Take your Bible, turn to 1 Thessalonians if you would. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 and then just kind of be ready to move around in the Bible. Now what I decided to do tonight was go ahead and put the verses up on the screen. And that is not to blind you or anything like that. It's just that there's a lot of verses that I don't want to spend hours and hours and hours on the same verse. I want to move through the verses. All right. Now, what I'm going to encourage you to do is try to keep up in your Bible. All right. I'm going to try to give you enough time to do that, but be ready to turn quickly, very quickly. I encourage you. I got to see some people here with pens and notepads, take some notes. and things like that and then we'll just try to have a good time in the Lord tonight and try to discern some things, try to learn some things, try to understand some things. I never want to stop learning. Never want to stop trying to understand things I don't understand. And I've realized a long time ago, God wasn't going to give me everything. He wasn't going to tell me everything. I wasn't going to understand everything in the Bible. And I'm fine with that. But that doesn't keep me from trying to find out more than what I know. And I'm just thrilled and amazed at the Word of God. that you go over something, read it, and then five, six months later, a year later, you're reading it again, and all of a sudden there's something there that you never saw before. It's been there the whole time, amen? But God's just kind of bringing it to light. And I like that. And I want you to pray about this, because some people's going to like it and some people's not. And I'm going to try to make it likable. I'm going to try to make it to where you understand, if you don't agree, you can understand, this is why I believe what I believe. Is that going to be fair enough for everybody? Alright? I don't want to have a church split. Amen? And I don't think we will. Here's what I know about everybody here. Everybody in here believes the Word of God. You believe the Bible. And you know that I'm not going to change a verse. I'm not going to try to make it say something it does not say. There's things all my life that I've heard from one preacher to another that I just thought, okay, that's what the preacher said is how it is. And I've learned that's not always right. Do the same thing with Mike Hoggart. Don't just say, well, Mike Hoggard said and so on and so on. Go to the word of God. All right. That's what I encourage you to do. And that's what we're going to do. All right. Let me tell you what let's do. Let's pray before we do anything. And you get your Bibles ready to get your fingers wet. Get ready to turn them pages. All right. Here we go. Heavenly Father, I love you. Lord, you know, I love you. You know, I love this book. I love the words in it. God, You've helped me a long time ago quit changing the Bible. Thank You, God, for that. Thank You for giving me the liberty, Father, and freeing me from the bondage of thinking that I had to come up with what the Bible said. Lord, You just blessed me with the liberty and the freedom of just believing what it says. And I thank You for that. And I pray, dear God, Lord, that You would help my understanding because, Lord, I don't feel like I've attained to anything. I just thank God, Lord, that I know what it says and I try to understand it, but God, you're the one who provides the understanding for us. And Lord, I also know, God, that you don't make everybody in your kingdom the same. You don't make us all see eye to eye. You don't make us agree on everything. Lord, I thank you for that because, Lord, there is, there are differences in the members of the body. And so, Lord, this is, you know my heart, God. I'm not trying to preach against anybody. I'm not trying to preach for anybody. Father Lord, this is how you've led me and I want to try to help people understand Maybe they got a question in their mind of how how salvation works What what it is what it is not I pray God Lord that you would help us all dear God to have that understanding To know father and trust in your word, even if we don't see everything and agree to everything Father, we know that God's people love the word. So Lord bless your word tonight And help us in it. Lead us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Can I hear all of God's people say amen? Here's why we're doing this. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, and go ahead and get ready to turn to, let's say, Mark chapter 4. So just kind of thumb over there to that, all right? In 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, we've been calling this the road to the rapture. We've talked about a lot of things. We've talked about, um, we're talking about tribulation. We've talked about bearing a cross. We've talked about several, several issues in this, and we're eventually going to get to first Thessalonians four, where he talks about the translation of the church. And in in first Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 5, let's pick it up there He says for this cause when I could no longer forbear now the verse that I'm dealing with is verse 8 But I like to go back and see why he said what he said, and I think that's right I think it's right to do that. Amen. That's called they called it in the theological realms context and But Paul said that if we were to walk circumspectly, that means look around, look in a circle. When you're looking at a verse or a preacher gives a verse, take that verse now, go look it up, and then look what comes before and what comes after it. Because sometimes a preacher will, he'll either deliberately mislead people or he himself doesn't understand something. And he may quote a verse wrong. I've done it before. This is why I tell you, get your Bible out and look at it. Make sure that I'm dealing a straight deck to you. I hate to use poker terms, but that's just what came to my mind, all right? Just make sure I'm dealing a straight deck to you, alright? So anyway, he said in verse 5, he said, For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith. Look at what he's wanting to know about them. He's wanting to know their faith. Why? He's worried about them. Paul planted that church. He cared about those people. He loved those people. He labored over those people. He fasted and prayed over those people. And he said, I wanted to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you and our labor be in vain. Look at what he's saying. He knows his enemy. Paul knows his enemy. And he mentions the tempter here. And he knows how he works. He had to deal with the Corinthian church. He had to deal with the Galatian church. Paul has dealt with the after effects of what happened. Paul said, toward the end of the book of Acts, he said, after my departure, grievous wolves are going to come in. That's what he said. And you look in the Galatian church, when Paul was up there preaching the gospel and establishing those churches, after he left, what happened? Grievous wolves came in. He's up there preaching at Corinth, and he's leading people to the Lord, and people are getting saved, and they're establishing a church there. And he gets it started, brings a bishop in, and Paul leaves. And what happens after he left? Grievous Wolves came in. So he's wanting to know the condition of the church at Thessalonica. He says, I know tempter comes in. I know what he does after I leave. So here's what he says. He says, I sent to know your faith. Verse six, but now when Timotheus came from you unto us and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that you have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us as we also to see you. Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith. That's what he was looking for. He wanted to know if these people still believed the word of God. You see that? That's what faith is. Okay? And Paul said, they're being mean to me here. I'm in great distress. I'm in affliction. But when I heard that the people at Thessalonica still believed the Word of God, he said it made every bit of that worth it. Can you imagine the crown of joy that the Apostle Paul had upon hearing that this church still believed the Word of God? Now, look at verse 8. For now we live if... For now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord. I believe a Christian will stand fast in the Lord, real ones. Real Christians stand fast in the Lord. The word fast does not mean it moves rapidly. The word fast is like when we use a staple, it's a fastener. Okay? We fasten things down with fasteners. That's what that word fast means. You stand fast. You've got your feet down in the cement. You're not going anywhere. How many of you believe that that's you tonight? Say amen. See, it's good to have that, isn't it? It's good to have that joy. It's good to have that knowledge that your mind is made up. You're not going anywhere. Amen? Does that mean we think that every single day? I'll be honest with you. Sometimes the devil gets at me. Okay? There's fiery darts. Do you believe the devil throws fiery darts at you? Okay? How do you quench them? A shield of what? See how it works? See, he'll throw stuff at you and you just say, uh, excuse me, devil. That is not what this says. I mean, do it. I mean, don't just play like it in your mind. I've done it before. I've said, listen here, devil, wherever you are, that's not what this says. Alright, he used the word if. Are there conditions for a person's salvation? Is there a condition? If we were to just step back and make it simple, I could say, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. In that passage contains the whole, the sum of the doctrine of salvation. By God's grace, through our faith. Okay? Both of them at work together. God does not save unbelievers. If God did that, God would be a liar. Amen? The whole point of the New Testament is contrary to the Old Testament in that the law at Mount Sinai required obedience, strict obedience to the law. Do this, do this, and you shall live. Jesus comes to give us life, not by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith. So I could just simply say to you tonight, be steadfast in the faith, hold on until the Lord appears in the air, let's all stand and be dismissed. It's that simple. It really is. So what I'm going to share with you tonight, as far as I can see, does not contradict anything that I've just said. Get out of here, wasp. You're a devil. You've got a sting. Amen? I don't like that. Mark chapter 4. Turn there. Mark chapter 4. It should have already been there. I told you to flip over to it. Mark chapter 4. Let's look at it. uh... you know what the parable the seed in the solar Let's go down to verse 13. Jesus said, And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables? Now before I start reading this, I like to come in on Sunday morning. We come in a little bit early. And once I kind of get myself ready for church and I got my coffee, I'll pull up sermon audio. And there's a couple preachers I like to just kind of listen to every now and then, one of them. I like the guy. I like some things he says. But I hear some things from him. I just shake my head and I just go, What in the world? Where does he get that from? And he was talking this morning about if you think that anything, any of these things that are in the four Gospels are for you, you're dead wrong, you're going to get it wrong, and you're in serious trouble. And I'm just going, that is, no, uh-uh. All Scripture is given by inspiration. God's profitable for what? First thing he said was doctrine, all scripture, alright? And so he and I, we've never met, I don't think we ever should, but I do hope to meet him in the air one of these days, amen? That we get all this stuff off of us, amen? He and I don't belong in the same room together, I'm not even going to say who it is, but we don't belong in the same room together. Do I think that he's lost and he's a wolf in sheep's clothing and he's not saved because he's not teaching what I'm teaching? No. God does make his people differently. And I'm convinced of that. I've matured a little bit to understand that not everybody has to agree with me. I don't have to agree with everybody else. This hand is different than this hand. You see that? But it is all the same book. You believe that, say amen. So anyway, but I believe God led me to this one day to help me understand how God sees salvation. So he says, the sower soweth the word. So we understand that. Here's the word of God now going to four groups of people. The wayside, the stony ground, thorny ground, good ground. These are they by the wayside. where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts." I kind of see that as, I got a good friend who used to be in radio here named Tim Behrens. Tim Behrens deliberately moved from St. Louis to Los Wages, Nevada. for one reason and one reason only. He said that's the highest concentration of heathen sinners that he could find anywhere in America. They were all going to concentrate in Las Vegas. Tim Behrens has a goal of passing out 300 Jack Chick tracts every single day. Not every week, 300 tracts a day. He pays for them himself. And he'll stand as people are going from casinos, strip clubs, and everything else and hand out tracts. 99 times out of 100, I would say it's probably even less than that, those people who are there in Sin City might even look at it, might see a verse in it, find out what it is, toss it in the trash. Why? Because there's a big old devil on their shoulder going, don't read that, let's go get drunk. You believe that? That's what he said right here. That's what happens. People who, given a tract, or you give them a Bible verse, or something, you sow the seed, they are wayside, they've got so much devil on them, the devil will not let that Word do anything in their life, and it's gone pert-near as quick as it shows up. Those people are going to go to hell when they die. Why? The Word is intended to bring forth fruit. Okay, so watch this. Now, he said, verse 16, and these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness. There will be people who will come to church, they'll hear something, or they'll watch online, they'll watch on TV, or whatever, they'll hear a preacher on somewhere, and they'll say, you know what, I like that, I think I want to be a Christian. And they'll receive it with gladness. But, What's wrong? What happens? They don't produce any fruit. Or let me say this, the Word doesn't hang around long enough to produce the fruit in their lives, because it is the Word that produces the fruit. It's not them, it's the Word. So here's what happens. They're on stony ground who, when they have heard the Word, immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time. This is a temporary, I would say like a temporary conversion or a false conversion in that it does not last. It happens for a time, but they have no root. And afterward, when affliction or persecution arises, for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. I know people like this. I've watched people come in out of this church. From a boy, I've watched people come in out of this church. And they'll receive the word, they'll think it's great. Preacher preaches on something that, I mean, it just gets in their craw and it makes them mad and they don't believe it. They don't believe what the Bible says and they're out. And they say, you know what, I ain't going back, that's a bunch of nonsense. I know a man, if I said the name, some of you would know who I'm talking about. He started, the preacher, him and his wife, they started going to this church. Preacher got to him, he said, and he finally came to the altar, made a decision for the Lord. What his problem was, he was intellectual. He had a lot of head knowledge. The preacher, after about a year, preached a message on the creation in Genesis chapter 1. He said it happened in the Bible exactly the way it happened 6,000 years ago in six days. That man walked out of that church, got into an argument with the pastor, said, there's something wrong with you. Nobody believes that. That's against science. And I ain't going to sit for that kind of nonsense. Out the door he went. Listen, I'm not preaching this to be everybody's judge. And do not take anything that I preach out of here as a judgment post against somebody that you know. Don't you ever use the scripture that way. Amen? It is not our place to decide who goes to heaven, who goes to hell. Whose hand is that in? That's in God's hand. Okay? But God has parameters. God has laws, just like I was talking about this morning. God has written them down and they're not to be violated. That man died a few years later. I don't know where he is. I'm just being honest. The testimony that I heard about his life was he rejected what God said after first accepting it. You have to ask yourself, do you know somebody like that? Okay? Then we have verse 18. These are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word, that cares of this world, and deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things, and erring in, choke the word, and becometh unfruitful." This is the word that was sown among thorns. You've heard me talk about thorns. I've preached on it many times. Thorns represent sin, sinfulness. They represent sin nature that's in a man. And there are people who will let sin take over. They'll let it. They decided, I had a good friend in Bible college. I mean, we were close. And he used to reel off all the things that he used to do back in the days. He used to do a lot of drugs. He used to sleep with a lot of people. And I mean, this and that. I mean, he used to just talk about that all the time. Boy, I'm glad I'm saved. And after we parted company, I didn't hear nothing from him for a long time. Finally, another friend of mine said, you know what happened to him, don't you? And I said, no. He said, he's moved down. He's a sodomite. He's got him a boyfriend. We were close. Not that close. But we were close. And I thought I knew him. I knew that he struggled with the flesh. I did not know it was that bad. When I first got on Facebook, I looked him up, and there he was. And I friended him, hoping maybe I'd be able to talk to him. And here a while back when the Supreme Court came out on this decision for gay marriage, he pretty much settled in his mind whose side he was going to be on. He said, I'm glad now that I can get married to who I want to. Thorns. You know what they did? See, he has decided that the Word of God is not relevant to him in that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's what he decided. And he decided that on the basis of his own lust rather than the truth of the word of God. Okay? But then we have group number four. That number four always points you to heaven. It's always the gospel. He said, verse 20, These are they which are sown in good ground, such as hear the word and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some hundred. God is not judging you on how little fruit or much fruit you're bearing. If you can pop out one grape Amen. Paul, Paul talked about running the race. He didn't say anything about us having to be first. He just said, run it. Amen. And what finish it. What's the last thing Paul said on this earth to Timothy? I've finished the what course I've kept the see Paul knew it. Paul knew it and Paul believed it. You don't have a story in the Bible of any of the apostles or any of these guys who first believed and then they walked out and the Bible said, yeah, but they still went to heaven. That does not exist. God finds good ground. If you just stop and think about this for a minute, God finds good ground in the place where there's the most dead corruption. How many of you think God found some really nasty, rotten, filthy, scummy, stinking, corrupt mess to sow some seed in? My dad used to pride himself on his tomato plant. My dad was a gardener. But I can tell you the healthiest tomato plants we ever had was in our dog pen. We used to throw scraps over there and sure enough, a volunteer tomato plant come up and it grew up along the sides of the dog pen that we had. It looked healthy. We weren't going to touch it with a 10-foot pole, amen? But it did well every year, all right? I'm just saying, God finds good ground in some of the worst people that there is. You know why? Because these people, God knows how to keep them humble, doesn't He? God knows how to remind you every now and then of who you really are. Just enough now to keep your knees bent and your eyes leaking and your heart lifted up to heaven. And who's doing that? Who's doing that for you? God is. I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe in God's keeping ability. I believe in God's preservation. But He preserves those who put their trust in Him. If you don't believe that, I just quoted a scripture. I just quoted a verse. I think I messed up a little bit. Somebody look that up. It's in the Psalms. He preserveth them who put their trust in Him. Something like that. You look that up while the rest of us go over here, alright? Now, He said, if you stand fast in the Lord. I have done several studies on my own, not for any particular broadcast, not for any particular tape or teaching or video that I'm doing, not to impress anybody, but I'm like everybody else. I grew up hearing eternal security. I grew up hearing free will. I heard both of them. I heard good sermons out of this church. I heard good sermons out of Second Baptist. I've been around. I've heard some good preachers on both sides preach some good messages. I have friends who are in different denominations, and we're buddies. We're close friends. Don't you try to pry me against any of my friends. I'll get mad at you. I have two men that I've asked to be a guardian over my mouth. And they don't attend this church. Two pastors, if I say the name, you'd probably say, and you might be able to guess who they are. One of them is a free will Baptist. One of them characterizes himself, I accused him one time of being an independent Baptist. He said, no, those guys are mean. Okay? He is a Bible-believing pastor. And I've sat down with both of them. After I did my study, I sat down with both of them independently, and I said, you're going to hear me out, let me tell you what I believe. And I ran through it. And both of them said, Mike, you got it right. You're dead on. Now, that in itself, those men are not the Word of God, and when I study to show myself approved, I'm not showing myself approved to them. My approval comes from God, but in the multitude of counselors, there's safety. I do not want to be a standalone where no one can tell me anything, no one can correct me. These two men have got my blank check permission to pick up the phone anytime and call me and say, Mike, you said something the other day and I want to hear you out because it didn't sound right. And that's what I asked them to do. I said, would you be a guardian over my mouth? Because when you get people writing you letters all the time and telling you how good you are and, oh, we listen to everything you do, that can go to a man's head, and I know that. I don't like it, but I know it. And here's how some preachers go wrong. They let that go to their head, and all of a sudden, they think they can start directing how the ship is going to be steered. And it becomes all about them and less about the Word of God. And God is my witness. You shoot me dead. Actually, you're going to need two or three witnesses before you pull the trigger. But if I ever start making it about me, somebody shoot me dead. Because I don't want that. Okay? So anyway, I'm not saying that I've got my certificate of approval from these men, therefore I'm right. I'm just saying I bounced it off some men. I said, hear me out, guys. Now tell me where I'm wrong. And they said, we don't think you are. Okay? So anyway, let's go through this if. Is there a condition on man's part for salvation? Calvinism would say God just picks people, whatever, they're saved whether they want to be or not. It takes out their free will. Calvinism says man has no free will. I talked about this morning in Sunday school. Man has a free will. John Calvin said that man is totally depraved and cannot make good choices. The flesh is totally depraved and does not make good choices. My soul, however, does. Okay, and that's what I believe. Calvin left out the essential part of man that survives this world. There is the other side that says, you must maintain your salvation, you must perform, you must do this to keep yourself saved. And if you do too many of the wrong things, you will lose your salvation. In some people's minds, their salvation is just hanging by a thread. And God is just waiting, looking for a reason to cut it off. That ain't right either. Because that takes out the fatherhood of Almighty God. God is my Father. Amen? He is my Father. And I won't get into all that. So, I had questions in my mind. God, which side here? Because I would read verses in the Bible that pointed to perseverance. Have you read those? We're going to read a bunch of them. I would read verses that pointed to preservation. And I'm going, that's the word of God. That's the word of God. So God helped me combine the two together. They're not oppositional. They work together. Let's look at it. Second Thessalonians 2.13, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Did you notice the two conditions there? Or the two things that God does to choose you to salvation. First of all, sanctification of the Spirit. That's what we believe. We believe that the Holy Spirit sanctifies and cleanses us. The second part is the belief of what? The belief of the truth. Do you believe that thy word is truth? Do you believe the word of God? So clearly, according to this, God has his part, and that is he sanctifies us, and our part is we believe the truth. But I want you to notice what comes before that. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. You know what that is? That's predestination. from the very, before God said in the beginning, God said, let there be light, before God even said any of that, He had, had my name, He had your name, had it all there. He knew, He knew who was going to be saved. He knew who was going to choose. He knew who was going to believe. He knew Jacob and Esau before they were ever born, before they ever did anything. And Paul made that clear. God chose one over the other before they did anything. And it was about the election of God. So clearly, God's not up in heaven with a list of who He thinks might make it, with a pencil end on one end and an eraser on the other, waiting to see how it turns out. Oh! They did five sins in a row. Gone. That's not how it works. God took and wrote the names down from the foundation of the world. How does God know that? He's God. If He doesn't know it, that's not the God I believe in. Okay? So anyway, I think the Bible teaches both. Now, Hebrews chapter 3, turn there. We have an example. And we're concentrating on the word, if. If. While you turn to Hebrews chapter 3, I'll run a little computer stuff at you. Back in 1982, my parents bought me a Commodore VIC-20 computer, plugged into the TV set, had a little cassette tape drive that we stored the programs on. It'd be funny to bring out one of those things and hand it to one of these kids to watch them go, what is this for? How come we can't swipe this? But I taught myself back then how to write programs because There was no programs out there. We used to get magazines and the companies would print programs in the magazines and we would sit and copy them out of the magazines. That's how I taught myself how to program this computer. And one of the instructions was called IF-THEN. And let's say that the computer was asking you to type in your age. And you typed in 30. The computer's got the thing blinking, and it's waiting for you to type in 30 years old. That computer was waiting on your instruction and your age. And when it found out your age, then there was all these different ways that the computer program would go based upon your age. And it was called IF THEN. If he says he's 30, then we're going to run this little set of programs. If they say they are 15, then we're going to run this set of programs. Does that make sense to everybody? It's if, then. Sterling, if you go and you're going to try to build something, you got some scrap lumber and you need something that's, I don't know, you need something that's 12 feet long, so you go to your scrap pile and you pick up a board. If this board is 12 feet or more, then I can use it. If it is 11 feet, 11 and three quarter inches. Can't use it. See how simple that is? If then. What we're seeing here in the Bible is if then. If this is true, then this is what happens. Hebrews 3 verse 8. Harden not your hearts. And by the way, the same preacher I heard this morning said, the Gospels, Peter, Hebrews Revelation and John is not for you. Don't read it. If he said that, then he's wrong. Amen. Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and sown my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart, and they have not known my way. So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren." Brethren? He's talking to brethren. Take heed, brethren, lest it be in you, in any of you, an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily. I believe in that, don't you? Why is this not for us? I need the exhortation. You need the exhortation. Amen? Exhort one another daily. You see somebody struggling? You see somebody not doing well? Pray for them. Call them. Send them a little card. Send them some little chat on Facebook or something like that. Hey, I'm praying for you today. Exhort them. They need it. He said, exhort one another daily. Oh, let's see. Exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of what? We've already seen that thorns can choke out the Word, can't they? By the way, thorns can alter the Word too. This is why preachers are not preaching right. They've got too many thorns in their life. They've got so much sin in their life that they want to hang on to their sin and yet think God is going to bless that. That's why we have sodomites being married inside of Christian churches because the thorns in the flesh of that minister choked out and altered the Word of God and put them together in there. But exhort one another daily, he said, verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast in the end, we are made partakers of Christ. It's if and then. Now let me tell you what this verse is not. This verse does not include the things that you do or do not do as far as sin or righteous deeds. It does not say if you have 30 straight years of Sunday school attendance. It does not say if you pay at least 10% of your income. It does not say if you read your Bible four times a week. It does not say anything like that. It does not say if you only lust after so many women per year, then you will make it. Does not say that. It uses the word confidence. The word confidence has the word fide in it. What word is that? Fidelity. Faithfulness. The Latin word for faith is fidelis. He said, if we hold the beginning of our confidence. Remember how you thought, you remember what went through your mind the day you got saved? Remember how you said to yourself, this is the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Remember that? Hang on to that. Because it's still the best thing that ever happened to you. Amen. It will always be the best thing to ever happen to you. But you know what happens, don't you? Some people start looking at it like, this is the stupidest thing I ever did in my life. If we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast in the end. While it is said today, if, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. Now we're talking about stoning ground, aren't we? Look at that. These things match, people. This is not just random stray verses that I've just pulled out of thin air. They match and they harmonize with things that Jesus taught. Things you'll find in the Old Testament. Things you'll find Paul said, that Peter said, that John said, that James said, that Matthew said. These things harmonize together. He said, harden not your hearts. Don't turn them into stone. He said, if we hold fast at the beginning, confidence steadfast in the end, while it's said today, if you will hear his voice, harden out your hearts as in the propagation. For some, when they heard, did provoke. What is that propagation he's talking about? Does anybody know? He's referencing an Old Testament story. Which one is it? You're gonna need this information. Write this down. Numbers chapter 13. Does anybody know what that is? No? The Giants. They sent the 12 spies into the land of Canaan for 40 days. Those 12 spies came back. You've heard me teach on this. The 10 represent the 10 commandments. The 10 commandments will tell you, no, you're not going. You know what that is? Trying to think that you can obey the law and that will propel you into eternal life. Doesn't work. Didn't work for them, did it? It's not going to work for you either. So the ten come back and say, the sons of Anak are in there, their buildings are too high, we're in their sight as grasshoppers, there's no way in the world we can go in there. And everybody began to weep because they believed what the ten said. Caleb, who represented him and Joshua, the two, remember in the Old Testament there was ten commandments? In the New Testament there's, love the Lord your God, love your neighbor. The two came back and said, God said we could go in there, why don't we go? God's, listen, you know what God's gonna do? God's gonna make these people keel over and die as we walk up. Why don't we go in there, and you know what the Bible says? You read that chapter, you know what the Bible says? He had a different spirit in him than the other ten. What does that tell you? What does that tell you? That's, you all right there? We're having a Holy Ghost revival. The day the wasp went to church, okay? Here's what I'm saying to you. This story, this doctrine, the doctrine of salvation was based upon what the Israelites did. God used them to teach us a lesson. They started, didn't they? They all left Egypt, didn't they? I've seen a lot of people do that. And I've seen a lot of people turn around and head back to Egypt. By the way, what did God do to the people? who wanted to turn back and go to Egypt. Well, in one case, the ground opened up. And again, saying of Korah, ground opened up, swallowed them all. In this particular case here, what happened with every one of them? They died in the wilderness, never going in. Only two got to go in. Two people who left Egypt. are the only ones who lived long enough to go into the promised land. You see, that gate is small, isn't it? That road is straight and narrow, isn't it? These are the two who held steadfast their belief. God rewarded that. Now, did God know when he pulled all of those people out of Egypt, what they would do in the wilderness? He wouldn't be God if he didn't. Because remember, the things that Paul here writes in Hebrews are merely things that were written before time. Because forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. These are not doctrines that God is figuring out along the way how to get people by. These are principles that God has from eternity to eternity. He said, I am the Lord thy God. I change not. That's what He said. So He said, Hard not your hearts, as in the propagation, for some, when they heard, did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that has sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believe not? So we see that they could not enter in because of one thing and one thing only, unbelief. Now, let me go back just for a minute in the story of Israel. By the time they sent the spies in, Israel had already been at the base of Mount Sinai. And while Moses was getting the Ten Commandments, Israel was breaking them. Did God cast His people out for being sinners? He cast them out for unbelief. Write that down in your heart, people. Write that down in your heart. Your flesh is incurable. It's incurable. You're not going to make it from here to eternity without sinning. If that were the case, Solomon would not have been called a holy man of God who spake as he was moved by the Holy Ghost. Because I got in my mind probably the Old Testament Solomon was the worst testimony of God in the entire world as far as Old Testament was concerned. And yet God said, I'll always have mercy on him. How many of you know for a fact that up until this very day, God has had nothing but unchanging, unwavering mercy on your soul? That never changes. But some people's faith does. And that's clear. So, in preaching this message, in preaching this series of messages, we put it out on the internet, we let everybody hear it. There are some who troll my mouth, waiting for me to say things they don't agree with. And they're going to jump on it. I guarantee you they're going to. I don't really care. Because I know what this book says. And I had a preacher one time, he said, Mike, you're always going to find that there's preachers out there who, if you don't hammer your doctrine on their anvil, you're never going to be accepted by them. So I just figured, I'm just going to study to show myself approved unto God. Whether people believe that or not, I can't help it. Okay? I'm not trying to be hard or anything like that. But they could not enter in because of unbelief. So the ifs here was, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, if we will hear His voice hard not as hard. That's the big if that I'm talking about. That matches what we saw back here in 1 Thessalonians 3. If. If. Here's another one. Romans 4.22. You can turn there. I'll give you about 2.8 seconds. Alright, Romans 4. Verse 22, therefore, he's talking about Abraham. It was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. In other words, how God treated Abraham was not just for Abraham. It was not just a dispensation in the days of Abraham. And God does it different in this dispensation that he did. He said it wasn't for him alone. It was for us. Why did God give righteousness to Abraham on the basis of what? His faith. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Who believes that? How could I deny that? It's like Jesus, John 6, 6, 6, when they all walked away, Jesus said, will you also walk away? And Peter said, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. That's where I am, people. I know who has the words of eternal life. Why would I go to somebody else? We believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. See how that if is, that one word if is important, means something. If then is the idea. If this, then that. So let me look at this. If we believe, we shall have His righteousness imputed to us. Did I say that right? If then, if we believe, then we have His righteousness imputed to us. All right? Now, Romans 8, verse 9. By the way, I've kind of clumped these together by books. We're in the Romans part right now. All right? And then, let's see here, we're in Romans, and then we'll be in 1 Corinthians, and we'll be in Galatians. I try to put it in order to make it easy on us, all right? Romans 8, 9. And there's three verses in Romans 8, so turn there. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Did you know that there are people in churches who fake gifts of the Holy Ghost? You believe that one? I do. They fake gifts of the Holy Ghost. They are saying, oh, I'm in the Spirit. Shambhala totoya. Tito Sasquatch. They fake gifts of the Spirit, and they say that they are in the Spirit. The Spirit of God does not dwell in them. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit... Now, let me kind of show you how this works. How is it we know that we have the Spirit of God in us? Do you believe the Bible? Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin in God. He said the words that I speak, they are the Spirit. So if you want to know if the Spirit is in you, is His Word in you? Is His Word in you? Do you realize this is final absolute authority? Romans 8, 11. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. So here again we have if and then. If the spirit of him that raised up Jesus, that same spirit will quicken your mortal bodies. So Jesus doesn't just have to die on the cross. He has to be raised from the dead. So if Jesus is raised from the dead, then we also are raised from the dead. Verse 17. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if. What's the if? What's it contingent on? If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. Christian life is a life of suffering. It's not your best life now. It's not how rich you can get. It's not how much things you can gain in this world. That is not Christianity. Christianity is suffering the loss of all things. Like Paul said, I count all things but loss. That's the Christian life. Amen. If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. Romans 10 turn there. And I got just a couple more passages in Romans and then we'll call it a night. I want to get you out of here before dark. Okay. Yeah. Romans 10. Look at there. That clock is finally right. We waited all summer for this. Romans 10, 9. This is a verse we all know, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. We use that when we're talking to somebody about Jesus, don't we? It's an if. If was 1 John 1, 9 said, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. Unless you believe that God forgives sins that you don't want Him to forgive. Amen? There are some people who disregard sins in their life. They have some idea that what they're doing is not wrong, and they don't want God to forgive them of anything because they don't think they did anything wrong. They treat other people that way too, by the way. It's not just God. They'll treat you that way. They'll do whatever wrong they feel like doing, and when you think they ought to repent, they don't think they did anything wrong, so I don't think I have to. That's a bad attitude, amen? I would not want to take that and go stand before God with it, amen? I would not want to look at God and say, God, well, God, what you're accusing me of, I did it, but I don't think it's wrong. Whew. Boy, that's going to be hell's hot, amen? So he said, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Let me show you how that works. Here's a man on a cross who's on one side of Jesus, and he says, Lord, Somebody help me. Help me! Lord, remember me. He said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You know what the first thing out of his mouth was? Lord. He confessed that Jesus was Lord. The second thing he said was he already believes that Jesus is going to have a kingdom even though he sees Jesus now just minutes away from death himself. He already believes he's going to raise from the dead. There's your evidence right there. That man's in heaven. And he's up there going, you guys come on up, it's nice. Amen? I'll do this again if it means coming to heaven again. Amen? He said, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised from the dead, thou shalt be safe. And there's a wacko on YouTube, hates my guts, and he says this is not for us. He says prayer is a work, and he accuses me of that. I'm preaching work salvation because I tell you, you have to ask God to forgive you your sins. I almost turned into him there for a second. Because he is, I mean, he is loud and hateful and arrogant and he uses filthy language. I won't tell you what he called me. But he says that I teach a work salvation because I tell you if you want God to forgive your sins, you ask! Amen? And I've heard preachers, I've heard preachers who say they believe the King James Bible say, well, I'm saved, I don't have to repent of my sins anymore. You know what I think? I think they probably don't. You show me someone who walks around thinking they don't have to tell God they're sorry anymore. I won't tell you what I think about them because I ain't their judge. But I guarantee you there ain't hardly a day goes by that I'm not telling God I'm sorry about something. I don't even believe that doctrine concerning me and my wife. I don't treat my wife that way. If I think I've done something, honey, I'm sorry. I don't treat her that way, and I don't treat my God that way. Let me hear you say amen. Romans 11, 6. If by grace, then it is no more of works. See that if? It's an if and then. If it's by grace, then it is not of works. This same man, and I love this man. I like him. He preaches some things that are good. But he has got this idea that some people back in the Old Testament were saved by works. He's got this idea that some people in the future are going to be saved by works. I cannot sign that. I cannot agree to that. I cannot go with this man. I cannot preach at his church. There's no way in the world he and I are in agreement. Because if it is by grace, then it is no more of works. It's as simple as that. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. And you know what he said? He said that this morning. You know what he said? Now, there's an element of grace in all of the works of salvation that God does. I'm just shaking my head. Look at what it says right here. If it's grace, it's no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. You cannot have a works salvation with a little grace in it. Doesn't exist. But if it be works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Romans 11, 21. For if... Now this is where it kind of gets into it, Romans 11. You go study Romans 11 this week. That's your homework. Romans 11, 21. He's talking about the Jews and the Gentiles and the olive tree. The olive tree is Christ. Everybody agree with that? Say Amen. Okay? What were, who were we? Wild. We weren't part of the, we didn't have the oracles that God gave to us. We didn't have a tabernacle in the wilderness. Our fathers were not fed manna. We're wild. And God reached down to the husband and he took and notched us a little bit and he notched the tree. That's how you graft, isn't it? You notch that tree. That tree's got to have a wound in it. That's good, isn't it? Puts that down in there, binds it in there. And now all of a sudden, that branch is no longer receiving all that wild junk. It's getting that good stuff. That's good, isn't it? Who did he have to take off to put you in? the real olive branches. Why did he take them off? Belief. Unbelief. And he said, if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Because anybody who's ever done any grafting knows that sometimes it don't work. Sometimes that branch rejects it. It's just like when they put somebody else's organ in somebody's body. We can do that now. We can graft in a heart or a kidney or whatever. Some people can take it. Some people can't. So he says, If, and then Romans 11, 22, Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God on them which fail severity, but toward thee, goodness, if. if thou continue in His goodness. And you'll hear me say this until I die. Bible salvation is continuing faith. That's what it is. Continuing in the faith. Don't give up. Otherwise, thou shalt also be cut off. Alright, let's stand. I'll go ahead and dismiss you. I want you to study Romans. Romans 11. Think about it. Pray about it. Meditate on it. Write me up a report, but don't give it to me because I probably won't read it. I believe the Bible. And God did not call me to champion somebody's ism. He did not. He called me to get everybody to get a Bible out. If you're listening to this online and you're so mad at me you cannot even see straight because you think I'm dead wrong, I dare you to open your Bible up. because that's all I wanted you to do to begin with.