03-14-2021

Park Meadows Church

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All right, let's have a little word of prayer. With all this technology, I need to get my mind in another place, closer to the heavenlies than the earthlies.

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All right, let's pray. Lord, thank you for giving us your word. It's the great joy that we can wake up each day and know we have it.

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For without it, we would surely be in darkness. And thank you that you gave us your spirit as our comforter and our teacher, and we ask you to bless this time in Jesus name.

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Amen. All right, well, we got down to verse four, a little while back.

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And before we got here, when we were in the previous verses, we were talking about how

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Paul said that the Jews that he was preaching to, there were Gentiles out there too. But the

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Jews, he said they went about to establish their own righteousness, and not a stat, you know, not according to the righteousness of God.

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So we talked a little bit about the wrong kind of righteousness. And basically, what that is, is thinking you can be saved by doing good or doing good works, or by keeping the law, and we covered all that.

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So then it gets down to verse four, and it starts talking about the right kind of righteousness, the kind that saves a person, the kind that takes a person out of darkness into light.

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And from, you know, all that goes with being lost,

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I mean, if some of you guys got saved a little bit later in life, like I did, you probably recognize that more than if you got saved at a really young age.

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But I would rather you be saved at a young age. But when you do get saved a little bit older, you know what it was like to be lost.

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And you vividly remember that. And so the salvation, in some ways is a little sweeter, you're more thankful for it, maybe because you saw the darkness and you saw the

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Lord take you out of it, and into light. And anyway, it says, here's how that works.

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Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

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So now that seems too simple. But that's actually the gospel. And the thing that makes it good news, which is what gospel means, is the fact that you can't do it and you wouldn't be able to do it anyway.

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But you don't have to do it because even if you tried to be perfect, you wouldn't be perfect enough for heaven. And you can't get to heaven that way.

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Why is that good news? Because Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit did all of the work that it took to get you and me to heaven.

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So we are saved by works, but not by our works. We're saved by the work God did. And I love to talk about what we call the finished work of Christ.

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When he, right before he died on the cross, he said, it is finished, paid in full in the

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Greek. And so the finished work of Christ is why we can be saved.

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When he gave his blood, that is why we can be saved. When he took it and sprinkled it on the mercy seat in heaven, it was not a mercy seat until he sprinkled it, by the way.

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It was a judgment seat. And when he sprinkled his blood on it, it became the mercy seat.

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And then when the Holy Spirit comes to you in your lifetime and calls you to be saved, he sprinkles the blood on you personally and applies it to your life and my life on our spiritual birthday.

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And from that moment, the father sees us as if we've never sinned.

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And that's a perfect definition for justification, which we studied a while back. We've been justified.

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It's not something you can gain or do. It's something God does to his elect. And now what does elect mean?

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That's the ones that he knew personally with love and relationship before he created anything.

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And those are the ones that he sends the Holy Spirit to. And Jesus said, no man comes to me unless the father draws him.

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But he said of them, I will lose nothing. And so what a blessing. If you find yourself saved today and you've studied scripture, you know

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God saved you. Whereas when you were a baby Christian, you probably thought you did it. I know I did. I thought I did it.

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And I went to a church that taught me that I did it. And so I know now that God loved me first and then the effect of that was that I loved him back.

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So that's the way it works. And that's why it says you can't be saved by the law.

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God places Jesus's righteousness on us. That's called imputation. And he placed our sins on him.

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That's called imputation. It's like an accounting term. He took our sins past, present and future away from us and put them on his body.

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And you taught it in Sunday school, brother Bill. He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me at that moment when our sins were upon Jesus?

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Jesus said that because God turned his back on him. And then he took his righteousness and put that in our account as if we have done it.

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So the father sees us as if we've never sinned and never will sin. And he sees no sin.

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It's not that he covered it like in the Old Testament. That's called atonement sometimes, but it's not a covering.

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It's actually a removal of the sin. Isn't that wonderful? So we don't have to preach anything else today.

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We could just sing and dance the rest of the morning and we're there, right? So unless you like to study like me, so then you have to endure a little bit more.

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Now, last time, that's Charles Spurgeon. I'm just going to read a little bit of a longer quote that we had last time, because.

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We talk about the elect a lot in this church, we talk about sovereignty of God, we talk about election, we talk about predestination, predetermination.

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The calling, the effectual call, the general call, all of these wonderful doctrines, and we love them dearly in this church, not so much that we love them, but we love the person who made those things possible.

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And that's the Lord. And it is the true gospel. And Spurgeon said it's the only true gospel that people that don't believe that he doubts their salvation.

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Now, I didn't say that. He said that we don't preach that strong today, but that's 150 years ago, some odd years ago.

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So but the same man that would make a statement, Charles Spurgeon, they would make a statement like that, that if they don't know the sovereign grace of God and understand the election and the calling and what

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God did for them, I doubt their salvation. The same man that said that said this, if you're in, think of him as preaching to a crowd.

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OK, it's kind of like Paul was. Paul had Jews in there, he had Gentiles, but among the

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Jews and Gentiles, he had three kinds of humans. He had lost sheep who would be saved someday. He had saved sheep who were already saved, saying amen to the preaching.

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And then he had goats who will never be saved. And they're all out in the crowd. And in any large crowd, you have those three kinds of people.

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Spurgeon was he always preached to large crowds. He just had huge following. I mean, they didn't have baseball, football, golf or tennis.

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All they had was great preachers. And that and people would flock to hear these men preach. And no doubt if we didn't have baseball, football, golf, our crowd would be that big today.

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That's a joke. Anyway, look what he says to this mixed crowd of people.

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Not knowing who's the goat, not knowing who's the sheep, lost sheep, saved sheep necessarily, because it's a big crowd, he doesn't even know them all personally.

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But he said this to that crowd, if your heart, if you're out in this crowd and your heart pants to read its title clear.

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In other words, your heart cares about your soul, your heart.

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You may be lost as a goose, not as lost as a goat, but lost as a goose. Bill, take note of that.

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Clarence will like that one because you don't think you have geese. You might have a few geese on the ranch anyway.

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You might be lost as a goose. But if you're concerned about your soul, you're concerned about heaven and hell.

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And when you sin, it bothers you. You're not a goat. You're a lost sheep, which means you will be called eventually.

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So keep listening for the call. Very important that you listen. But he says, if your heart is panting like you're concerned about these things, but you don't think you're saved yet, but you're interested in even a little bothered about what might happen if you died today, then that's what he's talking about.

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Your heart is panting to read that your title is clear. You want to know if you can be saved or not or if you are saved or not.

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That kind of person. That's who he's talking about. And it shall if the heart pants and wants to know the title is clear, it shall do so before long.

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Now, you've heard me say that a million times, but never so eloquently. What I say is if you worry about these things, you know, you're a lost sheep and God will call you be listening and respond when he calls you.

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And love him back. That's all you need to do. That's what I say. But he says it that way and it's beautiful, but it's the same thing.

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He says no man ever desired Christ. Now, listen carefully, because this is this is we're going to go into some things that really puzzle most of Christendom and all lost people are totally clueless about this.

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But most Christians today can't answer the questions we're going to answer today. But he said no man ever desired

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Christ in his heart with a living and longing desire who did not find him sooner or later. Now, if you have a desire,

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God has given it to you. But if you just want to be saved, you may not think you're saying you just want to be saved.

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God gave you that want to or you wouldn't have had it because the natural man does not seek God. Right. So God gave you that.

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And if you pant and cry and groan after Christ, even this is God's gift. Bless God for it.

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Thank him for a little grace that he's already given you and ask him for greater grace. Isn't that beautiful?

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Now, what does it remind us of the scripture teaches sovereignty, it teaches election, it teaches predestination, it teaches for ordination, it preaches

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God, it teaches that no man seeks God unless the Holy Spirit taps him on the shoulder and affectionately calls him.

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It teaches all of that, but it also teaches this. And that's why Spurgeon was preaching that, because he's he and I are a little bit alike in this sense.

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Whatever we come to in the scripture, scripture, we will preach it like it is. We won't change it to fit some theological concept we learned in seminary because neither he nor I went to seminary.

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At least I went to college. He never went to college. Right. He was totally self -read by the age of 21, the best read man in England.

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But he's but don't you think he's talking about a verse like Revelation 22, 16?

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I, Jesus, have sent my angel testifying to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star.

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They give you goosebumps. It does me and the spirit. Who's that? That's the

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Holy Spirit. Now, I wish I'd fill this verse up because some of our folks that hadn't been with us a long time may not know where this is, but I didn't throw it up there.

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But Jesus said you need two things to get saved and no one gets saved and you can't even live right after you're saved if you don't have these same two things.

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What are they? Think about it. Two things, the water, which which pictures the word of God, the written word specifically, and the

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Holy Spirit. So here the spirit, that's the that's that component, the Holy Spirit.

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Now, look at this and the bride, the spirit and the bride say come. Now, who is the bride? We're the bride.

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That's the church, right? Now, let me ask you, what is the great job of the church?

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The greatest calling of the great commission of the church that we preach the gospel, which is the most important part of the word of God to the world, because the world can't really hear anything in the

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Bible, can they? They can't discern things spiritually. But God still tells us to tell them the gospel, which is that Jesus died on the cross with the sins of his people on his body.

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He was buried and he rose again and offers eternal life to all of his people.

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That's the gospel. We're our job is to tell that good news. So there, what are we doing when we do it, though?

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We are preaching the word, right? We're preaching the word. So there you have the spirit and you have the word.

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Those are the only two things one needs to be saved. And look what it says. And the spirit and the bride say, come and let him that heareth.

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So actually there's a third thing. But it's not, it's not the part where it's active.

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Jesus mentioned only two, but the word of God mentions his third thing is you have to have ears that hear.

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Now, I don't mean just you hear the words because everybody hears the general calling. The word of the gospel has gone out to the whole world.

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Everyone has heard about Jesus in this world today. Best I can tell. That's how I know he's ready to come back.

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Cause it said when the gospel preached to the whole world, the age will end soon thereafter. So, but, um, so, but that that's not that kind of hearing is talking about hearing with understanding.

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In fact, the Greek word means specifically hearing and understanding what you're hearing. Okay. So let him that hears say come.

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Because he'll get saved and then he'll be given the gospel out right here. She and let him that's thirsty come.

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That's the person who's a lost sheep, but they're not saved yet, but they're thirsty because the goats never thirsty for this water, he'd rather have more like a pig in the slop, that kind of muddy, dirty water, but, uh, a lost sheep or a saved sheep doesn't like that.

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And they want this water. And so let the thirsty person come in. Whosoever will, what does that mean?

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Whosoever has the desire. Now, remember that word, cause we're gonna get to it in a minute. And even more specific way, whosoever has the desire, let him take the water of life freely.

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Isn't that what Spurgeon was talking about? Anyone out there saved or lost. If you have the desire, thank

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God. Cause he put that there because a lot of people don't have that. And keep listening to Jesus.

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Keep he's wooing you. You're like the bride. He's like the groom. You hadn't even noticed the groom yet, but he's giving you flowers.

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He's giving you chocolate. All of us men have been there, right? In the physical world. And, and finally the bride notices you.

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And finally you say, will you marry me? She says yes. And she loves you back. That's kind of how it works in a lot of cases in the world.

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It's a picture of this, but this is what Spurgeon was taught. He's a, he was absolutely on the mark.

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And I'll promise you this Charles Spurgeon had some hyper Calvinist in his room. It did not like the sermon.

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He just preached because he offered to God. He offered Jesus freely to everyone. And all they can focus on is election and who gets chosen.

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That's all, that's all they know, but you have to preach the whole Bible because it's, it's all working together at one time.

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Now only God, the father, I think in Jesus and the Holy spirit can totally put those two together.

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The sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man and put them together where there's no, like, I think it was at Charles Spurgeon that said this,

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I used to know who it was likely was him. I'd probably be pretty close to getting it right.

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If I said it was him, I think it was him where someone asked him, uh, Mr. Spurgeon, that's what they called him.

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Cause he never went to college. They didn't call him pastor or doctor, Mr. Spurgeon. Um, how do you reconcile the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man?

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And he looked at him and said, dear sir, you don't have to reconcile friends. You get it.

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They're both true. So here's this. All right. Now look at John four 14.

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Jesus said this to the woman at the well, did he not? But whosoever drinketh of the water that I will give him or her shall never thirst.

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But the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up to everlasting life.

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Now, look what he put the word whosoever there, didn't he? So that that's anyone in the world who desires this water can just ask for anyone.

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It doesn't limit it. In fact, the whole world has heard this. This, this is the universal call.

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It goes out to the whole world. Are you in agreement with me on that?

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I think we have to be. The scripture says it. Jesus said it. Also, John said it under the inspiration of the

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Holy spirit. Look what the woman said. The woman sayeth unto him, sir, talking to Jesus, sir, give me this water that I thirst, not neither come hither to draw.

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She just got born again, right there. She actually got born again before she said that because the desire hit her heart before she said it.

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And that's when she was born again, the Holy spirit regenerated or not Jesus. Well, I can't necessarily say that that's how it works now.

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I want to think about that bill. There's a breakfast question. All right. And Dave, where are you? Breakfast question.

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Don't forget it. Okay. Cause I'll forget it. Uh, all right. And, uh, Kyle, you'll be there, right?

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Bobby, you're always invited to everybody's invited, but, uh, we have breakfast sometimes and go over things.

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We're not sure about the thing about that before the cross and before the Ascension and the, and the

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Holy spirit coming down, it might've been a little bit different, so might've been

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Jesus. Say it saved her. What do you think bill? I know, but this was before that.

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So right here, she got saved. So you think he just did it since he was there and the Holy spirit wasn't sent yet. I think

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Jesus just saved her, but the Holy spirit's omniscient, even though he hadn't been sent in the sense of, you know,

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Pentecost, he's still on, he's still everywhere at once, right? He still was all over David, King David.

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Okay. So we'll talk about it at coffee, by the way, ladies are invited to, so we just quit doing it because of COVID, but we'll start that back up again.

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So great, great question. You guys out there send in what you think about it. Ben will,

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Ben will digest that for us. Ben will give you the ultimate answer.

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Are you, are you with me, Ben? He can probably do it. Yeah, he's working on it right now because it's back there.

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All right, sir, give me this water, but I will tell you this. She's born again right there because God gave her that desire and she received that water.

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And Jesus said into them, here's another place. Now this is not the one with the well, he's talking to a whole different kind of people here.

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He's got goats in the room. Do you think Jesus could tell a goat from a lost sheep? Can we sometimes not all the time, but sometimes because Jesus told us don't cast our pearls before the swine, unless they turn and render.

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So you have to know sometimes. So we don't always know. Would you say we don't always know bill? I don't think we always know.

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It's not necessarily our job. It's just for our own safety. We need to be discerning, but, but anyway,

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Jesus knows. And from the rest of this passage that I've been in so many times in my life, cause

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I love this passage. I know he had some goats right there, but watch what happens. He offers the same thing.

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He says, I'm the bread of life. He just uses a different allegory. I'm the bread of life. If you eat me, you'll have everlasting life.

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Unlike the manna that your father's had in the wilderness where they ate it and they got hungry the next day. You eat me.

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You'll never hunger. You'll never thirst. You'll be saved forever. Same, same as the woman at the well, except he's talking to these

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Jewish Pharisees and they understand this better. They understand the manna better than the water thing. She was half

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Gentile woman at the well. So she understood she probably had way more understanding than these Jews at that, at this time in history anyway, because they were blinded.

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Many of them, but look what happens. He that believed in me will never first.

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Now, doesn't that sound like the general calling to everyone? Like anyone, anyone who believes in me will be saved.

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Isn't that what it says? This is what Charles Spurgeon was preaching that day. It's kind of what I'm preaching today, but look at this.

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But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe not. Who's he talking to?

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Lost sheep, saved sheep or goats. Goats right there is goats, because he knows he's he goes on and says some amazing things about him.

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You're you're whited, sepulchral sepulchers. You look clean on the outside and you're full of dead men's bones. He told him this.

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He said, where I go, you cannot come because I'm from above. You are from below, which means they never were gods.

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Jesus said I didn't plant the tears. Satan put them here. I didn't. I only put I only put wheat in the earth.

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So he told him, he said, where I go, you cannot come. And he said, I'm of my father and you're of your father, the devil and the deeds he does, you will do.

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And sure enough, they sent him to the cross. Didn't they kind of frightening?

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But I mean, that's the way it is, but they did get the gospel. Didn't they hear the gospel or did they hear it? They heard it with ears, but not understanding, but there were some people in the same crowd.

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A few of them followed him. They heard it with understanding. Why? Because he's given them the water.

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The Holy spirit still had to be there to tap him on the shoulder and wake him up. So I think we just answered our coffee question.

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Holy spirit had to be there too. It takes the spirit. Of course, Jesus had all the spirit, you know, all the fullness of God bodily.

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So I guess he could do both roles at once. Couldn't he? He could be the water and the word. That's interesting.

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Isn't it? It's the only one that could be. Wow. Think about it. Holy ghost has taught me something while I'm preaching.

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In fact, old fashioned style. I had my sermon here. I could write it in there. I can't do that. But, um, didn't he just tell the woman at the well,

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I'm the water. And what did you just tell these guys? He was the bread. What does that picture? The word of God. That's amazing.

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I love it. Learn something new while I'm preaching. Ah, God is good.

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Write that in the notes for next time. And I like, like I've always known that. See, all right. All that the father gives me will come to me.

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He tells these people and him that comes to me, I will know why he's cast out. That's the effectual calling.

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You see the difference? It's all right there together in the same place. Now does all of this general offer that anyone who wants me can come to me,

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Jesus says, and the spirit and the bride and the church and the Holy spirit say, come whosoever first may drink of the water.

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Does that contradict verses like this? Romans three 10, as it is written, there's none righteous.

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No, not one. There's none that understands. There's none that seeks after God. The other verses said, anyone that seeks me can find me.

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Anyone that asked for me will have me. This one says no one does that.

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Does that contradict it doesn't, but would it to a new Christian or maybe someone reading the

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Bible for the first time and, and certainly an unsaved person would never figure this out, would they, and only with the scripture, can we figure it out?

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The Bible has to teach us the Bible. You see, that's one of the 10 principles of proper Bible interpretation.

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Let the Bible teach you the Bible. But anyway, it's a, it seems like a contradiction. Would you admit that kind of seems like one.

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Okay. Um, what about Isaiah? All our righteousness is filthy rags.

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And remember this week, this was something new that we learned a couple of weeks ago. I'd never seen this before in the old Testament, verse seven, there is none that calls upon by name or that stirs himself up to take hold of God.

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Stir them up beans to have your eyes open or to be awakened. And it says there's none like that that can awaken themselves.

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Think about that. Wow. No, no natural man, woman, boy, girl can awaken themselves and seek

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God and desire God on their own. That's what that says. And that's the old Testament. Romans three, 10, 11, say it in the new

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Testament. Does that contradict the scripture? When it says anyone that desires me can have me.

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Well, we know God cannot contradict himself. So it's not a matter of contradiction. It's a matter of us, maybe not understanding one of the two passages or both.

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We're either misunderstanding one of them or both. And it's our job to figure that out.

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And that's why brother Otis and I years ago created this thing called the 10 commandments of Bible interpretation.

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We got it from scholars from several different denominations that all agreed on these same 10 things, the right way to interpret scripture.

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And that's the only way you figure out things like this, because they seem to contradict, but let's keep going.

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Why does Isaiah say that no man stirs himself up to take hold of God? Because God has hid himself from us.

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That means the human race. That's interesting, isn't it? And has consumed us because of our sin.

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So Holy God, once Adam and Eve sin, and we all stand in there, you know, you can telescope us back into their loins.

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So the whole human race has fallen because of their sin. Scripture says that that may be difficult to understand, but biologically it's not, is it?

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Well, it came from the same parents. We're all, we're all, uh, in Adam and Eve when they sinned.

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And so God, the holiness of God is offended by that sin. And that sin cannot come into the presence of Holy God.

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And that's why no religion that teaches that you get to God by being better can save you because it doesn't matter if you're better, the one sin you did, if you ever did one, you can't go to heaven.

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And if you try to keep the law, the scripture says the Jews knew this. You got to keep all of it. No, one's done that except Jesus.

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So we're in trouble as humans. And that's what it's saying is no man in and out of his own desire in his natural state will ever seek

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God. And yet it doesn't contradict the scripture that says anyone who wants him can be saved.

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And as we continue into the word, we will see how that contradiction evaporates and they're actually friends.

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The two truths are friends. They fit together perfectly, but only with some pretty exhaustive study.

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New Christians aren't supposed to understand this yet. They're drinking milk. This is for people that have the meat of the stronger doctrines of scripture, that stronger teachings for the mature

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Christian. If you don't understand these things yet, just don't worry about it. We're not mad at you.

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We love you. You know, we, we want you to keep studying and I don't even care if you agree with me.

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My job is not to get you to agree. My job is to get you to study, go and see if it's right or not. You don't know how many people through the years have changed their mind on some things because they disagreed with me.

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In fact, some of our church members drive all the way from Dallas, mrs. Blood, Diana blood drives all the way from Dallas, probably because I didn't tell her the time change or she'd be here right now.

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And she disagreed with me strongly for months. And she had a son that said, but he might be right.

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Mom, why don't you study it? Isn't that interesting? But anyway, let's keep going here. I, I diverged there. So how do we fit these truths together?

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Only scripture can do it. So let's go back into the chapter we're studying now and move on into verse six.

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And we talked, we touched on it last time, this very difficult verse where it sounds hard to understand.

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It says, say not in nine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down.

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But the topic is right there at the first of the verse, but the righteousness, which is a faith is like what

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I'm about to tell you. Paul is saying what I'm about to discuss with you is what the correct kind of righteousness is like.

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And then he says something almost impossible to understand. I wonder if he does that on purpose to get people thinking in the room.

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And then he later says, here's what I mean by that. In this case, I couldn't find anywhere in chapter 10, where he said, this is what

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I mean by that. But we did find something in the old Testament that shed light on it. But, you know, don't say,

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Hey, um, in order for me to believe, you need to have God send someone from heaven down here and have them appear to me and tell me the gospel, then

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I'll believe it. That's what that says. Now we know that from the old Testament passage. And he says, also don't have someone come up from the deep and give me the gospel and then

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I'll believe Paul saying it doesn't work that way. All right. Now, uh, what does it say?

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It says the word is near you. Every human being, listen, there won't be a single person, whether you take those three divisions, saved sheep, lost sheep, lost goat, of course, another sheep will be at the great white judgment because they're already saved, but the goats will all be there.

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Not one of them will say, you didn't tell me what I needed to do to be saved. Not one.

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And that's what this says. It's condemning verse eight is condemning to the eternally lost.

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It's condemning to the goat. It's condemning to the lost sheep until they get saved. But he will get saved because Jesus won't lose any of them.

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But look what it says. What does it say? Now that's a clue. What say it, that Paul can only be referring to the old

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Testament. He's quoting something. He's paraphrasing something from the old Testament. And that's your clue on how to get your answer.

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We talked about that last time, but he says the word is near these. So what does he contra he's saying?

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You don't need somebody to come down from heaven and come back to life and tell you to believe.

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And you don't have to have someone come back from hell and tell you don't come here to believe because you got the word of God, listen, this right here.

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See this it's near to you. It's on your coffee table. It's by your bed. It's all over the world now in every language and dialect.

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And it's right there. And that's all you need. You need the spirit though, but you're responsible for the word, whether you have the spirit or not, because every human has been given a conscience.

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Romans one says they are without excuse because they can look in the heavens and know God is. But they're running from God because they don't like him.

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There's a lot of people going to church that wouldn't like the real Jesus if they knew him. They've invented one in their mind.

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It's totally different. That's frightening because that one can't save them. It's a whole nother sermon, isn't it?

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But anyway, we saw this stuff. So what does it mean? Well, you know, we talk about the 10 commandments of Bible interpretation.

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You have to use those. One of the rules is let the Bible teach you the Bible. And another one is don't use, you know, use a clear passage to help you understand this difficult one.

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So last time we went into a Deuteronomy 30, and I won't go over that again because we, but it's talking about the same thing and it makes it clear that this is talking about the word of God.

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The word of God is near you. Then we went into Luke 16 31, the little, uh, story that Jesus taught about the man that was in hell and said, send

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Lazarus back to warn my brothers not to come here. And they, and they said, no, it doesn't work that way.

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Even if we sent him back, they wouldn't believe him because they've got this and they're not believing this.

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And if they won't believe this, they won't believe any testimony rather from an angel or from a dead person that's raised or for someone brought down from heaven.

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They have what they need. They have the word of God. They're responsible for it. And so now that's clear.

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Now in Deuteronomy 30 15, it says, see, I have set before thee this day, life and good death and evil, and that I command thee this day.

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This is the same passage, by the way, where it shed light on that Romans 10 passage, just in the same context.

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And that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God. Now watch this carefully.

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It's so easy. If you don't have the Holy spirit, if you're a carnal person, you're always going to look at it as if you have to do stuff to get saved.

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So since everyone's, even people in church are raised to think that way. So unless they're really in the word and walking with the

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Lord, they're going to think wrong here. They're going to get this one wrong. Look at, because think about this is in Deuteronomy.

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This is talking about the law and the, and God's talking to the Jews, his people under the law.

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And he's saying this, I commanded you this day to love the Lord, your

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God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments and the law, by the way, is divided into three types, three parts.

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And they got to walk in it and believe in it, that thou mayest live and multiply in the Lord, your God will bless you and the land where you go and you'll possess it.

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So not only will they be saved spiritually, but they'll have physical blessings, success in business and so forth, riches, wealth, all that's promised.

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It was promised by Abraham. It's also part of the Mosaic covenant. The difference is the

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Abrahamic covenant was unconditional. And that's the one we're saved under. According to the book of Galatians in the new Testament, the

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Mosaic covenant was conditional. He said, if you, if you keep my commandments,

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I'll bless you. And you'll possess the land and have stuff. Okay. You'll get stuff, but look what it says.

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If you really read it carefully and see the lost person will put the emphasis on the stuff and on the keeping of the law and on the doing good.

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And we are so self -righteous. We think we could do that, you know, and reach God that way. But someone who has the

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Holy ghost and who really studies and knows the whole of the Bible will understand that the Holy spirit started out with the cause, which is loving the

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Lord, your God with your whole heart and all the rest of the stuff in there are the effects of that. Not the cause of the salvation, even for the old

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Testament. Saint did not the scriptures say that Abraham believed in it was counted to him as righteousness.

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That's imputation. That's salvation by faith without the deeds of the law. It's always been that way.

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It's just, they focused on the second part. The Jews did because they're carnal and many of them lost, but the saved ones focused on the love

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God part. They just weren't many of those remnant out of the Jewish people were saved, even in the old

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Testament. Think about it. They missed their Messiah. Only a few saw him, the saved ones saw him. That's fascinating.

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So you can look, you know, you notice some things about this. We must love the Lord in order to walk in his ways.

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If you read that carefully, the love comes first, that's the cause and the effects come later.

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The result are the blessings success. And then it has another verse, but if your heart turns away so that you will not hear now, you got to understand this, see the lost person in the goat and the baby

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Christian will focus on the turning away and say, Oh, does that mean you can lose your salvation, but you see how they could take that from that.

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But, and then, then some people would have said, no, that's old Testament. Well, then I would have to ask the question. Could they lose their salvation?

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I mean, if you think that's what this is saying, you'd have to say you think they do, I've had times in my younger years when

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I thought maybe they could, I know they can't, so it's not saying that what it's saying is the people that turn away or the people that were religious, but they never had ears to hear.

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Do you see that? They never, they never had the understanding.

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They didn't have the love. They mimicked the works. How many friends at different churches do you know that are doing that?

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Or you think they probably are. They're just doing good stuff. And I got to say, so busy, you know, something, a church activity every night, so often that it causes divorces in young couples because they never see each other.

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I've I've know about that. This church started out that way when quite that bad when you guys joined, but it had been before you joined, it was even worse.

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If you can imagine, you probably can't imagine that, but we were doing something when

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Charlotte and I were in our twenties, every day and night, some church activity, because the pastor that founded this church was into works,

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I, he said, say he would say, oh, we're saved by grace, but. He cared how you dressed.

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He cared how long your hair was. If you were a guy, the girls couldn't wear pants, all these works things.

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He was really highly interested in. We should have had a clue, but Charlotte and I were so young. We didn't, we didn't get it. All we knew is wanted to do stuff for God.

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And we liked that. So we followed him for too long, but, and so did you. I wasn't the only one, but you, you say you were there because of me, not them.

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So that's good. Right. Sharon, at least Sharon, maybe not Raymond. So anyway, isn't it amazing how the

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Holy spirit can just enlighten us. And we see here that this is about the hearing, not about the works, the ones that didn't hear eventually fall away and go back to the pig sty.

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Don't they same in the old as in the new Testament. So not hearing is what draws people away.

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Not that they lost their salvation because they quit doing good works. That was the result of the fact that they never were born again.

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And there were saved and there did not have a new heart. And you say, well, David, now, wait a minute. They weren't, you know, they weren't new

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Testament. Well, let's keep going here. I denounce them to you this day that you shall surely perish.

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So those people are going to hell. So you would have to conclude they lost their salvation if they were saved and then turned away from God and went, it doesn't work that way.

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Doesn't work that way. All of the elect, both old Testament, new and millennial kingdom were foreknown by God, which meant he knew them and loved them before he made anything.

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And Jesus said of them, I will lose nothing. It doesn't matter which dispensation you're in. So that's doesn't mean that.

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All right. But those people went to hell. So the result of this, of the fact they didn't hear is eternal damnation.

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So there's four things we learned from that little passage. I mean, it mimics the new

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Testament. Doesn't it's not that we didn't know this, but we might not have seen it in the old, that it was this way under the law too, but it was, if you understood the word of God and if you had the holy spirit, so there's a clue.

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Right now we get into chapter 10, verse 14, behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the

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Lord's thy God. And the earth also, boy, does that not sound like the Sunday school lesson bill? It's amazing. Every week you teach what's in my sermon somehow.

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And I don't know how you do it. Cause we never talk about it until after the fact, but you were talking about God being the

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God of heaven and earth and all that in your set, but that was out of Hebrews. So behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the

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Lord's thy God. And the earth also with all that therein is, does that mean he's sovereign?

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Yeah. Does that mean he's really in control and president Biden's not and president Trump's not and Supreme court's not, and you know, that the

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Congress, most of them seem like that group there that never heard. I don't know. I'm not judging, but you know, probably most of them, but not all of them.

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That wasn't from the scripture. That was my opinion. So I got to say that anyway, so let's keep going.

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Only the Lord had a delight in thy father's to love them.

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So the ones that you didn't find falling away, why didn't they fall away because God loved them from eternity past, if there is such a thing as the way we speak, but before he made everything, he loved them and knew them as his own.

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In time, he saved them under the mosaic law, but not by doing works.

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That was a result or an effect of the hearing ear that God gave them and the heart that was circumcised.

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I'm getting ahead of myself though. I didn't want to talk about that yet, but anyway, so look here. Only the

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Lord had the light in these fathers, the old Testament Jewish saints under the law to love them.

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And he chose their seed. He chose them and their seed that's election.

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That's predestination. Even you above all people, as it is this day.

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Now look what it says. Now this is under the law. Circumcised therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff neck.

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All right. Now think about that. We sometimes believe that the law is all about the circumcision of words, keeping what

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God said you had to do as a Jew, right? We believe it's all about that. Keeping the letter of the law, but for the

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Jew, from the earliest days of the law until now, it is all about the heart.

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It's all about the ear hearing and the love that's placed in that heart by God and the desire to live right.

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Now you, let me ask you this. You as a Christian, you know, you're not under the law, right? You're born again.

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You brought from darkness into light and the Holy spirit dwells in your body. You have to be different than before that happened.

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But do you walk perfectly? Did you pray enough last week for your pastor?

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It's an awful question. Cause then I have to ask, did I pray enough for every church member? You see my point? So if it's about that, no human in any dispensation would ever be saved because we all fall short of the glory of God.

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Don't we? And yet God said on purpose, I put this treasure, the new man, the born again, man in earthen vessels.

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God did it this way on purpose. So apparently it's the best plan. And he said he did it that way.

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So he gets the glory, not us. And we see that all the time. Cause when we ever do get it right, we know it's because he did it with us and in us, because we know ourselves in the flesh, don't we?

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So, isn't that something? Even the Jews, the same thing, they had to have the heart changed.

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And the circumcision was an outward picture of that spiritual truth. It was not what caused it. It was the result of it.

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We have people right here in this town. I think we have a bad history in there, by the way, if you're visiting, right, that, that glass over there lifts up, there's a baptistry.

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We have people in churches in this city that believe if you don't get not, if not even that water would help, you got to get in the water in their church building to get saved.

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They believe that with all their heart, they believe that. And they're just as wrong as these Jews that found themselves later falling away and ending up in hell.

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They're just as wrong as that because they're not focused on the savior. They're focused on the laws that he gave and that won't save you.

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It just shows you how badly you need the savior. Sad, but true. So it is spiritual.

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Salvation is spiritual, not carnal. It's not stuff your body does. Okay. All of that stuff or effects of the fact you got saved.

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And now you want to live a good life the best you can. And you try every day, right? It is by faith.

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It is not by keeping the law. The keeping of the law was always, and always will be an effect, not the cause of your salvation, even under Moses 19,

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I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing therefore choose life that both thou and I seed may live.

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And so there's the universal call in the old Testament to the person under the law, and they all heard it with their ears, but they did not all hear it with understanding and only those that did got saved and were able to even come close to keeping that law.

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So the Holy spirit had to do his work in the old Testament to the ears had to be open, the heart had to be circumcised or else they were lost.

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Jew walking around, trying to keep all those rules and being so proud of it. And by the way, those are the ones that killed

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Jesus Christ because they hated the simplicity of the gospel. I am the bread, eat me and you'll be saved.

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I am the water, drink me. You'll have water forever. And they said, no, no, no. You got to keep all these rules. Jesus is saying, look, if you had me, you can keep the rules without me.

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You'll never keep them. And even when you had me, you're going to have to repent because you're going to break some of them. And you're going to have to ask me to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, which

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I will do every time. Cause it's right for me to do it. Cause I already took your sins away when I died for you. Same gospel really that thou may not look,

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God has set this before every human being. I've put life out there and I put death and I'll tell you what causes both.

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And I said it before you and you need to choose life. Every human is responsible for that always will be.

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You can leave out the predestination election and all that stuff. This is talking about human responsibility and no one will ever point the finger at God and say,

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I didn't get saved because you didn't call me. They'll they'll know that he did call him. He called him right there.

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He called him in the new Testament after the new Testament. They've always been called. It's just, they didn't hear it and didn't like God and didn't want

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God. And they hated God and never were going to have anything to do with God because they were goats, but they still know the rules and the rules were, you have to receive my son.

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And they didn't, God will just simply say, what'd you do with Jesus? They'll say, I rejected him. He'll say, depart from me.

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I never knew you. And then it'll go next great white throne judgment. I just talked the whole thing about that in two seconds.

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All right. Why do you need to choose life? So that thou mayest love the Lord, your

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God. And that thou mayest see, it always starts with the love and then comes the obedience and you'll cleave to, you know, the wanting to walk with him and all that, those are always effects of the cause and the length of days.

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I mean, the promise is once he opens your ears and you receive him into your heart, if you walk with him, you see, there is for, even for the

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Christian, there is a benefit to obeying easy. Believe ism is really dangerous because there is a sin unto death.

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I mean, we can be taken home early from our viewpoint by sinning or not letting the Holy spirit get control of that in our life and remove it and all that sort of thing, and that's all up to God.

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But on the other hand, if we walk with him and desire to walk with him, then we have all kinds of physical blessings while we're on this earth too, as well as treasures in heaven, when we get there from it.

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Moses went and spake these words into all Israel. That's the universal call. And Jesus told us to go into the whole world and spread the gospel.

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Did he not? Okay. I've got more, but I think that's enough for today. And I actually went longer than the clock shows because I started sooner.

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So let's stand and have word of prayer together. Lord, we thank you for your word and how your

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Holy spirit can take us through even difficult passages and make them clear often from other passages.

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And thank you that you give us hearts that desire your word, like first, like milk, and then later like meat.

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And Lord, we pray that everyone who is hearing this message today will have a desire to study that they'll want to go and study

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Lord. Thank you for the many, many people around the country that have said they had revival in their lives because they got a new desire to study the word every day that they had maybe 20 years ago, 15 years ago.

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Thank you for that Lord. That's your Holy spirit working. And that's the water working. Ask you to always do that to us.

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Keep us hungry for the word each day of our lives, bless these young people, make them stronger than we are because they're living in the end times and have to be prepared.

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And Lord, we thank you that you'll be with us through everything that comes to pass and you'll protect us and Lord, thank you for the food.