Good morning, everyone. Let's
stand and begin this service by singing 118. When I survey
the wondrous cross, 118. When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count
but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. ? Forbidden Lord that I should
boast ? ? Save in the death of Christ my God ? ? All the vain
things that charm me most ? ? I sacrifice them to His blood ? ? See from
his head, his hands, his feet ? ? Sorrow and love flow mingled
down ? ? Did e'er such love and sorrow meet ? ? O'er thorns composed
so rich a crown ? ? Were the whole realm of nature mine ?
? That were a present far too small ? ? Love so amazing, so
divine ? ? Demands my soul, my life, my all ? Thank you. You may be seated. I'm going to read from Psalm
23. Psalm 23. Before I forget, I just want
to say that just in case you don't know, this is Darwin Pruitt.
He's up here on a little vacation with his bride, Yvonne. And we're
happy to meet you, Yvonne, and have you both here. And so Brother
Darwin has agreed to come and preach the message to us today
on his mini vacation. So I appreciate it very much,
brother, and I'm looking forward to it. Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, we thank you for your grace and mercy given to us abundantly
in Christ. We thank you for your love for
us that chose us before the foundation of the world and gave us into
the care of our Savior who did everything for us and does all
things well. Lord, we can't thank you enough,
but Lord, we're so thankful to be here today, gathered together
as a people to worship and to praise our God. Lord, we're thankful
for the fellowship of friends, of brethren in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we are made fellow laborers together. And so thankful,
Lord, for being able to visit with one another, even as we
get to do this day. And Lord, we pray that you would
put your spirit upon Darwin, help him to preach the word by
the power of your spirit, that you would bless that word to
our hearts and minds, that we would see Christ, that we would
believe that which you've spoken to us. We would hear it and rejoice
in Christ always. And Lord, you know the things
which trouble our hearts and our minds and weigh on us heavily.
We think of our brother Scott. Lord, first, we thank you for
giving the doctors wisdom, for them finding the infection and
rooting it out. Lord, though the doctor doubts
in his 50-50 as to how it'll go, Lord, we ask, in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would stop the infection
here and now, that it would go no further, that you would limit
the removal of his foot to what it is now, and that you would
strengthen him, heal him, comfort him, Lord, make him more and
more well each day. and help him in his rehab and
to get out of there and get home as quickly as possible, Lord.
Strengthen his heart and mind. You know that he is sad and down
and just in a dark place, Lord, a tough place. He is thankful. He's said it many times, but
Lord, he wants to go home. Lord, we pray that you would
answer that prayer. We ask in Christ's name that
you would answer that prayer, Lord, and deliver him of it. And Lord, we know that you do
all things well, that you are sovereign over all things, and
everything you do is perfect and right. But we ask this in
Christ's name. And Lord, you know the hidden
thoughts of our hearts, the fears and worries and doubts and troubles
that we have. You know everything, even though
it's unspoken. Lord, we pray that you would
bless and comfort the hearts of your people this day. and
every day. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. As you remain sitting, let's
sing, There is a Fountain, 222. There is a fountain. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. As sinners plunge beneath the
flood, lose all their guilty stains, the dying thief rejoiced
to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more, be saved to sin no more, be saved
to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. ? There sits by faith I saw the
stream ? ? Thy flowing wounds supply ? ? Redeeming love has
been my theme ? ? And shall be till I die ? ? And shall be till
I die ? and shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my theme
and shall be till I die. When this poor, this spring-stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing thy parting song. Thank you. If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It's indeed a privilege
to be here among the saints of God this morning with some understanding, just a little. Here a little,
there a little. Isn't that what the scripture
says? We think, I look back on my past
and I think to myself how much the Lord has taught me. And then
when I look forward into the word of God, I realize how little
I really know. But it's a privilege to be here
among the saints of God with some understanding of how to
worship God with some realization of what that means to worship
God, the one true and living God. And there's thousands this
morning who are gathered together as we are, who are having someone
pray, someone reads the scriptures, someone leads the singing, perhaps
a testimony or two from the people that are gathered. And listening to a man talk to
him from the word of God, just as we are. Who don't have a clue
who God is or what it means to worship God. I was in their midst
for years, years from a small child. Thought I was worshiping
God. I was told I was worshiping God.
told that the Spirit of God was in that meeting. And they believe, as we do, that
they're worshiping God. They, as we do, believe that
they're saved. And they, as we do, believe they're
at peace with God. We don't hate God. We're not
at battle against God. We're not hostile toward God.
But the scriptures tell us that not everyone that sayeth, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom.
Not everybody. Everybody's saying it, but not
many, our Lord said, and not everyone that says it. but he that doeth the will of
the Father. There are some who will come
preaching another gospel, Paul said, and they'll come under
the guise of another spirit, with another message. And he said, you account them
as being accursed of God, because they are. They are. And it's not only a great privilege
to be among those called of God to be saints, but a great and
undeserved privilege to stand before you as an ambassador of
God. I've never gotten over that.
I never will. I never will. One in whom God has revealed
his son that I might preach him among the heathen. How do I know
they're heathen? Because that's where he found
me. That's how I know. Do you know that people quote
that scripture out of Hebrews all the time about God understanding
the thoughts and intents of your heart, but that's not what that
scripture says. That scripture says the Word of God. The Word
of God. How do I know what kind of a
sinner I am? This book tells me. Now you can
search your heart all you want to, but your heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. You're not gonna find
the truth in here. You're gonna find it in here.
In here. And I don't know if you've ever
thought about this, but perhaps you should. You have something
most unusual here. You have a free pulpit. A free pulpit. No organizational
committees dictating what you preach. But some do, don't they? The church I was in did. You
better not say anything out of line. They had men on the front
pew who'd set you down. There's no association to approve
or disapprove of how the church is governed. Christ is king,
he governs. He does it through his means
and his man. He'll do it. We have no rule
except that of Christ and such as he's revealed to us from the
word of God and established through the preaching of faithful pastors who have done this in the power
of God's spirit. My nephew said, well, how's somebody
like me? I wasn't raised in church. I
don't know a whole lot about things, just things that I've
heard from time. How am I going to know the difference? And I thought about it for a
minute and I said, you never will unless God intervenes and
shows you the truth. You never will. You'll just,
you'll look around like everybody does and you'll find something
that suits you. something sensual or something
more organized or something more refined, whatever it is, you'll
find it. You'll find it. You'll find a
man who's your cup of tea and you'll sit down and you'll listen
to him until you wake up in hell. God has to intervene. There's nothing I can do and
there's nothing you can do apart from God. This whole salvation
is of the Lord. I don't know in this life if
we'll ever come to the realization of that. Salvations of the Lord. What part of it? All of it. All
of it. We're not free to do anything
we want, but we're free to preach the glorious gospel of Christ. Do you know what kind of a privilege
that is? My soul, read Hebrews chapter
11. Read the end of it. These people gathered in the
catacombs. They lived in caves and dens
of the earth. They were outcasts. They were
killed. You were baptized in the public.
You were baptized unto death. You're marking yourself out for
martyrdom just being baptized. Do you know what a privilege
it is to have a pulpit that's free from that? It's a most unusual
thing, most unusual. And as a result of this freedom,
we're criticized for it, made light of it because of it, and
often ostracized. Well, we just won't talk to you
anymore. Met a fellow the other day, went
to our church for a while. I met him and he just dug his
nose up and walked right past. I just watched him go by. I just
wanted to say hello. I wasn't gonna wrestle him down
or anything. We're ostracized for it. Cut
off. Just cut off. And you cannot help but see in
the scriptures that this is the way it's always been. This is
nothing new. This is how it's always been.
What do people say? Well, you're too narrow-minded.
You're too narrow-minded. You just, there's no room in
there for for a good thought. You're just too narrow-minded.
You're too uncompromising, too dogmatic. You need to learn to
bend with the breeze, or change with the tide, or adapt to the
times. That's the new one I'm hearing
now. Adapt to the time. That was back in that day. This is this day. And I hear this all the time.
That's your opinion. Well, yeah, I guess it is. I
guess it is. That's your interpretation. I
guess it is. I guess it is. Why do you believe
something a handful of people believe and reject what the multitudes
approve of? You ever ask yourself that? Boy,
I did it at the first. I thought, whoa, I don't know
what I'm doing. Everything this man's telling
me is in this book. And it's actually making sense
to me. And everything, the multitude
where I was going is totally contrary to this and makes no
sense to me in the light of scripture. And my answer is this, that the
multitudes have always been wrong. That's what God showed me in
the scriptures. Where was the multitude when Noah was preaching? 120 years that man stood out
there, he was ostracized, laughed at, made the butt of jokes. They'd
gather out there when he was preaching just to watch him and
poke fun at him. Old man's crazy, it's never rained,
what's rained? What's rain? There's a mist that
comes up. It doesn't rain. What's he talking
about a flood? Nothing floods. They've always been wrong. Was
it not the multitude that danced naked around the golden calf
while Moses was up receiving the law of God? Was it not the
multitude whose carcasses fell in the wilderness because of
unbelief who refused to enter into the rest preached to them. The gospel, that's what Hebrews
4 said, the gospel was preached unto them, same as it was to
us. It was preached unto them in types. Moses didn't just do
stuff and let them do it and think whatever they wanted to.
He told them what it was. The gospel, but they wouldn't
enter into that rich. And where was the multitude at
the cross? Minority or not, I find it a
wonder of God's grace to have a heart and mind that understands
the free grace of God and has an appetite for the gospel. I
want to hear it. I enjoyed what he said this morning. It made me happy. It gave me
assurance. It gave me peace. Men hear it
and they just, I don't get that. I just don't get it. In Ephesians 4, we're exhorted
to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we're called. Well,
how do such sinners as we are walk worthy of anything? By faith. Without faith, it's impossible.
Please God. And in my text, which is 1 Corinthians
15 11, the Apostle Paul is talking about the gospel. He's talking
about their one hope before God. And these people are questioning
him about the resurrection. Well, the resurrection is the
crowning point to the whole work. He was delivered for our offenses. Yeah, but what's the result?
We're justified by his resurrection. Oh, they said there is no resurrection.
That's foolish talking. That's foolish talking. But here's
what Paul said, and this is the title of my message this morning.
So we preach, and so you believe. Ain't that how it works? Huh? Ain't that how it works? It's
not complicated, is it? So we preached, so you believe. Why are you gathering here? So
someone preached, and so you believe. That's why. That's why. Faith cometh by hearing, the
scripture said, hearing with spiritual ears, hearing with
spiritual hearts, hearing what others will never hear, Blessed
are your ears, not theirs. They were warned. They heard
the truth. They heard the same message they
heard. Blessed are your ears for they hear. They hear. Oh, my soul. Having what others will never
hear, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man. Not men, man. the things that
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
among us by spirit. How? For we have received not
the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things freely given to us of God. And this
is what we preach. That's what Paul said. How does
he reveal them? He reveals them through his man.
through the revelation of the Spirit and he joins that ministry
and he causes men to hear. It's amazing. It's amazing the
process that God has chosen and how he uses it. But the natural man The natural man, the man for
whom God has not intervened, that natural man, that man left
to himself, left to his own reasoning, left to his own ideas, left to
his own traditions, left to his ancestors, left to the testimony
of the multitude. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, none of them. He won't rest on
the testimony of scripture. He won't rest in the preaching
of the gospel. He won't rest in the power of
the Holy Spirit. He won't rest. None of the things
of the Spirit, he won't have them. He won't have them. Why? There's foolishness under him.
Foolishness. There's a revelation given to
the hearts of God's elect. He says in the scripture, they
shall be all taught of God. What's he teaching? Is he teaching
about tongues? Teaching about healing? What's
he teaching? What does God teach? He teach you how to act in school?
how to act on the job. What does God teach? They shall
all be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father, if God teaches him, what
does he do? He comes to Christ. Isn't that
what it says? How do I know if you're being
taught of God? Where are you going for salvation?
Huh? Where does that man tell you
to go for salvation? He points you to Christ. That
man's taught of God. He's taught of God. They're all
born of His Spirit. They all come to Christ. They
all bow to Christ. They all commit all things into
His hands. You see, the gospel's not anything
that anybody says about Jesus, and it's not everything that
everybody says about Jesus. The gospel is what God says about
Jesus. That's the gospel. What does
God say? We had a fella told Clay Curtis,
he was down preaching for us, and after the message, he came
up to Clay and he said, John Gill didn't teach that. And Clay said, well, I just told
you what God taught. I think we ought to take what
he said over what John Gill said, don't you? Let God be true and
every man a liar. The gospel's the testimony of
God. I see four things clearly defined
in the scripture, four things I can say are clearly defined
for me, and four things I can preach dogmatically without backing
up or without apology. There's four things. And the
first thing is the fall and total ruin of man. I don't have to
back up on that. He's ruined. He's depraved. He's
a sinner. He's ignorant. He's dead. In Romans 5 verse 12, it says,
by one man, sin. That representative man, that
old Adam, in him, that seed, after his kind is gonna come
along. That man, by him, sin entered into the world, and that
death, by that sin, passed upon all men. All men. How'd I know that? Because all
sinned. All of them sinned. thinking about this I'm in the
process of building a house like I need to build a house at my
age but we're in the process of building it and the folks
were talking about how to start where do you start and I said
well I can't start on that I have to take all that out everything
that you're seeing has to come out and then I can lay a foundation
When God lays a foundation in a believer, everything that's
there has to be taken out. He has to get rid of those old
traditions, get rid of those old ideas, get rid of that old
righteousness. All that stuff has to go. He's
not gonna come in on that old loose sandy topsoil and build
his house. He's gonna dig down till he finds
the rock, and then he's gonna lay his foundation. Paul said,
of the foundation can no man lay than that which is laid.
Christ Jesus the Lord. But he ain't gonna build that
on that junk. He ain't gonna do it. He's gonna take it all
out. It's all up in big piles. That's all around the crawl hole
that I'm getting ready to pour. It's all up in big piles. We'll
use it for something. We'll shove it over the hill,
grow grass on it or something, but we ain't build no house on
it. You know what it's called in
the building? I was a builder my whole life.
It's called overburden. That's what it is. And that's
all it is, isn't it? It's in the way. It's called
overburden. Everything concerning the sinner.
He has nothing of any value to build on. We have together, the
scripture said, become unprofitable. The Lord fills empty vessels.
Empty vessels. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. He fills empty vessels. And look
with me at Paul's definition of the gospel here in 1 Corinthians
15. I was talking to Joe earlier,
and I tell him, you know, you read through the scriptures,
and I guess it's what you've heard preached your whole life
or what somebody has said over and over, or maybe what many
preachers have said, and you don't even look any further than
that. You just read it, and boom, you go to the next thing, you
know, and there's nothing wrong with what was said, but you're
not getting the depth of what's being said. And I found that
here in 1 Corinthians in his definition of the gospel. He said, moreover, brethren,
verse one, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto
you, which also you have received and wherein you stand. By which
also ye are saved if ye keep in memory what I preached unto
you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto
you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Now, I preached
on this myself, and I've heard many men preach on this, and
they always relate this to the death of Christ, and I don't
have a problem with that. I'm not opposed to that one iota. That's exactly what this is saying.
He died for our sins according to the scriptures. But listen,
our sins according to the scriptures. Not my sins how I think I am. Not my sins how somebody said
I was. but my sins and his death for
my sin according to the scripture. Both the testimony of my sins
and the testimony of his death is based on this book. Based
on this book. He came into this world, he said,
to save sinners. And Paul said, of whom I'm chief.
And I think every believer would like to argue with me. They won't
say I'm the Jesus, don't they? Not sin as men define it, but
sin as God defines it. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. What is sin according to the
scriptures? He calls it death in Ephesians
chapter two. Death. You hath he quickened
who were dead. I lived in Ball, Louisiana years
ago. I built a parsonage there and
moved into it, and it was right beside the cemetery. It was 15
feet away from the cemetery. And somebody said, well, don't,
don't, aren't you scared to live here next to a cemetery? I said,
no, I'm scared of the living. I'm not scared of those. Those
are fine. Don't worry about them. But that's
what we are. We're dead. I didn't go out there
and preach to the tombstones. I gathered up in the church and
preached to the living. But they're dead. Aren't there? You, Ethel Quicken, who were
dead, you were dead in trespasses and sin. You walked according to the course
of this world, the broad road, following the multitude, being
deceived like others. walking in the vanity of your
minds, walking according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit, which now worketh in the children of disobedience.
You walked according to Satan's anti-Christ religion. You put
on their clothing, you learn to talk their talk and walk their
walk. Sin is a nature. We were by nature
children of wrath, even as others. You know that old publican, the
Lord said, here's a Pharisee and he comes in and boy, he looks
right up into heaven. He's worthy of God hearing him
and he just looks right up into heaven. I thank God I'm not like
him. Well, God didn't hear him, he
heard that one that he didn't want to be like. And he's right,
he wasn't nothing like him. He wasn't nothing like that.
That publican, he said, Lord have mercy on me, the sinner,
not a sinner, the sinner. We're sinners by nature, we're
sinners by choice, we're sinners by practice, we sin ignorantly
and we sin knowingly. And everything we do is tainted
with sin, and the reason Christ submitted himself to the cross
was to put away our sins. To put them away. Are you saying
man's helplessly lost, can't do anything right, has no potential,
has no value in his person? I guess I am, but more importantly,
that's what God's saying. That's what he says. I'm simply
trying to show you what God said. The scripture said Christ died
for our sins, the sins of those who believe, the sins of his
elect. He died for our sins. The good
shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. He died for them. It's our sins. He put away our
sins by his death. Man is such a vile creature that
to save him, God must use a representative man. He can't save him in himself. He's not worth saving. There's
no saving him. He's gone. He's dead. He's nothing. If God's gonna save him, he has
to save him through another. He has to save him through a
representative man. He can't obey the law. He can't
please God. He can't even believe without
God giving him the faith to believe. He can't do anything of himself.
God's gonna save sinners through a representative man. And all
through Romans 5, that's what he's telling us. In Adam all
die, in Christ shall all be made alive. How does he do that? Through two representative men.
In Adam all die, in Christ all be made alive. He saves us through Christ. He's
our righteousness. Surely you don't have a righteousness
apart from Christ. You'd have a hard time looking
yourself in the mirror and say, boy, I'm righteous. You can't
even look yourself in the mirror and say that, let alone tell
somebody else. I'm holy. You are? He said he chose us in Christ,
the Father did, that we might be holy. There's my holiness
in Christ. That's why He chose me. That
I might be without blame. Am I blameless? Not myself, but
I am in Christ. I can believe that in Christ.
Christ did no sin. He's blameless. If I'm in Him,
I'm blameless. If He represented me, I'm blameless. That's good news to a sinner. By the offense of one, the scripture
said judgment came upon all men to condemnation. Even so, by
the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to
justification of life. All those represented in Adam
fell under condemnation. All those represented in Christ
were freely justified by His grace. A representative man. Everything in the salvation of
a sinner must be given to him of God And because of sin's disability, is that where sin
leaves you? Disabled, isn't it? It must be
given to them by the grace of God. Everything has to be a gift. Every good and perfect gift,
gift, cometh down from the Father of life. Of his own will begat
he us through the truth. And because of sin's disability,
it must be given to him by grace, unmerited, undeserved. Are you
listening? Unwanted. And yet he gives it to him. He
gives it to him. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. It's of God that shall have mercy.
That's what the scripture says. And that's the testimony of God
concerning our sin. And then here's the second thing.
This gospel declares that Christ died for our sins. He did not
die to make salvation possible for the multitudes. His death
was not a universal death. His death was a particular death. It was a vicarious death. He
died in the place of another. His death, the way it's being
preached in this world as a universal death, is a total failure. His death bought nothing. Your
free will buys what his death couldn't pay for. Can you even
imagine God allowing his son to suffer like that, sending
him, watching him die on that cross under his wrath, pouring
it out, and then for nothing? Oh, for nothing? It's ridiculous. His death bought something. It
bought his people. It wasn't for sin in general,
not a down payment, not a good start. He died for our sin according
to the scriptures. Well, what do the scriptures
say about his death? They say it's sufficient. That's
enough. God said that's enough. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Boy,
that's what I want to know. I want to know, is God satisfied? Or if he's not, I'm gone. I have
no hope. God looked on his son and he
was satisfied. Satisfied. When he cried, it's finished,
it was finished. He wasn't crying for something
he hoped would come to pass. He was crying for something that
came to pass. It's finished. It's finished. What's that mean? That means
it's finished. That's what that means. Delivered for our offenses raised
again for our justification by his own blood the scripture said
he entered in once Into the holy place now listen having obtained
eternal redemption for us He obtained it. He's not trying
to get it. He's not trying to get you to
get it. He has it and He has it. When He ascended up to glory,
He obtained it. He has it. It's in His power. It's in His hands. He's distributing
what He obtained. He's not giving you something
He hopes He can get. He's giving you something that
He has. This is mine, but I'm giving
it to you. Huh? Oh, let that go home. It's His. He can withhold it
or give it. And right now, he's in glory,
seated at the right hand of God, expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. He's Lord of the dead and the
living. He's Lord of every creature. He's Lord of the universe. He
controls the planets. He controls the air, the environment,
the government. There is no power but that of
God. Huh? Or what's he got all this power
for? As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. It's
mine, he said, but I'm giving it to you freely, undeservedly,
mercifully, I'm giving it to you. Why are you giving it to
me, Lord? Because I love you. When did
that happen? I've always loved you. You know
why he says that? Because we got no comprehension
of eternity. I've always loved you. Oh, when he cried, it's finished,
it was finished. Sin was sufficiently put away. He put away our sins. Isn't that what the scripture
says? By the sacrifice of himself. Where'd he put them? Away. Where's
that? I don't know. Wherever it is,
God can't find them. Put them behind his back. Redemption is an accomplished
thing. It's a thing settled, not a thing
sought for. And the death of Christ is vicarious. It was done for another. He bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. He put away our sin by
the sacrifice of himself. This man, this man, that's what
the scripture said, this man, Christ Jesus, after he had offered
one sacrifice or sins forever, sat down. Where'd he sit? At the right
hand of an appeased God. What's he sitting down for? Because
he ain't worried. He's not worried. He's not frustrated.
He's not pacing the banister of heaven, wringing his hands,
wondering how everything's gonna come out. He's seated. He's expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. His death was sufficient. The
hymn writer said, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the
blood of Jesus. And then thirdly, this gospel
declares that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. Christ is my righteousness. Boy,
don't that give peace to your soul. We had a car wash one time when
I was in religion. And we were expecting, you know,
five or six cars from the church to come out and we're gonna raise
a little bit of money. We didn't know any better. We've
done that. I bet you we had 35 cars that
day. I've never seen so many cars.
They were bringing them. We washed cars for 10 hours. And we got
done, and we were all just seated. And my wife was over on the couch,
and her hair was all wet and hanging down. And we were all
so tired. And we were sitting in there,
and we were talking about being finished, being finished. The
work is finished. And Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. And my wife looked up and she
said, you mean we did all this for nothing? That's what I'm
trying to preach. All that stuff we spent a lot.
Did we do all that for nothing? We sure did. He's the end of
the law for righteousness. I'm righteous in Him. His name
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. You read a little
further along in Jeremiah and all of a sudden here it comes.
Her name, she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. I
wear His name. I married this lovely lady. She
wears my name. She wears my name. We wear His
name. Paul said, but now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. It was witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, his faithfulness unto all and
upon all them that believe. Not some are part, but all who
believe. A bawdy man that says there's
none righteous. No, not one. And yet the Lord
said, have you considered my servant Job? He's a righteous
man. What about Abraham? He believed
God, it was counted to him for righteousness. It wasn't written
for his sake alone. written for all of us that believe. We're made, the scripture said,
the righteousness of God in him. There is in this world the righteousness
of Christ by faith and self-righteousness. Those are the two righteousnesses. His and self. And you don't want self-righteousness.
That's what man claims by their obedience to God's law. And I
pray the Lord show us the difference. One is an abomination to God.
Those beautiful prayers they pray and hymns they sing. Some
of them people could be professional singers. I've heard them sing.
Their voices, it's an abomination to God. In Christ we're presented
to God holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. That's righteousness. Christ came into this world as
a representative man born of a woman made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the
adoption of children and all his obedience to God including
the crowning obedience of his willingness to go to the cross
constitutes our righteousness. That's my righteousness. And
then lastly, the gospel, according to the scriptures, declares the
absolute and sovereign reign of the resurrected Christ. He
must reign until he had put all enemies under his feet. You reckon
one's going to escape? I don't think so. He's gonna
reign in glory. He's gonna distribute what he
bought. He's gonna give everything that
by his merit he has obtained. He's gonna give it and nothing's
gonna stand in his way. How'd I know that? Because God
made him Lord. He said, all power, listen to
this. Here's these disciples, these
ignorant, aren't we ignorant? Whenever he talks about their
ignorance, boy, I'm right there in the middle. I get that. And he's looking at them and
he's about to step onto a cloud. You imagine all the, they saw
him walk in the stormy waves, they saw him so often perform
miracles, and now the angels are standing here, and he's getting
ready to step on a cloud and ascend up into glory. And he
told those disciples, he said, all power in heaven and earth
is given to me. What's that mean? That means
you can go preach the gospel. That's what that means. You can
go preach, and all of your disabilities, and all of your ignorance, and
all of your poverty, and all of your shortcomings, and this
little tiny band of people gonna turn the world upside down, because
all power's given to man. Now you go preach. You go preach. I don't wanna hear no whining.
Go preach. Why don't I have another coat?
You'll get a coat when the time comes. You go preach. I don't
know if they can support me. All powers given, don't you take
two coats. Don't you take a script. Don't
you take anything. I'm God. I'm seated next to my
father and all powers in my hand. You need bread, I'll give it
to you. You need clothes, I'll give it to you. You quit worrying
about it. You go do what I told you to do. Can we do that? Oh, my soul. I don't know why
not. Do you? What could possibly stand
in your way? Henry gave us 10 things. He said,
before you stand up to preach, he said, just go over these 10
things. But I love this last one. He said, expect men to believe. Why shouldn't I? He gave me faith, my soul,
if he can make me believe. Why should I doubt? Why should
I doubt? If I do any doubting, I ought
to doubt that anybody's gonna leave without believing. My soul,
what else could you want other than what he's given? He's given
himself. He's given you all things. The
world's yours. You'll hear quabbling around
about who you heard when you was born again. My soul, he said
the world's yours. You realize that God made a whole
species of angels for no other reason than to minister to those
who shall be heirs of salvation. Your angels do always stand before
my Father. Sometimes I think we don't have
a clue. I saw. Think about it, think about it.
We fear the least little thing. Don't fear anything. He's doing
his will right now. His sovereign will. If he takes
me home, that's his sovereign will. Rejoice. Rejoice. If he
leaves me here, rejoice. He left me here for a reason.
Can we do that? Oh, I hope this has been an encouragement
to you. That's what I meant it for. I
didn't mean this to be anything else. I just want to encourage
this little group, and I want you to see these things and be
at peace and have so much assurance. Thank you, brother. It was an
encouragement. It is an encouragement. Thank
you very much. Well, we're gonna, I'm gonna
pray, and then we're gonna take the Lord's Supper together, and
then Brother Joe will come up and lead us in a hymn, and we'll
be dismissed for a nice lunch that everyone's prepared. All right, so let's pray. Our
gracious Lord, we thank you for your grace, We thank You, Lord,
for feeding us with Your Word, encouraging us in our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Again and again, Lord, we thank
You. And praise Your name for it. Lord, help us, indeed, to hear
and to rejoice in what You've done for us in Christ. How that
You died for our sins according to the Scriptures. what our sins
really are. Lord, we don't even know the
half of it, but we thank you that you took care of it all,
and removing it, purging us of the stain of sin, bearing that
load in yourself. Lord, thank you. Thank you for
finishing the work completely, because we can't do anything.
Lord, we ask that you would bless this
congregation, that you would help us in this dark part of
the world, that you would send up the light of your gospel from
this pulpit each and every time we gather together, that you
would call out your people from darkness, helping us, making
us to hear it and to believe it, to receive it by faith, and
to go in that strength and power of your Son. And Lord, I also
Remember Brother Ron, Lord, as he's gone through treatments
as well for cancer, Lord, bless him. Deliver him, heal his body
of the cancer. Remove it entirely and completely,
Lord. Strengthen him. Strengthen all
your people, Lord, with whatever ailments and things we have,
as our brother just preached. If we remain here, it's for a
purpose. If you take us home, Lord, it's for a purpose. We
ask that as long as we're here, we would indeed labor gladly,
not for salvation, but because we have been blessed by you and
strengthened by you and have a heart to serve your people
and your kingdom. And Lord, we pray that you would
bless this time of fellowship now. Help us, Lord, to look to
our Lord and to remember him and what he did in laying down
his life and shedding his blood for our sins, to put him away
forever. We ask this in Christ's name,
amen. All right, I'm gonna ask Brother
Joe to hand out the wine and the bread. I'm gonna be reading
from Mark chapter 14. What we'll do is I'll read it
all and then I'll sit down and when I sit down, we'll take the
bread and the wine together and then Brother Joe will just come
up Okay. All right, so from Mark
14, I'd like to begin in verse 27, where our Lord tells us that
he said unto his disciples, all ye shall be offended because
of me this night. For it is written, I will smite
the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. But after that
I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee. We see in that how that It's
not because we're righteous in ourselves, not because we did
anything to earn or merit this salvation. Christ did, he obtained
our eternal redemption all by himself and that willingly, that
willingly he did gladly for his brethren to put away our sins
forever. Now he says in verse 22, and
as they did eat, Jesus took bread and blessed and break it. and
gave to them and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he
took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them,
and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, this is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Verily
I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine
until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And
when they had sung and hymned, They went out into the Mount
of Olives. So I'm gonna take a seat and
then we'll, when we take this bread and wine, we remember our
Lord. Thank Him for what He's done. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. 488. I will sing of my Redeemer. 488. I'm sorry. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His wondrous love to me. On the cruel, woeful cross He
suffered, from the curse to set me free. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. I will tell the wondrous story,
How I lost the state to save. In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt, and made me free. I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I'll tell, How the victory He giveth over
sin and death and hell. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me, On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the dead and made me free. I will sing of my Redeemer and
His heavenly love to me. He from death to life hath brought
me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, O sing of my Redeemer,
with His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon,
paid the debt and made me free. Thank you so much.