Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number one. Hymn number one. All glorious above, and gratefully
sing His power and His love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, pavilion, O tell of His flight, O sing
of His praise, Whose road is the light, whose canopy's face,
? And darkness is bethlehem the
wings of the storm ? ? Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite ?
? It breathes in the air of my soul ? it shines in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, Be sated, we'll sing hymn number 303 together. 3-0-3. Jesus, Savior, I let be. Over life's tempestuous sea,
Unknown waves before me roll, Hiding rocks and treacherous
shore, Charn and gum has come from thee, Jesus, Savior, Pilate,
me. As a mother steals her child,
Thou canst touch the ocean wide. Ostrous waves obey Thy will,
When Thou say'st to them, Be still. Wondrous Sovereign of
the sea, When at last I near the shore, And the fearful breakers
roar, Well, good to see everybody. In Ephesians, chapter 1, we of
course have Felt the deepest sympathy for Albert and his family. Lost his wife, mother, sister
to those here. But boy, I sure am happy for
her. Oh, my. I was telling somebody before
service, once you get into eternity, that's all you ever know. It's
like you've been no place else. Once you get there, it's time. This place don't even exist anymore. You know where it says, God said
in the scriptures, time shall be no more? Well, that's for
every one of us when we get there. When you get there, time is no
more. When you get there, that's the
only place you've ever known. It's hard to get our mind around
that, ain't it? Who don't want to go there? Ah, who don't want
to go there? Well, it's a services tomorrow,
visitation 11 to 1, and we'll have the service there and then
go to the graveyard. All right, I'm going to read
the first 13 verses of Ephesians 1. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints, which are
at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according, and here's the first spiritual blessing,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. Second spiritual blessing, that
we should be holy. Third spiritual blessing, and
without blame before Him in love. That's three right there. That's
enough, ain't it? Listen to this. Here's a fourth
one. Having predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath, here's a fifth one, made us accepted
in the beloved. And here's the sixth one, this
thing's just full of them. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence. Oh, here's a blessing. Having
made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to the
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. I love this,
I really, really listen to this. That we should be, that's what
he did, we gave us this eternal inheritance, predestinated us
according to his own will, that we should be to the praise of
his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, and whom also after that you believed, you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise. Our great, glorious, blessed
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God and our Father,
We come into your holy presence with thanksgiving, praise, praise
from our lips, joy from our heart, thankfulness, oh Lord, so thankful. We read about all the blessings
that you've given us and these are just a drop in the bucket
according to what you've given us in our Lord Jesus Christ.
You've made us accepted. We're beloved. We're chosen,
we're redeemed. We know your will given to us
in Christ, and we thank you for it. We thank you for this blessed
time that you gather us together to worship our living God and
our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I thank you for this
body of believers and how they support the work here, meet the
needs of everyone. and for all the opportunities
you give us to support others and do for others. And Lord,
we pray for this dear family. Lord, we can't help but rejoice
at what you've done for our dear, dear sister. But Lord, we know
that there's grief to bear, broken hearts, sorrow and tears to come
for this family. But oh Lord God, we pray for
your grace for your abundance of grace, for great, great mercy
towards them. And Lord, for my preacher brethren
that are standing preaching today, meet their needs. And Lord, cause
the gospel to run well here today. And when Cody comes to bring
the gospel, comes to preach to us, Lord bless him, anoint him,
liberate his mind, liberate his lips, and please give us hearts
to believe. ears to hear, and rejoice in
the gospel. We thank you for your great mercies
given us in Christ. Amen. Hymn number 318. 318. a a a a a a I need Thee, oh, I need Thee
Every hour I need Thee Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to
Thee every day. I need thee, O I need thee, every
hour I need thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to thee. I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, for life
is vain. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Ev'ry hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee ev'ry hour,
most fully, most Make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed
Son. I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every
hour I need Thee, O blessed am I, Savior, I come to Thee. We'll stand together and sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. ? By salvation resecured ? ? The
rock of ages must endure ? ? Nor can that bank be overthrown ?
Which rest upon the lily stone. No other hope shall intervene
To Him we look, of Him we heed Other foundations we disown on Christ the living stone. In Him it is ordained to raise
a temple to Jehobah's praise, composed of
all his saints, knew no saviour but the Living Stone. ? Through the vast building see
it rise ? ? The Word, how great, the plan, how wise ? ? O wondrous
fabric, how unknowing ? living soul, but most adored
His precious name. Be seated. Well, we're honored to have Brother
Cody Henson here. And Bruce will be here next week.
I'm going back down to Florida to preach next weekend. But Cody, appreciate you, buddy. The Lord bless you as you come
and bring the Lord's message for us. Good morning. If you will turn with me in your
Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Rachel and I and the church in
Kingsport sympathize with you on the loss of our dear sister
Barbara, but oh how we rejoice with you. So thankful. 2 Corinthians
chapter 9, I want to consider one glorious verse this morning
and pray the Lord might bless it to us. It's the last verse
in the chapter, 2 Corinthians 9 verse 15. Look at it with me. Paul writes, thanks be unto God
for his unspeakable gift. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Now it goes without saying we
have many, many reasons to give thanks to our God. Just saying
those words makes me think, where do we even begin? I'll quote
you a few verses that come to mind. This is the day which the
Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. We ought to. But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Is that not cause to
give thanks? And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. God called some people unto Himself
according to His purpose. And He tells us He's working
everything for our good. Not only our good in this life, but
our good forever. Eternal life. Eternity, like
you just mentioned. Oh, brethren, he hath done all things well.
Though we often don't know what he's doing, we will know. He'll
make these things clear in his time. When thinking about our
dear sister, I thought of this. We use these words, he called
her home. It's not a bad thing. And let
me tell you this, in her life on this earth, he called her
to himself with a holy calling. Now he called her home. She had
a home here, but brother, our home here is temporary. She's
home. You sorrow, brother. We sorrow.
But let's rejoice. She's home. Let's give thanks.
She's home. Thanks be to God. We just celebrated
some holidays, Christmas. A day that, and I realize these
holidays, I know how a lot of them came about. We didn't celebrate
the birth of baby Jesus. I hate to even say those words,
but that's what so many people are saying and celebrating. We
celebrate that God became a man to be the substitute of sinners. Thanks be unto God. Every remembrance
we have that our Lord took upon himself a body of flesh and that
he traded places with us and became us, is that not a good
thing, a good time to give thanks? just remembering that, him and
what he did. And a month before that, we celebrated
Thanksgiving. We gave thanks to God for what? For all his many bountiful blessings
and goodness to us. Turn with me to Psalm 92. I want
to show you a few verses here. It's a matter of giving thanks. Psalm 92. Psalms talk a lot about giving
thanks, and it's because we have a lot to be thankful for. Psalm
92, look at verse one. Psalm 92, one, the psalmist writes,
it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises
unto thy name, O most high, to show forth thy loving kindness
in the morning and thy faithfulness every night. We ought to give
thanks in the morning, and at night. Verse three, upon an instrument
of ten strings and upon the psaltery, upon the harp with a solemn sound.
You know, I come here and often someone will play an instrument
and sing praise unto our Lord and I love it. I love hearing
it. It's a beautiful thing. Verse four, for thou, Lord, hast
made me glad through thy work. I will triumph in the works of
thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works
and thy thoughts are very deep. Does that not make you rejoice?
You can turn back to our text. Back in 2 Corinthians 9, the
Apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthians about giving. Look
here at verse 6, 2 Corinthians 9, 6. But this I say, he which
soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth
bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man, according as he purposeth
in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity,
for God loveth a cheerful giver. The saints back then needed to
hear this, and so do we. I know I do. When it comes to
giving, I'm ashamed to admit it, but if you want to model
your giving after somebody, don't do it after me. I'm always thinking
about myself first. If I bought a gift for you, I
bought two for myself. Nothing to be proud of, and I'm
sinful, okay? And I know I'm not the only one.
Please don't look down on me too hard. But I just want to
tell us our giving is nothing to be proud of, okay? Whatever you or I give to God
is simply out of thanksgiving to Him for what He's given to
us. Our gifts are thank you, a pitiful thank you at that.
And I want to share this with you. A few years ago, the president
of the company that I worked for, he sat me down one day and
was asking me about church and if I go and all these things.
And then he said, do you tithe? I thought, man, what a strange
thing for my company's president to ask me. And I said, well,
I give what I can just to say thank you. And he said, well,
I tithe so God will bless me. I said, well, I give not so that
God will bless me, but because God has blessed me. I give just
to say thanks. There's a difference. There's
a difference. People, so many people, think
they're giving and doing for God in order for God to react
and give to them. No, brother, we give knowing
everything we have came from Him. And look right here at verse
8. And God is able to make all grace
abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all
things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, he hath
dispersed abroad, has he not? He hath given to the poor, his
righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministereth seed
to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your
seeds sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness,
being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth
through us thanksgiving to God. We give because God has given
to us. We love him because he first
loved us, we seek him because he sought us, and we give to
him because he gave to us. Thanks be unto God, verse 15,
for his unspeakable gift. I want to talk about this word
unspeakable for a moment. God is unspeakable. Doesn't mean
God doesn't speak or we can't speak of him. It means he's indescribable. Everything about the Lord our
God is indescribable. We try. Don't do him justice. Let's just consider a few things.
How infinitely glorious our God is. In the beginning, God. When
you just think about that, how that he spoke everything into
existence. Even now, he speaks and it comes
to pass. Is that not unspeakable? How
do we find words to adequately describe that? Oh, we can't. God's eternal. The eternal God
who had no beginning, he has no end. The triune God, the three
in one. Three persons in one God. How
do we explain that? It's indescribable. Turn over
with me back a few pages to Romans 11. I love what this says. Romans
11, verse 33. Romans 11, 33. Oh, the depth. Of the riches both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out. You know, sometimes people think
they've found God out. Oh, brethren, we've not scratched
the surface of who he is and how glorious he is. His wisdom, far greater than
ours, his knowledge, His judgments, His ways. I'll tell you what
they are. They're unspeakable. They're
unspeakable. How can God be holy? And He is. Too holy to behold sin. How can
He be holy and yet receive sinners? Christ receiveth sinners and
He eats with them. How can it be? How can it be
that God should love a soul like me? Unspeakable. Absolutely unspeakable. The fact that he said, I will
have mercy. How glorious is that? And he said, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. He tells us that his mercy endures
forever. I think it's Psalm maybe 136,
the whole, every verse. His mercy endures forever. His
mercy, Jeremiah tells us, is new every single morning. Every
morning. And we're told that he delighteth
to show it to all who need it. Sinners. Is that not unspeakable
to you? What about the blood of Christ,
our Passover lamb, the holy, spotless, pure lamb of God that
was shed abundantly on needy, helpless, wretched, vile sinners? The blood of Christ, there's
a psalm that says, that reaches deeper than the stain has gone.
I listened to it on the way here. Praise the Lord for full salvation.
And I know His blood still reaches, still does, it always will. The
blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. Have you sinned
today? Anybody sinned today yet? I sinned
yesterday, you sinned today? His blood cleanses us from all
sin, cleanseth. Always will. Unspeakable, isn't
it? What about God's grace? Is that
a word that is music to your ears? There's a word I've heard
mentioned some, superabounding. And when I hear that word, I
think, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Superabounding
grace. Is there a sinner here? You need
God's grace to abound within you, on you. Sovereign grace,
not grace that we, well, I'll accept His grace. If He sheds it on us, yes, we
will accept it. It's His grace that accepts us in the beloved.
God's sovereign grace that He continually bestows upon His
people. The song we sing, grace that
is greater than all our sin. I need grace that's greater than
my sin. You know, the line says freely bestowed on all who believe
on all whom He causes to believe. His grace is irresistible. It's
effectual. God is gracious to us. He makes
us to receive His grace, to come to Him. He blesses the man whom
the Lord draws unto Himself. Psalm 65, verse 4. He causes
us to approach unto Him. That's the only way we're going
to dwell in His courts, is if He causes us to. The Lord draws,
causes us to approach Him. He tells us that His grace is
sufficient. You're going through a very tough trial. I don't know
much about trials. I've had 30 pretty easy years. I don't know what the future
holds, but I know this. God holds it, He holds me, He
holds everything that's gonna come to pass, and I can trust
Him and His grace no matter what it is. He giveth more grace,
and that grace is sufficient, it always is. No matter what
the trial might be, God sends the trial. We need to remember
that every time. We need to remember that. His
will, you think about the will of God. We're just ready, works
all things according to His will, His purpose. Think about the
heart of God. What a message that might be,
the heart of God, the love of God, the thoughts of God. We
just read they're deep, very deep. You think about the character
of God. We could go on and on thinking
about all these things about the Lord our God. They're all
unspeakable, every single one of them, unspeakable. We get
up here and we speak of Him. We love to speak of Him. Nothing
else worth speaking of, but we fall so short. Lord help us to
speak of you. Now that word unspeakable, it's
in the scriptures three times, and I want us to see all three.
Turn over just a couple pages to chapter 12, 2 Corinthians
chapter 12. This was when the Lord took the
apostle Paul, caught him up in the third heaven, 2 Corinthians
12, look at verse 4. I love this, 2 Corinthians 12,
4. He was caught up into paradise
and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful or possible
for man to utter. You know, if you just read those
few verses there, I just read verse four, but Paul said, whether
I was in the body or not, I don't know, but I was there and I heard
things that I literally can't even repeat to you. Don't you
like thinking about what he must have heard? What he must have
seen? Our brother Peter, he experienced
something unspeakable too. Specifically, I don't believe
he was talking about the Mount of Transfiguration, though that was, something glorious
in and of itself, but turn with me to what Peter said in 1 Peter
1. We who know God, we know He's
unspeakable. We know He's so infinitely glorious,
we just love hearing about Him. Look here in 1 Peter 1, verse
3. He writes, Look at everything he says here. to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, verse five, who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time,
verse six, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season.
If need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though
now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable. and full of glory." Now, a few
things I want to point out here. Notice it told us in verse 3
that God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is blessed.
I had the privilege of teaching the kids in my Sunday school
class this last week that it's more blessed to give than to
receive. Now, we're blessed because of
what we've received, but the greater blessings in giving,
who gave? God did. God did. He's the blessed one,
and we're blessed in Him. Told us that He begat us unto
a lively hope with abundant mercy. We just read that He's given
us an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that will never end,
never fade away. Told us we're being kept. How
long? Forever. That good enough? And
he told us right there that even our trials, manifold temptations,
and the sin that so easily besets us, all these trials are for
our good, for our refining, as gold is refined in the fire. For our good, brothers and sisters,
Peter knew by experience, having received such amazing goodness,
such amazing gifts from God, could only result in this, joy
unspeakable and full of glory. Have you experienced this joy? Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is a joy and happiness that floods my soul that I just
can't explain. The world doesn't know it because
they've not experienced it. They don't know Him. I pray that
they might. I pray that He might reveal to
them what He's revealed to us. Reveal Christ to them. reveal
the joy unspeakable. You know, we get so, we get so
tossed to and fro with the affairs of this world and this country,
the things going on, and I do, I keep up with a lot of this
stuff, and it just, it troubles me, that's what it does. It doesn't
encourage me. If it encourages us, we need
to find new encouragement. That only God can give. I'm telling
you, if you're looking for joy unspeakable, look no further.
Back in our text, 2 Corinthians 9, verse 15. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. God has given us numerous gifts. We just looked at several. He's
given us many gifts. I want to read you this verse,
Matthew 7, 11 says, Our Lord said, If you then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them
that ask Him? God our Father gives good gifts,
perfect gifts to His children. And we know, as James tells us,
that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. They
all come from our Father, the Father of lives, with whom is
no variable in this nor shadow of turning. We give thanks unto
Him for all His gifts to us. But right here we're told there's
one singular gift, one gift that is above all gifts. And when we give thanks to God
for this gift, We give thanks to God for all the other gifts,
too. You know what the gift is, don't you? You know who it is,
don't you? I'll show you. Turn to Ephesians
chapter four. Ephesians four, verse four. There is one body and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above
all and through all and in you all. But unto every one of us
is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. One gift. One gift. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. For God so loved the world, He
gave. What did He give? He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Who's going to believe on Him?
Those our brother Donnie read to us in Ephesians 1. Those whom
He predestinated according to His purpose. Chosen in Christ
from the foundation of the world. I like this one, Galatians 1.4,
He gave Himself. He gave Himself. For what? For
our sins. That He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. He gave Himself. In Ephesians 5, we read this,
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself for it. You know, the best way we can
show our love is giving ourselves. And that's what our Lord did.
How did He love her? He gave Himself for her. And
again, don't look to me as your example. I'm a pitiful example.
I do a pitiful job, but He's my example. He's my motivation.
He's so much more than that. He's my Savior, my Lord, my God. Can we honestly say thank God
for Christ? Thank God for the Lord Jesus
Christ, the unspeakable gift of God. Now concerning a gift,
this unspeakable gift is a gift freely given. Can't buy it. We don't earn it. Sovereign gift. Sovereign, you know, we choose
who to give a gift to, don't we? Now sometimes if someone
gives us a gift, we feel obliged to give them a gift. That's usually
how it works, ain't it? Someone sends you a card, well
I better start sending them a card. That's not how it is with God.
God freely gives expecting nothing in return. What can we give him?
It all belongs to him. You know, in the Old Testament
they would sacrifice all these animals. All the cattle are his,
aren't they? I've heard some messages where
they did some research and found out how many thousands and thousands
and thousands of animals were sacrificed. Oh, well, that's
amazing. God gave them all. And all the ones they didn't
kill, too. Everything we consume upon our
lust, God gave it to us. What do we have that we haven't
received? Why do we glory in these things as if we earned
it? Well, I worked hard for that. Who gave you the mind and ability
and will to work? Who gave you the job? Well, I
did. No, God did. It pleases God to
reveal Christ to whom He will. The Spirit bloweth where it listeth.
The Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. When God says,
let there be light, it's God that gives light. Christ is the
light. This gift, this gift cannot be
bought. It cannot be exchanged. You ever
exchange a gift? A lot of that going on right
now. I'd hate to work in retail. He's the gift that can't be bought.
He's the gift that can't be exchanged. He can't be returned, and he
can't be rejected. You know, some of our gifts go
to the wayside or to the garbage can, don't they? If you have
Him, you want Him. You didn't, but now you do. He's
the gift nobody wanted. Nobody. Nobody wanted Him. If
we think we did, we're deceiving ourselves. The truth's not in
us. He came unto His own. His own didn't receive Him. Well,
who else did? except those whom He caused to
come to Him and come and receive Him. I love this, when we read
about, when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, He said,
I didn't confer with flesh and blood. We don't. And when Peter
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Christ
told him flesh and blood didn't reveal the Son to you. We had
nothing to do with it. We've simply received the sovereign
gift. God's work from start to finish. Though we didn't want him, can
you not testify this? You who have him, is he not everything
to you? Is he not the pearl of great
price to you? Do you not gladly forsake all and follow him? Do
you not? You know, he told that rich young
ruler, he says, sell everything you have. You got too much. It
wasn't just earthly riches. He had that. But he had something
far worse. He had a self-righteousness that
he was not willing to part with. He was too rich. Lord told him,
you sell everything you have, and you come follow me, and you'll
have treasure in heaven. You know what the treasure in
heaven is? It's Christ. We count everything done like Paul said,
and we cling to Christ. He's the treasure. Do we have him? He's a gift. Have we been gifted him? Have we received him? I'll tell
you this, he's not waiting, hoping that we might receive him. No,
no. I'll give you a good example,
and if he gives himself to us, we'll have him. We'll have him. The example I thought of was
that Samaritan woman. John chapter 4 tells us our Lord
must need to go through Samaria, and he did. And he's sitting
there on a well, Jacob's well, Sychar, and this woman comes
out. What a coincidence. And he asked
her for a drink of water, and she said, well, why are you asking
me? Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. And here's what
he told her. He said, if thou knewest the gift of God, if you
knew the gift, and who it is that saith unto thee, give me
to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him. He would have given
thee living water. And oh, bless her heart, she
was so confused. He told her, whosoever drinketh
of this water, the water she was drawn shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him,
he must give it. Here's what he said about that
water. He said, that water shall be in him, a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. You know what she said after
he told her that? She said, sir, still didn't know him. Give me
this water. that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw." And that's when he told her, he said, you go
bring your husband out here. And she said, I don't have a
husband. That's right, you've had five,
and the man you're with now ain't your husband. And then she gets religious,
shows her religious side, and our fathers worshipped in this
mountain. Our Lord told her, Ye worship ye know not what,
you don't know what you worship. And that's the case for so many,
anybody that doesn't know Christ, they don't have a clue what they
worship. I'll tell you what they worship, self. We all do until we worship
Christ. Every single one of us. And then
she said, well I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ. He'll tell us all things. Buddy,
her life was about to change forever. He looked at her and
he said, I am. I that speak unto thee am." You
know what she did? She had a water pot. She left
her water pot. And she took off running into
that city, and she had a new message. She said, come see a
man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this
the Christ? I'll tell you what happened that
day. The gift came to her. She just went out for some water,
and she went home with everlasting life. You see, the wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. The gift came to her. The gift
must come to us and reveal himself to us. And if he does, we're
going to go home with a new hope, a new message. All I've earned, all she earned,
all the Apostle Paul earned, all Peter earned, all we've all
earned is death, eternal death. I'll tell you what my hope is.
My hope is in God's gift. God's gift. It means my hope
is in God. My hope is in something He's
done, not something I've done or could ever do. It's in His
gift. Are we hoping in His gift? Do
we need God to do something for us? I'll tell you this, it's
a free gift. We play no part. We receive the
gift because he makes us receive the gift and we're glad he does.
Oh, thought of what the Lord told Abraham. He had received
a gift too, you remember what he said? He said, I am your exceeding
great reward, your gift. Who's our reward? You know, people
are trying to earn rewards in heaven. Who's our reward? Christ
is. He's the gift. He's all. I love what Thomas said, my Lord
and my God. Is he? Can we say that? My Redeemer
and my friend. My Savior. I have one hope, brethren. And
it's the Lord Jesus Christ, God's unspeakable gift, God Himself.
He's my all in all. I'm just a poor sinner and nothing
at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all. I pray that the gift might be
revealed to us today. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. Alright, Lord bless His Word. Oh, that's such a blessing to
me. Oh, that blessed me. That blessed me. Ruby Elmore, I could not count the times that
she would leave and meet me at the door. And she'd say, thanks
be unto God for his unspeakable gift. She told me that countless
times. Countless times. After you preach
to God, thanks be unto God. And you can preach the same thing
tonight. God was. Oh, it was wonderful. Let's stand together. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now I see. It was grace that taught my heart
to fear. And grace my fears relieved. How precious did Oh, how precious
it did appear. Oh, so precious. ? The hour I
first believed ? His grace is sufficient. ? Through many dangers,
toils and snares ? I have already come. Tis grace that brought me safe
thus far. What's it gonna do? will lead me home. When we've been there ten thousand
years bright shining as the sun You know I feel like I ought
to say this, if you feel like the Lord's done something for
you, done something for you, And you've never made a confession
of faith in Christ. You ought to tell me or tell
the church, but you come and talk to me because I tell you,
there's nothing, nothing. This grace has to come where
you are to bring you where he is. And we heard about that free
gift and thank God for it. See you this evening at six o'clock.
Cody will be preaching again. Thank you.