When we consider our peril apart from the Lord, it is frightening. It is absolutely frightening. As I mentioned to you earlier in the service, as I narrowly escaped what would have been a tragic accident on Saturday, yesterday morning, with Linda in the car, it was a split second between life and death for us. When I considered What would have happened had the Lord not been with us and watching out for us at that moment? It was scary. It was a scary thing. And I believe that at some point in time, every person, every man, woman, boy and girl should pause and consider the peril that would be theirs apart from Christ. I realize that apart from Christ looking out for me yesterday morning, that there would have been tremendous bodily harm that came upon Linda and myself. But apart from Christ, there is a terrible, perilous destiny to look forward to and nothing else. And there are those that are deceived in their thinking, and I believe that they don't understand that apart from the Lord, there are strangers and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. No claim to citizenship in heaven and without God and consequently without hope in this world. There are some that would read that verse and they say, no big deal, they think that Life is a big party and they're going to go through it and they're going to get all they can while the getting's good, you know. And there are a lot of folks that want to live a hedonistic or an Epicurean type of lifestyle while they're coming up. And they think that there'll always be time enough to deal with things that are eternal. But in the meantime, I'm just going to live it up. I'm going to live the Vita Loca and I want to enjoy myself. And no one wants to live a miserable life. But life is not a party, my friend. But there are many that want to live their life with that type of philosophy. The other day I was listening to some people talk and a fellow was saying to another gentleman, do you know for sure if you die today that you spend forever in heaven? He said, man, I'm going to go to hell. When I when I get down there, I'm going to have a party with my friends. We're going to crack open a few beers and we're going to sit down and we're going to party with the devil in hell. It's going to be one big party. There are those that believe like that and they are sadly mistaken. They may think they're going to a party, but it's just hell. It's hell. I was listening to the news the other day and I heard a newscaster talking about the conflict and the gridlock in Washington. How many have you ever heard anything like that? Yeah, me neither. And and he was characterizing one party on the right side by saying they are the party of no. Just no, no, no, no, no. The party of no. And I thought, you know what? People think that they're going to live it up when they get to hell. They're the party of no. They're the party of no. And I'm going to prove it to you today from God's Word. I want us to consider a message entitled, The Party of No. The Party of No. Let's consider the plight of the party of the aliens from God. It will be a party of no. I want us to understand that the Bible tells us in verse number 12, that at that time, ye were without Christ. Ye were without Christ. I want us to notice that, first of all, the party of no has no life. No life. No life. Say, what do you mean? Well, the Bible says in 1 John 5, verses 11 and 12, that he that hath the Son hath life. In this case, Christ, who is God the Son, it says, you are without Him. So, he that hath Him hath life. He that hath not Him hath not life. So, the party of no, first of all, has no They think they're living it up, but the reality is they have no life. You ever heard somebody talk to somebody else and say, hey man, you need to get a life, right? Somebody that's all meddling in your business, you know, you say, hey listen, you need to get a life of your own, buddy. Stop meddling with my things and start cleaning up your own backyard. Why don't you just get a life, amen? Some of you would like to tell somebody that, wouldn't you? Go ahead, confess it. It's good for the soul, all right? Who's confessing? Look, I want you to understand that there are those that think I'm living it up, but really the truth is they are dead. The Bible tells us they are abiding in death. He that hath the Son, that's Jesus Christ, hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. The Bible tells us in verse one of chapter two that you have be quick, and that means made alive, who were what? Dead. Dead, dead, dead in trespasses and sins. I want us to understand that when we're born, we're born spiritually dead and in need of life. We're born spiritually dead and in need of life. Now, we are perhaps physically alive, but though our body is alive, our spirit is dead. The Bible tells us this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 at verse number 20. For as in Adam, all die. So also in Christ shall all be made alive. Kind of goes along with that whole, he that hath the Son, hath life. He that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. We understand this, that as in Adam, all die. And folks, I've got to tell you something, it doesn't matter what dish you bring to the international banquet on Mission Sunday, it doesn't matter which country you hail from, every one of us is related to our great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather Adam. That's where it all started. And when Adam disobeyed God and willingly, against the will of God, chose to partake of that which God said, do not take of, do not eat of that fruit, for on the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. The Bible says, 1 Corinthians 15, 20, 21, Christ and Adam all die. So we all died in the loins of Adam spiritually. That's why we need the new birth. We need to be born again. And literally what born again means is to have a second birth, a second spiritual birth. Because I was alive once in the loins of Adam, and so are you. But in Adam, we all died. The Bible says in Romans chapter 5 and verse number 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and guess what? Death by sin. And so death passed upon all men for that All have sin. I don't know if you can read that. It says when we're born, we are spiritually dead and in need of life. And we see secondly, that we are dead because of the scourge of sin. We are dead because of the scourge of sin. And literally what the Bible tells us is because of our sinful condition, we are born spiritually dead. Spiritually dead. Sometimes you'll talk to someone that's spiritually dead and we'll say that What they need to do is they need to repent of all their sins. We talked about this on Wednesday night. And my granddad used to tell me all the time, honey, that's like telling a fence post to grow leaves. It's not going to happen. A dead man doesn't even know the difference normally between what he ought to do and what he hadn't ought to do. And trying to tell a dead man to do something is a fool's errand. How many of you know that? Sometimes we pray, Oh God, send revival in our country. What we mean by that is, take all the prostitutes off the street, all the dope peddlers off the street, take all the bad, you know, pornography off the streets and clean up our culture and that would be revival. Can I tell you something that would not be revival? What first would have to take place is for all the dope peddlers to get saved. All the prostitutes to get saved. All the pornographers to get saved because Revival is the wrong word for it. I believe America needs a revival, but do you know what that means? That the people who know the Lord as Savior need to be alive unto God, to reckon themselves as dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. And then a true Holy Spirit revival could break forth. I believe if the people of this world today could see the Living Lord in the Church, that there would be a nationwide revival. And they're desperately looking for something different. that Jesus can provide for them. And they're not finding it even in the church. And it's a tragedy today. And consequently, guess what? They say, we're going to live it up. We're going to have a party. But, you know, they're the party of no, because they have no life. And what they need to do, thirdly, is they need to get a life, right? How are they going to get that life? They're going to get a life through Christ. The Bible says in chapter 2, verse 1 here, you have to be quickened or made alive. He gave them a life. How? Through the finished work of Christ on the cross. He gave His life for us, that He may give His life to us, that He might live His life through us. And friend, when the Bible calls the life that we have received at the moment of conversion eternal life, make no mistake about it, that is the life of God. Because eternality is an attribute ascribed only to God and never to man. So it is the life of God. One of the divine attributes of God that makes him God is this, his eternality, which means he has no beginning and no end. No one ever conceived of God. No one ever created God. Before Abraham was, he said to the Jews, I am. He always existed. He testified to his own Eternality. His own eternal pre-existence. And so He gave us the very life of Jesus. He gave us a life. And we need to understand that. But until you come to the Lord in full acknowledgement of the fact that you're woefully undone because of sin, and you're dead spiritually, and you have no hope to find life apart from Jesus Christ, until you come to that place, you'll never get a life. You'll never have a life. You'll call it that, but that's not what it is. I'm reminded of a cartoon that I saw one time where a man was a very wealthy man and he saved up and he bought a brand new Cadillac Escalade. And after he bought that brand new Cadillac Escalade, he wrote, he died. And in his will, he said, I want to be buried in my Cadillac Escalade. And so his widow hired a crane operator service, and they arranged for that man to have his hands around the wheel of that Cadillac Escalade. And he was embalmed there, and they tied his fingers to that steering wheel. And then the crane was lowering that Cadillac Escalade down into that hole in the ground. And two of his buddies were standing by with their hands in their pockets, watching the crane lower that Cadillac into that hole in the ground. And one of the fellas turned to the other and said, man, that's sure living, isn't it? You know, people say the dumbest things at funerals. Have you ever noticed that? Look, I've done almost 750 of those things. I've heard a lot of really silly things. You know, people come in and here's here's a guy dead. He's dead. He's laying in a casket. And, you know, they'll come in and say, oh, he looks so good. He's dead. You know. He looks dead. I mean, what are you going to say? But people are like, oh, he looks so good. People are kissing him like he knows it, or he can feel it. And I'm just thinking, people kind of lose touch with sensibilities sometimes when their emotions overtake them. But for someone to see a man being lowered down into the grave and say, man, that's living. That's really indicative of the philosophy of the world, who are abiding in death. And they think that because they're going through this existence in an escalated, man, that's living. No. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath not life. Why? He's dead in trespasses and sins. And they're a part of a party of no. No life. No life. No life. I want us to notice something else. The Bible says here in verse 12, it says that at that time you were without Christ. Secondly, no Messiah. No Messiah. You know, if you look up the word Messiah in your Webster's 1828 Dictionary, you know what it's going to say to you? It's going to say, Anointed One, Jesus Christ, the Anointed Messiah. Now, you won't find that in your Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, abridged and edited, you know, 59th version. It probably won't be in there like that. It's probably the PC definition now, you know. It'll say the Jewish terminology for their perceived Messiah, something, OK? But if you look in your Webster's 1828 dictionary, Brother Ishmael, when you get that dictionary, you look it up, look up Messiah. It's going to say Jesus Christ, anointed Messiah. OK, that's what it'll say. No Messiah. You know what Messiah is? It also says Jesus Christ, the anointed savior of the world. That's what it says. The savior of the world. Now, you can look it up in the Hebrew and it means the same thing. It means the same thing. anointed One, or Savior. And when the Jews read the word, the Christ, they knew there's no mistake here who we're talking about. We're talking about our Savior. We're talking about the Messiah. Okay? So, here the Bible says that you were without Christ. That meant we had no life. But not only did we have no life, we had no way of getting life. Because we had no Messiah. I want us to see that before Christ, there was no Savior for the Gentile. There was no Savior for the Gentile. The promise and covenants were given to the people of Israel. But I'll remind you. that when Jesus sat on Jacob's well outside of Sychar and spoke to the woman at the well of Samaria, the woman that had had five husbands and was living with another man that was not her husband, and the Lord had dialogue with her and she was trying to self-justify and try to be dismissive by engaging the Lord in a spiritual dialogue to take away from the reality of the fact that she was a sinful woman. You know what she said to the Lord? She said, We know that when Messiahs cometh, which is called the Christ. We know that when Messiah cometh, which is called the Christ. There in John chapter 4. So, you know what? Not only did they have no life, but they had no Messiah. They had no one to save them. They had no Savior. I'm telling you today that it's a terrible peril to be abiding in death, there would be nothing worse than having no one to rescue me from that fate. Having no one to rescue me from that fate. No Messiah. Secondly, understand that as aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, we had no claim on the Messiah of the Jews. He had no claim on the Messiah of the Jews. I wanted to name this sermon, I wanted to title it HB 212. But I thought people would think it was too much like HB 1070. But I wanted to say every non-believer is an illegal alien. And you know what? If they get picked up by Almighty God, they're going straight to hell. HB stands for hell bound. 212. No life. No Messiah. No hope. I want us to recognize the fact that folks, when we are without life, before we come to Christ, and before Jesus came, they had no Savior. No, Messiah, you know, as I look back over the course of my life, I want to tell you, there have been many times where I know in the sovereignty of God, he preserved my life. I had no, no, no mistake about the fact that God was looking out for me yesterday morning when I was turning into that hospital parking lot. I mean, I was split second split second away from sudden perilous. a terrible tragedy. And I've, throughout the course of my life, been involved in quite a few near-death experiences. Anybody else live kind of out there on the edges growing up? You know, look, you know, some people think living life on the edge is riding around a car with no seatbelt on, you know, but to me it's like, you know, lacing up the bungee cords or something, you know, and I can look back over my life and there were times where I, as a kid, you know, I'd get on my bike after breakfast on a summer day and I'd be gone till dinner time and my mom had no idea where I was, you know, and today, you know, my mom would probably be put in jail for that, you know, but how many of you are like me? I mean, you got on your bike, you got your BB gun, maybe you had a wrist rocket in your pocket or something and you went and shot everything that moved and you rebuilt and rebuilt stuff And you got all kinds of you just got all day and your mother was never worse for the wear. I mean, you like me on that. I mean, I don't hang out, build tree forts and and we we dig tunnels and stuff and we just be somewhere. My mom just thought, you know, they're out there playing somewhere, you know, in the orchard or over in somebody's field or somebody's backyard somewhere. And that's kind of how we grew up. That's just the way it was, you know. And I can remember I had a friend. His name was Paul. And he had a brother named Mark. And my name is Mark. And he had a brother named Paul. And so Paul and Mark invited Paul and Mark to go on a vacation with them to Sequoia National Forest. Haven't you ever been to Sequoia National Forest? OK, it's a beautiful place. Largest living things on planet Earth. And they said, you come in our RV with us, which was really an old school bus that their parents had turned into an RV. Man, they made it really nice. It was probably the the ancestor to the Winnebago or something. I don't know, but it was pretty nice. And they had these bunk beds in there and we got to sleep in our own little space in the bunk beds. And we thought, man, this is great. This is living, you know? And so we went to Sequoia National Forest. And I don't know if those of you that have been there, but they have Sequoia Falls. I think maybe they're called Kings Canyon Falls. And there's a huge waterfall. Well, you know, back before they got the great idea of building fences to keep people from going over the falls, they just had a railing, you know. And so we were there looking at the falls and they were taking pictures and stuff. Here was Paul and Mark and Mark and Paul. and we were there looking over the falls and then we thought this is pretty cool we could see the spray and everything but we wanted to get a little better view of right at the bottom of the falls and so we had the really brilliant idea that what we were going to do is we were going to crawl under the railing and we were going to scoot on our bottoms as far out as we could so we could look over and see the bottom of the falls and so I crawled under there and my brother was beside me and Mark and Paul and then there was Paul and Mark and and they were looking and And we're looking over the over the falls and I want to get a little better view, you know, so I'm shooting. And all of a sudden, the rock that was beneath me started to crumble and I started to slide a little bit down the face of that that cliff towards those falls, maybe Three or four hundred feet or five hundred, maybe ten thousand feet seem like down to the bottom of that waterfall. And I mean, I started to slide. I was getting really nervous and I thought what I need to do is I need to turn around and I need to get face down on this on this cliff face. So I'm sliding, and I turn around and I'm grabbing everything that I can grab onto to keep from falling over at Kings Canyon Falls. And I'm grabbing a stick, and the sticks are pulling right out of the ground. I'm not kidding you. I'm starting to claw into the rock itself, the shelf, and everything I'm clawing into is crumbling and falling. I mean, it's just rocks going over the edge. And I'm holding on to twigs and weeds, and they're pulling out of the rock face. And I'm sliding, and I'm like, help! And my brother Paul looked and he realized that I was going to die. He knew it. And he couldn't reach me because he started out and all the rocks started falling on me and rolling over the top of me and going over the falls. And I was there, help! Help! And I'm crying now and I'm shaking. And I'm trying to dig my finger. My fingernails are getting pulled back. My hands are bloody now. I'm trying to hold on to anything. And I'm just laid across the face of that cliff trying to keep from going over it. And I surely would have just edged my way all the way over to sudden death. And my brother, Paul, some of you are looking a little nervous, I survived. Anyway, and my brother Paul, he's like, hey, Paul, Mark, he called him Paul, Mark, at the top of the falls. He said, you got something that we can throw down to him? They had no line. They didn't have any rope or anything. And so my brother said, hey, Robert, you hang on to my, or Paul, hang on to my ankles. And he laid down. My brother's tall, about six foot two. And Mark grabbed on, or Paul, one of the two, grabbed onto his ankles. And he tried to reach, and he couldn't quite reach. And so his brother, they made a human chain, grabbed onto his ankle and wrapped his arm around the railing that I should have been behind. My brother laid down on the face of that rock and reached out to me and could just grab a hold of my hand. And he saved me. Pulled me up to safety. My hands were bloody. Clothes were all messy and I was shaking from head to toe, sweating like a sieve. Twelve year old boy. Thought, man, that was exhilarating. But, you know, I got to tell you something. The world is sliding over the falls into hell. And the Savior is there to rescue them. But before Jesus came, guess what? There was nobody there to rescue you from the falls. They had no Messiah. And I want us to notice that He became our Messiah at Calvary. The Bible tells us that it says in verse 12 that you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. And now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now, I want us to understand something here, that not only are those apart from Christ the party of no, because they have no life and they have no Messiah, but they have no hope. They don't have a brother standing at the top of the falls to help them. There's no hope for them. The Bible here says in verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ. That meant you had no life. That meant you had no Messiah. Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise. Having no hope. There was no hope for them. Having no hope. and without God having no hope and without God in the world, apart from Christ. There is no expectation of anything but damnation. You know what hope does? It looks forward to a better end. It looks forward to something anticipated. to something better. It holds fast to that hope. That's why the coming of Jesus for the church that we call the rapture is often referred to in the Bible as the blessed hope. That means we can anticipate a better end. We can anticipate something better than this. Folks, if you look around in this world and you say, This is all I have to look forward to. Then the Bible says this to you. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, I believe it's in verse number 14, it says, If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. Because we're the party of no. We think we're going to be partying it up in hell, but you know what? There's no life there. There's no Messiah there. There's no hope there. And although a religious world would try to innovate a doctrine that would provide for a limbo or purgatory, my friend, that is not what God said. When they go to hell, there's nothing more to look forward to. There's no hope there for a better end. That is their end. Period. No hope. Hopelessness will suck the life, will steal the joy out of the breast of any person. I'm reminded of a story that was told during World War II, a true story of the capture of a general whose name was General Wainwright. General Wainwright served in the Pacific under the leadership of the head of the Pacific forces, Douglas MacArthur. And you recall that the Japanese were assaulting the Allied forces, and they had an island that they had captured, and it was called Corregidor. And the island of Corregidor was used to hold prisoners of war that were captured by the Japanese. And General Wainwright was captured by the Japanese and was taken to what they called the Rock Island, the island of Corregidor. And it was at that time that Around about that time that Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines, and you remember he left them with the words of encouragement, I will return. And they printed that everywhere they could to keep hope alive in the hearts of those allied forces that were fighting a bitter struggle against the Japanese there in the Philippines and in that Southeast Asian corridor. General Wainwright was there in that Japanese prison and day after day, they tried to wear him away with different types of interrogation and different types of mental warfare and torture. And he could stand up to the physical torture. And he wrote later that as he sat in that prison cell, that the worst day in his life was the day he began to contemplate, what if? And they began to tell him that the Americans are losing the war. MacArthur will never return, that the Allied forces are about to be defeated, that the Japanese army is about to destroy all of the American forces. And day after day, they would tell him and give him reports, true or false, about the defeats of the Allied forces and about how MacArthur had been defeated. And there was no hope. And when he began to think on that fact, he began to give up on caring for himself. He no longer would shave and care for his uniform. And he became scruffy looking and he stopped caring for himself and eating. And he was withering away and he would have died because he believed there was no hope of ever escaping that prison of war camp. And his friend Douglas MacArthur got news of his situation, and he sent two men who risked their lives to get word to General Wainwright in that prison that within the week MacArthur will return and the war will be over. Day after day, the Japanese had come and offered him food and he would not eat. They didn't know why he had just given up. He surrendered living because he surrendered hope. Then all of a sudden. That word got to him and he took his uniform and the best he could on his little mat. He tried to press that out with his hands, tried to get as many of the wrinkles out of it as he could. He took the brass on that uniform and he tried the best he could with what little piece of cloth that he had to try to shine it as best he could. And he put those on. He tried to put his buttons in place and he tried the best he could to shave with the little knife that he had. and to try to comb his hair and to slick it back a little bit. And that next morning, the Japanese came to try to offer him his breakfast, sure that they would find a scruffy old man who didn't want to eat anything. And there stood General Wainwright at attention and clapped his hands together and said, I'll have my breakfast now. You see, the difference was that when he was emptied of hope, there was no purpose for him to continue on. No reason for his life, he felt. It was over. But when hope was restored in his heart, he recognized, I have a reason to live, to get up in the morning. And I want to tell you something. This world has nothing better to look forward to. It will just be hell, my friend. Apart from Christ, not only the party of no in the respect that we have no life, and the party of no in the respect that we have no Messiah, no Savior, but we have no hope. But in Jesus Christ, we have a hope that is a steadfast hope, that is an anchor for the soul. that fadeth not away. And today I want to tell you something. That apart from Christ, there's no expectation of anything but damnation. And when there is no hope, there's no purpose in living. But we see this. The Lord has given us hope. We who were hopeless have been given hope that is steadfast and sure. Amen. Do you have hope? Some of you live your life as though there were nothing better to look forward to. As though this is all there were. And you go through your life with a sad, ashen countenance, and it seems as if God is dead, and especially that He's not alive in your life. And friends, I want to tell you, Jesus came to give you who were alienated from God, I who was alienated from God, a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But before Jesus came, sad to say, I was a part of the party of no. No life, no Messiah, no hope. I want us to notice that the Bible says not only in verse 12, no hope, but it says without God in the world, there was no God. I was a party of no because I had no life and no Messiah, no hope, but there was also no God. No God. I want to tell you something that the people of this world have created gods in their own minds. They have erected edifices and icons that stand as the gods of their life and of their world. And friends, I'm going to tell you something. There is no God. There is no other God but Jehovah. You see, the Lord said, I am the Lord and beside me there is none else. I am the Lord and beside me there is none else. You see, Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. When Jesus was questioned as to whether He was the Messiah, He confessed that that was in fact who He is. That was the reason why Jesus was crucified. He claimed to be God. You know why Jesus was crucified? Not because the Jews were mean, not because the Romans wanted to kill somebody, but because He claimed to be God. And the empty tomb proves that what He said He was He was. What He said He was, He was. There is no other God but our God. And the gods of this world can never save. Do you remember when the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts went to Corinth and the silversmiths were all in an uproar because the Apostle Paul said, look, an idle fashion with hands can never help you, can never save you. And the business of the silversmiths had gone down to nothing. There was like an injunction on making icons of the statue of the goddess Diana. And so they're all worried about that. But, you know, listen, the truth is that people in this world today have a graven image that they're worshiping almost universally. It is the image of money. Whatever the denomination is that they may be collecting, if it's euros or if it's yuan or if it's dollars or if it's in gold Krugerrands, it matters not. It represents a love and a passion and a worship in the life of a person who has allowed that to supplant God in their life. I believe that. We must understand that there is only one God who is able to save us. Jesus said in Acts chapter 4 and verse number 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be safe. There are not many ways to heaven. There are not many denominational truths that will guide you to heaven. There's not many gods that can save you. There is only one God, and that is Jesus. And I want you to understand, He said, I am the way. Not a way. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. He's the only way. And without Him, there is no life. Without Him, there is no Messiah. Without Him, there is no hope. And without Him, of course we understand, there is no God. because He is God in the flesh. The Bible tells us here, in the beginning was the Word. It speaks of the preexistence and the eternality of God, of God the Son, Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And the Word was God! Verse 14 reveals to us that God in the flesh, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus was God in the flesh, and besides Him, there's no life. Beside Him, there's no Messiah. Beside Him, there's no hope. And beside Him, my friend, there is no God. Because through Him and what He has revealed to us in the Bible, we know that there is a God and we know that He wants to be our Savior. And when Jesus came, there came hope to the world. And when He preached and ministered to the Syrophoenician woman and He delivered her daughter of devils, I want to tell you, He gave hope not just to the Jewish world, but to the Gentile world and through the cross. We who are aliens and strangers from the commonwealth of Israel were made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ and we praise the Lord for it. He is the only one who is able to save us. And lastly today, I want you to see the party of no is a party of no because they have no life and no messiah, no hope and no God. But lastly, they have no country. They have no country. I want to tell you something. You have. The here and now, but you have no place eternally to call your own. The Bible tells us in verse 12, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. You were illegal aliens. You know what? God has promised this world to the Jew. How many of you know that? Now, some people say, oh, He promised to give them the area of Palestine. No. Do you know what He said to the Jewish people? He said to Abraham, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread, I've given it to you. Through the diaspora, what part of the world does that entitle the Jews to? All of it. There's going to be a new heaven. There's going to be a new earth. Guess who's going to dwell on the new earth? The Jewish people. God said, I'm giving you the earth. It belongs to you. Okay? It's theirs. There's going to be a new heaven. Guess who's going to be in the new heaven? All true believers in Jesus Christ. That's the Gentiles that became believers. It's going to be heaven in both places all at the same time. Don't ask me to describe it. I can't explain God. If I could, then I would think that I might be as smart as Him on some level. But the truth is, there's a lot about it that I'm going to discover when I get there along with you. Amen? So I'm not going to pretend to know the mind of God on every little minute detail of what the end time holds for us all. But I know this. When we were outside of Christ, we had no claim on anything but hell. Had no claim on anything but hell. We are aliens. We didn't have any citizenship there from the Commonwealth of Israel. We didn't have the promises God gave and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made not by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace who has made both one. and have broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace." You know what the Apostle Paul is telling us here? That when Jesus died, the Bible says here, He is our peace who hath made both one. What does that mean? Jew and Gentile alike that would receive Jesus Christ after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. The two who were at enmity, who hated one another. The Jews, they were the only people in the world with promise. God said, I'm going to make the two one. And you know what He was talking about? The church. He was talking about that church age where every true believer in Jesus Christ was made a part of one body. and one Spirit, and they would have one Lord. Brother John, you teach the kids that verse in children's church and in king's kids, and here we find that principle being reiterated. The Bible is telling us, He is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, the body of Christ, making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God, Jew and Gentile, to God. You see that? In one body by the cross. That's the body of Jesus. Having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him, we both have access by one spirit unto the father. Let me tell you something. And I'm done. We can become citizens of heaven by birth. OK, someone come to this country, they have to have a child here, that child can be an American citizen. OK, now, listen, I'm going to tell you something. It doesn't matter where you are. If you are born again, you are a citizen of heaven, no longer stranger. no longer a sojourner, no longer an alien, but a child, a citizen by birth. Praise the Lord for it. You know, let me tell you something. The Jews didn't believe this. And there's a lot of people that talk about tongues talking and, you know, that's something that really has tapered down in this recent age because it's scary. Straight. Most people are scared of it. A lot of the Pentecostal churches don't even do it as much as they did it anymore. But do you know why God gave tongues to the early church? Here's one reason. One. Not to prove that someone was saved alone. It was this. It was for a sign to unbelieving Jews. You know why? Because they didn't believe what Paul said here. that God had broken down the middle wall of partition. He'd done away with the enmity between the Jew and the Gentile. They didn't believe that salvation was available to the Gentile world. They didn't believe that the covenants and promises that God made to the people of Israel were available to the Gentile world at all. And so, you know what God did? God, by his spirit, demonstrated that the same spirit that is in you, Messianic Jews, is also now available to the Gentile world. And to demonstrate that, he allowed them to speak with other languages to prove to these unbelieving Jews that the Holy Spirit was available to them, too, and all the promises of God in him were yea and yea and nay, nay, for the Gentile world also. That's why he did it. Most of the time you see people talking in tongues, not even a Jew in the crowd. You understand that because we've gotten so far away from the original intent of the Scriptures and we are ignorant of the Scriptures and we go about to establish our our own philosophies and doctrine because of the whims of man, they become the doctrines of men. That's why the Bible says in Colossians 2, Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the rudiments of the world, after the tradition of men and not after Christ. Folks, I'm telling you today. People, they want to characterize a political party. They're the party of no. And yet the world today is thinking that they're going to have a party, and they're going to die, and they're going to go party it up with their friends, wherever it may be. And I want to tell you something, they are the party of no. And the Bible tells us, because they have no life, and no Savior, and no hope, and no God, and no country, until they come to Jesus. And I want to tell you something, there is something that can change us from the party of no, and it's one word, and it is this, yes. Yes to Jesus, if He says. Will you come unto Me that you might have life? Will you acknowledge that you can't save yourself? Will you acknowledge that I'm the only one that can give you hope? You know what? When we say yes to His offer, we become a citizen of heaven, a child of God by faith. The party really can start there. The party of yes. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I receive it.