I'll take this off for the sake
of Moose and I both. Not do me any good. All right,
if you will, open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 22. I want us to start reading in
verse 6. We'll read down through verse
10, which is our text. And he said unto me, these sayings
are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy
prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things
which must shortly be done. And this is what he had to say. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I, John, saw these
things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen,
I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed
me these things. And then said he unto me, the
angel, see that thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant.
and of thy brethren, the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings
of this book. Worship God." And this was his
message that he was given to tell unto John and unto us in
verse 10. And he saith unto me, seal not
the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at
hand. seal not the sayings of the prophecy
of this book. Now to some, these words will
be life unto life, salvation itself. Salvation itself is carried
out and contained within the words of this book. And to others,
the sayings of these prophecies will be death unto death, because
these prophecies condemn them. They speak out against righteousness.
They proclaim what it is, but they also proclaim what sin is.
It will be words of condemnation. Which will it be for you? This
is a question we all must ask. Now, it will apply to everyone. Everyone who loves these words
will be good news unto you. But there are also those who
hate these words. These are not words of good news.
These are words of offense. But then there's also those who
apply to that don't really understand it and just don't care. They
don't love it and they don't hate it. They're gonna be held
accountable too. So it's no excuse to love it
or to hate it. Even if you don't care, you'll
be judged by these words as well. So it's important we know what
things are contained in here. If you will, turn with me over
to Romans chapter one. This speaks to the accountability
that each man, woman, boy, and girl will be held to that were
told in scriptures. And we'll read in verse 18, for
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness
because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For
God has showed it unto them. He showed them himself unto the
world. And that's what he's saying right
here. For the invisible things of him, of God, from the creation
of the world are clearly seen. So this leaves us with that excuse.
Being understood by the things that are made. You've heard our
pastor say it before. Every man, woman, being whether
they've heard the gospel or not, they have some understanding
and know that God is. He's our Creator, whether we
know this book or whether we know it or not. We have some
understanding there is a God. When we lay our heads down at
night, we know there is a God. We may not know who He is, but
we do know that there is a God, and for that reason, He tells
us this, that we're without excuse. We're understood by the things
which are made, even His eternal power. This is another thing
that we're told we'll understand, that He is all-powerful. And
Godhead, this speaks to His authority. so that they are without excuse.
Why? Because when they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God. This is when the Lord Jesus Christ
was here on the earth. They knew who he said he was. They glorified him not as God,
and they were thankful, but they became vain in their foolish
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools. So, what this tells us
is, if you turn back to our text, is we all have innately have
some understanding that God is, that he's on the throne, that
he's all-powerful, and that he has the authority to do with
his own what he will, whether we know who he is or not out
of this book. So we all will be held accountable
to this. So why then does the angel in verse 10 tell us, seal
not the words of the prophecy of this book? And what does that
mean, to not seal the words, the prophecy of this book? Well
first, when we look at it, it tells us there's some significance
here, particular significance put on this book. So what that
tells us is, this book means it excludes all others. There
are many other books out there. I think we live in a day today
that is a day of compromise. The best word I can come up for
it is you want to make your way okay, my way okay, and this person's
other way okay. It's all a way to God, different
roads to get there. That seems to be the message
of today. And what most churches, if you hear what they preach
here in our city, You have to say, if you look at it intelligibly,
it's different messages, but they're not going to condemn
another one and say, you're not getting to God by the way you're
following. So it's a day of compromise. There are not many roads to God,
though. If we deal with the Word in truth,
we find that. You see, we come by one man. by the man, Christ Jesus, by
what he did, not what we did, but everything that he didn't
accomplish. That's how we come. We come by one message. What
was his message when he was here? Except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. What does it mean to repent?
Repentance means to change your mind. Change your mind about
something you thought before and you don't feel that way now.
I changed my mind in how I think that God should save sinners.
He should be more merciful. I sit in judgment on Him and
say, you should save everybody. I changed my mind about that
once I found out what sin was. Once I found out what it took
to take away sin, I changed my mind about everything that I
thought about God and what He owed me. except you repent, you
shall all likewise perish. We come by one man, one message,
we come by one way. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm
it. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. If you're to know anything of
heaven, and to know anything of the Father, it's going to
be through the Lord Jesus Christ, as He is, and not who I think
He should be, and not the things that I want to believe about
Him that are denied somewhere else in Scripture from His character.
As He is revealed, that's who He is. We come by one man, one
message, one way, and we come by one offering. He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. One offering means there's only
one thing that's accepted. How many bulls and goats were
offered up day after day, none of which could ever take away
sins, but by the offering of himself one time, he took away
sins forever to them to whom he sanctified. And it's by that
offering we're made clean. You know what that means? That
means that we don't have to have another offering. That means
there's nothing that I have to bring. There's nothing that I
have to do. There's nothing that I have to
present before God, something that He can accept. That offering's
been accepted already. So, if you're saved because of
that offering, that means you have nothing to contribute. There's
nothing that you can bring that God will accept. There's nothing
that you can do that he is going to be pleased with because you're
the one that did it, because we are sinners. Therefore, all
we do is sin. And so if he sees what I do is
sinful in bringing it, he can't accept that. Now, these words
are either going to be words of offense because you do believe
that you have some righteousness and that you have something to
bring, or these words are going to be good news to you because
you know you don't have anything to bring and that you know there's
only one way you can be accepted because it's something you can't
provide. It's either one or the other.
It can't be both. Significance is placed on this book. This
book stands alone. It is the Word of God. It is
its own authority. Now this became more real to
me. I remember when I was in college, I took a class, I found
it interesting, called the Biblical Faith. And basically, long story
short, the whole term of this class, the guy tried to disprove
the Bible was God's Word. So, found it interesting, they
called it the Biblical Faith. And he gave us the opportunity
to write about anything we wanted to write about. And so the subject
I chose was, the Bible is the Word of God. And so in it, he
criticized everything that I wrote because I used the Word to authenticate
the Word. And he said that I should have
used more relevant and outside sources to authenticate the Word,
man's words. Some book a man wrote to authenticate
the Word of God. Well, I got a C-minus in that
class because of that. It was the lowest grade he could give me. He couldn't
argue I didn't defend myself in what I wrote, but nonetheless,
it was worth getting that C-minus because it felt like I at least
tried to say this is the Word. Point being is, the Word is its
own authority. We don't look to a church, a
creed, or anything to say this is not God's Word. God's Word
stands for itself. It stands alone. And it says,
the Word says it's this book. not part of this book or parts
of this book. I find it interesting, and I'm
sure you do too, when people say, well, it doesn't mean that. Well, I believe this part here,
but I'm not going to believe this part over here. We don't
like that. We don't like election. You know, we don't stand for
that. We don't stand that man is dead in his sins and that's
all he can do, but I believe everything else and I want salvation.
They pick and choose parts out of these books and decide what
it is that they're going to craft in the end. That's not what this
book is. This is God's word. He didn't
put this into words for you and I, for us to sit in judgment
on it and pick and choose what we decide we're gonna believe
or not. This is God's word. It's to believe in whole, not
in part. It's all or nothing. And if what
I believe is contradicted by what's in this book, then I'm
wrong. This book does not line up with a confession of faith.
Foolishness of confessions of faith. It is doctrinal distillation. It's trying to take what's written
here and simplify it down to a few words and say, this is
what this church believes. This is our confession of faith.
The whole word of God. It doesn't need to still down
to a confession of faith. This is our confession of faith.
The whole word of God in whole. And we need to stop trying to
conform the Word to our understanding, and conform our understanding
to the Word. We're trying to take the Word
and find what I believe and say, twist it to what I believe, instead
of looking in the Word to find out what to believe. There's
significance placed on this book. We believe it because it's written,
not because it can be proved or that we can understand it.
If it's written, that's why we believe it. It all comes back to what do
I think about God? Do I believe that he is God? Then this is his word. And if
I don't, then I believe he's something lesser than God. You
see, because if I believe he's God, I believe that he has the
authority, I believe he has the power and the wisdom to give
me his word, which is right here, preserved as it is. If not, then
he's something less than God. And I can't respect that God,
because he's not all powerful. That means I can have some degree
of influence on him. It may be really small, but I
can have some degree of influence on him. And if he's lesser than
God, then I can sit in judgment on him. Because if he's not the
king, then he's something less than that, and I can have my
own opinion about him. And if he's something less than God,
then it can be comprehended by man. and not through revelation
through His Spirit. This is God's Word and significance
is placed upon this book. And that's the message from the
angel here. And what else does he say? If
we look at that word, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of
this book. Sayings of the prophecy of this
book. Sayings is just another way to
say words. Seal not the words of the prophecy
of this book. Well, what do the words of the
prophecy tell us? Well, they tell us who God is.
That's what this book is. This book is a revelation of
who God is and how he saves sinners. Now, most people, when they look
at who God is, and I think if you ask most people this, they
look at a difference between who God has revealed himself
as in the New Testament than who he is in the Old Testament.
Because I think they see that God's message of salvation through
Jesus Christ is in the New Testament. But we see God in the Old Testament
as the revealing of the first covenant, the law. And so they
think somehow that they can look at what would most people say?
Say God is love. That would be pretty much the
universal response for who God is. Now, God is love. but is also the God in the Old
Testament that says, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
Both these things are true, but when they look at it, they don't
deal with it in honesty, and they just pick a part that they
want to believe. Now, there is a description of who God is in
the New and in the Old Testament. It's the same word. They're the
same phrase. And it is this, for our God,
is a consuming fire. That's written in Hebrews 12
29 and in Deuteronomy 4 24. So our God is a consuming fire. So they have to deal with that
because it's written in both. So you can't say there's a difference
because the Old Testament God is one who people don't like
because he's too big. This is the all-powerful God.
He's too mean. He's too angry. This is the way
they view Him. It's the God who told Noah, I'm
going to destroy the entire earth, and I'm going to drown out everybody
in it, and you build an ark, and that's the only way that
you and your house are going to be saved. They see no love in that God.
But yet, for 130 years, he built that ark and preached that message,
and nobody would believe it. So there is a God of love in
the Old Testament that they don't see. It's the same God who, with
outstretched arm and a mighty hand, pulled his people out of
Egypt. He sent all those plagues into Egypt and tormented them
to let his people go. He drowned the Egyptian army
in the Red Sea, killed them all. This is not a God that we can
manipulate. This is a big God. This is the God that when he
brought them into the Promised Land, they slaughtered all these
cities. He allowed them to take the land,
kill the men, women, children, to take the land. They don't
like this God. This is a God that will have
no other gods before Him. This is not a God of compromise.
This is a God that says, I'm God and there's going to be nobody
beside me. We can't control this God. We're
little to this God and we're in His hands. This is not the
God that is believed today. The Old Testament God is the
New Testament God. He said, I change not, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. We're in trouble now if we believe
there's two, because now we're forced to deal with the Old Testament
God is the God that we're dealing with in today, 2017, the one
that can't be controlled. He's not the effeminate God of
compromise. I like it where he says in his
word, thou thoughtest that I was altogether as such a one as you
are. See, we assume he's kind of like us, that he can be manipulated
and changed, and not so with God. He doesn't change. The rules
are always the rules with God. So whatever he set forth, that's
the way it's going to be. Remember how the last group fared
that spoke out against him and his prophet? Do you remember
that, when they spoke out against Moses? Said, the earth opened
up and swallowed him whole alive. This is the God of the Bible.
Not a God of compromise. Rules aren't changed just because
I don't like them. This is who we're dealing with.
So why is he consuming fire? Why is he, it says our God is
consuming fire. Why is he consuming fire? Well,
let's turn over to Psalms chapter 11. In verse seven he says, Consuming
fire has something to do with what he doesn't like. If you
throw something in a fire, you're doing it for the purpose of burning
it up because it's no good. With God, there's no middle ground. He loves something or he hates
something. So I wanted to look at some of the things the Lord
said he loved. Verse 7, he says, For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness, and his countenance doth behold the upright. Turn
over to Psalm 33 5. Verse 4, the Word of the Lord
is right and all His works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness
and loveth judgment and the earth is full of the goodness of the
Lord. So what do we see here? We see that the Lord loveth righteousness
and He loves judgment, a fair balance, something that is not
unequally yoked. Righteousness has to do with
absolute perfection. He loves absolute perfection,
everything that you say. He loves it only if it's absolutely
perfect. Everything that you do, it must
be absolutely perfect. Even the thoughts of your mind
and of your heart, absolutely perfect. Anything less than that,
God does not love. Well, somebody says, well, nobody
can do that. What does that have to do with
what He said He loves? This is what He said that He
loves. Because that's not you or I. Should God change who He
is? Should God change how He saves? Because you or I don't
meet that. Should He have to come down from
His standards of what He says that He loves and our perfection
because we can't meet that? because that's really what people
are saying today. Nobody can do that, so therefore,
it must not apply to me. This is true. He is not a God
of compromise. The rules aren't changed. And
I thought about this with regard to God holding standards of absolute
perfection in his law. The city of Lexington every year
sends me a property tax bill. What if I, one year, wind up
short on money and I say, I can't pay it. I'm sorry. So therefore,
this can't apply to me. And so I'm just, I'm not going
to accept that because I don't like it. That's what people are
doing with the word. If I take that attitude with
my property tax bill, I'm going to lose my house. They'll come
get it. Much more serious, if we take
that attitude with the things that are in God's word, we're
gonna lose a lot more than our house. And that's the reality
and the sobriety in dealing with this. Our race fell in Adam. Adam sinned. And Adam made a
whole bunch of people just like him in here, up here. We're all sinners. That's all
that we can do. And you consider this. Adam walked
with God in the garden. Adam talked with God in the garden. They knew each other. Adam had
one rule, and he broke it, and God threw him out of the garden
forever. How much difference do you think that you or I are
gonna fare versus Adam, who walked with God in the garden, talked
with God in the garden, and broke one rule with how many sins that
you and I have committed over the course of our life? God is
not gonna deal with me any different than he did Adam. Our race has
fallen. Most people just wanna hope that
it's gonna be okay and all right in the end, because they don't
know what to do. Thankfully, we're not left here. I've kind
of brought us down a little bit here, admittedly. The idea is
we can't be saved by the law. The law just shows how we can
be condemned. All it does is expose sin and
our inability. And if we try to come by what
we do or don't do, this is the reality, what we've just talked
about. Absolute perfection or you're out. And that's it. One
sin one time is enough to condemn us forever. We're not left here
though, thankfully. We are left with, thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And you know what that says?
He shall save his people, not you and him. There's not something
that I'm doing with the Lord Jesus in order to make it work
for me. It doesn't say, He shall save
His people from their sins if you. There's a period there. He shall save His people from
their sins. That means that He did it all.
That means that I didn't have anything to do with it. God saved
me. He saved me in a three-fold way.
First, the Father saved me in eternal election. What does election
mean? Election just means God's choosing. That's what that word translated
out means, God's choosing. God chose some people in Christ,
and because He chose them in Christ, they will be saved. Everything that has happened
up to time before this time and will happen today and after this
time is for the purpose of Him redeeming His elect people whom
He chose. I was saved when God chose me
in election. I was saved when God the Son
came and lived the life that I couldn't live, that life of
absolute perfection before the law. I was saved when He died
on the cross for my sins. He paid the cost. He buried the
load that I couldn't bear. I was saved when He did that. And I was saved when the Holy
Spirit called me. He quickened me. He gave me eyes
to see. He gave me eyes to see who God
was, that He's holy. He gave me eyes to see that I'm
a sinner and that I fall far beneath that. And then if I have
any ability to want to be saved, I've got to come by Christ. I'll
be saved when I die. because he quickened me and made
me alive. He birthed me again. So we are
saved. If you've been saved, you've
been saved in a threefold way. And it takes the whole counsel
of God to do that. So, back to our text. He says, seal not the sayings
of the prophecy of this book. So those were the words of the
prophecy. That's what the words of that prophecy say, is that
Jesus Christ came in this world to save sinners. That's what
the words of the prophecy say to me and to you now. Why does it say, seal not? And
this is kind of what drew me to the text here. Why does it
say that? Well, if you seal something up,
that means it's closed. You seal something because you
don't want it to get out. But yet, his words to his angel,
and in turn that angel's words to his prophet John were, don't
seal it up. That means the door is still
open. There's one reason the sun continues to rise. because
God has some people that he's going to reveal his gospel to.
Maybe it's somebody in here for the first time. That's the only
reason the sun continues to rise. The day the last person, the
Lord brings them home, the sun will stop rising and that there's
no more reason for time to continue because all those people have
been gathered. If you will turn with me over to Matthew chapter
25. I want to explore this idea of the door still being open. This is a parable we're familiar
with in verse 1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven
be likened unto ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth
to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise and
five were foolish. And they that were foolish took
their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in
their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried,
they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was made,
Because the bridegroom cometh, go you out to meet him. Then
all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish
said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone
out. They took time to save up that
oil, because they knew what was coming. But the wise answered
and said, not so, lest there be not enough for us and you,
but go you rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that
were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was
shut. And afterward came also the other
virgins, knocking on the outside, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto
us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know
you not. Watch you therefore, for you
know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. The rest of that verse in verse
10 of Revelation 22 says, For the time is at hand. Seal not
the prophecy, the words of this book, for the time is at hand.
It's coming quickly, is what it says. If the word's sealed,
we have no hope. But right now, the door is still
open. The door was still open to those ten virgins before the
Lord came. They had opportunity to fill
their vessels full of oil so that they could meet the bridegroom.
But those that didn't care, Didn't like it. Weren't interested.
They didn't fill their vessels. And what they found was the door
sealed. The door was shut. And there's
no getting in once the door is shut. And this is the reality
and gravity of the word here. I want to be inside the door.
I want you to be inside the door. I don't want to be on the outside
of the door knocking and him to say, I don't know you. Go
away. Is this the desire of your heart
to be inside the door, the only place of safety with the one
who can protect me, who can protect you? If you look at Revelation
22 verse 11, the immediate verse after, this signifies the permanence
of our condition once the door's closed. He that is unjust, let
him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. But he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. He that is holy, let him be holy
still. There's a permanence in this
thing of our state of being. Those that are inside the door,
they're holy, they're righteous, they're with the bridegroom.
Those that are outside, they're filthy and they're unjust and
they'll be cast out for it. Now someone in here may be thinking,
I can see God is holy. And I can see that I'm a sinner,
but I don't know what to do. I can see that, I don't know
much else, but I don't know what to do. Look over at verse 17
of chapter 22 here. The spirit and the bride say,
come. What's the spirit's role in salvation?
Spirit gives life, doesn't he? Gave life to the bride, didn't
he? Spirit gave life, and what was his message? Bride, if you'll
do this, you can come. No, they both say together, just
come. And let him that heareth say
come. What are the words that you say
unto others, those of you who have heard the gospel? You want
to tell people about the good news. Come. You're to come unto
Christ. This is the only place of safety,
the only place of salvation. The only condition is given next
when it says, let him that is a thirst come. Are you thirsty? Do you have a need? that you
can't provide. See, if you could provide it
for yourself, you wouldn't be thirsty. You could self-provide
that need, but you can't here. If you're thirsty, only one thing
is gonna satisfy that. Drink the water. To drink that
water is the only thing that you're gonna have any way of
satiating that thirst. But they say, go on reading,
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Are
you thirsty and do you have a need? Do you need to be clean on the
inside? Do you think things that you
shouldn't? Do you imagine things in your mind that are evil and
that you know are wrong, that you don't like thinking of, but
you try to escape from that, and the more and more you do
that, you find you're thinking it more and more and more. I need to
be clean on the inside. Do you need for your garments
to be washed? Have you soiled yourself in the
filth of your life in this world? Have you done things that you're
ashamed of that nobody else knows that you've done? Do you need
to be cleansed? Do you need to have your garments
washed of those stains that every time you look, it never escapes
you? Do you need for your soul to
be fed something that I can't provide for myself? I need these
things. Then you're thirsty. And he says,
come to the water. And he says, whosoever will.
Does that include you? I have more confidence in it
saying whosoever will than if it said James Andrew Davis. If
James Andrew Davis will. Because there might be another
James Andrew Davis. And I can tell you there's a
lot of James Davises in this world. I get stopped at the airport
a lot. The limitation here it gives is not whether you can
come. Because it's commanding you to
do so. It says, whosoever will, will you come? Does salvation
have to be on your terms? Do you choose what you will believe
and what you won't before you'll be saved by what's written in
this book? Then you won't come. Does God have to be the way you
want Him to be for you to be saved? Does He have to save the
way you think He should? Do you sit in moral superiority
over God and say, you have to save this way, save everybody
or it's not fair? Then you won't come. Must you
hold on to a little of what you've done? Even for the name of Christ,
you did something good. Then you won't come. You'll come empty. or you won't
come at all. That's the only way we can come. That's the only way you will
be thirsty, is if you already don't have those needs fulfilled.
If you're empty, and you need it, and you're thirsty, you'll
come to where the water is. You'll come because you're thirsty.
Or otherwise, you'll be one of those that says, we won't have
this man, not this man who's in this book as he's dealt with
in truth, we won't have that man reign over us. Well, it's
too late. He already does. But what he
tells us is the door is still open. The door is still open. And here's what I know about
him. He delights in showing mercy. He delights in showing mercy
to someone who can't do anything. They're guilty. Everything they've
done is wrong. That's who needs mercy, someone
who can't do anything for themself. But it will be on his terms and
not yours. He'll show mercy to whom he will
show mercy, but he says to anybody who comes to me, I'll in no wise
cast you out. You're to come unto Christ. The
door is open. If you will turn with me to Romans
chapter 10. We'll close with this verse of scripture. 10 and verse 13. It says, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever, again,
this is another whosoever in the scriptures, can that be you?
Calleth. You call when you have a need.
How shall they call upon him whom they've not heard? You've
got to be under the sound of the preaching of the gospel.
You've got to have the Spirit reveal to you who God is in this
book for you to call. And who do I call upon? It says
to call upon the name of the Lord. Now, there are many other
Jesuses. Scripture speaks of that. That
was another Jesus. How do I know if the Jesus that
I'm calling upon is the one who can actually save me? Because
that's what I want to know. Because otherwise, what good
does it do you call upon him if he can't save? Call upon the
name. His name, when I call upon his
name, his name is above every name. His name is sovereign. That means He does what He wants,
with whom He wants, and when He wants. His name is sovereign,
and every knee shall bow to His name. His name means Savior,
not helper, not guide, not friend. Savior. He shall save His people
from their sins. That's the Jesus that I want
to call upon. His name is our message. Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. That's the message. His name is our authority. He's
the king. We don't even understand what
a king is in this life. A king has absolute power. He
can do with whom what he wants. He has absolute power. He is
the king. His name is our power. He said, I was given all power
and authority. That means that he can save me
despite how sinful I am. And there's my sin, the devil,
nothing can speak. Charges can be brought against
me, but not before the blood of Christ. Nothing can stand
before that. Our sins and iniquities, he said,
I remember them no more. He has the power to not only
forgive sins, but to forgive them. That's the one thing that
troubles me more than anything is the memory of my sin. We,
you know, in the moment they feel bad, but we quickly, you
know, lose the sharpness of that moment. But then we can recall
and remember. And that's a moment of sorrow
that we can live with forever in our lives here. But thank
God he says, I forget them. I've forgiven them and I forget
them. His name is the song of our praise unto him who loved
us and washed us from our sins. This is the song that we'll sing
in glory unto him. His name is known in hell. The
sons of Sceva, you remember them? They tried to cast out from that
demon-possessed girl, the demon, they said, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and in the name of Paul. And the demon said,
Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know, but who are
you? The Lord rebuked the demons and suffered them not to speak
when he was on the earth, because they knew his name. They would
confess him, and the ones that did say, I know thee who thou
art, the Holy One of God, Jesus, the Son of the Most High. They
knew who he was, and they were commanded to confess his name.
His name is known in earth. In the name of Jesus, rise up
and walk. That's by what name the power
and authority came through when the disciples would heal these
people. And his name is known in heaven. It says it's gonna
be written in our foreheads. And all those who have his name
written in their foreheads, it's only those who will know the
new song, the song of our redemption in the name of our savior. So
it says, whosoever, and that's anybody in here, will call. Now it'll cost you nothing to
call. Everything you'll ever need will be provided. And recall
what it says about the church over in Isaiah 40, her iniquity
was pardoned. For she hath received the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Not barely enough, double. More
than what you'll need in calling. It'll cost you nothing to call.
but it'll cost you everything to call as well. You're gonna
have to lay down everything that you find of value in you. Anything
that God could find in you that's righteous, you're gonna have
to lay that down. Anything that you, claims and criticisms of
the way God is and the way he says, you gotta lose those. All
these things are gonna become worthless unto you if you call.
Is he worth the cost? Is he worth the cost of the call?
Well, it says right here, only if the value is greater than
the cost, it says, shall be saved. Is that worth it? Is it worth
it to lose all those things in order to be saved? I say yes. So we're to call upon the name
of the Lord. It says, shall be saved. On the truth of the authority
of scripture, you shall be saved if you call upon the name of
the Lord. This is the word of the God of this book, and it
contains the word of prophecy, of salvation, and forgiveness
of sins. That's what we were looking at.
And he says, thanks be unto God, it's not sealed. The door is
still open. It will be. It's gonna be soon,
but not yet. Call today. What are you waiting
for? This is the only means by which
we can be saved. The door will be shut, and the
time is at hand. You're to get into that house
with the blood over the door. The only place of safety where
the angel of death, it'll pass you by if you're in the house,
but not if the door is shut, but get into that house before
the door is shut. The scripture tells us only those
who are willing will do so. May our prayer be unto God, Lord,
make me willing.