This is April 11, 2010, the year of our Lord, Zion Baptist Church, and it's 11 o'clock service. There are some people that may understand in their minds what took place when they were saved. There are some people that may understand in their minds and not be able to verbalize it with their mouths. That's the reason it's good to give your confession or your profession of faith and the Bible tells us to do that. We ought to be regular in giving our profession and from time to time I ask you if you would like to do that here at church and I give you opportunities to do that. I don't want everybody doing it on the same day, but one or two, when I ask, would be good. You volunteer to give your profession in front of the church. It may not be perfect, that's fine. It does you good to stumble along. It may not be perfect, but you'll at least be getting it out of your mouth. You'll be able to say, oh, I should have said this, or I should have said that, and next time You have the opportunity to give your profession. You do that, and it helps you to work out in your own mind, in your mouth, the verbalization of your profession, of your faith. To where you get your mouth in coordination with your mind, and that in coordination with the Word of God, so that it all lines up. So that when you're talking to an unbeliever, or you're talking to an Armenian, someone who does not understand the truth of God's Word, you'll be able to, with your mouth, Tell them what the Word of God says and show them the truth of God's Word and do it intelligently so that you no longer stumble and fall through it. And there's nothing wrong with stumbling and falling through it. You have to begin. You have to start somewhere. So start doing that. Start giving your profession and confession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says, Always be ready to give an answer to them that ask of the hope that is within you. There's a hope within you, and you ought to be always ready to give an answer for the reason and the cause and the object of that hope. It's the Lord Jesus Christ and eternal salvation, and you always be ready to give an answer of them that ask of that hope that is within you. Let's turn to our first scripture, and you write this down, top left-hand side of your page there, Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1, 4-6. There's going to be several scriptures now. We may not get through today. We should. We're not going to spend a whole lot of time here. You realize that when you were born again by the Spirit of God may it not have been when you walked the aisle and shook the preacher's hand and accepted Jesus as your personal Savior. I did that at about nine years old. I had no idea what I was doing. There was a revival going on at Goshen Baptist Church, and the preacher, when I saw my older brother and one of the other boys in the church, four or five years older than me, go down the aisle one night, and then I asked the preacher about it, and he said, yeah, you come down tomorrow night. Somebody should have took him outside and beat him about half to death to a bloody pulp for doing a nine-year-old boy in such a way. Do you know what he was wanting? He was wanting church members and people to baptize. He was wanting to have a big turnout during that revival. Oh yeah, so we turn it into the association. And so that may or may not have anything to do with when the Spirit of God birthed you and made you alive. But when the Spirit of God birthed you and made you alive, you should after that be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, or in the name of Jesus Christ, whatever you prefer, and you should certainly recognize that when the Spirit of God birthed you and made you alive and you were converted, that you realize that now you are a child of God. Because the Spirit of God bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. And you know that you now have a love for the brethren and you have a love for God that you've never had before. And it may not be fireworks going off and cloven tongues may not come down and set upon your head and all of those things. It may be just you and the Lord on a quiet day reading the scriptures or praying when you realize that you've been born again. You might not even know exactly when you were born again. I can't tell you exactly when I was. I cannot exactly tell you the day and the hour when I was converted. But I know that I am. And I know that I love the Lord. And I know I love reading and studying the Scriptures. And I love the brethren. There's many evidences in my life that I've been born again by the Spirit of God. And those are the things that are important to you as a believer. So Ephesians, the first chapter, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians 1, 4 through 6. Now, we start reading at verse 3 because that's where he begins this dialogue. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us. Notice the word us when you're reading the Scriptures. The us is always talking about the church, the elect of God. And there is an elect of God. Now you will notice that when you start talking about these things to other people, they don't know what the elect of God is. The elect of God are those that are chosen by God before the foundation of the world and their names is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And in the process of time, He will call them by their name and they will come unto Him and cry out and say, Oh God, have mercy upon me a sinner. and please save my soul. Those are the elect of God. Be they Jew, Gentile, white, black, or red, matters not. Or I should say white, black, or yellow. Red man comes from a mixture of some of those three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He, God, hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now, we could keep reading the rest of that chapter because it continues and goes on talking about verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. But verses 4 through 6 is quite sufficient to show that we are the elect of God. And it tells you exactly. According as He hath chosen us in Him. We didn't choose Him. You didn't accept Jesus as your personal Savior, and because of your acceptance of Him, you became born again. You cannot find such language in the Scripture. And we do accept Him as our personal Savior. But that's got nothing to do with us being born again. Us accepting Him is a result of us being born again. Us being born again is not because we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior. You don't find that kind of language in the Scripture. What do we find in the Scripture? Now, when you come across Armenians, which is people that believe that they had to do something in order to be saved. They also believe that Jesus prepared a way for the whole world to be saved and any man that will come to Him and accept what He did on the cross will be saved. You don't find that kind of language in the Scripture. What do we find? We find this. According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated, predetermined us. He predetermined that we would be His children. He wrote our name down in the Lamb's Book of Life. and determined that on a particular day when we heard the gospel preached, we would say in our hearts, because He had birthed us and made us alive from being dead sinners to being children of God, alive spiritually, and we would realize, oh my goodness, I'm lost, and I need a Savior. So, having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure, of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." That's very plain to me. Let's turn to another scripture that is very plain. 1 Corinthians 1, this is one you need to put on your list, 1 Corinthians 1, 26-30. 1 Corinthians 1, 26, 330. For ye see your calling, brethren. Now, he's talking to the church at Corinth, and he says to them, For ye see your calling, in other words, the people that are amongst you whom God has called. For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of Him, and I've got God written over Him, but of God are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." In other words, we've got nothing to glory about. In other words, our testimony, our profession of faith, our confession of the Lord Jesus Christ should never begin with, I. Now if you'll ask most people about their salvation, how were you born again? I. I did something. I accepted Jesus. I walked the aisle. I go to church. I did this. I did that. And let me tell you something. That is a pitiful and a terrible profession of faith. If your profession starts with I. Our profession should start with, but God who is rich in mercy. Ephesians the second chapter. But God. And so here he says, For you see your calling, brethren. Verse 27, but God hath chosen. But God and God hath chosen. Verse 28, hath God chosen that no flesh should glory in His presence? You see, it is not us that does the choosing, it is God that hath chosen His people. And He did it before the foundation of the world. Next scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2.13. You can write that one down under there. 2 Thessalonians. 213. Let's go ahead and knock out two birds with one stone here. I have them listed separately. I also have 2 Thessalonians 2, 11, and 12. So let's just put 2 Thessalonians. And the reason being is because they're kind of two different things here. We'll take 2 Thessalonians, and I've got 2.13, then I have 2 Thessalonians 11 and 12. You'll see why here. For your clarity, let's start up at verse 7. You don't have to write verse 7 down there, but just for your own clarity, let's start reading verse 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now lit it will lit, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. coming as after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness." That just goes to show you that there are those who are predetermined to go to hell. You say, ooh, preacher, that's bad. Our God is a terrible God. You have to realize that the God of the Scriptures is not the God that most people have been taught about. Most people have been taught that God loves everybody. And look, when you tell people that God don't love everybody, they'll get mad. There's people that'll get mad because you tell them that God doesn't love everybody. But just turn over to, not right now, but when you run into those people, turn over to Psalms the 5th chapter and the 5th verse and Psalms the 11th chapter and the 5th verse and read to them. And it tells you plain, God hates all workers of iniquity. And we know that God hates liars and God hates thieves and God hates all workers of iniquity. And here God is going to cause these people to believe a lie. He's going to send them a deceiving spirit that they might believe a lie. He calls it a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness. Verse 13, Paul says to the Thessalonians, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, Beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. How much plainer do you want it? But God hath from the beginning Chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth. God calls you to believe the truth. He calls you to be sanctified by the Spirit of God. And He chose you. And from the very beginning, He chose you. From the beginning, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth. So, you've got that one written down. Now turn to Brother Randy Parker's favorite, 2 Timothy 1.9. You can't talk to Randy Parker long before he's going to quote you 2 Timothy 1.9 in some part of the conversation. And it is a very wonderful scripture. And it is so plain and so simple. The only way a person can read this and not understand how a person is born again by the Spirit of God and chosen by God before the foundation of the world is because God's blinded his eyes and caused him to not be able to see the truth. Because he's not meant to see the truth. He's been determined before the foundation of the world to burn in hell, and he's going to. Because his father Adam chose to murder him by committing a transgression against the commandment of God. And therefore when he was born, he was born into sin. And then after that he chose to sin himself and he's going to die and burn in hell because God chose not to have mercy upon him and to show him the truth and enlighten him to the truth and birth him and make him alive from his sins. He's going to burn in hell. That's just the way it is. You might say, well, preacher, I can't accept that. That's because your eyes have been blinded so you can't see the truth and except God have mercy upon you and cause you to see the truth, you are too going to burn in hell. It's just not a fair deal here. You say, what do you mean, preacher? God's not fair? He's sure not. He had mercy on some and some He left to their own sins. And they're going to burn in hell. And if you seem to be to you that you're one of those that God has not had mercy on, you better flee to the Jesus and grab hold of the horns of the altar and cry out for mercy. And stay there until He gives you mercy. And it appears that you have children that are not born again, you better start crying out to God to have mercy upon them. Who knows, Paul said, whether or not He might have mercy. So cry out to Him. Worry Him night and day for your children, for your loved ones. 2 Timothy 1.9, what a glorious and a wonderful scripture. Let's start reading up verse 7. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power. You see that word us? If you'll pay attention to the scriptures, you'll see that word us many a time when he's talking about the church. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved us. and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Read it again. not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Grace was given unto us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Why? Because Jesus Christ was a lamb that was slain as before the foundation of the world. Yes, it wasn't 2010 years ago that the Lord Jesus was crucified and slain for our sins, but it was as though He was slain before the foundation of the world. As far as God was concerned, He might as well to have been slain! Because it was a sure thing! He was going to! He was going to pay for every sin of all of His people. And it was just as sure a thing as though it had already been done. That's what he means. So he saved us and he called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. One of the great scriptures in the Bible, and all of them are great. Acts the 13th chapter, verse 48. Write it down. Acts 13, 48. Wonderful scripture. It says, When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God, and as many as were ordained unto eternal life, believed. Now, here was the preaching of the word. 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. Because God chose a way for His people to be saved. How was that? By the hearing of the Word. When they hear the Gospel preached and the Spirit of God births them and makes them alive, they realize it and they say, Oh, Hallelujah, I need to be saved. I'm a lost sinner. I need a Savior. and to hear Jesus Christ preach. And that's how God chose. That's the vehicle that God chose to save His people. And when they preached this, and when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the Word of God, and as many as were ordained. What does the word ordained mean? Chosen. That's all it means. chosen, and as many as were chosen to eternal life believed, just like on the day of Pentecost. Three thousand souls said, what must we do? That's a beautiful story to me. How the Lord brought 3,000 of His people that were ordained or chosen before the foundation of the world to come together on the day of Pentecost and hear Peter preach the gospel. And when they heard him preach the gospel, the Spirit of God birthed them and made them alive. And they said, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips amongst an unclean people. What must we do to be saved? Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And they did, and they were. So, you see here, that's very plain. As many as were chosen to eternal life, as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. Who believed? Those that were chosen to salvation. Okay, we've got to move right along here. Let's write these down. Revelation 13, 8 and Revelation 17, 8. I'll turn there very quickly and read those. I'm not going to have time to wait on you. If you have to wait there, just write them down. Revelation 13 and 8, he says, And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, meaning the man of sin. All of them that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world." They're going to worship that Antichrist, that man of sin. That one that is Satan himself or Satan himself is controlling him and he will rise himself up above the throne of God and he will sit in the temple and call himself God and require all of the earth to worship him. He will put a name in their foreheads and in their hands. Not literally, but that's what will happen. And if you don't worship Him, you'll not be able to buy nor sell. It's where Christians will be persecuted and killed for the name of Jesus' sake. And they will worship the Lord, and everybody else is going to worship this man. Except those whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It says, And the beast that thou sawest was, and is, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. They that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. All Christian people whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, they're not going to wonder at this beast. They're not going to wonder at this man of sin. They're going to know who he is. They're going to know he's not the Lord Jesus Christ. They're going to know he's not from God. Why is that? Because all of God's people, all of those sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ know his voice and they will not follow another. But all these people whose names are not written in the last book of life from the foundation of the world, they're going to follow Him. Romans the 8th chapter. We've got to move along now. Romans 8. Write that down. Romans 8 verses 28 through 30 and then verse 33. Just put 28 through 30 comma or semicolon and 33. Romans 8. 28 through 30. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did for know. Now, people will say, oh yes, God foreknew who would accept Him as their personal Savior. That's not what it says, is it? It didn't say all that God foreknew would accept him. It says for whom he did foreknow. Now I've heard people say, and here recently I've brought into question the salvation of some of my own ten people by marriage, and it says, well, I believe he knows the Lord. I don't care if you think you know the Lord or not. You better hope that he knows you, because it's not There's going to be many on that great day. Matthew 7 says, there's going to be many on that day that's going to say, but Lord, didn't we do this and didn't we do that? Don't you think they think they knew the Lord? And He's going to say, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. So it's not you knowing the Lord, it's Him knowing you. And so He says here in Romans 8, for whom He did for know. That means He knew them before. Not that he knew what they did or what they would do. He knew them before, whom he did foreknow. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. He predetermined that they would be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Verse 33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Most people that have a problem understanding salvation, have a problem understanding justification. You need to understand that no man will go to heaven except he be justified in the eyes of God. He will not go to heaven except he be justified in the eyes of God. That means he's sinless, he's without sin. And only those that Jesus died for and paid for all their sins stand justified before the eyes of God. Chapter 9, verse 11, same book. Romans 9, 11 through 24. Write it down. Romans 9, 11, beginning of verse 11. You can read the whole chapter and it all makes very good sense and is very easy to understand except your eyes be darkened and blinded. The children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, meaning the mother, which Rebekah, Isaac's wife, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there righteousness with God? God forbid. For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that will it, know of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture is said unto Pharaoh, Even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore he hath mercy on whom he hath, will have mercy in whom he will. He hardened it, thou wilt save then unto me. Why doth he yet find fault? For he For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Thou hast thou made me thus? Pharaoh, God raised you up for one reason, to harden your heart so you wouldn't let his people go, so he might show his power in all the earth. And you're about to die, Pharaoh. Had not God power over the clay of the sum, same love to make one vessel into honor and another into dishonor? What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, heeded to destruction? Now I know, folks, when you've been brought up and you've been taught all your life that God loves everybody and that everybody gets a chance, that to read something like that just blows your mind. It just waylazes it. No, that can't be. I must be misunderstanding it. I know that preacher up there in Memphis, Tennessee, he must have it right. He said this is only talking about nations. This is not talking about Jacob and Esau. There's no way God could actually hate Esau when he was still in the womb, when he had done neither right or wrong, even though that's what the Bible says! You better be careful, Mr. Adrian Rogers. You're treading on thin ice here, because it means exactly what it says. God did hate Esau. when he and Jacob were in the womb and neither one had done good or evil. Why? It tells you why. That the purpose of God according to election might stand. Meaning that he had chosen Jacob before the foundation of the world, he had written his name down in the Lamb's Book of Life, and he was the elect of God, and he wouldn't be saved, and his soul was going to burn in hell. It means exactly what it says, folks. God will have mercy on whom He will, and on whom He will, He'll harden it. You say, well, preacher, that's just not fair. That's right. It's not fair. Every one of us should go to hell. and burn in the pits of it for the eternal damnation of our souls. But God chose to rather have mercy on some, and He wrote our name in the Lamb's Book of Life, and Jesus came and paid the penalty for our sin and bore the wrath of His God that our sins might be paid in full, that we might be reconciled unto our God. And we will love Him, and He will love us, and He'll put a love in us for Him and for His Word, and to be obedient unto Him, and we will. That's just the way it is. Write down these Scriptures. I'm not going to have time to go over all these today. Write these down. Psalm 110.3. That says, Thy people shall be willing in thy day of power. Meaning, when He births you and makes you alive, you'll be willing to come to Him. John 1, 13. Then put a semicolon. 3, 3-8. That's chapter 3, verses 3-8. This is all John. Chapter 5, verse 21. Chapter 6, verses 37-65. It's a long one there. Chapter 15, verses 16 through 21. Chapter 17, verses 2 and 9. Matthew 11, 25 through 27. Then Matthew 11, verses 25-27. Matthew 25, verses 33-34. Romans 9, verse 8. Malachi 3.6, you can just put M-A-L period 3 colon 6. Malachi 3.6. All of these are wonderful scriptures that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt of unconditional election. What does that mean? That means that God elected His people And His election was unconditional, meaning that they had nothing to do with it. It was not because they were good-looking. It was not because they could sing good. It was not because they were so smart that they could figure out that if they would accept Jesus or any of those things. It was unconditional election of God's people. And there's many, many more scriptures. We can't turn to them all, nor can we read them all. Out of all of those, my favorite is Matthew the first chapter, verse 21. Matthew 1.21 says, And she shall have a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Isn't that marvelous? And she shall have a son, and you will call his name Jesus. And He shall save His people from their sins. He's not making a way so that they can be saved. He's not dying upon the cross so that He can make a way so that if they'll do this and that and another thing, they can be saved. But the angel told Joseph that your wife Mary has conceived by the Holy Ghost and she shall have a son and you will call his name Jesus and he shall save his people from their sins. That's salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has done everything necessary to fulfill the law of God for His people. He will bear the sins of His people, and He will save them from their sins. They will be My people, God says, and I will be their God. And they will keep My commandments. Jesus said, all that the Father has given me, I will raise up on the last day. John the 17th chapter, you can read it, and John the 6th chapter, and John the 8th chapter, and John the 10th chapter, you can read them all for yourselves. I gave you the scriptures. Write them down, go to them, learn them, read them, show them to others. Jesus Christ will save His people from their sins. Our God, we thank Thee for this day, and what a wonderful day it is. Lord, that we might come together and worship Thee as our God, sing psalms and hymns unto Thy name. Lord, we all love to come and to hear the preaching of the Word. We all love to come and to have fellowship, one with another, because we love the brethren. Lord, it's in our hearts to do so, because You've put it there. And we love Thee our God. We love to worship Thee. And we pray now, Lord, that You'll help us to keep our mind and our thoughts upon Thee this day, that we would pray for of the lost that they might come unto thee, crying out to be saved, Lord, like the horns of the altar in the Old Testament were a refuge for your people to come to, Lord, so is it. The Lord Jesus Christ is a refuge for sinners, that they can come and lay hold on the feet of Jesus and cry out, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. And you said all that come unto me, you would in no wise cast out. So Lord, I pray that your people would come. They would hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ preached. Salvation for sinners. And they would come seeking and crying out, what must I do to be saved? Have mercy upon us now. Keep us the rest of this day. Please be with Miss Audrey and the children.