255 come and dine him number 255 we'll go ahead and start there right on the
first Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed he invites his
With His man a He doth feed, And supplies are every need.
O, to sweet, to stop with Jesus all the time, Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine.
You may feast at Jesus' table all the time, He who fed the multitude, Turn the water into wine, to the hung.
Thus obeying Christ compared for the master called unto them, come and dine.
There they found their hearts he sighed, bread and fish upon the fire.
Thus he satisfied the hungry every time.
And with Jesus they will peace be turned on.
Good singing this evening. We'll open with a word of prayer.
Dear Father, thank you for this church and all the people that are in here today.
I pray that you would just listen to our voices as we sing praises unto you, Lord,
and fill us with your spirit as we sing and help us to be edified by the message that you've laid
on Pastor's Heart as well, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. For our next song, if you would,
The light of the world is Jesus
Him number 262
Him number 262 we'll go ahead and start there right on the first
The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin, the light of the world is Jesus.
Like sunshine at noon day, His glory shone in.
The light of the world is Jesus.
Come to the light, it's shining for me.
and see the light of the world is Jesus. No darkness have we who in Jesus supply. The
light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light
Once I was blind, but now I can see The light of the world is Jesus
He dwellers in darkness, glitz and blind in eye
the sunlight in heaven were told.
The light of the world is Jesus.
The lamb is the light in the city of gold.
The light of the world is Jesus.
Coming to God.
We'll go through some announcements.
If you don't have a bulletin, please raise your hand
and then Usher will bring you one.
On the front is our Bible memory verse of the week,
Galatians chapter number one, verse eight.
Make sure you're working on that memory passage
and at the end of this chapter,
if you can quote it,
reward perfect to an adult non-family member,
you will receive a prize.
On the inside there is our service times listed Sunday morning at 10 30 Sunday evening at 4 30 and our Wednesday evening Bible study
Of course, it's 7 o'clock all of our soul winning times are listed there and all those meet here at the church building
Nursing home ministry schedule is listed there for next week
Also, we do have below that our year-to-date
Statistics for soul winnings keep up the good workout soul winning
On the right is our list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for Miss Whitney Reed and some upcoming events on the back over there
There's a sign-up sheet for the men's preaching night coming up on March 9th for our evening service
So if you'll want to preach in that, please do sign up and after that we'll be having a potluck in the evening
March 15th is miss Whitney Reed's baby shower and there was some information sent in the signal group as far as her
Registry and some more information on the back of the bulletin. So make sure you RSVP to that
With mrs. Kwaja if you're gonna be going to that
Also, there's a soul-winning marathon in Oklahoma City, April 19th, that's Easter weekend.
Make plans to join us for that Saturday.
May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at Sher Foundation Baptist Church
in Vancouver, Washington.
May 31st, we're going to have another soul-winning marathon here in Oklahoma, this time joining
with Steadfast Baptist Church from Texas.
June 28th is the Tinker Air Show, just a fellowship day there.
August 27th through the 31st Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship in Texas and October 6th through the 11th
is the Bahamas Mission Strip looking forward to those events. Below that there's some
information about giving to our church if you'd like to do that and on the back is our prayer
list. Make sure you're keeping all these in prayer and if you have any requests please email me or
updates and I'll make sure to get the bulletin reflecting that information.
Jennifer's uncle still gonna be getting treatment for cancer soon so keep him in
prayer and brother Alex Lee has another good opportunity for work so he wants
prayer for that as well everything else is pretty much
our sons, Blessed Trinity.
Holy, holy, holy, all the saints are for me,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
shall be.
Good singing this evening as the offering plates are being passed around.
Turning to bibles to 1 Samuel chapter number 28.
Good evening first Samuel 28 the Bible reads and it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare
To fight with Israel and Akish said unto David
Know thou surely that thou shalt go with out with me to battle thou and thy men and David said to Akish
Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do and Akish said to David
Therefore will I make the keeper of my head forever
Now Samuel was dead and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah
even in his own city and Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits in the wizards out of the land and the
Philseans gathered themselves together and came and pitched and shun him and Saul gathered all Israel together
And they pitched in Gilboa and when Saul saw the host of the Philseans
He was afraid and his heart greatly trembled and when Saul inquired of the Lord
the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by urem, nor by prophets. Then said Saul,
unto his servants, seek me a woman, the hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and
inquire of her. And his servants said to him, behold, there is a woman, the hath a familiar
spirit at Endor. And Saul disguised himself and put on other raiment. And he went, and two men
and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit and bring me him up whom I shall
name unto thee. And the woman said unto him, behold thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath
cut off those that have familiar spirits in the wizards out of the land, wherefore then
layest thou a snare for my life to cause me to die."
and Saul swear to her by the Lord, saying,
as the Lord liveth, there shall no punishment
happen to thee for this thing.
Then said the woman, whom shall I bring up unto thee?
And he said, bring me up Samuel.
And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice,
and the woman spake to Saul, saying,
why hast thou deceived me for thou art Saul?
And the king said unto her, Be not afraid for what sawest thou.
And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
And he said unto her, What form is he up?
And she said, An old man cometh up, And he is covered with a mantle,
And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, And he stooped with his face to the ground,
And bowed himself.
And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me up?
and Saul answered, I am sore distressed for the Philseans, make war against me, and God is departed
from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams, therefore I have called thee,
that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou ask
And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me, for the Lord hath
rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbor, even to David.
Because thou obeyedest not the voice of the Lord, nor executed his fierce wrath upon Amalek,
therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto thee this day.
Moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines
Shalt thou and thy sons be with me.
The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel
into the hand of the Philxians.
Then Saul fell straight away all along the on the earth
and was so afraid because of the words of Samuel
and there was no strength in him
for he had eaten no bread all the day nor all the night.
And the woman came into Saul
and saw that he was so troubled and said unto him, Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice,
and I have put my life in my hand, and have hearkened unto thy words, which thou spakest unto me.
Now therefore, I pray thee, hearken thou also unto the voice of thine handmaid, and let me set
a morsel of bread before thee, and eat. That thou mayst have strength when thou goest on that way,
Together with the woman
Compelled him and he hearkened unto their voice
So he arose from the earth and sat upon the bed and the woman had a fat calf in the house
And she hasted and killed it and took flour and needed it and did bake unleavened bread thereof and
She and she brought it before Saul and before his servants and they did eat and they
rose up and went away that night.
Let's bow our heads forward to prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for this day
and we thank you for our church.
And we just ask that you would look over us
and help us to pay thanks to your Lord
and to broadcast to the Holy Spirit and Jesus in the prayer.
All right, well, we're nearing the end of this book here.
I can't believe how quickly it's gone along,
but only a few more chapters left.
Tonight we're in First Samuel chapter 28,
Bible reads in verse one.
And it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel and
Akish said unto David know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to battle thou and thy men
And if you remember, last chapter, David was going to war and just destroying everyone in the surrounding areas of Israel.
But he kind of made it seem like to Akish that he was going in the south of Judah and Akish is just 100% convinced in his mind
that David is totally loyal to him and on his side that he's kind of estranged from Israel and the people of God and that now he's going to be
totally loyal to him, but of course that's not really the truth.
You know, David is just kind of in a backslidden state right now.
He went to the land of the Philistines, but he's not really confederate with them in his
heart.
He's making some bad decisions.
Verse 2 says, David said to Akish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do.
and Akish said to David,
therefore will I make the keeper of mine head forever?
And it's just funny how David responds here.
He doesn't say like,
oh yeah, you know I'm totally on your side.
Oh yeah, I'm totally loyal to the Philistines here.
He's just like, well, you know what I'm capable of.
like you've seen me and you know you've heard of me in the past you've you've
heard of my warfare and how I've done in combat before you know what I can do
he doesn't really say what he's going to do just what he can do and so this guy
is very confident that David's gonna take care of him says that he's gonna be
the keeper of mind head forever so he thinks like David's my personal body
guard he's got me he's gonna take care of me then it says in verse 3
Now Samuel was dead and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah even in his own
City now Samuel's kind of brought up here in this chapter towards the beginning and that's gonna be significant because he's gonna play a
Role in the end of the chapter, but keep in mind
He's dead the people have lamented him and it says in Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land
And of course, Saul, when he started, he was a very good king.
He was a godly person. He was humble.
He was doing that, which was right in the side of the Lord.
So the Bible doesn't tell us exactly when Saul did this,
but at some point in the past, Saul had gotten rid of all the witches and wizards
and just occultish things in the land at that time.
came and pitched in Shunem and Saul gathered all Israel together and they
pitched in Gilboa and when Saul saw the host of the Philistines he was afraid
and his heart greatly trembled.
So we see Saul here is in the same situation that everyone who is far from God is in, and
that's when you're facing a problem, when you're facing something scary, something dangerous,
and God's not with you, yeah, you're going to be afraid.
And quite honestly, Saul should be afraid because look at the next verse, it says,
nor by Urim nor by prophets.
So comes the point where something scary is happening
and all of a sudden now Saul wants to inquire of the Lord
except now God's not answering him.
And, you know, that's the scary part about being so backslidden and having hardened your
neck so much and having not corrected yourself from the sins that you've committed is you
kind of get to the point where you're not really hearing from God anymore.
And this is something that the Bible does teach.
But first, go to Proverbs chapter 8, Proverbs chapter number 8.
You think about some of the actions that Saul has taken so far, you know God told him to utterly destroy all the Amalekites
He didn't do it
Samuel tells him to wait to do the sacrifice.
Saul does it on his own.
Saul starts trying to kill David.
Saul tries to kill Jonathan at one point.
Saul gets to the point where he is so paranoid
that he commands the Lord's priests to be murdered.
I mean, he's done a lot of wickedness here.
He shouldn't be surprised that God's not on his side right now.
He shouldn't be surprised that he's not hearing from God.
But look at Proverbs 8.
In verse 17, the Bible says,
I love them that love me,
and those that seek me early shall find me.
Now, this is kind of wisdom personified in Proverbs 8,
but it really applies to God too,
that God is found of those that seek him early.
See, we don't wanna be the type of Christians
that we wait until an emergency
to start getting right with God.
We wait until our lives are about to be completely destroyed and everything in our lives is about to just blow up to where we finally start inquiring of God.
Because I mean Saul's inquiring here, he's going, he's trying dreams, urim, prophets, I mean he's trying to hear from God in any way he can, but it's too late.
You know he should have been seeking God early and continuing to seek God rather than just
hardening his neck for so long then, oh this emergency comes and now he just expects to hear
from God like that. No, God is one that wants to be sought early. Go to Proverbs 28, Proverbs
chapter 28. You know this is a biblical context that in some ways the way that you treat God
is going to affect how he responds to you and how he treats you.
Proverbs 28 verse 9 says he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.
So the Bible is talking about someone who turns their ear away from hearing the law.
What is that?
It's someone who's resisting the truth, resisting correction.
This isn't the type of person that's waking up in the morning and desiring what it is
that God would have me to do.
God what is it that you want me to think about this situation?
What steps do you want me to take today Lord?
No, it's someone who's turning away his ear from that.
This isn't the person that's going to church on a Wednesday evening, right?
trying to get away from the counsel of God,
and it says, even his prayer shall be abomination.
Someone that is just constantly despising God,
and I don't even necessarily mean that as in a hating way.
I just mean of esteeming him less than other things.
Despising preaching, despising church, despising the Bible.
When God's constantly just being put on the back burner
and then all of a sudden you just go to him with some prayer,
you know, that's kind of an abomination to God.
When it's like, why have you just been ignoring me?
Why have you been making light of me?
Oh, but all of a sudden now there's war.
Oh, now the Philistines are around you.
Now you want to call out to me.
No, that prayer becomes an abomination to God.
That's why whether it's by urim or dreams or prophets,
God's no longer talking to Saul
because Saul has not been listening to God.
Go to Psalm 66.
Psalm 66. So, you know, you want to do some preventative maintenance on your spiritual
life.
You know, don't be like what happened to me a few months ago where I waited until my engine
blew up with my forerunner to give it some love, okay?
I should have just prioritized that a little bit better.
But you know, you don't want to do that spiritually where it's like you just ignore your spiritual
life until your life's about to blow up, until your marriage is on the verge of collapse,
until you have some sort of emergency where a child's in the hospital or something like
that.
No, that's not necessarily how it works.
Psalm 66, verse 17 says,
Now, of course we know that we are all sinners. No one is perfect.
We are all going to have some level of sin that we're dealing with at all times.
But I think when the psalmist is saying here regarding iniquity in my heart, it's like, no, you have this big issue.
You've been corrected on it, but you're doing nothing to change it. You're not even trying. You don't even care.
You've already decided to do what? To turn away your ear from the law. You know, you've heard go soul winning.
You know it's right, but you just don't do it.
You know, you've heard how ladies should wear dresses
and then you just keep wearing pants.
You just don't even care.
You know it's right.
You know it's what the Bible says,
but you've just hardened your heart.
You're just gonna regard that iniquity in your heart.
The Bible says that the Lord will not hear that person.
Now, of course, I think a certain type of prayer
that person would hear, or that God would hear,
like Lord, I'm sorry.
Lord, I want to get right with you, I've been stiff-necked, I've been disobedient and
please forgive me, please be merciful.
Of course, God's going to hear that type of prayer, but just the, oh hey, I need something
real quick because I'm going to bind.
No, you want to do some preventative maintenance on your spiritual life where you're constantly
hearkening to the Bible and being close to God, so that way when you do need Him, your
prayer is not an abomination to Him.
Go to 1 Samuel chapter 28 again.
1st Samuel, chapter 28.
As you're turning there, I'll read 1st John 1 9 if we confess our sins.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. It's like I was saying, you know, that's the type of prayer
that Saul should be praying right here.
King Saul should be praying like God, I'm sorry for being such an idiot and attacking David for no reason and attacking Jonathan and disobeying your words.
I just want to get my relationship restored with you. Will you forgive me? That's the prayer that he should be doing.
Not just like, oh, I'm in a bind. Would you please help me?
Verse seven.
says, Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit that
I may go to her and inquire of her.
And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at
Endor."
Now,
That term familiar spirit is not something that we usually hear in our modern vernacular,
but this is just talking about someone dealing with the occult, dealing with the dark arts,
witchcraft, stuff like that.
So it's funny how the Bible kind of mentions how Saul at one point had kicked all these
people out of the land.
He's driven them out of the land, but he's so backslidden that, you know, God's not listening
to him.
God's not close to him.
So what does he do?
by going and inquiring of a witch.
Now what's interesting is flip back a few pages
to 1 Samuel chapter 15.
First Samuel chapter 15, you know, one of the characteristics of Saul that we've seen over and over in this book is
Rebellion, right?
Knowing what's right, being corrected, but refusing to change and making the same mistakes over and over again.
Notice what the Bible says in verse 23, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry because thou hast rejected the word of
the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. And you know this story
wasn't in the Bible. I would kind of read this verse and think like man that
seems to be a pretty big jump going from rebellion to witchcraft yet that's
what the Bible saying is that the sin of rebellion is as meaning it's similar to
from being a rebel to literally inquiring of a witch.
Now go to Leviticus chapter 19, Leviticus chapter 19.
You know, thankfully witchcraft and the occult
and the dark arts and stuff like this,
it does not really seem to be something
that's super prominent in our culture.
You know, especially in Oklahoma and in Oklahoma City, you know, you're not just running into
witches all the time.
You're not really seeing this stuff super common out in public and thank God for that.
But you know, there still are some things that I think Christians can get into sometimes
that are getting way too close to this line or just all the way.
You know, how about the holiday of Halloween?
You know, that is for sure just way past the line and just nothing that Christians should
ever be involved in, Ouija boards, these are things that you can just go buy at Walmart
or Target.
They're just commercially available.
Or how about the horror film industry?
You know, these films break in a lot of money.
They're very popular films.
And while you may not necessarily be doing witchcraft by watching that stuff, I'll just
You know what he was doing?
He was around a witch.
He was inquiring of a witch.
And you know, us as Christians,
we should be as far away from this stuff as possible.
And you know, I've heard Baptists,
I've heard fundamental Baptists stick up for
and defend Halloween and act like it's not really a big deal.
But I want to show you some scriptures
of why we should avoid this.
Leviticus.
19 verse 31, notice what it says,
regard not them that have familiar spirits,
neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them.
I am the Lord your God.
You know, some people want to say, well, look, this isn't defiling me because this isn't even real.
Oh, it's just a movie. It's just a book.
Here's the thing. We shouldn't just be thinking about, well, you know, it's okay to be around witchcraft and around the dark arts.
As long as it's just not real. How about just stay away from it, period.
because I don't know, I personally don't know how much of it is real and how much of it is not real.
I don't even want to find out. I don't even want to be close to it. But I'll tell you what,
I don't want to be watching these horror movies. I don't want to regard wizards. Notice what it says
that the people that do this are defiled by them. You know, it's defiling to your soul to be involved
in witchcraft, wizardry or any of these dark arts. Look at Leviticus 20 flip the page.
Flip to Leviticus 20 verse 6 it says and the soul that turneth after such is have familiar spirits and
After wizards to go a whoring after them
I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people
See, this is why you don't even want to play around with this because
Whoever is involved in this, doesn't matter who it is, whatever soul it is, God is now against that person.
Like you are inviting the wrath of God and the anger of God on you when you are involved in this stuff.
So, you know, teenagers, young adults, they might think,
hey, no big deal, we're just playing a funny game with the Ouija board.
We're just having a good time getting a kick out of getting scared or something like that.
And you may think on the surface that you're just having a good time,
but what if while you're doing that, you're actually causing God's face to turn from you
and God to be against you and God's anger to be against you.
You know, that's not where I want to be in life.
I don't want to be at the point of life where, when I call upon the Lord,
my prayer is an abomination to Him.
He's, you know, I'm inquiring of God, and he can't be found of me.
That is not what I want.
Go to Acts chapter number 19, Acts chapter number 19.
Look what it says in verse 11 of Acts chapter 19, it says in God
wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul.
See, it's not that suspending the supernatural or suspending the natural
is somehow inherently satanic because God
performs miracles and the apostles performed miracles but here's the thing
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, you know, there's nothing, you know,
Satanic about miracles or something like that.
Of course, there's blasphemous people
that wanna accuse Jesus of being involved in the dark arts
because he was doing miracles.
No, he was doing it by the spirit of God,
by the Holy Spirit.
And so, of course, there's nothing wrong with that.
But the difference though is when you're doing it
by the power of the devil.
Look at verse 12.
So that from his body were brought unto the sick,
handkerchiefs or aprons,
and the diseases departed from them,
and the evil spirits went out of them.
Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists,
took upon them to call over them,
which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus saying,
we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches,
And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests, which did so.
So the apostles, Paul, he's doing miracles, he's healing the sick, he's casting out devils,
but the Bible makes it clear that he's doing it by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Then you have these Jews who are exorcists.
And even today there's people that call themselves exorcists.
There's Catholic priests that go around and do exorcisms or something like that.
The evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are he?
Interesting how the evil spirits, the demons, the dark forces of this world know who the righteous are.
They know who Jesus is, they know who Paul is, but who are ye?
Just because these people think they think they're spiritual, they're calling themselves exorcists,
but when they don't have the Spirit of God, these demons even are saying like,
who even are you? You're no one.
Verse 16,
and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
So notice these people that were not saved, that were getting involved in this dark stuff,
getting involved in exorcisms, you know, the evil spirit leaped on those people
and overcame them and prevailed against them and hurt them.
And you know, thankfully for us that are saved,
greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
Of course, Christians could never be demon possessed
or anything like that, but the world doesn't know that.
The unsaved world doesn't realize that when they're playing
with this kind of stuff, that they can be harmed.
I've talked to people who, thank God, ended up getting saved, but who told me that they
were very heavily involved in this life, and here's the thing.
I can't verify every single thing that they told me.
I wasn't there, but I've had multiple people tell me of all sorts of crazy things that
happened to them when they were deeply involved in witchcraft and the occult and stuff like
that.
It's just not something you ever want to find out yourself for.
You know, you hear these stories, you see it happen in the Bible to unsave people,
where these demons literally harmed them physically.
No, we just need to stay away from it.
But look at verse 17.
And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks, also dwelling at Ephesus,
and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds, so many got saved.
Many of them, also which used curious arts, brought their books together and burned them
before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver.
So notice these people that got saved and got right with God, what did they do?
They burned all the books having to do with the dark arts and the occult and stuff like
that even at a huge financial detriment.
I mean, there's a lot of money here.
50,000 pieces of silver.
Look, this is the attitude that all Christians should have.
Hopefully you've never even gone down this road.
I don't know if anyone in here has,
but if you have, just put that stuff away from you.
You got books like that at home, burn them.
You got dark movies like that, burn them.
Don't play around with this stuff.
It brings the wrath of God upon you.
Even if you're saved,
Yeah, you may not be able to be harmed physically by one of these demons or possessed or something
like that, but you can still have God's wrath against you.
You know, have the attitude of these people, burn those books, get away from it, don't
be one of these Christians defending Halloween.
Don't be one of these Christians getting up saying,
oh, it's not a big deal.
What do you mean it's not a big deal
that everyone's dressed up like some sort of demon,
some sort of ghoul, some sort of witch
and we're just glorifying darkness and death
and blood and gore?
What's godly about that?
What's Christian about that? You know, even just the famous quote of Antoine Levé,
or however you say his stupid name, talking about how he's thankful, how Christian parents,
at least once a year, allow their children to worship the devil. And you know what,
that's the, you parents, your parents are naive sometimes thinking, oh, you know,
my kids, they're not going to get into that kind of stuff. They're just dressed up like
princesses. They're not going to ever fall into that kind of stuff. But it's like, they do, though.
They do kids get curious
Kids want to go to the to the haunted mansions
They want to go to the the haunted what's it called the corn patches or whatever and they like the fear
They like the darkness like that that is a fleshly desire and your kids are not immune from it
No one's immune from it. Just don't even play around with that kind of stuff go back to
first Samuel 28
How about this verse first Thessalonians 522 abstain from all appearance of evil
It's like, I don't know how much more of an appearance of evil it could get as you dressing
like a witch.
Oh, but I'm not a witch, though.
Yeah, but why are you dressing like one?
Yeah, why are you wanting to watch movies where they're glorified?
Why are you wanting to read books where there's all these spells and witchcrafts and incantations?
No, don't even have the appearance of evil.
Look at verse 8 it says in Saul disguised himself. Isn't that funny?
That's usually what people do on Halloween, right? And when they're around witchcraft
They like to disguise themselves and put on other raiment and he went and two men with him
And they came to the woman by night
And he said, I pray the divine unto me by the familiar spirit and bring me him up whom
I shall name unto thee.
So when people are involved in these sorts of satanic wicked practices, it's often exactly
how it is.
in this story where they want to disguise themselves.
They want to cover their identity.
They want to do things in the cover of darkness.
You know, when these satanic cults go out and do crimes,
when they sacrifice, I don't know, cats
in their neighborhood or whatever,
or literally kill people, when is it happening?
It happens at night.
It happens when they're disguising themselves,
when they're covering their actions.
Go to Ephesians 5, here's the thing.
When people are covering who they are,
when they're disguising themselves,
when they're doing things in secret
and under the cover of darkness,
it's almost always wicked.
It should just be an obvious sign.
And you know, before COVID, everyone knew,
if you saw someone in public wearing a mask,
you would be like, all right, what's going on?
Like, why is this person disguising himself?
Like, that's kind of a danger.
That's kind of a threat,
because only someone that's interested in wickedness
would want to walk around with a mask on their face.
Now, the whole weird COVID stuff happened,
and when you see someone at the mask,
you're just thinking, oh, he's an idiot.
He's not necessarily a threat, he's just an idiot.
Look at Ephesians 5 verse 11, it says,
for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
See the Bible says don't partake of it and not only don't partake of it,
reprove them. Tell people it's wrong. Make it clear, make it obvious. You know,
people love to make fun of fundamentalists. Oh, you know, you guys, you actually preach
against witchcraft. None of that stuff is real. Yeah, it is real. And my job is to
reprove it and to say it's real and to tell people to get away with, to get away
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
So notice, things that are right, things that are righteous are things that make light, things that go out in the open.
You know, we don't have these secret meetings like the Mormons like to have.
We don't have buildings on them with no windows
and all these closed meetings where you have to do a secret handshake
like the masons or something like that.
You have to have all these secret codes to do like these false religions do.
No, we just want to have light.
We just want to have transparency.
We want to have things open.
We believe the Word of God.
Not only do we believe the Word of God, we want to tell everyone about it.
We don't hide our doctrine.
We want everyone to hear our doctrine.
We want the gospel to go out to everyone.
Why? Because we're making things light.
But when people hide, when people disguise who they are,
or they start to censor themselves
or do things behind closed doors,
usually that's a good sign that what's happening is evil,
is wicked.
Go back to 1st Samuel chapter 28.
And that's where Saul has gotten himself.
You know, he used to hide because he was humble
and didn't want to be ordained in front of everyone.
He had a low view of himself.
Now he's hiding because he's inquiring of a witch.
Man, he's fallen far.
Verse nine and the woman said unto him behold thou knowest what Saul hath done how he hath cut off
Those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land
Wherefore then lay us thou a snare for my life to cause me to die
You know just it's sad how much Saul has ruined his reputation and his testimony as a believer in God
where even this witch she's kind of afraid to even do this because she's like oh man
There's this guy Saul who was putting away all these witches and sending him out of the land
And I don't want to do this because I might get in trouble with him yet. She's talking to Saul
What a shame it would be if some Baptist preacher was known for preaching super hard sermons
and standing on the truth of God's word, and then later on that person was just the opposite.
That person's just totally fallen away from that.
That's a sad reputation to have, and it drags Christ's name through the mud.
Look at verse 10.
So, notice Saul has fallen so far here that not only is he inquiring of a witch, but he's promising to sin.
Because the Bible says, thou shalt not suffer a witch to live, and he's promising like, I'm not going to hurt you.
I promise I will sin. I promise I will disobey God's word. I swear to her, by the Lord.
So he's saying I swear to God that I'm not going to hurt you even though God told him as the king
He's the rightful authority. He could put these laws into place
He could put the witches to death like the Bible says he says I swear to God. I'm not gonna hurt you
How sad verse 11 then said the woman whom shall I bring up unto thee?
And so she's doing some sort of weird witchcraft where she's going to bring up a image, likeness,
something of a person who has died.
And he said, bring me up Samuel.
And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice and the woman spake to Saul,
saying, why hast thou deceived me for thou art Saul?
The narrator of the Bible here says that the woman saw Samuel so well
I don't know what all witchcraft is real and what isn't I know that what happened in this story actually took place
Where the woman actually saw Samuel and she kind of cries
Sounds like she's kind of surprised or shocked or fearful by seeing this go to Galatians chapter number six
And I think it's funny her last
statement that she makes there.
She goes, why have you deceived me thus?
And it's like, who are you to get mad
about someone lying to you when you're a witch?
And it's just kind of funny how when you see really wicked people kind of get a little
spout of righteous indignation when they're done wrong and it's like, you're a witch and
you're complaining that someone is lying to you, like why are you shocked if you're a
super wicked person that people are going to do wickedly to you?
It's like people in gangs or in the crime world or something like that, they're just
like so indignant when another gang does wrong by them or kills one of their people and it's
You all are terrible people. Why are you surprised when other terrible people do you wrong?
It's like you're a witch and Saul lied to you. Why are you surprised by that?
Galatians 6 verse 7,
Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Hey, if you're a criminal and you're out violating people, expect to be the victim of a crime.
Expect, if you are a liar, to be lied about.
Expect, if you are a gossip, for people to gossip about you.
Expect, if you go out and commit adultery, expect someone to do that to you.
You reap what you sow.
And if someone goes out and is a witch, a literal witch, and someone just lies to them,
they shouldn't really be surprised by that.
Because they themselves are living a super wicked life.
And so, yeah, you might be around other wicked people.
That's how it works.
Go to Psalm 18.
Psalm 18, Psalm chapter number 18, look at verse number 23.
The Bible says I was also upright before him and I kept myself from mine iniquity, therefore
hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness
of my hands in his eyesight.
See reaping what you sow works both ways.
And that's the good news is that, yeah, on one hand, if you're a super wicked person,
other wicked people, but if you're someone that is righteous, then God could
recompense us according to our righteousness. So don't ever feel like
it's just a pointless endeavor to be righteous.
Don't ever feel like, because you know, we all have the pull of the flesh
and I think sometimes the devil wants us to think like, hey, you know, it's not
that big of a deal if you sin. It's really not that big of a deal. That's
what the devil wants you to believe. But here's the thing, there's always a
reward for doing what's right.
There's always, you know, having integrity is always the best move you could make because even while in your human reasoning
It may not seem like a big deal
The truth is that when you're righteous God is going to recompense you according to your righteousness
And just having God on your side and his blessing on your life is worth the world and more
You know having peace is so important and notice verse 25 with the merciful that will show thyself merciful
With an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright.
So again, we have even selfish motivations,
even beyond just doing right for God's sake
and doing right for right's sake.
There's even selfish motivations of being merciful to people
and being upright with people
because when you show mercy to someone,
now God's gonna show mercy to you.
When you are upright, you deal uprightly with people,
then God is gonna deal uprightly with you.
And part of the way I think he does that
is by sending people into your life
and surrounding you by people
who are going to deal uprightly with you,
who are going to be merciful to you,
not having you surrounded by Saul who's gonna lie to you.
not being surrounded by a witch,
not being surrounded by wicked people,
but being surrounded by other people who love God.
So you know, in your daily life, in business,
it's always worth it to deal right, to be honest,
to be transparent, to not lie to your customers
or exaggerate or overcharge or stuff like that.
It's always worth it to just be 100% upright
because God is going to repay you that way.
Notice what it says, with the pure, verse 26,
with the pure,
thou wilt show thyself pure.
And notice, with the fro-word,
thou wilt show thyself fro-word.
For thou wilt save the afflicted people,
but wilt bring down high looks.
So, you know, if you're fro-word,
if you're someone who's always just
kicking against God's word
and being a contrarian like King Saul,
then God is going to deal that way with you.
So, you are going to get taken advantage of when you take advantage of other people.
You're going to get ripped off.
You're going to get lied about.
You're going to get slandered.
You're going to get gossiped about.
That's why it's so important to just do right.
Here's the thing.
There's also the fact of being persecuted for righteousness' sake, but then at least
you still have God's blessing when that happens to you.
Then when that happens to you, it's actually great because you're earning rewards in heaven.
You know, there's two types of people.
People who get lied about and are raking up rewards in heaven, or people who get lied
about as a punishment from God.
People who are gossiped about, and it's just Cha-ching, their spiritual bank account is
just going up every day, and just the lies are just, you know, rolling out from people's
tongues, but you're just reaping in rewards.
Or there's people who are constantly slandering you, lying about you, gossiping about you,
You know, you want to make sure you're suffering for righteousness sake.
Go to verse 13 of 1 Samuel 28, 1 Samuel 8 verse 13 says,
And the king said unto her, Be not afraid for what sawest thou.
And the woman said unto Saul,
I saw gods ascending out of the earth.
So I'm not sure obviously what happened here,
but it makes me wonder if maybe she saw
other prophets of old too during this time
because the word God could just mean ruler.
And so maybe she's seeing Samuel
and perhaps maybe she's seeing some other prophets.
Maybe that's why she's so scared.
But she's seeing gods ascending out of the earth.
Verse 14, and he said unto her, what form is he of?
And she said, an old man cometh up,
and he is covered with a mantle,
and Saul perceived that it was Samuel,
and he stooped with his face to the ground,
and bowed himself.
Now, notice in verse 15, this is the narrator speaking,
which is the Holy Ghost.
Notice what it says, and Samuel said to Saul.
What we're about to read actually happened.
This actually happened where Saul is speaking to Samuel
and vice versa because I've been out soul winning
and I've had people,
because this is a great passage
and we'll explain this later
of why you can't lose your salvation.
But I've had multiple people say,
well, this was just Saul dreaming this up.
This didn't actually happen.
But it's like the narrator saying
that Samuel said to Saul.
So this actually took place.
Notice what he says.
Why has thou disquieted me to bring me up?
And Saul answered, I am sore distressed.
For the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more,
neither by prophets nor by dreams. Therefore I have called thee that thou mayest make known unto me
what I shall do." Now, I don't know what in the world Saul is thinking here.
If he recognizes God has departed from me, God is not listening to me, then why would he think
that the prophet of God, Samuel, would have anything different to tell him?
You know, the prophet of God is right with God, is speaking the words of God,
Samuel's not going to have a different message for you than the Lord.
And that's kind of what he's going to say here in verse 16.
Then said Samuel,
Wherefore then, dost thou ask of me?
Seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and has become thine enemy.
Look, when God is against you, you have no hope.
There is no chance when God is turned away from you,
you are cooked, okay?
You're done when God's against you.
That's why you think about the battle of Armageddon
when Jesus is coming on the horse.
He's just gonna completely destroy his enemies.
They have no chance against him.
They're not gonna be able to put up a real resistance.
Once God is against you, you are done.
There's nothing you can do about that.
So going to Samuel is not gonna help you.
And here's the thing going to other people seeking comfort from different ways in this world other than the Lord is never going to actually help your situation.
You need to actually be right with God.
princes. And that word princes is similar to how she used the word gods. Like I see
gods ascending up out of the earth, rulers, princes. Don't put your trust in princes,
the Bible says, nor in the Son of Man in whom there is no help. And at the end of the day,
even going to a godly person like Samuel is of no help to you whatsoever if God is against you.
His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.
And you know, we just have to realize as Christians that there is no person on this earth that we can truly put our trust in.
like ultimately hang our hat on 100%.
Of course you wanna have friends you rely on
and you wanna rely on your spouse,
you wanna rely on your parents and things like that,
but I'm saying like at the end of the day,
the only person that you can 100% trust is God.
Not your wife, not your husband, not your mom, not your dad, not your pastor, not your best friend.
The only person you could truly put your trust in is God.
And so, you know, this is just foolish.
It's just a fool's errand here for him to go to Samuel when you've been rejecting Samuel's words when he was alive.
And guess what? Samuel wasn't preaching his opinion. He was preaching God's word.
And if he had actually feared God, he would have trusted in the Lord, he would have repented,
he would have changed his ways, but instead he's just stiff necked to the bitter end.
Stiff necked until the emergency comes, the Philistines comes, and he wants to call upon
the Lord, but God's not listening to him.
Why?
Because he's not been trusting in the Lord.
Go back to 1 Samuel 28, verse 17, it says, And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake
You say, what have I told you before?
For the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand and given it to thy neighbor, even
to David.
Because thou obeyest not the voice of the Lord, nor execute it to his fierce wrath
upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto this day.
Because Saul did not obey the voice of the Lord, what happened?
He was replaced by someone else.
they did not obey the prophets of God, they did not obey the gospel of Jesus Christ when he came
on this earth, and so the nation, God's chosen nation was taken from them and given to a better
nation, bringing a spiritual nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And this works in
anything in life. When you disobey God's word, God can replace you. He can replace you at work.
He could replace, you know, your position at church or anything like that, your position in ministry.
We need to make sure we're obeying the voice of God. Look what it says in verse 19,
says, moreover, the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines. Boy,
what a comforting message you're saying. You're going to lose. You're going to lose the battle
here. You're going to be delivered up into the hand of the Philistines. And to make matters worse,
The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
Like I said, when God is against you and you've become the enemy of God, there is no hope at that point.
You know, the hope would be for him to have asked for forgiveness, to have humbled himself, to have repented,
but instead he didn't do that. And so he's in a hopeless position here where he's run out of chances.
God's been long suffering with him, but he's run out of chances and he's saying, look, here's the truth.
Your army is going to be destroyed, they're going to be delivered up to the Philistines,
and tomorrow you're going to be with me. You and your son are going to be with me.
Kind of an ominous statement considering Samuel is dead. You know, if he said this while he was
alive, I'd be like, what's he talking about? But he's dead saying, tomorrow you are going to be with me.
Let's quickly finish out this chapter and I want to spend the rest of the sermon talking about verse 19
Verse 20 says then Saul fell straightway all along the earth and was sore afraid
Because of the words of Samuel there was no strength in him for he had eaten no bread all the day nor all the night
And the woman came unto Saul and saw that he was sore-troubled, and said unto him,
Behold, thine handmaid hath obeyed thy voice, and I have put my life in my hand,
And hath hearkened unto the words which thou spakest unto me.
Now therefore I pray thee, hearken thou also into the voice of thine handmaid,
And let me set a morsel of bread before thee, and eat that thou mayest have strength
When thou goest on thy way.
But he refused and said I will not eat but his servants together with the woman compelled him and he hearkened under their voice
So he rose from the earth and sat upon the bed and the woman had a fat calf in the house
And she hasted and killed it and took flour and kneaded it and did bacon leaven bread thereof
She brought it before Saul before his servants and they did eat then they rose up and went away that night
So that's first Samuel 28, but like I said, I want to focus again on verse number 19,
because verse number 19 teaches us a powerful truth that you can never lose your salvation.
Why? Because later on in this story, Saul is going to commit suicide. And we're going to talk about
that in a few weeks, but Saul is going to get surrounded by the enemy, just like Samuel said
would happen, that they would be delivered up into the hand of the Philistines. And then the next
What happens, Saul falls on his sword and kills himself.
Now, many people, the Catholic Church,
many people when you go out soul winning,
they think that if you commit suicide,
it is a ironclad guarantee that you're going to hell.
It's an unpardonable sin, many people teach.
If you commit suicide, you cannot be saved.
Now, here's the truth, is that Samuel said,
tomorrow, you and your sons are gonna be with me.
Now, the question is,
Where was Samuel?
We'll go to 2 Corinthians chapter number five.
2 Corinthians chapter number five.
That's why I was really stressing the importance of getting to understand that this story really happened.
This wasn't Saul's imagination.
He wasn't having a bad dream or something like that.
No, he really was speaking with Samuel.
And where is Samuel 2 Corinthians 5 verse 8 notice what the Bible says we are confident
I say and willing rather to be absent from the body that's a euphemism for death and
to be present with the Lord the moment that a saved person dies and they shed this physical
body they are in heaven in the presence of God the Bible says that the Lord is on his
When you are absent from the body, you are present with the Lord.
Now, our church believes very strongly, and of course, this is something that probably
everyone in here already knows, but it's good to talk about these things every once in
a while.
We believe very strongly that once a person is saved, they can never lose their salvation.
Eternal security, once saved, always saved.
Once you believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what sin you commit.
It doesn't matter what transpires in your life.
It doesn't matter even if you commit suicide,
you are still going to heaven when you die.
Now that's not me saying, go sin, go commit suicide,
go do things that are bad.
I'm saying that you can't lose your salvation.
This is from our doctrinal statement,
Anchor Baptist Church doctrinal statement.
It is impossible for someone to lose their salvation.
Eternal life is a free gift obtained by faith alone.
No amount of doing good works or refraining from sin is required to keep you saved.
The Bible promises eternal life to those who are saved, not temporary life.
Just logic itself.
Proves eternal security that if you're saved eternally and it's a free gift
It's not of works. You didn't have to do good to get saved
Why would you then have to do works or not sin to stay saved? It doesn't make any sense, right?
It's like if I give you a gift for free, why would you have to pay me a year from now?
That's not a gift right gifts are free not only that it's eternal life not temporary life
Now let's go to a few verses looking at this go to John chapter 5
This is my favorite verse on eternal security is John 5 24 I use this verse every single time
I go out soul winning and I even phrase it in a certain way to people when I talk to them about eternal security
I said Jesus actually said three times in one verse that you can never lose your salvation and he does
It's a wonderful wonderful verse John 5 24
Underline this in your Bible remember this verily verily I say unto you
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
Hath everlasting life.
So when you have trusted in God,
when you've put all your faith in Him for salvation,
number one, you have present tense everlasting life.
If I have, in my possession, everlasting life today,
that means that I'll have it tomorrow.
That means that I'll have it a thousand years from now
because it's everlasting.
That's just the logic of the word itself, right?
So you wouldn't be able to say then,
Oh, it's everlasting unless you do something bad.
That's not what the Bible says.
It says, if you believe in Him, then you have everlasting life.
Not only that, number two, notice what it says.
And shall not come into condemnation.
Number one, if you believe in Him, you have everlasting life.
Number two, if you believe in Him, you will never come into condemnation.
Condemnation means hell.
That's what he's saying.
If you believe, if you have trusted in him, you have everlasting life and you'll never
come into condemnation.
Oh, but what if I do something really bad?
Never come into condemnation.
What if I commit suicide?
Never come into condemnation.
He didn't make any qualifications to this.
He said, never.
You will never come into condemnation.
Number three, notice, but is passed from death unto life.
So if you believe in him, number one,
you have everlasting life.
Number two, you'll never come into condemnation.
And number three, you're passed from death unto life.
This is why we ask people, are you 100% sure
that if you die today, that you'd go to heaven?
Because if I've already passed from death unto life,
then I could be 100% sure.
It's not saying that you have to wait until you die to find out if you've lived a good enough life
If you're saved because this is how a lot of people live their lives in fear of being saved or not thinking
I don't know if I've done enough good. I don't know if I'm a good enough person
I don't know if I've kept enough commandments. I don't know if I've repented from enough evil. I've done
But here's the thing, if you believe in him, you have everlasting life.
Not only that, you'll never come into condemnation.
Not only that, right now you're passed from death unto life.
And so you could have that just serenity and that peace and that confidence and that hope
in God that if I were to breathe my last right now, I'd be in the presence of God.
And guess what? It doesn't matter how I die, even suicide. God forbid I would never do that.
And I would never tell anyone to do that or encourage that.
But I'm just saying, even if a Christian committed suicide, which it happens, they will go to heaven when they die.
And King Saul is in heaven today right now.
Go to John 10, another really famous passage on eternal security, John chapter number 10.
And you know, God really loves us and he wants to make salvation easy.
He made it as easy as possible.
He did all the work.
He's the one that sacrificed, Jesus died on the cross, Jesus went to hell, he had the
suffering and the pain and the torture.
We get the free gift by believing on him.
You know, he's not trying to see how many people he could exclude from heaven or catch
on a technicality.
He wants everyone to be saved.
He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
What does that mean?
That they change their mind about trusting in their religion or in themselves or in their
works and they put all of their trust in Jesus Christ.
He said my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them
Eternal life and again and they shall never perish neither shall any man
Pluck them out of my hand once you are saved you are in God's hand
No one's gonna pluck you out verse 29 my father
Which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand
You know, there's nothing that could separate us from the love of God once we are saved.
God will always love us.
It doesn't matter what we do.
Here's the truth.
God will punish us for our sins.
We talked about that a few weeks ago.
He'll chastise us.
He'll spank us on this earth, but He'll never stop loving us.
And He'll never stop being our Father, just like our children on this earth are our children
for forever.
It doesn't matter if they're good kids or bad kids, they're always our children.
Go to Romans chapter number six Roman six again. These are real simple verses
I'm sure everyone knows but you know every once in a while
We should be thankful for the fact that salvation is eternal that we can never lose it because I don't about you
But if I could lose my salvation, I would because I don't about you guys
But I'm actually a sinner right and we all are of course
But these people that are so just high and mighty and pious that teach you could lose your salvation
They're saying like oh you could lose your salvation, but I'm saved
Isn't that interesting how all the preachers that preach you could lose your salvation there saved though
Oh, what causes us to lose our salvation preacher? Oh, you know if you sin if you do bad if you break God's commandments
Oh, so you must not do that. Wow. How amazing. No, that's lies
That is garbage Roman 6 verse 23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Seems like a lot of people just don't understand what a gift is.
I mean, hello, everyone should know what a gift is.
Gifts are free.
Gifts are paid for by the giver.
Seems very obvious.
And hello, I mean, God wants to make salvation very simple.
Very plain. It's like getting a gift. Of course, right? Jesus paid for it. He died on the cross. He suffered. He paid for it.
We get it for free. There's no amount of going to church,
repenting of your sins, paying your tithe, helping old ladies cross the street, save stray cats out of trees,
feed homeless people, ham sandwiches. None of that stuff is ever gonna save you. It's a gift. It's free.
You don't have to work for it. Go to Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter number 2.
Ephesians chapter 2, look what it says in verse 8,
for by grace, that's something we don't deserve because we deserve hell,
for by grace are you saved through faith, that's trusting in Christ,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast.
Man, the Bible's so clear.
that, hey, salvation is not of ourself, it's not of works, it's not of the things that we do,
the righteous actions that we perform. Otherwise, we would be able to what?
Boast or brag. And it's so funny how true the Bible is because work salvation preachers,
what do they do? They brag about their righteousness. Oh, when I got saved, I changed everything about my life.
I walked away from cigarettes.
I never craved one again.
I never saw a movie ever again in my life.
I've just been living perfectly ever since the day I got saved.
That's how they act.
That's how they act, but it's just that.
It's an act.
Because it's not of works, otherwise you'd be able to boast.
How prideful do you have to be to think that you could boast to the Heavenly Father?
How do you think you could boast when His sinless, perfect Son died for you?
And you're going to say, well, the sacrifice of Jesus, see, that wasn't actually enough.
I have to give you my filthy rags.
Now, I have to go to a Presbyterian church once a month, and that's how I know I'm going
to heaven.
It's because I read the NIV once a year on Easter, and I go to, you know, a lame water
down church, and I post Bible verses on my Facebook every once in a while, and I gave
money to a homeless person who's a drug addict and alcoholic and who actually should be working
and not receiving money.
It's, aren't I a wonderful person?
It's like, you're boasting and you're bragging, and you're not saved.
And this is why this is why we need to preach eternal security because what's the application for you guys?
You're already saved. Hey guys, you're saved. Woo. Yeah, we could be thankful and rejoicing that
But but here's why we preach this is because people who believe that they could lose their salvation are not saved
They're going to hell look you could say hey
I'm a sinner, I believe that Jesus is God, I believe Jesus died on the cross, I believe
Jesus rose again from the dead, but if I don't keep living a good life, if I don't repent
of all my sins, if I don't, you know, do righteous in the sight of God, then I'm going to go
to hell.
That person is unsaved.
That person is going to spend eternity in hell because salvation is believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
You know what it means to believe?
And by you saying that you have to abstain from certain sins, you can't cross the line
into suicide or drunkenness or adultery or one of these major sins, otherwise you're
going to lose your salvation.
What you're saying is your salvation is dependent upon you and your works or your ability to
refrain from doing wickedness you're trusting in yourself.
That's why it's so important when you go out soul-winning to preach eternal security because oftentimes people say the words
Oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe he's God
I believe he rose again from the dead and they may be sincere in those statements
But by them saying that they could lose their salvation
They're revealing that they're not fully trusting in him that they're trusting partly in themselves
Partly in Christ that's going to lead to them dying and going to hell
Go to Galatians chapter number two Galatians chapter number two
Look what it says in verse 21 I
Do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law
Then Christ is dead in vain
so
play this thought experiment.
He's not saying that righteousness is by the law.
He's saying if righteousness were by the law,
which is implying that it's not, right?
If righteousness was by keeping the commandments,
if it was by doing right,
then here's the result of that,
then Christ's death would be meaningless.
Christ's sacrifice would be meaningless.
Why do we even sit here and focus on, in Christianity,
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Because this is the center point of everything.
This is the foundation of our religion, and it's the foundation of salvation.
You have to believe in Jesus Christ alone not this idea of I have to live a good life
I have to do righteous. I have to go to church know the Bible saying look if you could get to heaven by going to church
If you could get to heaven by living a good life and not sinning then Christ wouldn't have needed to die
The reason he needed to die is because you are a sinner
deserving of hell
and you cannot do righteousness,
you cannot be sinlessly perfect,
someone had to pay for your sin debt,
someone has to pay the debt today,
it was Jesus Christ.
He lived a perfect life, he never sinned, he died on the cross, he went to hell for
three days and three nights taking the punishment that we deserved and he rose again from the
dead.
And he promises us that when we believe in him that we will be saved, that we will have
eternal life, that his righteousness is imputed unto us.
That is the beautiful gift of salvation.
And guess what?
which seeking, ending your life in suicide, King Saul.
That's who Jesus died for.
He died for you and me and every single sinner in this world.
And when Jesus, you know, Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Look, before Saul was ever born, his sins were paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.
by the promise of the Messiah, the lamb slayed from the foundation of the world.
I mean, think about all the things he did.
He was disobedient, presumptuous, killed the priests of God,
tried to kill David and Jonathan,
was super envious and carnal and stiff-necked
and just continuously going after them non-stop.
He was given this evil spirit from God to trouble him non-stop.
He's like losing his mind.
He goes in choirs of a witch,
gets surrounded by the enemies of God and commits suicide.
You know, we wouldn't like bring him up on the stage,
and be like, give me your testimony, you know?
How did you get saved?
He's like, well, let me tell you
about my wonderful life that I gave to Christ
and all the great, wonderful things that I did.
It's like, no, that wouldn't be a really fun
testimony to listen to.
We'd all be like, wow, this is embarrassing.
But guess what, he's in heaven right now.
Why?
Because Samuel said, hey, tomorrow,
you and your sons are gonna be with me.
Because he was a good person,
no, he was a rotten Christian.
and he's a byword today.
When I say, oh, this guy's a soul.
I'm not giving you a compliment, buddy.
I'm not saying, oh, yeah, you're head and shoulders above the people.
You're so strong.
You're such a great warrior.
I'm saying, like, you're a jerk.
You're a prideful idiot.
You're stiff-necked.
You don't listen to the word of God.
Right?
That's what I'm saying about him.
But yet, those people can still be saved.
And that's good for us when we, at times, act like idiots and jerks too.
And when we sin and when we fall short of the glory of God, because everyone does it.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number three.
But here's the thing.
You know, the application for us is that, hey, hooray, we're saved, right?
Praise God that Saul is saved.
Praise God that we can never lose our salvation.
He didn't lose his salvation. It's like great job, buddy. You made it into heaven. What's your accomplishment?
He didn't lose his salvation. You know, I want to be more than that. I don't want to just be saved
I want to be the greatest Christian I could be. I want to do the greatest works for God
I could do. I want God to be pleased with me. I want to be able to read the word of God and hear from him
I want to pray and have my prayers answered not have his ear turned away from me where God is just missing from my life
1 Corinthians 3 verse 15
If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet
So as by fire. Yes, you can just be saved
Yes, you can
Just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and never do any work for God and still be saved
Yes, you can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and continue to live a life of drunkenness and still be saved
You can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and continue to do drugs and still be saved.
You can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and never go to church, never read the Bible,
watch things on the Internet, you shouldn't watch, drink things you shouldn't drink, say
things you shouldn't say and still be saved.
But is that really what you want from your life?
Is just to be like, I was saved.
Just got to heaven.
Do you want to stand before Jesus Christ?
at the judgment seat of Christ and all of your works are burned.
All of it was meaningless. All the things you spent your time on
were not things that were spiritual, things that were just burned up in an instant,
but you yourself are still saved. And look,
I thank God that every single person who is saved is saved.
There's not a person who is saved that I'm like, well, I wish that one wasn't saved.
No, I want more people saved. And if people are just saved,
But here's the thing, I don't want that for you guys.
I don't want that for me or for my family
where we're just saved, where we're just making it to heaven.
No, I want you to have the gold, the silver,
the precious stones.
I want you to stand before that day
because guess what?
That's a real day that's coming, friend.
As real as I am in this room with you right now
is a day where you will stand before Jesus Christ,
your Creator, and he will judge you according to your works.
And guess what?
No matter what, you're not going to hell.
Praise God for that, but do you want him to be disappointed in you, ashamed of you?
Do you want to be a byword of a Christian?
Do you want to have nothing to show your Lord and Master for the life that he gave you? You never want a soul to Jesus Christ.
You live your whole life. You never want a soul to Jesus Christ, or do you want to work for him?
Strive to please him and him say, well done, though good and faithful servant. Hey, that's what I want to hear.
That's what I'm dedicating my life to, realizing that nothing in this world matters.
Your job doesn't matter. Your house doesn't matter.
America doesn't matter. This world doesn't matter. You know what matters?
Souls matter. People matter. Jesus matters.
Dedicate your life to those things. Don't be like Saul, where you're just saved.
You just made it to heaven.
No, dedicate yourself to have rewards in heaven.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for this story
and thank you for salvation.
Thank you, Lord, that we can never lose it,
but I pray that we wouldn't just get comfortable
and think, well, we're going to heaven,
so that's it for me.
No, I pray that we'd be hungry to serve you,
that we'd want to get souls saved,
that we'd want to dedicate our lives
to church and the things of God,
and that we'd be pleasing in your sight.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right with that we'll go ahead and sing one last song to conclude the service if you would take your hymnals and turn to hymn number
280
Him number 280 in your hymnals softly and tenderly Jesus is calling
hymn number
280
Him to 80 will go ahead and start there right on the 1st
softly and tenderly
Jesus is calling
Calling for you and for me
See on the portals he's waiting and watching
Watching for you and for me
Good seeing you this evening, with that you are dismissed.