Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number seven in the gospel hymns digital or
spiral hymn book. And let's all stand together.
Number seven. The head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. The royal diadem adorns
the mighty victor's brow. ? The highest place that heaven
affords ? ? Belongs to Him by right ? ? The King of kings and
Lord of lords ? ? And heaven's eternal light ? ? The joy of
all who dwell above ? the joy of all below, to whom he manifests
his love and grants his name to know. To them the cross with
all its shame, with all its graces give their name an everlasting
name, their joy the joy of heaven. Please be seated. Don and Mary
visited with Deanna and RG before services tonight and they're
still weak, but they're doing fine. You said they're doing
okay and I've been texting with Greg the last few days. Greg
and Tricia went up Tuesday afternoon with Jennifer to the Mayo Clinic
in Jacksonville and he wanted us to pray for Jennifer tonight
and for wisdom for them and the doctors. She had her CT scan
on Tuesday afternoon. She had a biopsy this morning. and tomorrow they'll consult
with the doctors to see what the next step is, which may be
chemotherapy. Anyway, I'm sure Greg will update
us when they get back, but Greg and Trish and Jennifer, they'll
all be home tomorrow, tomorrow evening, tomorrow afternoon.
All right. I want to do scripture reading
tonight from John Chapter 6, John 6, starting at verse 53. This kind of reminds me of where
Greg is preaching through the book of Ruth right now. And Naomi,
you know, told, asked her daughter-in-law to go back. And this is where,
this is the scripture where many of our Lord's disciples went
back. And he turned to his picked disciples
and asked them, will you leave me too? And it's, A great, you
know, the Lord gave Peter a divine inspiration in his answer. So
I'll begin at verse 53, John 6, 53. Then Jesus said unto them,
verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and
I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
that's food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As a living Father has sent me
and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall
live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These
things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many,
therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this, said,
this is a hard saying, who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself
that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth this
offend you? What, and if ye shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you They are spirit and they are life. But there are
some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believe not and who should betray him. And
he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto
me except it were given unto him of my father. From that time,
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the 12, will ye also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure,
I have a note there that says, it also means, and we believe
and know that thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. Let's
pray. Lord, we come before you this
evening. Lord, approaching your throne
of grace, Lord, you've told us to come. You've invited us to
come. Lord, send us not away the way
those disciples, those unbelieving disciples left you. Lord, we
need your spirit to cause us to be like Peter, to know that
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Where else
can we go, Lord? Lord, don't send us away. And
Lord, keep our hope in you. Lord, we ask that you would be
gracious to our sister Jennifer, to her parents, Greg and Tricia. Lord, be with Deanna and RG,
they need strength. Lord, be with us this hour. Send
your spirit now, Lord. Touch Jeff, give him a message
that will touch our hearts to cause us to see Christ, to only
think of things above this hour. Lord, we ask it in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Let's stand once again and we'll
do our second hymn number 58 from the hardback tenor. ? Jesus, the very thought of thee
? ? With sweetness fills my breast ? ? But sweeter far thy face
to see ? ? And in thy presence rest ? ? Nor voice can sing,
nor heart can frame ? ? Nor can the memory find ? ? A sweeter
sound than thy blessed name ? ? O Savior of mankind ? ? O hope of every
contrite heart ? ? O joy of all the meek ? ? To those who fall,
how kind thou art ? ? How good to those who see ? ? But what
to those who find of this ? ? Nor tongue nor pen can show ? ? The
love of Jesus what it is ? ? None but his loved ones know ? jesus
our only joy be thou as thou our prize will be jesus be thou
our glory now and through Good evening, everybody. I am
very thankful for all of you here. I believe the Lord's given me
a message tonight. Could we turn to Ezekiel chapter
20, please? One of the terrible things about
this poison called sin. One of the terrible things about
it is that sin is stronger than the sinner. Sin is stronger than
the sinner. And that's right, because especially
those listening right now who have no hope and who do not believe
on the Son of God, you know about of those things that you've done
that you said you will never do again. You feel the consequences
of it. You're sincerely wanting to never
do that again. And a few days later, a few hours
later, there you are. It's not about your sincerity.
It's a sin thing. You're a sinner. And sin is stronger
than the sinner. That means that when we're confronting
or dealing with sin in others, it doesn't work the way that
you might think it would. If you've been a parent, if you've
been a boss, you know that it doesn't work to go to somebody
and say, you're blowing it. You need to shape up. I'm withdrawing
my blessings from you until you can get your act together. That
doesn't work. That just brings animosity and
separation and more sin. It stirs up sin. The Scripture
says that when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which
were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit
unto death. But the Scripture says a reproof
enters more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool.
If a man is wise, and he's been getting off course, you can go
and tell him. You can tell him, and he will
respond. If a man's a fool, you could
whip it into him, you could beat him, he still won't understand.
He's a fool. You cannot get wet off of water
and you can't pound the foolishness out of a fool, the scripture
says. But God makes us wise unto salvation. He breaks our heart
over our sin and he shows us that Christ is all. Christ has
been our all and everything that he had to go through, to retrieve
us. When thou with rebukes dost correct
a man for iniquity, thou makest all his goodness to pass away. And when a man's goodness passes
away, he wants the goodness of another. We have sinned and we
are sinned. And God shows us that Christ
is all and in all. And we're in Ezekiel chapter
20. And let's start reading at verse
39. As for you, O house of Israel,
thus saith the Lord God, go ye, serve everyone. his idols, and
hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me. But pollute
ye my holy name no more with your gifts and with your idols.
For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,
saith the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all
of them in the land, serve me. There will I accept them, and
there will I require your offerings and the firstfruits of your oblations
with all your holy things. And I will accept you with your
sweet savor when I bring you out from the people and gather
you out of the countries where any have been scattered. And
I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. And ye shall know
that I am the Lord when I shall bring you into the land of Israel,
into the country for the which I lifted up my hand to give it
to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your
ways and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled. And ye
shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils
that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am the
Lord when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according
to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings. O ye
house of Israel, saith the Lord God." Here we see scattered. Peter called them scattered strangers. God's elect are scattered throughout
the countries. And he calls them, he brings
them into his church. He showed, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. God doesn't show these
things outside of the kingdom. He brings us into his kingdom.
And he shows us and he shows us that Christ is everything. He shows us that long before
we ever began hating him, he had put our sin on his son. That causes me to hate my sin
and to want to turn from it. To beat somebody with the law
doesn't do anything. It won't help anybody. And God
knows that with his lost children, the only thing that will bring
them to hate their sin and bring them to his feet is to show them
his love and his mercy and that he has been their salvation. So by bringing these glad tidings
of peace that makes enemies friends, he gathers his lost sheep and
makes them know that, as it says in our verse, I am the Lord. To know that he is the Lord,
so much of that means knowing that he has been being your Lord. David told us, he spoke of God
the Father. He said, Lord, you took me from
the sheep coat. You took me from following the
sheep. I was a nobody. I was a nobody, Lord. And who am I, Lord? And what is my
house that you have brought me hither to, Lord? Why me? Why me, Lord? I thought this
last week I'm getting close to my 20th high school reunion,
if there is going to be one. I thought, well, wait, who would
be there? Sometimes I feel like there aren't
many left. Accidents, drugs, accidental
gunshots, hunting accidents, suicide. Why am I still here? And David ended that by saying,
it was a small thing. This was a small thing in thy
sight, O God, to bring me here. Once gathered though, what are
these saints doing? I hope what we're doing tonight. right here. Here they are. We're
brought out from among the people and the countries where we've
been scattered. Here we are in God's holy mountain, accepted
as a sweet savor and taught to loathe ourselves. And Malachi says that, then they
that feared the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened. and heard,
and a book of remembrance was written for them before the Lord. And I will spare them, and they
shall be mine in the day that I make up my jewels, saith the
Lord." He brings us to his house, he brings us to his holy hill,
and we love to speak of the wonderful works of God. I found a, let's
go. There's only two places we're
turning. Let's go to Mark, Mark's gospel, the first chapter. I
wanna see what they're doing here, and I wanna see what we're
doing tonight. And we can find ourselves right
in these verses here. Let's go to Mark 1 29. And forthwith, when they were
come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon
and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay
sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her. And he came
and took her by the hand and lifted her up. And immediately
the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. And even when the
sun did set, They brought unto him all that were diseased, and
them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was
gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were
sick of diverse diseases, and cast out many devils, and suffered
not the devils to speak, because they knew him." Is that not what's
going on here tonight? We drove here. We drove, we,
think about this, you go to work in the morning, you're in a dark,
dark world of unbelief and sin, drive home, maybe have some spiritual
conversation with your wife, you listen to a sermon, what's
going on there? It's dark everywhere, except
in your house, where the light of the world is in your house
and people are healed there. That's what's going on here.
This is what God brings his scattered sheep to do, to gather together
and to speak of the Lord and to think on his name. And that
breaks our heart. It's not the law. It's not being
told to be good. It's being told we're not, and
Christ is all. So, Let's go to Psalm 40. So here we are, we're brought
out from the nations, and God is sanctified in us before the
heathen. We're taught to fear God and
plead Christ alone. So let's look in our book of remembrance
here, and we'll see how low our Lord had to reach down to save
our souls. Psalm 40. This is everything
we love speaking about. I waited patiently for the Lord,
and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up
also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set
my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. You know that this
is Christ. And he hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear
and shall trust in the Lord. You recall in Mark's gospel in
chapter 14, it says when they were done in the upper room,
it says when they were going out, they sung a hymn. Now, you
remember earlier in the chapter he had said, prepare the Passover. This is what they were doing,
make ready the feast. Can you think of another time
in scripture? They sang a song right after the Passover. It was Moses and Miriam on the other
side of the sea, after God had drowned their enemies. Now here
is Christ, our Passover, sacrificed for us. He's taking us back to
the song of Moses. how he was about to deliver his
people from the Egyptian bondage. He's breaking our hearts over
our sin. Do you remember how scared the
Israelites were before they crossed over the sea? Do you remember
how scared they were? They couldn't go anywhere. And
you remember the first verse, In Exodus chapter 15, the first
verse of that song, it says, sing unto the Lord, for he hath
triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider had been
thrown into the sea. Everything that we could never
outrun, everything that was going to destroy us, a horse and chariot,
you cannot escape that. They were on foot. We can't escape
our sin, and he has rescued us from what we could not rescue
ourselves from. Now, isn't that funny? Many shall
see this song. It's a song that you see, because
we see Jesus. Verse four, blessed is that man
that maketh the Lord his trust and respecteth not the proud,
nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. Usward Christ identifies
himself and his church is one just as the father delights To
see his son marry a bride. How can he not bless both? remember
Christ prayed and the glory which thou has given me I Have given
them that they may be one as we are one He is one with us
Psalm 28 8 says I the Lord is his elect strength,
and he is the saving strength of his anointed. We have the
same Father as Jesus Christ. Do we love to talk about that?
Does that not cause us to turn from sin? The goodness of God,
that is the only thing that will do it. Now, he's gonna need that
saving strength because we're gonna see in the next verse,
the blood of bulls and goats does not take away sin. He's
going to have to leave all to come here, where he'll have
nowhere to lay his head. Does that break your heart? He
did that for you? Sacrifice, verse 6, sacrifice
an offering thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. burnt
offering, and sin offering hast thou not required? My ears hast thou opened. I admit,
the first thing I think when I read that is I go back to Exodus
chapter 21 about the servant. That's not what it is. It's saying
the word here is his ears have been formed. The word open is
to be formed, fitted for a purpose. God fitted him for his mission
to earth. He was made in the likeness of
sinful flesh. We can turn to Hebrews chapter
10 and it fills out the explanation. It says, a body hast thou prepared
me. He took on himself the nature
of those who broke the law to restore the law. Now he was here, he was conceived
in the womb of the Virgin. Do you remember it says he grew
in favor in the sight of God and men? My ears hast thou opened. God continually was fitting and
equipping Christ for his duty and his mission. A few weeks
ago, Greg mentioned a verse in Isaiah chapter 50, God the Father,
he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth Christ's ears to
hear as the learned. A God who comes to right where
I am and does everything to rescue me is the only thing that melts
my heart. Go down to seven. For my loins
are filled with a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in
my flesh. I am feeble and sore broken.
I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. Lord,
all my desire is before Thee, and my groaning is not hid from
Thee. My heart panteth, my strength faileth me. As for the light
of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. My lovers and my friends
stand aloof from my sore, and my kinsmen stand afar off. They
also that... I'm sorry, I was reading from
the wrong... Let's go to verse seven. Then said I, lo, I come,
in the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to
do thy will, O my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips.
O Lord, thou knowest. I call you not servants, I call
you friends. He tells us everything. He tells
us everything. I call you friends. I have not
hid thy righteousness within my heart. I have declared thy
faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold
not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have
compassed me about, mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that
I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs
of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. You remember in verse five, God's wonderful thoughts and
his works that he has done They can't be reckoned up in order.
They're more than can be numbered. And all that for sinners, in
verse 12, whose sins cannot be numbered, more than the hairs
of his head. And when the Lord gathers his
wandering sheep and brings them to his hill and breaks their
heart over sin, That's what he shows them, innumerable blessings
for those with innumerable sins, nothing but sins. He says in
verse 12, I'm not able to look up. Up is where he came from, though.
In Proverbs 8, he says, before you gave the sea its decree that
it should not pass before you laid the foundations, Then I
was there as one by him, as one brought up with him, rejoicing
always before him. And I was daily his delight."
Jesus Christ, the beloved of the Father, perfectly happy in
heaven, rejoicing. And he came here for sinners. Our Lord will have every single
sinner he died for, and he will bring them to his feet, and he'll
make their goodness to pass away, and he will bring them into his
church to talk of his wonderful works, and that is our only hope. Amen. ? I hear the Savior say ? ? Thy
strength indeed is small ? ? Child of weakness, watch and pray ?
? Find in me thine all in all ? ? Jesus paid it all ? All to
Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone. ? And change the leper's spots
? ? And melt the heart of stone ? ? Jesus paid it all ? ? All
to Him I owe ? ? Sin had left a crimson stain ? ? He washed
it white as snow ? ? For nothing good have I ? ? Whereby thy grace
to claim ? ? I'll wash my garments white ? ? In the blood of Calvary's
lamb ? ? Jesus paid it all ? ? All to him I owe ? Sin had left a
crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. And when before the
throne I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my
lips shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. sin had left a crimson stain
he washed it white as snow