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'm going to make an attempt
to speak to you from the book of Hebrews. If
you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me there to
Hebrews. Hebrews and Hebrews chapter 1. The book of Hebrews is a unique
book. In the inspiration of God's determined
purpose, there was certainly no mistake in the title of this
book. For it is written to the Hebrews, the Jews, that have
been ordained and appointed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the epistle of Paul
the Apostle to the Hebrews. And the book of Hebrews is unique
because what it does, it exposes the revelation that Jesus Christ
had come to fulfill all that was prophesied in days and times
past in the Old Covenant and in the Old Testament. Now, when
you read Hebrews, if you keep that in mind, it will be profitable
to you because you will see all the more the truth of the matter
as to what Paul is saying to these people. They were those
that were under the law and testimonies and commandments of God. They
were those that were born of the twelve tribes of Israel.
They were those that were of Judaism and brought up in it
in the most part all of their lives and were under the bondage
of the law and the commandments. But now Paul writes to them and
tells them the freedom and liberties that they have now been able
to enjoy as they are revealed in Christ Jesus. And so I'll
begin reading in chapter 1 and I'm going to read in verse 1
and read a few of the verses there and then we're going to
take a look at a couple more chapters in there where it expresses
more clearly the manifestation of Jesus Christ and to these
Jewish believers what he has come to do in their behalf and
for the sake of all that shall be blessed to believe on his
name. I'm reading from chapter 1 and
verse 1 of the book of the Hebrews. God, who at sundry times, now
sundry, Sundry, you remember years ago they used to call a
drug store a Sundry store. Well Sundry, you know what Sundry
means, it means various. different types of things. On the most part, it's simply
defined as various. The sundry store was a store
of various items. Not only for some medicines and
so forth, but it was kind of a store where you could find
almost anything in it. Whereas a 5 and 10 cent store
back years ago was more or less kind of a place where you found
certain basic articles, but a sundry store was more kind of geared
to medicinal purposes. But the Bible says, God who at
sundry or various times and in diverse, diverse, the word diverse
means many, If you have diverse crops out here, you have many
crops. If you have diverse homes, you
have many homes. Diverse just means many. So the
Bible says God who at various times and in various and different
manners spake in time past and to the fathers by the prophets. Now, he's spoken to the fathers
of Israel. That's who he's talking to now,
remember. He's talking to the Hebrews. He said that God has
spoken in times past to your fathers and to the prophets,
or by the prophets, and in verse 2, have in these last days, Paul
is saying that we have now entered into the last days in God's determined
purpose of all things. He has now. manifested himself
in the person of Jesus Christ, and since he has done that, that
he being born of the virgin, coming to this time world, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, establishing his church
as the church of Jesus Christ to those who believe, made up
of elect, called, chosen, ordained heirs of divine grace, he says
that God in these last days now, has spoken unto us by His Son. God is no longer speaking to
us and to the fathers of Israel by prophets. He's speaking to
us by His Son. Now if you recall in the Gospels
where Jesus was on what was called the Mount of Transfiguration.
He was up there with Peter, James, and John. And the Bible says
that he was up there and Elijah and Moses was with him. They were there and appeared. Now keep in mind now, Elijah
and Moses were thousands of years before Christ was even born. in the history of the Bible.
And yet here they were, standing there, resurrected, visibly seen
by Peter, James, and John, talking to Jesus, the Bible says. And
if you recall, I'm not going to read the whole text for the
sake of time, Peter said, Master, let us build three tabernacles. In other words, let us build
three places here so we can have a place for Moses and Elijah
and for you. And the Bible says that God Almighty,
the Father, spoke from heaven. with such authority that they
fell to the ground and said unto them, This is my beloved son, speaking of
Jesus, of whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. Now, let me just set exactly
the premise of what went on there. Peter was trying to put Moses
and Elijah on the same plane and equal with Jesus Christ at
that particular time because of his limited understanding
of whom Jesus truly was. He did not see him in his totality
as deity and God manifested in the flesh. Oh yeah, they recognize
him as of God because they've seen the signs and miracles that
he did. But yet they didn't fully understand
and manifest to their minds the deity of which Christ possessed. That he was God in the flesh
of man. And so therefore, Peter said,
well, let us build three tabernacles. Let's build one for Moses, one
for Elijah, and one for the master, Jesus. And God spoke. And God took, and He spoke with
such authority, they fell to the ground, the Bible says, and
they laid their face down on the ground, and Jesus said to
them, rise up. And the Bible says that they
rose up and they saw no man there except Jesus. God took Moses
and Elijah and removed them out of the way of being there in
the presence of them, speaking to Christ as he was, and let
it be known to the Peter, James, and John that Moses and Elijah
fulfilled their their work in the purpose of God in their day
to the fathers of Israel in their time and has now moved them out
of the way and brought in and manifested himself in the person
of Jesus Christ and he says this is my beloved son of whom I am
well pleased he says now, he says believe him, listen to him Don't listen anymore to the prophets
of old. They fulfilled their purpose.
What they have written is true, but what they have written has
come to pass. The Bible says in the Gospel
of John that with John the Baptist was the end of the law and the
prophets. There is no more prophets today.
I've heard people on TV say, well, prophet Johnny Jones is
going to be in Tampa at a meeting, but there ain't no prophets today. If a man prophesies, he's merely
speaking forth the words of God. Now I can say I'm prophesying
today the words of God that have been firmly inspired and written
in this book right here, that have been maintained for us.
But there is no prophet today that is telling the future events
that is going to come. and prophesied of things that
were going to happen in the future. And it has all come to pass when
Christ came, born of the Virgin, and came to dwell amongst men,
and preach the gospel of the kingdom, heal the sick, raise
the dead, make the blind see, did signs and wonders to vindicate
his deity and to prove who he was. You remember the 14th chapter
of John's Gospel, where I believe it was Philip who said, When are you going to show us
the Father? Now if you notice, I said, I'm referring you to
this because when Peter, James, and John were on the Mount of
Transfiguration and I said they did not have a full revelation
of the deity of Christ at that time, that's the reason why. Because it had not yet been fully
manifested to them. Jesus said there's things that
you cannot understand while I'm here with you. And the only way
you're going to understand that is if I leave. And when I leave,
I'm going to send you another comforter. In other words, another
comforter? Who's the comforter then? Jesus
was. Who kept the disciples? Jesus
did. Who kept them uniquely brought
together and following Him everywhere? He did. Who called them? He did. Did they have a choice? No! When he went, he called Matthew,
a tax collector, at his post at the city of Jerusalem, and
he said to Matthew, he said, Matthew, come follow me. and
he said, well, wait, I've got to finish my post here. I can't
leave until I'm done with my duty here. He just left his place
and followed Jesus. When he went down to see Peter,
who was knitting on his nest, getting ready to go fishing that
afternoon and evening, of which he was a fisherman, and Jesus
came up to him and said, Peter, come follow me. Peter then said,
well, I've got a few more nests to finish up here, Master, and
I've got to go fishing tonight. He left his nest and he He followed
Jesus. Now when God calls his children
to himself, for Jesus said that my sheep, in the 10th chapter
of John, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. They shall not follow another.
For they'll only follow Me, the Good Shepherd, and they only
know the voice of the Good Shepherd. You've come to follow Christ.
You've come, I believe, I hope today, here to this little assembly
to hear more about Jesus, because He's called you to follow Him. And He's called you to follow
Him, and that's why you're here. That's why He is worthy of praise. You didn't have anything to do
with that. You say, well, wait a minute
now. I thought that you men were all made able to make a decision
to follow Christ. You won't find that in this Bible.
You won't find in there where God has made an opportunity for
all of mankind to become a Christian and follow Christ. But you will
find in there where He said, all that the Father gives me
shall come to me. How many did the Father give
to him? How many? He gave to him exactly that number
that was in his sovereign mind before the world's foundation
was even in place. The first chapter of Ephesians,
it says in there that, I'll read it to you. The first chapter
of Ephesians, the Bible says this, it says, according as He
hath chosen us, we that believe, hath chosen us in Him, in Christ,
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy,
without blame, before Him in love, having predestinated us and to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will,
not our will. Get it straight. It ain't our
will that makes us Christians. makes Christians. It's God's
purpose that we are believers today. And that's why He's worthy
of our praise. That's why every church ought
to be preaching that same truth that's written there. I read
it to you. Why do they skip over it? Why
do they explain it away? Because they try to always get
man involved somehow in becoming a Christian. Don't they? They
always try to get man involved in it somehow. Well, it's up
to you to make a decision. It's up to you to decide. You
know, God's not going to make anybody do anything against their
will. Oh! Oh! Let me tell you something,
if God had not made this rebel sinner at 27 years old come against
my will and believe on Jesus Christ, I would still be living
in sin today and be outside the church of Jesus Christ cursing
his name and living a righteous sinful life like every other
unregenerate sinner out there in this world today that we know.
God causes His people to come, and when He calls, they come.
You say, you don't have a choice? No. If God gives you a choice,
you know what you're going to choose? You're going to choose
to do your will. Your will. We are born with a
will that's depraved. It's under a curse. What's got to happen? That will
has to be taken and finished. It has to be bent down and it
has to be broken over and God's will is then manifested as we
are caused to believe on Jesus Christ and we are then no longer
dominated by sin's dominion. We have been made free from sin's
dominion and brought into a righteous relationship with God the Father
through the advocacy the blood and the cross of Jesus Christ. And that which he paid for on
the cross of Calvary by his blood, he caused our sins to be removed
from us as far as the east is from the west. Back to Hebrews. It says in these
last days he has spoken to us by his Son. And he also goes
on to say, the writer says, Paul says, "...of whom he had appointed
heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." How did
Jesus make the worlds when he was born just, you know, 2,012
years ago? This is 2,012 A.D. Our calendar
is determined on the birth of Christ. If you haven't thought
about that much, think about it right now. It's 2012 because
it's determined on the time that Christ was born. But before Christ
was born, the Bible says that He made the worlds. How did He
make the worlds? He wasn't even yet existent.
He wasn't existent in a mortal body. But He's always been existent
in a spiritual realm with the Father for they are inseparable
and they are one. But Jesus said to the disciples
also in the 14th chapter of John, He said, For if you've seen Me,
you've seen the Father. For I and the Father are one. Now, how can you get any clearer
than that? If you've seen Me, Peter, James,
John, Matthew, Bartholomew, And Paul, all of you, Apollos, all
of you disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. For I am the Father of the world.
God the Father had taken upon Himself a moral flesh, and that
was Jesus Christ. but before he had a mortal body
he had all just existed because the Father and he are inseparable.
They are deity one of the same. Unseparable. That's why that
in the beginning when the Bible says in Genesis, let us make
man in our image. Our. Let us. You get that? Us. Make man in our image after
our likeness. Who is he talking about? In Genesis
chapter 1, he was talking about the Father and the Son. The Father
and the Son is plural. If you read the book of Colossians,
it talks about it in there. All things consist by Him. All
things were made by Him. The first chapter of John's Gospel,
John writes in there and says, For the Word of God was made
flesh. And it says in the Bible, For
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was with God and the Word
of God when it spoke the things into existence which are in existence
they came to pass. Jesus Christ created all things
by being the spiritual deity that he was at the time of creation. by merely speaking them into
existence. He spoke the world into existence. He spoke the stars into existence. The psalmist writes and says
that God has even named every star. And I've heard of late,
within the last three weeks on the news, that astrologists and
scientists and so forth have said that they have discovered
or they think they have determined that there are galaxies that
go far beyond what we've ever thought before and that there
are continually new stars being made. I don't believe that. I
don't believe that. They can't prove that. That's
merely an assumption. That's just speculation. That's
what science is. Science is an assumed speculation. This is not science. Brethren and sisters, this is
the word of God. And when the Bible says that
God had taken and by Jesus Christ he had made the world, he made
all the worlds and all the galaxies and the heavens above, and he
has even named the stars. And they knew stars being made. All that's been made is made. He goes on to say, that he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his
glory and the expressed image of his person, upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had himself purged our
sins." Keep in mind again now, I want to remind you all the
time that Paul is writing to the Jews who have now become
believers in Christ. He says that Jesus Christ now
has been manifested as deity, and He was with God in the beginning
and always has been, and He was the one who made all things,
and by the worlds which are, were made by Him, and it says,
and He is upholding all things by the word of His power, and
it says, which He had by Himself purged our sins. He went from
telling about Jesus Christ being the creator and the co-equal
with God. Remember in the book of Ephesians,
Paul said, for he thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. He didn't think it was robbery
or anything less or taken away from the sovereignty of God Almighty,
the Father, by saying that he was equal with him. For he is
equal with him. For they are one of the same.
But the Bible says that he had taken by himself, not with the
assistance of anybody else, not assistance of a priest, not by
the assistance of any church, not by the assistance of any
preacher, but by himself he purged our sins. And he sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat down, it says, on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Christ ascended into heaven's
glory when they saw him in the first chapter of Acts ascend
up into the clouds and was taken up in the glory. He was ascending
and he took his seat at the right hand of majesty on high. It says
that in verse 4, being made so much better than the angels,
as he had an inheritance among a more excellent name than they. The angels that God had made,
the angelic hosts that are totally unable to be seen by the naked
eye of mortal man that are spiritually around about fulfilling God's
will, far greater than they is this one Jesus, the God-man. You know, there's something unique
about angels, amongst many things. One thing is that the Bible says,
the angels of God encampeth around about them that fear Him. Now
to me that's a great comfort. Do you know as a believer in
Jesus Christ, you don't go anywhere, and you don't do anything, where
an angel of God does not encampeth around about you, if you love
Christ and fear Him. And when I say fear Him, I mean
respect Him with reverence. And the Bible says, it says,
the angels of God encampeth around about them to fear Him, and he
says also, David writes, he says, for God shall give His angels
charge over you. That means when I get in my vehicle,
And I go over and I pick up Sister Doris, and we head south and
drive a hundred miles to come down here on the first Sunday.
I'm convinced there's an angel of God with us all the way. And there's going to be an angel
of God with us all the way back home. My dear friends, what a wonderful thing it is
to think about. Angels of God are ministering
spirits. You know, the Bible says in the
book of Revelation, I used to wrestle with this scripture.
It says in the book of Revelation about the seven spirits of God. And
I used to think, well wait a minute now, something's wrong here.
God is spirits. The Bible says God is spirit. It doesn't say spirits. God is
spirit. And they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. Now what's this seven
spirits of God business I find in the book of Revelation? I'll
tell you what it is. The angels of God are ministering
spirits. Now they're not gods. And they're not the Spirit of
God, but they are spirits that are ministering to God's people
as God directs them to do as the heavenly hosts that serve
Him continually. God has ministering spirits and
they are angels. The angels of God are ministering
spirits. I want to invite you over to
a few chapters and I'm going to lay out probably one
of the strongest portions of scripture in the book of Hebrews
to the Jews about what Christ had accomplished and what He
is now to them which were of Jews are Hebrews that are now
believers in Christ Jesus. It's found in the 7th chapter
of the book of Hebrews. I'll start reading at verse 19. Verse 19 of the 7th chapter of
Hebrews. I'm taking just one portion of
the text because I think it has so much in it to be set forth. Now we know that the Jews were
under the law and the commandments and the statutes of God according
to the Old Testament, Old Covenant. They were demanded to be obedient
to it and yet we find that they were totally disobedient to it
all the time. And God had chastened them, and
chastened them, and He had scourged them, and He had punished them.
And there was one occasion, there was 10,000 of them swallowed
up by the opening of the earth. And there was another time when
God had taken them. Well, I mean, time and time again,
they were chastened of God. They were taken to Assyria. And
they were kept captive there. They were taken to Egypt and
kept captive there 400 years. You know why? Because of their
rebellious attitude and not keeping the laws, commandments, and statutes
of God. And God continued chasing them.
He chased after them. He tried to correct them and
He scolded them and He chastened them with the rod of reproof
through the suffering they went through being under Egypt's bondage
and being their slaves for 400 years. Now this country is 206
years old. Think about a people that was
of God's people of the 12 tribes of Israel for 400 years were
in Egypt and were slaves. Paul's writing to these people
of whom come from this heritage of Judaism, and he's saying in
the 19th verse, he says in verse 19, chapter 7 of Hebrews, for
the law, the law of God of which you were told to obey, the law
made nothing perfect. The law made nothing perfect.
In other words, the law in itself made nothing perfect. Unless
it was kept to the perfection, it could not make anything perfect
or anyone perfect. It says, but the bringing in
of a better hope did. The bringing in of a better hope
did make something perfect. The law couldn't, but the bringing
in of Jesus Christ, which is a better hope, has made a people
perfect. Oh, listen to me. You've been
made perfect today by Jesus Christ. The law couldn't do it, and you
couldn't keep it. And therefore by the law, the
Bible says, it shows us that we are a failure to keep it,
and God is displeased with failure, displeased with those who rebel
and do not keep his law. But now he sent his son Jesus,
who will become the law keeper for all that shall believe upon
his name. The Bible says, "...the law made
nothing perfect, but bringing in a better hope did. By the
witch he drew nigh unto God, inasmuch as not without an oath
he was made priest." Jesus Christ became the final priest of all
those who were Jews, who were under the priesthood of Judaism.
He is saying, Paul is saying to them, that there is now brought
in to you one last final priest. And Jesus Christ is our high
priest today. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father. He's making priestly intercession
for you and for me continually, perpetually. Perpetually means
without ceasing or without stopping. Something that is running perpetually
just keeps on ticking, you know, like a grandfather clock, the
pendulum, click, click, click, click, click, but it only goes
so long, won't it? And then you've got to take the
chain. and then it'll go again. But something that's perpetual,
it just never stops. Jesus Christ is our perpetual,
never-ceasing, never-stopping High Priest. He's beside the
Father right now, pleading our case, and He loves us with an
everlasting love. The Bible says, listen to this
in verse 21, For those priests which were of times past, were
made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said,
and to him the Lord swear and will not repent. Thou art a priest
after the order of Melchizedek. Now you have to know the history
of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a priest of Salem. He was a priest that Abraham
was told to go and give honor to. The Bible says that Melchizedek
ironically and uniquely did not have a mother nor father. Nor
did he have an end of days, the Bible says. Melchizedek is a
unique character in God's divine purpose in dealing with Israel
and now made manifest in the person of Christ. where it goes
on to say, listen, verse 22, by so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. Now, a surety, we've talked about
a surety before. A surety is a down payment. Alright? And Jesus Christ Jesus was made a surety for a
better promise. In other words, we have a better
promise than ever has been given over to God's people in times
past in Jesus Christ. They said, the prophets said,
you keep the law, God will bless you. You keep the commandments,
you'll have God's favor. They couldn't do it. And so what
happened? They were rebellious people.
They were chastened of God. They were captives, they were
slaves. The Bible says in the 23rd verse, and they truly were
many priests back in the old priesthood under Judaism because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. In other
words, the priests in the Old Testament oracles of Judaism,
they came and they went. The Levites were the were the
tribe that was of the priesthood. And their priests, they would
come along, they would be ordained, they would be consecrated, they
would serve the people, but yet they got old and they died. The
Bible says that they couldn't continue for the reason of death.
They had to keep on replenishing the priesthood. But listen to
this in verse 24. But this man, but this man, Because
he continueth ever. I'm talking about Jesus. This
man Jesus. He continueth ever. He has an
unchangeable priesthood. Oh, brother, buddy, his priesthood
ain't changing. It's steadfast. It's perpetual. It's for our sake for now and
forever. And in verse 25 it says, Wherefore
he, Jesus, is able also to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for
them. There's that perpetual priest
that I've told you about. He forever liveth to make intercession. He is never going to cease to
be. has been with the Father, and
yet it was manifested He came and took upon a flesh of man
when He was born of the Virgin. Okay? But Jesus Christ has never
been separated from the Father. And then we find, look at verse
26. For such a high priest became
us. In other words, for such a high
priest as this one Jesus, He came among us. He came to us. That's what it means. He became
us. He became us. And He became unto us like a
man. He became a mortal. And the Bible
goes on to say, it says, Who is holy? He's holy. He's God. Ain't no man holy.
But Jesus is. But God made Him. He's undefiled,
in other words, He's not tainted with sin. He don't have a depraved
nature. He's never sinned, though tempted
in every way the Bible says, yet without sin. Yet He who knew
no sin became sin for us. Now isn't that unique? He was
tempted in every way, brother Clyde, but yet without sin. But God had made Him to become
sin for us. I believe 2 Corinthians 5.21
maybe says that. I'll have to read it. But He
who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Now brother, that is something
worth shouting about. tempted in every way, yet without
sin, but yet God made Him to be sin for us on the cross of
Calvary by taking our sin, our rebellious, our lax of keeping
the law, our wretched wickedness, and took it upon His own self
And by His blood, which was not tainted with the depraved curse
of Adam, by His precious, rich, red, holy blood, He atoned for
our sin and covered it completely as if it never existed. What a glorious Savior! And the Bible says, This one that is undefiled, separate
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Verse 27, who
needeth not daily, as those high priests under the old Levitical
priesthood, to offer up sacrifices. Jesus don't have to go and offer
them up like the old priests did back in the Old Testament.
For it says, they used to have to offer up Sacrifices for their
own sins first. That's what the priest had to
do. They had to go in and offer up a sacrifice of the blood of
animals, son of goats, for their own sins. Before they could offer
up any sacrifice for the sins of the people. But the Bible
says this man, Jesus, he don't have to offer up no sacrifice
for his sin, because he never sinned. He was perfect and holy,
undefiled. And then the Bible goes on to
say, and then it says, For this He, Jesus, did once when He offered
up Himself. He offered up Himself. One time. One time. He ain't gonna do it
again. He don't fill it every Easter. He don't resurrect every Easter.
He ain't born every Christmas. He did it once. And that was
enough. And He did it for all. of God's
elect family, throughout the generations of mankind, throughout
the ages of time, whatever tongue, kindred, or nation they be at,
that God has chosen a people as his elect heirs of grace,
they shall come and follow him. That's what we believe is the
truth and what the gospel represents. a Savior that came to seek and
save sinners, of whom He shall fulfill His will, and it shall
be completed to every jot and tittle, and until the last one,
that God Almighty has chosen in Christ before the foundations
of the world, comes into the Kingdom of God by the spiritual
call of Jesus Christ, Time shall continue on, but when that time
comes, which I believe we are drawing nigh because of the signs
of the times around about us. Because we're living in the perilous
times, Paul talked about in his book of 1 and 2 Timothy, and
in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, they talked about that men shall be
lovers of self more than lovers of God. He said that children
shall be disobedient to parents. And he goes on and talks about
the signs of the times. There's things in there that
he prophesied about that were going to be signs of the times,
but brother, they are evident right now! More so than ever
before! And then continuing, let me continue
up with the next verse, which is the last verse of the chapter.
It says, For this man, Jesus, he did once, offer up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmity." The high priest in the Levitical tribe
of the Hebrews of Israel, they had infirmity. They had problems.
They had weaknesses. They were sickly and they died.
But it says, but the word of the oath which was since the
law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. There's no more
priest You see, that's what Catholicism
represents. I don't know if any of you have
been a Catholic before or brought up in Catholicism, but they have
a priesthood as you know, and they call them fathers. The Bible
says to call no man father as far as a spiritual aspect except
your father which is in heaven. The Catholics have a priesthood.
All that is, is Judaism with Christianity mixed together. And they're still trying to put
people under the old covenant and yet inject enough of the
gospel to where it might be entertaining to the ears of the people. They have a feeling that they
have to do something. And Catholicism offers people
something to do. You've got to give. You've got
to pray through. You've got to come and you've
got to go through the jinnuflexing and you've got to go through
the mass and you've got to be consecrated. You've got to go
through the catechism. See, religion teaches that men
have to do something. And people, by nature, they like
that. But God's people don't have to
do anything but believe. And belief on Christ by the work
of the Holy Spirit causes a transformation to come about within the heart,
mind, and soul of a person. And they don't have to do anything.
It ain't according to our works of righteousness that we have
done. It's according to His grace that He sought us and saved us.
Grace is the unmerited favor of God. He's our High Priest. He's taking care of everything.
We don't have to do anything except live our lives as the
Holy Spirit directs us and it will. Let me tell you something,
if I am not persuaded that the Holy Spirit of God shall direct
me every day of my life, I am of all men without really hope
of ever being Christ-like in any way. I'm persuaded that the
Holy Spirit that came and convicted me of my sin revealed to me Christ
as my only hope, and that the gospel is the truth as it is
in Jesus, and that in Him I can rest. In Him I have a Performer
who is performing all things for me. Listen to me. The Bible
says that He, Jesus, that has begun a good work in
you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And the
Bible also says that he that has begun a good work in you
shall perform it until the day of Christ. It says that, the
other verse is, I'm trying to think, for it is God. that worketh in you both to will,
have a desire, want to, and to do. That means to work it out
and accomplish it according to His good pleasure. It is God
that works in you to will, and to do of His good pleasure. And if it is not God that does
it, we are in sad shape, and we are without hope, and we are
never going to have immortal glory as a place to enjoy forever
and ever. And the Bible is not true. But
I can assure you, according to the Word of God, and according
to the totality of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, that
Jesus Christ came and fulfilled all righteousness. And in Him
we are made perfect, and in Him we will perform as Christians,
and we will live the life that He's called us to live. I didn't say live imperfect.
I didn't say live sinless. I said live the life we've been
called to live. But I'll tell you one thing right
now. A God called Christian cannot sin and continue in it and be
happy with it. You all hear me? A God called
Christian cannot live in sin and continue in it and be happy
with it. They will be chastened of God,
they will be reproved of God, or lest they be bastards. That's
what the Bible says. Unless they be bastards, and
you know what a bastard is. A bastard is one that is not
as illegitimate as far as the family of God goes. He's outside
the family, brother buddy. He ain't really one. And God
don't have no stepchildren, does he? Huh? He has real children. And they're born of the Spirit
of God. And that's what makes us live the life He's called
us to live. Oh may God bless you. I hope
you got a little bit of something. I hope you got a little gleaning
of something from what I've tried to set before you. I believe
what I've set before you is the gospel as the best I know it.
That Jesus Christ come to seek and save sinners. As Paul said,
of whom I am chief. Here was a man who was born among
the tribe of Benjamin as a Jew. He was taught in Judaism all
his life. He was a high priest in Judaism. He was taught under the teaching
of Gamaliel, according to the book of Acts. One of the most
intelligent, intellectual teachers of Judaism of his day. He was
a persecutor of the believers in Jesus Christ, as Saul. He was the zealot of Judaism
going out to kill those who believed in Christ. He was there holding
the garments of those that stoned Stephen, one chosen of the seven
in Jerusalem. As he was stoned to death, Paul
stood there. But yet, it wasn't long after
that that he was going to Damascus with an entourage of men to take
and go bind up more Christians with letters from the high priest. and stopped him in his place
and he slew him to the ground and he was blinded, he was struck
blind by the brilliance of Christ. And you know the rest of the
story according to Acts chapter 9. The testimony is Paul, whose
name at that time was Saul, the zealot, the Jew. He says, who
is it? Lord? And Jesus said, why is
it that you persecute? And he says, well how am I persecuting
you? He says, by persecuting those
of my body, those of whom are my children. And the Bible says, how is it
that you continue to kick against the pricks? In other words, how
is it that you continue And he told him to go into Damascus
and have the men lead him in there. He was blinded! Have the
men lead him into Damascus and meet one called Ananias. And
he'd pray for you and you would regain your sight and Ananias
baptized him. And he went out from there, the
Bible says, for a period of about three years and studied the Scriptures. And he came back to Jerusalem.
He came back a changed man with more knowledge and more understanding
and the depth of Jesus Christ and who He really was and who
He is. And he began to preach the gospel
of which Christ told him. He told Ananias, he says, I've
ordained this one Paul to go out and preach the gospel of
Christ to the Gentiles, of which he did. And he wrote 13 of the
epistles in this New Testament book of what we have. A man who
was a zealot against the things of God and against the church
of Christ was transformed. Read the book of Acts chapter
9. Just read that chapter if you haven't read it lately. Read
the testimony how God transformed his life and made him a new creature
in Christ Jesus.