If you would now open your Bibles
with me to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. I've been thinking about this
passage of scripture the last few days. I had a conversation
with someone about the doctrine of election. God's electing love. They have friends and relatives
who think we believe in some sort of a secret club, you know,
that they're not allowed to be saved. Now, is that what scripture
teaches? No, it does not, does it? Tell
you why we come to Christ. Because we have a need. I'm a
sinner who needs a savior. I'm spiritually sick, dead. I
need to be healed. That's why I come to Christ.
I'll find out soon enough I was coming because he drew me all
along. I'll find out soon enough I came because he chose me for
the foundation of the world. But nobody yet ever came to Christ
because they knew they were one of the left. Sinners come to
Christ and he saves them. Here's an illustration at Mark
5 beginning in verse 25. And a certain woman, which had
an issue of blood 12 years, and had suffered many things of many
physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing
better, but rather grew worse. And when she'd heard of Jesus,
she came in the press behind him, and touched his garment.
For she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she
was healed of that plague. But Jesus immediately, knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the press and said, Who touched my clothes? And the disciples
said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and
sayest thou who touched me? He knew who touched him, didn't
he? And he looked round about to see her that had done this
thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was
done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the
truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and behold of thy
plague. This woman didn't come to the
Lord because she knew she was a daughter, did she? She came
because she had a need. She found out she was a daughter,
didn't she? That's what it is coming to Christ. John, I don't
want to preach a whole message, but I have to say that. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you,
a thankful people. Oh, how humbled we are at your
mercy and your grace that you have so freely showered upon
your people. It's because of the obedience,
because of the bloody sacrifice of Christ our Savior, that you
would slaughter your own darling son that you might be merciful
to sinners such as we are. Father, we're a thankful people,
and we beg your forgiveness after all your mercy, after all your
provision, after all of your teaching, after all of your revealing
your son to us, how we beg your forgiveness when we ever murmur
and complain against thy good providence. Father, cause us
not just to remember as a point of doctrine, but as a comfort
and stay of our heart, thy mercy endureth forever. And Father,
we're thankful that you've given us this opportunity this evening
to come together and worship you, to hear your gospel preached,
to sing your praises, to come before you in prayer. And Father,
I beg of you that you'd send your spirit upon us, enable us
to worship. Don't let us just play church,
but Father, enable us to worship. and enable us to hear the gospel
of Christ our Savior and believe it. We pray that you'd be with
our brother John as he comes. Father, uphold him with thy spirit.
Speak to his heart and open his mouth that he might in clear
and simple terms proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Bless us, Father, we pray. And Father, for those that you
brought into the time of trouble and trial, Father, we pray for
them. pain of healing would be upon
them, that you would comfort their hearts as only you can
with your presence. Now, Father, all these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior. It's for his sake and
his glory we pray, amen. All right, our speaker this evening,
Pastor John Reeves. He brought his wife, Kathy, with
him. John knows, we typically get a better reception if we
have a wife with us. Kathy, we're glad you're here, too. John's
the pastor of Rescue Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, and I'm
delighted. He's traveling through. He's
making a tour of Kentucky. He preached at Danville last
night. He's preaching here tonight. He'll preach at Madisonville,
Lord willing, on Sunday, and end up celebrating his birthday
with his son this weekend. I don't know if you celebrate
Monday or this weekend, but whatever it is. But we're delighted he'd
come our way as he's come all this way. So John, you come bring
the message God's given you. I gave you one more chance. My mom used to say frozen chosen. So I know about those members
of our family who don't like that word election. They don't
like the fact that they don't understand what election
really is, and they can't. Was there a day when you didn't
understand it either? There was a day when I didn't
understand it. The Lord didn't call me out of darkness until
I was 40 years old, and I was pretty much a rebel growing up.
When I heard the gospel of grace, sovereign grace preached for
the first time, I shared this with the folks at Danville last
night. I said, that's the, that's the, that's the most, what was the word I used? You
know, you get old, you forget things. That was the most common
sense thing I'd ever heard from any pope. And I grew up in churches.
I don't know if they were sovereign grace churches. I never heard
anything. I sat in the pews and tried to keep from falling asleep
most of the time. I was sharing with my best friend one time.
There was a guy in our church who'd go around with a stick and hit
you on the back of the head if he saw you falling asleep. That's
the kind of churches I went to when I was a kid. First thing
I need to share with you is hello from Shelby Fortner. She loves
you folks up here. She misses being with all of
the churches that her and Don used to go to so often. If you
find a moment in your time, call her. Those of you who know her,
give her a call. That would bless her heart. Judy Harmon, say hello. Oh, yeah.
You know how I got to know your pastor? Kevin Thacker. I know a bunch of you know him,
don't you? He and I have become really close friends. He wanted
me to say hello to you, too. What an honor it is to be here. What a privilege to be standing
here before you and an honor and a privilege for you to be
sitting here under the hearing of God's sovereign and free gospel,
the love that he has for his people. You know, the world,
the world just doesn't see it. They don't see election. They
don't understand election. They don't like it because they
don't understand it. What do you mean I can't choose? Pinch
me, I'm alive. I've got a right to make my own
decision where I want to go. I thought that way for 40 years.
And then a preacher stood up there and told me I was dead
as can be. He said the only way to life is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I started listening to him
and I'm like, that's making more sense than anything I've ever
heard in my whole life. coming together and hearing the
gospel preached. I'd like to ask you to turn in
your Bibles tonight to the book of Hebrews. We'll begin there. And while you're turning to Hebrews,
allow me to quote from John chapter five, verse 39. It says, our
Lord speaking, search the scriptures. For in them ye think ye have
eternal life. And they, those scriptures, are
they which testify of me. My pastor Gene Harmon and Don
Fortner both shared with me the wisest words I think I've ever
heard. Get on the path to Jesus Christ
and stay there. David Edmonton told me, he says,
once you get on that path, get out of the way. Are you with
me in Hebrews chapter 1? Let's get on the path of Christ,
shall we? God, verse one, Hebrews 1.1,
God who at sundry times and in diverse manners, different in
various ways, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. So God Almighty revealed himself
to men, prophets of old, and he spoke to his people through
those prophets. Verse 2, This God, who spoke
to our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high." Do you know what that word purge means? It means to
cast out. Read that again with me, will
you? This is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of the Living
God. He purged. He had by himself. That means he didn't need any
help from us. He doesn't need John Reeves to make a decision
and come down to the front of the aisle and say a prayer. He
didn't need the disciples to help him when he walked by the
seashore and said, come, follow me. Remember what they did? Did they sit around and, oh,
you know, maybe I'll think about this for a little bit. No, they
got up immediately. When the God of all power The
one who has all power in his hands, the power to create everything
that is, said to Lazarus, who stunk in the grave, he was
starting to smell bad. He said, come forth. I heard
this from, I can't remember, probably a couple of different
of the old pastors, but they said, you know, if Jesus Christ
had not used the name Lazarus, with all the power he's got,
everybody would have come out of the grave at the same time.
All the dead would have come out of the grave at that one
moment, but he used the name Lazarus. Why? Because Lazarus
was chosen to be a picture of all of God's people. Dead, stinking
dead in that grave, dead in trespasses and sin. And if God has called
you into the light of his glory, into the light of his son, you
know how dead you were at one time, don't you? Have you forgotten
the pit that our Lord picked us up out of? Oh, I pray He never
lets you forget that. Because remembering that pit
that we were in one time reminds us of the grace and the love
that our Lord has for you and I. And folks, that's what the
whole message is. That's what the gospel is. It's
God's grace and His love for you, a people that He chose from
before the world was. Before anything was ever created,
you were in Christ. That's hard to imagine. But His
Word says so. And we believe His Word, don't
we? Why? Because of Him. Everything is
because of Him. I like saying this. If you think about this and you
follow it step by step all the way back, everything that has
happened in eternity, From the day the Lord created all things,
everything, every step that has happened is so that you and I
will be right here, this very moment, worshiping our Lord. That's the purpose of God. The God of Scripture, He's not
some God sitting around waiting for man to do something for Him.
He does what He wants. He does His purposes fulfilled
as He desires. That's God. You can't call anything
else God if it can't have that kind of power. And this is the
God we worship. This is the God that we come
as a custom. This is your custom, huh? Most
of you folks show up here on a Wednesday night? This is pretty
much your custom? Get off work as quick as you
can. Come down here and come out here to the beautiful woods
the Lord has provided you with this building. To do what? To worship Him. To worship our
Savior. Turn over to John chapter 1. Let's look at another one of
this getting on the path of Christ. Look over at John chapter 1 with
me for just a moment. familiar. Some of you probably
can quote these words without even reading them. In the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him and without him was not
anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness. And
the darkness comprehended it not." Does that not fit you?
Does that not fit you? Do you remember the day when
you had no desire for the glory of the Lord? When you had no
desire for the light of the world? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
25 years ago for me, and I still remember it like it was yesterday.
One more, turn over to Luke chapter 24. Oh, you know, I forgot, you
gotta read verse 14 with that, can't skip by that. And the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Now turn over to Luke, if you
would. Just one page over, over to the left. And in verse 27
of Luke 24, We read these words, the Lord
had been walking with some men on the road to Emmaus. This is
after he had risen again from the dead. He had been walking
with this men, talking with them about why they were so troubled.
And he says, let's begin at verse 25 actually. Then he said unto
them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered
these things, and to enter into His glory?" Folks, our Lord was
never speaking in private. He was never in secret. He was
always in open. The fact that election was the
doctrine that Christ preached was what made those Pharisees
so angry. They didn't like that either.
What do you mean? I wear nice clothes. I wear what
I'm supposed to wear. I got all the scents and stuff
swinging that's supposed to be. We do all the ceremonies that
we're supposed to do. How dare you tell me you don't
need me? That was what made them so mad. Ought not Christ to have suffered
in Mark. He tells his disciples openly with all kinds of people
around him three times. We're going to go up to Jerusalem.
They're going to beat me up. They're going to treat me badly.
And then they're going to hang me on a cross and kill me. And then on the
third day, I'm going to rise again. Ought not Christ to have
suffered these things and to enter into his glory. And then
what do we read next? Verse 27. And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, he expounded unto them and all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself. I've walked that road so many
times in my own mind. I'm a retired truck driver. And
I started preaching to myself. to the window of the truck a
long time ago. I've only been ministering there
in rescue for about four years now, but I've been attending
services there for 25 under the ministry of Gene Harmon. And
I would go to work and drive all week long and just preach
all day long to myself to the windshield. And I just thought
about that one. I just love to think about it.
He expounded There was no secrets of anything there. He opened
the Scriptures all the way from Moses all the way through the
whole Bible. All the prophets. The Bible at
that time was the Old Testament. It just amazes me that God would
think upon us with that kind of love. With that kind of love. Look over at verses 44 through
47. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto
them, thus it is written, and thus it is behooved, Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance
and remission of the sins should be preached in his name among
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Have you ever Have you ever had
to attend a ceremony, maybe, a funeral or a wedding where
somebody from some other church has been preaching one of the
free... You know, I noticed you got one on the way up here. There's
a Free Will Baptist Church right down the street. Free Will Baptist. Our Lord says, it's not of him
that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. I'd like to put that up on their
little sign down there and see what they say, but we're not
supposed to be that bold, I guess. But have you ever been to a service,
like a funeral, and you sat in the service and you heard the
preacher speaking the message, and he's talking about the love
of God, and he's talking about God all-powerful, and going to
church, and being good, and changing your ways, and how you're in
heaven now. It makes me... I find it kind
of funny how a person can never step foot in church. And when
they die, many people around them will say, well, they're
in a better place now. They're in a better place. Are you sure?
That's not what scripture says. There are two places that folks
are going to go, heaven and hell. And every one of us were on that
path to hell at one time. Or at least we acted like it. It sounds right. He makes all
the points of God's love. He makes all the points of damnation
because of sin. He brings out the words of the
Bible. He gives godly instructions. He talks about prayer. But something's
missing. Something's missing. I was in
a funeral one time for a dear brother who attended our church,
but his wife attended a different church, so we had to go to the
other church when he passed. And Pastor Gene, and my brother
Lee, and I, and a couple of other men of the church, we walked
out and we're just like, you know, the guy didn't say anything
wrong. He didn't say anything wrong. Everything he said was
true. Gene goes, yeah, but he not once did he mention about
the blood of Christ. He never got on the road to Christ. Folks, I don't know about you,
but that's what my custom is when I go to service. I need
to hear. I'm a sinner. True sinners need to hear about
a savior. We go all week long, don't we,
in this valley of the shadow of death, don't we? I know what it's like out there.
I may be a little more sheltered now in the church where I'm at.
I don't have to go out into the world because I've retired from
it. I still got to go to the store and shop, but I don't work
out in the world like some of you folks may do. But I remember
what that's like. I know the temptations. The temptations
that are on the TV every day. Every day I need to hear of a
savior. Thank God He gives me three times
a week. That's our custom, is to come out of the world and
go somewhere where we hear about a Savior. Because we need one. You're never going to get any
better in this flesh, folks. I don't care what those other
people in the other podiums are saying. You can get better if
you'll just make a decision. Life will get way better for
you if you'll just come down here and say a prayer. or if
you'll get in the baptistry, or if you'll do this, or if you'll
make a decision. As a sinner, I know that my decision
would have been the wrong decision. Every time. Every time. If I make a good decision now,
folks, it's only because God's moved in me some reason to keep
me from doing something stupid. So I listened to that message.
I listened to a message from Luke 16 where we read about a
certain rich man and a beggar named Lazarus in the Gulf and
not once in that entire message did he speak of the blood of
Christ. That's salvation. That's what sinners need. Do
you need the blood of Christ? Do you need to hear about the
blood of Christ and what it's done for you? Where was the hope
in those messages? Where was Christ? Look over at
John, back over at John again, this time chapter three. Where
was Christ in those messages? This is the custom of God's people. And this is something that the
Lord does in the life of a sinner. Verse 14 we read, and as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. That doesn't mean you and I are
going to lift him up in our hearts. That means he has to lift himself
up for us. We're dead. We're filled with
sin from the top of our heads to the bottom of our toes. Some
people don't like to hear that. Well, I am. If you're not, then
the gospel may not be for you. Christ came to save sinners.
He didn't come to heal those who didn't need healing. He came
to heal sick people, didn't he? That's what he came for. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, The Son
of Man must be lifted up. Is that not what the gospel is?
Is that not what a poor sinner needs? Do we not need salvation
through the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ? I am bitten. I've
been bitten by that serpent, and the poison is in my blood.
I've never been bitten by a snake, but I hear that once it gets
into your blood, it's hard to stop it. It moves around pretty
fast. It's in the blood. It reaches to every point of
your body. Every drop of my flesh is plagued with sin. I have no
hope in myself. Is there anything, anyone that
I can look to? Because I need a savior. Folks, I don't need to hear about
how I can be better. God has shown me that in this
flesh there is no good thing. Has he shown you? Has he revealed
what you are before God? Everything that happens in revealing,
Scripture calls it a broken and contrite heart. When the Lord
breaks your heart, He's not bringing sorrow on you from something
that's going on in the world. He may use that to draw you to
Himself. But when He breaks your heart,
He breaks your heart that you know what you are before Him.
And this is where the grace comes in. This is where the grace begins
to shine. It's like taking a diamond and
putting it on a black rag. You know, when you go down to
the jeweler and they take a real shiny diamond, put it on a black rag
so it brightens right up. Folks, our sin is black as can
be. It's not going to get any better until the Lord takes us
out of this world. But the one thing that is getting
better is that the Lord is shining His light in my life, shining
His grace and His mercy and His love for His people. And if He's
working in your life, He's doing the same for you. Do you get up every morning saying,
Lord, thank You for Your mercy for me? Thank You, Lord, for
Your love for me? I don't need to hear, about how
good I can be from a man standing in a pulpit. I know what this
flesh is. I know that there is nothing
that in this flesh dwelleth no good thing. Paul said that in
Romans 7, 18. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. In
this flesh that stands before you, I carry the mark of the
beast. Six, six, six. Do you know what that is? That's
short. That's coming up short of 777.
Perfect. Perfection. I like that because
it's true. I come up short every time. Doesn't
matter how good I think I can be, it's still going to be short
of His perfection, of His glory. Our Lord requires perfection. That's why He had to manifest
His Son in the flesh. That's why His Son had to come
to this world, that He could die in our place as the perfect
substitute. You can sum up the entire gospel
in one word, substitution. He died in our stead. Where we
deserve, He took. What we were, He became so that
we could become like Him, righteous before our Father. We can come
to Him boldly and say, Abba, Father, Lord, I need... I can't
tell you how... I can tell you, but you just
can't understand what it is to sit here. I'm nervous as can
be, not speaking to you folks, but what it is I have to talk
to you about. This is not a game. We're eternity-bound souls, every
person that walks this earth. Either you're going to spend
eternity in damnation or you're going to spend eternity in the
bliss and the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's not a game. It's a heavy burden that your
pastor has to do every Sunday, every Wednesday night. I have
to stand before total strangers tonight and do the same. And
I pray, Lord, don't leave me to myself here. Do you pray that
when you've got things on before you that you're stressing over
at work? Lord, how would you have me walk
this way? Lord, don't leave me to myself. Don't leave me to myself. Our
God requires perfection. A gospel preacher speaks of the
only perfection that ever walked this earth in the name of Jesus
Christ, the Son of the living God. He is our good news. Now consider with me an example
that our Lord has given us. Again, back in Luke, this time
over in chapter 2. Over in Luke chapter 2. He gives
us a couple of examples we're going to look at over here about
the The custom of God's preachers. What is the custom of a preacher?
It's the same custom our Lord had. To go into the synagogues. Actually, I want to look at verse
chapter 4 first. Luke chapter 4. Look with me beginning at verse
14 if you would. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out fame of Him through
all the region round about, and He taught in their synagogues,
being glorified of all. And He came to Nazareth, where
He had been brought up, and here's what I want you to see. And as
His custom was, He has the same custom you and I have. He didn't
go out and preach on the street corners, He went into the synagogues
here. as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up
for to read. Read what? Read his word. Isn't
that what we come here to do? To read our Savior's word? That
word, from the front of this book to the back of this book,
is all about him saving his people. Every word in here is a love
letter to his people. And they delivered, verse 17,
and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. And he read these words,
or he said these words, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Spirit
of God. God the Father was with God the
Son. You know why? Because all three
are always together. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. Three distinct persons, absolutely,
but of one mind, one purpose, one will, all in complete tune
with each other. Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because He hath anointed me to what? To preach. Preach the gospel. What was our Lord's custom? To
stand up and preach the gospel. What is the gospel? Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's it. That's all it is. It's the same message Don Fortner
got up here and preached every time he was here. Every time
he came to rescue. Every preacher that we allow
in that pulpit preaches that very same message. It's a different
part of Scripture, but it's the same message. I preached this
same message last night down in Danville. Not this exact same
message, but the same message as far as Christ and Him crucified.
The Gospel. To preach it to who? Are you
poor? I've seen some of the cars out
there. I drove a pretty nice rental. Are you poor? Oh, I'll
tell you. Of this world, we may have riches.
But in this flesh, I am so poor. I have been shown that there
is no righteousness in me outside of my Savior. Has he shown that
to you? I pray the Lord has shown that
to you. because He's shown you where you stand before Him. Folks, He doesn't show everybody
this. He talked, all kinds of people hear His word, all kinds
of people pick up this Bible and read these words, but God
doesn't speak to everybody. He speaks to His elect, to His
chosen, His people who He has known from before the world was. He says, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. That means forever. Before anything
was ever created. Till eternity all out, wherever
that goes. He loves us. Oh, to be loved of God and to
be shown how poor we truly are in the Spirit. How dead we were
at one time. How there was no way we would
have chosen Him. Thank God He chose me. He has
sent me, going on in verse 18, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Remember when you weren't brokenhearted? I didn't ever, I know I went
to church when I was a kid, but I didn't have, I wasn't, in my
adult life, I didn't go to church. I went to the religion of John
Reeves. It was all about me. Some of you may understand that.
I know some people have gone to Catholic churches or Roman
churches or wherever else, and they come, you know, the Lord
has called them out of that, and now they're in the truth
of Christ. I just walked around worshiping
myself. It was still a religion. The Lord had to break my heart
of that. just as he had to break yours, of whatever religion you
were in. They say there's atheists. I
don't believe anybody's an atheist, really. They say they don't believe
in a God, but you put them in front of a gun and stick it in
their face and they'll start praying to somebody. He sent
me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance. to the captives, those who were
captive by their own sin. Deliverance from that. Did you
know everybody's born with a sense of needing deliverance? That's
why we have so many different religions. Everybody comes into
this world knowing right from wrong, knowing good from evil. That's written on the hearts
of every man, every woman, every child. Everybody's out looking for deliverance
from something. They're just not looking in the
right places. because God hasn't shown them where to look. To preach deliverance to the
captives and recovering the sight of the blind. Oh, how blind I
once was. Brought a message one time, five
things I could not see. I could not see how depraved
I was. I could not see that God chose
me because of his son, not for anything of me. I could not see
that when he called me, he called me with a power that grabbed
a hold of me and said, come. You know when he said that to
Lazarus? Lazarus came out of the grave wrapped in his gray
clothes. That means he was bound up like
this. They wrap him up like this. His feet, all the way to His
feet. And He came for it. There's only one way He could
have done that. By the power of God floating Him right out.
Loose Him. Loose His bindings off of Him,
said the Lord. That's the way we come to God.
We come to God bound in that sin that we were born into. And
He says, Loose Him. That's grace. That's mercy. That's the love of God for his
people. Cut them loose! To set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Folks, if somebody
within the earshot of this voice this night hears these words,
I tell you today is the day of salvation. As long as one of God's children
still need to be brought to Him, there's life. Once the last one's
called, it's over. That's it. Everything will burn
up. Today is the acceptable year
of the Lord. And He closed the book and He
gave it again to the ministry and sat down and the eyes of
all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him.
And he began to say unto them, this day is the scripture fulfilled
in your ears. How could this man say such words? Because he's God in the flesh. He's God in the flesh. We read
that in John 1. He was manifest in the flesh.
Now if you were to turn over to Acts 17. Christ preached Himself in fulfilling
the words of Moses and all the prophets. Everything in God's
Word points to Him, and every man who God sends to preach has
the same message. I vetted Eric. You know, Eric
came to fill in for me. I want to thank you for allowing
that young man to come to our church and preach for me while
my wife and I traveled last year. That was wonderful. But I vetted
him. Frank better have vetted me before I got up here. You
better know that these men who stand in these pulpits are preaching
Christ and Him crucified. That was the first thing my pastor
taught me when I became a pastor. Don't let anybody come to that.
Just don't let anybody come to your pulpit. You make sure. Where am I? 17. There we go.
God's messengers must do the same. Look at verses 2 and 3
of Acts chapter 17. We're talking about the manner
of God's preachers. Preaching Christ and Him crucified. Not all this other stuff. all the things that tickle people's
ears in the churches today, make them feel good, the entertainment.
No, listen to what Paul is doing. Paul, as his manner was, that's
the same thing, his custom, as his manner was, went in unto
them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the
Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered,
and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom I preach
unto you, is Christ. Now look over to chapter 16,
just on the left side there. Look over to verse 25 if you
would with me. And at midnight, Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard
them. We saw over there in chapter
17, what was his manner? What was his custom? To reason,
to go in to the synagogues on the Sabbath days and reason Christ
in him crucified with the people in the synagogue. Over here in
25, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises
unto God. That's preaching. We got a man
in our church named Mike Loveless. This man is one of the most talented
men in writing poems that I've ever met in my life. He says,
oh no, I could never preach a message. Brother Mike, every time I read
one of your poems, you're preaching. Every one of his poems give glory
to our Lord for what he's done for us on the cross. Singing,
singing is worshiping. Singing is worshiping our God.
And suddenly there was, verse 26, a great earthquake, so that
the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all
the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper
of the prison, waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison
doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself,
supposing the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud
voice saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he
called for the light, and sprang in, and came trembling. And he
fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. As his manner was, The gospel
is what God uses to save His chosen people. The gospel is
what the Spirit uses to reveal to you and I who Christ is. You can't call upon Christ as
Lord. You can use your lips. A lot
of people use their lips to say the word Jesus Christ, don't
they? It's all over the place. But to do it with the heart,
to call Him Lord with the heart, the Spirit has to come and give
you a heart that can do that. That old stony heart won't do
it. It won't because the spirit of God is enmity to us in this
natural world. That means completely against,
completely the opposite of what we are. That's what free willism
is. It's the opposite of God's sovereignty. It's saying God's not sovereign,
it's saying I'm sovereign. Who is Christ? Let me tell you. He's my Savior. He's the one
who gave Himself for me. He's the one who died in the
place that I should die in. He's the one who took all the
filth of this flesh and made it His own and went to that cross
in my stead. He shed His perfect blood That's
the only blood God will accept. And to prove it, that God accepted
it, He raised His Son back up again to sit right on the right
hand of God the Father. And that's where He is today.
Sitting on His throne. Aren't you thankful for that?
I don't know about you folks, but I'm going to need Him to
be on His throne tomorrow. I'm probably gonna need him to be
on, I know I'm gonna need him to be on his throne after services
are over. I need him to be on his throne
right now, tomorrow, and on and on and on again, because until
he takes me out of this world, I need my Lord every minute to
make intercession for all the foolish things that I'm still
gonna do in this flesh. I anticipate a question. But
John, I know scriptures talk about
Christ, but what about all the instructions He gives us? What
about all the good works that we're supposed to be doing? What
about all the good things? We're supposed to humble ourselves.
We're supposed to do this. We're supposed to do that. Be
ye holy, for our God is holy. What about those things? Are
they not important? Absolutely. Absolutely. Folks, I encourage
you. I plead to you. Walk holy. Put away the sin in your life. We come together to search God's
Word for instructions, don't we? In our Friday night service,
we do. And again, we do it at 10 o'clock
on Sunday morning. And then 11 o'clock on Sunday
morning. But if you preach practical godliness
alone, without the gospel, and you know preachers who do this,
don't you? You know preachers who do this in the world. There's
one man, I'm not gonna use his name, but he can preach practical
godliness better than any man I've ever seen, but there's not
a lick of grace in his words at all. He's like those men that
preach that God loves everybody. Oh, the love of God. And then
they don't preach what that love is. They don't preach that it
was the love of God in giving His Son for His people. There's
no hope in that. There's no Christ in that. If
all you preach is practical godliness without the Gospel, it's just
man's work and it does nothing to satisfy the soul of a dead
sinner. Satisfaction with God is only in my substitute, Jesus
Christ the Lord. Let me tell you, let me tell you what the gospel is
in practical godliness. I can't do it. But my Savior's done it all for
me. I want to. I want to be holy as I can, but
I can't. I'll go out these doors and I'll
try the best I can do it. But it's not good enough. It's
always going to be 666 coming up short. But we have a Savior
who is perfect in everything He did. And we're in Him. His people are in Him. Matthew
17, 5, we read these words. While he yet spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, the voice out of
the cloud which said this, speaking of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Do you know
the Lord is well pleased with you who are in him? Quit looking in the mirror. Don't
do what I do. Turn to Christ. Turn to Him. Make that your custom. Turn to Him. Amen. I like how John ended his message
Telling you what I try to tell you every single time I preach,
you look to Christ. You come to Him. We always try to be so careful
not to preach anything but Christ. Here's why. If Spirit will ever
show you who He is, what He's done, that someone as wonderful as
Him but do something as glorious as sacrifice himself for your
sin, nobody's gonna have to beg you to come to him. You'll come.
You'll believe him, won't you? You sure will. I hope I do tonight. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
this time that you've given us to meet together, to worship.
Father, I pray you'd apply your word to our hearts. that we would
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would let go of everything
else and believe on him and him alone, that we'd find our rest
and comfort and peace for our hearts by looking to him. Father, thank you that you brought
John and Kathy our way. Pray that you bless them as they
continue their travels. Bless him richly as they go back
home to California. Bless him richly, preaching to
your sheep there. Father, watch over us. Lead us
and guide us and direct us. Forgive us of our sin for Christ's
sake. It is in his precious name, for
his sake we pray, amen. All right, Sean.