Please turn back with me, if
you will, to the book of Ephesians, chapter 2. Ephesians, chapter 2. I would
like to read the first 13 verses. Follow with me, if you please.
And you hath he made alive, or quickened, who were good in trespasses
and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
among whom also we all had our behavior in times past in the
lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
he are saved. and hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For
by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenants of promise having no hope without God in
the world but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. I'm sure that there are those
who would as we've read and announced that we would be reading from
the second chapter of the book of Ephesians, who said, oh, here
we go again, here we go again, talking about the sinner's death,
and talking about the glories of Emmanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's exactly what we're
going to do. Exactly. That's what we're about
here, and that's why we came here this morning. That's why
I believe the Lord has preserved my life unto this good hour.
is that I might extol our God and lift Him up and that I might
glorify Him. I do pray this morning that the
Lord has prepared your heart for this service and that you'll
receive something today from the hand of the Lord. Wouldn't
that be wonderful if God Himself would impart a blessing to you
this day? Now I've read to you the first
13 verses. Brother Randy read the chapter
in its entirety. And I'm sure that you're familiar
with many, many verses in this particular chapter. But the book
of Ephesians is one of the very great epistles of the Bible,
and one that I have gleaned many, many precious, enduring truths
from. And the doctrines of grace are
clearly set forth in the book of Ephesians. And I would like
to begin the message by stating three things this morning. three
reasons why that the study of the doctrines of grace is practical,
profitable, and edifying to the souls of those who make up the
living family of God. I say three things that will
show why that these doctrines that are taught in the book of
Ephesians are practical, profitable, and edifying to the soul. And I hope this morning that
the Lord will bless you as we think upon these things and prepare
you for the study of His precious and holy word. Number one, I
believe that only the doctrines of grace Only the doctrines of
God's saving grace completely ascribe all glory to God in the
salvation of unworthy sinners. I believe that it is the doctrines
of grace that ascribes all glory and praise and honor unto the
God of our salvation. God is exalted to the highest
place of honor and dignity, whereas man is shown to be helpless and
hopeless apart from sovereign grace. That's what we find in
the study of the book of Ephesians and certainly in the study of
the doctrines of grace as they're found throughout the Word of
God. Now no doctrine or teaching that
impugns the majesty and the sovereignty of God by attempting to exalt
man's free will is in any way glorifying to God, regardless
of what the preacher might try to say. My friend, I'm saying
that if an individual in any way impugns the majesty and honor
of God by in any way slighting God and attempting to show that
it's man's will in salvation that is the deciding factor,
that man is not glorifying God. Anyone who exalts the free will
of man is, I think, demeaning the God of the Bible. Because
certainly, if the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that there's
one will that is absolutely sovereign, one will that is absolutely free,
and that is the sovereign will of our God. It is God's will
that is both sovereign and free. One of the main reasons why the
subject of free and sovereign grace is exalted in the Bible,
I believe is stated in these verses that Kent just quoted
to us a few minutes ago, not out of Romans 5, but out of 1
Corinthians chapter 1. And let me just share immediately
here, or just quickly with you, these things in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. We read where it says, but God,
in verse 27, hath chosen the foolish things of the world to
confound the wise. It tells us that God has chosen
the foolish things of the world. And Mike was talking about the
characteristics of God's elect this morning. Well, certainly
most of us would certainly admit the fact that when we were in
a state of sin, when we were in the blindness of sin, that
certainly we were foolish. Our walk was foolish. Certainly,
when God chose us, He chose one of the foolish of the world.
And then also it says that God had chosen the weak things of
the world. And I remember hearing a professing
believer say the other day, he said, we may be weak. I thought, my friend, back up. We are weak. There ain't any
question about that. We were weak when we were without
strength. Brock quoted it this morning.
When we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.
And so we were weak things. We were weak things of the world,
weak toward God, having no strength, no ability, no ability to do
anything to improve our spiritual state before a thrice holy God. We could not improve ourselves. We were weak, surely we were
weak. And then he said, the Lord has
done this to confound the things which are mighty. Anyone who
thinks that they're superior Anyone who thinks that they have
the strength and the ability to rightly serve a holy God,
the Lord said, I just confounded them by calling these foolish
and these weak things out. They truly worship me, where
these that consider themselves to be strong, prudent, and mighty,
they have no ability to serve and worship me. and base things
of the world. Yes, do you own that? Base things of the world. Things
which are despised. Things that are looked down upon
by the high and mighty of the world. Hath God chosen? Hath God elected? Yeah. Things
which are not. Things which are not. People
that don't even count themselves to even matter. Those who look
upon themselves to be less than nothing. These are the ones that
God has chosen to bring to naught, things that are. God accomplishes
His purpose through these kind of people. These are the people
God uses because they are nothing in themselves and God can fill
them with His all-mightiness and fullness and they can be
usable in the kingdom of our God. But a man who brings his
own knowledge, his own intelligence, and his own wisdom and ability
and cleverness to the ministry and to the business of God and
service of God, that man, he's not going to accomplish anything.
It's as God, as He turns you over and wipes you out and you
feel your nothingness and you're empty that God fills you and
makes you usable in his kingdom. And don't ever forget that. Okay,
that no flesh, listen to this, that no flesh, that no flesh,
I don't care whose flesh it is, that no flesh should glory in
his presence. I mean, get the king, you can
get the governor, you can get the president, you can get whoever
you want, but no flesh is going to glory in God's presence. And
that's why he saves people like me and saves people like you,
is because no flesh is going to glory in his presence. That's
why he takes the Manasses of the world, that's why he takes
the souls of Carcass, that's why he takes the woman at the
well, that's why he takes dead sinners and brings them to life,
is that no flesh is going to glory in his presence. And the
doctrines of grace glorifies God and puts man in his place,
and man is to be found on his face before this holy, righteous
God of the Bible, that no flesh should glory in his presence. No flesh would come before God
and say, listen, I've made a contribution to your cause and to your purpose. No, no, no way. But of Him, in
verse 30, are ye in Christ Jesus? If you be in Christ Jesus, praise
God, it's a wonderful place to be. Praise God, it's a place
where you must be. It's the place where every sinner
can find consolation and comfort. He can find the pardon of his
sin. He can find reconciliation. of Him. Are you in Christ Jesus? Are you in Him this morning?
If you're in Him, the wrath of God's fallen on Him never will
fall on you. Are you in Him? You must be in
Him, my friend. If you're not in Him, then you
stand naked before God and His wrath be upon you. You are a
child of wrath, just like others living in the world in sin, venting
their depravity hour by hour, day by day in this world. The
wrath of God be upon you if you be not in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made into us wisdom. You say, oh, you think you're
wise? No, Christ is the only wisdom I've had. He's the only
wisdom I have. He's the only wisdom a child
of God has. Somebody said so-and-so is not
very well educated. Does he know Christ? Does he
have Christ in his soul? I mean, does Christ live in him? Is Christ in him the hope of
glory? Does he have interest in the
shed blood of the Redeemer? If so, my friend, he has the
wisdom that God that God is the author of. He's wise before God. Any man who walks in his sin,
any man who walks in his self-righteousness is a fool, my friend. He is no
wise man. You're only wise when you get
into Him who is God's wisdom. That is Jesus Christ. He is wisdom. He's my wisdom. And He's the
wisdom of all the elect. And righteousness, He's been
made unto us, made over unto us, our wisdom and our righteousness. Oh, when we think upon our sin
and our continual, our continual walk in this world reveals that,
my friend, by nature, oh, and we thought that we would be so
far advanced by this time in righteousness and sanctification. But we seem to be making, oh,
so little progress. It seems even that our outward
progress don't even stay up with our mental ability as far as
knowing what is right. Oh, to will is present. I don't
doubt that. But how to perform that which
is good in the sight of God, we have no ability to do that.
We're not able to do that. We find in us the utter inability
to be righteous. and sanctification. Oh, if you're
going to be righteous, my friend, there ain't but one way to be
righteous, that's believe unto it. Believe unto it. Righteousness
is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish we could get you
to believe that. I wish we could get you to see
that. That that's the only way to become righteous is believing
unto it. Oh, you say, well, I've been
working on a preacher all my life. You mean my efforts have
been in vain? They've been in vain. They've
been in vain. Paul talked about those Jews
that went about to establish their own righteousness, never
submitted themselves unto God's righteousness, which is Jesus
Christ. And he said, they're blind, they're
ignorant, they're dead, they're lost, and they will not obtain
that which they seek for. They'll not obtain it. because
they seek it by works and you cannot obtain it by doing. You can only obtain it by believing. By believing. Oh, Jesus was righteous. Everybody believe that? He was
righteous. And when I know and when I come
to see that I can be righteous by believing in him, how glorious
that is. When God says I'll take his righteousness
and I'll put it down on my book under your name, that's wonderful,
that's glorious. That's how sinners are made righteous.
We wouldn't have an ounce of hope if it was not for the fact
of imputed righteousness. We're made righteous through
the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got to hurry on, but our
sanctification are being set apart. is only in Jesus Christ. There ain't nothing else set
you apart. I told you last week, God help
us if we had any religion except Jesus Christ. If you got anything
that sets you apart in the world but Christ, then my friend, it'll
damn your soul. Christ only can save a sinner. And then redemption. We've been
bought back. Jesus paid the price. He paid
the price. He laid down his life. Paul said
you've been bought with a price and that price is the precious
blood of Jesus Christ and then he tells us here The point that
I was trying to make is why the subject of the doctrines of grace
are given to us in the Word of God, to the end that the grace,
the sovereign grace of God would be exalted and that man would
cease to glory in himself. Listen to verse 31, that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. In
other words, we just shot down every reason why a man would
Try to glory before God. We put Him out of business. And
if He glories, let Him glory in the Lord. And so that's why
we're here this morning, and that's why we'll study the doctrines
of grace. is because we want that men and
women would come to the place where they would glory in God. Only those who ascribe the doctrines
of grace from their heart, ascribes to the doctrines of grace from
their heart, really believe that salvation is of the Lord. Only those who ascribe, listen,
the doctrines of grace from their heart, ascribes to them Do you
believe that salvation is of divine favor, that it's of God,
that it's not of works lest any man should boast? If so, you
believe that salvation's of the Lord, you're giving the glory
to God. Number two, when the doctrines
of grace are understood or revealed in the heart, gracious results
are produced in the heart and life of the believer. There is
a deep and abiding humility that floods the mind and the soul
of one who has been rescued out of a life of sin and shame by
the strong arm of the Lord. What I'm saying is that only
those who believe in sovereign grace have a foundation or basis
for being humble. And they have a good reason to
be humble. They have a good reason to close
their mouth only opening it to glorify their God. It's because
they've come to understand that their rescue out of sin and shame
was by the strong arm of the Lord that they could have never
delivered themselves, therefore their heart is humbled. Only
those who believe in the doctrine of depravity, and that is that
man was born into this world with a sinful nature passed on
to him by our daddy Adam and passed down through the generations
of our relatives into us, that we were born with a fallen nature.
that we were born depraved and dead in sin. Only those who understand
that have the basis for humility, to be humble. They will not boast. They will not brag. All boasting
is excluded. It's put away. I was born a sinner,
dead in sin, and the Lord had mercy on me. You know, we read
the first three verses of Ephesians chapter 2. And then in verse
4 you see two words to begin the sentence here, but God, but
God, but God. Now my friend, that is where
the despair ends, and that's where despair and despondency
goes out the window, and that's where hope begins for a sinner.
But God, but God, that's where it begins. Now, if you've come
to see that, if it's been revealed to your heart, been made known
to you, that your hope begins with God and ends with God, then
my friend, you'll be humble in your soul. You'll stop this going
around, acting like you were something, and you'll begin to
understand what you really are, and that's a sinner saved by
grace. And you'll understand that it was God's rich mercy
that begat in you that new life which you have. It was because
of His great love, wherewith He loved you, and you have nothing
to boast or to brag about, but everything to be humble about
in your heart. and even a deeper reverence and
appreciation for God dwells in believers as they begin to consider
how deep was their unworthiness and how unworthy we are of such
benefits as the very pardon and the putting away and the remission
of our sins, our acceptance with God in the beloved Ephesians
1 and 6, and the gracious presence of the indwelling Spirit, the
Spirit of God that has been given to us. As we begin to understand,
my friend, our deep unworthiness of these things, I think the
deeper will be our reference and our appreciation and our
humility toward God. Don't you think so? I really
believe that. When, brother and sister, we
consider who we are and the mountain of sins and transgressions that
we had committed, our hearts are filled with wonder and amazement
that God would save such repulsive wretches such as we are. Have you ever thought about it?
I consider myself to be the least likely candidate for the saving
grace of God. How do you feel about it? I feel
myself to be the least likely candidate. God going to save
anybody in this building? Anybody here going to heaven?
Anybody here going to walk the streets of gold? Anyone here
going to lift up their voice around heaven's throne to praise
God? I'll be the one least likely
to be there. The least likely. In and of myself. In and of myself. And I hope
you feel the same way about it. If God leaves you to yourself,
it's not likely you're going to be there. And the only reason
why you're going to be there is because, but God. But God. Those two words. God came and that's where hope
came into the sinner's heart. That's where hope filled the
room. That's where hope come in and introduced itself. And
so the realization that God alone was responsible for my salvation
and new life cannot help to fill my heart with humility and gratitude. That God alone was responsible
for it. All he had to do was say, let
old John alone. Let him alone. Let him be. Just
let him alone. And probably, being the foolish
person that I was, I probably asked God a few times to leave
me alone. You ever ask God to leave you alone? Just leave me
alone. Or just leave me alone. I've heard people say that when
somebody was talking to them, you know, trying to convince
them of scriptural truths. Just let me alone. Leave me be. I'm telling you what now, all
God would have had to do is send my soul to hell to leave me alone.
Just leave me be. Leave me be. Somebody says you
believe in reprobation. I believe in reprobation. But
all I got to say about it is all God's got to do is take his
hands off of you and leave you alone and that's the end of you.
You go straight to hell. There ain't a chance in the world
that you're going to miss hell if God takes his hands off of
you. It's only if he intervenes in
your life. And I'm telling you that God
alone is responsible for the salvation of a sinner. And that's
what is clearly taught in the doctrines of grace and certainly
what is taught in Ephesians chapter 2 here. And so I cannot help,
my heart must be filled with humility and gratitude. I'm convinced,
aren't you, in my heart that the only reason that my life
has been changed is the distinguishing grace of a sovereign God. the
truth. I'm telling you, I'm convinced
of it in my heart. I know if God hadn't crossed
my path that there would have been no change, no change, no
change. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. But oh, oh, listen to me. Hear what the Word of God says.
Paul says that at that time, that he said, remember in verse
11, wherefore remember that in times past you were Gentiles
and you were judged so by these Jews. And at that time, at that
time, ye were without Christ. You were without Him, without
Christ. And then he said, you had no
hope, and without God in the world, you had no hope. That's
where we were. That's what our state was before. That's what before, but God came
in. We were without God. We were
without Christ, without Him. Now my friend, it's one thing
to be without money, and it's one thing to be without creature
comforts, but to be without Christ means eternal separation from
God. It means to be lost forever.
It means never, never, never to have the fellowship of God's
people and the holy angels and the fellowship of God Almighty
around the throne in eternity. To be without Christ. Without
Christ. Are you without Him? You say,
I've got about everything else. Preacher, you may have, but what
a shame it would be if you had everything else and were to die
without Christ. Without Him. The one thing, He's
the true riches. He's the one that matters. And
He's the one that you must have. But our state before verse 4
of Ephesians 2 was, we were without Christ. And we were without God
in the world. You that are lost today, you're
without God in the world. That means that you're without
all that God can be to a man in this world, you're without
it. That means that the care, the comfort, the protection of
God, you're without it. That means that you're exposed
daily and hourly to that which could take you out of this world
and send you into the presence of God for judgment. And I'm
telling you, there are unusual things that happen, you know,
every once in a while. I just noticed the headlines
on the paper today. Yesterday, two or three people
killed right out here east of town on the highway because of
the dust blowing across. A couple of people from KRTV
News were in a little Subaru between two semi-trucks. And
the trucks, one of them stopped, the other one couldn't, and ran
right over the top of the Subaru and killed the people. Now you
say, well, well, well, well, I'm saying to you that if you're
without God, there's that which can happen in a moment in the
twinkling of an eye that can usher you into the presence of
God. You haven't got a thing in the
world to do with it. You cannot get out of the way.
It's there, it's on you, and you're dead without God. What an awful, awful thing to
be dead without God, without God and without Christ. What
a terrible, terrible thing. Well, my praise must be to God
for saving my poor soul, for coming to that place where He
bestowed upon me His rich mercy and brought me out of my sin. My praise must be unto God. It must be. The doctrines of
grace teaches me to praise God. Praise Him. Praise Him. Praise Him, all ye creatures. Praise Him, you that feel your
unworthiness and feel gratitude in your heart for His intervention
and His salvation. Praise Him. Praise Him. I feel like Ruth must have felt
when she bowed before Boaz, her kinsman-redeemer in Ruth chapter
2 and verse 10. Then she fell on her face and
bowed herself to the ground and said unto him, Why have I found
grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me,
seeing that I am a stranger? Why should you have taken a knowledge
of me? seeing that I am a stranger. I heard a song one time that
made quite an impression on me. The words of one of the verses
are, Who am I that a king should bleed and die for you? Who am
I that he should plead not my will, thy will be done? I may never understand why it
is, why he should ever love me so. But to an old rugged cross
he went, for who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Well, we're
sinners. We're lost sinners. We're depraved
sinners. And I want you to listen to these
words by John Adams from the song Free Grace and Election.
He says, sons we are through God's election, who in Jesus
Christ believe, by eternal destination Sovereign grace we here receive. Lord, Thy mercy, Lord, Thy mercy
does both grace and glory give. Pause, my soul, adore and wonder. Ask, O why such love to me? Grace hath put me in the number
of the Savior's family. Hallelujah! Thanks, eternal thanks
to Thee. when in that blessed habitation
which my God has foreordained, when in glory's full possession
I with saints and angels stand, free grace only, free grace only
shall resound through Canaan's land. And that's exactly my sentiments,
my feelings this morning. Well, as we think upon these
things further, the third thing I wanted to mention is The doctrines
of grace are eternal truths that provide comfort and refuge and
stability in a world that is confusing and unstable. So you're looking for some answers,
are you? So you would like to be settled. So you would like
to have a little rest. So you would like to have a little
peace. So you would like to be comforted. amidst all your troubles
and your trials. So you're often like Job of old
that said that my soul is weary of life. And that's the difference
between a way a young man and an older man feels about life.
A young man's got it all out in front of him and he feels
like he's going to eventually conquer. He's going to gain the
world. And he gets older and older and
it doesn't happen and it doesn't happen and later in life he grows
like Job. My soul is weary of life, weary
of the struggles, weary of the tasks, weary of the difficulties.
But my friend, do we want stability? Do we want to find in the midst
of this world some comfort and some refuge? Well, to rest upon
God's unchanging grace is a wonderful cordial to a troubled heart. Is that right? I believe it to
be so. To rest upon the unchanging grace
of God is a wonderful cordial to a troubled heart. Do you want
to find something to stand you in stand? Believe in the doctrines
of God's sovereign grace and mercy. To know that He loves
me with an everlasting unchangeable love and that I'm under His care
in times of distress and affliction and persecution enables me to
trust Him regardless of the circumstances that I find myself in. How important
is this? Isaiah 43 verses 1 through 3,
let me read them to you. But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name,
thou art 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 shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior." That's Isaiah 43 verses 1 through
3. And so we see that if we want
comfort and stability, then we need desperately to study the
doctrines of grace as they're taught throughout the Word of
God, but especially so here in the book of Ephesians. So we've
told you three things. We've told you that the first
reason to study the doctrines of grace is because they ascribe
all the glory to God. The second reason is because
they'll make your soul humble before God. And thirdly, for
the reason that we've just stated here in the last point, and that
is that we'll find comfort and refuge and some stability about
our lives if we'll believe in the doctrines of God's sovereignty
and the doctrines of grace. Well, I just want to refer at
this point in my message back to the second chapter of Ephesians
here and just make a few observations here quickly. There is really
only one point to be made in the field of soteriology, and
that's a big word, and that don't mean I've been to school or nothing,
but it simply means on the teaching of salvation. There's really
only one point to be made in the teaching of salvation, and
that is the point made by Paul in Ephesians 2 here, and that
is, in summaration of all that he said here, That is that it's
God that saves sinners. It's God that saves sinners.
God, the triune Father and Son and Holy Spirit, three persons
working together in sovereign wisdom, power, love to achieve
the salvation and the salvation of a chosen people, the Father
doing the electing, the Son doing the dying and the redeeming,
the Spirit executing the purpose of the Father and Son by renewing
and regenerating and indwelling the believer. This is what I
mean by God. He's the one that's doing this
work. Saves, I say. He saves the sinner. He does everything from first
to last. All that is involved in bringing
fallen man from death in sin to life in eternal glory, He
does it. That's what salvation means. That's what being saved means. To be brought all the way from
where the Lord found you to eternal glory. Where did He
find you? You say, I just almost saved
when the Lord found me. Well, He didn't find me there.
He didn't find me there. He found me dead in sin. He found
me lost and undone. He found me without strength. That's where He found me. And
I'll tell you, that's where He finds all sinners. He finds them
right there. Now, the Lord plans, achieves,
communicates redemption. He calls and keeps, justifies
and sanctifies, and glorifies. It's his work from first to last. It's God's work. Well who does
he do this for? Sinners. Men and women as God
finds them. As God finds them. You can reflect
on that a whole lot. I have not said much about it.
You said you said enough. Well maybe I've said enough about
where God finds us. But you've got to remember that's
where God has to come. He's got to reach down my friend
to get to you. He's got to reach down. So I
think I'm not any worse than anybody else. You may not be,
but he's still going to have to reach down to touch you. Got
to reach down. The sinner is down and he's got
to be reached for by a sovereign God and he's got to be laid hold
of and brought up and brought up and then his feet's got to
be set on a what? A solid rock. He's got to be
lifted up and put on the rock. He's got to find you, sinner.
And so it's where God finds the guilty and the vile and the helpless,
powerless, unable to lift a finger to do God's will or to better
their spiritual lot in this world. Unable. Inability. Unable. I say to you, God saves
sinners. Now, beloved, the force of this
confession that the doctrines of grace makes that it's God
that saves the sinner. It must not be weakened. I'm
talking about this confession that we know is found by the
Apostle Paul over and over his epistles and certainly made here
in Ephesians chapter 2. The force of this confession
must not be weakened by dividing the achievement of salvation
between God and man. and making the decisive part
man's part, or by soft-peddling the sinner's inability so as
to allow him to share the praise of his salvation with his Savior. This is one point the doctrines
of grace are concerned to establish, and this is one point, if you'll
pardon me, that the Arminians, in all forms, try to deny. that salvation, the decisive
part of it, is God's. Sinners do not save themselves
in any sense at all, but that salvation, first and last, whole
and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord to whom
be glory for every man. You say, Preacher, don't everybody
believe that? Don't everybody believe that
salvation is by power and salvation is by grace and all? Let me read
to you a couple statements. I just want you to see that this
is not the case. I want you to know what others
are saying out here in the world, in the religious world. This
first statement that I'll read is by Jack Hiles, who is a revered
fundamental preacher. And he wrote a book on how to
boost your church attendance. And he says, many of us in our
preaching will make such statements as, now in conclusion, finally
may I say, my last point is, and these statements are sometimes
very dangerous. The sinner knows five minutes
before you finish. Hence he digs in and prepares
himself for the invitation so that he does not respond. However,
if your closing is abrupt, And a lost person does not suspect
that you're about finished. You've crept up on him and he
will not have time to prepare himself for the invitation. And
many people may be reached using this method. Now I'm talking
about a fellow that preaches to 6,000 people or better on
Sunday morning and Sunday evening. This is the man who made this
statement. That's how he got them in. By slipping up on them
and blindsiding them. and not giving him any warning
beforehand that he was going to do it. Well, Paul said that
he didn't use cleverness. He said, I determined to know
nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He
said, I was with you in weakness and trembling. He said, I didn't
use clever words of man's wisdom. He said, I didn't want your faith
to stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And
so he just preached the gospel to them. Well, Mr. Howes attributes the salvation
of a precious soul to a psychological technique of a clever preacher
who sneaks up on the sinner in an unguarded moment, rather than
the power of a sovereign God who translates helpless sinners
out of darkness into His marvelous light. All right, listen to this
next one. And this next one is from a man
by the name of Noel Smith. an influential preacher in the
Bible Baptist Fellowship, teacher at the Bible Baptist College
in Springfield, Missouri, and he made this statement, Knowing
God as I do, through the revelation He has given me of Himself in
His Word, when I am told that God is not willing that any should
perish, he's talking about 2 Peter 2 and verse 9, When I'm told that not any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance, I know it means
that the triune God has done, is doing, always will do, all
that the triune God can do to save every man, woman, and child
on this earth. If it doesn't mean that, then
tell me, I pray you, what it does mean. I'll tell you in just
a moment. And then he goes on to say, what is hell? It is an
infinite negation, it is infinite chaos, and it is more than that. Now you listen to what this man
is saying. I tell you, and I say it with profound reverence, hell
is a ghastly monument to the failure of the triune God to
save the multitudes who are there. I say it reverently. I say it
with every nerve in my body tense. Sinners go to hell because God
Almighty Himself cannot save them. He did all He could, He
thinks. Now you don't think those statements
are being made? I'm telling you these statements are being made
before young preachers that are coming to fill the pulpits in
your community. There's one of them right over
off the interstate over here by the name of Ronnie Roach and
he came right out of that school. No wonder he's Armenian. Now
let me just say a few things about this. First of all if you
want you can turn here to 2nd Peter and I'm going to close
here just a moment. 2nd Peter and I want us to look
here in chapter 3 and verse 9. The first verse that Mr. Smith mentioned when he said
the Bible says that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise.
Now let me make this statement before we get into this verse
and that is that I don't know why that Mr. Smith would be saying
what he did with reverence. Why would you reverence a God
that is a failure. Why would you do that? There's
no need to reverence a God that has miserably failed. And hell
is full, he said, because it's a monument to God who has failed
to save every man, woman, boy, and girl in the world. Well,
now is God saying here by the prophet Peter in 2 Peter 3, 9,
that he's trying to save everybody in the world? Is he saying that?
Absolutely not. He says, The Lord is not slack
concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but as longsuffering
to us were. Mr. Smith You say that God has
made himself known to you, you better take your glasses off
and clean them and look at this verse. But it's long-suffering
to us, word Peter said, to the living family of God, to the
people of God, to the elect, not willing that any of them
should perish, but that all should come to repentance, and they're
coming. They're coming. They're going to come. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me and they that come to me
I will in no wise cast out and this is the Father's will that
sent me of all which he has given me that I should lose nothing.
Every one of them that is given to me I'm going to have and I'm
not going to lose any of them. None of them. I'm going to save
every one of them by grace through faith that not of themselves
but by the grace of God I will save them all. Every one of them. All the elect will be in glory.
Now, I want you to turn back to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and
let's see something else here. Well, no, before you do that,
look in Timothy. Look in 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. I want you to see what Paul had
to say about this business of the Lord not being able to save
and that hell is a monument to the failure of God. Here in 1 Timothy chapter 1,
in verse 14, Paul's been talking about himself when he was Saul
of Tarsus, how he was a blasphemer, persecutor, injurious, but how
he obtained mercy. And then he said, and the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. And then he makes this statement.
This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now when Paul made this statement,
this is exactly what he was saying. He's saying this statement cannot
be denied. It is a true statement that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners and when he saved
me, he saved the worst sinner out of hell. He saved the hardest
sinner that could ever be saved in the world. He saved the dumbest
sinner. He saved the most self-righteous
sinner. He saved the worst sinner out of hell when He saved me. And there won't be anyone else
ever come along in the earth, whoever they may be, that will
be able to move me out of first place. I am the chief of sinners. And if He can save me, listen
to the next verse, how be it for this cause I obtain mercy
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all Longsuffering
stretched out as far as it would exist and as far as it would
reach for a pattern to them which would hereafter believe on him
to life everlasting. The Lord Jesus Christ stretched
out his mercy and longsuffering to Paul and I'm going to tell
you that when he did that, that means he can save anybody. He
can save anybody. Nobody he can't save if he purposed
to save them. And verse 17, now he says, and
this brought it out of Paul, he says, now unto the King eternal,
immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen! Glory to God. He's a sovereign God and he can
save, and he did save the worst sinner out of hell, and he's
not trying to save anybody. He saves He saves whom He will. Well, there are so many verses
you could use right now. But I've got another one I need
to share with you. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm
going to close because it just seems like I get slower every
week. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I want you to look here. In verse 23. But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called." But unto them which are called.
Anybody that's got an ounce of biblical knowledge knows that
salvation is attributed to a call in the Bible, a call from God.
Gotta hear from God. Now look at this. but unto them which are callable
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God." Whether you be a Jew or a Gentile, Christ is God's
power and the salvation to everyone that believes on Him and the
wisdom of God. And look at verse 25, "...because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men," and then get this
last part, "...and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
Mr. Smith, the God that you worship
is not the God of the Bible. The God that the Bible sets forth
is a God whose weakness is stronger than any man on the face of the
earth. And you tell me that he cannot save if he wants to save? You tell me that is a bold-faced
lie, and I don't know any reason why all this being pious about
it. You're a heretic, Mr. Smith. And here he is talking
about how that he says, He says, I say it reverently, I say it
with every nerve in my body tense, loosen up! You're an atheist,
and you might as well number yourself among the atheists.
He says, I say it with every nerve in my body tense, sinners
go to hell because God Almighty Himself cannot save them. He
did all He could. He failed. I'm sorry, mister.
I'm sorry, if God could fail in the salvation of a sinner,
he would have failed in saving Manasseh in the Old Testament,
and Saul of Tarsus in the New Testament, and the woman at the
well in the Gospel of John, and then John Mitchell back in 1949. He would have failed! But he
didn't fail. He didn't fail. He did not fail. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged,
Isaiah says. He will not fail. So you say,
well Preacher, I guess maybe you might have had a legitimate
point doing all that talking about God being the Savior of
His people and the salvation to the Lord. I told you. I told you. It's true. Salvation
to the Lord. I can't worship a God like Smiths
and Jack Hyles. I can't worship their God. I
don't want nothing to do with their God. I don't want anything
to do with their God. But I want you to be forewarned
Men are out to steal the glory of your God. Men are out to rob
you of your hope, and of your comfort, and your refuge, and
your strength. They're out to rob you of it.
And they're foolish, foolish atheists. May God bless His Word. Father, in the name of Jesus,
I pray that I will bless these stumbling remarks to the glory
and praise of your name. I pray that this people will
grow up in the Lord, be strong in the Lord, and the power of
His might. Grant us much grace, O Lord, to go forward and grant
us to be strong in the word that we might be able to set forth
the truths of Holy Scripture in a way that would be God-honoring
and God-glorifying. Thank you, Lord. Forgive us wherein
we fail to praise you and to exalt you as we ought. We ask
it in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.