I don't really think I would have ever known that song if it hadn't been for Billy Graham and for Ethel Waters. When we were children, we only had two television stations in Baton Rouge. We had WAFB, Channel 9, and WBRZ, Channel 2. And so you didn't have all these choices. You know, I heard someone say the other day, you know, we have 100 channels and nothing to watch. But back then, it was amazing that Billy Graham had this airtime. I don't know what he paid for it. But when he came on, we would get in the living room. One television, Jim, we had one television called, it was a Zenith, black and white. And it swiveled. and we would sit in front of that TV, and we'd watch Billy Graham, and we would listen to George Beverly Shea, I'd Rather Have Jesus Than Anything, and then we would listen to Ethel Waters, which I didn't really even know as a child that she had been an actress, but I knew she sang for Billy Graham, and what a wonderful song. A sparrow is sold you know, for tooth farthings and very cheap, and yet when one of these fall from the sky, our God takes notice. And so if his eyes on the sparrow, how much more would he take care of us? Sometime it's hard to understand that. Sometime we're brought down dark paths, blind alleys, And it seems as if we're standing there alone without any ability to change circumstance, kind of like a victim of what has just happened to us. And yet we know that our God is in control of all of this. And in these dark moments and hours, He comforts us. We feel this unseen hand giving us comfort and how wonderful it is. But you know, if we never knew bad times, difficult hours, we surely would never know the comforting hand of God. I remember reading an account of Adoniram Judson's life at one point when he was in Burma. He was arrested, put on an island, a prison. It was in the middle of a big river. And this island was there, and they would put the prisoners so they couldn't escape because of the danger of the wildlife in the waters. And his wife, Anne Haseltine, Judson, worked to try to get him released. They would hang the prisoners upside down and beat them with canes. And it was a very miserable place. Mosquitoes. But she finally, through the providence of God, was able to get him released. And she had to get a boat and paddle to that island. And she brought one of their small children with her. Very dangerous, but had to do it. And so Judson, at an arm, got in the boat, and as they were paddling away from the island, here's what he said. The joy of that moment was worth all the grief of that experience. So sometime, that's what happens to us. We're brought into difficult situations. Not because we have done wrong, but because we have done right. And then the Lord comforts us. What sweet comfort from God. I've been in situations like that. I told someone that I wouldn't take a million dollars for the situation. that God put me in, that I had to trust Him. And I trusted Him, not that I was any, not that I had any, you know, great abilities or I was any kind of honest or right person, righteous person. But God delivered me. And so I said, I wouldn't take a million dollars for that experience, but I wouldn't take a million dollars to go back through it either, so. But here we are. Our God is a God of means. Now I know when you begin to read this article in the 1689, the third chapter, because it begins with the Bible, obviously, it should, For all we know about God is what's in the Bible. It's the Bible that teaches us about God. And so we're students of the book. And in fact, to such a degree that the Baptists have historically said we have no creed but the Bible. Well, we did have a creed, but it was based on the Bible. And creed means I believe, and so everyone has a creed. There's no neutrality. You believe something or another. You either believe the truth or a lie. You either believe the Bible or some human writing or some human expression. And so you do have a creed, whether you say you do or not, because the word credo in Latin means I believe. You believe something. The Baptist, I mean, I do understand what they were saying, that it is the Bible. Our conscience is captured by the Bible. That's what Luther said. When Luther stood before that council in the Diet of Worms there in Germany in 1517, when he stood before that council, maybe it was later than 1517, that's when he nailed the 95 Theses, but some years later, he's standing there to debate the great theologian, Catholic theologian, John Eck, and he was very happy to do that, but they just simply said, oh, these are writings, and he said, they are, do you recant them? He didn't get to debate, yes or no. Well, Luther finally says this, my conscience is captured by the word of God. Here I stand. I can do no other. So, the scripture. And then we learn about God. This is the God who has revealed himself through the scripture. You don't understand this God through intuitive understanding or because you have looked into your soul and you've looked into some kind of inward light to find this God. No, He reveals Himself to you through His Word and through the Spirit that illuminates His Word so you can believe it. We don't argue. The Christian does not argue with the Word of God, does not debate about the Word of God, does not come to different conclusions about our God. And indeed, the 1689 Confession is Magnificent following the Westminster and the Savoy following this about our God. The wonder of this God has revealed himself through us in the word and through the spirit that illuminates the word for us. And then we come to the first work of God. Here are the works of God. The works of God are the works of decree. You'll notice it's one decree. It's not many decrees, it's one decree. And his work is the work of creation, so decree gives rise to creation. And then decree is applied to creation in what we call providence. It's not just simply redundant that we would do decree and then that we would do providence. Indeed, it develops out from the mind of Christ that has been given to our forefathers. And someone said, well, it seems like to me that you put the 1689 above the Bible. That's just not the truth. The 1689 is a document that our forefathers put together to explain to us the Bible. It is under the Bible, but it explains the Bible. You see, there are those that just kind of believe that they know more than these people knew or that their understanding of the Bible, which see, it's not the difference. And I've had people to say this, you know, for example, on John Calvin, they would say, well, John Calvin is just a man. I'd say, well, that's true, but what a man. But you see, you say, well, you believe Calvin more than the Bible. No, that's not true. That is not true. We believe the Bible and anything that Calvin says that's true must come from the Bible. But you see, it's not. And we must make sure that these people understand this. It is not that you have the Bible and we have Calvin. You have some lesser theologian than Calvin. You have Arminius or whatever, a lesser theologian than Calvin. It's man against man, you see. Don't let anybody take the high ground on you in these things. This 1689 Confession, following the Westminster Confession, following the Savoy, though with some difference, but obviously a Baptist Confession, this is what Baptists believe. And if you don't believe it, you are the one that have left the faith. You're the one that's left what we claim to be. You're not, you know, you're not putting yourself, you know, You don't have any moral high ground in these things. We must give ourselves, okay? And so we see that the work of creation and then providence is applied. The third work of God is the work of providence applied to creation, decree applied to creation. That's why we are where we are. God in decree, pronouncing, planning, God in providence carrying it out. Again, in the providence of God, we are in this sanctuary. In the providence of God, we came before God to hear this gospel. In the providence of God, here we are. What did it take to get us in here? Well, I can tell you it took more than any of us could ever imagine it would take. to get us into this room. And even as I said last week, in Christ, you're not adding Christ to your life. The truth of it is that Christ is adding you to him. In Christ. This world, this universe was created, but particularly this earth was created so we could inhabit it. No other place in the universe has been discovered, and I would go so far to say will be discovered, that would be inhabitable for human life. This speck of dust, this grain of sand, in the vastness of this universe, that shows the image of God, why should we be surprised that our God, who cannot be contained, not even in His universe can be contained, why should we be astounded that He would do something so magnificent as this creation? So He could get those who were chosen from the foundation of the world in the world. What wonder. Who is this one with whom we deal? This God. And how is he so cheapened by those that Don't have this understanding, how cheap and casual. No, when you discover this God, this God, you discover how little you are and how great He is. Why should He love me so? It's too good to be true, me, in Christ. And then the fourth work of God is the work of redemption. And the rest of the, you see the development of this great document, there is the Bible, there is God, There is his first work of decree, his second work of creation, his third work of providence, and then we learn about man. What is man? How was he created? What did he do? is his position now and how did he get in such a position contrary and anti to his creator. And then the work of redemption. The rest of this great confession is about, it's about getting you to redemption and then following you away from redemption in the church. You see the establishment of the church and how God made covenant with us a condescension to us through covenant, you see, and on and on and on. And one day he will return and he will judge the just and the unjust and the just, his children, his people shall be raised to the resurrection of life and the rest shall be raised to the resurrection of damnation. And that, my friend, is this great confession. There are those that don't like the idea of decree. They fight against it, they water against it. They even besmirch the great reputation of these great men. They want to claim that these men are... In fact, I've actually heard that, you know, that men actually called Calvin and Lutheran, these reformers, the devil. They don't like these things, but this must be. I mean, if we're talking about this God, then these things must be. But where they are confused, And sometimes I'm wondering if it is not a willful confusion in order to try to undercut these things, or is it just an honest, naive confusion that they just haven't yet grasped? But I trust it's the later or the latter of those things. I trust it is. But either way, we must maintain the truth. And where they mess up, where they misunderstand decree is in this very idea of means. There are means and there are ends, right? There are the things that must happen in order to get to the result at the end. And so our God is not only a God of the end, of the accomplishment, but he's also the God of means that gets us to the accomplishment, you see. Not only has God decreed from the foundation of the world that we would be in Christ, and that being in Christ then would mean that we would have a life filled with the Spirit, and that we would live to His glory in the Spirit. And then one day when we die, if indeed we don't live to the coming of Christ, if we die, we will die in Christ, you see. And we will be taken to God. and we will see him as he is and we shall be like him. And ultimately, even as we said at these graves, we've had too many graveside services in the past few days, but there we were. And what do we have, you see? Well, this grave, that even this grave in great mystery will yield its prey and must release Whatever it might be, you know, in the sense that which is buried is surely not that which comes up. Great mystery, but ultimately nothing of us, not our soul, not our spirit, not our bodies, will be left behind. For Christ, in His wonderful, magnificent grace, has redeemed us thoroughly. It has to be that God is in control of all these things. Not only is God in control of the great events of life like World War II, or the rise of Hitler, or the election of men, but even down to the very molecular structure of you. You see, because once you come into the world, like I told the Muslim that I was witnessing to in Malawi, you're never going to be unborn. In fact, you're going to stand before the true and living God to give an account to this Christ that you reject. That you say is not God, it's just simply a prophet. No, He is a prophet, but He's a prophet, priest, and king. And one day, you'll stand before the throne that He is upon, and you will see the one that you rejected is exactly the one that has claim to your soul. To do with it what He is purposed to do. So if you had any understanding of this, you would bow to Christ now. Well, but he didn't only decree the final. He decreed every mean. Second by second, moment by moment, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, decade by decade, millennia by millennia, millennia by millennia. to get you where he has purposed you to be. So here we see 2 Thessalonians. We could go to many chapters, but 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. So 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. And let me just say that 1 and 2 Thessalonians is a wonderful book. I've never preached through them, but I really have this desire to preach through them. writings of the Apostle Paul, but listen to what he says. So this is 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Look at verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Oh, what a wonderful, what a wonderful title. Beloved of the Lord. That is the Greek word. That word beloved or beloved is from agape, this wonderful word of God's love. Loved ones of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit. Now look at it. from the beginning before the world was chosen you to salvation. Now, salvation is the large word here. It's the word that encompasses it all, you see. This term salvation, and we've talked about this term. We use the term save. When were you saved? Well, really, when we ask somebody, when were you saved? We are really asking them, when were you converted? When did this thing become real to you? As I was telling Skip Moody, a friend of mine, who was asking me about, when do you think I was saved? And I said, well, Skip, let me ask you a question. When did your life change? When did you come from a hater of God to a lover of God. When did you forsake your will and your ways to follow the will and the ways of God? When did that change? That's when you were converted. Or what we would say, saved. But really, we could say, when were you saved? Well, I was saved before the foundation of the world when Christ when God decreed in Christ that I would be his child, that I would be a follower and a believer of Christ before the world was. And yet we cannot say when we came into the world that we were already saved, but we were not. So when were you saved? Christ had to do something, right? Christ had to do something. I mean, isn't that the gospel? That Christ had to come, Emmanuel, God in the flesh, and had to bear our sin, and His body, the sinless one, the sacrifice before God, had to die outside the city walls of Jerusalem one Friday afternoon on a hill called Calvary. bearing my sin in his body, for he was delivered for my offenses. But on the third day he had to be raised and erased for my justification. When were you saved? Well, one Friday afternoon, about AD 30, when Christ bore my sin. in his body, and three days later, on the third day, he was raised from the dead. But when will you say, well, somehow, what he did on that cross had to get to me, right? Had to come to me. So one day, when I was in my sin, God sent the gospel to me through a preacher. Ultimately, it comes through a preacher. Even if it was a witness from someone, that someone got it through the preacher, the preaching, you see, from faith to faith. And I heard the gospel. You know, the first time you ever really truly hear the gospel is when you're saved. The other times, you never heard it. They heard the gospel as well as we did, but it did not profit them not being mixed with faith, you see. They heard it with their ear, but they didn't hear it with the ear of faith. The first time you hear it, you bow to it. It's like Lazarus. Lazarus come forth. The dead man heard the voice of God. What came first, life or hearing? but adhering in the life. The time will come, Jesus says, when the dead shall hear the voice. How can the dead hear when they can't? But they did. And that's what Wesley wrote in this, O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace. He speaks, ye deaf, ye deaf, hear your Savior come. Ye dumb, your lucid tongues employ. Ye blind, behold your Savior comes. Ye lame, leap for joy. It had to be God. It had to be through decree. It had to be through these means or we would be in our sin. When will you say, well, if we could break it down, we could say, well, I was elected by God before the foundation of the world that Christ made A substitutionary, vicarious atonement for me. Bury my sin in His body. For He laid down as the Great Shepherd His life for the sheep. He wasn't attempting to save people on that cross. He was saving His own on that cross. And then we were converted by the power of the Spirit. That's what the apostle says. We're bound to give thanks, bound to give thanks, must give thanks. And not just one time, but all way, every time, every moment of every day, giving thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath chosen God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. How did that happen? Through sanctification of the spirit. Sanctification. Well, the English word could not use the Greek word here. It couldn't use the Greek for holy, agios. It couldn't use that word because we don't have an English word that went to that word. We don't have an English word saying holy, holification or holified. So they go to the Latin word holy, which is sanctus. sanctification of the Spirit. This holiness got to us through the Spirit, through the setting apart of the Spirit. So justification, you see, when He bore our sin and His body on the tree and was raised for our justification, saves us from, as I've told you many times and will tell you again, saved us from the penalty of sin. but sanctification through the Spirit saves us from the power of sin. There is holiness in our lives. We are different than we used to be, and that difference is explained by holiness. What does it mean to be holy? First of all, it means to be set apart. And I've used this illustration many times, but remember that when I was a child, we had Sunday shoes. We didn't wear them any other day but Sunday. And every Saturday night, we would polish those shoes. I remember I had a two-tone when one of them was brown and darker brown and lighter brown but we would polish these shoes and then we would go around the heel and around the sole with that black polish and we had to put newspaper down or we would have polished my mama's table. And they sat there and the next morning they shined as if they were new and we put our shoes on. and we went to church. You see, they were set apart for that. And then when our foot got a little bigger, or when they kind of wore out a little bit, then our Sunday shoes became our school shoes, and we were bought Sunday shoes again, set apart for one purpose, and that was to wear them to church. You're set apart. If you're sanctified of the Spirit, you're set apart, you see. God has come to you. You are his, as the scripture teaches us, his peculiar treasure. Not that we're peculiar, though some of us are. I mean, I'm glad I'm not, but some are peculiar. But that's not what that means. That means special, particular. See, the king owns everything, doesn't he? He owns everything. There's not one thing in his kingdom that he does not own. Now he lets others use what he owns. So he owns everything, but there are some things he particularly or peculiarly owns. He has it in his treasure chest, in his closet. And he goes in there and he delights in this peculiar treasure, that's the picture here. He delights in you. How can that be? I know who I am. I know from where I've come. I know even now, though I desire to please him and desire to want him, even now I have issues. Oh, forgive me. How can I be so cold hearted? But he delights in this peculiar treasure that is you. Set apart. But also sanctification or holiness has the idea of being clean. cleansed from the awful stain of sin. Come, the prophet says, speaking the words of God, writing these words to us. Here is God saying to us, here's the commandment, here is the imperative. Come and let us reason together, though your sin Be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. You see, Christ is not, through his sacrifice for us, he's not made us holy. He's declared us to be holy. And when God looks at you, what does he see? Well, first of all, he sees your head. Your head is Christ. The second thing he sees is the fine white linen that you are dressed in, which is the righteousness of the saints, you see. So when He sees you, what does He see? Christ. Christ. And what did He say about our Christ? In His incarnated form, Not in His glorified form, but in His incarnated form. Here's what He said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. That's what He sees you as. When He looks at you, He sees His Son. You. Perfect. Clean. Holy. We thank God because God has from the beginning, beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit. But there's one other thing and belief of the truth. If you don't believe this truth, can you be a Christian? No. No. But wait a minute, but God chose you from the foundation of the world, right? And He has sanctified you through the Spirit, that's right. Then why are you not saved? Because He's a God of means. Because if He's chosen you from the beginning, sanctified you through the Spirit, then He's going to give you the ability to believe the truth. But you must believe. Though it is a gift, faith is a gift from God, it must be your faith. And we're going to talk about these things, even when we deal in the next paragraph about this high mystery. This high mystery that must be dealt with very carefully. We must take great care when we deal with these things, lest we misunderstand, lest we cause others to mess up. You see, it is obedience, belief of the truth, obedience. That's our responsibility. It is not our responsibility to somehow philosophically figure out the decree of God. That's in a purview beyond you. We thank God for it. We praise God for such a thought as that. But that's not our business. That's His business, you see. And the sanctification of the Spirit, you see, that's Him, you see. That's what He does. He does it in you, but He must do it. That's His business, you see. What is our business in this thing? You see, this is where many mess up. Many on both sides of the issue mess this up, you see. We must submit ourselves to belief of the truth. That's your business. Here's the truth of God's Word. Do you believe it? Here's the command of God to repent of your sin. Have you repented? Here is the command of God to confess Christ with your mouth. Because you see, with the heart man believes, and with the mouth confession is made, you see. It is heart and mouth. Because if it's in your heart, it will come through your mouth. What do you talk about? What grabs the interest of your heart and mind? I can tell you what grabs your interest and what comes out of your mouth is your life. What's your life about? And you realize when you give your life to these things, there'll be those that won't understand you, and those that won't like you, and those that will ultimately despise you, and those that will stand against you. But we're not against anyone, my friend. We are not against anyone. We are for Christ. That's our life. And we'll give Him up for nothing. We'll offend the world and everybody in it before we offend Him. What motivates you? What are you about? No casual Christianity will get you from earth to heaven. No casual Christianity will get you out of a grave. It is this Christianity, all consuming. Because God, in his decree, has decreed election, atonement, effectual calling, and belief of the truth. How do I know I'm elected? I believe the truth. How do I know Christ died for me? I believe the truth. How do I know that the Spirit has sanctified me? Because I believe the truth. What is your business? I can tell you what your business is. Believe. Let's pray.