So much for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his life and
his death. We thank you for his work within
us to will and to do the good pleasure of God. We thank you,
Father, that we have opportunity this morning together, together
for worship. We pray that this morning that
the worship that we put forth will be guided by you, directed
by you, and it might be pleasing to you. Father, we need your
help. people that cannot worship in spirit and truth without the
spirit of God in us. And so, Lord, we ask that you
would give us aid today to worship you rightly. Father, I pray that
you'd help me as I preach the message this morning, that you
might keep me from error, that you might put forth truth in
my mind and in my mouth. Lord, that as I preach, these
brethren will be edified. Those watching, those listening
will also be edified. Father, we ask that you might
just speak to us today. We need your word. We pray for
our country. Lord, we lift it up to you. We
know that you are sovereign over all things. and you control all
things and not anything is out of hand that is going without
your control. And so, Lord, we look to you
and we find hope and solace, consolation in the fact that
you are sovereign. And Father, we just pray that
you just might, if it be your will, to relieve the tensions
that we have here in our country, that you might bring people back
to you that you might speak and minister in the hearts of the
churches, Lord, that they might stand and be preaching truth.
We pray for our leaders. We ask, Lord, that you just might
guide them and direct them, give them wisdom, Lord, that they
might do rightly in your sight. We pray for our president now,
even this morning, and his health and his wife and any other of
our leaders that have had issues, Lord, we pray for them. Lord,
we pray for the people that we know and our family members.
We pray for their health as well. Father Lord, we just ask now
that Christ might come by his spirit and that he might speak
and teach us and that it might edify your people. For it's in
Christ's name that we pray, amen. Well, last week, brethren, we
began to look at the topic or the title, Refuting the False Gospels. refuting the false gospels, and
as I said last week, I try to do this at least once a year
to go back and to look at some of the common phrases that we
find in today's modern gospels that are being preached, which
are no gospels at all, by the way, according to Paul. Any other
gospel than the gospel that Christ gives the church is no gospel
at all. But I did want to reiterate the
fact that in our learning, in our coming to know the gospel,
a lot of times we will hear false gospels being preached. Many
of us have been raised up in churches that preach different
doctrines than what we believe and hold here at our church.
They believed gospels that were not according to God's word,
but gospels that were according to man's traditions. And we want
to be Bible believers, not followers of men. And so it is healthy
for us to occasionally go back and look and see what does God's
word say up against the modern gospels that we hear that's out
there. The Bible says to test the spirits to know whether they
are of God or not. There are many spirits of teaching
out there. The Bible says that men are drawn
by every wind of doctrine. The word spirit is pneuma. It
means wind, to breathe. And there are many men out there
that are preaching every spirit of doctrine or every wind of
doctrine. We need to compare those things that we hear. Preaching and teaching the true
gospel isn't popular in today's society, or in yesterday's society,
or even in the society when Jesus was preaching it. It's not popular. Even Jesus warned us that we
would be hated for what we believe and what we teach. Jesus said
that we would experience persecution for these truths. And so whenever
we look at what's being seen, because what happens on TV and
what happens on radio, very rarely do you find someone who is preaching
the truth in those arenas. And when you look around at the
churches in our cities and in our communities, you find there
are many big churches, you know, even here in Joplin, there's
churches that have, you know, thousands of people in their
membership. And here we are just a few small few, you know, but
they have, you know, thousands of people in their membership.
And that does not dictate the health of a church. It doesn't
dictate whether or not that that church is preaching the truth
or not. What dictates whether or not a church is healthy and
whether it's preaching the truth is its adherence to the word
of God. We're to preach the word of God. That's the instruction that Paul
gave Timothy. He said to preach the word of
God, to be ready in season and out of season, to always give
a reason for the hope that lies within you and that all scripture
has been given unto us by God, it's been inspired by God, and
it is profitable for everything. And so we go to God's word and
not to seminaries, to the teachings of men, the things of creeds
and confessions, and let those dictate to us what we believe.
Now, some of that is good. I'm not throwing the baby out
with the bathwater. There are confessions and creeds
that do have truth in them, but they are not the truth. There's
only one truth and that is the word of God. And so we go to
it for our learning and our understanding. And it's to be believed by those
who are his people. Now, as I said, we've been contrasting
or refuting the false gospels with the true gospel. And we
started last week looking at some phrases, and I'll kind of
go back and remind you of some of the phrases that we've heard.
And like I said, a lot of these that I have in here are phrases
that I used to say myself, not only personally, but from the
pulpit. Whenever I was an Arminian preacher,
I would say these things to the congregation that I'd be preaching
in front of, whether it was the one that I was the associate
pastor of, or whether it was one that I went whenever I was
traveling and singing with that Southern Gospel group. Whenever
I was preaching to people in other places, many of the phrases
that are here are phrases that I would often say. But as we
look at the scripture, we'll see that it was error. And I'm
thankful that the Lord has granted me repentance into the acknowledging
of the truth and to bring me from those errors. And I pray
that he continues to do that in all other things. that I may
be in error about. I'm not infallible. You guys
have heard me say that and you are very sure or aware of that,
that I'm not right about everything and that I can be wrong. So always
compare what I say with God's word. We looked last week at
the phrase, I came to Jesus of my own free will. I've heard
people say that, I've said that. But we looked and seen that John
5, 40 and 6, 44 and 65, those refute that gospel. We do not come to Jesus of our
own free will. That the only ones that can come
to Christ are those that the Father has given to Christ and
those that the Father draws We look at the phrase, I let God
save me, as if God needed your permission, okay? We think that
God needs our permission, and the reason that we think that
is because of what we said in the first one. We think that
we have a free will. We think that God has created
us and he controls the world, but he doesn't ever override
our free will. He doesn't ever make us do something
that we wouldn't wanna do, okay? We have a nature that is antithetical
to God. We have a nature that is against
God. God doesn't have to make us do
that. We will, by nature, rebel against God. We are sinful people. But to say, I let God save me,
is basically saying, in not so many words, that God wants to
save me, but I won't let him until I make that choice. And
we learned in Psalm 115 and verse three, that the people are made
willing in the day of his power. Whenever the Lord in his power and at his time
exerts that grace upon you, you will become willing in that day. I asked a question, I don't know
if it was last week or if it was the last time I preached
this, but, How many of you who profess Christ, who have come
to Christ, how many of you came willingly? I mean, you wanted
to come to Christ. You wanted to, you know, you
felt your need for Him and you felt that He was your only hope
and you received Him as your Lord. I mean, all of us have
experienced that. I mean, I didn't, I wasn't saved
coming kicking and screaming saying, no, no, no, I don't want
to. No, I came wanting Christ, needing Christ, seeing Christ,
running to Him for mercy and grace. But see, our nature, apart
from Christ, doesn't do that. It never will do that. And so
that's why we read God has to make us willing. We do come willingly,
not free-willingly. We come willingly, though. We
don't have a free will to say yes or no, and God can't transgress
that, but God can change our nature that that nature does
not want God, does not come to Christ, will not seek after God,
will not come that you might have life. All those verses that
we read, that nature cannot be changed by us. It can only be
changed by God. He changes that. He is the one
who gives us a heart of flesh and takes out that heart of stone
that continually says no to God, no to God, no to God. But if
His timing, He takes that out, and whenever He does, then we
become willing. We call that, does anyone know
what doctrine we call that? Or if we have the old acronym
TULIP wrote up there, do you know which letter that would
be? Exactly, it would be the I, irresistible
grace. We call that irresistible grace. Grace is something that God does
for you that you can't do for yourself, that he gives you that
you don't deserve. And all of us deserve God's wrath,
and God gives us grace. We are rebels against God. The Bible says that we are an
enmity against God, and by nature, children of wrath towards God.
That nature will continue to be a child of wrath unless God
gives us grace and changes that. If God doesn't change that, we
will continue in that, never really knowing and understanding
the depth of our depravity, never knowing the depth of our rebellion
against God. And listen, you can be religious,
do religious things. You can come to church, you can
sing hymns, you can give offerings, you can visit the sick, visit
the poor, you can help the poor. You can clean the church building,
mow the lawn. You can do all the things. You
can go out on the street corner and hand out tracts and be religious
and still be a rebel against God and still be at enmity against
God and be lost. It's only whenever Christ gives
us that new heart that we are made willing. And so we don't
let God save us. God overcomes our rebellion,
gives us grace to see that we are in rebellion. To see, that's
why we read in, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and in verse 15 it
says, in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and
verse 12, it says, now we have received not the spirit of the
world but the spirit which is of God that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. See, we don't really
know our estate before God, until God shows us grace. It's like
that little kid, whenever I was a little kid, and you may have
them in your houses still today, I don't know what kind of your
house, how old your house might be, but whenever I was growing
up, a lot of our houses, we had a gas furnace and there was this
grate on the floor that the heat came up out of, and it would
get hot. And the grape, you know, would
be there and all the time, you know, they're telling, don't
walk across that, don't walk across that, you'll burn your
feet. You'll burn your feet. Don't walk across that. Well,
you see a little kid who's walking and heading right towards that.
They don't know. They don't have any idea what's about to happen
to them. They don't know any idea how
ignorant of what's going on and everything. And then you all
of a sudden you run over there and you grab them before they
walk across that hot grape and burn their feet. and everything,
well, what were you doing? You were helping them when they
didn't even know what was going on. They didn't even have a clue.
And they're probably wondering, well, why'd you do that for?
And then you explain to them, well, that's how it is in salvation,
that Christ has done something for us, but we don't know nothing
about it yet. And all we know is that we're
okay with ourselves. Our self-righteousness is telling
us that we're doing enough good deeds, we're good enough. God
surely loves me enough that he's gonna overlook what I've done,
okay? And we're, so to speak, heading
for destruction, although the child of grace has never headed
that direction. But in our experience of that, God tells us, stop. that sin will condemn you. And
so that's whenever God comes in and he gives us a nature that
will understand these things. And then we finally realize all
along, wow, this is how I am. And that's where we are given
sorrow over our sin and repentance and looking to Christ. So it's
God that saves us, not us letting God save us. The third phrase
we looked at last week was, I found the Lord. Well, we know that's
not true either. The Bible says that if we're
his sheep, that he's the one out looking for us, right? The
shepherd goes looking for the sheep, not the sheep for the
shepherd. The sheep are just kind of dumb
animals. They just kind of wander wherever they want to wander.
And all of a sudden they turn around and look around and everybody's
gone and they're out in the middle of nowhere by themselves. And
wolves are all at the door. The shepherd is the one who comes
and finds the sheep. Matter of fact, the Bible says
that no man seeketh after God. And so we take that to be true.
You have all these churches, and since we're talking about
refuting the false gospels that's out there, we can also refute
the false church systems that are out there that says that
there are these seekers that are seeking God, and we must
make our church relevant to those seekers. And there was a whole
movement of that 15 years or 20 years ago that was this seeker-friendly
church movement. A lot of that came out of the
book, The Purpose Driven Church, and then eventually the guy wrote
The Purpose Driven Life book, but The Purpose Driven Church
actually came out first. And this whole book was how this
guy out in California, this preacher, had come up with this system
of how to make church relevant for every ring of society. And he had these concentric rings
as illustration that he could give. And you had the core people
of the church who were the solid people who knew the doctrines
and believed what they believed. And then you had the people that
was the casual comers. And then there was the ones that
was out here that didn't know anything, and they were the seekers.
And they structured their church by taking surveys and finding
out what people wanted and all this stuff. And they structured
their church for that. Brethren, that's not how the
Lord has set up his church. We do not ask the world how the
church should be run. We ask the Lord how it should
be run. And he has given us that in his word. And there aren't
anyone seeking after God. There are people seeking after
religion. There are people seeking after consolation for their guilt
and things like that. But there is no one who is seeking
after God. And I take God's word over man's
word. You might say that there are seekers out there, but I
don't believe you, okay? The Bible says there are none
that seek after God. Someone will say, well, I was
seeking after God for years and years and years and years. Well,
if you were seeking after God, it was because God had been drawing
you. Okay? You say, well, preacher, the
Bible says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Brethren, that's
talking to the people that already know the Lord. Seek the Lord
while he may be found. No man seeks after God, is that
a contradiction? No, but there are men who seek
after God whenever they have been given spiritual life, then
they do seek after God. And I'll just say that along
with all the other admonitions in scripture, where we hear,
come unto me all you who hunger and thirst, okay? Those who are
hungry and those who are thirsty for God are the ones who have
been made hungry and thirsty. They're the ones who have been
given a spiritual hunger and a spiritual thirst after God.
And so just because the Bible has these admonitions, or not
admonitions, but has these callings, doesn't mean that we in our nature
have the ability to respond to those things until we've been
given life. The fourth thing that we looked
at last week was I accepted Jesus. And we found that that too was
contradictory to the word of God. Those preachers that are
out there saying, if you'll just accept Jesus as your Lord and
Savior, then he will save you. That's not true. The Bible says
in Ephesians chapter one, that he has made us accepted in the
beloved. It's the other way around. It's
not us accepting Jesus, it's Jesus accepting us. It's us being
accepted in the beloved. And that's only done by God's
eternal grace that he gives to his people. Number five, I decided
to follow Jesus, or I decided for Jesus. Remember that song
we used to always sing, especially at youth camps of old, back whenever
I would go into the Armenian youth camps, we used to sing,
I have decided to follow Jesus. That's as unscriptural as it
comes. We don't decide to follow Jesus.
Jesus draws us, he gives us a new heart. And then once he does
that, then we will follow after him. But I decided for Jesus,
for salvation, that is not the gospel. Ephesians tells us that
as well. Ephesians chapter one tells us
that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Number six, we looked at, I asked Jesus to come into my
heart, or ask Jesus to come into your heart, or I let Jesus come
into my heart. That's, you know, all those,
you know. Jesus is knocking on the door
of your heart. We see that that was also a fallacy according
to Ezekiel 36. Jesus takes out the heart of
stone, puts in the heart of flesh. He isn't outside your heart's
door knocking. You remember that old picture?
It's been around for many, many years, probably even back when
you were young, brother. I think it was, and it shows
that picture of that drab, serious Jesus outside the heart's door
knocking. waiting to come in, he just,
I just, I really want to come in if you'll just let me. What a weak Jesus that is. Our
Jesus isn't like that, brethren. Our Jesus is not a weak-willed
Jesus. If he wants to come in, he's
gonna come in, he's gonna open up the door and come in. And
that's exactly what he does with our heart. Every one of his people
that God has given to him, He comes in and He takes out that
heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh, and He isn't
out there begging to come in. He's an actual Savior, He's not
a potential Savior. Number seven we looked at, I
was saved because God did His part and I did my part. If you
remember, I gave you that big giant 50 cent word last week,
that term is synergism. That's what we know as synergism. That means that it is a, you've
heard, I hear you kids have probably heard this before, especially
you Star Trek fans and things. Have you ever heard of a symbiotic
relationship? Remember the Borg on Star Trek? Okay, I'm showing my nerdism
now, I guess. Okay. It means that it is a work,
a combination of work. It means that it's a shared work. that there's more than one person
involved in the accomplishing of the task. And so to say that
Jesus has his part and I have my part, Jesus's part was living
and dying for me and my part is asking him into my heart or
receiving him or believing on him, repenting and believing
and being baptized or whatever the case might be. You have absolutely
no part in your salvation. Now, that doesn't mean that we're
not to repent. The Bible does tell us that we are to repent.
If you do not repent of your sin, you will all likewise perish. But see, that's not a speaking
of your ability. Okay, just because God gives
the commandment to repent and believe doesn't mean you have
the ability. We repent and believe as a fruit
of salvation. Whenever Christ saves us and
then gives us that new life and the new birth, whenever we're
born again and have spiritual life in us, that spiritual life
will bring us, convince us of sin and will bring us to repentance. And it will bring us to believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we will repent and we
will believe, and that is an important thing. Not one person
is gonna be in heaven that the Lord has not drawn, that they've
repented and they've believed. You say, well, what about babies?
Well, what about babies? The Bible says John the Baptist
was filled with the spirit in his mother's womb. You think
that if anything would have happened to John the Baptist before he
was born, he would not have been in heaven? And I don't mean to
get into the whole issue of elect babies or non-elect babies and
all that kind of stuff, but the fact remains is the Bible says
that all that the Father gives me shall come to me. And he said
that that come to me, he used that in synonym with believe. And so I just trust the Bible
and what it says. I may not understand it. I may
not be able to comprehend it, but I can apprehend it. The Bible
says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and all
that come to me I will in no wise cast out, and all that come
to me I will raise them up at the last day. So that tells me that everyone
who is the elect of God God gives them faith, and we may not see
that faith, we may not understand that faith in those that are
unable to express it because of their mental capacity. Those
children who die prematurely in birth, I say prematurely, they die exactly
when the Lord has deemed it their time to go. But if they die as
an infant, as they die as a toddler, as a young person, whatever the
case might be, that they will be given whatever God requires
for them and not one will be lost. So that's my hope, that's
my trust is in what God's word says and not what the evidence
and eyes of man sees. Now, that's not saying that there
are gonna be people out there that never come to know the Lord
Jesus, that they're gonna live their whole entire lives as,
you know, heathens and never hear the gospel, never believe
the gospel, but they're gonna be in heaven because they're
left. I'm not saying that either. That's not what I'm saying, so
don't misunderstand me. but we do not have a part whatsoever
in our salvation. The Bible says that salvation
is of the Lord. My part in salvation isn't believing
on Jesus, okay? That's the result of salvation. I believe on Jesus as a result
of my salvation. We looked at several passages
that told us that last week. And then, Lastly, I think we
looked at the phrase, I was saved because I chose the Lord. And
again, that was basically the same as I accepted Jesus Christ
or I decided for Jesus. As I said, many of these phrases
are very closely connected. But we've seen in 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 13, that that was not true. Let me read that real quick for
you. 2.13 says, but 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. See, God has chosen us to salvation. And so it has nothing to do with,
I was saying, because I chose the Lord, the Lord chose me.
to believe the truth and that I would experience that salvation
through that work that God has done to me. Now, this morning,
I'd like to pick up with this and try to make it through the
rest of my list here. Have you ever heard the term, believing the gospel causes eternal
life? If you'll believe the gospel,
he'll give you eternal life. If you'll just believe the gospel,
If you'll believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you will have
eternal life. He'll give you eternal life. Well, brethren, the Bible says
a lot of things that sound like that, but if we look at the whole
scripture, if we look at all of what God's word teaches us,
we see that believing the gospel is not what causes eternal life,
from God, that having eternal life is what gives us the ability
to believe the gospel. Again, look at Acts chapter 13
and verse 48. I mentioned to you that that
right there was kind of the watershed verse for me as the Lord was
bringing me to understand my errors about the gospel and was
bringing me into the truth of sovereign grace. This was a watershed verse. I
probably, at that point in my life, had probably read it many
times, but because of my bias in what I believed and my hatred
towards what I now believe, I probably just skimmed right over that
and wrote it off as nothing. But we gotta take God for what
he says, right? He just doesn't fill up pages
with words. for no reason, he means everything
he says. It says, when the Gentiles heard
this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. Now, pay
close attention to what is being said here and the order in which
it's being said. And as many as, now let's just
stop there. If you remember, the phrase as
many as is a qualifying word or quantifying word. Does as
many as mean everybody? No, right? As many as. Let's say this morning that there
was a couple of drops of poison that got in the coffee. Now all you guys that are drinking
coffee get sick. And then somebody is given the
The testimony of it later, they said, yeah, it was horrible.
As many people as drank coffee got sick. Well, who were the
ones who got sick? Was it everybody? No, it was
just the ones who drank the coffee, right? So that as many as was
a quantifier, quantifying who it was that got sick. Okay, well,
here we have the very same thing. as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. So who were the ones that believed?
The ones who changed their mind for Jesus? The ones who accepted
Him as their Lord and Savior? The ones who believed the gospel?
The one who opened up their heart and let Jesus come in? No, who were the ones who believed?
The ones who were ordained to eternal life. as many as, and
no more. Guess what? But no less either. Not one will be lost. Everyone
for whom the Lord has given to Christ will be saved. Not all at once in his own time,
but they will be saved. And here we see that the order
is you have to be ordained to eternal life before you believe.
Eternal life has to be given to you before you can believe,
because it is out of that life that we believe. Okay? And so it is with everyone, not
just the Gentiles, but the Jews also, as many as believed. Say, what is this? No, it was
as many as were ordained. But see, the preachers of today
and the gospels of today have it backwards. It says as many
as believed were given eternal life. They'll talk about all
their revivals and all their Bible meetings and all of their
youth camps, and they'll come back and they'll say, oh, there
was 5,000 people that was saved in that camp this year. And as
many people that believe, they were saved that very day. That's
not how it works, brethren, according to the scriptures. According
to God's word here, it says that you have to be ordained to eternal
life, and by that eternal life you believe. I mean, am I taking that thing
out of context? It doesn't seem to me to be that
way. Look, if you would, at John chapter
eight. John chapter eight, verse 36. In verse, just right above that,
in verse 33, Jesus spoke about the truth, making people free.
And these Jews said, we be Abraham's seed and we're never in bondage
to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made
free? See, the Jews thought because
they were Jews, because they were of Abraham's seed of the
flesh, that salvation was just theirs for the taking because
they were who they were. But Jesus said, verily, verily,
I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is a servant of sin. And
the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth
forever. If the son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed. He's talking about our nature,
our sin, right? He says, I know that you are
Abraham's seed, the seed in the flesh, you know, you're descendants
of Abraham by the flesh, but ye seek to kill me because
My word hath no place in you. See, the words that Jesus spoke,
the truth that Jesus spoke, the gospel that Jesus preached didn't
have anything in them. They didn't have any place in
them. He said, I speak that which I have seen with my father, and
ye do that which you have seen with your father. Oh, now we're
seeing here that there's two fathers in view. There's those who hear the things
from God the Father, and there are those who hear things from
another father and believe them. Verse 39, they answered and said
unto him, Abraham is our father, Jesus saith unto him, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
What were the works of Abraham? Remember the Bible said that
the works that Abraham did was that he believed the Lord and
Abraham accounted the seed for his righteousness. Abraham believed
God and believed that Christ was gonna be his righteousness
and not his own words. These men are thinking that they're
worse and because of their Abraham's seed, they're righteous. But see, they're not listening
to Jesus. He's telling them the gospel and they're believing
a false gospel. Verse 40, but now you seek to
kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard
of God. This did not Abraham. Abraham
didn't try to kill Jesus whenever Jesus spoke to Abraham and tried
to preach to him the gospel. Verse 41, ye do the deeds of
your father. Then said they to him, we be
not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. And Jesus said unto them, now
see, these were religious men who knew the Bible, who were doing all the works
and commandments according to the law, or at least trying to,
okay? They were striving to do the
law, keep the law. He says, If God were your father,
you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God, neither
came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand
my speech? Now, he's gonna give them the
reason why they don't understand the gospel, why they don't believe
the gospel. Now, again, what are we refuting
here? The phrase that says believing
the gospel causes eternal life from God. Okay, Jesus here says, why do
you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. See, we have an inability to
hear spiritual things from God. Now, everyone here can hear what
I'm saying, right? Unless you're deaf, right? Unless you're deaf. Everyone here can hear what I'm
saying. But you can't understand spiritually what I'm saying until
the Lord gives you spiritual life. You don't know the understanding
of it, you don't feel the understanding of it. What do you mean feel
the understanding? Meaning that you not only hear
it, but in your heart, you know and are convinced that you're
a sinner and can't do anything before God. You're convinced
in your heart that you have no ability to put forth any righteousness
that will be accepted of God, and God is convincing you that
your only hope is in what Christ has done for you and that it's
yours. See, those are the things that
we can't grasp and hold and have hope in until we're born of God. And that's why he said, you cannot
hear my word. Now, there's another application
of this, not just that, because every one of us who are born
of God at one point in time could not hear the words of God until
we were given that. But there is a group of people
who are not given to Christ. You remember we read, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. So there is a people that's
been given to the Lord, not everybody's been given to the Lord, To be
saved, why? How do we know that? Well, we
know that the Bible teaches that there are gonna be many in hell,
right? Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many
there be that find it. Okay, there's gonna be many in
that day that say, Lord, Lord, did I not do this or that in
your name? And he said, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. And they were
cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing
of teeth, and the eternal fires where the flame dieth not, or
the worm dieth not. See, there is a group of people
and the Bible calls them vessels of wrath. The Bible calls them
reprobates that this these group of people, they are of their
father, the devil. They're not of the father, God. And these people cannot hear
Christ because his word is not in them. Look what he says. Why
do you not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my
word. Ye are of your father the devil
and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no
truth in him. See, the reason that people won't
abide in the truth and believe the truth is because there is
no truth in them. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. So Jesus is saying, the
more I preach the truth, the more you're not going to believe
it because the truth isn't in you. Your desire is to believe
the truth of your father that's telling you what he believes
to be the truth. But he's a liar. He's not telling
you the truth. We have many brethren according
to the flesh, not brethren according to the spirit. Many brethren,
mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, who have
a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They have a religion,
but they don't have eternal life. And they're out there and they're
preaching a gospel, but it's a false gospel. They're holding
and hoping in a false gospel. They believe all these things
that we've been talking about, they believe it is because of
those things that they come to receive salvation. And those
brethren are gonna be the ones that's gonna be there at the
day, unless God saves them, that they're gonna be the ones that
day that are gonna say, Lord, Lord, did we not do all these
wonderful works in thy name? But see, the more that the truth
is preached to them, the more they hate it. Why? Because it
goes against what their father, the devil, who tells them lies,
who by the way, brethren, the Bible says masquerades as an
angel of light. The devil ain't gonna come up
in a pitchfork and a red suit with his waving tail in the background
and say, here, believe this. No, he's not gonna come in such
a bold and brash way, if he's even that way at all. The Bible
says that he is a seducer, that he is a deceiver. What does it
mean to be deceived? It means you're thinking something's
right, but you're not, you're deceived. I've been deceived. Remember with Adam and Eve, Eve
ate the fruit, she was deceived, but Adam wasn't, Eve was. She was deceived, she thought
that if she ate that, she could be like God. But Adam knew different. Adam knew that in the day that
they ate that fruit, they'd surely die. And see, Satan is a deceiver,
and he's a liar. The father of lies is what he
says here. He's the father of lies. He speaketh
a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father
of it. He's the first liar that's ever
lied. And so whenever he comes, he's
not gonna come and be so brash to say, follow Satan, me good. He's not going to do that. He's
going to come as an angel of light. He's going to masquerade
as someone who's preaching the truth, teaching the truth. That's
why there is so much warning in God's word for the church
to be on guard, to guard the doctrine that is being preached
in the church, because there are many who's going to come
in. Wolves are going to come in. There are going to be people
who are going to come up inside of the church who are going to
be ravenous wolves. not believing the truth and trying
to attack the sheep of God. And so, brethren, whenever we
look at these things and we say words matter, whenever I say
that the order of the way that God says this has a meaning,
it means something, okay? We need to take note of it is
because it's teaching us those things so that we can be aware.
And he says here, and because I tell you the truth, you believe
me not, which of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth,
why do ye not believe me? He that is of God, heareth God's
words. So see, you have to be of God.
You have to be one of God's people, God's elect, God's children,
God's seed. You have to be the one that has
been given to Christ to be able to hear this. What did Acts 13,
48? You have to be one who is ordained to eternal life. for
you to believe. He says, he that is of God, heareth
God's words. Ye therefore, now he's contrasting. Those who, because remember,
in all these times that Jesus was talking, there were people
who were believing on Jesus and following him, becoming his disciples.
Matter of fact, if you look, remember after Jesus was crucified
and before his ascension, the Bible said that he appeared unto
over 500 brethren. So within that 300 period of
time, we know that there were 500 brethren just in that church
at Jerusalem. But the Bible says that right
after that, there were 2,000 or 3,000 people that joined the
church that was saved after the church on the day of Pentecost. But
up until that point, there was at least 500 people that we know
of that were brethren. So people were believing of the
Jews, but there was a lot that weren't. And what is Jesus saying
here? He's contrasting. The reason
that some are believing and some are not believing is because
some of you are of my father, and some of you are not of my
father. You're of your father, the devil. He that is of God,
heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because
ye are not of God. That's a pretty harsh saying
though, isn't it? Jesus said that in chapter 10, if you'll turn
over to chapter 10. Looking, if you would, down at
verse 25. Jesus answered them, I told you
and ye believe not, the works that I do in my Father's name,
they bear witness of me. But ye believe not because. Ye believe not because ye are
not of my sheep, as I said unto you. When did he say that unto
them? Well, he said that unto them
back in chapter eight. whenever he told him that you
believe not because you are not of God. Okay? So what's the order here? The
modern gospel that's out there today is saying if you will believe
on Jesus, you will become his sheep. but that's not what the Bible
says. We wanna believe what the Bible says. We wanna teach what
the Bible says. The Bible says, ye believe not
because ye are not my sheep. Now, what's the flip side of
that? If that's true, then that flip side is ye believe
because ye are my sheep, right? So what is the qualification
to believe? That you're already his sheep.
So now we have a couple of things in view here by the two passages
that we've read. We see one that says you have
to be his sheep to believe. We have another verse that says
you have to be ordained to eternal life to believe. So we must be
his sheep and we must have eternal life. And once we are in that
category with that happening to us, then we can believe. You see how opposite that is of today's
gospel? Today's gospel in most places
say that that we are goats, and that we need to be saved from
that, that we're lost, and we need to be saved from that, and
that whenever we believe, if we come to Jesus, decide on Jesus,
find the Lord, accept Jesus Christ, let Jesus come into your heart,
do your part, and believe, then Jesus will make you a sheep.
and give you eternal life. That eternal life comes after
your believing. But here, this is just the opposite,
right? Now, isn't that amazing? When you stop and think about
it, that the majority of churches are preaching a gospel that sounds
almost like the gospel, but it's completely opposite of the gospel.
I mean, we just look, just in two verses here, and I can take
you to many others, that say just the opposite. And we're
seeing this. I mean, we're looking here at
these, so far we're down to number 10 on my list, and we've seen
10 common phrases in the gospels that are preaching in our churches
all over this place, and every one of them is completely opposite
of what the Bible says. And you might be asking, well,
how is it that so many people can be so wrong? I mean, how
come people are preaching that if it's the complete opposite?
Again, just like Jesus told these religious people of his day,
the reason that you don't believe this, the reason that you don't
teach this. Remember, those men were supposed to be teaching
the people of Israel the truth, and they weren't. They were teaching
them to run to Moses for your righteousness whenever all of
the Old Testament was saying, go to Christ for your righteousness. Those men were preaching and
teaching the complete opposite because they were not of God.
You say, so brother, you're telling me that the majority of churches
that are out there today are really not true churches with
true preachers, with true gospels? That's all we can assume. Spade
is a spade, right? If it walks like a duck, talks
like a duck, probably a duck, right? If they do not believe the truth,
if they do not speak the truth, if they do not convey the truth,
then it's because they don't have the truth. I know that's very hard to grasp
and understand and believe. And I'm not here saying that
we're the only ones right. There are many of the Lord's
churches scattered across this world that God has been pleased
to preserve and that they continue in the truth and they will until
Christ comes again. The Bible says that he will perpetuate
not only this truth, but that the churches that the gates of
hell will never prevail against the churches, that they will
be preserved from being overcome. Complete opposite, right? All
right, let's look at the next one. Try to go through these
next ones pretty quickly here. I made Jesus my Lord. There is
a teaching that's out there that's popular today, probably one of
the, Few teachers that you guys hear out there that are popular
are John MacArthur, John Piper, Steve Lawson, men like that. They preach sovereign grace,
an augmented form of sovereign grace. But they preach what is
known as lordship salvation. They're called lordshipers, just
terms that men have given. But what they teach, is that
you can accept Jesus Christ as your savior, but not as your
Lord. And if you don't take him as your Lord, then you're not
saved, okay? And then they will say, they'll
go on to preach and teach that if you do not persevere in good
works, if you do not continue doing the law and become more
righteous and holy in your walk, then it's because you were never,
you were never, truly saved in the first place. And so they
preach a law and grace mixture where they're mixing the law
in with grace. A lot like what was going on
in the Galatian church. they were saying, yes, we believe
that God is sovereign and he elects and that he is saved by
Christ alone. But then it says that, but yet
we still have to do this. And if you don't do this, then
you won't be saved. If you don't believe, you won't
be saved. If you don't receive, if you don't, you know, repent,
if you don't, you know, that that is what actually saves you. And so they preach a, conditional
salvation in time, a lot like the conditional primitive badness
do. And that is a lordship salvation. And this is one of the phrases
I would say because I, or excuse me, I made Jesus my personal
savior or I made Jesus my Lord. Look it with me at Acts chapter
two and verse 36. One thing that you need to know
before anything, we do not make Jesus Lord. or Savior. He already is that. Acts chapter
two, look at verse 36. It says, therefore, let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ, or Messiah,
Savior. We don't make Christ Lord and
Savior. God has made Him Lord and Savior. And as Lord and Savior, He saves
you. You do not save yourself. He's not waiting to save you
if you'll do your part like we talked about. No, God has made
Him Lord. What does that mean, if you're
a Lord? That means you have power and authority over everybody,
right? Didn't the Bible say that he's given Jesus power over all
flesh to give eternal life to as many as have been given to
him? Jesus has been made Lord to give eternal life to whoever
the Lord had given him. He's been given power over all
flesh. but he's also made him Christ
or Savior, Messiah. He's made him the chosen one,
the anointed one of God who brings salvation. He doesn't make salvation
possible. He actually saves. I got several illustrations I
could say about that, but I'm gonna refrain this morning for
sake of time. So we know that God has made
Christ Lord and Savior, not us. Look if you would with me at
Philippians chapter two. Ephesians. Philippians. If you have Ephesians,
keep on trucking. Philippians chapter two. And let's look down, if you would,
with me at verse five. It says Philippians 2, 5, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. And I say, but of course, because
Jesus is God, right? But made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of man. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto the death,
even the death of the cross, Wherefore, God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven,
and of things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. So here we see that it is God
who exalts Christ and makes Him Lord and Savior. It is Christ
who came and by His obedience unto death, that He saved us
and that by that death, He is exclaimed as Lord, okay? We do not make Jesus Lord. We do not make Jesus our personal
savior. Does Jesus save his people in
a personal way? Absolutely, he does. He does. The Bible says that there were
names written in heaven before the foundation of the world.
Individual single names. It wasn't just elect up there
and some faceless cloud of people. No, it was individual people.
Jesus died for, if you're a child of grace, Jesus died for your
sins, Brother Ed. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Every one of Ed's. Every one
of Lori's. Every one of Michael's. Anybody
who is a child of grace, Jesus died for those sins, for you. He stood on your behalf, even
though he stood for all the elect, He stood for all the elect as
they were individuals. Remember, I gave you the illustration
when we were talking about justification a few weeks ago, and I gave you
the illustration about the mediator and how a mediator will come
before the court on behalf of somebody else, like a bondsman.
We have a bondsman. And a bondsman may come before
the court, and that bondsman, he may show up in court that
day, and he may be representing 25 people that day. But whenever that court case
comes up, he's representing each individual in that 25 group of
people, okay? That group of 25. He's there
individually standing for them. Listen, Jesus is individually
standing for every child of grace, for every sin that they have
ever done. He has pardoned, he has reconciled us to God, and
that is because he substituted for every child of grace, not
just a group in mass order. Although he did it once and he
did it once for all, each individual was represented individually. Look at Acts chapter five. Turn
back a few books to Acts chapter five and verse 31. Starting in verse 30, I'll read, it says,
the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged
on a tree. Him, speaking of Jesus, hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior. That word prince can also be
used as Lord, a prince is a Lord, but he has given him to be a
prince and a savior for to give repentance, to give repentance. to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. See, we can't even repent unless
it's been given to us. So to come and say, I've made
Jesus my Lord or my personal Savior. I made Jesus my personal
Savior. How arrogant is that? To think
that we would be in such a place that we could control and make
Jesus anything. Let's look at the next phrase.
Let me tell you how to be born again. Has anybody said that
to you before? Let me just tell you how to be
born again. One of the biggest false teachers that's ever been
in this country was Billy Graham. And he wrote a book called How
to Be Born Again. It's a... Worth nothing, by the way. Don't buy it. If you got it,
don't read it. Brother Samuel's dad, JC, he's
either got or he said he was going to make a book, but it's
a book on how to be born again. Whenever you flip through the
pages, they're all blank. That's the only book that you
need to buy on how to be born again, is one that has all blank
pages. Because there is absolutely,
positively, no way that you can do anything to be born again.
To be born again is a work of God alone, by the Spirit of God
alone, in His time alone, without any help on your part. Okay? There is no telling people how
to be born again. Now, you say, well, wait a minute.
What about John chapter three, whenever Jesus was talking to
Nicodemus? He told Nicodemus how to get born again. Well,
let's go to John chapter three. Let's find out. Did Jesus tell
Nicodemus how to be born again? John chapter three. I'm gonna start reading in verse
one. John chapter three, verse one. It says, there was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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 him. Here Jesus cuts straight
to the chase. Jesus answered and said unto
him, verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, except,
now we heard that word last week, right? No man can come to me except the Father, draw
him, right? So that means there was an exclusion.
There's an exclusion there. No man can come except, but the
only exception, not exclusion, I didn't mean exclusion, there's
an exception. The only exception is that God draw you. And that
and only then, that way and only then can you come to Christ. Now here Christ is saying something
else. There's another exception here.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
So a man has to be born again to be able to even see the kingdom
of God. That's why I was saying a while
ago, we don't understand spiritual things until we are given spiritual
life. Then we can see the things of
the kingdom of God. what it means to be saved, what
it means to be sinful, what it means to be in need of Christ's
righteousness, what it means to have imputed righteousness,
to be justified, to be propitiated for. I would dare say that just those
last three sentences that I said, probably most of the churches
in this town have probably never even heard of. I could probably
go down the street to the church right down the road here and
go up to every one of the people in the membership of that church
and ask them, how was you justified? And probably none of them could
tell me what it was. Listen, I knew of a sovereign grace preacher
one time who was asked about justification. He didn't have
a clue. Didn't have a clue how to be justified. except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, did he tell Nicodemus, you
have, verily, verily, I say unto thee, get born again so you can
see the kingdom of God. Is that what Jesus said? So no,
so far, Jesus has not told Nicodemus how to get born again. He just
told him that you had to be born again. to see spiritual things. Nicodemus said 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? So here again, this
is, soon as Jesus said, you have to be born again to see spiritual
things, Nicodemus proved that. Because what's the first thing
Nicodemus did? He went to natural things instead
of spiritual things. He's like, well, what are you
talking about? Somebody's gotta climb back up in their mother's
womb and be born again? See, Nicodemus didn't have spiritual
insight to see that Jesus was talking about spiritual things.
We're born once in the flesh, natural, but we're born again
in a spiritual way with spiritual life. Just as in the first birth,
we're born with natural life, and that from Adam, On down,
everybody from Adam in his creation was given natural life, and we
have, because we are descendants of Adam, have natural life, and
that's by the natural birth. But yet there is a second birth,
a new birth, a heavenly birth that comes from heaven, and that
is a birth that is spiritual. And that birth you have to have
to understand spiritual things. And Nicodemus proved that that's
very true, because he didn't understand spiritual things.
Verse five, Jesus answered, truly, truly, or verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God. See, unless you're born
from above, you cannot even enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that's all it can be. That which is born of the
spirit is spirit, and that it will be. Marvel not that I said
unto thee, ye must be born again. Okay, so let's stop right there. Not one place in here has Jesus
told Nicodemus how to get born again, or what he must do to
get born again. He's just told him that there
is a necessity of being born again before you can ever understand
and be involved in spiritual things. You can't understand
or do spiritual things until you're born again. But he has
never told him how to do it or what he must do to get it. But
now look in verse eight what he says. This is how you get
it. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whether it goeth." So what
does that mean? Well, it blows wherever it wants
to, right? It just goes wherever it wants to go. It goes in its
own direction, in its own time, in its own place. What does he say? So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. that is born of, so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. That's passive, that's not active. That means you didn't do anything
to get it. He's just saying that's a statement of fact. If you're
born again, as Jesus said, you must be born again. The way you got born again is
whenever the Spirit blew when it wanted to blow. Now we know
from other scriptures that the Spirit blows whenever Christ
commands it, okay? in the time that Christ commands
it. But it blows by God's will, not your will. You are born again
by the immediate work of God alone. Not when you want to. You can't
say, well, I'm gonna put it off until later. I'm still young,
and I'm gonna have all this fun, and before I choose Jesus as
my Lord and Savior and get born again, then I'm just gonna live
it up, and then one of these days, then I'll decide for Jesus. No, that don't happen. That don't
happen. Listen, even most Armenians will
tell you that, that that's impossible. Jesus said, so it is with everyone
that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, how can these things be? Didn't make sense, still didn't
make sense to him. And Jesus said, art thou a master of Israel
and thou knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness. So again, Jesus is saying, count
on what he said to those other guys. You're not understanding
because you're not one of us. We're speaking the truth and
we're speaking the things that we have seen and know that has
been given to God because the Spirit has blown them. We're
telling you the things of the kingdom of God, but like I said,
you have to be born of God to see and to know and to do the
things of the kingdom of God. He said, if I have told you earthly
things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you
of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man, which is in heaven. So brethren, we see here that
there is nothing that we can do to be born again. Being born
again is a work of the Holy Spirit alone. Now there's other verses
that we can look at that deals about that. Matter of fact, I
do want to read to you one. I've got others, but I'm gonna
skip over some of those. In John chapter one, in verse 11, I want to clarify the
understanding of this verse, because many people take this
verse and twist it to say something that it doesn't. He says, verse
11, he came unto his own and his own received not speaking
of Jesus, but said, but as many as received him, to them, gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name. Now, let me clarify something
here. The Armenians are gonna say,
aha, there you go. So you have to, as many as, what
does it say there? But as many as received him.
So you have to receive him, you have to receive him before you're
made the sons of God. It said, but as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name. Now, number one, let me just
say this. As many as received Him, that
is a passive thing. You are receiving Him, He is
the one actively giving you Him, okay? Now, We know that the Bible
teaches us that the Holy Spirit that comes and then dwells, the
child of grace, is the Spirit of Christ. If you've received
the Holy Spirit, you have received Christ. The Bible says it's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. But yet is Christ in me? Well, He is by the Spirit, right?
Christ has come to us by His Spirit, by His Spirit. That's
how He indwells us, is by His Spirit. Not by His humanity,
His manhood. He comes to us by His Spirit. His Spirit lives within us. So
we have received Him, as many as have received Him in the Spirit, to them that have received that
Spirit already from God, gave He the power to become the sons
of God. Sons of God in what? In believing
upon Him. We already know that we're sons
of God even before the Spirit came into us, right? The Bible
says, because ye are sons, he, God, has sent, or Christ, has
sent his Spirit into us because ye are sons. The fact is we are
already sons and he sends his Spirit into us whereby we cry,
Abba Father. The reason that we cry out, I'm
a father. The reason we cry out believing
upon him is because he has already called us sons and then sent
his spirit into us that we might know that we're his sons. And knowing that we are his sons,
we can cry out to him as father. As many as received him, those
who have been dwelt by the Holy Spirit, born from above, to them
gave He the power to become the sons of God, or the right, or
the privilege. That's what that, to them gave
He power to become. That word power there means the
right or the privilege. The ones that have received Him,
He gave them the privilege to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name. What does that mean? Well, the
word even ain't even in the text, actually. The translators inserted
that to make it easier to read. To them that believe on his name.
Who are the ones that believe on his name? We heard that in
John chapter six last week, right? The ones who believe are who?
The ones who, by that exception, God drawed to Christ. The ones
that came to Christ were the ones who God drew. Those are
the ones. We've heard today, the ones who
believe were the ones that were of God, who were his sheep, who
were ordained to eternal life. They're the ones who believe.
So when we look at here, believing isn't what causes it, okay? Believing isn't what causes us
to be born again. Being born again is what causes
us to be able to believe and to accept and to receive. All those words you wanna know.
And you say, well, how do you know that preacher? Well, I keep
on reading the verse 13. Look what it says, which were
born not of the blood. OK, remember, Jesus told those men,
he said, you're not my children because you're the children of
Abraham or the seed of Abraham in the flesh. Matter of fact,
Romans tells us that. that it's not the children of
the flesh that are the children of the promise, but the children
of the spirit, the children of faith, those are the children
of the promise. Okay, it's a spiritual thing.
Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of man, or the
flesh. See, nobody else can choose you
to be saved. You would never choose salvation
of your own. nor the will of man, but of God." So we're not
saved and born again by our own will. So that phrase there, let
me tell you how to be born again, assumes the fact that we can
know the things in the kingdom of God, do the things in the
kingdom of God, and that we can believe before we have actually
been born again. And the Bible is completely the
opposite. It says you cannot accept and
be given you from heaven. We have to be born from above.
It is not of the will of man. All right, just about done here. I've got about two or three others,
but they're very similar to the ones we've already looked at
So I'll skip over those. Let me get into this fact about
the false gospels of keeping ourselves saved. I am capable
of falling from grace and losing my salvation. See, there are
a lot of people that preach that you can lose your salvation.
And once you're saved, that you can lose that salvation. But
what does the Bible teach? John chapter 10, if you would,
again, John chapter 10 and verse 28. And we were reading here just
a few minutes ago where we read, but ye believe not because ye
are not my sheep. But if we were to continue to
read on, we would have seen that Jesus made a statement to these
people about his sheep though. He said, my sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow me. And I give unto them, who? The sheep. I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. See, the reason that people believe
that you can lose your salvation is because they are in error
in believing on how you get your salvation. They believe you get
your salvation by a choice you make, and they believe that you
can lose your salvation by a choice you make. But if they understood
the truth of the gospel, that salvation has nothing to do with
you, it's by free grace alone, then they'll understand that
they can't lose something that they never did purchase or able
to work for to get. They shall never perish. When
can you perish? Never. If Jesus gives you eternal life,
and we know that that's the case, when everyone is born again,
they receive eternal life, they shall never perish. So how in the world can someone
lose their salvation and ultimately perish? How is that? When Jesus said that no one will
perish. He says, my father, which gave
them me is greater than all. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. The only way that you can lose
your salvation is for God to let you go. And he says he would.
He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The reason that
you continue to persevere in the faith, as shoddy as it may
look, as doubtful as it may feel, the fact remains that He will
never lose you. All that the Father giveth me,
I shall lose none. See, it isn't up to you to get
saved, and it isn't up to you to stay saved. It's up to Christ. And that, my brethren, is what
we call sovereign grace. That's the true gospel. And in
comparison to all these false gospels that we've been reading,
we find that they are completely antithetical, opposite, complete,
and totally 180 from God's word, and that we should not preach
them, we should not teach them, We should not believe them, but
that we should believe what God's word says. Amen? Does anybody
have any questions or comments or... Rebuke? I was gonna say rebook.
Rebook or poof? Rebuke or reproof? All right, let's have a word
of prayer. Oh, before we pray, brethren,
I want to ask you to a couple of things to pray about. There's
a there's a gentleman named Audrey Asher. He lives in Albany, Georgia. I've been talking with him on
the phone for a couple of weeks now. He found us on the Internet
somehow. and contacted me and he's going
through a lot of health issues. He's just gotten kind of gotten
back into church just recently from being out of church for
quite a while. He is going to Eager Avenue Baptist Church out
in Albany, Georgia. Pastor Bill Parker is the pastor
there. I don't know if you ever watched
him on the internet, but he attends that church out there. He's got
a lot of health issues, a lot of pain that he has. He's had
some surgery on his back and I think on his neck and he's
been having some chest issues and things like that. So he asked
if we would pray for him this morning. He called and I talked
with him this morning. He's also, you know, struggling
with a lot of things as far as his belief and things like that. But I told him that we would
keep him in our prayers, and so I would just ask you guys
to remember him if the Lord brings it to your mind. Audrey Asher
is his name. And then also, if you would,
remember First Baptist Church of Delaware, Oklahoma. My Uncle Tom Tankwery is the
pastor over there. They are looking for a pastor.
My Uncle Tom is resigning as the pastor there and he's gonna
be moving down to the Purcell, Oklahoma area. They're moving
down there to be closer to their kids and grandkids. And I don't
know what all the Lord has in store for all that down there.
Anyway, he's moving down that direction, and the church is
looking for pastors. So be praying for them as they
pray and search for a pastor. They've had a few names given
to them already, I think, and they're praying about that. But
be in prayer for them, if you would, as they're looking for
a pastor. Let's bow and have a word of
prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, once again, we come thanking
you for the word of God, We thank you for the spirit of God that
leads us into all truth and teaches us. Thank you for this time together
that we've had. And we ask Lord that it's been
edifying to your brethren. We ask Lord that it's been pleasing
to you. Father, we do lift up Audrey
this morning. We ask that you'd be with him in his health. We
know that you have the power to completely and totally heal
him of all ailments, if that be your will. But Father, we
do know that it is according to your will. And we ask that
if it is, that you might heal him this morning, but if your
will is to allow him to continue in these things and be afflicted,
Lord, we pray that you would give him grace and mercy, that
you would give him relief, Father, that his faith might be kept
during all this time, that he might be a testimony and a witness
of Christ despite the afflictions that he might be going through.
Father, we just pray for him. We pray for him also on the spiritual
side, that you might truly increase his faith, that you might, by
the Spirit, testify that he is a child of grace. encouraged by his testimony of
the gospel, his testimony of his unworthiness and his hope
being in Christ. Father, it's just been an encouragement
to hear that. And so we lift him up. We pray
for the Delaware church. Lord, we ask that you guide them,
direct them in their search for a pastor. We ask, Lord, that
you just bring the man that you see fit for them. Lord, that
they might continue to be a witness and a testimony of Christ in
that community, even as small as it is, Lord, that you might
also bring edification to your people in that location. And
so Father, we just lift them up before you now. We just pray
again that you might keep us and direct us this week. We pray
that you might grow us in the grace and knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that you might also bring others to come labor
alongside us here. We ask you to bless this time
together now around the table and the food that we're about
to eat to the nourishment of our bodies. And it's in Jesus'
name that we pray. Amen.