Apostle Paul had a twofold purpose in the ministry. I believe every
true preacher has this twofold purpose. Number
one, we desire to proclaim the truth which glorifies God, exalts
and magnifies the name of our Lord. I've been talking to my
Sunday school class about preaching. I answered some questions the
last two Sundays. One, what gospel do we preach? We preach the gospel of God,
the gospel concerning his Son, the gospel which glorifies God.
Why do we preach the gospel? Well, we're commanded to. That's
the first reason. Our Lord said, you go into all
the world and you preach the gospel. But the second reason
is to glorify God. Someone might immediately say,
well, I believe you've got that ahead of something. We preach
the gospel to save souls. No, we preach the gospel first
to glorify God, whether anybody's saved or not. Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. And he preached 120 years as
he built an ark. Not one person believed him. Not one person responded. But
he didn't quit. He climbed aboard the ark, still
preaching the truth. So we preach, number one, because
he told us to. Secondly, to glorify his matchless
name. To glorify God. Thirdly, that
the sheep might be saved. and that sheep might be edified.
But we preach for the glory of God. That's just so. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's his glory and that's our
glory. And we preach for that purpose, to glorify God chiefly. Second purpose, as I said, that
people might be brought to know God. We desire that those who
hear us receive the word, not as the word of men, but as it
is in truth the word of God. That's what Paul is saying here
in Romans 9. The first verse I read to you,
he said, I say the truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. I have great heaviness
and continuous sorrow in my heart." Why are you sad, Paul? My brethren,
my kinsmen in the flesh, my family, my friends, people I grew up
with, they don't believe God. They don't believe the gospel.
In verse 3 he says, I could wish that myself were separated from
Christ if it would result in their salvation. Our chief purpose is to glorify
God, to exalt and magnify the name of our Lord Jesus. But our
second desire is that people might hear this gospel, believe
it, receive it, believe it, and be saved. Look over at chapter
10. He begins the 10th chapter the
same way. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is they might be saved. I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. They don't know God. They have
a zeal for God. They have religion. They indulge
in the ceremonies and the sacrifices, the things that ought to point
them to Christ, but they don't know Christ. Verse 3, they are ignorant of
God's righteousness, which is Christ. And they're going about
to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of God. Well, that's the twofold purpose,
that God may be glorified and that people might be saved, brought
to knowledge of the truth. Well, number one, that purpose,
God will be glorified. Yes, he will. He said that of
Pharaoh in verse 17. The scripture says to Pharaoh,
for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my
power, my glory in thee. My name might be declared throughout
all the earth. God's name will be declared,
and God's name will be exalted, and God's Son will be glorified.
You can rest assured. Our Lord gave us a word about
that over in John. Turn to John 12 a moment. Of
this, I'm confident, we never fail. God always causes us to
triumph in Christ. Always. When the gospel is preached,
he will be glorified. John 12, verse 28. Go back to verse 27. The master
said, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have glorified it, and I'll glorify it again. You can rest assured. I have glorified thy name throughout
all the ages, and I'll glorify it again. I glorified it in David's
generation. I glorified it in Isaiah's generation. I glorified it in the possible
generation I'll glorify in your generation. Now that's second purpose. God's
name will be glorified. He will have all the glory. But whether those who hear my
voice will be regenerated and will be convicted and will be
brought by the Holy Spirit to repentance and faith and will
believe Christ. That's not my work. That's not
their work. That's his work. Salvations of
the Lord. Whether those who hear me will
be brought to believe Christ and to bow to his Lordship and
believe on him to salvation, that's not my will. Not accomplished by my will.
That's not accomplished by their will. It's by his will. Who said, I'll be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Salvations of the Lord. That's what John wrote over here
in John chapter 1. Turn to John chapter 1 and listen. In John chapter 1, verse 10,
our Lord was in the world. And the world was made by him,
and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, the Jewish
nation, and they received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power, the privilege, and right to become
sons of God, even to them that believed on his name, which were
born, not of blood, not of natural genealogy, like he said a while
ago, They're not all Israel that are Israel. Because they're children
of Abraham doesn't mean they're children of the promise. The
children of the promise are the seed of Abraham. And it's not
by blood. It's not by natural generation.
And it's not by the will of the flesh. It's not by the will of
my flesh or your flesh. It's not by the will of men.
Other men. It's born of God. Salvations
of the Lord. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to His mercy. He has saved us.
So, I know God will be glorified. God's purpose is going to be
accomplished. His name is going to be glorified.
And some people are going to be saved. But they'll be saved
by the will of God, by the work of God, by the blood of God.
That's the truth of the Scripture. Salvations of the Lord. In the
last several years, I don't know how many, I started to say how
many, but I don't know how many, in the last several years, in
the last so many years, this message has been changed. This message has been relegated
to the scrap heap. This message is not preached.
The message now is salvation is by the choice and decision
of men. by the will of men. And I preached
a message on television several years ago, in which I gave a
four-point outline, identifying the message of our day. This
is the gospel that's being preached today. This is not the gospel
of God. This is not the gospel of Christ. But this is the gospel
being preached today. Number one, God loves everybody
without exception. And the proof text is John 3,
16, for God so loved the world. God loves all men without exception.
Those who are saved, those who are unsaved, those who know God,
those who do not know God, those who are on their way to heaven,
those who are on their way to hell. He loves them all the same. Secondly,
God wills the salvation of every human being. God in heaven wants
to save, wills to save. every human being without exception.
And the proof text for that is in 2 Peter, God's not willing
that any should perish. He's not willing that any should
perish. Thirdly, the third point is this,
Christ died for all men without exception. When he went to the
cross of Calvary, he paid the sin debt of every son of Adam. Those who will be in heaven and
those who will be in hell. Those who love him, those who hate
him. Those who serve him and those who resist him. Those who
call him Lord, those who call him an illegitimate child of
a Jewish woman. He died for everyone, paid for
all their sins. And the proof text there is 1
John 2. This is what the preachers use.
He's a propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but
for the sins of the whole world. And the fourth point is the Holy
Spirit, Spirit of the Living God, the Almighty Omnipotent
Spirit of God calls all men, tries to save all men. This is
what is preached today. He tries his best. He knocks
on the door, he knocks on the house, he woos them, and he talks
to them, and he calls them, and he urges them, and he persuades
them, and he invites them. without exception, every human
being. And the proof text for that is, my spirit will not always
strive with man. So this business of salvation
has been literally lifted out of the hands of God, taken away
from the hands of God, who said, I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful. Now it's in the hands of man.
who said, I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, who said,
salvations of the Lord, who said, the salvation of the righteousness
of the Lord, who said, whom he foreknew, he predestinated, he
called, he justified, he glorified. No, that's not so anymore. It's
whosoever will may come. So the gospel has been taken,
salvation has been taken out of the hands of God and we have
made man to be his own Savior. That's so. And words like this,
little cliches like this, sweep the country, God's done all he
can do. That's up to you. You take the first step and God
will meet you. Give Jesus a chance. Try Jesus. We appeal to you. Now, to me personally, there
are not four more vital subjects in the world than what I've got
hold of right here. God's love, God's will, God's blood, and
God's spirit. You tell me four more important
subjects than that. God's will, God's love, God's
blood, the blood of God, the blood of His Son, and His Spirit. And we say all of those are defeated. Though God loves me, I may perish
anyway. Though God wants to save me,
He can't do it unless I let Him. Christ died for me, but His blood
didn't sanctify me, didn't cleanse me, didn't redeem me, didn't
save me. without my help. I don't believe
that. And God's Spirit, the Omnipotent,
Almighty Spirit of God, by which He raised Christ from the dead,
is not able to raise me. The Almighty Spirit of God, who created the world out of
nothing, the Word of God, is not able to create in me a new
life and a new heart, not able without my permission." That's
another gospel. That's what Paul wrote to the
Galatians about. He said, I'm amazed. I'm amazed
that you departed from him who called you into the gospel of
God to another gospel, which is not another. It's a perversion
of the gospel. They use the same word, but perverted.
God loves, but his love is not able to save. God wills, but
his will is not able to make it, accomplish it. Christ died,
but not able to save. His blood is not able to cleanse.
The Holy Spirit knocks, but he is not able to bring down the
walls of your Jericho. He can bring that wall down,
but not Jerusalem. Now that's a perversion of the gospel. And
Paul said, If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel, let him be accursed. It's another gospel, it's another
Jesus, it's another spirit. Now, I'm going to speak for a
few moments on these four things. To me, the four most vital subjects
in the scripture, and the four that I don't dare trifle with,
or compromise, or change. God's will, God's blood, and
God's Spirit. I want you to listen. The first
one is God's love. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
4. 1 John chapter 4, verse 7-13. Now listen. Beloved, let us love one another. Love
is of God. Love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God. It doesn't say they're born of
God because they love. It says they love because they're
born. Everyone that loveth, love is of God. It doesn't exist in
the human heart. The heart's deceitful, desperately
wicked. The love of God doesn't exist
in the human heart unless God puts it there, sheds it about
in that heart. Love is of God. It's not from
this way, it's from that way. It's a gift of God. And everyone that loveth is already
born of God, and he knows God. And he that loveth not knoweth
not God. For God is love. Now listen,
in this was manifest the love of God toward us, because that
he sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through him. Here is love, not that we love God. He loved
us and sent his Son to be the perpetuation for our sins. We
love him, verse 19, because he first loved us. That's where
it starts. That's where redemption starts.
We respond, we receive, we believe. He calls, he chooses, he saves. He sheds of all his love. We
love him because he first loved us. All right? If he first loved
everybody, they're going to love him too. That's exactly right. They're
going to love him too. His love. Look at Ephesians 2. Turn to Ephesians 2. Ephesians
chapter 2. Listen to this. Verse 1. You have to be quicker who were
dead. you were dead in trespasses and
sins, and he quickened you. Wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the pie of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience worked in us, among whom also we all had our
conversation, citizenship, behavior, in times past, in the lust of
the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
were by nature the children of wrath, children of wrath even
as others. who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sin, hath quickened us together with Christ." That's the result
of his love, he quickens all whom he loves. In John chapter
3, I want you to turn over to John chapter 3. Listen to this,
John chapter 3, verse 30, 35. Universal love, is it true that
God Almighty loves every man the same? John 3, 35, the Father
loves the Son, hath given all things into his hands. He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the
Son shall not see life but the wrath of God. We'll one day abide
on him, Nelson. It abides on Him right now. It
always has an abode on Him. He loves the Son. He loves us
in Christ. Now listen to me. This is what
Scripture declares. God's love is infinite. Without
bounds. Infinite. Like God's power. Like God's
holiness. Like God's justice. It can't
be part love. I hear people say, well, Jacob
have a love, Esau have a love less. God can't be less holy,
can he? God can't be less righteous.
God can't be less true. He's all truth, all holiness,
all righteousness, and all love. He can't love less. God can't
do anything less. You understand what I'm saying?
He can partially do anything. He's God! This generation has
got a little peanut God that they manipulate. God's wrath
either abides on a man or his love abides on him. That's what this is saying. His
love is infinite, it's eternal. It's eternal. He said, I've loved
you with an everlasting love. Known unto God all his works
from the beginning. He declares the end from the
beginning. God doesn't find anything out. He doesn't make alternate
plans. God doesn't change his purpose
or his mind. I'm the Lord, I change not. The
gifts and calling of God are without change. If he changes,
he's got to change for the worse or the better, and he can't do
either one. You understand that? He's God. His law is eternal. His salvation is eternal. It's an everlasting salvation.
His gospel is an everlasting gospel. You understand what I'm
saying? God didn't decide today to do
anything. He's doing today what he's determined
to do before the foundation of the world. Everything's on schedule. His love is infinite, it's eternal,
it's unchangeable. And here's the whole key to the
whole thing. It's always in Christ. In Christ. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, love, forgiveness, mercy, and grace. He that's in
Christ, and he that's without Christ, is wrath and judgment. How do universal love advocates
explain the flood? If anybody is here this morning
who believes God loves everybody the same, how do you explain
Noah was saved and those other people perished? You love both
the same? Come on now. Come on. I'm not a fool. How do you explain Sodom? Lot
and his two daughters were taken to safety and the rest of this
place consumed in fire? God loved both of them the same?
Come on now! I don't mind, you know, people
playing church. Let's not play fool's games and
call it God. That's not God. I explained Jacob and Esau. There's two boys in their mother's
womb, neither one of them was born, neither one done any good
or evil, neither one had ever breathed a breath or spoken a
word or thought a thought. And God said, I love Jacob and
I hate Esau. And he said it in Malachi and
he said it in Romans. He said it twice. I hate Esau. Explain that to me. What are
you going to do with it? Turn to Romans 8. And I'll tell you this, the love
of Christ, the love of God in Christ, now listen to this statement,
this explains the whole, this clears up the whole issue. The
love of God in Christ, alone and only, is not offensive to
anybody except a proud, unbelieving heart. The only man who's offended by
God's love existing in Christ Only, the only person that offends
is a proud, unbelieving heart. The believer knows there's nothing
in him to merit God's love. There's nothing in him that would
cause God to love him. But it's because he's in Christ
that God loves him. It's because he's in his beloved
son that he puts his love upon. It's because we've been perfected
sanctified and redeemed in Christ that we can enjoy the peace and
grace and mercy and love of God. That's the reason. Outside of
Christ is like being out of the ark. Outside of Christ is being outside of the will
of God, the purpose of God and the covenant of mercy. That's
right. All right, read with me Romans
8, verse 35. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. He loved us. I am persuaded that nothing Neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God." Everybody read that together
now. Follow me, read it out loud. Read it. Ready? Which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. That's where it is. And nothing
can separate me from I'm in the ark, I'm in the covenant, I'm
in the kingdom of his dear son, I'm in the church, I'm in the
body, and I'm not in Christ. Let me read you another scripture
from Malachi chapter 3. Chapter 2 of Malachi I believe
it is. Malachi chapter 2, verse 17, is speaking to the preachers,
prophets, false prophets. You wearied the Lord with your
words, yet you say, wherein have we wearied the Lord? You weary
the Lord when you say, when you preach, that every one that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in
them. That makes God mad. When preachers say, everybody
is in the love of God, everybody is in the pleasure of God, everybody
is in the delight of God. Who does evil? Who doesn't believe
in Christ? Who hates the gospel? God loves
them. That makes me mad, God said. Listen to the next question.
Where's the God of judgment? Where's my righteousness? Where's
my judgment? Where's my hatred of sin and hatred of evil? Where's
the God of judgment? If God loves every single son
of Adam, where's the God of judgment? There is none. Yes, there is,
too. God's angry with the wicked.
We, too, were children of wrath, even as others, but now in Christ
Jesus, we who are far off are brought nigh. My beloved friends, that's true. Now that's just true. God is
love in Christ. What about the will of God? Turn
to Ephesians 5, Ephesians 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Listen to
this. Ephesians 1, three verses here,
verse 5. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will." Not our will, his will. He makes
us willing in the day of his power. We're willing. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life. That's a man that's thirsty,
made thirsty by God, and he takes the water of life. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power, according to the good
pleasure of his will. Look at verse 9. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure which he
purposed in himself." Verse 11, "...in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." Actually, if salvation were left
to the human will, nobody would be saved. If salvation were left to the
unregenerate human fallen will, nobody. Christ said two statements,
John 5, you will not come to me that you might have life.
And the next chapter he said, you cannot come except my father
draw you. No man can come to me except
my father who sent me draw him. You will not and you cannot.
You cannot because you will not. That's right. You will not come
to me, because, and therefore you cannot come. But if God makes
you willing, you'll come. See, if God works on us first,
calls us, we're willing. All right, quick, here's blood.
Here's blood. Well, let's turn to that scripture
in Peter, 2 Peter. Let's read that, this will of
God a minute. 2 Peter. People just quote part of it.
In 2 Peter, it's chapter 3. Now just remember, this epistle
is written to the Church. Chapter 3, verse 1, this second
epistle, beloved, I write to you, in both which I stir up
your pure minds by way of remembrance. It's written to believers. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering
to us-ward." That's what he's talking to, the beloved of God,
to us-ward. Long-suffering to us-ward. "...and
not willing that any should perish, but all shall come to repentance."
And they will. You can't make them apply that to
the whole human race. All right, here's blood. Now, it's a fact Christ came
into the world to save sinners, Paul said, of whom I'm chief.
But what a person believes about the death and the life, the life
and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished,
what a person believes about it, what he accomplished, will
determine what he believes about the extent of it. In other words,
what I believe about what Christ did on that cross, what I believe
he actually did, that determines for whom he did it. Let me show
you that in the scripture. I'll just read these to you now,
and you listen to them. We won't turn to them. Hebrews
9.26 says, He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Put
it away. Separated it from us as far as
the east is from the west. He said, casting the depths of
the sea, blotted it out, remembers it no more. Is that what he did?
Did he do that for everybody? If he did, they don't have any
sin. Listen to this scripture, Hebrews 10. We are sanctified,
sanctified, made holy. We are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now you
think about it. Somebody is sanctified through
the offering of his body once for all. Whomever he died for,
for whom he died, they're sanctified. Is everybody sanctified? No. The ones for whom he died. Listen
to this one. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. What did he
do? He purged our sins. Purged them. Purified us. Put them away. Did he do that
for everybody? people for whom he died, he purged
them, purged their sins. Listen to this scripture, 1 Peter. Christ has suffered for sin,
but just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Some
of them will slip out of his fingers. He died just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God, but in the process of
bringing us to God, he lost most of them. But he said, no man
can pluck them out of my hand. use of death, or life, or principalities,
or powers, or things present or past, to separate me from
the love of Christ. But somebody did. He suffered to bring me to God.
And I say, everybody for whom he suffered, he's going to bring
to God. Does that make sense to you? So what I'm saying is,
whatever you believe he did, that's for whom he did it. Isn't
that right? That's okay. Whatever he did.
Now if you don't think he got anything done, you can apply
it to everybody, you can smear it around everywhere. But no,
you smear his blood, it can't cleanse anyway, you know. Oh
yes, it does. Listen to this, 1 John 1, the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us, us, from all
sin. Somebody's going to be cleansed.
I say everybody for whom he died will be cleansed. 2 Corinthians
5, 20. He hath made him to be sin for
us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. Chastisement of our peace was
upon him by stripes. We are healed." Well, there's no doubt. Christ
didn't die for people already in hell. He didn't shed his blood
for people who'll never be sanctified, never be purged, never be cleansed,
never be purified, never be brought to God. What you believe about
what he did, tell me what you believe, and I'll tell you what
you believe about for whom he did it. Finally, his spirit. My friends, there's a general
call, we all know that, Even the natural man is not dead physically. Even the natural man is not dead
mentally. In Adam we are dead spiritually. And the natural
man mentally and physically can see some things and hear some
things. And God leaves them without excuse. The heavens declare the
glory of God. The natural man can see the stars
and the moon and the sun, the heavens, and draw some conclusions
that there is a God. The natural man reads the law.
and smites his conscience, his conscience bearing him witness,
either accusing him or excusing him. Any man can read the law
and come up with the fact that it's wrong to steal and kill
and commit adultery and lie, bear false witness. That's wrong. And man's conscience tells him
it's wrong. But the Holy Spirit comes and gives life, spiritual
life, the life of God. That's what it says. You have
bequeathed who were dead in trespasses and sin. The Holy Spirit reveals
Christ. Christ said, My Spirit will convince
the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And My Spirit
will take the things of mine and show them to you. And it's
by the Holy Spirit that men are drawn to Christ. Our Lord said,
No man can come to me except my Father draw him. How does
the Father draw him? By the Spirit and by the Word. That which is done in the flesh
by natural mind thinking and natural reasoning and natural reading, that's all flesh. That's how you get flesh to your
religion. Men who have no spiritual life and the Holy Spirit's not
teaching them or quickening them, they read the Bible and they
come to certain conclusions. Other men read the Bible and
the Holy Spirit quickening, giving life. They come to the opposite
conclusions. They see Christ. A natural man,
what I'm saying, a natural man, I've heard preachers say, you're
dead as this pulpit. No, you're not. This pulpit doesn't
hear me, you do. This pulpit doesn't see that
word, you do. So a natural man in Adam can see the things around
him and know there's a God. And that's where a man can see
the law and he can conform to some of those laws knowing it's
best for him and his children, wife and family and community.
But a man quickened by the Holy Spirit sees Christ, sees himself
a sinner, in need of a Savior, calls upon Christ, soothes for
mercy and peace, the love of God shed abroad his heart, the
grace of God is given to him, faith is given to him, he rests
in Christ. That's the work of God. Most
religion today, unfortunately, is the work of reason, intellect. And there's a way that seems
right to man that ends destruction. But what I'm talking about here,
and what I read to you in Romans chapter 9, is the work of God.
It's a new birth, new life, new creation, new person, with a new heart,
new nature, nature of God. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding that we may know God, the true God,
and this is eternal life in His Son. All right, I pray God will
bless that to your heart. Let's sing a closing hymn. Let's
sing number 452, My Savior's Love.