The titles I have for today's
message is a question. It's a question that each and
every one of God's saints need to ask every time they sit down
before a man. And that's all that stands here
in this pulpit, folks. Men. Those three men that we
had with us last weekend preached great messages. I highly esteem
Don Fortner for his works in going out and preaching the gospel,
just as we highly esteem men as Henry Mahan, Gene Harmon. Highly esteemed
men, but they're just men. And it is our responsibility,
for God gives us warnings over and over and over again throughout
his scriptures. To be open, be watchful, beware,
look out for this, look out for that. My title this morning is a question
to each and every one of you. Who gets the glory? When you hear someone talking
about their faith, When you hear a man talking about what he sees
in scriptures, relating to you what he's read in scriptures,
what is it he's preaching? Who gets the glory in his words? We've all heard this to be the
test of time, the test of trueness, for preaching the gospel and
how true it is. Even in simple conversation between
two or more people, you can apply this very truth. When we speak
to someone that we don't know and they're telling us they're
a Christian and they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, when
they speak to you, you can tell. You can tell by who it is they
give the glory to. Have you ever heard somebody
say, Well, I came to the Lord in 1999. Or have you ever heard anybody
say, well, you know, I chose to follow the Lord a couple years
back. I was in some troubles in life,
and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then,
and then, and I did this. You know, I decided it was time for
me to stop doing those foolish things that I was doing and begin
to follow the Lord. Do you catch the idea of what
I'm talking about in conversation? You can tell. You can tell by
what a man or a woman says whether they are giving the glory to
God or whether they are taking the glory from themselves. Who is it that is glorified in
your conversation? I pause because I want you to
think about that. I wish, folks, I wish, I wish
that I could be more faithful in this very subject myself. Most have heard the story of
how I came to own a Toyota sitting out there. Sadly, though, most have heard
the version of how John found a great deal rather than the truth. the truth of how God provided
me with an awesome gift for my grandson. I couldn't wait to tell people
about, oh, look at all, look what John did, look, I did this,
I did this, I did this, and it wasn't, I wasn't giving my Lord the glory
like I should. I've given the example of playing
golf. You hit the ball down the fairway
in the middle, and you think, oh, look what I did. You know,
I played golf here two weeks ago. And I played probably the
best game I've ever played in my whole life. And here's why. The Lord blessed me. I don't know why, but for some
reason, God gave it upon me to do something different than I
normally did. and I scored well. And it was a lot of fun when
you score well. But see, it was the Lord Jesus Christ who gave
John the thought to do something different.
Are you catching my drift? Are you getting the point of
what I'm trying to ask you this morning? Do we give God all the glory? Or do we take some for ourselves? Thankfully, we have a Savior
who looks past all those weaknesses of ours, because He has taken
those weaknesses into the grave and left them there. And He looks
upon us right now just as Himself. And because of what He has done
for us, we do have glory, but it's glory in Him. That's why when we speak of the
things in our world, more and more over time, I was sitting
here thinking about this as I was driving down the freeway talking
to Pastor Gene. You know, his conversation is
such a wonderful conversation. It's all about the glory of God
in our lives, even in these last days where he and Judy spend
their time at home doing much of nothing, just watching out
the window. waiting for the Lord to take him home. Even in these times where Judy
has become forgetful, or Pastor Gene has a cold like
he has for the last three weeks, coughing so hard that he feels
his lungs are going to burst, he still answers the phone and
gives glory to our Savior. That took time, folks. Gene reminded me as I spoke to
him about that very thing, John, I wasn't that way when I was
40. I wasn't that way when I was
50. I've just been around long enough now. And I'll bet you
Mike Loveless can probably agree with this and understand it completely.
I've been around long enough now to where I just don't even
hesitate. It's all his. I know it's all
his. And I give him all the glory
for it. I wasn't trying to put you on
too big a pedestal there, brother. But you understand what I'm trying
to say. We fail. We fail heavily. But we have a Savior who has
failed at nothing. As I consider my weary ways and
my failures, I am reminded of the One who cannot fail. I am brought to think upon my
substitute, my Redeemer, and I praise Him for His love and
His mercy and His grace to this sinner. Would you turn with me,
please, in your Bibles to the book of Genesis, chapter 2. I can remember a time when I
gave no concern to this matter of glory. I walked in the blindness
to the one true God who will be glorified in all things. And
my thoughts were continually wicked, continually evil, and
I gave no concern for His glory. Yet a time of His appointment,
a time of His love, He would come to me and He would
reveal His love to me by the preaching of His Word. In Romans
10-17 we read this, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Let's not forget that faith is
a gift of God, it's not our gift to Him, it's His gift to us.
We don't just all of a sudden start believing God. Men think they do, but they don't.
Dead men can't do anything, can they? We must be given life,
as Lazarus was given life, to hear the call of God, to hear
God's call to each of our hearts. We must be given life and faith
to believe, so that when Christ calls our
name, we come forth. From that time on, my thoughts
and my spirit have turned toward glorifying my Lord and Savior.
Yes, I failed. If only this body of death could do it better. Who is it
that is glorified in your thoughts and in your spirit? Well, to
help us see the answer to this, I would like to consider five
points that some call Calvinism. We call it the tulip. total depravity
of man, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible
grace, perseverance of the saints, and I ask this question, how
do these five points glorify our Lord God Almighty Jesus Christ? And may our Savior use these
points to lead us on our path through this valley of the shadow
of death. So let's begin with total depravity of men. To understand
this point, we must first be brought to understand the fall.
In our father Adam, we must be brought to see our spiritual
death through sin that entered into this world by Adam's actions.
The nature of all mankind died in him. All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. When Adam ate of that forbidden
fruit, what our God said would happen, happened. He said, when
you eat in the day that thou eatest thereof, you shall surely
die. He didn't say if. He said in the day that you eat
thereof. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 16
we read this. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Of the tree of the garden thou mayest eat freely,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die." Adam, when you do what you're
going to do, you're going to die. And all mankind are going
to die spiritually with you. By one man sin entered into the
world. Condemnation upon all mankind. Total depravity. How does total
depravity glorify our Lord? Turn over to chapter 3 of Genesis
and look at verse 6 with me. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig
leaves together, and made themselves aprons." Nope. Now, I want to make sure
we understand this. Eve was beguiled. That means
she was deceived. She heard what the devil said to
her, was deceived thinking that what he was speaking was true,
and therefore she ate of the fruit. Adam was not deceived. Adam, the first of all mankind,
sinned willfully. He sinned with his eyes wide
open. We spoke on this about a few
weeks back. He was not beguiled, he knew what he was doing, and
he chose to sin against God to be with his wife. Notice in verse
7, they knew they were naked. Folks, we all know We all know
that we're naked. We all know that we have sinned
against God. We all know that we come short
of the glory of our Creator. That's why there's so many religions
in the world today. Everybody's out to satisfy their
God. Men by nature know they are wrong
with God, and they go about trying to appease God in something that
they can do. You look all the way back to
the Incas and all those guys. I mean, look at all the stuff
people come up with and how they appease their gods. The Native
Americans to America. They appeased their gods by killing
an animal and sacrificing it. And they had no idea who the
true and living God was. Their gods were trees and wolves
and bears and lions and all kinds of stuff. They dress themselves
with their imagination to appease their gods. They use their imagination,
anything that they can come up with, and folks, I'm telling
you, it's not good enough. The problem is they dress themselves
in something made with the hands of sin. And God cannot accept
anything, anything, anything, shy of perfection. We just sang the song, holy,
holy, holy. God's holiness demands full justice. It demands perfect justice. And only perfection will satisfy
his judgment. Turn over to the sixth chapter
of Genesis, if you would, please. The wrath of God must be satisfied. And everything that men do comes
short of that perfection. We wrap ourselves in our own
works. We wrap ourselves in what we
think is a righteousness that we've done with our own hands.
And we reject his righteousness just as Adam did. In John chapter
3 verse 19 we read this, and this is the condemnation, that
light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. Why? Because their deeds were
evil. Are we getting the picture of
how totally depraved men are? Even the good that we do, If it's not for the glory of
our Lord and Savior. My aunt was one of the sweetest
ladies I know. I've never seen her do anything, never seen her
had a frown on her face. She was always just one of the
sweetest ladies I'd ever met. Yet when I talked about the sovereignty
of my God, When I gave my Lord and Savior all the glory for
the things that were going on in my life, she poked me right
in the chest with a face on her that was just as ugly as anything
I've ever said. And she says, you will not take
my free will away from me. Even when we do good, and she
was a good woman, a good moral woman, if we're not doing it
for the glory of God, it's evil and wicked in the eyes of God. Look at verses 1-7 of Genesis
chapter 6. And it came to pass, when men
began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were
born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men,
that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which
they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit
shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,
yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. There were
giants in the earth in those days, and also after that, when
the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they
bare children to them, and the same became mighty men, which
were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing,
and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth me that I have made
them. How does this glorify God our
Creator? With this sin that came by the
free will of Adam, sin that must face judgment, sin that must
be put away for God cannot look upon it, God can be merciful. Could He have been merciful to
His angels who did nothing wrong? No. And that's what he's doing this
very moment. He's being merciful to whom he will be merciful to.
Showing mercy to some rather than destroying all who walk
this earth. God, glory be to the merciful. Point two. Unconditional election. Look at verse eight of Genesis
chapter six. Yes. But Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Was Noah any different than the
men of his day? Before you think yes, look back
again at verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Noah found grace. God revealed
his love for Noah, showing mercy to him. And that love is the
love that we find in his son, Jesus Christ. It's a blessing
from God, and all spiritual blessings in heavenly places are in Christ
Jesus. We sing the song, Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see." That's what Noah
was singing at that very moment. When God gave him eyes to see
the mercy and the grace. The same eyes that you and I
have received when we saw God's mercy and grace towards us. First
the Lord had to make us clearly aware of what we were. We are
but sin. It's not what we do, it's what
we are. And when you see what you are,
it magnifies the grace of God in a way. It's like putting a
diamond on a black piece of velvet. Have you ever seen that? When
Kathy and I were getting married, we used her grandmother's rings.
But we looked at some other things. And I remember looking at that
diamond and just, oh, wow. It looks so big. And then he
took it off the black sheet, and it wasn't big at all. When John saw what he was as
sin, a sinner against God, and the Lord revealed His mercy to
my heart. Wow! What amazing grace! Why would He do that to me? What
have I done to deserve that? Nothing! In fact, what I've done
to deserve anything is His wrath against me. Noah was blind to the truths
of God, just as all mankind are. Our thoughts are enmity with
the truths of God. You know, that's what Scripture
says. That's not John. That's what Scripture says. The
natural man cannot even think the things of God, for His ways
are not our ways. Our thoughts are enmity with
the truths of God. We would not come to the light
for it revealed our love for our wickedness, for our own way,
our own righteousness. Yet God chose some to be recipients
of His love. He elected to save a people for
Himself, a people who would praise Him for His mercy and His grace
and love Him for all eternity. A people who are predestined
to be with Him for all eternity. As we read in Ephesians 1 verse
4, According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him. in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. Folks, the Old Testament speaks
of God's chosen two. Isaiah 44, 1, we read this, Yet
now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.
There's that word. Chosen. Elected. Thus saith the Lord that made
thee, and formed thee from a womb, which will help thee. Fear not,
O Jacob, my servant, and thou Jerusalem, whom I have chosen. Actually, it's Jesuruim. Jesuruim. It's another word for
Jerusalem. Whom I have chosen. Noah is a
type, just as Jerusalem was a type, a picture to show God's choosing
a people, electing a people. And if that's not enough, he
gives us an outright simple example to understand and a figure to
show election is true, and by no means any condition of whom
man has chosen. Hold your place here in Genesis
and turn over to Romans chapter 9, if you would. Romans chapter
9. This is God's Word, folks. My question is, how does election
glorify God? Check this out. Verse 11-18,
For the children, speaking of Jacob and Esau, twins, born in
their mother's womb, for the children being not yet born,
they haven't even come out and taken a breath. This is to prove election. This
is to show the people of the world God's election is true. Having not done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not
of works, but of Him that calleth. It was said unto her, the mother,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. For
the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he harden."
How does this glorify God? How does unconditional election
glorify God? Folks, we You and I, as God's
chosen people, see His mercy in not leaving us to what we
deserve. Plain and simple. We see ourselves
for what He has revealed us to be, sinners. He could have said, John's just,
you know, go ahead, let him go. That's what He did to Israel.
Is that not what we saw in the Bible study this morning? Is
that not what God was doing to Israel at that time? He was leaving
them because they had taken the blessings of God and just disregarded
them as being ho-hum, oh well. He could have done that with
me. He could have done that with you. But our God has loved us from
before the foundation of the world. That should light up all of God's
people's hearts. He's loved us. And with the love of God laid
upon us, how can anything take us out of that love? If it could,
then you couldn't call Him God, could you? Do you see where the
glory goes to our Lord for electing us and not leaving us to ourselves
to choose? We who have been born again,
as Scripture declares it to be, we see our need and our election
sure. For we once were, as the world,
dead in trespasses and sin, yet when God, in His love, comes
through the preaching of His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, and
gives us life, we see our election sure. And we give Him the glory
for choosing us. knowing that we could not have
chosen Him if we were left to ourselves. Back in our text in
Genesis chapter 6, we see our third point. Look at verse 17 if you would. Genesis chapter 6 verse 17, And
behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy
all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven, and
everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will
I establish my covenant. With thee, he's speaking to Noah,
will I establish my covenant. And thou shalt come into the
ark, Thou and Thy sons and Thy wife and Thy sons' wives with
Thee, and every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort,
shalt Thou bring into the ark to keep them alive with Thee.
They shall be male and female." Now look at chapter 7, verse 23. And every living substance, was destroyed which is upon the
face of the ground both man and cattle and creeping things and
the fowl of heaven and they were destroyed from the earth and
Noah only remained alive in day that were with him in the ark. The third point is limited atonement. Our Lord saved eight souls. How? They were put in the ark. I used
this as an example once before, but I want to use it again. I
want you to picture in your minds a globe Completely covered with
water. Round sphere. Completely covered
with water. Now picture this. There's one
little teeny arc sitting on top of that water and no matter where
that arc is on that globe, do you notice? It's above everything
else. Isn't that a wonderful thought?
Our Lord says, just as Moses lifted up the serpent, so must
the Son of God be lifted up. The ark is a picture of our Lord
and Savior. Limited atonement is our question,
is our point. The whole world was cast into
hell. The whole world was destroyed
by the flood, but eight souls were saved. Eight souls were saved that day
in Jesus Christ our Lord. Just as all of God's people are
saved in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Limited Atonement. Now most usages
of this word in the Old Testament refer to the cleansing of something
or someone with an impurity or a disease. But in the New Testament
it is used to signify Christ and His death in reconciling
or making amends for the sins of His people. The answer to
how this glorifies God is simple and can be answered with a question. If your God died for all mankind,
and that's what's being preached from the pulpits of most churches.
If your God died for all mankind, and man cannot save himself,
and they can't, then the blood of your God has failed, hasn't
it? And he has no claim to the title
God. The God of Scriptures. The Creator
of all that is humbled Himself and became flesh, not by the
seed of man, but by the seed of the Spirit, perfect in every
way. His flesh was perfect, His walk
was perfect, His blood was perfect. He's 100% God, yet 100% man. He hungered. He thirsted. He was tempted, yet without sin. He then willingly, with His eyes
wide open, took the sins of His chosen people and He went to
the cross. By His own determined counsel, He laid down His life
for the sheep. God the Father forsook His only
begotten Son that He would not forsake all that He had given
His Son. Did you catch that? He forsook
His own Son. My God, my God, why hast Thou
forsaken me? So that He would not forsake
you and I. Limited atonement. A truth that
glorifies God because it shows us that our God did it perfectly. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, he says. Not maybe, not might, but all
shall come to me. My sheep hear my voice. He laid
down His life for the sheep. God the Father forsook His only
begotten Son that He would not forsake all that He had given
the Son. The blood of the Creator was
shed as an atonement. The perfect blood of Jesus Christ
paid the price. It cleansed His people. It reconciled
us unto Himself. God provided himself a sacrifice. How does limited atonement glorify
God? In John 14, 6, we read this,
and Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. You can't come in a way that
you have brought up in your own imagination. You can't come by
coming down to the front of the aisle, by praying some prayer
with some man, getting into this pool of water or any other pool
of water. You can't come any other way
than by Jesus Christ. Giving Him all the glory. The ark was a picture and a type
of Christ fulfilling Noah's need. He needed a savior from the floods
to come. Christ is the fulfillment of
all Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives needed.
That day, the ark only saved eight souls. But it saved the
eight souls that it was meant to save. All others died. We see our need in Christ's fulfillment
of that need. We see our lack in His fulfillment
of the lack. We see in Him everything that
we need to be reconciled to the Father. We see righteousness
in Him. We see sanctification in Him. We see justification
in Him. We see holiness in Him. We see
Him as our all in all. And we glorify Him for providing
us our needs. We sing glory to the highest.
We sing a new song. We sing a song of praise. And
this brings me to my fourth. Irresistible grace. How does the irresistible call
of Christ glorify our Lord and Savior? Let me ask you. Do you think Noah and those seven other souls
weren't thankful to be in that ark? Noah knew what he was. Noah knew what he was just as
you and I know what we were. Do you think Noah was thankful
for God's grace to him? Do you think Noah was not aware
of God's effectual call? I'm not talking about the call
that goes out to all mankind. The call to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I'm talking about the
personal one. The personal call that comes to a rebellious heart.
The call that cuts away that old stony heart and replaces
it with a new heart. A new nature. A call that comes
with power. David, when he was king of Israel,
said, go and fetch Mephibosheth. Don't go ask him if he wants
to come to me. Don't go and say, you know, if
you want to come and sit at the table, you're welcome to. No.
Go fetch him. When the Lord Jesus Christ, God
Almighty in the flesh, walked by the seaside, He didn't ask
those men, hey, if you guys come with me, life's going to get,
well, actually it's not going to get good at all, you're going
to have all kinds of troubles. But if you come with me, this will
be this and this will be that. No, He said, come. And they came. They didn't just come, they came
immediately. You see, we're talking about
a God of power. All power. All power in heaven
and earth. When He calls, you come. Aren't you thankful? Are you
as thankful as Noah was that God called you out of what's
going to be destroyed and spend an eternity in fire and brimstone? we sing a new song, a song of
praise. When our Lord called Lazarus,
it was with an irresistible call. He who once was dead, now had
life to hear Christ call, Lazarus, come forth. I think I just said
this just recently, but I remember someone, I can't remember who
it was, maybe one or maybe even two or three of them, of the
pastors that have visited here. Our God has so much power, that
if He had not said, Lazarus, come forth, everybody in the
grave would have come out of their graves. That's the power
that we give our God, not that we give Him, but that He has. Our Lord fetched Lazarus with
the power of a king. Lazarus came forth bound and
his burial wrappings was proof of that power. It was proof of
the power that our Savior has. I don't need you to walk to me.
Come forth and you're coming forth. And He did. Could you
imagine? He came forth still wrapped up. That means He had
to kind of float. Could you imagine what those
people were thinking about when they saw that? Do you think for
one second that they weren't amazed? A dead man lay in the grave.
God the Father by the Spirit gave him life, and he came forth
alive and well. Who can resist Him that created
the heavens and all therein? In Job we read this, 38 verse
37, Who can number the clouds in wisdom, or who can stay the
bottles of heaven? In the book of Dan, chapter 4,
verse 35, we read this, And all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. And He doeth according to His
will in the army of heaven, speaking of God Almighty, and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand, or say
unto Him, What doest Thou? Who is the creature that can
resist the Creator? Romans 9.19, Thou wilt say then
unto me, Why doth He yet find fault, for who hath resisted
His will? That's what the world says about our God. Nay, nay, but O man, who art
thou that replies against God? Shall the thing form, saying
to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
under honour and another under dishonour? What if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, fit into destruction,
that He might make known the riches of His glory? How does irresistible grace give
glory to our Lord? It gives Him all the power. It declares Him to have power
over everything, and that includes man's so-called free will. That He might make known the
riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared
unto glory. Those for whom He died, being
given a new heart, glorify Him for His grace in calling us out
of the darkness that we once walked in. Our Lord hasn't erased
those things out of our memory. I happen to personally believe,
and you don't have to take this as dogmatic, but I happen to
personally believe that that's why sin is still in our lives. So that we don't forget that
darkness that we once walked in and loved so much. so that we don't forget in this
flesh of what we were at one time and we continue to look
to Him our salvation, our righteousness, our justification, our sanctification. We glorify Him for calling us
out of the darkness that we once walked in, a personal calling,
an irresistible calling. With the God-given knowledge,
God-given faith of His grace, how could one resist? We glorify
God for removing the heart of stone, the heart that resisteth
Him as Lord of all, and He gives us a new heart, one that loves
Him because He first loved us. Our new man gives all the praise
and glory to our God, our Lord, where we once said, this man
will not rule over us, we now gladly take Him as our King. And my last point is this, we
are preserved by the power, by the very power that brought salvation
down to man. The very power that put God in
the womb of that woman is the power that keeps you and
I as we walk through this valley
of the shadow of death. We are preserved by the very
power perseverance of the saints. If God could lose anything, he
could not be called God. Our God declares this, he says,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. But it does
not end with that, does it? We use that phrase a lot, do
we not? But it does not end with that alone. He also says this
in John 6.37, and him that cometh to me..." You getting
this? You got that point? Did that
come across to you? "...all that the Father giveth me, those that
ill come to Him, I will in no wise cast out." There's our salvation! It is
finished! It's done! And it can't be taken
away! Who's going to separate us from
the love of God? If you could be separated from
the love of God, then your God is worthless. Folks, I can't separate myself
from my Lord. I don't want to, but I can't.
And if I did want to, then I'm not His, and He'd let me go.
He says, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. I and My Father are one." Folks,
we give the glory to our Lord for keeping us, keeping us in
the faith, keeping us to the end. Our great God says, I will
never leave you nor forsake you. He forsook His only begotten
Son, so He would not forsake us. Turn over to the 8th chapter. No, actually, you know what?
I'm going to do something different with that. I'll read from the 8th chapter
of Romans, but I want you to turn to the book of Jude for
those of you who could not be here for Bible study. And while you're there, and we know that all things work
together for the good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. that
we might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God before us, who can be against us? And then in
verse 38, For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now are you over in the book
of Jude? Verse 24, Now unto him, Unto our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, God Almighty in the flesh. Unto Him that is able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless. Do you see how
we glorify our Lord? We praise and thank Him for keeping
us, for not leaving us in this sinful body. He's going to take
us home someday, folks. We're going to stand with our
Lord forever, throughout eternity praising Him, singing hallelujah
to the highest. Faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior
be glory and majesty. and dominion and power both now
and forever. Amen. When the Lord of glory
reveals to the hearts of His saints these truths, we cry out,
glory to the highest for His mercy and His grace. As it says
in 1 Corinthians 1.31, as Paul wrote, that as according as it
is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Amen. Will you stand?