Morning. Always a blessing to gather together.
Always a great privilege and honor to be with the Lord's people.
The message today is called Divine Illumination. Divine Illumination. Our text will be in Hebrews chapter
10. Put your finger there. But before
we go there, we'll look at some other scriptures. First, starting
in Matthew 25. Now we know that God's distinguishing
grace is plainly taught in the Word of God and we know that
God's distinguishing grace is a truth because of what we've
experienced in our own lives and how God has saved us and
yet passed by others in our lives. So we personally who are God's
blood-bought born-again people know the truth of God's distinguishing
grace. And we are taught in the Word
of God, when we see the sheep and the goats separated, when
our Lord comes again, that God's distinguishing grace again is
right there before us. Matthew chapter 25, we see here
at the great white judgment throne that the sheep and the goats
are separated. Matthew 25, verses 31 and 32. When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He
sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered
all nations. And He shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. So there we see God's distinguishing
grace right there before us. Now turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. We also know
from scripture that God has created vessels of mercy and vessels
of wrath. And he is the divine potter and
we who are humans are the clay. And we're all taken from the
same lump because our father is Adam. But God can do whatever
he pleases with that clay. He can make one a vessel of honor
and he can make another a vessel of dishonor, if it so pleases
him. I used to work with pottery when
I was in grade seven or so, and we took several pottery classes,
and we used the wheel. So when I read this, I often
think back of that, and of course I made a pretty funny looking
candlestick, but my mom made it to let me know that it was
one of the greatest things that she'd ever seen, which moms do
that for us, and it's wonderful. I made that into whatever I wanted
to make it into. The clay did not say, I want
you to make me this. No. I made that into whatever
I wanted to make it into. And it's the same with God. He
can do whatever he pleases with his creation, whatever he pleases.
Look at Romans chapter 9, verses 21 and 23. Hath not the potter
power over the clay? So cannot the potter, when the
wheel's spinning there, can he not make the clay into whatever
he pleases? Of course he can. Of course he
can. The clay is powerless. It's absolutely powerless. Of
the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor.
What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power
known, endured with much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction? That he might make known the riches of his glory
on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory. So even here we see God's distinguishing
grace right here before us. So with that in mind, let's now
turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. And we'll read verses 19 to 39. 19 to 39. Verse 19. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh, in heaven and high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he that
is faithful, he is faithful that promised. And let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but
exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the
day approaching. For if we sin willfully, after
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of much more sore
punishments, suppose ye shall be taught or shall be thought
worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted
the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy
thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For
we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,
saith the Lord, and again the Lord shall judge his people.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. And here's our text in verse 32. But call to remembrance the
former days in which after ye were illuminated. illuminated. Ye endured a great fight of afflictions. Partly whilst you were made a
gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
you become companions of them that were so used. For ye had
compassion on me and my bounds, and you took joyfully the spoiling
of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better
and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye
have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of
God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he
that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just
shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall
have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition. but of them that believe to the
saving of the soul. So our text will be found in
verse 32, where we'll be looking at divine illumination. And this message ties right into
our Sunday school lesson, which was all about regeneration and
examine yourself to make your election and calling sure. Now these closing verses of Hebrews
10 are addressed to true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is they who have been illuminated by God the Holy Spirit, and as
we saw in Sunday School, all by His almighty power. All by
the almighty power of God. And they are to call to remembrance
the former days in which after ye were illuminated. Let's look
at the verse again. but call to remembrance the former
days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great
fight of afflictions and then let's look at the next verse
partly whilst you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and
afflictions and partly whilst you became companions of them
which were so used now the word illuminated there means in the
Greek to shed rays, to shed rays, to shine or brighten up, literally
or figuratively, to enlighten and illuminate, to bring, to
give light, to make see. So those who once were in darkness
are now made to see, are now made to see. And who are we made
to see? Well, we know we're made to see Christ. We're made to
see God for who He really is. Not who we thought he was, right? But who he really is. Who he
really is. And under the preaching of the
true gospel of God's free and sovereign grace, all by the power
of God the Holy Spirit, our minds are enlightened. God's
people are regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit and
our minds and our hearts are enlightened. And we see. who He really is. We're born
again by His almighty power. And truly, we who have been born
again are illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God. And again,
we see Christ, don't we? And we believe the Gospel. We
believe the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn, if you would,
to John 3, but keep your spot in Hebrews 10. John 3. Now we will never understand
the miracle of the new birth until we understand just how
estranged we were from our mother's womb during our physical birth.
We were born into this world dead in trespasses and sins. We were absolutely helpless to
save ourselves. We were absolutely helpless to
regenerate ourselves. You can't make yourself born
again. You can't regenerate yourself. You can't save yourself. None
of us can. We're absolutely helpless. And
we're hopeless. We are totally depraved sinners. And in that state, we go astray,
speaking lies. That's how we are. That's how
we are. And we'll never understand the
enlightening power of God in giving us eyes to see the spiritual
truths that are in Christ and Christ alone until we understand
again the total spiritual darkness that we were in. We were in utter
darkness, beloved. We were totally in darkness about
the things of God. That's our state. And that's
the state of people you work with or see all around who are
not born again. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. And we remember the state we
were in. We remember we were there. We don't judge them because
we know, well, that was me but by the grace of God. And I still
struggle with sin. I know you do too, don't you?
We all do. We ought not to look down at
people because we're all sinners. But we who are redeemed are sinners
saved by the grace of God. That's the only one. The only
one who made us to differ is God. That's all. Only God's made
us to differ. Only God. So we'll never understand
the enlightening power of God in regeneration, in regenerating us. and given
us eyes to see until we understand the total spiritual darkness
we were in. And oh, again, how great that darkness was. And
we'll never understand the power of God in setting us free until
we understand the prison house of sin that we were in. Beloved,
we were in the prison house of sin, and we were chained up.
We didn't even know we were chained up, but we were. Scripture says accord to sin,
it's bound us, were bound by the cords of sin. We were held
captive. We were shut in by sin and unbelief. Absolutely shut in. Under the power of Satan that
held us captive in the power of sin. And we were slaves to
our sin. And we didn't even know we were.
But that was our state. That was our state. And what is it that we understand
now? Well, we understand that not
only was it impossible for us to set ourselves free from those
things that held us captive, but beloved, in our natural state
we were in, we did not want to be set free. Ever think of that? I wasn't looking for God when
he found me. I was perfectly content doing
what I was doing. And I didn't even know the state
I was in. Did you? Mercy. Oh, what mercy, beloved. What mercy is manifested. We
hated Christ then. We hated the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We hated those who were true
followers of Christ. We loved the darkness that we
were in. And therefore, we had no desire to come to the true
light of the Lord Jesus Christ. We enjoyed being slaves to sin.
Even though, again, we had no idea we were slaves to sin. And we enjoyed fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind. And let us remember that
even moral, hardworking people are in the same camp. They're
dead in trespasses and sins. Let's look again at John chapter
three. Let's turn there. I had to turn there earlier,
but now we're going to look there and we'll see that ye must be
born again. We must be born again. We must
be born from above. We must be regenerated by the
Holy Spirit of God and all by the power of God, like we saw
on Sunday school. Or we'll never see the kingdom
of God. This is a work of God. This is a work of God. Look at
John chapter three, verse one. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Let us take note that Nicodemus
was a Pharisee. He was a ruler of the Jews, which
means he was probably a member of the Sanhedrin, which was Israel's
highest religious court. Therefore, we can view him as
a representative of them all, can't we? And note in verse 2
that he comes to our Lord by night. He comes secretly. He
don't want no one knowing he's coming to the Lord. He's afraid of losing his position
or losing power or influence. So he secretly comes to the Lord
at night. See, he's got power and he's
got a position. But he knows that if he went
to see the Lord in the day, that his fellow Pharisees would be
going, what are you doing? So he secretly comes to the Lord
at night. And although he's a religious
ruler, we see here that he is altogether lacking in spiritual
understanding of the things of God. And this is true of all
religionists, even in our day right now, beloved. Nothing's changed. And note that even though he
was a ruler of the Jews and a student of the Scriptures, he was dead
in trespasses and sins. Absolutely. He knew stuff. He
had studied the scriptures. He knew some things. Just like
people can know doctrine. Oh, they can know doctrine, tell
you all kinds of things. They can say the right things. You must be born again. You must
be born again. And everyone, Every son and daughter
of Adam is born dead in trespasses and sins. We must be born again. Note verse 2, the same came to
Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest except God be with them. Nicodemus acknowledges that Jesus
was surely a teacher come from God because The miracles of Christ
differed radically from those performed by others before or
since. How are we to test those who
come to us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Not by the
power of their work to work wonders. Here's the answer. Examine them
by the word of God. Examine them by what they say
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Examine them by what they preach
and who they preach. Who they preach. Examine them
by what they say about the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace.
That salvation is of the Lord, holy. That it includes none of
your works or mine. That it's all of the Lord, from
beginning to end. Do they proclaim, thus saith
the Lord, or do they tell you their opinion and what you have
to do? See, it's easy for us to examine these things, isn't
it? Do they point you to Christ or do they point you to something
you've got to do? Do they preach the gospel of
God's free grace and do they glory in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone? Do they exalt and glorify Christ
in all in His redemptive work? And in His life that He lived,
the perfect life for us? Or do they exalt themselves?
Do they promote themselves? These are questions we ask ourselves
when someone claims to be sent from God to preach the gospel. And note that our Lord ignores
Nicodemus' address and proclaims to him that he must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Look at verse 3. Jesus answered
and said unto him... He didn't even answer his questions
about the other thing. Jesus answered and said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. He totally ignores what Nicodemus
had said and just says to him, you must be born again. That's
what's vital. That's what's vital. Nicodemus
called the Lord a teacher of God. Think of this, he brought
him down to the same level as himself. in the same level as others,
not knowing, not knowing that the one that he spoke to was
God himself incarnated in the flesh. He had no idea who he
was. He's not merely a teacher sent
by God, beloved. He's the Word of God incarnate.
He's the Word of God incarnate. And note in verse 4 that we see
that Nicodemus gives an answer that a natural man would give. That a man who has no spiritual
understanding of what the Lord is talking about would give.
Look at verse 4. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? This is a natural man's
response. He doesn't have a clue what the
Lord's talking about. And this shows us, beloved, that
the Jewish leaders were lacking altogether in spiritual understanding.
If we look at Nicodemus as a representative of the Jewish leaders, they didn't
have a clue. They had no spiritual understanding
of who Christ is. They didn't have any understanding
of the Fall either, did they? Because the Lord's saying, here,
you must be born again. You're born dead. He doesn't
say that, but that's what he's bringing up, that you must be
born again, you must be regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. You
must be. So they don't understand who
Christ is, they don't understand the fall and its consequences,
and they don't understand the nature of spiritual life and
faith. They're the blind leading the blind. There's many out there doing
that, isn't there? Many. And then our Lord bluntly answers
Nicodemus again in verse 5. Look at verse 5. Jesus answered,
verily, verily, I say unto you, except the man be born of water
and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. He brings
it forth again. Brother Mahan comments on this
verse. The word water has no reference to the waters of baptism.
The Lord Jesus used the word water Embratically to refer to the
Word of God. It's a picture. The Word of God
is always the instrument used by God in regeneration, in the
preaching of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit is the begetter
or quickener. And the Word of God is the seed.
By His first fleshly birth, a man enters into this world, a sinful
creature. When a sinner is born again by the Spirit, In the word
of God, he enters into the kingdom and family of God, a new creature
in Christ, end quote. And our Lord continues, look
in verses six and seven. Our Lord continues, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. See, we come into this world with a dead nature
because our parents have a dead nature. And we can trace that all the
way back to Adam, can't we? Marvel not that I say unto you,
ye must be born again. He says it again. We need things repeated, don't
we? I do. You ever think of why we come
to hear the gospel? preached and proclaim and why
gospel preachers get up every week and we proclaim Christ.
We have the same message, but we come at it from different
texts, right? And why do we do that? Because
we need it, don't we? We need to be reminded every week. We
need to hear every week of what Christ done for us. We need to
hear about our Savior. We need to hear that we're born
dead in trespasses and sins. But the preacher has good news.
We have wonderful news. There's salvation in Christ and
Christ alone. She must be born again. You must
be born again. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I say unto you, ye must be born again. So man is by birth
born blind and opposed to the things of God. And no amount
of religious training can change this evil nature. We see that
with Nicodemus and the rulers in Israel. No amount of them
studying the scriptures and religious training could change that state
that they were in. That natural state. And our Lord proclaims again
here to Nicodemus that a man must have a spiritual nature
before he can understand, enter, or enjoy the kingdom of God.
He's speaking to him about regeneration. You must be born again. Then
look at verse 8. This is a work of God the Holy
Spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Our Lord here brings forth a
comparison for us between the wind and the Spirit of God, and
giving us a picture of the new birth. Now ponder this. The wind is invisible. You cannot
see it, I cannot see it, but we feel the effects of it, don't
we? We feel the effects of it. We see the effects of it in the
trees, but it's invisible. We can't see it. So we cannot
see the Spirit of God, but we who are born again by the Holy
Spirit of God can testify of his almighty power, can't we?
We can testify of it. And the results of his work is
evident in our lives because we're new creatures in Christ.
We felt the effects of the new birth, haven't we? We're born
again. We're born again. And think upon
the wind, it's sovereign in its actions. We saw that this weekend
with that hurricane. No man can control that. No man
can stop it. It goes wherever it pleases. Wherever God's pleased to send
it, it goes. It goes. The wind does not consult us,
nor can it be regulated. It cannot be stopped. So it is
with the spirit of God. It's called invincible grace,
beloved. Invincible grace. The wind blows where it pleases
and when it pleases, and as it pleases, and wherever God is
pleased to have it blow, so with the Spirit He regenerates whom
He wills, and He passes by others. Lastly, again, the wind is irresistible. It blows where it will, and when
it comes in power, as we saw with the hurricane this weekend,
it sweeps everything before it. So it is with the Holy Spirit
of God. No one can resist Him. No one can resist Him. Thy people
shall be made willing in the day of His power. And they are.
And we rejoice. We rejoice that we're made willing,
don't we? We rejoice in the fact of the sovereignty of our great
God in salvation because we know we never would have come to him.
And so we rejoice. When he comes in the fullness
of his power, we're born again, when the Holy Spirit comes in
the fullness of his power, we're born again. And it is he who
conquers our wills. and makes us willing to flee
to the Lord Jesus Christ again in the day of His power. And
then God's people who have felt this and had this occur, we proclaim
salvation is of the Lord. It's all He's doing. I was going
that way. And He came and sought me out.
He came and sought me out. My goodness. Just like He sought
that lost sheep out. Was that lost sheep looking for
Him? No. He was wandered around in the
wilderness, wasn't he? But the shepherd seeks him out
and finds him. And puts him on his shoulders
and carries him home. And there's great rejoicing.
There's great rejoicing. Now these are the words of our
Savior here in John chapter 3. Let us never forget that these
words come from He who is God incarnate. So when He says you
must be born again, you must be born again. These are his
words. These are the words of the master. These are the words of God. Some people say, well, what are
you talking about being born again? I'm a good person. I don't,
I don't, you must be born again. Some people say, well, well,
I was baptized. I'm surely I'm safe. You must be born again. Some people say, well, I'm moral.
I do all these things. I'm a good person. Have all my
ducks in a row? You must be born again. Some people might say, well,
I know all this doctrine. I prayed a prayer years ago.
I made it right with God. You must be born again. You must be. These are the words
of the master. These are the words of the master.
He proclaims the one who is the way, the truth and the life,
the one who is the believers, Lord and Savior, the one who
cannot lie. Proclaims you must be born again. You must be. You must be. We must be regenerated. Our minds
must be divinely illuminated or we'll never know or seek or
see Christ. Let's go back to our text in
Hebrews chapter 10. If you are not born again, you
will never know who Christ is. No matter how much knowledge
you gain, We saw that with Nicodemus. He's a ruler in Israel. People
look up to him. He's devoid of any spiritual
knowledge of who Christ is. Let's go back to our text in
Hebrews chapter 10 and we'll look at verses 32, but let's
read from verses 31 to 35 again to get the context. It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Truly it is
a fearful thing. if you're not in Christ. Oh my. But call to remembrance the former
days in which after you were illuminated, that means you're
born again, you endured a great fight of afflictions. Partly whilst you were made a
gaze in stock both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst
you became companions of them which were so used. For ye had
compassion on me, of me, in my bonds, and took joyfully the
spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in
heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore
your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Now this
book is written by Paul to Hebrews, Hebrew believers. And he's writing
them and exhorting them to preserve in Christ Jesus, to hold their
confidence in him no matter what happens, not to be worried and
discouraged by false prophets, by ceremonialism, by legalists
which attack them on all fronts. And remember, remember when you
profess Christ as a Hebrew, you were cast out of the synagogue,
you were disowned by your family, You are basically left with nothing,
but with Christ we have everything. We have everything, beloved.
And note that Paul is bringing forth here, but call to remembrance
the former days in which after ye were illuminated, after you
were born again, ye endured a great fight of afflictions. The new birth or illumination,
spiritual revelation is a work of God. Work of God, the Holy
Spirit, a work that he alone can accomplish. We saw that in
John chapter 3, which he does under the preaching of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, let's look at verse 32
with that in our minds. But call to remembrance the former
days in which after ye were illuminated, after you were born again, ye
endured a great fight of afflictions. So Paul tells them to look back
to when they were babes in Christ and take note of the great fight
of afflictions they went through. I was talking to a dear preacher
brother and we were talking about that, about how we look back
and see the deliverances that the Lord has done for us. And
remember the great fight, the great struggle when you were
first born again. And as I said, some of these
people were disowned by families because they trusted Christ.
They may have lost their livelihood or their homes, all because they
professed faith in Christ. Have any of you suffered in the
past rejection from family because of your profession in Christ? Have any of you in the past suffered rejection from your
friends or co-workers for your profession in Christ? Have any of you had your family
turn against you for your profession in Christ? I know what that one feels like. I know some of you do too. I
know you do. It is hard. But we hold fast to our kingdom.
We hold fast to him. We lay hold of him. And we look back. At the past. And we see the great fight of
afflictions after we were illuminated, after we were born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. And we know. We know that we
are only kept by the power of God. We know that. See, Christ
is so important to us. As I said in Sunday School, He's
everything to us. So if family or friends forsake
us because of our profession in Christ, we lay a hold of Him. We're going to spend eternity
with Him, beloved. And we're going to spend eternity with
our brothers and sisters in Christ. This is why I always say, you're
my family. And this is true. I remember
Brother Donny Bell and I talking about that. I don't know if you
know about Brother Donny, but when he was five years old, his mom and
dad told him to get out. And he went to live with his
grandparents. And I remember him and I talking about that,
and it was so difficult for him, what he went through. But he
said to me, Brother Wayne, I have family now. That I never knew
I had them. And they're all over the world.
And they're in glory. It's wonderful, beloved. It's
absolutely wonderful. So we look back and we see where
we've suffered afflictions after we were born again. And again,
we know that we're kept by the power of God and we stand firm.
in the biblical truths of the Bible, and the fact that salvation
is in Christ and Christ alone, no matter what others say or
do. To us, we stand fast in the fact
that you must be born again. You must be. You must be, because
the master himself said that. You must be born again. We stand
fast in the fact that no works of ours contribute to our salvation,
none. And you know, I've had many people,
they just don't even want to talk to you after you say that.
But we will not compromise on that truth. The work is done by Christ and
Christ alone. And we proclaim that salvation
is in Christ and Christ alone, that He is all our justification
before God, that He is all our sanctification before God, that
He's all our wisdom before God, and that He's our redemption
before God. And we look outside of ourselves, and we look to
our Savior, don't we? And we trust in Him, and we rest
in Him. Now, as babes in Christ, we might
struggle with some of the strong meat of the Word, but, beloved,
if the Spirit of Christ dwells in our heart, we will not have
any lasting problems with any gospel truths. We'll embrace
them. You might not understand them all when we're babes, but
we embrace the truths that are proclaimed from the scriptures.
And it's the ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, to guide his
born-again blood-bought people into all truth. And how does
he do this? Under the preaching of his gospel by his ordained
preachers. Let's read verse 32 again that
says, But call to remembrance the former days in which, after
ye were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions. Let us keep in mind, and prior
to your regeneration, the elect are by nature as all other men,
central in not having the Spirit. And it's only the Spirit who
makes those alive who are born dead in trespasses and sins.
In our natural state we live in absolute total separation
from God. We have no perception of our
own sinfulness, no perception of the state that we're in. And
again, we have no desire and we see no need for our Savior
or for the things of God. And we endure after we're saved
when it pleases God. in His timing, and by His good
pleasure, the elect of God, by the power of God, the Holy Spirit,
are regenerated. Just as the Lord proclaims, you
must be born again. And we are born again by the
Holy Spirit of God. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. You have received the Spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now we have received
the spirit, which is of God. There must be born again. And it says here, you endured
a great fight of afflictions. I'll never forget. Something my dad told me years
ago. After I told him I was born again, and I told him I loved
him, and we never told each other a whole lot that we loved each
other. We just didn't do that in my
family. Of course, we did it with mom, but not with the brothers
and dad. We just never did that a whole
lot. Show yourself weak if you do
that. After the Lord had regenerated me and illuminated me, I went
up to my dad and I gave him a hug and told him I loved him. And then after, as I journeyed in my new life in Christ and
being born again, I'll never forget, my dad one day told me,
he said, I'd rather have you back in the bars than in church. And I thought, oh, my. Oh, my. And that was a great
fight of affliction for me, to have your own dad turn against
you. And it's hard, but we are kept
by the power of God. I look back at that now and I
see how the Lord kept me, how he brought me through that. And
I'm sure it's the same with you in your lives, different things,
different situations. Maybe your friends have turned
against you and just walked away. And it's hard, it hurts. But we keep our eyes on Christ,
don't we? We keep our eyes on Him and we look back and we see
how the Lord has delivered us and brought us through all those
situations. And He's never left us. And He
never will. And it brings great comfort to
God's people to look back and remember the former days in which
after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions.
To look back and see what God has done. Not only am I regenerated
by the Holy Spirit of God, which is a miracle all in itself. But I'm kept by his power. Because I'm one of his. And I
know it's so for you to you who are his born again, blood bought
people. Now, as I mentioned earlier in
Sunday school, we must look at The books of the Bible, when
we're reading them, who they're addressed to. Who they're addressed
to. We know that this verse in this
book is addressed to those who have been illuminated by God
the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit. We see that
right here in our text. But call to remembrance the former
days in which after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of affliction. So this book is written to God's
people. If we have heard the life-giving
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of his sheep,
those who know his voice will not listen to the voice of strangers.
A.W. Pink says, how do we hear the
voice of Christ? Through the preaching of the
gospel. The Holy Spirit teaches us and guides us into all truth.
We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you.
To salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. Wherewith he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses
13 and 14. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God who commanded the light, when did he do that? When we're
born again. When we're illuminated. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, and oh what darkness we were in.
And what did he do? Has shined in our hearts to give
the light and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power of God may be of
God and not of us. And in Romans 11.29 says the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Which means they're irrevocable. Unalterable. Cannot be overturned
and cannot change. What great peace the believer
can draw from that. He who keeps me will keep me
forever. He who saved me has saved me. Wonderful, good news. Good news
for sinners. Flee to Christ. He's the only
hope for sinners. And for God's people, may we
cling to the Lord Jesus Christ. And may these words today bring
comfort to your souls. May we meditate upon these truths,
upon the fact you must be born again. And meditate just means
think upon it. May we just think upon it this
week and in the weeks to come. May we think upon the fact of
divine illumination. You must be born again. And may we think upon how it's
a work of God in the soul of the believer, all by his almighty
power. And when you think upon it, I
guarantee you it'll make you rejoice. You who are his blood-bound
people, it'll make you rejoice when you think that we were dead
and we'd be made alive. we've been illuminated, beloved,
regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. Cling, beloved, cling,
and hang on to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hang on to Him who is
the object of the gospel of God's free grace. Hang on to the precious
truths of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's blood-bought
saints will preserve until the end and can be confident of this
very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you He,
notice who started the work, right? He, which hath begun a
good work in you, in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. You're finished the work. It's incredible. Mercy, mercy,
mercy. God's people have received mercy. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank thee. for the time that we've had to be able to go through
Scripture. And, O Lord Jesus, as we've seen, you must be born
again. We pray that if there's one of your lost sheep here, O Lord, that you would regenerate
them and grant them faith and repentance to turn to the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the only Savior of sinners. And we who
are your blood bought, born again, redeemed people, we rejoice As
we look back and see that after we were illuminated, as we look
back and see the great deliverances through the fiery afflictions
that we've went through in our lives, and there's many, we can
look back and see many, but we can see how you've taken us through
them all, how you've carried us through them all, how you've
never, as you said in your word, you'll never leave us nor forsake
us. You're ever with us, O Lord. And in one day, One day we'll
be in Thy presence, O Lord, and we'll see Thee face to face,
and oh, how glorious that'll be. Lord, give us grace and strength
in our remaining days upon this earth to trust and rest and just
look to Thee. We love You because You first
loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.