Greetings, friends, and welcome
to another broadcast of the Old School Primitive Baptist with
Elder Don Martin, Sr. Stay tuned for another gospel
message of God's free and sovereign grace. I find that the world
in general, I don't know how many billions of people worldwide
have been watching the Olympics on television. But there are
great numbers, they have assumed, that have been watching
the Olympics since they started. And the tremendous effort, the
tremendous training, focus, and endurance
that these athletes have put forth in their life to strive
to win the prize. And you know, the Bible, it indicates
in the Bible that there are in one aspect, Christian spiritual
athletics in the Christian life, in the Christian walk. And the
Bible talks about these, what I would call, spiritual athletics
and the spiritual race that we have been entered into by a personal
intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, I've
seen people that are the athletes competing in these various events,
whether it be swimming, gymnastics, whether it be track running,
I don't care, badminton, or whatever it might be. that have given
their life from the time they were six, eight years old to
the time now that they are mid-aged teenagers that have done nothing
but trained daily on the most part. Since the time they had
an interest in the competition, they have trained towards the
goal of getting into the Olympic events to win the prize. the
ultimate prize, the gold, the award. I see where one man trains so
fervently he took a 400 pound tractor tire and would take it
and daily in his routine not only of weight lifting but take
a tractor tire that weighed 400 pounds and lift it up and push
it over time and time again until he was exhausted. and in gaining,
trying to gain and build his strength in his shoulders, his
arms and his upper body and able to be able to be a more fervent
and a more competitive swimmer. It's amazing! What they go through,
people to try to win this prize, their whole life is given over
to it. They eat and they sleep and they
walk and they talk of nothing but just the fervency of winning
the prize. Now the Bible says, I'm going
to go through some verses here. Now you can follow me if you
want to, because I'm going to go through probably a half a
dozen verses at different places, because I'm going to be pulling
them out of their context to make the point. But in regarding
the spiritual athletics that we've been entered into, the
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24, he says, Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all He says, but one receiveth
the prize, so run that ye may obtain. Now Paul was saying,
don't you know, and don't you folks know, that when they line
up on those lines on that quarter mile track, in the field and
track events, that there'll be say six to eight people lined
up there, and they will get on their mark, and they will get
ready and there will be a signal for them to run and everyone
there in that event is trying to win the first place prize
in running that race. Paul said, He said, Know ye not
that they which run in a race run all? They run all. They run
all that the strength, all of the power, all that the initiative,
all that the focus that they can come up with to strive to
win the prize. But one receives the prize. One receives the ultimate prize. There's only one gold prize winner
in each category regarding, for instance, the field and track
events. Now there's other events where there can be multiple golds
given out and those who are in group events. But also in Galatians
chapter 5 verse 7, Paul says this, he says, ye did run well,
Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? In other
words, he's saying, you did start off good. He's talking to the
Galatian church. Because they have problems there
of folks who give a probation of a belief in Christ and the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and said that they believed in Christ,
but he says, Where's the evidence of your perfection? We don't
see meat in time. We don't see any fruit of the
Spirit in your life. We don't see any evidence of
spiritual life there. You appear to have run well in
the beginning initially, but what happened here? That's what
he's saying. And that's the same way it is
with the church. People come in, and you've seen it, they
come up and they'll cry at the altar in a fit of repentance
and wanting to believe on Christ. They profess and want to become
a member of the church, and they're accepted as such, and then a
matter of weeks or months later, you never see them again. I mean,
I used to be part of the missionary church movement to where I've
seen folks do that time and time again. And what happened was
the pastor would send his little helpers out, which I was at one
time. I was an associate to the church,
and they'd send us out after about three or four weeks of
the person not showing up. what we can maybe do to help. We haven't seen them since they've
come up and made a profession of faith and wanted to be part
of the church. And I'd go over and see them and say, well, we
have just been busy. We went so-and-so and we went
camping and we went this and we went that. There's always
some Mickey Mouse excuse. It wasn't an urgent thing. It
wasn't a death in the family. It wasn't a sickness. It wasn't
something where God providentially had caused him to physically
be unable to attend. They were just not really making
their profession a priority in their life. And that is really
a bad sign. That when you profess to believe
in Jesus Christ, that He ought to be the priority in your life. He ought to be the one that you
think about. He ought to be the one that you
pray to. He ought to be the one you trust
in. He ought to be the one that brings
you to want to come together with others of like belief, to
rejoice and to sing the Psalms of Zion together, to worship
Him in spirit and in truth. to magnify His name, believing
in heart that He saved you from your sins and sins that shall
ever come about you in the future yet to come, and give you life
eternal. Is not He worthy of your praise? Then where are you? Paul is saying,
what is it that has hindered you? You did run well, but what
happened? He asks the question, who did
hinder you? We got a lot of folks like that.
And the churches, after 9-11, they say there was a great influx
in the local churches of people coming in the churches because
they saw that our nation was under terrorist attack and we
were in great despair as a nation. But look what happened now, some
years later here. The churches are back. They have
just meandered away, taking care of their recreational desires
on the weekends and have no time for the church. What happened
that you did run well, but now you're not even given any evidence
of being in the race? The Bible says in Philippians,
Paul writes to the church at Philippi, he says in verse 14
of chapter 3 in Philippians, he says, I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He says, that's my desire. Now
I want to talk a minute about Paul. I want you to think about
this man who was brought up a Jew. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews,
he says. He was from the tribe of Benjamin,
one of the twelve tribes of Israel. He was a Pharisee taught under
the teachings of Gamaliel, which was a high priest and a teacher
of Judaism and the laws and statutes and commandments of God. He was
of high esteem in Judaism and was one of the most zealous men
around Jerusalem for the cause of Judaism. He had letters from
the high priest that he carried with him, giving him authority
to take Christians and those who believed in Jesus Christ
and bind them up and take and imprison them and even kill them
if need be, if they refused and did not follow his arresting authority. He was there when Stephen, one
chosen of the seven in Jerusalem, to assist the apostles in their
labors in the ministry. Stephen, who got up and spoke
in the book of Acts about the history of Israel, and about
how that Jesus Christ had came to fulfill all the prophecies
of the ages of times past, and being the Messiah of God that
has now come to seek and save sinners, And it says that the
Jews, they riled up against him and they yelled out, kill him,
stone him, just like they did Jesus. And the Bible says they
took Stephen and they stoned him to death. And who was there
holding the garments of those who actually took their stones
and threw them at Stephen's body until he was dead? The Apostle
Paul, whose name at that time was Saul, the Jew, the persecutor. But on the road to Damascus in
chapter 9 of the book of Acts, we find Saul at that time, whose
name was later Paul, Saul and his entourage going towards a
city on the road to Damascus. And the Bible says that there
was a bright light from heaven that had taken and stopped him
and spoke to him audibly and it slew him to the ground. And Saul stopped and said, who
is it, Lord? Oh, the power of God! And how
can stop the most violent of persecutors of the church of
Jesus Christ when He so desires to? He stopped him, he fell to
the ground and was blinded by the power of God. He could not
see! And the voice spoke, Jesus spoke
to him and He said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, for how have I persecuted
thee? And he said, because you persecuted
my church, you persecuted me. How long shall you kick against
the prince or the thorns of what I have come to establish as my
kingdom here on earth? And he said, Lord, what will
you have me to do? What will you have me to do?
You're the man that hated Christ! Cursed against him and all who
believed! Took in bondage and captive those
who believed and followed Jesus Christ! And now he's saying to
the same Jesus, what will thou have me to do? And the Bible
says that they were told to take him into Damascus to see one
Ananias. And when he saw Ananias, Ananias
would lay hands on him and he would regain his sight and he
would baptize him. Now let me say something about
this. Jesus didn't say take him on into Damascus and take him
into the First Primitive Baptist Church there and baptize him
and make sure that he is in the Primitive Baptist Church. There
wasn't no church house there. It was just Ananias' house. People
get a big, they get a big hair raised on their back when you
start talking about baptism and if it's not done in a primitive
Baptist church then, whoa, whoa, there's another hair. We don't
know whether that's valid or not. Well, let me ask you something.
Which primitive Baptist church was Paul baptized in? What was St. Eunice baptized
into? Huh? Which one was it? You can't say. They were merely following the
Lord's instructions and they wanted to be baptized in obedience
to Christ. And there wasn't a church house
involved in it. There wasn't a denomination involved
in it. It was in obedience to God. And
that's where the difference is. People to be baptized are saying,
by profession of faith and by following the Lord and believers'
baptism, I want to follow God in His example of being put on
the cross, dying for me, being raised from the dead the third
day, and ever living a new life in Christ and redeemed by His
precious blood. That is the symbol of baptism,
being taken down in death. Spiritually, we have been taken
down in sinful death in the realm of spirituality and brought up
in the newness of life by Christ Jesus and by the power of His
Spirit. And therefore we follow the Lord in believer's baptism. Now, I do believe that the person
who is the baptizer needs to be one who is sound in the doctrine
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, he ain't baptizing in
the name of an apostle. Paul, like Paul said, some baptized
you in my name, some baptized you in Apollos' name, some baptized
you in another name. Oh, no. Paul said, I didn't come
to baptize anybody. And he said, I'll be baptized
with you. That was his main focus. I mean, baptism wasn't something
that Paul was fervently directed to do. the gospel because Jesus
told Paul after he had talked to him on the road to Damascus
and he was converted and made a believer in Jesus Christ. He
said, you have been ordained to go forth and preach the gospel
unto the Gentiles. I have called you to this end.
I have ordained you to this end. And let me tell you something. The most vilest of sinners can
become the most glorious of saints. The most vilest of sinners can
become the most glorious of saints. I had a preacher brother that
I had known for 37 years. He was brought up in a church They came to church every week.
They went at that time two or three times a week in Ohio. And
he was a preacher of a sovereign grace church up in Tarpon Springs,
which has disbanded. He's now up in Citrus County.
But he was a preacher down there for about 30 years in Tarpon
Springs. And he says, you know, Brother
Martin, I've heard your testimony about when you were 27 years
old. He says, you know something?
He says, I never knew a time when I didn't
love to go to church. My mama and daddy took me to
church. I can't remember when we didn't go to church. And there's
few here today that can't remember a time when you probably didn't
come to church with me. Because your mama and daddy and
your grandpa and grandma loved you enough to want to bring that's lived around here as primary
families of this geographical area, this has been part of your
life. But Paul, he was one for three years, the Bible says,
and went out into Arabia and studied the scriptures, which
he only had at the time was the Old Testament, the Torah, and
the books of Moses, and that which were written probably of
Isaiah and some of the other prophets that he had bits and
pieces of. But he went out for three years
and was gone. And he went out into the desert,
that Paul said, and he said, I've gone out for three years.
And when he came back into the area of Jerusalem, let me tell
you something, he came back with some spiritual growth and grace
of knowledge of Jesus Christ that he never had before. He
came back with a greater for the cause of Christ than he ever
had for the cause of Judaism. I can assure you that. He was
endowed with the Holy Spirit of God. He came in that Jerusalem
area to preach Christ and Him crucified. And that was the message
that he knew now. He got on to Paul. He went into
Jerusalem and he saw Paul, or rather, went into Jerusalem and
saw Peter. And his Bible says that he withstood Peter to his
face, saying, why are you telling these Gentiles, non-Jews, that
have come to have a belief in Christ that they need to keep
the law and the commandments and do the statutes and do all
the ceremonial stuff that the Jews were put under? Why are
you doing that, Paul? The Bible says Paul withstood
Peter to his face, saying, don't go trying to lord over these
Gentiles with the law and commandments that Jesus Christ had come to
set us free from. Tell them the truth of the matter,
that we're saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's
by the works of Jesus Christ that was accomplished on the
cross of Calvary. He gave His life's blood. He
gave His life on that cross. He bore on that cross not only
all of our sin, all of our transgressions, but he bore the law's demands
on that cross, brother buddy. It says the handwriting of the
ordinances on the wall of the statutes and ordinances of the
old covenant was laid upon him, you read it in the Ephesians,
it was laid upon him and on his body. He took upon His body the
law that we could not keep every jot and piddle. He made us, listen,
He became our law keeper. Jesus Christ is my law keeper. People say to you, well do you
keep the Ten Commandments? I say no, but I've got one that
does. Hallelujah! I've got one that
keeps them and has never failed in any of them. And Paul said, what is it that's
hindering you? And he writes down in Philippians
as I read to you, he says, I pressed toward that mark of the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He didn't say,
I pressed toward the high calling of God towards Jehovah God by
the keeping of the commandments of Judaism. He didn't say that,
did he? And then the Bible goes on to
say in Hebrews chapter 12, Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
1, the first verse of the 12th chapter of Hebrews, the Bible
says this, Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses, The writer of Hebrews saying
that seeing that we are compassed about, in other words, we are
surrounded about with this big cloud of witnesses.
In other words, we are surrounded about with all these people out
here in the world that are looking at us every day of our life.
You that are working for a living and have co-workers and work
in places in your job every day, you've got folks that are watching
you every day, and if you profess to be a Christian, they're looking
at you, and if they're not a believer, they're looking for something
that they can just criticize and say, well, he claims to be
a Christian. And they put in their mind, well,
if that's what it is, then I don't want to be part of it. Well,
hey, we know that's the mindset. But we also know that God ain't
dealt with their mind, it's here. He hasn't given them eyes to
see the truth. He hasn't given them ears to
hear the truth. All the worldling is going to
do is criticize anything and everything that has to do with
Christ. But nevertheless, we are compassed,
we are encompassed about with a big cloud of witnesses. And
the Bible says, with this big cloud of witnesses, it says this,
let us lay aside every weight. Now if a guy's going to go out
here and run a race, he certainly ain't going to go out there with
a diver's lead belt on his waist, is he? He ain't going to go out
there with claw hoppers on or combat boots on. And he ain't
going out there with coveralls on and a long sleeve shirt and
a hat and a bandana around his neck if it's 95 degrees and he's
got to run a quarter of a mile as fast as his little heart can
run. He's going to be stripped down to the bare minimum. to
be as light as he can, as flexible, as agile as he can to accomplish
what he's got to do and focus on the finish line, to win the
race. The Bible says that let us lay
aside every weight and the sin which do us so easily beset us. There may be sin that besets
you. You only know what there is,
I don't know. But I know in my own life that
there has been sin that has beset me. In other words, sin that
has caused me to be kind of weighed down. Things that I should have
done that I didn't or things that I did that I shouldn't have.
That weighed me down and robbed me of joy and robbed me of peace. And the apostle says, he says,
lay aside every weight of sin that does easily beset us. And then listen to what he says.
And let us run with patience the race that is set before us. We've been entered into a race.
We're lined up on the line. Jesus Christ has brought us to
the track. To the track of life in Him. And we have been bent down and
cause to be prepared to hear the gun to go. And he has said,
bang, run the race that has set before you. Run to obtain that
prize. Run. Here's the truth of the
matter. Your focus ought to be on one
thing in this life. Not to gain a reward or prize,
for we have already obtained our prize by Christ's promise behind Him, never to be looked
upon again, and to cast them into the sea of forgetfulness,
never to be remembered. That's the prize Christ has given
us already, and we ain't even finished the race yet. We've
got to go, brother buddy, it ain't even finished the race!
We've got the promise of eternal life, and we ain't even begun
it! In the immortal realm, We have
begun it in the mortal realm because Christ in you, the hope
of glory, to we that believe and have been called by His grace
into salvation's experience, we have Christ in us. Christ lives in you if you believe
upon Him and have been caused to trust Him as your Savior,
your Lord, your Master, Redeemer, a Mediator, Intercessor, Good
Shepherd, and the lover of your soul. We've been entered into
a race and we've received some of the greatest joy of the reward
already. But yet we ain't even begun,
brothers and sisters. Those that we know of times past
that was blessed with a hope in Christ that we knew as Sister
Daphne, And other brothers and sisters
that have passed on since I've been down here in Bermuda Yard,
even those before, Brother McCormick and Brother Nykerk and Brother
Scott. I met him down here early on.
And others of the elders that I've known throughout the whole
area, around Plant City area over time that I have met and
known that give hope. Brother Johnny. down there at
Payne Creek. I mean, I was up in Georgia to
a funeral to a brother that was 86 years old. I told you about
fell off a roof and ended up dying about three or four weeks
later. And I went to his funeral up in mid-Georgia. And they have ultimately finished
the race in the mortal realm. And that ultimate reward has
now. been achieved in immortal glory
with that Sweet Angel Band. I wrote a poem and I posted it
on a forum on the internet that I correspond with other primitive
Baptist brothers around the country. It was called, With Jesus and
that Sweet Angel Band. That was the title. And I wrote
in there about how we are living in this mortal realm. But there's
coming a time when sadness will be no more. We'll not take our
glasses off and wipe tears from our eyes no more. We'll have
no broken hearts of sorrow. There'll be no disappointments
or discouragement. But we'll be with Jesus in that
sweet angel band. No, there's coming a time when
the sicknesses of our bodies and the afflictions of this flesh
that put us in pain and suffering, cause our backs to hurt, cause
our heads to hurt, cause our hearts to need bypass surgery. Like a sister... Audrey. Audrey. I keep wanting
to put a D in front of her name. Audrey. A. Audrey. Sister Audrey
has got to be faced with. Sister Audrey. There'll be a
time when we'll never need any more operations. There'll be
a time when we don't have to go to the doctor to have this
done or that done. No more blood tests, no more
wheelchairs, no more canes, no more walkers, no more nothing. We'll be free! And free at last! With Jesus and that sweet angel
band. Oh, dear saints, there's gonna
be a time. when we will have finished the
race in this mortal realm called life, here below. In this world
of sin and woe, we'll be free at last and be with Jesus and
that sweet angel band. Paul writes in 2 Timothy, as
I conclude, 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 7. He makes a comment because he's
about to die. He knows his time is near and I kind of put a title on
this verse as the home stretch. Paul writes in 2 Timothy chapter
4 verse 7, I have fought a good fight I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith. In other words, I'm on the home
stretch. I have kept the faith, and he's
kept it because Christ instilled it within him. And when Christ
instills faith, which is the gift of God, which Jesus is author
and finisher of, of which can never be removed from one of
God's elect children when He gives it to them. When God calls
out His children, and He instills within them His Holy Spirit,
and repentance is granted and faith is given as that gift of
God to believe on Christ, it shall never be overturned, it
shall never be changed, you can't go far enough to get away from
it, you can't go deep enough to hide from it. You'll never
be the same. And then Paul said, he said,
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give
me of that day. And not to me only, but unto
all them that love his appearing. 2 Timothy 4.8. and to all of them that love
him. You see, that's the difference,
dear friends. We have friends, neighbors, and
relatives that pass on, that don't give any evidence of loving
him. I don't preach funerals or preach
people into heaven. You folks ought to know me better
now. people that you've ever lived
around and talk about how they're in debt. Now I know that they
try to console those who have just had the loss, but let's
tell it like it is and leave that to God and just preach the
gospel for those who are able to be the surviving hearers,
if God permit their ears to hear. I myself am not a pro-funeral
person. When the time comes, God calls
me away, there's going to be no casket, there's going to be
no open funeral type of service. I'm going to be laid out here
in this plot that Brother Earl's got me wrote down for. In the
simplest, I might even build my own pine box to be laid in. like to do that within the next
year or two just to have it ready so someone don't have to go out
and spend $1,000 for something that costs about $500. I'm going
to be laid out here. I told them it's in my will to
have the funeral parlor pick me up and have me taken down
here as fast as they can, as soon as they can, and contact
Brother Earl or whoever it be. and have that whole dug and ready,
and I want to be put in ASAP, covered up, forgot about, and
if the church and my family want a memorial service, that is up
to them, as God may lead them. That's the way I'm leaving this
place. Ain't going to be no viewing,
ain't going to be no fancy cafes, not going to waste flour, none
of this stuff. Hey, when I'm out of here, I'm
out of here. You know? There might be some
that might be smiling all the time that they're here thinking,
well, he's finally gone! We got rid of that loud-mouthed
primitive Baptist, but never shut up about the sovereignty
of God. That's all they ever talked about. Well, I hope that
that's all I continue to, and glory as well, brother. That's
what I want to talk about. All right, I want to close this
out here. Yes, the prize will be won. Every
one of God's elect children is going to have a crown of righteousness.
Because that righteousness is imputed to us, listen to this
now, by Jesus Christ. Paul said, he says, for Christ's
righteousness has been imputed into everyone that believeth. What does that word impute mean?
It means that it has been given over unto his righteousness and it is imputed
unto us and therefore we are reckoned as righteous before
God Almighty and therefore we will be given a crown of righteousness
which I am persuaded that not one of God's children will be
worthy to wear at that time as we stand before the Lamb of God
in eternal glory immortal beings at that time
and sit them down at the feet of the Lamb of God and worship
Him. Oh, glory be to the Lamb of God
that cometh to seek and save sinners such as I. Glory to Him,
and as the whole realm of heaven begins to break out in a song
like no primitive Baptist church has ever heard before, oh brother
Bernie, there'll be anthems Gospel of all the ages of time, singing
in acapella in unison, the glories and praise of God Almighty. Glory
to the Lamb of God! Oh, amazing grace, how sweet
the sound! Oh, that saved such a lot as
we, all that have been born of the Spirit and brought into this
kingdom of eternal glory and bliss. Hallelujah! Yes, that's
what will be going on there. We'll be there praising Him who
sought us and saved us by His grace. Who loved us. This is before even the foundation
of the world. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter
1 that God who has chosen us in Christ Jesus before the foundation
of the world. Let me tell you something. That
ought to cause a person to just want to shout before the foundation
of the world. That means before the world even
had its place in the realm of the orbit that it's in right
now that we stand upon, God had chosen a people in Christ for
His namesake. And He's calling them out one
at a time. For He says, My sheep, My sheep,
hear My voice and they'll follow Me. No, not follow another! they're going to follow me. But
the goats, they ain't got ears to hear, they ain't got eyes
to see. And they're going to go the broad
way that leads to destruction, to that eternal fire of hell
that will burn forever and eternally. Christ, the hope of glory. Christ,
the savior of sinners. Oh, praise God. that you have
been entered into that race. May that be your experience.
May that be your focus. May that be why you are here
and come here and continue to, because you've been entered into
a race. And we've got already a portion of the war. You know
how I know that? Because the Bible says, the Torah says, that
we have the earnest. which is the earliest of the
glorious race that we have been placed into. Amen. Let's pray. My God and my Father,
in the name of your darling Son, Jesus, I am so thankful that
we have your Word preserved for us. And that we can look upon
its pages and we can see that we have been placed within a
race And this race through this life, it seems to be picking
up speed. And it seems to be getting closer
to the end all the time. And Lord, we thank you that we
have been able to, as time goes on, to put aside the weights
that so easily beset us as you chasten us and you cause us to
see our failures and our inabilities to be perfect and you cause us
to repent and these weights begin to keep falling off of us as
we go further down the track. And Lord, we're picking up speed
as we go. And we're going to arrive soon
in that glorious finish line when we're going to see Jesus
Himself in glory. Oh, seated beside the Father.
Oh, saying, come unto me, those called of my Father. Come unto me and enjoy the bliss
of eternal life. Oh God, thank You for Christ
and His loving mercy. And Lord, I pray for those who
are here today with heavy hearts over lost ones here of late. Have mercy upon them, grant them
peace, pass understanding. Give them, Lord, a hope that
all is well in Christ, no matter whether we understand it or not.
And this one thing, our Father, we are sure of, that when we
get to heaven, we're not going to be there lamenting and weeping
over those who are left behind. because the former things of
this life shall be remembered no more. Oh, what a beautiful
thought to not be able to be concerned of sadness and sorrow
of times past. All to thee be the glory, honor,
and praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you.