I invite you to turn back to
1 Timothy chapter 3, the chapter that David read to us earlier. I'd like for us to look here
at a couple of verses. I want to look at verse 14 and
15. Let us read those verses. write
I unto thee, now this is 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14, these things
write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if
I tarry long, that thou mayest know how, thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living
God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. There is a subject upon my mind
this morning that I hope that I'll be able to convey to you
that I trust that it will be edifying and upbuilding to your
soul. Now, I've been fighting the cold
for a couple of weeks. I am much better this morning.
I hope that it'll not be a hindrance to us today. But I've been thinking
a good deal about succession and we know that there are many
Baptists that are obsessed with the desire to prove a historical
perpetuity of their churches back to the days of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Those of us that were involved
in landmarkism And those that are involved in the primitive
Baptist movement in America knows what I'm talking about. When
I'm talking about Baptists that are obsessed with this historical
perpetuity of the churches, that they try to trace it back, their
churches, back through the years, all the way back to the Lord
Jesus Christ, all the way back to the apostles. And this is
what we call the chain link succession. Now they think that a historical
chain succession from the apostles is the key to authority. In other words, if you can trace
your church back all the way to the apostles, then you have
the authority to preach the gospel, you have the authority to baptize,
And you have the authority to mother churches. You have the
authority to go out and to give authority to other people to
start churches if you can trace your line all the way back to
Jerusalem. Now beloved, this cannot be done.
J.R. Graves taught this and he had
many followers. And there was a time when I kind
of got caught up in this myself, years ago. And it cannot be done. You cannot, doesn't make any
difference how hard you try, you cannot prove a chain-linked
succession of Baptist churches all the way back to Jesus Christ. Now, and even if such historical
succession could be proven, it would be of no value whatsoever. Now, in Matthew 16 and 16, if
you would turn there in your Bibles, I'd like for you to look
at this scripture with me. Matthew chapter 16, I would mention
this 16th verse. Jesus has asked a question. He
said in verse 15, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter
answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, listen to this 18th verse, that thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now beloved, the
only succession that is of any real value is the succession
of gospel truth. Now remember that. The only succession
that is of any value is the succession of gospel truth, and I'm very,
very interested in this succession. Very much interested in it. Now
we see here that in verse 16 Simon Peter gave a confession. He gave the same confession that
all those will give that have been genuinely converted, those
who have been enabled to repent by the sovereign mercy and grace
of God will give this very same confession. They know who the
Lord Jesus Christ is And Simon Peter said, in answer to the
question, But whom say ye that I am? He said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus pronounced
blessing upon him because he knew where he got this truth. He knew where it came from. He
knew where this light sprang from. He knew the source of this
light. And he said, Blessed art thou,
Simon, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to you. This
was revealed to you by my Father which is in heaven. You know
who I am because my Father which is in heaven has revealed it
to you. He's made it known. You know
this truth by divine intervention. And that's the only way that
anybody really knows who Jesus is. You say, well, I know who
Jesus is. Preacher, I've heard all my life
who Jesus is. Well, you truly do not know who
he is until the Father has revealed him unto your heart. And then
you can say, I've not taken my mother's word for it, my father's
word for it, my grandparents' word for it, or the Sunday school
teacher's word, but I've taken the word that has come from the
living God, and I know who Jesus is in my soul. Now, beloved,
it's the responsibility of every God-called preacher and every
local church to hold the torch of gospel truth high in their
own generation, showing men and women the way of life, and then
to pass that torch along to the succeeding generations. This
is the responsibility of those whom God has called and placed
into the ministry, and that's how we have the Word of God preserved
for us. That's how we have the message
of gospel truth, that the message has been passed along from faithful
men and from faithful churches. It's not that we can go back
and link all the churches up in a chain all the way back to
Christ, but the message has been preserved. The gospel has been
preserved. Men and women in America still
know and the world over who Jesus is because the Father is still
revealing Him unto the souls of men. and churches are being
established and the gospel message is going out. Now this is very
important that we understand. Let's turn back to the book of
Timothy again, and I want you to notice here a couple of passages.
In 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verses 1 and 2, I said that we must
pass along this truth to the succeeding generations. And here
we read, Paul says, I exhort therefore, no wait a minute,
let's turn to the, did I say 2 Timothy? Well, 2 Timothy is
right. Alright, chapter 2. Thou therefore,
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and
the things that thou hast heard of me, among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach
others also." And so this is the word of admonition of Paul
the Apostle unto young Timothy the preacher. He said, these
things that you've heard of me among many witnesses, You've
heard me preach, and there's been those that have gathered
around and heard it also, and he said, these things I want
you to commit to faithful men who will be able to go out and
to teach also. And so that's what I mean when
I say that we're to pass these things along to succeeding generations. This is the true apostolic succession. It is not a succession of apostolic
office, it is the succession of apostolic truth that is unchanged
and unchangeable because it is gospel truth that has been revealed
from God the Father Himself. And Jesus said, now Peter, he
says, upon this rock, You're the rock, and he said, upon this
rock I'll build my church. This testimony that you've given
is the rock. Christ is the true rock, and
your confession of him is the confession that all those who
are upon the rock will give. And so it is upon this rock that
I will build my church, and the gates of hell, the gates of the
grave, will never close against my church. The confession that
you've made, Peter, will always be on the earth until Jesus Christ
comes back, because the Father will keep on through succeeding
generations of men to reveal this truth. And this is the rock
upon which the church is built, apostolic truth that has been
revealed by God to the hearts of men, and the gates of the
grave will never close against that truth that truth will prevail
and that church of the Lord Jesus Christ that we sung about just
a few minutes ago that church which is his new creation which
he created himself supernaturally that church he's the foundation
of it and he's the preserver of this truth. Now beloved, if
I fail to teach and instruct men and women in my generation
in the doctrines of the gospel and fail to pass along to the
next generation the truth of God exactly as I have received
it as it has been revealed to me down through a long line of
faithful men because not only do we receive the revelation
of the gospel personally from the Lord Himself, but we have
it preserved for us in the Word of God, and then faithful men,
as we've mentioned, they have passed it along, and we've received
it even from them. Now, these men, as we said, began
with the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, if we do
not continue to pass this along, then our ministry will be another
failure. And I'll have to stand before
God as an unfaithful steward of the mysteries of Christ with
the blood of immortal souls upon my hands. And this, beloved,
will haunt any preacher that has this responsibility placed
upon him. and it'll haunt him all of his
waking hours. This is an awesome responsibility
that we have to pass on to men and women the truth that has
been revealed to us, the truth that has been preached by faithful
men throughout the generations. And therefore, we're determined
to declare all of the whole counsel of God as it is revealed in Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Turn, if you will, to Acts chapter
20. Acts chapter 20 in your Bible. I'd like for you to look at this
passage with me this morning. And here we find the example
of the Apostle Paul. The example. Listen to what he
said in verse 20. He said, and how, this is Acts
20, 20. And how I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but have shewed you and have taught
you publicly and from house to house. testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we skip down here to
verse 25. 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. This
was the testimony of the Apostle Paul. But I like that phrase
there in verse 20, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable
unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly
and from house to house. Now this was the example of the
Apostle Paul. He had taught publicly and had
showed from house to house that which was profitable unto the
people. And he testified of the gospel
of the grace of God unto those in his day. Now then, we take
a look back at our text in 1 Timothy 3 and in verse 15. And we see
here that Paul, in writing to Timothy, he mentions in verse
15, he said, but if I tarry long, I want to come to you shortly. But if I tarry long, I want you
to know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God. This is 1 Timothy 3 and verse
15. I want you to know how to behave
yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living
God. Now the Lord has his churches
which are made up of all of those that are saved that are scattered
throughout the world. He has little assemblies of people
and these assemblies are what we call manifestations of or
expressions of the one body of Christ. And the Lord has his
churches in the world. And Paul says, I want you to
know I want you to know how to behave yourself in this church
and then he says this is the church of the living God and
then he says it's the pillar and the ground of the truth.
Now by this he means that the church is the support and it
is the stay of the truth. God uses these local assemblies
to preach the word and to pass the word along and to testify
of the gospel of His grace. Now then, we call ourselves here
a Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Do we have a right to do so? Do we have a right to do so?
The truth of the gospel is preserved in sovereign grace Baptist churches. Those churches are the support
and the stay of the truth. They are those that preach the
gospel of God's grace, that unchangeable gospel which we heard from the
mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ and from the mouth of the holy
apostles and prophets of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Are we a true sovereign grace
Baptist church? Well, let's try to answer that
if we can. Now there are three things I
believe that identifies a sovereign grace church, which is a vessel
in which the truth of God is preserved and perpetuated in
this world. There are three things that identifies
that church, and I want us to spend our time this morning in
talking about those three things that will identify a true sovereign
grace Baptist church in this world. And think on it, if you
will, as a vessel in which God has placed his truth And this
church is a support and a stay of that truth in this world in
our generation. And this is the only succession
that there is. It's the only kind that means
anything. This is it, and we have the truth
of the gospel, or we don't have it, and if we do have it, then
we're to preach and perpetuate that truth in the world. Now
then, the first thing that identifies a true New Testament church,
a sovereign grace Baptist church, the first identifying mark is
its doctrine. is its doctrine, the second is
its method, and the third thing is its prayer. And so let's begin with the doctrine. Now the truth that makes it possible
for any church to claim the title of Sovereign Grace Church is
something that we ought to look at, something that we must look
at, and something that you men must understand and know, something
that all of you must be able in your own heart to lay claim
to and to believe in your souls, if you're going to be a part
of that institution which God has placed here in this world,
which he calls the Church of the Living God, which is to preach
this gospel unto the world. Because without sound doctrine,
the pulpit is as useless as a broken weather vane. If the doctrine
of a church is not sound, then we're useless to this generation.
What can we do in this world if we don't have sound doctrine
and if we're not preaching a doctrine that is sound? Now there are
seven pillars of sound doctrine which are essential, I believe,
to the faith of the gospel. And I want, if you can this morning,
if you can bear with me, if we're going to perpetuate gospel truth,
then we must hold to these teachings. We must hold to them. And when
I say hold to them, I mean we must get a firm grip on these
truths and we must never relinquish our grip on these truths because
this is what identifies us as the church of the living God
in this world. We have all kinds of people in
our day and time that are professing to be the Lord's church and are
telling us that they're the church of Christ, that they're the church
of the living God, that they're this, that they're that, and
that they have some claim. Well, are they justified? Well,
the truth of the matter is that most people who are professing
to be the true church are no more than the true church than
the heathen temples in Africa, and it's because they do not
hold to these seven pillars of truth that I want to give you
here this morning. Now then, listen carefully if
you will. This is very, very important. Do you hold to these things? Do you have a grip on these things? Well, listen to them. Number
one, the number one thing is that God Almighty is absolutely
sovereign in all things. This we must hold to regardless
of what others do. In Psalm 115 in verse 3 says,
But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. That's where our God is this
morning. He's in the heavens and he hath
done and is doing whatever he pleases. In creation, in providence,
in salvation, God is absolutely sovereign. He does what He will,
when He will, where He will, and with whom He will. God is
an absolute sovereign. God ordains and God controls
everything. and everyone in the universe. Can you accept that? Do you believe
that? The God that we worship is in
control. He alone decides and directs
the eternal destiny of all. Your destiny is in His hands. You've been told otherwise, but
what you've heard is not true. Your destiny is in the hands
of a sovereign God who sits upon the throne. And we're told in
Romans that He has mercy on whom He will have mercy. That He's a God that has a will
of His own. He's a God that's got a plan
and a purpose, and He carries that out. Well, what do we mean
when we say that God is sovereign in providence? Well, it means
that God is directing all things which he has made to their appointed
end. That's what that means. It is
our Lord's constant supervision and government of his creation.
It is the wise and precise carrying out of all God's eternal plan. Do you believe in that? Do you
believe that God is up here just trying to work things out? No,
God is working things out. God is accomplishing His purpose. This world and all of its inhabitants
are the objects of God's continual government and His hand is directly
involved in all things that happen in this world and history is
indeed His story. It's the story of God. Now divine
providence is accurate. It's so accurate right down to
the most minute detail. God's absolute sovereignty and
providence is accurate. All things in God's awesome creation
are moving along with precise exactness because it's guided
by their maker. They're guided by God Himself. It is a certainty that everything
that God has made will arrive at their predestinated end. Everything that God has made
is under His government and therefore will arrive at that predestinated
end, that end that He's determined, that end that He's ordained.
Now when time is no more and the eternal day dawns, it will
be observed that all things happen on schedule for the glory of
God and for the good of His people. I mean, when it's all wound up,
you're going to see it. Because it's a truth that's stated
on the pages of the scripture that God is an absolute sovereign
and we must contend for this truth in our day. I say we must
contend for it and we must pass this truth along because when
I came into this world about 59 years ago, And in a while,
I began to listen to some preachers. They knew nothing about these
things that I'm talking about today. They were out in the world
representing a God who was a failure, and representing a God who couldn't
do anything unless somebody let Him do it. And I listened to
that stuff, and finally God was pleased to open my eyes to the
truth in the scriptures that the God of the Bible is not a
God who's putting out an effort, trying to do anything. He's a
God that operates on purpose, and He's a God of absolute sovereignty. And from that day, I've been
able to worship God. I've been able to worship this
God who is indeed God. Now, beloved, another fundamental
truth of a scriptural church, and I know that you will agree
with me on this, is this. The Bible is the Word of God. And by this Word, by the Word
of God, He reveals Himself to men. Now we're told in the book
of 2 Timothy 3 in verse 16 and 17 that all scripture is given
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof and correction and so on and so forth that the man
of God may be mature, that he may come into maturity. and that
he may come to all good works, that he may know that which God
would have him to do. Now, the Bible is this word. The Bible alone is the inspired
Word of God and we're told in Romans 10 and 17 that faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the Word of God the Bible of the
Bible of this word that we have here that we're using this morning
as our text the Bible alone is the rule of faith and practice
of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ the only voice the only
voice of authority in all matters of doctrine and spiritual instruction
is the Word of God alone. Do we believe that? Is that what
we believe? We believe it alone. We believe it because the only
voice of authority is the Word of God. That's the only voice.
And I was told several times when I was younger that there's
got to be surely somebody in our day and time that can speak
with some authority on the way things are and the way they ought
to be. And I insisted and have all of
my spiritual life insisted that there's only one voice of authority. And your opinion is not worth
a snap of my finger and my opinion is not worth a snap of your finger.
It's what God says that matters. And when God speaks, that settles
it. There was a bumper sticker down
south that said, God said it, I believe it, and that settles
it. Somebody said, there's something wrong with that. And here's what
they said. They said, if God said it, that
settles it, whether I believe it or not. And that's true. If
God said it, it's settled. It don't make any difference
who believes it or who rejects it. It's settled, and it's settled
forever. Now then, Say, preacher, that's
an awful indictment. If you were to read Romans 3,
verses 10 through 19, immediately you'd see that there's none righteous,
no, not one. You'd find out about man. and
his condition. Now man is fallen, he's guilty,
he's sinful, he's helpless, he's dead. The Bible says he's dead
in trespasses and in sins. In Romans 5, 12 it says by one
man's disobedience many were made sinners. And so we read
in Ephesians 2 and 1 through 3 that you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and in sins. And unless God intervenes Among men unless God intervenes
to save all men will forever perish being justly condemned
All men are justly condemned. God does not owe any man anything
but justice and men will get justice. All men are born in
spiritual death and we do not become sinners when we reach
a certain age and commit certain evil deeds. No, we are born sinners. We're born sinners because we
are descendants of Adam who sinned in the garden, who sinned and
rebelled against God in the garden. Every man, woman, and born girl
is completely controlled by a sinful nature and is under the condemnation
of God because of that nature. Because of that nature, which
is biased to sin and corruption and evil All right now number
four God chose and determined to save Some people in eternal
electing love. That's a truth that must be explained
and taught and preached unto God's people. And no church can
lay claim to being a New Testament church that does not preach this
doctrine. 2 Thessalonians 2 and 13, Paul
said, I'm bound to give thanks to God, brethren and beloved,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Now admitting, as we do, and
I'm sure that you all do, admitting the total depravity of human
nature, how can we account for the conversion of a soul to God? How can we account for it? Seeing
that man is dead in sin, seeing that he is before God, that he
is absolutely cut off from God for a want of knowledge and a
want of love and a want of repentance toward God. How can we account
unless we likewise admit an election of grace? Now then, the work
must begin somewhere. It's got to begin somewhere.
Man is dead. He's dead in sin. And well, it's
got to either first begin with God, either the sinner first
seeks the Lord, or the Lord first seeks the sinner. And what is
it? Well, anybody that gets saved, we know the former is impossible. A sinner will not seek the Lord
because he's by nature dead in sin and he will not seek the
Lord. He won't. Men will not seek God
left to themselves. God leaves you alone, you'll
never seek him. God leaves you alone, you'll
go to hell. As sure as I'm preaching to you, you will if God leaves
you alone. The only hope you've got is that
God will begin to seek you and that he'll begin to move in your
soul and upon your heart. Man is not converted, Augustine
said, because he wills to be, but he wills to be because he
is ordained in election to believe. And he wills to be because God
puts the will in his heart. God chooses us not because we
choose to believe, but that we may believe. There is nobody
that believes until God puts it in their heart, gives them
the gift of faith to believe. And until God gives you that
gift, you're not going to believe the gospel. You're not going
to believe the message of grace. You're not going to believe to
the salvation of your soul until God puts it in your heart and
enables you to believe it. So without any consideration
of anything except His own will, God chose some. And all who were
chosen of him shall be saved. Every one of them. Every one
of them God chose. He gives to some what he refuses
to others. You say he's got no right to
do that? He's God Almighty. And you stand in his face if
you want to and tell him what he don't have a right to do?
He could have left us all alone and we'd all went to hell. But
God in mercy came and chose some of the sons of Adam unto eternal
life, unto eternal bliss and blessing. And so, beloved, listen
to me. There's got to be an election
according to grace and ignorance of this principle, ignorance
of this truth, and all the ignorance that prevails in this world of
this truth this morning. It detracts, listen to me, it
detracts from the glory of God and beloved it diminishes real
humility. The reason why you can't find
a genuine humble person in false religion is because they deny
this principle of grace. They deny that salvation is by
elective grace. and that nobody, nobody is saved
until God chooses and until God moves upon them in his sovereign
providence. Now, number five, Christ died
in the place of God's elect and accomplished their eternal redemption
by his death. Now that is a fundamental. Somebody said, well preacher,
that's the particular redemption. That's particular redemption. That's not the general atonement. Well, the general atonement is
not taught in the Bible. General atonement that Christ
died for everybody the same for everybody is not taught in the
Word of God It cannot be so Christ died in the place of God's elect
and accomplished their eternal Redemption not by the blood of
bulls and goats, but by his own precious blood He entered in
to the holiest of all there to obtain eternal redemption Paul
said for us He obtained it for somebody and Paul said it was
for those that believe on Christ. Christ satisfied divine justice
for his people and he redeemed his people from the curse of
the law being made a curse for them because cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree and Christ was hung on a tree and he was
made a curse for his people in Isaiah 53 and 8 it says for the
transgression of my people was he stricken for the transgression
of my people saith the father was he stricken Christ hath redeemed
us no one who knows Christ now beloved this is a true statement
And I make it because I know it to be true. No one who knows
Jesus Christ can tolerate the notion that he failed in his
work and that he tries to save men whom he cannot save and that
he died to redeem some who are not redeemed. Anybody who truly
knows who Jesus Christ is cannot tolerate They cannot allow such
a statement as that to go unchallenged. Such doctrine as that robs Christ
of His glory in redemption and destroys any hope there is for
sinners. The only hope there is for sinners
is that Christ, sure enough, died for somebody, that He redeemed
somebody, and the thing that you need to do is to find out
whether that was for you or not. Was it for you? You say, well,
it's for everybody. No, it wasn't. No, it wasn't.
For the transgression of my people was he stricken. It was for Christ. It was for those that the Father
gave to him in that love covenant before the foundation of the
world. Jesus said, the Fathers give me a people. He said, all
that the Father giveth me, they shall come to me. Every one of
them will come. All that has heard and learned
of the Father cometh unto me, says Jesus. And they will come
because they are taught of the Father to come. And they will
come. Now all of God's people rejoice
to know that Christ died particularly for them and effectually accomplished
their redemption in his death. You say, well, there may be some
people that don't, preacher don't appreciate that. Well, the Lord's
people will appreciate it. Now, these religionists, they
don't appreciate it because they don't understand it. And they
don't understand what it means to be redeemed by the blood of
Jesus Christ. Now, beloved, this must be preached.
Hebrews 9 and 12, as we quoted a while ago, by his own blood,
he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Don't forget that verse. Hebrews
9, 12. Now listen to me, this must be
preached if we would call ourselves the Lord's Church, a sovereign
grace church. Number six, God the Holy Spirit
saves every elect redeemed sinner by the irresistible power of
his grace. Psalm 65 and verse 4 says, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and calls us to approach unto
thee. The grace of God does not offer
salvation, it brings salvation. It brings it. His sovereign spirit
comes to men who are spiritually dead and gives them life. They are brought out of sin's
death into spiritual life by the Divine Spirit. This we must
understand. There is no other way to get
out of death into life except to have a spiritual resurrection. And this can only be brought
about by the Spirit of God, by God's Spirit, by the effectual
working of God's Spirit. Now then, number seven. Every
believer, every believer that has been chosen of God, every
believer who has been redeemed, every believer who has been,
by the Spirit of God, regenerated is eternally secure in the Lord
Jesus Christ. They can't ever perish. They
can never be lost. John 10, 27 through 30. Familiar
verses, but you can write them down, look at them sometime.
Not one of Christ's sheep can ever perish because they're kept.
by the power of God. This is sound doctrine. This
is the gospel of the grace of God and anything contrary to
this is pure rubbish. This is the gospel. Not one of
God's elect shall ever, ever perish. The purpose of God in
election will not allow it. The purchase of Christ in redemption
will not allow it. The grace of the Holy Spirit
in regeneration by which we are preserved in life will not allow
it. And the Word of God which has
been plainly spoken will not allow it that any one of Christ's
sheep shall ever perish. Ever one of them must enter in
to eternal bliss. Everyone must go to heaven that
Jesus Christ died for. Everybody for whom the debt was
paid, the debt must be cancelled and we must be received into
the heavenly kingdom. Now these seven things are the
very foundation of our faith. How could any group call themselves
a Grace Church, a Baptist Church, the Church of the Living God,
the successors of the apostles, if you please, and not preach
these seven things? Well, they cannot. They cannot. And they take upon themselves
that which is a lie, if they do, because they cannot. Now
then, the second thing that I said we'd talk about is our method.
Our message and our method. This is what identifies the Lord's
Church in this world that has the truth and is preserving and
perpetuating this truth. Now, to our method, or what I
mean by this, the supernatural nature of the function of these
churches. Now Sovereign Grace Baptist Churches
must understand that the church is a supernatural institution
created by divine power. The church as one foundation
is Jesus Christ our Lord. She is His creation. His creation. The church is a supernatural
creation. We were brought into existence
not by natural forces. Just like Isaac didn't come into
this world being born of parents that were approaching a hundred
years old or feeble, unable. The church was brought into existence
by divine power. And the church must understand
that since we profess to believe in God's sovereign grace in the
gospel, the only way we can be what we ought to be is to be
so by God's help, by God's grace, or by supernaturally. Because
Paul said, who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient
for these things? He said, our sufficiency is of
God that hath made us able ministers of the new covenant. And so,
beloved, listen, we cannot profess a supernaturalism in our theology
And certainly, if I've not done that this morning, I haven't
done anything. I have professed a supernaturalism in our theology,
that which is outside of nature, that which has been created by
God, which God alone has brought into existence. Then deny that
supernaturalism in our mythology. We cannot do that. Now then,
our methods must be consistent with our Preachment. It must be consistent with our
message. Our method must be. Now to believe
the words of Paul in Romans 1 and 16 where he said that the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes is to
profess a supernaturalism in the gospel. To say that the gospel
is God's power unto salvation is to profess that nobody is
going to be saved unless the power of God, which is the gospel
come to bear upon their soul. We cannot open the sinner's heart.
I don't have any ability to do that. I absolutely am of no use
to you You a poor sinner, you a lost son of Adam, you approaching
the judgment bar of God, I'm of no use to you but to proclaim
to you that God is a God of grace and power and that all those
who are brought and enabled to believe upon Christ, they will
be spared everlasting fire and judgment. They will be saved.
But I can't open the sinner's heart. If I could do it, I would.
I've been praying for some sinners this week. I have. Been praying
for them because you say, well, why do you do that? I do it because
I can't do anything else for them. He said, preach the word
to them. I can't open their hearts. I cannot regenerate a soul. There's
not a church in this world, I don't care how many programs they have,
that can regenerate a soul. Only God can do that. Now the
converting of a soul is an act of Almighty God. It's an act
of Almighty God. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is God's to give. And I don't have anything to
give you because salvation is not mine to give. Salvation is
God's to give. As to method, all we need is
for the church to be the church. and just to obey the Great Commission,
preach the gospel to every creature and all that God sends us to
we are to go to them and preach to them and God will call his
sheep unto himself. Our business is to get this message
I say to the people whom God sends us to. Now the gospel is
our message and listen to me now and our method also. The gospel is our message and
it's our method. The reason churches abandon the
supernaturalism of the scripture is because we've lost faith and
patience with God's method. You see, because we have, of
course, we got a name. We got to make a name for ourselves.
And so our church has to be successful whether God's in it or not. We've
got an agenda of our own. And by the way, we just simply
cannot afford to look bad in the eyes of the world. And we
must be successful. They're successful down at the
bank, and we must be successful up here. Well, some of them are
not so successful anymore. But nevertheless, we've got to
be a success because we've got a name, and we've got to try,
if we can, to preserve our good name. And after all, we don't
want to just trust God for results. But now my friend, I said the
gospel is our message and it is our method. We preach the
gospel and leave the results in the hands of the Lord. And
any attempt to accomplish the salvation of men by any other
means other than that which God has appointed, and that is the
preaching of the gospel of His grace, will only result in false
repentance, false faith, and the eternal ruin of men's souls. Is that true? Tell you it's true. I have seen so many people who
made a profession in their lives Because it was some high-pressure
evangelist somebody who who insisted upon them making a profession
joining the church and Beloved if they just left those souls
to God and left them under the sound of the gospel And forget
about the invitation. Forget about the singing of the
invitation. That's not to be found in the
Word of God. And that's abandoning the supernaturalism
that is in the Gospel. And we profess, if we profess
supernaturalism in our theology, then our methods must be consistent
with that and that means that God is left alone with the souls
of men when the gospel is preached and he can save them as he will. Salvation is in the hands of
God from the beginning to the end. It's our business to preach
the word faithfully and earnestly and wait upon the Lord to effectually
apply the word to the hearts of men as he will. That's our
business. That's our method. That's our
method here. We don't attempt to wrang a profession
out of anybody. We don't tell nobody around here
their say. We don't come to them and tell
them, you do this and God will do that. No, no, no. Leave it
with the Lord. That's his business. Salvation
belongs to God. Now, beloved, this constitutes
our method. This constitutes our method.
This is the whole of our method. We preach the gospel and leave
it in God's hands. Now, how many church people in
our day and time would accept that as method? Well, nobody
will hardly accept it. You say, now, that won't do.
That won't do. We got to do more than that,
preacher. Surely, there's something more than that. Well, I'm not
going to get up here and preach to you that God's on the throne
and the salvation is God's to give and He sent His Son all
the way from eternal glory down here and took Him to the old
rugged cross and He died to redeem sinners and tell you that God
can't save whom He will. I'll tell you He'll save whomever
He will. He'll have mercy on whom He will.
He's not in the business of failing. He has never failed and never
will fail. God will have his people. And
I'm not up here to wring no profession out of anybody. I'll preach the
gospel to you. I'll tell you that Christ died
for sinners. And I'll tell you that if you
can believe on him, I mean if you can hope in him, if you can
trust him, if you can, I'll tell you that God does save believing
sinners. He does save them. He saves them. He saves some around here. God's
been pleased to do it. But that's God's business. And
this constitutes, and I'm sorry if it don't come up to your expectation,
this constitutes our method here in the New Covenant Baptist Church
in Great Falls. This is it. This is our method. All right, and then lastly, one
very important part of our belief in the supernaturalism of God
is our God-given activity in prayer. This is very important
that you see this. Now, we either embrace or deny
supernaturalism in our prayer life. Now, I talked a little
bit about this a couple weeks ago about how that, you know,
when a fellow's on his knees, he's a Calvinist, and whenever
he's preaching, an Armenian preacher, well then, you know, he's an
Armenian when he's preaching, but people, most people become
Calvinist when they get on their knees. Because most people recognize
that when they pray, that they're praying to a God that surely
can do something, and if he couldn't do it, well then why would they
be praying? A Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
cannot Cannot now you now you get this now. This is something
I want to leave with you that I want you to be impressed with
a sovereign grace Baptist Church cannot function without and apart
from God answering prayer God hearing our prayers God hearing
our cries and answering our cry. The theology of prayer in our
sovereign grace Baptist churches falls way short of theology that
we profess. We must be very careful about
the way that we pray. To even talk about a Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church is to presuppose a church that cannot function
apart from the supernatural. Did you get that? Listen, let
me give it to you again. To even talk about a Sovereign
Grace Baptist Church being in existence is to presuppose a
church that cannot function apart from the supernatural. My the stories that I could tell
you. I can tell you some stories.
I won't do it. I won't get into it this morning
because I wouldn't know where to quit if I started. But I'm
going to tell you that no Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and we sometimes
are amazed. And I've told people, people
say well you know we don't have so many coming but it's like
Brother Henry and Donnie said when they were here, he said
all the congregations we preach to, they're not as big as this.
Well of course the ones that they have in their home churches
are bigger. Brother Mahan's attendance on
Sunday morning is close between three and four hundred people
but the churches they preach to and they go in all the time
in preaching different places but this church here Is one of
the one I mean way they talk like maybe third or fourth in
size in America Sovereign grace churches, and so I just tell
you this this morning. That's a miracle. It's a miracle
of God I could just like I'm trying to tell you this morning
to even talk about one of these churches being in existence and
being able to continue on For the amount of years that this
church has been here is to know that that it's a supernatural
work that God's done it and that it's it's all of the Lord, it's
of God. Now when Jesus said without me
you can do nothing it should occur to us that we need more
than just a little backup from some preacher. You're going to
have to have more than just a little backup. Somebody come along once
in a while and give us a little boost Jesus said, without me
you can do nothing. And so we seek Him because it's
all with Him. It's all in His hands. What we
long for is to see God act. Isn't that it? What we long for
is to see God act in salvation and act in providence. His government
at work in all things is what we want to see. We want to see
it. We want it made obvious to us, open to us. We want to see
the supernatural. And God's been pleased to reveal
it and to show it. And we want to see it. God can
preserve, sustain His church in this world. In our sovereign
grace Baptist churches, we must leave whatever results there
are to the Lord. If we ever do the will of God,
nothing short, now you listen to what I'm saying here. You
listen to this statement. If we ever do the will of God,
nothing short of His doing it will result in its accomplishment. Now did you hear what I said?
Nothing short of Him doing it will result in its accomplishment.
Now that just simply means that we are absolutely dependent upon
the God of the Bible in this church. We're dependent on Him. I live that way day after day,
day after day, year after year. That's the way I live. That's
the way I live. Dependent. upon God Almighty. That's the only way I'm here
today. It's because God's been faithful. Supernaturally I'm
here today. God has sustained me and kept
me in this place. Now there's a prayer that I want
to read to you out of Acts chapter 4 and then I'm going to close.
Acts chapter 4 and this begins and I want you to hear how the
brethren prayed in the early church. Acts 4 beginning with
verse 24 Now these brethren had been told that they were not to preach
anymore and they were threatened and being let go they went to
their own company and reported all that the chief priest and
elders had said unto them. Beginning with verse 24 now,
and when they heard that Here's a group of brethren. They've
been threatened. They're New Testament believers. They lifted
up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art
God. Well, that's a good place to
begin. Lord, thou art God. And everything that implies,
you're every bit of that. What we talked about this morning,
sovereignty. Lord, thou art God. The Godhood of God. which hath
made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them
is. They didn't want anybody to mistake what they meant by
this God. He's the God of creation. who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, why did the heathen rage? And the people
imagined vain things. Is there anybody gonna throw
you off the throne? But you said by the mouth of your servant
David, why do the people do this? The kings of the earth stood
up, the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ, of a truth against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed. Both Herod Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together.
And what were they gathered together to do? Well, these brethren wasn't
in the dark. They knew what was going on.
Why they said, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. That's what's taking place here.
It's what God's hand had determined. It's what his counsel had determined.
This is what's being done. And they knew that. And they
not only knew it, they confessed it. They confessed it. and now
Lord you behold their threatens grant to thy servants that with
all boldness they may speak thy word that's the method by stretching
forth thine hand this is the supernatural and that by stretching forth
thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the
name of the holy child Jesus and when they had prayed the
place was