Is it time? Well, it's good to
see everybody out this morning. Remember those who requested
prayer. Let you know Fred's had his biopsy. He'll find out something
on Wednesday. I think they took six punch biopsies on him. So
find out on Wednesday. Rain French is maybe coming on
today. Sharon said she wouldn't be here
if she's going to pick him up. So she's probably picking up
rain. The parent, because of his lack of attention to his
diabetes, he had a seizure and was in the hospital several days.
And he is having some numbness or needles and pins on his right
side from his head down to his foot. So he may have had what
an ischemic or mini stroke, what they call it. There's no evidence
of a hemorrhage type stroke in the brain. He's had CAT scan
and MRI. but remember him and Sharon also. Melvin Ledford is
doing some better. They've really not diagnosed
what he has yet. They think it may be pancreatitis,
which if it is, he's in for a pretty good time of recovery, so remember
him in your prayers. And Sherry Huskey also. Seek the help for these folks.
Remember them in your prayers and seek the Lord's help for
them. Let's begin our worship service with hymn number 326,
More About Jesus. More about Jesus would I know. More of His grace to others show. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus More of
His saving fullness see More of His love who died for me ♪
More about Jesus let me learn ♪ More of his holy will discern
♪ Spirit of God my teacher be ♪ Showing the things of Christ
to me ♪ More, more about Jesus ♪ More, more about Jesus ♪ More
of His saving fullness see ♪ More of His love who died for me ♪
More about Jesus in His Word Holy communion with my Lord,
hearing His voice in every line, making each faithful saint mine. ♪ More, more about Jesus ♪ ♪
More, more about Jesus ♪ ♪ More of his saving fullness see ♪
♪ More of his love who died for me ♪ ♪ More about Jesus on this
throne ♪ ♪ Preaches in glory all his own ♪ More of his kingdom
sure increase ♪ More of his coming prince of peace ♪ More, more
about Jesus ♪ More, more about Jesus ♪ More of his saving goodness
see ♪ More of his love who died for me After scripture reading
and prayer, we'll sing hymn number 50, Fairest Lord Jesus. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to Psalm 65, the 65th Psalm. Psalm 65, verses 1 through 4.
Praise waiteth for thee, O God in Zion, and unto thee
shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto
thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities shall prevail against
me. As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in thy courts, and we shall be satisfied
with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Let
us pray. Our Father in heaven, we are
thankful that we can read such words as the psalmist David,
the sweet psalmist of Israel, the shepherd king, burst in thanksgiving for your divine election of him
unto salvation. We are thankful, Father, that
you have taught the truth to us and have given us faith to
believe and to rest in that which is true and wondrous and beyond
our human imagination. We know that your thoughts are
higher than our thoughts and your ways higher than our ways,
even as the heaven is higher than the earth. We know that secret things belong
to you and that which is revealed belongs to us and to our children.
We may do all the works of this book. We are thankful, Father, that
we can come into your presence fully accepted because Jesus
Christ has died in our room and stayed and paid our sin debt,
and you have made him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We know we stand before you as
not guilty, though we as David say our transgressions and our
iniquities are ever before us, but they're never before you.
For the perfect work of Christ has removed them as far as the
east is from the west, at the bottom of the sea behind your
back, so that you'll remember them
no more. We thank you for forgiveness of sins. We know what we are,
and we are thankful for how you see us in Jesus Christ. Pray
for those who are sick, going through trials. continue to remember
Brother Fred as he's awaiting words on these latest biopsies. Pray for Rain. She'd minister
to him and turn his eyes to Jesus Christ and be with Sharon as
she ministers to him. Pray for Melvin. She'd bring
him back to a good measure of health. Pray for Miss Husky that she'd
be with her and these others who've requested prayer. We ask
your help for them. We know, Father, that nothing
is too hard for you. You made this world, created
all things therein with just the voice of your mouth. We pray you'd intervene in these
situations and minister health and strength to these folks.
The more we pray you'd turn their eyes to Jesus Christ. Pray for
this day, Father, as we are gathered here that you would give us worship
We are thankful for this oasis, this haven in the wilderness,
that we can come together with brothers and sisters and in love
worship you and give thanksgiving and praise to you for what you've
done. Help us, Lord, even now to worship you. In Christ's name,
amen. And number 50, Fairest Lord Jesus.
♪ Cherish Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ Ruler
of all nature ♪ ♪ O Thou of God ♪ ♪ And man the Son ♪ ♪ Thee
will I cherish ♪ ♪ Thee will I honor ♪ soul's glory, joy,
and crown. Fair are the meadows, fair is
still the woodlands, robed in the blooming makes the woeful heart to sing. There is the sunshine. There is still the moon. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus
shines purer than all the angels heaven can boast. Beautiful Savior, Son of God and Son of Man. Glory and honor, praise and adoration,
now and forevermore. as stand steve to receive your
smorgasbord let's pray our father again we're
told to not the name of the lord jesus christ where you have been
used to do so is in that name the we cherish we honor and adore
he has pretty much all things You have given Him freely to
Your people, and with Him freely given them all things. Help us
now to worship You in this manner, to render unto Thee that which
You have given us, for the furtherance of Thy kingdom, for the preaching
of the gospel here and in other places. We ask in Christ's name,
Amen. Yeah. I invite your attention back
to Psalm 65, Psalm of David, a Psalm of praise and thanksgiving,
a Psalm that extols the glory and the sovereignty of Almighty
God in all things, especially in the doctrine of
salvation. Almost all people will give some credence to the
sovereignty of God in the creation of the universe. We know that
men can't create anything. may manipulate the things that
have been created and make them a little different or color them
or make them visible to people. So men give sovereignty to God
in creation and it is His great work, a great work of His. Romans chapter 1 said it is the
thing that men acknowledge about God but the thing that leaves
them without excuse They refuse to acknowledge Him
in the thing He's honored and glorified most. And most people,
at least in some instances in their life, will give credence
to the sovereignty of God in providence, especially in times
of sorrow, in times of woe, in times of catastrophe. Men, having been shut up to the
fact that they could do nothing to control the situation and
can do nothing to undo it, will give credence to God and say,
well, this is God's purpose. It's according to purpose. Often
at funeral homes and at death's door, we find people speaking
in that kind of language about God's providence and attributing
sovereignty to Him. I can't tell you how many funerals
I did. I did a lot of them. over the years, and Iíve often
heard this phrase, almost ALWAYS heard this phrase, ìWell, this
is according to purpose.î Well, theyíre saying God is sovereign
in life and in death, theyíre saying that, theyíre giving credence.
But somehow in the one work that gives God the greatest glory,
the work for which He CREATED the world to begin with, the
work of SALVATION! men will not give God sovereignty. They want to have some part in
it. They want to say that they had
something to do with it. But David says that praise and
glory belongs to God. It waits for him in Zion. He's
the God who hears prayer and is the God to whom all flesh
will come and all flesh will come to Him. Some will come to
Him in grace. Others will come to Him in judgment,
but all flesh will come to God who made them. When they die,
their spirit leaves them and it goes to God who made them. And David speaks of the dilemma
or the way of life of the child of God when he says in verse
3, Iniquities prevail against me. That's just our life, isn't
it? inequities prevail against us. And then he says, as for our
transgressions, thou hast purged them away. Isn't that what Paul
said in Romans 7.25, with my mind I serve the law of God with
men of flesh, I serve the law of sin and death, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Jesus Christ. Iniquity
prevails against us. our iniquities. We can't get
rid of them. People who think they have no
sin make God a liar. All men are sinners by nature,
choice, and practice. And it's only by the grace of
God we can say our transgressions have been purged. We didn't purge
them. They were purged on the cross
of Calvary. Then David expresses what it
is to be a man who's blessed of God. blessed of God. I know people think about blessings
and they call a lot of things blessings. People get a new car
and they say, God has blessed me with a new car, but they're
making payments on it to the bank for five years and so I
don't think that's much of a blessing. When God blesses you, it's with
a spiritual blessing, an eternal blessing, and a blessing that
can't be taken from you. and it comes solely and completely
from God, God is the blesser, and you are the blessed. He says blessed is the man. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. That is electing grace, a doctrine
of blessed love in Scripture. A DOCTRINE OF GOD'S LOVE. Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest. Now, David was chosen in several
ways. He was chosen out of his brethren.
They were all finer and finer looking and bigger and taller
than he was, but God pointed to David and said, Anoint him
as king, so he was chosen to be king of Israel. But David
here is talking about choosing him unto salvation. Does God
choose men unto salvation? If He doesn't, they aren't saved,
and they never will be saved. Election is unto salvation. Election
is not salvation, but there's no salvation apart from electing
grace. Men like to think that election
has to do something with men. They make up cute little sayings.
I remember it was Billy Graham one time said, this is what election
is. the devil cast a vote for you,
God cast a vote for you, and you cast the deciding vote. Ralph
Barnes said the only problem is that you wasn't yet born when
that election was held. Jerry Falwell once said of election,
he says, I've noticed that the more people I get to walk down
the aisle, the more people are elected. Some people want to define election.
Warren Rearsby said, if you try to define election with a finite
mind, you're going to run into trouble. You may drive yourself
mad. He said, but if you try to explain
it away, you'll go to hell. Electing grace. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest. Blessed is the man. David talked
a lot about blessings over in Psalm 32. He said this about
what it is to be blessed of God in Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered or atoned for. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no guile.
Well, who is it that the Lord will not impute to iniquity to?
Those whom He has chosen. Now, He says that in the New
Testament. That passage of Scripture is
quoted again in Romans chapter 4 when it talks about how Abraham
was righteous before God. And Paul paraphrases it a little
bit, but he's quoting from what I just read in Psalm 32. In Romans
chapter 4, it says in verse 6, Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of a man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without work. So we have an imputation of righteousness,
and then we have a negative imputation or a lack of imputation of something
else. If you stand before God today,
you don't stand before God in your own righteousness. First
of all, you have none. There is none righteous, no,
not one. Now, when I'm talking about righteousness, I'm talking
about the perfect righteousness before God. Men have righteous
acts. They do good things. They do
things that will stand in the realm of men as righteous acts,
but those aren't righteousness before God. God requires a righteousness
that is just the same as His, perfect righteousness, and we
can't produce that. And so Jeremiah said in chapter
3 and verse 25, the name by which Christ will be called is the
Lord, our righteousness. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse 30, it says, God has made him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And that righteousness is by
imputation. It's not put in us. It's declared
as for us and on us. covering us if you will and it's
imputed that means you're charged with it it's as if you really
were just like he was charged with our sin as if he really
were seeing but he knew no sin he never seen And he goes on to say, Blessed
are those whose iniquity are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, will
not charge with sin. Who in the world can that be? The elect. Look over at Romans
chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge impute of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. It
is God who clears a man just and justifies him by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
chooses. Now some people will say, Well,
I believe in election. I believe it in this way. I believe
that God looked down through time and saw who would choose
Him and then He chose them. The only problem with that is
you are dealing with the concept of the Omnipotent God and suddenly
you have God learning something. He learned somebody chose Him
down there in the future and then He is going to take credit
for it. as if it was really his idea. If that is your God, you
are worshipping an idol. It is that simple. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. And he says, I am blessed because
you chose me, and he has already said what the result of that
was, that his transgressions are purged. Though iniquity is
against him all the time, his transgressions are purged, and
he counts that as because God chose him unto salvation in Jesus
Christ. That doctrine is the doctrine
of love and the doctrine that tells us where we fit in the
economy of God's world. Over in Romans chapter 9, Romans
chapter 9 is the definitive word about electing grace. The one
thing that says this is the purpose of election. This is why election
existed. This is why God chose whom he
would before the foundation of the world. This is why. And he
uses Jacob and Esau as examples of divine election. And he says,
for the children, verse 11, being not yet born, having neither
done good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
would stand. So we would understand God's
purpose in election, and we would understand that this is how it
works. God CHOSE one and DIDN'T choose
the other unto salvation. He says, ìIt is not of him that
works, not of your works, election has nothing to do with what you
do, but of him that calleth.î And we are called according to
II Thessalonians Chapter 2, which speaks of the Beloved Election
of God, the Beloved Being Elect of God. Paul said, ìWe are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord. For God has from the beginning
CHOSEN you to salvation through sanctification of spirit and
belief in the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom He
called. Now who did He call? He called those whom He predestinated.
We know all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them that are called according to His purpose, for whom He did
foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
forename, predetermined, whom He did predestinate, them He
also what? Everyone God predestinated to be like Jesus Christ, He called
by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you don�t know God
and nobody knows God until they hear the true Gospel. It�s just
that simple. Paul said that in Ephesians chapter
1, he says, �You believed AFTER you heard the word of truth.�
AFTER you heard the word of truth, not After. After. What does that
mean? You didn't believe until you
heard the Word of Truth. Now what was the Word of Truth? You could be saved if you walked
down an aisle. You could be saved if you make
a decision for Jesus. You could be saved if you chose
God. That's the way religion talks.
What does it say? You believe after you heard the
Word of Truth. What was that Word of Truth? What did I hear?
What did I hear when I heard the Gospel of God's Grace? Did
I hear there was something for me to do? Did I? No, when I heard the Gospel,
the Good News, which is the only thing that would ever help a
person who has NOTHING whatsoever to offer God. You heard the Gospel. The Gospel
THE GOOD NEWS OF YOUR SALVATION. What? When I was saved, it was
when I HEARD that I had been saved. That�s what that means. What did you hear? After you
heard of the truth, the good news, the gold spiel, the gospel
of YOUR personal possessive pronoun, YOUR SALVATION. And after you
heard that, the Holy Spirit SEALED you and became the earnest of
your salvation by His indwelling Spirit. But that didn't happen
until you heard the Word of Truth. That's how you were called. And
when God calls you, you come. It's called an effectual calling.
What I'm doing here today is I'm calling you to repentance.
I'm calling you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as a minister
of the gospel, but I can't do nothing for you. I can't make
it happen. I can't touch your heart. I can
touch your ears, but I can't touch your heart. I can't move
you. I can't direct you. I can't motivate
you. All I can do is tell you what God has said. Now God can
take that, and when He does, takes that gospel preaching and
puts it in your heart and mind and soul, then that's an effectual
call. That's an effectual call, like
a hen may be out in the yard and she's pecking the corn that
the man has put out there and her little bitties are all around,
scattered, they just run around and that thing looks fine. And
then she sees the shadow of a hawk come across the pen. And she spreads her wings and
starts this holler, this noise, this sound, this screeching,
and all of a sudden those biddies come and run up under her wings.
Why? Now she was clucking and carrying
on before, but they were just as happy as they could be. What
happened? An effectual call happened. My mama sometimes, when I was
a little boy, we lived in an old hundred-year-old house and
upstairs on them winter mornings we had to go to school, it was
cold, get out of that bed. Wasn't no heat up there. It wasn't a
little vent over a Sigler heater. And it was cold. Mom would say, time to get up
and go to school. Time to get up for breakfast. Got breakfast
ready. Get up. We wouldn't move. Me and Billy just lay there freezing.
She called again. Boys, you need to get up now.
Come on. She's such a sweet lady. Come on, honey. Now get up. We didn't get up. And then my
daddy opened the door. He said, get yourself down here
right now. Boy, we is dressed and down in two seconds and sliding
down the stairs for that banister to get there. Why? It's an effectual
call. When God makes that gospel effectual
to you, I ain't going to have to invite you. I ain't going
to have to cajole you. I ain't going to have to beg
you. I ain't going to have to do nothing. You know what I'm
going to have to do? Get out of your way. You're going to have Christ and
nothing's going to stop you. That is the gospel. Who does
that go to? The elect of God. And they hear it. My sheep hear
my voice and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. He said of Romans, he said this,
it is said to the elder, the elder shall serve the younger.
Well, here the purpose of election must also include where your
standing is in the economy of God. what you're going to be. The elder was supposed to be
the firstborn. The elder was supposed to be
the one who got all the everything in the will from the father.
He became the head of the house. He became the head of the family.
He continued on as the patriarch. That was the way it went. God
said the election didn't work that way. I chose the younger
to be the head of the house. Who was the younger? His name
was Jacob. Who was the elder? His name was Esau. So we see that in the
ECONOMY OF GOD, there is an EMPLOYMENT CYCLE here, and the ELECTION
SETTLES WHAT IT IS! You going to be this, and you
going to be that! That simple! Not only that, it is a DOCTRINE
OF LOVE! A DOCTRINE OF LOVE! For it is
written in Malachi chapter 3, Jacob have I loved. and he shall have I hated." Now
some clown's going to stand up and say, well that means he loved
him less. They're going to speak of a general love of God for
the universe. That does not exist. God loves
whom He loves. We wouldn't accept general love.
You think I'd let her say to me, well I love you honey and
all the other men in the world. No! That's not going to work
for me. And love doesn't work that way. We love who we love. God said,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. That serves the purpose
of election. It is according that the purpose
of election might stand. Blessed whom thou choosest, indeed. You know what truly blessed is,
is that before this world began, before you existed, before the
race of humanity existed, God in His purpose created a
race that would fall and out of that fallen race he chose
a people to save all for the glory of his grace. That's part of the spiritual
blessings that he speaks of. In Ephesians chapter 1 he says
God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ according
as he's chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy without blame before him in love having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself.
to the praise of the glory of His grace. Why did God elect
ruined, wretched sinners? That is the only way His grace
could be honored. His grace could not be honored
if there was something about you that could merit His favor. It could not be honored. Grace is
unmerited favor. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. But it doesn't stop there. Some people believe, well, we
don't know who the elect are. We don't. Until they come forward
and say, we believe. I want to be baptized. I want
to confess the Lord in baptism. That's how we know that they're
an elect. That's how you know. People have
asked me, how do I know if I'm an elect? You believe God? You
believe the gospel? Yeah, okay. You're good. because
they are. They believe the gospel. That's
the only way you know if God gives you faith to believe it.
Do you believe it? Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. How'd you get here? God caused it. He's the first
cause of all things and if you come to Christ, He's the cause
of it. How'd you do it? He does it by teaching you. John
6.45, all that is taught of the Father come to Christ. All that
were given to Christ come to Christ. Given to Him in electing
grace. Causes us to approach unto Thee. How do you approach Christ? He
is not down here. Where is He? He is enthroned
in Heaven. How do you approach Him? Well, I would say if He
is on a throne, your best approach is on your knees. at least metaphorically on your
knees, humbled before Him. Scott Richard said it this way,
come to Christ, come now, don't move a muscle, don't blink an
eye, right where you are, come to Him, trust Him, fall on Him
right where you are, don't. It doesn't have to be some public
thing, Your public confess Christ and baptism, that's the first
confession of Christ, public baptism. Causes to approach unto thee.
If you come to Christ, there's a cause. God's the cause and
the effect is that you come. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. Our text says that He may dwell in thy courts.
So there is a destination for this thing. It chose you, caused
you to come to Him so you could live with Him, so you could dwell
in His courts. these courts you know this is
an english version of the bible and uh... these courts in england
and in asia also they were fantastic things they weren't just a little
he's not talking about courts the judicial sense he's talking
about these courts what the our mexican brethren call the plaza
a beautiful place where there's greenery shade and places to
sit and places to be around people. He caused you to come to Him
because He chose you. And He did that so you would
dwell in His courts where He lives, where He walks, to dwell
with Him, to dwell with Him. And you know what? Nobody in
God's economy is unsatisfied with what God did for them. Nobody. For it says there, we
shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, the Lord's house,
His church, His body of believers. That's where you'll dwell. And
this is the finest thing on earth. I'm telling you right now, there's
nothing better than what we're doing here this morning. Nothing
better on earth, nothing sweeter, nothing kinder, nothing more
blessed than to be able to come to where God's people are and
hear the gospel with them. There's nothing better than that.
Ain't nothing out in this world that'll please you. And he said,
I get in your courts because you chose me and caused me to
come to Christ. When I get in your courts, I'll
find this. Everything's fine here. I'm satisfied. Satisfied
with the goodness of thy house. even of thy holy temple, which
is the church." This is the effect of electing grace. Electing grace. Because God has chosen you, He
sent His Son to die in the room instead of you. He died for His
people. That was the promise of His name.
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. His people, His chosen, His church,
His bride, His sheep. his flock. They come to Him. They come to
Him. Christ died in the room instead
of them and paid their sin debt, and now they stand accepted before
God, and they live in His house. They're called children of God. And the Lord said in Romans,
in Hebrews chapter 7, I think it is, He says, no, Hebrews chapter
1, He's not ashamed to call them brethren, And he says, I said,
behold I and the children that thou hast given me. You're a child of God, a child
of the King. You remember that old story of
that woman who's walking down the street carrying a bag of
laundry on her head and an old pair of loafers on, her sandals
and toes sticking out, poor as gullidood wearing an old raggedy
flaredy dress Some guy pulled up beside her in a Cadillac car
and said, what you doing, old woman? She said, I'm doing what
I always do. He said, don't you feel bad about
your situation? She said, no, I'm a child's king.
He said, you're driving that Cadillac, but it's mine because
all the world is mine and all that's in there, you're just
paying taxes on it. The world is yours. You get out
this morning, drive down, look at these mountains. See the beauty
and the majesty. See that sky that's almost an
October sky turning beautiful blue. And say in your heart,
because God has chose me and caused me to approach unto him,
this is all mine. It's mine. That's electing grace. And though
some men may hate it, let me tell you something. One fellow
told me one time, he said, you preach that? He said, if I preach
that, people will leave the church. And I said, if you preach that,
the sheep won't. Sheep will never be mad about
this. Because they know what they were. Know what they are. And they know that it took God
to choose them. because they would have never
chosen him how sweet the sound of grace father blesses to understand
and pray in christ's name amen alright Morning. Morning. Morning. I'm going to find out why I'm
late.