Now, let's open our Bibles together
back to Romans 8, if you will. I'm laboring under some difficulty
this morning because of a very severe cold, but I didn't want
to call on someone else to preach. I wanted to bring the message
myself. If you'll bear with me, I'll
attempt to deal with this subject, which I believe that The Lord
has laid upon my heart for this morning hour. Let me read Romans
8 again, verse 28 through 30. Would you read it with me, please?
Follow along. Romans 8, 28. And we know that
all things, all things, some people interpret
that as being Father, Son, Holy Spirit. which of course is included,
no question about that, because God's the first cause of all
things. But all things in eternity, all
things in time, and all things in the future, all things good
and bad, all things spiritual, material, or physical, all things
in our early lives or later life, all things, all things work together
for good, eternal good, not temporal good, eternal good, to them that
love God. Well, we do not love God by nature.
We love Him because He first loved us. Herein is love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son to
be a perpetuation of our sins. We love Him because He first
loved us. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts for the Holy Spirit, but we do love God. We do love
God. And then this identifying characteristic,
to them who are be called according to his purpose. Now, then the
next verse begins with far. It says all things, all things
in eternity or in time, all things of God, all things even originating
with Satan, all things past, present and future, all things
good and bad, all things work together for good, for the eternal
good, to them who love God, who are the called, who are the called
according to His eternal purpose, for, see that, for whom He did
foreknow, did foreordain. Those who love God and who are
the called according to His purpose and for whom all things work
together for the good are those whom God ordained, foreordained. You see that? Whom he foreknew,
for whom he did foreordain, he also did predestinate. He did predestinate. You see,
we have a destination. Our destination is to be conformed
to the image of God's Son. And this was pre. determined. Our destination was predestinated. What were we going to be? We
were going to be like Christ. And those whom he foreknew, he
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. John
said, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon
us, that we should be called sons of God. And it does not
appear what we shall be, but when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is
and be like Him. How do I know I'm going to be
like Him? God predestinated me to be like Him. He predetermined
that everybody whom He saves will be like His Son. Christ
will be the firstborn among many brethren. Everybody in glory
is going to enjoy what he enjoys. They're going to love what he
loves. They're going to like what he likes. They're going
to participate in the things in which he delights to participate.
They're going to be just like Christ. You see that? God's predestinated
it. He's predetermined it. All right,
read on. That he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, called from
what? Called from darkness to light.
He called them out of the dunghill to the throne. He called them
out of the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. He called
them out of the kingdom of evil to the kingdom of his dear son.
He called them to himself. from themselves to Himself. He
called them to repentance. He called them to faith. He called
them to Christ. He called them, how did He call
them? By Spirit, through His Word. And everybody whom He called,
He justified. They've got to have a justification. They've got to have a sanctification.
They've got to be redeemed. They've got to have a pardon.
And whom He justified, Him he also glorified. Several years
ago, I don't know how long it's been, but it's been several years
ago, a pastor of a Presbyterian church up in Pennsylvania called
me, and he asked me if I believed in the doctrines which are commonly
called Calvinism. He said, are you a Calvinist?
Well, I told him, I said, I'm not particularly crazy about
that term because I'm not really a follower of John Calvin. There's
a lot of things about John Calvin that I don't care for, that I
don't approve of. There are a lot of things that
John Calvin taught that I do not teach. But I certainly believe
the doctrines of grace for which Calvin was famous, and I certainly
believe what we call T-U-L-I-P, TULIP. Are you familiar with
that? I think most of you are. John Calvin didn't really systematize
what we call TULIP or Calvinism. That was done after he died,
after he passed on. There was a synod, a group of
religious men that battling what they call Pelagianism and Arminianism. battling what they call free-willism,
semi-Pelagianism, they came up with Tulip. Tulip. And I told him, and he knew what
I was talking about, and this is a term that goes back centuries. It's a term that goes back a
long ways, and it's a term that's understood by most men who know
something about the Word of God and who read the commentaries,
who make it their business to find out what folks believe.
Calvinism. versus Arminianism, Calvinism
as opposed to Pelagianism and Free Willism, TULIP, T-U-L-I-P. I said, yes, I believe those
things. He said, would you come up here and teach it to our church
for five nights? I said, well, yes, I will. What do we mean by TULIP? What
is TULIP? Well, you've got a pencil and
paper, jot this down. if you would like to. If you
don't, that's all right, too. But the T stands for total depravity. Total depravity. That means the
total fall of man, of men. The total fall of men through
Adam into spiritual darkness, death, and alienation from God. That's total depravity. Depravity,
you know what depravity is. It's corruption. Depravity is
death and disease and corruption, degradation. And the word total
means it's total. It's complete. Man's not just
slightly wounded. He's dead. Man's not just lame
on one foot. He's totally lame. He cannot
see God, hear God, love God, know God, or serve God. He's
without hope, without God, without help in this world. That's what
the Scripture teaches. And that's what the old-timers
called total depravity. Now I know modern-day preachers
are not students. Modern-day preachers are entertainers.
Modern-day preachers are back-slappers. Modern-day preachers are hand-shakers.
Modern-day preachers are pavement-pounders. Modern-day preachers are door-knockers.
Modern-day preachers make their headquarters at the hospitals.
Modern-day preachers have deserted the study. They've deserted the
Word of God, and they don't know anything about these things.
But if you go back through church history and you go back with
men who have studied and prayed and sought God's leadership,
they know something about total depravity. It's total deadness,
depravity and corruption. All right, what does the U stand
for, preacher? It stands for unconditional election. Unconditional election. Now,
unconditional is not a Bible term. It's not a scriptural term. But election is. And what we
say when we say election, we're saying this, and I say it without
apology. I say it plainly, as plainly
as I can say, that God did from the beginning, in eternity past,
God did elect. Choose, if you can. God did elect. Choose a people not to service,
to salvation. That's what this book teaches.
God chose men in Christ to salvation. Now He did. Because man is dead,
he can't give himself life. He won't give himself life. Because
man is dead, he won't come to God. You will not come to me,
Christ said, that you might have life. You won't do it. No man
can come to me except my Father which sent me drawing. So God
chose a people and He did this. Now the word unconditional means
this, that He chose them, that election of a people from Adam's
race in Christ was not based on anything God saw in the sinner. What God saw in us did not motivate
His love. There's nothing in us to love.
Now, no, we think there is. We're quite proud of ourselves.
We think there's a whole lot about us to love. But if you
could see us as God sees us, you'd throw up. That's just right. There's nothing in us that's
lovely. There's nothing in us to cause God to want us. He found
the reason in himself. He chose us in Christ according
to the good pleasure of his own will. That's why he chose us.
Our Lord said this. I thank thee, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, because you hid these things from the wise
and prudent and revealing to babe, even so, Father, it seemed
good in your sight." That's the reason God chose. He saved us
for his name's sake. That's what Scripture said. He did it according to the good
pleasure of his own will. God saw nothing in you or me
or anyone else. He saw nothing but Sin and evil
and corruption and rebellion. Flesh is flesh, and in the flesh
no man can please God. What's the L stand for? It stands
for limited atonement. Now let me show you something
here. The atonement, the atonement, the word A-T-O-N-E, M-E-N-T,
is divided into three words actually. It's helpful. At-one-ment. At-onement, atonement, made one,
reconciled, reconciled. Now, we are reconciled to God
by blood. Turn to Leviticus 17, please,
Leviticus chapter 17. I'm trying to be as plain as
I can be this morning, as forceful and plain as I can be concerning
these things which need to be preached. They're not believed.
They're not believed. And even some who claim to believe
them won't preach them. Leviticus 17, 11, for the life
of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the
altar to make an atonement, an atonement at one month for your
souls. It's the blood that maketh an
atonement for the soul. Has anybody got any question
about, is there any doubt about that? It's the blood. It's not
works, it's not ordinances, it's not ceremonies, it's not law,
it's the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. That's what God
said. Without the shedding of blood, there's no atonement,
there's no remission, there's no forgiveness. Now, it's the
blood. Whose blood? It's Christ's blood. It's the
blood of Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. The atonement. And the effectual
atonement is for those whom God hath elected, who do believe and who do come
to Christ, not for all mankind. Consequently, the word limited. That's an unfortunate choice
of words. I'm going to show you that in
a few moments. But you can't spell tulip without an L. Now,
that's the whole problem right there. That's the reason it's
T-U-L-I-P. And that's the reason that's
limited atonement, because you can't spell tulip without an
L. I wish they'd have made it something else, just so they
could leave that L off there. But our forefathers weren't as
nice as we are. They meant what they said. The
atonement is limited. Not limited in its sufficiency,
but limited in its application. It is efficacious and sufficient
for all for whom it was shed. That's what they say. The atonement
is by the blood. The atonement is by the blood
of Christ. The atonement is for the elect. And the atonement
is limited to the elect. That's what they taught. That's
what the Bible teaches. That's just what God's Word teaches.
Now, the fourth word, the fourth letter, is the word I. T-U-L-I. And there's another unfortunate
word, irresistible calling. Now, you know what the calling
is. It said, Whom he foreknew, He predestinated to be like Christ. Whom he predestinated, he called. He called. This means this. It's the calling of the Holy
Spirit and the irresistible calling. It's the calling of the Spirit
through the Word. Now, the other night, we got
into a real discussion up in West Virginia with a friend of
mine on this thing of the Word of God being essential. to the calling of a sinner. My
friends, election is not salvation, it's unto salvation. And those
whom the Father chose, those whom the Father justified, He
must and will call, and they will come. And this calling is
by the Spirit and the Word. Let me show you several scriptures.
Turn to 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Now listen
to this. In 2 Timothy 1 verse 9, it says,
"...who hath saved us, and called us, called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began." God calls us. calls us by His Spirit, but how? Through the Word. Now turn, if
you will, to James, chapter 1. James, chapter 1. It says here
in James 1, verse 18, "...of His own will," of God's will,
not of my will, of God's will. It's not of Him that will it,
nor of Him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. We're
born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, but of God, of His own will. We're saved not by
our free wills, but by God's free will. Now, that's just so.
It's so. It's not my will that brought
me to Christ, it's His will. Of His own will, beget. That's born, that's conceived. Of His own will, beget He us. Watch this now. How? with the Word, not without the
Word, with the Word, with the Word of truth. That's how God
begat us, with the Word. Now turn to I Peter, and I'll
tell you if there's anything that'll kill a church and kill
a congregation and kill missions and evangelism and everything
else is to imply That Almighty God saves sinners without His
gospel, without His Word. It's devastating. It's deadly. Don't ever even be tempted in
that direction. In I Peter 1, verse 23, we're
born again, born again, born from above, born of the Spirit
of God, not of corruptible seed. That's the way we were born the
first time. but are incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth for ever." How are they going to call on Him whom
they haven't believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they haven't heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of
God unto salvation to everyone that believes it. Our Lord said,
Go unto all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. But every one of God's elect
shall be called. Now, the word irresistible, I
said that was an unfortunate word, and it is, because we get
by that that they don't resist. When they do resist, they do. Oh, yeah. Boy, I'll tell you,
I've seen some of God's choice people get mad when they heard
the Word. Get mad, get angry, get violent
when they heard the Word. What I'm saying is this, they
may rebel and they may resist by nature, but they'll not resist
effectually. God will overcome their resistance.
You may have loved ones, right? In other words, this irresistible,
irresistible calling kind of gives the idea that every time
I get up to preach, if one of the elects president of the building,
he just falls in love with Jesus. No, no, he doesn't. Sometimes
he says, well, boy, I won't hear that again. Boy, I hate that. That's not what my mama taught
me. That's not what I believe. That's not what my Bible said,
you know. But I'll tell you this. If you want a God's own, you'll
hear his voice eventually. Sooner or later. Paul was 40
years old before he heard God. Eventually, God will get you.
Eventually, He'll break you. Eventually, He'll strip you.
Eventually, He'll bring you to Him. Eventually, effectually. So when they say irresistible
grace, what they mean by that is they can't resist effectually. They will come. All that my Father
giveth me shall come to me. That's what Christ said. They
shall come. And him that cometh out of no
wise cast out. But they're going to come willingly.
They're going to come willingly. They're going to come lovingly.
God saves us against our wills with our full consent. Did you
know that? That's right. He makes us willing He said that
people shall be willing in the day of our power when God sets
his love upon an object He's gonna have it and he's gonna
have that object willingly and lovingly as if that object came
all of its own That's just so or at the P What does the P stand
for it stands for perseverance? I? Whom the Father chose, whom
he predestinated to be like Christ, whom he called, whom he justified,
he's going to glorify. In fact, that word's past tense.
He's already glorified. Already. We're already seated
with Christ in the heavenlies. Now, let me come back to these
just briefly. And when I went up there to preach
to this congregation, I preached to them like I preach to you.
I'm not called to prove doctrine. God did not call us to prove
doctrine. He called us to preach Christ.
He called us not to prove doctrine, but to preach Christ. Not to
preach the doctrine alone, but to preach Christ and the gospel.
Did you know a man can, to some extent, preach the doctrine and
not preach Christ? Did you know that? That's exactly
right. You can go out of here preaching
doctrine and not preach Christ. And it's possible for a man to
some degree to believe these doctrines, listen to me now,
and to give mental assent to these doctrines and not know
Christ. Did you know that? That's true.
Now I will give you an illustration. It is my opinion that Saul of
Tarsus, Saul of Tarsus who was born a Hebrew of Hebrews, grew
up in a Hebrew home, grew up in a synagogue, grew up at the
feet of Gamaliel, that great teacher, graduated with honors. It is my opinion that Saul of
Tarsus strongly believed in the sovereignty of God." I'm just
certain he did. I'm certain he did. You see,
the God of the Old Testament, the Jewish God, the God of Abraham,
Jacob, and Isaac, whom Saul claimed to worship, was a sovereign God. They believed that. And I'm persuaded
that Saul of Tarsus believed in election, Charlie. He believed
in the election of the Jewish nation. Yes, he did. He did not
believe the Gentiles had any part or parcel in the kingdom
of God, right? He believed in sovereignty, he
believed in election, and I'm sure he believed the atonement
was only for the Jew. You know that? Yes, he did. Because
only the Jew had a tabernacle, only the Jew had a priest, and
only the Jew had an atonement. So Saul of Tarsus believed in
the sovereignty of God, he believed in unconditional election, and
he believed in limited atonement, and he believed in the security
of the Jew. He didn't believe any Jew would ever perish. He
said, we have Abraham, our father. And yet he didn't know God. He
did not know God. He did not know Christ. And on
that road to Damascus, he met the Lord Jesus Christ. A person
does not necessarily arrive at a knowledge of Christ because
he knows the doctrines, you see. But a person who comes to know
the Christ will come to know the doctrines of Christ. Now,
I just know that to be so. If you love the teacher, you
love his teaching. Somebody asked me one time, do
you believe a person has to believe in election to be saved? I said,
no, sir. No, sir. A person has to believe in Christ
to be saved. A person has to know he's a sinner and believe
in Christ and with his heart embrace Christ and love Christ
and rest in Christ. But if he's reading the words
of Christ and those words teach election, he'll believe it because
he believes his Lord, because he believes his God. A person
doesn't have to believe in total depravity. He doesn't have to
believe in particular redemption to be saved. But I'm telling
you, if he loves Christ, and he's reading the words of Christ,
and the words of Christ teach this, he's going to bow to the
Word of Christ. He's going to bow to his Lord. I accepted the pastor's invitation. I went up there and preached
for a week, and this is how I changed these words. I took total depravity,
and I said, this is nothing in the world but S-I-N. S-I-N. I'm going to preach to you what
sin is. S-I-N. Now, my friends, what do you
believe about sin? What do you believe about sin?
Somebody says, well, it's missing the mark. That's true. Well,
somebody said it's a transgression of the law. That's true. Somebody says, well, it's coming
short of the glory of God. That's true. But none of these
definitions clearly carry the serious problem of sin. If you want to rightly understand
what sin is, you've got to consider it under four headings. I gave
you this last Sunday, and we'll be brief this morning. You've
got to consider sin, first of all, in its origin. Where did it come from? Now you
can't say that my little baby, my little son was born innocent
and when he reached a certain age he became a sinner. That's
not where sin came from. Sin started in the Garden of
Eden by one man. Sin entered the world and death
by sin and death passed upon all men then and there. It's
called imputed guilt. It's called imputed sin. It's
original sin. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Back there. Then you have to
consider sin as an inward problem. It's a nature. The natural mind is enmity against
God. Men love darkness because their
deeds are evil. Our Lord said, You have not the
love of God in you. You will not come to me that
you might have life. You seek not the honor that comes
from God. And He said, Let another come
in his own name, and him you will receive. I come in my Father's
name, you receive me not. Inwardly, by nature, we're totally
void of any spiritual life. And I said this last night, and
I'm going to say it to you this morning. The only thing that keeps anyone
in here, any person, from the lowest acts of flesh, I mean
the most degraded acts of flesh, as your mind considers the acts
of flesh, let it go down to the lowest possible acts of flesh. And the only thing that keeps
you from that right now is the restraining grace of God, the
restraining hand of God, because you're flesh. All Almighty God
would have to do to turn this whole world into hell today is
lift His Spirit, take His Spirit, His restraining Spirit that hinders
the Antichrist, and that hinders the Spirit of Antichrist, and
that hinders the total corruption of flesh. It's not you, it's
the restraining hand of God that keeps you from the worst kind
of sin, because you're flesh. When those people crucified Christ,
you said, I wouldn't have done that. You would have under those
same circumstances and conditions. Almighty God decreed and determined
for His Son to be crucified. Now listen to me. What I'm saying
is true. He decreed for Christ to be crucified. And when He delivered Christ
into the hands of those men, All God had to do was remove
his restraining hand to certain degrees from them, and they did
what they pleased to do. Ronnie, that's exactly right.
If he'd have lifted a little more cannibals, they'd have eaten
him. They'd have born him. They'd have skinned him, boiled
him, and eaten him. And God lifted his hand to the
restraint he wished to lift it to carry out his purpose and
will. But they did exactly what they pleased to do. And right
here in this congregation, all of us are capable of the lowest
type of sin if God removes His hand. Now, that's so. Flesh is
flesh, and flesh cannot please God, and in the flesh dwelleth
no good thing. That's right. We might not like that, but I'm
trying to tell you what sin is. Total depravity. It's total. And there's not one in a thousand
that believe it. You say, I believe in total depravity.
You don't know such thing. You're just saying that. If you
believed it, you'd despair. You'd cry to God for mercy. You'd
look to God for help. You'd never boast another time
in your life. You'd never lift your voice to
say, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't say that. You'd say,
except for God's grace, I wouldn't do that. It's only God's grace
that keeps me from it. You'd have compassion on even
a murderer, knowing that if it wasn't for God's grace, you'd
kill your best friend. Now, this is what Scripture teaches.
The carnal mind is death, it's enmity, it's darkness. And another
thing is outward transgression. Sin must be considered under
these headings, original, inward. That's the reason Paul said he's
the chief of sinners. O wretched man that I am! And then it's outward, and then
the sin of our righteousness. We haven't seen that yet. We
all do fade as the leaves. Our iniquities have driven us
away. Even our righteousness is a filthy rag. Man at his best
state is vanity, left to himself, left to himself. No man can,
will, seek God, love God, worship God, or know God. That's so.
Now that's just so. That's just so. We happen to
live right now in a day of restraining grace. God, for purposes known
only to Himself, has been pleased in this generation, in this town,
to restrain the flood tides of sin for some reason. But he's
doing it, you're not. And I'm not. He's doing it. That's
so. That's total depravity. All right,
election. I got to quit. But election,
I changed it to just sovereignty and salvation. Salvations of
the Lord. Jonas said that. Salvations of
the Lord. Salvation not of the preacher.
Salvation not of the church. Salvation not of the Pope. Salvation
not of the Catholic organization. Salvation not something I do
for God. Salvation's of the Lord. The salvation of the righteous
is of God, the Scripture says. It's of the Lord, Mike. It's
of God that showeth mercy. God planned it. God executed
it. Pleased God to bruise him. God
applied it. God sustains it, and God will
protect it. Turn to II Thessalonians 2, just
a moment. II Thessalonians 2, verse 13. Paul said, we're bound. We're
bound, bound to give thanks always to God for you. Thank God for
you. That is brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God, God has from the beginning chosen you
to salvation. To what? To salvation. How? Whether I ever believe or not.
No, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth. You're going to believe the truth. It's the truth that saves. You should know the truth. The
truth will make you free. But God chose us. God is sovereign
in all things. And there are two things that
make election essential. One is the shape man's in, in
his deadness and depravity, and the other is because of who God
is. Because of who God is. So God, I tell you this, election
doesn't keep anybody out of the kingdom of God. It's the door
by which men enter the kingdom of God. If God had not chosen
some, none would have come. And He chose them according to
the good pleasure of His own will, not for any good seen in
them. He said to Moses, I'll be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Now the third, atonement, substitution. I change that to substitution.
Sin, sovereignty and salvation, and substitution. I'm saying
this. Now listen to me, please. There's no limit to the sufficiency
of Christ's blood. If the Lord Jesus Christ had
come into this world to save one sinner, just one, one son
of Adam, one son of Adam, he would have had to do everything
he did. Isn't that clear? To save one
sinner. You see, it's not how many sins,
it's the evil of sin. It's the fact of sin. It's the
truth of sin. It's putting away the guilt of
sin. Christ would have had to become a man, obey the law, go
to the cross, die, buried, rose again, ascend to heaven and intercede.
If our Lord is pleased to save tens of tens of tens of billions
of men, he won't have to do any more. It's not how much blood
was shed, it's whose blood. It's not how long he died, it's
who died. You see that? The efficacy, the
sufficiency, the power of his blood. And then I say this, there's
a sense in which he bought the world. He died that he might
be Lord of the dead and the living. He bought the world. When he
died, he conquered Satan. The prince of this world is judged
by whom? The Son of God. His power is
broken by the Son of God. He has conquered. His government
is destroyed. There's a sense in which our
Lord Jesus is the Lord by His death of those who are dead and
those who are living, of those who are elect and those who are
non-elect. He is the Lord. He's the supreme
ruler of the universe. God designed it, decreed it,
and He died to accomplish it. All authority is given unto Him
in heaven and earth. that he might give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. But, listen, thirdly, before
God, before the throne of God, before the mercy seat, he represented,
redeemed, and ransomed his elect. He is the effectual high priest,
not for the whole world, but for Israel. The names of his
people are on his breastplate. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities
by his stripes. We are healed. We are redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. He said, I am the good shepherd.
I lay down my life for my sheep. The atonement, the reconciliation,
the redemption was for his own. He gave a redemption that redeemed. He provided a ransom that ransoms. It's effectual. If our Lord Jesus
Christ died for those in heaven as well as those in hell, then
his death saved no one. It saved no one. No one's in
heaven because he died for them. They're there because they believe.
Is that correct? That's what they're teaching. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Irresistible grace or sanctification. He, in turn,
if you will, to II Thessalonians 2.13 again. Let me just deal
with that for just a second and we'll pass on. But he says here
in II Thessalonians 2.13, We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit. The word sanctification is set
apart. You go back to the Old Testament
and you pick up the word sanctification. It means to set apart. It means
to regard as holy. It means to declare to be holy. It means to make holy. God sanctified
the Sabbath day one day out of seven. It's taking something
which is common and ordinary and setting it apart for a holy
purpose. That's sanctification. is taking
something which is ordinary, something which is common, and
making it belong to God in every aspect. He took the firstborn
son. He took the Sabbath day. He took
the vessels of the temple. He took the priesthood. He sanctified
them. That is, he set them apart. He
says, these are mine. And when he set us apart and
sanctified us by his Holy Spirit, He set us apart to belong to
him. Out of Adam's race, there's a
people that belongs to Christ. And Christ, the Holy Spirit,
sanctified them, set them apart. The Lord Jesus came and redeemed
them and made them holy, and God calls them to himself. All
right, the fifth thing, and I'll close, is the perseverance of
the saints. Now let's turn to Jeremiah 32.
Jeremiah 32. Now, my friends, I know somebody was telling me
yesterday about a preacher that preached down here in Ashland
a few years ago, and this is common. He quoted something,
and somebody said, well, where's that in the Bible? Well, it wasn't
in the Bible, you know, and he said, it's that verse just below
the verse that teaches, once saved, always saved. Everybody
laughed, you know, that's funny. Well, let me tell you something. The Scripture says, Whom God
foreknew, he predestinated. Whom he predestinated, he called.
Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
Our Lord said, All that my Father giveth me will come to me, and
him that cometh out of no wise cast out. I came down from heaven
not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I'll lose nothing, but raise it up at the last day.
Our Lord said, My sheep hear my voice, they follow me, I give
them eternal life, and they'll never perish, and no man will
pluck them out of my hand. Now, if you want to, you can
make a joke of and laugh at the Word of God, but I ain't fixin'
to. And the sheep of Christ and His power to keep them. It's
not a laughing matter. And there's some folks gonna
be called up in judgment one of these days for ridiculing
the Word of God. Our Lord has a people. and he
redeemed them, and the Holy Spirit calls them, and God'll keep them.
God'll keep them. Now, you may not be one of His,
but if you are, I'll see you in glory if I'm one of His. That's
just all there is to it. And it says here in Jeremiah
32, listen to it, verse 40, and God said, I'll make a covenant.
Now, these pack-witted preachers don't know what a covenant is.
They're just a bunch of money raisers and other kind of raisers. And they don't know anything
about the Word of God. But God says, I'll make a covenant
with them, and I'll not turn away from them. I will not turn
away from them to do them good. I'll put my fear in their hearts,
and they shall not depart from me. Now, that's God's promise.
Who are we going to believe, God or some jack-legged preacher? There are whole denominations
that laugh at security. Let me tell you, if I'm not secure
in Christ, then he's not the Christ. I'd better look for another
one. If I'm not secure in his cross, then his cross is a mockery.
If I'm not secure in his promise, then his promise ain't worth
a snap of the finger. If I'm not secure in Christ,
there is no security, because there's none in the law, none
in the church, and none in the flesh. It's in Christ. And I'm
not going to tolerate any more of this making fun of the Word
of God. These precious truths that our
Savior taught, that the apostles taught, we are kept by the power
of God through faith. Paul said, I know that he that
has begun a good work in you is going to finish it. And the
wise men in Ecclesiastes said, if God began it, God will finish
it. And no man can put anything to
it. And all of it goes back to who saved you. Who saved you? That's what we're going to talk
about. Tonight, turn back to Romans 8. And I'll wind it up. You say, I'm sure glad he was
sick this morning. We'd have been healed tonight. But sometimes
when we're weakest physically, we can maybe get a little more
power spiritually. But tonight I'm going to preach
on verse 31. What have you got to say to these
things? Now, what's your reaction? Everybody's got a reaction. And
I'm going to find out what yours is and what mine is. Paul had
a reaction to it, and that's what we're... What is the effect
of this kind of preaching? I hear people say, well, if I
believed that, I wouldn't preach anymore. Yeah, well, that's the reaction.
That's the effect it has on you. But we're going to find out what
effect it has on saved people tonight, people who know God.
There it is. May God bless it. Mike, come
lead us in 480.