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 beseech you to try to
pray for me as I may attempt to try to set forth set forth
before you something from the Word of God that may be of some
benefit, that may be of some little food and crumbs that may
fall from the Master's table, to encourage the weak, the helpless, the hopeless, the
soldier, and pilgrims that are going through
this time of sin and woe here below. And it ain't easy traveling
with it. The older you become, the harder
it gets. Mother James, I got to go back
home. At the end of this week, put
my 19-year-old mama in a nursing home. It ain't an easy thing. Getting old ain't fun. A 99-year-old
widow told me one time in a church meeting, she said, Brother Martin,
getting old ain't for sissies. And I've come to learn a little
bit about that. She was true in what she said in April 66.
It's for those that God, by His sovereign mercy, might uplift
and give grace to continue on the way until that determined
and designated appointed time that He calls us home, away from
this world. It causes our hearts to cease
to beat and our lungs to cease to breathe in the air of this
time world. The writings of a man, a man
that was perfect, the Bible says, and upright, one that feared
God and eschewed evil. Now, brothers and sisters, it's
an amazing thing what God has chosen out of the ruin of mankind
as trophies, as trophies of His grace. He chose a man here that
the Bible says was perfect and upright, he feared God, and the
Bible says he eschewed evil. In other words, he shunned it
and he tried to keep himself from being involved in evil. But yet God in his sovereign
purpose and divine decree and purpose had him to be afflicted
by the evil one. He was brought down lowly and
lifted his body, mind and soul, and vexed with such afflictions
that his body was covered with boils from head to toe. His own
best friends would assure him that not even he paid any attention
to it. His own servants wouldn't even
obey his command, Brother John. They just neglected to even pay
any attention to him. His own wife didn't even know
his breath. That means he never got close
enough to where she would even want to be near him to even maybe
kiss him and try to embrace him. He was isolated from a woman
who all but knew him before. And then on the other extreme,
we find that God, in his sovereign and determined purpose, had chosen
three men who had the heart of murder within them. One born of the Hebrew woman
putteth in this basket, and laid within the river, and floateth
down to be at a certain place at a designated time, according
to God's sovereign determined purpose, that the daughter A
pharaoh might take him into her custody and then summons a Hebrew
woman to raise him to a certain age. His own mother. Oh, what a coincidence! Oh, how
foolish! How foolish to think of such
a thing! But if God's determined and ordained
a great purpose, it's an old model for someone to go and to
take care of that child and raise it up. And then in time as he
becomes the prince of the kingdom and under the favor of Pharaoh,
he was out and about and there was one of the The Hebrew there,
one under the taskmaster of the Egyptian labor force supervisors
there, and he saw one of the Hebrews being severely beaten,
and he went to the woman and he killed him and murdered him. He thought nobody saw what had
happened to him. And as time went on, a short
time later, it was brought to his attention that there were
witnesses at scene. A murder was manifested, and
he said, oh, I have been seen guilty of this crime. And he fleed from there and went
out into the back side and become a herd. You know the record. And then
there's one murder, and then David, a man after God's own
heart, a man raised and escalated to the king of Israel, a man
that wanted for nothing, and there he was on the balcony overseeing
his vast domain of his makings and design. And there she be,
Bathsheba. There goes the fall of that man. And to try to take and cover
this fall and his adulterous workings, he wanted to get rid
of the husband of this woman that he might have runs himself
as a wife. And ordered Uriah to be sent
to the front lines to be killed. The heart of a murderer. That's
two. Saul, whose name was Paul, was
out with decrees from the chief priests to gather together those
who were preaching this Jesus Christ message. He was there
when Stephen had declared unto the Jews the history of And they were so bitter and angry
that they took and they stole Stephen. Saul, whose name became
Paul, was there and stood there and held the garments of those
that were throwing the stones. And he was an associate to the
murder of Stephen. There's three murders and a man
that eschewed evil and was upright before God. That God had chosen
in his sovereign purpose to make trophies of his grace. Isn't
it amazing how our God will take an unworthy sinner such as Paul,
who was out to persecute all that had anything to do with
this message of this man called Jesus, and to take them in bonds
and put them in prison, and even to the death of one, Stephen. The psalmist writes, David, he
writes in Psalm 89 And he says this in verse 15, blessed is
the people that know the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For thou
art the glory of their strength, and in thy favor our horn shall
be exalted. For the Lord is our defense,
and the Holy One of Israel is our King. Blessed are they that
know the joyful sound What sound is it that blesses the children
of Zion, the children of God, the heirs of divine sovereign
grace, now through the ages of time, and moving into the New
Covenant and New Testament era, and that there's a sound that
is ringing out now, and in the Book of Acts it's It's declared
there that they went out from Jerusalem and they declared this
message, which was a beautiful sound to those whose God had
opened their ears to hear it. And only they to whom God in
his sovereign mercy shall open the ears to hear that sound are
going to be blessed in it, and the rest will care less. We find that over in the Book
of Romans, Paul writes in chapter 1, verse 16, a verse that we're
all familiar with. But I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. first and also to the Greek.
And verse 17 is so often left off. But to me that is really
the heart of verse 16. For Paul said, for therein, in
what? In the gospel. For therein, in that good news
message and declaration, the Bible says, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. The gospel of Jesus
Christ, as it is proclaimed, that brings His good news to
those who God gives ears to hear. that God, if ears to hear, shall
hear the word of the gospel, and rejoice in it. And they that
be not of God, heareth not the words of God, and neither can
they ever perceive them." That is a different language altogether. But to they that are given ears
to hear, born of the Persians, and he,
one with the Father, one who preexisted with the Father, that
hath come and hath taken and created all things that have
ever been created. For by him all things were created,
and without him was nothing made. He made all things, all things
exist and exist by him and for him. And the Bible says that this
same Jesus that was back in Genesis 1, where the Bible says, let
us make man in our image, there's the plurality of the deity of
the Godhead, Jesus the Son and the Father, and the Spirit of
the living God, let us make man, let us make him after our image,
there's plural there. The pre-existence of Jesus Christ
is an indisputable truth, isn't it? He's ever existed with God
the Father. And this Jesus Christ is God
that had ordained to come in time. that which is conceived within
the womb of a virgin. Oh, Brother Tom, what a glorious,
miraculous event that was, that the Almighty had caused that
body of God himself incarnate to come out of the womb of that
virgin Mary and be born in that manger and wrapped in swaddling
clothes The world's in mourning. The
world don't have no time for Him today. You know that? That's
the problem we got right now in this whole world. They ain't
got no time for Jesus. And God has ordained such to
be because He's winding her down. He's winding it down. There has been a time when the
grace of God, as far as what I understand about the times
past, has been a blessed cloud of grace across this land, that
it has slyly been withdrawn to such a degree that it has widened
down to where the remnant is becoming less and less. But nevertheless, he shall have
a people. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, one of my favorite verses of Paul's writing to the
church at Corinth in verse 21, where it says, for He, God, hath
made Him, Jesus, to be sin for us. He who knew no sin, to be
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. He who knew no sin, born of the
virgin, grew in statuette and spirit, and then went out to
preach publicly the gospel of the kingdom of God, and then
was taken by the wicked and cruel hands of men, as was the determinant
of God according to the angels and the apostles, and was nailed
to that cross in our behalf. There upon the cross he was displayed,
and as he said, and I believe him, I will draw all men to me. Oh, is that all men of mankind?
No. That's all men that the Father
has given him, even before the foundation of the world. They
are the ones coming to him, because they hear the voice of the Son
of God, the Good Shepherd, when he says, come to me. My sheep
hear my voice as they follow me. They don't try to, they do
follow Him. The God, the God Almighty of
this holy race, He don't that He is determined, that He
is sovereign, and if He's destined to come to pass, it shall come
to pass. For if any claim, Brother Jim,
can intervene in any way, anything He's decreed and determined,
our God is absolutely almighty, and He's living. But I'm going
to tell you tonight that He is not limited. He is almighty. He's absolute in all of His ways
and means. And he accomplishes all that
he's said that he's going to do. He's going to have a church,
a beautiful church, of pride, spotless, without rank, without
blame. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, born of that A man used palms and from his
beak and from his wounded side flowed out of there a crimson
flow of blood atonement that satisfied the Father forever
and eternity. of golds, and of lambs, and of
the sacrifice of doves, and the faith of the Old Covenant, Old
Testament laws, and testimonies, and standards, and statutes?
No! By a human living way, once in
a world, Jesus Christ came and died for sinners, the ultimate
price, and it's forever finished and paid for. Lost stock of peril,
and our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from
the west, put behind God, never to be remembered and recalled
again. What a glorious message that
is for a helpless, lowly, a soldier down here that's under the burden
and labor of sin and suffering. something I don't know of any
other message that can bring any kind of peace and joy and
comfort to the people of God in this time world that we live
in. Besides one of us suffering a Savior on the cross of Calvary
that gives His life blood that we might live forever and eternity
and have our sins removed from us as far as, as I said, the
East as the West. Have you ever thought about that?
The first time I read that and never can catch up with it.
Let me tell you, they're never going to be brought before us.
I want you to remember years ago, Brother James, a preacher
would get up and say, oh, but listen, we're going to have to
stand before this judgment seat of Christ, and there's going
to be this great display of sins done in the body. And we're going
to have to give again. Well, let me tell you something,
brother and sister, if there's ever an account that I've got
to give for the sins done in this mortal frame, I come and
I plead, I have nothing to bring before thee by God. I have no
answers that I can give to justify my wickedness. But oh, I come
pleading the blood of Him who did pay it all. And according
to this scripture, it says, I believe they be the truth. That is forever
settled in heaven, this word that we preach from and minister
from is forever settled in heaven. Though the earth be on fire and
the folks be burned to ash, the Word of God shall be in heaven,
and He that is ultimately the Word that was made flesh, Jesus
Christ, is there and shall be ever there in our behalf as He
is as our High Priest, even right at this moment, sitting there
at the right hand of God the Father, making intercession for
us. In regard to Stephen being stoned,
of the wicked and cruel hands of those that were anti-Christ
and hated that gospel. Stephen looked up. He looked
up, didn't he? He looked up as the stones were
hitting his body. And you know what he saw? He
saw Jesus. And what was the posture of the
Savior God-man that loves his elect children? He stood up. was emulated, I believe, from
heaven's area to the person of Stephen where Stephen was blessed
in death. I believe so shall we be. So shall we be blessed in death. That there's coming a time that
where we, we, as Brother Mike said, We're going to have that
time that we're in support of the God that we're going to take.
And we're going to cease to live this life. And I've asked some
people, I've said to them, well do you know who your great-great-great-grandfather
is? They said, I have no clue. Do
you know who your great-great-great-grandfather is? I have no clue. Brother Mike
and I have traveled around the mountain top. We don't even know who our great-great-great-grandfather is in most cases. What in the world? Who's going
to know us in a couple generations? Nobody, as much said. But while
we're here, and God has given us that sovereign mercy to believe
upon his beloved son, We are to take that gospel and preach
it as a trumpet from the walls of Zion. Jesus saves. He's come to seek and save sinners. That has been His mission, to
come and seek and save sinners. And let me tell you something,
He doesn't fail. He does not fail. My dear beloved
brothers and sisters, I thank you for your kind attention.
I thank you for your loving kindness that has been displayed to me
and Brother Michael in the hospitality. I thank God for Brother Jim and
his labors over the years here in Mississippi and his ministry
by the printed page over the years. Now I'm not here to exalt
men. I'm here to praise God from whom
all blessings flow. And he uses men to proclaim the
truth as it is in Jesus. May God bless you. Thank you.