My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. I
think William back there needs to sing Every Hour, don't you?
We have sung that one. Every hour of every day. And every moment, and in every
way, I'm leaning on Jesus. He's the rock of my soul. I'm singing His praises wherever
I go. I'm redeemed by love divine. Glory, glory, Christ is mine. All to Him I now resign. I have been redeemed. I'm redeemed, I'm redeemed. My love divine, my love divine. Glory, glory, glory, glory. Christ is mine, all to Him, I
now resign, I am redeemed, I am redeemed, I am redeemed, my love
divine. All right. Go to Philippians
chapter one. Philippians chapter one. Let's read the first eleven verses. Philippians chapter 1, let's
read the first 11 verses. Paul and Timotheus, servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi
with the bishops and deacons, grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine
for you all. making request with joy for your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even
as it is meet or fit for me to think this of you all, because
I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the
defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers
of my grace or with me of grace. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all that you may approve or try things that are excellent,
that you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you For this privilege, it is indeed a privilege. We say that
often, but yet it truly is a high, holy, and heavenly calling, an
undeserved privilege, a high, great favor bestowed upon a few. Many are called, but few are
chosen. to hear your voice, to have the
gospel of Christ formed in them. This is your work. It's according
to your sovereign will and purpose and good pleasure. And how we
thank you. We believe that you've chosen
us and that we're in that number. How we thank you. And we're so very grateful for
it. all that you are and do, your
mercy, your grace, your love toward us in Christ. And this
is why we're here tonight. We're here to give honor, praise,
worship, give thanks to our God. I know that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness, His wonderful works to the children of men. By your grace, we want to do
that tonight. We ask your forgiveness of our
sins, ask that you would remove our transgressions from us and
form us to the image of your precious Holy Son, who we long
to be like. Now, be with us, we pray. Remove
every hindrance. Enable us to worship. Send your
Holy Spirit. We pray these things for your
church everywhere that meets in Christ's name. Amen. All right,
let's look at verse six again. Verse six, this verse has been
with me all week since we studied it Sunday morning and I couldn't
get away from it. It's a familiar verse to most
of you. And after discussing it with
my pastor for two or three days, just on and off, I especially
wanted to work on it a little more fully. Verse six, Paul says
that he's confident of this very thing, that he or God, which
hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ, until the day that he returns. A good work
in you, that's the title and the subject. Now, he says, I'm
confident that he that hath begun a good work in you. Salvation
is God's work. It's not in any way a cooperative
work between God and man. Man must cooperate. No, not at
all. God must give life. God must
make us willing in the day of his power. God must grant. Well,
I'm giving the head of myself. But this is God's work. He that
hath begun a good work, God the Father, this is God, the work
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, would dare not leave
out any part of the Godhead in this work of salvation. They
have equal glory, equal glory. It takes each worker to make
this complete work in us. God the Father purposed salvation. He's the one that designed it.
He's the architect of salvation. It was Him who ordained it and
purposed it, ordered all things, and made them sure. God in His
wisdom, glorious wisdom, ordered this marvelous, ingenious work
of salvation. God the Father. God the Son,
equal with the Father, was manifest in the flesh, in the fullness
of time, made a woman, made under the law to perform this work
of salvation, to work it out, to work out our salvation as
a man. You know, he established the
perfect righteousness as a man. He lived 33 years. You remember
us talking about, you know, when God said, When God created the
heavens and the earth, he said it's good. But it just took him
six days. I believe that was six literal
days. I don't think it was thousands
of years. But it just took six days to make that first creation. But it took Him 33 years to regenerate
or create spiritual eternal life. 33 years. So which is the greater
work? Regeneration. Do you remember
when our Lord, the man who was sick of the palsy, they lowered
him down through the roof? And He said to the man, first
thing He said was, Son, thy sins be forgiven. And they, some of them, thought
he blasphemed by saying that. And he said, which is easier?
Remember that? Which is easier? To say, thy
sins be forgiven thee, or take up your bed and walk? It took him 33 years
to forgive sins, to put away sins. But God the Son worked
out our salvation, established righteousness. That's how strict
the law is, how much it demands, and he did it. He finished it.
And to pay for our sins, it took him six hours on the cross to
endure the wrath of God, be punished for our sins. That's the work
of God the Son. Without that, there's no salvation. And then
God the Holy Spirit takes what God the Son did. which God the Father purposed
and applies it to those whom God the Father elected. God the
Father elected them, and He marked them with the blood of His Son.
And God the Holy Spirit, there is an E on all of God's elect. Yes, there is. We just can't
say it. The Holy Spirit can. There's certainly, there is blood
over the doorpost of every single one of His people. God, the Holy
Spirit, comes and applies this work of regeneration, it's called,
creates life. They're dead in sin. We were
dead in sin. You had people who were dead
and trespassed into sin. And he does this by calling,
by the gospel call. That's the voice of God. He said,
my sheep will hear my voice. Every one of them will hear my
voice of power. Just like Lazarus did. He was
dead, but he that was dead came forth. And so it was with you,
Lazarus Clark, Lazarus Anderson, and on and on, Lazarus Berry.
Every one of his people hear his life-giving voice. The Holy
Spirit is the one that does this, and through the gospel, he bloweth
where he listeth, and he descends upon his people. And he calls,
and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes this work to grow.
He makes this work to grow. And so Paul says this is God's
work. He that hath begun a good work
in you. Now we noted Sunday morning how
that like every work you do, it has a beginning. It has a
beginning. Such as in building a building. Salvation is likened unto building
a building, except the Lord built the house. They labor in vain
to try to do it. It's God's work. It's God's building. You are God's building. That's what he said,
isn't it? You are God's building. What's the foundation? What's
the first word? Well, that's right. Christ. The
other foundation can no man lay than that which God already laid.
He said, I have He said, I've laid the cheap
cornerstone upon which the whole building written, which is Christ's. And it has a beginning and it
has a completion. In other words, it carries on. It carries on and it's completed.
This is what he means, verse six. This is what the word perform
means. I used to read it like this,
that he will finish it. And that is so. It is so. Whatever God begins, he finishes. Whatever God does is forever. He finishes. He's the author
and what? Finisher of the faith. He never
brings to the birth, Scripture said. and doesn't bring forth. Man does. You remember that passage
in Isaiah? The man does. He comes to the
birth and tries to produce, but he can't do it. Not God. Whoever
he puts the Word in, whoever he puts his incorruptible seed
in and plants it, begins the water, it's going to bring forth
life unto eternity. It's God's Word. And it's that
the work performed there, a good work in you will perform it.
I looked that word up and what it means principally is a work
that is carried on, a work that is fulfilled, that's executed
completely. It's not half a work. God doesn't
do part of the work and then leave it up to us to finish it.
We don't begin in the spirit and then we're made perfect by
the flame. No, he that hath begun it, not only will he finish it,
but he will continue the work. He will do the work himself. He has brought all our works
in us. Let's go over that. Isaiah 26. John and I were looking at that.
Isaiah 26. Isaiah 26. Now this is all the way through the
scriptures. It's God's Word. God's Word. Look at this, Isaiah 26, 12.
O Lord, Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us. He has. He's ordained
peace. God, in a covenant of peace concerning
us, ordered all things, and they're so they're sure. And he ordained
peace for us by Christ's coming to make peace for us by the blood
of his cross. Because look at this. For thou
also hast wrought all our works in us. Not only in us, but for
us, if you have a margin there. Thou hast wrought or worked all
our works for us and in us. It's God's work. It's God's work. All right, that word in now,
let's look at that. He says he that hath begun a
good work in you. Salvation. Is a hard work. How many times have we heard
that it's salvation is a hard work. I knew the doctrines when
I was very young and made a profession of faith, but that's all I did. It was. Not too long after that,
it was pretty obvious that I had no real heart and love for the
gospel because I left it. I had no real, there was no real
regenerating work in me because I became a wild-assessed colt. Sheep don't become wild-assessed
colts. Wild-assessed colts become sheep. You understand? They don't go wild-assessed colting
and come back to be sheep again. No. What God does, He performs,
He perfects. But salvation is a hard work,
and out of the heart of the issues of life, with the heart man believes. Sadly, like me, some have a head
knowledge of doctrine, and no real hard work of faith. And
that will be known, it will be known by fruits eventually, or
lack of. Alright, now look at verse 11. This work in us produces
something. Verse 11, being filled with the
fruits of righteousness, which are, again, these are by Jesus
Christ. Now that's for all our work.
It's His, He's ordained these things. Ephesians 2, 8, By grace
you are saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It's
a gift of God. Not of works, just any man should
bow. For we're His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
into. We're His work. And what He's ordained in us,
why He's done this work, is that we would produce good work. For
His glory. Our Lord said this. Christ said
this in John 15. When He was talking about, I'm
the vine, you're the branches, every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, purges, taketh away. He said, herein is my Father
glorified, that you bear much fruit. That you bear much fruit. And my father and I were talking
about this. A lot of strict Calvinists, we
don't have any good works. Yes, we do, too. That's what
he said there in Ephesians 2.10. Didn't he, Ed? That's what he
said. They're not good works outside
of Christ, but in Christ they're good works. Our Lord said it
of that woman who put the alabaster box of ointment on him, didn't
he? She had done a good work. That's what God hath ordained.
That's why we, that's why he saves us for his glory. God has glorified him. And Paul
said, I pray that you might be filled with these fruits of righteousness,
which are by Christ. He's going to ensure that his
people grow unto the glory and praise of God. All right, let
me ask you now, we're talking about this work in us, this good
work in us. And it's a good work. Good work. Like I was saying, this good
work produces good works. All right, here's a question
that it behooves everyone in here to ask ourselves. How do I know if this good work
is begun in me? How do I know if this good work,
if God has begun this work in me? Has God done this work in
me? Are you interested? Every seeker
is. How do I know if God, this good
work, has begun in me? Are you listening? Turn to 1
Thessalonians 1. And all of these are familiar
verses. 1 Thessalonians 1. But I dare
not take for granted everyone knows these verses. We need to
look at them line upon line, line upon line, until they're
written on our hearts. Paul says, verse 4, Brethren,
I know your election of God, for our gospel came. How many
times have we looked at that? Our gospel came. Not just any
gospel. Not this other gospel. There
ain't no gospel at all. Not this other Jesus who can't
save the flea. The Lord Jesus, the gospel, the
gospel of God's glory, the gospel. You know the gospel. Our gospel
came, not in word only, no, not in doctrine only. It may have
at one time, it may have at first, and it doesn't have to go through
the mind. It does begin here. But it doesn't stop there. It
goes from there to here. It goes from there to here. But the gospel comes in power. Life-giving power. Ear-opening,
eye-opening, heart-opening power. Character-forming power. And he said down in verse 9,
now here's really the first thing that happens. He said several
things there. But verse nine is really what
happens in the beginning in this work. Now, here's the first thing.
How do I know if this good work has begun in me? Verse nine,
Paul says that there are some other churches that showed us
or proved to us what manner of entering we had under you or
how we were received, how the gospel was received by you. And
this is it, how you turn to God from idols to serve the living
and true God. Turn to God from idols. When
the Lord truly opens ears to hear His voice, and eyes to see
His glory, and ears to hear the word of His power and see Christ's
glory, eyes to see His glory, It's so plain that God is God,
isn't it? It suddenly becomes very clear.
I mean, I turn the light on, that's precisely what it is.
Go from darkness to light. Whereas before you had this foggy,
gray, clouded notion of, you know, God is God, God wants to
be, or He tries to be, or sometimes He is and sometimes He isn't,
you know. You know what I mean? Some of you were there, and right
now I'm talking about the religious, this work that has begun in the
religious. When God opens ears and eyes,
it suddenly becomes very clear, God is God, isn't He? And I didn't
make Him God. I didn't let Him be God. I didn't
do anything. I just realized it. I just realize
it. See, salvation is coming to a
realization. Salvation is a revelation of
the person, the true God, that they might know, not make him
the true God, know that he is. And know that there's no way
they could make him so. And it's so clear, when the light
comes on, it's so clear what salvation is. It suddenly becomes
very clear. The salvation's not of him that
willeth or of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
It suddenly becomes very clear that it's not of blood or the
will of the flesh or the will of man, but it's of God. It suddenly
becomes very clear. I love that verse in Proverbs
8, verse 8. It says, It's all plain to him
that understandeth. Isn't it? It's just so plain
when you understand it. If you don't understand, you
can't make heads or tails of it. And then when God opens the
ears and the eyes and so forth, it becomes so very plain. And
every page, every line, nearly every word just jumps out at
you. Who God is, what salvation is, who Christ is, what he's
done, where he is now. Doesn't it? It just jumps out
at you. Look at that, look at that. He has, he has, he has,
he has, he has. God's holy, just, sovereign character
stands out. Christ's power and glory stands
out. And you don't find all of those
silly notions you had. You don't find them in the Bible
anymore. Except Jesus. Puts you all on the altar. Those are imaginations like the
God that people have made up. It's all plain to him to understand
it. And all other ways become false, don't they? There's no
gray area. There's no gray area in salvation.
You know, there's no gray area. Ephesians 4, there's one Lord,
one thing, one baptism, one hope of your God. One way, one truth,
one life. One truth. There's no half truth. There's no gray area. It's all
very much black and white. All other ways quickly become
very false, and you lose. Well, how do I put this? Well,
you put it, just put it like David put it. He said, I esteem
all thy precepts. concerning all things, to be
right. And therefore, I hate every false way. All that false
religion that you were in, even, quickly become very odious and
very hateful and very distasteful. You detest it. And you can't
believe you were in it. You can't believe you were in
it. You think, how was I such a fool? How could I believe that? How could I have been in that
mess? Don't you? But God. That's how. That's how
you got out. It's His work. And we renounce our past religion.
I look for this in people. I look for this in people. Those
who want to hold on to an old profession of faith, Oh, I, you
know, we were talking about this the other night. Some woman was
talking to a preacher's wife. Well, she's got a safe place.
She can't say she don't have been saved a couple of years.
But she was saying to me, well, I was saved before I heard the
gospel. I just didn't know. I just hadn't
heard the gospel. Years later, she heard the gospel.
That's what she said to you. You've heard that before. I've
heard it. I was down in a meeting down in North Carolina, and this
fellow was teaching a Bible class. And I told the pastor a little
while later, I said, you better get him out of there. You need
to teach him. But anyway, the man said, in
the course of his teaching, he said, I was brought under conviction
under Billy Gray and Frick. You see, people want to save
faces. People, you've heard me say, they want to hold their
seniority. That's what it is. It's a seniority
thing. It's a seniority thing. Sure
don't want people to think old men save a year or so. What difference
does that make? Those at the eleventh hour get
paid the same as those at the first. Newborn babes are just as complete
as old men. And not one bit better. That
kind of old brother James. We've got Tim sounding like he's
old now. Tim James said that if I could
be saved every time I hear the gospel. Saved all over again. I want to be baptized. But we renounce our past religion.
I look for that in people. There's a lot we don't know about. You know, there are a lot, I'm
certain, there are quite a few preachers that we don't know
about. I'm certain of that. We don't
have a lot on the truth. God has not left himself without
a witness everywhere. But people, we renounce our past,
drop it, don't we? Like Paul, just a few pages over
in Philippians, what did he say? He said, the things I used to
think were gain to me, it was all loss. What I used to think
I know, I found out I didn't know anything. That which is
ordained to life, he said, I thought I was earning salvation, earning
God's approval. It was adding to my contentment. Paul was 50 years old when the
Lord saved him. Seniority didn't matter there,
did it? Peter and all of them just quickly began to listen
to Paul, and the Lord taught Paul very quickly. He became
a chief apostle, but he renounced his past. That's the point. He
renounced it all. Paul said, I didn't know God. I didn't know
Christ. I didn't know the gospel. I didn't
know the truth. I persecuted the truth. But thank God, when it pleased
God. When were you saved, Paul? When
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace. To reveal His Son where? In me. In me. This is what we're
talking about, a good work in us. In us. Now that's the religious man. And the irreligious have this
work. Now for a religious man, he or she just renounces all
their religions. They renounce it all. Past confession,
baptism, all that. This new work has begun. And they confess Christ. All right,
so irreligious have this work in them. Same work. Same one. God. Same work. Gospel call. And similar results, but you know,
just different certain things. The irreligious, you know, like
the, we'll turn quickly to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. Let's
leave that time. You're on vacation. It's July
4th. Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5 is the story of
a man with a demon. Verse 2, Christ got out of the
ship and there met him a man with unclean spirit. And that's
an unregenerate, you know, gutterous night. That's what this fellow
was. God saves a lot of us to the uttermost, guttermost. Verse
3, who had his dwelling among the tombs, dead things. Lying
among dead people doing dead things. Every now and then he
looks like he's dead too from the things he was in. No man could bind him. They can't
bind him. They tried to obtain him, tried
to get him saved. Had him at every meeting they
could have him at. Everybody, mom would pray for him, pray
for him. And the church would pray for him and preachers laid
hands on him. Not even with chains. Because he'd been bound off and
he broke them to pieces. Neither could any man tame him,
like that wild essence coat, you know, never been ridden on.
There's only one that can sit on that coat. And he doesn't
need a bridle or a bed, does he? Every night and day, verse
5, he was in the mountains, in the tombs, crying, cutting himself.
He was just a sorry fellow. And he saw Jesus apart, he ran
and worshipped him and cried with a loud voice and said, What
have I to do with thee, Jesus, our Son of the Most High? A lot
of these, well, all of these demonic fellows don't want anything
to do with religion. Don't talk to me about religion.
I don't want to, you know, I'm making, I'm spiritualizing this. But if you talk to them about
religion, get away from me. I don't want anything to do with
you. You're Jesus and you're religion and all that. But Christ said, come out. Told
that unclean man to come out of it. And he did. And down in
verse 15, here's the results. They came to Christ, and it was
all over, and they saw him that was possessed with the devil. And they couldn't believe it
was him. They couldn't believe it was him. Now, good work had
begun. He's a changed man. But he's
finally, he finally is a man. He was once a devil, now he's
a man. And it says he was sitting where? At Christ's feet. What's he doing? Listening to
Christ. Adoring Christ. Worshipping Christ. Before, he didn't want anything
to do with it. Clothed. He's clothed. What's he clothed with? Well,
he's got shirt and tie on. No, no. Well, he probably doesn't. But it's the righteousness of
Christ, what he's clothed in. And he's in his right mind. He
was out of his mind before. Just like that religious person,
only a little different. He's in his right mind. He has
the mind of Christ now. That's God's Word. Now there's
one of each kind of those in this building right now. And
each one will stand up and tell you their story. God did this. He that hath begun a good work
in you." So it's God's work. It's a powerful work. It's life-giving
work. Listen to this. He makes a self-righteous
man or woman a sinner. He makes a sinner into a righteous
man. He makes somebody who's thee,
so I see, blind. He makes somebody blind. It's a miracle. It's a mystery.
Back to Philippians 1. This work of God's is carried
on. That's what the word perform
means. That's what Dad and I were talking over. It is carried on. It's a complete work. That's
really a better word. He will complete it. Yes, he
will finish it. And he has finished it in Christ.
But this is a complete work. In other words, the whole man
is involved. God does a complete work in us. Not just head, it's heart, which
carries over into the whole man. Now, let's talk about that a
minute. Let's talk about that. When we're talking about the
ears, hearing the gospel, when the
work begins, you hear the gospel and it's the greatest thing you've
ever heard, isn't it? When you first hear the gospel,
you think, this is too good to be true, this is wonderful, this
is the good news, glad tidings, great joy, isn't it? It's just
wonderful. Well, does it diminish? You really didn't hear anything
at all when you first heard it. About all you heard is, God's
God. And you're dead, and Christ, God has mercy on Christ. And
you keep hearing, and it doesn't diminish. Far from it. Whatever
God does, does it diminish? It grows. It gets even better. No, we're not talking about progressive
sanctification. Nobody, sure. We're talking about
a growth in grace. We're talking about a complete
work that involves the whole man. You hear the gospel, and far
from diminishing, it gets sweeter. It gets sweeter. That's one way you know this
work has begun in you, when you can hear the exact same thing
for 25 years. And you hear it like it's brand
new. Don't you? Honestly, sometimes I just hear
men... I was listening to Tom Harding
preach up on Friday morning, and he was dealing with Isaiah
55. And it's like I first heard it.
It's just wonderful. That's one way you know. It's
God's work in us, and he completes it. It involves a complete man.
It involves the whole man. It involves the heart, the head,
the hand, the feet, mind, soul, heart, and strength. I shall
love the Lord thy God, and we will. Mind, heart, soul, and strength. A new creature created in Christ
Jesus unto good work, which God hath ordained that we should
walk in. All right? And Paul said it too, the fruits
of righteousness, which are by Christ under the glory and praise
of God. What is the first fruit? And
we're talking about this work in us. If there's no fruit, there's
no root. If there's no fruit, there's
no root. That's what Christ is saying in John 15. If you abide
in me, I'm the vine, I'm the one, I'm the one, the vine that
reaches that came down to earth and was planted and reaches to
heaven. And you're the branches. And his people bear fruit. If
no fruit, no life. That's just plain. Now, what
is the first fruit in Galatians 5.22? List all the fruits, not
fruits, but fruits of the Spirit. Fruits that don't turn there
yet. fruit of the Spirit, because
it's all, you have them all in this work of God, they're all
there. And it's all fruit under God's
glory. All these fruits or effects are
fruit. It can't be without one. The
first one, you remember? Love. Love. Now you can turn over there.
Galatians 5. Love. Now, our Lord said this,
by this shall all men know. What? If you're a good, strong,
capable citizen. If you have love one to another.
By this shall all men know. And John said in his hearing,
we know we've passed from death unto life. How? We love the Christ. Paul said there in Philippians,
I know it's fit for me to think this of you because I have you
in my heart. And you too have the same grace. You have me in
your heart. This is of God. I mean real love. I'm not talking about this fictitious,
religious, phony stuff. You've been a part of that, haven't
you, Nancy? Love is the first fruit. And love for God, yes. You love
God being God. The love of God is shared abroad
in the heart. You love God. That's the first thing you love,
is that God's God. You love that. You don't just
believe it. You love it. Know what I mean,
Steve? You love it. Now, we're asking
ourselves, has this work begun in me? Do you love that God is
God, that God is sovereign? I mean, do you love that? It's your joy and rejoicing,
your hope, your peace, your comfort, your consolation, your everything,
that all your hope, your salvation is based on this, really this
one thing, God's God. Now, the world doesn't love that. The world hates that. The world
despises the mention of God's sovereignty. I don't care how benevolent they
are, I don't care how charitable they are, I don't care what all
they do to give their body to be burned if they have not been
loved. This is the person that loves
God, love for God's Christ, love for God's Word, love for God's
way of salvation, love, love everything. about God, concerning
God, everything God said, everything God's Son did, everything He
is, character, everything He's done. You just love it. Huh? That's not in the world, people.
You can just say one word, sovereignty, election. You can just say a
word concerning God's person and character. And the world
gets mad. But the good work in us, in you, begins that love. You know, the tables of the commandment.
When our Lord said, when they asked Him, which is the great
commandment? He said, Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
mind, soul, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. On
these two commandments, hinge all the law. All the law is fulfilled
in one work, love. That is, the first four tables,
love to God. The next six, love to your neighbor. If there's love to God, he that
loveth God will indeed love his brother, and even those who don't love
him. Yes, they will. And it's just so, love. This
is the work of God. It's not natural. It sure isn't
natural. Now this shall all men know.
He took Peter and James and John and Andrew who were... Do you
ever think about this? They were fishermen. All four
of those fellows were fishermen, Stan. They had business, fishing
business. They were in competition now.
There's Peter and Andrew over there and there's James and John
over there in that manner. You reckon they're good buddies?
Huh? Hey, their lives depended on
the fish and the amount of fish they got. There's that old John. There's
that James. I hope he doesn't catch anything
today. I guarantee you Peter and Bambi will think of that.
I hope his boat leaks. Don't you know it, huh? Brought
those fellas? Matthew, they all hated Matthew.
Tax collector, didn't he? They got off their boats, they
had to go give half of it to Matthew. They were all cussing
Matthew. Well, I'll see you in the dark
one of these days, boy, and I'll knock a knot on your head. Huh?
Well, I used to work with God, and they loved one another. I mean, they loved one another. So all there were times when
they acted ornery again, but they did, they loved one another. That's God's work. Now, this
you'll all men know. He not only makes opposites attract,
he makes them love one another. Old and young, rich and poor,
black and white, male and female. He can make the male and female
actually love one another and live together in harmony. That's
the work of God. That ain't natural. That ain't
natural. Well, John said this, too. Listen
to this. Love. John said, they went out
from us. Because they were not of us. Or if they had been of us, they
no doubt would have continued with us. If they went out from
us, then it might be made manifest. But they're not all of us. He's
talking about some folks who leave the gospel. Now, someone
who leaves the gospel, I don't mean someone who leaves the gospel.
I don't mean someone who leaves this congregation and goes and
attends another congregation, church or whatever. I'm talking
about someone who leaves the gospel, who claims to love Christ,
who claims to love the gospel, and they leave it, and they don't
go anywhere then, or they go, they usually don't go to Armenia,
they still can't stomach that. But they just don't go anywhere.
They never did love cry. And not only are they leaving
the gospel, but they're leaving those people they claim to love. You don't leave somebody's love. Love never fails. Love abides. Doesn't it? Love abides. You don't leave the one you love.
And you know this? You don't leave the building
too quick either. You don't leave Christ in the gospel, you don't
leave the brethren, and you don't leave the building too quick
either, after the gospel's been preached. I've thought about
this. A man or woman who can't wait
to leave the house each day, leave his or her wife or husband, doesn't love his or her family,
and that same goes with the person that loves the gospel, loves
God's people, you know. Doesn't speak and hits the door.
That's not love. Love is, this is an all-telling
fruit. Go back to Galatians 5. Well,
you are there now. Galatians 5. Here's the others,
and let me just run down through here real quick. This good work
is known by this proof. This is what we're saying. Love,
joy. Every believer has times of sadness
and melancholy and moodiness and all that, but that's not
the general attitude that they have. No, no, no. It can't be. It can't be, people. If Christ,
if they know the joyful sound, if God has, if they've heard
the joyful sound, My pastor said it changes their
countenance. Uh-huh, changes their countenance.
Somebody said, well, you just don't know what I go through.
I know some people go through a whole lot more, that don't
go around moping all the time. You go down to Mexico. They live
in grass huts. They smile all the time, don't
they, Mindy? They smile, don't they, Hannah?
They're happy people. And they subsist on tortillas.
They have three shirts and two pair
of pants to their name, one pair of shoes, sandals. They work
in the hot sun all day, and they're smiling. Oh, don't tell me that. Somebody
who's down all the time. That's not God's work. Granted, we all get in bad states,
sometimes for a long time. But if it's God's work, you won't
stay that way. Countenance changes. Peace, joy, peace. Peace. Peace of heart. See, they go
hand in hand. Where there's joy, there's peace.
Where there's peace, there's joy. Peace. Peace by believing. Peace of
heart, peace of mind. They're peacemakers. They're
no longer brawlers and fighters and strivers. They're peacemakers. David was tough. He killed a
bear single-handedly. He killed a lion. He killed a giant, cut his head
off. I dare say there are very few
men that could have whipped David in a physical match, honestly. But he said, I'm for pieces. Remember the man's cussing at
him. Take his head off. Well, we could do that, couldn't
we? Yeah, no problem. What is in love? Peacemakers.
Peacemakers. Long-suffering. Look at the next
thing. Long-suffering. Love suffereth long. What that
means, and I maybe, well, there's two ways to look at that. Love
suffereth long. It suffers long-suffering toward
others with their and weaknesses and so forth,
sinfulness and all that. But also, it suffers long. It's what you suffer at the hands
of others. You understand? Abuse, hurled
at you. Our Lord, here's long-suffering
personified Christ. He suffered for thirty-three
years, long, nothing but abuse and insults. Even from his friend,
my own familiar friend. Everybody left him. Long suffering. Love takes it. Read on. Gentleness. Ah, God's
work makes a gentleman out of a wild man. God's work. Now, this is not
overnight. You understand, don't you? It's
not overnight. But God, this work, makes a gentleman
out of a devil. Gentleman. Gentleman and woman. Goodness, next thing. Goodness.
Christ's people truly are good people. I'd love to start commending,
naming names in here. Well, I can name one. He's not
here. Dan Oval is a good man. Isn't he a good man? I'm glad
he's not here so I can just brag on him. He's one of the finest
men I've ever met. He really is. I am honored to
know him. What a good man. He's full of
good works and goodness of God is in him. I just, what a blessing
he is for this congregation. Christ's people are good people.
And I'd love to start rattling off names. Faith. We've already
talked about that. Meekness. Humility. Humility. Pride starts leaving, starts leaving until he's a meek
man, meek woman, temperance, self-control. Now, remember,
these things are God's work, God's work. And as he said, he,
Paul said, I'm confident that he that hath begun a good work
in you will complete it. He is, it's carried on. Very
quickly, all right? Just give me a few more minutes.
Debra, you mind taking care of this? Okay. 2 Corinthians 13. Very quickly. Do you remember
my pastor naming these things? These things just came to mind,
and again, and he brought them up again, and I meant to ask
him before he left to give them to me. Let me see his notes.
I want to shot them now, when he left. So I got the tape out
and had to wade through that whole tape, wade through, what
am I talking about, got to listen to that whole tape just to find
this thing. Do you remember him saying this,
reading this, that this work of God changes the countenance,
this work of God softens the touch, this work of God mellows the
voice. Do you remember this? This work of God bows the head.
This work of God bends the knee. This work of God opens the hand,
makes general. This work of God curbs the tongue. This work of God humbles the
heart, breaks the heart. This work of God orders the staff.
This is God's work here. Now, here in 2 Corinthians 13,
Now, we can see these things in others, can't we? We can see
these things in others. You're sitting there thinking
right now, I know what you think. And I'm thinking the same thing.
Or so and so is. But I just don't. I just don't
feel these things in myself. Should we look for these in ourselves?
Look at 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5. Verses 5 through 8. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. What does that mean? Well, it
means do you believe God? Do you believe God's Word? Do
you believe God's Christ? Is Christ all in salvation? Yes.
But no, that's not all. James wrote a whole book. Didn't
he? He said, you have faith? Show
me. Didn't he? Read on. Prove your own self. See that? Prove your own self. Know you're not your own self,
how Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobate. That is a mind
totally born of judgment, just dead, no discernment at all. Verse 6, But I trust that you
shall know. See this? I trust, Paul says,
I believe you shall know, you're not reprobate. And I pray to
God that you do no evil, not that you should, not that we
should appear a preacher, but that you should do that which
is honest, so we'd be as reprobate, but we could do nothing against
the truth, but for the truth. Now, what he's saying there is
that you can look for these things
in yourself. Can you not know? Huh? Should we not ask ourselves?
Can we not ask ourselves? God, have you begun this work?
Is this love in me? Is this joy in me? Is this peace
in me? Is this long-suffering in me?
Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance? Is this
in me? Should we not? Should we not, Steve, ask ourselves
that? Sure we should. Shall we, shall we? Are you not
sure on that, if God's really done a work? Now, we're not to
look to that. We're not to try to find assurance
from that. We're not to find comfort. Oh, I love, yeah, I
love. Now, I know I'm a Christian.
You know I'm not saying that. You know He's not saying that. Oh, I've very long suffered.
Or like that man, talking about humility, that man who came home
one day, Roy, and he said, Behold, woman, I've overcome my pride. He missed it. It's not a... It's there. It's surely there. I like John Newton's statement,
I am not what I ought to be. I don't love like I ought to
be, I don't have the peace I ought to have, I'm not long-suffering
like I ought to be, I'm not gentle or temperate, oh, and on and
on. I don't have the joy I ought
to have. I'm not what I'm going to be. It does not yet appear, and we
don't even read