Good morning. Good to be back. Thank you for
having me. As you all know, the last time
we were here, after the Tuesday service, in
the wee hours of Wednesday morning, we were flooded. The parsonage
was flooded. And you were very generous, very
thoughtful in your gift for the restoration of the parsonage,
which was very close to being completed. And about, oh, a couple
of months, a little over two months after that first flood,
we were in Crossville, Tennessee. I was preaching there at Lantana
Grace Church where Donny Bell was pastor. And there was another
flood. And what we salvaged from the
first was taken in the second. And again, you were very generous.
So we are still living. I'm sure Rex has kept you posted,
updated on that. We're still living in the parsonage.
And the Lord willing, we will be moving out of there before
too long. But we're comfortable. We're
doing fine. The what? What did I say? I stand corrected. That's the first time she's ever
had to correct me. But yes, that would have been
confusing, wasn't it? No, we're not living in the parts
where we won't be living there. again, but we are in the church. But thank you for your gifts,
your generosity, and your prayers. The little flock in Sylacauga
at Fairmont Grace Church that I pastor send their love to you. You're prayed for, remembered
very, very often about that little flock that God would be pleased
to send you a pastor soon. Would you turn with me to the
Gospel of John? chapter 17, John chapter 17. We'll read our text in just a
moment, which will be verse 3 here in John 17. But first let me
tell you the subject of the message this morning. It's this. True
saving knowledge. Hope you're interested in that.
True saving knowledge. Knowledge that results in salvation. I listened to Brother Dave Coleman
on one of his CDs as we drove here from Mark and Regina's house
this morning, and one of the songs Dave Sang recorded on that
CD was my Savior. I am not skilled to understand
what God has willed, what God has planned. I only know that
His right hand is one who is my Savior. If I could know, if
it was possible for me to know what God has willed, what God
has planned, and yet not know Jesus Christ as my Savior at
God's right hand, what would the other prophet mean after
all? True saving knowledge. There
has been, from time to time, usually self-professing theologians,
doctors of divinity, that engage in a debate in my opinion, useless,
but they engage in it nonetheless, about the question, how much
does a senator really have to know before they can be said? How much knowledge must they
possess? And then on the other hand, the
other question is this. How little, how little can a
sinner know and yet be saved? Now there is a knowledge, there
is a knowledge, and this is what I want. The knowledge that brings
me to Jesus Christ my Savior. That's what I want to know. This
is what we might say is a vital knowledge. It's indispensable. It can't be done without and
yet be a believer. We can't be saved otherwise. A few weeks ago, my health insurance
sent a nurse to the church where we're living, and it's a yearly
thing. And she came at the point in
time, and she did basic things. She took my vitals, my temperature,
my pulse, my blood pressure, and so forth, and told me I was
in pretty good shape for the shape I was in. And I said, well,
thank you very much. And I'll tell you why I do that.
I'll tell you the truth. I get a gift card. I get a $50
gift card. Well, last time I only got $15,
didn't I? They came down on it, but that's the only reason I
do it. Oh, but this knowledge, this
knowledge concerning the Son of God speaks of a knowledge
equaling faith, the same as faith, and this knowledge is vital. This knowledge will determine
where I spend eternity. Mmm. That's vital, isn't it? Bill, I can't do without that.
This knowledge that our text speaks of will determine where
I spend eternity. Let's read the first three verses.
That'll be sufficient. The first three verses here in
John 17. Our Lord has spoken to His disciples. Now He speaks to His Father.
on their behalf, for thee, for all believers. These words spake
Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father,
the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh. Oh, he sounds like a mighty Savior,
doesn't he? That's exactly who I need. I
need a great God and Savior. I need one who is mighty to save. I need one who is able to save
to the uttermost every sinner that comes unto God by him. God has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. And this is life eternal. Here's
true saving knowledge. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
didst send. The hour is come. Jesus Christ
is standing in the shadow of the cross now, It's already,
it seems to me, beginning to eclipse His Holy Soul. In a matter
of hours from this time, He will not only be standing in the shadow
of the cross, He'll be nailed to that cross. And as the darkness
that we read in the Gospels, as the darkness engulfs the earth,
a greater darkness engulfs the soul of the Son of Man." That
darkness of God the Son being forsaken by God the Father. Can anybody explain that to me? Can anybody explain to me how
God the Son could be forsaken by God the Father? I can't understand
that. I believe it. I know that it's
so. But how that takes place, how
that's possible, I really don't know. Each time I read these
words in John 17, I think of that passage in Exodus chapter
3. Why don't we turn over there?
Exodus chapter 3, you're probably aware of where I'm going. Moses
at the burning bush. Holy ground. Holy ground. Exodus 3, verse 1. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro,
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock
to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain of God
even unto Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And
he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn
aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto
him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, And he
said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. Why? Because a holy God was there. Moreover, he said, I am. I am
the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he
was afraid to look upon God. Moses hit his face. How unlike,
how unlike that is, how opposite that is for most folks today
who claim to have seen God. And this is the effect that it
has upon them. They prance around. It doesn't
bow them down. They don't fall before the presence
of a holy God as Moses did and hide his face because he was
afraid to look upon such a God as that, the eternal God. Oh
no, these peacocks strut around and say, look what happened to
me. No, no. Any sinner, any sinner that's
ever been in the presence of God, any sinner, that's ever
been made aware of who God Almighty really is, they'll hide their
face. Is that not so? Is that not what
you did? When God was pleased to turn
the light on, to shine in the darkness of your heart, to give
you some, some, an inkling, an inkling, for the first time in
your life, who God Almighty is, did it not bring you down in
the dust? Exactly, just like it did Moses. Oh, thank God for the mediator. Here in John 17, we have God
the Son. God the Son. That man who is
God. That man who never ceased to
be God. God the Son speaking to God the
Father. Therefore, that being the case,
there must be much here that we just can't understand. We
have to bow before the Lord God as Paul did in Romans 11 when
he considered God's great mercy. and the wisdom of God, and the
purpose of God in saving sinners. He said, oh, the depths, the
riches of the mercy of God, how unsearchable are His ways past
finding out. And He said in conclusion in
that chapter of Him, and through Him, and back to Him are all
things, and He simply bowed down. And so does every sinner. There must be much mystery about
what we read here in John 17. How could it be otherwise? J.
C. Rowe made this statement. He
said, there are sentences and words and expressions in these
26 verses which no one has probably never unfolded completely. And I wouldn't argue with that,
Mark. That's exactly right. This is holy ground. Again, verse
1, Father, Father, the hour has come. Oh, it would be so easy
to pitch a tent there, wouldn't it? To go no further than that. The hour has come. The hour for
which the first hour began. The hour for which this world
was created. The hour for which the Son of
God came into this world, being sent by the Father, and responding
to the Father with these words when he came into the world.
Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God. What an hour. The hour, as we said a moment
ago, with the shadow of the cross already now beginning to eclipse
his holy soul. That hour when he would trod
the winepress alone. What an hour! When God would
forsake God. Turn back a few pages here in
the Gospel of John to chapter 12. The nearer the time got, the
nearer this hour came, the more often our Lord seemed to speak
of it. It began to consume him, it seems. The hour for which
he came into this world, John chapter 12, verse 23. And Jesus
answered them saying, the hour has come. It's arrived. That time that was purposed from
all eternity. That hour is near. The hour has
come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Look down at verse 27. Now is
my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour, but for this cause I came I unto this hour, the hour when
He would by Himself purge our sins and obtain eternal redemption
for us. What an hour! What an hour! What an accomplishment! What
a wonder! What a work! What a Savior! What grace! What salvation! He gets it done. Father, I come
not to attempt. I come not to take a stab at.
I certainly don't come to fail, as one of the articles by your
pastor in the bulletin today tells us. He shall not fail. He came to finish what God Almighty
sent him in this world to do. How foolish! It would be for
God to send him on a mission that for whatever reason he knew
could not be accomplished. No, I don't think God Almighty
is involved in such foolishness as that. No, the Son of God came
to do all that God sent Him to do to obtain eternal redemption. To be made sin with this certain
result that we be made the righteousness of God in Him. Is that not exactly
what He said? when that hour that he trod the
winepress alone, when he was forsaken of God, and in glorious,
victorious majesty, he shouts from that cross, knowing, in
John 18, knowing that all things were now accomplished, what did
he say? It is finished. Did he lie? Was he lying? Was he deceived? Was he mistaken? Oh, no. It is finished. Redemption was obtained there
and then. My faith in time, God giving
me the knowledge of himself through the Lord Jesus Christ in time
doesn't redeem me. I was redeemed when Jesus Christ
died and bore my sins away in his own body on the tree. This
morning when we got here and David was preparing the bread
and wine for the Lord's Supper, I told him and I think Rex as
well, I'm glad I'm here today, I'm glad you're doing this today.
I'll be able to join you in remembering him, the accomplishments of the
Son of Man, that He by Himself purged our sins. This hour that
our Lord begins His prayer to the Father with, this hour is
the eternal hinge, if you will, on which eternity turns. Everything from eternity past
and everything for eternity to come revolves around this never
would there be, never had there been, and never will there be
an hour like this. That everlasting covenant of
God's grace. Look forward to this hour. The Lamb of God slain from the
foundation of the world. Look forward to this hour that
our Savior speaks of. In everything, in eternity to
come, we'll look back to this hour when he loved us and gave
himself for us. That's why they sing in heaven,
worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. He did not
fail. He washed us from our sins. Is that not what they sing? He
washed us from our sins in His own blood. He got the job done. Thank God, what a Savior. When
He, at this hour, He would remove, as the prophet said, the iniquity
of that land in one day. You remember, on one occasion,
the scribes and Pharisees, as they so often did, watching the
Lord so closely. And they came to Him one time
and said, why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the
elders? Why do they do that? Why do they
not honor our tradition, our religious tradition? They're
not dotting every I and crossing every T like we do. Can you explain
that to us? You remember what our Lord said?
You make void. Now listen. This is still on
the books. This was not a one-time thing
that happened and then ceased to happen. It's happening today. It's happening this morning.
Our Lord said you make void the Word of God by your tradition. How many times have you been
told concerning something that goes on in the typical church
today that is completely contrary to Scripture, opposed to Scripture,
that the Scriptures condemn, and their response will be if
asked, why do you do it? Well, we've just always done
it this way. We've just always done it this
way. Religious tradition. And our Lord said, beware. He
told the disciples, beware of those hypocrites. Wow! Was he
interested in winning friends and influencing people? No. The Lord was more concerned about
the glory of God Almighty than he was hurting man's feelings.
Beware of those hypocrites! The Pharisees? Man, they were
on top of the list. They were the elite. They thought they had God butthole.
And Christ said, they're hypocrites. Don't pay no attention to them.
They may void God's word by their religious tradition. Afterward,
when he was alone, his disciples, the apostles, they seemed to
be concerned for his welfare. They seemed to be worried. And
they came to him, Master, Master, I don't think you realize what
you've done. Do you not know that the Pharisees, the scribes,
they were upset? You offended them. They were
offended. And remember how powerful they
are. They were offended by what you said. And remember what our
Lord said. You remember what he said. Oh,
what terrible. words remember what he said leave
them alone leave them alone they claim that God is their father
and yet they hate the son of God that he sent into this world
leave them to themselves leave them to their religious tradition
and most of them went to hell clinging to their religious tradition,
and again I say, the same thing is happening today. Men, go to hell clinging to religious
tradition. Aren't you glad, oh child of
God, aren't you glad that God Almighty didn't say concerning
you, leave them alone? Just leave them alone. Many of
you were wrapped up head over heels in religious tradition.
As Brother Donald used to say, lost as a goose in a snowstorm. Didn't know God, but singing,
singing hymns, have a Bible tucked under your arm and just knew
that you were going to heaven if anybody was because I made
my decision for Jesus. Tradition. I went to the altar
and repeated the sinner's prayer. Religious tradition. That's all
it is. Nothing in the Word of God about
such nonsense as that. That's not how you come to Christ.
It's not something you do with your feet. My soul. It's something that's done in
your heart. It's a response of the heart that's been renewed
by the grace of God Almighty. Aren't you thankful that God
didn't say concerning you, leave them alone? Now, in the light
of those things, what do I need to know? What do I need to know? On my smartphone, I get into
my inbox from Apple News, and I glance at them, and it says,
what you need to know. Every now and then I'll open
one, you hear me? And it's just a bunch of fluff. What the celebrities
are doing. That's what I need to know. That's
what's important to me. I thought to myself, man, I've
lived 71 years and didn't know that how in the world did I ever
get by. Now I'll tell you what I need
to know. What Larry Criss needs to know. What would be sadder
whether I stand before God Almighty like I soon will, like each one
of us soon will, and here enter into the joy all this is prepared
for you. come and welcome to the joy of
God Almighty forever, or hear him say, Injust, justice, depart
from me, cast him out of darkness, I don't know him. The only thing
that will determine which of those things I hear will be this,
do I know him? Do I know the Son of God? That's
all that will matter. I only know as His right hand
is one who is my Savior. What do I need to know? Not according
to Apple News, not according to the Baptist, not according
to religious tradition, but according to God Himself. What do I need
to know? Father, this is like eternal,
that they might know Thee, or that they might know God, and,
and, There is no knowing God, not in grace, not in peace, not
in acceptance, except through the Lord Jesus Christ. I think
I'll listen to him. Jesus Christ, after all, was
God in flesh. This very Gospel of John begins
that way, doesn't it? In the beginning was the Word.
The Word. And the Word was with God. And
the Word was God. Nothing was made without Him.
Everything that's made was made by Him. By Him. The everlasting Word. The very
expression of God. If you know anything of God,
you'll know it through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear ye Him, God
said on more than one occasion. This is my beloved Son. Listen
to Him. Listen to Him. Listen to what
He has to say. And that Word, that Word, the
very embodiment, the Word was made flesh. The Word was made
flesh, John said, and He tabernacled. For a while, He tabernacled amongst
us. I think I'll listen to Him. Three things, and I'll be brief. I've already made mention from
our text. This is true saving knowledge. Our Lord describes
that I need to know God. The true God. The God that Moses
saw at the bush. The God that bowed Moses down. The God that Moses melted before. The God that's from everlasting
to everlasting. Send me the God that doesn't
need my help. That's no God. He won't help
me. If He needs my assistance, He
can't do anything for me. On one occasion, John the Baptist,
before Christ made His appearance, said, There's one among you whom
you know not, one that's mightier than I. That's who I need. I need one mightier than I. I'm
a great sinner. I'm a great sinner, greater than
what I realize. I'm a great sinner, and I need
a great Savior. One who needs my assistance.
One that's waiting for me to take the first step. The one
that's waiting for me to open my heart. The one that's waiting
for me to make the first move. He can help me. He's an imposter. Oh, but this one, This one, he's
the true God and Savior. That's the one I need to know.
The just and holy God. I must soon stand before. Isn't
that a sobering thought? It ought to be. Some of you will
leave here today, and if God allows it, unless God stops you,
what you're hearing now will just fly away. It'll just fly
a plumber out of your head. You'll go home and turn on the
TV, watch all... Never give it a serious thought.
Oh, that God would not allow that. That God would not allow
that. That God would make you aware
and keep you aware. Oh, every hour you're going to
stand before God. When a few days are come, you're
going to go the way from whence you shall not return. When you
stand before the presence of God Almighty that demands absolute
perfection and won't accept anything other than perfection, how will
your decision appear then? How will that altar hall you
trotted to appear then? How will your religious tradition
appear then? I'll tell you how it appears,
like it should now. If God would open your eyes as
filthy rags, filthy rags, that's all it is. Oh, that just and
holy God that I must soon stand before, that has power to save
me or to damn me. That God that says of himself,
it must be perfect. to be accepted. Isn't it odd,
strange? This is another part of that
religious tradition that seems to just be, our day seems to
be drowning in this generation. But they seem to think that grace
is a lowering of God's standard. The law, as old Bunyan called
it, was a hill too high. I just couldn't reach that. I
couldn't measure up to that. God's law will demand perfection. I couldn't get it, so couldn't
give it rather, so grace is God lowering his standard. The law
was too high. I couldn't step across that.
I couldn't reach that, but grace lowers God's standard. Oh, no,
no, no, no, no. No. No, grace always comes to
every sinner. Every sinner who experiences
God's grace, it always comes to us on the wings, on the wings
of satisfied justice. God is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins because Jesus Christ bore them, bore the penalty
of them. Therefore, God can be just, absolutely
just, when he justifies a sinner. I mentioned that we are living,
after I was corrected, not in the Parsonage right now, but
in the church. And there are windows on the
back wall of the church. They're rather narrow, but long.
And each morning, I'll walk over and pull the curtain back and
look out, because I've seen a deer a few times out there. And I
told Robin about it. And after that, I would see her.
But there's a problem. She can't reach high enough to
look out that window. But each morning I would still
see her. I'd say, honey, you've not gotten any taller since last
night. And that wind has not gotten
any lower. God's law has not been set aside. Oh, no. No. And I've not been able to
reach to it. Oh, no. But it's been satisfied. Jesus Christ satisfied God's
holy law. Oh, and what a joy it is to sing
and to experience it, that Jesus paid it all. That's what we'll
remember. Jesus paid it all. He paid it
all. Oh, my sins, oh, the bliss, the
sweet bliss of His glorious part. My sins, not in part, but the
whole, are nailed to His cross, and I bear them no more. Ooh,
I like that. I bear them no more. They're
gone. Oh, what's the response of a
sinner that has experienced such boundless mercy and unmerited
grace? Oh, praise the Lord. Praise the
Lord, O my soul. You notice, I mentioned it briefly,
but look. Look at this connecting link
in our text. This is like eternal that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ. There is no knowing God except
through Jesus Christ. Call His name Jesus. He only
shall save his people from their sins. He only is the mediator
between man and the Holy God, the man Christ Jesus. One night
in April, this past April, Rob and I had made reservations to
go down to Orange Beach for about a week. We rent the same condo
each time we've been there. And it came at a very good time,
because it wasn't long after the flood, and I thought, oh,
good time to get away. Good time to get away. And one
night, she went to bed before I did, and I still wasn't sleepy,
so I was sitting there channel-surfing on some of the watches until
I got drowsy. And I came across this program
called Ask the Pastors. Ask the Pastors. And I thought,
well, I wonder what this is about. And there were six pastors, five
men and a woman. We have to be inclusive. We don't
want to offend nobody. But anyway, and then there was
a moderator. And people apparently had called
in or mailed in questions. And the moderator would pick
a question and he would read it and then he would ask the
pastors. Questions like this, and I'm not making this up. When
do you think the rapture will take place? And what about the
millennium? Do you think it's going to be
pre-millennium? Post-millennium? Reynolds aluminum,
as Tim Chaney said, what do you think it's going to be? And what
about the signs of the last days? And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it worked. I got so sleepy. I just got drowsy. And I said,
enough of this. And I told Robin about it the
next morning. I said, isn't that sad? Isn't
that sad? They touched on all these things,
these speculations, these meaningless suppositions. And never once,
never once did they touch the question, what must I do to be
saved? Didn't touch it. Didn't touch
it. I dare say if it stayed on all night, I could have listened
all night and never got the answer to that question. What must I
do to be saved? What is saving faith? What is
this knowledge, true saving knowledge? How can I have that? Would you
please answer that? I don't care about the signs.
The rapture, the millennium, when, where, how. Tell me about
who. Tell me about who. How can I
be just with God? And the answer to both those
questions are the same. Through this man. is priest unto
you the forgiveness of sins. And all that believe on him,
Paul, priest in Acts 13, are justified from everything. Are justified from all things
from which you can never be justified by the law of Moses. And the
answer to the other question is the same. What must I do to
be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. I love the picture. I love that
sweet picture that our Lord painted In Luke chapter 18, about those
two men going up to the temple to pray, you know it by heart,
and so did I. Oh, I love how it concluded. That Pharisee, our Lord said,
oh, Jimmy, look at that Pharisee. Can you believe this? Now, there's
no explanation for this other than God's sovereign grace. God's
sovereign mercy. That publican, I'm sorry, that
publican That despised public. And nobody despised him more
than he despised himself. God, I'm a big sinner. And Jesus
Christ, who alone has the power, the right, the authority to say
so, say, you see that man? You see him? Look at him. Look
at him. Zero in on him. He's going home justified. How
about that? Going home justified in the sight
of God, that man is not guilty. Ooh, I bet he slept like a log
that night, don't you? I want to know Jesus Christ. I want to know Him experimentally.
I don't know why we're so afraid of that word today. I want to
experience God Almighty performing that miracle of grace in my heart
when He speaks and creates in me the light of the glorious
gospel of Jesus Christ in the knowledge of Him when He reveals
His Son to me. I want to know that. I want to
experience that. I want to experience what Lazarus
experienced. Because my Lord said, you must
experience that or you won't enter heaven. You must be born
again. You must be raised from the dead.
And knowing the Son of Man has power to do that. I want to experience
what Lazarus did. When Christ spoke to him as none
else and said, Lazarus, I'm talking to you, I'm talking to you, come
forth. Oh, thank God for that experience
of his mighty grace that says, sinner, Larry Criss. Can you
believe that? Larry Criss, who's he? The man's
got two first names, Larry Criss. Who's ever heard of him? God
Almighty did. God loved me with an everlasting
love. And Jesus Christ in that time
of love revealed himself to me and said, Larry, Chris, come
forth, come forth. And he that was dead in trespasses
and sins came forth. Last of all, I want to know Jesus
Christ, don't you? Oh, brothers and sisters, friends,
Don't be satisfied with just a superficial second-hand knowledge. Don't be content with just some
facts. John 3, 16. Don't be content
because you went through the religious hoops of religious
tradition. Don't be content with that. Oh,
may God create in your heart a thirst to know the living God. Like that woman at the well when
she felt a little bit uncomfortable with our Lord's probing. And
she tried to bring forth her big leafs of religion and impress
Him. And He said, Lady, I'm not interested
in that. It doesn't matter where you worship
or where your fathers tell you ought to worship. It doesn't
matter. This is what matters if you do. If you knew who this
is talking to you, if you knew who I am, you would ask of me,
and I'd give you living water, and you'd never thirst again.
All to know Jesus Christ, not just some of His teachings, but
to know Him. When Paul sat in prison, and
he wrote that last epistle to his beloved son in the faith
Timothy, knowing that soon he would be leaving this world to
stand before God. He was probably already gone. He'd probably already been beheaded
by the time Timothy read that epistle, that letter. He said,
Timothy, I'm lonely. And I'm cold. Bring the cloak. If you come, bring that cloak
with you. It's cold here. And nobody stood with me. Nobody wants to be identified
with me. But the Lord stood with me. He
stood with me. Oh, they could lock Paul in,
but they couldn't lock Jesus Christ out. He said, I'll come
to you. I'm not going to leave you as
an orphan. He told his disciples in John 13. I won't leave you
like an orphan. I'll come to you. And Paul said,
Timothy, the time of my departure is at hand. Is at hand. What do you think was important
to Paul then? What do you reckon mattered most
to Paul at that moment? He told Timothy what it was.
I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that He, Jesus
Christ, is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him
against that day. That's what true saving knowledge
is. It's to know the Son of God.
It's to know Him. And knowing Him, you'll have
peace with God. Brother Henry May and I would
remember being somewhere with him. My memory's not so good
that I recall exactly where it was. But Henry was telling the
story about how The church at 13th Street there in Ashton,
because it was situated as it was in the tri-state, Ohio, Kentucky,
West Virginia, just boarded by all three. Henry said it was
not unusual to have a visitor, have someone come in. He said
that was rather common. And he said, you know, I didn't
get too excited about that, Henry said. Because quite often that
would be the first and the last time that you'd ever see them.
And you've had that happen here. I've had that happen in Sylacauga. Folks come, they hear, and then
you don't hear them, you never see them again. I don't know
what they want. Don't know what they're looking
for. But it's sad, isn't it? It's sad that the gospel, the
glorious gospel of the Son of God, the gospel that's about
Him, that's not enough. for this religious generation
so they go their way. But Henry said, when that person
comes back again, and again, and again, and again, he begins
to think, hmm, this may be the Lord's doing, and it's marvelous
in our eyes. Oh, may God be pleased today
to reveal His Son to someone to open the windows of heaven
and drop His amazing grace into someone's heart. And for the
first time in their life their eyes are opened and they behold
Jesus Christ. the Lamb of God and embrace Him
in the arms of faith. May God be pleased to give you
and I, brothers and sisters in Christ, a fresh glimpse of our
glorious Redeemer as we remember Him. God bless you. Thank you
for your attention.