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We are going to be looking today again at what do the scriptures primarily teach. The uh today is Father's Day and Happy Father's Day, and I could not have picked a better subject that overlapped the the holiday than what we're already preaching through. Y'all please pray for me that I uh I tend to get excited sometimes, and I told you that before we began teaching through uh these doctrines that I was excited and scared all at the same time, and I am because I want to get them right, and I want to I want to purposely uh slow down. I want to purposely not get in a hurry and try to rush through this, and that includes in how I deliver uh the message to y'all today. I know that there is no preaching that goes on without the Holy Spirit. I I can't preach, only the Holy Spirit can do that, but I need to do the best job that I can to get out of the way. And so this morning we are continuing with what we talked about last time. That what do the scriptures primarily teach? And it teaches two things. First and foremost, the scriptures teach what God wants to reveal to man about himself. And secondly, it teaches what is man's responsibility. We're not dealing with the second issue this morning about what is uh man's duty to God, as it were. Last Sunday, we mentioned three things that God has revealed in his word to us about himself. The first thing that God's word reveals to us about himself is that God exists, that God is actually real. There are many people in the world that don't believe that. They don't believe that there is an Almighty God who created the universe, the God of the Bible. And so there are many people in the world that don't believe that. But the Bible is clear that God has revealed to us about himself that he exists. The second thing that we mentioned was that God has told us in his word that he is the only God. There is only one God. There are no other gods. You know, there are people in this world that believe that Christianity is just one religion among many, that we are lumped in with all the religions of the world. It doesn't matter what name they are, Hinduism, Buddhism, it doesn't matter. But they believe that Christianity is just one among many. Well, according to God's own account of himself, in the Bible, as he has revealed unto man to know, God is telling us in his word that there are no other gods. There is one singular God, and everything else is false. So while the other people of the world believe that Christianity is one among many, the Bible says about itself that there is only one God. And that's not offensive. We believe that is the absolute truth. The third thing that we preached on last time, that God has revealed about himself, is that God is a triune God. That he exists, he is one God. We've already established that, but that he exists in three persons Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and these three are one, they're also equal. And so the Bible reveals that to us about God. Well, I want to give you an example. That uh, brothers and sisters, that why is this important of the things that we're going through? Uh has anybody here, and please don't misunderstand me this morning. Uh I want to, my job as a minister is to speak the truth in love. Amen. Uh Ephesians 4.15, that is the job of the ministry, to preach and speak the truth in love. And so it is not my job to come up here and be politically correct or to give falsehoods. And so I want to be a teacher of the word this morning. That's what we're attempting to do. And so I want to give you an example of this very thing. Why are we studying through these doctrines? Well, uh, many of you may have heard of the Mormon religion. And again, I'm not up here this morning to beat up on the Mormon religion, but I want to give you some truths about the Mormon religion. Well, the Mormon religion was founded, uh, and it was founded uh based on the fact that a man believed that he received the revelation of the book of Mormon from the angel Moroni. Well, according to the Bible, in God's self-revelation of himself, Paul wrote in the book of Galatians, chapter 1. Paul said to the Galatian church in chapter 1, verse 6, Paul writes, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. The word gospel means good news. And Paul is chastening the Galatian church, saying that you are so quick to be removed or led astray to believe something other than the Holy Scriptures. So Paul says in Galatians 1 7 about this, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you unto the grace of Christ, that's Father God, unto another gospel, which is not another. It's not another good news. There's only one good news. But there be some that trouble you and that would pervert the gospel of Christ. Look at verse 8. Paul writes, But though we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. Why do I tell you that? By the own admission of the founder of the Mormon faith, he said that he received his revelation and his Book of Mormon from the angel Moroni, which is not in the scriptures. And he based his whole religion on this, or his whole writing, uh, on this. Well, Paul said, if anybody preach anything else to you other than what is recorded in the Bible, let him be accursed. So I want to tell you this morning that the Mormon religion is not Christianity. The Mormon religion is a cult that uses some of the language that is also used in the Bible. I don't, y'all may not have known that the Mormon religion teaches that Jesus Christ was one of the sons of God, and because of his obedience unto the Lord, that the Lord gave him his own planet, planet Earth. And the Mormon religion also teaches that you and I can be just like Jesus, and that you and I, based on the level of our obedience, can receive, can inhabit our own planet, and that we can rule over our own planet, and that basically we can be given a harem of wives to be able to populate our own planet. And one of the beliefs in the Mormon uh early on in the Mormon religion was in uh polygamy, that they could have multiple wives. The founder of the Mormon faith had, I think, 26 wives. He was also uh convicted criminal. Brother Josh, why do you tell me all that? I don't go off into that to uh uh to just pick on the Mormon faith this morning, but what I'm telling you is that the Mormon faith is not Christianity. It is not a Christian religion. Instead, it is a cult that was uh founded based on the writings of a man who claimed that he received another revelation from another angel, and the Bible says about such types of teachings that uh in Galatians 1.8, but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed. The Mormon religion is a false religion. It is wrong and incorrect doctrine, it is not truth, it is not to be believed, the founder of that religion is to be accursed, and that religion is to be abandoned because it is not Christianity in any form. And brothers and sisters, I do not apologize for telling you that. I would actually be negligent in my duty as a pastor to tell you that. Does that mean that there aren't quote-unquote nice people and Americans that are walking around there Mormons? It doesn't mean that at all. It just means that the religion that they abscribe to is not the truth and it is wrong, and they should forsake it, and you and I should tell them the truth of the gospel in the scriptures. Now, why not why don't I tell you all that? Brothers and sisters, is the Bible true? Y'all tell me. You're here today because you believe that, right? The Bible, as we've already preached on, is the revealed word of God, and it is God's self-revelation of himself, of who he is, and how he operates in this world, and of his religion, and of his teachings, and of his gospel, and of his son, and of his Holy Ghost. And man doesn't get to reinvent the wheel and make up things about God that aren't true. It is our job to proclaim the truth in this world. I uh well, Brother Josh, you know, uh I just don't agree with you. I think that all religions can be simultaneously true. Well, did y'all know that that is logically impossible? Uh I had the opportunity when I was at college, uh, I took a class called Death and Dying. We can talk about that later. That was an elective that I took. It was interesting. I had to plan my own funeral as a 19-year-old. But one of the assignments that we had in that class was to write a um and give a speech about mythology. And I took a little bit different approach than some of the other people in the class. Uh, the professor's idea was that we would go and research kind of older mythologies and you know, come and report about one, give a little speech about one, kind of an informative historical type speech about them. Well, I took a little bit different approach. My approach was this. For example, the Christian faith believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Amen. We believe that he is the second person of the Trinity in the Godhead. That we actually believe, according to John chapter 1 and Hebrews chapter 1, that there was not anything made that was made without the hand of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ was literally involved in the creation of the worlds, that he is equal with God, he is God made flesh. Well, so the Christianity believes that about the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, there see there's another religion, uh Judaism, that does not believe that about Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus Christ is the one that is foretold in all the Old Testament scriptures that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior that is mentioned all throughout the Old Testament. That he is the coming Christ, the coming Savior. We believe that. Well, and the Jews share half of our Bible. They accept uh Genesis to Malachi. They believe those scriptures. But they do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. They do not accept that. And my approach at mythology was that the Jews and the Christians can't both be simultaneously correct. Amen? Because the Jews believe that Jesus is absolutely not the Messiah and the Savior of the Old Testament. And the Christians do absolutely believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the Savior of the Old Testament. Okay? So while Jesus Christ can be the son of a carpenter and the savior of the world, he cannot be the savior and not be the savior. Y'all see that? That is logically impossible, right? That those two cannot coexist. So that means that either Judaism is correct and Christianity is wrong, or Christianity is correct and Judaism is wrong, or that neither one of them is correct. That's the only three logical options, right? That either both are wrong, or one is right and one is wrong. That is the only three things that can exist. So my approach to my uh speech was that uh that Christianity was correct, and that therefore uh the other religions of the world were mythology, and I started with that. You know, uh, Muslims actually believed uh in Jesus Christ. They just don't believe that he is Savior or that he is God, they just believe that he was a quote-unquote godly prophet. And so, Brother Josh, why don't you tell us all this? My point is that the Muslims are incorrect about the Lord Jesus Christ that he is only a prophet, and no more than that. The Jews are incorrect about Jesus Christ that he is not the Messiah. The Bible has revealed unto us that according to the scriptures, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And so, why is this teaching so important? It's so important because the Bible is the revealed word of God, and that the Bible teaches us what man is supposed to believe about God. So we don't need to go off and listen to some angel moroni and come up with our own scheme, or we don't need to just have an opinion about Christ, that he's just one among many prophets, or we don't need to believe with the Jews that, okay, well, Jesus Christ is not the Savior of the world. The Bible reveals to us about itself that Jesus is part of the Godhead, that he's the Son of God. That's why this is so important you understand. That these are the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith. And brothers and sisters, you and I need to have these things nailed down in what you and I believe, because this is our rock. This is our foundation. So God exists. There's only one God, and God is a trinity of persons. So let's get to the fourth thing that we're going to dive into this morning. That what does God reveal about himself to us in the scriptures? The fourth thing is that God is the creator of the worlds. We go all the way, if y'all will, turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis 1 is my one of my favorite books in the entire Bible. Uh we literally, Genesis means origins. It is the it's where everything came from. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning, the beginning of what? The beginning of time, when God actually created time. And time is a created thing, and God actually exists outside of that. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. So the first thing in the Bible that God reveals to us about Himself, that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. God has revealed unto us that God is the creator of the universe. This, why is that important, Brother Josh? Well, there's a whole group of people in this world that do not believe that God exists. They do not believe that God created the heaven and the earth. Instead, they believe that this earth was just without form and it was void, and all of a sudden, and uh five or six billion years ago, that a very large explosion happened called the Big Bang Theory, and that it started a chain reaction of events that took a millions upon millions of years, that formed the planets and the gases, and at some point began to breed living life, and that created microorganisms and single-cell into things, and that in the uh literally the oceans of the world that just somehow or another got created, that things begin to evolve and life began to emerge, and you know, creatures began to exist, and again, over millions and millions of years, that some of these creatures evolved out of the sea and became on the land and became air-breathing, and then some of those evolved into higher-thinking uh creatures, and uh, you know, to the point of them beginning to walk upright like apes and uh things like that, and then one day we literally evolved into man, and now that you literally have men who are building cell phone towers and putting men on the moon and creating communications device that I could call a man in China today, halfway around the world from South Mississippi. And brothers and sisters, people believe that. That you and I came from nothing from a random explosion. I heard a preacher say one time, he said that makes about as much sense as a tornado that ripped through a junkyard, and then once the tornado ripped through the junkyard, on the other side came out a fully assembled and fueled up 747 airplane that was ready to fly. We're gonna learn in a minute that the fact that, brothers and sisters, you and I are here is the evidence of a divine creator that has made all these things to function how they're supposed to function. I remember years ago that Harvard did a study about the earth and about the earth in relationship to the sun, about how many millions and millions of light years the earth is away from the sun, and how uh if the earth was, let's say, one mile closer to the sun, that everything on earth would burn up. Because the sun would be too close and the radiation would be too intense, or if the earth was further away from the sun, that everything on earth would freeze. If the oxygen content was, I'm sorry, the atmospheric content on the earth, the actual air, the nitrogen, and the oxygen that you and I breathe were made up differently, then it would not be able to sustain life. And they did uh Harvard actually ran a mathematical computation that took all of these factors into account, saying, well, the fact that the earth is just so precisely this far away from the sun and not any further in the atmospheric content and a multitude of other factors that are above my pay grade, but they they computed what is the probability of all of these things simultaneously existing to make all this happen. And the mathematical computation was like 1 times 10 to like the 37th power or something like that. In other words, they said it is absolutely impossible that all of these things simultaneously exist to support life. They said it could not have happened without it being particularly designed that way. Did y'all hear that uh published on the news? Harvard exclusive or conclusively provided. That God created the heaven and the earth. No, y'all didn't hear that in any scientific journal, did you? That's not a very popular topic. God has revealed in his word to us about himself that Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Look at Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, verse 1. So after God goes through the six days of creation, and he creates light, and he creates the earth, and he creates the heavens, and he creates the animals, and he creates man, he comes back and says about all of this in Genesis chapter 2, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, Genesis 2.1, and all the host of them, and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he rested from all his work which God created and made. Now, y'all also will remember in uh Exodus chapter 20, we find the Ten Commandments in the Bible. And the Ten Commandments start off with the first four commandments that relate to man's relationship with God. What do you mean, Brother Josh? The first four commandments tell us about our relationship with God, and then the last six commandments tell us about our relationship with other men and women. Y'all will notice that the fifth commandment is honor thy father and thy mother. And then some of the other of the last six commandments are thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not uh covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. All the last six commandments all relate to minding your relationship with men, other men, other people. But the first four commandments have to do with our relationship with God. The first commandment is thou shalt have no other God before me. Well, doesn't that agree, Brother Josh, with the fact that God says there are no other capital G gods? Now the Bible refers to Satan as the lowercase G God of this world, meaning that he's a false God. So I've mentioned before to you that there are only two religions in the world, Christianity and everything else. See, the Mormon belief system is one of the everything else. The Hindu belief system, the Muslim belief system, is part of the everything else. They have a different opinion than the Bible. They have a different belief about God other than what's pinned in the Bible, and therefore they are wrong. The Vikings and the Egyptians, and all again, we're not going to beat this horse again. The point is that all of these other belief systems are false. They do not agree with God's revealed word about himself. So, but it's no surprise that God tells us that his first commandment is thou shalt have no other God before me. Why? Because he is the creator. He is the originator. He is the one who made everything that you and I see, and he made us. Therefore, you and I uh he deserves our homage and our reverence. Uh let's one of the other first four commandments. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Uh hey man, don't go out there and carve you out an idol and then bow down and worship it, because that can't be a God, because you made it, and also because I'm the creator. I literally made the wood and the gold that you laid on that idol. God is saying, I made those things, and I made you, and I actually gave you the mind and the ability to have the craftsmanship to make those things, and you're telling me that you're going to make a little idol and go bow down in your house to it? That doesn't make any sense. You as a human being are actually greater and more powerful than the idol because you actually crafted it of your mind and of your own hands. But you don't need to bow down to that thing. You need to bow down to the creator of the universe. Thou shalt have no other gods before thee. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. You can't just take the name of God and go run roughshod over it and do with it whatever you will. Well, though, Josh, you know, I have a different idea of who God is than you do. It doesn't matter that you have a different idea than Brother Josh does about God, but what does matter is that you have a different idea about God than what the Bible says. If the Bible tells us who God is and your belief about God does not line up with the Bible, I can tell you with 100% certainty, you are absolutely wrong, and I don't apologize for telling you that. So if the Mormon faith or the Muslim faith or the Egyptians or whomever had a different belief about God other than the Bible, I can tell you with 100% certainty they were absolutely wrong because their belief about God did not line up with God's revealed word. Amen. So thou shalt have no other gods before me, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, and thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. The fourth commandment is remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Well, here back in Genesis chapter 1, God created the worlds and the universe and man and everything in this world in six days, and he rested on the Sabbath day, the seventh day, and God told us to follow his example and do the same and to go and remember him and worship him on the seventh day. God has given us this example. Well, Brother Josh, uh, you know, why don't we worship on another day of the week? Because the Lord Jesus Christ taught the apostles. Well, see, the Jews worshiped on Saturday, we worship on Sunday, and we worship on the Sunday because that's the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Because we now serve the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And we we come to this house Sunday after Sunday to honor him, to obey the word of God, because it is part of his revealed word to us to do that very thing. Now, Brother Josh, today is Father's Day, right? Today is uh Father's Day that we observe in the United States. Y'all tell me, should not today every single human being in the world be honoring the Holy and Heavenly Father today, right? Every human being on earth that takes breath should be in a Christian church today listening to the preached word of God, honoring the creator of the universe, our most blessed and holy heavenly Father. He deserves that from man. Amen? But that's not happening, right? That's not happening. Because men had other opinions about that, and they don't want to do that. Well, their opinions are wrong. So God has uh God is a creator. Look at uh Romans chapter 1, verse 20. I told y'all I'm trying to put on my teaching pants today and not my hurry-up preaching pants because I want to make this super crystal clear. Romans chapter 1, verse 20. Romans chapter 1, verse 20. The Bible tells us God has to reveal to us about himself, for the invisible things of him, that's God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because because when they knew because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. In other words, this scripture is telling us that God has revealed himself to man and creation in creation. The man that goes and carves an idol and goes and bows down to it and says that, oh, this is my God who has blessed the harvest, blessed my family. If that man were a logical thinking man, he would think to himself that that can't be. I went out there in the woods and cut down a tree, and I took my own hands and a knife and I carved out with chisels and I carved out that little thing, and then I went and set it up on a mantelpiece in my house, and now we're bowing down to it and making a basin to it. Oh, this is an all-powerful God. He's the one who's blessed the harvest. That doesn't make any sense because you are literally the man who made the thing. That didn't make any sense. And God is saying that men realized that when they see the seasons and the sun and the heavens and the earth, and how that the all of the things that God has made, and that the food that he's produced and this climate that he's made, it should be self-evident to men that there is a creator that has assembled the 747 of the earth. That should be self-evident to men that an intelligent creator made this. I heard another preacher say one time that it's like you walking in the middle of just a boggy swamp, and then you coming to one little piece of ground, and you find laying there on that piece of ground just the most beautiful gold, intricate pocket watch, and you flip open the back of that and you see all the gears turning, and it is just keeping perfect time, and then it's just a gorgeous little item, and you think to yourself, man, that is an interesting thing that just grew up out of the ground. That's absolutely absurd. No one would think that. A man who found that in the middle of a swampy bog would think somebody has lost this very precious and well-made item here. That this was created by an intelligent maker and designer. And that is exactly what this scripture is talking about, that it should be self-evident in the world by all the things, how they exist together, that God made everything. Let's uh we're gonna close out this little part. Turn, if you will, very quickly to Psalm 19. And we're gonna be real quick. Psalm 19, beginning in verse 1. In Psalm 19, verse 1, we read a Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard, their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. In other words, God has made all these things to work together, and for the sun to run its course, verse five, which is a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, the sun, and rejoices as a strong man to run his race across the course of the sky to give us day and night, and then the moon and the stars, and how all of that works in a twenty-four-hour rotation of the earth, and how it creates gravity, and it creates the day and night and the seasons and so on and so forth. That there must have been an intelligent clockwork designer who made all these things to function together properly. Somebody had to do that, that's greater than we are, stronger than we are. Verse 6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. In other words, it should be self-evident to every language of people on the globe that there is an intelligent creator of this world. The fifth thing that God has revealed unto man is that God is all-powerful. God is all-powerful. The song that we sing, he that flung flung the stars out the stars out into space and holds them in their proper place. Isaiah chapter 46, if y'all will very quickly turn on me there. Some of these passage of scriptures are just absolutely beautiful. Isaiah chapter 46, we begin reading in verse 9. Isaiah chapter 46, verses 9. Remember the former things of old, for I am God. There is none else. I am God, and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. What does that mean? It just simply means that whatever God sets his mind to do, he is going to accomplish it. In other words, God has never attempted to do anything. See, that's one of the reasons that we as primitive Baptists believe in predestination and election. We believe that the Bible says in Matthew chapter 1 that they shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That God has never, never, never, never once attempted to save a soul to heaven. Instead, God has 100% accomplished the saving of every soul that he ever set out to save. He's done it. Because man can't hinder it, you and I can't hinder it, because he is a sovereign God. Jesus said that I am the good shepherd, he giveth his life for the sheep. He will literally leave the 99 to go find the one sheep that is lost, and he will find it. In other words, if Jesus died for millions and billions of people to save them and attempted and tried to save them, and they didn't let him save them, then Jesus' blood would have been spilled and shed in vain, and there would literally be millions of people in hell that Jesus shed his blood to save and he couldn't save them. We don't believe that at all. We believe that God, everything that he set out to do, he 100% accomplished it. Look at Philippians chapter 2. So we read that about the Lord, and now we're going to read about the Lord Jesus Christ, about what he has accomplished. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 5. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 5. Paul writes to the Philippian church, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. In other words, he was humble. Well, Brother Josh, I thought that Jesus was God. He was, he is. But I want you to see, did y'all know that uh Christians are never, never, never supposed to be arrogant under any circumstance? Christians are supposed to be humble believers. Why? Because our Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Son of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with his Father while he was on this earth and glorified his Father purposefully. So let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God, Father God, also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. Well, Brother Josh, I thought that God was a jealous God, and he doesn't give his glory to another, you're right, but when he gives glory to Jesus Christ, he's not giving glory to another, he's giving glory to himself, because Jesus is part of the Godhead. Wherefore God has also highly exalted him, Christ, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, the angels, and of things in the earth, man and creatures, and of things under the earth, that literally means subterranean. That means the devils and Satan himself, they are supposed to bear homage and bow down before the Lord Jesus Christ, and they, in a rebellious spirit, like rebellious men, don't want to do that. But at some point, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, they will be made to do that, because God is a sovereign God and will exert his almighty power over them in such a way, verse 11, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, he is ruler, he is sovereign to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both the will and the do of his good pleasure. But at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is sovereign, he is Lord, he is ruler. Satan, one day, brothers and sisters, will bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes again, because he does not have a choice, because God is the ruler of heaven and earth, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The sixth thing about God, we're almost done, is that God is unchangeable. Did y'all know that over the course of my ministry, I have had to change a lot, Brother Josh? Are you admitting to us that in the past that at times you have been wrong? Yes and amen. 100%. I, as a man, over the course of my 47 or 8 years, I can't remember which, maybe probably 48, over times, I've been wrong. I've been wrong about stuff. I've made wrong decisions. I've made wrong decisions about my children, about my family, about my marriage, about my church, about my finances. I have been wrong. And did y'all know that uh God calls on me to do what? To repent and to change and to get in line with his word, to do differently. Do not continue. Well, Brother Josh, what if what if mom and daddy did it? What if grandmom and granddaddy did it? Well, was it okay for them to do wrong things? What I'm saying is, if your mama and your daddy did something wrong, then don't keep doing that. Change. If you did something wrong, change. Don't do that anymore. That's why the Bible calls on us to repent because we're all sinners and we all fail and we all make mistakes. But you know who doesn't make any mistakes? God. You know who has never made a mistake? The Lord Jesus Christ. You know who has never made a mistake? The Holy Ghost. God changes not because He is perfect. Every decision that He has ever made has been right and righteous and just and true, and every decision that you and I have made has not been. And yet you and I think that we know better than God does about some of our own situations. Oh, Bo Josh, I just wish that God would do this thing. I wish God will do what I tell him to do. No, you don't. You not. All right. Malachi chapter 3, verse 6 tells us. Malachi chapter 3, verse 6 tells us, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed, are not destroyed. Do you know why you and I haven't been blown to oblivion? Because God is perfect and he doesn't change. And you know what? Because did y'all know that this preacher up here yelling at y'all is a sinner? And that if God got a wild hair and decided, you know what, I'm just through with Brother Josh. He just sins too much, he makes too many errors, he's gone off the road too many times, and I'm just done with him. And you know what? I'm just going to blow him to oblivion. I'm going to burn him up in a house fire. I'm going to destroy him in a car crash. Or I'm just going to one day say poof, and he just vaporizes into thin air. And I'm glad that God isn't like you and I are. God has said, you know what? I love Brother Josh, and I redeemed him and I saved him, even though he's a sinner. And you know what? He's one of my children? And one day he'll be in heaven in a board of glory because that I showed him grace and mercy. And the Bible says here in Malachi chapter 3, verse 6, For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not destroyed. In other words, you and I are here today because of God's grace, because he didn't get tired of our foolishness and just to decide to just oblivion us off the face of the earth. We also read in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8. Says, Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Well, how is that possible, Brother Josh? It's because he's part of the Godhead. The idea of change implies, well, you know what? I need to change my design for that car. Y'all know when we buy these cars, don't buy the first year. Because they got some bugs they got to work out. When they make that new design, you know, buy that car after they've made it for about 20 years. After they've worked all the bugs out of it, all the kinks out of it. They got the motor just right, they got the transmission just right, they got the suspension just right, they got the body style just right. Oh, and then you know what they do then? Then they stop making that one and go to something else. But uh, but you know what they should do? They should just keep making that same car because they've worked all the bugs out of it after 20 years. But see, the problem is you and I still have bugs. It's called sin. And you and I still do wrong things, but we need to change to go along with God because we are imperfect. But God never needs to change because he's always perfect, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever because he's perfect and he never, ever, ever needs to change. Last thing. So God tells us about himself in the Bible that what? That he exists, that he is the only God, there are no others, that he's a trinity of persons, that God is the creator, that God is all-powerful, that God is unchangeable, and last, that God is holy. And again, there's there's so many other things about God that we don't have time to go into, but I do want to end on this one today. God has revealed to us about himself in the Bible that he is holy. And according to Isaiah chapter 1, I'm sorry, Isaiah chapter 6, that God is not only holy, but God is holy, holy, holy. He is a thrice, I know y'all have heard that phrase from preachers before, that God is a thrice holy God, a three times holy God. In the Bible, the Bible repeats itself, verily, verily, I say unto you, because it is trying to add emphasis to a thing. Well, God is holy, holy, holy. You know what that means? It means that God is perfectly holy. That God is completely holy. What does the word holy mean? The word holy means perfect. It means uncorruptible. It means completely without sin. That it means that God is pure, that God is good, that God is just, that God is altogether righteous. That's what God's holiness means. So that means that when God tells us something, it's perfect. That when God does something, it's perfect. God never gets it wrong. He always gets it right 100% of the time. That is the God that you and I serve. That God is a holy, holy, holy God. I'll have to get you another verse next time, but I want to close in Isaiah 45. It is. There are passages of scripture, brothers and sisters, in the Bible that you and I gravitate toward, that you and I love, that are absolutely beautiful. And this is one of those passages in the Bible that you might want to underline, that you might want to make note of. This passage of scripture is kind of summarizing all the things that we have said today. Isaiah chapter 45, beginning in verse 18. Isaiah chapter 45, verse 18, tells us. For thus saith the capital L-O-R-D, that's the proper name of God, Yahweh, for thus saith Father God, that created the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made it. He hath established it, he keeps it going. He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. Oh, Bill Josh, you humans are just a they're just a plight on the earth. We've got to decrease the population. No, we don't. God created us in God's own image, and he created us to subdue the earth and multiply in it. He formed it to be inhabited. He said, I am the Lord, and there is none else. He says in verse 19, I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth. I said not, I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain. I the Lord speak righteousness. I declare things that are right, that are just, that are true, that are holy. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together. Ye that are escaped of the nations, ye have no knowledge, that set up the wood of their graven images, and pray unto a lowercase God that cannot save. Y'all folks that bow down to the little idols, whether they be money or power or prestige or whatever they are, you're bowing down to a dead thing. It's not even a thing. Tell ye and bring them near. In other words, tell them about me and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together, who hath declared this from ancient times, who hath told it from the times, have not I the Lord, and there is no God else besides me, a just God and a Savior, there is none besides me. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself. What does that mean? That means that when God declares something, there is no higher authority that he can swear by other than himself, because he is the measure. He is the truth, he is the standard. There is nobody else other than him that he can swear by because there's nobody greater than him. When he says, I have declared my word, I swear by myself, he's telling you of a truth because there's nobody else he can swear by. I have sworn by myself. The word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say, In the Lord, have I righteousness and strength? Even to him shall men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. Anybody that claims something else other than what he says shall be ashamed? Yes, they shall be, because it's not truth. It's not real, it's false. There's only two religions Christianity and the truth, and then everything else, by every other name, by every other stripe throughout all the ages, God says that everybody else will be ashamed. Verse 25, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. Amen. Brothers and sisters, what has God revealed about himself to us in his word? That he exists, that he's the only God, that he's a trinity of persons, that he's the creator, that he's all-powerful, that he's unchangeable, and that he is holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. There's a lot of people in the world that don't believe that. A lot of people. And you know what? They're wrong. I don't apologize for telling you that. It is my job to preach the truth to you. To God be the glory. For him revealing himself to us. Aren't you so glad that God didn't want us to do all this guesswork? But he told us about himself, and it is so, so beautiful. I hope this has been an encouragement to you. I'm going to ask if Brother Donald would come and help us close in a word of song. The church doors are always open if you desire to unite for the membership of our church.