Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number one. Hymn number one. Oh, worship
the King. And gratefully sing His power
and His love. Our shield and defender, The
Ancient of Days, Pavilion in splendor, ? And girded with praise
? O tell of his might ? O sing of his grace ? Whose robe is
the light ? Whose canopy space ? His chariots of wrath clouds form, and dark is his
path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care one tongue
can recite. It breathes in the air. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the hue and the rain. Thrill, children of dust, Thee do we trust, nor find thee
to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
452. 452 I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene And wonder how he would love me The sinner
condemned unclean For me was in the garden He prayed, not
my will, but thine He had no tears for his own griefs, but
sweat drops of blood for mine. Verse three, in wonder. In wonder
angels beheld him, and came from the world To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night. He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone. When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see, T'will be my joy through the
ages To sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful
in my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love. If you have your Bibles with
you this evening, I'd like to read from the book of Revelations. Revelation chapter 21. Revelation 21, we'll read the
first seven verses and then we'll skip down to verse 21 and finish
the chapter. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God, and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away, And he
that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write, for
these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, it is done.
I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto
him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things. And I will be his
God, and he shall be my son. We'll continue in verse 21. Between verse 7 and 21, it gives
a summary of those who are not found in Christ, and then it
begins to describe this new heaven and this new earth. Verse 21,
in the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gate was
of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold. as
it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein for
the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple of it. And
the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine
in it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the
light thereof. And the nations of them which
are saved shall walk in the light of it. And the kings of the earth
do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it
shall not Be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there.
And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into
it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,
neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's book of life. Our most high and heavenly God,
our Father, We thank you for this day and
we thank you for your written word preserved for
us. Lord, we thank you that we have
this place to come and freely gather and hear your word be
proclaimed. What a privilege it is. Lord,
we thank you for allowing us to come into your presence. Lord, we thank you for revealing
yourself unto a people. And thank you that you chose
a people to show mercy to. For all the names written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. Lord, we long for the day to
see you face to face, to worship you completely for all eternity. Father, we ask that you would
allow us to worship you here this night. Take away the things
of this earth from our minds, from our hearts. Let us only focus on your word,
focus on Christ, that you would teach us your way, Lord. Strengthen
us and uphold us. We pray for those who are weak
and weary, both among us and those who are unable to be with
us. Lord, keep us or we won't be
kept. We ask that that will be done
for Christ's sake. Amen. In our course books, we'll sing
on page 31, Zion's Hill. Then wait for me a glad tomorrow Where gates of pearl swing open
wide And when I've passed this vale
of sorrow I'll quill upon the other side Someday beyond the
reach of mortal kin Someday God only knows just where and when Fields of mortal life shall all
stand still, And I shall go to dwell on sunseen. ? Someday I'll hear the angels
singing ? ? Beyond the shadows of the tomb
? ? And all the bells of heaven ring ? While saints are singing home,
sweet home. Someday beyond the reach of mortal
king, Someday, God only knows just
where and when The wheels of mortal life shall all stand still
And I shall go to dwell Oh, I love that scripture read tonight. Acts chapter 4, love that scripture
reading tonight, so good. Let me read down verse 7 to verse
12. And when they had set them in
the midst, they asked them, By what power, by what name have
you done this? Now this is through the man that
was lame, laying at the temple, and Peter and John used the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he rose up and leaped and went
into the temple with them, praising God. Well, it upset these folks,
and they wanted to know, What power, what name have you done
this in? And that's what I want to talk
about tonight. What's in a name? What's in a name? Then Peter
filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them, Ye rulers of the people
and elders of Israel, If we this day be examined of the good deed
done to this impotent man by what means he is made whole,
Be it known unto you and to all the people of Israel that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before
you whole. This is the stone which was set
at nought of the builders which was become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other For there is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. So what's in a name? Well, the
name is mentioned here. Now I want you to look with me
in John chapter 5 and verse 43. Use this too. But what's in a
name? Our Lord speaking, talked about
men will not come to Him, and He said, I'm come in My Father's
name, and you receive Me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him, you will receive. You know, a
name is the identity. It's your identity. If you get
stopped by a policeman or anything, the first thing he wants to see
is your license, to see who you say you are, see if the picture
matches you, if the age matches you. That's your identity. He can just look at you, and
he'll say, I need to see your license, and I want to identify
you. Go to an airport going through
a Get your passport out and then they run it through that thing
and then the guy holds it up there and looks at you Yep, that's
you That's your identity and your name's your identity Well,
our Lord Jesus Christ his identity is his name God gave him a name
God named him and God gave him a name that's above every name
every name And so what's in the name? I read it to you tonight,
that there's no other name. This man stands here, this impotent
man stands here whole through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
and there's no other name. God told that bunch sitting there,
they looked to Abraham, they looked to Moses, they said, We're
Abraham's children, we're disciples of Moses, But Peter told them
plain out, he said, there's not another name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. And that's the first thing
about the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is in His name. There's not another name that
God will hear, not another name that is identified with God Almighty,
other than the name of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
saved for His namesake. And you know when we was born,
you know what the angel told Mary to name Him? Thou shalt
call His name Jesus. Why do you want to call His name
Jesus? Because He's going to be the Savior. and said, He shall
save His people from their sins. God named Him, and I tell you,
their salvation is the only name that God will use for a sinner
to be saved, is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. God will not
hear another, that's why He said, a man, I come in my name and
in my Father's name, you won't have nothing to do with me, but
you let somebody come in their own name. You let them come in
the name of their power and their ministry and their popularity
and their prestige and their authority and everybody receives
them. But our Lord says, you won't
receive me. You won't receive me. And I'll tell you, look over
here in John 20 with me in verse 31. You know, the scripture says,
as many as received him, him, To them, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God. Look down here in verse 31 of
chapter 20. I believe that's what I want.
Yes. It says there in verse 30, and many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written
in this book, But these are written, everything in this book is written,
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing, you might have life, how? Through His name,
through His name, His name. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Oh, His name, His name is salvation. There's no other name. That's
why we preach, that's why we preach Christ, that nobody else,
God will not save anybody in any way. And this fellow that
was so upset with God, he says, you know, he said, God, he said,
all these people in all these foreign countries have all these
strange gods. He says, you know, by Him, they're
going to be lost. Of course they will be. Of course
they will be. God gave one person to be the
Savior of the world. God gave one person to put away
a person's sins. God gave one person in this universe
to do anything for a sinner, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not Siddhartha, not Hare Krishna, not all them gods, listen, not
none of them, no, no. That's what he said, Peter said,
I don't care. He said, you fellas, you wanna know the name and the
power that we use? But what power this was done?
What name this was done? Jesus of Nazareth. And there
ain't no other name. That's what God does stand for.
No other name than the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something
else about his name. Prayer is only answered through
his name. God won t answer a prayer except
through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don t mean
it s a magical thing that we use. No, no. You look with me
over here in John 14. You know, it s not a magical
potion. It s not like where people say
open sesame and all that kind of stuff. No, no. When God says
use the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that s what we do. We
come into His name We come in His merit, we come in His worth,
we come in His righteousness. We have nothing that we can contribute,
nothing that we can do. You know, I've heard people say,
I know God's gonna save my children because I've prayed for them. I know God's gonna save them
because I prayed for them. So then God's gonna save them
for your prayer's sake, not Christ's sake. But look what it says here in
John 14 and verse 13. And whatsoever you shall ask
in my name, that will I do that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. And if you shall ask anything
in my name, I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it. And of course,
it tells us over in another place, over in John, that God hears
us if we pray according to His will. And nobody would not dare
pray against the will of God. Look down in verse 26 here of
John 14. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send, listen to this, in my name, Oh, He comes in the Father's
name, and you know, in Christ's name, He's the one that's gonna
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I said unto you. So I mean, it's the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ that God hears us pray. You know, that's why
we always, you know, He's our Master, He's our Lord, He's our
Savior. And when we say, Lord, for Christ's
sake, Oh Lord, for Christ's sake, hear us. For Christ's sake, listen
to what we got to say. For Christ's sake, for the Lord
Jesus' sake, for His worth, for His merit, my prayers would not
get above my head. The only voice I could ever hear
would be my own if it wasn't for the Lord Jesus Christ. God
would not hear a thing I had to say. I don't care how honest
it was, how sincere it was, how pure I thought it might be, but
God would not hear a word I had to say when I asked Him to do
anything except for the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you dare
ask God anything apart from His Son? And oh, prayers answered. Salvation's
in His name. Prayers answered in His name.
And I tell you something else what's in His name is hope. Hope's
in His name. Look with me over in 1 Timothy
1. 1 Timothy 1. You know, I remember when I was in a hospital in Chillicothe,
Ohio. Been there for months and months. Very sick. Very miserable. And a woman came and told me,
and there's a woman there, and she told me, she said, don't
give up hope. She says, there's hope in Jesus Christ. I'd never
heard that in my life. But that done something for me.
That put some light in my old dark world. Now, it was a long
years before God saved me by His grace. It was a long time,
but there's where it started. God, just a person dropped a
word in season. Don't give up hope, there's hope
in Jesus Christ. And I thought of that, and thought
of that, and considered that, and then I started reading the
Bible, and then I started, you know, that there started me on
a search Just that one statement started me on a search. Now,
it took me years. I mean, God, like Jeremiah said,
if I knew you before you was formed in your belly, I called
you by name and I ordained you to be a prophet. Whatever God's
got for a person, he's done it in his mother's womb before it
ever happened. But now, Jeremiah didn't become a prophet till
he became a grown man, never started prophesying. And that's
the way it is. God started way back down to
when that word, there's hope in Jesus Christ, and it won't
end till I get in glory. And I state today that if you,
I don't know if you ever know what it is not to have hope.
Hope is just, not having any hope is the most miserable thing
in the world. But look what he said here in
Timothy chapter one and verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ,
listen to this, our hope. Our hope, our hope. Oh my, our hope. You know what
gave people, we sang that song, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds. In a believer's ear, it soothes
his sorrows, drives away his fears. And oh my, Bartimaeus
heard His name. He couldn't see Christ, so he
had to climb up a tree. He didn't have any hope. He didn't
have any idea that the Lord Jesus Christ knew him, ever thought
of him, ever considered him. And he was of little stature,
and he climbed up in a tree. He might have been four foot
tall, four foot and a half, but wasn't very tall, five foot maybe,
and he climbed up in that tree. And our Lord Jesus Christ stopped
and looked up at him, and just Christ looking at him, you know
the hope that hit man got in his heart. And Christ said to
him, Zacchaeus, can you imagine? And then the Lord not only told
him, said, come down, but he said this, today, today, I must
abide at your house. Salvation's gonna come to your
house today. And Zacchaeus, oh my goodness,
Bartimaeus, I told you about him this morning. He's sitting
there, he is hopeless, he is blind, and he was a beggar. Blind
and a beggar. He couldn't even see whoever
put any money in his cup. He couldn't see the folks that
said anything to him. He couldn't see the Lord Jesus
Christ until he kept crying out and crying out and crying out.
And when the Lord Jesus stood and commended him to be called,
can you imagine the hope that that fellow felt in his heart?
He said, oh my, said, Lord and I, Lord said, what would you
that I should do for you? I'd just love to see, I'd just
love to see. That's all I want, love to see. And oh, the hope that these men
got. Oh, what a blessed hope. He is
our hope. You take Christ away from us,
what hope do we have? What hope, you know, Paul told
about a bunch of people, they were without God, without Christ,
and without hope. without God, without Christ,
without hope. If you don't have God, you don't
have Christ, you ain't got no hope. But if you got Christ,
you got hope. And that's why he says, you know,
God shed abroad in our hearts the Holy Ghost and he gave us
a hope. And it's a blessed hope. And I'll tell you something else
about hope. Hope has to do always with the resurrection and the
future. Hope always has something to do with out there. When you
find hope associated with Christ, it always has to do with what
our Lord Jesus Christ has for us in the future. You know, if you receive what
you hope for, why still you looking for it? And you know, Paul said
also in Ephesians 6, in Titus, he said, we have a blessed hope
when Christ who is our Savior shall appear. shall appear, then
shall we appear also with him." And oh my, he said, having this
blessed hope. Oh my, you read that there tonight. I hope one of these days that
we'll go somewhere, we will never shed another tear, we'll not
have another pain, not have another discouragement, Have another,
never have another worry and never have another sleepless
night. We won't even need the sun there.
The sun won't even exist. Christ will be the light of that
place. And oh, listen, death will be done away with. There'll
never be another grave. There'll never be another person,
never be another funeral. Steve just come back from a funeral.
A young man lost by a boy died the other day, and he just died. They're gonna have us a memorial
service for him today. Just young men. Young men, but we're going to,
when we leave here, death, death will be no more. What a blessed
hope that is. And I tell you, whenever one
of somebody that you love dies, you know what you have? If they
know Christ, you got a hope for them. I went to a lot of funerals
that I had no hope for the people that I was preaching over. But
I tell you what, it's been a long time. When you stand over somebody
that knows Christ, I'll tell you what, you can tell them,
listen, they're coming back from where they are now. They're coming
out of where they are now. They died with a hope. They left
this world with a hope. They left this world with someone
to believe in, some hope they had that Christ would come and
bring them out of that grave one of these days. And if you
got your hope, why do you still yoke for it? I tell you, Christ
is our hope and if you take Christ from us and we ain't got nothing. But we got Christ, we got a blessed
hope, a glorious hope, a purifying hope. And I tell you, you know,
you take a little baby, you take a child, you take a child, you
take a child when it's born. If it only lives a few days or
a few hours or a few months, If that little girl, little baby
is taken out of this world, you know the only hope you got for
that child is the death and resurrection and the atoning death of Christ.
You can't have no other hope for a child other than that.
Now, if you believed in free will, you'd have to believe that
child had to grow up to an age of accountability and have to
grow up and have a free will and have to grow up and have
an opportunity and a chance to be saved. But oh, listen, when
a baby's born, if he don't make it, Christ, I believe with all
my heart, I believe with all my heart that the Lord Jesus
Christ atoned for them. And you know why I believe that? It's because it said over in
Isaiah, it said, an infant shall be a hundred years old. What
kind of body? You think we're gonna look like
we do right now and we get to glory? You think we're gonna
look like we do now? You think I'm gonna go up there
and I'm gonna be white headed? You think I'm gonna wear glasses?
You think I'm gonna wear a watch? You think I'm gonna have bruises
on my body? You think I'm gonna be old and have wrinkles? No!
No! That's the blessed hope we have. Christ is our hope. I'm not gonna
be like I am now. If he makes us new creatures
in Christ, imagine what it'll be, that new body it'll be. Let me give you, what's
in the name? Salvation, prayers answered,
hope, Christ is our hope. Oh, Christ is our hope. And oh,
he's a refuge too. He's a refuge. I want you to
look with me in Isaiah 32. You know, I've quoted this verse
so many times over the years. Proverbs 18.10 says this, the
name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into
it and are saved. People have got, there's a lot
of, you know, Isaiah talked about a refuge of lies. Well, we've
got a refuge, a real refuge, a hiding place. And that hiding
place is our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the safest place to
hide from God, and I've said this before, safest place to
hide from God is in Christ. For you're dead and your life
is hid with God in Christ. But look what he said here in
Isaiah 32. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness And princes shall rule in judgment. And listen
to this now. And the man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind. Oh, when that wind gets to blowing.
Oh my, you know, we have all these here. wind warnings and
all this is gonna get real, real high and all that stuff. Oh,
listen, the wind goes to blowing and gonna tear a house down and
it's gonna destroy things in its path. And the winds of all
the winds of trial and the winds of buffeting us and all that,
we got a place to get in Christ. And look what else it says now.
And oh, listen, there's a tempest coming, a great storm coming. I mean a tempest just going in
circles, a bad tempest is coming. And this tempest comes along.
And oh, listen, now covert means a place you can get in, get under,
hide from that tempest. Hide from that tempest. Oh my,
oh what a place to hide from a tempest. You know, those disciples
was out on the sea and a big old storm rose up, big old storm
rose up. A tempest come up. They said,
oh Lord, Lord, Lord Jesus is sleeping. They woke him up and
said, Lord, don't you care that we perish? We're gonna, this
storm's gonna destroy this boat. Our Lord woke up and said, peace,
be still. That storm stopped just that
quick. And when there's a storm coming
around us and a storm going on in our hearts, in our minds,
in our lives, in our jobs, wherever it's going on at, I tell you
what, wherever that tempest is at, you got a place to hide in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then when you're in a dry
place, and I'm there in law oftentimes, I'm in that dry place lots of
times. I'm in a dry place lots of times.
Look what it says. He's rivers of water in a dry
place. When you get to where you're
thinking you're so dry and you said, oh my, I'm gonna dry up
and blow away. I'm just, I'm just, my heart's
dry, my mind's dry, I'm empty. And he said, oh, he's just rivers
of water in that dry place. And then you're out and you're
getting tired and you're weary and the sun's beating down on
you. And then you come up there and there's a great big huge
rock and there's a shadow. and you sat down under that shadow,
and Christ is that shadow. Oh my, what a refuge. Y'all know
the story of the cities of refuge. If the man slayer got after you,
if you got inside that city, he couldn't touch you, he couldn't
touch you. And there's nothing can touch
us in Christ, in Christ. And then let me show you Matthew
18, 20. Let's look together in Matthew
18, 20. Look at what it says about our
Lord over here. Not only is He salvation, prayers answered through
Him, He's our hope, He's our refuge, He's our hiding
place. But look what it says in Matthew
18, 20. Look what He says again here.
For whether two or three are gathered together, what? In My
name. In my name. Are we here because
of Christ? Are we here because of Him? Is
that what we've come here for? We've gathered together in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what He says? If
there are just two or three of you, I'll be right there in the
middle of you. I'll be right there in the midst
of you. Oh, we gather in His name. Oh,
what is it to gather in His name? Well, I said this morning, I'm
poor and needy, yet the Lord thanketh upon me. We come because
we're poor and we come because we need it. What do we need of? We need of grace, we need of
mercy. We come because we need His righteousness. We don't have one of our own.
We come because we need faith. We need our faith encouraged,
our faith blessed, our faith to be, cause us to look outside
ourselves and look to Christ. Oh, together in his name. Together
in his name is together for worship. Oh my. Houston prayed this evening. He said, oh Lord, take the world
out of us for just a little while. Take it out of us, take the worry
out of us just a little while. But oh, he said, if you gather
in my name, said I'll be in your midst. I'll be in your midst. You may not feel it. Sometimes
I don't, sometimes I do. But he said he'd be here and
he will. He will. Our Lord can't lie and
he won't lie. He's in our midst. And all true
preaching is in His name, all true preaching. I want you to
look with me over in Luke chapter 24. Oh, refuge, His presence
in Luke 24. You know, all true preaching
is in His name. You know, they ll have a big
shot evangelist or something come in, and they ll plaster
His name all over the place. Oh, you need to come hear this
great preacher. Come hear this wonderful preacher. No, bring your family to hear
this great preacher. And you know, they give these
big invitations, and all these folks get converted, and they
use His name. But all true preaching. uses
the name, the person, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
what it said here. Y'all remember when our Lord
was raised from the dead and walked with the two disciples
on the Emmaus Road, and they was wondering what in the world,
why they were sad, and he asked them why they were so sad. And then he said, then he said in verse 25, he's
talking to these two disciples now, Then said he unto them,
O fools, and slow of heart to believe, slow of heart to believe
all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, suffered in his birth, suffered in his life,
suffered at the cross, and beginning at Moses, that's the first five
books of the Bible, and all the prophets, Starting in Samuel. And all the prophets he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. You know what Christ preached?
He preached himself. Look what he said down here now
in verse 44. Verse 44. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. I love this there, right here. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures. Oh my, and then he went on to
say, and thus it is written, and it behoove Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead on the third day. And when you go
preaching, you preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins,
the sins taken away, preached in his name among all nations,
and you start in Jerusalem. So all true preaching is in the
name, in the power, and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
I'll tell you something else about His name. Our security,
you know, I say eternal security. Our perseverance and preservation
all depends upon the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have any security
in yourself about your salvation, Our security, our eternal security,
is bound by the Lord Jesus. As long as Christ lives, we'll
live. As long as Christ's on His throne,
we'll live. As long as the head's above the
body, then the body's gonna be saved. And that's what our Lord
Jesus said. He said, I give unto them eternal
life. I give it. They didn't earn it. They didn't deserve it. I give
unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. And
ain't nobody gonna pluck them out of my hand. And oh, listen,
our Lord Jesus, in John 17, I'll read it to you. You don't have
to turn over there, but I'll read it to you. In John 17, our
Lord said here in verse six, He said, I've manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were and you gave them to me." And listen to this, they've
kept your word. They've kept your word. And oh,
he said in verse nine, I pray for them. I don't pray for the
world, but for them you've given me. You've given me. And then
last of all, our Lord said in John 17, 24, Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given me, listen to this now. He's praying for us right now.
Be with me, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou
loved me before the foundation of the world. And oh my, and
I tell you, Christ said, you know, if I pray for them, that
they may be with me where I am. You reckon we'll get there? You
reckon we'll get there? Huh? If it depended on us, no. But oh my, don't depend on us. And let me give you this. Look in 1 Corinthians 1. Look
over here in 1 Corinthians 1. You know, the only unity, the
only unity in the world, in this world, is in His name and for
His sake. You know, they have sororities,
and they have fraternities, and they have all these organizations
that are supposed to be brethren, and they're supposed to, you
know, take care of one another and watch out for one another.
But the only true unity in this world is the unities that believers
have in Christ and in His name. Look what he said here in 1 Corinthians
1.10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same things, that there be no divisions among you, that you
be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment, same judgment. You know, by one Spirit, we're
all baptized into one body, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you this, you know, we won't be united
in politics. People are divided over politics. We won't be united over money
and how you're supposed to deal with your money. None of us will
be together on how we're to raise our children. We won't be in
unity over that. We won't be in unity on how to
run a home. But I tell you the only place
we can have unity at is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we can
be together right there, can't we? Leave all, his old Scott said,
leave it go, just leave it go. Leave everything go but our unity
in him. Oh my. But we can all be united
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that's the only place we
can be united. He said, Philippians 1, 2 says,
you know, being together, it lets you be of the same mind.
and be of the same accord. And I've said how many times
in going through the book of Acts, and these were all in one
accord. They were all agreed together.
And our only unity in this world, the only unity in this world
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. There ain't no other unity. You know, a lot of families,
I mean, you know, they fuss and fight among themselves. But I tell you, the only unity
in this world. I remember a young man joined
a fraternity, and he come and said, boy, another fellow said,
boy, that's wonderful, that's good. You all can watch out for
one another as you get up. And they do, if one of them needs
a job and one of them's got a place, they'll help one another and
all that. But I told him, I told him when he said that, I said,
listen, The only true fraternity, the only true unity there is
in this world is the Lord Jesus Christ. We're united in Him. We're members one of another,
members of His body. And then let me hurry up and
tell you this. In His name is only acceptance in worship and
prayer and sacrifice. All of our acceptance, all of
our worship, all of our prayer, all of our sacrifices are only
accepted through the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, if we're accepted
by Him, that the worship we have tonight, He has to make it acceptable. You know, if He didn't make our
worship acceptable, it wouldn't be acceptable. Right here tonight,
whatever little bit, whatever we have here tonight, whatever's
going on here tonight, it would not be acceptable apart from
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's not a prayer being prayed
in this building tonight that would not be acceptable except
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Ain't that right? And any sacrifices,
and the only sacrifice we can offer is the sacrifices of praise,
the sacrifice of thanksgiving. We offer spiritual sacrifices
unto God. And I want you to see in Exodus
28 with me. Look at Exodus 28. This is what
I want you to see. You know, we, The best prayers we've ever prayed,
nothing we've ever said, nothing we've ever done could be acceptable
except through the Lord Jesus Christ. The worship we have tonight,
minds all over the place, tired, weary, flesh is weak, and if it depended on us, making
this worship a blessing and acceptable to God, which one of us would
be done enough to cause it to be acceptable? But you know why
it's acceptable? Because of Him. Look what it
said here in Exodus 28 and verse 36. And thou shalt make a plate of
pure gold, and engrave upon it, or engrave upon it, like the
engravings of the signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou shalt put
it on a blue lace, and that it may be upon the miter, upon the
forefront of the miter shall it be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead, that Aaron, listen to this now, that Aaron may bear
the iniquity of the holy things. Now what's the holy things? That
means all the things to do with worship. All the things to do with worship.
Of which the children of Israel shall howl in all their holy
gifts, and it shall be always upon his forehead, listen to
this, that they, they may be accepted before the Lord. If we're accepted before the
Lord, it's because of him. And you know what, and he read
it tonight. Because of him, because of Christ,
Christ said, I'm gonna give him a new name. I'm gonna give him
a new name. I'm gonna give him a new heaven
and I'm gonna give him a new earth because of him, because
of him. Our Father, we bless you and
praise you for your great mercy given us in Christ. Thank you
for that abundant grace, that grace upon grace that you give
us. Lord, we understand clearly, plainly in the depths of our
heart and soul that nothing we could say or do would be acceptable
to you without your blessed Son sanctifying it, making it acceptable. Then Lord, we wouldn't have salvation
if it wasn't for Christ. We wouldn't have a hiding place.
We wouldn't have a hope. We wouldn't have a gospel. We wouldn't have faith. We wouldn't have anything without
our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything's in Him. And let
our identity, let us be identified with Him. But Lord, more than
anything, We understand that He was identified with us, identified
with us on this earth. And everything that was against
us, everything that was against us, He took it out of the way
and He nailed it to His blessed cross. Oh God, forgive us of
everything dislike you. Bless, preserve, and keep your
dear children. that we can come and worship
again. Amen and amen. Well, I'll see you Wednesday
night, God willing. Good night and God bless you. Thank you.