Second Corinthians chapter 13
is our text on second Corinthians 13. Now, it's just a fact that. Most of the time, in order for
you to get a blessing from For more people to get a blessing,
I need to get a blessing out of work, because that's the way
it comes out. Right? That's a fact. However,
I am very confident that every message that exalts God, abases
the sinner, exalts Christ, sets him forth, and comforts the believer
is a good message. No matter how it comes out. And
there is good to be had from it. Edification. But, as I said, if I'm blessed,
generally speaking, you are blessed. And I was greatly blessed by
studying this. And I'm looking forward to looking
at it with you. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Now the Lord gives Five exhortations here in these
last few verses. And their commands really. Five
things which promote peace and ensure the presence of God. Verse
11, the last line of verse 11 says this, and the God of love
and peace shall be with you. And I want that, don't you? I
want that. So what is it that gives us peace
and ensures God's presence with us? All right, let's look at
it. Verse 11. Finally, brethren. Finally, brethren. This is to the church. This is
to believers. I reserve this for tonight because
most who are here tonight give some evidence of being believers.
Finally, brethren. Finally, he said, in conclusion.
One final thing, you know generally the last thing you say is of
greatest importance or that is something you want to stick in
the minds of the people. Well that's what he, I said the
Lord, it is the Lord, it's not Paul. But the Lord, the last
thing he gives us here is what we need to keep in mind. All
right he goes on. Finally brethren, farewell. Now,
this is not just a formal goodbye. We do that too much, don't we? Goodbye. It's just a word. Not here. When the Lord had Paul
write this, it was from a heartfelt desire on Paul's part, from the
heart of the Lord, that they would fare well. That's a good
term, really better than goodbye. Goodbye is a slang, is a misuse
of the term God bless you. That's where we got that. So
it's really not good, but this is good. Farewell. May you fare
well. May it fare well with you. May you, by God's grace, fare
well. John said this in his salutation to the church, he
said, Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in health, even as thy soul prosper. I want you to fare
well all the way around spiritually and materially. Don't you wish
that for the brethren? OK, fare well. Now he gives five
vital exhortations. This is an interesting night.
Five vital exhortations. Five vital exhortations. All right, first thing, verse
eleven. Be perfect. Be perfect. Well, you know that
that does not mean perfection in character and that is absolute
without, without sin or without flaw. The word perfect generally
means mature, or that is complete, like a whole person, well-rounded. Be mature, be complete. In verse 9, he says this also
in verse 9, we are glad when we are weak and you are strong,
this also we wish even your perfection. This is what we long for. Paul says we, he means the other
apostles, other preachers. This is what we long for, for
you, is that you be well-rounded or complete or mature in the
faith, mature. Now, a parent's goal for their
child, all parents who have children, well, if you're a parent, you
have children, all who have children, What they wish for in their children
is that they may grow up to become responsible, mature, well-rounded
adults. Right? That's what you hope for
in your children. It's the same spiritually. It's exactly the same. This is
God's purpose for us. Look at Ephesians chapter 4.
God's purpose for all his children. for and God's Word is the best
commentary on God's Word. Here's what it means to be perfect
or mature and this is how we are perfected in some Ephesians
four verse. Well, let's read beginning with
verse ten. He that descended that is Christ is the same also
that ascended far above all heavens that he might feel, or that is,
fulfill all things. And he gave, that is, when he
left this earth, he gave some apostles, some prophets, some
evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting,
for the maturity, the growth of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying the feeding of the body of Christ.
When you feed something, what is your hope? It's that you'll
grow. So go on. Till we all come in
the unity of the faith. We're going to talk about that
in a moment. The unity and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto, this is the goal, this is the aim, unto a perfect or
mature man or woman or young person. Unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. This is exactly what salvation
is all about, that we be just like Christ. That's what God
has purposed. Read on. That we henceforth be
no more children tossed to and fro. Another place Paul said,
or the Lord said through Paul, said, be children in malice,
or that is, don't have any malice like children. Don't have any.
But be men and understand So he says here that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro, that is, carried about
with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men, cunning and
crappiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive. You know,
children are easily led astray and easily influenced and convinced
about things. We don't need to be like that. But, verse 15, speaking the truth
in love that we may grow up into him in Christ in all things. It goes on to talk about the
increase of the body edifying itself. So he says, be perfect. This is what we wish for you.
Go back to the text. This is what we wish for you.
This is our desire. Now, you don't expect too much
out of babies, do you? You just don't expect too much
out of little infants nor toddlers. You don't expect too much out
of them. They're just learning. You don't expect too much out
of adolescents. You don't expect too much really
out of teens or even young adults. But now when a person starts
getting into their thirties and forties and fifties, you ought
to expect something out of them. Right? They ought to be showing
a certain level of maturity. Well, it's the same spiritually
speaking. And we ought to be acting like a
mature believer. So this is what he said. This
is what I want for you is that you be perfect, that is, mature. We need to grow up and mature
and act like a mature believer, like someone. We need to act like, eventually,
act like someone who really believes. what God said, and acts like
it. That's the way I want to be,
don't you? Because it brings reproach on our God to act contrary
to what His Word said. So we, that's the goal. But what
is it that causes us to grow, to mature? What is it that makes
us, that perfects us? What is it that causes us to
be wise, to be complete? Well, what did Peter say? Peter
said, desire something. Desire something that you may
grow thereby. Desire the sincere milk of the
Word. Not only does faith come by hearing
the Word, but growth in grace, the knowledge of Christ, comes
by hearing the Word. It stands to reason the more
you're under it, the more you use it, God will it, the more
you'll grow from it and benefit from it and mature in it. The
Word of God causes us to grow. The Word. It's called various
foods, meat, milk, bread, water, honey. So the Word of God is
nutrition. Word, what else? What else causes
us to grow, to mature, to become complete? Trials. Trials. James said this. Go over to the book of James.
The book of James. James said this in verse 2. Let's read verse 2, or chapter
1, verse 2 through Or, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall
into different temptation, that is, trial. We're going to see
in a minute why we should count it joy. Knowing this, you need
to know this, that the trying of your faith, the trial, worketh
patiently. You don't know if you had faith
until it's tried, you know. It's easy to say you believe
something, but then when the trial comes along, that's the
only way you know. Let patience, verse four, let
patience. This patience is waiting on the
Lord is what that is, waiting on the Lord. Wait to see his
purposeful gift. Instead of like a little child,
you know, so anxious and fraught with worry. Let patience have
her perfect what? That you may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing. Now, anybody like wisdom? Ask
them, ask God who gives liberty. All right, so go back to the
text. So the word of God causes us
to grow, causes us to mature in the faith, and trials do the
same. So brethren, he says, be perfect.
It's not something you can just be. And yet it is a, what's the
word, injunction. The Word of God over and over
tells us to grow up. Don't be like that. Don't act like that. Grow up.
Be a man. Quit yourself like men, like
women. Don't be that way. Don't act that way. Stop that.
Quit that. Just like a father tells his children. All right. Look at the next thing. He says,
Be of good comfort. Be of good comfort. Now go with
me to first Thessalonians chapter 3, 1 Thessalonians chapter 3. Now spiritual maturity, he said,
be perfect. Spiritual maturity will cause
you to be of great comfort. You know, the more you grow in
grace and the knowledge of Christ, the more comfort you have. The
more comfort you have, the more you believe God, The more you
trust Christ, the more comfort you have. The more God proves
His Word to you through experience, through trial, the more comfort
you have. See, it goes hand in hand. See? Of good comfort. What is it that gives us great
comfort? Look at 1 Thessalonians 3, verses
2 and 3. He said, I sent Timothy, our
brother and minister of God, our fellow laborer, in the gospel
of Christ. to establish you, to comfort
you concerning your faith. This is what comforts. This is
what gives comfort, the gospel of Christ which grants faith. That no man, verse three, that
no man, no woman, no one should be moved by these afflictions. For you yourself, you yourself
know we were appointed unto them. So don't be surprised. Now I
remind you, that this was the early church. The Thessalonians
were in constant persecution and trial and difficulty. Their
lives were in danger, day in and day out. And so Paul, the
Lord through Paul says, I'm sending Timothy, another preacher of
the gospel. Second Thessalonians 2. Second
Thessalonians 2. What is it that comforts us? Well, look at this. This is it. This is the gospel.
2 Thessalonians 2, verses 16 and 17. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ
himself, and God, even our Father. The Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God, our Father, which hath loved us. God, I can say this to every
believer. I can say this to every man.
without exception, but I can say to every believer, everyone
who believes God, everyone who believes Christ, everyone who
looks to Christ for their salvation. I can say, smile. God loves you. Yes, sir. God loves you. And it has not yet appeared unto
them the things that God has prepared for them, that he loves
and that love him. I tell you this about those that
Love God and He loves everything working together for their good.
Everything. Count on that. Now the God who loves us and
has given us everlasting consolation. Consolation. We tend to think
of a consolation prize as something less than the best. Not God's consolation. You know,
the world gets the world. Don't be jealous of that. We
get the consolation. We get the consolation. We get
what God has for his people. And the God who loves us and
has given us everlasting, eternal consolation and good hope. We don't grieve, we don't sorrow,
we don't are troubled as those who have no hope. Because we
have good hope. Why? How? Through grace. Good hope through grace. I love
that verse. John, that's our favorite verse
in the Bible, John, is where Paul said, Now it's by grace
and by faith that it might be sure to all to see. That's your favorite verse? Right
now it is. It's by grace. that it might be sure all the
same. If it was by works, Dan there, I esteem a better
man than myself, he'd make it. I wouldn't. If it was by works,
Henry would make it. I wouldn't. But it's by grace.
So I have good hope that I'll be there. The thief on the cross
had good hope, didn't he? Mary Magdalene had good hope.
Blind Bartimaeus, they had good hope. Why? Because it's through
grace. Well, this comforts you. Verse 17. May this comfort your
heart and establish you. That is, cause you to grow and
stand firm in every good word and work. All right, go back
to the text. Now, the gospel comforts us.
What else comforts us? What else comforts us? Well,
the same thing that causes us to grow. David said, Thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. Thy rod and thy staff. Now, a
rod you could think of as a rod of chastisement, right? Spare
the rod, spoil the child. So God does not spare the rod. Now, you say, we say, oh, I don't
want to be chasing Yes, you do. If you don't, if you be without
chastisement, you're a bastard. But here's the thing about it.
When we think of chasing him most of the time, we think that
he's going to take something away from him. Really. We think something bad is going
to happen. Is that what you do every time
to your children when you're chasing them? You take a ball
bat and knock their block off? take everything away from them
or do something severe to them? What do you generally, speaking,
how do you chasten your children? Ninety percent of the time, how
do you chasten them? With the Word. With the Word. And that's how
God chastens them. Does God's Word chasten you?
Huh? I'm asking you now, because this
is what it does to every child of his. Chases of this God word. Conviction. Convince you of sin. Righteousness. Just as God's
word. Whenever you go astray, does God's word chasing you? Oh, that's good. That's good. You want chasing it? That's how
God chases us most of the time. And according to his will and
purpose, he often does. remove things from us that are
hurtful, or whatever, according to his purpose, and he does things
according to his all-wise purpose. And it's, you can count on it
being the very bed. So David said, thy rod comforts
me, and the staff being the word of God. So if God chastens me
through his word, I must be one of his child, one of his children.
You remember the story Turn over with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter
4. 1 Thessalonians 4. Do you remember
the story I told about Walter and Gruber's adopted Mexican
daughter? Some of you don't. I'm going
to tell it again. They adopted, years ago, a young Mexican girl
named Chela, the most beautiful. Every one of those Mexican children
is beautiful. She was especially beautiful. She was a model child. She never
did anything wrong. Can you imagine that, sir? That
child never did anything wrong. Well, Chayla was that way. Never. She was just a model child. And
while Walter and Betty's sons, Cody, Kevin, who else? Three daughters. Lisa
and Best, I knew them, Gina. They're Betty's boys. While those
five were, you know, typical. Kids getting in the main all
of that and Walter and Betty Walter just wearing out his belt
on Cody you know and so forth well China. Never did anything
to serve. Well. One day. She pitched it for no reason. She did, she just did something
totally out of character, just pitched a fit and would not be
corrected. And Walter kept telling her,
honey, if you don't straighten up, I'm going to have to whip
you. And she just went on all the more. Now he said, OK. He took her in the back room,
whipped her, and he said while he was whipping her, a big smile
came on her face, through tears, a big smile came on her face. And Walter said, honey, What's
wrong? What is it? What are you doing?
She said, Now I know you love me like the rest of your children. I feel like one of them. So that's
what the Lord does to all his children. He chastens them. He
chastens them. God's word chastens you, and
you will in due time, according to God's purpose and will, go
through trials. deprivations and losses and difficulty. Yes, you will. It's the weaning
process from this world. It's not easy, but God gives
the consolation and comfort. So be of good comfort. Be of
good comfort. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 18 says
this, comfort one another with these words. Comfort one another with these
words. Chapter 5 verse 11, comfort yourselves together. And if I
want another even as also you do so what comforts of God's
Word. Don't you get some degree of
comfort every time you're on the gospel. The gospel is our
God's chastening rod. Comforts of fellowship of science. Comforts. Comforts that. Who better to
be with? Now, we're all human, and sometimes
when we go through a difficulty or a problem or whatever it may
be, we tend to want to go off to ourselves and be alone with
our troubles and sorrows. And that only increases the problem,
unless you're alone with God the whole time. But who better
to be with and who better to derive some comfort from than
those who have been through the same thing. And those who believe
the same thing. And those who derive their comfort
from the same thing. So we get comfort from the brethren. Fellowship. Peter, let me give
you a good illustration of this. And there's only comfort to be
had in the fellowship of believers. sat by a fire warming himself
with a bunch of unbelievers. A bunch of unbelievers around
that fire and none of God's people. He forsook the assembly, forsook
the Lord and the assembly of the brethren. They all went in
their own direction, scattered their own way. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We've gone each to our own Well,
this is what Peter did, and he sat by that fire warming himself
with the Lord's enemies. You can't warm yourself with
the Lord's enemies. Can you? No, sir. Well, when
it was all over, he went out and wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. He didn't get any comfort around
that bunch. But now when the Lord sent the
word, the disciples and Peter. And when Peter got back around
the fire with his brethren, when he got back around the fire,
my word is a fire, hammer of fire, when he got back around
the fire with his brethren, he was comforted. He was comforted. So we get good comfort from the
brethren. They have good comfort. Be of
good comfort. All right, look at the next thing.
Go back to the text. He says in verse 11, 2 Corinthians
13, verse 11, he says, Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one
mind. Be of one mind. It says this
a lot in Scripture that day. Be of one mind, unity. Now, there's
no doubt that all of God's people believe the same. I believe the
same, but Gabe and I, Gabe's been reading an old, well, he's
been reading John Warburton's book. And I was telling him about
some others he would enjoy. Well, those fellas lived hundreds
of years ago. But reading them, their experience,
reading their belief is just like reading Tom Hardy or John
Davis or one of us. They're one of us. Why? All God's
people believe the same. They sure do. All God's people
believe the same. That's what the Scripture says.
They have one hope, their calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
because they have one God and one Father. And they'll all be
taught of God, our Lord said. Every one of them. All thy children.
Our Lord took that from Isaiah, which says, All thy children
shall be taught of thee. and great shall be the peace
of my children. God the Father instructs all
his children the same way about himself, about his son, about
salvation, about themselves, about vital truth. Yes, sir. That's a fact, no doubt about
that. But what he's talking about here
is, this is again, this is a positive injunction that you be of one
mind, that is in unity of and purpose. Think a lot. You need
to think a lot. You need to think a lot. That's what family does, don't
you, Nancy? Family thinks a lot. The more you grow up together,
the more you think a lot. I am my father. I am my father. Absolutely. We think just a lot. We do things
just a lot. That's the way it ought to be.
That's the way it ought to be. in the body of Christ. Unity
of purpose. What is our purpose? Why? What
is this all about? Now, most religion today is just
a social club, a place for singles to meet or doubles or whatever,
you know, for a gymnasium. They ought to call all these
places the YMCA. That's what they ought to call
them. What's this all about? Worship. Glory of God. We're here to glorify
God through worship, through preaching of the gospel. And so everything is to that end, everything we
do. That's the way we ought to be thinking. Every person in
here ought to be thinking that. In other words, our own personal
preferences, our own personal opinions do not belong here. What I think, or what is convenient
for me, is not in the equation. But what is for God's glory,
how we do things. Honestly, I'm telling you from
the bottom of my heart, and I endeavor by God's grace, and from the
wisest man in our generation that I learned from. I'm telling
you, he's the wisest man in our present generation. My pastor. And I endeavor to do everything
exactly the way he does. I've seen the fruit of it. I've
seen the wisdom of it. I've experienced the wisdom of
it. And will experience more. God will, as time goes on. So
we're doing things just like that. And it's, it all renounced
to God, and God blesses it. Doesn't it? Doesn't it, Tammy?
You're going to find, God blesses it greatly, abundantly. We're a result of that. This
whole church, everybody in here is a, is a indirect result of
that. So, what we do, everything, everything,
down to the smallest detail, folks, I'm telling you the truth. to seek God's will from this
book and from the wisdom that I learned from him to do thing,
everything with that in mind. With my own, with my own preferences. God's glory, good of the body.
It's not what's best for me. It's what's best for us. It's
not how's this going to, what am I going to get out of this?
No, no, no, no. Go with me to Romans 12, Romans
chapter 12. Well, I didn't even read that
verse over in Ephesians 4, but he said that the body might edify
itself. That was the verse I left out.
I should have read it. Sometimes I think I read too much scripture.
I can't do that, really. The effectual working of the
measure of every part edifies itself in life. Romans chapter
12, we need to think alike when it comes to not only worship,
matters in the church, but this thing of service. Romans 12 verse
2, be not conformed to the world. The world is selfish. That's what the scripture says,
in the latter day perilous time men shall be lovers of self. There's even a magazine out with
that title. Self. You. Us. Me. We. That's not what this is all about.
Selfish. The world is selfish, consumed
with themselves. When God converts someone, when
God saves a person, He makes that person quit thinking about
themselves so much and start thinking about others. This is
what the Lord begins to teach all of his children till they
grow up and mature to find out that it's better, it's more blessed
to give than to receive. That's maturity. Romans 12, verse 2, be not conformed
to the world, but be rather transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And in verse 4 and 5, we have many members in one body, and
all members have not the same author. So we, being many, are
one body in Christ, and every one member is one of another.
Whatever I do affects you, and whatever you do affects me. It
can't be in the Bible of John. So be kindly affection one to
another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another. You know, my little toe serves
my right hand. Doesn't it? Yeah, somehow. Every member of my body serves
the other parts of the body. Yes, it does. My liver. You never
see it. Aren't you glad? But it serves every part of my
body, doesn't it? It's an unseen part. Every part
serves the other part. Not itself. Not itself, but the other part.
It all works together, edifying of itself. God's Word is so complete
and so perfect. Verse 15, he says, Rejoice with
them that do rejoice. I'll be genuinely happy with
those that are blessed and rejoice with them. Don't you love it
when somebody just really rejoices over your blessings and so forth? Let me just use you, Stan. When
you had that newborn grandbaby, you rejoiced it. And what you
rejoiced when somebody else really rejoiced. I went down there,
and when that baby first came to the nursery, and I went in
there to see the little guy, and before I knew it, there were
women all around me. And I had to duck out of there.
They just swarmed. I didn't look at Jeanette's face,
but I guaranteed she was rejoicing. They were rejoicing with them.
And they were genuine, weren't they? Genuine. Rejoice with them that weep.
Weep with them that weep. We're all going to need the shoulder
to weep on someday. Weep with them that weep. Verse
sixteen, be of the same mind, one toward another. That's what
he's saying. See that? We have one mind. We
have the same mind. Do another, as our Lord said,
as you would have them do. What do you need? That's what
they do. That's the way we need to grow
up in. Don't we need to grow up like that? You and your 60
and that. Got room to grow? You and your
70 and that. Got room to grow? We haven't
arrived yet. Paul said that. haven't arrived
yet. He can think about others. He
had the same mind. On to another. Our Lord, and
I was going to go to Philippians 2, which is the greatest passage
in God's Word. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but took upon himself the form to serve. Let that mind be in you. Serve
others. And for this cause, God is highly
exalted in him. Let this mind be in you, the
mind of Christ. All right, go back to the text,
2 Corinthians 13. He says, fourthly, live in peace. This is not advice. God's Word
doesn't give advice. I use the word injunction. That
means it's imperative. It's absolutely necessary. It
means you better do it. It means if you don't do it,
you're in trouble, not only with God, but with yourself. You're
going to have trouble. That's what an injunction is. It's a
command. Live in peace. God hath ordained
peace in home, especially in church. And it all spills over. Live in peace. Our Lord said,
blessed are the peacemakers. who are the peacemakers. They're
called the sons of God, the children of God. Peacemakers, husbands
and wives, parents with children, neighbors, co-workers. He said,
in another place, as much as possible live in peace, dwell
in peace with all men. That cantankerous no-good neighbor
next door to you, smile at him, John. Even though he will knock
your block off, smile at him. It'll be better for you. Guarantee
it. Learning not to fight is part
of what growing up is, isn't it? Learning not to fight, learning
not to argue, learning not to strive with others. Learning
finally. I don't know when you learn this,
but I know it must be so. That when you finally come to
some degree of maturity, you learn that nobody ever wins in
an argument. You never win. Never win in a fight and argue.
Nobody ever wins. Nothing is ever accomplished.
A wrath of man doesn't work for righteousness. Won't do it. The opposite is
usually true. It's usually worse. Isn't it? It usually turns out worse when
you try to fight and argue and so forth. So, as much as possible. As much as life is within you.
live peaceably with all men. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Now, here's part of the problem. We're human. That's part of the
problem. That's the whole problem. We're
human. And we're liable to... Now, this
is why we fight and argue. And James said this. I'm paraphrasing
James. From which come wars and so forth. Come they not from your own loves.
That is, your own selfish motives and desire. We are prone to self-love,
self-pity, self-love. And we can get our feelings hurt
so quickly by somebody. Why? Because we love ourselves
so much. How could they do that to me? Who? Me. Why me? Who are you? I thought you were
the chief of sinners. Yeah, but she said, I love what old Spurgeon one
time said, he said, don't get mad or upset when people say
bad things about you, just be glad they don't know the whole
truth. That's right. And the problem
is we're thrown to self-love and we get our feelings hurt
so quickly and we lash out. But don't do that. We need to
grow up and learn that nobody ever wins in an argument. And
we need to realize, we need to come to a realization, especially
with our brethren, that they have bad days, bad days. Bad day, right? Brother Ed and
I have a bad hair day every day. Don't we? I'm sorry, misery loves company. Everybody has a bad day, and
they say things, they do things that they really don't mean.
God's people. So don't take it to heart. Love is Christ love. Forgive
is Christ forgive. How's that? He forgets it. He not only forgives it, he forgets
it. Somebody says, well, I forgive
you, but I'll never forgive. Well, then you didn't forget,
did you? Forgiveness is, I don't remember. I don't even remember. Let's pretend like it never happened.
That's forgiveness. Be perfect as your father is. That's what our Lord said in
Matthew 7. That person didn't really mean that. They're having
a bad day. Forgiven and forget it. And you're, why? Because
you're going to need it someday. You're going to have a bad day.
And you're going to say something. And you're going to offend, and
you're going to say things, do things you wish you hadn't done,
and your conscience is going to smite you, and you're going
to need their forgiveness. So, live in peace. Live in peace. Promote peace. The fruit of righteousness
is sown in peace by them that make peace. What's the fruit
of sowing peace? Righteousness. Wish I had time
to dwell on that, John. who it was to establish righteousness
by making peace for us. Christ. All right, look at the
next thing. Finally, brethren, be perfect,
be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the
God of love and peace shall be with you. That's what we're talking
about. God, our Father, smiles and frowns
just like an earthly father does. Right? Daddy used to hate to see my
frown. Doesn't see it much anymore. But she used to hate that. Made
her just feel bad. And it used to make me feel bad.
My dad's frown the same exact way. And our Heavenly Father
frowns. He can't smile on the wayward
child. Can't. Any more than we can.
He frowns. We feel that frown. And the Father smiles and gives
us instances of assurance through that smile. But His love, His
abiding presence, will be felt by His obedient children. That's
so. I'm not bypassing Christ. I'm
just telling you the fact. This is all that goes in Christ. His disfavor, His frown, His
absence, you'll think he's clean gone, will be felt by a selfish,
spoiled, wayward child. David says, Your mercy, clean
gone. David lost the felt presence of Christ because of his sin.
That's as it should be, until he's thoroughly convinced of
his sin, until he's repentant and comes back just like the
prodigal son. We've got to keep coming back
like the prodigal son. What's the Father do? Fell on his back and kissed him.
I love you, son. But you had to feel bad about
that, because it wasn't good. Well, that's good. That's what
he's chasing. Lastly, verse 12, greet one another
with a holy kiss. How many times have we read that? A lot. because it's written a
lot, then it must be important. Then, do you like to be loved? Do you like to feel wanted and
welcomed and needed? Do you like it? I was telling,
you know, we got a bunch of animals and they just vie for our attention. All they want is just us to scratch
their ear or pet their belly or something, you know. Everyone, everybody, I told many,
thing alive needs to be touched, made to feel wanted and welcomed
and loved. Yes, sir. He says here, greet
one another with a holy kiss. That's a holy kiss as opposed
to an intimate one between husband and wife. A holy kiss. Now, a kiss As you noted before,
it can be an actual kiss on the cheek. This is what they did,
and still do, over in those countries, and down in Latin American countries. But it doesn't have to be that. It can be an embrace, a hug,
or a warm, hearty handshake. You men might not feel like kissing
one night. That's just not the habit we're
into. It's a good habit to get into.
Old brother Don Bell, he does. I remember years ago, the first
time he walked up and kissed me, you know, he had a half a
day's growth of beard. I said, why do women like to
kiss men? I did, I thought, who would want
to be kissed by an old scrubby bearded fella? And he kissed me. And he's been
doing it ever since. I kind of like it now. Tell him,
shay first. No, honestly. He tells me, good
to see you, brother. I'm so glad to see you. Kiss
and embrace. Everybody wants that. Everybody
needs it. We need to receive affection.
But now to receive affection, you've got to show it. Right? To receive affection, you've
got to show it. If no one seems to greet you
like you want to be greeted, ask yourself, do I greet them? Probably not. Let me give you
an illustration. There was a young, and I've got
to tell this, it's a good I can't tell you, because it's
a little slow. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. you Okay. Thank you. uh... you I don't know. I don't know. Okay. Okay. you Okay, let's do it. Thank you. uh... Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you.