in Ephesians chapter 5. I'm going
to just read three verses of scripture. Ephesians 5 25. Husbands love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave itself himself for it
that he might sanctify it and cleansing with the washing of
water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious
church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. I don't know if y'all seen that
news, those 17 kids got killed down in Florida. Their poor families
got up this morning, didn't have an idea anything like that was
gonna happen. And it's just awful. So, you know, when you pray this
evening, you remember them families. They never get to hug their kids
again, never get to sleep in their beds again. So you remember
them. It's a very sad time in this
part. Look with me back here in Ephesians
5. I want you to look at that verse
in verse 27. That He might present it to Himself
a glorious church. I want to talk about a glorious
church. Christ's glorious church. He's
going to present it to Himself. The church. The church. And He
calls it a glorious church. He said He's going to present
us holy Unblameable and unreprovable in his sight and it's an in this
church I'm gonna say this this church that he's this glorious
church that I'm talking about It's it's it's it's an exclusive
membership. It's an exclusive membership.
You've got to There's only one way you can get in this the church
You know It's not being a member of Lentenna Grace Church. It
puts you in this church that we're talking about this glorious
church Let me give you several things about this glorious church
first They all have so much in common, but all who are in this
glorious church Every one of them's been saved by grace through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Every one of them everyone that's
in this glorious church that Christ is going to present himself
to every one of them saved by grace through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2.8, you've heard it
so many times, but look at it. Look over in Ephesians 2.8, I
could quote it and you could quote it yourself. But this,
this glorious church, they're all saved by grace. They're every
one of them saved by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He said here in verse eight, Ephesians 2.4, by grace are you
saved, through faith. Now listen to this, grace is
not of yourself, faith is not of yourselves, It's the gift
of God. Grace is and faith is. God's
got to give you both of them. And if he gives you one, he gives
you the other. If he gives you grace, he gives you faith. And
if he gives you faith, it's because he's giving you grace. And look
what he says, it's the gift of God. And he goes on to say, not
of works. If it's God's gift and it's by
grace, it could not possibly ever be of works because if it
was, man would boast in it by himself. Now, I tell you, beloved,
there's lots of false professors in a church. Lots of false professors
in the in the public church. There's lots of false professors
in the church and the Bible even. Many false professors, lots of
hypocrites. Now, I don't know about you,
but every once in a while, I feel like I got enough hypocrisy in
me. If I spread it around, it'd be
awful how all of us would be such hypocrites. I mean, I don't
know if you all ever feel like a hypocrite or not, but I certainly
do. I certainly do. But anyway, there's
lots of been false professors. Judas was among the apostles,
and he was the son of perdition. Demas traveled with the apostle
Paul, and preached with him, and traveled with him, and then
he had to write, said, Demath hath forsaken us, having loved
this present evil world. Simon Magus. He offered Simon
Peter money to have the gifts of the Holy Ghost. And Simon
Peter says, your money's going to perish with you, Simon. The
gifts of God cannot be purchased with money. And then there's
Ananias and Sapphira. Everything they had was theirs.
But they lied to God about what they was going to give to Him.
And then, of course, there's Diotrephes who loves to have
the preeminence. But everybody in this church,
this glorious church, has been saved by grace through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of what else is going on. And
I know I've told you all this before, but back in 77, I think
it was 77, some fellows was working on our house, building our house.
And they both was up on ladders doing things on one end of the
house. And I was having a meeting at that time over here in a block
church over here in Vandiver. a little block church there.
I don't even remember who was the pastor there at that time.
But anyway, I was going to preach over there for a few days. And
I asked those two fellows, I said, won't you all come over to meet?
And I said, we're going to have a meeting over here. He said,
won't you all come over? And I don't even remember which
one of them said it. He said, oh, well, there's too many hypocrites
over here. And I said, well, come on. He
said, one more won't make a bit of difference. And both of them
showed up that night. Both of them showed up that night.
Listen, I don't care how many hypocrites in the church. I'm
not going to miss Christ over a hypocrite. I'm not going to
miss Christ over somebody that don't know Christ. I don't want
to miss Christ. And this glorious church is made
up of God's elect. Every single person in it, God
chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world. He calls
them His sheep. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. He calls them My children. I
tell you what, I love to think about God's elect, God's sheep,
God's children. And Henry Mann's got a message
if you ain't never listened to it before, I'm on the trail of
God's sheep. And that's what he said, I'm
on the trail of God's sheep. Shirley said it today, said God
leaves us here so that we can preach the gospel and God's sheep
be called in by the gospel. That's the way God calls His
sheep. And He says, My sheep, hear My voice. And when you hear
that voice, you recognize it. And when you hear that voice,
you hear another voice, you say, That's a stranger. I'm not going
to follow him. I'm not going to follow him.
And they call God's children, My children. And I'm going to
tell you something about this church. You can't be voted into
it. You can have a church, you know,
you can have a business meet it and you can vote. You can't
be voted in or you can't be voted out. You know, this is one of the
most blessed things that I've ever thought of. I've been pastored
here 38 years in March. Pastoring this, start down another
place, 38 years in March. And we reorganized in May of
1979. But we have never, ever, once,
not one time, ever excluded one person. You know why I ain't?
This is a place for sinners. Why do you want to put a sinner
out? Why do you want to run a sinner off? Men of life, anybody's ever
going to get put out for what they do. Y'all put me out years
ago, you know, for being such a sorry preacher. But oh, here's
the thing about you, you can't be voted in or voted out. I know
y'all have heard that story. Also, you know, I used to, we
was out of Plateau going out there to an independent Baptist
church. But God began teaching me the gospel and they let me
preach pretty often and I'd preach and I started preaching the gospel.
Started preaching election and Christ dying for His elect and
for His people. And they all, they was strong
pre-millennial and I preached that Jesus Christ is the King
right now. If He's not reigning over you,
He's not king over you. And man, I'm telling you what,
that place just went berserk. The preacher got up, and he went
nuts. He's going to whip me. He's going to whip everybody.
He's upset. He was really upset. And so,
he said, you're going to have to recant that, or we're going
to put you out. I said, I ain't going to recant nothing. And
the deacons didn't even know enough about the Bible to know
what I was talking about. They had five deacons, and the
deacons didn't even know what I was talking about. But anyway,
they had a meeting on a Wednesday night. And that preacher got
up and said, we want Donnie Bell out of here because he's a heretic. Place is full. You don't go have
this meeting. Everybody in there raised their hands, including
little children like theirs. And then you know what they done?
They sent us letters and said, members in good standing, if
you want to join another church. Take that off. But that's how
ridiculous. I tell you, thank God we can't
vote people in, can't vote people out. This is a place for people
that need help, need strength, need encouragement, need assurance,
need uplifting, need edified. This is the place where you get
it. And that's the kind of church Christ's going to present to
Himself. A glorious church. His elect, His sheep, His children. And the Father, here's how this
church, the Father chose them in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Chose us, chose them. Everyone
that's in this church, He chose them. That's how you get in this
church. And then the Son, the blessed Son of God come and redeemed
them, paid for them, purchased them with His own precious blood. Shed His blood to pay their sin
debt. Shed His blood to make them acceptable
to God. Shed His blood to wash them from
their sin. Shed His blood to satisfy the
justice of God. And then, then the Holy Spirit
comes and in power, in great power and effectualness, He brings
those that the Father chose, that Christ redeemed, in great
power and effectualness, He brings every single one of them to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And they are in the church, huh? Look what it says back up here
in verse 25. Look what it says here. It says,
Christ loved the church. Christ loved them. Christ loved
these people. He loves the church. And look
what else it says. He gave himself for it. Gave
himself for his people. Down in verse 25. 26 and here's
what he does. He loved the church, gave himself
for it that he might sanctify it. I mean sanctifies his people,
sets them apart, cleanses them. And how does he cleanse them?
And I'm going to tell you something. This cleansing of the washing
of water by the word, that's how God cleanses us and purifies
us and saves us all the time. by taking this precious Word,
and He washes us. You know, when Lazarus was raised
from the dead, He said, Loose him and let him go. This is what
happens to us. We often come to services. We
come weak, we come discouraged, we come wore out, we come with
things on our mind, and with things we've thought, said, and
done. Well, how does God deal with us? He takes this Word,
and washes us with it, cleanses us with it, and, oh, ain't it
a wonderful thing to come in here and God take your mind,
and it's all over the place all day long, and He takes that mind
and just starts washing it, taking the world out of it, taking your
worries out of it, taking your fears out of it, taking your
troubles out of it, taking all them things that you've been
through today, He just starts washing them out. Ain't you grateful
He does that, huh? oh boy and then he said he's
going to present it going to present it let me tell you something
else about all that are in this glorious church every single
one of them have several things in common have several things
in common now they may have lived in different generations may
have lived in different generations there's people here that lived
in a different generation than I did. And some of you younger
folks, you're gonna live in a different generation than I am. Live in
different generations, may come from different countries, have
different names, have all different lifestyles, all great big difference
in them. But you know what? Every single
one of them been born again. No matter where they're from,
what generation they're in, whether they're from from the World War
II generation, Vietnam generation, or the Gen X, or whatever they
call these people today. I mean, ever, no matter when,
or where, or what, every single one of them's been born again
by the same Spirit. And I tell you, beloved, in this
glorious church, every one of them, here's something I know
for sure, every single one of them confessed their sin. Nobody,
not one of them doesn't confess their sin. How many times, how
often do you reckon we confess our sin? How many times do we
say, Lord, forgive me. Lord, I'm sorry. And when you
get up here and you pray, you men who pray, you say, Lord,
forgive us our sin. Forgive me of the sin of pride,
self-righteousness. Oh, my soul. And I tell you what,
they all confess their sin. They all have repentance toward
God. And here's the thing about repentance.
Repentance is not done just once. And confession of sin is not
done just once. Once God works in you, you're
continually confessing and you're continually repenting. It's a
state of mind, it's a state of heart, it's a state of being.
Ain't that right? But ain't you thankful? Ain't
you thankful that our Lord Jesus Christ takes us just like we
are? And not only that, but they all
believe, every single one of them believe that Christ the
Lord Jesus is the only Redeemer. There's no other. Mary's not
involved in it. The church's not involved in
it. A preacher's not involved in it. The only Redeemer is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who has the
price. He's the only one who had the
power. He's the only one who had the
willingness. He's the only one that God appointed
to this position. And I'll tell you what, they
all, every single one of these people in this glorious church,
they all draw their faith from one book. They all draw their
faith from one book. Huh? That's the Bible. That's
where we get our faith at. Where do we get our faith at?
We get it from here in the gospel. God brought us the gospel and
we draw our faith from one book, the Bible. Listen, this blessed,
blessed book, there's not another book like it on the face of the
earth. Not another one like it. And I tell you what, we cherish
it and we find out what it has to say to us, we believe it.
If it reproves us, we're reproved. If it corrects us, we're corrected.
If it shows us what Christ done for it, we believe it. We draw
our faith from this blessed book. When we read this book, we read
about Christ, we read about ourselves, we read about God, we read about
our needs, we read about our experiences. There's a poor old
fella today, he's been pretty sick, and I was talking to him,
and he said he's had a catheter for a long time, they took it
out, and I said, I said, boy, I said, you know, man that's
born of a woman is a few days and full of troubles. He said,
boy, ain't that the truth. I said, what would a man do if
he didn't have faith in Christ? If he didn't have faith in Christ,
whether he's up or whether he's down, whether he's sick or whether
he's well, whether he's got money or whether he don't, whether
he's in a hospital bed or sitting in a church pew, if he didn't
have Christ, then all he'd have is troubles. But oh, we've got
him. We've got him. And I'll tell
you what. We draw our faith from one book,
the Bible, and all of these people in this glorious, glorious church
worship the true and the living God, not a false God, not another
God, but the true. and live in God. Our Lord Jesus,
they asked Him about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and He said,
God's not a God of the dead. God's not a God of the dead.
He's the God of the living. They said, our father Abraham's
dead. He said, no, he's not. God's not a God of the dead.
He's the God of the living. Every soul, He's God of the living,
and everybody that's associated with Him and knows Him and is
saved by Him, they live by Him. Oh, we trust the true and living
God. And I heard a preacher say the
other day that men, men would much rather, much rather worship
a false god as worship the true God. and they'll turn from the
true and living God. And you go through the scriptures
and you'll find that's true. What did Israel do? What did
Israel do? They got up to the Red Sea and
they said, oh, let us go back, let us go back. And then they
got across the Red Sea and Moses went up on the mountain. And
they said, where in the world this fellow Moses go? We don't
know where in the world he's going, what he's going to do?
And we need a God. me a gold. Gave him his gold.
Threw it in the fire and he said, I'll give you a golden calf. Moses up there talking to the
true and living God and he's down there dancing around a golden
calf. Oh my. And here's another thing about
the people in this glorious church. They all love Christ. Every one of them love Christ
and love one another in this glorious church. They love Christ
and they love one another. They really truly do. And they
all desire to walk honestly, walk upright, and walk in the
truth. They want to walk upright, they
want to walk honestly, and they want to walk in the truth. Live
in the truth, walk in the truth, and believe the truth. And every
single one of them in this glorious church, they're all indwelt by
the same Spirit. He said, if any man have not
the Spirit of Christ, he said, he's none of his. And you've
all been baptized into one body by the Spirit. All baptized into
Christ by the Spirit. And let me tell you something
else about in this glorious church. First of all, they're all saved
by grace through faith. They've all been chosen of God.
They're God's elect. They have so much in common.
But all that are in this glorious church, not only do they have
several things in common, but all who are in this church possess. Now listen to me. I believe this
with all my heart. They all in this church possess
true unity. And what makes us to have our
unity? What causes our unity? We're
every one of us different. We're every one of us got different
personalities, different likes and dislikes, different natures,
different constitutions. We all know that. So how in the
world do we have true unity? It has to be through a person.
It has to be through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only
way you can have unity. You know, that's why you can
go to different places and feel right at home because you're
one in Christ. You have this unity in Christ.
I'm going to go down to Texas and preach. I haven't been down
there in a long time. But I'm going to go down there and I'm
going to feel it all. And I'll have union with those
people, so I'll be in unity with those people. down there because
we have unity, not because we belong to a sovereign grace churches,
or not because we are Calvinist, not that reason, we have unity
through a person, through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our
unity as a person. And I'll tell you, they're united
in truth. They're united by the truth.
And there's three things, let me tell you, three absolutes
that ever, this makes us all unified right here, all these
three truths. Absolute truth. God's absolutely
sovereign. He brooks no rivals. He does
according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and no man can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? He said, I have purposed it,
and so shall it come to pass. He declared the end from the
beginning, saying, all my counsel shall stand. He works all things
after the counsel of his own will. And man, man is an absolute
sinner. Born in sin, shaping in iniquity,
lives in sin. His nature's sin, his daddy's
sin, his mother's sin, his heart's sin, his mind's sin. He is a
sinner, absolutely so. You can't find a good spot on
a human being nowhere. apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
You can't do it. You can't turn your hand for
the difference in anybody in this world except what God made
of the difference. And here's the third absolute.
Christ is an absolute Savior, no other. Now see, where do we
find that unity at? In the Lord Jesus Christ. In
God, in our state before God, and how Christ makes us acceptable
in God. Huh? Oh my, there's nobody, nobody. We kiss the hand of God's providence
every day, no matter what it brings our way. And I tell you,
man is just, if God don't do something for him. But oh, look
what it says over here in Ephesians 4.3. Talking about our unity. United in the truth. United in
the truth and by the truth. And you know that's what unites
us. This blessed truth that's in our person. Our personalities
don't unite us. Our likes and dislikes don't
unite us. But look what he says. Endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. They want this. They want this. All of us want peace. But we
don't want peace at the expense of truth. We won't give up the
truth to have peace. No, no. And they know this, that
are in this glorious church. They know that it's the spirit
that quickens, that the flesh profits nothing. This flesh profits
nothing. And I've asked you this before.
What in the world is your flesh ever done for you in the sight
of God? What's it contributed to your
salvation? What's your flesh, your old nature? What's this body, this flesh?
What's it contributed to your salvation? Nothing but hindrance. Oh, wretched man that I am. That's
what we have to say. And they know that the spirit
quickens, that this flesh absolutely profits zero. And they value,
here's another thing about them, they value God's word. Oh, how
they value God's word. If it has something to say, they're
not afraid to say it. And if it doesn't have something
to say about a particular subject, they don't say anything about
that subject. If it's silent, we're silent.
If it speaks, we're not afraid to speak. We take God's blessed
word as it comes to us. We value it. It's precious to
us. And I'll tell you another thing about this glorious church.
They're united in the worship of God, in the worship of God. And they aim, aim for God's glory. We aim for God's glory. Look
over here in Philippians 1.27. Oh, they're united in worship,
and they aim for God's glory. You know, God is Spirit. We worship
Him in Spirit. But look what He says here at
Philippians 1.27. Only let your conversation, let your manner
of life be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether
I come and see you or else be absent, and I may hear of your
affairs, what's going on, That you stand fast in one spirit,
with one mind, striving together, striving together, aiming together,
pushing together, pulling together. For what? For the faith of the
gospel. That's what we're doing. Striving
together for that. Colossians 1 and 2. Look over
in Colossians chapter 1. Excuse me, chapter 2, verses
1 and 2. Look what he says here. He's talking to the Colossians,
you know. He's talking about we're united
in worship. of God and aim for God's glory.
For I would that you knew what great conflict or care and fear
that I have for you. Oh, I had conflict over you.
I had fear for you. I had care for you. And for them
at Laodicea, and for as many has not seen my face in the flesh,
even those who have never seen me don't know me. And this is
the conflict I have for them, and this is what I want for them.
that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love."
Oh my. Knit together. Everybody knows
what knitting is. Put it all together. Just let
them all be knit together in love. And, oh, and to all riches
of the full assurance of understanding. And when you've brought there
and your hearts knit in love, and you brought to the full assurance
of understanding, then you acknowledge The mystery of God and of the
Father and of Christ. Oh my. All right, let me tell
you another thing about being in this glorious church. Being
in this glorious church that Christ gonna present to himself.
All who are in this church, this glorious church, every single
one of them shall endure to the end and not one of them shall
perish. Not one of them. Every single
one of them will endure to the end. Not one of them will ever
perish. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I
give unto them eternal life. And you know what He said? They'll
never perish. They'll never perish. There never
will be a time that they won't be. Why won't they be? Because
they're united to Me. I saved them by My grace. I washed
them in My blood. And I tell you, I want you to
see something in Hebrews 10.38. You know, Paul said that we're
persuaded that neither life, you know, Nothing, nothing shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ.
Nothing, nothing, nothing. I was out at Lowe's the other
day and seen a fellow out there. Him and his wife used to come
here and come here for quite a while. One day they never showed
up again. Same, he's always friendly and
always talk with him. But they just come and they decided
it wasn't for them. They just quit. But man, if we
quit the gospel, what are we going to do? Where are we going
to go? And oh, look what he said here in Hebrews 10. Nothing,
nothing shall separate us from the love of God's in Christ.
Look what he said in verse 38, Hebrews 10. Now the just, those
justified by Christ, shall live by faith. They gonna live by
faith. Those that's been justified by
Christ, justified by faith, those who believe Christ. Now the just
shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, draw
back, walk away from Christ, walk away from the gospel. My
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But now listen to this,
but we are not of them. We are not of them who draw back
unto perdition or to damnation. We don't draw back unto perdition.
Who are we then? But we're of them who believe
to the saving of the soul. Hebrews 11, 13 says, these all
died in faith. Ah, Paul said, I've kept the
faith. I finished my course. And I want to show you this,
and I'm going to try to wind it up. Isaiah 49, Isaiah 49,
talking about all of them who are in Christ. They'll never in this glorious
church, they'll ever one of them shall endure. You just think,
you think yourself what you have been through in your life. Some
of you been here a long time and look what you've been through
in your life. Some of you not very old and look at the things
you've been through and you think, boy how in the world I get through
that? I know how you got through it, God got you through it. And
he gonna get you through every single one of them. He ain't
no, he's, they gonna, you know, We're gonna, they're gonna endure,
they're gonna keep on. Look what he said here in Isaiah
49 and verse 14. But Zion said, or the church
said, the Lord hath forsaken me, my Lord hath forgotten me. Wait a minute. Can a woman forget
her sucking child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee. Whoa, how come he won't forget
it? Behold, I've craven thee on upon
the palms of my hands. Simon Peter said, I'm not going
to believe unless I see the print in his nail and be able to stick
my finger in it, put my hand in his sides. Our Lord stood
up and said, Simon, reach hither your hand. And that's what he
says. I've craven thee upon the palms
of my hand. Thy walls, what I've got around
you, the walls I've put around you are continually there. Oh,
we're going to all be enduring and never perish. We're going
to die in the faith. And last, let me give you this.
All who in this church have part in the first resurrection and
the marriage supper of the Lamb, and they're going to enjoy the
spiritual glory of God's Son throughout eternity. Over in
Isaiah, I think it's Revelation 26, I think it says, Blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. and
the second death shall have no hold on it. And beloved, we've
been raised with Christ, and that's where our first resurrection's
at. And let me close with this. Are you a member of this church?
Are you a member of this glorious church that Christ is going to
present to Himself? When He sets down this church,
He's going to be brought in, and He's going to present it
to Himself. Not having spot, not having wrinkle, not having
blemish, are you a member of this church? The church's one
foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is His by new creation,
by water and by blood. From heaven He came and sought
her to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought
her and for her life He died. Elect from every nation, yet
one voice over all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses partakes
one holy God, and two, one hope she presses with every grace
anew.