You're here and we especially welcome our visitors. We're glad you're with us and trust that the Lord will bless you for having come this way. You picked a good Sunday to come. It's just your first Sunday because you get to hear a good preacher today. And we're glad to have Brother Johnny Carter with us again. He is very much a part of our church and our ministry and we're thankful that in small ways we can be involved in his ministry, preaching across this country, and then especially ministering in Dominica and the Lesser Antilles. And he's going to tell us a little bit about how that work is going as he comes up, and then he's going to preach to us this first and second hour. So be praying for Brother Johnny. And let me go ahead and say that if you would like to give a particular direct offering to Brother Johnny, you can do that today. Just make sure that Barry knows that. And if it's cash, especially, to designate that way and check, Make it out either way you want to make out directly to him or so forth. So but anyway, we're glad glad that he's here. We'll begin with our reading devotion reading from the Valley of Vision and pray and then let Brother Johnny come. Today's selection is entitled Christian Calling. Oh, Lord God, the first act of calling is by thy command and thy word come unto me. The second is to let in light, so that I see that I am called particularly, and perceive the sweetness of the command as well as its truth, in regard to thy great love of the sinner, by inviting him to come, though vile, in regard to the end of the commandment, which is fellowship with thee, in regard to thy promise in the gospel, which is all of grace. Therefore, Lord, I need not search to see if I am loved, for if I turn, thou wilt come to me. Christ has promised me fellowship if I take him, and the Spirit will pour himself out upon me, abolishing sin and its punishment, assuring me of strength to persevere. It is thy pleasure to help all that pray for grace and come to thee for it. When my heart is unsavory with sin, sorrow, and darkness, only thy free grace can help me act with deep abasement under a sense of my unworthiness. Let me lament for forgetting daily to come to thee, and cleanse me from the deceit of bringing my heart to a duty because the act pleased me or appealed to my reason. Grant that I may be salted with suffering, With every exactment tempered to my soul, every rod excellently fitted to my back, to chastise, humble, and break me of myself. Let me not overlook the hand that holds the rod, as thou didst not let me forget the rod that fell on Christ and drew me to him." God's people said, Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we are grateful for the rod that fell upon our fellow, our brother, your son. Lord, we thank You that it fell upon Him and not upon us whom You have brought to know Him. And Lord, we would pray even now that those who are with us who are yet outside of Christ would see Him who bore the punishment for sinners, and would see a refuge, and would see hope and a future, and would see forgiveness, and would see cleansing, and would come to Him. Lord, operate by Your grace today, and work in the hearts of each and every one of us to accomplish Your purpose, to bring glory to Yourself, and to meet the needs of souls. Lord, we pray for our brother Johnny as he comes now to report to us about the kingdom work in the islands and other places. We're grateful for that. And we pray that our hearts will be lifted and encouraged to pray more, to give more, to be more involved. And Lord, as he opens your word to us in both hours, may we have ears to hear and hearts to obey. We thank you again for your word. We thank you for this day. We thank you for the place and the privilege as well as the responsibility of gathering in your name. We ask you, Lord, to so meet with us that when we leave here today, we'll be able to say we have met with God and we are not the same. We ask you to do it for Jesus' sake before we pray it in His name. Amen. Brother Johnny. Good evening. Thank you, Brother Sammy, for many things, but for trusting me with the flock the Lord holds you accountable and responsible to Him for. The first part is going to be very hard on me. Not in sharing what we call the mission work, but being brief. Because it's my heart and it's my life and my ministry. For those of you that have not met, Newport, Arkansas, that's no significance. The Lord saved me a long time ago. That's really of lesser significance. And the Lord has privileged me to have been in 42 states, in Canada and Mexico, and 11 of the greater and lesser Antilles Islands. That's important because of the gospel and the work of God. Take a country hick and do that to God be the glory. I want to read a couple of passages of scripture to bring us to the sharing that I want to in Acts 13. Acts chapter 13. This will just be an introduction. This is not part of the message. Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers As Barnabas and Simeon was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene and Manon, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work, whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them out. Now, this is infant New Testament church where they were first called Christians. And we have down in there some of the basic ingredients of local church life. And one will send these fellows out. Chapter 14, verse 24, And after they had passed through out Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Italia. and then sailed to Antioch, or I can say Columbus, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles, and there they abode a long time with the disciples. Someone asked me just a while ago how often do I go. As often as I can believe it's the Lord's will. We have been on 11 of those islands in the greater and lesser Antilles. Now we begin to concentrate in the central mountains of Jamaica. There's nothing like Montego Bay or some of these places. It's very primitive, very remote, and the Lord has privileged us to go back in there. There's none of the original inhabitants of the island of Jamaica. The Spaniards set out to exterminate them. They wouldn't make good slaves. Some of them went back into the mountains, central mountains, and the Spaniards brought Africans in, and some of the swifter of them escaped and got back in there, and they crossed, and that's what's there. The outsiders call that cockpit country. They think they're just a bunch of fighters. But the people are human beings. And some of them, to some folks it's amazing, are some of God's elect back in there. They call themselves maroon. They call that place maroon because they feel maroon back in there. It's very primitive, very remote. small island of Dominica, down south of the Virgin Islands, past Santigua and Montserrat. Just before you get to St. Lucia, it's there, just a little place, and they had been under the dominion of the Roman Catholics and the British for many, many years. In 1978, they got their independence and began to really flex themselves and learn, and it was our great joy to have been involved with Philip Prince Gable St. Rose. Most of you people do have a Baptist background in history. It was the very first Baptist church on that island. And we were privileged to have been a little bit a part in it. Usually by now my wife would say, why don't you tell the folks how many churches you've helped start? And I said, some wise guy's going to say, well, how many of them are still going? And I'm going to have to be embarrassed. Those that the Lord started and empowered, ordained. To govern itself locally, they flourished, doing well. The last time we went, we had a joint meeting, and it was the best attended. Brother Samuel had ever had. I longed for you, brother. They wanted a principal primary speaker. So it fell on me to do it, but we had several of the local fellows do some preaching, and before one of the Caribbean Indian preachers had come, the pastor and some of his people. He has since died, and pray for the church there. It's in Caribbean territory, and the fellow that I thought that would surface to be the Elder Barron Rule, if you prefer that. He hasn't surfaced. It's either he's not the man, Brother Barry, or the folks don't accept him as being their spiritual leader. So pray for them. I've written letters, and I will be. I'm invited to go back in there the next trip, back into Carib territory. Meet with them, eat what they eat, sleep where they sleep, and enjoy the good work of God. Concerning the next trip, we have it in our prayer. I have to set it pretty quick so we have time to coordinate things. We have gone on the spur of the moment and it works okay. But really it's better to plan ahead if we know to do that. And we believe it is the Lord's will. Already three of the pastors have contacted us, Brother Sammy, about, give us a time, give us the day. They want to have a joint service at the end. We had the largest attended, the last one, God just blessed it. More is not better, but there's no premium on less and less. back to this. We want to have the joint service, which will be a mini-conference similar to it, in a very remote place. And those folks, those saints, are delighted to have people come from the capital and other parts of the island that go back in there. It's very remote, very mountainous. I mentioned the Caribs. It was the place they took their last stronghold. They made their last stand on that island because it is so primitive and so remote. The British, I read in a documented history of it by Lennox Honeychurch, said the British and the French declared that island of Dominica as inhabited by unconquerable savages. But they had to eventually launch a raid and take it over because they were launching raids as far north as Antigua, and they did, and the British took it and controlled the island with horses and dogs and guns until 1978. Now, some of the islanders are just, what's a good word, civilized, don't do the credit. They're very, very sensible people. And they are back in that Carib territory, but they're very private, very sectarian. And in my opinion, and I think it's valid, the British never conquered those people. They just withdrew to that place. They did not have to defend the shoreline. It's the Atlantic, always pounding, always pounding with high mountains. The rocks have caved off into the Atlantic, and seasoned veteran fishermen don't go back in there. To the south, one of the old sisters said she could take a few children and stones and defend to the south. It's just you have to climb up. And if their accuracy was not good, they could just dump the whole basket full. And down they would go. And to the west, it's a mountain range. I've forgotten now the height of it. One of them is a little over 4,000 feet, so you can see them coming in to take a day to get to where they're at. But to the northerner, they had to defend that and did so. It's called Carib territory. The Africans are very, very open to us. The last time I was there, I was able to preach in nine different churches. One of them I did not help start. I had heard of them. They were in the early days called themselves Gospel Mission Church. Freewill people come along and call themselves Gospel Union Mission, and that's a different doctrine there. I could ramble on until lunch, but I'm going to stop here and see if anyone has any questions. Pray with me. As soon as we can get our date, we'll get it to the brethren. I have said, I repeat myself, not to insult your intelligence, but pray for us. Three of the pastors have already called. Give us a date, brother. Give us a date. So they're interested. And as we were with them, we get together and preachers preach to preachers. And the saints come in and pray and make it a good place to preach. If it's just preachers, it's barely a place to preach. But when the church mothers that, and basis in prayer and interest in the gospel, it's more than a good place to preach then. It's a place where you can worship and share the Word of God. Well, perhaps you don't ask questions because you think I'll ram along for another 30 minutes and it is possible. That's our heart. I was saved in the middle 60s, about 66 was preaching the gospel. Involved from this side in mission work. 1974 made my first trip outside of the continental U.S. as a preacher. I went the other way. in the Cold War that got hot. But from then, it's just been a part of our ministry, brother. God just blessed it. And blessed it. And when I get weary and well doing, God does something to encourage our hearts. Call along somebody. Don't lift up our hands and say, Brother, you go preach. Tell them about the Christ. The King. The resurrected, ruling Lord and Savior, King Jesus. Okay, I'm going to take silence as consent, open your Bibles to two passages of Scripture. This will be our introduction. Psalm 65 and Psalm 90. Psalm 65 and Psalm 90. I really prayed about this. I did take your challenge when I was here before. I've prayed about this, I'm very, very confident this is the direction the Lord will have me go. When you find your place, Psalm 65 and Psalm 90, would you stand with me? One fellow said, well, that's just a custom. I said, yeah, that's all right, bear with me. He said, well, you don't have a stand when you read later on. Well, you can if you want to, it don't bother me. Two-thirds of the reason to ask you to do this is to get the circulation going again and reverence the Bible. Psalm 65. Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest. and cause this to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." Praise God. He's the only one worthy of praise and adoration and admiration. All things come. Eventually, for sure. We'll see that in a little bit. To pray. We cannot come before God in true worship. called, chosen, caused, until we share our iniquities of birth. There has to be a sacrifice. Everybody has a sacrifice. All churches have a sacrifice. I'm studying now the denominations again. I had a handbook of denominations back in the late 60s. It's amazing to me then, I'm going to ramble a little bit, they had 29 different registered Baptist denominations in the United States. You've got one now, the Seventh-day Baptist. That's right? That is right. But I'm reading and studying just to brief myself with it and remind myself. Because everyone has a Passover, and all church people have a reasonable assurance their sins are forgiven. but only those whose iniquities have been purged by the personal work of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Only those enter into worship and adoration of Jehovah. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest. That's the election, predestination, foreknowledge. And cause is still approaching today. So if you have come before God to worship Him, He chose you and He's the one that causes it. Now if you've just come aside to be religious and do your duty this morning to get God and your wife off your back, well, welcome anyway. But then we're caused to approach unto Him and we're satisfied. I call the message chosen, called, willing, satisfied. It's God's choice. God causes it. Now Psalm 90. Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hast formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou our God." Answers the big question, where did God come from? If you believe the Bible, there it is. Verse 3, Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest, Return, ye children of men. Thank you, Miss Two opinions about this verse in Psalm 90. One, I'll give you the first one. I think it's a secondary opinion, that eventually every human being will have to go back to God. You'll have to go there and stand before Jesus Christ in His judgment. But I think the primary here is, God turned men aside at the garden, outside the gate. And the command, not an invite, It's really not a cheap offer. The command is return. And all through life, all these complications and all these results, consequences of sin, if a person is sober and honest, it's God demanding our attention. Return. Repent. Come back. That's the good news of the gospel. We can repent from the direction we're going and turn toward God through faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then Psalm 65 is very evident. If you do not really know, you don't have to understand it, but believe it as a Bible truth of predestination, election, foreknowledge, chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world. If you don't know that, to accept it and begin to believe it, then there's an ignorance, to be pitied, ignorance of the Bible. But I read Psalm 90, verse 3, by way of introduction, that lets you see, if you take election, predestination, like the Pharisees did, and remove the responsibility and stand at the door to block people from coming in, from their accountability to God, then it does show an ignorance on that side. of the very Word of God. What I want to do in God's Spirit, being a teacher, is to look in the Bible and see what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has to say about these two truths. God is sovereign in all of His ways. And man is accountable and responsible. I looked up the word responsible. They kept hitting me with it, so I looked it up. It's response. Then God says, Come! Come! Return. Here, if my son gave his life for your sins, come to me. Believe on him. I will accept you. I'll make peace with you on my terms, not yours. So man is accountable. God is sovereign. Man is accountable. Divine election, first point. For those of you I can make points with, you've got divine election, divine commission, and divine cause. God is sovereign. Lord, he's the supreme power, ruler and controller of everything and everyone. You should not need proof of this. We don't need any proof, do we, Sister Peter? Sister, you make me feel comfortable at home. If that's what you had in mind, you're a success. I'll give you an A+. Listen, God's God. I'm asked occasionally, preaching a new conference, and somebody will come to me, especially a young preacher, and they say, Brother Jones, or Brother Carter, or however they say it, would you classify yourself a sovereign grace preacher? Now, I've got an answer. It starts with a question. What other kind is it? If it's grace, it's God's grace. If it's God's grace, it's sovereign grace. God's sovereign grace. You don't need proof of that, but I'm going to give you some proof out of our own mouth, just briefly. Proof. You pray, you ask God to bless, and you give thanks when He does. We know that we do not control God's world, even or especially in prayer. Often we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But here's the proof. We're not bossing God around. That's modern-day church antithesis, goofiness. Think about praying. Praying is not forcing God to do something. On our terms, at our time, according to our will, prayer is humble acknowledgment that God is the One. We must get this from Him. This modern goofy stuff about prayer, and it stymies our prayer. Sometimes we think we're supposed to boss God around, tell Him to save this person then and today. I call this the instant pudding generation. It didn't start with you younger ones. My time. Let's get her done. Proof. You give God all the glory for your conversion to Christ. It was not luck. It was no accident. It is God having mercy and showing mercy. I think that's the message of the Prophet, the unjust judge. That judge didn't have to show mercy, but he did. Now the message is not Let me get back to this. The message of that parable is obtaining mercy, and the woman got mercy. And the Pharisee recommended himself in the next part of that. And the humble person said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's the initial conversion, but that's also a good prayer line for the veteran saint. You never suppose that you saved yourself. We call that, I call that, Brother Sam is in 100% agreement on some things, this one is for sure. I call that kind of mindset decisional, so-called decisional regeneration. We can brag about it. And it's pitiful. You get in some places and have a testimonial service, it's pitiful how much some people brag about their being saved. They get in some circles and they brag about getting the Holy Ghost. and then get in some circles, and they brag about getting saved. Now, six of one, half a dozen of the other, you don't get the Holy Ghost, and you don't get saved. Now, the Holy Ghost may get you and you may be saved, but you didn't get it. It's a free gift of God. Well, I'm making a point here. God is sovereign. You even take the blame for all your sins. Turn in John chapter 2. I'm making a point. Divine election. God, listen, God's in control of anything and everything. From the grandest military political scenario going on to the minutest creepy car thing, our God's in control and does control. I have a grandson who's an officer in charge of a 20-man unit in the Middle East on classified orders, and he said to me, Papa, pray for me. We're going to be a peacekeeping force in a place where there will not be peace until the Prince of Peace himself comes. Talk about being awkward. Pray for him. John Benton, my grandson. I would really break off in bragging him, but some of y'all don't understand grandparents. So I'll refrain. Next place there'll be more senior citizens, and I'll break out in that. John chapter 2, I told you this. I'm addressing this thing about so-called decision or regeneration. John chapter 2, verse 9. No, excuse me, verse 11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him. It's pure Greek word. English word, believed. Verse 22, When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. Same Greek word, same English word. Verse 23, Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name. Same Greek word, Same English word. When they saw the miracles which he did, but Jesus did not commit. Same Greek word, different English word. It means his commitment to them. They believed, but he did not commit to them. He did not believe in them, he knew them. He did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. They believed, same belief as the disciples. He knew them. Now I call that decisional, so-called decisional regeneration the church is full of. But this is not the first generation. When I first started preaching, there were still several of the World War II veterans in church life. And the majority of them, not all, some of them were just hammer-headed and bull-headed. It didn't matter. They just lived through it, did it their way. But some of them, in that situation, made an agreement, made a bargain with God. If you'll get me back to my homeland, I'll get with my mom or my wife and I'll get in church. And they did. And they kept their end of it. But when you really pursued them with the gospel, they'd get angry. Just because we decided. and made our move. It may not mean Christ has committed himself to them. Now here comes the acid test. Many turn back and walk no more with Christ, and Christ turned to his own followers. And he said, will you go away also? Now we find out who's been committed to by Christ Himself. And the pastor didn't have to call me and tell me what to preach about, or what point to make, or what nerve to touch. The Holy Spirit does that, and He's chosen the foolishness of preaching to save those of us who believe. I'm talking about proof. Here's proof. Here's proof from the Bible. That it's Christ that makes the commitment. When He does, it's eternal life. Now, if you read through chapter 3, we get to that verse that's popular worldwide, and you see it sometime in the sports arena, John 3, verse 16. 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 then it paints a Bible picture of two different groups of people. One will not come. Why will they not come? Because they hate the light, they hate Jesus Christ. They love their sin, therefore they will not come. The other one comes out in the open, that's in John 3 verse 21, I think. He comes out in the open coming toward the light, which is Christ, and it's made manifest that his deeds are wrought in God. It was God who began a good work. And he will finish it. Proof. Listen. Here's proof, and I'll use my friend Wyman Steptoe and his mother as an example. She was raised in, I won't, I better not be too critical. Y'all recording this, ain't you? I won't be too critical, but anyway, she was adamantly against the gospel of the grace of God. And Brother Wyman was talking with her. And she said, oh, Wyman, pray. She's talking about his brothers, her sons. Pray for them. If God does not show mercy and save them, they'll go to hell. He said, Mom, I thought you said you didn't believe in God's election according to grace. And you just proved it. Now listen, I'm going to use the ten virgins as proof. Five are wise. I've heard that argued three or four different sideways. Five are wise, they have the oil." That's signifying the Holy Ghost. Five lights going out, lamps going out. So the foolish ones come to the wise to get more oil. I wish we could do that, Sister. I'd give an altar call. Now come up here. I'd put you in the forehead and have some of these big boys assigned to catch you. And that invites us there. When they fall backwards in the Bible, it's judgment. When they fall forward in humility, that's the Holy Spirit drawing. Anyway, it's the work of God. He begins that good work. He gives faith. He gives it to us to believe. And we come out in the open with God. Honest and open with Him. Proof. Those wise virgins said, not so. Brother Barry, all we can do is tell people what we've got. Forgiveness and mercy and salvation. Repentance. Deliverance. We can tell people. Make sure you tell them about the virgin-born son of God that lived absolutely perfect and the good church people demanded the government to kill him and they did. Let me say about that, divine election. If you're up in the air on this Bible truth of election for knowledge predestination, come down on God's side, and you'll be right. Because he is absolutely in control, and does control. Second point, divine commission. Humans are responsible and accountable to this all-powerful, all-knowing God. I read it to you. If you prefer to look at the secondary understanding of that verse, it's all right. I think it's all inclusive. We can take the Bible, I believe, and show us that every human being has this in their soul, in their conscience rationale. I need to make peace with God. This man has such brainless, so pitiful ways and methods of making God happy with him. An honest man knows God ain't happy with me living in sin. I've been at a place where they throw their babies off the side of the mountain, trying to make peace with God. The last one to go over is a choice virgin. I won't go into that, but I'm telling them Now your supreme sacrifice has been polluted in the priest's tent. Face it. You know that. But they're trying to make peace with God. God will make peace with you, but it's on His terms. Now all Bible truths must be revealed. I'm making a difference if you're reading Hebrew or Greek, Galilean, English, the Authorized Version, Old English, or your preferred New English version. It's just because it's easier to read and you say, I don't understand it better. You will not know truth unless it's revealed to you. Now these are two revealed truths from the Bible. God's election and God's divine commission to us. People are not commanded to come and listen. We are commanded to go and tell. There's no contradiction, this truth of a divine election and God's holding us responsible. It seems to be an antinomy, that's two opposing controversies, but there's no controversy here. They are both absolute truth. Listen to our Lord in John 6, verse 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me. I'll preach this down to verse 44, Brother Sam, at Sister Essex's funeral, Brother John Fletcher's mama. I went with it. I went to raise him up on the last day, and that old sister had divine confidence. Because you'd seen what Christ said, all that the Father gives me shall come unto me. And he that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. This is the Father's will. It goes on, this is the will of him that sent me. This is the Father's will. This is God's will of what? Of all that he gives me. I should lose none, except the Son of Perdition, because it was written about him. divine election. But the responsibility of those hearers were there. I think I'll pick that up in the next hour if the Lord keeps moving in that direction. Matthew chapter 11. What I'm trying to say to you is in this portion of Scripture. Men are responsible and we are responsible. Then began he to upgrade the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. Listen, the gospel command to repent and believe the gospel is not an offer, surely not a cheap offer. The reason the message has fallen in the streets and fallen on religious ears, full of religious waxes, for the most part the church has presented the gospel as an offer. And even cheapened it to a cheap offer. And that's the reason the average American would rather have a cold water over a drink than the blood of Jesus Christ administered to their hearts by the faith and the power of the Holy Ghost. Because it's just an offer, I can take it or leave it. No. It's a command that is demanded of you. It's repent or perish. I got ahead of myself, but I am out of the introduction. We're into the message now. "...because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." If I was going to be a free willer, brother, I'd say, well, why didn't he do that then? But he didn't. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the tyrant Sodom at the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted in the heavens, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the judgment than for thee." Evidently, he agrees in God's judgment on into the eternal lake of fire. This is something. I preached this in a tent meeting in California. God's judgment is more severe on sophisticated, prudent hypocrites than the queer man and woman. Or I don't understand that. Brother Samuel is straightening you out after I leave. Verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, Because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. And here's the reason any of us are saved. Even so, father, for it shan't seem good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth a son but the father. Neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him." Salvation is a revelation. We make our decision, but salvation comes before that. I'm talking about true salvation. It's a given unto us to believe. Now, the demand is repent. And because the general population there would not repent and receive Christ, he pronounced a curse on them that still stands today. And then he turned and thanked his Father that he hid it from the wise and brutal and revealed it to them. And then he tells us what the revelation is. If you know Christ as your Savior, God accomplished that. If you know God as your Father, Christ accomplished that. So I say to you, salvation is a revelation from the beginning to the end. Here's the revelation, the proof, verse 28. Coming to me, O ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come. That's the revelation. Forsake your sin. Forsake your religion. Come to Christ. I mean, I've got to go with this. Luke 13, verse 2, you don't have to turn there, I've got it printed out here. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans, because they suffered such things, I tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dealt in Jerusalem, I tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. God is king. He controls all in accordance with his eternal purpose. And let me give you the worst case scenario, the worst sin this world has ever known. God predetermined it and orchestrated it. God, his preordained counselor, gave his son to be killed. Wicked men with their wicked hands Kill the Son of God, and God held them responsible and accountable. God's a judge. He rules in everything. But I want to tell you something. You're responsible. You ain't going to say, well, the mean old God made me do that. Or the bad old devil either. No, it's your fault. You sin because you want to. If you want deliverance and salvation and repentance and faith, it's in Jesus Christ. Come. Come to Christ. Don't live on in your rebellion. This is not a do-nothing proposition with God. You can't not do anything. You're making decisions all the way through. Later just proves what decision you make. To bow up or bow down. And bow and vows fell the same way incidentally. It's just your response that's important. Listen to this, Adam. Psalm 4610. I'm talking about the divine commission that God gives to us. Humans are responsible. We are responsible. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of. I told you some. I'm going to get to that 46 in a few seconds. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. It's a divine command. And we have a human accountability and responsibility, brother. It's of God. Listen to it. They're all the same. When the Gospel first went out in mighty power, it wasn't the apostles. They stayed in Jerusalem. What I read about opening was a little follow-up to that. They were all scattered except the apostles. When the Gospel first went out in mighty power, it was the saints going with the Gospel. Pressed out of their comfort zone, incidentally. And that's where it's the most effective. Dr. Graham and his people are faithful with the facts, the documentation, mass producing converse. It's not effective. Less than 1% of those people ever united with a local church anywhere at any time. But when they go with the gospel, that's God's way. How can they call on whom they've not heard? And so it becomes our wonderful It's a wonderful joy and privilege and a command to be obeyed, to talk to folks. Listen to this out of Psalm 4610. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. Let me ask you a question. Have you been obedient to the heavenly vision? We cannot be afraid. We cannot be defeated. No, this world and the governments of this world have tried, and our government's right on the edge of pouncing on the believers and followers of Christ. You qualify as a religious bigot. You too, brother, don't you? You other people. If you would stand and demand, listen, and I did to some Hindus and other people, and it didn't go pretty. Neither is there salvation in any other. There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. No, there's only salvation in Jesus Christ. Nobody's religion is sufficient. Our religion is not sufficient. Sovereign grace baptismism is not sufficient. It takes the work of God. It's faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me show you in conclusion how important this is. Acts 8, verse 30. Philip ran and joined himself to the fellow who was reading his Bible out loud. And he gave him this question. Acts 8, verse 30 and 31. Understandest thou what thou readest? And here was the man's answer. How can I except some man guide me? Now, people, just because a fellow's coming from church and reading his Bible out loud don't mean he understands about salvation. And the portion he was reading was a prophetical picture of Jesus Christ. And he made an honest answer. And it would be good for us to face it. Listen, I know you're a smart, intelligent fellow, but you didn't figure this out. Somebody talked to you and the Holy Spirit made it alive and alive. You heard it. And you believed it. Again, the great Apostle Paul, Acts 9, 6. This is what the angel man told him. It shall be told you what you must do. And that's what he had to do. That's the reason I got a skepticism about these parachurch clubs. They got it figured out. They can tell you how to do it and you'll be saved by their formula. No, God has ordained and empowered the saints. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where the soul-saving message has been entrusted. And for us to carry that among the heathen and exalt God. One more. Cornelius, separated by the Holy Spirit, sought God with such a fervent heart. God sent an angel to him, but the angel couldn't tell him what he needed to know about salvation because angels don't know. Mercy, redemption, deliverance, truth of salvation, full salvation, angels don't know. They just look at it. And see the awesomeness of it all. Listen to this out of Acts chapter 10. The angel of God told Cornelius, send men and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter. Listen to this. He shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. Angels can't tell people. And do you know the sad indictment? Most church people don't. I quoted Dr. Billy Graham in a place in Texas. He said long years ago, that probably in the Baptist church 8 out of 10 men are not saved. And I quoted him. It's a quote. Nobody said anything about Dr. Graham, but they're still mad at me. Vanessa said, you know, too many church people can't tell a weary, weary soul about faith in Christ. And He paid the price for us to come before God. We are made accepted, and we have access with confidence by the faith of Him. That's what people are hungering for. I was preaching one Wednesday night. I hadn't been saved very long. I was hunting for that. I said, I don't know why. I don't know why I acted like I did. I don't know why goofy, stupid people act like they do. And the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. It's because down deep inside we know there's something that will satisfy me. Right around the corner. A little weed. A little powder. A lot of sex. One of the most abused drugs in America is alcohol. But there's no satisfaction there, people. Why are people doing that? There's a craving and a longing inside to be satisfied. And only the Holy Ghost can do that. He's the Satisfier. All the rest of this stuff is pacifiers. And we can tell people. There's a difference in being set free and made free. Christ makes us free, and we're free indeed. And we have this ministry that's given to us. It's a ministry of reconciliation. God has given to us. It's a treasure that's ours. What is it? We announce God's conditions for reconciliation. That leads us to the word of reconciliation. This is in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 17 through 21. I'm speeding along to get through it. Ambassadors for Christ. In Christ's head we plead, be reconciled to God. Loving concern for people. Especially sovereign grace people do. Because we know if God does not show mercy and command light to shine in their dark, doomed heart, they'll go to hell. But we know that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Not the power of the preacher. Not the power of the people. And not a powerful program. But the power of God. That's what God uses. The message of Jesus Christ to salvation. Divine call. God turned men aside to destruction and said, return you children of men. Divine call. Boy, three or four illustrative preaching illustrations and situations come up, but I'm going to close with this. What must people do? What must we tell people to do? Repent. John the Baptist, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus Christ, repent the kingdom of heaven is among you. Peter to the Jews, repent. God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Peter to the Gentiles, as he said, O men of Israel, and ye that fear God. What's the message? Repent. Thank you, brother. Repent. Paul to all that would hear him and fear God. Repent. Believe the gospel. Christ came to save sinners. This is the faithful sin worthy of all acceptation. Christ came to save sinners. And Paul said, of whom I am chief, so I have to get in line under them. Co-chief of sinners. My gospel. Your gospel. What do you have to tell people? How are you going to have to turn? If you do nothing, if you go on in the direction you're going, why do you expect the outcome to be any different? I put that out as all-inclusive. Close with this. Psalm 4610, Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen. For us, it's today. Sinner, for us, it's today. While you hear His voice. And on occasions, that today is capitalized. And for whatever God is speaking to us today, I have been obedient to the faith of God in my life. A beautiful ministry is just a speck. Some fellows say, Boy, you think you know all the answers. No, but I know His name. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. What a privilege. What an honor to preach to these attentive people. Give a witness. of the truth that has gone on here to confirm the ministry that comes on and comes across this pulpit. Thank you for it. Continue to draw us by the power of your Spirit. Show us your Word. Enlarge our vision. And then give us grace to be faithful and obey you. In Jesus' name, amen.