From John 6, verse 37, I'll read
the text and then proceed with the introduction. In John 6,
verse 37, the scripture says all. Now these folks had just let
the Lord Jesus Christ know that they weren't impressed. They
weren't impressed. He said, you don't believe me.
You don't believe me, but all that my Father giveth me shall
come to me. All that my Father giveth me
shall come to me. There's no doctrine in the whole
Word of God, not one, that has generated more hatred more hatred among religious people. Now, not especially people of
the world, but church people. There's no doctrine in the Word
of God that has generated more hatred among religious people
than the truth of God's absolute sovereignty in all things. Now, let this be established,
and everyone will have to agree, The fact that the Lord God reigneth
is indisputable. Is that correct? The Lord God
reigneth. That's indisputable. God reigns. The Scripture says in Psalm 99,
the Lord reigneth. The Lord ruleth. Let the people
tremble. The Lord sitteth between the
cherubims. Let the earth be moved. That's
indisputable. God reigns. Nebuchadnezzar said,
The Lord reigns in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. None can
stay his hand, or say unto him, What are you doing? None. Isaiah said, and I wish you'd
turn to this scripture, Isaiah 46. Listen to this. Isaiah 46,
we'll begin our reading with verse 9. And Isaiah wrote, remember,
Isaiah chapter 46, verse 9, remember, the former things of old, I am
God. There is none else, I am God. There is none like me. I declare
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure. calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far country,
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I purposed
it, I'll do it." Is that true? That's an indisputable fact.
The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. He reigns in heaven, He reigns
on the earth. David said he doeth according
to his will. He doeth as he pleases in heaven,
earth, the seas, and all deep places. Now, one other scripture.
I would like you to look at this. The book of Psalms. The book
of Psalms, chapter two. Now, listen to this. Psalm, chapter two. This is an
indisputable fact that I'm establishing the Lord reigns, the Lord ruling. Why do the heathen reign? Psalm
2, verse 1. Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
the rulers of the earth take counsel together against the
Lord, against His anointing, the Lord Jesus saying, let's
break their bands asunder. We won't have this man reign
over us. Let's cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth
in the heaven shall lie. He that sitteth in the heaven
shall lie. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them, trouble
them in his sore displeasure." The Lord raised, that's indisputable. Who art thou to reply against
God? All right, secondly, I walk personally,
speaking for myself. I want to be among those who
know the living God, as He's revealed in His Word. I want
to know Him. I want to be among those who
willingly, willingly and humbly bow before His Majesty. I want
to bow. I don't mean at the judgment,
I mean before the judgment. I want to believe Him. One of the hymn writers says,
God is the king of power unknown. Firm are His decrees, firm is
His throne. If He purposes, who shall dare
oppose, or ask Him why, or what He does? Now listen to this. Here's the
third thing. God has a right. Now, I want
you to listen to this. Some man, one of the men that
studied, Jim Eccles, prayed that I could preach the gospel tonight. This is the very foundation on
which that gospel is gloriously displayed. God has the right
to act as he will, when he will, and through whom he will, because,
number one, He's the creator, Charlie. That gives him that
right. He said, can I not do with my
own what I will? I made it. It's mine. I will dispose of it as I please. Is that not true? He's the creator.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It rested with God whether to
make a world or not make a world. Listen to the book of Colossians,
chapter 1. Listen to what this says so clearly. Colossians,
chapter 1, beginning with verse 16. Colossians 1, 16. It says,
For by him were all things made, created that are in heaven, earth,
visible, invisible. Whether they be thrones, or dominions,
or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him,
and And Tom, for him, for him. You listening? God has the right
to do what he will, when he will, with whom he will, Charlie, because
he made it. It's his. Don't tell me what
I can do with my own. It's mine. I don't want to burn
it up. That's my business. I made it.
It's mine. Revelation 4, 11. Listen to this. Revelation chapter 4, verse 11.
Thou art worthy, O Lord. Thou art worthy to receive glory
and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and
for Thy pleasure they are and were created." That's about it,
Garrett. He made it his business what he does with it. He has
the right as the creator to do what he will with his own. Hath
not the potter power over the clay? It rested with God. to make the
world or not make it. It rested with God to make man
or not make it. It was according to His will
to make one creature a worm and another an eagle. That's right. Thinking about
the other day, we went fishing up in, you know, we went fishing. We caught 130 by five hours. They were pretty good size, too.
But we had some of those night crawlers. Worms. Worms. And one of the boys looked up
and he said, I saw an eagle right over there the other day. And
I thought as I held that worm in my hand, a lot different than
a worm and an eagle. Who made the difference? God did. Rested totally with
Him. It's by His decree that you're
a female and He's a male. It's by God's decree. You are
what you are because God made you what you are. It's by His decree to make one
walk on the earth and another swim in the sea. It's by His
own will and decree that one's born in Russia and one's born
in China and you're born in the USA. I'm always so glad that
plane touches down in the United States. And your physical body, short,
tall, fat, lean, your mental capacity, your temperament, your
talents and your gifts are determined by Almighty God. That's right. shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why do you make me like this?" If you want proof of that, turn
to 1 Samuel 2. Don't tell me any of this is
by chance. It's not by chance, it's by choice,
God's choice. Somebody said, every believer
ought to read Hannah's prayer at least once a week. 1 Samuel 2, verse 1, Hannah prayed
and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted
in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none
as holy, none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee.
Neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more, succeeding
proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions
are weighed. The bowels of the mighty men
are broken, and they that stumble are girded with strength. They
that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they
that were hungry cease, so that the barren hath borne seven,
and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord kills,
and the Lord makes alive. The Lord brings down to the grave
and brings The Lord maketh poor, the Lord maketh rich, the Lord
bringeth low, the Lord lifteth up. Who does these things? God
does. He's the Creator. The Lord is
King. Who then shall dare to resist
His will, or distrust His cast, or murmur at His wise decrees,
or doubt His steadfast promises? The Lord is King, child of the
dust. The judge of all this earth is
just. holy and righteous are all his
ways. So let every creature sing his
praise." All right, now listen to that. That's the stat. Those
indisputable facts. I don't say anything else. I've
said something tonight. The Lord is an indisputable,
absolute, sovereign monarch who reigns over all of his creation
because he made Secondly, God has the right to
do, what's this now, to do what he will, when he will, with whom
he will, not only because he's the creator of all things, and
it belongs to him by those rights of creation, but he has the right
to do with you and me what he will because he's the judge of
this earth. He's the judge. He's the judge,
not a judge, the judge. Now, illustration. This is highly
important right here. Change your whole way of thinking
if you see this. Here's what I'm saying. The Constitution
of the United States of America, of which I'm a citizen, guarantees
me freedom. The right to go where I please,
live where I please, work where I please, and do as I please
so long as I don't offend or break the laws. Is that correct? That's correct. Constitution
guarantees me the right to live where I want to. I can live—if
I want to move to Florida, Wisconsin, I can do
I can go where I please, as long as I don't break the law. But,
if I commit a murder, or if I commit a robbery, or if I commit treason,
I lose my freedom, and I am brought under the law, and I'll be put
in prison with other criminals, and then the judge is going to
determine my future. My future is no longer in my
hands. I forfeited my right. Is that correct? My future is
in the hands of the man, sits on the bench. He has a book before
him that lets him know the maximum he can give me. That's right. All right? The law of God. The
law of God is the law of the universe. And the law of God
says, do this and live. That's all there is to it. obey
God, man God, worship God, live perfectly before God, walk in
holiness before God, and you can bring before God the claim
to freedom. That's right. You got the right. But if you sin, you're no longer
free. You're now under the law. And
your case rests in the hands of the judge. Is that right? You're not going to tell him
where you're going to live and what you're going to do. That's
right. No more. You could have, if you
had walked perfectly before God, if you hadn't been guilty of
murdering his only begotten son. That's what you did. You murdered
God's son. And you committed treason against
the king. And you've lost your freedom.
Every son of Adam's lost his freedom. And he's now in the
hands of the judge. The trial's over. You're not
on probation. God said the soul that sinneth
shall die. The soul that obeyeth shall live. What saith the Lord Moses? Do
this and live, and be free. Go where you will. Go to heaven
if you will. Once you break the law, you're
not free anymore. You're now under condemnation.
And you're now in the hands of a judge who said, I will by no
means clear the guilty. You know what he said? You're
in the hands of a judge who said over and over again, the soul
that sinned, it shall surely die. The judge of the earth will
do right. He's not like these judges we've
got on our benches. Coddle criminals, set free criminals,
put them on the street after they ought to be in the lecture
chair. No, sir, this judge will do right. His judgments are just. And the soul that's in it will
surely, as God's in heaven, die. I guarantee you. They're going
to die. We're going to die. What claim
do you have on God? Just come on, bring it forth.
You have as much claim on God as that rapist and murderer has
who's sitting down there on death's row. You know what kind of claim
he's got? None. And that's how much claim you've
got in heavenly places. None. You've forfeited him. So I say, secondly, first of
all, God has the right to do what He will with everybody here
and everybody in this world and everything in this world. Every
bolt of lightning and floating cloud and drop of rain and snowflake
and every creature, fowl and fish and whatever, and every
son of Adam, because He made it. He made it. It is. And secondly, He's got a right
to do with you what He will because you're a criminal on death's
row who is a traitor, a murderer, and a thief, and a robber, and
a liar. And you tried to tear up God's kingdom. And you've
lost all your claims to freedom. You're in the hands of a judge
who must do right. Now then, God has a right to do, to put
us away in condemnation. But, but, what I've said so far is
subtle. Whether this generation likes
it or not, it's subtle. But if the living God, if the
sovereign living God is pleased in His own counsel and purpose
and will and good pleasure, and in His love and mercy, if He's
pleased and if He wills, and if He sees fit to pardon, to
pardon and justify and set free, of people out of our race. Now
watch it. Consistent with his principles
of justice, righteousness and truth. And he's got the right to do
it, hasn't he? If he wants to. If he wants to. I say if he can save a people
If he can pardon and justify and set free and redeem and deliver
a people, I say, consistent with his justice, with his holiness
and righteousness, he can do it, if he will. He doesn't have to, but he can.
God can do what he will, and he always does what's right.
You know that? He always does what's right.
And this is what Paul addresses in Romans 3. Will you turn over
there a minute? This is what I'm talking about
here is the very thing that Paul looks in the eye in Romans 3
and deals with. We've forfeited any claim on
God, heaven or salvation. We've forfeited any claim to
freedom. But if God, consistent with His
justice, consistent with His holiness, consistent with His
truth, is pleased to have mercy upon somebody, then He can do
it. It says here in Romans 3, 19.
Now, this is what Paul addresses. Now, we know. We know this. This
is so that what things are, so as the law saith, it saith to
them who under the law. That's you and me. We forfeited
our claims, so let every mouth be stopped." There's no plea,
there's no appeal, and all the world just become guilty, subject
to the judgment of God. That's what it says in the margin,
guilty before God. Before whom? Before God. He's
the judge. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, the works of the flesh, there shall no flesh be justified
in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But,
wait a minute, But now the holiness of God, and I said it, Mike,
it must be consistent with His holiness and consistent with
His justice. But now the righteousness of
God without the law, without our obedience to the law, is
manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. It's
even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference.
For all his sinning comes short of the glory of God, but being
freely justified, or justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth or foreordained
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
God's righteousness for the remission of sins of the past through the
forbearance of God, and to declare, I say at this time, God's righteousness,
that he might be just. and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Will you hear me? In Christ, through Christ's perfect
life as a man, fulfilling God's holy law, through Christ's death
and atonement on that cross, Almighty God, according to his
own will and purpose and good pleasure, has made a way by which
he can honor, satisfy, and glorify all the claims of his inflexible
justice and his inflexible holiness, and yet bestow mercy on the guilty. Now then, let me go over that.
I want you to observe three rights which belong to God, only to
God. Three rights. and learn something
about the living God. You know, Job said one time,
Lord, I've heard of you. And there's nobody here that
hadn't heard of God, and there's nobody that'll hear this tape
that hadn't heard of God. But whether or not we've heard
of the living God depends upon the knowledge of the one who's
telling us about it. A man can't tell what he doesn't know. So these are the rites of God,
the God of the Bible, the living God. As creator, all sovereign
rights belong to God. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? Number two, as the supreme one and only judge of the universe,
he has not only the right, but the requirement. to punish
the guilty. He must punish sin. He must. And he must put all
evil where it will do no more harm. He must be in God. We, he's got to put evil out
of the universe. I tell you, we have, let me tell
you, you have enough evil and I have enough evil in my heart
to destroy that new heaven and new earth. Do you know that? Part of it is to say, God's not
going to let you in heaven in the shape you're in. Why, you'd
start a revolt in heaven. You'd run. See, there's nothing
there that'd work it or make it alive. It's God's kingdom
wherein dwelleth righteousness. And you just, you don't have
the equipment. You can't meet the requirements.
I'm sorry, I can't either. No human being can. God's got
to judge us like we are. But, now wait a minute, wait
a minute. In His divine wisdom, as the
originator of the everlasting covenant, as the founder of that
covenant of mercy and grace, as the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, as the giver, the merciful giver of his only
begotten Son as the fountain of every grace. God has the right
to show mercy in Christ to whom he will. Do you know that? Now, wait a minute. If we have a claim on God's gift,
it's not a gift. Right? If we have a claim on
God's gift, it's not a gift. If we have a claim on mercy,
if not mercy, if we have one single claim on God's grace,
if not grace, if any man by his works or by his merit deserves
to be saved, then salvation is not by grace, it's by works. Moses says, show me your glory,
God. He said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before you. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. That's his right. That's his
right. If any man, listen to me, if
any man, woman, boy or girl, comes to God, this God of the
sovereign Creator, Judge, and Redeemer. If any man comes to
God expecting to receive of Him any favor because of any right,
merit, claim, worth, or work, he comes to this God on a false
foundation. And this God will not tolerate
it for one moment. Not this God. I'm telling you
the truth. You'll come empty-handed, or
don't come. The hymn writer said, Here I
raise mine Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I am come,
and I hope by God's good pleasure safely to arrive at home. Jesus
sought me when a stranger, wandering willingly from the fold of God,
and He, to restore me from danger, interposed His own precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be! Lord, let Thy goodness, like
a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. I'm prone to wonder,
Lord, I feel it! prone to leave the God I love,
here's my heart, take it, seal it, seal it for thy courts above." You know that's so? God has the right, as Creator,
to dispose of all that He's made as He will. God has the right,
as Judge, to deal with us in accordance with his holiness
and justice. But, as a sovereign Redeemer, out of the good mercy of his
own heart, if he's pleased, through the righteousness of his Son,
to save one here and one there, then he's got the right to do
it, and to pass by the others. That's right. Now some call this
high doctrine. from which they turn away in hate. Some call it heresy. I call it high doctrine and good
hope. Good hope. In fact, that's where
the hope is. Not in you. It's in Him. My hope's not in the fact that
I won't change. I will. My hope's in the fact
He won't change. He can't. My hope's not in the fact that
I'll keep loving him. My hope's in the fact that he'll
never stop loving me. You're a fool to hope in anything
else. I don't know about tomorrow,
but I know who holds tomorrow. And that's my hope. I call this
high doctrine and sweet assurance. I call it high doctrine and good
news. But watch it. Sure it's high
doctrine. It's as high as the throne of God. But now, wait
a minute. It is from that throne that all
blessings come, so we better get some high doctrine, hadn't
we? If your doctrine doesn't reach to the throne, you better
get you some more doctrine. Somebody said, don't preach that
high doctrine. Oh yeah, yeah, I want to get up there where
the throne is. That's what's wrong now, that they're not preaching
any high doctrine, see, so they're preaching this low-down stuff.
God says, you thought I was altogether such a one as you, you've reached
up and tried to bring me down to your level, and that won't
work. You better get those folks up here where I am and let them
look around. Sure it's high doctrine, as high
as the throne of God, but it's from that throne that mercy comes. Let us come boldly before the
throne of grace, that we may find mercy to help time of need. Sure it's high doctrine, it's
as high as the throne of God, but I'll tell you this, You're
going to stand at that throne someday. It would be better to
stand there this Wednesday night, in August 1986, than to stand
there then. Sure it's high. Sure it's high. Sure it's high doctrine. But
I tell you this, it's true. It has to be high to have anything
to do with God. Because the scripture says He's
high and lifted up. And his train filled the temple.
I turned our text again in John 6, and I'll let you go. Here's some of that high doctrine. And the Lord Jesus said, All
that my Father giveth me shall come to me. In other words, there's
some folks out of our race that are going to be saved. And secondly, you know why they're
going to be saved? Two reasons. The Father willed
it, and they come to the Son. That's right. The Father willed
it, and the Son performed it. And so this is true, too, that
if I come to Christ, I must be one of the elect. That's the
evidence I'm one of the elect, because I came to Christ. We
know we pass from death unto life, John said, because we love
the brethren. All right, look at the next line. And him that
cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out for any reason under
any circumstances. If you come to me, I'll never
cast you out. Everybody who comes to Christ
has one common character. They come to Christ. That's what
we got in common. We came to Christ. They have
one common goal, they come to Christ. Some walk and some run,
some take longer, some come out of the gutter and some come out
of the pulpit, but they all came to Christ. Common goal, that's
right. They have one common need, they
came for help, mercy and bread. And they have one common result,
He'll never cast them out. I read this today out of one
of the old hymnals by Joseph Hart. It says, now listen to
this, this is good. What makes mistaken men afraid
of sovereign grace to preach? The reason, if truth be said,
is because they are so proud. Why so offensive in men's eyes
does God's election seem? Because they think themselves
so wise that they must have chosen Him. Why is imputed righteousness
a truth so little known? Because men think they all possess
a righteousness of their own. Election is a word divine. For Lord, I plainly see, had
not your choice preceded mine, I'd have never chosen thee. So
empty, bare, I come to thee, for righteousness divine. O Lord,
may life and merit be by imputation mine. His counsel stands forever sure,
immortal and divine. and justice, mercy, truth, and
power unite in Christ to make it mine. Isn't that good? High doctrine. What's so high
about that? They mean by high, impossible
to, impossible to enter into. But it's not at all, is it? Not
at all. It's giving God the glory, which
is rightfully His.