Good evening. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 296. 296. All the way my Savior
leads me, what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, here by faith in him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus, with all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus, do with all things well. All the way my Savior leads
me, cheers each winding path I tread. Gives me grace for every
trial, feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps
may falter and my soul a thirst may be, gushing from the rock
before me, Lo, a spring of joy I see, gushing from the rock
before me. Lo, a spring of joy I see. All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to rounds of day, This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
209. 209. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and
our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured. There where the blood of the
Lamb was shed. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. Sin and despair like the sea
waves cold. Threaten the soul with infinite
loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace
untold, points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that is greater than all our sin. Dark is the stain that we
cannot hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson
tide, wider than snow you may be today. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that is greater than all our sin. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace, freely bestowed On all who believe, you that are longing
to see His face, will you this moment His grace believe? Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse
within. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that is greater than all our sin. John chapter 10. John chapter 10. Read down to verse 30, chapter
14, verse 14 to 30. I am the good shepherd, and know
my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. and other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doeth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father." There was a division,
therefore, again, among the Jews for these sayings. And many of
them said, he hath a devil, and is mad. Why hear ye him? Others said, these are not the
words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of
the blind? And it was at Jerusalem, the
Feast of the Dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked
in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews, round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us doubt? If thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. Our Lord answered and said, I
told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But you believe not, because
you are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
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 hands. I and my Father are one. Fathers, with great, great, great
thanksgiving, we come into your presence again with joy, peace
in our hearts, rest in our souls, because what we just read, we
believe. We're grateful, so thankful that
you said these words, and these words are true. There are hope,
there are comfort. And Lord Jesus, we bless you
that you willingly, willingly laid down your life. No one took
it from you. You gave it and you had the power
to lay it down and the power to take it up again. And oh,
how we bless you that you did that. And who you laid it down
for, oh my wretched, wretched, weak, miserable sinners without
God, without hope in this world. And Lord, please meet with us
tonight. Please meet with us in the gospel. Meet with us in
your word. Meet with us by the Holy Spirit
of God. And Lord, we pray again for our
brothers and sisters in Christ whose bodies are weak, whose You've put them in the position
they're in, we pray for them. Lord, we've mentioned their names
so many times, but Lord, you know who they are and you know
where they are. You know the ones that are frail in this body,
in this building, even now. And Lord, we pray that your great
mercies would be given in abundance. And please, oh God, have mercy,
oh Lord, have mercy upon our children. husbands and wives,
sons and daughters. Lord, we witness and we witness
and we beg and we plead and we ask, but Lord, our words avail
nothing. But Lord, we'll not quit asking,
we'll not quit praying, but oh Lord Jesus, please do something
for them that only you can. Go where they are. Go where they
are. Stir in their hearts, stir in
their soul. Get them lost. Get them troubled. Get them confused. Get them fearful. Give them anxiety. Give them
depression. Give them whatever's necessary,
O Lord, till they have no place to go but to come hear the gospel. come to hear about Christ our
Lord. Be with us, please. Do it for Christ's sake. Amen. M number 61. M number 61. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me,
is the current of Thy love. Leading onward, leading homeward,
to my glorious rest above. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
spread his praise from shore to shore. How he loveth, ever
loveth, changeth never, nevermore. How he watches o'er his loved
ones, died to call them all his own. How for them he intercedeth,
watcheth o'er them from the throne. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
love of every, love the best. Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
tis a haven sweet of rest. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
tis the heaven of heavens to me. And it lifts me up to glory,
for it lifts me All right, back here in John, chapter 10, verse 27, it says, My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. and I give unto
them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any
pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, greater than me, greater than all, and
no man is able to pluck out of my Father's hand. I and my Father
are one. Have you ever wondered why believers
keep on keeping on? Why do they, year after year,
year after year, year after year, decade after decade, keep on
keeping on? And why don't they go back to
the world like so many have before? Why didn't they go and quit like
so many before them have? And we believe, we believe that
all for whom Christ died All who are saved by the grace of
God, their salvation cannot be lost. Cannot be lost. They're secure in Christ. Cannot
be lost. And I tell you, you can't forfeit
it. You can't forfeit your salvation by some action or deeds that
you do. Now, you won't forfeit it over
that. No, no. This salvation we talk about
is holy of grace. And I tell you, we wasn't saved
by any action we did, by any deed we did, so we can't be kept
by any action we do or deed that we do. We're born from above
and you can't undo a birth. You can't undo a birth. And I
want to talk tonight about how wonderful, how incredibly wonderful it is
that God's people are secure, that the saints are secure in
Christ. Do you know how many people believe
that you can be saved and then be lost again? So many people
believe that they can make a decision for Christ. They can be baptized,
and yet if they don't live good enough and live the way that
the preacher tells them to, they can be lost again. Why would
you even trust somebody that couldn't keep you? Why would
you trust somebody? Why in the world would you make
a profession of faith if you're afraid you could lose it again?
And oh my, we're born from above. And I tell you, you can undo
a lot of things, but you can't undo a birth. You can't do that. And I tell you, we have great
security, great security. And I want us to consider this.
This is the wonder why we're saved and kept saved. is because
of the character, the character of those who are chosen by God. You think about the character
of people like us, the character of people chosen by God. Look
over with me over in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. You know, our Lord
says, not many mighty, not many mobile, not many wise are called. He called the foolish to confound
the wise. In 1 Corinthians 6 and verse
9, look what it says. Oh, you're talking about, you
know, look at our character. Those is chosen by God. Yes,
sir. I'm in the wrong place here.
I'm sorry. Went too far. Look what he says. Know you not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. I want you to know that. Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. But listen to this, and such
were some of you. Some of you were just like this.
But you've been washed in the blood, you've been sanctified,
and you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you think about the character,
our flesh was as an enmity against God as anybody's flesh was. You
know, and when Peter and John stood up to preach one time,
they said they took notice that these were ignorant and unlearned
men. Ignorant and unlearned men. Most
preachers today and most churches today, they want somebody that's
a doctor. Somebody that's got an education.
There's a dear friend of mine that used to be out in Oregon. He's up in Michigan now, but
one time he was, he had some folks visiting. They was meeting
and he was doing the preaching and somebody told him after about
a month, he said, well, we can't come back in. We're not going
to come back anymore. Well, why? What's the matter? He said, you're
not educated enough. You're not educated enough. That's
what they had told Peter and John. These are ignorant men. They're unlearned men. And yet
God used them that day for 3,000 souls to be added to the kingdom
of God. Now, I'd love to sit down with
ignorant, unlearned men like that, wouldn't you? Oh, absolutely. And I tell you, oh, I tell you,
do you know the fact of the character that's chosen by God? Strangers
from the covenant of promise. Aliens from Israel. Without God,
without hope in this world. God, this is the kind of people
God chose. And I tell you what, and I'll
give you another reason why I say security. When you think about
how few of the Lord's people they are on this earth. You think
about how few they are. You know, look over in Deuteronomy
chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. I was looking at a paper this
morning that a man gave me, and they were going against the five
points of Calvinism. And you know, they didn't even
believe in the security of the saints. They didn't even believe in it. And if God, you know, If God
can't keep us saved, that's what I'm talking about tonight. The
type of people that God saved and why our security is so strong
and so great. My father said, nobody's able
to pluck them out of my hand. But look what he said in Deuteronomy
7. We're talking about the fewness of God's people on this earth.
The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more in number than any people, But you were the
purest of all people." Now, you go back through history, the
history of the Bible. In Noah's day, Noah was the only
one God saved. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. How would you like to be part of the eight people
that's left on the face of the earth? And God destroy everybody
else. And there is Enoch. He walked
with God. And God took him. And Abel, He
was the first person murdered, and oh, how few the Lord's people
are. Our Lord said in Luke 12, 32,
fear not, little flock, for yours is the kingdom of God. And oh,
my, when Elijah, he prayed, and he went down, sat under the juniper
tree, and he just prayed after God fed him. with bread and saved
by the brook sheriff. And he sat there and ate bread
that ravens fed him. And then he went and hid in a
cave and he went and sat down under a Judah tree and said,
Lord, ain't nobody left but me. I'm the only one left. No, they've
killed all your prophets. Oh, they've killed everybody.
I'm the only one left and they're after me. He said, I've got 7,000, 7,000 out of millions, 7,000 that's
never about a need to bail. And oh my, that's what we're
talking about. You know, straight is the gate. And you know how many find it?
Just a few, just a few. That just goes to show you. Just
look at us tonight. Handful of people, handful of
people. Why in the world are we here?
Why are we keeping on? Why do we want to be here? And
I'll tell you another reason why we're so secure in Christ
and because Christ has us in his hands and we will never let
us go. God left us in this world. You think about where he left
us to live. He left us to live in this world.
And in a world that's against God, that's against Christ. Look
over in John 17. He left us in this world, and
it's a wicked world. It's a Christ-hating world. It's
a lying world. It's a world that's fallen away
from the truth. And look what our Lord said here,
and I think it's verse 11, John 17, 11. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. They're in the world. They're
left here in this world. And I come to thee. Father, keep
through thine own name those who has given me that they may
be warned as we are. Keep them. Father, you keep them.
I'm not going to be here. You keep them. You keep them.
Look down in verse I think it is verse 15. Look what He says. And this, listen to this, that
He left us in this world. How come the world hasn't overcome
us? How come the world hasn't destroyed us? How come the world
hasn't lured us back into it? He said in verse 15, I pray not
that thou shouldest take them out of the world. Don't take
them out of it. No, no, don't do that. But thou
shouldest keep them from the evil. keep them from the evil
one. And I want to show you something
else. First John, Chapter 5. Somebody read First John 1, but
in First John, Chapter 5, you know, you think about our security,
what a marvel it is, what a wonder it is that we keep on keeping
on after all the years. In First John, Chapter 5, in
verse 4, look what it says over here. Oh, the whole world lies in wickedness,
and yet God said, I'll leave them in the world. Leave them
here. Leave them here. Leave them in this world. Leave
them in this present evil world. Leave them in this world that
lies in wickedness. Look what he said in verse 4,
1 John 5, verse 4. So whatsoever
is born of God overcomes the world. Oh, how do they do that? This is the victory that overcometh
the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. You know, you know, faith overcomes. Those that are born of God, faith
overcomes. It overcomes a lot of things
in this world. It overcomes the world's philosophy. It overcomes desire to be recognized. It overcomes trying to be approved
of the world. It overcomes materialism. It
overcomes all the things that's in this world. But He left us in this world,
and you have to go out and work in this world. Why doesn't the
world get us like it's got so many? He left us in this world,
and yet we're still secure. We're still saved. Still saved. Here's another reason why it's
a wonder that we have security. And oh, it's a wonder of ours
to say security. Here's another reason, the old
nature that God left in us. I love it that we got a new nature,
but we got that old nature left too. We got that old nature.
It's left in us. It's left in us. We got that
old man, we got that old nature, we got the new one, but we still
got that old man, we got that old nature. And that's why Paul
meant that that I would do, I wouldn't do. And that that I hate, I do. And that that I love, I don't
do. So then it's no more I that do it. Who does it then, Paul?
It's this old flesh, this old nature, this old fallen nature
of mine. And oh my, he left that old nature
in us. He could have took that nature
out of us. He could have took that out of us, but he didn't.
And the fact that we keep on keeping on with this old nature
in us, and the scriptures tells us that we must be as holy as
God is holy. And one of the old timers said
this about this old nature that's in us, the traitor in the castle.
He said, it's like a wagon being loaded with dynamite going through
a fire. And that's what this old nature
in us is. It's like going through dynamite with a fire, through
a fire with dynamite in a wagon. Oh, my. And then here's another
reason why it's a wonder of our security, where grace dwells,
where grace dwells. It dwells in an old, depraved,
fallen creatures. Oh my. Galatians 5.17 says, the
flesh lusts against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh,
and you cannot, cannot do the things that you would. Look in
Psalm 71 with me. Psalm 71. You know this, you know, you know how many times I've quit
How many times I've quit over the years, and why haven't I
quit? I used to think years and years
ago, I said, you know, I'm going to move off someplace where nobody
knows me, you know, and start all over again. I don't know
if you've ever felt like that or not, but I thought I'll move
off somewhere and nobody will know me. This should be years
ago. And oh, I've quit so many times over the years, but I,
I got to thinking, well, if I move off and go someplace where nobody
knows me and try to start all over again, guess who goes with
me? Me. I can't get away from me. And that's what we're talking
about. You know, that's what we're talking
about. And that, look what he said here in Psalm 71, seven.
Well, look in verse six, look in verse six. By thee have I
been holding up from the womb. Thou art he that took me out
of my mother's bowels. My praise shall be continually
of thee. I am as a wonder unto many, but
thou art my strong refuge. And oh my, God left this old
fallen nature. We know we're fallen creatures.
You know, Grace, God had to give grace to Adam even to save Adam.
And God gives grace to fallen sons of Adam. And God, he causes
in that grace to have a pure heart. Grace wasn't given to
angels. And oh my, you know, I've told
you so many things about Bunyan's progress, but there's one thing
that happened. When Bunyan got, when Christian
got, left the city of destruction, he went through that slab to
spawn, went up the mountain, met Mr. Civility and tried to
live a civil life, and then all of a sudden, you know, he had
to go through the straight gate, and he started through there.
And he got through that straight gate, and he come to a house,
and there was called the Interpreter's House, and that's, Took him in this interpreter's
house. And in that interpreter's house, there was a man standing
there in this interpreter's house with a bucket of water. There
was a fireplace there, and the fire was burning. He was taking
a bucket of water, throwing water on the fire, throwing water on
the fire, throwing water on the fire. It looked like a fire was
just about to go out, but he said, I'm gonna show you something.
Come here and look. He looked behind there, and the Lord Jesus,
every time he'd put water on there, the Lord Jesus was back
there pouring oil on it. Pouring oil on it. And that's
what God does for us. When, you know, when Satan's
trying to put out the fire, our Lord comes along, pours in the
oil, keeps us. Oh, my. I tell you, I'm so grateful. I tell you, you just think where
grace dwells. Grace dwells in this old body,
this old fallen body, this old body. And I tell you, and I'll
tell you another reason why it's an absolute wonder of a believer's
security in this world now. I'm talking about in this world,
with who we are. You think about all the exposures
we have to Satan, and all the attacks that Satan makes upon
us. 1 Peter 5a says, he goes about
a roaring line, seeking whom he desire. And look at that. You know, I know I'm having you
look at a lot of places, but look in 2 Corinthians chapter
11. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11. This is very interesting. And I haven't looked at this
in a long time. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
11. You know, our Lord says that when Satan failed, he took a
third of the angels with him, fallen angels. And I, you know,
Our exposure to Satan, look what he said in verse 3, 2 Corinthians
11, 3. But I fear, I fear for you, he
told the Galatians, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, through his craftiness, through his beguiling,
your minds Your minds, I'm afraid your minds would be corrupted
from the simplicity, the singularity that's in Christ. Now look down
at verse 14. He says, Paul said in verse 12,
but what I do, that will I do, that I may cut off occasion from
them which desire occasion. They want to be recognized that
we're in their glory, they may be found even as we are. For
such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. And oh my, it'd be
a miracle to continue if there was no devil if there was no
devil. And our Lord Jesus Christ, He,
that Satan, over in Revelation says, Satan stood there to accuse
the brethren, accuse the brethren, accuse the brethren. And I'll
tell you what, it took, took a, it would take a miracle to
continue if there were no devil. Adam fell the first time he was
tempted. The first time he was tempted,
he fell. Oh, my. And we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers. Job. Oh, my. Oh, how he was tempted. God said,
I'm going to try. Have you considered my servant
Job? It turned loose. He turned Satan
loose on him, turned the devil loose on him. Satan took everything he had.
Took his children, took his property, took his health. And he said,
oh, now, now he'll cut you to your face. You know what Joe
did? He said, the Lord gave and the
Lord took away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
And David, oh, the things that David did. And Nathan had to
confront him over what he did. But David said this, Nathaniel
told David this. They said, thy sins, Thy sins
have been put away. Your sins of Bathsheba, your
sin of Uriah, all those sins have been put away, put away. And there was a high priest named
Joshua, and Satan stood at his right hand to resist him, to
find fault with his garments. And Peter, Our Lord said, Peter,
Satan has sought to sift you like wheat. I'll tell you, he sought to sift.
Oh no, Lord, not me, not me. He sought to sift you as wheat.
He said, you know, he said, only reason your faith didn't fail
you, I prayed for you. If there wasn't no devil, it'd
be bad enough. But with the devil in this world, oh my. Paul said,
we would have come to you sooner, but Satan hindered. Let me show
you in Revelations 12. Look in Revelations 12. I want
to show you something. Revelations 12, verse 11. Oh, in 11, look what he says
here now. I heard a loud voice saying in
heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom
of God and the power of his Christ. Listen to this, for the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night. And they overcame him, overcame
him by the blood of the lamb, by the word of their testimony,
and they love not their lives unto death. Oh my. It's amazing that we secure with
the devil in this world. Oh my. And let me give you another
one. But it's a wonder, a miracle
that we are still believers. We're still believers, still
confess our faith in Christ and what we're supposed to renounce
You know, our Lord told us, in Luke 14, told us several places. He said this. He said, if a man
hate not his father, his mother, his brothers, and his sisters,
and his own family also, he's not worthy of me. And if a man
take not up his cross and follow me, he cannot be my disciple. That's pretty strict, ain't it?
That's pretty strict. And men have tried to make it
easier. They've tried to make it easier.
They've tried to widen the gate. But oh, when you go through that,
look what we're supposed to renounce. Anything that stands between
us and our relationship with Christ has to be gone. There's no doubt about it. And
you start thinking about, You know, is Christ more to you than
your sons and your daughters, your father and your mother?
Is Christ more to you than your whole family? And I found out
in experience so many times over the years that there's a lot
of people that their family blood is thicker than the blood of
Christ. I've seen that happen so many
times over the years. When one person leaves, the whole
family goes with them. A child has an upset, he gets
upset at the preacher and something's the preacher said, he don't like
it. He said, I'm just gonna leave. Mom and Dad said, I'll go with
you. I'll go with you. That tells me right then and
there that your family relationships means more than a relationship
with Christ. And it's sad that people do that.
But boy, I'll tell you what, we have to renounce everything.
I mean, listen. We're not supposed to hate, but
what he's saying is, in comparative to our relationship with Christ,
everything else has to be kept in its proper perspective. Abraham
forsook everything. He left his father's house, and
he went out and he said, where are you going? I have no idea.
I don't have any idea. Enoch walked with God. Oh, my. And I'll tell you something. Oh, we renounce our own strength. We renounce our own wisdom. We
renounce all of our righteousness. We renounce our old profession
that stays old. We write the sentence of death
on ourselves. Sentence of death. Oh, my. What a miracle. What we're called
to part with in this world. compared to Christ and what we're
to renounce. It's a miracle. It's a miracle
that we're still believers. And then I'll tell you another
reason why it's a miracle that we're still believers, and why
our saints, why we're so secure. Because of the way we're called
to walk in. Our Lord told about there's a
broad way that leads unto death, and there's a narrow way which
leads unto life. And oh my, in that narrow way,
once you get on that narrow way, there's no way in the world.
If you get off of it, that's another thing on Bunyan Pilgrim's
Progress. There's a fella named Talkative.
He talked and talked and talked about how religious he was and
all he'd done and all that. And he was walking along talking,
and while he was going along and he was talking, and he jumped
over the fence. He jumped over a wall. He said,
how did you get in here? He said, we had to go way back,
and we started back there at the gate. How did you get in
here? Oh, listen, I climbed over that wall over yonder. Our Lord
said, the same one that comes over is a thief and a robber.
And boy, he went back over the wall before he got to the end. We're called to walk in this
world. And you know what this walk is? It's the way of self-denial. It's hard to deny self. It's a walk of obedience and
subjection. It gets difficult at times, lonely
at times. And we voluntarily choose this
way. We voluntarily choose this way. Oh, what a miracle. Oh, I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. I'm so thankful
for that verse of scripture. And I'll give you another reason
why it's an absolute wonder, a miracle that we still are believers. When you talk about the frailty,
how frail we are. How frail you reckon we are?
Our Lord said he pities us as a father pities his children,
remembering that we're just nothing but dust. Our Lord said, without
me, without me, you can do nothing. We don't wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and power. Paul said, when I'm weak, I'm
strong. And oh my, look over here and
I'll say a 40, 40 with me. Can I say a 40? That's why we sang that old song,
I need thee, I need thee, every hour, I need thee, oh, I need
thee. Can I say a 40? In verse 29, oh, the frailty of us as believers. How frail we are. How frail we
are. When you grow in grace, you're
going down, going down. Look what he said here. Verse
29, he giveth power to the faint. What that word faint means is
that they get very, very weak, just about to go down because
they have no strength. And to them that have no might,
he increases strength. That means they didn't have any
to start with. Even the young shall faint, just grow so weak. And even the young shall be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall. But they, they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength, They shall mount up
with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint." Who does that? Who does that
for us? The Lord does. And you know where will every
one of us end up, no matter how frail we are in this world? Paul
said, I fought a good fight. I finished my course. And forth
I was laid up for me a crown of righteousness. And I'll tell you the last thing
is this. It's a miracle, it's a wonder that we keep on keeping
on, year after year after year, decade after decade after decade.
Our submission under a triumph of faith over severe, very severe,
very trial. And there's some people in this
building, there's some people that we've known over the years,
They have had some severe, severe trials. Severe trials. And yet they say, the will of
the Lord be done. They don't get mad at God. They
don't get upset with God. They don't get angry with God.
They don't question Him even. Whatever that's how severe that
trial is. And it's sometimes they're so
severe. He comes in your home and He takes a flower out. Comes in your home and He takes
somebody out that you love with all your heart and soul. Oh my,
you know what we say? When Paul said, you know, I'm
going up to Jerusalem and I'm going to be in prison when I
get up there. I'm gonna be suffered. They're
gonna put me in prison, and I'm gonna suffer greatly when I go
up to Jerusalem. He said, and they all fell down
and started weeping and crying, don't go, don't go. And he said,
don't weep over me. The will of the Lord be done. That's what he said. And oh my,
when they dab in the bayou off a strange fire, What strange
fire? There was only fire you could
use is what come off of God's altar. They'd keep coals out
of that and start a fire with that. Well, they went over here
and started a fire of their own to take it into the tabernacle
and start, and put it on sacrifices. You can't start a fire of your
own. And oh, God said, I'm gonna kill Nadab and Abihu for that.
You know what, they was Aaron's two sons. Aaron's two sons. You know what Aaron said? That
ain't right for God to do me that way. God shouldn't treat
me that like that. No, no. You know what the scripture
said? Aaron held his peace. Eli. Samuel just kept coming and,
you know, said God's got a message. And finally Samuel told him,
he said, you know, You got two sons, Phineas and Hophni, and
they have so dishonored the priesthood, so dishonored their work at the
tabernacle, so dishonored it, I'm gonna take Phineas and Hophni,
I'm gonna kill them. And you know what he said? Even so, it seemeth good in the Lord.
that him do what seemeth good in his sight. Job, when they
took everything he had, everything he had, I'm telling you, you
know, faith is always gonna come out of these severe trials, and
everything he had, and he throwed himself down, and he said, the
Lord gave me everything I've got, and the Lord took everything
that I had, Blessed be the name of the Lord. And he said in another place,
I know my Redeemer living. And I shall see him at the latter
days with these own eyes and with his flesh. And he said,
though he slay me, though he slay me, yet in him will I trust. Now, with all the things that
I've said tonight, why in the world are we still
believers? You know why? Because our Lord
said, I give unto them eternal life. Next word says, they shall
never perish. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any pluck them out of my hand." That's where our security lies,
his hand. And it said, my father, which
gave him me, is greater than all of us. And no man's able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. And he said, I and my father
are one. So if you're in the father's hand and in your son's
hand, he said, who's going to pluck me out? Who's going to
do it? Who's going to do it? When I can consider myself the
way I am, how frail I am, how weak I am, with my old nature, old rotten,
corrupt nature, I'm absolutely amazed that I'm
still a believer. I really am. I don't know if
you are or not, but I am. And I know if the Lord, somebody
said one time, said you can get yourself out of his hand, why
in the world would you want to be out of his hand? That's just how great, All of
us here tonight, never believer that's ever existed on the face
of this earth, has been in the hands of Christ. Now, how big
a hand is that? It's big enough to hold up every
child of God that's ever been. And it's never, ever, nobody's
ever been able to say, I'm going to open it up. I'm going to open
it up. I'm going to make it open up. No, no, you ain't. You know what? If I open it up,
I'm not going to open it up. I've gave them eternal life.
They ain't never going to perish. I've got them. Why? Because I've
got them in my hand. That's the reason you're not
going to perish. That's the only reason. That's
the only reason. If it wasn't for that, me and
you wouldn't last no time, being who we are. Well, oh, our
Father, our Father, our Father, thank you, Lord. Thank you for
your promises made to us. You know your sheep, and we hear
you. And, oh, Lord, you give us this
life. You give us the life we've got.
You give it to us. We didn't earn it. We didn't
deserve it. But you gave it to us. And then
you promised us, Lord, that we'd never, ever perish. Nothing in
this world, nothing in this flesh, nothing about this old nature,
nothing about our frailty and weakness. Nothing about Satan, no one could
ever, ever take away this life that you
gave us. Because you put us in your hand,
and nobody, nobody, law, justice, the weakness and felt of our
fist, nothing could get us out of your hand. Nothing we say
can put us in your hand. Nothing we say or do can take
us out of your hand. You did it. And thank you, blessed
be your name, for this great, glorious salvation preserved,
given to us, and kept secure in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and free. See you Wednesday,
God willing.