And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord. To them who are the called according
to his purpose. For whom he did for love, he
also did predestinate. And whom he predestinated, them
he also called. and whom he called, them he also
justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Who shall be able to separate
us from the love of God? I am persuaded that neither life,
nor death, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate
us from the love of God. And this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the atonement, the propitiation for our sins. Herein is our love made perfect,
made mature, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as he is, so are we in
this world. There is no fear in love, but
mature love casts out fear. Mature love will cast out, that
is, a knowledge of the mature love of God. Not simply, Jesus
loves me, this I know, but kind of beyond that, where you have
a real knowledge that God does love you, even though it is so
amazing. And we love him because he first
loved us. Cause and effect. So today I
bring the last discourse in this series of perfect or mature love,
Cast Out Fear. I will have taken the five golden
links in the chain of every Christian's spiritual biography. I just quoted
to you the five golden links, if you're a Christian, that he
before loved you, chose you, that he predestinated you. I don't want to be predestinated. Well, you, if you're a Christian,
you were. I don't like the word. Well,
if you're a Christian, you might as well get used to liking it
because the God of the Bible is a predestinating God. He's that great. Say, well, pastor, could you
give a little example of that? I will. It's not in my notes,
but I'll give it to you because I was thinking about it sitting
up here. That little Japanese family that went fishing with
me on that charter boat, salmon fishing, According to our tickets,
I wasn't to be on that boat and neither were they. We were gonna
be on a larger boat, but the larger boat got crowded. And
so the guy looks at me and he said, you sir are in for a great
day. You're going to be on this smaller
boat with this little family right here, the little Japanese
family. That was predestination. We had about a six-mile trip
on that boat, and this man's wife said to me, so what do you
do? I love it when people ask what
I do. I said something like this, kind
of smiling, I'm an agent. Oh, with the federal government?
No bigger than that. I said, actually, I'm a pastor.
Oh, we're on the boat with a pastor? I said, yes, you are. Her husband
was up front with the captain of the boat. And she said, I'm
a Christian. But he's not. Oh. So we spent nearly six hours
on that boat. I didn't catch a fish, didn't
even get to pick up the rod. And he caught the 11 pound salmon
and I caught him. That's the way God does. There
are no accidents with God. And God's bringing and calling
his people and they hear the good news, the glad tidings and
embrace it. So the golden links. The truth
is, if you are a Christian, you were foreknown, you were predestinated,
you were called, you were justified. And what we're going to talk
about this morning is that fifth link in that golden chain of
your spiritual biography. You shall be glorified for certain. Amen. You don't have to fear going
to hell. You don't have to fear whether
you're good enough. God's going to get you there,
right? I don't know about me. I don't
know about you either or me. I know this left to myself, hell's
my home, but I haven't been left to myself. I have not been left
to myself. So, Perfect love will cast out
fear. Some of you have relapsed many,
many times, but in your soul, you love to hear the gospel and
life has become a battle for you. And you, you're constantly
asking something like this. How could I be saved? How could
I know the Lord? How can I be secure? I got drunk,
you know, and by the way, all of those in here who act like
you're real brave and bold about judgment. You have same thoughts,
whether you go to church or not, because you know that in your
flesh dwells no good thing, right? So salvation better be of the
Lord or nobody in here is going to make it. Let me say that again,
so you'll say amen a little louder. It better be by grace or nobody
in here is going to make it. Say, well, you know, God gave
us our part. Yeah, you do the sinning and
he does the saving. In order. I hope that you'll
listen because we all are going to need this in the future. Things
are going bad in America. There's going to be a lot of
fear. You know, when I talk about the Lord's got it, I don't mean
that bad things aren't going to happen. There's bad things
going to happen. You know, I heard Billy Graham
say 20 years ago, If God doesn't send judgment on America, he's
going to have to repent for what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Well, we're way past Sodom and Gomorrah in America. And so far
that judgment has not fallen, but I'll tell you, things can't
go on the way they are. And let me tell you this. Think
about this. You ought to write this down.
You need to think about this, every Christian in here. All
God has to do to bring judgment upon America is leave America
to itself. We will destroy ourselves. It's very true. We need to hear
from God. One of the young guys here today
brought me that passage of scripture. If my people which are called
by my name shall humble themselves and pray. He will hear from heaven. He will turn this nation around.
And that's my hope. Anyway. But I want you to know this,
whatever happens, the only thing that can really happen to me
is I could get killed. And then I'm like the rabbit
who says, don't throw me in the briar patch. because absent from
the body, present with the Lord. I'm bound for Emmanuel land. I'm a winner. I've read the end
of the book. I'm not going to lose. God loves
me and I know it. and he's going to take care of
me. And I want you to know it too. We'll need to know it. You
need this deeper writ stuff about the love of God. You need to
know, why do I preach grace? Because you need to know about
unconditional love because you just are not right. You are a
mess. Whether you live in Birmingham,
whether you go to First Baptist of Birmingham, or you're in the
crack house about every six months, you need the amazing grace of
God. So this perfect love will cast
out fear. in reference to judgment. There
is, therefore, now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
I'm in Christ. Do I sin? Yes, every day. My flesh is a wild ass's cult
that can't be tamed. It's just as crazy as it was
before I was converted. Your flesh hasn't changed. In
your flesh dwells no good thing. Recognize it. But in that perfect
nature, having been born of the Spirit of God, it never sins,
that new nature. That's why the Apostle Paul said
those confusing words to many. Many pastors will not interpret
the verse the way it reads. Oh, wretched man that I am! Wait a minute, you've been preaching
30 years, you've been pastoring churches, you've started churches
all over the known world, and you're saying you're a wretched
man? Yes, because in my flesh dwells
no good thing. I can't wait till God delivers
me from the body of this death. Even when the wild ass is cold.
of your flesh is acting out, even when conscience is accusing
you, and the demons are attacking you with evidence and proof of
what you've done. They know what you've done. They
went with you to do it. They have the goods on you, and
they're accusing you. Tell that black dog to go to
hell. There is no condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus. And by the way, I wasn't cussing
there. That's where demons belong, in
hell. They have no business accusing
you. They have no right to accuse you. Hallelujah, you have an
advocate. You have a lawyer at the right
hand of God, Jesus Christ the righteous, who intercedes for
you. Perfect love casts out fear.
God doesn't want you to be afraid. God doesn't want you to do anything
that's out of a legalistic sense of fear. I serve him because
I'm afraid if I don't, he's going to slap me. He's going to beat
me up. God doesn't abuse his kids. He
loves his kids unconditionally. God knows what you're going to
do. Okay. You know what? I just want to
tell you this. I'm about to jump. I'm telling you, there is joy
unspeakable and full of glory in me this morning. I sense the
presence of the Lord. I know He is here. And He gave
me this message. Amen. And so we began with that first
golden link, the foreknowledge of God, and get it straight. Get this real, because people
are gonna tell you this. Oh, in Romans 8, 28, 29, and
30, when it says God foreknew us, it means God knew all about
us. God knows all about everything.
But that's not what that verse means. It doesn't mean He simply
knew about you, knew you were going to be born. It's not simply
talking about the omniscience of God. He's an all-knowing God. It's talking about His intimate
love for you. He before loved you. Before what? Having chosen us
before the foundation of the world. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, having predestinated us unto
the adoption of sons. That's what the scripture says.
See, I don't like the doctrine of election. You're going to
have to. Because you did not first choose Him, He first chose
you. And because He chose you, you
chose Him. Isn't it simple? Say, well, Pastor,
you know all of that deep theology. This is not deep. This is awesome. This is wonderful. This is glorious. This will make you jump. Discriminating choice. So I know
a lot of people better than me. I do too. I know a lot of people
better than you But God didn't choose you because
you were good in fact, it's amazing those that God chose in fact,
first Corinthians says God has chosen the base ones and of this
world, the nobodies of this world, to magnify His grace, to magnify
His mercy, to magnify His salvation. That's why I'm always quoting
the old Puritan. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me out in the darkness. No light could I see. He put
His great arm under and wonder of wonders, He saved even me. Hallelujah. That's the attitude
of a child of God. Every Christian in here knows
you're about half crazy. You know that. You know that. And you know that you did not
deserve for God to visit you, for God to save you. That's why
when you get to heaven, you're not going to talk about your
free will. You're not going to talk about worthy am I. It's worthy
is the lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and praise
both now and forever. So you need a knowledge of God's
choice of you. It won't make you haughty. When
people say, oh, God elected you, I see how you feel. You feel
like God chose you because you're better than the rest of us. Oh
no, that's not the way we feel. We are amazed that God chose
us. Because if we'd been God, we
would not have chose ourselves. The second link is predestination.
You're such a wild ass, it's called, he had to predetermine
you to salvation. God was determined to save you. And he predetermined that he
would. And you know where you were?
You were in the crack house. You were in the whorehouse. You
were down there getting drunk. You as a sheep had gone astray
and you had turned everyone to his own way and you had to be
apprehended. He predestinated that. For whom
he foreknew, he predestinated to what? To what I'm going to
talk about here eventually, I hope. To glory. To glory. He predetermined that you were
going to be in heaven. There, I've said it. Thirdly, In time and subjectively,
He called you. How many in here know that you
heard the call? He called you. I mean, on the
inside. Most of you in here are raising
your hand. There was a call. It was subjective. Now, God's
choosing you was outside of yourself. You weren't even around before
the foundation of the world. Only in the mind and purpose
of God, He chose you. He knew your name, he knew you
by name and wrote your name in his book before the foundation
of the world. So somewhere in heaven, there's
a book. Let's say, Kyleen and Dave are
in this book. Holy spirit go after Kyleen. You know, she's a wild thing.
Amen, Kyleen. Catch up with her. And Dave,
he's so smart, he doesn't know what he's doing. He's so intelligent. You know I love you both, right?
Holy Spirit, fetch them, where are they? Oh, they're down in
Lodibar, they're down in the hood, they're messing up, they're
sinners, they're wandering, catch up with them and regenerate them,
born them again, give them life. The old songwriter wrote, I can
hear my savior calling. What a glorious thing it is,
subjectively. You may be in the church house
or you may be in Lodibar, but the Holy Spirit is the hound
of heaven. When he is sent on the mission to regenerate one
of God's little children, he always finds that person. You
were not found by accident. Some of you here today, you think
you're over at Grace Centers of Hope to rehab. And I want to tell you right
out, that won't work for you. I'll tell you what will work,
the power of the Holy Spirit regenerating you, borning you
again, and causing you to look to Christ. If any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation. He called you. And how that pushes
fear out. The more you know the things
I've mentioned, fear begins to disappear because you're not
in control. There's no one in here I would
want in control. In fact, every day, all week this week, the
Lord has been reminding, you're not in control. Quit thinking
you have to do this and you have to do that. I've been walking
around, Ms. Pam's been going, Kent, what's
wrong with you, honey? What's wrong with you? What's
wrong with you? I've been trying to control this
thing. You know, this thing here that's going on here is out of
control. Mine. Just so you know. Just so you know. Fourthly, The
elected, chosen, predestined, called, have been justified. I talked about that last week,
so quickly I will just go over it again. Justification. This
is the heart of the gospel. This is the heart of the whole
thing. How can God take you to heaven
and still be a holy and a just God? Well, the dilemma of Darius
is the glory of God. You remember who Darius was?
Darius was the old king in Daniel's day. And Darius was tricked into
writing this law who said, if you pray to any other God other
than Darius, you're gonna be thrown in the lion's den. It
was the law. and the enemies of Daniel watched
him. And they caught him praying with
his windows up. He wasn't trying to hide. He
was praying to God. And they took him and threw him
in the lion's den. You remember the little Sunday
school story. But what Daniel had done was against the law.
Ooh, I'm about to start preaching now. It was against the law. Daniel had broken the law. And so he must pay. But Darius
loved Daniel. They were friends. And so, O
Darius, the Bible says, he paced all night long, trying to find
a way to get his friend out of the lion's den, a just way to
get him out of the lion's den. And the dilemma of Darius, he
could not find a way. to get him out of the lion's
den. But let me tell you, the dilemma
of Darius is the glory of God. He is just and a justifier. Oh, I wish I had some African
blood in me. I would just get down and do
a little... I would... I know some of you theologians
I'm happy about this. I'm glad about, this is good
news. This is, this is glad tidings. I'm glad we're not videoing anything
that day. And I wanted to tell you people
all over this world, the dilemma of Darius, the glory of God. You know, the gospel is good
news. This week I got to getting emails
from Australia. Believe me, it's all right. If
it wasn't all right, we'd get an ambulance. Ms. Geary says it's all right. So
tell me if it's not. The devil's pretty slick. We're
going to keep on rejoicing here. So I was getting these emails
from Australia. from Europe, different places
about the message that I preached here a year ago on the single-mindedness
of Jesus Christ, having a single-mindedness for Jesus Christ. And I thought,
I called Duane, I said, have we sent any tapes to Australia?
or Europe or different places?" He said, no. I said, well, people
are talking about the sermon I preached here at Grace Gospel,
the sermon I preached. And Duane said, well, no, I put
that on a year and a half ago or something like that. I said,
well, where's this coming from? He said, I don't know. So I went
on Sermon Audio. Sermon Audio holds millions and
millions of messages, sermons preached by preachers. Any of
you go on Sermon Audio? All right, some of you go on
Sermon Audio. The staff at Sermon Audio picked single-mindedness
toward Christ. And it's been on there for a
week or so. over 5,000 downloads. People
all over the country listening to this message that Jesus Christ,
good news, glad tidings. Amen? Amen. So justification is the way that
God declares us absolutely not guilty. I'm going to lay my hands
on you. You know, that's Bible too, by
the way. So let me get to this last one,
glorification, because that's what I come to talk to you about.
And now fifthly, whom he foreknow, he predestinated, he called,
he justified. And them he justified, he also
glorified. What does it mean to be glorified?
Here's what it means. What is glorification? It is
the future and final work of God upon the Christian where
he transforms our mortal physical bodies to the eternal physical
bodies in heaven. Glorification, a glorified or
more splendid form of something. No, I can't. Can you imagine?
To have a body with no pain, no cancer, no suicide, no drug
overdose, no sorrow, no sickness. The Bible says this, he who has
begun a good work and you will complete it. God's going to glorify
every one of his elect. He's going to do it. Do you see
the implications here of glorification? Behold, John said, what manner
of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but when he shall appear, we shall be like him
for we shall see him as he is. You know, I was thinking last
night, the Bible says there comes a day when there will be no more
hunger or thirst. That's not talking about food
and water. What is it that you hunger for
down here? What is it that you thirst for? Is it wealth? Well, in heaven,
there's streets to go, you won't need that. Because all things
are yours, the Bible says, it's all yours. Is it the bubble of
reputation? Well, up there, you'll scorn
the desires and take every crown and cast them at the Savior's
feet, so you won't want a reputation. I'll tell you this. I'm aware
of the things I preach to you. And I make application to myself
when I'm preaching to you. But I called a man asking actually
for money as I do to support one of the projects at Grace
Centers. And this man said, this is actually Pastor Clark? I said,
yes, sir. He goes, you're calling me? Now
this is a very wealthy man. He said, you're a celebrity. And I said like this, I am? Because I only know one celebrity
and he sits at the right hand of God. I don't know how you
become a celebrity pointing. He deserves all of the glory,
all of the praise and all the honor. I'm not looking for that.
I'm not looking to be a celebrity. But you know, people are prone
to, they hear you on radio, they see you on television, they see
you in the news, and they begin to kind of make a little idol
out of you. I want you all to know, without God's hand on me,
I'm gone in a second. I'm a wild thing. I'm crazy. They said, well, what do you
want your legacy to be? I don't want a legacy unless
it's this, he preached Christ every Sunday for 65 years. But let me ask you this, do you
thirst for love? I just guarantee you there's
some children of God in here who have a lonely spirit. You
have a lonely spirit. You want a husband? You want
a wife? You want to be loved? You've had that, or maybe husband
has been taken away, or maybe wife has been taken away. Extreme
loneliness. Loneliness is a real thing. It
really is. Up there, you'll be in the bosom
of the Lord. There'll be no more hungry and
thirst for those sorts of things. Down here, you hunger for that. And I do understand that, but
I know there comes a day when you will hunger no more. You're
going to realize full love, the love of God. How about a perfect
life? If you're a Christian, I guarantee
you every Christian in here who has been a cracker heroin user,
you hate both of those things. and you hate yourself for doing
it. You despise yourself for abusing yourself that way. Up there, there comes a day when
you will never long for that drug again. Glorification is a day when you
will never say, am I saved? Am I saved? You will never say
that again, because you will be in the presence of salvation,
Jesus Christ himself, the way, the truth, and the life. Temptation. I know you're tempted.
I am too. There are temptations. Up there
in a glorified body, you'll look back upon that old black dog
of hell and laugh him to scorn because he will not be able to
even bark at you anymore. You know the black dog. You know
how he barks. And when he starts barking and
your conscience starts reminding you, you start to fear a bit. And especially when it's all
true, you know Satan has a goods on you, he's an accuser. He knows
and he barks. You know, one of the things up
there, and this church needs to realize this, the more God
does here, the bigger target we are. And what a target we
are because we got a lot of mess here. I mean, Oakland Press could
get a real story from Grace Gospel Fellowship about what a mess
we are. Yeah Yeah, don't back up here
and when God begins to bless the Pontiac police raid great
centers of hope When the Lord begins to bless they shut down
our daycare the state does when God begins to bless Somebody
goes to Oakland press and says something ugly about us and they
write about us Sometimes I call Oakland press Oakland depressed.
I Don't tell them I said that,
they'll write me up again. But there's things they could
write about us that would tarnish maybe a bit our reputation. Up
there, there'll be no slanderers. Think about that. You're not
going to be accused, and this church is not going to be accused,
and Grace Centers of Hope is not going to be accused. Look at us. Look at us. It's a homeless shelter, a bunch
of former drug addicts. And then on top of that, leading
the organization is a mighty sinner saved by the grace of
God. They could get a real story about
all of that. They could get a real story about
that. And by the way, all of my staff are a mess. I mean,
I didn't want to leave you guys out, Greg. I didn't want to leave
anybody out. My wife is a mess. I'll apologize
when we get home. My niece is a mess. I mean, we're
all a mess. Thank God for his amazing grace. And I got to end this. The Lord
said to John, write this down. Write this down. Write what down? Well, let's see what he said
to write down and then we'll be through. And there shall in
no wise enter into this city. What a city. And by the way,
when Greg was reading about the wall, that's not the wall that
Trump's going to build between Mexico and the United States. And there shall in no wise enter
into it, that's this new heavens and new earth, anything that
defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life shall live there. And I like this too. And the
city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine
in it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is a
light thereof, for there shall be no night there. When do people
usually get scared in the night? You're going to live and I'm
going to live in a place where there is no night. They say in
Alaska, they say in Alaska that there are in the winter, there's
no daylight for days and days. And the biggest problem up there
is people get depressed in the night. Oh, you're not going to
get depressed later on folks when you're in heaven, because
it's all light. It's the glory of God. A lot of people said to me over
50 years, why don't you preach about heaven? I don't know too
much about it. I think I could almost do this
in a sermon. It's glorious. It's wonderful. It's awesome. And then what? Well, I don't
know. I don't have a descriptive adjectives
to explain what it's going to be like. Have you had somebody
die of cancer? There's no cancer there. There's
no death there. There's no siro there. There's
no more hurt feelings there. It's all good. Hey, it's all
good. Are you okay with that? It's
all good. Well, this last a little bit.
I want to tell a story. This is a true story. And what
made me think of it exactly, I don't know other than I've
been thinking about going home. I've been thinking about how
awesome it is. At the end of my life, I'm going
home. I'm going home. It's a certain thing. I'm going
to end up at home with the Lord. My dad told me a story when I
was a little boy. He had two horses. He told me
a story about dating my mom and my dad had two horses named Shorty
and Blackie. I don't know why I thought of
this last night, but he told me this story. He said, I would
hook those horses up to my buggy and I would go date your mother. I would go to see your mother
at her house, which was maybe three, four miles away from where
my dad lived. And he said, Shorty and Blackie
really learned that journey because I was going there so much. But
he said, when I would come out of the house, your mother's house,
where your grandfather and grandmother lived, Shorty and Blackie's ears
would perk up when I come out of the house. Their ears would
perk up and their heads would start going like this. And my
dad said to me, I don't know whether you'll get this story
or not, but he said, those two horses were excited about going
home. You notice my ears are perking
up? He said, I would go to sleep
in the buggy because they knew the way home. He said, I have
woken up many times in the barn, in the buggy with the horses
standing right there. You know why? I'm in the buggy,
I'm headed home, my ears are perked, and I'm looking up. It's
only better for me out there. It's only better. There's a day
coming when absent from the body, present with the Lord, a day
when the trump of God shall sound and the dead in Christ shall
be raised. You know what Jesus said to Marian about Lazarus,
Marian Martha? Your brother's not dead, Christians
don't die. Well, you know, my friend died,
some of you are getting older and your friends are dying like
mine. I've had a lot of people die. I read the obituaries when
I get to paper all the time, just make sure I'm not there. I read how, You know, died at
68. 68? I see on television, coach
so-and-so died. He was only 68. I heard somebody
was telling me a story of a guy who was in perfect physical condition,
a relative of theirs. He ran every morning and was
54 years old, had a heart attack last week and died while he was
running. Don't stop running. I'm not telling
you that. I'm just saying, you don't know
when you're going. It's kind of a nice thing to
have your ears perked. It's kind of a nice thing to
be looking up and saying, there's a land that is fairer than day.
And by faith, I can see it afar. I'm bound for the promised land.
Oh, who will come and go with me? I am bound for the promised
land. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will
come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there
you may be also." Ah, that's good news. Let's stand and praise
our God. Glorification.