Lord willing, tonight we're going
to be in the book of Proverbs, if you would like to turn there
to chapter six. Proverbs chapter six. Here in our text, Solomon continues
to warn us about adultery, adultery, the strange woman, as we've heard
so often on Wednesday nights before. And although it's physically
true, there's a spiritual application to this. It has to be every time
we see something recorded in the word of God, you can't take
it just as a physical declaration. The Lord speaks as we just read
from first Corinthians chapter two by his spirit. They're spiritually
discerned without his spirit. We can't discern them. So we're
being warned about something spiritual. Everyone. By nature, if left to themselves,
will never come to Christ as their husband. That's the message.
That's the message. They won't come to Christ as
their husband. Here we see the cause for leaving the gospel.
And I've titled this message, Leaving the Gospel. That's what
I've titled it. But here we have the cause of
leaving the gospel or failing to believe it. The consequence
of leaving the gospel or failing to believe it. And by God's grace,
we have the solution. We have the solution, that's
what I hope to look at tonight. Men by nature cannot be faithful
to God. It's his faithfulness that makes
us faithful. It's he that worketh in us, both
to do, both to will and do his good pleasure. It's him, it's
Christ in you, the hope of glory. If we are found faithful, it's
because of his faithfulness in us. It's not us that produces
it, it's not our faith, it's his. but men cannot be faithful
to God on their own. Now, this is a message of warning,
a message of warning. He's still talking to his son.
Chapter six, verse one says, my son, but we're not gonna read
that. I was just showing you, he's
still talking to his son. We can take that the same as
our Lord speaking to his church, speaking to his people. The Lord
saying, my son or my daughter, my people. That's the message
here. He's warning us never go near
a false gospel. Don't succumb to false worship,
false worship. Do not look to self to save. Do we realize leaving the gospel
Leaving the gospel, that doesn't mean that we do something radical.
We heard on Sunday, the Church of Galatians in chapter one,
Paul's warning the Emmys, writing into them, communicating to them,
because they started mixing law and grace. And what was the law
that they mixed? It was adding circumcision. He said, well,
yeah, we believe that Jesus Christ saves, we believe it's nothing
but the blood, but you have to be circumcised. It's not true,
is it? It's adding, and it cancels out,
it makes void for the individual that does that. That means that
if they do that as part of their righteousness, they have no righteousness
whatsoever. You can't have Christ's righteousness
and have something that you do that makes you righteous as well.
We can't do that. It's an impossibility. Either
we have our own righteousness, which is filthy rags, not a righteousness
at all, or by God's grace, we've been given the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ by his doing, by his choice, by his
work. Well, let's read this together,
Proverbs 6, and this is a complete thought, so we're going to read
27 through the end of the chapter. Can a man take fire in his bosom
and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and
his feet not be burned? So he that goeth in to his neighbor's
wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. Men do
not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is
hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold, he shall
give all the substance of his house. But who so commit adultery
with a woman lacketh understanding? He that doeth it destroyeth his
own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he
get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is
the rage of man, therefore he will not spare in the day of
vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest
content, though thou givest many gifts." I've titled this message,
Leaving the Gospel, Leaving the Gospel. We heard Sunday that
there's only one gospel, only one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God, which is above all, through all, and in you all.
That's what the scripture tells us. It's the Lord that doeth
all things. It's the Lord in you. That's
the hope that we have. But there's only one gospel. There's not
many gospels. There's not a hybrid gospel. It's just it's the gospel. It's
God's gospel. And the only hope that we have
is that the Lord would enable us to believe it. The Lord would
enable us to need it. The Lord would create the need
as only he can feel and fill that need with Christ. Those
that don't have a need for the gospel have never been shown
that they're a sinner, have never been shown that he's the sovereign
savior. They don't know who God is and they don't know who they
are. But the Lord's people do. We've been made to know that
we're sinful by nature. We know that we're capable. Here,
this is talking about adultery. This is talking about false worship. This is talking about going to
a false church. This is talking about leaving
the truth of God and going out and forsaking our first love,
forsaking the Lord, forsaking our husband. That's the adultery.
That's the spiritual adultery here, what we're seeing. Here, looking into the false
gospel is likened to taking fire into the bosom and getting burnt.
Well, where is that fire at? It's in the bosom. Well, what's
in the bosom? The heart. It's a heart problem. It's always
been a heart problem. I just about titled this message, having
the wrong heart, because I'll tell you why. If you look, let
me find it. Look at verse 32, but who so
committed adultery with a woman lack of understanding, you know
what that word understanding translates heart. heart. He that committeth adultery is
lacking heart. They that leave the gospel, they've
never been given a new heart. They have the wrong heart. They're
lacking the heart that seeks the Lord's face. They're lacking
the one thing needful. And it's the ability to seek
God. It's the ability to approach Him. And it's the ability to
cry out to Him in true repentance. He has to give that by faith.
He has to give the new heart, he has to take out the heart
of stone that we have, the heart that's deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked and give us a heart of flesh, one that
cries out to him for mercy. Fire is taken, verse 27, let's
read that. Can a man take fire in his bosom
and his clothes not be burnt? To seek righteousness outside
of Christ is to be burned with fire. now and forever, now and
forever. And scripture tells us in first
Timothy chapter four, one and two. Now the spirit speaketh
expressly that in the latter time, some shall depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,
speaking lies and hypocrisies, having their conscience seared
with a hot iron. And what do you think that iron
was heated up with? It's fire. That's what he's talking about
here. This is having a conscience seared before God. Men will go
about mixing law and grace and they will convince themselves
because of their deceitful heart. And you and I would have been
the exact same way had it not been for the grace of God. We
have nothing to boast in another self. But they'll convince themselves
that they're okay before God and they will sever their conscience.
They'll sear their conscience thinking that they're good enough
for God and it's not true. It's not true. You've heard me
tell this story before, but when Mr. Rogers had that show, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, and on
his deathbed, he had mixed some religion in there a little bit,
and some actually said he was pretty religious, but on his
deathbed, he asked his wife, you could look it up, he said,
have I done enough? Have I done enough? Now, what do you think she told
him? No, only Christ is enough. That is not what she said. She
comforted him. She comforted him and said, all
the things that you've given, all the things that you've done,
oh, I'm certain the Lord will let you into his heaven. That's
the thought, isn't it? That's the deceitful heart. That's
the deceitful heart of man. That's the adultery that's mentioned
here. That's leaving the husband. That's
not needing Christ. That's having a righteousness
in and of ourself. What a sad condition that is,
what a sad soul that that is when the Lord leaves them to
ourself, leaves us to ourself. We have no hope of salvation
then. To be seared is to be burnt, to leave the gospel. And it's
just walking on hot coals. It's not gonna do any good, is
it? It's the hot coals of unbelief. Now look at the result of this
in verse 29. So he that goeth in to his neighbor's
wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. That means
you're gonna be guilty. It means there is no remedy.
There is no remedy for leaving the gospel. There is no remedy
from leaving Christ unless Christ be the one that brings us to
him. That's the remedy. But what I'm implying is is that
to forsake the truth for the lie, That's, it's frightening. That's the most horrible thing
I could think a man or a woman could do, to leave the gospel
for the lie, believing that they're good enough for God. And that's,
it's scary, because men and women are doing that all the time.
They're forsaking the true God. What did the Lord tell the Israelites
in the Old Testament? He said, you've committed two sins, two
evils. He said, you've forsaken me,
the fountain of living water, and then you've hewed yourself
out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. That's
exactly what men do by nature, isn't it? So we're seeing the
reason that he's leaving here. Right now we're seeing the consequence
of him leaving. The reason he's leaving is found
in verse 34, the jealousy. Men want to be God. They want
to have part in their own salvation. This is a thing of pride. This
is a thing of jealousy. This is a thing of self-worship.
And we are hardwired from birth. to be self-centered creatures,
aren't we? Hardwired from birth. What is the first thing a baby
does? Cries. Whenever it gets hungry, what
does it do? I want food, and it cries. But it wants to be
picked up. Sometimes it lies. It doesn't
need anything. It just wants to be picked up. You don't need
anything. You just want to be handled. But it wants to be petted
on, attention. Isn't that how it is with us?
And that's our nature. That's our nature. It never changes.
It never changes. It gets worse. I was talking
to somebody recently about, you know, you get older and you think,
well, maybe the lust of the flesh will diminish and the sin that
I commit will become less because no, it becomes worse the older
that you get. It doesn't become better. We're
not getting better, we're getting worse. We're getting worse. That's not to glory in that,
that's just facts. That's why we're, Lord said,
you're only living 70 years and 80 by reason of strength. You imagine living 900 years
like they did back in the Bible? What a mess we'd be in. I mean,
that was mercy that shortened our days. That's what that was. Oh, we're self-centered creatures.
Sinners by nature, sinner by practice. We're not innocent, we're guilty,
he says right here. And here's the reason why. Look
in verse 32. But whoso committeth adultery
with a woman lacketh heart, lacketh understanding. He that doeth
it destroyeth his own soul. Here's the consequence. The destruction
of one's own soul, all because we don't have the right heart.
God's not giving us the right heart. This is a poor condition
for a man or a woman to be in. And then he says in verse 33,
a wound and dishonor shall he get and his reproach shall not
be wiped away. This is a permanent judgment.
That's what this is. When he says it's not going to
be, if God says it's not going to be wiped away, it's not going to be wiped
away. He's going to have a wound and dishonor. Scripture says
this in John chapter five, for the father judgeth no man, But
hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. To
dishonor Christ is to dishonor the Father. Well, how do I dishonor
Christ? By not believing on him. By not looking to him as all
of our righteousness, by not coming to him, pleading the blood
alone for salvation, by not seeing that he's the only thing that
can give you righteousness before the throne of God. That's how
you dishonor him. It's a discredit to his finished
work. It's to say, no, I'm good enough to save myself. Yeah,
I need a little help from God, but I can do my part. That's
what it's that's what's being said. And that's the lie. It's
not true. It's not true. To dishonor Christ is to simply
look to anything else as your wisdom, as your righteousness,
as your sanctification, or as your redemption, or as your justification
before God. It's that simple. It's that simple. And he says in verse 33 that
if you do this, your reproach shall not be wiped away. You
know what that means? It will be remained, it remains forever. Your sin will not be blotted
out. Now here's the root problem, as I said before, look at 34,
for the jealousy is the rage of man. There's the problem.
Jealousy. Jealousy. In the garden, whenever
Satan tempted Eve to take the fruit, and I liked what Henry
Mahan said about the garden. He said, if you're wrong on the
fall, you're wrong on it all. Because men don't believe that
they really died completely in the garden and are completely
depraved of life. They believe they have some kind
of life to make a choice before God still. No, that's not true. We are completely totally 100%
dead and trespasses it in sin when we were born. That's what
we are, with no hope of changing that in any way, shape or form
by anything we do or anything anybody else does for us other
than the Lord Jesus Christ, other than God himself. Eve took the
fruit, why? Because Satan added one word. Wasn't a big, long, different
story altogether. It was one word. That's how easy
we can be deceived. Satan said, you shall not surely
die. God knows you shall not. That's
not what he said. God said, the day you eat of
the tree, you shall surely die. Satan said, you shall not surely
die. And when she saw that it was
pleasing to the eye, it was good for food, and to make one wise. That's power, popularity, and
pleasure she was going after. That's the downfall of mankind
by our nature. We seek power, we seek popularity,
and we seek pleasure. That's what every man deals with,
every woman deals with. She took it and she ate it and
she gave to her husband. He did eat as well. And what
was the consequence of that death? They became spiritually dead
at that moment because of disobedience, because of sin. Spiritually dead,
utterly dead, utterly sinful. Well, what's the hope then? Well,
by one man's disobedience, all were made sinners. So by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. There's the hope.
Jesus Christ, the righteous one, took that sin, the sin of his
people, nailed it to his cross, putting it away. That's our hope.
That's our hope. Root problem is man wants to
be his own God. That's what Satan told Eve. I
didn't say that before. It's important. He says to her
that God knows you'll be as gods. And if you look those two words
up, God knows, and then the word gods, it's the exact same word. He didn't say gods. He said,
God knows that you'll be God if you eat this. That's what
he told her. And she took it. She took it. Well, did they fix
their problem when they did that? Yeah, they sewed fig leaves together.
That took care of it, didn't it? God couldn't see the sin
that they had committed at that point. Fig leaves were too great. Is
that right? Too powerful. They over... They
over-trumped him. No, that's silly, isn't it? No,
the Lord saw right through those fig leaves. Is there self-righteousness?
He said, that's not gonna do. No, I require blood. You require
a covering, not by the works of your hands, not by what you
do, but who covered them? God did. And that's the hope
in salvation. That's our hope. When we see
this poor soul that's doing these things and God's leaving them
to their self, what is our hope? That the Lord covers us. See,
there's only, There's only a few times in scripture recorded where
the Lord put his hand to a work. The first time he spoke everything
into existence except for one creature, that was man. God formed
man out of the dust of the ground and breathing through his nostrils
and man became a living soul. What was the second time he put
his hands to it? On the cross of Calvary. The only way that
he could take away our sin is if he himself was nailed to that
tree, if he shed his blood. He had to do the work physically
himself. That was the only other time
where we read about him His hand being put to something for man's
sake, for his people's sake. He made Adam, if he hadn't have
made Adam and breathed the breath of life into him, he'd have never
lived. And likewise, the second birth to be born again, the Lord
had to be the one to do all of that as well. That's exactly
what he did for his people. He saved his people from their
sin. He gives us life by giving his spirit, by blowing the breath
of life into us at his appointed time. Oh, we are, Pitiful creatures
of dust, wanting to be our own God. We want to be in control,
don't we? When in actuality, we're not
in control of anything. We can't will away a cold. We
can't will away a cold. I work at a daycare sometimes. Uh, these kids, they are all,
every one of them are sick at one time or another, every time
I go. And I just want to wear a mask and put rubber gloves
on. And I don't, I just keep my hands
washed. And sometimes I get sick. Sometimes
I don't, but it, if I had power, why would I be concerned with
it? Why wouldn't I just be like, well, I'm not going to get sick.
I've decided I've got that power. We don't have that kind of power,
your heartbeat right now. We can't control our heartbeat
yet. We want to be our own God. Oh Lord, show us that we're the
creature and we can't, we don't have power. We're sinners needing
a savior, needing the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God that orders
and provided everything required for the salvation of his people.
He's not looking to me and you and our power, we don't have
any. We only fool ourself and deceive ourself if we think there's
one thing we can do that would please God in and of ourself.
meaning me, if I do it in and of myself, if I think there's
one thing I can do to please God, I'm fooling myself. You say, well, what about believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, is it not God that has
to give faith for us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Everything
required he has to provide. He only accepts that which he
provides. Well, when we think that we can do something to please
God in and of ourself, that's the definition of leaving the
gospel. That is the definition. That is going back to the law
for justification. That is going back to the bond
woman. That's going back to Mount Sinai.
And the Lord says, you can't touch that mountain and live.
You can't touch that mountain and live. Looking to self to provide something
that which only God can provide. That is exactly what we're talking
about here. That's what men and women do.
They look to themselves to provide only that which God can and did
provide in his darling son. Make no mistake, the Lord's not
pleased with us. The Lord didn't save me because I'm anything. Fill in the blank. It's not about
our status. It's not about our gender. Occupation,
it's not about us at all. It was for his glory and for
his honor that the purpose of election might stand. The two
children, before they were even born, being in the womb, he said,
before they did any evil, before they did any good, he said, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. Why? that the purpose of election
might stand. This was God's gospel. He's the
one that's got to do all the saving for you and I. This is
our hope. I kind of didn't say that before,
but that's where we're at now. We've heard the consequence.
We heard the reason. Well, this is the hope that the
Lord would save us. You know what it means? If he saves us
by his grace, calls us out of darkness into his light, he promised
I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I won't let you leave the
gospel. That's what he's saying. You're
going to believe this. You're going to need this. Do
you remember the Samaritan woman The Lord came to the woman at
the well. I'm getting ahead of myself a
little bit, that's okay. He said to her, if thou knewest
the gift of God and who it was that speaks unto you, you would
ask of him and he would give you living water, living water. You would never thirst again,
never thirst again. She said, give me this water
that I may drink it. He said, go get your husband. She said,
I don't have a husband. He said, thou is well-spoken.
You had five, and the one you have now is not your own. She
said, I perceive you're a prophet. Well, we worship in this mountain.
Here's my righteousness right here. Well, we worship up here
in this mountain. No gospel, no gospel. They were worshiping
God in the form of a donkey, in the form of a sun, the form
of the moon, the form of a cat, in the form of a dog, all five
of them, and they called him Jehovah. That's what they were
doing. These half-breed Jews thought that they were worshiping
God in the chosen mountain. Well, the Lord said, the time's
coming and now is that you won't worship in Jerusalem or in this
mountain. You won't worship in either place. God is a spirit
and they that worship must worship in spirit and in truth. Well,
how am I gonna worship in spirit? He's gonna have to give me his
spirit. That's it. I can't worship him. It's that
simple. Men look, they leave the gospel
looking to themselves for false righteousness. They look to their
own covenant with death. Scripture says you've made covenant
with death and in hell you're in agreement. What'd the Lord
say? I'm going to disannoy your covenant. That won't stand in the day of
judgment. Second Peter chapter two verse 21 says for it had
been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness
than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them. But it has happened to them according to
the true proverb, the dog has turned to his own vomit again,
the sow that was washed in her wallowing in the mire. There
can be no mistake, left to ourself will be the dog, returned to
our vomit, will be the sow going back to the mud, wallowing in
the mud, the sin that we are, the sin that we do if the Lord
leaves us to ourself. But oh, the Lord gave us The
gift of grace, the gift of eternal life, the gift of salvation,
freely given by his grace, but it cost him his life, cost the
father his son. Lord Jesus Christ had to lay
down his life. He had to shed his blood on Calvary's cross
for his people to redeem them. And if he never did that, you
and I would have no hope of salvation, no hope of being kept. No hope
of ever approaching God, ever approaching God, ever having
anything to do with God except for his wrath and his judgment
and eternal torment. Our hope is that we are made
to hear. He said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall
never perish. Our hope is that we're made to hear. Our hope
is that we're like blind Bartimaeus, the Lord gives us the grace to
cry out to him, have mercy on me, and the Lord stops. Why? Because he purposed to. Not because
we're crying out, but because he put the cry there to begin
with. If you find yourself crying out to God, Lord save me, God's
the one that gave you the faith to do it and to believe it. God's
the one that gave you the cry from the heart to cry out to
him. He gets all the glory in this, all the glory. Bon Bartimaeus
came to the Lord. How did he come to the Lord?
Well, he dropped his robe. Have you ever noticed that before?
That's a picture of his righteousness. That's a picture of his righteousness.
He left that behind. He came to the Lord without clothing.
That's how you have to come to Christ. You can't come with your
own righteousness. You have to shed that. You have
to come empty. You have to come vulnerable.
You have to come completely dependent. That's the only way we can come
to Christ. Mercy, begging, sinners. You know what he said? He that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's what he said.
Because we're coming to him. He's the object we're coming
to. He's the only desire that we're coming to. Coming to him
in that way, he said, I'll in no wise cast out. Our only hope,
brethren, is the gospel. The one true gospel that Christ
Jesus satisfied the Father on Calvary's tree on his people's
behalf. Our only hope is it's not by
works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us. That's our hope. Our hope is
that it's God who saved us and then called us not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace given
to his people before time ever began. But now it's revealed
through what? His glorious gospel. There's
our hope. There's our hope. Our hope is
this because he keeps us by his power. What does he keep us from?
He keeps us from forsaking the gospel. He keeps us from leaving
the gospel. He keeps us from leaving him.
He won't let his sheep wander free. He won't let his sheep
out of the fold. He won't let them leave them
to themselves. He keeps his sheep. He's the
good shepherd. Oh, He's made Christ all of our
wisdom, all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification and
redemption. We're not looking for any of that anywhere else
but Him. Why? He's made Christ unto us that. The Lord did the work. The Lord
did that. We no longer look to satisfy
God. By God's grace, we look to the one who did satisfy God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We no longer look to ourself
for justification. We look to the one who justified
His people on the cross of Calvary as our only justification before
God. We don't look at ourself for
anything that God must provide. We look to Christ who is our
justification. He's the one, we don't look to
our law keeping, do we? No, we look to the one who kept
the law completely, kept it under the father for his people on
our behalf, in our room instead and then died in our place on
the cross of Calvary bearing our sin in his body. There's
our hope, there's our hope. He endured the fire. We're talking
about fire right here, taking fire into his bosom. Well, that's
exactly what happened on the cross of Calvary. Christ had
to endure the fiery wrath of God that you and I were due,
the eternal judgment and torment that was due us because we are
sinners by nature, not just because of what we do. He took all of
our sin that was contrary to us, the handwriting of ordinances
that were contrary to us, and nailed them to his cross. Scripture
says in Isaiah 53, he laid the iniquity of us all upon him. And what did Christ do? He put
them all away. They're gone. They're gone. He said, I'll remember
them no more. The Lord doesn't look at his
people, and this is glorious. You and I can't understand this,
but we believe it by faith. The Lord looks at his people
that he died for, and he sees them as perfectly righteous,
never committing one sin one time ever. Think about that.
That's what the blood accomplished. That's what the blood of Christ
accomplished. He doesn't look at you and say, well, you messed
up again today. No, he sees his son. He sees
perfection. He sees perfect righteousness.
He sees holiness in his people. That's what Christ accomplished.
That's why we can't forsake this gospel. This is the only gospel
that declares us justified before the throne of God. Every other
gospel says there's something else you have to do first. No,
there's not. Christ said it is finished. He
cannot lie. It's finished. It's finished. Because he endured the fire due
us and put away the sin of his people, satisfying the law. Now
we're dead to the law. We're dead to the law, free from
it, scripture says. Because we were dead in Christ.
Justice has been satisfied. Scripture says this, mercy and
truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. That's what happened on that
day. That's what the Lord did for his people. Now his people are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
at the last time. What is he going to reveal in
the last time? The glory that's in you, the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, we know not what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be
made like him, for we shall see him as he is. We're going to
be glorified. You know, the glorious part of that is, is we're already
glorified in Christ. We're already seated in the heavenlies
with him. We just haven't, we haven't experienced it yet. We're
going to go through the motions of this life. Somebody says,
you're talking crazy. No, I'm telling you what the scripture says.
Only way to believe it's by faith. It doesn't make sense to this
brain. That's our hope, isn't it? We're already in Christ,
seated in the heavenlies with him. This is our hope. He's going
to reveal all that he required. He's satisfied. And now he's
made us need his gospel. We don't depart the gospel. We've
got to have it. It's our manna. It's our, we come to the fountain
of living water. We eat the bread of life. We
drink from the fountain. We drink from the Lord. We, it's
his body, his blood that was broken and shed for us. That's
what we crave. That's what we have to have because
it's only place that righteousness is found is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We say with the Samaritan woman, Lord, give me this water.
Lord, give me this water that I'll never thirst again. You
know, she left her water pot at the end of all that. That
was her righteousness. She said, well, come see a man that told
me all things ever I did. Is this not Christ? She left
her water pot behind. That's exactly what we must do
to come to Christ. We leave our water pot behind.
We leave any thought of any other gospel behind. We leave any other
thought of self-righteousness behind and come to Christ. Lord,
create the need in us so only you can feel and keep us, keep
us from leaving your gospel. When we get to the end of the
road, when we get to the end of our life, I visited a man yesterday
that's not doing very well. I don't know. The Lord may give
him many more years if he recovers. He may not. I don't know. But
the point is, is he's a lot closer by health standards to meeting
the Lord face to face than I am. Now, I may fall over tomorrow,
and we understand that. The Lord's the one that purposes
all that, and everybody has an appointed time. But I'm simply
just saying by health-wise that I know of. And the point I'm
making is, is that if we get to that point in life where we
know for a fact that we're on our deathbed and we look back
and we say that the gospel is still our hope, that Christ is
still our hope, that the blood is still our desire, it won't
be because we've decided to do that and because we have done
this and we have done that. Our tongue will say, God gets
all the glory. He did not leave me to myself.
He was faithful. He was faithful. We will glorify
him even on our deathbed. and then we awaken in his likeness
and get to worship him forever. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would bless this to our understanding for your glory. Keep us from
leaving your gospel, we pray in Christ's name, amen.