Ye pilgrims of Zion and chosen
of God, whose spirits are filled with dismay. Since ye have eternal redemption
through blood, ye cannot but hold on your way. As Jesus in covenant love did
engage, A fullness of grace to display. The powers of darkness and malice
may rage, The righteous shall go on His way. This truth, like its author,
eternal shall stand, though all things in nature decay. Upheld by Jehovah's omnipotent
hand, the righteous shall hold on his way. They may on the main
a temptation be tossed, Their sorrows may swell as the sea,
But none of the ransoms shall ever be lost, The righteous shall
hold on his way. Surrounded with sorrows, temptations,
and cares, this truth with delight we survey. And singing as we pass through
this valley of tears, the righteous shall hold on His way. How about just going over 1 p.m. to 351. 351. And we'll sing that to the tune
of Am I a Soldier on the Cross. The sinner that by precious faith
has felt his sins forgiven, is manifestly passed from death
and still an heir of heaven. Though thousand snares enclose
his feet, not one shall hold him fast. Whatever dangers he may meet,
he shall get safe at last. Not as the word of the Savior
gives, he is no fickle friend. Whom once He loves, He never
leaves, But loves Him to the end. The Spirit that would lift
truth with stand, Would put God's temple down, Rest Jesus' scepter
from His hands, And spoil Him of the crown. Satan, my thimble, victory bows,
The Church, my lowly fall. If one believer may be lost,
It follows so may all. But Christ in every age has proved
His purchase firm and true. If this foundation be removed,
what shall the righteous do? Brethren, by this your claim
abide, this title to your bliss. Whatever loss you bear beside,
oh, never give up this. We've seen one more here, and
then if you have one that you'd like to sing, anybody that's
got a request for one, we'll take those requests. But let's
turn back to pen number 596. 596. We'll sing this to the tune of
There is a Fountain. God is a spirit just and white His
footsteps you can't trace His love more ancient than the skies
Breaks forth in boundless grace Breaks forth in boundless grace
Breaks forth in boundless grace His love more ancient than the
skies Breaks forth in boundless grace In vast eternity He chose
a people for His praise, And saves them from their guilt and
woes by His almighty grace. by His almighty grace, by His
almighty grace. And save them from their guilt
and woes by His almighty grace, Redeemed with Jesus' blood, redeemed,
His beauty's call to praise. No angel can be more esteemed
than sinners saved by grace. than sinners saved by grace,
than sinners saved by grace. No angel can be more esteemed
than sinners saved by grace. Immortal love No change can know,
no clouds surround His face. All is from us to glory go, as
trophies of His grace. As trophies of His grace. of his grace. All Israel must to glory go,
as trophies of his grace. Satan and sin may vex the mind,
and threaten with disgrace. But after all the saints shall
find, He's saved, and saved by grace. He's saved, and saved
by grace. He's saved, and saved by grace. But after all, the saint shall
find, He's saved, and saved by grace. The work begun is carried
on, Nor hell can it deface. The holy light with Christ our
one, and must be saved by grace, and must be saved by grace, and
must be saved by grace. The whole elect with Christ are
one, and must be saved by grace. Where Jesus is, there they must
be, and view His lovely face. And sit to all eternity, Enchanting
for His grace. Enchanting for His grace. Enchanting for His grace. And sit to all eternity, Enchanting
for His grace. Amen. Well, Mark, did you like
that one? Yeah. Oh, man. You're making me laugh
back there, bro. You're just smiling and enjoying
the song. Anybody got one that you'd like
to sing? Anybody have a request? In any of the books? 114 in the blue book. I have a hope this is the last
day my savior believes. I have a hope, oh, strong and
sure. I have a hope, oh, strong and
sure. A hope within the veil. If Christ, the Lord, my advocate,
He pleads and must prevail. My name is written on His breast,
inscribed by love and grace. In Him my heart finds peace and
rest. He does my soul embrace. amidst tribulation, pain, and
toil, He is my hope and say. I trust His gracious providence
to guide me in His way. I have no hope within myself,
Christ is my all in all. My care I cast upon my Lord,
and for His grace I call. And when my time on earth is
done, and all my care shall cease, I'll see my Savior as He is,
my hope I shall embrace. Change the tune up on you there.
See I couldn't pick up the other one. Which is weird because that's
in common meter, 8686. And the one we sang before, which
was the same tune, was in 11-8. It was kind of weird how that
lined up like that. Anybody else got one that you'd
like to sing? Any brothers got anything
that you'd like to share? You know, it's laid on your heart
for this week? Talked to this week? What? Pray for Mandy. Okay. Does she? Thing okay? Nope. Discouraged or just a lot of
thing going on? I'll tell you what, why don't
we just pause right now before we go any further and we'll just
lift Mindy up in prayer. The Lord knows what all is going
on. Sister, you don't have to go into anything. Gracious Heavenly
Father, we come to You now and we thank You so much for Your
Son, Jesus Christ. Father, we come now, especially
at this time, to pray for for Mindy, and we ask, Lord, that
You would just comfort her and be with her now where she's at.
We know, Lord, that You've been bringing her through a lot of
things over the last two or three years in her life. And Father,
we know that a lot of those things have been very tough and very
tumultuous. And Lord, we just ask that You
might continue to give her strength. It's been very encouraging seeing
her trust in You as the Sovereign who is guiding and directing
all things. And so whatever it is, Lord,
that right now that Sister Louetta has brought to our attention,
Lord, whatever is going on, we just know that it's in Your control
and that it's under Your decree and it's under Your purpose.
And Father, that You have appointed it not only for Your glory, but
for the good of Your people and for Mindy as well. And Lord,
we just pray that You just be with her now, that You'll give
her faith and strengthen her. Lord, we just pray that You'll
keep her through all of this. And Lord, we also pray for her
family also, that they might also be strengthened, that they
might be testimonies of Your grace and that they might be
witnesses of You. and that they might be encouragement to Mindy
as well. Again, Father, our heart does
just go out to all those of our brothers and sisters in Christ
whenever they're going through struggles and going through things
just like with the Hudson's, we also lift them up to you as
well and ask that you just be with them. But Father, Lord,
we just pray that your will will be done, that you'll be glorified
in all things. For it's in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Anybody else want to share anything
or any thoughts before we get going? Well, alright, why don't you
go ahead and turn with me this morning over to the book of Matthew.
Turn over to the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. We left off last week, we got
through some verses in the Old Testament all talking about the
Christian's perseverance or preservation. Those two things go hand in hand.
Without the preservation of God, the saint will not persevere. We have no ability in and of
ourselves to persevere apart from the inward work and the
keeping of the Lord Jesus Christ. He preserves us in the faith. Now, we've mentioned before here
that whenever a child is born again, they can't be unborn,
okay? You cannot be unborn. Once one
is born from above, you are born from above and you have been
given spiritual life. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells
the child of grace and that promise has been given of God that He
will never leave us nor forsake us. That He will not turn away. He will not remove His Spirit
from us. David prayed back in the Old
Testament that God would not remove his spirit from us, but
David did not know the preaching of the New Testament that was
still hidden at that time of the full things of God that had
been given to that New Testament church and all those that they
would minister to the Word of God. He did not know that the
Holy Spirit would be given and that that Spirit would not leave
them and would stay with them, and that was because of the finished
work of Jesus Christ. And so when David prayed, I pray
that you don't take your spirit from me, that isn't a verse that
you can run to and say, aha, there you go. If David prayed
that, then he was afraid that the Spirit could be taken from
him and so then we could lose our salvation. No, that's not
what that means at all because as we'll see in the New Testament
here, that we'll find that there is no way that once a person
is born again, once that person is a child of grace, they will
always be a child of grace and that that will continue on. And
we left off last week, the last passage that we read was in Ezekiel. And it was a very wonderful passage,
a passage that meant so much to me as I began to see the doctrines
of grace a few years ago, and as I was studying these things
out, and has become even more precious to me as I struggle
with sin, as i struggle with i see the bible says this is
what righteousness looks like but then when i see myself i
think that's not necessarily what i see all the time in myself
and so uh... There is a disconnect there seems
to be within the heart of the child of grace until they realize
that the life that we live now is given and empowered by the
Holy Spirit of God and that we are what we are and do what we
do because of that. And so we, what a blessing it
becomes whenever you see that not only is the initial part
of our salvation all by sovereign grace, but even our persevering
is by sovereign grace. Good morning, Jacob. How are
you? Good to see you today. So we left off last week with
Ezekiel 11, and I'll just read that. You don't have to turn
there, but keep your place there in Matthew chapter 7, and we'll
dive into that here in a minute. But I wanted to remind you that
Ezekiel said, And I will give them one heart and will put a
new spirit within you, and will take the stony heart out of their
flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk
in My statutes, and keep Mine ordinances, and do them, and
they shall be My people, and I will be their God." So you
see in that whole entire phrase there, that whole entire passage,
you see that is God's work upon us. And He said He will be the
one that gives us the new heart. He will be the one that takes
the stony heart out, puts the heart of flesh in, and He will
cause us or make us to walk in His statutes. That He will cause
us to keep His ordinances and do them. And He claims that we
shall be His people, He shall be our God. And so that is all
the work of Him. Now, we'll pick up today and
we'll kind of go into the New Testament and we'll see some
fuller teaching on some of these things. Matthew 7 and verse 24, Matthew 7 and verse 24. The Bible says, I'm sorry, I'm
in chapter 6. Chapter 7 here. It says, Therefore,
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and
it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them shall not be likened
unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and
beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall. And it came to pass when Jesus
had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His
doctrine, for He taught them as one having authority and not
as the scribes." Now here we see that Jesus says, and don't
get sidetracked on where it says, Whosoever heareth these things
of mine and doeth them. That also, remember we just read
in Ezekiel that God would put the new heart in us and we would
walk in His statutes. Okay? So He's promised that He
would work in us to will and to do His good pleasure. So that's
a promise of God that cannot be broken because God cannot
lie. And so whenever we come to the Scripture here, we see
that those who hear His words, and who are the ones who hear
His words? Well, in John chapter 6, Jesus said that the ones who
are the ones that hear are His sheep, okay? But He says, whosoever
heareth these sayings of Mine is going to be like a wise man
who built his house upon a rock. Okay, it's not going to wash
away. It's not going to go away. It's going to stay firm. His
house will stand firm. And so Jesus is teaching us here
that the person who is born from above and not the religionist,
and I thought that was wonderful how the Holy Spirit added those
last two verses in there because He said, Jesus taught as one
who had authority, not as the scribes. They're comparing the
spiritual teaching versus that religious teaching of man, that
carnal teaching that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the teachers
and scribes of the day were purporting upon these people. And so they
even recognized, hey, This guy's teaching with some authority
here that we don't even recognize in the scribes. Even these people
could recognize those scribes are talking some talk that don't
make sense, that don't go along with the Scriptures if they know
the Scriptures. It don't go along with what we've been taught about
Messiah. They're teaching a bunch of hogwash. And so these people
realize that Jesus was teaching as one that had authority. And
what was Jesus teaching? Jesus was teaching that the person
who is the child of grace, the one who has heard of the Father,
learned of the Father, the one who does the sayings of God,
that person will be kept. They will not wash away. They
will not go away. Their foundation is laid. That
foundation will stay true. And so we see that there will
be a persevering of that person because of the preservation.
We notice that in verse 24, which built his house upon a rock In
verse 25, when the rains came, the house fell not, for it was
founded upon a rock. Okay? It was founded upon a rock. So the foundation or the reason
that the house persevered was because it was preserved by a
good foundation. So see, hand in hand, we see
perseverance and preservation. Perseverance is always because
something is preserved. They are being preserved. Turn
with me, if you would, just over a couple of chapters to Matthew
10. Matthew 10. Look at verse 16. Behold, I send
you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise
as serpents and harmless as doves. Has anybody been sent out as
a sheep to the wolves? Seems like that sometimes. But
beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils,
and they will scourge you in their synagogues, and ye shall
be brought before governors and kings for My sake for a testimony
against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up,
take no thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall be
given you in that same hour what you shall speak. For it is not
ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh
in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death,
and the father the child. And the child shall rise up against
their parents, and caused them to be put to death. And ye shall
be hated of all men for My name's sake. But he that endureth to
the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in
this city, flee ye into another. For verily I say unto you, ye
shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son
of Man be come. The disciple is not above his
master, nor the servant his Lord. It is enough for the disciple
that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. If they
have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more
shall they call them of his household? Fear them not therefore, for
there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid
that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light, what you hear in the ear, that preach
ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill
the body but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without
your Father. But the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are
of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is
in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not
that I have come to send peace on earth, I have come not to
send peace, but a sword. For I come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. And a man's foe shall be of his
own household. He that loveth father or mother
more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh
not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. He that
findeth his life shall lose it. He that loses his life for my
sake shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth
me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. He
that receiveth a prophet in the name of the prophet shall receive
a prophet's reward. And he that receiveth a righteous
man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous
man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink
unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water, Name of
a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose
his reward." Now, this whole entire thing is Jesus talking
about Him keeping His people. There's going to be a lot of
things that are going to happen. As a matter of fact, He says here
that there's going to be persecution that's going to take place. But
He said, don't worry. Don't worry about these things.
Why? Why do we not need to worry about
these things? Well, because He has promised
to keep us through these things. Whenever they ridicule us, and
as we see here, as they are like sheep before wolves, that He
is going to keep us in all of that. He said, even your household,
there's going to be brother against brother, father and son, mother
and daughter, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. Have you not
seen that? We've experienced that. We experienced
that, that this gospel that we preach sets us at knot against
our very family, sometimes to the point where it's just you
can't even hardly have any kind of fellowship whatsoever because
the tension is so great. And that is because this gospel
is not accepted, is not believed, is not received by the carnal
man. He can't receive it. He needs
the sovereign grace of God to give him spiritual life so that
he will receive it and love it and believe it. And without that,
he can't. And so that always will bring
turmoil to the child of grace. But despite of all these hardships
we see here, the Lord keeps us He says, don't worry about any
of these things. He says, for it is not ye that
speak, but take no thought how ye shall speak, for it shall
be given you in that same hour. The Lord will even give you the
words to say. There's a lot of times that I
don't know what I'm going to say whenever I go to speak to
somebody. I just approach them and we begin
to talk. The Lord gives me the things to say. Whenever I come
to preach, a lot of times I'll have some verses put together,
some things that the Lord's laid on my heart for the week. But
for the most part, whenever I get here, the Lord brings those things
to mind of what He wants me to preach and talk about as we open
up the scripture and talk about them. whenever you speak and
minister to people a lot of times the Lord will bring a lot of
times there'll be there'll be times whenever I'll be speaking
there's I hadn't even thought about some stuff and in the moment
the Lord brings things to my mind I'm not saying some mystical
You know that I'm speaking unknown words and all this kind of stuff.
I'm talking about that the Lord actually brings to mind some
thoughts about the Scriptures that we're talking about that
I hadn't even thought about, pondered about, studied about,
or anything throughout the week, that He just brings that connection
at the moment. And sometimes this is as much
as a surprise to me, you know, And sometimes it's even a learning
experience for me. He'll be bringing things to light
as I say that, even to my own self. But He does this, and He
keeps us through all these things, and as we've seen, He talks about
the birds and about keeping the birds. And, are not two sparrows,
so for fathering one of them shall not fall on the ground
without your father. The very numbers of your head
are, you know, this is an intimate relation that we have with our
father. And he knows us and he'll keep
us. And so we don't have to worry
about those things. Any thoughts about any of that
before we move on? Alright, well turn with me to
John chapter 4. Look with me at verse 9. It says, Then saith
the woman of Samaria unto him, remember now where we're at in
John 4. This is the chapter that speaks
about Jesus going down. Remember He said, I must need
to go to Samaria. His disciples went to get something
to eat. And Jesus said, I must need to go to Samaria. The Jews
didn't go through Samaria. They went around Samaria. But
Jesus said, I must need to go to Samaria. And He met a woman
beside the well, and He began to talk with her. Well, this
is where we're at here. He says, Then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of
Me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans, And Jesus answered and said unto her, If
thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,
Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence
then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But,"
here it is, "...whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life." Now, the water that Jesus gives causes one to never thirst
again. Let me just make a couple of
comments about that. That's not talking, of course,
and I hope all of us understand, this isn't talking about actual
thirst. Okay, I've got cotton mouth,
I need a glass of water to drink a glass of water. Jesus was using
something of the physical to teach something spiritual. Okay? He was using physical thirst
to get across the point about spiritual. Okay? When a child
of grace is quickened of God, they are given a spiritual thirst. That spiritual thirst comes to
them and is quenched by the Gospel. When the Gospel is preached,
that thirsting that they are having, that desire for God,
that desire for forgiveness, that knowledge of their sin,
and they need to be saved from that, from the wrath that would
come if they have not salvation from it, that quenching comes
by way of the gospel. When the gospel is preached,
then that thirst is quenched. Whenever they learn of Christ,
whenever they learn of His finished work, His imputed righteousness,
His wrath-taking, that quenches the thirst. He's all that they
need. And again, I've asked questions
to Christians before whenever it comes to these things. And
if you remember, I asked kind of this question to the guy that
I worked with that was of Pentecostal holiness who believed you can
lose your salvation. I've asked him, I said, whenever you became
a Christian, whenever you were saved and you began to know that
you needed Christ or you were born again and I'm just assuming
that he was I don't know that and I'm not gonna you know make
those claims but just assuming that you've been born again I
said since then have you looked anywhere else for fulfillment
for your salvation? I mean, you know, I've read a
lot of books and studied a lot of things on other religions
to kind of know how they work and to know what they talk about
and kind of know about them as I talk with people and converse
because I'm asked questions about stuff like that all the time.
So I kind of read a little bit of stuff on that. I don't spend
a lot of time on it, but I do read a little bit on it. And
you know, I've never come across any of that stuff that has ever
put a desire in me that, oh, I need that, I need that, I need
to follow that, or I'm lacking something. I've never since the
day that I've been born again, whenever that was, and I've come
to know Christ as the answer to everything, I've never needed
to look any other place. Matter of fact, whenever I've
seen that Christ imputed righteousness in us all and that He is our
wisdom, our righteousness and our sanctification, when I see
that, I don't have any desire for anything else. That fully
satisfies any thirst that I might have. He quenched the thirst
of spiritual desire, spiritual need. He quenched the desire
of everything that I need in Him. All I need is Him. He's sufficient for all that
I need. I don't need anything but Christ and Him crucified.
That's all that I need. And He has met that need by giving
Himself to me. to you if you're a child of grace.
And so that thirst that we're seeing here in the Scripture,
this woman had a thirst or was given a thirst by God. And what did she say at the end
of that? She said, I lost my place here. The woman
said unto Him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither
come hither to draw. See, she still was making a physical
application to it. And then he began to lay a physical
thing to her. And then once she'd seen that,
then she went and she told everybody about what she had encountered.
And called everybody else to come back and talk. You come
back and talk to this guy. He's going to show you all things
that you need to know and will satisfy your thirst. But the main thing I want us
to see here is that in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. It's not a pond. He didn't let
loose a pond. A pond can dry up. My mom and
dad have a pond at their house, and in summertime like this,
that pond almost dries completely up, where it's not there anymore. At once it was a great, nice,
big, giant pond, but in days like this, it becomes nothing.
It's not a creek. A creek can dry up. You can go
across all these little creeks through Missouri and you'll see
most of them are just beds of rock. There's no water coming
down until it rains. But yet he said this is going
to be a spring. A spring continually bubbles
up. Has any of y'all ever been to
Roaring River? and going up to the mouth of the river, that's
a spring. The mouth of that river is a spring. It just continues
to flow up out of the ground over and over again. And as long
as I've been, from a little kid, that thing's been coming up out
of that It's a cavern underneath there. People have been diving
down to try to find the depths and stuff. They can't find the
depths. That thing just continually comes up and supplies that whole
entire river where all those trout and all that stuff, those
guys go to fish. It's over and over and over and
over and it doesn't stop. You see Christ is depicting that. Whenever one is born again, there
is put in them this spring. It doesn't dry up. It always
finds its satisfaction in Christ alone. See, if you look to a
lot of Calvinists, you will find that it's knowledge. More knowledge, more knowledge,
more knowledge. And I'm not saying that that's bad. I desire to
have more knowledge. I desire to study the Word of
God, to show myself approved, to know more of Christ, to know
more of our salvation, to know more of the things of the Scriptures.
And I desire that. But it seems to me that there
is this place within sovereign grace circles anymore today that
they have placed knowledge in front of Christ. The amassing
of knowledge. Books upon books, writers upon
writers, authors, creeds and confessions and statements of
faith. All these things, they take the place of Christ and
His Word. It's not enough. You know, I
shared with you a guy on Facebook just the last couple of weeks. You know, he just couldn't believe
that I made the statement that we didn't need creeds and confessions
to know what the Scriptures say. That they're basically unneeded,
worthless. That all we need is the Bible
and the Holy Spirit. And he just was kind of flabbergasted
by that. And he said, well, how do you
know that what you're reading is true unless you line it up
with the confessions. And I said, well, how do you
know that the confessions were written by men who knew what
the Bible said? You know, if you're gonna, and then if he
said, of course he didn't respond to that, because if he does,
then I'll say, well, how do you judge them to be right unless
you're judging them by the word of God? And at that point, wasn't
it not the Holy Spirit that taught you what the scriptures say to
know whether that guy said right or not? Here's the thing. Even the knowledge
that is given through all these things, and I'm not saying that
all creeds and confessions and statements of faith are all bad. There's some good in some of
those, and all they are is a restatement. But my thought is this, is if
the statement of faith is 100% accurate, it's because you've
quoted Scripture. And at that point, you don't
need the statement of faith. If the statement of faith is incorrect,
it doesn't align up with Scripture. You don't need the statement
of faith. Stay away from it. Now, that doesn't say we don't
say what we believe. I mean, we tell everybody basically what
we believe here so that they can have an understanding of
what we hold to, the doctrines that we preach and teach here.
But those aren't our rule of faith, brethren. We don't live
by those. We live by the Scriptures alone. And Jesus has given us
Himself to satisfy that. Not the writings of man, not
knowledge and wisdom of men, but He's given us Himself Not
only has He given of Himself personally, but He's given Himself
as He's revealed Himself in the Word of God. And so that, in
and of itself, should quench any thirst and desire. If I take
this Word of God and I go home and I search the Scriptures looking
for Christ, that's going to be the quenching of anything that
might arise within me. That well that is in me is going
to satisfy me. If I keep going to men, matter
of fact, I did it this week. I was looking through and reading
some stuff on different topics of men about a certain topic. And I went from one to the other,
to the other, to the other, to the other. None of them saying
what it seemed to be what the Scriptures were saying. And I
couldn't find anybody that was speaking in accordance with what
the Spirit was teaching me about what the Scriptures say. And
so, when I looked to men, my thirst wasn't quenched, but whenever
I looked to the Word of God, it was quenched. There is within
us a spring welling up into everlasting life. Not unto everlasting life,
but into everlasting life. There is a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. So that tells me that there is
an everlasting life. Does it not? If we've been given
everlasting life, then is it not everlasting? But let me pose another question
to you, and I don't mean to open a can of worms here. If we have
everlasting life, if Jesus gives everlasting life to as many as
God has given to Him, When does everlasting life begin? When does eternal life begin?
Huh? When you die? Well, we certainly
are going to experience everlasting life and eternal life when we
die. But if the life that is given to us is eternal, then
when did it begin? Huh? The beginning? Does eternity have a beginning? See, Christ is the life that
we receive, right? He is life. He is the way, the
truth, and the life. In Him is life, the Scriptures
say. He is eternal life. Eternal life
is a person. Eternal life is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's His life. And He gives unto
us that life whenever we are born from above. But that life
had no beginning and it has no end. The eternal life we give,
we begin to manifest it and experience it But we don't, it doesn't start
anywhere. That eternal life was always
in Him. That's why the Bible said that our life is hid with
Christ in God, or hid with God in Christ. Our life has always
been Now I'm talking about our spiritual life. I'm not talking
about our life in Adam. I'm not talking about our human
nature that came from our father Adam. I'm talking about our spiritual
father and the spiritual life that was given to us. Remember
when we talked about the seed a few weeks ago? And how we talked
about how the seed, God has made everything with its seed in itself?
The apple tree can be no more than an apple tree, and it will
always bear forth apples, and it will continue to reproduce
apple trees. It is never ever going to produce
an orange. The apple tree will always bear
forth an apple. The Son has a seed in Him. That seed bears the life of the
original. Just as the apple tree and the
apple on the apple tree bears the life of that tree, and that
tree bears the life of the tree before that tree, and that tree
bears the life all the way back to the first tree that God ever
created, all the life of the tree that that would ever produce
from the fruit and seed of it was in that one tree. just as
Adam, in Adam, was the seed of every man, woman, and child that
would ever be, was in Him, although not brought manifestly forth,
right? But it was in Him. That life of every man, every
woman, was in Adam. And that's the same with Christ.
The elect of God have eternally been in Christ. They were given
to Christ before the foundation of the world in eternity. Their
life has been hid in Christ with God before ever anything was
created. And so if that's the case, then
that never can be taken away because that life is eternal.
It may manifest itself here in time by the working of the Holy
Spirit giving us faith, giving us repentance, giving us trust
and belief, working in us to willing to do His good pleasure,
It'll completely be more manifest at the end of the age whenever
we put off this corruption and put on incorruption, and we go
into that eternal state, that life will be even more known
and fully understood and fully lived without any encumbrance
of the flesh and sin. But brethren, that life had no
beginning and had no end. And if we've been given eternal
life, then that life cannot cease. That life will never cease. For
the child of grace, it was there before they were born to be given
to them, and it will continue on in them and with them even
after they die. It is everlasting life. It cannot be given. It cannot
be taken. Only by God can that happen.
That's why Jesus said, don't fear the one that can destroy
the body only, but destroy the one who has body and soul. He
can destroy the body and the soul. God can destroy the body
and the soul. But yet to those who are the
children of grace, He has given to them everlasting life that
will not be destroyed. So both body and soul will live
forever with Christ. Not this body now that you see
here. Mike's body that you see now is going to waste away one
of these days. Either by death or whenever Christ
comes again, this body will be put off and a new body will be
given to me. I hope it has six-pack abs. I always tell everybody I have
a kegger. The life that we have is everlasting. It had no beginning. It had no
end. A lot of people want to put our
eternal life began at quickening. But all that was was a depositing
of the life that was already in Christ Jesus into this vessel
of clay. We call that eternal, vital union. eternal, vital union. We have a vital union with Christ
and it's eternal. And so that life doesn't have
any beginning or any end. So if that's the case, then how
can we fall away from the faith? How can we fall out of Christ?
How can we fall out of everlasting life whenever it's given to us?
We didn't earn it. If we didn't earn it, it was
given to us sovereignly, then we can't ever lose it. Look with
me, if you would, at John 5. John 5. We'll read this and then we'll
take a quick break. It says, "...verily, verily, I say unto
you, he that heareth My word and believeth on Him that sent
Me hath..." Now if you'll notice, that word is present tense there. "...already possessing." The
person who believes who hears the Word and believes on the
One who sent, it doesn't say will get eternal life. Already
possesses eternal life. They are already in possession
of eternal life. That is why they hear and believe. He that heareth My Word and believeth
on Him that sent Me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation So that means that person already has eternal life,
and by way of that everlasting life, or eternal life, they shall
never come into condemnation. There are a lot of people that
think that at the end of the age, that we're all going to stand
before God, and we're all going to be judged, and there's going
to be some condemning of the people of God because they didn't
do enough good works. that they rejected obeying Christ. There were sins of omission,
sins of commission, and that we're going to be judged on what
we do every little moment of our life, whether we did what
God told us to do or didn't do what God told us to do. Is that true? The Bible says, there is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. There can never be a time I stand
before God and be condemned. If I fail to do something in
this life after I've been born from above, was not that sin
of omission or sin of commission that if I do not do the work
of God, And I think we have a misunderstanding sometimes what the words of God
include. But if I do not do what God told me to do, is that not
a sin for which Christ died for? And if I come before God and
have to give an account for why I didn't do that, then Christ
was not my advocate. I'm my own advocate and I'm standing
having to give my own account for that. Now do I believe that
we're all going to stand before Christ? Absolutely. Paul mentions
a couple of places in Romans and in Corinthians. He said,
we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and must
all give an account of what we have done in the body whether
good or bad. I believe that we We'll do that as the children
of grace. We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and
give an account. But here's how the account's
going to go. We're going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ
to give an account and we have an advocate with the Father who
is Jesus Christ our Lord. The advocate will stand up and
say, not guilty. So yes, I believe that the judgment
seat will include both the reprobate and the child of grace, but the
child of grace has an advocate. The child of grace isn't going
to be standing up there having to give an account for the bad
things that they've done and come up with a reason why they
didn't do it and that there's going to be something that is
going to be done to punish them for not doing good things. The
Bible says that there will be rewards given and rewards taken
away. But what does that mean? Well,
we're definitely going to be receiving reward, aren't we?
But there will be some people that will not receive a reward.
That reward will be taken away. See, the judgment seat of God,
while every man is going to stand there, I believe is going to
be a full... And I didn't mean to get off on all this. This
has nothing to do with perseverance, I guess. But the judgment seat
of God is going to be the revelation of God's grace and mercy upon
the elect. And it's going to be the just
punishment upon the reprobate. At that point, the sheep and
the goats will be separated. At that point, the wicked and
the righteous will be separated. And just as Romans says, those
who are the children of grace will be shown to be the vessels
of mercy to those who are perishing. They're going to be the vessels
of mercy shown to all of the reprobates. And the reprobate,
the judgment that's going to come upon them is going to show
the justice and righteousness and holiness and wrath of God
to even the elect of God. And to show them what mercy and
grace was given to them because they know that they are no better
than the ones who are receiving that just punishment. And so,
at the judgment seat of Christ, there's going to be a revealing
of Christ's work of substitution to all the non-elect. See, right
now, they don't understand that. They don't realize that. But
at the judgment seat of Christ, they will, whenever they see
there's a whole group of people that are no better than us, but
because of this man and what he did, he gave mercy to them. That's going to show God's mercy
and grace and justice. So yeah, we're going to give
an account, but we're not going to have to stand up there and make up
reasons why we didn't do what God wanted us to do. We're going
to give an account, and the account is going to be, Jesus paid it
all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. That's going to be the account.
That's going to be the account. Anybody got a... I've seen you
holding some places in your scriptures. Do you want to read a couple
of scriptures? Yeah, I was just thinking about that we talked
about, you know, by the Indian in the divine chapter of Isaiah. The people have walked in darkness,
have seen a great light. They have dwelt in the land of
the shadow of death. Upon the impact, the light shone.
And then further on, it says, speaking of Jacob, the Lord sent
a word unto Jacob, and he applied it upon Israel. Amen. Anybody else got any comments
on what we talked about so far?