Well, I see everybody here is
obeying the law. I couldn't resist, I just couldn't. How mean. Y'all should have been
doing that a long time ago. But turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
chapter two. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The title of my message this evening
is Four Great Themes. Four Great Themes. And we start
reading here in verse 13 down to the end of the chapter. But we are bound to give thanks
all way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief unto the truth. For unto he called
you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. This particular chapter is dealing
with those that oppose God, oppose Christ, and oppose the gospel. And because they receive not
the love of the truth, God himself sends us a strong delusion that
they should believe a lie. And not just believe a lie, but
they all might be damned. Be damned. But then on the other
hand of it, and that's what he goes down through there and talks
about those, and then he turns around, starts talking about
God's children, God's elect. But we're bound, no matter what
else anybody else does, any lies they believe, any deceivableness
that they have. Anything that goes on in their
life, that's them. But I'm bound to turn around
and give thanks to you, brethren. What for? Because God has from
the beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification
and belief of the truth. Election, election, what a blessed,
blessed truth it is. Oh, I love that word. but you
go through elect, chosen, predestinated, all blessed Bible words. And
God's people have learned these words, and they know what they
mean. We don't have to guess what they
mean. And so I want to just go through four things in this chapter
here today, this evening, and hopefully they'll be a blessing
to you. The first thing we see here is that God hath chosen
you. God hath chosen you. We're not
ashamed of election. Not ashamed of it. People can
make fun of it all they want to. They say that God chose a
nation. He chose His nation. He don't
choose people. Well, nations are made up of people. But God
here is talking about individuals. God hath chosen you. We're not
ashamed of election. Not ashamed of the gospel. Not
ashamed of God's work no matter what it says. And there's four
things about election I want to talk about. Four things I
want to talk about. First of all, election is true.
It?s true. You know our Lord Jesus says,
?No, you?re not. You?ve not chosen Me, but I?ve
chosen you.? Did you hear that? ?You?ve not chosen Me, but I?ve
chosen you. And then not only that, but have
I ordained that you should bring forth fruit.? So it's a blessed
Bible word, our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, The Father hath given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
who? Those that thou hast given me. And our blessed Lord. And you go through the scriptures,
Paul used election and all the apostles used election just as
a common word. When they wrote to a church,
they'd say, to the elect, to the elect there. TO THE CHOSEN
THERE, TO THE PREDESTINATED THERE, AND YOU KNOW IT SAYS THIS THAT
EVEN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST SAYS IF IT WAS POSSIBLE, THEY WOULD
DECEIVE WHO? THE VERY ELECT. BUT ACCORDING
TO WHAT'S BEEN TAUGHT IN THIS CHAPTER RIGHT HERE, A LOT OF
OTHER PEOPLE ARE DECEIVED, BUT NOT GOD'S ELECT. THAT'S WHY HE
SAYS WE'RE BOUND TO GIVE THANKS FOR YOU, BROTHER. AND OUR LORD
JESUS SAYS, DO YOU THINK NOT THAT GOD SHALL AVENGE THEM THAT
CRY DAY AND NIGHT UNTO HIM, TO AVENGE HIS ELECT WHO CRY UNTO
HIM DAY AND NIGHT? HE SAID, AS THE ELECT OF GOD
PUT ON BOWS OF MERCY. So it's true, and election is
God's will. Our Lord Jesus, when He prayed,
He said, Oh, Father, He said, All that the Father gives me,
all of them, what are they going to do? They're going to come
to Me. They're going to come to Me. And I tell you what, beloved,
that's the most blessed thing He said He guaranteed. that we'd
be brought to Him. And that's why we're not on a
fool's errand when we're preaching the gospel. God's going to get
His people. He said, All that the Father
giveth me SHALL come to me. And Him that comes to me, I don't
care. You say, Well, He failed. HE
SAID SOME AWFUL BAD WORDS. HE MISTREATED HIS WIFE ONE TIME
AND SHE MISTREATED HER. BUT LISTEN, HE SAID THERE'S NOTHING
THAT ANYBODY WILL EVER DO WHOM CHRIST DIED FOR AND BRINGS TO
HIMSELF WILL CAUSE HIM TO CAST THEM OUT. IF THAT COULD BE SO,
HE WOULD HAVE CAST ME OUT YEARS AND YEARS AGO. BUT HE AIN'T GONNA
CAST THEM OUT. AND I'LL TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE,
NOT ONLY IS THE ELECTION TRUE, But election is eternal, eternal. Look what He says, He hath from
the beginning chosen you. Election started before the world
ever began. You know that? It says here from
the beginning, from the beginning. You know when the beginning started?
When God said, this is the beginning. You know what happened before
God said in the beginning? So there was a beginning, God
was, before He ever said there's a beginning. And so I tell you
what, election is eternal. And He says, For whom He did
foreknow, have an intimate acquaintance with, them, them, He also did
predestinate. What did He predestinate them
to? To be conformed to the image of His blessed Son. For whom
He just called, whom He justified, whom He foreknew, He also called,
in whom he called he justified, in whom he justified he glorified,
and every one of those is in the past tense. And they was
in the past tense before I was ever found out that I was one
of God's elect. And that's why he told Paul,
Paul said this, he said, When it pleased God, who from the
beginning chose me and separated me, called me by His grace, separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. But you
say, but look what all he did. He hated God, he hated Christ,
he hated the Lord's people, he persecuted them, had warrants
for their arrest when Christ apprehended him on the Damascus
road. You know why Christ apprehended him on the Dabascus Road? Because
he had been chosen before the foundation of the world. He was
in his mother's womb, and God called him by his grace. And
he said, this is how far I'm going to let you go. And he said,
when I bring you down, you're going to be the most thankful
fellow that ever walked on the earth. And everybody else that
God put down in the dust feels the same way. And that's why
he said, in the beginning, in the beginning. I'll tell you
something else about in the beginning, that God started time for us.
There ain't no time to Him, He started time for us, so He had
a BEGINNING. He had a BEGINNING. And if there's
a BEGINNING, there'll be an END. And you know just like there's
a BEGINNING, one of these days there's going to be an END to
all this that goes on in this world right now. And you know
in our Lord Jesus, A lot of people came to him and said, Oh, my
Lord, we've we've preached in your name. We've done many wonderful
works in your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We have done wonderful things. And you know what our master
said? I never knew you, never knew you. But then you turn around
on the other side and he's got a people that he's always known,
always known. And not only is the election
true, God has chosen you. Not only is it eternal, but it's
also personal. Look what he says. He hath chosen
you. You. He chosen you. You know, a lot of people say, well, how
do you know you're one of God's elect? Well, you won't know till
you get there. Or else, you know, when you believe, you know, God's
got a book and when you believe and you repent and believe, he'll
put your name in there. Well, the minute you believe,
he goes, he gets his book down, he gets his pencil out, and he
starts writing in there, you know. And if you mess up, he's
got an eraser, he can erase your name. No, no, no. God wrote names, he had every
name in the book of life before anybody was ever, before he ever
made Adam and put him in the garden. Every single name, every
single name. You know why my, and I've told
you this before, why my name is Donald Bell, Donald Bell Jr.,
is because, and why I was born on a certain day, God had in
His book, this man, his name's gonna be Donald Bell, he's gonna
be born in such and such a place in such and such a time, and
then he's gonna be about 25 years old, and I'm gonna cross his
path with the Gospel. And when I cross his path with
the gospel, he ain't gonna fight it. He ain't gonna be mad about
it. He ain't gonna say, I don't hardly think that's right. He's
gonna just bow down and get on the floor and say, Lord, thank
you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you that you crossed
my path one day with a man who preached the gospel to me. And
God, in your sovereign mercy, pierced my heart. Oh, I'm so
thankful. It's personal. God wrote every
one of you all here, and all the people that's gone on before
you, your names was put in the Book of Life before you ever
was born, before your mamas was born, before your daddies was
born, your grandmas and your grandpas. He put names in the
Book of Life, He didn't put numbers, and He told Jeremiah, Before
I formed you in your belly, he said, I knew you and ordained
you to be a prophet. And there he is, a chosen people,
a chosen people. And then look what else it says
about election. Here's the fourth thing about
election. He said, he has chosen you unto salvation, chosen you
to salvation. Well, Boy, that sounds pretty
good to me. Salvation. Salvation. Chosen you to salvation. Redemption. Now listen to me. Our belief
in election is not what saved us. Our belief in Christ dying
is really what not saved us. We were saved and chosen and
elect And that's why Christ came and redeemed us, and then election
set us apart. And I'll tell you what, there's
two... Our belief in election is not
what saved us. No, no. It's unto salvation. And our belief in REDEMPTION
didn't save us, we were SAVED and CALLED OF GOD unto SALVATION
because Christ died for us, and He was the Lamb slain from the
FOUNDATION of the world, and we were CHOSEN in Christ before
the FOUNDATION of the world, and then God come and then APPLIED
that SALVATION that was given to us before the world ever began.
Now let me give you two INFALLIBLE marks of election, two infallible
marks of election, they're right here in this verse. Look what
He says, He chose you to salvation, here's the first one, through
sanctification of the Spirit, sanctification of the Spirit.
Sanctification is, it just means to be set apart, that's all it
means, that's all it means to be set apart. Everybody in Israel
had bowls and spoons, but the ones in the tabernacle They were
sanctified. They were holy. They were set
apart. For what? God's use. And that's what we
are, we're set apart unto Christ, and we're set apart in election,
we're set apart in grace, we're set apart because God chose us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. And so you know
that God set you apart from the world. He set you apart from
false religion. He set you apart from all your
false hopes and religions and traditions. He set us apart from
them. He said, you're mine and I'm
gonna set you over here. And you belong to Me. And then
I tell you, that's sanctification of the Spirit. And what does
it mean, sanctification of the Spirit? It's the Spirit Himself
that sets us apart. We don't set ourselves apart.
We haven't had sense enough to set ourselves apart. But the
Spirit comes along and He puts SENT THE SPIRIT OF HIS SON INTO
OUR HEARTS WITH ADOPTION, AND WE CRY OUT, ABBA, FATHER. AND
THE SCRIPTURE SAYS THIS, THAT IF ANY MAN HAVE NOT THE SPIRIT
OF CHRIST, HE'S NONE OF HIS, NONE OF HIS. AND OVER IN GALATIANS
5 IT SAYS THIS, IT SAYS, AND THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT, NOT
FRUITS, THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT, THE FIRST FRUIT IS LOVE. SECOND ONE IS FAITH. THIRD ONE
IS MEAKNESS. that's the fruit of the Spirit.
And then look what else he says, through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth. Not only believe the truth, but
receive the love of the truth. It's one thing to believe it,
but to love it. I mean love it, love it with
all your being. And so he sets us apart, and
he sets us apart to where we believe the truth. We believe
the truth, and not only we believe it, but we love it. We would
not have it not any other way. And sin says this, I will, I
will, I will. Sanctification and belief of
the truth says, Lord, not my will, but thine be done. Not my will, but yours, yours. And then look what it says in
verse 14. So we, we have election chosen
you to salvation. And then look what he says in
verse 14. We're unto, he called you, he
called you. CHOSEN, SANCTIFIED, BELIEVE THE
TRUTH? WELL, HOW DO YOU KNOW THESE THINGS
HAPPENED? HE CALLED YOU! HE CALLED YOU! ELECTION IS NOT
SALVATION, CHRIST IS! THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS! AND
I TELL YOU SOMETHING, GOD HAS NEVER SAVED ANYBODY UNWILLING. SCOTT RICHARDSON USED TO SAY,
HE SAVED ME AGAINST MY WILL WITH MY FULL CONSENT. No one is saved unwillingly.
No one's forced into the kingdom of God. No, no. You know, I wished
I was a robot. I wished that God was in such
control of me and everything about me that my whole being
was controlled by Him. All my thoughts, all my feelings,
all my emotions, everything was so controlled by Him. And if
that was true, If that was true, He controlled me absolutely like
an automaton, like a robot. I'd love that, but that's not
the way it is. That's not the way it is. So
God comes. How in the world are we going
to be saved? In the day of His power, His
people, His people are made willing. You know, when God, you know,
when God was already in the ark, Christ was in the ark. And he
didn't stand outside and say, Noah, now go into the ark. No,
he was in there and he says, Noah, come thou into the ark. Why did he say, come into the
ark? If God's on the outside, He'll say, Go, but He's on the
inside. Come in here where I am. Come
in here where I've got the power. Come in here where I've appointed
salvation. Come in here where you're safe
from all the wrath of God. Come in here where you're safe
from the judgment of God. Come in here where you're safe
from that flood that's fixing to come. And He says, Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. CAUSES, CAUSES TO APPROACH UNTO
THEE. AND I TELL YOU, NOAH WENT INTO
THAT ARK. GOD DIDN'T HAVE TO TWIST HIS
ARM. THERE WASN'T NOBODY IN THERE PLAYING THE ORGAN SAYING, OH,
JUST COME ON, NOAH, ONE MORE VERSE AND COME ON IN HERE. NO,
NO, HE WENT INTO THAT ARK HAPPILY, THANKFULLY, AND JOYFULLY. AND
HE CALLED US, HE CALLS US TO HIMSELF. us to Himself. And that's what's so precious
about it. He calls us to Himself. Now our Lord, our Lord Jesus
has no unbelieving people. No, He doesn't. I used to support
a man, we did years ago, and he was preaching at another church
one time and he'd come up on election. And he says this while he was
preaching, we supported him. He says, you know, there's a
lot of people who are elect and don't know, that don't even believe
in election, but they're saved people. They don't even believe
it. And how in the world can somebody
who has been saved by the grace of God not believe in election? And when I called his attention
to that, he tried to make excuses for himself. But he says there's
a lot of people, because he is preaching in an Armenian church,
I guess it's about half Armenian, I don't know, you know, I don't
know how you'd be a half Armenian, but you know, it's like a fella,
a fella up in New Jersey, a big famous preacher up there said
one time, said them folks are 99% saved, 99% saved means you're
100% lost. But I tell you, our Lord has
no unbelieving people, uh-uh. You cannot be brought to God
and not know who God is. You cannot come to God and not
know who God is. You cannot come to Christ and
not know who Christ is. He said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how are they
going to call on Him whom they've never heard anything about? And how are they going to believe
on Him whom they've never heard? If you don't know anything about
Him. And there's lots of misinformation
about Christ. There's this misinformation,
well, oh listen, He loves everybody. He died for everybody. He loves
you more than I tell you what I can tell you, and all you've
got to do is you've got your power, you've got the will, you've
got the ability, come on to Him! Matthew Greenleaf was telling
us today, When he worked out at a restaurant out there, he
says, a bunch of religious people come in there, and they didn't
leave him no tip. But it looked like a $20 bill that they left
him. He opened it up, and it says, oh, listen. He said, now
here's salvation. It's up to your choice. He said,
this is the tip we leave you. It's a good tip we leave you.
You know, salvation is up to your choice. But now listen. If you, this is not being called
of God, this is not the truth. The truth about Christ is that
He's almighty. He's got all power in heaven
and earth. He chooses whom He will save and He chooses whom
He'll pass by. He's the one that's got every
soul in this universe in His hands to do with it as He'd fit. He can do with me whatever He
wants to do. If He wants to put me down and
make me a pauper, He can do that. I've got nothing I've got in
this world that Christ didn't give to me. I don't have a home
that He didn't give to me. I don't have a car He didn't
give to me. I don't have clothes that He didn't give to me. I
don't have any money that He didn't put in my pocket. I don't
have nothing that He didn't give to me. And how in the world I know that?
Because He called me to Himself, and He don't call you to somebody
that ain't got no power, that ain't got no ability, that don't
have the power to do what He wills to do with you. That'd
be pitiful to come to somebody and say, Oh my, I need you to
help me out in this situation. No, no, God has no unbelieving
people. And this is dangerous, this is
dangerous. I've seen people do it. They
have loved ones. They have people that they love.
And they come ready to die. And they say a few words to them,
whether they can hear them or understand them or not. And to
comfort somebody without them ever hearing the gospel and saying,
well, I believe they're elect and they'll be in heaven. You
can't comfort somebody. You can't give anybody any assurance
at all. And the gospel's the only one
that can give you any assurance. But don't never, ever comfort
a family member, a son, a daughter, a mother, a father. I'll tell you, a lot of folks,
back when I first started preaching the gospel, And people started
hearing it and started believing it and really started rejoicing
in it. First thing, lost so many people
said, well, what about my mother? What about my father? What about
my brother? What about my sister? And they
started worrying about them, you know, were you wrecking up?
And then they finally had to come to the conclusion that God's
done dealt with them the way he will. I've got to be concerned
about what God's saying to me right now. You can't undo what's
happened to your mother and your daddy or your grandma and your
grandpa. That ain't got nothing, they're done dead and gone. The
thing is the gospel comes to you. He calls you. And don't,
oh my, try to comfort somebody that God's never called by his
gospel? That's one of the most dangerous
things in this world. A dear preacher went to visit
a man in a hospital one time. His wife asked him, you know,
went to the church, and she was a believer, and her husband was
in the hospital dying. Would you go talk to him? Yeah,
I'd be glad to. He went in there and started
talking to him, and he started talking to him, you know, about
sin. Christ came to save sinners. Christ died for sinners. Christ
died for men with no abilities. He said, Are you a sinner? That
man said, No, I'm not. I am not a sinner. He just folded
his Bible up and walked out of there. He said, Where are you
going? I got no news. I got nothing
to say to you. If you're not a sinner, I ain't
got nothing to say to you. You say, That's awful hard. But
is it not the truth? I'll tell you something else
about sin. It gets worse the older you get. It don't get no
better. I talked to an old man, he was
97 or 98. I said, I bet you're over worrying
about sin. He said, oh no, I got so much
sin in me now, damn the world. And he died a little over 100
years old. But then he called you. And look
how he says here. He called you by our gospel,
by our gospel. Oh my, thank God for the gospel.
Look what he said over here in 1 Thessalonians 1, with me for
a moment. A man told me one time, he heard
me talk, he said, you're talking out of both sides of your mouth.
You're talking about grace and you're talking about what you
do. He said, you can't be that way.
It's either one or the other. never called anybody to misrepresent
Him. If you ever meet a man who is
misrepresenting God, God didn't call him. I don't care how gifted
he is. But look what it said here in
verse 4 talking about the Gospel, called you by our Gospel. Knowing
brethren, beloved, beloved. Oh, you're so beloved of God.
Beloved your election of God. NOW HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR ELECTION?
OUR GOSPEL CAME. IT COME. IT'S GOT TO COME WHERE
YOU ARE. IT'S GOT TO COME TO YOU PERSONALLY.
IT'S GOT TO COME TO YOUR EARS. IT'S GOT TO COME TO YOUR HEART.
AND IT DIDN'T COME IN WORD ONLY, BUT IT DID COME IN WORD. WE'RE
USING WORDS. WORDS IS WHAT WE USE TO COMMUNICATE
WITH. WORDS ARE VEHICLES OF THOUGHT.
WHATEVER'S IN YOUR MIND THAT'S WHAT'S COMING OUT OF YOUR MOUTH.
AND SO HE SAYS IT CAME NOT TO YOU WORD ONLY, BUT IT ALSO CAME
IN POWER. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It came also in power. And it
came in the Holy Ghost. It didn't just come through the
words, it come with the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost comes
and brings with it assurance. What kind of assurance? An assurance
that what you're hearing, that what you're believing and what
this man's telling you is true. It's true. And I tell you, God
sends the Word in power, and He sends it in the Holy Ghost. And if He don't send it in power,
if He don't make it effectual to a man's heart, it will not
do him any good at all, none whatsoever. And look what it
says now then in verse 16. Oh, He called you. For whom He
did foreknow them, He also called. You see, you're calling, brethren.
Calling, calling, calling, calling. That Jesus is calling, Jesus
is calling. Well, this is supper time. Look
what he said here in verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
our Lord Jesus Christ himself, If you ever went through the
New Testament and find out how many times Christ called Himself,
He gave Himself for us. Himself. His self is what He
gave. Now our Lord Jesus Christ and
God our Father, look what it says here now. Even our Father, our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, and God even our Father. Look
what it says, hath loved us. He loved us. Where did He love you? He said,
I love you with an everlasting love and with cords of loving
kindness as He called you. I was going in Kroger's one night
after church and I was walking in there and the woman just stopped
me. And she said, I know you're gonna think this is strange,
but she said, God just told me he loved you. God just told me he loved you.
I said, boy, I said, I appreciate that. I said, yeah, he's loved
me. I said, he's loved me for a long, long, long time. He loved
us with an everlasting love. And then, you know how we know
that he loved us? He drew us. with the cords of
a man, drew us with the cords of a man. Having loved us, He
loved us and then washed us in His own blood. And I tell you,
look in John 13, 1. Look here in John 13, 1. Look here what our Master said
here, our Lord Jesus said here. You know, our Lord, He said to
His Father, He said, Father, thou hast loved them as you have
loved me. Now, ever how God loved His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He said in John 17, 23, He said, you
love them just like you love me. And then look what it says here.
NOW BEFORE THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER, WHEN JESUS KNEW THAT HIS HOUR
WAS COME, THAT HE SHOULD DEPART OUT OF THIS WORLD UNTO THE FATHER,
LISTEN TO THIS, HAVING LOVED HIS OWN. WELL, WHAT ABOUT THEM OTHER FOLKS?
HAVING LOVED HIS OWN. HIS OWN BY ELECTION, HIS OWN
BY CALLING, HIS OWN BY LOVE. HAVING LOVED HIS OWN. WHICH WERE
IN THE WORLD, HE LOVED THEM UNTO THE END. And of course I know
you know Romans 9, that the children, not yet being
born, neither have done any good or evil that the purpose of God,
according to election, might stand. He said, Jacob, have a
loved. Jacob hath loved. But that fellow
Esau, I hate him. I hate him. You say, oh my. He said, I hate him. You know
how many times in the scripture it says God hates? He hates the
workers of iniquity. But he said, I hate him. You
say, boy, that's awful strong. That's what God said. And it's not, it's not, I don't find it hard for him
to hate Esau, but boy, for him to love Jacob. And Jacob, you
know, if Esau lived in this day, he'd be driving a big old truck
that had to have a ladder to get in it. Because he's a man's
man, you know. He'd be a redneck that you wouldn't
believe. He'd have a truck, you know, with tires on it so big,
he'd have to have a ladder to climb in it. And he'd have guns,
oh my goodness, he'd have so many guns you couldn't count
them. Fishing poles, oh my. He'd have rebel flags out of
the back of his trucks. And you know what Jake had been
doing? He'd have been sitting in his mama's house, sitting
in his mama's table, said, oh, mama, I love you so much. And
I don't want to go out, and I don't want to do this, and I don't
want to do that. He'd have just sat around the house all the
time. He'd have been a good worker,
no doubt about that. But you know, when you look between
the two of them, would you have chose Jacob or chose Esau? God said, I'm
going to choose Jacob. And you know why? Because I loved
him. He hadn't even been born yet.
And I chose him and his mother's womb. And Esau was a twin, born
in the same womb. And neither one of them done
anything right, good, bad, or nothing. But when they come out
of there, God said, that man right there, I hate him. I'm
not going to do a thing in the world for him. I'm going to do a thing in the
world for him. And what if, what if, you know, I don't want to
be mean. I really don't. But what if God,
what if God hates my children? What if he hates my son or my
daughter or hates my grandchildren? Would he be wrong to do that? I've prayed for them, called
their names out before the Lord. I remember one couple told us
that he said, we said, we prayed, Lord, don't give us a child unless
he's one of your elect. Please don't give us a child.
Don't let us have a baby unless they're gonna be one of yours.
I don't want a child unless it's yours. But what if he does that? What
if you're not a Jacob? What if my children or my grandchildren
or my great-grandchildren ain't a Jacob? What can I do about
it? What can Esau do about it? He
sought repentance bitterly with tears. But what I'm trying to
tell you is that God loves his people. And he's got the right,
since he's God, to love whom he wants to love. And how many
times have you said, God, how in the world could you possibly
have loved me? HOW COULD YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO
DO WITH ME? HOW COULD YOU LOOK ON ME? I'M
THE MISERABLEST HUMAN BEING THAT EVER DRAWED BREATH ON THE FACE
OF THIS EARTH. WE SUNG THAT SONG, MY HEART'S
COLD, MY LIFE IS DEAD, MY MIND IS COLD, AND IF THE HOLY SPIRIT
HEAVENLY DOVE DON'T COME DOWN AND RETENDLE THAT FIRE, I STAND AMAZED! NO WONDER WE'RE
SAYING AMAZING GRACE! IT'S AMAZING THAT GOD WOULD LOVE
ANY OF US! THAT GOD WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR
ANY OF US! AND OF COURSE WHEN HE DID THAT,
HE DID THAT BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, SO WE HADN'T DONE
ANY GOOD OR EVIL EITHER! AND WE'VE DONE JUST AS MUCH EVIL
AND SIN AS MUCH AFTER WE'VE BEEN CONVERTED If we, you know, one
fellow was talking about sin and I said, he said, what do
you got to do to stop sin? And I said, listen, it ain't
going to happen. You're going to have to leave
this world. Stop that. But I do know this. I do know this, that
if Christ, if salvation ain't by Christ and Christ alone, if
Christ didn't love me, there's nothing I can do to make him
love me. If Christ didn't choose me, there's nothing I could do
to make him choose me. If Christ don't call me, there's
nothing I can do to make him call me. And I like it like that. I do. So even God himself and our Lord
Jesus Christ has loved us. I hope he loves my children.
I hope he loves my grandchildren. I hope he loves my great-grandchildren.
I've known a LOT of people that they didn't become believers
until after a husband died, or a wife died, or a child died,
or a mother died. Ed Elmore died and his son James.
came to the services and God saved him by his grace. And he
said, you know, why I came and wanted to believe this gospel
is because the way my daddy died. He died looking to Christ and
rejoiced in it, rejoiced in the fact that I'm leaving this world
and I'm ready to go and Christ is coming to get me. He said,
it can't be soon enough. And he said, I watched my father
die and I said, I want to have the God and believed the God
that let my father die, looking death square in the face and
said, the Lord Jesus is coming to get me. He said, that's what
I want. And he come and sat right where
his daddy did. And he'd been there 20 something
years, fills my water glass up. And I loved to preach to him.
He'd just laugh when I'm preaching. my. Well, I've got to be, I've
got to move on. Let me give you another one here
in verse 16. Go down to the next thing here.
Here's the fourth thing. Four great themes, Election, Calling, Lovingness, and then
He says, He hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through
grace. have given us everlasting consolation
and good hope through grace. You know, consolation means to
comfort, it means to console, it means to give comfort. Well,
he says you have an everlasting consolation. So we have everlasting
comfort, everlasting consolation in Christ. And what would comfort
you and what consoles you and consoles me? Well, it really comforts me,
consoles me that God would love me in Christ and choose me in
Christ. Election comforts me, consoles
me. How about sins being forgiven,
washed away? That's a great consolation, ain't
it? That's a great comfort. Don't that comfort you and console
you to know that your sins are gone? Did you hear what Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away. Our sins
are gone. They're never to be brought up
against us again. Oh, that's a consolation. And
then we're justified. What's justification mean? That
means that God looks at us and finds nothing wrong with us in
any way, shape, form, or fashion. Huh? He looks at us and says,
well, he doesn't. Justified. Justified. Justified. Justified. And I'll tell you,
that's a, what a comfort. What a consolation. to face God
with no condemnation, Christ being our justification, sitting
there at God's right hand. And then, oh, my, that we're
accepted, that God accepts us, that hears us, receives us, hears
what we got to say, is interested in us. He's so interested in
us, He counts the hairs on our head. Oh, my. Accepted. There's not a time
when we can't come and not be accepted. Oh, here's a great
comfort, great consolation. Righteousness, to have the righteousness
of God, the very righteousness of Christ. That's a great comfort. That's
a great consolation. And I know Todd's told you this,
this time and time again, that I'll be no more righteous when
I stand in the presence of God than I am right here right now.
When I leave this world, I'll be no more righteous than I am
right now. Be no more justified than I am right now. Be no more
accepted than I am right now. Be no more sinless than I am
right now. Huh? Oh. Oh, that's a great comfort. What
a consolation. What a consolation. I'll tell
you another one. He says, you're complete in Him.
And that word complete means perfect. To be perfect in Christ,
to be complete in Christ. And then look how long this consolation
lasts and how good this consolation is. It's everlasting. Why is
it everlasting? because God is everlasting. You
know, if He's an eternal God, then everything He does is based
on eternity. Our justification is eternal.
Everything about us has to be based on eternity because God's
eternal God. And it has to last as long as
God Himself does. So, everlasting means He never
changes. My position in the sight of God
and yours in the sight of God will never change. Now, my My
standing changes, my emotions and things goes up and down.
But my consolation is everlasting, everlasting. And it's in Christ. Look what he says here now also,
and I'll wind this thing up. Look what he says there. And
hath given us everlasting consolation. And look here, a good hope, a
good hope. And how in the world would this
good hope come from? Through grace. Grace, grace, grace, and more
grace. Everything spiritual that we
have, every spiritual thing we know, taught it to us, grace
brought it to us, SAVED BY GRACE. I BROUGHT A MESSAGE HERE A FEW
WEEKS AGO ON GRACE, GRACE, AND MORE GRACE. WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID
MUCH MORE ABOUT. AND I TELL YOU WHAT, YOU KNOW,
YOU FIND OUT THE FOUNDATION. WHAT'S THE FOUNDATION OF THIS
HOPE? GRACE. WHAT'S THE TOPSTONE OF THIS GRACE?
Zechariah said, Grace, grace, and all this good hope, this
blessed hope, good hope, a good hope, God gives it to us through
grace, through the grace of his bestest son. And our hope is
good because it comes from our Lord Jesus Christ himself and
God even our Father. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I'm
seeing. T'was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. T'was grace that brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me on. And when we've been there
10,000 years, we've only just begun to sing God's grace. Just start, just start. Ain't you thankful that salvation
is outside yourself, that somebody else did it all? I certainly
am. There'd be no hope for me. Dear, dear sister told us Wednesday
night, she said, if Christ, salvation ain't all of Christ, then there's
no way in the world I'd ever be saved. Four great things, election,
calling, love, and consolation, everlasting consolation. Our
Father, our blessed, blessed Father in heaven, We're thankful,
so thankful that we were allowed to meet here tonight. Thankful
for these children of God, these precious children of God that's
gathered out here tonight to listen, to worship. And I pray,
Lord, that in spite of my feeble efforts, my stumbling around,
God bless it. Lord, it can never be blessed
unless you bless it. Never be an encouragement unless
you cause it to be an encouragement. So Lord, the gospel's in your
hands, and I'm thankful it is. Bless it to the hearts, to the
understanding. And our Father, bless their dear
pastor, this congregation, cause those that have not come back,
cause them to come, hear the gospel, move upon their hearts
to come, and keep Brother Todd and lend so they can come home
safe again. Bless him in every service. We love him, cherish
him, and we love this congregation and cherish it. We're so thankful
for him, thankful for what they've been taught, thankful for their
love of Christ and the love of the gospel. God bless them. We ask in Christ's name, amen.