Oh, the miracles of God's grace
and God's mercy. The miracles of his mercy in
opening these rebellious hearts of ours in his own good time
and enthroning the Lord Jesus Christ. He has to do it. I can't
do it and no human instrument can do it. The Lord can take
a Saul of Tarsus and make him a preacher of the gospel of his
grace. He can take the most rebellious,
proud, arrogant sinner and make him one who adores and sits at
the feet of the Savior, like Mary. And he can take a proud
traditionalist, a ceremonial-bound religionist, and bring him to
love the gospel. and how I rejoice when he's pleased
to do it. Now, the Apostle Paul had been
taken into custody. These religious leaders would
have killed him. But being a Roman citizen, he appealed to that,
and he was brought before Felix, the Roman governor. Ananias,
the high priest with the elders of Israel, brought all manner
of charges, false charges, against the Apostle Paul. I found in
my experience that religionists are not always careful to tell
the truth. They feel that the end justifies
the means. They were determined to rid themselves
of this troublemaker, this pestilent fellow, so they didn't hesitate
to lie. And I found religionists will
do that. They lied on Paul. They called him a troublemaker.
He wasn't a troublemaker. They called him an agitator.
He wasn't an agitator. They called him a man who stirred
up the people against the government, against authority. Paul was the
very apostle who wrote on subjection to authority, Romans 13, obeying
the laws praying for the kings, obeying the magistrates, emphasizing
that these men were servants of God, ministers of God. They
called him a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. They were
called this because they were followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
They accused him of defiling the Temple. These beef sellers,
these bird sellers, were accusing Paul of defiling the Temple.
You can carry on all manner of foolishness and entertainment
and tradition and bargaining and these things in the temple,
but Paul preached the gospel in the temple, so he defiled
it. They accused him of desecrating the temple of God. Well, Paul
was permitted to speak for himself. He stood before the governor
and he made this defense. He said, less than two weeks
ago I went up to Jerusalem. I went up there to worship. And
these men did not find me in the temple, nor in the synagogue,
nor in the city, debating or disputing with anyone. They did
not find me stirring up people against the government or against
authority. They cannot present any evidence
to prove what they charged me with. However, verse 14, This I confess unto thee, that after the way which they
call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing
all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets."
Now, we who would preach the gospel are not debaters. We are
not disputers. We're preachers of the unsearchable
riches of Christ. And we ought to, and I believe
we do, respect authority. We respect government. We respect
the laws of the land. We ought to be, and we will be,
men of peace and goodwill to all men. And we seek not to stir
up wrath. And we seek not to be troublemakers
and agitators. But this we confess, that after
the way that the religious world, today's religious world, and
I'm talking about Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians
and Camelites and Catholics and all the rest of them, the religious
world, after the way which they call heresy, we worship the Lord
God of Heaven, believing the things which are written in the
Word of God. That's a bold confession. To them, it's heresy. To us,
it's the truth of God. If this message brings anger
and opposition, then it'll just have to bring it. And this is
the way Paul felt. He said, I'm not an agitator,
I'm not a disputer, I'm not a debater, I'm not a troublemaker. I respect
authority wherever it's found. But after the way that they call
heresy, that which they brand apostasy, that's what we That's
the way we worship God. And I want to point out five
things that the general religious world considers to be heresy
and apostasy. And I make this bold confession
that after the way that they call heresy, that's the way I
worship God. First of all, in Genesis chapter
1, we believe that we believe the literal Genesis account of
creation. does not matter to me what denomination
or what organization or what numbers teach evolution. We believe, and they can call
the Genesis account of creation fundamentalism, or they can call
it ignorance, they can call it heresy and apostasy or whatever
they want to, but we believe in the literal Genesis account
of creation six days God created the heavens and the earth In
Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 God said let there be light and there
was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided
the light from the darkness God called the light day and he called
the darkness night. I believe that In Genesis 1 8
and God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the
morning were the second day God divided the heavens and the earth
It was the second day, I believe that. Verse 10, And God called
the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called
the seas. And God saw that it was good, and God said, Let the
earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself
and upon the earth. And it was so. And the earth
brought forth grass, and the herb yielding seed after his
kind, and the tree yielding fruit. whose seed was in itself after
his kind. God saw that it was good, evening
and morning was the third day. I believe that. With all my heart
I believe that. I'm convinced of it. And then
in verse 16, and God made two great lights, the greater light
to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made
stars also. God set them in the firmament
of the heaven to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day
and over the night, and to divide the light from darkness, and
God saw it was good, and the evening and the morning were
the fourth day. You can brand me old-fashioned,
apostate, a heretic, a fundamentalist, a conservatist, whatever you
want to. I believe that. I believe that. And God created great whales,
and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought
forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after
his kind. God saw it was good. God blessed
them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters
and the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth. And the
evening and the morning were the fifth day." And then verse
24. And God said, let the earth bring
forth the living creature after his kind. No crossing of the
species. Cattle and creeping thing, beast
of the earth after his kind. And it was so. And God made the
beast of the earth after his kind, the cattle after his kind,
and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind.
God saw it was good. And God said, let us. Let us. Holy Spirit, Son, Father, Divine
Trinity, let us. make man in our image after our
likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over
the fowl of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over
every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. God created man
in his own image. Male and female created he them,
and God blessed them, and God said to Adam, And to his wife
Eve, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth. And verse 31, God saw everything
that he had made, and, behold, it was very good, and the evening
and the morning were the sixth day. I'm as completely, totally
satisfied with that account of how this world came into being
as I am with the satisfaction and substitutionary work of Jesus
Christ my Lord. I believe it. And verse 26 of chapter 2 says,
or verse 15 of chapter 2 says, God made man
and gave him a command. Let's look at it, Genesis 2.15,
"...the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of
Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thou shalt
not eat of it in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die." We believe the scriptural account
of man's fall. Now, some people have called
this original sin, and that's a good title. Some people have
called it imputed guilt, and if you understand the word imputed,
it's a good title. Some have called it total depravity,
and that also is good. But under every name, original
sin, imputed guilt and total depravity, this doctrine has
been denied and called heresy. But we believe and we preach
that the scriptures teach man's complete and total ruin. Now, turn with me to Romans 5,
verse 12. The scripture says here in Romans
5, verse 12, "...wherefore, as by one man," God created man in his own image,
created him upright, the Scripture says. But he sought out many
inventions. You know how Satan tempted and
deceived Eve and Adam willingly. He wasn't deceived. He willingly
went into the transgression. He ate of the very fruit of the
very tree God commanded him not to eat of. Well, what happened
when he did? Well, the Scripture says, by
one man, sin entered into the world and death. Death by sin. Now, sin brought death to the
animals. Sin brought death not only to the animals, but sin
also brought death to the plants and to the trees. And sin brought
death to man. You know, one of the most interesting
things, I was sitting in the study yesterday looking at it,
we've just read in Genesis 1 about how God gave life. Genesis chapter
1 begins with God giving life. Life to the animals, and life
to the fish, and life to the fowls, and finally, life to man. The book of Genesis begins with
God speaking forth light and life. How does Genesis end? Have you ever looked there? Look
at the last verse of the book of Genesis. The last verse of
the book of Genesis. It begins with life. It begins
with God saying everything's good, everything's good, everything's
good. How does it end? Joseph died. Being 110 years old, they embalmed
him and put him in a coffin in Egypt. Genesis starts out life
in a perfect garden. It ends up death in a coffin
in an enslaved land. Think about that. That's what
sin did. Sin brought not only physical
death to man, though, but sin brought spiritual death. Now,
practically everybody will agree that sin brought physical death.
Adam would not have died if he had not sinned. And you and I
would not die if there were not sin in us. That's the reason
babies die, because they've got sin in them. If they were born
without sin, they wouldn't die. They wouldn't get sick. But the
reason they get sick and the reason they die is because they've
got sin in the seed. The seed that was planted is
already sin. In sin my mother conceived me.
But we also believe the scripture teaches not only the physical
death of man as a result of sin, but the spiritual death. Every
faculty of our being is spiritually dead, affected by sin. Just like
when Adam sinned, every part of this earth, there's not a
part of this earth that's not affected by his sin. The waters
are polluted. The trees die. The vegetables
bear fruit and die. Everything has a given time. It comes forth on the earth and
then it dies. Death touches everything on this
earth. That's the reason God's going
to destroy it someday and make a new earth. Because sin has
touched everything on the earth. It's made the dog bark and bite
at us. It's made the lion our enemy. It's made the birds flee from
us. I imagine the birds used to sit
on Adam's arm, but now you have to tame a bird. It flees, scared
of you. Everything is touched by sin.
So every faculty of our being, of man's being, is permeated
by sin. For example, look at Genesis
6, verse 5. Genesis 6, verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. Our hearts,
the thoughts, the imaginations of our hearts are evil continually. And then he said in Psalm 14,
23, God looked down from heaven upon the earth to see if there
were any that did do good, any that did seek God. And he found
that they all, all together, become filthy. And then Isaiah
wrote, from the sole of our feet to the top of our heads, there's
no soundness in us. Just like sin brought death to
everything on the earth, sin brought death, spiritual death,
to everything in us. John 3.19 says, Man loves darkness. He hates light. His will is depraved. In John 5.40, our Lord said,
You will not come to me that you might have light. His mind,
Romans 8.7 says, The carnal, the natural mind is enmity against
God. Ephesians 2.1 says, We are dead
in sin. Ephesians 2.12 says, Without
hope, without help, without God, without Christ in this world. Let it be clearly understood
what we're saying. And as Paul said, I'm not an
agitator, I'm not a troublemaker. I respect authority. I respect
government. I'm not a debater or a disputer,
he said. But what they call heresy is
the way I worship the God of my father. And what we're saying
is this. The natural man is religious,
but he does not know the living God. Now, those people to whom
Christ preached, they were religious, they were carrying on services
of religion. Turn to John 8, verse 19. You say, but just look around
you, preacher, look around you at all the religious enterprises
and organizations and buildings and all of the works of charity
and all of these things in the name of God. Well, brethren,
let me tell you something. The Lord Jesus Christ stood in
the very seat of religion, in the very seat of all of the ceremonialism
and religion and tradition of his day, Jerusalem, the holy
city. with its walls, its wailing walls,
and its temples, and synagogues, and high priests, and Sadducees,
and Pharisees, and elders, and scribes, and scripture. And he
said in verse 19, they said unto him, Where is your father? Jesus
answered, You neither know me, nor my father. If you had known
me, you should have known my father also. They were religious,
but they didn't know the living God. Eternalized to know the
living God. Natural man thinks, but he doesn't
think on God. He's got a mind, but his mind's
not set on things above. God said, your thoughts are not
my thoughts. A natural man worships the woman at the well. Christ
said, you worship, you don't know what you worship. The natural
man seeks honor, but not honor which comes from God. Christ
said in John 5, verse 44, how can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from
God only? The natural man calls him Lord, he said with his lips,
but his heart is far from God. The natural man is alive naturally,
dead spiritually. As a result of sin committed
by Adam, sin and death and judgment and
condemnation has come upon all men, born in sin, conceived in
sin, shaped in iniquity, brought forth speaking lies, alive to
the flesh and dead to God, alive to religion and dead to God,
alive to ceremonialism and dead to God. Thirdly, we believe the Bible
doctrine of election. Let me say it again and let me
say it plainly. Election. We believe it. This is heresy. Just like to
many people, a literal creation by a sovereign God is heresy,
and to many people, original sin, total depravity, is heresy. They do not believe that men
are born dead in sin and they must be begotten from above,
must be recreated, regenerated, born again, and that the flesh
is totally passive in this. This is the work of God's Holy
Spirit using the instrument of God's Word. And he'll have mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he'll harden. We
believe in election. Now, the doctrine of election
has been abused and misused by friend and foe. I hope you listen
to me now. Maybe I can help you here. The doctrine of election has
been abused by both friend and foe. It's foes out of hatred
for God's sovereignty, out of hatred for God's glory, And in defense of man's self-righteousness
and human dignity, they make election to appear to be what
it's not. They say, we don't believe that
people are predestinated to heaven and some are predestinated to
hell. I don't believe that either.
The Bible doesn't teach that. That is not election. And I say,
well, election is. God predestinated some to heaven
and some to hell. You are not telling the truth
because of your enmity against God. That's what I said. Religious
people don't always tell the truth. Their passions carry them
away, and they lie. They lie on their enemies. You
know, a fellow ought to study something at least 15 minutes
before he condemns it. Look into it just a little while
before he becomes an authority in condemning it. But I don't
believe that either. Somebody else says, well, I don't
believe that a man is born to be saved or born to be lost.
I don't either. I don't either. Somebody else says, election
is that you're saved before you're born. No, I don't believe that.
That's not what the Bible teaches. That's not election. Well, I'll tell you this, I don't
believe an elect person is saved no matter whether he believes
the gospel and no matter how he lives. I don't believe that
either. God's Word doesn't teach that. And if you've been saying
things like that about the doctrine of election, you've been lying
on God. Because it does matter whether or not a person believes.
A person is never saved until he personally repents of his
sin and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and receives him
as his Lord and his Savior, elect or non-elect. That's so. Somebody else says, well, people
that believe in election believe infants are in hell. That's not
so. And you're just as guilty as
these as these religious liars were in lying on Paul, if that's
what you've said about the doctrine of election. Now, that's not
so. The foes, out of hatred for it,
as Barnard used to say, they build a straw man that doesn't
even exist, and they just beat the daylights out of it, you
know. And that's what enemies of God's elective grace do. They
make charges that aren't so. They make claims that aren't
so, and then they attack those claims. And I'd have to be on
their side, I agree. And then, I'll tell you this,
the friends, some friends of election have abused it too,
and misused it. Maybe some of you here this morning,
I don't know. But there are folks that claim to believe election
who are anti-means. What do you mean by that? Well,
to them, election is salvation. Not Christ, but election. Not
the gospel, but election. Not repentance and faith, but
election. I'm saved because I'm elect. That's what they believe.
So therefore you don't have to preach the gospel, you don't
have to read the Bible, you don't have to be convinced of sin,
you don't have to repent and believe. If God elected you,
you're saved. That's not so. And I know there
are friends, so-called friends of election, who teach that,
but it just is not so. Election is not salvation, it's
unto salvation. Christ is salvation. I'm saved
not because God elected me, I'm redeemed and justified and sanctified
and saved because Christ bore my sins in his body on the tree. That's right. I'm not saved by
election, I'm saved by grace through faith, not apart from
it. Then there are the so-called
friends who are anti-missionary. No need to pray for people. No
need to pray for your children, for your loved ones, no need
to preach the gospel, no need to send missionaries. One great
missionary, was it Hudson Taylor, at Hudson Taylor, stood up, I
believe that's who it was, stood up in a missionary, not a missionary,
but in a denominational meeting one time and said, brethren,
brethren, I want to go, was it to India, as a missionary. And
the moderator said, sit down, young man. If God wants to save
those people, he'll save them without you. Well, that man's an enemy of
election. That's so. He doesn't know it,
he thinks he's a friend, but really he's an enemy, because
he's presenting it in a false light. And then there are antinomians. No need to walk in holiness.
No need to pant after righteousness. No need to persevere in godliness. No need to glorify Christ Jesus
in my life and in my walk and in my talk and in my attitude.
If I'm one of the elect, I'll be in heaven no matter how I
live. Now you may think you're the friend of election when you
say that, but you're the enemy of election. That's not what
election teaches at all. There are hundreds of scriptures
in this Bible which teach that God gave his Son a people. From
before the foundation of the world, God chose a people in
Christ. Christ said to his disciples,
you didn't choose me, I chose you. Acts 13.48 says, As many as were
ordained to life believed. The scripture says, Our Lord
himself said, Father, I thank thee, Lord of heaven and earth,
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and thou
hast revealed them to babes, even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. Our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane prayed that
great priestly prayer, I pray not for the world, I pray for
them which thou hast given me, thine they were, thou gavest
them me. I have all authority over all flesh that I should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. Paul wrote
in Romans 11, even so at this present time there's a rendement
according to the election of grace. And then it said, Rebecca's
children, Jacob and Esau, having done neither good or evil,
not yet born, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works but of him that calleth. It was said
the elder shall serve the younger. Jacob I love, Esau I hate. Christ said, All that my Father
giveth me shall come to me, John 6, 37, and he that cometh to
me, him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. This is
the Father's will which is sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I will lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day.
Brethren, men being dead in sin, they will not call on God, God
must call on them. Men being dead in sin, the natural
mind enmity against God, they will not seek God, God must seek
them. Men being dead in sin, without God, without hope, without
Christ, will not choose God. Loving darkness, hating light,
they won't choose the light. The light must choose them. Man's will being depraved and
enslaved by sin, I'm not denying man's free will. You have a free
will. Free to do what? What you will.
What will you will? Evil. God has a free will, but he can't
do wrong. He can't lie. You have a free will, but you
can't do good. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? No, sir. Can the leper change
his spot? No, sir. Neither can you do good
that are accustomed by birth to doing evil. That's what Scripture
says. You can't get clean water from an impure fountain. You
can't get fresh water from an ocean. That's its nature. And man's nature is to hate God. He'll never choose God. He'll
never will to come. He'll never come to Christ until
by God's power he's made willing, until by God's Spirit he's regenerated,
until by God's Spirit he has put back within him what Adam
lost in the garden. And God does that by grace, sovereign
grace, upon those whom he in his wisdom, according to the
good pleasure of his will, has chosen. But I want you to turn
to one verse of Scripture, and usually God will speak to us
through one verse of Scripture. You don't need a... Usually I
find the more Scripture you use, the more arguments you use, the
less good you accomplish. But you take one verse, and if
God's pleased to make it live, then that one verse in the hands
of the Holy Spirit is worth 10,000 arguments. Just bow to the Word. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. First of all, election is a doctrine
of praise. Everywhere you read the doctrine
of election, you read praising the Lord. In 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, we are bound to give thanks, bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. In Ephesians,
keep that verse right there, in Ephesians, Paul, blessed be
God, who hath chosen us in Christ." Praise God. It's a doctrine of
praise. Old Brother Barnard one time
had a fellow down in Florida send him a book he'd written
on election. And Roth got the book and the fellow told him,
said, I want you to read this and tell me what you think about
it. Well, Roth said he picked it up and looked at the title
page and the title page said, The Hated Doctrine of Election.
And old Roth just got his pencil out and he wrote on there, says,
change the title. It's not a hated doctrine, it's
a precious doctrine. Election's not my enemy, it's
my friend. If God hadn't chosen me, I'd
have never chosen him. Election's not the sinner's enemy,
it's the sinner's friend. You better be glad God was pleased
to save somebody and not let us all perish. Rejoice, Paul
said, thank God. Secondly, election is a doctrine
of love. We're bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. That's love. God loved the unlovely. God loved
those that didn't love Him. Beloved of the Lord. Election
is an eternal doctrine, eternal grace. God had it from the beginning. When is this beginning? In the
beginning, God. That's the beginning. In the
beginning was the word. That's the beginning. Christ
knew from the beginning who would betray him. That's the beginning. God hath declared the end from
the beginning. That's the beginning. That's
when it took place. God hath from the beginning,
election is a doctrine of humility, chosen you. You. Now, we're awful proud folks.
I've got as much of it in me as you've got in you, and it's
an awful thing. When God named six things he
hated, he named pride first. Six things doth the Lord hate,
yea, seven are an abomination to him, a proud look. Pride. But I know you can think of a
lot of reasons why God's going to take you to heaven, but if
you really knew yourself, you couldn't think of one reason.
And I know you can think of a lot of reasons why God should choose
you, and reveal his grace to you, and save you, and make you
a child of the King. I know you can think of a lot
of reasons. You can look down on that old drunk and that neighbor
next door to you, and he cuts his grass on Sunday, and he drinks,
and he carries on, and he's this, that, and the other, and you're
just so good, you're just so good. Bless your sweetheart.
But if you just knew how you looked in God's sight, it'd break
your heart. That's right. Why'd God choose
you? Why isn't he down here and you
over there? Who made the difference? My mama
raised me right. Your mama didn't. Your mama and
daddy gave you death and sin. God made the difference. Who
maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Humility. Election is a doctrine
of humility. God has chosen you! All right, look at the next word,
to salvation. Don't stumble over that and stammer
and give God the glory. He chose us to salvation and
all that salvation includes, forgiveness, part in life, eternal
joy. He chose me to salvation. not salvation, it's true salvation. Back yonder when God chose me,
I was a child of wrath even as others. Back when God chose me,
I was dead in trespasses and sin. Back when God chose me,
I was a son of Adam, a rebel. And Paul said, but God who separated
me from my mother's womb when it pleased him, he revealed his
Son to me. He did something for me. I lost
life in Adam, and one day God's Spirit came and put that life
back in there. I lost the truth in Adam, and
one day God's Holy Spirit came and put the truth in there. I
quit believing a lie and started believing the truth. I was thinking
of Martha Luce playing the piano a while ago. She used to come
here and sit and listen to me preach and shake her head. Oh, she didn't
like it, did she? That's right. She believed a
lie. I'd preach the truth to her and
she'd shake her head. When we could get her to listen,
most times she'd just keep her head bowed. Finally one day,
God did something. He gave her eyes to see and ears
to hear and a heart to understand. God did it. God did it. God had chosen you to salvation.
Look at the next line. Through sanctification of the
Spirit. It does matter how we live. A
man who is not sanctified is not justified. If any man have
not the Spirit of Christ, he don't belong to Christ. If a
man is not a new creature in Christ, he's not in Christ. That's
right, if the tenor of your life and the bend of your will is
not holiness to the Lord, you'll never see the Lord. We're panting after holiness.
We're seeking after progressive work of grace that will make
us more like Christ. And we won't be satisfied until
we're just like him. Election is a doctrine of sanctification. All right, look at the next line.
A doctrine of means, belief of the truth. You're not going to
be saved unless you believe the truth. We're saved by faith.
Old Arthur Pink used to write on a four-fold salvation. Four-fold
justification. We're justified back down to
when God chose us in the mind of God, in the purpose of God,
because He declares the end from the beginning and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel
shall stand. In the counsel of God I was justified. When Jesus Christ the Lord came
into this world 2,000 years ago and died for my sins, he bore
my sins in his body on the tree. My sins, as far as I was concerned,
weren't even committed then except my sins in Adam. But he died
for my sins, and he justified them. And then when the Holy
Spirit one day came and quickened me and awakened me and brought
me to repentance, a genuine sorrow for sin, and a genuine faith
in Christ, I was justified by faith! And you're not saved till
you believe, until you receive Christ, until you come to embrace
the living Lord. But I've still got a nature of
sin, I've still got a problem with sin, I've still got a nature
that loves sin, That nature does, God's nature doesn't, the righteous
nature doesn't. And one of these days he's going
to take this old body and put it in the grave and I'm going
to rise and be with Christ and I'm going to be perfectly holy
just like the Lord Jesus. Then I'll be justified. Then
I'll be perfectly sanctified. Then I'll be S-A-V-E-D. I believe election. Let men call
it Harris if they will, but I do know this. If he hadn't chosen
me, I'd have never chosen him. And then in the fourth place,
quickly, we believe the obedience and death of Jesus Christ is
sufficient and effectual to save all who believe. Now, brethren,
in this day, if you want to start a fight, and I mean a real humdinger,
you just hint. You just hint. You just let it
be known that you do not believe that when Jesus Christ died on
the cross that he died for people who were already in hell and
many who were on their way to hell and eventually would wind
up in hell. You just let it be known, let
it just hint a little bit, that you believe. that Jesus Christ,
when he died on the cross, was not bearing the sins of people
who would someday suffer for those sins in judgment, condemnation,
and separation from God. You be prepared to be branded
as a heretic, because this world operates on two cylinders. God
loves everybody, and Jesus died to save everybody. And if they
didn't have those two cylinders, they couldn't operate. The whole
religious world is perking on two cylinders. God loves everybody,
and Jesus died to save everybody, and ain't neither one of those
statements so. I can destroy those statements
with one verse of Scripture. God loves everybody. He didn't
love Esau. He said so himself. Now, if Esau
is the only fellow in the world that God didn't love, the Scripture
says, Esau have I hated. You say, well, God says, e.g.,
that means love less. How can God do anything except
infinitely? God can't love less. You do that. God can't do that. God is infinite. What God does, he does it in
an immutable, everlasting, infinite way. If he loves, he loves. If
he hates, he hates. Now you better think about those
things. I don't know what kind of God you have. You've got a
God that vacillates and fluctuates and he can love this and a whole
lot and that and a little less and that and a little less. That's
not the God of the Bible. I've drawn you with an eternal
love, he said. And Jesus Christ died for everybody. You mean to tell me that the
Son of God hung on that cross and paid for the sins of Peter
and also paid for the sins of Jesus? And Peter went to heaven
and Jesus went to hell. Then what did Christ accomplish?
Nothing. Nothing. Because the fellow he
died for went to hell anyway. So why did he die? Now there's a sense, and please
understand me, and I'm preaching too long, but I'm going to get
finished. There's a sense in which our Lord bought the world.
I know that. He bought the world. There's
a sense in which He bought the world. The Scripture says He
died that He might be Lord of the dead and the living. He said,
All authority is given unto me. I have power over all flesh.
He bought the world, the world as He is, not only by divine
decree but by divine purchase. There is a sense in which all
men benefit from the coming of our Lord into this world. Just like all men, if it rains
this morning, you Christians are going to benefit from the
rain, and those ungodly, profane, God-hating, law-breaking atheists
are going to profit from the rain, too. God just doesn't send
rain down on your field and ignore everybody around you. It rains
on the just and the unjust. And even so, the coming of our
Lord into this world. Our Lord couldn't come into this
world without blessing the whole world. Our Lord couldn't die
on the cross and bring mercy, such a great gift of mercy and
grace, into creation, into the earth, without blessing everybody
it touched. The death of Christ held back
the judgment, the wrath of God. And if Christ had come into this
world to save only one sinner, just one sinner, nobody else
but one sinner, his work would have been the same. He would
have had to have been born of a woman. He would have had to
have been born under the law. He would have had to have been
tried and tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He
would have had to go to the cross. He would have had to die the
same death. He would have been separated from the Father. He
would have been buried in the same grave and rise again. If he had
saved one sinner, he would have had to do the same work. If he
had been pleased to save every son of Adam, he wouldn't have
had to do any more. You see that? Brethren, I'm telling you this,
when God looked upon him as the atonement, when God looked upon
him as the sin offering, when God looked upon him as the perfect
sacrifice, he looked upon him in regard to a people, spiritual
Israel, the elect, the believer, just like he looked on that atonement
in the tabernacle on the mercy seat for Israel and not for the
Philistines and the Amalekites and the Amorites and the Hittites
and all the otherites. He looked on that atonement as
an atonement for his people. Israel, that old high priest
had the names of Israel upon his breastplate. The tribes,
the twelve tribes, and when he went into that Holy of Holies,
he went there. The whole Canaan was blessed
by the presence of the Jews. The wrath of God was held back
by that atonement on the mercy seat. Without that atonement,
without Christ, God would have obliterated this world a long
time ago. And every man participates. in some
way, to some degree, in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But when God
looked at that cross, when God looked at that sin offering,
when God looked at that sacrifice, he was looking upon Christ as
our representative, as our substitute, as our sin offering, as our atonement. And by his knowledge my righteous
servant justified not all but many. Turn to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. And brethren, I tell you, you
talk, you say, Preacher, you're making too much out of that.
Well, I don't believe it's possible, Charlie Payne, to make too much
of the death of Christ. I don't believe it's possible.
I don't think a man can make too much of that which is our
very life, substitution, the just for the unjust. What did
he do? Everything I have, everything
I am, everything I hope to be depends upon what he did. In
Isaiah 53, verse 5, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was
upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Huh? Saved, forgiven,
pardoned, justified, sanctified, ransomed, it's all done by his
stripes. Look at verse 10, "...it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many." How? "...he shall bear their iniquities." Brethren, we're saved by faith,
but faith not the Savior, Christ is. We're saved by grace, but
grace is not the Savior, Christ is. Christ is. All right, last of all, they
call it heresy. That's all right. It's all right.
But the way they call heresy is the way I worship my Lord. And I believe what Scripture
says. He said, what about all those scriptures that say Christ
died for our sins, not for ours only, but for the sins of the
whole world? Well, you watch your italics there, but that
won't help us too much. But here's the thing. When our
Lord spoke to his apostles, Peter was guilty of this as much as
any of them. They felt that the prophets and the law and the
types and the ceremonies were given to Israel. They wouldn't
even speak to Gentiles. They wouldn't marry Gentiles.
They wouldn't fellowship with Gentiles. The Gentiles were not
in the covenant. The Gentiles were not in grace.
The Gentiles were heathen, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
foreigners, strangers. They thought that God gave the
Jew only the law, the Jew only the sacrifice, the Jew only the
types, and the Jew only Jesus Christ. He was the Messiah, the
King of the Jews. Therefore our Lord is saying
to them, he's not only your Savior, but the Savior of the world.
He's not only your atonement, but the atonement for the world.
He's not only your sin offering, but the sin offering for the
world. God has a people out of every tribe, kindred, nation
and tongue unto heaven. Way down there in Africa, there's
an unknown lost tribe, they call it. Eating the bark of the trees. Our Lord's got some people in
that tribe. They may be little old bitty
infants that died from their mother's womb, but they'll be
in glory praising Christ. He has a people. Black and white
and red and yellow and rich and poor and old and young. Learned
and ignorant. That's right. And he died for
them, not for ours only, not for the Jews only, but for the
sins of the world. All right, if Christ bore my
sins, I don't bow. If he paid the debt, I don't
owe it. If he died to death, I'll never die it. And if God
Almighty sends a man to hell for whom Christ died, I question the justice of God
and the righteousness of God. Last of all, I believe the redeemed
will persevere. Those whom the Father has given
to the Son, those for whom the Son bled and died, those whom
the Spirit has regenerated and given new life, those who have
been brought to repentance will keep on repenting. Those who
come to Christ will keep on coming. Those who believe on Christ will
keep on believing. Those who cling to Christ will
keep on clinging. Those who love Christ will keep
on loving. Turn to Jeremiah, chapter 32,
and I'll let you go. Jeremiah 32, verse 40, and I
know the religious world calls this heresy, but it's the way
I worship God. In Jeremiah 32, verse 40, I'll
make an everlasting covenant with them. Jeremiah 32, verse
40, I will not turn away from them to do them good, I'll put
my fear in their hearts, I love this, and they shall not depart
from me." No, sir. We believe in preservation by
God's grace, but we believe in perseverance also by God's grace. I will not let them go, he said,
and they will not depart from me. You can't get a man to leave
Christ who has become his life, you can't get a man to depart
from the Savior who is his very being, his very life's blood,
his hope, his love, everything. Our Father bless the Word. We
are grateful that thou hast not left us in darkness. Thou hast called us out of darkness
into thy light. And this light is called darkness
by many. It's called heresy, apostasy. O Lord, we would not be troublemakers
and agitators, but, Lord, men of peace and goodwill. How we
long that all would love Thee as Thou art and worship Thee,
and that Jesus Christ the Lord might be enthroned in every heart
as the sovereign prophet, priest, and king. not as a failure, not
as a defeated reformer, but he might be recognized and worshiped
and owned as a sovereign redeemer, bowed to. Men might confess him
to be Lord. Use the word this morning to
accomplish thy purpose and thy glory. For it is in Christ's
name we pray. Amen.