All right, take your, uh, both
of them will sing this, uh, hymn that's in the back. It's, uh,
what though I cannot break my chain, I know that's the wrong
one. I got the, oh boy. You got the wrong one. A debtor to mercy. Let's stand
and sing this. A debtor to mercy alone of covenant
mercy I sing. Here with thy righteousness on
my person and offering to bring. The terrors of law and of God
with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience and blood
hide all my transgressions from You. The work which His goodness
began, the arm of His strength will complete. His promise is
yea and amen and never was forfeited yet. Things future, nor things
that are now, nor all things below or above, can make him
his purpose forego, or sever my soul from his love. My name from the palms of His
hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed by His heart, it remains
in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure,
as sure as the earnest is given. more happy but not more secure,
the glorified spirit's in heaven. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Fix my heart and eyes on thine. What are other objects worth
but to see thy glory shine? is a heavenly gun on earth. Trifles can no longer move. Oh, I tread on all beside when
I feel my Savior's love. And remember how he died. Quiet, Lord, my trembling heart. Make me teachable and mild, upright,
simple, free from self. Make me as a little child from
distrust and envy free. Pleased with all that pleases
thee, what thou shalt today provide, let me as a child receive. ? What tomorrow may be tied ? ?
Calmly to thy wisdom lead ? ? Tis enough that thou wilt care ?
? Why should I the burden bear ? As a little child relies on a
care beyond his own, let me thus with thee abide as a father,
guard, and guide. Jesus Christ, my all in all,
I have nothing more to say but to listen to His voice and my
will in thine truths. Thus, whatever may be tied, I
shall safe and happy be, still content and satisfied. Having all is having thee. Having all is having thee. Having all is having thee. I'm so thankful this year. I
think this first year we've had like more people that can sing
and play and praise God through song than we've ever had before. Our talent extends to just Cheryl.
That's all we've got. She's the best of us. Yes, we're very glad. We're very
glad, Cheryl. So we're very thankful still,
even though we had all this music. Cheryl, we're still thankful
that you're still with us. But it's been a great privilege.
And Kevin, come preach Christ to us. I want to thank you all for having
us again and treating us so well. Being so good to us, my family
and I thank you. And putting on so much good food,
and fellowship, and music. Go without that for a while,
and you'll really appreciate it when you have it. If you would,
begin turning to Hosea 2. I did have just a housekeeping
question. Dave, what was the title of your message? Butt God? The title of my message is Butt
God Part 2. I thought I was just copying,
not copying, but it's exactly the same as David's message yesterday,
and I told him that this morning. And we talked, and it's the same.
It's the gospel's the gospel. And the Lord just tells us over,
and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Because
we need to hear it over, and over, and over again. That's
what we need to hear. It ain't what I'm going to preach.
I'm going to preach a what, or preach a who. But what text am
I going to have? That's it. We're looking for
something other than Him, we're looking amiss. We'll find nothing. Hosea chapter two, David had
mentioned too on that effectual call, the best illustration and
one of the shortest sermons I've ever could think of was that
general call. Whenever Christ was baptized
and He'd come up out of that water, the heavens opened and
the Father spoke from above and He said, this is my Son in whom
I am well pleased. Good message. He preached it.
That was a general call. Everybody there heard, how are
you going to make God happy? Because you've made Him mad.
It's going to be in His Son. And then there was an effectual
call. A little bit longer message. On that Mount of Transfiguration,
Peter said, boy, this is a great support. We'll build a monument
for you and one for the prophets and one for the law. And while
he was at spake, the heavens opened. The Father spoke again.
He said, this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. There's a command with it. There's
a command with it. We just saw wonderfully how we see what the Lord's doing
for us. And we experience these things.
It's not just something we agree with. This is our life. This
is early in the morning, late at night, whatever it is, the
Lord's dealing with His people. You want to see it from the other
end? I think you'll enjoy this. Hosea chapter 2. We remember
the story of Hosea, right? Hosea was God's prophet, and
the Lord came to him. There was some rules about this.
He had to marry of a certain tribe and whatnot. The Lord said,
you go down and take you a wife of whoredoms. You go marry a
harlot. Huh? Can you imagine now if the
Lord had a preacher that was single, a pastor somewhere? And
he said, well, I'm going down to Red Light District. I'm going
to find me a wife. People said, what are you doing? No. And then he gets her and they
have some children. You remember that. Time goes on. Well, she
leaves. She leaves. And he goes to the
church and says, hey, I'm gonna have to have a raise. I'm gonna
have to buy her oil and wine and corn and take care of her.
No, we ain't sending our money. Happened. And then God made a promise.
He told him in the beginning, the whole reason, I'm giving
the bottom line up front, the whole reason the Lord had Hosea,
marry Gomer, and allow Gomer to go off and just ruin herself,
because she wasn't worth a nickel. And then for him to go buy her
back. He said, I'm going to do this because the land's created great
hoarding against me. That dirt I call Israel, they've
done this to me. And I'm going to show them what
I'm going to do for you. That's what the Lord said, I
gave nations for you, Egypt and Sabaoth. He gave Gomer over to
this. And her life saved her. But he
gave her over to this and gave Hosea over to this and those
brethren in that time that Hosea was preaching to, they had to
go through this for you and for me. Here in Hosea 2 verse 14,
it says, therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into
the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. I thought of so many
scriptures that just show the grace of the Lord being irresistible. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple, for it they
will dwell. There in John 6, no man can come to me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day, as it is written in the prophets. They
shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard, hath learned of the Father cometh. shall be taught of God. The Lord hath appeared unto me
of old, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Ephesians 1. But God, who is rich in mercy for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you
saved. You made one. Made, made one with it. That's grace, that's irresistible.
That's life being given. That's God doing it, he's giving
life. James said, of his own will, because he wanted to. He begat us, begat he us in the
word of truth in Christ, that we should be a kind of first
fruits of his creatures. I never want to just agree. at the grace of the holy, sovereign,
almighty God elected of people. I don't want to just agree that
the Lord was pleased to send his son to come here and take
on our form and to live for us and die for us on that cross
in the sin. I don't want to just agree that he sends his spirit
to me and to you through the preaching of the gospel, no other
means could he, he didn't do anything he wanted to do. He
said so, that's what he's gonna do. Through the preaching of the
gospel, send preachers out And to make us here, I don't want
to just agree with that. And I don't want to just agree
that in the end, he will keep his people forever. That irresistible
grace. I don't want to just Yes, that's
a part of it. I want to keep believe only that
total depravity is true. I have to be totally depraved.
I want to experience I want to find that grace irresistible. And I want you to I want every
man, woman and child on this earth to they ought to. It's
there. He's worthy to be thanked and
be found irresistible. Hosea 2.14, therefore, behold,
I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak
comfortably unto her, speak to her heart. That's what I need. I need to
hear from the Lord. I need Him to allure me and it
be His will for me to be His. It says, therefore,
I was taught from a very young age. But what's it there for? Who's this her? That's Gomer,
isn't it? She went back to her old ways.
Look here in chapter two, verse two. It says, plead, this is
the Lord speaking. Plead with your mother. For she
is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let her therefore put
away her whoredoms out of her sight and her adulteries from
between her breasts. Why was that prophet married
to this woman anyway? I touched on it a little bit.
Look here in chapter one, verse two. In the beginning of the word, of
the Lord by Hosea, and the Lord said unto Hosea, Go, take unto
thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, for the
land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord. Gomer
was given to Hosea to show us our need of that kinsman redeemer. That's us. Well, and I wouldn't
do what Gomer did. The Lord ain't dealt with you
yet. He showed you what you're capable of. The Lord takes the worst things.
I want to read that paragraph. I had a man who was a plumber. And friends of mine was working
on job site and doesn't make fun of me because of the brand
of tools I use. I swim cheap ones. I said, Well, as soon as
these cheap ones break, I'll buy them real fancy. That's how long
you had those. I said about nine years. They broke it. And a plumber turned, he had
the same brand of tools I had. And he said, you see that? He
goes, it ain't the tool that matters. It's the hand of the
master that uses it. And I said, buddy, you don't
even know what you're talking about. I said, that's exactly right.
And he is. The Lord didn't choose his people
because we're so fair and so wonderful and all that. He chooses
us because we're his heathens and nothing. And he'll make us
like his son, all to the praise of his glory and his grace. That's
why. If we think we're something,
we're wrong. If we say we have a sin, we're lying. We don't
even know it. We're gomers. That's us. Look here in chapter
2, verse 5. For their mother hath played
the harlot. She hath conceived them of done samefully. For she
said, I will go after my lovers that give me my bread, and my
water, and my wool, and my flax, mine oil, and my drink is all
hers. She was dead exactly like Lazarus
was. Happened to be walking around.
That was a great curse she had in physical life to her. And
thinking, everything's OK. Thinking, everything's OK. Just
walking through life. We're fine. We're doing what's
right. Look at all this stuff I got.
Everything's, we're fired on all cylinders. I thought, too,
going to that city, we say, well, we'll go do this, if the Lord
will. I keep chickens, well, and I say they're my chickens,
just like Yoma did. They're the Lord's chickens,
I'm just watching them. Therefore, behold, the Lord's
still speaking. She thinks everything's okay,
she's all willfully, willfully doing what she's wanting to do.
Verse six, therefore, behold, I will, take it to the bank,
hedge up thy way with big fluffy pillows and good paychecks short
drive to wherever you're going. No with phones. Oh, you ever
had a thorn? All had a thorn. I'm so glad
we don't know what that was. And I think this great apostle
that labored more than them all was used moderately of God. He
begged three times he begged in perfection to get that thing
out of here. And what's it not my grace sufficient, leave it
right where it is. He hedged his way up with whatever phone
that was you got phone I've got thorns. I will hedge up thy way
with thorns and make a wall. Not a smooth, flat, easy pasture
to walk through. A wall. I'm gonna put a wall
right in front of you. You can't go that way. That she shall not find
her paths. That's her path. Her way. There's
a way. All thought scripture talks about
that. Laban went his way. Judas went his way. Man has a
way that he thinks is right, but at the end there's death.
That's all it is. She's going her way. Well, God got in her
way. And he said, I'm the way and
I'll build every wall and put every thorn bush and I'll head
you about and just surround you. We were at war with God thinking
we had him licked. Turns out we is completely surrounded. Want to submit. There's there's
conditions of this surrender. What's the Lord want to do? in this irresistible calling,
in this drawing. Well, one of the things he's
going to do, he's going to put life there first, as David told us. The dead man can't hear, can't
see. There's going to be life. And then he's going to make those
ears hear, make those eyes see him, behold him. And when we
behold him, well, now I really start beholding me. That's the
first time ever. I did some bad things. I did
some wrong things. Well, it's not just a sin so
bad. It's who it's against. I was sitting against Him. And
then I get darker and darker and darker and He gets brighter
and brighter. I must decrease. He must increase, right? That's
what's going to happen. Look at verse 10. And now will
I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none
shall deliver her out of my hand. He's going to get her right where
she is. God's going to meet her where
she is and uncover what she is. And ain't nobody going to get
her out of His hand. That's a good promise that he's
saying I will, I will. He's going to take all those
idols that she had all that religions that she had. And if all those
things are gone, he's going to take self and make it to stink. And you don't want nothing to
do with it's your proposal. Thankfully, he says none shall
deliver her out of mind. You read those things and said
books shall separate us from the love of God. And I love it,
it says, neither life nor death. Life won't get in the way. Ain't
that something? Well, you know, what if something
happened? That'd just be a wall and a thorn in the head. That's
all right. We ain't gonna get out of his hand. The Lord had
Hosea marry this woman, this harlot, just to show his salvation
of his people to us harlots. Verse 11. I will also cause all her mirth
to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths, all
her solemn feasts. I will destroy her vines and
her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that
my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest,
and a beast of the field is going to eat them. I will visit upon
her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them."
She's going to remember these things. I remember the things I did.
Born, I don't know what it's like to grow up in false religion.
The Lord, I guess I was just so stubborn. He gave me believing
parents and had me under the truth since I was born. Maybe
to help these children as they grow up. It's been the truth
since they were born. But I was right. That's what that said.
I could logically deduce that this is true. And boy, I wielded
that gun and would shoot anybody that come. I'd take all comers.
Let's set off these scriptures. I'm going to be right. And one
day, the Lord showed me He was the one that was right, not me. He, it's a person, not a series
of theological dissertations, points. A person was. He destroyed all those things.
And I saw, I was just, it was ignorant. Oh, Lord, forgive me.
That was foolishness. There's a bad taste in my mouth.
There's a bad taste in my mouth. Imagine what it was that he is.
And he was faithful the whole time, no matter what. He said,
because I will. I will, but God. He said, I'll destroy those things,
I'll visit her, verse 13, visit upon her the days of Balaam,
wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself
with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers
and forgot me, saith the Lord. He's speaking to us, we're the
lewd ones, we're the ones that forget. Ones that drink iniquity,
that's our good deeds. You know that? All the good things
I did for God, we drink it like water. Look at me. Therefore,
because the bride of Christ cannot come to him, will not come to
him, is in direct rebellion and drunk on self-worship, because
of that, therefore, he speaks a language we can understand.
There in Isaiah 1, it says, come now, let us reason together.
You ain't reasoning with God. No, we're not going to debate
and sort out some terms here that's going to work for both
of us. No, he just speaks in a language we can understand.
Sit down, we're going to talk about this. Let me talk to you a minute.
He's going to do the talking, by the way. And you talk about
an effective teacher. When the Lord teaches a lesson,
the student gets it. I can't do that. You educate
me. How in the world do you teach
somebody to read? We're very glad our children didn't learn
to read from me, they wouldn't read. Where'd he start? When the Lord
teaches a lesson, whether that's obedience to Him, gives these
gifts of grace and meekness or whatever it is, it's gonna get
done. It's gonna be perfect. Paul said, moreover, the law
entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. This is a bad situation for Gomer.
Well, we're in bad situations too. That sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto, how
far? Unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. The Lord's gonna save his people.
He's gonna save them. He says, therefore behold, I
will allure her. I will draw her. She cannot come,
she will not come. But since Gomer's a picture of
my people, I'm going to hedge her about and I'm just going
to sweetly just draw her. She's going to have no other
choice. She's going to be pushed in one direction and have no
other choice. And that's God's doing. Putting her right where he wants
you to be. God and only God is going to open the ears of his
people, open the eyes of his people, open the hearts of his
people. It's just stony and cold. That's when he puts that seed
alive. He planted some beans lately,
so it's been on my mind. When the Lord comes and puts
a seed in and then that word comes and waters it and there's
growth, there's life there. First thing he's gonna do is
till that ground. He's gonna bust it up and break it. He said,
a new heart also will I give you. And a new spirit will I
put within you, and I will take away the stony heart of your
flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall
keep my judgments and do them. The Lord said that, he said,
I'm gonna raise up my people, he said, and I'm gonna walk in them. I don't know
what to do. I can't do nothing. The Lord
said, I'll do it. Yes, Lord, amen. Where is this
going to take place? It says, Behold, therefore, behold,
I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness. She's already
in that wilderness, in this world of desires and things, right?
That's implied here, the desert. And I can agree with that, but
the Lord gets us alone. And he gets us in a dry and thirsty
place. And he makes us dry and thirsty. This word literally here means
pasture. See, I'm going to take her out. It says wilderness,
but it means pasture. I'm going to take her out to pasture. And
I thought, Psalm 23. He maketh me. Irresistibly makes
me. To lie down in green pastures.
He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He liveth me in passive righteousness.
Why would the Lord do that? You just read it. I ain't saying
nothing, man. He said, for my name's sake. I'm thankful the Lord saved me.
But something more important than me getting the benefit of
that is it's for His namesake. It's for His glory. He did it. We're a trophy of His grace.
He's the victor, the one that got the trophy. That's what it
is. To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved. That's
what it's gonna do to us. Behold, I will allure her and
bring her, I'll carry her into the wilderness and I'm gonna
speak Comfortably unto her, speak to her heart. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people,
saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. I can't do that. I can't speak
to somebody. I've said it before. If I could
put the spirit in somebody, I'd just get a funnel and put it
in. I'd just pour it in there. People
say they believe in, oh, if you baptize somebody, that saves
them from, you don't believe that. If you did, you'd get your
fire truck and ride down the street and just spray everybody.
You would. You'd get your water hose and
go out in your driveway and get your neighbor. I can't do that. I can't save
nobody. But he tells me what to say to comfort the heart.
Cry unto her. Cry. Your warfare's over. The
war's over. Your iniquity, it's pardoned.
It just ain't shooting at you no more. Everything bad's gone.
far as the East is from the West, and you've received the Lord's
hand double for all your sin, double. What does that mean,
like, we owed $100 and he gave us $200? No, no, the water and
the blood from thy wounded side which flowed. Be of sin the double
cure, save from wrath, and make me pure. You're made like the
Son of God, conformed to His image. Well, that ain't something. This ain't just y'all jail-free
court. We'll be made to be like Christ. What's heaven like? I don't know, but he's there. What am I going to look like?
I don't know, but I'm going to look like him. We're going to smell
like him, too. Did you know that? It's going to smell good. Fragrances
sometimes get me in different cleaning products. And we went
through a bunch of poor cameras. It just has a time deal with
me. But whatever he smells like,
he's going to smell good. I'm going to love it. All flesh is grass. Behold your
God. And that's not just facts. This took place and it was because
of love. This isn't just some story or
something. This is for love's sake. Verse 15, And I will give
her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor, for
a door of hope, and she shall sing there. She's going to be
happy about it. As in the days of her youth, as in the day when
she came up out of the land of Egypt, And it shall be at that
day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt
call me no more Belial. I look those things up. This
is gorgeous. You'll love it. You're going to call me husband,
beloved, and no more master. No more master. It's the heart that comes from
that says it. But that's when the Lord went around. He said,
one of y'all is going to betray me. And then he had the Lord's table
with all of them, didn't he? That ought to teach us something.
But they went around every one of them and they said, Lord,
is it I? Lord, is it I? It's got to be me. Lord, is it
I? And Judah said, Master, is it I? And he says, you just said
it. You just said it. Before, well, he's on his throne,
and there's some unbending, stoic thing. Why even resist him? God just does everything he wants.
But that's going to change. I agreed with a master, an austere
man. You just got to take medicine.
That's what he gave you. He's sovereign. And then one
day, I'll quit calling him master, and he made me call him husband.
That's for love's sake. What's the difference? Love.
Love? I didn't love him. But guess
what? He loved me before that. The
foreknowledge of God. That can be the foreloving. To
know is to love. The foreloving of God. God loved
you for everlasting love. We only know what everlasting
is. And the only way we can know what true love is, is looking
in. And what's that? What's that picture here? Well,
she's bought for some silver when she's worth nothing. Christ
was sold for some silver. Betrayed for some silver. That
cost his blood. That cost his life for him to
come down here. And how long must I suffer thee? And that was out of love, too,
wasn't it? Be on this earth to die for his people and to live
for them and reign for them. For I will take away, verse 17,
I will take away the names of Balaam out of her mouth and they
shall no more be remembered by their name. And in that day I
will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field
and with the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground
and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out
of the earth and will make them to lie down safely. I will betroth
thee unto me forever. I will betroth thee unto me in
righteousness. He says, I'm going to marry you to me in righteousness. Everything that happened in this
wedding for this, well, that's illegal for Hosea to marry God.
It was right. It was. I don't understand how. You don't have to understand
how. It's in righteousness. It's holy. And in judgment. You're married to me in judgment.
That was at that cross, when he suffered our judgment. We
was married to him. It counts. Go get my checkbook. I can write the check, or she
can write the check. It says or because we're one. My dad
wrote, wrote a check one time for his business. And the bank
called mom and said, Hey, there's a check forged. She said, Really? What was it? She told her what
it was. She saw No, Paul bought a backup. She said, No, that's
not his signature. That's back in the old days when
I used to look at it. And she goes, Oh, no, honey, I sign all
the checks. He just happened to sign. He's about to be a fraud
and using his own name. and judgment, and in loving kindness
and in mercy, I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness. I'll make you faithful. Can't leave. Well, how could
he do something like that? You're hedged about, he just
told you. He said, I'll keep you. And thou shalt know the
Lord. How will this alluring take place?
Look over in Hosea, because I said this was about us, right? About
Israel. Hosea 11, verse 3. It said, I taught Ephraim also to
go taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed
them. I drew them with the cords of a man and with bands of love,
and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws,
and I laid meat And all their afflictions, all these thorns,
all these hedges and patterns. And all their affliction. In
Isaiah 63 it says, He was afflicted. And the angel of His presence
saved them. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them. He
bared them and carried them all the days of old. He'll carry
us to our gray hairs until then. I may die tomorrow. You may die
tomorrow. Or I may live another Probably
not 60 years. How many live another keeps getting
shorter? 40 years. He'll carry me. He'll carry me. The rebellious
harlot. Now who gets the glory in that? The harlot? I don't think so.
How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
And how shall they believe in him whom they've not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except
they be sent? As it was written, how beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring good tidings,
tidings of good things. I follow that providence of the
Lord sending his preachers to tell people these things, to
tell them what he said, to tell them what he will do. And I was a
little bitty kid. I was about four, I guess. Don
Fortner, I keep telling stories about myself in this video. Don
Fortner came over to stay with us at a conference there down
in Pockville. And I was a little bitty. And all the adults were
down there talking about stuff and things and fellowship and
business. And I low crawled. Underneath that table, nobody
saw me. I was real sneaky. And Don had his shoes off. Because
I kept hearing this, how beautiful the feet of them that preach
to God. I said, well, that guy's preaching. And I said, I'm going to see
what his feet look like. And I got underneath there, and I
thought, well, them feet look just the same as anybody else's
feet. They're just people feet. Ain't nothing wrong with them
things. I said, disappointed. 20 years later, God taught me. That's my reason. That's our
reason. It's foolishness. It's silly. God taught me. That was
his providence the whole time. That's the feet, your feet brought
you in, God brought you in here. That's the foundation that he
stood on. Christ and him crucified. Dependence toward God and faith
in Jesus Christ. That was the foundation that
he stood on. That's what's beautiful in a man's feet. That's what
the Lord's done to us. Do we deserve it? No, no. Does
he deserve to be glorified because of it? Yes, absolutely. And so
what are we to do? He said in Hosea 2.2, plead with
your mother. Plead to people. Don't beat them to death. You
can take a horse to water, and you can't make it drink. But
buddy, you can drown one. Just plead with them. That's for your
sakes. Witness to tell them, this is
what happened to me. The Lord broke my leg to bring me to Kentucky
to meet her. And I'm thankful. But I don't
want my leg broke again. Quit hurting yourself and turn
to Him. Believe Him and love Him. I pray that He loved you
first. And if He did, you'll love Him. Amen. Thank y'all for everything. Appreciate you. We'll be with you. One thing comforting about
divine effectual calling is the church is always full. Name one time the church knocked
over. I think there's 26 times in that
one chapter he says, I will. Oh, probably over that. I just
glanced through. Who's doing this? Is this word effectual to you this
morning? Anything? Who's doing it? Who does it? You enjoy the messages? Who does
that? Throws your heart? Who does that? I will. He didn't will. None of it would
take place. Not a thing. What are you going to do in heaven?
What are you going to do? You're going to praise the glory
of His greatness. And that's it. I remember Andrew,
a young kid, he said, man, that's going to be boring. I said, well, if I had the flesh,
it would be. That's going to be gone. Ain't nothing going
to separate me from Him, see Him in the fullness of His beauty
and the glory of His grace, constantly, ever praising His name. Because
he said, I will. I'm going to take that a whore. I'm going to make her queen. He did. Sure. Anybody identify with Goldman? You know what her name means? Waste. Is that you? You waste. Valley they called for a door
of hope. Awakened. Did never know that he was going
to be a picture of Christ. And he was. Stole that silver and
God killed him in the middle of the desert. So it is, we'll
have victory. God took our sin of stealing
the silver. God's glory. Killed Christ in
our stand and we have the victory. That's your inheritance. Man, you just go on and on and
on. That one chapter, can't you? I don't see any end to that glory
story. Glory is just... We'll have some food when we
go get it. Audrey, you going already? Okay, she's going to
get the chicken. So, it wouldn't be a Baptist church without chicken.
But I love it. We'll stand and be dismissed
in prayer, give thanks and glory to God for the messages we heard,
and we'll eat together in fellowship some more. Come and thank these
men for the labor that they put in these messages. They don't
just happen. We like it that way. I like to just stand up here
blank and all of a sudden it just happens. That's what my
kids thought, that I just sat in the office, twiddled my thumbs,
and somehow a message came out. Well, you don't do nothing. You
just sit at that church all day. But that's not how it goes. Come
by and thank these men and praise God for them. Man, I believe
we live in such a time. My life, my lifetime, I have
heard, I believe, the greatest preachers for centuries, over
the centuries, I've read great preachers before. But I think
we've had the plainest preachers. And I mean that most simplistic
preacher. I think that's the best preacher. Because when a kid can hear it
and understand it, I think that's the best kind of preacher. And
Spurgeon's great. I think he's great. I still think
we had some of the better preachers in our generation. Because it's
simple. and give God glory. We'll stand,
be dismissed, and pray. Our most gracious Father in heaven,
we bow. We lay prostrate before you in
our hearts and minds. desire with all our souls to
be praised, honored, and gloried and blessed by thy name. Because of thy great salvation
that Jesus Christ, our Savior, has finished. We give praise because your spirit
is moving. Your spirit will descend upon
the hearts of your people At the appointed time, they will
believe, and none shall fail to come to Christ. None shall fail to persevere
in faith, all because you will. We thank you for your will. We
pray, Father, that not our will be done for thine, which is the
salvation of thy land. and all the glory and praise
belong to you. Bless the food, bless the men,
bless the people as they go back to their homes. Bring them again to wherever
the gospel is preached the next time. And we ask this in Jesus'
name, for his sake.