Welcome to the Princess Chapel Church in Ashland, Kentucky. We thank you for joining us today, and we pray that the message blesses and edifies you. We invite you to share God's word with your family and friends, and to join us for praise and worship in our sanctuary at Asheville, Kentucky. Thank you once again for joining us, and may God richly bless you and your family. I'm going to preach a message this morning that is one of these messages that really I'd rather not preach. I know I'm not trying to get fired. This is a message that's been on my heart since Thursday. And questions have been asked to me and questions have been asked and there is some There are some things that need to be better explained and better understood through and by, not by what Brother Doug says, not by what any church organization says, but by what the Word of God says. I'm going to preach this morning out of the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36. And the title of my message this morning is, A Work's Salvation That Works. Now, Proverbs 18.13 says, He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is a folly and a shame unto him. So, before you judge my mouth, try to judge my mind. And before you judge what you're hearing, try to judge my heart. Listen to the whole matter. You say, Brother Doug, do you really believe in a work of salvation? Yes, I do. One hundred percent. Because the Bible teaches it. A works salvation that works. You say, but Brother Doug, Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, but not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Friends, I'm going to preach this morning a message called A Works Salvation That Works. It's something you need to understand. It ain't you doing the working. It ain't you doing the works. I'm going to preach out of the Old Testament this morning, the book of Ezekiel chapter 36. And leading up to this text in Ezekiel chapter 36, we have the children of Israel are about to one year away Judah. Judah went into captivity in 586 BC, was the total captivity of Judah. Adam, what's the date? Usher's timeline date in the center of your page in your Schofield reference Bible, what date was this written? 587 B.C. Judah went into captivity in 586 B.C. God spoke unto Ezekiel the prophet and told him these things that was going to happen because of the sin and the wickedness and the transgressions of Israel. The judgment. of Israel, one year before it happened. God told him it was going to happen. But what God also said He was going to do, not only did He prophesy against Israel, the Son of Man, Ezekiel, but He prophesied for Israel. Now, I don't know if you realize this or not this morning, but we're Israel. We're not the nation of Israel. We're not the people of Israel. But we're of the seed of Abraham, by adoption. We have been grafted in. We're part of that family just as much as a natural-born, full-bred Jew is in Israel. As a matter of fact, we are more a part of the family, through and by the grace of God and the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, than a natural-born Jew who has never accepted Christ, because this prophecy that was written was to the whole nation of Israel. But right smack dab in the middle of this prophecy, see, God always has a remnant. He's always got a little group set aside of His elect, His chosen, those that are called out, those that are ordained and set aside before the foundation of the world. Do you remember what Isaiah 45 said this morning that Adam read in our memory verse? For Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name. I have surnamed thee when thou hast not known me. When you didn't know Him, He was already naming you when you didn't know Him before you was even born. God had already had your life preordained, established, and set your paths. Now it's up to you, through and by your sovereign free will that God has given you, what choice you're going to make. Whether to travel on the providential road of God, or whether to travel on the permissive will of God. But we see how Israel had gone off track They had went into an apostate state, and Ezekiel the prophet prophesied against the nation of Israel. He told them. He said, these are the things that's going to happen. You're going to go into captivity. You're going to be put in bonds and chains and taken off into a foreign land. Daniel the prophet prophesied the same thing. Jeremiah the prophet prophesied the same thing. And Jeremiah prophesied a second coming away. But God said, because of your wickedness, your vileness, and your transgressions, and your sin, I will bring again the captivity of my people. Now, they were in captive once already down in Egypt. But now they're about to be in captivity again. The nation of Babylon for Judah would take them into captivity, and the nation of Assyria for the northern kingdom Israel would take them into captivity one year before King Nebuchadnezzar came down and he bound up these people. One year, Ezekiel warned them. But you know what? Thank God, through and by His grace, there's a good side to every story. Okay? God said, this is what's going to happen. It's forever settled in heaven. It's settled. It's done. But God said, I want to show you the good things that are going to happen. In Ezekiel 36, verse 22, the Bible said that Ezekiel wrote, this is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in Ezekiel 36, verse 22, He said, therefore, I say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy namesake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whether ye went. I will. Sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes." Verse 24, "'For I will!' Take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and I will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Will I cleanse you? Verse 26, a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit. will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statues and ye keep My judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleanliness. I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations, not for your sakes I do this, saith the Lord God." Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, our Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning for your word. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for the right and the freedom and the privilege, Lord, but most of all, God, for the desire. to assemble in the house of worship. Lord God, I thank You, Lord, for this inspired and fallible written Word, and I ask You, Lord, to bless the reading of Your Word. Anoint my lips with clay, Lord God. Lord, help me speak in a way that can be understood, Lord, and not misunderstood, Lord Jesus. Lord, I ask You, Lord, to anoint our hearts and our minds and our ears, Lord, that we might be open to Your Word, for it is alive, Lord. Have your spirit bear witness with our spirit this morning, Lord God. I invite you into this sanctuary, Lord God, to anoint all of us, Lord, that we may know what this text is trying to tell us this morning. For it's in Christ's name I pray, and amen. There is something that caught my attention in these short eleven verses, and I came up with the title of A Work Salvation That Works, because it ain't us doing the work. God said, I will. God said, I will. God said, I will. God said, I will. It is God doing all of the work. Not only for Israel, for the Bride of Jehovah, but for the Bride of the Church, the Lord Jesus Christ, and those two have been merged, by the way, just in case you're confused on the elect of Israel and the New Testament Church, they have been merged. Okay? They've been made one. The blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat, and when Jesus got up out of the grave on resurrection morning, the saints of God that slept in paradise woke up, and they arose too, and now to be absent from the body is to be present from the Lord. So there's no difference between not the nation of Israel, but the elect of Israel. And there's a lot of people that don't understand election. You mention election to a Methodist or a Pentecostal or a Baptist or somebody that really don't know that much about the Scriptures, oh, they know a lot about tradition. They know a lot about customs. They know a lot about what Memo and Pepo said and what they've been taught. But they don't know what God said about it. But when you start talking about election, they think they're going to go to the polls and get to cast a vote. But this election has nothing to do with us. It has to do with the sovereign foreknowledge of God. And what God has said here for the nation of Israel, He is talking to the elect of Israel, not the whole nation. He said He's going to take the whole nation into captivity, did He not? You see, when there was a flood upon the earth, was not the whole earth flooded and destroyed with water? But the elect was saved. How many was elect? Only eight. God always has Himself a remnant. So within the nation of Israel, God has a group of elect that He has preordained from the foundation of the world, from His sovereign foreknowledge, that are elect, and God said, I will work, and who's going to stop me? Isaiah 43, verse 13. God does the work. And this this morning is a work salvation that will work, friends, because it's all by the grace of God. And I want to show you something this morning. It's because we say, we preachers preach the gospel because Paul tells us it is the power of God and the salvation to whosoever believe it. The Jew first and also to the Greek. We cannot save a fly. We can't save anything because it's God that does the work. I can lead somebody to Christ. I can point them in the right direction, but I can't save them. I can't absolve them of their sin. I can't do anything. It's God that does the work of salvation, not man. And what he's saying down here to the children of Israel is, I will, I will, I will, I will. Are they doing anything? No. They've been profaned in the name of God. They've worshipped idols. Even His elect has done this. A lot. Oh, glory. I don't know where I'm going to go with this this morning, but I might preach for three or four hours on this, because we're talking about sovereignty now. We're talking about the sovereignty of God this morning. We're not talking about some little man-made tradition. We're not talking about some superstition or some ritual. We're not talking about a Bible tract that's got the Romans wrote on the back of it. Because that right there sends more people to hell than all the brothels and the beer joints and the strip clubs up and down this country. That little old prayer on the back of that tract. Why? Because there's been no calling of God. And all of a sudden they just quote a prayer, somebody pats them on the back, and they think they're going to heaven. But there's been no regeneration. God does the work in salvation. He does the work through and by regeneration. You must be born again. George Whitefield, 1770, 1780s, was a preacher. Boy, he could shuck the corn too, Adam. They said Benjamin Franklin went to one of his open air camp meetings in a tent and had to leave the meeting, walked one mile up the road, and could still hear George Whitefield preaching. One mile! That's 1,640 meters. That's 5,000, how many feet? 486? 286. Some of us came here ten feet away, but George Whitefield was preaching. You could hear that man preaching a mile away! Glory to God! And what was he preaching? They said, Mr. Whitefield, why do you preach on you must be born again? Because he said, there's still people here in this town that need to be born again. Regeneration, friends! That's salvation! It ain't reading something on a Bible track. It ain't getting patted on the back. It ain't saying, oh, you're good, you're fine, you're in. It's regeneration. It's being born again. That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, you must. Didn't say. Possibly, maybe. You must be born again. Words of Christ in red. John chapter 3. We pat people on the back. And we say, oh, you just be a good moral person and you'll be OK with God. Wrong answer. That ain't going to cut it. We say, oh, your mom and dad raised you up in church, so so you're fine. Oh, that sends a lot of people to hell, too. Do you know that? We've been brought up in church. We grew up in church. We've never been regenerated. We live and we die and we bust hell wide open because there's been no regeneration. Because it's been all about us working. It's been about our works. It's been about what we've done. And God's never worked because the regeneration process has never taken place. Because there's been no calling. There's been no drawing. There's been no conviction. And there's been no sincerity of the heart. with that little prayer on the back of that Bible track. You see, I'd walk up and down this street, John, and go to Walmart, and I'd pass out fifty of these tracts. And if I was a betting man, I'd say I'd get at least ten people to repeat that prayer out of fifty. Does that mean those ten people are going to heaven? Maybe one out of the ten. What was Jesus' odds? Did not He heal ten lepers? And they all went back and there was one came back and thanked Him for it. One out of ten was His odds. What makes you think I won't do any better? He said, did not I heal ten? Where are the nine? Where is the rest of the bunch? No regeneration. No regeneration, friends. You come to Sunday school. You go to youth group. You're in. You're alright. That sends people to hell too. Just keep the law. Be a good moral person. And you'll be alright. You'll get in. Friends, you couldn't keep the law if you tried. You know why? Because every single one of us already has broken it. And because we're guilty of one, we're guilty of it all. That's what the Bible says. You say, Brother Doug, how do you know? The Bible says it. That's why. You see, faith is hard to get the rational mind and the logical mind to understand God, because it's all unfaith. Logic and our reason rejects us and makes us want to reject that which is of faith, because you can't see it. But I want to show you this morning, church, I want to show you a worked salvation that will work. And it's the only way to heaven. Now, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That's talking about our works. That's talking about what we do, what we try to work for, what we try to merit, and what we try to earn. but it's not us doing the work. It was the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary that brings us all in to the family of God. It's the shed blood of the Lamb that forgives us and washes away our sins. It's the Holy Ghost of God that comes in and baptizes us into the body of Christ and moves in and takes up ownership in our temple, in our vessel, in our body, and makes us walk right, live right, Act right and talk right. It's the Holy Ghost. It's the work of God. It ain't us. It's God's work. And what did He say to the house of Israel? To the chosen? To the elect? To the anointed of Israel? He said, I will. I will. Glory to God, I will. He's the one doing all the work, Ted. I will sanctify. I will take you. I will sprinkle. I will give you a new heart. I will put my spirit. I will save. Glory. It ain't Brother Doug. It ain't the Pope. It's God. The only salvation that brings about regeneration. You say, Brother Doug, what's regeneration? Regeneration is being born again, being made a new creature in Christ Jesus. All the former things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Whatsoever you eat or you drink, do it all for the glory of God. That's what being regenerated is. That's how you know the difference between a possessor and a professor. Yeah. That's God's work, Adam. That's salvation. by grace through faith, not of yourselves, lest any man should boast." What did he say about Father Abraham? He said, Father Abraham was justified by faith, without works. He said, if he was justified by works, then he'd have boasting rights. That's what the Bible said, isn't it, Romans? He said, if Abraham was justified by works, then he'd have boasting rights. He said, Paul said, where's boasting then? That we're not justified by deeds of the law or by works, but we're justified by faith. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God's work. You say, well, Brother Doug, I had to work. That faith made me work. That was my faith. Glory to God, that was my faith. No, we're going to get there, because that wasn't even your faith that saved you. Now we're really going to get into some high ways, but I have to go here with this because when God lays something on your heart since Thursday and Ted, I called Ted, I talked to different people. I said, I've tried reading other stuff. I'm trying to get this off of my mind, but I've got to preach this. Because of traditions and customs and rituals, we send people to hell. because of their unbelief, because we've established in them a false hope, a false hope that they're okay and everything's going to be all right. Salvation? You got it. Don't worry about it. Mom and Daddy had it, so you must going to get it. You've got to have it. Friends, if you ain't heeded the call of God with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and there's been no conviction, no conversion, you can't be converted without conviction. You can't come into the family unless you've been invited into the family. You've got to be invited. You ain't going to crash God's party. I guarantee that. You've got to heed the call. You're not going to bust through the doors and say, honey, I'm home, or I'm here. No, you've got to be invited. Oh, my sheep. My sheep, hear my voice. Yeah, they know the voice. I am the good shepherd, and my sheep hear my voice. And I call my own sheep, His own sheep now, by name. You say, Brother Doug, the Bible says, Whosoever will. Amen, it does. And He calls every man. He calls everybody. At least once. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up. And Jesus said, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men, all men, all men unto Me. What did John the Baptist say? Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin, the sin of the world. All of it. All of it. He died for all the sin. He died for every man. And Jesus said, Whosoever will. But now I'm going to go somewhere this morning that might blow your socks off. And if you want to fire me, that's alright. A works salvation that works, because it's not our works. It's God doing the work. Ezekiel 36, 22 and 23. Let's read those two verses. Therefore, I say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy namesake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whether ye went. I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes." God does the first act of work of regeneration. You know how He does it? What did He say He was going to do? He said that He was going to sanctify. You see, God works in the labs of the regenerated by sanctification. And it's God doing the sanctification. It's God doing the cleaning up. You say, well, Brother Doug, he's speaking to the house of Israel here, the nation who had just been told that they were going to captivity, and they would be taken in bondage by Babylon, by King Nebuchadnezzar, that, oh, by the way, only happened twelve months after this was written. If you have a Schofield reference Bible, you will see that they did Usher. Usher did his timeline. And when Usher did his timeline, he put the date of the writing. Right up here in the margin on the Schofield Reference Bible. That tells you that this writing was conducted on 587 B.C. was when Ezekiel wrote this. But glory to God, what happened on 586 B.C.? Just a year later, a year closer to the cross, here come Babylon, here come King Nebuchadnezzar, and brought down into captivity the house of Israel. Even the elect. that was mixed in with that house. They even took the elect down there. Was not Daniel elect? Was not Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego part of the elect? Ya boy! You see, when it rains on the just, it rains on the unjust as well. When Hurricane Katrina hit, there was a lot of Christians lost their homes. There was a lot of Christians that had to pack up and move out. God is no respecter person. I want to show you by God works in the regenerated, by sanctified. He said, and this is what got me. And this right here was the clincher. This right here was the clincher for Brother Doug. This right here is what opened my eyes to some bigger and better things about the sovereignty of God. He said he does this not for your sakes. Now, who's he talking to here? He's talking to the house of Israel. He's been prophesying against the whole nation of Israel, but now all of a sudden that he said, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will work. I will sanctify. I will cleanse. I will bring you out. I will give you the land. And I will save. God said this. But who's he talking to now? That was the clincher for Brother Doug. You see, now he ain't talking to the whole house of Israel in these eleven verses. Who's he talking to? Let's look at this. The Holy Spirit led me to study that Hebrew word, name. That Hebrew word, name, in verse 22. Because there was something that caught my attention in that word, name. That word, name, has an apostrophe after it. Now, that apostrophe means ownership. Well, I saw that. Ownership. He said, for my holy namesake. Now, if it had been just God, He said, for my holy namesake. Namesake. Not names sake. You see what I'm saying, church? But we can't just go with that, because this is an English translation. What have we got to do? Well, you've got to get your Strong's exhaustive concordance out, you've got to look that word up, and you've got to see what the original intent of the authorship in Hebrew meant. And glory to God, that's what I did, Adam. And I'm glad I've done it too. Because this is what I learned last night. The word names, ownership with the apostrophe used in Ezekiel 36.22 is word. 8-0-3-4 in your strong concordance. And the word pronounced in Hebrew is shame. That's how they say name in Hebrew. Shame. What's your shame? That's your name. And you know what that means? That means the mark of individuality or a name. In this context, it is used from the prime root word, 776, which is the word Seem. S-E-E-M is how it's pronounced in the Hebrew. And when I saw this, oh, Lord, it blessed my soul. Because who's he talking to now? I looked that word up in the Hebrew dictionary and saw what it meant. Are you all ready for this? This is what he said, he's going to work, right? It's a work salvation that'll work. God said, I will cleanse, I will sanctify, I'll sprinkle with water. God said, I'll bring you out, I'll give you the land. And God said, I will save. Has God ever broke a promise? Uh-uh. He can't lie, Adam. The word, y'all ready for this? Buckle your seatbelts. Alright, hold on. The word, seam, means? In Ezekiel 36.22, it means to appoint, to bring, to call, to change, to charge, to commit, to determine, to get, to give, to heap up, and to hold, to impute, to name, to ordain, to place, preserve, purpose, and reward. One word means all of that. His name's sake. So who's He talking to? Who's He doing it for? He ain't doing it for Israel. Not as a nation. He's doing it for his namesake. Who's his namesake? Anybody in here got a namesake? Anybody in here have somebody named after him? I got a new name written down in glory, and it ain't mine, because Jacob, for my servant in Israel, my elect, when you didn't know me, I was naming you. His name sank. God said, I'll work. I'm the one doing the work here, big boy. It ain't you. The works of salvation, doing by regeneration, is done by God. Not by man. It's God doing the work. And He does the work of regeneration through, first of all, by sanctification. It means a work of salvation that will work. You say, Brother Doug, He said He's going to sanctify, right, dear boy? He's going to sanctify. We don't clean ourselves up and come to God. We come to God, turn our life over to Him. We heed the call. We heeded the call. Well, Brother Doug, I heeded the call, so I worked. No, you didn't have anything in you to make you want to heed the call. You think it was your faith that got you saved? You think it was you coming down to an altar of prayer that got you saved? No. Who gave you what you needed to be saved? Hello? Because the Bible said, for all have sinned. and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that doeth good. And there is none that seeketh understanding. And then it even goes down in a verse later, and it closes that verse up, and Paul said again, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. But what makes us be drawn What makes us be called? It's that sovereign foreknowledge of God that He knew before the foundation of the world, and He predestined us, and He throws down a little bit of that irresistible grace. And we just can't help ourselves, Adam. You say, now, Brother Doug, I don't believe that. It's Bible. It's Bible, church. It ain't tradition. It's Bible. Irresistible grace! You cannot resist the grace of God if you are part of His elect. For it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, and there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone, out of the way. They all together become unprofitable, and there is none that do it good. No, not one. Glory to God, God comes in, God calls, He draws, God convicts, and God does the conversion. God comes in and makes a new creature, and He cleans you up. And it don't stop there with salvation. It's an ongoing process every day. Paul said, I die daily. He dies out to the flesh. He dies out to sin daily. You see, you can't just get saved and then think you're going to go out and be able to do whatever you want to do, because I've got news for you. If you think that, and you believe that, regeneration has not occurred, and there's no salvation, and it was your works, and not God's work, and therefore, it's the salvation that won't work. But when God does the work, it's the salvation that works. Glory! It's His work! If you're not sanctified this morning, if you make it a profession in Christ, and there's no evidence of sanctification, then you're lost. You're lost. All it is, is lip service. Next point. God does the work. Look in verse 25, I'm sorry, verse 24. He said, I will take you from among the heathen. He will take us from among the heathen. And he said, I will sprinkle with clean water. You say, what's this, Brother Doug? God works in the regenerated by separation. You've been sanctified by God. But you know what? You're going to be separated too. You're going to come out from among them and touch not the unclean thing. He's going to take you out from among the heathen. You've been sanctified. You're a new creature in Christ Jesus. And what's He going to do there? What did He say He's going to do? He said, I'm going to sprinkle. He said, I'm going to sprinkle. I'm going to sprinkle you with clean water. Ted, what makes you want to come to church? What makes you want to come to church? You ever think about it? Helen, what makes you want to come to church? Adam, what makes you want to come to church? Is it the goodness in us? It ain't. There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. And there is none that's good. No, not one. It's the sovereign grace of God. God puts that in you. God gives that desire to you. God gives that desire to you to read your Bible, to be sprinkled with the clean water, to be sanctified. God gives you that desire to want to come ye out from among them and be a separated people. Thus saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. It ain't your works. It's God that's done the work down inside of you. Because He said, I will. I will! I will! And I will! And if there's no evidence of sanctification, if there's no evidence of separation, then you are lost! Because it's your works and not the work of God. Next point. Verse 26. A new heart also will I give you. And a new spirit will I put within you." Oh, God works in the regenerated by what? By the Spirit. You say, Brother Doug, how do I know I'm saved? His Spirit will bear witness with your spirit that you know that you are children of God. He said, He said, if you sin, God chastises those that are His. In other words, if I go out and I do wrong, now don't take this the wrong way, but if I made a profession of faith in Christ, and I go out and I do ill will against my brother, and the Holy Spirit don't wear me out for that, and I'm without chastisement, then the Bible says, you're a bastard, and you're not mine. That's what God said. That ain't what Brother Doug said. That's what God said. If you are without chastisement, you're a bastard. And you don't belong to God. Why? You've never been regenerated. It's only been lip service. It's only been lip service. We got a man then in the Bible that talked the talk for three and a half years. But he never did walk the walk. But he talked real good. A lot of lip service. The Spirit. Ephesians 1, 13. The Bible says, in whom you are so trusted. Now that whom, in whom is Jesus, the great I Am. And that trusted is faith, belief, total confidence, total submission. in whom ye also trusted, that after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Sealed with the Holy Spirit. You know what that means? That means the Holy Ghost comes in and takes up ownership. He said, it's my house now. Get out, devil. For you are not your own. You are bought with a price. Every one of us in here is saved by grace through faith. That heeded the calling that has been regenerated, regenerated, and let God done the work. But we're not our own. We are bought with a price. God will move His Spirit in. The Bible said in Romans 8, verses 14 through 17, he said, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. You see, when you were out in sin, you was in fear. You was in bondage. He was a slave to the taskmaster of sin, and to Satan's whip. But God freed you, and He said, you've been born again. You've been given the Spirit of God. For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption. Remember I told you we had the same rights and privileges as the elect of the house of Israel. The elect of the house of Israel was the bride of the Father. The New Testament Church is the bride of the Savior. But they were all merged, Ted. They were all brought into one. And at the judgment seat of Christ, I'll be standing there right next to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Right next to Solomon. Right next to King David. to Adam and Abel, I will be there, because we're all in the family of God, because we were foreordained from the foundation of the world, and we heeded the call of God. You say, Brother Doug, I heeded the call of God, so therefore it was my work. No, it wasn't your work. God put His Spirit down inside of you to bring you into the family of God. For there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. Now, I've heard preachers say, well, you ain't supposed to baptize somebody two times. That's wrong. Glory to God, Susie, if you want to get baptized forty-eleven times, it's alright with me, because that ain't what that verse is talking about. One Lord, one faith, and one baptism. What is that? That's where the Holy Ghost baptizes you into the body of Christ, and makes you a part of the family of God, and seals you until the day of redemption, for you're not your own, you're bought with a price. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers, in verse 28. And you shall be my people and I will be your God. I saw something else in here, I didn't even make a point out of it. The safety. God works in the life of the regenerated believer. In safety. Not just in sanctification and separation and His Spirit, but in safety. He's going to protect us. He's going to fight for us. Last point in closing. You can know you're saved. You can know you've been regenerated if there's evidence of sanctification. You can know you've been regenerated if there's evidence. of separation. And you can know that God has done a work in your life. And there's evidence of salvation by regeneration if He has given you His Spirit. And He said right here, verse 29, I will also save you from all, all, all your uncleanness. And I will call for the corn. Now this is talking about His blessings after He saved us. God saved us. He's just going to continue to bless us. You know that? Look at the children of Israel. They was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. A typology of Jesus Christ. He said, take ye a lamb on the tenth day. Keep it up to the fourteenth day. On the night of the fourteenth, take the lamb. Slay the lamb. Take the blood and put it over the top and on the doorpost. By faith, they done that, Ted. But it wasn't their work. Who gave Him the faith to have the knowledge to do that? Who gave Him the faith to have the want to do that? Who gave it to Him? Who gave it to Him? For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast, it ain't your work, and you didn't have it in you to start with. God said He's going to save. Now how's He going to save? Romans 3, 24, 26 is being justified freely by His grace. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His Righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, Apostle Paul said, Glory to God. It ain't me, boys. To declare, I say, this time His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier on Him which believeth in Jesus. To declare His righteousness because He's the justifier and He's the judge. He's the judge. He's the only one doing the work in true salvation. He's the only one that brings about regeneration. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. They all three play a part. You all heard me say it? God the Father thought it, the Holy Ghost wrought it, and God the Son bought it. Well, I like it. I taught it and the devil fought it. Glory to God. Romans 3, 27-28. He said, by His righteousness, right? What did God say in Ezekiel 36? I will work. I will. I will. I will. I will sanctify. I will cleanse. I will bring you in. I'll take you out. I'll separate you from among the heathen. I'll sprinkle you. I will save. But He ain't talking, church, to the whole nation of Israel. He's talking to His namesake. That's who He's talking to in those short 11 verses. He's talking to His namesake. Those through His sovereign foreknowledge that He has seen down through the shadows of time, through eternity past, present, and future, and all eternity, that He said, they will choose Me. So therefore, by them choosing Me, I will predestine them. I will predestine them to be glorified into the image of My Son. Those He foreknew, He did predestine. Those He predestined, He called. Those He called, He justified. And those He justified didn't say, if they live it or work it or do good, He'll glorify. He said, He glorified. Where is boasting then? Is it excluded? By what law? Works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Wherefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without deeds of the law. Justification by faith. You say, Brother Doug, well, see, it was my faith. I did the work. I knew we was going to come here. That's why I keep leading you all on to this. It was me. It was my faith. So I had to do a little something. I did a little bit of work. Say this in closing. No, no, no. Don't confuse yourself with silly traditions and superstitions of man. It was not your faith that saved you. Romans 12, 3. The Bible says, and if you think it was, you fall into this verse right here, big boy. Right here is where you belong. Right here in this verse. For I say through the grace given unto me, that every man is among you. Not to think more highly of himself than he ought to, but to think soberly according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. What you needed to be saved, God gave you before He called you, because you were foreknown from the foundation of the world. And He gave you the grace and the faith that it took to be saved. And He said, I'll keep you. And He said, I'll preserve you because I love you, because you are My namesake. Chosen, called, named, ordained, held up, purposed, preserved, and rewarded. Glory. I could preach another hour. But I can't, because you all would get mad. But do you understand the sovereignty of our God? He loves us. He's powerful. It don't matter what the devil tries. We've already won. In Christ alone. No other way. It's because of His grace. Paul said, I declare His righteousness. I'm His and He is mine. What I've got belongs to Him. What He's got belongs to me. Why? I'm His namesake. I'm His namesake. I'm an heir of God. I'm His namesake. And I'm a joint heir with Jesus Christ. All this regeneration, God does the work, not us. And when He does it, He imputes upon us His righteousness of Jesus Christ. And we can declare, like Paul said, His righteousness. Now turn with me, if you would, to Romans 8. I'm going to read this one verse and close. I promise I'll hush. I've got to read this one verse. Because it don't matter who says what about me, Brother Bill. They can bad mouth me. They can talk about me all up and down this land and country. They can say I've done this, that, and the other. They can accuse me of whatever they want to do. I don't care. Glory to God. Look at what Romans 8.33 says. Now, this is after regeneration has occurred. He's imputed upon us His righteousness. And the Apostle Paul said, I can say to declare at this time His righteousness, for He is just and He is the justifier. He is God. It's God who justifies. This is what Paul said over in Romans, in the earlier part. Look what he says in verse 33, about to close up the chapter. And he says, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's? elect. It's God that justifies. For if I've been foreknown from the foundation of the world, He imputed upon me His righteousness. He gave me the grace and the faith needed to be saved. God's doing the work in my life by sanctification, separation, through and by the indwelling of His Spirit. He's doing the work. I'm imputed with His righteousness because He is just and He is the justifier. So who can lay any charge to me? They can say what they want to. They can say whatever they want to. But I'm His and He is mine. I'm His namesake. Are you His namesake this morning? Do you understand the sovereignty of God? Do you really understand it now? No, we don't. We've just got a little taste of it. We've just tipped the end of the spoon. We ain't even got to the plate yet. God is sovereign. Glory. And we are His namesake. Let's bow our heads.