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5. Hymn number 255, Come and Dine. Hymn 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 chosen people, come and dine. With his manna he doth feed, and supplies our every need. O, too sweet to sup 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 hungry, call it now, come and dine. The other side was named to him, thus obeying Christ the lamb. For the master calleth to him, come and dine. There they found their hearts, he sighed. Bread and fish, upon the fire. Thus he satisfies the hungry every 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 hungry, call it now, come and dine. Soon the lamb will take his flight, to the ember at his side. All the hosts of heaven will assemble thee. O'ers will be a glorious sight, all the saints in spotless flight. And with Jesus they will feast eternally. 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 hungry, call it now, come and dine. Good singing this evening will 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, turn in your hymnals to hymn number 262. The light of the world is Jesus. Hymn number 262. Hymn 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 noonday, his glory shone in. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for me. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No darkness have we who in Jesus abide. The light of the world is Jesus. We walk in the light when we follow our guide. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for me. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. He dwellers in darkness with sin blind in eyes. The light of the world is Jesus. The wash at his bidding and light will arise. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for me. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. No need of the sunlight in heaven we're told. The light of the world is Jesus. The land is the light in the city of old. The light of the world is Jesus. Come to the light is shining for me. Sweetly the light has dawned upon me. Once I was blind but now I can see. The light of the world is Jesus. Good evening everyone. Welcome to Anchor Baptist Church. This time we'll go through some announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, please raise your hand and an 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 word perfect to an adult non-family member, you will receive a prize. On the inside there's our service times listed Sunday morning at 10 30, Sunday evening at 4 30, and our Wednesday evening Bible study of course at seven 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 want to preach in that, please do sign up and after that we'll be having a pot luck 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 going to 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 Sure 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 missions trip. 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's still going to 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. you you you you you you you you you you you good singing this evening as the offering plates are being passed around journey to bibles the first samuel chapter number 28 first samuel 28 so 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 akash said unto david know thou surely that thou shalt go with out with me to battle thou and thy men and david said to akash surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do and akash said to david therefore will i make the keeper of mine head forever now samuel was dead and all israel had lamented him and buried him in rama even in his own city and saw had put away those that had familiar spirits in the wizards out of the land and the philistines gathered themselves together and 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 and when saul inquired of the lord the lord answered him not neither by dreams nor by urim nor by prophets 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 and saul disguised himself 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 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 out a snare for my life to cause me to die and saul swear by her 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 to her be not afraid for what sauls 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 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 then said samuel wherefore then didst thou ask of me seeing the lord is departed from thee and has become thine enemy 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 and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me the lord also shall deliver the host of israel into the hand of the philistines then saul fell straight away all along the on the earth and was sore afraid because of the words of samuel and there was no strength in him where he had eaten no bread all the day nor all the night and the woman came into 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 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 now also unto 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 that way but he refused and said i will not eat but his servants 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 prayer father in heaven we thank you for this day and we thank you for our church 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 1 and it came to pass in those days that the philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with israel and akash 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 akash that he was going in the south of juda and akash is just a hundred percent 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 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 and david said to akash surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do and akash said to david therefore will i make thee 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 going to take care of him says that he's going to be the keeper of mine head forever so he thinks like david's my personal bodyguard he's got me he's going to take care of me then it says in verse three now samuel was dead and all israel had lamented him and buried him in raima even in his own city now samuel's kind of brought up here in this chapter towards the beginning and that's going to be significant because he's going to play a role in the end of the chapter but keep in mind he's dead the people have lamented him and it says and 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 verse four says and the philistines gathered themselves together and 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 and when saul inquired of the lord the lord answered him not neither by dreams 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 eight proverbs chapter number eight 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 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 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 want to be the type of christians that we wait until an emergency to start getting right with 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 to 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 this person's trying to get away from the council 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 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 and then all of a sudden you want to you know use god to help you no that's not necessarily how it works psalm 66 verse 17 says i cried unto him with my mouth and he was extolled with my tongue verse 18 if i regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear me 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 hard in your heart you're just going to 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 you know 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 in a 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 uh first samuel chapter 28 again first samuel chapter 28 and as you're turning there i'll read first 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 he 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 you know 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 the worst possible thing is he digs himself an even deeper hole spiritually by going and inquiring of a witch now what's interesting is flip back a few pages to first 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 and 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 if this story wasn't in the bible i would kind of read this verse and think like man that that seems to be a pretty big jump going from rebellion to witchcraft yet that's what the bible's saying is that the sin of rebellion is as meaning it's similar to the sin of witchcraft and what do we see him getting into 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 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 just want to point out to you that saul was not performing witchcraft in this story 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 30 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 to be around witchcraft and around the dark arts as long as it's 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 as 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 a 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 want to 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 what 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 preacheth and there were seven sons of one skiva 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 but notice what it says in verse 15 and the evil spirit answered and said jesus i know and paul i know but who are ye 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 right 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 know you're no one verse 16 and the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them 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 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 and you know 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 you know what it's just not something you ever want to find out yourself for you know you hear these stories you see it happened in the bible to unsafe 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 emphasis 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 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 levay 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 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 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 uh first samuel 28 how about this verse first thessalonians 5 22 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 eight it says and 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 thee 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 when these satanic cults go out and do crimes when they sacrifice i don't cats in their neighborhood or whatever or literally kill people when is it happen it happens at night it happens when they're disguising themselves when they're covering their actions go to ephesians five 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 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 with a mask you're just thinking oh he's an idiot he's not necessarily a threat he's just an idiot you know he's still wearing his mask in his car in 2025 look at ephesians 5 verse 11 it says and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them 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 from it verse 13 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 secret handshake like the masons or something like that you have to have all these secret codes to 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 first samuel chapter 28 and that's where saul has gotten himself you know he 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 9 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 layest 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 them 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 you know what 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 just totally fallen away from that you know that's a sad reputation to have and it drags christ's name through the mud look at verse 10 and saul swear to her by the lord saying as the lord liveth there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing so notice saul has 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 shall 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 going to 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 so the narrator of the bible here says that the woman saw samuel so while 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 are 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 like you all are criminals 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 know 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 you could reap that by being taken advantage of by 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 thou wilt show thyself merciful with an upright man thou wilt show thyself up right 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 going to show mercy to you when you are upright you deal uprightly with people then god is going to 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 you know having you surrounded by saul who's going to 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 you know lie to your customers or exaggerate or overcharge or stuff like that it's always worth it to just be a hundred percent 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 froward thou wilt show thyself froward for thou will save the afflicted people but will bring down high looks so you know if you're froward 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 and 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 a people who are constantly slandering you lying about you gossiping about you and it's actually as a punishment for you being a bad person you know you want to make sure you're suffering for righteousness sake go to verse 13 of first samuel 28 first samuel chapter 8 verse 13 says and the king said unto her be not afraid for what saw us 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 god's 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 you know 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 hast 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 answer with 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's 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 know you think about uh the battle of armageddon when jesus is coming on the horse he's just going to completely destroy his enemies they have no chance against him they're not going to 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 going to help you and here's the thing going to other people seeking uh 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 go to psalm 146 psalm 146 146 psalm verse uh three of 146 146 verse three notice what it says put not your trust in 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 want to have friends you rely on and you want to rely on your spouse you want to 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 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 neck 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 first samuel 28 verse 17 it says and the lord hath done to him as he spake by me 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 executed 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 you know this is exactly what happened to the jews 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 the nation god's you know chosen nation was taken from them and given to a better nation bringing you know a spiritual nation bringing forth the fruits thereof and this works in anything in life you know when you disobey god's word god can replace you he could 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 it says moreover the lord will also deliver israel with thee into the hand of the philistines boy what a comforting message he's 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 and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me the lord also shall deliver the host of israel into the hand of the philistines like i said when god is against you when 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's 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 now let's quickly finish out this chapter i want to spend the rest of the sermon talking about verse 19 verse 20 says then saul fell straight way 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've put my life in my hand and have 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 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 kneaded it and did bake unleavened 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 day after this conversation 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 the truth is that samuel said tomorrow you and your sons are going to be with me now the question is where was samuel we'll go to second corinthians chapter number five second 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 second 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 throne and that his throne is in heaven 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 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 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 half 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 that 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 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. Verse 27, John 10, verse 27. 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. 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. They have our DNA. They're always ours. Go to Romans chapter number six, Romans six. Again, these are real simple verses. I'm sure everyone knows, but you know, every once in a while, we just need to be thankful for the fact that salvation's eternal, that we can never lose it. Because I don't know about you, but if I could lose my salvation, I would. Because I don't know 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. Oh, isn't that interesting how all the preachers that preach you could lose your salvation, they're 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. Romans six, 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 two. Ephesians chapter number two. Ephesians chapter two, look what it says in verse eight. 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 works 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 gonna say, well, the sacrifice of Jesus, see, that wasn't actually enough. I have to give you my filthy rags. I have to go to a Presbyterian church once a month, and that's how I know I'm going to heaven is because I read the NIV once a year on Easter, and I go to a lame watered-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 an 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 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 rejoice in that, 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 do righteous in the sight of God, then I'm gonna go to hell. That person is unsaved. That person's gonna spend eternity in hell because salvation is believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. You know what it means to believe? It means to trust in Him, 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 gonna 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. If you 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 deserve. 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? It even applies to a dirty, rotten, backslidden, stiff necked, prideful, witch 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 neck, and just continuously going after them nonstop. He was given this evil spirit from God to trouble him nonstop. He's like losing his mind. He goes and 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. 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 Saul, 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. But I don't wanna be a Christian that is just like, 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 wanna be more than that. I don't wanna just be saved. I wanna be the greatest Christian I could be. I wanna do the greatest works for God I could do. I want God to be pleased with me. I wanna be able to read the word of God and hear from him. I wanna pray and have my prayers answered, not have his ear turned away from me, where God is just missing from my life. Because that's where Saul got. 1 Corinthians three 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, I'm at least happy for that. 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, thou 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. You know, 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. Hymn number 280 in your hymnals. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Hymn number 280. Hymn 280, we'll go ahead and start there right on the first. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. See on the portals he's waiting and watching, watching for you and for me. Come home, come home. Ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. Why should we tarry when Jesus is pleading? Pleading for you and for me. Why should we linger and keep God his mercy? Mercy's for you and for me. Come home, come home. Ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. Time is now fleeting, come home. Time is now fleeting, the moments are passing, passing from you and from me. Shadows are gathering, deathbeds are coming, coming for you and for me. Come home, come home. Ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home. Oh, what a wonderful love he has promised, promised for you and for me. Holy as sin, he has mercy and pardon, pardon for you and for me. Come home, come home. Ye who are weary, come home. Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, O sinner, come home.