If you have your Bible, turn
with me this morning to the book of Acts chapter 20. I'd like
to read beginning with verse 22. Read through verse 32. so that I might finish my course
with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus
to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold,
I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom
of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take
heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church
of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know
this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them. Therefore, watch and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all of them which are set
apart unto God, all them that are sanctified. Let us pray. Father, in the name of Jesus,
we commit this service, Lord, into your hands, and we ask that
you might be pleased, Lord, to own this service, own the message,
and bless our Father to the exaltation of your great name and of your
great attributes. We do ask, Lord, that you would
be pleased to draw those that are yet in their sin unto the
Lord Jesus Christ, that they might be brought out of death's
state into a state of life, into life and liberty in and through
the gospel of Christ. Thank you for your love for us,
your faithfulness to us, O Lord, that reaches unto the clouds.
Your ways are not our ways. Your thoughts are not our thoughts.
Give us that submissive heart that bows to you in all things.
We pray it in Jesus' name and for his sake alone. Amen. The
Apostle Paul, as we begin our message this morning, I wanted
to remind you at the outset of this message what the Apostle
Paul had to say to the Ephesian elders. He said in verse 28,
take heed therefore unto yourself. Paul was about to leave them
and he would see their face no more. He was about to depart
to go to Jerusalem. He did not know what would befall
him there, but he recognized that wherever he would go, that
afflictions and bonds would be his part. But he said, You take
heed unto yourselves and all the flock over which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. The Lord has a people
in this world which are referred to as the church of God or the
Israel of God in the scripture. These people have been given
a credible citizenship in the Jerusalem of God which is above. And so he said, to feed the church
of God, these people that belong to God, these people that were
owned of God in eternal election and called out by the irresistible
call of the grace of God, those that had been purchased with
His own blood, the very blood of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, for I know this, take
heed unto yourselves, for I know this, that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
I know that after I'm gone that these grievous wolves will come
among you, and they will not spare the flock. Also of your
own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away
disciples after them. And so the Apostle Paul is warning
these Ephesian elders as to what to expect when his ministry is
done among them and when he goes away according to the will of
God. He says, for I know this. This
is not something that I'm speculating about, something I'm guessing
about. He says it's going to happen
that after my departure, grievous wolves will enter in among you,
not sparing the flock. Now, beloved, this morning I
remember a story that illustrates what I'm saying. I realize that
there is a need always for the Church of God to be reminded
of their obligation toward God, toward His Word, toward His truth. We know that as these men arise
they will speak perverse things, things that are contrary to sound
doctrine speak those things that are contrary to the right dividing,
the right partitioning off of the Holy Word of God. They'll
speak things that are not edifying, up-building, not God-honoring,
not supportive of the truth. And so, beloved, we need to be
aware of this, that this will happen, and one of these days
I will be gone from your midst. And you would need that you remember
the Holy Word of God that was taught, and the things that were
preached, the doctrines of the Word of God that were stressed
and laid before you, because as soon as the shepherd of the
flock is away, the wolves will enter in, not sparing the flock. They have no burden for the flock,
no concern for the flock, no concern for the people of God
in whom they lie. The very lifeblood of the Lord
Jesus Christ has been invested. They have no use for that flock. They have no purpose other than
to use it to further their own means and their own gain. But I remember this story about
a little farming town out west here, and it had died. The town had just completely
died. And there were two old farmers
that were sitting one day on a park bench. and sitting there
just musing themselves, talking with one another. And there was
a Cadillac that drove up, a Cadillac convertible, two people in the
Cadillac, two men in the Cadillac. And they stopped by the park
bench. And one of them said to the old
man, how long has this town been dead? And one of the farmers
looked at the other one and said, do you want to answer him? And
he said, yes, I'll answer him. He said, well, the town hasn't
been dead very long because you're the first buzzards to show up.
And so as soon, Paul said, as I depart, the wolves are going
to come in. There's going to be these wolves
coming in to devour the flock. And so I'm here this morning
to begin to say to you, the best I can, that we need to be aware
of this and we need to be prepared for what will come in the day
when the Lord leaves you, as it were, to yourselves. Now,
if you turn back over with me in the Scriptures, first of all
to Deuteronomy chapter 4, I want you to look at verse 39. Now,
Moses had been rehearsing with the people of God what he had
done for them, and how that the Lord had dealt with them like
he had dealt with no other nation ever under the face of the earth.
and on the face of the earth. And so as he spoke to them, he
talked to them in order that they might be able to see how
merciful God had been to them and how God had preserved them
and protected them and blessed them. And always the people of
God, it's good for them to look back. It's always good for them
to review. It's always good for them to
look again at the Word of God and the promises of the Word
of God and the truths of the Word of God that they might be
able to get a picture in their mind of their God and be able
to stay themselves upon their God. Now in verse 35 it says,
unto thee it was showed, Deuteronomy 4 and 35, unto thee it was showed
that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God, that there
is none else beside him. He says the Lord has showed you
all these things, how that he's visited you and visited your
fathers and how that he's spoken to you with a voice out of the
fire and out of the pillar of cloud and so on. And he said
the Lord showed you all of this that you might know. that the
Lord, He is God, and there is none else beside Him. Out of
heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct
thee. And upon earth He showed thee His great power, and thou
heardest His words out of the midst of the fire. Because He
loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them,
and brought thee out in His sight with His mighty power out of
Egypt, to drive out nations from before thee greater and mightier
than thou art, to bring thee in, to give thee their land,
for an inheritance as it is this day. Verse 39, notice this. Know therefore this day, and
consider it in thine heart. And I say this to you this morning,
I'm not Moses, but I'm here this morning as an ambassador of Jesus
Christ. I stand in the stead of the Lord
our God this morning in trembling and fear. He says, know therefore
this day, And I speak to you this morning, you know this day,
and consider in thine heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven
above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else. There is
none else. He is Lord. He is God in heaven
above and upon earth beneath. He is God absolutely, totally,
without question, He is God. Now then, if we can get that
well fixed in our hearts and remember that. Now we also want
to mention something out of Exodus chapter 5. You remember how that
Moses had been chosen of God to lead the children of Israel
out of Egypt, and Moses had a great deal of difficulty in speaking,
and he told God, he said, I'm not eloquent. Nor, he says, I'm
slow to speech. And he said, my tongue's slow.
I can't speak very fast. I can't speak rapidly. And the
Lord said to him, who hath made man's mouth, who maketh the dumb,
or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind, have not I the Lord? And
we remember the story how that finally the Lord allowed him
to, Moses, to back out of the responsibility of doing the talking.
And he let Aaron, his brother, be his mouthpiece. And he said,
I'll be a, you'll be like God to Aaron, and Aaron will be your
mouth. And you put words in his mouth,
and he'll do the speaking for you. And so this is what happened. And then in chapter 5, and afterward
Moses, after he had talked to the people of Israel, the children
of Israel, and they had believed him, after he had shown the signs,
throwing down the rod and how it turned into a serpent, and
he picked it up and turned back into a rod, and so on, after
he had shown them and convinced them that the Lord had sent him
to deliver them, then Moses and Aaron went in to the Pharaoh. And can't you imagine how they
trembled when they went in? Now these are men that believe
God. These are men that God has laid hold of. These are men that
God has spoken to. These are men that God has called
out and said, you've got this job, this responsibility to deliver
this multitude out of Egypt. And so they go in trembling before
Pharaoh. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
let my people go. That was their word, let my people
go, that they may hold a feast and to be in the wilderness.
that they may go out into a wilderness and form themselves into circles
and that they might dance around in celebration of the fact that
God is going to deliver them and that they're going to be
delivered. Now he just said that they go out and hold a feast,
but that's what that word means. Just go out and form a circle
and dance about in celebration of some great victory that is
about to come to pass. And so this is what he's told
Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said, in verse 2, said, Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Now, beloved,
this is the world. Pharaoh's a type of the world.
Pharaoh's a type of the religion of the world. And so he said,
Who is the Lord? Who is the Lord that I should
obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. I will not let them go. I'm the
authority here, I have the power here, I'm the sovereign here,
and I will not let Israel go. They cannot go. I will not let
them. Now, beloved, when you and I
as preachers and witnesses of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ go before this world, and begin to preach the great
doctrines of the Bible and the great truths of Holy Scripture,
we tremble. We tremble. Maybe we ought not,
but yet we do. Paul said when he preached Christ
and him crucified under the Corinthians, he said that he was with them
in weakness. and much fear, and he trembled
as he preached. And beloved, this world is no
friend of grace. We trust this morning that we're
among friends, that we're among those who love God, love His
people, and love His Word, and love His doctrine. And I hope
the day will never come where that a man has to get up here
and where he has to be afraid to speak the great doctrines
of the Word of God, to read the ninth chapter of the Book of
Romans and talk about the sovereignty of God and the God who put a
ring in the nose of old Pharaoh and God showed His power in him,
having raised him up for that purpose. God dealt with Pharaoh
and delivered the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
But what I want to do this morning is talk to you about how the
world, their ideas about what we believe and how that we stand
as we face this world. The world says, we don't want
any part of it. Your God is not going to rule
in our lives, and His truth is nothing that we're interested
in. And we know that the God of this
world, that He has His preachers, and we know they're preachers
of light, that they go around looking like they're servants
of light, that they're preachers of light and truth, but they're
not. But my friend, listen to me,
there are two forms of religion in the world. One is true and
the other is false. One is true and the other is
false. Now when we get down here this morning, you're going to
say that preacher is narrow-minded. But the truth is narrow. The
truth is narrow. And when you come to selecting
or calling a preacher to stand before you in this pulpit, you
had better be narrow-minded. And you better make sure that
they are of the truth, that they stand in the truth, that they
rightly divide the word of truth, that they rightly partition off
the word of God, and that they're not ashamed of the great doctrines
of the Bible that exalt God in His absolute sovereignty. Now
let alone one or the other is false. There are two religions.
One is saving and the other is damning. There are two forms
of religion. These two forms are free grace
and free will. Free grace declares that salvation
is the work of God alone. It has been our testimony all
through the years that salvation is by the grace of God alone
from the beginning to the end. That salvation is entirely by
free grace. Free will says that salvation
is at least in part the work of men. And you'll hear that
every time you turn the radio on, the television on, every
time you listen to preachers in this world, they'll tell you
that salvation, at least in part, has something to do with what
man does. Now, free grace declares that
salvation is a condition upon the obedience of Jesus Christ
alone as the sinner's substitute. I tell you here this morning,
and I've preached faithfully throughout the years, that salvation
is conditioned upon the obedience of our substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Free will says that salvation
is ultimately and finally conditioned upon the obedience of the sinner
himself. Hear me, my friend, any doctrine
that makes your salvation, that makes the salvation of God's
church, the salvation of God's people, that makes eternal life,
acceptance with God and the reward of the heavenly inheritance to
be depended upon or determined by you at any point or in any
measure is contrary to sound doctrine. Is that a true statement?
Absolutely. If our salvation depends upon
us at any point, We're all lost this morning and headed for a
devil's hell to receive, believe, or embrace. Any such doctrine
will be damning to your soul. Salvation is of God. Well, beloved,
there are five points of divine truth which I'm not ashamed of,
which I often mention, which we preach, which seasons everything
that we preach and stand for here in this church, which all
doctrines must be ultimately examined in the light of. Anything that is contrary to
or in any measure diminishes these five points of sound doctrine
must be rejected as heresy and perverse teaching. Number one,
total depravity. Do you understand what that is?
All men by nature are both sinful. and helpless. We talked about
helplessness and inability last Sunday. Well, total depravity
says that men are not as bad as they can be, but they're all
bad because all are spiritually dead. Ephesians 2 tells us, Paul
said, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in
sin. All men are dead. They're not
crippled or partially disabled. They are dead. They are utterly
ruined. They were ruined at the fall. Men are dead in sin. Now, you
cannot believe the Bible and reject this truth. Out of the
heart of man is all of the corruption. Somebody has said, well, if a
man washes his hands, takes a good bath in clean water, he'll be
clean and pure. Well, beloved, he will not be
as long as his heart is defiled by sin, as long as he's in a
state of nature. So we believe in total depravity
here. And I can hear preachers snicker
and hear congregations as they begin to shuffle around in their
seat when a man begins to talk about the inability of the sinner
and how that he ceased to be and he cannot any longer. affect
his salvation. Now the second great truth that
you must be aware of and that you surely are aware of is unconditional
election. Because a man is totally depraved,
his choice, his choice is death. He willingly chooses to die rather
than live. Adam chose to die in the Garden
of Eden rather than live. And you and I, if we ever live,
if we ever have eternal life, if we ever have salvation, if
we're ever born again, if we ever miss hell, it'll be because
God made a choice on our behalf. And that's what election is.
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. In Romans 9, 11-16,
the brother faithfully read this this morning, 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 it might stand,
not of works, but of him that calleth. The purpose of God will
be accomplished, it will be fulfilled, and it won't be by the works
of men, it will be by the purpose of him that does the choosing
and the calling. Ephesians 1 and 4, reporting
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
that we should behold him without blame, before him in love. 2
Thessalonians 2 and 13 But we are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through being set
apart by the Spirit and the belief of the truth. And so God has
chosen a people These people were totally depraved. They can't
help themselves. They can't do anything for themselves. They're
dead in sin. And if they're going to live,
the life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ must come and quicken
them. The third thing is the limited
atonement. Now, the atonement is limited.
Some people say it's limited in its power, and other people
say it's limited in its purpose. We are the second group. We believe
the atonement is limited in its purpose. We believe that the
atonement can save everybody for whom it was meant. We believe
that Christ died for and redeemed His elect only. The benefits
of Christ's death are limited to the Church, and His death
effectually secures their salvation. Now that's what I believe. I
believe that His death, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, effectually,
that means it is sure to be. It is sure to me, affectionately
secures the salvation of these people. John 10 and 11, I'm the
good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life, giveth his life,
not just at random, but for the sheep, for the sheep. And so,
we have the Savior dying, we have man dead in sin, we have
God making the choice. of the sinner unto himself, choosing
the sinner, not by any works or merit of the sinner, but because
of the love of God and the purpose of God and the decree of God.
And then we have Jesus laying down His life to die for those
sinners. And then irresistible grace.
God the Holy Spirit calls sinners from spiritual death to spiritual
life in Christ by the power of His grace. And this power cannot
be successfully resisted. Psalm 65 and 4, Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. Now, beloved,
if you are one of those who doubt this truth, you tell me how Saul
of Tarsus ever got into the kingdom of God. You tell me how that
the woman at the well ever got into the kingdom of God if it
was not by divine spirit power that came and brought them, and
delivered them, arresting them, and bringing them out of their
sin, and bringing them savingly to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
telling you, Psalm 110 verse 3 says, Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power. When thy power comes upon them,
your chosen people will be willing, willing to repent, willing to
believe, willing to trust, willing to give their lives, their heart,
over unto the Lord. John 6 and 63 said, It is the
spirit that makes alive. The flesh, it profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life. And so, beloved, what we
have here is the call of the Spirit of God. It's a life-giving
call. It's not the general call. We
talked about the general call and the effectual call here a
while back. This is not the general call. It's the effectual call.
This is the call that brings the sinner out and brings him
unto the Lord Jesus. It's the call that brought the
children of Israel out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and into
the land of Canaan. It's that call of God that is
effectual. Now the fifth thing is the perseverance
of the saints. Every sinner chosen by God in
election, redeemed by Christ at Calvary, and called by the
Spirit in grace, shall persevere in grace unto eternal glory. Because they're all preserved
and kept by a faithful God. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. No man shall pluck them out of
my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all.
No man can pluck them out of his hand. If any man preaches
anything contrary to these things, I tell you this morning he's
a false prophet and a deceiver of men's souls. Now you do with
that whatever you want to do with it. But you better stick
that somewhere, and you better look at it every time you listen
to somebody preach. If he hadn't got these five things
clear in his preaching, then you, my friend, better recognize
that you're wasting your time listening to that man. That man's
not going to honor God, and he's out to honor himself. And it
may be that he's in the process, in the process of coming to the
truth. But he has no business standing
before a congregation of believers to instruct them unless he has
come to the truth and has received the enlightenment of the Spirit
of God on these truths. Now, if you have your Bible,
turn to Psalm 135 and look at verse 5 and verse 6. Psalm 135 verse 5 and verse 6.
I'd like for you to see this verse of Scripture here, these
verses. Psalm 135 verse 5 and 6, For
I know that the Lord is great and that
our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas, and in all
deep places. Listen to that sixth verse. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the
seas, and in all deep places. Martin Luther one time wrote
to Erasmus and said, your thoughts of God are too human. They're too human. With those
words, I think he exposed the essential fallacy of all false
religion. I lay this charge against all
preachers of free will, works, religion. Their thoughts of God
are too human. God's charge against apostate
Israel, Psalm 50 and 21, Thou faultest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. That's what you thought. You
thought I was just like you, fickle and feeble, just like
you. You thought I went into things
just like you go at it. You start something and then
you don't finish it. You go out here and you fool
around for a little while and you're just as energetic and
sincere as you can be, and then after a while here you are and
you're a sloth. You give it all up. He said, you think that I'm
just like you. And he said, that's not so. And
my friend, this indictment, I certainly believe, should be given against
the religion of this day. Men today imagine that God is
moved by sentiment rather than by the determination of his own
will. And God is not moved by sentiment. He is moved by the determination
of his own will and decree. They talk about omnipotence,
but imagine that it is such an idle fiction that Satan and men
can thwart the power of God. Is that omnipotence? Well, my
friend, omnipotence cannot be thwarted. God is great and whatsoever
He pleases, that did He in heaven and in earth. If they speak of
God's plan, the preachers of our day tell us that it must
like the plan to constant change, adjusting to the whims and fancy
of the flesh at every turn of the road. They tell us that God's
power, that God's plan, that His will and His sovereignty
must be limited, lest He violate man's free will. and reduce him
to a robot. My friend, my friend, the grace
of God is represented as a helpless, frustrated desire in God's heart
to save people who will not allow Him to save them. Well, what
foolishness is that? We know if God cannot save them
by His power, then who, my friend, where is there any hope? Where
is there any hope? The precious blood of Christ,
we're told, was shed in vain for many, wasted, if you please,
upon the multitudes who perish. And the saving power of the Holy
Spirit is reduced to a gentle offer of grace which waits upon
the will of man to make it effectual. Let me say, such thoughts of
God are too human. Such a God is no God at all. Such a God is no God at all. Our God is great, and He's in
the heavens, and He doesn't whatsoever please. In reality, the religionists
of our day are atheists, just like Pharaoh. Who is the Lord
that I should obey Him? Let the people go, no, just increase
their burden. Give them something more to do.
So they'll get away with this idea of going out into the wilderness
and forming a circle and celebrating the victory. Y'all give them
more work to do. Make them gather the straw to
build the bricks, to make the bricks. Give them something more
to do. And that'll make them more religious and make them
more satisfied. I'd just like to see a group
of people celebrating the victory, wouldn't you? Celebrating salvation
by free grace, celebrating a sovereign God, a God who can deliver, a
God who can bring men out, a God who is able to move men. Well, listen, they're just atheists. There's no possible alternative
between a God who is absolutely sovereign and no God at all. Stephen Charnock said, to be
God and sovereign is inseparable. God must be sovereign. If he's
God, he's got to be. A God whose will can be resisted,
whose purpose can be frustrated, whose power can be thwarted,
whose grace can be nullified, whose work can be overturned.
He has no title to deity. None whatsoever. He doesn't belong
in the list of gods. The God, the one living and true
God, He doesn't even, He doesn't even, shouldn't even share the
title. Such a God is not a fit object of worship. You agree
with me? Such a God is not a fit object
of worship. Such a puny, pygmy, God merits
nothing but contempt. He is not the God of the Bible. And don't you forget that. And
I hope that that is embedded in the walls of this place. He
is not the God of the Bible. If he can be frustrated and thwarted,
and his purpose frustrated, he's not the God of this book. Our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven
and earth, and in the seas, and all deep places. When I say God
is sovereign, I'm simply saying God is God. That's what I'm saying. To deny His sovereignty is to
deny His Godhead. You might as well speak of a
God who is not eternal. as a God who is not holy, as
a God who is not immutable, as to speak of a God who is not
sovereign. God is sovereign. He is eternal. He is holy. He
is immutable. But He's also sovereign. Sovereignty
and deity stands or falls together. And don't you ever forget it.
It stands or falls together. Now in Psalm 115 and verse 3, If you're over there in the book
of Psalms, why don't you just look at that? Psalm 115 and verse
3. Look at what this says. But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. I illustrated why it
is that I keep going back to verses sometimes that say basically
the same thing. Out in Indiana, it's like driving
a railroad spike into a heavy piece of oak. You beat on it
a little while, and then you gotta come back and hit it again.
Come back and beat on it a little bit more, beat on it a little
bit more. And so when I preach, that's the way I try to do it.
I try to get in a verse, and another verse, and then another
verse, and just beat on it, and beat on it, and thump these things
until people say, well, I think the Bible says such and such.
Well, that's a good thing that you come to believe that, that
our God is in the heavens. and he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased. If it pleased him, he did it.
Now remember that. If it pleases him, he did it.
God's subject to none. He is absolutely independent
of, sovereign over all of his creatures. He does as he pleases,
only as he pleases, and always as he pleases. Daniel said he
does according to his own will in the army of heaven among the
inhabitants of the earth. None can say unto him, What doest
thou? None can stay his hand. Divine sovereignty means that
God sits upon the throne of universal dominion, directing all things,
ruling all things, working all things after the counsel of his
own will. Ephesians 1.11 says everything
that God does has the stamp of sovereignty upon it. Listen to
what it says, "...him whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will." There are four
things that I want to notice quickly. I'm not going to preach
much on them, but I want to mention them to you to help you to get
well fixed in your mind this day that God is Lord in heaven
above and earth beneath, and that there is none like Him. First of all, in the work of
predestination. These four works of God display
His sovereignty. Predestination is the work of
God's sovereignty. Before the world began, God chose
some to be the object of His saving grace and mercy, and He
predestinated these ones chosen to be conformed to the image
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're going to be like Christ.
We're predestinated to be conformed to the image. It takes a sovereign
God to take a wiggling maggot of the dust like you and I and
save us by sovereign grace and make us like His Son. But God
loves His Son. And everyone in heaven, all His
people are going to look like His Son. They're all going to
be like His Son. God loves His Son. He predestinated that we
all be conformed to the image of His Son. You say, I'd like
to look like myself. Well, beloved, I'm telling you,
God loves His Son. He loves His Son, and He made
the determination before the foundation of the world that
all of the living family is going to be like His Son. We're going
to see Him as He is. We're going to be made like unto
the Son of God. God sovereignly determined that
He would save who He would save, how He would save, and when He
would save them. Having determined these things, He infallibly secured
His eternal purpose of grace by predestination. He said it's
going to be. This is the way it's going to
be. Now God can predestinate. It's impossible to predestinate
anything that's not foreknown. But God only can foreknow. You
and I cannot foreknow anything. You and I don't know what tomorrow's
going to bring. We don't even know what this
afternoon's going to bring. You don't even know what one
minute from now is going to bring. You could be in eternity. We
all could be in eternity in a short time. Yes, we could. Only God
knows. We don't know anything about
tomorrow. But God can say, this is the way it's going to be tomorrow,
this way it's going to be in the future, this way it's going
to be in the end time, this is the way it's going to be. Because
He's God. He's going to be there to bring
it to pass. And He's got the power to bring it to pass. He
can bring it to pass. God predestinated from eternity
everything that comes to pass in time. You say, oh, is that
true? Yes, to secure the salvation
of His elect. It's all to that end, you know.
It is written, beloved, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 to 18, that if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed
away, behold, all things become new, and all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us unto Himself by Jesus Christ. Meaning that
all things in the new creation, all of God. all of God from the
beginning to the end. Second, creation is the work
of God's sovereignty. Genesis 1-1, in the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. And so, creation is the
work of God's sovereignty. Don't listen to anybody tell
you any different. Now, in Revelation 4 and 11, it says, Thou art worthy,
O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast
created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Is that alright with you? for
thy pleasure they are and were created. I'm here to tell you
that God has a right that everything that he made be for his pleasure.
All be for his pleasure. Now nothing moved God to create
except his own sovereign will. Where was the religionist when
God decided he'd create a world? Where were they? Where was the
free willers then? Where were they? What could move
Him when there was nothing but God Himself? Nobody there but
God. Nothing could move Him. He did
it. You're here today because God did it. He created the heavens
and the earth. He put breath in your body. He
controls the breath going in and out of your lungs. You believe
it, you don't believe it. Whatever. But I'm going to tell
you, when He shuts it off, you'll believe it. It'll be all over
with you. God controls all this. He created
the universe, all things in it, that He might carry out His purpose
of grace toward His elect for the glory of His own name. He has it all. The purpose of
His grace toward His elect. That's what it's all about. Third,
providence is the work of God's sovereignty. Romans 8, 28, you
remember what that says, and we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. And Romans 11, 36, for of Him
and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory
forever. Amen. And so, beloved, Providence,
in Providence God rules the universe, sovereignly accomplishing that
which He purposed in eternity. God's Providence rules over everything,
intimate, inanimate, great and small, even over all the thoughts,
wills, words, and deeds of all men, angels and devils." Do you
believe that? I believe it with all my heart. That's what we
believe here in this church. That's exactly what we believe.
Fourthly and lastly, salvation is the work of God's sovereignty.
You listened as the brother read out of Romans 9. If you were
to take Romans 9 verse 8 through 24 and examine it carefully,
The very gist of it is God chose some, but not all, to salvation. He gave His Son to die for some,
but not all. He sends the Gospel to some, but not all. He gives
the gift of His Spirit to some, but not all. He causes some to
hear His voice, but not all. He saves some, but not all. What shall we say to these things?
What shall we say? Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy Name. Give glory for Thy mercy and
for Thy true sin. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. It seemed good to You, Father. And You're God. And we bow to
You. Our ways are not Your ways. Our
thoughts are not Your thoughts. On our best days, they're not.
They are not. We bow in submission and surrender
to the will of God, to the purpose of God, to His ways. But remember
the Scripture. I brought these things to you
this morning so that you would remember. that when this preacher
is gone, I don't know when I'm going to be gone. I don't know.
Sometimes I think it won't be long and maybe the Lord will
enable me to stay around longer. I don't know anything about it.
But know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that
the Lord is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath. There
is none else. There is none else. Know therefore
this day and consider it in your heart. These truths that we've
set before you today, oh, it should, you know, we need a lot
of time to really, I wish we had all kinds of time, we don't,
we don't. But we set these things before
you so that you'll remember, you'll remember, and that you'll
take heed. Now when the time comes, when the buzzers begin
to circle, you'll know exactly what's happening. And you'll
know that you'll be able to say, well, I see here what's going
on. I already had, and I'm not imputing
anything to this gentleman, but I've already had a call checking
up on me, whether or not just where I was and everything from
way down in South Carolina, somebody looking for a church and wanting
to know just how things were and just where I was, what I
was planning on doing and so on and so forth. And so if you
think the butchers are not going to circle, you've got another
thing coming. This is God's flock. This is Christ's church. And
Christ loves this church. He gave himself for it. And if
you think the devil isn't against it, you've got another thing
coming. If you'd have been in my shoes the last 31 years, you
would know the devil is against this church. And he would do
anything he could to destroy it and wipe it out. And wipe
the testimony. Oh, wipe the testimony. And the
religionists of this area would clap their hands. If there was
nobody around here preaching the sovereignty of God Almighty,
and preaching the great truths of God's elective grace, they'd
clap their hands. Don't tell me they wouldn't.
They'd hear about it. Oh, it's too bad. Isn't it too
bad by what happened to that church? Isn't it too bad? No,
my friend. You see to it, it don't happen.
You see to it, it don't happen. If you brethren got to read to
one another, if you got to talk to one another, and do the preaching
yourselves, see to it that it never happens. that the truth
of God prevails and will continue on in this place. Now, just to
bring you up to date quickly, I got a preliminary report this
week that I am allurging to