I accused Brother Gene of preaching
the whole Bible last year. I saw him downstairs eating last
night. I pointed at him and I said, pick
out a text. And I don't mean Gil's body of
divinity. But he did it to me again anyway. Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 and just
hold your place there and let me talk to you for a few minutes. I told our folks not too long
ago, we have a and I counted a blessing,
we have a steady flow of visitors who come. See, our folks don't know any
better. They think God saves sinners, and so they still invite
them, and they still come. I'm so thankful for that. But
I told them this. I said, I don't expect when men
and women come to hear me preach that when I'm finished they're
gonna fall out into the aisle and come running down saying,
I believe, I believe. I don't expect that. And you
can write that off to unbelief if you want to, there's plenty
of it in me. But the fact of it is, this thing
of conversion has to do with persuasion. Persuasion. Abraham. The Father of the faithful. The example of faith. It says,
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded. Persuaded. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded. that he's able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. And then he said this. He said, knowing the terror of
the Lord, we persuade. Persuade. What I look for rather in the
folks who come and visit is an appetite. You can tell when you say something
from the scriptures. We had something very unusual. Half a church showed up at our
place one Sunday morning. A half a church. I've been around
this thing a long time. I've never seen anything like
it. We were preparing for the meeting that morning, and one
of the fellas came running in all big-eyed, and he said, the
parking lot's full. And I said, well, great. I don't see a problem. He said,
no. He said, the parking lot is full. And they started coming in. And
I don't know, there was 20-some people came that morning. Another
lady had 18 children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren that
came with her. And our place was just packed out on that Sunday. And these folks were filled with
questions. And after the service, that was
the Sunday we had our fellowship. And they came back, and they
were just filled with questions. Well, what about this? What about
that? What do y'all believe concerning this? What do you think about
that? And they were just full of questions. And I just put
them off. And the following Sunday, they
came back. And pretty soon, the questions
stopped. And then they started showing
up on Wednesday night. And you give them those pictures. And they light up like a light
bulb. It's like, wow! And they can
see. Faith begins with an appetite. You come to the table when you're
hungry. When you're hungry. The hymn writer said, all the
fitness he requires to feel your need of him. I look first for
the need, and then you can with confidence expect somebody to
begin to cry. I believe. I believe. And this persuasion, I believe,
is a twofold work. It's a work, first of all, of
the Holy Spirit of God. I don't have the power to persuade
anybody of anything. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 7,
Paul said, we preach the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world under our glory,
which none of the princes of this world knew. Not the doctors
of divinity, or the rabbis, or the Pharisees, or the scribes,
None of the princes of this world knew these things, not the wise
and the prudent. God hid these things from the
wise and the prudent. And if they'd known it, they
wouldn't have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written,
I have not seen nor heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man, all man, every man, any man. the things which God hath
prepared for them that love it. But God, can you hear me? But God hath
revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. This thing of conversion
and faith, the godly persuasion, and it's the work of the Holy
Spirit of God. And most men will confess that
at least. I don't think many believe, but
most will confess it. But secondly, it's the results
of the preaching of chosen men sin of God, ordained of God, with glad tidings of Christ to
God's elect. Do you believe that? I believe that preaching is as
necessary to your conversion as the blood of Christ. Do you
believe that? I hear talk of hungry sinners,
thirsty sinners, sinful sinners. There are not going to be any
sinners apart from the preaching of the gospel. Your sinnerhood is something
revealed. It's something that the Holy
Spirit of God has to show you. That scripture in James that
we heard preached to us a little earlier in the conference, of
his own will begat he us with the word of truth that we should
be a kind of first fruits of his creature. Listen to how James
followed that statement up. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, be swift to hear, slow to speak,
slow to write. Paul said this true faith that
shuts men up to Christ and brings them to see that He's the end
of the law for righteousness. He said it's nigh thee. It's
brought nigh thee. And it doesn't talk about our
worthiness, causing God to send His Son down from heaven. And
it doesn't talk about your faith or your good works, mixed with
His work. to cause God to raise him up
from the dead. He said it's the word of faith
which we preach. Ain't that what he said? Preach. In Romans chapter 10 it says,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
I believe that. But that's not where the verse
ends. How shall you call on Him in
whom you have not believed? How shall you believe on Him
of whom you have not heard? And how shall you hear without
a preacher? And how on earth is He going
to preach if God doesn't send Him? I was preaching on this subject
one night. After the service, I could tell this fella was hot.
He was mad. And we have a little recorder
in it. When you get done, it makes a CD, and I was waiting
for the CD to come out, and he came up. I could tell he was
mad. I was trying to avoid him. He came up, and after some discussion,
he said, well, took his finger, and he was hammering on the pulpit. How are you going to explain
my conversion then? I said, I'm not going to explain
your conversion. God didn't call me to explain
your conversion. I'm going to let you explain
it to the God who said, how shall you hear without a preacher? You explain it. Well, I know
I'm saved. You explain that to God. Don't
explain it to me. We took a couple of fellas in
the other day as members of the church. Somebody said, well,
did you question them? I said, yeah, and how to spell
their name? We don't have a lot of problem
with folks wanting to join the church, do you? I'm telling you this, it's utter
nonsense, utter nonsense to talk about conversion apart from these
two things, the work of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the
gospel. And folks get the idea that somehow
they're born again and then some 20 years later they hear the
gospel. That's nonsense too. Here's what the Bible says, because
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. In 2 Thessalonians 2, in the
last days, most of you are familiar with these passages. I won't
have you to turn. And that's today, if you're not
aware of it. We've been in the last days since
the appearance of Christ. And Paul tells us that the spirit
of Antichrist Religion spreads throughout the world,
and there's a great falling away. Free will works religion with
its lying wonders, its fleshly presentation, and its intimidation
of numbers, and of power, and worldly influence. They just
swallow up everybody in its path. And with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, who would not receive
the love of the truth that they might be saved, who love darkness
rather than light, it says, were given of God over to a strong
delusion to believe a lie and be damned forever. But he said, I thank God for
you, beloved. Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel.
Now my message to you this morning over here in Ephesians chapter
2 is a seat with a view. I worked for a young fellow here
in Lexington for several years when I came up here from Louisiana. My brother Merle knows him. And their family's pretty well
off. They'd been around Lexington for years and years. He found
out I was a Kentucky basketball fan, but I'd never been to Rupp
Arena. And he said, oh, you got to go
to a Kentucky basketball game. You have to do it. And so he
bought us some tickets, and my wife and I went. And we thoroughly
enjoyed ourselves, but the seats we got were as far up. I mean, we sat
with the pigeons. And so we couldn't tell. And Monday morning, come around,
he said, how'd you like it? I said, well, we had a lot of
fun. But I said, I was setting up in the rafters. And I said,
we couldn't tell. I couldn't tell which team won what. So
a couple weeks went by, and he came and got me, and he said,
I want you to go to the game with me. He said, my dad's out
of town this weekend, and he's had seats over there for 30 years.
His seats, he said, 10 rows up from the players' bench. He said,
from my father's seat, he said, you can see everything. You see
where I'm going with that? Oh, now listen to this. Verse 4, but God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin,
hath quickened us together with Christ by grace, ye are saved,
and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. But that's not all. Watch this
now. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus
For by grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should fall
from my Father's chair. You can see it all. Oh, my. This chapter begins with this
statement, and you Hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins? I don't know of another word
that describes the condition of man better than death. Do
you? He's graveyard dead. And there's a lot you can say
about death. Death is not affected by love
and concern. I've wept over corpses. My heart broke, leaning over
the corpse, tears falling on the chest. I just lay there. Death has no understanding. Crowds
gather before the coffin. Words are said, but the dead
heed not. Death doesn't reason. There's
none that understandeth, Paul said, and none that seeketh after
God. Death has no will. Constrained by its condition,
totally at the mercy of somebody else's will, death has no eyes. The dead lay in darkness. But chiefly, I want you to see
this. And this is what I believe Paul's trying to tell us here.
Death takes man out of the equation. Takes him out of the way. Takes out man. Takes him out
of the equation. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. Old Lazarus lay in the darkness
of death, shut up to its corrupting powers, and shut up to the rotting
effects of it, and shut up to the absence of reason until God
sent him a preacher. Lazarus! Come forth. He heard it, didn't he? Evidently, he was persuaded.
He come out. Might I add, without doing damage
to the text, as our Lord sent out his disciples, he gave them
this encouraging word. He that heareth you, heareth
me. Apart from an intervention of
God, nothing changes in death. That representative dead or spiritually
dead spiritually dead, physically die. Receiving their due reward,
they enter into the second cave. Only one hope that I can find
in the word of God, and that is this quickening to which Paul
refers. Quicken together with Christ.
Made a lie. Made a lie. God quickened us
together with Christ. by an act of sovereign election
before the world began. Do you know, I read in the Old
Testament the other day, talking about before the mountains were
formed, and before the meadows, and before the sky, and the sun,
and the moon, and all these things, that Christ rejoiced with his
people. You ever read that? Well, he couldn't rejoice with
them if they weren't alive. Quickened together with Christ
by an act of sovereign election before the world began. Blessed
be, Paul said back in chapter one, the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. saw us as one,
treated us as one, blessed us as one, and rewarded us as one. God, Paul said, hath saved us. These apostles knew these things.
They knew these things. God hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. In Genesis 2, verse 8, it said,
God planted a garden eastward of Eden, and there He put the
man He had formed. In John 15, verse 1, the Savior
said, I am the true vine. And my father's the husband man. He put his vine in his garden,
and he put me in his vine. Isn't that what he said? In this vine, he put everything.
He put all of his wisdom, all of his grace, and all of his
mercy, and all of his pardon, all of his love, all of his strength. He put it all in that bin. How can you receive it? He has
to take you and graft you into the bin. You see, there's a lot more to
this thing than coming down an aisle. There's a lot more to
this thing than just sitting out here and making a, well,
I think I'll turn over a new leaf. The other leaf just like
the one. You're just wasting your time
turning over leaves. It takes a grafting in to this
eternal vine, and out of that vine flows life. This life is
in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God, whatever else He has, has not
life. There's a legal quickening. An agreement between the Godhead
as to the salvation of sinners for the glory of His name. David
said, although it be not so with my house, yet hath He made with
me. When did He do that? An everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure. Most folks I talk to, you never
heard of a covenant. What's a covenant? David said, it's all my salvation,
all my desire. There was a pictorial, promissory
quickening, illustrating to the eyes of faith
the way of substitution and representation, how these old prophets must have
wondered as they stood and prophesied. Peter said they did, and he said,
they searched diligently, diligently. Here they were, prophesying to
the people, giving pictures to the people, talking about these
sufferings of this coming Redeemer. And all the while they were wondering,
wondering, wondering who this is, wondering when this time
is going to be. What in the world is he talking
about? Unto whom it was revealed, 1
Peter 1.12. that not unto themselves, but
unto us they did minister the things which are now reported
unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire
of you." What's the name? What's the name? Told our Lord and said, don't
you know them folks is upset out there? Nice and powerful
people out there, doctors and pharisees, the councils out there. Master, why are you talking to
us in parables? They're getting upset. Not giving
unto them to hear, giving to you. Giving to you. When did that happen? When he
quickened you together with him. Fourthly, there's a bodily quickening.
Quicken together with him. Permanently. I don't know if
you've ever thought about this. Permanently, taking to himself
the form of a man. You're talking about quicken
together. Thomas, stick your finger in
that hole. You got any fish? Give me a bite. quickened together bodily. There's a man in glory. A man just like me, just like
you, in glory. Took not on him the nature of
angels, but the seed of Abraham. Paul said, when the fullness
of the time was come, that time ordained an eternity. God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. Oh, what an encouragement to
faith and to the willingness of God to save. This day is born
in that little town of Bethlehem, Judah, a Savior. And we're going to call Him Emmanuel.
That's what He's called in Heavens, Emmanuel. Why you want to call
Him that? Because it's God with us. Quickened. Quickened together. And in Biblia there was a bodily
resurrection. Quickened together with Christ,
it says, He raised us up together with Him and made us sit together
with Him in the Heavens. He was delivered for our offenses,
raised again for our justification. Having accomplished the will
of God both in his righteous obedience and in his propitiating
death, God raised him from the dead to declare to men and angels
and devils and anybody else that's interested the righteousness of God in his
justification of sinners. that God may be just and justify
any man who dares believe. And then, sixthly, there's a
quickening of the spirit through the gospel whereby men and women
are raised up. Are you listening? Raised up. in understanding, raised up in revelation, the
eyes of their understanding being enlightened that they might see, revealed to their hearts that
they might know what is the heights and depths
and widths, even the deep things of God. They might know these
things. Ooh, that's a lot different than
making a decision, isn't it? John said in Revelations 4, I
saw a door open in heaven. That's what I'm trying to preach
to you this morning. And he said, I looked up at that
door and heard a voice. It said, come up here. Come up here. See, you can't
see down here. All you can see is the outward
countenance. That's as far as these eyes will go. I can look
at you, and you can put on a facade. I'd walk away and not know any
different. But up there, up there, seated with him, you can see
how God saved Sam. You can see the glory of God.
in the redemption of his people. You can determine the will of
God. Did you know that? Listen to this. Over here in
chapter 1 verse 9, having made known unto us the mystery of
his will. How can I know that? Raise me
up. Raise me up. Oh, what I'm laboring to say
to you this morning, to encourage these preachers in this church
and those of you who have a burden for lost souls, God has seated his elect in Christ. And they're already seated at
his right hand. My brother told me one time,
he said, if I believe what you believe, I wouldn't preach. I said, it's because I believe
what I believe that I do pray. I wouldn't waste my time. Once you're enabled to see what
you are, then, you know, when God convinces a man of sin, I
forget where I read this the other day. I thought it was a
good point. I'll close with that. He said, once God convinces you
of sin, he must convince you then of the righteousness of
Christ and of judgment past, because
you can't believe it. You can't believe it. How could
God save a wretch? Out there.