Good morning. Let's open up this
morning's service to hymn number 185 in the Blue Hymnal. Number
185, Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken. Glorious things of thee are spoken,
Scion, city of our God. He whose word cannot be broken
formed thee for his own abode on the rock of ages founded. What can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's wall surrounded,
Thou mayest smile at all thy foes. See the streams of living
waters, springing from eternal love. Well supply thy sons and
daughters, and all fear of want remove. Who can faint while such
a river their thirst to swage. Grace which like the Lord, the
giver, never fails from age to age. Round its habitation hovering,
see the cloud and fire of for a glory and a covering, showing
that the Lord is near. Glorious things of Thee are spoken,
May he be seated. Robert. Good morning. Happy Father's Day to all the
fathers in the church. Women work from son to son, but
a man's work is never done. Father, we would ask, Father,
this morning that You'd be with Greg, Father, as he preaches
away from the church. You'd give him grace, Father.
You'd give him freedom and liberty to bring the Word of God. And
we'd ask, Father, that You'd be with me this morning. You'd
give me the right words, Father. You'd give me the grace to bring
the right word in a time of trial, a time of need. Let the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in this service, Father, we ask
in Jesus' name. Amen. Jude, a bondservant of Jesus
Christ and brother of James, to them who are sanctified by
God the Father, preserved in Christ Jesus and called. Turn, if you will, to the book
of Jude, verse 1. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and then
Jude. Jude, the bondservant, doulos,
the bondservant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them
that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus
Christ and called. James was the brother of the
Lord Jesus Christ and so was Jude. He doesn't mention it,
I think for two reasons. One is this, family don't mean
a whole lot when it comes to salvation. Salvation is strictly
one on one. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. The second reason is it doesn't
do anything for the Gospel. He's a child of God just like
James is, just like we are, but He is the brother of our Lord.
And so is James. Mercy unto you and peace and
love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you of the common salvation, and the reasons you'd
call it the common salvation, because it's common to all the
children of God, the same salvation for everyone. There's not two
Gospels, there's not two ways to heaven, there's not two salvations. There's no way to stand before
God righteous except through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
nothing common about the message of salvation except that we all
have it. It's common to all of us. When
I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that
you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints." One faith delivered one time. Now, what is it that we have
to earnestly contend for? What's the first mention of faith
in the Scriptures? I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and her seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel." It's all Christ. We're not mentioned there. Salvation
is all of Christ. He does the bruising. He does
the dying for the sin of us. He does everything. That's the
faith we have to have. Jesus paid it all. All to Him
we owe. That's what we have to earnestly
contend for. We don't need to be caught up
in the idea that other religions might not have the whole truth,
but they might have enough to get to heaven if they believe
you do anything. to add to the work of Jesus Christ
for salvation, you're not going to see them there. Earnestly
contend that Christ did the work. It is finished. That's the one
faith once delivered. Earnestly contend for it. For
there are certain men, corrupt and unawares, who were before
of old ordained to this condemnation. ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be speaking to you
this morning about four things. Number one, are the children
of God, are we the bondservants of Jesus Christ? Have we as children
of God been sanctified by God the Father? And what does that
mean? The third one is, are we preserved in Christ Jesus? And the fourth one is, are we
called as God called us unto a knowledge of the truth? Now, talking about things in common,
that salvation is common to all the children of God, Bond slaves
have one thing in common. All of them have an owner. They're
owned by someone. Is Jesus Christ our owner? According to Ephesians 1 and
verse 6, according to the good pleasure of His will, speaking
of God the Father, by which He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace." Yes, we belong
to Christ. We belong to God the Father,
and He gave us to Christ. That's the covenant of grace.
Christ said, I will go to the cross, I will die, I will pay
the total price for their sins. They're Mine. They're Mine. We belong to Christ. Don't never doubt that. The Lord Jesus Christ, even though
He is our owner, we're still in union with Him. We're still
in union, but never doubt that we don't belong to Christ. 1
Corinthians 6 and verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have
of God? You are not your own. We are
not our own. We are bought with the price.
Glorify God therefore in your body and in your spirit, which
are God's. Never doubt that Christ doesn't
own us because He does. He is the one Person. that has
total control and total ownership of His children. In Revelation
5, whenever John stood and saw the Book in the hand of God the
Father, and no man in heaven or earth or under the earth could
open it. And John said he wept much because nobody can open
the Book. And the elders told him, weep
not, the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open
the book and loose the seals thereof." And the four and twenty
elders sung a new song. Remember that? Worthy is the
Lamb to open the book and reveal the seals thereof, because Thou
hast redeemed us. from every tribe and every tongue
and every nation, redeemed, bought us back. He purchased us at the
slave market of sin. He bought us with His blood,
and He owns us. So the number one mark of a bond
slave is they have to have an owner, and we do. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our owner. There's one thing that we have
to deal with and make clear here. And it's this, we don't have
enough sense, none of us do, to understand spiritual application. There's nothing in our lives,
there's nothing in this world, there's nothing in our knowledge
that we can compare to our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. We
just don't have the knowledge. We come into this world dumb,
and we only get dumber. But God, in His mercy and His
grace, gives us illustrations that we do know about, that we
can look at and see the parallels between that illustration and
the children of God, and you can understand them. One of them
is sheep. John chapter 10. The Lord Jesus
Christ told the scribes and the Pharisees, He said, as I said
to you before, you do not hear My word because you are not of
My sheep. My sheep hear My voice and they
follow Me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never
perish. We know good and well we're not
sheep, but there are parallels that we can look at for sheep
and apply them to us. And we can understand spiritual
relationship with Christ. One of them is this. Sheep have
to be taken care of. They can't take care of themselves.
They must have a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
pasture. They have to be led. They have
to have a shepherd. They have to be led. They have
no natural defense. They're easy to kill. They're
easy to hurt. And yet God told Abraham, I am
thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. So they're like
us in that respect. They really and truly can't take
care of themselves. They have a tendency to wander. But we wouldn't know nothing
about that. But we do. Remember the 90 and 9? The Lord
Jesus Christ went out to get the one that had strayed. So you see what I'm saying? There
are parallels between these things and the children of God that
we can look at. And we can learn about our relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks after us. He's our shepherd. He's our protection. He comes
after us when we stray. And it's the same thing with
a slave. With a bond slave. There are
parallels between the children of God and a bond slave. One
of them is we all have to have an owner. There must be an owner. The second one is this. And by
the way, I'm not going to spend a lot of time or any time giving
you the background on different kinds of servants and slaves
in the Old Testament. I'm not interested in that anymore
and it has nothing to do with the Gospel. I used to do that
when I was a Calvinist preacher. I could spend two messages telling
you all the things about the slaves and servants and never
mention the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not going
to do that anymore. So we'll deal in general rules. As a general rule, a servant
works for wages. Remember the owner of the vineyard
that went down to the labor pool and got the day labor, and they
went to work for him and they settled on what? A penny a day.
His responsibility to that servant was over when he paid him his
penny. There's no relationship there
at all except a covenant. You work, I'll pay. Christians
are not involved in that kind of relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ. There are wages mentioned in
the Bible. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So be careful when we call ourselves servants of God. As a general
rule, a debt slave owed more than he could pay. So he'd find
some rich man and he'd tell him, listen, I owe $50,000 to the
First Bank of Apopka. If you'll pay the $50,000, I'll
work for you 10 years. Okay, he pays the bill, you work
for him 10 years. You're a debt slave. But if anyone,
friends, neighbors, brothers, sisters, if anyone could pay
the $50,000, you're free. If you worked the ten years,
you're free. If the year of Jubilee came up
during that ten years, you're free. Well, in the first place,
we can never pay our own debts. I guarantee you, an eternity
in hell is not enough to pay the debt for sin. There's no
way we can. And if we could, we would be
free from Christ, right? But we don't want that. So a
debt slave is not really applied to the children of God. But a
bond slave is a whole different thing. Now as a general rule,
bond slaves were almost always captives of war. Are the children
of God captives of war? Colossians 1.13, Who hath delivered
us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. Don't never kid yourself. I was
born into this world a 100% confirmed citizen of the power of darkness. I was shapen in iniquity and
sin did my mother conceive me. I went astray from the womb,
speaking lies as soon as I was born, and after that, I only
got worse. I was enmity against God. I was not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed could be. I was totally under the dominion
of the power of darkness from day one. from day one. And yet, the Lord Jesus Christ
came down from heaven, born of a virgin, lived a sinless and
a perfect life, did His Father's will every second of every minute
of every hour of every day the whole time He was here on earth. And then He went to a death on
the cross for me and for you if you're a child of God. And
He paid the penalty for sin. Now price was far, far worse
than death. When He said, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? The Lord Jesus Christ was made
sin for Me. Who knew no sin? That I might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That's what He did
for Me. And they buried Him in a tomb
and rolled a stone over the tomb and sealed it. But He rose again. The Lord Jesus Christ triumphed
over death and hell and the grave. And He came to where I lived,
and He took me away from the power of darkness. He delivered
me from Satan, delivered me from a life of sin, and brought me
into His kingdom. You better believe I'm a captive
of war. All of the children of God are. All of the children of God were
born into the kingdom of darkness and didn't know and didn't care.
And the Lord Jesus Christ took every child of God away from
the power of darkness. So there is parallels between
bond slaves and Christians. Definitely. Another one is this. As a general
rule, Bond slaves were almost always Gentiles. When the children
of Israel overran a village, everybody there was a bond slave.
They're a prisoner of war. The Gentiles were, without exception,
made bond slaves. Were we ever Gentiles? Laying
aside the question of Jew and Gentile, were we ever Gentiles? You better believe we were. Ephesians
2 and verse 11. That at that time, that's before
God called us, that at that time you were Gentiles in the flesh,
called uncircumcision by that which is the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands. We were Gentiles. that at that time, you were without
Christ, being an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. That's who we were before God
called us. We were Gentiles with no hope. No Christ. No God. But now are ye made nigh by the
blood of Jesus Christ. We're no longer Gentiles. We're
children of God. We are the light of the world. We're the salt. We're the ones
that the Lord Jesus Christ gave His all for. We're not Gentiles
anymore, but we were. We definitely were. And there's one more that really
comes home to me. I don't know if you read your
program or not, but Todd Nyberg said that to worry about things
is only a theoretical faith. And that's something that we
shouldn't have to worry about, but we do. But we do, and this
has to do with bond slavery. Remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ went through Bethany? And He stopped at Mary and Martha
and Lazarus' house? And they're getting the meal
ready. I mean, you can just be right there while it happened.
Martha is in the kitchen. Martha is working like a maniac. Scripture says that she was cumbered
about with serving. Martha's slicing potatoes. She's
misting dough. She's boiling water. She's making
salad. She's setting the table. She's
putting out the silverware. And she looks and there's Mary
sitting on the floor at the Lord Jesus Christ's feet. Luke 10. You can check on it. So she goes
in there and she tells the Lord, Lord, don't You care, and I'm
paraphrasing, don't You care that I'm killing myself in the
kitchen? I'm doing all of it by myself.
And there's Mary sitting there on the floor. Tell her to get
up and come in and help me. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
Martha, Martha, thou art troubled about many things. but Mary hath
chosen that part which is best." You know what the Lord has just
told her, the thing that all of us need to hear? Don't worry about temporary things. It's the first of the month.
The house notes do. The light bills do. The water
bills do. The car notes do. Church baby
needs a new pair of shoes. What in the world are we going
to do? Don't worry about the mules.
Just load the wagon. All of these things will come
to pass for this one simple reason. The owner of a bond slave is
100% absolutely, positively responsible
for everything that has to do with that bond slave. And the
Lord Jesus Christ does that for us. He puts shoes on our feet,
clothes on our back, food in our tummy. He gives us cars to
drive to church with. He does everything for us. In Him, we live and move and
have our being. We shouldn't have any worries.
God knows what we need before we even ask for it. That's Scripture. So why are we worried? It's a lack of faith, really
and truly. If I had the grace to approach
the throne of God and ask, Lord, give me the faith, give me the
faith to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset me. Give me the grace to run with
patience the race that is set before me. Give me the grace
to keep my eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher
of my faith. God will take care of us. The owner of a bond slave was
responsible for everything, health care and everything. And we are
under the care of the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, if the biscuits get burnt,
we'll eat them anyway. If the meat gets overcooked,
we'll just chew it longer. Nothing, nothing, nothing. should ever cause us to doubt
the providence of God. So you see, there are a lot of
things that are parallel between the children of God and bond
slaves. The Scripture tells us in no
uncertain terms that we're not slaves. We're children of God. We are in union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how close we are. We are
holy and without blame before Him. So we're not slaves and we're
not robots. But these things are put into
Scriptures to increase our understanding. of our relationship to God and
the Lord Jesus Christ. The sheep and the bond slave. We're the light of the world,
yet we don't have a light switch. You can only carry these so far,
and then you have to quit. You know what I'm saying? Sheep
have four legs. We don't. They've got dirty,
greasy hair all over their bodies. Some of us might. Most of us
don't. You have to stop somewhere. And that's about where you stop
with the bond slave, is that you will be taken care of by
the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're bond slaves. We were
Gentiles, we're not. We were at one time citizens
of the power of darkness, now we're not. We used to have to
worry about everything in the whole world, now we don't. That's
the good thing about being a bond slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How did we get there? We're in a position where everybody
in the whole world would love to be. We don't have any worries. If we can just make it through
this life, we're going to go on and be with the Lord and none
of this stuff will bother us anymore. How did we get to this
point in our lives? It's right here in front of us.
Those who were sanctified by God the Father. Now, sanctification
just means to be set apart. In a scriptural sense, it means
to be set apart for a holy purpose. Ephesians 1 and verse 4 said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places.
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world." That's set apart. We have been set apart by God's
choosing us from all the rest of mankind. that He has chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world, and the holy purpose is
this, that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. That's what we were set apart
for. Not only that, we were predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself
according to the good pleasure of His will. So we have children
of God, have been sanctified, set apart for a holy purpose
by God the Father. Scripture is very plain on that,
very explicit on that. Now, sanctification or setting
apart or whatever application you want to give it is a one-time
thing. Only been chosen one time. Didn't need a second time. We've
been chosen to certain things that will come to pass. When
God chose me, I was as holy as I will ever be. I'm not going
to make myself any better. There's no such thing as progressive
holiness. It doesn't work that way. I'm
as holy as I would ever be. I was without blame as much as
I would ever be. I was a child of God as much
as I will ever be. God loved me at that time as
much as He will ever love me. It was a one-time thing of being
set apart by God the Father. We can wonder about it all we
want to. All of us here know hundreds,
maybe even thousands of people that have went through the wide
gate and they're on the broad path that leads us to destruction. Our own personal experience is
this, we've been led by the Holy Spirit through the straight gate.
And we're in the narrow way that leads us unto life. The difference
being, that we were sanctified, set apart by God the Father.
This is a mystery that we will never understand in this life. Why me? Why out of all the people
that I know, why would God choose me? It wasn't for anything I
did. It's according to the good pleasure
of His will. That's it. That's it. That's the difference between
us and them. So we're a bond slave and we
have been sanctified by God the Father. Are we preserved by Christ
Jesus? Well, sure we are. When the Lord
Jesus Christ took us in the covenant of grace, we were home free. All that was left was for these
things to occur in time. He was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. I was in union with Christ before
the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ had taken
everything, taken care of everything on my behalf before the foundation
of the world. Now all you've got to wait on
is for time to pass and the providence of God bring these things to
pass. But how can we be sure? because He ever liveth to make
intercession for us. As long as the Lord Jesus Christ
lives, we will live. And He lives forever. And He makes intercession for
us forever. We could, if we had the faith,
We could say with David, when David lay on his deathbed, and
there's been several times when I thought I was there myself,
and when that occurs, you've got a pretty clear picture of
the way things really are. And David said, although my house
be not so with God, as far as I know, I'm the only one on my
side of the family that God has chosen. As far back as I know,
none of them were Christian. Same with Deanna. As far back
as she knows, none of her people was Christian. Our son, we're
not sure about. He seems to have no interest
anymore in God. We pray about that. You know
how you are about your children. And I can honestly say, although
my house be not so with God, He hath made with me, with you,
with me an everlasting covenant. It's never going to end. It never
had a beginning. It doesn't have a middle. It's
never going to end. He hath made with me an everlasting
covenant. ordered in all things, and sure,
I am preserved in Christ Jesus. I am persuaded, Romans 8.38,
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me
from the love of God which is given me in Christ Jesus. Yes,
He does preserve us. We're His forever. We've always
been His. So we're bond slaves of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have been set apart by God
the Father. We're preserved in Christ Jesus. You can take your money to the
bank and bet on it that what the Lord Jesus Christ determined
before the foundation of the world will come to pass. That's what the angel told Joseph. Fear not to take unto thee Mary
thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name
Jesus, because He shall save His people from their sin." He
doesn't just save us, He preserves us. He keeps us until the last
day. He's able to keep that which
we've committed Him against that day. All we have to do is live
long enough to die and all these things will come to pass. That's
it. That's it. Are we called? Am I called? This is the first one in this
book of Jude that we really have anything to do about. We didn't
have anything to do with that being called, but we do know
about it. Unless we've deceived ourselves, we know whether we've
been called or not. For about the first 35 years
of my life, I lived in a graveyard. I was
dead in trespasses and sins. Only God can open your eyes to
that fact. I was at enmity with God. I was not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed could be. I could care less about the
things of God, the people of God, eternal life, heaven and
hell. Because I was spiritually dead. Now you're not going to hear
the call as long as you're spiritually dead. Regeneration. The new birth must occur before
you can hear the call. Don't let anybody ever tell you
any different. You cannot be persuaded to accept
Jesus unless you've been born again. You can't do anything
before you're born again. And the Holy Spirit stood at
the foot of my grave and looked down at me and had mercy on me
and said, Robert Horton, come forth. And I did. I was born again. I can see the Kingdom of God. Yes. I know that my Redeemer
liveth. Yes. Has God taken away my stony
heart and given me a heart of flesh? Yes. Has God made me willing
in the day of His power? Yes. Has God showed me that I
am a man of unclean lips and I live in the midst of a people
of unclean lips? Yes. God has opened my eyes that
I am the sinner. Have I ever smote upon my breast
and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner? Yes. Have I ever
confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in my heart
that God had raised Him from the dead? Yes. Do I believe with
all of my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Yes. Only because God has borne me
again and called me. Have we been called? Yes, we
have. Bondslaves of the Lord Jesus
Christ, set apart by God the Father, preserved in Christ Jesus,
and called. So I guess this letter really
was addressed to all the children of God. Let not your heart be troubled.
That's what the Lord said. Out of everything that we have
to worry about, everyday living should not be one of them. Out of every gift that God has
given us, the most precious one is total dependence on the Lord
Jesus Christ. What we need to pray for is the
faith to lay hold on these promises. Like I said, the faith to cast
aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us,
and let us run with patience the race that God has set before
us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Father, we come before You this
morning, Father, asking for the grace, Father, and the faith
to hold these things near to our hearts, Father. For the strength,
Father, to face life as it is here. To look forward, Father,
with being with Thee. Give us the grace, Father, to
know and understand that the Lord Jesus Christ has done it
all. That all to Him we owe. that
sin had left a crimson stain, Father, and He washed it white
as snow. We ask these things in the name
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.