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to us. Thank you. That was good. I like that. Amen. That was always
amazing me how people can do that. That's I'm, I know three
chords on a guitar, but you got to tell me when to switch somebody
else and I could follow along that you you know, my musical
efficiency is the fault of one of your members. My sister didn't leave any. She's
good at music. I'm not. And I still think there's
something about that. But anyway, it's good to be here. I enjoyed the kids singing. Didn't
they do a great job? That was wonderful. You parents,
you got to come to practice and all that. You're doing the right
thing. That'll pay dividends huge down the road. Let me just
encourage you. You're doing the right thing.
Keep it up. Amen. You won't believe the difference
that'll make. Those kids need to have that memory of standing
up in God's house and singing those songs and being a blessing. Those are seeds that can grow
mighty oaks down the road. Amen. But I enjoyed the music
tonight. I enjoyed being here. I came to you to pray for your
preacher. Prayin' we hear good reports
from Oklahoma, amen. Where the wind comes rushin'
down the plain. I thought that was funny. Anyway,
we'll pray and get home safe tomorrow. John 10, find John
chapter 10, would you do that? And we're gonna do a little different
kind of a message tonight. John chapter number 10, there's
a, familiar verses we want to read verse 27-29 you will recognize
those I'm sure. And then I want to talk about
a vitally important doctrine I'm convinced in the Bible. It's
good to be saved isn't it? We're in God's house, God's Word,
among God's people. I'm right where I want to be.
I believe this is where God wants me to be. I like that. I don't
want to go anywhere else. I think it's right. If you can
backslide and it not bother you, something's wrong, amen? I wouldn't
want to be sitting somewhere else right now. I'd feel guilty
for not being in church. I just would. glad to be here. John chapter number 10 and verse
number 27 Jesus is speaking and He said, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. Jesus said, I and my Father are
one. Let's pray together can we do
that? Lord we thank you for your Word. Thank you that we have
it Lord in our language and preserved. And Lord I pray that Lord we
thank you for the music of God and all the practice and work
that goes into it. And Lord the blessing that it
was. Lord I pray now you'd bless the preaching of your Word tonight. Help me to say what I should.
And Lord, if there's something I shouldn't say, I pray you'd
help me not to even think about it. Lord, anything I should say,
I pray you'd give me the courage and the resolve to say it. Lord,
I pray that together, as we center around your word, you'd speak
to all of our hearts. And Lord, starting behind this pulpit,
Lord, any changes in my life that need to be made, help me
willing to recognize it and be willing. Lord, let us leave here
more in love with you than we were when we came in. Bless Brother
Burke and Miss Stacy, and Lord, bring them home safe. Lord, I
pray you'd put angels on the bumpers of the car, and just
Lord, bring them back to us. Lord, we pray again for every
need that's been voiced today, and Lord, surely in a crowd like
this, there's many burdens on hearts, and Lord, some unspoken
requests, but Lord, it's so important for that one that bears that
burden, and Lord, I pray that you'd perform your will Lord
for your glory and then for our own good. Lord after a while
when these lights are out and this is a quiet and still place
I pray you will have been pleased with what's happened here. Lord
again we pray for the peace of Jerusalem and Lord you said that
when we saw these things happening to lift our heads And Lord, help
us to not be discouraged, but Lord, to be encouraged. And Lord,
and remember that what a blessing it is to know that you have everything
under control. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Wonderful to be saved. You say, could anything be better? I think so. I think to be saved
and know it. To be sure. We'll talk about
that a little bit later, if Lord willing. You say, well nothing
could be better than that. Maybe this, what about being
saved and being sure and knowing that it's forever? Knowing that
you cannot, now that's about as good as you're going to get.
How in the world could anything be better than that? There might
not be a Bible doctrine that's down through, at least in my
years, has been argued more, fussed about, and tore up more
family get-togethers. than arguing about the doctrine
of the eternal security of the blood-bought child of God. Many,
many an argument has gone on that one. Some people call it
a Baptist doctrine. Well, if it's a Bible doctrine,
it's a Baptist doctrine. If it's not a Bible doctrine,
it ain't a Baptist doctrine. Amen? There are a few people besides
Baptists that will hold some Presbyterians because they're
so Calvinistic, kind of lean that way. some Grace Brethren
that believe in eternal security. But by and large, by and large
a lot of those Grace Brethren they are Baptists and don't know
it it's just they need to quit drowning people when they baptize
them. They go three times forward have you ever seen it? Well I'll
talk about it later, all right. But anyway there's not a, it's
called a Baptist doctrine because Baptists believe it but it's
not the reason we believe it is because it is taught in the
Bible. Some people call it once in grace, always in grace. Once
saved, always saved. Call it whatever you want to.
I call it this, that person that's truly been born again will never,
ever perish. They're saved by the grace of
God. They're sealed until the day of redemption. And I believe
that it is taught in the Word of God. It's vitally important. If you're not sure on this thing,
if you don't get it nailed down, Do you remember when they made
Caesar Creek Lake? I don't know if some of you guys
fish and ladies too probably. I don't know if you remember
back when they built the bridge on 73. That's more kind of up
my end of the woods than yours. But I was amazed when they built
that thing. Caesar Creek's a real deep lake.
It's the deepest inland lake in Ohio. It's real, real deep. And when they built that bridge,
because it was so high, They put nets under it, I mean big
old, they weren't trying to catch fish, I mean big old nets and
they stuck poles out and the reason was it was so high and
it was so far down and the wind and everything, that the workers,
they were just kind of trying to hang on all the time. And
they weren't getting any work done. They finally decided, we
got to make them, they got to be safe, or all they're going
to do is sit there and hold poles all day. And they put those nets,
and they do that not only at Caesar Creek, but many bridges
and so forth in construction in America, so that someone wasn't
always just trying to hold on. They could go ahead and do the
work and get it done, build what they needed to build. And child
of God, if you're forever more trying to hold on, making sure
you don't end up being lost again, that's about all you're ever
going to do. You're not likely to do much else of anything.
You're going to be trying so hard to hang on. Heard about
a little boy and his daddy, and they were crossing the street,
and they was holding hands, and the daddy said, hang on, son.
And just as it kind of started, a truck come around the corner,
just going a little too fast. And the daddy kind of picked
him up, you know, and took two or three steps real quick, and
the little fellow's toes was kind of hitting, you know, and
set him up on the sidewalk. The little guy looked up and
said, I held on. And you listen to me, it's God holding on, amen? He's the one that's holding on,
and I'm glad that we're there. If you don't, when someone gets
off on this, and I'm not trying to give you ammunition to beat
Uncle Huey at the next family picnic. That's not my point,
it's really not. We got something better to do
than that, amen? But I wanna get it settled in your heart
once and for all, now and forever, no matter what anybody else tells
you, that what God starts, he finishes. Amen. You ladies ever
have a husband that doesn't finish something? Isn't that irritating? They start something, they quit.
He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He finishes
what he starts, amen? And I'm glad for that. If you're
off on eternal security, you're not gonna be right on grace. You're going to have a view of
grace that's not really scripture. You're going to be off on faith.
You're going to be off on mercy. You're going to be off on the
atonement. You're going to be off on the advocacy of Christ.
You're going to be off on the high priestly work of Christ. You're going to be off on God's
chasing of his children. You're going to be off on a ton
of things if you're off on this matter of how that salvation
is of the Lord. It's of Christ. It's not of me
and it's not of you. And he gets the glory for it.
He does the saving and he does the keeping. Amen? It's not me
and it's not you. I know there's, I've heard all,
I've heard, I don't know all the arguments, but I've sure
heard a bunch of them. There are many people that want
to fuss about this. It just seems so inconceivable
to them that someone can get saved and then not be perfect
and then die and go to heaven. But you know, friend, if you're
going to tell me that you're living perfect and that's why
you're still saved, there's some verse that says something about
if any man said that he has no sin, he's a liar and the truth
isn't in him. You know, that kind of comes to mind, you know.
And the whole truth is, you listen to me. If you think you're perfect,
ask your wife. She probably has an insight on
that. She's probably seen some chinks in the armor. Ask your
husband. the whole truth is we're all just sinners saved by grace
and the whole truth is, is that we're working on this thing called
sanctification and the whole truth is, is that perfect sanctification
will come when we're walking on the street of gold and not
until then. We're still growing, we're still
striving. I've heard arguments like this,
preacher, eternal security's not even in the Bible. It don't
even say that. That's true, that's true. you
get your strong concordance out and you look up eternal security
and you will not find it. Neither will you find Trinity,
neither will you find vicarious death, neither will you find
substitutionary atonement, neither will you find omniscience or
omnipotence, neither will you find the word rapture, it is
not in your Bible. But yet all of those things are
clearly taught in the Bible, amen? Same thing with the eternal
security of the believer. You will not find eternal security
of the believer, but Ephesians 3 talks about the eternal purpose
of God. 1 John 5, 13 says that he has eternal life. Hebrews
5, 3, his salvation is called eternal salvation. Hebrews 9,
12, he has been redeemed to an eternal redemption. Hebrews 9,
15, he is assured of an eternal inheritance. 1 Peter 5, 10, He
is called to an eternal glory. Sounds pretty eternally secure
to me, amen? And you're saying, but, but,
but, but, but, but, you're not saying it, but this is what some
people do. They're saying, but, but, but, but, but, that's talking
about in heaven. No, it ain't. No, it's not. When someone walks
this out or gets saved out on Saul's visitation or missionary
you're supporting, they trust Christ, they turn from their
sin, they turn to Christ that they believe what the Bible says,
died for them was bread and rose again. The Bible says, for whosoever
shall call upon the Lord shall be saved. They refuse to call
God a liar. They say, well, if it says that,
then it's true. And on the authority of the word of God, they invite
Christ into their heart. What happens? Well, lots of stuff
happens beyond this message tonight. One of them is, is that God gives
to them eternal life. Now, if they do pretty good for
about six months and then blow it, they did not get eternal
life, they got six month life. If they did okay for about three
years and then they lose it, they did not get eternal life.
What did they get? They got, what did I just say?
Three year life. You know what, people that don't
believe in term security, you know what they're thinking? I just got
to get to heaven. If I can just, you know, throw
another $5 over the plate, honey, you know, and, you know, don't
listen to that song on the radio and, you know, got to keep my
haircut right, you know, and all of that stuff. And maybe
someday, whoo, if I could just get in heaven, I'll slam those
portal gates behind me and go, whoo, made it. Oh, really? Wasn't there a bunch of angels
that was in heaven? And they sinned? And where are they now? They're in the devil's hell.
Why? Because salvation is not in a
place, salvation is in a person. And even if you could get to
Heaven and lose your salvation, the Bible says nothing about
that. But salvation, you say, how do you know that you're saved?
You're not there yet. Because it's not in a place, it's in
a person, and that person is the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, amen? And it's in Him, and it's in Him alone. That's
why you can read your Bible, and a Christian, look at me,
understand me, listen close. You read your Bible from Genesis
to the end of Revelation, and you will not find one time where
anybody ever got saved twice. Not once, but you'd think that
old Peter, I'm talking about Peter this morning, lied, you
know, three times, big old bald face lied about the Lord of all
things, you know, at a time when the Lord, you know, when he could
have said, I'm standing with him, yes, I know, but he lied.
We don't read about him getting saved again. We read about him
weeping. We read about him getting right
with God. David, David, we all know about David. All we think
about is his sin. That's really not fair. Hold
up a white handkerchief, put a dot on it and hold it up. What
do you see? A dot. Well, what about the handkerchief?
We do that to David's life. There's much about it that is
good, but we always center in on that sin. But after that sin,
he didn't ask for God to save him again, but he did say, restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. He needed that. In your Bible
there are two kinds of promises. There's conditional and there's
unconditional. It's real simple and both of
them are wonderful and both of them are of God and it's not
that hard to understand. 2 Chronicles 7, 14, if my people
which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and
seek my face and turn from their wicked ways will I hear from
heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Isn't
that a wonderful promise? Well our land, nobody here will
say our land is healed and America is having national revival. Our
heart breaks when we look at our country. You love this country?
We redefined marriage but God hadn't. We know that a little
baby, born or unborn, is a little baby, amen? And when our nation
is wrong on those things, it breaks our heart. Well, we can't
say to God, well, God, you didn't keep your word. You said you'd
hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land. God
didn't say that. God said he would do that if
his people, which are called by his name, would humble themselves
and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways.
still a good promise and God will still keep His end of the
bargain if America would keep her end of the bargain and call
upon Him and turn from our wicked ways. You see what I'm saying?
God's not failed there. There's an if, there's an if,
God said, if you will do this then I will do that. And that's
a conditional promise. There are also unconditional
promises. I think about watching the news
last night about the Jerusalem. I mean some of you all are just
like me you've been there. I mean I've looked at places
where I've stood and those bombs and the missiles going overhead
and thinking about you know, and just all of the, you say
you reckon Iran is going to wipe out Israel? God said when you
get rid of the sun and the moon and the tides you can get rid
of Israel. As long as there is sun and moon and tides and Don't
mess with Israel, God, God, amen, you know. Now there could be
some rough days ahead and Jesus said, when you see these, you
say, you're talking about this a lot, it's just on my heart.
You know what Jesus said, when you see these things begin to
happen, to lift your head. I used to think he meant, look
for me, I'm coming, like you know, that's probably part of
it, but I think there's more to it. I think the Lord might
have known that when these days finally got here, we could be
so discouraged we might have our head all down. and kind of
sad, and crowds aren't as big as they used to be, and people
aren't getting saved like they used to be, and sins flourishing, and all
of that. Jesus said, lift your head up.
Lift your head. Amen. We're still on the winning
side. This is still all under control.
One thing God ain't never said is oops. Amen. It's all right. He's got it. Amen. God's got
this. Go home, go to sleep, go to sleep
in the arms of Jesus, and if the trumpet sounds, then hallelujah.
If it don't sound, hallelujah too. Amen, right? Amen. Now, Genesis 12, a lot
of this fussing over there, of course, is about who owns the
land. Bible says, now the Lord, and this is 12-1, this is repeated
several times in the Bible, the Abrahamic Covenant. And the Lord
said unto him, unto Abram, get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house unto a land that
I will show thee, I will make of thee a great nation. There
ain't no if, no if there. There's no if. God said, I'll
make of you a great nation. There's no if. I will bless thee. There's no if. I'll make of you
a great nation. I'll bless thee. I'll make thy
name great. go all over the world even in
false religions there is an admiration for the name of Abraham even
when they got their doctrine wrong. And thou shalt be a blessing,
name, land, seed and blessing. God made a promise to Abraham
and to the people of Israel, to the Jew, God said to us, I'll
bless them to bless thee and curse them to curse thee too,
amen. When America waffles on Israel, it makes me nervous,
it just does, as an American, we need to stop that. But that
is an unconditional promise. I will bless thee, I'll make
thy name great, I'll give thee a land, I'll be a blessing. God
said, I'm doing it, it's done. There's no clause, there's no
fine print, there's no yeah but maybe, it ain't there. Name,
land, seed, blessing, God will be true to his word, that's as
sure as happening as if it already did because the one that inhabits
eternity promised. Back to John. My sheep hear my
voice, I know them, they follow me, I give unto them eternal
life. Does anybody find the if in there anywhere? And they shall
never perish. Did anybody find the if there
anywhere? Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. Does anybody find the if there
or a clause or a maybe? No, what does that mean? Unconditional,
God said it, he will do it, not if we do this or this or this
or that. God said, my sheep hear my voice, I know them. It doesn't
say if they follow me. It doesn't say that, they do
follow. A blood-bought child of God that's
truly born again, you get something as big as God in you, if it don't
change, You listen to me, if being born didn't change my life,
I'd change my religion, amen? You get God inside of you and
everything that God said would happen, you go on and nothing's
different about you, you don't have the salvation that God talks
about. There's a lot of false starts and professions but not
possessions and people never truly born again and then people
look at them and say, well, see, they lost their salvation. Well,
if they aren't saved, they didn't lose their salvation, they never
had it. They just never had it. You're judging. No, I'm not.
You're judging them to be saved and lost. I'm just saying the
Bible describes the saved person as one that follows the shepherd.
Doesn't mean we always follow or that we never miss, that we
live a perfect life. No, the Bible tells us that's
not gonna happen. But someone that doesn't follow at all, doesn't
pray at all, doesn't honor God at all, does not acknowledge
God in his life at all, acts just like a lost person and lives
that way on and on and on and on and on. You're talking about
a lost person. You just are. I'm sorry, you
just. I don't know, I have preached
in my life hundreds. I mean, literally hundreds of
our kids were at funerals. I remember our kids could barely
talk. They'd rattle around the back
seat, and I'd pull up to Swart Funeral Home. I did two or three
funerals a week, every week for years. I said, Daddy, do you work at
church or at a funeral home? She didn't know. It was always
over there, you know. And you get the phone call. Hello. Preacher, you know. Oh, and so he's passed away.
I'm so sorry. Will you do the funeral? I'll be glad to if I
can help. What did they say? So often I don't know. My uncle
died, my cousin, whatever. Were they Christians? It's heartbreaking. Well, he liked to watch Billy
Graham. Well, I looked at this Bible.
He had this verse circled, so I'm pretty sure. I'm telling
you, that's what you get. Well, he was a man of faith.
He didn't go to church, but he was a believer. Well, Brother
Terrell, can't someone not go to church and be a believer?
Yes, absolutely. I get that. But I want to tell
you something. nothing else you need to live
for God and let your yea be nay and your nay be nay and serve
God so that you don't leave a family to walk by your casket someday
with any doubt whatsoever about where you are at and meeting
you again someday, amen? Let your testimony be clear. Let
your yea be yea and nay be no. But let them know that. I'll
tell you something else about eternal security. I'm glad to know that
people are eternally saved because those people whose pictures are
at our house, people that Diana and I know and love, I'm glad
I don't have to worry about them messing up that last day. Well,
couldn't I? Maybe they got the feeling bad
and swung at the nurse or something. You know, you'd always have that
little doubt somewhere. But no, they're saved eternally.
It's an eternal life. No ifs, they hear His voice,
they know Him, they follow Him. God help us to understand that.
Have you ever seen the little illustration about where you're
at? Let's pretend this is you. It's
really a quarter. Anybody says you're not worth
a quarter, I say you are, okay? This is you. And when you get
saved, you get under what? The blood. So this is the blood. So when you get saved, you're
under the blood. Jesus said, no man is able to
pluck them out of my hand. So you're under the blood and
you're in the hand of Jesus. And no man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. This is what our life looks like
hidden in Christ Jesus, the Bible says. Now the devil ain't going
to get through the father, he tried that and he got kicked
out of heaven. He's not going to get through the son because
he tried that and Jesus come up out of the grave. and he ain't
gonna get under the blood. If he got under there, he'd get
saved himself. So you look at where you're at.
How could you be anywhere more secure or more certain than under
the blood and in the hand of Jesus, under the hand of the
Father? That's how God describes your position. That's about as
secure as you are ever gonna get. Amen? Yes, sir. I'm glad for that. I'm happy
for that. There's a Satan, somebody says, well, but you can jump
out yourself. No, nor any other creature, the
Bible says. And a little girl says, I could never come because
I'm part of the hand anyway. We are his body. She kind of had a point, amen.
We'll let that one go for now. Satan can't get at you. Now are
you in the body of Christ and members particularly. You say, Brother Terrell, but
what are the verses? There are literally, Christian
listen to me, there are literally hundreds. There really are. I
mean there really are. People bow up at this doctrine
because it just sounds too good to be true. How in the world
can you really be certain, sure, ironclad, done deal, because
God said so. because God said so. For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so he
should not perish, but have everlasting life. You can read John 6, John
14, I've got so many. John 17, Jesus said, keep through
faith in the name of those whom thou hast given me. The Lord's
Prayer is not, you know, what's normally spoken of as the Lord's
Prayer. Father which art in heaven. The
Lord's Prayer is John 17 that's the Lord's Prayer. And in that
Lord's Prayer Jesus prayed to the Father He said, I pray that
those whom thou hast given me be with me and share in the glory
that was ours before the foundation of the world. What does that
mean? That means that you are a gift of from the Father to
the Son you are saved. And that Jesus prayed that you
and I who have been saved by the blood of Christ one day would
share in the glory that the Father and the Son have had through
all of eternity. Jesus has prayed that. Jesus
bats 1,000 on prayer, did you ever notice that? Amen. And that's
what He's praying. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians
1, 8 and 9, He shall also confirm us unto the end that we might
be blameless. The Bible says in Ephesians,
if any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer first Corinthians.
but he himself shall be saved. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which
I have committed unto him against that day. The Bible says in the
book of Hebrews, Jesus said, I will never leave thee or forsake
thee. Hear about the little girl She
was time to go to bed and her mama said, honey, it's time for
you to go to bed. And she was afraid to go up there because
it was kind of dark. And you know, she was the first
one upstairs that evening. And, and, and she said, I'm afraid. And mama said, honey, just go
on up there. It's okay. God's up there. God's
up there. Just go on. He goes up there. He run in the
room. She jumped out of the covers,
pulled him up over her head. And she said, God, if you are
here, don't you say nothing. You'll scare me to death. But
you listen. He said he would never leave
us or forsake us. Never. Sounds like eternal security
to me. 1 Peter, just read 1 Peter, it
just never stops. Jude 1, Jude 24, an inheritance
incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away. Salvation is not a probation,
it's not a chance, it's not a perhaps, it's not a shot at it, it's not
a maybe, it is a done deal. Done deal. God is the author,
God is the keeper. Someone said, if a man was in a boat and going across and
he falls out, a man might come by and another boat comes by
and he says, you should have been more careful. He's just
a critic. Another man comes by in a boat
and this poor guy's out there and he's drowning. And another guy
jumps out and he says, watch this. And he gets out and he
does the backstroke and swims around his boat and hops up in.
He's a teacher, but that's all that he is. Another man comes
by and he pulls him up on the side of his boat and he goes
about a hundred yards. He decides he don't like him and he kicks
him out. He's a probation officer. That's all he is. But you ever
hear the old song, I was sinking deep in sin. Far from the peaceful
shore, very deeply stained within, thinking to rise no more. But
the master of the sea heard my despairing cry from the waters
lifted me. Now safe am I. Let's sing. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help,
love lifted me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help,
love lifted me. And God will always love you.
God will always. Parents, you all doing a good
job bringing them kids here. And I don't know a parent here
that's ever said this. And so don't get your feathers
up over here. But let me encourage you, don't
ever, ever, ever, ever tell your kid if they do something bad,
God won't love them anymore. Don't ever say that. To my knowledge,
none of you have. But don't ever. Because His love
is unending, amen? Unending. There's so many things.
I wrote this down one time, listen to this. Just get, you see salvation,
it's, one of the great illustrations of salvation is the ark. You
know, pitch within and without, be of sin the double cure, save
from wrath, make me pure. You know, they might have kind
of messed up a little bit, maybe even stumbled inside the ark,
but they never fell out. And when Jesus, when God called
him, he said to come into the ark. He didn't put eight broom
poles on the side and say, try to hold on. That's exactly what, so many
of them yell, hang on. Nobody could, they say, well,
and, and, and, and, and by the way, if you could lose it by
sinning, how, how much sin? How much? They don't know. Well, if God is perfect, and
He is, and nothing that defiles shall enter therein, and that's
what it says, then the only thing that mathematically, scientifically
or whatever, logically, the only thing that could possibly make
sense is what? Unless you're going to accuse
God of not being as holy as he said he's been, I don't think
we want to go there. He's perfect. Nothing that, N-O-T-H-I-N-G,
nothing that he follows to the other end. And if we would sin
and lose our salvation, submit yourself to every ordinance
of man for the Lord's sake. Most Baptists I know have a tough
time 25 miles an hour. You didn't submit. Submit yourself to every ordinance. Keep off the grass. 55 miles an hour. Most of us don't. Whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. You have the faith of a grain
of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, be thou removed and cast into
the sea and it'd be done. I've got a problem here. I've
never moved a mountain in my life. Is my faith all that it ought
to be? No. And I have an idea, I'm not the
only one in this room that needs to improve in that category.
Is that okay? No, it's not. We're falling short. We missed the mark. That's one
of the definitions of sin, we missed the mark. you say, do
you answer everything perfectly? Is our prayer what it ought to
be? Is our Bible study what it ought to be? Husbands do we love
our wives as we should? If you don't love her more today
than you ever have you don't love her near like you ought to. Amen,
that's true. Wives are you in submission to
your husband? Or do you kind of take that $10
and stick it over in the side and I might need it later and
he don't need to know about that. I'm not mad at you. You all looking
at me so somber. I'm just saying. We'd all be lost. We'd all be,
amen? It'd be over. It would be over. Now, we're not, you know, Jesse
James and all that, I get that. But yet, I'm telling you, if
you lose because you sin, then the only thing that makes sense
is one sin. And if you use the Bible as your
definition, and we don't kind of use the good old boy, well,
he's a pretty good guy. No, no, no, if we use the Bible
definition of sin, I'm telling you, every one of us mess up
every day. day. We would be lost every day. Unless God was doing the saving
and God was doing the keeping, amen? I talked this morning about
God judged our sins at Calvary. God deals with us as whom the
Lord loves, every son whom He receives. That Hebrews passage,
any bastards are not sons if you don't have the judgment of
God. Why is that? Because God chastens His children. And when that judgment comes,
when we do mess up, then that judgment comes into our life,
the spanking, if you will, or the correction of the Father,
which is however He chooses to correct. But that correction,
the Bible, by definition, the Bible is not saying, see, you're
lost. The Bible is saying, see, you are saved, because He is
disciplining His child. You're still His child, that's
why the discipline comes. Amen. And I'm, I John says, when
we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. The old devil says,
see there he's sinned, you know the wages of sin is death, the
soul that sins it shall surely die. Aren't you glad that we
have a lawyer that comes around and puts his arm around us and
says, Father that's true but I died for that sin 2,000 years
ago on Calvary and Father this one's mine, amen. If we confess our sin, John said,
John, pretty good guy at the Bible, amen? Wrote five books
of the Bible, lengthwise, probably as much or more than Paul. I've
just never completely been convinced that Barnabas didn't write Hebrews,
but we'll let that go for now, all right? But John's a great
guy, and John said, if we confess our sins, the apostle John, the
one that leaned on his breast, did you ever think he leaned
on his breast? That means he hurt his heartbeat. God gives
us people that still know how to lean on his breast and listen
to his heart beat. His heart still beats for bus
kids. His heart still beats for people that are in trouble. His
heart still beats for people that are lost. We just got to
learn how to listen, amen? But that John, that's so close
to, and he said, he was saying, I'm not living perfect. If we
confess our, that's not a license to sin. but it ought to be a
behoovement to stay as right with God. A.W. Tozer said we'll
have revival if we start keeping short lists. We wait till we
get a list about this long and say maybe I better do some repenting
with God. We need to repent at the first
one. Keep a short list, amen? I'm glad that I know that I know
that I know that I'm saved, amen? I'm glad that it's eternal. We have eternal life. It's not
something that you're going to get the judgment seat of Christ.
It's not something you'll get once you get into heaven. It's
not something you'll get, you know, when you take your last
breath and then you get it. When you got saved, you got eternal
life inside and it's there. Boy, you know, we ought all go
to the Pentecostals at least once and kind of take a little
shouting lesson, and then we come back and have Baptist church.
It might be a little worksite. We got eternal life. It'll never die. It'll be there
10 billion years from now. There it is. I'm glad for that. Here tonight, you may be saying,
Brother Terrell, that all sounds kind of logical, but the whole
truth is, preacher, I'm not so worried about having eternal
life for years, I'm wondering if I got it now. That happens. That happens. A woman told D.L. Moody one day, said, I've been
saved 20 years and I've never had a doubt. He said, I doubt
if you've ever been saved. Remember when they sent word to Jesus, talked
out here, do we look for another? Jesus said, what went you out
to see? The reeds shaking with the winds had never been a man
born a woman greater than John. You remember that? He didn't
fuss at him. He loved him. He knew, he knew
that. And God knows that we're not perfect. God understands
that. If you're doubting your salvation,
you don't have to live that way. You don't have to live that way.
That's the April 24th, Diane and I got married April 24th,
1981. Rhonda sang Amazing Grace at
our funeral, at our wedding. At our wedding. Whoo, that was
a bad one. Someday you can sing at our funeral
too. And we found out in 40 some years of marriage, his grace
is amazing. Isn't it amazing? I remember, you say he's had
a long, well, what is it? It's 81 to 19 and 24 or whatever
that is, 43 or whatever. that I remember on vacation we
went down to Kentucky, through Kentucky, and I decided I want
to stop by and see my grandfather. He's the one that made the peaches
we talked about, or opened the peaches. So we stopped there
at Grandma's old cabin on Buckhorn Creek. And I mean, I spent a
lot of time there and, you know, grew up as a kid, went swimming
and all that. And I mean, I was looking forward to seeing my
grandpa. We pull up, but there's a creek, and then you go to the
cabin. There's a swinging bridge. I'm
preaching over your heads here? I mean, I thought it was great.
I used to sit on it and shoot crawdads, you know,
a little single shot .22, you know. I think I was in the first
grade. Times was different back then.
You don't give kids guns now, but, you know, I'd sit there
and shoot them crawdads. Well, I got out in the middle of that
thing, and Diane's So I decided, well, she's not
enjoying this. And I thought, I'll help her. I said, well,
the fun part is you can actually make it swing. She's jumping
up and down. She's, stop it! And her hands are white. She's holding on to them. And
I saw she was really terrified. I said, maybe I ought to stop. She's not enjoying this at all. Now listen to me. I was having
a wonderful time. I jumped up and down on that
thing. It had big old telephone poles on both banks, you know,
for the posts. It had steel cables, inch steel
cables, you know, strung across, one-half inch oak boards. You're not, that bridge is gonna
be there. I mean, it's safe as it can be. I mean, you know, there's, you're
good, you're good. I had great faith in the bridge.
Diana had little faith in the bridge. I was completely confident. She,
not so much. I was enjoying it. She was not
enjoying it at all. We might have had a funeral there
if I hadn't stopped. But anyway, here's the point. She did not have near the maturity
of faith that I had in it because of the experience that I'd had
and the history and all that. But she was trusting the bridge
and the bridge alone to get her to the other side. She was not
trying to trust a submarine or a helicopter Lord knows she wasn't
trusting me, I mean it had nothing to do with that. She was, her
faith was immature, it wasn't developed, she did not have memories
like I had, but she was trusting the bridge and the bridge alone
to get across and she had stepped out on the bridge and the bridge
alone to get across and she had no other plan than that, except
to hit me, but she had no other plan than that to get her open. You know the Bible said, you
know, for by grace you're saved through faith. A lot of times
what people do though is they try to figure out how much faith. Four pounds and three ounces
or 36 inches or two bushels or, there's nothing like that in
the Bible. It's not so much great faith in God as it is faith in
a great God. He was trusting the bridge and
the bridge, you are doubting your salvation it is probably
because maybe others seem to have more faith than you or whatever,
maybe they do. But I would ask you, are you
trusting Christ and Christ alone? That night I was on a visitation
one day and we stopped by to see this lady and she began to
cry and she said, I'm just not sure I'm safe. She had grown
up in church. I mean she was there every Sunday morning, every
Sunday night, every Wednesday night, you name it. And she had
gotten married, had a little And she began to cry and she's
talking to dad. She said, Brother Hudson, I'm
just, I guess my faith, I don't know if it's enough. I said,
I'm not sure. Dad always had the right word
to say. He said, would you take a million dollars to deny Christ
right now and say you want nothing to do with Jesus or the Bible
or the plan of salvation? Would a million dollars do it?
And she said, well, no, not at all. He said, well, that's a
million dollars worth of faith, then that's a pretty good start. Amen? Trust in Christ and Christ
alone. Old Spurgeon said, devil comes
up to me and says, you're probably not even saved, you've messed
it up like everything else, and you don't know what you're talking
about, and you're just confused. And Spurgeon would say, well, you
know, I do mess stuff up, devil, but I don't wanna talk about
me, I wanna talk about Jesus. And he said, the devil runs off. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. If you try to look at yourself,
You're always going to think I'm the one that thought I turned
the coffee pot off. Found out I didn't. I'm the one that was
sure it was blue and it turned out it was red. And by looking
at yourself it will only engender doubt. You look at Jesus and
when you look at Jesus all of a sudden your faith begins to
swell up and thank God I'm not depending upon me. I like what
an old preacher said, I would not trust the best 15 minutes
I've ever lived to take me to heaven. My best 15 minutes I'm
sure is probably somewhere when I was asleep, amen? I would not
trust my best 15 minutes, I mean that. But when he shall come
with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found dressed in his
righteousness alone. Faultless to stand before the
throne. So therefore salvation, when we know we're saved, And
then we understand, we have that assurance that there's a God
who will not lie. I heard Kenny Lynch say one day,
he got so frustrated one time, he said, Lord, I've done all
I know to do, and I did what you said to do to get saved,
and if I ain't saved now, it's your fault. I did what you said,
amen? Faith comes by hearing by the
word of God. And I'm glad that 10 billion years from now, I'll
still be saved. I'm still, amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray in Jesus' name,
you Lord speak the hope. We thank you Lord for eternal
salvation.
This Land is Our Land
| Sermon ID | 61024221692697 |
| Duration | 48:07 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Language | English |
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