Thank you. Brother Fortner, thank
you folks for allowing me the honor of standing here in this
pulpit. And I just shared with somebody
that I'm about as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full
of rocking chairs. And I am every time I approach
this honor of standing before God's people. and representing
the one who loved me and gave himself for me. I appreciate
this man and his wife so very much. We've been friends for
years and years. I remember years ago he asked
me if I would like to come and preach one more time at his conference
before we die. I said, do you know something
I don't? But you know, that was years ago. And it's just been
a special relationship between me and my wife and Donna and
Shelby. And we've enjoyed their fellowship over the years. And
for this congregation, I thank you. My wife also thanks you
for hosting these conferences and all the labor of love that
goes into preparing and afterwards as well. Thank you. Thank you
from the bottom of my heart. and thank you for your stand
for the truths of the gospel. Don't take that for granted.
That's God's grace as well as the grace that delivered us from
darkness and translated us into his kingdom. So I am thankful
to all those that God has called out of darkness who gather on
a regular basis to worship him in spirit and in truth. What an honor. Amen. I want to share a couple events
with you that took place since the Lord called me out into his
marvelous kingdom just to stress a point. I came under the preaching
of the gospel almost 50 years ago And when the Lord delivered
me, I thought everybody believed the same, but I had a rude awakening. Members of my own family and
friends I grew up with were steeped in Armenian free will doctrine.
And boy, did I get attacked. But you know, when God gives
grace, He gives grace. Amen? And I couldn't be swayed
to their way of thinking because that wasn't what the Bible teaches.
Well, one man that I grew up with was steeped in free will
doctrine, and he called me one day. We had already bumped heads. And he asked me this question. He said, if man doesn't have
a free will, why will there be a day of judgment? And I'm telling you the truth.
My Bible was open to the ninth chapter of Romans. And I have
to be honest, I scratched my head wondering how I could answer
that question. And as I looked down at the scripture,
there it was. And I started reading where Paul,
writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke of
God's words to Moses when he said, I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
And I started reading these verses to him. The scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, For the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Thou wilt say then unto me, O
man, why does he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will?"
Isn't that the same question that he asked me? Why will there
be a day of judgment if man doesn't have a free will? And as I was
reading these verses, and the answer the Apostle Paul gave
for that question from God Himself, Navid, O man, who art thou that
replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that is formed, Why hast thou made me thus? And all the
time I was reading, he was going, hmm, hmm. Hmm. He didn't like it, but he
was hmming anyway. And he said, wait a minute, I'll
call you back. I know what he did. He called
his pastor. And when he called me back, he
said, Gene, we believe that's already happened. I've scratched my head about
that answer ever since he gave it. Unless his pastor told him
that applied only to those people during the apostolic age. I don't
know if that's what he was referring to or not. But he was right. It has already happened. And
it's still happening and will continue to happen till God calls
his last lost sheep for whom Christ died out of darkness. It's been God's grace, His sovereign
grace, all the way back to when Adam fell And he had mercy on
Abel, and passed over Cain. I'm telling the truth, there's
only two religions in this world. It's either all of grace, or
all of works. Now let me share another event,
and there's a point I'm gonna make. Several years had passed,
and we'd moved to Montana, and was out there for seven years.
God gave us four more children during that time we were in Montana.
Then we moved back to California, and the people at rescue called
me to be their pastor. After a couple of years, Judene was in the third grade. She's with us, her, our granddaughter,
and our great-granddaughter. And she told a classmate, a little
boy that was in the third grade with her, She said, if you don't
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to hell. I think
that's the way she said it. I don't know for sure. Well,
that little boy went home and told his mama. And his mama was
sister to a woman who was married to a Mormon bishop. And I got
a visit from not the mama of the little boy, but from the
woman who was married to the Mormon bishop. Evidently she
was a spiritual leader in that family. And she came to our door,
we were living in a church parsonage, and she knocked and we invited
her in, asked her to please sit down, and then she started talking
about religion. People like to talk about religion,
but they don't know anything about Christ. And after a while
she got to the point that she was going to make for paying
us a visit, and she told me what Judene had told her nephew. I
think she was trying to get Judene in trouble, I don't know, but
I'm telling you. My chest just about burst, thanking my God
for her boldness to tell the truth. And I told this lady,
I said, you know, I don't know if that was very tactful on Judene's
part, but what she said is the truth. If we don't believe the
biblical view that God gives us of Christ
and what he has accomplished for his people, we are going
to suffer eternal torment. And then she started talking
religion again and said really we, referring to the Mormon Church,
we believe the same way you folks do. I said, no ma'am, you do not.
Right out of your mouth just a few moments ago, you told me
that your hope for gaining favor with God is based upon your works,
and we don't believe that. We believe that God bestows His
grace upon His chosen people for Christ's sake. Because of
who He is, and what he has accomplished for his people. Well, the ball
was in her court, and I waited for a reply, and she didn't give
one. When she spoke, she said, oh,
I see what you mean. She got up, excused herself,
and left, and I have not seen her since. Now, my point in sharing
those two events is this. The hope that Armenian free will
false religionist has for gaining favor with God is based upon
his free will. The hope that Mormon lady has
for gaining favor with God is based upon her works. Is there
any difference between the two? Absolutely not. They're both steeped in a religion
that has no hope whatsoever. Nothing, absolutely nothing was
said about Jesus Christ and His blood that cleanses us from all
sin. Neither one of them had anything
to say about Jesus Christ and how He by Himself purged our
sins. Neither one said anything about
the resurrection of Christ, and how He is seated on His sovereign
throne of power, giving eternal life to as many as God the Father
gave Him. And I could go on, and on, and
on, declaring the Scriptures that show the error of all works
religionists. They have no hope. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Now if you would please turn
to Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9. When Judy
and I moved to Evansville, Indiana, We placed ourselves under the
ministry of David Edmondson, as Pastor Faulkner just mentioned. And he has never preached the
message that didn't point us to Christ. I'm thankful to be
a part of that ministry. David and Teresa send their love
and their greetings to everybody here, Pastor Don and his wife
Shelby. And a few weeks ago, Three or
four weeks ago, David preached on this passage of scripture
here in Jeremiah chapter 9. And after the services, I went
to him and I said, Brother David, how long has those two verses
been in Jeremiah chapter 9? He didn't know, I don't think,
what I was referring to. until I said to him, I don't
know how many times I've read those scriptures, but they just
jumped out at me when you were preaching from them. Now let
me say this before I read our text. In God's Word, He does
not present Himself as anything but a sovereign monarch over
all of His creation. He is in control of everything. has been for all eternity and
will be for all eternity to come. He tells us in His Word, and
it's in the book of Daniel, the fourth chapter I believe, all
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And He,
God Himself, He, rules in the armies of heaven
and in the heavens of the earth and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? Does that sound like a God who's
wringing his hands in heaven hoping against hope that you
might make a decision for him? Any decision we make in our unregenerate
state is wrong. It's wrong. I'm not saying we
don't have morals, some of us, some of you. I'm not saying that
we're not an asset to the community we live in. That's quite possible.
But everything about the natural man is abomination to God. And
he or she cannot do anything to get themselves out of that.
We're dead, dead, dead. As Brother Mahan used to say,
graveyard dead spiritually. We have no way of getting out
of that state of spiritual deadness unless our sovereign God, by
His omnipotent power, sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts,
crying, Abba, Father, and reveals to us those blessed truths that
gives Jesus Christ all the praise and all the honor and all the
glory. And when He does that, Then we
know we're dead in sins until God gives us life. And right
here in Jeremiah chapter 9, verses 23 and 24, we read these glorious
God-honoring words, Thus saith the Lord, verse 23, Let not the
wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might, Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but
let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things
I delight, saith the Lord. And that jumped out at me when
Brother David was preaching. I said, oh my. And on the way
home, I told Judy, I hope I have the opportunity to preach sometime
soon. I've just got to preach from
those verses. Well, here it is. An opportunity. The door of the Lord has opened
for me to stand before you and declare that this is what we
are to glory in. that we might know Him, our Sovereign
Lord, who exercises loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth. These are the things that God
delights in. Brethren, we don't have anything
except that which comes from God. The Word of God says, let
not the wise man glory in his wisdom. What wisdom do we have? In our
unregenerate state, we have no wisdom concerning God and His
sovereign, eternal covenant that He, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
made together. We have no understanding concerning
those things. And I just marvel at the wisdom
God has given the people of this world today. Did you know Just
a little over 100 years ago, people were still riding horses
in New York. Oh, they had cars, but horses
was the main mode of travel. And the muckety mucks who have
all the wisdom were meeting together trying to find out what they
could do with the problem of horse manure. That's just a little
over 100 years ago. Where are we today? Man, we can
jump in a car and drive 800 miles in one day if we want to push
it more. We put a man on the moon. We
have little phones and they still call them phones. And I was just
talking with a brother back home, back in rescue, and he said,
well, I can just call up on my phone and get the message that
you're going to be preaching right after it's preached. And
they still call it a phone. And that's not all you can do
on the phone. You can type in an address, and the phone will
direct you right to where you're going. You don't need a map.
That's not altogether good, though, because the second time I go,
I still have to use that phone. Third time I go, I can't remember
what the phone is telling me to do. That says a whole lot
for my wisdom. But any wisdom that men have
in this world today, and doctors perform heart transplants and
so many different other things that they do that just causes
me to marvel. But that wisdom comes from God.
And it's going to come to nothing if those people don't know Christ,
they don't have wisdom that's worth spit. I'm telling you the
truth. We have God's wisdom that has
come to us by the grace of God under the preaching of his glorious
gospel. Is that not true? Why would we glory in something
that only God can give? I have a very high opinion of
this man right here and all of God's preachers. But I know their
wisdom, their gifts, all of that which pertains unto Christ, they
didn't just conjure that up in their minds. That came to them
out of the preaching of the Gospel, out of the study of God's Word,
as they prepare messages, as they write books and articles.
All of this comes from God, and He uses that wisdom to glorify
His Son, Jesus Christ. How about the mighty man? When I was young, I'm telling
you the truth, and I'm not drawing attention to myself, but when
I was young, I could be seated on the lawn chair Out on the
lawn and I could jump up, put my hands on the grass and do
a flip, land on my feet, and I could be running to what it
is that I wanted to do. Judy watched me struggling to
get up off the couch the other day and she said, you need a
cane. Those were her words. She said, you need a cane. I
don't need a cane. Well, maybe I do. But anyway,
that strength that I had when I was a youth, it's gone. It's
gone. And it seems like you brought
out in your message Friday night, as James put it, just like a
vapor. That got the rich man glory in
his riches. Man, I don't have to worry about
that. I don't have a whole lot of riches.
But there are some who do. And those riches, whatever this
world produces, cannot even come close to comparing to the unsearchable
riches of Christ. What a God. And He tells us in
that 24th verse, this is what we're to glory in. In Him. In the Lord. who gives all of
this and more, Solomon and all of his wisdom and all of his
riches, all of that which God had given him, it all came from
the Lord Jesus. Now we need to know Him and we will never call upon Him
for mercy until we do know Him. He exercises loving kindness. He loves his people with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
he draws us unto himself, takes us when we're running from him,
shaking our fist in his face, saying we will not have this
man to rule over us, drinking iniquity like water, arrests
us, under the preaching of His gospel, assures us that even
though we have sinned against Him, Christ our Savior has paid
the debt in full for all of those sins, and He has forgiven us
for Christ's sake. Is that loving kindness or what?
Brethren, we don't understand not one little bit of the loving
kindness of God that He bestowed upon us when He drew us unto
Himself by sovereign irresistible grace and opened our understanding
to the perfect redeeming work of Jesus Christ. He delights
in that. He delights in showing His people
what He has done for us through Christ our Savior. He talks about
judgment. Brethren, we've heard it throughout
this conference. Jesus Christ our Savior left
the splendors of glory and became a man. We're talking about God
our Creator. who just said, let it be, and
spoke everything into existence. He didn't lay aside his deity,
but he did lay aside his glory for a little while, and came
to this earth to do the will of his heavenly Father, by which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. And that same sacrifice that
he offered perfected us. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No judgment. No judgment. Does that bless you? When we
stand before God on Judgment Day, and there will be a Judgment
Day, I didn't deny that before that man asked me that stupid
question, but there will be a Judgment Day, and all of us will stand
before God on that day. But there's no judgment that
can come upon God's people. There's no sin in God's sight
in the people that Jesus Christ suffered and bled and died for.
None. None! Our sins have been purged
by Jesus Christ and He purged them from God's sight forever.
Not one thing can be laid to the charge of God's elect. Not
one thing. Because judgment fell on God's
darling son, our Heavenly Father poured out His unmitigated wrath
on His darling son so that we would be free from wrath to come. Woe unto those who refuse to
believe the biblical view of Jesus Christ and what He accomplished
for His people, and are hanging on to something they think will
gain them favor with God, it won't work. Either Jesus Christ
paid it all, or all of us are going to go to eternal torment. But He paid it all. There's no
judgment coming for God's children, but there's judgment coming for
those who are reprobates, who insist on doing something that
will gain favor with God by what they have done, not what Christ
has done. And righteousness. He exercises righteousness. And I've already touched on it.
But when Jesus Christ came to this world, John Gill said, behold
the humility of Christ in lying for nine months in the womb of
one he created, the Virgin Mary. Now we must believe in the virgin
birth, because the Word of God tells us, in sin did my mother
conceive me. My mother was a virtuous woman, and I'm the sixth of nine children
she gave birth to. But she still conceived me in
sin. That seed that was planted in
her womb was polluted. We need a Savior from conception
all the way to death. The Word of God teaches that
we're estranged from our mother's womb going astray and speaking
lies. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world through the birth of the Virgin Mary as holy, undefiled,
and blameless as He was before He came to this earth. He's holy,
holy, holy, immaculately holy, immutably holy. And I need Him
as my Savior from conception till I leave this earth. And
so, when we consider the righteousness of Jesus Christ He did always
that which pleased the Lord. Always. And His people were in Him when
He did the will of His Father. And what He said which pleased
the Father, that's applied to us who were in Him when He said
those wonderful things. What He thought What He did,
every step He took, all of that which Jesus Christ did while
He was on this earth was perfect. And that righteousness is imputed
to every believer. And we read it in the fourth
chapter of Romans. God imputes the righteousness
of His darling Son to all those He gives faith to believe on
Christ as He's set forth on the Holy Scriptures. Brethren, what
a Savior. What a Savior. And God is sovereign
in bestowing all of those truths upon His chosen blood-bought
children. So here's what we need to know.
Let Him that glorieth glory in this, that he understand and
knoweth me, that I am the Lord. Now, let me take you over to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter
2. And let me share a few scriptures
with you that points to what God does for His chosen people.
While we were in our unregenerate state, God still loved us. Isn't that
amazing? He loved us when we hated Him. And He sends preachers to declare
His glorious truths. And God is sovereign. He has
always been sovereign. He always will be sovereign.
He bestows His mercy on those He brings under the preaching
of His glorious gospel at their appointed time of love, the love
that God appointed to bestow His goodness upon them. Now,
here in Acts chapter 2, Peter is preaching his famous sermon
on the day of Pentecost. And what happened In their midst was the fulfillment
of the Prophet Joel as he spoke of what was going to take place
in these last days during the Apostolic Age. And the people,
they were just in awe. They didn't know what was going
on. Some said Peter and the others were drunk, and Peter said no. We're not drunk. It's too early
for that. Well, not for some people, but
for them. Anyway, as he was preaching, we see in Acts chapter 2, starting
at verse 36, Peter spoke these words. Therefore, let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom ye have crucified Both Lord and Christ. And these foolish,
false religionists are going around saying, won't you make
Jesus your Lord? It's too late, God's already
done that. He's your Lord whether you like it or not. He's Lord
of all. And Peter is declaring this,
that Jesus Christ, the same man those wicked men had crucified,
and we know it was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, but he told them it was their wicked hands that did it,
and he told them that God has made that same Jesus whom they
crucified, both Lord and Christ. Then we read in verse 37, now
when they heard this, When they heard those 3,000 saints who
were quickened by the power of God the Holy Spirit, when they
heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto
Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. Now listen to me. Listen to me. Those 3,000
men had already received the Holy Spirit. God had already
sent His Spirit into their hearts. And when they cried out, it was
not a cry to receive faith to believe, they already
received that. How do I know? The Word of God tells us that.
How shall they call upon Him whom they have not believed?
How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
How shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? So when God pricked their heart,
He had given them a new heart as a new man in us, Christ Jesus. And they cried out knowing that
they were as guilty as Peter said they were. And they wanted
mercy. 3,000 men were added to the church
under that one sermon. And God is the one who did it.
He adds to the church daily, such as should be saved. 3,000! That's God's doings. That's marvelous in our eyes.
And He's doing the same thing today to His chosen blood-bought
people under the preaching of His glorious gospel. Is your faith in Jesus Christ
and only in Jesus Christ? If it isn't, get rid of whatever
it is that you're trusting in because it'll take you to eternal
torment. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. It wasn't very long after this
that God did the same thing with 5,000 more. Starting at verse
1 in chapter 3, we read, Now Peter and John went up together
unto the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom
they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful,
to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Who, seeing
Peter and John about to go into the temple, asking alms, and
Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on
us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something
of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold
have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And he took
him by the right hand, Peter did, and lifted him up. And immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up,
stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking
and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking
and praising God. And he knew that it was He was
set for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they
were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto
them. And as the lame man which was
healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto
them in the porch that is called Solomon's Greatly Wondering.
And when Peter saw it, He answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel,
why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on
us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this
man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified, and
this is what I want you to see, has glorified his son Jesus,
whom you delivered up and denied him in the presence of Pilate
when he was determined to let him go, but you denied the Holy
One and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto
you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from
the dead, are witnesses, and His name through faith in His
name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the
faith which is by Him hath given Him this perfect soundness in
the presence of you all." Now I read all that on purpose because
I want to bring your attention to this. God was doing that. God gave that man brand new legs
so he could leap up and walk. He was laying from his mother's
womb. He couldn't take one step. His legs would never have allowed
him to do that. So God created brand new legs
and gave him faith to believe. And when he was leaping and jumping
and praising God, the people just marveled. They knew this
man was laying from his mother's womb. They knew that. And Peter had a crowd. God gave
him an audience, just like he did on the day of Pentecost.
And Peter, as he began preaching, drew their attention to the resurrected
Christ of God, who is Lord of all. And under the preaching
of that sermon, our Lord added 5,000 more to his eternal kingdom. That was God's doings. God did
that. Well, what about all of those
thousands on the day of Pentecost that didn't believe, that still
persecuted Peter and the apostles? How about all of those ungodly
men who didn't believe when Peter preached this sermon in his third
chapter of Acts? Well, God was pleased to touch
the lives of over 8,000, at least 8,000 men. God always does what pleases
God. And it didn't please Him to speak
to the hearts of those who still hated Jesus Christ and hated
those who loved Jesus Christ. It wasn't pleasing for God to
do that. If our Lord Jesus was pleased
to do so, He could deliver the whole human race. But that's
not what He purposed to do. It wasn't much longer after this
that God sent Philip out to the middle of the desert to speak
to one man, an Ethiopian eunuch. And Philip preached the same
message that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Beginning
at where that Ethiopian eunuch was reading in the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah, Philip preached Jesus. And isn't it wonderful that God
in his divine providence had brought them to a pool of water
deep enough for that man to get baptized? Now, rather than they
had water, They're going across the desert. They had drinking
water. If sprinkling was the mode, they could have sprinkled
the Ethiopian eunuch. But baptized means to immerse. So they both went down into the
water and Philip baptized him. And that Ethiopian eunuch went
on his way rejoicing. Isn't that what we do? Fred,
we're like that impotent man. laying from his mother's womb,
we can't take one step that's pleasing in the sight of God.
In our unregenerate state, there is nothing about us that pleases
God. But He comes to us when we're
dead in trespasses and sins, when we hate Him. We're ungodly,
ungodly sinners, deserving nothing but God's wrath. There's no difference
between us and those who don't believe the gospel. We're just
as sinful as they are. But our Lord, in His marvelous,
wonderful grace, gives us a new heart to love Him, to want to
worship Him, to want to please Him, I wish I could please Him more,
don't you? I sin against Him every day. I don't want to. But as long as I'm in this body
of clay, that's what I am. But I'm a sinner saved by grace. And I believe God, don't you?
I believe God. I believe that because of Jesus
Christ, I have no fear of judgment day. Perfect love casts out fear. And as Jesus Christ is, so are
we right now in this world. God loves us, his chosen blood-bought
people, as much as he loves his darling son, Jesus Christ, our
risen, exalted Lord. Now let me take you to Matthew
11 and I'll bring this to a close. Why does God do this? Why does
God do what He does? Why did He choose a people in
Christ before the foundation of the world? Why did He promise them to His
Son in the eternal covenant of grace? Why did He send His Son
to this earth to suffer. And brethren, he suffered. I've heard that during this conference
and we know it by the reading of scriptures. He was a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief. Why did our Father subject him
to that? Why did he pour out his wrath on Jesus Christ who is the object
of His eternal love. Why did God do this? Why did
He come to us and bring us under the preaching of His gospel and reveal His glorious grace
through Christ our Savior? Why? Well, we know all of this,
or we should know anyway, All of this was purposed and accomplished
by God, and is still being accomplished by God, whatever it is that He
has purposed, for the glory of the risen, exalted Son of God. But there's another reason, and
God reveals that to us. Right here in Matthew chapter
11, we read, starting at verse 25, after He, our Lord, had upbraided
So many cities. We read in verse 25, at that
time Jesus answered and said, I don't know if the Father had
spoken to him. He's answering the Father. He
says, I thank Thee, Father. I thank Thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. And
here's the reason. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. It seemed good to our Heavenly
Father to hide these gospel truths from some and reveal them to
others. I've had people say, well, that
has nothing to do with salvation. Well, look at verse 27. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son. And he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him. It has everything to do with
salvation. When God opens our understanding
and reveals Jesus Christ as Lord of all brethren, we've passed
from death unto life. And we prove that because we
love one another. We love Jesus Christ. We love
His Gospel. You know why you're here? I know
why you're here. God has drawn you. But you wanted
to be here. You wanted to hear the gospel.
You wanted to be with those who love Jesus Christ. And that's
a love that we didn't have before. I'm telling you the truth. When
I was outside of... I don't want to say God's grace. I've never been outside of that.
But when I had no interest in Christ and His gospel, I didn't
want to be with people who spoke of the things that's in the scriptures
and talked about praising God and doing this and doing that
in God's kingdom for His glory. I didn't want to be around them.
Now I can't, I can't be without going somewhere where I can be
with those people. Why is that? Because God has
changed, well He didn't change me. He created a new man in me. We love Him because He first
loved us and we show our love for Him by our love for His gospel,
by our love for Christ who is the gospel, by our love one for
another. And we will go where that truth
is preached if we have to drive and drive and drive. Brethren,
I encourage you, if you're not close to a gospel preaching church,
Now if you can drive, that's fine. But if you're avoiding
the worship services that give our Lord Jesus Christ all the
glory, because you're not near a gospel preaching church, move. Get closer. Split the distance
between the church and where you have to work. Life is short. And I need to be fed. I need
spiritual truths that will keep Christ before me, so that I'll
keep looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of my
faith. I'm weak, and I'm sinful, like I said a moment ago. And
when I hear about Christ, who took all my sins upon himself,
I was sharing this truth with someone a few years back that
Christ became sin for us. He who knew no sin was made sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And I was sharing
this with a man and he said, I don't believe that He became
sin. And as we were talking, he quoted
the words of the Apostle Peter that He bore in His body all
of our sins. And he said it. I said, that's
what I'm telling you. He said, I know, I know, but
he didn't become sin. Yes he did. God made him to be
sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And you know, once again, you
know why he did this? Even so, my father, for so it
seemed good in thy sight. And whatever God brings our way,
whatever heartache and pain and sorrow or whatever that we go
through, we need to remember this. God delights in those that
know He is the Lord. And He has a purpose for everything
that happens. for the glory of Christ our Savior,
for the good of His people, or as they say in the vernacular,
it ain't gonna happen. Look to Him, come to Him, believe
on Him, and find the peace that passeth all understanding for
the glory of the one who loved the church and gave Himself for
it. Thank you, God bless you. Thank you, Pastor.