Christ is being preached. He's
praying for us this morning. We're going to sing the hymn
now in the back of the bulletin. If you all could please stand.
The hymn on the back of the bulletin. Praise the Savior now and ever,
praise Him all beneath the skies. Prostrate lying, suffering dying,
on the cross a sacrifice. Victory gaining, life attaining,
now in glory He does rise. Man's work faileth, Christ availeth. He is all the righteousness. He our Savior has forever set
us free from dire distress. Through his merit, we inherit
light and peace and happiness. ? Since on server we're delivered
? ? Christ has bruised the serpent's head ? ? Death no longer is the
stronger ? ? Hell itself is captive-led ? ? Christ has risen from death's
prison ? ? For the tomb he light has shed ? For His favor praise
forever, Unto God the Father sing. Praise the Savior, praise
Him ever, Son of God, our Lord and King. Praise the Spirit through
Christ's merit. He doth us salvation bring. You may be seated. For our scripture reading, would
you turn to the book of Matthew, chapter 6. Book of Matthew, chapter
6. We're going to begin reading
in verse 7. I recall as a young man growing
up in idolatry, we were made to memorize and to repeat the
Lord's Prayer over and over and over again. letting us know that we would
gain more merit with God and that that would be assurance
of our salvation. Well, thanks be to God the Father,
to our Lord Jesus Christ this morning. I don't believe that.
But by virtue of our union with Christ, we can pray this prayer
and have assurance that indeed He is our Father. So as we read
this prayer, Trust the Lord would enable us. I know I get intimidated
sometimes when I say I can call God my father. It's Abba, Father. Yes, we can because of Christ. Verse seven. But when we pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall
be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of
before you ask him. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye. This is what we ought to pray.
Our Father, Abba Father, which art in heaven, hallowed Holy,
holy, holy be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven, and it will be done. It's been
done. Oh, give us this day our daily
bread. Right now, Lord, give us Christ.
Oh, and forgive us our debts. As Robert said, a debt we cannot
pay. as we forgive our debtors. And verse 13, I have to pray
this every day, because if I don't, I know I will willingly dive
into temptation. There's no question in my mind.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. The
evil of this world, the evil of my flesh. Why? And where's our assurance? For thine is the kingdom, and
the power and the glory forever. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious and merciful heavenly
Father, we know that we can say that
because of our union of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For
Lord, we know this very moment he sitteth at your right hand
whoever intercedes for us. Lord, we're thankful for your
word. We're thankful that you've given to us what we ought to
say to you, and we have full assurance in knowing that the
Holy Spirit makes it acceptable through the blood of Christ and
through his righteousness, knowing that we are heard. We do ask, Lord, that you would
forgive us of our sins. cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
and we do, Lord, ask for our daily bread right now. The faith
to believe that thou art the Son of God, that we are called,
that we are preserved. Lord, have we been set apart,
and Lord, we are bondservants, your children. Oh, may you do
that to the preaching of your gospel once again. And oh, how
we ask that you would give our dear brother now the liberty
and power to be able to lift up Christ. Give us eyes to see
and ears to hear once again as we ask all these things to the
glory of thy dear son. Amen. Let's sing now to him, number
296, in the blue hardback. Number 296, if you could please
stand. Number 296. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heav'nly peace, divinest
comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus, doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus, doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path. Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before
me, Blow a spring of joy, i see gushing from the rock before
me blow a spring of joy i see all the way my savior leads me
oh the fullness of his love Perfect rest to me is promised in my
Father's house above. When my spirit clothed the mortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day, This my song through endless
ages, Jesus, lend me your ear. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. May be seated. Michael. Thank you, Brother Burt. I've been thinking this week,
I thought, boy, the Lord has been gracious to us to deliver
us out of the bondage of religion. Spending all our time working
our way to heaven, always worried, did we do enough? Did we do it
right? Did I study enough? Did I read
enough? Well, that's kind of how it is
when I try to prepare these sermons. And then finally the Lord puts
His hand on you and you say, Lord, either you give me a message
or there's no message. And I pray that He will speak
today to you and to me through me and that my sin will not be
a deterrent of that. I really do. Turn with me please
to John 17. Before we begin, I've been thinking,
the Lord told Isaiah, and he was the preacher, he said, Isaiah,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Speak comfortably unto them.
Isaiah, I want you to speak words of comfort to my people. That's
the hope this morning. I need the Lord to speak words
of comfort to me. And if you're a believer, you
know you need them to speak them to you. And he said, well, what
do you tell them? Tell them they're grass. Grass? How's that? That's words of comfort. Tell them they're nothing, that
they're just grass. They grow up and the sun comes
out and wilt and they die. Tell them, yes, that's what I
want you to tell them. But I want you to also tell them
that their warfare has been accomplished. It's finished. There's no battles. I've taken care of the battle.
I've won the battle. Now, I think about you, I need
to be comforted every day. I've learned a, for our young
people, I hope you'll learn this lesson much earlier than I did.
As Brother Greg says, I know that I'm either going in trouble,
in trouble, or coming out of trouble. that my life on this
earth is full of conflicts, trials, and tribulations. And they don't
go away. They won't go away till I draw
my last breath. And you know, you hear the saying
in religion, the Lord will never give you more than you can handle.
Well, if that were true, I'm not a believer, because that's
not my life's experience. Mine's just the opposite. My
trials and conflicts, I can't tell you how many times I bury
my face in my hand and says, Lord, I cannot take this another
second. I don't know what to do. I'm
overwhelmed. Lord, if you don't do something,
I can't handle this. It's too much for me to bear.
Lord, would you teach me how to, you've told me to cast my
cares, would you teach me to do that? I need to know how to
do that. And sometimes our conflicts are
so great, Lord, would you take me today? I can't take it anymore. And that's the believers, that's
my life experience. Maybe it's not yours, but if
you're a believer, I know it is. And I know that these conflicts
are not going to go away. And sometimes we mislead ourself,
especially in false religion. Peace is not the absence of conflicts. Do you hear me? Peace is not
the absence of conflicts. Conflicts are going to come and
go. And we are thankful those times when the conflicts are
not overwhelming, but that's not peace. I need a peace that
I can have through these times of conflict. I need a peace to
know that it's not depending on something that I do or I've
done. I need to know a peace that doesn't
change and is outside of me. I need
God to speak peace to me. And the title of this message
is, Am I God's Child? Am I God's child? I need to know
that God is my father, as you said, Bert, that Christ is my
brother, and that the spirit of God dwells within me, and
that I am part of the bride. I need to know that I am a child
of God. Because if God ever speaks that
to my heart and gives me the faith to believe it, as only
he can do, Whatever happens in this world matters not it doesn't
mean they're not painful. I'm looking at faces here and
I Told brother Greg. I I don't I don't like I don't
how you say this in a kind way I'll help any way I can but boy,
I don't want to know about it because I can't handle it It's
too much. It hurts too much to see our brothers and sisters
in Christ in conflict and pain but I know this I know God's
ordained the conflict and But that doesn't make any less painful,
does it? And I know even when things are going pretty good
today, but guess what? I know something's coming. I
know it's going to come again. And the part that I also know
is conflict, trials and tribulations are absolutely necessary for
the salvation of your soul. because I'll speak to me. My
experience is, let things go to my pleasing and I will never
look to Christ. But let him touch me with a conflict
for, Lord, please, please, Lord, please, please, please change
these things. Even to the point that we would
ask that God would take us out of this world. But God never
does, does he? And we're gonna see here in John,
No, I'm not taking you out of the world. I brought them in
your life and mine to cause you to look to me. And you want comfort and peace? Look to me, and that's what we're
gonna talk about here this morning. The peace that only God can give. In chapter 17, how do we know
that we're a child of God? Asked do I believe what God is
telling me right here? Do I believe it? Not that it man it might be true
I can assure you when we go through this little bit you're gonna
see the different only a child of God can believe what Christ
is praying right here and If we can do that, then the Lord
will give us I pray we can leave here this morning to comfort
to know I'm his child I'm his child. Of all days, I thought
on Father's Day. I told my wife on the way, I
don't know about most of the fathers in this room. I'm thankful
for our children, but boy, my heart's heavy sometimes because
I look at all the things I've done. Lord, I wish I'd done them
differently, but I can't change the past. You see what I'm saying?
But we have a father who is the perfect father. Perfect father,
he never corrects his children out of anger. He always corrects
us in love and caring and compassion. My children's earthly father
wasn't that way. Maybe yours was, I don't think they were
either, but because of our flesh. But anyway, let us start with
verse one, please. These words spake Jesus as he
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, Father, the
hour is come. The Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledging
to God the Father that I know and I'm telling you, Lord, I
know I'm close to going to the cross. Know where I'm headed. I know
what's going to happen these people that they think they're
good But I know Lord I'm going to that cross and I've known
it before the foundations of the world. I Know I'm going because
I know you sent me here to go to the cross When God the Father
We're gonna see in a minute before the world began says I'm going
to save and I like this term now a particular people and I'm
not going to save everybody. I'm going to certain people and
I'm going to save every one of them. And Christ, the son says,
yes, father. I'm going to see that your holy
justice is met. I'm going to live a perfect obedience
to your law, and I'm going to go to that cross and I'm going
to take on the sins of every single one of these people you
gave me. God the Spirit Covenant with them saying yes, and in
due time Lord when you ordain it I'm going to go to them and
I'm going to make it effectual in their hearts I'm going to
give them the faith to believe and rest on Christ Christ knew
his time was coming. The hour was come Our young people
and I They asked me a question this morning about the Trinity.
I I said, well, it was God the
Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and all I can tell
you is, although they're three distinct, they act as one at
all times. There's never a time when we say, well, let's take
a vote on it, we'll do the, no, they always act as one. I cannot
explain to you the Trinity. I've had people in religion tell
me, well, there's, you know, there's Robert the husband, Robert
the father, and Robert the son. That don't mean anything to me.
I still can't, but I know this, it's true. It's a triune God
that always acts as one. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
saying, right here, the hour has come. Father, I'm perfectly
obedient to you. I'm going to do what you've told
me to do. Why? For the sakes of these people. And that's the only way it can
be done. I have to go. The hour has come.
Father, I want you to glorify thy son, that the son may also
glorify thee. Only God, and we can only say
this about God, everything that happens Since the foundation
of the world until when the world ends will be here for one reason
the glory of God the glory of God and Pray that God will give
us the ability to see that These trials and tribulations I'm going
through is for the glory of God and for my good And we I know
this come out wrong I Religious people have a hard time understanding
why horrific events happen We went through a very painful one
about a year ago right here in Orlando it touched close by here
You understand all these people were killed They have a hard time understanding
in the beginning God That's what it says in Genesis. Every event
that happens, God is the instigator and the executor of what happens.
Was that event ordained to God? You better believe it. Well,
how does he get glory on that? The best way I can describe it
is he shows us just how evil man's heart is. And the miracle
and the sadness, the question should be why did it happen?
I'm gonna question the believers. Thank God it doesn't happen more
often than it does. Surprised it doesn't happen every
day Because God has restrained the evil of man's heart And we
should glorify him for that is the event horrific. Absolutely
But we should thank God. Oh Lord. Thank you for not letting
this happen every day Verse 2 and God the Father has given Christ
power over all flesh Do you believe that? Religion doesn't believe that.
Religion believes, well, he's got power, but the salvation
of my soul is really up to me. When you hear someone say, God
wants to save you, they are saying right here, God is a liar. He
doesn't have power over all flesh. But I'm saying by the word of
God, he does. He will save every one of those that he chose to
save. He's given the power of our flesh
that Christ should give eternal life to as many as God the Father
has given Him. He's going to give life, eternal
life to every single one that God the Father gave Him. And
I thought about this and I thought, you know, The obedience of Christ. Christ has the power to save
whomever he wants, but the obedience of Christ to God the Father,
there's no chance that Christ is gonna save one less or one
more than those that God the Father gave him. I need to know I'm God's child.
If I'm one of these, my troubles at work and my troubles in my
life mean absolutely temporal. Temporal. You know, this is a
hard thing to understand every one of us in this room every
child of Adam Eve are eternal beings The day is going to come will
be eternally With God the Father and Christ the Son the Spirit
and glory or will be left in the lake of fire for eternity
and I started thinking about this Some of us, what little
we have is gray now. We can tell you, our time on
this earth is but a flash. And to say how it compares to
eternity, these temporal things that I worry about, and I guess,
Robert, I struggle over with, compared to eternity, I'm a fool. And it's my flesh not believing
God. But he's gonna give life to every
one of them and verse 3 Christ is saying and this is life eternal
that they might know God the Father the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom God the Father sent God the Father sent Christ here
to do a work He sent him to do a work and
that work was to save his people And it's a work that he's going
to accomplish. That's a comfort to my soul.
So I said, I need a peace that doesn't depend on something I
do or I've done. I need a peace dependent on what
God Almighty's done. And that's what he says. I've
sent Christ. In verse 4, Christ says, I have glorified thee on
the earth. I have... If you've got a highlighter,
you need to highlight that. What's that word? I have finished. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. He's finished it. He didn't make
it available, he finished it. Now, brothers and sisters, that
is a comfort to this old sinner's soul, that Christ Almighty that
God, the triune God, sent Christ to finish the righteousness and
to take on my sins, and it's a finished work. That was his
work. That's what it says, you turn
over to John 5, you know, they ask, may I do the works of salvation?
And then it follows that, it says, that's the work of God. God has to do the work. I can't
do the work. I'm incapable of doing the work.
I fail every time I try to do the work and I guess, and I feel
so, I have pity for those in religion. Man, the burden of
that work is, it's overwhelming to this person. I can't do it,
Lord. I can't do it. You know, all
of us, most of us came from religion. How many times did you leave,
leave the services more burdened than when you came in the door? Cause you, the Lord kept putting
that, I can't do the work. He gave the work, what the Father
got him to do, and he completed it, and it is finished. And now,
oh Father, glorify thou me with thy own self, with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. When Christ left
glory, heaven, he had all the glory. And he says, now glorify
me with the work that I'm fixing to do. Is God the Father ever
going to turn down the work of Christ as a finished acceptable
work? Don't you believe it? He's going
to be fully satisfied. Verse 6, he says, I have manifested
thy name unto the men, that's men and women, which thou gavest
me out of the world. You know, this is kind of a ship's
term. You know, ships had a manifest. Some of you, you get a manifest
and it tells you everything, the ship, everything was on that
ship. Christ says he has manifested his name. He's told the people
everything about God the Father, Christ the Son, and Christ the
Spirit. And in this book, he's told us just how he's going to
save his people. And he gave them to the men and
women, which he gave me, out of this world. Why do I have
so much conflicts? Because I'm a pilgrim and a stranger
in this world. I have to keep reminding myself,
sometimes I don't think I'm enough of a pilgrim or stranger, but
that's that old flesh wanting to, but we are. As soon as people
find out what you believe about God and about Christ and salvation, well, you'll find you're a stranger
real quick in this world. What we value, the world says,
is foolishness. What we value is foolishness. I know it breaks your heart sometimes. I know people who are worldly
very well off. Beyond my understanding, they're
so well off. They talk, well, we'll put $5
million over here, $10 million over here. They live in a house
worth $100 million, all that. And they're as lost as can be.
The day's gonna come when God's gonna stand before, they're gonna
stand before the Holy God in judgment and their worldly goods,
like Paul said, were done. They have no peace, just a little
bit more. They gave us me out of this world.
These people were God the Father's. God the Father gave them to Christ
and they have kept thy word. Do you believe God the Father
gave Christ to people? A certain people? A particular
people? And that the work of the Jesus
Christ was only for those people? Religion doesn't believe that. The only way you or I can believe
that is that we're God's child. Because we sure didn't believe
it before now, did we? We believe God loved everybody,
wanted to save everybody. It's not what the Bible says.
They've kept the word. How have I kept God's word in
my substitute, Christ? That's such a relief to me and
a peace to know that My salvation is not depending on something
I'm doing or have ever done, but it's depending on what Christ
has finished already. That is, if that doesn't give
you peace, you'll never have peace. That's why when we're
in conflicts and trials, Lord, I know you brought it. I know
they're not going away Would you cause me every day? I have
to pray lord cause me to look to you And to run to you and
to rest on you because the more i'm trying to fix it the worse
it's getting And thankfully the lord is He's doing it for his
glory and my my good because promise you if you're a child
of God you're gonna get a point where you're gonna throw your
hands and Tears are gonna run down your eyes because you're
gonna say I Lord I cannot handle this It's beyond me Lord. If you don't have this Lord,
I can't have it The hard part is to be thankful
for it while you're going through it Because the Lord's ordained
it And I always think of the song, whatever my God ordains
is right. Holy his will abideth. Lord,
you brought me into this trial for your glory and my good. Teach
me, Lord, teach me to look to you. And I hate to say this. He has to break my hands from
wanting to hold on to worldly things. Maybe you don't have that. I
do. Verse seven. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou has given me are of thee. Christ's perfect
obedience to God the Father. You cannot, I can't explain it,
but I know this, that union between the Trinity and God's people,
it cannot be broken and it cannot be changed. And it's always accomplishes
what God set out to do. And I'm thankful for that. Verse
8, for I have given unto them the words which you gave me,
and they received them. I remember Brother Todd put it,
how do I know believer? When I heard the gospel as the
gospel. When I heard the gospel, not
just as another form of the gospel, it was the gospel, this is it. Everything outside of this is
a lie. and I knew it was the gospel of my salvation. Paul
says, the only one that has the power to save. I've given the
word what thou gavest and they've received it, and the only reason
you and I received it, because God the Spirit came and gave
us faith to believe it. And I have known surely that
I came out from thee and they have believed that thou did send
me. You ask people, well, why did
Christ come into this earth? Most will say to make salvation
possible, won't they? No. Christ came to save his people. To reveal God the Father and
the Trinity to them, and the Spirit would come and give them
the faith to believe it. Verse 9. This is Christ speaking. I pray
for Them. I'm not praying for everybody.
I'm praying for them. And I can say, I need Christ
to pray for me. Oh, Lord, would you pray for
me? I thought about, you know, Peter. He was reading about Peter.
I'm sure when Peter denied Christ, he had to think, well, that's
the end of it for me. That's the you know, but the
Lord told him he said Peter you're gonna deny me Michael you're
gonna you're gonna sin against me Michael. You're not gonna
believe me Michael. You're gonna want to trust in
your self-righteousness But be of good cheer I've prayed for
you. Oh Lord, thank you pray for me
I need to be prayed for and I need someone to pray for me whose
prayers are always answered and and is given, and that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. I pray for me. And just to work
clear, he says, I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou has given me, for they are thine. We're God the fathers,
we're Christ the sons, we're God the spirit, we're their people.
And they are always, always sovereignly interacting for their glory and
our good. The world doesn't believe that.
If you can believe that, it's because God had to give you the
faith to believe it. And the only way we can believe
that is if we're His child. All are mine, all are thine,
thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. How in the world could
Christ be glorified in me? Like I said, I I was spared mostly
from a lot of religion, but you know in religion they always
want to talk about crowns You know what? I'm saying given the
you know, I remember a little bit about crowns. Maybe some
of you don't remember crowns this crown We are the crowns
and our King wears the crowns the Lord Jesus Christ he gets
all the crowns and he looks at and he says look what I did for
Noah Dunbar and That's one that's I work right there of my glory
and my grace right there. He would have never come to me
He did no desire for me But one day I Sent my spirit and I made
him willing and he came and now he believes what I tell him in
the gospel Because I can assure you you didn't believe it before
that in fact most of us hated it and We were like Peter. We spoke ill of it, didn't we?
We denied it. Oh, but we are Christ and our
father I'm so thankful. He's not like me an earthly father
Number verse 11 Christ says now I'm no more in the world. He's
fixing to leave But these are in the world That's us, we're
still in this world, and we come to thee. Holy Father, keep through
thy own name those whom thou has given me, that they may be
one just as we are. Can you say, and Berth Burt alluded
to in his prayer, God, if you don't keep me, I'm gonna fall. You let me get close to temptation,
I'm gonna go for it. Lord, I am completely dependent
on you to keep me the whole way. Kept, I need to be kept through
his name, the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to be kept. Give me a
chance to, you know, I thought about this and so many years
ago, Don Fortner was up here and he was preaching. I'm not
a very bright man, so I can do well with illustrations that
I can understand. And he said one of the things
that he liked to do was when he got, he was on a trip, he'd
come home, his granddaughter would run up to him. And they
would clasp their hands, you know, wrist to wrist like that,
and he'd twirl her around. And she'd always say, faster,
Grandpa, faster, faster, faster, till guess what happened? Her
grip let go. But his never did. His grip never let go. That was
her hope. I know the Lord, my grip on the
Lord, I flee that thing. I let go hundreds of times a
day. But oh, thanks be to God, his
grip on me never lets go. It's not dependent on my grip
to him, it's his grip to me. And we do lay hold of Christ,
don't get me wrong, but it's, our trust is that he'll never
let us go, that he'll keep us all the way to the end. Verse
13, and now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world,
that his people, the children of God, might have my joy fulfilled in
themselves. This old flesh confuses joy and
happiness Happiness depends on my circumstances
and it can change just like that can't Joy never changes Joy never changes. This is a terrible experience
explanation, but I'll tell you it's one that's This is Father's
Day, so we can use it. Parents, you ever been disappointed
in your children? Yeah, if you haven't, you're
living in a different world than I am, I'll say that. But my joy
in them never left. That we might have God's joy,
God's joy in us. That's His Spirit causing us
to look to Christ. Verse 14, I have given them thy
word, and the world has hated them. Sometimes I struggle to
think, you know, the world doesn't hate me like it probably should.
But the reason is they don't know what I believe. Because they're not of the world,
even as I'm not of the world. We are strangers and pilgrims
in this land. I always, one time I worked,
I had a lot of refugees work for me. And they spoke Bosnian,
Chinese, all the different languages. And I don't know how you feel,
but sometimes, you know, they'd also, you'd hear, and they'd
look at me, and they'd look at me and laugh, and I thought,
I don't know what they're saying, but I don't feel good about this
at all. They were kind to me, don't get
me wrong. That's how we are, we're strangers. We talk a different
language. We talk an eternal language. We talk of Christ and
salvation. and the glory of God and all
our hopes in Him. And here's the answer to why
the prayer to take me out of this world doesn't occur. Verse 15, Christ has prayed not
that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest
keep them from evil. That tells me right there, Christ
has prayed and God's gonna grant this prayer. My conflicts are
not gonna go away. I'm gonna have them, but that
the Lord, that Christ would keep me from evil. And that's keep
me from not pursuing evil. Cause if evil comes present,
I'm gonna go after it. That's just my nature, keep me
from evil. We're not of the world, even as I'm not of the world,
Lord, set them apart through thy truth. The world is truth. I know Brother Greg, we should
always pray. Pray for God's servants, because
some of the evil things people say about them, to them, it's,
they hate them. It's an evil hate. We think our
politics right now is an evil hate. The hate to God's true
preachers, true gospel preachers, that doesn't even compare. Sanctify
them through the truth, the word is truth. Thou has sent me into
the world, even so I have also sent them into the world. We're
here in this world. For their sakes, Christ says,
I'm setting myself apart, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. We are set apart. How many times
you had somebody say to you, You folks are the most unloving,
uncaring kind of people that I've ever seen. You think you're,
you know, you're the only ones. No, we're not the only ones who
know the truth, but we know the truth. And because we know the
truth, we are set apart. Verse 20, that's what I want
to get to. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me. Through their word. And I can look around this auditorium
right now. Somebody spoke Christ to you. And he used. Sinful, wicked people. Such as us. To bring him to himself. That's why we're still in this
world. We are to be his witness. You don't see it in my daily
life. You certainly wouldn't see it if you could see my heart
and thoughts I have. But I always appreciated what
Brother Henry Mahan said. He said, every believer knows
how to witness. Because you've heard, well, I
don't know how to explain the doctrines of grace. And that's
not what we're called to do. And I always thought this was
so wise. He said, you just tell them what Christ done for you. That's all you need to tell them. You don't have to debate doctrine.
Just like the blind man. I know I was blind, and now I
see. You can tell me all you want,
but you still get back. I know I was blind, and now I
see. Tell them what Christ has done for you. The last one, verse
21. That every one of us may be one
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. that they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me." The union between the Trinity,
the triune God and his people cannot be broken. It cannot be
changed. And oh, thanks to God, it's not
dependent on us to keep it. He's never gonna let us go. Clothes I guess I remember something
just stayed with me. So You can know sound doctrine and
not know Christ There's a multitude of people out there You can say
I know all these things and not know Christ But if you know Christ,
you're going to know sound doctor. I Was in our family was in religion
I guess, I don't know, Robert, what did you call him? The guy,
anyway, law, law, heavily law, fundamental Baptist religion.
They're the ones that talk about sin. And after a while you realize
there's no gospel there. I was as lost as could be. But
I knew it wasn't. I remember as he used to pray
for him to walk the aisle, I'd be praying for him, don't get
out, because I don't want to trust in something they've done.
And our time come to leave, and I've told this before, so I went
in, I thought out of courtesy, I didn't want a phone call every
five minutes, what's going on? So I went in to see the, I'll
be kind and say preacher. I said, well, I have to leave
because I will tell you, I believe salvation is totally of the Lord
and not by human will. That's what the word of God says.
And here's a man been preaching for 40 years. He looked at me,
he says, Michael, you don't believe in that election stuff, do you? Well, I really didn't know what
he meant, but I could tell he didn't like it. So I thought,
absolutely. Couldn't have told you what it
meant for the life of me, but I thought, this will put an end to this
relationship, won't it? And he looked at me, and he said, I
fear for you, and I fear for your family, because I think
you're bringing great evil and devastation to them by doing
this. I said, well, I'm leaving. Thank you for everything, and
I wish you the best. I have no other feelings. After God was pleased to save
me, I want to tell you, do I believe in election? Not really. I believe in a God who elects. Do you see the difference? One
was a doctrine, the other is a person. The salvation of my
soul is not on doctrine, salvation of my soul is on a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. My hope is not in some doctrine.
My hope's in Christ. You see that? I hope you do,
because there's a difference. A lot of people say they believe
in election, and they don't believe in Christ, do they? I pray that the Lord will enable
us today to see by His Spirit that you and I can know, know
that we are God's child. Not because I believe these,
but because I believe the God who spoke these things. You see,
that's what I want to make sure. It's not the doctrine, it's the
person. The person who spoke these words.
That's where my hope's at. And what a great hope it is to
know that death may come. It could come tonight. Lord,
bring it. You know best. I'm prepared to
go. I'm prepared to go. I hope he'll
give you that hope and that comfort and that peace to know that,
you know, Lord, only you know, Lord, I may be
sleeping in a box in four weeks, who knows, underneath the roof,
but you know what, Lord? I know you've ordained it. I
know it's right and good. And I pray that you'll give me
the faith to look to you. And not, boy, this is one for
me, not to complain against your good providence. Because it's
right and it's good and I know in the end, your relationship with me can't
be broken. Boy, that's a comfort to my soul. That I'm dependent on the holy
God who never fails. And the only reason I'm able
to do that because he done all the work. I pray the Lord will
comfort your souls with that. Thank you very much. All children of wrath, in bondage
and sin, we helplessly lay, condemned and unclean. God's law, in its
infinite justice and wrath, demanded we suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, Once stood in our place God's glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His own life to atone for our sin. The Great Substitute. Behold, He has come. The price has been paid. The work is all done. Christ took on Himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out His blood and He
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith, the blood of the
Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Amen.