And I want you to, I'll go down
through these verses and make a few comments, but my subject
is going to be there in verse 4. Ungodly men, certain men crept
in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. Ungodly men, turning the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing Jude did here
is he expressed his love for these people. He said mercy,
in verse 2, mercy and peace and love be multiplied. He loved
these people. He loved these people, and then
he asked for this love to be multiplied. When he says, you
know, multiplied, that means cause it to abound, not just
have just a little love, but cause it to be great, for it
to be multiplied, go bigger and bigger and bigger. And you know,
that's one thing about the Lord's people. They truly love one another. They know they've passed from
death unto life because they love the brethren. And I tell
you what, that's the main to me. I think that's the grace
and love are the distinguishing marks, I believe, of the Lord's
people. And then he was very zealous. He says there in verse
two, Beloved, when I gave all diligence, all diligence in writing
to you, I was zealous to do this. I was interested in doing this.
I felt compelled to do this. I was so diligent about it. I
just had to get this word out to you. And I wanted to exhort
you to earnestly contend for the faith. Now let me say this. When he talks about contending
for the faith, he's talking about the things which we believe.
And let us contend for the faith in our own hearts, in our own
lives. There are so many things that
press in upon us in this world. So many things discourage us
and get us down and take our attention away. And so many things
go on, but let us in our own hearts, in our own hearts and
lives, let us early contend for the faith that God put in us,
the faith that God taught us, the gospel that God taught us.
Men, you know, go through great, great trials. There's people
that go through great trials. They have great, great losses.
But if they lose, if they leave the gospel, if they leave the
faith, they've left the only means of salvation for their
souls. That's why Paul said, you know, in Hebrews, he said,
if some shall depart from, and you know, and they leave the
gospel, He said it's impossible to renew them to repentance.
Why? Because if they were renewed
again, if they left the light, they left the Holy Ghost, they
left the knowledge of the gospel, of the grace of God, they left
Christ. He said that Christ cannot be crucified again. You leave
him, you leave everything there is for a soul in this world.
And I'd rather lose anything as lose the gospel and lose the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then the church, now let
me tell you about a church. A body of believers like us.
A church can endure and survive schisms. Schisms. People making divisions. And
it can endure and survive divisions. It can endure and survive arguments. many problems, discouragements,
and disagreements. But if a church, a church, a
body of believers like this loses the gospel, loses the faith,
stops contending for it, it has no reason whatsoever to exist
anymore, none whatsoever. And why was it necessary to write
them and exhort them to contend for the faith? to be zealous
about it, talking about their beloved and how much you loved
them. Well, he said here in verse four,
this is why I'm warning you, this is why you've got to contend
for it, this is why you've got to be very careful and contend
for the faith, is because there are certain men crept in unawares. before a bowl ordained to this
condemnation. Why was it necessary to write
them, exhort them? Because certain men crept in,
crept in, crept in unawares. Now what in the world is he talking
about? That means they slipped in, they snuck in, they came
in. You're unaware of what they're
able to do. You're unaware of the doctrine
they believe. You're unaware, that's what the scriptures mean,
lay hands suddenly on no man. I was talking to a dear friend
of mine here a few weeks ago, and we was talking about that,
and I said, you know, we'd lay hands suddenly on no man. That
means if somebody wants to make a profession or wants to join
a church or something, the thing is don't lay hands on them quickly.
Don't approve of them quickly. Don't do that. Don't do that. And he said, I thought that means
lay hands on a man if you got upset with him. I said, no, no,
no. You can't do that. That's not
what that means. We'd all be running around laying
hands on one another all the time every time we got upset
with somebody. But no, no, that's not what he's talking about.
He's talking about setting your approval on people, setting your
approval on people. Now, they come in. They come
in with a profession. They take the name of Christ.
They call themselves Christian. They didn't come in suddenly
and start teaching false doctrine right off the bat. No, no, no. They were of their father, the
devil. They were subtle. They were crafty. And that's why Paul told the
Ephesians, he says, oh, don't be as children, tossed to and
fro. We're cutting in, lying, wait
to deceive. You know, folks just lying wait
to deceive. He said they don't come in blatantly,
blatantly going against the gospel, blatantly going against things.
They bring things in just a little bit at a time. And what do they
do? They creep into people's hearts.
They creep into people's hearts with innuendo and Asking questions, you know, about
something that was said, and without saying anything about
it, they start asking questions. And they creep into people's
affections. They'll creep into their affections
by pretense. Slipping their ears, a little
at a time, into their ears. You know, look over here with
me at 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter two. And I've seen this happen. I
could tell you a place right now where this very, very thing
happened. And I mean it got ugly. They
brought in error in such a subtle way. Asking people questions. What did he mean by that? Why
do you think he said that? What's the purpose behind that
message? Why do you think he said this? Why do you think he
said that? Why was he bothered about this? Why was he bothered
about that? Then they start arguing about
justification. When did it take place? Did it
take place before the cross? After the cross? At the cross?
In eternity? But men want to debate things
that the scriptures explain about. But they creep into people's
hearts. Oh my. And they get into their affections
by pretense. But look what Peter said here,
2 Peter 2.1. But there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you. Now what makes you think that
we're immune to things like that? When those people were not immune
to it. When Jude was talking about it, Peter was talking about
it. Who privately shall bring in, see how they said that? Privately
shall do it. They're gonna do this privately.
They're not gonna do it publicly. They're gonna go to individuals
one at a time. And look what he says here. bringing
in damnable heresies. And this is the same thing that
happens over here, even denying the Lord that bought them and
bringing on themselves swift destructions. Now what does it
mean denying the Lord that bought them? Well, if you went through
Matthew 13, and you looked at those parables over there, you
know you have the kingdom of heaven, it's so obvious in so
many ways, but it says that a certain man found a treasure in a field. He bought the whole field just
to get the treasure out of it. Christ bought the whole world
to get his elect out of it, to get his treasure out of it, his
people out of it. And that's why he bought the
whole world, so they denied the Lord that bought them. They said,
oh, if he bought me, then why, it's my choice, it's my power,
it's my ability. But they crept into peoples,
and Paul called them false brothers in Galatians. And oh, they appear
meek, go back over in our text, they appear meek, but they're
ravening wolves. You remember when our master
said this, our Lord Jesus says this, he said, beware of false
prophets. Beware of false prophets. He
said, you know, they come in and they got sheep's clothing
on. They look like a sheep, they smell like a sheep, but it's
just a clothing. It's just a thing they got on.
But he said inwardly, in their heart, in their soul, they're
ravening wolves. They absolutely want to destroy
what they come in contact with. They appear meek, lowly, And
like Absalom, David's son. Absalom's a great, big, tall,
handsome man. Long, black, curly hair. And
the next thing you know, he got to riding around talking to all
the people. David, his own father. David
was the king. The man after all's heart. But
Absalom said, oh listen, I'm gonna take that throne. I want
that throne. I'm gonna get that throne. So
he started riding around. Next thing you know, he had a
few men following, a few more following. Next thing you know,
he had such an army behind him. And you know what it says? He
stole the people's heart. And it got so bad that David
himself had to leave Jerusalem. And you know how he died? With
all that long hair, he was riding on his mule and got his hair
caught in a big limb and they found him and they killed him.
Killed him. That's what's going to happen
to people who don't believe the gospel. And here's another thing
that they do. They crept in unawares. Nobody's
aware they're there. Nobody's aware of what they say.
Nobody's aware that they're among us. And then he calls it a higher
and a better, they call it a higher and a better gospel. How in the
world can you have a higher or better gospel? You know, Paul
asked the Galatians, said, who hath bewitched you? Who hath
bewitched you? who has come along and absolutely
mesmerized you, bewitched you, and just dazzled you, that you
should turn from Christ, who's evidently been set forth in front
of you, and having begun in the Spirit, are you going to now
go back to your flesh? What you do by your works, going
to go back to your flesh? And you're going to leave Christ
and go back to the flesh? You're going to start in the
Spirit and go back to sin? Oh, no. And look what it says
over here in 2 Corinthians 11.4. I want you to see this. I got
several things I want you to look at. 2 Corinthians 11.4. You know, what he said here. Paul's talking
about in verse 3. But I fear, I'm afraid for you,
lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety,
through his craftiness, so your minds should be corrupted from
the simplicity, singularity that's in Christ. For if he that cometh
preaches another Jesus, and there is another Jesus that's being
preached. He's another Jesus that loves
everybody, died for everybody, and just stands winging his hands
out, wanting so desperately for you to let him save you. And
another Jesus that we've not preached, if it's not the same
Jesus we've preached. And if you read another spirit,
you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another
gospel. which you have not accepted.
You'll bear with them, so won't you bear with me? Bear with me
in my gospel. And I tell you what, you know,
and they're great, they have this greater learning, they have
good educations. And one thing that really bothers
me, and I hope And if it ever happens here, I hope y'all won't
hold it against somebody if it gets up and does it. But they
say, we know the original languages. Original languages. Well, what
good are the original languages gonna do me and you? What good are the original languages
gonna do me and you? If I got up here and spoke in
Greek today, and told you that I just went rattling off a whole
bunch of stuff in Greek. Would it help you at all? For
me to have doctor before my name, doctor of theology, doctor of
divinity, a PhD, and all people want these, and when they get
these titles, they want to be addressed by those titles. You
know what Paul called it? He called it dung, dung. And these titles, this good of
learning, this good education, and talking about, you know,
all the original language, and this is what it meant this, and
this is what it meant that, they use these things to draw attention
away from themselves, or draw attention to themselves, and
away from Christ. Away from Christ. You know, if
you sit and you're mesmerized by somebody's education, and
the way they use words, For in their common people heard
the Lord Jesus Christ gladly. And then let me look what God
says about them back over here in verse four. Look what God
says about them. For there are certain men crept
in unawares, listen to this, before of old ordained to this
condemnation. God, look what, you know how
God views them? He said, their condition, even before Him, they
were before of old. God all ordained these men, ordained
them to this judgment, ordained them to be liars, ordained them
to be false prophets, ordained them to cause trouble. It's like
when I, you know, the Lord Jesus, it says a man went out and sowed
his field, sowed his wheat, sowed his corn, Got up, in a few days
he got up, and he said, did I not sow good seed in my field? Yes!
He said, but there's tares among it. He said, oh no, don't you
pull up them tares. If you start pulling up tares,
you'll pull up some wheat with it. So just let the tares grow. And then he said, I've all ordained. And that word ordained means
written in a book. And there's another place where
it says we were ordained. as many as believed were ordained
to eternal life. And oh my, as to the church and
as to believers, they crept in unawares. But I tell you, who
wasn't unaware of them? God wasn't unaware of them. God
knew exactly who ordained. He ordained them to this, decreed
them to this condemnation, condemned them to this judgment. He lets
these people come in. And Paul says, you know, he says,
he lets these people come in, but the truth may be made manifest. You know, Spurgeon used to say,
if you want to know, if your stick's straight, lay a crooked
stick down behind, side it, and you'll find out if your stick
is crooked or not. And I tell you, there's so many
people I've known over the years that they said that Jesus that
I believed, I don't believe him now, the salvation that I thought
I had, I didn't have it because somebody had deceived him. Not
only are they man's ways, but their persons is the object
of God's decrees. Did you know that? Not only men's
ways, and these were ordained to hold a condemnation to this
way, but their purpose, their persons themselves are the object
of God's decrees. He told Paul said this, he said,
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, he
knew Paul before Paul ever became a murderer, He said, I would
please God to separate me from my mother's womb, and then on
the Damascus road, call me by His grace. God knew his person
from his mother's womb. And he told Jeremiah, he said,
Jeremiah, before you was formed in the belly, I ordained you
to be a prophet. So it's the persons that he knows.
You know, God said about Pharaoh in Exodus 9, 6, he said, Pharaoh,
You know why I raised you up? I had one reason for you to be
where you're at. One reason for you to sit on
that throne. Just so that I could show you
that I've got all the power in heaven and earth and I can bring
you down and I can make you down into the dust on your hands and
knees. I can make you do anything I want you to do. And then old Nebuchadnezzar,
Oh, he walked around bragging about this is great babbling
that I've made. You know what, he ended up out
seven years, seven years, and he was out there so long that
his hair got so long it looked like a bunch of feathers. His
fingernails got so long that he could crawl on his fingernails. He got to be an awful looking
sight, looked like a beast. And I tell you what, and then
there's Judas. Our Lord said about Judas, said he was a son
of perdition from the beginning. Son of perdition from the beginning.
Pilate, he put Pilate where Pilate was. So Pilate got up and raised
his hands and said, I'm free of this man's blood. And then
he knew who Demas was. before Demas ever joined with
Paul, before Demas ever become a preacher, before Demas ever
went around with Paul, he said, Paul said, Demas hath forsaken
me. Forsaken us. What was the matter
with him? He loved this present evil world. He loved the world more than
he did Christ. He loved himself more than he
loved Christ. He left his self-will more than
he loved Christ. Left his self-righteousness more
than he loved Christ. Oh, my. And I tell you, this
is where men really mess up. When men start to play with opinions. Opinions. Well, his opinion is
this and that. His opinion, he believes it's
this way and that way. And they start to pervert the
truth of God. They don't consider the end of
it. And you know what the end of it is? Damnation. Damnation. That's why it's so imperative,
so imperative to preach the gospel. And when men starts playing with
opinion, and how many times over the years have I said, now I'm
gonna stop preaching, and I'm gonna tell you what I think.
And when I say I'm gonna quit preaching, tell you what I think,
you can take it or leave it. Because it's what I think. But
when it comes to the Bible and the Word of God, that's a different
story. How did these men come to this?
How did they come? How did these certain men crept
in unawares, were before of old to this condemnation, ungodly
men, turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and
that's my subject there, my title, denying the Lord God and our
Lord Jesus Christ. How did these men come to this?
Huh? Well, I'll tell you how they
came to this. They didn't know anything about God. Didn't know
anything about His decrees. God has a decree. He decrees
things. And they didn't believe in the
revealed will of God. They didn't believe in His word.
And this is the most dangerous thing in the world for anybody,
anybody, at any time, to add to God's word or take anything
out of God. That's one of the most dangerous
things. God said, if you add to this book, I'll add the judgments
on this book. You take away from it and I'll
take away your part out of it. So that's the thing about it.
I mean, oh my. And God puts things in his word
that harden men. Do you know that God puts things
in his word just to confuse people and mess with men's minds? Because
they don't understand it, so they take away what they want
to out of it. Look with me over in Mark chapter
4. Look in Mark chapter 4 with me. When a person, you know, don't
understand the revealed will of God, There's two wills of God. I know
I've told you this before, but there's two wills of God. There's
His will of decree. That's gonna be carried out no
matter what anybody says, thinks, or does. What He declared, the
end from the beginning. God has a will of decree. What
He decrees, everything He does, He does on purpose. He's already
said the way this thing's gonna come out. It's gonna come out
just exactly the way He wills for it to come out. And that's
his decorative will. We don't know what his will of
decree is. These men that crept in here,
they didn't know that God's will of decree was that I'm going
to damn you. I've let you believe a lie, and
I'm going to let you be damned for believing that lie. And I'm
going to let you creep in, and I'm going to let you deceive
people. And I'm going to let you turn people away from Christ.
And I'm going to let you have people add just a little bit
to Christ, take a little bit away from Christ. I'm going to
say, well listen, it won't hurt you just to do a little work
for Jesus. It won't hurt you to go out here
and start knocking on doors and trying to get people to accept
Jesus. Oh my, they didn't know, they
didn't know that the will of, and then there's the revealed
will of God. And the revealed will of God is this right here,
his book. Now that's what we're going to answer for. Not what
we think about it, not what we believe about it, not what we
hope about it, but what it says. That's, this is the revealed
rule of God. And that's what God is, that's
what we're talking about. But these men were, oh, God said,
well listen, before they ever existed, you know what I'm gonna
do? I'm gonna make you a false prophet. I'm gonna make you a
liar. I'm gonna make you abuse the
word of God. I'm gonna make you deny the gospel.
I'm gonna make you deny God himself. I'm gonna make you deny the Lord
Jesus Christ. And oh, look what he said here
in Mark, verse 11. Look what he, he's called his
12. In verse 10, he's called his
12. And he said unto them, unto you it is given. Unto you it's
given. It's a gift. Grace brings it. To know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. But unto them that are without
are all these things done in parables. Now listen to this,
that seeing they may see and not understand, and hearing they
may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should
be converted and their sins should be forgiven them. Oh my. God puts things in his word and
God leads men to follow their own heart That's a dangerous
thing. Lord, don't leave me to myself.
James prays that every time he prays. Lord, don't leave me to
myself. Don't let me have my way. Don't let me have my will.
Don't let me go after my flesh. Don't let me do those things.
And God leads them to follow their own hearts. Our Lord Jesus
was preaching one day and he has a bunch of Pharisees there
and Peter said to him, said, Master, don't you know you've
offended them? You know what the Lord Jesus
said? Let them alone! Just let them Pharisees alone! He said every tree which my Heavenly
Father hath not planted, I'm going to root it up anyway. I'm
going to root it up anyway. Oh my. It's like Ephraim. Ephraim was one of Joseph's sons. He took Joseph's place in the
patriarch's place. In that Joseph's place. And he
was loved of God. But I tell you, the scripture
says that Ephraim turned into idols. God said, what are you
gonna do about that? He said, just let him alone.
Let him have his idols. Look over in Proverbs 16 with
me. Proverbs 16. This is one for
you. You know, if we're left to our
own hearts, you know what we'll do? It won't be no time before
we'd leave the gospel, if we followed our own hearts. But
thank you, grateful, bless his holy name that he gave us a new
heart, gave us a new heart, a heart to know him, a heart to love
him, a heart to need him, a heart to want him more than anything
else. Put it in our hearts, put it in our hearts. Oh Lord, I
need you. Oh Lord, I got to have you. Oh
Lord, whatever you do, please don't leave me to myself. Oh,
don't do that. But look what he said in Proverbs
16, 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even
the wicked for the day of evil. He made a man wicked just so
he could destroy. Now you think about that. You
think about that when you don't believe the gospel. You think
about that when you won't come to Christ. You don't want God
to leave you alone, do you? Oh my. And then look at their
character, back over here in our text. Look at these men's
character. These men's character is this
way. He said, these men were ordained
to this condemnation, this judgment, ungodly men. That's what he called
them, ungodly men. Their character, they're ungodly
men. And what that means, men means without worship. They're
ungodly men, they have means without worship, without true
knowledge of God. What it amounts to is they have
will worship. Now what in the world is will
worship? Will worship is that I'll worship the way I want to,
I don't care what God says or anybody else says. That's what
free will is. That's what free will is. Will
worship. Will worship is people that say, well, we can't approach
Christ himself, so we gotta go through an angel. We gotta go
through Mary. We gotta go through this person
over here, that person over there. It's a false humility. It's a
will worship. He said, it's a will that says,
listen, God says, worship me this way. And the will says,
I'm going to worship this way. The will can't enable. Abel offered blood sacrifice
because he understood he is a sinner and without the shedding of blood
no remission of sin. Cain comes up here and what does
he do? He offers the works of his hands.
What happened to him? He said I'm going to worship
by the way I want to worship, by my will, at my time, at my
pleasure, at my will. When I want to, where I want
to, I'll go out on my boat and I'll stay out on my boat for
three weeks and I'll worship God out there. But all they have, we'll worship.
But let me tell you something about the ungodly that God does
for them. God justifies the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly. But these are men, these are
men who won't acknowledge God as the first cause. God can't
be the first cause. I know a man that every time
I talk to him, every time I talk to him, he got real ugly with
me several times over the years, but he ended up blowing his own
brains out with a shotgun. And the last time I talked to
him, I was talking to him about God's will, and he says, you
know that God's the first cause of everything. He's not, he said,
he is not. He said, we've got choices, we've
got abilities, we can do what we want to. And another fellow
said this, he said this, he said, you know, God's got sovereignty,
He's got power over everything but a man's will. But now I'll tell you one thing,
that fellow shot himself, I guarantee you one thing about him, and
he was a preacher for years and years and years. I'll tell you
one thing about him, he knows God's the first cause of everything
now. That's what happens to men that stand up against the gospel.
And then there's Mars Hill. Paul was out preaching one day,
and a bunch of philosophers and doctors and lawyers, they all
got together, all these educated men, said, hey, this babbler's
telling us some strange things. He's talking about somebody was
raised from the dead. That a man named Jesus Christ
raised from the dead. He said, you come over here and
talk to us, and let us hear this strange doctrine. Let's see what
this babbler will say. Well, Paul stood up on Mars Hill,
the heropagus in Greece, a great big temple. And he looked around,
there was altars here, altars there, there's altar over here,
altar over there, there's altars everywhere. And Paul seen all
those altars and he said, I see one altar here. I see one altar
here, in case they missed a God, in case there was a God they
didn't know anything about, said, well, we got an altar to the
unknown God, just in case there's one we don't know, we're gonna
build one to the unknown God. And Paul said this, he said,
you see that altar right there, to the unknown God? He said,
that's what I'm gonna tell you about. I'm gonna tell you, I'm
gonna tell you about God who made heaven and earth. And he
don't worship in temples made with hands. He don't need your
gold, he don't need your silver, he don't need anything you got.
And they backed up and said, oh my. And you know what he told
them? He said, you're too superstitious.
You know what that meant? You're just way, way, way got
too much religion. Too much religion. Oh my. And I'll tell you something else
these ungodly men didn't do. They didn't depend upon him.
Didn't trust him. They loved the praise of men
more than the praise of God. They had a form of godliness,
an outline of godliness, an outward semblance of godliness. And then let me give you two
things about their teaching. Look at their teaching, their
manner of life, two things. It says they turned the grace
of our God into lasciviousness and deny the Lord God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, two things. they turn God's grace, gospel,
into oneness. Shameless conduct is what it
means. It means absence of any restraint. It means past feeling. Turning God's grace into something
that just don't even resemble the grace of God. I'll tell you something that
happened I'd preached for this fella several times over the
years, and he got into fellowship with some other men, and they
made some awful, awful accusations. And I've seen the accusations
they made. Made some awful accusations that got Pastor Henry Mahan,
the Lord's took home, and by some other men. And I've seen
those accusations. And I got a hold of that fellow
and I said, where did you get your information? Where did you
get your information? The things that you said that
these people were guilty of, the things that they had done.
He said, well, I just heard it. There's that older sister rumor.
There's that older sister gossip. And I said, listen. I said, I
know for a fact that that's not true. I know for a fact it's
not true. And you know what he did? He
apologized, he got up there and he apologized to everybody he
had mentioned that to and said, I was wrong. One in a thousand
would do that. Charge somebody with some kind
of a sin that they're not guilty of because that's the way they
live. I'll tell you something else, you find a fellow that
just don't find some kind of sin he's preaching on all the
time, I guarantee you he's guilty of that sin. You find a fellow preaching on
adultery all the time, you've got an adulterer preaching. You
find a fellow preaching about sin all the time, about being
a thief all the time, you know a fellow that's stealing. You
find a fellow that's preaching about pornography all the time,
you'll find a fellow that lives watching that junk. That's what I'm telling you,
you find a fella just dealing with one thing all the time,
you found the fellas guilty of what he's doing. That's right. Alright, they turned the grace
of God into lasciviousness, past feeling, past feeling. And let
me tell you this, there's nothing, nothing about the gospel that
would cause men to turn grace into lasciviousness. lasciviousness,
a shameful, worldly, despicable way of life. Nothing about the
gospel would cause a man to do that. In fact, it turns men just
the opposite. It takes men, and it's like he
told the Thessalonians, he said, you've turned from idols to serve
the living God. If we come from the shame of
sin to the true and living God, Sin bothers us, sin loathes,
sin tears us up, sin makes us feel so awful, so ashamed of
ourselves. The gospels turn men, their gospel
turns men away from grace, away from the gospel, away from God,
to their ways of flesh. Paul said, they rest the scriptures
to their own destruction. But the gospel of the grace of
God saves men from sin, saves men from trusting their flesh. These men use grace to excuse
their sin, excuse their sin, their depravity, their flesh. He said as God overthrew Sodom
and Gomorrah because they went after strange flesh. And then
that's where the first thing the character of these men is,
is that they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. And
listen to this, and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, what do they deny about
him? Well, first and foremost, they deny his power. They deny
his power, his supremacy, his power over all things. Our Lord
Jesus Himself said, Thou hast given Him power over all flesh,
that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given
Him. He gives life to whom He will.
All judgment is committed to Him. And oh, they love His power
for healing. They love His power to make them
wealthy. They love His power to make them
wise. They love His power to give them
what they want in this world. But don't want Him to reign over
me. Don't want Him to reign over
me. They deny His power as the only Savior. Deny His power as
the only Savior. They say there's other ways to
God. There's other ways to get to God. In fact, you know, there's
so many different ways to get to God, we're all going to end
up at the same place. We're just taking different roads.
They'll say that all the time. And I tell you, He needs our
cooperation. He'll save us, you know, we gotta
cooperate with Him. And you got to let Him save you.
That's denying the power of His Holy Savior. And to deny His
work. You know, all it takes to fall from grace
All it takes to fall from grace is to add one thing to Christ. To add a good thought that you
had to what Christ accomplished. To add any kind of your own righteousness
to what Christ accomplished, you fall from grace. They deny
His work. They deny His death and what
it accomplished. They deny the power of his blood. And this is one thing they say,
these fellows. They say that death of Christ
is sufficient for all. If it's sufficient for all, and
then they say it's sufficient for the lacked. Well, if you're
going to preach the gospel, you've got to say that Christ died for
his people. He died for his sheep. If you make him sufficient for
all, what that is, is you're bringing him down, in my opinion,
you're bringing him down to where folks can accept him or reject
him. But when you preach him and his death as an accomplished
salvation, that he laid down his life for his sheep, that
he laid down his life for his children, laid his life down
for his people. They're called vessels of mercy,
children of God, sons of God. You've got to make the death
of Christ particular. And if it ain't particular, men
can do what they want to with it. But when you make it particular
that Christ died just for his sheep, just for his elect, who's
gonna lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And when you
preach that there's a particular reason for Christ dying, to die
for a particular people, then folks ain't sitting around saying,
well, You know, I'm going to accept him one of these days.
No, no, when you found out that he only died for certain people
and he only died for his elect, the first thing you want to know
is, you reckon he died for me? You reckon he laid down his life
for me? Lord, if I'm one of your sheep, would
you please speak to me and let me know it? Let me hear your
voice. Let me hear your voice. I want to hear your voice. But there's a multitude, a multitude,
and a multitude of people that are denying the Lord God and
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the best thing I can do for
all of us is to warn us because these people don't come in at
a great big boisterous way. They slip in, slip in. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, I pray for your mercies upon us all, your
grace upon us all, your kindness and pity towards us all, your
long-suffering for us. Lord, we're frail flesh. Oh,
we're so frail. We're so fickle. This flesh is
so despicable. But, oh Lord, Don't leave us
to ourselves. Please don't leave us to our
own ways, our flesh, our own understanding. God save us. Oh Lord, save us. Save us from
ourselves. Save us from our self-righteousness,
our self-confidence. Save us from our bragging and our vanity and our
ambition the things that we want from men that's not worth having. Oh God, save us for Christ's
sake. Save your people in this place.
Uphold us by your blessed power. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, How merciful, blessed
Lord, how merciful thou art to me. See you tonight, six o'clock,
God willing.