this morning after having read
to you verses 20 through 23, I wanted to speak primarily on
verse 23, the first part of this verse. If you continue in the
faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which you have heard, which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister. Now Paul has been speaking of
the great truths of the gospel, how that the Lord Jesus made
peace, through the blood of his cross. He made peace between
God and his elect, peace between God and sinners through the blood
of the cross. And it was by the Lord Jesus
that God reconciled all things unto himself. It was through
the mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus, His sacrifice, and then
His intercessory work before God, that all things have been
reconciled unto God, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. And then in verse 21, he says,
and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, That means you that were once in a lost state, you that
were born into the first man Adam, you that had no spiritual
life before the Lord came to you in regenerating grace and
quickening power. He says there was a time you
were alienated and you were enemies of God in your mind. by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled. Yet now God has reconciled you
unto Himself in the body of His flesh. How did He do it? He did
it in the body of the Lord Jesus by putting Him to death, through
His death, so that we might be presented before God holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in His sight. Now beloved, this is the only
way that a sinner, this is the only way that a child of Adam
The only way that one born into this world with a nature that
is contrary to God and a lost sinner can be reconciled to God. The only way that we can be presented
wholly and unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight is as we look
to and trust in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and His
work. Christ only can make you holy. Christ only can give you His
justification and enable you to be unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight. Christ only can do that. Only
as you stand in Christ. Now listen to verse 23. Seeing
that the Lord Jesus has done this for us, if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven." Now Paul is telling
us here, that it's necessary for us to understand how God
saves a sinner and for us to stick to it, that we are not
to ever, ever remove ourselves from the gospel and from Jesus
Christ. Now Satan is the great enemy
of the Lord Jesus. And He summons all of His demons
to push men back from the cross that they may not come to Jesus
Christ and live. And in 2 Corinthians chapter
4, if you have your Bible, why don't you turn there and look
at this passage with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We read in verse 3, but if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. And so the devil will blind
the mind, the God of this world, he will blind the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
would shine unto them. Now, beloved, listen, the battle
is between the forces of Satan, between Satan and his demons,
and the soul, to blind the mind, to keep a man from Christ, from
him ever getting to Christ. But the battle does not end only
when a man gets to Christ. It doesn't end then. But the
enemy attempts, after a man gets to Christ, and after he's brought
to the Savior, then the enemy attempts to drag the poor, trembling
child of God from his refuge and eject him from his stronghold. The Lord Jesus is truly the refuge
of our soul, he is our stronghold, but the devil attempts to get
us to leave him, and to get us to remove ourselves from him,
and it's difficult For an individual, because of the religion, because
of all the false religion and the false gospels and the efforts
made by the devil, it's difficult to get a man to Christ in the
first place. And if it were not for the effectual
sovereign grace of God, nobody would ever get to Christ. Nobody
would ever really and truly come to know Christ and would be joined
unto Him. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we
read verse 6 and verse 7. Paul has been explaining how
that the God of this world blinds men's minds, and then in verse
5 he said, we preach not ourself, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and
then in verse 6, For God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Now, beloved, if it had not been
for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness originally,
who shined in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Christ, then we would have never come
to Christ. We were brought by sovereign grace. We were brought
by divine mercy. We were brought by the purpose
of God. We were brought by the effectual call unto God. And in spite of this, in spite
of our blindness by nature and all the efforts of Satan, praise
God, we were brought. But now, beloved, there is a
war going on, and it is difficult to keep hold as not to be moved
away from the gospel, even after we've been brought by sovereign
grace. There are many, many voices that
are clamoring to be heard, many gospels that are being preached,
many efforts being made by Satan to turn men away from the gospel,
but they continue not. in the gospel of the Lord Jesus. They're not grounded and settled,
many are not, and therefore they're moved away from the hope of the
gospel and bring upon themselves many, many aggravating problems
and many miseries. Now if Satan uses great power
in keeping us from the hope, he uses equal force in endeavoring
to drag us away from the gospel. I'd like you to turn with me
to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Look in 2 Corinthians chapter
11, and I want us to look here at a scripture that certainly
speaks to what I'm talking about at this time. 2 Corinthians chapter
11. And Paul here, Let's look at verse 2, beginning there.
He says, For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For
I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguile thee through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he
that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom you have not preached,
whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit,
which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have
not accepted, you might well bear with him." And what Paul
is saying is, you really, you readily bear with these individuals. And you put up with this individual
when he's preaching a gospel, preaching a Jesus, telling you
of a spirit, another spirit which you've not received. Then he
said, you bear with this individual. Now, this shows us here two things. Number one, there is this danger. Beloved, there is no such thing
in the Bible as a superfluous exhortation. And if you're told
to continue in the faith and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, that is a real, genuine exhortation from God. And when Paul said, I fear, lest
by any means the serpent is going to beguile you people. I preached
the gospel to you, I told you the truth, I espoused you to
one husband as a chaste virgin, and you're a child of God, and
you're joined to Christ, but I fear that Satan is going to,
through his subtlety, will corrupt your mind from the simplicity
that is in Jesus Christ. Okay? That's the first thing.
It's a real danger. And the second thing is that
people listen to things they ought not to listen to. There
are preachers that come around and people will, like these folks
did, Paul said, you readily bear with these people. You listen
to these people. You tolerate these people in
your presence. That's preaching another gospel.
And it's a real fear, beloved, that if we listen to Arminian
preaching, if we would give ourselves over to the legalistic views
of men and listen and tolerate these various views that are
floating around, Then, beloved, we're in danger, and we need
to recognize that there's one way to be justified, one way
to be sanctified, one way to be glorified, and that is in
and through the person of the Lord Jesus. And we do not want
to be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And the simplicity
is this. That is just through Christ.
It's in Christ. It's in the name of Christ. It's
through His power. It's through His merit. It's
through His righteousness. It's in Christ. Somebody said,
well, that's an awful simple message. It may be, but that's
where it is. Everything God has for sinners
is in Christ. And don't be moved away from
it. Stick to it. Now this is important. In Galatians
1 verses 6 through 9, I invite you to look at this with me.
I'm trying to lay a foundation here and we'll move on. Galatians
1. 6 through 9, Paul said, I marvel that you're so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another
gospel. Paul said, I marvel at this. I preached the gospel to you.
I was faithful in delivering the message of grace to you.
And I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is
not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received, let him be accursed. Now, beloved, throughout this
book of Galatians, Paul warned these people. He said, I'm afraid
of you. He said, I'd like to be there
sometime, and I'd just like to be there in spirit, and just
listen to what you have to say, because you observe days and
months, you desire to be back under the law, you're legalistic
in your thinking, and if you, he said, if in any way, you turn
away from Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ will be of no effect unto
you, and you have fallen from grace. I tell you, we must continue,
we must get a firm hope, we must be grounded and settled, and
never be moved away from the hope of the Gospel of Christ. So the Apostle Paul tells us
here not to be moved away. Now, do not think that the moment
you believe in Christ, that the conflict is all over. If you
do, you're going to be bitterly, bitterly disappointed. Between
here and heaven, you'll always have to fight, more or less,
to keep clear in your mind the truth of the gospel of God's
free grace. And some of the most severe struggles
that you will have in your life is when you are least prepared
for those struggles. There are going to come times
when Satan is going to desperately seek to draw you away from the
Lord Jesus. So do not grow secure or carnally
presumptuous. Do not say, my mountain will
stand firm, I shall never be moved. There is but short space.
in this world for a child of God between one battle and another. Many, many are the battles that
the children of God must struggle through and fight in this world
to keep a clear view of the gospel. He that is heaven-bound is in
for a fight and a struggle. And John Bunyan said there just
isn't any place this side, the river of death, to stop fighting. You have to keep up the battle. You've got to keep in there and
keep battling. Hold on then to the hope of the
gospel and never let it go. Be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, number one, as to the ground of that hope. We
must understand what is the ground of the hope of the gospel. And
what is the ground of the hope of the gospel? Well, I believe
it's the rich It's the free, it's the sovereign grace of God. That is the ground of the gospel. You turn with me, if you will,
to the ninth chapter of the book of Romans. The ninth chapter
of the book of Romans. And here we'll find where Paul
spells out clearly what is the ground of the gospel of hope. Now, I want you to look, if you
will, in verse 10, in verse 10, and we'll read here just a few
verses. And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived
by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve
the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. Now, as we read these verses,
we rejoice in our hearts that men are saved not because of
any natural goodness of disposition or because of anything that they
have done or ever shall do. We rejoice that salvation is
the gift of God and that it's based upon the free sovereign
grace of Almighty God. Now, in verse 16, Paul said,
so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. We must understand that the foundation,
that the grounds of our redemption, the grounds of our justification
and salvation, that it all originated with God. It originated in the
mind of God. He says, it's not of him that
willeth, it's not of him that runs, but it's of God that showeth
mercy. And then in verse 18, Therefore
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will
he hardeneth. It is, beloved, in the mercy
of God that all of our hopes begin. It is in the mercy of
God that all of our hopes begin, and the cause of that mercy is
mercy itself. This is so important to see.
And that's what we are hearing when we listen carefully to verses
11 and 12 here, and 13. In the ninth chapter of the book
of Romans, we're hearing that the mercy of God, that our hope
begins with that, and that the cause of that mercy is mercy
itself. And the reason of divine love
is divine love itself. Because God is gracious, therefore,
He bestows His grace upon the undeserving and the lost. And
we're never to be moved away from this concept. This is exactly
what Holy Scripture teaches, that God is the cause, the first
cause of His mercy, and that He has mercy upon us, and He
chose us in Christ according to His purpose, before we had
ever done any good or evil, before we ourselves had done anything,
before we were ever born into the world, God, because that
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of works, but of Him that calleth. And so, beloved salvation, God
is the cause of it. His mercy is the cause of His
mercy. His love is the cause of His
love. and nothing else. You didn't
cause God to love you. You didn't cause God to have
mercy on you. You may like to think you did,
that there was something unique about you, and God said, well,
I'll just have mercy on that fellow because he's a little
different than other sons of Adam. It's not so. God's mercy,
He said, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll do according
to my own sovereign purpose which I have willed. What Christ is,
what Christ has done, what Christ has suffered, beloved, is the
grounds on which God receives and justifies and saves and glorifies
the sinner. Look in Romans 8, verses 33.
and down through verse 34. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, meaning
it's God's work from the beginning to the end. Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us. It is Christ that died. Who can condemn? if Christ has
died for us. So this is the ground upon which
God saves poor sinners. Where is the rest for our souls,
beloved, if the ground of hope is to be what we are or what
we do or what we feel? Where is the ground for hope
and where is the ground for rest? But when we rest, when we fall
back upon Him, hear my say, Paul mentions in Colossians 1, whom
God has set forth to be a satisfaction for our sins, then, beloved,
we have something solid to settle ourselves upon, something solid
to rest upon. It's when we rest our souls in
the Lord Jesus. We cannot, listen to me now,
I cannot bear to look into the grave, neither can I bear to
look into eternity, as long as I cling to the least degree of
human merit. I can't do it. I can't do it.
Because I do not have, I know, enough merit to justify myself
before God. And if I die trusting in anything
else, Besides what Paul told us here in verse 33 and 34 of
Romans chapter 8, I am bound to go to hell when I die. I can
only stand in the presence of God, holy and unblameable without
spot, only as I stand in Christ who loved me and gave himself
for me. I cannot look into the grave,
I cannot look into eternity and cling to one bit of merit. I must look wholly unto the Lord
Jesus. Now when we look to the bleeding
Savior, there is peace. He made peace through the blood
of his cross. I know that God is satisfied
this morning. And I didn't do anything this
morning to satisfy Him, but I know He's satisfied. The Lord Jesus
satisfied God, and He satisfied Him perpetually, eternally. He satisfied God. God is satisfied
on the behalf of His elect. All those for whom Christ died,
God satisfied on their behalf. And God doesn't hold anything
against them anymore. Their sins are blotted out, put
behind His back, and God doesn't remember anything against them.
Now, beloved, heaven is too precious of a thing to be purchased by
anything that we can, by any possibility, do or perform. Heaven is too precious a thing
for me to buy. It's too precious for me to work
for and to claim as a prize for my effort. It's too precious. But it is not too great to be
purchased by the blood and the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and never be moved away from that. You hold to it. Somebody
says, are you going to heaven? Somebody asked somebody the other
day, and one of the movie actors or somebody, are you going to
heaven? Do you believe you're going to heaven? Well, listen.
I didn't stay around to listen to see what the fellow had to
say, but I'll tell you this. If I get to heaven, It's not
because I merited it or in any way, shape, or form did anything
that made me to be, as it were, worthy of the gift. Beloved,
God bestows it. Christ bought it. And I have
it and will go there because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
there's another ground of this hope that we have. I said it
was the rich, free, sovereign grace of God. And the next thing
is this, that it's the immutability of God, the unchangeableness
of God. That's a ground of our hope. And we must never lose sight
of this, the immutability of God. We're living in a changing
world. Everybody is changing around
us. We see it every day. We see it
in each other's faces. We see it in world events. We
see it all around. Everything is changing. But the
immutability of God. God changes not. Therefore the
sons of Jacob are not consumed. He will not go back on His promise. He said, my gifts and my callings
are without repentance. And I will not change. And what
I said, I'll stand true to. And what I said, you're wholly
unflammable and unreprovable in my sight, in my Son. That's the way it is, and that's
the way it will be, regardless of what happens with you and
I. The poet said, the covenant of the King of Kings shall stand
forever sure. Beneath the shadow of His wings,
His saints Repose secure. Isn't that blessed? God doesn't
change. And He's not going to change.
He will ever be mindful of His covenant. He will not change. Well, how may we... Now, I said earlier that this is a exhortation which is not
superfluous. I said this is a real exhortation. This is a real fear that people
will go to something else after they've been apparently convinced
in their mind that Christ is the way, they turn away. But
listen to me, how may we be moved away from the hope of the gospel?
How may this happen to us? How could it happen? Well, first
of all, I think it could happen by a conceit of ourselves. We make a perfection of faith
and after a little while we consider ourselves to be somebody. And
we kind of look to our graces, make gods out of our graces and
our progress. And instead of talking of his
righteousness all day long, we start talking about ours. Instead
of making much of him, we start making much of ourselves, our
efforts, our accomplishments, what we've done, and so on and
so forth, and we become conceited. You know, as one said, I'm a
member of a church where everybody's somebody, and I'm just pretty
important. Well, we know this church here,
And we've said this a few times, everybody's nobody here. Everybody
is nobody here in this church. This church here, Christ is all
in all. Christ is all. I mean, he's our
all in all. Christ is. We don't make anything
of personalities here. You say, but have not I? Have
not I? Well, you and the devil can talk
about what you've done, all you want to, but beloved, what you
have done is no ground of hope. It is no ground of hope. I'm
telling you, Christ is our hope. Well, whenever we get to the
place that we think we're somebody, I think we're on dangerous ground. We're in danger of being moved
away from the hope of the gospel. Now let me explain this a little
better. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. He said, the Son of Man has come
to seek and to save that which was lost. So my question to you,
dear soul, would be this. Are you one? Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner? Well, you say,
I was one, but I'm not now. You see, I got saved and I'm
sanctified now, and I don't sin anymore. Well, my friend, you
just removed yourself from the hope of the gospel. You have
removed yourself from the hope of the gospel. You moved away
from the hope of those who confess and lament their sins. Those
who consider and know what they are in a state of nature, in
flesh, They know what they are. Paul said, when he was an aged
believer, he said, I am what I am by the grace of God. He
said, there is no good thing in me. That is, in my flesh there
dwelleth no good thing. Paul knew that he was a sinner.
John said, if any man says he's not a sinner, if any man says
he doesn't sin, then he makes God a liar, and the truth isn't
any. And so those that know themselves to be sinners, they just keep
clinging to Christ. That's what a sinner will do. A converted sinner will just
keep clinging to Christ and Christ alone. And you unchristianize
yourself as soon as you're no longer a sinner. Whenever you
cease to be a sinner, then Christ no longer is your Savior. Or do not be moved away from
the gospel by the vain notion that you are no longer sinful. Christ came not to heal the whole,
but those who are sick. Now next on the other hand, do
not be moved away by despondency. By despondency. Now Satan does
not mind how You get off the rock. He don't care whether you
jump up and off of the rock or down and off of the rock. The
only thing He wants you to do is get off the rock. And if it's
through despondency, it's all the same to Him. If it's through
despondency or if it's through self-righteousness, it's all
the same to Him. You may get to the place... Listen,
despair is a bad thing. It is a bad thing when somebody
despairs. You say, well, I just despair. I mean, I am so corrupt, depraved,
inwardly, inbred sin is so powerful in me and I just simply, I just
simply am nothing and I just cannot have a ground of hope
based on what I am. And you despair. of that. Now
listen, the least sin, I want you to hear what I'm saying.
I'm going to let you go in just a little while. I've got to go too, so
you just bear with me. The least sin in our life ought
to make us humble. The least sin. Anytime you suspect,
sense, feel any sin, it ought to humble you. But the greatest
sin in your life, and I don't care to know what it is, The
greatest sin in your life is not to make, and it ought not
to make us despair. Now, let me explain why. Christ
has loved you and saved you when you put your trust in Him. And
the greatest sin that you've ever committed, the Lord Jesus
Christ, your sin is worthy of death. And the Lord Jesus went
to the cross, and He died. He died. And so, beloved, you
ought not despair over the greatest sin that is in your life. If
you say, I'm too great a sinner, God cannot forgive me, then you've
moved yourself away from the hope of the gospel. You say,
God just cannot forgive me. I've done this awful thing. I've
got this awful sin in my heart, and I'm just a great sinner. My friend, Christ is for sinners. He's for sinners. Go to Him. Go to Him. Keep coming to Him. Go back to Christ. Keep coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now then, the third way, or the
last way that I want to mention is that we could fall away. I
mentioned this briefly a while ago, but it's listening to false
teaching. listening to somebody who doesn't
know the gospel. Some of you don't know how God
saves sinners. Some of you don't know anything
about the effectual work of God's Spirit and the work of Christ
and the merits of Christ, the righteousness, the substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you listen to any teaching
which puts your works or your doings into the place of Christ,
you're talking in error. You're taking in error, I should
say. You're taking in error. When anybody says, this is your
work, when God said, I give that work to Christ, and when Christ
said, I finish the work, and you say, I'm doing the work,
you have removed yourself from the hope of the gospel. I'm telling
you, our business is to worship Him that's done the work. The
scripture says, He brought in everlasting righteousness, my
business is to worship Him. God said that through the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous, my business is to worship Him. and to bow before Him, appreciate
Him, sing of Him, learn of Him, all that I can. Not be digging
up something that I can throw into His face and say, see here,
I did a little of that myself. No, my friend, God won't accept
that. Jesus said, I finished it. God
said, I give you a work. And Jesus said, I finished that
work. And so listen, you will be removed from the hope of your
calling, which is free grace received by faith, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord, if you put anything in the place of
Christ in your life. Put anything there. Say, well,
I joined the church. Well, you know I was baptized
when I was a baby. Well, so what? Do you know Christ? Are you a sinner who is hoping
daily, hourly, in the blood of the Lord Jesus and in the merits
of Christ? Make any difference what you've
done or haven't done. Are you in Christ? Are you a
sinner trusting in Christ? Well, I want to ask this question
before I close, and that is, Where do people that, when they
leave the gospel, where do they go? I mean, how can we be moved
away from the hope of the gospel? I mean, is there somewhere else
to go? Now, I wanted to drive this point
home to you this morning. What would follow if an individual
were to leave the hope of the gospel? What would follow? Well,
first, We would say that for an individual
to leave the hope of the gospel, he would have to conclude that
there was someplace better to go, wouldn't he? But why would
an individual living in America want to go to Mexico or Canada
where the wages was less and where the living expenses were
higher and the people were poor. Why would he want to do that?
He wouldn't do that, would he? A sensible person would not do
that. And so listen, we would not jump
out of the frying pan into the fire. We would not do that. But if you leave Christ, that's
exactly what you're doing. You're like a fellow that would
leave the United States of America making good wages and go to Mexico
to work for just little or nothing and live in the poverty and the
squalor of people in Mexico and in other maybe third world countries. That's what it's like leaving
the gospel. Now, Jonathan Edwards said this.
He said, if any man can prove this gospel to be untrue and
a mere dream, the very best thing that he could do is sit down
and weep forever to think that he has disproved the brightest
hope that ever entered into the heart of a sinner. And it hadn't had a good stage.
It hadn't had a good stage. Well, hear this poem. Thou only
sovereign of my heart, my refuge, my almighty friend, and can my
soul from thee depart, on whom alone my hopes depend? Let earth's
alluring joys combine, while thou near, in vain they call,
one smile, one blissful smile, of thine, my dearest Lord, outweighs
them all. Thy name, my inmost powers adore. Thou art my life, my joy, my
care. Depart from me, tis death, tis
more, tis endless ruin. Deep despair to depart from Christ. So I think that explains it.
Well, it means to go back into bondage. to not continue in the
faith of the gospel. Let me read lastly 1 Samuel chapter
12, let me read verse 20. through 22, 1 Samuel chapter
12, verse 20 through 22. And Samuel said unto the people,
Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside
from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your
heart. And turn ye not aside, for then
should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit, nor deliver,
for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased
the Lord to make you his people." And so, beloved, you only make
things worse, not better, when you say, I'm leaving the Lord.
I'm going to this church over here. I like what they got to
say. because they give me a part in this thing and they kind of
make me sound important. And you know, I like to, I am
important. And I want people to know I'm
important. Well, I don't know how important you are. You may
be a whole lot more important than I am. But I will tell you
this, when it comes to the matter of salvation, you're just not
important at all. I'm telling you, salvation is
entirely God's work, from the beginning to the end. And when
you get to heaven, if you never learned how to sing anything
about it here, when you get to heaven, that's all you're going
to sing about. And if you get there, you're just going to sing,
glory to the Lamb, glory to the Lamb, glory to God. You're going
to be praising God throughout all eternity, what He did for
a poor, miserable sinner, that He in love, as a brother prayed
early this morning, or when we first got here, said that God
loved us before the foundation of the world. And you're going
to be singing about that for all eternity. You're going to
be singing about free grace, sovereign mercy. You're going
to be singing about the fact that mercy is the cause of mercy,
and love is the cause of love. You're going to be singing about
that throughout eternity. That's what it's all about. We're
going to get there by what He did. Oh, my friend, just come
to Christ in your true character. And keep coming every day till
you die. Every day till you die. Come
in your true character. Father, in the name of Jesus.