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[0:00] All right, if you will take your scripture sheet, we would remind you that the reason that we are providing the scripture sheet as we do is so we can all be kind of on the same page.

[0:12] We realize that there are a lot of different versions and translations available here, so if you have one that you can look at in common with all the rest of us, then it helps to facilitate the understanding, I think, a little better.

[0:26] I just want to remind you that this is taken from the 26th translation New Testament, and the sheet that you were looking at, and we'll begin with verse 3.

[0:37] You'll notice that it is in bold type, and that dark bold type is the King James Version, and the other translations that are abbreviated under it give us just a little bit different rendering of that same text.

[0:52] And 26 different translations of the New Testament have been utilized in arriving at these different verses, but of course, you don't see all 26 translations in the verse.

[1:08] And the reason you don't is because many of them are identical. The wording is exactly the same in one as it is in another. And where it is the same, there's no point in repeating it over again, so the compilers have just translated and brought over those that have any significant difference at all.

[1:28] We are continuing our verse-by-verse exposition of Ephesians, and we have arrived at chapter 3 and 4.

[1:40] And I'll just read them, but we'll not spend any more time on verse 3, because we devoted considerable time to that in our last session together, when we were talking about the spiritual blessings with which we are blessed.

[1:55] So verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

[2:07] And let me just stop here and say, I'm not going to elaborate or to go over these spiritual blessings, because we discussed them somewhat thoroughly, certainly not exhaustively, but I think adequately, in our previous session.

[2:24] And if anyone is interested, I'll try to remember to bring CDs of that discussion next week, because these are recorded and they are available on CDs, except I have to remember to bring them, and I'll try to do that next week.

[2:39] So if anybody would like to relive verse 3 and what was offered on that, it'll be available next week, assuming that I can remember it. And we are now looking at verse 4, which opens a real controversy, as I mentioned, that has divided Christendom for a long time.

[2:58] And verse 4 says, According as He has chosen us, and the He refers back to verse 3, who is the God and Father, and the Him refers to the person of Jesus Christ.

[3:16] According as He, that is God the Father, hath chosen us in Him, that is Jesus Christ, before the foundation of the world.

[3:27] To the end that, this is a purpose clause that follows, To the end that, we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.

[3:45] So in verse 4 and in verse 5, we have the surfacing of the subject of divine election. And predestination.

[3:59] Essentially, this boils down to the manner in which we as believers are placed in union with Jesus Christ.

[4:13] And to begin with, the subject of election simply refers to chosenness. And it relates to the concept of you have not chosen God, God has chosen you.

[4:32] And the whole area of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man comes into play in fashion like perhaps with no other topic.

[4:47] Because those who believe that we who are in Christ are in Christ, not because you had anything to do with it, but only because God sovereignly chose you to be in Christ.

[5:09] And it is His prerogative to make that choice. You had nothing whatever to do with it. But this is an effort to illustrate and to demonstrate the absolute sovereignty of God.

[5:26] That God is sovereign in everything, including the decision as to who goes to heaven and who doesn't. Those believers who think they had something to do with it because they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ are simply mistaken.

[5:46] They had nothing to do with it. God chose them independent of any choice of theirs altogether. That is referred to as sovereign election.

[5:59] And I am sure that those who propagate this idea, and I say this from experience because this is something that for years I believed and taught myself.

[6:11] Only years later to have to apologize to have to apologize to my congregation for having done so. Because I've simply discovered that it is not true.

[6:23] I don't mind telling you it was a bitter pill to swallow. And sometimes I still get choked on it. But I'll explain as best I can how I got there and why I taught that.

[6:35] But there is an effort to enforce and to illustrate the sovereignty of God in such a way that we make God completely and totally sovereign at the expense of the responsibility of man.

[6:55] And frankly, I see that now, although I didn't always, I see that as an extreme kind of view that I do not think can be supported by Scripture.

[7:08] Basically, it boils down to this, and I'll explain it as simply as I can. We talked a little bit about this earlier, and the question surfaces along this idea.

[7:20] According to the sovereign view of divine election, which is held by what we refer to as Reformed theologians or Covenant theologians, the conviction is that a person who is a believer in Christ received spiritual life from God before they believed on Christ as their Savior.

[7:57] And that life precedes belief. The only reason you believed is because God gave you life that enabled you to believe.

[8:11] Otherwise, you wouldn't even be able to believe at all. So the whole matter is strictly in the lap of God. You had nothing to do with it.

[8:21] You believed because you were already chosen. And in fact, you had no choice but to believe. So that's why you believed. God chose you. You were one of the elect.

[8:33] Now, on what basis did God elect you? We don't know. Now, we do know it had nothing to do with your deserving it, with your earning it, with God owing it to you.

[8:50] It was just a sovereign selection on the part of God. You had nothing to do with it. You received Christ as your Savior because you were already given life that enabled you to believe.

[9:06] And that's the only reason you were able to believe is because he made you alive. That, in a nutshell, is the classic kind of statement regarding Calvinism.

[9:20] And the flip side of that is referred to as Arminianism. And by the way, where this got its name, Calvinism, is from John Calvin, 16th century reformer, who was trained in Augustinian theology, and he was a 4th century church father, very intelligent and brilliant man.

[9:43] And by the way, so was Calvin. These guys were just, they had IQs that could buy and sell mine three times over and have change left. These were really brilliant individuals.

[9:53] And in an effort to enforce and extol the sovereignty of God, he is made to be sovereign even in that. The flip side of that is referred to as Arminianism.

[10:09] And Arminianism was pretty much fostered by Jacobus Arminianus. And it was a position that he took to combat what he believed was an extreme position of Calvinism.

[10:24] And the Arminianism. And the Arminian position simply says that you are in Christ because you exercised your God-given volition and will, and you chose of your own free will to embrace the finished work of Christ on your behalf.

[10:48] And as a result of your believing, you receive life from God, spiritual life. So, with Arminianism, it is belief that precedes life.

[11:02] You believe, and then you were given life. With Calvinism, you were given life, and then you believe. And the position that I took, actually, where I am now, I am a Calvinian.

[11:20] I'm a little bit of each. And some see that as being unacceptable, but it's the only thing that I'm comfortable with. And let me just tell you briefly how I arrived at my position of Calvinism that I believed and taught for several years.

[11:35] Although, I must confess, I never did. I never did buy into the L in the tulip. And let me just go over that again.

[11:48] T-U-L-I-P. Acrostically. If you spell the T's U-L-I-P vertically, T stands for total depravity.

[12:01] That means that man can do nothing and offer nothing to effect his own salvation. He is lost and undone. He is not only spiritually dead, but as they say down south, he is plum dead.

[12:17] That's pretty dead. And the U stands for unconditional election. Now, this is the Calvinist side I'm giving of this. U stands for unconditional election.

[12:29] That means you had no conditions that caused God to select or elect you to be in Christ.

[12:42] Your election was completely unconditional. There were no terms for you to meet. You had nothing to do with it. God sovereignly chose you. We don't know on what basis he chose you, except it had nothing to do with your meriting it or deserving it.

[12:59] It is all of grace. That's the U, the unconditional election. And the L, with which I've always had a problem, and I've always been a four-point Calvinist, not a five-point.

[13:11] The L stands for limited atonement. And the thrust of that position is Jesus Christ did not die for the sins of the world, the whole world.

[13:24] He died for the elect, and only the elect. And the thinking is that had Christ died for the whole world, then anyone in the world who ends up unsaved would be those for whom Christ died in vain.

[13:42] Because he died for their sin, but they are not saved. So, the death of Christ, to their extent, was a waste. Didn't accomplish what it could have or should have.

[13:55] That's the limited atonement. That's the crux that really caused me to seriously rethink my position of Calvinism.

[14:06] Because Calvinism really hangs or falls on this one point, the limited atonement.

[14:18] And once it is established that Christ did not die merely for the elect, he died for the sins of the whole world. And the scriptures make this so clear that God so loved the world.

[14:31] Well, what could be clearer than that? And yet our Calvinist friends come back and say, Well, what that means is that Christ died for the sins of the Christian world. But it doesn't say that.

[14:45] And when we go to 1 John 2, And Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

[14:57] How can we interpret that to mean anything other than the universal application of the atonement?

[15:08] And while it is true, not all believe Christ did die for all. And there is no one for whom he did not die. So, the limited atonement thing really presents a problem, and it always did present a problem to me.

[15:24] And I had a number of my Calvinist friends tell me, time and time, again over the years, Well, Mark, you're not a true Calvinist at all. Unless you're a five-pointer. You're not really a true...

[15:34] Well, you know something? That's true. Because so much hangs on this limited atonement concept. And some call it particular atonement, but regardless, it's the same thing.

[15:45] And then the I, the I of the tulip, T-U-L-I, I stands for irresistible grace. And that simply says that when you are confronted with the gospel and the grace of God, you are unable to resist that grace.

[16:13] You must comply because God's grace is irresistible. At the same time, this posits another problem.

[16:26] That means that those who die unsaved did resist the grace of God.

[16:37] The Calvinists would come back and say, well, they were not elect, so that's why they resisted it. So, you see the conundrum that is created here with both of these positions. We believe, or at least I believe now, that grace is resistible.

[16:54] You can say no to God. It's a really stupid thing to do. But you can do it because I know from experience, I've said no to God a number of times, I've had a number of things over the years.

[17:06] And every time it was to my own detriment. Because God being who he is deserves only a yes answer from all of us, for whatever. So, I think grace is resistible.

[17:20] And by the way, this is what provides us with the basis and provides God with the basis for accountability. If you do not have an active will and volition that enables you to say no, then there is no basis for holding you accountable.

[17:44] Because the only conclusion can be, well, it's not my fault. I didn't have any choice in the matter. But God is going to be able to bring us all up short and hold us accountable because he gave us a thing called a will, a volition.

[17:58] And that's the thing that determines our standing before God and our status before God. We have a will.

[18:09] We have a volition. And we ought not to take that lightly. It becomes the basis for our accountability. And then P, the P in TULIP stands for the perseverance of the saints, which means that those who are believers in Christ will persevere to the end because they are believers in Christ.

[18:32] So, this is the one part of Calvinism, frankly. I buy the T and I buy the P. The total depravity simply says that that doesn't mean that man is as bad as he can be.

[18:48] When we use the word depraved, it doesn't mean that man is as bad as he can be. But it does mean that man is as bad off as he can be insofar as being able to make himself acceptable to God.

[19:00] There is nothing he can do. No works, no church membership, no baptism, no money that's given, no nothing, can commend us to a holy God.

[19:12] And that's the true status of our condition. We are completely undone. We are totally unable to save ourselves. This is why we need a Savior. Because we are totally depraved.

[19:25] And the P, the perseverance of the saints, involves our security in Christ. We are saved to the uttermost.

[19:37] We have assurance in Christ. Not because we live a life that is so good, we are worthy of eternal life or worthy of maintaining it.

[19:49] But it means that God's love and God's adequacy toward us in our salvation is such that secures us in Christ. We are in him.

[20:00] We are bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. We are united with Christ, never to be separated from him. Now, if you buy into the election thing, as I did for a number of years, you have to come to the position that everything hinges upon whether or not you are elect.

[20:24] But the problem is, how do you know? And I have read testimonies and heard some tear-jerking stories about dear believers in Christ. As far as I could tell, they were believers in Christ.

[20:37] But they don't know. And you cannot have the assurance of your election. Because you do not know that you are one of the elect. And if you are one of the elect, heat's off.

[20:49] You have got it made. No matter what, you are going to be in heaven. But if you are not one of the elect, you can believe until the cows come home and it won't make any difference. That's right. Because you are not one of the elect.

[21:00] And there's nothing that you can do to become one of the elect. So there is no real security there at all. And the way I came to this position that I taught for a number of years, I was influenced as a very young man.

[21:16] I had only been a believer for a few months. I was 21 years old. And I heard this doctrine of election. And it kind of bowled me over. My first response was, that can't be true.

[21:29] That can't be true. And yet, I kept reading about it. And I was reading things by those who believed these positions. And Augustine was one. This fourth century believer.

[21:40] If you've ever read the Confessions of Augustine or the City of God, you know that there's some really heavy work there. And the man did have a brilliant intellect. And Calvin. Calvin was an intellectual genius.

[21:53] And he espoused these positions that were named after him. Calvinism. And one of my very favorite prints of preachers, perhaps of all times, Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

[22:08] I think I've got every sermon that he wrote. Spurgeon left a legacy of some 3,000 sermons, most of which are in print to this day.

[22:20] And I've got most of them in my library. I don't think anyone ever turned an English phrase like Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The man was incredible.

[22:32] And he was a full-blown, five-point Calvinist. Now, what am I, as a 21, 22-year-old young man, when I come up against the likes of Calvin and Augustine and Spurgeon and a whole host of others whom I regard as my spiritual heroes, who am I to challenge them and their thinking and their intellect?

[23:00] Well, relatively speaking, I am a nobody. So what changed my position? Simply this. Having been at Grace now, the only church I've ever really pastored for the last 45 years, we were committed to a verse-by-verse analysis of the Scriptures.

[23:25] And we went all through the New Testament, verse-by-verse, and as a result of the expositions that came out from that, I think we spent eight years in the Book of Romans on Sunday morning, verse-by-verse, several hundred hours, and we spent quite a bit of time, I think we spent five years in Genesis on Sunday mornings.

[24:05] And when you go verse-by-verse and are committed to it, you are deprived of the preacher's luxury of cherry-picking the verses that you want to preach on and dealing with your favorite themes and the stuff that you're more comfortable with.

[24:26] And you've got to deal with the tough passages also because you're going verse-by-verse-by-verse. And if you skip a verse, you're going to hear about it.

[24:38] And people are going to say, why didn't you take... So we took all the verses. And all I can say is, as a result of having done that, slowly over the years, my position began to change and I started seeing holes in the theology of pure Calvinism that I never saw before.

[25:00] And I simply came to a new conclusion and it created a real uneasiness in my own spirit because I was confronted with the reality.

[25:15] Good grief, Marv. Look at what you've taught these people for all these years. You can't take it back. You can't undo it. Many of the people who heard you teach these things are gone.

[25:30] Some are gone on to glory. Some have moved away to other areas. Some have left the church for different reasons. But they left with what you taught them. And I can't tell you how deeply I felt about that.

[25:44] And I still do because you've heard me say this before. Every preacher who is worth anything should have two great fears. Fear number one is that people will not believe what you say.

[26:01] And fear number two is that people will believe what you say. And I tell you, it is a solemn responsibility.

[26:12] I don't believe my shoulders are big enough to handle that. I really don't. And God forbid there isn't anything that I fear fear more than having communicated something that is not true to people who trust me.

[26:32] And this is one reason why we've instituted from the outset at Grace a Q&A period that follows my messages. Although, admittedly, I don't always leave the people enough time for a Q&A because I sometimes take the whole time.

[26:47] but I try to make up for it. And this allows people, this allows the average person in the congregation out there to ask questions about what I say, to call me, to call me on the carpet.

[27:00] If they've got a verse or a truth that contradicts what I've taught, I want to know it. Because if we are honestly searching for truth, then we need to follow truth wherever it leads us, even if it contradicts what you already believe.

[27:21] And that's a tough sell. Because most of us tend to become very comfortable with this. Well, that's what I've always believed. And I'm here to tell you there is something that is a lot harder than learning something new.

[27:39] And that's unlearning something old. That's a lot harder. And I know because I've been there and done that. And I'm still doing that. Because this is what growth and maturity requires.

[27:54] When we hear information, we take information in. and we begin processing it. And it causes us to reach a conclusion or take a position.

[28:08] And if it conforms to a position that we've already held, something we've already believed, we're comfortable with that. That's okay. That just confirms us.

[28:20] We can say, aha, I knew it all along. That goes right along with what I've always believed. But when we confront something that says, I got a problem with this.

[28:33] Because this is not what I've always believed. Yet, I can't refute it. I am convinced that it is true. Well, what am I going to do?

[28:47] Am I going to turn my back on this new truth I've discovered? Because it does not comport with what I've already believed? And let me tell you something. That's what most people do.

[29:02] And it's probably easier to do that. But it's also more dangerous to do that. Fellas, the most precious commodity we have, the most priceless thing that exists for humanity is truth.

[29:25] Truth is that which corresponds to reality. And everything that does not correspond to reality is a lie. It's an untruth.

[29:37] And the only way that we can make ourselves available to truth from God is by being obedient and responsive to the truth He reveals.

[29:50] And when we reject that, we create a barrier for ourselves and truth stops coming. God will shut down truth unless we're obedient to the truth we already have.

[30:04] this is a very important principle. So, in dealing with this issue here, we've got a verse that clearly says that He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.

[30:18] Who made the choice? God did. And in whom are we chosen? We're chosen in Christ. And how many times have I tried to communicate the idea that none of us, certainly not myself, none of us is a fit interpreter of the Word of God.

[30:41] And I think it's nothing but pure human arrogance to say that we are. We have got to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture.

[30:52] This is what Bible study is all about. Bible study is radically different from reading the Bible. Too many Christians content themselves with just reading the Bible. Well, I've read my chapter for the day and that's as far as they go.

[31:07] But you've got to study the Bible. It's study to show yourself approved unto God. A workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. And in doing that, we have got to allow the Bible to interpret itself.

[31:21] And you do that by comparing Scripture with Scripture. You see what the Bible says here and then you look at what it says about this in other places. And you allow the Bible to interpret itself by one verse reinforcing another, explaining another.

[31:37] That's what we've got to do to arrive at the truth of God. And in connection with this, chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Exactly what does that mean?

[31:48] Well, the Calvinist position simply says that God sovereignly chose us to be in Christ before the foundation of the world and you didn't have anything to do with it.

[32:01] It was solely God's selection. And of course, those whom He did not choose are bound for a Christless eternity that we call hell.

[32:12] Now, a lot of Arminians are willing to reduce that to then God chose some to go to heaven and He chose some to go to hell. It's hard to see how you can escape that kind of reasoning because that seems to be the bottom line.

[32:26] Those who are not chosen for heaven are automatically chosen for hell. On what basis did He choose one or the other? We have no idea. That is not revealed to us.

[32:39] And that's essentially the position of Calvinism. But what I would pose to you is this. And this is one of the many conclusions that I came to as a result of my rethinking this.

[32:52] Who is chosen here first of all? If we are chosen in Him, with whom does this chosenness begin?

[33:06] It begins with Christ. Christ is originally firstly the chosen one. It is in fact the word Messiah means the anointed one, the chosen one, the selected one.

[33:30] Who selected Christ? The Father. the Father chose the Son and sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

[33:42] So, this Messiahship, this chosenness, this selection originally began with the Father choosing the Son to be the Savior of the world.

[33:56] He is the elect one. And He is referred to as the elect Son, as the chosen Son. this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

[34:08] Hear Him. John the Baptist heard at the baptism of Jesus and the disciples heard at the transfiguration. It was the Father reinforcing the chosenness of the Son and placing the Son in a position of authority so that all should be obedient and responsive to Him.

[34:28] Christ is the one who is elect. He is the chosen one. And if and when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are in His chosenness.

[34:47] You share His chosenness in the same way that when Jesus Christ died on that cross, if you are in Christ, you died on that cross.

[35:00] you were with Him. This is what the old spiritual meant when it asked the question, were you there when they crucified my Lord?

[35:13] That's another way of asking, are you in Christ? Do you belong to Him? Because if you are, you were on that cross with Jesus.

[35:24] As far as God is concerned, you died with Christ, and you were buried with Christ, and you were raised in newness of life with Christ, and you are seated in the heavenlies with Christ.

[35:42] That's God's viewpoint. And it is all because of being in Christ. So Christ is elect, and you share in His election.

[35:53] You are in Christ. In that sense, you and I were chosen before the foundation of the world because Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world.

[36:05] And that's God's viewpoint seeing us in Him. The scriptures, I think, make so abundantly clear that Christ died for everyone.

[36:17] And that passage in 2 Corinthians 5 that we've examined before says that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.

[36:36] And our Calvinist friends, and God bless them because these people are sincere. I was sincere when I believed that. And nobody is doubting their salvation or their motive or their integrity or anything.

[36:49] We're just simply saying that they're wrong. They're wrong. And of course, they believe that I'm wrong. But this God being in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.

[37:06] I just cannot take the liberty of saying well that means the Christian world. God was in Christ reconciling the Christian world unto Himself.

[37:17] It doesn't say that. intellectual integrity will not allow us to insert that word.

[37:28] It's not there. And if that's what God meant, He could have very easily put that word in there so as to remove all doubt. But it doesn't. And He's the propitiation for our sins and not ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

[37:42] And this is repeated throughout the Gospels. And that through believing you might have life through His name. It isn't that you have life through His name and then you believe.

[37:53] And the order is never given that way. Never. It's always you believed and you were saved. You believed and you were saved. Never do we find you were saved and then you believed.

[38:05] You were saved. No, no. So we just cannot play fast and loose with these things. It doesn't matter how great the intellect is or how well positioned the church father was or what he believed.

[38:18] We've got to be bound to what the scriptures say. Roger. Can we say that God knew before the foundation of the world who would accept His message and grace?

[38:30] Sure. Of course He knew. God is omniscient. God is infinite. And when we say God is infinite, that simply means that God has no limitations.

[38:45] Joe? It's a two-way street. God elected everyone through Christ. But over here you have to accept that election to be a Christian, to be part of the team.

[39:00] It's a two-way street. It is. He elected us all through Christ. It is. It's like a coach. Say a hundred kids come out of the team. He elects them all.

[39:11] He's got all their teams that they have to accept to be on the team. So who's on the team then? Those that accept his election to be on the team. But he elects everybody through Christ. The verse that I just shared with you from 2 Corinthians has a passage that in my estimation just does not make sense apart from what we've been saying.

[39:35] because in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 19 Paul says namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

[39:55] And then in the very next verse listen to this. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were entreating through us.

[40:07] We beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God. Well what does that mean? He just said in verse 19 that the whole world was reconciled to God.

[40:22] Then in verse 20 he turns around and says we beg you be reconciled to God. Well now are we or aren't we? What does this mean? And the only explanation that has ever satisfied me is when Paul said God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

[40:46] That fellas provides a universal redemption. The entirety of the human race was redeemed in Christ.

[40:58] That is a blanket kind of redemption. There is no one who was left out. And the counterpart of that is when Paul said as in Adam this is Romans 5 I believe as in Adam all die.

[41:17] Who does that mean? What does A-L-L mean? It doesn't mean S-O-M-E. It means all. As in Adam all die so in Christ shall all be made alive.

[41:33] I can't make that second all mean something different than the first all. It means all are made alive. We have a universal redemption so that the death that Jesus Christ died was just as efficacious as was the negative aspect of Adam's sin.

[41:53] When Adam sinned he brought the whole human race down. Everything. Everybody. All of us. are children of Adam and we are all fallen in Adam. And we are all redeemed in Christ.

[42:07] This does not mean universal salvation so everybody is going to heaven. No, no. That's what the next verse is talking about. Because Christ has made payment for everyone on that basis we beseech you personalize that and receive Christ as your own personal savior because Jesus died for you you are now free and available and open to come to God through Christ we beseech you that you make that decision.

[42:41] This becomes a personal appropriation of the work that Christ accomplished on that cross. And it is magnificent what he has made available.

[42:53] we'll take a couple quick questions. Okay. Pat? Mark Christ didn't die for the unpardonable sin of not accepting him.

[43:05] If you don't accept Christ as your savior isn't that the sin that you can't forgive because you never accept him? Well I won't dispute that.

[43:20] Although I would not call that the unpardonable sin. That's another issue. When Christ said that all manner of sin shall be forgiven men but sin against the spirit of God against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.

[43:36] That technically is the unpardonable sin. That's true.

[43:48] I'm not sure that I'm able to separate this. But I see where you're coming from. And you're right. You're right. There is that reality of being unforgiven apart from Christ.

[44:04] And that's the basis for eternal punishment. That's the basis for hell. Kevin? Yeah. Can I piggyback off of what you said just a little bit? Sure. Sure. I did about 30 seconds.

[44:16] One word stands out in this whole passage. and it's got like a highlighter on it. And it's called the word adopted.

[44:28] The word adopted. Because Christ said that when he left he would not leave us as what?

[44:39] Orphans. Yeah. That there would be a conqueror that would come. Correct? Right. are you really adopted? Because you have to be born again and be not baptized in water.

[44:53] Baptized by the Holy Spirit. The deuteronomy power of the Holy Spirit which teaches us what? All things. Once we've been baptized in the Holy Spirit just like Pastor was talking about how these different denominations there would be.

[45:06] If you've been baptized in the Holy Spirit and you have received the adoption, you've been adopted by Jesus Christ there leaves no room for no human reasoning whatsoever. No human reasoning.

[45:18] Am I right Pastor? Amen. No human reasoning whatsoever. There will be no denominations because the body of Christ has many members all over the world. We are all on one accord.

[45:28] Just like the pastor said. I heard him say it. There would be no denominations if you have been adopted in Jesus Christ. You really have to stop living to yourself and say, have I really been baptized with the Holy Spirit?

[45:40] Have I really? Do I really? When you get them thoughts across their mind because you've been baptized those things are not going to happen. When you've been baptized with the Deuteronomy Star of the Holy Spirit then the 23rd Psalm comes to life and you're alive.

[45:57] The Lord has become your shepherd. You shall not walk. Can I read this one? He maketh me. Not me. Not my reasoning. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

[46:09] He lead me besides the still wild. We just places of peace that the Holy Spirit takes you. Nothing bothers you with this certain peace that the pastor was talking about. You have an incurable disease in your life.

[46:21] Some of your teenage children can be going. You'll still be at peace won't you? Amen. Then he restores my soul. When you get down he restores my soul.

[46:33] He leads me in the path of Christ is for his name sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because thou art with me. Not Kevin. Thou art with me.

[46:44] Thou mind that step and come. He's going to prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. That means that God has made my enemies my footstool. Amen.

[46:55] Thank you, brother. That's a good caption. Don't forget your decision magazines. If you didn't get one last week, feel free to pick one up. And just let me remind you about this.

[47:07] A mere four or five hundred years ago, there were no denominations. There were no Presbyterians, no Methodists, no Church of God, no Nazarene.

[47:20] They simply did not exist. So, there is a oneness and a unanimity that believers enjoy in Christ. So, when we get to heaven, when we get to heaven, God's not going to say, well, you're a Methodist, okay, Methodists are over there, and Presbyterians are over there, and the Nazarenes are over there.

[47:44] So, enjoy your breakfast, okay. You just made a fire up inside of me. You made a fire up inside of me. There we do.

[47:57]  There's a building and a doctor. That's something to think. Sometimes that thought would cross my mind when it starts to cross my trip. There you want. There's a really negative side.