God's grace, grace that is greater
than all our sin. All right, let's go back to Nehemiah
chapter 8. I do hope you have a Bible with
you, and I hope you'll look at every verse with me. If not,
you will not be able to follow this message. Nehemiah chapter
8. Read verse 8 with me again. Nehemiah
8, verse 8. So, they read in the book, in
the law of God, distinctly. and gave the sense and caused
the people to understand the reading. Now, God's Word is his power. He created all things by his
Word. He said, Let there be light. Let us make man with the Word. Scripture says he upholds all
things by the word of his power. God speaks, and all things consist
and subsist and continue. We, God's people, are called
by his word. We are convicted by his word. We are regenerated, born again. by his word, begetting with his
word. No one has ever been saved by
a sermon. Nobody. No one has ever been
saved by a man's comments on God's word. God will not share
his glory with a man. No flesh can All the words from
all time of all men will perish. But Christ said, not one word
of mine will pass away. Not one. He said, David said,
Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Now, for these reasons and more,
We make much of this book. For these reasons and more, we
make much of the Word of God. Our sermons are simply—they're
simply—expositions of God's Word. That is, expounding God's Word,
reading God's Word, and giving the sense thereof. There's no message from God that
a man has just come up with. There's no message for the people
from God that a man gets by some happening, some experience he
had. God doesn't speak that way. God
speaks through his Word. He speaks first through his Word
to the man, and he just in turn tells it, the Word. use God's word. For these reasons
and more, we make much of God's word. Our sermons, our messages,
are simply expositions of God's word. We hope, in the course
of reading and declaring and expounding God's word, we hope
that God will take a word—it just takes one word. That God
will take one word of his power and smite the heart of someone
who is yet to be smitten. That God will take one word,
a word in season, his word of power, and speak to the heart
of those that need it. To comfort the heart as only
his word can and must. Convict the heart, and on and
on. We hope, that's what we hope. True story, Charles Spurgeon,
when he was called to—it was either the first place he pastored,
New Park Street, or perhaps it was Metropolitan Tabernacle in
London, England. At any rate, when he was called
to this church, he'd never preached there before, and one Saturday
morning, I believe it was, he went into the sanctuary, the
auditorium, and went up into the pulpit to test the acoustics. They didn't have microphones
back then. And he went up into the pulpit to merely test the
acoustics, to see what it sounded like in there. And I've done
that myself. Lo and behold, there was a janitor
up in the balcony of this building. He did—Spurgeon was not aware
the man was there, nor was the man, the janitor, aware that
Spurgeon had just stood up in that pulpit. Janitor sweeping
with his bones. Spurgeon, they say he had a great
voice. Spurgeon hollered out in Isaiah
45, 22, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.
If I am God, there is none else. That janitor heard that. The Lord saved that man. Can you believe that? Well, you
better. God never saved anyone by Spurgeon's
comments on the Word. He saved quite a few through
the Word, preached by Spurgeon. And so it is. We make much of
the Word of God. We're living in a day prophesied
by Hosea, a famine of the Word. I know everybody's got Bibles,
but they're not using them, folks. These fellas that stand up on
these poor pits of wood, they're not expounding God's Word. They're
not giving the sense of it. They're doing like Peter. They're
arresting the Scripture, twisting it, perverting it. They're doing
like Jeremiah said. And like Peter said, they rest
the Scripture. And they're doing like Jeremiah said, they're stealing
the words. They're holding back the word
there. But they're not expounding the whole counsel of God. They're
holding back what is offensive to the natural man and giving
him what they think the people were like. In the day when they would rather
tell their dreams or to entertain people, entertain the flesh,
now more than ever, we need to look at this book, don't we?
Now more than ever, we need to cry out as the people of God,
what does God say about it? Don't we? That's what God's people
are interested in. We want to know what God's Word
says. Not very many people do, do they?
God's people do. The people here in Ezra's day,
they said to Ezra, Ezra, get the book, didn't they? They said
to Ezra, bring the book. Come preach to us. Read the Word. I can imagine what Ezra felt
like. Well, I sure will. I'll be glad to. Yes, I'll bring
the book. I wouldn't come up there without
it. Bring the book. And you know, I've always thought
it would be time well spent for us on a Sunday morning or Wednesday
night just reading this book. So much of it really needs no comment. I've often thought that. It would
be time well spent. If I just stood up here, whoever—it
doesn't have to be me—whoever, would just stand up here and
read it, as long as they're a good reader. Read it distinctly, slowly,
carefully. That checks everywhere. And if
God the Holy Spirit would bless that, we could go home having
been blessed. There have been many times in
the reading that we have a Scripture reading every time. We don't
do that out of habit or duty. We don't do it because it's the
thing we've always done. We do it because it's just the
one thing they've taught. We've got to read God's Word.
We've got to hear from Him. This is why we're here, to hear
from God. There have been times after the
reading, whether it was me or whoever it was, God blessed it,
and I thought, we ought to just go home. We've been blessed.
Don't need to—as one young preacher stood up and said, I'm going
to confound God's Word today. And that's been done quite a
bit. He meant expound, bear with me. He meant expound it. He said,
I'm going to confound it. And that's been done quite a
bit by me and others. I've often thought it would be
a time well spent in just reading the God's Word. You know, that's
what Ezra did. Did you read it with me? And
they were standing there, and for six hours the people were
weeping. I mean, they were actually crying. Huh? God's Word was smiting their
hearts. I'd like to see tears for six
minutes in myself. So you know what I'm going to
do right now? I'm going to read. And if you're
interested, you're going to read it with me. God bless this effort. He said, Find me when you search
for me with all your heart. Search. Seek. God blesses the
actual reading of this Word, you looking at it with your own
eyes. The reason I have you turn to so many Scriptures is God
blesses me when I search for Scriptures and find one. There it is, a gem, a nugget,
a diamond, a taste of honey. A drop of precious water. He
blesses me. Search Him. And He won't bless
you unless you at least look at it. You've got to see it with
your eyes. The written Word. The written
Word. Search Him. I despise these computer
Bibles. I hate them with a passion. You
don't let somebody search for you. Dig it. Dig it yourself. with
a pick and shovel, with your own hand, your own eyes. Deuteronomy. Turn to the book
of Deuteronomy. What was it that Ezra read? He read from Genesis
through Deuteronomy. That's the books of Moses. That's
the Law of Moses. For six hours it took him to read it distinctly.
He read from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Now, don't worry. Don't worry. I'm just going to
take about 30 more minutes. But would to God that he would
allow us to be attentive to the Word for just 30 minutes. And
more than that, to be actually convicted by it. Deuteronomy—let
me say this by way of introduction. Deuteronomy is Moses rehearsing
before the people. Just a rehearsal, a reminder
to the people of all God's wonderful dealings with them. Where He
found them, what He's done for them, where He brought them to,
up to that point. That's what the whole book of
Deuteronomy is about, along with blessed instructions to them. Now, the Israelites, who this
is about. always, throughout God's Word,
represent the church. Always. Yes, they do. The Israelites
represent the church. Moses represents Christ. The church now—the visible church. Right here, we're looking at—I
have to look out at all this group of people here. You're
hearing this message. You're hearing this. You're reading
with me. Everybody in here is not going
to go in a promised land. Are they? No. Everybody that
heard Joseph didn't go in. Everybody that heard Moses didn't
go in. In the church, the visible church,
there's always wheat and tar. in the visible congregation is
always sheep and goats. The Lord knows. The Lord knows. And so, throughout the book,
throughout the book, there are promises to sheep, promises,
blessed promises, to the weak, promises. It's full of warnings
to the tares, to the goats, full of warnings. All right, let's
look at us. I'm not going to read the whole
book, but we're going to read quite a bit, and like I said,
if you don't follow along, well, this is God's Word. Deuteronomy
chapter 1 says, verse 1, These be the words which Moses spake
unto all Israel on this side Jordan. You and I are right now on this
side of Jordan. The people were standing at Jordan's
stormy banks. And over yonder is the Promised
Land. It's just a breadth between them, just a little crossing
over between them. It's right there. They're going
there. Somebody is. And Moses was reading this blessed
Word on this side of Jordan. And so are we. We're right there. We're a breath
away. We're a germ away. On this side, Jordan. Go over
to chapter four. Chapter four. On this side, Jordan,
Moses was reading. Now, Ezra's just reading. You
understand? Ezra's just reading. This is
now Moses is speaking to the people. Chapter 4, let's read
verses 1 through 6. Now, therefore, hearken, O Israel,
O church, unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach
you. For to do them did not James say, He that is a hearer only
deceives himself? Not the hearers of the word,
but the doers of the rest of God, he said. Hearken unto them,
I teach you, for to do them that you may live. And go in. That
there it is. To go in. It's not good just
to look at it, is it? And possess it. Experience it. Belay it with the Lord God of
our fathers giveth you. Verse 2, You shall not add unto
the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish from
it. that you may keep the commandments
of the Lord your God, which I command you." Your eyes have seen what
the Lord did because of Baal Peor. For all the men that followed
Baal Peor, you saw what God did to the unbelieving Baal worshipers. The Lord thy God hath destroyed
them from among you, but you that did cleave unto the Lord
your God are alive, every one of you to this day. You're alive. Behold, I have taught you statutes
and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that you
should do so in the land whether you go to possess it. Keep therefore
and do them." This is your wisdom and your understanding in the
sight of the nations which shall hear of all these statutes and
shall say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding
people. We have no wisdom but for this,
do we? We have no understanding. We're
like the rest of the blind without this, right? We need it, don't
we? Verse 9, look down at verse 9.
Oh, then take heed to thyself. We can't do it for anyone else,
can we? Not our children, not our husband,
wife, anybody. We cannot do it. How hard do
we try? We can't do it. Take heed to
yourself. We don't. To yourself, keep thy soul diligently. Now listen, the apostles preach
from this book. If you knew the Old Testament
well, you would see that everything they're saying in the New Testament
is a paraphrase of what has already been written. There's nothing
new. They weren't saying anything new. Moses, God said through Moses,
keep thyself. What did Paul say? Examine thyself
to see if you be in the faith. You know, the man or the woman
that constantly examines themselves to see if they really love the
gospel, really love Christ, be in the faith. Not just be in
the pew, but in the faith. The man or woman or young person
who constantly examines himself Lord, do I love thee or do I
not? Do I love the gospel or do I not? Do I believe this or
do I not? Examine yourself." He went on to say, "...keep thyself
diligently." Did not Peter say that over and over again? You're
diligent to make your call in elections here. What's diligence
mean? You ever been diligent about anything? That means you were about it. That's what you had your mind
on, you heard on. Be diligent, he said. Diligently. Chapter 4, verse 23. He said,
Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant. What's the covenant? I wish I could tell you. What's
the covenant? He said, take heed unto yourselves,
lest you forget the covenant. The covenant! These were a bunch
of no-good bums, these people. God didn't need these people.
They were no different. The Egyptians, the Jebusites,
the Hivites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, no different whatsoever.
A bunch of murmuring, complaining. God didn't think about God at
all. But God, in mercy, in infinite
grace, before the world began, setting his love, his mind, his
purpose, his affection on a bunch of no-good mobs who didn't give
a thought about him, who were eating his food and drinking
his water and being cold in his throat and breathing his air,
going on a lifetime without one thought of God Almighty. But
God, in a covenant in a blessed purpose said, I'm
going to save that bunch of rebels. I'm going to kill the rest of
them. Slaughter them in a great slaughter. Bunch of no good creatures. But not these. I'm going to set
my love and affection on them. I'm going to save every last
one of them. My son, you're going to have
to go down and save them yourself. You're going to have to do for
them what they will not do, what they cannot do. What they refuse to do, glorify
me, keep my word, and you're going to have to take their sin,
their punishment on you, and die. That's what they deserve.
Will you do it, son? In a covenant, the son said,
I will. In a marriage covenant, will
you take this no good harlot for your wife? The son says,
I will. And he says, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book that's written to me, to do thy will, O Lord.
It came. In that covenant, God the Father
says to the Holy Spirit, Will you, will you, in sovereign mercy
and grace and power, will you, in time through the preaching
of the gospel, arrest every one of those for whom my Son comes
and lives and dies for. Will you pursue Him and fetch
Him and convict Him and convince Him and slay Him and quicken
Him by your power? Will you pursue every last one
of all the sheep that are lost in Galilee's track without you?
Will you do it? In a covenants between the triune
God before the world again, a blessed, blessed, undeserving covenant,
God made an agreement concerning the likes of us. How could someone forget such
a thing? The recipients of such a thing,
how could they forget it? These Israelites, like I said,
were no different than the Egyptians, no different than anybody else.
and mercy and grace and love. Chose them. Went down to Egypt
in the person of Moses. Poured them out with a high hand.
Lived there for forty years. Did everything for them. And
all they did was murmur and complain. He didn't have to choose them
in the first place. How could they forget such love? How could they forget such mercy?
What—who and what could make them forget such a glorious thing
as that? Leeks and onions. You're talking about England.
They hadn't been out of town, out of Egypt, for a few days
until they said, we want to go back. We're missing those onions. Moses goes on to write in here
for goodly houses, for herds and flocks, for silver
and gold. We've all done it to a degree,
and these are the things that make us do it. They don't amount
to much more than leeks and onions and wood hay and stubble. Right? Forget God and such a glorious
gospel and so great a salvation for a mess of potage. We all do it to great degrees,
including this man. Oh, better hope to God you don't
do it. We don't do it. Lasting life. I've seen it. Listen to me. Listen to me. I've
seen it. I've seen people sit on the sound
of the gospel for years and leave. Why? For what? What could make someone leave
the gospel? A messy potage. More leeks and
onions. Goodly houses. Herds and flocks, gold and silver. I preach to people in here right
now, this urgent message, who at one time would listen with
a tear in their eye, and now see a smirk on their face. Take heed to yourself, lest you
forget Lest you forget. The Covenant. The Gospel. Look at verse 32. Here in chapter
4, verse 32. Ask now. Ask yourself. of the days that have passed,
which were before these, since the day God created man upon
the earth. Ask from one side of heaven unto the other whether
there has been anything like this. Have you ever seen such
a thing? We ought to ask ourselves, is
there anything so great? That's what we're hearing and
doing. Anything? Do you ever, verse
33, do you ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of
the midst of the fire, as if you've heard and lived? We have to, people. Haven't we? We have to. Yes, we have. Verse
35, the Lord says, Under thee it was showed that thou mightest
know the Lord, he is God, and there's none else beside him.
God said in Isaiah 43, He said, You I've chosen, that you might
know me. You, you only. Not everybody. You. My, my. Well, like I said, the Israelites—chapter
5—the Israelites, the world, its riches, caused them to forget. Caused them to forget. Go over
to chapter 6. I'm going to have to go on. Chapter 6. Read with me. Verses 1 and following. Now these are the commandments,
the statutes, the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded
to teach you, that you might do them in the land whither you
go to possess it, that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep
all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou and
thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life. that thy
days may be prolonged here, therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it,
that it may be well with thee, that ye may increase mightily,
as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land
that floweth with milk and honey. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy
heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto your children,
and shalt talk of them when you sit in thine house, and when
you walk by the way, when you lie there, when you rise up." That's what we do here. We teach our children. Listen
to me now. You listen to me, parents. You
listen to me. You ought to be so thankful for what's going
on down there in those little... Our ladies are diligently preparing
lessons from God's Word and teaching them to our children. Teaching
them. Go down there and look around
and see what they're getting. And then, go someplace else and go in their little places
and look and see what they're doing. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Go to the Bible school up in
Ashland and sit and listen and observe. Sit in on them. Listen. Hear what's going on. You can
go to one of these summer camps and listen what's going on. Where
Cowboy Bob, or not your Bob, but some fellow named Cowboy
Bob and Charlie the Clown, you know, standing up and making
God look like a fool. And thank those teachers. Go
down there and thank them, every one of them, for teaching your
children. We've seen the results of that.
We've got some old, some, some who are there sitting right now
as young adults, even married, with children of their own. Thank
God they've been taught the Scriptures from a child which is able to
make them wise unto salvation, huh? And thank the teachers for
doing it. But, parents, don't leave it
to your children. Your leadership and your example
is really what they are looking at. They're watching you and hearing
you and paying more attention to you than they are that lady
in that... Right. Yes, sir. If a father or mother
is unfaithful in attendance to these services, those children
are thinking it must not be very important. If a father or mother is all
the time complaining about their lot in life, those children are
thinking, God must not be in control. Right? That's exactly who they're
following and looking at. And they'll probably end up just
like that. You talked to your children,
didn't you? Yes, bring them. Bring them. We're going to see that in a
moment, if we get to it. Bring them. For a man is going
to faithfully, every time you bring them here, if you bring
them here, if you bring them here, there's going to be a man
stand up and tell them what's able to save their eternal souls. Every time. And if they miss
it, they miss Christ. It's life for you and your children. I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at you. Fireman,
if I'm not through with this for you and your children, fireman,
get somebody that is. There's a whole lot easier things
to do. Lot more people are like that
doing other things. Look at chapter 6, verse 13 and
14. He says, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him,
and shalt swear by his name. You shall not go after other
gods of the people around about you. Don't join with them. Don't
get with them. Don't pray with them. Don't so-called
worship with them. Don't get with as much idol worshipers. Let them call you a bigot and
a narrow-minded. Don't get with them. Turn back
quickly to chapter 4 of Deuteronomy. Everybody thinks we're just a
bunch of snobs and bigots and hateful and so forth, and we
don't love people. Chapter 4, God says it's so plain,
and people don't do it because they don't read it. Chapter 4,
the Lord commanded—verse 14—the Lord commanded me at that time
to teach you statutes and judgments that you might do them, and the
land will you go over to possess it. Take ye therefore good heed
unto yourselves. Now, he says, You saw no manner
of similitude on a day that the Lord spake unto you in horror
about the midst of the fire. What's he saying? You people—he's
telling God's people—you didn't see God ever. You never saw one
similitude of God. No image of God on that. Never!
They never saw an image of God. Read on. Take heed, verse 16,
lest you corrupt yourselves and make you a graven image. Flesh and blood see like things
to look at. They like things to hold to.
They like little things, you know, little trinkets. Show me
something. Show me. Give me something so I can hold
it and go to bed with her and put it in my pocket card, you know. Oh, don't do that, he said.
Don't make any similitude. Read on. Verse—now, this is going
to surprise you. Verse 16, not the likeness of
male or female. Man or woman. Don't make any
grave in it. Don't draw a picture. Don't paint
a picture. Don't do it, God says. What do
you see all over this planet? Huge pictures of some fellas.
Tim James calls him Wild Bill Hickok. He looks like Wild Bill
Hickok. Long hair. Christ doesn't have long hair.
Scripture says it's a shame for man to have long hair. He didn't
have long hair, and the reading people don't know that. They're
not reading this book. He said nobody's ever seen him. Why would
you paint a picture of somebody you never seen? If you did, what
would it mean? Image, imagination. You have
to conjure it up. There's no physical description
of Jesus Christ in this book. So, everybody's got one, and
they're all as an auto-worshipper. Is that too hard? It's just so. God calls it throughout
the book of Deuteronomy, the cursed thing, the cursed thing,
the cursed thing. If you read it for yourself,
he keeps saying, everybody's got the cursed thing. I'm going
to kill it. Read on now, she's not finished.
Don't make the likeness, verse 17, of any beast on the earth,
the likeness of any windfowl that flyeth in the air, the likeness
of anything that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any
fish. Don't put a fish on your tongue! Is that as plain as a nose on
your face? That's a little idle. Oh, you're
doing too hard on it. I didn't say that. Goddamn. Go over to chapter 8. Chapter
8. Go over there. Chapter 8, verse
1. All the commandments which I
command thee this day shall you observe to do, that you may live
and multiply. Go in, possess the land, land
that's fairer than day. There's a land that is fairer
than day. And by faith we can see it upon,
for the Father waits over the way to prepare us a dwelling
place there. A land that is fairer than death,
we sing the song. A land that bloweth with milk
and honey, the Scripture says. Just as soon as we cross this
old muddy Jordan, we're going to stand on fair Canaan's coast.
And the reason we're not more diligent is because we can't
see it. How are we going to see it? What
will make you see it is if you actually see it. Right here. Our sight goes through hearing.
If God, by His Spirit, will enable you to hear where the hearing
is, you'll see it like you're there. Next thing you'll be like
you're trying to… There it is. By faith we can see it if our…
That's what he said, they all saw these promises afar off,
and were persuaded and embraced. I see first. I see Adam. I see,
I see Adam. Don't you see him? Moses, Elijah,
and all the saints, and bless God, I see their Savior. You
see him, John? Come on, John. Let's go. There he is. There's your partner. Let's go. Come and go with me to my father's
house. Huh? You ready, sir? Can you
see it? You know, what we're doing here is
preparing to die. There's a man in us. He said, man, the church in Iceland,
Kentucky, most precious man you've ever met. Right at 60 years old. That's young. Do you realize
that's young? Yeah. That's young. Getting to
60. That's how old you are. That's
young. He and his wife. He's a teacher. Blessed man. All three of his
children, blessed, blessed young people. Frank Tate, anybody that
knows the name. He and his blessed wife, Lee,
went on a vacation in Canada, the two of them. He just retired
about a year ago, so they're starting to travel together. While up in Canada, he collapsed,
his brain filled with blood. He's in a hospital bed right
now. They've called all the family to come there. Just waiting for
him to die. It's just a matter of moments
a day. What I'm doing right now, what
we're doing right here, is preparing to die. Death knows no favorites,
does it? Death plays no favorites. It
takes the young. in the prime of so-called life,
doesn't it? Doesn't it? It takes male. It takes female.
It takes a blessed husband. It takes a blessed wife. It takes
a blessed father. It takes a blessed mother. It
takes a blessed sister. It takes a blessed brother. It takes an elder. It takes a
preacher. It takes a member. It takes a
deacon. And there's no favorites. What we're doing is preparing
to die. Is this important or is this not? We're going over Jordan now. Yes, we are. Don't weep. This
is our Lord headed to the cross, headed to die, turned at those
people who were weeping over him, going to lose him. He said,
don't weep for me. Don't weep for Frank. Oh, we weep, don't we, ourselves
and our children for losing them and going to miss them. Don't weep for fine. Don't weep for them. Weep for
ourselves. We have to live here without them and have to live
here a little while longer. But God gives happy days. It's all centered around this. There's no real happiness outside
of this. Ask those who know. Oh, no. People try to find it. They try
to, you know, toys, toys, toys. They won't get it no matter how
many you get, how big and how bright and shiny they are. It
won't make a child happy. That's Solomon. Look at chapter
8. Look at verse 2. Oh, I love this.
Remember all the way the Lord has led them. Remember all the
way. which the Lord thy God led thee
these forty years, we're going to see in closing,
all the way, my Savior lead thee." Did we already sing that? Yeah.
What have I to doubt beside it? Huh? What have I to dread? Led you all this time, hadn't
it, Roberta? Forty years. Forty years. Remember that. what
always brought you through, and remember where you're going.
Chapter 9. I've got to quit. Chapter 9.
I've got a few more minutes. Chapter 9. Don't say this. Verse 4. Chapter
9. Speak not in your heart that
the Lord thy God hath cast him out from before thee, that he
is an unbeliever. Don't say, For my righteousness
the Lord hath brought me in to possess a lamb. Oh, no. Oh, no. Not for my righteousness,
but according to His mercy He had saved us. That's what every
Israelite must say. I was just like the rest of the
unbelieving world, but God. Oh, my. I could really have had
so much to read, but not enough time. You know, do you see why? Do you see why Israel and the
scribes took six hours? They were given a sense of it,
too. I wish we could stand it. Go
over to chapter, where do I go? Chapter 10, chapter 2, verse
12. Now Israel. Chapter 10, verse
12. Now Israel, what doth the Lord
thy God require of thee but the fear of the Lord? His yoke is
not hard. This is not bondage of religion.
Margaret, this is freedom, isn't it? Some of you were in the bondage
of religion, were you not? Tell me, is this not freedom
or what? Huh? It's not work. This place is not work. This
is actual arrest, isn't it? It's not a hard thing. It doesn't
get any better than this anywhere else. with anything or anyone. Amen. Verse 12, he says, to walk
in all his ways, to love him, serve the Lord thy God. Why wouldn't
I? Chapter 11, right over there,
chapter 11. Verse 18, now lay this up in
your, lay up my words in your heart and in your soul. Don't
forget them. Teach them, verse 19, teach them
your children. Speak of them. Chapter 12, verse
5. Chapter 12, look at this. Look
at it. Chapter 12, verse 5. Under the
place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your
tribes to put his name there, even under his habitation shall
you seek, and thither shalt thou come. There wasn't a temple in
every place. I think it was Brother Tim James
preaching on Preaching on Zacchaeus climbing
up that sycamore tree. He said if he hadn't have been
in that sycamore tree, he'd have missed the Lord. The Lord has
his chosen sycamore trees. And you better get in it. You
know what? You understand that? He has a
place that he's chosen to put his name there. It says that—you
remember that message? Anybody remember that message
about that all the way through the Deuteronomy? He says it about
seven times. The place—well, go over to chapter—go
over to verse—oh, where did we go? Verse 18, chapter 12. Verse
18. He said, Thou must eat them before
the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord thy God shall
choose you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, whoever's under
your roof. You've got to get them to that
place. That's what he said. Whoever's under your roof, whoever's
under your care, whoever's under your responsibility, you've got
to get them to that place. They've got to eat this food. Get them there. Verse 19. Look at this. No, that's not it. Well, there's
another place that says, whatever it takes. Oh, chapter 14. Run
over there quickly. Chapter 14. Look at verse 24. Chapter 14, 24. If the way be
too long for thee, too far for thee, that is. It's too far away.
so that you're not able to carry it. It's supposed to be too far
from thee, which the Lord thy God shall choose to set his name
there." Verse 25, turn whatever you've got into money. Sell it! Get there! Whatever you have to do, sell
it! The Lord says, buy the truth,
sell it not. Sell whatever else you have to
sell to get to the truth, because there's very few places where
God has chosen to put his name there. Sell out, the Lord said,
except you forsake all that you have. You cannot be myself. Sell
out in order to get you and your house under the sound of this
life-giving word. There's only a few places here
and there, as the prophecy says, a scattering of corn on the mountain
top. Just a little bit here and there. Chapter twenty-nine. Chapter
twenty-nine. Oh, I had hundreds of verses.
I just counsel you, read it for yourself. By all means, read
it for yourself. Chapter twenty-nine, verses ten
through thirteen, says, You stand this day, all of you, before
the Lord your God. your captains of your tribes,
your elders, your officers, all the men of it, your little ones,
your wives, strangers in your camp. Here are the wood, the
drawer of water, that you should enter into covenant with the
Lord thy God and into his oath, which the Lord thy God make with
thee this day, that he may establish thee today for a people unto
himself, that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto
thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
and the Jacobs. Here we all sit, or rather stand,
before the Lord. Mac and Martha had their two
little ones, and they're getting real big. But here we are, aren't
we? Stand before the Lord around this gospel. Oh, the people, Ezra. Ezra was reading this, and the
people weep. The people weep. The whole time
is we thinking, we haven't done this, we haven't done this, we
haven't done this. Lord, God, help us do this. We haven't done
this. Don't let my child die. Lord, help me. The whole time. The whole time. Six hours. Hanging on this edge
of the world. And when he got through, he said, now, don't weep. Don't
weep. You heard it, didn't you? You
heard it. I do hope you do weep. But if
you are weeping, for those who weep, I say, don't weep. You
must have heard it. You see? Those that don't weep,
then hear it. But those that do, He says, don't
weep. You heard it. You understand
it. You must have understood what
you heard. You must love the covenants. God must have spoken to you.
He says, I tell you what, let's throw a party. Don't weep. Let's eat. Fat things. Let's rejoice. This is your strength. Joy. This
is your strength. If you rejoice in this gospel,
if you rejoice in what you hear, not only does it break your heart,
but it rejoices your heart. Eat, drink, and be merry. You're
going over. You're going over. Going over. make great mirth. It says they
make great mirth because they understood the words that were
read to them. They understood. We understand. We understand. Oh, may the Lord
make us doers of the Word and not hearers only. We'll be blessed
in our doing. Yes, we will. That's what James
said. We'll be blessed in our doing. our children, the Lord, all the
way through there. He promises, promises, promises,
promises, promises. It would be good in the land
where you're at now. It would be good. It would be good. Good for you. Good for them.
Oh, my. May the Lord take His Word, give
us ears to hear. This is my prayer. Give you ears to hear. Oh, remember,
Ezra said, all that could hear. May the Lord give our young people
ears to hear. I was thinking, we're singing
that song, Joseph Aaron there. If you're singing, before we
start singing, I was looking at you and I thought, oh my Lord,
may he move up three rows someday as an adult man and sing like
his granddaddy Joe did. From the heart. Your granddaddy
did. He loved this gospel. And right
there sits your grandma. She loved it too. May the Lord
give you, buddy, a heart for this gospel. And may the Lord
make that daddy and mother bring him here until the Lord does
reveal himself to them. May we hear this word and do
what he said to do. The Lord said, It will be well
with you, I promise you. That's what God said, I promise
you. Frank Tate, going on, he's got
three kids that all know the Lord, don't they, Rebecca? All
three of them. One of them's a preacher. A good
one, too. All right, Brother Gabe, what
was that number? Number 517. That's it, 517. On
Jordan's stormy banks, I stand. 517. I want you to come up and
help me. Ezra had about twelve guys on
the pulpit with him. 517 it is on Jordan's
stormy bank. The stand, as we sing verses, the first and last verses,
517. All of Jordan's stories I shall
stand and cast a visual eye to him. Who will come and go with me
and vouch for the promised land? When shall I reach that happy land where people ever land? When shall
I see my Father's kiss and in His bosom rest? you.