Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?
Posted : 24 Mar, 2014 02:10 AM
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?....Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8
I had a woman tell me once, she said, �Pray for my son, brother Mahan. He�s a good boy, but he�s not saved.�
I said, �If he is good he doesn�t need to be saved.� There is no reason to save a good boy. What does a good boy need salvation for?
�Well, then, brother Mahan, pray for my husband. He�s a good man, but he�s just not saved.�
He doesn�t need to be saved. Only sinners need to be saved. People who are lost, people are who are going to hell, people who deserve to go to hell, that�s the people for whom Christ died. He said, �I came to seek and to save the lost. I didn�t come to call the righteous to repentance. They have no need of repentance.�
Now, what are you going to do? It boils down to the fact that folks don�t just believe they are sinners. And I will guarantee you this. You find you a sinner and you have found the oddest, rarest commodity on the market today. There are not many of them out there. God is going to save every sinner. Every sinner is going to be saved. And when you come to realize you are a sinner, God will save you, but not until.
So this other gospel is being preached today. It denies the seed of sin. It denies the source of sin. It denies the nature of sin. It denies what a man is by birth. And, consequently denies the new birth and the need for the new birth. And this other gospel that is being preached today says, �Pity the sinner, not blame the sinner.�
�God, you wouldn�t be right for you to send these men to hell. I don�t believe a good God will send a man to hell.� If God spared not his own son, he is not going to spare the rebels of this world. And we had better get on the side of God in this matter of sin.
How many times have you heard somebody say, �Oh, he�s a wonderful Christian? He doesn�t curse and he doesn�t swear and he doesn�t drink and he doesn�t carouse and he doesn�t do the things that the world does.�
Yes. And he doesn�t know God either.
Our Lord said, �This is eternal life.� Turn to John 17, verse two. �This is eternal life.� Verse three, John 17. �That they might know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.�
This other gospel preaches Jesus Christ and the fact he died on the cross and He shed his blood. But they preach His death as an EXAMPLE and not as a SUBSTITUTE. They preach his death as an example and not as a sacrifice and a sin offering. And that�s what gave birth to the general atonement. And that�s what gave birth to this statement: �Sinner, God�s done all he can do. Now it�s up to you.�
Have you ever heard that? �God�s done all he can do. God loved you. And God sent his son to Calvary to bear your sins and to die for you. And God sent his preacher to preach to you. And mother has prayed for you and daddy has prayed for you and people have witnessed to you and now it�s up to you. Now it�s up to you.�
That sounds pretty, but it�s not so. If God has done all he can do and I�m still not saved, I�m a goner. If even God can�t save me I�m in bad shape. And you are, too. If God has done all he can do...now you just think of a man using a statement like God�s done all God can do. God can do anything. Where is the limit on God�s ability? Just think that over. Think of the foolishness that comes from the pulpit: God has done all he can do. Where is the limit to God�s ability?
God created a world out of nothing. Can�t save a boy? Can�t save a man or a woman? He has done all he can do.
I want to ask you some questions. Now, will you be honest? Will you think this over? Let me ask you some questions about the death of Christ. And you think this through, now. Don�t give me this little old silly easy believism you have been listening to all your life. You answer these questions from the Word of God.
First of all, when Jesus Christ died on the cross did he die to make salvation possible or dead certain? Which? Which was it?
He said over here in John 10. �I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me even so know I the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and neither shall any man pluck them out of mine hand.�
Now, which was it? When he died was salvation made possible or dead certain? Why, dead certain. You know that.
Secondly, when Christ died did he actually redeem me to God or did he make it possible for me to come to God and get redemption? When he died on the cross did he actually, literally, completely, redeem me to God, redeem my soul or did he just make it possible that later on when I did something I could be redeemed?
Listen to this verse in Revelation. �And they sung a new song in heaven and they said, �Thou art worthy to open the book for thou wast slain and thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.�� It doesn�t say he redeemed us to God by his blood and by our works, by his blood and by our profession, by his blood and by our church membership, by his blood and by something. JUST BY HIS BLOOD.
And Paul said in Ephesians, �WE ARE REDEEMED BY THE CROSS.�
Now, here is the next question. When Christ died on the cross did he actually take our sins in his body on the tree? Did he actually? Is that what he did? Or did he just die for sin as sin, just as a word sin? Did he actually take our sin or did he just die for sin as sin?
Turn to 1 Peter chapter two. Let�s see what the Bible says. In 1 Peter chapter two, verse 24, listen to this. �Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree that we being now dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was laid on him and by his stripes we can be healed if we will meet certain conditions.� That�s not what it says. It never says that in the Bible. It says, �You were healed. By his stripes you were healed.�
Now, were you healed by his stripes plus your church membership, plus your baptism, plus your good works? Or were you healed by his stripes? I want to know what he did on that cross.
Now, here�s a fourth question. When he died, turn to Romans five. When he died, when Jesus Christ died on the cross did he actually reconcile us unto God? Now we were enemies, separated from God by our sin. Did he actually reconcile us to God or did he lay the groundwork for our cooperation with God at a later date?
It says in Romans five, verse 10, �When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.� If language can mean anything does it mean anything? When we were enemies we were reconciled to God. How? By the death of his Son. His death redeemed us. His death reconciled us. His death cleansed us. His death healed us.
Now, here is the next question. Does the blood of Jesus Christ actually cleanse us from sin or is it an offer to be cleansed?
Well, turn to 1 John, let�s see. 1 John. Does his blood actually cleanse us or is it just an offering? Or is it just an offering? Verse seven. �If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us.� The blood cleanseth us, not the water, the blood, not works, not the law, the blood.
Now, then. Let me ask you this question. Now you think. Are there people in hell tonight whose sins Christ bore on that cross?
You say, �Yes.�
Then what is to keep you from going to hell? You say he bore your sins.
�Yeah, but he saved me.�
But he saved them, too. He died for their sins, too. You say he died for everybody�s sins. There are people in hell, then, for whom he died. He bore their sins. He redeemed them by his blood. He cleansed them by his blood. He reconciled them to God. They still went to hell. What�s going to keep you out of hell?
�Yeah, but I�m going to keep faith.�
Are you, now? Then you�re going to heaven by your faithfulness and not by the Cross. And when you get to heaven don�t you sing, �Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,� because there�s folks down there (in hell) that can say the same thing. He loved them and he washed them from their sins in his blood...that�s what they tell me. But they didn�t make it to glory.
You see if we boil this thing down and face facts, this false gospel is heresy, damnable heresy that makes the death of Christ a farce and makes the death of Christ a miscarriage of God�s justice and makes the death of Christ insufficient to save a flea. Christ Jesus couldn�t keep a flea out of hell. That�s what you�d say.
Now, let me ask you the last question. If there are people in hell for whom he died, if Christ actually, if Christ actually was tried and found guilty numbered with the transgressors and took my sins and was executed for my sins on the cross can the justice of God still try and execute me for the same sins?
Now, you think about it. Can the justice of God drag me into court after he has tried his Son and executed his Son on the cross for my sin. He bore my sin in his body on the cross. That�s what you say. And then you tell me God is going to haul me into the judgment hall and charge me with the same sins for which Christ died? And execute me for the same offenses?
In Romans chapter eight, verse one, and here is our confidence, Romans eight, verse one. Listen to it. Here is our confidence. �There is therefore now no judgment to them who are in Christ.� No CONDEMNATION!
"Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to
continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of God." Acts 14:22
The Lord has chosen that His people should pass through deep and cutting afflictions, for it is "through many afflictions" they are to enter the Kingdom of God above, and into the sweetness and power of the Kingdom of God below. But every man will resent this doctrine, except God has led him experimentally into it. It is such a rough and rugged path�it is so contrary to flesh and blood�it is so inexplicable to nature and reason�that man, proud, rebellious man, will never believe that he must enter into the Kingdom of God through many afflictions. And this is the reason why so many find, or seek to find, a smoother way to glory than the Lord has appointed His saints to walk in. But shall the Head travel in one path�and the members in another? Shall the Bridegroom walk and wade through seas of sorrow�and the bride never so much as wet her feet with the water? Shall the Bridegroom be crucified in weakness and suffering�and there be no inward crucifixion for the dearly beloved of His heart? Shall the Head suffer, grieve, agonize, groan, and die�and the members dance down a flowery road, without inward sorrow or outward suffering? But, perhaps, there are some who say in their heart, "I am well convinced of this�but my coward flesh shrinks from it. I know if I am to reach the Canaan above, I must pass through the appointed portion of tribulation. But my coward flesh shrinks back!" It does! it does! Who would willingly bring trials upon himself? Therefore the Lord does not leave these trials in our hands�but
He Himself appoints a certain measure of tribulation for each of His people to pass through. They will come soon enough�you need not anticipate them�you need not wish for them. God will bring them�in His own time and in His own way. And what is more, God will not merely bring you into them, but God will bring you through them, and God will bring you out of them! It will be our mercy if enabled to ask the Lord to bless us with faith and patience under tribulation�to give us strength to bear the storm�to lie as clay in His hands�to conform us to the image of His Son�to guide us through this valley of tears below�and eventually to take us to be with Him above!
"Ireland has a very distinctive history. It was an island untouched by the Roman legions, and Patrick, the Evangelist, brought to it the Gospel of grace. Patrick was himself descended from a family that had been, for two generations at least, in Christ Jesus. His father, he tells us was �the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a presbyter, of the settlement of Bannaven Taburniae.�1 These facts are recorded in Patrick�s own testimony of faith. This authentic document is preserved in five manuscripts: one in the Book of Armagh of the seventh century, the second in the Cotton Library of the tenth century, a third in the French monastery of St. Vedastus, and two more in the Cathedral Library of Salisbury. This authenticated document is the main source of both the person and the mission of Patrick, and also his clear statement of the Gospel of grace.
Patrick was born in the year 3732 in a town on the River Clyde in Roman Britain, now a part of Scotland. When he was sixteen years old, Patrick was captured by a band of pirates who sold him to a chieftain in what is now county Antrim in Northern Ireland. For six years he tended flocks. In his testimony he tells us, �I was taken captive before I knew what I should desire and what I should shun.�3 It was during the time of his captivity that he turned from his careless ways and came to a saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. He was convicted that he was a sinner. In his own words,
�before I was humbled I was like a stone lying in deep mire, and He that is mighty came and in His mercy raised me up and, indeed, lifted me high up and placed me on top of the wall. And from there I ought to shout out in gratitude to the Lord for His great favours in this world and for ever, that the mind of man cannot measure.�4
Patrick, like so many of the godly men of history, found God�s favor in the riches of the grace of Christ. This was the theme echoing throughout the testimony of Patrick, in his own words �I am greatly God�s debtor, because he granted me so much grace.�5 He then grew in the grace of God. Having believed on �the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,�6 he directly received �of his fullness...grace for grace.�7 In his own words,
�More and more did the love of God, and my fear of Him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.�8
Patrick relates how, after six years, he escaped and after a difficult journey on land and sea returned to his people in Scotland. In his own words, �I was again in Britain with my family [kinsfolk], and they welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go any where else away from them.�'
"For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed." John 6:55
This food is specially for the elect�blood shed for their sins, and for their sins only�righteousness brought in for them, and for them only�love bestowed upon them, and upon them only�promises revealed for their comfort, and for their comfort only�an eternal inheritance reserved in heaven for them, and for them only. The elect are the only people who hunger after it�who have an appetite for it�who have a mouth to feed upon it�who have a stomach to digest it. They are the only people whose eyes are really open to see what "food" is. All others feed upon shadows�they know nothing of the savory food of the gospel. "I have food to eat that you don't know about." Jesus' food was�the hidden communications of God's love�the visitations of His Father's presence�the divine communion that He enjoyed with His Father. So, for the children of God, there is food in Christ�
and this food the Lord gives them a hunger after. He not only sets before their eyes what the food is, but He kindles inexpressible longings in their soul to be fed with it. God's people cannot feed upon husks�nor upon ashes�nor upon chaff�nor upon the wind�nor upon grapes of gall and the bitter clusters of Gomorrah. They must have real food�savory food such as their soul loves�that which God Himself communicates, and which His hand alone can bring down and give unto them�so that they may receive it from Him as their soul-satisfying portion.
"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with
Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified with Him." Romans 8:17
This is the especial blessedness of being a child of God�that
death, which puts a final extinguisher on all the hopes and
happiness of all the unregenerate�gives him the fulfillment of all his hopes and the consummation of all his happiness�for it places him in possession of the priceless inheritance God has reserved for His children�which is kept in heaven for them�pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay!
In this present earthly life, we have sometimes sips and tastes of sonship, feeble indeed and interrupted�yet are they so far
pledges of an inheritance to come. But this life is only an
introduction to a better. In this life we are but children�but in
the life to come, we shall be put into full possession of the eternal inheritance. And what is this? Nothing less than God Himself. "Heirs of God!" says the Apostle. God Himself is the inheritance of His people�yes, He Himself in all His glorious perfections�all the love of God�all the goodness of God�all the holiness of God�all His happiness, bliss, and blessedness�all His might, majesty, and glory�in all the blaze of one eternal, unclouded day! This is the saint's inheritance! Let us press on by faith and prayer to win this eternal and glorious crown!
"They shall come with weeping, and with petitions will I lead them." Jeremiah 31:9
As they come, they weep. They mourn over their base
backslidings�over the many evils they have committed�over the levity of mind which they have indulged�over the worldliness of spirit�over the pride, presumption, hypocrisy, carnality, carelessness, and obstinacy of their heart. They go and weep with a broken heart and softened spirit�seeking the Lord their God�seeking the secret manifestations of His mercy, the visitations of His favor, the "lifting up of the light of His countenance"�seeking after a revelation of the love of Jesus�to know Him by a spiritual discovery of Himself. Being thus minded they seek not to establish their own righteousness�they seek not the applause of the world�they seek not the good opinion of professors�they seek not the smiles of saints. But they seek the Lord their God�seek His face day and night�seek His favor�seek His mercy�seek His grace�seek His love�seek His glory�seek the sweet visitations of His presence and power seek Him until they find Him to be their covenant God, who deals all their backslidings.
"I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love." Hosea 11:4
When God draws His people near unto Himself, it is not done in a mechanical way. They are drawn, not with cords of iron, but with the cords of kindness�not as if God laid an iron arm upon His people to drag them to Himself, whether they wished to come or not. God does not so act in a way of mechanical force. We therefore read, "Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power." He touches their heart with His gracious finger, and He communicates to their soul both faith and feeling. He melts, softens, and humbles their heart by a sense of His goodness and mercy�for it is His goodness, as experimentally felt and realized, which leads to repentance.
If you have ever felt any secret and sacred drawing of your soul upward to heaven, it was not compulsion�not violence�not a mechanical constraint�but an arm of pity and compassion let down into your very heart, which, touching your inmost spirit, drew it up into the bosom of God. It was some view of His goodness, mercy, and love, with some dropping into your spirit of His pity and compassion towards you, which softened, broke and melted your heart. You were not driven onward by being flogged and scourged, but blessedly drawn with the cords of kindness, which seemed to touch every tender feeling and enter into the very depths of your soul.
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people." 1 Peter 2:9
May we never forget that the suffering Son of God gave Himself to purify unto Himself a peculiar people�a people whose thoughts are peculiar, for their thoughts are the thoughts of God, as having the mind of Christ�a people whose affections are peculiar, for they are fixed on things above�a people whose prayers are peculiar, for they are wrought in their heart by the Spirit of grace and supplication�a people whose sorrows are peculiar, because they spring from a spiritual source�a people whose joys are peculiar, for they are joys which the stranger cannot understand�a people whose hopes are peculiar, as anchoring within the veil�a people whose expectations are peculiar, as not expecting to reap a crop of happiness in this marred world�but are looking for happiness in the kingdom of rest and peace in the bosom of God. They make it manifest that they are a peculiar people by walking in the footsteps of the Lord the Lamb�taking up the cross�denying themselves�and living to the honor, praise, and glory of God.
