And so, Father, come in thy mercy, and
bless us now by washing me in the
blood of Christ afresh, and by grace, to
equip me, anoint me, unctionized by the Holy
Spirit, that I may be a vessel meet
for the Master's use, because of the blood
of Christ, and the grace of God in
anointing someone so weak and unworthy.
In base and as wise as I am,
in mercy to us all come, in spite
of me, and all my limitations and weaknesses
come in spite of that by grace upon
us all.
To visit our hearts, in Jesus Christ's name.
Amen.
Now, I believe we have to vacate this
whole place very, very soon, and Brother Don
will have a nervous breakdown if I don't
be sure I end at a certain time.
Well, Brother, you did give me an hour,
I suppose, if I'm trying to work out
what you really did say, but there we
have it.
What I'm going to speak on today is
the most explosive topics a human could ever
dare to touch in his entire ministry, and
some might dare just as they're dying, so
that people don't kill them prematurely.
But I'm going to, by God's grace, touch
on them in a way that I hope
no one will be offended, but only edified,
otherwise what on earth do you come into
the pulpit for, if it's just to deliberately
offend?
That would be very, very foolish.
God never called you to offend deliberately, and
you have no right to offend.
A Christian is a gentleman.
Oh, I doubt he's ever been saved.
But it's impossible that offense will come, if
you are truthful to this word, so long
as it isn't your deliberate, offensive attitude.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake.
I don't think God meant, blessed are they
that are persecuted for stupidity in the pulpit.
Or carnality.
If your harshest word does not throb with
God's love, God have mercy on you.
If your harshest word does not throb with
God's love in the pulpit, I fear for
your life, let alone your ministry, brother.
So, we take into explosive territory, where I
just would like to go once, and hope
I come out alive.
So I would like just to briefly mention
these few verses in 1 Corinthians 1.10.
I beseech you, brethren, by the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak
the same thing, that there be no divisions
among you, but that ye be perfectly joined
together in the same mind and the same
judgment.
For it hath been declared unto me of
you, my brethren, by them which are of
the house of clove, that ye, there are
contentions among you.
Now this I say that every one of
you, now this I say that every one
of you, saith, I am of Paul, and
I am of Apollos, and I am Cephas,
and I am of Christ.
Is Christ divided?
That's quite a question.
Chapter 3, verse 4, While one saith, I
am of Paul, another, I am of Apollos,
are ye not carnal?
Who then is Paul?
Who is Apollos, but ministers by whom he
believed, even as the Lord gave to every
man?
I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave
the increase.
So then neither is he that planteth anything,
neither he that watereth, but God that giveth
the increase.
Now he that planteth and he that watereth
are one, and every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labour.
For we are labourers together with God.
Is Christ divided?
Are ye not carnal still in being divisive?
That is quite a staggering question if one
says that the entire Scriptures were not written
specifically to people, but for us and to
us.
It is not an historical record, but the
living word of God to anyone guilty of
the same thing.
Tragically, Christianity today could be defined by the
unsaved masses as the great divide.
If we were to ask most people about
this historical term, they would say you must
be speaking about Christianity.
Within the fundamental Protestants, even cynical church, they
are like two separate religions trying to destroy
each other.
They are so radically divided and opposed to
each other, you would believe they have no
worse enemy on earth to attack, to undermine,
and to try and destroy, and to literally
hate.
Forgive me.
It seems to me that many of the
leaders of our church today believe that as
defenders of the faith, their faith, they can
not only attack the doctrine, but the character
of great men of God, some of the
greatest men of God who ever lived.
I am stunned to know and to hear
people fighting to destroy Charles Finney, and now
D.L. Moody.
I stood in a pulpit in America where
I actually just mentioned John Wesley, and how
God used him.
And Charles Finney, how God used him.
And I was denied access to that pulpit
again in my entire life for acknowledging that
they even existed in the church history, because
they are devilish, the preacher said the following
Sunday.
Their doctrines are devilish.
How do you destroy men like that, that
you are not allowed to acknowledge that there
was such a man as John Wesley, who
the king of England placed in Westminster Abbey
with all the monarchy from 8th year, 810.
Over a thousand years there is a man
called John Wesley lying there, because never did
a man greater service to his nation than
John Wesley, said the king, while the blood
flowed.
In France, it was about to spill over,
and all the nobility and royalty would have
been killed.
But God visited that land and healing came,
both sides, forgiveness from the poor and suddenly
compassion from the rich, when Christ saved the
soul.
And England was spared.
Forgiveness, healing, love, could even unite the different
classes, which was impossible in France.
Now to say that didn't happen because he
was slightly Arminiast.
Most people think that, you know.
Do you know that the man that influenced
John Wesley more than anybody else was John
Calvin?
Sometimes we don't like to hear that because
he looked at other scriptures, that aren't our
biased pets to scriptures.
Charles Finney was used mightily in America.
Over 1,500 towns and cities turned to
God in ten years, mostly in their entirety
under his ministry.
Never in the history of America or in
the world was any single man so mightily
used by God to bring souls to Christ.
Now the arguments are that some of his
doctrine is heresy.
Well, brother, if you follow every single statement
I ever made in my life from the
day I first stood up to the day
I die, you would find things that I
too would be probably buried alive.
I want you to tell me that you
didn't make a mistake.
I want you to show me a man,
even Wesley, who apologized for certain statements he
made in his zeal for God.
But not defiance of the knowledge of God,
but later on balanced himself out in many
ways.
And so did Finney acknowledge there was a
divergence and influence in certain stages.
Show me a man that can't say, I
made a mistake and please forgive me.
You're looking at a liar.
Oh, take care of burying Charles Finney, sir.
You say his converts didn't last.
Where did you get that?
Of course, more people came to Christ through
him than you or any other living evangelist,
even B.L. Moody and even Billy Graham's
responses of what really is staggering, how we
can look at a man like Finney and
say there was no fruit that lasted.
That's a lie.
Tell me the greatest revival in America and
the world that ever happened was the prayer
revival.
More people were converted to God in one
nation during your prayer revival right through the
Civil War.
And that prayer revival was because Christians got
on their faces, beginning in New York, in
Fulton Street, in the Dutch Reformed Church, Jeremiah
C.
Lanphier.
These men began what in weeks was 10
,000 people praying in Manhattan, crying to God
for the nation.
Eventually, over 200,000 people crying out to
God in one state.
And the souls that came to God never
in history were so many people turning to
God in such a short space of time
in one nation.
Where do you think those souls came from?
They were the converts, the people converted under
the great Finney.
You want to attribute that to the devil?
That's pretty hard.
Because he doesn't exactly put the dot on
your doctrine.
God forgive us.
Now they also place the great D.L.
Moody.
Books are written against him because he isn't
exactly perfect in the doctrinal statement they make.
He's of the devil, and his books are
to be banned, and he's not allowed to
be mentioned in a pulpit.
By the way, the man that barred me
from his pulpit after even mentioning that there
was a man called John Wesley and that
God used him and Charles Finney.
Within six weeks, he took so ill and
has been taken off the ministry for the
rest of his life.
It is fearful.
I was with a German man, Manfred Stegen,
who is a very godly and influential Christian
in our nation and southern Africa.
And he, in his humility, said these words
to me, that he has been so deeply
moved and broken as he looked at the
way the physical body of Christ in the
scriptures was so tormented through sufferings and how
his body was torn apart.
But then he said a greater grief suddenly
came upon him when he began to meditate
the situation today.
The body of Christ is still suffering, is
still being torn apart, but this time by
Christian groups through their extreme biased views of
doctrine, the body of Christ is still suffering
in the most incomprehensible way.
It has been torn apart.
The sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God, has been tragically taken up
by both sides of the true evangelical fundamental
church to attack each other mercilessly.
What a duel is going on.
Is Christ divided?
Tell me, you say, the other side is
of the devil.
Can a house divided against itself stand?
Christ said, this sword-wielding, sword-fighting jewel
has left the church deeply divided, wounded worldwide.
There is no tolerance shown by both sides.
The moment any preacher dares to suggest that
their scriptures have different facets, not only one
biased view, he is looked upon as an
enemy.
They are non-negotiable.
They get up and walk out in their
spiritual defenders of the faith attitude.
But all they are, I believe, if they
can't face scriptures that on their doctrines are
hypocrites.
I actually once saw a man stand in
a pulpit in a conference I was in,
and he had his certain section of scriptures
that he was to read for his sermon,
but he took the chance of his life.
He decided, this time, let's start from the
beginning of the chapter that he hadn't read.
And he suddenly came to the words, predestinated,
according to the four laws of God.
Whom God predestinated, he called.
Whom he called, he sanctified.
So, he got to these verses which weren't
exactly verses he would quote.
That's not his doctrine.
Even if it's in the Bible.
Sorry.
So, what did he do?
He looks up.
And there was fear in his eyes.
And I knew his doctrine.
And I thought, you're in trouble.
So, what did the poor man do?
He looks down, he reads them.
The shock.
I mean, he couldn't hide it.
It was shocking watching him.
And then, what did he do?
He didn't say, look, let's just leave these
next four verses.
No, five verses.
Sorry, I don't believe in that.
I can't accept that.
He just pretended they're not there.
And he just missed them and carried on
preaching as if to say to us all,
I hope you didn't see them.
Because that's not exactly what I believe I'm
about to preach.
How can we be so radically biased that
we cannot read certain scriptures without undoing our
doctrines?
That's a little bit fearful.
It's fearful.
Now, to attempt to minister to both sides
of these extreme views that has been going
on, this war raging between God's people so
many centuries, doesn't just start with us.
But to attempt to minister to both sides
of the spectrum is a very dangerous feat.
To attempt to have the right to actually
be acceptable to the full Church of Christ,
the fundamental evangelical Church of Christ, is a
very difficult feat indeed and a dangerous feat.
In the Civil War, the American Civil War,
there was a man who happened to just
be staying in a spot where the fighting
was ferocious and the battle came.
And he was so scared because he didn't
quite know how to stay alive.
He did something outrageous as the bullets were
going, and anybody with a red jacket on,
pow, you're dead if you've got a blue
jacket on.
And so the fighting was just going on.
So what did he do?
He thought, well, I'm going to put a
red jacket on.
And boom, boom, boom.
And then he said, no, let me put
the blue.
And then he said, oh.
So he put the pants on that was
the one side and the jacket on the
other side, holding it for fear of knowing
what to do.
So both sides started shooting him.
It's dangerous.
You are really in a vulnerable state, brother.
You're in a terrible moment of your life
when you haven't belonged and nailed your colors
to the mosque.
It is really dangerous to not belong to
one group where people will look upon you
and what you stand for and say he's
one of us.
But heaven help the man who dares to
try to unite the church of Christ from
the pulpit doctrinally.
He's in trouble.
What both sides would do to him is
unbelievable.
Years ago, a man by the name of
Houdini, he walked across the Niagara Falls on
a tightrope.
And this was a fearful and dangerous task
to have attempted.
But I would suggest that any preacher to
attempt, for any preacher to attempt to walk
the tightrope balancing both views and retain acceptance
or an open heart from a full spectrum
of the fundamental evangelical church is a far
more difficult and dangerous task to attempt.
We are so divided.
There is no greater enemy we have than
the church itself, who is not exactly our
great perfect doctrine.
I dare to attempt the unthinkable.
I dare to attempt the impossible.
I dare to express these two views in
one sentence, in one pulpit, not two separate
pulpits to play to the gallery.
I dare to see them as complementary rather
than contradictory.
And get through the Bible 400 times, and
you will be rebuked by anybody coming near
you who sees things as a contradiction and
not a complementing oneness and unity.
It's those who don't get through the Scriptures
but get through every book the Reformed theologians
or the Wesleyan aminius have written against each
other.
But they neglect to defy the Scriptures and
to accept every verse and to seek the
answers.
Of course, the first time when I was
saved, when I got to Romans 9, I
became quite agitated.
This can't be.
No, this is not righteous.
But I must be honest with you.
When you first saved, how much of the
Bible can you really grasp?
But you read.
There you go through the second time, and
you compare Scripture and Scripture.
You come to Romans 9 by the third
or fourth or tenth time, and you love
every verse and worship God for what at
first you've grown in, because God can't give
you a full revelation at salvation.
But He gives more and more balanced revelation
to bring and to unite the Scriptures and
not the contradictions you foresee are gone.
Gone!
Only when you devour the entire Bible and
not one biased lot of books or set
of tapes or videos from biased preachers who
hate each other to the
extremists of each view, the hyper-Calvinists or
the hyper-aminius.
I may commit sacrilege doctrinally to them as
a theologian.
He either nails his colors to the mask,
or he's a vagabond that belongs nowhere.
One preacher walked up to me and said,
You're like a chameleon, sir.
You change colors.
You should have one color so that we
know where you stand.
I said, If you preach the entire Scriptures
without leaving half of them out, you'd say
the same of yourself.
But you won't.
So, who's a chameleon, sir, in God's eyes?
To the extreme Calvinists, the words God is
no respecter of persons means simply God chooses
a man without considering consideration of his works
or efforts or motives or desires.
It is simply, Jacob have I loved, Esau
have I hated.
Who's stopped?
To the Wesleyan Arminius, God is no respecter
of persons means God does not choose a
man apart from the fruit, the evidence of
his works and efforts and desires.
But to the Calvinistic, the inclined Wesleyan Arminius,
You never heard that.
You'll never hear it again.
But I belong in the other side of
the world, in the jungle.
You can't find me.
To the Calvinistically inclined Wesleyan Arminius, the words
God is no respecter of persons means the
sovereign God who through foreknowledge, new beginning from
end, which is uncomprehendable to a finite man,
will never comprehend God, but don't ever bring
a doctrine that blames God for evil, where
He has no right to judge a man
because He made the man's choice.
James says, What of the prophet of the
man say he hath faith and have not
works?
Can faith save him?
Wilt thou know, vain man, that faith without
works thou believest as one God?
James says, Thou doest well the devils also
believe and tremble, but wilt thou know, vain
man, that faith without works is death?
James was not saying you're saved by works.
No, by grace are you saved through faith.
To him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
counted to him for righteousness.
Not having mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that which is through the
faith of Christ.
The righteousness which is of God by faith.
By grace are you saved through faith.
Not of works, if any man should boast.
It's the gift of God.
There's nothing you can do.
It's all been done.
And it's grace through faith.
So, James says, What of the prophet, my
brethren, though a man say he hath faith
and have not works?
Can faith save him?
He's not saying that you are saved or
justified by works.
No, you're saved by grace through faith.
But you're not saved unless your faith works
and brings your life to correspond with everything
in this book that God says is the
result and the evidence of salvation.
You're not saved by the evidence of salvation,
but if you're saved, the evidence strewn through
this book will be written across your life.
I see there's a balance.
It doesn't take away from the grace of
God, giving man no responsibility.
Many theologians box God in to the degree
that He has no free will to be
able to do anything apart from their interpretation
of what sovereignty, His being sovereign, entitles Him
to.
John Calvin has been the most misquoted man
in history.
I think if he was in most meetings
of those who say they're Calvinists, he would
be so offended the Third World War would
break out.
Same as those who quote Wesley.
You'd be stunned how we can twist them
to say just what we want.
Calvinist theology is sometimes identified with the five
points of Calvinism, also called the doctrines of
grace, which are point by point response to
the five points of Arminian remonstrance.
In English, the points are sometimes referred to
by the acronym TULIP.
Total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace,
perseverance of the saints.
Quite something.
Total depravity, I agree, unconditional election, limited atonement,
irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.
Well, now, if you go through to many
other statements that John Calvin said, you will
find it is a very different interpretation to
what has been written there.
And I dare to tell you about it.
All of grace.
Yes, of course it's all of grace.
But what is grace defined as in this
book?
What is your interpretation of grace?
What does it mean?
A man has grace and that's it.
Titus 2.11 That the grace of God
that bringeth salvation, the grace of God that
bringeth salvation that appeared to all men, teaching
us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we
should live soberly and righteously and godly in
this present world.
The grace of God that bringeth salvation that
appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly
and righteously and godly in this present world.
Grace?
You don't have grace.
None of God's grace.
If that isn't what you believe grace results
in.
My, you'll have a doctrine that gives sinners
the right to stay in sin and enjoy
it in spite of the rest of the
Scriptures.
Romans 6.1 What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may
abound?
God forbid!
How shall we that are dead to sin
any longer?
And he goes on.
Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey His servants ye are?
To whom ye obey, whether of sin unto
death or of obedience unto righteousness.
But God be thanked that ye were the
servants of sin.
But ye have obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine which has delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became
the servants of righteousness.
And I could go on, and I'd like
to.
But there's a book, there's a sermon that's
on all your websites of over 340 verses.
Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith.
Just what God says by this book is
the evidence of salvation.
If it's God's grace that ever reaches you,
brother, be not deceived, no unrighteous person shall
enter into the kingdom of God.
Be careful that we don't so put grace
as the only thing that man has no
responsibility.
And a testimony doesn't require repentance.
That's heretical.
Take away repentance, you are in trouble.
Deep trouble.
Man is not justified by works.
But no man who is justified is without
works.
No one can be a true Christian without
aspiring to holiness in his life.
Man is not justified by works as John
Calvin.
No man who is justified is without works.
I think Calvin was very good actually.
Irresistible grace.
I drew them with cords of a man,
with bands of love.
I believe that.
You can't come to God unless God draws
you.
But how does He draw you?
Jesus said, I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, speaking of His death, will
draw all men unto Me.
I love that.
It's the cross, the love of God, the
expression of God for sinners that draws all
men unto Himself.
Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment
came upon all men, even so by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon
all men.
Sorry, I shouldn't have read that verse.
God now commanded all men, everywhere, to repent.
No.
Some men, don't give them an opportunity to
respond.
You might bring someone to Christ and to
eternal salvation that wasn't elected.
That's not my wisdom.
That was Charles Spurgeon, who we say was
our champion.
It is God that worketh in you to
will and to do His purposes.
Man left to himself will never seek God.
We all believe that.
He draws us to Himself with cords of
love.
But how?
The greatest, strongest drawing power He has ultimately
to draw you to Himself is the revelation
of Christ on the cross dying for you
to be saved.
Dying for you to draw near to Him.
I, if I be lifted up, will draw
all men to Myself.
How does God draw us?
Just this message of the cross?
No.
I see this thing that irresistible grace, this
thing that God draws us, you know.
I see it as something beautiful.
The cross, of course, beyond everything.
But the cross's effect on others' lives.
God uses everything.
He throws out cords of love to draw
us to Himself until we are broken down
of any resistance to say no to Him.
Of course, there's nothing that God will use
more than the message of the cross.
But before I heard the message of the
cross in truth, I saw the effect on
my brother's life.
And there was one of the cords.
I couldn't argue with God at the beautiful
transformation of a life.
And that broke down arguments that I might
have had against the preacher.
It drew me.
I have just come from a place where
I was in a home where the son
has been in prison over and over again.
Drinking drugs, drinking the most horrific things.
And his parents weeping and praying.
But God gets hold of this young woman
who now is married.
They've had their children, but they get married.
God gets hold of this girl and saves
her wonderfully to such a degree that even
if he goes to prison, she says, whatever
happens to him, I won't leave him, but
I'm going through with God.
Now, this has staggered him.
A smashed, destroyed soul.
Now, the next thing, his closest friend from
a little boy.
Drugs and drinking and prison.
Has been mightily saved.
You see, God drawing this man, breaking down
all resistance by the woman he loves.
Now, loving Christ with her whole heart and
living the standard of the Scriptures.
No matter what he does, she won't leave
him until he comes to God.
Now, his closest friend turning to Christ.
God draws all men, but it's very effective.
The cross on their lives.
Hallelujah for God's drawing power.
The man left to himself will never be
able to see God.
God draws.
He doesn't put them into a box of
one I choose.
One goes to hell.
One goes to heaven.
And you that think you can come to
heaven by coming out in meetings, I'll still
send you to hell even if you're standing
ahead.
No.
I see God's drawing this irresistible grace as
a wonderful love crying out from the pages
of this holy book.
No, not to him that willeth.
We have all these verses.
It's nothing to do with man.
No, brother.
In its context, you must look at the
full context of that book, not just one
passage.
Romans 7 says, O wretched man that I
am, who can deliver me the good I
want to do?
I can't.
But of course man left to himself he
can't.
It's not to him that willeth.
Your will isn't enough.
But God Christ can set you free.
So God Himself, not just to him that
willeth.
Don't just look at the immediate verse and
say, There!
It isn't your will.
Brother, it is.
Otherwise, take the chapters before away.
We're born in sin.
God has to set us free.
The Vatican,
Roman Catholics, leading Jesuits, have declared that Rome
believes that Christ did not die for all
men.
And there is word perfect what many of
our great movements today believe.
So they've joined you.
Us.
At this point, us.
God by His foreknowledge, predestined.
Here's time.
There never was such a thing as time.
Time will be no more.
When did God come into this?
He only surrounds it.
He's eternal.
Our finite minds cannot comprehend how God can
know beginning from end.
But time is not limited.
We're limited looking at a watch.
We can't begin to comprehend how there will
be.
Time will be no more.
As we know, there won't be time.
God didn't begin it and end it and
say, there am I at the beginning.
God is surrounding it.
He's eternal.
And that eternal God can't be put into
a little box and blame Him for what
men did.
If He's beyond our comprehension, is there unrighteousness
with God because He's sovereign?
Oh, we must be so careful that we
don't actually make God unrighteous.
If He gave you a conscience, brother, has
He got no conscience?
If we know right from wrong, does our
doctrines give us the right to tell people
that they were born for one reason.
That God chose their choice to reject Him
so that they could be judged by a
choice He made for them.
But what are you saying if you don't
say that?
Whom He will, He hardens for no reason?
Or does God's full knowledge, which you can't
blame Him for because He's around it.
He knows beginning from end.
You won't comprehend Him, but don't bring the
word sovereignty to mean making the choice for
a man to say, I choose hell because
God made me to choose hell, is really
taking away that verse, is there unrighteousness with
God in this context?
Whom He will, He hardens at random for
no reason?
Or does God's full knowledge know what man
would harden his heart first?
Does God's full knowledge of man affect His
choice in what He says predestined?
Is there anything to do with a man
who we must not limit God in what
God knew from beginning to end?
The Lamb of God was slain from the
foundation of the world before the world was
created.
The full knowledge of God, the sovereignty beyond
our human comprehension, we limit it to time.
Our concept of time cannot limit God, though.
Who has never been limited to time.
Began time, time will be no more.
He is eternally surrounded.
He knows beginning from end.
But that doesn't mean we blame Him for
the choices man made because He knew full
knowledge is not sin in God's hands or
unrighteousness.
It's God, the uncomprehendable God.
But always defend His integrity and righteousness and
holiness.
Oh, get out of the pulpit!
If you're just there to defend your doctrine,
whom will He harden at the brandom for
no reason?
Or did God's full knowledge of a man
affect His choice in predestinating Him in what
He saw?
I love old Spurgeon.
He said, Whosoever will, let him come.
There's the free will of man, John Wesley.
And then you go through into heaven and
you're at the door and you look at
the other side.
Well, the one side says, Whosoever will, let
him come.
So we come.
We go to the other side and there
we see elect in the Son.
I love that.
There's something there that doesn't limit God's sovereignty
to give a man a free will.
Does God's sovereignty in our uncomprehendable mind...
He's uncomprehendable in our finite mind.
Don't we put God into a box that
sovereignty doesn't give Him the right because we
can't comprehend it that a sovereign God in
His sovereignty gives man a free will so
He can judge him righteously by what He
knew.
Don't think He didn't know.
He's God, but that doesn't mean He hasn't
been through this though He knew.
It grieves.
He didn't weep at something He knew before
it was just an act.
It's not some play that He knows beginning
from end.
No.
He grieves at man's rejection of Him.
Is there unrighteousness with God?
Like Pharaoh.
He hardened his heart.
God hardened His heart.
But that's not true.
You've got to look in the context.
Romans 9 comes from Job.
The arguments, what God is saying of the
greatness of God that must never be questioned
of His integrity, the whole argument.
Don't question His holy integrity.
Every word you see virtually in Romans 9.
Did you know that?
And the whole argument in Esau and Jacob
come from Hosea.
And talking about the integrity that God knew
and foresaw.
Not something He made the man do.
Yes, Pharaoh hardened his heart.
How many times?
And then the final time, God sealed His
choice.
Then you read God hardened His heart.
Don't read Romans 9 unless you've read Romans
1.
Verses 2, 3, 4, and 5.
You might blame God for men raping their
children.
Puppetry theology.
You know, sovereignty can be brought that there's
nothing that a man does that is his
free will.
So, Hitler murdered 6 million Jews.
Men raped children.
It's God doing it.
If you want to make God that sovereign
that man does only what God makes him
do.
Be careful.
You don't read Romans 9 before you read
Romans 1, 2, 3, you'll find God had
a reason.
For this cause God gave them up.
Even as they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them up.
And to reprobate minds.
There's a reason.
There's a cause.
There's always a reason.
So, He settles that.
God doesn't give up a man for no
reason.
Yes, He's sovereign.
And He comes to Romans 9.
And brothers and sisters, in case you don't
know it, Paul was the greatest Methodist that
ever lived, even though he was a hyper
-Calvinist sometimes.
But do you want to be honest?
Paul systematically takes every doctrine.
There's no doctrinal statement of our faith greater
than the book of Romans.
And every single doctrine he takes, every aspect
of Christianity to a degree that there's nothing
that can compare within the whole Scriptures and
in any writings by any great reformer or
theologian.
With this doctrinal statement.
But Paul takes everything.
He doesn't come to Romans 9 and say,
Start there!
And don't dare look anywhere else.
It's a letter.
He starts it.
He says, For this cause God gave them
up.
There's always a cause.
And Romans 9 comes.
He's dealing with the Jews who said, They're
the chosen.
God has no right, basically, is what they
were crying, to bypass them now for the
Gentiles.
So, Paul says, What if?
I hope you read that before you read
the rest.
God can do in His sovereign perfection, but
there's no unrighteousness with God.
And so, to argue with the Jews, to
show them that God wants the whole world,
not just them.
That was His intention through them originally.
To put them right in their place and
to put everyone under the category of sin.
He tells the Jews, They're sinners like the
Gentiles.
Now that Christ has come, there's nothing of
their offering that God in grace tried to
make them reach the world.
So, the Jews are put in their place.
And every statement in the light of the
whole Bible, Old Testament, taken back into its
context, can be deeply understood that it's the
integrity of God we must never question.
The holiness of God, the goodness, the perfectness
of God, the righteousness of God is what
is at stake.
Of course, a man left to himself will
never find what God says.
It's not to him that willeth.
So, we don't say that as one single
sentence.
We look at the rights of the whole
book.
Jesus will set you free.
Apart from God, you will never, ever be
set free.
But be careful, don't take away the word
for knowledge or you're in deep troubles.
You're in deep troubles, sir.
Can the free will of man oppose the
will of God?
I haven't been shocked yet.
Even saying it.
Well, let's just think of this.
What was God's will when He said to
the Jews, How oft would I have gathered
thee?
Oh, Jerusalem, even as a hen gathers her
chicks under her wings, but ye would not.
I would!
That was the will of God.
But ye would not!
Or was Christ lying doctrinally to put on
a show?
God sent forth His servants, Matthew 22, to
call them that were bidden, that were invited
to the wedding.
And they would not come.
And let's be honest, to the context, it
ends off that parable with many are called,
but few are chosen.
Many are called.
Some people now, in doctrinal perfection, will say,
that is a general call, but not the
specific call.
A general call doesn't mean all.
How sad that few are chosen when the
Master cried to all.
For they would not heed His pardon.
They would not heed His call.
A lovely poem my wife wrote.
Ye would not!
They would not come!
I would!
Or is God mocking and sending forth and
crying out to all men?
Does He?
Does He mock man?
Is there unrighteousness with God?
The general
call or the specific call?
That's something.
As man knows say, though God says, woe
to him that striveth with his Maker.
Though God says, now is the acceptable time
to me.
Now is the day of salvation for you
to me, if you will harden not your
hearts.
Or is God lying saying, I want to
save you now.
You can't.
I do the hardening.
Though God may seal the choice, you see,
they refuse to the love of the truth.
So God seals their choice and gave them
over to believe a lie and to believe
a strong delusion.
But their choice, they would not accept the
love of the truth.
So God seals a man's choice.
It's a terrible, terrible thing.
Now is the acceptable time.
Today is the day of salvation.
If you will harden not your hearts, as
in the day of provocation, as they did
in the Old Testament, or seek ye the
Lord while He may be found.
It's not a promise.
It's a call.
It's a warning.
Sovereignty means puppetry.
That we only act out, whether good or
evil, the will and the purposes of God,
whether you're Pharaoh or Hitler or men sitting
in jail for rape.
Then that's going to be something to watch
the sovereign God in His righteousness judging.
If man had no say in the matter,
it does make me scared.
It does make me scared.
Be careful that we dare not take away
personal responsibility and blame God for every choice
a man makes.
For you'll have people saying, what's the point
in seeking your God?
He's made me a sinner.
There's nothing I can do about it.
I'm going to enjoy my sin.
Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands as sure
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that
are His.
I believe that.
According to the full knowledge of God, I
have much people in this city.
I believe the full knowledge of God is
not something of a lack of integrity or
holiness or perfect love.
I'm a perfect God.
Full knowledge does not give us the right
to blame Him because of our little...
Time is eternal.
Time is not eternal.
Time is temporal.
God is eternal.
And He declares, I am Alpha and Omega.
I'm the beginning, the end.
There's no such a thing as time.
To God, to us, yes.
Don't limit Him.
Don't limit Him by placing time as a
limit on the finite mind.
His full knowledge does not make Him guilty
of what man does.
So, according to the full knowledge of God,
He predestined us for what?
To be conformed to the image of Christ.
God is not static.
I won't tell you who that is until
the end.
Then you'll be stunned.
Who is a Calvinist?
Well, yet forty days and never shall be
overthrown.
God told this man Jonah to go.
And God gave him that message.
But the people there realized that God wouldn't
send a man to warn them of what
He says is going to happen if there
wasn't mercy.
And that's what I think we must preach.
Don't take away the hope of mercy or
free will.
These men sought God.
And as a result, the Lord repented of
what He said He would do unto them.
And He did it not.
Do you remember Paul standing in the shipwreck?
And he said, I believe God who told
me every man is going to be saved.
Did nothing to fear.
But then Paul said, when they wanted to
jump out, You cannot be saved if you
leave the ship.
God's promises does not make a static God
put into our little box that He has
nothing to do, we have nothing to do.
I was in a meeting when a man
was preaching predestination and election.
Literally, he said, one is to go to
heaven, one is to go to hell.
And that's the will of God.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
And you were chosen by God for His
good pleasure to put you straight into hell.
And that's it.
So he went on and on.
A very learned man, who I know, stood
up and challenged him.
And said, sir, can I ask you, why
does the Scriptures talk about awe?
If you say, it's not awe that God
died for, that God wants to reach.
What is the word awe there for if
it isn't awe?
1 Timothy 2, I therefore exhort for prayer
for all men.
Verse 4, who will have all men to
be saved and to come to the knowledge
of the truth.
Those six who gave up and suffered ransom
for awe.
He tasted death for every man.
I could go on.
He is the propitiation, the way to God
for mercy, not only for our sins, Christians,
but also for the sins of the whole
world.
Who will have all men.
What does it mean, awe?
So this preacher and all his learnedness says,
well, when the Bible says awe, it doesn't
mean awe.
Does that answer your question?
Yes.
From now on whenever I hear God's word
saying awe, I know He didn't mean it.
He's lying.
So he sat down.
Well, he was thrown out of the church
virtually for being an heretic.
I think he was just trying to justify
God's integrity and not blame God for what
man would say he has no choice in.
I don't see that as heresy.
I see a balance here.
Of course, we cannot be saved by ourselves.
Of course, it's irresistible grace.
But it's through the cross.
And He tasted death for every man who
will have all men to save.
God not command all men everywhere to repent.
I don't limit God into some selected group
when He cried out to all.
Many are called, but few are saved.
Few are chosen.
Of course, many are called.
But those who respond, those who come with
a free will, God will forgive.
And God will judge those who don't, though
He knew in His foreknowledge what you and
I think took time.
So He did everything beforehand.
No, no, no.
I don't believe that.
We must fight for God's integrity.
Oh, what doctrine is this that would want
anything less?
Where am I?
A good preacher knows where he is.
A bad preacher stays up through the night
and gets that tired that he just doesn't
sometimes know where the next lot is of
all the notes he wrote and his excitedness.
Eternal security, the perseverance of the saints.
I once met a great preacher who fell
into such sin.
I won't say his name.
You probably all know it.
And the same as the newspapers across the
headlines of this wickedness.
And I met that man.
And I touched him and said, Sir, would
you mind if I ask you some questions?
Were you ever saved?
Were you ever real?
Did you always live in sin while you
preached to the masses?
Was there ever a point of repentance where
you were set free by God?
For if the Son shall set you free,
you shall be free.
And did you ever come to repentance or
did you just live in sin right through?
And he said a staggering thing to me.
He said, I came out in a meeting
like you.
I said the sinner's prayer.
I signed the card.
And I was taken to a testimony meeting
straight from there with young people.
And they all testifying to being saved.
And they said, You've got a testimony.
So I stood up and I said just
what I heard.
And it was effective, so effective.
They said, Phew!
You've got an ability to speak.
Look, everybody was gripped by...
So they put him in the pulpits.
In the pulpits, in the pulpits.
Eventually to one of the great seminars of
the world in your country.
And this man suddenly was used.
And then he said, Did I ever repent
of a life of sin?
Did Christ ever set me free?
Was there ever any reality?
I never repented of sin in my life.
I don't remember ever being set free from
my sins.
But I still believe I'm saved.
And 90% of the preachers of the
world, of the evangelical fundamental church will agree
with me on my side, not yours.
If you doubt my salvation.
I responded.
I came out with a true heart.
I meant it.
And I believe God saves those that come.
Once saved, always saved.
Don't you believe that, young man?
Oh yes, I believe once saved, always saved.
Of course, once saved, always saved.
If you stay saved.
Where did you see that now?
This is going to get me into a
little bit of trouble.
Luke 8, Jesus talks about the sower.
Hired, and there he goes spreading the seed.
Some fall on the wayside.
And then he goes on to all the
different things.
The seed is the word of God.
The sower is the man who preaches and
spreads the word of God.
And what happens to the listeners?
To those who the word of God comes
under the preaching of God's word.
He went forth and he sowed the seed
which is the word of God.
And he comes to every aspect of what
can happen upon people's lives.
And what does happen?
What does happen?
But then he comes to a place which
is rather a dangerous territory.
Doctrinally.
Some fell upon a rock.
Now in Matthew, Matthew's account in 13 verse
5.
Matthew says, some fell upon stony places.
Didn't have much earth.
And as soon as it was sprung up,
it withered away because it had no moisture.
Christ goes on to explain, they that are
on the rock are they which when they
hear receive the word with joy.
Did that happen to you?
Do you remember it?
Is that your testimony?
But listen carefully, it doesn't end there.
He that hath an ear to hear, let
him hear.
Christ warns as he says these words.
They have no root which for a while
believe.
And then in time of temptation, in time
of temptation, they fall away.
Mark 4 verse 17.
They endure but only for a time.
Now, he doesn't say what time that is,
how long it is.
But he says it.
Hebrews seed 12 warns, take heed my brethren,
lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief and departing from the
living God.
Exhaust one another daily while it is called
today.
Lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin.
For we are made partakers of Christ if
we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast
to the end.
Yes, I believe in one saved, always saved.
Because of the scriptures I'm going to give
you now up to one hundred.
No, sorry.
I'm lucky.
I wrote it down.
Anyway, we are made partakers of Christ if
we hold the beginning.
If you continue.
Hebrews 10, 38.
The just shall live by faith.
But if any man draw back, my soul
shall have no pleasure.
We are not of them who draw back
to perdition.
That's sinful destruction, spiritual destruction.
We are not of them who draw back
to perdition, spiritual destruction.
But of them who believe to the saving
of the soul.
1 John 2, 19.
They went out from us.
But they were not on us.
For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us.
Here I'm a Calvinist.
Why?
Because it's the Calvinist.
It's the truth.
It's the Bible.
I had a man stand up and say,
we're kept by the power of God.
Of course.
So I'm a Calvinist.
We're kept by the power of God.
But then he said, but wait.
It doesn't end there.
Through faith.
Well, here I'm a Nominist.
In the same verse, there's something we've got
to do.
Give diligence, my brethren, to make your calling
and election sure.
For if ye do these things, ye shall
never fall.
Election.
Place into a category that has nothing to
do with man's responsibility.
Or the warnings that are strewn to the
Scriptures.
They went away.
Like Christ said, for a time believe, but
then they fall away.
But if, but they were not of us.
For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us.
But they went out.
They may be manifest.
If after they've escaped the pollutions of the
world through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they
turn again.
And the latter end is worse.
It would be better for them not to
have known anything about the salvation message.
Here's one saved.
Always saved.
You stay saved.
Don't want to go into too many other
verses.
But there's many.
A hundred and ten.
On one thing.
He that endures unto the end, the same
shall be saved.
I believe that.
And I do not see it as heresy.
But I do get scared.
I preached in a pulpit of a church,
a very large church.
Where after I preached, the man says from
the pulpit, if you're saved, you've responded.
If you have a testimony, you will never
be judged.
You can go out now and commit adultery.
You can go now and commit murder.
There's no such a thing as judgment.
You're soul saved.
I said that is a very dangerous statement,
sir, that you made there in response to
what I preached.
Because, sir, I only quoted the Scriptures.
And you really had to make that statement
outside of the Word of God.
Murder?
Be not deceived.
You know that no murderer hath eternal life
abiding in him.
Well, my word, I
wish I had time.
But I'm in enough trouble, I don't want
to give you more fuel for the fire.
If you mean the perseverance of the saints
cancels out every Scripture that tells you, if
you mean by that you come and believe
you're saved, respond with joy, and that gives
a man the right to go and live
in sin with no fear of judgment.
And I cry, sorry, sir, I do not
see that in the Bible.
And I will warn every man I come
near, be he a preacher, that you receive
the word of joy.
You can go to extremes, though.
I had a man stand up and shout
at me, that you can be lost after
salvation.
So I said, to the salvation.
So he says, I said, after how many
sins?
Just one sin, and you're damned.
You're unsaved.
I said, John Wesley didn't preach that.
Anything but that.
And you say you're a Wesleyan.
And he quoted a few Scriptures.
I didn't have to say a word.
He was an ever louder back in our
pulps again.
No man can pluck them from my hand.
He that hath begun a good work in
you shall.
I believe that if you're saved.
God is with us.
Safe am I, you remember that?
Safe am I in the hollow of his
hand.
No man will pluck you from my hand.
Sheltered o'er, sheltered o'er, in the
hollow of his hand.
No foe can harm me, nor yet alarm
me with Jesus by my side.
Sheltered o'er, safe am I in the
hollow of his hand.
What shall we say then?
Romans 8, 31.
If God be for us, who can be
against us?
He that spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all freely.
How shall he not with him also freely
give us all things?
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died.
It's Christ that died.
He also rather is risen again, who is
the right hand of God.
Who also maketh intercession for us?
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
So tribulation, or distress, or all these things.
No, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through Jesus Christ.
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
to come, nor things pleasant, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, I am!
Hallelujah!
I have no doubt that I am safe
if all the Scriptures correspond to what I
believe.
God warns those who aren't safe are still
applicable.
But don't give me a doctrine that gives
the man the right to go out and
commit murder.
Don't give a man a doctrine that gives
him the right to go out without fear
and commit adultery and still go to bed
without a blinking his eye.
Because nothing will touch him.
Because he came out of the meeting and
received the word with all his heart, with
joy at that time.
Somehow there wasn't death though.
Be careful, dear brethren.
Of all the things we say, I wish
I could have more time.
But I'm probably going to be excommunicated anyway.
I may as well just do the worst
things, eh?
No.
There was a boy who said, Can I
tell you a joke, Uncle Keith?
He said it in the lecture room of
a theological seminar.
So I said, No, I do not believe
in jokes.
I believe in funny.
You can laugh at funny incidents, but don't
tell me a joke.
Joy is the result of your relationship with
Christ, not jokes.
And you have more joy than people screaming
with laughter at jokes.
If you have the right relationship, you don't
have to resort to jokes, especially not in
this lecture room.
No, but I would believe you would want
to hear this joke.
All right, please.
If you're very sure that this is appropriate,
please tell us your joke.
I was not impressed, by the way.
So he says, Well, there was this Calvinist.
No, this Wesleyan Arminianist.
And he hated Calvinism.
And he fought.
And, oh, it was his enemies.
He had contempt of this doctrine and these
people who pushed it.
And then he suddenly was told he was
terminally ill.
He had three weeks to live.
And suddenly he ran around.
And he was telling people that he believes
in Calvinism.
That everything, Calvinism, everything taken from the doctrines
of what today is regarded, I believe that,
I embrace it.
So they eventually said, Well, how can you
your whole life hate this doctrine and hate
Calvinists?
And now you're going to die.
And he says, Well, I thought, Well, I
better do this.
Because if I die, there's at least one
less Calvinist in the world.
I said to this young fellow, I hate
jokes.
But I must say, that is rather funny.
Vice versa.
A good Calvinist could tell that about a
Wesleyan who faced terminal death.
We have to be so careful here.
Dearly beloved, I've dared to do something today
that could crucify me.
And I want to close with this statement.
I once was in a church where a
man stood up, a very intellectually renowned person.
And I was a young preacher.
And he said to me, at the end
of the meeting, I suppose if we're to
be honest, we have come to realize that
Keith is a very strongly Wesleyan Arminiast.
Greatly influenced by hyper-Calvinism.
And then just when we kind of accept
that, he unnerves us and becomes so Arminiastic
that we can't believe what he's saying.
We get unnerved.
He says, But we accept every word you
say.
Because you only quoted the Scriptures.
You didn't say one word in this whole
series of meetings.
Even the appeals you made were the Scriptures
appeals.
Word perfect is Scripture.
But I learned something, my boy.
I learned there are many verses in that
Bible I've never dared to preach.
But they have a place in the pulpit
if we are to be faithful.
And not bias, as I have been.
Through fear of man.
I will not acknowledge those Scriptures up to
now.
But I for the first time sat in
my life with a man who had no
preference or biased views.
And began to realize that both views should
never have contradicted, they should have complemented each
other.
You see, a man, when I said to
some American great theologian, Do you believe in
eternal security?
He said, Yes.
Do you believe in eternal insecurity?
I was taken to a woman who tried
to commit suicide, twice.
So they took me.
Her father is a great preacher.
Don't want to tell you her name, his
name.
So I'm not betraying you, sir.
She came to the place that she felt
that sin meant she's unsaved.
Failure of any form.
And she got into a tormented state where
she literally tried to kill herself through the
doctrines.
Eternal insecurity is as damnable in my eyes
as a man who says eternal security to
the degree that you can go out and
do what you want to.
And you're safe, you don't have to worry
about your soul.
One man said to me, I grew up
in a church where I was told we
have no choice in the matter.
And they gave me Scriptures.
And I had to accept those Scriptures as
the Word of God.
But for the first time in my life,
I heard other Scriptures.
And I believe God.
And I came to salvation now.
After all these years of believing nothing I
could do.
I heard Scriptures I've never heard quoted.
Streams of Scriptures.
Of the free will of man.
In the eyes of a sovereign God who
gave man a free will.
Who was he?
Oh, he was a preacher for 40 years.
What did he preach?
What he knew.
You can do nothing about it.
You go into hell like me, your preacher.
We'll only find out up there.
Doctrines can become damnable.
And thwart the will of God and purposes
and plan of God by boxing God into
our own limited finite minds.
Other preachers preach to such a degree that
it's the free will of man.
That men are struggling across this world to
set themselves free.
And believing that only when they have done
all these works that they could possibly be
accepted by God.
That's extreme damnable heresy.
You come to God in repentance.
What does that mean?
That you cannot set yourself free.
That's repentance.
Not setting yourself free.
You've never able to repent on your works.
You come to God conscious that there's nothing
you can do.
Oh, wretched man that I am.
Who shall deliver me?
So it's not to him that will.
It's God.
The purposes and plan of God.
And in his full knowledge, if he hardens
a man's heart, it's because he that hardeneth
heart continually shall suddenly be destroyed.
And that without remedy.
There's both sides.
There's both views.
What am I?
Thank God from a young person, I've had
one thing that no one can touch me.
Because 80 percent, 87 percent of every sermon
I've ever preached, I've just quoted this book.
And it unnerved Calvinists.
It unnerved Wesleyan Alminiists.
But it brought a balance.
It gave me the right to preach to
both sides.
I'll tell you to whom of both sides.
Every single one.
Preachers and laymen and those in the auditoriums.
Washed in the blood.
Who will accept God's word fully.
And see it as a balance.
To protect us.
To bring us to God.
And to make us give diligence.
To make our calling and election sure.
For if ye do these things ye shall
never fall.
Forgive me quoting that in case you don't
believe that.
But every soul on earth that ever tried
to touch me.
Were whipped down by their own people.
As hypocrites.
Because he only quoted the scriptures.
Yes.
Brother Don says it would be amazing if
we have another convention next year.
After this it will be.
But I'll tell you what.
I've never been called to defend the doctrine.
I have been called.
To give every single person I've preached to.
Every aspect of the word of God.
To protect them from heresy.
Can we stand please.
I want Brother Don to please come forward.
And to commit us to Christ.
Thank you Father for giving us the word.
There's probably not a man in the world.
That would do what's been done today.
Unless he would have the understanding.
That you've given to men of the word.
And men that have been directed by the
spirit to understand this.
Men like Tozer who said you could fall
off at either end of a log.
And he said both groups have fallen off
their end.
There's balance in your word if we would
understand.
And if you could help us get the
wisdom.
Of your word.
And why you've done this.
Why you taught us the way you did
in the word.
It should revolutionize our life.
And Father speak to our hearts.
Because if we're not a soul winner.
And have a heart for souls.
May you do such work that we would
examine ourselves.
To see if we are really saved.
Thank you for speaking to us.
Thank you for this amazing message.
Thank you for a man that could only
deliver this.
Unless he was broken and humble in your
sight.
Bless him and his family.
Thank you for the privilege of us gathering
together these last few days.
In Jesus name.
Amen.