Good morning, let me add my welcome
to Mark's. The last message that I delivered
here was titled Genuine God-Given Faith, and the text was taken
from Romans 10. And we read there in verses 9
and 10, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. And I focused on what it means
to believe with the heart unto righteousness. And you may recall
how I showed that repentance from dead works and former idolatry
always accompanies the genuine God-given faith and is in fact
one of the key evidences that one truly has believed with the
heart unto righteousness. And you may remember I closed
that message by showing this connection between believing
unto righteousness and repentance by reviewing again that familiar
passage from Acts 17 where Paul was closing his sermon on Mars
Hill and noted in verse 30 how God commandeth all men, not just
some, all men everywhere to repent. And he said, because. because
he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, and whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised
him from the dead. That righteousness demanded life.
And so here we see again that the standard by which all are
judged is the perfect, just as satisfying merits of the obedience
unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his righteousness.
And we're commended to repent because this is the standard
of judgment. That is, we're to repent, we're
to turn away from, we're to reject the evil but natural notions
that if and when we become interested in religion, we all would initially
entertain in that state of spiritual blindness. The notions that anything
other than the perfect righteousness of Christ imputed or charged
to our account could qualify us or find us acceptable in the
sight of holy God. Well, as I noted in that message,
I wanted to delve further into this subject of initial repentance,
and more than the time would permit in that one setting, so
that's where I want to direct our attention today. I've titled
this message, Initial Repentance. And I use the term initial to
distinguish it from the ongoing repentance and sorrowfulness
over sins that believers do continue to experience throughout their
lives. So by initial repentance, I'm focusing on the repentance,
as I said, that always accompanies the God-given gift of faith that
sinners receive in their regeneration, in the new birth, and in their
conversion and belief of the gospel. From this pulpit, you've
often heard this referred to as repentance from dead works
and former idolatry, and those are biblical descriptions of
this initial repentance that we're going to examine this morning.
We lump those two together often because repentance from dead
works and repentance from idolatry are not referring to two separate
experiences. Rather, that just simply describes
two aspects of the one common initial repentance experienced
by all who are saved. By faith we come to Christ, that
is, as his person and work are set forth in the gospel of God's
grace. It's the gospel of grace. So
we come to Christ for all salvation, the Christ of the Bible, whereby
we know the one living and true God. So if you think of it this
way, as faith is turning to God through Christ, by definition
that involves a turning away, a repentance from that which
we previously, naturally, but mistakenly would believe about
how God saves sinners, in essence, our gospel. And that, that gospel,
that object of our faith, Christ as he set forth in the gospel.
That identifies the God we worship as to whether it is the true
God of the Bible or a false God, an idol, if you will. You've
heard it said that you could take all the religious sects
or religions of the world, or we could put it this way, all
the gospels. And by that, I mean how folks
imagine that sinners are saved or found acceptable so as to
be blessed by their notion of a higher power. You could put
all of those into one of two mutually exclusive categories.
Right now, if you consider yourself to be saved or eternally blessed
by your notion of a higher power, so to speak, You're doing so
on the basis of something. It's either one, it's the true
religion of grace, that is, of salvation's conditions being
exclusively met by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
with the very merits of that finished work being put to your
account, see, that is, based upon your being found righteous
in him, God having imputed his righteousness to you. or else
you count yourself saved on the basis of the popular, but false
religion of works. And we have to be careful when
we talk about the religion of works, because I know I once was in
that category. I worshiped under the religion
of works, but we called it grace. And I know in false Christianity,
it's more often than not disguised under the name of salvation by
grace. But by works, I mean any way
of salvation that will have us imagining that something done
by us or in us or through us, some decision we make contributes
at least in some way to our being saved or being blessed by God.
It's either grace, that is, Christ having fully met all the conditions
for the salvation of a sinner, a blessing that we certainly
experience the effects of, but in which the center plays no
causal role, or else it works. It's salvation imagined to be
conditioned on the center, at least in some way or to some
degree, be it ever so small. You've often heard it said, God's
done 99% now, if you'll just do this. Well, in Romans 11,
you can look at that on your own, God through Paul declares
there's no in between here. He says, if it's of grace, it's
no more works and vice versa. They can't be mixed. So the God
we worship is distinguished by how we imagine he saved sinners. If one is resting in the popular
belief of salvation by works, whether they call it grace or
not, then according to the Bible, That's to be worshiping a God
who cannot save, as Mark read in our scripture reading. He
can't save, see, and remain true to the character of the one living
and true God as he set forth in the Bible. And that's what
we're going to delve into this morning. So I'm suggesting that
would be a false god, an idol, if you will. And I say all this,
I want us to see how repentance from dead works is akin to repentance
from idolatry. So let's examine those two descriptions. First, repentance from dead works.
To put it simply, any work done by the sinner, let's imagine
to be a difference maker, if you would, and they're being
saved. That's a dead work, or elsewhere it's called fruit unto
death. Dead works refers to any attempts
of our own to attain salvation's benefits or maintain salvation's
benefits. That which proceeds from the
sinner that we imagine will make a difference in our going to
heaven, in our eternal salvation. And you know, I think dead works
is a very apt term because first of all, those who are spiritually
dead perform them. They're dead works because they're
fruitless. in that they do not accomplish
what they're presumed to be able to accomplish, that is, one's
own salvation, and because the ultimate end of those who never
repent from dead works is eternal death. As I showed in the previous
message, you know, and as Jim made clear in the 10 o'clock
hour, we start out this life's journey as spiritually dead sinners,
and in that state, any and all of our works that are imagined
to contribute in some way to our being saved are dead works
or fruit unto death, again to use that other description. Let's
look at that in Romans 7-5. Paul wrote, for when we were
in the flesh, that is when we were lost, spiritually dead,
the motions of sin which were by the law, in other words, That
which we spiritually blind sinners were moved to do or motivated
to do in order to satisfy what we thought and most likely what
we were taught we needed to do in order to be saved. It says
they did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. That would be the same as dead
works. Well, let's look at that in Hebrews
chapter six, verse one. where we read, therefore, leaving
the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works and of faith toward God. Now, what I want
you to notice here is that repentance from dead works and faith toward
God are both set forth here, first of all, they're together,
and they're set forth as foundational principles of the doctrine of
Christ, foundational. If it's foundational, that means
it's a vital, critical, basic building block, if you would.
It's fundamental to the vital doctrine of Christ. The doctrine
of Christ is the vital truth of the gospel that is believed
upon by all those that are saved, as we read in 2 John 1.9. Whosoever
transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath
not God, he that abideth in the doctrine of Christ. He hath both
the Father and the Son. So by this we know that repentance
from dead works, see, is an identifying characteristic along with God-given
faith of all believers because it's foundational to the vital
doctrine of Christ. And that makes it vital for us,
doesn't it? Vital that we understand it and that we experience repentance
from dead works. Now over in Hebrews chapter 9,
we have a comparison that's being made between, one, the offering
of animal sacrifices as the Jews were commanded to do under the
old covenant, with two, the supreme offering that those animal sacrifices
foreshadowed, the sacrificial offering of the blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God. And after describing in verse
13 the temporal benefits which the blood of these animal sacrifices
could accomplish, we read in verse 14 how by contrast, how
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living and true God. So I want
you to notice first from this passage that This purging of
our conscience from dead works, it's a blood work. It's the certain
fruit and effect of Christ's shed blood, his redemptive work,
that purges the conscience concerning who we are in reality. That is,
the prey of sinners with nothing of merit to offer from our own
hand, our own works. So we come to see such efforts
there aimed at saving ourselves as dead works. The conscience
refers to our seat of judgment. So we see here that how we judge
things changes. And notice the definite connection
between the purged conscience and serving the living God. From the language of verse 14,
then we can know with a certainty that the purging of a sinner's
conscience from dead works, that is a result of Christ's shed
blood for that sinner. First of all, we can know it's
inevitable. And then secondly, we can know it's necessary in
order for one to serve the one true and living God. So here
we can see again how God brings those he saves to see a right,
both one, who he is, and two, who we are. We become convinced
of sin, as we read about in John 16. In other words, sinners in
desperate need of God's grace and mercy. to provide a perfect
righteousness for us that would find us accepted before a holy
God, a saving works that we can't produce for ourselves. We find out we really do need
mercy. It's not mercy if you just need to cut your end of
the bargain to get yourself saved. You don't need to do that. You
just need to meet whatever's been prescribed for you. Well,
to recap what we've seen so far here is that in Hebrews 6, repentance
from dead works is set forth as a foundational principle of
the doctrine of Christ, of the gospel. And then from Hebrews
9, that this is a blood work. It's a direct and sure fruit
and effect of Christ's accomplishment for each and every one for whom
he died. And so, one who repents of dead works is one whose conscience
has been purged from dead works, so as to serve what the one true
and living God. And thereby, they repent of having
worshiped a false and dead God, no God at all. That would be
an idol. So let's look at repentance from
idolatry in our primary text of 1 Thessalonians 1. Paul opens a chapter telling
these believers at Thessalonica how that he, Silas, and Timothy,
they gave thanks to God for them, and I wanna begin with verse
four, but verse four's kinda the closing of a sentence that
begins back in verse two. If you started back in verse
two, it'd read, we give thanks to God always for you all, and
then that thought continuing on into verse four, knowing,
brethren beloved, your election of God. A little reading of that
would be knowing brethren beloved by God or beloved of God, knowing
your election. And then as we go down through
the rest of the chapter, Paul tells us how he knows them to
be among the chosen unto salvation in Christ, God's elect. And you
know, that's instructive to us when we consider that we're commanded
to give diligence, to make our calling and election sure. Well,
here he tells us how they can know. Beginning in verse five,
he said, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but
also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance,
as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.
As I related in that message on genuine faith, the believing
with the heart unto righteousness that we looked at in Romans 10,
is akin to the gospel coming to them, not in word only, but
also in power and in the Holy Ghost. Remember in Romans 1 16,
he said, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation because
therein is the righteousness of God revealed, the very righteousness
that we believe with the heart unto. Continuing in our text
in verse 6, Paul goes on to say, And ye became followers of us,
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Ghost. He says you received the word
in affliction. And that suggests to me they
received, they didn't get just a little instruction. This turned
their world upside down. As we saw, it changed their conscience,
their judgment about things. And so, what they came into would
cause others to oppose them. As Christ said, marvel not that
they hate you, they hated me. Especially if they figure out
how you now judge what you once believed. See, which by implication
tells them how you now fear for their eternal well-being. That
is, if they were of like-minded, but what you now know to be,
have been a false faith. Verse seven, he continues, knowing
your election, How? So that you were in samples to
all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. Now the word in samples
is translated from a Greek word that refers to a die or a stamp
or a pattern. And as such, I think we can conclude
that Paul is describing identifying characteristics of all true believers. I think that verse is akin to
what Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1.16 when he said,
Howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus
Christ might show forth all longsuffering, he said, for a pattern to them
which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. We won't go back there, but in
that previous message, we saw that pattern of Paul's initial
repentance on vivid display in that Philippians 3 passage. Remember,
he said all those things he thought were gain, he now counted loss
and repentance. He put them in the loss column,
not wanting to be found in his own righteousness, but in the
very righteousness of God in Christ. And here to these believers
in Thessalonica, he's telling them that they, likewise, you're
a pattern to all that believe. God through Paul is telling us
we can know their election, as Paul said back in verse four,
because as in samples, they possess the identifying characteristics
of all that believe. They fit the pattern. And they've
responded in these ways that are characteristic of true believers. You know, it's not uncommon for
kin folks to bear some resemblance to one another due to our common
genes. And here we see that all those
who are translated into the kingdom, as children of the king, that
is spiritually having a kinsman redeemer in Christ, their substitute,
they bear resemblance to one another in this sense, they fit
the pattern of those who believe. As we read here, even to all
that believe. And so as we strive to make our
calling and election sure, we would have no warrant to presume
that we're among God's elect unless we fit the pattern as
well. Continuing in verse eight, for
from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia
and Achaia, but also in every place that your faith to Godward
is spread abroad so that we need not to speak anything. So they
knew their elections, see, by the gospel they identified with,
and the gospel they preached, and the gospel they promoted
elsewhere, it being the one and the same as that which had been
delivered to them, and we know from all the epistles and the
Bible at large that that's the gospel of how God saves sinners
through Jesus Christ alone, based upon his doing in dying. Verse
9, he says, for they themselves, those fellow believers to whom
their faith toward God had been spread abroad, he said, for they
themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you,
and how ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true
God. Now, I want you to notice the
resemblance in the language here and that which we looked at in
Hebrews 9.14, where it spoke of how the blood of Christ had
purged their conscience from dead works to do what? To serve
the living God. So here we can see these two
aspects of repentance. Repentance from idolatry, that's
turning from a false god to the one true and living God. And
two, repentance from dead works, both describe that which is experienced
by all true believers in the initial repentance that accompanies
true and God-given faith. I know there are many who claim
to believe what they consider to be the doctrines of grace,
but who still consider themselves or others to have been saved,
to be okay, when their doctrine was actually 180 degrees opposed
to the doctrine of Christ. See, grace and works are opposites.
So they give credence to those who believe in a works-based
salvation. That is not salvation conditioned
on Christ alone. So it begs the question is, have
In coming to this new doctrine, if they came into it as a new
doctrine, did they recognize the slander on God's character
that was embodied in their former evil thoughts of God? And that's
where I want to spend some time talking about this morning. Notice
that the wording there, 1 Thessalonians 1.9, where it says the example
here of a true believer. is one who's turned to God from
idols to serve the living, the living and true God. See, for God to be true, he must
possess the qualities of character that are true of deity as it's
set forth in God's word. For God to be God, he must be
sovereign. The Bible teaches God is just,
he must do right. God is almighty God, he's all-powerful,
omnipotent. God is all-wise, all-knowing,
he's omniscient. God is holy, that is perfect
or impeccable in every attribute of his character. And many like
myself in years past presumed to ascribe to their God these
very character attributes. I would have said all those things
were true. And yet in the ignorance of the necessity of having the
righteousness of God imputed to them, That perfect satisfaction
rendered to God's injured justice that was due unto the sins of
those for whom Christ died, that very righteousness which is revealed
if and when the gospel comes in power in the Holy Spirit and
in full assurance. Well, in ignorance of that, they
expose that their God, or God as they perceive him to be, does
not act or does not live according to his true attributes. They
assume that God will save sinners in ways that actually deny the
very attributes that they think they agree belongs to the one
true God. In 2020, saving faith hindsight,
I now know in my spiritual blindness, as I've said before, I was just
a walking contradiction. I said all those things were
true about God, and unwittingly, Everything I believed about the
gospel of how God saves sinners denied each and every one of
those attributes. And I want to show you that this
morning. And that's been particularly
true for those many who call themselves Christians but who
tragically insist, as I once did, that God loves everybody
and Jesus Christ died for everyone. First consider the sovereignty
of God. To say that God is sovereign really to say God is God. God
is in control. In Ephesians 111, we're told
that God worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
In Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10, God says, remember the former
things of old, for I'm God. There is none else. I am God,
and there is none like me. And look at this distinction.
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done. Saying, my counsel That's his
purpose contrived by infinite wisdom. My counsel shall stand,
and I'll do all my pleasure. Now, how different is this sovereign
God of the Bible from the God of most of modern day Christianity?
I now know that the God I once worshipped, had he been real,
would have actually been a helpless being, an object to be pitied
rather than one to be revered. To believe that the one you presume
to be God is not sovereign in any area is to believe a false
god. That's an idol. Now many, like me, would concede
that God is sovereign in many areas, almost all areas. We'd
say it's appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment.
But wait a minute, not in salvation. That wouldn't be fair. No, he's
gotta give me a chance to do something. Surely I'm not really
at his mercy. So they teach that God the Father
purposed the salvation of all mankind, that God loved everyone,
and God the Son died with the express intention of saving the
whole human race, and that God the Holy Spirit is now seeking
to win the world of Christ. Again, being the contradiction
I was, I would have readily admitted that I knew that the great majority
of men and women were dying in their sin without Christ and
passing into a hopeless eternity, which made that concept of God
an abject failure, unable to fulfill that which is presumed
that he presumably purposed. Well, that's an idol. To deny
the sovereignty of God in salvation is basically, if I had faith
in my eyes to see at the time, I would have had to look at Romans
9, 15 and say, well, I just don't believe that, that God is gonna
have compassion on whom he will. That he will have mercy on whom
he will have mercy. Well, that's to worship a God
that's not worthy to be worshiped. And this is because sovereignty,
see, characterizes his whole being. He's sovereign in the
exercise of all his attributes. He's sovereignly, that is, according
to his own purpose, exercises his power, his mercy, his love,
his grace. But sadly, many will presume
that the will of their almighty creator is somehow made subordinate
to the sacred, so-called free will of the creature. Consider
with me the justice of God. The Bible says God is just. He must do right. Think of the
implications of believing that Christ died for the sins of all
mankind while acknowledging that many of these are gonna perish
in hell anyway. You know, I remember thinking
I had such a high elevated view of the blood of Christ. Oh, the
efficacy of it. Oh, how precious it was. Now
think about this. Only an unjust and ruthless monster
of a God would send any folks to hell whose sin debt allegedly
had already been paid by that precious shed blood of the God-man
Jesus Christ for them. That made that blood worthless. The belief that Christ died for
all without exception exposes an erroneous concept of God which
by default requires one to view God as unjust. Listen, even though
in our spiritual blindness, we fail to recognize that and the
other slanderous assaults on his character, they're implicit
in that false doctrine. I know when I was confronted
by this, I replied as a lot of people would, well, I see what
you're saying. I could understand what I was
being told. But I just didn't think about it like that. So
that means it was okay, I guess. No, that's the indictment. To
not think about it like that is to have no fear of God before
your eyes. It's to have no regard for the
reverential honor of His character. See, that describes more of a
manward faith, it's thinking from the ground up, rather than
the Godward faith, our faith toward God that we read in our
text. You know, our scripture, reading from Isaiah 45, well,
let me just say this. I tell you how that's reflected,
that manward up thinking versus the God. We're busy trying to
get people to tell us and lead them to accept Jesus as their
Savior, when the question they ought to be asking when they
look at the God of this Bible is how can this holy God be who
he is, just and merciful, and save me a sinner? In our reading
from Isaiah 45 that Mark read, God declared there, he said,
they were praying to a God who cannot save, and he distinguished
himself there as the one to look to for salvation, didn't he?
He said, look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the
earth. I'm God, there's none else. And how had he distinguished
himself there? As both a just God and a savior. So an unjust God, that would
be an idol. Consider God's love. You know,
as mere mortals, we strive to engage all that we are, all our
abilities, every attribute and faculty of our being, to ensure
the well-being of those we truly love. I have no doubt that many
of you fathers and grandfathers would willingly give your life
if needed to rescue your child or your grandchildren. But the
popular concept of God's love would have us imagining that
he stopped short of engaging his infinite attributes to ensure
the salvation of all the objects of his love, or presumed objects. To repeat an illustration I've
used in the past, consider a young mother and her toddler enjoying
a sunny afternoon lounging around the swimming pool. Suddenly she
hears a splash and she looks over and the toddler stumbles
into the water and is on the verge of drowning. And the mom,
who just also happened to be a former lifeguard, she capably
and immediately dives in and rescues the child because she
loves him. Can you possibly imagine this
young mother, wise and capable enough to save her child, just
opting not to engage her abilities to do so? I guess she could reason,
well, if she didn't, she could say, well, I warned him not to
get too close. And then the stubborn rebellion
that we're all born with as sinners that we see in toddlers, if you
recall, at early ages. After he had been told not to
get too close, he almost had to. So should she have let her
rebellious but loved child simply drown because, well, that was
his own free will decision to ignore her warning and get too
close to the pool's edge? No, no. If she was that neglectful,
we'd say lock her up. But that's exactly what today's
popular false Christianity implies about God. It says he fails to
save many of what are presumed to be the objects of his unchanging,
everlasting love. Think of that. That accuses God
of one or more of the following. If we assume that he loves everyone,
including those he condemns to hell, then he must be deficient
somewhere else. He must not be really all-knowing
or all-wise enough to have foreseen the obstacles to their salvation. Of course, I was taught differently,
and I'd say, oh no, I know God is all-wise and all-knowing.
Can't be that. Okay, then, if he's presumed
to love all, including those that perish, he must not be powerful
enough to overcome the obstacles and difficulties, especially
of the most stubborn of sinners. in order to overcome their will
and rescue them, save them. And I would say, no, I know the
Bible teaches God's all powerful. He's omnipotent. Well, then what
do we conclude about his love? That would certainly not be a
perfect, unconditional, unchangeable, and everlasting love. That would
be a worthless love. Here we assume he's infinitely
wise and powerful, and yet he opts not to intervene and engage
himself to ensure the well-being of those presumed objects of
his love, allowing many of them to perish according to their
will, and leaving what many believe to be God's will is just an unfulfilled
pipe dream. I hope these illustrations will
help you see how the deadly misconceptions of God's way of salvation, our
very gospel, a false gospel, that which is opposed to the
doctrine of Christ, how that is actually a denial of God himself,
and thereby it equates to idolatry. We can go on. What about his
immutability? Malachi 3.6, God says, I'm the
Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. He says, because he doesn't change,
they're not consumed. But the reactionary God that's
so popular in false Christianity of our day is one who reacts
to the sinner's decision. And by definition, that means
he has to change his mind based on how they respond. That's not
the sovereign, immutable God of the Bible. That would be an
idol. What about his holiness? You know, God's holy, and holiness
speaks of the excellency of the divine nature. It speaks of the
perfectioncy of every attribute of his character that sets God
apart. His justice is a holy justice. It means it's perfect. It's unerring. His wisdom is a holy wisdom,
and we could go on. So here we see that denying the
perfection of any of God's attributes, if he has to set them aside in
order to save sinners the way you imagine he does, well then
that's a denial of who he is and an idol to be repented of.
Nothing but perfection and excellence can proceed from holy God. So
God's character's not one-dimensional, as if, well, because he wants
to show mercy, he'll override and forego being God as far as
the exercise of the rest of his attributes. He'll just set aside
his holiness and maybe not act with all the power he has, all
his all-knowing knowledge, or in injustice. You see, we are
inclined to have a concept of God that's like that, because
we want to be saved by nature in the way that fallen men and
women naturally choose to be, by something we do, some decision
we make, something that proceeds from us where we control, can
maintain control of our eternal destiny so as to make the real
difference and that gives them the glory and them room to boast. You see, as we read in 1 Corinthians
1 31, let he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. The only
way God can be the true and living God, true to who he is, both
a just God and a merciful Savior is through the imputation of
the righteousness that Christ as a representative and substitute
and surety for his people that he single-handedly established
in perfect satisfaction to God the Father's law and justice.
That's the righteousness, it's the power of God and the salvation
that's revealed in God's gospel of grace. And that's the gospel
that's believed by every elect, justified, redeemed, and born
again sinner in God's appointed time. by the power of God the
Holy Spirit. You see, that's, and that faith,
that look into that Christ is always accompanied by repentance
from the God we once prayed to, God of our imagination, but a
God who could not save an idol. To summarize, the living and
true God is one who, one he is true, true to all of the impeccable
qualities of character that belong only unto God, and two, as a
living God, He exercises those qualities of character. He engages
himself on behalf of all the objects of his everlasting love. You know, I know a message like
this may seem harsh. It doesn't fit with health and
wealth messages popular in our day, I know. But you know, I'm
glad that in God's due time, and as I know many of you are
as well, that he brought us under the sound of the gospel and drew
us to himself. So as to have us repenting of
our former idols and presumed dead works, I've all counted
for something. Paul wrote this to the Corinthians
in 2 Corinthians 6, beginning in verse 16, he said, and what
agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the
temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among
them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing. I will receive you and will be a father unto you, and
you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." See,
the Bible tells us that believing on Christ, as he set forth in
the Bible in belief of the gospel, it gives evidence of being saved
and in so believing on the one living and true God, we leave
the false and dead God, the idol behind. And here, God's declaring
to us that he receives those who do. And we know that's so. See, only his dear children do
so by the power of the living and true God. That's one who's
engaged all that he is, his infinite power, his wisdom, his justice,
his mercy, every other holy attribute to ensure the eternal good. for
all the objects of his infinite, everlasting, unconditional love. I'm telling you, if God be for
us, this God be for you, who can be against you? It's God
that justifies, it's Christ that died, yeah, your other that's
risen. So pray with me that for someone who hears this message,
that God's spirit will do a hard work, that he'll grant them that
blood-bought gift of faith and repentance, is so graciously
given to all of God's elect at God's appointed time. A work
I hope and pray and rejoice in knowing that he's already done
for many of you. And you know, we pray this because
our judgment did change about things. We became, we started
caring about the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And so we pray this so that God might receive all the glory.
that Christ might be exalted and all boasting might be excluded
in the center. And look, we also pray this because
we want to have religious fellowship with like-minded folks and rejoice
with them, as Paul put it, knowing of their election by this distinguishing
mark, because they too have turned to God from idols to serve the
living and true God. Thank you.