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. Well, let me first of
all greet you in that precious and blessed name that is above
every name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that God has highly
exalted him, Jesus, by giving him a name above every name. And at the name of Jesus Christ
that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that
he is Lord to the glory and to the honor of God the Father in
time. That means those outside of those
who profess a belief in God, or Christ, that all of mankind
shall, in that day, bow the knee and confess with their tongue
that Jesus Christ is Lord. They're going to know that the
God of the Bible, Jehovah, Jehovah Jesus, as manifested in the God-man,
is the Lord. He is the Lord Elohim, Yahweh,
Jehovah, Jesus. And he sovereignly is in the
heavens, and he doeth whatsoever he pleases, the psalmist writes
in Psalm 115. I was impressed with what Justin
had shared in his testimony and in the words regarding the scriptures. The scriptures are inexhaustible,
and no matter when you read them, how often you read them, you'll
never exhaust the content of what's in the pages of this written
holy writ. As the Bible says, it has been
penned of men of old as moved by the Holy Spirit of God. And
God cannot lie. Therefore, what the Spirit has
moved men to pen that has been compiled in this book and has
been preserved for us for almost 400 years, I believe the King
James 1611 version has been preserved for divine purpose. That is classic
English verbiage and the way it's laid out is for also a divine
purpose. Now if you stop a minute and
think about it, the Bible as we know it did not always have
chapter and verse designations. It was done so later on after
its translation from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek to
English. Therefore, it was then broken
up into chapters and verse and it was uniquely done by the divine
sovereign purpose of God that the believers in Christ in time
would be able to reference it easily and to study it intensely
and to know more of the character and the attributes of God Almighty
and His darling Son Jesus Christ. You talk about the love of God.
Why is it that some love God and some don't love God? I'm
talking about the God of the Bible. I'm talking about that
which is manifested to us in this time dispensation, Jesus
Christ. God manifested in the flesh of
man. Why is it some love Him and some
don't? Because the Bible says in 1 John
that we love God, we that profess and believe to love God and to
love the Lord Jesus Christ, we do so because He first, Brother
Wells, He first loved us. If God Almighty had not first
loved us, we could not and would not love Him. It's just as simple
as that. Man by nature, as you have said,
is dark and gloomed by depravity's curse, which the federal head
of our nature, Adam, plunged us into a state of sinful depravity
that we could never find ourselves able to be rescued from apart
from. the sacrificial, vicarious work
of Christ on the cross of Calvary. And that is simple gospel truth.
So therefore we love God because He first loved us. Now, people
argue about the fact of God being the first cause. It ain't an
argument for me because when it comes to loving God, He is
the first cause. The Bible says so. I just quoted
it to you. And regarding the study of the
scriptures, as I said, it's inexhaustible. You'll never read it and be able
to comprehend all of it. As you said, there's mysteries
in here that I don't think men will be able to fully interpret
and shall be revealed unto them in the totality of it. Old men
speculate. Men have written books about
the book of Revelation. They have taken and spiritualized
it. They have taken and literalized it. They have taken and joined
it together and said this is the truth of the matter. I'm
telling you there is no one that knows the whole truth of the
matter of the book of Revelation because it is the revelation
of Jesus Christ. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ
to his churches and it was applied to the seven churches in particular
as it is described in the scriptures in the first three and four chapters
of the book of Revelation. Now that also is applicable to
us today in types and in shadows as to the condition of the churches. And so therefore when you read
the scriptures you will find that you can read the same scriptures
same chapter over and over as I have looked at this book for
some 37 years and I have found things in there new, fresh, revealing
and that are a blessing to me that I have read over numerous
times. And I believe that will be in
your experience if it hasn't been already. That as you read
the scripture you find things that are, wow, I've never seen
that before. Why not? Because the Holy Spirit
of God is the only revelator and revealer of the truth of
the matter. But the Bible says, Jesus said,
after He preached and taught His disciples in His public earthly
ministry, He said that when I go away, which I'm going to do,
I'm going to send a comforter. And I'm going to send this comforter,
which is the Spirit of God, and when He comes, He shall lead
you in what? All truth. He shall lead you
in all truth that you are to know. Now, let me say this. And
this is something that many ministers really don't have a grasp on
or consider. But every one of us here today,
as small a group as we are, whether there are five or fifty or five
hundred here today, none of us are at the same level of Christian
spiritual maturity. None of us. Some of us are little
children, infants in the things of the Lord. Some of us are a
little further up the scale than being adolescents or a young
adult. And some of us are up in the
elderly state of years in the realm of spirituality and the
understanding of God's Word as God brings us along the way and
teaches us and reveals to us as we grow in the grace and knowledge
of Jesus Christ. It is a growth, progression,
and it is done as we do look and study and read the word of
God as it's revealed to us, but we never get the totality of
it all in our entire pilgrim lifetime. I will die the death
of the mortal and go to the grave and will not have only seen but
just a little portion of what is in the book, Justin. I want
to read to you If God permits, the Lord's Prayer. Now, the Lord's
Prayer is not that which is found in Matthew's Gospel where he
said, Pray ye in like manner, Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. And he is in heaven, and hallowed
be his name, and holy is he But Jesus said this is a sample. But the Lord's prayer, where
the Lord Jesus Christ actually prayed, not as a sample, but
in behalf of his church, and the elect heirs of divine grace,
is found in the 17th chapter of John's Gospel. If you have
a Bible and you want to follow me, please do so, because I'm
going to read pretty much the text of it. John chapter 17.
This is the Lord's Prayer. For it says this in John 17,
verse 1. These words spake Jesus, and
lifted up his eyes into heaven, and said, Father, the hour has
come, glorify thy Son, and thy Son also may glorify thee. as
thou hast given him power over all flesh. Now how much power
has Christ got in regarding mankind? The Bible says, Jesus said as
he prayed to the Father, I have power over all flesh. Now, how many does that include?
That means all, the totality of mankind. I don't care whether
he's a Muslim, a Hindu, whether he's black or whether he's white,
Jesus Christ has power over all mankind. And as I said before,
the psalm of David writes that our God, our God is in the heavens
and He does whatsoever He pleases because He has all power. He's
not limited. If you have a limited God here
today, I hope you leave without one. Because our God, the God
that this Bible represents is unlimited in His power, His sovereignty,
His almighty ability and attributes. The Bible says that Jesus prayed. He says that I have all power,
been given all power. And he says, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now, how many
in Christ's prayer are going to have eternal life out of the
totality of mankind? As many as God the Father hath
given him and not another one shall be added. They shall be
called the sheep of the Lord's flock. They shall be called the
wheat of God's crop. They shall be called the heirs
of divine grace. They shall be called the appointed,
elect, ordained, predestined heirs of divine grace according
to God's divine purpose. that was established before the
foundation of the world, before the planets had had their round,
and the sun had its brilliance, God had determined a people for
his son to seek out and save in time. And the Bible says Jesus
in verse 3, he continues and says, and this is the life eternal
that they might know thee. The only true God, this is the
only true God, Justin, you were talking about. The rest of the
gods are of men's imaginations and made up of men. Just as all
the other idols that the heathen have made and carved out of wood
and made out of grave and stone that they might worship and bow
to. But Jesus said that they might know that I am the only
true God and that God the Father is the only true deity and the
God Almighty and that Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on earth,
verse 4. I have finished the work which
thou hast given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before when? Before the world was. Oh, the
preexistence of Christ is a subject that you cannot wear it out. You cannot preach it long enough.
You cannot do it justice in ten sermons. The pre-existence of
Christ is a unique mystery only known to the heirs of grace.
That Jesus Christ existed with the Father in the beginning.
And as you read the book of Genesis, as you see, that God had made
all things by Christ Jesus. As it says also, it reiterates
it in Philippians. that all things were created
by him, for without him was nothing created. Jesus Christ created
all things before he had a human body and was born of the Virgin
Mary, back before even the foundation of the world as things were being
created. He was the creator. Jesus Christ
is still the creator. You say, well, what do you mean
by that, brother? I thought God had finished his work in six
days and rested. Yes, he did. But he's, listen
to me, he's spiritually creating new creatures in Christ Jesus,
Brother Wells. He's still calling them by his
spirit and causing their hearts and minds to be transformed and
making them new creations in Christ Jesus. The Bible goes
on to say, he says that I have manifested thy name unto them,
to these men, which thou gavest me out of the world." Now, Jesus
Christ has been given a people out of the world of mankind.
In this particular phrase here, he's saying, these men which
you have given me, these disciples, these followers, these apostles
which I have chosen, which were ordained to be such, he says,
you have given these men to me out of the world. They have been
called out of the world. The Bible says we that believe
on Christ that are here this morning, we are in this world. The proof of it is that we have
a moral body that we're walking around in. But we are in this
world, but yet we that have been born of the Spirit of God and
given a love and a hope in Christ Jesus, we are not of this world. We're in it, but not of it. We
have a dual citizenship. I have a citizenship proven by
my birth certificate and by my mortal body that stands before
you. But yet I have another citizenship. I've been translated into the
kingdom of God's darling son Jesus Christ according to the
scriptures. And to those who believe on Christ
have been translated into the kingdom of God's dear son as
well. The Bible says, Jesus goes on
to say, that I have taken these men that you have given me out
of the world, and thine they were, and thou gavest me them,
and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. They have been
taught and revealed by Christ and by the Spirit, that everything
that Jesus Christ has spoke, and everything that he has, They
have been able to receive because God had revealed it to them.
Or in verse 8, For I have given unto them the words which thou
gavest me. And they received them, and they
have known surely that I have come out from thee. And they
have believed that thou didst send me. It is essential and
I believe that it is one of the evidences of one who is spiritually
born of God that they believe that Jesus Christ came from God. That he is deity. that he is
co-equal with the Father. Jesus said to Philip, what Philip
said in the 14th chapter of John's Gospel, he says, Philip said
to the Lord Jesus, he said, Lord, Master, he says, when are you
going to reveal to us of the Father? And he said, oh Philip,
he said, how long have I been with you? And have you not known
me? He said, if you've seen me, You've seen the Father. But they
that saw Jesus Christ in a physical, personal body saw God in the
flesh. The Bible says in verse 9, look
at this verse especially. Jesus said, I pray for them,
for these which God had given him, as in the reference of the
text. Listen, I pray not for the world. Jesus did not pray for the world. He prayed for them that the Father
had given him. They which the Father gave him
before the foundation of the world, whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. And the Bible goes on to say
that You have given them to me, I
pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me,
for they are thine. Everyone that believes on Christ
has been given to Christ by the Father that they would believe
on Christ. And as I said earlier, we believe
on Christ because He has first loved us and caused us. The Bible says in I believe the
61st Psalm about verse 4, it says, For blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Let me
tell you something, unless God caused an individual to approach
unto Him, He ain't coming, Brother Wells. He can't come. His heart's
depraved. His ears are spiritually dead. His eyes are blinded to the things
of the kingdom of God. Oh, unless God calls one to come,
by sovereign grace, draw that one into a place where they are
awakened into the spiritual aspect of the truth of the gospel, that
good news, that rings true and sound in the ears of God's elect
children. That's the only good news that
will do us any good down here as poor and needy sinners. The
Bible says, verse 10, And all mine are thine, and thine are
mine, and I am glorified in them. Jesus Christ is going to be glorified
in his people. He is going to have a church.
This is the purpose of God in mankind. And you say, Justin,
you say, why does God do this? Why did He make us like this?
Why did He make this world? Why did He make mankind? Why
was I born? Well, I'll tell you what, in
regarding the Kingdom of God, He has brought us along this
way to the point we're at today that we might, what? It says that we might glorify
Christ. through our lives as his sheep
and the heirs of his fold. We are going to glorify Christ. You say, we are going to? What
if I rebel? Let me tell you something, dear
brothers and sisters. We can rebel, and we often do,
because as it has been already established, we have a dark part
of us that is a fleshly nature that still is haunting us, but
yet it does not dominate us as it once did. Because Jesus Christ
is taken as a boat in us and therefore sin has no more dominion
over us. Now that's important for you
to get in your mind. Sin does not have dominion over
us. If it does, then you've got a
problem. You better make your calling
and election sure. You better seek the Lord in behalf
of what's going on. But the Bible says that we are
going to glorify God. We're going to be conformed to
the image of Christ in this time world as we go along in this
pilgrim way of soldiers and strangers down here below. God has got
a church. It's going to be without spot
or wrinkle in the time when he comes back to take it. And we're
going to be transformed from this mortal realm to an immortal
realm and an incorruptible body likened unto his own glorified
resurrected body. The Bible says in verse 11, and
now I am no more in the world. Now, he's talking about that
he is fixing to depart. He said, I'm not in the world.
He says, I was in the world in the realm of a mortal man, born
and came up through the lineage of David and through Mary, as
Joseph being recognized as earthly father, which he wasn't. He was really a stepfather. His father is God Almighty. His mother being of the natural
realm, the Virgin Mary, chosen of God to begot that babe in
a manger. The Bible says, and now I'm no
more in the world, but these are in the world and I come to
thee. In other words, Father, I'm getting ready. I'm getting
ready to leave this place. It says, Holy Father, keep through
thine own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may
be one as we are," what? One. God the Father and Jesus
Christ are one. They are inseparable. You can't
separate them. They are one. God the Father
is manifested in the person of Christ Jesus. God took upon the
mortal flesh of mankind to be likened unto his own brethren
that he can identify with all of our problems down here below. He can identify with your infirmities,
with your emotional situations. He can identify with what you're
confronted with every day of your life. He can identify, Brother
Wells, with our physical problems, and we get to be old folks and
hobble around, and our legs ain't as strong as they used to be.
And I can't do the things I could do when I was 35. It's coming
on me fast too, Brother. But I'll tell you what, Jesus
Christ knows what we are going through. He can identify with
us. That's why he's such a precious
high priest. That's why he's seated at the
right hand of the Father, making intercession for us right now,
because he knows what we have to endure and go through in this
time world. The Bible goes on to say, in
verse 12, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in
thy name. Jesus kept them. In other words,
the Spirit of God had not ascended down on the day of Pentecost
and indwelt the believer to the point of where they were kept
by the indwelling power of the Spirit. But Jesus personally,
he was there with them disciples and the apostles that he had
chosen, and he kept them, and because he being God the Son,
Father, and Holy Spirit, the three that are inseparable, he
was the keeper of the disciples while present with them. But
listen to this. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I
have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition,
that the scriptures might be fulfilled." Talking about Judas
Iscariot, the betrayer of the Lord Jesus. Verse 13, And now
come I to thee. He said, And these things I speak
unto the world, in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world." Now
what I tell you a while ago, we're in the world, but not of
the world as believers in Christ. We are born into a kingdom that
is above and beyond this world, the spiritual kingdom of God.
He says, because they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. And the Bible says, and I pray
not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but thou
shouldest keep them from the evil. In other words, he prayed,
Father, I don't want you to take them out of the world. That's
not what I'm praying for. I want you to keep them in the
world, but I want you to keep them from the evil one. Keep
them from temptation. Deliver them from temptation.
And from doing that which is contrary to the holiness and
righteous character of God Almighty. The Bible goes on to say in verse
16, They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through what? Thy truth. And then it goes on
to say this, Thy word is truth. The word of God is true. As I began, I said to you that
the word of God, penned by the men of old as they were, inspired
and led of the Holy Spirit of God, it is perfect, it is in all of its aspects. People
can try to criticize it. They've tried to refute it for
almost 400 years in the interpretation of it. But you can go right back
to the original text. All you have to do is buy a Greek
lexicon at a bookstore and research and look up words and look for
yourself and study to see what's been translated. I mean, it don't
take a rocket scientist to do some of this stuff. We got helps
today that men didn't have 50 years ago, 100 years ago. They
didn't have a Storm's Concordance. They could look up a word or
many words in relation to the scripture subject matter and
to look up the Greek word and see what it really meant in the
interpretation by the original language. But I'm telling you,
it's the word of God that is true. Thy word is truth. Because
God cannot lie, which I said before, and I want to reiterate
that. God who cannot lie, and if he
cannot lie, he's inspired men of his spirit, which is holy,
to write these words, then this book can be relied upon, and
it's absolute. Now listen here. This book, the
Word of God, the Old Covenant, Old Testament, New Testament,
New Covenant, in all of its entirety, is the Word of God and is absolute. There is no shadow of turning
with any of its composition. It is absolute in what it means.
When it says in there that Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life, and no man come to the Father but by me, that
is an absolute fact. that is only revealed to the
heirs of grace by the Spirit of God. I believe that to the
death of this body in the grave. I may die, God permit, by His
sovereign mercy, that I would say that, and to the last breath
that I have in this mortal frame, that Jesus Christ is the way,
the truth, and the life. I'll say it to any of the religious people of the world and no matter
what they believe in or what they're persuaded in, Jesus Christ
is the Lord. He goes on to say, He says, as thou hast sent me
into the world, even so I also send them into the world. He's
going to send them into the world. He's going to send them out for
a purpose. He says that in verse 19, for their sakes I sanctify myself. In other words, I want to set
myself apart, that they also might be set apart through the
truth. Listen, the truth of God's word
is a sanctifying means. It's a means. It sets apart that
little child of God as they study and meditate upon its words.
It sets us apart from the thoughts and the gestures and the little
toys of this world that we live in around about us. It takes
and sets us apart from the riches and the relics that are in this
world that we're so easily drawn to by nature. because we're in
the world and out of it, it sets us apart, it sanctifies us. That's
what the word sanctify means. There's nothing magic about that
word sanctify. It's like some religionists teach
that sanctification is a more purified walk or a more purified
way of life as you continue along the way. No, that word sanctify
is merely a term that is meaning set apart. Sanctify them, Jesus
said. Set them apart. And he does and
he's continued to set us apart for his glory, honor, and praise
in this time world. Verse 20 Neither pray I for beasts
alone. Now listen, here is where I want
to really focus in on to. Take your spiritual magnifying
glasses, if God has given you some, and look at this verse.
Neither pray I for beasts alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word. Now listen, we believe today. by the work of God's Spirit in
the heart and mind, but it is by the testimony and the record
of the word of God, the gospel, that is the good news that gives
us joy, peace, and happiness in heart, knowing that we have
been sought out and saved by our blessed Redeemer. The Bible
says that I pray not for just these that are here with me,
but Father, I'm praying for all that's going to believe down
through the ages of time from every tongue, kindred, and nation
that you have elected in Christ Jesus, my beloved Son. To be the heirs of grace, verse
21, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me. There's the oneness of God the
Father. I'm not just telling you something off the top of
my head. I'm reading to you from the scriptures. Jesus said, as
we are one. He said they were one. I believe
they were one. They are one. They're one today.
The Bible says, that they may be one. It is the purpose of God to have
a church and have it in this time world as a witness of the
power and the salvation of God. And that church has been established
and is continuing to be established as God is calling out his people
and drawing them to Jesus Christ. No matter where they're at, no
matter if they're to the furthest island or to the highest mountain,
if God's got an elect there that he's going to give. The Bible
says in verse 21 that all may be one, even Father, are in me,
I in thee. They also may be one in us, that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me. There is the witness
that you believe that Jesus Christ is one with the Father. and that
they are inseparable, that Jesus Christ is Deity, and that is
the testimony that He has given us by His Spirit that we can
testify of today. We believe that. God has revealed
it to us in our heart by His Spirit. The Bible says that He
does that to all of His people as He quickens them by His Spirit
and causes them to be born into the Kingdom of God. The Bible
says Also, in verse 23, well let me read 22. And the glory which thou hast
givest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one. There again is the oneness of
Christ and the Father, inseparable. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. Now that word perfect is another
word that can be misinterpreted and has been misused. That we
might be perfect. We are never going to be perfect
as mortals in this time world in the totality of our makeup. We're only perfect in one aspect,
and that is in the spirit man, the new man in us, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory. There is a part of us that is
perfect. It is Christ in us. It is the
spirit of God that makes us, before God Almighty, perfect
in His sight. And the Bible says that And that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now, that is such a blessing
to me. That God the Father has loved
them, those who believe. We, today, that have been caused
to believe on Christ, are loved as He loves His Son. Why? Because His Son is in us. So simple. Jesus Christ in us,
Paul said. The hope of glory. Christ in
you. And God loves us because Christ
is in us. Before Christ came within us,
though we be determined of God to be his elect people, to believe
in time on Christ, yet his love is now manifested to we which
have been able to believe in such a depth that it causes us
to desire to please him. Or you say, what is it we can
do to please God? Is it by works and duty? Is it
by obligation? No, it's out of love. Love is
the motivation of the life of the Christian. We're motivated
by love because He first loved us and He loves us because Christ
is in us. Verse 24, Father, I will that
they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory
which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. God the Father had loved Christ
before the foundation of the world and he loved his church
bride before the foundation of the world. And it is a bride
because Jesus is the ultimate bridegroom. that is going to
come and summons, when he brings us all to conclusion, he's going
to summons this bride of his that are the elect of God, that
are born of his Spirit, that are round about this globe, that
make up the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those that have
gone on before us and was given that blessed hope of salvation
by grace are going to be called from those graves, resurrected
in that general resurrection time, and stand before God Almighty.
And let me tell you something, there's two groups of people
in this time world as we know. There are GOATs. There are sheep,
there are wheat, and there is tares. I think I might have said
this last time I was with y'all. There's only two types of folks,
and they are given in the symbol and in the analogy of goat and
sheep and wheat and tares. Wheat is that of the good crop,
the good portion of the crop. The tare is that which is a weed.
It's a shaft. It is of no use at all. They
are those of the non-elect of God. Those that God has been
pleased to pass over in time. Those that are not part of the
Bride of Christ. Those that are not elect, appointed
in heirs of grace. And then there are the goats
and the sheep. The sheep are those chosen of
God, the elect of God. Those that shall stand before
God Almighty on His right hand according to the scriptures at
that great Judgment Day. Those on His right hand are going
to be the sheep of God. the elect of God standing there
in all of their white-robed arrayed, righteousness of Christ as is
applied to them before God the Father in his holy presence. And yet on the left hand will
be those that are the goats, those that listen were always
determined to be a goat. Nowhere in the Holy Bible can
you ever find an example where a sheep was ever made a goat,
or a goat made a sheep, or a wheat a tare, or a tare made a wheat.
They were either one or the other as determined and ordained by
God before the foundation of the world. And there are the only two groups
that's going to be there in that great and wondrous day when the
general resurrection of all mankind shall stand before God. They'll
be there on the right hand, those chosen in Christ Jesus, called
to salvation and the experience of grace in this time realm.
caused to believe and made to love God because he first loved
them and put his love upon them and his mercy upon them and said
they are my people and I am going to cause them to be drawn out. of this time world of sin and
woe, of depraved, sinful, wicked life into a new life in my son
Jesus Christ and they'll be walking in a new way. The Bible, the
writer of Hebrews says, by a new and living way Christ has ushered
in a new covenant. What does that mean? That means
that that which was old, the old covenant, the Old Testament
given to the Jews, has waxed old and has now vanished away.
But now, by new and living way, we have access to God and we
enter into the Holy of Holies through the precious blood of
Jesus and we are now made the heirs of grace in and through
the person of Christ as he calls us out with that so great experience
of salvation in this time world. In conclusion, Verse 25, Jesus
said, O righteous father, the world had not known thee, the
world never will know him. The world never will know Jesus
as far as the world goes of the unsaved, unregenerate characters
of mankind. They'll never know him. You ever
stop and think about why that the name Jesus Christ is so readily
used as a curse word? You ever stop and think about
that? I lived 27 years in my testimony, Justin, as a non-regenerate
character. I was brought up as a little
boy in a Methodist church in central Indiana. Went to Sunday
school, and that was the first four or five years, six years
of my life. That's all I knew about church and religion. My
mom and dad separated when I was about seven or eight years old
and divorced. I was raised by my mom, my brother,
and I. We were hellions. I had done some wicked things.
I was a crazy dude, buddy. I was a rebel. I did not darken
the door of a church house until I was 27 years old. Had been
married six years, had a four-year-old daughter. I thought I was living
my own life, man. I was doing my own thing. But
a friend of mine, I used to race cars. A friend of mine that was
A pretty renowned engine builder from California had moved to
Florida. I lived in St. Petersburg for about 52 years,
up until 1999. He moved to Florida, he moved
to Clearwater, and he worked for one of the biggest race shops
down there. And I was building a race car
at the time. I was a drag racer. I had drag cars and motorcycles. He had moved to Florida from
California because he was trying to get away from his mother and
father. who were devout Christians, who loved Christ, who had brought
him up in the church and tried to teach him the ways of what
was right and the ways of the Bible and the scriptures. But
he got to a place when he was about 18, 20 years old and he
got married and he said, you know, I can't handle this anymore. You know, that ain't for me.
I need to get away from this and this influence. And he took
off and he moved his family from California to Florida. Well,
he worked for this shop for about a year or so. He was building
an engine for me, and I always liked the guy. I never heard
him say a cuss word. He had a good demeanor about
him, Brother Wells, a nice guy, because of his upbringing. But
yet, there was something about him that was a little different
than most guys. He was sitting on a hot tank that is used to
boil engine blocks and parts in. to clean them, and it had
a plywood top on it on one chilly night in this race shop. And as he sat on that thing,
the top gave in. And he fell into it, up to his
knees and under his armpits, and was engulfed in that scalding
hot acid chemical. And there were two or three guys
in the shop, he was working late at night, and he screamed and
hollered, and they came and got him. They took him out of that
tank and they ran him into the shower in the restroom area of
the shop and they began to wash him off, trying to get the stuff
off of him. With the washing of the skin, the skin came off
the first layer because it was just burnt. Well, they called
the 911, paramedics came, took him to the hospital. He got some
of the stuff in his ear, lost a hearing in one ear. He was
burnt on his arms, his whole torso, body, his legs and all.
He was in the hospital and I went up to see him about 3 or 4 days
after he was in there. He was there, gauze all around
him. His arms were all just supported
up. He was under a lot of pain medication. Of course, you can
imagine how the pain would have been. I went in to see him. I said, wow, how you doing, buddy? He says, I'm doing OK. And you
know, I saw a difference about his demeanor. Of course, he was
under sedation. I realize that. And he was in
very much pain. But there was a difference about
him that I noticed. He says, you know, You know something,
Don? He's never talked to me at all
about church, God, anything prior to this moment. He says, you
know, God has a strange way of getting people's attention when
he wants to. I looked at him kind of funny
because I'm not a religious guy. I'm just an old foul-mouthed
crazy racer. I said, what do you mean? He
says, you know, I was brought up in a Christian home. My mom
and daddy are devout Christians. And you know, he says, I've been
running from God. Kind of like Jonah, the rebel. Four seasons. And he says, I
was running from God, and I moved over here. And he says, look
at me now. And he began to weep. And he says, Jesus Christ has
got me in this condition, sitting here, laying in this hospital.
And I can do nothing but look up, and all I do is say, oh God,
have mercy on me. He said, Jesus Christ has come
over me in such a way, he says, that I can't explain it. I didn't know what to think.
This was new to me. And he talked just a short while,
and I didn't want to wear him down anymore because of his pain
and all. And he said, you see that table
over there? I said, yeah. He said, see that
little blue book? There's a little Gideon Bible. Little blue cover
on it. New Testament. He says, I want
you to take that little book. It's a Bible. I want to give
it to you. I just want you to take it home. He said, maybe
it'll mean something to you. And I said, well, I appreciate
it. I appreciate it. You know, I
was grateful, you know, and I went and took it and I put it in my
pocket. I said, I hope to see you in a week or so, if I can
do anything at all, let me know. And he says, no problem. He said,
I just got to take and get healed up and have your afts done and
all this stuff. Time went on and I went up to
see him again. He was progressing and able to
talk more and tell me more about Christ and what he had done in
his life in the situation he had been brought through. And
I went home that evening with that on my mind. And it was about
a week or so later that I was in my home and my wife had gone
on to, I think, a Tupperware party. I believe it was where
she went. And I was there, my young daughter
was in bed asleep, and there was that little Bible, that Gideon
Bible, sitting there on the table by the chair where I was sitting
at in my family room. And I sit there, and I took that
little Bible out, and I opened it up, and now this is how God
works in a sovereign manner towards his people. I took that little
Bible, and I opened it up, and it had in there, you can say
what you want to about this plan of salvation aspect, Roman roads
and this missionary concept of trying to get people saved and
all that. But this little Bible had a series
of scriptures in the front of it about God's purpose. And it had in there Romans 3.23,
all have sinned, come short to the glory of God. All have gone
astray, there's none right, there's none but one. I was overwhelmed,
Brother Wells, at that time, that I was a sinner. I never was before. I was fine. I was living the life of a normal
human being in a depraved state of sinfulness going about life's
way. All of a sudden, sin was revealed
to me in such a magnitude that I was just overwhelmed by it.
and said, but the gift of God is the eternal life of Jesus
Christ our Lord. And I can remember back as a
little bitty child in that little Sunday school session, in that
little church in that neighborhood up in Indiana, hearing about
Jesus Christ. And I began to have a hearing
ear that Jesus Christ was a good shepherd. And I saw for the first
time in my life, at 27 years old, sitting in my living room,
I saw for the first time myself as a little sheep and Jesus as
a good shepherd who had come to give me. And I fell on my
knees and I said, Dear God, can this be true? And Jesus Christ
is who He says He is, and I want to be a Christian. I want to
go to heaven. And there come over me the Spirit
of God in such a way that I had never prayed before since I was
a little bitty child when my mother laid me down to sleep.
I pray the Lord my soul to, you know, if I should die before
I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. That's all my mama ever
prayed with me as a little boy. I was on my knees and I honored
God the Father whom I had never given honor to before other than
by the cursing of my mouth. And I said, God if this be true,
give me this hope and this salvation that's talked about here. The
testimony of that man The witness of the Spirit and God's Holy
Spirit in me, drawing me to that revelation of Christ and who
He is, was a life-changing experience for me. That was in 1971. And
I'm telling you here, it'll testify that I ain't been the same since.
God called me to preach about two years later. in a little
missionary church and I was preaching at a rescue mission where the
derelicts and the street people would gather in and they'd have
a chapel meeting of the night. And I would just tell them the
only thing I knew, Christ had done something in my life. And
I'd quote to them some verses just as shallow as I knew. As time went on, I progressed
along as I couldn't get enough of the scriptures. The first
thing I did was go buy me a Bible. It was a little Nelson study
Bible. I took it to work with me. I
was a superintendent in the electrical trade at the time and I had opportunities
to take at my leisure and read the scriptures. because I was
supervising a pretty good-sized job and had my own little office
area, and I couldn't get enough of the scriptures. I read it
during break time, I read it at noontime, I went home and
read it at night. And I took it, I wore that Bible
out. And this one here, I had it redone
in about, as a matter of fact, there's even a sheet in here
that talks about the warranty on it. I believe it was in 1985, I had
this rebound because the pages and the cover was just so tattered
on it. But I'll tell you what, I've
had a love for that book and for the words that are contained
within it ever since. And that is my testimony and
my experience. You can't escape God. Just as
that guy that was burnt in that hot tank was in that hospital
he had run from God as far as he was able to go and God jerked
the cord and stopped him in his mad pursuit of sinfulness and
got his attention and said you ain't going no further Buster
I'm arresting you by my sovereign mercy and grace and I'm going
to cause you to look upon the only one that has any any hope
of saving your soul. And he was a changed man. I never
heard him say anything contrary to the things of the Lord before.
That's why I say there was something different about him and the way
he was brought up. But after that, Christ was his message. Everywhere he went, that's all
he could tell people. He says, look at me. He says,
you know, God had got my attention. Look at the scars on my arms.
Let me tell you, when Jonah ran, and he got on that ship and headed
to Tarsus, and he got out there in that raging sea, and those
waves had come up over the side of there, they said, what in
the world is going on? What has caused this to come
about? Who is the man that's on this ship that's caused this
to occur? There's something wrong here.
What God is it that has caused this to happen? sailors on there
of all different beliefs. Oh, but it was Jonah. It was
that one that was down in the hole. They went down and summons
up. And he says, where are you headed to? He says, well, I'm
the one who believes in the God, Jehovah, and I'm headed for Tarsus. And they said, well, it was revealed
that he was the man that was caused the problem. And so overboard
he goes. And there was a fish, listen
to this, prepared. Prepared. That means that it
was pre-made for a divine purpose. God had prepared a large fish
called a whale, the Bible says fish, to swallow Jonah. and regurgitate him upon the
shore of Nineveh where he was originally told to go to, but
in his rebellion he was going the other way because he didn't
like those folks at Nineveh. You know why, Brother Wells?
You know why? Because those folks at Nineveh
were Arabs. You know, that's what we call
them today. That was before they even had the term Arab. That's
before Islam was even established as a religion. Those folks over
there in Assyria and in Persia were Arabs back then. They were
anti-Jehovah God, and they had pagan gods, and that's who they
were. Those Ninevites, Nineveh geographically
is within just a few miles of Baghdad, Iraq. Historically,
geographically proven. He didn't like those people.
Jonah didn't want to go to those bunch of heathens. But God was
going to see that he went there regardless, didn't he? to even
prepare the fish to swallow him, regurgitate him, that he would
go and preach to them the God of the Israelites, that they
would repent to fulfill the sovereign work of God Almighty. And it
was accomplished. But you know something? The whole
analogy of the book of Jonah, when you begin to read it and
study it over years, you'll begin to see that God, in his almighty
sovereign purpose, was not mainly interested in giving the message
merely to those of Nineveh, but he was to teach his preacher
that you can't run far enough to escape the sovereign hand
of God Almighty. For he will chasten whom he loves,
he will correct them, and he will turn them on the path to
where they are to be walking, and away they go. You ever read
Pilgrim's Progress? Pilgrim's Progress was written
by a man named John Bunyan. He was a Puritan back in the,
I think, latter 1600s. He wrote an analogy of the Christian
life, and Pilgrim's Progress is a book where you can buy it
today. You can buy a pictorial copy. It's for youngsters. It
has pictures in it, which are just, you know, illustrations
and stuff. But the gist of it is, is the
pilgrimage of the Christian in this world and what we are confronted
with as we go through this life to re-reach that celestial city. And we reach, I mean, we run
into some characters. There's people in there like
Mr. Pliable, Mr. Worldly Wise Man, the guy named
Evangelist, and the Slough of Despair was a place where he
fell into and he couldn't get out of, and here comes this man
Evangelist, and he helped pull him out of there and told him
about the path that goes to that celestial city. Oh, it's a beautiful
analogy. I mean, it was used even as a
textbook of literature in the school systems of this nation
back in the early 1900s. But what I'm trying to say and
what I want to conclude with is this, that Jesus Christ in
his prayer, he said, I pray not for the world. And I've heard
people pray, and they have good intentions. Oh Lord, save the
world. Well, the Lord ain't going to
save the world. The Lord has already, in his
sovereign purpose, saved his elect, but yet they are to be
manifested in this time as they believe on his son Jesus. Now,
he has a church, as I said. It is made up from every tongue,
kindred, and nation. It is around this geographical
globe everywhere of those who believe on Christ and have been
caused to believe on Christ by the wooing and drawing of the
Holy Spirit of God. That's the only way a man, a
woman, boy or girl is ever going to be able to appease God the
Father. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done or can do. It's not by duty, works, and
obligations that we're going to appease God. It's only going
to be through the person of Jesus Christ of whom lives in us and
causes us, listen, to will, have a desire, and to do to accomplish
His will. It is Christ that works in you
both to will and to do of His good pleasure. For he, Jesus,
that has begun a good work in you, shall, not try to, shall
perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. I believe that with all
my heart. I rely upon that with all my
soul. That the Christian life is not
of duty obligations, it is of Christ Jesus living in us and
causing us to be the testimony and witness of his loving grace
and sovereign mercy. It's just as simple as that.
Look into Jesus. Trust in Christ. Behold Him who
alone has come to seek and to save the sinner. Behold Him who
alone can cause one to walk in the way of righteousness. Behold
Him who had been tempted in every way, yet without sin. Behold
Him who the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.21 Paul says, God had made
Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Oh brother, oh Justin, we're
made the righteousness of God in Christ. It's established as
a fact. We're righteous before God because
of Jesus and Him in us and His blood atonement covers all of
our sin, not part of it, not just the past things that we
repent of, but the past, the present, the future, all of our
sin. In other words, how could there be a finished work if Christ
had not done it all and finished it all? We are saved with the
blessed hope of salvation eternal by his vicarious, sacrificial
blood atonement that once and for all has redeemed us unto
the Father through his precious blood. Oh, oh, that precious
blood. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And guilty sinners that are plunged
beneath that flood, they lose all, not some, all their guilty
sins. To Christ be the glory, honor,
and the praise is my humble prayer. May God bless you and thank you
for your kind attention. You have been a pleasure to be
with this morning. May God bless you.