Those days, and that's 35 years
ago, give you some idea. When we first met, if somebody
was born the first day we met, they'd be 35 years old. And I've been pastoring the same
church 46 and a half years. Been there a long time. Seen
a lot of people come and go, seen a lot of folks saved by
the grace of God. And I've seen it. Well, turn
with me to Book of Jude while you're getting over there. And
I appreciated the preaching. And thank you for having us. Oh, my, this is a delight to
come. Let me read verse three, and
it's my text, and say a few things about it. Beloved, when I gave
all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, as common
salvation is just only common to the Lord's people. It's common
to all of us. We all have the same Lord, the
same faith, one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one God and Father
of all. That's what's common among us.
It was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that
you should earnestly contend for the faith which was delivered
unto the saints. For there are certain men crept
in 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. When it says that earnestly contend
for the faith, I want to talk about our profession of faith,
what we contend in, what we believe. When I talk about our profession
of faith, I'm talking about what we believe, what we contend for
like they do here. Now let me give you a little
history lesson starting out. There was for centuries and centuries
a great, great darkness upon the face of the earth, spiritual
darkness. It's called the Dark Ages. Maybe
some of you studied that in school. And it was the Dark Ages, they
called it the Dark Ages. And it was, it was dark for centuries
and centuries. And Catholicism ruled the world. Catholicism was religion of the
whole world. And nobody had a Bible Catholics
and the priests and them, they kept the scriptures locked in
their monasteries and locked in their cathedrals, and so men
would have to come to them. Then nobody had a Bible. Nobody
had a scripture. And they kept it from men. And
they kept them an awful, awful bondage. And they taught salvation
by the Holy Mother Church. Now that's the spiritual darkness
that was going on. And you know, and even the church
in those days, and they still do it, a man told me the other
day, they sold indulgences. And indulgences is if you want
to indulge yourself in some fleshly thing that you wanted to do,
you pay the priest, give him how much money, and then you
go commit your sin. And you've already paid for it.
He's already taken care of it for you ahead of time. and then
there's what they call penances. And you know you could buy penances
and that means that the priest will forgive you so many sins,
you give him so much money and they take care of so many sins
for you. And they persecuted, they persecuted
all who would not confess their faith in the Pope and in the
church And the Pope was also to be considered infallible,
as he is today. But they persecuted. They persecuted,
oh my goodness, had the Spanish acquisitions. They burned a multitude
of people at the stake in England. Mary, Queen of Scots, she slaughtered
tens of thousands of people when she sat on the Catholic throne.
But in spite of all that, and this darkness was deep and long,
and it endured for centuries. But God raised up a man. God
always has a man, never left himself without a witness. God
raised up a man, and whom God taught the gospel. And this man's
name was Martin Luther. And God taught him the gospel.
He had been a monk. He had been a German monk. lived
in a monastery. He was a doctor of theology.
And he had been taught in their schools, in their Catholic monasteries,
in their Catholic schools. And one day, he always, you know,
he would beat himself on the back to keep his flesh under
control. And he was crawling on his knees
one time, going up some steps, going on knee at a time, going
up these steps. And while he was going up those
steps, a verse of scripture came to his mind. and it was Romans
3.24. You know what that says? Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Immediately
God opened his understanding. Immediately God turned on the
light in his mind and he got up And he began to study, he wrote
a book, he wrote the best book on Galatians that you could possibly
ever get. But anyway, in 1517, he nailed
what's called the 95 Theses on the door at Wittenberg in Germany.
95 falseness that the Catholic Church taught and 95 theses or
truths that ought to be taught. And in that time, That began
the Reformation, what we call the Reformation. And you know,
and this Reformation started, and it started, and God called
other men. God called other men. He called John Calvin in Switzerland,
Zwingli, John Huss in England, and these Reformers They had
their struggles, they had a lot of troubles, they had a lot of
heartaches, they had a lot of aggravation, they had people
utterly trying to kill them. But they came to a three-point
conclusion in this Reformation, a three-point conclusion. And
this is the three points that they came to, scriptures alone,
grace alone, and Christ alone. And I believe if we'll stay with
those three things, I believe we'd be fundamentally sound. Scriptures alone, grace alone,
and Christ alone. And I'll tell you, we have on
our sign, we used to have it on our sign, we got a new sign,
but it had those three points on it. Scriptures alone, grace
alone, Christ alone. And people used to get aggravated
at us because we didn't put, when we had a sign, we put nothing
but scriptures on it. We didn't put stupid sayings
on it. We put nothing but this Bible
up, scriptures. And people say, you're that church
that don't put nothing but the scriptures on your sign. Oh, but I tell you, if we'd adhered
to these three things, I believe we'd be fundamentally societal. Now let me give you that first
point if I can. And this is what we profess.
When we contended for something, I'm talking about what we profess,
what I believe and I believe you believe this. When we say
scriptures alone, what do we mean by that statement? Scriptures
for what? Scriptures for faith, what we're
to believe. Scriptures for how we're to live
in this world. That's the only thing that we've
got to tell us what we're to believe. Only thing to tell us
how we're to live in this world. And beloved, the scriptures are
the only divinely inspired book and supernaturally inspired book
on the writings of this face, on the face of this earth. There's
not another book like it. Not another book like it. I read
a lot of books. I've read 165, almost 180 books
in the last three years. And I couldn't tell you about
hardly any of them. But I can tell you this book
right here. This book right here, God wrote these words down. God
wrote these, it may be in black and white, but it's God's word.
It's God's word. And I'll tell you what, the scriptures
are breathed of God, divinely, divinely breathed of God. All
scriptures are by the inspiration of God. And I tell you about,
you know, the scriptures tells us that the Bible itself is God's
word. When we, you know, the old timers,
you know, the old preachers used to say, and the prophets get
up there and say, what does this say of the Lord? That's the first
thing they want to know. What did the Lord say? And that's
what I want to know. What did the Lord say? And oh,
we say boldly. And emphatically, we are what
we are, we do what we do because we have a book which we believe
to be the word of God itself. When God opens the books in the
revelation, you know what books he's gonna open? This right here. This one right here. The judgments
begin at the house of God and this is what he judges men by,
his blessed book. And the Bible sells all arguments
And it's the rock of infallibility. I don't know if you've ever seen
Isaiah 820. Have you ever looked at Isaiah 820? Look at that with
me for a moment. Look in Isaiah 820. You know, we receive nothing
as truth but what agrees with scripture. What agrees with scripture. And you know, that's one thing.
That's why, you know, when you go to a grace church, what we
call grace churches, you know our churches are called grace
churches, sovereign grace churches. We use language that no other
churches use, no other preachers use. We talk about grace, we
talk about sovereignty, we talk about things that other people
don't talk about. But look what he says here in
Isaiah 820. Look what I said in verse 19.
And when they say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar
spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter, should
not a people seek unto their God for the living to the dead? Now listen to this, to the law
and the testimony. Now the law here is talking about
the word of God. To the law and the testimony,
if they speak not according to this word, it's because there's
no light in them. No light in them, no light in
them. And you know, I'm gonna tell you something. The scriptures
alone tell us how the world came into existence, and the scriptures
alone tells us how the world is gonna cease to be. Did you
know that? In the beginning, God. The Bible
starts with God. First thing out of the, and he
don't say, I want to convince you of my, you know, men try
to convince people of existence of God. God just says he is.
And that's enough. And God said in the beginning,
God said. God said, God said, God said,
God said. And then you know what happens?
Let me show you. Just go back here to, I believe
it's in, let me look at it here. 2 Peter chapter 3. Just go right
back to your left just to, you know, you got John, then you
got 2 Peter. Look what it says here. I'm going
to tell you what it says about. We know how the world began,
brought into existence. You hear these scientists tell
you about, you know, it was created 10,000 billion years ago and
they found this something, you know, that was 37 million years
old. How do they know? How do they know? But people
believe it. They could say hell's a high
house, the devil's a groundhog and people would believe it. But look what it says here. In
2 Peter chapter three and verse 10. This is how the world's gonna
end. God said let there be light and
there was light. separate the heavens from the earth, made
the seas and everything was made. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. That means he'll come when you
don't know he's coming. In which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent
heat. The earth and also and the works
therein shall be burned up. Seeing that, that all these things
shall be dissolved, Oh, what manner of persons you ought to
be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting
unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being
on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look what is going to happen when he gets rid of
this one, we're looking for a new heaven and a new earth. And you
know the only kind of people that live there? People's righteous. You're so righteous for people.
Holy God that made them righteous. And you know the scriptures not
only tell us how the world came into existence, how it's going
to leave, but they alone give us a true account of man. God
doesn't paint man to be something he is not. He exposes all their
faults. You know, he exposes everything
about them. You know, he don't exaggerate
their goodness and he don't exaggerate their faults. You know, God created
man. You know how God created man.
God come and he took some red clay. He took a handful of red
clay and he formed a man made out of clay. That's what he was.
He was made out of red clay. Red man of red earth. Then the
Lord Jesus Christ, because he's the only one that could breathe,
he walked up to that man and he was an inanimate object, an
inanimate object, and God breathed in that man's nostril and he
come alive just like that. That's exactly what he has to
do with us, yes. But that's how he created man.
But what happened to that man? God put that man in the garden
and he told that man, He said, everything in this garden you
can have, it belongs to you, you tend it or you're lord over
it. But there's one tree out in the
middle of that garden called the tree of good and evil. The
day you eat that, you're gonna die. And I'm gonna cut you off
and no more fellowship, no more union. You'll be dead, you'll
die spiritually and you'll die physically. because of your sin.
And when he did, not only did he fall, but his nature became
a sinful nature. And oh my, and they show us how
we became sinners by one man. Only the Bible tells us this
now. Only the scriptures tells us this. By one man, sin entered
into this world. And by that one man's one sin,
death passed upon all of us. Spiritual death, and God has
to raise us and quicken us from the dead, and then there's physical
death, and every one of us is gonna do that. You know why? Because of the curse. And you
know what? Even now, even now, you know
what the Bible says about a man? Man at his best state, You know
what it is? Vanity, just vanity, just vanity. And I tell you that, let me tell
you something else about the scriptures. I'll hurry on through
this, I won't take long. The Bible alone, the scriptures
alone give us a true view of God, a true view of God. God said in Psalm 51, he said,
50, he said, you think I was all together like you. You think
I was like you, but I'm not like you. You know, man's natural
conceptions of God are like himself. Man thinks he's self-high, and
he makes God to be low. He makes gods out of silver and
gold, makes god out of houses, makes gods out of cars, makes
god out of children, makes god out of husbands, makes god out
of wives. And you know, they said, listen, we're gonna build
all these big temples. And God said, I do not dwell
in temples made with hands. I'm not worshiped with silver
and gold. But oh my, they have a debased,
degraded view of God. Just look at all the gods man
has made. All the heathen gods. And then
there's the Armenian god. Do you know what he's like? He's
this god who tells you, he said, listen, God cannot do anything
for you unless you let him. God will not do anything for
you until he gives you a chance. And God can't do anything for
you unless you let him save you and you got to cooperate with
him. And they'll tell you that salvation's
left up to your will. Your will. And it's your choice. And then, thus, science is God.
Science is God. Science is God right now is the
heavens, you know, with all the pictures coming out of the heaven.
And that's beautiful. Don't misunderstand me. And then
there's the ones that find all these bones and everything and
carbon dating them. What's a carbon date? You know
what carbon is? Coal. made out of carpet. Oh, the Bible
tells us, oh, not only is God, that He's holy. Holy, holy, holy
is God. And He hates the workers of iniquity. He's angry with the wicked every
day. And this is an Armenian, one of the Armenian statements
that people use. They say this, said, God hates,
He loves the sinner, but He hates the sin. Can you separate them? Can you separate? Huh? Oh, God hates sin. He can't look
on sin. He can't clear the guilty. And
what he does when he finds it, you know what he did with Solomon
Gamor when he found sin down there? He burned it down. Only saved three people out of
it. You know what he did when the flood came? He said, I saw
that the evil of the imagination was man only evil continually. And so he said, he gonna send
a flood. And only saved eight people out
of the whole nation, a whole world full of people. Saved eight. You know why? Because when sin
abounds, God himself will destroy it. And I tell you, sin is not
something to be played with, not something to be mocked with,
not something to be joked with. And oh my. Oh, so many people die, die without
God, die without Christ. And it's awful. And the Bible
also tells us God is a God of purpose. Everything God ever
done, he did it on purpose. He decreed, you know, we talk
about decrees. God just decreed one thing. Oh,
and he does all things for his own glory. He does. Let me show
you in Isaiah 46. Look in Isaiah 46. Look in verse nine. You know, I love the fact that
God does things on purpose. As you know, there's a verse
of scriptures that God used to open up the whole Bible to me
back in the 70s. It was 2 Timothy 1, 9. God, who hath saved us, hath,
that means it's in the past tense, and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Oh my, look what he said here,
Isaiah 46, 9. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there's
none like me. Declare the end from the beginning,
and from the ancient times, the things that are not yet done.
Say, my counsel shall stand, and I'll do all my good pleasure.
You know what God did? He said, there's the end, and
I'm gonna start way back here, and I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna
start way back here, and I'm gonna tell you what the end's
gonna be. I tell you, we've read the back of the book, ain't we,
Clay? We've read the back of the book. And the Bible, I tell
you, the Bible explains alone, explains the state of the world
around us in which we live. You pick up the newspaper and
you read all this stuff. Listen, all you got to do is
believe the Bible and you understand what the world's like, why it's
like it is. You understand clearly why the world's like it is. Oh
my, the inequality, the failures of nations, the failures of politicians,
the abounding of sin, all the lies that these nations come
and nations go. Men stand and men fall, education's
made to be the greatest thing and then education, you know,
environment and then all the things that men make a god out
of. And I tell you what, all we gotta do is read the scriptures
and we know exactly what's going on in this world. That's the
only thing that can explain it. The whole world lies in wickedness.
And the scriptures alone tells us the way of salvation. You know, our Lord said, search
the scriptures, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, for they are they which testify me. John said this,
he said, you know, these scriptures were written that you might believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing you
might be saved. And I tell you, the scriptures
alone tells how a sinful man A sinful man, a sinful man like
me, can be made acceptable to a holy, sin-avenging God. And only scriptures can tell
us how that can be. And they alone can make us wise
unto salvation. Paul told Timothy, the scriptures
have made thee wise unto the salvation which is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the scriptures tells us in
James 1 18, by his own will, begat he us with the word of
truth. Oh my, now let me get to grace
alone. Let's deal with grace alone.
What do we mean by grace alone? We mean this, that the salvation
of sinners is entirely, from start to finish, an act of the
sovereign, free grace of God in Christ. Man does not ever
contribute to any part of his salvation, any time, any place,
in any way. I tell you what, this business
is not a cooperative effort. It's not me and God doing this.
I heard a lady say here a while back, she said, you know, God
has got no feet but our feet, no hands but our hands. If that's
all he's got, pity him, pity him. He's not a God to be worshipped,
he's a God to be felt sorry for. Oh my, how do you cooperate with
God? He created the world with his
word. He opposed it with the word of his power. He gives the hearing, the ear,
and the seeing eye. He's the giver of life and death.
He creates darkness and light. Cooperate with God? Oh, and I tell you all, it's
not by man's will or power. John said it like this in John
chapter one. To as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, which were born,
not of the will of man, not of flesh, not of blood, not by generational
thing, but of God. Oh my. And it's not man's decision. Oh boy, make your decision for
Jesus. You made your decision. You know
when we all made it? We made it in the garden. We
made it the day we was born. And we made a decision every
day of our life till God come in the day of his power and made
us willing. And he changed our decision. And I was saved by his decision,
not ours. And all by, it's by God's free
choice, God's electing grace. You know they say, God said that
he loved Jacob and hated Esau. And they said, oh my, that's
unrighteous, that's not fair with God. Men gonna set in judgment
on God? Tell God what's right and what's
wrong? What's fair and not fair? Would we do that? Would we stand
up to God, tell Him what's fair and what's not fair? Tell your
president that, but don't tell God that. Set in judgment on
God? Oh my. But it's God's free choice,
His electing grace. Brethren, we're bound to thank
God for you, because God has, from the beginning, chosen you
unto salvation through faith in Christ. Oh, He chose you. And I tell you, grace is God's
will. This is the way it works. Grace
is God's will, and you shall. Or I shall, and you will. In the day of His power, you
know what happens? are made willing. Psalm 65 verse 4 says, blessed
is the man who thou choosest and then causes, causes to approach
unto thee. He chooses us and then causes. I love this stuff, don't you?
I just love this. That's our profession of faith.
That's what I'm talking about. This is our profession of faith.
Oh, grace is a gift, a free gift, justified freely by grace. God
freely gives us all things in Christ. It's not man's goodness,
but God's goodness. It's not man's merit, but it's
God's mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ. If salvation Hear me
now, if salvation's not by the free grace of God in Christ,
then there is no salvation, there is no God, there's no afterlife,
and there's no hope, and we're just animals marking time, if
salvation's not of grace. Grace is sovereign, grace is
unconditional, Grace, nothing causes grace to come. If God
ever seen anything you cause and give grace, it wouldn't be
grace. And when we mean by grace alone, it's sovereign grace.
What does that mean? That it's reigns. Grace reigns. Wherever it comes, it reigns.
Grace reigns through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's free grace. That's my favorite term for it,
free grace. Never, never, never, never is
any time that is it deserved by anybody. It wasn't deserved
by me today, and if God lets me wake up in the morning, I'll
get grace, and I will not deserve the first bit of it. I've never
deserved grace. And that's why it's called grace,
because nobody deserves it. And then I like it, it's effectual
grace. It actually gets the job done. Wherever it goes, it's
effectual. It takes out a stony heart and
puts in a heart of flesh. It takes the darkness in a man's
mind and turns on the light. It's effectual grace. It saves
a man and actually keeps him saved. And as I've already said,
it doesn't depend upon us in any, any way. I feel sorry for
people who feel like that they have to earn a blessing. I couldn't
earn a blessing. What would you have to do to
earn a blessing from God? What would you have to do to
earn one? What would you have to do? What
would you have to do to earn a blessing? How much praying would you have
to do? How much giving would you have to do? It never depends on us in any
way. And then it's justifying grace
It's called the grace wherein we stand. And oh, Peter says,
you know, this is the true grace of God in which we stand. And
you know what else it is? It's glorifying grace. It gonna
take us, gonna glorify us one of these days. In fact, it already
tells us we're glorified. For whom he did foreknow, them
he also justified. And all these are in the past
tense now. Them he justified, them he also called. Whom he
called, he also glorified. And every one of those in the
past tense. As far as God's concerned, I'm already there. I just gotta
wait till he tells me I'm coming. That's all that's, you know.
Well, I've said enough about that. I could have you, Lord,
turn to a couple of scriptures. But oh, to get to this. Christ
alone, Christ alone. What do we mean by the declaration,
this declaration of faith? Look over here in 2 John, right
here in Jude, if you look right across the page at 2 John, look
down there at verse 9. 2 John, Jude and John, 1 John,
3 John, right there in my Bible, Well, Jude's on one page, 2 John's
on the page opposite. When we mean that it's in Christ
alone, this is our declaration of faith. Look what it says here
in verse nine. Whosoever transgresses and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both a father and a son. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God's speed. Bid him God bless you. For he
that biddeth him God's speed is a partaker of his evil deeds. And when we say we abide in the
doctrine of Christ, we mean and believe that Christ alone, his
person, his glorious, blessed person, and his work is our only
plea before a holy God. He is all in all in God's grand
design for his eternal kingdom on this earth. I want you to
turn, keep, well, you don't have to keep Colossians, but turn
with me Colossians, Colossians, go to Colossians with me. Look
in Colossians chapter one, verse 12. You know, all things are for him and by
him and because of him. Look what it says here now in
verse 12. giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet, and word meet means to be fit, to
be partakers of the saints, the inheritance of the saints is
already in glory, who hath delivered us, saved us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the son
of his love, in whom, in Christ, we have redemption through his
blood, the payment price through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. Now, listen to this now. Who
is the image of the invisible God? The firstborn of every creature. God is invisible. He's a spirit.
Well, how are we going to see God? God sent His Son, born of a woman in this world
right here. God sent Him in this world. And
I tell you, the invisible God became visible in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And listen to this now, for by
him were all things created that are in heaven, that are on earth,
whether you can see them or whether you can't see them. If it be
somebody on the throne, whether it's dominion, it's from sea
to shining sea, or dominions or principalities, any government,
any power, anything, and powers, all things are created for him
and by him. And he's before all things, And
I love this, and by him all things consist. He's the head of the body, firstborn
from the dead. And you know, he's the declaration
of the scriptures. He's the declaration of the scriptures.
The Old Testament tells us someone's coming, you preaching it tonight.
The first promise in the Bible, "'cause I'll put him between
the seed, thy seed, "'and the seed of the woman.'" He said,
"'You'll bruise his heel, "'he'll bruise his heel, but he'll crush
your head.'" And the gospel tells us one who's come. And you know
Acts 10.43, I told our congregation I was gonna do this, and I'm
gonna start doing it pretty quick. The scripture said, Acts 10.43,
that all, to him, all the prophets give witness. And I'm going to
start in Genesis. You know how many scriptures
in Genesis give witness to Christ? Then go to Exodus. Well, I'm taking too long, I'm
sorry. The Gospel, the Old Testament
tells us someone's who comes, but the Gospels tells us someone
who's come. Someone's who come. Our Lord
Jesus, the woman at the well, She said, I know that when the
Messiah cometh, he'll tell me all things. He said, I am. I'm he. You know, our Lord said,
I am. I am the light of the world.
I am the water of life. I am the bread of life. When
they come to get him in the garden, they said, who you looking for?
They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. You know, the
first time I am was ever mentioned in the Bible. Genesis, Moses went up on the
mountain. God said, I want you to go down
and tell Pharaoh, let my people go. He started and he turned
around and said, but Lord, who am I gonna tell him who sent
me? He just tell him, I am that I
am. I always am. I'm nothing but
am. Wherever I am, I am. I just am. I am. You know, he's still the
I am. Where'd I am come from? I don't care, you know, he's
God. He inhabits eternity. All right. Is Christ alone? And the epistles tells us someone
who's coming, who's coming again. Is Christ alone in mercy and
grace to sinners? You know, believers are chosen
in him, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
We're accepted in the beloved. Believers are made holy and righteous
in him. And oh my, you know holiness
is a state of being. And righteousness is really a
state of being. And if you're in Christ, you
can never be more holy at one time than you are right now.
You can never be more righteous than you can be right now in
Christ. When you get to glory, you'll
not be no more holy there than you are here. and when you get
to glory, you'll never be no more righteous than you are right
here. I don't know what that does for
you, but that does something for me. I mean, you know, people
talk about holiness, holiness, holiness, holiness, living, living,
listen. You know, was God, more holy at one time
than He was another. Christ is made unto us our sanctification
and our redemption. Sanctification means being made
holy. And we're holy and righteous in Him. And all God made Him. And God knows that I cannot deal
with this verse of Scripture. It's just one of those things
that just astounds me, puts me in awe, makes me worship before
Him unbelievable way, but God made him to be sin. Oh, how could that be? How could that be? How could
that be? God making Christ his son to
be sin. And whatever that is, and then
he turns around and makes Christ's righteousness to be ours, to
be ours. And believers are justified in
Him and by Him, accepted, justified, cleared of all guilt, acquitted
of all guilt. And believers are free from the
curse of the law in Him, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. It's God that justifies them.
Believers are risen and seated together with Christ in heavenly
places. Ephesians 2 says together three
different times of us being with Christ. And let me say this in
trying to wind this thing down. May God grant that as long as
this building right here stands, as long as the building wherever
I'm at stands, wherever a building, wherever a sovereign grace preacher
stands, and as long as people gather to worship there, And
that place, may God grant that that place, and that place alone,
the subject be priest at all times shall be the person and
work of our Lord Jesus Christ, as long as the world stands.
Christ in his infinite, indisputable deity and glory, God of very
God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, very God, Our Lord Jesus
in his true humanity, he was a true man. He is a man that
grew weak, weary, tired, thirsty, slept in his true humanity. And oh
my, that's the only way God could save us was God to be God in
flesh. And Christ, God could not die. But Christ could, a man can. And so God made his son to be
a man so the man Christ Jesus could be our sacrifice and satisfy
God and save us from our sin in the same stroke. Oh, my. And our Lord Jesus Christ crucified,
crucified, nailed to a tree, nailed to a tree. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, buried, buried, wrapped in swaddling, wrapped in clothes,
wrapped in clay clothes, put in a grave. Early one morning they went there
and they looked for him and he wasn't there. He rose again from
the dead. stayed on this earth for 40 days,
and they walked him outside Jerusalem, and he walked on the Mount of
Olives, and while they were standing, talking to him, our Lord's feet
lost gravity, and he went up into glory, and descended into
the clouds. And they, two men stood by him
and said, you men of Israel, why stand ye gazing up into the
heavens? The same Jesus that went away,
he's gonna come back the same way. Oh my. Oh, He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquity. God raised Him from the dead,
and by Himself He purged our sins. And this is something that
men utterly and absolutely hate, that there's our Lord Jesus,
the only mediator between God and man. If you ever speak to
God, you've got to speak through Christ. If God ever speaks to
you, He's got to speak to you through Christ. Scott Richards
used to say, God wouldn't touch you with a 10-foot pole or no
other way except through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll
not let you talk to God except through His Son, the Lord Jesus.
Won't do it, He won't do it. And oh, our Lord Jesus Christ
is King of kings and Lord of lords. Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Oh my, God gave him power. He said he gave him power. All
power in heaven and earth has been given unto him. Tell you
something else God gave him. Gave him a name. Above every
name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. Oh, Jesus Christ is worthy to
receive honor, power, and glory divine, and blessings more than
he can give, oh Lord, give, oh Lord, be forever. I think if we believe those things,
the Bible, believe the Bible be the word of God, believe salvation's
all in grace, and that salvation was accomplished by our Lord
Jesus Christ, I believe we'll be all right. I believe we will. Appreciate y'all listening.