Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 51. 51. Praise the Savior. ? The tree of Him ? ? Gladly let
us render to Him ? ? All we are and have ? ? Jesus is the name that charms
us ? ? Free from conflicts and harms us ? while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor doubt can sever. Keep us, Lord, O keep us, cleaving
to Thyself and still believing till the hour of the receiving
of His joys with Thee. Be seated we'll sing hymn number
127 127 ? Man of sorrows, what a name ?
For the Son of God who came ? Ruined sinners to reclaim ? Hallelujah,
what a Savior Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned
he stood, With His blood, hallelujah, what
a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we,
Strong this Lamb of God was He, Full of tolerance, ? Hallelujah, what a Savior ? Lifted
up was he to die ? In his finish was his cry ? Now in heaven is
Salted lime, hallelujah, what a savior. With thee comes our glorious
king, all his ransomed home to bring. This song we'll sing. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Good evening. If you would, open
your Bibles to the book of Psalms, chapter 32. Psalm chapter 32. Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. When I kept silent, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night, the hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into
the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledge my sin unto
thee and my iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my
transgressions unto the Lord. and thou forgave us the iniquity
of my sin. For this shall every one that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Surely
in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto
him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou
shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance, Selah. I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine
eye. Be ye not as the horse or as
the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in the
bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows
shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy
shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice,
ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we come
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. the one that
we seek, the one we look to. We pray, Lord, and thank you
that you've caused us to come here. Come to this place where
we can hear the truth about salvation, the truth about our Savior. Come
where we can hear the truth about ourselves. We pray, Lord, for
your visit tonight, that you'd send the Holy Spirit to be among
this body of believers. Pray that you'd meet their needs.
Bless them, Lord. cause them to be well. We pray
for Brother Cody as he stands before us tonight again that
you cause him to tell us about Christ like he did this morning.
Forgive us, Lord, of our sins. Pray for my family, Lord, that
don't know him, don't seem to care. Pray that you give them
a need, cause them to come hear the gospel. And I pray, Lord,
that you give the doctors wisdom. and a steady hand with our great
grandson in the morning when he has his surgery. Pray, Lord,
that you'd be with him and comfort him and be with his mom and dad
and give them strength, Lord. Forgive us of our sins. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Number 31 in our course books.
Oh, how merciful. 31 in the course book. When I was lost in sin and shame,
now, now, let me take the blame. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me! When I could look down deep within
And see the sinfulness of sin, Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me! ? Merciful, blessed Lord ? ? How
merciful, thou art to be ? ? Oh, how merciful, how merciful, blessed
Lord ? A sinner lost and so helped in
his own sin. my sister must repent blessed
lord how merciful thou was to me I wonder why should I rebel
and with a soul deserting hell how merciful thou art to be. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to be. I'm not ashamed of all that grace
When thou gave and took my place and when this world ceases to
be, eternal blood to speak for me. Blessed Lord, how merciful,
how hard to be. Oh, how merciful. how merciful blessed lord how
merciful thou art to me Let me mention James' grandson, great-grandson.
He had a granddaughter that was born with a heart defect and
had to have surgery when she was a week old. This little baby,
her son, he got born with the same one. So they're going to
perform surgery on him in the morning. They have to build an
artery in there, an artery that just does not work at all. So
that's what that's about, and the Lord Please help them surgeons. And always remember Fran. Boy,
this is her first day, and the rest of her life she'll be by
herself. That'll be a big old empty house for her. You all
bet, you know. You know, and the Lord's people,
they're so encouraging and so helpful. These kind of things. And also, we'll have Wednesday
night service this Wednesday night. So if you're inclined
to come, and I'll try to have something to say. And Cody, again,
we love you and appreciate your preaching, your ministry, and
your family. You come bring us the Lord's
message. Good evening, I invite your attention
tonight to the book of Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, look with
me starting in verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. That's my
prayer for us. Your grandbaby, that's my prayer
for For all of us, for all of our family, whether they're a
little baby or knocking on death's door in old age. We need to be
saved. Saved from our sin. That was
Paul's prayer and that's mine. Verse 2 says, For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe us."
We need to forsake our ways, our works, our supposed righteousness,
and look to Christ. Submit to Christ. He's the righteousness
of God. There's one righteousness, and
He's it. We need Him. We need Him to cover
us. We need to be in Him. We need
to be one with Him. I pray God would do that for us. Verse 5
says, For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the
law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
If we're going to live, we've got to keep the whole law. And we're not fit to do that.
It's too late. We've broken it. Verse six, but
the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise,
say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is,
to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the
deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. It's not
what are we going to do with Christ. Everybody thinks, what
are you going to do with Jesus? What are you going to do with
him? He's done this, what are you going to do with it? There's no place for that. What has he done? He came down. He came down here, he lived here,
he died here, and he ascended up back to where he came from.
We need faith in him. We need to trust in him. Look
to him. In the context here, Paul, I
believe his loved ones were just trying to keep the law and trying
to satisfy God by what they were doing and what they weren't doing.
Christ did it all. Rest in Him. Rest in Him. Look to Him and Him alone. Verse
8, But what saith it? What saith it? The word is nigh
thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of
faith which we preach, verse 9, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. If you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus, confess to him, our confession is to him, We
verbally confess amongst one another, but this matter of confessing
has to do with confessing what we are and what we do, and we
confess that to Him. He's the one from whom we need
forgiveness. He's the one we need to be accepted by. Let's
confess to Him, all right? Confess our utter ruin and our
desperate need of Him. You know, if we have a need,
it says, God shall supply all our need through Him. confess to him, confess to him
how hopeless we are apart from him, and just how badly we need
him to save us from ourselves. If God puts that confession in
us, If we believe in our heart what God says about us, about
himself, about the Lord Jesus Christ, if he causes us to look
away from self and trust in Christ, what's it say? Thou shalt be
saved. If our hope is in him and in
him alone, thou shalt be saved. Verse 10, for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. We could spend a while here,
I'm not going to, but salvation is, it's not an outward thing. Religion is so focused on outward
appearance and outward deeds and they don't understand it's
something that takes place in the heart. Our heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked and God Almighty knows it. We have a
heart problem. And we can't fix it. We can't
fix it. Salvation is a work. It's a work
we don't perform. It's a work God performs, and
he performs it in the heart, gives us a new heart. That's
what we need. We need a heart of faith. We need a heart that
believes God, God alone. You know, the things that come
out of our mouth reflect what's going on in our heart. We confess
the Lord Jesus Christ verbally. Because we believe Him in the
heart. If we don't confess Him, it's because we don't believe
Him. We don't believe on Him. Verse 11 right here, For the
scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. Believing on Christ is unto salvation.
And I love this. Believing on Him. How's that
going to end for us? It's going to end well. We shall
not be ashamed. I looked it up to see exactly
what that means. It means we shall not be put to shame. Don't
you hate to be put to shame? It's so embarrassing. But more than embarrassing, so
much more than embarrassing, I can't imagine a worse thought
than to close my eyes in death and to be entered into eternal
shame. eternal desolation, separation
from God. That's how important it is to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt be saved. This matter
of not being ashamed, it means one whom some hope has deceived. There's a lot of people hoping
in something and they're going to find out they were deceived.
Not if we're hoping in Christ. Not if we're hoping in Christ.
We shall not be disappointed. Not at all. Verse 12, for there's
no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon him. It doesn't matter
who we are. You know that? You were just
telling us a little bit of your background. It doesn't matter
what our background is. It doesn't matter where we're from. It doesn't
matter who our parents are, who our grandparents are. You know,
a lot of people thrive in this life because of who they are. It don't matter who we are. And
God's not going to be impressed with who we are and who our dad
is. Nope. We must all get a count for ourselves. It doesn't matter where we've
been, what we've done, what we've not done, what we hope to do.
All that's irrelevant. There's no difference. There's
no difference. the same Lord over all, the sovereign
Lord who reigneth over all of us, he's rich unto all them that
call upon him. Verse 13, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever. I love that word so
much. You know, people People will
say that election, well, that just slams the door on my hope.
It opens the door for mine. There would be no hope if it
weren't for God's election. We'd all be hopeless. Like we
read this morning, without Christ, without God, without hope in
the world, dead in trespasses and sins, no peace. Whosoever, have you called upon him? Have
we called upon Him? What's hindering us from calling
upon Him? What's hindering us from dropping
everything and running to His feet? I want to show you this. Turn with
me to Joel, Chapter 2, making you find the hard books today. If you remember where Nahum was,
it's close. Joel, Chapter 2. I think it's
after Hosea. Joel, Chapter 2. before Amos in my Bible page
1138 or 1139. Joel 2 verse 32. I'm just going
to read this one verse. Joel 2 verse
32. If you can't find it, listen. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant
whom the Lord shall call." All who need to be delivered are
going to call upon the Lord to deliver them, and they're going
to be delivered. Now, who's going to call upon
the Lord? You see what the end of that
verse said? The remnant whom the Lord shall
call, that's who's going to call out.
That's who's going to cry out to God for mercy. The remnant according to the
election of grace, they're going to call out. Now, while they
are the only ones who are going to call out, Whosoever, you see
that again? It shall come to pass, and if
God says that, it's done. It's true. It shall come to pass.
Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. Call. What are we waiting on? Call upon Him. He's able to deliver
us, and He will deliver all who need Him to deliver them. Turn back to our text in Romans
10. Romans 10. Verse 13 again, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? We can't truly call upon Christ
if we don't believe on him. You know, To truly call upon the Lord. I know people lost in religion
will seemingly call upon the Lord. When in reality, they're
not actually calling upon the Lord. To truly call upon the
Lord, we have to believe on Him. And we can't believe on Him if
we have not heard of Him. Truly heard of Him. Of who He
really is. That's the problem with religion.
They don't know who God is. They thought that he was altogether
such in one as themself, not knowing that he reigns. We're
in his hand, he's not in ours. No hands, no feet, but ours?
No, it's the other way around. Don't know who he is, and how
are we gonna hear about him and his sovereign mercy and his infinite
goodness to sinners, to all who need him? How are we gonna hear
about him without a preacher? So what you're saying is we need
a preacher. Well, that's no problem. There's preachers everywhere.
Look at the next verse. And how shall they preach except they
be sent? We do need to hear a preacher.
We sure do. But not just any preacher. We
have to hear one whom God has sent. God warns us all throughout
his word about false prophets. He said, I've not sent them,
yet they ran. I've not spoken to them, but
they're running and spewing lies. Now,
how can we know? How can we know if a preacher's
been sent by God? And I just want to tell you this.
I didn't write it down, but I can't help but recall this to my mind.
I grew up under Pastor Fortner, and he'd asked me to speak one
time, and I was scared out of my mind. And I gave it all I
had. Well, then about six months later,
by the way, I couldn't have come down from that pulpit fast enough.
Not much has changed. But about six months later, I
believe, he asked me again. And this time, he gave me two-day
notice in good Don fashion and gave me my text. So I guess that
was helpful, I guess. John 3. And buddy, I went home. I prepared an outline as fast
as I could. And I was terrified. And the next day I woke up, went
to go work my little concession stand I worked at, and I kept
reading this verse. How shall they preach except
they be sent? And I just thought, there's no
way I'm sent. No way. And I finally got the
courage to call him. I was scared of how this would
go, but I called him and I said, Brother Don, How am I going to
stand and preach the gospel if I've not been sent by God? I said, I'm so sorry. I just
don't feel sent. And he said, that's all right, buddy. And
that was that. I didn't have to speak. I say that just to say this.
It's so serious. I don't ask to come here. I had
to get up here. God forbid, but if the Lord has sent me to speak,
let me speak as the oracles of God, and you too, anybody else,
if the Lord sends you to speak, speak. Speak freely from the
heart, speak of Christ. How do we know if a man's been
sent of God? Verse 15, how shall they preach except they be sent
as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. How can we know? We can know
by the message that they preach. We can know by the message that
they preach. The message we preach manifests very clearly whether
or not we're sent of God. There's one gospel. There's just one gospel. It's
the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If we're preaching
that gospel, then we're sent. We're preaching the gospel. And
right here, God's Word tells us that all preachers whom He
sends have beautiful feet. Beautiful feet. Now, we don't
see it in ourselves. I don't see anything beautiful
about what you're looking at. How could I? But God says if a man's preaching
His Word, if a man's declaring Christ, that man has beautiful
feet. I want to show you something.
Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 1. It might be my favorite text. It's certainly one of them. Jeremiah
chapter 1. I want to read Jeremiah 1 verse
4 down through verse 12. Make a few comments. Jeremiah
1 verse 4. Now this right here, this is
a God-saved and a God-sent preacher, all right? Jeremiah 1-4, then
the word of the Lord came unto me, and that's how it starts,
the word of the Lord came to me, saying, before I formed thee
in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out
of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet. unto the nations. Now what was
his response? I love this. Look at verse 6.
Then said I, ah Lord God, behold I cannot speak for I'm a child.
Just so you know, I feel the same way. Every time I'm asked
to do this, I feel that right there. Verse 7, But the Lord
said unto me, Say not I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that
I shall send thee. And whatsoever I command thee,
thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces,
for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the
Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto
me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this
day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root
out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to
build, and to plant. Moreover, the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said,
I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou
hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it." It's a God-called, God-sent preacher. If we're going to be truly sin
of God, God must ordain us. It must have been set in stone
from long before we ever were. God must raise us up. He must
send us, and I love how it tells us. He said, I'm going to command
you what to speak. I'm going to send you, and I'm
going to tell you what to say. That's comforting to me. And he said, I'll be with thee.
Remember what Moses said, he said, if thy presence go not
with us, carry us not up hence. Lord, if you're not with me,
don't let me climb those steps. Don't let me stand here and utter
a word if you're not gonna be with me. Every time I stand here,
I need him to touch me. That's what it said. Touch my
mouth, put his words in my mouth, and enable the words to come
out of my mouth. Words of praise and glory to him. Words that
are all about Christ. And I love this. The last thing
we read there. I will hasten my word to perform
it. It's not up to me. If you're gonna be blessed tonight,
it really has nothing to do with me. I'm up here, I get that. But if we're going to be blessed,
we need God to do this. We need God to speak to us right
here, right now. And if he does, it's going to
be through his word and through a man whom he sent, according
to his word. And I love to know this, what
Isaiah said, I believe in chapter 55, wrote under inspiration of God,
that God's word shall not return unto him void. Why? Because it's his word. He's the
one that's sending it to accomplish the purpose that he's sent it
to accomplish. It's going to prosper in the
thing where to he sends it. It's his work from start to finish.
Now, why is this so important? Why is it so important? I wanted
to hit on this at least briefly. The purpose of this message is
not to talk about how how wonderful gospel preachers are, how beautiful
we are. That is not what I'm here to
tell you. This is simply the means the Lord hath chosen. It
pleased the Lord through the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. That's it. I don't want to glory
certainly in myself. I don't want to glory in you.
I don't want to glory in my pastor, Gabe. I want us all to glory
in our Lord and Him alone. You read it this morning. God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, remember the context here of what we're looking at,
alright? Believing on Christ, trusting in Christ, confessing
Christ. This is so important. Turn with
me to John chapter 3. I mentioned John 3. Turn to John
3. And the message that I never
brought was actually on John 3, 36, and that's what I want
to read. Now this right here, this verse,
this is not a suggestion of what would be good for us to do. This
is life or death. John 3, 36. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. You see how important it is that
who we hear has been sent of God? You see how important it
is that whoever's standing up here preach nothing but God's
word and God's word alone? That we point us to Christ and
nowhere else? It's life or death. We don't
believe on him. If we don't have him, we don't
have life. And nothing but the wrath of God, who we read of
this morning, who's jealous and furious and will take vengeance
on his adversaries. And all his enemies are going
to be under his feet. This is so important. This is
so important. Playing games isn't going to
do it. When I think of false religion,
that's ultimately what I think of. They're just playing games. It's too serious to play games.
God forbid that I stand here and fail to declare the truth
unto you. Paul said, I've not shunned to declare unto you all
the counsel of God. Woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. What is the gospel? How that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. That's what it is. How that Christ
suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, quickened
by the Spirit. Child of God. Let's acknowledge this, okay?
If God has enabled us to look away from our vain selves and
trust in Christ and Christ alone, here's what God's word says about
us. Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. Hmm. Praise the Lord. Now, we're not
going to be saved apart from hearing this gospel. Back in
our text, in verse 17, it says, Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. We must hear the Word of God
and pray for God to give us faith to believe it. Now, let's make
sure we understand this. If we do find ourselves believing,
and that's how I always like to think about this, You know,
people, again, lost in religion, will boast about their faith.
Well, what keeps you going? My faith. Well, not mine. Christ
does, but not my faith. I'm hoping in the faith of Christ.
If God causes us to have that faith, to partake in that precious
faith, let's make sure we understand
He did it. He did it. He did it. Well, I
decided, no, I decided to nail the Son of God to the tree. That's
all I ever decided. Lord, give us faith. He's the
one who saves. He's the one who calls. He's
the one who draws. I think last time I was here,
the text we looked at, it said, go out and bring them in hither.
That's what God does for all his people. Bring them in. We'll be back in our text. Romans 10 verse 15. And how shall
they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. We proclaim the gospel of peace.
Our feet have been shod with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. You know, it's such a joy to get to stand here and
proclaim peace, peace, wonderful peace. Such a glorious message. I love
the song. Like a river glorious is God's perfect peace. Over
all victorious in its bright increase. Perfect yet it floweth
fuller every day. Perfect yet it groweth deeper
all the way. Stay it upon Jehovah. Hearts
are fully blessed. Finding as he promised. Our brother
Bill is finding as he promised. Perfect peace and rest. God's preachers. Verse 15, they
preach the gospel of peace and they bring glad tidings of good
things. We get to declare a finished
work. We get to declare a successful
savior. There's nothing else worth declaring.
There's no other message. There's none. There's none. It's
finished. Look to Christ. May God cause
us to look to Christ. What's our message? Christ. What's
our hope? Christ. If you ask me to come
again and I come again, our message is gonna be Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ. Why? Because we can never exhaust
Him. It's the subject that we could
talk about forever and just be as ready to hear about Him again
as we were the first time we ever heard about Him. You know, there's got to be a
limit to how many degrees you can earn and learn on a certain
subject, but we'll never stop learning of Him. Never. Because
Christ is all. Christ is all. Now, how do God's
preachers have beautiful feet? It's quite simple. Because they
declare the beautiful feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. We declare
the beauty of the Savior. We preach a person. Preach the
word. Christ is the word. He's everything. I pray that we're not hung up
on something else. A lot of people hung up on something
else. The Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified. unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God." I pray that we won't. I pray that we won't not be satisfied
with Christ. Is Christ enough? Only if He's
all we've got. If we're looking for something
else, what are we doing? What are we
doing? Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth. There's no other God. Turn back to where we were this
morning, Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52 verse 7. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. We preach Him. We preach
His beautiful feet. We preach His infinite goodness,
His perfect peace, His sovereign reign, His full and free salvation. We preach him. Verse eight says,
thy watchmen shall lift up the voice. That's the God sent preachers. They shall lift up the voice.
With the voice together shall they sing for they shall see
eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. We lift up
the voice God has given us and we declare him who's upon the
mountains like watchmen watching over their city to protect their
own. We warn of false hopes. And we keep coming back to Christ. We keep pointing one another
to Christ and Christ alone, over and over again, lest we stray
from the simplicity, lest our minds be corrupted from the simplicity
that's in Christ Jesus. We can't harp on this too much.
We really can't. In God's people, we see eye to eye, as verse 8
said, When the Lord brings us to trust in Christ alone, we've
got everything in common. You remember that's what they
said when the Lord saved, I think, was it 5,000? They said, we have
all things common. We see eye to eye because we're
looking to Christ alone. He's our all. We do exactly what
verse 9 here says. It says, Break forth into joy,
sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath
comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. We rejoice
and we sing because of what our God has done for us. He's comforted
us. Has He? He's redeemed us. He's redeemed us. Verse 10. The
Lord hath made bare His holy arm, that's Christ, in the eyes
of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the
salvation of our God. The Lord Jesus Christ has been
revealed to us. Right there in chapter 53, verse 1. Who hath
believed our report? those to whom the arm of the
Lord has been revealed. God has been pleased to hide
these things from the wise and prudent and reveal them unto
babes. What the things of Christ, Christ himself, the unsearchable
riches of Christ, Christ in you, the hope of glory. God's been
pleased to reveal that to us. Oh, how blessed we are. How blessed
we are. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. Oh, come to the Father through
Jesus the Son and give him the glory. Great things he had done. All glory goes to him. Always,
all glory goes to our Savior. We don't save ourselves and those
of us who are called upon to preach, we don't save anyone
either. I think you mentioned the phrase
winning souls. Again, it's just the means God has given. God's
the one that's going to win them. If you're saved, God saved you.
You know it. If he saved you, you know it. I know it too. His
work from start to finish. I love what the psalmist said.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us. Don't let us glory in anything. Unto thy name and thy name alone
be glory, for thy mercy, for thy truth's sake. By God's grace,
I'm telling you this, and I mean it. I don't want the glory. By
nature, we want all the glory, for everything. Right now, my daughter, she's
learning so much, and I tell her all the time, honey, I'm
so proud of you. We tell her, You're so smart, but I know the
danger in telling her these things. One day she's going to think,
well, I am pretty smart, aren't I? Well, I am beautiful, aren't
I? To God alone be the glory. To
Him alone. My prayer is that we might be
saved. That's it. That we might be saved.
That we might know Christ and be found in Him. Our own righteousness,
which is of the law? No. That which is of Christ,
the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, Christ
himself. Oh, I want to be robed in him,
don't you? I want to be robed in him and
sitting at his beautiful feet. Every time I get to come here
and tell you about the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
you to know this. It is such an honor. It is such a privilege
to get to stand here and point you to the beautiful Savior.
He's the only hope I have. He's the only hope there is. Not have I gotten, but what I
received, grace hath bestowed. It says, since I have believed,
but he causes us to believe. Boasting excluded. Right eye
base. I'm only a sinner. Saved by grace. To God be the glory. Great things
he hath done. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious
God and Father, we thank you. We thank you for your holy word.
We know that every word of God is pure. And we rejoice in every
word that you've been pleased to reveal to us. It all speaks
of Christ, our Savior, Thank you so much for providing for
us a perfect savior, perfect redeemer. Thank you for him and
all his beauty. Thank you for his beautiful feet.
I do thank you so much for raising up men to declare Christ and
him crucified. And we acknowledge that their
feet are beautiful, too, because of what you've done for them.
Lord, I pray that you would cause your word to pierce our heart
cause us to believe it, bow to it, receive it joyfully, cause
us to look away from self and to the Lord Jesus Christ and
him alone for all our hope of standing before you, of being
in your holy presence. Lord, forgive us of all our sin.
We pray for one another that you would lead us and keep us
day by day. Help us to trust in you continually.
Pray for the sick, pray for Fran and her family, pray for James
and his family. Lord, be with us and bless us
and keep us for Christ's sake. Amen.