God's four-fold security in Christ offers unbreakable protection, as evidenced by Jesus' promise of eternal life and the Father's greater power. The sermon highlights God's active role in salvation, from anointing Jesus and raising Him from the dead, to appointing Him as judge. It emphasizes that salvation is not based on human merit but on Christ's finished work on the cross, urging listeners to respond to God's persistent call through nature, conscience, providence, and His Word. Ultimately, the message concludes that rejecting God's call leads to judgment, while accepting Jesus as Savior brings eternal security and glorifies God.
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Lovely place to be safe and secure in the master's hand. I love that song and I love the reminder of the Lord Jesus that he said, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand and my father which gave them he is greater than all. No man shall pluck them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. of four-fold security. The book of Ecclesiastes says the three-fold cord is not easily broken, and the Lord gave us a four-fold cord. Three-fold is pretty hard to break. Four-fold, you can't break.
And the four-fold cord is, I've given eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And my Father that gave them me is greater than all. No man shall pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one. That's a blessed security in the Lord Jesus, the Son of God. And you know this weekend we've been listening. Almost every time you heard a speaker, you heard some mention of the gospel, some way of God's salvation. And we've been listening tonight about a man who took a message to another man because he was sent of God. And as we looked at this, and the message that Peter brought There were some things that Peter mentioned that God did.
That God anointed the Lord Jesus with the Holy Spirit. That God sent the Word and He preached peace through Jesus Christ. That God was the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. That God was the one who appointed the Lord Jesus, the judge of the living and the dead. But you know, in that message we learn some things about the Lord Jesus too. It was the Lord Jesus who went to Calvary's cross. It was the Lord Jesus who took our sin. It was the Lord Jesus who died, was buried, and rose again. And it is the Lord Jesus who is the judge of the living and the dead. The Lord Jesus himself said that the Father has appointed all judgment unto the Son.
You know, the Son is going to be the one that sits on a great white throne. It will not be God the Father. It will be God the Son. It will be the one that mankind has rejected. And if you ever stand before that throne and you view him, you're going to be who is the judge of all. And you're going to be there because you refuse to hear the message presented by all the Lord Jesus himself. My, there was one greater than an angel, wasn't there, in the one who came and lived out the total message. I am the resurrection in the life. He that believeth in me, though. Message from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
But what a message brought by Peter that day. And you know, Cornelius, we learned one more thing. God was no respecter of persons. I like that, too. You know, when I was a kid, you'd have probably considered me from the wrong side of the track. And if I'd have been voted the least probable kid to ever stand in an innocent position, it would have been me. I don't want to vote. But he took something, he took a vessel, and he shaped it, and he molded it for his own good pleasure. God's not a respecter of person, but God is going to honor a man who wants to honor him. Cornelius wanted to honor God, and so God honored Cornelius. He sent him the message.
He's still doing that today. You know that? He sends the message to a man that wants to honor him. I think of a story that comes to mind right now of Brother Rogers when he was in the chat. And he went into a little village and he saw a man up in a tree. And he said, What's that man doing in a tree? And he said, Well, that man was sitting there and he was carving an idol. And as he carved this idol, he began to think, I'm doing a pretty good job. Man, I'm making a pretty nice looking idol. And he got to think, Hey, now wait a minute. If I'm making this idol and I'm doing such a good job, then I'm greater than this idol. And then he thought for a minute, And he said, well, then somebody must have made me, and there's somebody greater than I am.
Where would he be? So he looked up into the heaven, and he decided to climb the tallest tree so he could get up and see if he could get acquainted with the one who had created him. Mr. Rogers says, tell him to come down. I'll introduce him to the one who created him. And you know, that man came down and Mr. Rogers introduced him to the Creator and to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. For he's both one and the same. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made. Everything that's in existence, the Lord Jesus put it there. You want to look at the stars? My Bible says, through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the Word of God.
I like that. He spoke it. And then they were gigantic masses of material. They tell me there's a mass out there called Antares. How wild an imagination you got. You know how big they say that thing is? They say that you could take the Earth and its orbit around the Sun, stick it inside Antares, and have a hundred million miles on either side. In diameter, they say it must measure three hundred and eighty-six million miles. That's a pretty big piece. He spoke it, and the worlds were framed by the Word of God. But you know he created man.
And I can see his creation. And you know what a blessed thing to bend down to man, eternal God, and breathe a breath of life into man's nostrils, and it becomes a living soul. God did that. He created you. Why? He made you for His glory. That's why He created every one of us, so that we could glorify Him. My, I think sometimes, wow, we've been going on the road to glorify Ray Routley. And you know, we take off so many times before we come to Christ and we see man building up his own glory. But you know what?
When we're in heaven, if you've trusted the Lord Jesus and you are in heaven, you will never be able to reach back and pat yourself on the back and say, Good job. You're going to have to look at the Lord Jesus and say, I'm here because of what he has done. because of what He finished at Calvary's tree, because of the work of the cross. There is no other claim that we have to heaven than the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. Now, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day utter a speech, and tonight unto night, showeth knowledge, and there is no land where their voice is not heard. See, the voice of God speaks. I want to show you how God calls. Our brother brought us to a message through the mouth of a man. Let's go to the book of Proverbs chapter one and verse twenty-four. Book of Proverbs chapter one, verse twenty-four. Because I called, and you refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.
But ye have set it not on my counsel, and would have none of my reproof. I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear cometh, when your fear cometh as a desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel. They despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of their fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple, I'll slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from the fear of evil. Wow, what a portion of Scripture. He says, because I called. I'd like to think about that for a moment. God called. How's he called? Well, he does call through nature. Nature speaks. The heavens declare the glory of God. And no matter where you are, the heavens are there and there's a voice that speaks. Mr. Einstein perhaps was the greatest mathematician we've known.
He could say, if a man can look up into the heavens and deny God, that man is a fool. I don't know that Mr. Einstein ever trusted Jesus Christ, but he did know that there was a designer because there was design. He didn't know that God calls through nature. When I was over in the jungle in New Guinea, I saw nature all about me, but I saw men with fear gripping their heart. They were fear of demons. They were fear of other things, and yet they worshiped them. They saw the sun, a great image in the sky. But instead of thinking of the creator of the sun, they worshipped the sun.
They saw the image of the moon, and they worshipped that moon. And you know, when that sun began to set, and they began to beat on their drums, and all the other instruments they had, sometimes in their worship it seemed like it would drive you out of your mind as you listened to the music. And certainly I felt it was satanic. men being drawn to worship the creature and the creation more than the Creator. And God says in the book of Romans, because they did that, He gave them over to their own vain imagination. But He held them accountable. He said, You're without excuse.
And listen if the man in the jungles without excuse, that man whose mentality seems to be so small that if he stumbles over a stick, he picks it up and ties it around his neck and he worships it. What is your accountability and my accountability? As we know what work he has made plain through his word, how accountable we are when we can look at our own sin. So many times people don't look at their own sin. They look at somebody else's. Look what a sinner he is. I'm glad that one day God caused me to look at my own sin. Twelve years old, I didn't have a mother sitting next to me by Mr.
Criswell that could challenge him. I sat there alone, but as that man preached, I thought every eye in that place was on me. I thought everyone knew that I was headed straight for hell. And believe me, I wasn't perspiring. I was sweating. Some people perspire, but believe me, it was ringing something out of me that night on those nights that was tearing my heart. And as it was tearing it, I was hearing a voice on my shoulder saying, just take it easy, Ray. When you get out the door, you'll forget the whole thing. It'll all pass. You know, I listen to that voice night after night. I didn't realize whose voice it was. I know now, but I didn't know then.
And then finally at the end of that week that man began to preach upon a God of love, a God of mercy, and a God of grace, a heavenly Father who loved this little sinner enough to give his son for him. I saw my sin and I saw the judgment of that sin. And that night, you know, that preacher used to stand back by the door. And as he stood there, he would always say to people, did you get saved yet? Preacher used to do that, you know. And that night as I listened to him, I didn't feel like I wanted to lie to him, but I didn't want to tell him I wasn't saved either, so I ran him a race to the door. I beat him every night, except the last night.
And the last night I walked by, and he didn't even ask me if I got saved. But you know, the God didn't let me go very far until it came out of my mouth. And you know, about a half a block down, my mother was coming for a little boy. And as I walked toward her, suddenly I burst into a run, and I yelled out, Hey, Mom, I got saved tonight. Saved by the grace of God, because He made me understand for a whole week my sinner and what judgment was to come for my sin. But he made me understand his love as well. God calls, you know, he calls through nature, but he calls through conscience as well. An old Indian one time said that he thought conscience was like a little triangle like this.
And it was in man's heart. You know, we use a triangle as an illustration of God. Three sides, all angles, and sides equal. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And as Indians thought, that's the way the conscience was, like God, and His image inside our heart. And then when we did wrong, that triangle would turn, and those sharp corners would prick us. And that's what our conscience was doing. I don't think He was so far wrong. You know, my Bible tells me in the Gospel of John that Jesus Christ is the light and the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. There's no man total darkness.
Oh, when he refuses light, then he becomes darker. Because Satan is the one that blinds the mind of them that believe not. You know, you can time after time hear the Gospel. And time after time, if you turn aside from it, how blind you're going to be. It's time, beloved, tonight to answer God's call. Our brother has brought a message that was delivered by Peter and a message that you heard of an invitation to come to him tonight through a man. But he's repeating it and he's giving that call. He calls through conscience, but he calls through providence as well. You know, sometimes things happen in our lives.
God permits them. So he might wake us up. You know, some people have said, it seemed like God had to hit me over the head with a two-by-four to get my attention. And that's the way it is. I remember one man told me, he said, I used to be a boxer, you know, and he said, you had me in the back of that and that ring in the corner. You were hammering away just like that. God wouldn't let him go. God wouldn't let him go. And you know sometimes things happen in our lives. The providence of God. to bring us to a place that we will listen and we might hear God's call. Some of you who are here that are unsaved tonight, there's some things happened in your life lately that have been hard to digest and you wonder why and you cry and why me.
It might be God wants your attention. It might be to say to you, God's calling. God's saying, listen. God's saying, I'm sovereign. God's saying, here what I have to say. He called by providence. But you know, sometimes men refuse the providential call of God. I knew a young man one time at fifteen, he loved his motorcycle. He began to ride it and he just enjoyed it immensely. Parents tried to talk to him about the Lord and that motorcycle began to be his God. And you know, one day he got into an accident. friend of mine had brought a witness to him time after time and he kept putting it off and one day that boy got into an accident young boy like that and laying on that bedside he shook his head from side to side and he said too late too late too late he refused God's call it's possible to do that beloved it's possible to say no to an invitation that is marked RSVP God wants a reply.
And you'll have to give them a reply tonight. You cannot go out those doors indifferent. You might procrastinate and say later, but that is saying no for now. That is the same as saying no for now. And you may say no one time too many. And it may be too late. My Bible says the Spirit of God will not always strive with a man. You know, God strove, and I see the mercy of God. Some people think God's so hard. Believe me, I see a God of grace. Oh, he's holy. But look how long he preached in Noah's day.
He said he wasn't always going to strive with him, man. But look what he did through Noah. Every time old Noah hammered those pegs into that ark. He was saying, judgment is coming. There is a day when God is going to bring the flood. And the people mock, crazy old Noah, nutty is a fruitcake. Listen, there was a day when it was fulfilled. God's word came to pass. And God said to Noah, come, Noah, into the ark. And Noah went in, and God shut the door. And all on the outside died in the flood. because they would not answer God's call.
God calls through the Word. And tonight and this weekend you've been hearing the Word. You people here in Atlantic have an opportunity at so many places that preach the Word. I know of a couple chapels where the Word is preached. in sincerity and truth. And my Bible says, Faith comes through hearing by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Your faith is going to come through the vehicle of the Word of God. And God's call. You ever hear His invitation? Lord Jesus. Oh, He said so sweetly, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart. and can add rest to your soul. What a Savior. How can you say no to one as lovely as that, one that has already taken the burden of your sin, one that's already taken your judgment. He says, Come. He said, I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth in me shall never thirst. Will you come to the Lord Jesus? He invites you to come through His Word. God's call is through ministers of the Word today.
You've heard it all weekend. You've heard it tonight. What will you do with a message proclaimed by servants? sinner saved by grace. I'm on a platform, beloved, but it hasn't put me any higher than you. At very best, I'm a sinner, but I'm a sinner saved by the grace of God. I'm headed for heaven, not because I'm any good, but because of his perfections and his work at Calvary. He calls tonight, will you answer? Will you say to him, yes, Lord Jesus, this truth I am a sinner. I deserve hell.
I deserve the judgment for sin. But I believe you took it at Calvary. I believe you paid the penalty. I believe you died. And you're risen again. I'll trust you with my soul. Would you come tonight? Not to this place here. But come to the person of Jesus Christ. He's at your side. He invites you to come to Him. Come simply as a sinner without trying to cleanse yourself. Come simply as one who's in a need, one who needs a Savior. Some of you may be young, you need a Savior.
Some of you may be old, you need a Savior. Had a chance one day of seeing a man, eighty-eight years old, turned to Christ. God let him live two months. I thought he was on his deathbed those moments, but he lived two months. And in those two months, he could reach out from that nursing home bed of his and catch the clothes of somebody who passed by and in his weakness, try to pull him over to his bed to tell him how he got saved when he deserved hell. Oh, you know, if you refuse his invitation, then I have to leave this with you. I will also laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear comes.
I'm amazed to think of God laughing at those perishing. But God never laughs when He gave His Son at Calvary. And they stretched God's love on that cruel cross for a sinner like me. God's heart was broken with the sin of mankind. So much so. In His love He gave His Son. And now, sinner, what will you do with a love like that? Will you reject it? And then one day face Jesus Christ as the judge, who condemns because you've refused Him.
You know what? He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. If you have not trusted him, friend, you're condemned already. And to change that tonight, you must answer his call, his invitation to come to him and believe and be saved. Our brothers emphasize. So many times this weekend, Romans ten thirteen, for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
He called you, and now as you come to him, you trust. Trust in all that name, trust in all that throne, trust in all that it represents. His power to save. That's a great power. His power to save. where you trust Him, even as we pray, right where you are, a sinner, lost and undone, coming to Jesus Christ. You don't have to usher the words with your lips, but they must be here. The inward man, the total man, willing to answer fully. Unreservedly, I'll trust you with my soul.
Shall we pray? Father, we do thank the for your abundant grace to us. Thank thee that it was so full and so complete, that it was manifest in the giving of the Lord Jesus and in the saving of sinners. We do not deserve it, and yet we're thankful for it. We do not deserve a love nor a life like you've given. But our Father, how abundant it is and how secure You make us when we believe in. Eternal life, never to perish, in the hand of the Son, covered over with the hand of the Father.
Oh God, may lost sinners tonight put that trust in that person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and receive that salvation so full and free. We bless thee, Father. for the whole weekend and for all the ministry of the servants here who served us at the table, who served us in the ministry of song and music, who served us, Father, in so many ways, the homes we stayed in, the love, the hospitality show. We bless thee for it all. We bless thee for your word and we bless thee for your son.
So great a Savior. Receive our thanks tonight, our Father, for we bring it in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We'll sing the first and last verses, please. Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. Calling for you and for me. Be on the portal, be waiting and watching.
Watching for you and for me. Come home, come home. Here are we, come home And a sweet and early Jesus will call thee, Shall be not sinner, Come home. Oh, for the wonderful love he has promised, promised for you and for me, Though we have simply had mercy and kindness, I am for
you and for me. Come home, come home. Feel the way, come home. Thank you very much, Yuri Smith.