I can't think of anything more
honorable and at the same time more demanding than the work
of preaching the gospel. I am never happier than I am
when I'm standing in this place if God is pleased to give me
some liberty, some direction by his spirit to minister to
your souls from his word and yet The task before me is a burden,
a burden the weight of which I feel all the time. I never escape that weight. I don't want to, but I never
do. It's constantly a heavy, heavy
burden to speak for God to eternity bound men and women
who will live forever, either in endless death or in everlasting
life with Christ in glory. A burden to know that we are
before God, if I am God's servant. If I'm not a false prophet, if
I'm God's servant, if God has sent me to speak to you, I know
with regard to myself and all others in this position, we are
of God a sweet savor of life in you who believe and a sweet
savor in God's nostrils of death to those who believe not. The
word preached will either do you good or it will be just one
more means by which God heaps his wrath upon you. If God speaks by this man tonight,
by his spirit, through his word, if God speaks, you will not hear
me speak indifferently. You will not be the same if God
speaks. Oh, how I pray he will. Paul
said, who's sufficient for these things? The weight's too great
to bear, this burden of the word of the Lord, but our sufficiency
is of God. Let me see if I can illustrate
to you what I'm trying to say. Brother E.W. Johnson out in Pine
Bluff, Arkansas, Brother Johnson must have been 110 when I first
met him a long time ago. But that's a bit of a stretch,
not much. But he was an old man, had been
around a long time. And he went to visit one of the
men in his congregation. He'd been preaching to him since
the man was just a boy. And the man was dying. And before
he left, E.W. said to him, friend, how is it
with your soul? And the man looked at him and
he said, Pastor, if you've told me the truth, all is well. If you've told me the truth,
all is well. The man who speaks for God speaks
the truth. He speaks the truth from God's
word to your soul by God's spirit. It is your responsibility to
know who you hear, me or any other man who claims to speak
for God. It is your responsibility to
hear only that man who speaks to you the word of God in truth. It's your responsibility. You
must not hear. You must not hear. You must not
hear. You must not subject yourself. You must not subject your sons
and daughters. You must not subject those under
your influence to a man who does not speak for God, but rather
for Satan. And I'm here to tell you that
every preacher in the world Speaks either for God or for the devil. There's no in-between grant There
is no in-between grant every preacher in the world Speaks
either for God or for Satan Either for your soul's good or for your
soul's destruction. There is no in-between grant
There are a host of preachers. You can hear them More today
than ever. You can hear more today than
ever. We have such means of mass medium and communication. You
can go on the internet and hear somebody preaching on almost
any subject that's ever been addressed in the name of religion
at any time. You can find a bunch of folks
preaching everywhere. Internet, CDs, tapes, DVDs, television,
radio. Somebody's preaching all the
time. You can always find somebody to preach. And some folks spend
their lives just listening to fellows preach. I don't know
how they eat, but they spend their lives listening to fellows
preach as if that somehow is spiritual and good exercise.
You've got other things to do. But when you hear a man preach,
you ought to hear only, you must hear only one who speaks for
God. And the fact is, if I stand here
today and preach to you the gospel of God's free grace, and another
man stands across the street and preaches something totally
contrary to it, We can't both be speaking for God. It's not
possible. If one man preaches free will
and another preaches free grace, they can't both be speaking for
God. If one man preaches up the glory of Christ and another man
preaches up the glory of man, they can't both be speaking for
God. If one man proclaims effectual atonement and another man proclaims
no atonement, they can't both be speaking for God. It's not
possible. They may both speak error, but
they can't both be speaking truth. You understand what I'm saying?
All preachers, every preacher in the world, either speaks for
God or he speaks for the devil. Who speaks for God? That's my
subject tonight. Who speaks for God? Let's read
1 John 4 and find out. 1 John chapter 4. Here John teaches us that in
a day when false prophets abound, the children of God must discern
between those men who are of God and those who are not of
God. And we're going to look at the
first 13 verses of John's fourth chapter in 1 John. And I want
to show you three things. First, John gives us a warning,
a very solemn warning. Then he speaks a word of assurance
in verses four through six, a word by which he would comfort God's
saints. And then he gives us an exhortation
in verses seven through 13. All right. First, John tenderly
sets before us a very solemn warning. Beloved, believe not
every spirit. Now the word spirit here refers
to a man. Men who preach either by the
spirit of God or by the spirit of hell. He's not talking about
listening to spirits talk. He's talking about men. But he
said believe not every spirit. Believe not every man but try
the spirits. Try the men. Test them. You test every preacher you hear. You test every preacher you hear. This one included. You prove
every preacher you hear. Try the spirits, whether they
are of God. Try the spirits, whether they
are of God. And you don't have to guess about it. You don't
have to guess about it. Well, I wonder if he's God's
servant. You don't have to guess about that. If you guess about
it, it's only because you're trying to make an excuse for
somebody. You don't have to guess about it. It's easy to discern
who speaks for God and who doesn't. Let's see. Try the spirits whether
they are of God because many false prophets are. Now look at the scriptures. He's not saying shall, he said
are. Paul said they shall come. Peter said they shall come. Jude
said they shall come. John says they are already here. John's speaking now in the first
century of Christianity. He says many, many false prophets
are going out into the world. Hereby we know the Spirit of
God. We know which man speaks by the
Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. Every spirit that
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. And every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist
Whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already
is it in the world. Now lest I should drop dead while
I'm talking to you in the next few minutes and not get it said,
let me state that which is most important in my message tonight.
Those who confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,
they believe And they preach with delight and with dogmatism
that Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, is God in the flesh
and that he has accomplished everything written of him in
the book of God. Not he tried to do it, not he
made it possible, he's accomplished it. The book of God says he's
going to bring in everlasting righteousness. Every man who
speaks for God declares righteousness is finished. The book of God
says he'll put away transgression. Every man who speaks for God,
every man who speaks for God declares that the blood of Jesus
Christ has once and for all with finality, effectually put away
all the sins of all his people that were made his at Calvary.
So that the crucial issue, the crucial issue is the issue about
which everybody's anxious to compromise. You find me a man
who's going to hedge on the gospel. You find a fellow who's going
to find a way to make the message of grace palatable to unregenerate
rebels who will not believe God. I'll tell you exactly where you're
compromised. He'll compromise first and most anxiously on the
atonement. He'll figure out some way to
say, all right, all right. Maybe we misstated this thing
there. There really is a sense in which
God loves everybody and Jesus died for everybody. And God,
the Holy Spirit is trying to save everybody. There is some
sense in which we must say that Jesus died to save everybody.
No. Those who confess that Christ
is coming to flesh. declared that he has brought
in everlasting righteousness, made an end to transgression,
and saved his people from their sins. He actually accomplished
what he put his hand to. He actually did what God said
the Christ would do. He actually did what Isaiah 53
said he'd do. He fully accomplished redemption.
And everybody who denies that speaks for the devil. Oh, Brother Don, you can't say
that. Are you saying that all people who deny the effectual
work of Christ at Calvary are false prophets? Of course. No,
no, no. I'm mean, but I ain't that mean.
No, I wouldn't say that. But God said it. God said it. Every spirit that confesseth
not that Jesus of Nazareth accomplished what God said his Christ would
accomplish is not of God. Well, that being the case, there
are many deceiving false prophets who come in the name of God,
men who utterly deny the gospel of God's free grace. They preach
another gospel, which is no gospel. You see, another gospel says
salvation is possible. Salvation is provided. It's possible
to be redeemed. It's possible to be justified. It's possible to be sanctified.
Another gospel, Merle, is good advice giving you something to
do. That's another gospel, which
is not another. The gospel of Christ says it's
done. That's not hard to get, is it?
Everybody who says you've got to do speaks for the devil. Everybody who says it's done
speaks for God. You got that? All right. The Apostle John here, he's simply
returning to what he touched upon in chapter 2. Look at verse
18 of chapter 2. Little children, it is the last
time. It is the last time. Everybody
loves to talk about prophecy. Do you ever notice that? Man,
you can advertise prophecy, something about prophecy, and everybody
will swing down out of the jungle to hear about it. Everybody.
Folks, just pack fast. You can sell books. Sell books.
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books. Just let something
happen in the Middle East. Somebody can write a book on
it, and a bunch of fools will buy it. I recall back some years ago, a fellow
coming through here, Shelby and I know him slightly. She knows
his wife well. She was Shelby's roommate in
school. But this fellow came through during the Y2K scare. You remember that? Man, when
the year 2000 comes, everything's going to go topsy-turvy. The
whole world's going to come to an end. Do you know that fellow
wrote books about it? He wrote books about it. Went
all over the country and sold them. Went all over the country
and sold them. And came back the next year selling
more books. Nothing happened. I was going to find out what
he did with them. I went on the internet and tried
to order one. Man, when it was gone, they were all gone. That's all. Got to write another
book. But folks still listen to the nonsense because everybody
wants to hear about prophecy. Prophecy. Oh, boy, it's getting
close. It's getting close now. John
writes here. in the first century. And is
this the last time? This is the last tick of the
clock. It's the last time. There's not
some future age to look forward to. Not some future time. We
live right now in the anticipation of Christ's immediate coming,
and God's people have been doing so ever since he went back to
glory. We're not looking for a tribulation
period or a millennial period or a rapture or a regathering
of Israel. We're looking for the Redeemer.
is all the difference in the world. It is the last time. And
as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, Paul told you he's
coming. Daniel told you he's coming.
Even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know it's the last
tick of the clock. It's the last time. People today
have this idea that Antichrist is going to be some specific
individual man. And you have pictures of him,
images of him. Pull back his scalp, and you
got 666 tattooed on his forehead. You get credit cards. Oh, we
can't get a credit card. That's a sign of the Antichrist.
You can't get everybody having the same kind of money. That's
a sign of the Antichrist. is sent into the world according
to God's purpose. Heresies must come that they
which are perfect may be made manifest. 1 Corinthians 11, 19. Antichrist is not something that
God's church and God's people must stand around and just shake
and timble and fear. Antichrist is not, however, some
individual man, though many men are antichrist. Antichrist is
any man who speaks for God in the name of God, but does not
speak for God, but rather speaks for the devil. Any man who's
speaking in the name of God who denies the gospel of God's free
grace. John tells us here, try the spirits. Try the spirits. It's customary
for preachers never to say, Anything about a preacher. Don't want
to say anything bad about a preacher. Oh, he's a preacher. He's got
to be a good man. Oh, look how nice he is. He's just so sweet. He lives good. I know what he
used to be like. You can't say anything bad about
that. I'm not talking to give offense
to men. I'm talking to you as I am because
I care for your soul. If you're going to hear a man
speak to you, to your sons and daughters, you try him. Test
his doctrine by this book. By this book. We must test his
message by the direction of God's spirit. We must test him by the
revelation of God through the spirit of God. Now here's the
reason for the admonition. Because many false prophets have
gone out into the world. Even in the days of the apostles,
these false prophets, these antichrists had gone. Ministers of Satan. Satan, Paul tells us, transformed
himself into an angel of light. He came and transformed himself
into an angel of light. Don't be surprised if his ministers
transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness. They come preaching
righteousness. They preach righteousness all
the time. The whole world, the whole world has gone after their
doctrine, preaching righteousness. If you'll just do, if you'll
just do. Now you need to, you need to
get your life right with God. You need to straighten up and
start living right. You need to, you need to start doing good
and then God will bless you and God will save you. They preach
righteousness, but not the righteousness of God. not the righteousness
of God in Christ, not finished righteousness, but rather righteousness
they propose to you to perform. They transform themselves into
preachers of righteousness. They claim to be of God. They
speak from the Bible. They use Bible terms. They even
possess perhaps unusual gifts, maybe even miraculous powers.
But these false prophets speak by another spirit. They speak
of another Jesus, and they speak of another God. They pray unto
a God that cannot save. They speak of a God who's helpless. They speak of a Christ who's
no savior. What's the point in preaching
redemption that doesn't redeem, salvation that doesn't save?
What's the point in preaching about a savior who doesn't have
the power to save? That's ridiculous. And yet that
is the Jesus of this age, and that's what men everywhere preach. We recognize the false prophet
doesn't necessarily deny what we call fundamentals of the faith. They'll fight for the book, the
blood, and the blessed hope. A few years ago, Southern Baptist
Convention had a big, big row. Had a big row about whether or
not they ought to ordain female preachers and female deacons.
And boy, they got divided and they fussed. Oh, they fussed
and fussed. They had write-ups about it in
the paper. I even got a call from the newspaper, here, want
to know what I thought about it. And I ain't never been a Southern
Baptist. I mean, they, oh, oh, man, we
can't have female preachers. Yes, we got to have female preachers.
We can't have female deacons. Yes, this is modern times. We
got to have female deacons. But totally ignore the message
of the book. Totally ignore it. Another year
they had a big fight, big, big fight over whether or not the
Bible is the inspired Word of God. And boy, they had articles
in papers all over the country, and some of them just, oh, these
fellows are liberals and they're taking away the Word of God.
We've got to fight for the book. And others say, now we recognize
that this contains the Word of God and we don't want to get
too excited about it. And they all get, when it's all over,
Well, hello brother, come on, let's get together and go have
some coffee. Everything's just fine. Because they totally ignore
the message of the book. What's the point in demanding
that this is the word of God? Perfect, inspired, inerrant,
if you're going to deny what it says. What's the point? It's all just show and mockery. That passionate brother Larry
read, They just as well sacrifice a man on God's altar, a dog on
God's altar, or swine on God's altar. What's the point? What's
the point? Well, there's one point where
we can infallibly distinguish the true and the false. Unto
you, therefore, which believe, he is precious. To them he's
a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. Even to them that
stumble at the word of God, being disobedient, whereunto also they
were appointed. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Bill Raleigh, the issue is what
think ye of Christ? That's the issue. The scribes
and the Pharisees and the Herodians had all kinds of conflicts about
which they fussed and argued all the time. Our Savior said
there's just one question that matters. What think ye of Christ? And I say concerning all religious
people in all ages, this is the one thing that matters. What
think ye of Christ? Who is it? Where did he come
from? What did he do? Where is he now? What's he doing there? What think
ye of Christ? Here John speaks of a confession
and he identifies it particularly as a threefold confession. To
confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is to confess
that he was before he came. If he has come in the flesh,
he must have existed before he came in the flesh. It is a confession
that Jesus is God, the Eternal Son, who dwelt together in the
Holy Trinity from eternity in the perfect happiness of the
Trinity. He is God Almighty, the Eternal
One, possessing all the attributes of God. To confess that Jesus
Christ came in the flesh is to confess that He really is a man. Jesus, who is the Christ, came
from eternity into this world in human flesh, a real man, he's
come in the flesh. And to confess that Christ has
come in the flesh is to confess that he performed all that God
said in his word that Christ would perform. This is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Let me see if I can
tackle this another way. What did Christ do? Who is he? What do the scriptures represent
him as being? Moses spoke of him as a prophet.
That prophet God would raise up from among men whom you will
hear. God had many prophets, but Christ
is the prophet. He is the prophet by whom God
is revealed to men. He is the prophet, the only one
who takes the whole of God and shows him to man. He is our prophet
who has given us the knowledge of the living God in our souls.
Christ is the priest. That priest represented in Avon,
represented in Levi and his sons, that priest particularly represented
in Melchizedek, without father, without mother, the king of righteousness,
the king of peace, that one who has no beginning and no end,
an unchangeable priesthood, who lives forever in heaven, able
to save to the uttermost all who come to God by him. He is
that priest who continually makes intercession to God on behalf
of a specific people, but it's effectual intercession on the
basis of blood acceptance. Aaron did his business with God
with the breastplate, with the names of Israel on his breastplate,
and he blesses the people in the name of God on the basis
of atonement accepted on the mercy seat. And so the intersection
of our high priest is not Christ trying to get God to do something.
But rather it is Christ, by virtue of his blood, insisting that
God fulfill his word of promise to him, the merciful and faithful
high priest, who is Christ. He is that one who having fulfilled
all the covenant, took away the first, the old covenant of works,
that he may establish the second, the covenant of grace. And with
his own blood, he entered him once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. And he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high because his work was done. It's finished. It's finished. Jesus Christ is
God's king. Read the second Psalm. Read about
him, the king of glory. the King of Glory. This King
of Glory, we read about in Psalm 24, it said, must come in. Lift
up your gates and the King of Glory will come in. Who's the
King of Glory? The Lord of hosts. He's the King
of Glory. Christ is that King who is David's
son, who is David's Lord, who sits on the throne of David forever.
Peter said that in Acts chapter 2. He's the Lord. These days,
people debate. Do you have to accept Jesus as
your Lord? I wonder what believer doesn't want to. Who wouldn't
want to? Well, it's nonsense. It's not
about accepting him as Lord Rex. He is Lord. And you'll either
bow to him or go to hell. He earned the right to be Lord
as a man because of his obedience to the Father. It's his reward
in the covenant as our surety he was lord and king before ever
the world was because he's the one who created this thing But
he earned the right to set over all flesh with all power in his
hands To rule everybody to give eternal life to whom he will
because of his accomplished redemption for us This is the confession
of every true believer and of every man who speaks for god
every man who denies it is anti-Christ, an adversary to Christ. Many
say Christ is God, but they deny that he's absolutely sovereign. God, but he doesn't always do what
he wants to. God, but his will can be overcome. God, but his
power is limited. God, but you have to Let him
do so. Let go and let God. Doesn't that
sound wonderful? Yes, God's a peanut. If God's
nothing, oh no. No, he who is God is absolutely
sovereign. Many say that Christ was a man,
but deny that he perfectly accomplished the salvation of his people by
his vicarious atonement and substitutionary death. They're anti-Christ. Many
say Christ died, but deny that his death actually put away sin. That he actually redeemed his
people. Such people are anti-Christ.
Many say that Christ arose from the dead and ascended to glory,
but deny that he's Lord. They're anti-Christ. They're
anti-Christ. Brother Don, I never heard anybody
say it so plainly. That's because folks are scared to death to
tell you the truth. It's high time somebody, Brother Scott
Richard used to say, would stand on his hind legs and tell the
truth about God. You can't deny who Christ is
and what Christ did and be Christian. It can't be. It cannot be. Do
you mean, Brother Don, this whole religious world is
lost? Why do you think? I spend every
hour I can spend preaching the gospel by whatever means I can.
This world's going to hell in a heartbeat, singing amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Going
to hell with a Bible verse on their lips. Going to hell repeating
a prayer that somebody told them to pray. Going to hell with religion,
but no life before God. And God's given us the light
of the gospel of the glory of God. And it tells us to proclaim
this message to all people, because he's got his elect scattered
among the heathen, a remnant according to the election of
grace, who must and shall be saved. You know what he's going
to do, Bob? He's going to call them out by the preaching of
the word. I got, oh, I guess, four or five
notes from a fellow down in Fayetteville, North Carolina. I think the first
one was Sunday. I think it was Sunday. It might
have been Monday. And that was Monday. It was Monday, yesterday. And he'd been listening to the
messages. He says, is there any place near
me where I can go find somebody who preaches what you preach?
He's tried every church around here, and I can't find anybody
who preaches what I hear you preach. And I didn't really know
where he was going, but I said, oh, yeah, there's one real close,
good man, good preacher, Bethel Baptist Church, Rupert Reisenbach,
know him well, go hear him, he'll do you so good. I got a note
back from him this morning, or the last night I got it this
morning. He said, thank you. He said, God saved me by the
word I've heard you preach, and I'm so anxious to hear somebody
else preach the gospel and worship a people who worship God. God calls out His elect by the
word we preach. He promises, my word that goes
forth out of my mouth, it shall not return to me void. It shall not return to me void. So put your shoulder to the work
and proclaim the word everywhere. It shall accomplish that which
I please It shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it. And God will save his own by
the word of his grace. Who should we hear? Those men
who proclaim that Christ, Jesus Christ, has come in the flesh. And then John gives this word
of assurance. We live in this dark, dark day
because men wouldn't receive the love of truth God sent them
a strong delusion that they should believe a lie. And the greatest delusion of
the religious world is not Islam. The greatest delusion of the
religious world is not papacy. No. No. Folks who are deluded
by that stuff won't to be. The greatest delusion of the
world is not Jehovah Witnesses. No. No. The greatest religious
delusion in this world is free will works religion. By which God blinds the minds
of them that believe not. God sent the strong delusion
that they should believe a lie because they receive not the
love of the truth. Read it in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. But here's a word of assurance to comfort God's people. John
says in verse four, ye are of God, little children, and have
overcome them. You've overcome them. You've
overcome them. Oh boy, I learned, I studied
hard. I learned the doctrines of grace
and I learned Calvinism. I read B.B. Warfield and I've
read John Owen, all 16 volumes to cover the cover. And boy,
I've learned, well, I'm a smart man. No, no, no. Had you overcome them? Because
greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. Bob Duff,
you spent your life in Armenian freewill works religion teaching
folks the same thing you heard. Is that right? Spend your life
there. And suddenly, God steps in, into
you. And now you overcome all that
religious nonsense by the power of the new birth. Not by learning
five points of Calvinism, not by learning election predestination,
not by learning about limited atonement, by Christ stepping
into you. Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world. They love the world. All these
who follow Antichrist, all who worship Arminians, all three
wheelers, all who set man up in the house of God and demand
that he be worshiped as God, all who make man to take the
place of God. Therefore, speak they of the
world. They speak what the world says
and they speak what the world wants to hear. And therefore,
the world heareth them. We. John speaks of the apostles. He speaks of God's messengers,
of God's servants. We're of God. Sent from God,
born of God. He that knows God hears us. He that knows God hears us. I preach with confidence, boldness,
dogmatism. I don't back up anywhere. I don't
back up anywhere. I just don't. How come? Because
folks who are of God hear what I've got to say. And I know the
language of ghosts. It's always but. But, but, but,
but, but. And I just ignore them. I just
ignore them. Don't argue with them. Don't
mess with them. Leave them alone. He that is of God, heareth us. He hears us. And if you don't
hear, cause you're not of God. My sheep hear my voice, what
Shepherd said, isn't it? They hear my voice. They know
me. They follow me. I give them eternal life. He
that is of God, he that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not
of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth. and the spirit of error. First,
John assures us of our own preservation, tells us that God's elect shall
not be deceived, though the whole world is deceived. What's more,
he tells us that in Christ, we've already triumphed over Satan
and can't be prevailed over by Satan, but rather shall prevail
over those who we have conquered in him. And then John assures
us that those false preachers who deny the gospel or of the
world. They speak of the world. They
speak sounding words that make men feel so impressed, pious,
high sounding religious words. All preachers of free will works
religion, no matter how good they sound, no matter how gifted
they are, no matter how many thousands follow them, are anti-Christ. They exalt man. telling him that
he is good and noble and he's able to control God. God wants
to, but you. God tries, but you. They promise
health, happiness, prosperity to all who follow them if you
just send them a little money. They boast of the ability of
man's will. They assert that man contributes
something to God in the matter of salvation. And therefore,
we need not be surprised when the world follows them. Let any
man preach any doctrine, no matter how foolish and absurd the doctrine
is, except the doctrine of substitution, except the doctrine of grace,
except the doctrine of God. Let him preach anything else
and somebody will follow him and give him some money. Then
John assures us that the apostles of Christ and all who are God's
servants shall be heard by God's people. Let's look at this exhortation. Verse seven, beloved, let us
love one another. For love is of God and everyone
that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not
God, he that loveth not, he that loveth not knoweth not God. For
God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us. because that God sent his only
begotten son into the world that we might live through him, here
in his love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Here is God's love. He sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. God's love is revealed to us
in the sacrifice of his son, making atonement for us at Calvary. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.
You haven't and I haven't. If we love one another, God dwells
in us. This love that we have for one
another, this is what's born in us as we're born of God. And
His love is perfected in us. Mark, Warner, God's love is perfected
in you if Christ is in you. You mean He loves perfectly? No. He loves perfectly. God's love is brought to its
end and its fulfillment when Christ comes in you, revealing
God's grace and his accomplishment of redemption by his son. Read
on. Hereby, by God's love being made
perfect in us, we know that we dwell in him and he in us. because he hath given us of his
spirit. The spirit of God comes in saving
grace and sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, causing
us to know God in the free pardon of sin, to know the love of God
for us, overwhelming our souls with his goodness. Here's the
warning. Antichrist abounds. Those men who speak for God,
those faithful gospel preachers God has given to his church,
preach free grace. They preach free grace. All others
are antichrist. When I was in college, a lot
of the fellows that said they were Calvinist, I don't care
for that term. They said there were Calvinists that got upset
with me. Oh, they got upset with me. Because every time my Arminian
professor would say something deriding the gospel of God's
grace in theology class, I'd challenge him. I wasn't about
to pay his salary and sit there and listen to him blaspheme God,
and me say nothing about it. So I'd challenge him. Oh, it
caused disruption. Poor Shelby, bless her heart.
She graduated from school before I got there. She was queen of
the campus, and then she married me. That's the end of that. That's the end of that. Everybody
felt sorry for it from then on. Still do. But the folks there
who claimed to believe grace, they were as mad at me as the
free will worshipers were. Because now the school was forced
to do something they'd never done before. They had to deal
with things brought out to open. And they kicked off every member
of the board of trustees who claimed to believe what they
called limited atonement. Kicked them off. them out. And
they changed the doctrinal statement so that students coming in and
going out had to sign a statement saying that they had signed a
statement saying, I believe that Jesus Christ died to redeem the
whole world. Everybody who came in and everybody
who graduated had signed that statement. And, uh, folks got
upset with that. I said, why would you get upset
with that? I want to run the flag up on the pole so everybody
knows what they believe. I want everybody to know what they believe.
And if I had the school, it would be Tulip or Terminate. Isn't
that right? I know exactly what they're doing.
You need to believe what God says, or there's no relationship
for us to have. None whatever. That's the way
it is in this church, in this congregation. They're backing
up. It ain't gonna happen. It ain't
gonna happen. Not while I'm here. It ain't gonna happen. God giving
me grace, it ain't gonna happen. It's believe the gospel or get
out the door. One of the two. One of the two.
Here is our assurance. We belong to God. If you're not
deceived by we'll worship Antichrist. It's because God has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. And if he has to turn the world
upside down, he doesn't have to. If he's chosen to turn the
world upside down to get you, he'll turn the world upside down.
If he's ordained to bring you to this place to hear his word
through the death of everybody you've ever loved, he'll kill
everybody you've ever loved to bring you to hear his word. God
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. If you believe,
that's the only reason. If you worship God, that's the
only reason. That's the only reason. And here's
our exhortation. Love each other. Constantly seek
ways to prove to one another the sincerity of your love for
each other. This dear lady here. She's been
in love with me for a long time, a long time. She was in love
with me a long time before I convinced her she was, but she's been in
love with me for a long time, long time. And she has proved it over
and over and over again. And she keeps on trying to find
ways to prove it. And I keep on enjoying it. That's
just wonderful. And I want to prove to her my
love for her. Not because I have to. No. Not because she has any doubt
of it. No. Not because she's suspicious
that I don't love her. Oh, no. Oh, no. I want to prove
my love to her because it gives me great delight for her to know
my love for her. Prove now the sincerity of your
love for one another, as Christ proved the sincerity of his love
for you, laying down his life for you. Amen.