Chapter 5 When a brother or a sister departs
from assembling with us, Never presume that they have committed
the sin unto death. That they've rejected Christ.
Never presume that. Never presume that they've ceased
to abide in the doctrine of Christ and truth. That they've forsaken
assembling with God's saints. Instead, as John said, here in
chapter 5, when you see a brother's sin, pray for him. Pray for them
that if it's God's will, He will either chasten or correct them,
bring them back with a new spirit, or that He will plant them in
a church where the gospel is preached, where He has provided
His pastor and the Gospels preached in truth. When brethren depart
from us, as long as they commit themselves to another local assembly,
a place where Christ has provided His preacher that preaches in
spirit and in truth, then they have not apostatized from Christ. The apostate is he who rejects
Christ. It's he who renounces the doctrine
of Christ, forsakes and abandons assembling with God's saints
wherever Christ has assembled his people. They do so by either
abiding alone, without assembling anywhere, or by uniting with
those who mix law and grace, which is no gospel at all. I
want this message to be a message that we can refer to any time
that we're faced with the heartbreaking news that a professing brother
or sister has departed from us. When such a thing happens, it
fills you with questions. It breaks your heart. True believers
begin to examine ourselves. We begin to look at ourselves
because we're willing to take the blame for such a thing. We
know we're sinners and we know what we're capable of. You remember
whenever the Lord Jesus told His apostles that one of them
would betray Him. The Scripture says they were
exceeding sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto
Him, Lord, is it I? They knew what sinners they were.
They knew what they were capable of. So they didn't point the
finger at their brethren. They pointed the finger at themselves
and said, Lord, is it I? And the true betrayer, finally,
the last one of all of them, he said the same thing. But he
was just copying them. But they meant it. And that's
the spirit that God puts in the heart of His people. We're willing
to take the blame. We're willing to examine ourselves. What could I have done? But brethren, if any can depart
where Christ is preached in truth without moving to another assembly
where the truth is preached, the problem's not in God's people. The problem is in the heart of
those who depart. I want this to be a message that
answers our questions by declaring the heart of the matter according
to what God says in His Word. When a professing believer departs
where the gospel is preached in truth, without going to another
true local assembly, the circumstances may differ from case to case.
There may be a lot of different things that, you know, we're
involved in each case where somebody leaves. But the principle, the
underlying principle is the same. It's always the same. And the
Apostle John's been declaring throughout this first epistle
what that principle is. That's been his message throughout
this epistle. Speaking by the Spirit of God,
John declares plainly why some can forsake Christ and why some
cannot commit that sin unto death. The Spirit of God moved the Apostle
John to assure God's children, everyone born of God, who trust
Christ alone apart from their works, the Spirit of God moved
John to assure you that a child of God, born of God, cannot commit
the sin unto death. We can never cease believing
Christ. We can never forsake his gospel. We cannot forsake our brethren.
because the Spirit of God keeps us. It cannot be done. He says
here, and I want you to take note three times, John says,
we know. And I want this to be our divisions
each time he says, we know. First of all, we know that those
born of God sin not. He says, verse 18, we know that
whosoever is born of God sinneth not. But he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. Then secondly, we know that we
are children of God. And those that are outside of
Christ, unregenerate, the world lies in wickedness. He says,
verse 19, and we know that we are of God and the whole world
lieth in wickedness. And then thirdly, we know all
these things and all things by Christ, by Him teaching us. He says in verse 20, and we know
that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true. And we are in Him, that
is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. And then we'll see the application. Little children, keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. The point John has been
declaring to us in this whole epistle and what he declares
in this text is, children of God, born of God, have an unction
from the Holy One, taught of God, so that we know all things. We know all things, spiritual,
necessary to eternal life, because we've been taught of God. Now
first of all, we know that those born of God sin not. He says,
verse 18, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but
he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one
toucheth him not. Now, in each of these cases where
John says we know, now this is not vain presumption. We're not
being presumptuous here. And this is not speculation.
These are things that the child of God knows beyond a shadow
of a doubt. These are things we know. Every
child born of God knows that whosoever is born of God sinneth
not. Now the scripture declares that
in Adam we all died. In Adam we all sinned. God has
arranged it so that we're represented by two men. Either Adam, and
he's the only one that represented us, or, by God's grace, we're
also represented by Christ. But these two heads are federal
heads that God set up to represent all their offspring. And Adam
represented all his children that would be born of him, and
when Adam sinned, We sinned in Adam, and God imputed the sin
of Adam to us all, because we all sinned in him. And then we
were born of Adam, of corrupt seed, so that we come forth with
a corrupt nature. We don't know God by nature.
We'll worship the God of our imagination, but not the true
God. That's just scripture. That's
what God said. And now that you and I have been
regenerated by God the Holy Spirit and given a new heart, a new
nature to believe on Christ, we know that still our old nature,
our fleshly nature is nothing but sin. Paul said, I know that
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Our nature, our
old nature, God is not using that in any way. It's still the
same. and it's still sin and all our
flesh produces is sin. And we know that. But being born
of God, sin no longer has dominion over us in any way. Not the guilt of sin, And that's
what made us, when we were dead in sins, it was the guilt of
sin that made you try to turn over a new leaf every so often,
made you want to try to get religion and try to clean up your act
and all that, kept you in that never-ending cycle of fear and
torment. Well, we've been delivered from
that, from that guilt. And also from the dominion of
sin itself. Those born of God delight in
the law of God in that new nature, in the inward man. And God has
made it so that what God loves, we love, and what God hates,
we hate. We hate sin, and we love righteousness. This is how God has made us to
be. And by God's grace, He's given
us a new walk so that we're no longer dominated by sin anymore,
like we were when we were lost. But there's something far greater
here that John is declaring that's even greater news than that.
He's saying before the law and in our new nature, we cannot
commit sin. That includes the sin unto death,
apostasy. We can't commit it. We can't
commit any sin before the law of God. Christ came and lived
representing His people under the law So that He fulfilled
the law perfectly for His people. And then He went to the cross
and bore our sin and answered to divine justice to pay for
all the sin wherein we've broken the law. So the positive side
of the law and the negative side of the law we fulfilled in Christ
completely. So that before the law of God,
God says of His people, I remember your sins no more. They're gone.
They're completely gone. Christ has put them away. And
then being born of Christ now, being born again, born anew of
Christ in our new nature, we're born of incorruptible seed. And
there's a new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness and in that new nature we cannot sin. Go
back to 1 John 3 and look at verse 7. And here, he's talking
about before the law of God, he says, little children, let
no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness,
that means believing on Christ. That's how we do righteousness.
That's how the righteousness of God is given to us, is through
faith in Christ. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as Christ is righteous. That's righteous,
and that's how righteous you have to be to come into God's
presence for God to accept us because God's holy. And then
concerning our nature, look at verse 9. Whosoever is born of
God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and
he cannot sin because he is born of God. That means we cannot
cease believing on Christ. We cannot cease believing on
Christ because Christ's seed abides in us and we cannot commit
that sin. We cannot cease abiding in the
doctrine of Christ. We cannot cease assembling with
God's people under the preaching of the gospel because this is
our life. This is true life from God that
He's given you and you want to. You feed upon the gospel. And
so we cannot cease doing these things with God's saints. And
since these are the things whereby we love our brethren. You know,
churches give you all these rules about how to love your brethren
and all these different things to where you begin to scratch
your head and think, I can't do those things. I must not love
my brethren. John said, hereby do we know
that we love the brethren. When we love God and keep His
commandments. And His commandments are believe
on Christ, assemble together with your brethren under the
preaching of the gospel, and that way your brethren can have
the gospel too. And that's how we love one another,
by continuing in the truth, continuing in Christ, giving ourselves so
we can all have this gospel together. That's how you love one another.
It's not this phony pretend. I see why most people hate religion
and won't have anything to do with it because so much of it
is just phony. We're not putting on here, brethren.
This is how we love one another. John said that very clearly. Now, that's one reason it hurts
when professing believers are able to walk away is because
it hurts me because I see how you've given yourselves and denied
yourselves and sacrificed greatly so we can have the gospel here.
And it makes you think, is it me no more than that, that you
could part with brethren who have done that for you and provided
that for you? The truth of it is, brethren,
when we have the love of God in our hearts, You love your
brethren and you just, you can't do anything to hurt them. You
want to, when you have a problem with one another and you talk
to one another and you seek forgiveness for one another, brothers and
sisters in Christ are real quick to apologize and forget the offense
just like that. Look at, this is what it is right
here, Ephesians Ephesians 4 at the end, listen to this, verse
31. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Be ye there followers of God
as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved
us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. That love wherewith Christ has
loved us, that's the motivator. That's the constraint that makes
you want to be quick to forgive your brethren, put it behind
you, and move on. There's nothing so offensive
that it could cause you to want to forsake where the gospel is
preached in truth. You see how rare it is to find
a place where the gospel is preached in truth. It's a rare thing.
And you can't just walk away and think, well, I'll just find
one around the corner. It just don't happen. It's a
rare thing. There's churches everywhere,
especially if you go down south where I'm from. I mean, there's
churches on every corner. But they're all preaching the
same thing. They're preaching man's works.
And to find a place that will tell you the truth about what
God says in His Word. I'm not here to tell you what
I think. I just want to read you what God says and try to
help you see it and understand what He said. And to find a place
that does that is a rare thing. And we put up with offenses in
our jobs, and we don't quit our job. Why? Because it's our life. We put up with offenses in our
homes, and you wouldn't divorce your spouse over some of the
things that people just easily walk away from the gospel over.
And God's grace just won't let you do that. It says here, he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself. Because we're born of God and
we're kept by God, the scripture says the work he's begun in his
people, he will finish it. Paul said in Philippians 1.6,
being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun
a good work in you will perform it, he will finish it until the
day of Jesus Christ. That means wherever God has given
faith and brought you to Christ, he's not going to let you go.
He's going to keep you believing on Christ. And so by his keeping
grace, he makes us to keep ourselves. Paul told Timothy that we keep
ourselves pure and by that he said not being partakers of other
men's sins. We come continually to the sin-cleansing
fountain of Christ's precious blood asking God to forgive us
our sin. We don't try to hide it or deny
we're sinners. We come to God confessing we
are and he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And Jude
said, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the
mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Christ said,
abide in me, for without me you can do nothing. So we endeavor
to keep ourselves in the love of Christ. James exhorts us and
says, keep yourselves unspotted from the world. Keep yourselves
unspotted from the world. The psalmist said, we keep our
tongue. He said, I will take heed to
my ways that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my mouth
with a bridle while the wicked is before me. We don't want to
say anything that will give unbelievers an excuse not to believe the
gospel. Or make them, when you try to talk to them about the
gospel, make them say, well, you know, this and that and the
other thing about you, so they don't believe what you're telling
them. You don't want that to happen. Solomon exhorts us, keep
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. And how do we do these things? How do we keep ourselves?
We keep ourselves in Christ's hand. look into Him only, trusting
Him only. We keep ourselves under His gospel
because we're constantly reminded of these things as we hear the
gospel preached. You know how you leave here and
you go into the world and you have your jobs and you're doing
the things that you do during the week and it's so easy to
get caught up in those things and forget what you've heard
And next thing you know, you're doing battle with somebody just
like the world does battle and you've forgotten what you've
heard. We have to come back here and hear it again. Hear it repeated. Because we forget it like that.
And that's what the gospel is. A true preacher, scripture says,
is to put them in remembrance of these things. And that's what
I'm here to do. Put you in remembrance of what
you already know. and that's what we need constantly.
That's how we keep ourselves. We keep ourselves assembling
with brethren because when you assemble here and you see other
brethren assemble, especially you with young children and all
the stuff you have to do to come here and it's a weeknight and
you know there's a lot involved in getting everybody herded the
same direction and all come here and sit down. That's an exhortation
to others here and exhorts them to love and to good works. Just
seeing each other here and having each other's presence encourages
us to continue assembling together. That's what the scripture said.
And so by keeping ourselves in Christ, looking only to Christ,
verse 18 says, 1 John 5, 18, the end says, and the wicked
one toucheth us not. Now Christ may permit the devil
to sift us, That's what he did with Peter. Remember, he said,
the devil has desired that he may sift you, Peter. But the
devil and Christ are not in competition with each other. Not the true
God of the Bible. The true God of the Bible is
in sovereign control over the devil. And scripture speaks of
him as being on a leash. And he can only do what God permits
him to do. And God only permits him to do
what's going to be for our good and for God's glory. He came
and wanted to tempt Job, and he had to ask God's permission
before he could do so. Remember that? And God said,
you can tempt him, but you can't touch him. And Christ prayed
for Peter, and he said, I pray for you that your faith fails
not, and for that reason it didn't fail. When the devil sifts, His
goal is to have nothing left. You know, you put a, you put
a, you pour chicken broth, you know, you've cooked your chicken
in a pot with the water to make you some good chicken broth and
when you strain that out, all you got left is the bones and,
you know, the stuff you don't want. The devil's goal in sifting
you is so that that's all remains. It's just the bones and nothing
that's good. But the Lord overrules the devil
so that when he sifts you, all that's left is what's good. He
doesn't sift you to do away with the bad. He sifts you to refine
you, to make you come out better than before. And that's what
God always accomplishes. So when brethren depart, sometimes,
and this is what we pray, that it's just the Lord trying them
and refining them and He's going to bring them back stronger and
better than when they departed. That's what you pray for. That's
what you want. Now secondly, look here. We know
that we are the children of God and we know the world. Verse
19, and we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth
in wickedness. Now this is what faith knows. This is what true God-given faith
knows. This is not being arrogant. This
is not being presumptuous. It's just a matter of fact. John's
been declaring the manifest difference between believers and the world.
The manifest difference. We know that we are of God and
we know that the world lies in wickedness. Now let me make this
statement. I think I made this to you last
week. I know I made it down in Arkansas. But listen to this
carefully. A child of the devil can outwardly
imitate everything a child of God can do so that he looks like
a true believer. The one thing the child of the
devil cannot do is he cannot truly believe on Christ. and
therefore he cannot truly love the brethren. Now, a child of
God can commit every sin outwardly that the child of the devil can
commit, so that he'd look like a child of the devil. He can
do every sin a child of the devil can do. There's one sin he can't
commit. He can't cease believing on Christ,
and therefore he cannot cease loving the brethren. And that's
the difference. That's the difference. It's the
difference the grace of God has made. We didn't make the difference.
The grace of God did. Look at 1 John 3 and look at
verse 10. In this the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil. He just said whosoever is born
of God does not commit sin. He's talking about the sin of
apostasy, saying he can't stop believing on Christ. And he says,
in this the children of God are manifest and the children of
the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness,
whoever believes not on Christ is not of God, neither he that
loveth not his brother. You look down the page at the
end, the last Verse 23, this is his commandment. Here's what
the child of God does. That we should believe on the
name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave
his commandment. That's what we do by God's grace
and can't stop doing. But the child of the devil up
there in verse 10, he does not righteousness, he does not believe
on Christ, neither loves the brethren. You get that? That's
the difference. That's it. Believers can't cease
believing God, we can't cease loving our brethren, but the
world can do neither. A natural man, you and I could
not believe on Christ, and we couldn't love our brethren. We
couldn't, until we were born of God. And so, the child of
the devil cannot. Now look, another thing, by Christ
abiding in us, we cannot hear lies spoken against our Savior. We can't hear man exalted as
if and be told that he can do things that only God can do,
we can't hear that. And we can't hear Christ brought
down to man's level. We want to hear Christ exalted.
We want to hear man abased and Christ exalted because He's our
salvation and He's our all. So look at 1 John 4, 4. The world
can only do that. The world can only preach up
man and preach down God. Look at this, verse 4. 1 John
4, 4. You, ye are of God, little children,
and have overcome them, speaking of the world, because greater
is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are
of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world
heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. He that's not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Most of preaching in the world
today sounds like Dr. Field is talking or sounds like
something you'd learn off Andy Griffith's show. And that entertains
people and people don't mind hearing that. And we don't preach
that. We preach total depravity. We
preach unconditional election. We preach limited atonement. We preach irresistible grace. We preach perseverance of the
saints. We look into the word of God and compare scripture
to scripture and show and try to explain one scripture using
another scripture that helps to explain it. And that's just
not something that appeals to flesh. It doesn't... I didn't
like it. My grandfather was a preacher.
And just because it was my flesh and blood that was the preacher,
that didn't make me like what he preached. I didn't like it
at all. I just thought it was the most boring, useless thing
in the world to go there and sit and hear that preaching.
I would sit in the back and I'd make me little paper airplanes
and I'd sit back there and just try to occupy my time playing
with these little paper airplanes and not listen. And one day God
made me listen. That's the only difference. That's
the only difference. Now be sure to get this. A believer
can depart from one local church, but Christ will either correct
him so that he returns or Christ will plant him in another assembly
where the gospel is preached and true. You get that? A believer can leave where the
gospel is preached and either the Lord will correct him and
bring him back or the Lord will give him grace to move to a place
where the gospel is preached and true and plant him there.
and it doesn't matter how he has to deny himself, it doesn't
matter what he has to suffer, the Lord's going to make him
do it and so that he follows Christ. So you pray for any and
for all brethren who depart this place, you pray for them that
that might be the case with them, that they're not apostate but
that God is just is just chastening and teaching and working with
them to carry them to a place where they can hear the gospel.
And be sure to get this too. One that's born of God cannot
settle and go to a church that mixes grace and lies. You just
can't do that. If you mix grace and works, it
ceases to be grace. Scripture is so plain on that.
If it's works, then it's got to be works. Can't be grace. If it's salvation by grace, it
can't be works. They're mutually exclusive. And
a believer just can't settle and say, I'm just going to sit
here and settle for this even though it's mixing grace and
works. Because that's no gospel at all. Listen to this. Christ
promised us this. Jeremiah 3.15, I will give you
pastors after mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. That's the preacher Christ provides. They're gonna preach the truth,
and only the truth. And concerning preachers that
mix works and grace, They try to put some of it into the sinner's
hands and some of it into God's hands. This is what God said
in Jeremiah 23, 32. Behold, I'm against them that
preach false dreams, saith the Lord, that which they just dreamed
up, and do tell them and cause my people to err by their lies
and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Therefore, they shall not profit
this people at all, saith the Lord. And so God's people, born
of God, you know you're of God if you're born of God. And you
know the whole world lies in wickedness and you just can't
settle for any preaching. You just can't do it. So you're
gonna be brought to sit under the truth. Apostates are those
who depart and never commit themselves to a local body of believers
where Christ has established the gospel. They either just
go out and about alone, or they settle for a place where works
are preached. And they have apostatized from Christ when they do that.
That's what true apostasy is. Look back at 1 John 2.19. I know
I'm repeating a lot of what I preached Sunday and the week before, but
it bears repetition. Listen to this, 1 John 2.19. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. God doesn't lose his
people. He doesn't. He does not lose
his people. But they went out that they might
be made manifest that they were not all of us. But you have an
unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. Look at
verse 27. But the anointing which you have
received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man
teach you to abide in him. That's what he's saying. But
as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth,
and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide
in him. Now lastly, by this unction that
we've been given from Christ, we know that it's Christ who's
made us to know all things. The Lord Jesus Christ has taught
us of all things. Look at verse 20, verse John
5, 20. that the Son of God has come
and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Now the first hour that you and
I were made to hear the gospel, it was a trial. It was a severe
trial. It was a severe test to us. When
He began to reveal your sin to you and strip away all your false
refuge and show you that you've been walking in a lie, it was
painful. And it was very much a trial
to all of us. And some of you may have endured
a great trial of afflictions because of loved ones that didn't
want you to believe the gospel. But through anything and everything
that God tried you with, Christ came and gave you an understanding
so that you could not do anything else but believe on Christ. You
had to. And so He made you pass the test.
Now, as we walk through this life of faith, God sends us trials
often. And it's a test. But God always,
Christ always comes just like He did in that first hour and
gives us an understanding that we may know Him that is true
so that we always pass the test. He always does this. It's called
being approved of God. Now listen to this. This is what
the Spirit of God gave Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, 19. He said,
there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved
may be made manifest among you. God uses divisions that occur
to present a trial to you and I who believe. It's not a matter,
when a division occurs, please hear me, it's not a matter of
siding with one brother against another brother. That's not the
issue. It's a matter of standing with
Christ on the side of truth. And Christ is going to always
make his child come down on the side of truth. When the apostle
warned his brethren, calling certain men by name, In order
for those brethren to receive that warning, they had to believe
Paul. They had to believe that what Paul was telling them was
true. If they didn't believe what Paul was telling them outside
of the pulpit, they certainly should not have believed what
he was telling them inside the pulpit. But those who did not believe
him were led away with the error of the wicked and they proved
themselves to be apostates. But take, for instance, if the
division is due to a brother's character. Say it's a brother's
character. Say he believes the gospel and
everything you've ever heard him say about the gospel was
true, but there's something about his character that is contrary
to the Word of God. Well, though I love this brother,
and I want to see him turn from his error, the only thing Christ
is going to use to turn him is truth, not compromise. So I'm going to have to stand
with Christ. I'm going to have to stand with the truth. I cannot
compromise. You get what I'm saying? I had
to do this one time in Tennessee. I had to stand with Christ. I
had to stand on the side of truth defending my pastor. And there
was a great many true believers, true brethren that were making
an error in judgment. against my pastor. And it was
true. It was an error they were committing. I wasn't questioning
those brethren as to their faith. I wasn't questioning whether
they were true believers or not. That wasn't the issue. I was
not choosing one brother over another brother. That wasn't
the issue. I was standing with Christ. I was standing with the
truth clearly revealed in the scriptures which those brethren
were walking contrary to. And that's the only thing God
will bless. And you know what He did? He blessed it. and he
turned and he chastened those brethren. Some of them proved
to be apostate, I think, and I don't know that they left and
never went anywhere. But some of them were brethren,
and he chastened them, and we're better friends and better closer
now than we were before any of that ever happened. But God won't
bless anything but standing with Him and truth. That's all He'll
bless. But when God gives a trial, there's
no way, now listen to this carefully, when God gives a trial, and He
brings you, there's some divisions, there's heresies, and you've
been brought into it for whatever reason, you see it now. There's no way to remove yourself
from it. You can't remove yourself from
God's trial. You may walk away from the gospel,
where the gospels preach, walk away from one assembly, you haven't
removed yourself from this trial. You can't if you're God's child. You can't do it. There's no neutrality. How we respond puts us either
on Christ's side, on the side of truth with our brethren, or
we ourselves make an error in judgment and come down with those
that have erred against the truth. But there's no neutrality. and
you can't remove yourself from it. It's a test that God gives.
There must be also heresies among you that they which are approved
may be manifest among you. But if we're Christ, just like
He did in that first hour, He's going to come and He's going
to give us an understanding. It may not be right away. We may have to suffer a while.
We may get ourselves tangled up in a big, bad, ugly mess.
But if we're His, He's going to come and give us an understanding.
Verse 20, we know that the Son of God has come and has given
us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. We know
this because the Son of God came and He gave us an understanding.
Either God's able to come through the preaching of the gospel and
in using providence together to teach His children in the
heart and really teach us or God's lying to us and we might
as well throw the whole book away and go home. But you that
know Him know Christ is the one that came in the beginning and
gave you an understanding and He's the one that comes in every
trial and gives us an understanding so we know. That's the only way we do know.
Brethren, when you came to Christ the first hour, you knew the
truth. I know you did because that's
what He said. We came to Him the first hour confessing our
sins and casting all our care on Him because we knew the truth. You have an unction from the
Holy One. You know all things. And whatever it is that we didn't
know, as soon as we heard it preached, we said, I know that's
the truth. Because it makes it ring in your
heart. You know that's true. And you bow to it. You bow to
it. And in every trial since, if
we committed an error in judgment like the Apostle Peter did, you
know what we're always doing? We're doing just what the Lord
said to Peter. We're only trying to save our
life rather than deny ourselves. That's all we are ever doing.
We're trying to save ourselves suffering rather than taking
up our cross and suffering for Christ's sake. And that's sad
when you consider what He was willing to suffer for us if we're
not willing to suffer for Him. And we might follow our own wisdom
but Christ is going to come and give us an understanding and
make us follow Christ instead of looking to ourselves. It's
painful just like it was the first hour you believed to bring
you to that place to trust Him. It's painful as He turns you
and He grates against your flesh. We don't like to be wrong. We
don't like to be turned. But that's painful. But when
he brings you there, it's a rejoicing. And it may be painful for him
to turn us when we're making an error in judgment. But if
we're his, he will succeed. He will come and he will give
you an understanding. And it's because we're in Him
that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true
God in eternal life. This is why we're kept. This
is why the wicked one can't touch us. We're in God who is true,
even in His Son Jesus Christ. Have been since He chose us from
eternity. We're in Him when He went to
the cross. We've been in Him since He called us. And we're
in Him now. And so He will not let His people
fall away. This is why we can't go after
lies, because the one we're in is the true God. And this is
why we can't commit the sin unto death because this one we're
in is eternal life and He won't lose us. He will not lose us.
So little children, keep yourselves from idols. What's an idol? An
idol is anything that comes between me and Christ. That's an idol. It's anything that comes between
me and assembling with my brethren under the preaching of the gospel.
An idol is anything that comes between me and Christ, me and
my brethren. An idol can be a loved one. Whatever that person or thing
is that's become an idol to us, God will remove it or us from
it. But He will. And He'll teach
us to keep ourselves from idols. So keep yourself from idols,
pray for your brethren that are overtaken in a fault, and keep
looking to Christ and Christ only. He's the only one that
can save us. and He's going to save all His
people. I pray that will be a blessing. And if you ever have this problem
of brethren departing from where the Gospel is preached, just
go back and listen to this message. This is the fundamental principle.
After all that He said, She said, boil it right down. It's this
principle right here. That's what He's talking about.
Okay? Amen.