Good morning. How are you today? Good. Galatians chapter one. We're going to pick up where
we left off last week. Starting our reading in verse
six. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Great Father of heaven, we come
to you now and we thank you so much for this day that you've
given us. We thank you for the beauties
that you have shown to us through the revelation of Christ Jesus.
We thank you, Father, for giving us the Son and the Son for his
work of salvation and the Spirit's work of applying that in our
lives. We thank you, Father, for gathering
us together in a church where that we can be edified and to
hear and worship the things about you. And Lord, we just thank
you today for another day that you've given us to meet and to
magnify your name. And Lord, we just pray that you
will be with us today. We need your help to praise and
honor you. We need your help to worship
you in spirit and in truth. We need your presence among us
to give us aid in preaching, to give us understanding in what
we are hearing. Father, we pray that you just
might guide us and direct us in this worship today. Father,
we pray that your gospel will go out today in all the churches
around this world, Lord, that preach the doctrine of Christ,
that preach the salvation and true gospel of Jesus, Father,
we pray that it might bring glory to you, that it might edify your
people and that it might draw your sheep to you today. Father, we just thank you again
for the word of God that you've left for us, the revelation of
Jesus Christ in written form that reveals all that he is.
And Father, we are so grateful that we have that to come too
and we ask that the Spirit also might give understanding of this
as we open it up. And so we pray, Lord, that you
just might minister mightily among your people today. I pray,
Lord, that you would help me to preach. Lord, that you would
keep my mind set upon the things of scripture, that you might
keep me from error. Lord, that you might bring forth
truth to your brethren. that are here. Lord, I pray that
it might be helpful and encouraging to them. And Father Lord, again,
we thank you for all the blessings of life that you've given us,
the things and provisions that you've given us, Lord. But most
of all, we thank you for the love that you have shed upon
us and that you have given to us in the death of Christ. And
we thank you for the forgiveness of sins and for reconciliation
to you. And so Lord, we just pray that
you might that you might give us today, a day that is honoring
and pleasing to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though
we are an angel from heaven, preaching any other gospel unto
you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
ye have received, let him be accursed." Now we began looking
at this passage of scripture last week and in the, In the
passage, we began to see, as we have already looked in Galatians,
the first five verses, we see that Paul has not only made the
introduction in this letter, but he has brought some force
behind it, that he is writing as the apostle of Jesus Christ,
as he does in many of his letters, but he made clear that this apostleship
that he had is not of men, look at verse one, it's not of men,
neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. And that word apostle
again is a messenger. Paul was made a messenger by
Jesus Christ. And a messenger, what is one
thing that we know about a messenger? That's clear as day. We might
not know anything about the messenger, but one thing we do know is what? If he's the messenger, then he
has a message, right? It's almost so clear and so simple
that we miss that. A messenger is someone who has
a message. This morning, I am bringing a
message to you. A messenger has a message. And Paul is saying, I have been
made a messenger by Jesus Christ, and I have brought to you a message. So if Jesus is the one who made
me the messenger, If Jesus is the one who gave me the message,
and if the message that I delivered to you is faithful to the word
of God, then that message is a message from Jesus Christ. And we pray that all preachers,
whenever they preach, they preach a message from Jesus Christ. We hope that it isn't a message
from a seminary or a message from a confession or a creed
or a message from the wisdom of man or from emotional stirrings. We pray that the man is faithful
to the word of God and preaches a message from Jesus Christ. Paul here is laying that foundation
because it is of utmost importance, as we've seen last week, that
we preach the gospel. That the gospel that we preach,
the gospel that we teach, the gospel that we form our fellowships
around, the gospel that we serve, the gospel that we minister, it's his gospel. It's His message. It's not the message of somebody
else. It's not the message of our upbringing.
It's not the, unless our upbringing was in the truth. That message
that we are given to minister as the church of Jesus Christ
is the message of Jesus Christ. It's not the message of the church. It's not the message of a plan
of salvation. It's not the message of an offer
of salvation. It's not the message of an invitation
to salvation. It is the message of Jesus Christ,
and He is salvation. Now, we've seen in last week,
we've seen in verses six down through nine, that Paul, as he
is addressing this issue in the Galatian churches, where the
Judaizers has come and has completely turned them in their understanding
of the gospel back into the law of Moses and to be circumcised,
to be saved. And that they think that that
circumcision is needed to be saved. And then once you are
saved, that to continue to walk in Moses is what gives you a
righteousness before God that keeps you righteous before him. And so Paul, after hearing these
things and knowing of this, deviation from the gospel has led or has
pinned this message or this letter to them. And he was very forceful
last week as we've seen. Look at verse six, I marvel that
you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace
of Christ unto another gospel. I marvel that you're so soon
removed from him that called you Into the grace, now remember
last week we talked about that this called you into the grace,
isn't speaking of him calling them into salvation necessarily,
okay? This isn't that call of grace
that is the irresistible call of the heart that is the giving
of new life, the being born again. This calling into, as it says
here, into the grace of Christ is something I believe, and again,
I'm open for correction on this, is different than the grace of
new birth or the grace of election, where God calls us and sanctifies
us to himself before the foundation of the world. This calling to
grace that he has called you into the grace of Christ is a
calling us into the understanding of our being saved, into the
grace of Christ. He calls us into belief of grace
alone and not the law of works. We have seen that the Jews had
begun to lose sight and lose track of the fact because of
their leaders being corrupt They lost track of the fact that it
was all to be faith in Christ Jesus and that they were to look
to him for their salvation. However, they were looking to
God's word and the law for their salvation. Matter of fact, Jesus
even made those words. He said that you think that you
have eternal life, you search the scriptures and by them you
think that you have eternal life. You think you have eternal life
because you search the scriptures and know the scriptures and have
memorized the scriptures. Listen, people can memorize the
scriptures all day long. People can be very, very equipped
in God's word and know these, the letter of the law or the
letter of the word that they can formulate There are memories
to be, I mean, I've told you before, the example of this guy
that was a corrupt man, but he had, I can't remember if it was
all of the New Testament or just the four Gospels of the New Testament,
had committed all those to memory. And he could quote it word for
word, the whole entire thing. But yet that doesn't change the
heart, that doesn't change the man, that doesn't make us born
again, that doesn't make us a child of grace. To know the scriptures
doesn't mean, or to be able to quote the scriptures, or to be
able to memorize the scriptures, doesn't make us a child of grace. But we see here that Paul has
called us into the grace, or that Jesus has called us into
the grace of what He has done in Him alone. He has given us
an understanding, and as we talked about last week, where it says
in 1 Corinthians, He has given us an understanding by the Spirit
to know what is freely given. See, the gospel of grace is a
gospel of free salvation. It's not a gospel of conditional
salvation. Conditional salvation isn't free. Whenever something is conditional,
that means that something is done in order to get something
else. Now, we look at that and the
Bible calls that works. Conditionalism is works, is a
law of works. Do this and you will receive
this. If you do this, then I will do
this, okay? And that is a law of works. And
as we've seen last week, The Spirit is sent into the child
of grace to teach them, to bring them to understand, to manifest
to them what was freely given to them. It isn't there to tell
you what you must do to get it or do to keep it, but it's there
to reveal to you what was freely given to you and what is freely
keeping you. Our initial salvation and our
continual walk in that salvation is all by sovereign free grace. Our practical salvation, which
is our day-to-day walk, and our positional salvation, which is
that eternal salvation based upon the work of Christ alone,
both of those are by free grace. It is not by the conditions of
men. God never predicates your salvation
or your preservation or perseverance upon your condition. Now, there's
a whole group of people, not only in the Baptist, but in other
denominations, who make a point of this very thing, that we are
saved, but then we have to continue to keep the law, or keep up good
works, or to do things, keep ourselves right with God, that
we can make ourselves right with God. And if you remember last
week, what does that mean whenever we say, hey, I gotta get right
with God? Well, that means that I've gotta
make myself righteous before God, because right now I'm living
unrighteous before God. We say that we will sin, or we'll
go out into sin for a season. We'll say, man, we got to get
ourselves right with God. And what are we saying? We're
saying, well, we got to turn from our sinfulness and make ourselves
righteous again by obeying God instead of disobeying God. Brethren,
you can't make yourself righteous before God. Even in your obedience,
you can't make yourself righteous before God. The Bible says, by
the works of the law shall no man be justified. And listen,
by the works of the law, no man has been sanctified. Christ sanctified
us by his blood. Christ sanctified us. We were sanctified by God calling
us before the foundation of the world and uniting us with Christ.
And in Christ as our surety, his blood as the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world has given us a specialness. We are his chosen elect of God. And that is manifested in time.
by each and every elect child of grace, having the Spirit sent
into them where they begin by faith looking to Christ alone
for their salvation. See, none of that had anything
to do with you. You did not elect yourself. God did not elect you
based upon your choice. You did not elect yourself. You
did not unionize yourself with Jesus Christ. You did not send
the Spirit into your heart. You did not open and receive
Jesus into your heart. The Bible says that God took
out your old heart and give you a new heart. Now, of course,
that's, you know, symbolic. That's not, you know, literal.
He didn't literally take your blood pumping vessel out of your
chest and put another blood pumping vessel in your chest. Cause you to be born again. That's
how, that's what the Bible talks about giving us a new heart.
He caused us to be born again. He give us a new nature, a new
creation, or excuse me, a new creation. He gave us a new creation
inside of us. His spirit is inside of us. And
the only thing that that spirit does is bear witness of Christ. The only thing that that spirit
does is teach us of Christ. And as we've seen last week,
the only thing that that gospel or that message, that that spirit
tells us about is what has been freely given. It never tells
us of what we must accomplish, what we must do. Now, does it
convict us of sin? Absolutely, it does. Does it
bring conviction upon our heart whenever we have sinned against
God? Yes, it does bring conviction
of sin, but brethren, it never tells us, go keep the law to
make yourself right before God. It never tells us to try to make
yourself righteous before God. It always brings us back to the
gospel of what Jesus has done for us. Now, Paul has been made
an apostle or a messenger, so he has been made a message carrier. He is carrying a message. And
the message he is carrying is a message from Jesus Christ or
by Jesus Christ. And he delivered that message
to the Galatian church. And now these Galatian churches
have been removed from that good news. And Paul has now told them,
listen, these people that are coming in and telling you that
you have to live by the law, that you're justified by law,
or that you're kept by law, that's not the gospel. And so he began
with verse seven, which is not another, but there be some that
trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Now we
just seen that the gospel is the message of what? Free salvation. It's the message of what Christ
did. It's the message of Christ. The gospel is the message of
the act of Christ in saving his people from the sin. In the gospel
of Matthew, the Bible talks about whenever the angel came and told
Jesus' parents, earthly parents, fleshly parents, told him, you're gonna call him
Jesus. And they said, the reason you're
gonna call him Jesus is because that name, in that name, it means
Savior. And they're gonna call him Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. The very name Jesus itself means
savior. It means him who saved his people
from their sins. And the gospel is the message
of Jesus saving his people from their sins, not offering that. not inviting you to that, not
making a plan for that, not doing all he can. And you have to make
the decision. You have to make the choice.
He doesn't offer you salvation and you either accept it or reject
it. Your destiny is not in your hands. He is not giving you the choice
of whether or not he's going to save you or not. He's not
giving you any kind of condition to keep so that if you will keep
it, you will be saved. He didn't tell you to repent
and then I'll give you salvation. He didn't tell you to believe
and I will give you salvation. All the statements of scripture
are statements of fact. Those who do believe, those who
have repented, those are the ones who are saved. Those who
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a statement
of fact. It's not a condition to keep. So Paul told us last week in
this passage that there is no other gospel. That means there's
only one gospel, right? If there is only one gospel,
and that's the gospel that came by Jesus Christ, about Jesus
Christ, then any other gospel is no gospel. Whenever that says
that there is no other gospel or that there is not another,
that means that this gospel that Jesus gave is the only gospel
in existence. That means all other things that
pose as the gospel are excluded and is not the gospel. So that is not the message of
how Jesus saves. What do we call it? We call it
a false gospel. Although we shouldn't call it
a gospel at all because it is not good news. It's false. It's not the gospel. And Paul
here says it a couple of times, which is not another gospel,
but there be some of you who would pervert the gospel of Christ,
but though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel
unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let it be
a curse. And as we said before, so saying now again, if any man
preach any other gospel unto you than that you receive, let
him be a curse. So two times here, Paul said
any other gospel, which is not the gospel, If it's preached,
let him be accursed. Why? Why is he bringing such
pointedness, such weight? Why is he bringing such drama to this very thing? because behind
that message, remember, we're delivering a message. He's an
apostle delivering a message, and that message wasn't from
man or by man. It was by Jesus Christ. So what
we are doing is telling the truth that was told by Jesus. We're
conveying the words of Jesus. So if we say anything else besides
what Jesus said, then we're lying on what Jesus said. We're not
telling the truth. If we tell any other gospel besides
that which Jesus gave us to teach, then we are lying about Jesus
Christ. So not only are we lying about
the words Jesus said, we're lying about the object of what Jesus
talked about. We're lying about his words and
we're lying about the subject matter that he made. The gospel
is pure and clear, it is a gospel of free salvation, a gospel of
accomplished salvation, a gospel that is a gospel that is not
the gospel of works and conditions, but the gospel of Christ saving
His people fully from their sins. It's finished. So Paul, tells these brethren,
and he does call them brethren, they still are considered the
brethren of God. Now, listen, I mentioned last
week and I preached strongly that we cannot call people brothers
in Christ who are believing another gospel. We cannot call them brothers
in Christ. If they are preaching or if they
are believing or preaching another gospel, they are not brothers
in Christ. Brothers in Christ are those
who are believing the gospel. And again, the gospel is not
a gospel of conditions. It's a gospel of finished work. And so here, Paul still calls
them brethren. However, if they do not repent
of this, if they continue to listen to the false preachers,
If they continue to listen to the false gospels and they believe
those false gospels, then they are an unbeliever of the true
gospel. The very words unbeliever and
believer is in reference to the gospel. We are either believers
in the gospel or we are unbelievers in the gospel. Jesus talked to these people
like the whole time he was here. And almost every place that he
spoke, every time that he spoke, there were some that believed
and there were some that didn't believe. And Jesus made it very clear.
You believe because you are my sheep. You do not believe because
you are not my sheep. And he didn't say it backwards.
He didn't say you're not my sheep because you don't believe. He
said, no, you don't believe because You're not my sheep. See, the
prerequisite to believing the gospel is being made a sheep. We have to be a sheep. And brethren,
we are not made sheep after we was first a goat. We've always
been sheep. We've been lost sheep, but we've
been sheep. We were created and born as sheep. Jesus is calling his lost sheep
to himself. And how is he calling his lost
sheep to himself? Well, he's calling his lost sheep
through the gospel, the good news, the glad tidings. And he gave that to the apostles
who was the foundation of the church. He laid first in that
foundation of the church, the apostles. with the doctrine that
he had taught them and ingrained in them and told them, this is
the message for you to go out. And in Mark, whenever he gave
the commission and in Matthew, whenever he gave the commission,
it was to go out with the gospel and make disciples because my
sheep will hear my voice and they will follow me. But see,
if we are preaching another gospel, we're not preaching the voice
of Jesus. See, the voice of Jesus has a
clear message. See, that's another reason why
Paul got onto the Galatians because of all this ecstatic speech that
they were doing in Corinthians, in the Corinthian church. And
they were speaking in this unknown languages. Ecstatic speech, we
see it today. Charismatics and Pentecostals
and stuff like that. They're out there speaking in
these unknown tongues. Listen, they're speaking an unclear
message. See, the biblical tongues were
actual languages. And the men would translate those
messages into what people could hear. Or they would speak in
a language that men could understand that they weren't ever taught
that. That'd be like me speaking in
German. I don't know German. But if I happen to be in a place,
the Lord give me utterance to be able to preach in German.
or somebody who had never learned German be able to stand up and
take my English words and turn them into German for some German
guy who came here to listen to me preach. See, that was the gift of tongues
and interpretation of tongues. They were known languages, they
just were unknown to the speaker or to the hearer. They weren't
unknown as far as This language don't exist anywhere. That's not language, that's gibberish. The reason that is not edifying
is because it's not a clear message. It's not a clear message. It's
up to interpretation. Anybody, if I say, You can go away and you can say,
hey, the preacher said this. And that person can go away and
say, hey, the preacher said this. And I could be thinking, this
means this, this means that. It's up to interpretation. But
listen, the gospel is a clear message and it's not up for interpretation. It is very clear. That's why
Paul is so intent at the very beginning of this letter to let
them know there is utmost importance in what is going on here. The
message I brought to you is a message from God himself. God said this
is the way he's gonna save, and that's the way I translated it
to you. And now you are being removed from that and believing
a gospel that is telling you that salvation is by some other
way than by the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. and that
is not another gospel, and anybody that preaches that gospel, let
them be accursed, because it's not a clear message. It's not
a truthful message, and it's lying about Jesus Christ. That's
why, if you'll look there in verse seven, he said, but some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. If you
remember last week, I mentioned to you, it's not only perverting
the gospel of Christ, But whenever you preach another gospel, whenever
you believe another gospel and call it the gospel, then you
are perverting Christ himself. Because the gospel is about Jesus
Christ. Now, that was kind of a recapitulation
of last week. This week, as I mentioned to
you, we want to look at what is this gospel? What is the word
gospel mean? What does that mean? And if you
would, turn with me over to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter one. The message of the gospel, and
this is why I'm telling you that the gospel is not a message of
an invitation. It's not a message of a free
offer. It's not a message of a plan. that you have to follow. It's
not a message of a Roman road that you have to walk down and
complete all the steps. It's not a message of what you
have to do in conditions because the gospel predates everything. Matter of fact, the gospel or
the good news, we'll see that's what the meaning of this is,
the gospel is eternal. In Revelation, we hear about
an angel that flies throughout the world and declares the everlasting
gospel. The everlasting gospel. That
means that gospel had no beginning and it has no end. It's everlasting. Just like our life is everlasting. It never had a beginning and
it will never have an end for those, the elect of God, that
is. We never had a beginning, we never will have an end. That
life is a life that is in God himself, who is eternal life. And he has given that life to
his people. Every one of us had our life hid with God in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world. So the gospel is a
good news or a glad tiding That's what that word means, good news
or glad tidings, good tidings. And we see that it's an eternal
thing. Look with me, Titus chapter one,
verse one. It says, Paul, servant of God
and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's
elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness
and hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie promised
before the world began. God promised eternal life to
his people before the world began, and God cannot lie. Before the world began, God didn't
promise a plan of salvation. He didn't promise an invitation
or a free offer of salvation. He promised eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised
before the world began. Now, look back, if you would,
Paul, an apostle, or Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus
Christ. How? According to the faith of
God's elect. Now, I read there was several
things that this possibly could be, and, you know, What all the
commentators say, you know, it matters not to me. This is how
I've been given to understand this, and I think this may accord
with the rest of scripture even more than what a lot of the commentators
may say. According to the faith of God's
elect is talking about Jesus Christ. According to the faith of Christ,
Christ is God's elect, we are electing him. We are justified by the faith
of Christ, not by our own faith, not by exercising the faith that
God gives us. We are justified by the exercising
of the faith of Jesus Christ, which in turn becomes his faithfulness. According to the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ, that's what our justification was based upon. So before the foundation of the
world, God based this salvation on hope of eternal life is another
way to term it. The hope of eternal life or our
salvation is based upon the faith of God's elect, Jesus Christ. It's grounded in the work of
Jesus Christ alone, his obedience and his death and his resurrection. That is the basis or the, that
is the groundwork, the foundation. That is what God looked at. That was the payment that God
received. That was the payment that God
was satisfied with for our debts that we owed. is the faithfulness
of Christ. His faithfulness and obedience
to the law as our surety. So we are justified before God,
meaning that we have lived in 100% obedience before God because
Christ imputed his obedience to us. The death that we deserved because
of our sin Christ took upon himself and became sin and died in our
place and that death guaranteed for us that we too stood before
God as fully satisfying His justice in dying for sin, because the
Bible says the wages of sin is death. We died the death that
was required for our sin in our substitute, Jesus Christ, and
God was satisfied with that. Therefore, we have died to sin. We have died to who we were in
the flesh. because Jesus died. We have obeyed
God 100% because Jesus obeyed. We died and paid the penalty
because Jesus paid it. Our substitute substituted. He actually took the place of
someone, not a mystery group of people. He didn't substitute
in a plan or a purpose that was just an unfulfilled thing or
an open-ended thing. He actually substituted for actual
people whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before
the foundation of the world. And for those people, He came
into the world to redeem those people to Himself. Why? Because in Adam, they all die. Because of the sin of Adam, sin
was passed upon all men. Therefore, all men are dead.
Spiritually, Adam died physically. We die physically. Adam was made
and his sinfulness showed he had no spiritual life in him.
He could not keep the commandments of God. And so Paul here is saying, according
to the faith of God's elect, he's speaking of Christ, his
faithfulness. We are servants of God and messengers
of Christ Jesus because of what Christ did. See, the only reason
that we can be what we are today is because Christ and his faithfulness. But he says, and the acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness. So we become a servant
and a messenger of Jesus Christ, according to the work of Jesus
Christ alone on our behalf. And then by conversion, the acknowledging
of the truth, which is after godliness. The working of the law is not
after godliness. It can never produce godliness.
The law can never produce godliness. The only thing that the law can
do is produce sin. That's why Paul made that clear
distinction in that he said, listen, whenever I was without
the law, I was fine, but whenever law came in, I died. Sin revived
in me whenever the law came. The law tells us of our sin,
shows us our sin, exposes our sin. That's what it's meant to
do. It's not meant to make us righteous. It's not meant to
make us holy. It's not meant to make us to
get to heaven. It's not meant to justify, sanctify us or glorify
us. The law was meant to crush us. under the holiness of God and
show us that we are unworthy, that we have rebelled, that we
are unable to keep or to be what God is. The law is there to show us that
we do nothing but miss the mark. If the law shows the holiness
of God, the law shows us that we miss the mark at every turn. Nowhere, no one ever in one iota
has made the mark. And the Bible says that if you
don't make the mark perfectly, continually, then you've missed
the mark all the time. That's the paraphrase of that
portion of Scripture that teaches that if you've sinned in one,
you've sinned in them all. So in conversion, what is conversion? What is repentance? Repentance
is conversion, is the part of conversion. We have quickening,
that's the internal work of the Spirit of God that causes us
to be born from above, that we become spiritually alive. That's
quickening. That's being born again, born
from above, new creation, new creature. But conversion is a
separate act and grace of God, where now that the spiritually
alive person with the Holy Spirit that is in them, with the faith
of Christ in them, now can hear the gospel, understand the gospel,
love the gospel, see their sinfulness, their unableness, enableness,
my grammar's horrible, I know, my inability to keep the law
and my exhaustive inability to perform that's worthy enough
to be made righteous before God. That's what in conversion, we
now that we are spiritually alive, begin to see that and know that. And what's the
word here? Acknowledging the truth. We begin to acknowledge the truth
that our efforts before God will never ever, ever be enough. And so we acknowledge the truth
that it's only by God that we are saved. It is only by the
work of Christ that we are godly. The acknowledging of the truth,
which is after godliness, the truth which is after godliness,
the truth that he's talking about here, the gospel that he's talking
about here, the message that he's talking about here is the
message of godliness, and godliness is in Christ. Godliness is what Jesus did. He did godliness. He was God. Therefore, everything
he did was godly. That's why we say he cannot sin.
God cannot sin, therefore Jesus cannot sin because sin is not
godliness. It's wickedness. Jesus could not sin, could not
have sinned, could never have sinned. So Paul is a servant of God and
a messenger of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect,
the work of Christ, and then conversion, then acknowledging
of the truth, which is after God. Meaning, I turn from, and
remember, If you want another witness to what I'm saying here,
look at what Paul said about himself. He said, listen, I am
the Pharisee of Pharisees. I was circumcised on the eighth
day. I did all the things that needed
to be done. I've kept the law to the best
of anybody's ability that has ever kept the law. I even went
so far that I was persecuting the church of Jesus Christ in
my zeal for God. And what did Paul say? He said,
all of that religious stuff that I did in the past was under a
false gospel under false preachers in a false church system. And he says, I counted all but
done. I counted all but done. That's repentance. That is turning
and acknowledging the truth. Paul acknowledged that that law
system that he was under and the way to make yourself right
before God because of the law or because of your obedience
or because of a condition, that that was not the truth. That
was the truth after the law, after sinfulness, not after godliness. So brethren, this message is
an eternal message. Notice in verse two, he says,
in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised
before the world began. So this gospel is a gospel that
began before the world. Now, as I mentioned before, the
Bible says, or translates this word, The word behind, the Greek
word behind gospel, there's a couple of words actually, variants of
the word, but it is a word that in our King James Bible, translates
gospel over a hundred times. It's either gospel or glad tidings
or good news, good tidings, something like that. Matter of fact, in
the New Testament, this word behind gospel is translated 46
times, gospel of Christ, 11 times, gospel of God, seven times, gospel
of the kingdom. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got my
typing backwards here. 46 times it's translated gospel,
11 times gospel of Christ, seven times gospel of God, three times
gospel of the kingdom, and then there's 10 miscellaneous uses
of the word gospel, and then the root word underneath that,
is translated 23 times to preach, 22 times preach the gospel, two
times bring good tidings, two times show glad tidings, one
time bring glad tidings, one time declare, one time declare
glad tidings, and three times again miscellaneous. Now, in
every one of those places, It doesn't ever speak of an offer
or an invitation or a condition. It speaks of a finished, complete
redemption. Matter of fact, nowhere in here
does it speak of it as a command. It speaks of it as a declaration. Notice how it was, how it was
translated here. The gospel of Christ. It's not
the gospel of the church or the gospel of your faith, not the
gospel of your decisions. It's the gospel of Christ, the
gospel of God. To preach, not to invite, not
to offer, to preach. Preach the gospel. Bring good
tidings, not bring invitations. Show glad tidings, to show glad
tidings, reveal the glad tidings, not to offer the glad tidings, to declare. To declare is not
to encourage, to coerce, to beg, to plead. No, it's to declare. The gospel is declared. We preach
the gospel. We put forth the gospel. That's what this word means. And you know what word we get
for that? Evangelize. The English word evangelize comes
from this word, evangelion, the Greek word evangelion. Now, what
does most people in this world think evangelizing means? Getting
people saved, right? We go and have evangelism conferences.
What do we do at evangelism conferences? We go to teach people how to
get people saved. We call somebody evangelist and
what's he out there to do? He's out there to go and get
people saved. He's just spread the world, spread throughout
the world to go and get people saved. They're dying and going
to hell. And if we don't evangelize them,
then they won't, you know, there was talk whenever I was younger,
the missionaries over going over into Africa and all the places
where the gospel had not been and everything. We're going there
to evangelize the tribesmen. Save them from perishing. They're
going away without the gospel. And if we don't get to them and
save them, then they're going to perish. That's not what evangelism
is. According to the biblical word
here, Evangelion, or gospel, is what's translated to us, and
the usage that God uses it, it is not to get people saved, it's
to tell them about their salvation. They're already saved. They were
saved in Christ. It's to declare that. And listen,
there hasn't been one person died and went to hell that was
meant to be saved. And listen, there's nobody that's
been saved that could have possibly went to hell if somebody didn't
get to him. Now, everybody that's in heaven
is in heaven according to God's purpose, exactly the ones he
foreordained. And everyone that is in hell
is also in hell, exactly as God has foreordained. There's not a condition that
has kept them out. Whether it was the condition
of the preacher or whether it was the condition of the recipient,
it wasn't a condition on them. So the word in and of itself
means gospel or good news or glad tidings. Now, again, like
I said, if one knows what the Bible teaches about our inability
to keep the law, then to invite somebody to Christ or to say
it's up to you then that's not good news, right? Turn with me
if you would over to Isaiah 61. Isaiah chapter 61. Look with me starting in verse
one. I want you to pay close attention
here. I want to read down to verse, at least down to verse
three. But I want you to pay close attention
to the phrases that are here. Now, can anybody tell me, just
by reading the first phrase of this verse, can anybody tell
me where else this passage of scripture is at in the Bible? Or tell me at least where it
was quoted in the Bible. Anybody? Let me read it. The spirit of
the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God
to comfort all that mourn and to appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Does that passage
of scripture sound familiar to you? Do you recognize where else
it's found in scripture? Who may have said it? Well, this was the passage of
scripture that Jesus read whenever he went in, when he began his
earthly ministry, and he went into the tabernacle, and he read
from the book of Isaiah, and he opened up the scroll, and
he read this passage that we just read in chapter one, or
verse one, and he looked and said, told them, that this passage
of scripture was fulfilled that day. He went in and basically declared
unto them that he was the one that Isaiah was talking about
in this passage. So we go back to what we were
looking at in Galatians, where it says that this is the message
of Christ. This is a message not only from Christ, but it
is the message of Christ. Right? It's the message from
Christ. He's the one that told us what
to say, but it's the message about Christ. It's not a message
about your church or about your plan of salvation. I hear so
much of this. I grew up and I even preached
this, that salvation isn't election and predestination and God's
choice. It's our choice. We make that
decision. God has made a plan of salvation that anyone who
will believe on him, he will save. He's made that plan. And
as long as anybody does that, he will save them. As if anybody
could believe on the Lord without the Lord enabling them first
to believe. And the misconception is, is that there is a ability
to have faith in Christ Jesus apart from the new birth. See,
I used to believe that the new birth came after we believed
and repented. Used to preach that, teach that.
Still know a lot of people that do believe that and teach that.
And they will say that the faith that we look to is a faith that
every man has, that's inherent in every person, and they'll
give examples, and here are the examples that I would give, used
to give. I have faith that I could sit
in that chair, so I have faith in the object of that chair that
if I sit down in it, it will hold me up. Now, we know that
that faith can be misguided, right? Waylon had faith that
that wooden bench out here in the foyer would hold him up the
other day when he sat down in it, but did it? I got pictures
to prove it, too. See, man's faith, his natural
faith, can be misguided. And some will say, well, it's
the object of your faith that you put it in. See, but that's
the thing, is natural man's faith does not have the capacity to
look to Christ alone. The Bible is clear about that.
We read those verses last week. See, the faith that we have as
the people of God is a faith that is foreign to us in the
natural realm. Matter of fact, the Bible says
it's a gift of the Spirit. It's not a characteristic in
the flesh. It's a gift of the Spirit. Matter
of fact, the Bible says that not all men have faith. When it speaks of faith in Christ
Jesus, not all men have faith. And if that's the case, then
not all men have the faith to look upon Christ. Faith has to be given, it is
granted unto you, not only to believe on him, but to suffer
for his name. But don't forget, the first part
of that is it has to be granted unto you to believe. You have
to be granted to believe. Jesus said that no one can come
unto me except he be drawn. No one can come except to be
granted of my Father. That coming means believing. That believing means faith in
Christ. Nobody can have faith in Christ unless God grants it
and draws him to it. Now, look back here in Isaiah.
The good tidings, that's the gospel, right? The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, and of course, we know this is talking about
the Lord Jesus because he clearly said this passage, it speaks
of me. Today, it's being fulfilled in
your ears. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the
Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Now, I want you to look at these
passages, and I told you to pay close attention to them. Nowhere
in here is there an invitation, is there an offer, is there a
command? The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Who are the meek? Well, it's not the natural man,
The natural man is not meek. The only ones who are meek are
those who are blessed of God to be meek. Remember the Beatitudes? Blessed are the meek. Meekness
is something that the Lord gives us. Now, whenever we speak of
meekness, we're not talking about natural meekness. There could
be meek people out there that are just, you know, quiet and,
you know, don't say much. We're talking about meekness
as it pertains in the spirit. meekness as it pertains to our
understanding of our place before God. He says, He hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted. That's Christ doing it, right?
To bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty. He didn't
say to offer liberty. He didn't say to invite people
to come into liberty. No, he, to proclaim liberty. To proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim
liberty to the captives and to proclaim the opening of the prison. You're no longer in prison. You
remember the illustration I gave you whenever I was preaching
on eternal justification? And I give you that fact that
whenever the sinner is down in, or the guilty is in prison, they've
got him held in jail, and the advocate or the substitute, his
surety, has went before the judge and told him that, listen, I'm
gonna pay all this guy, everything that this guy owes, I'm gonna
pay. And the judge deems that fair. and equitable, and he deems
that as an exact payment for that guy. And so the judgment
says, okay, if you're gonna make that payment in that place, and
I will accept that payment, it satisfies my justice, then that
guy is justified, and then you will be held over and be guilty.
So when was the declaration of being justified? It was at that
moment that the judge said, guilty, not guilty. That was the declaration. Whenever he took the substitute
and what the substitute offered to God in the place of the sinner,
that's when God justified. Not whenever the man in the cell
believed it. And in the illustration, you
remember the man was justified as soon as that judge took the,
uh, the sureties payment or took the sureties word for payment. I will make, I will make his
payment. Okay. Then that man can go free. And
so the bailiff walks down the hallway. Is the man already justified? Yes, he is. He's justified based
upon the promise of the surety to pay in full everything that
that man owes. Now, the surety hasn't been punished
yet, but that man is free to go because that judge has laid
everything upon the surety. The surety has promised to make
all payment, even though it hasn't been made yet, has made all payment. So that is enough for that judge
to say that man is free to go. He's not guilty anymore. He justified. And so the bailiff walks down
the jail corridors, comes to the jail cell, and says, hey,
guess what? You're not guilty anymore before
the judge. You're free to go. He unlocks
the door, opens it up, and says, you've been justified before
the court, and you're now a free man. Is that when the man was
justified? No, he was justified whenever
the judge made the decision that the surety payment was going
to be enough for that man, even though it had not yet been made. Now, that man, he may sit in
that jail cell, and he may say, I don't believe this. It can't
be true. How can it be? And he may have
doubts. Is that man still justified?
Yep. He may even refuse. No, I'm not. There is no way. This is a trap. You're just trying
to get me out here. You're going to kill me for trying
to escape. No, no way. I can't do it. He may even be
in there saying, no, I'm not good enough. I know, I know I'm
not good enough. And so he just don't believe
yet. He doesn't believe. And so he sits there. Is that
man still justified? Yes, he is. Why? Because the
judge took that surety's word and promised a full payment,
even though he hadn't paid it yet. But at some point this man realizes,
hey, this is the truth. This is true. And so he walks
out of the prison and he said, the door is open. The prison,
he's no longer a prisoner. He's no longer a captain. The
doors has been opened up. He's been justified before the
court. But there is a point in time where he comes into the
joy of that, where he comes into the knowledge of that, where
he comes into the understanding of that, and he believes on that. That's not when he's justified,
but to himself he's justified. It's now justified in his mind,
to himself. And so he walks out. And him
walking out, trusting that he is justified before the court, is just like what we're seeing
here. He is proclaiming liberty to the captives and opening of
the prison to them that are bound. The Gospel is telling that, hey,
you were in prison. You were a captive to sin, but
you're no longer bound. You were condemned under the
law or condemned by the law. But there's no condemnation to
those who are in Christ Jesus. You're free. He's made it free
for you. That's not an offer. That's not
a condition. Look at verse two. To proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. And the day of vengeance of our
God. That's to proclaim. It's not to invite. It's not
to offer. It's not a condition. To comfort
all that mourn. Remember that verse we read a
few weeks ago? Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Tell unto them
what the Lord hath done. How do we comfort people? By
telling them what the Lord has done. We don't comfort them by
telling them, hey, guess what? There is a plan of salvation,
and if you'll keep these conditions, God will save you at the end.
That's not the comfort. Do we comfort them and tell them,
hey, it's your choice. You have free will. God's given
you free will, but he's not going to violate your free will. You
have to make the decision. You either have a decision to
choose God or die. Is that the comfort in good news? No. The comfort is that Christ
has already done it for you. The comfort is it's all wrapped
up in what Christ has done. That's the message of the gospel.
That's why it's called good tidings. That's why it's called good news.
It speaks of a finished redemption, something that's already there.
So he says, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day
of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto
them that morning Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness.
Let's go back and have a look at this. To give unto them beauty
for ashes. One of the things in Hebrew culture
that they used to do is whenever they were sorrowful, they would
put on sackcloth and they would get down in ashes and they would
put ashes upon themselves and everything to show how sorrowful
they were. And in times of mourning, if
someone would die, if they were mourning something, they would
put ashes upon themselves. And God here is saying, listen,
I have traded that. Their mourning over their sin
and sinfulness and inability to keep my law, I've now given
them beauty. The law has been kept for them.
Righteousness has been established for them. The law has been kept
and the penalty has been paid, and there is no need to mourn,
no need to weep, no need to fear. The oil of joy for mourning. See, he's given him, instead
of mourning, he's given him the oil of gladness, of joy. See, so that's why it's good
tidings. It's telling of something that's
already happened, for them. And it says here that they might
be called trees of righteousness. But look, the planting of the
Lord, that he might be glorified. See, the Lord's the one that
plants them in righteousness. He doesn't make them righteous
in and of themselves. He plants them that they might
be called trees of righteousness. The planting of the Lord. I am the vine, you're the branches. See, it's all about Christ and
his glorification. I'll turn with me back to Galatians. So in no place in anywhere is
the gospel proclaimed, the good news proclaimed, Lad Tidings
proclaim, that it is ever a free offer of grace. The gospel is
not an offer, it's not an invitation. As all of you are well aware,
ever since I've been here, we don't have invitations here. There's a lot of churches, they'll
have an invitation, they'll have this long drawn out time where
they'll plead with people to come and accept Jesus as their
Lord and Savior, to repent of their sins, to pray and ask Christ
into their heart, ask Christ to forgive their sins, and they
think at that point that that's when they're saved, and that's
not when they're saved. The gospel is not an invitation,
it's a declaration. It's telling them the good news.
You say, well, if you don't, and I'll be honest, I've actually
had more than one person ask me this. And I'm not kidding. I'm not even exaggerating. Word
for word. If you don't give an invitation,
then how do people get saved? I've had at least two people,
and then maybe more than that, but I know two people specifically
that I can name right now that asked me. Well, if you don't
give an invitation, then how does anybody get saved? Other
people aren't saved through an invitation system. Do we profess our faith in Jesus
Christ? Yes, the Bible says that we are
to confess our sins. The Bible says that there is
a profession of faith that we have. But how do we show our
profession? Can anybody tell me how do we
show What's the biblical way of showing your profession of
faith? Anybody? Baptism. Baptism is how we profess
our faith in Jesus Christ outwardly. Not by coming to an altar. There
is no altar. That auditorium back there, or
any auditorium that people meet in. There's not an altar there.
Jesus Christ is the altar. There's no altar to come to. We profess our faith in baptism. We confess our faith one to another. We must have a confession of
faith. Before we can show our profession
of faith. What we profess is our faith. We confess it. See, the only
way that we can baptize anybody is for someone to first confess
their faith in Jesus Christ. They have to confess that that's
why we ask them about what they believe about the gospel. Matter
of fact, on our private church page on Facebook, There's three
questions that people have to ask before they can be in there,
because it's mainly made for a church. But friends of our
church have been, we've let them in. But there's one of the questions
that I ask people is, explain to me what do you think the gospel
is? Whenever people come to this
church and have in the past, and they've talked about church
membership, They talked about baptism, things like that. I
asked them, well, what do you believe about the gospel? What
do you believe about the gospel? And what did John do? I'm not
gonna say what I did, because if I say what I did, people are
gonna just get mad. Although the only thing I did
was what John did. What did John do whenever there
were people that came to be baptized that wasn't qualified to be baptized?
Did he baptize them anyway? Now, what did he tell him? He
said, show forth fruits of repentance, then I'll baptize you. There
was some conditions that had to be met before somebody could
be baptized. Now, there's no conditions that
need to be met to be saved. But brethren, there are prerequisites
to baptism. You have to be a disciple or
a follower of Jesus Christ's teachings. You have to believe
the gospel. And what happened with those,
who were those men that came to John to be baptized? And he
told them, show forth fruits of repentance. Did he mean weeping
and crying at the altar over their sin? Is that what he wanted?
For them to be sorrowful over their sin? No, what were they,
what was he telling them? That he was preaching a gospel
of repentance. What were they to repent of? What is repentance about? I know
all of us have been taught growing up and everything that repentance
is turning from our sin, turning from going in our direction and
turning and going in God's direction and not to return to those sins
no more. How many here has returned to
a sin that you've repented of? Everybody raise your hand, lest
you be liars. Okay, every one of us. has returned to sins. Is the repentance that is talked
about in our conversion experience talking about repenting of sins or repenting of the sin of self-righteousness? The sin of self, or dead works. See, we are to repent of dead
works. Whenever Paul was talking about,
I count that all as done, was he talking about his sin? No,
he was talking about his religious activity of trying to make himself
right before God. He repented of his dead works
for righteousness. That's what John was telling
those religious leaders who came to be baptized so that they might
fit in, so that they might be accepted among the people. He
told them to bring forth fruits of repentance, meaning you need
to repent of your dead works. You're not repenting of this
Judaic law system that you're trying to continue in. Your righteousness
doesn't come from your law keeping. It comes from faith in Christ
alone. The gospel that John preached
is the exact same gospel that Jesus preached, that Peter, James,
John, and all the rest of the apostles preached, that Paul
preached. And listen, all the churches
of Jesus Christ from that day that he began it has preached
from all the centuries back till now. They preach that same message,
why? Because we are apostles, messengers
in that regard, messengers by Jesus Christ, about Jesus Christ. And so we don't preach and teach
conditions. Gilbert Beebe said this, and
I like his quote. I quoted this to you guys here
before. He says this, he says, when Jesus
stood and cried, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He no more invited the thirsty
than he invited the light when he said, let there be light.
When he said, let him come unto me and drink, it's not an invitation.
No more than he invited the light to come forth. Coming to me. Our our words that
Jesus speaks to the heart of his people. It's not a. It's not a conditional thing.
His words are spirit and life and his sheep hear his voice
and they follow him. They come to him. He speaks into
the heart. He speaks into and into the soul. Whenever Lazarus, he told Lazarus
to come forth, was he inviting Lazarus to come back to the life?
Lazarus come forth. Whenever he tells you come unto
me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
Is he inviting you? No, he's telling you. The gospel tells us of the good
news of Jesus Christ. You want rest? You come to him
for rest. Don't go to your law, and your
law works for rest. The reason Paul is so adamant
in this first nine verses here, and as we'll see going forward,
a few more verses later, but Paul here is making clear that
any other gospel is no gospel, and that the gospel is glad tidings,
and any message of conditionalism, like the Judaizers was preaching,
like the Armenians of today are preaching, is no gospel, it's
a false gospel, it lies about Christ, it lies about salvation,
it lies about you, and that anybody who partakes
of that, anybody who accepts that, listens to that, let them
be accursed. If they believe that, they're
gonna be cursed from all eternity if they do not hear the true
gospel and believe the true gospel, which is by the grace of God
alone. It's not a condition. So brethren,
The gospel is of utmost importance. Why do we preach the gospel over
and over here? Because of its importance. Why do we not have life lesson
classes, you know? Why do we not preach more on,
just tell me what to do. Application. Now, I believe that
whenever we preach, that we ought to, in our preaching, it ought
to be balanced with gospel and application. Paul preached doctrine
and application. But brethren, the application
never should take the priority. And the application should never
be in order to get saved or to stay saved. That's not the point
of application. So let us keep the gospel in
view that is of utmost importance. And any other gospel that is
not the gospel that Jesus give us, then it is no gospel at all. It is a cursed message. And so that's why we repudiate
that. That's why we don't have preachers
in here to preach that believe in free will or decisionism or
conditionalism. That's why we don't go to other
churches that believe those things and fellowship with them, because
how can we be unequally yoked? We cannot go and hold hands.
That's why we don't have ecumenical work here in this town with other
churches that don't preach the true gospel. because they're
preaching another day. I know that the sound of a ministerial
alliance to some that just says, well, man, that's just a good
thing to do. I mean, it's a beneficial thing for the whole town, and
it's doing so much good for everybody. Why wouldn't you want to be involved
in that? The Bible says, how can darkness and light coexist
together? You know, how can two walk together
unless they agree? We can't worship Baal and worship
God at the same altar. We don't have the same gospel
as them. If we come given benevolence to the city in any way, we come
in the name of Christ Jesus, the God of this Bible, who has
accomplished and finished his salvation and that the gospel
that we preach is good news of finished salvation to all the
elect of God and not an opportunity to be saved because Jesus died
on the cross. So how can we walk together?
How can we fellowship together? Matter of fact, the Bible calls
those other churches that preach these things harlots. And he
tells his people to come out of them. Stop trying to reform
the churches that are outside of Christ. The Southern Baptist
Denomination has a whole group of people in them called the
Founders Group, and they stayed in the Southern Baptist Convention
and Denomination to reform them back to what they originally
started as. Listen, the Bible doesn't ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, anywhere tell us to reform,
but to come out, to separate ourselves. It doesn't tell us
to stick in there and try to reform them. It says, no, to
come out. to come out and be separate,
and if any come in among you who are preaching other things,
you're to put them out if they will not repent. See, the gospel's
very clear. A little leaven, leaveneth the
whole lump. The false gospels of decisionalism
and freewillism cannot coexist with the sovereign grace of God. I marvel that ye are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though
we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let it be accursed.
As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach another
gospel, any other gospel, unto you than that you received, let
him be cursed. Anybody have any questions or
any comments? Corrections, review, reproof,
prayer request? Yay or nay? All right. Well, brethren, we thought this
was going to be the last day in this building. That was what
was told to us a few days ago. But the people that own this
building are selling the building. They have a buyer for the building.
However, the closing for that has been pushed off to sometime
in the first of June, around the first part of June. And so
we're able to meet here for another few Sundays. It looks like the
last Sunday in May will be our last Sunday to be able to meet
here. So we get to stay a few more
weeks in here. We've already began to kind of
move some things out and into a storage building that we've
already went down and rented. And once we finish up here, we'll
begin to start meeting back in homes. My house will be open
for us to have our meetings if anybody is inclined to want to
do that at their own home, that's fine as well. We'll be glad to
do that. But we'll start off that first Sunday after we leave
here, we'll start off at my house and then go from there. If anybody
else wants to open up their houses, that's fine too. But we will
be here until the end of May. And we did sell the blue chairs. As you notice, you're not sitting
on the blue chairs today. We found a buyer that bought
those blue chairs from us and we'll take that money that was
purchased for that and help pay the final utility bills and everything
here at the church as we close things down here. And of course,
then it'll go back to, like always, it goes back to the website and
the sermon audio and the web hosting and all that stuff that
we that we continue to carry out. And I printed off our sermon
audio stuff and I forgot to bring it, but anyhow. But we already
sold the chairs. We will store up the tables and
the rest of the stuff that needs, our hymnals and stuff. The ones
that we're not using, we'll put in storage, but we'll bring hymnals
to the house and carry them around in a box with us wherever we
go to meet. Anyhow, we'll continue on. As we all know around here,
the building's not the church, right? The people's the church. We're the ones who are the church.
So it doesn't matter where we meet, as long as we meet. So
we've been blessed for 11 years or more to get to stay here in
this building. And most of that time that we've
been here has been uh, for free, you know, except for we've had
to pay the utility bills and the upkeep of the property, um,
and everything. But, uh, uh, and any of the,
uh, things that's went broke, we've had the air conditioner
go down a few times and the heater went down a few couple of times
and we've had a stool that's broken. We've had to, you know,
all that we had to purchase and buy and, and, uh, pay for. and everything, but as far as
a lease or a rent, we didn't have to pay that for, let's see,
I think it was a year after, let's see, the tornado was in
2011, right? So that following, or into that
December the following year, so from, it was either 2012 or
2013, from that point till now, we've not had to pay any lease
or rent They've been gracious enough
to let us stay here for free, long as we kept the place up
and paid for anything that needed to be paid, utilities and such.
So we're thankful for that, and I express that thankfulness on
behalf of the church to the Westlands organization for their allowing
us to stay here that way. And they wanted me to express
to you the thankfulness that they had for us to stay here
and to keep everything up because they knew if this, I mean, if
this building would have been sitting all those years and not,
of not being able to be sold, then it would have just dilapidated,
you know, it would have went to pot. And not that it's not
close to it anyway because of the age of it. But, but anyway,
we've, we've come in and we've done a lot to their building.
We've painted it and Of course, when the tornado hit, it got
a renovation back here on this end. We got a new roof all the
way around, new windows all the way around, but we've painted
in the auditorium and done a lot of stuff in there that wasn't
done. We've put a baptistry heater in at the baptistry. It didn't
have a heater or a circulator in it. We've done all these things
and kept this place up for them and stuff, and so they expressed
the thanks for that. I wanted to pass that on to you
guys. But anyway, our days are dwindling
down here and we will continue on in the Lord's work and ministry. It just won't be from this building.
Unless something happens between now and the 1st of June with
their buyer. But we will trust the Lord in
whatever we do. All right, let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we again thank you for this day,
and we thank you for the time that we've had of fellowship
and worship today. We thank you for your word. We thank you for
the gospel. What blessed news of free grace
that we have in Christ Jesus. And Lord, we just pray that you
might be with us in these days to come, that as we leave this
building and begin to meet back in homes, Lord, that you might
provide all that we have need of. Lord, we trust in you in
all of this, and we know that this is your church, You have
promised to take care of it and that your spirit will be among
it. And Lord, we just pray that you would keep us faithful no
matter what the circumstances might be. Lord, we pray if there's
another building that you would provide for that. But if only
in homes, Lord, we just pray that we might not become discouraged
in that, but that we might truly even become more close in our
fellowship one with another through that way of worship. And so,
Father, whatever it is to bring glory to you is what we desire,
and we pray that it will be. And so, Lord, we just thank you
today. We pray for our members that are not here, for our guests
and regular attendees that's not here. Father, we pray for
them, and we ask, Lord, that you minister unto them, and for
it's in Christ's name that we pray.