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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.
Sunday Night 11-1-15
| Sermon ID | 1131516210 |
| Duration | 57:53 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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