And I thank God I'm one of them
many. I'm one of them many, as many
as. You know how many times it says that about the believers
in the Scriptures? As many as, as many as. I want to look here in the first
couple of verses, especially verse three, Jude, the servant
of Jesus Christ. Jude was really a half-brother
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, he wasn't even a half-brother
because Christ, you know, was born of God, but he was his brother. Joseph, one of Joseph's brothers,
he was a brother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brother James,
James was one of the brothers of our Lord, to them that are
sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ and
called. He noticed that we were sanctified,
set apart by God. Now when did that happen? We're
reading about it now, but it happened before the world ever
began. God set us apart in Christ before
the world ever began. And He preserved us, preserved
us. Kept us preserved until He called
us by His blessed grace. And that's what He's talking
about, He called. Mercy and peace and love be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence,
I'm very, very serious about this. When I gave all diligence
to write unto you the common salvation, this common salvation,
the only thing that's common about it, we all, everybody that
believes, we have the same things in common. There's nothing common
about the salvation of God. In a sense, the only sense that
it's common is that we all believe the same thing. We all look to
the same Savior, we all look to the same God, we all look,
salvation is just one way, and that's through the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is common for all believers. And it was needful,
I gave diligence, it was needful to write unto you and exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. Now that's what I want to talk
about. I want to talk about the faith that was delivered to the
saints. I want to talk about our profession of faith. Ours. Mine and yours. If you have one,
I want to talk about our profession of faith. Our profession of faith. John called it our most holy
faith. Now let me give you a little history. A little history. And I know most of you know this.
You learned it in school. But for centuries, from about
400 till about the 14th century, for about 1,000 years, we lived
in what was called, America and the whole world lived in what
was called the Dark Ages. Dark Ages. You know why they
called it the Dark Ages? Because there was no light. Catholicism
ruled the whole world at that particular time. Catholicism
was born by a man named Constantinople when he set up the church. But Catholicism ruled the whole
world. And they kept the scriptures
for men. Men could not own a Bible. There was no Bibles. The only
people that had any Bibles was the Catholic Church. The only
one had them. And the only place that you could get any information
from a Bible was having to go into one of their services. And
you had to believe what they told you. You could not read
it for yourself. You could not believe it for
yourself. They had to tell you what you had to believe. And
they kept the scriptures from men. And they taught salvation
by the church. And what they said was that they
called it the Holy Mother Church. And they still believe that,
that salvation's in the church. That salvation is through the
Catholic Church and the Catholic Church alone. And I'll tell you
some things that they've done. If you say, for instance, you
wanted to go out and commit adultery, You could go to the priest, give
him so much money, say, this is what I said I want to commit.
He would charge you, say, well that sin will cost you $10. And
you could buy from that priest, the permission
to go commit that sin, and then at the same time, pay him another
$10 and get penances for it, that you'd get forgiveness for
it. So they sold indulgences. If you want to indulge in a particular
sin, then you know according to what sin it was, you paid
for it. And then if you wanted penances for it, you wanted to
say so many Hail Marys or whatever they tell you to do, then here's
what you have to do. Then you pay for that too. permission
to sin and invoked forgiveness for the sin at the same price. And they persecuted, persecuted
very, very bad, greatly, greatly, greatly, all of those who would
not confess their faith in the Pope, who claimed to be the successor
of the Apostle, and also claimed to be infallible. Whatever he
said was infallible. And this darkness was deep, this
darkness was long, and it endured for centuries. And then one day
there was a man named Martin Luther. He was a Catholic monk
and a doctor of theology and he taught in those schools. He
was a German. And he was on his hands and knees
crawling up some steps one day for penance. you know, to keep
his body under subjection. He was on his knees calling up
some steps. And while he was calling up them
steps, that verse of scripture came to his mind. And that verse
of scripture was Romans 3.24. And that Romans 3.24 says this,
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. God turned on the light. God
turned on the light on that man. And God taught him the gospel.
And then in a few months, he went into, in 1517, he walked up to the church in
Wittenberg, Germany, called Wittenberg. But in Wittenberg, Germany, he
had 95 charges against the Catholic Church. And they called him the
95th Thesis. And he knelt along the door.
And that day there, a reformation began. I mean, what they was
trying to do was reform the Catholic Church, but it was impossible
to do that, so they had to start teaching and preaching the gospel.
And he especially began, he wrote an incredible book on the book
of Galatians. And it was the best thing ever
on the subject. But that began what we call the
Reformation. And then God began to call other
men, separate other men into the gospel. John Calvin is one.
Juerg Zwingli is another. John Huss in England was another. And the Reformers, they had struggles. Yes, they had struggles. They
had, you know, they hunted down these men, a lot of them, and
they suffered great persecution. But they come to three-point
conclusion in this Reformation. They had three points that they
stuck with and never moved a peg from. And this became the cry
of the Reformers, and let me give them to you. Scriptures
alone, Grace alone, Christ alone. That was the cry of the reformers. And beloved, and we have on our
sign, that's what we say. Christ's scriptures alone, grace
alone, Christ alone. That's on our militant. Christ
alone, grace alone, scriptures alone. And I believe if we'll
believe and adhere to these three things, our profession of faith
would be a sound profession of faith. I believe if we held to
these three blessed things that started out in the 1500s, the
14th century, that started out then, if we adhere to them today,
we'll be sound. And let me give them to you.
This is what we profess, talking about our profession of faith.
We believe in scriptures alone. Now what in the world do I mean
by that statement? Scriptures for what? Well first
of all, he said I write unto you diligently and earnestly
and it's needful for you for you to contend for the faith.
And where do you find out what faith is and how do you get faith?
And you know, faith, if we have faith and believe anything, the
only place we can get it at is from this blessed book. You can't
get it no place else. When I say faith, it's what we
are to believe. I'm not talking about subjective
faith. I'm talking about what we are
to believe. and the Scriptures alone, and
I'll tell you then why we believe it. You know, there's a reason
what we believe, and there's a reason why we believe it. And
the Bible, the Scriptures, is the only, only inspired, supernaturally,
divinely inspired, supernaturally preserved writings on the face
of the earth. The only one. This book right
here was inspired by God himself. God believes all scripture is
given by inspiration of God and is profitable. That means that
this is not words about God, it is a word of God itself. When John said they opened the
books in Revelation 20, you know what books they opened? That
book right there. That book, the books, this book,
that's what people go to. The judgment begins at the house
of God. What does it begin with? This. This. And that's why you know the scriptures.
That's why if a man knowing the way of righteousness turned from
it, he's like a horse and a hog going back to his mire. And I say boldly, I mean, you
know, I read a lot of books. I probably in the last month
read six or seven, maybe even eight books. I read all books. And I'll spend hours reading
a book. And when they're gone most of
the time, I don't even remember them. I move on to the next one.
But I'll tell you something. This blessed book right here,
that's the only book that I've been reading for 40-something
years, and I still, still find great, great, trouble sometimes
understanding some of it. And I used to read it real, real
fast, but now I've got to where I read it really, really, really
slow. It may take me a week to read
four chapters because I read it so slow. You know why? Because this is God speaking.
This, I can't look at this and say, well, I think this is what
this means, or I think that's what it means, or I hope it's
what it means. When I open this book, I'm looking at what God
himself says. Not what some man says. I don't
have to go to a denominational headquarters somewhere and ask
them what I'm supposed to believe, what I'm supposed to preach.
I don't have to go to the preacher and ask him what I'm supposed
to believe and what I'm supposed to preach. You know where I get
what I know what we believe? From this blessed book. So we
boldly say, and emphatically say, we are what we are, we do
what we do because we have a book. And we believe it to be the word
of God itself. When you read that, when you
read June Barrett, God inspired that man to say, you write June,
the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James. That's
what I wrote down. And I tell you that, do you imagine
what it would be like, how the dark ages would still exist had
not God got us a Bible. And that's the most blessed thing
that God gave this generation, other than the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, is gave us the Bible. We don't have to depend on nobody
else. We can read it for ourselves.
And I tell you, the Bible, the scripture, settles all arguments. All arguments. It's just a rock
of infallibility. Pope ain't infallible, but God's
infallible, and the Word of God's infallible. One of the things
that I utterly, utterly hate is for somebody to try to correct
the Bible. Somebody to try to tell us, you know, well this
is what it ought to say. This should come out of here. But oh my, this settles all arguments. If they speak not according to
this doctrine, not in law and testimony, it's because there's
no right in them. We, by God's grace, receive nothing as truth
but what agrees with the Scriptures. Let me tell you something. The Scriptures alone tell us
how the world came into existence. It tells us how it came into
existence. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And it also tells us exactly
how it's going to end. You hear that? It tells us how
it started and it tells us how it's going to end. Look over
here, go to your left until you get to 2 Peter chapter 3. Just go to your
left until you get to 2 Peter. And it tells us how the world
began, how the creation began, how the world came into existence. But it also tells us how it's
going to end. That's what the scriptures mean, God declared
the end from the beginning. It tells us God, in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. And then, you know, then
it is six days. But look what he said here in
verse 10 of 2 Peter 3. But the day of the Lord will
come as a thief in the night. That means it'll come when you
least expect it. in the wish the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be
burned. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in
all holy manner of life and godliness? Listen, looking for and hasting
unto the coming of the day of God, when the heavens being on
fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat. Now listen, nevertheless, we,
according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth
wherein dwell Christ. God go make another one. You know, we got these briars
to contend with, and sage grass to contend with, and the curse
to contend with, and old dry grass, and old, you know, all
the things we have to keep up in this world, but let me tell
you something, in that new heaven, new earth, there ain't gonna
be a briar. There ain't gonna be a fly, there ain't
gonna be a mosquito, there ain't gonna be a no-sim, there ain't
gonna be anything that will bother us whatsoever. So he tells us
how it begins, he said he's going to tell us how another one's
going to start. It ends, one ends and another one starts.
How do you know that? Because God told me in his word. And I'll tell you something else
about the scriptures, they're the only one that gives us a
true account of man, a true account of man. If you go to Hebrews
11, and you look at all those men that's mentioned, you know,
Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, and all these wonderful people,
when you read about them, you say, boy, I tell you, they're
really something. But you go back to the Old Testament,
here's the thing, the scriptures alone give the true account of
man. It doesn't conceal his faults. And it doesn't exaggerate his
goodness. It don't make him more than he
is, it don't make him less than he is. You know, when you read
about some men in the Old Testament, you say, how in the world did
they say that? How did they do that? Well, God
done it. You know, they just paint man as he is. They paint
man of his creation. You know, and this is another
thing. How did man come into existence?
You know, science has been looking for the missing link for centuries. The missing link. Trying to find
the missing link between monkeys and us. Now, I've had some folks, you
know, swung from a tree, but they were stealing horses. Mary found stuff out there in
her genealogy. She found some real sorry people
in her family back over the years. But what God did is he took man,
and he got him out of the dust. Adam, that's what it means, man
of red earth. And God took a man and made with him and made him
and he's standing before God. But he was a clay. He was made
of dirt. He was made of dust. He was made
of the earth. And he was standing there, an
inanimate object. He was just standing there, an
inanimate object. And you know when he had life?
He did not have life till God breathed in his nostrils. And
that's the way, that's how we find out where man come from,
and that's how we found out that we got life. God breathed into
his nostrils and he became a living soul. And that's how man come
into existence. And then it tells us what he
did. It tells us that Satan come into,
a serpent come in, that little subtle, that old serpent, the
old devil come in and deceive them. And God gave them one commandment,
don't you eat of the tool of knowledge of good and evil, for
if you do that, you're gonna die. Well, they did. And he died, he died spiritually
that day. And him, he began dying physically
that day. And because of him, because of
one man, we're all descendants of that one man. And his one
sin made every one of us sinners. Sinners by nature, sinners by
practice, and they call it original sin. And we all got that from
our father Adam. And I tell you, they show what
man is, a sinner, and even the scripture said, even at his best
estate, that's me and you, even at his best estate, he's altogether
vanity. Huh? What do you think about
that? You say, I'm vanity? That's what
the Bible says about us. And our best estate, vanity. And I tell you, the Bible alone
gives us a true view of God. Oh my, I had such strange views
of God when I was a young man. When I was in Vietnam, I was
so mad at God, I was so angry with God, I'd put my fist right
up there Daring to kill me. I mean, I was angry with God.
I was mean. In the Bible, when God taught
me the gospel and revealed himself to me, the Bible gives us a true
view of God Almighty. You know, man's conception of
God, I know mine was awful. Mine was absolutely, utterly
awful. And man's natural conceptions
of God are like himself. You know, man wants to make God
in his own image. I'm a good person, so my God
has to be a good person. I don't want people to go to
hell, so we want a God that don't put people in hell. I want a
God that loves everybody, so listen, I want a God that loves
everybody. So they bring him down to himself. They bring him down, they put
him in statues, they put him on a cross, they put him in crucifixes,
they put him in their cabinets, they put him in pictures, they
put him in calendars. And I tell you, they even make
women to be a redeemer now. They degrade God. Just look at
how man has made him. Oh my, I tell you, in Vietnam,
they had pagodas. And the pagoda was for Buddha. They worshiped Buddha over there.
He's a little fat-bellied fellow, you know, with a bald head set
with his legs crossed. But people would go up there
and offer sacrifices to them things. And down in Mexico, they
have the same thing, but they got merry and they got statues
and they got plastic statues and crucifixes all over the place. And they had them everywhere
so that people, when they went down the road, they could see
them and know God was watching out for them. Oh my. And then there's the Armenian
God. Oh my, you ever met him? I knew
him very well. The finger of God, what's he
like? Well, listen, he can't do anything without you. You
gotta make the right choice, you gotta, when he gives you
his chance, you gotta take advantage of his chance. You know, he loves
you and he died for you and all that you gotta do now is just
accept him. And oh my, and then there's this
God of science. It blows my mind. Now listen,
I'm sure it does you too. People will find something and
say, that thing is 55 billion years old. How do they know it's
55 billion years old? They'll find a rock somewhere
with a fish in it and they'll say, that thing's 49, 13 years,
four billion years old. Now how do they know that stuff?
And like I said, you know, they've been trying their best to find
this link that not many tell us science says how we come into
existence. We was just a crawly thing in
an old swamp one time, and we decided we didn't like that swamp,
so we're going to get out of the swamp. We spread an egg.
They said we crawled out on one leg, we spread another leg. And
so that's the doubt of science. That's the God of science. And oh my. And oh, I thank God the Bible
tells us that God is sovereign, God is holy, God is just, God
is righteous. It tells us, you know, they'll
say God loves, hates the sin, but he loves the sinner. But
God said he hates the workers of iniquity every day. He's angry
with the wicked every day. And I tell you, He has to deal
with sin wherever He finds it. He must deal with it, He must
punish it. It must be punished. And the
only way sin can be punished is for death. The only way death
can be inflicted is for God to inflict that death. It's either
eternal death or eternal life given to us in Christ. And I
tell you what, you think God, whenever He finds sin, He said,
before the flood he looked at man and said, you know what?
Man's imagination's only evil continually. I said, you know
what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna destroy this bunch.
And this time he's gonna destroy it not with a flood, but with
fire. But anyway, the Bible tells us how that God not only is he
holy, righteous, and just, and that he must punish sin, but
the Bible tells us also that he's a God of purpose. That everything
God does, everything that happens in this world, happens on purpose.
Happens on purpose. Huh? He decreed all things, doing
all things for His own glory. Let me show you that in Isaiah
46. Look in Isaiah 46. You know, He does all things
for His own glory. Known unto God are all His works
from the creation. I was talking to a young man
yesterday. He's done, started on his third
round of chemo, 40 years old, got a couple years, said the
Lord has mercy on him. I was talking to him yesterday.
Doing very, very well. He, you know, he said, you know,
said, God orders all things. And God does what he does on
purpose. And this is what he's done for us, and this is where
he's put us, and that's what we're facing, that's what we're
dealing with. Purpose. He admits that God does things
on purpose. This wasn't an accident, this
wasn't bad luck. And God does things on purpose.
And look what it said here in Isaiah 46 and verse 9. God said,
I want you to remember something. Remember the former things of
old. Look way back. Look back to creation. For I am God and there's none
else. Who else created the world? I am God and there's nobody like
me. Decline the end from the beginning. He said, well, I told what's
gonna happen before I ever started. And from ancient times, the things
that are done say, my counsel shall stand, and I love this,
I'll do all my pleasure. Whatever his pleasure is, that's
what's gonna happen, whatever pleases him. And I tell you what,
beloved, the Bible alone explains the state of the world around
us in which we live. I was reading a fellow the other
day and he said, I do not have to read the newspapers to find
out what's going on in the world. I don't have to read, you know
why? Because I know what man is and I know what he's going
to do. I don't have to read the newspaper. I don't have to read
the newspaper to find out that the world's in a mess. I don't
have to read a newspaper to find out how awful and crooked politicians
are. I don't have to read a newspaper
to find out how bad and wicked religion is. I don't have to
read a newspaper to find out how many murders have been committed
because I know man's killing somebody all day every day somewhere. I don't have to read a newspaper
to find out how bad things are. I know how bad things are. In
the last days, he said, perilous times will come. Here's the first
thing he said about it. Men will be lovers of themselves
and haters of God. Now what do you think if people
don't do that? Lovers of pleasure and haters of God. What are they
going to do? They're going to do everything they can to get
by with it. Y'all agree with that? Oh, listen. Oh, the nations and
politicians abound in sin. The whole world abounds in sin.
The scripture says the whole world lies in wickedness. And
here's what you get to do. You get to come in here, those
of you that have to work and have to deal with this world,
you get to come in here and God gets to wash your feet, wash
your soul, and wash all the filth off of you that you contaminated
yourself with this year. Huh? And I tell you, I got to
hurry. The Scriptures alone tells us
the way of salvation. Huh? Oh, the Scripture says,
you know, the Scriptures are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. They all search the Scriptures,
for they are they which testify of me. It tells us how sinful
men can be made acceptable. to a holy and a just God. And
they tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one that could
save us and there alone make us wise unto salvation which
is in Christ. By his own will begat he us with
what? The word of truth. The word of
truth. Now let me hurry up with this.
I tell you, I took too long on that. And then what, when we
talk about grace alone, what do we mean by that? We mean that
for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It's a gift. It's a gift of God. And I tell
you that the salvation of sinners, the salvation of sinners is an
act of sovereign free grace of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. It's entirely from start, from
the beginning of your salvation to the day you walk into glory,
it's all of grace, free grace, sovereign grace, powerful grace,
effectual grace. And I'll tell you something about
it, it's not a cooperative effort. God don't need my help, your
help, or nobody else's help. He by himself purged our sins. It's not by man's will or man's
power. He said it's not the will of
man, the will of blood, the will of the flesh, but it's born of
God. Being born of God. I tell you
what, it's not by man's will, it's not by man's power, and
it's not by man's decision. Man made his decision in the
Garden of Eden. He decided, I don't want God
to reign over me. And God in sovereign mercy comes
down, and He takes a man and subdues his heart, breaks his
heart, breaks his will, changes his mind, and does something
for him that only God can do, and it's a supernatural act.
I'm telling you it is. And I tell you what, it's not
by, it's God's free choice, God's electing grace. Paul said it
like this, he told the Thessalonians, we are bound, we're bound to
do this, to always give thanks for you, brethren, because God
hath from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Oh my. Grace is God's will. Grace says God's will and you
shall in the day of his power. You know what he said? His people,
his people shall be made willing. Didn't say everybody, his people.
Ain't you glad that God said I will and you shall and you
shall and I will? Grace is gift, a free gift of
God. Oh, God doesn't save a man because
of his goodness, but because God is good. God doesn't save
a man because he has any worth, but because Christ has got all
the worth. He doesn't save a man because
of anything he thinks is or does. He saves him because he wills
to do it. It's his good pleasure. And I'll
tell you what. If salvation is not by the, and
this is a conclusion we have to come to, if salvation is not
by the free grace of God in Christ, then there's no salvation, there
is no God, there's no afterlife, there's no hope, we're just animals
waiting to die. It can't but be our will and
God's will at the same time. And if this is not the way a
man is saved entirely by the free gifts of God and Christ
Jesus, then there's no salvation for anybody. If it's left up
to do anything, will everyone be lost? Every single one of
you, huh? I say grace is sovereign and
unconditional. And what grace means is this.
Sovereign grace. You know what sovereign means?
One who reigns. Grace reigns. Where does it reign
through? The Lord Jesus Christ. Free grace. That means that it's
free. You can't limit it. There's no
conditions on it. It's effectual grace. It actually
saves a man, and then not only saves him, but it keeps him safe. It never depends on us in any
way. And it's justifying grace. And one of these days, it's gonna
be glorifying grace. You know that? Glorifying grace. Now, let me give you scriptures
alone, grace alone, Christ alone. What do we mean by this? Is this
our profession of faith so far? What do we mean by? Christ alone. Well, you and Jude, go back to
Jude with me real quick. Go back over to Jude. And you
know there's, right to your left, there's these two little epistles,
the second epistle of John, the third epistle of John. And when
we talk about Christ alone, we mean this, that in belief that
Jesus Christ our Lord alone, his blessed person, And it's
who He is that makes His work worth anything. You and I, we
work, we do things, but our work will never do anything toward
our salvation. But Christ, it's who He is that
made His work effectual. That's the only thing that made
it effectual. And His person and His work is our only plea
before God Almighty. Who else do we bring before God
other than the Lord Jesus Christ? But look what he said over here
in 2 John chapter 9. You know your Jews right there
and right straight across the page from mine. He said in 2
John verse 9. Whosoever transgresses and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine,
this doctrine of Christ, that brings you any other doctrine
that makes you do anything besides look to Christ, trust Christ,
believe Christ, and see and know that He's all your salvation,
If there come any and bring any other doctrine, we see you not
into your house. Don't say, come in here and let's
talk about this. No, no. And then when he gets ready to
leave, say, God bless you. Don't do that. I know some people,
I know some people like they like to talk these Jehovah Witnesses. I don't want to talk to a Mormon,
I don't want to talk to a yoga witness, I don't want to debate
the scripture with nobody that don't know nothing about God
or Christ. And I certainly ain't going to invite them to my house.
Now if they knock on my door and say, I'm thirsty, I'll give
them a glass of cold water. But don't bring me nothing else
but Jesus Christ. Don't bring me nothing else but
His righteousness. Don't bring me nothing else but
His person. Don't bring me nothing else but
my own acceptance before God is here. Don't bring me nothing. I don't want to hear nothing
else. And then when he gets ready to
leave, I like what old Frank Sapp said one time. He lived
to be 100 years old, I believe. Might have even been 101. The
one time he's sitting out in the front yard, And you know
they didn't have air-conditioning, you're sitting out in the front
yard under a shade tree. Well, these Jehovah's Witnesses, and
we're really, we're the ones that believe Jehovah's Nisai,
Jehovah, Raphi, Rathi, and Jehovah, it's a kid and you, and so we're
really the Jehovah Witness, because we believe in Jehovah God Almighty. But anyway, to make a little
story short, as some of them come up there, and they was going
to talk to him, and Frank said, now I mean, get out of my yard. I don't want to hear anything
God say. And he just stood there, stood there, and he said, he
got his, he had a poker sitting there beside him. And he picked
up that poker, he said, and when you leave don't you dare shake
that dust off your feet or I'll whip you this poker. And he was a man, he was a mean
enough man to do it too. Oh, I tell you, there's so many
stories like that. But I tell you, we've been embedded
in all things. When you look in Colossians 1,
it says, by him, for him, by him, by him, by him, all things
exist by him, all things consist, and he's before all things, and
there ain't nothing ever was before him. Oh my, and our Lord
gave all things into his hands. He's a declaration of the Scriptures.
You know, Henry used to say this all the time. The Old Testament
tells us one who's coming. One who's coming. He shall suddenly
appear in his temple. The sea of the Romans shall come
and bruise the serpent's head. Sea of the Romans. Tells us one
who's coming. The Gospels tells us one who
has come. To him all the prophets give
witness. The Scriptures tells us one who
has come. And our Lord Jesus Christ, how
many times did he say, I am? When they come to get him in
the garden, 500 people, he just walked up and said, who are you
looking for? Jesus and Nazareth. He said, I am! He said, you know,
he said, you talking about light? I am the light of the world.
I am the water of life. I am the bread of life. the way, the truth, and the life.
I am, I am. And he says, no man comes unto
the Father but by me. And beloved, if we go to God
this morning, it'll be because Christ accomplished our salvation
and is sitting at God's right hand, and he lets us come into
God's presence. Huh? Oh my. Everything that was made was
made by him and not anything was made was made without him
And not only the gospel tells he's come, but the epistles tells
us he's coming again. I Read it to you there. What
are you going to do in 2nd Peter? But you know what the scripture
says said he's going to appear the second time without sin No,
no sin offering, but he's gonna appear the second time without
sin for salvation and it also tells us this that when he appears
he'll change this vile body. And that's what it is, it's a
vile body. We have to brush our teeth, we have to use mouthwash,
we have to use deodorant, we have to use good smelling shampoo,
we have to do everything to keep this body from just corrupting
around us. And that's awful when you can
smell yourself. You know if you smell yourself, somebody else
can too. Every once in a while I'll come
in from doing something, and I'll say, Shirley, I said, I
don't even smell because I can smell myself. But you know, you
get out and you get sweaty, but what I'm telling you is this.
He's gonna change, it said when he comes, he's gonna take this
old vile body, This old rotten body, this body that's getting
old, skin's getting thin. My skin will just tear so easy
and bruise so easy. And you know, he gonna change
his vile body. And you know what he's gonna
do? He gonna fashion it, make it just like one of his. Oh my. You know, we go to the
grave, and we stand over our loved ones, and we may even talk
to them sometimes, and say, no, they can't hear a word we got
to say. But one thing we can tell them, and that we can tell
them the truth, whether they won't hear us, but one of these
days, God's gonna bring you out of that grave, gonna bring you
out of that grave, and when he brings you out of that grave,
he gonna change you in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, And
He gonna give you a body that's eternal, immortal, incorruptible,
and one of these days it'll be just like His and you'll be forever
with Him. Huh? Come on, Lord Jesus! Judd and I was talking the other
day. I said, He gonna come and get us one at a time, but I sure
wouldn't like for Him to come get us all at the same time.
Wouldn't you? Oh, my. Oh, it's Christ alone
that God gives mercy and grace to sinners in the Lord Jesus
Christ. You are complete, complete in
Him. Complete in Him. And that word
complete means perfect in Him. The believers, the scriptures
tells us we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the
world. We are accepted in him, we're accepted in the beloved.
We are holy and righteous in him, Christ is our righteousness. We're justified by him, justified
freely by his grace. We're free from the curse through
him. The scripture said, in Deuteronomy,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Well, it tells us,
and Paul said in Galatians 3, Christ redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed
is every one that hangeth on a tree. And he said that's what
he saved us from, from the curse. And believers, and I'll tell
you this, and you've seen it so many different times, believers
are risen and seated with Him in the heavenly places. Only
thing I got, you know, I'm sitting with Christ right now, according
to the scriptures. He raised us up and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Him. And I tell you what, that's
the doctrine, the doctrine of Christ. And may God in His sovereign
mercy, as long as I live, as long as you live, and as long
as this building stands, as long as people gather together, worship,
and come into this place, that the subject that we preach and
believe at all times will be the blessed person of our Lord
Jesus Christ, as God, manifest in the flesh, as a sinless man,
holy in his humanity, Huh? Christ as our representative? Christ crucified? Christ risen? Christ ascended? And Christ having put away sin
by the sacrifice of himself, God raised him from the dead,
set him at his own right hand. No wonder Paul said, who is he
that condemneth is God to justify it. And oh, may God, we preach
Christ as a King of Kings and Lord of Lords in His high sovereignty. Revelation said it like this,
and I'm through. Jesus Christ is worthy to receive
all honor, all power, all glory, all blessings, more than we could
ever give Him. And oh, He's our Lord forever
and ever and ever. And God set him forth, set him
forth to be our mercy seat, to be our salvation. And bless his
holy name. The only way we can learn of
Christ is from the Bible. The only way we can learn of
grace is through the Bible. The only way we can learn about
Christ and our salvation is through this blessed book. If we'll just
stay with those things, I believe we'll be alright. Don't you? I believe our professional faith
will be good. I believe that if you come to
my funeral, I get to go to yours. Or when I hear that God's called
you home, I believe I could rejoice if you hold on to these things
right here. I believe I could say, oh, they
kept the faith. They fought a good fight. They
done. All right. Our Lord, oh God, thank you for
allowing us to meet here today. Your word is so powerful, quickens
us, so blesses our heart and our souls, so enlightens our
mind, oh, it takes that darkness, confusion away from our mind,
takes the world out of it for just a little while. Oh, God,
thank you. Thank you for this service today.
Thank you for the songs that's been sung. prayers has been prayed. Thank you for the worship we
was blessed to have. Bless this word to the hearts
and minds of all of us for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.