if you were to 2nd Peter, 2nd
Peter chapter 1, 2nd Peter chapter 1. Now, 2nd Peter deals with
problems within the church and Peter writes to warn believers
about false teachers who are peddling damning doctrine, which
is what we're seeing in the book of Galatians too, isn't it? The
Christian life demands on diligence and pursuing moral and excellence
and knowledge, self-control, perseverance and godliness, brotherly
kindness and selfless love, which is given to us, right, is one
of the fruit of the Spirit, is a love that we don't normally
have, which is a selfless love. Our natural love is to love ourselves. My oh my. In this wonderful epistle,
the Apostle Peter brings forth that that all who believe have
obtained like precious faith. Brother Dave, you and I have
like precious faith. Brother Brian, Sister Linda,
we have like precious faith. Brother Zane, like precious faith. Isn't that amazing? We all have
like precious faith given to us by God the Holy Spirit in
Christ Jesus our Lord. It's wonderful. We're all born
again by the same Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, by his
power and his might. And those who profess the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Savior, we're told to make our election and
calling sure. How do we do that? How do we
do that? How do we make our election and
calling sure? I've told you many times that
we ask ourselves, who am I trusting right now? Am I trusting 100%
in Christ and Him alone in His work that He did? Is He my complete
salvation? Is He my all in all? Am I born
again of the Holy Spirit of God? Am I a new creature in Christ?
Who's my hope though? The main thing, who's my hope?
Is Christ my all? See, we can have fellowship with
other believers, right, who have the same mind, the same spirit,
right? We might not agree with everything
doctrinally. We might not agree 100% on everything.
But if they believe that salvation is by grace alone, through Christ
alone, plus absolutely nothing else, well, we can have sweet
fellowship, can't we? My oh my, people argue about
end time stuff. And yet they agree on the core
thing that's most important. Salvation in and through Christ
alone. That's what's most important. My oh my. True believer. What does a true believer trust
in? The complete, finished, perfect,
sinatoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ and He who accomplished
it, right? That's what we believe. So with that in our minds, let's
read here from chapter one of 2 Peter. We'll read verses one
to 15. Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ. Look at that. He calls himself
a servant before he calls himself an apostle. Doulas in the Greek. That's what we are. You and I,
who are born again, blood washed saints are servants for Christ.
First and foremost. First and foremost, we're servants
for him. We've been taken from the slave
balk of sin. We have a new master. It's not
the world, the flesh, and the devil anymore. It's Christ. It's Christ. He's our new master.
It says an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have what? Look
at this word, obtained. He's talking about here right
now. We've obtained like precious faith. Well, how? By anything
we've done? No. The scripture here is very
clean. Through the righteousness of
God and our savior, Jesus Christ. We are clothed in the perfect
spotless righteousness of Christ as believers. Then it says, grace
and peace, again, grace always precedes peace, be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. Brother Dave, you said, well,
I needed that song because it speaks of God's sovereignty,
right? And having that knowledge continuously before us gives
us such a peace. Yeah, it does. It cleanses our
minds. It takes the things in the world that are swirling around
us and in our minds and it just makes them melt away. We're leaning on the everlasting
arms. Do you know the scriptures say we're held up by the everlasting
arms? Oh, isn't that wonderful? Can we fall from God if we're
held in his everlasting arms? Never. Amen, Brother Dave. Never.
Never. Never, never, never. Then it
says this. Grace, peace be multiplied unto
you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. according as, look at this, his
divine power hath given unto us all that pertain unto life
and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to
glory and virtue. In this book is all that pertains
to life and godliness. Right here, in the word of God. All the instruction a believer
needs is found right here. Right here. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. And
notice it says, through the knowledge of him that called us. God gives
us the knowledge of himself, doesn't he? He reveals himself
to us. You see, we see it's all according to his divine power.
Otherwise we're just groping around in the dark, beloved.
Whereby we, look at this, look at this. Now remember this too.
Remember in Corinthians, Paul says, he's writing the Corinthians,
and he says, all the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ. What a blessing for us who are
in Christ. If we're in Christ, all the blessings of God, all
the promises of God are yea and amen for us. All those Old Testament
promises, grab a hold of them, beloved, in Christ. They're all
ours in Christ. It tells us, right here, it tells
us that. Look at this. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises. that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. And besides this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge,
and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and
to patience godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness charity, which is we know love. For if these things be in you
and abound, They make that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful
in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh
these things is blind, and cannot see far off, and hath forgotten
that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
look at this, give diligence to make your election and calling
sure. For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. Or to keep saying, who am I trusting?
Who am I trusting? Who am I trusting? Is it Christ
and Him alone? Praise be to God. Praise be to
God. For so an entrance shall be ministered
unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know
them and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it
meet, as long as I am this tabernacle, that means in his tent, in his
body, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Now notice
that word remembrance has popped up twice there. The name of the
message is remembrance. knowing that shortly I must put
off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has
showed me. So Peter realizes that time is short. Life is short. Life is short for all of us.
It's like a vapor. Even as our Lord Jesus Christ
has showed me, moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able,
after my decrease, and decrease there is death, to have these
things always in remembrance. Now notice what he said here.
Notice in verse 10, he says, war for the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your call and election sure. For if you
do these things, you shall never fall. So we're to examine ourselves
whether we be in the faith. Here's a few questions. Do you
believe you are saved by Christ alone plus nothing? Nothing done
by you, nothing added by you to Christ's perfect and complete
redeeming work. Do you believe you're saved by
Christ's redeeming work in nothing else? That's a question for us
to make our election and calling sure. Then this, do you believe
that the only righteousness that God will accept is the righteousness
of Christ? If anyone thinks that God will
accept anything that we do, which is works, which would be translated
to be righteousness, they are totally wrong. God will not accept
one single stitch of our righteousness because it's tainted so much
with sin. But the righteousness he will accept is the perfect
coat of righteousness that was woven by Christ when he lived
on this earth. Right? Is the substitute of sinners. And that's what we are. And he's
perfect. So if he's perfect and sinless,
then he's fulfilling the law for who? Well, the scripture
calls them God's elect. God's people. He shall save his
people from their sins. Right? Calls name Jesus. Oh my. Here's another question. Is Christ
everything to you? Is he everything? Is he before
husband and wife, children? Is he everything to you? Is he
your all in all? Paul summed it up. He's my all
in all. Doesn't mean we love our wives
or our husbands any less. No. But Christ must be at the
forefront. He must receive the preeminence.
He must. He must. So is Christ everything
to us? We're to examine ourselves and
to see if this is true. The believer in Christ also believes
that we were once dead in trespasses and sins, having no hope. There's Ephesians 2, we looked
at that this weekend, right? Having no hope, strangers to
the commonwealth of Israel, remember? Strangers to the promises of
God. We're about nigh by the blood of Christ, right? Remember? We're bought nigh by the blood
of Christ that was shed for us. And now the middle wall of partition
between the Jews and Gentiles is broken down by the precious
blood of Christ. And so in the body of Christ
is both Jew and Gentile. My, oh my, it's wonderful. And
the believer in Christ believes that we were dead in sins without
hope and without Christ. And if Christ doesn't save us,
we're going to perish. And we believe what the scriptures
say. We believe what God says in his holy book. That we are
only to believe Christ, in Christ's love. That he is the way, the
truth, and the life. That there's no hope outside
of Christ. That he is God's lamb. His Passover lamb. That his blood
was shed for us, for the remission of our sins. Him being the perfect,
spotless, sinless lamb of God. And we believe that salvation's
all of God. All of God, from beginning to
end. We believe that faith and repentance
is a gift of God. That he gives it to us. It's
not something we can work for. It's not something we can muster
up. It's a gift from God, given to us. When we're born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, after we're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, we're given faith and repentance to believe. my
oh my and we also believe we believe this don't we that we
have been saved by the divine life-giving power of god and
god alone right he saved us hadn't he brother god saved us and god
alone And he rules the world, as David was saying, Brother
Dave was saying after. He rules everything. There's
not a speck. You know, I was watching ants.
My dog likes watching ants. He's like, what is that? Right? And I'm looking at that. I'm
going, that ant ain't moving anywhere except for God's divine
will is moving it to. My, oh my. And it was beautiful
yesterday. There was ladybugs flying everywhere. I thought they were those wood
bugs that we get around here, those diamond like wood bugs. Is that the Asian beetle? Oh, OK, no, no. These were ladybugs cooking around.
And I let them crawl in my hand. They weren't biting at all or
nothing. But there were so many of them flying around. And I
thought, boy, not one of them is flying all according to God's
divine will, right? And they don't have a care in
the world, do they? Do they? Does the bird wake up in the
morning and go, I wonder where I'm going to get my food? God
already provided it, didn't he? They go looking for it. They
find it, but it comes from God's hand. Everything we have, beloved,
every day we get up in the morning, is a gift from God. Yeah, amen. New manna, that's right. New
manna. My, and do we believe also, we
believe as God's people. And this is the one that just
blows our mind away. We believe that we were chosen in Christ. I believe this. I'm amazed at
it still. It still amazes me to this day
that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, all according to God's will and purpose, just because
it pleased Him to do so. What do you think of that, Dave? Amen, brother. It's sweeter and
sweeter, isn't it? And the more we learn about it,
the sweeter it gets, right? The sweeter it gets. Oh my, it's
wonderful. And then so, now think of the
remembrance aspect. He said in the text we looked
at, he said, you already know these things, but I'm going to
bring them to your remembrance. This is why gospel preachers
get up and all we do is preach Christ. I'm not preaching anything
new to you in any messages I preach, right? Now we may look at a text
and go, oh wow, I've never seen that before. It happens to me
all the time. I know it happens to you too. And that's, we grow
in the knowledge of Christ. But really, what I'm putting
forth to you, you already know it by God's grace. But it gets sweeter and sweeter,
like Dave said. It's like, it's, Norm Wells told
me, the scriptures are like a mine, a gold mine. And you get one
huge chunk and you're like, oh man, right? And you go back to
the mine, oh man, you get another chunk. And it just keeps giving
jewels and rubies and diamonds. It's a mine that is full of treasures
for God's people. Yeah, and it all points to Christ,
that's right. It all points to Him. So Paul's
bringing forth, and when we hear the gospel, what are we reminded
of? We're reminded, Brother Brian,
aren't we? We're reminded of what happened 2,000 years ago.
It's already done. It's already finished. And so
the gospel preacher, we stand up and we proclaim what's already
finished. And we as God's people, because
I listen to the messages too, we just start rejoicing, don't
we? This is wonderful. This is wonderful. But even tonight,
we're looking at something we may not have seen. That we are
to keep this in remembrance. Keep Christ and Him crucified
ever before us. Keep what He's done before us.
In the Lord's Supper, what's it say right here? In the Lord's
Supper, right? This do in remembrance of me. We're going to have that
this weekend, right? and we're gonna partake, and
then we're gonna have our fellowship meal, but we're doing that in
remembrance of what Christ has done. Every believer partakes
of the Lord's Supper in remembrance of what Christ has done. So the
gospel preacher, though, we're just bringing forth, even though
you may already know this, we're bringing forth this for your
remembrance. You know why I have to be reminded all the time?
Do you know why we have to be reminded all the time? Miles
McKee, a preacher in Ireland, told me. I met him at a conference. He goes, you know why we have
to hear the gospel all the time? Because we forget so easy. We
forget so easy. So we have to keep hearing it.
And what he meant is we get enthralled in our daily life and something
happens and we're like, oh my goodness, we're forgetting that
God's in control. We're forgetting that he's absolutely
sovereign. And when we're reminded, what
happens? Peace just floods our soul, doesn't
it? I love that song we did sing. I'm going to just lean on the
everlasting arms. I'm not going to let all this
junk get a hold of me. And I'll tell you what, this
is a battle we all go through. Any preacher says, oh I don't
go through that. He's lying to you. Any believer says, I don't
go through that. You don't? I don't see it, too.
Right? Do we all go through those things?
Do we all struggle with that stuff? But, oh, to be reminded,
when we're reminded that God's sovereign, when God brings out
even the remembrance, when we're going through that situation
and you're bringing the remembrance, I'm sovereign. Oh, my. Hallelujah, what a Savior. He's
in full control. And in the preaching of the gospel,
the most wondrous thing is the proclamation of what Christ has
done for us. That we are totally forgiven. Totally. We've all paid a debt
off before, right? And when you pay that debt, the
creditor has no claim upon you again. He cannot come to you,
Dave, and say, I'm going to get that money back again. No, you
already paid it. It's already paid. Paid in full. It's already
done. The account's closed. As far as our sins go with God,
the account's closed. You know what it's covered in?
Tell me, brother. What's it covered in? The blood.
The blood of Christ, brother. Amen. It's covered. It's covered
in the blood of Christ. It's covered! Never to be uncovered
again. So God looks at our sin, brother,
and he says, I don't remember it anymore. I don't even see
it. I just see the blood. I just
see the blood. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my goodness. It's absolutely wonderful. So
gospel preaching causes us to remember what Christ has done
for us. It's brought before us again
for our remembrance. For our remembrance. And let us never forget the great
cost of the redemption of our souls. It cost Christ his life. And he willingly did that. He
willingly redeemed us. He willingly redeemed. So are
we trusting in these things that are brought forth in the gospel?
Are we trusting that God's absolutely sovereign? Are we trusting in
the one who is God himself, who says, oh my, who said to Moses,
I am that I am. And then he said to those Pharisees
before Abraham was, I am. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what did he say to that lady at the well? Oh, so precious,
his words were so sweet to her. She said, we know Messiah cometh.
And he goes, I that speak unto thee am he. Oh my, he's God in the flesh,
beloved. And so when he shed his blood for our sins, God's justice says
paid in full for Zane Bradley. Paid in full for Wayne Boyd. Put your name in there, if you're
a believer. Paid in full. It counts close. Never to be remembered again.
It's like we didn't even have the debt. Lord, give us grace to live in
that. Give us grace to live in that truth. Because it's true. You know, if we say we don't remember
something, yeah, it's not really going to happen. Right? You ever had that happen? Somebody
tells you, oh, I forgive you for something, and then they
bring it back up on you? You got no defense. I've had
it happen so many times. Oh, I forgive you. I'll let all
that go. Yeah, we're good. We're good. And then all of a
sudden, It comes up again, and you're like, what in the world?
This was already dealt with. Well, I guess you really didn't
forgive me. Right? That can happen in marriages.
That can happen in friendships. Right? That can happen in everyday
life, working other places of labor. My, oh my. But when God says,
what's it mean, Brother Zane, when God says, I don't remember
anymore? Amen, brother. He don't remember no more, does
he? And he'll never remember it again. Paid in full. What comfort, eh, brother? What comfort. Oh my. See, this
is what's brought to remembrance in the preaching of the gospel.
I'm totally forgiven in Christ. All those ordinances that was
against me, all those sins that was against me, paid for. All that long list
of condemnation of my sins. Gone. It's disappeared. And there's a stamp in red. The
blood of Christ, isn't it? Paid in full. Sealed right up,
man. Sealed right up. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, I'll tell you why. This salvation
is just amazing. Let's read verses 12 to 15 one
more time. Wherefore I will not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know
them. See, he says you already know these truths. God the Holy
Spirit's already revealed them to you. and be established in
the present truth. See, that's the key, right? To be
established in these truths, to rest and trust in these truths.
The more we learn just to rest in Christ, the less this world
will have an effect upon us. It really will. Yea, I think
it meet as long as I am in this tabernacle, that's body, so Peter's
saying as long as I'm in this body, to stir you up, how? How do we get stirred up? By
putting you in remembrance. I'll tell you what, there's some
preachers I listen to too, and I get so fired up. Man, when
I hear a gospel message, I get fired up, period, right? Because those men are preaching
what my heart and soul lives on now, Christ. in Christ alone. And I may know the trees they're
preaching on by God's grace, but I'll tell you what I always
want to have. Vicki and I pray for this all the time, a teachable
spirit. God, keep giving me a teachable
spirit. If someone thinks they've arrived,
they're in huge trouble. I'll tell you, they're in huge
trouble. Just, God, and I pray that for our congregation. Lord,
give us a teachable spirit. Because then every message will
be a blessing to us. Because we're going to rejoice
in the things that are being bought to remembrance, which
is Christ and Him crucified. And we're going to rejoice. We're
going to love being in church. My, oh, my. I get to be here every three,
all three services, right? You guys too? Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful, isn't it? Oh
my. It's amazing. So the gospel is
a proclamation of the wondrous works of the Lord Jesus Christ
being bought in remembrance to us. It says this, knowing that
shortly I must put off this tabernacle. Shortly, we're all going to die
shortly. Right? 70 years is a millisecond to
the Lord. Not even that. If one day is
like a thousand years, I don't even want to count what 70 years
can be like. Not even a .0001 of a second. That's right. It's nothing. It's nothing. Look at this though. Knowing that shortly I must put
off this, my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has
showed me. So that's something that every believer learns too,
is that our life is like a vapor. It's short. Moreover, look at
this, I will endeavor. So he's saying, no matter when
I'm in this flesh, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to
endeavor that ye may be able after my decrease, after I go
home to be with the Lord, to have these things always in remembrance.
Why? Because he knew, like we know
now even today, there's wars and rumors of wars, right? There's
two wars going on right now in this world. And there's more
in other countries we probably don't even know about. But there's
two that are really on the forefront, right? Wars and rumor of wars,
right? Don't let your heart be troubled.
You see that stuff? Now, I love that you prayed for
both sides, Dave. We ought to pray. God's got to
elect all scattered through this world, man. We don't know where
they are. And he may use a circumstance like that to have one of his
sheep download a message or go and hear a preacher and, Lord,
save him on the spot. We don't know. We know that God
will somehow get the message to him, though. Right? My, oh, my. So Peter's saying,
after my death, I want these things to still be on your mind. So that when troubled times do
come, and remember, they're battling again with false teachers coming
within the church, just like Paul. So what did Paul do in
Galatians? We've watched this in his letter.
He just set Christ forth, right? He's just set Christ forth. He
don't even give a minute to those false teachers, and he just set
Christ forth. And that's what gospel preachers do, for our
remembrance, right? For your remembrance, for my
remembrance, for anyone, any remembrance, anyone who will
listen to it for their remembrance, who's a born-again believer.
My, oh, my. We need to be constantly reminded,
constantly reminded, lest we forget, we need to be constantly
reminded about what Christ has done for us. Constantly. We need to be continually established
in the truth. That's why I won't compromise
the message here. We must be established in the
truth. We must be. There's all kinds
of different wins doctrines out there, isn't there? All over
the place. I'll tell you what, they're swirling all around this
world, false teachings. By the grace of God, we'll preach
Christ from here. in Christ alone. And if I decrease, we're all gonna die sometime.
But when at my decrease, I pray the Lord will bring another preacher
in to bring you into remembrance of these things. Right? My oh my. My oh my. So we need to be constantly reminded,
and Peter He's going to address, if you read further on in this
epistle, we're not going to tonight, but if you read further on in
chapter two, he's going to address the false preachers. He's going
to address them, he's going to deal with them. But Peter brings
forth that as long as he lives in this tent, this flesh, this
robe of flesh, he is going to stir up born-again blood-washed
saints by bringing to remembrance Christ and Him crucified. What's
the most important thing for a sinner? in this world. What's the one thing needful
for any sinner in this world? The Lord Jesus Christ, right?
So Peter says, I'm going to keep preaching Christ. And I'm going
to keep preaching Christ. And I'm going to keep preaching
Christ. Somebody came up to Henry Mayhem one time and they said,
man, all you do is preach Christ. And he said, thank you very much. I have a one-string fiddle, he
says. And all it does is play Christ. Right? Scott Richardson said,
some woman came up to him too, I think, and he said, same thing,
all you do is preach Christ. And I believe it was Scott that
said, put that on my tombstone. He preached Christ. Isn't that
wonderful? Oh my, isn't that wonderful?
Oh, that's wonderful. My oh my, Christ and Him crucified. That's all that matters. Look
at verse 13. He says, Yea, I think it means as long as I am in this
tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance. As
long as he had breath, beloved, he can preach Christ. He's not
going to waste time on anything else. He's just going to preach
Christ. He's going to continually bring
forth before them what Christ did for him. Look at verse 12. Wherefore, I will not be negligent,
put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know
them, you already established them, and be established in the
present truth. Now the Holy Spirit's all-knowing,
and He's fully aware of who has been established in the truth
and who has not been, because it's all by His power, right?
If we're established in the truth, it's by the power of God the
Holy Spirit, not by anything we've done. We can't even brag
on what we know. Because it's all been given to
us. Not that we'd want to. And that keeps us humble, because
we can't get puffed up even about what we know, because it's all
a Christ. Brother Travis one time, he said
to me, he goes, well, he goes, I'm a little nervous about preaching.
I said, well, that's good. That's good. And I had Marcus
teach for me one time. And he says, well, in the Bible
study we're in through video. And I said, Marcus, can you teach?
And he goes, well, I don't know a whole lot. And I said, well,
you're right there with me then, brother. Right? That's the kind of person
you want to have teaching. Right there. A man who is a humble
spirit. Paul even said, who's sufficient
for these things? No one. No one. I'm hoping to get Brother Dave
in Sunday school one day for us. I think that'd be wonderful.
But you said yourself, I don't... But you could do well, brother. My oh my. The only way I can
preach is by the grace of God. Right? My oh my. No pressure, Dave. So... So when we hear the gospel of
our wonderful Savior, who lived the perfect life in our place,
we're told of how he went to Calvary to die in our place. We who are sinners, we who have
no hope, and we hear of this one who is actually God in the
flesh, who went to Calvary and shed his blood to save our souls. It overwhelms us, doesn't it?
But see, that's what comes forth in the gospel. And that's why,
if you ever think about it, the gospel puts us down in the place
we belong to be in, which is dust, and then it lifts us up
in Christ. Have you ever noticed that? Every time I hear a message,
I'm bought low and bought up by Christ again. And I'm usually
walking at that core. Woo-hoo! Praise God. The Lord
saved my soul. I'll tell you why. When we have
them visiting preachers here, and I get to sit and listen,
oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. See, I get to listen
to a lot of guys on audio and video, but to actually be able
to sit like you guys do, and you guys know there's something
different than listening online and sitting in a pew and listening
to a preacher. So I get, for three days, I get
solid feasting. We all feast, don't we? Of the
fact that I get to see a man preach to me. And it's wonderful,
isn't it? It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. And we thank God. We thank God
for sending preachers to us. Now Peter's moved. Remember too,
these words are by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. They're
not just Peter's words. He's moved to write these words. These are words that the Holy
Spirit's writing to us as well, right? See, that's the amazing thing.
These are written to a specific, you know, group of people, right? He's writing to the gods elect,
we know. In 1 Peter, if you turn over
to 1 Peter, look what it says here in verse 1. Who's he writing these epistles
to? These are called universal epistles because they're written
to God's people. Look at this in verse 1, Peter an apostle
of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius,
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect according to
the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through the sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace be multiplied. So that's
who he's writing to. He's writing to the elect scattered
in all these different places. And he's warning them that false
teachers are going to come in. And there already had been false
teachers crept in. So now he's writing them, warning
them. Now, do you notice what he's doing in the first chapter
already? This is what I love. Read the epistles like this,
because you'll notice something. Paul always lays down the groundwork.
Christ, Christ, Christ. And then if there's any correction
to be done, it's done later. Peter's laying down this groundwork.
I'm bringing these things into remembrance for you. So you won't
be fooled by these false teachers. So you won't fall under a spell
of these false preachers, right? Oh, man. And we're told here
that our wonderful Savior, when we hear the gospel, we're told
that our wonderful Savior lived and died as our substitute. And
it's glorious, isn't it? It's glorious. We hear the wondrous
words, again, I'm gonna say it again, even though I said it,
that Jesus paid it all. All our sins are forgiven, they're
gone. God doesn't remember them. And we torment ourselves with
our own sins, don't we? They're gone. I'll tell you what,
you sin, and we always do, repent. Give it to God. You know it's
forgiven, but still confess it to him. The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin, doesn't it? Confess it to him. Oh my. Henry Mahan used to say,
we've repented, we're repenting, or he said, we're saved, we're
being saved, and we will be saved. He's just speaking of the whole
process of we're going to be glorified one day, which he is
now. He's in glory right now. My oh my. And so we need to be
reminded of these wondrous works, beloved. And the preaching of
the gospel also reminds us, as Brother Dave mentioned earlier,
that God is absolutely sovereign. I mean, He is completely sovereign. I am standing here, a saved man,
preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, all according to
the grace of our great sovereign God. Otherwise, I'd still be
doing all the things I was doing before the Lord saved me. You
know how I know that? Because my friends are still
doing them all. And I've been right there with them. I'm still friends with some of
my old high school guys on Facebook. They're doing the same thing.
They haven't changed. Now, two of them the Lord saved, and they're
new creatures in Christ. But of all the class that we
had, my buddies are still just doing the same thing. They're
still caught up in the same things they were caught up in. And you
know, I'd have been right there if it weren't for the grace of
God. And only God made us to differ, didn't he? From all those
people we knew, all those people we rubbed shoulders with, the
only one who made us to differ was God. And we're gonna be forever
grateful, aren't we, brother? Man, we're gonna sing hallelujah
together in glory, seeing Christ, brother. Woo, my, without sin. In tune. In tune, in tune. And only because
of the grace of God, only because he's made us to differ. Sister Linda, out of your whole
family, God made you to differ, right? Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? I don't know
if any of your relatives, if they know. My family, I'm the
only one. I'm the only one who the Lord
saved. Same with you, Brother Brian, right? Yeah. Only once. Who made us to differ from our
family, right? Just the Lord. It's amazing. And here we are
loving the gospel, loving the Lord, loving his people, loving
the preaching of his word. It's amazing. I'll tell you,
it's amazing grace. God's grace is amazing. So Peter
was writing these words. This is the Holy Spirit bringing
forth that we need these things ever said before us. Peter's
writing them, but he's being moved by the Holy Spirit to write
these words, right? So this is good learning for
us. We need the gospel ever before us. We need to be constantly
reminded. Is it a joy to be reminded of
what Christ did for us? Does it not fill your heart with
joy? Do we not walk out these doors going, praise be to God.
It is. Sister Carolyn said, I wish we
could just stay here overnight and you could preach to us every
single day, brother. And I said, well, that would
be wonderful, wouldn't it? Then we wouldn't have to go out in
the filth of the world and get all worked up. We could just
sit in here and talk about Christ all the time and fellowship.
Wouldn't that be wondrous? Dave, that'd be heaven on earth,
wouldn't it? Well, not quite heaven on earth, but it would
be amazing. Amen. There it is, right there. We're
needed out there. We rub shoulders with different
people. Salt and light. And there's people out there
who we bump into and who we can talk to if the Lord opens the
door. My oh my. Or you know what? Just smiling
at people too. Just giving a smile to someone
during the day. Saying hello to people. I'm one
of those guys, I walk down the street and I say hello to everybody.
And some people, you get different reactions, right? You get some
people that are like, okay, yeah. And then you get other people
that are like, hello, how you doing? And you start striking a conversation
up with them. Nothing wrong with that, right?
Say, I hope you have a great day. You may be the only one
to smile at them the whole day. You don't know. They may go home
and have a miserable life. You don't know. We don't know,
do we? We have no idea at all. Yeah,
it's Christ in us, the hope of glory, right? We have Christ.
What hope we have? And we can bring that hope to
a dying world, can't we? Yeah, we can. Oh yeah. My oh my. So Peter, he knew that
his departure was close at high end. He says, look at what he
says again in verse 13. Yea, I think it meet all as long
as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in
remembrance. And he says in verse 14, knowing shortly I must put
off this tabernacle. I'm gonna die soon, he says.
I'm gonna die soon. Oh my. Turn, if you would, to
John chapter 21. Oh my. Peter knew his departure
was close at hand. In John 21, 18 and 19, we will
read the of the Lord telling Peter how
he was going to die. How he's going to die. Can you
imagine that, being told how you were going to die? Lord Sovereign,
right? We know we're all going to go
out, we just don't know how. No, we didn't know. We didn't
have anything to do with that either, did we? No. No. Look at verses 18 and 19. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, when thou wast young, thou girdest
thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou
shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another
shall gird thee, and carry thee, whither thou wouldest not. This
spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God.
And when he had spoken this, he said unto him, Follow me.
And he followed him, didn't he? See, that fall on me was an irresistible
call, but Peter's one of his sheep. He couldn't resist, could
he? He couldn't resist. I have to
chuckle. These people say, well, you know,
a sinner can resist God. I'll tell you what, if it's one
of his sheep, and it's his appointed time to be saved, there ain't
no one stopping that sinner from coming to Christ. That's why,
yeah, yeah. He certainly wasn't looking,
was he? He wasn't asking for anything. Paul was. No, Paul
wasn't saying, well, Lord, you didn't ask me to raise my hand
and bow my head and repeat a prayer. Right? He knocked him right off
his horse, didn't he? Knock him right down, right?
Amen. And he said, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? Why kickest thou against the
pricks? My oh my. And Saul said, Lord, who art
thou? He was terrified. And he said,
I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest. We're going to look at that,
too, in our study in Acts. But like you said, Dave, he wasn't
looking. He was going, he was so wrapped up and driven by hate. I was talking to Neil this week
before he left. He said, Wayne, he said, I've been talking to
my brother about those folks over there. He says, those folks
are so They're so ruled by hate, blinded by hate, that they didn't
even think of the consequences of going into Israel and what
it would do to their own people. They're so blinded by, enraged
by hate. And I said, well, that's all
of us, isn't it, by nature? That's all of us by nature. We just,
we just hate one another. We love those we love, but if
someone hurts one of our loved ones, Wow, man, it's over, isn't
it? In our natural state. Yeah. Oh, my. And every child of God
will always protect his family, won't he? Oh, yes, he will. My. So here we are. Here we are. We've got the gospel
set before us. What did our Lord say to the
two on the road to Aramaeus? Search the scriptures. Search the scriptures. Did they
have the New Testament then, Brother Brian? Nope. Search the
scriptures. He said this here. Search the
scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. Well you
think, see what he's saying is, you think you have eternal life
because you're a Jew. Well, you think you have eternal
life because you're following all the commandments of man. You think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. They hated him. And yet the very scriptures they
studied testified of Christ. Testified of Christ. There's
no New Testament when he says these words. The New Testament
is common. But he's saying, you know, here
he is, he's the Messiah. And he's saying, Moses spoke
of me. The prophets spoke of me. Search
those scriptures. They testify of me. My, oh my. He's saying to them, he's
saying right to their faces, I'm the Messiah. And like all
natural man, because we were there, right? Like all natural
man. I don't have nothing to do with you. I'll not have you
rule over me. Nope. Well, I'll tell you what
happens. You know what happens? Because
we were there. I was there. I'll not have you
rule over me. You know what happens? God comes
with irresistible power and might. And he says, you are mine. And
my son purchased you with his precious blood and the Holy Spirit
of God who comes with power and regenerates us and we say, Lord,
I'm yours! And we willingly run to Christ,
don't we? Isn't that amazing? Takes us
rebels. We're just like anyone else,
blinded with hate. Because the scripture says we
were enemies in our minds with God. Right? Our wicked works had alienated
us from God. Yeah, we fell on Adam, but it's
our own sin that will lead to our death, right? Spiritual death
if we're not saved. Physical death as well. We all
got a time appointed, right? The wages of sin is death. Oh
my, we're all going to die, but those in Christ now Lord, take
me home. Take me home. We were shaking
our fists at him. We were just like that thief
that at first was railing with the other thief, wasn't he? And
then he says to the other thief, and we say this now to our fellow
human beings, we're guilty justly, but he's
done nothing wrong. He's done nothing wrong. And
then we cry out with that publican, God have mercy on me, the sinner. Will God ever turn away anyone
like that, that comes to him through Christ Jesus, our Lord?
Nope. The Lord said that publican went
home justified. And that Pharisee who said, oh,
I give this and I give that and I pray and I do all this. And
that poor publican who just said, God be merciful. Despised because
he was collecting taxes for the Romans. That's what a publican
did. Despised by his own countrymen. God, God, God the Son, God in
the flesh said, that man went home justified. Brian, God looks
at us, at you and I and Sister Linda. He looks at us like we
never even sinned. Isn't that amazing? Oh my! Just as if I never sinned. Don't
get any better than that, does it Brother Zane? Oh my! Turn if you would to Galatians
chapter 1. My oh my, all of God's preachers
preach Christ and Him crucified. He's the theme of our message. He's the only hope we have. We
preach a crucified Savior, born of a virgin, suffering and dying
for the sins of His people, risen again, and seated at the right
hand of glory right now, seated at the right hand of the Father.
on his sovereign throne, brother. And what are we doing now? Leaning on the everlasting arms.
I would keep going back to that song. That was wonderful. Leaning
on the everlasting arms. And what's Christ doing now?
He's ruling and he's reigning right now. I'll tell you, there's
so much turmoil in this world nowadays. I'm telling you, if
I wanted to save man, I'd be pulling out what hair I have
left. But I don't have to, I don't
even stress about it anymore, brother. I don't. My hope is that the Lord would
use the messages going out here, that the Lord would use the messages
going out from sermon audio of whoever's preaching God's grace,
and that he'd use it to save sinners. That's my hope. That's my concern. The world's
going to be the world, isn't it? Now, we hate sin. We hate
what's going on. But I'll tell you where I hate
sin most. I ashamed myself. But praise
God, I just got to keep bringing in the remembrance, right? See?
I needed to. Just got to keep bringing in
the remembrance. Wayne, all your sins are washed in the fountain
of Christ's blood. Oh, my. Washed. Are you washed in the blood?
My. That dying thief rejoiced to
see that fountain in his day, didn't he? And me, though vile
as he, washed all our sins away in Christ's precious blood, right?
I didn't get that right, but you know the theme of that. We'd
be dipped in the same fountain, beloved. There's a fountain open,
the scripture says, right now for sin and uncleanness. Come,
the Spirit and the bride say, come, dip in that fountain of
Christ's blood and be made whiter than snow, washed clean in the
precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. Because he lives, we're gonna
live too, beloved. And we preach the same gospel
over and over and over again, just come at it from different
scriptures, right? And we, like every believer, go, man, is the
ink still dry in this Bible? I never saw that before. Right? Isn't that wonderful? Oh, my. It was there. It's just when
we needed it, God lit it up. The Holy Spirit lit it up. Bless
our souls. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell
you. So God's preachers, again, we
preach the same gospel over and over and over again. Because
there's only one gospel, right? There's only one gospel. My oh
my. And what does that one gospel
do? It shuts us up. It shuts us up
to Christ. You've often heard me say, my
brother actually had cattle for a while and he had to bring them
into this little thing where they check them out and a door
comes and closes behind them and they can't go forward and
they can't go backward. That's what happens to us, beloved.
The gospel shuts us in to Christ. We can't move back. We don't
want to, but we can't move back. If we move back, we just bump
into the little fence back there. And we can't move forward to
run off. We can't go side to side because
we're already buckled in so close. There's my king. See how good
the Lord is? Otherwise, we'd break out and
run away, wouldn't we? But I'll tell you what, no one caught
in the sovereign grip and grace of God will ever escape. And
then you never want to escape, will you? Lord, keep me penned
up. Keep me penned up. Because I'm
like that little sheep. Wander over you. Keep me penned
up, Lord, please. And he does. He keeps an eye
on us. He carries us, like Zane and I were talking. Zane got
rid of that footprints in the sand thing. He had one. He said,
I threw it away, Wayne, after I heard that there's only one
set of footprints in the sand, and it ain't ours. It's God's. It's Christ's. He carries us
the whole way through this life, doesn't he? He does. Oh man,
it's so true. It's so true. He's the one. Look
at this. Look at this here. God makes
this gospel effectual. Look, Galatians chapter 1, verses
6 to 10. I marvel, he's writing to the
Galatians who the Judaizers have come in. He says, I marvel that
you're so soon removed from him, that's Christ, that called you
unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not
another. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. How does one pervert
the gospel of Christ? By adding works. Saying you have
to do such and such to be saved. And I say such and such because
there's all kinds of different things there. Right? Anyone who
says it's Christ plus something you have to do, that's a false
gospel. Just flag it, brother and sister, and just say it's
a false gospel. That's it. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we
have preached unto you, let them be accursed." That's anathema
in the Greek. That's one of the strongest language. Who's the true author of these
words? God the Holy Spirit. He is saying if anyone preaches
another gospel, they're damned. They're damned. If they continue
in that and die in their sins in that, they're damned. That's
how serious it is. As we have said before, so say
I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than
that you have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade
man or God? So when I'm preaching the gospel,
do I persuade man or God? Well, I'm to fear God over everything,
right? I'm not to preach as a man pleaser.
There's a lot of guys out there that claim to be preachers and
they're man pleasers. You guys know I'm my own man.
I'll preach the gospel, what God taught me. And it's only
God who's made me that way. It's only God who's made me that
way. That's how he made me. By the grace of God, I'll just
keep preaching Christ. My oh my. Amen, brother, amen. He says, do I seek to please
man? For if I yet please man, I should not be a servant of
Christ. So if I preach a gospel that pleases man, see, you take
the offense of the gospel away when you say it's Christ plus
something you have to do. That pleases man. But when you
preach like grace, or not just grace preachers, but anyone who's
truly sent by God to preach the gospel, they say it's Christ
plus nothing. And that's not a pleasing message
to man, let me tell you that. It's not a pleasing message.
I know, because the first time I heard it, before I was saved,
I'm like, you get out of my face, dude, I don't want to hear this.
And I didn't say it that nicely. But now, preach to me. Oh, tell me about Christ. Tell
me about Christ. Tell me about, I just want to
hear about my King. Tell me about what he's done for me. Tell me
he saved my soul. Oh, hallelujah. Right? Oh my, my, oh my. Brother Brian, can you close
us in prayer?