Getting to Know your Bible

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
This is Getting to Know Your Bible, a program dedicated
to the proclaiming of the good News of Jesus Christ.
Here's Billy Lambert.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hello, I'm Billy Lambert. I am the regular speaker on
Getting to Know Your Bible, and I want to welcome
you today. This may be the very first time that
you have seen this telecast. I want you to know
that the thing that we emphasize on getting to Know
your Bible is a word of God. The Bible is

(00:46):
the greatest book that has ever been written. Many years ago,
there were those that wrote books that thought they would
replace the Bible. That's what Thomas Paine thought when he
wrote The Age of Reason. But the Bible continues to
live after century. Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my Word shall not pass away. So on getting

(01:07):
to Know your Bible, we're teaching from the timeless Word
of God. The Bible is God's book, the greatest book
that has ever been written. And today we're going to
be opening up the pages of the Word of God
and delivering a message to you from God's book. Today
we're going to be seeing a one of our classics

(01:29):
that is a production of one of our telecasts from
time in the past, and we want you to stay tuned.
We're going to be offering a free Bible correspondence course
today and we will see information on the screen as
to how you can receive that course, and so we
want to pause at this.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Time to help you in your study of the Bible.
We want to send you this Bible Correspondence course. This
course is non denominational, it's based on the Bible, it's
conducted by mail, and it's free to receive this course.
Right to Getting to Know Your Bible. Po Box three
one four, Summerdale, Alabama three six five eight zero or

(02:09):
call toll free one eight seven seven seven one one
five two one four.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
It is a genuine pleasure to be with you today
on getting to Know your Bible. We do appreciate those
of you that have tuned in to watch today. Thank
you so very much. We may have those watching today
for the very first time, and I want to welcome you.
We have those that watch every time we're on the air,
and I want to thank you as well. Today we're

(02:43):
going to continue a theme we began on a previous telecast,
God's sufficiency by grace through faith. Stay tuned. I'm going
to be reading today from the Book of Ephesians, chapter two,
beginning in verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy,

(03:04):
because of his great love with which he loved us,
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, raised
us up together, and made us sit together in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the age is

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to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his
grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not

(03:50):
of works, lest anyone should boast, For we are His
workmanship created in Christ Jesus, God works which God prepared beforehand,
that we should walk in them. For by grace have

(04:12):
you been saved through faith? You know. In the second
Book of Corinthians, chapter twelve and verse nine, God made
this statement to the apostle Paul, My grace is sufficient
for you. Paul out a thorn in the flesh. He

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prayed for its removal, but God did not remove the form.
But God said, I'm going to sustain you by my grace.
My grace is sufficient for you. And God's grace is
still sufficient for every need that we have in our lives.

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God's grace, his unmerited favor, is suffici to save us
from our sins. And we're saved from our sins by
believing on Jesus Christ with all of our heart, by
repenting of our sins, by confessing our faith in Christ,

(05:15):
and by being baptized into Christ. Our Lord himself made
it clear, so plain, so simple. He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall
be damned. You can be saved by the grace of
God by obeying the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Mark

(05:41):
sixteen and fifteen. In the verse before Mark, verse sixteen,
Jesus said, going to all of the world and preach
the Gospel to every creature. And the correct response to
the preaching of the Gospel is faith and baptism into
Jesus Christ. And I would urge those of you who

(06:04):
have been thinking quite seriously about obeying the Gospel to
do so, because God's grace, his marvelous, amazing grace, is
sufficient to save you. But not only is the grace
of God sufficient to save us from our sins, Prince,

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God's grace is sufficient when we sin as his children.
Someone has aptly said that Christians are not perfect, they're forgiven,
and that's true. We are forgiven people, forgiven of our
sins when we obey the Gospel, and our sins are

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washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we're baptizing to Christ. Saul of Tarsus was told
to rise and be baptized and wash away your sins,
calling on the name of the Lord. And so if
you've never done that, let me urge you to do so.

(07:09):
But sometimes Christian sin. Christians can fall. Absolutely. Listen to
the apostle Paul in First Corinthians, chapter ten and verse
number twelve. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed

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lest he fall. Christians can fall. Someone says, now, brother Lambada,
I sort of differ with you there. That's not possible
for an individual to fall from the grace of God. Well,
let me ask you a question. Why would the apostle
Paul give a warning about a danger if that danger

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was not a possible danger, an imminent danger. You see,
you can't fall from a place you've never been, and
in more than you can come back from a place
that you you have never been. And so paulse that warns,
let those who think they're standing take heedless they fall.

(08:21):
Someone say you believe, brother Lambert, that it is possible
for a child of God to fall from grace. Well,
listen to the apostle Paul in Galatians chapter five, in
verse four, who's whoever you are justified by the law.
You are falling from grace. You can fall from the
grace of God. Why would Paul say that it's possible

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to fall from grace if that possibility was not real?
You see, you can fall. But now the answer, there's
an answer to falling. The answer to falling is standing.
Look at verse number one of Galatians five, in the
same chapter where Paul warn about the danger of falling

(09:10):
from grace. Listen to it. You've become a strange from Christ,
you who attempt to be justified by the law. You
have fallen from grace. So Paul says, you can fall
from grace. And I've heard preachers try to explain what
that really means. Let me tell you what it really means.

(09:31):
Let me tell you what it really means. This is
what the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write to these
people who wanted to go back and embrace parts of
the Old Testament law. It just simply means, should they
do that, that fall from the grace of God. And
so it is indeed possible. But the answer to falling

(09:53):
is standing. Look at verse number one. Stand fast. Stand
fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made
us free, and do not be entangled again with the

(10:13):
yoke of bondage. So Paul says, keep you from falling.
You just need to stand fast, don't go back. There
are people sometimes that become Christians, and they do what
the Bible teaches to become Christian. I'm convinced they're saved,
But sometimes they go back to the world. I'm thinking

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of a young man who obeyed the Gospel and he
was a missionary for a time. In his previous life,
he had worked the streets with drugs, and the call
of the world became so strong that he went back
to his old habits, in his old ways, fallen, fallen

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from grace. So the answer to falling is standing in
the grace of God. And indeed we can now. Sometimes
there are those who do not live for Christ as
they should, and sometimes it may be their attitude is

(11:22):
not a Christian attitude. So sometimes it may be that
they're they're, they're they're they're so weak, and the flesh
overcomes them and they go back to some habit that
they may have had previously, and and they fall from grace.
Sometimes it just may be that a person who's a

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Christian just becomes negligent and they just live a life
of negligence and indifference to Jesus Christ. I think the
church that lay out of sea is an example of
what can happen to an individual. This was an entire church,
but it can happen to an individual. And in Revelation
chapter three, Jesus said, thus, saith, all men, the faithful,

(12:05):
the true witness the beginning of the creation of God.
I know your works. You're neither cold, you're not hot,
you're loop warm. And he said, because you're like that,
I'm going to just spee you out of my mouth.
You see here people who were the church, but they
had become soul lukewarm. The Lord said, I'm going to

(12:25):
spee you out of my mouth. And his advice to
them was to be zealous and to repent, to repent,
And in verse twenty, he said, I'm standing at the
door knocking, and if any man hear my voice, I'll
open the door, will come in, will sup with him,
and he with me. He's talking about a congregation of

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his people, the Church of Christ, but he was on
the outside looking in because they had driven Jesus away
by their indifference. So it's possible. Yes, indeed, it's possible.
And I don't know your problem. I don't know your life.
I don't know your situation, nor do you know mine.

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You see, none of us is God. We can't know
what's in people's hearts. Only God knows what's in people's hearts.
But if at one time you were a faithful child
of God living for Him and you've drifted, you see,
it's possible to drift. Hebrews chapter two and verse one
warns about drifting. And if you've drifted, let me encourage

(13:32):
you to do this, to come back home, come back home.
Let me tell you about a man who heard the
preaching of the Gospel under the influence of the evangelist.
This is in the eighth chapter of Acts. And then

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Philip had gone down to the city of Severity Is
preaching Christ to the people, and verse twelve says, when
they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of
God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized,
both men and women. And so Philip was going down

(14:14):
and there were many people obeying the gospel, believing on
Christ being baptized. You remember Jesus said, he that believeth
in this baptized shall be saved. So they were doing
the very thing Jesus said. But verse thirteen says Simon
himself also believed, and when he was baptized. Now I

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realize that there are some who would question whether or
not Simon was ever saved. But you see, you'd have
to know Simon's heart, wouldn't you. You would have to
be God to be that kind of a statement to
say Simon was never saved. Simon did the exact same
thing the people in Samaria did. They believed they were baptis.

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And the Bible says that Simon himself also believed, and
when he was baptized. That's verse thirteen. Remember, he that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. I have no
right to question the genuineness of this man's conversion to
Jesus Christ. I don't have that right. And the Bible

(15:22):
does not even hint at the fact that he was
never saved to begin with. But then when Simon saw
that it was through the laying on of the apostles
hands that the Holy Spirit was given, he offered the
apostles money, Say give me this gift also that on

(15:50):
who whoever I lay hands, he may also receive the
spirit the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And Peter said
to them, your money perish with you, because you thought
the gift of God can be bought with money. Why
you have neither part nor lot in this matter, because
your heart is not right in the sight of God.

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And this is what he told this man, who had
believed and repented and been baptized, that he needed to
do now. He said, repent therefore of this thy wickedness,
and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart
may be forgiven thee And then he requested that they

(16:34):
pray for him. Now here's a man who believed, and
he was baptized, But he yielded to an old weakness.
You see previously he had given himself out as some
great one. He was a sorcerer, he was deceiving the people,
bewitching the people. But when he saw that through the

(16:56):
leg on the apostles hands that the Holy Spirit was given,
he saw the real McCoy. He saw the real deal,
He saw the real thing. He wanted it. And then
Peter told him, you don't have partner lot in this matter.
You don't have any part of this, and your heart

(17:16):
is not right in the sight of God. Now here's
a key element in this Reading and Acts chapter eight.
Peter did not tell him to repent of all of
his past sins, because he had already done that when
he believed and was baptized. His past sins had been forgiven.

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But he was told to repent therefore of this thy wickedness,
and pray God, if the thought of your heart may
be forgiven you. Well, what thought the thought that he
could buy the gift of the Holy Spirit with money?

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There was a specific sin. He wasn't telling him to
repent of all of his past sins had already done that.
He's telling him, now that you've become a Christian, you
need to get up, you need to repent of the
thought that you had in your heart, your mind that
you could buy God's gift with money, and it puts Simon.

(18:24):
Put him Simon had a very bad position, in a
precarious position. It put him in a perishing condition, perishing condition.
And you know, if you're in a perishing condition, you're
not in a good shape, are you. You remember in
John three point sixteen, for God so loved the world

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that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believing
in him should not want, should not perish, should not perish.
And we understand what that means, don't we. That means
you be lost forever. And here's a man who is
now in a perishing condition and his heart's not right
in the sight of God. He's not told to go

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and be baptized again, Absolutely not, because he had already
done that. He had been immersed into Jesus Christ in
the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit for the mission of his sins. He had done
what Jesus said to do. He did what others had done.
He did what all the other men in Samaria had done.

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They believed, and they were baptized when they heard Philip
preaching the Gospel to them. But this man was told
to repent of a specific sin because he had fallen.
He had fallen from God's grace, and he requested prayer
on his behalf. We sometimes might refer to that as

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God's second law pardoning. Indeed, it is God's first law.
Pardon is that we believe on Jesus, we repent of
our sins, can fess our faith, and we're baptized. I
want you to know that if you have fallen, if
you've aired away, if you strayed away. You may be
a member of the Church of Christ, but you have

(20:13):
not attended services in the number of years. I want
you to know that the grace of God is sufficient
to save you. He can save you. He can wrap
his loving arms around you as his wayward child and
welcome you home. You see, God is a great God.
He's a wonderful God. He's a loving God. God doesn't

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hate people. God loves people. He hates our sins for sure,
but God loves us. He's loved us with an everlasting love.
Jeremiah thirty one, verse three. You see, God is so
wonderful and great and mighty and powerful. And if you
find yourself today as one of his wayward children. Why

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don't you just come home? Could ask you personal question?
How long has it been since you communed with the
Lord around the Lord's Table on the Lord's Day on
Sunday where we commemorate the death and the suffering of
Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus said this do in remembrance

(21:18):
of me, and we have an appointment with Jesus every
Lord's Day around that table to communicate, to commemorate his
death on the cross of Calvary. Friend, how long has
it been since you did that? How long has it
been since you communed with the Lord on the Lord's Day?
For that matter, how long has it been since you

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even worshiped God on the Lord's Day? You say, you know,
brother Lamorda, I like to fish, and I can worship
God out there in my boat. No, no, no, my friend,
how long has it been since you worshiped God with
fellow Christians? No? The Bible says, look for say, not
the assembly ing of yourselves together as a matter of

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some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the
more as you see the day approaching Hebrews ten twenty five.
How long has it been? He said, brother, Lama has
been a long long time. Can I encourage you with
all the love I can muster in my heart today
to come home. God is wanting you to come home.

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He wants you home. He wants you to come home
right now. And I'd urge you to do that. In Luke,
the fifteenth chapter, a man had two sons, and the
younger son said to his father, give me. You know
in that like children give me, give me, give me,
ours is a give me generation. It's not what can

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I do for you? If what you can give me?
He said, give me, give me the portion of goods
that falls under me. So he divided under them as leading,
and the Bible says it not many days after that,
the younger boy gathered everything together, he packed his bags,
and he took his journey into a far country. And

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there he wasted, He wasted his substance in rioteous living. Oh,
if he had only known the mistake he was making,
maybe had made a different choice. But he exercised his freedom,
his will, his free moral agency. And he went out

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there to the far country of sin, and he wasted
everything in riotous living. And when he had spent all
the scripture says he began to be in want, and
he went and joined himself to a certain citizen of
that land. And that certain citizen of the land sent

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this young man out to the field of fe eat
pigs to feed the swine, and he got so hungry
that he would actually have eaten the husk that the
pigs were eating. The Bible says he came to himself.

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I think that tells us a little bit about the
insanity of sin. Sin can so warp and twist your
thinking that you don't really think logically and reasonably. And
it's not sometimes until we have nowhere to go that

(24:40):
we come to our senses. So he came to him save,
and he said, what servant of my father's house has
food enough in the spare? And he said, I'm perishing
with hunger. But he said, now this is what I'm
going to do. I'm going to rise, and I'm going
to go to my house, and I'm going to tell

(25:03):
my father I have sinned. You know, those are hard
words to utter, aren't that I have sinned? He said,
I sinned against heaven and in your sight, and I
am no more worthy to be called your son. One

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translation says I do not deserve to be called your son.
Do you realize that none of us deserve it. There's
not a single one of us that deserves to be
called God's children, God child, god servant. But it's because
of his grace that we can be his child. It's

(25:46):
because of his grace. See, grace is giving us what
we need, not what we deserve. Grace is God doing
for us what we can do for ourselves. He said,
I no longer deserve, longer are worthy to be called
your son. I just want to be a servant. I
just want to see. He knew the servants got fed good.

(26:09):
He wanted to go back home and see if his
daddy would let him just be a servant. So the
Bible says he arose, and when he was yet a
great way off, the father saw him. I think that's
a significant part of this story in Luke chapter fifteen.

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The father saw him. You see, the father was looking
for him. Some of you that are watching right now
have children that you've not seen in a long time.
Maybe it's because they're in the military, Maybe they're way
at college. May they live in some other part of
the country. It could be that you are strange from

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a child or some of your children. But in either
case you're looking for them, aren't you. And when he
saw him, he ran, fell on his neck, and he
kissed him. And that father welcomed that boy back home.
If you wandered away, God's grace is sufficient to welcome

(27:17):
you home. And if you wandered, repent of your wickedness.
Your repent of your sin, and ask God's people to
pray with you and for you. Bet you might be forgiven.
I want to thank you for watching Getting to Know
your Bible today, and may I urge you to visit
the Church of Christ in your community. Call for the

(27:38):
Bible course right now and until we meet again. May
the Lord bless you and keep you is my prayer.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Getting to Know Your Bible has been presented by Churches
of Christ. If you have a question about the church,
or if you would like the location of a Church
of Christ near you, or to receive the free Bible
course right too. Getting to Know your Bible Pelbox one four, Summerdale, Alabama,
three six five eight zero or call one eight seven
seven seven one one five two.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
One four

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Join us next time forgetting to Know your Bible.