Let's turn together tonight to
Psalm 21, the 21st Psalm. A long, long time ago, I was
up in Dingus, West Virginia, preaching for a small congregation
I go to every year at least once and have for many, many years.
Brother Hap Yates was pastor back then. Brother Gary Vance,
who is now pastor there, was leading the congregation in scripture
reading and prayer. Had he prayed these exact words,
I don't think I'll ever forget them. I don't count on that anymore. I'm about to forget my own name,
but I don't think I'll forget him. He said, Lord, Brother Don's
come to preach to us, and he's just a man. Preaching. Brother John read that passage
in Romans 10 before he sang this evening, How shall the preach
except they be sent? You're not just sent initially. But unless God has sent me here
with a message tonight, all you're going to hear from this man is
just so many words that are meaningless and useless. But I believe He
sent me with a message to you. And I want to preach to you about
a subject that you hear very little about and read very little
about these days. Prevenient grace. Some of you might scratch your
heads wondering why he's talking about that, I don't even know
what the word means. Well, I'm glad you asked what the word
means. Prevenient grace is grace that goes before grace and prepares
the way for grace. Prevenient grace is that grace
that precedes our experience of grace. Few people say anything
about it these days, because most people don't know anything
about the Bible, especially those who stand in pulpits. But the
old writers and the old preachers talked about it a great deal.
And the psalmist David sang about it. Let's begin here in Psalm
21, verse 1. That's the Lord Jesus. Shall
joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation how greatly
shall he rejoice. This is a prophecy of our Savior's
joy as the result of that salvation which he would accomplish by
his shed blood on our behalf. when God the Son assumed our
nature. He agreed upon certain terms
and conditions given him in the covenant, terms and conditions
of grace required by God, terms and conditions that he alone
would meet and he alone could meet. And the Lord God promised
him, upon his obedience, ask of me and I will give you the
heathen for thine inheritance. The Lord God promised him that
he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his head. And so the Lord Jesus here speaks
prophetically by the psalmist and says, the king shall joy
in thy strength. And in thy salvation how greatly
shall he rejoice. The Lord Jesus sitting under
on the throne is filled with joy. Filled with joy because
of the salvation he's accomplished. filled with joy as He looks down
here on you, gathered here worshiping Him in His grace, filled with
joy as He beholds redeemed sinners coming to Him in faith by the
mighty power of His grace. Verse 2, Thou hast given Him
His heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of
His lips, What was our Savior's heart's desire? Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God. Father, glorify thy name. Thy will be done. And God's given him his heart's
desire. He said, I have glorified it and will glorify it yet again. And God has been glorified in
his accomplished work as our mediator. What was the desire,
the request of his lips? Was it not the salvation of his
people? The heart's desire of Christ and the prayer of his
lips, which cannot be and will not be withheld from him, was
the glory of his Father. and the complete salvation of
his elect, the utter everlasting welfare of his people. Nothing
is so dear to the heart of God the Son. Nothing is so dear to the heart
of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Nothing is so dear to the heart
of Him who holds the reins of the universe in His hands as
you, His people. Nothing so dear to Him as the
redemption of our souls by His blood, as our regeneration by
His Spirit, as our comfort in time of trouble, preservation
in trial, our holiness before God, and our happiness forever
in His presence. Now look at the last word in
our King James translation that's given in verse 2. Selah. It's really a punctuation mark.
When I read the scriptures, I normally don't read the word out loud
audibly, reading publicly. I'm not saying you shouldn't,
I just normally don't, because it really is a punctuation mark.
But it's a punctuation mark that, you ever read something and it'll
have Period, period, period, period. That means there's something
else to follow. This punctuation mark, this sylla,
is a word that's given emphatically to tell us, pause now. Roll this
over in your mind. Roll this over in your heart. Think on what you just read.
The Lord God Almighty has given him the desire of his heart. and the request of his lips,
linger a while and meditate on this. Eternity will not be long
enough for us to encompass it. The Lord Jesus in his heart's
desires and with his lips has requested that God be glorified
in the salvation of our souls by him. Don't read the scriptures real
fast just to get through your allotted reading for today. Read
the scriptures thoughtfully, carefully. Think on these things. Verse 3, For thou providest him
That word prevent, we use it today as a word that means to
hinder or to stop or to impede something. That's really too
bad because we corrupt words a lot of times by usage. The
word really means, the old English word prevent means to precede
or go before. So write that down somewhere
in the margin of your Bible. The word means thou goest before
him. Thou predest him with the blessings
of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. Now come back to that. Let's
look at verse 4. He asked life of thee, and thou
gavest it him, even make the days forever and ever. John 17, the Lord Jesus asked
life of the Father. He had obeyed His Father's will,
fulfilled His Father's purpose, accomplished all that His Father
sent Him to accomplish. And He said, Now glorify Thou
Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was. And the Lord Jesus, when He had
finished His work of redemption, He cried, It is finished. And
He said, Father, into Thy hand I commend my spirit. And He bowed
His head and gave up the ghost. And then He was buried. buried
in the tomb in the earth. There he lay for three days,
having been slain as our substitute, under the penalty of sin, dying
with our sin made his. But three days later, he arose
justified in the Spirit, declared to be the Son of God with power
by that resurrection from the dead. And now he sits on the
throne of glory, having all power over all flesh committed to him.
His glory. Verse 5. His glory is great in
thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast thou laid
upon him. Christ's glory is great in God's
salvation. His glory is great in that salvation
that is purposed and accomplished by the triune God. Now we are
Trinitarians, let no one mistake us. We worship God, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. And the Scriptures just abundant
with phrases and sentences and verses and long passages that
declare the work of God the Father, the work of God the Son, and
the work of God the Holy Spirit in this matter of salvation.
We were chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and called
by the Spirit. We're destined to be the sons
of God by the Father, and bought by God the Son, and called and
preserved by God the Spirit. planned by the Father was our
salvation, purchased by the Son was our salvation, and performed
in us by the Spirit is our salvation. And yet it is obvious in the
scriptures that it is the purpose of the triune God that Jesus
Christ, the God-man mediator, as our mediator and surety, have
all the glory, all the great glory of God's salvation. All of it. Listen to the book.
In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead part of Him. In Him. All the fullness of our
salvation, Brother Jesse began to quote, just as he closed his
message, is in Christ Jesus. Of Him are ye in Christ, who
of God has made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification,
and redemption, so that everything God can require and does require
of man, Jesus Christ is, and He's mine. All the fullness of
salvation is in Him. All the fullness of the glory
of the Triune God is in this One who is described in the book
as God the Word, as the Mediator, as the God-Man, this One who
is our Savior. The Word was made flesh, John
said, and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Oh, how I love to meditate on,
read about, hear about, sing about, preach about the great
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the old writers, Isaac
Ambrose, made this observation. Surely, I cannot say too much
of Jesus Christ. Of this one blessed subject,
no man can hyperbolize. Had I the tongues of men and
angels, I could never fully set forth Christ. Oh, the loveliness,
beauty, and glory of His countenance. Can I speak, are you here, too
much of such a Christ? Surely not. The tongues of men
and angels combined, the tongues of all men and all angels combined
could never tell out the glory of our all-glorious Savior. Honor
and majesty hast thou put upon Him. Look at verse 6. For thou
hast made Him most blessed. most happy, most honorable, most
praised forever. Thou hast made him exceeding
glad with thy countenance. having fulfilled all that the
Father trusted to His hands as our mediator. And now seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high, our Savior is filled
with gladness. Filled with gladness, having
been received back into glory as our accepted mediator and
redeemer. Alright now, let's go back to
verse 3. For thou preventest, thou goest
before him with the blessings of goodness, thou searchest a
crown of pure gold on his head. Now remember this word prevent
means to precede or to go before. So the meaning of the verse is
just this. The Lord God Almighty has bestowed all the blessings
of His goodness on His people in Christ before Christ ever
came into the world. Indeed, He did so before ever
the world was made. Read the first chapter of Ephesians.
He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus according as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. Everything that God Almighty
can give to sinners. Every blessing of His goodness
He has bestowed upon all His elect from eternity in Christ. And the text means this as well.
The Lord God bestows the blessings of His goodness on His people. He goes out to them in goodness
and in blessing, even before Christ comes to us in the saving
operations of His grace. That is, even before we are made
to know anything about it. In the secret workings of His
providence, God does good to his elect now
listen to me God help you to hear me that's all he does for
his elect only good only good the good
sometimes feels terrible And the good sometimes has a bitter,
bitter taste in the experience of it. But God only does good
for His elect, nothing else. Goodness and mercy precede our
Lord's coming. And they come with Him, and they
follow Him. then exaltation and glory are
given to him. The Lord God, the triune Jehovah
has set upon his head the crown of pure gold. Everlasting, precious,
indescribably glorious is the crown that's his as the reward
of his obedience. And he is. When he comes in the
hearts of his people, Every believing sinner in the sweet experience
of grace gladly sets the crown on his head, and his head alone.
Now let me show you just a few places in the book that speak
about God's prevenient grace. I'll give it to you in three
or four points, and I'll be as quickly as I possibly can in
doing so. Let me talk first and most about this prevenient grace
as is set forth in the book of God as preserving grace. Turn
to Jude. Jude verse 1. Now, I want you to follow me
through the Scriptures as we look at these passages I ask
you to turn to, or at least jot them down so you won't forget
them. I want you to see clearly that what I'm saying is plainly
stated in the book of God. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ,
and brother of James to them that are sanctified by God the
Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. set apart
by God's election and preserved in Christ by God's decree and
by God's providence until the day they are called by God's
grace. Here the Spirit of God tells
us plainly that God's grace precedes the coming of our Lord Jesus
in the experience of grace. Here the word preserved means
watched over, guarded, kept from loss, harm or injury. It's a passive word. That is
a passive word on the part of those who benefit from it. So
the sweet message of God to our hearts in these words is this.
Because God has set us apart unto himself in Christ in eternal
election, we are absolutely kept from any harm coming to us. Because we're in Christ, made
the objects of his unceasing care. Preserved in Christ. Preserved from harm. From injury. Under God's constant care in
Christ. The words might be translated,
kept for Christ. The Lord our God keeps His eye
upon us all the time. He watches over, guards and protects
us continually. And this preservation is altogether
his work. We are preserved in Christ because
He is gracious. Not because we are faithful,
but because He is faithful. Our preservation in Christ does
not in any way depend upon our perseverance in anything. Rather,
our perseverance is the fruit and result of His preservation.
Let all who trust Christ understand and ever rejoice in this blessed
fact. In eternal sanctification, we were set apart by God the
Father in election in Jesus Christ. Chosen in Him. We have a place
in His heart who declares, I have loved thee with everlasting love. We are from everlasting in His
heart. from everlasting in his hands,
from everlasting in him. Have you ever contemplated just
how long you've had being? Well, Brother Don, that's not
hard to figure out. I can look at my birth certificate and tell
you when I was born. Me too. That's not the question
I ask. I said, have you ever contemplated
how long you've had been? How long has God the Son stood
as our mediator and servitor? For it wasn't that he stepped
forth and was accepted of God as we read in Proverbs chapter
8, from everlasting. For as long as Christ has been
my surety, I've had being in Him. I'm one with Him. Can you get hold of that? One
with Him. That's not something that commenced
in time. That's something that commenced
in eternity. Brother Don, that's redundant.
I know it. I'm a man talking about eternal things. Is there
beginning in eternity? Well, maybe. In the beginning
was the Word. God hath from the beginning chosen
you. There was a beginning before
the world was made. And from the beginning we've
been accepted in the beloved one with Christ Jesus. All God's elect then were secretly
in Christ before the world was made. And all God's elect are
secretly preserved in Christ from eternity. Preserved before
we were called. Preserved unto the day of our
calling. Preserved from condemnation and
the second death. We weren't preserved from the
fall. We fell on our father Adam. We
weren't preserved from sin. We're not preserved from trial
and trouble and heartache. We're not preserved, even after
being called by God's grace, from falls and vanquishing and
sin and unbelief. No. But in the midst of the fall,
and in the midst of our countless falls, in the midst of our rebellion,
our running fast to hell with our fists shoved in God's face,
in the midst of our trials and temptations, in the midst of
our heartache, in the midst of our languishing, and even now
in the midst of our constant struggles with unbelief and godliness,
erupting from within, preserved in Christ Jesus. Preserved in
Christ Jesus. Yet even in those days gone by,
though fallen and depraved, hell-bent children of wrath, even as others,
Jude tells us and all the scriptures teach him, All the scriptures. When you read the book of God,
look for things. Look at it. Throughout this book, the talk
that we are preserved in Jesus Christ our Lord. We who now believe
on Him, and all who ever shall believe on Him, were so completely
and absolutely preserved, watched over, guarded and protected by
our God, by virtue of our union with Christ, that it was not
possible It was not possible, and it still is not possible,
that we should ever suffer any real loss by anything experienced
in time. Do you understand what I'm saying?
I understand maybe it's too big a word. Can you get in on it? Can you get a hold of it? No
real harm, not by anything. Nothing can harm, let alone destroy,
and that includes hell, and that includes Satan, and that includes
Heshemu and God. Nothing. Nothing. Then, after
being called to life, after being given faith in Christ Jesus,
we're still preserved. Not preserved from indwelling
sin, but in spite of it. Not preserved from temptations,
but in the midst of temptations. Not even preserved from fears
and doubts and unbelief, but in the midst of them. No, we're
not even preserved from slips and falls and acts of sin and
attitudes of evil and defiance of God. Not even preserved from
that. Brother Don, I haven't had those
experiences. Well, one of us then doesn't know God. It's that
simple. It's that simple. That's the
experience of my life, Jim. The constant struggle of my life.
It has been for 43 years. And it's not getting any better.
Not getting any better. Not preserved from those things,
but in spite of them and in the midst of them. And when all is
said and done so thoroughly preserved, that they shall not harm me.
They shall do me no harm. Preserved in Christ, in sanctification
and justification, in redemption and in grace, preserved are the
sons of God as heirs of heavenly glory, preserved in life and
in faith, preserved in absolute indestructible safety and security. By God's sovereign grace united
to His Son eternally. I can never be divided from my
covenant surety. God's free love and everlasting
made me one with His dear Son. Blessed union, strong unchanging. I am with my Savior one. I just said to Brother Jesse
and Brother Jim, both of them, the most profound thing I've
ever thought of in my life. Our union with Christ. Once in
Christ, in Christ forever. Thus His promise ever stands. Life and death and hell together
cannot tear me from His hands. Oft I fall, but God unchanging,
faithful to His covenant stands. He will never charge with sinning
those for whom his son was slain. One with Jesus, one with Jesus,
by eternal union one. One with Jesus, one with Jesus.
Oh, what wonders grace has done. One with Christ from everlasting.
One with him upon the tree. One with him on high ascending.
One with him. Preserved in Jesus Christ. What a word of grace. What a
marvelous thing to meditate on. And yet, there are some things
plainly revealed in the book of God about the meaning of these
words that we must not forget. Every form, every degree, every
method of preservation is implied. Every state, every condition,
every circumstance is included. Every danger, every foe, every
weapon formed against us is taken into consideration. What did
God say? There shall no weapon formed
against thee prosper. Everything is taken into consideration.
Still, God's Word stands sure, preserved in Jesus Christ. Come back to Isaiah 65. In ourselves, we were, when God
found us by His grace, Worthless, dead, dried, fit only to be cut
down and cast into the fire like a dead, withered vine. But the
God of glory, the God of all grace, saw something else in
us. He saw something in us that wasn't
in us. He saw something in us that he
alone could see, for he alone could produce, and he alone could
put in us. Isaiah 65, verse 8. Thus saith
the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one
saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my
servant's sake, that I may not destroy them all. The gardener's about to cut down
this dried up vine. Looks like it's dead. We have
a couple of grape vines in the house, in our backyard. This
time of the year, they're the ugliest things around except
the skunk when it gets too close. I mean, they're ugly. And it
looks like they're not going to do anything. And they just
get rid of them. Especially when there's no promise
of life. They just feel brittle and dry. And the gardener looks at it
and says, well, let's cut it down. It's the only reasonable
thing to do. It's worthless. Its usefulness is gone. But just
about that time, the one who owns the vineyard comes by with
more experience and knowledge, and he says to the gardener,
destroy it not. For a blessing is in it. A blessing is in it. Do you remember
what God's promise to Abraham was? He said, I will bless thee
and make thee a blessing. Fr. Aaron Dixon, pastor of Great
Falls, Montana is with us. Have you ever imagined you might
be a blessing to somebody? Nobody in the world ever dreamed
Don Fortner could be anything but a hindrance to anybody. Nobody
ever dreamed it. Nobody. Except God. He said, I'll make you a blessing.
Not just bless you, make you a blessing. A blessing is in
it. And so will I do for my servants'
sake. Now watch this, that I may not
destroy them all. You see, all of you are God's
servants. The Lord hath made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the day of evil. You're going
to serve God, like it or no. You are serving Him. You have
served Him. And when He throws you in hell
forever, you will still serve Him, accomplishing His exact
purpose in all things. But some of you, God has chosen
as the objects of His grace to serve Him in His kingdom of grace
and glory. And He does all things for His
chosen. Look at 2 Peter 3. God's elect
in this world are the blessing hidden among the nations of the
world. God preserves the world for the
sake of His elect. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward. Not to everybody, to usward.
Not willing but any. Not anyone taking in the whole
of mankind. If that were the case, please
explain to me why he swallowed up the sons of Korah. Please
explain to me why he destroyed the world in the flood. Please
explain to me why he created hell to start with. Oh no, not
willing that any of these to whom he is longsuffering should
perish. He is elect, but that all should
come to repentance and knowledge of the truth. Well, how do you
know that's what it means? Because down in verse 20 Peter
tells us the longsuffering of our God is salvation. If God's
longsuffering with you, God's going to save you. That's just
absolutely certain. His longsuffering is to usward. Well, Brother Don, if that's
the case, it looks to me like the only reason God doesn't destroy
the world is because some of his people still must be saved. Isn't that simple? That's not
too profound, is it? Most kindergartners can get that
unless their brains have been messed up with false religion.
God preserves the world. Because there is a remnant, according
to the election of grace, in every nation, in kindred, in
tribe and tongue, scattered through the earth, who must be called,
because God ordained it and because Christ redeemed them. And when
they're called, judgment comes. The reason the world exists,
is for the glory of God in the salvation of his people and save
them he will he will call them by his grace for this purpose
he raises up nations and he takes down nations he has in the past
and he does it today The only reason the world exists is for
the glory of God, the display of God's glory in the salvation
of His people. In Isaiah 43, we'll look at it in
a minute if you want to be turning there. We see this clearly stated. Who can calculate? Who can write
down? The history of one chosen sinner,
let alone the whole of God's elect. And the wonders of this
preserving grace. Preserved in Christ before we
were called to Christ. Preserved in all the days since
being called to Christ. Preserved until grace is finished
in glory. We will look back over the Ages
of time with astonishing wonder and growing wonder as we consider
how God has preserved us in Christ Jesus. God's prevenient grace
then is preserving grace first. Second, it's providential grace. The secret operations of God
that precede and prepare the way for His grace This is illustrated
to us so many ways in scripture. The Lord said to Jeremiah, Before
I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth
out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet
to the nations. Paul said, God separated me from
my mother's womb. His mother didn't know God. His
mother was a self-righteous, philosophic legalist. He states
it plainly, that God separated me from my mother's womb, and
at the appointed time called me by His grace. He said to Timothy,
Paul did, from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation. God's grace then,
is that grace that forms our lives from infancy. Forms our thoughts and our character,
our disposition, our intellect, our educational opportunity,
our rebellion. I said to a Young woman, I know well, I loved
dearly not long ago, that you're taking your daughter by the hand
and showing her how to be a whore. And if you're doing so, beware
you're responsible for what you're doing. And yet God has His elect
born in the whorehouse Because that's what he intended, not
by accident. And he orders the forming of
that man's character, exactly as he ordered the forming of
Saul of Tarsus' character, so as to preserve him and prepare
him for the time when he would meet him in his grace and in
his mercy. God's grace is often seen as
restraining grace. I don't know what Abimelech finally
knew or didn't know, but I know God appeared to Abimelech one
night in a dream, and he told Abimelech the reason that he
withheld him from taking Sarah. He said, I withheld thee from
sinning against me, therefore I suffered thee not to touch
her. You mean God controls the evil passions of reprobate men
who don't have a clue who He is? He did have them elected.
Absolutely. Absolutely. So that there's no
evil in the heart of man that God does not either restrain
or use for His glory. No evil. No evil. And even in
yours, you who believe. In 1 Samuel 25, you remember
a fellow by the name of Nabal? David sent his servants over. to get some help from Nabal,
and Nabal saw an opportunity to side well and favor with the
king in Israel, and he shaved their beards off and cut off
the skirts of their robes and sent them going back naked and
ashamed to David. And David said, You men, every
man put on his sword. We're going to Nabal's house,
and we're going to kill every last living member of that family. David was enraged, as well you
would be or I would be. He was enraged that Nabal had
so treated him who had been so favorable to Nabal. And Nabal's
wife Abigail got wind of what was happening. And she loaded
up supplies, and she ran out to meet David, and she said,
my husband's name says he's a fool, that's what he is. And said,
David, don't do this. This thing that you plan is an
evil thing, don't do this. This is just gratifying your
own lust, don't do this. And David looked at that woman,
and he said, man, what a woman. And he went back home with his
supplies and waited for God to kill Nabal, and when he did,
he married that gal. And he said this, he said, the
Lord hath restrained me. Oh God, thank you for restraining
me. The Lord restrained me. God's grace is often seen in
sweet, overruling grace. Paul wrote to Philemon about
Onesimus. And Philemon, who had stolen
his master's goods and run away to Rome, and there he was arrested
and heard the gospel of God's grace. I put this letter in Onympus'
hands and sent it back to Thylemon, and he said, Perhaps he therefore
departed for a season, that Thou shouldest receive him forever. The wrath of man shall praise
thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain. We read in
the book about two sons of one father. One is referred to as
the prodigal, and the other, the elder brother, stayed home. And that elder brother, he was
the son every daddy always wanted. He was just exactly what you
hoped for. And he was all of his life exactly
what you hoped for. The prodigal, his name was Fortner. And the other brother never knew
God. And the prodigal would never
have known God had it not been for his ways as a prodigal. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain. Brother Don, are you suggesting
that men ought to choose a way of immoral profligacy rather
than seeking to be good and faithful and upright? If you have to ask
that question, there's no point in me trying to answer it. No, no, no. I wouldn't choose for my only
daughter what I carry in my mind all the time. I wouldn't choose
for my only grandson and my only granddaughter what I carry in
my mind and in my memory all the time. I wouldn't choose it
for the world. I train them and educate them
as best I can. My daughter growing up, I insisted
that she behave as one respectful and honorable, and she always
has, and I'm thankful. But let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something. For your sons and daughters and
for mine. For your brothers and sisters
and for mine. For your mothers and fathers
and for mine. I desire that God Almighty use
whatever means God Almighty has ordained to use to bring them
to faith in Jesus Christ. No matter how much it hurts me.
And no matter how much it seems to hurt them. He does all things well. All things. How I rejoice. and give thanks to God for His
free covenant grace, for His secret prevenient grace. It's
this prevenient grace that keeps and preserves His elect, keeps
and preserves us under the day of our calling in Christ Jesus. His prevenient grace. gives his
angels charge over his people. They're sent forth as ministering
spirits to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation. Determined to save, he watched
over my path. When Satan's blind slave, I sported
with death. declares that I was preserved
in Jesus Christ. All right, should Isaiah 43? Now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not. For I have redeemed thee. If he redeemed everybody, that
wouldn't mean anything, would it? I have called me by thy name.
If he called everybody, that wouldn't mean much, would it?
Don't be afraid of me. I redeemed you. I called you.
You're mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom.
Ethiopia and Cebu for thee. What? What did God say? I sacrificed
Egypt and Ethiopia and Cebu just for this little band of folks?
That's what God said. But we must love them special.
Must have. Since thou was precious in my
sight, Thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east, and gather thee from the west." Now watch verse 6. This is God's commandment to
all creation. Try to picture, try to picture
if you can. I like to draw mental pictures
in my mind. Here's God Almighty, He speaks
to heaven, and all the angels of heaven. And He speaks to earth,
and all the men, and all the elements, and all the animals,
and all the time of earth. And He speaks to hell, and Satan,
and all the demons of hell. And He says to the north, give
up. And to the south, keep not back,
bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the
earth. What's God doing? What's God
doing? He's bringing His sons from afar,
and His daughters from the ends of the earth. Blessed be His
name, He graciously condescends to use such things as we are
to preach the gospel of His grace for the in-gathering of His elect.
And He sends us on a sure mission. On a sure mission. Every one
of us shall be called. This is what we're doing here
this weekend. Looking for God's elect. Looking for the sheep. Preaching, seeking the Godly,
call out His sheep. And he will bring them one by
one, or thousands by thousands, however it pleases him. God's
grace is described, this prevenient grace, in the 107th Psalm. You go home and read it at your
leisure. The Lord describes how He brings men to wonder, to and
fro in the earth, and makes them hungry and thirsty and faint. And then they call on His name. He describes how they are made
to walk in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction
and iron, and their souls are brought down to hell. And then
they call on Him by His mercy. Fools, because of their transgression
and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. causes their souls
to abhor meat and they are filled with such despair that they would
take their own lives until at last by God's sweet constraining
grace they call on Him and He's merciful to them. They go down
to the sea and do business in deep waters and they reel to
and fro like a drunken man until they're at their wit's end and
at last when they're brought to their utter wit's end Then
they come to themselves like the particle, and they call on
the Lord, and He is merciful to them. And this, the psalmist
says, four times over, is the wondrous work of our God. This
is the way of our God. And then God's grace, this prevenient
grace, is preparatory grace. Ah, sweet, sweet thought this. In the parable of the sower,
you can look at it yourself, Matthew 13, the man, the woman
who hears the word and receives it into the good ground, receives
it into the ground that's been broken up, The fallow ground
broken and hollowed and disked and worked until it's ready to
receive the Word and be covered, and the earth swallow up the
Word. So the heart is prepared by God
to receive the Word. And your heart will never receive
God's Word until God prepares your heart to receive His Word. He has wondrous ways of doing
that. Sometimes he causes one to be born blind, like Bartimaeus. So that all his life, all he
can do is sit by the highway side and beg. And I suspect beggars
in those days didn't fare much better than beggars in our day.
How many times when you drive up to the intersection and you
see somebody out there panhandling, you roll your window up and turn
the other way. I suspect things were just like
that in that day. Bartimaeus was blind, so he didn't see him,
he could just hear the snide comments. And there he sat all
his life. A man with no ability to provide for himself,
to make any sense of dignity out of his own life, born blind. But there came a day when Bartimaeus
thanked God he was born blind. Because if he had been born blind
he wouldn't have been sitting by that highway side when Jesus
of Nazareth passed by and he heard the good news of his grace.
There was a woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years. She was stooped and bowed in
weakness, polluted and unclean. legally and ceremonially unfit
to be in any public company because of her defilement. And she had
spent everything she had on physicians of no value and was no better. She had joined every kind of
religious organization there was and not one of them could
help her. And one day She heard that the Lord Jesus was walking
in the streets and she saw the crowd. And she heard him speak
and heard his doctrine and she stooped in the pressed crowd
and she said, if I could just touch him, I know this man could
make me whole. And she touched him immediately. She was made whole and rejoices
in heaven today for those 12 years she was stooped. who was
a Gadarene, lived among the tombs, leaping and scratching, cutting
himself like a wild man. Nobody wanted anything to do
with him. He didn't want anything to do with anybody. And one day, the
master came for that certain Gadarene. There were two of them,
you know. There were two of them. The Lord
only called one of them. There was a woman in John chapter
8. Streetwalker. Vile. Unclean woman. Woman you good
ladies wouldn't invite home. And shouldn't. And shouldn't. But she was the object of God's
mercy. And one day these religious folks
decided to set a trap for the Lord Jesus, and they took her
in adultery with one of their own apparently, in the very act,
and brought her in humiliation before the master, and commanded
that Moses demand that she be stolen. What do you say? And
before the day was over, the Lord sent her accusers away,
and he looked up and said, Woman, where are those thine accusers?
Who doth now condemn thee? And she said, No man, Lord. And
He sent her away free and forgiven. And that's exactly the path needed
for her to meet the Master. I recall a long time ago, going
over to Folsom Prison. Visiting with a fellow who had
been in jail all his life. He and his wife met her smuggling
drugs into him. He's doing time for bank robbery. God was pleased to cause them
both by his grace. And on the way to one of the meetings here, we
chatted a little bit, and she said, I thank God for folks in
prison. That's why I heard the gospel
of God's grace. God our Savior does all things
well for the saving of His people. You turn to Psalm 23 and I'll
wrap this up. Listen while you turn. Throughout my days my path's
been marked. Marked by God, my Father's loving
heart. He has ordered every step with
care. I have met His goodness everywhere. When I was lost in
new and dark, pervenient grace marked every spot. And angels
came for God's elect, though in rebellion to protect. Then
in the time And at the place which God had purposed by His
grace, the Spirit came and made me live. God caused His chosen
to believe. Through all my days, since first
I saw that Jesus Christ is all in all, my Savior has in faithfulness
sustained and kept me by His grace. He restores my soul, forgives
my sin, and still upholds. Reserving child with love and
grace and proves His covenant faithfulness. When sick, my Savior
makes my bed and soothes my aching, fainting head. And when I leave
this world of woe, to God my faithful God I'll go. No more
to sin. No more to sigh. The tears you
see will soon be dry. When I have dropped this robe
of flesh, I leave behind all signs of death. Immortal life
awaits my soul. When I am with Christ, I shall
be whole. Conformed to Him who died for
me, with Him at last, I shall be free. This is what I'm trying to tell
you. Psalm 21, verse 3. Thou predictest him with the
blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. And here's one of the crowns
that David set on his head. Verse 6, Psalm 23. Surely, Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life. Goodness and mercy follow me,
pursue me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Brother Lamar, God's been chasing
you with goodness and mercy all your life. And when He gets done,
He's going to chase you plum into glory. It's called prevenient grace. Grace that goes before grace
and prepares the way for grace and prepares us for His grace. And when we look back over the
ages of time, when we can see as now we cannot see, looking over every hill, and
every decade, and every generation, and every century, over all the
course of the world, over all the course of history, We'll have to say, Lord, You
do only wondrous things. Amen.