Morning. Let's turn to, we'll
start first and second Timothy chapter four. Problems with my computer today.
I can't print anything. So I didn't have the bulletins
printed. I had a bullet. I didn't have notes either. What
would I do if I couldn't preach? I didn't have notes. I worked
hard at it. Worked all week. Gone. Can't
do it. I got them. Thankfully, I've lived it. Thankfully,
I've lived it. Especially next hour. I don't
need notes to tell you about what Alfalfa Palace looks like
or what Ur of the Cowdeys, where our father Abraham came from.
I've been there. I know. Don't need, don't need anything
wrote down. Yep. 2 Timothy 4. The title of
my message is a heavy doctrine. Heavy doctrine. Singular. That
excite you? Heavy doctrine, singular, but
I have three main points concerning this heavy doctrine. How can
I have three points for a singular topic? I was taught to point
with five fingers. Don't point with one finger.
You got three of them coming back at you. That's four fifths
of a fist coming at somebody. That's assault. You point, you
point with five fingers, don't you? Let's hopefully point to
one thing. I wanted to make sure this week
I was holding up my end. God gave me a charge. A man reminded
me of it, but God gave me a charge. And I want to be diligent that
I preach the word. I don't preach my feelings. I
don't preach to things going on. I want to preach the word.
And so I go back and I listen to messages that my pastor preached
for for me, my charge as a pastor. And I go listen to the messages
that Don preached to him for his charge as a pastor. I listen
to a lot of ordination messages. I want to make sure my job title
is well-defined and I want to hold up my end. God gave me something
to do, I want to do it. I want to be diligent. So I was here reading and Something
just pricked my heart, and I hope it blesses you. Simplicity. Heavy
doctrine, though. Heavy. Heavy things. 2 Timothy
4, verse 1. Paul writes here to young Timothy,
and he says, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
in his kingdom. Yes, sir. That important? That's important. Preach the
word. Preach the Word. That's a thought
that stands by itself. Preach the Word. Inside of that,
be instant, in season and out of season, whether you want to
or not. I just can't preach today. Get
up and do it. That's your job. If you're well
enough to go to a doctor, you're well enough to go to work. If
I'm sick, it don't matter. Preach it in season and out of
season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come, that's 2,000 years ago. Ain't nothing
changed. Nothing changed from Noah to
now. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears. They'll go search the mountains
and the hillsides, and let me listen to that one, let me listen
to this one, I wanna listen to this one, can I read that one? How about, let's go
back in the past. I'll read a bunch of old dead
folks. Itching ears. They won't endure sound doctrine,
but you keep preaching, Timothy. They shall turn away their ears,
verse four, from the truth and shall be turned into fables.
But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions. That means
you're going to have them, endure them. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered.
and the time of my departure is at hand. I've fought a good
fight. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. Henceforth,
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not only
to me only, not to me only, but unto all them that also love
his appearing, those that look for him, those that say, come,
Lord, right now. Well, I got a lot of stuff going
on. I don't care about this stuff going on. Lord, come now. They'll
receive the same thing. Same thing. All those servants,
no matter what time of day they was hired. Remember that? They
all got a penny. Don't matter how much we've done. We're getting
the same reward, same payment. Him. Him. Preach the word. The word is important. Did you
know that? The preaching of the word. Me
standing up and looking people in the eye, and you looking me
in the eye, and if Lord's pleased to speak through me, have a one-way
conversation to your heart. That's important. Do you know
why it's important to do that? It's necessary, because faith
comes by hearing. Faith comes by the preaching
of the word. That's what Paul told us in Romans
10. He said, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Wasn't that good news? I could
tell whosoever. I can go to the Pope and say,
if you call on the name of the Lord, you'll be saved. He makes
you do that. And I could go to the fentanyl
addict that's just about to die down on the street and say, you
call on the name of the Lord. And I can go up to LA to the
adult film industry, and I can go to the seminaries. I can go
anywhere. Call on Christ. Now, how are they going to know
to do that? He said, how can they call on him who they've
not believed? You ain't believed him. If you believed him, you'd call
on him. I'll tell you that right now. And how shall they believe in him
whom they've not heard? You're going to have to hear
about somebody who believes in him. And how shall they hear
without a preacher? Somebody's going to have to tell you. It
goes on in verse 17 there in Romans 10. He said, so faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God. Somebody's going to stand
up, talk out their mouth, look you in the eye. He could be a
stone. He could be an ass. The head harlot in town is what
it always is. And I have to tell you, and that's
how you're going to have faith. Do you think that's important? That's
called salvation. That's how he's going to do it.
What else comes by this? Why else is this? That's, that's,
that's the foundation, isn't it? That's the skin we have in
the game. I need to save from my sins, but spiritual growth.
comes by the preaching of the word. You ain't gonna grow unless
you faithfully, and the Lord makes you faithful and diligent,
discerning somebody, and that man's given a message by God,
and he works through books or whatever's laid on his heart
that week, and he preaches to you, you ain't gonna grow. Well,
I can just do it on my own. You'll starve to death. What
did Peter say? As newborn babes, we have to
be like a child to enter his kingdom. Is that what he says?
As newborn babes, they desire the sincere milk of the word,
of the word, that he may grow thereby. How are we gonna grow
in grace? We're gonna have to be under
the preaching of the word. I thought of what my pastor said,
and that's decades out of date. A sheep, it's by itself, it's
not under the preaching of the word, it grows funny. The growth
is restrained. I think that's a modern way of
putting it. Growth's restrained, it ain't right. And I think that's
very generous and very liberal of him to think so. I hope I
have that heart. He said, if so be you've tasted that the
Lord's gracious. If you've tasted that he's gracious, he's going
to grow you by the preaching of the word. Comfort comes through
the preaching of the word. You need comfort? Anybody, somebody,
you need comfort? You're going to get true, lasting
comfort. It's going to come through the preaching of the word. Paul
was talking about our Lord's return. He's talking about that
great day. He said, it's going to come to
an end. Everybody's race is going to be finished here for too long.
Our Lord's going to come. He's speaking of that. And he
said, whereby comfort one another with these words. I can tell
you all kinds of stuff and it ain't going to be one lick of
comfort. God can speak to your heart and that'll give you comfort.
It's going to be through the preaching of the word. I can
also tell you everything you're doing is wrong and you can get
madder than a wet hen at me. Or I could just tell you what
God says and then you would get madder than a wet hen at me.
Because he ain't here for you to get mad at. Ain't a person
we can lynch up on a cross anymore, is there? Comfort comes through
that. Comfort. Wherefore comfort, one
of these words, and assurance. I talked to a lot of people.
I feel so sorry for folks that don't have assurance. They're
just rolling and reeling and uncertainty and all my sins ever
before. I mean, I get it. There's times
I have that too, I know. But it seems there's just such
a lack of assurance. How are you going to have assurance?
It ain't what Kevin Thacker says. You want to have assurance through
the preaching of the word. Somebody's going to stand up,
send a God to preach the word. You can't hire somebody like
that. A man can't make somebody like that. God's got to do it.
Assurance is going to come through the preaching of the word. That's
what Paul said, 1 John 5. He said, these things, it was
these words that I'm writing unto you. You're reading the
word. He's telling you what it means.
He said, these words, these things I've written unto you and to
you that believe on the name of the son of God that you may
know. It's preaching the words that you may know that you have
eternal life. Well, I don't know if I have
eternal life. Well, get underneath preaching the gospel, learn who
Christ is, and by these words, you're going to know. Secret to that, He's the assurance,
right? He's the assurance. His faithfulness
is the assurance. Turn over to Matthew 23. Our
Lord spoke on this. And I thought, well, we're going
to preach the word. It better be something important. That's the trade,
if you want to call it that, a given occupation in America especially that I
know that has the most experts in it. You travel this country
and you'll find a couple million people that's an absolute expert
in preaching. Do you know that? It's so, I
know about what, 40 maybe, 50 people. called of God, sin of
God, Matthew 23. I know about 50 people alive.
I'm not saying that's all of them, but that's all I know that
preach the word. I know about 500,000 that's an
expert at it. And I thought, I don't care what
man tells me. I get a whole lot of input of how I ought to preach and
what I ought to be preaching and what angle I ought to take and
the systematic theology to dissect and divide this word correctly.
And I thought, what's Christ say? That's more important, isn't
it? Some fella ain't seen the sunshine
in about six years. I take what he said. In Matthew 23, we see
what's the most important parts of preaching this word. If I
can rightly divide the word of truth, I've been asked that a
lot too. There's eight woes in this chapter. Here in Matthew
23, the Lord says, woe unto you. The Lord's preaching to scribes
and Pharisees. And I understand, I've been told
from my youth, you just lay down a straight stick. And this crooked
sick will be apparent. And I know people that say, oh,
I just, I can't stand it whenever somebody says something bad about
so-and-so, or they say something bad about the police down the
street. What they're saying is they can't stand it when they
say something bad about the one you love going there. That's what they
can't stand. And I understand those things, but, but the Lord,
whenever he walked this earth and his public ministry, he didn't
give an inch. He didn't say, well, you know,
to the false preachers and the false teachers of that day. He
was vicious with them, wasn't he? He dealt with them harshly,
harshly. Those publicans and them harlots
come up to him. He said, come here. He touched a leper. Those
ones that had titles by their names, he didn't do kindly with
them, did he? Look here. And that's right. That's right
to do in a season. Paul told Titus that too. He said, the
witness is true. He said, you rebuke them sharply
that they may be sound in the faith. Not giving heed to Jewish
fables. People say, well, that's how
we always done it. Knock it off. No, God says different. That's
what he told Titus to do. Instructed him. And the commandments
of men, because all that stuff turns you from the truth. Here's
what our Lord did. Look here in verse two. Lord Jesus Christ
is condemning those that do not preach the word, but they do
horrible things. Well, in verse one, Matthew 23. Then spake Jesus
unto the multitude. and to his disciples saying,
the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat. They sit
there. They've appointed themselves,
or men did it, to go up there and sit in Moses's seat, to be
the one in charge, not God. They did it. They sit in his
seat. A man told me one time he was
ordained. If people find out I'm a preacher,
they tell me all kinds of things. Immediately go to what great
faith they have, and a bunch of other stuff, start quoting
scripture wrongly. A man told me, he said, I'm ordained. And
I said, well, who did that? Who ordained you? And they gave
me a person's name. And I said, that's terrible.
I said, I was hoping the Lord did it. He's the one that sets
apart. He's the one that ordains. That
word ordained, it means placed. They sit in Moses' seat. God
puts his man where he wants them to strongly oppose those lies
that stand in them. But these men, they put a bunch
of heavy burdens on the people, but they don't hold up their
end. I tell y'all stuff you got to do, and they don't suffer
anything at all. I'll tell you that. But look
down at verse 5. He said, but all their works they do to be
seen of men. They're sitting in the places,
telling people what to do. And they make broad their phylacteries,
their hems on their garments. Look who's got the biggest jacket
on. And they enlarge the borders of their garments. And they love
the uppermost rooms at the feast and the chief seats in the synagogues.
You know who I sat next to whenever we was having a meal? You know
who I was sitting there listening to? That's what they love. That's
the vipers. Woe unto you. And greetings in
the markets. And to be called of men, Rabbi,
Rabbi. But you're not called Rabbi for one, Jewel Master.
That's teacher. Don't you be called, don't call nobody teacher.
You want a title? Better not be teacher. Lord says
don't do it. He said, for there's one your master, one your teacher,
Christ, and all ye are brethren. Y'all are the same. Now one of
you is gonna do more work than the other one. Somebody's gonna
clean toilets, somebody's gonna get up and preach, somebody's gonna read the word,
somebody's gonna pay the bills, right? He says, you're all brethren.
Don't you call each other by titles. But be ye not called rabbi for
one's your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren, verse
nine. And call no man your father upon this earth, for one's your
father, which is in heaven. That solves a huge chunk of so-called
Christianity right there, doesn't it? Don't call nobody father.
Verse 10, neither be called you masters, for one is your master,
even Christ. Could we go on? It's not just saying what the
text says, it's understanding the meaning. Should we go on?
Do we understand? Doctor. How about that? Reverend. The scriptures say that. There's
not reverend. It's his name, not your name. Don't you call
people reverend. Have people introduce you. I'm pastor so-and-so.
I'm just Kevin. You can introduce me as that,
that's the office the Lord put me in if I'm his man. But my name's
Kevin, you call me Kevin. It's Paul, comma, and Apostle,
comma. If you haven't said hello, Apostle,
Paul, please, calm down. We're all brethren. I've met doctors, I've met masters
of divinity. I've met a couple of apostles.
Oh, wow. You know what they do? They write
open letters to people. That's called epistles. And they tell
you all about it. I've met bishops and elders.
A man doesn't have to tell nobody he's a man, he just is. You get
that? A preacher, I don't have to tell nobody I'm a pastor.
Sit down for five minutes, you'll figure it out, and I'm the one
up here talking. Children can figure that out, can't they?
Look at verse 13. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! And that day, that's a harsh insult. You say one thing, do another.
These men knew something about manhood. They wasn't boys that
could shave. He said, you said something and you didn't do it,
you're a hypocrite. Oh, that was a weighty charge in those
days. He said, one of you scribes of Pharisees, you hypocrites,
for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men. For you neither
go in yourselves, neither suffer them that are going to enter
in to go in. I said, you can't come here, you can't worship
like that, you stop doing this. You can't be part of God's kingdom
drinking or eating or whatever, you fill in the blank, pick something.
He said, you ain't even going in there yourself and you're
shutting people out. Woe unto you, verse 14, scribes and Pharisees,
you hypocrites, for you devour widows' houses. I've seen that
on TV. I don't have TV anymore, but
every night I'm in a motel. and there's widows going around
giving their money to multi-millionaires. They're taking money out of their
social security. They can't work. Not that they won't. The Lord
said, if they won't work, don't feed them. Is that what he said?
If they can't work because they're on social security and they're
old and they're widows and nobody take care of them and they're giving half
their money to some multi-millionaire that owns a jet on TV. They make
merchandise of men's souls. And for a pretense, make a long
prayer. You give me your money. Oh, we'll sit down, hold hands
and pray. That's prayer for hire, isn't it? Blasphemous things. Hypocrites, what they are. Therefore
you shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, verse
15, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you compass the
sea and land to make one proselyte, to make one convert, and when
he is made, you make him a two-fold child of hell more than yourselves.
You search this nation. You chase people down in parking
lots. Oh, please stay. What can we do to make you happy?
That's a Pharisee. That's a hypocrite. God says
this. I don't like that. I want you
to please reconsider, Kevin. No, if he keeps me, if he keeps
me. Here's the text I want to look
at verse 23 because it's preaching the word, right? He lays them
clean out. Matthew 23, 23. Woe unto you
scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. For you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin. That's the smallest things you
can get. Itty bitty things, you will weigh it out. And have omitted
the weightier matters of the law. You use clean mist, the
heavy stuff. You own these little tiny lot
matters. You strain at a gnat and you swallow a camel. That's
what he said, wasn't it? You're worried to death about
goldfish. You worried to death about stuff
that don't matter, itty-bitty things, and you were clean missing
the heavy doctrine. You're clean missing the weightier
matters of the law. You missed it. Is it a big deal
to miss Christ? That's called eternal damnation,
isn't it? Well, what are they? Lord, tell
us. What are these things? What's
the heavy doctrine? What's the weighty things? He
tells us. Here's the weighty things of the law. Judgment,
mercy, and faith. These ought ye to have done and
not leave the other undone. You ought to have done this instead
of leaving these undone. You've left these undone. I've
heard people preach. I wrote very wrongly, and then
I went back and made sure I spelled it right. I've heard people preach
this verse heretically. Heretics have took this verse
and they said believers are still to tithe. You need to take a
grammar class first off. A boy from Big Creek, Kentucky
is going to get you on commas. Probably ought not to get you
another job. But that's absolutely not right.
That's not so. No. What are we told? Every man
according as he hath purposed in his heart, so let him give.
As the Lord's increased you, that's how we give. How much? Whatever the Lord lays on your
heart. I want him to lay more on my heart. We'll get up a little
earlier, stay up a little later, won't we? Laboring for him, for
God loveth a cheerful giver. So that's giving, that's in 2
Corinthians 9, 7. That's not what this verse is talking about.
He said, you've left, you've watched the little things, you
left judgment and mercy and faith, you've left those undone. You
should have focused on these and let the cooman go. It's eternal
life and death, buddy. Stay with me now, I'll be quick,
okay? All that law is, that weighty matters of the law. What's the
law? One, it's any word that God says, right? We think of
Moses, whatever he says, precepts, anything. But that law, and we
look at it, and the more I see it, the vaster it is, and the
Levitical law, anything. And the more I see, I can't keep
it. And so the purpose of that law, it's a schoolmaster. That's
a hired slave that all his job was was to take kids to school
and back. I'm going to make sure you get there. You ain't playing
hooky today. Or I'm going to get the beating. And he'd train
them children up, whip them a little bit, keep them in line and get
them to school and bring them home. That's all the schoolmaster
did. The law is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. That's all that law is. And people
miss it. They say, well, we got to, you got to go out and get
some coriander seed and you're going to weigh that out. Make
sure you give the Lord his tip, his 10% on it. You missed it. He said, you're a hypocrite.
Stop. Woe unto you. You missed a weighty thing, a
heavy doctrine. What's this heavy doctrine of judgment? The law,
every word of God, it declares justice and judgment. My brother
Scott Richardson in 1985 had a bulletin article in his bulletin,
and it said, God will punish sin. Scott Richardson. That's a comment. Why are people
afraid to die? I know my family members, I know
some of y'all's family members, they're terrified of death. Why?
Judgment's coming. The Lord's laid it on their heart.
They know in some sense, Ezekiel 18 says, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. It's gotta die. He will by no
means clear the guilty, will he? And the Lord's right to do
so. He's right. That's what, whenever
he come to Abraham, he said, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm
gonna wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah. And all, but he started praying
it. Oh, what if there's one righteous? Be it far from me. He said, shall
not the judge of heaven and earth do right? Lord, ain't you going
to judge right? You're going to judge, but ain't
you going to judge right? I think most people will agree with me.
God's going to punish sin. He's the judge of heaven and
earth, and we're going to stand before him either in ourselves
or in Christ. But he's the judge. You understand
that? Now, worldly, I think most people
would agree with me. Don't bribe a judge if you go
into court. If you get jury duty, don't go up to him and say, I'll
give you 50 bucks if you get me off here. Don't do that. If you're guilty of a crime,
say, judge, you need a new Porsche? Maybe I'll get you a Cadillac,
and I don't have to stand on this trial. You won't have to
charge me. Don't do that. You're bribing
an officer of the court. You're going to go to prison.
We understand that, right? Sane people understand that?
Most people get that? That seems so logical in a practical
realm, doesn't it? That just makes sense. Natural
man tries his best to drive God. Our old nature says, I did something,
you're gonna do something for me. Or I've done something in
the past, why are you doing this to me now? Who do you think you
are, God? That's us by nature, we're at
war with him. And if the Lord saved us and gave us a new nature,
we still have that old nature in us, I do too. It ain't gonna
go away till this body of death perishes." And I think, why am
I going through this? Look at all I've gave. I've gave everything,
Lord. I'm like, Peter, haven't we forsook
all and followed you? That's me. What a reasonable
service he gave that man, didn't he? Judgment, judgment. Don't bribe that judge. He's
gonna do right. judge of heaven and earth. God
judges the righteous, and he's angry with the wicked every day.
Natural man thinks, well, it's just a man upstairs. Let me talk
to him. We'll sort this thing out. God's love. Oh, he is. He's also angry with
the wicked every day, those outside of his son. David said that in Psalm 51,
he said, for I acknowledge my transgressions, my sins ever
before me against thee and thee only. The judge, have I sinned,
I've done this evil in your sight, that thou mayest be justified
when thou speak, and clear when thou judgest. What you do is
right, Lord. Right now, if the Lord condemned
me to hell forever, he's right in doing so. And me standing
alone by myself, he's right to do so. Is anybody talking about
that in this day and age? What about on the internet machine?
Is there a lot of people talking about God's just? He's gonna punish
sin. And pleading with you, please,
the Lord may take you home in 15 minutes, bow to him. Cry for
mercy. How can man be just with God?
That's what Job asked, wasn't it? How can a man be justified
with God? And how can he be clean that's
born out of a woman? I know what I am. I'm guilty. He's the judge. Judgment's coming. If thou, Lord,
shouldst mark iniquity, David said, O Lord, who shall stand?
Sin, the noun, the feminine noun that we are, born of Adam's race,
we're conceived in sin, we come out of the womb speaking lies,
and we drink it like water. We're in trouble. We're in trouble. Jonah had that message. The least,
the worst preacher, the second worst preacher that ever walked
past this earth had what, a couple million people? saved from his
preaching. He said, 40 days. None of it's
going to be overthrown. That was it. That's all I said.
It's a warning, wasn't it? The Lord said, you've left off
those weightier matters. You left off what God's going to
punish sin. If the Lord be pleased to make that weighty, to make
that heavy, to make that a burden on our soul, The only hope we're
gonna have is to cry for mercy. Do you know that? If we could
get a revelation, we'll sit next to her. If God will reveal to
us judgment, he's holy. An unclean thing can't be in
his presence. He will reveal that to our new man in us and
that new man will cry out for mercy. Mercy. Mercy, the law,
every word of God, it declares our need of mercy. That's a weighty
thing. And he tells us where to find
it. What's mercy? Mercy is not getting what you do deserve. Go down to a prison. How many
guilty people are you going to find? Not many, not many. You go down to prison, you see
some fella and say, I had it coming. If they turn me loose, I'm going
to do it again. I'll do it 10 times worse. I'll do it faster, more
efficient. I'm guilty. I had it coming. Mercy is not
getting what we deserve. That's what we need. All born
of Adams race. We deserve, we've rightfully
earned all by ourselves in Adam and imputation and impartation
in, in, in acting. We deserve damnation and we don't
want what we got coming to us. And so we cry mercy, mercy, where
we find it. Where can you find mercy? who's
a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, that passeth by the
transgression of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth
not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy." That's
what Marcus said. The Lord delights to show mercy.
He's happy to. The Lord passed by before him,
it says in Exodus 34, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands. Well, this ain't just for one
or two, maybe I'm one in thousands. I need mercy. I don't deserve
it. That ain't mercy. People say, I don't deserve to
be gracious to them. I don't deserve to be merciful to them.
Yeah, that's what the words mean. It's unmerited. You don't deserve
it. I always think of that beggar,
Luke 18, it came to pass when the Lord was coming close to
Jericho, a certain blind man, he sat by the wayside begging,
begging. Just like these fellas that's
out there more and more, about to be right there in a Mercedes
Benz and a $200,000 fifth wheel, begging. He heard a multitude
pass by and he said, what's that mean? He heard something and
somebody told him and said, Jesus of Nazareth's passing by, the
Savior's coming. And he cried, Jesus, thou son
of David, have mercy on me. He knew what he was. He knew
he's the Savior. And he said, mercy, mercy. And
they rebuked him. And they said, you hush. You
stop talking out loud like that. And he cried to much more, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And the Lord stood still. He
stopped walking. He said, bring him over here.
He said, what do you want me to do to you? He said, give him
my sight. And he said, receive thy sight, thy faith. You knew
what judgment was. You knew you needed mercy. You
asked for it. And he said, your faith saved you. Now go on. We must be given a new life to
know that old man is nothing but judgment waiting to happen.
We're at war with God and you're about to lose. You hate him. He's going to kill you. And that
worm, it never dies. And we must be given a new creation
that cries to the Lord for mercy, begs him. If everybody's starving to death
right now, and I had a big old pot of stew, you reckon I'd have
all eyes on the stew? I want all eyes on him, okay?
We're gonna be giving that new creation that cries for mercy,
and knowing he's able, that's saving faith. He's giving it.
He's giving it. Mercy's weighty, isn't it? The need for mercy is all-consuming. You ever lived through that?
Have you ever seen your sin and what's gonna happen to you the
second God makes your heart stop pumping and you can't get out
of bed? I don't know if I can go to work today. I'm gonna die. I was reminded of that, I about
stepped on two snakes yesterday. I mean a foot and a half, and
I high stepped it and ran. I blew my knee out again, I'm
limping something horrible today. I needed to be saved from that
snake, didn't I? You ever had that just completely take over
your entire body? I need mercy, because I know
what I am. That's weighty. Is that heavy?
Is that high doctrine? I don't know if it's high doctrine,
it's heavy doctrine, it'll bring you low. And finally, faith's
heavy, too. The Lord said, you missed these
heavy things, these weighty things. Judgment, mercy, faith. Faith,
the law, every word of God, it declares the one we believe in
to find mercy. We believe in him, isn't it?
David says, surely his salvation is nigh unto them that fear him.
You got to know him to fear him. That glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Remember, He's a holy God. Well, how can
He be just and justify me? How can He be the God of judgment
and me have mercy? It's gonna be in His Son, isn't
it? At Calvary. Where'd that take
place? At Calvary, didn't it? Justice and judgment are the
inhabitation of thy throne. It's your business. A man sits
down with a little spreadsheet and says, well, this is sanctification,
and this is justice, and you've got righteousness over here,
and there's sin, iniquity, and transgressions. Okay, those are
different things. That's his business. Do those
things mean different things? They sure do. It's his business. Judgment and justice are the
inhabitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth shall go before
thy face. We're going to see all these
things happen in a holy way and truth and justice that's right
because he's a holy God and mercy is coming with it. He's going
to do both. How? At Calvary. By making us
one with his son and all of our wrath and all of our punishment
and everything that I rightfully earned. That's why I don't want
to sin no more. That's one more hair plucked out of the beard,
isn't it? One more second that God turned his back on God because
of me. Because of me. But it's done, it's finished,
and what do we say? Mercy there, at Calvary, mercy
there was great. That's where the mercy comes,
and grace was free. Not earned grace, free grace.
Mercy there was great and grace was free. Pardon there, Calvary,
was multiplied to me. Multiplied to me, where, at Calvary.
At Calvary, that's where it took place. By his faithfulness, by
the faith of Christ, he's justified us. Rightfully so, rightfully
so. Paul said, knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. Because
of his faith, we believe in his faith. You get that? that we
might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works
of the law, for by the works of law shall no flesh be justified.
He told him, he said, y'all missed it. There's some heavy stuff
going on. And you better pay attention.
Justice, mercy, faith. And we believe him for all those
things, don't we? Turn over to 1 John real quick, we'll close.
1 John 5. We heard Paul say those things.
We'll see this next hour or two. We heard Timothy said the same
thing. Titus said the same thing. The
Lord said these things, didn't he? And then on throughout history,
I could name a bunch of them. Even in 1950, somebody stood
up and said these things. Even in 1996, somebody said these
things. Even in 2023, somewhere, somebody's
saying these things, isn't it? Do we believe it? Are we sinners? I can find one, buddy. 1 John
5, verse 9. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son, We have that faith. We cry to him for mercy. He's
satisfied all judgment for us that we earned. He that believeth
on the Son hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son. He told what he did at Calvary.
And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in his son. He that hath the son hath life,
and he that hath not the son hath not life. Believe him. Have faith. We work it backwards
sometimes, don't we? It plays out in us backwards. Bow to God's
word and believe it. Well, I'm in trouble. Yeah, cry
out to him for mercy. He's faithful to give it. He
delights to do it. I'm pretty comfortable now. I've been grown
a little bit. Remember what we started with,
preaching the word? I have some assurance. I've been grown in
grace. I have some understanding. Good things, isn't it? I pray
you'll be with us. All right. Father, thank you for this word.
Lord, forgive us for what we are and keep us from ourselves
and keep us from sinning and wandering from your son. Mercy beggars, Lord. He's faithfully
provided. Make us look to him and be thankful
and have the faith to walk as your children in this world and
Be glad to thank Christ for what he's done for us. Be with our
brethren, Lord, who aren't with us and those that are suffering
and those that are alone and have no assurance, Lord. Bring
your sheep to the fold as you see fit. Thank you for this day. Be with us. Have your spirit
with us as it pleases you. It's in Christ's name that we
ask it. Amen.