John 12, 24. We'll continue with our study on the doctrines of grace this morning. I try to teach through this about every year and a half to two years. I'm reminded of what Paul and Peter said about a good minister. He's always putting the people in remembrance of what they already know. I know we are easily sidetracked, aren't we, into other things, and we can get focused and even give our resource to other things for a while, but we need to remember who our God is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He is going to do. And going over the doctrines of grace, especially during, again, the day and age in which we live, is very important. Talk about salvation, and if you take a note, the title of the message is Sovereign Salvation. Sovereign Salvation. Often people, you know, terminology is very important. People say things like, I got saved. We understand what most people say when they say that, but in my mind, a better terminology would be that God saved me. Instead of I got saved, because to say I got saved, that kind of tends to exalt who? Me. To exalt man. I did something to get saved. And it makes it like it's a work. I prayed this prayer. I had this feeling. I joined the church. I got baptized. I got saved. And it makes it a works for salvation. But when we think about the biblical truth that God is the one who saves, then God gets all the glory. And it is truly by God's grace. What is grace? Grace is unmerited or unearned favor. Grace is something that you and I do not deserve. And I'm going to say that again so there's no misconceptions. Grace is what you and I do not deserve. That's grace. God's grace. So God saves us by His grace. What does that automatically tell us? That we don't deserve to be saved. It's by God's grace. John 12, 24. This is our launching verse as we look through this series that we're doing. And I know there are many other verses we could go to, but this is where we're at. John 12, 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. And here Christ is talking about Himself, His death, His burial, and His resurrection. And Lord willing, in the coming weeks, we'll look at the doctrine of actual atonement. And I know there's other terms that we're used to seeing here, and I try to stay away from those terms because people automatically put up a fight with these terms. So terminology is important, and no, I'm not scared to use these terms, and I'll use them through the messages, but I think this is also beneficial to use the term actual atonement. For whom did Christ die? It's a very good question, isn't it? And we'll look at that, Lord willing, next week. Now last time we looked at total human inability. Man, in his natural state, has neither power nor desire to come to Christ. That's how we're born. We don't want to come to Christ. We are totally unable to save ourselves. Again, God saved me, not I got saved. Okay? It is God who saves us. We cannot save ourselves. Again, in Romans chapter 3, let's go to Romans 3. Now, it's important that we establish everything about the scriptures. Everything's about the scriptures. Nothing outside of the scriptures. We'll start in verse 9 of Romans chapter 3. We'll read down through verse 12. Again, I know we've already looked at some of these, but we'll go back over some of them just to bring it to our remembrance as we get into this. Verse 9 of Romans chapter 3. Paul writes, "...what then? Are we better than they, no one know by, so we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles." Now remember, some time back we looked at the word whosoever. Y'all remember that? Whosoever simply means Jew or what? Gentile. Anybody, we can say that, okay? They are all under sin. So how are we born? Romans 5, 12 talks about Adam bringing sin into the world. Therefore, all men, how are we born? We are born sinners. As it is written there, notice this, none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God, and if you're writing your Bibles, you're going to underline those words, none. They're all gone out of the way, they're together become unprofitable, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. These are plain scriptures that most of us have known most of our lives, if you've been in church for very long. Romans chapter 5 verse 6, for when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Without strength means we are impotent. We have no strength. We're not able to do what needs to be done. In a moral sense, it's wretched. A state of sin and wretchedness is what it is. In Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3, The Bible says, and you hath he quickened, speaking about God quickening us, making us alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. So how is it that we were before the Lord saved us? We were lost, right? We were dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually dead. Again, I'm going to use some of the same examples we used last time, just to get us back up to speed. How many of y'all have ever talked to a dead person in the casket? Most everybody? You talked to them? Did they talk back? If they did, they were not dead, right? You put a live person on the ground. But no, they didn't talk back to you. Why? Because they were dead. They could do nothing that you would want them to do. And I'm not trying to make fun of those who've died. Listen, we've all lost loved ones, haven't we? But you go to that casket and you cry for your mom or for your dad or for your loved one, whoever it may be, and you talk to them. If you can make them get up out of that casket and live, wouldn't you do that? If you could shake them and say, will you hear what I'm saying? I'm begging you to get up out of here. Please! Awaken! But they're not going to do it, are they? Why? They're dead. And listen, when you and I are spiritually dead, it means when we are in our lost state, it's the same way. I cannot make you get saved. I can't take you by your shoulders and shove you. I can't kick you. I can't beat the gospel into you. I'd love to be able to do that, but I can't. And you can't. Again, why? And I'm driving this nail this morning because I have to before I get there for sales. Because the lost person is spiritually dead. And it takes a miracle that only God can do to make that person hear and see what the Scripture says. Only God can do that. Yes, we love our lost loved ones, don't we? And we beg God for them. It is heartbreaking. Especially when the Lord has revealed these truths to you. So, we looked at whosoever. It's Jewish Gentile. We looked at, and Brother Patton may have mentioned this last week, about the word free will. Now understand that we all have a will, don't we? We all make decisions. But our decisions are not free. Don't throw nothing at me, okay? The word free talks about being able to make a decision that's not influenced by anything or anyone else. Now have you ever in your life made a decision that's not influenced by anything or anyone else? You have to say no. Because we've always made decisions based on what's influenced us the most, right? You ladies, how many of y'all have 25 pairs of shoes in your house? Raise your hand. You got 25 or more? My wife's got at least 50. She told me a while back that she got rid of a bunch of them. I said, I can't tell. Y'all know what I'm talking about. We have a walk-in closet. I have this much space. She's got like 30 foot. I've got three. The point I'm making is this morning, when you got dressed, why'd you put the shoes on you have on? Well, those shoes don't go with that dress or those slacks. Something influenced you. Do you know why I put the shoes on that I have on this morning? My wife told me to. Exactly. So I was influenced by my wife. Yes, I put them on of my own will, right? I put them on. No, I didn't tie them. I keep my shoes tied. But why did I do that? I was influenced. See, every decision we make is an influenced decision. There's only one who makes decisions that's not influenced. Who is that? That is God. So keep that in mind as we go through these scriptures also. So, this is the state we're born into. We're born totally depraved. Therefore we have no power to save ourselves? Here's what's sad, nor do we desire to be saved, do we? Truly, and truly, go back and think about, before the Lord saved your soul, when you were living in the depths of sin, did you desire to be saved? No! Now, you didn't want to go to hell, did you? No one wants to go to hell, no one in their right mind. But you didn't want to be saved. until the Lord quickens you. Amen? And then, there's a lot of thin lines there, then you have a desire for Him. That's the only work that God can do. Because of our depraved state, soul salvation must be a sole work of God's sovereign salvation. It's monergistic. It's one working. It's God working. God is the one that's in control, not man. God is not a puppet on a string, not at all. No one controls God. He is self-sufficient. He is not dependent upon anyone or anything. He is, that's why the word sovereign God is there. Sovereign is supreme in power. Now this is very comforting, it should be. When you think of God, and then you think of the opposite of God, what's probably the first thing that comes to your mind? The devil, right? But that's, according to scripture, that's not true because there's nothing opposite of God. He is God alone. Keep in mind that he created Lucifer. Amen? We can't blame God with sin, obviously, but everything on this earth that we know of and everything that we know of has been created by God, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Supreme, sovereign, supreme in power, possessing supreme dominion as a sovereign prince. God possesses the highest authority without control. No one controls God, nor does anyone influence Him. If someone did, then he would cease to be God. God is never learning, because he is all-knowing. It's so important we know who God is. Salvation. Here's a definition for the word salvation. In the Christian sense, salvation is deliverance from sin and its spiritual consequences, and admission to eternal life with blessedness in the kingdom of Christ. Mankind is born again dead and trespasses Excuse me and sins and he is unable to save himself God Has to do the saving God who is sovereign over all according to the Bible had a plan From before the foundation of the world God does everything decently and in order God's never shooting from the hip God's not going to plan B and So salvation is a work of God's sovereignty. God must do the saving. Again, I'm driving this in their heads. God must do the saving because we cannot save ourselves. Romans 3, 26 says, To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just. and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Hebrews 12, 2, looking up to Jesus. Watch these words. The author, or the beginner, and the finisher of our faith. Philippians 1, 6, being confident of this very thing. He, speaking of God, which hath begun a good work in you, the Bible says, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Again, it is God that justifies us. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. God completes the work He starts in us. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. I'm going to get into a teaching mode here for a few minutes, so y'all bear with me. As we mentioned in Sunday school, it's very important that we do word studies so that we know what the Bible is actually saying. We can have a preconceived notion of what the Bible says, can't we? Or we can hear someone, whether it's a preacher or a grandparent or someone, say something about the scriptures and we say, that's got to be true because this person will not lie to me. Obviously, they may not lie to you on purpose, but they may be very well mistaken. That's why it's important that we study the Bible for ourselves. Ephesians chapter 1, let's start in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, noticed this by what? The will of God. This is the determinate will of God. To this sanctuary add emphasis to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Notice what he says here. Grace be to you and peace. Peace always comes after grace. From God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Where's all the focus at here in these verses? It's on God. Now let's go to verse 4. It doesn't change. Are y'all ready for verse 4? According as He, who? God. What has God done? Has chosen us in Him, notice this, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Who did this? God did this. What's God done? Hath chosen us in Him. Hath chosen His simple undefined action occurring in past time. The subject here, which is God, is acting in some way upon Himself or concerning Himself. So God, before time began, acted in some way, this is important, without any outside influence. No one influenced His decision. God did something before the foundation of the world. What did He do here in verse 4? He has chosen. The word chosen by implication is to choose out with the accessory idea of kindness, favor, love. What did God choose to do? To love. Romans 5, 8, but God commendeth what? His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When did God choose out according to verse 4? Before the foundation of the world. What did God choose out? A people. How did God choose out? Of His own will. God chose us and Him before the foundation of the world. He did this in love. Look at verse 5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. Here's what's hard. We see words like this and we've heard, I'm sure y'all have heard bad things about these words. Or bad things about people that believe things about these words. Yet, they're in the Bible. And we've learned, and have been learning in Sunday school, that when you have the scriptures, you can't skip scriptures, right? And we talk about this. How many of y'all like the doctrine of hell? I mean, you love that doctrine. Go ahead and raise your hand if you like it. I don't like it neither. It grieves me. to know and to learn about the doctrine of hell. But here's the case. Does it make it any less? Does it change it? Is hell real? Yes! You may believe it. How do we know it's real? The Bible tells us it's real. Are there people going to hell? Yes! Multitudes are going to hell. That's grievous. And we talked about it this morning in Sunday school. How many of y'all like the doctrine of heaven? Raise your hand. I like that one. Do y'all have any loved ones that are in heaven? Yes. How about Jesus? He's there, isn't He? Do you have any loved ones in hell? We do, don't we? So just because we don't like something doesn't mean that we dodge it, we skip it, or we go around it. And we see the same thing here in these verses. Having, verse 5, predestinated. This word, having predestinated, is to limit in advance, to determine before, ordain, or predestinate. It's used to declare God's eternal decrees of both the objects and goal of His plan of salvation. The objects are those whom He has chosen to save, and the goal, notice this, is that He is glorified. that God is glorifying. How is God glorifying? Because, listen, He's saving us by grace. He's saving someone who does not deserve it. Please, I hope you get this and understand this. You do not deserve salvation. You have not earned forgiveness. You have not earned your place in heaven. If God has saved your soul, He did it by His free grace. Grace that's not influenced by anything or anyone else other than God Himself. He does again all this to the good pleasure of His will. He's glorified. Look at verse 6. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. He hath made everyone who has and will believe accepted in the Beloved. Again, accepted is to bestow grace, the highly honored and greatly favored. Again, I want to point out, this is done without any kind of outside influence. God did this by himself. God made this decision before the world was ever made. The word beloved is to love to regard with strong affection. Let's look at verses 7-11. We'll try to speed through this. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. And whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things, watch this last part, after the counsel of his own will. So we have been chosen to salvation and love according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Hence, we get the term sovereign salvation. Now folks, this is very humbling. Very humbling. Because what man wants to do, man wants to rise up and say, I did something. Man wants to be known. Look what I have done. Look what I have earned. Look at me. God looked down and said, that's a good old boy right there. I think he's funny and very good looking. I think I'm going to save him. Is that how God did it? Did God look well prepared and say, oh, he's going to choose me. Well, if he's going to do that, then I'm going to choose him. That would be God doing two things, not knowing something and then responding in such a way that makes Him not God, right? No. How does God save us? By His sovereign grace. It's a very humbling doctrine. I don't know of any other doctrine that humbles us as the doctrine of unconditional election. It is very humbling. Two things. Who are we that God would choose us? Probably the greater question is who is God that he would choose us? Very humbling. And in the coming week as we look at the doctrine of actual atonement, I think we'll have a better understanding of what we actually deserve. Also, having a right understanding of sovereign salvation brings clarity and confidence in the perseverance or the preservation, I should say, of the saints. A question comes up, if you tell someone about hell enough, won't that make them want to run to Jesus? Boy, if they could just experience hell, They'd cry out for salvation, wouldn't they? Let's go to Luke 16. I trust that y'all are familiar with this passage. But in case you're not, we'll start in verse 19 of Luke 16. There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. There was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, wherewith the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. Notice verse 23, And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Now notice this man died and immediately where did he go? Hell. And immediately what was he in? Torments. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, notice this, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in this flame. What's he saying? Oh, have mercy on me. Look where I'm at. Look what I'm in. I just want to dip up water. Who's that? Is that Lazarus by you, Abraham? He used to be one of my servants. Send him over here. Get him to bring me some water. Hey, look at this. I need some water. Come on. Ring the bell. Why does he want water? For I am tormented in this flame. Notice, as I read this, what he's not asking for. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, in other words, he's rejoicing, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great goal fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house. For I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torment. Abraham saith unto them, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. He said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. He said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. If they don't hear scripture, they won't be persuaded. Even if someone rose from the dead and said, don't go that place, if they don't hear scripture, they will not be persuaded. But do you recognize what he never asked for here? He never asked to be forgiven of his sins. He never asked, Oh Lord, I messed up. Would you please save me now? He never said that. I'm going to go ahead and tell you why. Because salvation is a working of God's grace. Amen. Only by God's grace can you recognize your needs. or salvation. That's why God gets all the honor and the glory. That's why God gets all the credit. Listen, the preacher don't. The preacher can put on your emotions. He can tell you stories. He can have you crying. He can have you laughing. He can have you emotional. But only God can save you. So we understand according to the Bible that we are chosen to salvation by God from before the foundation of the world. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2. It is God that chooses, it is God that justifies, and it is God that receives all the honor and the glory. We did nothing to earn favor with God. We did nothing to earn the grace of God. If we did, it would no longer be called This leads us to some questions. So don't we have to have faith in order to believe? Don't we have to place our faith, our trust in Christ? Isn't that what believing is? Yes, we do. So let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2, Luke verses 8 and 9. For by, what's that word there? Grace. Are you saved through what? This faith, notice this next part, and that not of yourselves, this grace, this faith is not of you. It is, what? The gift of God. Not of works. You know this faith that we have to trust Jesus, you know where it comes from? From God. It's a gift of God. It's not something that we muster up. We don't pull our bootstraps on and, I got this. I'm good to go. No, this comes from God. See, where God still gets the glory continually. Another question is, as I mentioned this earlier, didn't we at some point have a desire to come to Jesus Christ? Can all of us who are saved say yes? Go back in your mind, when the Lord saved your soul, when you saw that you were a sinner headed for devil's hell, and you saw how merciful and gracious God is, and you were crying out to God, didn't you go to God? Right? Didn't you desire Him? Yes, of course! When at one time you did not desire Him? Again, that's a working of God's grace. We cannot take credit for that John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13. 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. Verse 13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. In my Bible, I'm going to just first have the word monogistic written. All of God. This takes us back to Ephesians chapter 1, doesn't it? For the good pleasure of His will. Now turn to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. We'll start in verse 35. Always interpret scripture with scripture that's rightly divided in context. John 6, verse 35, and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Notice verse 36, but I said unto you that ye also have seen me and what? And believe not. That scary? These Pharisees, these Jewish religious leaders, Even Judas Iscariot, one of his own disciples, did they not see Jesus? Did they not hear his words? Did they not see his miracles? And yet he tells them here in verse 36, and you what? Believe not. Verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What a promise that is. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came now from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me. that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day." The Jews didn't murmur at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Do you know what they knew about Jesus? What everybody else knew about Jesus. For the last two weeks, Brother Pat King has been preaching about examining ourselves from the book of 1 John. And in this message, I have a lot of scriptures from 1 John. I'm probably not going to go through all of them. But how many of y'all know about Jesus? You know He was born of a virgin. You know He lived a sinless life. You know He went to the cross. You know what He said on the cross. It is finished. You know He was buried. You know He rose again the third day. You know that He ascended to glory. You know He's coming back. You know things no one knows about Jesus. Because they read it in the Bible. But you don't know Jesus. You've never believed to the saving of your soul. And you know what I'm talking about. There's an uneasiness there. There's a doubt there. And I'm getting ahead of myself, but 1 John 4, verse 18 says, Perfect love casteth out fear. Perfect love casteth out that doubt. According to the Scripture that God has saved your wretched soul. Let me keep reading here, I'm sorry. He said, Therefore I answer and I said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And I will raise him up to the last day. Look at verse 65. He said, Therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father. Yes, we do run to Jesus and that is by the grace of God that we run to Jesus. In 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 10, and I just looked, this is a lot of scripture and we can use a lot more scripture that clearly supports this doctrine. But 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 10, Therefore, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. The word election in this verse is the loving purpose of God by which any are chosen unto salvation so that they are led to embrace and persevere in Christ's bestowed grace and the enjoyments of its privileges and blessings here and hereafter. This means that God's intention was according to the principle of election, which is God's free choice without being affected by any outside circumstance or the worth of the individuals concerned. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4 says, Knowing that, brethren beloved, your election of God. Now here comes a question. Well, let me make a statement, then we'll get to the question. According to the Bible, God saves. Right? Christ came to seek and save that which was what? Lost. Amen? Romans 10, 13. Whosoever shall what? Call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Remember, the word whosoever is not free will isn't. It's Jew or Gentile. And we can't call upon the Lord if God does not first work in us. If He's not first quicken us. He quickens us. Listen, we see who we are. Sinners. Let sinners head to the devil's hell. We see who He is. Gracious and merciful. And what do we do? We run to Him and we cry to Him. Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's all part of God's grace. Nothing for us to glory in. Amen. So here's the question. How do I know if God has saved my soul? Is that a legitimate question? How do I know if God has chosen me to salvation? What a question. Acts 16, the old teller said, what must I do? To what? To be saved? And yet we're asking the question, how do I know that I'm saved? How many of y'all love assurance? I didn't say insurance. I hate paying that bill each month. I'm talking about assurance, and knowing that the Lord has saved your soul. I love being able to lay my head on my pillow each night, knowing that if I don't wake up in this world, I'm going to wake up in glory. And that's not a bad way to go, is it, in your sleep, as long as you're not driving. Amen? Come on, Jesus. But where does this confidence come from? It comes from Scripture. 1 John 5.13 says this, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. That you may know. Can we know that we're saved? Yes. There are those who say we can't, and that blows my mind because the Bible says we can know. We can know. It is God who quickens us. Again, why is He quickening us? Where were we at? We were but dead and trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2, 1. He gives us the grace. He shows us grace. He gives us the faith to trust Him. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. And He transforms our lives. 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, when is he? He's a new creature or a new creation. All things are done away with, behold, all things are become new. Now, let's go to one of my favorite scriptures. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. What kind of people does God save? 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11. Does God save good people? Well, we read a while ago from Romans chapter 3 that there is none what? There is none good. I know that we live out here in the country and I love it. Amen. And that for many years there was a moral Christianity taught that you don't get involved in sinful activities, right? Keep yourself pure. Listen folks, that doesn't save you. What kind of people does God save? Lost people. 1 Corinthians 6 chapter 9, look what it says. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9, I'm sorry. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Always stop here, you know why? Because the Bible says that our hearts are deceptive of all things. It's desperately wicked of all things. Amen? We can't trust it, can we? Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God, be not deceived. And it starts to name off people, listen, according to their lifestyle, they're not saved. And this letter is written to a church. So apparently, guess what they had in the church? These kinds of people. And guess what? It's no different today. Be not deceived, neither fornicators. Do y'all know what a fornicator is? I ain't gonna spell this out, do I? It's any kind of sexual activity outside of marriage. nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, that's homosexuals, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revelers, a reveler is simply a gathering of drunkards, whether it's at a party, whether it's at a bar, whether it's at Mardi Gras, whatever it is, nor extortion shall inherit the kingdom of God. One thing that stands out about these people, this is their lifestyle. They're not backslidden. This is their lifestyle. This is their heart. This is what they're doing. They're shacked up. They're into drinking. They're into drugs. And then the other kind of Sinful activities you can think of. Galatians 5 says, and such like. Anything like that. I've been praying about whether or not to say this all morning. Or the right way to say this. Lord help me. I want to encourage y'all to look around this room. Before I go to verse 11. Y'all go ahead and look around. Look at each other. Go ahead. I don't care if the person next to you is ugly or pretty. Don't look in the mirror. Amen? Just look around. Look up here. Behind this pulpit. Look at this right here. Let me tell you what you see when you look around. You see people, if they're saved, at one time they were lost. And there's a good possibility that this is the lifestyles that they were living. That's why we never put down on someone on how they're living. Because we don't forget where God has brought us from. And these are the words, it's hesitant to say these things, but it's in the Bible. Still got to be careful. Lord help me with my tone here. But how many of you were whores and whoremongers? How's that? Your kids are going to ask you what that is when you get home. Show them what the Bible says about it, okay? How many of you were fornicators? Adulterers? You were drunkards. You were revelers. And you loved it. You were in the depths of sin. And you gloried in it. But now, Romans says, you are ashamed of those things that you used to do. Why? Look at verse 11. And such were some of you. What kind of people does God send behind you? He sends sinners. Sinners headed for a devil's hell. but ye are one, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our Lord. God saves our wretched souls. He gets the glory. Now we love Him. Why do we love Him? Because He first loved us. Again, another evidence that we're saved. What's another evidence? That we now love the brethren. 1 John 3.14, we know we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. 1 Peter chapter 2, we love His Word. We love the Scriptures. And our desire is to be with Him. because of who He is. Not because of someone who He loves in heaven. That's not why we want to go there. Yeah, what a great reunion day, right? I do want to see those whom have gone on to glory. I miss them in my fleshly self. But you know what? When we get to heaven, it's not going to be about them, is it? It's going to be about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And that's why we want to go. That's why we want to be there. In Psalms 119.47 it says, And I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved. You love His Word. And listen to this. Since you love His Word, you love Him, you live a life of repentance and constant cleansing. Listen, you hate your own sins. Anybody else? You hate your sins? How about your thoughts? I can't believe I would think something like that. Lord, help me. We crucify the flesh. We don't give it what it needs to work and to do. Our hope is built upon the finished work of Jesus Christ. Nothing more and nothing less. 1 John 3.19 says, And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves, know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates. Multitudes speak of a profession of faith. Listen, but the evidence does not come with the profession, does it? It's the life lived after the profession which shows us if someone is truly saved or not. We will bring forth fruits that are meek or that are worthy of repentance. We will surrender to the Lordship of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. An unsurrendered life is a life that has not been conquered by Christ. It is a life that has someone who is not saved. That person is still dead in trespasses and sins. Again, perfect love casts out fear. If you have doubts about whether or not you are truly saved, you get in the Word and you examine yourself by the Word. As we learned in Sunday school and even yesterday at the Men's Bible Study, the Word of God, it never changes. It stays the same. It stays the same. It's not going to show favoritism just because you are who you think you are. It is the Word of God. We have looked at sovereign salvation according to the Bible this morning. Again, I want to encourage you to study the scriptures. Put no confidence in your flesh. Yes, we call upon the Lord to save us, don't we? But those words, it's not what saves us, is it? Those who trust in what they've said or do or did, they usually live like it. as someone who's not faithful. They can't be faithful because it's not in them. You know, they know to do right. They know these things, don't they? I can remember my wife was talking to a lady this week and sharing her testimony and my testimony with this lady at suit therapy. And my wife was telling them that she knew it was right to have her kids in church. She knew that was the right thing to do. But it wasn't in her heart. She wasn't saved. So she started going to a certain church, and then I started going there because they had a ball team back then. I wasn't as big as I am now, amen. I was no less good looking, I want to point that out. But I wasn't in shape. I mean, I was in shape back then. And I went to start to play ball. But in order to play a ball, you had attend, I think, three Sunday morning services a month to play ball there. Well, I just enjoyed playing ball. I enjoyed the fellowship. It was a good time, so I started going to church and got under the priest's word. By the way, it was a very liberal church, super liberal. Can God still work? The Lord saved my soul there, and I've never been the same since then. And the bad part about it is that I said I was saved before I went. Oh yeah, I said I was saved. Thirteen years old, I made a profession of faith. Went down to the altar during an invitation where they pulled on the heart strings of people. Went down there and he said, he's saved! Because he asked me about five or six questions that I answered correctly because I knew the answers. I've been in the youth groups and stuff. But my life never changed. Got baptized. Would lead singing. When filling in the pulpit on Wednesday night, stuff like that, read scripture, was not saved. But thank God by His grace when I was 25 years old, He saved my soul. And a radical change took place. There was no fireworks. There was no bombs bursting in air. There was a simple change in my life that radically transformed everything that I did. Why? Because it transformed my mind and my heart. I've never been the same. And I am ashamed of how I used to live. And I don't want to go back there. Amen? Ever. Come on Jesus. And guess what? He's coming. Thank God for His sovereign salvation and for the scriptures that gives us clarity and confidence. So in closing, let me ask you this. Do you know without a shadow of a doubt, according to the word of God, that the Lord has saved your soul? Has God saved you? If you have any questions, please let us know. We can't save you, but we can point you to the one who can. Amen. Let's pray.