Oh, I don't know. At least until he comes back. All right, yeah. My ankle. My ankle is hurting. My knee is hurting. We should. Yeah, pretty much. We should. Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 38 from your Gospel Hymn Spiral hymn
book. And we'll all stand together
for number 38. Come, every sinner saved by grace,
you who by faith God's Son embrace. Tell all who hear your voice
below the debt of love to Christ you owe. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee, All that I am, or hope to be, I owe alone, O
Christ, to Thee. He left His Father's throne above,
And came to earth on wings of love, For us He lived, the perfect
man, And so fulfilled the law's demand. Dear Lord, I lift my
praise to Thee, All that I am, or hope to be, I owe alone, O
Christ, to Thee. Jesus endured His Father's ire
and died at the appointed hour. What He endured, no tongue can
tell, to save our souls from death and hell. Dear Lord, I
lift my praise to Thee, All that I am, or hope to be, I owe alone,
O Christ, to Thee. From death's dark grave our King
arose, And triumphed over all our foes. Up through the skies
the victor rode, And reigns on high our Savior God. Dear Lord, I lift my praise to
Thee, All that I am or hope to be, I owe alone, O Christ, to
Thee. From heaven Christ will quickly
come and bring his ransomed people home. There we shall see his
lovely face and chant the praises of his grace. Dear Lord, I lift
my praise to Thee. All that I am or hope to be,
I owe alone, O Christ, to Thee. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Micah? Micah chapter seven, the very
last of the book of Micah. Good evening. Fred and Billy are leaving tomorrow,
right? Oh, you will be here Sunday.
You're going to leave after the service on Sunday and go back. Okay. And Nora finally got her schedule
changed. So she was able to be here with
us. It's good to have you here, Nora. All right, you find Micah
chapter 7, we'll begin reading at verse 18. Who is a God like
unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever
because he delighteth in mercy. Aren't you glad? We have a God
that delights in showing mercy toward his children. He will
turn again and he will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our inequities. And thou will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea, never to be found again. thou will perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou has sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. Let's pray. Truly, Father, there is no God
like unto thee. And what great hope we have in
knowing that The sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made on
Calvary's cross was sufficient to pardon all our iniquity, bury
them in the depths of the sea for you to remember them no more. We ask tonight that your Holy
Spirit once again would give faith to our hearts and sight
to our eyes and hearing to our ears. We would hear your voice
and see Christ, and Lord, that we would find him to be our all
in all. What great encouragement and
hope we have in the promises that you've made, where you said
that if two or three are gathered together in your name, there
you are in the midst of them. nor truly you do inhabit the
praise of your people. We pray that you'd put it into
our hearts to be able to praise you and worship you. And oh,
how grateful we are that you're God of mercy, that you delight
in showing mercy, putting away our sin. We thank you for it
in Christ's name. Amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 229. 229 from the hardback hymnal.
And let's all stand. 229. Tell me the old, old story of
unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His
love. Tell me the story simply as to
a little child, For I am weak and weary and helpless as a child. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Tell me the story slowly that
I may take it in, that wonderful redemption, God's remedy for
sin. Tell me the story often for I
forget so soon. The early dew of morning has
passed away at noon. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Tell me the story softly With
earnest tones and grave Remember I'm the sinner Whom Jesus came
to save Tell me the story always If you would really be In any
time of trouble, a comforter to me. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His Tell me the same old story when
you have cause to fear that this world's empty glory is costing
me too dear. Yes, and when that world's glory
is dawning on my soul, tell me the old, old story, Christ Jesus
makes thee whole. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Please be seated. I hope the Lord will enable me
to do what we just sang, be a comforter to you. I know the Spirit of
God is the one that has to speak peace to our hearts, but I want
to speak the truth about Christ and I want you to leave here
comforted. If you'll turn with me in your
Bibles to Isaiah chapter 43, Isaiah chapter 43. And you'll notice in verse 10,
it begins with, you are my witnesses, saith the Lord. Now, every child of God delights
in being able to witness to Christ. We thank God for those opportunities
that he gives us. And we delight in being able
to tell people what we believe. Now that's not to say that we
don't miss opportunities. We miss a lot of them. Either
we're dull or indifferent or afraid for one reason or another. We don't witness as we ought. But we want to. And sometimes our witness is
just what that blind man in John chapter 9 said. You know, when
people start asking us questions and we can't give chapter and
verse to answer their questions, all we can say is, you know,
all I know is that once I was blind and now I see. Sometimes
our witnesses like Philip, remember in John chapter 1 when the Lord
told Philip, you follow me and Philip came and Philip had a
brother, his name was Nathaniel. And Philip ran to Nathanael and
said, we have found the one that Moses and the prophets spoke
of, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said,
what good can come out of Nazareth? You know what Philip said? Come
and see. Just come and see. We delight
in in the opportunities that our friends and family members
have to just come and hear. And we hope and pray that they'll
see. We're not interested in being
caustic and rude in our witnessing. Some people pride themselves
in thinking that they've been persecuted just because they've
got an abrasive personality. And, you know, we don't want
to do that. The Lord said, you shall be my
witnesses. Now what I see in these verses
is what every believer witnesses to. Whether or not they are able
to give an answer to everyone that asks them for the hope that's
within them with meekness and with fear or not. Maybe they
can't. Maybe oftentimes we're like those
saints that the writer of the Hebrews wrote about in Hebrews
chapter five when he says, you who ought to be teachers have
need that one teach you again. And I feel that way oftentimes. I ought to be more bold and more
able to speak and I'm not. All that having been said, The child of God can say, yes,
that's my testimony, that's my witness, that's what I believe. Bert and I were reflecting the
other day back on 20 years ago, and when Todd first came down
and preached the gospel, and I didn't remember it, Bert reminded
me, he said, you stood up right after Todd finished preaching
and you said, that's what I believe. I believe everything that man
just preached. And boy, everything fell apart after that, didn't
it? Everything came together after that, however you want
to look at it. But, you know, I hope that each of us will be
able to leave here tonight and say, yes, that's my witness.
That's what I believe. And it's my heart's desire that
others would believe the same thing. Now, the word witness
in the New Testament is the same word that's translated martyr.
And so to witness to something means that it's something that
you're willing to die for. Something you're willing to die
for. If you believe, if you believe
what God says here, God's made you to be a believer, you'd die
for it. It's just, it's just that, it's
that real to you. It's that much of who you are. It's that, it's, it's, it's,
it's your life. This is, this is my testimony.
This is my witness. This is, this is what I believe.
Plenty of believers have died confessing what you and I believe. We'll begin in verse 8 and we'll
go down through verse 13 and I've got several things here
in these passages that, verse 8 again from Sunday morning,
bring unto me the blind that see and the deaf that hear. Like I said, that man in John
chapter 9, he said, you know, I don't know. The Pharisees were
putting him on the hot seat and he said, I don't know. All I
know is that I, I once was blind and now I see. This witness is
our own personal testimony. It's our personal experience.
This is something that God has done for me. Don't know about
anybody else, but I know for me. It's not a secondhand testimony. The most incompetent attorney
would object to someone giving testimony that was hearsay. would
stand up immediately say no that testimony is not acceptable that's
hearsay information it's got to be your own personal experience
and and so that's that's our witness this is what God has
done for me and this is what God has done in me this is what
I believe this is this is where I am I was once blind and now
I see. I once could not hear and now
I can hear. And I know the Lord has done
a work of grace in my heart. I don't believe anything I used
to believe. Verse 9. Let all the nations
be gathered together and let the people be assembled. Every believer's testimony, every
believer's witness is that he or she is a member of the body
of Christ. I cannot tell you how many times
people have told me over the years, well, I believe the gospel
and I believe all that, but I don't need the church. That would be
just like your thumb saying to your hand, I don't need you.
Or your hand saying to your arm, I don't need you. What hope does
any part of your body have to be alive and functioning apart
from your body? Every believer's testimony. We
we don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is we understand that this This is our life. This is my body Christ is my
head. I've got to be here I've got
to be a part of the body of Christ and this is where you remember
I mentioned Sunday about Thomas Thomas has been known for 2,000
years as what doubting Thomas and Where was Thomas when the Lord
appeared to the disciples? Yeah, I don't know. The scripture
doesn't say. I'm sure that he probably thought he had a good
reason for not being there. But look what he missed out on
for not being there. This is the place where the Lord
is pleased to make himself known. This is where he speaks to the
hearts of his children. God's people their testimony
is I've got to be a part of the body of Christ. I've got to be
a part of the church And so he says let all the nations
be gathered together and let the people be assembled Let them
be assembled Who among them can? declare this Now here's our I'm
sorry, I wanted to make another point. And this is not an absolute,
but I have seen it over the years that it's a general rule. Who do we witness to most clearly
by our commitment to the body of Christ? Who do we witness
to most clearly? by our commitment to the body
of Christ, our children, our children. Children know what's important
to their parents and what's not important to their parents. And
children get the idea that, you know, church is just kind of
a take it or leave it sort of thing, you know, we'll just do
it when it's convenient. They'll develop that same, I've
seen it, you've seen it. And the parents that are committed
to the assembly of the saints, their children, they see that
witness and they hear that witness and the likelihood of them being
committed to the body of Christ is going to be affected by the
witness of their parents. Thirdly, Who among them can declare
this? Here's our witness. I can't explain
anything fully. I just can't. Who can declare
it? We're not witnessing what we
understand. We're witnessing what we believe. Well, you know, the world will
insist on explanations, won't they? Well, just try to explain
the existence of God. You can't do it. You can't do
it. How are you going to explain
a God who is self-existent, eternal, immutable? We don't even know
what those words mean. Except that they only apply to
God. And we believe them. So we're not witnessing that
which we understand. Here's what he says. Who among
them can declare this and show us the former things? Who can
explain the covenant of grace? And how God in eternity past,
before time ever began, had a covenant with His Son, a promise to give
to His Son a bride. and choose them according to
his own will and purpose, and count the blood of Christ before
the world was ever made, count the blood of Christ as already
effectual for their salvation. So that he loved his elect with
an everlasting love, never seeing them anywhere except in his son. Who can explain that? Who can
understand that? We can't. We believe it, why
do we believe it? Because it's declared in the
word of God. And the Lord has held us captive to his word,
haven't he? So we're witnessing what we believe,
not what we understand. What about providence? How can
we understand providence? How can we understand the trillions and trillions of
things that take place in creation, and all the factors going into
those things, including the choices that men make, and yet knowing
that everything that happens in time has already happened
in eternity, and that God is absolutely sovereign over all
the events of this world, so that all the inhabitants of the
world and all the armies of heaven, they do what he wills them to
do. We can understand that. We believe it. That's our witness.
That's our testimony. That is our God. No man can stay his hand. No
man can say unto him, what doest thou? He hath done whatsoever
he wills, and he works all things after the counsel of his own
will for our good and for his glory. We have an absolutely
sovereign God who can explain it. That's what he's saying.
Those of you that are gathered together, What adequate understanding or
explanation do you have for these things? All you can do is say,
thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. That settles
everything for the believer. For the believer, it's all he
needs. And you know what? When we witness to our friends
and family members, that's who we're looking for. We're not trying to make goats
look like sheep. We're not trying to convert the reprobate and make unbelievers
somehow understand the things we... We know that God still
has elect children, lost sheep. That's what we're doing. We're
looking for God's lost sheep. And so lost sheep don't need
an explanation. Lost sheep need to know what
God says. And lost sheep will believe what
God says, so just tell them, thus saith the Lord. We don't
need to give lost sheep any more explanation than that. This is
what God says. And God will use his word of
his own will, begat he us with the word of truth, isn't he?
He uses, faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word
of God. And so our witness is just to tell men what God says. We don't have to explain it.
We don't have to defend it. We don't debate it. We just declare
it. And God's lost sheep will hear
it and they will believe it. And if they don't hear it, they
don't believe it. You cannot hear my words because
you are not my sheep. You know what the Lord said?
My sheep hear my voice and they follow after me. So we're not
trying to make the world, you know, submit to what we,
we're looking for God's lost sheep. So he says, who among you can
declare this? Who can, who? There's not a man that God's
ever called a priest of gospel who ever came out of the pulpit
and felt like, boy, I just, I got it that time. You know, I was
there, never, never, never. And they just always feel like,
oh, I just, I couldn't. So I spend the next two hours
after I leave here rehearsing word for word everything I said
and thinking, boy, I wish I hadn't said that, I wish I'd said this,
I wish I, who can declare these things? Who's sufficient for
these things? You know what Paul said about
his own ministry? Who is sufficient for these things?
Who's got the ability to declare them adequately? And if the men
God's called to preach don't have the ability to declare it
adequately, who have given their lives to the study of the scriptures,
don't be intimidated if somebody's, you know, if you feel like, you
know. The other thing about, we learn from our mistakes, don't
we? We learn from the opportunities that we have, and we learn from
the things that we say to people, and we learn how to do it better. Next time, who among them can
declare this and show us former things? How can you show someone what
happened before they were ever born? I mean, we're hanging the hopes
of our salvation on an event that took place 2,000 years ago. How can you prove that? How can
you show anybody that? And we can go back further than
that. We can go back before time and say that the hope of my salvation
is on a covenant of grace that God made with God before Adam
was ever made. Before the angels were ever created.
Before the worlds came into existence. There's my hope. I can't. How
are you going to show that to somebody? You can't show them
that. You cannot show men former things. But that's our hope, isn't it?
That's our witness. Our witness is that we're hoping
in things that took place outside of me. Let them bring forth their witnesses
that they may be justified. We have the witness of God that
we are justified. We bring forth, you see what
he's saying here is the witnesses bring forth their witnesses.
Who's our witnesses? Turn with me to first John chapter
five. Verse seven, for there are three
that bear record in heaven. Now who can show forth former
things? This record is in heaven. When God makes that blind to
see, he opens the windows of heaven. He enables us to peer
into the eternal and to believe what we see. There are three
that bear record in heaven. The Father. God the Father bears
record. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. In the beginning, God. We have
the record of God the Father. And we have the Word. That's
Christ. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
God. The Word was God. The Word was made flesh and He
dwelt among us. And the word returned back to
the Lord, didn't he? And he didn't return void. My
word will accomplish the purpose for which I send it. It will
not return unto me void. When Christ went back, he took
with him all those for whom he lived and died. That's our witness,
isn't it? I have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He ever lives to make intercession
for me. I am in Christ in the heavenlies
right now. That's my witness. That's my
testimony. How do I know that? Because I
know that's where Christ is. That's what he says. We have
this record. We have this witness in heaven. The father who approves
of the son who says he's satisfied with him. I saw the travail of
his soul and I was satisfied. And he gave him the reward of
his labors. His work went before him and
his reward went with him, didn't it? We have in heaven the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Spirit. How do we believe these things?
Only by the Spirit of God. You would not believe if it wasn't
for the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of God that opens
the eyes of our understanding. It's the Spirit of God that gives
us faith. It's the Spirit of God that regenerates us and takes
out the old heart and puts in a new heart. When the Comforter
comes, he will convict the world of sin, of sin because they believe
not on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father, and of judgment
because the Prince of this world is judged. We have the Comforter,
we have the Holy Spirit, and we know that he's the only one
that was able to bring me to Christ. That's his ministry. So we have the Father who sent
the Word, the Word who accomplished our salvation, and the Holy Spirit
who, you see, you have election, redemption, and regeneration
right here between God the Father electing a people, Christ redeeming
them, and the Holy Spirit regenerating them. That's our witness. And
all we can do is bring to you, as a witness of God, the witness
that we have in heaven. And there are three that bear
witness in the earth. That's where I live. So I'm in
Christ in the heavenlies right now, and I have that witness
because I can see. I can see. that God, the father
reigns sovereign, that God, the father elected a people, that
God, the son redeemed them and God, the Holy spirit regenerated
them. And now I'm here on the earth and I have this witness,
the spirit of God, Romans chapter eight, who bears witness with
my spirit that I am a child of God. If you have not the Spirit
of God, you're none of His. And the Holy Spirit comforts
our hearts. That's what He is. He's a comforter.
He speaks truth to our hearts and He assures us that we belong
to God. And of water. That's our new
birth. That's our new birth. When a
woman's expecting a baby and that water breaks, that baby's
coming. This is a picture of the new birth. So this is my
experience here in this earth. I know the Spirit of God has
taught me about Christ and he has regenerated me. So we have the blood. That's the blood of Christ. That's the blood shed on Calvary's
cross. That's the blood that God said, when I see this blood,
I'll pass by you. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. This blood covers all our sins
before God. There's our, there's the witness
of God. So the Isaiah says, bring forth
your witnesses. So that's what we do as the witness
of God. We, you are my witnesses. We
bring forth the witness. Who's your witness? Well, God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are all in heaven.
And my experience here on earth, which is the ministry of the
Holy Spirit in my heart, which gives the light to my understanding
and causes me to believe on Christ, he's regenerated me. And I've got the witness of the
blood of Christ. And these three, The last part
of verse eight now, and these three agree in one. They all
say the same thing, don't they? They all say the same thing.
All these witnesses are in agreement. You see what the Lord's doing
here. He's likening this to a court of law. You have conflicting
witnesses in a court of law, then you gotta figure out who's
telling the truth and who's not. Here he's saying all these witnesses
are saying exactly the same thing Adam you have a case where you've
got a bunch of witnesses and they're all saying the same thing
You're gonna win that case, aren't you? And that's what the Lord's
saying He's saying they all these witnesses agree if we receive
the witness of men the witness of God is greater and For this
is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his son. So we hear this witness through
the voice of a man, but it's the witness of God that confirms
it to our hearts. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God hath
given to his Son. And this is the record. This is the record. God hath given unto us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. This
is the witness. This is our witness, isn't it?
We may not be able to give someone all this when we're trying to
talk to them about Christ, but this is our witness. Go back
with me to our text. We have the witness of God that we are justified. You see that
in verse nine? That's my witness. I was talking
to somebody this past week, and they said they were going to
a church where everybody wore t-shirts that said, no perfect
people allowed. No perfect people allowed. And
I thought, well, that's clever. And I know what you're trying
to say. But I was able to say to her, you know, The only people
who are going to go to heaven are perfect people. Perfect people. Absolutely sinless. That's what justified means. That's what justified means.
It's not just if I'd never done it. I've never done it. I've
never done it. There's no sin. No sin. The Lord said, I separate your
sins from you as far as the east is from the west. I remember
them no more. How is it that I can be justified
in the sight of God? Because God's not looking at
me. He's looking at Christ. And I'm in Him. That's what the witness says.
That's what the scripture says. You are washed. You are sanctified. Made holy. You are justified. Without sin. Perfect before God. For as He is, so are we. And he that sanctifieth and they
that are sanctified are all as one. How does this happen? In
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Let them bring forth their witnesses.
We're back in verse nine now of Isaiah chapter 43. Let them
bring forth their witnesses. That's what we do. We've gathered
together from all over the world. And we're bringing forth our
witnesses. Our witnesses are God, the Father, God, the Son,
and God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the water and
the blood. This is our witness. And we're bringing forth our
witnesses. We just say that we may be justified or let them
hear. We've heard, haven't we? We've
heard a message that's contrary to everything this world and
religions of this world have to say about God. We've heard of a salvation that's
accomplished. We've heard of a savior that's
sovereign. We've heard of a God that's satisfied. We've heard of a work that's
finished. And there's our hope. And this
message is a contradiction to every other message that the
world has for the hopes of men's souls. The Lord said in John chapter
17, Father, I have given them thy word and the world has hated
them for they are not of this world even as I am not of this
world. This message is hated by the
world. It exposes the world for what
they are. Light has come into the world
and men love darkness rather than light. And when the light
shines, it exposes, it exposes the darkness of this world. And
men hate Christ and they'll, they'll, they'll, they hate the
master. They'll hate the servant, won't they? But that's our witness. And we can say no other. And
if we're placed at a point of death at the end of a gun or
whatever, I'm sorry, that's my witness. I can do no other. The Lord said
in John chapter 17, sanctify them through thy truth, for thy
word is truth. So he says, here's your witness. The Lord's called us to be his
witnesses. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord. Let them bring
forth their witnesses that they may be justified and let them
hear. Let them hear. And we have heard. We've heard
the Lord Jesus Christ say, Father, forgive them for they know not
what they do. We've heard him say, it is finished. We've heard
the father declare his pleasure in his son. We've heard the Lord say, believe.
And we were bound to believe. We were brought to believe. We had no choice but to believe. We can't not believe. And it's
our faith that's the evidence of our salvation. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. Or I can't do anything but believe
on Christ. It's all I can do. I've got no
place else to go. What do they say? Look at the
end of verse nine. What is our witness? It is truth. It's truth. The Lord was standing
before Pilate and Pilate said, they say that you're the king
of the Jews, is that right? And the Lord said, for this cause
was I born, for this reason came I into the world, to bear witness
unto the truth. What Pilate say? Truth. I'm sure he had a smug grin on
his face. Truth? Is that what this is all? Truth? There's no such thing
as truth. Don't you know that everything's
relative? And what do God's people say? It is truth. Christ said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life, and anything contrary to Him is a lie. No
lies of the truth. No lies of the truth. If a man say that he hasn't sinned,
the truth is not in him. The truth's not in him. We know that we're sinners. That's
the truth. And we know that Christ is our
only Savior. He is our truth. And he said,
if you know the truth, the truth sets you free. Where the Spirit
of God is, there's liberty. We have him as our witness, don't
we? This is every believer's witness. This is every believer's
testimony. You know, religious folks get
together and they have testimonials, don't they? And all they do is
rehash the sordid events of their lives. They're not telling you
what the truth is about the gospel. They're just telling you about
their experiences. That's not the believer's testimony. This is the believer's testimony.
This is our witness. It is truth. It is truth. And we can't hedge the truth. We can't change the truth. We
don't want to mess with the truth. Verse 10. You are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, and my servant. I have chosen That's our witness,
isn't it? God chose me. I didn't choose
him I Was dead in my trespasses and sins dead man can't do anything
You talk about accepting Jesus and letting Jesus come into your
heart and making a decision and praying a prayer and all that
kind of stuff All you want that's not my witness. I My witness
is that He chose me, and had He not chosen me, I never would
have chosen Him. My servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am
He, and before me there was no God. Neither shall there be after
me." Our witness is that our God is
the first cause of all things. Now there's secondary causes,
I understand that, but he's the first cause of all things. He
reigns absolutely sovereign in providence and most especially
in salvation and in creation. The planets are exactly where
they're supposed to be everything in creation is exactly as it's
supposed to be Before me there was no God formed
neither shall there be after me I even I am The Lord and beside
me there is no Savior There is no Savior Now, our president
stood before the nation last night and made the declaration
that we're all created by the same God, and that's true. That's
true. But everybody that heard that
will think, well, you know, everybody's got their own understanding of
God and everybody's got, you know, their own way of salvation. That's not my witness. Not my
witness. I am the Lord. There's no other
savior. Now I'm not everybody's got the
right to believe whatever they want to believe We're not on
a witch hunt here, and we're not trying to you know force
men We're not you know trying to inflict the Sharia law on
men. You know that everybody can do
what they want But we're saying this is my witness. There's but
one Savior One man between God and sinners
and Without him there's no salvation God may be the creator of all
men, but He's not the Savior of all men. And he, you know, Trisha, some
of y'all asked where Trisha is, she's out of town, she's visiting
her mother. And she texted me today, she
went to their old family church and to the cemetery. That's where all of her relatives
are buried. She can go to church. She went to the cemetery, but
she took a picture of the camp of the, of the, of the, uh, church
sign. And the church sign said, uh,
they said, uh, men will go to hell without being saved, but
no one will go to hell without being loved. That's a I mean, you know, that's
a conservative Bible believing, you know, Alabama God loves everybody Christ died
for everybody God wants everybody to be saved Now it's up to you. You got to do your part. That's
not no that's not our witness That's not our witness. I Am
the Lord God That's our witness. Our witness is that our God is
God Let's read on because that makes it so clear in these look
look at verse 12. I have declared and have saved
Have saved Don't miss the verb tense. They're not I'm gonna
save I want to save I'm doing my best to save no I have saved
I everyone that God chose in the covenant of grace Christ
accomplished their salvation and Every single one of them
are in him right now before the father and not one of his sheep's
coming The the Spirit of God is going to be as successful
as was the Son of God He's gonna regenerate everyone that Christ
died for I Have declared it I have saved
and I have showed When there was no strange God among you
There's our witness all my idols been put to death I Can't go
back to your idols Kenya Now I know in one sense where we're
incurable Idolaters and that we're always taking our eyes
off of Christ and look in other places I'm talking about the
idolatry of false religion. You just can't go back to it.
I Don't want anything to do with it. Why? Because that's what the
Lord did. That's my witness. That's my
testimony. I've got no strange gods among
you. Therefore, you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. You see how many times the Lord
talks about being his witness? This is my witness. Is this your
witness? This is every believer's witness.
This is our testimony, this is our declaration, this is what
we believe, this is where we stand. And God give us grace
to be his witnesses in this world for the lost sheep. And I remind you that the, say
not that there are yet four months to harvest, for I say unto you,
the fields are white now unto harvest. Verse 13, yea, before the day
was, I am he. And there is none that can deliver
out of my hand. There is none that can deliver
out of my hand. What did the Lord say? No man
can take you out of my hand. You can't take yourself out of
his hand. You can't send yourself away
from him. No way. Why? Because I'm God.
I'm more powerful than you. I've got you. I've got you. There's none that can deliver
out of my hand. I will work. And who? shall let it. Who shall stop
it? Who's going to thwart my purpose? Who's going to change my work? Not you, not me. Don't want to,
do we? That's my witness. My witness
is that he has saved. That no one can take his people
out of his hands. because he's God. He's God. Our God, our God's the only God
there is. I mean, I don't mean that in the sense that it sounded.
Our God is, but you listen to the, what I'm trying to say is
you listen to the description that other men give of their
God and they're not God. They're not God. Our God is the only one that
is declared as God. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the witness that you have put into our hearts. We ask,
Lord, that you would forgive us for the many times that we
have failed to be the witness that we ought. We pray that you
would provide us opportunities to speak to men about Christ
and, Lord, that your lost sheep would would come and hear and believe. Lord, we pray that you would
keep us and enable us, Lord, to believe the testimony that
you have given us of yourself. Oh, we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Number 268. Let's stand together. Thank you. How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word. What more can he say than to
you he hath said, To you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled,
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God,
I will still give thee I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee
to stand, upheld by my gracious omnipotence. When through the
deep waters I call thee to go, The rivers of woe shall not thee
overflow. For I will be with thee thy troubles
to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials Thy
pathway shall lie, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be Thy
supply. The flame shall not hurt Thee,
Thy only design, Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake.