Well, as I said, it's good to
be with y'all again this morning and glad to see you. I almost feel like half the message
that I got this morning, just to forget about it, because Denny
preached half of it this morning in his Sunday school lesson,
but the Lord lined it up that way, I guess, for some reason.
But if you wanna turn, turn to Philippians chapter three. Philippians
chapter three, that's the first passage that we're gonna be coming
to. Ephesians chapter three. I have noticed that since I've
been here, that if you all use your electronic Bibles, which
I don't have a problem with at all, Some guys have a problem
with that, so I would be mindful of that. But I don't have a problem
with that at all. But it is strange coming in. You don't hear. You hear. Anyway, Philippians chapter three
will be the first passage of scripture that we're going to
read this morning. And I was thinking about a few
things this week, and normally as the Lord is putting things
on my heart and on my mind to preach about, throughout the
week and the stuff that I'm studying, I'll usually on Facebook, I'll
post a few thoughts out that I'm thinking about and usually
see some of the feedbacks from some of the brethren or some
of the scorn and scorched earth from others. But this week I
decided, well, you know, I really don't know exactly what I'm gonna
preach about. And as the day got closer and closer, I was
like, well, Lord, what are you gonna do? So I began to look
at a few things and I thought, well, I'm not gonna put this
out on Facebook because the last couple of times I've been here,
Denny has preached just about everything that I was gonna say
in his teaching time. And so I'm not gonna put anything
out just in case he's sneaking around looking at my notes on
Facebook. So I did put my notes out. And
then today the same thing happened. So I have a sneaky suspicion
that the Lord is just trying to line up the messages. So,
but anyway, this morning I would like to ask you a question and
hopefully be able to expound upon it through God's word. This
won't be a, we're not gonna be looking at a specific set of
verses. We're gonna be looking at several
different verses this morning. So it won't be an exposition
of a passage, but I wanted to ask the question exactly why
do we meet? And whenever we do meet, what's
our message? That's kind of what I wanted
to look at this morning, is why do we gather together and why
do we meet? You know, we all know that it
is very important to be a part and a member of a local assembly,
a local gathered assembly, that the Lord has instructed us that.
Matter of fact, in the commission, the Bible tells us that we are
to go and make disciples, then we are to baptize those disciples,
and then we are to teach them all things whatsoever Christ
has commanded, and that just assumes the fact that they are
gonna be meeting with us for us to be doing that. The part
of the commission is a three-part commission. It's make the disciples,
baptize the disciples, and then instruct those disciples in the
things that Christ has taught. And most churches, they fail
on especially that third one, but a lot of them fell on number
two and number three. You know, they think the gospel
is just going out into the world and preaching the gospel. You
know, we got to get missionaries running around everywhere to
preach the gospel and that's evangelism. But that's not what
the commission is all about. And what we do out there and
what we do in here sometimes is a little bit different. Out
there we have a message of the gospel that we are, as Denny
said this morning, we are preaching to people that we don't know
if God's given them ears to hear. Okay? The biggest assumption is that
those that are here have been given ears to hear. That doesn't
mean that there's not going to be people that come in among
us that are inquisitive or trying to find out what you're all about
or whatever that might come in. And there may be even times that
we as a church make a mistake and assume that somebody has
been born from above and that they are candidates for baptism
and we baptize them. And then we bring them into church
membership. but yet find at some point that
they really never was of us because they left out from us and never
returned. And so we can easily make those
mistakes. But for the most part, we understand
that those who are in the church are baptized believers, those
who have already been given of God to believe upon the gospel.
to be able to have spiritual ears and understanding to be
able to be taught of God the things of the word of God. And
so what we do when we come together and what we do outside sometimes
is often different. But I will say the message is
still the same. When we come here together, there
is a misconception today among a lot of people that the gathering
of the brethren and what it's all about. To some, they do believe
that this time that we come together is an evangelistic crusade to
win lost souls for God. That's not what we're here for
today. That's not the reason why the church meets together.
For others, they feel that this is a time for social posturing,
to make themselves look good before the community, to give
themselves somewhat of a free conscience that they have done
their duty of religion. That's not what we're here for today.
If you're using the Lord to make yourself look better down at
the city ordinances and all the stuff that goes on in town and
the coffee shops and stuff like that, you're meeting for the
wrong reason. Still, there's another group,
though, who seem to have a desire for God. They carry their Bibles
to the meeting house, They come to be instructed and to be taught
what to do and what not to do. They have their ears filled with
the admonition to go forth and accomplish. That's not what we're
here for either. What is the gathering of the
church about, brethren? Many today come and go from church
to seek that which comforts them. You know, I found that out now
over the years, not only in pastoring where I'm at, but in traveling
around and preaching in conferences and before going to many different
churches. People, they come and they go,
and what they're doing is they are seeking a place that comforts
them. And I'm not necessarily saying
that that's wrong. Whenever I go to a church, I
find comfort when I hear the true gospel of Jesus Christ being
preached. It comforts me. The Bible says,
comfort ye, comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell them what
the Lord hath done. See, that's the comfort for God's
people, right? So, I'm not necessarily saying that's
not a bad thing or saying that that is a bad thing to go to
be comforted, but most of the time, whenever we go to be comforted,
it is, whenever we leave, we want to feel good. We want to
have experienced some great singing, an energetic preacher that's
charismatic in his delivery, that's got all of his stuff down
point, you know, good orator. Everybody was nice to me. They
shook my hands. They told me how nice I looked.
You know, whatever the case might be, we want to go away feeling
good about ourselves. And for some, all of that gives
them great comfort. They find peace that they have
made it to the church house and offered themselves to God. And
so they feel better about themselves. They come, they participate,
some more than others. They give service and time and
they leave and go back home and back into the world knowing that
they've pleased their God, been given marching orders, left all
at the altar, been blessed by God and have been recharged for
another week. And so they find themselves churches
that tickle the ear and give them the comfort that they desire.
Whenever the message or environment is not right for them though,
and they cease to be comforted, they leave and they search for
another place to hang their hat. Some may even stumble into a
true church, true gospel preaching church, who is meeting in spirit
and in truth, However, whenever that message of grace is preached,
they cry, why do y'all keep kicking that same dead horse? Why do
y'all keep kicking that same thing? Y'all just got your little
candy stick and that's what you wanna preach and can you get
over that? Is there anything else that you
can preach besides that? God's sovereignty, election,
predestination? Is that all that you know? They feel that we're preaching
the same thing over and over. They may even cry, you know,
why don't you tell us something new? Tell us how to live. Have you ever had somebody do
that? Can y'all just, I would like you to preach and just tell
us how to live. We want application. We don't
want all that doctrine, we want application. Tell us how to live,
preacher. Tell us what we must do to do
the works of God. Anything but the same old sovereign
grace rhetoric that you guys keep pushing on us. Well, brethren,
are we beating dead horses when we do that? Is it just a, as
my grandpa would call it, your candy stick? It's what we find in every verse,
every line, on every page of scripture? Just rhetoric? I don't believe it is. So what
is the meeting of the brethren about and what is the message?
What is it about and what is the message? Well, the meeting
of the brethren is for the worship of God. That's why we've come
to meet. Like I said, it's not an evangelistic place. This isn't
where you come to get your lost friend saved. This is the place
of worship where those who are already saved come and hear and
extol the God who saved them. That's why you're here. We come
to worship. We come to worship Him. And the
message that we preach is the message of Him, not you. The
message we preach is what God has done for you in salvation,
what God is, who God is, what He has done. We preach about
His creation. We preach from Genesis to Revelation and we
shy away from none of it. We preach the whole counsel of
God, but what we find when we preach the whole counsel of God
is that there is a thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation,
and it's the man Jesus Christ, who had God in flesh, has come
and redeemed his people from sin and made a perfect sacrifice,
a successful sacrifice, a sure sacrifice, and that all for whom
he died will be brought to him. That's the message we preach.
So whether you're preaching from Genesis, Habakkuk, Micah, Matthew,
Acts, the Revelation, no matter where you're preaching, the message
will be the same. It's gonna be Jesus, Christ and
Him crucified. It's not gonna be about pumping
you up, making you a better life, making you a better Christian.
More law for you to keep and more patting you on the back
about how well you've kept it when we all know that you haven't,
right? The Bible says that we are here
for worship, the worship, the fellowship of the brethren. Now,
whenever the brethren meet to worship, it's for the worship
of God, the edification of the saints, and the fellowship of
the brethren. Those three things you should always find in a church.
You should find the worship of God, and in that details, the
singing of the hymns, the preaching of the word, prayer, those things
are, and giving, Those are all part of worship to God. You'll
find the edification of the brethren. You'll find the brethren building
each other up in love. Okay, building each other up
in love. Need to stress that word love,
because a lot of churches today, you don't see much love among
the brethren. We build each other up in love.
We admonish each other on in the word of God. We pray for each other. We mourn
with those who mourn. We weep with those who weep.
We rejoice with those who rejoice. We actually know their names. We actually talk to them outside
of church. We have them on our minds. We
have them on our hearts. We have their best interests
in mind. Whenever we come to worship God,
part of that worship is interaction with the brethren. Why? Because we've come and formed
a body. That body is exercising worship
to its head. The leader, the chief of the
church, we are worshiping as one unit. The Bible says that
we are one loaf. That one loaf is offering up
worship to God. That one body is offering up
worship to one God. That bride is offering up one
worship to God. We come in unity. The Bible speaks
how good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell in unity. So part of worship is our coming
together as a people of God, forming one body and offering
up worship to God for the edification of the brethren, for fellowship
with the brethren. The Bible speaks often of how
they met from house to house and how they ate together. and
how they spent time together, and how they grieved together,
and how they accomplished things together, how they did things
together. And so a lot of times we miss
that in many churches today. But let's look at what the Bible
talks about these things, about worship. In Philippians chapter
three, if you've already turned there, Philippians chapter three,
and look with me if you would down at verse three. The scripture says, for we are
the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, there's a
lot to unpack there. I'm not gonna try to unpack that
today, but what I want you to see here is that we who are the
circumcision, now, I'm hoping everybody here understands what
is being meant here when it means the circumcision, right? We're
not talking about ethnical, national people, okay? We're not talking
about Jews in ethnicity or religion. We're not talking about Israelites
in ethnicity or anything, nationality or anything like that. We're
talking about the spiritual people of God. That's what we're talking
about. That whole nation of Israel,
all that was was one big symbol of what is true in the spirit
of the people of God, okay? God chose the nation of Israel
to be a picture and a type of his people who are spiritual. Paul makes that very clear. There's
lots of places that we could go and look at that shows that
it isn't those who are the children of the flesh, but the children
who are of the faith or children of the spirit. Those are the
ones who are accounted as the heirs or the people of God, okay? And so whenever he says that
for we are the circumcision, he's meaning that it isn't about
the outward show, it isn't about the fleshly things, it isn't
about the religious ornaments, the religious activity, it isn't
about all those things, it's about what's in the heart, what
has happened to us in the heart. God has borne us from above,
as Denny said this morning, while we are still flesh in this vessel
of clay, this vessel of flesh, There is a new man, there is
a new creation, a new creature. It's the Holy Spirit of God that
comes in us. It's not two natures that we
have. One nature is the nature of the flesh and one nature is
the nature of a regenerated person. We have one nature and that is
of the flesh and the flesh is just flesh and it can never please
God. And so any worship that is done
through the outwardness, and I'm not saying that there's not
gonna be some outward show of worship, but what I'm saying,
if it's all an outward thing, if all we do is worship God outwardly
by what we do, we love nice singing, we love nice music, we love those
things, but if that's what brings us to worship, we've not worshiped. If it's about being with this
person or that person or the preacher or the band or whatever
the case might be, that's not worship. Worship doesn't come
from outside, it comes from inside. Worship comes from that new man
of the heart who breaks forth like a spring, the Bible says,
that never will run dry. It breaks forth in rejoicing
over what has been done. The Bible says that the Spirit,
whenever the Spirit is given to us, it testifies of Christ,
right? So the worship that comes from
that inner man that has been given to us in the new birth
will testify of Christ. The worship will be the worship
of Christ. And so he says here, the circumcision,
those who have been, the ones who are spiritual, Not outwardly,
but inwardly. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit. You notice he didn't mention
much about the letter, right? He said those who worship in
the Spirit. He said we must worship in Spirit. We are the circumcision which
worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. See,
they go hand in hand. Worship and rejoicing in Christ
Jesus go hand in hand. That's exactly what worship is.
Rejoicing in Christ Jesus. That's why I say here today,
really the only people that can really do what you're meant to
do when you come together as the church are those who have
Christ Jesus in them. They're the only ones who can
rejoice in Christ Jesus because it's only them who are truly
the circumcised. What is circumcision? It's the
cutting away of the flesh. While we have the flesh outwardly,
inwardly, that flesh has been cut away and the Spirit has been
given to us. We worship God in the Spirit. Look in John chapter four. John
chapter four and verse 23. Jesus speaking to the woman of
Samaria here. Let's start at verse 21. It says, Jesus said unto her,
Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this
mountain nor at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know
not what we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit, and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now, what we find today, brethren,
is a lot of people that go from one extreme to the other. It's
either they all wanna worship him in the spirit, and they don't
care nothing about the truth, what they call in the spirit,
right? You understand that? or they're
over here and we are gonna be so doctrinally straight that
there is no spirit of the letter here. It's the dead letter, but
no spirit. But here Christ says that those
who are his people will worship him in spirit and in truth. Yes,
we worship from our spirits. Yes, we rejoice in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Yes, we worship in the things
that are unseen. But brethren, we also do it in
truth. There is a pattern that the Lord
has given us in how we are to worship Him. You remember in
the Old Testament, there were two of the priest's sons who
offered strange fire to God. And whenever they offer that
strange fire, what did God do? Do you say, well, that's all
right. They just don't know what they're doing. You know, that's
not what happened. God killed them. They thought to themselves, and
they may have even really truly been in their minds. Hey, you
know, Hey, the Bible doesn't say we can't do this. Well, it
didn't say you could either. And so they offered that strange
fire and God killed him. Whenever Uzzah put his hand to
the ark, after God had said, you don't touch the ark, hey,
he was just offering up help to keep that ark from falling
into the mud. But God said, that ain't the
way you do it. So brethren, there is truth in how God demands him
to be worshiped. And so we do have a pattern that
God has given us in our worship. And we worship that in truth.
We worship him in spirit. We don't become so dead in the
letter of following those rigid things that we forget the spirit
of those things. But we surely don't in the spirit
say, well, kumbaya, everybody's okay. We don't have to worry
about that. That's just legalism. No, brethren, there is a prescription. There is a balance of spirit.
and truth, but notice if you would, I just want to make a
side note of this in verse 23. The very last portion of that,
he says, for the father seeketh such to worship him. I want you
to know that that verse there is not saying that God is looking
out and trying to find who it is that's doing this for him.
No, the Father is seeking these people out and bringing them
to worship in spirit and truth. The Father seeketh such to worship
Him. He seeks them out. They don't
seek Him out. No man seeketh after God, okay? These churches that build themselves
up as a seeker-sensitive church, and they do all of their whatever
to appease those outside who might be seeking God, The Bible
says no man seeketh after God. You know who the seeker is, the
one who's been born from above? He's the one who seeks after
God. The one who's been born from above has been given that
faith to look to Christ. He has seen his sin left without
hope in need of the gospel. He is seeking for an answer for
the problem that that new man inside has realized, I am just
flesh and I can't please God. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
is gonna deliver me from this body of death? Who is gonna bring
to me salvation? Because I know that in my flesh
dwells no good thing and I cannot do what this Bible is telling
me to do. That's the seeker. And that man
cannot seek unless he's been given from above to do so. So
the Father isn't looking out, looking for those who are already
doing this, the Father. And I hope you understand, whenever
it speaks of the Father here, it is speaking of God. We know
that Christ, the Father, the Holy Spirit, when we talk about
these, we're talking about one God. So if the Holy Spirit is
the one who is drawing or seeking, Jesus said that he seeks after
his sheep, right? But who is it that's actually
seeking those sheep and finding them? Well, it's the Spirit.
Well, here it says the Father is the one that's seeking. It's
the same God, brethren. It's the same God. The Father
seeketh such to worship him. He makes sure that it is those.
God is the Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth. When we come together to worship,
it must be in a balance of spirit and in truth. Look with me, if
you would, to 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. Verse 13. Starting in verse 12, to get
the context here, Paul has just, before all of this, has just
made a big proclamation that the things that they preach does
not come from the wisdom of men. It's found in the wisdom of God.
Okay? And that only those who are of
the Spirit know the things of the Spirit, and only those who
are of the flesh knows the things of the flesh. And he says, now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit
which is of God, for what purpose? That we might know what's freely
given to us. The spirit's given to you that
you might know sovereign grace. The things that are freely given
to you, brethren, what are we talking about? Imputation. Eternal
imputation of righteousness. to you, what Ephesians talks
about, all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, those things
that were given to you in Christ Jesus before the world began,
the things freely given to you. What was freely given to you?
Well, number one, love was freely given to you. He has loved us
with an everlasting love, not according to our works, having
done neither good nor bad, that the purpose of election might
stand. God said, I loved Jacob. Free. Number two, he's given
us free imputation of righteousness. He's given us justification freely. He's given us sanctification
freely. He's given us glorification freely. Our preserving perseverance is
free. There's nothing conditional.
There's nothing conditional from the eternal. aspect, there is
nothing conditional in the practical aspect. It's all free to you
by Christ. Now, if that's not sovereign
grace, I don't know what is. That is the very definition of sovereign
grace. Grace given sovereignly by God
who can choose to give to one and not to another. Sovereign
grace is to be able to love one and not the other, to choose
one and not the other, to give mercy upon whom he has mercy,
to harden whom he wants to harden, that is sovereign. And grace
is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we have been given the
Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given us of God, which things also we speak not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth,
comparing spiritual things to spiritual." Brethren, if you're
always looking at the letter of things, if you're trying to
find the wooden literal sense of everything in God's Word,
you're gonna miss the great wonder that is in the scripture. If
all we're doing is looking at the scripture in a hard, wooden,
literal sense, and I'm not saying that there aren't places that
we take the Bible literally. I've been asked before, now,
do you believe that we should interpret the Bible literally,
or should we interpret the Bible figuratively, or spiritually,
or how do you think? I said, well, I believe that
we ought to literally interpret the Bible. I think we literally
ought to interpret it in the way that it was intended to be
interpreted. If it's spiritual, spiritual. If it's wooden literal,
take it wooden literal. If it's symbolic, take it symbolic.
If it's poetic, poetic. If it's, you know, if it's a
metaphor, take it as a metaphor. If it's a historical thing, take
it as a historical thing. But yeah, I believe that we ought
to interpret it as it's meant to be interpreted. So it's kind
of my way of not answering the question, but answering the question.
Rightly forming the question, I guess I should say. But what
do we do here? It says here that we compare
spiritual things with spiritual. See, like I said a while ago,
all of Nation of Israel, people have put that on such a pedestal
that now they have made an idol out of Israel. Israel was there to be a symbol,
a type, of the spiritual people of God to show us what it is
to be the children of God. They were not perfect by any
stretch of the means. Matter of fact, they went a whoring
many times on God, and he kept bringing them back, kept bringing
them back, kept bringing them back, just like we are today.
Every one of you sitting in here today, you've run after your
idols. Time and time and time again, how often have we done
that? And the Lord has continuously pursued us in love. He hasn't
turned His face from us. In love, He has chastened us
and brought us back to Him. See, that's comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. We don't look at those things.
So in our worship, we compare spiritual things with spiritual
is to get down to the word of God and look for the spiritual
intent of what it is saying. And we'll find that the spiritual
core of everything in God's word is the glorification of Jesus
Christ. Not you, not me. Not the preacher,
not the church, although the church has very high importance
to Christ in his gospel, in his ministry. But brethren, the church
is not the pinnacle. If all we do is preach about
the church, we're missing the mark. If all we're doing is preaching
about your law keeping, we've missed the mark by a long shot.
If we're preaching about you know, worldly things, we're missing
the mark. In everything, it comes back
to Christ. It comes back to Him. Our worship is of Him. I have
four or five other verses that have to do with worship, but
for time's sake, I'm gonna skip them, because they do basically
say a lot of the same things. I'll be glad to give you my notes
if you want them afterwards. The other thing that we look
at is edification. In 1 Thessalonians chapter five
and verse 11, we see that the Bible says, wherefore, comfort
yourselves together and edify one another. We are admonished
to edify one another. How often, brethren, are you
thinking about that, praying about that, about edifying your
brothers and sisters in Christ? In 1 John 2, 19, we know that
the Bible says that they went out from us, but they were not
of us. Now, matter of fact, go ahead
and turn to that one. I was going to just kind of quote
that, but I want you to read this because a lot of people
tend to miss this here. 1 John chapter two and verse 19. It says, they went out from us,
but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Okay, so they went out from us
so that it may be made manifest that they were not all of us. Now, as I was saying a while
ago, sometimes we make mistakes as preachers and as churches
in bringing people into membership who, on the outward, had looked
like everything was good. You know, they believed the gospel,
they were baptized, but found out later that it was all, you
know, I've always said, that's why you can't look at the outward
appearance of things. You know, really the belief of
the gospel and the love for the brethren, that's kind of the
telltale signs. You can't hardly mimic that.
Now, somebody might be able to parrot that for a long time,
but eventually that becomes wearisome to them. But we see that they
went out from us. As we edify one another, we build
each other up in love, but sometimes there is issues that come up
and people get mad and they leave. Now that isn't a sign necessarily
that the church is not doing what it should as far as edification
is concerned. But brethren, it surely tells
us that there may be some among us who do not believe as we believe. Matter of fact, In 1 Corinthians
chapter 11 and verse 19 the Bible tells us here that For there
must also there must also be Let me get this straight. For
there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. That's kind of just the opposite
here. That word heresies there, a lot of us put forth that that's
someone who's preaching false doctrine or false teaching. While
that could be a source of heresy, absolutely, but the word heresy
actually means division. those who cause division. If
there's any among you who are causing divisions, that these divisions must be
among you so that it may be made manifest, those who are approved
among you. Now, how are we approved? Well,
we're approved in Christ, right? We're not approved by how good
we are, how good of a member we are. We're approved because
we are in Christ. He has made us accepted in the
beloved or approved of God, right? He's our righteousness. That's
how we're approved of God. And so what... These heresies
are these splits when edification isn't happening and some say,
wait a minute, I don't like that. And they want to go their own
way and they go out from us because they never was of us. Those divisions,
those heresies must come. so that it shows or makes manifest
those who have been approved. It's the separating of the wheat
and the tares. That's why God said, don't pull
them up, that's my job. So unless it's something overtly
that the Bible tells us in this instance, like with the incestuous
man, they should have put him out of the church, right? But
if it's like, man, I don't know, that guy seems to be a Christian,
but I don't know. Well, the Lord will deal with that. The Lord
will deal with that. We just continue to edify, build
each other up, preach the gospel. And I say that, and I'm not gonna
just leave it there, so for those who are saying, wait a minute,
pastor, you got more to say about that. Hang on, I'm gonna say it, but I gotta
get to it first. Those who are not of us will
always find the worship and the preaching that is biblical to
be offensive, and they won't want it. See, if they're not
of us, The preaching of grace is not going to be something
that they want to hear. They want to hear their conditions.
The scriptures say that they are at enmity with God in that
message. They're at enmity with the fact
that God controls everything and they don't have a hand in
it. They're at enmity with the fact that Jesus did it all and
there isn't something that they're going to be able to glorify in.
They're at enmity with that. By nature, they are at enmity
with that. And without the Spirit of God
in them, they will continue to be at enmity with that. The only
reason that we love this message and because we who are the approved
continue to meet and worship God over this message is because
we have been made no longer enemies of God, but we have been made
heirs. We have been made to know this
grace that we've been given. So don't be surprised, brethren,
that many will have a zeal for God, but deny the power thereof. Don't be surprised that they
will turn from the narrow way and go the broad way to have
their itching ears tickled. Now with that said, I believe
that we as preachers and teachers of the gospel should be diligent
to preach the whole counsel of God. Don't stay on your hobby
horse, okay? Preach the whole counsel of God.
Precept upon precept, line upon line, here little, there little.
But whenever we do, we're gonna see that, as I said earlier,
there is a constant theme of all scripture, and that's God's
exaltation and glory in the particular and effectual salvation of Christ
Jesus alone. This message, this gospel is
manifested because of what God has done already in the heavenlies
before the foundation of the world through the everlasting
covenant and the true tabernacle not pitched with hands by the
Lamb slain. Now in 2 Timothy 1.9 we're told
that God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. It's being carried out in time,
manifested to the sons of God what God has predestined and
providentially bringing to pass. Verse 10, but is now made manifest. But is now made manifest. See,
our salvation was eternal. It was before the foundation
of the world. But is now being made manifest
by the appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light. through the gospel. In Ephesians chapter one, verses
three through six, the Bible tells us that, blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He has chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him and love. Notice
that we were chosen to be holy before Him, without blame and
love, before the foundation of the world, not in time where
you get better and better and better and become holy. You're
already holy, brethren. Every one of you is as holy as
Christ is right now. I believe the last time I was
here, I think I preached on your complete in Him, right? Can you
get more complete? No, you're not. And you're not
gonna make that flesh any better, so don't try. Now, that's not
to say that we aren't to, you know, that when we go out of
here, you know, let's not go down and get drunk and, run around
on our spouses or anything like that. I'm saying that if you're
trying to make yourself right before God and think that you're
gonna become more holy in and of yourself, that's not gonna
happen. He says that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise and glory of his
grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. You
notice that none of that was us? It didn't say you or I, any
condition to be met by you. All of that was completely outside
of you, apart from you, had nothing to do with us. That is the gospel
that is free, that freely has been given to us. And brethren,
listen, your preacher that you find, Lord willing, every preacher
of grace, the preacher that you used to have, I know, whenever
they declare these things, that all of it is the sovereign work
of God of bringing about His glory and salvation by Christ
alone, People aren't going to like it. They're going to run
from it. Some will stay, some will go.
But brethren, listen, this is the gospel. It's the sum of all
scripture. It is the food and nourishment upon which the sheep
feed. That's why Jesus was called the bread of life and said that
they that ate his flesh and drank his blood had life. They feed
off of his sacrificial work alone. That's their food. See, listen,
And here's where Denny began to meddle into my sermon this
morning. No preacher or teacher can teach them this. Matter of fact, or nothing else
in God's word, really. We are all taught of God first
and then preachers and teachers are given to preach and teach
that which is confirmed in the heart of one already taught of
God. Whenever I say anything, or Denny
says anything, or when Tom said anything, or anybody else that
preaches up here for you guys, whenever they say something in
your heart, you say, amen, that's the truth. And you see that in
the word of God, and you realize that's the truth, and you rejoice
in your soul over the truth being taught. It's not the preacher
that taught you that. It was the Holy Spirit who taught
you that. The preacher just have also been taught of that and
it was confirmed to you in your heart of the truth that that
man is speaking the truth because the Holy Spirit taught you. In
Jeremiah 31, 33 through 35, the Bible says, but this shall be
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts, and I will write in their hearts, and will be their God,
and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know
the Lord. for they shall all know me, from the least of them
unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive
their iniquity and will remember their sin no more." Listen, brethren,
the people of God are gonna know God. They're gonna be taught
of God. And I hear people all the time,
You must be a mystic. You think God's just gonna infuse
that understanding into them without a preacher? Or without,
you know, a theology book? Or what about confessions of
faith? I hear that all the time whenever I denounce men who go
to confessions of faith to prove what they believe. They say,
oh, so you think you know more than all these divines of old? I say, I've only been given to
know what I know. whatever light's been given me
to know. And if I'm not deceived, all I can say is what I see in
the scriptures. And then I'm usually quick to
tell them, you might tell me what I don't know, but you can't
tell me what I do know. Only the spirit can tell me that. We shall all know Him. John 6,
45 says, it is written in the prophets that they shall all
be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard, hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Where did they
learn? They were taught of God. Why
did they come? Because they were taught of God. Why do they stay? Because they're
taught of God. They're being taught. They are
resonating with the message. Why? Because there's life in
them. They wanna hear that message. In John 16, 13, the Bible says,
how be it when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself. What about
all these churches that all they speak about is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit's gonna tell them, you better start speaking
about Jesus. He shall not speak of himself, But whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to
come. Who is it that's gonna speak
that? The Spirit of truth is gonna teach us those things.
1 John 2, verse 27 says, but the anointing which ye have received
of him abideth in you. Do you realize, brethren, these
preachers on TV and on the radio that keep telling you, talk about
this anointing, ah, we got the anointing of God, you know, and
they slobber all over the stage and they've got people acting
drunk and slain in the spirit, rolling in the aisle, speaking
in gibberish and all this kind of stuff, and they talk about
this being a work of God and everything. Listen, You already have the anointing.
The anointing was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That's the
anointing. He says here, but the anointing
which ye have received abideth in you. And ye need not any man
teach you. But as the same anointing teaches
you, notice that he uses the word anointing interchangeably
with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of truth is the one
who indwells you, who is bringing you into all truth. Well, here
he's calling him the anointing. The Holy Spirit is the anointing. It's a person. It's the Spirit
of Christ who has come into you. And that's the anointing. And
that is who is teaching you. Christ is teaching you. You're
being taught of God. But the same anointing teaches
you of all things and is truth and is no lie. And even as it
has taught you, ye shall abide in him. So people coming and attending,
then leaving, are leaving because they are not being fed what they
desire to eat. It's not their message. See,
that's why I entitled this, you know. Our meeting and our message. Our meeting is not for them out
there. It's for us. And our message is not for them
out there. It's for us. Because we're the
only ones that's gonna find nourishment from it. We're the only ones
that's gonna rejoice in it. And they may think they want
what's in here, but as soon as they come in, and after a while,
they start to hearing it, and it isn't about them, They're
gone. And a lot of churches like yours
and like ours that are so small and every person that comes and
we lose one person, our hearts just break because we hate to
see them go, you know? But listen, brethren, sometimes
it can get in our mind, oh, we better adjust our message. We
better adjust our methods. We better start doing something
to make this more palatable to everybody out there, or otherwise
we're gonna lose everybody. And listen, I know of a couple
of churches that I've had close fellowship with over the years
that have fallen into this trap. They exist no more. They're not
even there. But listen, brethren, these people
that are coming, there is no confirming in their heart the
Spirit's teaching. They're leaving because there's
no confirming of what they're hearing. If your preacher is
faithful in preaching Christ crucified and the full gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace, listen, the sheep will be fed
because it will confirm what God has taught them in their
heart and in their mind. Predestination and election as
well as all things pertaining to the gospel of free grace They
bring the comfort to us. They bring the comfort to God's
people because it tells them of what God has done and not
what they must do. Now this again cannot be taught
by men or learned by the reprobate and false religionist. It must
be put in the heart of the person and testified by the spirit to
the one quickened to know it. And so whenever they hear the
preacher, they are comforted by the hearing of the truth and
the message of Christ. Notice if you would, in Isaiah
chapter 40, I just read this, but I want you to notice, I quoted
this, but I want you to notice something. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. How? Is the preacher to comfort
them with warm words, ship stories? Is he supposed to comfort them
and you're doing a good job? Boy, I remember the depths that
you were in when you first came to Christ, but my, look how well
you've walked that road now. Now, I think we ought to encourage
one another, don't get me wrong. But brethren, a lot of preachers,
all they want to do is pat people on the back and make them feel
good. What makes me feel good is to
hear that the experience I have is continual failure. but free
salvation isn't about what I do. That makes me feel good. It comforts me. I'll eat that
sandwich all day long. Pardon if that seemed to be blasphemous
to say that, but don't forget, Jesus did say
whenever he met with the woman at the well, I have food that
you have not known of. And he sent the men in to get
some. And they said, did you have some meat that we don't know about?
So sandwich ain't too far out of the way. It's part of a sandwich.
Brethren, we comfort the sheep by telling them what God has
done. So don't think that your preacher is neglecting the masses
if you start seeing people leave. That's God's business. That's
God's business. Now granted, if he is doing something,
you ought to talk to him about it. The Lord will build his church. Your preacher is to take the
whole counsel of God and comfort Christ's people, not with wishy-washy
truth, but with truth that is hard sayings for some and sweet
savors for others. In John 6, 59, the Bible says,
these things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many,
therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this, said,
this is a hard saying, and who can hear it? And when Jesus knew
in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto
them, doth this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man
ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profit nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life, but there are some of you
that believe not. For Jesus, he knew from the beginning who they were that believed not
and who should betray him. And he said, therefore said I
unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
to him of God. That word come means believe, right? No man
can believe unto me, except it were given unto him of my father.
From that time, many of the disciples went back and walked no more
with him. Then Jesus said unto the twelve,
will ye go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God." Listen, brethren, the Lord's people love
and speak of His power to one another. This is precious to
them. I love sitting in your class
and hearing you guys, when Denny is talking, you responding, finishing
his comments, finishing his verses, saying amen. I love to hear that. Why? Because that means, for
one, you're engaged in what's being talked about. Second of
all is you're loving what's there. You know you've been given to
know that. You understand what he's getting
at. When a preacher hears those things, it's blessing to his
ears because he knows that he is preaching to those and feeding
those sheep of Christ. It's a blessing. But Jesus there,
the best preacher, the best teacher. Listen, Jesus knew his audience,
right? Jesus knew the hearts of every
man. So he knew how to approach in preaching. He knew the subject
better than anybody else could know it, because he spoke it,
right? He knew everything. And you can't
tell me he wasn't the best orator. You can't tell me that he wasn't
the best deliverer. You can't tell me that he didn't
know exactly what to preach on every time he got up to preach.
He knew, but yet what do we see here? Not everybody believed. See, The result isn't because
your preacher ain't preaching the right message. The result
isn't because your teachers aren't teaching the right message. Those
are God's businesses, okay? So the success of the church
and its worship isn't on how many people are coming and being
saved. It isn't about how many numbers are being filled up in
the pews. Listen, Jesus, experienced people
who did not believe. And it was just as Denny said
this morning, it was because they were not of God. They didn't
believe because they were not of God. Those who are of God,
hear God's voice, hear God's message and rejoice in heart
over that message. And these disciples, just like
Simon Peter said, where are we going to go? You're the only
one who's out here telling us the things that's feeding our
soul. You're the only one that's feeding our soul. So brethren,
it comes down to two groups of people. The first is found in
2 Timothy 3.5, who have a form of godliness, but deny the power
thereof. And the Bible says, from such
turn away. Listen, these are false professors. These are the religionists. But
there is a second group of people that you're gonna find when it
comes to worship. In Psalms 145 verse 11, the Bible
says, they shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk
of thy power. In Malachi 3.16, the Bible says
this of those people. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard
it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. Now that
word name there, as I've mentioned, I think to you before, it means
his authority, his power. Is talking about God's sovereignty
too much, too much? Well, according to this, those
who fear the Lord, they think often of his name, his power,
his authority. Matter of fact, in Exodus, that
was one of the verses I skipped, but just a hint to it. In Exodus
chapter three, the Bible says that God's name is I am that
I am. That very phrase in that word, that name of God, I am
that I am, it speaks of his sovereignty. I will be who I will be. I will
do what I will do. No one's gonna tell me what to
be. No one's gonna tell me how to be. I will be who I'll be.
I'm the self-existent God who is sovereign over all things.
That's what that name means. And he told Moses, he said, this
is my name forever and make it a memorial unto the people forever. See, God's name, his sovereignty
is what we are to be reminded of as a memorial to God, who
he is. So preaching on sovereignty too
much, brethren, ain't too much. Now, I know this has been long,
but I said all that to say this. Don't worry about how visitors
come and go. I may have missed completely here. These are things
that I deal with as a pastor at our church. Little small people
come and go. We've had people come and go
since I've been there. Some people have been there for
a long time and left, and some people have come a short time
and left. Some people just walked in the door and saw the tracks
that was on the table and turned around and walked out. So I know that if we're experiencing
that as a gospel church, that surely you probably are too.
But don't worry about how visitors come and go. If they find the
preaching of the power and sovereignty of God and the salvation of his
people distasteful, then they may not belong there. My sheep
hear my voice and follow me. But Jesus who said that also
said, but some are of the father of the devil and his will they
will do. They believe His lies. They wanna hear lies about Jesus.
They wanna hear lies about God, lies about Christ and His salvation,
because they're of the devil, who is the father of lies, and
His will they'll do. They're gonna do and listen to
what He says. But I find comfort in 2 Corinthians
chapter two, verses 14 through seven. I'll read this and we'll
be through. Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us
to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge
by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ, in them that are saved, that's what we are, sweet savor
of Christ, unto them that are saved, and in them that perish. To one we are the savor of death
unto death, and to the other, the saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these
things? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God,
but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak
we in Christ." We come, we meet, and our meeting and our message
is Christ. It's for those who are of Christ
and it's about Christ. And there are going to be those
who do not believe. There are going to be those who
do not find that comforting. And while it breaks our heart
to see them go, we must understand that they don't have a palate
for that. They don't have a spiritual taste
for that. They don't have a spiritual heart for that. And that's why
they go out from us, because they never really was of us.
If they were of us, they would hear the same message and love
it, because that's the food that sheep eat. But goats, they eat
anything. Don't eat anything. Don't eat
the siding off your house if you ain't careful, okay? I've
seen a lot of shaking heads back there. I'm sure that that's from
experience. Brethren, I pray that the Lord
would lead you in your search for a pastor, but as you search,
don't forget what I said today. Find a preacher that preaches
and stands on this thing and doesn't get wishy-washy with
it. I know you guys good enough. I mean, you guys know the word
and you guys understand what I'm saying here. And I think
that you find that that's your heart as well. But brethren,
listen, there's a lot of men out there that they'll put on
a surface to get in your door. but that's not where their heart
is. And so we pray. We know that the Lord will lead
the man that he wants for you here, but we continue to pray
for you in those regards. But let's bow and ask the Lord
to, Denny or anybody, is there anything y'all want to say before
we dismiss or anything? Okay, well let's have a word
of prayer and you can do your time response. Heavenly Father, Lord,
we come this morning and we thank you for Christ Jesus, and we
thank you for the Church of Jesus Christ, and we thank you for
the brethren who love your word and who love the message of free
salvation. And Father, we pray that even
today, if there be any of yours that are here, Lord, that you
might just draw them to yourself. We ask, Lord, that you would
give them understanding of your word, the love of the truth.
Father, if they've not been baptized, that they would profess Christ
through baptism, Lord, to this church, and they might become
members, and they might gather together and band with these
brothers and sisters in the ministry of the gospel here in Delaware
and the surrounding towns. And so, Father, Lord, I just
pray that you just might glorify yourself here. We pray for the
man that you have for them, Lord, wherever he might be. We ask,
Lord, that you just might guide them, direct them in that search,
guide the man of your choice, Father, in his coming. Lord,
when we just pray that you would bless this church, I'm so thankful
to see that this church continuing to meet and to thrive and to
continue on and to faithfully hold the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And many people think that that's impossible without a pastor there,
but whenever the sheep know God's word, we don't need a preacher
or a teacher to teach those things for us to be able to continue
to function as a church, because the church isn't the pastor.
And we're thankful, Father, the way that you, as the head of
the church, keep your church, even in times of absence of a
pastor. And so, Father, Lord, we lift
them up to you and we ask, Lord, that you'd bless them, that you'd
be with them. We pray that there be unity among them as they deliberate
over these things and pray over these things, Lord. And as they
talk to men, we pray, Lord, that you might lead them in truth. And it's all in Christ's name
that we pray.