If you start hearing a thumping
noise, it's just my leg. Don't pay any attention to it.
I have always been a very nervous man when standing before people. When my pastor first asked me
if I would lead the singing, I asked him, I said, are you
crazy? I can't stand before people.
That was 15 years ago. that the Lord has given me a
few words to say to some folks, especially to come down here
and meet my brothers and sisters in Christ. Kathy and I have traveled
around the world a few times and all over the States. And
one of the most favorite things we enjoy about our traveling
is going to another church and meeting our brothers and sisters
in Christ. And so our next vacation, of
course, was let's go to Australia. We know there's a man there who
preaches the truth. There's got to be some people
who want to hear it as well. So I'm thankful, so thankful
and so blessed to be here this morning. Our hosts have been
beyond wonderful, just beyond wonderful. And we want to thank
you so, so much for what you've done for us while we've been
here. I'd like to ask you to turn in your Bibles if you would.
Our text will be from Hebrews chapter 3, if you want to turn
there and mark that, and then turn over to Ephesians chapter
2. Before the Lord called me, I
was raised in a religion, the religion of Baptists. I don't
know what kind they were. There's a lot of different kinds
of Baptists, but I know this, it didn't matter to me as I grew
up. Didn't matter until the Lord
made it matter around the age of 40. There was a group of folks
that I knew in those days that we You may recognize that phrase. You may know some yourself as
well. They were the ones who would show up on Sunday, dressed
very nice, and you'd never hear them cuss. You'd never hear them
say a strong word about somebody else. They were always there.
They were the type of people that would say, I used to be
this. I'm not anymore. I turned myself over to the Lord." Or they would say things like,
I'm not a sinner like I was. And really all they're saying
when they say that is, I'm not a sinner like you. We call them the holier than
thou. Kathy and I were Actually, I
was speaking with our dear brother Kevin Thacker. Some of you may
know him down in San Diego. And he mentioned a man who was
coming from Australia to preach. I had never heard that there
was even one that we knew of down there. I knew Don had gone
down a couple of times. He'd come down here, but I didn't
know who he was. And Kathy and I jumped in the car and drove
10 hours to San Diego to come hear this man. and how blessed
we were to hear a man preach Christ and Him crucified. It never gets old to a sinner.
It never gets old to one who has always got this sin in our
flesh. As we walk through this valley
of the shadow of death, It never gets old to hear about the one
who completely and fully saves his people. I've been listening
to it for 24 years now. My pastor preached it for 40
years, the same message every Sunday. It never gets old. I heard about this house of sinners
down in Australia Sinners who'd spent their days walking through
the valley of the shadow of death as I do. Sinners who had been
given great comfort, great comfort in their plague of sin. Great sinners who needed a great
savior. They needed a sovereign savior. What that means is a savior who
is not making it possible for someone to be saved, but someone,
a Savior who did save his people. Not a Savior who's waiting for
you to do something, but who has done it for you, who has
provided all that you need, a sovereign Savior. Let me read some scriptures
for you, if you would. In Isaiah 45, verses five through
six, we read these words, I am the Lord. That's the Lord we're talking
about. Almighty, all-powerful, creator
of everything that is. I am the Lord and there is none
else, he says, no God, there is no God beside me. He says,
I girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. Does that sound like a savior
you might need? Here's another verse in John 1.5, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God, and all things were
made by him. And without him was not anything
made that was made, and in him was life. And the life was the
light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not. As sinners, we're just like that
blind man. When the Lord comes to us and
gives us eyes and ears to hear his truths, we look back and
we say, you're right. Darkness. hid the face of the
Lord from me all those years. And it wasn't until he healed
my blindness that I could see the truth of who he was. Listen
to Colossians chapter one, verse 16, for by him were all things
created. Interesting how the Lord had
worked that out for you to read your verse. You didn't know what
I was gonna read. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible."
This is a sovereign God we're talking about here. When I first
heard about a God who works everything out according to his counsel,
I don't know about you folks, but that just blew me away. I
had not heard about a God like that before. I was like, really? One of the reasons I quit going
to church as quickly as I could get out from underneath my parents
is because it was a God who didn't deserve to be called God. Yet
here for the first time, under a gospel preacher, I heard about
the one who truly is God, creator of everything. He's in charge
of all things, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, whether
they be the man who sits in the White House, whether they be
the prime minister of this wonderful country that we've been visiting. He's the God of thrones. He's
the God of dominions or principalities. You know what a principality
is, don't you? When the apple falls from the tree, we call
it the Newton's principle. Gravity, that's principalities. Everything you think that is
natural, Everything is of our God, is ruled by our Lord, God
Almighty. This people that I heard about,
they were seeking a sovereign savior, all powers, everything
was created by him. And then it says in the last
of that verse, it was created for him. We were created for
him. Exodus 22, seven. And it shall
come to pass when he crieth unto me that I will fear Yep, I did. They were looking for one that
was gracious and merciful. They were seeking a God who would
be gracious to them and merciful. In Exodus 22, seven, we read
this, and it shall come to pass when he crieth unto me that I
will hear for I am gracious. This is that one that we just
spoke of and saw how he is sovereign over all things in number 622
through 27. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, speak unto Aaron and unto his son saying on this wise,
he shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them, the
Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. In Psalms 86, 15 through
16, we read these, but thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion. Oh, how we need a God who is
full of compassion, graceful, gracious in all ways, merciful,
merciful to those who he loves. But thou, O Lord, art a God full
of compassion and gracious Long-suffering? Does that not sound wonderful
to one who spends the rest of his week or her week walking
through this valley of the shadow of death? Merciful, long-suffering,
plenteous in mercy and truth. Oh, turn unto me and have mercy
upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant
and save the son of thine handmaid. This people that I had heard
about, this people, this group of sinners, they were looking
to be, they had a great comforter, one that was a loving Savior,
one that cares for and provides all that is needed in redeeming
this people to God the Father. We read in Jeremiah 31.3, the
Lord hath appeared of old unto me. saying, yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. It'll never stop. Folks, God
Almighty gave his son for a people, a people, not the whole world,
a people. Do you grasp the grace of God
in making you one of those people? Do we grasp the grace of God
in making this one who is a sinner holy in his son, the Lord Jesus? Oh, what grace of God in loving
his people. Over in Ephesians chapter two,
therefore in loving kindness have I drawn thee, he says. And
over in Ephesians chapter two, I was speaking with Owen and
I asked him, I said, Owen, what's your favorite scripture? You've
obviously been reading scriptures for quite some time. What's your
favorite scripture? He said, Ephesians chapter eight and nine,
chapter two, eight and nine. I want to look at that with you
if you're there in the book of Ephesians, look with me if you
would, beginning at verse four, but God, We'll come back to verse
3 in just a moment. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us. He has loved his
people from before the world began. That's what we read a
moment ago. He's loved his people with an everlasting love. Therefore,
with loving kindness, he says, have I drawn thee. But God, who
is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us,
even when we were dead in sins. Now stop there for a moment,
because I want to go back to that last part of verse three.
Look where it says there, by nature, and we were by nature,
the children of wrath, even as others. This is a bona fide sinner's
way of looking at life. I'm a sinner just like everybody
else. Just because I show up on Sunday
doesn't make me holy. Just because I give to the church
doesn't make me holy. Just because I give to the poor
doesn't make me holy. Paul clearly states that even
the good that he does is tainted with the sin of the flesh. Who's
gonna save me from this body of death? Oh, how thankful I
am that there is a Savior. This is that Savior that we have
heard is preached to you every time you gather. Why? Because that's what we need,
isn't it? When you go through this world,
you go to your job, whatever it is, if you're retired, you
go out in the golf course or whatever. Do you not struggle with the
sin that's in your flesh? I tell you this morning, folks,
if you don't struggle as a sinner in the flesh, you need to get
on your knees and cry out for God to make you the sinner that
you are. Natural men don't see the depth
of our sin. Yet you and I, if we've been
called of God, do, don't we? Why do we gather as often as
we do and preach the one message of Christ? Because that's the
message that a sinner needs to hear. This is the message that
brothers and sisters come from. Even in rescue, people come three
hours, to hear the message. Ours aren't
quite that far. Some of ours come about two hours,
hour and a half or so on. But still the message is the
same, the reason is the same. We need a savior. We walk through this world wondering,
Lord, how can a person that you say is holy think such thoughts? I let that anger build up in
my heart if I'm a saved person. And then we realize through God's
word, through the preaching of his word, that that's what we
are, sinners saved by grace. From our scripture reading, that
Angus read for us there. Luke chapter eight, we read these
words. My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word
of God and do it. Look over at Ephesians chapter
one, verse 13. In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed. We believed. Turn over to 1 John
chapter five, if you would. 1 John chapter five. What is it that we hear? We hear
the gospel. We hear the good news that God
has provided himself a sacrifice for his people. We hear that
what we do in the flesh is not worthy of God to even be considered
for salvation, to even be thought of for that matter. But there
is one who has satisfied God's justice completely for us. What
is the justice of God? It's death. The soul that sinneth
shall surely die. There must be bloodshed. Over
in 1 John 5, we read in verse 1, whosoever believeth. My question
to you is this, what is it we hear? What is it we hear when
the Lord Jesus says, my brethren, my mother and my brethren are
these which hear the word. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God." That's what we hear. We hear
about Jesus Christ, the son of God who was crucified going on
in verse one, and everyone that loveth him, that begat loveth
him also that is begotten of him. I'm thankful that I'm here in
Australia. It's just a beautiful country,
but it doesn't beat this. That beautiful coastline you
have over there, that's nothing compared to meeting you folks. I feel like I've known you. Why? Because you worship the same
God I do. You walk through this world the
same way I do, putting down the best you can this flesh as best
we can. But knowing that we have an advocate
in heaven who says, I've paid that sin in full. The cost of that sin was death
and our Savior died for us. That's the good news. That's
the gospel. But this, verse two, we know
that if, that we love the children of God, when we love God and
keep his commandments, for this is the love of God, that we keep
his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. Now, I want
to stop there. Are they easy? If I asked for
a show of hands, I'll bet every one of them would say no. No, but they're not grievous. Every command our God has made
has been fulfilled by our substitute. There's no righteousness in this
one who stands before you, but in the soul, in the spirit, it's
as holy as God himself because of what his son has done. We'll
see that in a moment in our text. For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh
the world. Even our faith, who is he that
overcometh the world, but he that believeth, Jesus is the
son of God. This is my family. This is my
brethren. I remember when I went to see
Don Fortner's church for the first time. Don used to come
to rescue twice every year. And he was our key speaker for
every conference. And I said, Kathy, we got to
go to Danville. Kentucky, one of these times
you go up there and meet the folks because we keep hearing
about you. I keep, last year when Angus was in Tennessee with
me in Kingsport, all I heard about was the wonderful brothers
and sisters in Christ right here in Australia. So we go to Danville
and it was just like I had known everybody there. First thing
was, I get this elderly gentleman stop me at the gate. Hey, are
you here for the conference? Yes, I am. Come on this way,
follow me and I'll show you where everything's at. We get off the
plane and I see two smiling faces, just beaming. Here we are. Come on, we'll show you all the
ways around Australia and they have, what lovely folksy folks
have just given us your hearts. This is my family. This is my
brethren. You know what fellowship means? Fellers on the same ship. Some of you are shaking your
head, yep, I knew that. We're all on the same ship. We have
one thing in common, and that is there's a savior who has put
all of our sin away. Not just part, but every bit
of it. Fellows of the same ship, fellows
of the gospel, people of like spirit, the spirit of God. Now
turn, if you would, to that chapter there of Hebrews chapter three.
And I won't be much longer. I want to look at one verse. I'm going to read several. And
for the sake of time, if you'd like me to give you a list of
them afterwards, I'd be happy to. But just take your Bibles,
put them on your laps there and concentrate on the message. In Hebrews chapter three, we
read in verse one, wherefore, holy brethren, Brothers of one
mind, brethren who have no righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ.
Brothers whose only claim to holiness is the holiness of our
substitute, Christ Jesus the Lord. It says in 2 Corinthians
5.21, for He, God the Father, hath made Him, God the Son, to
be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be the made the righteousness of God in him." Brother Frank
Tate put an article, I believe it was in last week's bulletin. If you haven't read that, I highly,
highly recommend it. Brother Frank Tate, just a good
explanation. Actually, it's not an explanation
of all. It's actually a statement that says, it's a statement that
you can't explain. Quit trying to. Just believe
it. God, the Father, may God, the
Son, sin, period, that we would be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Ephesians 4, verses 5 through
6, there is one Lord. This is you and I. Brethren,
holy brethren, there's one Lord, there's one faith, there's one
baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through
all and in you all. There can't be another. There's
only one. There's only one true God. There's a whole bunch of false
ones, isn't there? whole bunch of gods who, people who think
they're gods. Every time we think that we can
do something above God's will, we're actually thinking that
we're gods ourselves. We're thinking more of ourselves
than we should. Everything we do should be Lord willing, Lord
willing. Romans 15, five through six,
now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded
one toward another, according to Christ Jesus, that ye may
be with one mind and one mouth. Glorify God. That's what we're
doing right now, getting together and glorifying our Savior. raising
him up above everything else, just like the brazen serpent.
I shared this with Angus the other day. If you take a round
ball like the earth and you fill it completely with water, cover
it so there's nothing above the water, and then you put an ark
on that water, what's the highest thing? The ark, the picture of
Christ, our Savior. Everything that was needed for
those eight folks in the ark, God provided for himself. One mind, one mouth. Glorify God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are of one mind of whom has
cleansed us from sin. Christ Jesus, the Lord. Hebrews
chapter one, verse three, who being 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. sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. In Hebrews 10, 14, for by one
offering, one offering is all it took from the one who is perfect
and righteous in every way. By one offering, he hath what? Perfected. Perfected. Perfected. Perfected. Not in anything you've done,
but by that one offering that He hath done, you are perfected. I tell those that I get the opportunity
to speak to, quit looking in the mirror. Quit looking in the
mirror for your righteousness that's not there. Look to Christ. That's the only
righteousness there is. He purged our sins, sat down
at the right hand of God, for by one offering he hath perfected
for ever them that are sanctified." We are of one mind in our calling. It says next in our text there,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. We know that
if Christ had not sought after us, we would have continued on
that path to destruction that we were on. I mentioned it a
moment ago. We're just like that blind man.
I don't know all there is to know about this Lord Jesus, but
I do know this, once I was blind, And as a child of God, you know
it as well. You look back and you say, I
know I was blind. When I was 40 years old, I knew
I was blind, running around in the world, thinking about John
Reeves, exercising the religion of John Reeves. And then the Lord woke me up,
gave me sight. And if you're a child of God,
he's done the same to you. You know the sin that's in you.
You know the sin that was in you then. You know the sin that's
in you now. We know that we are partakers
of a heavenly calling. We are one mind in our calling.
We know that if Christ had not sought after us, we would have
continued on that path to destruction. It says in 2 Timothy 1, or chapter
1, verse 7 through 8, 9 For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 10 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partakers of the
affliction of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose of grace, which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Brethren, consider,
it says next. Back in our text again, after
we see that we're partakers of a heavenly calling, it says consider.
That means to ponder. That's what we do when we come
together to worship our Lord. We ponder Him as our substitute. We ponder Him as the sovereign
God of all things. We ponder Him as our greatest
love of this world. I dearly love this lady who sits
before me and travels with me side by side. I dearly love her,
but my Lord is the one who is precious to my soul. Precious. I never understood that when
I first heard Don say that. How could he look at that beautiful
blonde woman sitting over there and tell her to her face, you're
second. You're second. Because Kathy
can't save me. Kathy can't lay down her life
and then make intercession for me as my high priest. We see
that next. Consider the apostle. The apostle
is the messenger with power. Those men who were the apostles
of God were sent out with power to prove who they were speaking
of. And we'll see that in the next
message, an example of that. But they were just men. The apostle, do you see that? The, the one apostle. The high priest. Consider this
one who death could not hold and is now sitting at the right
hand of the Father on high. Consider him, if you would, the
one of our profession, the one of our witnessing, the one of
our declarations, our faith. Owen told me yesterday, he said,
he said, or it was actually the day before the first time I met
him, He said, I just, I just can't
witness the way I used to. I can't remember the words. I assured Owen this, the way he lives. Now, don't
take that the wrong way. And he didn't. I'm not talking
about your actions in helping others. I'm talking about you
believing God. The way he lives, believing God
is the best witness you can have. Trying to pretend to have some
kind of righteousness of your own, all that does is make you
a holier than thou. My kids, neither one of them
have any desire for the Lord. They're all grown in their forties. They know where my faith is. They also know their dad's still
a sinner. Our profession is the one that
we believe. Our witnessing is the one we
believe. I believe God. He says he has
loved the people and that those people, all of them, all that
the father giveth me shall come to me. I believe. This is the profession of everyone
for whom he died. We are of one mind. We are holy
brethren in Christ Jesus, the Lord. Amen.