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Progressive is America's number one motorcycle insurer, so we understand motorcycles. No, really, we have a bike translator. Okay, so this bike feels like he's capable of a little more than just trips to the convenience store. Oh, also, he wants to let you know that you can buy a gallon of ice cream instead of a pint every time. Those are his words. So he said roughly, like, blink the last wheel.

It doesn't really translate, but the way he said it was super funny. Get 24-7 Roadside Assistance with Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates Roadside Assistance subject to policy terms and limits and may require comprehensive coverage. The following program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content. I am Pastor Ernie Sanders, the voice of the Christian Resistance. Stay tuned. My radio broadcast, What's Right, What's Left is coming up right now.

Coming to you live from Independence, Ohio. We change our life for the better in many different ways. Heard around the world every Monday through Friday. Pastor Sanders is always years ahead of the rest of the media telling you exactly what they're covering up.

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Good evening and welcome to another edition of What's Right, What's Left. I'm Radio Pastor Ernie Sanders and indeed this is the voice of the Christian Resistance on this August 7th, 2022. And tonight the title of my message is Our God is an Awesome God.

Our God is an Awesome God. And tonight we're going to start in John chapter 1 and we're going to read verses 1-3 and then verses 10-14. And as we're dealing here, we're going to be dealing with God the Creator, God the Absolute Authority, God the Eternal God, the Eternal Savior, the faithful, the favor, God's glory, God's goodness, God's justice, God's love, God's mercy, His omnipotence, God's omnipresence and omniscience and we end with God's wrath.

And so we start with John chapter 1 and now this passage of scripture here, these three verses predate every other passage of scripture. It identifies the Lord Jesus Christ as the agent of creation. It identifies the Trinity as shown here and with God. And then the Father, the Holy Spirit also identifies Christ as the agent of salvation through to the Father. In other words, salvation through Christ is the only way to the Father.

And then it describes the process of the hypostatic union and we're going to be looking at that in just a moment. So let's start here. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Now obviously the Word is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now He was in the beginning with the Father and the Holy Spirit and He too was a deity.

And so what you have here is you have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And He goes on to say the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. And so in Him it goes on to say was the life and the life was the light of men and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.

Well, here what you have here when it refers to, if I can go over to verses 10 through 14. And He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. He came into His own and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name, which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so here we see that the Lord Jesus, and this is what is called the Hypostatic Union. And what that is, that's the process of how the Lord Jesus was fully God and at the same time He was fully human, without the attributes or characteristics of His deity passing over to His humanity or those of His humanity passing over to His deity. Because had any of the attributes of His humanity passed over into His deity, then He would be less than God. He would be less than God. And of course if any of the attributes of His deity were passed over into His humanity, then He would be more than human.

More than human. So the process was how they were separate and that He was both God and man at the same time, without any of the attributes of His deity passing to His humanity or vice versa. And so here it also explains that He was the only begotten. That means He was unique, the only one of His kind. In other words, He was basically commissioned by the Father.

And this is a one-time happening, it could never ever happen again. And so here I want to go now as to over to Genesis 1. And again we're referring to right now as God is the Creator. And again the title of the message was, Our God is an Awesome God. And if we go over to Genesis chapter 1, and in verse 26 we read, and if I can get my pages apart here. And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So here now, that word image there has a couple of definitions actually. Of course, one of the definitions, Let us make God in our image, and our likeness is reflection. Let us make man as a reflection of God. In other words, when God made us much, much lower, we were not a duplicate of God, but we were a type, a shadow, and if you will, would be a better, or again like I said, here even a reflection is used here.

And so, what does it mean? Well, God is a triune God. You have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we see that. And we see here, first of all, there's a lot of speculation on to who God is speaking to.

Well, the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, is speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit. From Genesis to Revelation, we see this. We see God the Father giving the marching orders, God the Son carrying them out, and the Holy Ghost providing the power.

And you might say, well, that's the pecking order there. Now, even though when it came to the marching orders, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in that order, in deity, as far as their deity goes, they were all equal. As we go through this, we'll see this. Just like, for example, as we go through this here, and we're made after them. Now, they're triune beings, again, and we, mankind, we're made as triune beings too.

We have a body and a soul and a spirit. But here, God the Father was speaking to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Now, there are those that think, well, no, he was actually speaking to angels. No, he wasn't speaking to angels because, first of all, angels were not made in the image of God. Angels were not made in the image of God. Man was made in the image of God, and we know that Christ is the Creator, so we know he's referring to Christ, and we know that the Holy Ghost provides the power. And so, here again, we are made in the image.

And another thing, too, when people out there, those people that say, well, you know, I don't know, I don't know if I can believe there's a God. Then ask yourself this. Why do we look the way we look? Why do we have one head, two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs?

Why do we look, why do we appear weird? There had to be a prototype. There had to be a prototype. And here's the answer right here. There is no greater source of completely and totally and authoritative and accurate information anywhere in existence other than this Bible right here. This is the most authoritative, the most accurate source of information in all of existence. And so, here you have an eyewitness account. You have God the Creator himself. Now, folks, for thousands of years, what I'm telling you has been told. And the Lord, Jesus himself, said heaven and earth will pass, that his words will never, ever pass away.

So in this example, we get two things. One, the Creator. We take a look at Christ as the Creator, and we also see the Godhead here. And we see the Trinity is in full view, the Trinity in both these passages, John and Genesis. But now let us go over to Colossians chapter 2. And over in Colossians chapter 2, and I'll get there in a moment, verses 6 through 10. Now here, as we take a look at verse 9, means that there is all of God in a human body. And when we know Jesus Christ, we need not seek God by any other means through, well, through man or through the prophets.

Or as we take a look at, well, for example, one of the theories, and let me read the description, then I'll go back and I'll do some commentary. Starting with verse 6. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him, rooted up, built up and high, and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

And you are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power. Now, here, as we see, what is he talking about here? Well, again, as we look at this, when we see beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men and after the rudiments of the world. Well, at the time that this was written, Gnosticism was on the move. And, of course, the apostle Paul had his run-ins with Gnostics. Now, Gnostics means, the word Gnostic means that I know, having knowledge of knowing. When they say we're an agnostic, and how many times have you heard people say that, that means they don't know anything. That means they have no knowledge. And here now, as we take a look at that, Gnostics had two sects, two main sects, and they were directly opposed to each other in the sense that one sect believed that since you were spiritual beings, since you were spiritual beings, you had to abstain from anything material.

You couldn't, you had to eat as little as possible, wear as few clothes as possible, touch everything material, touch the least amount of material things as possible, even breathe as little as possible. And they also believed that by doing this, you could ascend upon this stairway to heaven, if you will, that as you went through this, you would ascend level to level, and some actually believed that it would be possible at some point to even reach the same level as the Lord Himself, which was absolute foolishness, the whole idea. And so, in fact, in this sect of Gnostics, they believed that if you touched a woman with whatever fingers you touched that woman with, they took and they would burn those fingertips off, because women were unclean, and I wonder what they thought of their mothers, I guess. Now, the other group of Gnostics were different. They were completely diametrically opposed. They believed that since we were spiritual beings, that nothing material could have any effect on them at all. So they believed that you could eat all you want, you could drink all you want, you could have as much illicit sex as you want, and none of this could have any effect on them because they were spiritual and the material world could not affect them. In both of these categories, they were both pretty far off.

They were both completely wrong. So, here now, and ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power. Well, let me go back. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And so we see here, you know, Paul asserts Christ's deity.

All the fullness of the Godhead bodily means to Christ there is in all, there is all of God in one human body. And so, in fact, I think if we look here, we see that one of the strongest statements about the divine nature of Christ found anywhere is the... Okay, of course, is that He is God in John 10-30, and also 38 in John 12-45, and John 14-11. So He's not only reflects God, but He reveals God to us. Now, here again, we see that, as we take a look at this, again, we see that when Thomas asked the Lord Jesus, when are we going to see the Father? And the Lord Jesus said, when you saw Me, Thomas, how often have you seen Me?

You've seen the Father, okay? And so here again, we see also in here that Christ alone holds to the answer to the meaning of life itself. He is the unique source of knowledge and power in the Christian life, and that no Christian needs anything in addition to what he has provided to be saved. In other words, salvation comes through Christ and Christ alone. And then the Judaizers tried to, what they tried to do is they tried to say, okay, look, salvation comes through Christ and also through obeying the law. So in other words, you had to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but also you had to be able to take care of the dietary laws and all the other laws. So they tried to mix law with grace.

And of course, that doesn't work. You can't mix law and grace. Now I want to go over to Philippians chapter 2 here, and again we're talking about Christ as the Creator, and we're referring to here the Trinity and in this part about how the deity of Christ. So as we go over to Philippians chapter 2 and we read verses 5 through 11, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God. Now I want you to listen to this very carefully to what it says here, because if you take a look at the King James Bible and even the New King James or the Geneva Bible, it reads here the same. But it doesn't read the same in the New Age versions of the Bible, and we'll take a look at that in just a minute. Again, 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. And so here, 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 a fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, which at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God and the Father.

Now, the interesting thing was here. We see that the NIV says, who being in very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Well, that's exactly the opposite of what it says here. When it says, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Well, again, they are equal in their deity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, just like here the family that we have. You have the father as the head of the house, and the mother and the children are submissive to the father. At the same time, they're all equal in their humanity.

In their humanity, they're equal, even though the pecking order, the father is superior to the wife and the child. And so here, we also look at, say, the living translation. It says, though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Well, no, that's not what the Bible actually teaches.

They're denying it, okay? That's the opposite of the King James Version. Now, here, what do we see in these passages here?

We see, he points out several things. One, is that he has always existed. Two, he is equal to God because he is God. Three, though he is God, he became man in order to fulfill God's plan of salvation for all people. Four, he did not just pretend, he didn't just pretend to have a man's body, he had a man's body.

He actually became a man to identify with man's sins. Five, he voluntarily laid down his divine rights and privileges out of love of his father. Six, he died on the cross for our sins so we wouldn't have to face eternal death.

Folks, we couldn't do it. What God the Father, God the Father demanded a sacrifice, a holy sacrifice, an innocent sacrifice, a sinless sacrifice, and guess what? The Lord Jesus Christ was the only one, the only one that could fit the bill.

Nobody else could qualify. And we see here, seven, God glorified him because of his obedience. Eight, God raised him to his original position as the Father's right hand where he will reign forever as our Lord and Judge. Jesus was humble, willing to give up his rights in order to obey God and serve the people. Like Christ, we too must serve out of love for God and for others and not out of guilt or fear. And again here we want to see, let this mind be in you, which also was 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, being found in a fashion as a man.

He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus Christ, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow and things in heaven, that's all the angels in heaven, the things on earth, that's all the people. Now here you're going to listen to this and things under the earth, things under the earth. Well, you know, it's an interesting thing today. There are more and more underground cities. There are more and more underground cities around the world. And so of course when this was written, I don't think there were many underground cities, but they did have some caves and caverns and things. In fact we know that the Christians had caves and tunnels in Jerusalem and also in Rome itself. But here, and that's where they hid, they hid in those tunnels and caves. But today more and more, in Australia for a good example, they have large cities underground. In Moscow, in Russia, from what I have been told by Russian, former Russian KGB agents, that there's a city underneath Moscow that is actually much larger than Moscow itself.

And that this is where all of the wealthy, elite Russians are planning on going in case of a nuclear war, that they're all set up, they've got it stocked with food and everything they need to last them in these underground tunnels which were built just for that nuclear war. And then I want to go back here now as we continue, and by the way here, here they changed this in the NIV, in the Living Translation, where they say that Christ did not feel that he was equal in his deity with the Father. Or with God, okay, and the Holy Ghost. Well, there's a very authoritative individual, one who has absolute power, who disagrees with that. And that individual, as we go to Hebrews chapter 1, we will see who makes it very, very clear about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the equality of the Father and the Son. And so as we go through this, let's pick it up as we read, starting in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1, And at sundry times, and in diverse manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, but whom he also made the world. And here we see in times past, God spoke, and by the way, in times past, these were of foretellers, they were foretellers, the prophets of all were foretellers.

Today we have forthtellers, and now what does that mean? Well, it means that today I'm a prophet and I'm bringing you prophecy, but this prophecy is, and let me read it to you, Hath in the last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Now, the prophecy of today comes right from the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, from God's word, the Bible.

And so today, again, we have forthtellers, and we're bringing you the prophecy which is of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here, in the past, we see that he spoke through, in Isaiah, in fact he spoke through visions, we see Jacob in a dream, and then we see Abraham and Moses spoke to God face to face, they spoke to God face to face, and also, remember Moses also first met God and spoke to God at first, God talked to him out of a burning bush. And then, well there was many others, through the Psalms, through the prophets, God spoke to us, and even with Balaam, through a jackass, and also he spoke to Elijah out of a whirlwind. But God spoke to us, as it says here, have them in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets.

So, in various ways did he speak, in Proverbs and Psalms and the prophets. Now, again, who being in the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, obviously he's referring to the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus himself, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Remember, Christ was an eternal being, he was pre-existent, he didn't come into existence when he became the begotten, he was, that was an office that he took, that he was appointed to, the father appointed him to the position and to the office of the only begotten, meaning he was unique, and he was the only one of his kind that will never happen again, and so he took this position given to him by the father as God the Son. And he goes on to say, and as hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they, for unto which of the angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee, and again I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him, well, right there, that tells you that the angels were only allowed to worship God, so that verifies his deity, but let's go on. And of the angels he said, who maketh his angel spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire, but unto the Son, now here's God the Father speaking to God the Son, and so for those out there like the Jehovah's Witnesses, one of the Seventh-day Adventists, and others that don't believe that the Lord Jesus, they believe he was the Son of God, but they don't believe that he was God the Son, they don't believe in his deity.

Well, let's see what the Father has to say here. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness, it is a scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And now, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hand, and they shall perish, but thou remainest, and they shall all wax all that does the garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels had he at any time said on my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, are they not all ministering spirits? Set forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Well, that's very important, that word, who shall be heirs of salvation.

So, first of all, he's making several points here. God the Father is referring to God the Son as God. He's referring to him as God. He's referring to him as being higher than everything he's created, that he is above everything that he's created. Now, remember here that Christ was an eternal being, eternal being, and he makes it up, he says, you know, that he's going to be around after everything and after all the years fail, and after everything, as he says, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and shall be changed, and thou art the same, and the years shall not fail.

In other words, time has no effect on God. See, you and I are governed by time. I have approximately 25 minutes left to do this radio program tonight.

I have to get up at a certain time tomorrow, and I've got to be at a certain place, and at certain times I've got to make phone calls, and all of these things, and all of you out there, many of you have to be at work at a certain time. And so I go home, I have dinner at a certain time, my wife has me dinner at a certain time every night, and we take a look at some of us older people, and we see that time has taken its toll on us. Time has really taken its toll on us. We're not as strong as we once were.

All the body parts aren't working the way they used to, kind of gravity is kind of moving in on us. But you see, here in this case, time has no effect on the Lord Jesus Christ at all. Time has no effect. Now you and I, we cannot reclaim 10, 15 minutes ago, we can't reclaim that.

It's gone forever. And I can't promise you that we'll be here come the end of this radio program. That's why He tells you in the book of James chapter 4 that always say, Lord's willing I will do such and such say that. Because we can't guarantee that only God Himself is the only one that can say absolutely for sure I will be here at this time. Because time does not control God. God controls time.

It's not like with us. We've got time as a govern on us. With God, time is what God says time is. And if God wants to go back in time, He can go back in time. If He wants to go forward in time, He can go forward in time. Time does what God says. With us, it's the opposite.

Time takes its toll on us. Now, it's an interesting thing too. How many times have you heard, I mean I hear people all the time talking about their guardian angels, the guardian angels. Well, usually it's women when they're telling me their stories or telling me how their guardian angel was there for them, their guardian angel was there for them. Well, in fact, we do have angels that do intercede on our behalf. But let me read this again.

Here. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? So until you get saved, until you get saved, you have all those that are going to get saved will have guardian angels with them until they're saved. Now, once we are saved, then the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. Now, the Holy Spirit is much more powerful than the angels. In fact, the angels draw their power from the Holy Spirit. So when you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, again, here, that means you've already been saved. And that means you no longer have any need for a guardian angel. And by the way, again, guardian angels were sent there to keep us, to preserve us until the time we were saved. Now, I want to move on to absolute authority. There's only one absolute authority that ever existed.

Only one. And if we go to Isaiah, chapter 45, as we do that, I've got to wet my whistle. I preached a message and taught two classes today. This is my third preaching today.

In Isaiah, chapter 45, I just want to read two verses, 17 and 18. For Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God Himself that has formed the earth and made it. He has established it. He has created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none else.

I am the Lord and there is none else. Until this time, folks, Israel had anticipated temporal salvation. In other words, when they referred to as their salvation, it was that God had saved them from their enemies.

It saved them from their enemies. And here, all of a sudden, now there's a change in here. All of a sudden, Isaiah comes and he's preaching not a temporal salvation, but an everlasting salvation.

But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You should not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. Now here, again, this here is something new now.

But the last part of this is this. I am the Lord and there is none else. I am the Lord and there is none else. Well, you know, throughout history, we've had people that thought they were gods. Remember, Caesar thought he was a god and Pharaoh thought he was a god. And well, George Soros has said that he is a god. And boy, is he in for a rude awakening.

He's going to learn what Pharaoh and what the Caesars and others, what Hitler and Stalin and all in the past found out. They're not gods. And Oprah, who said that she is the source of her own salvation, I hate to bring Oprah the news, but that salvation is not going to get you anywhere.

The salvation that Oprah has in Oprah can only take you to the lake of fire. And so here now, he's referring to absolute authority. There is none but God. Now I want to go over to Psalm 90 because we also see that here that God is eternal, the eternal God. And we know that the Lord Jesus Christ was preexistent along with the Father and the Holy Ghost. And here in Psalm 90 verses 1 through 4, we see that God has no beginning, no end. He's always been.

He will always be. Time has no bearing on Him. Time is what God says time is. And here, and the Lord has been dwelling in our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, ever thou has formed the earth, and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turnest men to destruction, and says, Return, ye children of men, for a thousand years in thy sight are but yesterday, when it is past, and is a watch in the night.

Thou carriest them away as with a flood, and there as they sleep in the morning, they're all like the grass which groweth up. And so here, he's making it very, very clear that one, God is eternal. God is from everlasting to everlasting. He had no beginning, and He has no end.

He always was, He is now, and He will always be. And then, I want to go over to 1 Timothy chapter 1, as we again look at the eternal, as we look at the eternal Savior, the eternal Savior. And in 1 Timothy, and I'll get there in a minute, chapter 1.

I'm sorry, but I've got to take another sip of this tea. All the preaching today is starting to wear on my vocal cords, folks. Now here, this is a verse that you've heard, these two verses here often memorized, and it's been used too, it's quoted often and used in hymns. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy, and that in me first Jesus Christ, my showforth, all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him. To the everlasting, now here is where you've heard this being quoted, you've heard it in songs and songs, and that is, now unto the King eternal, immortal and invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. And so here, again, this verse basically is a typical doctology. Well, you might say it was given by Paul as a natural emotional response, as he was reflecting about the mercies of God.

And so, it sounds almost like Paul is singing that, he was so moved by God's love that he broke out into song. Now the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. And so that deals with God's, as the eternal savior, eternal savior, but now, God is also a faithful God, he's a faithful God, and as we go over to Deuteronomy chapter 7, and in Deuteronomy chapter 7, we read, in verses 9-11, And so here, again, we see that God will always, always, always do exactly what he says, exactly, he will do exactly what, exactly when, exactly how, without exception. Now here is the other thing, God and God alone, and God and God alone has the power to overcome any and all opposition, any and all obstacles, there's nothing, nothing that can keep him from doing as he wishes. In other words, for you and I to say, well, I will always do, I will always do what I tell you I will do, we can't, we can't say that with confidence, we can have that, we can mean, and wish and hope that we can always do what we say we will do, but we don't have the ability, only God has the ability to always to be able to do exactly what he says when he says where, because there is no barrier out there, no opposition, nothing that can stop him. With you and I, you know, we can have good intentions, we can, you know, I can say, okay, I'll be there in church to teach a Bible class, I'll be there at 5 o'clock, I have every intention of getting there, but all of a sudden my car don't cooperate with me, it decides to lay down and die on me, and even though I had every intention of getting to the church on time, I didn't make it, and I didn't have the ability to overcome the obstacles put before me, but only God is the only one, nobody else, nobody else, nobody else out there can do that. I say, well, what about the president with all of his aides, or the king, with all those people around him, can't they guarantee that he can always do exactly, be there on time, no they can't, no they can't, because even a president with all the power and all the aides around him still is subject to circumstances which are beyond his control, God has no circumstances beyond his control, and so he's saying here, the point that God is faithful, know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is a God, the faithful God, in other words, he'll always do, when he promises us something, he will always keep that promise, let's go over to 1 Peter chapter 4, and 1 Peter chapter 4, nope, that's not it, ok, I'll get there in a minute folks, I'm a little bit slow tonight, in fact I'm actually a lot slow tonight, but in 1 Peter chapter 4 I made it, verses 14 through 19, If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified, but let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as a busybody, or as a democrat, I put that democrat in there myself, or as a busybody in other men's manners, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf, for the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God, and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful creator. Well, here, you know, Peter brings to mind Jesus' words, Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name's sake. Then here, as we see that, in verse 17, for the time is come, well, God often allows believers to sin, and then experience the consequences.

He does this for several reasons. One, we ought to show us our potential for sinning. Two, to encourage us to turn from sin and more constantly depend on him. And three, to prepare us to face other even stronger temptations in the future.

And four, to help us stay faithful and keep on trusting him. If believers need earthly discipline, judgment from God, how much more will unbelievers receive it? If believers in us are scarcely, that means barely saved, only because of God's mercy, or as some say, barely saved through the persecution, what chance do those who have rejected Christ have?

They have absolutely no chance at all. And so, again, it's considered an honor to be persecuted for preaching or witnessing the Gospel. It's a sign of God's approval.

God allows us to sign. Again, as we looked here, as we just mentioned, God will often allow us to sin, just like when we had children, and you had told your children not to do something, and you were watching and you saw them and they were going to do something. They were going to do what you told them not to. Maybe it was trying to get a cookie jar up on the shelf, and you know they were going to pull that jar off over on them, but you know that you were right there and they needed to learn a lesson. And sometimes I know that, oh, that happened to me a lot. Well, when we were kids, of course, when I was about, oh, I believe about eight years old or nine, my cousin and I, no, wait a minute, we were a little older than that.

We were probably 10, 11. And we were told to stay away from tobacco, stay away from tobacco. And a number of the men that worked there on the job for my dad and uncle, they chewed tobacco. And they purposely left some out there where we would find it. They purposely left it out there because they knew that we wanted to try that. And so even though we were told, you know, definitely, definitely, boy, I'm going to tell you, if my mother, I think, had caught me chewing tobacco, we already want to think of what would happen. But anyhow, but they left it out, and sure enough, both my cousin and I, we got a hold of it and we chewed that tobacco. And I'm going to tell you, we got sick as dogs from doing it, but we learned a lesson.

Well, it looks like we're out of time for tonight, and I'm going to have to stop right there, I believe. But all of what I've been reading you tonight talks about the awesomeness, the awesomeness of God. The awesomeness of God. And again, we talked about the fact that God is the only one that will always do what He says.

And He has always done what He says. God who cannot sin. And God has said this, that it's appointed to all men who wants to die and end the judgment. And it makes it very, very clear, if you die in Christ, if you die saved, well praise the good Lord, you're on your way to glory. But if you die in your sin, unsaved, unrepentant, well things are not going to bow too well for you.

But you don't have to, that doesn't have to happen to you, you're out there listening to me tonight for the first time. You don't have to die in your sin. God's given you a way out, and that is simply to pray to the Father, ask for forgiveness of your sins, pray to the Father and ask for forgiveness. Then ask the Lord Jesus to be the Lord of your life, all of your life, without any reservations. And if you'll do that, and if you mean it, you will become a new creature, a born again believer, an heir of the kingdom, and you will be indwelt with the Holy Spirit. Now, you've got God's Word on that. You have God's Word on that. Do it tonight. Don't run out of tomorrows tonight. Until tomorrow, good night, God bless, and always, always, always keep fighting the fight! The preceding program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content.