Brother John Cardwell has really been a blessing to our Bible study. We have one at the Rec Center in Talladega. He started coming and everybody that comes, we have two long tables and they all gather around it. And since Brother John has started coming, everybody just, they just think there's nothing, nobody like Brother John. I notice the attendance has dropped off recently. Well, it's not on, some of our people have gotten sick lately. Not on account of him, but everybody just talks about how good that they enjoy having Brother John with us. John Cardwell, you can edit out this part if you want to. I want to speak to you this afternoon on a subject that a lot of people have never even thought about, so they tell me. I've preached it before a few times, but it's God's quota system. You might not know that God has got a quota system. When I was working at Bynum, there was a job come open and people applied for this job. Well, the colonel took it on himself that not enough people of a certain group of people that he wanted to have this job, they didn't come up on the top ten. So he sent that first top ten group back and told them he wanted the next top ten. Well, they sent it up and it still didn't have what he wanted on it, so he sent that one back and the last time it had the persons that he wanted on it. Well, and people really got really mad about that. They said, that's not fair to send these top ten back and then the next top ten back until the ones that come up want it, that he wanted on it. But that's the way it was. And we had to accept that because he was in charge. He was like On the depot, he's like God is. He was sovereign on that depot. Whatever he said went. So today I want to speak to you for a few minutes on what the Bible says. It says it at least six times that I know of, as many as. As many as meets a certain description. Now, the first place that I want you to look at is the book of Revelation, the third chapter, and the 19th verse. Now, these are not in any certain order. I just wanted you to see where it says this word, this expression, as many as. It says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent." This was to the Laodicean church. So before we go any further, let us go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we want You to come on the scene and be our spokesman this afternoon. I want the people that are here to not really see me, but to see the Lord Jesus Christ. standing here before them, and what Thy Word says, may they accept it as truth, because it is true beyond any shadow of doubt. We pray that You would just open up our minds and understand it, and we'll give You the praise for each and every good thing accomplished. We ask these blessings in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen. When I read the Scripture the first time and noticed what it said, I said, well, this is really unusual. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. I thought at that particular time that the Lord loved everybody. But I started studying and I found about 40 places in the Bible, at least 40. The Bible says God does not love everybody without exception. Let's take the 5th chapter of the book of Psalms, the 5th verse. It says, "...the foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity." That's a real strong statement. Then in the next few It says in the 7th chapter and the 11th verse, it says God is angry with the wicked every day. And then in the book of Hosea, this is one that caps the stack, I believe. He told Hosea to go out and marry a woman who was a prostitute, a harlot. Well, he went out and married her. The first child that was born was really Hosea's child. Jezreel. And that was really his child. He says he was going to bring vengeance on somebody because of something that didn't happen right in Jezreel. He says, then she had another child and he said, name this child Lo-Ruhamah, which means not pitied or not loved. I said, Look at that, that verse. That word lo-ruhamah means that he didn't love this child. He said, this child is not my child. That was Hosea doing the talking. Then she had another child and he said, name this child lo-amai, which means not my people are. And he said, I'm going to have mercy on Jacob. on Judah, but are not going to have mercy on the northern kingdom, which was Israel. Not going to have mercy on them. Well, he goes on a little bit later in the ninth chapter of Hosea, he says, what are we going to give these people, Lord? That's what Hosea said. What are we going to give these people? He said, give them miscarrying wombs and dry breasts. He says, all of their iniquity is in Gilgal. That was before they had one of these idols that the Northern Kingdom had. And he says, all their iniquity is in Gilgal. And he says, I will not love them anymore. Talking about the Northern Kingdom. They got carried away in captivity, never to be heard of again. We know about Israel in the world today, but we don't know anything about the Northern Kingdom. Well, we had some Israeli soldiers to come to where I worked at Bynum, and I asked them, what tribe are you from? They said, we don't know. We have no idea what tribe we're from now. We're just Israelis. That's all that they know. But they know that They're not from the Northern Kingdom because all of them have lost their records in AD 135. The Roman government had had so much trouble with them, so they just destroyed their records. Well, that's just some of the places in the Old Testament. And then in the New Testament it says, "...as it is written, Jekyll hath I loved, and Esau hath I hated." Now there's just been all sorts of comments on that. And one day a fellow that I know of, he was a Presbyterian preacher and he was talking to an atheist. And this atheist would read the Bible just for argument. And one day he read it where it said, Jacob have I loved? And he saw how I liked it. He come running into this preacher and said, you've been telling me about the love of God. Look what I found. He said, I know that's in the Bible. He said, well, what do you think of it? He said, I'm going to be as honest with you as I can be. I don't understand it. He said, well, I'm glad to know that there's something in the Bible that you don't understand. He said, well, now wait just a minute before you go off on a tangent. He said, there's a mystery in that verse. He said, what do you mean by mystery? He said, I just don't understand it. But the mystery is not where you think it is. He said, go and see if you can find anything that Esau ever done that would have caused God to love him or to have attracted God's love. Well, he went and stayed away from the preacher for about two weeks. Finally, he come back to him and he said, I can't find nothing that Esau ever done that would have caused God to love him. He said, well, there's not no mystery about it in love, Esau, is it? I don't guess so. He said, the mystery is why he ever loved Jacob. He didn't do nothing either. And of the two, if you'd have lived in Jacob and Esau's day, You could have left your material, your implements outside and Esau would have never touched them. But you better not leave them out there because Jacob will get them. He'll take everything you got and some extra. That was before God sent him. But when he wrestled that angel, from then on, his name was changed. He was not Jacob no more. He was Esau. I mean, Esau, my man. Well, that satisfied that atheist, I guess, because I hadn't been able to figure out why he loved Jacob. I cannot figure out why he loved me. But have you noticed in some of our Psalms in our world today, they've changed, like you were talking about, Brother John, they've changed some of the words. When I was growing up, they used to say, would God love a worm such as I? I heard an actual man one time, he was preaching and he said, we ought to change that and change it from saying a worm to a person. I looked at it a few years later and they had changed that. It was first changed to a sinner such as I, but now it's been changed to a person such as I. See, the natural man don't like to be called a worm. This fellow said, God would never call nobody a worm. Well, I flipped through the Bible over there to Isaiah where it says, Thou worm, Jacob. I said, He does call a worm, Jacob. Well, and I want you to notice what it said a while ago about God hates all workers of iniquity. In our world today, they tell you He loves the sinner, but He hates the sin. That's not what that word says. It says he hates the worker of iniquity, not his works. You can take a jug of liquor or whiskey and set it over in the corner, and as long as nobody don't ever bother it, that's a work of iniquity. But if nobody don't bother it, it's not going to bother nobody. But the worker isn't who he hates. And let's go on now. That says, as many as I love, I'll rebuke and chastise. One day a fellow was in our Bible study at Bynum. We had one at the depot. And I asked this friend of mine, his name was Luke Almarose. I said, does your children ever play with some of their friends? And he said, yeah, they do. I said, whenever these other fellows do something bad, do you give them a whipping? He said, no, I don't whip them children. I said, why? He said, they're not my children. But the Bible says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase them. Does everybody get chased? Does everybody get rebuked? No, there's some people that can just do just about anything, and they never get rebuked or chastened for it. But God says in the book of Hebrews also, as He says, whom I love, I rebuke and chasten. He said, every son that I receive, they are scourged. And He said, if you be without chastisement, you're not a real legitimate son of God. Well, let's look at another place that this, as many as, is used. It's in the book of Acts, the book of Acts, the 13th chapter. And all of you know, you've heard this before lots of times, Acts, the 13th chapter. We're going to turn now to another place that the word, as many as, is used. The 13th chapter of Acts. I've got to find my spot, and it's the 48th verse, 13 and 48. I'm going to give you the background of it, and then we'll see what it says. Paul and Silas, I believe they were on their second missionary journey, and they went into a place, and the Jews They sort of listened intently to start with, and then they wanted him to come back the next Sabbath day. And it says in the 44th verse, it says, And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles. that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth." And when the Gentiles heard this, now listen to this, this is the 40th verse, and when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. So that lets us know that Everybody in this world is not ordained to eternal life, but the ones who are ordained to eternal life, they believe. But I was talking to a fellow, he's really been talking about this lately, and he said, do you think that that as many as indicates a certain number? I said, it couldn't be no plainer. It's just as plain as it can be to me. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. But there's some people that want to say, as many as believed were ordained to eternal life. But if you'll look in every translation that I've ever seen, it always says, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. Well, let's go to another place. This is in the book of Acts, the 2nd chapter and the 39th verse. Now, the 38th verse, a lot of people pay attention to that. You know who I'm referring to when I say that. Acts 2.39. I want you to notice what it says there. I moved too far. Listen to what he says, "...for the promise is unto you, and to your children, to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Now all of you have heard, I know Brother John has, a message by Brother Don McKinney. He was preaching to his He was preaching at an assembly of God at church. They come to that night, they said, well, we can refute what He had to say. And they started reading this verse of Scripture. They started off real strong, and then as they got to getting a little closer and a little closer, they said, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. It got weaker and weaker, because it didn't say what He thought it was going to say. As many as the Lord our God shall call. Well, you know, it says, In the book of 1 Corinthians, the first chapter and the 26th verse, it says, Notice your calling, brethren. See, it's got that word calling there. It says, Notice your calling, brethren, that not many noble, not many mighty are called. But I really like what some fellow of nobility over in England, he read that verse and he said, I sure am thankful for the letter M. And they asked him, why are you more thankful for the letter M in the alphabet than you are for other letters? He said, what would it have said if it hadn't had that letter M on there? He just said, not any mighty, not any noble would have stayed. He said, I'm thankful for that letter M. Isn't that wonderful? You know, and I've seen a time in my life that I consider myself to be sort of mighty. I know better now. But isn't that wonderful that it says, even as many as the Lord our God shall come, Well, there's three more places that I want you to notice. The next place, and all of you are very familiar with it, it's the book of the 17th chapter of John, Gospel of John, where Christ was praying to His Father. He ought to know more about this than anybody else in the world. I'm going to start with the 17th chapter, first verse, because this is such wonderful verses. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, Now that says that God has given Christ power over all flesh, regardless, without exception, to give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. Now that's just as specific as it can possibly be. Father, You give me a group of people. Well, I'm going to give eternal life to as many as you have given me. Now, he goes on and says later in this same chapter, he said, I pray not for the world. That's in the ninth verse. I pray not for the world in general, but for those thou hast given me. That's another place that is just as specific and definite as it can possibly be. I used to think Way back in the olden days, I used to think that it was, from the Bible, I thought Christ's atonement was just a potential thing. Possible. Potential. That means that it may be for somebody and it may not be. When Christ says, as many as thou hast given me, that takes it out of the potential and makes it definite, certain, and positive. I'm so glad of that. Well, then in the first chapter of John, there's another place that each one of you need to understand. It's the first chapter of John, and I know all of you are familiar with this place. You've heard it lots of times, the first chapter, and I've got to tell you the verse when I get to it. It's just so wonderful to know. And it's starting with the 11th verse, "...he came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." My opponents, whenever they read that, they say, look at there, it says, as many as received Him. Just like that was something that everybody could do. Well, you know what John the Baptist said one time about that very thing right there? He said, no man can receive anything except it be given him from the Father. So, they really are still, it's still definite, as many as received Him. But who receives Him? The Bible plainly says the natural men don't receive the things that be of God. They're foolishness to Him. So something has happened to these fellows right here, these people. Listen to what has happened to them. In the 13th verse it tells us what has happened. "...which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Whenever a person has ears to hear with, you can rest assured that God has been operating on that fellow. Now, I know all of you have heard Brother Farrell Griswold. He went up north one time and he said that he didn't have any money with him. And he said, he was going along, he said, he told the fellow that was with him, he said, I'll tell you what let's do. We need one of us don't have any money much. Let's go into a funeral home." He said, all these people up here, all these funeral homes have got good old German names, and I've got a German name, Ferrell Griswold. He said, that's as German as you can get. So he said, they went to this funeral home and said, how about letting us stay here, and we'll answer the phone at night, and we'll sleep here, and take care of everything, and y'all can go home and stay with your families forever. Several days. Oh, they was just glad to do that. And he said, I got up one night, couldn't sleep, and I went wandering around through there, and I went through a couple of stainless steel doors. And there was two bodies laying in there on the cooling board, we used to call it. And he said, I saw that they had a name tag on their big toe. I went over and looked at them. He said, Mr. So-and-so, I noticed that it's cold in here. He said, I'll tell you what, if you have this blanky eyelid, I'll get you out of this place. He said, ain't there no response? No wonder they're dead. Well, that's the way it is. Nobody's not going to do anything as long as they're dead, and that's what had happened to these people. They would never have received Christ if it hadn't been for the Spirit of God. He'd give them life. They'd give them spiritual life. That's the reason they believed. That's the reason they received Christ, because they had been born of the Spirit of God. Well, there's one more place that I want you to see, and it's in the book of Romans, The 8th chapter and the 14th verse. Now this is just places that I found that is noticeable that the Bible uses. The 8th chapter of Romans and the 14th verse. I've got to find my spot. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now that lets you know that if a person is being led by the Spirit of God, They go wherever the Holy Spirit says for them to go, and they are the sons of God. Now this is one of the places that our will works with the Holy Spirit. God has given us a new will, and you know what it says in the Bible? It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do. So whenever somebody is following after God and being led of the Holy Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now that lets you know that something has happened in that person. You know the Bible says there's none that seeks after God. Well, whenever a fellow starts seeking after God, God is the reason that he's starting to seek. You know, whenever God looked down from heaven, and I've heard people say, well, God just looks down through the annals of time, and He sees who's going to believe and who's not, and He chooses them. No, that's not salvation. I mean, that's not choosing. That's God's That'd be after effects. He just looks to see what we're going to do. Well, that's not the way God works. He does what He's going to do, and then He works it in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Well, that's the places that... See, that's God's quota system. It's got to be that many. No more and no less. But that's the plan. That satisfies God, and I'd like to satisfy others more. So let us go to the Lord in a word of prayer. Our Father, Lord, we pray that You would look down on us in mercy and help us to see how great and how wonderful that You are. That You could have left us out of Thy purpose, but You didn't. You brought us in, and I thank You for it. Thank you so much. Every day, Lord, when I pray, I know that I couldn't have done nothing without you. We'll give you the praise. We ask these blessings in Christ's name and for His sake. Amen.