Latest / Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX / Brother Trevor Howard and Elder Philip Conley | Primitive Baptist Association 2026 - Friday Afternoon 07/31/2026

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Brother Trevor Howard and Elder Philip Conley | Primitive Baptist Association 2026 - Friday Afternoon 07/31/2026 · Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX

1:10
SPEAKER_02: Says, hope deferred maketh the heart sick.
1:14
SPEAKER_02: But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
1:20
SPEAKER_02: I want to thank you all for being so welcoming and hospitable to me and my family.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: Of course, this is a home away from home.
1:27
SPEAKER_02: And I love you all very much.
1:28
SPEAKER_02: And please ask that you pray for the remainder of the service.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: Pray for myself.
1:34
SPEAKER_02: Pray for Brother Philip as he used to follow and pray for yourselves as well.
1:37
SPEAKER_02: This is a prayer is not a small thing.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: The Lord says at his house, we call it a house of prayer.
1:42
SPEAKER_02: Please pray.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: The writer here says that hope deferred maketh the heart sick.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: The word deferred doesn't just mean put off.
1:54
SPEAKER_02: It means to stretch something past its appointed time.
1:59
SPEAKER_02: You might think that, for example, that something is to be done tomorrow because someone told you it would be done tomorrow, and then they come back later and say, actually, it's later than that.
2:11
SPEAKER_02: They deferred it.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: They pushed it off.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: Your expectation, your hope, was that it would happen tomorrow, and now it's not happening.
2:20
SPEAKER_02: Hope deferred maketh the heart of the sick.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: But when the desire cometh, that is to say, the substance of your hope, the deliverance of what the hope points us towards, when it comes, when it finally comes, it is a tree of life.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: It springs up within us as something that centers our mind on the Lord and on those things which are above.
2:46
SPEAKER_02: I want to turn to Matthew chapter 6, to the Sermon on the Mount, please.
2:56
SPEAKER_02: Matthew chapter 6 is where I'd like to spend the bulk of the time today.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: I'll try not to be too lengthy.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: I know Brother Philip has a message that the Lord has given him.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: Please pray for him as well.
3:06
SPEAKER_02: But my um my mind has been on this all week, really.
3:10
SPEAKER_02: I came down Sunday at church with this on my mind.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: It's been on my mind since Sunday, and it was on my mind all the way here.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: It's still on my mind now, so I'm trusting that the Lord is in this.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: I want to read starting in Matthew chapter 6, verse 19.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: These are the words of our Lord.
3:32
SPEAKER_02: He says, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
3:39
SPEAKER_02: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
3:46
SPEAKER_02: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
3:55
SPEAKER_02: This uh sermon was not delivered to a general audience.
4:00
SPEAKER_02: This is not a mixed crowd, as it were, of disciples and non-believers, and maybe the the the the naysaying Pharisees or something like that.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: The audience of this sermon is his disciples.
4:11
SPEAKER_02: That's it.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: That's what it says at the outset of this.
4:14
SPEAKER_02: It says, he went up into a mount.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: He said, seeing the uh the the great multitudes, he went up into a mount, and his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and said, and this is what he said, among many things he said.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: So the audience of this sermon are his disciples.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: That's important.
4:30
SPEAKER_02: That ought to perk our ears a little bit.
4:32
SPEAKER_02: This is not something he says to the Pharisees to hush them up.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes he has some things to say to the Pharisees, even the wicked ones that were challenging him.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: He has words to say that are harsh words.
4:42
SPEAKER_02: Those words were not toward us, they're for us for our learning, perhaps, but they're not to us.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: These words are to us.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: These words are to us.
4:52
SPEAKER_02: This is important for us to know.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: He says, lay not up for yourselves.
4:55
SPEAKER_02: So the implication of that is that we could do this.
4:58
SPEAKER_02: We could lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth.
5:02
SPEAKER_02: Again, these are what disciples could do.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: This is not what people out there could do.
5:06
SPEAKER_02: He's not concerned with those people out there.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: He's concerned with you.
5:10
SPEAKER_02: What is it that you and I could do, even as disciples of Jesus Christ, self-proclaimed?
5:16
SPEAKER_02: We could lay up for ourselves treasures upon earth.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
5:20
SPEAKER_02: That term lay up really just means to set aside for future use.
5:25
SPEAKER_02: You lay up something in sort of maybe you have a savings account that you might think to use someday in case of emergencies, or maybe you want to pass that down to your children.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: You lay it up so that others could take the benefit, or you could take the benefit of it later.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: Lay up for yourselves, or lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: This this tells me that people have hope in things on earth.
5:45
SPEAKER_02: They will place their hope in things that are on earth.
5:48
SPEAKER_02: What they'll find is that is an empty hope.
5:50
SPEAKER_02: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
5:57
SPEAKER_02: You see, there's nothing on this earth that is everlasting.
6:00
SPEAKER_02: It all perishes, it all falls away.
6:03
SPEAKER_02: The Bible tells us that it will burn with a fervent heat.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: I'm made to chuckle sometimes when I think about my job because it's all virtual.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: It's all on a computer.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: You can't actually see it with your own eyes.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: It's sort of strange, isn't it?
6:14
SPEAKER_02: And we all place so much importance around all these numbers that I see on a computer screen, and I can't even hold it with my hands.
6:21
SPEAKER_02: The stuff that I can hold that I can hold with my hands, like this podium right here, it's gonna burn up one day.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that interesting?
6:30
SPEAKER_02: We as human beings are liable.
6:32
SPEAKER_02: We are capable of laying in store those things which we think have substance, not just like physical substance, but have a quality that is a meaningful substance of hope.
6:45
SPEAKER_02: It is not a meaningful substance of hope.
6:47
SPEAKER_02: It's just not.
6:49
SPEAKER_02: The things of this world do not sustain us.
6:52
SPEAKER_02: They do not uh give us, I mean, they sure those things might have a natural sustaining power to it, certainly.
6:58
SPEAKER_02: And uh amen to the brother that said that, I think it was Brother David that mentioned that uh that man was given dominion over this earth.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: We have those things in this earth that uh sustain us in a natural sense.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: But I'm saying what actually sustains us in a spiritual sense, at what points our minds towards the Lord and centers our minds on Jesus Christ, it's not the things of this earth.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we can we can uh um uh revel in the beauty of creation.
7:21
SPEAKER_02: Many do that, and I've done that too.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: I've seen beautiful sights in the world, uh maybe not the most beautiful as some might claim, but I've seen some beautiful sights that at least they were beautiful to me, and they were incredible.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: And no doubt there is a majesty of some kind in those things, but they do not sustain us in our darkest hour, do they?
7:37
unknown: Right.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: They just don't.
7:40
SPEAKER_02: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: He's saying, put in aside for future use those things that point you towards heaven.
7:56
SPEAKER_02: Those things which actually center your minds on those things which are eternal.
8:01
SPEAKER_02: He says, For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
8:05
SPEAKER_02: We started reading in Proverbs chapter 13, where he says, Hope defer, maketh the heart sick.
8:13
SPEAKER_02: I want to um uh back up now to the beginning of verse uh of chapter six.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: Because I think there's some context here that is set for what uh our our Lord has just started saying in verse 19.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is uh still in the middle of his sermon.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: In chapter 6, verse 1, he says, Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: Otherwise ye have no reward of your father which is in heaven.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men.
8:51
SPEAKER_02: Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: That term reward there really is talking about a paid in full transaction.
9:00
SPEAKER_02: This is a transaction not between a man and God.
9:03
SPEAKER_02: This is a transaction that this man is trying to enter into between himself and the public.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: That's what he's trying to do.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: He says that they may have glory of men.
9:14
SPEAKER_02: What they really want when they do this is the glory of men.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: They want the honor and the admiration and the applause that comes from those that see them do that pious thing, that holy thing that they're pretending to do.
9:27
SPEAKER_02: They do it publicly because they want to be seen.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: He says, Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: What is their reward?
9:36
SPEAKER_02: They got exactly what they came for.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: They got the attention of men.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: They received the glory from men.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: Pretty meaningless glory, isn't it?
9:46
SPEAKER_02: But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret.
9:52
SPEAKER_02: And thy father, which seeth in secret, himself shall reward thee openly.
9:56
SPEAKER_02: See, this is not a transaction between a man and the public.
10:00
SPEAKER_02: This is something that uh uh this is a sacrifice that a man is making to the Lord.
10:03
SPEAKER_02: Yes, this alms that he's giving is for others, but the others don't know about it.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: The only people that are party to this transaction are the Lord and the person that is giving alms.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord shall reward.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: You see, there's the word reward.
10:17
SPEAKER_02: There's a paid-in-full uh uh transaction, as it were.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: The Lord rewards those who uh uh give glory to him, who uh pay their respects and give their sacrifices to him.
10:30
SPEAKER_02: That's what you're doing.
10:31
SPEAKER_02: Inasmuch as you've done it to the least of these, you've done it unto me.
10:35
SPEAKER_02: And when thou prayest, so he talked about giving alms.
10:38
SPEAKER_02: Now he's going to talk about another thing that they do.
10:41
SPEAKER_02: And he calls all of these people hypocrites.
10:43
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the same people that do all three.
10:45
SPEAKER_02: And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray.
10:50
SPEAKER_02: They love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.
10:55
SPEAKER_02: Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
10:58
SPEAKER_02: It's the same thing.
11:00
SPEAKER_02: These people, for the exact same reason, are trying to get attention from the public.
11:05
SPEAKER_02: And so they do this thing that appears to be pious and holy only to get attention.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: Glory of men.
11:11
SPEAKER_02: They want the applause, they want to be seen, they treasure it.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: It says that they love to stand in the synagogues.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: They love it.
11:17
SPEAKER_02: They treasure it.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: It means something to them.
11:21
SPEAKER_02: It's almost as if they've placed their hope in this sort of thing, isn't it?
11:25
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to skip now down to verse 16.
11:31
SPEAKER_02: Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
11:43
SPEAKER_02: It's the same thing.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: He talked about giving alms, he talked about praying, and now he's talked about fasting.
11:48
SPEAKER_02: These are all things that the disciples of Jesus Christ are to do, and they are to do them in secret.
11:53
SPEAKER_02: They're not for me or you to display to each other or to others out in the world, they're for us to do in sacrifice to the Lord.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: They have their reward.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: Again, the same concept.
12:04
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is laying out very clearly.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: These people are seeking one thing and one thing only, and they're getting it.
12:09
SPEAKER_02: They're getting it.
12:10
SPEAKER_02: They're getting exactly what they came for.
12:13
SPEAKER_02: This is so interesting.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy father which is in secret.
12:21
SPEAKER_02: And thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: There it is again.
12:26
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is pleased to reward those who sacrifice to him.
12:29
SPEAKER_02: Not to others, not to gain the applause of men, but only to sacrifice to him.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is pleased to reward that.
12:37
SPEAKER_02: And then he comes back into the verse we started at.
12:39
SPEAKER_02: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: I used to read this only in the context of like money.
12:45
SPEAKER_02: But I think there's other things that men treasure in this world.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: I think one of the things they treasure is the glory of men.
12:50
SPEAKER_02: That's what they want.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: Not all of them.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: I understand some do really treasure the silver and gold of this world, as it were.
12:58
SPEAKER_02: But you see, he says, Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, which uh uh where uh where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.
13:08
SPEAKER_02: Is there anything more fickle than the glory of men?
13:12
SPEAKER_02: Opinions change, don't they?
13:14
SPEAKER_02: Maybe your reputation falls.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: If you did something, you said something in public and now the public wants nothing else to do with you.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's just culture changes and they just don't care about you anymore.
13:24
SPEAKER_02: You see, people will seek that which has no substance to it.
13:27
SPEAKER_02: They will seek it and they will seek it and they will place their hopes in it.
13:31
SPEAKER_02: They'll place their treasure in it, they'll lay up for themselves something that has no substance.
13:36
SPEAKER_02: There's a hope that they have in something, in the glory of men, but there's no payoff to that hope.
13:41
SPEAKER_02: There's no payoff.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: He says, hope deferred maketh the heart sick.
13:46
SPEAKER_02: These people have a hope that will be deferred and deferred and deferred, and there'll never be a payoff.
13:51
SPEAKER_02: There's never a materialization.
13:54
SPEAKER_02: It never becomes substantive, the the the object of their hope, because they don't actually know what they're pursuing other than the glory of men.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: It's a short-term payoff, perhaps.
14:03
SPEAKER_02: Maybe they get a little high in a moment, so to speak, but they have no clue what it is that they're actually going for.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: They have no clue that the hope that they seek is not meaningful.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: It carries no substance.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: It does nothing for you, spiritually speaking.
14:20
SPEAKER_02: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth.
14:23
SPEAKER_02: It is so easy for us to look to the the glory that men can give us, and man, if you've ever had even just a taste of it, it feels good, doesn't it?
14:31
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you do something great at work and they want to applause, and it's it can be uncomfortable.
14:36
SPEAKER_02: But man, if you've ever if you've ever tasted that sort of thing, it's it's it's it's it's a different sort of experience, I suppose.
14:43
SPEAKER_02: And these people have found a way.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: They found a recipe where they can get the glory of men in some way, uh uh in some form or fashion.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: They figured it out.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: And of course, they don't do it by just uh being good um uh citizens in the community in a general sense or of just helping others.
14:58
SPEAKER_02: They're they're doing it with religious practices, of course.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: They're giving alms and they're praying and they're fasting.
15:04
SPEAKER_02: These are things that they were instructed to do in the law.
15:07
SPEAKER_02: And as much as they were instructed to do it in the law, there's the heart that they're supposed to have when they do it, and they weren't doing it with that heart, they were doing it with a greedy heart, they were doing it with a self-centered heart.
15:16
SPEAKER_02: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: These people have a hope in something that will be constantly deferred, because the the substance of that hope does not exist.
15:28
SPEAKER_02: There is no substance in it.
15:29
SPEAKER_02: See, what the Lord is teaching here is not just a moral lesson, it's a practical lesson.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: There's a practical lesson in this, and that's that if we want a meaningful life, a truly meaningful life, there really is one only one way to do that.
15:45
SPEAKER_02: If we want to live a life that actually brings peace and comfort in our lives, it's to center our minds on those things which are above.
15:52
SPEAKER_02: Because the things on this earth might, again, give us a temporary moment of joy or happiness, I suppose.
15:59
SPEAKER_02: It might have a short-term payout, so to speak, but it doesn't sustain you.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord is saying, don't give your energy to these things that do not sustain you.
16:09
SPEAKER_02: Don't do it.
16:10
SPEAKER_02: Yes, there is something immoral in what they're doing, and that their heart is not centered on the Lord, but there's something impractical about what they're doing, and that they have to keep coming back over and over and over again, only to find that their hope is continually deferred.
16:22
SPEAKER_02: It's put off and it's put off, and there's never a payout.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: There's never a return on their investment, as it were.
16:29
SPEAKER_02: There is a return on the investment that you've made this morning.
16:33
SPEAKER_02: Today, you've invested your time.
16:35
SPEAKER_02: You've said, there are things that I could do out in this world, any number of things that we could be doing right now, and you chose to be here.
16:41
SPEAKER_02: You chose to be here, and you know what?
16:43
SPEAKER_02: The Lord has met with us.
16:44
SPEAKER_02: Your desire came this morning.
16:47
SPEAKER_02: He says that when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
16:51
SPEAKER_02: When the Lord meets with us, when your desire, which is Jesus Christ, I know it is, otherwise you wouldn't be here.
16:56
SPEAKER_02: You'd be any number of other places, but you're here, and your desire is the Lord.
17:00
SPEAKER_02: You came here to see the Lord.
17:03
SPEAKER_02: And that's a tree of life.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: That's meaningful.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: That springs eternal life up in you.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: Not that you suddenly get it, but that you uh uh appreciate it.
17:13
SPEAKER_02: You see it for what it is, you see Jesus Christ high and lifted up, and you know, you know that there's nowhere else on this planet I'd rather be than right here.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: This little building here in Houston, Texas.
17:23
SPEAKER_02: The world doesn't look at it very impressively.
17:26
SPEAKER_02: They're not impressed by what we're doing here today.
17:28
SPEAKER_02: Let the world do what it wants.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: You came to the right place today.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: You came to the right place, and I am so thankful that we came here today to worship Jesus Christ and him crucified.
17:38
SPEAKER_02: There is no other place I'd rather be because the Lord came and our desire came.
17:43
SPEAKER_02: And I want him to continue coming the rest of this weekend.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: I want to see our desire come so that that tree of life springs up within us, and we feel a little bit closer to the Lord.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.
18:02
SPEAKER_02: This is a different order of security altogether.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: This treasure cannot be taken from you.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: You might cloud your own mind from this when we allow the world to distract us in some sense, but make no mistake, that hope is always there.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: That hope in Jesus Christ cannot be undone.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: We have a hope in Jesus Christ.
18:23
SPEAKER_02: We may not uh center our minds on that hope as well as we should.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: Again, we might let the world distract us, but your Savior, Jesus Christ, is coming back.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: At the appointed time.
18:36
SPEAKER_02: When that desire cometh, there will be no more deferring.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: He's not gonna put it on.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: It's not that there's an appointed time, and he's gonna defer it to some other appointed time.
18:46
SPEAKER_02: There'll be no point in appointing a time.
18:48
SPEAKER_02: He appointed a time, he's gonna come back at that time, and when he comes back, it is a tree of life.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: It's a tree of life.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: It will be the full manifestation of eternal life in his children.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: We will forever live with the Lord.
19:02
SPEAKER_02: I want to uh go now to Colossians chapter 3.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: Colossians chapter 3, verse 1.
19:19
SPEAKER_02: The Apostle Paul says, if ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
19:25
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't say seek those things which are above to be risen with Christ.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: He says, if ye then be risen with Christ.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: Now he's not saying maybe you're risen with Christ.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: If you read uh uh in uh chapter 2, he'll make clear that you are saints of God.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: You are risen in Christ.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: And he says, if you know that, if you know that you've been risen in Christ, that you are in Christ, then seek those things which are above.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: Again, the implication is that we can be risen with Christ and not seek those things which are above.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: He says, Don't do that.
19:53
SPEAKER_02: Seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
19:57
SPEAKER_02: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: So easy to set our affections on the things we see around us, the shiny things of the world, as it were, the silver and gold, or the attention of men.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: He says, set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead.
20:13
SPEAKER_02: That is to say, you're dead to the damning effects of sin.
20:15
SPEAKER_02: You're dead to the world.
20:17
SPEAKER_02: For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
20:21
SPEAKER_02: You wanna know how secure that treasure is?
20:24
SPEAKER_02: You want to know how secure that hope is?
20:27
SPEAKER_02: As sure as Jesus Christ is in God, your life is just as sure.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: Come ahead, Brother Philip.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: Jesus.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Very much appreciate all that has gone before.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: As Brother Trevor was speaking this afternoon, it reminded me of a conversation that I heard my father and several other ministers have one time.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: That just because a word sounds peculiar to us as old Baptists doesn't mean it's automatically wrong.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Because Old Baptists, we've heard things like election and predestination and eternal security and inheritance and particular redemption.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: You hear the word reward, you immediately go, ooh, you know.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible's full of discussion about reward.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting about where Brother Trevor began is the way a lot of people read that verse is not how it's written.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say great is your reward of heaven, it says great is your reward in heaven.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: Us doing these things is not what brings heaven to us.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: What comes to us is from heaven itself.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, if our reward is in heaven, as Brother Trevor mentioned, what is in heaven?
22:22
SPEAKER_00: He is.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: When it says that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, you know what your reward is?
22:28
SPEAKER_00: It's not a house, it's not a car, it's not a full bank account.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: It's the presence of God.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Now, we may think healy's everywhere present, nowhere absent.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
22:39
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference between God being with you and you being with God.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: You can be in God's presence, but not be with God.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Because friends, there's times that I'm with my wife, but we're not with each other.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Do any of you married couples need any help to know what I'm talking about?
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Or do you get it?
22:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you're in each other's physical presence, but you're not together in that sense.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Friends, God's with us all the time.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in the Sermon on Mars Hill, he's not far from every one of us, but how do you know he's there?
23:08
SPEAKER_00: You have to reach after him and feel it.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: After him.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: That's how you have his presence with you, not just him being with you, but you also being with him.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: I very much appreciate the thought that our reward is the presence of God, and as the bride sang about her husband, if he's been pleased to dwell with us here, may he not arise and stir up until he pleased.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Let's not run him off.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's be pleased for him to dwell with us as long as he has seen fit to do so.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to draw your mind and attention to a verse this afternoon.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: I say this with all the wariness and caution that I'm about to say, preach this in front of Elder Galatians himself.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know who that is, he's sitting right there.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: It's a verse that will be very familiar to at least one person in this room.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: I know.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: It's Galatians 2, not him, him.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Galatians 2 and 21, Paul finishes the chapter by saying, I do not frustrate the grace of God.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Is that verse familiar to you?
24:11
SPEAKER_00: I heard you quoted a lot of Saturday nights growing up.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: You've heard me say this.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: If you thought you had it hard growing up, I promise you, growing up in the Conley household was harder.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Because on Saturday night you did not watch TV.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: On Saturday night you did not read anything except the Bible, you got your mind on church.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, you had to take a bath, which was cruel and unusual punishment.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: And then after your bath, then you had to quote your verses to dad, and God help you if you got them wrong.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: And then after you quoted your verses and got through that cruel punishment, you had to practice how to lead singing.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: You had to get your pitch right, you had to start right, you had to time right, and God help you.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: Those things took three hours for us just to get through it.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: And so I always knew when dad was in an extra cranky mood because James would struggle getting through his verses.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: And I remember one Saturday night he couldn't get through this one.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he got every word wrong at some point or another.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: I said, Man, I'm never gonna get through my verses tonight.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: But I learned his verses just from hearing him say them every Saturday night.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: And this verse that I heard quoted ever since I was a little boy is one that I did not understand for a long time.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: I knew what it said, but I didn't understand it.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: And this verse is very, very precious to me because as I grow older and spend more time in the church, it reminds me of just how important what Paul says here is.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, to get the context of this, and I've for the sake of time, I'm not gonna labor through all that goes before this, but in a nutshell, the churches of Galatia had a problem.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: And that problem was that they had very, very quickly, not in a long, bearing maneuver, in a very quick fashion, they had steered from the truth of the gospel.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Paul says in the first chapter in verses 6, 7, 8, and 9, he says, I marveled this happened so soon.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it happened quick.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And it happened so quick that I want to tell you how bad this is.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: He said, This is so bad that it doesn't matter who preaches some other gospel to you.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter who the man is, it doesn't matter if it's an angel from heaven.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: If you have something preached to you that's different than what we preach to you, that better be accursed.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes even further and he says, if somebody preaches something different than what you've already received, that should be a cursed.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, when we preach what we preach in the Church of Jesus Christ, we're standing upon two things.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: That we are preaching the same things that have always been preached, and that the church has received the same things down through the years that she's always received.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad that we don't have to generate something new?
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you glad we don't have to have firmware updates?
26:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, every time they update our computers at work, we can't work for about a day.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Everything's broken when they're supposed to fix something.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, that's how man is when he tries to fix something of God.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: He ends up breaking everything.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, let that be a curse.
26:57
SPEAKER_00: I thank God that you and I have the same doctrine that the apostles did.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: I thank God that the church receives today the same old story that she's always received.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Because this is the faith once delivered to the saints, because it's all the saints have needed until the Lord comes back.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: But this, these churches of Galatia had departed from that.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't that they had wholesale thrown out all the doctrine.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: It's not like they just rejected election and predestination and eternal security.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: They didn't just throw all that out.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: They pretty much held most of that, but then they added something else to it.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Brother Mike said last night that Peter thought he had it figured out?
27:39
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that he was willing to get rid of Jesus, it was just Jesus plus all these other things.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Friends, it's not Jesus plus, it's Jesus, period.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: And it's got so bad that in chapter 2 it says Paul even had to tell Peter, you're wrong.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is your fault.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: You see what happened to Barnabas?
27:59
SPEAKER_00: That's on you, Peter.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: And then he gets down in chapter 2, and in verse 16, he makes a contrast.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm flying through a lot of stuff here because if it's the afternoon service, and if I don't do this, y'all will be asleep before I ever get back to verse 21.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: In verse 16, he makes a contrast that our justification has to be one of two ways.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: It either can be the way you think it is, the way your fathers had it by the law, which we know that by the law no flesh is going to be justified.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: It can't be.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: Or it's by the faith of Jesus Christ.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: And friends, when it comes to the faith of Jesus Christ, when it comes to the confidence that the Godhead has within itself, there is no disharmony, there is no disunity, that when God the Father looks at his son and says, This is what I'm going to have you to do, he has every confidence that his son is going to do exactly what he said.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: You want to know how confident God is in his son?
28:57
SPEAKER_00: It says in Romans chapter 3 that God the Father had faith in the blood of his son, and because of that, he forbore all those sins in the Old Testament until his son arrived and paid for those sins.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: That means that Abel, when he died, went right into heaven.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: How?
29:16
SPEAKER_00: By the blood of Jesus Christ.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: That means that Samuel, when he died, he went right into heaven.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Elijah didn't even die, he just went right into heaven.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: So did Enoch.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: How did they do that?
29:25
SPEAKER_00: By the blood of Jesus Christ.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: It hadn't been shed yet.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Didn't matter because the faith of God in his son was so strong that it was just as good as done, even though it hadn't yet been executed.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: That's why God could look at us, as he says in Romans 8 and verse 31, verse 30, that we are glorified past tense.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Now I know you are not glorified.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: You're a beautiful congregation, and I love preaching to God's people.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: But I'm looking at a lot of sin in front of me, and it's not anything personal.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, I'm looking at old age, I'm looking at gray hairs, I'm looking at no hairs, I'm looking at uh things in front of your eyes that your eyes are going.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at people walking with canes, I'm looking at people who are stooped from very age, people who have things that they have to use to hear with, minds that are beginning to fade, things that are beginning to slip, all of this is a result of sin.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: It's evident that you're not glorified.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Why would God inspire it to be written as we are glorified in the past tense?
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Because in God's eyes, when he sees his son with him in the throne of God, it is just as good as done, even though it hasn't yet been executed.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: And the faith of Jesus Christ and the confidence that God has within himself, not just the Father to the Son, but the Son also to his Father, is so strong that whenever it happens, friends, you can bank on it that he speaks of those things which are not as though they had already been.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: He speaks of things in the future as if they're already past, and the ancient of days, who's without beginning of days nor end of life, he can speak of things presently even though they haven't actually happened.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: And the only way that you and I are going to be justified is by that faith and confidence that God has in himself.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: If it's based on anything that has man's participation or man's involvement, friends, there is no confidence to be found.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Because what does Paul say in Philippians that we have how much confidence in the flesh?
31:16
SPEAKER_00: None.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: We have no confidence in the flesh.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: And if you think you do, just I promise you, live a little bit.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: Every confidence you have is gonna fade.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Everything you hold dear and trust in, it's going to go away.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Brother Trevor talked about the acclaim and the accolades that men give.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Friends, one of the most damning of all those things are the accolades and the acclaim that we give ourselves.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: When we think we're something.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: When we're young and we think we're somebody.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: And we live a little bit, and we realize I was a nobody before, but I'm starting to figure it out now.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: My uh make mention of this and move on.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: My father gave us some advice right after we graduated from high school.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: I assume he gave it to my brother.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: I know he gave it to me.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: He said, do not go to your 10-year reunion.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Why?
32:11
SPEAKER_00: He said, because it's your 10-year reunion.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's 28 years old, they still think they're something.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: They still think they got the world by the tail and they're gonna just be the mover and the shaker of this world.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: He said, they haven't figured it out yet.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: They're no fun to talk to.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: He said, go to your 20-year reunion.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's 38, they're old, they're fat, they got a few children, they're getting bald.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: He said, they realize they're nothing and they're more fun to talk to.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, unfortunately, that worked in dad's day.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: I didn't go to my 20-year reunion.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: I learned enough from my wife on Facebook that they still hadn't figured it out yet.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping I might get to go to my 30-year.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: It's in a couple years.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: And maybe they'll have figured it out and they'll be fun to talk to.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: But friends, people just sometimes have to learn the hard way.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm really nothing.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: For all you young people, I'm gonna give you a news flash.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: This world was spinning long before you got here, and it'll be spinning long after you leave.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: But more important than that, God was here before you got there, and he'll be here long after you're gone.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: And he's the one worth holding on to.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: So Paul comes on down.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna skip 17, 18, and 19.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: I can't skip verse 20.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20 says, I am crucified with Christ.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, I live.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Paul brings this home in a very real and a personal way.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Look at those personal pronouns that he gives there.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: He starts off by saying, I am crucified with Christ.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: It would have been appropriate for him to say, We are crucified with Christ.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: It would have been appropriate because in position, in representation, God's people are all together with Christ.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: That's what Ephesians 2 and 5 says.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: We're together with him, just as we were together in Adam in the garden, we were together in Christ on the cross.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: But Paul makes this one personal.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: What that tells me is that when Paul looks at this, he is seeing it much like how God sees it.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: We heard, I think Brother David said this morning that this is personal to God.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: And it is.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: That when he is on the cross, yes, he saw all of his children, but he saw each one of us individually.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: He saw the collective as individuals.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul said, who loved me and gave himself for me.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: You need to, when you look at Calvary, you need to remember that it was you specifically that was on his mind on that occasion.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: It's not that he just thought of his family in general.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: He thought of all of us.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: But for you to think of Calvary properly, you have to think of it as if he was thinking about me.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: This is where it gets painful.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: That that sin I committed yesterday, he thought of that sin.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: That that sin I committed just now, he thought of that sin.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: The sin I don't know I'm going to commit tomorrow, he thought of that sin.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: And everything that I'd stood in need of from the time I was conceived until the time I died, he thought of each one of those things that before I've even done it, before there was a thought in my head, thou knewest it afar off.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: He already took care of it, he already satisfied it because it was for me personally that he died.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, even though this is my case, and we can read it as it's our case, I can read it as I am crucified with Christ.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: And I realize he didn't say I was or I will be, he says I am.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
35:37
SPEAKER_00: Representation is not a one-time thing, it is ongoing and perpetual.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: When you have a representative, how long does that representative represent you?
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Pretty much until they're voted out.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: How long does this representative represent you?
35:56
SPEAKER_00: For as long as he lives and he has no end of life.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: Which means the representation you have in Christ goes on the world without end.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul could say, there is therefore where no condemnation.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: Now no condemnation.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: Even when you feel condemned on a daily basis, even when our sins mount up before our eyes.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: Right now, there is no condemnation to the child of God.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: Why?
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Because I am crucified with Christ.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: And even though crucifixion is a thing of death, what does Paul say?
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, I live.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: Here's the beauty of this.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Even though this is a representation that we think of as death, the result is life.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: What did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28 and 29, when he's talking about the Lord's Supper?
36:53
SPEAKER_00: He says, For as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth what?
36:59
SPEAKER_00: You do show forth the Lord's death till he come.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: When the next time you gather for communion and you look at that table with that cloth spread over those elements, if you were looking at a table of death, that's what the table represents.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: But the beauty of that is that when that death enters into you, the product of that death is life.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: That death in him brought life in us.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ which liveth in me.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: And the life that I now live in the flesh, in my body, how am I living it?
37:38
SPEAKER_00: By that very same faith of Jesus Christ.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that Paul had the confidence in Christ, in his own walk of faith that God has within himself?
37:49
SPEAKER_00: No.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is that the very faith and person of Christ dwells within him.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: As it says in Colossians 1 and 23 that it's Christ in you the hope of glory.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: What dwells in you is the very essence and the very person of Christ Himself.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Peter makes some language in 2 Peter 1 and 3 that every time I read through it in my chronological reading, I just stop and I say, wow.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: It says he's made us a partaker of the divine and precious promises, and he's made us partakers of the divine nature.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
38:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how do you define God?
38:30
SPEAKER_00: How do you define his nature?
38:32
SPEAKER_00: It's not material.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: He's a spirit.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: How do you put your arms around it?
38:37
SPEAKER_00: How do you ground it?
38:39
SPEAKER_00: What are the metrics that you use?
38:41
SPEAKER_00: You can't.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: He's gone.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: And yet you're a partaker of that very same essence and substance.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this life that I have is divine because divinity dwells in me.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: It dwells in this body of flesh.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Why?
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Because he loved me.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: And he gave himself for me.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: I do not frustrate the grace of God.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Heard that verse, as I said, quoted since I was a little boy.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: And for a long time, this is what I thought Paul meant by that.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: What he is stating is an impossibility, something that cannot be.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: It's just not possible to frustrate the grace of God, else something that Christ did would have been in vain.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a true statement.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what Paul's saying.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying to me goes beyond just stating something that's impossible to show us how precious it is.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: He states something that he personally is not doing to show how precious what we have really is.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: That word frustrate can literally be translated or rendered this way: not establish.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: So if you read it that way, Paul is saying, I do not establish the grace of God.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: Those of you who heard me preach over the years, you know that this is a verse that I love because I love double negatives.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: I love throwing off on English teachers.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: If there's any here, I apologize.
40:15
SPEAKER_00: Because they have all these rules that today are the rule.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: May have not been the rule ten years ago, may not be the rule ten years from now, but it's the rule right now.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: When I was in school and I wrote, I wrote with double negatives, they marked it up.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: I started sentences with conjunctions, they marked it up.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I've had punctuation, they said that punctuation's antiquated and out of date.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: I got red marks everywhere.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: I stupidly thought, my wife's not here, you can tell her I said stupidly from the pulpit.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: I thought if I bring in the Bible, that'll prove my point.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: It does not.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: English teachers don't care.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's full of double negatives.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's full of sentences started with conjunctions.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: The Bible has antiquated punctuation.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
40:58
SPEAKER_00: The Bible's right.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: English teachers are wrong.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes a double negative says something the only way it could say it.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Because you've all heard it said, take those two negatives, make a positive, and the sentence would be this way: I establish the grace of God.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: For if righteous come by the law, then Christ is dead in the.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: Now that's true, but that doesn't capture everything that Paul's trying to say.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: Because it's possible to establish the grace of God in one area and not establish it in another area.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: As I said, the churches of Galatia, it wasn't that they just threw out all the doctrine.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: They still held to election.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: They actually loved it.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: You know why they loved it?
41:33
SPEAKER_00: Because they grew up with it.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: We're God's chosen people.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: They didn't throw that doctrine out, they still held on to that.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: Do you know there's people besides primitive Baptists that believe in election?
41:42
SPEAKER_00: There's people besides primitive Baptists that believe in predestination.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people that believe in eternal security.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: There's people out there who are not primitive Baptists who have a cappella singing, who have family-oriented worship.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean that they're wrong in what they're doing.
41:56
SPEAKER_00: That aspect of their worship is correct.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: That has established the grace of God in that particular way.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: But by saying I do not not establish the grace of God, Paul's not saying that what I have preached has established it.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: I haven't done anything.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: I haven't preached anything.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: I haven't written anything that doesn't establish the grace of God.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing that I have said that is going to go counter to what the grace of God entails.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: What does Paul say to the elders at Ephesus in Acts 20, whenever he is bidding them farewell?
42:29
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse uh Acts 20, about verse 21, he says, I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I didn't just preach to you what was easy.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: I didn't just preach to you what I was comfortable with.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Brother Mike mentioned last night that there are things that we have to preach that we're not comfortable with.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let me just tell you, preachers are not comfortable preaching things that we're failing at.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: Brother Mike got on road rage, and I said meddling, meddling.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: I admit it, Brother Mike, I said it.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to hear me want to preach about road rage.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
43:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty of road rage.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to talk about that.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to talk about a preacher not being a broad, being one who is not a striker.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
43:09
SPEAKER_00: Because I think a punch in the mouth fixes a lot of problems.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: Do not leave here saying that Brother Phillips said I could get in a fight.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying personally, in my own conscience, I think it fixes some things.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: If they won't close their mouth, you can close it for them.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: Moving on.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: Alright.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: You don't, there are things that I just don't like.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't like being told if a man smites thee on the one cheek, turn the other.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't like that.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't like being told if someone takes something from me, give them something else.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't like that.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's things that we have to preach about.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: We don't really like.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: But Paul said, I kept back nothing that was profitable to you.
43:44
SPEAKER_00: If it was necessary, if it was good for you, I didn't hold it back.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: Which is why he goes on in verse 27 of Acts 20 to say, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: That means that it wasn't just that I established it over here, and I established it over here, and I established it.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing in all of that that didn't establish the grace of God.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: That's why you have to say it the way Paul said it, because it's more than just establishing the grace of God.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: You can't pick anything out of what Paul said or what Paul wrote to these churches that went against the grace of God that didn't establish those foundational truths.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this, and he gets to the heart of what they're after.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: He says, if righteousness comes by the law, because what they had done is they brought some law into their gospel.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: And if righteousness comes this way, the end result of that is that Christ is dead in vain.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: Friends, Christ is not dead in vain.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: Christ did not do anything in vain.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: I love what it says about him in Isaiah 55 and about verse 10.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: He says, My word which goeth forth from me, it's not going to return unto me void.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: Friends, when he does something, it happens.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: When he speaks, it's done.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: When he commands, it stands fast.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when God said, Let there be light, there was no possibility that light was not going to come forth.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: When he said, Lazarus come forth, there was no possibility that Lazarus wasn't going to come forth.
45:05
SPEAKER_00: On the day of the resurrection, when he says, Live, there is no possibility that you will not live.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Live on that day.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: Because his word does not come back to him void.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: So any doctrine that would have anything of God in vain cannot be part of the establishment of the grace of God.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, in their case, it was bringing in the law, bringing in circumcision, bringing in the things that Moses taught that the Jews thought these Gentiles should keep.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: But let's just try on other things.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that you believe today that a man must fill in the blank.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of them.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: Belief, confession, acceptance, baptism.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: All those things are good things.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: But if you think those things are necessary for someone to go to heaven, and someone doesn't do that, then what has happened?
45:52
SPEAKER_00: Christ has died in vain.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: But what does it say about him?
45:57
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy 2, about verse 13.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: He says, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: And I love this last part.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: It would have been true for him to say, He abideth faithful, he cannot deny us.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: That would be true.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: But it says, He abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: Going back to the very faith of Jesus Christ, he cannot deny the confidence that he has in himself with his work and what he's done.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: And Paul was troubled.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: He was troubled that this end result that would bring the death of Christ being in vain, it troubled him that this would invade the church.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that Paul was shaking his finger at him saying, oh, you silly Galatians, although it might seem like that.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: It bothered him.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: It wore on his heart.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when he uses the term marvel, I mean, he's standing there in astonishment.
47:00
SPEAKER_00: I want to bring it into 2026 terms.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think, and please do not say any names out loud, of the preacher that you like the most, you've all got one.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: Don't sit out there and act righteous like you don't.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: You've got one.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: Because you know when you hear his name, you're like, oh good.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: You got one.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: What would it mean to you if you heard that preacher preach heresy?
47:35
SPEAKER_00: It would break your heart.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to speak on behalf of all these preachers.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: No matter what church you belong to.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: Your under-shepherd, if he's a man worth his salt, it would break his heart to see the flock fold out from underneath him.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: What does Paul say about the church at Thessalonica and 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and about verse 14?
48:04
SPEAKER_00: He says, as a nurse cherisheth her children, because ye were dear unto us.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: That's how a minister feels about the people he serves.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: That's how he feels about the sheep that he's trying to feed.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Friends, this is not playtime.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: What we have is something very precious.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: It was heavy to Paul that this thing had occurred.
48:27
SPEAKER_00: Because notice how he goes from this verse.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: He starts chapter 3 by saying, Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?
48:35
SPEAKER_00: Who hath done this to you?
48:37
SPEAKER_00: Who hath changed your mind and turned your heart away from Jesus Christ who has been so evidently set before you and crucified among you?
48:49
SPEAKER_00: When you consider what the church has, what the church has been shown, I don't say this by any way of pride.
48:54
SPEAKER_00: I say this with the thanksgiving that I have with all the fibers of my being.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: That we have seen things in the halls of the church that people in the world have never even thought about.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: We have seen the presence of Christ and the glory of God descend in the cloud among us and dwell with us and sit with us.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: We have heard his voice in our ear, in our heart.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: We've heard him speak and say, Fear not, be not afraid, it is high.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: We've had him come in the storms of our life when it seemed that all was lost and say, Why are you in doubt?
49:27
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you have a little faith?
49:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm still here.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: And if we need a little extra, he just says, peace, be still.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: And those things calm down.
49:37
SPEAKER_00: Those things are just driven away.
49:39
SPEAKER_00: I love coming to the house of God and being with God's people because the world could all be blown up about something.
49:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
49:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know what's going on today.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the president said and I don't care.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's happening overseas and I don't care.
49:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's happening in Washington and I don't care.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: I'll probably care some other day, but today I don't care.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: You know why?
49:59
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus Christ has been evidently set before us and crucified among us.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: Not that we have crucified him by our actions, but that the story of Jesus Christ and what he has done has been set down all over again.
50:12
SPEAKER_00: Even the same old story that comes to us and it comes to us in a very real way.
50:18
SPEAKER_00: Says in Revelation 5 and verse 9 that they sang a new song.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: What a song that had never been sung before.
50:24
SPEAKER_00: It was a song that was new every day.
50:25
SPEAKER_00: It was fresh every day, but every day.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: It's not a song that you've never heard, a song that's unacquainted to your ear and to your heart, but it's going to be as fresh ten thousand years into eternity as it is today.
50:37
SPEAKER_00: And what's that song?
50:39
SPEAKER_00: For thou art slain, and hast redeemed a son of God by thy blood and of every kindred tongue, people and nation.
50:46
SPEAKER_00: What is that?
50:46
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ crucified among you.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: What did John see there in the midst of the throne, in the midst of that portal, that heavenly portal, he saw light as it had been slain from the foundation of the world.
50:59
SPEAKER_00: You know what I've seen in the Church of Jesus Christ, which is a portion of heaven here upon earth.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: It's just the earnest of our inheritance while we're here.
51:07
SPEAKER_00: That when the very, as the old fathers used to say, when the gold and the honey of heaven just trips down into the Church of Jesus Christ, what do I see in the midst of the church?
51:18
SPEAKER_00: I see a lamb as it had been slain from the foundation of the world.
51:22
SPEAKER_00: And what do I want to do?
51:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do anything that's going to take away and not establish what that lamb did.
51:30
SPEAKER_00: Because everything that we say, everything we stand for, everything we hold fast to, everything you've received, everything that men have preached should be evident that Jesus Christ has been crucified and that nothing that God has done is in vain.
51:45
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul said, I don't frustrate the grace of God.
51:48
SPEAKER_00: He's inviting them to examine his record.
51:50
SPEAKER_00: You look and see what I've taught.
51:52
SPEAKER_00: See if anything that I have taught puts anything that God did through his son in vain.
51:59
SPEAKER_00: I encourage all of you to examine your articles of faith.
52:03
SPEAKER_00: Examine the things that your church stands for.
52:05
SPEAKER_00: Examine the tenets that you have believed for decades and generations.
52:11
SPEAKER_00: If any of those things make the death of Christ in vain, it's not worth holding on to.
52:17
SPEAKER_00: But I submit to you, if they're like the ones that we hold on to, every one of those statements upholds the death of Jesus Christ in full.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: And what's the point of all of this?
52:37
SPEAKER_00: In Galatians 6, Paul uses one of his favorite expressions.
52:44
SPEAKER_00: God forbid.
52:47
SPEAKER_00: He says, God forbid that I should glory in the cross of Jesus Christ, my Lord.
52:59
SPEAKER_00: It's all my glory.
53:02
SPEAKER_00: Brother Trevor, it's all my hope.
53:06
SPEAKER_00: As David said, it's all my desire.
53:09
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't make it to grow because it doesn't have to.
53:12
SPEAKER_00: It's as full as it needs to be.
53:14
SPEAKER_00: It's as glorious to encapsulate every child of God and keep them safe through all eternity in the world without any.
53:23
SPEAKER_00: You know how precious this is.
53:44
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you something about all these preachers here in this room.
53:49
SPEAKER_00: They're all rascals.
53:53
SPEAKER_00: I know you know Mike Montgomery's a rascal.
53:55
SPEAKER_00: That's evidently set before you.
54:00
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Brother Mike.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: I love David Crawford, one of the nicest men I've ever known.
54:09
SPEAKER_00: But if you don't know it, David Crawford's a rascal.
54:12
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Brother David.
54:20
SPEAKER_00: I must be getting older.
54:23
SPEAKER_00: I find as I get older, I repeat myself and tell more stories.
54:28
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize growing up how odd of a situation we had.
54:33
SPEAKER_00: I'd known preachers all my life.
54:35
SPEAKER_00: They'd stayed in our home, we'd stayed in theirs.
54:38
SPEAKER_00: And when I was a young man, I realized that not people in the world, primitive Baptists, didn't have the same idea about preachers that I did.
54:46
SPEAKER_00: I found out people were scared of Sunny Piles, and I said, why?
54:50
SPEAKER_00: I shut him up when I was three years old without half trying.
54:53
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know why they were scared of him.
54:55
SPEAKER_00: I found out people were scared of James Isaac's life, the biggest teddy bear of Arkansas?
54:59
SPEAKER_00: He's gruff on the outside, he's squishy on the inside.
55:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it shocked me.
55:05
SPEAKER_00: But when people just saw a preacher, they saw a man of God exercising his duty and displaying the talents that God had given unto him.
55:14
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I'm here to tell you, all of these men are men.
55:19
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't give them more earnest heed, these things will slip from us.
55:25
SPEAKER_00: I know the kind of man that I am.
55:28
SPEAKER_00: I know the things that I've done, the places I've been, and the places I'm capable of going.
55:33
SPEAKER_00: I know those things.
55:36
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that Jesus Christ would entrust this great treasure with somebody like me, not just me, but somebody like me, to declare this blows my mind.
55:49
SPEAKER_00: And every church that I've ever loved has problems.
55:54
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord has entrusted with you, the church, as the pillar and the ground of the truth these precious things here in this earth.
56:08
SPEAKER_00: It's worth holding on to and contending for no matter what.
56:15
SPEAKER_00: Whatever the cost, how great the miles, how sorrowful the burden, how heavy the load, it's worth it.
56:26
SPEAKER_00: Because the prodigal son did not realize how good the father's house was until the father's house was gone.
56:33
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I don't want to know how good the father's house is by losing it.
56:36
SPEAKER_00: I want to know how good the father's house is while I'm walking.
56:40
SPEAKER_00: May we abide in these sayings and hold fast the grace of God and hold fast that nothing that God has done is in vain and treasure that all the days of our life.
56:52
SPEAKER_00: And so do it.
56:53
SPEAKER_00: May God be pleased.
56:54
SPEAKER_00: Dwell with us all the time that we're here towards God.
57:05
SPEAKER_00: I would uh certainly say amen to what we've heard.
57:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm certainly thankful for what the Lord's blessed us with this afternoon.
57:13
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm encouraged.
57:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for