A Summary of Our Testimony

Q: What does the Bible say about the importance of preaching?

The Bible highlights the necessity of preaching as the means by which God saves His people through faith. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul emphasizes that his preaching was not with persuasive words but was rooted in the power of God. He aimed for the faith of his listeners to stand in the power of God and not in human wisdom (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). Moreover, Romans 10:14-17 illustrates that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, and it is through the faithful preaching of the gospel that individuals are saved. This act of preaching is ordained by God, demonstrating the significance of this ministry in bringing about regeneration and faith in believers.

Q: Why is union with Christ essential for salvation?

Union with Christ is essential as it is the means by which believers receive all spiritual blessings and eternal life. Union with Christ means that all spiritual blessings an individual receives are found in Him. Ephesians 1:3 affirms that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. It is through this living union that believers experience justification, sanctification, and redemption (Ephesians 1:4-7). Furthermore, this union is achieved through God's grace and is manifested in our faith. As believers trust in Christ, they are incorporated into His life, meaning what belongs to Him is shared with them (Colossians 2:9-10). Thus, being united with Christ is the foundation of a believer's identity and the source of their salvation.

Q: How does a person come to faith in Christ?

A person comes to faith in Christ through hearing the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit. Faith in Christ is initiated by the hearing of the gospel, as we see in Romans 10:17: 'So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.' The proclamation of the gospel is crucial, as it is through the preaching of God's Word that individuals relate to Him and respond in faith. However, faith is not merely a product of human effort; it is also the work of the Holy Spirit who makes the message effectual. This is affirmed in 1 Thessalonians 1:5, where Paul states that the gospel came to them not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the interplay of hearing the gospel and the Holy Spirit’s work is essential for a believer to come to genuine saving faith.

Q: Why is it important to seek God instead of false teachings?

Seeking God ensures that believers adhere to truth rather than being misled by false doctrines. The importance of seeking God over false doctrines is emphasized in Isaiah 8:19-20, where the prophet warns against consulting spiritualists or those claiming special revelations. Instead, the people are instructed to consult the law and the testimony, the Word of God. This admonition is crucial; if one does not speak according to the Word of God, they lack the light to guide them. As historically reformed Christians, we hold that adhering to sound doctrine is vital for the faith. Doing so protects believers from the errors of charlatans and false teachers, ensuring that their faith rests securely on the foundation of Christ and His Word.

All right, my subject today is
entitled, my sermon is entitled, A Summary, A Summary of Our Testimony,
A Summary of Our Testimony. I was preaching a few years ago
in a little town in North Carolina, a very small town, I was preaching at the Gum Springs
Baptist Church, and the pastor and I had dinner one evening
with three unmarried sisters. And all three of these dear ladies
were in their early eighties. They had never been married.
All three of them lived in the old family home place. They grew
up in this home, and when their parents died, they buried them,
and these three girls went on living there and attending the
Gum Springs Baptist Church. They'd been members and attenders
in that church for 80 years, all three of them. We had a delightful
visit around the table, and then after dinner we sat down and
talked a while, and they showed me a little booklet called The
History of Gum Springs Church. And I read a little bit of it,
looked at the pictures, and then I came to a page which was entitled
Our Pastors, Our Pastors. And there were the pastors who
had served that church for all those years. I guess there were
twenty or thirty of them. The name of the pastor and the
date he was called and the date that he left. And as I looked
at that list of pastors, I raised my head and I said to the three
sisters, I said, which one of these men, now you were here
during the ministry, all these men, which one of these men do
you consider the best pastor, teacher? of all these preachers. Which one of these men taught
you the word of God? Which one of these men taught
you the scriptures, the mysteries of the gospel and the grace of
God in Christ Jesus? Which one of these preachers
is your best pastor? Well, it was interesting. They
sat and looked at one another, and then one of them had me hand
her the book, and I handed her the book, and she went down the
list, and finally one of them said, Oh, I'd say girl's brother
Tucker. Brother Tucker. He had this big,
powerful voice. Don't you remember? He could
wake the dead. Oh, how he could preach. You
could hear him a mile down the road. He was some preacher. And I said, no, that's not what
I asked. I didn't ask which one of them
had the loudest voice. I asked you which one's the best
pastor, the best teacher. But another one spoke up. She
said that, oh, she said, Brother Sam said he was a sweet little
preacher. I love that term. Have you met our little preacher?" She said, everyone loved Brother
Sims. He was always there when you
needed him. Best district we ever had. Always
out in the community, meeting the people. I said, well, that's
good. This is a true story. I said,
that's fine. But girls, that's not what I'm
asking. I didn't ask you who had the loudest voice or was
the sweetest little preacher. I asked you who taught you the
Word of God, who was the pastor, the teacher, by whom you learned,
through whom you learned who God is. And our sinners are saved. And one of them said, she said,
I'd say Brother Andrews was our best preacher. He was common
as an old shoe. Don't you all remember why? He'd
just drop in any time in the house, come in the back door
and eat whatever we had. He'd just make himself at home,
no frills about him. He was just common folk. And I saw it was a hopeless pastor. And I said, It's good that a man, if it's
worth being preached, it's worth being heard, that's so. And it's
good for a man to be sweet and affectionate and kind. It's good
to be common and plain and humble. But what I'm asking you, I'm
asking you of all these preachers, you ladies have been here all
these years, of all these preachers, which one? taught you the scriptures? Which one taught you the grace
of God in Christ Jesus? Which one was the best pastor,
teacher you had?" And they looked at one another, and finally one
of them spoke up and said, Brother Henry said, I don't reckon we
ever had a preacher like that. I don't reckon we ever had a
preacher like that. I wonder if that couldn't be
repeated in a lot of places. In my early days of growing up,
I don't reckon I ever had a preacher like that. Well, I've been witnessing and
preaching the Word of God here for a long, long time. And I
do hope and pray if someone ever asks you for an assessment of
my years of preaching, I hope you won't have to say, I don't
reckon I ever had a pastor like that. I hope you can say, with
all of his shortcomings, he has indeed preached Christ Jesus
and taught us the word of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2. Is this
not what Paul is saying here, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1? And I, brethren, when I came
to you, and he spent 18 months at this church, I didn't come
to you with excellence of speech or loudness of voice or oratory
or wisdom, intellectualism, trying to impress you while I declared
to you the testimony of God. For I determined in my soul,
in my heart, I determined not to know anything among you. There
are things he could have known, there are things he could have
delved into or dealt with, but I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified, and I was with
you in weakness and in fear. The Spurgeon said, I read recently,
my knees knocked together when I walked into the pulpit and
in much trembling, and my speech And my preaching was not with
enticing or persuasible words of man's wisdom, but in the demonstration
of the Holy Spirit with power that, and here's the key, that
your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, in the logic
of men, in the arguments of men, in the reasons of men, but that
your faith should stand in the power of God. Who is the power
of God? Christ is the power of God. He's
the wisdom and power of God. I believe that's what Paul's
talking about over here in Acts 20, when he was bidding farewell
to the elders. Turn over there a moment, Acts
chapter 20. He said in Acts 20, verse 18, listen. When they would
come to him, he said to them, you know, from the very first
days I came into Asia, what manner I've been with you at all seasons,
serving the Lord with humility of mind, with many tears and
temptations, which befell me by the lying weight of the Jews.
I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you." Over in
verse 27, I have not shown to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. Your faith, your confidence,
your hope should not stand in the wisdom, logic, reason of
natural man, preacher or whomever, but in Christ Jesus the Lord.
One other scripture here. Turn to Isaiah chapter 8. Isaiah
chapter 8. This scripture should be marked
in every Bible. It should be referred to frequently.
In Isaiah 8 verse 19, listen, And when they shall say to you, And when they shall say to you,
seek unto them that have familiar spirits, listen to the preachers
who claim to have special spirits, special revelations, special
visions, special spirits and gifts to heal, to cast out devils,
who have visions and revelations. They say, you go to these preachers
that have familiar spirits, or listen, or unto the wizards that
peep and mutter. Or go to those preachers, you
know, that have charisma and charm, who peep like birds and
mutter in low tones. Listen, don't you do it. Should not a people seek unto
their God? Shouldn't we seek unto our God for the living to
the dead? Do we go to dead men for a living
message? Why seek ye the living among
the dead? That's what the angel said at
the tomb. He's not here. Verse 20, where
do we go? Go to the law and the testimony.
Go to the word of God. If a man does not speak according
to the word of God, it's because there's no light in him. If he does not speak according
to the scriptures, it's because there's no dawning in him. Well, I'm going to give you five
things this morning. If you have a pencil and paper,
you can write these five things down. But I'm going to sum up,
give you a summary of what I believe and what I've tried to preach
through all these years, and what the Lord is willing I'll
be preaching as long as he enables me to preach. Here are five things. This is a summary of our testimony. of summary of our teaching. All
right, here's the first one. Everything spiritual, everything
of any eternal value, everything, I mean everything, that a living,
holy God has for a sinner, in this life or the life to come,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's first and foremost. That's
what I believe, that's what I have preached, that's what I'll preach
as long as I'm able to preach. You cannot add to that statement,
you cannot take away from it, you cannot improve on it. Everything,
I mean everything spiritual, everything of any eternal that
a living, holy God has for a sinner in this life or in the life to
come, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that not true? It came with
me to the book of Ephesians, and I can make good on that.
Ephesians 1. Listen. Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us, The Father, the
living God, has blessed us, listen, with all spiritual blessings. All spiritual blessings. What
are these spiritual blessings? Justification, sanctification,
righteousness, redemption, acceptance. Every blessing. Where is it?
It's in the heavenliest, it's in Christ. That's where all these
blessings are, in Christ. Listen, according as he hath
chosen us, in Christ. before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Christ, to himself according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he made us
accepted in Christ, in the Beloved. Verse 7, in whom? In Christ,
in the Beloved. We have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sin. Everything is in Christ. everything's
in Christ. Look over at chapter 2, verse
12 of Ephesians. At that time, speaking to us
Gentiles, you were without Christ. You were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, you were strangers from the covenant of promise,
you had no hope, you were without God in this world. But now we're
in Christ You who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the
blood of Christ." Not in the church, not in the right circles
or doctrine, in Christ. You were without God, you were
without Christ, you were without hope, but now in Christ. You who were far off are made
nigh by the blood of the Son of God. Turn to Colossians. This is it, this is the sum and
substance of the gospel. Colossians chapter 2, listen.
Verse 3 of Colossians 2, in whom, talking about the Savior, in
whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, it's
in Christ. The Father loves the Son and hath given all things
into his hands. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. He that believeth not the Son
of God, the wrath of God abideth on him." Look at verse 9, "...for
in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him, which is the head of all principalities
and powers." Is that not true? Is that clear? Let's move to
the second part. You know, 1 Corinthians says
this, Of God are you in Christ? By God's will are you in Christ? By God's choice are you in Christ? By God's grace are you in Christ? For of God is made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. It's by the will
of God that's in Christ. All spiritual blessing in him. These spiritual blessings are
ours. That's right, ours. You common,
everyday folk like you and me, just plain old sons of Adam,
daughters of Adam, centered by birth, choice, and nature. They're
ours. How are they ours? Through a
living union with Christ. Now, do you understand what I'm
saying? The Father loves the Son and
has given all things into his hands, all fullness bodily in
him. Everything is vested in Christ. Everything's in him. Now, how
can it be mine when I'm out here without God, without hope, without
Christ? I've got to be made now. I've
got to be brought into a living union with Christ. And if I'm
brought into a living union with Christ, if I and Christ are one,
Then what's his is mine. What's his is mine. You see,
eternal life is not just believing there's a God. Eternal life is
not just believing in God. And eternal life is not just
learning the correct doctrine. Well, I believe in the sovereignty
of God. Well, Saul of Tarsus did too. Well, I believe in election. Well, Saul of Tarsus did too.
He believed God elected the Jews first for the Gentiles. Well,
I believe in particular redemption. Saul of Tarsus did, too. He knew
the mercy seat was only in Israel. Eternal life is not just believing
there's a God. It's not just believing the correct
doctrine. It's to know that God and to have the nature of that
God within you. Zerah's Torah is to know that
God. It's to know the living God and to have his nature. Turn
to John 17. Let me show you this now. To
know that God, to know his attributes, to know his person, to know who
he is, to know him, to approve of him, and to have his nature
within. John 17, verse 2. Listen, this
is Christ speaking. He said in John 17, 2, him, speaking of himself, power
over all flesh, that he should give life, spiritual life, eternal
life, to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. Know him. Now look at John 17,
right on down, verse same chapter, John 17, neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word, that they all may be one. As thou art, is thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us. That the
worm may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which
thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one as we are
one. Listen, verse 23, I in them,
and thou in me. If you're in Christ, God can't
help but bless you, because you're one with Christ and one with
God. I in them, thou in me, they are
in me, and you're in me. We're one. It's one like the
Blessed Trinity, that they may be made perfect
in one. eternal life is to know God. Look at 1 John 5, listen to this,
and to be in him, to have his nature in you. Yes, you still have an old nature,
you still have a human nature, but you have a divine nature,
a spiritual nature, a new nature, the nature of God. And someday
the old nature will be buried with the old body, and then we'll
only live the new nature, the nature of God. 1 John 5, 20,
listen. And we know it's a knowledge
and a participation. It's a knowledge and a union. Verse 20, And we know that the
Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that
we may know him that is true, not just any God, an impotent
God, a powerless God, but the living God. And we're in him. We know him, and we're in him,
that is true even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true
God. This is eternal life. Our Lord, it pleased God, Paul
said, to reveal his Son in me. Not just to me, in me. He prayed
about the church at Galatia. He said, I travail to Christ
be formed in you. He wrote again, Christ in you,
the hope of glory. And our Lord illustrates it this
way. He was in the upper room with his disciples, washed their
feet. They came out of that upper room
and they began to walk, and there was a vineyard. over there, grape
vineyard. And he stopped them and he said,
Now, learn a lesson here. I'm the vine, you're the branches. The branch does not exist of
itself except it abide in the vine. If the branch is not in
the vine, it has no life, it's only fit to be gathered and burned.
But I'm the vine, you're the branches. The branch doesn't
bear fruit of itself, but of the vine. Abide in me and I in
you, for without me you can do nothing. Without me you have
nothing. Without me you are nothing. I'm the vine. Now, when you look
at a grapevine, you don't describe it this way, you don't say, there's
a grapevine and there's the branches and there's the leaves and there's
the fruit. No, you say there's a grapevine. There's a grapevine. We are in Christ. There's Christ. And there you are. We are in
Him. And the fruit that is born is
not the fruit of the branch. It's the fruit of the vine. If
I was severed from the vine, the branch wouldn't have any
fruit. It'd be dead. And then he described it this
way, the head and the body. He said Christ is the head, you're
the body. They're just one. You don't say
there is Brother Charlie's head, there's Brother Charlie's body,
there's Brother Charlie's leg. No, there's Brother Charlie.
And there's Christ, and there you are, one with him. He describes
it this way, illustrates it this way, a husband and a wife. They're
one flesh. One flesh. Husbands, love your
wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might purchase for himself. a peculiar church, zealously
good works and so forth. Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. We know nothing until we know
the living God. And when we know the living God
and all his attributes, which are perfectly revealed in Christ
Jesus, we receive him and believe him, and that indicates his nature
within us. Do you confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord? Do you confess all of the attributes
of God are in Him, revealed in Him, the righteousness of God
in Him? Well, no man can call Jesus Lord
but by the Holy Spirit. No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me, God. To know Him, to believe Him,
to receive Him is to have His nature. He said, "...as many
as received him, to them gave he the privilege to become sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born
of God." You see that? Oh, and here's the third thing.
Everything spiritual, eternal, is in Christ. And that's mine,
if I'm in union with him. Well, how do I get in union with
him? This union with Christ, now listen to me. This union
with Christ is the gift of God, it's the work of God, and it's
effected in us by faith. This union with
Christ, chosen in Christ, predestinated in Christ, accepted in Christ. It's true that God made a covenant
with us in Christ. It's true that God chose us to
salvation in Christ. It's true that we're born of
God. It's true that all that God giveth him will come to him,
and of all them he'll lose nothing. But don't apply human logic and
listen to human reason, listen to the Word of God. By faith,
Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice. You say, well, if God made a
covenant with me in Christ, and God chose me in Christ, and I'm
born of God, and all that the Father gives the Son shall come
to him, and he'll lose nothing, then there's nothing for me to
do. Not according to the scriptures. That's human logic, that's human
reason. According to the scripture, by
faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. He had
this testimony. He walked with God. He pleased
God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. By faith, Noah, being warned
of things not seen, moved with fear and prepared an ark for
the salvation of his house. By faith, Abraham, when he was
called, went out from his father's house and wandered in tents with
Isaac and Jacob, looking for a city by faith. When our Lord
sent his disciples out, to preach the gospel, he said, you go into
all the world and preach the gospel, he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.
He didn't say, go out and preach the gospel and he that is elect
will be saved, he that is not elect will not be saved. He said,
he that believeth shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be
damned. Isn't that right? Turn to John 3, John chapter
3. John chapter 3. Here's a popular,
and it should be popular, but here's a well-used, and it should
be well-used, but misunderstood portion of Scripture. John 3.16. I hear people say, well, John
3.16 is the gospel in a nutshell. I believe John 3.16. All a fellow
needs is John 3.16. Now, wait a minute. There's no
gospel in John 3.16. The gospel's not in John 3.16. The gospel's in John 3.14. Look
at John 3.14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
There's the gospel. What took place back then when
Moses lifted up the serpent? He made a serpent in the likeness
of the serpent that had bitten the people. And that serpent
was lifted up on a pole for the people to look to it and believe.
Christ Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He
was lifted up on a cross and nailed to a cross and crucified
and spared not by his Father to bear our sins in his body
on the tree. That is the remedy. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. That's the remedy. And here's
the results, verse 15. that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish but have everlasting life. That's the result. Now
John 3.16 is the reason. John 3.16 is not the remedy.
It's the reason. And I'll tell you why he came
down here and why he was lifted up and why he was crucified and
why he died. Because God loved the world.
That's why. And he gave his only begotten
Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but
have everlasting life. Gospel is in the lifting up of
the Son of God, in the crucifixion of the Son of God, in the suffering
of the Son of God, in the Son of God bearing our sin. And the
result of that is, whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Do you believe? Not to believe
Christ is to perish. In John 7, turn over there to
John 7, just a moment. John chapter 7. The feast was
over. Three or four days of feasting,
special ceremonies, religious gathering, and the people were
departing, and the water was poured upon the altar. The last
sacrifice was made, and it says in verse 37 of John 7, in that
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, If any man thirst, weary, hunger, labor, heavy laden, sinful,
under the judgment of God, let him come to me. Let him come
to me. And out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. Let him come to me. Out of my
bondage, sorrow, and night, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy gladness, freedom, and
light, Jesus, I come. Out of my sickness, into thy
health. Out of my woe, into thy wealth. Out of my sin, into thyself,
Jesus, I come. Will you come? You see, we don't explain the
gospel, we preach it. Everything's in Christ. And it's
mired by a union with Christ. And that union with Christ is
affected by my believing on Christ, and my willingly, lovingly, on
purpose, coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. Come. He said,
come, for all things are ready. They'll come. They'll come. Man's not going to be saved who
does not come to Christ, who does not believe on Christ. I'm
going to preach on that tonight. Stretch out your hand. God's
not going to stretch it out for you. He'll enable you to, but
you'll stretch it out. Take up your bed and walk. Christ
didn't take up his bed. He took it up. Christ enabled
him to, but he took it up. Is that not right? Take up thy
bed and walk. I can't. With the command comes
the power. He picked it up and walked. And
I tell you, I say this, I tell you with all the compassion that
I can, with which I can express it, come to Christ. Now, all right. This saving faith
in Christ, this gospel under eternal life, it comes by the
preaching of the gospel. This saving faith, this union
with Christ is by faith, but this faith comes through hearing
the gospel. Hearing the gospel. There's a
man sitting, I could tell stories as I go look over this auditorium,
significant. One man sitting right over here,
Brother Ballard, I'll call his name. He's kinfolks, I can pick
on him. But anyway, he was down here
in a certain church all his life, 30 some odd years. And he told the pastor one day
that he wasn't coming back. He said, I'm not hearing anything. I don't even know what I'm not
hearing. I don't even know what I'm not
hearing. I just know I'm not hearing anything. There's no
meat, there's no truth, there's no depth, there's no, I'm not
hearing anything. Somebody invited him to come
out here, and he sat back there in the
back, and he listened. And he didn't hear anything here
for a while. Did you? Not for a while. He'd
sit there and frown at me. We were friends, so he could
frown at me. And I'd meet him at the door
back there, and I'd say, come back. And he'd say, well, I might.
He kept coming back. Is this not true? One day you
heard. What? The preaching of the word. One
day his eyes lightened, one day his ears opened, one day his
heart beat, one day he came through that door and shook hands with
me and he said, I'll be back. I see what you say. God's got to, of his own will,
beget he us with the word of truth. in whom you trusted after
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it's the power of God
unto salvation. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?"
Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Now, a man
can reason about gospel regeneration all he wants to. He can reason
about begetting and birth and what takes place first and this,
that and the other. But I'll tell you this, all who
come to Christ come by the preaching of the gospel. Check that out
through the book. Every one of them heard the gospel.
Is that not right, John? Every one of them heard the gospel.
And everybody here that came to Christ and knows Christ and
loves Christ, can trace it to a time and a place, maybe a period
of months or years, I don't know, but you heard the gospel. Isn't that correct? You heard
the gospel. You heard the word of truth.
How can a man be saved listening to Aaron? How can a man be saved
listening to the preaching of another Jesus and another spirit
and another gospel and another way and another hope? Can't do
it. Got to hear this gospel. You
say, couldn't he read it? Absolutely, that's preaching
though, isn't it? In other words, when I read this book here, I'm
reading the preaching of Paul, and the preaching of Titus, and
the preaching of Luke, and the preaching of John, the preaching
of Christ, but it's still preaching! I preached the gospel here one
night, I preached on on works, our works and his works, good
works and bad works, and all this sort of thing, you know.
I got through preaching and a man was sitting over here on my left
and he couldn't get up. I asked him, was something wrong?
He said, I can't stand, my legs won't hold me. The Lord has shown me for the
first time in my life, I have no works. All that I've given
my life to all these years is nothing. vanity, dumb, and I
can't stand it. That's God-working. I can't do
that for a man. I cannot do that. I cannot give
a hearing ear. I cannot do it. God can. That's
the reason, you know, you can sit around in little groups and
discuss things, and you may accomplish something, but not much. People sit under the preaching
of the Word. Word preached in the power of
the Holy Ghost will produce the slain of the Lord. Cecil, is
that not right? That's right. Preaching the gospel. God has chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. I could tell many stories
here. You could too, couldn't you?
If we had time, we could spend this afternoon telling how you
won, you won, you won. You're one. You're one. All around me. You're one. Heard
the gospel. And I don't know when God will
open your heart, but he'll have to. I don't know. I don't know when
God will get your attention. I don't know what he'll use to
get it either. But you'll hear us, he'll get it. He'll get it. He'll set your fields on fire.
And when he does, you'll come. You'll come. You might come singed,
but you'll come. That's right. And you'll hear
this gospel, and you'll believe it, and then you'll die for it. You can come right up here and
preach what I'm saying. Every one of you who know Christ
can come right up here and say what I'm saying, because that's
what God saved you. I preached one time down in a
church in down below Appalachia, Virginia, in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. And I was preaching along this
line, and an old gentleman, way much older than I at that time,
I mean, he was snow-white headed, retired, bent over from the years. He came up to me with a tear
in his eye, and he said, young man, that's the way God saved
me. That's the way God saved me. I said, I know it. That's the
way he says all his people. It is. Here's the last thing,
fifth thing. The Holy Spirit has to make this
effectual. That's what I've been trying
to say the last two or three minutes. The Holy Spirit has
to make it effectual. Don't leave the gospel. Don't
leave the gospel. Don't lead the gospel, because
the Holy Spirit makes effectual the preached word to the heart.
First Thessalonians 1, listen. First Thessalonians 1, listen
to this, verse 4. First Thessalonians 1, verse
4. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance." That's where it comes. It comes in power,
it comes in the Holy Spirit, it comes in much assurance, and
it comes in God's own time. in God's own time. I just don't
feel that we should put undue pressure upon people who listen
to us preach the gospel. I feel like that we should preach
the gospel to them and pray for them and wait on God to reveal
it to them, because he has to do that. But much time spent
in prayer and the faithful proclamation of the gospel And may God reveal it to our
hearts. Bring us to love him. But stay under the sound of the
gospel. Bring your children to hear the gospel. Bring them to
sit and listen. You say, they don't listen. They
may be hearing more than you think. They may be. Bring them to hear the word of
God. Let them grow up where the influence of the gospel is, where
the sound of the gospel is, where people are aware of the glory
of God, the word of God. It would be such a blessing to
them, such a blessing. That young man I told you about
a while ago, Pastor Rocky Mount, he hadn't always paid attention,
Mr. Paul May, but he was here and
the seed was sown and in God's good time it bore fruit. Brother
Barnard had one daughter. She was a rebel. She didn't act
like she knew that he existed sometime. He died. She had no
interest in the gospel. About several years after he
was gone, she called me on the phone one day. And she said,
do you have any of my dad's tapes? She wouldn't listen to him when
he was alive, but she won't listen to his message. I said, yeah,
I've got some. She said, did he preach the gospel?
I hear people say he didn't preach the gospel. I said, he's about
the only one in his day that did preach the gospel. And she
listened to him. Maybe she came to the knowledge
of Christ. At least she had an interest. I said, don't put God
in a bind, okay? He'll save whom he will, when
he will. But I tell you how he'll save them, preaching the gospel
of Christ Jesus the Lord. That's it. That's it. I'm not saying we're the only
ones preaching the gospel. Not at all. God has 7,000 that
haven't bowed their knee to Baal. I've only met about 10 of them,
or 20 or 30 or 40. But they're out there. They're out there. All right,
Mike, we'll sing number 242.

A Summary of Our Testimony

What does the Bible say about the importance of preaching?

Why is union with Christ essential for salvation?

How does a person come to faith in Christ?

Why is it important to seek God instead of false teachings?

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A Summary of Our Testimony

What does the Bible say about the importance of preaching?

Why is union with Christ essential for salvation?

How does a person come to faith in Christ?

Why is it important to seek God instead of false teachings?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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