turning, if you will, to Matthew
chapter 22. Matthew chapter 22. We who believe rejoice in the blessed
gospel doctrine of God's elect and love. All who are taught
of God do. We rejoice to hear our master
say, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. We delight
to sing with the psalmist, Blessed, O blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. Those and those only are blessed,
truly blessed, eternally blessed, blessed with grace and salvation
and light in Jesus Christ, who were chosen of God to salvation
from eternity. Election, however, has never
saved anyone. It's very, very important that
we understand this. Election is not, in itself, salvation. Election is unto salvation. No one has ever been saved by
election. We're saved by Jesus Christ,
our God and Savior. Before God Almighty, in his holiness,
justice, and truth, could save any sinner, even those loved
of him with everlasting love. Even those chosen by him to salvation,
before he could save any, his justice must be satisfied through
the sacrifice and the shed blood of his dear son. Election is
the work of God the Father in salvation. Redemption is the
work of God the Son. How we rejoice in and give thanks
to God also for our redemption by Christ. Precious indeed is
that blood, by which our sins are washed away. Precious, precious
blood of Christ. We rejoice in God's special,
particular, distinguishing acts of grace, particularly for his
redemption of our souls by Jesus Christ. God's saints not only
have no problem with limited atonement, they rejoice in it.
God's people not only have no difficulty with particular effectual
redemption, they delight in it. We are delighted as his sheep
to know he laid down his life for us. I cannot imagine anyone
objecting to the doctrine of particular effectual redemption
who's experienced it. Believers enjoy gospel truth. Jesus Christ has redeemed us
and by his blood has put away our sins. Yet, even our redemption
by Christ, though it guaranteed and infallibly secured the salvation
of God's elect, even our redemption by Christ is not salvation. Salvation involves the work of
God the Father and the Son, but it also involves the work of
God the Holy Spirit in regeneration and effectual calling. Now this
work of God the Holy Spirit in effectual calling will be our
subject tonight, and the Lord willing, for the next couple
of weeks. The effectual call is the Holy Spirit's work of
effectual, irresistible grace by which he draws irresistibly,
by which he draws effectually chosen redeemed sinners to Jesus
Christ, creating life and faith in them, converting them by the
power of almighty grace. The work of the Holy Spirit in
effectual calling must be understood in two aspects. Now please be
sure you get this. The effectual call of the Holy
Spirit involves an external or outward call, which is the preaching
of the gospel. The Holy Spirit does not call
sinners to life and faith in Christ apart from the preaching
of the gospel. But the external, the outward
call, is in itself ineffectual. The external, outward call, this
business of preaching the gospel, never has saved anyone. There
must also be the internal, effectual, inner call of the Holy Spirit
giving us life and faith, making the preached word powerful and
effectual to the salvation of our souls. Now, this evening,
I want you to look at Matthew 22 and verse 14. I want to show
you what the Word of God teaches us tonight about the external
or outward call of the gospel. The title of my message is The
Preaching of the Gospel, The External Call of the Holy Spirit. Here in Matthew 22, verse 14,
Our Lord has given the parable of the marriage feast, and he
tells how the bridegroom and the father of the bridegroom
send out his servants, and he tells them to call, to bid, and
to invite those to come to the marriage, whoever would. In Luke's
gospel, Luke speaks of a singular parable, but in that parable,
he speaks of a singular servant, not a mini-servant. And that
singular servant does not bid sinners come to the marriage.
He sends out his servant and says, compel them to come in. That's the Spirit of God. But
here in Matthew 22, he's talking to us about God's servants, gospel
preachers. And he talks to us about those
who, by the preaching of the gospel, are not capable of compelling
someone to come in, but we do bid sinners everywhere come to
the marriage of the Lamb. And having described that, he
says, some who were bidden come, and some did not. And this is
our Lord's conclusion. For many are called, but few
are chosen. Now, in this text, our Lord Jesus
declares that many Not all, certainly not all, but many are called,
called to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ by the preaching
of the gospel. And that few of the many who
are called, that is though there are some who are not called,
some who are called outwardly, yet few of those who hear the
gospel outwardly are indeed chosen of God and numbered among God's
elect. So tonight I want to show you
that the means of grace The means by which this external call is
given to sinners is the preaching of the gospel. I'm doing this
because I want you to understand the utter necessity, the great
importance of the gospel ministry. First, God calls sinners to life
and faith in Christ by the preaching of the gospel. Turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 20. I want you to look at a couple
of texts of scripture as we go through each of these points.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 20. Every time a true servant
of God preaches the gospel. Now, it's needful, regrettably,
that you understand what I'm saying. Not every time a man
opens a Bible and says he's a preacher, he stands up and says he's going
to preach. That's not what I'm talking about. That's not what I'm talking
about. But every time a true servant of God preaches the gospel,
preaches the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ. I mean by that, preaches the
gospel doctrine of God's electing love, of Christ's effectual redeeming
blood, and the Holy Spirit's irresistible grace in salvation. Every time a true servant of
God preaches the gospel of God's grace, then that man stands before
others and declares to sinners the way of life and salvation
in Christ, and bids them be reconciled to God." 2 Corinthians 5 and
verse 20. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. What a word. What a word. Now that places an important
thing as well. That places some weight on my shoulders as a preacher
and some weight on your shoulders as men and women blessed of God
to hear the Word. If I speak to you as God's servant,
as one sent of God, then what you hear is not merely the voice
of a man speaking words that he has studied, written down
on paper, and put together in a logical manner. But rather,
what you hear is God speaking to you through the lips of a
man like yourself. Look on, we pray you in Christ's
stead as though God did receive you by him. We pray you in Christ's
stead as the ambassadors of Jesus Christ, as one who is sent of
the King with a message from the King, who is the King's representative. We pray you in Christ's stead
Be reconciled to God. The preaching of the gospel is
not an offer of Christ. The preaching of the gospel is
not an offer of grace. The preaching of the gospel is
not an offer of salvation. You stop and think about this,
folks. Arguing, you know, there's lots of fuss among fellows who
think they're smart about the free offer of the gospel, you
know, whether or not you freely offer the gospel. Shoot! How
am I going to offer you salvation? I can't give it. How am I going
to offer you Christ? I can't give Him. How am I going
to offer you grace? That's not the preaching of the
gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the declaration of
what Christ has done. It is good news announced and
proclaimed. It's not an offer of anything.
The preaching of the gospel is a proclamation of the unsearchable
riches of Jesus Christ. His pardon, His grace, His blood,
His righteousness, His atonement, salvation in Him. It's the declaration
of who He is and what He has done. In preaching the gospel,
we're simply declaring to men that which Jesus Christ has accomplished
and good news it is. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah
chapter 40. Nowhere in the Bible, nowhere
in the Bible do you find a prophet or an apostle or a preacher sent
of God saying, now God sent me to give you a chance to be saved.
God sent me to offer salvation to you. God sent me to invite
you to come to Jesus or to receive Jesus. That's the language of
religious folks, but not the language of the Bible. Here in
Isaiah 40 and verse 1, the Lord God declares that which is the
responsibility of every gospel preacher to do. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. How? Speak ye comfortably to
Jerusalem. The word speak ye comfortably
means speak to the heart of Jerusalem. Speak to the heart of my people.
I can't do that. I can't, I can't speak to your
heart, I can't speak to your head, I can't speak to your brain,
I can't even speak to your emotions, I can't speak to your heart.
Oh, but if God speaks through me, I speak to your heart. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. This is God's appointed means
of grace. I'm not going to get off the
message this evening, but not only is this the means by which
God saves sinners, this is the only mean by which God speaks
to sinners, and ministers to sinners, and instructs sinners,
and comfort sinners once they're saved by his grace. I would do nothing to diminish
or lower in your mind the profitableness, the value, the inestimable, indescribable
value of personal reading of the Word of God, personal study,
personal prayer, personal worship. Make those things a matter of
constant, constant care on your own part. But when all is said
and done, personal prayer and personal worship and personal
study are absolutely not to be compared with the public ministry
of the Word and the worship of God. The fact is, if you neglect the
public worship of God and the public ministry of the Word,
I'll guarantee you're neglecting the personal. I'll guarantee
it. But in the house of God, God
promised to meet sinners one place. Laocrice, he did not promise
to meet you and speak to you at your living room table. He
did promise to meet you in the house of God. or three or gathering
money, I'm right there. I'm always there. Always there.
He did promise to speak to sinners from between the cherubim upon
the mercy seat. And that mercy seat is Christ
the Lord. And as he is preached unto men,
so God meets with men and reveals himself to men. He ascended up
into heaven and gave gifts unto men. Yea, he received gifts for
the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them.
And what are those gifts? He gave apostles and prophets
and pastors and teachers. for the perfecting of the saints,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. So what does the scripture
teach? It teaches us that that which
is the primary, primary means by which God deals with his people
in this world, to comfort them, to reprove them, to correct them,
to guide them, to build them up, is the ministry of the Word.
But that's not only the case with regard to believers. This
is God's appointed means of grace for the salvation of his elect.
those sinners chosen and redeemed by his grace. God does not save
sinners through the declaration of religious lies. Now let us sink in. God does
not save sinners through the declaration of religious lies,
but rather through the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Turn to Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians 1, verse 13. The apostle tells us how that
God the Father first trusted in Christ as our surety. Then he says in verse 13, in
whom you also trusted. When did you come to trust him?
When did you come to trust him? Well, when I was a little boy,
I was at a Billy Graham crusade. I didn't know what was going
on, but they had an invitation and saying, just as I am and
everybody kind of crying. And somebody came and took me
by the arm and said, won't you come forward and receive Jesus?
And I said, yes, I will. And I knelt down there with them
and they said, repeat after me. And they said a prayer and I
prayed after them. And that's it. Oh, no, no, you won't say
that. No, sir. Oh, yes, I was there.
No, you won't. But I experienced it. No, you
experienced a delusion, not salvation. You're just as likely to be saved
there as kneeling down before some Roman Catholic priest taking
bread out of his hand and thinking you're eating the body of Christ.
It's nuts to imagine such things. You who are taught of God, listen
to me. Nobody is ever saved through
the preaching of religious lies. God saves sinners through the
word of truth. Read on. In whom ye also trusted, After
that you heard the word of your free will? No. After you heard
the word of what you must do for Jesus? No. After you heard
the word of your decision? No. After you heard the word
of truth? What? The gospel of your salvation. What on earth is that? You remember
in 2nd Timothy 1, God has saved us and called us Not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And the
next verse, but is now made manifest by the appearing of God our Savior.
That is what he's talking about. How did you believe? When did
you believe? After you heard the word of truth. The gospel
that God had saved you. The gospel that God by his grace
and by his purpose and by his blood has accomplished salvation
for you. You believe. In whom also after
that you believe you were sealed. Sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory.
Romans chapter 10, listen to this. So then faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. How does God save sinners? Through the preached Word. Through
the preached Word. Through a man expounding Holy
Scripture. Declaring to you the Word of
God. Turn now to 1 Peter. I want you to look at this one
more time. 1 Peter chapter 1. It pleased God, Paul wrote, by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Folks
say, well, but we believe in God's sovereignty. We believe
God will regenerate a man through stumbling over a rock if he wants
to. God will regenerate a man without hearing the gospel, worshiping
some totem pole in the heart of Africa if he wants to, if
he wants to, but he don't want to. That's not his will. That's not his purpose. I know
so because I've read his book, and that tells me what his purpose
is. James chapter 1 verse 18, of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that is God by his will according to his
purpose gave dead sinners whom he chose and redeemed life by
the word of truth. Now Peter explains it to us.
First Peter chapter 1 verse 23, he says we're born again, not
of corruptible sin, Every human being is born naturally
of corruptible seed. The word is the word spermos.
The word sperm. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about seed. Seed that gives life. And he
says we were born again not of mere corruptible human seed. Not because mom or daddy are
believers. But born again of incorruptible
seed. How? The Word of God which lives and
abides forever. People speak with disdain of
this book. Some folks who claim to reverence
and honor the book, they speak of this book as being something
less than it is. It's the living Word of God. You see that? By the Word of
God which liveth and abideth forever, For all flesh, that's
you and me, that's mama and daddy, that's the preacher, the deacons,
the church, the whole bunch of us, all flesh is as grass. And the glory of man like the
flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower
thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. Now look at the last line of
this. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you. This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
In other words, the word is not preached except as the gospel
is preached. Have you got that? People get
up and preachers all over the country, all over the world,
they recite scripture and read scripture and expound scripture
and they give the historical, grammatical, literal sense of
scripture so they imagine. But they've missed the sense
of Scripture altogether, unless they preach Christ in whom crucified
to you. They've missed the message of Scripture altogether, unless
they've declared the Gospel to you. Salvation comes by the Word
of God as the Gospel is preached to you from the Word of God.
Otherwise, the preaching of a man is just sounding brass and painting
cymbals, nothing else. Nothing else. Oh, but the preaching
instructs us in morality, sounding brass and tinkling cinders. But
the preaching instructs us in things to comfort us, sounding
brass and tinkling cinders. But the preaching gives us some
ideas concerning prophecy and future things and past things
and all this sounding brass and tinkling cinders. This is the
word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Now you listen to me.
You listen carefully. Don't you hear a man who, as
he opens the book of God, does not preach the gospel to you.
And you men who preach, as you're called upon to give an opportunity
to bear witness publicly before men of God's truth, don't even
think about preaching unless you preach the gospel from the
text you find. Don't even think about it. Otherwise,
your preaching is meaningless. It's worse than meaningless.
It's a delusion. Now secondly, the gospel call is universal
in its scope. Turn to Matthew 28. Matthew 28. Gospel preaching is God's means
of grace, and gospel preaching is universal in its scope. Matthew
28, verse 18. The Lord Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying, All power Power in the sense of might,
but power also in the sense of authority, is given to me in
heaven and earth. The Father put everything in
my hands. Go ye therefore. Now, sometimes this is read like
the Lord's giving a command to an army, you go and do this.
What he's saying is, as you're going, as you're going, while
you're making your way through this world, you who are God's
children, You're just passing through this land. As you are
going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Now, notice the order
given. He doesn't say baptize them and
teach them. He says teach them and baptize
them. teach all nations, teach them the gospel of God's grace,
and those who have heard and learned the gospel, baptize or
immerse them in the name singular of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost, for it is one name of the triune God
given in baptism, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I've commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world." Now, when I say that The preaching of the
gospel is universal in its scope. I mean by that that we are to
preach the gospel, and we do, to all who will hear us. Obviously, this text does not
mean, and the scriptures do not mean, that everyone in the world
has an opportunity to hear the gospel. That just isn't so. That just isn't so. When our
Lord sent the gospel to the Jews, he hid it for hundreds of years
from all the Gentiles. While he lived upon the earth,
he and his apostles preached the gospel to none but to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. When he sent his servants out
to preach the gospel in Acts, we read in the book of Acts how
that those servants from time to time would want to go here
or go there, and God prevented them. There were a lot of folks
who never had the opportunity to hear the word. And some in
a given city heard the word, but most in the city did not
hear it. And the same is true today. The fact is there are
many who never hear the word of the gospel. Many who never
had the privilege that you have. of hearing of Christ and Him
crucified. Many in this time, many around this country, many
in the religious world in which we presently live, never had
the privilege of hearing the gospel. Many are called, but
not all. When we say then that the gospel
is universal in its scope, this is what the scriptures are teaching
us. We preach the gospel indiscriminately to everyone. Why don't you just
preach to the elect? The elect are going to be saying,
hang on, I'll tell you, I won't tell you that. Just hang on a
little bit and I'll tell you why we do it. But we preach the
gospel indiscriminately to all men because the Lord's commanded
us to do so. Thirdly, this call of the gospel,
this call of sinners to repentance and faith in Christ is an unconditional
call. What do you mean unconditional?
Some of you here are yet without life and faith in Christ. And one reason is that you still
think somehow there are conditions, qualifications that you have
to meet. You've got to feel something. Surely a man's repentance has
got to be more than my repentance. Surely a man born of God would
mourn over his sin, and I don't mourn enough. He would repent.
I don't repent enough. He would feel things deeper than
I feel them. Listen carefully to me. God never
commands you. He never commands you to meet
certain conditions and qualifications and to experience certain things
before you believe on Christ. He commands you to believe on
himself. Look in 1 John chapter 3. 1 John
chapter 3 verse 23. Now sometimes when my daughter
was growing up, I would say things to her and she knew that I was
saying, you do this as you want to. Or I was saying to her, I'd
kind of like for you to do this, but it's up to you. But most
of the time, as she was growing up, especially when she was a
little taut, I didn't give her the choice. I had better sense.
I said, do this, and she understood that means you do this, you get
your panty busted. You do this, or you're going
to hurt for it. She just understood that. And
the commandment came with a definite word. So that when I would say
to her, now Faith, you pick the toy up and put it away, that
didn't mean let's sit down here and talk about this, let's discuss
this. That meant pick the toy up and put it away. If I said,
go help your mom with the dishes, that didn't mean now after you
get done watching TV and after you get done playing around and
get done fooling around with things you want to fool with,
you go help your mom with the dishes if you want to. No, that meant go
do the dishes. And when God speaks a word of
command, He's not saying that you do this if you want to and
if you don't, be all right. Look here in 1 John 3.23. The Scripture
declares here, this is His commandment. That's an order. That's an order. That we should believe on the
name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave
us commandment. Now there's much that can be said about that,
but I want to say one thing concerning it. If God commands you to believe,
it'll be all right if you believe. If God commands you to look to
your son, then you can look to your son. If God commands you
to come to Christ, you can come to Christ. You get a summons
from the court, tells you to be in the Boyle County District
Court tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. That doesn't mean come
if you want to, it means come on. Or you say, well, I wonder
if it'd be all right if I come. I believe it'd be okay. It's
a command. Well, preacher, you mean without
any feeling of life in my soul, in all the deadness of my being,
in all the corruption that I am, in all the vileness that I am,
in all my emptiness, in all my weakness. You mean, you mean
come and believe on Christ right now, just like I am? That's it. And I promise you, as surely
as you look to Him, your heart will melt in repentance. As surely
as you look to Him, your soul will mourn your sins. Surely
as you look to Him, you will find yourself more and more weak
and more and more empty and more and more dependent on Him. But
I'm telling you, there's no condition, no qualification for you to make,
come to Christ right where you are, without doing anything. How do you come to Christ? Don't say anything. Don't do
anything. Don't move anything. Just come
to Christ. Just come to Christ. I was talking
some years ago to some folks up in New York in a huge conference
I was preaching in, and a lot of folks were just terribly deluded
with so many religious notions. I said to folks, I said, You
come to Christ without moving, without doing anything. It's
an act of the heart. It's more statistical how you
do that. That's why watch me now. Watch close. Watch real
close. My wife is a thousand miles away. I just went there. You see it? No? Hold on, what are you talking
about? He was confused as he could be.
And I repeated it about six times. He never did catch it. Never
did. It's an act of the heart. An
act of the heart. Coming to Christ is not walking
down the church aisle. It's not kneeling at a mourner's
bench or at an altar. It's not saying a sinner's prayer.
It's not signing a decision card. Coming to Christ is believing. Just believing. This call of the gospel forthwith
is given by divine authority. I touched on this a minute ago.
That man who is sent of God to preach the gospel is sent with
a God-given divine authority. A divine authority which cannot
be obtained by any means except the call and gift of God. I've been to two of the most
reputable Bible colleges in this nation. Studied everything they
had to offer. And I've done some correspondence
work since graduating. But I'm going to tell you something. If you could find a perfectly
good seminary or Bible college, perfectly good, taught the gospel
right down the line. With godly men teaching. The best seminary in the country
cannot give authority to preach. Brother Scott Richardson describes
it this way, that the fellows stand up and preach, and they
may have the truth, but they sound like a dog walking through
the woods on dry leaves. There's nothing there. There's
nothing. No authority. No authority. This authority doesn't come with
diligent study. It cannot even be gained by earnest
prayer. It's got to be given of God.
If I am God's servant, sent of God, if I stand here tonight
as his servant with his message, I'm speaking to you in God's
stead by the power of his Spirit. And this is what our Lord said,
Paul, he that receiveth you, receiveth me. What does that mean? That means
when God speaks by a man, God strives with men. The Spirit
of God speaks, Genesis 6.3. Moses proclaimed judgment and
proclaimed salvation in that ark, and he did so for 120 years. And God said, my spirit shall
not always strive with men. I'm not always going to speak
to you. When men resist the message delivered
to them, by a man who is sent from God and speaks for God by
the power of God? They're not resisting that man, but rather resisting God the
Holy Spirit. This is what Stephen said to
those who stoned him. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost. How? You resist the prophet. one after
the other, generation after generation, you resist the prophets. This
divine authority makes the preaching of the gospel a matter of tremendous,
urgent importance. You see, gospel preaching leaves
you without excuse. If you obey the gospel, if you
will now trust the Lord Jesus Christ, There's absolutely no question
about it. God will save you by His grace. No possibility of you trusting
His Son and not being saved. The fact is, if you trust Him,
God saved you or you couldn't trust Him. The fact is, if you
trust Him, you've been called by His Spirit or you wouldn't
trust Him. But the promise is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Therefore the Lord God speaks,
and he says, turn you at my reproof. But wait a minute, it's a man
talking. He says, turn you at my reproof.
Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you. I will make known my
words unto you, because I've called and you've refused. Look here, look here. and no man regarded. But you
said it not all my counsel, and would none of my reproof. I also
will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as a desolation and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then shall
they call on me." Get in the hospital, have a heart
attack, find out you're dying with cancer, in a car wreck and
your boy's about to die. start to drive a Jew bargain
with God, then they'll call on me, but I'll not answer. They'll
seek me early, but they shall not find me. For that they hated
knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would
none of my counsel. They despised all my recruits.
Have you heard me? You're without excuse. Therefore,
shall they eat the fruit of their own way. you go to hell, you
go far. You say, I wouldn't hear him.
God says, all right, I'll fix it so you'll never hear me again.
I will not heed his word. God says, all right, you won't
be bothering my word anymore. I will not obey the gospel. Okay, you
won't be pressed anymore. They'll eat the fruit of their
own way and be filled with their own devices. Fifthly, the call of the gospel
is issued to sinners in the preaching of the gospel with the utmost
sincerity. I say this, and I will deal with
it just briefly, because Arminians, free willers, those who despise
the gospel of God's free grace, very often attempt to repudiate
the gospel. When they can't repudiate the
gospel we preach from the Word of God, they attempt to repudiate
it by casting a slur on it. They say, well, the gospel that
you preach, election, predestination, limited atonement, that stuff,
that'll make you uncaring about people. That'll keep you from
being a zealous witness. That'll keep you from sincerely
preaching the gospel to men. That'll keep you from a missionary
spirit. To all such detractors, I say, come and see. Come and
see. I speak to our family, and you
can tell it wherever you take a notion. There's not a church
in this county whose pastor preaches more often to more people more
timelessly than your pastor does. There's not a church in this
county where the gospel of God's grace is preached and declared
to more people around the world than from this congregation right
here. You come and tell me that no sincerity, no zeal, no earnestness. You men and women give generously
for the support of the gospel literally around the world. I
commend you for it. And for those detractors, I say
you got nothing to say, just shut up. Just shut up and you'll
do better. The Apostle Paul spoke as one
who understood free grace. Right in the middle of his exposition
of free grace, he said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel. Those folks who finally, finally
managed to get him put together. My prayer, my heart's desire
to God for Israel is that they might be saved for I bear them
record. They have a zeal of God but not
according to knowledge. This is what I say concerning
this town in which we live. This is what I say concerning
my family and yours. This is what I say concerning the generation
around us. They have a zeal of God but not
according to knowledge. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,
which is Christ our Lord. Our Lord Jesus, just before he
was crucified, overlooked Jerusalem and said,
O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, How often would I
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens
under her wings? And you would not. The problem's
not with me, it's with you. The problem's not with my purpose,
it's with you. The problem's not with my grace, it's with
your hardness. Sixthly, this gospel call is a most gracious
call. Turn to Isaiah 55. I could take you to many, many
texts of scripture, but let's just look here at Isaiah 55 for
a second. Try to get a picture. Here's
a man in a marketplace in a busy, busy, busy corner downtown, Saturday
morning. Downtown Madison Square Garden,
big place, lots of people, lots of people. And he's got goods.
He's got goods to sell. And he's selling those goods
as one necessarily dependent on his sale of the goods for
the welfare and feeding of his family. And the man sees folks
pass by and he just, he kind of sits down, goes back and sits
down in a little cubicle, hiding around the corner, drinking coffee,
says, well, if anybody sees what I've got here and they want them,
they'll come get them. Oh, no. Oh, he's hungry. His family's
hungry. And he knows that he's got to
get something to take home to his family. So everybody comes
by and he says, hey you, you, listen to me. Look at what I've
got. Now this is the way we preach the gospel. Everyone that thirsteth. Everyone
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. If I hadn't got any money,
come on. That's the kind of folks I was
talking to. Come ye buy and eat. Ye come by wine and milk without
money, without price. Wherefore do you spend your money
for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which
satisfies not? I have one question for the religious
world around us. I get letters all the time. I
respond so many times just this way. If what you've got satisfies
you, keep it. Keep it, if it satisfies you.
If it gives you rest, keep it. But why would you spend your
money for that which is not good? Why would you labor for that
which does not satisfy? I'm telling you about something
that's real good, that will satisfy your soul. Look to the old past,
where there is rest. You'll find rest for your soul.
The Lord reasons again. He says, hearken diligently unto
me. And eat ye that which is good. Let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear. Isn't that
a gracious, gracious word from God? God says to sinners, incline
your ear and come and live. Amen. And your soul shall live. And I will make it everlasting.
Even the sure mercies of David. Even the sure mercies of Christ.
who is David's great son. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation, it's on by us now, Gentiles,
that thou knowest not, a nation that knew not thee, shall run
unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, for the Holy One of
Israel, for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found. The time
will come when he will not be there. Call ye upon him while he is
near, he won't always be there. But what do you mean? I mean
this, let the wicked forsake his way. Call for repentance
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord
and here's his promise. He will have mercy upon him. You mean preacher? If I turn
to the Lord, he'll have mercy on me? That's what he's saying. And to our God, he will abundantly
pardon. He will abundantly pardon. Oh,
but my sin is so abundant. I've done it in two days. He
will abundantly pardon. He says, whosoever will, let
him come. If any man thirst, thirsty, come
take a drink. Any man thirsty, let him come.
Whosoever believeth on him shall never perish. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if that weren't enough, God
reasons with you like this. He says to me, to say to you, As I live, saith the Lord God,
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked
turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? Why would you die when there's
pardon to be had for looking to God? Why die naked and helpless
and undone when there's righteousness and garments of salvation to
be had in Christ? Why will you die? One last thing. Though it is in itself always
ineffectual for the saving of sinners, when accompanied by
the power of God's Spirit, the preaching of the gospel, is the
power of God. This is my prayer every day,
every day. I mean almost unceasingly through
every day. Lord God, if you will not speak by me,
let me not speak a Grant that the word spoken may be spoken
in the power of your spirit. And if he will, if you'll grant
that, then I promise you, every time
you meet in this place to hear the word of God, If he leaves me to speak to myself
and leaves you to hear to yourself, then all we will do is beat the
air, punch a time clock, go on our way with no fear. So I ask
you, pray for me. Pray that God will speak by me
and speak. I promise to answer this question.
if only the elect are going to be saved, I preach the gospel
to everyone. First, because our master said
do it. You see, our responsibility is not based upon the decree
of God, but upon the command of God. He said go into all the
world and preach the gospel. If it meant that we go preach
and nobody ever believes, that's inconsequential. He commanded
us to do it. Secondly, God has chosen to save
sinners by the foolishness of preaching. I know that if God
saves anyone, he's going to do it by a man standing in this
place, in God's stand, speaking God's word to other men. That's the way he's going to
do it. And thirdly, I preach the gospel to everybody because
I don't know who the elect are. I just don't know. Don't have
any way of knowing. Mr. Spurgeon once said, if you
go find them and paint a yellow streak down their back rather
than preaching to everybody, I'll lift up shirt tails and find the ones
with the yellow streak on their back and I'll preach to them.
But we don't know who God's elect are until they believe. We preach
and we know God's elect when the gospel comes to you in power.
of the Holy Ghost in Messiah Shabbat causes you to believe. I preach the gospel to all men
everywhere with every ability God gives me because when I've
done so, my conscience is clear and I'm free from the blood of
all men. And I just can't tell you how
seriously I take that. And one last thing. We preach the gospel to all because
God promised that he would save Saul by the preaching of the
word. So shall my word be, the gospel
is out of my mouth. It shall not return to me, Lord,
it shall accomplish that which I please, it shall prosper in
the things that you ask of me. Now my friend, if right now you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, just that one thing, just that
one thing, that one thing that only God can give, if right now,
you right now begin to believe on Christ, if you've been believing
on him for years, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you trust the Son of God as your only Lord and Savior, I want
you to hear one more word from God. Take it home with you and
rejoice. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you. beloved of God, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he has now called
you by our gospel, called you to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for his electing love,
his redeeming grace, and his effectual call, sending a man
to declare the way of life to my dear servant, and granting
me faith to hear and believe the word of life. Amen. Let's stand together for prayer. Bless now your word, our Father,
to the hearts of chosen sinners here and around the world as
this message goes out in the various means and opportunities
you've put into our hands. Make it effectual to many for
the glory of our Redeemer, the comfort of your people, and the
calling out of chosen redeemed sinners for Christ's sake. Amen. God bless you.