Let's open our Bibles this evening
back to 1 Peter, the second chapter. In our worship service this morning, started a message on the subject
of the people of God. Oh, how blessed we are to be
God's people. God's people. We read here in
1 Peter chapter 2 and verses number 9 and 10. But ye are a chosen generation
a royal priesthood. Peter says you're a holy nation. He says you're a peculiar people,
you've been purchased. And all of this that ye should
show forth the praises of Him, that is, that One who has called
you out of darkness. into his marvelous light. And he continues to write to
these and he said, he says, which in time past were not a people, but now you are. Now you're the people of God.
You hadn't obtained mercy But now you have obtained mercy,
the word obtained. As with it, not only it has,
this mercy has come to you, but really it's the idea this mercy
has been forced on you. It's effectually made its way
into your heart. The sovereign, saving mercy of
God you who are the people of God. In the scriptures, God refers
to his people in many different ways. Each is, I'm persuaded,
designed to give us a little different view of these people
that God has been pleased to say of them, they're my people. They're my people. These are
the true people of God. Let me give you a list of several
names that God gives us in his word. We won't look at the scriptures. I'll give you the reference.
You can jot it down, read it at your leisure. And I have,
as I went through the scriptures, I'm blessed to have a Bible program
where using the computer, of course, you can just enter a
word or several words and it'll tell you everywhere in the Bible
it's found. And I typed in the words of God. Well, there are hundreds of verses
of scripture that have that little expression of God. But out of all the hundreds of
verses that I read, these are the ones that I kind of pulled
them out and tried to put them in an order for us. These who are the people of God,
how does God set these people forth in His Word? Number one,
they are the elect of God. They are the elect of God. Here's
your reference, the book of Colossians chapter 3 verse 12, where the
apostle Paul says, put on therefore as the elect of God. As the elect of God, holy and
beloved, bowels of mercies and, then he says, and kindness and
humbleness of mind, meekness and longsuffering. You think
of it. We're the elect of God. Those
who are the people of God. This is where it started. This
is the beginning of all of it. God chose us under salvation
in the Lord Jesus before the world. This is a free choice
of God based only on His purpose and on His grace and His everlasting
kindness unto His people. I would have you to know that
we've always been the elect of God. Some of us were talking
about the fact of, you know, how do you talk about eternity? Do you say old eternity? Do you
say eternity past? Well, we know there is no past
of eternity. And therefore, that which God
is and all of God's decisions, all of God's determinations,
all of God's purposes, they are as old as God is. Forever. But in our feebleness, In order
for us to sort of comprehend a little bit of what God has
done for us, the Lord sets forth in His Word that there was an
election of grace, though there has always been an election of
grace. There has never been a time when God's people were not God's
people. And this election, it is a decree
of God It certainly predates creation. The Bible says that. It's before
God made the world. He chose us. He elected us, not
for any good in us, not for what He foresaw that we would do,
It wasn't because God looked down through the ages of time
and He saw we'd choose Him and therefore He chose us. Oh no,
He chose us in Christ Jesus, that because He would. We are
the elect of God. And my friends, this is where
salvation began. It began in the very heart of
God Almighty who selected a people unto salvation. This is the beginning
of it. This is the origin of it. There
would be no salvation were it not for the fact that God chose
a people before the world began. And I've said it before, election
unto salvation, that's our friend. It's a glorious doctrine. I love
the doctrine of election. God set His love on us. God selected us. God elected
us before the world began. Election. We're coming up on
a presidential election. You know what an election is.
People say, I don't understand election. I beg to differ. They
understand election. We have an election for a president
every four years. We are continually voting on
things. There was a vote locally just
this past week. Don't tell me you don't know
about an election. And in God's eternal purpose,
He elected a people for Himself. Those people He would save. He
would save them in the Lord Jesus. He would save them by His grace.
And we are forevermore said to be in the Word of God, the elect
of God. These people of God. We have this name. We're the
elect of God. Secondly, we're the sons of God. Think of it. We are the sons
of God. 1 John chapter 3 verse 1, Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. We've been taught a little
bit of what we are, of our fallen nature, of our identification
with Adam, of the imputation of Adam's guilt to us. The Spirit
of God has instructed us as to our own personal guilt, our own
transgressions, our own iniquities. No wonder John is rather flabbergasted,
as it were. He says, Behold! Be amazed! This is glorious. Oh, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Who are these that are the people
of God? They are the sons of God. The
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. Right now. And it doth not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. These
who are the people of God are the sons of God. And this is
a blessing. It comes upon us not by nature.
We have no legal right to be the sons of God. This goes back
to the everlasting, unchangeable love of God. God Himself ordained
and He took us to be His sons. We are the sons of God. No wonder
John breaks out with this word, Behold. Well might we, each one
of us who are the people of God, who've been brought to believe
the Lord Jesus and understand this great scheme of grace, well
might we begin in our very thoughts of this great salvation that
God has given to us to say, Behold, what manner of love is this?
That I should be called, I, this rebel, this wretch, That I should
be called a son of God. I'm a son of God. And then, these people of God
were called the children of God. The people of God are the children
of God. We're His offspring. We're the
offspring of God in a spiritual way. In an everlasting way. Romans 8.16 says, The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. We live by His Word, that incorruptible
seed, the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. We are His
little ones. His little ones. And being God's
children, we can say, Abba Father. Abba Father. Our Lord Jesus,
who was forsaken for us, when He bore our sins in His body
on the tree, in the darkness of those three hours on Calvary,
He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Then after
He came out of the darkness, after He had borne the wrath
of God, He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Because He hung for us, because
He died for us, we have the privilege to say we're God's children and
we can call Him Father. We say Abba Father, Holy Father. I know who the Holy Father is.
He's not that imposter over in Rome. He's a liar. He's the offspring of that one
who's the father of all lives. I'll tell you who the Holy Father
is, the one who adopted us into his family, the one who chose
us unto salvation. We're the children of God. Think
about this. It's more gracious of God to
adopt us into his family and to make us his children than
it is for Him to redeem us and to forgive us. You know that? This is a more gracious act.
Because it's wonderful grace to redeem somebody from slavery. Oh, yes. It's wonderful grace
to forgive somebody when they're guilty. But here's wonderful,
marvelous, matchless grace. This one who was enslaved to
sin, this one who was in debt to the law of God, this one who
had sinned against God, who had lifted up his hands in rebellion
against the Lord of glory, against his creator, who has nourished
us, took care of us. It's an altogether different
thing to then adopt us into his family. We're his children. Oh, it's wonderful. Don't misunderstand
me. It's wonderful to be redeemed,
to be made free by the blood of the Lord Jesus. Because the
law of God arrested us and held us for ransom, our Lord Jesus
did indeed pay our sin debt. He paid the ransom price. His
own blood. We talked about that this morning.
It's wonderful to have all of our sins forgiven. They're all
under the blood. But oh, this reaches a great
crescendo. We're God's children. He adopted
us into His family. He brought us in to His inner
circle. We're His sons. We're His children. And you know what the Bible says?
Of these who are the people of God, number four, we're heirs
of God. We're heirs of God. Romans 8,
17, And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, enjoin heirs with
Jesus Christ, even if so be that we suffer with him, that we may
be also glorified together. God having adopted us into His
family, having given us the name of His children, He makes us
heirs. We're heirs of all things, but
mainly we're heirs of God. We're heirs of God. You can't
get any more than God. We're heirs of God. We're joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. I don't know what most of us
have been... We've been taught at least years
ago that you earn rewards the more you do for the Lord. The
more you get from the Lord, the greater your inheritance will
be. You get all your yo-yos and your tinker toys and whatever
kind of crazy rewards that you imagine that you're going to
get to heaven because you do all this good for God. Listen,
we're heirs of God. I hope that will sink into our
hearts. We who are His children, the
sons of God, the family of God, the people of God, we're heirs
of God. We have all things because we
have God. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul. The Lord, you can't ask for any
more than the Lord. That song, we used to sing it
back in our free will days. Will there be any stars, any
stars in my crown, when in the evening the sun goeth down? I
sang it so many times I can still remember it. And I hadn't sung
it in 50 years I guess. When I wake with the blessed
in the mansions of rest, will there be any stars in my crown?
That's the way it goes, isn't it? Stars in my crown? Oh, how many more stars are you
going to get? Do more for Jesus. We're heirs of God. We're heirs
of God. We're God's children. We've been
adopted into His family. And the Lord is indeed Himself
our portion. Oh, how blessed we are in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want any more than the
Lord Jesus Christ to you. He's all I want. And if I have
Him, and I do have Him, Because He has me. Having Him, I have
all things. God can't give me any more than
the riches of His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're the people of God. I'll
tell you what else, number five, God says, the Scripture says
we're the flock of God. We're God's flock. 1 Peter 5,
to feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind. This is not my flock. You're
not my flock. You're the Lord's flock. You're
His sheep. That's why the Lord Jesus, He
referred to us as being, He said, My sheep. My sheep. Where did he get his sheep? Father
gave them to him. Where did he get his sheep? He
bought his sheep. He bought his sheep. He didn't
buy salvation for us. He didn't buy blessing for us.
He didn't buy heaven for us. Listen, we were blessed with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus before
the world began. He bought us. We are a purchased
people. And He owns us. We are His flock. He says, My sheep, My sheep hear
My voice and I know them. And they follow Me. These are the sheep He has chosen. He has distinguished these sheep. He has made them be different
from the rest of the world in that He has been gracious to
them. He has spared them from going down to the pit. Because
he took the place of his sheep, this good shepherd, he came and
laid down his life for the sheep. And he who laid down his life
took it again. He had the power to do that.
He is himself the shepherd and the bishop of our souls. And
he's the one who brought his sheep, who had gone astray, He
brought his sheep, he brings his sheep into the fold of salvation
one by one. We're the flock of God. The shepherd
has gone out and sought us. Are you a found sheep? You're
a found sheep if you've been brought to saving faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You're a found sheep if you're
one of those who's fled to the Lord Jesus for refuge for your
soul. Seeing your neediness, seeing
your guilt, seeing your weakness, you have run to Jesus Christ
for all of God's salvation. And you said, Oh Christ, I must
have You above all things in the world. Take the world, but
give me Jesus. I've got to have the Lord Jesus. He's the shepherd who drew you,
who wooed you to Himself. Who are these that are the people
of God? Number six, they're the city
of God. Psalm 46, four, there is a river. There is a river, the streams
thereof make glad the city of God. This river flows right through
the city. If you look at Most of the major
cities in America and throughout the world are usually located
near a river. Our city is located right near
a river, the Ohio River. And I tell you, God's city is
no different. There's a river that runs through
it. And you trace it back, trace the headwaters back. Go back
to the origin. The river flows from the very
throne of God. even from the very heart of God.
And the streams of the river make glad the city of God. What are the streams? Election,
and redemption, and effectual calling, and justification, and
sanctification, and glorification. All the streams, but they run
from the same river. They all come from the same origin,
even from the throne of God Himself. There is a river that comes forth
from the The throne of God, it flows to the city of God. In our Bible class this morning,
in Isaiah chapter 26, Isaiah drew a distinction between two
cities. He's already done that if those
Sun School teachers, and you've noticed this I'm sure in the
previous chapters. Two cities. There's the city
of God. In chapter 26 in verse 1, it's
called the strong city. The strong city is made up of
those who are poor and needy. We noted that last week in chapter
25, poor and needy. And yet this city is a strong
city. Because you know what? It's the
city of God. It's the city of God. It's got
to be a strong city. It's God's city. God designed
the city. God has fortified the city. And
this city is surrounded by walls. The walls of salvation. It's
a strong city. Those inside the city are poor
and needy. That's us. That's us. But there's another city. Isaiah
says it's the lofty city. And he said, she's going to come
down. She's going to crash one of these days. That's Babylon.
That's all a false religion. It's primarily, as one of the
brethren noted this as he left the Bible class this morning,
the city of seven hills, Rome. It is indeed the Catholic Church,
but it's all who believe a false gospel. They constitute Babylon,
the lofty city, and God's going to bring that city down. But
this city of God, it consists of the people of God, a people
of every nation, kindred, tribe. tongue, drawn to Jesus Christ
by effectual grace, having been redeemed by His blood and robed
in His righteousness. This is the city. The occupants
indeed are poor and needy. That's us. That's mentioned in
Isaiah chapter 25 a couple of times and in chapter 26. But
we're strong in the Lord. We're protected by Him. It's a city. A city designed
by God. A city upheld by God. A city
in which all of the occupants of it are safe. Oh, how safe
is the city of God. This great population within
the city of God. Protected by God's walls of salvation. And I made mention of this to
my Bible class this morning. And I'll say it again and they
can hear it again or just tune this part out, but if you would,
just stick with it. I said, oh, how protective the
people of God. Got a wall around us. A wall
of salvation around. There's nothing can harm you.
There's nothing that can do you in. There's nothing that can
touch you. The walls of salvation protect
you. Oh, what a mighty fortress this
city has around it. It's the city of God. The city
of God. That's what this group of people
who are called the people of God, they're identified as being
the city of God. I'll tell you something else,
number seven, they're called the priests of God. In Revelation chapter
20 and verse 6, they're called the priests of God. Because the
priests of God are those who having been washed in the blood
of the Lord Jesus, having been robed in His righteousness, all
because they were predestinated unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto Himself, they can draw near to God. We're
priests. We constitute the priesthood. The priesthood. No wonder we
read in Revelation chapter 1, unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests
unto God, a kingdom of priests. And His Father to Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I'm not your priest. I'm
your preacher, and I'm your pastor. I'm your brother, and I'm your
friend. But I'm not your priest. I'm
not your priest. up in Michigan, and I was giving
blood. And that's before they found
out I had something about my blood that they didn't want me
to give blood anymore, but I was giving blood. And this guy said,
well, good morning, padre. I said, I'm not your daddy. You're
older than I am. and I'm not your priest. But I am a priest, and you are
a priest too. And you, by the blood of the
Lord Jesus, have access to God anytime you want to go. Isn't that wonderful? Because
you see, you're one of the people of God. You're one of the elect
of God. You're one of the sons of God.
You're one of the children of God. You've been adopted into
God's family. You're an heir of God, a joint
heir with Jesus Christ. You're an occupant of the city
of God. You're a priest of God. Our brother
read to us, to begin with, there in Revelation chapter 1, where
God made us a kingdom of priests. And I'll tell you something else.
We're a church, we're the church of God. The church of God, the
people of God are the church of God. Acts 20, 28, take heed
therefore unto yourselves and all the flock over which the
Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God. Whose
church is it? It's God's church. That's not
your church over there. That's God's church and it's
not my church. It's God's church. It's God's
church. He chose the church. He redeemed
the church. He calls the church. He preserves
the church. He glorifies the church. It is
God's church. What is a church? A called out
assembly. Or we have been called out of.
1 Peter 2 tells us, we just read it a while ago in verse 9, called
out of darkness. We are a called out assembly.
To sing His praises. They are called out of death
into life. These who constitute the people
of God, what do they call? Well, they are called the servants
of God. 1 Peter 2.16 As free and yet not using your liberty
for a cloak of maliciousness, but as servants of God. We are
the servants of God. It is our highest privilege.
our highest privilege to willingly serve the cause of God in truth.
What a privilege. And you know, everybody's a servant. You're either a servant of sin,
Romans chapter 6, servant of sin unto death, or a servant
unto righteousness, which is life. But we all serve the purpose
of God. We're servants of God. And I'll
give you this one. We're the house of God. Even the household of God. We're
called the habitation of God. 1 Timothy 3.15, But if I tarry
long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth. This building is not the
house of God. I know we say in a general way,
and I would never rebuke you for saying this, because I say
it every once in a while, we are going to the house of God
today. We are going to church today. We know what we mean.
We know what we mean, so if you tell me, I'm going to try, plan
to be in church Wednesday night, I'm not going to correct you
and say, now wait a minute, this is not the church. I'm not going
to do that. We use that kind of loosely,
but if we want to get particular here, as a fellow said, if we
want to get persnickety about it. Now, I tell you what the
house of God is, it's a people. It's a people. We're the household
of God. We're the habitation of God.
Ephesians 2.19, Now therefore you're no more strangers and
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household
of God. What better group to be with
than the household of God? Man, that's the group I want
to be with. And you know what? That's the group I'm going to
spend eternity with. The household of God. The habitation
of God. We're a spiritual household in
which the Lord abides and He said, I'll never leave you and
I'll never forsake you. We're the people of God. Oh, how blessed we are. And the
word, you know, I'm so blessed of the Lord. Boy, you got that
right. And the words just sometimes,
you know, they just come out of our mouths so easily. Oh,
how the Lord has blessed me. When you say the Lord has blessed
you, you are saying a mouthful. Oh, can you comprehend? Can you
possibly take in? Can you perceive? Can you understand
what it means to be someone who is among those who are the people
of God? people of God Almighty, His offspring,
His loved ones, His family, His sons and daughters, His habitation. We are blessed, aren't we? Oh,
we are blessed. Peter has already told us. We
looked at it this morning. We are redeemed people. You are
not your own. You don't own anything. Your
time's not yours. Your money's not yours. Your
property's not yours. Your car's not yours. Your house
is not yours. You're not yours. You're not
your own. You are bought with a price. What's the price? Peter says,
precious blood of Christ. He bought you as the saying goes,
lock, stock and barrel. He owns you body and soul. Before you do anything, you consult
His will. You seek His word. Any decision,
it has to be made. It's like I gave you that illustration
this morning. Sold. Cease sold. Somebody told
me tonight. They went to comb their hair
in the mirror. They saw, just imagine, SOLD
across their forehead. Sold! I'm the property of somebody
else! I gave up the decision making
business years ago. I bowed to His will. His word
of truth, that's my guide. His Holy Spirit, He leads me.
We're not our own. We're bought with a price. Therefore,
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, in your soul,
which are God's. He owns you by creation and He
owns you by redemption. He owns you because He made you
and then He remade you in Christ Jesus. And I tell you, the people
of God, we are regenerated people. He says that at the end of chapter
1. He says in verse 23, being born again. Verse Peter 1, 23,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. And you
know this work within us, you know what it's called in Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 12? The operation of God. It's the operation of God. Those
who are the family of God have had an operation. And God did
the operating. And He's got a sharp scalpel. It's His Word. It's His Word. Ezekiel says over in Ezekiel
37, that famous chapter about the bones that God made to come
together, made into a great army. God said, these are my people.
He says it two, three times there, and you read it. Ezekiel chapter
37. He says, these are my people.
My people. He makes us alive. 1 John chapter
5 verse 1 says, we are born of God. We're born of God. This life that we've got, it
didn't originate with us. Don't tell me, don't tell me,
please don't tell me I believed on Jesus and got born again.
Don't tell me that. You hadn't heard a word any preacher
of the gospels ever said if that's what you believe. One famous preacher, one famous
heretic, The false prophet preaches to thousands of people. He said,
we don't close a program without giving people a chance to be
born again. Make Jesus your Lord. Give you
a chance. Salvation is not by chance, is
it? By choice. God's choice. And we are born
again by the Spirit of God and the evidence of life. The evidence
of life is repentance toward God. I'm done with my idols. I'm done with them. I'm finished
with them. I turn to Jesus Christ alone. Regenerated, quickened by the
Spirit of grace. And he uses the Word of God.
And then we get into chapter 3 or chapter 2. And I'll go quickly. I don't have much more time to
go over this. But I tell you, the people of
God, God's made us aware of how important our behavior
is and our attitude. We're His family. We're His children. Having been redeemed and then
regenerated, Having been made aware of what God has done for
us in Christ Jesus, he says in chapter 2, wherefore, lay aside
all malice. Be finished with it. Lay it aside. What's malice? Ill will, ill
feelings toward others. You know what gave birth to malice? Self love and self-centeredness. That's what gives birth to malice. And Peter says, be done with
it. Lay it aside. You're the redeemed of God. You're
the regenerated of the Lord. And lay aside all guile, that's
deceit or craftiness. And hypocrisy, which is the opposite
of sincerity. And envy, that's the natural
effect of malice. And reveals an absence of love.
You know what envy is? It's uneasiness a person feels
when they see somebody else happy, somebody else who prospers more
than they do, somebody who's more successful than they are.
Envy. Peter says, you need to get rid
of that. You need to lay it aside. You're the redeemed of God. You're
the people of God. You're regenerated by God's grace.
You've been brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
evil speaking. Evil speaking all the time can
no man tame. That's what James says, but God
can tame it. God can tame it. He says in verse
two, his newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word
that you may grow by that, the pure word of God. Somebody contacted me not so
long ago about the ministry, entering into the ministry. And
I said, get into the Word of God. But that's not only for
those who are getting into the ministry. That's every person. That's all the people of God.
Spend time in the Word of God. I was reading over the Bible
class lesson, Isaiah chapter 26, just reading it. Wasn't that,
that's a rich chapter, isn't it? My, my, as all of them And
you just read the Word of God, and as you read the Word of God,
you ask the Spirit of God, oh, give me some understanding of
this, and Lord, I want this to speak to my heart. It's like
when I prepare messages, when Alan prepares messages, or Ron
prepares messages, you know, we ask God, Lord, speak to my
heart, and then maybe from my heart I can deliver the message
that you've given me. I've got to be taught first.
The Lord's got to talk to me first. Isn't that right, Joe?
You do some preaching too. That's the way it works. The
way it works. Scott Richardson said, here's
what true preaching is. You receive a message from the
heart of God into your heart, and then from your heart, you
preach to the hearts of your hearers. That's what I want to
do. And how are we going to do that?
We stay with the sincere milk of the word. The undiluted Word of God. Let's don't water it down. Let's
don't try to kind of, well, you know, that scripture is kind
of sharp, preacher. Maybe we all just kind of tone
it down a little bit. No, don't tone it down. It's
that sharp edge that cuts. It's a two-edged sword. It cuts
going and coming. But see, that's what's necessary. I preached years ago, oh, my
goodness, this is back 76, 77. I preached in the states for
North Carolina for a fellow I'd gone to Bible college with. And
he said, I want to tell you, I think these people believe
predestination and election and the effectual call. But he said,
I never use any of that language. He said, you know, I believe
Christ died only for the elect, but I never say it that way.
I just say he died for sinners. I said, I understand. You're
taking the edge off. And I said, I'll tell you what's
going to happen one of these days. When you leave here, they're
going to call a free will Armenian preacher in here because you
hadn't taught them anything. And I'm sad to say that I was
correct. That's exactly what happened.
You listen to me. If it says election, we better
teach election. If it says redemption, let's
teach redemption. And we got to say it the way
the Bible says. If it says salvations of the
Lord, you better not say anything different. You better not. Because you'll be found lying
on God. Lying on God. Just tell the truth. Tell the truth. Do what's right.
You know, my daddy told me years ago, if you do what's right,
you don't have to be looking over your shoulders all the time,
wondering if anybody saw that. Just do what's right. And in
preaching, just preach the truth. Do what's right. Lead the congregation
that the Lord gives you, lead them into the truth. Do what's
right. You'll never be wrong doing what's
right. Isn't that right, Al? Just do
what's right. Just tell the truth. The sin-seer
milk of the Word. Don't dilute it. Don't make it
easier for people to understand. Just give it out. I say to the
science school teachers, I know that you, and I'm not talking
about this Sunday school teacher and this Sunday school teacher.
I'm talking about Sunday school teachers that teach the younger ones and
ask for forgiveness of you who are the older students. But for
the younger people, I've had teachers say to me, I try to
get it down on their level. You can't do that. You can't
do that. You've got to give the Word of
God out. as it is, God has to give the
understanding. That's the way it is with children
or adults also. But I want to speak a language
that they can understand. And I realize what you're saying,
and certainly we don't want to use $5 words with children. Actually,
we don't want to use $5 words with adults. I'm not up here to flaunt what
little bit of understanding I've got, what little bit of intelligence
I've got. I walk every morning. And I always listen to a sermon.
I listen to different preachers. And I was listening to this preacher,
and he is a reputed sovereign grace preacher, and I won't tell
you who he is. You've probably never heard him, probably never
will. Because I'll never have him here. But every once in a
while he'll have something good to say, and somebody had mentioned
something about him to me, and so I listened to him. He used
words, I just had to practically come back home and look them
up in the dictionary. I mean, he's going over my head.
Now, it's not too hard to go over my head, because I'm kind
of a simple-minded fellow, but simple-minded preachers maybe
can communicate to simple-minded folks. Somebody asked Martin Luther
one time, why do you preach the way you do, using the words that
you use? You use simple words. He said,
well, I figure if I can preach in such a way that even the children
can grasp what I'm talking about, maybe the good doctors and lawyers
will understand too. Just stick to the Word of God. If you've tasted that the Lord
is gracious," he says. That's what he says. To whom
coming? What do I know about the people
of God? I tell you, the people of God have this characteristic.
They're always coming to Jesus Christ. We've never arrived,
but we're always coming to Him. of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a one-time isolated
act. It is not. I have come to Him. I am coming
to Him. And I say to you, listen, if
you've got to go back to some experience you had back 5, 10,
20, 30, 40, 50 years ago to prove that you're alive under God,
that just isn't right. I tell you what, if you ask me,
preacher, are you alive? I don't have to go home and say,
well, let me go get my birth certificate and I'll bring it
back and show it to you that I'm alive. No, I'm alive. I'm breathing. I'm talking. And
people who are alive in Christ Jesus, we breathe praise to God. We talk to the Lord. We love
the gospel. I love the gospel right now.
And I'm like one old writer and I'll give you this and I'll quit.
He said, Lord, if I hadn't loved you before, maybe I've been deceived
all these years. Boy, that's possible, isn't it?
To be deceived for years. Lord, if I hadn't loved you before,
let me start loving you and believing you and cleaving to you right
now. Because faith is not an isolated
act. We're still coming to Jesus Christ. to whom come, to that one who
is elect and precious of God. These are the people of God.
And I'm so thankful and grateful. I can say by the witness of the
Spirit, I'm one of them. Are you? I'm one of them. I'm
one of the people of God. To God be the glory. Great things
He's done for me. I'm one of the people of God.
Well, I hope that'll help you. Let's sing the final song, 297.