Hear me now

Okay, I'd like you to turn with me to Proverbs chapter 5. Our two messages today are so closely linked together that all I can do is just stand in awe of the providence of God that this happens to be the 5th, this happens to be July, this happens to be the day that in the providence and the mercy of the Lord we're both in Proverbs chapter 5 and we are looking at Jude and what a lovely description we have of the work that the Lord has left his people in this world. I'll just read these verses in Jude and then we'll just keep your Bible open and you can turn it to me in Jude, but keep your Bible. I just want to read these few verses here.

But ye, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and of some have compassion making a difference. And others, this is our verse for today, are the others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and ever. Amen. Truly, truly, truly. But I want us to think that these verses The but, ye beloved, and the now are wrapped around how the child of God is going to live in this world and what will be laid on the hearts of God's children.

And we looked last week is that, speaking of those, of some have compassion, making a difference, making a distinction. And we looked at the fact that in the original That was through trial. He's going to save his people through trial. He's going to bring trials into the life of his people. And that trial is going to be, for so many, it's like a fork in the road. And that trial is going to be a trial that's the testing of your faith, according to First Peter. That trial is going to be the way the Lord reveals whether he has done a work of love in that person's life, or whether they are able to compromise with the truth.

And to compromise with the truth is to be in the hands of a strange woman. Turn with me if you've got your Bibles open in Proverbs chapter 5. I just want to read these 23 verses. I want us to spend time looking at these scriptures today. Proverbs chapter 5.

And the strange woman, of course, is the woman of Revelation 17. The strange woman is one that leads astray, turns people aside, compromises the truth, brings a truth that looks like it's the truth, but it's actually compromised in many ways. It's the strange woman. It's the adulterous woman.

It's someone ultimately who claims to be in a marriage relationship with God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, they commit spiritual fornication and they were none of his. So get the spiritual picture as we begin because that's just part of it. But you'll see how she operates here.

But the warning and the And obviously, for those who know something of the life of Solomon and David, women were the cause of them being led astray in the most extraordinary ways. But this pictures something far worse than physical adultery. David was saved from that. The people that spend their lives in the hands of this strange woman, according to God, would go to hell.

Okay, my son, attend to my wisdom, and we know that the wisdom is the Lord Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God, and bow thine ear to mine understanding, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, that thou mayest regard discretion. That word, regard discretion, means to recognize wicked inventions. Isn't that extraordinary? Okay, that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

For the lips of a strange woman drop as honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, and but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell, lest thou should ponder the path of life. Her ways are movable, that thou canst not know them. Hear me now, therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house.

Lest thou give thine honour to others, and thy years unto the cruel. Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labours be in the house of a stranger, and thou mourn at last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. and say at that time, how have I hated instruction and my heart despised reproof and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor inclined my ears to them that instructed me. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the street. Let them be thine own, and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

Let her be as a loving hind, as a female deer, and pleasant grow, and let her breast satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings. His own iniquity shall take the wicked himself, and he shall not behold And he shall beholden with the cords of his sin. He shall die without instruction, and in the greatness of his folly shall he go astray. To go back to that theme that we, I was talking about at the beginning in terms of the history of our fellowship, there's a wonderful verse and I just want to talk, make a few comments about it now.

Because obviously the strange woman is successful according to Revelation chapter 17 and the whole, on the wine, the whole religious world. And people might say, well, do you people think you're right? Do you think Todd Neibert's right and all of Lexington's wrong? Do you think Greg Elmquist is right and all of Orlando, Florida is wrong? Do you think Donny Bell is right and all of Crossville, Tennessee is wrong? Do you think Chris Cunningham is right and all of Nashville, Tennessee is wrong?

And you could go on and you could list them and you could list them around the world at the moment and throughout time. God says they are. God says they are. God says they are. First John chapter five says, the whole world lieth in wickedness. Is this world drunk? According to God, they are. They have been taken captive by this strange woman.

But there is a section of this which I think is just wonderful and I want us to just look at it very quickly and I want us to, while you're there in Proverbs, I want you to turn over just a few pages in Proverbs to Proverbs chapter 13. And one of the things that caused us to stand and to stand individually, and then as a result of standing individually, to stand collectively, is that God had done a work individually in us. I was talking to Norm about it this morning, when God revealed the deceptiveness and deceitfulness of that strange woman that was preaching in Bomonderry all of those years ago. He was revealed as a strange woman to Norm and to Beth, and to no one else, despite all of the testimony that they had. But what causes God's people to stand? It surely can only be the work of God in the lives of his people. And that's what we are utterly dependent upon, that God has begun a work.

Otherwise, if this is just the work of man, then I want to be out of here. I'll leave the door before any of you people, I promise you. I promise you. We made a statement to God, and everyone is making a statement to God. At the end of Proverbs 5, it's interesting, isn't it, how he says, You live in this world with an audience of one that matters. Just an audience of one, the Lord Jesus Christ. But listen to what he says here. I want us to just have a look at this idea of the fountain because we're gonna sing a great hymn about the fountain that's opened. But listen to verse 14 of Proverbs 13. The law of the wise, this is the law of Christ. The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.

And don't you love how Proverbs 5 goes on to say, you drink waters out of your own system. You are personally responsible for your relationship with God. And the Lord Jesus Christ, thankfully, is personally responsible for all of the relationship of all of his bride with him. But he says, you drink waters out of your own cistern, running waters out of thine own will. Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad and rivers of waters in the trees. Let them be thine only and not strangers with thee. Let thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

And every time we speak of wives and husbands, we always have to go back to what Genesis chapter two said. It's not good for man to be alone. The husband and the wife is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Ephesians 5 says. He's talking about the obligations of men and women in marriage. And he says, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and the church. What a husband, what a husband he is.

But the point that I'm trying to make out of this is that, we are individually and we are collectively responsible for the preaching of the gospel and the believing of the gospel and living in light of the gospel. So this fountain, this fountain is a fountain. Turn with me to Zechariah. We've looked at this in the past, but I want us to, I want to see these verses. I want us to contemplate this in light of the 20 years that the Lord has been doing this work amongst us.

In Zechariah chapter 13, and he's speaking of that day. In Zechariah chapter 13, the second last book of the Old Testament, so go to Matthew and go back a couple. Before we get to, we'll have a look in chapter 13 of Zechariah verse one. In that day, this is the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'll tell you what that day is. In verse 10 of the previous chapter, just go up half a page. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day, there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.

Zechariah chapter 13, verse seven. Awake, O sword! This is a remarkable passage of scripture. You think about this. This is the fountain open. What did John see when the Lord Jesus Christ was pierced? A fountain was open, wasn't it? A fountain, water and blood for sin and uncleanness. This is what was happening on the cross according to God Almighty.

Against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn my hand, my hand of love and my hand of grace upon the little ones that are in him and it shall come to pass that in "'All the land,' saith the Lord, "'two parts thereof shall be cut off and die, "'and a third shall be left therein, "'and I will bring the third part through the fire.'" We spoke about that in Jude. "'And I will refine them as silver is refined, "'and I will try them as gold is tried, "'and they shall call upon my name, "'and I will hear them, And this is what God says about them, I will say, it is my people. And they shall say, the Lord is my God.

Isn't that wonderful? When that fountain is opened by the Lord Jesus Christ, that fountain is opened. The fountain is supplied from its own springs. And what does the Lord Jesus Christ say? Come and drink. He says come and drink. The fountain is not something that's got absolutely nothing to do with man's works, has it? It's a fountain. You just go to a fountain and a fountain just flows and it flows and it flows and it flows.

God's people just come to a fountain, they're thirsty. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. But I love that Proverbs says this fountain of yours, let your fountain, let your relationship with God be based on the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified.

And if you've still got Zechariah there, turn back to verse 11 of chapter nine. This is what this blood does. What was the big issue when I came back from India? Each time I came back it was about the covenant, it was about the blood. We just had one topic of conversation. Tell me about the blood.

Let me tell you about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you what God says about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the simple fact of the matter is, we were saying that everyone, every single person, for whom the Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood, will be saved.

They must be saved. They can never be lost. Listen to what he's going to do, verse 11. And as for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners. Who kept them captive? The Lord Jesus kept them captive. And while they're captive, they're captive to him. And he makes them captive to him in the most remarkable ways. They can't get outside of his providence. They can't get outside of his working all things for their good. despite the fact that it might be incredibly painful at the time. I have sent thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water by the blood of this covenant. He set them free from a place where there was no water. There was none of these living waters. Let's just turn to a couple of passages in In the Gospel of John, you know this one so well. If this is not one of your favourite stories and verses in all of the Bible, I pray that it might be again soon.

I just love this story of the Lord Jesus Christ This woman had been a prisoner, hadn't he? And she was the Lord's prisoner. He knew what her life was like. All those husbands are now shacked up with another man and the Lord Jesus Christ must go through Samaria.

That's exactly what we've been reading about. He must come to each of his people in this world and he must bring the gospel to them and he must give them life and he must save them and he must reveal himself to them because his blood has washed away all of their sins. And he calls them mine. If he calls them mine and he can't lose a single one of them, he's the great shepherd. And he comes to this woman and he says to her in verse seven, give me to drink.

This is the fountain. And then verse eight, and then the woman of Samaria saith unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, ask drink of me, which is a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. I want us to see the picture of marriage here, the picture of a love relationship between a husband and his bride. Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith unto me, to thee give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.

This is that fountain that Proverbs Solomon was talking about a thousand years beforehand. Zechariah was writing about it 500 years beforehand. This is the fountain that all of God's people drink from all the time. And he speaks of this water, verse 13, just for a moment of time. You can go and read it at your leisure and for your delight, I trust. Whosoever drinketh this water, this word, it shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up, unto everlasting life. That's that fountain that Solomon's been writing about. And the woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. And then the Lord confronts her with who she is, and then he speaks these glorious gospel words.

Woman, verse 21, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you know not. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. And then she says, this woman, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ.

When he's come, he'll tell us all things. He tells us all things. And then the Lord Jesus says, I that speak unto thee, am he. I am, I that speak to you, I am. This is God Almighty speaking and speaking of this fountain. And then he goes into the village and don't you love the testimony in verse 42. of this fountain being opened and this fountain that flows and flows and it's flowed since the Garden of Eden and it flows until the last of those who are thirsty come to drink. Verse 42, And they said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy sayings, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. That's the fountain that's poured out. I believe with all my heart that the Lord opened that fountain to us. And that fountain is a fountain that never stops flowing. And that fountain is a fountain that causes all of the Lord's people to come, as the Lord said in Matthew chapter 11, you come unto me, all you that labour and heavy laden, I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. It's the law of the wise. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The strange woman has a different yoke altogether. She's just burdening the children. We're going to sing.

I'm sorry about distracting all of that. You're going to have to forgive me the next couple of weeks because I've got things to celebrate. Okay. I just wanted you to see that before we go back and look at some of the other things that are far less pleasant. Okay, number 49, thanks Norm. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's lungs. you you.

Well, having looked at the blessing of it, we want to now look briefly, I've only got a few minutes, so I trust that the Lord might bless some of the words that we look at here. So let's turn back in and just briefly have a look at Proverbs chapter five. My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge, knowledge of Christ. And the reason is, isn't it lovely how the scriptures put these things together so wonderfully?

This is what God is going to do in the hearts of his people. command of God is under the terms of Christ and his covenant, a promise to the children of God. It is wise to attend to the wisdom of God Almighty. Who's the wisdom? Who is the wisdom? We've quoted it so many times, God has made Christ unto us to be 1 Corinthians 1.30. He's made unto us wisdom. How much of our wisdom?

All of it. All of it. All of our wisdom before God. made unto thee to be, and all of our righteousness, and all of our sanctification, and all of our redemption, my son, attend unto thee, and bow thy ear to mine understanding. We have an audience of one, we just have one issue, haven't we?

With all of these things, with all of the issues we've ever dealt with, and all of the issues we ever will deal with, what do the scriptures say? I've got zero interest in my opinion about anything, and I trust you don't either. We want to hear what God says.

What does this book say? It's a big book, and it's a detailed book, and it's a glorious book. They're called the Holy Scriptures. Don't you love how holy they are? This word that's in our laps has come from another world. That's what the word holy means. It's other. It's other. It's not part of this world. And it can't be understood by the men of this world. It's a spiritual book.

And you can read Proverbs, and we've looked at a few of them over the last few, you can read Proverbs and you can get some really great lessons on morality and how to live in this world. and they're all true, and they're all wise, and they're all helpful to people. If people just picked up the book of Proverbs and did all of the book of Proverbs, they would have a morality which would be absolutely astounding.

What is the strange woman's great lie? You can read about it in Genesis chapter three and we'll go there a little quickly. But one of the strange woman's great lie is that your morality is equal to God's righteousness. You think about that. that your Christian morality, your good living, how many times do you hear people say they are a good Christian person? Well, let's test them to see what they say about the Lord Jesus Christ. If they call themselves a Christian, then Christ is the issue.

Who he is, who he was before he came, he's the Christ who was sent into the world. What was he doing before he came? Why did the Father send him? What did he do when he came? What happened on the cross? What happened after the cross? What's he doing right now? What's he doing?

We're not asking complicated questions of people who call themselves Christian. We're asking kindergarten level questions of people who call themselves Christian. We're asking kindergarten level questions, when we came back, of people who claim to be great theologians and were esteemed as theologians and gave us the work of esteemed theologians throughout the world, and they were lying. We've got to remember this strange woman is the woman of Revelation 17, as I said earlier, and the world is drunk.

But the lips of a strange woman, the strange woman is someone who turns aside. That's what it is. Just turn aside a little bit. You have a great ship and you just turn the rudder a little bit and just leave it go. How far do you have to turn it? Just a little bit. Just a little bit. A little life. I took my glass of water and I put in one cup, one drop of arsenic or some poison into it.

What does it become? Poison. The whole lot of it becomes poison, doesn't it? It's all poison. It's all poison. And so the strange woman, the idolatrous woman, the one that turns people aside, is going to speak a whole lot of truth. And enough little lies and all those little lies come back and center on the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified and His blood. That's where all of the lies come to. I just want to show you in Colossians chapter two what Satan Satan is the proudest being of this universe and he's extraordinarily intelligent and extraordinarily stupid at the same time, but he's far cleverer than we think he is and he's far more subtle than we think he is. That's why he's described as a serpent. How does a serpent move along? Proverbs 5 verse 6 says she's movable. A serpent twists this way. and twists that way to go that way, doesn't it? They're always twisting, they're always movable. And you can't know them.

But on the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ, it says, He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, that was Colossians chapter two, verse 13. And you being dead, verse 13, in your sins, in the uncircumcision of flesh, has he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses. How many? How many did he forgive of all the children of God? all of them.

That's why Colossians 2 verse 10 if you're there says, you are complete in him. And how complete are you in him? As complete as the previous verse says of the completeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. For in him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Is the Lord Jesus Christ fully God? Well, that's how complete you are in him, because the word's exactly the same.

And on the cross at Calvary, he blotted out all the trespasses of all of his people. He took all of their sins away, and he blotted out the handwriting of ordinances, which is against us. What's the handwriting of ordinances? It's the law. It's the law of God.

When Satan comes to accuse you, he's gonna accuse you all the time on account of the law, And he's never gonna have to lie. He's never gonna have to lie. But what he has to lie about is the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross and the relationship that God's people have with him.

Which was contrary to us and he took it out of the way. It means that he erased it. You've dealt with whiteboards. To erase it means that he's actually got the dust or whatever you call it and he's wiped it out so it doesn't exist anymore. That's exactly what's happened to our sins. They do not exist. God can't find them. because they're not there. That's what we've just read.

But listen to what else he did. And having spoiled principalities and powers, this is Satan and all of his activities, and this strange woman, and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in the cross. So the strange woman Satan and all of his ministers are going to always attack the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in some way or other. Even the best of them are going to do it. So we have one issue. Paul had one issue when he went to Corinth. He said, I came there and I sought to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. All of our salvation, all of our redemption, all of our wisdom is Him. But the lips of a strange woman drop as honeycomb.

Isn't it sweet for someone to tell you how much God loves you? And someone to tell you that God has a wonderful plan for your life. And that plan, that wonderful plan, can be enacted just if you do something. And I'll give you some little steps. I'll give you a prayer to play or some other scheme of things. You can come down the front and kneel at some mourner's bench and you can sign a decision card. You can do all these things. They drop us honeycomb. Anything that leaves man enthroned, as Satan put him in the garden, is honeycomb to the natural man. What did he say in Genesis chapter 3? We can't understand any of this. The strange woman is Satan's activity.

They are ministers of righteousness. When they're standing in pulpits in this world, they're ministers of righteousness. They're telling people what to do and how to live and what not to do. And people love it that way. They love being told what to do. Because extraordinarily, when you're told what to do, you're still enthroned. And the preacher can pat himself on the back, well, I've told those people what to do. And now if anything happens that's not right, it's not my fault because they're just naughty. That's not the gospel, brothers and sisters. Our gospel is a fountain that flows. Well, it's the honeycomb. Her mouth is smoother than oil.

Listen to what she said to Eve. Did God really say it? Is this the word of God? Or, you're a really good looking and intelligent woman, Eve. You're really good looking and you're wise. You can make a decision about this. You see why Proverbs 5 started with, attend to my wisdom, bow your ear to my understanding. You can stand in judgment of God's word. You can decide which is God.

You read, you go on the internet these days and they're full of nonsense about whether this is God's word. Did John, did the Holy Spirit write this? The God of this Bible is able to produce and keep and preserve and apply his word to the hearts of his people. Otherwise he's not God. Do you see what they're saying about God? Ultimately it says something about the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified if people doubt whether this is the word of God. This is God's, he said it. It's God breathed.

It's a spiritual book. Did God really say? You can stand in judgment. You can decide. And he said, and he said to her, God knows that in the day you eat thereof your eyes will be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. You will be able to decide what is good and what is evil, and by your free will activities you can choose. And you can stand in judgment of God's judgment. You're not going to die. What are the lips of a strange woman? In a multitude of varying ways that the serpent wants to twist all of that, he does so. He does so. The lips of a strange woman. But her end, verse five, is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on hell. Lest thou should ponder the path of life, her ways are movable, thou canst not know them. And the simple instruction is you move yourself far away from her. you're not told to engage with her, to go away.

What is the word of God to anyone involved in any false religion? There's just one word, isn't it? Not stay there and debate with them, not argue with them. Flee. Flee. That's his word to everyone, isn't it? I've told that to so many people in churches and so many pastors. Flee. God says to flee. God says to flee, remove thy, verse eight, remove thy way far from her and come not nigh the door of her house.

And we read about that in Proverbs 7. She entices people with the sweetness of her place and the fact that she's actually done her religious activities. You can deal with me, you can come into my house because I'm religious, I've paid my vows. You read about it in Proverbs 7. The lips drop as honeycomb. It caters to the flesh of men. Her mouth is smoother than oil. Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on hill. Her ways are movable. Her ways are movable. We don't have time to look into all of that in great detail now, but I just wanted to I wanted to go to something that Norm and I spoke about the other day.

There are some absolutes. Our God is a rock and there are absolutes upon which God's children stand. and it's either black and white, it's either 100% true or it's 100% false, and there's no middle ground with it. And these are, I just jotted down some of the norms, probably gonna talk about more of them in a couple of weeks' time, but the scriptures, either they are 100% holy, inspired, infallible, inerrant, the word of God, God-breathed words, and they are 100% the only rule of faith and practice And the 100% they point to the Lord Jesus Christ, glorified, crucified, glorified, reigning.

And these are they, all of those scriptures, every single one of those scriptures from Genesis 1-1 to the end of Revelation, they speak of Him. It's His book. It's a book about Him. Either that's the case, or there's just a novel. that a bunch of clever men have put together.

God Almighty is 100% sovereign over all things. And I love what my friend Todd said, God is 100% sovereign over the free and uncoerced actions and thoughts of men. God does this, he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Scriptures are 100% true and speak 100% of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is 100% sovereign over all things or there is no God. If he's not sovereign, the little tiny bit of the speck of the universe, do you think he's not sovereign over? That means that someone else is sovereign. Well, let's go and find him.

Man is either 100% dead in trespasses and sins, he's living but spiritually dead. completely dead. It's the hardest term to get across in all of preaching and teaching. I drove into town last night and there was a hare looking at, I think it might have been another baby hare, who was dead on the road. We don't have any doubt about the fact that that animal is dead—completely dead. Trucks driving over it—dead. And yet, when people talk about people in spiritual deception under the lips of the strange woman, there is a little bit of life there. They're appealing to that spark of life all the time. They are living dead. They're 100% sinful, as Peter declared himself to be.

God chose to save, by grace, an innumerable company of Adam's fallen roast before the world began, and he put them into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there was a transaction in love, and grace, and mercy, and a covenant was struck before the foundation of the world, and every single one of them love it, and all of the elect love election. all of the elect love, speaking about God's electing love.

It's the faith of God's elect, the faith that we have. On the cross at Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ was 100%, and God Almighty, it was a 100% sovereign transaction, it was 100% substitution, it was 100% satisfaction. God says, when I see the blood, I will pass over. God saw the travail of his soul, the Lord Jesus Christ, And he was satisfied.

And it was 100% successful, 100% redemption. The Savior who saves 100% of his body, not a single, his body's gonna be a perfect body. It's a perfect body, it's always been a perfect body. The new birth is a 100% must. We are called to life and faith by the irresistible power and omnipotent grace of God the Holy Spirit to a salvation that is completed. It's a spiritual birth, you must be born again. And it's a spiritual new creation living in this flesh with all of its outward corruption.

It's reduced, but it's still there. The law, we are 100% free from the law of Moses. We have perfectly kept the law of Moses when we and the Lord Jesus Christ were united on this earth 2,000 years ago. We have perfectly kept all of what the law requires and we have been perfectly punished for all of what the law demands as sin payment. God is satisfied. We are free from the law. Those who are led of the Spirit of God are free from the law. This is that law of the wise you read about in Proverbs 13, 14.

Perseverance, 100% of the saints will be kept from falling out of Christ's hands. He can't lose them. We're hidden in Christ, in God. How secure are those people? To deny that they will be kept is to deny the very deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and to declare him to be a liar. He can't lose one of them. They are kept by God's purpose, God's purchase and God's power in the hands of God Almighty. And we're safe, safe.

The sanctification of the saints, all of this strange woman, every single time you go to a strange woman's church in this world, you will hear them talk of progressive sanctification always. I have yet to find one that doesn't. If you can find one, let me know and we'll join with them. I'd love to know where they are. Every single one of them. Every single sermon that I have heard from the strange woman in the last 20 years has taught something about progressive sanctification.

God's done his bit, now you can do your bit, you can make yourself better and better and better, and you can get yourself so ripe and polished that God is just delighted to take you to heaven because of all your good works. And then in Matthew chapter seven, he says, those that come to him, those that come to him with their works, he's gonna declare of them, Matthew 7, 21, 23, I never knew you. The world knew you, religion knew you, you knew yourself to some extent, but you didn't know me. That's one issue, what salvation is knowing the Lord Jesus Christ?

We grow in the grace and knowledge and we're made by God to lean on him. We lean on the beloved more and more. And faith is 100% the evidence. where they teach progressive sanctification. They say that because you are progressing you can look inside of yourself and to yourself and your activities and there from draw your assurance of salvation. I've heard them preach it just in these last few weeks from the best that seem to be going around. that your assurance, if your assurance, if your assurance of salvation comes from anything in you and anything that you see, you're not looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that God takes that assurance away from you. All of our assurance is in Him. We have the assurance of hope. We have the assurance of faith. It's all Him. Faith is the evidence. There are many more.

We are as the Lord Jesus Christ declares us to be, unable to do anything spiritually without him. When he said, without me you can do nothing, he really meant it. You can't pray without him. You can't hear without him. You can't be preached to and hear the truth without him.

You can't, as Proverbs says, you can't Regard discretion. You can't recognize what is wicked. You can't recognize the strange woman. She moves. You try and pin them down. I love what Luther said about Erasmus. It's 500 years ago. He said, he is as slippery as an eel. Only God will catch him. You start challenging the religion of the strange woman in this world, and you'll find they'll get as slippery as anything. So slippery.

We can't preach, we can't hear, we can't believe, we can't rejoice, we can't love, we can't obey, we can't witness, we can't be kept without him. Without him you can do nothing, nothing, nothing. Isn't it wonderful that he does and he works all things for the good of his people. He's a great saviour, he's a glorious saviour. His blood is precious, precious blood. Not a drop was ever wasted. Amen.

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