Good morning everyone. Good to
have you folks with us. Wow, what a start last night. What a wonderful, what a great
message to start with about the burning heart. Our hearts burned
within us. I don't know about you folks,
but I thought about that all night long. I thought about the joy
that is in my heart since the Lord called us out of darkness.
What a joy, huh? We'll get to hear two more messages
this morning. Two more. Our change of the schedule
has been slight this morning. We're going to have our brother
Kevin Thacker preach again this morning for the first hour and
brother Clay Curtis will preach for the second hour. For those
of you again who receive our mailings we will include these
services on CD for you. If you require or would like
to have a CD burned for you, please see Kathy afterwards and
she'll get it made and mailed to you at the most convenient
moment she can. It was brought to my attention,
since COVID has hit, we no longer pass the plate. Some of you folks
have been coming here for a long time, haven't been here for a
little while. We don't pass the plate at all anymore. I think
that's just a better way to do it. There's nothing wrong with
passing the plate. I just think it's better. And since COVID
hit, nobody wanted to be handling the same plate anyway. So there's
a box in the back. If the Lord is leading you, to,
with joy in your heart, support this ministry, please feel free
to leave it there in that box. Some were looking for it last
night, so I think that is all of our announcements for this
morning. I'd like to ask you to stand with me, if you would,
please. Pastor Gabe Stoniker has graciously
agreed to read scripture and lead us in opening prayer. Brother
Gabe? Turn with me, if you would, to
Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah chapter 8. And it's between the books of Moses
and the Psalms. I know it's not an easy one to
find. I'll give you a minute. Nehemiah chapter 8. We'll read from verse 1 down
to verse 12. Nehemiah 8 verse 1, it says, And all the people gathered themselves
together as one man into the street that was before the water
gate. And they spake unto Ezra the
scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord
had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the
law before the congregation, both of men and women, and all
that could hear with understanding upon the first day of the seventh
month. And he read therein before the
street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday
before the men and the women, and those that could understand,
and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book
of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood upon
a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose. And
beside him stood Mattathiah, and Shema, and Ananiah, and Uriah,
and Hilkiah, and Maasaiah on his right hand. And on his left
hand, Paddaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashem, and
Hashbanana, Zechariah, and Meshulam. And Ezra opened the book in the
sight of all the people, for he was above all the people.
And when he opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed
the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered,
Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads
and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also, Yeshua
and Benai and Sherebiah Jaman, Acob, Shabbathah, Hodiah, Maasaiah,
Kalaitah, Azariah, Josabath, Hanan, Peliah, and the Levites
caused the people to understand the law and the people stood
in their place. So they read in the book, in
the law of God distinctly and gave the sense and caused them
to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, which is the Tershithah,
or the governor, and Ezra, the priest, the scribe, and the Levites
that taught the people said unto all the people, this day is holy
unto the Lord your God. Mourn not, nor weep, for all
the people wept when they heard the words of the Lord. Then he
said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet,
and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for
this day is holy unto our Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the
joy of the Lord is your strength. So the Levites stilled all the
people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy, neither
be ye grieved. And all the people went their
way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make
great mirth, because they had understood the words that were
declared unto them. Our high and holy God, Lord,
we stand here before You as one man. We stand here before You
in one man, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are all here because of Him.
We have a heart to be here because of Him. We have eyes to see this,
ears to hear this, a heart to believe this, because of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we are so grateful. We're
here to worship our Lord, our God, our Savior. Let us not be
here in vain. Let us not be here with an absent
mind. Let this not be going through
the motions. Let this not be tradition. Let
this not be just another year that passes by and another conference
that passes by. Lord, open our hearts. cause
our faces to bow to the ground in humility before our Savior
and our God. Lord, bless us, cause us to cry,
Amen, Amen. We agree, we believe this, so
be it. We pray that you might truly
be worshipped, Lord. We are your people, we're the
sheep of your pasture. We're just so happy and thankful
to be here together. We're happy to meet each other
and know each other. And this is a foretaste of glory
divine. Lord, we can't wait to meet the
great congregation in Christ and be together truly as one
body under our one head. Lord, would you please be blessed
and be honored by us today. Cause us to praise you. We pray
for the men who are about to stand. Lord, we're so grateful
for the truth that we heard last night. And we pray that You might
prepare us to hear it again. Lord, bless Your own Word. Lord, and bless these men as
they stand before us. And feed our hearts and feed
our souls with it. And we pray that You would have
mercy on us. Lord, thank You for revealing
the truth of salvation to those of us that You have revealed
it to. And if there is anyone who has yet to see Christ in
all of His sovereign glory, would You reveal that this morning?
Lord, we pray that You might draw Your sheep to Yourself We
pray that our children might be among that number. We pray
that our families and loved ones might be among that number. We
have co-workers and acquaintances that we truly love and care for.
And you're able to do a great work, if you would be willing.
Lord, we look to you, we bow to you, and we give all thanks
to you, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother. Thank you. I'd like to ask you if you would
turn in your hymn books to page 405. 405. Join me in singing, my faith has found
a resting place. On the resting place, not in
device or grave, I trust the ever-living heart, it floats
for me, shall we? I need no other argument, I need
no other theme. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. Enough for me that Jesus said,
this is my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never pass me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the risen Word of God. I'll wish upon my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. Is it not that Jesus died, and
that He died for me? Inquisition is the sin, the loss
he prayed to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. Thank you, Denise. Thank you so much. Once again,
it is an honor for me to introduce our first speaker this morning,
Pastor Kevin Thacker from San Diego Grace Fellowship. Brother,
come do it again. Come do it again. Come brag on
Christ to us, will you? Thank you. Good morning. I promise there'll
be somebody else preach to you other than me. I'm going to sit
down. I'm off work after this. I want
to thank you all for having me here again and having my family.
It's such a privilege and an honor and we understand the work
that goes into this. It's a lot of labor, it's a lot
of planning, sleepless nights, and there's a lot of expense
financially to this. And somebody had to work for
that, and labor for that, and I appreciate it. We're thankful
for that. The men that are here preaching
this weekend, and others in attendance, I admire these men. I admire
them. And I heard a man, it's not what
Webster's would define it, but I'll tell you, I like this definition.
Admiration is when, for a peer or something, is when they do
it better than I do and I still like them anyway. So you can
get them intrigued here in a minute. This is the fourth year I've
been coming up here, and boy, it has changed drastically. The ride from the motel to here
was just fields before. Now there's houses up everywhere,
there's stores up everywhere, grocery stores. This place is
booming. That's good news. You know why? Not that there's growth in America.
God, whenever he ascended on high, he gave a gift. There was
an ascension gift he gave. Right there he sits. John won't
say this about himself, but the Lord has equipped him and he
sent him to this part of the world to tell the truth about
man and the truth about God. And to give knowledge. Anybody
can get that. We can read and understand things.
And understanding. Like our brother just read. They
read the Scriptures distinctly and gave the sense of the text.
Like, yeah, that's what it says. And that's what it means. God's
equipped him. That's God's gift. If he showed
up and gave you a deck of cards, do you think you'd hold on to
it? Huh? Would you throw it in a
corner somewhere down in the basement? No, you'd appreciate
it. I hope you all appreciate it. I want to say some things
this morning. And it's going to offend our
nature, born of Adam. And everybody in this room has
at least that nature. And if you have two natures,
the old man is going to flinch and he's not going to like these
things. But that new man, that new creation, is going to say,
boy, that's right. That's good. This is true. Amen. I don't want to be offensive. Some things are offending, ain't
they? They offend us. If you want to
turn to John, we're going to be in John 16. If you want to
turn to John 13, I'm going to try to I'll preach through about
four chapters in four minutes if I can. John chapter 13. I want to see this to start off
with. In John 13, our Lord begins speaking
to the twelve and He washes their feet. He has supper with them,
the last supper. And then He says, one of you
is going to betray Me. This is all the same night until we get
to our text. He sets the twelve down, and he washes all twelve
of their feet, and he has the Lord's table with all twelve
of them. That ought to teach us something. He sets them down,
and he says, one of y'all is going to betray me. And in different
recordings, they go around and they go, Lord, is it I? Lord,
is it I? I know me. It's probably me.
And John was laying on him, and Peter said, John, ask him. John,
ask him. And they said, Lord, who's it
going to be? We know it could be any of us. And Jesus answered,
verse 26, John 13, 26. And Jesus answered, he it is
to whom I shall give a sop. I'm going to take bread, I'm
going to sop it up with some of that wine, I'm going to give
it to him. And when he dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas
Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered
into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That
thou doest, do quickly. That hour is coming. And it's
here. This is what you've got to do
that's been determined by the foreknowledge and counsel of
God from everlasting. Do it quickly. Get after it.
Now, no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this
unto them. They didn't know. He was the
treasurer. They thought, well, he's going out to buy meat or something.
The Lord said it plainly. They didn't get it, did they?
But the Lord spoke to Judas, Satan inside of him, and said,
That thou doest, do quickly. By the time it's not over, Judas
is going to be back with all of them. They will take our Lord
and mock Him and bruise Him and put a crown on His head. put
signs above him and pierce his hands and pierce his feet and
he's going to hang on that cross and then, like that wasn't bad,
Marv, beyond his own mother, doesn't even recognize him. And
then his father, God Almighty, is going to turn his back on
God Almighty. And the rocks are going to break open and the earth
is going to go dark. That's what's coming in just a few short hours,
just a couple hours. If I had, if I got a little job
to do, I'd give him a voucher for me. If I had a small job,
I'd say, don't bother me, I'm busy. I heard that all growing
up, too. My dad said, don't bother me,
son. I'm busy. I'm busy. These 11 are with him. And it's
still saying, men, you ain't going to understand until later.
Leave me alone. I need to pray. No. From John
13, 31 until the end of chapter 16, our Lord sets down with those
11. And he spends his whole time
comforting them, teaching them, Preparing these apostles to go
out and preach His gospel throughout this world. Preparing them individually
for the life they're going to live. Of ups and downs and disbelief
and sin that's going to be ever present before them. He takes
that whole time to repeat Himself in each chapter. Over and over
again. Trouble's coming. I'm going to send the comforter.
He's going to speak to your heart. You're going to see me again.
You're going to see you're nothing. You're going to see you're not
faithful. You're going to see your love don't mean nothing.
You're going to see you're not diligent. But you're going to
see my love. And you're going to see my faithfulness. And you're
going to see my dedication and my motivation to the Father.
And you're going to be full of joy. And you're going to tell
others about it. And that's going to keep happening.
And then after a while, you're going to have some peace during
this. And then you're going to start thinking you did it. You're
going to start thinking you understood some things and you learned some
things. And boy, trouble's going to come. And when that trouble
comes, you're going to be down and low and afraid and full of
trouble. And I'm going to send a comforter.
You're going to know what you are. And he's going to reveal
me to you. And you're going to see my faithfulness and my diligence.
You're going to see me. And you're going to have joy.
And it's going to lift you up. And then you're going to go out in
the world and you're going to preach some more. And then you're going to thank you
again. There's a pattern here, over and over again. He tells
them about to be glorified. I'm going to go to the Father.
I'm going away. You're going to need one another. This world's
going to hate you. Hate you. Not mildly dislike
you. They'll string you up and kill
you if they can. All of them died except John
were murdered by religious folks. Upstanding moral religious folks
killed every one of them but John. You're going to love one
another. You're going to need one another.
You can't make it by yourself. I'm with you, but you need somebody. You're going to need them. Peter
said, where are you going? He said, where I go, you can't
go. And he said, I'll lay down my life for you. I'll lay down
my life for you. He said, really? You're going
to lay it down? He said, before the sun goes
down, you're going to deny me three times, Peter. Big Fat Peter,
the strong fisherman that smelled like fish and had cows all over
his hands, and was rude and crazy. The apostles weren't these...
We've just destroyed this. They weren't these little bald-headed
men in funny little brown robes that... They were commercial
fishermen and they'd beat you up in the back alley if you crossed
them. These are ruffians, mafiosos. I'm serious. Like me. They're sinners. Me, self-serving
like me. And you know what? God had mercy
on me. And while he's getting ready
to face what we can't even imagine, he takes the evening and says,
come here, boy. Sit down. Let me tell you something. And he
keeps telling them the same thing. These things, these things, over
and over and over again. Repeatedly. He said, I'm going
away. You're going to need one another, love one another. Your
brethren's going to fail and fall. You're going to fail and
fall. They're going to have to lift
you up. You're going to have to lift them up. I'll send a comforter. You're
going to see me. You'll have joy. He keeps saying
this over and over. You're going to have sorrow in
your heart. He said, As the Father loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue in my love. That's what it says in John 14.
John 15. And it says in John 15 and 11. Look here. He told him a lot
of things. John 15, 11. He says, These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full. You're saying all these rough
times are coming. I'm telling you that so you can have joy
in me. This is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You're
my friends. If you do whatsoever I command.
He said, I'm going to go to my father. It's the same pattern
over and over. I'm going away. I'm going to the father. You're
going to be sad. I'm going to send a comforter. You're going
to have to love one another. What makes this necessary when he
says, as I've loved you, love one another? Well, he's commanding
that, right? The Lord said, love one another. That's how all men's going to
know you and my children. Not if you have your doctrines
in a row. Not if you sit underneath the right man. Not if you attend
the right conferences, in the right place in California, in
the right times, and all that stuff. Not if you haven't loved
one another. That's how you know. That's how you know. He's commanding
it. But this is necessary because
you're going to be hated by the world. Natural man is going to
hate you. Religious folks are going to
hate you. And it's going to be hard. They're going to be mean
to you. And you need one another. And what's going to strengthen
this love? You being hated by the world. When your brethren
are the only ones that love you, you're going to love them all
the more. That's going to grow. That's going to grow. And just
as He's loved us eternally, everlastingly, the more we know of Him, the
more our love grows for Him. It grows. These things will keep
happening. He said, I'm going to the Father.
I love you. You love one another. You're going to fail and fall. Pick each other up. Courage.
This world's against you. But I'm going to send a comforter.
And you're going to see me and need me and learn of me and testify
of me all over again. And rejoice together when this
happens. And further the gospel. Do whatever you can. Because
there's other brethren out there we have that don't know Him.
What if I was the only one? And he sent somebody as me. Would
I think it was worth it? Might be a great cost to you,
but thanks. I'm thankful. That was worth
it. We're going to bear witness, he says in John 15, 27, and ye
also shall bear witness, because you've been with me from the
beginning. In chapter 16, verse 1, he said, I've told you all
these things. I've told you these things. Have I spoken unto you
that you should not be offended? But you don't get upset and offended
when these things happen. I told you it's going to happen.
But that word there is scandalous. It's a scandal. But you don't
think this is scandalous. Other people are going to think
so. They've got some weird things going on. And they're saying things.
That's what it says. I know but. I know but. He said these things have I told
you. Look at verse 4. John 16. But these things have
I told you that when the time shall come you may remember that
I told you of them. You can't handle it all now.
It'll come back to you. I'm going away, verse 6, but
because I've said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled
your heart. Verses 7 through 15, he says,
you're going to be down, and you're going to be sad and afraid
and troubled, and I'll send the comforter, the spirit of truth,
and he'll point you to me again. Verse 16, he says, a little while,
and you shall not see me. And again, a little while, and
you shall see me, because I go to the Father. And then said
some of his disciples. He said the same thing over and
over and over again to them. Like children. He said, you must
be like a child to be in my kingdom. What do children say? Why? How
many times do you tell them? Just tell them one time, shut
the door. They'll shut the door for then on. No, you've got to shut the
door. Did you brush your teeth? Did you brush your teeth? Brush
your teeth again. They don't get it, do they? They're just
little children. They say in verse 17, John 16,
17. And some of the disciples said among themselves, what is
this that he saith unto us? What is he talking about? A little
while and you shall not see me again, a little while and you
shall see me because I go to the Father? They said, therefore,
what is this that he saith a little while? We cannot tell what he
saith. We're confused. The Lord's telling me the same
thing over and over and over again and I'm confused. That
makes me troubled. If the Lord was telling you the
same thing five times in a row and you didn't get it, would
you be afraid? No. This is important, what He said, and I don't get
it. I don't get it. Now here's the text, verse 25.
These things, what things? Everything He's been telling
us for the last three and a half years, and since it's just the
11, everything He said. These things have I spoken unto
you in Proverbs, but the time cometh, the time's going to come,
When I shall no more speak unto you as Proverbs, but shall show
you plainly the Father. And that day, when that day comes,
it's coming. And when that day comes, ye shall
ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the
Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you. Because you've
loved me and have believed that I came out from God. Lord, teach us how to pray. He
said, all right, our Father which is in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. You go talk to him. That's who you pray to. That
day's coming. The day's going to come. Because
you believe me. And here's the sum of it all. He can do this, I can't. I'll
tell you what he said. Verse 28. I came forth from the
Father. He descended. No man's descended.
We're all created. He always has been. He's the
great I Am. He came from the Father. And
I'm coming to the world, born of a woman, made under the law,
like as we are, for us, to be born for us, to live for us,
to die for us, to be risen for us. Again, I leave the world
and go to the Father. The accepted sacrifice, the propitiation,
the acceptable bloody sacrifice, the mercy seat, And that holiest
of holies, that's Him. And He says, I'm going to the
Father. Oh, what's that thing? Verse
29. And His disciples said unto Him, Lo, now. He said, that day's
going to come, the hour's going to come. I'm going to tell you
all these things. And they say, now. Lo, now speakest thou plainly,
and speakest no probably. Now we are sure that thou knowest
all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee. By this,
by what you just said, we believe that thou came from God. Now you do. Now we get it. Now you're speaking
plainly. I had the ability to understand
the whole time, and it's your fault. It's what a natural man does.
What Adam did. It's a woman you gave me. We
have a sin nature that our new man, if we have one, is housed
in, and it blames God for everything. What a horrible thing. Now we
understand. Now you speak in plain. About
time you said something clearly. What fleshly understanding that
we assume. What a poor attitude, blaming
God for not being clear. Oh man. What does this prove
to us? These are the apostles. These
are the eleven. This is the inner circle. Isn't
it? We are helpless, hopeless, ignorant maggots apart from Christ
who loved us and gave himself for us. We need him. We need him. A word from him. They said, now we believe. Now
we got you. Now we've got a handle on it.
They still thought that he was going to set up an earthly kingdom. Look
here in verse 31. And Jesus answered them, do you
now believe? Remember what he told Peter? Will thou lay down thy life for
my sake? Do you now believe? Now they're
confident. Now we've got a handle on it.
There's five instances I want to preach at this weekend where
the Lord heals a blind man. And you start looking at what's
common, right? And you say, well, they're blind. They can't see.
He's the physician. He's the one that can give sight.
He commands it. Sometimes he spoke it. Sometimes
he touched him. Sometimes he spit. Those things are kind of
different, right? But we've got a good handle on
it. And then that man's healed in degrees. He touched him and
said, I see men walking the streets. Hold on. What do you see now?
I see everything clear. As soon as we think we've got
a handle on how God saves sinners, we know it's Christ, we know
it's His doing, but we think we find a pattern. We think we get
a niche on Him. And then you go and read that
John the Baptist from the womb was kicking and screaming, but
he had the Holy Ghost in the womb. As soon as we think we really
got him in a box. He teaches us. Do you really
believe? Now I believe. It's about time. Now you believe. He said, do you believe? Verse
32. Behold, the hour cometh. Yea,
it has now come that you shall be scattered. You're going to
get the four winds. You lay down your life for me.
I believe you. I will die for you. He said, you're going to
get every man for himself. Every man to his own. That translation
is his own house. Two of you is going to pack up
and go to Emmaus. And so this is it. We thought this was it.
We're going home, boys. Haters going to go back to fishing.
They're going to go their own way. And you shall leave me alone. And yet I'm not alone, because
the Father is with me. You cannot and you will not,
in and of yourself, hold up your hand. But I will. I'm about to. That hour is just
about it. That's hard, isn't it? Is that
hard for me? Is that hard for you? It's good
when we see Him. And we know He did. Look here,
verse 33. These things have I spoken unto
you. I've told you all this, repeated
myself, and I showed you these things, and you got kind of puffy
about it. And I said, do you believe? You're about to hit
the winds. These things I've told unto you,
that in me, not in you, Not in your faith, not in your attendance
to church, not in your prayer, not in your 15 minutes of devotional
reading every day. Not in you, in me. You might
have peace. Peace. What do we think of when
we think of peace? We think of the verb peace, don't
we? The feeling. The feeling. We want calmness,
tranquility. We want contentment, being restful. That means absolutely nothing
if it has no foundation. Peace, peace. There's no peace
because there's no foundation to it. He said, in me you might
have peace. Why? He's the chief cornerstone.
He's our foundation that our peace is based on. What's the
foundation of our peace? There's no war. There's no war. I'm wicked. and arrogant and
sinful and nothing but filthy rags before a holy God and I
hated him. Outside of Christ you were at
war with God and I was at war with God and we hated him. We
might have played church. We might have dressed up, carried
a Bible, made the kids miserable every time, had to wear ties
and stuff, go sit still. And we played church and we went
to the right places. We were at war with God until
he came and made peace. He made reconciliation. He put
away sin. That's peace. Why do you have
peace? No war. The war's over. Karl Marx, enmity. Not is that enmity. It's war
with God. He's made peace. He said, in
me you might have peace. There's no more wickedness for
God to be angry with. He's put the sin away as far
as the east is from the west. That's what he's about to do.
In time, we live in this horrible thing called time. He's everlasting
and ever-present. We say things on the calendar,
don't we? Paul wrote about this in Romans 8. He said, There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. No war,
no condemnation. We recently looked at Psalm 45.
David, it doesn't say who authored it, and that's good. We can sing
it too. Maybe I'm not a king. I might
not be able to sing it from his perspective. I can sing it from
my perspective. It says, My heart is inditing
a good manner. That means my heart is gushing
good news. My cup overflows. I've got to
tell somebody because I speak concerning the king. He said
grace pours from his lips. This king that made peace is
captain of our salvation. He girded up his sword upon his
thigh. He fought the battle. He won the war. He finished it.
He's our defender. He's the captain of our salvation.
And his throne is forever. We get presidents in, if we really
like one, all you're going to get them for is eight years.
And it ain't legal for them to come back. Or they die. Not this
one. His throne's forever. And he's
holy. And he smells like royalty. It
smells like grace and substitution. And he has a bride, and he's
provided everything for this bride. And her garments, and
for the wedding, and for the feast, and he's done it all.
She was beautiful in his sight. We'll all rejoice. It says in
Psalm 45, 15, with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought. You will be happy about it. I
promise. I'm happy about it. And they
shall enter into the king's palace. Where's that family? Where's
all that victory and foundational peace and the feeling of peace
and the smell of peace and the presence of peace and no condemnation?
Where's that family? These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In me. You can go read Ephesians in
one while. I don't have time there. You've probably read a lot. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. In Christ. All the blessings, all the peace,
in Him. He goes on and says, according
to this, He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world.
We're elected in Christ the elect in Him. that we're predestinated
into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. We're going
to be conformed to His image. So much one with Him, we look
like it, we're Him. One with Him. Joint heirs with Christ. Somebody tells you they can explain
all those things, you run from them. They don't know what you're
talking about. They're fools. That's unimaginable. To the praise of His glory, of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the blood, peace,
in worship towards God. We can come to His throne of
grace. Bothly. More Christly than at all. We're
in Him. Thank Him. And all those times of petitioning
the Lord when we're young and the Lord just shows us what we
are. We're sinners. And we're, Lord, please do this
and please don't do that. Please be with me and all that.
And as that grows in time, you grow in grace. Now you turn to
praise. Thank you, Lord. What you've
done is right. We just grew a little bit. You
don't get more human, do you? If you're human, you ain't. He's
made you holy, and He's been gracious to us. We grow in that
grace, don't we? We thank Him. We thank Him. It's right. That's
peace. Why? Redemption through the blood.
There's the forgiveness of sins. It's gone. And it's just. It's
just. That's what it told Isaiah, wasn't
it? Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Talk to their hearts. Cry to
her that her warfare is accomplished. There's peace. And her iniquities
pardoned. She's received in the Lord's
hands double for all her sins. Double. That's the foundation. He's the foundation of peace.
Does that give you a feeling? Does that settle you? Does that give you peace? He's
the peace. My pastor, when I was a child,
my pastor was sitting back there, my first one when I was little,
he preached a message one time to two lives of believers, and
he got a lot of hot water. We are. We are in Christ right
now. We are one with Him. We're seated
in Him in the heavenlies. And just as much as I'm with
Him, though I don't see, through faith we do. I'm standing on
this globe right now. I'm in this world. You're going
to have to get up Monday morning and go to work, go to the store,
and do things. And people that hate you, and
people that are against you, people that hate your God, you're
going to live in this world, ain't you? Look here, verse 33.
There's trouble in the world. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation. We read things in the Lord that
don't seem right to us, right? We read Ephesians 1, right there,
and boom, the Lord's loved us before time. And finally, get
down to the end, about verse 13, the Holy Spirit abounds towards
us like a linebacker. And you ain't getting away from
it. Old Brother Barnard said, if you read Ephesians 1 backwards,
that's how we experience it. Humans are backwards. We see
things wrong enough. Well, how did this peace come
before the trouble? Shouldn't we have trouble first,
and then we need peace? His peace is from purpose before time.
Because He loved us from everlasting, because He loved us, He's going
to send you some trouble. The gospel goes forth and it
disturbs the comfortable and it comforts the disturbed. That's
so. Because He loved the people,
He's going to shake them up and show them what they are. And
then you're going to need them. That's what He's been saying since chapter
13. You want to come down, and I want to sit in comfort, right?
Why? Why do we have trouble in this
world? I'll give you three quick points. We have trouble in this
world because we're human beings. Apart from anything else, I'm
a child of Adam. And Job said, man that is born
of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. I'm just a human.
I come in this world. I was conceived in sin. I come
forth from the womb lying. And I got more okay with it as
time went on. I quit grieving over it as much. Heathens get sick, I get sick.
Ain't no different. They have family problems, we
have family problems. They have rough days at work,
me too. They age because of sin, gray
hairs all around them, wrinkles. Sin's what it is. Ain't no different
than anybody else walking down the street, is it? They have
an appointed day. We do, too. People around them,
the ones they love, the ones they don't like, their friends
and their foes, dying all around them. Us, too. Us, too. We're
just humans. What's to be expected? We're
going to have trouble in this world. Don't be surprised when
it comes. I told you these things, so there's
no scandal when it happens. The second reason we have trouble
is we're believers. We're believers. We're different. Ishmael didn't have no trouble.
I said, what, it's chosen? Well, you think you're special. I didn't have anything to do
with this. Jacob loved Joseph, didn't he? And his mother would
throw him in a pit. He thinks he's something, right? We don't
think we're something, but we are different. We're peculiar
people. And I'll tell you what, those that hate God, no matter
what they think they do or not, those that hate God, they cannot
be friends with those who are the friends of God. He said,
you're my friends. We don't talk like other people. We don't walk
like other people. I had to do risk analysis and
security one time for an individual. They said, what's the likelihood
of us hitting a bomb on this road? I said, 50-50. They said,
really? Is that what it come out to?
I said, yeah, the Lord's going to let it happen to me, ain't it? It's so, right? We know that.
They didn't laugh. I got trouble for that. I said,
so? I had to do all the math. It
was like 47, 53. I was pretty close. We talk different. We walk different.
There's a conference. What happened today was terrible.
The Lord sent it. I don't know why. I don't understand it. But
He did it. He's the first cause of all things.
Is there evil in the city and He hasn't done it? It's to glorify
Him. That's what it is. It's for my
good. I don't see that yet. But it's so. That's different.
People don't like that. The world don't like that. People
hate God don't like that. We're going to have trouble. You speak
of a sovereign God that's holy and just and merciful only in
His Son. The world talks about unconditional
love. There is no such thing. His love is conditional on His
Son. He says, this is my Son in whom
I'm well pleased. And to His people, He comes to
them and says, here He is. That's a command. And we will
because He gives it. We're going to have trouble because
we're humans. We're the descendants of Adam. We're outside the garden
of Eden. Can't go back either. We're the children of an almighty,
sovereign God, and we know Him, and to any degree that a human
being can, we understand His will. He's going to glorify Christ,
and it's for our good, for our brethren's good. And being children
of God, get this, if you've missed everything else, stay with me.
Being children of God, the Lord's going to teach us some things.
He's going to send trouble. That's the medicine He's going
to use to turn our hearts to Him. And he is not an austere
man. He's not a bad father that comes
and just bops his kids on the back of the head for no reason.
We're so prone to think that. Lord, why would you do this to
me? The apostles were there in that boat, these commercial fishermen,
rowing and rowing and rowing, and the storm's coming, the boat's
getting swamped, and they're crying out, Lord, we went where
you told us to go and we're going to drown. We think those things,
don't we? But he's teaching them something.
He sends his troubles to teach us something. James said, My
brethren, count it all joy when you follow in God's temptations.
Different trials. Knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worketh patience. Let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire and wanting nothing.
Look indeed. That's what happens over and
over with these, right? You want to be down, you're going to look
to this world, you're going to be low, and I'm going to send a comforter,
and he's going to speak of me. He's going to look to me, and I'll be at
peace. In this world, you're going to have trouble. The trouble
is ordained, whether it's in mind, or body, or family, or
providence, or whatever, car wreck, something. God sent it.
That's prayer good. Oftentimes I'm asked to pray
for people. I get emails, or phone calls, or whatever, and
they say, could you pray for so-and-so? And I say, well, what do you
want me to pray for? My prayers are no different than
your prayers. I'm not special. What do you want me to pray?
Sometimes people's very pointed. I want you to pray that this
trial goes away and I want you to pray that they get better
or that this eases up and they get some money or something. Why would I do that? That's not
good. It ain't good. I'll tell you
why. I don't want to walk out of that valley that he's put
me in. I'm in his hand. I don't want to walk out of that
valley he's put me in until he's made me grab hold of his hand.
I don't want to move on from a time of darkness unless I'm
dead certain He's the light. Unless He's guiding my steps.
I don't want relief from a sickness or an illness unless it's the
great position and I'm fully aware of it that He's doing the
relieving. The reason those trials come is to reveal Christ in you.
To show us what we are in our need of healing. And His greatness
and His holiness is one of those. Why would you wish away that
blessing? To pray those things is the same thing as saying,
I don't want to see Christ. That's selfish. That's manly. That's
flesh. Lord, keep this trial. That's why we pray for one another.
Do you ever have trouble saying, Lord, be hard on me and teach
me wisdom? I don't want to pray. I did that
a couple of years ago. I told you all about it. And I was low
when I was here, and it got worse after. But I pray for you, Lord,
to give them comfort and show them Christ's faithfully while
they're in this trial. And you pray that for me. And that's
us lovable. You remember hearing that before?
Love one another. Lean on one another. You're going
to need each other. Not that we're gossiping. We don't just
sit around and talk about things. But we tell what's going on.
We have to know what to pray for, don't we? Our troubles in this world
turn us from the world. And we get sick of it. And by
the time we're old enough to go, I'm ready to leave. I don't
need to be here. And it turns us from our knowledge
and our intellect and our wisdom to the Lord. That's the mess. That's when Paul cried, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? He
knew what he was. That's trouble. That's soul trouble. What's the
rest of it? I thank God through Jesus Christ. Peter talked about those things,
the trials of our faith. That's a precious thing. Verse
33. He said, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me
you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. When the Lord says peace, there's
peace. When He says be still, we're
still. When He says live, there's life. He says be of good cheer. I'm your peace, the world's trouble,
be of good cheer. When He says be of good cheer,
you can be of good cheer. Why? Because I've overcome the
world. It's happening. We're still in
this world. We're still alive. We're still
walking in this world. But we know He's conquered it.
It's finished. There's peace with that. Walking in faith. That's for our good, His glory,
and for the good of our brethren. We quote things sometimes we
don't really have a good handle on context. It's still true.
But the Lord will add to His church daily as He sees fit.
What was the context of that? In Acts 2 it says they continued
daily with one accord in the temple. They gathered together
and they broke bread house to house and they did eat meat with
gladness and singleness of heart and praising God. Believers lived
together and worked together and worshiped together. And they
have in favor with all people. They walked through this world
with hard working folks, happy people, pleasant to be around.
They still didn't like it too much, but they were still happy
about it, weren't they? And the Lord added. That's what He used.
And He added to the church daily as should be said. What a thought that. Those troubles
come, Paul said, he comforts us that we may be able to comfort
them which are in any trouble. You ever told a stranger that?
You have. Trouble comes, you say, Lord, Bennett. He said,
who's that? You got four or five hours? Sit
down, I'll tell you about it. You got some time? Come hear
me. I'm not good at telling them.
You come listen to my pastor tell you. That's his job. He'll arrange a paycheck,
I'll tell you about it. Those Lord was sending out those
twelve and warned them of the trouble to come. He said, fear not them
which kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul, but
rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body
and hell. He's overcome those things, all
of our enemies. Not just enemies of this world, but sin, death,
the grave, that law, writing of ordinances that was against
us. He's fulfilled every job and title. Now I'm a good children. Now I have peace. Now those troubles
come. I say, that's all right. You'll be all right. I tell our
folks that a lot. I guess it's catching on. They'll
start telling me, Kevin, you'll be all right. Good news. He says all these things. That's
where he ends. He tells Judas, go out. Do what you got to do.
Do it quickly. And he spends his whole evening talking to
these brethren and comforting them and preparing them and equipping
them to be together. And then that's it. He says,
I've overcome the world. Chapter 17, verse 1, these are
the words, spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
may glorify thee. Is he glorious to you? What a
thought, huh? What a Savior we have. What a
King. What a God. Worthy of praising
that. When we get down and look at
Him, He's faithful. He's faithful in Him, too. My
prayers are blessed. I'll play one more. I'm going to play two in the
great part to give people time. So I've got another.