Let's go to the Lord in prayer
before I start. Our wise and our gracious Heavenly
Father, Lord, we bow before you. Thank you, Lord, for this day,
thanking you for this dear people that's gathered together to hear
your word. Lord, we bless you for this day,
the first day of the week. What a blessing it is to come
together and fellowship around Christ our Savior. Oh, Lord,
may we see Him in everything that's said and done here today.
And, Lord, may all that's done and said in this place, may it
be for Your glory. Be with our pastor as he's away.
Keep him safe, give him traveling mercies, and, oh, Lord, enable
him to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to lost sinners. Oh, Lord,
and would You give grace that men might come and bow down before
you. Be with all those that are sick
and afflicted. Brother Donnie and Mary, would you be with them?
And John. Oh Lord, help the needy. In Christ's
name, Amen. Alright. It's good to be with
you all today. If you would, turn to Acts. Acts
chapter 1. The stage couldn't be better
set Wayne preached there out of Romans one. Telling us about the gospel,
the good news of the gospel. And I come with the same message.
I just come here to tell you the gospel today. And I want
you to open your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter one. We'll read
a couple of verses here. The former treaties have I made
O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until
the day in which he was taken up after that he through the
Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had
chosen. I come here today. I'm thankful,
as it's already been said, I'm so glad that we have the truth
that we come here. We have a pastor that preaches
to us the gospel every every week faithfully. And I heard
Donnie in a message this week talking about truth. We come
here and we are so blessed with the truth. The truth of the gospel. You can't get any truer than
that. You can't find truth anywhere else, but you can find truth
here. Truth has to have a foundation, and this is a perfect foundation.
God's laid this perfect, holy foundation. And it amazes me,
you know, men and women, we all desire truth. Every one of us
do, whether we're lost or saved. We want truth. I want my wife to be faithful
and true to me. I want her not to lie to me.
And she wants the same for me. Wives want their husbands to
be faithful and true. Parents, you want your kids to
be honest with you. You don't want them to lie to
you. And if they lie to you, you're going to get on them.
You're going to get on them. You're going to correct them.
We don't like to be lied to. In business, You know, if you
go to the bank and you get a loan, you want to know what the loan's
going to cost you. You don't want some shyster,
you don't want a loan shark, to loan you money. You want to
know the cost. You want people to be honest
with you. Lenders want honest borrowers. They want someone
that's going to pay them back. You know employers, they want
honest workers. And workers want an honest employer
that's going to pay them what they tell them they're going
to pay them. Everybody wants truth. In everything in life,
except for this area where we're at this morning, when it comes
to the gospel, it amazes me that men do not want to be told the
truth. They don't want to be told the natural mind, the natural
man, the natural heart is in such bad shape. It's at such
odds against God, it's so totally ruined that it does not want
to hear the truth. Matter of fact, most men will
not hear the truth. OK, and I'll say no man will
actually hear the truth in his heart, apart from God giving
grace. And with that being said. I want to start here in the book
of Acts one. OK, and it says the former treaties
have I made Otheopolis of all that Jesus began both to do and
teach, and I've got a simple message this morning. I've got
a simple message here. And it's this, what did Jesus
teach? What did Jesus teach? And when
I say that, I want to say this, first of all, in our day, we
hear so much, so many names given to God and we see here Jesus.
We ought to be so careful when we address the Lord Jesus Christ. You hear a lot of men saying
Jesus this and Jesus that. Pay particular attention in the
Scriptures when these men spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
don't call him Jesus like men call him today. Notice here,
our text says. Of all that Jesus began both
to do and teach, he's speaking of Jesus Christ in the flesh,
Jesus as a man. But we don't speak of Jesus like
that. When we say the name of Jesus, we ought to ascribe unto
Him all the majesty that our lips can utter. We ought to say
things like the Lord Jesus Christ or Jesus Christ. We should be
very careful as to how we address our Master, because He is the
Lord. He is the Omnipotent One, as
Larry told us. None can stay as Him. He's not
a man anymore. He is a man, but He is God. He
is God, OK, so we must be very careful how we address him. But
here the text says of all that Jesus began to both to do and
to teach, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was here on this earth
as a man. He preached the gospel, he was the prince of preachers.
And he preached the gospel and he taught some things that we
must know if we're going to be saved, we have to know. It's
imperative that we know these things. And that's what I want
to talk to you about this morning. OK, let's look at these things
that the Lord taught and I'll try to be brief. One, turn over
to turn over to John chapter six. Very familiar passages today. I hope we all know these by heart,
if you don't know these by heart, I would encourage you to go home
and read these things and see if what I'm not saying is true. OK. Go home and read these things,
study them. These words that the Lord spoke,
they are words of life. They are words of life. And if we believe it, if we believe
that, we're going to seek those words out. We're going to seek
them out. The first thing that Christ taught
was that man is totally and utterly ruined by sin. Totally. He's not. He's not wounded, as
some would have us to believe. Some some preachers are standing
today in pulpits and they're saying that God's given you a
choice. You take the first step and God
will take the next. That's not the tone of scripture. That's not what God tells us.
That's what man wants to hear. And that's why I opened up with
saying man wants a lie told to him. The natural heart wants
to be lied to when it comes to this gospel. They don't like
the truth. It cuts. He doesn't like it. It offends. The gospel
is offensive. We see that all through the scriptures.
But Christ taught us that we were totally and utterly ruined.
And it's so plain here in John, chapter six. Our Lord here had
been preaching to these folks. And listen to what he says. John,
chapter six, go down to verse 44. Go ahead and go up to 43 there.
Jesus, therefore, answered and said unto them, murmur not among
yourselves. They had been murmuring. They
didn't like this truth. They like to feel good about
what they did. They wanted to be told that you've got something
good in you. There's some light in you. There's some good in
you. Just, you know, you just help God along. That's not what
the Lord had been teaching, though. And look at this verse 44. He
said, No man can come unto me. Can come to me except the father
which has sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last
day. The Armenian says the freewheeler
says. Men may be saved if they will. And I totally agree with that,
if you want to be saved. If you if you get to Christ,
you will be saved. He said, everyone that comes
to me, I'll receive it. Christ will not turn one center
away. But here's where the problem is. The problem is with the will. You find a person that's willing
to come to Christ, that wants to come to Christ, not out of
merit, but because that's the only place they can be saved. That's the problem. It's with
man's will. It's with man's will. Christ declares, you will not
come unto me that you might have life. He said that in the same
chapter. And as long as that you will not come. Stands in
Holy Scripture, that's what he tells every man and woman, you
will not come to me. Now he's speaking in and of yourself. It's just like what Larry read
to us. They're in Romans 3. That's a declaration of guilt.
Romans 3. Romans 1, Paul declared all the
Jews were understand. Romans 2, he declared all the
Gentiles. And then he came there to verse
3 and he said, everybody, everybody without exception is a sinner.
Everybody's feet are swift to shed blood. Just go down that
list. It's awful. And you take that
to the average religious person today and they say, that's not
me. That's not me. I'm I'm bad, but I'm not that
bad. No, I'm telling you, this is
truth. You want to hear truth. You want
truth. You want to know the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ and his
word. He has given us the truth. And
we'll be without excuse. We will be without excuse if
we don't come to the knowledge of the truth he's given it. It's
as plain as this word is. It's right here. No man. Can come to me. What are you
going to do about that? That's that's what God tells
us about ourselves. And not only can he not come,
go back to Chapter 5 there. Not only can he not come. But
what what if you could come? If you don't like God saying
you don't have the ability, what if you could come with the Scriptures?
He gives the answer to that. Look at verse 40. Go back to
chapter 5 of John. Look down in verse 40. Verse
39. Search the Scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. And ye will not come to me that
ye might have life. What an awful, what an awful
place that man finds himself in. Not only can he not come, but
he won't come. If he could come, he wouldn't
come. It's not in man to come to God. God is holy. The Scripture
declares there in that favorite verse of the Arminian, in John
chapter 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son. You go on down there, though, just a couple
of verses down. Why don't men come to Christ? Because they
love life coming into the world. The scripture declares. Let's
go over and read that. I don't want to just say it.
I want you to see it. John 3. Turn over here to John 3, 16. This is one of the most quoted
scriptures that I've ever heard. I don't know about you guys,
but for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Praise God for that verse. Whosoever believeth in him. But
the thing is, is who's going to believe? Who's going to believe? Who's going to believe? Well,
If men are left to themselves, here's who will. Look at this.
Go down to verse 19 of that same chapter. And this is the condemnation.
Here's man's condemnation. Light is coming to the world.
And what? Men want to be righteous? Men want to try to come to God?
Men love God, but they just have a hard time leaving it? No. Men
love darkness. rather than light. Now, that's
talking that's not talking about just the guy, the drunk, your
neighbor, that's a scoundrel that's left his wife. That's
talking about us right here. Men love darkness rather than
light. The new birth is not. Something
that needs to happen, it's something that is a necessity to happen,
we must be born again from above, because naturally every one of
us come into this world loving darkness rather than light. OK,
and when you hear men talk about how they've known Jesus all their
life and how they serve the Lord all their life and they've never
been a sinner, they've got a big problem because that's not how
that's that's not truth. We're here today to find truth
and we find it in the Scriptures and the truth declares that men
love darkness rather than light. It's so plain. It's all through
the Scriptures. I know for certain That a man
with any ability at all could stand up here Sunday after Sunday
and preach the same message and never preach the same scriptures.
He would never grow weary and grow short of material in the
Bible to prove these doctrines. OK, I'm going to give you a few
of them. We won't turn to all of them
for the sake of time. Listen to these, though. You'll remember
them. Man is ruined. Remember what Isaiah, everyone
knows, has heard of Isaiah the prophet. Here's what he said.
He said the whole head is sick. The whole heart faints from the
sole of the foot, from the sole of the foot of a man. All the
way to the top of his head, all the way up to the top of his
head. There is no soundness in it.
But it's full of wounds. and bruises and putrefying sores. That's what God sees when he
looks upon us in and of ourselves, in and of our own righteousness,
in and of our own works. Jeremiah said this. Listen to
this. This is this is so this is just it describes what I'm
saying to you to listen to what this is word for word. I'm not
I'm not changing this at all. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 1323,
can the Ethiopian change his skin? Or can the leopard change his
spots? That's simple. Remy, you can
understand that, can't you? You guys know what an Ethiopian
is. That's a black man. You know what a leopard is. You
see them on the Discovery Channel. They've got spots on them. Now,
how do you reckon that that leopard is going to change those spots
and get a slick coat like a panther? That's not going to happen. And
can the Ethiopian, can the black man change his skin? Can he go
from white skin to black skin? OK, now we know that we understand
that. OK, but the Prophet Jeremiah
knew this. He knew that man has so deceived
himself, he's so ruined by sin. That something that's that simple
as a leopard or an Ethiopian man has no concept of how evil
his heart really is. And listen to how he says this. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard his spots? Then may also you do good that
are accustomed to doing evil. OK. The question isn't, do you do
good some of the time? The Bible declares that man does
evil continually. That's what Noah said before
the flood. God looked down from heaven and
he said every thought, every imagination of man's heart was
only evil continually. How much worse can you get than
that? And you know who was involved in that? You know who the scripture
was talking about when that was proclaimed? Noah was right there
in that bunch. Every thought Everything in their
heart was only evil. Continue. But what made Noah
different than everyone else? It goes right just a few verses
after that. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's
truth. That's truth. You want to be
saved. Quit trying to save yourself and come to Christ. Come to this
fountain of life because sin has ruined you. And you cannot
merit heaven. You can't merit salvation. It's
all of grace. And the Lord, He teaches this
all through the Scriptures. David said this, man at his best
state. Man at his, you think of the
best man that you can think of. There's everyone, you have someone
in your lives. When you think of them, it might
be your grandpa, you know. That everyone has someone in
their lives that they think of and they think that is the best
man that I know. But you know what David declares?
He says man at his best state. The very best man you can think
of is altogether vanity. He's nothing. He is nothing. He's like a he's just a pile
of sand. That's all he is. He can pretty
himself up. He can talk good. He can talk
religious. He can talk whatever you want
to talk about, whatever you imagine good to be. He's vanity. The truth declares this. Ezekiel
preached this. Or excuse me, Solomon. Solomon
said that which is crooked cannot be made straight. That which
is crooked cannot be made straight. Ezekiel, he went out one day. You know what the Lord told him
to do? He preached to this whole valley full of dead, dried-up
bones. And you know what that's a picture
of? That's a picture of us. A bunch of dried-up bones. And
he said, Ezekiel, can these bones live? Ezekiel said, Lord, only
you can know. And as I look out on you this
morning, and as other preachers stand that know the Gospel and
they look out, only the Lord knows who's His and who's not. But I'll tell you what, you better
hear this Gospel. Because when this Gospel goes
out, if you're hearing it, you're just like that valley of dry
bones and your only hope is the Lord. That's your only hope. Obadiah said, the pride of thine
heart hath deceived thee. This heart, I'm telling you,
everyone that can hear my voice, you kids, listen to me, this
heart that you've got, The world tells you to follow your heart,
and I tell the kids this in Sunday school all the time. The world
tells you to follow your heart. I'm telling you, you better steer
clear of your heart. Your heart is deceitful above
all things who can know it. That's what the Bible says. This
heart will deceive you and this heart will wind you up in hell.
If this heart has its way, you will bust hell wide open. You
will. I don't want I don't want my
heart to lead me. I want God to lead me and I want
God to lead every one of you. I want God to save you. I want
him to take out that part of stone that's in you and give
you a heart of flesh, a heart that can love God, a heart that
can know God, a heart that can have fellowship with him again
like Adam did in the garden. Jonah. Here's another one. Jonah
fled from the presence of the Lord. Remember that? He fled
from the presence of the Lord. A preacher. He fled. He ran from God. And you know
what his proclamation was when everything was said and done?
Salvation is of the Lord. And you know why he said that? Because he knew that he was totally
ruined by sin. He ran from God. He fled from
God. He didn't want to preach to who
God told him to preach to. And you know what God did? He
buried him in the ocean. for three days in the belly of
a well and made him come back up and preach to who he spoke
to. And Jonas said, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. If I'd have had my way. I'd have been I'd have been laying
dead at the bottom of the ocean or I'd have been down and where
was he going? Tarshish. I'd have been down
there. Shut up in darkness. But God
didn't leave him alone. Praise God, he did not leave
him alone. OK, I got to move on. So the Lord taught. The depravity
of the heart, secondly, our Lord taught that we must be chosen
of God. Our Lord taught election, he
taught this so plainly all through the scriptures, and this is another
great doctrine. It's a great doctrine that the
world hates, the world doesn't want anything to do with it.
But it's another truth. It's a truth that is playing
from Genesis to Revelations, and it goes right along with
being ruined. If you are totally ruined by
sin, then how are you going to be saved apart from God drawing
you and choosing you and working in you? It's a must because if
we're so ruined by sin, someone's got something with outside of
us has got to come in and work in us or we're hopeless. We're without hope unless somebody
does something for us. That's what the gospel is, Wayne.
It's good news. It's just like you said it this
morning there in Romans. The gospel is good news. It's a declaration of good news
because it gives man hope. Without the gospel, we're without
hope. But our Lord taught that we must be chosen of God. And one way that he did this,
turn to John 10 as I'm talking here, just over to your right.
I'll try to stay in the same book, but turn over to John 10. This is the clearest. Place for
me when I read the scriptures and I and I see God. God teach
in this doctrine of election, this, this, this, this. He uses
earthly things to teach us. OK, God is so high, so far above
us. He comes down to our level and
he teaches us. And I'll tell you how he teaches
us. It's so simple a child can understand it. The way he teaches
us here in John chapter 10. Is he uses sheep to teach us? We all have seen sheep. OK. But I wonder I want to read this
some of this chapter. Let's read a few of these verses.
John 10 verse one. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. We're seeing
here that there's only one way to God, OK? That's what he's
teaching. And if you try to get to God any other way than the
way that he is ordained and you are a thief and you are a robber,
you're a thief of his glory and you're a robber of his goodness.
Verse 2, But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd
of the sheep. To him the porter is open, and
the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and he leads them out. He calls them by name. He knows
every one of them. And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for
they know his voice. And a stranger will they not
follow, but they will flee from him, for they know not the voice
of strangers. Oh, can you see that? Can you
see the Lord reaching down and He's leading His sheep? And they
won't hear a stranger? When some false professor gets
up and starts telling them, hey, you can work your way to heaven.
Oh, they won't hear that. They're like, no, that's not
what the truth of the Bible tells me. Verse 6, This parable spake
Jesus unto them, but they understood not what things they were which
He spake unto them. Then Jesus said unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the
sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill
and destroy. I come that they might have life and that they
might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. That he that is an
hireling and not the shepherd who's owned the sheep or not,
seeth a wolf coming and he leaves the sheep and he flees and the
wolf catches and scatters the sheep. The hiring fleeth because
he's a hireling and he cares not for the sheep. But our Lord
says, he says, I'm the good shepherd and I know my sheep. I know every
last one of them. You see what he's teaching? He's
teaching that he's got a people. OK, he's teaching election. Verse 15, as the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them
also I must bring. And they shall hear my voice,
and theirs shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doeth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take
it again. No man take it from me, but I
lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down and
I have power to take it again. This commandment received by
my father. And then there was this division,
therefore, again, among the Jews for these things, and many of
them said he has the devil and is mad. Why? Why are you hearing
him? Others said these are not the words of him that have the
devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? And it was at Jerusalem,
the Feast of Dedication, and it was winter. And listen to
this. And the same crowd still following.
And Jesus walked into the temple on Solomon's porch. Then came
the Jews round about him. They were just constantly bombarding
this man. They bugged the snot out of him.
And he just kept telling them the same thing over and over.
Listen to this. But he gets plainer and plainer
every time. Then came the Jews round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. He had already told them plainly. Jesus answered, verse 25, Jesus
answered them, He said, I told you, and you believed not. I told you, and you believed
not. The works that I do in My Father's
name, they bear witness of Me. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of My sheep. As I said before to you, My sheep
do what? What do God's sheep do? What
do they do, Remy? They listen to God, don't they?
They hear His voice. They hear God. They hear these
words of life. And their heart doesn't deceive
them. You know why their heart doesn't deceive them? Because
God's given them a new heart. He's taught them. They've been
taught of God. We must be taught of God. My
sheep hear my voice and I know them. And what do they do? They
follow me. They follow me. And look at that.
And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. These doctrines,
they all tie in together. If one falls, they all fall. He says he's got sheep. They're
elect sheep. OK, they're his. He bought them.
He purchased them. He purchased them with his own
blood. And there in verse 28, I read, he said, I give unto
them eternal life. One of my points is going to
be the perseverance of the saints, God keeping his sheep. And he
says it right here perfectly. How much clearer do we have to
be? If God saves you, can you fall away? According to this
right here, what he's telling these people, he just told them,
my sheep, hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
I give unto them eternal life. What is eternal life? Eternal
life is eternal life. If you've got eternal life three
years down the road, if you lose it, it's not eternal life. OK,
and this is the master. He says, I give unto them. He's
the one that gives the life. And this is what's so glorious
about the gospel. You know, if the gospel were
my works, if we were saved by works at any time, we could fall. But you know what's so beautiful
about this glorious gospel? If God saves you, you will never
fall. Because you're not established,
you're not built upon yourself, you're built upon his righteousness,
that's the that's it's so beautiful if you can get a hold of that.
What a marvelous, what a marvelous thing the Lord's done. What a
way of salvation. I give unto them eternal life.
And look, and they shall never perish. If you can't understand
what eternal life is, surely you can understand what they
shall never perish means. I mean, can we understand that?
They shall never perish. They're never going to perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Why? They won't
hear a stranger. They won't. When God teaches
you this gospel, you will not hear a stranger. OK. And one more thing. I'm going
to run out of time if I'm not careful. Turn over to Luke 4.
You've got to see this. Bruce taught this at the nursing
home one night. I had never seen this before. Luke 4. Our Lord. The message today is
what the Lord did and taught there in Acts. We've been going
through Acts in Sunday school. And that's what I wanted to go
back. Luke, when he started writing the book of Acts, he goes back
in remembrance to his book of Luke. And he says, the former
treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both
to do and teach. He wrote this big, long book.
And every bit of it was about what Jesus did and taught. And our Lord taught election
so plainly. Right here in Luke 4. Look down at verse 24. Verse
24. I had never seen this. And we were at the nursing home
one night and Bruce preached this for those folks there. And
what a blessing it was. Let me read these just a couple
of verses here. Verse 24, and he said, Verily I say unto you,
no prophet is accepted in his own country, but I tell you the
truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months. When great famine
was throughout all the land, but unto none of them was Elias
sent, save unto Seraphata, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elias the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
save in Naaman the Syrian." Now, you'll have to go home and read
this because I don't have time to go through all this, but I
want to just tell you in my words what that says. And you can go
home and see if it says or not. You can find these two accounts.
And the first account here of the widow is in first Kings 17. And I went back and looked at
this and I want to paraphrase, but here's what the Lord the
Lord is teaching election right here. And it is just as plain
as a nose on your face. He says, but I tell you the truth,
many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine
was throughout all the land. But none of them was alive since,
save in the city of Sidon until a woman that was a widow. All
right. Like I said, this accounts in
first Kings 17. I know I read that twice, but.
In short, Elijah told Ahab that there would be no dew or rain.
for these years. Now I would encourage you to
go home and read this because it's only a chapter. It's real
easy to read. But this prophet told this king
that there would be no dew or rain for three years. Three years
and six months. And the word of the Lord came
unto him and he hid him out in the wilderness. He sent this
prophet out in the wilderness and he put him by this brook
where he could drink water. This famine was coming on the
land. And God sends His prophet out. He puts him by this brook
and the Lord commands the ravens and it brings him bread and fish
every morning and every evening. This property's got it made.
The world's going to pieces and God's taken him out and plucked
him there by the river in the wilderness. He's got this beautiful
creek flowing down through there and here comes these ravens.
Every morning, every evening, he's fed. OK, well, the brook dries
up. OK, it dries up. So what's he
going to do? After a while, the group dries
up and the word of the Lord came again unto him. Well, God's going
to tell him what to do because it's his prophet. And he says,
you go to Serapista and there's a woman there and he went and
there's this woman there and she's out in the street. As soon
as he walks into town, he sees her. She's picking up sticks.
OK, and this woman was so cast down, she's ready to die. I mean,
she tells him he asked for something and she's like, well, I will.
But it's our last meal. We're doomed. We're not going
to make it. We're out of food, we're out
of water. But Elijah comes there and he tells this woman, he looks
at her, she's picking up these sticks, and he said, you make
me something to eat out of the last thing you got in your cabinets.
They had this, as scripture said, they had a handful of meal and
they had a little oil in this cruise. And he sees that woman
and says, you go make me something to eat. OK, I've been out here
in the desert and the Lord told me to come here and here you
are. You're the widow. A certain widow, too. A certain widow. And before she was to die, she
did as the prophet said. She listened to him, nevertheless.
She didn't have hardly anything to give, but what she had, she
got it. And that same amount of food, it never failed her
and her son. In other words, there was a ton
of widows in that town, okay? She wasn't the only widow. But
you know what? The Lord only sent his prophet
to one widow out of that whole town. You see election there.
He didn't send it to anyone else. And the gospel, you are sitting
here this morning, you're hearing the gospel as weak as it might
be. But I'm telling you the truth. And the man that stands in this
pulpit tells you the truth every Sunday. And the rest of this
town doesn't have it. OK, I don't know how to get it
to them. I can run out here on the street corner and make a
fool of myself and I wouldn't get anywhere. God's got to bring
them. OK, God's got to bring the gospel to us. God brought
that prophet, his prophet, and set him down right here in this
widow's house. And the Lord uses that, clear thousands of years
later, and he preaches election. And then he uses another instance,
a Naaman. This is a very good story. He
uses Naaman the leper, I read that. He said, and many lepers
were in Israel in the time of Elisha, the prophet, and none
of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. So he says
the same thing here. He says, look, people. There was a ton of lepers. There
was lepers everywhere. Leprosy was terrible back in
these days. OK, there was lepers everywhere.
And you can find this account in Second Kings, Chapter five,
if you want to read. But remember, Naaman, He was
this great captain in Syria. It's got a bunch of titles for
him. You know, someone made mention of titles this morning. You did,
Wayne. Paul didn't give himself great
titles, but this leper did. He had a bunch of titles. He
was this great captain and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you
know what? This man had a huge problem. He was a leper. Why
would he care what rank he is if he's going to die? He's a
leper. And here he's still talking about how he's this great captain
of Syria because he's done all these great things. And the Scripture
says so plainly, but Naaman was a leper. Boy, you talk about
a Gospel message there. We could just sit here all day
on that. But Naaman was a leper. And just like all of us, and
it just so happened, It just so happened that the Syrians,
when they went in, Naaman was proud because he was part of
the people that went down into Israel and took captive all these
people. Well, it just so happened that this leper, OK, some of
the folks that they brought back from Israel, one of them just
so happened to bring back this little maid. OK, listen, you
talk about God, providence of God now. It takes the providence
of God to save the sinner. They bring this out of their
own sinful lust and desires. They steal this little maid.
They bring her back and they put her in this house and she's
Naaman's wife's servant. So here this great king is that
has leprosy. And they bring this little maid
captive back to serve the Assyrians. And this little maid just so
happened to serve Naaman's wife. And it just so happened that
this maid knew the prophet that was back in Israel, and it just
so happened that that prophet knew the gospel. He knew the
only way of salvation. He was the only hope of this
leper. And he was the only one that knew
the gospel, and it was this leper's only hope. You see what I'm trying
to say here? What a glorious gospel we have.
What a glorious... It's amazing. There are sinners
in the world that our Lord only came to save that which is lost. Everybody's a sinner. Larry read
it to us this morning. Every one of us are sinners.
But you know what? There's a lot of people that don't really believe
that. You won't find a lost sinner. You'll find some that are pretty
bad or not so bad. But you won't find any that have
no hope in and of themselves. All right, I've got to move on.
Thirdly, our Lord taught that he did not come to save all men
without exception. You see how these tie in together.
Our Lord taught this back to John 10. I read it in John 10. And, you know, these things,
they cut the flesh, they do. When I say these things, I feel
questions rising up, you know. Our Lord did not come to save
all men without exception. I can feel the flesh, I can feel
how that goes against the grain of the flesh, but it's truth.
It's taught throughout this book from Genesis to Revelations.
It's truth and it's our only hope. So we need to get over
what we think and what our opinions are, and we need to grab ahold
of this truth. The Lord said, you shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free. And I'll tell
you what, the truth's the only thing that's going to make you
free. If you trust in the flesh, you're going to be confounded,
you're going to be confused, and you're going to be lost in
the end. You're going to be lost. You're going to be without hope
and without God in this world if you don't latch onto this
truth and just grab ahold of it like Jacob did and just wrestle
with the Lord all night and say, I'm not going to let you go until
you bless me. I don't know if I'm chosen or not, but I'm not
going to let you go, Lord, until you bless me. That's the attitude
we have to go into this with. But our Lord definitely taught
that he did not come to save all men. You know, Pete, that
John 3, 16, I read, everybody and their brother runs to that
and says, see here, God died for the whole world. Well, what about
all those that love darkness rather than light? What do you
do with them? What about the men that cannot come? What about
Esau? What about all this? Well, they don't want to hear
that because they love darkness. They love their religion that
they've made up, that they conjured up in their mind and they've
got a few people to follow them by. They love that. It glorifies
this flesh and the flesh profits nothing. It doesn't profit anything. John 10, look down at verse 26.
I've already read this, but I'm going to read it again. You believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said, my sheep hear my voice.
I know them and they follow me. And from the time that we first
hear of the Lord Jesus Christ, somebody read it this morning.
I'm telling you, nothing could have been done any better this
morning. I appreciate you guys that read and Wayne, your message.
Matthew 121, someone already read it this morning. Wayne read
it this morning. From the very first time we hear the name of
Jesus Christ, it's telling us that He came for a particular
people. You shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He shall. Can
you hear that? It's not a possibility. It's
not maybe. It's not if they'll do this or
if they'll come. No, He's going to do it. He is
the Lord. Jesus Christ, he's not this little
puny God that you spoke of. I don't even know what word you
used to describe him, but I liked it. He's not this little puny
wannabe that the world has. Jesus Christ, he is almighty. We're every one of us sitting
here today. We are every one of us. You know what scripture
says? Every one of us is going to bow down before him. And we're going to confess that
he is capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. He's not little
J, little E, little S, little U, little S. He's not this little
Jesus that you're hearing of today. He is the Lord of glory
and he's going to come. There's going to be a trumpet
sound someday and this world's going to be shaken and he's going
to come down with his holy angels. And he's going to say to those
on his right hand, the sheep come and inherit the kingdom
prepared for you. But you know what? That's not
the end of that. He's got some over here on his left that are
called goats. And we read about them all through the scriptures.
And a goat is a goat is a goat. A goat never becomes a sheep.
And he's going to tell them, depart from me, for I never knew
you. What a sad, sad thing. And they
are not going to be able to cast any blame on him. They're going
to go to hell because that's what they chose to do. You will
not come to me. He simply states that right there
in John 10. You will not. And he's going
to look dead in your eye if you don't come to him. And he's going
to say, depart from me. I never knew you. And you sealed
your own fate because you would not come to me. That's what he's
that's what he's told us so plainly in his word, you will not come.
This is a serious, a serious thing. Turn over to John 17. Jesus Christ
has a people, all through the scriptures, he declares this
all through the scriptures, and then the world wants to hide
this. I don't know what it is about men and their lust. They
want to push down the truth. We're seeing it in our day. We're
seeing it in our nation. They want to push the truth down.
In our schools, they want to push the truth out. They don't
want the truth being taught. They hate the truth, even at
their own peril. They don't care. They hate God
so bad. They would let everything...
It's like Pharaoh. Pharaoh hated God so bad. Look at the kingdom
that he had. He built those big pyramids.
He had gold. He had chariots. He had the biggest
army in the world. And he hated God so bad when this Moses comes
to him and he told him, he said, let us go worship our God. Let
us go worship our God. And Pharaoh hardened his heart.
And Pharaoh hardened his heart. And at the end, Pharaoh's standing
there and his kingdom is ruined in a matter of weeks. That's
how much this that's how much man hates God. And you think
there's some goodness in man? Man, the natural mind is enmity
against God. The Bible says that. When are
we going to believe that? It is so simple and plain. John
17. And this scripture just speaks
for itself. He's got a people listen to this. These words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the
hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee as thou hast given him power over all
flesh. You see, this isn't some little
Jesus. He's got power over all flesh. He's got power over every
one of us. He directs men's hearts. The King's heart's in His hand
as the rivers of water. He turns it whether so ever He
will. That's who we're talking about right here. He's got power
over all flesh. Look at this. That He should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. And this
is eternal life. That they might know Thee, the
only true God in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. You want
eternal life. Do you know how do we get eternal? We don't get
eternal life by working for it. We get eternal life by believing
on someone else for it. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, and this is eternal life that thou might
know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Jesus Christ. Came to save his
people from their sin. I'm just about done, Steve. All right, I don't know what
point I'm on, but. Thirdly or fourthly, our Lord is irresistible. OK, he is irresistible. He's
irresistible. He comes to you. You cannot resist
him. OK, you can't you can't do it.
He is too. He's too glorious. He's too lovely. Turn over to Luke. I believe it's Luke 19.
I hope it is because I forgot to write it down. Yeah, Luke 19. This is a story
and I want to read this or part of it, but this is a this is
a beautiful picture of how the Lord is irresistible. OK. We
call this irresistible grace. And if the Lord saves you, he's
not going to have a problem saving you, because once he reveals
himself to you, you're going to you're going to run to him.
It's not going to be a matter of I want to choose the Lord
this day or am I going to not? I don't know. Now, when the Lord
reveals himself to a sinner, you're going to you're going
to do everything. You'll quit your job. You'll move. You'll
quit running around with the crowd you're running around with.
You'll do whatever you have to do, and it won't grieve your
heart. Did it grieve any of you to come in here today? Oh, no,
we love these are words of life. This is our hope. This is what
the whole foundation of all the truth that we know is built upon.
It's all upon this scripture. And we come here and we hear
about it every first day of the week, every Lord's Day. But listen
to this. The story of Zacchaeus. Luke
19, And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And behold,
there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the
publicans, and he was rich. OK, now you guys all know what
a publican is, right? He was a tax collector. Everybody
in town hated this guy. All right. I mean, they did not
like him one bit. And on top of that, he was rich
and he sought to see Jesus who he was. Now, why do you think
he sought to see Jesus? You see the workings of grace
here. God, if God ever does something and if you ever come to Christ,
you're going to say this. If we love God, you know why
we love him? Because he first loved us. And
we see it right here. He sought to see Jesus who he
was. Why didn't everyone else in the
town? This this was a special want to. There is a multitude
following the Lord. But this was special. And the
reason I say that is as we read on here, and he could not from
the press because he was little of stature. This man was short.
OK, he wasn't very tall and the Lord was passing through Jericho,
the most despised city around. OK, nothing good come out of
Jericho. But the Lord's passing through this town and here's
this man's smallest stature, he's a publican and he's rich,
but you know what? He wants to see the Lord. He
wants to see the Lord. And he ran before and he climbed
up into a sycamore tree to see Him. For he was to pass that
way. He climbs. Not only wanting wasn't
enough. And that's what I'm saying. I'll
tell you what, if the Lord starts dealing with your heart, there
is nothing going to get in your way from getting to the Lord.
This man had everything against Him. You see what I'm talking
about? Irresistible grace. When God
starts working in our hearts, He's going to get us because
we're His sheep. And we won't follow a stranger.
We have to. We've got to follow Him. Where
else are we going to go? He climbs up in a sycamore tree. Verse 5, when Jesus came to the
place, the Lord knew right where this man was. It was one of His. It was one of His sheep. He came
right to the place. The Lord knew He was passing
through this town and the Lord knew exactly what Zacchaeus was
doing. He knew what he was thinking. And right when he got to the
bottom of that tree, the Lord looks right up at him. And he saw him
and listened to what he says, and he said unto him, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And you know what the result
of irresistible grace is every time? What's the next verse say?
What did Zacchaeus do? He came down. You know what the
Lord will do when He starts calling you? Or you know what you will
do when the Lord starts calling you? You're going to come to
Christ. You're going to come to Him and you're going to get
to Him no matter what it takes. No matter what the cost is. No
matter what it... Nothing is going to get in the
way because it's got to happen. He came into this world to save
His people from their sin. He's going to accomplish that.
If He doesn't, He will cease to be God. He'll cease to be
the Lord. He'll be a failure. And Jesus
Christ is not a failure. And something else to. And Matthew
four, I won't turn there, but you remember, this is this is
something else that just jumps out at you when you read the
scriptures. Remember when he called his his apostles, he was
walking by the Sea of Galilee and he saw them two brothers,
Simon, Peter and Andrew, his brother, and they were cast.
They were fishermen. I think that's why we like these
guys so much. They were just common men. They were just like
us. Most of these men were they were
they were just fishermen. They were casting their nets.
And he saith unto them, the Lord Jesus, when he first started
his ministry, he's walking by and he looks over there and there
they are. They didn't know him a bit more than anybody. But
the Lord just looks over at them and he said unto them, follow
me. And I will make you fishers of
men. And you know what they did? They didn't. get together and
say, you know, should we do this or they didn't say, you know,
they didn't talk about it. They followed him. There was
no question. There was no hesitation whatsoever. And if the Lord starts to deal
with us, we might we might be confusing our soul at first,
but we're going to come to the place where we have no other
choice but to follow him. It won't be a matter of choice
anymore when he gets done with us. OK. And there's more examples
of that. The point is, our Lord is irresistible. And if He calls you like He called
these men, Bruce has said this a bunch. I don't know who he
got it off of. He's often said, if the Lord called everyone like
He called me, then everyone would be saved. And we have fools out
here running around talking about how they chose the Lord and how
they decided to follow Jesus. That's blasphemy. Man doesn't
decide to follow Jesus. Not the Jesus of this Bible. Not the Lord Jesus. Not the omnipotent
Jesus. Not the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. There's another Jesus in the
Bible that the Bible talks about. They'll follow another Jesus,
but they won't follow this one. No, this one you must be called
by Him. Because you won't. Man, it's
not in man. It's just not. Our Lord's irresistible. If he
calls you like he calls these that I just spoke of, you'll
come to him. You will come to him. You will. And lastly, lastly,
the Lord keeps his people. What a blessing. What a what
a what a wonderful doctrine this is, you know, because the believer,
the true believer, I'm not talking about the Pharisee. I'm not talking
about the man that decided to follow Christ. I'm not talking
about the man that's working his way to heaven. I'm not talking
about the man that all he thinks about what he does for the Lord.
I'm talking about the man that truly knows the Lord. The Lord
has thoroughly taught him the first thing that I told you about.
About his condition before God, how he's ruined. And if something's
ruined, it's no good. It's only good to just be thrown
away. You know, if you have a if you have something that's ruined
in your refrigerator, you don't you don't save it. I mean, you
know, you've got baloney in there. I hope you don't anyways. But
when something's ruined, it's worthless, OK? And we are ruined. We are ruined, and the Lord thoroughly
teaches us this, and that's why this is so important to us. We
love. The doctrine of the perseverance
of the saints, and that's That's a big word for me. I just like
to simply say the Lord keeps His people. And He does. My sheep
hear my voice. I give unto them eternal life.
They shall never perish. That's simple, isn't it? Isn't
that simple? That's so easy to understand. And here's a verse
on that. The Lord said to Simon. You all
remember this in Luke 22. The Lord said to Simon, He said,
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may
sift you as wheat. And if the Lord didn't keep his
people, if the Lord wouldn't have kept Peter, you know what
Satan would have been allowed to do? He would have sifted Peter's
wheat. Satan could have our way with
any one of us. Man is a fool that thinks that
he is strong enough to fight Satan. I'd be like fighting some
angel, you know, the mighty angels when they come down. He's a fool. The fool has said in his heart
there is no God. Man is a fool. Man is a fool. He said Satan has desired to
sift you as wheat. But you know what the Lord said?
He said, Peter, don't you worry, because I have prayed for you
that thy faith fell not. I prayed for you that thy faith
fell not. Now, what are we left to say? If Jesus Christ prayed
for every man the way that he prayed for Peter, would they
not all be saved? They would. He has the ability, but he did
not pray for all men, he prayed for Peter. Thank God he's prayed
for some of you. That's the only God that you'll
bow to. The God that I'm talking to you
about this morning. No other God's worthy of bowing to. Paul
was writing to the church at Philippi just to conclude up
here. He said, being confident of this very thing. That he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it. Until the day
of Jesus Christ, he'll perform it. Why? Because it's his work.
It's not our work. Salvation is not our work. Jonah
said salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is God's work. OK. Thank you for your patience and
I'm done. May the Lord bless his word.