Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 51. Hymn number 51. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we know and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us Before conflict fits and harms us Nothing moves and nothing
harms us While we trust in Him Trust in Him, ye Saints, forever Neither force nor cow can sever
those in us from Him. Keep us, Lord, O keep us, cleaving
to Thyself and still believing, till the hour of our receiving,
promised joys we'll bring. Then we shall be where we would
be Then we shall be what we should be Things that are not, never
could be Soon shall be our own Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
511. 511 ? Face to face with Christ my Savior
? Face to face what will it be ? When with rapture I behold
Him ? Jesus Christ who died for me Face to face I shall behold
Him Far beyond the starry sky Face to face in all His glory
I shall see Him Only faintly now I see Him In the darkly filled
between But a blessed day is coming Face to face I shall behold Him
Far beyond the stormy sky Face to face in all His glory Rejoicing in his presence In
our banished grief and pain When the crooked ways are straightened
And the dark things shall be plain Face to face I shall be I shall see him by and by. Face to face to see and know
Face to face with my Redeemer Jesus Christ who loves me so I shall see him by and by If you have your Bibles with
you this morning, if you would open with me to the book of 1
Chronicles chapter 16. 1 Chronicles chapter 16. First Chronicles 16, verse 23. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Show forth from day to day his
salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen,
his marvelous works among all nations. For great is the Lord,
and greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above
all gods, for all the gods of the people are idols, but the
Lord made the heavens. Glory and honor are in his presence. Strength and gladness are in
his place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds
of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and
strength. Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name. Bring an offering and come before
him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before
him all the earth. The world shall not be stable,
that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad and let
the earth rejoice. And let men say among the nations,
the Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar and the fullness
thereof. Let the fields rejoice and all
that is therein. Then shall the trees of the woods
sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge
the earth. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And say ye,
save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver
us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name,
and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
forever and ever. And all the people said amen
and praise the Lord. Our most high and heavenly Father,
Lord God Almighty. Your name is above all names.
Your power. Your mercy. Your righteousness. Your graciousness. All of your wonderful attributes
are above all. Lord, we thank you for the word we've just read. We thank you for salvation found
only in your son, Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for this
gathering, the place where we are gathered, for the one you've
brought here today to preach to us. Lord, we thank you for your countless mercies bestowed upon us. We
thank you most of all for salvation in Christ and for revealing it to us, for teaching us the gospel. Lord, we ask that you would send
your spirit here this morning, meet with us, As we've just read,
Lord, cause us to praise thy name and worship you, to give
you all the glory, to sing praises unto your name. I ask that you would be with Brother
Larry as he stands before us today. Give him the ability and the
wisdom to speak on our Lord Jesus Christ. that things concerning
the gospel that you would use them to teach us, Lord, and to
bless our hearts, nourish our souls. Lord, we pray this for wherever
your saints together that you'd meet with them. Lord, we ask for mercy, grace,
and strength for The family and friends of dear
brother D now sits at thy feet, perfect, made perfect in you. Lord, we thank you for that.
We thank you for the blessed peace found only in you. Lord, I ask that you would save your lost sheep wherever
they may be. Lord, pray for these children
especially, that you would have mercy on them, that they may
know and share the peace in Christ. No peace on earth like it. Lord, bless your sheep as we
go forward. Keep your hand on us. Let us
not waver. Let us not meet in vain. Let
us meet and worship in spirit and in truth, according to thy
perfect holy will. Teach us thy way, Lord, or we
won't be taught. We ask and pray these things
in our Lord Jesus Christ's name. For Christ's sake, amen. Let's all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Assemble yourselves
and honor the King. He sits on the throne. ? His triumphs we've seen ? ? King
Jesus, who died to atone for our sin ? ? Came forth from the
tomb, and we live again ? ? The Lamb from above ? He died and arose, the work is
all done. He took on himself all our debt
to repay, the sins of his O terrible death, where now is
thy sting? Enthroned in His glory, all whiting
to save, Victorious is conquest, for sin in the grave. He conquered the tomb, and liveth
above All praise to his name, through power and love Made righteous
in Jesus' way, someday shall rise Be seated. We're pleased to have
Brother Larry Crisp with us here today. I think everybody here
knows him and doesn't need an introduction, but makes his way
to us from Sylacauga, Alabama. And we're delighted to have you
once more. Why don't you come on up and
preach to us. Son, would you like this up here?
Make it a little taller for you? No, I think I can manage. Red button when you're ready.
OK, I'll try to remember. Red button when I'm ready. What
about when I'm finished? Same thing, it is. Red button
on both? Okay. It won't shock me, will it? I was preaching in Cherokee,
North Carolina once, and the brothers gave me, you know, the
mic. I hadn't used one before. And
I said, now, what is this again? One brother spoke up and said,
if you go too long, we'll zap you. Shock you. Don't want that. Good to be with
you. Good to be with you. It's always
an honor to be here. We go back a ways, don't we?
Been a long time. I'd have to go back and find
my records to remember the first time I came here. But it was
early 90s, I believe. So I've been coming here. every
now and then, ever since then, and it's always a joy to be with
you. Pray for me, pray for me, as Brother Houston did a moment
ago, pray that God will not allow us to meet in vain. Would you
turn in your Bibles to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter two? The red button. Hebrews chapter 2. We'll read
our text in a moment, but here in chapter 2, and really throughout
the entire epistle, we have the application of the truths asserted
in the first chapter. That's why here in chapter 2,
verse 1, it begins with this word, therefore. Therefore. That is, in light of what was
already written, were the writer plainly, plainly emphatically. I like dogmatism, don't you? I like to be dogmatic. We can't
be too dogmatic concerning the word of God, concerning the gospel
of his grace, concerning the glory of his son. The writer
did that very thing concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore,
in light of what he said in chapter one, he says, God said some things. God gave
us the estimation in chapter 1 of his son. Doesn't matter
what you and I think. Doesn't change anything. Doesn't
matter if people like it or not or believe it or not. God Almighty
says this concerning his son. Look for example at verse 1.
Verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 1. And then we'll have a better
appreciation of why chapter two begins with therefore. Therefore,
look what preceded it. God, God, who at sunry times
and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets, had in these last days spoken unto us by his son,
his only son. the only begotten son of the
Father, whom he had appointed heir of all things, by whom also
he made the worlds. My father used to say to me,
when he would tell me to do something, and then have to tell me a second
time, he would say, now son, I'm not going to tell you again.
This is final. This is final. God the Father
says concerning his son, this is my beloved son. and whom I
am well pleased, hear ye him." That's final. That's final. God will not speak to a man or
be spoken to by a man except through the Lord Jesus Christ. Some old writer said, I want
nothing to do, I want nothing to do with a holy God outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I often think of our Lord's teaching
in Matthew 7 when he said, Many, not just one or two, but many,
in that day shall stand before him and say, Lord, you know us.
You remember us. We did all these things. And
those things is what they were trusting in. We did them in your
name. They stood before God Almighty,
the Lord Jesus Christ, without a mediator. Ooh, oh God, thank
God for His grace. God the Father says this is final. Look again, if you will, in chapter
1, verse 3. Here's, it's speaking again of
His Son. It's describing Him. Who's His
Son? Who? Being the brightness of
His glory, the very brightness of God's glory. and to express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself," oh, don't you like that? It would
be easy to pitch tan here, wouldn't it? When he had by himself, he
trod the winepress alone. Of the people, there was none
with him. When he had by himself purged our sins past tense, he
got the job done. sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty on high, that place is reserved for him and him alone,
being made so much better than the angels, as he had by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. Verse 8, O not to
angels, but unto the Son, God says, Thy throne, this is God
the Father speaking to His Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Therefore, therefore, in the
light of that, verse 1 of chapter 2, therefore, we ought, we ought,
we don't, but we ought, we ought to give the more earnest heed
to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip. I read just this morning one
commentator said the word for slip here would be better translated,
drift away. Just let it drift away. For if,
verse two, the word spoken by angels was steadfast and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense or
reward, how shall we escape? How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders,
and with diverse miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost according
to his will. Our text shall be from verse
three, What a Great Salvation. That's the title, that's the
subject. What a Great Salvation. First of all, There's three things
I want to consider under that heading, what a great salvation.
And the first one is this, a great salvation is needed. James, we
need a great salvation. Considering the state of what
man is by nature, could anything less than a great salvation do
us any good? Could anything other than a mighty
great salvation do us any good? Only a great salvation can rescue
great sinners like I am, like you are. Old Scott Richardson. A lot of y'all remember this.
Scott preached here. But I remember the first time
I heard Scott over 40 years ago, closer to 50 years ago, preaching
somewhere in a conference. And he talked about the gospel
being good news, and it is. Glorious, glorious good news.
The salvation of the Lord. Scott said, I've got good news
for sinners. The gospel's good news for sinners
if I could find one. And I thought to myself, Scott,
what do you mean if you could find one? We're all sinners. Everyone's a sinner. Have you
talked to one lately? I mean, someone that knows they're
a sinner? Everybody I talk to just about,
without exception, claims to be saved. Just about everyone
claims to be saved. They tell me they made a decision
for Jesus. What in the world does that mean?
I don't find any such language in Scripture. They walked an
aisle. Again, what does that mean? When
I first moved to Sylacauga, The pastor, I was in one of the local
stores, and the lady asked me where I was from, what I was
doing, and I told her I moved here from Kentucky to pastor
the Fairmont Grace Church here in Sylacauga. She said, oh, I
was at that church one time. That's a strange place. I said,
why is that? She said, they don't even have
an altar. How do you expect people to be
saved without an altar? And I thought, oh, so sad, so
sad. And she was dead serious. David
Edmondson, perhaps y'all heard this story, but I think he told
it when he was preaching in the conference out at Darwin's a
year or so ago. I was there. But he was conducting
a funeral. Before the service, he asked
the funeral director, does everyone who comes through this place
go to heaven? And the director said, everybody
does. Everybody does. They all go to
heaven. There was an old preacher back
in the mountains of West Virginia where I grew up. There was hardly
a day went by, Dirk, that that man didn't preach a funeral.
I mean three or four times a week you read in the paper he was
preaching a funeral. And I asked someone one time,
why is there nobody else around that preaches their funeral?
Why does everybody want him to preach their funeral? They said,
because he's like Perry Mason. He never loses a case. Everybody
goes to heaven. No, not so, not so. I like the
words of old Joseph Hart and that hymn that he wrote. He said,
what comfort can a savior bring to those who never felt their
woe? It's a pretty good question,
isn't it? What comfort can a Savior bring to those who never felt
their woe? The answer is, God doesn't. God doesn't bring comfort to
any who's never felt their woe. Religion will, and preachers
will, mama and dad will, but God never has. Listen to these
words by the Lord Jesus Christ on this very subject in Luke
chapter 5. Luke chapter 5, he's talking to the Pharisees, the
scribes and the Pharisees, oh how they watched our Lord. Listen,
they tried to catch him at his word. But in verse 30 of Luke
5, but their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples
saying, why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And
Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. Christ came to heal the
sick. I came not to call the righteous
like you Pharisees claim to be. You're not sick, you don't need
me. But I came to call sinners to repentance. Most folks think
they're fine, they're good enough. They've never felt their need
of salvation, never felt their need of grace, and the grace
that brings salvation. Therefore, Mr. Hart said, a sinner
is a sacred thing. You know why he's so sacred?
Because the Holy Ghost has made him so. Only God can get a man
lost, can't he? I can't get a man. I used to
try to get people lost. I can't do it. Oh, but God can. God can get a man lost, and when
he convinces you that you're lost, you'll know it. You won't
need convincing from anyone else. You'll know it. And you'll seek
His mercy. You won't be drugged to Christ.
You'll come most willingly to Christ. You'll willingly seek
Him. You'll willingly bow down. You'll willingly cry out, Oh,
thou Son of David, have mercy on me. You'll take your place,
didn't you, child of God? Didn't you take your place with
that publican and cry out, I'm the sinner. Oh, God, have mercy
on me. For generations now, the religion
that makes man his own savior has been telling sinners how
easy it is to be saved. That's what folks are being told
all around us today. It's easy as A-B-C. Anybody ever tell you that? As
simple as repeating the sinner's prayer. There's really nothing
to it. And even say this, they told
me this, God's done all he can do Now it's up to you. And poor folks think that's good
news. No, that's not good news. If
God's done all he can do and now it's up to me, I'm in trouble. If God needs my help, If He needs
my assistance for me to be saved, then I'm in trouble and He's
in trouble. He can't help me. If He needs
me, He can help me. Oh, I need a great God and Savior,
and that's exactly who Jesus Christ is. The result of such
teaching, that salvation is easy, has produced a multitude of people,
multitudes of religious people that have an inkling as to who
God really is. who they are, why grace is needed. Go into the average church, the
average Baptist church, and preach from a text like Romans 9, 16. It's not of him that willeth.
Wow. It's not of him that runneth.
Salvation is because of God that showeth mercy. And like your
pastor says, they'll look at you like a calf looking at a
new gate. Just absolutely clueless. Clueless. No, the Lord Jesus
Christ didn't say it was easy as ABC, did he? His disciples
asked him one time, who can be saved? Who can be saved? And he said in words as plain
as could be, with men this is impossible. Could words be any
more clear? No creature, no creature, can
work the change that's necessary for the salvation of their soul.
No man can give themselves a new heart. Only God can do that. And our Lord said, therefore
with men it's impossible. Salvation is described in scripture
in such terms as a resurrection. A resurrection from the dead.
A creation. And with men that's impossible.
Philosophy can't do it. Politics can't do it. Man's so-called
free will can't do it. His worth can't do it. His works
can't do it. I jumped through every religious
hoop they told me to jump through and got slapped on the back I
don't know how many times and was guaranteed I was saved and
was sure for heaven as if I was already dead there. And I'd lay
down at night and God say, it's not so. You're lost. You're lost. You're lost. Robin and I were
in Danville a few months ago, Danville, Kentucky, preaching
there at Grace Baptist Church. We stayed with Rex and Debbie
Bartley. And we got there a few days early. And they took us
to Shaker Village. These were some folks that lived
years ago. They were some religious. I don't
know the difference between the Shakers and the Quakers. I don't
know what the difference was. But we had a guide. This lady
took us around and gave us the history. And I went into the
buildings and saw the pictures. The ladies had everything covered
up with their eyeballs. And the men were all dressed
in black, nothing shiny on them, no ring, no jewelry, no makeup,
nothing. They just looked miserable. It's
no wonder. And I thought to myself, these
are people that think they're working their way to heaven.
They think they were working their way to heaven. No wonder
they were miserable. Thank God. Thank God that the
Lord Jesus Christ said this about his great salvation. With God. With God. Oh, glory, hallelujah. With God, all things are possible. The captain of our salvation,
the great physician of souls, he heals all matter of sin, sick,
disease, doesn't he? He can give a new heart. He can
make His people willing in the day of His power. His grace reigns. His grace abounds over sin. His
grace one day will prove so sufficient that it will present every one
of His sheep, every one of His chosen, every one of His elect,
every one of His redeemed without fault before the throne of God
Almighty. How about that? What a Savior. What a Savior. But the salvation,
the psalmist said, Psalm 37, but the salvation of the righteous
is of the Lord. He is their strength in time
of trouble. Verse 40, and the Lord shall
help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the
wicked and save them because they trust in him. Behold, God
is my salvation. God is my salvation, not the
water, not the altar, not the doctrine. No, no, no. God is my salvation. I will trust
and not be afraid. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song. He has become my salvation. Oh,
how sweet it is to lie down at night in the shade like Simeon
said. Oh, I've seen God's salvation. I can die tonight, and it'll
be okay. It'll be well with my soul, because
my eyes, by the gift of precious faith that He gave me, I beheld
the Lamb of God. I know that Jesus Christ is my
Savior. What a blessed joy, what a blessed
joy. The prophet in Isaiah chapter
25 said, it shall be said in that day, lo, this is our God. We have waited for him, and he
will save us. He will save us. Not he's going
to take a stab at it. He's going to try to. He will
save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for him, and he's worth the wait. We'll be glad and rejoice in
his salvation. God's salvation is something
worth rejoicing in, ain't it? As Jonah learned in the belly
of that great fish, he knew, as you've heard said, His will
got him into that mess, but it would take the will of an omnipotent
God to bring him out. And when he cried, salvation
is of the Lord, that did it. That did it. Out he came. Who then can be saved? The answer
from God is this. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. He's not obligated to do it.
There's nothing we can do to attract his mercy. The very opposite. There's much to repel it, but
nothing to retract it. But God says, I will have mercy
simply because I will have mercy. And it's my mercy. I can bestow
it or I can withhold it. That's what the Word teaches.
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
upon whom I will have compassion. Man, you preach that, you even
read that in most churches. Oh, I can't stand that, we can't
stand that. Well, I can stand that. I rejoice
that God Almighty, what a wonder that he would have mercy, and
he would have mercy on this sinner. My soul, therefore, it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. God says, I will have mercy. That's good news. Somebody. I
mean, that just makes it sure. That makes it certain. Absolute. Somebody is going to experience
the mercy of God Almighty. God's purposed it. God's determined. God's willed it. And none can
resist His will or stay His hand. Nobody can stop Him from doing
what He wants to do. If the God you worship, the God
you profess faith in can't have his way, if God had his way,
what kind of stupid talk is that? One time I heard Brother Tim
James preaching, and he was talking about on church's signs. I noticed
y'all was just gone. There was one that said, y'all
probably seen this, we can't spell church without you and
the you would be gone, you know, like it's all up to you. And
Tim said, well, you can't spell stupid without you. You can't
spell dumb without, there's a lot of things you can't spell without
you, but this is good news. God Almighty has purposed to
show mercy. It took a miracle, the hymn writer
said. It took a miracle to put the
stars in place. And it took a miracle to hang
the world in space. But when God saved my soul and
cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love and grace. You had he quickened, quickened,
made alive. Paul said, you were dead just
like everybody else. And you proved it by the way
you lived. You followed the same path like everyone else was following.
But God, but God made a difference. You had he quickened, made alive
who were dead in trespasses and sins. Even when we were dead,
hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace you are saved. Yes, God's salvation Is it not
just possible? It's certain. It's everlasting
and absolute. Thank God that salvation. Aren't
you glad it's not up to you? My, so aren't you thankful that
no part of it is up to you? He that's begun a good work in
you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now here's
the second thing. A great salvation demands a great
Savior. As great as salvation is, it's
simply a reflection of the greater Savior that brings it. The Savior
is greater than the salvation that He wroughts. There is only
one who is mighty to save. Only one. There's only one able
to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. Jesus
Christ has never lost the case. He never loses a case. I'll seek
my sheep, I'll seek them until I find them. I won't tell them,
you take the first step and I'll take the rest. No, I'll pick
them up, I'll put them on my mighty shoulders, and I'm going
to bring them all the way home, all the way to the Father's house.
There's only one name given among men by which we must be saved,
and there's only one mediator between God and man, and it's
not the Pope, and it's not the preacher, and it's not the church,
it's the man Christ Jesus. There's only one door to heaven. Only one way, only one Savior. This is my beloved Son, hear
ye Him. That's final. When the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law
that we might receive the adoption of sons, the very fact that salvation
couldn't be accomplished in any other way other than the Son
of God himself being made like unto his brethren is proof that
salvation must be a great and mighty work. if only he could
accomplish it. It required that the word that
was in the beginning with God and was God must enter this world,
be made flesh, be made like unto his brethren, and then be made
sin. What a great Savior. This great
salvation required the great God and Savior Jesus Christ himself,
as we read there in Galatians 4, being made under the law to
try and redeem his people. No, that's not what it says.
No, it doesn't say that. To offer to redeem his people. No, he came to redeem his people. He entered in one time. That's
what we read in Hebrews 9. One time into the holy place,
having obtained, past tense, obtained eternal redemption for
us. Thank God that's exactly what
he did. No wonder the angel told those
shepherds that night, unto you is born this night in the city
of David a savior which is Christ the Lord, the Lord Almighty. Not that other, that imposter. That imposter of the day. That
pitiful Jesus. Oh no, this same Jesus that the
disciples saw ascend back to heaven from Mount Olivet that
day? The angel said, this same Jesus
is coming again. The same one. That one that was,
as they beheld, he was taken up and higher and higher and
higher and higher. How high is he? Well, he is so
high, lifted up and exalted by God Almighty, that everything
and everybody is under his feet. That's so, and children of God
are thankful that it's so. Here is a savior who's able to
work out a great salvation for great sinners, and he's done
it in his doing. He is as willing to save as he
is able to save. There's never been a sinner that
sincerely came to him for mercy who was turned away. Houston,
never been a case. You can't find it in the word
of God. And you can't find it among believers. There's never
been a case where someone came to him seeking mercy who was
turned away. A mighty savior. A real savior
for real sinners. The chief of sinners, Paul said.
He saved me, Paul said. I'm the chief of sinners. We
were having dinner with Pastor John Reeves and his wife Kathy
out in Rescue, California, the first part of the year, and someone,
I think it was Kathy, quoted that the chief of centers, and
my wife Robin spoke up and said, that was before I came along.
And we all feel that way, don't we? My soul, God save me. Jesus, his name means the salvation
of the Lord. Jehovah saves and he lived up
to his name. Who else could perform such a
great work but the great God and Savior Christ himself? Who
else could trod the winepress of God's wrath alone? Who else
could purge our sins? Who else could obtain our everlasting
redemption? Who else makes intercession for
us before God? Who else shall never allow one
of his sheep to perish? Who else is able to do that?
Who else will keep us from falling? Who else but a mighty God and
Savior will be able to present us without a spot or a blemish
before the throne of God? God Almighty in the eye of absolute
omniscience looks us up and down and says, no fall. Perfect! Like my son, O Jesus Christ,
the Lord God prophesied, or rather prophesied by the prophet Isaiah
concerning his son, his righteous servant, behold him, he shall
not fail. He shall not fail. Jesus Christ
will never fail. Ask that poor leper. Was He able
to cleanse you all? Let me tell you about it. Ask
blind Bartimaeus. Ask any one of that multitude.
A multitude. People here, you believe election
day. Oh, my soul, you believe just one or two are going to
be saved. Oh, no, no, no, no. We believe a multitude. Jesus
Christ redeemed a multitude. And everyone for whom He shed
His blood, there's no possibility that they won't enter glory.
Unless God ceases to be just, unless God ceases to be trusted,
unless God ceases to honor the work of His Son, everyone that
Jesus Christ redeemed with His own precious blood are going
to be among that multitude in glory, waving that palm leaf
of victory, and singing salvation to our God that set it upon the
throne. He has redeemed us with His own
precious blood. Oh, bearing shame and scoffing
rude, In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with
his blood. Hallelujah, what a Savior! Hallelujah, what a Savior! Guilty, helpless, lost were we,
Spotless Lamb of God was he, Sacrificed to set us free. Hallelujah,
what a Savior! He was lifted up to die. It is
finished was his cry. Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Let me bring this
thing to a close. The third and last thing is this.
First, a great salvation was needed. Jesus Christ is that
great Savior. And behold, thank God for such
a great salvation experienced. I believe when Lazarus was raised
from the dead, he knew it, don't you? When a sinner is raised
from death to life, he knows it. Only God can speak peace
to a sinner's heart, but when he does, it's not fake. It's not pasted on. It's not
pretend. Oh no, he knows it. For God had
not appointed us to wrath. but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together, and identify one another, even as also you do." God's appointments
cannot be frustrated, can they? Years ago, now let me preface
this remark with these words, it's not happened for a long
time, but once or twice, I'll be coming down here to preach.
Your pastor said, there's a reservation, such and such a place. I don't
know why, it's vanity I guess, but I always like to strut up
to that desk and say, I'm Larry Criss. There's a reservation
for me. And they'd look and say, no there's
not. I said, say what? Dottie Bell
made a reservation. He told me he made a reservation
for me. No, he didn't. He forgot. Oh, 1 Peter 1, I have
a reservation reserved in heaven for me. And it can't be broken. It can't be erased. My name's
in the register. The Lamb's Book of Life, Larry
Criss is there. Father, I will that all those
you've given me be with me where I am that they might behold my
glory. What a comfort to know that our
salvation is in the hands of our great God and Savior who
has never failed, never failed. Hear him declare this. Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You
shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. The great
shepherd speaks, child of God, to each one of us and says, fear
not, little fuck, but it is your father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise
God our Savior. Be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and forever. Amen. Let me read just a few
verses of a hymn, a poem I found. I don't even remember where I
found it, but I liked it. It says, O love surpassing knowledge,
O grace so full and free, I know that Jesus loves me, and that's
enough for me. O wonderful salvation, from seeing
Christ set me free, I feel the sweet assurance and that's enough
for me. Oh, blood of Christ so precious,
poured out at Calvary, I feel its cleansing power, and that's
enough for me. Amen. God bless you. Thank you
for your attention. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our high and heavenly Father,
Lord God Almighty, come before you once more through your blessed
son. We thank you for the message we've just heard. We thank you for the blessed promise of salvation
in Christ, found all through your word. It all points to you. Lord, thank you for teaching
us that you are all. What a blessed piece. Our hearts rejoice in it. And
our souls rest in it. Lord, I ask that you would keep
your word fresh on our hearts. Ask that you would bless our
fellowship this afternoon and bring us back to hear your word
once more this evening. We ask these things in Jesus'
name, amen. Let's all stand together and
sing hymn number 206. 206. Wonderful grace of Jesus Greater
than all my sin How shall my tongue describe it? Where shall its grace begin? Setting my spirit free For the
wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful, a matchless grace
of Jesus Deeper than the matter of exceeding ? Sparkling like a fountain ? All
sufficient praise for you and me ? Broader than the scope of
my transgression ? Greater far than all my sin and shame ? O
magnify the precious name of Jesus ? Praise his name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching
to all of us By it I have been pardoned Saved to the uttermost
Chains have been torn aside Oh, the wonderful grace of Jesus
Reaches me Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the
hiding wall I've seen Peace of salvation, for you are
me, you are me, you are me. Broader than the scope of my
treacherous singing, greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of
Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, rich
in the most defiled, by its transforming power, making in God's Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches
me Wonderful to match this grace of Jesus All sufficient grace for you
and me. Broader than the stroke of my
treacherous singing, Greater far than all my sin and shame,
O magnify the precious name of Jesus Christ His name. Brother Larry, if you would,
go to the foyer so people can greet you. You can take that with you if
you want. We'll meet again this evening at 6, Lord willing. Y'all
are dismissed.