Electing Love

Turn back in your Bibles, if
you will, to the book of 2 Thessalonians, the 2nd chapter. I'd like to read verses 7 through
verse 14 this morning while I tell it. 2 Thessalonians, chapter
2. verses 7 through 14. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work, only he who now letteth will let, until it be
taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send down strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned, and believe
not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. that we're
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the attaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the outset here this morning,
I'd like to say something that may be a shock to some folks. I wish this morning that God
give you an ear and that you'll listen very carefully to the
things that we have to say to you here today. I believe this
will be a very important message. I believe any message that is
found in the word of God is a very important message, a message
that men need to hear. And I want to make this statement
this morning because it is a fact and because it is plainly taught
in the word of God. And that is this, that there
are some people in the world, there are some people living
today, there are some people, maybe even of my own family,
there are some people, maybe even some of those to whom I
preach, that are irretrievably lost. Now that's a solemn thing
to say, but there are some that are reprobate, there are some
men and women, in this world that are regulated. What I mean
by that is that they cannot be saved. They cannot be saved. They are cast off by God. They
are rejected by God. God will not show them his mercy. He will not show him his mercy. You remember that mercy, the
Bible says that God will have mercy upon whom he will have
mercy and whom he will he harden. Now these people that I'm referring
to, these people that I'm talking about, for the most part are
people that have heard the gospel. There are people that have heard
the word of the Lord. There are people, maybe, that
grew up under the sound of the Bible, under the tutorship of
somebody who knew the Bible, who read the Bible to them, and
who told them something about the truths of God. For the most
part, I believe these people are people that are acquainted
with what the Bible has to teach. Now, you remember in the first
chapter of the book of Romans, the Bible says that men did not
like to retain God in their knowledge. They didn't like to retain God
in their minds. They didn't want God around. They didn't want to believe in
God. They didn't want to trust God
by an act of their own. will, their own hardened, rebellious
hearts, they did not want to retain God for their knowledge,
and the Bible says that God gave them up. The Bible says that
God gave them up. Now, they know, I believe these
people for the most part know that the Bible is true. They
know that the gospel that we preach is true. They know that
the message that we proclaim, that it is indeed the message
that God hath in these last days given us through his Son. They
know that, but they have called God a liar, because they said
that the message is not the message For me, the message is, I don't
want that message. I don't want to hear that message.
And we know what the Bible says in the book of 1 John, that men
call God a liar when they do not receive the testimony that
God has given us of His own Son. When they do not believe that
testimony. We do not receive that testimony
that God has given of His own Son. Now I'm interested in people
out here in the world. I'm interested in the people
in Great Falls. I'm interested in men's souls
wherever they're found. But I'm especially interested
this morning in your soul. I'm especially interested in
your soul. and I'm preaching this morning,
and not to these walls, I don't think these walls need to be
preached to, but I'm preaching to you this morning, and I hope
this morning that you'll listen to what I have to say. Now, these
people that I'm referring to turn thumbs down on the truth
of God concerning His Son. And they will not trust Christ.
They will not trust in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not come to Christ
that they might have life. Therefore, because of their willful
rejection of the gospel of God, because of their willful hardening
of their own hearts, because of their rebellion, God has shut
them up to unbelief. And they cannot be saved. No
man can be saved while he's in a state of unbelief. No man will
ever go to heaven who leaves this life in unbelief, who leaves
this life in a state of rebellion against God. If the enmity of
your heart is not taken out, and if the enmity of your heart
is not, as it were, overcome by the grace and spirit of God,
and if the spirit of faith is never granted to your soul, then
you're not going to be saved in eternity. I believe that there
are people who are judicially blinded, there are people who
are hardened, and God will not save these people. I believe
in biblical terms that these people are reprobate. They are
reprobate. Now, reprobation, hear this,
if you will, this definition. I believe it's a true, I believe
it's a right definition of reprobation. Reprobation is the judgment of
God which falls upon men while they live as a result of their
willful rebellion and unbelief. Man is responsible to God for
his unbelief. You are responsible to repent
of your sin and believe the gospel. Now, one of the most sobering
things, I believe, in the world that's called the word of God
is that you hear the gospel. That men and women hear the gospel. In this life, we hear the gospel. If we're going to be converted,
we must hear it and believe it. But there are many men and women
that hear the gospel as a word and hear the general call of
the gospel, and they're never affected by it. They're hardened
by it, and they rebel on and on against God. The good news
of the gospel of God's grace, the glory of God, as it's revealed
in the Bible, in the salvation of sinners. Men hear it. They
hear it. And you must hear it. If you
don't hear it, you're going to be lost, I tell you. And it's
not that you're going to be lost. You are lost, and you will continue
to be lost for all eternity. You've got to hear this gospel.
But now listen to me this morning. I mean, hear the gospel. Now,
when you hear the gospel, if you do not believe the gospel,
if you do not close with Christ in the gospel, if you do not
embrace the message of the good news of God in Christ coming
into the world to reconcile poor sinners unto himself through
the doing and dying of Christ, then, beloved, let me tell you
something, you'd be better off this morning if you never heard
the message. You'd be better off if you never
heard it. You'd be better off if you were over in the darkest,
densest part of Africa someplace, a hunting coyote there, who never
heard the name of Christ. You'd be better off. Because
when men and women hear the gospel and reject the gospel, those
people are in danger of reparation. Now, if you do not believe the
gospel, if you do not believe the message, and what a message
we have in the gospel. sinners sinners in their tattered garments of
sin and how that God takes them and washes those sinners and
makes them clean. Oh yes, He makes them clean and
then He puts upon them the garments of salvation and they're beautified
with these garments and they're made so righteous in the sight
of God. They have such a standing in
the sight of God that God Almighty accepts them and they are received
by God. just as if they had never committed
one infraction of the law, just as if they had never sinned against
God, they are made perfectly whole and perfectly clean before
God. What a gospel we have. This is
the good news of the gospel. It's the gospel, it's the message
that God saves those who cannot save themselves. It's the message
that God Almighty is willing to provide everything for you
that He's demanded of you in His holy law. That God's willing
to save you this morning on the basis of mercy and grace and
love. That's the message of the gospel.
Now, hear me out this morning. Paul Breger is the damnation
of the man that after he has heard these things, and after
he's been enabled by the spirit of illumination, to see these
things and then to willfully reject these things and go on
in a state of rebellion against the God of the Bible. Far greater
is that man's abomination. Well, you say, Preacher, can
you show us this out of the Bible? Well, I'll attempt this morning.
Turn back to the book of Proverbs, if you will. Turn back to the
book of Proverbs, chapter one, and let me show you something
here. Now, beloved, I believe that there are some people I
mentioned this earlier, let me stress it again. There are some
people, maybe members of my own family, brothers and sisters,
living in this world, and I'm aware of this, and some of you,
and I want to emphasize this, maybe I'm preaching to this morning,
who are damned, while I speak to you. You're damned. You sit
here in a condition, in a state, before God of reparation, and
you cannot believe You're sure of your unbelief, and you cannot
believe this gospel. Now, you're damned just as sure
this morning as if you were in hell already. You remember that
God shut the door of the ark? He took Noah and his family into
the ark, and the animals, and he shut the door of the ark?
And those people outside the door of the ark were just as
surely damned the minute that door of the ark slammed shut
as they were hours later when they drowned in the water. They
were damned when the door slammed. That's the point I want to make.
And that's what I'm saying to you this morning. And what I'm
saying is that God's reprobation, when man trifles with, refuses,
hardens his neck, God finally shuts the door of his salvation. The door of grace and the door
of God's safety at the place of the arm is shut. And that's
it, brother, sister. Those people are damned. Now
listen to the reading here of the scripture. I'll begin with
verse 23 of Proverbs chapter 1. Turn you at my reproof, says
the Lord. Turn you at my reproof. When
I reproof you, you turn. You turn around. It's time for
you to stop in your tracks and turn around. The voice of the
Lord has been heard. He has spoken from His word.
He says, I will pour out my spirit upon you. I will make no of my
words unto you, because I have called, and he refused. He says, I have stretched out
my hand, and no man regardeth it. And, beloved, God calls to
the gospel, and him refused that gospel. He says, I have stretched
out my hand to men in the gospel, and no man regardeth it. But
ye have set it normal on my counsel, You trifle with my word, you
would none of my reproof. I will also laugh, listen to
this, God saying this, I also will laugh at your calamity,
I will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you, Then shall they fall upon me, says
the Lord, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me, for that they he acknowledge and did not
choose the fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel,
they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat the
fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity
of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkened unto me shall
dwell safely, and shall be quiet from the fear of evil." Now what
we found here, beloved, I think is a description of these people,
that they will, they refuse the call of God, they refuse the
word of God, the reproofs of God, And the stoplights in the
Bible, they ignore them, and they go right on in their rebellion.
And then they come to a place when they begin to get a little
concerned about this, and they're about ready to die, and the doctor
tells them, says, you're about, this is it, and you're ready
to leave this world, and there's no hope for you. Then they shall
call upon me. But God says, I want answers.
I want answers. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me. The Lord says, you're not going
to find me. And the reason is, is because they trifle with me,
and they trifle with my word, and they trifle with the truth,
and they'll not kill me. I will not kill you. Now, does
this remind you of anybody in the Bible? Well, it reminds me
of Esau. Do you remember Esau in the Bible? The scripture tells us that there
was a day when Esau came in from hunting, and he was hungry. And we know that Esau was the
eldest, he had come out of the womb first before Jacob, and
the birthright was his. And you remember that he sold
that birthright to his brother for a mess of beans because he
was a hungry man and he'd been out in the field and he thought
he was dying. And you ever hear anybody say they were starving
to death? Well, he saw it, literally believed he was starving to death,
and so he sold his birthright. Now, when he sold his birthright,
what that means is he was to be the spiritual priest of the
family. He was, he had the priesthood
of the family. What he actually gave up was
the worship of God. He gave it up. And he gave it
up, he counted it to be a small thing. to be standing in the
place of the priest in the family, and to be that one that would
leave the house and worship of God, and he gave it up. And he
gave it up for a carnal reason. He gave it up for a fleshly blessing,
for something that would be good for his body. He gave it up. And the Bible says he was a profane
man. The Bible says that he was a
fornicator. The Bible says that this man
you saw, he came to himself one day, and he began to seek, and
he recognized what he lost, that he lost the inheritance, and
he began to seek it. And the Bible says he sought
it carefully with tears, but the Bible says he didn't find
it. He never found it. No, he sought it carefully. He
even sought it with tears, beloved, and he could not find it. And
what I'm saying to you is, this morning, you can trifle with
God. There's a deadline when you can trifle with God. There's
a step in which you can take in trifling with God and hearing
over and over the gospel and rejecting the truths of God's
Word until God says, that's it. That's it! He that hardeneth
his neck, being often reproved, shall suddenly be destroyed,
and that without liberty. All right, now there are some
preachers who might tell people like Esau, Say, now you can go
downtown someplace and listen to this certain preacher and
you can find it. You can find it. You can find
it. It's only got to do with listening to this certain preacher.
Oh, believe that's easy. Believe this and stuff. And believe
this decision is in salvation business and you can find it. You can be saved. You can be
converted. I'll tell you what. Esau couldn't be converted under
any circumstances. There was no way in this world
he could ever be saved. He lost it and he could not find
it. He could not find it. He was
rejected by God. He was reprobated and there was
no way back. There was no way back. The door
was shut. And I'm here to tell you this morning that it happens
to men. Now, I want you to understand
that God must give salvation. He must give life. He must give
the blessing. And unless God gives it, men
will not have it. Preachers say, woe be I. Preachers
say, do this, do that, do something else. It'll not work. It'll not
work. It'll not work. Salvation is
of the Lord. Now, next in the Bible, I want to mention the
house of Judah. Turn to the book of Jeremiah
chapter 7. The book of Jeremiah chapter
7, and I want to read here verse 16. Now, Jeremiah was greatly
burdened with the house of Judah, and they had fallen into deep
sin. And it was awful. My soul, you
can read this chapter, but I won't have time to get into all that.
But I want you to look at verse 16, Jeremiah chapter 7. I'm sure
it'll be out of the Bible how these things happen. Therefore,
now Jeremiah had been lamenting before the Lord, and mourning
before God, and praying for these people as it were before God.
And verse 16, therefore pray not thou for this people, God
said. He don't pray for this people anymore. Neither lift
up cry nor prayer for them. He don't cry, pray for these
people. Neither make intercession to
me from these people. God says, for I will not hear
thee. I will not hear thee. Jeremiah,
I believe, was a praying man. I believe that Jeremiah got the
ear of God when he prayed. I believe that he was a man that
God heard. And God says to him, you don't
pray for these people. You ever make an intercession
to me for these people? I'm not going to hear you! God
says, for I will not hear thee on their behalf. Don't pray for
them. And I say that these people want
to reprobate. I'll cast them off. Turn to the
book of Hosea. The book of Hosea, chapter 4. And here, there's a message from
God. This book was in an awful state. And Hebrew was in an awful state.
And I want you to look at verse 17 of Hosea 4. I'm showing you
out of the Bible, this is the truth that you cannot deny. Ephraim,
in verse 17, is joined to Iris. And listen to these three words,
let him alone. Ephraim is joined to his Iris,
let him alone. Now what God is saying here is,
Ephraim is married to his Iris. He's not about to cut himself
loose from his false gods. He's going to go right on in
his rebellion and right on in his idolatry, and he's not about
to turn around. And God said, let him alone.
Let him alone. Now hear me out, soul, this morning.
If God Almighty ever says those three words to you, let him alone,
I'm going to tell you what, that means curse. That means forever
your soul is to be damned. That means that you're going
to suffer the vengeance of the God of the Bible, the Holy God
of the Bible, forever and ever. And there is no, you are irreparably
lost. And there is no escaping the
judgment of God. You must bear it for all eternity. Let him alone. Let him alone. What is it this morning that
you're drawn to, that you cannot be separated from? What is it
this morning? that you're married to, as it
were, and you say, I will not turn from it. My friend, God
will one day say to you, let him alone. And when God says,
let him alone, that's it. That's it. You're reprobate,
and there's no hope for you. Now turn to Matthew's gospel,
chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23, and I want
us to look here at verse 37 and 38 this morning. And see this,
Wynton, if you will, the Lord Jesus had come and had preached
the gospel unto the Pharisees, unto the Jews, and all the people
of his day, and Jerusalem was recipient of his miracles and
blessing and his message. And he says in verse 37, O Jerusalem,
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 ye would not, and ye would not, Now, I want you to see something
here, beloved. The Lord Jesus is a tremendous
person, Scripture, and one that often is just completely, well,
it just made me stand in awe at what the Lord says here to
Jerusalem. He tells them here of His love
and of His kindness and of His grace. And He said, I will gather
thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under
a bean. Would not. Ye would not. Men are damned by their own will. They're saved by God's will if
you're ever saved. And don't ever forget that. But
look at verse 38. Behold. Behold, that word generally
in the New Testament is a word that is supposed to arrest us
and get our attention. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. Because of you would not, your
house is left to be desolate. Now what does that mean? Well,
beloved, if your house is left to be desolate, then it's like
a town that has been deserted. Ghost town, if you please. It's
finished. And I hope you got people running
around saying all kinds of things about the nation of Israel, saying
that God's going to do this, God's going to do that with the
nation of Israel, and so on. But beloved, as far as I'm concerned,
this scripture right here seals it forever. God is done. with
the nation of Israel. God is finished with the nation
of Israel. And people tell us, well, look
to Jerusalem, look to Israel, and so on and so forth. Follow
Israel and see what's happening there, what God is doing there
as a nation. And I believe that God has rejected
the nation of Israel. And I believe He's finished with
the nation of Israel. And I believe that's what verse
38 is telling us. Behold, your house and Israel
as a nation is reprobate. And God has rejected them, but
He has eliminated them. out from among the Jewish people,
even as he does from among the Gentiles, that he will save the
people for his name. And God is saving some Jews,
and he's saving Gentiles in these days. It's a remnant. But as
far as the house of Israel is concerned, it's reprobated. It's
reprobated. God says your house is less than
a few decimals. Why? Because he would not. He would not. And that's the
point that I'm making this morning. Now then, I want to say this,
that Reformation is permanent. If God ever says to you, let
you alone. If God ever says, behold, your
house is left to you distant. If God ever says, I will not
hear you. If God ever says to the preacher,
don't pray for him, because I will not, don't intercede for him,
because I will not hear you. Reformation is permanent. It's permanent. everlasting,
throughout eternity, eternity, eternity, forever. Reparations from Godly judgment,
reparations for their rejection, their despise of the gospel. You say, well, I thought. Now,
hear what men say at this. Men say, they decided. They decided
now. to die rather than live. That
decision was made long ago. You were in the Lord's bathroom
and he said, I'll die rather than live. Didn't he say that? He said, I'd rather die rather
than live. And that's exactly what you're saying this morning.
That's what men say. And if you ever say it'll be
by the decision made by God Almighty, it'll be by His decision. It's
not when you decide, it's when God appoints. That's when men
get saved. It's when God appoints. It's
when God ordains. That's when men and women get
saved. Now, salvation is according to God's will, and you will hear
when God calls, or you will not hear at all. You will never hear
unless you hear it. God says, I called, and you didn't
answer. And see, he said, I'm gonna walk
with your fear of God. And you'll see me early, but
I'll not, you will not find me. You'll hear when God calls. Now
listen, you'll believe when God calls through the proclamation
of the gospel, then you'll believe, or you will not believe at all.
You'll believe when the gospel, when you hear God speak through
the gospel, it's when you'll believe. Now, how we were living
in the retrograde age, We have more religion today than we know
what to do with. Most of the people I know in
this world are blinded, deluded, hardened against the gospel by
a false religion. Most of them are, I believe,
hardened by a false religion. It is easier for me as a preacher
of the gospel, and I think you would agree with me if you try
to witness or bear any testimony at all to the Lord in this world,
it's easier for us to talk to drunks and harlots about the
gospel in the same grace of our Lord Jesus Christ than it is
to talk to this religious world in our day. You talk to men and
women who are steeped in religion, false religion, and those people
will not give you the time of day when you start talking to
them about the gospel. They already know everything
that you know. They think they do. And they
already know more than you'll ever know. And Wilson's going
to die with this generation of religious folks and don't do
any good. Talk to them. It doesn't do any
good. Well, somebody says, scoffingly
to a preacher, who is lost in your estimation? Who is lost? Well... The religious system,
whether it be Catholic, or Baptist, or Methodist, or Lutheran, or
Gister, or anything you want to even mention, just any religion
you want to mention, the whole system which makes salvation
and acceptance of God dependent upon man's will, man's work,
man's power, man's doing, man's decision, the whole system, the
whole religious world is going to hell with the Bible in their
hands, if you believe, they're going to hell. And the reason
is, is because they do not know Christ, and because they do not
know the message of the gospel, and because God Almighty is saving,
sovereign grace, power, has not revealed the gospel to their
hearts. Salvation is over. These people
have a false faith. I'm not saying they don't have
some kind of faith. They have a false spirit. I'm not saying
they don't have any spirit. And they have a false God. I'm
not saying they don't have a God. I think they do have a God. But
it's not the God of the Bible. Well, let me speak plainly to
you this morning. If it had not been for God's
grace, and I got to get on here in my message this morning here
in 2 Thessalonians. I've been a while getting there,
but it was on purpose. It was on purpose. If it had
not been for God's grace, you and I would be in the same boat
with this religious generation. The same boat, if it had not
been for the grace of God. Is that true or is it true? You
would be sitting somewhere this morning listening to one of these
false prophets. You would be believing their
message. You would be believing that you could save yourself.
These false prophets preach sinners save thyself. You'd be believing
it. You'd be believing that I broke it down in an hour by signing
a pledge card, by going to the morgues, bitch. or by making
a decision, or by praying the sinner's prayer, you could be
saved. That's where you need to be this
morning, if it wasn't for the grace of God. And isn't it marvelous
that God's been pleased, and to open some eyes, and to show
us that salvation is of the Lord. My friend, the whole fundamentalist,
Arminian, free will, easy believerism, decisionism world is lost. Say what you want, it's lost.
It's lost! And you would be too if it was
not for the grace of God. The mystery of iniquity, there's
already work, Paul tells us here. Now there are some religions
in the world that I don't think necessarily are. would be deceiving
to anybody who reads the Bible or hears the word of God preached. I'm not concerned about the eye-folds
of religion over an eye-wearer. My habit is, I'm not concerned,
but anybody who reads the word of God knows better than that
who listens. And then I don't get deceived by that. But the
thing that really, beloved, we need to be concerned about and
need to be aware of here this morning, is that slick pill of
fundamentalism, that slick pill of decisionism, that slick pill
that you can add something to the work of Jesus Christ, or
that you can do something in order to bring yourself into
faith with God. That slick pill of easy believerism,
which will damn men's souls. Now when men say that salvation
is up to you, that man who says that is a liar. Anybody tells
you you can save yourself, first thing, the best thing for you
to do is put on your runners and run. That man is lying to
you. You can't save yourself. You
cannot deliver yourself from the damnation of sin. When a
man says the salvation is up to you, this man is anti-Christ.
He's Antichrist. Paul tells us here in this chapter
about the Antichrist. Now listen, any doctrine which
lowers the glorious character of the saved in God the Bible
is Antichrist. Many people, many preachers,
lowers the glorious character of God, brings God down, down,
down in their preaching and exalts man. Let me say that any doctrine
which exalts For magnified, the character of man is antichrist. And the folks who believe that
kind of preaching, and the folks who support that kind of preaching,
and the folks who give their money to support that kind of
preaching, is also antichrist. They're embracing antichrist.
And any doctrine that diminishes or adds to the finished work
of Christ is antichrist. Did Christ save His people? The Bible says, when Jesus Christ
was born, the scripture says, His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Is Christ the
Savior of His people? Does His finished work save and
save eternally? Or do we? Must we add something
to it? Well, beloved, let's be very
careful in this Antichrist business. Any doctrine that attributes
salvation at any value to the will of man, the works of man,
the power of man, I say plainly and boldly, is Antichrist. It's
Antichrist. Now then, there's only one reason
why we've not been deceived into this believing a lie, why we're
not out traveling somewhere this morning with the Bible and with
the doctrines of grace and laughing at the grace of God and spitting
on it every morning before breakfast. There's only one reason. now
in person Ten, he says, with all deceivables
of unrighteousness and damned to perish, because they received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, and for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned to believe not
the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. But look
at verse 13. I'm going to spend just a little
time here on this and another verse or two. 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 sanctification of spirit and belief in the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now my subject this morning is
thank God for electing love. And I'm just going to say a few
more things about that, but this is the subject and this is what
I've been leading up to all along. Thank God for electing love. Thank God this morning that He
loves His people and that He has chosen His people. Now here's
reason for joy. here's reason for praise, here's
reason for thanksgiving unto God. Now, there are three things
that I want to bring to your attention this morning. Turn
back, if you will, to the 65th Psalm, and I want to give you
three things out of this psalm here that has to do, there are
reasons for His electing love, three reasons for it, and three
reasons why we ought to rejoice in his electing love. Now, I
want first of all to read this verse, and then we'll give you
these three things. I'm not going to read them all,
I'm just going to give them to you. But listen to them. Now
listen to this verse as I read it. Psalm 65, verse 4. Blessed
is the man who now chooses These are the words of David, and calls
us to approach unto thee, that ye may dwell in thy courts. We
shall be satisfied with thy goodness, the goodness of thy house, even
of thy holy temple. Now the first thing that I think
that God should be loved for Praise the Lord and we should
give thanksgiving to God for his number one that he did not
leave us to ourselves that he never reprobated us but he chose
us in Jesus Christ. He chose us. Now, in eternal
love in the Bible, God choosing us, electing love if you please
in the Bible, is a theme for joy throughout the scriptures.
It's a theme for joy. that God has chosen us. You remember David and David
was married to one of Saul's daughters and they brought up
the ark out of Obed and Edom and you remember that David danced
before the ark and his wife made fun of him and told him that
he was the living himself and that it was strong to do this,
and he said with a joyful heart, he said, I'll make myself more
bound yet because God hath chosen me over your father, over your
father's son. And so he rejoiced that God had
chosen him. And all throughout the Bible,
election is a theme for joy and praise to God. Well, we know
about the Lord Jesus Christ because he chose us. Paul says, according
as he has chosen us again before the foundation of the world.
And in this text, we're bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren of the Lord, because God has from the beginning
chosen you. He's chosen you to salvation. Why did the Lord Jesus Christ
say unto his own ye, have not chosen me, but I have chosen
you? He wanted them to know it. That's
why he told them. He wanted them to know it. Somebody
said, Preacher, you can't tell people about electing love. You
can't preach election. Well, that's odd. We know that
Paul the Apostle preached it almost every time he got up to
preach. He preached on election. You can read it in the 13th chapter.
So when he was in Antioch of Pisidia, there, when he went
into the synagogue, he read the Law of the Prophets, and they
asked the brethren, said, you got anything to say? And he got
up and he said, the God of our fathers chose, the God, this
God, this people, this one chose our fathers. First thing he knows,
he chose our fathers. And then you remember when Ananias
in the 22nd chapter of the book of Acts, Paul's giving his testimony
and explains what happened after he was converted. And Ananias
came to him being sent to the Lord. And you know what Ananias
told him? He said, the God of our fathers
has chosen thee. And Paul said that's what he
told him. The God of our fathers has chosen thee. Beloved, the
Bible is full of election. The Bible is full of it. And
when the Bible talks about God's election, it means that God has
made specific choice of individuals before the foundation of the
world. Those people were loved by Him for reasons known only
to Himself, and that He gave these people that He loved and
had chosen unto Himself to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
gave them to His Son. And when the Lord Jesus came
into this world, He said, I didn't lay down my life. For the world,
he said, I gave my life, he said, I laid it down on my sheep. He
looked in those Pharisees' face and he said, you do not believe
on me. And he said, it's because you're not on my sheep. It's
because you're not on my sheep. John chapter 17, Jesus said,
I pray not for the world. I don't pray for the world, but
I pray for those that you've given me out of the world. They're
mine. You've given them me. I pray
for them. And so, brethren, in this business
of election, we have so much to rejoice in because, first
of all, Jesus died for us. I mean, Jesus Christ, may our
sins end. I mean that what I hope is justice
of God, Jesus took upon himself and paid it full. And all my
sins have been cast out. Sins have been remitted. God
will not remember them against me anymore. And David described
the blessedness of the man in Psalm 32, to whom the Lord would
not have united with him. And Paul said that who can lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Rather than make your
calling and election sure, because if you have been called and chosen
of God, no one can lay anything to your charge any longer. God
will not impute sin to you. You stand before God justified
because He laid down His life for the sheep. He paid our sin
debt in full. He satisfied the justice of God
and every demand of the Lord. Jesus met it and paid the price
of it in full and set my soul free. He set it free. That's
electing love. He did it because He chose me
in His Son. Now here we are. All that happens
in this world is good for the elect. I'm talking about reasons
for rejoicing in the Lord, but the reason we should joy over
addiction. David said, blessed is the man
whom thou choosest. Everything that happens in the
life of one of those whom God has chosen. The Bible teaches
this. You've been called in order to
be chosen. It's for your good. It's for your good. A reprobate,
everything that happens, even the preaching of this sermon
this morning, if you be a reprobate, just hardens your heart further. It just, just will make your
hell the flames of hell hotter for you. Everything is against
the reprobate. It's all against him. But everything
is good for those chosen of God. Now, brethren, hold that God
has from the beginning chosen you for salvation. God did it
from the beginning. And so the first thing here I
make mention of is, blessed is the man whom you choose. The
Lord is blessed for the reasons given and many others which we
have not given this morning. The second thing is this, and
that is that they have been caused Look at verse 4 here, the second
part of the verse, and calls us to approach him. Calls us. Now what this simply means to
me is that, what it means is, it means that there is a place
of mercy for all of the elect. There's a place for them. It's
called in the Bible, the time of love. It's called the day
of his power. It's called a place of mercy. There is a place of
mercy for all the elect. And God will not. Oh, you say,
Preacher, I'm stubborn. You are stubborn. I agree with
you. And you say, Preacher, I've got a streak of hardness. Yes,
you are hard. And so forth, so it passes. But
I will tell you this, there's coming a day, there's coming
a day, there's coming a day when God will not, He will not, I
tell you, He will meet you under Damascus' throne. He will meet
you there. God will not allow you to perish. He will not, if
you be one of His sheep, one of those that He sends love and
affection upon before all the world. God will not allow one
of his sheep to perish. They will be saved. God will
deliver them. God will come to you. God will
deliver your soul. He will. He will not allow you
to perish. Now he's the shepherd. He's not
going to come. He's going to go over a cliff
down here in the brier and the brush. and he'll ramble and say,
now just get yourself out of there and clean yourself up and
come over here to me and I'll do you good. No, sir. The Good
Shepherd will come to you. He will come to you and he will
deliver your soul. He will rescue you. He will restore
you. He will deliver your soul. He
is the Good Shepherd and he calls his men to approach him. God
will give, there will be a time of mercy. For your soul now somewhere
between the cradle and the grave there must be a day of his power
There must be a day of his love a time of his love There must
be a place of mercy somewhere in your life there must be and
I see this so clearly Illustrated in John chapter 8 and I invite
you to turn there quickly. I'm going to close here in just
a few minutes John chapter 8 You remember this story here in this
chapter about the woman who was taken in the very act of adultery
and she had these accusers that came and they accused her to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you remember he stooped down
and rolled on the ground and he said, He that is without sin
among you, let him first cast a stone at her. That's in verse
7. And again he stooped down, rolled on the ground and when
they heard it, They were convicted by their own conscience, and
went out one foot long to get to the elders, even into the
life, and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the
midst. Now do you hear this? Jesus was
left alone and the woman standing in the midst. I'm talking about
God causing men to approach Him. I'm talking about a day of mercy.
I'm talking about a time of mercy. I'm talking about a time of love.
Look at it. Look at it. And when Jesus lifted
up Himself and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, Woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said to her, neither
do I have the ability to go and sin no more. And if you can get
anything out of that other than that this was a prearranged situation
by our Lord, where He would be left alone, He alone with this
woman, So that He could pardon her sin, so He could forgive
her sin, so He could reconcile her to Himself, so He could show
her His love for her, and so He could deliver her permanently,
eternally from her sin. Beloved, did you get anything
else out of that? Then you go ahead with your view and your
opinion, but leave me to mine, and that is as a place of mercy.
That is, God calls His men and women to approach and enter.
He sets a place and time, and He brings them unto Himself.
And David said, blessed is the man whom the Lord calls to this,
to approach and leave. Now brethren, God has various
ways of causing men and women to approach Him. He has various
ways of doing it. This woman was called to approach
the Lord Jesus Christ. She was brought there by her
accusers. But she got there. She was there
along with Jesus. And He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sit down. Neither do I condemn thee. Now,
beloved, there was a day when the Lord Jesus Christ got me
alone to myself. And it was a time of love, it
was a day of mercy, it was a day, it was a day of grace, it was
a time when the soul was reconciled to God, it was a time when the
sins lifted, a time when the soul became clean before God,
accepted into the living, a day, a time, a place. God calls, blessed is the man
whom you cause to approach in me. And you'll never approach
unless God calls you to. Unless God calls you to. You'll go on in your blindness
unless God causes you to approach. He's got ways of doing that.
Sometimes people fall into deep sin. And it's the way that God
uses to cause them to approach Him. Sometimes God snatches out
of men's lives what they once loved and makes them, in a sense,
an orphan, shut up to himself, just simply to bring them, to
cause them to look to Him and to approach Him. God calls us
to that. Men just don't do that by nature.
Ain't nobody gonna love God's forsaken sin and come to Christ
by themselves. God must cause it. He does. He causes it. He breathes all
on it himself. And you see that. Now the third
thing and the last thing is this. I see it in this text. Here in
Psalm 65. And that's going to be it. I'm
closing. I mean that. Psalm 65. The last
part of this verse. that he may dwell in thy courts. Who is that? Well, it's the man
whom the Lord's chosen. God has, from the beginning,
chosen you to salvation. Make your calling and election
sure, brethren. Make it sure. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and calls us to approach him to thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. The third thing
for which we should bless God for in regards to electing love
is that He has made us satisfied. We are satisfied. Now brethren,
I realize that I'm not much to look at, but I will tell you
this. This morning, whatever you see
here, I want you to know this. I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Now, I understand there's a whole
lot of things that should be done over here on the right,
that should be done on the left. I understand how to be out and
remain in the flesh. There's a whole lot of things
to improve and change. And things can happen that make
us more active and less satisfied. But inwardly, in my soul movement,
because of electing love, because God said He loved only me and
gave me in Christ all spiritual blessing, because of the God
election, and because He blessed me with the knowledge that He
loved me before the foundation of the world, and the assurance
that He called me, and the assurance that He put His Spirit in me,
I'm satisfied this morning. I'm satisfied. Now, he said we
should be satisfied that we will dwell in the courts. And I believe
that God's people are now, those that are in Christ, are dwelling,
not like we shall dwell in courts above later, after this life
is over. But there's a sense in which
we dwell in these courts now. And there's a sense in which
we are satisfied with the goodness of this house. The goodness in
his house. And I think that takes in the
providence of God. I think it takes in God's dealings
with us. I think that if we've got to
make a sense in our brains, a more spiritual sense, that we must
be satisfied if God has taken our case in his hand. If he has. Is your case in his hand? Sister? Brother, you poor, tribal, afflicted,
contested people, it is your case and his and his. If his child lives, it's in his
hands. And you only be satisfied if
it's fair. Be satisfied, because He don't begin anything, He don't
finish. And He's not, He's big enough to have no case. And He
will have no case. Satisfied. Satisfied. Okay, and
then, are you satisfied with your properties? Oh, you say,
Preacher, I sometimes argue with God. Well, I know we all do,
in our natures. In our flesh natures, we argue
with God. We do. But in our hearts, in our times
when we're in communion with God, when the Spirit of God is
upon us and in us, and when our hearts are being poured out before
the Lord, and we're in fellowship with God, and God comes to us.
Beloved, we're satisfied with these prophets. We're not hiding. We're not kicking and screaming
at the providence of God when we're in our right mind spiritually.
Isn't that right? I'm telling you the truth. I'm
telling you the truth. Now, this is what's involved
in this. Satisfy. Satisfy. And evil, he says, of our holy
temple. Evil of the temple of God. And I think this has reference
to that. See, brethren, we're in the body and flesh. We have
a corrupt nature. A sinful nature. God knows we
do. And John says that a man is a
liar if he says he has no sin. He said, the Bible says he deceives
himself. And the word of God's not in him if he says he has
no sin. We've got a corrupt nature. But the people of God, the redeemed
of the Lord, every fathom have been clothed with the garments
of salvation, have been justified through free and amazing grace.
These people are satisfied even in His holy temple because of
that new principle of righteousness which God has put in them. And
that principle of holiness which is in them, which God has planted
in them, the seed of God is in His people. You're partakers
of the divine nature, and that very nature makes you be satisfied
even in the holy temple of the Lord. And you see, this is very
important for us to understand. Satisfaction. Satisfaction. Now, where would we be this morning? You know, I'm by nature a very
dissatisfied person. I'm a murmuring and complaining
person by nature. Are you that kind of a person
by nature? Well, I think we all are by nature. Some maybe more
than others, but we all are. But if a man can be satisfied,
I know that man can never be satisfied apart from knowing
his election, apart from knowing that God has given his Son in
Heaven, and that Christ died for him. To know that he's reconciled
to God, to know that the devil's in his face, to know that he's
stabbed before God, accepted in the blood of Jesus. Man can
never be satisfied by what he's done. There's nothing else that'll
satisfy man. Nothing else. But, in all that
he's done, Paul said, we have to thank God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord. We have to thank God for you.
Because God has, from the beginning, chosen you to this salvation.
Where to? He said He called you by the
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, may God be pleased
to have you blessed. You're here this morning and
you are possessors of these choice blessings. Thank God, thank God
that you're not a record breaker. Thank God that you're not in
a position this morning where God possibly might have already
said, let him alone. Let him alone. If he calls, I'm
not here. If he calls, I'm not here. Don't try it with the gospel.
Don't try it. Listen to the voice of God. God speaks through His word.
God speaks through the proclamation of the gospel. If you hear His
voice, you poor trembling sinners, seek Him. Seek Him. Sue for mercy
every single evening. Sue for mercy. Kiss the Son,
lest you become angry with Him and you perish from the way.
Bow in awe of greatness. Bow speedily before the Lord.
Bow. Bow to me. Ask yourself. Father, we thank
you for thy word. It is a privilege of preaching
this this morning, and we pray that we may please thee to use
this Oh God, and those here that are lost, we pray that they might
be delivered and come into a world of salvation by free grace. Thank
you, blessed Lord, for what you've done for your people.

Electing Love

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Electing Love

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