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History is his story…and yours.

History is his story…and yours.

JANUARY 6, 2021

/ Programs / Key Life / History is his story…and yours.

Steve Brown:
History is his story and yours. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew executive producer for the program and our host is author and seminary professor Steve Brown. The church has suffered under do more, try harder religion for too long. And Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible open it to the fourth chapter of Galatians or your phone or whatever you use. I’m an old guy, I want to feel the Bible in my hand, not a phone or a pad. I mean, I want the real thing and I want it to look worn so everybody will know how spiritual I am. I was the preaching pastor at a church here two or three weeks ago. And I have a number of Bibles, if you’ve been around as long as I have, you just have stacks of Bibles, what do you do with them? You can’t burn them. I mean, you’re not going to throw them in the garbage. There’s something that is just not, it’s just not proper to burn a Bible,okay? So I’ve got this Bible, which isn’t that old, but evidently the cover was pretty cheap. And so, it’s worn off everywhere. And, so I use that as the Bible I was using when I was preaching and somebody came up to me and said, man, you have been into the word a lot. And I started to say, but of course, my Bible shows it. But it really doesn’t show it, so well enough about that. We’re talking about praising God. And we said yesterday, if you were listening and you never listen to me, we were talking about, some of the items. And we started with, that he knows your name, that he identified you and made up his mind about you before he created the world. How about that? Now that is a place that brings forth great praise and praise in the dark brings the light. Praise and the dark brings the power. And it’s a key that Christians need to know about. Let me tell you something. If you’re going through a really bad time and you got a whole list of things you need to bring before God, cause he said we could bring our requests to him. Don’t, well you ought to mention them to him, because he wants to know, he wants to hear from you where you think it hurts. But, put that aside and say, this doesn’t make any sense, cause I don’t feel it at all. But as Ephesians says, that we should praise God for everything. In Thessalonians Paul said, praise in everything, but you, but we’re to praise him for and in everything that’s happening in our lives. So go, alright. Don’t like it, don’t want to do it, don’t feel it, it’s not who I am right now, but. doggone it, praise you God and stuff. You might even use some words of Scripture. If you don’t have your own try. Holy Holy Holy Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Glory be to thee Oh Lord, most high Fathers, son and Holy Spirit. By the time you get to that, and this is why Jesus said, when you pray, pray hallowed be thy name. When you praise. Something happens. It really does, it happens to me regularly. There’s power in praise. There’s a whole attitudinal thing that begins to take place, things fall into place. And you know why, because that’s why you were created. I mean, when a bird sings, the bird sings because the bird has a song. Well, you have a song too. And that song is the praise of the God who said that you were to call him father. And that’s what the apostle Paul did. And the first thing he says, and we saw that yesterday, the first thing he says is that you need to praise him because he identified you before you were ever born, Galatians 4:2, Galatians 4:4-5, Galatians 4:9. And then of course we quoted John 10:14-16. Now let me show you something else, that’ll cause you to praise. I don’t have a lot more time for this teaching part of this broadcast, but let me at least introduce it. I want you to note that Paul bragged on the father and praised God, because he realized that history had been bent for him, Galatians 4:2b.

Until the date set by the father.

For what? For me, Galatians 4:4-5.

But when the time had fully come,

in other words, something was going on before that.

When the time had fully come, God sent forth his son, so that we might receive the adoption of sons.

How about that, all that God was doing before you came along, he was doing for God’s people. And he was doing it for you. So when you read about the Peloponnesian Wars, when you read about the Pax Romana, when you read about American history, when you read about world history, you need to remember that it was being bent for the terrible meek, the people of God. And you say that’s not true. Oh yes, it is. Now, I’m running at a time right now, but I’m going to share some Scripture with you tomorrow on this broadcast. But for now, I want you to know it’s absolutely true. When God created the world. when he created all that is, when he created history and the timeline, when he brought the Jews into existence and kept them together, he was thinking about you. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Of course, was Steve Brown today bringing us a truly beautiful thought that God’s shaped all of history in order that we might have the gospel. What a gift, what a God. You know, we explore a lot of big questions on this program, but I can’t think of any question bigger than this one. Am I saved? Questions about assurance of salvation are actually the most common kinds of questions we get here at Key Life. Well, Steve has spoken about this very important question in a sermon. Take a listen to an excerpt from that. Then I’ll be back to tell you about a free gift. Here’s Steve.

Steve Brown:
Now if you were here last week, you’re aware that I took the time to show you that the Bible teaches that if you’re a Christian, you’re always going to be a Christian. I am the son of Newton Webb Brown, I was born that way. And if I go to a court and have my name changed, I’m still going to be the son of Newton Webb Brown. And no matter what happens to me, no matter whether I’m faithful to the principles taught to me by my father, or not, I’m still the son of Newton Webb Brown, and I’m going to be his son until the day I die. Now, if you’re a Christian, according to 1:12, you became a child of another father and that will never, ever change because he holds you. You do not hold him. If you were here last week, you are also aware that we saw through Hebrews 6:1-6, and a number of other Scriptures that there are in the church, two kinds of Christians, the real ones and the false ones, the weeds and the wheat. And we saw that it is possible. And I didn’t have anybody particular in mind when I said, that it was possible for you to be an officer in the church and not to know Christ. To play the game so perfectly that you fool all of the brethren into thinking that you’re the real thing, when you’re a counterfeit, Bud Coombs was telling us this morning that he was a Deacon in this church for one year before he became a Christian. So it’s possible to be a pastor, it’s possible to be on the staff of the church. It’s possible to be a weed Christian and to fool everybody except you and God. You heard about the man from the mountains who was dressed fit to kill with a big black Bible under his arm. And he was approached by a friend and said, why are you dressed up like that? And he said, I heard about New Orleans. And I heard that they have women running all over the place down there and booze is flowing like a river. And they’ve got a poker game on every corner. And I decided that if it was that good, I was going down there. And he said, well, I understand that, but how come the big black Bible under your arm? And he said, well, I figured if it was as good as they said it was. I’d stay over till Sunday. And I certainly wouldn’t want to miss church. And there are lots of folks in the church just like that. Now, in response to what I said last week, there are a lot of questions and I want to deal with those questions this morning, or rather to allow the writer of Hebrews to deal with those questions. Evidently a lot of people got scared after last Sunday and they wondered if they were really Christians. That’s not bad. I hope you were scared good for a whole week. That’s what the writer of Hebrews does for the first six verses he scares the socks off you. And then when you get to the next, to the ninth verse, he begins to pour oil on the troubled waters. And so even though I didn’t plan it that way, I suggest that what happened to you if you’ve been frightened all week about your salvation, is probably a pretty Biblical thing to happen to you. But the question was something like this, I realize that Christians are eternally secure. I realize that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is a true doctrine and a Biblical doctrine. I recognize that if I’ve put my hand in his hand, he’s going to hold on to me, right on through to the end, Philippians 1:6 is true,

And that he who began it in me, is going to bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

But my problem is that I’m not sure whether or not I’m a Christian. And so this morning I propose, to let you know, how to know, that you know him. It seems appropriate before we turn to the text, that we take a few moments to examine five facts that have to do with how one comes into a relationship with Christ. For those of you who are searching, I want you to listen very carefully. You’re not going to like what I’m going to say, you may think that it’s old fashioned, that it went out with your grandfather’s spats. But after I tell you, you’ll never again, be able to say, nobody ever told me. I am not an evangelist. And it’s very rare in this church when I present a plan of salvation. And so if you’ve been here and you’ve never heard it, and you’re not sure, listen very carefully, because I’m going to very quickly cover the five points that you need to know, when you come into that initial relationship with Jesus Christ.

Matthew Porter:
That’s from a sermon called How to Know That You Know Him, based on Hebrews 6, if you’re struggling with doubts and questions, if you need assurance. Boy, I sure hope you’ll check out the CD. Get it for free right now by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email your request to [email protected]. By mail, write us at

Key Life Network
P.O. Box 5000
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If you’re in Canada, send your request to

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Just ask for the CD called How to Know That You Know Him. And one more thing, would you prayerfully consider giving to Key Life? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope or just text Key Life to 28950 on your smartphone. Again, it’s Key Life, one word, two words, doesn’t matter to 28950. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.

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