My subject tonight is, Will Calvinism Kill a Church? Will Calvinism Kill a Church? When I was in North Carolina
last week, I had the privilege of having fellowship with many
preacher brethren. From Sunday night through Thursday
night, there were, not counting the pastor and I, 16 different
ministers who attended the services at Rosemont. On Thursday night,
a pastor and his assistant drove down from Yanceyville, North
Carolina, Pastor Bob Williams, who is pastor of the community
Baptist church there, has been there for seven or eight years,
and he is Brother Rick Markham's pastor, the missionary to Ireland.
He called me and told me that he was coming down to attend
the meeting and would like to have supper with me. And so we met together that evening,
and we spent some time talking together. And during the course
of the conversation, he said that he had run into through
the years, opposition to what we call Calvinism, or sovereign
grace, or the message which he had been preaching for a good
while. And he said people made the statement that Calvinism
would kill a church. It would kill a missionary program.
It would kill enthusiasm. It would kill zeal. It would
just destroy all these things. And while we talked, I thought
to myself, I believe I'll preach on that Sunday night. Will Calvinism
really kill a church? Will it kill missionary zeal? Will it kill missionary efforts? Will it kill fellowship? Will it really put the mark of
death on a congregation? Now, if you'll pardon me for
saying so, I hate to be different. But then again, I don't hate
it too badly because I don't make too much effort not to be.
But I just don't particularly care for the term Calvinism. I know a lot of people use it.
I know Mr. Spurgeon, who is my favorite
preacher and writer, was quite fond of the term. And he often
said, Calvinism, pure and simple, is just the gospel. And I know
that People understand when we use the word Calvinism, they
understand what we call the five points, and it is a shortcut.
But I feel like that any unscriptural term, and it's not a scriptural
term at all, it's not in the Bible because it's a term that
comes from the name of a man, John Calvin, who pastored in
Switzerland many years ago. But they say, well, use the term
for brevity. And people have used it in religious
circles for many years. So why not use it? Well, here's
the reason. Unfortunately, Calvinism means
different things to different people. That's what's wrong with
using it. You see, when the term was used
many years ago, it possibly meant one or two things, but now it
could mean a half a dozen things. I have people frequently who
call me on the telephone They want to talk about what I'm preaching.
And sometimes they'll open the conversation this way. They'll
say, do you believe in predestination? Well, it's not good to say yes,
because predestination may mean many things to many people. So
I've learned when someone asks me, do you believe in predestination,
not to readily say yes. I don't know, what do you mean
by that term? What does predestination mean
to you? And I find quite often what it means to them is not
what it means in God's Word. For example, one man said not
too many months ago, do you believe in predestination? I said, I
don't know, what do you mean? He said, well it means that people
are born to go to heaven and born to go to hell. I said, no
sir, I don't believe that. Well, what do you believe? And
then I had the opportunity to read the scriptures. Sometimes
people say, do you believe in election? I say, I don't know.
What do you mean by that? People say, do you believe in
once saved, always saved? No, I don't believe what most
Southern Baptists mean by that. I know that. And when people
ask that question, do you believe once saved, always saved? In
the day in which we live, where there's so much religion and
so little knowledge of God and so little knowledge of God's
Word, Now two hundred years ago you might, when somebody asked
you if you believe in predestination, say yes, or you believe in election,
yes, you believe in what's saved, always say yes, but not now.
Because it means so many different things to so many different people.
But what I'm talking about when I use the term Calvinism, will
Calvinism kill a church? I'll tell you what I'm talking
about. I'm talking about old time Calvinism. And old-time
Calvinists believed this. This was a summary of their doctrine.
The old-time Calvinists believed this, that the whole of the work,
the whole of the work whereby a lost sinner is lifted from
darkness to light, from the state of sin and guilt
to a state of sanctification and holiness, from the kingdom
of evil to the kingdom of God's dear Son, from a child of wrath
to a child of God, is of God and of Him only, that's what
Calvinism says. That He is the author and finisher
of our faith, in a scriptural term, that He is Alpha and Omega,
that salvation is of the Lord in its planning, its execution,
its application, its sustaining power, its ultimate perfection. And another definition, the old
time Calvinist used to say this, the royal bath in which black
souls are washed from the blackness of sin to the holiness of Christ
was prepared by God himself and drawn from the veins of Jesus
Christ and no blood or deeds of noble martyrs have entered
that stream. And then another saying they
used to use was this, the banquet of mercy is served up by one
host, the Lord himself. So that's what I mean by Calvinism.
And another definition I might give you, some of you remember
this message, but over 25 years ago, May 1954, we had our first Sovereign Grace
Bible Conference at the Pollard Baptist Church. In 1954, I was reading one of
Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit. This was before Brother
Ross began reprinting them. This is one that I had on my
bookshelf, 1861. And in reading that 1861 volume of Mr. Spurgeon's Metropolitan
Tabernacle pulpit, I saw and read about a conference that
he had at the tabernacle. When they first opened the tabernacle,
they had a Calvinistic Bible conference. Five nights, Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Each of those nights
was dedicated to one of the points of what we call Calvinism. Total
depravity, unconditional election, definite atonement, invincible
grace, and perseverance of the saints. And he had speakers come
and bring a message on each of those subjects. And I thought
to myself, that'd be good to have. I'd love to have a conference
like that. And I didn't know too many folks
that believed that. So I wrote to Brother I.C. Herringdean
in Swingle, Pennsylvania. Brother Herringdean is ninety-three
or ninety-four years old now. He was in his seventies, early
seventies there, or sixty-eight or sixty-nine. He had printed
Mr. Pink's Sovereignty of God and
Pink's Gospel of John and most all of Pink's works. Pink was
still living then, I believe. And I asked him for a mailing
list of people all over America who believed these doctrines,
these truths, that man indeed was a sinner, that God indeed
was sovereign, and that salvation indeed was by the power of God.
And he sent me a list of people who had ordered the sovereignty
of God or the Gospel of John by Pink or some of these other
books, people all over the nation who believed the grace of God.
And I wrote to them. I sent out many letters, and
I told them we were going to have a conference, and I had
four speakers. I had B.B. Carwell, I had A.D. Mews, Roth Barnard, George Fletcher,
the five of them, and old brother Clarence Walker. And these men
did themselves well. We had a full auditorium downstairs
nearly every night. We had preachers from seventeen
states. We had people from California,
from Florida, from Pennsylvania, from Michigan, everywhere, who
believed that God indeed did reign. Not only in creation,
but in providence, and not only in providence, but in salvation.
And since that time, every year but one or two, we've had a conference
emphasizing those doctrines. But during that first conference
in 1954, Brother Barnard brought the keynote message. Brother
Barnard brought the message that I thought summed up the whole
effort, the whole week. And the title of that message
was Six Stubborn Statements. And this message is just as alive
today as it was when he pushed it. I wish we had it on tape.
I don't think we do. But he had six points to the
message. He said, now here are six stubborn statements that
you've got to cope with, you've got to deal with. And it's just
one thing, one of two things you can do when you meet a truth.
And that is accept it or turn and run from it. You can't remain
neutral. You've got to accept it and bow
to it or turn and run from it and deny it. And here are six
stubborn statements. Now you listen to them and let's
look at them carefully. First of all, and this is what
we mean by Calvinism. This is what we mean by sovereign
grace. And there's a man, well, Jerry
Falwell is his name, who at one time preached these doctrines,
and who said that he was a five-point Calvinist at one time, but he
quit preaching them because he said he saw it was ruining his
ministry. That's his exact words. That's
quoting verbatim. I don't preach them. I turn from
them because they were ruining my ministry. Now here are the
six statements. Number one is God is sovereign. You listening to me? God is sovereign. And I mean by that, Almighty.
I am the Lord. Can I not do with my own what
I will? I am the Lord. Beside me there's
none else. I create light and darkness,
good and evil. I hold the reins of life and
death. I have the keys of hell and heaven. I declare the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done. I will
do all my pleasure in heaven, earth, and hell. I will work
everything out according to my own will, and none can stay my
hand or say unto me, What doest thou? God is absolutely, unchangeably,
totally sovereign, or He isn't. Or He isn't. And He's absolutely
sovereign in all things, or He's sovereign in nothing. If there's
anything in which God is not absolutely, omnipotent, almighty,
and sovereign, then we're looking for a power greater than God,
which we must worship, and to which we must bow. But I know
that he is sovereign, and as Jack read in the study tonight,
all things were made by him, and for him, and by him all things
consist, in heaven, earth, and hell. Even the wrath of man shall
praise the Lord. God is immutably, unchangeably
sovereign. Oh, He's not sovereign at all.
Now, you can take either position, and I'll tell you the position
that the Scripture takes is God is sovereign. God is King. Alright, the second statement
that Ralph made is this. Man is either totally depraved,
And we mean by that, that because of Adam's sin, we were born dead
in trespasses and sin. Not that a man is dead physically. I'm not dead physically. You're
not dead physically. Not that a man is dead mentally.
A man thinks, but he doesn't think on God. A man loves, but
he doesn't love God. A man has a will. He has a will,
it's not a free will, it's a will that's in bondage. It's a will
that's in slavery to sin. It's a will that's twisted and
perverted. It's a will that chooses evil
and rejects good, that chooses darkness and rejects light, that
chooses error and rejects truth. He has a will, but man is dead
spiritually. When Adam sinned, God said, in
the day you eat, not 900 years later, but in the day you eat,
you die. Something happened to Adam when
he fell. He suddenly realized he was naked. He was naked before. But now he knew shame. He feared. He ran from God. He suddenly
had fear. He was in God's presence before,
but he never ran before. Now he knew fear. He lied. He never lied before. He lied
to God. He knew hate. He never knew hate
before. Eve was with him. He loved her.
He called her the mother of all living, bone of my bone and flesh
of my flesh, I think, or something like that. But when he fell,
he hated her. He said, it's her fault I'm in
this condition. What happened to Adam? Suddenly
something happened. That which was created holy was
now unholy. Shame, guilt, fear, hate, all
of these things were part of his nature. Now suddenly, just
like that, he's a totally different creature. That's spiritual death. Adam fell from an upright condition,
which knew no sin, to an unholy condition which knew no thought
of goodness. He knew no thought of goodness
at all. Everything he thought was fearful, guilt, shame, hate,
self-righteousness, self-defense. That's what happened. Man, when
Adam fell in the Garden of Eden, man was twisted, warped, perverted. He still had his mind, he still
had his tongue, he still had his heart, he still had his will,
he still had all those things. But he was in darkness, plagued,
bowed down, in bondage. You see, God has a free will.
God is free to do what God chooses to do, what God wants to do. But man's will is in bondage
to sin. Man can't do anything spiritually. He has no free will
spiritually. He has a will, and that will's
in bondage. Now, man is either dead or he's
not dead. Now, which is it? If he's not dead, then he can
save himself. If he is dead, it takes God to
save him. If he's not dead, then he doesn't
need to be born again. If he's not dead, he doesn't
need to be quickened. If he's not dead, he doesn't
need to be awakened. If he's not dead, he doesn't
need Christ, who is the life. He already has life. But Scripture
says he's dead. Thirdly, God has elected a people
in Christ. And I'm not short-cutting this
thing at all. That if salvation had been left
to the creature, we would have never chosen God. God chose us. We didn't choose. We not only
didn't choose Him, but we wouldn't choose Him. There's no one here,
the Scripture says there's none that seeketh after God. There's
none that understand it. There's none that doeth good.
We would never... Who loved? Did you love God or
did He love you? Well, He loved you first. The
Scripture says we love Him because He first loved us. Here it is
loved not that we love God, He loved us. And He made us an object
of His affection. It pleased God. Did you ever
trace that through the concordance, it pleased God? David was talking
about the heathen gods, and they said, well, where's your God?
He said, my God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased
in heaven and earth and the seas and in all deep places. Well,
what did it please God to do? First, it pleased God to make
you his people. He chose you. He set his affections
upon you. When did he choose you? He says,
before the foundation of the world, before man ever fell.
Why did he choose you? According to the good pleasure
of his own will. I thank thee, Christ said, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent, and thou hast revealed them unto babes, for even so,
Father, it seemed good in thy sight. It pleased God to make
you his people. It pleased God that in Christ
should all fullness dwell. It pleased God to bruise him. It pleased God to reveal Christ
in us. And it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Salvation is of the
Lord. He elected a people. When he
prayed that great priestly prayer in John 17, do you know six times,
six times, our Lord used the phrase those that the Father
gave me. He said, I pray not for the world,
I pray for them which thou hast given me. Thine they were, and
thou gavest them me. I hear people always saying,
well, him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. Yeah, but
did you ever read the first part of that? All that my Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in no
wise cast out. Now this is a statement which
God either elected a people or he didn't. He either chose a
people in Christ to be saved before the world began for his
glory or else he didn't. And then the fourth statement
is this, the Lord Jesus Christ by his obedience and by his death,
by his sacrifice, either effectually, sufficiently, completely redeemed
a people or he didn't redeem anybody. Now you think about
that a moment. I hear what the world is saying.
I know what the religious world is saying. They're saying that
when Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood and
put his blood on the mercy seat of glory, that that act of dying
and suffering and agonizing and that hell that he bore and the
sins for which he died, And the offering which he made to God
was for every son, every fallen son of Adam, every member of
the human race. And if that be true, I've got
two things to say. Number one, if that be true,
then every member of the human race is going to be saved. Now
that's so. If Jesus Christ redeemed you,
you're redeemed. If he paid the debt, it's paid.
If he's satisfied, justice is satisfied. Or, nobody's going
to be saved. Now, if one man can go to hell
for whom Christ died, the rest of them can too. If I thought,
standing right here tonight, that there was somebody bearing
the judgment and wrath of God, for whom Christ has already borne
the judgment and wrath of God, if I thought there was somebody
suffering in in the torments of the damned, in the regions
of the damned, for whom Christ prayed, and for whom Christ obeyed,
and for whom Christ died, and for whom Christ suffered, I'd
close this book and go home and get ready to go to hell, because
that's exactly where I'm going. He said, yeah, but your faith
saves you. My faith? Oh, how much faith you got? I ain't got enough to save me.
No sir, my faith is not in my faith, it's in the person who
died for me. My faith can't save me. Christ
saves me. My faith didn't die on the cross.
My faith didn't satisfy God's justice. Christ did. I was over
in Ireland preaching 1972. They had a convention over there, all the
churches of the northern Baptist Convention in Ireland. There
are 54 churches in the six counties of Ulster. And Brother Herbert
Carson invited me to come and be the 8 o'clock speaker Monday
and Tuesday night. They had a pretty good crowd. And I chose to speak on For Whom
Did Christ Die on Monday night. And I brought my message, and
in the message I made this statement. Old John Owen wrote 300 years
ago, or whenever he lived, it's been a long time, But he wrote
this statement. He said, if Christ died for all
the sins of all men, then all men will be saved. If Christ
died for some of the sins of all men, then nobody will be
saved. If Christ died for all the sins of some men, then some
men are going to be saved. And I went ahead and preached
my message. I thought that was a pretty good point, you know.
I thought it emphasized what I was teaching. I stepped down
out of the pulpit and an old white-haired gentleman came up.
He was old. I'll tell you, old Brother Johnson. He's dead probably now, but he
was in charge of a missionary work over there. I believe that
was his name, Johnson or Jackson, I can't remember. But anyway,
he came up and put his hands on my shoulders. I found out
later, talking to him, that he He was acquainted with a lot
of Spurgeon students over in Ireland. He bridged the gap between
the centuries, you know. And he put his hand on my shoulder
and he said, young fellow, he said, I'll tell you, I never,
never thought I'd ever hear that statement by John Owen from a
Baptist pulpit in Ireland. I said, why don't they believe
that here? He said, no they don't. I said, I thought they did. Wouldn't
make any difference, you know. But I said, I thought they did.
Oh, he said, Herbert does, and I do, and MacNeil does, and two
or three more, but the bulk of them don't, and you'll find it
out. Brethren, this is the plainest doctrine in God's Word. Christ
is our salvation. And this is what I'm preaching.
I'm not preaching a limited atonement. I'm not preaching God limited
in anything. God's able to do all things,
whatsoever he pleases. That's what the Lord will do.
But I'm saying this. I'm saying that the high priest,
our great high priest in glory, is wearing the names of his people
on his breastplate, in the palms of his hands. And he redeemed
them. He died for them. He sacrificed
himself for them. He said when he washed the disciples'
feet, He's washing their feet. And Peter said, you're not going
to wash my feet. And the Lord said, if I don't
wash you, you don't have any part with me. In other words,
if I don't cleanse you, if I don't redeem you, if I don't wash away
your guilt. And Peter said, well, Lord, don't
just wash my feet, wash my head and my hands. And the Lord said
this to him, he that is washed need not save, need not wash
or cleanse except his feet. And he said, you're clean, you're
clean already. Now watch it, he added a statement,
but not all of you. Because he was talking about
Judas. All of you aren't cleansed. And I'm telling you, my friend,
you just, alright, let's buddy it head up, head up, let's meet
it head on, eyeball to eyeball. Christ either redeemed his people,
eventually, Ate their sin there, put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, or he didn't save anybody. And salvation is left
up to you and me. And if that be so, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. No wonder folks
get ulcers. No wonder they don't have any
peace or rest. I wouldn't have any either if
I was resting in anything that I thought that I had to do. in
order to be accepted of God, because I go all the way through
the Word and I find in my flesh there is no good thing. In the
flesh no man can please God. I am the world. Oh, wretched
man that I am. It's Christ. I'm complete in
Him. And the fifth statement is this.
The Holy Spirit, invincibly, and I don't like the word irresistible. It's okay if you know what you
mean by it, But we do resist the Spirit, not effectually.
You do always resist the Spirit as did your fathers, that's what
Christ said. And there isn't, even you who
are believers, at times in your life have kicked against the
preach, you've battled against what you know. There may be somebody
here tonight battling against what I'm preaching, but I tell
you this, if you want a God's own, you're going to come to
believe it sooner or later. I imagine the first time you
ever heard, I'm there with you the first time I ever heard this
message. I was over at Pollard Baptist Church in 1950, about
April the 17th, and Brother Barnard stepped in the pulpit. I mean
in the pulpit of an Armenian, Southern Baptist, Free Will Baptist
Church, that's leading an association in baptisms and doing all they
could to drag everybody they could down the aisle. Wasn't
getting anybody saved, but was getting them to the front. And
he got up and said, a hundred years ago, somebody started two
lives. And I thought, now what are they?
He said, God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody.
I said, ain't neither one of them so? Now that's a good way to
get exposed to it, isn't it? That's a good way. And there's
some of us sitting right here that bucked against it. And I'll
never forget Paul. He didn't take to that too well.
Neither did you, Paul. Some of the rest of you. And
so you do resist. But you don't keep on resisting. If you want a God's own, He'll
break your heart. He sure will. He'll bring you
to His feet. That's where we belong. He's
going to bring us down there one way or the other. And so
I like the word invincible. That is, He, the Holy Spirit,
if He sets out to convert you and to convict you and to enlighten
you and to illuminate you and to bring you to Christ, He's
going to bring you. My sheep, Christ said, will hear
my voice, not they ought to or they should or they might. They
shall hear my voice, and they shall come to me. And I don't
care if a fella gets mad at what we're preaching. I'd rather him
get mad than be indifferent. Yeah, it's a whole lot better.
At least he's listening. The fellow that's indifferent
hadn't heard anything, but the fellow you preach that, God,
who is God, and what is man, and what did Christ do, and who
is the Holy Spirit, and who gets the glory, and it rubs the wrong
way, you know, and that old natural mind is enmity. It doesn't say
it's at enmity, it is enmity against all truth. And it's good
when a fellow gets mad. It's good. That's wonderful.
He's thinking. He's disturbed. He's convicted.
He's troubled. Or he wouldn't be upset. And
the Holy Spirit will invincibly draw men to Christ. Or if he's
just trying, he's not going to draw anybody. If he can fail,
if the Holy Spirit can fail to accomplish what he sets out to
do, then then nobody will be drawn. There was a young preacher
holding a meeting up in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, and I couldn't
vouch for this being the truth, but it was told for the truth. I expect a lot of stories are
told for the truth, not much truth in them, but this makes
a good story. There was a young man up there
preaching, and he He was preaching to folks that
didn't know a whole lot. In fact, he was out walking on
the hillside one day, and he met a man. He said, going to
witness to him, said, are you a Christian? The man said, no,
sir. He said, I'm a brown. He said, Christians all moved
out of here a few months ago. And the young man said, well,
he said, I'm not getting through to you. He said, what I want
to know is, are you lost? He said, no, sir. I'm not lost. He said, I was raised up here.
He said, I know every pig trail in these hills. But a young fellow
said, he said, I'm still not, we're not communicating. He said,
what I want to know is, are you ready for the judgment day? The
old man said, I didn't know it was going to be one. When is
it? The boy said, well, I couldn't
rightly say when it is. It may be tomorrow, it may be
the next day. He said, well, son, when you find out, would
you let me know? Because my wife will probably
want to go both days. But he was preaching to that
crowd one night, And he kept telling them, he said, now, the
Lord's tried for 30 years to save you, and you won't let him. You won't let him. Now he said
he's going to send you to hell. And that same old man was there,
and he spoke up and said, preacher, he ain't going to send me to
hell. And that alarmed the young man. He said, how can you talk
so sacrilegiously, sir? Well, he said, if he tries to
save me and I won't let him, when he tries to send me to hell,
I won't let him. It makes good sense. It may not be so, but
if I can effectually resist God on one hand, I can effectually
resist God on the other hand. If I can defeat God on one hand,
I can defeat God on the other hand. But God cannot be defeated. He will draw his own. And the
sixth statement Brother Barnett made is this, all of the saints
will persevere. They will be preserved. They
will be kept by the power of God in faith or none of them
shall persevere. They all will or none will. Now
that's what we call coward. You say, well will that, people
say that'll kill a church. If you preach that it'll kill
all zeal and effort. Will it? Well I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this, how men react
to the truth doesn't alter the truth. Now that's my first point
in this thing. If it kills your zeal, then it
ought to have been killed. Because I'm saying this, men
may turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, but his people
are still saved by grace. They're still saved by grace.
It's for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. That's still so, no matter what
men do with it. It's so. And I'm not going to
alter that message. If a man turns the grace of God
into lasciviousness, that's alright, we're still saved by grace. I
don't care what they do with it, it's still so. It does not
alter the truth. What men do with the truth does
not change it. For example, the Pharisees were
offended when Christ, oh boy, they had their ceremonies and
their law and their standards and their programs and Christ
came along, their rituals, and he said, it's not that which
goes into the mouth that defiles you, it's that which comes out
of your heart. And they were offended. I don't care if they
were offended, it's still so. It's still so. It's not that which goes into
the mouth that defiles a man. I don't care how men take that. A man may take that and go out
and be a drunkard. That's between him and God. But
it's still so. What he put in his mouth did
not defile him. It's what came out of his heart.
That's what defiled him. And I'll tell you this, if his
heart got straightened out, his life would. It's still so. You say, well, if you preach
certain things, people will do this. That's not my responsibility. My responsibility is to preach
the truth, whatever men do. And that's what preachers are
doing. They're trying to change the truth. For example, that
story over there in John, I believe it's chapter 8, about the woman
found in adultery. Some of those old Puritans were
so pharisaical and moral and self-righteous, they took that
out of the Bible and refused to preach it because it might
lead someone to violate that commandment. Well, I don't care
about that. It's true. It's not my business
to police men's actions. My business is to preach God's
Word. You see what I'm saying, Charlie?
It's so. And I'll tell you this, the religious
people may take up stones to stone Jesus Christ because he
said, I and my father are one, but he and his father are one,
whatever reaction men have to it. Their reaction does not alter
the truth. And men may charge God with unrighteousness
when he says, Jacob have a love and Esau have a hated. And they
might say, that's not right, that's unjust, that's unrighteous. I don't care what it is, it's
still so. Jacob have a love, Esau have
a hate, that's what it says. And I don't have any authority
to change it. Whoever it offends, whoever it
upsets, whatever it does, if it turns the whole town upside
down and causes everybody to riot and rebel, if still so,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. God said it, and we
don't have any privilege to change it. And men may deny and discredit
and seek to destroy, preservation of the saints, but my Lord still
said, my sheep hear my voice, I give them eternal life and
they'll never perish. And men might say that'll lead
to sin, that'll lead to indifference, that'll lead to something else,
and folks will go out and live like they want to. I don't know
where it'll lead, but I know it's so. Not my business to apply
it, it's my business to preach it. God will apply it. God will apply it. It's still
so. Nothing, he said, can separate me from the love of God which
is in Christ my Lord. And men may invent all kinds
of plans and propositions and proposals and call it salvation,
but Christ said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
and he that believeth not shall be damned. And John said, He
that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. And men may explain it away,
they may turn away in anger, they may refuse to preach it,
they may bring all kind of charges against it, but whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate. To be conformed to the image
of his Son, and whom he predestinated, he called, and whom he called,
he justified, and whom he justified, he glorified. What shall we say
to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us. That's still so. I'll tell you this, and you think
this over. Nearly every natural man can
understand what we call Arminianism. That's right, any natural man
can understand what we call freewillism. That is, any natural man with
any mind at all can understand what you're saying when you say,
now God wants to do this and God wants to do that, and God
makes an effort, And that's up to you. Heaven is a place of
happiness that will serve as a reward for those that do good,
and hell is a place of punishment that will serve as a prison for
those who do not do good. And that's up to you to do your
best and to please God. And all men can understand what
we call fatalism. That is, that God elected a people
before there's born, And he's going to take them to heaven
no matter what. And he passed somebody, he's going to send
them to hell no matter what. And if God elected you, you're saved.
If He didn't, you're not saved. And men can logically understand
that system. So there's nothing you can do.
No use preaching. No use sending missionaries. No use getting
all upset. No use studying. No use seeking
the Lord because if He chose you, you're going to be saved.
And that's it. People can understand that. But the grace of God, the
mystery of the Gospel, Which says, coming to me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Which says, ho,
everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters. Which says that
Jesus Christ the Lord is willing to save all who believe, and
able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him.
And that same messenger says, but no man can come except my
Father which sent me drawing. And all that my Father giveth
me shall come. You say, that confuses me. That's right, old
Barnard said one time, if you preach the Bible, the sane will
get glad, rebels will get mad, and religious people will get
confused. And they will, because they can't understand, and nobody
can. It has to be revealed. I know
it's so. I know this is so. Both of these,
the Bible teaches both of these. God chose a people. He's sovereign
in salvation. That's so. He loved Jacob. He hated Esau. That's so. He
passed by the angels that kept not their first estate. Christ
took not over Himself the nature of angels, but He took over Himself
the seed of Abraham. That's so. God has a people. Christ came down to redeem them.
That's so. Yet this is so too. Anyone who
wants to be saved can be. Anybody. I didn't say anybody
didn't want to go to hell, because I never made anybody want to
go to hell. But anybody who wants Christ, who hungers and thirsts
and desires the Christ of the Bible, to know God, he'll be
saved. Anybody that's thirsty, the water's
there. Anybody that's hungry, the table's spread. Anybody that's
naked, the robe of righteousness is for you. Anybody that's sinful
and weary and head of laden, Christ said, come! How can you say both? Christ
did. That's how it comes. And I just
know it's so. I know it's so. I'll tell you
what kills churches. I'll tell you what kills churches
is when people try to be consistent with themselves instead of consistent
with God's Word. That's what destroys them. And
Spurgeon said one time, the man that spent his life trying to
be consistent with himself will find at the end he's been consistent
with a fool. If God says it, we preach it,
just like He says it. But you know, Paul had trouble
with this. Let me show you four scriptures quickly. Paul had
trouble with this in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, verse 1. He said, what advantage hath
the Jew? What profit is there in circumcision? Well, a whole
lot. These Jews had the oracles of
God, they had the prophets, they had the preaching, they had the
law, they had the ceremony. But what if some of them did
not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without
effect? God forbid. God forbid. These Jews had an
advantage. God gave them the prophets, the
law, the promises, and the word, and they didn't believe. But
their unbelief didn't make God's purpose void, not at all, or
God's Word void. Let God be true, he said, and
never man a liar. He had the same problem we do.
Over there in Romans 6, look at Romans 6, verse 1. Cecil read
this a while ago. What shall we say? What shall
we say? If men are saved by faith alone,
if men are saved by grace, and if our sin and our unrighteousness
exalts and exhibits the grace of God, I tell you, God gets
grace out of lifting that old fallen sinner. He gets praise
out of lifting that old wretched, fallen, depraved, vile, guilty,
sinful creature. He gets all the glory. Well,
somebody said, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in
sin that grace may abound? If God gets glory out of forgiving
our sins, then let's go on sinning. If our unrighteousness exhibits
the grace and mercy of God, then let's really exhibit it. Paul
says, God forbid. How are we that are dead to sin
going to live any longer there? You see, these are logical conclusions
that the warped brain of sinful men come to. Well, if God elected
a people, why preach? That's the same thing. If God
chose a people, He's going to say, why sin a missionary? That's
the same thing. You see, these folks are saying
here. Look down here at Romans 6, 14. Sin shall not have dominion
over you. You're not under the law, you're
under grace. Oh, what we can do with that. I'm not under the
law, I'm under grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we're not under the law? See, that's a logical conclusion
that I Adamic brain concludes from that. Well, all right, if
I'm not under the law, I have no rules or regulations hanging
over my head, no threat, then boy, let's kick the traces out
and knock the fences down and take off, Martin said. No, God
forbid. Know ye not that whom ye yield
yourselves service to obey his servants you are? Whom ye obey? But see, this is natural man
thinking. And that's what that old fellow,
when he said that, Calvinism kills church, that's natural
man thinking. That's the old Adamic nature. That's the old flesh talking,
just like in these Scriptures here. There's another one over
there in Romans. He says, If men are saved by
faith alone, does that make the law of no effect? Romans 3.31.
Romans 3.31. Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid we establish the law.
Does faith do away with the law? Does faith make the law void?
Does faith overthrow the law? Does faith make it a dead letter?
God forbid faith establishes, honors, upholds the law. I'll
tell you what this preaching will do. It'll kill all right.
It'll kill. And we'll sum it up and close
with this right here. First thing it'll kill is your self-righteousness.
It'll kill it dead in a doornail. It sure will. You'll be saying
with Paul, what I counted gain is loss. I tell you it'll shut
us up. It'll strip us of all self-righteousness. It'll make us look to Christ
for righteousness and cleansing and sanctification. I'll tell
you something else it'll kill is pride. It'll kill pride. Who made you to differ? What
do you have you didn't receive? I tell you, grace is a leveler.
Somebody said the grave, G-R-A-B-E, is a leveler. God's people get
leveled off before they get to the grave. They get leveled off
by grace. There are folks in this congregation
who are very highly educated. Some of us are not. But those
that are highly educated don't feel more important than those
that are. There are folks in this congregation that are a
little more wealthier than others, but they don't feel, what do
you have, God, didn't you? Some are more gifted. Cecil,
how blessed he is when he prays. I like to hear him pray and read
and joke and preach. Some of the rest of you have
gifts, but are you proud of it? No. No. God's humbled you, hasn't
He? He's leveled us. We're one. There ain't no cheaps around
here. We're all Indians. The Lord's a cheap. It'll kill
it. It'll kill that old pride. It'll
kill it dead on a doornail. If that's what's keeping your
church going, it'll kill it all right. It'll kill all that division
and pride and arrogance and haughtiness and smart aleck things. It'll
kill it dead. Tell you something else it'll
kill is human praise and human glory. We want to give Him the
glory. We don't want to run around bragging
on each other. They said, one said, I am of
Paul, and one said, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas. He said, who
are they? Nothing, nothing, that's all. I'll tell you something
else, it'll kill the works of the flesh. I'll tell you, we'll
quit trying to do the work of the Holy Spirit. We'll quit trying
to coerce and bribe and pay people to come to God's house. And we'll
quit trying to convict sinners and let the Holy Spirit do it,
and we'll quit trying to do God's work, and we'll just preach and
fellowship and worship and send missionaries and sow the seed
and let the Lord of the harvest germinate it and bring it up.
I have a time with what we call the altar call or the invitation. I don't know. suffered under
that problem for 45, 50 years, or 45 anyway. We close the service,
and what do you do? I know the message is the invitation.
I know I've invited men to Christ tonight. Come to Christ, he'll
make you whole. I preach the gospel. Christ is our salvation.
Now then, what are you going to do about it? That's between
you and God. Salvation is not down here. Salvation
is not in the handshake or salvation is not in the water. Salvation
is in Christ. If you could embrace Him and
close with Him and commit, Paul said, I commit it to Him. If
you could have something between you and the Lord, Lord, I'm yours.
I believe thy word. I trust thy word. I cast myself
on you. And God gives peace to your heart
and speaks. speaks peace to your heart, then
tell folks about it. I believe you will. I believe
you'll want to follow him in baptism. I believe you'll want to confess
Christ, but I don't know about this, uh, I don't know about
this, uh, you're getting folks, uh, to walk up and down aisles
making deceit. I'm always afraid. Now listen
to me and understand what I'm saying. I'm not against it. I don't know enough about to
be against it, but I've always trembled as someone should rest
their eternal hope on what they did at the close of a sermon,
and that bothers me. I've got to somehow come to rest
my eternal hope on what Christ did on the cross and what he's
doing at the right hand of God. And my being one with him and
being by faith united to Christ I'm always afraid somebody's
going to rest their salvation on the fact they come to church
and they pay their dues and they sing and they pray and they preach
and they do these things and that God at the judgment is going
to look with favor upon them when he's not at all. The Lord
looks with favor upon those who are in the ark, Christ Jesus,
who are in the rock, Christ Jesus, who are in the city of refuge,
Christ Jesus. And he looks with favor upon
them because of what Christ did, not because of what they did.
And we must not. And that's the reason I say that
I don't know how to handle this particular part of the service.
If God's done something for you, if the Lord has brought you to
faith in Christ, if He's brought you to rest in Him, confess Him.
That's all I know to say. Confess Him. They said, Be it
done, brethren, what shall we do? Peter said, Repent and be
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But we sing, we'll sing this
to close, Brother Rodney, my hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, whatever it might be, an experience, a feeling, a doctrine,
an ordinance, a ceremony, a decision. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. And my question in closing, Are
you in Christ? Are you in Christ? By eternal
grace and by faith. And by faith.