with verse 16 of Acts chapter
20. For Paul had determined to sail
by Ephesus because he would not spend the time in Asia. For he
hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day
of Pentecost. And from Meletus he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church. And when they were come
to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that
I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at
all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and
with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying
in wait of the Jews. and how I kept back nothing that
was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught
you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in
the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there. save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth
in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide in me. But none of these things move
me, neither count I my life here unto myself, so that I might
finish my course with joy, and the ministry, and the ministry
which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel
of the grace of God. I've been thinking the last several
days about our time that we've spent here in this place. And
I've been thinking about the things that are important, the
things that are important to us. And certainly the things
that are important to us are those things that are spiritual. and those truths and doctrines
of the Word of God which have been made living to our hearts,
been made to live in our hearts as we have heard them and as
we have discussed them. And these walls will testify
as to what has been preached in this building. You people
know that our doctrine has not changed a hair's breadth in the
18 years that we've been in this building. that we're still preaching
the same old gospel of the grace of God that we preached when
we first came into this place. And it's my joy to be able to
say that after 50 years in the gospel ministry, my doctrine
is still the same. I've not changed my doctrine
in regards to the grace of God, the truths of God's saving mercy,
as to how God spares and saves poor sinners. And so this morning
I thought it would be good if we rehearse or reiterate it a
little bit on some of the doctrines and the truths that have been
preached here in this place. And it's a joy to me to be able
to do this. I get a great deal of joy out
of being able to go back over in my thinking, and as I looked
yesterday at the mounds of sermon notes that I have, And as I thought
about what the Lord had given us to speak and preach through
the years, it certainly was a joy to me to think on these things. And I hope at this time, this
message is very timely. We notice that the Apostle Paul,
that he tells these believers, these elders from Ephesus, in
verse 18, he says, And when they were come to him, he said unto
them, You know from the first day that I came into Asia, after
what manner I have been with you at all seasons. And then
as we look further here, he warns them in verse 28, he said, Take
heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know
this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one
night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend
you to God and to the Word of His grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. So we want to rehearse, as it
were, and reiterate truths from the Word of His Grace this morning,
which has built us up and sanctified us, set us apart unto the Lord
as a peculiar people unto the Lord in our time that we spend
here. Let me begin by saying that we
have preached through the years, God as He is, to men as they
are. Now you think a little bit about
that. Has that not been set forth here? God as He is, the holy God of
the Bible, the thrice holy God of the Bible, the God of the
Bible, the sovereign God of the Word. Has He not been set forth
in His omnipotence, in His almightiness, in His omniscience, In His immutability
has not God been set forth, the God of the Bible, the God as
He is. We have never in any way have we ever diminished what
the Word of God had to say about the God of this book. We have
preached and declared faithfully, as God has given us the wisdom
and the ability to do so, that the God of the Bible, that there's
none like Him, there's one Lord, one God, and that this God is
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Father
of mercy, He's the God of all comfort, the God of all grace. We have preached Him as He is.
And then we said that we preached him to men as they are. There's
one thing that we can never be accused of and that is ever exalting
flesh in this place. We have preached down man and
we have preached up the Lord Jesus Christ. We have preached
Christ up and man down in this place. We believe that the sinner
is dead in sin and that he cannot save himself. that free will
belongs to God and to God only, and that if the sinner is going
to be saved, he must be delivered from his inability, his spiritual
inability, and he must be brought to life through the power of
the Holy Spirit. We preach to men as they are. We do not say that man has the
ability to come to God on his own. We have preached that he
must be drawn by the Spirit of God. He must be brought to Christ. And if he be brought to Christ
by the Holy Spirit, then he will be saved. And he has. There have
been many that have been. And we praise God for these victories. And then as we go on, we have
also preached A God that men cannot serve in their unrenewed
state. Men cannot serve God in their
unrenewed state. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 6 that without faith it is impossible to please Him.
For they that come to God must believe that He is, and that
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Joshua,
over in the book of Joshua, made this statement, a powerful statement,
that we read in chapter 24 of the book of Joshua. Listen to
this. Joshua speaking to the children of Israel. And Joshua
said unto the people, Ye cannot, ye cannot, Serve the Lord, for
He is an holy God. He is a jealous God. He will
not forgive your transgression nor your sins. Now we understand
what He's talking about here. He's talking about the fact that
the God of the Bible is too holy for men to serve Him in the flesh. He's a jealous God and He would
have the love of the heart He would not have the words of one's
mouth to draw near to him, but he would have the heart of man
to be in love with him. And so natural man in his unrenewed
state before He's born of the Spirit, before He's made willing
in the day of God's power, He cannot serve the Lord. God is
holy. My friend, God will not accept
the work of your hands. God will accept the work of the
hands of His Son on your behalf, but He will not accept your works
as long as you're in an unrenewed state. And then also, we have
preached a righteousness that men cannot produce. This is a
fundamental truth that we have preached through the years, and
that is the substitutionary righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
have preached a righteousness that men are unable to produce. Now, I believe that the Bible
teaches that God demands righteousness of us. He demands that we be
as righteous as His Son. We've told you repeatedly in
this place that no soul is going to heaven that is not as righteous
as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And my friend, the only way you
can have that righteousness as it's been preached and declared
over and over in this place is that you believe unto it. That it's as you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ that your faith is counted for righteousness. And the righteousness that God
will accept is the righteousness of His own spotless, perfect
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you cannot produce what
God demands. How many times have you heard?
I don't know how many times I've said it. But I've said it repeatedly
in this place that what God demands of a sinner, He provides for
him in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And my friend,
this is a righteousness that you cannot produce. You're not
going to heaven unless the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is put
down under your name, to your account, in the books of Almighty
God. Are you a believer in the crucified,
resurrected, enthroned Son of God? Are you a believer today
in the Lord Jesus Christ? And then we preach the law that
you cannot keep. Here in this place we have went
over and over again the fact that by the deeds of the law
there shall no flesh be justified. And that is, cursed is everyone
who continues not in the book of the law to do every, every,
every one of God's laws. Cursed is that man. And so we
preach that there's a law that you cannot keep. You cannot keep
God's law. We hear people talking about, oh, I keep the Ten Commandments. My friend, you do not keep the
Ten Commandments. You have broken the Ten Commandments,
if not literally, you have broken the spirit of the law. And you're guilty of all of it,
and you're charged by a thrice-holy God as being guilty of having
transgressed His holy law, and all the world shall have their
mouth stopped. shut before God, because whatever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that all
men might stand guilty before God. And there's a law, my friend,
that you cannot keep, and that's God's holy, spotless, immutable,
impeccable law. You cannot keep it. And then
we preach to Savior that you cannot love till the love of
God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. Isn't it amazing? The blessed Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The gift of God's love to His
people. Yet they were not in love with
Him until they discovered through the work of the Spirit of God
in their hearts that God was in love with them. Hallelujah.
The Lord loves His people. He loves His people and He gave
His only begotten Son to die on the behalf of His people.
And the Lord Jesus, the Bible says, is altogether lovely. Yet you didn't love Him until
He first loved you. And so we preach that over and
over in this place. Don't let any sinner, unrenewed,
not born of the Spirit of God, tell us that he loves the Lord,
because he don't. He does not. You cannot love
God unless you discover the love of God in the person of his dear
Son. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
manifestation of the love of God. And we love Him this morning. We love Him! And the Bible says,
if any man loved not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema
maranatha. Let him be judged at the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you love not the Lord Jesus,
but you cannot love him. We preach that you cannot love
him until the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by
the Holy Ghost. My friend, it takes the sovereign
work of this God that we've preached through these years to reveal
His own Son and to give you in your heart what you must have
there to respond to Him and to appreciate what He has done for
you. And this is very important that
we see this. And then we've preached a living
hope which no man possesses until he is joined to the Lord in a
life-giving union. Now this, I wanted to say a few
words about. We have preached a living hope,
and certainly the people of God have a blessed hope. Oh, that
blessed hope. We have that hope which the Lord
has given us that when this world is over, when this passing world
is finished, that we'll be with the Lord for all eternity. And
the Bible talks about how that We are joined to the Lord in
one spirit. And so, when the Lord Jesus Christ
is revealed to our hearts, we are joined to Him. We become
married, as it were, to the Lord in one spirit with Him. No man can call Jesus Lord except
by the Holy Ghost. And unites the soul to Christ
that an individual is able to call Jesus Lord and to call Him
Lord in a spiritual sense and in a saving sense. But my friend,
the Bible says that Jesus Christ in you is the hope of glory. He's the hope of glory. We have
this lively, we've been begotten, Peter said, to a living hope,
a living hope. We have a hope that's alive in
our souls. And we believe that we're going
yonder to be with the Lord when this world, this passing world
is done. We believe that. And we preach
that if you're joined to the Lord. But now listen to me. If
you're not joined to Him by saving faith, you don't have a good
hope through grace. Only through grace can a man
have a good hope. Only through Christ being formed
in your heart by the Holy Spirit can you have a good hope. Are
you joined to the Lord? Are you married to Christ? And that's what we have preached
through the years. And this is so very important
that we see this. Now the Spirit of God has been
pleased to unite us as one people in Christ in this place. First
of all, He's united us in purpose. We have been united as one in
purpose in this place. Our purpose for existence, and
we've told you this over and over again, is the glory of God. And we've been united in that
purpose to glorify the God of the Bible. The Bible says whether
you eat or whether you drink or whatsoever you do, you do
it all to the glory of God. This is the chief end of man
that we glorify God. That's why we're alive and that's
why we meet on Sundays, the first day of the week. That's why we
meet. It's to the honor and the glory
and the praise of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now in doctrine, and that is
in the teachings of the word of God, we have been as one. Our doctrine is the gospel of
the free grace of God. That has been our gospel in this
place. The gospel of the free grace
our God now we take notice over here that Paul mentions in verse
24 He says so that I might down in the middle of the verse so
that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God now my friends We're living in a time when the truths
of God's saving grace have been mostly abandoned. They've been
abandoned. Back in 1900, 90% of the Baptist churches in America
believed in the doctrines of God's grace. And 10% of the Baptist
churches at that time were Arminian in theology. In the year 2000,
90% of the Baptist churches in America
are Arminian in theology, and 10% or less are Sovereign Grace
in theology. So you see what's happened over
the last 100 years. Now I'm here this morning not
only to tell you what we have done, but also to tell you what
must be done if we're to preserve the same truths and the same
doctrines that we have stood for these years in this building. Now, the Apostle Paul mentioned
here that he wanted to finish his course, and that ministry
which he had received of the Lord Jesus was to testify of
the gospel of the grace of God. Now, our doctrine is set forth
in nine statements that I'd like to make. I'm not going to preach
on them, but I want to make these nine statements to you. These
are our doctrines, the doctrines of the grace, the gospel of the
grace of God. Number one, we declare that the
Bible alone is our inspired, authoritative rule of faith and
practice. We still believe in the book.
We still believe in this Holy Word and the infallibility of
God's Word. We believe that all doctrine
has been given to us by inspiration of God and this inspired Word
of God is profitable for teaching and for rebuke and for our development
spiritually in the things of God that we might grow up into
the measure, the stature, and the fullness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Bible is our book. It's our
family book. It's our church book. We believe
that the Word of God has been preserved and has been given
to us by God Himself. Number two, Almighty God is totally
sovereign in all things. This is one of the fundamental
doctrines that we stand for in this church. And I want you to
read with me From Psalm 135, and I think it's verse 6, verse
6, where it says, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the
seas and all deep places. Now, my friend, if words mean
anything at all, this means that God is totally, absolutely sovereign
in heaven above and in earth, in the seas, and all the places. What did the Lord do? Well, He
did whatsoever He pleased. That's what He did. He did whatever
He pleased in heaven and in earth. And we believe that as a doctrine
of the Word of God. He's totally sovereign in all
things. In creation, God is sovereign. In providence, God is sovereign. In salvation, God is sovereign. And we need to believe what the
Word of God teaches about these doctrines. And then, number three,
all men and women by nature are totally depraved, helplessly
lost under the wrath of God. Romans chapter 3 verses 9 through
19 explains this very clearly if you want to jot those verses
down. All men and women are fallen men and women and they're totally
depraved, they're not as bad as they can be, but they're all
bad, and they're bad at heart, and they need to be regenerated,
they need to be born again. Number four, there is a people
in this world chosen by God in eternal, unconditional election
who must be saved. God hath from the beginning chosen
you. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2 verse 13 and 14, God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and the belief of the truth. There is a people
that have been pointed out, chosen of God from all eternity that
must be saved. I say they must be saved, they
will be saved, they will be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then in verse 5, the Lord Jesus Christ died for and effectually
redeemed these chosen ones. He died for them and effectually
redeemed them, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. He has entered once to obtain
eternal redemption for us, Paul said, and so the Lord Jesus has
died in our place. And then number six, God the
Holy Spirit effectually calls every one of these sinners, every
chosen sinner, every elect sinner, those redeemed by the Lord Jesus
Christ when he laid down his life for his sheep, He calls
them to life and faith by his almighty, irresistible grace. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
has chosen and calls to approach unto him. No man can come to
me except the Father which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him
up at the last day. And then, number seven, the means
of regeneration, faith and conversion, is through the preaching of the
gospel. We believe that God has chosen
to use the means of the preaching of the gospel to call out his
lost sheep. We're told in 1 Corinthians 1
21, when the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
then over in Peter, we read in the first chapter where that
that we've been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For the gospel which came down
from heaven, which has been preached to us, this is the living word,
and it abides forever. And this gospel is that which
regenerates the soul as it is received and believed. And then
we also want to say that in the eighth place, God's saints in
Jesus Christ are free from the law. Free from the law, happy
condition. Jesus is bled and there is redemption. We have been delivered from the
curse of the law by Christ himself being made a curse for us. This is one of the cardinal doctrines
of this church. And then, in the ninth place,
every sinner who trusts Christ is born of God and shall persevere
to the end by God's infallible grace. John chapter 10 verses
27 through 30, I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand, and my Father which gave them me, He's greater than all,
and no man can pluck them out of his hand. And so we believe
these doctrines, and so here we stand. Here we stand. From the beginning of our ministry
together to this very day, our doctrine has not changed. Even slightly, it has not changed. It has not varied. And if God
is pleased to give us even some years yet to come, the same we
trust will be true. These points of doctrine are
more than theological positions we've just come to accept. They're
matters of heart conviction. Matters of heart conviction,
I say. In other words, it's not just
something that we read out of a book. It's something that God
has been pleased to teach us in our hearts. And before permitting
us to compromise upon any of these nine points of faith, I
pray that God will both destroy the building in which we hope
to move next week and scatter this congregation to the four
winds. This is where we stand And I
want you all to remember that. I do not want you to forget it.
Now, beloved, there are three things that we must guard against
as we move into this new building. Three things that I want to point
out to you that we must guard against. The first thing is this. Remember Paul warned these Ephesian
elders that after his departing there would be grievous wolves
that would enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of
your own selves, he said, shall men arise, speaking perverse
things to draw away disciples after them. Therefore, watch!
Therefore, watch! And so I give you this morning
a word of caution. The first thing is to turn this
new building into merely a community center. As we said before, we
are not divided in our purpose at this time. Our purpose is
to preach the gospel, to testify of the gospel of the grace of
God. That's our purpose. That's what
we're about. This church is banded together
to preach the gospel. That's what we're all about.
We're not going over there in the city of Great Falls to start
a charity center. We're not going over there to
give the prodigal, to help the prodigal son find a better job
in the poor country. We're not going over there for
any reason or purpose but to continue exactly what we've been
about here all of these years. Now, I read an article in yesterday's
paper, Great Falls Tribune, where it talked about where Kerry Mattingly,
one of the guest columnists, wrote an article that was very
eye-opening, and I don't know whether you read it or not, some
of you might have, but I just want to point out a couple of
things that he said. He said out with the old and
in with what he calls the focus groups. He says for two millennia,
if you knew a church's name, you knew something about the
people inside. If you knew a church's name,
you knew something about what was going on on the inside of
that building. Now, beloved, that's very important
for you to remember. But he said, out with the old
and in with the focus groups. He says, the first thing is for
churches to drop their denominational affiliation from their name. One of the pressures that have
been on us here a couple of times, and one of the pressures that
will be on this congregation in times to come is to drop the
name Baptist from our, just drop it from our name. Blot it out
on the sign. This is a Baptist church. We
believe that historically, Baptists have believed, the old Baptists
have held to the truths of the Word of God and supported the
truth of the Word of God concerning immersion of believers in baptism
and we are a Baptist church. That's what this church is. But
now he said the world is pressing and the churches, here's what's
happening. They have come to this fad of
dropping the word, the denominational affiliation, dropping that and
then dropping the word church even from the name. dropping the word church off
and they call it first community church and then community family
worship center no church now these words that so much as connote
religious activities are considered too negative for the unchurched. So we have congregations that
go by the name such as the Center for Family Love. That's what
we have. And the sign outside is just
the beginning. Inside of those doors, many church
leaders are morphing into chatty spiritual guides. Hymns are out,
and so are sermons. They're out. And scripture readings
are out. Thousands of churches are rigging
up video screens and adding drama and honor. Some churches are
doing everything they can to eliminate anything that might
make them seem like churches. Just eliminate it. They don't
want to hear preaching. You're amazed sometimes that
we were quite surprised just here a while back at a funeral.
They don't want to hear no preaching. There was nobody preaching. Do
away with the pulpit. We don't want anybody sermonizing
and preaching to us. We don't want it. And then, I
like what he said at the end here. He said, if someone does create
a non-church church, there will be just one thing wrong with
it. it'll have nothing to do with the christian faith and
therefore it is likely to sell well there you are my friend
so that one of the things that we've got to be extremely careful
about is the community moving in on us and saying well we would
like for you to drop the word baptist and we would like for
you to make this a community center well my friend We are
not going to do that. The dollars that was raised to
buy that church building was raised out of the pockets of
men and women and boys and girls who believe the doctrines that
this church stands for. And we're not going to turn it
into any community center. I charge you in the name of Him
who will judge the living and the dead at the last day to see
to it that it never happens. and then the next thing is that
we hear it, we hear it from every corner is that we must avoid
using the words Calvinism and Arminianism. We must avoid that. Now beloved, the Bible teaches
that we must contend earnestly for the faith that was once delivered
unto the saints. Now you're aware of the fact
that I often use the terms Calvinism and Arminianism. We often use
those terms. And I want you to understand
that I am not ashamed, never have been, to own the fact that
I am Calvinistic in my theology and in my doctrine. I am Calvinistic. Charles Spurgeon, let me read
to you a statement that he made when he went into the uh... let's see i think i have that
over here just a second uh... statement that he made when they
built the huge metropolitan tabernacle and uh... it would accommodate
crowds up to six seven thousand people and here's what he said
when he got up on the platform i would propose that the subject
of the ministry in this house As long as this platform shall
stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshippers,
shall be the person of Jesus Christ." Then he said, I am not
ashamed to have vowed myself a Calvinist, and I do not hesitate
to take the name of Baptist, but if I'm asked what is my creed,
I reply, it is Jesus Christ. And beloved, I believe that to
be true. Now let me read a couple of other quotes from Mr. Spurgeon
before we emphasize some things here. He says this in a chapter
when he was giving his defense of Calvinism. What is the heresy
of Rome but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus
Christ? the bringing into the works of
the flesh to assist our justification, and what is the heresy of Arminianism,
but the addition of something, the addition of something to
the work of the Redeemer. Every heresy, if brought to the
touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion. I'm talking about a man, I'm
reading a quote from a man who preached to 6,000 or 7,000 people
in London, England back in the 1800s. And he won probably more
souls than any man that's ever lived on the face of this earth.
Now, you might bring up Billy Graham. As far as I'm concerned,
there's many of these that have made their professions in Billy
Graham's meeting. That's all it was, was a profession. But nevertheless, that's who
I'm talking about. I'm talking about Charles Haddon
Spurgeon. Here's what he said, I have my own private opinion
that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified
unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a
nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the gospel and nothing
else. I do not believe we can preach
the gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without
works, nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in its dispensation
of grace. nor unless we exalt the electing,
unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah, nor
do I think we can preach the gospel unless we base it upon
the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people
which Christ brought out upon the cross. Nor can I comprehend
a gospel which lets saints fall away after their call, and suffers
the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after
having once believed in the Lord Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor."
Alright, then one more quote. I ask the man who dares to say
that Calvinism is a licentious religion. You know, we've been
told that we're antinomian. We've been told that it creates
loose living in our lives. And so what he's talking about
here, he's talking about these individuals that have shown,
who were great believers in Calvinism, who stood out as holy men in
the world. What he thinks, he says, I ask
the man who dares say that Calvinism is a licentious religion, what
he thinks of the character of Augustine, who, by the way, believed
all of these doctrines before John Calvin ever came along,
or Whitefield, who in successive ages were the great exponents
of the system of grace. Or what will he say of the Puritans,
whose work are full of them? Had a man been an Armenian in
those days, he would have been accounted, hear me, the virus
heretic breathing. But now we are looked upon, we
are looked upon now as the heretics, and they as the orthodox. We have gone back to the old
school. We can trace our descent from
the apostles. It is that vein of free grace
running through the sermonizing of Baptists which has saved us
as a denomination. Were it not for that, we should
not stand where we are today. We can run a golden line up to
Jesus Christ himself through a holy succession of mighty fathers
who all held these glorious truths, and we can ask concerning them,
where will you find holier and better men in the world?" Now,
I believe those statements to be correct, and I believe them
to be true. Now then, I want to say this. I understand that some people
will take me in the doctrines of grace, but they will not own
themselves to be Calvinist. They will not. Now, brother,
sister, you all know that I'm a very narrow-minded person. I am. I'm narrow-minded. I am. But I will remind you that the
truth is narrow-minded. The truth is narrow. I should
leave it right there. The truth is narrow. Now I want
to say that if a man comes to you and tells you, I believe
in the doctrines of grace, but he will not confess that he's
a Calvinist, you better be leery of him. You better be leery of
him. I tell you what you better do.
You better watch that individual. That individual is trying to
cover up something. He is trying to tell you that
he believes what you believe, but he will not identify himself
with people that stand for these truths. Now what's he trying
to do? Is he trying to slick people
in and get them to favor him because he hadn't used the word
Calvinism or Arminianism? I don't know what he's all about.
Only thing I can tell you is that you better never dare let
a man get in control of this church, wherever you are, that
will not identify himself publicly as a Calvinist. Now I'm telling
you straight out, you better not do it. You better be careful
about who you put in control of this church. If that individual,
my friend, if he will not own the term Calvinism, and if he
objects to you talking about Arminianism, mark it down. mark it down. If he says, my
best friends are among the Armenians, mark it down. That fellow's on
his way somewhere. He hadn't arrived yet. And where
he'll end up, only God knows. But I'll tell you where this
church stands. This church makes, we're not
bashful about it. We will tell you straight out,
this church holds to the doctrines of the grace of God, and we are
Calvinists to the core. I have been for 52 years and
ever since God saved me and I intend to be the rest of my life. This
is where we stand. This is it. And I want you to
understand that and don't make any difference to me what the
individual's name is, where he came from, who he is. If he will
not stand up, listen to me, you can tell a whole lot about what
a man says, but you can tell a whole lot also about what he
don't say. What he don't say. Listen to
what men don't say when they're in the pulpit. And you pay attention
to what they say and what they don't say. Because you're going
to learn a whole lot about that individual. Now you see, I've
never had anything to lose by using the word Calvin, Israel,
and many others. I never was out to make a name
for myself in the first place. I had no desire whatever to build
a big congregation of people. I have no desire whatever to
do anything except glorify the God of the Bible. And I believe
that God has been glorified by the stand this church has taken.
and you can search the world over this morning, you won't
find very many assemblies, if we had everybody here in this
place, that is of the number that we are, not very many of
them, that stand for what we stand for. And I hear about these
people over here and people over there and they've got 600 and
a half and two or three services on Sunday morning. Oh, they preach
grace. Oh, they do. They do. They preach
the grace of God. Oh, my friend, You better open
your ears. You better open your ears. You're
not hearing what they're saying. If you're going to tell the truth
and preach the gospel of God's saving, amazing grace, free grace,
you're not going to have any congregation that size. And I'm
telling you right now. And that's the reason why I said
amen to go ahead and buy this building there. Somebody sent
along to see the 150 people, probably get about 125 to 150
people in there. That's all you're ever gonna
need if you remain true to the word of God. And I'm not, listen,
it's not numbers as far as I'm concerned. It's quality, not
quantity. What do you believe? What do
you stand for? Do you glorify God with one mind and one mouth? Do you do that? Well, that's
the thing that's important. Well, if I've offended anyone
this morning, I apologize if the way I said it offended you.
But I won't apologize for what I said. I will not do it. Because
that's where I stand. And that's exactly where I think
this church ought to stand. Now brethren, listen to me. Listen
to me. I charge you before God. I'm
not going to be around very much longer. Only God knows how long
I will be able to be over there with you. But I am going to tell
you this, that you've got a responsibility. And Paul told these elders, he
told them, he said, you watch and you remember these things
are going to happen. and you're going to have to stand
your ground. I mean you're going to have to nip in the bud any
sort of a situation that tends to lead this church off of the
track. You've got to nip it in the bud.
And you've got to get some backbone about you, something besides
a dish rag for a backbone and get yourself fixed and your feet
planted and be able to stand and endure whatever you've got
to to preserve And may in 18 or 20 years down the road, you
be able to look back to today, maybe play this tape if somebody's
still got it, and play it and say, we're still right there.
That's where we're at. We're right there. That's exactly
where we are. We still stand right there. Now brethren, that's my admonition
to you this morning. And I hope that some way, I know
this has been kind of a scattergun sermon, But nevertheless, we
spoke what the Lord had impressed our hearts with. And I hope that
you have received it and have been edified by it. Father, in
the name of Jesus, we give thanks that you have spared us to this
hour. We give thanks for your love and your mercy and your
kindness. We thank you, Lord, for all that you've done the
many times that you came to us and helped us. in this place. Lord, for the many times when
you give us word, when we had none, we come in empty, we're
now full. We're now full, Lord. And we
thank you. We praise you. And Lord, do go
up with us. Do go up with us. The man who
stands behind this desk to preach to this people, May you never
forsake him. May you bless him with boldness
and courage and strength and enable him, Lord, to count not
his life dear unto himself, that he might be a faithful witness
of the gospel. We pray it in Jesus' name and
for his sake. Amen.