Matthew chapter five through
Matthew chapter seven. And as I was reading, my mind
kept going over here to Isaiah 45 because in the Sermon on the
Mouth, the Lord makes a number of searching distinctions that
deal with what people of religion think and what really is. He begins in chapter five with
what is called the Beatitudes. And most people feel, I remember
an economics professor I had in college when I was in business
college. He took the idea of Calvinism
and election and said in the early days that
Calvinists believed that proof of their election was that they
were rich. That's stupid, but they used that, and of course,
I guess it would be a good thing to use if you wanted to hold
election over somebody's head. But our Lord said, blessed are
the poor in the spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
When men think we ought to try our best to avoid any kind of
problems, our Lord said, blessed are ye when men shall persecute
you and say all manner of evil against you for my sake. Great
is your reward in heaven when they accuse you falsely and revile
you. Thank God. That's just opposite of what
most people think religious life ought to be. Men had views of
the law. They said, well, we know we're
not supposed to kill. And our Lord said, well, that's what
the law said. You've heard that, but here's
what the law means. If you hate your brother, you've
already murdered him. You're a murderer in your heart.
Well, we know we're not supposed to commit adultery. He said,
I know that. That's what the law said. You've heard that, but
here's what it says. Here's what it means that if you have adultery in
your heart, you lust after a woman in your heart. You're guilty
of adultery already. Already that. And that's the
reason because by nature that we are all those things. We are
murderers. We are adulterers. We are killers. All of us are. We are thieves. And the only
thing that keeps us straight is not our goodness. It's God's
sovereign restraint. Keeps us from doing what we would
do if we were let alone. Religion thinks a lot about doing
things to be seen of men. And the whole idea of the Pharisee
was to do what he did to be seen of men and get the praise and
honor of men and get patted on the back and say, you're a really
good Christian. And our Lord says, when you give, don't tell
nobody what you're giving. Don't even let your left hand know
what your right hand is doing. When you pray, don't pray in
public, pray in private. And when you fast, don't let
anybody know that you fasted. Wash your face, put on a new
outfit, and come out looking good with a smile on your face
so nobody will ever know you fasted. But religion likes to stand up
and tell what they do. I remember many years ago, went
to a meeting at Straight Fork Church. This great big old evangelist,
corpulent fellow, and he talked about having fasted for 30 days,
and he was lying, because his belly was out to here, you know.
But he talked about fasting for 30 days. And why did he tell
me that? Our Lord said in Isaiah 58, you
fast for strife. You do it so you can get it over
on somebody and make them feel less than you and make them feel
guilty and make them feel like they're not really a good Christian.
Our Lord said, if you fast, don't let anybody know you're doing
it. Don't let anybody know you're doing it. Religion talks about this life
and taking care of this life and planning for this life. Our
Lord said, don't even regard tomorrow. You may not get it
anyway. God takes care of the spares,
he'll take care of you. You know, the hairs of your head
are numbered. The hairs of your head are numbered. He says, seek
those things which are above and not those things which are
upon the earth. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and everything that you need will be taken care of, is what
he said. He said, the world seeks after those things that you know
you need. That's what the world seeks after, to gain those things.
He said, don't worry about those things. I'll take care of those
things. You seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And in chapter seven, he talks about judging not. Now, this
is often used by people when somebody says something evil
about them or against them or questions their behavior. And
I suppose it can be used like that, but that's not what it
means in scripture. When he talks about judge not, it's talking
about judging not your brother. that it's your brother and sister
in Jesus Christ. The fact is, we make judgments about everything
all day long, all of our lives, every minute of the day, we make
judgments. But we're not to judge our brother, because first of
all, his sins have been paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ,
and we have no right to call them up. And secondly, because if we just
consider our own selves and the violence of our own hearts, we
would never think to judge anyone else. We wouldn't have time.
And our Lord puts it this way, don't try to take a splinter
out of your brother's eye when you got a telephone pole stuck
in yours. Take care of the telephone pole before you even think about
the splinter in your brother's eye. Then he begins to make some serious
judgments. Our Lord said, don't give, That which is holy to dogs,
now how you gonna know whether it's a dog or not? Neither cast
your pearls before swine because they'll turn again and devour
you. Goes on to say that there's a
straight gate that's narrow and difficult and few there be that
find it. Excuse me. Said there's a wide
gate It's traveled by many that leads
to destruction. He said, beware of false prophets.
They come in sheep's clothes, but they're really wavering wolves
underneath. You'll know them by their converts. A good tree
cannot bring forth bad fruit. A bad fruit tree cannot bring
forth good fruit. All these are judgments. You're
making judgments about things. And the latter part of it, he
says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, is going
to heaven. But those that do my Father's
will, my Father which is in heaven, what is that? That's another
trap for religion. They like to get ahold of you
and put a hook in your mouth and drag you around and say, we're
gonna find what God's will is for you. Read verse chapters
five, six, and seven. This is not taken out of context.
The will of God he's talking about is these things that he
has mentioned. He said, he uses that many and
few several times, but in the last part he says, not everyone
saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into heaven. Then he says,
but there are many will say to me in that day, Lord, haven't
we prophesied thy name? Haven't we done mighty works
in thy name? Haven't we cast out devil in
thy name? And I will say unto you, I never knew you. Depart from
me, you workers of iniquity. Then he makes the final comparison
of a man who listens to these words, and not the words of religion
and Phariseeism. The man who listens to these
words and does what these words says, like a man who builds his
house on a solid foundation, he digs down deep and builds
upon a rock and sets his house. And when the trials and tribulations
and fire storms of wrath come his way, they will not shake
his house. But a man who hears these words
and does not do them or pay attention to them or take heed to them
is like a man who builds his house on the sand. And the first big
wind, first big rain, it's over with. It sinks into oblivion. These distinctions are very important
because they tell us who God's people are. They tell us who
God's people are. They are those whom he has blessed
to be poor in spirit. those that he is blessed to be
reviled and persecuted. And that's the way that reads.
It doesn't mean, if you're poor in spirit, that means you'll
be blessed. It means you're blessed to be that. Blessed are they. All blessings, all good and perfect
gifts come from above, from the Father of lights, in whom there
is no variable, nor shadow of turning. Here back in chapter
46 of Isaiah, chapter 45, he makes a real strong distinction
between him and everybody else. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved. All the ends of the earth, because
I'm God and there's not another. I'm God and there's not another. Look unto me and be ye saved.
I am a Savior. He says in another place, I am
a just God and a Savior. I'm a Savior and I'm just. That
means he's not gonna save you unless your sins are taken care
of, unless your sins are punished. and they're either punished in
you or punished in a substitute, but he's gonna punish your sin.
The subject I hope to address in this message is God's will.
God's will in the salvation of sinners. Because you're either
saved by God's will or you're not saved at all. If there's
a declaration of his will, of what he intends to do, and he
says here, I have sworn by myself That's a pretty good declaration
of his will, isn't it? I have sworn by myself. If there's a
declaration of his will and the salvation ensues, then the whole
matter of salvation is forever finished, taken care of, settled
in eternity. Because what God doeth, he doeth
forever. Nothing can be put to it, nothing
can be taken from it. Nebuchadnezzar said, God doeth his will in the armies
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Since the matter
is salvation, the thing primarily addressed is the will of God
to glorify his son in the accomplishment of his will in the salvation
of sinners. Now in the matter of salvation
of your soul and my soul, there are certain things that are universally
accepted by all who travel the wide avenue of what is called
Christianity today. Doesn't mean a whole lot to say
that. In fact, I kind of shy away from the word myself. I
use the word believer because I believe it's a better description
of a child of God than a Christian because just about everybody
in the world's a Christian now, so they say. There are some things that are
universally accepted by just about everybody who names the
name of Christ. Though men do swerve down many paths as to
how salvation is accomplished, the general place of agreement
among men is that Christ is the Savior. They'll agree with you
there. They'll say Christ is the Savior. Another place of consensus is
that God sent his Son into the world to save sinners. Most people
believe that. Though of late, that term that
properly identifies humanity is found less and less in religious
rhetoric. You don't hear men talking about sinners much anymore.
And except for a few very obscure outfits, which hold that Christ's
coming was just an example, or he was a martyr for some cause,
or maybe even just a generic expression of God's love, about
everybody under the tail of Christendom believed that God had a will,
and that will was behind Christ entering into this realm of humanity.
In fact, Christ said, I came not to do mine own will, but
the will of him that sent me. This is my father's will, which
has sent me, that I've always given me. I should lose nothing,
but raise it up again in the last day. He came by God's will. Now,
there are difficulties that exist in the myriad views of God's
will. People have a lot of ideas about God's will. People say
you're outside of God's will. I don't know how you get there.
when everything is before him and all things subsist by him
and all things are glued together by him and held together by him
and he created the universe in the span of his hand. He's almighty
God and he does his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth. How you be outside that, I don't know. I
don't think you can be. Even if you're rebelling against
his will, you are within his will. Because rebels do their job and
do their function on this earth as well as those who are not
rebels. You see, the value, however, a person puts on the will, as
far as men report it, is directly proportional to the authority
or perceived authority that backs up that will. In other words,
if sufficient authority and power exists, that will shall be performed.
If sufficient authority and power exists. Even those who believe
in a universal redemption, which is, by the way, a lie, generally
assert that God has sufficient power to accomplish what he wills
to do, but they say he just doesn't exercise it. But he has sufficient
power. Those who differ with these views
differ in their concept of his will, the power backing it up,
and how he uses it. John Owens wrote this in a book
Many years ago, he says there are only, basically only three
possible concepts of God's will and salvation. Only three real
concepts. The first one is that God willed
to save all men. That's a possible concept. The
second is God willed to make salvation possible or available,
but actually secured the salvation of no one. And the third view is this, God's
will to save some men, and He wills to save some men in particular,
and these men will be saved. That's the third view. And we'll
look at these this morning, and I'll try not to keep you too
long. First of all, when God sent His
Son into the world to save sinners, some men believe that He willed
to save all men. Now, generally, the one verse
that they quote, or maybe the two, is in 1 John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. And they use that word
world to mean that God's will was to save all men. Or in 1
Timothy chapter two, when it says God willed all men to be
saved, or would have all men be saved. We know that's all
kinds of men, but nonetheless, they use those two verses. God
would have all men come to repentance. They like to say that, but that's
not the verse. They left out 17 words of the verse. God is
not slack concerning his promise to us, as men count slackness,
but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any of us
should perish, but that all of us should come to repentance.
And since all men will not be saved, and we know they will
not be saved, because many were in hell when Christ died, This
notion makes God a failure. God willed to save all men and
one person perishes eternally. God is a failure. He said, I'm
God. Ain't nothing. Now look to me, be saved. I'm God, there's nobody else.
I'm nobody else. These men believed God had insufficient
power and authority to accomplish his will. The title Savior, that
he applies to himself here, I am the Savior. This title Savior, as he applies
to himself in our text, is not applicable to him if he doesn't
save. Most people approach the idea
of Christ being a Savior as if he's applying for the job. That's
what religion does. They speak of Christ as Jesus'
prime preacher. Won't you let Jesus be, won't
you let the Savior into your heart? Won't you invite the Savior? Won't you let him save you? That
means he's trying and he might get the job, but he might not,
it's up to you. But that's never the language used in scripture.
The word Savior means he's saved. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. If all he has is will to save,
but lacks the power to perform, does not merit the title of savior.
I don't know what you would call him. I guess a job applicant. I don't know, but you wouldn't
call him a savior if he didn't have power to perform salvation. There was a professor at Piedmont
College many years ago, Bible College, which I didn't go to,
and I'm glad I didn't, but it was there anyway. He made this
statement. He said, Calvary is a glaring
in testament, of the colossal failure of the triune God's effort
to save humanity. Can you believe anybody, this
was a Bible professor. That's what he said. Now this
is blasphemy, there's no doubt about it. But at least the fellow
was at least consistent in his belief. He didn't believe God
couldn't save anybody unless men led him, so that's a consistent
view. The second thing is this, when
God sent his son into the world, men believed that he willed,
and when they say willed, he really wanted, he really wished,
he really hoped for all men to be saved, but his will was more
in the form of a non-binding desire on his part. He wants
that for men. Men use that language all the
time. It's rare to find a preacher
in this day who guards against these words. God wants you to. God wants you to. Or God wants
this for you. Listen, if God wants you to,
you're gonna. Because he's God and you're not.
You're his creature. You have no power. You're powerless. You can't even draw your next
breath without him giving it to you. Men believe that God wants men
to be saved. That's his will. He desires them
to be saved. And they believe he actually
accomplished salvation for no one. He did this, or he did his
part, as they say, by making salvation a possibility or a
gentle opportunity for all men. I read this the other day in
a preacher's words. He said, this salvation is available. It's not available. It's done. It's accomplished. It's accomplished. That kind of theology is fraught
with problems and inconsistent with itself on a number of levels.
The proponents of that notion say that God loves everybody,
but at the end of time, he does a 180 on everybody he loves and
plunges them into eternal hell. Isn't that what they say? God
loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, but if you
don't believe him, you don't do this, and you don't do that,
and you don't will to come, and you don't make your decision
when you get to hell, though he loves you, he loves you, just
loves you, loves you, loves you, loves you, gonna turn around
180 and throw you right in hell. That's inconsistent. With love,
the people you love, would you ever, if you loved them, hurt
them eternally? Would you? If you loved them?
I guarantee you mothers and fathers out here today, you grandmothers
and grandfathers, you would do anything if your love was capable
of saving your grandchild or your child. You would save them
if you could, wouldn't you? And yet you say God don't do
that? Men say that God loves men to
the end of the age and then turns around and puts them in hell.
And their view of God's love is that it's powerless, anemic,
and unrequited, but sovereign in hate and retribution. Now
isn't that weird? It ain't got the power to save you, but it's
got the power to put you in hell. These also make salvation be
ultimately the act of the will of man. Man's imagined free will is the
final power broker, they say, of the salvation of their own
soul. Man's will is said to be give power to Christ's work,
to give credence to Christ's work, to loose it. I've heard men talk about loosing
God's power. By your faith, you loose God's
power. You can't do nothing about God's
power. All power belongs to Him. Your power to sin belongs to
Him, because all power belongs to Him. Those kind of folks that preach
that They have Christ paying the sin debt for all men, yet
requiring some men, some of those men to pay it again at the judgment.
They say, oh, he paid the sin debt of everybody. Your sin debt
is paid. Well, is it paid or ain't it? I heard a fellow Stanley
down in Atlanta one time preach a message on Christ has paid
your sin debt, but not really. And I mean, it went on for an
hour, and I said, if anybody came out of there and wasn't
totally confused, there's something wrong with them. He confused me, and
I know the Scripture somewhat. How does, if you paid for something,
is it paid for, and is it yours? Huh? If you bought it, you put
down the money for it, and you took it home, is it yours? Of course it is. The church is
called God's purchased possession. the purchased possession. Men say that Christ paid their
sin debt and then they face judgment and God said, no, he didn't pay
yours. Did Christ pay their sin debt?
Did he pay the sin debt for all men? No. Because if he paid the
sin debt for all men, all men would be saved. They wouldn't
have a debt. They wouldn't owe God. Some say,
well, he paid for all the sins but unbelief. That's stupid because
unbelief's the mother of all sin. Why did Adam sin in the
garden? He didn't believe God. He didn't
believe God. This makes God unjust and therefore
not God at all and Christ's death to be of no true saving value. Just kind of an offer put out
there. These also make salvation be ultimately the act of the
will of man, and that's wrong. It seems to me that there are
two motives in this thinking. The first motive is to exalt
the will and power of men, make them feel like they're powerful,
make them feel like they're the one to decide about their salvation,
decide the eternal existence of their soul and where it's
going to be. If that were the case, if men's will was really, really,
What was the end of salvation if they were able to will themselves
to be saved? Why do we pray to God for their
salvation? Why wouldn't we pray to them? I think that's pretty much, they've
almost got it there. Preachers are begging men and
pleading men and inviting men down front and telling them to
say a sinner's prayer and all this stuff. They've almost got
it where they're having men do it all. Almost got it. But the fact is, man can't save
himself, a man can't will himself to be, and a dead man can't will
himself to be alive. It's just impossible. The first motive is to exalt
the power of men's will. The second is to protect and
insulate their punitive deity from culpability and the loss
of some folks he wanted to save. They gotta protect his name. And one of the most recent ways
this notion is accomplished is by declaring God to be really
a nice person. God is a gentleman, they say.
I've heard preachers say that. And Jimmy Swagger said he was
solicitous. That means he's a beggar. And their view of God's gentlemanliness
is that he will not override a man's will to save him. God's
not gonna override your will to save him. He won't have to,
he'll just give you a new heart and the will follows that. But
nonetheless, this is accusing God of unspeakable cruelty, asserting
that God will not override a man's will to do him eternal good,
but will override his will to do him eternal harm. You think
people go to hell willingly? People say to judgment, no, just
send me to hell, Of course they don't say that,
that's stupid. Yet God won't override the will, God'll override
the will there. You don't wanna go to hell, I'm sorry, you're
going to hell anyway. And yet he won't override the
will to save them. What kind of God is that? Not this one. Not this God. That's inconsistent with any
notion of God's goodness. These also have a problem with
the results of the fall. They have dead men willing, deciding
and accepting when in fact dead men are incapacitated carcasses. They're impotent, they can't
do anything. Such regurgitators of the ridiculous deny original
sin. They say when we fell in Adam, we didn't really fall,
we just sort of tripped. We still have a barker sparker divine,
a little bit of goodness in it just to be fanned, but that's
not true. God-hating vipers are said to
have the ability and desire to choose God, and that's just stupid.
Let me ask you a simple question. If you will not choose something,
will you then choose it? Will you choose what you will
not choose? You say, well, that's just stupid.
Of course not. Man by nature will not, cannot, never has,
never will, even wants to choose God. The best of men, Adam, chose
himself and his wife over God. Willingly. He is the best. You come forth as a sinner, speaking
lies and hating God by nature, and you're gonna choose him.
Foolishness. The Bible says this, can the
Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can the leopard change
his spots? Then how can ye who are accustomed
to doing evil do good? The entire perception of salvation
that these people have originates in and is conditioned on their
own delusion of personal righteousness. As meritorious for acceptance
with God, they believe they've done something good. and therefore
God accepts them. And the first moral good thing
they do, the first great thing that they do is to accept Jesus. That's what they believe. That's
a good thing, and they believe they did it. And if you believe
you've done something good when the Bible says there's none good,
no, not one, there's none that do with righteousness, then you're
claiming a righteousness that God will accept, and you don't
have one, and neither do I. They chose the right thing, they
think. This is how they believe they
are saved. But our Lord says, not everyone that calls me Lord
shall enter into the kingdom. There's a narrow way and a straight
gate, a difficult way. What that simply means, that
gate is so narrow you can't bring anything else through it but
you. No baggage. No righteousness, nothing. You
have to come through our naked like he was born. And that's self-righteousness.
They have neither biblical nor rational consistent views of
salvation. God's salvation is never spoken
of like that in scripture. Then you have the third view.
And the third view is that God willed to save some men. and
accomplish that salvation for them, the ones he intended to
save. Now, this is not conjecture or
theological opinion. It is fact. The fact is that
God's will is God's accomplishment. Whatever he wills shall come
to pass. In Isaiah 14, he says, my thoughts shall come to pass.
shall come to pass. David said of God, our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased in heaven and earth and all the
deep places. God qualifies for the title of
Savior. Why? Because he saved his people on
Calvary's tree. How many did he save? He saved
all of them, all his people. All of them he chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And in this matter, there
can be no doubt, except there be a willful disallowing of Holy
Scripture. Want to throw Scripture away? Many people do. They want
to throw a lot of it away. Wish Romans 8 and Romans 9 wasn't
there. Wish John, Jeremiah 31 and Isaiah
53 wasn't there. Wish John 6, John 7, John 5 weren't
there. Likely to let those go because
they just sort of say that God's absolutely sovereign in salvation.
And they're there because he is. God sent his son into the
world according to his will. According to his will to save
some particular chosen sinners, he, and he accomplished the salvation
of all for whom he died. Nobody's gonna be missing in
heaven. I know they like to sing songs like that. Will you see
your mama in heaven? Well, two things matter there. Does your
mom know Christ? And do you know Christ? If both
of you knew Christ, you'll see her in heaven. Just cause you're
a mom don't mean she'll be there. I know we love our moms. But
that don't mean they're gonna be in glory. And if they were
a child of God and a Christian and a believer, don't mean you're
gonna be in glory. God ain't got no grandchildren,
He only got children. Jesus Christ came into this world
at the will of God, His Father. He paid the sin debt of all they
owed, and no more will ever be considered of them as far as
payment goes. He was made to be their righteousness,
so they have a holy standing before God. and they are thus
righteous before God right now, not someday in the future. He
satisfied the law's demands for them. The law said the sinner
shall die, and he died in their room instead and paid the penalty.
And he freed them up. He freed them from the penalty,
the power, and the guilt of sin. He shall save his people from
their sin, saith the scripture. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will not cast
out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but
the will of him that sent me. And this is my Father's will which
has sent me of all he's given me. I shall lose nothing but
raise it up again in the last day. That's the will of Father. In Hebrews chapter 10, we read
these words. But this man, Jesus Christ, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God. from henceforth expecting till
all his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. So much so that God says down
in verse 17, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Now where remission of these
is made, there is no more sacrifice. Who are these people that Christ
came to save? He tells us in Scripture. So
the next time somebody says, I believe in whosoever will,
you say, I do too, because I do. I believe in whosoever will,
and I know who they are. I don't only believe it, I know
who they are, because the Bible tells us who they are. Who are they? They are the church. Ephesians 5 said he gave his
life for the church. They are his elect, his chosen,
those given to him before the foundation of the world. They
are his bride, whom he came to marry. They are his sheep, over
whom he is the shepherd. They are the beloved of him.
They are the children of God. They are the family of God. That's
how they're named throughout scripture. They're his friends. That's who he came for. There
are those who are addressed in the scripture as whosoever will
or whosoever is willing. I have no difficulty telling
anybody, do you want this? Is this what you want? You want
salvation that's wrought wholly and completely by God Almighty
and not yourself? Then come and dine. Come and
dine. Back in our text it says this,
surely. Now, you and I can say surely,
and it might not mean much, might not carry much weight, but when
God says it, it's important. God says, I have sworn by myself. When he couldn't find any greater,
he swore by himself, because there's none greater. I have
sworn by myself. The word is gone out of my mouth
and shall not return. Isaiah 55 11 says this. So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, that shall not return
to me void, but shall accomplish that which I please, and prosper
in the thing whereunto I send it. I have sworn by myself the
word is going out of my mouth in righteousness. He said, I
say things that are right. I speak in righteousness. I speak
in righteousness. He has authority and a power
to do what he wills, and he shall perform it. He says this in Philippians
chapter one in verse six, being confident of this very thing
that he which began a good work in you shall perform it till
the day of Jesus Christ. And he says this, I have sworn
by myself the word has gone out of my mouth and righteous and
shall not return that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess. Now when did that happen? Hadn't
happened yet completely, but it has happened for a whole lot
of people. But in the fullness of time, when it's all wound
up, our Lord says, because Jesus Christ was obedient even unto
death, in Philippians chapter two and verse nine, God has highly
exalted him and given him a name above every name, that at the
name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
that he's Lord to the glory of the Father. Everybody's gonna
do that. That's why you got a joint in the middle of your leg. Your
knee's gonna hit the ground. You're gonna bow down and say,
thou art the King, thou art the Lord. Why? Because God said,
I swear that's gonna happen. I swear that's gonna happen.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. He says,
surely shall one say in the Lord. Somebody in this world is gonna
say, Jesus Christ is my righteousness. Somebody's gonna say that. Not
everybody. Some people say they have a little
bit of their own. But some people, God's people, God's chosen, God's
church, God's elect are always gonna say Jesus Christ. is my
righteousness, in him have I righteousness. Because that's what the scriptures
teach. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says he was
made to be sin for us, he knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. In 1 Corinthians 1, 30, God hath
made him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Then it says even to him shall men come. Even
to him shall men come. There's always a tendency for
men to stand up and beg men to come. You don't have to do that,
because men are going to come. The promise to Judah in Genesis 49
is, to him shall the gathering of the people be. That's who
they're going to come to. They're going to come to Judah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 6 and verse 45 says,
all that are taught of the Father come to Christ. Everybody whom
God teaches comes to Christ. And if you don't come to Christ,
it's because God ain't taught you. because everybody he teaches
comes to Christ. And the Lord, all Israel shall
be justified. But at first it says this, and
all that are incensed against him shall be made ashamed. Our Lord said, he that loves
not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha. Condemned when the Lord comes. And finally he says, in the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel be justified in your glory. What
is the seed of Israel? It's not that nation over there
in the Middle East. It's not what is called the Jewish
people in this day who are represented by that nation. It is those who
are true Israel, God's chosen people. As he spoke about a remnant
according to the election of grace back in Isaiah chapter
one. of the true circumcision as he spoke in Deuteronomy chapter
16 in verse nine when he said, you've been circumcised in the
flesh but not in your heart. You're stiff-necked people. In
Romans chapter two, after Paul condemned all Israel and all
Gentiles, all Jews and all Gentiles under sin, he said this, he is
not a Jew which is one inwardly, or one outwardly, but he was
a Jew which is one inwardly, whose circumcision is of the
heart and not of the flesh, whose praise is of God and not of men.
He is true Jew. In Romans chapter nine he said,
all that is Israel is not Israel, but in Isaac shall that seed
be called. In Galatians chapter four it says, as Isaac was, so
are we, the children of promise. Heirs according to promise. Who
are Israel? Who shall glorify the Lord? Those
who've been saved by him. shall glorify him in his mercy,
grace, and righteousness. Those who are condemned by him,
however, will also glorify him in his wrath and justice. But
this is talking about all Israel shall glory. What shall they
do? They shall glory. They'll give
all honor and credit and glory to their salvation, for their
salvation to God alone. It says in Psalm 29, every whit
in God's temple speaks of his glory. That's what we're here
on this earth for. Because the fact is what God
wills, God does. Some believe that he wanted to
save all men, that he came to save all men, but he didn't. Some believe that He came and
made salvation possible for some men or for all men, but He didn't. He came to save His people from
their sins, and He did it. And He cried out from the cross,
it is finished, because it was done. Not His part, it, salvation,
was finished. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen. All right.