All right, I'd like you to take your Bibles and join me in Colossians chapter one. I've been thinking quite a bit about some things that are on my schedule for the Bible line ministry. I've thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed the Colin show. If it's something that I could do on the radio, I think that would be really cool. But I kind of like the way we have it right now. We're not running up against radio commercials. We're not dealing with what you can and can't say. It's a very different culture than what Dr. Lindstrom had when he was doing this. But Dr. Lindstrom was kind of a pioneer in his own way. He used to use public access TV. back when it was free. You could just go down there, book a slot, and they would do the whole thing. And he used that to reach a lot of different people. Dr. Polson was reached by that TV ministry late one night. If you read his book, it's moving to see how the Lord worked in his life and answered his prayer through that radio show. And sometimes I think to myself, what an opportunity that is here with this kind of technology. We're doing something that is somewhat new and a little risky, certainly, because you don't have anything to kind of buffer any kind of Looney Tunes that want to come on and do a little performance, you know? But one of the things that we do with the Bible and ministry is we take a lot of video content. And as a result of that, it can be very, very discouraging to see some of the things that are being taught about the Christian life. And one of the side effects sometimes of being exposed to that type of content for myself is just a lot of confusion. Not that I'm unclear on what I believe, but just on how to respond to something so convoluted. I don't know if you guys ever have dealt with pulling out headphones out of your pocket that have been there for a long time. And if they're wired, you kind of look at that and you go, I don't have time for that. And you just put it somewhere else. And then you're thinking by putting it somewhere else, I'll have time for it later. And you go to look at it, and you're like, I don't have time for that either, you know? Like, I just don't have time to untie this. You even, you pull it out of your pocket, and you go, how is this physically possible that it got this bad? I'm not a gymnast. You know, I'm not doing cartwheels everywhere all the time as my main mode of transportation. How did this not happen? And I look at this false doctrine the same way. I was telling Trent this. We had a How long did we record today? Near three hours almost? It's just one of those things where you're looking at it and you're going, I don't know how many times I can say what's already been said, but people need to hear it. They need to hear it because what they're hearing are the things we're reacting to. I listened to a sermon called True and False Conversion and I reacted to that today almost every minute of it. We probably didn't do about 25 minutes but it was a 60 minute video. But I reacted to a message called True and False Conversion by Ray Comfort. Red Comfort is the president of Living Waters and he has about 1.6 million YouTube subscribers. The video I reacted to was uploaded in 2015, October of 2015, and it has just over 90,000 views, lots of comments. And it was a part of a series that he recorded in 1991 And I was about maybe one years old. It depends on when he recorded that. But this has been around for a long time. And we've had people asking us, I don't want to say constantly, but often to react to Ray Comfort, react to Ray Comfort. But most of the material that he does today is on the street stuff. And I would say 80% of what he does is really good. He brings people to the point of their need. He gets them to see how the requirement of perfection that they need to meet is unattainable. How that's why Jesus died on the cross. But as He walks them to what would happen for them to become saved, He says, will you turn from that sin that disqualifies you from salvation, which is directly connecting a works righteousness system of salvation to that person's forgiveness, to their justification. And as a result of this, you see a lot of people make very emotional decisions that clearly are showing you and me they're doing this because they think they can. They think that they really can in that moment because this news is so good. They think that they can turn from their sin, but they forget what they just heard, which is there's none righteous. The law is designed to show us our need for Christ. Galatians chapter 3 describes the law as a schoolmaster, that's a teacher. And the teacher shows us the need for Christ. So here we are condemned by the law, the schoolmaster points us to Christ. This works-based system that is taught by lordship salvation proponents would tell you that now that you're in Christ, you need to go back under the teaching of the schoolmaster to prove your position in Christ. That walks the person right back to the bondage that they have been delivered from. And the danger is they may not have even been delivered yet. Because if they're trusting in their system, their promise, their confession, then they're not saved. They can recognize what Jesus did on the cross, that he died, was buried, and rose again. But if they're not looking at that as what has paid for their sin and is just an example, then you've got, at the very least, confusion. If I were to ask somebody, how do you know you're going to heaven, and they give me an answer that points to the fact that they're trusting in themselves, I am bound by the scripture to give them clarity. I am not supposed to look at that person and make a judgment as to whether they need the gospel or not. They need it. They need to hear it. So then I'm going to give the gospel clearly and try to make sure that person understands while good works are good, they are not a valid form of payment for your sin. That's why Christ died. Do you believe that what he did has paid for your sin? And sometimes with people, you gotta say that multiple times for them to realize, I'm not trusting in myself. I need to place my faith in Christ. I need to rest in him. But with a lot of the videos that we would get from Ray Comfort, it would be like blips, you know, like a one turn from sin and a one time give your life, ask Christ into your heart, all these different things. So how do you make a video off of that, right? You're like, well, that terminology's wrong. So about a year ago, I did some digging, and I'm trying to see, can I get any kind of long-form content that kind of shows me why this man teaches this doctrine? And I found it, and it was that video. And it is very clear, not clear in the way you and I think that we use the word clear, but it's very clear that his position is no fruit, no conversion. And he uses the parable of the sower as an example for that. He then goes forward and lists these six things that we're supposed to look for in people to prove that they're saved. The last one is they do not have lasting belief. So here's what that means. Let's just say, for example, we've got Joshua and we've got Johnny. They both come to church here at Calvary. They both hear the gospel message as lost people. Joshua places his faith in Jesus Christ. Right there in the pew, he comes to biblical repentance. He changes his mind and believes on Jesus Christ. Johnny does the same thing. He walks in, he hears the same message, maybe different parameters, but he comes to the conclusion that he's a sinner, he needs Jesus, and he has biblical repentance, metanoia. He changes his mind and places his faith in Jesus Christ. According to Lordship Salvation, we cannot conclude that either of those conversions is genuine yet. Let's fast forward six months. Johnny's remained faithful in church. He doesn't just come on the Sunday that he was here as a visitor, he's now here on Sunday nights and on Wednesday nights. We see him meticulously taking notes in his Bible. We see him with the spirit of humility and we see him genuinely showing that he's got a change in his life. Joshua comes to the same amount of services. But he's more exaggerated. He buys more clothing with certain slogans on it and he's got a bigger Bible and he's always talking about his faith. Ray Comfort would conclude that the person who's likely saved is the Johnny illustration because that kind of illustration is the seed that springs up on stony ground. And I have to ask, who do you think that you are? I mean, what kind of audacity must be possessed in the mind of a man to be able to point to a person's works who says they believed on Christ and say that belief is not enough? 58 minutes of this stuff, it gets tiring. I told Trent halfway through the second video, I stopped and I said, I'm tired of this. And in a very heavy sense, or in a very real sense, it's heavy. Because you go, I don't know how people come to this conclusion. And the fact that they're out there boldly proclaiming this, and you hear people in this video, you know it's shot in 4.3, y'all remember that? Before 16 by nine, the big widescreen aspect ratio. It's in this little square and you hear people, ooh, ah, yes, amen, blah, blah, blah. And it's like those people are probably sitting in that lecture thinking, I'm more qualified for heaven than the people who are not here. It becomes really confusing and dark and it's a total man-made system. So in that illustration with Johnny and Joshua, we can say that both of them had faith, but one of them had real faith. One of them had genuine, authentic faith. So essentially, you would have one of those people in that illustration die, end up in the heart of the earth, until the Lord comes back and the tribulation period is, or excuse me, and the millennial reign is over, and then they are brought up before the great white throne judgment. And they'll be able to say to God, I believed that Jesus is the son of God who shed his blood to pay for my sin. And God would look at them according to this horrible lordship theology and say, but you didn't have fruit. You think that's a possibility? It's impossible, because the moment someone believes, something happens. Y'all need to know this, because it's so sneaky. What does God promise at the moment of belief? Remission of sin. A better word, the word that I like the most, there's a lot of different words, but justification. God has promised, if you believe, I will justify you immediately. You will be reconciled to me. That sin that's in the way, I apply the blood of my son, done. But in this lordship view, the judge doesn't bring the gavel down yet. He doesn't declare you fully innocent, but you're not also fully guilty, which is impossible in a court of law. It's one or the other. And he waits, puts you on probation. And he's gonna watch you and judge you and he's gonna have his little other converts out there watching and judging you to see if your faith is true. And you won't know until you're innocent or guilty until you get to the Lord. Excuse me, until you die. Yeah, the joy of the Lord is my strength. Where's the joy in that? There is no joy in that. You listen to this stuff long enough, you start to wonder, it's like that headphone knot. How did we get here? And we pray. We pray that people would change their mind. Ray Comfort likes to linger around in the comments. One of our friends, he made a video, our friend made a video responding to some of his false teaching. And Ray Comfort got in there and accused him of having some type of sexual relationship with, I don't know, strippers or something like that. Just crazy stuff. That'd be like me going into a comment section and slandering somebody because I don't like what they're saying. And I'm thinking to myself, is this how a man of God acts? Is this how someone who truly wants to lead people to genuine change of mind, is this how they would act? Well, in his mind, that's a false convert. They wither away and that's it. So you come to that conclusion, you start to think to yourself, what do we look at? How are we supposed to live the Christian life? Is there any value to the parable of the sower? Yes. Is there any value to the requirement that Titus says that we must be careful to maintain good works? Yes. But none of those things change our birth. None of those things change the day that we were placed into the family of God. By way of illustration, for those of you that are not familiar with the adoption process, placement takes a long time. Placement is different than something called a TPR, termination of parental rights. The TPR happens in the state of Florida at least 48 hours after the birth of the child. And usually there's an agreement with the adoptive family and the biological family. Biological family, after that 48 hours, will terminate their parental rights. It's a very emotional day. It's a hard thing, because that family is having to admit, I'm not in the proper place right now to be able to parent this child, so I'm gonna trust another family. Boy, there's two sides to that coin. It's a very difficult day. And that TPR is basically you and you, the adoptive family, with the biological family, going through four hours, court reporters, asking questions. You want to make sure that biological family is not under any kind of fraudulent convictions. There are terms of agreements that are set. And then the biological party signs. the adoptive party signs, and under the state, that child's guardianship changes. Notice what I used, guardianship. Then over the course of time, that goes to the courts, the courts deem everything, and then there's a day where the adoptive family stands before a judge and gives a testimony of how they are fit and able and willing to care for this child. It's at least three months after the TPR, after the guardianship change. And then on that day, there is an event where a new birth certificate is produced for that child with a new name, if the adoptive family so chooses. Commonly, that is the choice. And the date on the birth certificate does not reflect the date of the placement, which is in the future. It goes back to the day of that child's birth, down to the minute It goes back, and there is a change on the birth certificate which reflects the new name, reflects the adoptive parents as equal to, with equal rights, as good as a bond of blood, are the words that are used, going to the adoptive parents. There is nothing that I could do, or the state of Florida could do, to change that designation. If I were to abandon our child, I would be brought up on child abandonment charges. That adoption process cannot be reversed, it's protected. Why? It demonstrates soul possession. That child is now as good as if she were mine. If that's good enough for the secular state of Florida, for the secular human race to understand, why would salvation be any different? We even have the word adopted and adoption used in Romans chapter eight. So upon the day that you put your trust in Christ, your death was with Christ. Your resurrection with Christ. Your TPR was done and your placement was done. Now you're just waiting for the day where you're welcomed into the family of God physically, either the day of our death or at the rapture. None of these things change. yet when wrong perspectives get in, and you have a false premise, you're going to have a false conclusion. I want you to take your Bibles and go to the book of Colossians, if you're there with me already. The title of our study is, Today is a Good Day. And it is a good day. People had promotions today, people had People had surprises today. People had blessings. People also had loss today. People also had the discovery of some type of tragedy. People also had the brokenness of fellowship today. It's still a good day. How so? I want you to see what is written here in Colossians chapter 1 starting in verse 20. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. That's a past tense use of that word, reconciled. What Paul is telling the church at Colossae here is that through the person of Christ, we have experienced reconciliation. We were once enemies, we were once alienated or apart from God because of our sin, but because of the fullness of God that dwelleth in Christ, we have experienced complete reconciliation. The sin that separated us has been removed. Verse 22. Look at the last part of verse 21. Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. That's the first part of our salvation. That's the justification that happens at the moment of belief. No day will change that designation. You and I, as a part of the Christian life, need to live in this position. Knowing where you stand is gonna help you with your condition of your Christian life. There's a big movement right now. I'm partially for it and I'm partially against it. But there's a big movement of podcasts and discussions, YouTube videos and stuff like that that talk about spiritual things. I'm partially for it because Jesus is being talked about. He's being referenced. He's being promoted. Where I'm against it is nobody has a definitive view. Everything is questionable. I'll hear one guy say, you're saved by faith alone in Christ alone, and then three episodes later, or maybe 20 minutes later in the same episode, he'll ask if water baptism saves us. And I want to pull my non-existent hair out, not because I'm frustrated with that kid, but do you know what I'm frustrated with? We have failed him. We have failed people like that. When I say we, I mean the body of Christ. There's not clear teaching anymore. Churches are experience mills. People are wanting to encounter God instead of read about Him. Tell me, what's more persuasive for our culture today, a 30-second viral TikTok or words written on a paper? And the church has swallowed this lie that we need to be culturally relevant. These podcasts and shows exist because it's trying to fill a void, clear teaching. Where are the men? Where are the men of God? Where are the wise women who lead their house well? I was talking in my Timothy class this past week about how God has probably the most radical pro-woman view that you could ever possess by definition of what the world says is radical pro-feminine view. You read Proverbs 31, you see how much responsibility that woman has. And she takes care of it well. Well, a part of our culture, our young culture, is getting that. They're starting to realize all of this sexualizing of the woman is bad. All of this focusing more on the career aspect and neglecting any kind of a nuclear family, one man, one woman producing children, that that's not good. It's not working. I mean abortion was, there was a huge view from the democratic part of the political spectrum that the 2024 election was going to be won on abortion. It wasn't. It was immigration and the economy, most of it. You come to the conclusion that what the world says is right, people are responding to something different. So people are looking now, they're seeking. And what they're finding is mush. No definitive statements of truth. Sometimes I want to jump into these episodes and just stand there and go, do you know for sure you're going to heaven? Can you give me your answer? How about you? How about you? And then what really gets me is there's wise men who I've heard give the gospel clearly. They're not clear all the time, but they at least have, they know what the gospel is. It's better than what these kids are saying. They sit there silently. They don't say anything. If someone, if I were to be on a show and someone says, does water baptism say? I would say no. Next question. Later on, someone will ask, well, what if we willfully sin? Certainly we're not saved. That person just said they're saved by faith alone and Christ alone. You and I have to know these things because it's because we have not taught them that we're living in this time. Verse 22 says that we are reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. This is at the judgment seat of Christ. That's why there's an if statement in verse 23. See there's an emphasis here from Paul to remain close to the truth. That's why today is a good day because the truth hasn't changed. There's nothing about the gospel, our justification, our new birth, the reconciliation, nothing about that has changed. Do you believe that? You live in that truth? When we move away from that, we're gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ ashamed. This is why he says, you need to be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard. Have you heard the gospel? Ian, that gentleman who was here on Sunday, he was also here on Saturday. And he spoke some good words about where he came from and that he was involved in the Justin Peters thing and all of that. And Justin Peters has a very reformed view. We're not gonna get into that at this time. But one of the things he told me in a message that he wrote, I think it was yesterday or Monday, he said, I'm talking to some of the people at Sanford. And what I'm telling them is, we need to give the gospel like you give the gospel. Not in the way that I give it, because that would build an idol to me, but that I give it every single service. That speaks something to me. Two things. There's a need for more gospel. More clear gospel. And also, that need is not being met. We've heard the gospel, it's been preached by Paul, he's administered to do it. Look at verse 24. Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you. Paul was suffering for this teaching and preaching of the cross. In Philippians he says, I've known how to have, and I've known how to have not. I'm content in all things. He writes to Timothy. Timothy, those that say godliness, or excuse me, great gain is equal to godliness, mark and avoid them. Great godliness is equal to contentness. Are you thankful and are you okay with everything that you have today? And that's where verses 21 and 22 inform our contentness. I don't have anything left that needs to be added to my life for me to feel complete. I am complete because I'm found in Christ. My wife and I have talked about this endeavor we're starting, that we're looking to adopt again. And of course, there's a lot of them, that's like getting into that rollercoaster seat again. And the first time the seatbelt came undone and there was too many G-forces being pulled on your body and you're pretty sure you're not, you're not sure if there's enough track that's being developed for you to ride out on. And we have to ask ourselves, when we go to the throne of grace, when we talk to the Lord, we want to make sure that we're not possessing the attitude that we just need one more and then we'll be happy. If I never had a chance to adopt another child again, I have to be content with that. Not because I already have one. Not because I have a great wife, and both of those things are true, but because I'm in Christ. I'm reconciled. That's enough. It should be enough. Look at the rest of 24. And fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church. Paul knows why he's suffering. He's suffering because the teachings of Christ bring division, so be it, let the divisions come. He's not responsible for that, Paul. Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation this time of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. This is a part of the prophetic record. Peter talks about this. even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to the saints." That's almost a direct comparison to 1 Peter. about where the prophets were trying to figure out these things, but it was not revealed to them. And now we have this revelation. What's the revelation? Christ and you being placed in him. But I'm a Jew. No, you're not. Now you're a part of the body of Christ. But I'm a Gentile. I'm a heathen. I'm apart from God. You were, now you're in. Who do we give praise to? The Lord Jesus Christ as a result. Today's a good day, amen? Look how beautiful these next few verses are. to whom God would make known what is the riches. See, his glory has a value on it. Boy, you know, I'm sure we could all have a little bit of the riches of the USD right now, right? We hear all this stuff going on about, oh, we're gonna get checks and we're gonna get all this stuff. How did it go the last time we got checks? I'm not saying that's what's gonna happen this time. But what happened to that money you got from the COVID stimulus? You spent it. Here today, gone tomorrow, even if you saved it. It's not doing you any good right now. Well, we're gonna give you 8,000 more. My life will be better when I get that check. Are we for real? It'll be nice. I'm not gonna lie and say it won't be nice. But folks, it'll be here today and gone tomorrow. We could have a massive amount of wealth stored up and then we get cancer and die. We can know that we're gonna get cancer, have a will and testament for our money, and none of it gets honored. Perspective, perspective, what do we have by the way of riches? Look at this verse. Those riches have been made known, the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, the guarantee that one day we're gonna stand justified, glorified with the one who did both for us. Today's a good day. Whom we preach, Paul says, warning every man. Warning of what? Faith in themselves. Warning in faith in any kind of workspace system. Be careful, if you're judging yourself by the law, you've got to keep the whole thing. And Paul says you're cursed to have to keep the whole thing. Why would he say that? Because you can't do it. That's why. It's impossible. warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect or completed in Christ. Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." Paul saw how he was being used by the Lord, and he gave God credit for it. There were days where that man was starving, where he was walking around in seclusion out of fear for certain deadly persecution. He was beaten, he was in a shipwreck. Many believe he was stoned to death and brought back. And they say, well, that's crazy. Well, let's just say he got stoned enough to be close to death. Still pretty crazy, right? There's no one throwing stones at us today. This man knew the message that possessed his vessel. Verse two, or verse one of chapter two. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea. What do we know about the Laodicean church? Oh, pompous, religiously pious. No growth, but lots of talk. And for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh that their hearts might be comforted. being, look at this, look at that word knit. That's a very personal word, it's uncommon in normal vocabulary, but it carries with you, it carries with it the illustration of something being formed, being made. Being knit together in what? What's the yarn that is being used here, so to speak? Love. See, when I hear Ray Comfort speak, I see the yarn. I see the pattern, I don't see any love. In that video, and you'll see it, it'll be a three-week, what, a three-week process? And the first one's long enough. But you'll see, if you stick around with it, you'll see where he'll say things like, I want people to suffer in sin. That'll show me they're a true convert. Man, you hear that as a pastor and you pray for the people that are under that man's teaching. That's wild. The sunlight of tribulation proves if people are really converted or not. You know what I do when someone trusts Christ as Savior? I tell them, be ye holy. You know what the word holy means, new baby Christian? Set apart for God's purpose. You got fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness? Move on from that. What does it say in Psalms 1? Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, Well, this legalistic system would say, walk and see if you're real. Come on. We're knit together in love. A works-based message is nothing but strife, judgment, man's standards. Grace must be knit with love. and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, which is Christ, and of the Father and Christ, in whom are hid all treasures of wisdom and knowledge." You remember Proverbs? Get wisdom, get understanding, don't let it go when you have it. You want wisdom and understanding in this life? It's not through self-help. It's not through mantras. It's through the person of Jesus Christ only. And that's what we need. We need more men and more women teaching that message. Those podcasts will become few and far between. There won't be a need for them because they'll be busy building families, building ministries. But when that message is hid, when it's silenced, for either people don't know it well enough to defend it, or they're ashamed to speak it because of persecution, you get what we have today. Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. That's how it's described in 2 Timothy. And that's supposed to be a sign of the end times. Now, we talked about that on Sunday night, the end times are the end times, right? That is probably classifying the time period from Christ's ascension until he comes back. Regardless of that, we still are in perilous times. We're gonna close here in just a minute. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you. with enticing words. See, this is what I'm hearing in the culture today. There's a lot of one-liners. I wish I could bring some of them to your presence now, but I just listened to almost an hour worth of these one-liners, and it's like, the rhythm is like this, the cadence is like, da-da-da-da-da-da, da-da, mm. That's how it'll be presented. It's like, if God's gonna work, you're gonna know, mm. Define that. Oh no, I heard it on a podcast. We reacted to a gentleman recently that he had lines rehearsed so well, when he would repeat them, his congregation would shout them with him. Yet they're all false doctrines. You're going, this is not good. That would be like if we all repeated, for by works are you saved, brother, and everyone's hooting and hollering and we're getting loud in here. Enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, Paul says, yet I am with you in the spirit. That knit unity, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. There's the instruction. Raise your hand if you have received Christ as your Savior. Walk like it. That's the instruction. Let's walk like it. How do we do that, pastor? What does it look like? What physical things do I do? Look at verse seven. Rooted and built up in him. How do we get rooted? You know what he said. How do we get built up? You have a pattern of doing it. That's how muscles are formed. That lactic acid burns down part of the muscle and then over the healing process, it puts a layer over it. And as long as you're not on testosterone or anything, you'll have natural growth. It's the same thing with our faith. Adding to it, adding to it, adding to it. We can't expect to sit down in a kumbaya posture and just all of a sudden just, boom, be filled with desire. You gotta go and do it. and established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein, and here's where I want to conclude, with thanksgiving. See, that's why it's my favorite time of year. It's biblical. Some of y'all got that. Some of y'all didn't. But on a serious note, moving apart from that horrible joke, the thanksgiving is an attitude in which we possess. Are you thankful for what has been done? I mean, in all seriousness, are you thankful for what has been done? Then forgive your brother. Forgive your spouse. Forgive your children. Well, pastor, I can't do that. Then you're not fully understanding what Christ has done for you. Well, you don't know what they've done for me. What did you do to Jesus? Hello. What did we do? Our sins put him on the cross. See, I hear that from Christians and I'm like, You want to live a part of the Christian life, but you're not obedient in all areas. Rooted, built up. Abounding therein with thanksgiving. So today is a good day, amen? You can close your Bibles. I did not mean this. That was quite, quite basey, right? Like, boom, you know? And you know, you can look out for that video. I'll be honest with you, I told Trent, I'm like, oh my goodness, these React videos, you know? But they do push our channel, and there's a lot of good, too. There was a young man here on Sunday night, came out because of what he heard on the internet. That kind of blows my mind, you know? The young man, Kyle, that was here this past week, we prayed for him in the men's dinner, which was a great fellowship dinner. If you missed it, I encourage you to be here for the next one in May. We prayed for him. Prayed for his grandmother. Came back unexpectedly that early that week. He was like, man, that gospel presentation, I've never heard something so clear. He's been to two mega churches in the area. Probably going to more services than I've been to the past couple of weeks. No clear gospel. What's going on? This is how it is nowadays. It's hard to see where people line up. I was talking to my buddy up in Pensacola, and he was like, oh, dispensationalism, covenant theology. Do you know the third position? I'm like, I don't know. These two are hard enough. Well, there's a whole thing now, progressive, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He had the day off the other day, and he spent a large portion of his day combing through these mixtures of covenant theology and dispensationalism and all these isms and asms and spasms, all this stuff. And he's studying these things and he said, it dawned on me, I have no idea what this guy believes about salvation. So he started looking. Couldn't find it. What does that tell you? Not that he's lost or that he's a false prophet, but he's definitely not obedient to making the gospel known. I bet you you could spend 50 seconds on our website and come across the gospel. That's how it's supposed to be. Oh, it's because y'all don't have anything else better to do. What is there better to do? Like, tell me. What else would you like to know first? Come on. Don't be deceived by that stuff. It's good to be academic. I get that. To add to your faith, I understand it. But don't worship it. Don't fall in love with it. You want to worship something, fall in love with something, fall in love with the person of Jesus. He'll never leave you, never forsake you. And we need to live through that. That's how we're going to see change here. That's how we're going to see change. All right? Let's talk about the most important thing. Sin. And how this sin separates us from God. This hand is you and me. Sin, we're separated from God, right? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God loves us, hates our sin. This sin must be paid. Something has to pay for it. Wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God, and a literal fire burning hell. The wages of sin is not good works, good deeds. Someone's gotta die and shed their blood, and they have to have no sin to pay for. You gotta be perfect to get to heaven. Boom, we all fall short. That's what sin means, to miss the mark. What Jesus did, this hand represents Jesus Christ, is he took that sin, paid for it, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How does that making happen? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that's Jesus Christ, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's how we're justified. The moment that happens, in the body and person of Jesus Christ, we have been placed. We are now secured there. Well, what if I wiggle out? You can't. How? Well, you're being held by Christ. What if Christ dumps me out? He won't. He can't, he's bound by his word. I will lose nothing but raise it up in the last day. What if I walk away? Shame on you. Because of the truth you're walking away from, that you're in Christ. Walking contrary to your nature. But once you believe, you're saved forever. Now, walk. Now, be rooted and built up and established. It becomes a lot easier when you do it God's way. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, please. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed, nobody's looking around. If you're watching on the internet, And that made sense to you this evening. Would you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Maybe you already have this evening. Write to us, leave a comment. Find a way to communicate with us and we'll reach out to you. We've got some material we wanna give you that'll help you. You already have what you need. You have the Holy Spirit now. You also have the word of God. Study it, apply it. For those in the audience, I know all of you. But I wanna make sure you see the threat that's out there. Love the Lord. Walk, talk about your faith. And regardless of what happened today, it is a good day, amen? Father, thank you. Bring us back here safely. Pray for ranch ministry tomorrow, for the soul winning that Mr. Hernandez will be doing. We also pray for his missionary trip and for our services on Sunday. We're looking forward to it, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.