there. And I'm not going to spend much time about
the prophetic declaration of when Christ comes the second
time in his glory, because I don't know much about it. I know more
than Hal Lindsey and that crowd. I know a lot more than that.
But I don't know much about prophecy. Don't know much about prophecy.
The fact is, there's not much prophecy in this book that hasn't
been fulfilled. There's very little that hasn't
been fulfilled. The only thing that hasn't been
fulfilled is the second coming of Christ and the end of the
earth, the resurrection and the final judgment. That's all. That's
all. Everything else has been fulfilled. Our Lord Jesus fulfilled
it when he came the first time. I want rather to spend my time
talking to you about what I know. I want to talk to you about the
saving power of God's free grace, gathering his elect to himself.
In verses 1 and 2, the Lord makes a promise. In verses 3 and 4,
he speaks to us about the accomplishment of that promise in the preaching
of the gospel. And then in verses 5 through
10, this promise of grace is performed. First, the Lord makes
a promise. Verse 1, Isaiah 35. In chapter
34, the Lord has been declaring the judgment that
falls upon Edom because of their ungodliness, because of their
sin, the certain destruction of that place. That certainly
is a picture of the judgment that God will bring upon all
the nations of the earth in the end time because of rebellion
and ungodliness. But here he promises grace when
the God of Judah came and caused that land to be brought in judgment,
he promises grace and promises to make the land fruitful again.
And this earth that God cursed, way back there in Genesis chapter
3, that's been bringing forth thorns and thistles, pain and
sorrow, sickness and death from that time to this, this earth
shall yet be fruitful for the glory of our God. Imagine that. God shall soon make all things
new. And in this wilderness called
the earth, in this wilderness of our own barren hearts and
souls, the Lord God promises to perform his grace. Verse one,
the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. Glad for God's judgments. Yes. For by these things, God performs
his grace to his people. Glad to see their enemies fall.
Yes. For in the fall and crushing
of Satan, the Lord God sets his own free. And the desert shall
rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and
rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be
given unto it. Obviously, he's not talking here
about the physical blossoming of a desert. Who ever heard tell
of anything in a desert singing? No, no. He's talking about something
spiritual. It shall joy and sing and bring
glory to God. The glory of Lebanon shall be
given to it. This desolate place and the excellency
of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord and
the excellency of our God. God promises that he will where
there is desolation, emptiness, barrenness, and death. Where
there's nothing but vanity and darkness and chaos. He comes
in the power of his spirit by the mighty operation of his grace
and he causes the desert to blossom He calls us there to be streams
bursting forth in the hearts of renewed souls. He said, you
shall have in you a well of living water springing up unto everlasting
life. And these to whom God is thus
gracious shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellence
of the God of Jacob. Listen to this. You're familiar
with it at the conclusion of Isaiah 53, when the prophet describes
our Lord Jesus justifying many by his knowledge, that is, by
the knowledge of those whom he has redeemed, by the knowledge
of those for whom he stood as surety, by the knowledge of what
he has done as our substitute, he will justify many. He will
gather together his elect and cause them to worship him. And
then the prophet says, Sing, O barren, thou that didst not
bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud, thou that didst not prevail with child. For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. That is God will bring forth
great multitudes out of the Gentile nations who had been abandoned
all these years. But now to them, God sends his
gospel and calls out his people before Christ comes to the center.
He's like a solitary, desolate wilderness. An empty, barren
desert. Man by nature has nothing. can do nothing, can offer nothing
to God. He has no eyes with which to
see, no heart with which to believe, no mind with which to understand,
no ears with which to hear, no feet to bring him to the Savior,
no hands with which to serve him. Man is empty. He's dead. Like the earth, there's
darkness and chaos in the soul of man and nothing else, nothing
else. Like the desolate earth, he's
without form and void and darkness is upon the face of the deep.
But when Christ comes, he makes the wilderness to blossom. He
brings forth fruit and causes the desert to rejoice. Grace. God's grace. Sam, it's always
effectual. That's a big word. What does
that mean? It always gets the job done. It's always effectual. It always brings forth fruit,
the fruit of faith and love and joy and peace and all those things
described as fruit of the spirit. The grace of God in the heart
wrought by the spirit makes fruit to blossom in this desert so
that we have now the joy of forgiveness. the joy of faith, the joy of
life, the strength of Lebanon, the fruitfulness of Carmel, the
beauty of Sharon. When Christ comes in the saving
power of his grace, he reveals himself so that we're made to
see the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord that that
shouldn't be such a mystical thing in the minds of men, as
the theologians have made it and preachers continue to make
it, as if it's something you can't really identify distinctly. Oh, you can identify it distinctly.
The glory of the Lord is the salvation of His elect. As is
set forth in this book, God's glory, Larry Brown, is tied to
your everlasting salvation. Show me your glory. And the Lord
put him in the cleft of the rock and showed Moses his glory. He
said, I'll be gracious to him. I'll be gracious. Forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin, this one who declares, I will by no
means clear the guilty. The glory of God is the sovereignty
of his free grace by which he saves his people justly and righteously
in Christ the Lord. We're made to see the excellency
of our God. Now there's something mystical.
The excellency of our God is his character. The excellency
of our God is his supremacy. The excellency of our God is
his solitariness as God. This is what God promises to
do for sinners. When he comes in saving power,
he gives life. He gives joy. where there was
none before, and he makes himself known. No man can accomplish
that. No group of men can accomplish
that. No committee can accomplish that. No amount of planning and
organization can accomplish that. That doesn't depend on how well
prepared we are for the services six months down the road. That
doesn't depend on somebody giving us a lecture on how to grow the
church God's way. It comes by the power of the
gospel. This preaching of the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. This is the power by which God
calls out his own. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. How come? Because it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. All
right, that's the promise of grace. Let's look for a minute
at the preaching of grace. verses three and four. These are God's words to his
prophets. These are God's words to every
preacher. These are God's words to every
preacher. This one and everyone who stands
as I do in a place like this, speaking in God's name to eternity
bound sinners, whether they be one or one thousand. This is
God's word. to every preacher. Strengthen
ye the weak hands. Strengthen my people. Strengthen
them. Strengthen them with the strength
of my grace. Strengthen them with the word
of my grace, with the comfort that I've declared you must give
to them. Tell them that their iniquities,
pardon, that they've received of the Lord's hand, double for
all their sin, that their warfare is over. Confirm the feeble knees. Feeble knees are knees fallen
that can't stand, let alone walk or run. Feeble knees. Strengthen not by putting strength
in the knees. Strengthen by pointing us to
him who is our strength. Say ye to them that are of a
fearful heart. to those who can't find peace,
to those whose minds are constantly in turmoil. Be strong. Be strong. Not in yourself. You don't have any strength in
yourself. Quit trying to find it in yourself. Fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance. Even God to recompense. God will
come with vengeance upon all his enemies and yours. He will
recompense every evildoer justly. Just wait. Just wait. You remember
how Paul spoke to his accusers who slandered him in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4? He said, he said, I don't defend
myself. And it matters nothing to me
what you think of me. My only concern is pleasing my
God. Nothing else matters. God's honor,
God's will, God's purpose, nothing else matters. The Lord will come
with vengeance. He will come with recompense
upon his enemies and ours. There's a day coming when God
will make all things known. When I am pressed for someone
to defend against some accusation, when I'm pressed, I don't ever
defend myself. I'll defend you at the drop of
a hat. I'll defend faithful men without hesitating a second,
but I don't defend myself from anybody ever, ever. And if they
press, I tell them I'm prepared to wait for the day of judgment. I'm prepared to wait. Are you?
I'm prepared to wait for God to vindicate me. And if that
doesn't happen, you have been absolutely right in everything
you've said. Prepared to wait. God will come
with vengeance and recompense. He will come and save you. While we seek the salvation of
God's elect, we must minister comfort to God's people, strengthening
their hands, confirming their feeble knees, speaking to those
of fearful heart, be strong, don't be afraid, you belong to
God. That's what Bobby just prayed
a little bit ago. We murmur and complain and fret
and worry. When I say we, Bob, I do mean
we, me too. as though God didn't exist, as
though somehow God actually did die. We belong to God. What is there to fret about? Who shall I fear? Of whom shall
I be afraid? And then the Lord tells us about
the performance of his mighty work of grace. Watch this. Then,
then. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. A couple
of weeks ago, down in Taylor, Arkansas, Brother Clay Curtis'
uncle, he's a little bit younger than I am, Mark. I've known him
for, oh, 22, 23 years. Mark's been blind since he was
18 months old. He wore thick, thick, thick Coca-Cola
bottle glasses, and then he could see just a little bit, still
couldn't make out the features on my face. I walked up to him
when I first saw him down there, and I said, I'm going to tell
him about the audiobooks. I've got the audiobooks. I'm
going to send you some. When I took his hand and shaked hands
with him, he said, I can see you. I can't imagine how disappointed he must
have been. He said, I can see you. I can see you. I said, what? He said, I can
see you just as clear as day. After all these years, he found
a doctor. Our doctor found him. I don't
know how it happened. He was able to perform surgery on him,
and that man can see. You can't imagine everybody he
saw down there. I can see you. I can see you. I've never been so tickled for
something happening to somebody else physically in my life. Can
you imagine spending 50, 55 years and now you can see? Now you
can see. That's what happens when God
comes in His grace. The blind see. They see. What you couldn't understand
is playing his nose on your face. They say the deaf hear the lame
who could not and would not and had nothing for which to give
praise to God. Now sing his praise. The lame
leap and sing God's praise with tongues of the learned. Read
on. In the wilderness shall waters
break out. Many men thirst and come to me. and out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. Streams in the desert, and the
parched ground shall be a pool, and the thirsty land springs
of water, and in here the habitation of dragons, where each lay shall
be grass with reeds and rushes. In here where there's nothing
but darkness and foul beast. In here there was nothing but
raging roaring lions tearing all the time. And an highway
shall be there and a way. And it shall be called the way
of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it. Here's a highway. A highway built
just for specific people, a clean people. The unclean can't get
on there. The unclean can't come this way.
You can't walk in this way, except God make you clean by his grace. And when God calls you by his
grace, he sprinkles the conscience with the blood of Christ, purging
you from dead works and declares you clean. And he puts you in
the way. The way is Christ the Lord. It's
the way of holiness. Not yours. He is. Not what you
do, what he's done. Way of holiness. He is our holiness. I don't care how much a fella
talks out of the left corner of his mouth and whispers grace.
If what you hear out of his mouth is works, you run from him like
you'd run from somebody who was determined to murder you. No,
no. The message of the gospel is
grace, grace, grace, free grace. Grace in Christ Jesus. This is
the old way. This is the only way. This is
the good way. It's called the way of holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those,
the wayfaring men. They acknowledge themselves such.
Though fools, not so smart. Fools. David said, I was as a beast
before you. Fools. The fool has said in his heart,
no God. The fool said in his heart, no
God for me. I won't bow. I won't believe. I won't trust him. I won't come
to him. And now God comes in his grace
and fetches the fool to himself. And this poor wayfaring man,
though he knows himself to be a fool, shall not err therein. Jeremiah said he won't stumble
in this way. Won't err in this way. You have an unction from
the Spirit. You know all things. Todd Nyberg called me this morning.
He said, Brother Don, is this going too far? When one of the
Lord's people hears the truth, he just knows it. That's it.
That's exactly what it is. My sheep know my voice. They know the shepherd's voice.
When he speaks, they hear and they follow him. They shall not
err therein. No lion shall be there. Nor any ravenous beast. No danger
here. Satan can't come here. All he
can do is stand by the side and roar. No ravenous beast shall
go up there on. It shall not be found there. But the redeemed of the Lord
shall walk there. Every one of them. and the ransomed
of the Lord shall return. Every one of them. And come to
Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall
obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. We who mourned, or comforted,
and sorrow and sighing flee away. The curse that terrified us and
tormented us is gone, and sorrow and sighing flee away. Oh, but
Brother Don, in this world, we still have so much sorrow and
sighing. Ain't it the truth? But not for
long. We come to the end of this way,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." I like to watch
the return of God's elect. Let me call your attention to
just a few, and I'll quit. There's a man by the name of
Abram down in Ur of the Chaldees, a pagan, ungodly, base idolater,
loved of God. chosen of God, redeemed with
the blood of the Lamb. And God appeared to Abram and
called him. Called him out of Ur of the Chaldees.
And then the Lord revealed himself to Abram. And when he revealed
himself to Abram, Abram offered a sacrifice to God. And God spoke
to Abraham. And he said, now you're just
with God. declared to Abraham that he's
justified on the basis of that which was represented in the
sacrifice. There was a man by the name of
Moses. God met him one day in a bush
and revealed himself as Jehovah, the great I am, who comes to
redeem his people. And then he sent that man, Moses,
with the word to a chosen people who were typical of his people.
A chosen Israel, typical of Israel. He sends Moses to them and brings
them out of Egypt. How? Moses first declared God's
purpose to do it. Gave them the word of the Lord
and said, the Lord's going to bring you out. And then he gave
them a picture of it in a Passover sacrifice. And they, with their
staff in their hands, ate the lamb of the Passover. And that
night, God brought them out of Egypt by a mighty hand. And they
stood on the other side of the Red Sea the next day and looked,
and there were all their enemies. Everything that had opposed them
for 400 years. dead in the sea. Oh, I'm so sorry. No, they sang and danced. And
they went around and gathered up the spoil. And so it shall
be with God's elect. I read the other day about Jacob,
another one of God's elect, one of the sons of Abraham. And the
fellow said, Jacob wrestled with God. No, he didn't. Oh, no, God
met Jacob. The Lord Jesus met Jacob and
the scripture said there wrestled a man with Jacob. The work was
started and accomplished by Christ himself. And the Lord Jesus pinned
Jacob and broke his thigh and made him acknowledge who he was.
And as soon as he did, he said, you'll not be called Jacob anymore.
Your name is Prince with God. He's made us kings and priests
unto God. There was a woman. an adulterous woman, a woman who was easily caught
in the very act by some self-righteous legalist Pharisees. And they
brought her to the Son of God. And when they did, they said,
Moses says kill her. What do you say? And the Lord
Jesus stooped to the ground Rode on the ground. Had no idea what
he said. Whatever it was, got rid of her
accusers. Whatever it was, left him alone
with the woman. And he says to that woman, where
are those who doth now accuse thee? And she said, no man, Lord. And he said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. calling her by his grace. And
he used the strangest of means to do it. All her ungodly path put her in the clutches of ungodly
religious people. determined to destroy her, and
thus he returned her to himself. What do we do in this business
of building God's church? Nothing. We preach the gospel
and watch the election returns. And today, as always, God adds
daily to his church exactly everybody who should be saved. And anybody
else's name written down on the roll is just wood, hay, and stubble. Nothing's accomplished. Amen.