Take your Bibles now and turn
with me to Titus chapter 1. This is along the same lines
as the Sunday school lesson. It has to do with that sanctifying
power of God's Holy Spirit And I titled this message, The Faith
of God's Elect. The Faith of God's Elect. I read
to you from Matthew 24 a while ago, where the Lord said, in
those days, He said, except those days should be shortened for
the elect's sake. He's going to shorten them. Not
because of the evil manifestations of men. Not because of the evil
of men. He knew what was in men. Our
Lord said He didn't need anybody to testify to Him what was in
men. He knew what was in men. He knew. That's not why He's going to
shorten the days, but He may shorten the days for the elect's
sake. And He said in that day, if it
were possible, if it were possible, It's not possible. But if it
were possible, the very elect would be deceived. And I see
that deception in our day, that it's so close. It's so close
to the gospel, yet so far. So far. And the reason I can
see it And the reason that God's elect will never be deceived
is because the faith of God's elect is not a doctrine. The
faith of God's elect is an experience. It's an experience of heart.
And once you learn in the heart, you learn forever. You learn
forever. Once a man experiences pain,
Russell, I can read about pain and just almost feel it in my
body. I can read about hunger because I've eaten and I've been
hungry. And I can read about hunger and I get hungry reading
about it because I've experienced those things. And the gospel,
the faith of God's elect when it's received into the heart
is an experience of grace. And that heart is touched and
changed. And a new creation takes place
within him. And he can't be deceived. He
can't be deceived. Now, let me read this to you,
and then I'll make some comments. In Titus 1, verse 1, the apostle writes, and he says,
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according
to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the
truth which is after godliness." Now you notice here, he doesn't
just set the truth up all by itself as something like 2 and
2 is 4, and we receive it. But he said, "...the acknowledging
of the truth which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began, but hath
in due times manifested His Word through preaching, which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior." And I want
to say this at the outset of the message, I am persuaded,
I mean absolutely persuaded that this book declares without apology
And beyond all question that God Almighty has an elect people. It is not the purpose of God
to save every man, woman, and child on this planet. It just
ain't. And I know that's offensive.
I know that offends many. It offended me the first time
I heard it. But the word elect Elected, election, and elects,
just that word, just that word in its various forms, appears
in the New Testament 27 times. 27 times. And in every last one
of those times, it describes a people for whom Christ was
sent, for whom he died, and for whom he sends his gospel to be
preached, as Paul just stated here in this one illustration
that I gave you in Titus chapter 1. There is a faith, but it's not
the faith of the general population, it's the faith of God's elect. There is a reason why the days
shall be shortened, for the elect's sake they shall be shortened.
A man told me not too long ago, he said, it's not God's will
that any should perish. I said, it's not what that says.
What that verse says, if you read the whole verse, and not
just take out this little nugget in the middle, but if you read
that whole thing, it says, God is long-suffering to usward. Who's the usward? This is His
elect. That's how He starts out the
letter. God is long-suffering, in other words, to His elect,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
And they all will. Every last one of them will.
I believe in election. I preach election. Let me give
you some examples. Over in Romans chapter 9, turn
over there, there's a familiar passage to you. And folks, Brother
Barnard said there's two ways to get out of anything declared
in the Scripture. One way is to say that it applies
to the Jews. The other is to say that it applies
to the Millennium. And by those two things, you
can just about get out of anything in the Scripture. Well, here
in Romans chapter 9, he's fixing to talk about election, and it
has nothing to do with the Jews, and it has nothing to do with
the Millennium. It has to do with the election of God's sovereign
grace. And if you'll take time and read
these first several verses of Romans chapter 9, you'll find
out that these verses are talking about the fact that natural Israel
did not receive the one that they proclaimed. The one that
they proclaimed in the types and in the ceremonies and all
the things that they preached. They talked about a Messiah.
The Messiah came and they wouldn't have Him. They wouldn't have
Him. So now there's a problem. There's
a problem. If these are God's elect, why
wouldn't they receive the Christ? Doesn't that make the Scriptures
of none effect? You see what I'm saying? That's
what folks were saying. And Paul's reasoning with the
people concerning this nation of Israel as opposed to God's
spiritual Israel, that God has an elect, heirs with Abraham, but they're
not the physical nation of Israel. Now watch this here in Romans
9, verse 6. Not as though the word of God
had taken none effect, for they are not all Israel which are
of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for
the seed. Now what is he saying in that? Before we go any further,
just hold your place there and let me talk to you for a minute. When he promised Abraham a son,
he said, at this time, at this time, I'm going to come, and
Sarah is going to have a child at this time, in my time. I'm going to come, and you're
going to have an heir." Well, he didn't come. And nothing happened. And years went by. And Abraham
got old. And Sarah got old. And she went
past the time of childbearing. And he went past the point of
having any interest in having any children or anything else.
And so they got together and they said, you know, I think
maybe what God meant was... And they began to reason this
thing out. And she said, I've got a handmaid. Maybe that's
what he was talking about. And they began to try to put
the thing together on their own. And so Abraham did have a son.
He had Ishmael. It wasn't God's promise. And
God wouldn't have him, and He called Ishmael out to leave.
when Isaac was born. In God's time, he came. And by a miracle of grace, Sarah
brought forth a son that neither he, neither Abraham nor her could
produce. God produced him. God produced
him. Now that's what he's talking
about here to these people. You want to know what election
is? That's God determining beforehand a promised seed, a son, an heir. And he's going to bring it to
pass in his time and by his own power. That's what this thing
of election is all about. There's going to be a seed. There's
going to be a son. He's going to be born. He's going
to be a child of promise. Verse 9 he clarifies that. Verse
10. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even our father Isaac, for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, that is, for all
time, that it might not ever be questioned, that it might
stand. It might stand the questions
and stand the accusations and stand the pointing of fingers
and the question marks. But the purpose of God according
to election might stand, it was said unto her, and not of worse,
not of worse, but of him that calleth. It was
said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And then if you
will, turn with me to 1 Peter 1. I'm not the least bit ashamed,
put out, have any reservations whatsoever to declare that this
book of God teaches and declares an election of God, that God
has a people. 1 Peter 1, the Apostle Peter extends
his greetings to a people that he knew only by testimony. These were people, I suspect,
where Paul had went out and these other men had gone out and established
churches throughout the land. They were scattered all over
creation. Pontius, Galatia, Bithynia, all
out all over all those areas these people were, and they were
strangers to him. He didn't know who they were. He didn't have
a clue who they were. But by the testimony of the Apostle
Paul and these other preachers, Peter calls them, upon their
testimony of these men's faith, he calls them elect. Huh? Elect. Isn't that what it says? According to the foreknowledge
of God. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And then look over
here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Here's one I quote to you
all the time, but this morning I want you to turn and look at
it. He goes through just exactly
what I read to you a while ago in Matthew chapter 24. And the apostle takes these things
of which our Lord talked about and he applies them to the religion
of the day. He applies them to that old man
of sin that is going to expose himself in religion and be exposed. And he goes all through that
second chapter of Thessalonians talking about that son of perdition,
that incarnate evil that inhabits the hearts of men in principle
and causes them to shy away from the gospel of Christ and despise
the gospel of Christ, blinds them to it. And they sit in that
temple of God, sitting in this body as though they were God,
and they declare their own this and their own that, my own destiny,
my own decision, my own purpose, all those things. They're sitting
there just like they're God. Just like their God. Oh, it's
all up to you. Well, then you're the sovereign
of your own soul. Huh? And you're in trouble. You're
in trouble. That's what he goes on to say.
But here he says, but, he said, but, he said, I thank God for
you, brethren. Oh, I pour out my heart to God
in thanks for you that you're not like them. Listen to what
he said. For God hath from the beginning,
verse 13, chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I know this, most men and
women don't care for this doctrine I'm preaching to you this morning.
And there are many reasons for that. It offends the pride of
man. It offends the knowledge of man.
It offends the potential of man and all those types of things.
But the thing that really makes this doctrine stick in his craw
is that it lumps all men together as one and said, none righteous. Huh? None that understand. None that seeketh after God.
None good. And just in case you didn't understand
me, he adds, no, not one. Not one. It lumps all men together. All of them together. And separates
them in judgment. from the living God. Now that's
what election declares. Because if God loves all men,
there's no need for an election. You can't make election fit sideways,
not even applying it to Israel, if God loves all men. Now can
you? If He loves all men the same,
how can He love Israel more? He can't. So you can't apply
it to Israel. You can't apply it to Israel.
It lumps all men into one lump. What are you talking about preacher?
I'm talking about black men, red men, yellow men, white men,
purple men, I don't care what color they are, big men, little
men, smart men, dumb men, all in one lump. There's no difference. There's no difference. The only
way on the top side of God's green earth that you're ever
going to seek Him is if He chooses you and sends you the ability
to believe on Him and sends you that authority and establishes
it in your heart and brings you down and strips you before Him.
Other than that, you're just going to sit there in your own
pride and your own unbelief and swell all up and say, I thank
God I'm not like other men. No, you're worse. You're worse. You're worse. He said, it'll
be easier on those in Sodom and Gomorrah than it's going to be
on you Pharisees, because if I showed to them what I showed
to you, if I stood and preached to them what I preached to you,
they would have repented. But I withheld my hand to them,
and I stood before you, and you cast me away in your self-righteousness. Men despise this doctrine because
it takes away the one thing that they cling to, that they believe
connects them to the blessings and favor of God, and that is
that God sacrificed His Son to make salvation possible for all
men. Take that away and the man is
no different from anybody else. It become a point to me, something
I've never noticed before, and that is that the very ones who
believe that they were the elect of God despise this doctrine
as it applies to the whole world that God has chosen a people
out of all the nations of the world. It's so offensive to them
because they thought they were the only ones. They thought they
were the only ones that God loved. And they thought he loved them
because of what they did, and whose father they had, and so
on and so on. This world believes everything's
fixed up, it's all taken care of, all we've got to do is just
to make it effectual is make a decision. It's right there. All you've got to do is decide
if you want it, go and pick it up. Huh? I'll tell you, man don't
get in trouble until he realizes he has no connection between
him and God. Huh? Everything's gone. Everything's
gone. Nothing there. He can't get it
if he wants it. He can't even want it. Huh? He can't even want it. Oh, he's
separated from God. Brother Barnard said one time
that the two biggest lies that's ever been told is that God loves
you and Christ died for you. First time I heard that, boy,
I set up my feet. I thought, what on earth is he
talking about? And then I come to understand what he's talking
about. That is the one thing that this world believes and
hopes in, is that God died for all men, and Christ loved all
men, and He died, and His sacrifice made things possible, and all
you've got to do is just go pick it up. And so men carry it around
in their pocket like an insurance policy, and just in case they
get sick and die, they're going to jerk it out. That's not salvation. That's not salvation. Israel
could not, now don't you listen to me. See if I'm not telling
you the truth. Israel could not imagine themselves
to be as other men because they've been told all their life they
were the children of God. Why can't you get folks to believe
this doctrine? Huh? Because they already think
they're children of God. Same reason Israel didn't. What
do you mean I'm a sinner? You can't find a sinner. I'm
telling you, I preach on the internet. That message goes out
all over the world. Every now and then I get a response,
one or two. One or two. These other men preach,
they preach more than I do. Don's gone all the time preaching.
He tells me he can't find a sinner. You can't find one anywhere. There wasn't any sinners in Israel.
Turn with me to Romans chapter 3. In Romans chapter 1, Paul deals
with the heathen. He deals with these barbarians.
He deals with the Gentile people. He deals with these countries
who didn't know God, who didn't carry Bibles, who had no temples,
who had no preachers. They had false worship. They
had all kinds of images and all these type of things they had.
And all through chapter 1, he deals with that type of He deals
with those natives over in Africa and he deals with the Hindus
and the Mohammeds and all the rest of the idolaters and heathens
of this world, he deals with them. In chapter 2, he deals
with Israel and he begins that chapter by telling them that
you do the same thing and your judgment is the same. It's just manifested differently,
but it's the same. You're religious. You have Bibles. You have a temple. You have the
ceremonies. You have prayers. You have all
these things. You profess to have a Messiah.
You do all these things. But you do the exact same things
that these men did with that little limited bit of light they
had in conscience and creation. You, with all your light, do
the same thing. You do the same thing. And then listen to what he says
here in verse 9 of Romans chapter 3. He gets into chapter 3 and
he talks in the first part of that chapter about what a great
advantage they had. They had much advantage in every
way because unto them was committed the oracles of God. And he gets
down here to verse 9 and he said, What then? Are we better than
they? And can you tell what he says?
Who is they? That's what he talked about in
chapter 1. That's the rest of the work. Are we any better than
that? Who despise the witness of creation
and conscience. We better than they who change
the glory of God into images? Made like unto man, and birds,
and beasts, and creeping things, are we better than those with
vile affections and unnatural desires? Are we better than those
who change the truth of God into a lie and worship the creature
more than the Creator? Are we better than they? Now
listen. No. Ain't that what you're saying?
No. That ought to be an end to it
right there. I shouldn't have to give another proof. No. You're
not any better than them. Well, yeah, but in some ways,
no. Listen to what he says next.
In no wise. In no wise. For we have before
proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they're all under sin. Religious
and heathen, black and white, male and female, old and young,
deacon or drunk, it don't make any difference. You're all under
sin. You just dress a little differently
and have different habits, but you are all under sin. All men
are the same. All men are under the same condemnation. Sin rules and reigns under death. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men. The same curse, the same condemnation,
the same rules. And because I make a decision
to do something, it doesn't change anything. And because I changed
my hairstyle or quit some bad habits, it doesn't change anything.
Having a Bible tucked under my arm has nothing to do with coming
into favor with God. We started off to the meeting
one time and a lady or a man, I don't remember which anymore,
but one or the other told me when they got there, Oh, I left
my Bible home. She said, you know, I feel naked
without it. Whether you're naked with it
or without it, all things are naked and open under the eyes
of Him with whom we have to do. We're all sinners. Carrying a
Bible doesn't change it. Making a profession don't change
it. Dipping in the pool don't change it. Nothing's changed. We're all the same. The only
thing that separates God's people from all the other people is
His grace. And that grace comes and begins
and is guided by election. By election. Israel could not receive the
blessings and benefits of Christ. Now I want you to hear me, because
they could not take their place as a sinner condemned of God
in the fall. They couldn't do it. They're
not like other men. Not going to do it. Not going
to take my place. Not going to take my place as
a sinner. Our Lord was in the house. sitting
down at meat, and it said many publicans and sinners came and
sat down with him to eat. And he visited with them. Kept
company with them, John, stood right there. Whatever they had,
if they had lamb, he'd get them some. If they had wine, he gave
them a drink. Whatever it was they had there
at the supper, he sat right around there with them. Them Pharisees
stood back there and they said, Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? And our Lord heard it. And here's
what He told them. He said, let me tell you something.
He said, the whole need not a physician, but they which are sick. That's
who needs the doctor. Sick folk. I'm not come. Listen. Brother, if He's not
come for you, you've had it. You've had it. The old timer said, you've had
to live. It's over for you. The one hope, the one hope any
sinner has before God is that God appointed him a substitute. And in grace will come and open
his heart to bow down and receive the substitute. That's his one
hope before God. And to do that, you've got to
be brought down and take your place before Him as a sinner. Think not that I'm come to call
the righteous. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Oh, I tell you, if God leaves
us alone in our condemnation and leaves us alone in our darkness,
and leads us along to the desires of our hearts, leads us along with ourselves
as our own guides, and ourselves to our own reasons, and to ourselves
in our own light. It is an absolute and positive
evidence that the wrath of God abides on us. Preacher, you don't believe God
gives everybody a chance? I don't believe in chance at
all. The Bible said, He worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. He doesn't work anything
by chance. But even if I did, it wouldn't do me any good. Don't
you hear me? God put a perfect man. Now, not
somebody we say, well, he's a pretty good old boy. God put a perfect
man. in a perfect environment, and
biased that man with good, and walked with him every day, hand
in hand, talked with him in the cool of the day in the garden,
walked with him, perfect man, perfect environment, and that
man could not hold his position with God. Now, you're going to
take an imperfect man in an imperfect environment, biased altogether
with sin, where's the chance? There's no chance. He'll just
go in one direction. He's not going to stop. He's
not going to stop. The only thing that's going to
stop him is if God arrests him in His grace. He's got to arrest
him. There's nothing in us, around
us, or about us to change our condition before a holy God.
A sinner has but one hope, and that's that the God of glory
has decreed to save him. and has engaged everything in
his character to do it. One hope. And then Peter said
this, I read this to you a moment ago, he said, you are the elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood
of Jesus Christ. And Paul said in the Thessalonians
that I read to you, that God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. He tells them the same thing. Isaiah said in the first
chapter of his prophecy to Israel, in verse 9, he said that except
the Lord of Hosts had left us a very small remnant, we'd be
like Sodom and like unto Gomorrah. Men despise the doctrine of election
because they are ignorant of God's righteousness. You cannot have any concept of
the righteousness of God in your mind and think yourself to be
righteous. Now, you can't do it. You can't
do it. Every last one of them. I don't
care. Daniel. I'm telling you, Daniel was a
man who was godly. He was a godly man. He prayed
constantly. He had the wisdom of God. He
was the prophet of God. He was a man of God. But when
he saw the Lord of glory, he said, My comeliness melted into
corruption. John the Apostle, a man who leaned
his head on the breast of Christ, who loved Him, who wrote all
these epistles in the New Testament. When he saw and heard the Lord,
he fell on his face as a dead man. Isaiah, I read to you from his
prophecy just a few minutes ago. Isaiah in chapter 6, when he
saw the Lord high and lifted up, when he saw His glory, when
he saw His righteousness, His holiness, when he saw His glory,
he said, woe is me, I'm undone. And I'm telling you, every sinner
that God calls by His grace, He strips. And He casts him down
and He makes him to understand, at least to some degree, who
he is and what he is before Holy God. And he's not going to stand
there with thoughts of self-righteousness. He ain't going to do it. He can't
do it. He can't do it. And then if you'll
turn back with me now to Titus, I want to make this statement. There's a flip side to this doctrine
of election. Giving account to the doctrine. What am I talking about? I'm
just talking about agreeing with it. Just saying. Yeah, I can
see that. I can see that. That's not salvation. That's not salvation. There was
a time, perhaps, when you heard this doctrine of God's absolute
sovereignty or the doctrine of God's election or predestination
and those type of things, and you fought against them and fought
against them, but over time, you begin to see in the Scriptures
where these things are taught in the Scriptures, and so you
give mental assent to those things, and you say, yeah, I can see
that. I can see where that's coming from. You believe that.
That's not salvation. That's not salvation. Giving
assent to the doctrine and agreeing with it is not salvation. Election
is a means to an end. Election. It's unto salvation. It's not salvation. It's unto
salvation. God has from the beginning chosen
us to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. His election directs the means
and the power and the application of God to the man. And Paul says here in Titus chapter
1 that it's through the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. What's that tell me? It tells
me it's an experience of grace. That's what it tells. That's exactly what it tells
me. And it's in hope of eternal life. It ain't got it yet. It
don't enjoy it yet. It sees that life. It sees that
life in Christ. It experiences that life in Christ.
It experiences that grace and mercy and kindness and long-suffering
and all those things. And it sees it in Christ, but
it don't have it all together yet. But it has good hope. And he hopes for it. in hope
of eternal life. There is a sanctification of
the Spirit which leads a man to acknowledge the truth of the
gospel. And this truth will cause him
to follow after godliness. And this truth is Christ. He
is the way, the truth, and the life. And there are three things
that this man is going to acknowledge. And that by his own experience
of grace. And the first of those is when
the Spirit comes and convinces him of sin. of sin. And I don't know if I can state
this exactly the way I want to, but that convincing is not something that's altogether
accomplished in an isolated act. It's just the beginning. And
he convinces him, and as he is convinced, He begins to turn. He doesn't just turn. He doesn't
just turn. He's going this way and then
he turns. No, he just turns a little bit.
He just turns a little bit. And all his life from that time
when God arrested him, he begins this turn. And his turning is
two-fold. It's a turning from something
and a turning to something. And the first part of that is
this. There are three things, and these
three things are principles established in the heart, and they continue,
continue, and continue. All through his life it continues.
And the first is that convincing of sin. When he begins to understand
who he is and what he is, at least in some degree, he turns
from himself and from this world, and he turns to Christ. The second
part of that is the righteousness. The Spirit of God, when He comes,
will convince the world of righteousness. That He, as a sinner, separated
from God, must be provided a righteousness other than His own. His own is
not fit to represent Him before God, to cover Him before God.
And the third part of that is judgment. He's not talking about that there
is a judgment. You know, we're already judged.
We were judged in Adam. We're already judged. That great
white throne judgment's not to decide where you're going. That's
already been decided. What that great white throne
judgment's all about is clearing the name of God of all wrongdoing
and all that is done. Now, that's what that judgment's
all about. Let he that is filthy be filthy still, and there's
not going to be any change at the judgment. He's just going
to go right on being filthy like he always was. Let him that is
righteous be righteous still. What Paul's talking about here
is an accomplished judgment. He's talking about the justification
of the believer in Christ. That that judgment is passed
for him. That he's been judged. He's not
being made exempt from it. He's been judged, but he was
judged in a substitute. In a substitute. Now, where does
that leave a believer? That leaves him, John, standing
in the grace of God. Not one thing owing to himself. Not one thing owing to himself. And I tell you, it will clear
up the prejudices that we have. The Jews were prejudiced against
the Gentiles. White men are prejudiced against
the blacks. I don't know, red men are prejudiced
against the whites. We come over here under the pretense
of free worship, and because everybody was harassing us, and
we come over here and rash the Indians, took their land, took
their thing from them. It will get rid of the prejudices.
It'll eliminate them. Eliminate them. Why? Because
you're on the bottom looking up. And I'm going to tell you
something, that's where to go. That's where to go. Just stay
down here and look up. That's where the blessings are.
That's who He came to call. That's who He came to call. And
the minute we take a stand in our righteousness, we eliminate
ourselves from the elect of God.