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. In line with what Brother
Buddy said regarding Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, For faith is the substance of things
hoped and the evidence of things not
seen. That is the purest definition
of the word faith that you'll ever find. And, you know, there's
no dictionary, there's no book that's ever been put together
by man that can ever define it more pure than that. But faith
is the substance of things hoped for. and the evidence of things
not seen. There is a substance to faith,
and there is evidence that follows one that has faith. Now, yes,
the old Baptist are certainly ones who have been accused of,
more than probably most, of saying that, I have a hope. immortal. Because someone who,
say for instance, has been brought up in the old church since they
were old enough to remember and that though they have had an
experience of a hope in Christ as their only help and hope in
the time of need during this time walk. someone who has lived 25-30 years
in this life and has tasted the wretched and wickedness of sin
and the life thereof, when they have been given this faith and
this grace to believe on Christ, there is a great transformation
that occurs often. Nevertheless, the Bible says
you must be born again. And the new birth is that which
is just that. It brings about a new creature. Because the Bible says that if
any man be in Christ and has given evidence of this hope in
Christ, they have become a new creation or a new creature. And so therefore, the Bible says,
behold, old things have passed away and all things have become
new. There is a transformation that
takes place when a person comes to experience this faith and
hope. Now, like I said, a lot of folks
can't put a finger on a time or a date necessarily, but yet
they have a substance within their heart, mind, and soul that
is that which has been implanted there by God Almighty, and they
have evidence of that hope, which is the works that follow hope
by the work of Christ in us, the hope of glory. And so therefore,
the evidence of hope is that we walk in a way that desires
to follow Jesus. The natural man, natural mind,
does not desire to follow Jesus. They have a concept of a different
and another Jesus. They have the mindset of a Jesus
that is an all-loving, kind of a syrupy, sweet-loving, effeminate
Savior that just loves everybody, and that if that's the case,
then He would never be so vengeance-filled to put a man or woman, boy or
girl, into the dregs of hell for eternity. But I'll tell you
what, the Bible teaches about a God that is an almighty God. A God who is a God of justice,
judgment, and vengeance upon those that are ungodly and the
sinner. For he, the soul that sinneth,
shall surely die. But there's only one way that
one shall escape the death that is called for by the guilty sinner
upon the judgmental justice of God Almighty, and that is if
they have been redeemed they have been paid for with all of
their sin and transgressions by the precious atoning blood
of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. And only by that
atoning work, that finished work on Calvary, can a man ever be
justified before God Almighty. Yes, Faith is the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I'm reading
to you from the 8th chapter of Romans. If you have a Bible and
would like to follow me, please do so. The 8th chapter of the
book of Romans. Now, in regarding talking about
faith, and hope. The Bible says, as Paul writes
to this church at Rome, and he writes in the 24th verse of the
8th chapter this, for we are saved by hope. We are saved by
hope. Well, I thought we were saved
by grace. We are. I thought we were saved by faith.
We are. Faith and hope are synonymous and are inseparable. You cannot
have faith without hope. And if you've got genuine hope,
then faith is going to be evidenced by it. Now it says we are saved
by hope. Listen now, the hope that is
seen is not hope. But he said that. But he said
that if your hope is able to be seen, and you can see it,
and it is identifiable by the natural mind and the intellect
of the natural man, then it's no longer hope. Because if you
see it, it's no longer hope for. I hope that we would get a new
table to put in this room. Okay, and then when it is put
there, then it's no longer, I hope we get it, there it is, I see
it. So we no longer hope for a new
table, we have that table here, and so therefore it's no longer
hope. But we have not seen heaven yet. That's why the Bible says, as
Paul records numerous times, that we have a hope. of the eternal,
immortal heaven and glory, because we ain't been there yet. I haven't
met anybody that has. I've heard all these stories
about people that have had death experiences on the operating
tables and this and that, and they've seen this great place
of bright light and a glorious big room and angels and all this
stuff. There's no evidence of that in
the scriptures. Paul has seen the third heaven
and yet he couldn't even describe it. He said it was beyond the
comprehension of man. All of a sudden we've got folks
in the last four or five generations that have seen this place and
this death experience. I don't believe in none of it. I think it is a hallucination
of the natural mind under sedation of medication, personally. And
I think most people would probably prove that in the medical science. The strange thing about it is
some of the folks that have wrote books about this experience of
the afterlife and this death experience have been brought
back to life are not even Christians. So therefore, they're going to
be seeing some glorious place of immortality, of brilliant
lights and angels, and place of joy and happiness? I dare
say that apart from a hope in Christ and a reliance on the
delivering work of Christ on the cross of Calvary, no one
is going to enjoy the bliss of heaven apart from that. Paul said, for we're saved by
hope, but hope that is seen is no longer hope, for what a man
seeth. Why doeth ye yet hope for? In other words, if you see something,
what do you yet hope for it? If we had seen heaven, why do
we hope for it? Because hope, like I say, is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. It is by faith that we have this blessed hope of eternal
glory and sins forgiven. Paul says, but if we hope for
that which we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it. I am patiently, as I can be,
and a lot of times I don't have any patience. Sometimes I think
I'm the most impatient person. But I'll tell you what, we are
made to wait with patience upon that time when we're translated
from this life in the mortal realm to that which will be the
immortal realm in eternal glory. We don't have no choice but to
have patience and wait. So therefore, that's why we say,
yes, we have a hope. of immortal glory as our final
resting place in the bliss of heaven with Jesus Christ seeing
him face to face as our Lord and our Savior. The Bible says
in verse 26, It says, likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. The Spirit of God, when we're
not able to even pray as we ought, are the things that we try to
come up with in our natural mind. And when you're not able to pray,
have you ever been so sick or so feverish that you just were
kind of hallucinating in your mind and did not even have the
ability to pray for yourself? I just felt like I just couldn't
pray. And when a person has a stroke
and they are unconscious, they are in a coma or whatever, are
they able to pray? In most cases, no. The Bible
says that even the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, for we know
not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. There is the Spirit of God within
the believer. That even when we can't pray
for ourselves as we ought, we'll make groanings before God and
we'll pray in our behalf. That is one of the aspects of
the spirit of Christ that lives in the believer, is that it makes
intercession for us when we cannot intercede for ourselves in our
weak and beggarly situations. And Paul goes on to say in verse
28, now listen to this verse. This is one of the most powerful
verses in the book of Romans. It says, and we know that how
many things? All, not some, not just the good
things now. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Now, I had a woman one time at
an old Baptist meeting and it was lunch time and we were sitting
there eating lunch and we were talking about God's divine providence
and his predestined purpose and of course I was at a church.
and lean more conditionalist. In other words, they lean more
towards duty, works, and obligations for the believer to have to perform
in order to merit the blessings of God. That's what conditionalism
is. Friends, we're not conditionalists.
This church never stood for conditionalism. The history of this church is
a predestinarian church, meaning that God, in his divine purpose
and decrees, has divinely determined all pains which come to pass,
and he's declared them to come to pass. Every pain, all pains. I had this dear lady, dear sister,
she said to me, well, when I quoted that scripture, and I said, when
it says all in there, I believe that that encompasses everything. I mean every event, every situation
we're confronted with. Circumstance, everything that
occurs is covered there. That all things work together.
Oh, you mean the death of a little baby? That works together for
good. And I said, yes ma'am, it does.
And yet in time it will be manifested as such. You may not know it
at the time, in the time of grief, in the time of heartache, in
the time of despair, you may not understand it. But yet nevertheless,
you will in time come to realize that all things have worked together
for good to them that love God. Now listen. It says, "...to them
that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose."
There is a calling of God upon his chosen, elect, ordained calling. children of whom he has determined
to be, whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before
the foundations of the world, there is a calling upon them
that is a supernatural calling. And that call can never be altered
or annulled. That call can never be eradicated. If your name's in the Lamb's
Book of Life, let me tell you something, brother. If we could
get a glimpse of it, buddy, we would have a hope that is tangible
more than we got right now. If I could see Donald E. Martin Sr.' 's name in the Lamb's
Book of Life, oh, brother, I'd have more to shout about. It
would be just a hope. It would be a substance that
I could lay hold on and have more assurance of salvation so
rich and free. All things work together. The
dear sister said, now you mean to tell, I just can't go along
with that. I said, dear sister, you're going
to have to refute many scriptures in order to say that that don't
mean all things. Now let me give you a perfect
example. You say that that don't mean all things, that some things
to those who love God can work together for bad. What could
it be that works together for bad? You say, well, things we
do is the sin for. Let me tell you something. In
God's divine purpose, We have been determined to walk a path
in this life, and our steps have been ordered by God. Those paths
and steps often, I say often, and regarding there are many
times, we have been determined to go down a sinful way. You say God is the author of
sin? I didn't say that. I said there's
been a time that God will take and cause our path to go a certain
way. that we have to go that way in
order to be instructed in righteousness and to see ourselves truly as
we are that we might be remorseful and of a contrite broken heart
before God and be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Now let me give you a perfect
example of this. David, a man after God's own
heart. He wrote 150, well there's 150
psalms. He wrote, I don't know how many,
130 some of them. Some of them were written by
other writers, such as some of the musicians that was amongst
in David's kingdom at the time. But on the most part, they were
written by David. David was a man after God's own
heart, and yet here David was, A man that had taken a woman
lustfully, had her brought to his chamber, and had sexual relations
with her, though she was a married woman, of whom was a key player
in his army, was her husband. Yet he took and took him unto
himself, and committed adultery with him. Now listen to this.
And then he even tried to cover up his sin by having her husband
taken, sent to the front lines of the army, during one of the
wars of Israel, and had him killed, so that he could take her unto
himself, as now she would be a widow. You see, the sin, it
begins to compound itself, especially when you try to cover it up.
He was guilty of having an adulterous affair and then guilty of murder
by sending this man out to be in the front lines that he might
be killed, that he might take his wife. And the firstborn of
that woman, Bathsheba, died at birth. And it broke David's heart
that he went before God. But after God had given him the
grace to go beyond that death because of the wretched sinfulness
that he had committed, he arose and from that point on, listen
to me, from that point on in David's life, he was a different
man. He was a man that saw the ultimate
experience of God's mercy and grace because of his wicked doings.
God broke his heart. And that's when he wrote the
psalms, and he would write in there, Lord, my sins have compacted
me round about to where I am covered in despair over my head. My friends have all disowned
me. I have no one that I can find
any counsel in. And then before the end of that
psalm, he said, but O God, Thou art my refuge. Thou art my salvation
and Thou art my pavilion, my hiding place. Thou art my buckler. Thou art my God and my salvation. And yes, the purpose of what
David went through was to cause him to be more conformed to the
image of Jesus Christ and become more fervent in desiring to worship
and adore the Lord God Almighty. Do you see the purpose in that?
So it is with our lives as well. God takes us through paths. He
causes us to fall into pits of despair at times, where we feel
that there is no way out. And then God, by His sovereign
mercy, comes and rescues us in despair. and blesses us with
great grace. Yes, all things work together
for good to them that love God and are be called according to
His purpose. If you love God and you feel
in your heart and mind that you've been called according to His
purpose, there's not one thing that's happened to you thus far,
nor that will happen that will not work together for good. I
got that assurance from this Bible right here. I just read
it to you. Knowing that all things shall
work together for good, to them that love God and are called
according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. There's
where I was going with that. Them whom he did foreknow." Some
people say, well, yes, God does elect people, but it's based
upon foreknowledge. I beg to differ from you. God did not only not foreknow
all things, but he had decreed them. There's a difference between
foreknowing and a decree. A decree by God Almighty is a
definite, determined purpose that must come about to fulfill
his purpose and his will. And it is that we would have
been predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son Jesus
Christ, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called. And whom
he called, then he also justified. And whom he justified, then he
also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? The whole world can join hand
in hand and be against us for what we believe as Bible-believing
Christians in the person of Jesus Christ, and it's meaningless,
because who can be against us if we've got God for us? Now,
I know that the Muslim world can say the same thing, but the
difference is, is they are marching to the different drumbeats. They're
marching to a different god. They're marching to one called
Allah. They're marching to one who is
a successor supposedly to Christ, named Mohammed, who is a lie. That is a lie, to be a successor
to Jesus. Jesus said, I am the first and
the last. I am the beginning and the end.
I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. Let me tell you,
there's none to come that would succeed him. He is the successor
of all things to do with God's children and in the kingdom of
God Almighty. He is all things. The Bible says that Jesus was
not spared, for in verse 32, look at this, he that spared
not his Son, God Almighty, but delivered him up for us all,
there's that all again, all that believe in Christ, all that have
been chosen of the Father, all that love God, all that the things
are going to work together for good for, And it says, how shall he not
with Him, with Jesus, also freely give us all things? He's going
to give us all things we need. Now listen folks, there's a big
difference in getting everything you want and everything you need. Now if you give a child everything
they want, you're making the biggest mistake that a parent
could ever make. Grandparents, listen to me, If
you give your grandchildren everything they want, you're making a grave
mistake. But if you give them everything they need, that is
for their best interest. and not just merely vain things
of this world, but something that can profit them with growing
in this time world with some sort of moral wisdom and some
understanding of spiritual things as God would give you as a grandparent
grace to do. Those are things that shall never,
never leave the hearts and minds of grandchildren. Let me tell
you, I've heard many, many testimonies of, just like Buddy's, Nanny,
and others, about grandfathers who loved Christ and would take
their grandchildren upon His knee and talk to them about Jesus
Christ and take the scriptures and read to them from the New
Testament Gospels of the historical record of Christ and His loving
mercy towards those little sheep, those little lambs that Jesus
died for. and all those things that are
planted in the hearts and minds of children. In time, we pray,
God would take and make them come alive and swell up within
them. I can remember, yes, it was a
little Methodist church in central Indiana that we went to as a
family when I was about seven years old. Yes, I know that it
was far from what I would recognize as the truth as far as a denomination,
but nevertheless in God's divine purpose I was there. And I can
remember, I remember a little Sunday school pamphlet, and on
the pamphlet was a picture of this one supposedly taken of himself and has never
been, no matter how many pictures you can see anywhere in any religious
institution or any meat house, it's not Jesus Christ, it's an
idolatrous picture of something. Nevertheless, I remember this
picture of this one that was supposed to be Jesus with this
long gown on and his hair, as you've seen the pictures, are
shoulder length. And he was there and he had this
little lamb in his arm. And I remember that I was told
about the historical account of Jesus leaving the ninety and
nine. and going after one lost sheep.
Now that's all I remember. I remember that picture. And
I remember he'd leave in 1979. And you know, in 1971, at 27
years old, when Christ came and began to awaken this soul of
mine to my sinful behavior and my lifestyle. in my mind was that picture and
that record that Jesus Christ left ninety and nine to go after
one. And you know something about
it, brother buddy? I felt as if I was that one at that particular
time. And you know something? Every
one of you that have a hope in Christ here, you have been that
one one time or another. And He's come after you. and
cause you to believe upon Him and to see Him as your only help
and hope in the time of need. He'll take and pull you out of
the thicket of sin and sorrow. He'll take and lift you up out
of the burdens of life, of sinful living and whatever it be, drugs,
drunkenness, immorality, whatever it be, and lift you out of it
and place your feet upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ. And you'll have joy unspeakable
and peace past understanding, as the Bible says. And become
that new creature in Jesus Christ. No, it is, if God be for us,
who can be against us? In verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is it that can take anyone who is professing a hope in Jesus
Christ and criticize and judge them for really anything? For
God is the one who justifies them. Oh yes, there is to be
church discipline, and if there's somebody that's a member of the
church that is living in a lifestyle of which is unbehoving of a Christian,
and is detriment to the church's testimony, and he's a druggard,
or he's a thief, he's a liar, he's extortioner, he's living
in an immoral situation, yes, that needs to be dealt with.
Why? Because it reflects upon the whole assembly. That's why
the Bible says that if the man is living ungodly that he needs
to be dealt with. He needs to be taken and have
discipline, taken and brought to his attention that this is
not in the best interest of the church and it's a reproach unto
Christ and to the ministry of the church. But today, let me
tell you something, these big churches that house 500 to thousands
of people in them, you don't know who is who and who's living
how. There is no body of believers Because you don't know anybody.
They just go in and come out. They go in and come out. Nobody
knows anybody. Do you realize how many people
go to church holding hands and walking in there that are just
living together and living in sinful adultery out of matrimony?
or fornication, whatever, immorality, that are going to church and
their conscience is not vexed about it. They're just religious. And yet nobody knows it because
nobody knows them. The pastor, you think he's going
to go visit a thousand members or a thousand people who attend
the church to see if their life is in order? No. Because he's
getting paid. He's getting paid money to just
do his work and to preach what he wants to preach that he would
not offend anybody because his job is on the line. Let me tell
you something, that's a true fact. That if you go into a church
of a thousand people and get up there and hammer against immorality
and adulterous lifestyle, I'll guarantee you there'll be a group
of people, a percentage of them, gone the next Sunday and the
pastor will be under scrutiny. And they won't preach against
it. That's why we don't hear preaching against sin. Jesus preached against it. to
the point where he said, The soul that sinneth, it shall surely
die. And the only antidote for not dying is the blood of Jesus. And one must be persuaded that
that blood can redeem them from their sin. And when one is persuaded
of that, that's when they have been blessed with that faith
to believe it, and have a hope in that salvation, and have been
made a new creature to walk in a new and different way. At one time I walked this way,
but now I walk this way to the sound of the Bible says, blessed
are they that know the joyful sound. The joyful sound of what? The gospel. Blessed are you that
know the joyful sound of the gospel and know when it's true. And the only true gospel is that
God is sovereign, almighty, unlimited, and has chosen whom he will to
be the heirs of divine sovereign grace down through the ages of
time for the glory and praise of his name. Now let me speedily
go on. It says in verse 34, who is he
that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also will make an intercession for us. I have a high priest
Jesus Christ, who has raised from the dead, defeated hell
and death for my sake, is seated at the right hand of God the
Father, making intercession for me, and for you to believe this
morning. For who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? It's a question, Paul says. Who
shall separate us from Christ's love? No one can. You say, well, you can yourself
by the way you live. No, no, you can't. If you're
God's child, and you've been and dwelt with the Spirit of
God, you can't get by with it. You can't run far enough. You
can't hide deep enough to get away from God's love. As he shall
bring you to chastisement, he shall take you to the woodshed,
and you'll be corrected, and chastened, and brought into the
fold, straightened up and ready to march on to Zion. For it says,
shall tribulation, shall distress, how about persecution, famine,
nakedness, or peril, or a sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are all killed all the day long. In other words, those who
follow Jesus Christ, Paul said, for we die daily to ourself. That is the ultimate desire that
a Christian should have in their heart and mind, is that we die
to self and our selfish desires and selfish sinful wants daily. that we might live unto Christ.
So we are killed all the day long, as Paul says it here, in
a sense, in our mindset as to our own interests, desires, and
wants. And it says, we are counted as
sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than what? Conquerors through him that loved
us. We are conquerors. We have been
blessed with the ability to have power over all of the wickedness
of Satan. and all that he can throw at
us. All the fiery darts that he can send our way will be deflected
off of us by that hedge that's about us called grace. Oh yes,
devil, he can send those fiery darts, but when they come and
get close to us, that hedge of grace around about us, it will
deflect them off time and time again. And Satan has no authority
upon God's children. Satan is bound from the kingdom
of God. The Bible says, for I am persuaded. Listen, Paul, he said this on
a couple of different occasions. He says it, I think in Thessalonians
and another place in one of his epistles, but here he says it,
he says, for I am persuaded. When Paul says he's persuaded,
that means he's really confident about this. He says, I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Oh,
dearly beloved, is there anything that can separate us? They have
been blessed with faith that is evidenced by hope from the
love of Jesus Christ. And the answer to that is no,
nothing can. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. He loves us unfeigned. That means
without alteration or changeability. He loves us steadfastly. He loves us in such a manner
that His love shall endure all of our ungodliness because of
His Son's precious blood. He sees us washed in the fountain
of Emmanuel's blood. Oh, yes. Oh, have you been washed
in the blood of the Lamb? Oh, that is the key. Does He
see you as one cleansed by the red, rich, royal blood of Jesus
Christ? Oh, what shall separate us from
the love of Jesus Christ, our Lord? Nothing. Nothing can separate
us, and I'm so thankful today for that. I'm so thankful that
no man can separate me. Nothing I do will separate me. You say, well, wait a minute,
does that give you a license to do anything you want to? Remember
what Buddy said earlier when we talked about want to? The
one thing about a Christian is their want to has been altered
and changed. We have a want to. Why are you
here today in this church? Because you had a want to. Why
do you have a want to? I'm persuaded God has given you
a want-to. Otherwise you'd be somewhere else. Why am I here? Because I have a want-to. I have
such an intense want-to to be here that I could never find
myself any place else on this particular first Sunday of a
month. I have obligated to be here because
God called me to be here and I couldn't find no rest, no peace
or anything else to be anywhere else but here. Until God finishes
my work here, I'm going to be here. By God's grace, and by
His loving mercies, I shall be here. And so, what a wonderful
thought, and what a wonderful revelation, that nothing can
separate us from the love of Jesus Christ.