as of yesterday, and we'll probably
maybe get to put home a hickory lawn. Remember, they had to ship
a hickory, couldn't find a hospital around here. So, remember your prayers, keep
the Lord's help for you. Next Sunday's the last Sunday
of the month, so we'll be having morning service with the Lord's
table and then dinner, but no afternoon service, so remember
that if you will. Okay, let's begin our worship
service with a hand out. We're unworthy. Unworthy am I of the grace that
He gave! Unworthy to hold to His hand! The place that the King would
which crowned Him! unworthy unworthy a beggar in
bondage and alone but he made it worthy and now by his grace
his mercy has made me his own My sorrow and sickness, their
stripes on His back My sins, God, from heaven He shall My
faults and my failures, in the Lord I am blest Unworthy. His mercy has made it is unworthy I'm working with angels to sing
I feel just the well that would love me so but he may be worthy
but now If you have your Bible, show
it to me to Romans chapter 9. There'll be two verses in Scripture. This is the reply of natural
man, carnal man, to the concept in Scripture teaching of God's
absolute solitude in all things. Romans chapter 9, verse 19 and
20. Paul, knowing how men will respond
to the sovereignty of God. Thou will say unto me, why doth
he that is God yet find fault? For who has resisted his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replies against God? Shall the thing form, say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Let us pray.
Our Father, we come in the name of the affections of Jesus Christ,
the Lord, who is our righteousness and our sanctification and our
redemption and our wisdom, who sits at thy right hand, having
purged our sins, ever living to make intercession for his
saints. We come in the name of Jesus Christ, ask you to cause
us in our hearts to stay to worship you in spirit and in truth. And
that will be to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ clearly, so that
those who hear, if they leave this place in unbelief, will
know what they don't believe. Help us, Lord, we pray, to see
Christ uplifted, high, and holy, sitting at thy right hand. Help
us, Lord, to think on him. Take the world from us for a
while. God has stood up to him alone. Father, we pray for those
who are sick and going through troubles and trials. Continue
to pray for Ethel as she begins to recover from this illness.
Ask, Lord, your help for her and for the family that attend
to her. Continue to pray for Peggy Kirkwood, the lost daughter.
Pray for the others, Father, going through the troubles of
trial, but I know it's dedicated. We pray that you'd fix their
hearts and minds upon Christ. Make us all realize in this day
that we don't have anything here that's eternal. It's all temporal.
We can see this going to go away. And give us a heart for that
which is eternal. Help us now, we pray to worship
you. We pray in Christ's name. O star of God, and bearer of
spirit, could see. But in God's Word, the light
I found. Now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what salvation But raise her high from yonder
star! set free Christ So, praise His spirit dwelleth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. What a salvation is that Christ
liveth in me. with all my heart is true that
I, here I may be as on the wondrous altar in Him that Christ is living
in me Christ is living in me Christ is living in me What a salvation this, that in
Christ you live within me. Let us pray. Father, we are proposing
in the name of Jesus Christ, the unspeakable King. that you pray these and give
to all of your people, and with them, pray to give them all things.
We are thankful, Father, for the opportunity that you have
granted your children to have this great privilege, to render
unto thee that which you've given them, in order that the gospel
be preached here and in other places. Help us now to worship
you in this manner, we pray in Christ's name. so so you Brought your attention back to
Romans chapter 9. I love that song. Some of the finest words ever written. In
a song, in a hymn. Written by a man that lost everything.
His name was Spafford. Lost his children on a boat trip
back to England. He was a Canadian businessman
and lost everything here. He was going to straighten out
his business ventures here before he went back to England. He sent
his wife and his children over on the way over the shipwreck.
He got a note from his wife that if she had arrived in England,
she was saved from the wreck. The note said, saved alone. And so he got on a boat headed
for England and the captain of the boat came down to his cabin
and said, we're right over the place where your children perished.
He sat down and wrote, it is well with my soul. It is
well with my soul. I love that third verse, my sin.
Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part,
but to hope is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.
It is well, it is well with my soul. Back to Romans chapter
9. As I said, these are the words
of natural man, of carnal man. And we know that the scripture
says that carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to
the law of God, neither can be. They with what are in the flesh
cannot please God, the scripture says. And after hearing how God does
things in Romans chapter 9, A chapter which a great many of so-called
Christians wish wasn't even in the Bible. After hearing how God operates
in this world, and He does as He pleases in heaven and earth
and all the deep places, and none can stand or say unto Him,
what doest thou? He does according to His will. He says, well, if I'm the way
I am because he made me the way I am. How could he ever blame
me for what I am? That was his argument. And Paul's
answer was simply, well, you're a piece of clay. You have no
say. You're an inanimate object. If
God makes you alive, you're dead in trespasses and sins. And whatever
God makes you, He makes you for a purpose. And you will serve
your purpose in this world. Whether you love God or whether
you hate Him, you're going to serve your purpose in this world.
There is no unemployment in God's economy. Not one person is unemployed. But this message is about the
area where men usually, and I say men usually, religious men, deny
the effects of original sin. or what actually happened when
Adam fell in the Garden of Eden. And they do not do so openly
because the Bible is clear that all that are born of woman enter
into this world in a state of sin. Coming forth from the womb
as soon as they're born, speaking lies, conceived in iniquity. To deny that man is a sinner
is to make God a liar. That's what the scripture says.
over in first john chapter one verses eight and ten it says
if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves that truth is not in
us if we say that we have not sinned we make god a liar and
his word is not in us man is born as he is born in this world
as a sinner and his first breath his first breath is worthy of
death In Romans chapter 5, verse 12, it says, wherefore, as by
one man, Adam, in sin entered the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. That's a
weak interpretation of the last phrase in the English. It actually
says, in whom all sin. We sin in Adam. When Adam sinned,
he was imputed and counted as our sin. This truth sheds a lot
of light on the teaching of God about the will of man. Man can
choose anything he wants within the realm in which he exists. He is by nature not spiritual,
but carnal. And apart from the work of sovereign
grace, man simply acts and reacts according to his nature. And
he acts somewhat freely within the constricts of the realm in
which he lives. Like a fish does well in water,
doesn't do well outside of water, dies. Man cannot, however, leave
that realm of death of his own will, enter into the realm of
the spirit. Our Lord said to Nicodemus, except
you be born again, you cannot see, perceive, grasp the kingdom. of heaven, the kingdom of heaven.
Scripture clearly and clearly, that the natural man, that is
man as he is born of woman into this world, receiveth not the
things of the spirit, they are foolishness to them, neither
can he know them, nor discern them, because they are spiritually
discerned. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. Consider
the biblical us in the word of God, or the biblical use, the
word cannot, We found that there are basically two principles
applied to the concept of cannot when it speaks of man's will. The first is this, of preference,
affinity, or inclination. Since the will of man is the
choice of man, and that choice is merely a revelation of the
desire of his mind, man's will will always choose what he wants
and never choose what he does not want. It's that simple. Man
will never choose what he does not want. That's to say, he will
choose what he won't choose. It makes no sense whatsoever.
By nature, he does not want the things of God. Scripture makes
that clear. Absolutely, as he's born into
this world, he cares not for the things of God. God is not
in all his thoughts, Scripture says. He says, born into this
world, no God for me. That's man. Will he want God?
No. Not as he's born into this world.
There are foolishness doing these things of God. So in this sense
man cannot because he will not. The second principle is perception.
A person cannot choose what he cannot perceive. Except to be
born again you cannot see, perceive the kingdom of heaven. Man in
sin cannot perceive the things of the spirit because they lie
outside the realm of his knowledge and understanding. Therefore
he will not choose them. In this sense he will not because
he cannot. Difficult to be in the habit
with this truth. The truth that natural man is
determined towards sin and is incapable or is capable of only
choosing among diverse sins is how that a man that is so determined
can be accountable for his sin. That's the issue with men, a
lot of men. How can I be held accountable
if I'm made this way? To them, this seems unfair. Paul
deals with that, men saying God is unrighteous or unfair. Their thinking is not unreasonable,
but we are not dealing with human reason. I believe it was Gordon
Bayless, an old English preacher, said this is a very, very reasonable
book. Just not to us. Very reasonable, but just not
to us. We are not dealing with human reason. We are dealing
with divine revelation. And remember this, that as high
and lofty as our thoughts might be, And I don't count mine very high.
But as high and lofty as they may be, God says, my thoughts
are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. As the
heaven is high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your
thoughts, and my ways above your ways. No matter what we think,
even if we think right about things, God is not God's thoughts. God's thoughts are worked out
in Providence, and we look at Providence and we don't begin
to understand what's going on in this world. We can't get it. We're troubled by this and troubled
by that. These are God's thoughts. It's going on. We don't know
what's going on. He's God. Can't you tell by searching,
find out God? You'd sooner empty the Atlantic
with a teaspoon and find out for men to find out God. But men think. This way, if man
is determined or inclined to sin and unable by his own will
to rise above sin, then God cannot hold him accountable. Yes, He
can. And He does. This is basically the argument
that men put forth as Paul wrote the words of this text. The answer
does not sit well with carnal religious men. God having declared
that He loved Jacob and hated Esau, has met with the carnal
notion that men have the capability and want to judge God in righteousness.
When He said this is the determining factor of understanding God's
eternal election of grace, using Jacob and Esau as an example,
He says in verse 11, for the children not being born, neither
having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election would stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. As it is said, we're going to
turn this thing upside down. The elder is going to serve the
younger. The elder was Esau. Jacob was
the elder. He said, because Jacob have I
loved, and Esau have I hated. Now some biblical scholar would
say, well it means he loved him less. No it doesn't. The word is psalmate, which here
means totally indifferent. Not even consider. You know,
I'd rather somebody hate me than not even think about me. But
this says, he saw not even consider. Why? That the purpose of God
according to election would stand. And what was the response of
men? It says here. What shall we say
then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? If he did it this way, God loved
one and hated the other just so his purpose of election would
stand. Does that make God unrighteous? I didn't think it does. That
wouldn't be fair. Wouldn't be fair. On whose scale
are you measuring it? Your scale? Your scale doesn't count. God having declared that he loved
Jacob and hated Esau was met with a carnal notion that men
have the capability and warrant to judge what God says. God said
it, and man says that ain't right. If you have that brain of mine,
on any level, about any subject addressing this blessed book,
then you're an unbeliever, because God's people believe This is their life. This is their
sustenance. This is the bread from heaven.
This is the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. That's what this
is. God inspires men to write these
things. How does Paul answer when men
say God is unrighteous? He says, for he saith unto Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion." When did he say that to Moses?
When Moses asked this astounding question. Moses, who had seen
the river turn to blood, he had seen the locusts and the flies
and the frogs, he had seen darkness come upon the face of the earth,
he had seen every son born in Egypt slain that day, either
in person or in a substitute, He saw the Egyptian son slain
and saw his own son slain with the blood on the doorpost and
the lintels, and said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you.
Moses had seen it. He saw the Red Sea divided. It stand up just like ice on
either side, congealed on either side. And a whole nation walked
through an ocean on dry land. He had seen that. And yet he
asked this question, what is your Lord? Look at some glorious things
he saw. What did God say? Four things. I'll make my goodness
pass before you. I'll proclaim the name of the
Lord before you. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So, the
result of that, Paul says in verse 16, so then it is not him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy." God inspires Paul to write these things down for the
sole purpose of showing that God has mercy on whom He will.
Not only that, He hardens whom He will. He hardens whom He will. It says
so also in this passage, He hardens whom He will. The natural response
of man is he cannot understand how God could hold him accountable
if he is the way he is because God has made him so. That's what
he says in verse 19. Thou wilt say unto me, why doth
he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will
if he does all these things? If he raised up Pharaoh just
to put him down, hardened his heart, And he may be this way, how can
he find fault with me? That's the natural argument that
men have. To that God answers in such a
way that tells man that he does not even have the right to ask
such a question. You don't have the right to ask
God about anything that he does or question him as to his right,
him being right about what he does. You don't have a warrant
to do that. You are a preacher. He holds your breath in his hands. If he don't give you the next
breath, you're a gone Jesse. That's just that simple. We're
going to take you out and put you in the ground if he don't
give you that next breath. Your life is a vapor. That's
it. No more. No more. God answers simply in verse 23.
He says, Nay, but O man, who art thou that replyest against
God. So to ask that question is to
reply against God. You're going against God. Shall
the thing before me say to him that before me, why did you make
me this? We have a lot of potters in Cherokee.
Make beautiful pottery. I bet if you ask every one of
them, they will say that not one good clay ever said, why
did you make me? Why did you make me a marriage
vase? Why did you make me a bowl? The
clay don't say that, why? Because the clay's dead. It's
in the hands of the potter. Has not the potter power over
the clay to make of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another vessel unto dishonor. Now those words spoken of in
the old English language, what he's saying there, one vessel
is made as a representative of the skill and the artistry of
the maker. Called sinners saved by grace
as trophies of God's grace. Vessels of honor. Other vessels
are made that are useful. They're called vessels of dishonor,
but they're useful, and after they're used, they're discarded.
That's the difference. Now he's talking about people
here, not talking about clay. He's talking about people and
using clay as an example. He's talking about people. What
if God made me to dishonor? to be cast aside finally and
thrown away because I've been used for what I was designed
for but I'm of no use for the glory of God in salvation. And he makes another, he makes
Stan as a vessel of honor to show that salvation is by grace. What if he did that? You say, well, that makes me
uncomfortable. You better quit being uncomfortable. We're talking
about God Almighty. This is what he says. What if
God, and that's not saying a question, that's making a statement. What
if God does that? What have you got to say? What
if God, willing to show His wrath and make His power known, endued
with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted or made
to destruction, and that He might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy which he has foreprepared to
glory. What if he did that? What does Carl Mann say? I don't
like that. I don't like that idea about
God. I can't understand why he can hold me responsible if that's
the way he makes me. If he makes me a vessel of dishonor, why
does he put me in hell? He's God. You've got to get rid
of this idea. This namby-pamby, gray-haired
granddaddy sitting on a cloud in a rocking chair who likes
everybody is God. God Almighty does what He wants
to do. I hear people saying in this
last couple of days, God wants this and God wants that. Let
me tell you, if God wants something, God's got something. He's God. He does all His pleasure, Scripture
says. To that God answers in such a
way that men don't even have a right to reply. Don't have a right to answer
such a question. Having a nature that loves sin, is inclined to
sin, has an affinity for sin, He does not excuse sin, because
a man does in the end what he wants to do. Freely choosing that which he
desires. Sinning is not a struggle for
men. It's natural. It's like breathing. It's like
breathing. Our Lord said in the scriptures, But he looked down from heaven,
Psalm 14, and saw the sons of men. And he saw this about them.
They are all together to become filthy, stinking. That's the word. There is none
that understandeth, and there is none that seeketh that to
God. You say, well, that's the Old Testament. The elder Paul
quoted it in Romans chapter 3, verse 10 through 19. You will not be able to claim
that God did not elect him. You will have to admit that he
hates God, as is clearly seen in the Revelation, when all those
who thrive off the delicacies of the great whole Babylon religion
take up arms against Christ because they want to defend and preserve
their wicked ways and their wicked choices. Why do men hate God? Because
he's God. Now, they don't hate that one That's not the God of Scripture. God is wondrously full of love
and mercy and grace, but he's also absolutely just and will
have justice. He will have justice. Wicked
choices do not abrogate their blameworthiness. In this we are
not addressing physical inability or moral inability. Moral inability
to do a thing does not destroy freedom of liberty or will. Jonathan
Edwards gave an illustration concerning this. He said a woman
of honor and chastity may have a moral inability, a moral inability
to prostitute herself. Nobody could deny the truth of
this statement. She could not do so, yet her
freedom and choice of will was not compromised, and her inability
to lack or lack of inclination does not diminish the value of
her virtue. There's a moral choice. I don't know what's going to
happen in America after all this mess has gone on last week or
so. What is called Christianity today
is a mighty big umbrella that just about embraces everything. But if it has a moral influence
on people, I'm all for it. I just wouldn't call it Christian. Their will means that men are
born with their will poised between good and evil. I've heard preachers
say that. That you're born and here's evil
and here's good and you're kind of dangling on the string. You've
got to choose one or the other. That's not true. This notion
is absurd and in truth the actions of religion deny that they believe
what they assert. They say they assert that. We
believe that. We believe men's got free will.
He's dangling between good and evil. That's what they say. Yet there's a big college, so-called
Christian college here in the South that won't allow boys and
girls to mix without supervision. What happened to free will? What
happened between choice of good and evil? Why do you restrict
them? Because they know what's in boys and they know what's
in girls. It ain't about free will. It ain't about choice. They know
and left to themselves Men and women, boys and girls, will pursue
what they desire, and their choice will be to fulfill their desire.
Paul said that in Ephesians 2. He desired the lust of the desires
of the flesh. He were dead in trespasses and
sin. That's the who he quickened.
Those who were dead in trespasses and sin followed the course of
this world and went after the desires of the lust of the flesh. I never told my daughter or my
son to just go out and do what they wanted to do. I never told
them that, because I knew what they were. I warned them of the
dangers of their own nature and admonished them to do what was
right or suffer the consequences for any bad actions they might
perform. And I prayed that God would prevent them from evil,
that only God could do that. I did it because I knew that
they were born with the same nature as me. If man's will is
poised between good and evil, why don't we just open the doors
of the penitentiary and allow the dangling desperadoes to make
their free choice? Or religion places controls and
restrictions on men and women in hopes of keeping them from
being what they are. God prohibits certain things
because he knows what's in man. Believers pray for God to intervene
and keep evil, wicked men from doing what they naturally desire
because the believer knows that man, led to himself, will pursue
that which is against God. One of the things I'm thankful
for is the preventative power of
God Almighty. And in His grace and mercy, He
keeps me from being It keeps me from doing what's
in my heart and my mind, because you don't want to know. If a
person was to hate me, that'd be fine. I'm hateful and worthy
of hate. And most people don't know half
the story. Nobody knows half the story except God. But I'm
thankful that he holds me back from being what I would be. Because in my heart, according to Jesus Christ's words
himself, I'm a murderer and a thief and
an adulterer. And I've got an evil eye and
poison under my tongue. Thank the Lord for His preventative
grace. And God's going to be God. Father bless us to understand
the grace of God.