Good evening, let's stand together
and sing hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me. All around me is the current
of Thy love. Leading onward, leading homeward
to Thy glorious rest above. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
spread his praise from heaven. shore to shore. How he loveth, ever loveth, changeth
never, nevermore. How he watches o'er his loved
ones, died to call them all his own. How for them the intercedeth,
watcheth for them from the throne. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
love of every love the best. Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
tis a haven straight of rest. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
tis the heaven of Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 352. 352 you. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high, Guide me, O my Savior, guide,
Till the storm of life is passed, Safe into the haven, God, O receive
my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, Hanged
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone. Still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee this day. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defaceless head with
the shadow of thy wings. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Praise the fallen, cheer the
faint. Heal the sick and bleed the blind. Just and whole. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Then just grace with thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sins. Let the healing streams of love
make and keep me pure within. Thou art like a fountain o'er. Freely let me take a peek. Bring Thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. I'd like us to read a few verses
in John 5, John chapter 5. Start in verse 31, John 5, 31. Because if I bear witness of
myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth
witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth
of me is true. He sent unto John, and he bare
witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from
man. Think these things I say, that
ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining
light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than
that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish,
the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father
hath sent me. And the Father himself which
hath sent me hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard
his voice at any time nor seen his shape. You have not his word
abiding in you. For whom he hath sent him you
believe not. Search the scriptures. In them
you think you have eternal life. They are they which testify of
me. It will not come to me that you
might have life. I receive not honor from men.
I know you, that you have not the love of God in you. I am
come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you
believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not
the honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will
accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you.
than Moses in whom you trust. Or had you believed Moses, you
would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe
not his writings, how shall you believe my words? Kind and gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, we bow before you and first of all give you
thanks for Our great Savior, our Lord Jesus
Christ, in whom we just read his words, that he spake while
on this earth. Lord, that you've testified to
this world who he is. Lord, you've revealed him to
our hearts. We've heard his voice. We thank you for that. Thank
you that you've enabled us to gather to open his word, to hear
him preach, worshiping, to learn of him, see him by faith. Thank you for the faith that
you've given us to trust him, to believe him. Other refuge have we none, we
just sang, hangs my helpless soul on him. Him alone. We feel our weakness. We feel
our frailty. We confess we're sinners. We have no claim. By your grace and mercy, for
Christ's sake, you saved us, called us out of this world to
follow Him. And we do thank you that we have this opportunity to hear
your word preached that so many don't. Don't see the need, don't
see the beauty of it, don't have a desire. Lord, you've given
us a desire in our hearts to be here, to be fed once again. So weak and so forgetful, so
full of inability and just flesh. And we thank you that you remember
we're just flesh and frail. Lord, we ask you to meet with
us tonight and speak to us through your word, through your preacher.
Enable him to preach. Enable us to hear. Send your
spirit. Cause your word to burn within
us. Cause your word to stir our hearts. Lord, we're in your hands. Our
life is in your hands. Our souls are in your hands.
Our very breath is in your hands, moment by moment. We can only go forth in the strength
that you give us. We're so thankful, Lord, that
you sent your son to be our substitute
as we learned of his suffering this morning. What an awful death
he died. The beauty of it, appreciation
of it, comes from realizing who it was that died, why he died. Lord, we just know it was our sin that caused
him to suffer so. Now we do want to love him and
thank him. Ask, Lord, that you'd give our
children a side of him, our grandchildren. And they see his beauty. They see their need of him. Cause him to come to you and
save him by your grace. Forget them not, we pray. Bless
our time together. Honor your son and lift him up
in our midst. He alone is worthy. Christ, your
name. Amen. Hymn number 326. 326. More about Jesus would I know,
More of His grace to others show,
More of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for
me. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love who died for me. More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern. Spirit of God, my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus. Jesus more, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see,
More of His love her died for me. Or about Jesus in His Word, Holding
communion with my Lord, ? Hearing His voice in every line ? ? Making
each faithful saying mine ? ? More about Jesus ? more about Jesus, more of His
saving fullness see, more of His love who died for me. O'er about Jesus on His throne,
riches in glory all His own. More of his kingdom sure increase,
More of his coming Prince of Peace. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving policy. Lord of His love, who died for
me. Open your Bibles with me to Psalm
115. You know, our Lord said, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me. All these years, some of you
have been believers longer than I have. But after all these years, we're still learning. I want
to learn until I don't have to learn anymore, graduate, get
to go to glory. Seeing face to face, seeing face
to face, oh, what a day that'll be. What a day that'll be. Let me read these first three
verses. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy, for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens,
he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. I want to talk about
man's purpose and man's privilege. Man's purpose and man's privilege.
And it says, our purpose is to give glory unto his name. We
talk about him, we got to, whatever anybody else does about their
God, we can say our God's in the heavens. What does he do? Whatever pleases him. He does
according to his will in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the armies of heaven and no man can stay his
hand or say unto him what thou doest. He does what he will and
sees in all deep places. But man's purpose and privilege
is to glorify God. Glorify God. God's the creator. We're just
the creatures. It's by Him we live and move
and have our being. And in creating all things, God
created all things, God made all things with a purpose. Not
a thing in this world is ever done without a purpose. As far
as God, everything He did, He did on purpose. And when He does
something on purpose, they have an end. They have a design. They have a design. Look over
with me over in Isaiah 14. In Isaiah 14. You know what God does, he does
on purpose. And that's, when you find out
that God does what he does on purpose, he's not making decisions
a day at a time. He's not waiting on man to do
what he can do and then he'll help him out if he needs help.
But look what it said here in verse 24. Isaiah 14, 24. Thus the Lord of Hoth has sworn,
saying, Surely, as I have I thought, so shall it come to pass. And
as I have purposed, so shall it stand. Oh, my goodness. Look what he
said. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth.
Verse 26. And this is the hand that's stretched
out upon all nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out,
who shall turn it back? Who shall turn it back? So God
made everything with an end to it, with an end to it. And what
he made us for an end for, and this is the first thing in any
catechism that you see, is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name be glory. Unto thy name be glory. And he
made us with this end to glorify him and enjoy him forever. Now,
to enjoy something means you delight in it. You enjoy it. You rest in it. You have comfort in it. You have
rejoicing in it. And God made us To enjoy Him,
glorify Him, and enjoy Him forever. But if you're gonna enjoy Him
forever, you gotta start right here. You gotta start right here.
I enjoy God, don't you? I enjoy hearing about Him. I
enjoy these men reading about Him. I enjoy these men praying
to Him. And God helping me, I want to
talk about God glorifying God. Now there's many, many ways we're
to glorify our Heavenly Father. But I just want to name a few
this evening, just a few. And the first one I want to say
is how we can glorify God, is by an honest, honest confession
of sin. We've, you know, we've sung that
song, false and full of sin I am. Thou full of truth and grace. When you confess sin, an honest
confession of sin, you're just confessing what you really are.
You know you're confessing that. It's like the thief on the cross.
Y'all remember the two thieves on the cross? They both at the
beginning began to rail on the Lord Jesus Christ themselves.
And then one of them turned to the other and he told him, he
said, what are you talking about? He says, we're here indeed justly. We're here because we deserve
to be here. But this man beside us had done nothing amiss. He
said, I'm here because of what I've done. I'm justly here. And when you ever find out that
God is a just God and a righteous God, and that thief on the cross,
he said, listen, I'm here because I deserve to be here. And then
he said, Lord, how do you call somebody Lord that you're looking
at? Now, when this thief looked at Christ, he saw a bloody mess. He didn't look at somebody with
just a few bruises on him. He was looking at somebody that
his face was covered in blood. His back was covered in blood.
Blood was running down his arms and running down the cross all
the way to the ground. But how could he look at a man
like that? And look at him and call him
Lord? How could he look at a man like that and say, I'm here justly,
but he ain't done nothing? And that's what we're talking
about. If God treated us the way we should be treated, it'd
be awful what shape we'd be in. But oh my, that man on that cross,
his life dishonored God, but by death he glorified God. Lord,
remember me. Not only did he call him Lord,
but he called him King. When you come into your kingdom,
remember me. You know, he said, we suffer
justly. You all know anything about Joshua
and Rita and Joshua? A man named Achan, a man named
Achan, they went and fought a war. And they told him, said, don't
you take anything. Don't you take nothing. Well, Achan saw
some really nice clothes. He said, boy, them clothes would
look good. They'd look good on me, really look good on my wife
or something for my wife. And then there's a big wedge
of gold laying there. And he said, oh my, I'll be,
not only have great clothes, good clothes to wear, but I'll
have money. He took those things and he took them in his tent
and he covered them up and sat on them. God began to trouble
all of Israel, began to trouble them. And it come down and come
down and come down and it come down to Achan. You know what
Joshua said, Achan, Now, confess. Confess what you've done. Confess. And Aiken had to confess
that I'd done everything God told me not to do. I was lustful. I was greedy. I was wanting to
be wealthy. I was wanting nice clothes. You
know what it cost him? It cost him his life. It cost
him his life. You know, And I tell you, when we talk
about God justly, justly, when we talk about our sin, we're
talking about what we really are. People, we're not talking
about sins we committed. When we talk about confessing
sin, we're not talking about confessing any particular sin
we've committed. We're talking about just confessing
us, how weak we are, how How if God had not been gracious
and merciful to us on the cross in the death of his son, there'd
be no hope for us. But how many times do we come
to the Lord and say, Lord, oh, God, David said, I'm shapen in
iniquity. I'm conceived in sin. And yet,
Lord, thou thinkest on me? Oh, my. And I tell you, when we, this
is something that I don't, you know, Steve commented and read the
Scriptures tonight back in the study, keep me back from presumptuous
sins, let them not have dominion over me. You know, for us to
excuse or justify any sin casts a reproach upon God Himself. Would you excuse, do you ever
excuse or justify anything you've done. You know what presumption
is? Presumption means that I can
do this particular thing. God said I shouldn't. God said
don't do that. God said don't do that. You know
it'll cost you if you do it. And presumption says I'm going
to do it, and since I'm saved by grace, I can do it. And you
know, he'll just chastise me a little. I'll get by with it.
What a reproach he'd cast upon God to make an excuse in justifying
our own sin. You know what Adam said? It's
that woman. If you had to give me that woman,
he said, that's the woman you gave me. Why did it fall? Why
are you standing over there naked? Why do you need to be clothed?
It's the woman you gave me. And Eve, you know what Eve said?
It's the serpent. They blamed it on somebody else. But Adam's sin was the one that
brought death. Adam's sin. And beloved, I know
that in myself, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I'm
a sinner. God says I'm one. My conscience
says I'm one. My life says I'm one. My action
says I'm one. And am I going to justify myself
and say I'm not? Oh no, I just come to the Lord.
And I'm like Bartimaeus, and I'm like Zacchaeus up the tree.
Oh, if the Lord didn't pass me by, I'd be just like them. I'd
still be sitting by the roadside begging. But He passed me by. And I tell you, a man, if a man
covers his sin, shall not prosper. but he that confesses them and
forsaken them shall be blessed. And you know, it's just, you
know, when we confess what we are, we're just telling the truth. We're just, you wouldn't, you
don't reckon God would lie on us, do you? Don't reckon God
would treat us any way that we don't need to be treated. Oh
my, and I'll tell you, confession of sin, I'm not talking about
confession of any particular sin. I don't have to do that.
I don't have to do that. I don't have to enumerate sins.
I don't have to do that. We don't do that before God.
But confession glorifies God because it clears him. It acknowledges
that he's just. First of all, it acknowledges
he's just. That he's holy. And in sinning, you deserve nothing
but condemnation. Look what David said over in
Psalm 51. What David said over in Psalm 51, that's what he said.
That's what David said in Psalm 51. You know, there we go. Psalm 51, look in
verse 2. Wash me throughly for mine iniquity. Listen to this, cleanse me from
my sin, not somebody else's sin, my sin, my sin, oh my. And then look what else he said,
for I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. And then look what he said, against
thee, thee, and thee only have I sinned. And what I've done,
I've done in your sight, that when you, you be justified when
you speak and be clear when you judge me. When you deal with
me, you'll be clear. You know, a true confession glorifies
and honors God, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. The prodigal,
when he started home, when he got to his father's house, he
said, Father, I've sinned against heaven and I've sinned against
you. I've sinned against you. Before
the father ever said anything about it, he said, I've sinned
against heaven. I've sinned against you. How'd
the father treat him? Bring forth the best robe and
put it on him and put it on him. Oh, ain't you so thankful? Ain't
you so thankful? You know, his father never charged
him with what he did. His father never charged him. And our Lord, bless His holy
name, He's never charged us with sin. And yet, at the same time,
it tells us that we're without sin, that we cannot sin, according
to 1 John 3, 9, we cannot sin. And yet, in other places, it
says that we're nothing but sin. And only believers can reconcile
those two things. That without sin before God,
I'm without sin. But with myself, in myself, What
a mess. You know, that's the strangest
thing. That you know, Paul talked about
being holy and righteous and justified in God's sight and
then he turns around and said, oh, wretched man that I am. He said, when I would do good,
I do evil. What I would do, I don't do.
And what I hate, that's what I do. How do you figure that
out? And all of the same, that's why we come to God and we confess,
Lord, If you don't help me, if you don't keep me, if you don't
preserve me. And Lord, have you ever felt, have you
ever felt like God could have anything to do with somebody
like you? I've been a pastor in this church for 46 years next
month. And I feel my sin more than I've
ever felt it. I can't even preach without sin. I can't pray without sin. What
do you mean? What I'm telling you is that
we're selfish. I'm selfish. I pray for me and
mine. Oh, I'm so thankful. Oh, bless his
name. You know, I was a prodigal. I
was a real genuine prodigal. Oh, when I come home, you know
what the father said? This my son was lost, but now
he's found. This my son was dead, but now
he's alive. All right. I'm going to tell
you another way we glorify God. Oh my goodness. I don't think,
I think everybody in here understands what I'm saying. I believe everybody
knows anything about themselves in the sight of God. It's like
that man I told you, he said, if I was the only man on the
earth that was a sinner, it would have took the same death, the
same substitution, the same righteousness, it would have took exactly what
it took to save everybody, it would have took to save just
one man, if there's only been one man. Now, that's when we
understand, you know, Peter said, Lord, depart from
me, I'm a sinful man. What made him say that? Because
he questioned the Lord. He questioned whether the Lord
knew what he was doing. Cast your net on the right side.
Oh, now, Lord, we fished all night. Go ahead and do it. Okay,
okay. And then he said, oh, when he
started getting some in, he said, oh, Lord, To think that I would
question you, to think that I would doubt you, to think that I wouldn't
take you at your word. Depart from me, Lord, I'm a sinful
man. And then the second thing, how
we glorify God, look over in Romans chapter four. Look in
Romans chapter four. We would glorify him by believing. We bring glory to God by believing
him. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now thy God? Faith says our God's in the heavens. And he does whatever he pleases.
But look what he said here in Romans 4 20. God come and told Abraham he
was 100 years old. Sarah was 90. And they went on
and on and on for year after year after year after year and
had no children. But God made him a promise, and
he staggered not at the promise of God. He didn't say, oh, Lord,
that just can't happen. That's just, that's impossible.
There's no way that can happen. I could have a child. He staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but listen to this,
but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. Strong in faith and that faith
gave glory to God. Oh my You know faith glorifies
the Lord for faith says whatever God says is true Whatever God
says is so whatever God says. I believe it. I believe it. I
heard a person say one time I know very little about the Bible,
but there ain't no part of it. I don't believe And that's the
way we are. We there's a lot of we don't
know and a lot of it I've never preached from but there's no
part of it that I don't believe And all my faith glorifies, you
know, our Lord said, this is the record that he has given
of his son. And this, he that hath the son
hath life. He that believeth not the son
and not believes the record, he makes God a liar. He makes
God to be a liar. And you know, in Hebrews 11,
6, without faith, it's impossible to believe God. Now look in Hebrews
11, go over in Hebrews 11. In Hebrews 11, they show you
some things over here. My page is getting so thin, I
have a hard time turning them. But look what happens now. Look
what it says, what faith is. Faith is the substance. And in
the margin, it says our ground or our confidence. Faith gives
you confidence, gives you a foundation. It has something for you to stand
on, solid foundation. Oh, what a foundation is laid
for us in his excellent word. Faith is the substance of things
that we hope for. What do we hope for? We hope
to be with God eventually. We hope to be saved eternally. We hope to be standing before
God fully cleansed of all sin. And it gives you evidence of
things you can't see. I've never seen the Trinity,
but I believe it exists. I've never seen Christ, but by
faith. I've never, ever seen any of
the apostles, but I believe every word they wrote. My faith obtains
and look what he goes on to say gives us evidence of things.
We've never seen I've never seen Righteousness, but I believe
I've got it Why based on what God said and look what else he
goes on to say For by it the elders obtained a good report
who gave him a good report. I Didn't give him a good report
Who gave these men a good report? God did. When you love God, you
think about God giving a good... Listen, I'm gonna give a real
good report. I'm gonna give a real good report
to Abraham. He believed me. Went out not
knowing where he's going. I'm gonna give a good report
about Moses. He endured to see me who is invisible. He chose rather to suffer reproach
with the children of God to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Oh my. The elders obtained a
good report. Oh my goodness. You think about
God giving you a good report. Well, I'll tell you one thing.
We all got a good report that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody
that looks to Christ gets a good report. Everybody that's trusting
Christ got a good report. You know why? Because God said,
you believe on my son and I'll justify you, I'll make you righteous,
and I'll clear you of all guilt. Oh, my. And I tell you, look
what God says about these saints. Here's the second thing about
faith. Through faith, We understand that the worlds were framed.
You ever seen anybody frame up a house? Lay the foundation and
frame up a house? God laid the foundation. What's
the foundation? Jesus Christ is the foundation. No other foundation can be laid
than Him. And He framed the world by the Word of God, and the things
which are seen were not made by things that you can look at
right now. You look at the things it made, where's the person around
here you see that made it? God did it. And look what else
he said. And here's this, he gives Abel
a good report. The first man, first son born,
and Adam, the first one, by faith, Abel offered a more excellent
sacrifice unto God. Then came, and what happened
then? He had a witness that he is righteous. Listen to this now. God testified
of his gifts. God did. God testified of his
gifts. And he's dead now, and yet he's
still speaking about how that God cleared him. Why? Because he brought a lamb. He
brought blood. And look what else he said. And
now you think this is something. This is the next one. By faith,
everybody calls him Enoch. I call him Enoch. By faith, Enoch
was translated that he should not see death. And they went
looking for him one day. His wife and kids said, where's
daddy at? His wife said, where's my husband
at? Look what it says. They was not found. They couldn't
find him. Why not? Because God translated
him. And before his translation, he
had this testimony. Oh my, what a mouthful right
here, that he pleased God. Huh? And you can go on, and without
faith, it's impossible to please him, satisfy him. And not only
does God give a, we obtain, faith obtains a good report, but faith
receives a good report. You know what it says? You know
what faith says? I know who, I know who I have
believed. And I'm convinced beyond a shadow
of a doubt that what I've committed unto him and given to his head
and trusted him with, he's able, able to keep it unto the day
of Jesus Christ. Oh my. And oh, I tell you what,
God forbid that we should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you some evidences
of faith. Faith flees to God. Faith flees
to His Son. Faith runs to mercy and truth
for refuge. He trusts Himself, His soul,
and everything He has in this world to God Almighty. And back
here in Titus, look right back at Titus. That's that little
book right before the book of Hebrews. Look what it says in
Titus 1.1. You know, Paul said, He that
hath begun work in you, begun a good work, he gonna perform
it. He gonna perform it. Oh, 1st chapter 1, verse 1 and
2. Paul, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Listen to this
now. According to the faith of God's elect. If you're one of elect, God gave
you some faith and look what it says. And here's what faith
of God's elect does. It acknowledges the truth. It
says whatever is true, whatever God says is true. And the truth
which is after godliness in hope eternal life that God promised
before the world began." Oh, my. That's what faith does. Faith
says, oh, I believe the promise that God made. You know, God
honors faith. You know why? Because faith honors
God more than anything you can do in this world right here.
Faith honors Him more than anything you could possibly do. Faith
is enduring as seeing Him who is invisible. Faith will stand
when no matter, when everything seems to be against it, faith
stands and believe. And people who are, that believe,
they're every single one of them gonna die in the faith. Every
single person will die in the faith. You know how many people
I've known over the years that died in the faith? There's so many people, I think
in about less than two years, I believe we've buried seven
people out of this congregation. Seven people. I could go over
the list with you, but seven people in less than two years.
And every single one of them, every single one of them, gave
a good report, received a good report from God. They died trusting,
believing Christ. A fellow one time was fixing
to die. And then that preacher asked
him, said, are you ready to die? And he said, and what do you
think happened? The attorney said, if you told
me the truth, if you told me the truth, I'm ready to go. I'll never forget this. You know,
this is a strange thing. When we have funerals for believers,
we end up rejoicing. And you go to most funerals and
they just sit down, they're just saying, but for believers, it's
a time of rejoicing. It really is. It's a time of,
but you know, I'll never forget, when Scott had died, I remember
going up there and was standing, I walked up in front of his casket
and three of his sons were standing there. Three of them were standing
there. And I walked up there and looked at, Scott in his casket
hat on, nice suit, you know. And, oh, I loved that man. But anyway, I walked up there
and started laughing. I went up there and started rejoicing.
Just started laughing like I do when I'm preaching. And I looked
at them boys and I said, boys, I said, I hope you understand
what I'm doing. He said, oh, we understand clearly. We understand
plainly. I was rejoicing that God had took that old man home. He didn't have to, when he was
alive, For a long time, he had a catheter down one leg. He had a colostomy on this side. And he made jokes about it. He said, you know, I don't have
to use, I don't have to use near as much toilet paper as I used
to. He made jokes about it. And then the Lord calls him home.
When you walk up there and you look at him, oh, Thank God, thank
God. I hope people do that. When I
die, walk up to my casket and rejoice. Say hallelujah. Yes, do that. Sing. Sing praises
unto God. Oh my. Say yes, he died believing
God. There's not a better way to die
than believing God. The wife went and told her husband
one time, he was dying, he was dying, he said, honey, you get
fixed to go receive your reward. She said, oh, no, no, don't say
that. I'm going to receive mercy. Oh, what a day. All right, let me give you the
third thing that glorifies God. God is glorified when we stand
true to his truth. to say, thus saith the Lord. Not unto us, Lord, but unto thy
name. For thy mercy and thy truth,
truth's sake. Oh my. You know, other than our
own souls, the most precious thing that God's trusted us with
is with his word. With his word. You know, We possess
our souls. We trust God with our souls.
We trust Him with our souls. And I tell you, God, in His sovereign
mercy, He gave us one of the most blessed things and committed
to our trust. Paul said, as God has allowed
us to be put in trust with the gospel, with the gospel, even
so we speak. You think about being put in
trust. God put, He put His Word in your trust. He said, how are you going to
deal with it? Will you glorify me with it by believing it? Will
you glorify me with it by living according to it? Will you glorify
me in keeping to its truth and saying, thus saith the Lord?
Huh? Oh, my. Our souls and we trust
God with them and yet behold the riches he's gave us in his
precious word What what? Brad mitt read tonight. There's
there's christ gave four witnesses to prove that he was the son
of god In that chapter that he read tonight those verses he
read four four witnesses And all he had to do is say I am
And we believe that He didn't have to give us witness. He said
I went to john I went to His Word, I went to the work, and
then my Father. And all of them gave truth. All
of them spoke the truth. And over in Jude chapter 3, it
said, Be earnestly, earnestly content for the faith which was
delivered. Delivered! Did you hear that?
God said, I'm going to deliver something to you. What are you
going to deliver to me? The faith. My word, what you're to believe,
what you're to practice. And I always said, I'm going
to give it to you. And you earnestly contend for that faith that I
delivered unto you. And all my men contend for their
traditions. Oh my, such traditions. Men like
their traditions. They like the things that they
have always done. Why you do it that way? Because
we always done it that way. Oh my, they rejoice in their
ceremonies. They have ceremonies of walking
the aisle, making their decisions, accepting Jesus, knocking on
hearts doors. They love their ceremonies. Men love ceremonies. People love ceremonies. Bunch
of Catholics the other day and this priest was going down through
there with this big thing You know, you know, you know what
Tim James used to call them priests when they carried that thing
lollipop of stickers But you know you tell them how
wrong they are they ain't gonna put that lollipop of stickers
down But all men love their traditions.
They love their ceremonies. They love their works. They love
to look at what they've done. They love to tell you what they've
done. I'll tell you what, I don't know how many people tell me,
boy, me and my wife, we had our devotions this morning. Oh, we
have our devotions. And they go on and on about all
the things that they do. And, you know, We've done so
much for this person, and they go on and on and on about the
things they do. People come, wear their little
old t-shirts with Jesus on them, thinking they're doing something
for the Lord. Oh, my. Put crosses on their cars. Put
clergy on their cars. Put a fish on their cars. put
a picture on the wall and they love that stuff. They think that's
wonderful. People all the time, they put
things out with a picture of Jesus on it and say, if you believe
Jesus and trust him, say yes. I'm not going to, I'm not going
to say yes to an idiot and I'm not going to change yes to somebody
that don't even, but nobody knows what Christ looked like. The
only way you can tell what he looked like was out of Song of
Solomon, chapter 5. And it says, first of all, his
hair was black and bushy. Black like a raven and bushy.
He had eyes fitly set like dark set in milk. He had dark eyes
and he had white around them. Oh, they describe him. I tell
you what. And I, you know, I tell you what
I'm going to contend for by the grace of God. I'm going to contend
for the truth as it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
I'm going to contend for. I'm going to contend for the
truth that man cannot come to God except the Father drive. I'm going to contend for the
truth that man will not come to God unless God come to him.
I'm going to contend for the truth that Jesus Christ, when
He elect unconditionally elected a people without any respect
to who they was or what they ever did. And I'm going to contend
for the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ died particularly for
a certain people and nobody else. He died for His people and them
alone. He laid down His life for the
sheep. And I'm going to contend that every believer will persevere. I'm going to be like Bruce Crabtree,
persevere. You're going to be preserved
and persevere at the same time. You know why we're going to persevere?
Because God's going to preserve us. David said, preserve me under
thy glory, O Lord. Oh my, that's what I'm going
to contend for. I'm going to contend for unconditional
election. I'm going to contend for man's
inability. I'm going to contend for Christ dying for His elect,
particularly redemption. I'm going to contend for God's
effectual calling. He calls people and He does it
effectually. And I'm going to contend that
men will die in the faith. That's what I'm going to contend
for. I love this truth. And I know you do too. There's
places that always tell you how you're supposed to live. Everybody
wants to tell you how you're supposed to live. And then they
won't tell you what you're supposed to practice. But there's only
one thing, two things that this blessed book does for us. The
only rule of faith is right here. And the only way we're to practice
and live in this world is what this says. And if you can't figure
that out for yourselves, me telling you ain't going to help you none
at all. As they say, y'all adults, you can read the Bible for yourselves.
And then I want to, I got, I'm taking too long. Let me give
you this last one. We glorify God by walking cheerfully
and contentedly in this world. Cheerfully and contentedly. Oh
my, you know when our Lord met him on the, he was walking on
the water, those fellas got scared, they thought a ghost was walking
toward him. You know what our Lord said? Be of good cheer.
It's me. That make you be of good cheer?
It's me. It's me, it's me. And oh my,
when a child of God walks cheerfully in this, in the worst of times,
Oh, how it glorifies God. And everybody, everybody goes
through some bad, bad times. When you're on this earth and
you're one of God's people, you're going to have some dark, dark,
dark days. You're going to have some heartaches.
You're going to have some deep trouble, deep waters to go through.
You have days of darkness and days of trial and days of, you
know, I surely don't know. You know,
she tells me that But I tell her all the time, I get up in
the pulpit and I'm as empty as a dry-fired shotgun. Empty. Got
up this morning, I was empty. Just didn't feel nothing. Then
you get in the pulpit and God blesses you, you get out, you're
the same way. But I'm still, I'm of good cheer. I told the truth. And oh my,
when a child of God walks cheerfully in the worst of times, oh how
it glorifies God. Oh, we have reason to be cheerful.
We have reason to be cheerful. Look in Psalm 100. Oh my goodness,
I bet you all say, when's he gonna stop? When's he gonna stop?
Look in Psalm 100 with me. Psalm 100. Look what he said
here. First three verses. Make a joyful
noise unto the Lord. All ye lands, let the lands do
it. Serve the Lord, listen to this now, with gladness. Come
before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, he is
God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. He made us, made us his sheep. We have such reason to be cheerful. We've been redeemed. Christ,
when He died, He redeemed us. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He bought us, paid our debt off,
paid our sin debt off. And then He regenerated us by
the Spirit of God. Then He come, and when He died
and He rose again, He gave us a righteousness. And then He
justified us, cleared us of all guilt, and He sanctified us.
Well, you know sanctification don't happen over time. The minute
you become a believer, a Christian, you're sanctified as you're ever
going to be. You may not act like it, but you are. Sanctified
just means that you're, God said, look at you and say you're holy.
And we've been adopted. Oh, what an inheritance we got
coming. Oh my goodness. What an inheritance. Oh, my. And Christ has made unto
us all we need. We don't need nothing else. And
I tell you what, He gives us grace for trials, gives us grace
when we're tried. Paul said, oh, my, I've got a
thorn in the flesh. And I asked the Lord three times,
take it away. He said, I ain't gonna do it, I ain't gonna do
it. But he said, I'll tell you what. He said, I'm gonna give
you grace. And that grace is gonna be sufficient
for you. And I'll tell you what, has there ever been a time that
grace wasn't sufficient for what you was going through? Has there
not ever been a time that God's grace wasn't sufficient? It's
sufficient for tonight, it'll be sufficient for tomorrow, it'll
be sufficient for every day of your life. And I'll tell you this is the
most blessed truth what our Lord Jesus worked out for us and What
the Holy Spirit's worked in us that makes us cheerful that makes
us so clear cheerful and contented I'd rather people yeah, I thought
we'll quit I really will but People all the time say are you
happy? Are you happy? I want you to be happy I'm gonna
tell you something. I'd rather be content content
than to be happy. Happinesses comes and goes. But
boy, when you're content, I'm content. I tell you that, folks, all the
time. I'm content. I'm content. What would make
me discontented? It'd have to be self-righteous.
It'd have to be pride. It'd have to be covetousness.
It'd have to be lust. I'm content. I'm content with
the woman God gave me. I'm content with the house God
gave me. I'm content with you. I'm content with God. I'm content
with His Word. I'm content with my money. I'm
content with everything there is. You name it, I'm content
to have it. And all my, and I tell you, and
I'm going to quit. If a soul is downcast, Downcast
goes like this all the time. Oh boy, if you only knew, if
you only knew. We know, we know, we really do
know. But you know, if a soul casts
downcast and sad all the time, you know who it reflects on?
The master. Master. If a husband mistreats
his wife, it reflects on Christ. If a wife mistreats her husband,
It reflects on Christ. And to go around downcast and
complaining and finding fault with your life, that's not good. That's not good at all. It's
not good at all. You know, people say, boy, you
know, people think God must be an awful hard and austere God.
for them people to be going like, looking like that all the time,
looking like that all the time. Must be for awful hard and demanding.
But oh my, many have tears and complaints, but how few have
praise and cheerfulness. Give good cheer. God told Paul, Paul was He was
in prison. The Lord appeared to him, said,
Paul, be a good cheer. He said, you're going to go all
the way to Caesar. You're going to appear before
the king. Be a good cheer. If God says, be a good cheer, ah. Ain't the gospel something? Ain't the word of God something?
Ain't it precious? And I said this today. I'm just
going to talk a minute, and then you'll be able to go. Shirley and I was talking after
we ate lunch and had a wonderful time with Daryl and Brad. We was, I said, you know, if
I get to the end of the way and there's nothing to it, just death
and I'm gone. I said, being a believer, being
a Christian in this world has gave me so much and made my life
so full, made my life so enriched. made me to know, the caliber
of people that I know and fellowship with and the preachers I've known,
that made my life is so much richer and so much fuller as
a believer. So if all I got out of it was
what I got out in this life, that'd be enough. I've got an
awful lot out of this life. But you know, I really believe
that there's a whole heap sight better after this. I really do. Jesus Christ is made to me all
I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness and power. Holiness forevermore. My redemption full and sure. He is all I need. See you Wednesday, God willing.
Lord bless you.