I'm going to continue from where
I left off two weeks ago. I'm going to read the same scripture. The fourth chapter of Ephesians. And I'll begin with the first
verse. I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech ye that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
ye are called with all lowliness meekness, long-suffering, forbearing
one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. And these unities, this every
Christian that's been born of the Spirit of God, I mean, I'm
not leaving anyone out. You may not know it when you're
first born, but the Holy Spirit will reveal it to you, these
seven unities. There is one Lord, or one body,
one Spirit, even as you are called, one hope of your calling, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who
is above all, and through all, and in you all. And before I even get started, every one of these unities, now
listen to me, every one of these unities is Christ Jesus. There's one body. One body. And we, as members of the Holy
Spirit, it puts us in that body when we are saved by the Spirit
of God. It places us in where God has
predetermined that we should be. We are part of that body. And whatever calling that we
have concerning to build up the body of Christ, God gives us
the utensils or the tools to perform that. We have no excuse. But in that one body, that one
body, and that body is Christ's body
and He's the head. He's over it. The fullness of
the head of Christ is, I'd say, revealed to the world
through the body of Christ. That's how important our walk
is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and where we're placed
in that body. And you know, God has made us,
or given us, many, many, many promises in the world. And every
one of these promises is to the body of Christ. Salvation is a gift of God. Salvation is of the Lord. And
it's a gift of God. Salvation is only given to those
whose name was written in the foundation of the world, or written
in the book before the foundation of the world, and they will become,
when they are in this world, a member of that body of Christ. They must, because God said it. We are placed in that body, because
God promised us that. He promised us faith, not works, will keep us. That's a promise of God in Romans
4, 20 and 21. And one thing about it, God cannot
lie. What He says must come to pass
in due time at His will and pleasure. At His will and pleasure. But we're kept by faith, not
works. The Bible plainly states that.
We are all possessed by the Holy Spirit of God. You know, God made man in His
image. And we are in the image of God.
We have a soul. We have a spirit and a body.
And you know that spirit controls where that eternal body that's
given to us at the resurrection It's given to us at the resurrection
where it will spend eternity. It's decided by which spirit
you're possessed by. If you're possessed by Satan's
spirit, you're lost. And if you've been born of the
Spirit of God, as John 3 states, Christ said you must be born
again. And you will be born of the Spirit of God if you're one
of His elect. I can't put it no plainer than
that. That's it. And all that tears people all
to pieces. You know, friends, they don't want to even talk
to me about the Scriptures. Well, you take everything for
what the Bible says. Yes, I do. I don't want to add
to or take away because I don't want the plagues of this book
to be cast upon me. A man with any sense ought to
realize that. But the Spirit of God is what
gives us or places us in the body of Christ. Salvation is of the Lord, a believer's
position in Christ as promised to Him. No one can take it away from
us. Nobody give it to us but Him, and nobody can take it away
because He and the Father are one. That's what He said. That's the
position we are as believers in Christ. You know, we are the
richest and the most blessed people in the world. And I believe
we complain more than anything. You know, it talks here about
our hope. You know, the reason that we don't see our hope fulfilled,
we hope for wrong things. We hope for wrong things. Oh, if Lord would only give me
a million dollars, it'd make a fool out of you. It would. That's why not very few Christians,
millionaires, make a fool out of them. I mean, that's just plain news.
But our position in Jesus Christ in 1 Peter 2, 9 and 10 tells
us that we are placed in that body by the Lord Jesus Christ
and we will do perform the work in which He calls us to do. God promised His people and His
people only Life eternal. Life eternal. With Him. With
Him. In Titus 1 and 2, He promises
us life eternal that we will see in His time at the resurrection,
we will be resurrected, receive a body like unto Him when He
comes out of the tomb, and let me tell you something, we'll
ever live to be with Him. That's what the book says. And
I believe it. The Bible promises a new heaven
and a new earth where righteousness dwells. Buddy, I'm looking forward
to that. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. That's what He told us to pray
in the 22nd chapter of Revelation, the last two verses. Come quickly.
How many times do we do that? We get sick and think we're going
to kick a bucket, and we go plum crazy. And the greatest day of
a Christian's life is the day that this soul passes out of
this body and we see our Savior face to face. I believe that. The Bible teaches that. What
you used to worry about things in this life. You know, I know
today There's more kids going hungry. There's more people going
hungry than ever before. I never did think I would see
this country get in the shape it is. It's in the 72 years that
I've lived. But I'm telling you, the Bible,
Christ said, when you see these things take place, rejoice! Time is near. Even at the door,
this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. And
I believe we're there. If we're not, shame on us. But He said it would wax worse
and worse until He came. Come Lord Jesus. Pray that prayer. Look for it. See, you know why? that we forget about the promises
God made us and worry about things on this earth is because we don't
keep our mind on heaven and heavenly things. We got too many fingers
in worldly things. The most blessed people in the
world are the richest people in the world. I often use the
example, you know, God's got He got cattle on a thousand here.
You know, I love beef. But he taught me to love deer
meat better than he did beef. And I can't do without deer meat.
He always provides. Anytime you want deer meat, holler
at me. I've got it in the freezer. God blesses His people beyond
measure. You cannot count worldly pleasures
and worldly blessings as blessings from God. They turn sour every
time. But the promises that He made
us, the life that He has set before us in eternal life, they
is nothing and we do not have the words to explain and to explain
the beauty and the things that He has in store for us in life
eternal. We can't imagine that in this
earthly body. It's full of sin and unrighteousness. To keep yourself in contact constantly with God,
even though we're in a corrupt body, Keep your mind on heaven
and heavenly things and the promises He made in this book right here. I can't put it any plainer than
that. But we're all in this body together. And we make up the body of Christ.
Only those that believe make up the body of Christ. There won't be no false gospel
people in the body of Christ. I'll tell you one thing, there
won't be no good people in the body of Christ either. We will
be when we receive a body like and unto His, we come out of
the tomb. But our righteousness is as filthy rags because of
the body we live in. Because we were born and conceived
in sin. But there's one body, only one, and that's Christ's body. We
do the work that He left for us to do when He ascended into
the heavens. And we will do it. We may grumble
about it, growl about it. We may not even do it in love,
but we'll do it. You've never been chastened to
your chastening of God. I know, I've been there several
times. But there's one body and there's
only one Spirit. One Spirit. There's Spirit of Antichrist,
but there's only one Spirit that can place you in the body of
Christ and give you eternal life Christ talked about in the third
chapter of John, because He is part of Christ. It's Christ's Spirit. One Spirit. You're possessed
by the Lord Jesus Christ in that Spirit. The Bible teaches us
that this Spirit, it seals us. We are sealed. in the body of
Christ until the day of redemption when we're brought up to be with
Him. And it says to grieve not the Spirit of God. We do every
day. He makes intercessions for us.
You know, we don't even have sense enough to pray. He makes
intercessions for us. We don't have sense enough to
pray. Because our minds are not on heaven and heavenly things
constantly. It seals us till the day of redemption
and it teaches us, listen to me, it teaches us all things
concerning Christ. John 14. It teaches us all things
concerning Christ. All we need to know The Holy
Spirit teaches us. It is a teacher. God said He
would send the Comforter. That's how He comforts us. He teaches us all things concerning
Christ. And that's what we need to know.
Because He's all in all. He's the God-man. He's God coronated
into the flesh. He's the invisible God made visible. He's all to us. We're all in
Him. Then we're made. We have one hope. There's only
one hope. One hope of your calling. What is your hope? Do you have worldly hopes? They'll
vanish. They'll decay. If you even receive
them, they'll decay and rot. But if your hope is in heaven
and heavenly things, you'll be a blessed man and you'll enjoy
life more. Since God saved me, I've had
hundreds of people ask me, why do you laugh and smile all the
time? I said, I've got something to laugh and smile about. I have. Even when I'm sick. For me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. That should be our motto. And
you know something? These churches, they'll put up
billboards on the wall, tell them what they believe. All they
need to do is put from Ephesians 4 to 6 and it'll cover everything
you need to know. They need to believe that. They
need to believe this. They need to believe there's
one body and one spirit. And that hope, what is hope? Everybody's got hope or something.
Trouble is, our spiritual hope is grounded out because of things
we hope for in this life, physically, on this earth. We let that distract
us. because we don't keep our minds
on heaven and heavenly things. I used to, my spare time, I was in the woods
hunting. That was the Indian in me, I
guess. But God taught me, He taught
me how to use that time in the woods. I have prepared more sermons
sitting in a tree stand or in an old tree house that I've built,
laying there, reading the Scriptures, God has given me more sermons
at those places than anywhere else. Utilize your time. Most of all, keep your mind on
Him. He's worth keeping your mind on. Now He is. But hope is a promise. That's the reason I wrote these
things, some of these, just a few of these things that God promised
us. But hope is a promise made that must, this is a heavenly,
this is a godly hope. A promise made that must come
to pass, good or bad, because God said it. And you can't say that about
earthly hope. Now I've got confidence in that
Toyota truck that I bought old Princeton Joe. But it has failed
me before. But I promise that God's made
concerning the salvation of the soul has never failed me. When I think about it and read
about it, it lightens me up. It gives me strength to go on. It gives me strength to tell
everybody about this God I possess. And the reason I possess Him,
He made me possess Him. I had no choice. The Lord saved
me. Let me tell you something. The
only reason Paul was the chief of sinners, I hadn't been born
yet. And I'll just be honest with you. Salvation is the greatest gift
that man can ever receive. I don't want to tell you this
about my grandpa. He was five foot two. He was a small man.
Lived on a farm and ahead of Key Rock. Had to walk in and
walk out. We had horses, put up hay for
a living. Well, the church doors at Rock
Castle was open on Wednesday night, Saturday night, Sunday
morning, Sunday evening, three and a half miles. Grandmother
would make whoever was there go to church with her. Granddad
wouldn't go. He said, I don't want to go down
there and listen to one of these jack legged preachers. That's
what he'd say. And he was right, probably, you
know. But I was eight years old. Me
and him put up hay all day long. I drove the horses, the wagon. Then when we got to the haystack,
we piled hay around the pole. And when it got so high, I couldn't
get on top of it because it was tamping around the pole. We had
a ladder we put up, an old wooden ladder. But man, he would put
in pay all day long. All day long. Well, we quit about
right before dark. Grandmother made us go to church.
There'd be about 20 of us walking to church, three and a half miles.
It was three and a half miles to church we had to walk. Unless
somebody come along in a truck and picked us up. There was so
many of us, they had to have a pickup truck to haul us off.
Is everybody in the head of key wrong? Went to church. Well, I sat in the back of the
church with the boys. And Granddad, when he'd get up
in the morning, wore them old long-handled underwear, you know,
red. But the second thing he put on
was his pistol. And I asked him one time, I said,
Grandpa, how come you carry that pistol all the time? He said,
I'm a small man. He said, I'm just 5'2". God made
little men and he made big men, and in between he made notchers.
And he said, I'm a little man. That's what he'd say. And he
taught me how to shoot that pistol. A Model 32T Smith & Wesson revolver. And he said, when I die, son,
this pistol's yours. Well, we went to church that
night. And they was giving, you know, invitation. You know how
they give the invitation. And the rest of the boys were
sitting in the back and heard the back door open. At the church in the auditorium. I looked and it was Grandpa.
First time I ever seen him in a church. He wouldn't even go
to a funeral. He walked up to the preacher. He retched and
he took the belt off and he handed him that pistol. He said, I don't
need it no more. I found a friend. And he said,
His name is Jesus! And He's taken care of everything.
And he turned and walked back out of the church. He was listening to the radio
at the house, an old radio we had that was in the 50's, early
50's. And he heard the gospel. And
he walked all the way down to testify that God had done a work
in his life. And he handed him my pistol.
I never did like a preacher after that. Until the Lord saved me. Only
two men ever liked after that. When the Lord saved me, I loved
Henry Mahan and Earl Cochran because they preached the truth.
I seeked them out because I know they preached the truth. And
I always got a straight answer from them because they were God
called men. Two weeks later, my granddad
died and he buried me. I had a heart attack. The Lord
knows what He's doing. And He saved those that He wrote
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
And Granddad's hope was after that, we put up hay for two weeks
after that. And his hope was in Christ Jesus. And he preached to me, and I'd
look at him and I'd say, when are you going to get my pistol
back? That's all the guys interested in was that pistol. Never did
get it back. And the preacher's name was Frank
Eastep. Dr. Frank Eastep. But he never
did give me my pistol back. And I never did like preachers
till the Lord saved me. But God knows what He's doing.
He's sovereign in all things. And our hope is in Him. The Bible
speaks of a living hope in 1 Peter 1 and 3. It talks about a blessed hope
in Titus 2, 11 and 13. It talks about a good hope in
2 Thessalonians 2 and 16. It talks about a better hope
in Hebrews 7, 18 and 19. If you want to know what hope
is, read the 6th and 7th chapter of Hebrews. It tells you exactly
what hope is. And our hope is in Christ Jesus
and Him alone. The men that believe the truth.
I'm going to have to move on. Joe up here. Then there's one Lord. What is
a Lord? What's the Lord of your life?
It's He that controls your life. That's what a Lord is. God's
Lord of His people. It's a title of sovereignty and
kingship over all things in your life. That's your God and your
Lord. And I'm going to tell you right
now. I've had people tell me, and I have relatives right today,
oh, he's my Savior, but he's not my Lord. Then he's not your
Savior. When he's Savior, he becomes
your Lord. He becomes like old Thomas when
he's seen the nail-scarred heads and the side. He said, my Lord
and my God. That is what That's what salvation is. There
are hopes in Him and He's our Lord. In Philippians 2, 9-11, Paul declared Lordship, who He
was. Hebrews 1, 1 and 3. The invisible God made visible. Our Lord. And then in 2 Timothy 3, all
scriptures, all scriptures speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes it tells us just how
depraved we are. But it also tells us what takes
care of that depravity. And it's only one thing. And
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there's one faith. You
can preach a week on that right there. One faith. Hebrews 1, I want to read that
and then I'll finish up. Now faith is a substance of things
hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Though faith
we understand that the worlds were framed by Him, by the Word
of God, so that things which we see were not made of things
which do appear. That substance is a chief ingredient
in your life. Now faith is a substance. The
chief ingredient in your life is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the substance of your
life. You are not born of the Spirit
of God unless all your faith, whether it be little, very little,
or much, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will grow in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as you hear the
Gospel preached, as you assemble with your brothers and sisters
in Christ, and let the Holy Spirit teach
you concerning Jesus Christ. That's how you grow in faith.
Hearing the Gospel. Just hearing the Gospel is not
a one-time thing. It's from the time you first
heard it until you see that faith, that man that you have faith
in face to face. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We have one baptism. That's baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Even though we do honor water
baptism because Christ told us to. We baptize in water, submerged,
because Christ declared us to. He told us to. And we do that
in remembrance of Him until He comes. That's how important His
second coming is. And then there's one God and
Father of all who is above all, and through all, and in you all. There's no way that you can separate
Christ and God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word
was made flesh, and it came into being and dwelt among us. And
we beheld only the begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth." Full of grace and truth. 1 John
1 and 3 and verse 14. He is our God, as Thomas said.
My Lord and my God. My Savior. My hope. My baptism. I was baptized with
the Spirit of God, which is the third person trinity of Christ
Jesus. Because if you've seen the Father,
you've seen me. Or you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. I can't explain that, but I do
know I have a soul, a spirit, and a body like an under Christ. That's the only way I can explain
the Trinity. And I will be complete again
when I put this body away and take a body that He gives me
at the resurrection. That's how important these unities
are. We must. Believe them and trust
in them, because every one of them is Christ Jesus, our Lord. Father, we thank You for the
time we've spent together. We thank You for giving us the
knowledge and the wisdom and the understanding to speak Thy
Word. Father, bless those that have
bereavement Heavenly Father, we ask Thee to be with the ones
here in the chapel that's not well. Heavenly Father, we ask
that as Joe comes before us, give him an unction of the Holy
Spirit to where he can speak the unsearchable riches of Jesus
Christ to where even a child can understand. Forgive us of
our sins. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.