You should have gotten some fairly
decent sleep last night. You got to go home yesterday.
That's good. That's good to hear. One, Mance
had a pretty bad A-field attack and had to go in the hospital.
So I remember her in the first aid. She was back out of the
hospital, and her A-field had been hit with A-wire, and they
had to take her to the emergency room. So I remember her in the
first aid. I think he'll always have more than the others. If
you're wrong, James is doing well. He's up and at them. So
with half a foot on one side. Who was that guy that played
for the Raiders and had half a foot? George Blanton. Okay,
well that's your bit of history this morning. Next Sunday is the last Sunday
of the month. We'll observe the Lord's table and go after the
new message next Sunday. Let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 352, Jesus Lover of My Soul. Jesus, Father of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fall, while the deep and farthers roll, while
the deep is still, is done. Till the storm of life is past,
Straight into the halo guide, O receive my soul at last! Of the refuge have I gone, All my trust from thee is with the shadow of my wings More than all in me I find. Raise the ball and cheer the
faint. Heal the sick and lead the blind. Blessed holy is my name. I am all in righteousness. False and full of sin I am, powerful
on truth and grace! Life-giving grace to me is found,
grace to comfort all my sin! When the Heaven springs around,
make and keep me Your place! Thou who light the clouds of
o'er, freely let me take of Thee! Swing down, Lord, within our
heart! Rise to all eternity! After Scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 287, by the River of Glories. Now your
Bible's turned to Isaiah, chapter 45. After sending forth the glorious
deliverance, God is going to use a pagan named Cyrus to deliver
his people from Babylonian captivity. The Lord describes himself in
verses 5 through 8. He says in verse 5, I am the
Lord. Now notice that's capital L all
the way across. That's Jehovah God. I am the
Lord, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun from
the west, and there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there
is none else. I form the light. and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Drop down, ye heavens from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open. Let them
bring forth salvation. Let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it. Our Father in heaven, we rejoice
to read such a wondrous description you give of yourself, setting
forth the fact that you are God, sovereign, immutable, absolute
creator of all that is. We know that everything in this
universe is at your disposal. to use exactly as you see fit,
for the glory of your namesake, for the salvation of your people,
and for their good. You have set the course of history,
moving and manipulating kings and paupers, even to the worms
that writhe in the dust, to do your will. We bow in thanksgiving
and praise where this settles our mind and heart in a world
gone crazy. Help us, Lord, to believe, to
trust, to rest in the fact that what you've done for us by the
blood of Jesus Christ will never change. Help us, Lord, to worship
you. For those who are sick, going
through trials, we remember the Lord. The one that she's having
this problem with, Aphia, we ask, Lord, you be with her. Her
family's administered, too. Thank you for the good word on
A Husky, Ronald. We ask, Lord, you continue to
minister there. Set their eyes upon Jesus Christ. But when it all boils down to
it, our frame is weak and with nothing but dust. Soon we pass
from this world to the next. And we will find, even as your
word says, all we have in heaven is our Savior. And all we desire
on earth is His hand. Help us now to worship you in
Christ's name. Amen. Like a river flows is God's
perfect peace. He is God's perfect peace. Oh, but all victorious in His
guiding peace. Perfect, beautiful, and deeper
all the way. King of all Jehovah, our Son
truly blest, Hiding as He promised, perfect peace and grace. In, in the hollow of His blissing
hand There were folk in hollow, there were traitors there Not
a certain worry, not a shade of care I'm us to do. They who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly true. Straight upon Jehovah, hearts
are fully blest, finding as He promised, perfect peace Father, again we quote you in
the name of Christ, our great and glorious Savior, by whom
and for whom and to whom all things exist, who created all
things by the power of his own might, who raised us up from
the miry clays that our feet have unbroken. We know that what
we have, this side of utter perdition and ruin, is all by your grace
and mercy. We return unto thee that which
belongs to you. Let us do so with joy and thanksgiving
in Christ's name. Amen. I asked my sister to come up
here and sing for us. She got all the beauty and all
the talent. I got daddy's truck. so so ? O fount of love divine that flows
? ? From my Savior's great inside ? ? My sins are gone, those filthy
rags ? ? And His righteousness is gone ? ? Mercy cleanses you
? for me like a flower. And now this wretched, this vile,
this twined is accepted in this hour. ? O mount of grace, to thee I cling
? ? From the low, and set me free ? ? Once and for all, on
Calvary's tree ? ? Love and trust this evergreen ? ? Praise the
Lord, the Christ is made ? The curse defeated my blue bird. Yes, I was once a slave by birth. Now I'm free. In Christ I stand. ? The world of joy is mine to enjoy
? Forevermore, the angel of God
is ready to bless you. Hallelujah, Christ is King, a
rider laying on His throne. With hymns of praise, glory be
to God on high. Hallelujah, Christ is here. Alive and breathing on this star. My town, you'll be proud. With hymns of praise, glory be
to God the Lord. Glory be to God the Lord. brought your attention back to
Isaiah chapter 45. Most people in religion today
would be astonished just at the reading of this passage of Scripture.
But their view and understanding of God Almighty and what they
think is God Almighty is so puny and so weak and so unlikely and
to find out that this God is the God who creates evil and
creates good. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil was God's creation and He put it in the dark. In
one place in Psalms it says light and darkness are the same to
Him. Are the same to Him. What does
that mean? That means good and evil. His
creation served His purpose precisely in this world. There's evil in this world, and
it's used by God our Father to glorify Him in His wrath and
in His judgment, or in His love for His people. But they serve
His purpose. The serpent was God's creation. What happened in the Garden of
Eden was not an accident. Adam's fall was not an accident,
lest God be out of control for one second in this universe. The God of Scripture is the God
you and I are going to meet. That God. Not the God of religious
imagination. But this God, the one who said,
I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. And just in case
you didn't understand, he said, I, the Lord, do all these things. this is the word of God. Do you believe? The Lord said in Matthew chapter
7 verse 37 I think it is. He said, let your communication
be yea, yea or nay, nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh to
evil. Let it be yes or love, or anything
else produces evil. The message I'm going to preach
this morning, I think I've preached 45 times out of the 45 years
I've been here. I preach it once a year, every
year. The last time I preached it was May 2024. It's a message that bears repeating,
so at least in my own mind, I repeat it often. And it's a message
that bears repeating because it produces a verdict in the
minds and hearts of the hearers. Upon hearing what is said concerning
these things, you will respond with yea or nay. You have to. You will respond
with yea or nay. So much in life renders itself
to the fodder of debate and opinion. But here, it's yes or no. Yea or nay. When you leave here
this morning having heard this, as old Scott Richardson used
to say, if you don't believe, you will know what you don't
believe. I hope, by God's grace, I'll
be that clear. Seven stubborn statements. The first statement is this,
the Bible is the word of God or it's not. Yeah, you may. It is inspired from heaven, God-breathed or it's not God-breathed. It
is either the truth or it is not. It is either the truth or
it is a lie. It is the record of God's sovereign
operation of the universe or it's not. It's that simple actually. The very nature of truth brings
everything and everyone to account and puts everyone in his or her
ordained and predestinated place. This is God's divine communication. This is what we have of God.
Not feeling. Not vision. not dream, this is
what we have of God, what He has led, His communication to
His people. If it is the truth, then no part
of it is false. If it is false on any level,
then no part of it is the truth. Being truth, then it will not
matter, it will not be a matter of will you believe, but the
revelation, having heard it, whether you believe or you don't. That's the power of the truth. God's Word. God's Word. Think on that. God has spoken. the spoken thoughts that are
higher than our thoughts. Heaven is high above here. They've
been revealed. And this is what we have. Now,
we know that God operates in providence and absolute secrecy.
Don't try to figure out what God's doing. It'll mess up your
mind. You can't figure out what He's
doing. You can read it in the past when you read the newspaper
the next day. That's what He did. Whatever
it is, that's what he did. But you can't know what he's
doing at any given time. Problems. It's tough. It's hard. It's heartbreaking. It's often more painful than
it is pleasurable. But it's always good. It's always good for God's people. And it's always glorious to God. Being God's Word. is what we
have, what has been revealed. The secret things belong to God.
That which is revealed belongs to us and our children, and we
might do all the works of this book. Being God's Word, it cannot be
subject to debate, lest maggots make themselves magistrates,
while asses call themselves arbiters, and bring God who cannot lie
before the bar of their desolate deliberation. If the regurgitated
opinion of worms carries weight, it is their thoughts and the
imagination of their hearts, which are evil continually, that
are exalted to a higher place than God's thoughts and God's
ways as they are revealed. And many reach to the heights
of the serpent's promise and become divine, and become little
gods, sublime serpents, splendid snakes, venerated vipers. To
take a portion of this word and leave another off is to declare
yourself an unbeliever. Just make it yes or no. Somebody
says to you, well, I don't believe in election. That's an unbeliever.
I don't care how religious they are. Because the Bible, the Bible
is the word of God. The Bible is the word of God. Or it's not. Yes or no? Secondly, God is sovereign. Or he's not. He's sovereign. or is not. The Bible declares
just like I read just here in Isaiah 45. He rules and reigns
and controls all things or he doesn't. If he is God then he
is absolute sovereign. He rules in creation products
and most assuredly in the salvation of sinners. He uses all things. He moves and manipulates all
things and gathers all things and uses all men and women for
his predestinated purpose. I've said this many times, in
God's economy there is no unemployment. You say no and walk from this
building having no interest or no desire to believe this Word,
you will be used and are being used and are being manipulated
and are being moved exactly as you're supposed lock, stock, and barrel, and
He'll do with you what He will. He will do with you what He will.
He set the world on a course, you see, to bring all things
to their appointed end, and that end is the glorification of His
name and His person and the good of His chosen. That's what history
is. If one thing is outside its predestinated
purpose, then all things are out of control. He's outside his purpose. And
everything's out of control. Everything's out of control.
The Lord says over and over again in Scripture, in Isaiah, several
places, in Daniel, Romans 9. Romans 9, where most people wish
wasn't even in the Bible, but it's there. Nebuchadnezzar found
it out. He found out that God was sovereign,
though He was a little sovereign. He was the king of Babylon. And
he stood on the porch one day and said, oh Babylon, thou have
made, thou great Babylon that I have made. And while the words
were still upon his tongue, God made him insane. Turned him into
a madman. Sent him out into the field.
And he crawled on all fours. Ate grass. His fingernails grew
like claws. His hair was undercut. His beard dragged to the ground.
He was a madman. People walked by and said, who
in the world is that? That's the King of Babylon. The King of Babylon. And then
after a season, God brought him back to his right mind. And here
was his declaration about God. One time he said, look what I
have done. Now he says, look at what God has done. He's done
according to His will. In the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay His hand. And
none can say unto Him, what doest thou? His dominion is everlasting
dominion. That means He absolutely dominates. For this purpose I raised up
Pharaoh. to bring him down to show my
power. I raised him up to be a slave
master over my people so I could show in just a matter of days
that I could bring that sovereign to his knees and drown his whole
army in the Red Sea and deliver my people by the blood of the
lamb. God is sovereign. God is sovereign. We have it
on our sign, Sovereign Grace Church out here, Sequoia Sovereign
Grace. We believe in Sovereign Grace.
A lady came by a few weeks ago, stopped here and worshiped with
us. Her husband was a Sovereign Grace preacher, minister to Indians
out on Navajo Reservation. She just saw the sign, Sovereign
Grace. She said, I can't believe it. I said, well, somebody put
that on the sign. So she pulled in. We had a long talk. Sovereign. What does that mean? Barnard
said take off the S-O-V and add an S at the end and add the word
he. He reigns. That's what sovereign
means. Thirdly, man is totally depraved
or he's not. Man is totally depraved or he's
not. The Bible declares him to be in no uncertain terms. and
the ramification of believing otherwise called into question
the record of God's manner of salvation. If a man had within
himself the ability to generate faith and change who he is, then
what was the purpose of Christ coming into this world? If man had a spark of life, a
dollop of divinity that could be stirred into faith by the
ingredients of some religious recipe, And what cruelty must
be laid at the door of God Almighty for pouring out His wrath on
His Son when in truth it was unnecessary because of a pinch
of pretty persuasion and a little emotional maneuvering and a bit
of shove in the right direction, man could save himself. If man is not totally depraved
and ruined, then it is right and reasonable to make a plea
to Him to do something about his life. But you will know and
notice, if you've been here with me, About three of you have been
here with me since the beginning. You know I've never told you
to do anything. Never asked you to do anything
in the matter of your life before God. Why is that? Because the
fact is, if God don't do it for you and do it to you, it ain't
gonna get done. And that's the truth. The invitation system I saw this
morning And on some college campus, a thousand students went down
to the altar. Where's that at? Where's the
altar? The last altar was the cross
of Jesus Christ. And there, the perfect sacrifice
was made, and the people whom he died for was redeemed by his
blood. Thousands went down to the altar,
and a guy I went to school with said, boy, I'd love to see that.
I don't love to see that. I don't like to see that. The
imitation system and the soul winner chicanery are but prayers
and pleas to men, not to God. Won't you come down? Won't you
do something? Won't you believe? Not in scripture. Not in scripture. If man is to pray, then it is
right to pray to God for salvation if he's to pray. If he can't
do anything, if he's utterly ruined by the fall, if he's wretched
and undone and unclean, if he's totally depraved, lying from
his mother's womb, can't change his spot, He's a lie, and a liar,
and lighter than vanity. Condemned, drinks iniquity like
water. Lame, halt, dead, doomed, damned,
and dying. None good, can't do good, none
righteous. Poison of the ashes under his
tongue. No fear of God before his eyes.
God is not in all his thoughts. If man is totally depraved, You
can only pray to God for his salvation. But if you believe
he's got a free will, and you believe he can change himself,
then plead to him. Don't ask God to save him, ask
him to save himself. That's what religion does. They
say God's provided all this, now you've got to do this. You've
got to take the first step. You can take the first step,
you can take the second one, and the third, and the fourth, and
every one of them you need to get there if you can take the
first one. The bad man is totally depraved. Or he's not. The other
night. Fourthly, God elected a people
unto salvation. Chose a people unto salvation.
Or he didn't. One of them is true. The Bible
claims that he did. Since man is totally depraved,
an election is an absolute necessity for anyone to be saved. "'Twas not that I did choose
thee, for, Lord, that could not be. I would still refuse thee,
hadst thou not chosen me.'" For men to wind up in hell, all
God has to do is leave them be. But for someone to be saved out
of this cesspool of putrefaction called humanity, God must choose
them out. He must select them. He must
elect them. He must sever them from the ruins
of their desolate existence. Election does not keep anyone
out of heaven. It assures that some will enter
in. But election is unto salvation, and without election there is
none. God declares that His love and hate is defined by election.
For the children being not yet born, neither having done good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. He said to the elders shall serve
the younger Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. Paul said, well I know that you're
elected Thessalonians because the gospel came to you in power
and much assurance of the Holy Ghost. Paul said, I'm bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, because God has
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and the belief in the truth, whereunto he called
you by our gospel to the attaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessing according that he's
chosen us in him before the foundations of the world. Peter said, elect
according to the foreknowledge of God. 140-some times in scripture
that term is used, elect, chosen, settled, to town. If God did not, in sweet, sovereign
grace, choose some people to salvation, then all people would
perish, and rightfully so. God elected a people, or He didn't. Fifthly, Christ actually redeemed,
saved, justified, and sanctified those for whom He died, or He
didn't. There is no place, no line, no
paragraph, and no parenthetical expression, no hint, no inference,
no intimation, and no suggestion where the death of Christ is
even vaguely presented as being anything other than a complete,
absolute, unqualified success. Nowhere in Scripture. So the name He was given, to
his final words upon the cross his accomplishment is unequivocally
proclaimed thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sins and he cried with a loud voice it
is finished same word used in Hebrews 10 he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified it is finished it is perfected
there can be no degrees to it. It's either perfected or it ain't. Or it ain't. Fifthly, Christ
actually redeemed His people. He did not make salvation possible.
If He only made salvation possible, then salvation's impossible. If He only tried to save you,
And he failed, I should say. He laid down his life, he said,
for his sheep. And he said, the ones he laid
down his life for, called his sheep, which he will bring into
the fold, will hear his voice. And they will follow him. And
he will give to them eternal life. And they shall never, ever
perish. No charge and no condemnation
can be laid to the account of those for whom Christ died. That's
the promise of Scripture. Who is He that condemned them?
It is Christ that died, yea rather He's risen again. No charge. He cannot be the Redeemer of
unredeemed men. How can that be? How do you call
Him a Redeemer if He didn't redeem who He came to redeem? He can't
be a savior of unsaved men. How do you call him a savior
if he ain't saved? He's not applying for those jobs. They're his titles. He was exalted to the right hand
of the majesty on high because he got the job done. He finished
salvation, completed it, perfected forever those for whom he died,
put away their sins by the sacrifice of himself, made them accepted
to the beloved, That means none of those things
like justification or sanctification or redemption is in any way a
process. It cannot be greater than it
is. It's the greatest to start with. It's perfect. Sanctification is not progressive. You're not going to get better.
And if you know anything about yourself, you know that's true.
You know anything about your heart and about your mind as
you grow older, you don't get better. You get weaker and more
frail and uglier, viler, weaker. Nothing better about you as you
get older. Gray hairs don't necessarily mean wisdom. But if He is Savior, you're completely
saved. If He is redeemed you, you're
completely redeemed. You're absolutely bought, you're
paid for, and you're owned. And if He is your sanctification,
you stand before God as holy as God Himself. For whom His blood was shed,
their sins were remitted. And where remission of these
is, there is no more sacrifice. Those for whom he died do not
fear the judgment. Why should they? You will never
be charged with sin. He was charged with their sin. You will never be charged You are in Christ. He actually
redeemed his people or he didn't. Sixthly, the Holy Spirit affectionately
gives faith to all whom Christ died for or he doesn't. The work of the Holy Spirit is
to reveal to the elect what God has done for them. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 it talks about, and I have not seen or heard what
God has done for them that love Him, but it is revealed to us
by His Spirit. And what the Spirit does, He
takes the things of God and shows them to us. He tells us what
God has done for us. He tells us what we've been freely
given in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit takes the things of
Christ. He takes the Word of God and regenerates the people
of God. I can't begin to understand that.
That's still, the older I get, the more wonderful mystery that
becomes to me. Because I know what I am. And
I know that for 47 years I've been standing up here saying
the exact same thing. And I baptized almost everybody
in this country. But that word, I know it's not
me. It can't be me, I can't help
you. But that word in the hands of the Holy Spirit gives life. eternal life and gives faith
to men. What a wonder that is! What an
utter wonder that is! He regenerates the people of
God. He's not some religious influencer,
some Star Wars force, some nudging influence, some available commodity
at the disposal of men. He is the sovereign God of the
Holy Spirit. sovereign in power and effectual
in his calling. He reveals Christ to the elect.
He does not operate in the realm of conscience, but in the realm
of the invisible spirit imbued with sovereign sway. He does
not operate in the arena of reformation or behavior modification, but
in the realm of regeneration and making dead people alive.
He does not convince men of sin by the law, but by the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it says in John chapter
16. When the spirit comes, he shall convince men of sin and
righteousness and of judgment. And one would say, well, sin,
that's drinking beer and going to the movie show. Of sin, he
said, because you believe not on his name. Of righteousness,
well, that means holy living. walking upright and carrying
himself in a certain way. A righteousness. A righteousness. Because he's gone to the Father.
And he finished the work of salvation. No judgment. Well, that means
if you're bad, you're going to go to hell. If you're good, you
ain't going to go to hell. That's what that means. No judgment. Because the prince of this world
is cast out. The seed of woman has bruised
his hand. That's what the Holy Spirit teaches
you about Jesus Christ. And He never stops teaching you
about Jesus Christ. He does not put people in a trance,
manipulate them into all manner of goofy and ludicrous, recordable
silliness or ridiculous religious hygiene. The Holy Spirit puts
in people in mind of Jesus Christ and His glory, teaching them
and leading them and guiding them to the truth. When He teaches
the elect here, they learn, they heed. His people are made willing
in the day of His power. Finally, God keeps His people,
or He doesn't. The idea of salvation in most
religious areas, God gets it started, but you finish it. You
gotta keep yourself from evil. The Bible declares that he keeps
his people. God has kept us. God has kept
us over and over again. If he didn't keep his people, I'm ashamed to think what I would
do if I wasn't kept by God. I'm ashamed to think of what
I would be if God didn't keep me. I tried in religion to keep
myself for many years and it didn't work. I was utter failure. And if I try to keep myself today,
I still fail. Thank God, he keeps us. He keeps us. He's bought us. He's paid for us. and where He
is. The Word of God. The Bible is
the Word of God or it's not. Man is depraved or he's not.
God is sovereign or he's not. God has chosen a people or He
hasn't. Christ redeemed those people or He didn't. The Holy
Spirit draws those people or He doesn't. God keeps His people
or He doesn't. Now here's the issue, my friend.
You've heard this. Let your yea be yea, or your
nay be nay. Everything else is evil. Father, bless us to understand
and pray for Christ.