Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you would and you wanna follow
along, I'm gonna be in the book of Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one, and I'm
just gonna read the first four verses. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love
which ye have to all the saints. And I'm just gonna stop right
there. I've got a couple of quotes here
I've run together from Charles Spurgeon. It is the whole business of the
whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world. I like that. But here's another
one most people don't know. There are in truth but two denominations
on this earth. the church, and the world. And that's it. I like that. I'm not gonna keep you long today,
and I'm not gonna say anything new today. All I've got's the
same old story, and I love it. And that old, old story is this.
Christ is all and in all. Even if you don't see it, if
you don't know it, and if you don't love it, I'm still gonna
say it. Christ is all. Christ is all. But here I wanna begin in verse
two. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are
at Colossae. This letter is written by the
Apostle Paul. And he says this letter is from
Paul and Timothy. It's addressed, and this is the
thing the world doesn't seem to understand, this is addressed
to the saints and faithful brethren at Colossae. That's who this
letter was written to. Now, I also say it was written
to us if we are saints and faithful brethren. If we're brothers and
sisters in Christ, if you are in Christ, this letter applies. However, let me say this. Saints are faithful. And the faithful are saints.
Faithful brethren are saints. You can't have one without the
other. You understand? I'm not going into it in any
detail. I got somewhere I need to go.
But this is something most professed Christians don't understand.
The Apostle Paul, in writing this letter, was not writing
to the lost. He was writing to the brethren.
He was writing to believers. That's who he was writing to.
And this is something that the world doesn't understand. The
Bible is not the light of the world. It's light for Christians,
for believers, true believers. It's the light of the church.
And what's he say? Grace be unto you, and peace
be unto you. It's not unto the world. Grace
and peace did come when Christ came. Good tidings of great joy,
you know. There's a Savior, but he's not
everyone's Savior. Christ the Lord. He is the Savior,
but he's not everyone's Savior. And he is the Lord, and he is
everyone's Lord, whether you know it or not. But that's another
thing. but grace is to you and peace
is to you, believers, the church of Christ that was at Colossae
and to us today because this epistle is written to believers
and this epistle is written for believers. The church of Christ
at Colossae and grace and peace come from God the Father in the
Lord Jesus Christ. to us who believe. Freely given
to the faithful saints by the source of all love and grace
and peace. Then Paul writes this beautiful
statement here. Verse three. We give thanks to
God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always
for you, for you, for you. We give thanks to God for you. The saints and faithful brethren
at Colossae. Paul thanks God for the saints
at Colossae. The faithful brethren in Christ
Jesus. And I'm gonna tell you something,
the prayers of the apostle are for the people of God. He says
it always, always for you, always. Thank God for his people. Thank God for his people. Thank
God for believers. The faithful brethren. Now, I'm gonna do that same thing
here today, if I can, in front of you. I wanna tell you, Now,
I know we're not all here, but it includes the ones that aren't
here for whatever reason. Not going into that, but this
assembly is my family. These are the people I want to
be with. I know we're spread out. And I know some of us got
jobs now. I don't, since I retired. But
I have other things I have to do. We are constrained, well,
to quote a very wise philosopher named Curley, I'm a victim of
circumstance. I am, and you are too. But I'm
gonna tell you something. I'd like to see more of you people,
I really would. I'd like to be around you more.
And one day, maybe we will, we'll see what's going on. But here's
the thing. I believe this assembly of saints,
and faithful brethren are at the Sovereign Grace Chapel. I
do believe that. I think back upon it. This assembly has been through
a lot of stuff. I'm not gonna go into a whole
lot of it, but we started out going on 40 years ago as two
separate assemblies. One at Browns Road down at Kellysville,
and one at Mabscot. And then we came together. And
thank God, since then we've never been apart. We've had people
come and we've had people go. I mean, you understand, the gospel
was preached in both places, Earl at Mabscot and Walter at
Kellysville. And here's the thing, it was
the same gospel, even then. 40 years ago. It doesn't seem
possible. God, I was young when we started
this stuff. It's amazing. I mean, to me,
even to think about it now. And I've known Walter, his family,
and the people from Mabscot for going on 40 years. And we're
still here. We're still here. Ah, you know,
I understand that's the grace of God in Christ Jesus for us. And now, the same gospel is preached,
the same Christ is preached. Folks, you're faithful brethren.
You're saints in Christ Jesus. And you're my brothers and sisters
in Christ. And I thank God for you. And
I said it, now people have come and people have gone. We have
lost many. In the words of Darryl McClung,
they beat us in. He looked at Earl when he was
in the hospital and he said, I'm gonna beat you in. And smiled
when he said it. We've lost more. And we've had
some who had to move away because of family, because of a job,
or whatever. And some of those, though, still
visit when they can. And it's kind of like a family
reunion when they come in, because it is. It is. And we've gotten to know some
others in other places and other assemblies that are family also. There may be somewhere else.
But I'm gonna tell you something, folks. We're gonna do the Lord's
Table next week. If you're part of Christ's family,
you're part of our family. We do not participate, endorse,
or recognize anything called a closed table, only for the
people of a certain assembly. I know some people do, but you
understand, our family's bigger than this. I'm gonna tell you something.
We may be a small assembly, but Christ doesn't have a small church.
He has his people everywhere. And even if I don't know them,
they're still part of my family. Well, I'm part of theirs. It's
Christ's family. Oh, I like that, I do. It'd be
a little bit like a family reunion when people show up. But we know some others from
other places and other assemblies. And we also know in other places,
the same gospel is preached. Their family too. And I thank
God for them also. Now, let's be honest. We've had
other people come and then go unhappily. Now they may have
came happy, but they left unhappily. But I'm gonna tell you why they
left unhappily. It's because of the same gospel we preach.
And that we've been preaching, I know, for 40 years. Earl preached
longer than that. But for the last 40 years, and
hopefully today, the same gospel we've been preaching
all these years, the same Christ, the world will not have. And they hate him. And they hate
the preaching of free and sovereign grace in the ultimate, plenteous,
eternal redemption of Christ Jesus. That all our salvation
is in him and nowhere else. Not in what we've done, not in
what we do. We've been preaching the same
Christ. What does it say in Ephesians four and five? One Lord, one
faith, and one baptism. One God and Father of all, who
is above all and through all and in you all. That's not the
world. That's faithful brethren and
the saints in Christ Jesus. Oh my. Understand, I mean, we've
seen it more than once. They went out from us, but they
were not of us. Had they been of us, they would
no doubt have continued with us. in the same gospel. But they went out. They went
out, why? To show. Not to make them, just
to show, to manifest that they were not of us. And that's just
the way it is. And the same gospel is still
preached here. If they wanna come back, they can. I won't
stop anybody from hearing the gospel to save my life. I want people to hear the gospel.
If they wanna come back, by God's free and sovereign grace, we're
still here and we're still preaching the same gospel. Oh my, the gospel
of Christ is still held forth because he is our banner, our
Ebenezer, our salvation, our Lord, our Savior, but most of
all, our Lord, Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this small assembly, I do
wanna, I don't know if I wanna call it boast about you people,
but that's sort of what it is, but it's not really boasting
if it's true, is it? We're on Facebook, aren't we?
We're still on Facebook, okay, all right. We're on Facebook.
I don't have Facebook, okay? I've looked at it through Debbie's
sign-on because she had it and she don't use it. But anyway,
we're on Facebook, we're on YouTube, we're on Sermon Audio, and we're
on the World Wide Web at sgchapel, one word, .com. And if you wanna
go up on YouTube, you can look it up under sgchapel, one word,
on YouTube, it'll come up. But anyhow, I don't know who
visits our website. I don't know who the people are.
But Paul can get you the numbers and stuff. And I can look at
the numbers on Sermon Audio. But we reach a good bit of people
through our webs, through the websites and through Sermon Audio.
I looked yesterday and I backed it up for a year. I can look
this up on there. Paul gave me access. Yeah, he
may regret it later, but I've got the access now, for now anyway. But last year, listen, last year,
this small assembly, right? We reached people in 43 states
in the United States last year. And not only that, we reached
people in 42 different countries last year. Isn't that amazing? Thank you. Y'all make this possible. Y'all make this possible. 42 countries. I look from England
to Belgium to Singapore and to Australia, all from a small assembly
in Crow, West Virginia. It's amazing to me. It's amazing
to me. I thank God for that. Walter and Paul have been asked
to preach in other places. I thank God for that, because
you know what? I know they're going forth and
preaching the exact same gospel that they preached here. They're
preaching the same Christ. I thank God for that. We are
all family, and there is only one church. Now I do know this. I know the gospel was preached
to them all, and all that listen to Sermon Audio and YouTube and
Facebook, and here I'm gonna tell you something, I know the
results of all that preaching. That's right, I'm very smart.
I can read the scripture. God revealed it to me. I know
the results, I'm not a psychic, I'm not an Old Testament prophet,
but I know the results of every gospel message ever preached. because it's the same as the
results that the Apostle Paul got. You'll find it, you don't
have to look here, but I'm gonna read it to you. In Acts 28 and
24, I always try never to forget this verse. Luke was recording
that Paul had been speaking, and he recorded what Paul had
spoke to these people at that time. And here's what Luke wrote. And some believed the things
that were spoken, and some believed not. That's the results of every
gospel message ever preached. Some believed, and some don't. And we reached 43 states and
43 countries, counting the United States, 42 foreign countries. And some believed, and some did
not. And that's all we can do. And
thanks to you, and I thank God for you, We can do this, and
we are doing this. But I do know this, his word
will not return unto him void. It's gonna accomplish exactly
why he sent it out there. Oh my, we can't get too puffed
up about doing all this because we didn't do it anyway. God's
the one who enables us to do anything. His word accomplishes
what he sent it forth to do. Period. Period. And some believed,
and some did not. Some believed not. And you support
his gospel being preached. And for that, I thank God for
you. I thank God for you. Because I can tell you this,
I believe this, the assembly at the Sovereign Grace Chapel
is faithful. Is faithful. And I, and I believe
I can speak for Walter and Paul in this, we thank you for it,
and we thank God for you. Then verse four says this, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which
ye have to all the saints. Now, when I read that verse,
we give thanks to God, and then since we have heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus, I had to think of 2 Thessalonians. And if you want to, you can turn
over there, just for a minute. I'll pretty much wind up on this. If you read 2 Thessalonians chapter
one, verse two and three are almost the same address. Grace unto you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank
God always for you, brethren, as it is meet because your faith
groweth exceedingly and the charity of every one of you all toward
each other aboundeth. I like that. I like that. Your charity and love abounds. To the brethren, to the brethren.
But here's the part that gets me. Go on, I like this. This is an infamous scripture. 2 Thessalonians chapter two and
verse 13. But we are bound to give thanks
all way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Now that's
a good place to be, beloved of the Lord. Well, why does he say
this? Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, what's it say? Stand
fast. Stand fast and hold the traditions
which ye have been taught, whether by word or by our epistle. I'm
gonna stop right there. This is the same gospel we're
preaching right here, that is preached from this place. The
sanctification, the purification, and the setting apart of the
Holy Spirit comes first. I had a question that Earl got
on the phone that one time. What comes first, life or faith?
The answer is life. Dead men don't believe a thing.
Dead men don't do a thing. Dead men can't do anything. Life comes first. The Holy Spirit
comes first and the belief of the truth. And it is in that
order, Paul wrote it specifically. The belief of the truth, the
gospel we preached unto you, the very same gospel because
there is only one gospel, one gospel. Oh, and it's the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has power over all flesh. And what? We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, because what? God has
from the beginning chosen you to this salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. That's the gospel coming in truth
and in power. Understand the Lord Jesus Christ
who has power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as the father gave him What? He gives eternal life to as many
as the father gave him in his good time and the Lord Jesus
Christ who gives us eternal life Gives it in free and sovereign grace. We don't deserve it. Matter of
fact, we deserve the exact opposite. But he has saved us. Oh my. Life comes first from the Holy
Spirit of God, and what's he say? He called you. by our gospel,
but it's he that calls. Understand, Earl didn't call
you, I didn't call you, Walter didn't call you, Paul didn't
call you, no other preacher called you. If you believe in Christ,
he called you. He called you. Now he did it
by the gospel. Oh, we preach his gospel, the
same gospel, and he called you. He called you. Oh, I like that. and praise his holy name, we,
the church at Sovereign Grace Chapel, are still here and preaching
the same gospel. I said I didn't have anything
new today. I don't. Election's not new. It may be
new to you that you don't understand because people won't preach it,
not on TV, not on radio. People get upset about it. If
you put the choice solely in God's hands and not in man's,
just like Jesus Christ did, he said, told his disciples, you
didn't choose me, I chose you. You know why? Because they couldn't choose
him. Until he comes, until the Holy
Spirit comes, until you hear the voice of the Son of God,
they that hear, shall live, and not until, not until. We preach his gospel, but he
calls, he calls. And thank God for you all. We
may be gone tomorrow. I don't know what's gonna happen,
but today we're still here. And by God's grace, today we
will continue. And tomorrow, if we're here,
we'll continue. That's just amazing to me. You
understand, when I met you folks, okay, for the first time, Walter's
not here, I talk really bad about him, but when I met you folks
for the first time going on 40 years ago, I had no idea that
40 years into my future, I'd be standing here. I had no clue. I had no clue we'd have a camera
right there and we're streaming live over the web. to Singapore,
of all places, to Belgium. England and Canada, I can kind
of understand. They speak English, you know?
But no, I mean, and to be honest, I didn't think
I'd live this long, but that's just a whole other discussion.
But here we are still, continuing, by his grace and by his power,
preaching his gospel.