If you're following along, turn
to, of course, the book of Galatians. And as everyone here already
knows, it's been three weeks I was away, but I told you I
was going to park on Galatians chapter one, verses 13 through
16 for some time. I do not know how long that is,
but I still have some other thoughts from these verses. But I have
something in particular I want to try to Pass on to you this
morning, but let's read those verses again Galatians chapter
1 verse 13 Paul writing says for you've heard of my Conversation
that is his way of life It certainly includes how he would have spoken
how he talked how he thought but that included his whole way
of life and And generally the rule is the way we talk and the
way we think is the outward manifestation of what our way of life is. For
you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion. And I will stop and put it this
way. When Paul talks about the Jews' religion here, he is speaking
against it as a negative thing. But the reason is, is the Jews
had even taken the law of God and turned it into carnal doctrines
and commandments of men. How in time past in the Jews'
religion, how that beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God
and wasted it. and profited in the Jews' religion
above many mine equals, that's those of my own age. Those was
kind of in my neck of the woods, you might say. and profited in
the Jews' religion, above many of many my equals in my own nation,
being more exceedingly zealous, and here it is, of the traditions
of my fathers. Now, not the faith of the fathers
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but the traditions of my fathers.
That is, the Jews who had taken basically, basically all the
Old Testament and reduced it to here's our opinion about this.
And here's what you do to be right in the sight of God. The
tradition of my father's, but then here it is. But when it
pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called
me by his grace to reveal his son in me, that I might preach
him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and
blood. The last Sunday that I was here,
I spoke about, but when it pleased God, and tried to take certain
things from the text itself, and then compare those things
in the text to other scriptures, but when it pleased God. But
I remember making this statement to you all that I was going to,
and I mentioned this, and this is my title for this morning,
and I mentioned to you all I was probably gonna preach this. I
could give you a couple more for later, but I'm not gonna
do that this morning. My message is this, from one extreme to
the other. This man had went from one extreme
to the other. The very religion that he loved
and the very religion that he hated had now all of a sudden
turned this way. and the religion that he at first
loved, he now despised, rejected, counted it as D-U-N-G. Now the thing that religion that
he'd once hated and wasted it, wasted it, hurt it as seriously
and damaged it as seriously as he possibly could, He became
an actual adherent to that religion itself. Now consider the God
wrought change, and it was God wrought. Jesus Christ did not
come to Saul of Tarsus and say, will you give me your heart?
He conquered that man on the road to Damascus. And anyone
here in this small congregation this morning that's ever been
saved by God, God had to conquer you just like he did Saul of
Tarsus. It took no less grace and power
to conquer you than it did that proud peacock Saul of Tarsus.
Think about it. He went from the Jews' religion
of legal righteousness, and he mentions that in Philippians,
not having now, now, what's this change had taken place? Not having
mine own righteousness, and it was a legal righteousness. I
paraphrased that, but that's what he was saying. But the righteousness
which is through the faith of Jesus Christ. the righteousness
which is of God in Christ. So we went from the Jews' religion
of legal righteousness, and now this man is shut up. I mean, absolutely shut up. It wasn't just another way for
him. He didn't sit down and think,
well, this just seems so logical to me now. This man was now shut
up under the righteousness of Christ. The very man he despised
as an imposter. Another thing, he went from a
persecutor of God's called out ones, now he's a called out one
himself. Isn't that something? But that's
what it takes to go from one extreme to the other. Always,
ever. Now I don't want to jump ahead
of myself, but even my flesh says, well boy, it took an act
of grace to save Saul of Tarsus. But now that person over there
only took a little nudge. No, no. It takes an act of the
sovereign God to conquer any rebel. So he went from a persecutor
of God's called out ones, now he's a called out one himself.
And this is from the context, what was here in the context.
There's another thought. He went from one at the top of
his religion. Let me put it, he was like the
president of the Southern Baptists. He was at the top of the group. He went from one who was at the
top of his religion, and now he calls himself the least of
all saints. You could see it you can hear
in the words his gratitude toward God that he is a saint But even
as an apostle he says I'm the least of all not apostles even
Though he acknowledges that as well. He said I'm the least of
all saints That's from one extreme to the other is it not hmm, there's
another thought I He went from one abundantly gung-ho in Jewish
ancestral traditions, exceeding zealous. That's gung-ho. You
know what gung-ho is. Go and get it. Get her done. from one abundantly gung-ho in
Jewish ancestral traditions, now he's one consumed with a
desire to know one thing, and that is one person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's called out ones
called out at the pleasure of God, and that's the only way
it ever happens. If God ever calls you, it is
God calling you. It's not about your response
to the call. You will respond just like Saul
of Tarsus if he calls you like he called Saul of Tarsus. You'll
respond. You'll bow. You'll believe. You'll
submit. You'll follow. You'll serve the
Lord Jesus Christ. There are some that God said,
I called, you refused. I don't have to sit around and
try to defend that. God said, I called and you refused. Fair phrase, when your trouble
comes, I'll laugh at you. So don't play, what, is that
some kind of different calling? Don't try to theologicalize all
this thing. If God calls you and you don't
respond, God will laugh at you when your calamity comes. And
you, you will have no excuse But thank God there are some
folks, when he calls, they will respond. I had a person mentioned
to me as I was up at Frank Tate's, Frank Tate's pastor, and after
the preaching was over, the Bible lesson, the preaching was over,
and a man asked me to come to the back and kind of meet everybody,
shake everybody's hand. And one lady walked up to me
and she said, you really believe what you preach? And I said,
I can't help it. That's all I said, I can't help it. All of God's
called out ones called at the pleasure of God. Well, God wants
to save everybody, then everybody will be saved. You can mark that
down. But we know the testimony of
this book is far from that. Again, all of God's called out
ones, called at the pleasure of God. They all have a testimony
of God bringing them from one extreme to the other. Now, we'll give you five examples
that are given in Scripture. Now, there are more than this. What saddened me is I usually
like, and I do like, Nath's topical Bible. Because it's good for
just taking a certain subject and looking up all the various
passages that may deal with that subject. Now look up conversion. There's so many conversions in
this book, and they left so many out. But I'm going to give you
five. And I didn't time this to see
how long it'll take, but I smell ribs, so it may not take too
long. Here's the first thought. Some
of us, turn to 1 Corinthians, be turning there. I wanna get
you, if you're following along, I'm not saying you have to, but
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter six. On each one of these, I'll try
to get us to the passage first, I'll make a statement, then we'll
look at where I get the basis of what I'm about to say. First of all, here's one of the
first examples. And I'm not saying the first
in order, it's first on my notes here. Some of us were in the
dregs of immoral absurdities. You hear what I said? Some of
us, not everybody has been. Some of us were in the dregs
of immoral absurdities and we fed on it. I mean, we fed on
it. 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse
nine. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And I would say put a
period there, but it's a question, it's asking, but it's rhetorical.
They shall not. Be not deceived. neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And that's just a minor list of all the immoral absurdities
that consume a large mass of humanity. And some of God's people
were born right in the midst of this. Some of them may have
not been born into a family of these absurdities, but they in
themselves turned to them. They may have been in a really
decent home, decent folks, but for whatever reason or another.
But one reason I know, because of the absolute immoral absurdity
of the human heart, And God lifting that restraint just a little. They head off in their life to
things like Paul mentioned right here. Somebody said we oughta lock
people like that up. Well, most of us would be in
jail. A lot of us would be, maybe not all of us, but a lot of us
would be if we locked everybody up for things like this. Again,
I say some of us were in the dregs of immoral absurdities,
and such were some of you. But ye are washed, ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the
Spirit of our God. Is that not from one extreme
to the other? I thank everyone here this morning,
and everyone who may hear this later on, TV, sermon audio, YouTube,
wherever it might be, will say, well preacher, I agree with that.
That's from one extreme to another, right? That's a give me, right? Yeah, I would agree with that. But now turn to Matthew chapter
four. Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. Now think about this. Some of
us, now before I go any further, some of us may have had several
versions of some or all of these things. Some of us may have bounced
around from this to that and over here to these and them to
those and everything else. Not every one of God's people
were stuck in one malady, in one place or circumstance of
malady. Not everybody is living immoral
like that list we just read in Corinthians. But let me tell
you, all of us have something here in these five I'm gonna
give you. We found our place in one of these five places,
if not in more than one or maybe all of them at one time or another. But having said that, let's go
into the detail again. Some of us, and I will say of
us, because I feel like I fit far too many of these things.
Some of us, like James and John, the sons of Zebedee, do you remember
them? They became what? Apostles. They were of the inner group
of Christ's original disciples. Some like James and John, the
sons of Zebedee, with no scriptural background ever given of any
undue way of life. You see what I'm saying? Now
you got, what was it, Matthew, he was a turncoat. Right? He was a Jew that was taking
up tax money for the Romans against the Jews. But this is not so
of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. No undue background. You know what their problem was?
They was just caught up with the everyday duties of everyday
life. You read it? Matthew chapter
four. Verse 21, and going on from thence,
this is speaking of Jesus Christ, and going on from thence, he
saw other two brethren, and that's not brethren in Christ, that's
not what it's meaning, they were brothers. They had the same daddy,
the same mommy. Going on from thence, he saw
other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John the brother,
in a ship with Zebedee their father, you see it? mending their
nets, and he called them. You see that? Well, somebody
said that's called for service. Where do you get that? They went,
yeah, they went immediately into service, but let me tell you,
every child of God that's ever been called immediately went
into service of some kind or another. This is the way that
religion I was raised up in, that association of regular Baptists,
always got away from this, but when it pleased God to call me
by his grace, well, yeah, but that's for service. God never
called one of his saints, or let me rephrase, God never called
one to be a saint. experience salvation through
the preaching of the gospel applied by the power of the Holy Spirit
that God did not already before the world began have ordained
their place of service in the body. Never. God don't wait till
he saves the, now let's see where I can put that. That's nonsense. As though the eternal all-knowing
God comes up with things as things happen. What does it say? They
were just going about their everyday business in the family business. I know there are people in this
world, but preacher, isn't that really the most important thing
to take care of your family? No. No. Worshiping Christ is the
preeminent thing. Following him is the preeminent
thing, even if it means leaving daddy in the boat. Preacher, that's too hard for
me that you're on the outside. At best, looking in. and they immediately left the
ship and their father and followed him. This happened to Abraham
too, did you know that? God said, get up and get out
from, and one of the things to get away from was what? Thy,
K-I-N-D-R-E-D. Right? It wasn't that the command
of God when Abraham was now we may sit on argue all day about
James and John Abraham was a lost idolater when God said get up
and get out Yes, or no And he got up and got out but
he took daddy with him Didn't he and you know what God
did God killed daddy and Harry Abraham could have went this
way to the land, but he had daddy with him, and it made it easier
to follow the river, and follow the river, rather than taking
the old fella all the way through the desert, and he went by the
river. Haran's way up here, every, well,
I'm looking at, Haran's way up here. The land of promise is
way down here, Mac. Daddy died in Haran. When God says, follow me and
me only, That's not a suggestion. It's a command. And if you're
truly being called, God will kill your daddy to get you where
you're supposed to be. And so if everything's going
fine with me, that may be a problem. Everybody's got this idea where
nothing bad's happening. Everything's flowing just fine.
That may be God just lifting that restraint. He could have left Abraham in
here and killed him with his daddy. Somebody said, what about
the purpose of God? What about when Abraham did not
circumcise his son? God sought to what? Kill him
in the way. Do not think you or me either
have God. We don't have God over a barrel. We can never use, we dare not
ever use God's sovereign purpose as an excuse for our rebellion
against God. He can save us in spite of it,
or he can let us go. Real happy message right now.
But that was from one extreme, just for James and John. They went from just doing what
a person ought to do, right? In the family business, but when
Christ said, I am above those nets, that boat, your daddy,
your family, your wives, your children, whoever it is, you
follow me, immediately they got up and got off the boat. left
daddy setting with the nets still unmended. Do you see it? Oh, Jesus is tough. Yes, he is
when it comes to worshiping him. Because we worship him as preeminent
or we do not worship him at all. Even that these two met James
and John we see them going from one extreme To the other Now
think about this thought hold that Their Corinthians were in no
more danger than James and John themselves and what I mean by
that is They were both in just as much in danger and deserving
of the fires of eternal judgment. James and John themselves had
no more merit before God than did the Corinthians. Because even the plowing of the
wicked, and why do most men plow? To feed themselves. to feed others,
to feed their family, to make money at least, maybe Tommy to
help their wife, feed their wife, kids, clothing. But the plowing
of the wicked is S-I-N. Here's a third thought. Turn
to Acts chapter 16. Or I say a third thought, a third
example, I'm sorry. Not really just a thought. It
may be a thought, but it's far more than a thought. Acts 16. Remember, we're talking about
from one extreme to another. Some of us, like a lady called
Lydia. We may have very well been religiously
sincere. The book of God, as we will read,
calls her a woman that worshiped God. But that's not enough. It's gotta be enough. Not if when you're worshiping
God, you're not worshiping God in the person of his son. Some of us like Lydia were religiously
sincere and devout. But here's what the book of God
says, verse 13. And on the Sabbath, we went out of the city by a
river where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and
spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman
named Lydia, a seller of purple, and if you read on, she had a
household. They weren't in Thyatira. She came here to pray at the
riverbank. She was trying, she's a lady,
we don't know if she was divorced or widowed, we have no idea,
but she had her other family. She's just out making a living,
and not just that, she's somebody that worshiped God. Somebody
said, well, they worshiped God in the light they had. If it's
outside of Christ, it don't matter. Bill had light. He spoke with God. God spoke
with him. And two writers in the New Testament
let us know clearly, he was an apostate. Now if that don't make
you quiver in your skivvies, I don't know what would. Why worship God? What do you
do? If it's outside of Christ. See
it? The seller of purple of the city
of Thyatira, which worship God, heard us, whose heart the Lord
opened. So what does that let me know?
Before this, it was what? C-L-O-S-E-D. You see it? Whose heart the Lord opened that
she attended to the things that were spoken of Paul and when
she was baptized in her household, she said, don't leave, hang around
for a while. That's from one extreme to the
other, ain't it? No less extreme than the Corinthians. No less
extreme than James and John, the son of Zebedee. You see,
folks, there are millions of people out there that think because
they go to church, they read the Bible, they believe in the
God of the Bible, they even believe in Jesus. He's a part of the
whole thing. Yeah, he's in there too. and I'm a decent person,
and I go out and I make a living, and I go to church, and I pay
my tithes. Sometimes, when I can, I give
a 10%. And they think, well, I'm okay. I'm not a bad person. Lydia wasn't
a bad person either. She wasn't some old whore on
the street. Do you get my drift? But her heart was still, C-L-O-S-E-D,
to the gospel. Has that ever happened, even
right here in this place? Has there ever been anybody here,
even in this place, that made a profession of faith? They came
to chapel regularly, they were here for all the cookouts, did
all of it, and all of a sudden, ding, the lights go on. They may have even been baptized
before. And ding, the light goes on. None of that was of God. It was
all just the religiousness and the morality of the flesh. And fleshly morality gets you
nothing before God. Flesh is flesh, whether it's
immoral flesh or moral flesh, because even our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in God's sight. One extreme to the other. Here's a fourth example. Turn
to Ruth, and I'll give you a moment to get there. I got to jump on
you. While we were finishing that song, I looked up Ruth and
put my marker in it, because I have trouble with that. And
I'll tell you this while you're turning. Ruth. One time, Paul
was preaching from Jonah, and it took me five minutes, and
I still hadn't found Jonah, so I finally just quit. Isn't that
pitiful? Crazy. Ruth. I think it'll be Ruth chapter
one. And that is right after Judges, if you need a little
help with that. Right after Judges. And here's my statement. Think
about this. Some of us, like Ruth the Moabite, was evidently,
I mean, usually if a person had a really undue background, the
book of God exposes that. You remember Rahab? She's clear. She was a what before God saved
her? A harlot, in a tough part for poor old Rahab, even the
New Testament, after which she was saved and been saved for
hundreds of years, and even with the Lord, still calls her a what?
A harlot. Put that with your name. Not
gonna have to be harlot, whatever it was. Think of some of us like
Ruth the Boabite, which seemed to have been a really faithful
daughter-in-law. Even Orpah seemed to be a really
faithful daughter-in-law. Here's two women, Orpah and Ruth. And their Jewish husbands, God
had killed them. And their mother-in-law, she'd
lost her husband, Orpah and Ruth's daddy-in-law. All three of the
men were where? Gone. God just... There was rebellion
there, and God said, And here Ruth and Orpah and Naomi was
left to deal with the consequences. Even Ruth acknowledges, don't
call me Ruth, that's pleasant and happy. Call me Mara, bitter,
because God's dealt bitterly with me. And yet, what do we read? Ruth chapter one, verse 14. Go
back, you know the account probably already, but if you don't, go
back and read it. Verse 14, and they lifted up their voice and
wept again. That's Orpah and Ruth. And Orpah
kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her. I mean,
she, just, you know, and it may have probably an oriental, you
know, something like that, kiss here, kiss there. But what'd
Ruth do? She just come up and laid hold
of her. Now here's a side encouragement
for us. Don't be afraid to show true
compassion and emotion toward one another. I wasn't raised
that way, then you was raised wrong. You hear me? I'm just up my constitution,
then your constitution's bad. Mine too. They lifted up their
voice and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but
Ruth claimed unto her and she said, now listen to this great
soul winner called Naomi. And she said, behold thy sister-in-law
has gone back unto her people and unto her gods. Return thou after thy sister-in-law,
go on back with her. And Ruth said, entreat me not
to leave thee, or return from following after thee, for whether
thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy
people shall be my people, and thy God shall be my God. This
is from one extreme to another, isn't it? Here's old Ruth down
there in Moab just minding her own business, waiting on a husband,
get married, have children, right? Worship the gods. Four Jews come from Bethlehem
Judea fleeing the drought God does something for one of
these daughters-in-law, but not the other hmm Where thou diest will I die,
and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and me. Now the greatest
thing in all of that is your God's gonna be my God. Who was
her God? Who was Naomi's God? Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. That was Naomi's God. because
all truly elected Jews were looking for, trusting in, relying upon
the coming Messiah. They did it from Adam and Eve,
and they weren't Jews, but Adam and Eve all the way down through
the land. When Abraham comes along, the
first Jew, he wasn't even an Israelite. And then finally Jacob
is born, and God calls that nation under Jacob Israel. It was always
and all of those people, elect people. But here's a woman outside
of all of that bloodline. Was she not? Well, wait a minute. Her bloodline was Moab. Do you remember who Moab was? The son of Lot that he had with
one of his daughters when he was drunk. That's not a very
nice pedigree, is it? And yet here's a woman that God
had so laid hold of in her heart, I will not let you go. Where
you go, I'll go. Where you live, I'll live. The
God you believe in, I believe in. I will die where you die.
That's one extreme to another. But listen to me. Yet Ruth was
no more corrupt by nature than was the hard-working religious
Lydia. Who was she? She's still no more
corrupt. See, there are not great sinners
and lesser sinners. There are just ungodly sinners. Uh-huh, yeah. Now let me move
on. Here's the fifth example. Turn
to John chapter 20. Now this one's a little more
touchy. And I'll try to explain why I said that here in a moment.
But turn to John chapter 20. And hopefully I'll make a few
statements that will at least make the naysayers quieten
a little. John chapter 20. We're gonna
look at another from one extreme to the other. Some of us like
Thomas himself. Remember Thomas? One of the closest,
the 12, one of the 12, later declared to be an apostle, right? Some of us like Thomas, but I
remember in that 12, there was one true imposter named Judas,
right? He had the same credentials as
Thomas did. Right? Preach the same message
Thomas did. Cast out devils just like Thomas
did. Followed around with Christ for
around three years or so, or a little more, just like Thomas
did. And he perished. He sold the
Lord out for 30 pieces of silver and died, and went to hell. Some of us, like Thomas, we were
taught under orthodoxy. You think Thomas wasn't taught
under orthodoxy? There was a time when it even
says in the book, it may be John, but don't hold me to that, where
Jesus Christ told them plainly. Well, they kept asking and asking.
He kept kind of bringing it right up to the edge. I've got to go
to Jerusalem and suffer and die. I'm going to die. I'm going to
suffer. And they just kept asking. Finally,
one day he said, he said he told them plainly, I'm going to be
killed. and I will be raised again. I'm
paraphrasing it, of course. They were told, right? Some of us, like Thomas, were
not only taught under orthodoxy, but we may have engaged in the
work of even the gospel itself, ourself. Look at John chapter
20, verse 24. But Thomas, one of the 12, called
Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. That's the first
time when he came. Remember, first time he came and just walked,
the door was shut, he just came right through the door. I mean,
you'd think that'd be enough to make anybody just bow down
on your knees, wouldn't you? But Thomas, one of the 12, called
Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples
therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. Now, here not
only has Thomas been told by the master himself earlier, now
he's got the other 10 saying, we seen him with our eyes. He appeared to us. We have seen
the Lord, but he said unto them, except I see, I shall see in
his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print
of the nails and thrust my hand into his side. Notice what he
said. He didn't say, my brothers, I
just, I can't believe this. It's beyond my comprehension.
What did he say? Will not. You don't want to think
our wills are perverse. Come on, Hal. This is a disciple,
an apostle, one that's in the ministry. And he said, I will
not believe. Whoa. Now here's what I was talking
about a minute ago. Somebody said, were you saying
Thomas was lost before this? No, I can't say that. But I'll
tell you this, had Thomas persisted in this state of I will not believe,
he would have perished with Judas. Well, what about what? He would
have perished with Judas. He's refusing to believe in the
resurrected Lord. Don't. play games with God. Well, I already know all this.
No, you don't. You know, and I know nothing
yet as we ought to know it. We are so ignorant, so lazy,
and so complacent, and I'm not being mean to you. I'm just telling
the truth about us all. Everything else is so important
to us except the glory of the kingdom of God and his king. Me included, with you. But God
don't let me persist in a I will not believe unless. Of course, you know, he said,
Thomas, you've seen and you've believed. Think about it, folks,
we don't even have that. I'd be an idiot unless I get
to poke my finger in there. Wouldn't that be idiotic today? All we got is a book with letters
in it, and words in it, and phrases in it, and paragraphs in it,
and verses in it, and somebody stands up and just preaches from
it, or gives testimony from it. And we're supposed to believe
God based on only that. But it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I'm glad it
didn't take a lightning strike from heaven for me. Aren't you? I'm glad God has the power than
when he sent a man named Job Galusik with his own personal
testimony and a few cassette tapes and a few printed out messages,
Ellen. God rocked my world. And he sent
me from one extreme to the other. And my trouble was, I had many
other extremes. Many other, I could fit a lot
of these throughout my experience in life. But when it pleased
God, I went from one extreme to the other. You see, the unbelief,
listen to me now, the unbelief of the immoral Corinthians is
no more damning than the I will not believe of Didymus. You hear me? Somebody says, I
don't like that, I'm a good Calvinist, I believe in the eternal security
of the believer. I do too. But look at Judas,
he looked just like Didymus. When Christ told him, one of
you is gonna betray me, none of them suspected Judas. Did
they? The man was so respected among
them all. Only one knew the truth, that
was the master himself. The man was so respected among
them all, the other 11, that they let him carry the bag with
whatever money they had, he carried the bag. Right? He was the treasurer,
the only officer they had at that time. Listen, if I say to
God, somebody said, we're just saying this to his fellow brothers. When you say I will not believe,
you're saying it to nobody but God. If I say I will not believe,
it's not you that I'm offending, it's the God of all glory that
I'm offending. It took the same grace, God's
grace for both. It took the grace of God for
the Corinthians, took the grace of God for James and John, it
took the grace of God for Lydia, it took the grace of God for
Ruth, it took the grace of God for Thomas. All of these testimonies that
I've given you, they have Christ as the touchstone of their calling. Even Ruth. It wasn't dreams. It wasn't making deals with God.
It wasn't some kind of medical or financial troubles came on
me and I decided to give my life to the Lord. People do that all
the time, don't you know that? They get in troubles, all right,
I'm gonna follow Jesus now. And when the trouble goes away,
they begin to go away with it. And folks, that can happen in
the midst of freewillism as well as free grace. That can happen
in the midst of Arminianism as well as in the midst of Calvinism.
That can happen in the midst of Roman Catholicism or Protestantism. All of these testimonies have
that one thing as a touchstone, Jesus Christ himself. No, the question is this, has
it pleased God to call me by his grace? And I know it's hard
for you, but I preach something like this. I preach to a group
of people like this. I look at you and I think, well, they already
got all this. I hope we do. But even this man could be deceived. Even I could ultimately be found
out to be an apostate. Cause there's nothing in me by
nature that warrants God's grace and God's mercy. Not only do
I not warrant it, but I warrant his wrath and judgment and condemnation. Oh God keep me, not just else
I fall. That's bad enough, but fall away. But when it pleased God who called
me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, but even that same
man called Paul the Apostle says, I count myself to have arrived. But I do what? Press forward. Press forward. Don't ever do
this and go that way. Because if you do, if I do, we
will perish. Heavenly Father, oh God, use
thy word to warn us, but not just as some blinking billboard sign,
but as that which the spirit applies to our hearts and minds,
calls us, Lord, to give diligence always, not just at some few
times, always give diligence to make our calling and election
sure. God help us to dive headlong into seeking the personal work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. bow our hearts and minds to him.
Lord, for those that we've mentioned and others who have difficulties,
Lord, be with them. Strengthen them in that way,
whether it be physically, spiritually, or both. Lord, just strengthen
them in that way that you know is needful at this hour. Lord,
we thank you for the food. Thank you for the time we had
yesterday together and that we can kind of extend that on in
today. We thank you for all things in
Christ. Amen.