Now we're turning back for our
text this morning to Philippians 3 verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the communion or fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. I don't think the Apostle Paul
feared any man. He said, If I please men, I am
not the servant of Christ. I do not believe the Apostle
Paul feared death. He said, For me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. I have a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. I don't think the Apostle
Paul feared persecution. He talked about being stoned
and shipwrecked and scourged for Christ, and he said, I bear
in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do think there
are some things he did fear. I think there are some things
that Paul was caused him great fear, some things he was afraid
of. One of those things is, I believe
Paul feared false converts. He continually exhorted people
to examine themselves. When he was talking about the
Lord's table in the book of 1 Corinthians, and when he was inviting the
people of God to come to the table of the Lord, he said But
before you come, examine yourselves. Let every man examine himself,
and so let him eat. Don't eat the table of the Lord
unworthily. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Without faith, a man cannot come
to God. Don't eat the table of the Lord
unworthily. Don't drink and eat unto yourselves
damnation. If you do not know Christ, do
not come to His table. And then he said again, examine
yourselves whether you be in the faith. Know ye not your own
selves, how that Christ dwelleth in you, except you be reprobate? And then he said, I thank God
I baptize none of you, with the exception of Crispus and Gaius,
lest any should say I baptized in my own name. Paul feared false
converts. He was afraid that people would
sit under his ministry and make a false profession, that they
would claim to know Christ and not know him. He was constantly
afraid of this. And then secondly, I think something
else that Paul feared was false religion. He said in the book
of Galatians, chapter 1, if you want to look at that with me.
In Galatians, the first chapter, he said, verse 8, Though we are
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than
that which we have preached, let him be accursed." There's
only one gospel. There's only one God. There's
only one mediator between God and men. There's only one way
of salvation. There's none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So as I said
before, so say I now again, verse 9, Preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received. Let him be accursed. In 2 Corinthians
11, verse 4, Paul said, If he that cometh preacheth another
Jesus, whom we have not preached, or
if you receive another spirit whom you have not received, or
another gospel which you have not accepted, another Jesus,
another Spirit, another God. He feared these things. He feared
these things. He feared people making false
professions. He feared false converts. Paul
wouldn't have dared to enter into the type of owl-dragging
and head-counting that we've entered into in this day. He
was too much afraid of false converts, of people making false
professions. And then he was afraid of false
religion, of false gospel. Oh, he said over there in 2 Corinthians,
if this person comes preaching another Jesus, another spirit,
and another gospel, you might well bear with, in italics is
him, the word is me. You might well bear with me.
And then quickly, the third thing of which Paul was afraid, and
which he feared. He feared false converts. Examine
yourselves. He exhorted people to continually
examine themselves. He feared a false gospel. He feared a false gospel. He
said, now if anybody comes preaching any other gospel, or another
Jesus, or another spirit, let him be accursed. I don't care.
He said, if it's an angel from heaven, Let him be accursed. I fear false religion, false
worship. Under God let the potsherds of
the earth strive with the potsherds of the earth, but let no man
contend with God. It's a fearful thing, he said
in the book of Hebrews, to fall into the hands of a living God. And then the third thing I think
he feared above all things, he feared failure. He feared failure
to know Christ. That's the reason he said in
here in Philippians chapter 3, he goes back and says in verse
4, though the folks that think they have confidence in the flesh,
I am more. I was a Jew. I was circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel. I was of the tribe of
not Reuben, but Benjamin, not Gad, but Benjamin. Benjamin,
the beloved son, I was of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew
of Hebrews. Concerning the law, I was a Pharisee. Zeal, I persecuted Jesus Christ
and His church. Touching the righteousness which
is in the outward law, the moral law, the ceremonial law, they
couldn't lay anything to my charge. But I count all of these things
lost for the knowledge of Christ. My circumcision, my ceremonialism,
my legalism, my success, my attainments, my background. I count all these
things but laws. Yea, I count them but dumb, less
than nothing, that I may know Christ, that I may be found in
Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. that I may
know Him, that I may know Him, the power of His resurrection,
God raised Him from the dead as a triumphant substitute. The
power of His resurrection, God raised Him from the dead, our
sins paid in full. The power of His resurrection,
God raised Him as He shall raise us. The power of his resurrection,
God raised him that we might sit with him in the heavenlies.
I want to know him and the power of his resurrection, the resurrected
life, the Christ life. I want to know him and the fellowship,
the communion of his sufferings, how he suffered as a man, tempted
in all points as we are tempted, yet without sin, in soul, in
body. He made his soul an offering
for sin. Why he suffered? That my trials
and my tests might make me more like him. I want to enter into
the fellowship, the communion of the sufferings of Christ.
How he suffered, why he suffered, and that my sufferings might
more conform me to his image. Oh, that God would reveal himself
to me, Paul said, that I may know him. It's not enough to
know doctrine. One of the saddest things I know
in this world, one of the saddest things, and I fear that I have
contributed to it. One of the saddest things I know
is that people have come to positions on doctrine. They're doctrinalists,
they're orthodox, they're theologians. But they don't have the spirit
and the compassion and the knowledge of the Son of God. And Barnard
said one time years ago, and I understand now what he meant,
you cannot build or work for the glory of God on theologians,
because they've stopped short of Christ. And they're more interested
in their doctrines than they are in God. And they're more
interested in their doctrines than they are in Christ. And
they're more interested in proving their doctrines than they are
in demonstrating the Spirit of the Son of God. And you cross
their doctrines on Calvinism or ecclesiology or prophecy,
if you cross their doctrines, It's more important to them to
defend their doctrines than to demonstrate the Spirit of the
Son of God. Oh, that I may know Him, that
I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, that I may
know Him and the communion of His sufferings, that I may know
Him and be conformable, be made conformable, be made like the
Lord Jesus Christ in His death and in his resurrection, and
in his spirit, and in his grace, and in his love, and in his mercy. Not that I may know doctrine,
but that I may know Christ. You say, Preacher, you can't
know Christ without knowing doctrine. You're right. But you don't arrive
at Christ through doctrine. You arrive at doctrine through
Christ. You come to know him, and he reveals his teachings
and his doctrines in himself. that I may know Him. I want you
to turn to Psalms 115. Psalms 115. Let's look at this just a moment.
Psalms 115. There are those who stop with
doctrine. There are those who stop with a devotion to an organization. I want us to have here in this
place, I want us to have a church that has sweet fellowship, and
I want us to have a church that is friendly, and I want us to
have a church in which people feel welcome. But I do not want
people to come to this place in order to meet with friends.
I want them to come to meet God. There's a difference. I don't
want people to feel attracted to this place because they come
to this place and they find what we call a kindred spirit. I want
them to come here to meet God, to worship God, to hear the gospel
of God. And if all these other things
can be had and be shared as we meet God and as we worship God,
that's wonderful. But let's not have them without
God. Who is He? What has He done? What is He
doing? Who is God, that I may know Him,
that I may know the living God? Christ said this is eternal life,
not that you might have a God and go through a form of worship,
but that you might know the living God. And Jesus Christ, whom He
had sent, that the living God, that the personal God, might
be known by you. You know God You know Brother
Mahan, do you know God? You know the five points of Calvinism,
do you know God? You know Brother Fitzer, Brother
Lewis, Brother Yeager, do you know God? Do you know God? You know the
moral law, you know what's right. I know what's right and what's
wrong, but yeah, I know you do, but do you know God? The heathen
knows what's right and wrong. God has put in the heart of every
man the light of conscience, and everybody knows what's right
and what's wrong. But do you know God? That's what Paul's talking about
here. I want to know God. I want to know God. Well, the heathen said in Psalm
115, in verse 1, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory. That's a fine church out there
on 13th Street. They're generous people. They
sing well. They're friendly people. Their
preacher can preach. They've got a good mission program.
That's all fine. But do they know God? Do they
know God? Those people know God out there.
I went in their congregation, in their service, and I could
feel the presence of God. I could feel the presence of
God. And one reason I could feel the
presence of God, because I took God with me. I took God with me. And I went
there looking for God. And sure enough, He was there. We can't point our finger at
anybody. Somebody says, somebody said,
Church doesn't worship like it used to. Do you? Because you'd find just exactly
what you're looking for, and you'll find what you bring. You can't expect God to dwell
in walls of stone. God doesn't dwell between walls
of stone. God dwells in pulsating, personal,
loving, intimate, believing hearts. That's where God dwells. I want
to know God. I want to stand up here and preach
God. I want people to feel the presence
and hear the voice of God. I want us to walk out of this
building saying, I was glad when they said, let's go to the house
of God. Didn't our hearts burn within
us as He walked with us and as He talked with us? God was there. I'm in Johann's Sunday School
this morning. What difference does it make if God wasn't there? How many baptisms did you have
last year? What difference does it make
if God wasn't there? Not unto us, but unto thine angel
of glory. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is your God? Where is your God? I know where Buddha is. He's
sitting over there with that big silly grin on his face, Kamakura,
Japan. I know where he is. And I know
where Confucius is and all his wisdom in the pages of his book. And I know where Mohammed is
and all these other gods. I know where they are. Mohammed's
in his grave. His bones have gone back to the
dust, and he's left a few memories. But where is God? Where is your
God? Verse three, our God, oh, our
God's in the heavens. He fills the heavens. The earth
is His footstools. The heaven cannot contain Him. Where is your God? Our God is
in the heavens. Our God is in the things that
He hath made. Our God rules and reigns and
controls and is sovereign, and watch it, and He does whatsoever
He pleases. That's our God. He does what
he pleases. We pleases with whom he pleases
and the way he pleases. That's our God. That's not my
God, preacher, then I have nothing for you. You're in the wrong
place. You're in the wrong place. I'm here to preach, as Paul said
to Timothy, the Word of God. I'm here for God to speak concerning
Himself, not what Grandma thinks about God or Grandpa or the old
preacher under whom we were raised. I want God to speak. Where is
God? He's in the heavens. And His
character is, and His attributes are, He has done what He pleased. That's what He's done. And the first thing I find it
pleased God to do, and I'm sure happy about it, over in 1 Samuel
chapter 12, it tells me what He pleased to do. This one thing
I know. Our God, the God of the Bible,
is in the heavens, and He does what He pleases, when He pleases,
the way He pleases, with whom He pleases. And none can stay
his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? He said, I am the
Lord. I create light, I create darkness. I have the keys of
hell and death. I am the Lord. Now read 1 Samuel
12, 22. Watch it here now. For the Lord
will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because
it hath pleased the Lord. it hath pleased the Lord to make
you his people. You are a child of God because
it pleased God to make you his child. You are saved this morning if
you are because it pleased God to save you. Is your testimony what you've done for God, or
your testimony of what God's done for you. Let me ask you a question. I
want you to turn with me to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians, the first
chapter. And let me ask you three questions.
Ephesians, the first chapter, and I want you to look carefully
at verses three through five, and I want you to answer these
three questions from these three verses. The first question is
this, did you choose God or did God choose you? Now read Ephesians 1, 3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us. It pleased God to choose you.
It pleased God to choose you, to set His affections upon you.
How many people does God have? The Scripture says, a multitude
which no man can number. Out of every tribe, kindred,
nation, and tongue unto heaven, black people, white people, yellow
people, red people, God's got a people. Out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven. He said in Revelation,
lo, a multitude which no man can number. And he took Abraham
out one day and said, look at the stars, and they tell us there
are multiplied billions of them out there. And he said, so shall
thy seed be. Look at the sands of the seashore. How many are there? So shall
thy seed be. All right, let me ask you the
second question. When did God choose you? Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He hath chosen
us in Christ. When? Before the foundation of
this world. If you're going to meet with
a God of the Bible, you're going to have to meet with a God of
election. You may not like it. You may grind your teeth. You
may clench your fists till the nails pierce your palms. And
you may call the God of election the monster. You may say that
the God of election is a devil. You say what you want to. But
if you're going to meet with the God of the Bible, you're
going to have to meet with the God of election. The God of covenant. The God of purpose. The God with
whom there are no accidents. The God who is in the heavens,
who does what he pleases. That's all. There's no way around
it. No way around it. When did God
choose you? Before you were born. Further
back than that, before Christ died on the cross. Further back
than that, before Adam fell. Further back than that, before
Adam was created. Further back than that, before
the foundations of the earth were laid. God chose you in Christ. That's right. Now the third question,
why'd he choose you? A lot of folks he didn't choose,
why'd he choose you? There's nothing in you to merit
his choice, why'd he choose you? Nothing in you to merit his love,
why'd he pick on you? Why didn't he pass you by? He
passed by a lot of other folks, why didn't he pass you by? He
should have. If he had, he'd have been just. If he had, you
deserved it. Why did He choose you? Read on,
having predestinated us, verse 5, unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His own
will. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. Look at verse 11. in whom we
have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will." I want to know God. I want to know God. Now, I'm
not going to bring a prescription and say, fill this prescription. This is the kind of God I want.
Here's my prescription. I want to hire you to preach
for us this Sunday at 13th Street Baptist, and here's the prescription
of God we want you to fill. I'm not going to bring any dimensions
and say, you build me a God and make it according to these dimensions.
I'm not going to bring you a blueprint and say, here, build me a God.
I'm not going to bring you an underlined Bible with nothing
but the free will passages underlined and say, here, preach this God
to me. or bring you a hyper-Calvinist
Bible with only those passages underlined and say, here, preach
this God to me. Rather than I want to know the
God of the Bible. The God of the Bible. The God who in compassion
and love said, come to me if you're laboring a heavy laden
and I'll give you rest. And the God who turned around
and said, no man can come to me except my Father which sent
me drawing. God chose me, and God chose me
before the world began, and God chose me according to the good
pleasure of His own will. Where is your God? Where is your
God? I know where the hyper-Calvinist
God is. He's in their systematic theology
books. There's where He is. He doesn't
dare get out of there. Where's the free will God? I
know where He is. I know where he is. He's chained. He's in prison. He can't do anything
but what they let him do. Where's the God of the Bible?
He's in the heavens. He's in the heavens. And he does what he pleases. And if he pleases to destroy
a world and save a man named Noah, he'll do it. If he's pleased to wipe out a
whole race and save a Gentile by the name
of Naaman, he'll do it. He'll do it. He's in the heavens,
he does what he pleases. All right, now the second thing.
Turn to the book of Colossians, chapter 1. I want to know God. Not just any God, the God of
the Bible. I want to meet with God, not
just any God, the God who's in the heaven." What did it please
Him to do? It pleased Him to make you His
people. Not to leave you in your guilt, not to leave you wallowing
in your sins, not to leave you in your rebellion, but to set
His love on you in Christ. To love you with an everlasting
love. It pleased Him to do that. Aren't
you glad? He's the friend of sinners. But then, in Colossians 1, 19,
it says, it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness
dwell. Now these people God chose. He
chose them to make them holy, but they aren't holy now. He
chose them to make them righteous, but they have no righteousness
of their own. They are enemies. Look at Romans
chapter 5, what it says about us. It says here in Romans chapter
5, beginning with verse 6, when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. Verse 8, God commended His love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Verse 10, if when we were enemies,
We were reconciled. So, these people had no righteousness. God chose them. Back in the council
halls of eternity, chose them in Christ, set his affections
upon them in Christ. But they were ungodly, enemies,
without strength, without hope. So what'd he do? The book of Galatians tells us
awful well. Galatians chapter 3. It says
here in verse 10, as many as were of the works of the law,
under the curse of the law. For it is written, Cursed is
every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. And verse, Galatians 5,
4, verse 4, Galatians 4, 4, When the fullness of time was come,
God sent his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. It pleased God to designate His
Son. It pleased God to anoint His
Son. It pleased God to send His Son
into this world in the likeness of human flesh to obey for us His righteous
holy law. It pleased God to make Christ
our representative. It pleased God to make Christ
our surety. It pleased God that in Christ
should all fullness dwell, all salvation, all wisdom, all righteousness,
all redemption. It pleased the Father to do that.
Whereas your God is in the heaven. And it pleased Him to look down
through the ages of time and pick out a people. And then it
pleased Him in the fullness of time to send His Son through
the virgin's womb into this world in human flesh as the second
Adam, as the Lord from heaven, as the man from glory, as the
God-man to stand here on this earth and represent those people
whom He chose who had no righteousness or godliness or strength or beauty
to stand for them. If a man sin against a man, the
judge shall stand for him. If a man sin against God, who
shall stand for him? It pleased God to make Christ
that man's surety. Now look at Isaiah 53, verse
10. Isaiah 53, 10. Now listen to
this. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased the Lord, the Brute.
Where is your God, huh? Where is your God? Well, we got
our God in jail, and he wants to enter everybody's heart, but
they won't let him. We got our God up there peeping
through the banisters of heaven, crying his eyes out. He's like
a poor little boy. Somebody stole his ball, and
he's sitting down there looking through the bars, and he's crying.
Where's your God? Our God's in the heavens, and
he's done what he pleased. Our God's not in jail, He's on
a throne. Our God's not defeated, He's
victorious. Our God's not frustrated, He's
almighty. And it pleased Him to look down
upon the ruins and degradation and depravity and cesspool of
sin and pick out some sons of Adam to make them trophies of
His grace. It pleased Him to do that. But
He saw His law had to be honored And he saw his justice had to
be satisfied. And he saw that in order to be
just and justify the ungodly, that man was going to have to
have a surety. Man was going to have to have
a representative. So it pleased him to send Christ
down here in this world as a man. And Christ walked this earth
in the flesh, and thorns pierced his feet, and the sun burned
his brow. and the dust collected on his
body, and the whip descended on his back, and the nails pierced
his hand. And unjust witnesses falsely
accused him, and the religious multitude nailed him to a cross. Yet in all of it, it pleased
God to bruise him. It pleased God. Turn to the book
of Acts. You say those mean old folks
crucified our Lord. They sure did. They're going
to hell for it, too. But in crucifying our Lord, they
did what our Lord decreed to be done. They did what our Lord
pleased for them to do. Brethren, I tell you, you may
gnash your teeth and shake your fist at the God of the Bible,
but every breath you draw is drawn by His good pleasure. And you may take a hammer and
nail and drive it into the hands of his beloved son, but you couldn't
do it if it didn't please him to let you do it. That's so. That's so. It says in Acts chapter
4, listen to it, Acts chapter 4, and beginning here with verse
27, Both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. They did what they wanted to
do, but they did what God determined for them to do. One of those soldiers standing under
the cross, he hadn't read the Bible, he didn't know the prophets.
He turned to another and said, that fellow we crucified, Jesus
of Nazareth, has a pretty robe there woven throughout without
a seam. Let's don't tear that apart and
share it among us. Let's cast dice to see who can
get it. And he said, that's a pretty
good idea. Where did you come up with that? He'd have read
the book of Psalms. He'd have come up with it right
there in the book of Psalms. God prophesied hundreds of years
before that fellow ever said that, that he'd say that. And
they cast lots for my raiment. And they cast lots for my raiment. I tell you what let's do. Let's
not tie him to the cross. Let's nail him to the cross.
Where did you come up with that? That's a pretty good idea. We
see more blood that way. He didn't come up with it, God
said, hundreds of years before. They pierced my hands and my
feet. Every curse word they said, Every
cruel thing they did, every drop of spittle they spat in his face,
God determined for them to do it. You can have your little five
and ten cent store of God. I want to know the God of the
Bible. I want to know the God who's in heaven, who does as
he pleases. I wouldn't waste five minutes
worshiping your God because he can't do anything anyhow. He's
frustrated and disappointed and defeated, but the God of the
Bible does what he pleases. And it pleased him to bruise
his son. Now turn to Galatians 1. What else did it please him
to do? In Galatians chapter 1. I want
you to listen to this now. It pleased God to have a people. How many? The stars of the skies,
the sands of the seashore. Where did he get them out of
every tribe, kindred, nation under heaven? What are they going
to be like? They're going to be like Christ.
How did he get them? He chose them. They didn't choose
Him. They wouldn't have chosen Him.
If you think you would have chosen God apart from His divine grace,
you don't know yourself. Somebody said, would you like
to live back during the days of Christ and the apostles? Uh-uh.
I might have been one of those out there who crucified Him.
Uh-uh. I want to live in the light of
revelation. I want to live in the day when
there's a most revealed about Christ. It pleased God to pick
out a people, and it pleased God to make Christ their surety
and send Him down here to this earth to face the law in their
place and to go to the cross. It pleased Him to bruise Christ
for our sin. Our sins were laid on Him. Now
wait a minute. Now wait a minute. These people
whom God chose, for whom Christ was the surety, for whom Christ
died, are still enemies. They still hate God. That's right. They still hate God. Because
the Scripture says the natural mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God. Neither indeed can be. Neither indeed can be. Now let
me tell you something. Every person born into this world,
every person born into this world is born with an evil fleshly
nature that loves darkness and hates light, that loves evil
and hates beauty and holiness, and that loves sin and hates
God. Everybody. And that nature is flesh, and
it's going to stay flesh. And it's not going to walk in
the light of holiness. It's not going to walk in the
light of truth. It's not going to walk in the
light of God. And it's going to hate God. It's blind. It cannot
see the mysteries of the gospel. So, and that's the way Saul of
Tarsus was. He hated Christ, and he hated
the gospel, and he hated this message of substitution, and
he did everything he could against it. But one day on the Damascus
road, God said, that boy belongs to me. And I chose him from eternity,
and my son died for him, and my son was surety for him. And
that blind rebel, that deaf rebel, he'd gone far enough, whoa, and
it stopped him right there, and unhorsed him, and Saul bit the
dust, and God blinded him. And he looked up and said, Who
are you, Lord? And the Lord Jesus revealed himself to him. He said,
I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecuted. Lord, what would
you have me do?" And after that he was a different man, and he
tells about it here in Galatians 1.15. Listen to it, "...but when
it pleased God, when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb, and called me by His grace." It doesn't say
anything about deciding for Jesus. He doesn't say anything there
about, one day I was on my road to Damascus, and I was thinking
about this thing, and I remembered Stephen died, and I got to thinking
about, well, you know, I ought to straighten up and do right,
and I ought not persecute Jesus Christ, and I ought not... He
doesn't say that. He says, when it pleased God, who had called,
separated me from my mother's womb, and made me His child from
all eternity, and when it pleased Him, He called me by His grace
and revealed His Son to me." He revealed His Son. Saul didn't make a decision for
Christ. Uh-uh. God revealed Christ to
his heart. There's a lot of difference.
Saul didn't decide to quit some sins and join the church. Christ
was revealed to him. Saul didn't decide to join the
Baptists because he got tired of the Methodists, and they were
modernistic, and they contributed to the National Council of Churches.
So he's going to get out of that liberal outfit and join these
conservatives, fully on that. He came to know Christ. God revealed his Son to me. That's why I'm here, because
God revealed his Son in me, not just to me, in me. Christ liveth
in me. Christ liveth in me. Pleased
God to reveal Him. It pleased God. Now, what's the
last thing? In I Corinthians 1, now listen
to this. Back yonder and before all eternity,
the sovereign God who reigns upon His throne of judgment in
His throne of grace, looked down through the ages and saw all
the sons of Adam, and for reasons known only to Himself because
it seemed good in His sight, He chose in Christ a people to
be trophies of His grace, to declare the riches of His grace
in Christ Jesus throughout all the endless ages. And He chose
them from their mother's womb. He chose He set His affections
upon them, and it pleased Him to designate and anoint His Son
as their representative, as their surety. And He came down into
this world, and it pleased God to nail Him to a cross by the
hands of cruel men and wicked men, fulfilling the design and
purpose of God the Father, whom it pleased to bruise Him. And
down there on their Damascus road to hell, kicking against
the pricks and going down the way they want to go, turning
to their own way, God reached down and turned them. By the
power of His Holy Spirit, He turned them. By the power of
His Holy Spirit, He revealed Christ to them. But He did it
through the preaching of the Word. Now you look at it in 1
Corinthians 1, verse 21, "...for after that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God." This world doesn't
know God. There's no fear of God before
they have—this world has a God, but they don't know the God. They've got their prescriptions
filled, and they're getting them filled every Sunday morning.
They've hired them preachers that preach what they want to
hear. And if their preacher crosses them, they'll fire him. They
need to get them some prophets. If they cross him, he'll fire
them. That's right. They need to get some prophets.
They need to get some men who fear only false converts and
false religion and his own failure to know God. They need some prophets
who've seen God in his holiness, themselves in their sinfulness,
and the land in its uncleanness, who dare to preach God. and call
on them to bow down and worship or be sent to hell. It says here,
it pleased God. The world by wisdom didn't know
God, but it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. That's right. That's right. By preaching, men are convinced
of sin. We are begotten in the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. I wouldn't give you two cents
for any kind of doctrine that talks about a man being a child
of God who's never believed and heard and received the gospel.
It's not so. By preaching, hearts are broken.
By preaching, Christ is revealed. By preaching, lives are changed.
By preaching, God is glorified. By preaching, repentance and
faith are given. By preaching, the dead are quickened. Why? It pleased God to do it
that way. If you don't like it that way,
you'll have to get you another God, because that's what it pleased
God to do. Now, if you're satisfied with
God's pleasure in choosing men, and you're satisfied with God's
pleasure in sending Christ to the cross to die for sinners,
if you're satisfied with God's pleasure in sending the Holy
Spirit to quicken them, you better bow to God's pleasure when He
said it pleased Him by the foolishness of preaching, to save everybody
that'll believe what that preacher says. That's right. You turn to the book of Acts.
I'm not going to keep you long. I'm going to show you something
here. The book of Acts. Now, you know the scripture over
there in Romans where you turn to Acts chapter 8. You know that
scripture over in Romans where it says, "...whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." That's so. You
call on the name of the Lord, not just any Lord, the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But how are they going to call
on Him in whom they've not believed? How are they going to believe
on him of whom they have not heard? And how are they going
to hear without a preacher? Huh? But I want you to look at
the book of Acts, and here in Acts chapter 8, verse 28, there
was a fellow returning, sitting in his chariot. This was a, go
back to verse 27, this man of Ethiopia, he was a eunuch of
great authority. under Candace Candacy, queen
of the Ethiopians. And he had charge of all the
treasure of Ethiopia. He went to Jerusalem to worship.
He walked in what light he had. He didn't know Christ. He didn't
know Satan. He was going through all that
Jewish ceremonialism. But he was returning to Ethiopia
and sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah the prophet. And where
he was reading was Isaiah 53, which I read to you a little
while ago. And then the Spirit of the Lord said, Philip, go
over there and join yourself to that chariot. Now watch it.
If he's one of the elect, he doesn't need to hear the gospel.
That's what people tell me. If he was chosen by God, God's
quickened him by the Holy Spirit, and he's already got life, and
he's already saved, he's already going to heaven. What does he
need to hear the gospel for? He needs to hear it to be saved.
Election is not salvation, it's unto salvation. Christ is salvation. If you don't have Christ, you
don't have salvation, even though you claim election. Not so. And the Spirit said, Philip,
go join yourself to that chariot. And Philip ran and heard him
read the prophet Isaiah. And he said, do you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I? How can I? Except some man should guide
me. And he said, Philip, come up
here. and sit with me." And the place where he read was he was
led as a sheep to the slaughter. He was wounded for our transgression.
You know the Scripture, bruised for our iniquities. Verse 34,
And the eunuch answered and said, Philip, of whom is he speaking? How can this man be saved? He
doesn't even know Christ. He doesn't even know who Christ
is. He doesn't know why Christ died. He doesn't even know that
Christ died. Uh-uh. He said, who's he talking
about? How in the world is this man
going to praise Christ for dying for his sins? He don't even know
who Christ is. Who's he talking about? He talking about himself?
Why, this fellow, if God dug into him, he might run up and
shake Isaiah's hand and say, thank you for dying for me. Who's
he talking about himself or some other man? Philip opened his
mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.
And as they went their way, they came to a certain water. And
the eunuch said, Here is water. What doth hinder me from being
baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. And he answered and he said,
Watch it now. Something happened to this old
boy. And it happened under the preaching of the gospel. It pleased
God to choose him. It pleased God to predestinate
all the means to send him to Jerusalem, to give him a Bible
to read, to send Philip to walk along the chariot, to give him
the will and the grace to invite Philip to sit and talk to him.
God predestinated the means, and God predestinated the means
of preaching the gospel to, and Philip preached Christ to him.
And this old boy who a while ago didn't even know who Christ
was said, I believe that Jesus Christ died on a cross, who was
buried and rose again, who is at the right hand of God. He
is the Son of God. That's what I believe. Praise
God. Preaching. Preaching. And Philip said, Stop this chariot.
And they both went down into the water, both Philip and the
eunuch, and he baptized him. And when he came up out of the
water, Philip left him. Oh, that I may know him. and
the power of his resurrection, and the communion of his sufferings,
and be conformed to his death. I want us to turn to number 37,
and I want us to sing as our closing hymn, O Lord my God,
when I in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds thy hands hath
made. I see the stars, and I hear the
rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, My Savior
God to thee, how great thou art.