The primitive Baptists have always believed in the doctrines of grace. Simply stated, we believe that before the world began, God the Father chose a people in what we call the doctrine of election. We believe that Jesus Christ took their sins upon Him on the cross and paid their sin debt in what we call the doctrine of redemption, and we believe that every single one of those people will be born again without the loss of one in what we call the doctrine of regeneration. How depraved were we? Well, it took a Triune God to save you. It took a Trinity to save you. Every one of them had a role to play in the salvation of God's people. You take election out of it, you take the work of the Father out, than Jesus Christ had nobody to redeem, and the Holy Ghost had nobody to regenerate. You take out redemption, you've got to elect people who are born again, but they're yet in their sins. You take out regeneration, you've got to elect people who've been redeemed, but they have no spiritual life in them. The result of all three of those scenarios is that nobody gets to heaven. We're all universalists, everybody's going to the same place, except it's not heaven, it's a place we call hell. Therefore, it took a triune God, a Godhead, a God of power, to save us from the death of depravity, save us to the uttermost, and preserve us that we would never fall from that position. ever again. That's glorious, wonderful, happy news. That's the gospel, what we call the gospel. Just in a nutshell and simply put, that's what we call the gospel or the good news. Now, if you believe what I just said, if you amen, if it makes sense to you, that tells me that you have been born again. you have been redeemed and you were chosen before the world began. Your belief didn't make any of those things happen, but it reveals those things. And when you understand that, that's what we call the process of conversion. Now, you do not have to hear the gospel to go to heaven. You don't have to be converted to go to heaven. We do not believe in gospel regeneration. We believe in Holy Spirit regeneration. That is, the entire work of the Holy Ghost upon us. We were dead and trespassed as sin and sins, but we have been quickened, that means made alive, into divine life. We do not believe in baptismal regeneration. Baptism does not regenerate or give you life. Baptism is an answer to a good conscience toward God. Well, how did you get that good conscience? Sounds to me like you were born again. We don't believe in baptism by proxy. That means that somebody else can be baptized in your name and get you to heaven. I'm sure glad that's not the case. I would hate to leave my salvation up to my brothers. Y'all met my brothers. I would feel very insecure if my salvation depended on my brothers to be baptized or somebody else to be baptized for me. But those things, belief, baptism, may I even say accepting the Lord, are proofs of salvation. Now, what I'd like to talk to you is about the doctrine or the subject of conversion. And I hope I've established to you that belief or the process of being converted from unbelief to belief does not put you in heaven. I hope you all get that. If not, I can talk about that for the next 45 minutes. Silence for consent. All right, we can move on. We all ought to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought to. And if you believe, you ought to be baptized. And if you haven't, then now's a good time. If you want tonight to be a short sermon, then come down the aisle. I promise you I'll stop preaching if somebody joins the church right now. Somebody actually took me up on that in California. I said that, and I kept on talking, and everybody just went, and I looked, and there was somebody right there joining the church. You know what I did? I stopped preaching. That's a good way to end a sermon, for somebody to join the church. If you haven't, I highly encourage you to do it. I'm serious, I'm serious. The best things I've ever done in my life is to join and to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I've never regretted that decision. Conversion is different from the doctrines of grace. It does take grace, but also conversion is is also something that we should follow after. And I want to turn to the book of Acts in the sixteenth chapter, and just let me let the scriptures define conversion. The apostle Paul desired to preach the gospel in several places, but the scriptures said that the Holy Ghost forbade him not. That means that in order to preach the word of the Lord, the Holy Ghost has to bless you to preach it. Finally, he had a dream or a vision. He saw a man of Macedonia who said, come into Macedonia and help us. And so Paul and Silas and Luke and whoever was with him, they immediately went into Macedonia. In Acts chapter sixteen, verse, well let's start in verse twelve, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, and we were in that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. and a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Lydia, on this riverside, was converted to the gospel by the Lord in the preaching of the Apostle Paul. She was already, in my opinion, born again. She met with these people to pray. The Scripture says she worshiped God. She's showing spiritual life. But in the process, the Scripture said, whose heart the Lord opened. Now, I'm not that good a preacher to open your heart. Amen. Everybody should have said amen to that. I'm not that good. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty lousy at that. I'm batting zero. on opening your heart. But the Lord is 100%. When he's involved in it, that's what he does. Now, you have to have a heart for the Lord to open. Now, we read a scripture. Brother Ronald can quote a chapter and verse. I'll let him do it later. But an interesting way of regeneration is presented. and that it's a heart transplant, and it talks about how the Lord takes the stony heart and he puts in a heart of flesh. Now, if you believe the gospel, you've had a heart transplant. If you're born again, you've had a heart transplant. It's 100% successful. You will not reject that heart. You may not even know about it, but it's there. Now the Lord takes that heart and he opens it. Those folks on Pentecost said they were pricked in their heart. It was a heart of flesh. It was a heart that could feel. It was a heart that could be pricked. The Lord opened Lydia's heart. That's the Lord's work. When that happens, we ought to follow up with what Lydia did. What did she do? It said she attended unto the things spoken of of Paul. That means she gave heed. She followed up. She paid attention. She believed it. That's what we ought to do. We ought to believe. We ought to believe. Not because who preaches, but because of what they preach. And the Lord has opened your heart. You ought to be shouting happily. You ought to be saying amen. You ought to confess. You ought to join. You ought to believe it. You ought to live it. You ought to do that. I should. I ought to do that. I ought to do that. Lydia did that. Now, it didn't get her into heaven. She was already going to heaven. You don't have to hear the gospel to get to heaven. It has nothing to do with getting you to heaven. But it has everything to do in bringing heaven on earth. It has everything to do in giving you blessed assurance or the abundant life. The best life you'll ever have is a life of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the truth. We've heard all our life that the truth sets us free. Amen. It does. It releases us from doubt, worry and fear. As I said this morning, everybody's a natural born Arminian. I used to be that way. I used to worry about my eternal salvation. Even though I was born and raised in a primitive Baptist home, I used to worry about it. I had to have my heart open to it. And when that happened, that was a wonderful day in my life. And I shed a burden that I've never worried about. I'm happy that it's the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm happy, I'm glad it is, because if it wasn't, every day of my life I would worry and just be sick with fear. I'm glad my children's salvation is not based upon my excellent parenting skills. I know where they'd be going. As I like to say, if it was, I would chain them to the front row. And I said, you're not leaving here till you get saved. We would be there until they finally confess the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glad that it's not based upon they accepting him, but he accepting them. That's good news. That's that's living grace. That's sleeping grace. That's waking up grace. That's drinking coffee grace. That's dying grace. And that's any kind of grace you can think of. That makes me feel good. That makes me happy. That makes me just, it's all right. It's all right. It's all right. Come what may, it's all right. Thank God for that. We ought to believe it. Why wouldn't anybody want to believe it? Why wouldn't anybody want to believe that it's all of God and none of us? I don't understand that. I don't trust me. I worry about me. But I trust a sovereign, perfect, loving God. And I can rest. And I can rest in hope. Lydia's heart was open, but she attended. She gave heed to these things. And it said, and when she was baptized, how about that? I think she believed it. I think she accepted it. And she was baptized and her household. She besought us, saying, if we have judged me to be faithful in the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. And thus the church at Philippi began in the home of Lydia. This wonderful church that Paul wrote that beautiful letter to began in the home of Lydia. Now, we'll just kind of jump to the end of this chapter and we'll look at an experience that Paul and Silas were put into prison for causing an uproar. They were put into prison. Verse 23, it says, And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely, who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks. What would you do if you were Paul and Silas? Now, y'all been real good to me. You've been real good to my brother. Brother Ronald picked me up at the airport. He has taken me to two of the best restaurants I've ever been to in my life. I'm coming back to Nashville to go to those restaurants. Oh, and to come to Bethel Church, too. Y'all fed me hamburgers tonight. Those were excellent hamburgers. Amen and amen. Those were gospel hamburgers. I mean, to tell you what, somebody worked overtime. You know, I ate one hamburger. If I went up there and got me a second one, would y'all have been upset at me? I don't think anybody would have said, man, you know, you just don't need to do that. You can't do that. I've had people open the door for me in this building. I have nothing to complain about. Matter of fact, I've been treated better than I deserve. I'm going to go home and I'm going to tell everybody, the Lord is in this place. But can you imagine preaching the gospel and being thrown in prison and being beaten and being chained? and thrown underground. I wonder what kind of song we would be singing. But look what Paul and Silas did. And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. Wow, that's amazing. I tell you what, when the Lord is with us, when the Lord blesses us, no matter what tragedy befalls us, we can still sing praises to God. Whatever happens in life, beloved, you're still going to heaven. Whatever happens, salvation is still by grace. Whatever thing you do, and we ought to live a good and honorable life. We ought to do what we're told. We ought to obey the commandments of God. But even though we fail often enough, I'm thankful salvation is by grace and heaven will be the home of every one of his elect without the loss of one. Nobody left behind. He's going to come and get us all. Thank God for that. Thank God for that. That's something to sing about. That's something to sing about. You may have financial problems. You may have some health problems. You may have some personal problems. Whatever the case, my beloved, you're still going to heaven. They're not going to separate you from the love of God. And that's reason enough to sing amazing grace. Matter of fact, Paul and Silas sang out loud. It said the prisoners heard their voices. But we read there was an earthquake and the doors of the prison were open when the jailer saw that he was going to fall on his soul. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul in silence and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Now that sort of sounds a little bit fishy, doesn't it? I think the Apostle Paul finally made a mistake on that one. What if I quit preaching right now? You were hoping I'd say something funny, weren't you? Let's examine what the Apostle Paul said, and still stay in subject and in context. and let us let the Scriptures interpret Scripture. By the way, the Bible is the best interpreter of the Bible. It's the best Bible dictionary you'll ever find. Let's let Scripture interpret Scripture. In between this, Paul and Silas were out there preaching and there was a young lady, a damsel, that was possessed The scripture says, "...with the spirit of divination." We read about this in the 16th verse, "...and it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with the spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God. which show us unto a show unto us the way of salvation. Now we'll get to that in a minute, but you may say, well, man, I don't know what to think about that. But today, I don't know what to think about that. She's possessed with this spirit of divination. What do you mean by that? And now she's saying this thing and she's absolutely right. She's 100% accurate. Paul and Silas were the men of the Lord. They were servants of the most high God. And through their preaching, they're showing the way of salvation. How could that be accurate? How could that be accurate? Let me tell you something, my beloved. When the Lord wants the gospel preached, it will be preached. There was a man by the name of Balaam who was disobeying the Lord. He was going to curse Israel. He's riding on an ass, and he's going down the road, and there is an angel that stopped in front of him. The ass stopped, and Balaam dashed his foot against the fence, or against the wall. This happened three times. The third time, he got up and started striking the animal, started striking. Instead, the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and he said, you know, why are you striking? Why are you striking me? Now, that's a great miracle. I mean, he made an animal speak. But you know what a greater miracle is that Balaam answered the question. I mean, I don't understand that. I mean, if I'm riding a donkey or mule or horse, he starts speaking. After I get over my shock, I'm selling him to Barnum and Bailey Circus for a whole bunch of money. I mean, I'm going to make some money off that thing. Y'all heard of Francis the Talking Mule? Y'all remember that? I'm showing my age. You remember Mr. Ed? I'm showing my age. One of the most profound television shows ever produced, Mr. Ed. Amen and amen. All right. All right. Here's, here's, the Bible always gets there first. Mail them answer. Mail them answer the animal. But you want to know what a greater miracle? That animal saw that angel of the Lord and understood it. Now, if salvation is based upon belief. Then that ass is in heaven right now. Now, you think about that. I mean, when you get the streets of paradise, you're going to see at least one donkey walking around. Now, does that make any sense? Does that violate some scriptures? When what you believe turns you in circles and violates scripture, you need to consider what you believe. All right. That follows, though, in sync with conversion, the Lord opens the heart. No, the Lord opened the mouth. We read when the Lord Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem, it said they spread palm branches and they cried, Hosanna, Hosanna, the son of David. And the scriptures go out of their way to say that the little children were crying that refrain. Priest got a little bit upset, they went to Jesus and said, did you hear what they're saying? You know what Jesus said? Have you not read how the mouths of babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength? The Lord is so powerful he can open the mouth of a baby to preach the gospel, to believe. Amen. He can do that. I know of a baby in his mother's womb that left for joy when the Lord came in. That's a great miracle. The Lord said, if you suppress all this, he said, the very stones will cry out in praises to God. Now, that's my kind of rock music, isn't it? Amen. I mean, you may not like rock music. You'll like that one. Those stones is praising the Lord. I'm going to make a few appointments in Texas for those things. The Lord, the Lord is sovereign. He's powerful. He's powerful. I was at a meeting one time and Sonny Huckabee was preaching in front of me. And he said, now y'all are about to see a great miracle. Dave Montgomery's about to preach. I thought, well, wow, wow. What do you mean by that? I got a little put out by that. He says, I've known Brother Dave for many, many years. He says he's the shyest man I've ever met in my life, and for the Lord to give him the umption to preach is a great miracle. This, like I said, this is not my personality. I'd rather be up there. It's sometimes all I can do to get up here and preach. But I know a man that was. Couldn't hardly talk in Virginia by the name of Joel Marshall, couldn't just talk, couldn't say anything, but when he got up and stand, the Lord gave him a tongue to preach the word of the Lord. We have a lot to be thankful for. The Lord has opened our hearts, if you believe. Thank God. Now, let's attend. Now, this damsel, we read that the devil is also believed. The devil knows the gospel. He can quote scripture. He can probably quote it better than I can. All right, she said, these men are the servants of the Most High God, which show us the way of salvation. In other words, if I may just look at it in this light, what they are preaching is showing us how we're saved. That's what the gospel does. It shows you how you're saved. What must I do to be saved? This was said in the company, what must I do? I believe what they're saying is this, you want to understand the way of salvation. You want to understand how you get there. You want to understand all that. My friends, you believe and you be baptized and it will be close to you and it will be a blessing to you. The gospel, my friends, is not the way. I mean, it shows us the way that we're saved, but as far as how we get there, Jesus is the way. It shows Jesus Christ. Don't think about me. Think about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. How are we saved? Through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the gospel, the true gospel says. That's a good thing to tell people. I like to preach that. I like people to believe it. It's good news. It's the best news I've ever got. It's the best news you'll ever hear. It came from God. It's about God. It's toward God. And yet God blesses us to understand it. And when that happens, my beloved, let us attend. Let us attend. That jailer, that jailer believed. That jailer heard. That jailer believed and was baptized. His whole house was baptized. I believe that there was deliverance brought to that house. I believe they had gospel deliverance. They had time deliverance. They weren't worried about things. They got good news from a far country. They got news from heaven. They got manna. They got the bread of life. They got good stuff. Amen and amen. Amen. This is good stuff. Not because it's me, but it's of the Lord. It's of the Lord. It's of the Lord. I'm blessed to preach. That's even better. That's even better. They preached in that jailer and he, we read a conversion. He, his heart was opened. He attended. Verse 33 says, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized. He had all his house. He had all his straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he sat and meet before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. Can you remember, my beloved friends, when you first believed? Can you? I hope you can remember that. I can't. I can remember. I can remember. I was at a meeting in, of all places, you know, I went to a meeting and I was sitting in the back. Lord, bless me to hear the gospel that night. He opened my heart. This was a man I'd never met, a man I'd never heard preach. Wasn't my dad, wasn't my granddad. It was Elder Charles Sanders from Arkansas, preached the word of the Lord. My heart was opened and I met the King. I still go back to that night. I'll never forget it. I forgot what I had for lunch last Thursday, but I'll never forget that night. I hope I never forget that night. My friends, the Lord bless you. It may have been in service. It may have been reading the word of the Lord. It may have been in prayer, but that what the Lord did. deserves the rest of our life in service to him. Deserves giving up a Saturday, a Friday, a Thursday. The Lord changes our life. The Lord gives us direction. The Lord blesses us. He gives us news. He gives us information. It's a blessing, blessing, blessing. It's better than anything. It's better than the internet. It's better than that phone you've got in your pocket. It's better than my phone. It's better than my brother's iPhone that he doesn't stop talking about. I get so sick and tired of hearing about that iPhone. Better than that. It's better than that. It's better than that. It's good news. I'm going to say something that's going to get me in trouble. It's better than your grandkids. because it tells us that your grandkids are going to be alright. Isn't that good news? That's good news. That's pleasant. That's wonderful. to hear it preached and to be in a country where it is allowed to be permitted. It was so precious to the saints back when it was against the law that they would preach it in a whisper. They would meet in caves. They would meet underground and just say it in a whisper. But yet it was so precious that they risked their lives to hear it again. That's how wonderful the good news is. Sometimes they would hold off singing because they were afraid of persecution. But when it came to the word of the Lord, they said, preach on, preach it in the whisper. It doesn't matter if the Lord is there. Amen and amen. Amen. Amen. It's worth building the best building you can make to praise the Lord in. It's worth, it's worth, it's worth it, it's worth it, it's worth it. Because what would you do? Where would you be? How would you feel if you didn't know the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? I don't know what, I tell you what, I'd be very miserable, I'd be very unhappy. But to understand that, I'm so thankful for that. But you know, my beloved, But since the time that the Lord opened my heart, I have also needed many other times for the Lord to remind me of it. I want to read in the book of James chapter 5 and verse 19. And I'll get to it in about 10 minutes. James chapter 5 verse 19, the second to the last verse in the book of James. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one, convert him. Let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. Here's a case of someone once knew the truth and got off track. They forgot the way of salvation. Someone came along, blessed of the Lord, and they were blessed to be able to come back and enjoy the truth once more. We can, believe it or not, believe it or not, we can all get off track. That's to every one of us. We can get in a bad way, we can come across some weird form of doctrine or some practice or some sin in our life, and we can lose the joy of our salvation. It happened to King David, and he begged the Lord to restore the joy of our salvation, God's salvation. It's not ours, it's God. God gave it to us. Amen. Thank the Lord for that. David lost it. David desired it again. Sometimes we can get caught up in the world, we can get caught up in ourselves, we can get caught up in bad habits, we can get caught up in hobby horses, and we can fall away. That doesn't mean that you're not a child of God anymore. Thank God for that. It's not based upon your perseverance, because we're preserved in the blood of Christ. But my beloved friends, we ought to persevere, don't you think? I think we should. I think we should. I think we ought to do the best that we can. Sometimes we can fall. I'm glad he's a God of second, third, fourth and fifth chances. I'm glad he's a God of love. I'm glad he's a God of mercy. Now, beloved, I have had to have. come to Jesus meetings many times in my life. I'm sure I'm the only one in this building that ever has. I have had to go behind the woodshed. Matter of fact, the Lord didn't even take me out of the woodshed, he just whipped me right there on the spot. The Lord has sent good brethren to talk to me. He said, Brother David, we love you. But we think you're going a wrong way. And it was a hard experience. It wasn't a pleasant experience. But I rejoice in the experience. I think about Peter one time. The Lord said, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man am? Peter, they began to say things. He said, Now, who do you say that I am? Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Tells me that he was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Later on, when the Lord was about to go to the cross, he told me, he said, You all will forsake me. Little Peter got a little bit upset about that. He says, Lord, I'll be faithful to you even unto death. Wow, that's pretty good, isn't it? Now, the Lord said, Peter, the cock will not crow until you denied me three times. Now, this is the same one that said, Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. He said to Peter, Satan hath desired to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for you. And when you are converted, strengthen thy brethren. Later on, someone said, I know you're one of those. You were with the Lord. Peter denied. Someone said, I know you're one of those. Peter said, no, I don't know it. Later on, another person, Peter, with cursing, denied the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know when he denied him, the Lord heard him? Scripture says that the Lord turned and looked on Peter. Peter went out and wept bitterly. To my shame, I know how he feels. Friends, I hadn't done everything right. I hadn't always stayed the course. I haven't always been faithful. I'm glad God is faithful. God has faith, by the way. He's a God of faith. He bestows faith. God is faithful to us even though we are not faithful to him. Now, I'm glad God is faithful. I'm not glad that I haven't been faithful. I'm sorry. And I've needed conversion again and again. The Lord would later ask Peter if he loved him. He asked him three times, one for each of his denials. Peter said, you know I love you. He said, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. The day of Pentecost came, Peter stood up with power and demonstration of spirit and preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he told those folks that were pricked in the heart to repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I guess Peter was just doing great after that. I guess he never fell. I guess he got everything right. You know, he's had his moment. He's had his downturn, he's never going to fall again, right? Right? A little bit later, they had a controversy in the church. Whether or not, you know, what we were going to do with the Gentiles. And some folks said, well, now, the Gentiles can be members, but they have to be circumcised. That was a big deal back in those days. Now, we look at that and we say, that's the silliest thing I've ever heard in my life. I call it circumcisimal regeneration. That's silly. That's ridiculous. I've been studying history of the primitive Baptists for about 20 years. Basically, when you study primitive Baptist history, you're studying church splits and heresies. It's pretty much it. I've looked at some of the things that we've fussed and fought over, and I think that's the silliest thing I've ever seen in my life. You know, in Texas, about 1900, the churches split over having insurance. Did you know that? If you had insurance, you were excluded from the church. In churches split, you had insurance Baptists and non-insurance Baptists. Seriously, you think I'm kidding? I'll show you the proof. Now we got preachers that are insurance salesmen. Glad we got over that. And then they started fussing about lightening rods. You know, if you had a lightning rod in your house, that means you didn't have faith that God would protect your house. You had faith in lightning rod, therefore you didn't have faith and you were excluded from the church. So we had lightning rod Baptists and non-lightning rod Baptists. Two preachers met in the town of Brown, Texas. One was a lightning rod, one was a non-lightning rod Baptist. They started having a contention between them in the middle of town. One preacher had a wooden leg, he got so mad he took his leg off and started beating the other preacher with it. True story, true story, I spoke the man that saw it. Isn't that silly? That's just unbelievable, unthinkable, unthinkable. I don't even know what to say about it. I'm trying to think of something else to say and I can't think of it. So I'll leave it at that. Twenty years ago, I'll just tell you this story. First big blowout meeting I ever went to. No, it wasn't in Nashville. First big blowout meeting. I mean, there's a thousand primitive Baptists there. I've never seen that many primitive Baptists. I was so intimidated, just intimidated. So I stood by the coffee pot. Now, nobody knew me. I didn't know them, but I thought if I stood by the coffee pot, somebody will come and talk to me. Well, a brother came. He said, Who are you? I said, I'm Dane Montgomery. He said, Where are you from? I said, I'm from Texas. He goes, Ha! All heresy comes from Texas. And he just walked away. Hey, well, welcome. Yes, just feel good. Just make yourself at home, make yourself at home. Then I started studying and sure enough, a lot of heresy came out of Texas. About 20 years ago, we had a group of preachers that believed that Jesus Christ went blood in the garden of Gethsemane and that's where we were redeemed. Can you believe that? Can you believe there are churches today in the state of Texas that still preach that doctrine? And a hundred years from now, if the world is still here, some day Montgomery in the future is going to look at some of my writings and some things we've done and say, how silly, how can they fuss and fight over it? But they're a big deal. This was a big deal. So they called one the circumcision, one the uncircumcision. Well, Peter went to Antioch and they had church and they had lunch and he was in the lunchroom eating fried chicken and dumplings and all that with the non-circumcision. You know, he's eating the gospel birdies, having a good time, drinking his iced tea, you know, had his coffee, doing all right, doing all right. Then came the circumcision faction. You know what he did? He left his fried chicken. He left his coffee. He walked away and just said, I'm not part of these people. Paul said, I have to withstand him to the face because he was to be blamed. It sounds to me that Peter needed converting again. Well, where does that leave us? We'll probably fall. Thanks unto God. He's a God of second, third and fourth chances. Thanks be unto God that we're not going to hell because of what we do here in time. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for sovereign grace. Thank you for preservation. Thank you for your undying love and your inseparable love in Jesus Christ. Thank you for that. I want to hear that. I don't mind hearing that all the time. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for opening my heart. Thank you, Lord, for the grace that enabled me to attend to it, to endure to it and to walk in it and to preach it and to believe it and to just keep talking about it, to study and to meditate on it and to sing about it. Thank you, Lord. He's too good to us. Uh, we can't thank him. We can't praise him enough. Thank you, Lord. I've messed up. I've done wrong. I've done ill. I've broken commandments. I'm not proud of it. God knows things that I've done that I've forgotten. He knows my thought from afar off. He knows my down sittings and uprisings. He knows the thoughts and intents of my heart. He knows everything that I've done. He knows it all. He loves me anyway. Thank God for that love. Thank God it's not based upon how much I love him back. Thank God it's not based upon how good I do it. Or, well, you know, the score I get, or whatever. You know, how good I preach, or how strongly I believe, or how good I can sing, or how much I pray. It's not based upon that. It's based upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate us. Nothing can undo what Jesus did. Thank God for that. I believe it. I'm glad I believe it. If you don't believe it, why not? Come talk to me later. You ought to believe it. You ought to believe it. If you don't, why not? It's good news. It's the best news ever. I can't think of anything better to tell you than your sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ, and nobody can save you from your sins. Once saved, always saved. I can't think of anything better than that. Predestination, election, foreknowledge, justification, sanctification, all those shunned words, those 50 cent gobbledygook gospel theological terms. Amen to every one of them. Love them. I love them to death. Can't get enough of them. Preach them. Preach them, brethren. Preach them. Don't stop preaching them. Don't get out of hobby. Who do we think we are? Who do we think we are to think of something better than what the Lord has preserved in the word and in his Bible? The scriptures has blessed people to have their heart open and believe it. Who do we think we are? Can we out God? God, my God, forgive us. God have mercy on us. May the truth be preached in the Lord Jesus Christ. May Bethel Church still be believing and rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ until the Lord comes back. Be alright if we're here on Sunday. Be alright if we're meeting when the Lord comes back and we finish this meeting in eternity. That's good news. He is coming back. Do you all believe it? I believe it. I believe that. That keeps me going. That keeps me going. That keeps me going through the things that I have to suffer, through this world, through all the stuff that I have to encounter in this world. You shall have tribulations, but my friends, fear not, for Jesus Christ has overcome the world. And he's overcome us. He's overcome you. You think you're stubborn? He's more stubborn than you are. He'll save you to the uttermost. You may be mule-headed, big deal. So what? I love that scripture in John chapter 13, when he was about to wash their feet. He said, having loved his own, he loved them until the end. He doesn't stop loving us. Now, sometimes we think he has. Sometimes the devil gets a hold of us. Sometimes our own depravity. Sometimes we doubt. We do, don't we? Right? I mean, we've all doubted, right? You know, John the Baptist doubted. Can you believe that? Can you believe that? Here's a guy that left in his mother's womb. Here's a man that was baptized and he sees the Lord in a crowd and he says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. He said it twice. He baptized the Lord. He said, I have need to be baptized to be. He did it. He said he must increase and I must decrease. He said all that. At the end of his life, he died. He sends two of his brethren, two of his disciples, he says, Art thou the Lord or shall we look for another? I love what Jesus didn't say. Why the nerve of that guy? Well, you tell him you go, you go tell John that I've crossed him off the list. He didn't say that day. What did he say? Go and show John what? Again, conversion, showing Joe got John again. You know, all those things. The lame walk, the death here, the blind see, the lepers are cleansed in my favorite one of all, I love this one, I love this and the poor. have the gospel preached unto them. Amen. May the Lord bless us to continue steadfastly in this truth all the days of our life. May God richly bless