The Beginning

Q: What does the Bible say about our beginning in Christ?

The Bible teaches that our true beginning in Christ is initiated by the Holy Spirit giving us an unction to know truth. 1 John 2:24 emphasizes the importance of what we have heard from the beginning in our spiritual lives. A true beginning is marked by the work of the Holy Spirit, whereby Christ gives us an unction, enabling us to know the truth about Him. Not all beginnings are genuine; some are based on false experiences or teachings. The true belief in Christ as the Savior of His people defines our authentic beginning, rooted in a divine transformation initiated by God, not dependent on our efforts or understanding.

Q: How do we know we have true faith according to the Bible?

True faith is evidenced by a continued belief in the Son and acknowledgment of Christ's work in our lives. 1 John 2:24 states that if what we heard from the beginning remains in us, we will continue in the Son and in the Father. This highlights that true faith is enduring; it doesn't waver based on circumstances or experiences. The testimony of the Scriptures assures us that those genuinely called by God will persevere in their faith. It is not merely a decision we make but a work of God that keeps us anchored in the truth. Thus, true faith will bear fruit in our commitment to Christ and a rejection of false doctrines.

Q: Why is understanding the gospel important for Christians?

Understanding the gospel is crucial as it reveals God's truth about salvation and ensures we are anchored in genuine faith. The importance of understanding the gospel is underscored throughout Scripture. It is through the preaching of the gospel that God saves His people. The message of Christ crucified provides the foundation of truth that distinguishes our faith from lies. As stated in 1 John 2:21, 'no lie is of the truth,' which means that any deviation from the pure gospel is a serious error. Embracing the gospel ensures that believers are unified under the sovereignty of God's grace rather than human works or decisions. The gospel not only assures us of salvation but transforms how we live, creating a community that loves and forgives as Christ has loved us.

All right, brethren, 1 John 2. I want to just read that one phrase in verse 24. Let that, therefore, abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. My subject is the beginning. Let that, therefore, abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If that statement is going to be edifying to us, then we had to have begun by the Lord only. Not every beginning is a true beginning. Some people look back to an experience that was not a true beginning.

This is speaking to those that began by the Lord. If we began by the Holy One, by Christ giving us an unction, by the Holy Spirit, so that we know all things freely given to us of God, that's when we began. Look there in verse 20. You have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. The Holy One is Christ. He gave you the Spirit, He gave you the unction, And now you know all things that are freely given to you of God.

And he says, I've not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar? But he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ. A liar is somebody that preaches another Jesus, that believes another Jesus. To believe he's the Christ is to believe that he is the salvation of his people. He's the wisdom, he's the righteousness, he's the holiness, he's the redemption. He saved his people from our sin. That's to believe he's the Christ. And anything else is to be antichrist. Antichrist, he is antichrist that denieth the father and the son. Whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the father. but he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also. We begin by hearing the Son, by his words, sent to us by the Spirit, by the Father, the one God saving us. And we're made to know that salvation is in Christ apart from our works. That's how we truly begin.

And he says, verse 24, let that therefore abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you've heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you shall also continue in the son and in the father. See, if you began, what you first heard was the son and the father. You heard the father say, this is my son, believe on him. This is my son in whom I'm well pleased, hear him, follow him, trust him. And if that gospel abides in you, you shall also continue in the Son and in the Father.

And this is the promise that he's promised us, even eternal life. Now he's not leaving this up to us. This is not an if-then that's dependent upon us. He shall keep his people if he's begun the work. He shall finish it. Look here, he says, verse 26, these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you, men that try to seduce you to leaving the gospel, leaving where the gospel's preached, going back to some other gospel. He said, but the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him. See, this is all gonna be done by the Lord.

He's telling us, don't leave what you first began hearing, and believing, and trusting, and that's the Son. And continuing the Son and the Father. Now, so we have to take our beginning to the Word of God. We have to take our beginning to the Word of God.

Many people look back to an experience, and we can't make our experience to be the standard. I've had it happen. I've preached something from the Word, and people will say, well, that's not how God saved me. Well, your experience is not the standard.

God's Word is the standard. God declares how he saves. So if our experience don't match how God saves, we need to let God be true and every man a liar. God's clear in his word how he saves, and if we claim we began by a way that doesn't agree with God's word, we don't need to let that beginning abide in us. If I began by a way that's not true, I don't need to let that beginning abide in me. The sooner I get rid of it, the better. A man's beginning's not when he switches doctrine from false to true.

If he believes he was saved under a false gospel. I've heard people say, you know, I was saved in Armenian free will works religion, then I came to the doctrines of grace. Now I know that's a lie, but God saved me under that. What did the text say? No lies of the truth. This is what God's gonna make his child know, no lies of the truth. A man's beginning is not just because he left a place that was preaching lies and went to one that's preaching truth. Men change churches like they change socks.

A man's beginning is when God comes to him and speaks in power and gives him a new heart and gives him a new will and gives him faith to know Christ is his salvation. We don't just change doctrine, God makes you change gods, from a false God, from a false Jesus to the true God. And if a man's holding on to an old experience, and he's now hearing the gospel preached, eventually he'll do just what the children of Israel did. Eventually, he'll say, I loathe this light bread, and he'll go back to the garlics and the leeks of Egypt, where he was in bondage. unless God has really called him. So here's my first point.

Christ gives an unction through the preaching of Christ in him crucified in truth. Now get what I said, Christ gives the unction, he's the Holy One, and he gives it through the preaching of Christ in him crucified in truth. He says there in verse 20, you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. A sinner begins by Christ the Holy One. That's how we begin. By the Spirit of God, the Holy One. We have an unction from the Holy One. And you know all things. Does that mean you know every doctrine and everything in perfection?

No. It means just what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.12. He said, 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.

This is, when he saves a man, you're gonna know it is all of God, and it's free by his grace, and it's all worked by Christ. We must be born again of God. That's how he gives the unction. He makes us know him and he teaches us what he's given. He's given freely by his grace, by the merits of Christ, not our merits.

Some attribute to the new birth, to being born again. Some attribute that to their parents being believers. Some attribute that to something their parents did for them when they were babies. They sprinkled them or they did something else for them. Some men attribute being born again to their own will. I made my decision. I gave my heart to Jesus. I, I, I, I. Go with me to John 1, 11. John 1, 11. John 1, 11 says, Christ came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power, privilege, to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood.

The new birth has nothing to do with who your parents are or whether they believed or didn't believe. It's not of blood. Nor of the will of the flesh. The new birth is not due to something a preacher did or a priest did or any other person did for you. nor of the will of man, the new birth's not by your own will, but of God, the new birth's of God.

God makes a person to be born again. See, if my beginning is any of those other ways, I don't need to hold on to that beginning. I need to let that go. Your beginning is of God if you've truly begun. The unction is given through the preaching of the gospel of Christ in him crucified. and that gospel is preached in truth according to the scriptures.

Listen to this, 1 John 2.21 says, I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. The Bible is the one area that for some crazy reason, people think you can believe a lie and be believing the truth. It is. claim you can be believing something that's a lie, and yet you believe the truth.

Listen, either Christ died for everybody without exception, and he gave everybody a chance to be saved, or Christ died for his particular people and made them the righteousness of God, and he shall call each one of them and give them faith to know it. One of those is true, but not both of those are true. One of them's a lie, one of them's the truth, The truth is Christ died for his particular people, the elect God gave to him, and nobody else.

And he saved them. He justified them. He did not fail. He accomplished the work. That's why we preach it. It's the truth. It's what he did. It gives him the glory. And he comes to dead sinners, dead in sin, who cannot do anything, who don't know it, don't want to know it, don't know him, they hate him. And yet he's already justified them. He's already redeemed them. There he is. And he comes to them with this gospel.

He brings them under the preaching of the gospel in truth, and he quickens them, he regenerates them, he gives them the unction from the Holy One, and he gives them faith, and they believe him. And then they know that was a lie. What I was hearing was a lie. I just began today.

He saved me, and he gives him the glory. I've heard people say, God saved me under the message of free will, then I came to the doctrines of grace. But God saved me when I was under that message of free will. God does not use liars to preach the gospel, and he doesn't use a false gospel to save his people. He's God. Christ is the truth. He doesn't have to do that. He's sovereign to send the gospel.

Our text, 1 John 2.22, who is a liar but he that denieth Jesus is the Christ. To say Christ died for everybody but really accomplished the salvation of nobody is to count his blood common. It's to call him accursed. No man speaking by the spirit of God calleth him accursed. And no man can call him Lord but by the spirit of God. No, we're gonna give him the glory if we've been called by him, because you know no lies of the truth.

That man is an antichrist who's saying that Christ died for everybody without exception. That's antichrist. Antichrist is people standing in the temple of God as if they are God, claiming they do the things only God can do, and that's all false religion. John said there's many antichrists already.

It's people claiming they made themselves be born again when God's the only one that can do that. It's claiming that they made themselves righteous by their works when Christ is the only one that makes his people righteous. It's claiming they can make themselves holy by their works when Christ is the only one that makes his people holy. These are things that the Spirit alone can reveal to a man and has to reveal to a man.

One is a lie, one is the truth. Since Christ arose, everybody that he saved in these scriptures was saved through the preaching of the gospel of Christ. You will not find one in the book that was not saved through the preaching of the gospel, not one.

The Apostle Paul was called by Christ directly because he was an apostle and that was a requirement to be an apostle. Christ had to call you directly. And Christ called him directly. But even then, the Lord Jesus sent him to Ananias. And you find it in Acts 22.10, when the Lord shined the light, he blinded Paul from all his carnal, fleshly religion that he could see. And God shined the light and gave him eyes to see what only faith can see.

And when he did that, by the power of the Lord Jesus, Paul was given a new will. And Paul said, Lord, what shall I do? What shall I do, Lord? For the first time, he had a will to do what the Lord told him to do. Christ gave him that new will. Thy people shall be willing in the day of my power, Christ said. And God said to Christ.

And the Lord said unto me, Paul said, the Lord said to me, arise, go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do, which God ordained for thee to do. And he said in verse 12, and I found one named Ananias. And in verse 13, he said, he came to me, and he stood, and he said to me, brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour, I looked up upon him.

And he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee. That's where our beginning began. It began in eternity before the world was made when God the Father chose whom he would in Christ and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him, just like he did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, just like he did Paul.

And then the Lord said to him, he said, and that thou shouldest know his will. He chose you, Paul, that you should know his will. See, we're not saved by our will, we're saved by God's will. But God has to come and reveal His will to us before we know what His will is. And here's what His will was. He said that thou shouldest know His will and see that just one, the Lord Jesus. That you might know the just one. There is just one, and it's Christ. And He's the only one that is just, and He's the only one who makes His people just. It's Christ.

And he said, and that you should hear the voice of his mouth. Christ said, your flesh profits nothing. The words I speak are spirit and life. We have to hear the voice of Christ. I can preach to you from now till the sun goes down. It won't do you any good. But if Christ speaks through this message, you'll hear him. You'll hear him.

And he said, He said, here's why all this is so. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what you have seen and heard. Now arise, why tariest thou? Be baptized, confessing your sins are washed away, calling on the name of the Lord. You know why I'm standing here? I'm standing here as a witness, telling you what Christ has shown me, what he's taught me, and what I've heard from him. That's what I'm here to do.

That's what all his people are saved to do. were to be his witnesses. Now if we're gonna be witnesses of him, that means he has to do all the saving. We have to be telling what he did for us, not what we did for him. And that's what's true. Everybody God saves, he saves under the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Everybody.

Now he might use you reading the word to get your attention, but he's gonna bring you under the preaching of the gospel to save you. He may use some improvidence to shut up your path to where you can't do anything but go to where his gospel's preached, but you're gonna go to where his gospel's preached. You're gonna hear the preaching of the gospel. He's gonna bring his child, that's how he's gonna save us.

I had a man one time that was just, he was writing to Brother Darwin and he was bragging and bragging on Brother Darwin about what Darwin was preaching. And I know Brother Darvin preaches just what I preach. We preach the same gospel. Darvin preaches, you please God to say by the foolishness of preaching, just like I do. And Darvin asked where this man lived and come to find out he didn't live but about an hour away from here. And Darvin said, there's a gospel right there where you are. The man's preaching exactly what I preach.

He said, why don't you go there? And within the first correspondence, This man asked me, do you believe a man has to be saved through the preaching of the gospel? I said, yes, that's what the scripture says. He said, well, that's not how God saved me. And he didn't come. Now, why was he bragging on Darwin's preaching, but immediately he found out a way to not come and sit under this preaching? Why? Because Darwin's 24 hours away. He don't have to commit to that. He can just listen when he's pleased with him online. This works within driving distance. He'd have to commit if he came here. So he found a way to not do it right off the bat.

God saves how God says he saved. We are going to be brought to bow to God's way and trust this is how he saved and renounce everything about ourselves or we'll perish. He doesn't save through lies, he saves through the truth. Now listen, This is what God said, I'm gonna tell you what God said about false preachers preaching lies. He said, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and by their likeness. I sent them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord. Now that's God's word about false preachers.

Here's what God said through the Apostle Paul. Paul said, they're preaching another gospel which is not another, but there's some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you which we have not preached unto you, let him be accursed.

I'd say the truth matters, wouldn't you? The truth is not something you do and I do. Christ said, I am the truth. He's the truth. He's the truth we preach. Now secondly, when we begin, we begin when the Lord gives us an option, a new spirit, a new will, understanding. That's when Christ grants us repentance from everything else. And he gives you faith in Christ. That's when you begin. Some say, I was saved under this Armenian preaching, free will preaching, universal atonement, the message of sanctification by works. Then I studied and I began to see and I came to the doctrines of grace. But God saved me when I was under that.

Did Paul say, God saved me when I was sent under Gamaliel? Gamaliel was a doctor of theology. He said I was raised up in all the commandments of God's law. That's what Paul said. I was zealous for God. Did Paul say that's when God saved me? No, Paul said the Lord saved me on the road to Damascus when he put me in the dust and revealed Christ to me. And what did it make him do?

Go with me to Philippians chapter three. I'll show you what it made Paul do. Here's repentance right here. Now listen to what he says here in Philippians 3, 3. He says, we are the circumcision. Circumcision is to be regenerated in the heart. You can find that at the end of Romans 2, but listen to this. We're the circumcision which worship God in the spirit, that spirit God gave us.

We rejoice in Christ Jesus, he's all, and we have no confidence in the flesh in anything we do. Verse four, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinks he has, whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Paul said, if I was gonna trust in the flesh, I got every man beat. But here's what Paul was trusting in before.

He said, I will circumcise the eighth day. That's where people get sprinkling, which is a lie, and sprinkling is not the new form of circumcision, neither is baptism. Circumcision pictures regeneration of the heart. But he said, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As touching the law, I was a Pharisee. That's the same as trusting the denomination, basically. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Outwardly, he dotted his I's and crossed his T's.

Here's God-given repentance right here. But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I might win Christ. You get what I'm saying? If a man might be sitting under the gospel and claiming to believe the gospel, as long as he's saying he was saved back there under a lie, he has not repented from that lie.

Paul repented from everything that he had any confidence in before. And that's when a man's granted repentance, when he realizes, me, myself, my nature is nothing but sin. All my works are done. Everything about my former religion is done. I don't put any confidence in any of it anymore. Here's faith.

I wanna be, verse nine, I wanna be found in Christ, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, provided by God, given by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death, if by any means I might attain the resurrection of the dead.

He brings you to know Christ is our righteousness. He's our holiness, our redemption. We know this because he's our wisdom. We have the mind of Christ. In other words, Christ is all. He's all my salvation. That's the unction that Christ Jesus, the Holy One, gives his people.

The natural man can't receive it. Men that are hearing this and saying, but, but, but, only a goat buts. Men are hearing this and saying, but, but, but. God said the carnal mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He can't hear them, he won't receive them, neither can he receive them. And we must be born again of the Spirit. Now here's the last thing.

Here's the good news of the gospel. Now you that believe, listen to me carefully. Since we began by hearing the Son and the Father, By the unction he gave us, and by that unction abiding in us, we shall continue in the Son and in the Father. He will cause that to happen. Look, verse 24.

Let that therefore abide in you which you've heard from the beginning, 1 John 2, 24. If that which you've heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. He's telling us that's how you began in the Son and in the Father. And if he is in you, you shall continue in the Son and in the Father. Look at here verse 26.

These things I've written unto you concerning them that seduce you, but the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you. And you need not that any man teach you. It's not that you don't need to hear the gospel. It means he's going to teach you. As the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth and is no lie, even as it hath taught you, you shall abide in him.

What is it to abide in Christ? It's to walk the same way that you received him. We have that repeated in scripture. As you received Christ Jesus, so walk ye in him. How did you receive him? How did you receive him? Whenever Christ made us hear the gospel, he made us know this.

When we were without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He makes us know we had no strength and we were ungodly. And when you first received him, when he poured into you and he made you come to Christ in your heart in faith, you came to him as a sinner and only a sinner. You came to him as somebody that didn't have any wisdom. You came to him like a little child, somebody that was nothing but a sinner, trusting Christ is all and that he would be your savior and he would save you. as you received him, continue walking the same way. Don't ever get above being only a sinner saved by grace. Continue looking only to Christ as a sinner saved by grace. We get a little wisdom, we get a little understanding, and it's just this fleshly sin nature to get puffed up in pride like, oh, the show can't go on without me.

No, the show can go on without you. It can go on without me. I'm not the head of this church, Christ is. And he's the one that brings his people together and keeps his people together and keeps ministering to his people. He could easily replace me with another preacher. And he can replace you with another believer.

Don't ever get to the point where you think Christ can't do without you. You need him, he don't need you. And he's gonna keep his child with a contrite, broken spirit knowing that very thing and having all our dependence on him. I don't have strength in myself. He's my only strength and he's my only righteousness. He's my, he's everything.

All right, the other commandment that we constantly hear stressed in the scripture, there's only two commandments he gives his people. You can see it back up here in verse five. First John 2, five. Whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected.

He's put his love in you. And he said, hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abouteth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. Here's what he's talking about. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you but an old commandment which you had heard from the beginning when Christ first called you. The old commandment is the word which you've heard from the beginning. Here it is, verse nine.

He that saith he's in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there's no occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. Men like to use the phrase righteous indignation. I have righteous indignation. My indignation against that one is that brother's righteous. He sinned, and I don't want to have anything to do with him because he sinned.

Is that how Christ walked? Is that how Christ walked with his people, with his children? Our Lord Jesus not only knew the outward sins his disciples committed, he knew the sin in their heart as he walked with them. He knows it in you. He knew when they were doubting and fearful and unbelieving, which is the worst sin there is, and he never once separated himself from them. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end.

He told Peter, he said, Peter, you're gonna deny me. No, I won't deny you, Lord. I love you more than the rest of these other apostles love you. I won't deny you. He said, Peter, it's written in the scripture. You're going to deny me. No, I won't. And he denied him. And when the Lord arose from the grave, the Lord said, go tell Peter.

First, go tell Peter. And then he came to him on that lake. And they were sitting around that fire. He prepared them something to eat. And he didn't embarrass Peter in front of everybody. He didn't rebuke Peter in front of everybody. He took him off to the side. away from everybody else.

And he said, Peter, do you love me more than these? That's what he was bragging about before. I love you more than the rest of these do. He said, now, Peter, do you love me more than these? And Peter knew now he didn't. Peter knew his sin now. Peter said, Lord, you know. And the Lord said, Peter, feed my sheep.

What I'm saying is the Lord restored him in love, forgave him his sin, and he stood, he always stands between his people and the accuser. That's what he did for us on the cross. He stood between us and the accuser of the brethren, the devil. He stood between us and the law that justly condemned us, and he bore it in our place. When they brought that woman caught in adultery, he stood between her and those Pharisees, and he said, whichever one of you is without sin, you cast the first stone. If they picked up a stone, they was going to have to hit him first.

That's loving your brethren as Christ loved you. It's not loving your brethren when you just love them when they're doing good and showering you with compliments and praises. It's loving your brethren when they're sinning and fallen and rejecting you and rejecting everything about you. Because that's how we rejected Christ. And he loved us when we didn't love him.

It's being merciful because you see how God's merciful to you for Christ's sake constantly. It's forgiving your brother because you see how God forgives you constantly for Christ's sake. See, this love that the world talks about, I wouldn't give you two cents for it. The love of God never fails. That's what the scripture says. The love, because He maintains it in His people.

If I can leave somebody and separate from them and claim I can't be seen with them because they're not holy as I am, I'm making myself of a reputation. I'm worried about my reputation. Christ didn't make himself of reputation. He called fishermen from Galilee. Do you know how awful that was, a Galilean? They said, how do these people know anything being Galileans? These are the ignorant poor folks. That's who Christ called and associated with. He made himself of no reputation. Go to Flippi Institute. Here's love right here.

You know, Peter, I was gonna have you turn to Peter, Peter learned it, he said, all of you submit yourself to one another, humble yourselves to one another, and cast all your care on Christ. And when you go through trouble, know Christ is accomplishing his work in each of your brethren. When you're in the midst of trouble, rather than fuss and fight, commit the care of your brother to Christ, commit your care to Christ, knowing he's accomplishing this in all your brethren. And after you've suffered a while, he will restore you and strengthen you and settle you.

That's what Peter learned from what he suffered. Here's what Paul learned, and here's what he said. He said, verse two, if you've been born of the Lord, he said, fulfill ye my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem the other better than themselves.

That's what Christ did for us. He esteemed us better than himself. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Be more concerned about your brother's good than your own good. And he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

This is what he did for us. He took the form of a servant. This one who's equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant, and he went to the cross and laid down his life for us. So he said, this is how he's gonna keep you doing it. He's gonna keep you seeing what he did for you, so that you have a lowly mind, you esteem your brother better, and you do nothing through strife and vainglory.

Because as he says there, down in verse 12, you work everything out now, because you know verse 13, Christ is right there in your midst, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He's right there with you, just like he was when he walked us there.

I don't have to try to make you do something, You don't have to make me do something. When I see you're in trouble, I'm gonna try to remind you of Christ. I'm gonna try to tell you what the scripture tells us would be best for you. I'm gonna try to do it humbly and love, because this is what's good for you. But I can't make you do anything.

But what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna commit your care to Christ. I'm gonna cast it all on Christ. Go read 1 Peter 5. I'm gonna cast all my care and your care on Christ. "'cause he careth for you, and he'll make you stand. "'He'll make his people stand.'" And that's what our text is saying. If you have this unction in you, you are going to abide in Christ because he abides in you, and you're gonna keep walking by faith as a humble contrite sinner, knowing Christ is all your acceptance with God, and you're gonna keep loving your brethren because you know that about yourself. You know Christ is your all, and you know he's their all, So you're gonna commit them to him and love them and let nothing separate you from them.

When we get in this attitude of, you can't come near me, I'm holier than thou, there's one place in scripture where that is, in Isaiah 65. They say, stand by thyself, come not near me, I'm holier than thou. God said, they stink in my nose. That's Phariseeism. That's pride and rebellion. God said, those people stink to me. He's gonna keep you looking to Christ and loving one another. That's what God does. That's what God does. I pray he blessed that to you. Brother Adam.

The Beginning

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about our beginning in Christ?

How do we know we have true faith according to the Bible?

Why is understanding the gospel important for Christians?

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About Clay Curtis

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The Beginning

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about our beginning in Christ?

How do we know we have true faith according to the Bible?

Why is understanding the gospel important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Clay Curtis

Comments

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