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Father, we praise you for the
grace that you give. We do thank you, Lord. It's been a good week.
It's been a week of faith for our church as we stepped out.
And I don't know if anyone else, how they felt, the congregation
here felt about the bid, but I think there was confidence
in everybody's heart. Yet there's an understanding that if you
see fit to allow us to get this property, there are some big
faith steps ahead of us. The biggest is not maybe purchasing
the building. But we're excited to have been
led thus far. And Lord, we look forward to
seeing what you're gonna do with that. And maybe this week we'll
find out. But there's been exciting things going on in our church.
And last Sunday was a very special Sunday. And I said to many, it
was good because I needed that kind of encouragement as we went
into Monday that God, you're in us putting in a bid on that
property. And so that was a blessing, but
Lord, it's also a delight because Jesus Christ is worthy. He is
worthy of the salvation of souls. He's worthy of families honoring
God and being in the house of God on the Lord's day. And so
we're excited, we're grateful, Father, for the conversations
of this past week, Bill Meldrum, Dee, Jamie last Saturday, and
others this week that John, Lord, there on Friday night, I just
praise God for that. And I pray, Holy Spirit, would
you open hearts and minds. Lord, we long to see people come
to faith in Jesus Christ and understand the joy of what we've
got. And Father, it's very sad to sit around eating something
so wonderful, so good, such a blessing, so rich and so full and so satisfying. and to understand that there's
people around us that are seeking satisfaction in sin, seeking
satisfaction in a life outside of Christ, and it doesn't satisfy,
it doesn't meet the need, because Father, you designed us to be
in a relationship with God from the very beginning. Adam and
Eve, the Garden of Eden, walked with God. Sin separated man from
God and father without God there is no purpose to life. There
is no point to life There's there's some enjoyable things or some
fun things for some blessed things But it's only because of God's
goodness father your word says The rain falls on the just and
the unjust the Sun shines on the just and the unjust and so
father Even the major is a blessing that some would take for granted
and not give glory to God not give. Thanks to God They're only
because God is good And so, Father, but as believers, we understand
why it is what it is, why it is good, why it works, why, Father,
a strong marriage is a marriage based on the word of God. A strong
family is a family based on the word of God. A strong life is
a life based on the word of God. A strong community is a community
based on the law of God. And even, Father, in society,
we can look at nations that have a legal system based on the Bible,
and they have the best legal system. Economies based on the
Bible, they have the best economies. and laws that protect and are
based on the Bible. They have the best set up there,
and they have the blessing of God. And Father, the biggest
nations in this world, or the strongest nations rather, are
not the biggest nations, but they were Christian nations.
And Father, that gives us pause to understand that there's a
God in heaven. And Father, our desire is that, God, you'd work
in our hearts. And this time, as we come to
the word of God, we come to the word of God. And Father, there's
a reason that you recorded these stories, and it is to speak to
our hearts. And Father, I praise you that
the spirit of God is the convictor of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. And Father, I ask that He would work in our hearts
today. I ask that every heart, every person that takes time
to be in this place, Father, they not walk away thinking they
haven't been with God. They haven't been in the presence
of God. But I pray that we'd walk out
of this place and in our hearts we'd say, you know, truly God
was there. Truly God was there. Maybe we'd
have to say it like those men that didn't recognize Jesus but
said, did not our hearts burn within us while he spoke with
us? Truly God is in that place and I knew it not as Jacob said.
And Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would give us grace to
identify who God is and how God works. And Father, I pray for
power. We need the power of God. Father,
we live in a day where atheism is being taught and evolution
is being taught and reprobate hearts against God is being taught
by a world that says sin is not just okay, it's honorable. And
Father, I pray against that. I pray for the light of the Lord
Jesus Christ to shine. We know this, Father, the word
of God is very clear. Men love darkness rather than light because
their deeds were evil. Neither came they to the light,
lest their deeds should be reproved. But Father, reprove, please.
It's what we spoke about recently on a Wednesday night. I think
a week ago, Wednesday, we looked at the word of God as a mirror.
And as a mirror, it shows us what needs to change. And Father,
I pray that we'd have the humility to look at our life and say,
if it's my speech, my speech needs to change. If it's my viewing
habits, my viewing habits need to change. If it's what I put
into my body that needs to change, let it change. If it's where
I go, or who I'm with, or what I wear, or anything like that,
may the Spirit of God speak to our hearts, and I pray that we'd
look at that and say that's gotta change. And Savior, I pray for
the will of God to be done in this place as in heaven. I pray
for yieldedness to God. I pray for the authority of God.
And so Father, we just lift it up to you. And I can't speak
without your enablement. I can't pray without your enablement.
I can't preach without your enablement. And I pray that the spirit of
God would guide me as I speak forth the words of truth from
the word of God, that the spirit of God would give my lips liberty
to declare it. I pray that you give us ears
to hear it and to take it in. And Father, we want your blessing
on our kids' class as well. Bless Mrs. Shore as she guides
in that time. Mrs. Locksley, as she helps along
with that. Lord, that'd be a rich time in
the word of God in that class. And so God, we're grateful, very
grateful to you, grateful for your grace to us. Thank you for
the time we get to spend in the word of God now. May Jesus Christ
be glorified. It's in Christ's name we pray,
amen. And then, all right, 1 Samuel 19 is where we're at. And so
we're in the middle of a story, so let me just give some background
to the story. So it's a story of David and
Goliath, kind of. It's more about the life of David,
but that battle took place that brought David to the limelight
there in Saul's kingdom. King Saul was the king. that
area, but he was a king that rejected God. He was a king that
turned his back on God. And because he did that, God
anointed another man to become the king, and that's David. Before
the story of David and Goliath, David's already been anointed
by the prophet Samuel. So David already knows in his
heart that he's going to be the next king. Well, that battle
takes place. David, after 40 days of Goliath
mocking the armies of Israel, David rises up as a champion
for God, says, hey, I'll go out and I'll fight against him. David
was just a shepherd boy. But he goes out, great victory
takes place, and Saul rejoiced in it. Jonathan told us that
his dad rejoiced in it, you know, in the previous text that we've
just looked at. But he got excited about it,
but he didn't get excited about the fact that David began to
get more glory than himself. And so the king becomes envious
of what is taking place there. He becomes murderous in his heart.
He wants to kill David. And so he says, let him be killed,
right? And last week we looked at Jonathan
talking to his dad and arguing with his dad and saying, dad,
why are you gonna kill David when David's only done ever good
to you? And so Saul says, okay, okay, I'll take that bounty off
David's head and I'll let him live. And then we talked about
David went out last week, we looked at, went back into battle,
focused on the things of God, even though he had a lot of problems
in his life. But now we're looking at Saul.
Our focus is kind of on Saul and what's going on in Saul's
life. So Saul is envious against David, wants to kill David, but
Saul refuses to kill his wicked flesh. Saul could have repented.
I mean, we talk about this a lot, but Saul could have gotten right
with God. He could have got on his knees
and said, you know, God, forgive me for rebelling against you
and doing these things that I said I had to do, but I didn't have
to do them. I disregarded your law. I violated your law. Oh
God, forgive me, right? We don't see that in the life
of Saul. And so he refuses to take care of his sin. And because
of that, he's an easy target. We were talking about this last
week as well, for an evil spirit to get a hold of him. So verse
nine says, the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul. And we've got to emphasize, God
is not the cause of Saul's sin, though God allowed Saul to be
tempted by that evil spirit because God took away, as it were, his
restraining grace or his protection because of Saul's rebellion against
him. James 1.13 says, let no man say
when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. So somebody
that's into sin, there's a lot of times the world says, well,
he had a predisposed genetic condition that led him to that
life of intoxication. He's an alcoholic because of
some predisposition. Or he's that way in his perversion
against God, violating the word of God, because he was predisposed
that way. That's not what the word of God
says. The word of God says that we have desires that if are unrestrained
are gonna lead us into transgression, it's called lust. And I'll say
this, without the grace of God, without the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ, we can't get victory
over that. There's no way that a man can
look at his life and say, I am going to change my life. And
from now on, I'm not going to sin. It's not going to happen.
You can try, but they're going to fail. Because without the
grace of God, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the help
of God, we can't get victory. So, but the thing is when lust
conceived, it brings forth sin. When sin is finished, it brings
forth death. Sin always leads to destruction. That's why in that text that
I was reading in James, he says, do not err my beloved brethren.
Don't go down that path of sin, of unrestrained lust. You need
the grace of God, you need the help of God, get it. And Paul,
I'm sorry, Saul should have gotten that, but sadly he made provision
for his lust and he's living in defeat. You know, again, I
warn us that Satan is actively at work. He's not somebody that
was in the past in the stories in the Bible and he's not active
in our day. There's no explanation for the
deep unbelief that is in our society without an explanation
that there is Satan, right? All the wickedness that a hundred
years ago people would have been shocked if you would have said
to them, this is what a hundred years from now, this is what
society is going to believe. Listen, Even unbelieving society
a hundred years ago understood that there was one day a week
that you honored God. They understood that profanity
was bad. They understood that you don't
take God's name in vain. They understood that sexual perversion
is sexual perversion, okay? So, and they used to get that. So how could it be today that
there's such an exception that this lifestyle, and I'm talking
about any lifestyle of sin, is okay without explaining that
with a deep deception that is satanic, okay? And I can show
it from scripture as well. Satan's all through the word
of God in these kind of ideas. And so even at the betrayal of
the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan's in that story. John 13 verse
21, they're in the upper room and the disciples are there and
they're having the last supper and Jesus testifies to them. He's troubled in spirit and he
testified and he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one
to another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning
on Jesus' bosom, okay, leaning up against Jesus, one of his
disciples whom Jesus loved. And again, John, we've talked
about it before, is probably a younger disciple. So he's there,
he's reclining on Christ. And he, Simon Peter beckons to him and
he says, ask who it should be of whom he spake. And so he then
lying on Jesus' breast said unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered,
he it is to whom I shall give the sop when I have dipped it.
And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot,
the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered
into him. Then said Jesus unto him, that
thou doest do quickly. And okay, so he goes out and
that's when he goes to the chief priest. He betrays Jesus Christ
for 30 pieces of silver. Now think about this, he sold
his soul for all eternity in hell for 30 pieces of silver. What a devaluation of life. Think
about it today, there's a lot of people, they're living their
life for the flesh. Gratification whatever that sin
is that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
are evil. That's the price they're putting on their soul They're
saying Satan give me that that's enough for me I'll take that
in life and life is short and life is temporary and life in
life You have the presence of God, but in hell for all eternity
somebody separated from God and they willingly take and they
barter their soul based on. I mean, it's just a sad thing,
isn't it? Again, Satan is so deceptive in what he is doing. And turning your Bibles to Ephesians
chapter six. And if somebody has a church
Bible or can get a church Bible and give me the page number,
that'd be helpful. All right, maybe Mr. Woods. If you get Ephesians
chapter six, and once you find it, shout out the page number
for me. A church Bible with the Ephesians six and then the page
number. That'd be great. Ephesians chapter six. Maybe
everybody will find it before we get it. But anyway, in verse 12 is what
we're gonna look at. I just wanna look at the armor of God with
us, okay? Ephesians chapter six. Jeopardy's a show in the United
States and they've got a theme song. When somebody's thinking
it's do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do,
do, do, do. I feel like we need a little
music to come on as we're looking for this. Ephesians is in the
New Testament. I'm not helping you, Tommy. Ephesians
chapter six. Sorry, Cameron, I should pull
these out ahead of time. I know. No, you're in the right spot.
I can tell you're in the concordance looking. Yes, chapter six. Okay, just give us a page number
if you're in Ephesians. 1, 2, 1, 5. Okay, 1, 2, 1, 5, and then look
for chapter six. 1, 2, 1, 5. And then once you
find the chapter, chapter six, and then look down to verse 12,
okay? And we might be here for the
bulk of the lesson, I don't know. I'm gonna try to go through this
quick, but we might stick it here for a little while. Okay, so
it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Do you see it
in verse 12? but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. We don't wrestle against
flesh and blood. Do you ever have a conversation and it's
like, why is this conversation so tough? Why is this relationship
so tough? They are my adversary. They are
a pain. They are a problem. But the Bible
says this, what you see is not where the battle lies. The battle
lies behind that. So that's just what we're aware
of. But there's a realm behind that,
and Satan's involved in that realm. The Bible speaks about
spiritual darkness and high places and prince and powers of the
air. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and I'm not trying
to get us to get into conspiracy theory, but the fact is, there
are things taking place on high levels that are behind the scenes
that are going to set the stage for the Antichrist, going to
set the stage for the beast and the false prophet of revelation.
It's gonna happen. It's in the works and we can
see it somewhat taking place. And again, we don't have to investigate
that, but we understand that there is some power orchestrating
that and organizing that. We can understand that. And so
we need to be prepared to fight against that. How can we do that?
Well, Paul gives us some good spiritual counsel for that spiritual
battle. So you look at verse 13. He says,
wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day and having done all stand.
It's kind of like this. So the battle is great. And the
Bible says in the last days, seducers are going to wax worse
and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And that it's going
to be a very dark spiritual day. What is going to protect us from
that? What is able to help us with that? Good morning, Tima.
Did I get the name right? Yes, I think I did. Yes, it's
great to have you here. And so what is gonna help us
with that is the armor of God. We gotta be able to put on our
armor. So what do we do? We put on truth,
verse 14. It says, stand therefore, having
your loins skirt about with truth. And we're in Ephesians chapter
six and verse 14 is where we're at. Ephesians chapter six and
verse 14. It says, put on truth. Now, is truth under attack in
our day? Oh, it's in the media, isn't
it? I mean, the media, you look around, you think, what can I
really believe? Do you have unbiased media? No, we've got biased media,
right? Everyone's trying to get their
agenda across. By the way, just think about this. Those that are strong
in their atheism, men like Dawkins and men like Attenborough, do
they have a bias in their science? Yes. And so there's bias and
truth is under attack, right? And so the Bible says, put on
truth, put on truth. Proverbs 23 verse 23 says, buy
the truth and sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding. Don't sell it. There's a lot
of churches today that are selling truth. They're selling truth
for popularity. They're selling truth for acceptance.
They're selling truth for anything trinket that the world would
offer to them. They're saying it's not important anymore about
gender identity. It's not important anymore about
sexual purity. It's not important anymore to
stand with the creative works of a holy God. But the word of
God says buy the truth and sell it not. You know there's people
that haven't sold the truth even at the cost of their life. I'm
gonna speak about that a little bit in my morning message. The
world came and said if you don't sell the truth you're gonna pay
with your life. We offer you your life for the truth. They died for the truth. Why?
Because the truth is vital. The truth is vital. We've got
to have the truth. The truth has to be declared.
And for us in our life, if we want to fight against untruth,
how do we do that with the truth? What is the truth, by the way?
The truth is the word of God. There's a lot of people that
disagree with this book, but they don't disprove this book.
There's a lot of people that say that's not so, but that doesn't
make it not so, because the people that often say this is not so
are themselves like you and me, and what are we? Fallible, right? But God's given us a book that's
authoritative beginning to end. It's one message written over
1,500 years by 44 human authors, 66 books, and it all agrees.
Why? Because it's the truth. It's
the truth. Buy the truth and sell it not.
Put on the truth. Put on purity. It says, in having on the breastplate
of what? Righteousness. All right, so
you need the truth and then you gotta be clean. You gotta have
your heart cleansed. You know, there's no such thing
as purity in the world. Our world is very impure. And
so if somebody gets cleansed, are they gonna, is it gonna be
obvious? That's, hey, you know, you're just gonna kind of be
like, hey, your life's different than my life. My life, I say
this is okay, this is okay, this is okay, this is okay, but your
life contradicts my life. You don't go to the pub. You don't go drink with the guys.
You don't use profanity. You don't have that ungodly,
immoral words that are coming out and telling filthy stories
or things like that. There's a difference. If somebody's
a righteous person, that's gonna be different. Righteousness is
not defined by how I feel about something or if it bothers me,
right? Righteousness is defined by what
does God say in his word? What does he say about what I
watch? What does he say about where I go? What does he say
about my relationships? What does he say about my possessions,
my life? And then another question would
be, have I been cleansed by Jesus? You know, if I today decided,
again, I'm gonna change my life. I wanna be righteous because
Paul says put on righteousness. And so I'm gonna go do a bunch
of good things. I'm gonna go help a lot of people. I'm gonna
go join a church. I'm gonna go, you know, I'm gonna
get in the Bible. I'm gonna read my Bible. I'm
gonna maybe be baptized. I'm gonna do all these things
and that's gonna make me righteous, guess what? The Bible says, by
the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified, declared
righteous in his sight. I could do good till now till
I die, and maybe it's really goodness, but the Bible says
about God looking at us, your righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. Why? Because it doesn't matter
how much good stuff I've got on this side of my suit, if this
side is covered in filth, it's covered in filth. And God, when
he looks at me, does not see this, he sees this. And this
does not take this away, right? And so what I need, I need a
blood offering. Jesus Christ died on the cross because the
Bible says without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness
of sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no mercy,
there is no grace, there is no atonement, there is no cleansing
that is necessary to make me righteous. The Bible says about
Jesus, he took the handwriting of ordinance that was against
us, he nailed it to his cross. That means this, he took the
crimes that we committed, liar, luster, covetor, materialistic,
whatever there is of filth in this world, Jesus Christ died
as if guilty of that. He became sin for us so that
the Bible says we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Righteousness is not something
I earn. Righteousness is not something
I do to myself. Righteousness is something that's
imputed, that God gives. Now if I'm gonna fight against
what we're talking about, the powers of darkness and whatnot,
I've gotta be righteous. I've gotta have my heart cleansed.
I gotta think right about what God says. That's where victory
is. We're defeated already. If I've got sin in my life that
I don't repent of and I don't get victory over, I'm defeated.
Satan's got me where he wants me. I'll never be the testimony
God wants me to be. Nothing worse than a Christian
that has the name of Christ and not a life to back it up. Satan
loves that. And so we need to put on righteousness,
purity. Put on evangelism. Verse 15 says,
and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. All right? There in verse 15, do you see
it? Ephesians chapter six. You got to have your feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Feet are important
in battle, all right? Benson was given by Nathan a
pair of combat boots. I don't know, they got to talking
and Nathan says, you want a pair? And he got him a pair of combat
boots. Combat boots are important for a soldier, right? You don't
run out in your slippers. You don't run out barefoot. Why?
Because your feet are what is your motivation, right? Gets
you to where you need to be. You can't advance without your
feet right. God says that part of our armor
as a believer, is to put on gospel feed. Take the truth of God to
this world. We're investigating that beautiful
building, and I think, Tommy, you might have asked the question,
aren't you sad to leave this beautiful facility? And you know
what she said? She said, yes, it's kind of sad,
but it's just a building. But then she said, Jesus said,
go and make disciples, and we didn't. You know, and that's
the thing, we could, as a church, we could say, nobody's getting
saved today, nobody's getting right with God, but who's telling
them? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach
except they be sent? There's people that need Christ,
that their heart could be awakened by the grace of God, they could
have eternity in heaven. People for whom Christ died,
Jesus gave his life so that they could live, they're all over
the place. but somebody has to tell them about Christ. Again,
we got to put that on. We want to fight and stand for
the Lord, be a good soldier. We got to have our feet shod
with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the best church growth
movement this church will ever have. It's not some exceptional
thing that we can do here as a church. It's just our faithfulness,
getting the gospel out to those that need it. Put on evangelism. And then lift up faith. Lift
up faith as you fight. You gotta lift up faith. It says
in verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith
you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
It's been a very sad thing for us to watch the battles that
are taking place in Ukraine. And there's some stuff you just
can't watch. But you see tanks coming in, and you see that,
I forget what it's called, that has all that, the rockets that
it shoots off, and I mean, just decimating areas, and you see
this armor. They didn't have that in Paul's
day, and I think you understand that they didn't. But what they
did have, they had arrows. And they had fiery arrows. And
in Paul's day, that was a very dangerous weapon because here
a fiery dart would come and if it alighted onto wood, then it
would cause that to burn and it would destroy that structure.
The Bible says that Satan is shooting fiery darts. He wants
to destroy our lives. He wants to wreck our lives.
And it's just one dart after another. And again, we look at
that and think, what can I do? And there are darts of doubt,
because why? Because God's truth is dependent
upon my trust in it. Faith is what grabs ahold of
the promises of God. See, out in the Firth of Forth,
if there was a ship that is going down, and the coast guard responds,
and they send out a helicopter, and the winchman comes down,
he looks at the man on the stricken vessel, and he says to him, put
this around your waist, and grab hold of me, and don't look down,
but just look up, right? And if that person doubts and
says, no, no, no, I don't believe it'll help me. I don't believe
it'll hold me. The man just looks at him and
says, look, faith is the answer. Faith is the answer. put on the
belt, right? It's the same with us today.
Somebody, the darts of doubt are flying by the devil. There
is no God. There is no hope. There is no
salvation. There is no victory. Satan is
sending those. Somebody, all they have to do
is grab hold of the word of God and say, no, Jesus Christ died
on the cross for my sins. He shed his blood. He is the
way of salvation and by faith, right? This is how we got saved.
By faith we grab hold. And we say, I put my trust in
Jesus Christ. The Bible says, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And when
you and I got saved, what did we do? We trusted in Jesus Christ. As soon as we did, what did we
have? Everlasting life. The fire of doubt and that which
was gonna damn us, because Satan had fired such an effective dart,
was extinguished by faith. And that's what this text says,
doesn't it? It says, take the shield of faith, wherewith you
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Satan is shooting those darts,
not just before he gets saved, he shoots them after he gets
saved. You can't get victory over that sin. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no temptation
taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that you're able,
but will with the temptation also make way to escape that
you may be able to bear it. And so praise God that there
is an answer to those fiery darts. You know, when we're gonna fight
effectively, we gotta know what the word of God says. Every time
Jesus was tempted, do you remember what he said? He said, it is
written. This is what God says. Somebody
can be tempted with drink, but the Bible says in Proverbs 20
verse one, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever
has deceived their buy is not wise. Many people wasting their
income, wasting their lives, wasting the peace in their home,
wasting the strength of their marriage because they haven't
picked up the word of God and said, no, God says that this
leads to abuse, this leads to destruction. 1 John 2.15, about
the world, love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. and to lift up the truth of the
word of God, say not so Satan, I'm not going down that path,
love not the world, I'm gonna love God. And so scripture memory
must be a part of our defense or we're an easy prey. And then
put on assurance of salvation. Assurance of salvation. It says
in verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation. You know, a lot
of times I'll ask people a question, and it's this, are you 100% sure
that if you died, if you'd go to heaven? All right, 100%. And
sometimes they'll say something, well, I want to go to heaven,
or I hope to go to heaven, or I'd like to go to heaven, but
they haven't personally put their faith in Jesus Christ. But somebody
that, maybe somebody that is a believer, they've put their
trust in Christ and they wonder, you know, am I saved or am I
not saved? You know, there's some evidences
of salvation and I would just want to give them briefly to
us this morning. And this would answer the question,
am I on my way to heaven or am I on my way to hell? And one
would be the witness of God's spirit. Romans 8, 16. It says,
the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we're the
children of God. When somebody gets saved, God
does a wonderful thing. God moves in. Jesus says this, behold,
I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. When somebody gets saved, God
moves in. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. And so, there ought to be in
our hearts, if we've accepted Christ as our Savior, and by
the way, a lot of times people get saved and they put their
trust in Jesus, and there is a feeling associated with it.
It's like a burden was lifted. It's like a joy came inside that
wasn't there before, and maybe they don't know how to express
it, but what it is, it's the Spirit of God. moving into the
heart of that person. The Spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. An appetite
for God's Word is another evidence of somebody's salvation. Jeremiah
15, 16. Says, thy words were found, and
I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing
of mine heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah said, when I got the
word of God, it was like a feast to my soul. I like what missionary
David O'Gorman, he's Irish, but got saved and went off to Bible
college, came back and pastored his church, but he was an unsaved
businessman. in his 20s and married and he
and his wife recognized something was missing in their life. They
started seeking after God and he said, before I got saved,
it was like reading a phone book. But after I got saved, it was
like reading a love letter. So all of a sudden, the word
of God begins to speak. And some of you might think, you know, if
they begin to doubt their salvation, am I saved or am I not? Do you
have the witness of the spirit of God? Is there an appetite
for the things of God? Can you understand the word of
God? Does it make sense to you? 1 Corinthians 2.14 says, but
the natural man, the man that's not saved, receiveth not the
things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
And that means this, without the help of God, I can't understand
it. Now, before I get saved, I got to have the spirit of God
open my mind. Okay, I get enough to understand salvations by faith
in Christ alone. I received Christ as my savior,
but what happens gloriously after somebody gets saved is all of
a sudden they begin to understand the scriptures. It begins to
make sense. So it's not like listening to
a foreign language or something that is totally abstract and
that you can't relate to, but it's something that begins to
impact every area of your life. And then as well, there's a love
for God's people. John 13, 35 says, by this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. You know, that familial love
that we spoke about recently, I think on Wednesday night, that
would be in our hearts and lives. We go, wow, it's just great to
get together as a family. because God's brought us in as
a child of God into his family. And then lastly, and we'll end
here this morning, is a changed life. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says,
therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things
are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Somebody might look at their life and they think, how could
I become a Christian? I mean, I know that in my life there
is X, Y, Z of things that are against God. I don't feel like
I can change that. I don't feel like I can make
that change. But the thing is this, when somebody
gets saved, they gotta be willing to identify those things and
say, that's not right, that's against God, and I understand
that's sin, and I repent of that and put my trust in Jesus Christ.
But I can't, I don't feel like I have the power to change that.
But when somebody gets saved, the spirit of God comes inside,
and guess what? You get changed. Somebody doesn't have to reform
themselves to get saved, but somebody that genuinely trusts
Christ is gonna have a transformed life, not because they have somehow
conformed. but because the Spirit of God
working in their heart has transformed their life by the power of God.
And so these things are vital that we have these in our life.
Got to put on that helmet of salvation so that I can speak to others
and say, you know, I just want to tell you about my God. I know
I'm saved. I know I'm saved. I've got Jesus Christ as my Savior.
And you can too. That helmet of salvation is vital.
Or Satan will say, what side are you on? You don't even know
if you're on God's side. But praise God, let's put on
that helmet. So I look at these things because, and I'm sorry,
the introduction to Saul, we never got to Saul, okay? But
Saul didn't do that. Saul didn't put on the armor,
and so he was a defeated Christian. Satan had his way in Saul's life,
and God help us to stand with the victory that's ours through
Christ. All right, let's pray and commit this to the Lord.
Father, we thank you. for the time and the Word of
God this morning. And Father, it's brief. Sunday
school gets cut off sometimes, and we've got to move on to the
morning service. But I pray, Father, would you
water the truth that was shared in this time. And God, we're
just thankful for each one that's here. It's great to see Tima
able to come this morning with our granddaughter, and that's
great. What a blessing. And thank you again that Cameron's
here. But may the Spirit of God just
bless the Word of God to our hearts and encourage us in you.
It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Lesson 15, the Life of David
Series The Life of David
Saul was a soldier without his spiritual armour on.
| Sermon ID | 410221413201187 |
| Duration | 37:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | 1 Samuel 19 |
| Language | English |
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