Good morning. Let me first of
all express my appreciation. I know I speak on behalf of my
wife also. Words cannot begin to give thanks
to all of you for your love and your hospitality. It's been wonderful. It is every year, and I agree
with you. They seem to just get better, Bob. You all labor so
hard, and they come and go so fast. We will be taking with
us some fond memories of our time here. As God brings these
memories back to our mind, we will thank our God upon every
remembrance of you. It is just a family reunion,
and we are very thankful to be a part of this church family.
Way down here in Hucumba, who would have ever thought that
God would establish a church and that he has done that. Honored and delighted and thankful
to be a part of this conference this weekend. We're leaving after
services today and going on to Phoenix, Arizona to visit our
daughter Becky. We haven't seen her for some
time. And then we'll leave there Wednesday and we're scheduled
to be back home and rescue sometime Friday. So we appreciate your
prayers for us as we travel. I want to draw your attention
to the fourth chapter of Genesis, if you would please turn there.
We read in the scriptures, I think it's in the book of Acts, that
God is no respecter of persons, and that is true. Our Lord does
not have mercy on anyone because of their nationality. We read about Cornelius, and
that's where that Scripture has found that God is no respecter
of persons. Peter would never have gone into
the house of Cornelius if God had not revealed to him that
he had cleansed some people there. Then Peter uttered those words,
I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. That has not been
mistaught in this matter of salvation. God does have respect unto persons. Does that shock you? He had respect
unto Abel and his offering, but unto Cain and his offering God
had not respect. God loved Jacob, but he hated
Esau. There are so many different illustrations
in the scriptures concerning God's respect for some and not
for others. There was a man, an impotent
man, at the Pool of Bethesda. that our Lord Jesus came and
healed. But there were many impotent
folk there, and he had his eye of love on only one of those. Now, what I'm saying is this.
The Word of God clearly teaches God's sovereign, distinguishing
grace. This world of self-righteous
religious folks who are steeped in religion, and it's all a religion
of words. It's either grace or words. They
hate this God-honoring biblical truth, but nothing changes God's
truth. Whether they hate it or not,
God's truth remains. The majority of religious folks
hated our Lord Jesus when he walked on this earth, declaring
that he was the Son of God sent from heaven. They didn't believe
that, and they hated him without a cause, but it didn't change
who he said he was and what he came to do. So truth is truth. Now, I've said all that to introduce
us to our subject this morning, God's distinguishing grace. And
here in Genesis chapter 4, I want to read the last two verses,
verse 25 and verse 26. We read, And Adam knew his wife
again, and she bare a son, and called his name Seth. For God,
said she, hath appointed me another seed, instead of Abel, whom Cain
slew, and to Seth, to him also that was born a son, and he called
his name Enos, then began men to call upon the name of the
Lord." Now, Cain slew Abel not because Abel had done something
wrong to Cain, but because Cain was of that wicked one and his
works were evil. We read this in 1 John. He was
of the devil. He brought an offering, the works
of his hands. Abel brought a little lamb which
pointed to Christ. God had respect under Abel and
his offering, and there must have been some expression of
God accepting Abel's offering, fire from heaven, consuming the
sacrifice. But whatever it was, Cain was
jealous and hated Abel and slew him because his offering was
not accepted. Now, Cain represents a religion
of works. Abel represents his elect people
who are saved by grace. Now, let's think about this for
a moment. Cain and Abel had the same teacher, their daddy Adam. They were both born in sin. Both
had the Adamic nature, Adam's fallen nature. But one believed what Adam had
taught them. And the difference between the
two was God's grace. Abel was taught of God. God gave
him faith. He saw Christ in that land that
he offered. All the Old Testament saints
believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They all had the same faith.
And the faith makes the difference, and it does. And if God is the
one who gives us faith, and He is, that it's God who makes the
difference, Abel was sanctified by God the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the Holy Spirit
didn't begin after the cross. The Holy Spirit has always sanctified
God's people, that remnant. Always the work of the Holy Spirit.
No one can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit. And those
people in the Old Testament There is only one Spirit, there is
only one faith. They believed, and the reason
they believed was because the Holy Spirit gave them a heart
to believe. Is that going too far? Same grace. In our text in Genesis 4.26,
the last part of that verse says, "...then began men to call upon
the name of the Lord." I don't know why we do this, but for
some reason we think those people in the Old Testament were different
than us. They were not. They were men
and women of like passions, sinners. Men and women who would have
continued in that sinful condition and gone right to hell if it
wasn't for God's grace. They were in their unregenerate
state. not only born in sin, they had
the same stony heart that we have, a heart of unbelief. Now, before they could call upon
the name of the Lord, he had to be revealed. The word Lord,
in verse 26, is Jehovah the Eternal. And they could not have called
upon him had they not heard of him and not believed in him. Now, I want to take you back
to Romans 10. If you would turn over there, please. Bob read
those scriptures. in our hearing that we want to
look at, or at least part of them this morning. Adam plunged
the whole human race into condemnation. Every person born in sin has
a darkened mind, a mind that is void of any spiritual
understanding. And that's not all. We love that
darkness. In our unregenerate state, we
love that darkness and we hate the light. And we will not come
to the light lest our deeds be reproved. But in every generation,
every generation, there has always been a remnant of people who
were enlightened by God who called upon the name of the Lord. We
have a remnant here. There is a remnant up in rescue. remnant in Kentucky. God has
his people everywhere, but these people had to be taught the truth.
All of us had to be taught the truth. Some who were taught by
Adam believed and some didn't. Men began to call upon the name
of the Lord. John Gill said, and I agree with
him, that When those people that we read about in Genesis 4.26
begin to call upon the name of the Lord, that pointed to an
assembly of people, not just one individual. It is true that
we as individuals must call upon the name of the Lord, but that
seems to point to a group of people getting together for worship
services. That is carried on down through
each generation, people who believe the gospel. people who were given
hearts to believe, who would assemble to worship our God. Also, in every generation, there
are people void of spiritual truths who conjure up a God of
their own imagination. Like Cain, they hate the truth,
but they are religious. They just absolutely despise
those who love the truth. And they'll stop at nothing to
proselyte us into their way of thinking. Now, Satan does not
care what these people call their God. In the Old Testament, there
were many, many different names of false gods. He doesn't care
if these people call their God Jesus. There's another Jesus that many
people worship today that is not the Christ of the Bible.
the days of the apostles, and Paul mentions it, I think it's
in 2 Corinthians, that there was another Jesus, another gospel,
another spirit, and those people put up with that, but not the
truth. Those Judaizers who crept down
into the churches in the Galatia area, they believed in a Jesus,
but they hated the Christ of the Bible, and they hated the
true gospel of God's grace, so they taught that people, unless
you get circumcised, After the manner of Moses, you cannot be
saved. Folks, the Mormons, they believe in a Jesus, but it's
another Jesus. Watch Tower People. Catholics, does that shock you? Catholics believe that Mary is
co-redemptrix with Christ. That's a phony Jesus. Tammy Faye Baker over national
television said years ago, Jesus is just like the old devil, he
can only do what you allow him to do. That's another Jesus. And Armenian preachers in these
Armenian churches, they may not make that statement, but they
believe the same thing because they're teaching that. Poor Jesus. Won't you give him a chance?
He's done all he can. The rest is up to you. That's
another Jesus. Now, all of these false religionists
of this day who are wearing the name of Jesus, they twist the
scriptures to their own destruction. They'll take a passage of scripture
and build a doctrine from that passage of scripture, completely
ignoring the context of what that scripture is. Not only the
content, but the truth of the gospel. And right here in Romans
10, there's one of those verses that they twist to their own
destruction. Verse 13, Romans 10, 13, it says, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. See, they say, God has given
every one of us a free will. Now let me say something before
we continue. The Word of God was never written
to encourage anyone to trust in the works of their hands.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the
renewing of the Holy Spirit. Paul says in the second chapter
of Ephesians, by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest
man should boast." The Bible was never written to encourage
anyone to trust in the flesh, the things that we do. But the
Bible was never written to discourage anyone from coming to Christ,
calling upon the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved. I appreciate
your message yesterday. Are you thirsty? Those who are
made thirsty by the Spirit of God They'll want that water of
life. They will come to Christ. That's
still God's work. The Bible was written to magnify
the grace of God and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and to give
sinners who are called by the Holy Spirit out of darkness into
the marvelous light of Jesus Christ our Savior to give us
that blessed hope. And so when we read, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, when we
preach the truth, we're not preaching this to discourage anyone from
coming to Christ. Come to Jesus. But not the Jesus
that Tammy Faye Baker worships. Not this phony Jesus of this
religious generation that is just helpless and hopeless and
can't do anything unless finite man allows him to. That's a different
Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ is King
of kings and Lord of lords. All power in heaven and earth
has been given to him, and he works all things after the counsel
of his own will. He is sovereign. And unless we
learn this, we won't call upon him for salvation. I like what
you preached, Brother Don. Nobody worships God except at
the throne of absolute sovereignty. We worship a sovereign God, and
worship comes from the heart. Now, those people who twist this
scripture, Romans 10.13, to their own destruction, not only do
these prophets of Baal ignore the verses that surround Romans
10.13, they blatantly ignore the whole epistle, this whole
epistle. This verse is sandwiched right
between Romans 9 and Romans 11. They ignore the teachings of
those two chapters. They ignore the teachings of
the whole book. In Romans 9, we read about the purpose of
God according to election. For the children not yet being
born, speaking of Jacob and Esau. For the children not yet being
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand not of worship, but
of him that calleth. Right on in that same chapter,
we read that God loved Jacob and he hated Esau. We read in
that same chapter, it's not of him that willeth nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. We read in that same chapter
that God is the divine potter, we're the clay. He forms us as
it pleases him. In the eleventh chapter of Romans,
the Apostle Paul, echoing the words of Elijah when he was speaking
to God about those who had killed the prophets and torn down the
altars and he was left all alone and they sought his life. God's
answer to Elijah was, I have reserved unto myself seven thousand
who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. And then Paul
says, even at this present time also there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And if it's grace, it's grace.
It cannot be worse. And these people ignore those
scriptures. and they ignore what this 13th
verse is teaching. Now folks, I don't believe that
we should be so angry with these Armenian preachers that we hunt
them down and kill them, even if this country made it legal
Even if they open season on Arminian creatures, if you had to buy
a license in order to hunt them down, it would not only be wrong
to hunt them, it would be wrong to buy the license. The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God
that the pulling down of strongholds. But I don't believe it's wrong
to show a little righteous indignation to you. Now, love your enemies,
our Lord says, but we're not to have any. fellowship with
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. We need
to warn people about these folks and what they're teaching and
what it leads to. We're doing them a grave injustice. Listen to me. We're doing them
a grave injustice if we give them any reason to think that
we think that they're Christians, that they're going to heaven.
They're not. They're on that broad road that
leads to destruction. and we should warn them. That's
the greatest manifestation of love you can have for those people.
To tell them about the true Christ, to warn them to flee from the
wrath to come, and that if they don't turn from their wicked
works of religion and turn to Christ, they're going to hell.
And folks, we should not align ourselves with them in any way.
I don't know about you, but where I come from, anyone speak evil
of my mom or my daddy, those were fighting words. or my brothers,
or my sisters, my loved ones. Well, these people are blaspheming
our Heavenly Father. They are. Would you go into a
room where there are a bunch of people, embrace them, shake
their hands, say, how are you doing? Have a good day? Oh, good
day. How's your life been? Great, good. Sit down and listen
to them while they badmouth your mama or your daddy. Would you
do that? I wouldn't do that. Well, why would we go into these
churches where they're blaspheming our God? I told our folks just
last Sunday, I'd rather be seen coming out of a honky-tonk bar
than an Armenian church. I'm telling you the truth. A person is known by the company
they keep. I don't want anybody thinking
that I agree with the doctrine of Arminianism. Do you? Folks,
we're God's chosen blood-bought people. And we ought to gather
with those who love the gospel and shy away from those who hate
the gospel. Now, here in our text, Romans 10, 13, we read
that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. But verse 12 says there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek, Gentile. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. God has no respect for persons
when it comes to nationality. Anyone who calls upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved. If they call upon the name of
Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior, from a sincere heart,
God will never turn a deaf ear to the sincere cry of a sinner
who sees his need or her need of Christ and cries out for mercy. But it is God who has given that
heart to cry out for mercy. If we understand what this is
saying, we'll see that this is not teaching universal redemption,
this is not teaching man's free will, this is actually teaching
God's sovereign, distinguishing grace. Because the rest of the
scripture says, How then shall they call on him in whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they
have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent?
As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things."
Now, God's preachers preach the gospel, good news, glad tidings,
news of peace. And if we read these scriptures
from verse 15 back to verse 13, we'll see that it's God's distinguishing
grace bestowed upon those who do call upon the name of the
Lord Jesus. How are they going to hear without a preacher? Well, it says in verse 15, how
shall they preach except they be sent? God sends his preachers. Is that not true? He sends his
preachers. Where does he send them to? Where
his lost sheep are. There's some lost sheep here
in the Hucumba area and around this area. There's lost sheep
up in the rescue area in Kentucky where God sends these two preachers.
This man was sent to preach the gospel here for those that God
has already prepared to receive the gospel. So they have to be
sent. God sends his preachers. And
if he sends his preachers, they're going to preach the gospel. They're
going to tell you about Jesus Christ, who he is. I already have told you who he
is. I'll tell you again, I don't mind doing that. Right in the
first chapter of Romans, Jesus Christ is declared to be the
Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead. How much power does Jesus Christ
have? All power in heaven and earth
has been given to Him. He's the Lord of Glory. So we
tell you who Jesus Christ is. We tell you what He has done.
He became a man. God became a man. That just overwhelms me, that
our God would humble Himself and come to this earth. But He
didn't come to this earth to do something that it might make
it possible for somebody else to do something in order for
them to be saved. That's not why he came. He came
to do his father's will. He came to save his people, those
who were given to him in the covenant of grace before time
ever began, back in old eternity, if I can use that term. How do
you use the term old eternity? It's eternity. Old or new, it's
all eternity. But back before a star ever twinkled
in the sky, God the Father gave a people to his Son, and he came
representing those people. And as he walked on this earth,
he walked in perfect obedience to the will of God the Father.
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore
God has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
things in heaven, things under the earth, and every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, through the glory of God
the Father. So he came to do his Father's
will. He did it. He finished the work that the
Father sent him to do. He's now in glory. He came out
of the grave. He's on his throne. Not only
is the sovereign God ruling over everything, but as our great
intercessor, as our mediator between us and God. What a wonderful
mediator we have. That's what you were saying.
We call upon the name of the Lord. It's not some formula in
order to get our way. knowing that He, our Mediator,
takes our prayers and presents them perfect before God the Father. So whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are they going
to call upon Him in whom they have not heard? How are they
going to believe on Him? Unless they hear. And according to what we are
reading here, those who do call upon the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ have already believed. You won't call upon Him until
you believe. And as the preachers of God are
preaching the gospel, his elect, his chosen people, those who
were purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, are pricked in
their heart. This is God's work. This is the
work of the Holy Spirit. reproving us of sin, making us
aware of our need of Christ. And the Holy Spirit has prepared
us to receive Christ. And when we hear about it, you
can't keep a child of God from coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's not walking down the aisle and shaking the preacher's
hand. It's right where you are. It's by faith. It's a heart matter. God looks upon the heart. He
knows if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or not because He's
the one who gives us a heart to believe. So right where we
are when we hear the gospel, I'm preaching, these men preach,
but it's God who reveals it right from heaven, right down to the
individual. And it's a personal thing between you and God. You
must believe. Nobody's going to believe for
you. We've told all of our children, you're not going to go to heaven
on your mom and your daddy's coattail. You must believe. This is between you and God.
But when God gives a person the heart to believe, that person
will be aware of their need of Christ and they will cry out
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. But when
we do cry out, listen to me, when we do cry out, we believe. We believe he is able to save
us. don't we? If I've heard the gospel, I've
not only believed that Jesus Christ, my Lord, is able to save
to the uttermost those that come unto God by him because he ever
liveth to make intercession for us, but I also believe he is
able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. So we've heard
the truth. Thank God we've heard the truth.
Because there are many who hear the truth with only these ears
and hate it. But some hear with the ears of
the heart. Because God gives us a new heart.
And we love the gospel. We love the Lord Jesus Christ.
We love his people. Now, why does God send his preachers? Because there are some who have
not heard. How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall
they call on him who have not believed, and they have to hear
before they can believe. No one believes until they hear.
No one hears without a preacher, and it is God himself who sends
his preachers. Now, those who call upon the
name of the Lord are giving evidence that God himself has given us
a heart to believe. He has delivered us from the
power of darkness. He has translated us into the
kingdom of his dear Son. Now, we not only call upon the
name of the Lord believing he is able to save, we believe he
has already saved us. Back at Calvary 2,000 years ago.
That's when we were reconciled to God. That's when our Lord
Jesus, representing us, that's when he washed us in his own
precious blood. When he came out of the grave
He entered into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence
of God for us, not without blood. He sprinkled his own blood on
the mercy seat in heaven, and Christ is our mercy seat. He
obtained eternal redemption for us. Is that not what the Bible
says? He by himself purged our sins. We hear about this. We
just leap for joy. And we never get tired of hearing
this. Do you get tired of hearing this? I never get tired of hearing
what my Savior has done for me and what He is doing for me.
He is right now delivering me. He has delivered me. He is delivering
me right now. He will yet deliver me. And I
want to leave you with that because we don't stop calling upon the
name of the Lord the first time we call upon Him for salvation.
It's an ongoing thing. Those people we read about in
Genesis 4, 26, they didn't call upon the name of the Lord. They
didn't stop. They continued to call upon Him until they all
died in faith. Now, when we come into an assembly
like this, we call upon Him. We ask our
Lord to bless our worship services. to give us a heart to worship
Him, to remove from our minds worldly thoughts that will hinder
our worship and our praise to our God. We call upon Him to
save those who have not yet been called out of darkness, praying
for our unsaved loved ones. We call upon Him when there is
a sickness in the family and People need to be healed. We
call upon Him for our daily needs. We call upon Him for His protecting
hand upon us when we travel. You see, it's an ongoing thing.
Now, right here in Hecuba is a group of people who believe
the gospel. Don't be weary in well-doing.
Continue to assemble. in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, worshipping him in spirit and truth, calling upon the name
of the Lord, continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, breaking
of bread, fellowship, prayers. When we pray, we call upon that
name that is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord and our Savior. I thank my God for this little
church here. I thank God for this pastor.
He has entrusted this little church with the gospel. Call
upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ with a thankful heart. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. But how
much more for this wonderful, glorious gospel that he has revealed
to you. and support the work here. You
do. I'm thankful. Continue that. Continue to support
your pastor. Continue to assemble together
with your presence, your prayers, your monies. God bless you as
you continue steadfastly in that which he has called you to do,
to worship his son until he returns from heaven. And as we call upon
the name of the Lord, God help us not to forget the pit that
he dug us out of when there was a time we had no desire to call
upon the name of the Lord Jesus and call upon him for your every
need that he might receive all the praise and all the honor
and all the glory. Amen. Thank you. God bless you.