It's a long, long drive from
here to Rescue California. And my wife and I have been living
out of a suitcase for 19 days. And we're still civil, must be
love. And we've still got eight or nine more days before we get
back home. Depending on when our great-granddaughter
comes into this world, our granddaughter Jodi, Judeen's daughter, is due
today. And I am surprised that my wife
came with me. And I was so fearful we were
going to get a call on the way here saying she's gone into the
hospital. And I don't know what I would
have done if I didn't want a divorce. I'd probably turn around. But
it didn't happen. We didn't get that call. And so the Lord's
timing, I loved what Pastor Donnie Bell told me over the phone,
he said, when the apple gets ripe, it falls from a tree. And
that's so true. When it's God's timing, that
baby's going to come into this world. I'm thankful to be here.
And I know I speak on behalf of my wife when she says she's
thankful to be here, too. And I think you're right. These
are two or three years since we've been here. But what a delight
and what an honor. And I do not take this lightly.
Thank you, Brother Don, for inviting me to your pulpit. I know you
wouldn't allow anybody here, and so I'm honored, deeply honored,
and I pray the Lord will give me grace to preach His gospel. I want to start in Ephesians
chapter 4. In Ephesians chapter 4, if you
would turn there with me, please. And let me ask you, A couple of questions while you're
turning there. Is salvation by chance, by works,
by free will? We know absolutely not. No to all of the above. The salvation
of God's elect is according to the eternal purpose of our God,
who planned and executed all of what takes place in time,
and the salvation of his chosen people, was the purpose for creating
everything. And so salvation is not by chance. We read in 2 Timothy 1.9 that
God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And I
don't know how people can read that and still say, well, it's
my free will. But they do. One lady told one of the members
of our church, don't take away my free will. There's no such
thing as free will anyway. Our will is bound by our nature.
And as long as we are still in that old Adamic nature without
being made partakers of the divine nature, that will is bound by
that old nature. Anyway, look at Ephesians 4 starting
at verse 4, if you will, please. The Word of God says, There is
one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope
of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. And I just wanted to start there.
And Brother Don and Shirley and my wife and I have been talking
about the blessings of being in the fellowship of the saints
and how we hate when someone gets bent out of shape over some
little something or another and causes them to want to cause
problems within the body? Well, on the authority of God's
Word, if we all have the same Heavenly Father, and every enlightened
child of God does, if we all have the same blessed Holy Spirit
dwelling in us, which also every enlightened child of God does,
and we have the same faith, And we will endeavor to keep the
unity of the faith and the bond of peace. This is what God's
people do. We love one another. We don't
want problems. We overlook faults. I look in
the mirror, and I don't like what I see. But I look to Christ
like we were reading in the scriptures. And I love what I see in Him.
So I want us to just have this in our mind as I look at a passage
of Scripture in 1 Timothy 1, that we have the same Father,
the same Blessed Spirit, the same faith. So salvation, God's
salvation, will bless every enlightened child of God the same way. And we will have some things
in common that relate to the conversion of the Apostle Paul.
And he said in 1 Timothy 1, he was writing to Timothy, starting
at verse 15, he said, This is a faithful saying, and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. And I've said this before, it
bears repeating, the church is the only tribe where everybody's
chief. We all feel that way. We all feel like we're the chief
of sinners. And we know we are. But we're sinners saved by the
grace of God. And we love to give Him all the
praise and all the glory. And Paul says, Howbeit for this
cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might
show forth all longsuffering for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. So Saul of Tarsus
was a pattern. A sketch for imitation is what
the word pattern means. To all believers, all who believe
on Jesus Christ to life everlasting, Paul was that pattern. Was Paul
seeking Jesus Christ when the Lord saved him on the Damascus
road? Absolutely not, neither were we. There's none that seeketh
after God. None. Paul, when he was Saul
of Tarsus, came to Jesus Christ not by something that he had
done, but by the irresistible drawing power of God the Holy
Spirit. And I know, and you know also,
that he saw Jesus Christ with the physical eyes and blinded
him for three days, he said, when I could not see for the
glory of that light. And he heard the audible voice
of Jesus Christ. But those were qualifications
for an apostle, which I believe Paul was the apostle that took
the place of Jesus Iscariot. And so, we don't see the Lord
Jesus with our physical eyes. No man can live, except Paul
did. I don't know how to explain that.
But anyway, we don't hear the audible voice. I hear some say
they do. But I hear their message and
they don't hear the voice that I've heard. But Paul saw Jesus
Christ with an eye of faith also. And he heard Jesus Christ speak
to his heart inwardly also. And that's the pattern. All of
us, all of God's people see the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ by God-given faith. We hear His voice speaking to
our hearts. And if we have the same Father
which we read in Ephesians 4, the same Spirit, the same faith,
then we'll delight in these truths that give Him all the praise
and all the glory. Saying that once I was blind,
but now I see. Once I was deaf, but now I hear. Once I had no love for Jesus
Christ or His Gospel or His people, but He put that love in my heart. Now I love Him and I love His
Gospel and I love His people. Well, what do I attribute to
this change that has come over me? God's grace and His mercy
through the merits of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Now
turn to Acts 22, if you will. If Saul was a pattern, a sketch
for imitation to those who are true believers in Jesus Christ
and the Word of God says He was, then spiritually speaking, His
personal testimony that we're going to look at here in Acts
22, we'll be able to identify with these things. We'll have
some spiritual understanding of what Paul is saying. Now,
He had just been rescued delivered from a group of unbelieving self-righteous
Jews who would have killed him if God had not sent the Roman
soldiers there to rescue him, rescue Paul from that angry mob. Now, it was not God's will for
them to kill Saul of Tarsus. They know that because He was
going to Rome, and God told him he was going to go to Rome, and
witness for him at Rome, and he was there, I know, for over
three years in his own hired house. So, it was the Lord who
sent those soldiers to rescue Paul, and it was according to
his predetermined will. But Paul is giving his testimony,
he had been arrested by the Roman soldiers and was being led into
the castle, or that garrison where the Roman soldiers met,
And Paul asked permission to speak to that mob that just tried
to kill him. You know, that's a manifestation
of the love of Paul. His heart's desire was that his
kinsmen might be saved. He said, I bear them record that
they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They're
going about trying to establish their own righteousness and have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of Christ.
And Paul was there. He knew what they were going
through. love in his heart that they might be saved. And so he's
asked permission to speak to them. And he got that permission. And starting at verse 1 of Acts
22, speaking to those unbelieving Jews, he said, Men, brethren
and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now unto you. And
when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them,
they kept the more silence, and he said, I am very a man which
am a Jew, born in Tarsus, the city of Cilicia, yet brought
up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according
to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous
toward God, as ye all are this day. And I persecuted this way
unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
as also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the
estate of the elders from whom also I received letters unto
the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring them which were there,
bound unto Jerusalem for to be punished. And it came to pass
that as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about
noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about
me." Now once again, he was not seeking Christ. He had a mad
desire to destroy Christianity. Now let me just throw something
at you that you might not have ever considered and maybe you
have. The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 wrote these words. He said, I have not known sin,
except the law said thou shalt not covet. Well, I'll guarantee
you when he left this spot on the Damascus Road and was led
by those who were with him into Damascus because he couldn't
see, he knew sin then. He knew that he had persecuted
Jesus Christ when he persecuted his church. Well, when was it
that He knew sin. I personally believe Paul was
already convicted by God the Holy Spirit when he heard Stephen
preach, or maybe some of those Christians that he had persecuted. Something was working in his
heart. Had to have been the Holy Spirit
because the natural man doesn't know sin. He'll admit that he's
done a few wrong things, but he will never, an unregenerate
man or woman will never admit that they're a genuine, bona
fide, hell-deserving, ill-deserving sinner. And Paul was convicted. That's the work of God the Holy
Spirit. Is that not right? Only God can convict of sin and
righteousness and judgment. That's the work of the Holy Spirit
to prepare us. To prepare us for the Christ
of God who loved us and gave himself for us. So I believe
Paul's heart was prepared And he said in verse 7, when he saw
this light brighter than the noonday sun, I fell onto the
ground and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? He knew that was the Lord because
he answered and said, Who art thou, Lord? He just didn't know
the Lord Jesus, but he knew that voice was from heaven and he
knew that was God's voice. And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And remember, he's giving his
testimony before some unbelieving Jews. And they're listening. They're paying attention. And
he's preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He's declaring
the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And we read in verse 9 where
the Scripture says, And they that were with me saw indeed
the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him
that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do,
Lord?" Now he has an attitude adjustment, wouldn't you say?
He said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise,
and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all
things which are appointed for thee to do. Now this is interesting.
And this just confirms what all of God's preachers know to be
true. God has ordained men. as those instruments who will
bring the gospel of His grace before those that the Lord is
pleased to bring under our preaching. Our Lord could have told him
what Ananias is going to tell him, but He ordained Ananias
to be the instrument, the ordained preacher, to bring the gospel
to Paul, Saul of Tarsus. Read on, verse 11 says, When
I could not see For the glory of that light, being led by the
hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. And one
Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, having a good report
of all the Jews which dwelt there." And I believe many in that mob
of unbelieving Jews would have heard and known of Ananias. And so Paul is giving his testimony
of a man who had been proven to be devout, who came to him.
In verse 13, he said, He came unto me, and stood, and said
unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour I
looked up upon him. So God restored His sight to
him when Ananias was sent to speak to Paul. And that's a different
subject altogether. But look at this. Look at verse
14. This is what I want you to see. Ananias said to Saul of
Tarsus in verse 14, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee,
that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one,
and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth." Now God is my
Father. I have received the Spirit of
adoption. That was predetermined by God. We had some people in
our congregation years ago who didn't last very long, three
or four months though, they stayed longer than most. And then they
left and went to some of our members and tried to get them
to turn away from the preacher down there at Rescue Baptist
Church. And here's the reason they gave, that man believes
in predestination. Well, you know, I've been predestinated
to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. I kind of like
that. Don't you? I like predestination. And I was predestinated under
the adoption of the Son. So God is my Father. And He's
your Father too. And He sends the Spirit of His
Son into our hearts. And we all know what the ministry
of the Holy Spirit is. It's to take the things of Christ
and reveal them to us. And so if God is the one who
sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, and that's the ministry
of God, the Holy Spirit, then it's God's will that we would
have the things of Christ revealed to us. And we'll thank our Father
in heaven for divine revelation. So we read, first of all, the
God of our fathers, which would be the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, the same God who worked in the hearts of all of the Old
Testament saints. We have the same God. He's the
same God. He's the same with all of His
children. And He is the one who lets us
know that He has chosen us. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. They saved a wretch like me. The Word of God says He chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And people say,
oh, that's for people who are mature in the faith. Paul's not
very old in the faith right here. He's a babe in Christ. He's three
days old. I was talking to some folks here
some years ago, and they thought election was strong. I said,
I don't believe that. I know the Bible teaches that
strong meat belongs to those who are of a full age. But you
know what I believe strong meat is? Hang on. God's going to put anyone
He wants to in the White House this November. We don't have a very good...
I'm sorry. My Lord Jesus raises them up
and He puts them down. Everything that happens in time
was predetermined by God before time began for the glory of Jesus
Christ my Lord and my Savior. That's strong means. It might
be a tornado that comes through and rips houses from their foundations
or a hurricane that just destroys one of the coastlines. or an
earthquake out in California. I tell people that California's
got a lot of falls, but I'll put up with that for a little
tornadoes and hurricanes. But anyway, God's in control
of all of that. That's strong meat. But He chooses
His people, and every babe in Christ should know that. This
is the work of God the Father. He chose us in Christ before
this world began. Our Lord Jesus said, You have
not chosen me, but I've chosen you. I believe that, don't you?
And so the God of our fathers had chosen thee, and Paul was
chosen unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. And that just simply means that
when God saves someone, it's through the Holy Spirit making
that person holy, setting us aside as God's holy vessels under
the preaching of the truth, not under preaching of lies, under
the preaching of truth. God's not saving anybody under
preaching of lies. God has chosen us that we should
know His will. Let me take you back to John
chapter 6. Did Paul know God's will in all things? Absolutely
not. As a matter of fact, in one of
his missionary journeys, He tried to go in two different directions
and the Holy Spirit wouldn't let him until it was revealed
to him that God was sending him over into, he had that Macedonia
call over to Philippi. So Paul didn't know God's will
in all things, but he knew God's will in salvation. And he knew
it was not man's will because Under divine inspiration, he
wrote these words, quoting God's words to Moses, God will have
mercy on whom he will have mercy. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
So Paul knew a little bit about God's will and salvation, and
so do we. There's a passage of Scripture
in 2 Peter, that has been thrown in my face I don't know how many
times. God is not willing that any should
perish. That's not the whole verse. But they want to hang on to just
a few words because they don't want you to take away their free
will. Peter wrote under divine inspiration, the Lord is not
slack concerning His promise. as some men count slackness,
but as longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance." And just in a few verses down
below that, he said that the longsuffering of God is salvation. Well, here's a parallel passage
to what Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3, 9, starting at verse 37 of
John chapter 6. We read, and our Lord himself
speaking, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I came
down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me." So this is playing as far as God's will and salvation. Our Father gave Him a people,
gave His Son a people. wrote our names in the Lamb's
Book of Life before this world was ever created, promised us
to His darling Son. That promise was in the eternal
covenant of grace made to Jesus Christ by God the Father, conditional
upon what Jesus Christ would do. And here our Lord Jesus tells
us that All of those that the Father had given Him would come
to Him, because He came down from heaven, not to do His will,
but the will of Him that sent Me. And verse 39 says, And this
is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He
hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And that's what Peter was saying in 2 Peter 3.9.
Same thing. We compare spiritual with spiritual.
I did scripture with scripture. I tell, and believe me, I want
to be loving if I can, but sometimes it's difficult. But I like to
tell folks, do you believe this? And if they
say, yes, I say, well, let me show you something. If they say,
no, I don't believe it's all inspired, I say, well, I have
no No debate with you. I don't have any argument with
you. Your argument is with God, not with me. Because I believe
this is the Word of God from cover to cover. Don't you all
believe that? I believe that. I don't understand it all. Any
man tells you he does, he's a liar. If you lie about that, you'll
lie about anything. But I believe it all. Like one preacher said,
I believe the cover is genuine cowhide. This is God's Word.
And our Lord Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. That's an imperative. They shall. And him that cometh to me I will
no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the will of him that sent me, that of all which he
hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the
last day. And I like that. That's God's Word and that's
speaking to me. And this is what Ananias was
saying to Paul, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that
thou shouldest know his will. And I get so excited when God
is pleased to reveal that to somebody under my preaching.
I know that's the Lord's doings. I can't reveal it. Brother Narnell
can't reveal it. But God can. And we just delight
in what God does. This is God's will that all of
those who were given to Christ would come to Him. And if that's
God's will, they're going to come. Who's going to stop Him? Who's going to stop God from
doing what He has purposed? And as long as my Savior is on
His throne, and He is, He's going to make sure that all of those
that were given to Him in the eternal covenant of grace And
He ratified that covenant with His own precious blood. He met
all the conditions of the eternal covenant of grace. When you quoted
that scripture where He said it is finished, that's exactly
what He meant. The work of redemption was done.
Our Lord Jesus did not try to redeem His people. He obtained
eternal redemption for us. He didn't try to save me. He
saved me back at Calvary 2,000 years ago. I just didn't know
anything about it until the Holy Spirit revealed that to me. And
when He revealed that to me and the light came on, I actually
couldn't believe it. Anybody couldn't believe it if
I just read it to them out of the Scriptures. But it didn't
make any difference to them. I found out in a quick hurry
that if they're blind, they're blind. If they're dead, they're
dead. And they're not going to believe until God the Holy Spirit
opens their blind eyes, raises them from that state of spiritual
death, and brings them into a living union with Jesus Christ the Lord. Have you ever experienced somebody
looking you in the face and saying to you, I don't believe that. I just can't believe that. And
they're telling the truth. They just can't believe that.
Let me take you over to Hebrews 10. We're on this subject of
God's will. One more passage in respect to
that. And I know this is going to bless
you if you have the same Father that I have, the same Spirit
that I have, Paul was a pattern that all who believe on Jesus
Christ would be a sketch of imitation. And if he believed what he wrote,
and I believe he wrote the book of Hebrews, and he was a pattern,
this is going to bless you. Look at verse 9 of Hebrews 10. Then said he, Our Lord speaking,
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. That old covenant of works, which
all unregenerate people are under, and there's a curse in that covenant.
Our Lord did away with that covenant of works for his people. and
He established the new covenant. Now the new covenant is actually
the everlasting covenant, but it's new to us because we hear
it fresh and new, and every time I hear it, it blesses me. So
our Lord tells us that He did away with that old covenant of
works for us and established the covenant of grace. And in
verse 10, We read, by the which will. Now, we're talking about
God's will. And Paul knew God's will on the
salvation. And we do too, if God has enlightened
us, by the which will. This is God's will. He sent the
Lord Jesus Christ to do His will. And our Lord said, I come to
do Thy will by the which will. We are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. It's the
Holy Spirit who sanctifies us. But Jesus Christ sanctified us
at Calvary 2,000 years ago. That is, He made us holy in God's
sight 2,000 years ago. By His offering, He offered Himself. By His one offering, He made
all of His chosen people just as holy as God Himself. You all
believe that? Well, I know it sounds too good
to be true, but that's what the Word of God says. Look down at
verse 14. For by one offering, For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." Oh, I love the truth, don't you?
I love the Gospel. I love what God reveals to His
people, which gives Jesus Christ all the glory for our sanctification
and for our holiness before Him and our righteousness before
Him. Everything Everything that a hell-deserving sinner needs
to take us out of that awful pit that God found us in, all
the way to glory where we rejoice in the perfect redeeming work
of Jesus Christ, everything we need is found in Jesus Christ
and only in Jesus Christ. This is God's will. God's will
is in all of those who were chosen in Christ and redeemed by Christ,
would come to Him, giving Him all the praise and all the glory
for this unspeakable gift, eternal life through Christ our Savior.
Now let me take you over to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. How much more time? I've probably
run out of time. Go over to John chapter 10. Ananias
told the Apostle, Paul, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee,
that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one. And see that just one. Paul saw Jesus Christ, who is
the just one. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. And He condescended to come to
this world and take upon him a body of flesh, mantled himself
with a human body. When he was born of a virgin,
and they laid him in that manger just as an infant, God commanded
all the angels, all the elect angels, to worship Jesus Christ. I confess before you this evening,
Jesus Christ is my Lord and my God. and Paul saw him on the
Damascus Road. And I've seen him. I've seen
Jesus Christ through the eye of faith. I've seen him as a
man of sorrows acquainted with grief. I've seen him through
the eye of faith as a man who was hated without a cause. I
read in the scriptures where they blindfolded him and smote
him in the face, spit upon him, said, prophesy, tell us who it
is that smoked thee. I've seen him in that humiliation. Through the eye of faith, I've
seen him let up Calvary's mountain. I see him hanging there on that
cross suspended between heaven and earth as my substitute, enduring
the wrath of God that you just read about. I see him taking
my place. despising the shame of that,
but knowing that I could not be with Him for all eternity
if He did not go through that awful, enduring death of the
cross, suffering the unmitigated wrath of God the Father for me. I see Him through the eye of
faith, taking care of my sin dead and full, but I also See
Him through the eye of faith. High and lifted up. Seated at
the right hand of the Father on high. I see Him on His sovereign
throne of power. Ruling over this whole universe
and everything in it. I see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. And we read in the scriptures
in 2 Corinthians where God is the one who commands the light
to shine in our hearts. that we might see, that we might
have this light of knowledge, that we might see the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is by faith. And God's preachers
love to preach this. But we must hear His voice. God must speak to the heart.
He must make us aware, just as He did with the Apostle Paul,
that we're sinful from top to bottom, deserving of nothing
but God's wrath. When he strips us, then he has
made us ready to hear the voice of Jesus Christ speaking to our
heart, telling us, you're mine, I purchased you. I paid the price
in full for your sins. My blood has cleansed you from
every spot and stain. Come to Me. Come unto Me. All ye that labor and every laden,
I will give you rest. He speaks to us in a way that
we cannot deny the voice of Jesus Christ. We hear Him. And this
is what we're reading here in John 10, starting at verse 24. Then came the Jews round about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and ye believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Now He didn't say, you're not
My sheep because you don't believe. He said, you believe now because
you're not of My sheep. God's Word teaches plainly His
sovereign, distinguishing grace. Amen? There are sheep and there
are goats. God is not in the business of
changing goats into sheep. He's seeking His lost sheep. And I was one of them, and I'm
so thankful. So He told those unbelieving
Jews, you believe not because you're not My sheep. But look
at verse 27. My sheep hear My voice. He did
not say, I hope they'll hear. He did not say, if they will
pray, please give Me permission. I hate that kind of blasphemy. He said, My sheep hear My voice.
He's going to make sure that we hear His voice. When the Holy
Spirit quickens a hell-deserving sinner and prepares us to hear
the gospel, and we by faith embrace that, we've heard the life-giving
voice of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior. And He says this,
and I know them, He knows His sheep, or He should. They were promised to Him before
a star ever twinkled in the sky. He knows every one of His sheep
by name. He calls us by name. He knows us in a way that cannot
be put into words. He knows us intimately. When
He said to Joseph, don't be afraid to take Mary to be your wife,
that which is being formed in her is of the Holy Spirit. And
Joseph took Mary to be his wife, but he knew her not until after
the Christ child was born. And that's the same way. He knew her not. He did know
her, but he didn't know her intimately. Jesus Christ loves His people
with an everlasting love, and with loving kindness He draws
us unto Himself. So He says, My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them is
greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. We've got a, I don't
know how to put it, Double security, we're in Christ and we're in
God the Father. We're as sure of heaven as if
we're already there. And that's a blessing, isn't
it? I got that from Henry Mayhem. That's good. That's what's worth
sharing. What a gospel. Can I give you one more thought?
Go back to Acts 22. I promise I'll wrap this up.
I know I'm probably taking more time than I should, but you know,
I didn't get to preach last Sunday. I did get to hear Brother Chris
Cunningham preach. That was a blessing. I just sat
there and soaked it up. But I didn't get to preach, and
so I'm going to take a little more of your time. If you don't
mind, just bear with me just a little bit. And I've gotten
completely away from my notes. That's all right. I'll put them
up. In Acts 22, Paul was preaching to some unbelieving Jews, and
they put up with him all the way through this personal testimony until he got to a certain point. Starting
at verse 20 of Acts 22, we read, Paul saying, When the blood of
thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting
unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.
I think that's when he might have been convicted by God, the
Holy Spirit, of sin. Verse 21 though, he says, And
He, the Lord Jesus, said to Paul, Depart, for I will send thee
far hence unto the Gentiles. Now look at their response. And
they gave him audience unto this word, and lifted up their voices,
and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not
fit that he should live. And as they cried out and cast
off their clothes, they threw dust into the air." They were
so angry. They were so upset. There wasn't
any rocks there in the courtyard. They were grabbing hold of anything
and just going into a rage. Why is that? Paul destroyed their false hope.
If a Gentile could be saved without being proselyted into the Jewish
religion, without being circumcised, without being under the law of
Moses, where did that leave them? They were undone. They were undone. And they got angry. Well, I leave
you with this. That same response will be seen
in the lives of those false religionists. They might put up with you for
a while when you're giving your testimony. They'll amen when
you talk about Christ dying for you at Calvary. They'll amen
when you tell them you believe in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ and He's on His throne in glory. They'll amen a lot
of things that you tell them. But if you say to them, your
baptism has nothing to do with salvation, you watch them get
angry. If you tell them church affiliation has nothing to do
with God saving His people, you're not going to glory because you
meet on Saturday. It's not your decision. It's
not your free will. The grace of God is through Jesus
Christ and only through Jesus Christ. And He bestows His grace
and His mercy on His chosen people. And they will delight. They will
delight in what Jesus Christ has done for us. And we will
be thankful that He destroyed our false hope. But that won't
be the case in those unbelievers out there who are trusting in
something that they have done. I've seen the veins on the side
of the neck almost burst because people get so angry when you
step on their self-righteous religious toes. But God's people,
those who are enlightened by God the Holy Spirit, those who
know that God is our Father, those who have the same Holy
Spirit, who have the same faith, We humble ourselves before our
Maker and thank Him and praise Him for choosing us in Christ
before the foundation of the world, for making His will known
to us in salvation, for giving us faith to see Jesus Christ
in all His glory, for giving us a heart that pants after Him and loves
Him with such love that we can't stay away from the Gospel. We've
got to hear it one more time. We've got to be with God's people
one more time. And I'm so thankful the Lord
has allowed me this honor of being with you folks this evening.
And may He be pleased to bless the truths of His Gospel for
the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior. Thank you.
God bless you folks. Oh, I enjoyed that. Oh, I enjoyed that very much. Very, very much. I enjoyed that very much.